Dissolution
There she stood, staring down at the main table in Bruce's laboratory. Her shoulders were slumped and her head was hanging down - was she exhausted? Naraku opened his mouth to call out to her, to ask her what was wrong, but nothing came out. He tried again, then he tried to move, but he was stuck. Something moved out of the corner of his eye and if he could have gasped, he would have. He was now watching himself walking over to Jade. Naraku began to panic when the other Naraku looked him dead in the eye and grinned.
"Jade," the clone said with Naraku's voice. "Where are the samples?"
"Mm," Jade made a disapproving noise, her hanging head barely shaking in denial.
"What did we discuss?"
"No," Jade said lightly. "He's...going to...be mad."
"Find the samples, Jade." the other Naraku insisted sternly. His hand rested on her shoulder and as he walked to the other side of Jade, he dragged his hand across her back and left it on her other shoulder, squeezing it slightly. "Go on."
Jade lingered for another moment, but she slowly turned, her body appearing heavier than it looked. As she shuffled over to the cabinet where Naraku stored his core samples, Naraku tried to stop her despite knowing it already happened.
"Make it look deliberate." Naraku's voice ordered. Jade didn't reply; she continued pulling the samples from the cabinet.
'She's sleepwalking.' Naraku told himself as a wave of nausea struck him. 'She would never do this to me on her own free-will.'
"Are you sure about that?" the other Naraku asked skeptically, flashing him another grin. "Some part of her had to want this."
Naraku sucked in air and threw his hands out to grab anything. When he gripped his blanket, he ripped it from his body and sat up, looking around in the darkness urgently. His body was rigid with shock and stress.
"My room," he whispered breathlessly. "I'm still in my room." He held his face with both hands, trying to ignore his trembling. It was the third time he woke from a nightmare that night and it was wearing down what little energy he had left.
It took Naraku a few minutes to gather himself enough to leave his bed and pour a drink of water from his kitchen. The guinea pig chirped and skittered around in his cage, which calmed him a little more. No matter what happened, the guinea pig was always living his life to the fullest. Naraku almost envied it.
'She wouldn't hurt me.' Naraku told himself when he saw Jade in his mind. 'She wouldn't want to. I'm her friend - she said so.'
Deciding that sleep was not going to happen, Naraku cleaned up and dressed for the day. Ever since the crystal heart sapped his energy and left him unconscious three days prior, he was simultaneously exhausted and restless...and angry. The exhaustion was obviously caused by the heart's ability to affect him, but the restlessness was due to the fact that he not only had an idea on how to destroy the heart, but he finally had the resolve to do it. Before, he teetered between the idea of harnessing the crystals' healing abilities for fame and fortune or doing what was best for Jade. Now, he wanted it gone from his life entirely.
Naraku pulled his hair back into a ponytail and sat down at his desk in his home office. The desk lamp's light was stinging his tired eyes, but Naraku had to push forward. He could sleep when he was finished. Adjusting safety goggles over his eyes and a matching plastic surgical mask over his nose and mouth, Naraku pulled on a pair of yellow cleaning gloves and exhaled with anticipation. Carefully, he removed the lid from the top of the plastic beaker. Dangling from the lid was an uncooked chicken wing - or what was left of one.
'This concentration will do.' He removed the remainder of the wing from the lid and placed it in another plastic beaker filled with calcium chloride water. The remainder of the wing was submerged in a clear, odorless liquid. Using a pair of tongs, he removed the dissolving meat from the liquid and dropped it in the plastic container with its other half. He missed experimenting with acids.
Hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid - all were corrosive and dangerous to tissue - but hydrofluoric acid was different. Whereas the chicken wing would have slowly melted into a jelly-like material if submerged in the other acids, not only did the hydrofluoric acid cleanly remove the submerged portion of the wing from the rest as if a surgeon cut it, but the entire wing had lost its pinkish coloring. All of the tissue was pale and decidedly dead. Compared to the others, hydrofluoric acid wasn't a strong acid at all, but it was far more reactive due to the fluoride ions within it and its destruction often spread to other parts of a system it never physically touched. It was one of Naraku's favorite chemicals.
'If I can chip away most of the plexiglass container and expose the crystals to the acid, it should at least severely damage them if not destroy them.' It made sense scientifically - a good portion of the crystalline structure was made from reactive organic matter - but these crystals had broken many rules of nature and success wasn't guaranteed, either. The possibility of failure sickened him deeply. He already lost his thesis, something he thought about since he was a child, so he was already suffering a major failure. He refused to suffer another. Naraku's gaze landed on the destroyed wing again. 'It will work.'
