Chapter Nine: Twilight
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Trinity Blood!
GRAPHIC SEXUAL CONTENT WARNING!
Sakura's eyelids fluttered open and she inhaled sharply; the room was so white it hurt her eyes to look at.
'Where…am I?' She wondered to herself.
She shifted, trying to get her bearings, and felt the cloth run along her bare skin…her gaze drifted down to her body.
She swallowed hard when she realized her torn, dirty clothing had been replaced with a dress in an Empiric cut. It had a paneled corset in crimson that wrapped around her chest, exposing the pale half-moons of her breasts before clasping behind her back. It was sewn against a strip of red cloth that ran up the right side of her torso, affixing a layered skirt. The lower half of the dress was asymmetrically cut so that one side of the scarlet fabric ran up as high as her hip while the other would trail on the floor. The first layer was composed of flowing pleats while the second tied over it on her opposite hip. Numerous jewels dotted the cloth and several gold chains ran across her exposed stomach.
Her hand crept along the cloth around her, trying to get a grip on something. And then she realized it was hardly the cool white sheets of the infirmary that were pooled around her…it was emerald green silk and crushed velvet…
She sat up rigidly, nausea rising in her stomach when she realized she had been laid out like an elaborate gift. She swung her legs over the bed, silently cursing the sudden jingle of chains as the ones wrapped around her calves shifted.
"You're not going anywhere, Haruno." A voice behind her quipped.
She spun, curling instinctively to defend herself, "Kabuto…"
"Don't look so happy to see me." He sneered, tapping a hypodermic needle and releasing a stream to clear the air bubbles.
"What do you want?" She demanded, wishing she had a weapon in her hands.
"It's not really a matter of what I want, so much as what's necessary." He responded, descending on her.
She tried to push him away, but he easily pinned her to the bed with his weight. His knee dug into her stomach and his hand captured her wrists.
"If you hadn't pushed yourself so far past your limits a few hours ago, you might actually be able to do something now." He smirked as he slid the needled into the crook of her elbow.
He didn't draw out the contact, though, and slipped off of her a moment later. He glanced over at her almost absently a second later, as if he had forgotten something.
Sighing, he said, "I really should make you more presentable."
She wanted to tell him if he got any closer she would kill him, but her vision was beginning to soften at the edges and she could feel the room start to tilt as the drug took effect.
He drew closer and looked down at her disdainfully before brushing her hair away from her face. With his free hand, he adjusted the skirt of her dress and fixed the corseted bodice. Then he smoothed more flower petals around her, replacing the ones displaced by her sudden movements.
"I would have liked more to have been done," Another voice invaded her fuzzy thoughts, "But it seems we'll have to settle for this."
Her eyes drifted over to Dietrich, but she was so far gone with the sedative that she didn't even have the energy to feel the usual revulsion.
He suddenly turned his topaz colored eyes to her, "Kabuto, are we ready?"
"Yes, sir." He responded.
"Excellent." His hand went to his shirt cuff and he withdrew a small glass vial. Smiling at the kunoichi, he asked, "Do you know what these are?"
Sakura's eyes narrowed in confusion, but she couldn't force her lips to form words.
"These are Cain's ashes from his first descent through the atmosphere. But I don't think you're aware that, unlike the Bacilli in Methuselah, the nanomachines do not mutate when they enter a host. The ones in you are the same ones as the dormant strain here." He shook the small bottle for emphasis.
Realization hit her like a blow to the stomach and she tried to force herself away. Kabuto, however, seized her wrist, yanked her back and remarked, "Ever the feisty one…"
Dietrich nodded as though it was an unavoidable inconvenience. With that motion, he flicked the cap off of the vial with his thumb and shot a knowing glance at the silver-haired man across from him as he unceremoniously scattered the ashes on the floor.
Kabuto responded in kind as he produced a scalpel from the folds of his clothing and drew her arm back. He didn't even bothering looking at her as he drew it hard across her wrist. Blood pulsed from the laceration and spilled across the floor, mixing with the soft dust on the tile.
For a long moment, nothing happened…and then the ashes began to writhe and twist and lift and take shape. They rose from the floor and slowly in the deep red depths a face and body began to take shape. Slowly, muscle and flesh began to coat the living fluid and give it substance until…finally, her nightmare was standing before her.
