Power Rangers Fan Fiction ❯ Bitter ❯ Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 

 

 

Miroku ran as though the hounds of hell were after him.

 

If for some reason his ofuda had been ineffective, it was entirely plausible they were.

 

His sandaled feet slapped against the pavement, echoing off of the dilapidated buildings. For a moment, Miroku was thankful he was being forced to cut through the gang-ridden district; citizens were much less likely to do a double-take at a man running for his life.

 

Sadly, it wasn't exactly a rare sight.

 

Those thoughts drifted to cursing himself for not asking to borrow Kim's bike. It'd be much faster than running down the road; he refused to take a taxi and potentially put an innocent human in harm's way.

 

Darting around a corner, Miroku somehow managed to trigger the light on his watch without throwing himself off-balance. Stealing a quick glimpse, he figured Sango would have been home for an hour or so… provided she wasn't out on a hunt.

 

Snarls resonated from behind him. `Worth a shot!' Miroku fished out his cell phone and fumbled for his speed-dial. `C'mon! Pick up!'

 

“Hello?”

 

Panting was the only thing to follow Sango's greeting; she was silent for a moment before pressing, “Miroku? Where are you?”

 

Swallowing and daring to slow down for a moment, Miroku rattled off the nearest intersection. He was only able to put on another short burst of speed to duck into an alley before needing to stop and catch his breath; his chest burned with exertion. He leaned against the crumbling brick wall, legs shaking.

 

His eyes continued to sweep the area to his right, left, and in front of him. The brick behind him was somewhat soothing - protective. Fingers itched for his staff; he'd left it at home, knowing the jingling of the golden rings would be nothing but a liability.

 

Still feeling hunted, Miroku whipped out another ofuda and slapped it to the ground, creating a small barrier to hunker behind. A little too small - he had to hide his scent with the thing, as well. `Damn demons!'

 

“Kirara's on her way,” Sango assured him after a moment of silence over the line. Worry tinged her voice as she continued, “Is everything okay? Did you learn anything?”

 

“Well,” Miroku wheezed, “Kim's gonna kill me. Maybe. But I have information for Sesshoumaru so maybe I'm less likely to die… at least until I deliver it.”

 

“Good news?” He could hear rustling on the other end and envisioned his lovely wife pacing back and forth across their living room.

 

Miroku winced, trying to decide. “Well, it could go either way, depending on what kind of mood our Lord is in when I speak with him.” He stared at his prize, clenched tightly in his fist. “This news should be delivered in person.”

 

Sango hemmed and hawed on the other end of the line; Miroku could visualize her chewing on her bottom lip, one of many habits picked up from years around Kimberly. “Does Kim have good reason to kill you?” she finally asked, choosing to change the topic of conversation.

 

“I claim self-preservation.”

 

“It's not self-preservation if you do something that'll get you killed in the long run,” Sango responded dryly.

 

Miroku managed a smile. “Anything to guarantee I get to see you one last time, milady.”

 

“What'd you do, Miroku?”

 

“I may or may not have been forced to take down Daniel.”

 

Sango cursed under her breath. “Yeah, she's not going to be too happy with you. Come home before you go see her; she's already going to be in an awful mood and I'd hate for you to die before I could get a last kiss good-bye.”

 

Miroku blinked and leaned his head back to stare at the phone. Gathering his bearings, he asked, “InuYasha mentioned something similar - not the kiss, but about Kim's mood, I mean - before I went on this mission. What's wrong with her?”

 

Sango gave him a quick run-through of Shippou's plans regarding Kimberly and her high school friends: how he was going to have Kimberly explain her decade-long absence from their lives, her current mission and how it was coming to an end… the reason she broke up with her high school sweetheart.

 

“Won't Sesshoumaru have something to say about that?”

 

“Shippou seems to think it'll be okay; after all, the jewel is almost complete. What'll Kim do then?” she asked. “I'm sure Sesshoumaru wouldn't mind keeping her on as a miko; God knows he could use somebody with her particular skills. But she'd have to put a muzzle on that mouth of hers, and-”

 

Miroku's muffled scoff cut Sango off. “Yeah, he'll probably be pleased to see her go. I don't think he expected the girl he saved so long ago to be so spunky.”

