Attention: To those of you that are frustrated or upset at the pace of this story; I implore you to stop reading now. Wait until it says it's completed.

I didn't start writing this with a half-assed notion of a vague storyline. This was a plot I have been thinking about for over two years. All the elements I have included are put in for a reason. They aren't random whimsy I decided to throw in to frustrate you.

I admit, I did contemplate changing my plot to fit in a meeting between Kagome and Sesshomaru sooner than what I wanted, but honestly guys, nothing beats out what I have planned. I swear to you that when the time comes for them to meet; it will be explosive. So, all I can say is: please have patience.

I have maybe ten more chapters before this is done and I plan to have it completed before my next birthday in January. This was the time limit I set myself. For those of you that are enjoying the ride, I thank you very much for your support. Especially to the dokuga community members that rallied behind me after I got that angry review. Those were the reviews that brought tears to my eyes and I love you all for it.

Chapter Twenty

He stepped onto the ramp leading further into the port and set his duffle bag at his feet. Leaning back, he stretched his arms above his head and took a deep breath. There was a loud commotion behind him, but he ignored it in favor of watching uniformed militia and port-side workers rush about.

"Ugh! Bank! Explain to me why you took me from my last position just to dock here on Eden?!"

Looking behind him, he took in the ruffled appearance of his effeminate teammate. "We're here to hunt down a freak, Jakotsu." He bent to pick up his duffle and swung it over his shoulder, descending the ramp. "We're here to hunt down a freak."


Kagome rushed through the doors leading out of the locker room. Her hands yanked on the sleeves to her suit as she tried to keep her heart under control. Early this morning, while she had been eating breakfast with Miroku, she had gotten a message from Captain Taisho requesting a training session. Miroku had made a disgusted noise when he had caught sight of the blush staining her cheeks.

"For crying out loud, Kagome. It's a training session! Not a date!" Miroku had burst out and Kagome had opened her mouth to retort, but froze as her words registered mentally before she could say them.

Miroku's waiting expression and cocked eyebrow had her blustering through the awkward pause as she finished off the last of her miso soup and stood to leave. "Like you don't look forward to linking with Sango-chan!" She had shouted behind her as she left, feeling momentary triumph as a grimace had crossed his face.

She entered the pod room and nodded to the happy chirp Wallace sent her way. "This is a rather abrupt training session." She commentated and Kagome shrugged her shoulders.

"Didn't Taisho used to request sudden training all the time?"

Wallace sighed, nodding to herself in remembrance. "Yes, but there never used to be so much involved in the setup." She ignored the curious stare from the younger woman. "Hojo never required so much monitoring."

Kagome frowned and narrowed her eyes. "So, why do I?"

Wallace paused and looked up from her screen, her expression carefully blank. "Because you're so much stronger, my dear."

Knowing that the cryptic answers were all she would get, she dropped the subject and began strapping on her electrodes. The five-minute chime sounded and Kagome felt her heart trip over itself in anticipation, reminding her of her own unsaid thought at breakfast.

'It's not like there is another way to meet with him right now!'

Deciding it was for the best that she hadn't said it out loud, Kagome got into the pod and waited for the linking process to begin.

Sesshomaru straightened, from the middle of the kata he had been running through, when he felt the first tingle of awareness glide up his spine and lift the hairs on the back of his neck.

'Higurashi.'

He cursed himself when her name came out more caressive than it should have. The breathy way she had responded, however, had him staring down at his saber a moment longer then needed.

'Good morning, Captain.'

Suddenly feeling the need to clear his throat, he swiped his saber out to the right in a side slash, as if to cast aside the emotions she created in him. 'We have a mission for tomorrow morning.'

Kagome mentally blinked at the abrupt way his statement came out, interrupting the check-up she was doing on his energy. 'Oh. I haven't received anything about that.' She sounded apprehensive, even to her own ears. 'Is it an assassination mission?'