Dietrich and Kabuto both bowed low to him with respectful, breathless exclamations of, "Mein Herr."
He smirked at them, "Such a shame I couldn't be back sooner."
"He…killed you…" Sakura gasped, unable to reconcile what she was seeing with what she knew.
"Yes…" Cain replied thoughtfully, "I suppose he did."
Horrified, she could do nothing but try vainly to pull back as his hand cupped her cheek.
"I can see why my brother so favors you." He commented.
"How do you know that?" She hissed, shivering at his touch.
"Your blood has transferred those memories and from his blood, that birthed you, Crusnik 05, I know more than you dare to think." He told her.
"My Lord, shall we leave you?" Dietrich asked.
"Yes." He responded.
With a deep bow, Dietrich backed away, "I shall have food and drink prepared."
Cain nodded as he turned his gaze back to the kunoichi before him, "My foolish brother has not yet tasted your full fruit. Your blood is pallid compared to your body."
His clawed hand danced from its place on her jaw and down her neck. Slowly, it crept over her chest and down to her exposed stomach. His hand slid through the chains looped around her hips and over to the bow that held the dress together.
With slow, deliberate movements, he undid it and folded back the first skirt to reveal even more of her body. She felt his breath dust her bare thighs and gasped, "Stop!"
He just smirked at her as he purposefully undid her corset and laid it open, like he was opening a present. He leaned against her, forcing her head up with his free hand and pressing his lips against her throat as his legs slipped along either side of her hips.
She felt his fangs penetrate the fragile skin and hot blood well to the surface. She bit down hard on her lip, determined not to give him the satisfaction of hearing her cry.
"You can't win." Cain smirked, turning his head up so he faced her, his lips red and wet with her blood.
"I don't have to so long as you lose." She hissed.
"But I won't." He assured her as she forced her legs apart.
"I won't ever be yours, Cain." She told him.
"But after this you won't be my brother's, either." He smirked as he thrust up between her legs.
She groaned as his invasion tore unprepared flesh; blood seeped out from the connection of their bodies and stained the sheets around her. As he recoiled to push against her again, she slipped her arm between them and tried to lever him off.
He just laughed as he captured her hands and pinned them. He smirked as he leaned back down and brutally sank his fangs back into her throat. And she heard him whisper, "This will not be over soon for you."
She wasn't sure how much time passed, only that, as blood was drawn from her in alarming volumes, she began to lapse in and out of consciousness. And when she eventually woke again, it was over and the bed was drenched in blood…When she tried to push herself up on her hand, blood seeped up in a small puddle around her fingers.
For a long moment, she just sat there, trying to keep the world away…and then she turned over the edge of the bed and was violently ill.
"Disgusting…" Kabuto sighed as he walked into the room.
"I'll kill you if you touch me!" Sakura snapped.
"But you can't." He replied as he took a threatening step forward. "And if you don't believe me, try."
Out of spite and fear, Sakura yelled back, "Crusnik 05. Nanomachine! Power output: forty percent! Activate!"
But nothing happened…
The crushing reality that she was alone and helpless hit her like a slap to the face. Before she could stop them, tears raced down her face, leaving opaque trails on her white skin.
"Don't worry, Sakura." Kabuto cooed sickeningly, "You'll be home soon enough."
"I should have been watched her more closely." Abel muttered, his head between his hands.
"Abel, there's nothing you could have done. Running yourself ragged wouldn't have saved her and it won't help us now." Caterina responded, resisting the urge to reach out and comfort him. "The important thing is for us to find her now."
"We have no leads, Caterina, no clues…" He trailed off.
"And hope isn't lost, Abel." She told him resolutely.
He glanced up at her, disbelieving but willing to hope.
"God works in mysterious ways, Abel." She reminded him, "Now, go rest and we'll talk in the morning."
Too tired to argue, he just pulled himself up and walked through the door.
It wasn't until after the door closed behind him and she heard his footsteps fade away that she called for Kate, who was quick to appear.
"Yes, Your Eminence?" She asked.
