Sorry for the wait! Disclaimer: Dawn
It's all black. Or rather, nothingness that I imagine is black. No sight, no feeling, no sound, no scent. Just a whole lot of nothing. And the dreams. I dream a lot. Most of the time they're more like memories drudged up from some dark, secret place that I never go willingly. I'm caged, mind and emotions subdued. Restraints on everything. It's all about controlling the beast.
There are dreams. Horrible, angry, painful dreams. Then, long periods of nothing at all. Just the void inside my head.
The first thing I notice is the smell.
There is nothing, and then…this scent is suddenly here. It wends its lazy way from my nose to my mind, the first thing that has been for so long. My brain is struggling to keep up, but the scent is there.
It's… soft. Feminine. Young. Angry.
Blood.
Ears kick in. Soft footsteps.
Coming closer. Plastic rustles.
Gasp.
Soft. Feminine. Young. Scared.
"Oh, my God."
Closer. Closer.
ZAP!
"OW! Damnit!"
The dust wears off the old cogs and things begin to sink in. All I have is scent and sound, though; the inhibitors are still on. The anger, fear, shock…far away.
Suddenly, the scent is very, very close.
I feel a hand on my cheek.
A hand on my ear.
Soft. Feminine. Young. Sad.
Then everything happens at once.
Pain; spinal implants wrench away; pain; youki unfurls; ears twitch; pain; inhibitors drop; mind clears. Pain.
Eyes snap open.
She's shocked.
And so am I.
She dropped the plastic sheet with a gasp when she saw him. A young man, strapped up against the wall, wires and cords all over him. His head was bowed and limbs spreadeagled, in possibly the most humiliating position she could imagine.
He was youkai. She could tell. The silver hair and animal ears rather gave it away. But why was he holed up in some empty warehouse? Why was he unconscious? What were all those wires for? Who was he?
She took another step towards him, staring at his neck. A huge wire ran around to the back of it on top of his hair, and with the angle of his head, she could see how it sank into his spinal cord at the base of his skull. What on earth…
ZAP!
"Ow! Damnit!"
Kagome squinted to try to see what had just shocked her outstretched hand. Resisting the urge to stamp a foot, she concentrated, trying to see if it were a motion beam, and if so, where it came from.
Her eyes narrowed. She could not see a beam but…she felt…something. Suddenly, it just fell away in her mind, so she tentatively reached a hand out again. Relieved when nothing shocked her, she resumed her slow approach.
She could see the wires everywhere on his skin, now. In his legs, arms, chest… He was wearing nothing except a few rather strategically placed restraint straps, but that did not embarrass her, merely disturbed her more. Her skin crawled and she felt vaguely ill, just as she had in the security building at the image of the contained youkai. This one wasn't just contained: he was completely controlled. And she did not like it.
Her hand cupped his cheek gently. The skin was golden and smooth, and oddly warm.
So he was alive.
Her eyes slid helplessly up to the little silver ears buried in his hair. Her hand followed her gaze's trail, before gently stroking the soft fur.
She felt like crying, or throwing up, or squealing in ridiculous childish joy. Her head and heart were in a whirlwind. His fur was so soft; it was amazing. And yet…here he was, strapped to a wall, naked, with wires sticking into him everywhere, unconscious.
It was heartbreaking, the whole situation was. The youkai in the cells, this boy right in front of her. It was terrible, and she hated it. Her natural empathy made her imagine how she herself would feel, having her dignity and free will ripped away from her, being nothing more than an aberration to be controlled or eliminated. What if she was the one naked, restrained, with more wires in her than a television?
Her brow furrowed and her eyes filled with tears even as her will solidified. If there were anything she could do about it…
Suddenly, the pressure began to build again in her skull. She began to panic, but just as abruptly the feeling released. Before she had time to wonder, things began to happen very quickly.
A wire landed on her foot and bounced off to the floor with a clatter. The rest of them followed in a hail, leaving red circles and welts behind on the boy's brown skin. There was a sound like a drill and then the cord into his spinal cord fell, too.
The ear that her hand was touching twitched.
The youkai's eyes opened.
It had been a long time. I'm not even sure how long.
But how could I possibly forget that face?
The blue eyes don't register, staring in shock and utter confusion up at me in a face that's way too innocent.
I just know that she looked like the woman who killed me.
I snarl, my head jerking forward to try and snap at her. The belt restraints across my body are still intact, reinforced by miko energy that's impossible for me to break. That doesn't stop me trying though. I thrash and fight, desperate to tear myself free.