Sesshomaru exhaled slowly and settled into the first stance of the beginning of another kata. 'No. A scouting mission.' He felt the slide of her energy against his arms and knew she was pulling out that something extra so they'd move faster. 'I received the details early this morning. They aren't planning to send the mission directive over the usual channels. Each of us are to get in contact with our partners through training to go over the parameters.'

Kagome hummed in acknowledgement as they both whipped around and brought the saber up in a counter strike. 'So, what exactly will we be doing?'

'There has been some suspicious activity near a small asteroid field in a lower corner of the western quadrant.'

'Suspicious activity?'

'Baasratu movement.'

Kagome mulled the information over as she absently monitored the speed her partner was using in each strike. 'Why does this have the higher ups keeping it hush-hush from everyone else?' She focused her whole attention on Taisho when he paused a fraction longer than necessary. 'Why is this coming out to be such a secret?'

Sesshomaru slid his foot back from his lunge and walked over to the control panel, selecting the simulation he wanted to run through.

'I am not sure.'

Kagome heard the hesitancy in his tone and let it drop. She trusted Taisho. If anyone would be able to figure out what was going on, he would. Besides, she had her own questionable crap-fest to wade through. Her mental monologue was cut off as the first of their simulated enemies appeared.

'So it's just hack and slash today, boss?' She questioned, relieved that it wasn't anything to do with strategy.

'Hn.'

'Yeah. I needed the mindless exercise too.' Her laughter echoed over the simulated enemy's death rattle and Sesshomaru allowed a small smile to curve his lips.


Naraku examined the armband inside the machine he was currently using to monitor the strange energy surrounding it. He ignored the twittering of the other researchers in the room and instead focused on the pattern the energy seemed to be weaving. His lips quirked into a sadistic smirk as he caught the subtle difference between human and Baasratu consistency.

Whoever had created this energy, certainly knew what they were doing. The thrill of breaking that down and deciphering their intent had shivers tracing up his spine.

"Well? Are you just going to stand there and stare at it? You are the 'expert' they paid to come in, aren't you? Seems a waste if you ask me."

"No one asked you, plebian." Naraku murmured, cutting a sharp glance to the unnamed researcher standing at his back. "I'm here precisely because you are useless. If you can't even tell that I am doing what I was brought here for, you're worse off than I expected. Honestly, I have no idea why you're even on this ship, let alone this lab. If you are what we are supposed to be entrusting the future of research and development too; we might as well be heading back to technology in our Earth days."

The silence following his words was harsh. Some in the room barely dared to breathe. The unnamed researcher stood with his mouth gaping and his face pale in his rage.

"Now, if you are all done standing around and gawking, I have work to do. If you can't make yourself useful, then get out. You are in the way as it is."

He turned back to the armband and settled his hand on the control panel beside the screen. While it was lovely to watch the dark energy writhe from behind the glass, he needed to feel it to understand it. Several sharp gasps as he slid the casing off the armband had him rolling his eyes. Really. Researchers these days did not like getting their hands dirty.

Naraku was slightly dissatisfied to note the energy did not leak out to fill the room as he had wanted it too. It kept itself neatly wrapped around the armband it had been tied too. "You said that you had to dispel the energy to read the contents of a previous armband?"

The female researcher to his left jumped when he turned his gaze to her with his question. Readjusting her glasses in her nervousness, she nodded her head emphatically. "Uh, yes. That's correct. At the time, we thought the message was in the armband, not the energy around it."

Naraku hummed, keeping his eyes on the woman longer; enjoying the way he was making her feel uneasy. "And it was the second such armband that made you rethink about the energy around it?"

Before the woman could respond, and exasperated voice interrupted. "Hadani! We have already sent you the whole report! It's why you are here. Now could you please take this seriously?"

Myouga walked through the stiff researchers surrounding the one asking questions and frowned claret eyes met his own. "You were brought here to read the energy and decipher its message. Not to intimidate my staff."

