DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN it OR YYH

LIES BY OMISSION

Chapter 18

.

Kagome groaned as she was dropped unceremoniously onto a hard and unyielding surface. Moments later, Botan's unconscious form landed next to her.

Least, she hoped the blue-haired Reaper was only unconscious; the weird Mantis-like insect had hit her pretty hard.

Kagome shoved her aching body up; groaning with the effort, made even more difficult by the disgusting yellow goo that seemed to cling to her.

The yellow mess clung to her like glue; she was suddenly very grateful that she had changed back into her Taijiya armor that covered her practically from head to toe….she would have hated to have this gunk on her skin. Bad enough it was in her hair.

Tugging herself free, she scrambled over to her new friend;

"Botan?" she hissed, rolling the woman onto her back, looking her over for injuries.

"Oh….that was unpleasant…"Botan groaned as she reached up to hold her aching head. "What the bloody hell hit me?"

"A very large bug…" Kagome replied, slowly rising to her feet, "What the hell is this stuff?"

"Ewwww…" Botan whined, as Kagome helped her to her feet, "It's in my hair!"

"Actually," Kagome replied with a smirk, "It's all over you…"

The normally bubbly Reaper scowled at the disgusting mess that clung to her kimono; it was worse than that one time Yusuke had gotten gum stuck in her hair…

"Are you hurt?" Kagome asked, giving the woman another once over.

"My side hurts," Botan admitted, "But I don't think anything is broken. Where are we?"

"Honestly?" Kagome replied, taking in their surroundings, "I have no freaking clue."

Glancing around, Kagome pointed to the large rock outcropping that rose against the dark forest trees;

"Let's head over toward there and see if we can get our bearings…"

"Brilliant," Botan grumbled; falling into step beside Kagome as the two women made their way through the strange sticky goo that seemed to cover the ground.

"What is this?" Botan mumbled as she jerked her foot free, "Some bizarre form of demonic honey?"

"Beats me," Kagome muttered, grunting with the effort to free her own foot as they made slow progress toward the outcropping, "Do they even have demonic bees? Do they make honey?"

"Gah….remind me to beat all four of those fools when I see them," the Reaper grumbled.

"Four? What about the fifth one?"

"I'm not dumb enough to try and assault Hiei," Botan replied, "You can smack him if you want. He seems to like you…..well….he doesn't hate you…."

"Yea 'like' is waaaaay to nice of a way to put our….dare I say…relationship?" Kagome stated.

"Since we're on the topic," Botan muttered, "How the heck did you win Hiei over anyway?"

"I didn't 'win him over'," Kagome stated, "I explained to him his options and then bribed him."

"Options? Bribed him?"

"Yea…well, I kinda gave him the choice between talking with me or an unpleasant alternative….he chose the lesser of two evils. Then, I bribed him."

"Out of curiosity…"Botan asked, "What was the 'unpleasant alternative'?"

"I'm sure Reikai would love to know," Kagome replied with a smirk, "Sorry, but that was a private discussion. I'll not betray his trust by giving Reikai ammunition against him."

"Oh c'mon," Botan replied, "I'm not going to use it against him…seriously, I'm not that stupid. He'd kill me without a second thought."

"No, but your boss would have no qualms with exploiting something he perceived as a weakness," Kagome stated, "Tell me I'm wrong?"

"Koenma, the real Koenma, is an honorable man," Botan protested, "He and Hiei may not see eye to eye but he would never…"

Kagome cast her a side-long glance, her brow quirked in clear disbelief; Botan sighed.

"Ok, maybe….." she hedged, "Both Hiei and Kurama are powerful and I know that with as dangerous as they are, Koenma preferred to have them working for him rather than attempting to ask for their assistance. Hiei in particular rarely assists Reikai unless Kurama or Yusuke need help."

"Exactly." Kagome replied with a smirk, "So, sorry, but nope….you wanna know anything about our discussion, ask Hiei."

Botan let out a huff of annoyance, her curiosity was desperate to know what Kagome had offered to get Hiei to help her; but she had no illusions that Hiei would spill the details of his deal with the Miko, especially to the likes of her.

A loud shriek rent the air causing the two women to whirl around; plastering their backs against the hard rock in an instinctive attempt to make themselves less obvious.

Zipping above their heads were the same huge praying mantis-like insects that had attacked them earlier.

"What are they?" Kagome asked, hoping that the Reaper- who was slightly more familiar with this strange demonic world- would have some idea what nasty critter they were facing.

"How should I bloody know?" Botan snipped, lavender eyes glaring at her from behind dirty, matted teal bangs. "I try to stay OUT of the Makai, thank you very much."

"Wonderful," Kagome muttered, fumbling with the bow at her back and thanking whatever deity that was smiling down on her at the moment that the dratted thing hadn't broken when she had landed.