Before leaving to destroy his abomination, Naraku fed his guinea pig some spinach leaves by hand, sneaking in a few pats on its head and wondering if his attempt was going to end in his death. He was still unsure if he survived the other day because the heart couldn't finish the job due to spending most of its energy on Jade or if it simply didn't care to finish him off. Additionally, if he died, the guinea pig would surely starve to death before anyone realized he even owned one. The thought lingered longer than Naraku intended. He stole the guinea pig, taught it how to follow commands, litterbox-trained it - Naraku was all the pig knew outside the subject of food. Other than Jade, it was the only creature that even acknowledged Naraku as someone positive in their life. Sighing half with disgust and half with defeat, Naraku unlocked his phone.
'Once this is all done, I hope these obnoxious feelings dissolve away with it.' he thought irritably. He missed being able to fuck with Jade and not hate himself afterward.
'If anything were to happen to me, would you take care of the guinea pig?' He quickly sent the message to Jade before talking himself out of it.
'Of course. Why are you asking? The fuck are you up to now?' Her reply was swift and about as invasive as he expected. Though, he had to admit he wasn't very conspicuous with his question in the first place. A blind man could have seen that Naraku was about to possibly do something he was going to regret.
'A new experiment I am conducting involving blood, tissue, and hydrofluoric acid.'
'I don't even know how to respond to that. Please, be careful.'
'No.' He smiled as he sent it, imagining Jade rolling her eyes and calling him an asshole under her breath.
'She couldn't possibly want to hurt me. The heart is trying to turn me against her.'
Naraku closed the door to his campus office behind him quickly and locked it. He wasn't going to risk some other graduate student witnessing anything he was about to do. He wasted no time as he began setting up the equipment he brought with him to aid him in his, "experiment."
First, he pulled the crystal box from the cabinet and placed it in a blue plastic tub. He waited a moment to see if the heart would react, but just like the other day when he woke up, the heart's beats were slow and faint. That typically meant it was too tired. A victorious smirk pulled on Naraku's lips.
Naraku strapped on a welding apron and gloves and began preparing the electric drill. Due to the crystal's incredibly strong structure, breaking the plexiglass case was out of the question. The crystals would simply hold the broken pieces together. However, there wasn't much the crystals could do to stop him from chiseling and dissolving the plexiglass away from them.
After putting on safety goggles and a mask, Naraku slipped earbuds into his ears and pressed play on another video of Jade discussing different genres of video games, their mechanics, and why she did or did not like those mechanics. Her voice calmed the pounding of his heart, which was beating a bruise into his chest.
The handheld drill was working as well as Dr. Buress said it would. Being not only a geologist, but a mining geologist, she had access to handy tools that weren't readily available or reasonably priced. Of course, she interrogated Naraku first, digging for any reason to distrust him enough to reject his request, but when he reminded her that he never broke anything he borrowed from her previously, she relented.
"Okay, but World of Warcraft is fun." Koga argued with a slight whine.
"I don't think so. I don't know why, it could be the fact that my first experiences with it were filled with sexist assholes, but I just couldn't get into it. The same goes for League. I don't really care for those types of games. Lately, every decision they make is an obvious money-grab." Jade responded calmly, but strongly. Naraku released the drill's trigger to shake some of the numbness out of his hands. He wondered how much sexism Jade had to deal with for being a woman who happened to play video games.
"Unless it's Pokemon and their money-grabbing is pretty fucking obvious, too."
"They don't try to disguise it and I respect that. Also, their DLC is exactly what it should be; optional. I don't need to download Mewtwo to beat the game. Does the Mewtwo activate an in-game event for fun? Sure, but it isn't necessary to the main story or the actual gameplay. Plus, Pokemon, in my opinion, gives you a lot of customization options in terms of battling. The recent generation allows you to customize your character, too."
"But tournaments favor a couple handfuls of Pokemon out of the eight-hundred Pokemon in existence, so are you really getting that many choices?"
"If you're going to competitions, then yeah, certain Pokemon are going to be way better than most, or some will be banned because they're too good. But if I'm doing random online matches or if I'm playing with friends, I'm not going in with my competition-bred Pokemon every time. I'm usually going in with the ones I like the best or find to be funny or ridiculous. There are competitions that specifically focus on the weaker Pokemon, like the Little Cup, which only allows level five, first-stage evolution Pokemon."
"That's fair, I guess."
'Why did I choose such a thick cut of plexiglass?' Naraku complained silently. He knew exactly why and was beginning to hate himself for being so good at what he did. Again, he stopped grinding to give his hands a rest...and to make sure the heartbeats weren't freaking out.
"Alright, but according to quantum physics," Koga began, raising his voice, but Jade's dramatic, frustrated groan cut him off. Naraku was pretty certain he groaned, too, but he couldn't hear himself over the video or the whining of the drill.
"That isn't how it works!" she shot quickly.
"Uh-oh," Hakkaku chimed in. "Triggered the nerd,"
"I'm not a- all I did was pass the sixth grade, okay?"
"Oooooh-ho-ho! Shots fuckin' fired!"
