Underground Tunnels

Meliodas opens his eyes, or at least he thinks he has. There's nothing but pitch darkness. He can feel pain and injuries that he doesn't remember getting, and his left hand and wrist feel worse than ever. He was tired after fighting those bird-dragons and going full assault mode, but now he feels completely wiped out. His stomach roars like a hangry lion resulting in a loud, repeated echo. He has no idea what happened, the last thing he remembers is some weird, aggressive guy with white hair and gold eyes dressed in weird red clothes pointing a sword at him, he thinks. He also remembers those shiny, purple things and checks his pocket. They aren't in there, and he doesn't feel any holes.

"What happened? Willie, are you alright?" There's no answer; "Willie! Where are you?" Meliodas tries to stand up but hits his head on something. "OUCH! Where the hell am I? And why am I cold all off a sudden?" He wraps his arms around his shirtless chest and shivers. He also feels his bare feet on some stone-cold floor, making him feel even colder. He scoots back and his bare back hits a cold wall.

"Damn it. WILLIE, WHERE ARE YOU?! I NEED MY CLOTHES! AND FOOD!"

A few minutes later, a light shine through a small opening. "WILLIE!" Then the wall around the kid size crawl through opening is smashed, the rubble landing on Meliodas. However, the one who enters isn't Willie, but Inuyasha. The light is coming from his Tessaiga. He has to kneel down to look into what remained of the four-foot-high chamber. He sneers with angry eyes at Meliodas as he crawls out of the rubble. Having no memory of their battle, Meliodas just smiles and greets him cheerfully. Again, Inuyasha is taken aback by this attitude, then points Tessaiga at him.

"There's really no need to point that thing at me. Besides, I don't have those weird, shiny purple things anymore." Meliodas tries to show the half-demon that he doesn't have the jewel shards. Inuyasha keeps staring at him with a fierce look on face.

GROWLLLLLL!

Meliodas hugs his stomach and laughs; "Hehe, sorry." Inuyasha lowers his sword and rolls his eyes. He decides not to bother with this guy any longer. He can't even understand him. The half-demon gets out of the tiny room and starts to walk away, the Tessaiga lighting his path.

"Hey wait!" Meliodas crawls out behind him; "You're not going to leave me here alone; all cold, lost, wounded and starving, are you?" He starts following Inuyasha, who tries his best to ignore him. With his stomach roaring with hunger and Inuyasha remaining silent, Meliodas starts talking about random stuff (mostly about food), forgetting that this most recent stranger can't understand him. Inuyasha, who has next to no patience and easily annoyed, moves faster to put some distance between them. However, Meliodas just catches right up to him easily. Again, the Japanese half-demon increases his speed, again, Meliodas catches up to him and keeps talking, even finding this kind of fun. Inuyasha is so annoyed that he points his sword at the demon. Meliodas touches this strange sword out of curiosity, which causes Inuyasha to hit him with the dull end and sends him crashing into the wall, which causes tons of rubble to fall on them. Inuyasha digs himself out and finds Meliodas, all grinning and laughing.

"That was fun, can we do that again. OWE!" Meliodas rubs a couple of his wounds, including his hand.

GROWLLLLLL! Meliodas's stomach goes off again.

Growl! Inuyasha's stomach also growls, making him even more frustrated. Meliodas smiles; "So your hungry too huh? Not as much as me, I'm sure." Both of their stomachs growl again, the dragon sin's a bit louder the half-demon's. Meliodas laughs again, "Sounds like our stomachs are talking to each other. But I'm sure I'll have no problem out eating you."

"Damatsu Te! (Shut Up)" Inuyasha swings an energy beam from the Tessaiga. Meliodas gets out of the way. "As much as I'd like to brawl with you, I really think we should wait..."

Inuyasha manages to scratch the demon with his claws, leaving him with four long, bloody scratches on the left check. Despite feeling the pain, Meliodas doesn't flitch and just smiles. Inuyasha gurs, shakes his head and walks away. He might not understand this foreigner, but he finds him extremely annoying. He's sure he doesn't like him, despite realizing that this demon has more in common with him than he initially thought.

"Hey wait. Don't get too far ahead of me." Meliodas then collapses. "Sorry. I need to rest for just a minute. By the way, I'm Meliodas, what's your name?"

Inyusha tries to ignore him and keeps walking. He can hear the demon's stomach as he moves away. As much as he wants to ignore his conscious, he can hear Kagome saying "Inuyasha, sit boy"; then scolding him about leaving this guy behind; demon, half-demon, or not. He can hear the others lecturing him as well, especially Shippo. Cringing his fists, he gurrs and turns back the other way. Meliodas is sitting exactly where he left him, smiling.

