Chapter Five

Kimiko sat up from the large reclining pod placed in the center of the room. Her head throbbed in time with her heartbeat and she found that her breathing was rattled. She supposed she had pushed herself too far this time around, but there was something wrong. Something that, even in her element with all her power, she couldn't quite grasp. She would never admit it, and hated to even feel it, but she was worried.

With her experience numbering well over thirty years, she knew she didn't have the luxury of mistakes. A mistake on her part could have half the fleet destroyed, but her ability wasn't always accurate. Precognitive abilities were always riddled with holes and strange messages. It was her job to take the strange and disconcerting images and feelings she got and put them into some semblance of order. The numerous things she had been able to see and the importance of being able to decipher these things had given her a smooth sailing to the highest position within the western fleet.

All fleets within humanities control were directed by their own respective precogs. However, this wasn't pubic knowledge. Precognitive abilities were considered legendary, much like being able to see a unicorn flying passed the observation deck. It was kept that way for a reason. If a child showed even a hint of precognitive power, they were removed from their families and made to disappear. Kimiko had been taken from her own family when she was eleven.

She didn't know what story her family had been told, and she had only tried to find them once. She had been sixteen, graduated early due to her skill and level of control, and placed within the small circle of precogs already assembled. It had been her direct superior at the time, Dame Olivia, who had coaxed her into finding them. "You'll always have that regret." She would always say, so Kimiko had gathered her courage and traveled to the southern fleet, looking for her family.

To say she had been shocked that they appeared to be happy would be incorrect. She had always known that it would have been impossible for them to go on mourning her disappearance. She just hadn't expected to see them with two other little girls. Hadn't expected to see her place taken by somebody else, let alone two somebodies. As all teenagers, she had her bout of emotional 'it's not fair!' and 'why me!' and by the time she had cried it all out she had felt better.

She had boarded the flight back to Craven that next day and sought solace with the other precogs of various ages and advancement. Dame Olivia had softly patted her on the back and said, "And now, young one, you are allowed to move on. To focus on the future as your gift begs you to."

And focus on the future she had. It had been her that had found the large ambush waiting for their fleet. Directing many of their smaller ships out of the danger zone and giving their battle ships the coordinates they'd need to neutralize their enemy had been done by her hand alone. So it came as no surprise when she had been appointed head of the western precogs preceding Dame Olivia's retirement.

The path to stay at the top had been daunting but the prize had been well worth it. After all, it was through her invisible connection to the upper echelon of the western fleet that had put her within Hideaki Taisho's sights. While they had not stayed together, her pride was Sesshomaru.

Taking another deep breath, Kimiko stood from the pod and made her way slowly towards the door. Her heartbeat was still staggered but her breathing was tapering off into what she considered normal. The door softly whooshed open and Kimiko was startled to find two of her precogs waiting in the reception area for her.

"Ami, Eri." Kimiko said shortly in invitation and both girls glanced to the other before meeting her eyes.

"Lady Kimiko." Eri, the bolder of the two, stepped forward, "We have had strange visions."

Kimiko allowed the girl's slowed sentence to give her time to fully recover. A small smirk fit itself onto her face and her slightly slumped shoulders straightened. Placing a hand on her opened doorway, she considered the two before her. They were both very talented together, but rather unremarkable apart. When they had been taken in for training, it had been a surprise to learn that both girls bolstered the other.

Kimiko had fought a hard battle getting the both of them under her tutelage, and she would never forget the twisted anger that had shaped Lady Fiona's face when they had been appointed to her ship. Her smirk grew as she remembered the woman's plump lips had turned a pale purple color with the amount of pressure she had applied to them to keep quiet.

Running her eyes over the two and noting their own slumped shoulders and tired faces, Kimiko made a swift decision. "Come girls. Let's go over to the record room, give our statements and then out to the spa." Both girls looked up sharply at their mentor.

