-Chapter 5-

"Somebody please, just please shoot me."

"Isn't that suicide? You're the one with the gun."

Sango's sarcasm was not appreciated, not after everything that had happened since their oh so eloquent talk of freaking mutiny a few days prior. It hadn't been fun living through the past three days doing all the extra planning, back channeling, and fail safing for every single move they could possibly make in the field good or bad. Not just them either, but any moves they could expect from their bosses. It wasn't that eventful, but it was enough pressure to deal with to the point he was almost frantic. His mind hadn't stopped racing through the entire process. Every progress report given to Boushin just added to it. Point being, the stress and apprehension were killing him. He felt stupid for it, scolding himself that he was acting like a newbie, but he couldn't help it. To make things worse, he was the only one capable of designing and tinkering with custom made weapons for the mission now only a few hours away, all with a constant and very aggravating headache.

'Screw you, the universe. Screw you.'

Currently both agents were in the sparring exercise area, on the very bottom floor of the many elaborate underground rooms in the rebellion base, Yasha sitting on the unfurnished floor while Sango stood by the door silently mocking him.

The room smelled of sweat and the air was stuffy and hot, given how small it was and the lack of windows or ceiling fans. The only way to adapt was to tune out the scents and stay distracted. It mostly consisted of open space with bright red padding on the floor and on some parts of all four walls. In each corner were coolers full of water, the ice getting replaced every few hours depending on who came first and last. Other than the weapons storage area, this was where Yasha lived out his days working, messing with his guns and just thinking. Which he had been doing before Sango so rudely interrupted his alone time.

"I'm already going along with your crazy plan and we've mapped out all the necessary escape routes, what the hell do you want?" He snapped.

With a roll of her eyes Sango snatched Yasha's signature gun from his hand, just to be a jerk. "Oh quit your pouting. You know you wanted this just as badly as I did from the start. I swear, you're just as paranoid as Boushin sometimes." She chided, casually examining the carved initials of her partner's name on the side of his weapon.

She felt his eyes glaring daggers in her back with the unexpectedly heavy pause that followed. "You know why better than anyone, Sango." Yasha bit curtly. Wow was he majorly bitching.

She groaned. "Don't try to guilt trip me. We all have our issues. What I'm-what we're doing, is taking a risk, a leap of faith. A big one yeah, but it's necessary to get what we want. You know that just as well as I do."

Yasha just scoffed at her mini-speech. "Whatever. I'm not arguing, just sayin' I don't like it." He stood from his spot on the padded floor, took back his gun, and walked towards the exit but stopped short of the door, turning to look over his shoulder. "I'm your partner. I got your back no matter what."

It was a simple statement, but after knowing Yasha as long as she had, Sango could hear the depth in those few short words. Watching him leave in such a casual manner almost made her laugh for some reason, because she knew what he said went far deeper than just a professional partnership. Her eyes softened.

It always had.

-[]-[]-[]-

It was torture. Pure, perpetual, torture.

Yasha's two toned eyes gleamed in the moonlight. He could hear Sango getting ready behind him in the darkness with timid rustling sounds. His insides were crawling with unease. "Anything yet?" He asked in an impatient whisper.

A curt sigh from his partner. "No, Yasha."

He growled at that.

It was nightfall, around ten from the position of the moon. Only a matter of minutes before the two would be given clearance to move in. It wouldn't be through coms though, as they had officially switched to radio silence a bit earlier than planned thanks to the Deceivers' unexpectedly high level detection systems. They were long range and coming from inside the supposed HQ itself, so Sango couldn't do anything about it from this distance. If anything was a confirmation that this was their hide out, that was. No regular building would need such strict protection. It made the secret counter mission that much easier, according to Sango.

Yasha continued staring, if not glaring, at the place that would be the battleground for his biggest assignment yet. From the outside it looked similar to a large factory, enormous pipes and tethered clouds of steam and exhaust rising out of them. Lights shone from the ground floor in the parking lot area. It was hard to see much else of the building, even from how high up they were positioned on a nearby hill. He had to admit the uneven terrain here was very unusual, but this was a completely different discidium, so it was expected. The next one over from home, the Chinese discidium.

Yasha was never one for waiting, and his feet started unconsciously tapping against the cold earth beneath his boots. It didn't go unnoticed.

"Will you quit that?" She snapped, fastening gun holsters around her waist.

"Quit what?"

"That!" She said, pointing at Yasha's feet. "It's distracting, and stressing me out."