"Out of idle curiosity," Botan said, watching as several more insects appeared in the sky, "Why are you using a physical bow? I mean, in Reikai you didn't need one…."

"Takes less energy," Kagome replied, absently, "Manifesting the bow AND arrow from pure energy takes more effort. Plus, this bow is special…."

Wiping the last of the sticky residue from the wood, Kagome pulled an arrow and notched it…. Waiting.

"C'mon," Kagome muttered, "They seem distracted right now… let's get to the top of this thing and see where we are…. Maybe if we're lucky we'll be able to spot the guys."

"Oh that'd be lovely," Botan muttered; she was so going to give those idiots a piece of her mind when she saw them.

Kurama swore as the giant car-sized insect swooped down, only to veer away with an angry shriek as the Rose-Whip sliced through one of its legs.

"Down!" Shippo yelled, barely giving Kurama enough time to drop as he launched a white-hot fireball where Kurama's head had been.

A pain-filled shriek met the blast as one of the massive insects went careening into the trees, its body charred and blackened.

"This is insane," Shippo growled, "Where the hell are they all coming from?"

Kurama didn't bother to answer, as he held his injured arm stiffly against his side. His shoulder throbbed despite the medicine he had applied to it the night before.

His eyes slide to Shippo, his tan face was ashen and sweat beaded on his brow; he held himself stiffly, his left arm wrapped around the wounds on his abdomen.

Despite the labored breath and obvious pain he was in, the Kitsune General's eyes never strayed far from where the rocky outcrop where they had lost sight of the girls.

Ignoring their wounds; both Kitsunes raced through the trees in a mad bid to outrun the insects.

At the edge of the outcrop, the forest fell away; opening up into murky, moss covered field.

"Hell and damnation," Shippo swore, "How much of that is actual land and how much is water?"

Kurama muttered an oath as his energy mapped out the bog before them.

"You really don't want to know," the avatar replied, "There's one path across…. Do we risk it?"

"Might as well," Shippo replied with a smirk, "It's only been a few minute since something tried to kill us…."

Ripping some of the fabric from his tunic, Kurama used it to cover his mouth and nose; he ripped another piece and handed it to the General to do the same.

"Use this to cover your nose," he explained, as Shippo wrinkled his nose at the fabric, "There's poisonous plants in there…you'll lose consciousness if you inhale the pollen."

"Feh…." He growled, doing as the elder Kitsune instructed, "Gag me now, I'm gonna be smelling roses for the rest of the bloody trip…."

"Better than being eaten and slowly digested by a carnivorous plant…." Kurama replied dryly, "Ready?"

Shippo growled an affirmative a second before Kurama leapt into action.

Shippo half expected the ground to disappear beneath his feet as they raced across the open space; but true to his word, Kurama kept them on solid ground.

A dull buzzing filled his ears and rattled his bones as dozens of the giant insects seemed to fill the sky.

Shippo kept one eye on the red-head in front of him and the other on the skies…. He didn't know how much concentration Kurama needed to navigate the bog, but Shippo had no desire to see his focus broken. On mishap, one false step….and they were screwed.

Kurama froze as he was jerked back by his hair, narrowly missing the pinchers of one of the insects; annoyed, yet grateful, he covered his face as fire lit the sky, forcing the creatures away from the heat.

"Did you have to grab my hair," he growled as he crouched low.

"Couldn't…reach anything…else…." Shippo panted, his face practically drained of all color, "I…don't think...I can do that again…"

Glancing at the Kitsune General, Kurama wanted to snarl; he was on his last legs and he knew it.

The injury from the crocodile combined with the exertion of fighting the insects with no time to heal in between had taken its toll on the younger fox.

Sheer will and stubbornness were the only things keeping him on his feet.

"We're almost there," Kurama said, "Maybe another hundred yards….I can sense Kagome's and Botan's energy on the other side of that big rock…."

"Oh good," Shippo growled, "I was beginning to get worried…."

"Ready?"

"Do I have a choice?" Shippo snipped.

"Not if you want to get to Kagome in one piece…"

That seemed to sharpen the injured demons focus;

"After you…."

Once again, Kurama took off across the bog, Shippo close on his heels.

Kuwabara stumbled as a red tubular root filled with needle like teeth narrowly missed his side.

"On your eight!" Yusuke yelled from his spot propped against a tree trunk.

Kuwabara whirled, slicing through the root as he side-stepped another gaping mouth.

Furious, Yusuke once again tried to move his body. The paralysis had yet to wear off; though, on the plus side, he could twitch his finger…. That was good, right?

Not that that would help his buddy any.

He had to give it to the lug; for someone who was about as graceful as a toddler learning to walk, Kuwabara was doing a great job of staying just out of reach of all those gaping mouths.