"The spa?" Ami whispered and Kimiko allowed her smirk to settle into something a little warmer.

"Of course! Humanity can't expect us to work ourselves ragged for nothing." Her smirk sharpened again as she slid out the small silver card from one of the pockets on her coat. "Unlimited access to myself and whoever I choose to bring." She answered their questioning gazes and hid the pleased smile when their scrunched faces smoothed into something more cheerful.

The three of them walked slowly towards the far room, now in better moods then when they had left the reflection pods.


Sesshomaru jerked into a sitting position, pushing a hand through sweaty bangs and clutching at the hair at the back of his head. Lifting one of his legs, he hissed out a breath at the uncomfortable movement. His breath was erratic, and his heart was pounding. Letting out a low curse, he tried to get her voice out of his head.

This was starting to get ridiculous. It was the second time this morning and he had only heard her voice for crying out loud. It wasn't like he had even seen her and yet this was the result. Gritting his teeth he scrunched over to the side of his bed and swung his feet to the floor. The sweat making his shirt cling to his back and wetting his hair made him feel slightly relieved for the cold shower ahead of him. Yes, waking up with a hard-on four times in a row for the past two days made him appreciate the small things.

And the whole way to the small shower in his bathroom he heard the same soft whisper of his name that had him aching in his sleep.

'Captain Taisho.'

Walking down the corridor that connected to the training room and subsequent locker room, Sesshomaru ignored the stare pointed at the side of his face from his younger half-brother. Since leaving his room and finding the idiot standing outside his own room, he had forced himself to not notice the way his brother stared at him. What, exactly, was the moron's problem this time?

They had just reached the outside of the training door, and as Sesshomaru placed his hand on the biometric scanner, Inuyasha opened his mouth.

"So, ice pop. Have good dreams?" He asked in a sly tone and Sesshomaru cursed as a slight hesitation in his gait gave him away. Inuyasha cackled the whole way to the locker rooms and Sesshomaru just knew that he would have to kick the shit out of the boy today, regardless of the fact that they weren't going to be sparring partners.

Entering the room, Sesshomaru felt he was grateful that the only other person already there was Taijya. She looked up from putting on the shin guards she preferred and stared at Inuyasha in askance. Before the dolt could stop his laughing and respond to the silent question, Sesshomaru managed to push him into one of the lockers, seeming by accident.

"Everyone else?" He asked and Sango jumped at being directly addressed by the tall male. She quickly shook off her hesitancy and met the captain's gaze with her own.

"I don't know, I couldn't sleep so I decided to come early." She said slowly, and jerked her gaze to her teammate when he garbled out something loud and with lots of expletives. Sesshomaru nodded in acknowledgement and headed over to his own locker. It was only 0500, after all. The training session wasn't really scheduled until 0700.

Quickly getting into his training gear, he pocketed the small earpiece he would need when connecting with his partner later. He found his jaw locking again when he felt a wave of emotion, just thinking about her vaguely, brought him. Troublesome.

Looking over his shoulder, he smirked at the awkward position Inuyasha was in, trying to get his pants on. "Hurry it up, little brother." He said softly as he moved passed and the boy flopped over onto the floor. He kept his smirk in place as his curses followed him out into the training room.


Miroku looked up from the reports given to him by Wallace to watch as Kagome came in from the locker rooms, already wearing her suit. His lips twisted down dramatically as he swiped the reports off of his screen and set it down.

"Why, Kagome! I thought for sure we would be able to change together." He sighed and held back a chuckle at the scowl she shot back at him.

Before Kagome could reply, or do anything violent, Maryann Wallace bustled into the room carrying multiple wires with her. Both psychics stared in bemusement before Miroku felt it was his duty to ask.

"And you are looking like spaghetti because…?"

Wallace grinned around the lump of small wires and shoved them onto the table against the far wall. "Orders straight from the top!" She jabbered out in an excited rush. "They want to closely monitor how all of you work together now that we have our new addition!" She was slightly out of breath by the end of her sentence and Kagome felt the scowl from earlier deepen.