"Whatever. All I'm saying is that World of Warcraft is alright with me." Koga stated bluntly.
"Ya know, I'm kind of curious to know how quantum physics tied into your argument," Hakkaku announced smoothly. Jade's giggles seemed to egg him on. "But, I also know that because it's you, I will be thoroughly disappointed."
"Hahahahaha!" Jade's giggles erupted into a warm fit of laughter.
"I must've missed the, "Shit on Koga's intelligence," memo for today." Koga grumbled with annoyance.
"Well, when you make it so easyyyyy," Hakkaku sang back to him teasingly.
Once Naraku had a sizeable hole in the case, he took a moment to debate if he should try to grind away more or take his chance with it now. There was still a thin layer of plexiglass between the crystals and the outside world and that was about as deep as he dared to drill to keep from damaging the drill-bit. The acid would melt through the glass, but it was going to make the process a bit longer than he would have liked.
'I have no other option. I will grind a bigger diameter, pour the acid in, and wait.' Naraku aimed the tip of the drill back at the hole and felt a familiar thick wall of pressure wash over him. The heartbeats were irregular and weak...and he could hear them through his earbuds, which were no longer playing the audio of the video. He squeezed the trigger of the drill and arched an eyebrow. It was dead. Naraku checked his phone. It was also dead. His office light was out, too.
"Well played," Naraku grinned, standing and striding over to his desk. "I figured you would try that, so I brought these." He reached into his bag and pulled out a rock hammer and pick. "Admittedly, I'm surprised you didn't try it earlier."
After the first strike on the pick with the hammer, Naraku let out a breathy laugh. After the second, he smiled. From the third strike and on, Naraku felt like he was chiseling away his fear, regret, and anger alongside the plexiglass.
'That must have been a last-ditch effort to try to stop me. I feel slightly nauseous, but I'm fine otherwise.'
Naraku placed the crystal case in a plastic tub and began pouring the concentrated hydrofluoric acid into the hole of the case. When the bottle was empty, he moved the plastic tub over to the opposite side of the room from his desk. Then, he began laughing.
000000
'Sango was half-asleep. It couldn't have been me. I wouldn't do that.' Jade held her face in her hands as she sat in her lounge chair with her legs pulled close to her chest. Thoughts of guilt turned into rationalization and then would swing back to guilt. Her heart wanted so badly to believe that she didn't do it, that there was no way that she unconsciously drove her car to the lab and then specifically targeted Naraku's samples. Her brain, on the other hand, kept asking the same question; who else could have done it?
'Bruce gets a kickback from Naraku's thesis funds and Sesshomaru has done his best to completely avoid Naraku ever since I…' Her breath caught in her throat. The realization slowly seeped in and then the dam in her mind broke. Her entire body began to quiver.
Her chest was heaving as she began to hyperventilate. "Oh God, I did it!" Her tears made her warm face feel even more uncomfortable. "Why did I do that? What's wrong with me?" If Jade could have crawled out of her skin, she would have. She felt absolutely disgusting. It had to have been her! She beat one man senseless and destroyed another man's car, all while unconscious, so how could she not be capable of driving and destroying samples unconsciously?
'I have to tell him.' Jade used her sleeve to wipe away her tears. 'He's going to hate me, though. I don't want to hurt him.'
Two soft knocks on her bedroom door almost made her jump and cling to the ceiling. She took a deep breath and tried to rein in her voice.
"Yeah?" she called out, cringing when she heard the crack in her voice.
"May I come in?" her grandmother's smooth voice made Jade sigh with relief.
"Yeah," Jade relented, pulling herself back into an upright ball in her lounge chair.
"I'm surprised that you're not playing your games. Aren't you going to another tournament soon?" Mama asked as she closed the door behind her. She had her graying black hair pulled over her shoulder in a long, thick braid and was wearing jeans and sweater similar to Jade's.
"Um, I'm not sure anymore."
"What? Why not?" Mama sat on the side of Jade's bed closest to her. "It's a chance to have some fun without school being-"
"Mama, I'm not sure I can go back." Jade interrupted, staring aimlessly at her legs.
"Not sure you can go back where? School?" Mama leaned to the side to see Jade's face better. Jade nodded, tears welling in her eyes. "Mija, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
"I did something awful, Mama."
"I'm sure it was an accident, whatever it was. You don't have a mean bone in you."
Jade shook her head, which she immediately regretted due to her swelling headache. "Before I came home, someone broke into the lab and dumped Naraku's samples everywhere. Nothing could be salvaged. That's why I came home early."
"I'm confused."
"I think...I think I'm the one who did it."
"You think? Jade, I think you would remember doing something like that."
"No, I don't think I would!" Jade insisted desperately, watching her grandmother's light brown eyes widen behind her thin-rimmed glasses. "I don't remember punching Sesshomaru or throwing a block of cement off a roof, but I did it!"
