DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING. Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, and Origin: Spirits of the Past belongs to Sugiyama and Gonzo Studios. I only have this meager plot bunny and my OC.
Hi! Bunbun here!
First of all, thanks if you're checking this out. This is my first Naruto fanfiction, so I won't bore you with too much introduction.
This first chapter draws elements heavily from the movie Origin: Spirits of the Past.
Original Post: 13 June 2016
UPDATED: 10 August 2017
"Misaka! Hurry!"
Red lights flashed, illuminating the dark in rhythmic intervals.
The break in darkness, dizzying but tolerable to those running down the narrow stairwell.
A rumble shakes the reinforced metal of the facility.
There are yells echoing off the walls as people stop their harried descent to grip the railings running on either side of the stairs—their only path to survival. In the moment of shaking, however, some continued to fling themselves forward, hurtling down the stairs in hopes of reaching the stasis pods at the bottom.
Shoulders, hands, elbows and bodies shoved into Misaka. In the flashing lights and darkness, her sweaty hand slipped from the railing.
A scream ripped from her dry throat, cut short by a thin hand tightly grabbing her wrist and yanking her against the pull of the other panicked crowd.
She registered a pop and a dull pain before her body was pressed close to that of her companion. Misaka shifted her grip and held tight to Kimi, her sweaty palm gripping the other girl's lest they lose one another in the pandemonium.
With a nod of her head, the other girl shoved off the wall, throwing them into the rushing masses. Misaka stuck close, only looking ahead of her as they navigated through the tightness of the crowd around them.
Everyone was rushing, fleeting down into the earth.
"There!" Kimi gasped out, tugging her friend's wrist and pointing her finger down a corridor to the right.
Misaka squawked as her friend's sudden forward momentum when they took a sharp right. The movement pulled at her aching wrist and shoulder. Her body protested only for a moment before she followed Kimi's lead to their designated corridor.
"Sub-level Q! This way!" Kimi shouted over the blaring alarms.
Misaka glanced down, double checking her flashing wristband. The small LED screen confirmed the direction as correct, so the two friends tore down the hallway towards their designated stasis pods.
Around them, it was less congested as the winding corridors took them away from the central stairs.
The two friends didn't exchange any words as they looked at the doors, searching for their stasis room.
Others dashed around them, few talking in the tense atmosphere. The silence was broken only by the occasional emergency light or the desperate shouting of people.
Before Misaka could linger on such things, the inner corridor they were standing in began to tremble.
Behind them, the collective panic raised to screams and shrieks of terror, distracting them from going into their nesting chamber.
The two girls looked back in that moment, the world trembling around them, the tension palpable on their tongues, the situation starting to weigh on their shoulders. Distant booms were heard and the complex around them began to tremble and shudder less sporadically. It was getting closer.
Misaka snapped out of the fear-induced daze when a personnel, the first they've seen since they entered the inner sanctum of the complex, rushed out and looked up and down the halls checking for stragglers. The personnel spotted them.
In a clipped, panicked tone, the brown haired man asked, "Do you two belong to quadrant Q?!" Perhaps it was meant to come out calmer, however, they could all sense the shift in atmosphere.
The booms sounded closer. More people darted into the hall they were standing in.
As things were, people would rather take any pod they could find than try and reach their proper designated place further below.
"Yes!" Misaka and her friend answered the man in harried sync.
Before they could protest or speak, the employee yanked them inside and slammed the door shut, activating the automatic shut-down sequence.
Metal gears turned and slid thick metal beams into place. Hydraulics locked them with a thunk and cling sound. He closed a second door, twisting a wheel. It hissed as it sunk into the metal door, vacuum sealing them inside.
Now, no outside elements, people, or entities could get in.
He whipped around to the two girls standing in front of him. "You have to go. Now."
They looked at him incredulously. "But, w-where do we even-?!" Kimi started, but the man cut her off, shaking his head and gestured for them to follow him.
"This way." His long stride carried him swiftly to the nesting chambers where the stasis pods were kept.
The girls wasted no time in following him.
"Do you know the protocols for ES-Sleep?" He asked them as they approached the antechamber where people left their belongings before entering the stasis pods.
They nodded, entering the chamber behind him. He nodded, glad to save time.
"Then begin following procedu-," he was cut off by the electricity flickering.
For a moment, they held their breath.
The generators powered ventilation responsible for cycling clean air into the deep underground facility. Without it, thousands woulds suffocate.