"For only being a temporary replacement, you seem to be doing a lot of extra work."

Miroku found himself silently agreeing. When Hojo had been the other psychic in this team, they hadn't done any of this. His eyes narrowed when Wallace grimaced and turned to the table to hide her face.

"Oh, well. I think they are just curious about the spectacular way you and Captain Taisho linked." Her words were careful and measured compared to her earlier lackadaisical rush when she first came in. Kagome felt that same alarm in her head go off that had always directed her out of trouble. Something about this seemed off.

"I'm only staying on for the agreed upon week." She stated, staring hard at the back of the taller woman's head. Wallace, for her part, kept her back turned and her hands set to separating the wires.

"Of course, dear." She soothed out and Kagome clenched her hands into fists. Her mother would say the same thing when they would argue over something and couldn't come to an agreement. She had always lost. Those words meant that it didn't matter what she wanted. Her eyes moved to the pod she would be using and she worked on loosening the muscles in her hand to unclench her fist.

She had signed the contract after reading it over thoroughly. They couldn't make her be a psy-link passed the agreed amount of time. Her breath came out slowly and her heartbeat calmed as she repeated those words like a mantra.

Miroku swiped a hand over the panel beside his preferred pod. His eyes swept over his friend's face and then to the back that Wallace kept to the room at large. Deciding that going into this practice session with an angry Kagome was not a good idea, Miroku opened his mouth.

Kagome felt her pervert senses go off and she whipped around to glare at the offender. "Don't even think of it, Miroku." She growled and the psychic had the grace to put up an innocent front.

"Why, my lady Kagome! I was just going to say how ravishing your-"

"Finish that sentence and I will hurt you."

Miroku ducked his head meekly and raised both hands up. Kagome frowned and turned back to her pod, swiping her hand over the panel and sitting inside once it slid open. She was no longer interested in what Wallace was doing and talking to Miroku was going to give her a headache. Miroku shrugged his shoulders and got into his own pod. Well, at least she wasn't so close to the edge.

After another ten minutes, a chime signified it was time and the pods closed. Wallace let out a relieved sigh as she set the last of the connectors into the pods. A specialized screen was connected to the other end and would be what she would use to send the data to the ship's captain. The fact that it had been the captain to order the readings had thrown her for a loop, but when you worked with psychics you learned it was better to roll with the punches.


Sesshomaru was standing over a thoroughly beaten Inuyasha with something like triumph gleaming in his eyes. The rest of their team had shown up in the past hour and Sango had stopped trying to explain exactly what had occurred between the brothers. Kouga stretched his arms over his head and watched the silver haired captain speculatively.

He didn't really have a plan, other than to not get his ass kicked. At least not as bad as the first time. He cringed when small flashes of the night spent in the infirmary, with Jakotsu, unwittingly entered his thoughts. Never again, he vowed for the hundredth time that morning. The half-baked plan he had first come up with was to use knowledge of his partner against him. Sesshomaru was a vain, self-centered, narcissistic, asshole. So having Hakaku find out everything he could and hitting the captain with it during their spar should cause enough tension that it would weaken the link between the two.

At least, that had been his plan. However, if the ramblings of Hakaku could be deciphered correctly and believed, that was no longer a viable option. Kouga groaned to himself and turned away from the ruckus that Inuyasha was causing with his big mouth. On top of that, Sesshomaru appeared to be in top form with his swordplay that morning. He glanced at the small clock projecting the time on the wall. He had two minutes to think of something before they all linked and he really didn't see that happening.

'Whatever. It was probably a fluke the first time anyway.' He told himself as he took down the practice weapon he would be using that morning.

