AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok, this is my first time writing about an Anime series, and if you haven't guessed this story is a fanfic about the Darker Than Black series. It's what is called a "hit or miss" basically if you guys like it, and I get comments about it, Ill continue it, if not...I wont. So please let me know what you think. Also for those who KNOW the series, YES Hei will be making his appearance soon, and will be ALL over this story IF You want to see more of it that is.
I felt the front of my eye lids pull open in an instant and the large white light above me felt as though it were peering into my soul. I squinted harshly wanting it to simply go out or dim at least a little but instead it was constant, hovering above me as if it itself were watching me. I closed my eyes and groaned at the sight of the black floating dots that took the shape and position of the light that shined in my eyes before they closed. Moving my head to the side I could see nothing but a large white room, an empty room, with nothing but me on a hospital table. Was this a hospital? It didn't look like any hospital that I had ever seen before. Sitting up I could feel the pain of the wires that were attached to my head, wrists, arms, and legs and I instantly began pulling at them. Screaming loudly, I pulled continuously until I was sure there were none of them left. My body shivered, not from the harsh cool air that hit my body, but in a way that my nerves were telling me my body was once again under my control.
I pulled myself up and pushed myself off from the table and instantly felt the front side of my body collide towards the floor. I couldn't use my legs, why couldn't I use them? Running a hand through my hair I looked around the room again just to confirm my suspicion. This could not have been a hospital could it? Waking up in the middle of a room full of nothing, on a table slab, with a large mirror in front of me as if I were being watched by people who didn't want me to know them. I finally crawled over to the door and pulled myself up on the door knob and found myself angry when it wouldn't open. Glancing to the side I could easily see a key pad, so I was under observation and the only way out is if I were some kind of faculty.
For a moment I found myself beating on the keypad over and over until final a few sparks flew before the door simply opened .I smiled to myself in accomplishment and of course felt like a fool for having such a wide grin over opening a door. The outside of the room looked like a hospital, but it was also so strange because the doors weren't made like normal doors of a hospital. It was almost like extra security measurements were taken to keep whatever was locked away in those rooms, locked away; like a libratory. I felt myself stumble through the white, cold, and empty halls seeing nothing but doors like the one to my room that I felt so accomplished about opening.
I stopped in my tracks when I caught a glimpse of myself in a long and wide mirror that was built into a wall. I moved closer to it and ran my hands across my face and moved it through my hair. My light purple eyes seemed so dark when I looked at them now, and the dark, blackish blue hair that belonged to me, dangled past my shoulders and fell around my elbows, and it sat in complete contrast with my slightly pale skin. Who was I? Where was I? What year was it? Why couldn't I remember anything?
I tugged at the hospital gown that lay open on each side of me and wrinkled my nose as it when it began to slightly stick to my skin. It was strange how it nearly matched my skin when it came to the color, I was so pale. The sight of it made me feel kind of self conscious, but why? There didn't seem to be anyone around who would be in the slightest bit concerned about the tone of my skin. I felt my hand graze a piece of paper that seemed to be attached to the inside of the gown at the very bottom. From the look of it, it seemed to be a description.
"Jane Doe. Victim of close impacting wound to body, survival or materials from Heaven's gate. Experiment 2; Focus of light energy." dated 10 years ago along with a picture of what seemed to be, me. Why hadn't I aged? What did they mean by experiment 2 or light energy? And materials from Heaven's gate? What did all of this mean? What was going on? Why wasn't there anyone around for me to ask questions to? I placed a hand to my fore head and tried to remember something, but it was of no use. All my small memory could muster was a telescope, stars, and then an explosion that ended it all. If I was "asleep" for 10 years it would definitely explain the lack of color in my skin, and why I couldn't quite use my legs when I first got up earlier. I inspected the letter a little more only to see that it was signed by a symbol that read "syndicate" what was that? Are they the ones that kept me here like this? If so, why was the place so deserted like this? I watched slowly as I walked out of the large building and looked back at it as it gleamed in the starlight that hung above me. I bit my bottom lip and scratched the side of my head as I did not know that it had been this late already, especially with all the bright lights illuminating the entire building on the inside. I stumbled the streets for what felt like hours until I was noticed by two men who slightly stumbled themselves. The thought of them waking up in the hospital and being like me crossed my mind until I heard their slurred speech which indicated to me that they were clearly inebriated.
