Iris: END OF ACT ONE.

Dante: Iris, that's after this chapter. You don't say "The End" 20 minutes before the credits.

Iris: They should. Just to mix it up a little. :3

Dante: *Siiiiiiiigh*

~! #$%^&*()_

As soon as Ember left, Sam spoke up. "Okay, we need a plan."

Sesshomaru opened his mouth. Inuyasha immediately interrupted with "No."

He shot his little brother an annoyed glare. "What do you mean 'no'?"

"I mean," Inuyasha replied flatly, "Your plans usually end with you losing a limb or getting launched halfway across Japan by my sword. The most recent one dropped your ass right on top of Lancer. No planning for you."

Looking slightly embarrassed, the full demon narrowed his eyes. "And I suppose you have a brilliant idea?"

"...Yes?" He lied with an awkward smile.

"I do." Tucker interjected. "Remember how you guys snapped me out of the Ember spell with hours of math? Maybe it just takes something really horrible to bring someone to their senses."

A pause.

"I nominate Tucker to be in charge of ideas from now on," Yami interjected mildly, "Because the rest of us suck."

"Agreed." Iris replied dryly, shifting a little farther away from the knife. "Quick question, though; how the hell do you plan on testing that theory?"

The techno-geek's expression went blank.

Sighing, Sam's eyes began to dart between Sesshomaru - who was next to her - and the jock restraining her thoughtfully. She appeared to weigh her options, then came to a decision.

"Okay, this might only work for Danny, but..." She grumbled. "Hey, Sesshomaru?"

He turned to the goth, but before he could ask what she wanted, she kissed him. His eyes widened. "Mmph?"

Danny gasped, and the blank adoration seemed to bleed from his face.

Inuyasha braced for a deadly response - his older brother didn't like humans so much as glancing at him, normally - but then the demon just shrugged and returned the kiss.

"Ew!" Kwan shrieked. "Geek girl and new kid are making out!"

All of the jocks scattered in a no doubt cootie-inspired panic... except Dash, who just dropped the knife he had been holding to Iris' throat in utter shock. He took a few steps back, eyes wide in horror. "I - holy crap." He said eloquently. "I could have killed - I'm so sorry, Iris, I really -"

She rubbed at her neck. "I've had deeper." She replied, expression calm. "Tell you what; you let me get one good hit in, I'll call us even, yeah?"

"Just... Go easy, okay? If I get bruised up, I'll be grounded." Dash requested, indicating his chin in a "go ahead" gesture. She drew a fist back, then thrust her arm forward.

As he braced for her punch, Iris stopped her arm short and brought her knee up into his balls with devastating accuracy. Dash made a noise like a dying hyena as everyone besides Sesshomaru burst into varying volumes of laughter.

"I said 'go easy'!" He squawked, falling onto the ground and rolling.

"I did." Iris explained, voice acidic. "I'm wearing steel-toed boots."

Suddenly, her loud landing earlier made sense. "At least you won't get grounded for bruises." Inuyasha told the jock, smirking. He walked over and grabbed Sesshomaru's arm. "C'mon, Sesshomaru; we got ghost ass to kick."

Sesshomaru nodded, seemingly at a loss for words. He'd been entirely silent since Sam had kissed him.

Inuyasha was greatly amused yet again. He was going to miss Amity Park when he returned home; he hadn't laughed this much - or this often - in years.

~! #$%^&*()_

Danny felt strangely numb, but more in control than he had for the last few hours. He followed Inuyasha silently right up until they reached the dressing room with a gold star that read "Ember".

Just reading her name made raw anger flare up within his stomach. The contrast with his previous numbness made him nauseous, but he didn't focus on it.

"I'm going ghost!" Danny announced venomously, slamming his fists together. Light spread from his hands in either direction, replacing his form with that of a livid poltergeist.

Sam, Yami, Tucker, and Iris backed away from the door, as they were entirely unarmed.

Sesshomaru kicked it down.

Ember jumped back, then tensed. "You!" She snapped venomously.

"Us." Inuyasha agreed with a smirk and a wave. "Hello."

The pop-star shrieked, charging forward. Sesshomaru darted past her, tripping her feet as she went. Danny caught her with an uppercut as she fell. "No more mind-control for you." He growled as Inuyasha smashed her guitar on the ground.

Rubbing her sore jaw, Ember smirked. "That's what you think, dipsticks." She informed them coolly. "I'll have you know that my tech team has a stunt double and a pre-recorded version of Remember lined up for the evening. Even if you destroy the recordings, all the kids under my spell are gonna stay that way."

"Don't care." Sesshomaru replied bluntly as Danny pulled out the Fenton thermos, quickly drawing her in.

Tucker appeared thoughtful, leaning against the corridor wall. "It's pre-recorded, right? Maybe we can do something to it."

Yami nodded. "It's official. You're in charge of ideas."

"Thanks!" He replied cheerfully. "Anybody got some metal 'Yasha or Sess could drag their claws down?"