Sesshomaru smirked down at his irritated half-brother and firmly denied the need to glance at the time. He was not anxious about linking with that girl again. His eyes swung about the room and took in the rest of the team. Kagura and Ayame were shooting snarky comments at the other while they stretched and Sango was running through another kata with her practice sword. Kouga was standing in front of the weapon wall, staring down at the sword in his hand in contemplation.

Inuyasha waved a hand in front of his face and Sesshomaru glared down at him.

"Geez, fucker. I was trying to tell you it's time! Put in your earpiece!" Inuyasha huffed as he put his own earpiece in, trying not to wince as he stretched out his shoulders. Ice pop sure had run him through his paces already. He snorted as he walked a few paces from Sesshomaru and over to Kagura, whom he was supposed to be sparring with.

He rolled his eyes when he was met with a condescending smirk that irritatingly mirrored his brothers. "Are you sure you'll be up for an actual spar, little Taisho?" Kagura purred and Inuyasha repressed the urge to give her the finger.

"Keh, more than you'll actually give me, Kaze." He taunted back and bared his teeth in what was too vicious to be a smile. Kagura's smile dropped from her face and her eyes narrowed. Her back stiffened slightly when she felt her partner enter her awareness.

'Hello, my little puppet.' His voice coiled around and Kagura rolled her eyes heavenward.

'For the last time, Hadani. I am not your puppet.' She answered with a growing exasperation. The creep was just not getting it. You'd think after being partnered for two years he would have another shtick by now. His usual villainous laughed echoed to her and she let out a huff.

Ayame cracked her neck as she walked over to Sango, greeting Ginta as she did so. "Hey, Taijya. Are we just doing hand to hand this morning or are we going whip to sword?" She asked as she ignored the insinuations coming from her partner. Sango placed her sword on the wall and turned to Ayame.

"Hand to hand, if that's alright with you." She answered as she felt Miroku's presence in her mind. 'Ooo. A girl fight.' His voice already had her clenching her teeth.

'Morning, Bro.' Hakaku's voice came to him sleepily and Kouga snapped out of the brief haze he had been in. He mentally grunted at his partner in answer and turned from the wall with his sword in hand. 'Eh, someone's in a bad mood this morning.' Hakaku continued and Kouga grunted again.

'We don't have a plan, Hakaku.' He stated simply and felt as his psy-link snapped to attention.

'Oh, yeah…right.' Hakaku went through his usual procedure of looking over his partner's muscles and energy pattern. He was clearly agitated and a bit…nervous? He paid more attention to the way Kouga's shoulders bunched and tried to ease them a bit. 'Kouga…are you scared of losing? Or are you scared of losing to Taisho?'

Kouga felt the muscles that had steadily been relaxing tense back up and he growled at his partner. 'What are you asking me exactly, Hakaku? Who said I was scared of anything?!' His temper had his body temperature raising and his mind shifting from the brooding it had been doing. As he continued to mentally berate his partner, Hakaku grinned to himself. Kouga did his best fighting when he wasn't thinking, after all.

He felt her hands first. A smooth tingling glide that coasted up his back and over his shoulders. His eyes rolled back slightly behind his closed lids and he clamped his teeth together to keep the moan from finding its way out. God damn it. Did it have to feel like this every time?! The hand holding the sword tightened as her hands ghosted down his arms and legs.

'Good morning, Captain Taisho.'

He worked hard to keep his breathing even as he made the comparison her tone of voice was now, as opposed to how it was in his dreams.

'Higurashi.' He stated simply and was surprised at how monotone he sounded when his emotions were doing backflips. Her laugh echoed to his 'ears' and nearly undid any barriers he had set up.

'What? It's Higurashi now? Not little girl?' Her teasing tone had bite to it.

'Would you prefer to be referred to as such?' He asked almost curiously and was pleased when she let out a huff. Someone had riled her up before their link, and while he would have preferred it to have been himself, he was non-the-less satisfied that she wasn't the unemotional psychic she had tried to be the other day. His thoughts skittered over that concept while he pushed away what could only be known as jealousy. He did NOT care that someone else was affecting her emotionally.

