Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Abducted ❯ Identity Crisis ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4: Identity Crisis

~*~

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” – Douglas Adams

~*~

Jack shuffled impatiently on his feet as he waited for the Asgard High Commander to confirm what he already suspected.  However, Thor seemed rather disinclined to talk.  Instead, the small, bug eyed humanoid seemed to be paying rapt attention to the opalesque stones on his control panel.  

Finally, Thor turned those bug eyes on Jack.

“O’Neill.” He said politely with a slight nod of his head.  Jack couldn’t help but notice that the normally stoic alien also seemed to be shifting from foot to foot.

‘Is he… nervous?’ Jack thought incredulously.

“Thor?”

The alien averted his eyes and cleared his throat before answering.

“As I mentioned, it appears we have a situation.”

“Yes, I gathered that.”

“I must apologize in advance.  It appears that the Asgard High Council wasn’t… effective in discouraging one of our rogue scientists in leaving the inhabitants of Earth alone.”

Ah, there it was: the confession.  Jack had never really felt comfortable when the Asgard said they would take ‘care’ of Loki, after his last visit to the planet.  They were never really clear on how they were going to accomplish it, after all.  Now, it was more than obvious that whatever they threatened him with – if that’s what they did to discourage him – failed miserably.

Putting the ‘lean on’ someone was just not something the Asgard excelled at, and so Jack made a mental note to force Thor to watch all three of The Godfather movies at some point.

“Uh-huh.  So what you’re saying is, Loki’s up to his old tricks.  I feared as much.”

“Yes.  I do apologize on behalf of the Asgard High-“

“Yeah, yeah.  Let’s just figure out what he’s done and take care of it, before – heaven forbid – he clones someone else.”

Jack shuddered visibly at the thought of several copies of someone like Kinsey roaming the planet.

Thor was quiet for a moment as he averted his eyes, and moved a few of the stones on his control panel.

His silence was telling.

‘Awe, shit.’

“Okay Thor, you might as well let the other shoe drop.”

“I do not understand what this situation has to do with human footwear.”

‘What is that grinding sound?  Oh yeah, must be my teeth.’

Jack glared at the alien, who he was rapidly losing patience with. 

“Damn it Thor, just tell me… what did Loki do?”

Thor was purposefully looking everywhere but at Jack as he answered his question.

“I have already run a scan of the surface of your planet, and I have discovered some Asgard technology embedded in what appears to be a young human male.  After isolating his location and comparing it with the geographical data Colonel Carter provided, it appears that this young human resides in a city called Tokyo.”

Jack groaned.  ‘A Japanese kid… just great.’  Japan was one of the countries that was not ‘in the know’ with regards to the Stargate program.  Hopefully, whoever this kid was that had been tampered with, he wasn’t anyone important and there wouldn’t be an international incident because of it.  But with his luck and knowing Loki, that was probably not the case.

He could see the stacks of paperwork and hours of meetings with foreign diplomats who spoke badly accented English even now.

“It appears that it will be necessary to bring him on board in order to deduce how Loki has tampered with him.”  Thor stated, knocking Jack right out of his self imposed pity party.

“What?  Listen, you do know that the existence of aliens is not exactly public knowledge amongst humans.  The kid is probably going to freak if you just-“

“Please move, O’Neill.  I will be bringing them on board momentarily.”

But Thor ignored him as was usual, effectively cutting off Jack’s hastily worded objection. 

Bemused, Jack moved out of the way. 

Thor moved one of the stones on his control panel, and as the control panel began to light up, the full import of Thor’s words hit Jack like a bullet.

“Them? What do you mean ‘THEM’?!?”

~*~

"Kurama - what the fuck just happened?!?"

The coffee house fell into utter silence following Yusuke’s vehement question. Stunned by what had transpired, all eyes were on the silent kitsune who still sat dejectedly on the polished wooden floor, head tilted down so that the fringe of his red hair shielded his green eyes and the embarrassed shame that surely resided in them as he stared down at the useless rose still held in the hand lying limply in his lap.

The rose that had not transformed.

“I… I am sorry, Yusuke, but I cannot explain to you what happened, for I do not know.” Kurama’s voice, when he spoke, sounded so lifeless and dull, so unlike the redhead’s normal lively, intellectual self. 

Keiko’s heart constricted painfully at the forlorn tone of Kurama’s voice and she felt compelled to comfort him by placing a hand on his shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze. 

Meanwhile, the hiyoukai that had been standing just outside of the coffee house entered, his face schooled into an expression of boredom that belied the concern he felt upon hearing the distress of his comrades. 

