InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Aftermath's Destruction ❯ A Family's Fate ( Chapter 2 )

Catty and Ev hate Shippou beyond belief and want me to kill him. Of course I like the

squirt, so that is not going to happen.

And remember, this is a sequel to Dashed Hopes, so if you haven't read it, you might get kind of lost...

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Disclaimer: Je n'ai pas de Inuyasha. (I'm sticking to the French disclaimer)

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Aftermath's Destruction

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--- Last Chapter ---

"Kagome?"

Said girl frowned into the phone. "Sango?" she asked uncertainly. It sounded like her friend...only this time the brunette sounded frantic and worried.

A pause passed as the young woman on the other side of the line yelled something to her blue-eyed friend.

Inuyasha whipped around just in time to see Kagome go limp and to catch her.

The last words that ran through Kag's crowded mind were the echo of Sango's previous statement.

"Oh Gods! Kagome! You have to get here! I've been trying, we've all been trying, to find you! Something happened to the boys!"

--- End of Last Chapter ---

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Chapter Two: A Family's Fate

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"Ms. Taijai?" An older man asked the brunette perched on the living room couch with her phone clamped to her ear.

"Huh?" Sango turned away from the receiver in her hand, and away from the ominous dial tone. "Is there any news Detective Yagi?"

The detective gave a slow shake of his head. "I'm sorry, but there are no reports as of yet. Did you get in contact with their sister and mother?"

Sango gave a sound half way between confirmation and a cry. "I found Kagome, but she...the line went dead."

The older man looked grim. "That family is a magnet for trouble." He shook his head sadly, "After the problem with Naraku, and now this. Ms. Higurashi is a good woman, she deserves better than this."

Sango eagerly nodded, "I agree. But she has us by her side, just like before."

"That's good. A victim is often in need of support," he said in an informative voice. "Keep trying, we need to get some statements from her."

The man left the room to join with his colleagues; the many swarms of cops on Sango's front yard.

Sango tapped in Inuyasha's phone number again and waited impatiently for an answer.

None came.

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"Damn it, bitch! Would you just get up? What the fuck is going on?" Inuyasha growled, close to shaking the unconscious woman awake.

She had just collapsed. What could someone say that could have this effect on her?

`This can't be happening,' he mentally cursed. `Kagome got through Naraku, she shouldn't have to go through anything else.'

"Kagome!" he snapped.

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Kagome could hear the voice, quite well actually. It was clear, but distant and faded.

But she welcomed the darkness.

Something nagged at the back of her mind, gnawed at the edge of her knowledge. Waking up would be a bad thing; that's what it said. She'd regret, really regret, if she roused herself. Something was wrong, terribly wrong.

Why wake up when you'd only be going back to a horrible dilemma? Didn't she already do this? Didn't she face the bad part of her life and triumph? Didn't she deserve a break?

She damn well felt like it.

Shifting a little more to the light, she grudgingly began to come back.

"They wont leave me alone." She murmured aloud to that annoying, rough voice that wouldn't let her have the peace she so desperately wanted.

The cursing stopped and was momentarily replaced by a gruff voice, tinged with concern. "Who wont? Who?"

Kagome twitched a little, she could already feel a migraine coming. "Them," she said simply, accompanied with a slight shrug of the shoulders. At least, a shrug like motion that one can only do when spread out on the ground.

"Them who?" Inuyasha snapped as he kneeled over her, one hand carefully keeping her head off of the tile on the kitchen floor.

Kagome still refused to open her eyes, to scatter the darkness that embraced her. "Them," she echoed. "Fate, destiny. Apparently they don't deem my life fit to leave be."

"Shit." Damn! Now she was going all philosophical on him.

The irritating drone of the dial tone kept on. The phone hanging by it's cord off the wall. Kagome had hit the end button on her way down, cutting off whoever she was talking to, but the phone hung freely, bumping against the wall every once in awhile.

Inuyasha dejectedly hung his head down. "Who was on the phone?" he asked slightly more calmly.

"..." He was met by silence.

"Kagome? Who was on the phone?" he questioned again, his rough voice having a bit of an edge to it.

"...San-chan..." Kagome frowned slightly as the information resurfaced in her brain.

`What in the fucking seven hells could Sango say to make this much of a mess? She may be blunt, but I doubt a simple `Kagome you don't look good in gray' could bring this on.' "What did Sango say?" Inu asked again with that forced calmness. In reality he was about ready to rip the damn phone out of the wall in frustration. The high pitch of a mechanic operator sang dully out into the room, the dial tone having gone on long enough. Soon, once the announcement was made by the computerized voice, the sound was altogether cut off.

"She said, basically, that I'm in trouble again. My world has crashed down," the young woman stated dramatically.

"I highly doubt one woman could crash another's with one sentence. Even if there had been time for two sentences, I don't think it could happen." Inu growled a little stupidly.

"I don't want to sound vain, like a certain someone, but..." she propped an ocean eye open to glare lazily back at the man, starting to come around. "`To the world you are one person, but to one person, you are the world.'" She quoted.

"How is that vain?" he gave her a dry look.

"Not that, this is. I'm not the world to one person, but to two. Can you name them?" she challenged, still lying on his kitchen floor with only one eye open.

`Yeah...me.' He thought dryly. "Um...that's pretty easy, Souta and Shippou." Finally his mind started to twist around it. "Fuck! Did something happen to the boys?"

"Ding, ding, ding! You win the prize," Kag congratulated in fake enthusiasm.