'Ah. There it is. For a brief moment I thought I had imagined your pompous attitude from the other day.'

A smirk stretched his lips and Sesshomaru allowed his eyes to open languorously. The girl was looking for a fight. With a small shake of his head he tossed his hair over his shoulder to lay against his back. Aggression was something he was familiar with and more than willing to work with. How much fire would Higurashi show if he got her even more riled?

'Let us hope you do not show any incompetency today.' He insinuated and allowed his smirk to show teeth when she hissed back. It was going to be a very satisfying day, he could already tell.

Kagome tried to keep her temper back behind the walls she usually put up when she linked with someone. She really, really tried…ok, not that hard. She was frustrated with her situation and the fight she knew she was going to have to put up with the ship's managerial committee. When she had first linked with Taisho, she had shivered at the tight control his energy radiated and it had calmed most of her anger.

But this man…

Something in his tone, or the words or the superiority behind them, or maybe it was a combination of all three, and suddenly she wanted to bite. Not even the proverbial sense either! She literally wanted to sink her real life teeth into him. Maybe his shoulder…

Her thoughts stuttered and she knew that if she was in her body she would be blushing right about now. What a random kinky thought! Now that she had acknowledged it, her mind was racing with similar thoughts, all painting one very vivid and lurid picture. Her, wrapped firmly around the sculpted muscles she had mapped multiple times, her mouth poised over the junction of his neck, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. His hand slowly moving up the thigh she had around his waist-

A loud blaring alarm startled Kagome out of her fantasy and for a frantic moment she didn't know what was going on. Holy shit, Kagome, you are fantasizing about a man you've never met while you are linked to him! She berated herself as she immediately took stock of the situation. Taisho had been in the process of starting his spar with Wolfe, the other team members were scattered about the large training room in various stages of a freeze-frame fight.

'What's going on?' Kagome asked Taisho even as she noted the mounting tension in his energy.

'Emergency mission.' He stated in answer and Kagome jolted slightly in shock.

'Now?'

Her tone of disbelief caught his attention and Sesshomaru examined the emotions she was still trying to keep from him. 'Hn.' He walked into the locker room along-side the others and quickly changed a few of the sparring equipment pieces for the actual combat suit.

Kagome was already absent-mindedly adjusting his energy flow and the bunching of certain muscles to accommodate the strain they would be going through later on. While she had never been in actual combat with the Baasratu, she well remembered how to prepare for it. The nerves she felt building up in her own energy she tried to shake off by rationalizing things.

Captain Taisho and those on his ship were what was called a clean-up crew. It was their job to enter a "cold" battlefield, whether it be one of their ships or one of the Baasratu, and take out whatever was left. Normally this included stragglers that had been too injured to abandon ship and hadn't died yet. Thus why it was imperative to send out a clean-up ship, because while the Baasratu could be near death, they were a vicious lot to the end.

Many salvage crews had been laid to waste because a military commander had felt the wounded Baasratu not a threat.

This is what confused Kagome, however. Taisho, and all of those on this ship from what she could tell, were too far advanced to be a clean-up crew. This was a waste of military talent and resources. So, why, then were they all placed on this ship? Surely they couldn't all be pompous asses that couldn't work with anyone. Hell, the fact that Taijya put up with Miroku was testament that it wasn't true.

Her musings were cut short as she realized that preparation for deployment was done and they were on their way to the transportation room. She was nervous about this next part, because, while not alarming or dangerous, transportation while linked with someone was uncomfortable at best. At its worst, it was down-right nauseating. She shifted herself closer to Taisho and ignored the way he stiffened up.

'What are you doing?'

Kagome let out a small sigh. 'I don't like transporting.' She answered simply and hoped he would leave it alone. She stifled a gasp when his energy seemed to reach and wrap around her own. Heart hammering distantly in her ears, she murmured her thanks, even as she tried to decipher his reasoning behind helping her.