 

Their conversation was cut short by the rush of hot air swooping low over Miroku, along with the touch of jyaki that betrayed Kirara's presence.

 

“Kirara's here,” Miroku reported as he peeled away the barrier. Able to scent Miroku again, the feline returned to brush up against his side; it was difficult to mount an invisible ride, but Miroku had had plenty of practice over the years. “I'll be on my way after stopping by to see our Lord; he'll want the evidence I've gathered.”

 

Sango wished him luck and then hung up, leaving Miroku just a moment to tuck his phone away before Kirara lifted off the ground.

 

Snarls rang out from behind them as the wind picked up his scent once again; a lone howl passed the loss of the enemy back to their leader before dark creatures melted back into the shadows. Miroku breathed a sigh of relief and dragged his eyes from the darkness to the white feather clutched firmly in his fist. Inconspicuous though it seemed, the jyaki surrounding the adornment suggested its connection to an other-worldly being…

 

The one being alive that Sesshoumaru still truly cared for.

 

 

OoO**OoO**OoO

 

 

Setting the phone aside, Sango sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Stress just kept building; she hoped Miroku's news would help ease the tension that flowed through each member of the force working for Lord Sesshoumaru. Almost everybody she knew was in the demon lord's employ, meaning everybody she cared about was facing death on a continuous basis.

 

It hadn't ever really bugged her before… why now?

 

Forcing her eyes open - when had she shut them? - she focused on the framed pictures along the mantle of the fireplace. One picture stood out from the others; an image of seven young-looking people relaxing on a large yacht. Three dark-haired women gazed out of the frame, smiles on their faces.

 

`Kagome looks so different now,' Sango thought as she reached out to grasp the frame. Several years later, her friend was heavy with child and unable to do many of the things they'd done together before. Behind her, InuYasha stood protectively. Having finally found the reincarnation of his love again, he'd follow her around the world in a heartbeat.

 

She'd ended up following him to Miami.

 

Sango sighed as her eyes moved to the young man laughing in the corner of the picture - her brother, Kohaku, had been gone for several days. Sesshoumaru had sent him to Japan on a rumored shard hunt; he'd been so excited to be sent on his first out-of-country mission. She couldn't help but worry; unlike his pre-incarnation, Kohaku hadn't been trained as a slayer. He'd preferred to study medicine until the first wave of demons came after their family… Sesshoumaru had seen enough within the first few minutes of Kohaku's defense and ordered him trained.

 

`We'll never have normal lives,' Sango thought angrily. She'd learned all about the woman she “used to be” and refused to accept that her destiny was pre-determined.

 

She didn't mind her soul being drawn to Miroku's, but she wasn't about to die in an epic final battle.

 

Shifting aside her frustrating thoughts, Sango focused on the image of herself and Miroku. The two had been inseparable at that time; Shippou had explained it as their souls getting “re-acquainted” with each other or some silly thing. As silly as it sounded to her, though, it seemed to be truth.

 

Thank the Gods they'd moved past that particular hurdle. Though she continued to worry about him, nowadays she was able to continue on with her life while Miroku was out on a mission. The first year they'd known each other, she'd almost grown to resent the effect he had on her; Sango prided herself on being self-reliant, so putting her life consistently on hold to angst over somebody she barely knew chafed.

 

The last two people in the picture were as different as night and day - and followed each other just as devotedly. When they'd first met, Sango had wondered what Shippou and Sesshoumaru had seen in the girl. Sure, she was undeniably skilled in the martial arts, had more holy power than she knew what to do with (more than likely enhanced by the magic of the Power Coin she had held), and projected a fearless façade easily enough, but was so… girly. Having been raised from a child as a demon slayer (one of the very few families that still clung to the old ways), Sango couldn't understand how somebody could battle one minute and agonize over her hair the next.

 

After a while, though, Sango had realized it was Kimberly's way of clinging to her old life - her life before Sesshoumaru, before even her days with the Power Rangers. Kimberly'd broken down to Sango one night over all her regrets - leaving the Rangers, coming to Florida to train in gymnastics, acquiescing to Sesshoumaru's demands that she cut off all contact with her former friends.

 

They'd been virtually inseparable ever since.

