Tony glanced nervously between the unspoken divide in the room. The tension was so thick he could practically cut it. Though for once he was being smart and keeping his mouth shut. Kagome was sitting on an armchair, running around the city had really wiped her out and her back was killing her. That was the only reason why she was currently sitting and not standing like she had wanted to. The kid they had been fighting was standing in front, yet to the side of her. Like a sentinel or guard. The serious look on his face had Tony worried. This kid was seriously tough, so why did he see Thor as an enemy? Especially an enemy against Kagome. The kid looked like he was ready to attack at any moment, his hand ready on his weapon. The toad wasn't any better. He was gripping his staff very tightly, most likely ready to make it go flame thrower at a second's notice. Even the cat's hair was slightly standing on end.
Tony turned his gaze to Kagome herself. She was sitting on the edge of her seat, ready to bolt if the need arose. Why? Why were they so nervous of Thor? Sure, Thor was amazing in a fight but outside of one, among friends, he was a regular teddy bear. While the kid had seen Thor in action neither Kagome nor the toad had seen Thor during the fight, so why had they been immediately defensive against the demi-god?
"Why do you side with your sworn enemy Lady Priestess?" Thor asked seriously, breaking the silence and Tony's ponderings.
"They are not my enemy, but my friends and family." Kagome growled out. God's and their instant judgements.
"Why would you ally yourself with such foul creatures?" Thor asked genuinely confused. Stories growing up had told of the horrors the demons had committed throughout the centuries. The demons of Midgard had almost equal live spans of Asgardians. He had been told they were ruthless creatures who could hold a grudge for their entire lives. They were feared almost as much as the frost giants were. Thor was suddenly surprised by the dark look on the holy lady's face.
"The only foul creature in this room is your kind, who think they can do whatever they wish, Kami." Kagome spat out; her eyes dark.
"Hey alrighty, let's all take a breath and calm down." Bruce interjected. If things kept going this way, a fight was bound to start. He turned to Steve, "Why don't you make this easier and play mediator?"
Steve nodded his agreement. He decided to start with Thor as he knew him best, "Thor, what do you have against Hakudoshi?" he really hoped that he remembered the demon's name correctly.
"Demons are evil by nature, their souls darkened by the cruel acts. There has never been a demon soul welcomed into the halls of Valhalla. I grew up with stories about the horrors the demons had rained upon Midgard. We had believed they had gone extinct over two centuries ago. Our intel was obviously wrong." Thor explained.
"Saying all demons are evil is the same as saying all humans are evil. People are always so quick to judge the whole on the actions of the bad few. Demons went into hiding to avoid extinction." Kagome was quick to defend her friends. She didn't want to judge Thor just like he was judging others, but her temper was starting to act up.
"A good point Kagome. Now, what do you have against the Asgardians?" Steve asked, thinking about her previous statement.
"Asgardians?" Kagome asked confused for a moment before realizing that was Thor's species, "No I don't have anything against Asgardians specifically. Not really, you misunderstand. Who I have ill feelings toward are gods or goddesses. Kami's. I have been attacked by too many seeking my power and status. They want me to tie myself to them. Think of it as forced servitude. Kami's do not usually take well to being told no. At least the Kami's I've come in contact with." She sent Thor and unreadable look, "I am hoping time has changed some things."
"Kami's have tried to force the Miko into servitude many times in the past. Towards the end of our travels together it was almost a monthly thing. The Kami's did not take kindly to the Miko saying no and would soon turn violent. It became tedious and annoying to deal with. The Kami's have stopped regularly coming to this world; so, I can't say much of their behavior now a'days, but in the past their behavior was deplorable to Mi Lord's wife." Jaken explained.
Hakudoshi gave a sharp nod, "While I did not travel with them, we often heard word of fights between lower Kami's and a particular Miko. I believe it became a competition almost to them. Who could make the Miko submit first? Naraku could never find any plan to use those sporadic fights as there were no way predict when one would come to claim it's prize, so he ignored them for the most part."
Thor looked appalled, "Holy one, times have changed. As ones born with holy powers became less through the years, they became more treasured. While it is an honor to get a priestess to swear their loyalty to you, it is a crime to force them. Your kind is thought to have been extinct upon Midgard. There has not been a Midgardian born with holy powers in the past 175 years, not recorded anyway. My mother has taught my brother and myself that if we were so lucky to meet a priestess, we were to show them the greatest respect. I am sorry about your experiences with those of higher power. I give you my word Lady Priestess that I will do no such thing and if anyone dares to try, I will cut them down myself."
Kagome took a deep breath to reign in her anger as she looked at the god. If both Natasha and Clint trusted this man enough to watch their backs in a fight, then she could give him a chance as well. She looked the Kami in his eyes, "Very well Kami, I will give you a chance. If you do anything however, I will not show mercy." Her eyes glinted, showing her seriousness, "I have killed Kami's before and I will not hesitate to do so again."
Jaken gasped in surprise, "Miko are you sure?" what if this was his plan, lure her into a false sense of security. Kagome's nod was his only answer.
Hakudoshi chuckled darkly, "I've never gotten the chance to kill a god before. Perhaps you'll actually form a challenge. Oh, I do hope you step out of line."
Kagome let out a sigh, "Hakudoshi." Anything further she was about say was cut off as the elevator dinged, announcing the arrival of someone. She turned to Tony, "Were you expecting someone?"
"Perhaps it is my Jane and Lady Darcy." Thor put in, then he frowned, "Though they shouldn't have been able to get here so quickly, they were a while away when I left them."
"Jarvis?" Tony barked out confused.
"My protocols have been overrun; I apologize for not realizing sooner Sir." Jarvis answered.
"Sorry about that, don't worry about your AI, that's on me." A woman's voice called out.