Sesshomaru felt her question, even though she hadn't voiced it and didn't feel he needed to explain himself. Couldn't explain himself if he tried, because he wasn't sure he knew what he was doing either. It was an instinctual reaction and he felt he couldn't have stopped it if he had wanted to. Which, he was perturbed to note, that he hadn't wanted to stop it.

While most could say that it was ingrained in a warrior to protect those weaker then themselves, Sesshomaru knew he hadn't felt an inclination like that toward anyone his whole life. His brand of protecting something was to make them want to be stronger, not being their strength. What, then, was this?

Kouga leaned over slightly toward Sesshomaru as he read over their mission's directive from the large screen in the transportation room. "Seems like our guys took down a small Baasratu meteor base." He said with pride coloring his words and Sesshomaru glanced through the mission log himself. Great. That meant they would need space gear.

"Does it say if there's airlock inside this meteor?" Ayame asked and Kouga let out a short puff of air.

"There was, but it was damaged during the battle. Suit up, soldiers. Into the cold abyss we go."


Sango would be the first to admit that the deep silence of space freaked her out. So it was with relief that she allowed her partner to ramble on about who knew what. She was treating it much like the background noise it should be relegated to.

'I'm hurt, dear Sango! That you would treat me and my lovely voice so…' Miroku said dejectedly and Sango winced at the fact that she had let that last thought slip.

'Damnit, Miroku. Pay attention.' She hissed back and brought the softly glowing katana before her. While space suits had come a long way from the bulky things they had been, the helmet still wasn't the most graceful thing to fight in. You didn't have the range of sight you needed when fighting something as fast as a Baasratu, so being distracted in what could potentially be a danger zone was not the best idea.

The meteor base itself was much like a Baasratu ship on the inside. The walls and floor were lined with that same material that, no matter how many tests and experiments done to it, they could not figure out what it was. All that could be said for it was it was organic. Which was rather obvious to Sango, after all, the floor squished and sometimes she could swear the walls were breathing. That was weird all its own, but put to the fact that it appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be made of a dulled metal, and the effect was rather disconcerting.

Sango shook off the disgust she was feeling as she crept after her captain down the dimly lit corridor. Captain Taisho's team had decided to take another hall, and both captains had agreed on a meeting point over their holo-maps. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard Captain Wolfe's voice over her helmet's radio.

"Taisho, you check the room through there. Taijya, you're with me. We'll meet you here." Wolfe pointed to a room on the map and Inuyasha voiced his affirmation. Walking swiftly and silently, Inuyasha turned into the room with the door hanging from the wall at a strange angle. Sango silently followed after Wolfe her eyes scanning the floor and walls for signs of anything left alive.

A brushing against her shoulders had her jumping and Miroku apologized. 'Just me, love.' He said in a subdued voice and continued to relax her tensed muscles. 'You'll wind up pulling a muscle with how tense you are if you have to defend yourself.' He continued smoothly and Sango let out a sigh. He was right. This wasn't her first clean-up, wasn't even the biggest battleground they had scoured. So the question was, what had her so tightly strung?


Kagome fanned out her feelers in each direction. Down strange halls that carried energy of their own, and into rooms that echoed with the violence from only a few hours previous. She wasn't familiar with this kind of thing, so she was attentive to each minute detail. While they were hacking and slashing through hordes of aliens, there was a kind of danger in the slinking around until something popped out at you. God, she hated suspense.

Sesshomaru kept a firm leash on his amusement at her concentration. While normally he was the one taking this seriously, he felt she was doing the job for the both of them. Lazily striding forward and silently directing Kagura and Ayame to check one of the multiple doors they had come across, Sesshomaru walked over the threshold of the far left door and froze. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing at attention and Higurashi's energy was recoiling and tensing around his form.