"I thought Rosa said you didn't do it."
"She doesn't want to believe it, but Bruce wouldn't lie to me. He likes me better than the other two. Even Naraku avoided me for a while after and he's usually the type to be amused by that kind of stuff."
"So, you think that you did these things? And don't remember?"
"Yeah."
"Oh Mija," her grandmother cooed as she stood up and leaned over Jade to hug her.
"If I did it once, why not twice? What else have I done?"
"You can't think like that. What if you just did it that once?" her grandmother argued as she knelt down in front of her. "Unless you know anything else,"
"I do, Mama!" Jade whined lightly, closing her eyes. She couldn't look at her grandmother any longer. "My roommate said she heard me leave the night it happened! And Lucy- she saw me do something really weird and I made her promise not to tell you, but I should have just dropped out and come home! I should have gone to the doctor! I'm so sorry!"
"Shhh, it's alright! It's alright!" her grandmother said, holding Jade in her arms. "Did anyone get hurt?"
"Not physically." Jade replied, a small sigh of relief leaving her lungs. "It hurt Naraku a lot. I feel awful."
"I have an idea," Mama stated, gently rubbing Jade's back. "Let me call Camila. She can read your energy and maybe she can give you advice. After, we can call Dr. Morales for an appointment so that we can try to get to the bottom of this. Does that sound okay?"
Jade opened her mouth to protest the energy-reading part, but she wanted to conserve her energy. "Yeah."
"No matter what, it isn't your fault. If something's wrong, then it's mental, it's an illness, and that isn't your fault. I'm sure this Naraku guy won't be angry with you."
"Oh my God," she couldn't stop the nervous laugh exploding from her mouth. Her grandmother definitely needed to hear more stories about Naraku if she thought he was anything near forgiving.
Jade followed her grandmother out of her room and down the hall into the square-shaped lounge room. She stepped down into the circular sunken part of the room, which was filled with countless cushions and pillows and sat down.
'Am I getting sick? My head is pounding.' Jade gradually leaned over until she was laying on her side. She hid her face under a cream-colored throw pillow to help block out the light, despite it being dark outside and dimly lit inside. She also felt warm, which she usually would have welcomed considering the frigid temperature outside, but this warmth felt uncomfortable and it sent chills down her spine.
"I don't think she's possessed." Mama insisted calmly, slowly pacing back and forth with her phone held up to her ear. Jade pulled the pillow from her face and frowned at her grandmother, who shrugged and mouthed a silent apology to her. "No, I was thinking more of an imbalance or maybe she has toxic energy she needs flushed from her body."
Jade closed her eyes and placed her head back down. 'I'm too tired argue.' Between her grandmother, aunt, and youngest cousin, Jade was the odd one out when it came to believing in supernatural forces. She wasn't sure about Lucy, who often joked about witchcraft, but would engage in serious discussions about auras and energies with Mama and Lily.
"Mama, we're scheduled to have our last guests before Christmas this weekend." a strong voice called out. Footsteps thumped as her aunt ascended the stairs from the entryway of the house. "I figured we could start cleaning tomorrow and be done with it." She brushed her hands off on her faded jeans.
"Alright, see you in a bit." Mama said before ending the call on her smartphone. She sighed heavily and looked over at Rosa. "That's fine. They requested the smaller rooms, so that will go faster. I still need to get groceries."
"I was going to clean the other lounge room, the sunroom, and each of the girls can clean a bedroom."
"I will clean one. Jade is sick."
"Sick?" Rosa repeated, turning and finally spotting her niece on the cushions. "What is it? A cold? Flu? I know some remedies."
Mama shook her head. "I think it's exhaustion. She pushed herself too hard this semester." The anxiety in Jade's chest lessened when she realized Mama was covering for her.
"See? I told you I should've brought her home when I visited her." Rosa shot heatedly.
"I'm right here." Jade called out. She understood her aunt's frustration entirely; she just couldn't handle it between her semi-migraine and fever.
"I know." her aunt replied quickly. "You seemed to have enough energy to play games yesterday."
"It was a puzzle game and I only played for an hour and I wasn't feeling sick then." Jade argued, her voice muffled through the pillow that she placed back over her face. Was she hot because she was getting mad or was she mad because she was getting hot? Her hand tossed the pillow from her face when she realized the pillow was making her face hotter. The cushions, the pillows, Jade's loose clothing - nothing felt comfortable anymore and she was starting to feel trapped.
"Rosa," Mama began, her tone hardening. "Don't get her worked up. I will clean tomorrow. We'll be ready."
Rosa stepped down into the sunken area across from Jade. "I'm not worried about that. Jade's been avoiding me. I'm not dumb."
"She's tired. Leave her alone."