The girl steps back with a scream, her eyes huge and terrified, and covers her head with her hands. When she feels no pain, an eye opens, then she stares at me as I struggle.
Finally, I stop. My stamina is terrible. That little workout has wiped me out.
So instead, I growl.
Kagome's heart was thundering a mile a minute as the youkai growled viciously at her. He had stopped struggling, thankfully, but she did not understand why he had not been able to break free. He was still suspended from the wall, and the restraints were still on.
All of them. Ahem.
She jerked her eyes back up to his face, which was fixed in a furious snarl while he glowered and growled at her. For the first time, she noticed his eyes.
They were golden, the most beautiful shade she had ever seen. Her fear forgotten, she stared, mesmerised by the shifting colours and intense emotion in them. He was so angry… well, she would be, too, she knew.
"What the fuck are you staring at, Kikyou? Come to finish the job?"
What? Kagome's eyebrows shot up and she blinked. Who on earth was Kikyou? She turned around apprehensively, seeing if there was anyone there.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you, bitch."
She whirled back around, a scowl on her face. She was most definitely not in the mood to be insulted.
It had been a very long day.
"Look, I don't know who this Kikyou person is, but don't you dare call me a bitch. I've only just met you!"
He blinked and for a moment looked utterly pained, heartbroken, vulnerable. Her indignation faltered and her voice was hesitant. "Who…who are you, anyway?"
The snarl was back on his face in an instant, the shock and other emotions masked under anger, but not before she saw them flash across his face.
"Listen, bitch-"
"SLAVER!!!
Kagome screamed, the colour draining from her face as it contorted in terror. A colossal crash rocked the building and she fell forward onto the youth's body. She hid her face in his chest, oblivious to his reaction, to anything except the pounding of her heart and the fear washing over her in thick waves.
The plastic sheets were torn from the beams. Kagome dared a peek, and froze as the centipede youkai grinned hungrily at her.
"Thought you could escape me, Slaver? Clever trick, shielding the building, but it wore off. Now I can have the pleasure of eating you. Limb by skinny little limb."
Her head jerked suddenly as she sniffed, surprise evident on her pale face. Black eyes slid to the still-bound boy on the wall. "Hanyou?"
He sneered, lifting the corner of his mouth with a growl. "What's it to you?"
The centipede youkai lifted an eyebrow. "A hanyou, bound? What a pathetic sight to see," she scoffed, her tone dripping with derision.
He snarled in return, renewing his struggles against the straps that held him. She smiled mockingly at him before returning her gaze to the stunned Kagome.
The hanyou stilled, his eyes widening as a realization hit him. Quickly, he lowered his head to Kagome's and whispered, "Oi wench. You wanna get out of this alive, you're gonna have to get me outta this."
Kagome's head snapped around to stare at him. "W-what?"
His stare was intent. "You woke me up. Now let me out. Or else that bitch is gonna eat you."
Her mouth opened and closed like a guppy, her eyes huge with fear and confusion.
She needed more prodding, he decided. "Do you wanna die?"
The centipede youkai roared behind them. "As touching as this is, I grow hungry! Die, Slaver!"
Time seemed to slow down for Kagome. The scuttling of hundreds of legs behind her dimmed, and all she could see was the youth. The pressure inside her head began to build for the third time that day, and her hand shot out to grab hold of the strap across his chest. Her eyes screwed shut as the pressure built, the pain behind her eyes almost unbearable. She pulled with all her might, feeling the strap rip under her hands.
"I want to live!"
With a feral grin, the boy knocked her aside. She sprawled on the hard floor, getting more bruises on top of her bruises. The centipede youkai halted in mid leap, her forelegs clicking apprehensively as she assessed the threat of the hanyou. His grin widened, eyes glinting, as he twisted his shoulders and back with obscene popping sounds. Finally he stared hungrily at the centipede youkai, cracked his knuckled and brandished his claws. His eyes challenged her, and with a roar, she accepted.
Kagome cowered on the floor, rapt with morbid fascination as the fight began. The hanyou chuckled lowly as the centipede youkai launched herself at him, all four hands grasping and pale face twisted in rage. Kagome gasped as he launched himself off the ground, twisting in midair with easy grace. His claws flashed as he drew back his arm and swiped the empty air in front of him.
"Sankontessou!"
Curves of golden energy sliced towards the centipede youkai, who shrieked as they hit her, slicing her chest and body segments. Dark blood flew through the air and the hanyou grinned cockily. She glowered furiously at him, teeth bared in rage, and screeched as she flung herself forward, arms extended.