Power flow paused momentarily before restarting.
All three looked on, wide-eyed before the man cursed and began to type away at a near-by console.
"There's no time to follow procedures. Both of you, go to the pods and get in. On the inside of the lids are panels that will begin the emergency sequence once the hatch closes."
There was a faint rumbling coming from the cavernous room they were in. The ceiling trembled, sounding like thunder high above their heads.
He cursed again and knocked harshly on the metal terminal under his hands.
"GO! As long as the hatch closes, automatic sequences will handle everything else. Now, HURRY!" He bellowed, eyes wide with nervous energy.
The girls rushed from the last semblance of authority and ran to their pods.
The next few minutes felt like decades as the ceiling trembled and the air became colder the further down in the nesting chamber they went. Inside other chambers, people rested in various states of ES-Sleep.
The glass on some were fully covered in the fog of the stasis fluids, while others were only partially covered. They could see the expressions of fear, anger, and confusion lingering on people's faces.
When the power flickered again, a boom sounded overhead, far above in the corridors. Kimi shrieked, eyes becoming crazed in desperation. The lump of anxiety in Misaka's throat grew.
The girls hastened their efforts, tears pressing behind their eyelids as they looked for open stasis chambers.
It seemed people had begun taking any open pods there were. Blood smeared a few pods where people fought for them, while scratches marred the metal and glass casing of others.
Every human was desperate against the coming threat. The only hope was to get into a stasis pod. Inside the pod—in stasis—they were safe.
The slim chance of waking up when this disaster passed was the only thing pushing Misaka and Kimi.
"There!" Her friend cried out, relief heavy in her voice.
They were nearing the bottom, but there in front of them were two stasis pods, jutting out from the central cluster, waiting to be used.
Kimi waisted no time, shucking her bag and shoes before climbing into the open hatch.
"Come on!" She waved, bodily leaning out of the casing.
Misaka nodded, her heart thumping in her chest. Following her friend, she shakily approached the next one. Before Kimi's hatch could close fully, the two friends locked gazes: blue meeting hazel, exchanging more words and emotions than they could hope to describe. With a hiss, the hatch closed and filled with stasis fluids.
Now alone, Misaka's anxiety started to press down on her. However, she shook it
off and eased into the stasis pod one down from her friend.
Misaka couldn't help but try in vain and adjust herself against the padding that lined the inside of the pod. Finding no true comfort, she reached out to clasp the inner handle to her own pod. However….
"No… No. NO!"
Resistance. She began to yank the door, the metal unyielding to her strength.
"Oh KAMI! NO! PLEASE."
Her wild eyes swept over the seam for the hatch, looking for any obstruction. Air began to leave her in quick, sharp gasps as she tried and tried to yank the door shut.
The hatch budged fractionally with a groan when her wrist and shoulder protested in pain.
Misaka had tears of frustration sliding down her cheeks as she pulled with her weight. She braced her feet on the bottom and heaved, almost arching her back trying to leverage the hatch shut.
Before she could make progress, one of her sweaty socks caught the metal edge and slipped, causing her to slide and stumble out of the stasis pod and onto the platform before her.
With a bruised chin and bitten tongue, she quickly scrambled to her feet, ready to jump in. She paused as she unexpectedly met dark eyes from inside the pod.
Time froze in that moment.
The artificial brightness from the emergency lighting filled their immediate area.
The personnel employee from before gazed at her with one hand on the inner handle of the hatch. His sweat covered face caused brown hair to plaster to his forehead. His dark eyes flashed in primal desperation and determination. She saw the finality of his choice as her protest ripped from her throat.
She launched off the floor the same moment he slammed the door to the pod-HER POD!-shut and click with a hiss.
"NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"
She landed bodily on the casing. Balled up fists banged the glass and metal. Tears flowed from hazel eyes, bright with fear.
A weird ringing sound filled her ears as the banging from the metal doors levels above became more insistent.
Her fists repeatedly slammed into the glass structure and the two locked gazes: one desperate and disbelieving, the other determined and final.
As the liquid rose over his nose he closed his eyes and allowed the fluids to encase him safely in their frozen grasp.
She choked back sobs as a numbness filled her.
Misaka glanced wildly, first at her friend resting in her pod, then up and down their cluster, hoping to find another open stasis pod. There were none.
She backed away then turned and ran down the stairs lining either side of the row.