Her aunt wasn't wrong. Jade had been actively avoiding Rosa for a few reasons, but the biggest reason was due to Lucy telling Jade about Rosa sending a private investigator to find information about her mother. As far as Jade was concerned, her mother was dead and had been for a long time. She didn't want to hear anything about her mother outside the occasional story whenever her aunt or grandmother reminisced. The thought of her mother made Jade feel bitter, especially right then.
'Is the thermostat cranked up to volcanic levels? I need to go.' Jade wanted to walk away, to go take a cool shower, but all she could do was sit up before her body demanded she rest.
"Jade, are you upset with me about the investigator?" Rosa asked, dismissively waving her hand at her mother.
Jade grit her teeth when the headache seemed to be radiating outward from the center of her brain. "I'm not happy about it."
"What did you want me to do?"
"Tell me? Don't sneak behind all our backs to do it?"
"Alright," Rosa exhaled loudly, her irritation seemingly heating the room...or was Jade on fire now? "I should've told you before I did it. But, don't you want to know?"
"No," Jade said with more force than she meant to. The next sensation she felt was strange; she could feel all of her patience and reasoning sizzling away. Then, she snapped back to the present, irritated that she no longer felt safe or okay. "Sometimes, the truth isn't necessary! Sometimes, the truth hurts more than it helps! She's dead to me no matter what!"
'Naraku doesn't need to know the truth, either.' Jade froze for a moment. The thought was hers, but she heard it in his voice. 'Something's very wrong - I need to go now!'
"Jade," her grandmother gasped. "Your nose,"
Jade swallowed hard as she wiped her nose with her sleeve. The red smear didn't startle her this time. In fact, it was the last tether holding her temper in place. She grit her teeth and squeezed her hands into fists. "Why does this keep happening?"
"Keep? It's been happening?" Rosa was almost screaming and it only made Jade's headache even more intense. She could even hear ringing in her ears!
Jade's hands reached up to hold her head in an attempt to soothe it. "Just...stop! Stop talking!"
"We're just trying to help!" her aunt argued, reaching out to steady the unbalanced Jade.
"STOP!" Jade roared.
Her aunt's and grandmother's wide-eyed and disturbed expressions made Jade pause. They almost seemed to be looking at her like she was some spastic stranger. What happened next, she wasn't sure. It felt like she was falling. Her head felt like it had finally split open. The burning sensation was so intense that she felt like she was freezing instead. All she could see was red.
000000
Naraku scrolled down the page of a potential future sponsor on his laptop. He wrote down their contact information alongside the types of projects they funded. He clicked over to the next window of a different sponsor entirely and did the same. He was pleasantly surprised with the first few that he found, but he planned to keep searching for others to make sure his selection pool was tilted in his favor.
'If one rejects my proposal, I'll have several others in the same pay grade that might accept. I won't really be losing.' He contemplated changing his degree to strictly biology, but chemistry had more options and he could always move on to pursue something biology-related with his chemistry degrees. Naraku looked up from his laptop when Bruce cursed as he tried to fix an old hot plate.
"You can order a new one that actually works." Naraku pointed out.
"I could, but a lot of the new ones are smaller than this one and thanks to the prick who smeared your thesis all over the lab, we're low on money after having to pay professionals to clean it all up."
"What...did they use to clean it?"
"Concentrated HCl acid for sure. I can still smell it. Distilled water. They're probably going to filter the sediment and extract whatever metals they might find."
'The acid probably ruined the microscopic crystals. Their structures weren't as stable.'
"I assume we didn't catch who did it on camera?" Naraku probed. He knew the answer was no - Bruce would have flipped his shit and quit his job if he saw Jade walking down the hall on camera - but Naraku had to maintain the facade that he had no idea who did it.
"No, or I'm at least assuming not." Bruce picked up the pair of pliers next to him. "They've brought in outside investigators and are keeping the staff and faculty in the dark. I understand why, but it's obnoxious to be a potential suspect when I had literally nothing to gain and quite a bit to lose."
Naraku snorted lightly. "I've yet to be questioned, so I assume I'm not a suspect."
"There's a first time for everything, I guess." Bruce shot, leaning down to look at the inside of the hot plate that he disassembled. "Speaking of, you been laid yet?"
"Why are you so interested in my sex life, Bruce? Do you wish to be a part of it?"
"Yes." the professor answered dryly and bluntly.
"For the record, I'm not a virgin." Naraku admitted, repeatedly tapping the end of his pen against the table surface with impatience. "I'll be honest with you, though - it has been a long time since my last time."
"Okay, I have to fucking ask," Bruce announced, grimacing. "You and Jade haven't?"
"No." Naraku answered sharply. "What about our interactions makes you think we would?"
"I don't know, maybe she has a thing for assholes - figuratively."
Naraku didn't like that answer and looked away from Bruce.
