Pairings/Characters (for this chapter): Genjo Sanzo's reincarnation/Kougaiji, Son Goku, Homura's reincarnation, Shien's reincarnation, Tenpou's reincarnation
Rating (for this chapter): PG
Chapter summary: Rick's strike team clashes with Long's men. Jinhai, Goku, and Kougaiji are caught in the middle, and they still have to find the sutra.
A/N: In case anyone's interested, I went back and re-wrote everything. You're not going to miss anything plot-wise if you don't read the previous chapters—all modifications were made so that my writing style across the entire story would be more consistent. There's a couple of new very short "bonus" chapters of sorts, but they don't really provide anything aside from justifying the Sanzo/Kougaiji pairing.
Word count (for this chapter): ~1,106

Chapter Eleven: Train Wreck

Kougaiji ignored the baleful look Goku was giving him and kept his eyes locked on Guang's men. He thought his heart would stop when Goku almost gave away the secret he'd been keeping from Jinhai. He didn't think Jinhai would take kindly to the fact that his past life had been Kougaiji's lover.

When Jinhai had asked, Kougaiji had said that Sanzo was his friend. And that had been true, at least for the first couple of years after Gyokumen Koushou's defeat.

It had been a complicated relationship. Sanzo probably would have used the term fuck buddy. Kougaiji thought that was too crass—and it had felt like something more than that, at least to him. The quiet afternoons that they spent drinking tea and simply enjoying each other's company far outnumbered the times that Sanzo had tried to exorcise Kougaiji, or the times that Kougaiji had attempted to set Sanzo's sutra on fire.

Thinking of how it had been—how they had been—made Kougaiji's chest ache. He clenched his fist, felt the metal of his wedding ring against his flesh, and ruthlessly suppressed anything he felt for Sanzo. Jinhai was right—he wasn't Sanzo and it would be disrespectful and stupid to try and use him as a replacement for the monk.

Kougaiji still wanted to help, though.

Rick set his gun to stun and waited for the rest of his team to fall into position. They had instructions to minimize casualties on both ends and aim for maximum property damage instead. To his right, his second in command finished adjusting his own gun's settings. "You ready, Oscar?" Rick whispered.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Oscar answered. He glanced at the rest of their team and looked back at Rick. "Some of the younger guys are getting antsy—we'd better get a move on before they decide to go charging in."

Rick sighed. "Children these days." He peered over the jutting boulder they were squatting behind. Beneath them, the terrorist camp sprawled across the sands in front of the mouth of a cave. Steep rock walls on either side provided protection and few options for entrance points. The shelf of rock the team was perched on was one of the few vantage points available in the area.

After scanning the area below them, Rick spotted what he was looking for. "Oscar, tell everyone to get ready to fire."

Rick shot at a group of stainless steel fuel drums. The resulting explosion immediately drew the attention of all the men stationed outside. As they ran towards the fuel, the strike team quickly picked them off, stunning them quickly and efficiently. By the time more people came streaming out of the cave, the only thing they saw were unconscious bodies.

The terrorists fired shots at the spot where Rick's team had been hiding, but by then, they'd already scattered—half were making their way down while the other half provided distractions by shooting at the terrorists. Bright red arcs of energy hit two of the terrorists, knocking them out.

Rick dove behind a crate, narrowly missing getting hit by a bullet. "How cute—they still use projectile-based weapons," he chuckled. The soldier beside him shot a look that clearly said he thought Rick was more than a little crazy. "Looks like Oscar's got everything under control out here. Why don't we go in?"

Kougaiji looked up at the sound of a muffled explosion. Beside Kougaiji, Jinhai and Goku had also tensed up.

"It's the soldiers!" Guang shouted. He gestured sharply at two men. "Stay here and guard the nuke. Everyone else, move!"

There was chaos as weapons were grabbed and men ran outside. The two guards left behind grabbed yanked up Jinhai and Goku by their bindings, motioning for Kougaiji to stand as well, and dragged them farther away from the exit.

"Stay here!" one of the men barked.

"I think we should escape now," Goku said.

Kougaiji nodded. "Agreed."

Everything was over in less than ten seconds. Kougaiji burned his bindings and knocked out one guard with a punch, while Goku disarmed the other one with a kick, sending his rifle flying. Another kick, this time to the jaw, and the guard fell to the ground.

"That was easier than I expected," Goku said as Kougaiji freed his and Jinhai's hands.

"We need to get out of here. Now." Jinhai bent down and grabbed one of the guards' guns, checking to see if it had any juice. He snorted in disbelief when he saw that instead of a power cartridge, it had bullets. "Bullets?"

"They are cheaper," Kougaiji said. "And they get the job done as well."

The sounds of shots being fired and men shouting grew louder. Jinhai and Goku began going through the looted things from the camp, probably looking for the sutra. Kougaiji busied himself with tying up the unconscious guards and propping them up against the wall.

From what Kougaiji could see, there was only one visible exit, and he wasn't keen on charging into the middle of what sounded like a raid. Unfortunately, it also didn't seem like they had much time to try and look for another way out. "I don't think we can sneak out of here," Kougaiji said.

Goku grinned and cracked his knuckles. "We can fight our way out, no problem."

Jinhai straightened up, sutra clutched in his hand. "We're more likely to get killed, idiot."

Goku opened his mouth to retort, but before he could say anything, the sounds of the gunfight got even louder and men began pouring into the cave. They were all wearing military uniforms.

Jinhai immediately dropped the gun he'd picked up and raised his hands in the air. "Don't shoot! We're hostages!"

"There we go," Rick said, standing up and dusting off his hands. "Disarmed and completely harmless."

Oscar glanced at the three men they'd come across in the large main cave. They were talking to another guy in the unit, explaining how they'd gotten there. "What about them?"

"We'll have to bring them back to the base, I guess. It's not like we can leave them here." Rick sighed. "Though it'd be less trouble if we could."

He walked over to the hostages, smiling when the one with messy brown hair looked at him. "I'm sure you want to go home right away, but we'll need to ask you to come with us. We have to ask you some questions about the circumstances of your kidnapping."

The youkai nodded while the older human with black hair scowled. Rick could sense an impending headache coming on.