He just stared at her dumbly for a second before glancing at his knees, which were bouncing up and down while his shoes fidgeted. He glared at them and forced his legs to stop by hand with a frustrated grunt. "Sorry."

Sango just scoffed and went to retrieve more ammo from their jeep up a ways where they had parked it in the forest thicket. A good hiding place, but still a serious pain to hike through.

Yasha watched her go, catching a glimpse of her outfit in the moonlight. It was similar to his own; small but durable metal shoulder and knee pads wrapped under arms and behind legs, a warm but tight black turtleneck and pants that went into sturdy combat boots. Under all of it were many hidden compartments for all the gadgets they had brought. It was the most basic 'uniform' the rebellion provided. All the funding mostly went to weapons, not high tech clothing.

Realizing he'd been staring for a bit longer than necessary as Sango disappeared in the foliage, Yasha turned his head away somewhat awkwardly. It wasn't like he was checking her out or anything. He'd seen Sango in tons of different states of dress and undress innumerable times on their missions together. 'Get ahold of yourself, Eiyuu. You're losing it.' He briefly wondered how Boushin could act so pervy without shame like he did.

"Okay, we got the all clear from base. Let's move out." Sango's commanding voice brought Yasha out of his strange mind games and his face instantly firmed.

"Right."

The duo thus began their trek downhill towards the factory, guards positioned by all four walls from the looks of it. Sango halted her and Yasha's movement with a gesture, then scanned about the parking lot with sharp eyes. She spotted security cameras at nearly every corner, and mentally scoffed at such poor measures of stopping them.

Looking through the translucent screen over her left eye, she quickly typed coded commands with the digital pad on her wrist to the security system via wireless hack. In a matter of seconds, the red lights flashing on the cameras switched off. Sango looked behind her and nodded to Yasha. He responded with the unholstering of his weapon.

Quick as a flash, they both leapt from the shadows and made their way towards the walls of the building. No guards had come yet. Sango pressed her back against the wall tensely, timing her next movements by heartbeat.

One, thump-thump. Two, thump-thump. Three!

At the exact moment she'd gotten to three, a guard had come strolling around the corner and was promptly shot with Yasha's stun gun. They weren't going heavy duty while being watched from satellite feed. Sango smiled in thanks then preceded to the corner with him following close behind, peeking around to spot two more guards chatting by the front door. They wouldn't normally plan such an upfront entrance, but from what had been found out the front alarm was somehow connected to the security cameras, so it was killing two birds with one stone in switching them off. It seemed a little odd, but it hadn't phased Sango's ambition in the least.

Shooting her own stun gun at the two guards, Sango and Yasha fast-walked to the door. Glancing around to see they had some time before any more distractions showed up, Sango glanced at the keycard scanner and keypad beside it next to the door. Yasha saw them too and snatched a card from one of the unconscious men and handed it to his partner.

How would it help without the right code? Sango looked through her eye sized screen and thrummed across her own keypad, hacking with ease once again. She didn't like doing it more than once, as even a quick and subtle breech in the system would eventually draw attention if done too often. To her dismay, the code still eluded her.

"What's wrong?" Yasha whispered behind her.

"The pass code." She answered, her heart beginning to pound with building unease.

"Just go deeper into the system. We don't have time to be careful." He hissed, realizing her dilemma.

Sango turned around and studied the keypad on the wall, peering over the keys, and realized something. Quickly, she fumbled through her many hidden compartments and soon revealed a black light flashlight, shining it on the buttons. Instantly, finger prints glowed white to reveal the combination. With a clever gleam in her eyes she ran the card through the scanner, handed it back to Yasha, then punched in the numbers '4832' to have the door unlock for them. They stepped inside, Yasha eyeing his partner with an amused smirk.

The air was hot, almost humid, and smelled odd. There wasn't really a way to explain it just-odd. The lighting was dim and a subtle red color beyond their sight down the wide entry way. They had been to many factories, but this one was the first to give off such a dark aura if it could be called so. This was definitely the right place.

It would only be a matter of time before the Deceivers noticed the cameras were turned off and guards knocked out, but now that she and Yasha were inside, it was shoot to kill. This was a rescue-raid whether Boushin and his stupid bosses liked it or not. Switching out the stun gun for her regularmodel, Sango could feel the anticipation build with the shift in weight. It was what she had initially bonded with Yasha over, love of guns. She turned to her partner to see he was holding his, and they continued.