"Look, she hangs out with you when she doesn't have to, she laughs at the shit you do, this past week when you flipped out, she came right to you and was pretty worried about you, she even took care of you,"
"Jade is a kind, sympathetic person. I've tried to make her stop."
"Bullshit." Bruce laughed. "Maybe at first you did, but you stopped a looooooong time ago."
"You're delusional."
"No, you're the delusional one. I've never met a person buried so deep in denial. It's quite impressive, actually."
"Sure, Bruce."
The professor smiled widely. "And now you're dismissing me because I'm right; classic Naraku move."
"I tolerate her." Naraku argued calmly.
"You demand her attention."
Naraku frowned and narrowed his eyes. "Whatever you say."
"Ah, there you go again. I don't know why you're so embarrassed to admit you like her. No one here is going to think less of you for it. You've pretty much primed us to throw a party for the first human emotion you show. At the very least, let her know."
"I have." Naraku said, now staring down at his keyboard.
Bruce's smug smile disappeared and his mouth dropped open, twitching as he tried to figure out what to say. "You...well...that's good! That's good! Why are you so upset? Did your mother not hug you enough?"
"She never hugged me." Naraku dropped his pen on the table unceremoniously as he stood up to leave. He allowed the conversation to go too far. Bruce ran out of useful ammo to fire at Naraku long ago, but now he was reloaded and Naraku had nothing to shield himself with. He didn't know why it upset him to admit he liked anyone other than himself; it just did.
"Naraku, I'm sorry." Bruce said with a sigh. It was Naraku's turn to freeze. "That was in bad taste. I've been so wrapped up in how much of an ass you are that I never stopped to think about why."
"Save your pity for someone who wants it." Naraku retorted coldly.
"I don't care if you don't want it. That's your decision."
"Has Jade rubbed off on you?" Naraku turned back to the table and sat back down on the stool.
"Maybe. So, what's your plan?" Bruce asked, crossing his arms as he stood across the lab table from Naraku. Apparently, he had given up on the hot plate for the moment.
"My plan?" Naraku repeated, looking up from his notes.
"Your thesis samples?"
"I stored my samples properly, so the fault is not mine. What is your plan, Chemistry Department Board Member?"
"You're such a dick. You know that was no fault of ours, either."
"It's your responsibility to provide a secure environment for me to store my important thesis samples in. You provided and your secure environment failed, therefore, the responsibility falls back on you and the department."
"What do you want? More samples?"
"No. I am done with that project. I suspect they will want to be reimbursed."
"You're...done? This is all you've talked about since you started working in this lab! I've pulled so many strings to keep you here for it! I can't even fathom the illegal things you've done to have the opportunity to-"
"Bruce, I am done. I'm looking into other ideas." Naraku interrupted coolly, but his irritability was gnawing at him. Of course he didn't want to give up the project, but at the same time, all it was doing was unraveling his life. Once the hydrofluoric acid finished dissolving the crystal heart - which he suspected was mostly finished by that point - he was going to pretend it never existed.
"Fuckin'...that's cutting into the overall lab funding, Naraku! Your next project needs to bring in a similar amount or I'm dropping you for misconduct!"
"Have you ever known me to give something up without an equal trade?"
"I want a fully-fleshed hypothesis, proposal, and a handful of potential sponsors by the end of break, Naraku. As far as reimbursing your current sponsors? I'll throw that in with the meeting with the bio department tomorrow."
Naraku blinked and tilted his head slightly. "Why are you having a meeting with them?"
"I tried to tell you the day it happened, but you were stuck somewhere between reality and La-La Naraku Land." Bruce retorted, using his index finger to trace multiple circles in the air towards his temple. "My lab wasn't the only one broken into and your samples weren't the only things ruined."
"What?" Naraku almost jumped to his feet, but he forced his body to remain still. Bruce's brow furrowed as he took note of Naraku's sudden interest.
"Yeah, the coolers were broken into and they're missing a dead cat."
"A dead...cat." Naraku repeated slowly and plainly.
"They use them for practice during dissection labs."
"I know what they use them for, I've taken the class, but why would- I don't understand." he cut himself off to stop himself from saying Jade's name.
"Your guess is as good as mine. At first I suspected you, but it's a bit too fucked up, even for you."
"Why me?"
"Anytime anything happens, you're Suspect Number One. You can blame yourself for that reputation."
"You can go fuck yourself."
"I will and I'll think of you being upset when I do." Bruce laughed as he backed away to leave the lab. "You better start researching, boy!"
Naraku groaned once the professor closed the door behind him. "What the hell, Jade? What else did you do?" He knew it wasn't Jade's fault. He absolutely despised that the heart was using her. Why not use him instead?
'What did it do with the dead cat? Infect it? This is a problem. Every time I think I've cleaned up the mess, another appears.' Naraku began massaging his temples. A sharp headache struck from deep inside his brain. It was unlike any other headache he had before and it was so sudden. Something was very wrong. Naraku's vision blurred and his head felt like it's going to explode.