"We are members of the DPA, America division, and we are here for the one that caused all that trouble earlier." A male voice sounded off, right after.
Two people walked into the room with three others flanking behind them. Both of the voices seemed very familiar to Kagome, but looking at them she knew she had never met them before.
"What the hell is DPA? I've never heard of them." Clint asked. As a high-ranking member of Shield, he knew about practically every other division around the world. Normally he wouldn't really care if some random people took the bad guy away, but Kagome had claimed the kid under her protection. So, well, he cared now.
"You wouldn't, it's above your security clearance. We are in charge of a specific group of individuals, that the one you are harboring falls under. He broke article three of the Feudal Accords. Now please hand him over." The male demanded.
Kagome stood up and placed herself in front of Hakudoshi, "I apologize for this one's actions. He was simply trying to find me. He didn't have any knowledge of the accords as he's been sealed away for some time. I take full responsibility for his actions, please forgive him. He will not act out again, I swear." Kagome pleaded.
The moment everyone's gaze caught sight of her, their eyes grew wide and a silence fell over the room.
Then the man in front whispered out, "Kagome?"
Kagome looked at them, trying to figure out how she knew them. Like she had thought before, their voices were familiar but she just couldn't place it, "I'm sorry, do I know you?"
"Sister?" one of the three behind the two in front said in a flabbergasted tone.
There was only two people that called her sister, "The wolf pack?" she called out in a hopeful tone. What were the odds, they had been looking for Koga and his pack since they arrived in New York, and they just happen to come to them?
The woman smacked the man, "The glamour you idiot."
The man's eyes widened, "Ah, right." They all fiddled with the bracelets they were wearing and suddenly five completely different people were standing in front of them.
Kagome's eyes grew wide, she didn't actually think she would see them again. Sure, she knew they were alive, but they had been looking for them for so long with no success. She had been losing hope of actually being able find her friends.
"K-Koga? Ayame?" Kagome whispered out, tears filling her eyes.
Koga's entire face lit up, "My woman!" he shouted out in pure joy and in the next second he was in front of Kagome and pulling her into a tight hug, though he was sure to be careful of her stomach.
There was about to be a room full of angered people when a noise cut through. Kagome let out a peel of laughter as she hugged the wolf demon back. The Avengers all stilled, they had never heard such a pure laugh out of the depressed girl. Sure, she had let out a few laughs the few months she had been with them, but they had never been that happy full bellied laugh that she was currently giving.
The two other male wolves quickly joined the hug, "Sister!" they yelled out again and wrapped their arms around their sister that they haven't seen in around 500 years.
Koga pulled back and looked her over at arm's length, his two original pack members were refusing to let go and each one was hanging over each of her shoulders, huge grins splitting their faces. He looked her over, he had honestly thought that she was dead. When the whole Inu pack had been wiped out and Sesshomaru had come back with only his original pack, fury in his eyes, he was sure that Kagome had died as well. Sesshomaru hadn't said anything one way or another, so he had been left with his assumptions. When Sesshomaru lost the battle with his inner beast his assumptions had just seemed more likely. But here she was, safe and sound, and a few more months pregnant than he had last seen her.
"Oh, gods Kagome I'm so sorry. Are you alright, are you hanging in there alright? What happened?" Koga questioned desperately.
"Let's all sit down, it's a long story." Kagome said and took her previous seat. Ginta and Hakkaku sat down on the floor in front of her, like children waiting for story time. The Avengers shifted around, making room for the new comers. Koga and Ayame sat next to Tony and Pepper on a long couch. The last person who hadn't said anything yet moved behind the two on the couch and Kagome's eyes grew wide in disbelief. "Bankotsu? But how?"
The formally twice dead leader of the band of seven grinned cheekily at her, "Same as you mini-skirt." He teased.
Kagome's face went red in embarrassment at his dig at her middle school uniform, "If you were reincarnated then how in the world do you remember everything?"
Bankotsu shrugged, "No idea. Both myself and Jakotsu were born to the same family. I'm three years older than him, but he's still the same as always. We both got our memories back when we turned ten. We figure it's because we were brought back to life with the Shikon and it somehow merged our memories into our souls. We're both shadow demons and when we got old enough, we decided to see if we were completely crazy or if it was true. We eventually found Koga, which was very amusing. Now we just follow the old wolf around with nothing better to do."
Kagome hummed in amazement as the processed her new information. Natasha took advantage of the silence, "We'll ask again now that we're all allies and know each other. What is the DPA?"
"Ah, right." Ayame said as she leaned forwards slightly, "The DPA is an organization we formed with the other lords over 400 years ago. It stands for Demon Protection Association. We don't normally have to do much these days except take in rouge demons who decide they want to make trouble for everyone else."
"What did you do to Jarvis." Tony growled at her. She had taken responsibility for bypassing his protocols.
"Nothing much really, I just made him ignore us." Ayame said with a shrug.
"But how?" Tony asked frustrated.
Ayame sent him a look, "Don't get me wrong, you're good. Exceptionally good actually. I'd say you are the best human with technology at the moment. However, I've been around since technology got invented. Kagome left one of her broken phones at our den one time and I became fascinated by it. I'm our resident tech genius."
Tony's eyes shined, "We so need to have a conversation." He said eagerly.
"No problem." Ayame smiled.
They all sat there talking with each other for a while. Kagome let them know what had happened since she got thrown through the well by her husband. That Naraku wasn't dead and was now in this era. How he had her brother and son. How she needed to find her husband and daughter and release them from their barrier prison. As she brought that up a frown appeared on Hakudoshi's face.
"Absolutely not." Hakudoshi said, shutting that idea down immediately.
Kagome's eyes narrowed dangerously, "What do you mean no?"