Hey, so it wasn't three months between updates. Gotta keep you guessing, after all. Sorry you haven't seen much of Inuyasha lately, he'll show up in the next chapter, I promise.

Also, some of you have noticed that throughout the story, Sesshoumaru seems to have regrown an arm. I started this fic almost a year and a half ago. For those of you who are in the know, enough said. For everyone else, I will fix it, I promise.

As always, this is Rumiko Takahashi's world.

Flight

"This sucks," Six announced. Sesshoumaru drew a deep breath, a telltale indicator that the demon lord was annoyed. Kagome felt sympathetic. It had to go against his instincts to trust the ex-Hand sister, and she was flattered that he had deferred to her.

"We are all well aware of that, Six," Holden said wearily. "But if there is the slightest chance she speaks truly, we absolutely cannot go on. Risking a confrontation with Guerrero is – "

"Madness." Chizu finished the thought and shuddered. "That one frightens even me, and there aren't many men who can claim that distinction."

Anzu seated herself on the stairs. "I don't suppose I've ever heard him mentioned." Her tone was questioning.

"That's because he's been underground for much of the last hundred years. Guerrero is an exorcist of the highest caliber, love," Shippou replied, sitting down beside her. "Physically, he's probably on a level with a half-demon or a Guardian, but that isn't what makes him so dangerous. What Seven did to Inuyasha is child's play compared to what that man can do with the faintest trace of a demonic aura."

The kitsune leaned his head back to peer up at Kagome. "A little like my favorite miko, with a vendetta and an evil temper."

"Like me?" Kagome started.

"Holy powers, like yours. But not an ounce of compassion. The man's been known to execute Hand members he believed to be too soft on demons – pretty much anyone who didn't find it necessary to torture their victims before destroying them. If that woman was telling the truth about her conversion, I wouldn't doubt that it came soon after he ascended into the ranks of the Zealots."

"A butcher," Chizu said softly.

"They're all butchers," Six said harshly.

Holden's eyes fell to her feet. "I'm sure a lot of them are simply misled," Kagome offered, looking away before the other Guardian could catch her gaze. "There's a definite appeal to believing that you're saving the world from evil. I imagine it's very easy to get caught up in that kind of delusion, when the lies are so pleasant."

Holden moved closer to her, and Kagome reached for her hand. She squeezed it a bit and waited for Holden's answering squeeze before releasing it.

"Let us assume that that woman is telling the truth, and that she will return with the manuscript we have been seeking." Chizu neatly changed the subject, eyes fixed on the door at the top of the staircase. "There is still the matter of our leaving the Vatican."

"We're going to make a mad dash to the nearest window below and take off," Shippou said firmly. "The guards have returned, but they won't be difficult to get rid of. One of Anzu's illusions ought to distract them long enough for us to get away."

Anzu pursed her lips, considering. "I've got just the thing." She glanced at Chizu. "Something Mother taught me long ago. It's perfect for this situation."

Sesshoumaru was listening intently at the top of the stairs, and Kagome went to join him, content to let the others discuss their escape. "Is she coming?" she asked quietly.

"We may be leaving in very short order," he told her, raising a hand toward Nanao. Even as he spoke, Nanao began to spin, and when she halted, Inuyasha's figure stood on the stairs below them, holding a sword identical to the one at Kagome's hip.

Everyone fell silent as the sounds of a struggle reached their ears.

"Shit," Shippou spat. "Anzu, go!" The young kitsune female flew swiftly and silently to the bottom of the stairs, where she raised her arms and performed that curious gesture with her hands.

Kagome smelled poison on Sesshoumaru's claws, felt the whoosh of air as Holden drew a pair of pistols from within her coat, saw the bracing in Six's shoulders. Chizu alone seemed undisturbed.

The door swung open. Sister Bonifacia stood at the top of the stairs, reaching for them. Blood stretched across the her wimple, a terrible, grinning maw two inches below her chin; her throat had been slashed open. In her outstretched hands was an ancient, fragile-looking manuscript. Kagome lunged for the nun, and for the book. Bonfacia sank in her arms, and they nearly fell down the stairs together.