 

It was Shippou, though, that Kimberly stuck with to remember “the old days.” Shippou had never let Kimberly sink into a depression after being cut off from friends and family alike; instead, he'd welcomed her to the group and encouraged her to make the best out of what had looked like a bleak situation. He kept Kimberly grounded (well, as grounded as a girl known for random Valley Girl-esque moments could be)… and Kimberly kept Sango connected to the world outside of battles and honor and revenge.

 

They leaned on each other, and Kimberly had admitted more than once that the teamwork they'd grown to rely on kept her sane - again, it was reminiscent of her friends and the bonds they had shared as teenage superheroes fighting bizarre monsters sent by villains from space.

 

And now those friends were in South Florida. Sango took a quick look at the time and winced; `Kimberly's probably filling them in on everything right now.' She wondered how the former Rangers would take learning that everything they'd assumed about Kimberly's life after moving from Angel Grove had been a lie.

 

Most of all, Sango wondered how Tommy would take it.

 

 

OoO**OoO**OoO

 

 

Kim hit the ground and Shippou stared. He'd seen her get knocked unconscious by plenty a demon and had heard stories of the gymnastics accident that had nearly scared her away from the sport right before she left the Rangers. He'd seen her take the mall by storm, force Sango into a chair for “hair time” and even con the slayer into painting her toenails with blue glittery polish.

 

And yet, he'd never seen her do something as… girly… as faint.

 

He could hear Kimberly's heartbeat - a bit faster than normal, her breathing a bit too shallow to be completely healthy - and knew she'd be fine shortly. Nonetheless, before he could speak up, Jason was out of his seat and by the woman's side, Billy at his heels. The man was speaking in geek-talk, Shippou noticed, and immediately tuned him out - too technical for his tastes.

 

Instead, his attention turned to where Tommy sat, stiff as a board. Anybody with eyes could see just how much effort he was exerting to keep himself from the woman's side; Tanya actually looked stunned that he'd pulled it off, and Haley stood behind her friend, hand on his shoulder in a show of soothing solidarity.

 

`If Jason hadn't been here, Tommy would have been on his knees by her right away,' Shippou estimated.

 

It was a moment or two before Kimberly was cajoled awake; as she blinked away disorientation, Jason and Billy got her situated in a leather recliner with a drink at hand. She shooed them away, looking irritated with herself, and it was only then that Shippou realized Zack and Rocky were laughing.

 

“It's not funny, guys,” Kimberly mumbled mutinously. Her face was stormy; this was quite obviously not the evening she'd been planning on, and for a moment, Shippou felt bad.

 

Then his curiosity won out over his guilt and he just had to find out why Kim's fainting spell amused her friends.

 

“For a gymnast, Kim's not always the most steady on her feet,” Zack explained with a grin. Conversely, the look on Kimberly's face could have cracked granite. “She has a tendency to hit the ground when she's shocked.”

 

“Like when Tommy came back as the White Ranger,” Jason added teasingly, shooting the guy in question a glance. It was clear he'd decided to trust Kim's assertion that her new friends could be trusted - and well, if they knew already, then it didn't really matter - and he told the story with relish. “Zordon and Alpha both disappeared and here we're at the end of our rope and Tommy'd been gone for a few days and we had no idea what to do. Then they spring this new Ranger on us.”

 

After confirming that the only thing hurt on Kimberly was her pride (and what looked to be a healing wound from the battle earlier that day), Trini picked up the tale. “They brought him in so dramatically, and Kim's all upset because Tommy had lost his powers and could take these new ones -”

 

“We were all discouraged by the apparent failings of our skills and weaponry thusfar in the day, which only increased our apprehension,” Billy inserted. His eyes drifted to Tommy, whose gaze remained focused on the recovering woman across the room. “Of course, Kimberly was not alone in speculating why Zordon and Alpha would turn to another human when Tommy had already integrated himself as our compatriot on and off the battlefield.”

 

Shippou stared blankly at the sandy-haired man.

 

“It'd been a bad day; they were losing the fight and throwing another person into the mix only made it worse,” Haley translated. Shippou's eyes lit up with understanding.

 

“Anyway, so there's all this bogus tension and Tommy pulls his helmet off oooooooooh so slooooooowly,” Zack jumped in. “Like he was just having a blast pulling off this surprise.”