The hanyou touched down on the far side of the empty warehouse, legs flexing as he propelled himself skyward once more. The centipede youkai made a grab for him with a roar, but he pushed off the warehouse wall an instant before she caught him. Carried forward by her momentum, she crashed through the roof.
Kagome screamed and covered her head as the steel beams began to collapse around her. The central beam crashed to earth with a bone-rattling thud not a metre away from her. She screamed again, corrugated iron sheets raining down. Desperately she swept her gaze around her, searching for something to hide under.
The youth launched himself forward for another swipe at the centipede youkai's chest. She screamed her outrage and pain as he ripped through the pale flesh, the cocky grin still on his face. With a flashy twist, he flipped backwards out of her reach, pushing off a beam that leant from the remains of the roof to the ground.
The centipede youkai retreated, drawing back into a corner and watching him with wary, if furious, eyes. He ignored her for the moment, instead casting his eyes about in search of something completely different.
Kagome's eyes felt like they were going to fall out of her head.
Maybe it was the stress. She had been running for her life most of the day. Her emotions had been toyed with like a yoyo. She was fairly sure that therapy of some kind would be necessary to deal with her certain to be considerable posttraumatic stress.
Whatever the reason, no matter the fact that this hanyou boy was now running around yelling and slashing things mere minutes after being released from something horrible, despite the fact that the bloodthirsty centipede youkai who was out to get her was mere metres away, not even mentioning the fact that a building had just fallen down around her.
She was blushing at seeing a guy naked.
---and how!
He had pulled the sheet of corrugated iron from atop her, then the red shirt that she had found and covered her head with, and stood there staring, as bare as the day he was born. More, probably: no amniotic fluid in sight. She had nearly fainted as she desperately backed away from him, sure her face was nicely impersonating a beetroot. With supreme effort she dragged her eyes up to his face. Eventually.
His snarl showed that he had obviously seen her seeing what really should not be seen at all. She screamed, long and loud, not really sure why she was doing anything of the sort. Damn hormones. He snarled again, face furious, and she suddenly remembered the fact that he had very sharp claws that were very recently engaged in ripping a youkai apart.
And where the hell were the pants to go with that shirt?!
Words could not describe her relief when he tugged said item out from underneath another piece of the erstwhile roof. The fire in her face only mildly subsided, however. Her memory and imagination were now working overtime, making helpful little comments along the way.
When had she turned into a pervert?!
The youth turned his glare on the centipede youkai, quickly clothed, to a fashion. Before Kagome could blink he launched himself over the debris covering the warehouse floor, claws extended for battle once more. His opponent roared in return, eyes flashing with hatred, and she started to charge towards him. The two youkai clashed in the middle of the warehouse above the debris. The action was fast, and Kagome could hardly keep track of the blows. From what she could see, though, the hanyou was winning.
His claws ripped into the hard body of the centipede youkai again and again, jumping around her as if gravity meant nothing. A pale arm snaked out and grabbed his ankle, yanking him towards the ground. Kagome winced in sympathy as the centipede bit into his shoulder. With an angry yell, he shoved away from her, leaving some flesh behind in the process. Another feral grin graced his face as he flew backwards, and he dipped his claws in the bleeding wound.
"Hijin Kessou!"
Red crescents slashed through the rough chitin of her body, eliciting yet another enraged screech. Suddenly, the centipede youkai broke away from the fight and tore towards Kagome, all four arms extended and face a grimace of hideous rage. Kagome screamed in terror, able to do nothing else as her death scuttled towards her….
…and then the hanyou was in front of her, claws extended. With a snarl, he rocketed towards his opponent. Razor sharp claws caught the underside of the centipede youkai's neck, his momentum carrying him onwards, ripping her long body apart, rather neatly, right down the middle. Dark blood sprayed over the rubble and the centipede youkai thudded to the ground, her face frozen in shock and horror as it fell at Kagome's feet.
A scream tried to escape from the schoolgirl's throat, but she found herself with nothing but a strangled hoarse whimper. The macabre sight before held her gaze, transfixed and horrified, and she could do little but stare and hiccup panicked little breaths.
Finally the hanyou landed in front of her again, blocking her view of the corpse. Her tear-filled eyes slid up to meet his, narrowed in a cocky grin. It faltered slightly at her stricken expression, and his features melted into a snarl.
She squeaked in alarm and tried to back up, but the uneven floor of the warehouse betrayed her, and she landed with a grunt on her backside. Her terrified eyes stared, lower lip trembling, as he advanced on her.
"HOLD IT!"