"I knew you'd come back for me."

Inuyasha grabs him and throws him onto his back. Meliodas wasn't completely expecting this, but he'll gladly take it. Inuyasha's fire-rat fur robe feels nice, but most of Meliodas's skin is still bare, and he's shivering.

"Excuse me, him whose name I don't know. Do you have something I could wear? I'm freezing. How about food? I'm famished."

"DAMATSU TE! Mataha anata no sanpo. (Shut up or you're walking.)"

"That wasn't clear, will you repeat that, please?"

Inuyasha tries to tune out this overly cheerful demon, but he won't quit talking. Meliodas then tugs on his robe, the half-demon throws him off his back, looks at him with a fierce look, and barks at him in Japanese. Meliodas is finally starting to realize that this guy probably doesn't understand him, and it hadn't occurred to him that their probably out of range of the amulet.

"Oops, silly me. You haven't understood a word I've said, have you?" Meliodas tries to use his body language to communicate, rubbing his belly as it growls again and pointing to his open mouth. Inuyasha can't believe this guy.

"(In Japanese) I know you're hungry. Suck it up and deal with it!"

GROWL!

"Shut up." Inuyasha tells his own stomach.

Meliodas giggles. He then feels a draft and starts shivering. Inuyasha can see the chill bumps on him. Rolling his eyes, he takes off his top robe and wraps it around the demon, who's extremely too small for it, and ends up wrapping it around him like a blanket. He then straps Meliodas onto his back as if he was a strapping on a small child.

"Thanks. That's much better."

I can't believe I'm doing this this. Why do I even care anyway? Inuyasha thinks to himself. Just a few seconds later, he hears snoring, Meliodas has fallen asleep.

"Seriously? Nobody better not find out about this."

They wonder aimlessly for a while, not so quietly unfortunately between their stomachs (especially Meliodas's) and the demon's snoring. Inuyasha can't wait until he finds somebody else to dump this guy off on, and to get out of this place and find Kagome.

Not that he's so eager to see her again as he always tells himself, but he must protect her.

After more than an hour, Meliodas starts stroking the half-demon's hair, hugs and snuggles with him, mumbling to himself between snores. When he starts to lick the back of Inuyasha's neck, he throws the dragon sin off of him.

Meliodas is awoken by the impact. "Zzzz...Elizabeth! Hah what?" He rubs the sleep out of his eyes. "Man, what happened? Guess I fell asleep." He looks up at Inuyasha, who looks angry; "Yo, is everything ok?"

Inuyasha doesn't speak and is clearly struggling not to lose his temper. He then hears something; it sounds like a waterfall. He grabs his robe off of Meliodas and takes off.

"Hey wait!" Meliodas runs after the half-demon, finding him at an underground spring with a waterfall, drinking from it. Feeling parched, he kneels next to him and gets a few drinks himself. Inuyasha then takes off his white under kimono and puts the two tops into the water to wash out the sand and stuff, then pours water on himself to wash off. Meliodas decides to take off his pants and jumps right in. Unfortunately, the water is freezing. He gets right out, shivering. Inuyasha gives him a funny look, takes off his own bottoms, puts them into the water, and gets in himself, seemly unaffected by the water's temperature. Determined not to be outdone, Meliodas again jumps in, only for the second jump to actually feel colder than the first. Inuyasha stands underneath the waterfall. Meliodas tries not to shiver and chatter as he joins him. He only holds out for a few seconds.

"Yikes! IT'S FRIDGED!" He quickly gets out freezing. With nothing else to warm him, he gets Inuyasha's top robe out of the water and wraps it around himself. Unfortunately, that provides little relief being that it's soaked and wet. Inuyasha comes out and puts his clothes back on. He gives Meliodas a blank stare, his face seems frozen and emotionless.

"Hhhhowww arreee you you you nnnnot coolld?"

The half-demon just stares for several seconds, then he shivers and his teeth chatter. "Oh oh oooo. You you are coolld the the then." Meliodas can't help but laugh. The half-demon takes his top robe and does a high-speed spin, drying himself and his clothes off and getting Meliodas even more soaked. The demon hadn't even thought of that, he never does. He slowly gets up and attempts to spin. Unfortunately, he doesn't have enough energy and collapses. Inuyasha shakes his head when he notices a light coming towards them. It's Willie. Meliodas springs up and embraces him tightly.