"You lost sweetie?" One of them asked. I wanted to say yes and pray that all he wanted was to give me proper directions but I knew full well that he wasn't interested in simply letting me walk away from him. I could feel my voice build up, as I wanted to speak, but I had a strange fear of what my voice would come out sounding like. So I simply nodded 'no' and continued to walk in the direction of them just like I originally was to begin with. Crossing my arms around my body, I passed the first one trying not to look as uncomfortable as I felt. Here I was wearing a hospital gown that was see through, and had no sides to cover up anything, while also not wearing under garments. I finally found myself walking past the first guy and my nerves finally eased as I rubbed my hands up and down my arms.
"You cold honey?" The other one asked grabbing at my forearm, so tight that I couldn't shake him loose.
"Let go of me." I finally responded and my voice came out so soothing at first that I doubted that it even belonged to me. It was fearless, nice, smooth, like there was a confidence beating behind it, a confidence that I knew for sure that I didn't have.
"Don't be shy." the other one recommended. I glared at him and tried to pull away from the other guy, but it didn't work. He pulled me closer to him and I could smell the boos on his breath and it quickly turned my stomach.
"Please, I don't want any trouble." I answered trying to reason with him.
"Now, wearing that, I find that hard to believe." He responded. I didn't have time for this, I needed to know who I was, where I was from, why I was here, and most apparent, I needed clothes because what I had on now clearly gave people the wrong idea. I found myself pulling away from him and having him forcefully pulling at me to the point where my response of pushing him away turned into me swatting at him as if he were some kind of insect in my face. I felt my hand come into contact with the fleshy tissue of his face and in return felt his fist collide with mine. I felt my body go slightly limp and his hand clamped around my throat.
"Yeah, hold her still." the other guy urged him on and began moving behind me. I could hear him fiddling with his clothes and I felt myself panicking and filling with anger. The anger made my hands burn beneath me and I finally looked him in the eyes.
"Let...me...go.." I responded hearing my soothing voice turn into one of complete rage that it scared even me. Suddenly a slightly clear force surrounded the space in front of me and sent the man holding my neck flying in the opposite direction. With his departure, a small gush of wind hit my face and pushed my dangling hair from my elbows and into the air for a few moments. Turning to face the man behind me I felt my anger rise up again and the energy from before, returned. Repeating the cycle from before, the man who had his hand glued to his belt trying to get it removed began flying back at an alarming rate. I looked down at my hands and felt my heart rate increase at a rate that I didn't think was humanly possible. What was I? What had I just done? How did I do it?
"Hey..." A small voice said from the deserted side walk to my right.
"Hey..." it repeated again and for a moment I still saw nothing until I finally noticed an old man standing in an alley way and wearing a white apron. I squinted in his direction trying to get a better look and only saw him tilting his head toward the alley way as if he were telling me to follow him. Normally I wouldn't plunge myself into danger by following a strange old man that I didn't know, but he had such a strange kindness about his face. His eyes looked honest and knowing like he genuinely wanted to help me. I could feel my legs slowly easing in to his direction and I could feel an instant rush of trust towards this man that I didn't even know. However, in a way I felt like I had known him once, that I trusted him, once. I could see that we were both walking towards a small diner, one that looked very popular with guests at the moment. I didn't wish to go in, I was already embarrassed for being dressed in a hospital gown, and on top of that, I had no idea who or what I was.
"What am I doing here?" I asked hearing my voice return to the soothing melody that it was early when I spoke. I stopped moving near the diner's entrance, afraid of being around so many people.
"Don't worry, they won't see you, we're going in through the staff entrance only." he assured me. I bit my bottom lip and decided to trust him again and followed him into the side entry of the diner and smiled when I realized we were indeed hidden from the rest of the public. Strolling through the side entry, we made our way up the stairs, and into a small room that rested above the diner. He held the door open for me, and closed it behind me after I entered.
"I have some of my granddaughters older clothes in here, they should fit you nicely you two seemed to be just about the same build." He nodded handing me a small pair of blue jean shorts, a black fitting t-shirt, and a pair of black shoes.