 

“And I got all overwhelmed and passed out,” Kimberly wrapped up the story with a bit of a pout. “It's not quite as funny as they think.”

 

“Says you,” Zack shot back good-naturedly.

 

“And girl, what about the time you ended up in the past and Tommy's hot ancestor came to your rescue?” Aisha threw in, to Adam's and Rocky's amusement. “You told me you hit the ground then, too.”

 

Tommy's eyes sparkled though his face remained unchanged - it appeared to Shippou that Kimberly's ex-boyfriend hadn't heard that particular part of the story.

 

“Anyway, this isn't really the time to be reminiscing and stuff,” Kimberly said quickly. “This isn't about our times as Rangers.”

 

Jason's face hardened. “Are you finally going to tell us what's been happening?”

 

“And why you stopped talking to us?”

 

“How about what was up with the demon fight today?”

 

The questions blended in with one another as each of her old friends began sharing what they wanted to know. A few moments' worth of the noise was all she could take; Kimberly held up her hands in supplication. “I know, I know. I owe a lot of you some answers… some more than others,” she said dryly, unable to meet Tommy's eyes.

 

“Girl, we just wanna know what's goin' on,” Aisha said, coming to sit on the footrest by Kim's chair.

 

Rocky followed his wife, adding, “And if there's anything we can do to help.” Heads around the room bobbed up and down with Rocky's pronouncement; Kimberly couldn't bring herself to see just who had agreed and - more importantly - who hadn't.

 

Trini made herself comfortable, motioning for the few still standing to have a seat. “Why don't you just start slow, from the beginning?”

 

Kimberly worried her lower lip and her eyes swung to meet Shippou's. “Well, that's kind of hard. This apparently started long, long before we were born-”

 

“Why don't you just explain how you became a part of it?” Jason interrupted. “Then we'll talk about what `it' is.”

 

“A-all right.” Kimberly was silent for a moment before giving in to Shippou's encouraging nod. “A week before I mailed that stupid letter,” she started, deciding she may as well jump in feet-first, “I was attacked.”

 

She said it nonchalantly, and that was to be expected. Every single person in the room had been kidnapped, brain-washed or otherwise turned evil, the victim of a spell - Rangers tended to draw all sorts of problems, in and out of uniform. So the pronouncement that she'd been attacked wasn't very big news at all. Most of her friends were thinking along the same lines: if it had been Zedd, or Rita, or the Machine Empire, Zordon would have let the Rangers know.

 

“It wasn't any of our enemies,” Kim went on to say, as though knowing exactly what they were thinking. “It wasn't for my Power Coin - which I didn't have any way - or as bait for the Rangers or to sacrifice me to some purity-hungry ancient evil as a wedding gift,” Kimberly listed, referring to the various reasons she'd been taken hostage on what they referred to as “Ranger business.”

 

“So why were you attacked?” Haley asked, a bit frustrated at the way Kim seemed to dodge actually giving any answers. Kim's eyes bore into the woman as she realized she had no idea who the redhead sitting so close to Tommy actually was. And though she'd broken up with him very callously so many years ago, it nearly destroyed her to see somebody so close to him…

 

“Two reasons,” Kim answered, wrenching her gaze away from the mysterious person and her ex-boyfriend. “One was so he could get to know me in a very physical way-” she was interrupted by angry outbursts from her male friends.

 

“You were raped?” Rocky asked indelicately, cringing as Kim winced. “Sorry, not to just blurt it out or anything but…”

 

Kim waved off his apology. “It's fine. He didn't actually get the chance to rape me, but it was definitely on his to-do list. No, Sesshoumaru `saved' me before then.” Her fingers actually came up to make quotes around “saved.”

 

Silence fell for a moment as each took in the idea that a former ranger could find themselves in such a predicament. It was strange, to think that humans could be so dangerous when they'd fought off advancing aliens.

 

Kimberly sighed. “The wolf - and I mean that in a literal sense… it was a wolf demon who attacked me - was also after me to… well, either take me hostage or taint me. I never got a chance to find out which one, specifically, but there have been enough follow-up attacks that I know it was one or the other.”

 

Adam stared at Kimberly with a bit of confusion. “Taint? Like what Maligore did to you and Jason on Muranthias?”