"WILLIE! Thank God!"

"MEEEOOOWWW!"

Meliodas loosens his grip to see Ramesses in the monk's arms, all wrapped up in strings.

"Ramie, what are you doing here?"

"Nothing;" the cat says sheepishly.

Willie realizes that Meliodas is naked and turns his head. "Good grief, have you no shame?"

Meliodas doesn't understand; "Huh? What do you mean? There's no girls here, not like that ever stops me."

Willie takes a towel out of his bag and throws it to him; "Dry off. I've got your clothes too."

"Thank goodness. I'm freezing. Why is it so cold anyway?"

"Because we're deep underground in a parallel dimension, that's way." Willie notices that Inuyasha is leaving. "Not that way!" He takes out the amulet and hits the half-demon with it. Inuyasha snaps back around and draws his sword. "What the hell was that you half pint?"

Meliodas understands him and gets between the two. "Take it easy. That amulet lets us talk to each other."

Inuyasha is completely shocked, his jaw drops.

Meliodas holds out his hand; "Yo there. I'm Meliodas, what's your name?"

"That's not important!" barks Inuyasha; "What's important is finding those jewel shards, keep them away from your fifthly hands, get the hell out of here, and find Kagome." He slaps his head for letting out that last line.

Meliodas looks at his hands; "My hands are clean now, not filthy."

"I don't believe this. How the hell do I get out of here?!"

"We're trying to figure that out;" replies Willie, "if this demon cat's giving me the right directions."

"I haven't been this way in ages;" says Ramesses, sheepishly.

Meliodas, getting dressed, is surprised to hear that. "What? That cat's a demon?"

Everybody gives him funny looks.

"Seriously!" says Inuyasha; "you can't feel that?"

Meliodas puts on his vest; "Actually, yea I can, sort of. Guess I wasn't paying attention. But I've never heard of a cat-like demon before. No wonder you can talk. I thought you were from Purgatory."

"I'M NOT FROM PURGATORY!"

Inuyasha snatches Ramesses from Willie's arms and holds him by the neck fur; "Where's the exit cat demon?!"

This guy frightens Ramesses even more than Meliodas. "I...I...I'm not sure. I need to back track. We were following those growling sounds from your guts."

Inuyasha throws the cat hard; "Never mind. I'll find my own way out!"

"Not on your own you're not!" says Willie; "unless you know your way around down here and can navigate the traps and magic, you can be lost forever. The ancient Egyptians and demons were no fools."

"Nobody tells me what to do?"

Meliodas finishes putting on his boots and tie. "That's better. Still a little chilly."

Inuyasha looks at him; "What's with those strange clothes? Are you from Kagome's Era in the late 20th century?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

Willie takes out the bottle that had contained the salt, which now has the three Shikon Jewel shards. Inuyasha snatches it from him.

"Give me thoughs! I need to get these to Kagome."

"I want to see;" Meliodas tries to look at the shards, Inuyasha pushes him away.

"Don't you dare touch them! It's because of you that we're stuck down here in the first place."

Meliodas is perplexed; "What do you mean? I have no idea how we got down here."

"You refused to give the me the jewel shards, then you turned into a mindless savage monster and fought me!"

Meliodas's jaw drops. He looks at Willie; "Is that true? Did I... lose control?"

The monk nods his head. Meliodas backs against a wall, buries his head in shame, and sits down.

"I hope you're happy with yourself!" barks Inuyasha.

"Lay off him;" responses Willie; "He didn't know what he was doing. Besides, you also went berserk."

"That was an accident!"

Willie kneels down to the dragon sin; "You didn't lose control Meliodas; it was those shards that did that to you. You didn't get angry at all."

Meliodas looks up sniffing, he actually has tears in his eyes.

"I didn't hurt anybody did I?"

"No, you didn't."

Meliodas breathes a siege of relief. "Thank goodness. Guess I shouldn't have touched them, like you said. I'm sorry Willie. I'm a real pain in the ass ain't I?"

Meliodas can't help but smile. Willie slaps his own head in annoyance. Inuyasha's thinking that he liked it better when he couldn't understand this guy.

"Let's let out of here already! Miroku's probably touching Kagome's ass as we speak. I'm going to kill him."

Meliodas stands up; "Sounds like somebody's jealous. Is this Kome your special girl?"

Inuyasha cringes both his fists; "That's Kagome! And NO, SHE'S NOT! We're just friends."