Socked feet rushed down the stairs as the lights above began to turn off. The power flow began the transition to conserve energy for the systems controlling the stasis pods.
Her palm rest against the metal wall beside her as her eyes darted around desperately.
A sudden rumble rocked the floor under her feet before shifting violently. She squawked in surprise, however it quickly turned into a scream of fear and pain as she was plunged into darkness and her body went flying.
Her shoulder slammed into a metal stair with a loud crunch and snapping noise, before another tremor flung her off again.
She screamed again as her vision swam, her body rolling down dozens of metal steps before stopping at the bottom. This time, her head hit a wall.
Misaka panted, shaking as she tried to gain her bearing.
Her hair had long since fallen out of it's ponytail, now resting across her face, neck and shoulders. Her head ached from where her skull met the wall.
She slowly shifted her spotty gaze around, first at the metal platform under her nose, then to her arm stretched out in front of her. She whimpered as she shifted the hand caught under her torso, pushing to sit up. A sharp tinge shot from her neck to her wrist, causing her to drop suddenly from the pain.
She looked up at the flashing emergency lights, shivering from the cold temperature at the bowels of the nesting chamber.
Dully, she noted that sometime in her fall, she had reached bottom and the rumbling had stopped.
A beep caused her to look at her surely sprained or broken wrist, reminding her of her search for a stasis pod. She rolled her body to her good side, braced herself, then pushed herself up with a grunt and yelp of pain.
Her hip, back and legs almost gave out from under her, protesting from where they banged on the stairs. However, she held her injured arm tightly to her person and pushed off the wall, stepping down slightly onto the final platform.
The quiet echo of cotton socks on metal echoed around her as she half-limped, half-shuffled down the row of pods.
There!
A sob of relief left her as she finally spotted an open stasis pod, emphasized by the shut, dark ones surrounding it.
The exhausted girl leaned bodily against the pod. First, she eased her upper body in, reaching out her good arm inside. Using it to brace herself, she was able to lift her feet, one a a time into the pod.
"Thank Kami-sama…" She panted, voice cracking slightly.
She was tired, sweaty, and scared.
But she made it to a pod.
She would make it.
Resting back against the stability of her chamber, she once again opened her eyes and looked at the inside of the door, staring at the hatch.
For a few moments she hesitated, remembering her last experience. (Dark brown eyes, determined and final, flashed in her mind.)
However, she was tired and sore and wanted to see Kimi again.
With those thoughts in mind, she grasped the handle and tugged heavily.
Luck was on her side for the hatch shut easily and quickly with the familiar hiss and click.
"Yes!" she yelled out, her head dropping back onto the padding with a dull thump as she felt the fluids begin to fill her chamber and decompress.
Opening her eyes to catch a final glimpse of her world, she gasped and froze. She trembled.
The fluids rose to her chest. She was filled with an instantaneous numbness that chilled to her bones. Her heart rate slowed as the blood was frozen in her veins by the fluid.
As she looked outside the fogging glass of her stasis pod, hazel eyes locked with glowing eyes. An insistent tugging pulled at the back of her mind.
OpEn.
(Glowing eyes. Disaster. The cause of everything.)
The tugging increased.
lEt iN.
A sensation, a caress brushed against her psyche.
DesISt ReSistANCE.
A silent scream left her chapped lips as IT raised a limb to the glass.
The fluids rose to her chin.
She whimpered, knowing it couldn't get her, knowing she couldn't move away.
Glowing eyes stared harder. A particularly sharp tug at the back of her mind caused a gasp to leave her.
She had a sudden realization: the creature was trying to connect with her!
Fluids rushed passed her parted lips, filling her lungs and throat, making her want to flail. Below her mouth, the thick fluids compress her body to the padding preventing her from moving.
A hiss filled her ears as the chamber finished decompressing. Tears stung the back of her eyes as the fluid climbed to her eyes.
Through haze and fog on the glass, purple glowing eyes pressed shined through, pressing against the pod. The insistent tugging in her mind increased to a painful throb before something snapped.
Misaka's thoughts slowed, becoming a dull buzz. Her body functions slowed, becoming sluggish. She was enveloped in the stasis fluids.
She entered ES-sleep with bright purple eyes, and a tug deep in her mind unaware of the changes occurring to her world.
CHOSEN.
A/N: Hello again! Sorry if this was confusing. The first few chapters will be background and introduce things. It'll get to something recognizable soon!
Thanks for reading, feel free to review!