"Oh, no," Kagome whispered, horrified. "Oh, gods."

The shouting above them became louder. Sesshoumaru carefully took the text from her. "We must go."

Holden ignored him and pushed him aside to kneel beside the fallen nun. "God forgive you, sister," she said quietly. "God save you."

Bonifacia's dark eyes were full of doubt and regret.

"I believe in redemption," Kagome told her, with all of the conviction she could muster, and tightened her arms about her. "I believe in forgiveness. I believe you have atoned." Holden nodded, evidently unable to speak.

The nun convulsed in Kagome's arms once, and then she was still.

Kagome looked helplessly at Holden. The tiny British lady trembled a little, barely containing herself, as she reached to close the sister's eyes.

"Put her down and come, the both of you, right now," Nanao demanded angrily. "Or you're going to end up the same way." The familiar crossness, the badly hidden hurt was all too familiar, and Kagome's habitual responses came more quickly than she could process them. She settled the sister on the stairs as gently and as quickly as she could, and took a grieving Holden by the arm, compelled by Inuyasha's voice.

"We have to go, Ana."

The guards at the bottom of the stairs were gone, lured off by whatever device Anzu had constructed. Kagome half-dragged Holden behind her, and left Sesshoumaru to bring up the rear. Just as they came to the door, however, the top door swung open again, and a hail of gunfire rained down the stairs after them.

Sesshoumaru managed to avoid being hit, but Holden cried out and doubled over as one of the bullets burrowed into her lower back. Kagome only just her as they tumbled out of the stairwell and onto the second floor.

The guards Anzu's illusion had drawn off heard the gunfire; Kagome could hear their confused shouting further down the hall. She pulled Holden's arm over her shoulders and stumbled after Chizu's angrily lashing tails.

Six materialized at her side. "She's hit?" he demanded, but didn't wait for an answer. "Shippou!"

The kitsune appeared from the corner just ahead. "The window is… shit! Ana!"

"It… it is… not bad," she said, through gritted teeth.

"Here, I've got you." He pulled the Guardian into his arms, wincing at her cry of pain. Holding the tiny woman as though she were a child, he started for the corner again. "Get Sesshoumaru!" he yelled behind him.

"He was right behind me!" Kagome's head spun as she whirled, looking for the demon. She didn't have long to look.

The guards had returned. The blood on Kagome's clothes was excuse enough to open fire.

"Go!" Six threw himself into the six men, ignoring the bullets that ripped through his clothing and into his body.

Kagome ran into the stairwell. The dead sister and a half-dozen other bodies littered the stairs. The stench of Sesshoumaru's poison was thick, his demonic aura pervaded the very air. "Watch my back!" she yelled back at the figure of Inuyasha, praying Nanao would stay with Six and fight the men behind her. Plunging onward, she struggled not to meet the unbelieving stares of the dead men.

"Sesshoumaru!"

He didn't answer, but gunfire further ahead exposed his presence on the third floor.

"Sesshoumaru, we have to get out of here! Now!" The door was blocked. She jerked it off of its hinges and hurled it down the stairs behind her. A blank-eyed corpse tumbled into her knees, the inadvertent doorstop that had impeded her path. There was blood everywhere, and her senses were wild with fear and fury, knowing that wherever Sesshoumaru was, he was completely berserk.

Chasing the blood and the screams and the gunfire, Kagome tried desperately to ignore the mangled bodies of the fallen. "Sesshoumaru!"

She found him at another ornate door, drenched in blood and breathing hard, not with exertion, but with exhilaration. A squirming guard twisted in midair, caught at the throat by the demon lord's claws. He was still very much alive, and terrified. "Sesshoumaru!"

The demon turned to her, and for the first time in years, Kagome felt the full force of his fury directed at her. He was in the middle of a kill, and she had interrupted him.