Meliodas smirks; "Doesn't sound like your just friends."

"SHUT UP! I dought she misses me at all."

"Do you guys want to get out of here or not?" asks Willie.

"Immediately," snaps the half-demon.

GROWLLLLLL! Meliodas rubs his stomach; "Yea please. Hey Willie..."

"Sorry Meliodas. Somebody else got to the fig juice and yogurt pistachios I got in town in your absence."

"Sorry;" says Ramesses sheepishly; "I was too sick and hungover to eat this morning, thanks to Meliodas."

The dragon sin gives the demon cat an angry glare.

"Oh, I almost forgot;" Willie removes a certain flea from Ramesses fur; "I believe this belongs with you, Master Inuyasha."

"Myoga?" Inuyasha takes him; "What are you doing here?"

"Same as you Master Inuyasha, lost and confused. I have a feeling we're not in Japan anymore."

"What do you mean we're not in Japan?"

"I'll explain on the way;" says Willie; "If this cat remembers his directions correctly."

"Do I have too? I've been exiled again;" informs Ramesses, who hadn't mentioned that before.

Willie sneers at him; "What did you do this time, try to sell the Demon Queen's ceremonial wine on the black market again?"

"That was last time."

"Good grief! She'll see me anyway."

They start to take off. Meliodas, who hadn't been paying attention, was leaning against the wall, with one hand holding his dizzy head and the other rubbing his grumbling belly.

"Meliodas!"

"Huh? Oh sorry. I'll get it together."

GROWLLLLLL!

"Ohhhh."

Inuyasha shakes his head; "We don't have time for this." He grabs Meliodas and puts him on his back again. "Now you won't be slowing us down. Let's go!"

"Master Inuyasha, I didn't know you had such a big heart."

"Shut up Myoga!"

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At Gangkhar Puensum, Merlin, King, Gelda, and Carmine are in battle with the bird-dragon yokai. They can tell she's in pain, and Carmine reaches out to her telepathically. She has three jewel shards in her, but unfortunately can't be still or calm down enough for her opponents to remove them. Nuri seems to have disappeared, and the mountain still has some tricks up its peak and continues to fight. The three Britannians are all still effected by their high-altitude sickness and are only barely at half strength. They are literally getting their butts kicked for a while, trying several different methods, until the yokai starts to show signs of weaking. Despite being overpowered by the shards, this environment is starting to wear her down. It takes Carmine and Merlin a few attempts to convince her telepathically to fight and stay still long enough for them target the shard points. Finally, she's able to be just that and the mage, fairy king, and vampire put everything they've got into those points and free her from the shards.

King and Gelda manage to land, then collapse. Merlin lands, doing everything in her power not to collapse, then walks towards Carmine. The yokai, which the priestess identifies as a phoenixgon (half-phoenix, half-dragon), shakes her head and comes to her senses. Carmine asks her what happened and if she knows what became of the blue dragon that guards the mountain. The phoenixgon, whose name is Norberta, briefly remembers a hostile human clan shooting those shards into her and her two siblings, to supposedly destroy enemy land, but things didn't go as planned. She's positive that they killed their attackers and fought some others, but the next thing she realizes is appearing in this nearly frozen environment and hearing Carmine in her head. Merlin, as well as King, can faintly feel some distributed power, similar to the power that brought them hear. Carmine is worried. Thinking that the blue dragon may have traded places with this creature, on Gangkhar Puensum and in the tundra, he's one of the most powerful dragons on Earth. Away from this environment, however, he can weaken rapidly. After clearing up where she is, Norberta is sad to be separated from and worried about her siblings, as well as weakened and exhausted, but she still should be able to fly a short distance.

Speaking of siblings, Merlin wonders where hers has gotten off too. Just then, there's a small explosion from the base of the mountain; Nuri shoots up and lands with the Chinese demon slayer, whose unconscious. She throws her towards Carmine; "That idiot." Gangkhar Puensum starts to calm down, and Norberta offers them all a ride back to base. Nuri says she appreciates the offer but prefers to go under her own power and takes off ahead of them. The others get on the phoenixgon, who allows Gelda to drink some of her blood. While not Zeldris's blood, it's certainly a whole lot better than that nasty yeti's.

Merlin looks back at the mysterious mountain. Her natural curiosity gets her wondering before she realizes she needs to concentrate on her sister. None the less, while Merlin had suspected it, she's really starting to theorize that there are some connecting gates to different locations, one being Japan. She wonders if there's a connection between all this and the Stone of Destiney, as well as with Nuri.