The characteristic snick of safeties being slid aside and guns being cocked filled the overwhelmed silence. The hanyou froze, his furry ears swivelling like satellite dishes, cataloguing the various sounds and their origins, numbering the soldiers that were closing in on him.
Dizziness swept over Kagome as the adrenaline began to wear off. She passed her gaze around the warehouse. Soldiers with guns carefully trained on the hanyou youth were advancing cautiously, fanning out to surround him. His eyes were dark, shadowed, and she had a very bad feeling about what was going to happen. To him or the soldiers, she was not quite sure.
Scrambling to her feet, she launched herself at him, ignoring his shock as she wrapped her arms around his torso with an iron grip.
"Stop it! He's the one who saved me!"
The hanyou was staring at her, eyes wide, but she only tightened her arms. "Put your guns up! I mean it!"
They ignored her, and for the second time that day, she pulled rank. "Class D's! Put your guns up!"
A ripple passed through them and they obeyed immediately. A superior was giving orders. That was good. That was normal. Normality had been in short supply that day, and they clung to it whenever it presented itself.
She breathed a sigh of relief, and dropped her arms. Maybe now she could just go home.
"Class D's, train your guns on that hanyou."
Kagome spun, her eyes falling on a neatly dressed woman standing perfectly straight just in front of the warehouse entrance.
"Captain Ai!"
The woman's cool brown gaze met Kagome's. She smiled thinly when the soldiers obeyed her.
"You may be Class A, Higurashi Kagome, but nonetheless, I still outrank you," she drawled smugly as she began picking her way briskly but carefully towards the frozen schoolgirl. She paused halfway from the door and extended a hand. "You will come with me, now."
Kagome remained where she was. Her rebellious streak had already surfaced today, and she just could not bring herself to obey. From somewhere she had no idea previously had existed within her, she pulled more resolve and strength, desperately willing her legs not to give out on her now. "Why?"
Ai's eyes flashed in anger. "Do not question me," she hissed coldly.
Still Kagome did not move. She knew, somewhere inside her confused and exhausted mind, that she was only cementing her punishment, but she just could not help herself. Or rather, she refused to help this woman. "Why should I go with you?"
The angry scowl on Ai's face promised retribution, but she bit out, "You must begin your training."
Kagome was startled. "Training?"
Ai smiled very unpleasantly, her head tilting to the side patronisingly as her eyes narrowed again. "Yes, training. Your spiritual powers have awoken. You must begin your training."
The bottom dropped out of her stomach. Spiritual powers… that meant… "Wha…What? No!"
Ai's smile vanished, replaced by a hard glare. "You have no choice. You will be implanted with a neural inhibitor microchip tomorrow. Your family will be informed and will not look for you. You will become a Slaver."
A Slaver.
Kagome's shoulders slumped and the strength dissolved from her body. She felt numb, as if she were going to fall down onto the rubble and never get up ever again.
How could she possibly be a Slaver? She knew as well as everyone that they were born, not made. And she had been born as one? Impossible. Fate could not possibly be that cruel. This was the absolute worst fate she could have ever envisioned for herself.
Tomorrow, she would be as good as dead. To her family, she would be dead. The families of Slavers always thought as much.
"But how… how do you know?"
Ai smiled again, just as nastily. "You think that the chaos today was any kind of accident? The doors reacted to your power awakening. You let the youkai out."
The unspoken words rang clear and terrifying in Kagome's mind as the day's happenings slotted into place. 'It's all your fault. You're the reason those people are dead, those youkai are dead. It's all your fault. You killed them.' The bodies in the foyer, the courtyard, youkai and human alike.
All her fault.
She sunk down onto her knees, fighting the incredibly strong urge to throw up. Her hands slipped down the fabric of the youth's hastily found clothes, and she lifted her head to stare at Ai again with dull eyes.
"What will happen to him?" she asked in a tiny voice. For some reason, she had to know this hanyou's fate, too. Some morbid fascination with how they would end up, after she had freed him and he had saved her. Maybe they would strap him up again. Maybe they would chip him, too. How ironic would that be?
It struck her suddenly that she did not even know his name.
Ai's lips curved in a small sneer. "The hanyou? He will meet the same fate as any half-breed. He will be eliminated."
Kagome felt the hanyou beside her tense, and her mind made itself up immediately. In some dim, detached part of her mind that had retreated several minutes ago in gibbering terror, she screamed at herself. There was no choice. If the Sphere said that you would become a Slaver, then a Slaver you would become.
There was never any choice.
Nonetheless, she forced herself to her feet. Her leg muscles were trembling and she was light-headed, but she met Ai's gaze with an implacable one of her own.