Impressive as it was; Yusuke knew that his friend couldn't keep up the pace. Already the human was tiring.

Dammit, how could he be so bloody stupid to get snagged by a plant of all things? Really?

True, it was a Death Tree, which was more animal then plant, but still…. To bite the dust because of a plant….. How humiliating….

Suddenly orange black fire filled the small clearing; the heat forced Kuwabara back several steps.

With a loud scream of pain, the Death Tree withdrew.

"Taken out by a Death Tree?" Hiei's amused voice stated from above them, "Pathetic…."

"Hey, I was doing just fine on my own Shorty…" Kuwabara snapped; he refused to give the shrimp the satisfaction of knowing he was actually GLAD to see him.

"I wasn't talking to you, idiot," Hiei replied, looking down at the Detective who was glowering back at him.

"Not a word," Yusuke growled.

"You find the girls?" Kuwabara asked, "We kinda lost them…"

"Clearly," the fire-demon replied, "I have not seen the women. However both the foxes are about a league south of here."

"They're alive?"

"Of course," Hiei replied. "Why wouldn't they be?"

"Because they were attacked and dragged off by some huge alligator-lookin' …thing…"

Hiei blinked at the human as Kurama's and the General's sudden departure from the group began to make sense.

"We tried to follow them," Kuwabara continued, "But we lost the trail….then we somehow lost the girls…."

"We told them to stay put," Yusuke grumbled, glaring at his hand as he tried to move his fingers, "But they tried to follow us anyway…and now we can't find them."

Hiei starred at the two, the sheer amount of stupidity they exhibited was astonishing.

"You two really are idiots," he finally said, shaking his head as he turned and began to walk off.

"Hey, hey," Kuwabara called, running over to grab Yusuke and sling him over his shoulder, "Wait for us!"

"OOF," Yusuke growled, "Watch it, dumbass…"

"Oh kami," Botan breathed as they peeked out from behind a large rock. Below them swarmed dozens of the huge mantis-like insects. "Look at 'em all…"

Kagome watched, curious about what had caught the creatures attention.

A familiar flare of kitsune energy had her scrambling to find a better line of sight.

Sure enough, she could barely make out two figures racing across the open field.

"It's Shippo and Kurama," Kagome stated, "They're alive."

Suddenly the clearing blazed with brilliant orange fox-fire*; before disappearing. Kagome focused; she could sense Kurama fairly easily now that she was looking for him…. But Shippo… she could barely sense him anymore. His energy flickered like a dying flame.

Botan's eyes widened in shock as Kagome let out a vicious growl that would have done any demon proud.

"You will not have my kit," she snarled, taking aim.

Botan let out a small cry as Kagome's arrow flared a brilliant pink as it shot through the sky.

The mantis-like insects shrieked in agony as Kagome's arrow blazed a path through the demons, purifying them all as it passed.

Kurama paused as a brilliant pink light flew through the air; disintegrating any demon it came in contact with.

Behind him, Shippo laughed; "Hell yeah…. Cover fire! Go Kagome!"

Kurama watching in wide-eyes wonder as another brilliant arrow shot through the sky, cleaving a path through the demon masses as it went.

By the time they reached the safety of solid rock; the sky was clear of the demonic-insects.

Shippo leaned heavily against a rock; fresh blood glistening against his abdomen, hip and leg.

"Shippo!"

A relieved smile played over the General's face as both Kagome and Botan came bounding down the rocks.

Kagome slid to a stop in front of her son, dark eyes wide as she took in the sheer amount of injuries he had sustained.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice strained.

"Yea, a few bruises," Kagome replied, "But we're ok…. Are you….?"

"Heh…. Damn Croc did a number on me…but I'm fine, Momma...reeally" he slurred, just as his eyes rolled up in his head and his legs buckled.

A/N: Yaaay I'm back...sorry it took so long, I was having some serious writers block with this story. It's still slow going, so be patient. I had to go back and re-read the story so I could remember where I was going with this LOL...

*I know someone is going to point this out, so I'm going to make note of it now... yes I'm aware that when I first described Shippo's fox-fire that it was blue-white and in this chapter it's now orange...it was deliberate. Blue-white flame is generally hotter then regular orange flames... so with as banged up as poor Shippo is at the moment, it only makes sense that his attacks would be weaker-hence the regular orange flames. Kinda like the difference between Hiei's Mortal Flame and the Darkness Flame (just minus the badass Hell Dragon.)

Well I hope you enjoyed that chapter and I hope I caught all the typos and what not. Re-reading this story made me realize how bad my editing at been before (-_-)' Ugh... I hate that. Makes me wanna redo all the chapters just so I can fix those Oops's. Though, once Lies By Omission is done, I might seriously redo Call of the Dragon just to make it neater and more fluid. Guess we'll see.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! And as always...REVIEW!