Sesshomaru sent Tucker a promising glare. Scary promising, not I'll-make-you-cookies-later promising. "My name is Sesshomaru, not Sess."

"Sorry, Sess."

Danny grinned. "Actually, I have an idea."

~! #$%^&*()_

"I have gone deaf." Sesshomaru proclaimed loudly as their rag-tag team trooped into Fentonworks. "It's irreversible. My hearing will remain damaged for the entirety of my woeful existence."

"Shut up!" Tucker snapped, face red. "I'm not that bad!"

"I've heard dying birds with throat injuries make more melodious screeching than you, human." The demon growled back.

Yami rolled her eyes. "That's not creepy at all."

Inuyasha snorted. "Worst part is, he's right."

Sam cleared her throat. "Well, it's been an eventful night all around," She reported mildly, "But if you guys are up for it, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru need to be educated in the ways of Disney movies."

"Lilo and Stitch seems a good place to start." Iris suggested, looking remarkably peppy for someone whose throat had a knife pressed to it less than an hour prior.

Danny grinned. "We have it on a disc by the TV. Might as well."

~! #$%^&*()_

Meanwhile, the concert raged on. Jazz was a bit curious about Ember's lack of interaction with her crowd - at the school, she'd been high-fiving the fans, blowing kisses, but now she seemed distant.

Almost like another person.

'No way.' Jazz reasoned. 'Ember would never miss her own worldwide debut. Not for anything.'

Just as she started working her way toward the mosh-pit, the chorus to "Remember" started to play. Excitement filled her veins, but then a sound like a drowning cat assaulted her ears from the speakers.

The crowd roared with pain and fury, twisting and screaming as one. Jazz could barely hear the offending voice being played in place of Ember, but it was clear that the starlet had never been on stage in the first place.

She wondered why she was there, and couldn't find an answer.

~! #$%^&*()_

Ember paced back and forth. Once the power had drained from her, the damn halfa brat and his little friends had ousted her back into the ghost zone with some idiot who wouldn't stop saying her name. Ironic. She'd never liked irony.

The pestering voice abruptly ground to a halt mid-sentence. Clover, or Clemper, or whatever, made a surprised gargling noise as the tentacle that had impaled him discarded the aggravating ghost with a flicker.

"You're late." Ember spat. She glared at the man before her, annoyed at the mask and cloak that covered his features entirely.

"And you failed." He retorted. The ghost bit her tongue to keep from rising to his challenge. "My plan was flawless; it even had a backup should you be disposed of. Yet-"

Rolling her eyes, Ember glowered at him. "Yet, your little scheme to keep that elf-eared bastard from using his super-speed failed because you didn't plan for anyone else. Surprise sur-freakin'-prise."

"I don't need your assistance, girl." The disguised man hissed back. "This was merely a test. Your fifteen seconds of fame wouldn't have existed without me; you'd do well to recall that."

She scowled, but said nothing. He turned away, bracing to move through the void of the Ghost Zone. "I'm going to find a better pawn." He informed her. "One more competent. Possibly one closer to my targets."

As he began using the tentacles under his cloak to launch himself through the gravity-free conditions, Ember followed. "At least tell me your name." She growled.

"I am Naraku." He introduced himself coldly. "You'd do well to, ah, remember my name, even though no one will do so for yours."

~! #$%^&*()_

Meanwhile, in Amity Park, a plane was coming to a skidding halt. A teenage boy unstrapped his seat-belt in relief, casually grabbing his carry-on bag from above him as the passengers shuffled out.

As he stepped into the light on the runway, he took a moment to brush his chocolate-brown hair from his unusual cobalt eyes. Someone of Japanese descent usually had brown eyes, like most of his relations; he had inherited his blue ones from his father.

One of them was purely ornamental anyway. He brushed his fingers against the scar passing over his right eye lightly as he cautiously traversed the stairwell off of the plane.

Unfortunately, he wasn't cautious enough.

"Ouch!" The short old man yelped indignantly. "Watch where you're going, whippersnapper!"

"Sorry." Was the boy's sheepish reply. He passed through airport security without further incident, excluding a few raised eyebrows at his necklace; in America, it was unusual to see such a thing on one so young, particularly when that particular person was in civilian clothes instead of its typical matching uniform.

He paid their curiosity no mind. The teen's mind was focused solely on one task; finding the person he'd come for.

The place to start his search was, of course, Casper High.

~! #$%^&*()_

Iris: See, I can be mysterious.

Inuyasha: Oh no you didn't. You... didn't.

Iris: I totally did :3

Inuyasha: OH NO YOU DID NOT!

Q and A time!

princessbinas:

Inuyasha: I'd like some headphones to tune out what our dear author is planning next. *covers his ears and starts singing "I-can't-hear-you-la-la-la-la" repetitively and loudly*

Insecurity's Sanity:

Iris: *cackles with you* :3

Inuyasha: *still singing to tune her out*

Dante: *deepest sigh in the history of deep sighs*

Sesshomaru: *checking the review box* Ahem.