He took in the situation with narrowed crimson eyes.  Kurama was lying on the ground, a strange emotion playing upon the sharp features of the kitsune’s face.  It took him a moment to actually discern exactly what the emotion was, since it was one that he had never seen displayed upon his friend and comrade’s face before. 

It was self-loathing... and defeat.

Hiei’s eyes darkened with suspicion.

Not even when Kurama had been completely stripped of his energy during the dark tournament, had he looked so… forlorn and defeated, which only went to fuel his earlier suspicions.  Something… something was definitely off with Kurama.

Hiei turned his attention to Keiko, who was attempting to comfort the red-head, and then to Yusuke, who was looking somewhat baffled at Kurama.

“Exactly what has happened here, detective?”

"Hell if I know," Yusuke growled in disgust, turning away from Kurama and Keiko and running a hand through his slicked back hair, tousling it a bit in the process.

"See if you can get something out of him, Hiei."

The fire demon’s eyes narrowed further.  Almost silently, he approached Kurama.  He leaned over and looked intently into his face, forcing the kitsune to meet his gaze.  At first a kaleidoscope of emotions was visible in the depths of Kurama’s emerald gaze before he carefully schooled his expression into neutrality.

“Hiei.”

Although he lifted his head and tried to look as if nothing had happened when he finally acknowledged the presence of the fire demon, the slight tremor in his voice gave away the inner turmoil he was still feeling.

Hiei studied his friend for a moment before turning away.

He didn’t have to question him to know that Kurama wasn’t about to tell him anything more than he had Yusuke.  His expression spoke volumes of his unwillingness to discuss the topic any further.

Therefore Hiei had no other recourse but to probe mentally for an answer. 

He felt somewhat guilty about betraying Kurama’s trust, but given the situation he did not see another alternative.  There was absolutely no reason why Kurama’s rose whip should have failed him.  No reason at all why Kurama should not have been able to access and control his spirit energy in the heat of a battle. 

There was also no explanation for his… bizarre behavior over the course of the day. 

Hiei closed his eyes briefly in a silent and unvoiced apology to his friend, and sent a thought over to Yusuke, explaining his intentions.

~Hn. Kurama is unwilling to explain himself to me as well.  Also, his behavior over the course of the day has been very uncharacteristic. I… I think he is hiding something from us.  He is definitely not himself, and I do not trust him right now.   I think it is necessary to use the Jagan.  I suggest you get Keiko out of the way, detective, because he will resist it. ~

Yusuke met Hiei’s eyes with a look of acknowledgement before turning to Kazuma, who had been standing off to the side, gaping at Kurama like everyone else.  He looked speculatively at his tall red haired friend.  He didn’t have the ability to mentally convey to him exactly what Hiei was planning, and knew that Kuwabara would most likely freak if he witnessed Hiei using the Jagan on a friend, since he hardly trusted the fire demon as it was.  Therefore, he needed to get him out of there.

“Hey, Kuwabara, why don’t you be useful for once and go check on the other customers?” 

The red haired teen merely nodded his consent and let the barb completely fly over him in his concern for their comrade.

“Yeah… sure.  Hey Urameshi… is Kurama gonna be okay?”

"Of course he is, numb nuts. Kurama’s just having an off day, that's all." He said, waving Kuwabara on with a slight gesture. “Now hurry up. We’ll take care of things in here.”

Kuwabara nodded, casting one last worried glance in Kurama’s direction before hurrying out the door.

Yusuke gave a silent sigh of relief once Kuwabara was out of the way. Now all he had to do was get Keiko away and by the way she was clinging to Kurama, it seemed he had his work cut out for him.

Sighing to himself, he glanced over at Hiei, who looked bored.  The only indication of his impatience was the soft, slow tapping of his boot on the wooden floor.

~Your female is still there, detective.~

Yusuke shot the little fire demon a dark look.  ~Oh for crying out loud, you know she ain't my 'female' anymore, so lay off it already... I'm on it.~  Yusuke responded mentally while he turned and closed the gap between himself and Keiko.  He bent over to lay a hand on her arm.

"Hey, Keiko... Maybe... maybe we should give him some space."

Keiko gave Yusuke a confused look and only tightened her grip on Kurama. "What are you talking about, Yusuke? Can't you see he's upset? He needs reassurance right now. I can't leave him alone."