"Sesshoumaru, stop… please…" He glowered at her, incapable of reasoned thought.

"She's fine, Sesshoumaru," she pleaded, "but we have to get her out of here, have to get her someplace safe… Sesshoumaru, please, put him down, for gods' sakes put him down!"

The guard whimpered, eyes fixed on Kagome, praying for deliverance. She advanced on the demon and his prey slowly. "Please…"

Sesshoumaru snarled at her and tightened his grip on his victim. "Sesshoumaru…"

"You really think he's going to listen to you, little girl? That's a fool's hope." A man dressed in a long red robe appeared at the end of the hall, a peculiar smile on his face. Kagome shuddered. Evil rolled off of the man like smoke from a brush fire, seeping through his flesh and eyes.

"No matter. He is finished. And you will join him, soon enough."

The next few moments felt like an eternity. The man's smile grew, indifferent to the struggling guard, indifferent to the carnage. He began to chant, in that same, ugly language Seven had used at the Bandiagara complex. The chanting enraged Sesshoumaru, who threw his prey by the neck further down the hall. The fortunate guard scrambled to his feet and disappeared.

Snarls and growls rumbled through Sesshoumaru's mouth and nose, and he raised his bloodied claws to the man in red, digging a foot into the ground, preparing to launch himself at his tormentor. A power Kagome recognized, and feared, began to build in the chanting.

"Sesshoumaru!" she shrieked, feeling the power spiral out of control, too late to stop it, too late to do anything but prevent it from reaching its mark. She caught up with the demon, sidestepped in front of him, and caught the expulsion of the curse full on.

The shock brought him to his senses. The force of the curse had bowled them both over. She was unconscious. From her position, he saw that she must have taken a blow intended for him. Guerrero began to chant again, but with Holden and Kagome injured, the Zealot was going to have to wait for another time. Discernment being the better part of valor, he snatched up Kagome and followed the blood back to the stairs.

Six and Nanao were already on the third floor, obviously prepared to haul Sesshoumaru back bodily, if necessary. Nanao, in Inuyasha's guise, was immaculately clean. Six was bleeding heavily.

"Guerrero," Sesshoumaru spat, not bothering to explain further. Clamping a hand around Six's arm, he dragged the half-demon along as he shot down the corridor, unwilling to leave him anywhere near the formidable exorcist. An ugly guilt swelled in his belly as his fingers threatened to loose their grip on the clone, slick with his brother's blood and sweat.

Following Shippou was easy once he reached the bottom of the stairs; he followed the loathsome scent of Holden's blood.

"Damn you, Sesshoumaru." As Sesshoumaru rounded the corner to join the kitsune and his partner, Shippou drew a foot back and kicked out a floor-length window. Four dead men, two of them priests, lay in the hallway with them. "We shouldn't have had to kill anybody!"

Sesshoumaru bared his teeth, his blood still raging. Holden was slumped against the wall, conscious, but unfocused.

"She's shocky, dammit," Shippou growled, "but we can't deal with it here." He morphed into his true fox's form, and his wife and daughter followed suit. Six went to Anzu immediately and straddled her back. "What happened to Kagome?"

"Guerrero. The curse was meant for me; it shouldn't have any lasting effects on her."

"Fuck me." Shippou bared his own fangs. "Chizu! You'll have to ride double with her. Sesshoumaru, put her on and follow, and don't give me any shit about it, just do it!"

For once, Sesshoumaru couldn't take any offense at Shippou's manner, and he wordlessly handed Kagome off to Chizu. The vixen also kept her mouth closed, but if she were angry or simply being serious for once in her life, he couldn't tell. He gathered Holden up in his arms, and they were gone.

Shippou began to dive over the river Limmat, and landed in the Old Town district of Zurich, Switzerland, on the top of one of the taller buildings in the area. It was still dark and very foggy, so being seen hadn't been an issue. Sesshoumaru landed lightly on the building beside the kitsune.

"She still hasn't wakened."

Chizu, who had Kagome cradled in her arms, shook her head. "She hasn't stirred. What happened to her?"