Almost as soon as they had taken another step they heard shouting up ahead from more guards. Instantly bullets were fired and both agents took cover next to the nearby pipe covered wall. It wasn't much, but it would have to do.

"I'll get 'em!" Yasha declared boldly, attempting to rise from his hiding spot in front of Sango, but she stopped him with a firm grip on his sleeve.

"Baka, don't be rash." But he tore his sleeve away and charged, yelling out loudly and firing like mad. With a groan, Sango stood up and followed his lead.

It was amazing to watch Yasha at his finest talent. He fought with such a type of morbid grace it was almost hypnotizing. His reflexes were so well timed and spot in, and he knew just when to fire and when to dodge. Almost as if he had some form of higher sense or foresight.

With the way clearing, Sango ran up and worked her way towards one assumed Deceiver and punched him in the gut before he could pull the trigger. He doubled over, dropping his weapon, and was hit directly in the middle of his spine, making him fall to the floor. Another guard came up behind her and was quickly shot at by Yasha, but only in the shoulder, which didn't stop him. Sango swiftly hooked her foot behind the man's leg, throwing off his balance, and used her armed elbow to smack him hard on the side of his face on his jaw.

Not bothering to watch the opponent go down Sango turned to see another one coming from behind Yasha while he was distracted. Sango aimed her gun with an inward cringe. Yasha's shoulder was in the way of the Deceiver's chest, so the only thing in view was his face. 'Sorry pal, this is gonna hurt a little.' The man fell to the floor with an ungraceful thud after the nearly deafening bang of the bullet, and blood began to pool around his head under Yasha's boots. He was too busy fighting to notice. Sango didn't want to look. It was bound to be ugly.

Yasha finished the last one off with a loud grunt and the two were left to look over the bodies that were either knocked out or dead. The echoed sounds of heavy breathing came from the two of them as they studied themselves for damage. Nothing major. "Should we finish off the live ones?" Yasha asked, his tone emotionless as he breathed out loudly.

Sango looked about the bodies, and sighed. He was asking her since this whole raid thing had been her idea. She sort of regretted it now. "No, we need to keep moving. They'll be out long enough to get out of here."

"'Kay." Was all he said in turn, and they kept on fast walking.

They were welcomed by two separate hallways as expected, thanks to inside Intel. This was where things could get tricky. In an unspoken signal the two parted ways, Yasha going left while Sango herself went right. It was usually against protocol to split up, but they were fighting for time as it was and they didn't have the luxury of going through every room together without wasting it.

"Sango!" Yasha called out just before his form disappeared down the other hall.

She turned around to see his brows furrow with a rather intense expression. "Be careful." He then darted off without giving her the chance to answer him. She just chuckled at his paranoia. She could run with the best of them. There was no way she'd let herself die in some hell hole like this. Her only concern was finding Kagome.

Meanwhile,Yasha crept his way down the hall, walking carefully with his knees slightly bent as if treading on eggshells. His breath was stressed and quick; he was sure small beads of sweat were gathering around his forehead. His nerves were on overload. It was a struggle to stay focused. With the mission they had been assigned from base already accomplished, finding out if this place was really a Deceiver HQ, it was now a matter of getting their own objective done.

He stopped his movements, listening for any signs of approaching hostiles. None. He exhaled to loosen the pressure building in his chest and lowered his gun so it pointed at the floor. He stood up straight and resumed walking. He was more listening then looking now, his head tilted downward ever so slightly while his two toned eyes flicked from one side of the hall to the other. There were many doors, but there was only one he needed access to. The surveillance room. His job as of now was keeping Sango out of sight so she could finish on her end. She had the more important task ahead of her.

He'd held onto the keycard after Sango had used it, and could only assume it would open any other high level security doors. If not, he'd just break down the damn thing and kick whoever's ass got in his way. It was how he did things, and no one back home had the authority to complain.

Yasha picked up voices coming from up ahead; more guards. He readied his weapon, reloading bullets in the process. They noticed him instantly.

It was like a dance for Yasha, a jerked and uneven rhythm he heard somewhere in the back of his head. 'Shoot three rounds, dodge. Dodge again. Reload if needed, fire.'

Most of the men were down by the fifteen second mark in Yasha's pattern, but the last one standing seemed oddly confident. It took only a second to realize the Deceiver bastard was holding an alarm trigger. There was no way Sango would be able to bypass any lock codes or get anywhere near Kagome if that button was pressed. He knew they'd over looked something!

'Shit.'