Despite Keiko's protest, Kurama shook his head. "Perhaps you should listen to Yusuke, Keiko." The red head said dejectedly. He placed a hand on top of one of hers and squeezed it gently as his eyes met hers. "I'm not very reliable at the moment. Go on, I'll be fine."

Yusuke mentally thanked Kurama for his unknowing assistance, and tugged once more on Keiko’s arm.

“C’mon Keiko… Let him be for a moment.  He… he needs to figure out what happened, and it’s obvious that he doesn’t want us crowding him right now.” He said, somewhat imploringly.

Keiko gave one last beseeching look to Kurama, but the red head simply diverted his eyes, finding himself unable to look at her after his failure to protect her. This caused Keiko's heart to ache all the more for her friend. Finally, she looked back at Yusuke and gave a nod. "Okay, fine." She mumbled and allowed Yusuke to lead her away. As they walked, Yusuke threw Hiei a look over his shoulder, giving a silent go ahead to the fire demon.

Hiei waited until Yusuke and Keiko were across the room before he commanded the still uncovered Jagan eye to open.  The sudden increase of youki surrounding him drew the attention of the red head who was still sitting on the floor wallowing in his own self pity. 

Kurama’s eyes widened as the powerful aura washed over him and his gaze immediately shot up to lock with Hiei’s. “No…” He whispered.

The fire demon flinched inwardly for he could see the realization as well as the hurt and betrayal that filled his friend’s eyes. 

He winced when Kurama screamed in pain, as the Jagan eye mercilessly penetrated Kurama’s weak mental defenses.  It was only a second or two before he was in completely, and Kurama was shaking on the floor in front of him – as if he were just a normal ningen, with no spirit energy to help fight against such a vicious mental attack.

Hiei had to force himself not to turn away, ashamed of what he was doing.  Instead, he reminded himself that he was only concerned about his friend’s well being and that there was no other way.  Something had to be very wrong with Kurama. 

His suspicions were confirmed almost instantly. Hiei’s resolve strengthened and his eyes darkened considerably, as the Jagan eye showed him a glimpse of the memories embedded within Kurama’s mind. The memories were Kurama’s memories, except that they were recorded as if observed by a third party, and not the kitsune himself.

‘A copy.’ Hiei thought incredulously, not even sure how it was possible.  And yet he had undeniable proof in the form of the contents of Kurama’s mind.  However, what had really convinced him that he was dealing with an imposter was the complete absence of the second consciousness that the Jagan eye should have encountered immediately.

Youko Kurama was nowhere to be found.

Hiei snarled and withdrew his katana as he closed the Jagan.  He had seen enough. In an instant, he flung himself across the room, the cold steel of his blade making contact with the soft skin of the Kurama copy’s throat, who was struggling to right himself after Hiei’s mental assault. 

“You… who the fuck are you, and what did you do with Kurama?” Hiei spat out, seething with barely restrained rage at the inept ningen who dared to imitate his friend.

On the other side of the room, Keiko watched the exchange between the two demons with confusion.  She couldn’t understand exactly what Hiei was doing, but she knew that he was hurting him.  Kurama’s scream was so primal that it both shocked and tore at her, and she had immediately turned back towards him, but was stopped by Yusuke who still had possession of her arm. 

However, when Hiei withdrew his katana and rushed to attack Kurama, Keiko violently pushed Yusuke off of her.

“Let go of me,” Keiko snapped at Yusuke, who was too stunned by Hiei’s accusation to put up more than token resistance, and she ran back across the room.  She fell before Kurama, throwing one arm around him protectively and with her other hand, she pushed away Hiei’s blade from Kurama’s neck, where it had already drawn a thin line of blood.  She did not care that the hiyoukai’s sharp blade dug into the meat of her palm, drawing her own blood.  Instead, she ignored the pain and focused her wrath on Hiei.

“Leave him alone!  What are you doing, attacking him like that?  I thought Kurama was your friend!”

Hiei withdrew the katana slightly, having no wish to harm this ningen, but needing her to understand what had happened.  "Hn, he is indeed, but this is not Kurama."  He growled.

Keiko blinked in confusion. "What? I don't understand. Hiei, what are you saying?" She asked imploringly as she reached to grip Hiei’s black cloak with her bloodied hand, all the while keeping her other arm protectively around the shivering kitsune at her side.

Hiei narrowed his eyes and with his free hand, reached to remove Keiko’s from where it was clenched tightly around the fabric of his cloak.  He did not have time to deal with this right now!  Not when the real Kurama was probably in danger. 