"Why are you helping me?" I asked while watching him place the clothes slowly on the bed in front of me and backing away slowly. He wasn't afraid of me was he? I mean I was just a girl, then again after seeing what I did to those men who could blame him. Was I really just a girl anymore, or was I something else entirely different. I will admit, I didn't kill those men, I just sent them flying away from me because they were going to do things far worse to me than I did to them.
"Do you know...who I am?" I asked another question since he seemed keen on not answering the first few.
"I can explain a few things after you're dressed." He nodded before walking to the door and backing out of the room, closing the door behind him. I spent most of my time gazing around the small, girl like room that I was in, and I couldn't help but smile. It seemed so homely, so at peace and here I was a stranger in its mists.
Instead of getting dressed I sat on the end of the bed, and momentarily there was a knock at the door. This time there was an older woman who entered, well within her 60's it seemed.
"Are you hungry?" She asked holding a plate of rice, curry, and orange chicken. I nodded no not wanting to be rude but the loud roar of my stomach embarrassingly gave me away. She only smiled and handed me a pair of chop sticks and a plate of food.
"Don't deny yourself food love; you need to get stronger, and to do that you need to eat." She smiled while straitening up a few things on the plate for me to see. She reached out a hand for my hair and I flinched slightly, and she seemed hurt by this. It wasn't anything personal I simply could not trust anyone, plus I had already gotten punched in the face earlier by someone.
"You know, I'm sure it could use a little wash, it should make it shine." She bargained. I could fill the look of utter cluelessness glued to my face, along with a large dose of innocence of what she was talking about. I pulled my hands to my hair and began stroking at it, and realized she was indeed right. A wash just might make it more attractive looking. I grew even more curious about her, about that man, about this place? What was it? Where was it?
"There's a shower in there." She said pointing to the bathroom. I couldn't disagree with her, I smelled like hospital but what did I expect after being asleep in one for over 10 years. Leading me to the bathroom, I watched her carefully as she turned on the warm water, adjusted the shower head for me, pulled out body wash, a towel, underwear, the clothes from the bed, lotion, tooth brush, tooth paste, shampoo, conditioner, and deodorant. I was curious to if I had ever received kindness like this in my previous life? I mashed my lips together and felt them twitch lightly as I tried to rearrange them to say the right thing.
"Thank you…." I muttered softly. She smiled at me and ran her hand across my cheek.
"Of course." She responded leaving the bathroom. Getting undressed was fairly easy considering all I had to do was yank at the hospital gown and it nearly fell to shreds to the bathroom floor. While finally stepping into the alluring hot water I could feel myself drifting into a state of complete and utter relaxation. Who knew my one and only weakness would be the steam hot waters of a shower. I had been asleep for over 10 years but I'm sure showers worked the same, a little soap here and there, shampoo for the hair, razor for the legs and other features, the tooth paste and brush for my teeth, and lastly the conditioner. The entire shower ritual made me feel like some sort of kid and I could feel that I was taking forever, but an ungroomed 10 year old body needed work.
Finally emerging from the shower was such a different experience for me, and I smiled at how much fog was clinging to the mirror because of my Hollywood shower. Putting on the deodorant, lotion, and clothes, I finally got to the bedroom to see the old man from before waiting there for me.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd think I was staring at a different person from before." He smiled crookedly.
"Thanks for the flattery, but I really need to know what you know." I stated bluntly. I was entirely grateful for everything he and his wife had done for me, but I needed to know why it was he was doing this, and what it was he knew about me. He seemed to look around the room for a moment before focusing his brown eyes on me.
"What do you know about contractors?" he asked raising a brow. I looked at him confused. I couldn't even remember my name let alone whatever it was he was talking about.
"I don't know anything about that mister. If you haven't noticed, I woke up in a deserted hospital, and I was roaming around the streets in a gown." I answered sarcastically.
"Contractors are individuals with super powers that became more apparent to the public when the new gate, called Hell's gate, was built. It was built shortly after the fall of Heaven's gate, and the Syndicate along with the government is keen on keeping the existence of contractors a secret. So keen that anyone who has any idea that contractors exist are put through a machine called ME that erases their memories of the entire substance of them." He informed me.
"ME?...Memory erase….could that be what happened to me?" I asked curiously.