Naraku turned back to the armband. Since meeting the portly older man at the shuttle terminal, he had been faintly amused at the combination of cowardly actions and strange words laced in steel. It was obvious why this man was the second in command of the western fleet; even if he was a civilian.

"Well, then. Good news for you. I have already concluded what this would have portrayed to the Baasratu."

"What?!"

The startled shout came from everyone in the room. Myouga's brows came down in a scowl as he crossed his arms over his chest. Mistrust radiated from his entire being. "Oh, really? What does it say?"

Naraku placed his hands just above the energy encircling the armband and allowed his own to lightly touch it, being careful not to interrupt the intricate pattern it was weaving. "It's not in words, like we would understand. It is a feeling…a notion."

He pulled his energy back and turned to fully face the one in charge. "This is a confirmation of sorts. As if to say there is an agreement."

"An agreement of what?!"

"Well, I imagine that information was on previous armbands you inadvertently destroyed, wouldn't you say?" Naraku snipped, feeling his own frustration over not knowing exactly what this was about. "You wouldn't happen to have any other such objects as-of-yet undisturbed…would you?"

Myouga paused and examined the creepy psychic in front of him. He didn't trust the boy as far as he could throw him, but he had been the one to bring him onboard. "As a matter of fact; we had a team find another armband. It's why I'm here in the first place."

"Excellent. I'll be in my room. Come get me when it arrives." Naraku stated airily as he walked to the door, flippantly waving his hand over his shoulder.

A collective breath was released when the door slid shut behind the psychic. Myouga was slightly ashamed to admit that he had breathed a sigh of relief with the rest of them.


Kagome hummed under her breath as she washed the last of the gel from her hair. The training session with Taisho had been therapeutic in the way that the both-of-them hadn't had to think; just move together. She blushed at the way her mind kept going back to the feel of his muscles, as if she had touched them with her own hands.

'I should feel his abs the next time we link.'

Her thought had her sputtering and accidentally inhaling some of the water from the shower up her nose. Gah! This is getting bad! She cursed herself as she turned off the water, worried she was starting to have perverted tendencies like Miroku.

'Well…it'd make the dreams more realistic, I suppose.'

Oh, lord. She was now arguing a case for her naughty thoughts! Shaking her head, she squeezed the excess water from her hair and headed over to where her towel was hanging. Drying off and putting on the lab clothes she had selected for the day, Kagome sternly reminded herself she had other things to think about besides her partner's body.

She scowled at her blushing face in the mirror as she brushed through her hair and twisted the mass up into a high tail, braiding the wet strands so her back wasn't drenched. Right. I've got to go to the lab today and file some reports. Apparently, Micah hadn't been filing them the way she should have. Thankfully she had saved some of her own step-by-step observations.

Her thoughts filled with work once more, Kagome made her way out of the battle-link sector and towards the inner rings of the ship. She debated over whether-or-not to get something to eat from the cafeteria as she passed, but decided she would rather get those reports done first. She was stepping off the lift leading to the hothouse sector when the feeling of something being wrong punched her in the gut.

She stopped abruptly in the hall, staring down the corridor leading to the lobby where her lab was located. She could see the guard station from where she was, but she couldn't see Taijya behind the counter.

Her heart was thudding in her chest and her breaths were coming out shallowly, as if she was trying to escape something's notice. The notion that something was wrong grew as she began to take slow steps leading towards the lobby.

Carefully looking through the window in the door separating the lobby from the corridor, Kagome still could not see Taijya anywhere in the room. Her hand hovered over the scanner by the door, trembling in what Kagome was coming to realize was fear.

Just as she was taking a step away and deciding to come back with a member of the militia, a face appeared at the window and the door slid open. Kagome let out a startled scream as a hand grasped onto her wrist and yanked her through the doorway.

"Aw, Kagome-chan. You shouldn't leave before coming in to say hi! Not when you're the guest of honor in this little party!"