"Well, why didn't you just tell me?" he snapped at her harshly.

That one eye screwed itself closed, "Then it would be true..." she trailed off.

"No time to wallow in self-pity, wench. Let's get going!" Inuyasha removed his hand and winced as her head dropped with a solid `thud' onto the floor.

"Ow!" Kag screeched. "Where?" she growled as she propped herself up slowly. The world seemed to have a problem staying still at the moment. "Will you stop spinning?" she snapped at the scowling man.

"I'm not!" he bit back. "Move!"

"To where?" she quietly asked again as she began to stumble to her feet, the edges of her vision still tinged a bit around the edges by black.

Inuyasha stopped and let loose a string of curses. "To Sango's," he shrugged after his mind grasped the problem. "Hurry up, or I'll leave you."

"No you wouldn't," she ground out while rubbing at her temples, a poor attempt to rid the pain gathered there.

"Why?" he turned to glare at her.

"Because then I'd have to drive there myself, in the freshly fallen snow, after I fainted. It's suicide!"

"Feh." He didn't comment anymore than that and grabbed her by the arm to haul her towards the closet.

He threw her her jacket and her strangely heavy boots. "Come on!"

Kagome thumped to the ground on her rear end. Yanking on her black leather boots she started to tie them, pulling her sweatpants' legs down afterward. "I'd like to see you do up these ties in a hurry."

"Leave them untied," he gave the door a longing look.

"No way," she grumbled. "I'm already dizzy, that'll just be me begging to meet the ground personally and snap my neck."

"I won't let you fall," he yelled as he pulled her to her feet, one boot still trailing its laces. Kagome took the statement by more than its face value but didn't say anything. "Wench! I don't know what exactly about that wall is so interesting, but can you move your lazy ass?" he didn't wait for her to process the words before starting to the door, her hand still firmly in his own. Kicking the door open, not waiting for the action of turning the doorknob, he started towards her dull red pick up. Easier to drive in the two feet of solid snow they received the last two days. "Come on," his voice a little softer now. He opened the side door and helped her in before hurrying around to the driver's side.

The rest of the drive to Sango's was too long for either of their liking. Kagome stared glumly out the window. Many possibilities whirled inside of her brain. Were they in a car accident? Did one of them eat or drink something harmful? Did they get kicked out of school? Were they hurt or maimed in any way?

Where they even alive?

Too many things could fall on the category of `something happened to the boys'. Too many if you asked the worried mother/sister.

Finally pulling into the impossibly long stretch of asphalt, known as Sango's impressive driveway, they reached the stone home of their friend. The building sent off waves of intimidation and elegance. But it wasn't the massive house that sent the pair in the red pick up into shock, it was the dots of black that were speckled across the pure white snow.

Police.

Cops of all shapes and sizes, heights and genders, of rank and age were spread across the grounds. Some where huddled together, speaking of things, others were spread out, keeping watch. A few dogs in their festive black vests could be sniffing the ground. Sniffing as if searching for something.

"What the fuck?" Inuyasha whispered as one or two of the policemen raced to identify them.

Kagome nodded in silent agreement. Her azure eyes were wide in wonder, fear, and now more worry.

"Name?" an impatient, burly man demanded as he reached the vehicle.

Kagome calmly opened the passenger side door and climbed out.

Inuyasha on the other hand wrenched her precious car's door open and sprang out. "What in the seven hells is going on?" he burst out, outraged.

Kagome gave him a withering look and he instantly quieted. Turning back to the officer, she gave the same intimidating glare. "Higurashi, Kagome." She stated in a soft, clear tone.

The man openly balked. "Oh Dear Gods. You're her, huh?"

She gave a small nod. "What's going on?" she questioned, her voice still soft to the ear. Before the man could answer her inquiry a shriek cut him off.

"Kagome!" Sango came pushing and shoving out of the group of men and few women. Giving the ones whom glared a `look' she reached her friends. Even without her coat on the December day, she was still panting. "Oh Gods! Kag- chan, I'm sorry, so very sorry." She wrapped the smaller woman in a crushing hug, "I'm so sorry," she echoed. She gave a nod of recognition over the petite woman's shoulder to her male best friend. Inuyasha just stared back.

Kagome slightly returned the embrace before pulling away. "What's going on, Sango?" Sango shifted a little under her blue gaze and found her nails suddenly very interesting.

She was saved by her boyfriend.

"Kagome? Inuyasha?" Miroku shouted as he followed Sango's example of shoving through the cops. A few gave him some choice words. "SHUT THE HELL UP!" His calm demeanor snapped. Reaching his friends he pulled the blue-eyed woman into a quick hug. Running a hand through his unclasped hair, he gave them a worried look.

"Miroku?" Kagome asked tentatively. It was the first time she'd ever seen him so uncollected.

"You're okay?" he gave a nod to himself as he looked her up and down. "Good. They kept saying that it was so planned out, that they might have gotten you too."

"Who said that?" Kagome asked a little confusedly.

"The police."

"Oh. So who might have gotten me?" she pressed on.

"The people who got the boys." Miroku said tersely. It was so simply said it took awhile for the two newcomers to absorb the information.

One tiny hand clutched at her heart, while the other covered her mouth. Kagome felt the tears well up, but ignored them. "And who would that be?"

Miroku closed his eyes in preperation for the announcement, "The kidnappers."

(A/N: Wouldn't that have been a great cliffhanger? But of course then the whole chapter would be a good 9