Suddenly, he felt like he was floating and he was no longer in the lab. He was nowhere, it seemed. Everything around him was a heavy black darkness.
'What is-'
"Jade? Jade! Mama, call an ambulance!" a woman cried out desperately.
'I'm not...Jade.' Naraku heard labored breathing and light moans. He recognized her voice immediately. Jade was trying to form words, but she ended up stuttering and panting instead. 'Is this real? Is this happening right now?'
"She's burning up! Lucy, bring cold rags!" the same woman shouted.
'Lucy? This cannot be happening! There is no way!'
"If," Jade finally formed a word. Her voice was hoarse and something about it was terrifyingly familiar. "If I die,"
"No, no, you're not gonna die! You're gonna make it!"
"If I die, she dies with me!" Jade growled angrily, her voice trembling slightly. The sounds of her family's worried voices began to distort and fade away until Naraku woke up. He was on the floor of lab, beside the stool he was sitting on previously.
"Jade!" he gasped, reaching into his pocket for his phone. Somehow, his phone's screen didn't crack from the pressure of his grip.
He called. She didn't answer. He called again. No answer. His mouth opened and he almost screamed.
"Goddamn it!" Naraku threw his phone at the wall. "Stop fucking with me!" He opened and closed his hands repeatedly, desperately looking around the lab for...anything...anything that would give him an idea or would stop the frenzied panic in his head.
'I don't know anyone in her family outside of Lucy, so how could I dream about them?' He knew it was real. It had to be. 'I need to neutralize the acid!'
Naraku broke every possible lab safety protocol as he scrambled to find a container to use for the distilled water and calcium chloride solution. He didn't even measure the calcium chloride; he just added a random amount to the water, stopping only when his gut said to. Finally, he tightly screwed on a cap to the jug and shook it fiercely.
"Fuck!" he hissed when he felt the sharp headache stab through his head again. Before leaving the lab, he grabbed his phone from the couch it landed on. He glanced for any substantial damage, but the protective case did its job. Naraku unlocked it - still no reply from Jade. As he burst from the lab, he spotted Bruce and Sesshomaru walking together, obviously heading towards the lab.
"Hey! We need to ta- what're you doing?" Bruce snapped, pointing at the plastic jug in Naraku's hand.
"I don't...have time for this!" Naraku winced when the pain in his head intensified. It almost felt like it was telling him to hurry!
"What's the matter with you?" Bruce reached out to hold Naraku's arm to steady him. "Your nose is bleeding!"
"What?" The back of Naraku's hand wiped under his nose without him remembering to tell himself to do it. Sure enough, a dark red smear was streaked across the back of his hand.
"Is it possible your samples were contaminated with something foul that you didn't initially test for?" Sesshomaru quizzed, tilting his head slightly. His calm tone was all the more infuriating. Bruce's helpful hand dropped to his side as he stared questioningly at Sesshomaru.
"Why do you care?" Naraku asked through clenched teeth.
"Unreasonable temper, erratic behavior, a nosebleed; Jade showed similar symptoms before she went berserk." Sesshomaru pointed out. Despite feeling like he was on fire, Naraku felt the cold sensation of fear creeping up his spine. He began backing away quickly, shaking his head.
"Ah shit," Bruce groaned. "Come on, Naraku. We need to get you checked out. I knew I should have said something the other day when you decided to make mud-angels."
He could still hear her voice in his head. 'If I die, she dies with me!'
"Stay away from me!" Naraku warned before turning around to run to his office. He heard Bruce shouting his name, but it only made him run faster.
When he reached his office, he slammed the door shut with a force that could have rattled the building and locked it before checking his phone again. Still nothing from Jade. Bruce had tried to call him, though. Naraku attempted to calm himself by pointing out that Jade could be busy or sleeping. Was the heart simply toying with him again?
"No, no, no," Naraku grit his teeth as he restrained himself from shouting and kicking the plastic tub containing the heart. "You're bluffing! You're bluffing! You can't kill her! You can't-"
Something warm and wet streaked down his face and caused his voice to disappear. He wiped away the tear with his sleeve instinctively. His problems were solved. He found a solution, albeit a destructive one, but one that would leave no trace of his mistake. He could move on now and find something else to research. It would put him behind, but he could make up for it. He was far too intelligent to be held back. He was going to succeed no matter what happened. This was what he wanted!
'But she will die.' Naraku closed his eyes and Dr. Weiss' story of the deer carcass suddenly replayed in his head. The crystals would kill an organism and reanimate it as an extension of their structure, so was Jade going to come back as a zombie?
"It's...all my fault." he whispered. All he could hear in his head now was Jade calling him her friend. He unscrewed the cap and approached the plastic tub. Every movement he made felt slow, almost like he was submerged in water. The water/calcium chloride mix puddled and dripped all over the remainder of the case and crystals. With every second that passed, the headache in the middle of Naraku's head became less intense.