When they return to Camine's base, she discovers her crystal ball glowing. It contains at least 3 messages.

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Scout, the lady in pink, rides on the third phoenixgon, named Kaida, after removing two jewel shards from her. After grabbing Scout in Alexandera, Kaida launched into full speed, bypassing Cario and Luxor completely, and actually crossing the border into Sudan, all in less than seven minutes! By which time Scout managed to calm down the phoenixgon and remove the shards. To thank her, Kaida, communicating by telepathy, offered to take her wherever she needed to go. Scout also promised to help Kaida find her sister and brother and get them home. They fly back up the Nile over Luxor when Scout feels some extremely heavy disturbance. Knowing that this was one of the possible locations, she considers stopping and going to the Luxor's Coptic bishop when she feels the enormous power disturbance still in the atmosphere near the Valley of the Kings and Queens. Kaida also feels it and leftover phoenixgon and Shikon Jewel energy and wonders if her siblings are here.

There's no sign of Kaida's siblings, but after examining the area, Scout realizes that one energy presence feels nearly identical to that of Zeldris. To confirm her suspension, she examines blood stains left behind after the battle. Sensing that all the blood come from just two individuals, she gets to work. She pricks her own finger with her fingernail and allows her own blood to flow onto one of the stains. She places on hand on her heart and circles with the palm of her thumb over the spot seven times. Nothing happens. She tries the blood of the second individual, repeating same process. This time the blood mixes perfectly with her own and glows. THAT'S IT! She jumps for joy and does a twirl dance, praising God for bringing her here. She makes her decision. Scout knows exactly where she's going, but unfortunately, Kaida can't fit into the underground tunnels. She tells Kaida where to go to stay safe and where to get food and water. She informs the phoenixgon that she may be a day or two and hops underground as Kaida takes off. A few later, while she searches for the best way to break through the still unstable barrier, she hears voices. She returns to the surface to investigate.

"LAYLA!"

"Layla!"

"TREVOR! (Whistles)"

Scout spots what appears to be a search party. They are looking for a missing girl, as well as a dog. A man and woman embrace each other crying, probably the parents. From what the lady can hear, the girl had wondered off and went missing even before the phoenixgon clones appeared. Trevor, an Egyptian Armant herding dog and Layla's best friend, is believed to have gone off looking for her on his own. Scout's heart shakes for Layla and Trevor, and she feels sad for the parents. Her other search will have to wait. Unknown to the main party, she starts her own search, using both her spirit power and her tracking knowledge, as well as putting herself into the little girls, and even the dog's, shoes and paws. After more than an hour of searching the damaged ruins, she spots fresh dog tracks in the sand. The tracks lead to an opening into one of the tombs. As she approaches the entrance, a bark comes from inside. An Armant appears, this must be Trevor. He stares at the lady, senses something, comes to her, and jumps on her. He then gestures for her to enter the passageway. She follows Trevor until she hears a child crying. Trevor goes to 4-year-old Layla and urges her to look up. She sees the lady in pink and is frightened at first.

"Layla;" comes a sweet, gentle whisper from underneath0 the hijab. Trevor goes back to the Scout, let's her pet him on the head, then appears to be nodding at Layla. The little girl gets up limping, her is leg broken. Scout slightly moves forward slowly as the girl limbs towards her in tears. Layla falls into her arms; "I'm scared. Where's my mommy and daddy?" Trevor licks the tears off her ace as Scout touches her broke leg, suddenly, the pain is all gone. She has healed the leg. Layla looks at the fully covered face and tries to pull down Scout's hijab. She stops the girl from doing so but agrees to show a little of her face to the frighten girl. (Back facing the screen) Scout slowly lifts up her shades to show her eyes. Layla touches her now closes eyelids and the upper top of her nose to feel if they are real. Trevor then starts barking, a venomous desert snake has appeared. Scout puts the girl down, moves the dog back, and gently picks up the snake. The snake doesn't bite her, calms down, and she releases it outside of the rumble. She then carries Layla to the search party. Trevor runs ahead, barking excitedly. The party sees Trevor and Layla's father runs towards him. Trevor greets his master cheerfully then turns around and runs back the other way. The man follows with his wife close behind. They see Scout with Layla in her arms. They run towards and scoop up their daughter joyfully. The family enjoy a tearful reunion, and Layla tells her parents that Trevor had rescued her first then an angel found them. The grateful parents wish to thank their rescuer, but when they look, the mysterious lady in pink has disappeared.