The Deceiver actually laughed at the panic flashing across Yasha's face. "If you want your partner to live, you'll do as I say." The man's voice was sadistic, calm, and strangely smooth. His eyes were a chilled blue, and his curly black hair was on the longer side. He felt-familiar.

But by that one statement, it was clear they had known. This had all been a trap. No wonder it had been so easy, too easy, to get in. 'Shit, shit, shit!' To blow his head off or not to blow his head off?

The man chuckled, no doubt reading the conflict in Yasha's eyes. "I'm sure you've realized by now that this has all been an elaborate scheme to bait you here, so be a good little agent and come with me."

Yasha continued standing there, his gun pointed at the Deceiver's head, but wavered noticeably. Sango could handle herself he knew, but what would they do when they got back to base if this whole thing broke down? And what about Kagome? Was she even here in this building in the first place? If the Deceivers had known he and Sango were coming ahead of time, would they risk keeping their hostage here? If so, did they realize her true value? Was she just bait? 'Damn Sango for talking me into this!'

If anything, he could buy her time, and that would mean letting this asshole live. He finally lowered his weapon with much disdain on his face and holstered it. "I keep the gun."

Another chuckle. "As you wish." It was strange how easily he agreed on it, considering the man could easily be killed in one fluid motion if so desired, but Yasha wasn't complaining. This whole damn situation made no sense to him anymore as it was.

The two men walked in seething silence down the halls, passing the security room door where Yasha was supposed to be heading. They soon reached the end of the hall, and the last door.

The Deceiver then stopped with a look over his shoulder, smirking. "He's been waiting to see you for a long time, Eiyuu."

-[]-[]-[]-

Everything was so oddly quiet; you could hear a pin drop. Sango could only hope Yasha had gotten to the security room to keep things stable for her more blunt exploration of the place. From what she could tell, all the cameras and pressure sensors were off or just not active, but she couldn't be sure that was any of his doing. The easiness of this whole operation was starting to make her suspicious, but even with such feelings she couldn't turn back now.

In the past couple of minutes she'd been forced to take down several more Deceiver groups, and her clothes were thoroughly stained and battered. She'd been shot twice, once on her calf and the other her forearm, but only grazed. She would live. There was still no sign of the girl.

Sango could hear more men up ahead, and readied herself. They were all bunched around one specific door that had the same lock system as the front entrance. She'd have to take down all five guys first. Unless she thought of an alternative to save energy (sure this was a rescue-raid, but that just meant do as much damage as you could while rescuing someone).

"Hey you, woman! Why aren't you standing guard outside? Don't you know we've been infiltrated by the enemy?"

Sango fought the urge to ask 'WTF?!' before glancing down at her clothing and remembered she'd already tried to disguise herself by taking one of their uniforms. Talk about short term memory loss. The miscommunication of these people astounded her.

"S-Sorry, I was looking for the bathroom." She answered evenly while trying to calm her racing heart.

The Deceiver agent stared at her long and hard, before one of his men stepped up to him and whispered something in his ear, and Sango saw his eyes noticeably widen. She mentally sighed as she saw him reach for his gun. 'So much for that.'

The resulting fight opened with her taking out the man that had blown her cover with the swift hook around take down maneuver she'd used earlier. But as she did so she felt something sharp cut her side; a knife? She whipped around to see the Deceiver she'd tried to fool holding some strange darts in one hand, and a gun in the other. Well he was versatile. She charged at him only to be cut off by another Deceiver and found herself getting shot in the thigh.

"Damn it!" She hissed but grit her teeth to bear it as she socked, tripped, kicked and shot her way through the pain, taking down a couple more men. One more. Another knife cut at her, this time on the side of her cheek. Sango was almost sure her throat had been the target. She quickly shot at the Deceiver, eventually hitting him in the ankle. He cried out and fell on his side to the floor. Sango pushed him away from the door with her foot, ignoring the intense pain now all over her body, blood oozing through the torn fabric of the tight black Deceiver uniform she wore.

Through the moans and groans of pain, the Deceiver hissed curses under his breath. "Phasmatis scum!"

She offered no response other than an eye roll as she once again thrummed her fingertips across the keypad on her wrist and took a card from one of the dead guards and unlocked the door, casual as could be. Sango glanced at the wounded man with building hatred for what he represented, and what that organization had done to ruin her life. "See ya."

The room inside was barely lit well enough to see, but after peering through the room for a few seconds, Sango spotted a figure tied to a chair. A young woman, with hair noticeably dark in color if not black, head hung limply to the side, exposing pronounced cheek bones and jaw line. It was so quiet Sango could hear the girl's weak voice mumbling incoherent whispers in her unconsciousness. This had to be Kagome.