If it were anyone else, he would kill them for interfering.  He didn't have any particular attachment to Keiko, but since she had befriended his sister and his friends, he was forced to be… civil.

“Hn.  Let go of me bitch, so I can deal with this… imposter.” He said in his most civil tone. 

For some reason, his attempt at civility didn’t work, and instead of letting go, Keiko only pulled him closer, her brown eyes narrowed into slits and shot daggers at him.

Hiei looked at her incredulously, and opened his mouth to repeat himself.   But as soon as his lips parted, a bright white light surrounded the three of them.  He closed his eyes for a moment in disorientation, and when he reopened them, his surroundings had changed.

One hand was still on his katana, while the other was gripping Keiko’s enclosed hand, since she had yet to let go of his cloak.  He noticed with a sense of detachment that her other arm was still very protectively cradling Kurama, and that the three of them were in a strange, circular room filled with metallic objects that appeared alien in origin.  Yusuke was nowhere to be seen, and for that matter, neither were the bodies of the demons they had just defeated, nor the coffee house manager who had been killed.  Instead, a strange looking humanoid creature with large, expressionless eyes was staring at them along with an older, non Japanese human.

The human was wearing military fatigues and holding a strange device.  He’d never seen anything like it, but he could tell from the design and shape that it was a gun of some sort.  Pointed at him.

Hiei snarled and forcefully pushed Keiko to the floor, as he prepared to swing his katana in the human’s direction. 

The human apparently read his intentions, because Hiei was abruptly engulfed in a field of painful energy.  While he still retained consciousness, he seemed to lose the ability to move. 

The human did not attack again, however.  Instead, he lowered his weapon, scowled, and then began swearing aloud in English, seemingly unaware that Hiei was still conscious.

By this point, the other two had realized that their surroundings had changed as well, and both of them stared wide eyed at their apparent captors.  But before either Keiko or Kurama could formulate a plan of action, a blue energy field surrounded them, rending them immobile as well.

Across the room from them, General Jack O’Neill turned to glare at Thor, who was still standing in front of his control panel.

“Dammit Thor… they’re just kids!  I just zatted a kid!  At least you could have warned me they were coming in hot.”

Another light engulfed the trio, scanned them briefly, and then disappeared.

Thor’s eyes widened briefly as he examined the results of the scanner.  His voice, however, did not change at all when he finally responded to Jack.

“I believe that he is not a child of your species, but something else entirely, O’Neill.”

Jack’s eyes widened and he shook his head briefly in exasperation.

"Oh, that's just great!" Jack said sarcastically, looking pointedly at Hiei's katana.  "You're telling me we've got sword wielding aliens now?  A sword... give me a break.  I'll take a good old fashioned ray gun anyday..."

~*~

Kurama ran one hand through his long, red locks while he stared out the small porthole sized window of the room which he had been told would be his ‘quarters’ for as long as he remained onboard.  The girl-who-seemed-to-be-Keiko-but-wasn’t had left him there with instructions to get comfortable while she conversed again with Loki.  Not surprisingly, she had locked him in when she left, giving him time to think.  There wasn’t much else for him to do, since the room consisted of only a table-like apparatus that was to serve for a bed and a small replicating device which provided only water and what Loki must have considered food – small, tasteless, gelatinous cubes in various colors.  He couldn’t discern what they were made of since they were also devoid of any scent, so Kurama decided that he would avoid them until absolutely necessary.

Therefore, he remained where he was, gazing out at the stars and mentally conversing with Youko about the situation.

‘Youko, I want to ask you something.' Kurama said, addressing his inner fox. 'Earlier, when Loki mentioned that he was an Asgard, you reacted curiously. Was there something about the Asgard in the old legends?'

The spirit fox was quiet for a few moments before he finally answered.  ‘Well, I told you how in some of the older youkai legends that the Furlings were a group of S class youkai who had the ability to travel amongst the stars.  In those same legends, the Furlings were supposedly allied with a few other races that could also travel amongst the stars.  I… I think the Asgard were one of them. But honestly, I don’t know how much truth there is to any of it. The legends are thousands of years old.’

'But what would they want with us?' Kurama asked.

‘I really don’t know, Red.  Perhaps it has something to do with this alliance that they once had?  Maybe the youkai once fought with them.  I can't imagine them fighting for themselves.  Didn't you smell the age and frailty on that Loki bastard?  Were it not for his little stones and bright lights…’  Youko growled mentally at the thought of what he’d like to do to the bastard Asgard who had the audacity to keep the great Youko Kurama prisoner.

