Sorry for the lag-time in updating. This chapter is a bit shorter, but Part IV is a little over half done, so hopefully it won't be such a long time before I update. Thanks all around to reviewers and to those who are giving it a spin around the block by adding the story to your story alerts. At least I know a few of you don't hate it. Extra special thanks to reviewers to follow at chapter end.
Though it kills me to admit it, they still aren't mine. Please see Chapter I for full disclosure.
Part III: A Smaller Perspective
Shrill alarms blared, bouncing ear-piercing sound waves off the nearly empty, sterile corridors and sending the all but forgotten installation into an uproar at 5:15 in the morning.
As usual, Hiei, owing to his speed and economy of motion, was the first to arrive on the scene, livid, cursing and positive that it was just another false alarm set off by one of the techs that constantly forgot their key codes.
Five numbers, is that so hard?
It never ceased to amaze him how such smart beings could be so dimwitted. Sleep deprived and functioning only on vast quantities of caffeine, there were a certain few usual suspects who regularly punched in the wrong numbers three times in a row which triggered the ancient automated lockdown response.
Very few that were alive knew how to bypass the obsolete security model this place was programmed with. Only Kurama and he were old and experienced enough to know how to circumvent the antiquated system. It was either a stroke of genius or dumb luck on Koenma's part to acquire such an outmoded structure.
Knowing Koenma, Hiei was inclined to believe that the latter was the case.
The undersized apparition expelled an uncharacteristic, weary sigh. If this old hunk of junk human installation was all that his comrade had to immerse himself in such tedious work to keep him alive and somewhat rational, then Hiei would remain supportive, to a degree. It was a degree that only Hiei and his red-haired companion truly understood, and one which probably did not seem supportive at all to those who didn't know him well.
Not much one for sentimentality, Hiei's idea of being supportive was more along the lines of antagonizing and sparring with Kurama just to keep his mind off his loss if only for a short time.
Though Hiei didn't hold his breath that the kitsune's endeavors would produce the results he desired, he dare not say it to Kurama's face. But if the kitsune was good for anything, it was pulling off the impossible. And Hiei hoped that he would succeed for both their sanities' sakes, for a good, long, relaxing vacation to Makai's lava pits would be nice after so many years spent babysitting a sullen and often violent fox.
On the flip side of that coin, it just seemed like a pipedream to the petite, pragmatic arsonist who reveled in destruction and knew little of creation. When Mukuro had reconstructed Hiei a little over three centuries ago, in a tank very similar to the one Kurama had his wife stashed in no less, she at least had a mangled body to work with. All Kurama had was an unfathomably miniscule scrap of Kagome's DNA lodged inside the crevasse of an incomplete jewel.
Granted, times change and technology evolves, as in Kurama's case where he waited for the necessary advances and studied everything he could get his hands on. But to spend so much money, so many years on research and development, and so much time and effort on trying to reconstitute an entire priestess from so little source material when the probability of it actually working was only a hair above nil seemed a little dippy to him.
Not to mention who knew what devilry the Shikon might throw into the mix considering Kurama hadn't wanted to extract her DNA from the fissure and replicate it separately, swearing on his life that he could feel a flicker of Kagome's energy coming from the jewel. That tiny spark led him to theorize that her soul was trapped inside it. It was of little comfort to Hiei that Kagome had apparently had complete control over the jewel way back before they met her and it was ripped from her body. He didn't trust that stupid rock.
As far as anyone somewhat versed in their history knew, the jewel was simply reabsorbed as the cloned priestess grew around it, melding the sphere back into the tissue it burst forth from so many hundreds of years ago. Hiei was skeptical, but if everything went the way Kurama planned after so much trial and error, his wife would be totally restored with her soul intact. Until that day came though, Hiei wouldn't hold his breath.
And so it was with his mouth hanging wide open and eyebrows practically hitting the ceiling that Hiei gazed upon the lovers of a bygone era completely wrapped up in each other on the ugly floor of an abandoned, top secret underground laboratory that once housed some of the world's most devastating known viruses, bacterium and highly classified genetic research on the outskirts of Old Osaka.
"He did it," Hiei muttered in total disbelief, "I don't believe it."
The couple glanced over at him. "Hi, Hiei," the priestess greeted him mildly, as if it had only been yesterday that they'd last seen each other. And as far as she knew, it had.