Rushing over to the girl, Sango ran behind her and cut the wire on her ankles, wrists, and shoulders that held her in place with a laser knife then held her body up when it started to fall forward in the chair. The jolt roused Kagome from her sleep like state.

"W-Wha-?"

"No time to explain, Kagome. Can you stand?"

The uttering of her name caught the girl's attention, and she didn't seem ready to go anywhere with her rescuer. "W-Who are you? What's going on?"

Sango grabbed Kagome by the shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes. "I know it's a lot to ask, but you're just going to have to trust me. Come on."

Before Kagome could argue more once Sango helped her to her unsteady feet, the alarm sounded. 'What the hell, Yasha?' She growled in her thoughts, and panic started to surge through her between the flashing red lights and the deafening noise overhead. They were going to have to run from here.

Firmly taking hold of Kagome's wrist, Sango pulled them both through the door of her imprisonment and headed for the nearest escape route she and Yasha had mapped out. For every pounding footstep a sharp pain erupted through Sango's legs and it was becoming harder and harder to bear. Her breathing was becoming heavier as she ran and she was sure Kagome was having trouble keeping up too.

Sango pulled her fingers up to her ear piece. There was no point avoiding radio silence now that the alarm was tripped off, and the risk of detection from the higher ups was a long term risk they would deal with later.

"Come in, Eiyuu!" Over coms, it was a last name basis.

A pause of heavy static. "Yeah?"

"I've got Kagome. Meet us at the second hallway. I'll send you a locator signal." Sango responded curtly, breathing becoming noticeably shallow as she pushed a small black button on her watch. A digital locator beacon, standard issue and used only for high risk ops. A fail safe for escape situations.

"Okay. We have to go through the front though, all escape routes are blocked."

Now Sango knew this had been a trap. It explained so much, yet so little. Though it was a wonder how Yasha knew all the other exits were closed. He couldn't have had time to check them all. "Alright. See you soon."

"Don't be stupid, Takaoki." He was one to talk, setting the alarm off like an idiot.

"W-who was that?" Kagome called out in between breaths, her voice tired but still uneasy if not suspicious.

"My partner."

It wasn't long after they'd made it to the main hall intersection Deceivers came gun at the ready to block their path. Sango heard a gasp of near terror from the girl cowering behind her. She felt a drop of sweat slide down her brow as the hostiles spotted them and began to pursue. She felt almost dizzy from the wound in her thigh, and after putting so much pressure on it from speeding around the HQ-how was she going to protect a helpless teenager?

Gun in hand, Sango put an outstretched arm in front of a fear stricken Kagome while staring down the enemy. This would have to be quick. "Stay close."

Kagome's scream nearly matched the loud bang of the bullets as Sango opened fire. Bits of the wall crumbled and chipped off with every miss, casings falling to the floor. The subtle jolt from her weapon had the pain spiking anew in Sango's leg. She started missing too many targets and they were getting closer. Her vision was blurring. What the hell was that bullet made of?

As if things couldn't get any worse, after a few more rounds, Sango realized she was out of ammo. Splitting it with Yasha hadn't been a good idea after all. With a growl of building stress, Sango pushed Kagome to the floor and charged the remaining few.

In a remarkable display of reflexes and pain tolerance Sango used her good leg to trip the two front men down with a half spin, the second row of them stepping up to attack. She went up to meet them before they took aim, knocked a gun from one agent's hand, and took it for herself. She shot those nearest wherever there was a chance; one in the side, one in the head, one in the chest. The two agents Sango had knocked down had gotten back up and one managed to graze her forearm. She couldn't take much more.

With a furious yell Sango used her fist to hit one in the neck, while simultaneously shooting the other dead. Four left. 'How many of these bastards are there?!' She wondered, heaving for breath.

"Watch out!"

Sango turned to her side to see what Kagome had seen but was too late as a Deceiver got her with a stun gun. No shoot to kill? Interesting.

Sango felt everything slow to a crawl as she struggled to find the dart and pull it out in hopes of staying conscious, but she wasn't fast enough. She could feel herself going numb already. Strong stuff.

'Crap...'

There was no way Kagome could rescue herself. Where the hell was Yasha? With an inward groan Sango realized there was only one option left. "Kagome, RUN!"