Using plastic gloves, Naraku began sifting through the ruins of the case and crystals. The concentration of hydrofluoric acid that he used was criminal and had he not been concerned with Jade, he would have laughed about it. He even tried to, but his mouth wouldn't cooperate and his throat closed up.
Despite taking almost an entire day to take full effect, the acid's aftermath was devastating. The case had fallen into clean-cut pieces and the pink crystals were now colorless and translucent. He squeezed a crystal and it snapped and crumbled between his fingers effortlessly.
"I don't hear anything. It's gone." he whispered as reached over and lifted a large chunk, feeling more crystals crumble from the pressure.
'I spoke too soon.'
Hiding beneath the chunk of ruined plexiglass and crystals was a sphere. It wasn't very large - slightly larger in diameter than a quarter - and it was almost black in color with a purple iridescence. Naraku cursed under his breath and plucked the sphere from the tub. Holding it in his palm, Naraku gently tapped and pushed the sphere around with his gloved finger. It was warm to the touch, though that could have been due to chemical reactions, and perfectly smooth. When he closed his hand around it, he felt a slow, faint pulse from within. A sudden wave of rage washed over him.
"If she is dead, I will drop you in a barrel of the most concentrated hydrofluoric acid I can make," Naraku said, gritting his teeth and squeezing the sphere harder. "And then I will fly back to Japan, find the people who sent you to me, and reunite them with you inside the same barrel."
As he expected, he received nothing resembling a response. He did, however, feel completely energized. It was a stark contrast to how he felt moments before. Even his anger felt good - it made him feel invincible.
'Actually, I should pay my sponsors a visit. It would be rude of me not to.'
Naraku rinsed the sphere off with the last bit of water he had and sat at his desk, gently and carefully tapping the sphere back and forth on the surface. Back and forth, it rolled smoothly. It sounded, looked, and felt like a marble.
His brow furrowed when he noticed something. 'There is no pink color in it.' It was a soft mix between the two colors when he first received the shard. When he dissolved it in his blood, it turned purple. After ingesting a tiny drop of that, Jade spit up a pink shard and when he dissolved that with her blood, it remained pink. Mixing the two resulted in a solution that shimmered between the two colors. The colors didn't separate until the heart tissue and spinach leaves were added; a dark purple center with light pink crystals surrounding it. Now all that was left was this vitreous, almost-black sphere. Were the pink crystals simply a defense mechanism? 'Building a better shield could explain why it forced Jade to give it the rest of my blood solutions, but that doesn't explain why it wanted to destroy my samples. That was material it could have used to expand itself.'
"The dead cat," Naraku said in a low voice, now holding the sphere between the tips of his fingers. "What did you do with the cat?"
Other than the faint pulses it emitted, the sphere remained dormant. Either it was unable to do anything or it didn't want to. It was, however, giving Naraku's chain a good jerk here and there. Every time he thought he was ahead, that he found a way to control or destroy it, it would yank and Naraku would fall. For most of his life, Naraku was treated as that one person to never fuck with. He always had some sort of leverage over each person he interacted with, but this sentient substance was consistently playing him like a fiddle.
'How irritating...and impressive, I must admit.' Naraku pressed the home button on his phone and his heart skipped a beat. Jade replied! He swiftly unlocked his phone and opened the message.
'Hey, this is Lucy. Remember that weird thing that happened to Jade while I was with her in the lab? I think it's happening again, except it's worse. She's in the hospital, so she probably won't reply for a while. She's stable and sleeping now.'
"Damn," Naraku said under his breath. "Damn it!" He swung his hand to swipe the hateful orb off his desk but his hand stopped right before it connected with it. Whether or not he told himself to stop, he couldn't tell.
'It was me. If I endanger it, it might finish her off. I know that. That's why I stopped.' Naraku told himself, slowly pulling his hand back to himself. Was it really him?
'What can I do to help?' Naraku texted back, grimacing the whole time. His body tensed up and he felt slightly nauseous. Why was he offering his help? She was in the hospital - she had plenty of help! It was unnecessary to involve himself...except he was the reason it was happening in the first place.
His chest tightened and for a brief moment, he thought he was going to cry, which infuriated him. 'I despise this! I despise all of this! I have never cared about what I've done to people before! Why is she any different?'
'Could you text a list of chemicals that she's been exposed to? I know you probably can't know every single one since she likes to do random stuff, but anything helps.'
'Give me a moment.' Naraku inhaled deeply, forcing his body to relax. His teeth remained clamped, though, and he figured that was the best he could do. He began pushing everything from his mind that wasn't chemistry. His guilt, his anger, the spiteful orb, Jade - all of it was wiped from his mind except a list of chemicals that some lab assistant used that might have made her sick.