Kagome's vision warped slightly as her eyes wildly roved over the room. A broken coffee table smashed in the corner of the room, a potted plant shattered beside the door, foliage scattered about, something that looked like the back of a chair, a red splatter, legs sticking out from underneath the wreckage of another table, someone's screen in pieces by a far door, a stun-gun in the center of the room and a person pinned to the wall by what looked like a chair.

Her eyes finally settled on the one that had yanked her in and locked the panel behind her. The iron clamp that had been a hand let her go as Kagome studied the woman in front of her. Short dark brown hair framed a vaguely familiar face, but it was the eyes that held her attention. Slightly widened, as if in excitement, Kagome couldn't tell the color of her iris's due to the enlargement of her pupils.

"Come on, Kagome. You know who I am." The girl sang out, but her tone was all wrong. As if she wanted to sound happy, but lost the emotion and was confused on how it should sound.

A shiver traced up her spine and she took a step back on trembling legs, stumbling slightly when her heel knocked into something. An energy slid around her waist, feeling slimy and unnatural, keeping her from falling. Staring in muted horror at the energy touching her, she traced it back to its source to see the girl grinning at her triumphantly.

"Isn't it wonderful? You see, Kagome-chan! I could do it too!"

"Wha-?!"

"And you didn't think I could!" The girl continued, cutting off her gasp. "No one did. But I showed them! I knew I could be psychic too!"

Kagome felt a twinge of recognition at the almost child-like words. Her mouth opened hesitantly as she studied the girl in front of her. "Y-yuka…?"

The girl's grin widened almost painfully. "See! I knew you'd recognize me! Took a while though…" A frown immediately pulled the corners of her lips down and Kagome felt another chill at the abrupt change in emotion.

'Oh man…she's-'

"Don't think it!" Yuka screamed, putting her hands up to her temples and screwing her eyes shut. "Don't fucking think it! I'm not crazy!"

Kagome watched with wide eyes as the unnatural energy writhed about Yuka, as if lashing out. The already smashed table in the corner crunched and seemed to explode as a piece, like a tentacle, crashed into it. As bits of the table went flying everywhere, Kagome heard a faint groan behind her and turned her head to look.

Taijya, the person pinned to the wall with a chair, let out another groan and lifted his head. Dried blood from the wide gash in his head covered the side of his face, keeping one of his eyes from opening fully. The one eye that could open, focused on Kagome's terrified face before moving onto the rage-infused expression on their attacker.

Before Kagome could turn around to see what Taijya was staring at in his own horror, a cold hand clamped onto the lower half of her face and forced her head back around.

"Pay attention to me!"

The energy that had been steadily wrapping around her body tightened and Kagome let out a choking gasp. Yuka blinked and then relaxed her energy, her eyes taking on a worried sheen as she softened the grip she had on Kagome's face.

"Sorry, Kagome-chan! I didn't mean to hurt you!" Her eyes looked over Kagome's body, checking for signs of damage. "You can't think things like that, ok? You'll make me mad and I'll have to hurt you. I don't want to hurt you, ok, Kagome-chan?"

Yuka softly crooned to her, as if she was talking to a small child. Kagome swallowed the heavy lump in her throat and tried for a weak smile. "Ok, Yuka…chan." Her mind raced as she tried to recall the defense class she had taken with Kitakawa-sensei on telepaths. There was a way to keep them from reading your thoughts…something with wrapping your own energy around your mind.

Yuka was studying her intently, and in fear that she was picking up on what she was doing, Kagome opened her mouth.

"W-why are you here, Yuka-chan?" Her question came out in a slight stutter and Kagome took a deep breath to steady her fear-driven trembling.

Yuka cocked her head to the side and took her hands from Kagome's face. "To see you, of course." She pursed her lips at the blank look her statement caused. "I wanted to show you I'm a psychic now too! Isn't it great?!"