Six dismounted clumsily, and fell beside Anzu, who immediately transformed and began stripping away his shirt. Wrinkling her nose in distaste, she set about digging the bullets out of his flesh. He grit his teeth fiercely, but didn't cry out.

Sesshoumaru was watching the pair out of the corner of his eyes. "Guerrero tried to curse me. She couldn't stop him, so…" He gestured at Kagome.

"She did the only thing she could think of," Holden finished dully. "Put me down, Sesshoumaru."

The short journey had proven long enough for Holden's Guardian body to work its magic. Sesshoumaru set her down beside Six, and she sluggishly brought her knees to her chest, crossed her arms over her knees, and lowered her head to rest on her forearms, exhausted. Still, other than her obvious weariness, nothing but the blood remained as testimony to her injury.

Sesshoumaru hesitated only a moment before reaching out to take Kagome from Chizu. The vixen raised her eyebrows in a silent question, but shrugged and passed the girl to him. She swung a leg over Shippou and slid off his back, allowing him to regain his alternate, human-like form.

"Stupid child," Sesshoumaru said softly, watching the slow rising and falling of Kagome's chest.

"I'm sorry about that, back there." Shippou's tone was somber. "If it had been Anzu or Chizu, I would have responded the same way." The kitsune's two females shot disgusted glares at him, but he ignored them. So did Sesshoumaru.

Instead, he nodded briefly in acknowledgement, unwilling to pursue the subject further. It was a rare thing for the demon lord to experience fatigue, but he was tired, now. He seated himself on the concrete next to Holden, still holding Kagome.

"She'll be alright," Anzu said, almost dismissively, with a quick look at Sesshoumaru and his armful of human girl. Sesshoumaru fought back the urge to bare his teeth at the grave, distant young vixen. It was easy to do, once his quick eyes caught the gentleness with which she tended Six's wounds.

He looked back to the fox, who stood closely beside his mate, conferring quietly about what they ought to do next. He should have been included in their conversation, but he found himself uncharacteristically unaffected by the slight. Shippou had been right to be angry with him. He was angry with himself. His lack of control had exposed and endangered everyone else, and had cost a number of men their lives. The guards at the palace weren't necessarily Guerrero's men, or even Hand operatives, just ordinary people doing their jobs.

He suddenly felt sick to his stomach.

Kagome stirred, and her blue-gray eyes fluttered open. "Sesshou… maru?" She blinked. "Are you… are you okay?" she asked, speaking in Japanese. She'd taken to using English around the manor, and her command of the language had improved considerably, but he had noticed that when she was tired, or hurt, she reverted to her native tongue.

"Daijoubu desu," he replied quietly. After a moment, he added, "Arigatou."

She smiled faintly. "I feel like… a building fell on me," she confessed. "I'm sorry for… for being… so troublesome."

He shook his head. "We have the manuscript. Holden is safe. Six…" His eyes trailed to his brother, who smiled tiredly, then winced as Anzu dug out yet another bullet. "Six will be alright, as well."

"I think," she said, slurring slightly, "that I'm… I'm going…" Thick black lashes kissed her cheeks as she slid back into what seemed to be a peaceful slumber.

"We could all take a page out of her book," Chizu noted with a chuckle and a long, sensual stretch that brought her fingertips to her husband's. "We have a condo not far from here."

"We need to get that book into Hannibal's hands as quickly as possible," Holden disagreed. She spoke slowly and her voice sounded a little muffled; her face was still buried in her arms. She lifted her head. "I called Sumedha yesterday, so she should be at the estate by now. If there's any digital replication of the Lily Crest in any of the Hand's files, they'll find it."

"Then we press on." Shippou wasted no time; in seconds, he had returned to the form of a massive fox. Chizu followed suit. Her five black tails quivered with anticipation. For all their troubles, she seemed remarkably fresh. It was irritating, Sesshoumaru mused, but not entirely unpredicted. For all her buffoonery and brazenness, Chizu was a remarkably powerful creature.