 

It was Shippou's turn to be confused and demand explanations from Kimberly and she sighed. “This would be a lot easier if I weren't trying to mesh two lives into one in a short period of time.”

 

“When Kim came home like, a year or so after breaking up with Tommy, she and Jason were kidnapped by a space pirate,” Tanya told Shippou helpfully. “They were taken to a volcano on an island called Muranthias; the pirate Divatox wanted to restore Maligore, who lived in the volcano, and marry him. So she sacrificed Kim and Jase and he fed on their purity and turned them evil.”

 

Shippou cringed. “Oh geez, Kim. Is that why you high-tailed it back here? You were supposed to be out there for two weeks.”

 

Kimberly lifted an eyebrow. “Would you have liked to explain to Sesshoumaru just why my miko powers were so depleted? He was pissy enough that I took off for a last visit home.” Shippou nodded his understanding and then waved toward her friends, giving her a nudge to continue.

 

“Sort of,” Kimberly said in answer to Adam's question. “I… I have holy powers, I guess is the best way to describe it.” She met disbelieving looks with a nod. “Yeah, I know, I was like, `This is totally bogus,' when Sesshoumaru told me but it's true.” She held up a hand and willed pink power to her fingertips. “See? And it's like, my Power coin made them more powerful or something. Or easier to get to, I think; Kagome's more powerful than me but she can't concentrate it like I can.”

 

“Kagome?” Billy parroted.

 

“Another friend of ours,” Shippou answered. “Anyway, the wolf wanted to taint Kim's powers. He couldn't do it physically but if Kim had been raped, her frame of mind probably would have messed with her powers. They're notoriously emotional - the users have to want to access the powers and really mean it for them to work well.”

 

“Do you have those powers?” Tommy asked, venturing to speak for the first time.

 

`It figures,' Kim thought peevishly. `Nothing about what happened to me, but everything about the power… then again, isn't that what I wanted? To hurt him so badly that he'd stay away?' She just hadn't anticipated it working so well…

 

She nearly missed Shippou's snort of amusement. “Not at all. With those powers, Kim could kill me. Demons and miko - well, priestesses, I guess - don't really work well together traditionally.”

 

“But you guys do,” Rocky pointed out.

 

“Yeah. Lord Sesshoumaru has several humans with holy powers in his employ,” Shippou confirmed. “They're good enforcers against demons breaking our law.”

 

“Who the hell is this Sesshoumaru guy?” Jason demanded. “We keep hearing about him saving Kim but she doesn't seem too impressed by him.”

 

“Sesshoumaru is an ass,” Kimberly said flatly, much to Shippou's amusement. “Yeah, he saved me, and I was super-grateful. For like, a minute. Then he got all high and mighty on me. Said that since he saved me, I was his now… I thought for a moment, he meant like the wolf wanted, but instead, he made me work for him.”

 

“Doing what? Enforcing?” Trini asked.

 

“Sort of. I'm part of a group working to reassemble the Jewel of Four Souls. I came in after they beat the `big bad' of sorts, but now this wolf has a lot of the shards and is in a major blood-feud with Sesshoumaru over them and about ten years ago, Kouga really escalated the battle by attacking Sesshoumaru's adopted daughter, Erin, and leaving her mangled body on his lawn.”

 

“Over a jewel?” Haley asked in shock. “It has to be something powerful…”

 

“The Jewel of Four Souls grants wishes,” Kimberly said almost robotically, as if reciting something she'd heard repeatedly. “It's a shiny jewel that looks like a pearl and holds the souls of a dead priestess and like, a billion demons she tried to kill in a big battle where they all died. She turned them into stone near a demon slayer's village in Japan. The slayers went underground when demons did a few centuries back but they always had the jewel in their possession. Supposedly, the right priestess would come along and make the right wish that would make the jewel disappear, because it's dangerous.”

 

“Can't somebody just wish for world peace? Wouldn't that be a right wish?” Zack asked, toeing the line between funny and serious.