Kagome swallowed again, her mouth dry and her heart still thudding in dread. "O-oh. Uh…how…how did that happen…?" She asked hesitantly, not sure what would set her off. Her own energy was finally wrapped around her thoughts, though she was disturbed to realize that the energy Yuka was using was keeping her energy trapped inside her body. What the hell kind of energy was this? It was twisted…and wrong.

Yuka, apparently not hearing her thoughts, smiled as if at a blissful memory. "My savior came to me and told me that I could be more than what I was. That I was destined for something greater."

Kagome licked her lips, focusing completely on her childhood friend. "Your savior…? Who are you talking about?"

Yuka's eyes focused on Kagome's and her lips twisted into another frown. "It doesn't matter to you, oh great Kagome Higurashi. The psychic that can do anything! The amazing prodigy!" Her voice was steadily climbing in octaves as she spoke and the energy around Kagome was tightening again.

Kagome let out a distressed squeak and the energy loosened once more. Yuka tutted and pat Kagome's cheek, as if the outburst had been her fault. "It wasn't fair, you know." She trailed her hand up to Kagome's hair and fussed with her fringe absently. "It was always: 'Look what Kagome did! See how wonderful she is!' Never: 'Good job, Yuka! What great grades!'"

Yuka's hand fisted in Kagome's braid and yanked her head back.

"Why wasn't I ever good enough?! Do you know how many times I had to listen to my parents praise you?! And the disappointment when they realized we didn't talk anymore!?"

Kagome let out a pained yelp as Yuka yanked again before letting go. "It wasn't fair. You stole everything from me. Psychic powers, my parents…my own recognition! Everything!"

Kagome's mouth opened in panic as the energy Yuka was using tightened to the point she couldn't draw in air. Just as she felt she would pass out, the energy relaxed and she sucked in breaths as fast as she could. Yuka stood back and watched as her old friend fought to breathe, her pale face gaining a flush and her eyes screwed shut.

"You know, they designated me to agriculture."

Kagome's eyes peeked open and Yuka smirked self-depreciatingly. "Yeah, wasn't even good enough to make it to researcher. Just relegated to good ol' fashioned farm work. Weed the plants, fertilize, pick the goddamned fruit!"

Kagome flinched at Yuka's screech and Yuka grinned.

"Then he came to me. Told me I was wasted in agriculture. Told me I could be something more." Her blissful grin twisted into something bitter and her eyes shifted to the floor. "All I had to do, was start taking one simple pill a day."

Kagome stiffened, watching the unnatural psychic with trepidation. "A pill?"

Yuka looked up as if startled from her own thoughts, her eyes zeroing in on Kagome again. Behind Kagome, while both girls were distracted with one another, Kohaku was steadily working on dislodging the chair legs pinning him to the wall. He had gotten the first two out already, and was dreading the lower legs. One of them had clipped his thigh and he was sure it was going to be a bitch to take out.

His eyes shot to the stun-gun he had dropped not far from where he was pinned. If he could just get down from the wall and over to the gun…

"Yeah. One wonderful, amazing, horrifying, poisonous pill." Yuka threw her head back and laughed, the high pitch sending chills up both Kohaku's and Kagome's necks. The laugh cut off abruptly and Yuka leaned forward, as if to share a secret. "Told me it would unlock my hidden talents, help me realize my full potential. To be psychic! No, more than psychic!"

Kagome felt her shoulders trembling, sending quakes down her arms. Yuka seemed to notice it as well and she straightened to focus on them.

"They didn't tell me I wouldn't be able to control it. That in the process of becoming something great, I would lose my mind."

The admission was whisper soft and Kagome had to strain to hear it. Her head jerked back slightly when Yuka's face shot in closer, their noses nearly touching. Her eyes were still all pupil, but the expression on her face was pained. "Look at what they did to me, Kagome-chan!"

Kagome flinched at the volume so close to her ears and the small amount of spittle coming from Yuka's mouth. Before she could say anything, though she wasn't sure what to say, Yuka's gaze shot to something behind her and she let out an inhuman shriek.

"You stay where you are!"