"No." Her voice was far stronger than she had anticipated, and she began to believe herself. Maybe she could get out of this.
Ai blinked. "What?"
Kagome lifted her chin. "I'm not going with you. I won't become a Slaver." Her mother would have never forgiven her for lying down and taking this. She would make her Mama proud of her, even if she never knew.
Ai's jaw dropped, the slack muscles of her cheek twitching slightly. Regaining her composure almost instantly, she sneered again. "You think you have a choice?"
Kagome never dropped her gaze. "I know I don't. But I won't go without one hell of a fight."
Ai's lips pursed together, then with a splutter she laughed aloud. Her voice was derisive and patronising, and not a small bit disbelieving as she cast Kagome a pitying look. "You absolute idiot. You think that you could possibly put up any sort of struggle? We'll shoot you with a tranquilliser, and you'll wake up with a chip in your head. I'm offering you a chance to make this easier on yourself. I'll even let you call your family. So step away from the hanyou and accept your fate."
Something clicked in Kagome's brain, and her eyes narrowed. A slow smile spread over her face and she shifted closer to the tense hanyou beside her who was positively quivering with restrained energy. "You can't shoot him with me here, can you?" Ai's silence was all the answer she needed and Kagome gained momentum. "You can't risk hitting me, can you? What would your superiors think if you killed a potential Slaver? There aren't that many anymore, and you can't risk me. And you can't shoot with tranquillisers, because they'll just piss him off!"
A growl from the hanyou surprised her, but she just reached a hand out to latch onto his arm without thinking about it. The growl stopped and his muscles tensed further, but he did not move. And Kagome did not let go. He was the only thing that she could trust, here. As unlikely as it seemed.
Ai was furious. Kagome could see that. The woman's composure was melting away, her jaw tense and eyes thunderous. But Kagome knew she had her.
Suddenly, the hanyou beside her launched into the air, ripping his arm out of Kagome's grasp. She fell onto her knees again with a strangled cry, having a terrible feeling that she knew what he was about to do.
Sure enough, he flew through the air towards Ai.
Bullets ripped through the air, but he was far too fast for that. They whizzed over Kagome's head and one ricocheted off her left bicep. The pain shot through her and she gasped, tears stinging her eyes as her arm began to burn. She forced her blurry eyes open, clutching her bleeding arm with her right hand, trying to staunch the flow with the pressure of her palm.
The hanyou had reached Ai, and he was holding her throat with one hand. Her hands scrabbled at his wrists as her face turned blue, her feet kicking above the ground. The gunfire had stopped, none of the soldiers daring to risk hitting Ai as they aimed for the hanyou, but their eyes were still peeled down the sights of their guns. The nearest of them began to run towards their endangered officer.
"Stop or I snap her neck right here," the hanyou growled viciously. The soldier stumbled to a halt, glancing about him uncertainly. Accustomed to taking orders, he had no one to tell him what to do.
The hanyou sneered at the gasping woman in his steel grip. "Tell me why I shouldn't rip you apart now, bitch," he growled, his face angry and eyes dark.
"No!" Kagome screamed, lurching to her feet in the rubble. His head whipped around and their eyes met. Gazes clashing, his glower did not budge an inch as she silently pleaded with him. With a shaky step towards him, she shook her head gently.
"Be better than her."
He met her stare, holding it for a long moment, furious expression unwavering. Ai's movements were getting slower and slower, and Kagome took another step towards them.
"Please. Don't do this."
Whatever reply he had opened his mouth to make was cut off by a crash on the side of the battered warehouse, followed by a rhythmic pounding that shook the ground. A growl began to rumble from the hanyou's chest before he snarled and tossed Ai aside.
She landed awkwardly on a sharp piece of roof sheeting with a hoarse cry, quickly followed by coughing as she tried to reopen her windpipe. The soldiers who had had their guns trained on the hanyou faltered, several of them lowering their weapons, staring wide eyed at the shaking wall.
Suddenly there was a hair-raising screech as the metal began to buckle, then the wall started to fall.
The soldiers began backing away quickly, sighting down the barrels of their guns with eyes trained on the wobbling side of the building. It tilted ominously inwards at the top, the screws in the metal popping, before folding to the ground with a crash.
Kagome jumped backwards as a sheet flew towards her. Her foot caught a piece of roofing and she fell. She threw her left arm out to stop her fall, forgetting about the bullet ricochet. The impact jarred her arm, pain shot up her shoulder before her head connected with the ground and everything went black.