"Your memories were uploaded into a machine and saved to a data disk that is owned by the Syndicate. I was prohibited to access it in my time of work, and after all these years I haven't the slightest idea of where it could be now, but my name is Dr. Mustang, and I was once assigned to your case." He nodded.
"Data disk? Is it possible that the Syndicate still has it?" I asked curiously.
"Of course. They would never lose something so delicate. However, it would take a hell of a lot for you to get to it. You'd have to have friends in much higher places than I." He admitted.
"What do you mean assigned to my case? What all can you tell me, about me I mean?" I asked.
"All I could access was that you were left for dead in a small town called Okinawa." He paused, and his face held so much pain before he continued.
"Left for dead?" I questioned. What kind of person was I?
"Yes. If you look slightly beneath your collar bone, near the center of your chest, you'll see a large, but healed gash." He spoke pointing to my chest.
"You were found with a large kitchen knife sticking out of that spot." He continued. I pressed my fingers to the spot and sure enough there was a lump of healing flesh there. Who would stab me and why?
"What else?" I asked. He looked away from me for a moment as if he were afraid to tell me more.
"I don't have time for the sentiments old man. Just tell me." I stated crossing my hands around my chest.
"Awhile back I worked for the Syndicate, I was a scientist, and we were on the breakthrough of trying to figure out a way to create a being with the same techniques as a contractor, just more human, easier to control. During the experiments we had to use actual human beings to test its accuracy. As a scientist I never asked or cared about where the patients came from, because they were usually runaways, or drug addicts, but when you crossed my desk, I had to know where you came from because I knew you were different."
"So that's what it meant…Experiment 2, light energy." I answered.
"Yes. You were infused with the ability to bend the light energy around you."
"So is that what I am, A contractor?" I asked.
"No, you're actually…" his words were trailed off by the sound of a loud blow below us, a blow that literally shook the floor beneath us. He stood up from the bed quickly and ran for the door to the room and looked over the stair way that lead to downstairs. He stood there for a moment before running back to the room and grabbing a gun from the top drawer of the desk in the corner.
"I knew it wouldn't take much time before they knew of your waking." He stated with a voice of complete aggravation.
"Who?" I asked curiously.
"We don't have a lot of time." He answered grabbing a small bag of clothes for me in a satual bag and pushing it over my shoulder.
"Listen to me, you need to get out of this place, out of this town. Change your appearance, make up a name, and start over. If you're desperate to know about who you are….what you are…you must find a way to involve yourself with the Syndicate. The only way you can infiltrate them is by working within them, make them trust you, and go from there. Being what you are, you could easily get a job with them, they will hire you to most likely destroy contractors because they seem to see them as a threat, but no one can know of this identity. Don't trust anyone, and do not let on about what you know. I wish I could tell you more but there is no time, I am so sorry about what I was forced to do to you." He answered running his hand across my cheek before turning back to the door of the room.
"Get out." He urged pushing me to the window. I didn't know what to do, or what to say. He only had one gun against many men, he wasn't going to make it. He turned to face me then smiled and I knew full well that surviving wasn't something that he had counted on.
"I forgive you." I muttered pulling myself through the window and down through the fire escape. Pulling the grip of the bag closer to my chest I began running until I could feel my lungs burn inside me, and beg for me to stop, but I didn't. I finally realized what it was I had to do, infiltrate the Syndicate, and possibly become an assassin so that I could get my hands on that data disk and Dr. Mustang's research. I had to know where I came from, what I had become, and what happened to me. Without knowledge of my past, I was simply an empty shell roaming around these cities with nothing to live for. Besides, it was clear that I would never live a normal life, especially with these Syndicate people knowing that I've awakened. Apparently, I was important to them, and they just became number one on the top of my list of finding out the truth.
When I reached the out skirts of the city I finally stopped running and began taking a few deep breaths while looking back at the city. All I could see clearly was the dark and polluted smoke that erupted from the spot in which the diner I just ran from rested. It became clear to me at that one moment that the syndicate didn't want me to know something, and I was going to find out what it was.
Taking another deep breath I looked up at the artificial stars and set my sights on the bigger picture, the future, the truth. Placing one foot in front of the other I began walking in the same direction, hoping to get somewhere far, far enough for me to settle down somewhere, and get in touch with the syndicate for 'work.' I hope the Syndicate is ready, because this, this meant war.