There was a loud crunch and Kagome heard another groan. She tried to turn her head to look, afraid the younger guard had been killed, but the hand on her jaw stopped her.

"He's still breathing. Still there. Don't want to hurt you, Kagome-chan." Yuka was muttering quickly, again as if crooning to a distraught child. Kagome was startled to feel tears leaking out the corner of her eyes. She hadn't even realized she was on the verge of crying.

"Yuka-chan…please…"

"Shh. Kagome-chan. It's gonna be alright." She was absently stroking her cheek, as if to calm her down, but it only made the tears come faster. A choked sob worked its way up her throat and Yuka shushed her again. "It will all be over soon."

"I'll say, you freak!"

The almost jovial shout came from behind Yuka, and the half-insane girl whirled around to stare down the barrel of a strange looking gun. Behind the gun stood a dark-haired man wearing a cocky smirk.

"Been tracking your crazy ass all the way from the East!"

Yuka let out another shriek, her energy lashing out at the man. He dodged to the left, his smirk dropping as he realized this one was faster than the others. He rolled out behind the guard's desk and let out a low whistle as the energy in pursuit of him took out a nice chunk of the pseudo marble. "Ha! Missed me!"

Yuka let out a low growl, but was distracted as someone else came charging through the door she hadn't noticed had been dismantled. She pushed her energy out further, satisfied when the other man crashed into a wall out in the corridor. Working quickly, she pulled the metal door left to the side back into place and crunched the sides together.

Her attention shifted back to the one still in the room only to panic when she realized he wasn't behind the desk anymore.

With Yuka's attention divided on so many different objects, Kagome felt the energy wrapped around her dissipate and used that moment to get out of the middle of the room. She scuttled back on her hands and feet, keeping an eye on the raging energy in front of her. Her back hit the wall and only then did she turn her head to look at Kohaku hanging limply from the wall.

Blood was pouring anew from his head wound and she was distressed to see that an even larger amount was staining his pant leg, forming a small puddle on the floor beneath him. She turned to get closer, but paused as a series of screeching bangs filled the room.

"Where are you!?"

Kagome glanced over to take in the situation and realized that the man from before was missing and Yuka was on the hunt. Her eyes cut back to Kohaku and she stood on shaky legs to try to pry the chair from the wall. The damn thing was not moving. Didn't even budge as she put all her weight into it. A shaky half-sob escaped her again as she put a hand on Kohaku's shoulder, shaking it urgently.

"Taijya! Wake up!" She shook him again and examined him with her energy. She had never been trained as a medic, had never been interested in healing, but right now she wished she knew what she was doing.

"Too slow, you freak! What are you aiming at?"

Kagome ignored the continued ruckus in the room, more concerned over how pale Kohaku was. She'd never be able to face Sango again if she let her little brother die. The sharp report of gunshots rang through the air, followed by another shriek and the tinkling of broken glass. The sounds were farther away and Kagome guessed they had entered one of the labs.

"Taijya!" She shook his shoulder again and let out a short breath as he groaned and limply moved his head. "Taijya, please, wake up! Look at me!"

She lightly ran her energy over his head, flinching at the ragged feel the wound had to her senses. Biting her lip and only going off a theory, she began melding the ragged edges together, frustrated when they didn't participate willingly. She watched with bated breath as the wound slowly started to close. She stopped when it looked like it wouldn't bleed as bad as it had been.

"Dr. Higurashi…what…?" Taijya trailed off and Kagome offered him a weak smile. Before she could say anything, a loud crash sounded right behind her and she spun around to see the man from before lying in a crumpled heap in the center of the floor. The crunch of footsteps over rubble had her turning her head to see a disheveled Yuka walking slowly into the lobby.

Her eyes were trained on the man at first but quickly switched to Kagome, causing her to take an involuntary step back, running into the wall beside the pinned Kohaku. She continued forward, ignoring the unmoving man and walking towards Kagome. Her face went from the feral rage it had been in to that pain ravaged expression she had shown her before.