Kurama, though he seemed a bit overcome, still had the presence of mind to tuck her nude body tight into his own, distractedly folding his lab coat around her.
Hiei raised his hand in a wave that was somehow both a salutation a question. Looking to Kurama, he reiterated, "You succeeded," rather unnecessarily.
To that the fox grinned enormously and the miko continued to look befuddled. Then Kurama seemed to come back to himself with a frown. "You doubted?" He actually sounded surprised, before scoffing and shaking his red head. "Oh, never mind. Look who I'm talking to."
Kurama quickly sobered as his eyes filled with a malicious red tint. "Hoko can no longer be trusted. She tried to destroy the chamber," he told his long time comrade.
Hiei nodded with a nasty grin. "I'm on it." He didn't really care for the raccoon bitch. In fact, Hiei hardly liked anyone, except for the couple before him and maybe handful of select others that hadn't made it to his shit list.
It was a rather long list.
"I can hear the others approaching down the hallway. You might want to get her out of here if you wish to spend some time alone before that idiot, Yoshi, starts in with the twenty questions and tries to shove her under a microscope," the little youkai didn't even bother with mincing words.
"Can someone please tell me what exactly…?" Kagome started.
All of Kurama's attention was redirected back to his wife, still curled up in his grasp. His hardened eyes faded back to their normal glistening green and softened considerably when they landed on her, and Kagome's mind came to a grinding halt as he turned those eyes on her.
From the bizarre goop covering her naked, 'Again, why am I naked?' form, to the strange behavior of her husband and his little youkai friend, Kagome gathered something major was up. But the dots were just too scattered to connect in her mind.
"I promise to explain everything shortly, but for now Hiei is correct. Let's go somewhere a little quieter where we can speak without interruption," he told her as he gracefully stood with Kagome closely secured within his arms as he made his way toward the rear exit closest to his personal quarters.
He almost made it when Yoshi came flying into the room like a hurricane force gale and careened into Hiei's back.
It was no secret that the fire apparition had little use for the eccentric monkey youkai, but he'd proven himself tireless and invaluable as a research assistant to Kurama. Hiei just thought the guy was a flake with too much energy to burn, a high-strung macaque to be precise. And if Hiei hated anything, it was a macaque.
"Wahoo! She's awake!" Yoshi cheered, darting around Hiei to latch onto the closest medieval-looking torture device, which happened to be a stomach-flippingly large hypodermic and moving to follow the pair trying to make a quick getaway.
Hiei stepped in between the youkai and his fleeing friends. "Leave them be. This is the first time in over three hundred years the man has been with his wife. He'll take care of her."
The words went in one ear and out the other as Yoshi peered over Hiei's shoulder at the retreating couple.
"Where is he taking her? We have tests to perform, scans to run, and need to find out of the jewel really did revert back into her body. If it did, then we have to remove it…and oh, the possibilities!" the tech prattled on with a disturbingly eager light in his eye.
This twit enjoys his job just a little too much to be normal.
It just figured that the only life form on the entire installation shorter than him had to be so annoying. What if the fools around here decided to link lack of height with obnoxiousness?
"As if Kurama would let any of you morons anywhere near his wife. Any tests or procedures required to assure of her health will be performed by him alone. Not you," he replied, jabbing Yoshi in the chest with a firm finger to illustrate his point.
Yoshi frowned. "What do you know? You're just security around here anyway," he squeaked before skittering away in a very monkey-like hop and shuffle.
"Damned monkey," Hiei growled, "see how he'd like a Fist of the Mortal Flame crammed down his throat." What happened to the good old days when he could kill indiscriminately without repercussions?
Stuffing his hands into his pockets with yet another sigh, a sudden thought hit him while he set off on the task of hunting down Hoko. 'Kagome's back…that means I get to go on vacation soon! Makai lava pits, here I come. Ahh, no alarms, no annoying macaques, no double-crossing raccoon bitches. Just red skies, hot, bubbling lava, and even hotter bikini-clad youkai skanks!"
The ancient but still working security camera filming the austere, white hallway suddenly burst into flames, dripping down the wall to end in a black puddle of melted plastic on the equally white tiles…but not before it recorded the frightening visage of a tiny youkai man sporting a devilish smile.
Next chapter will be longer and will get back to our reunited lovebirds.