 

Kimberly shook her head. “I don't know, and I'm certainly not the right priestess. At least, I don't think I am, but Sesshoumaru's not letting me go until we know for sure. Anyway, so the slayers finally signed an agreement with Sesshoumaru, who is supposedly the Lord of all demon-kind because he kills them better than the rest of them do. And his dad was powerful and all that, but really, it's because he's probably the most lethal of them. Not that you'd know it,” she said with a bit of rancor, “because now he sits on his ass and lets us do things for him and gets all pissy when we do it `wrong' but noooo he won't come out and do anything-”

 

“You have lost the thread of your tale,” Billy informed Kim.

 

“Oh. Sorry. Anyway, so the slayers worked with Sesshoumaru and he left Japan because it's freakin' small and he came here to America where it was a lot more open and free and wilderness-y and stuff. He met Zordon and supposedly challenged him - because challenging a floating head in a tube to a duel is a brilliant plan - but decided to come east anyway. He settled here and built up a lot of the companies here once people started moving in. The slayers followed him here and had the jewel. Sesshoumaru's brother, InuYasha, met up with his reincarnated lover and brought her here about 11 years ago. Somehow - she won't tell us what she did - she broke the jewel. And now we're putting it back together and fighting with demons and evil humans for the shards.”

 

All attention to Kim's story was interrupted as a muffled curse floated in on the wind from the patio.

 

Kimberly's eyes widened as Miroku stumbled in through the patio door, looking like something the cat dragged in. `Technically, that's correct,' Kim thought with a smile as the clinking of claws on tile revealed Kirara's presence. `Duh, Kim. How else was Miroku going to get this high up? He's not freakin' Spiderman.'

 

“What happened?” she asked, rushing with to his side as Shippou went to divest Kirara of her collar. “What took you so long? Sesshoumaru's been waiting on your report all day and I can't go out tomorrow without it-”

 

“No need,” Miroku sighed. “Well,” he then amended, “Sesshoumaru will probably have you on surveillance rather than a hunt.”

 

“Why?” Kimberly's eyes narrowed. “He's been after me to take down Daniel for weeks; he's only alive because he's been our in until the asshole turned traitor…” She trailed off, suddenly remembering where Miroku's mission had sent him that night. “He didn't.”

 

“He did.”

 

“You didn't.”

 

Miroku gulped but met her menacing glare bravely. “I did.”

 

Mount Saint Hart blew its top; uncaring of the confused (or amused, in Shippou's case) faces behind her, Kimberly flew into a rage Sango and InuYasha often referred to as “legendary.” Face red, arms flailing, her voice probably clear as a bell to people walking the beach so many floors down, Kimberly appeared far more deadly than her diminutive size would suggest.

 

“I can't believe it! He's been on my case about that damned iguana demon for weeks, Miroku! I sat through all his snarky-but-totally-calm-and-collected comments about me trusting Kouga's buddy before the bastard turned traitor on us and now I finally got the chance to prove myself… That was my hunt, my mark and you damn well knew it!” Miroku shrunk backward as his self-preservation instincts screamed for mercy. “Do you like making me look incompetent to him? God DAMN it! NOW I'm going to have to put up with his holier-than-thou `why didn't you just listen to me in the first place' looks and I can't even fight him on it because then Jaken will start squawking and I'll have to kick him and THEN Sesshoumaru will get EVEN MORE PISSY-”

 

“It's okay!” Miroku jumped in as Kimberly took a deep breath. The look on her face conveyed her belief that it was not, in fact, `okay' in any way, shape or form. He hastened to reassure her. “He's actually in a really good mood right now but we've got to keep him in it.”

 

Kimberly looked suspiciously at Miroku - his eyes were sparkling with good humor, though fear still tinged his face. He knew something…

 

“I don't think I've ever seen him in a good mood,” she ventured, becoming aware again of her friends and knowing this could only be big news, which could only mean more explanations down the line…

 

“Kagura's alive.”

 

Kim gaped, almost unable to grasp the concept. Miroku further went on to send her world spinning on its axis:

 

“Kouga has her here.”

 

 

 

Disclaimers:

Anything from Power Rangers (and their affiliates) belongs to Saban and Disney. I don't have permission to use and abuse them as I plan on doing.

 

That being said, I don't own InuYasha and Company either. The “real” InuYasha belongs to the genius of Rumiko Takahashi (and Viz and all those other companies involved).

 

Sadly, I don't get money from any of this. Saban, Viz - you can try, but you wouldn't get much out of me in court.