Kagome went to help her up from her not so subtle hiding place around the corner, protest in her eyes. There was no way they could fight through this together.

Sango could hear the Deceivers reloading their own guns, until bullets started to surround them. "Don't worry about me, GO!" She yelled, pushing the girl a few steps forward in the other direction. Terror flashed in her gray-blue eyes as she nearly tumbled over, but caught her balance and with a last panicked glance behind herself, Kagome fled.

Sango watched the girl go until she was out of sight, and smiled briefly before she herself was surrounded by the remaining Deceivers she hadn't the energy to fight off. She chuckled at the irony. Boushin would be so pissed off she'd gotten herself captured. Oh well.

'Up to you now, hero.'

-[]-[]-[]-

It felt like a blur, everything racing around her in unfocused haziness. She could feel her legs pumping, heels hitting the floor, the burning in her chest, the distant screaming from the alarm and its flashing red lights-but it just didn't feel real somehow. She was detached.

If Kagome were more aware, she would have known it was a way to deal with the trauma she had endured, but all she had the sense to do was run. After she passed the second hallway, everything rushed back to her for one reason, and one reason only.

She saw him. She didn't know how she knew it was him, but she did.

The man the woman who had rescued her said she would find. She couldn't remember what the woman had called him over coms. He certainly looked like he had the potential to get her out of here though. He was just across the way in the opening of the other hallway, looking nervous. The gun he held was pointed straight ahead of him, ready to shoot. His long black hair went to his shoulders, covering some of face, and his eyes-two strikingly different colors it couldn't be natural. He looked young, but still older than she was.

Then he noticed her.

His eyes widened for that split second, as if he was looking at a ghost. He lowered his weapon before jogging towards her and seemed to come back to himself in the process. "You Kagome?" He asked hastily, his voice gruff but strangely youthful and energized.

She nodded. "You the guy who's supposed to get me outta here?"

The man before her didn't answer directly, as he'd just realized something else completely. "Where's Sango?" His tone became noticeably urgent.

Kagome blinked dumbly. "Who?"

"Sango! The woman who saved you!" He scolded.

"S-she's back-"

"Come on!" He didn't even give her time to finish before attempting to drag her back into the fray she had just come running from.

Kagome dug her feet into the ground. "No wait! She said not to worry about her!" From how that Sango woman had sounded and reacted to her help before, she knew there was no other way for all three of them to escape alive. Kagome had sensed it when she'd been told to take off.

Her protest halted the man's movements, and he looked over his shoulder at her with such raw emotion it nearly made her gasp. Kagome could see so many things clashing around inside him in that one tortured gaze. Yet in her own state of mind, she just couldn't comprehend the depth of it all.

Then just like that it was over. The guards who Sango had attempted to stop before had made it through. The black haired man still seemed too caught within himself to notice, but Kagome didn't plan on dying here.

"We need to go!" She tugged him along through his tight grip on her wrist until he was forced to take a step forward. The simple gesture snapped him out of it and he tensed noticeably.

"I'll cover you."

At first she wondered if he planned on secretly heading back once she started running, but something about how he said it made her push the idea away. For whatever reason she trusted him not to leave her behind, so she nodded and did as told.

Sure enough, as Kagome took off the sound of gun fire from her rescuer's weapon never got any farther away. He was walking backwards right behind her, blocking her from getting shot as they fled. It sounded like he was using two guns now.

Finally they reached the main entry way, a dozen or so bodies lying limply on the floor from some previous battle Kagome assumed. She didn't have the time nor the mind to think about it. She did small leaps over the fleshy road blocks, trying to tune out the nearly constant booming sounds around her. Added on from the blaring of the alarm, she wondered if she'd go deaf.

They reached the door in the next twenty seconds, Kagome wasting no time in swinging the door open. The burning in her lungs was increasing and she could feel her pulse pounding in her ears. Her rescuer practically shoved her out the door, still firing, until he realized he was out of bullets. He cursed under his breath.

"Go!"

Kagome tried, but her legs felt like lead and she was sure after how long she'd been unconscious it was starting to catch up with her. She couldn't do it, and felt herself grow light headed to the point she swooned. She would have fallen, had it not been for her rescuer scooping her up in his arms. She felt him shake her.

"Don't you faint on me!" she could hear his heavy breathing as her consciousness began to dwindle. She could only assume they were still running, feeling her body jolting with every step taken away from her prison.

Her left hand subconsciously crumpled and seemed to reach for something that wasn't there, a pendant that no doubt held the sanity she had somehow lost.