Kurama ignored Youko's sudden burst of anger.  Instead, he mulled over the spirit kitsune's words in his head.  The Keiko-girl had also mentioned that Loki had a poor constitution.  Could the alien's health have something to do with why they were abducted?  Were all Asgard as sickly as the one who had abducted him?  Was Loki, in fact, part of a dying race who - for whatever reason - needed something from the Furlings in order to prevent their demise?  Or was there something else that the alien needed from him?

He knew that Loki was also interested in the location of the other so-called Furlings, which according to his understanding, would be the Makai.  That was information that Kurama had no intention of giving to Loki.  Especially since the alien’s motivations were unknown.

The red head was lost in thought when the door to his room slid open with a soft ‘whoosh’.

"I hope that everything is to your satisfaction." The Keiko clone said as she entered, smiling in Kurama's direction.

Kurama whipped around and looked at her.

She was walking towards him. His eyes drifted to watch the hypnotic movement of her hips as they swaggered back and forth enticingly.

He briefly closed his eyes to clear them of such images and mentally reminded himself that this was probably not Keiko, and even if it was, she obviously was not in her right mind.

”As satisfactory as could be expected, I suppose, given that I am a prisoner.” He said coldly after a moment, his expression neutral.

This comment made Keiko's smile falter a bit. "You're not a prisoner," She stated evenly. "You are not being treated harshly at all. We could take you back right now, in fact... if you'd simply talk to us."

“I am talking to you.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

The red head merely smirked and turned to look out the porthole once again.  “Tell me, Keiko-chan,” he began, in an attempt to change the subject.  “I’ve noticed that the stars have not changed for a while.  Are we no longer moving?”

“No, we aren’t,” Keiko informed him with a nod. “We are well out of range of Earth’s orbit and so are not in immediate danger of being located. Then, of course, there’s been need of repairs on the cloaking device, seeing as it has been malfunctioning lately.”

Kurama could feel Youko’s smugness, as the kitsune gloated internally.  ~Still think my idea was rash, Red?  Because of my brilliance, we’ve stopped!  Now, all we have to do is somehow find Loki while he’s distracted and kill him, so that we can hijack this bird and get home.~

Kurama chose to ignore his counterpart, even though he had to admit that the idea had merit. Instead, he remained silent and continued to look at the stars outside of the porthole. 

Peripherally, he noticed that the Keiko-copy was getting closer.  He stiffened slightly when he felt her press into his side, her arms snaking around his waist as she rested her head on his shoulder, giving him a one sided hug. “Kurama,” She sighed, “Tell us what we want to know.”

Her breath was hot on the shell of his ear, and an involuntary shiver went through him.  He turned his head slightly to look at her.  A mistake, since her eyes were halfway lidded, and she was smiling at him slightly.

He swallowed.

“I cannot.  No matter what you say, I do not trust Loki, nor you for that matter. You know that.  Please… don’t ask again.”

Gently, he pushed her from his side.  She looked at him, her big brown eyes filled with hurt, and he had to turn away.  He couldn’t bear to see that particular expression on Keiko’s face, whether it was real or not.  And so, Kurama looked out the window again.

This time, he didn’t only see stars, but another ship – a large one, in the shape of a pyramid.

Kurama swallowed.

“Keiko-chan?  Do you think the cloaking system has been successfully repaired by now?” He asked. 

The Keiko-copy looked at him blankly.  As she opened her mouth to respond, the other ship fired at them.  Kurama barely had time to wrap his arms around her protectively before the shot impacted, throwing both of them to the floor as the ship shook and the lights flickered on and off.

Kurama groaned in pain, inwardly cursing his inherent tendency to be a gentleman as she fell on top of him, her knee wedged precariously in between his legs.

“Nevermind,” Kurama said in a slightly shrill voice.  “I think that sufficiently answers my question.”

~*~

A/N:  Everyone who has been following this story, thank you for your patience!  We have the plot all worked out and will be finishing this, however updates will be slow since this work is a collaboration between two authors who both have plenty of WIP’s of their own.   If you’d like to see this updated more frequently, drop us a review and let us know what you think!  Reviews tend to fuel our muse – especially with this particular story, since the crossover is so bizarre.  We want to ensure that we are writing everyone in character and are doing both series justice, so feedback is greatly appreciated.  Thanks much!  Julie (whirleeQ) and Rose (vampmistress76).

PS – 10 points to anyone who figures out the common link with the chapter titles… and if you do figure it out, for shame – you really are a nerd ;).