Before she even said anything he knew she had found something in this room. 'Behind the table in the adjacent room. Left side, farthest from the door. About four meters.' Her voice was back to the cool, professionalism and Sesshomaru found that it sharpened his own thoughts. His hand tightened on the slim saber and the blue glow that had constantly surrounded it seemed to solidify slightly before dimming.

Hunting mode, she had told him during their first training session. So that the enemy wouldn't see the glow and know he was coming. His saber was nearly black now, and the power he felt in his grasp gave him a jolt of adrenaline. 'Higurashi. This is hardly necessary for taking out a-'

'Taisho. That Baasratu isn't wounded.' She cut him off cleanly and Sesshomaru felt something skate down his spine. His eyes narrowed on the door he had never looked away from and his muscles tensed in preparation. Wounded Baasratu were pretty fast. Perfectly healthy Baasratu…

'We are faster.' She whispered to him, and Sesshomaru felt his tension ease. Taking a step forward, he left anything resembling hesitation behind. Before he could reach the door, he felt his partner's fingers curl around his hand and he brought his sword up in time to deflect the long claws shooting out of the dark at him. A blur of movement had Sesshomaru bringing his sword up again and a bright flash of blue illuminated the being before him before a severed limb went flying farther into the room the Baasratu had come from.

Jumping back and letting out a hiss, the Baasratu clutched its remaining hand at the shoulder where its arm once was. Sesshomaru took the time to examine his kinds' long time enemy. They were a tall race, the Baasratu. Standing at nearly eight feet, their limbs were long and gangly. Their skin was a dark grey color and stretched thin over boney joints. Long, knobby fingers tapered into wicked claws that could retract in a strange fashion. They had no eyes, but their mouths stretched wide over sharp teeth. Some grew stringy hair-like things from the top of their heads, but most were bald. They all wore the same kind of…clothing…however. Like someone had taken old black drapes from the storage and cut them into ribbons, hanging them in strange designs over their bodies.

Green goo, that Sesshomaru realized was fresh blood, dripped from the severed arm and turned a dark orange as it hit the floor. The Baasratu let out another choking hiss and crouched closer to the floor. It removed its hand from its wound and spread out its claws, a red glow flickering over the tips. Play time was over then.

Before it had a chance to attack, Sesshomaru closed the distance between then and sliced cleanly through the vicinity of its neck. He was rewarded with the sight of its head rolling away and an annoying shower of green covering the front of his suit. He glared down at the spewing body of the alien and ignored the stifled giggles coming from his partner.

Kagome allowed her tension to ease slightly as she took note of her partner's disgruntlement. A giggle escaped followed by another and towards the end she was laughing. At him, at the adrenaline, at the situation. As her laughter stopped, Kagome thought about what exactly an unwounded Baasratu was still doing here.

Both came to the same yet unlikely theory. 'Captain Taisho…'Kagome trailed off in uncertainty and Sesshomaru felt confirmation echo through his own thoughts.

'Higurashi. I don't think the battleship finished the job.' He thought slowly as he tried to piece everything together.

"Kaze, Shiro." He spoke sharply into the mic built into his helmet. Startled "Sir?" came from both and he felt the pressure in his chest ease slightly.

"Come back and meet up, immediately." He switched frequencies to Wolfe's transmission. "Wolfe, we have a problem."

xXx

So here's the next chapter. A few questions I would like to answer from a couple reviewers:

First, about what happened to Earth, well, that won't be put into this story, sorry.

Second, Kagome is 20 years old. The tests she went through were at ages 10, 15 and her final at 18.

Third, no, there aren't any demons in this, sorry. However their basic personalities I have tried my best to keep the same. Keep in mind that their reactions might deviate slightly due to the time and setting, but I think I've kept the core values pretty close.

Thank you again for all the reviews, I treasure them all, though it might not seem like it. Work ties me up and I don't have much free time but I enjoy reading all the feedback I receive.