"We're finished here." Six pulled his shirt back on with a grimace, and after Anzu disappeared in a cloud of smoke, reappearing as a somewhat smaller vixen than her mother, Six hoisted himself onto her back with a grunt.

Sesshoumaru opened his mouth to argue – someone was going to have to hold Kagome, but he held his tongue as Chizu padded over to him. He was still seated, so she was able to lower her muzzle to speak directly into his ear. "I'll carry you. You might as well take the rest while you can get it, Sesshy, dear. Berserking does so tire one."

His narrowed his eyes, resenting the implication that he was in any way unfit to continue, but the slight touch of Holden's tiny hand forestalled his reply. His turned only his eyes to her, the rest of him frozen, angry. "Sesshoumaru. Let us just get home."

Chizu's pointed nose nuzzled at Kagome. "She's resting comfortably where she is. I see no good reason to move her."

Holden's hand tightened almost imperceptibly, and the plea in her eyes was unmistakable. Rising, he placed Kagome on Chizu's back, guiding her shoulders to rest on Chizu's, so that she was lying in a relatively stable position. He offered a hand to Holden, who took it and stood, albeit a little unsteadily. He pulled her closer, picked her up, and deposited her behind Kagome.

Holden frowned her disapproval, a discontented, curiously childish sort of frown, and he managed a faint smile in return.

Chizu shook her great head. "Proud bastard. At least stay close beside me. Ana's just about had it, too, and I don't want either of them to fall." He nodded; she was right, and even if she hadn't been, he was too weary to argue with her anymore.

They made it back well before dawn, though the sun would have already risen in Italy. Kagome slept the whole way there, and Six and Holden had managed to stay awake enough not to fall off their makeshift steeds. Shippou and Anzu looked as tired as Sesshoumaru felt, and even Chizu looked a little worse for wear when they touched down in Sesshoumaru's garden. It had been, after all, a very long night.

"Six… those gunshot wounds..." Holden stumbled off Chizu's back. She steadied Kagome, but her own knees buckled beneath her. Sesshoumaru caught her easily. Holding her close, so as not to let her fall, he looked to the half-demon as well, waiting for his response.

"A good night's sleep and I'll be good as new," he promised, dismounting himself. He grimaced. "I may just pass out here and call it a night, though, and forget trying to remember where my room is in this freaking mansion."

Shippou regained his human-like appearance and scooped Kagome up from Chizu's back. Chizu opted to remain in her true form and lay down, her tails uncharacteristically limp and still. "She still sleeping in that Better Homes and Gardens excuse for a bedroom?"

Holden nodded, resting almost all of her slight, comfortable weight against Sesshoumaru. "You know you are all welcome to stay." Sesshoumaru closed his eyes, smiling inwardly. Even as exhausted as she was, her good British breeding made her an eternally attentive hostess.

"I think we may just take you up on that, Ana-san," Anzu replied, with a glance at her parents.

Shippou was already at the door, but he looked over his shoulder at them. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble," he agreed, half-apologetically. "I'll just put Kagome to bed."

Holden nodded. "Chizu, take the blue suite, on the second floor, you remember. Anzu can sleep in the adjoining chamber." Chizu resumed her own human form, though she was still lying on the ground. She stretched languorously before rising.

"Just like you to be so thoughtful, Holden." She flashed a smile, then crooked a finger at her daughter. "Come along, Anzu. Let's all try to get some rest," she said, with a wry look at Sesshoumaru. They departed quietly, and Six followed, almost staggering in his fatigue.

For his part Sesshoumaru was reluctant to return to his chambers. He seldom had a reason to have Holden this close, and… He shook his head free of those thoughts.

Holden was staring at the manor, and he cursed himself for his thoughtlessness. She was anxious to see her son, naturally; until now, she and Anastasius had scarcely spent a moment apart since her return from Geneva. He swept her up in his arms, savoring and trying not to savor the feel of her, and carried her into their home.