"I want you to dispatch Fathers Nightroad, Wordsworth, Havel, and Iqus to Albion and informally request the Queen's personal aid. I then want you and Dandelion to contact Agent Astharoshe Asran of the Empire and negotiate for a counsel with the Empress."
"Surely all of this isn't necessary, Lady Caterina…Not on the eve of the Pope's arrival in Albion." Kate began.
The woman in red silenced her with a raised hand, "I care for Sakura, but that's hardly the issue at hand. And, as it stands, His Holiness' visit is the only reason we can operate at all."
"Lady Sforza?"
"Sakura is a Crusnik and the bacilli in her body are incredibly potent. We know that there were survivors from her homeland and there still might be. We absolutely cannot afford to have an enemy against the church converted into a Crusnik. They are our most valuable asset and without the margin of advantage they give us, many of operations would have already ended in failure. The Inquisition, however, is unaware of this. If this information were to be leaked…I don't have to tell you what they would do to Abel and Sakura. Nonetheless, it is imperative that we secure her and keep Father Nightroad out of the Orden's line of fire.
"Yes, Duchess Milan." Kate responded with a nod of her head, fading again into the church's digital systems.
Caterina sat for a moment, staring at her solid oak desk before she pushed her chair out and rose. Her boots clicked faintly on the floor as she stepped up to the window and glanced out into Vatican City.
"Perhaps I'm more like Francesco than I care to admit…" She trailed off, her grey eyes shining dangerously.
"My Lord, can I get you anything else?" Dietrich asked as he took the man's empty chalice.
"No, Puppeteer." He responded, "I see the Orden has grown small."
"But not weak, Mein Herr."
"Perhaps. My foolish little brother has made life far easier for us now. We do not require numbers as we require skill."
"Contra Mundi?" Dietrich inquired, his eyes shimmering sadistically.
"Do you remember our attempts to turn the Star of Sorrow against Vatican City?"
The man beside him swallowed uncomfortably; ultimately it had been his failure that had prevented them from hacking the matrix and completing their designs. "Yes."
"Believing me to be gone from the plane of his life, he never changed the codes for accessing the satellite arsenal or the Ark."
"That girl has proved useful to us, then."
"More so than she will care to admit." He smirked, privately wondering if he would be there to see her spirit die behind her eyes when she realized she would be the cause of humanity's downfall.
"Shall I have Red Baroness prepare for an operation?" Dietrich asked.
Cain nodded with a vicious pull of his lips. "And prepare that girl, as well."
She muttered low under her breath, letting her lips form the words to prayers when her mind couldn't begin to file through them. Her hands were clasped tightly in front of her barely covered chest and her fingers were laced so tightly they were white. And, in sharp contrast to her bloodless face and hands, her legs and chest were streaked with crimson.
"And…lead us…" She stammered.
"Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."
Startled, she spun hard on her leg and turned to glare at Kabuto. He just smirked back as he lifted a package in his arms to display a fold of colored silk.
"Mein Herr doesn't think it's acceptable to present the world's executioner in ripped and bloody clothing."
Bile rose up in her throat as she forced herself up and jerked away from him, "This isn't over."
"No, but it will be soon." He responded as he took a step forward, "Now, let's be civil about this shall we?"
"Like hell!" She snapped, dropping her stance and letting her eyes narrow.
"Do you think this is going to help you?" He asked, his eyes hidden behind the glare of his glasses.
"God helps those who help themselves." She replied resolutely, though she could feel a tremor low in her stomach.
The silver-haired man in front of her set the box down with a sigh and strode forward; Sakura lashed out, falling back on her strength to turn the tide even a little. But to her horror, he easily caught her wrist, spun her around, and pulled her close.
He whispered viciously, "Don't struggle. No one is going to help you now: not your God, not your lover-you are utterly alone here, Sakura; alone with the silence and the weeping and the cries you know are coming. With each minute, his strength returns and he has your blood to thank for it. You are the mother of the Antichrist and life itself curses you now."
She felt her legs weaken and his arm slid away as she slipped to the floor. Tears ran down her face, cutting clean rivets in the bloody smears.
"Now, shall we continue?" Kabuto asked as his hands began to work at undoing the skirt around her hips.
TBC