"Kagome…I-"

The sound of the gun going off once more resounded throughout the room and Yuka jerked to a halt, her eyes widening, even as she kept them trained on Kagome. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but a long trail of blood came out instead. Taking another hesitant step, Yuka pitched forward and fell to the ground. Behind her, still holding the gun aloft, the man let out a groan and slumped back himself.

Undecided for a moment, Kagome finally moved towards the girl she had once considered her best friend. The energy around Yuka was flailing, but it held no strength, no substance. It was dying as surely as she herself was. Feeling helpless and pitying tears fill her eyes, Kagome slowly turned Yuka onto her back, using her energy to tentatively brush against her.

Yes, Yuka had lost her mind and done some terrible things, but Kagome didn't think she deserved to die. "It's ok, Yuka-chan. You…you're gonna be ok." She didn't believe what she was saying and if the small smile on Yuka's face told her anything, she didn't believe her either.

She lifted a hand and fumbled for Kagome's letting out a sigh when Kagome clasped it with her own. 'Don't let him have it.' Yuka whispered in her mind and Kagome felt the press of something small poke into the hand that was holding Yuka's. 'Keep it safe. Always knew…the ending.'

"Yu-yuka-chan. Hold on! You…"

Yuka's other hand came up to clumsily slide over Kagome's lips, trying to still her words.

"I jus…" Yuka's words were choked and she coughed, her eyes earnest even as they were losing their light. "I just wanted to be you."

Kagome jerked back slightly as the last breath left Yuka's body and her eyes flattened in death, staring at something over her shoulder. The loud screech of tearing metal registered to her dimly and she finally looked away from Yuka to see a stream of uniformed militia file into the room.

"It's about damn time. The hell we pay you people for anyway?!" The man who had shot Yuka, and probably saved them, grumbled from his spot on the floor and Kagome blinked as an absurdly dressed and bleeding man came flouncing into the room and proceeded to fawn over him.

"Oh, Bank! I was so worried when that freak locked me out of the room!" Kagome barely heard as the militia began asking rapid-fire questions. A grunt to her right caught her attention and she watched as two men pried the chair from the wall, catching Kohaku as he slumped to the floor. Two others were hoisting a table off someone else and Kagome belatedly realized it was Jess.

"He's still breathing!" Came the shout and Kagome jumped when someone shook her shoulder.

"Ma'am! Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

Kagome blinked and looked down at herself. Was she alright? She dimly registered someone checking her over and the mentioning of shock, but all she could think about was the earnest expression on Yuka's face before she had died.

"I just wanted to be you." Repeated over and over. Her hands clenched and the same small object poked into her palm again, bringing her to the present. Her eyes focused before her and she realized a medic was asking her questions.

"…hear me? Ma'am. Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?" The sensation of someone's energy rolling over her own had Kagome shaking her head and snapping out of it.

"Yes, sorry. I'm…ok. Just…"

The medic smiled wryly and nodded as if in understanding. "Yeah. Looks like you went through hell. Were you attacked on the energy plane?"

Kagome shook her head and grimaced. "Not really. She…she used her energy to hold me in place." The medic nodded again.

"Squeezed you like a vice, right? Popped some cartilage in your ribcage. It's why your wheezing." The medic stood and held out a hand. "Can you stand? It'd be best to move you to med-bay. Take a look at those ribs of yours."

Kagome took the hand proffered and stood on shaky legs. The medic stood beside her, watching and waiting to see if she was stable enough, then he signaled to one of the militia men not poking around the wreckage. As she was being lead out of the lobby, Kagome shot a glance around to see Jess already on a stretcher and Kohaku being helped onto another one. The strange man and his effeminate companion were nowhere to be seen.

xXx

On a happier note, Aziza InuMiko did some lovely fanart for this and I encourage ya'll to go check it out on dokuga! Thank you very much!

Thank you for reading and please review.