Author's Notes: Well, here I am again. I've hit a block in Lights, Camera, Action!, so I'm working on this. I just can't make the transition in these scenes go smoothly. When I've got a block, I can't force it. I just got to keep writing and wait for it to break down. Oh well.

In other, sadder news, Sakura had to be put to sleep. After all of her health problems left her weak, she suffered what the vet believed to be a stroke. She was a step up from a vegetable, and keeping her alive would be futile and inhumane. So we let her go quietly while she wasn't in any great pain.

Hopefully, I'll have some happier news to report by the time I finish writing this chapter.

Dawn of a New Age

Chapter 6- Massacre

Kagome drove quietly toward the ranch, expecting the worst. It was like a brick had formed in the pit of her stomach and tried to force the acid up into her throat as it weighed down inside of her. She needed to think of something, anything but that feeling. "Shippo, the two who attacked the ranch. What did they look like?"

Shippo swallowed audibly before answering from the back seat. "Well... one of them was tall and mean-looking. He had really long hair tied up like a rope. He carried this big metal stick and his shoes had these weird circle thingies that floated next to him. The other one was really ugly. He looked like a big frog or lizard."

Inuyasha looked back at Shippo from the passenger seat. "Since when did the Project start making Moreaus without mammals?"

Shippo just shrugged. From the look on his face it was clear he didn't know or care. All that mattered was that his family was in danger, probably hurt, and he had to trust two strangers to help him. No kid should have to go through that. It just wasn't right. He wasn't old enough to be able to emotionally cope with a situation like this, not by a long shot. Best to try and keep a conversation going. The tension in the car was getting brittle along with Inuyasha's temper and Shippo's composure. At any minute, something could happen to shatter any of those things like one big pane of glass. "What do you mean Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha huffed and turned back to the front. "I mean that before I was 'put to sleep' the only Moreaus ever created were a mix of humans and mammals. A few like me had psion genes, too, but they never used reptiles or anything like that."

"It has been fifty years," Kagome remarked. "Maybe they figured out how to do it."

"Looks like it," Inuyasha grumbled. He then leaned forward and narrowed his eyes. He lowered the window and stuck his head out, sniffing the air. Despite the unbearable anxiety welling up in her due to the situation, Kagome couldn't help but be reminded of how dog-like Inuyasha could be and how he seemed so much like the classic image of a dog hanging its head out of a car window to catch the breeze.

"We're close... Shit, this isn't good."

Now why'd you have to go and say that, genius?! Kagome only had to glance the rearview mirror to confirm her suspicions. Even without looking at his aura, it was clear Shippo was about to lose it. Of course, when she turned the corner, she felt like she was about to as well. Inuyasha's foul language and coarse tone of voice couldn't have possibly begun to describe the scene before them. They had finally reached the ranch. Or rather, what was left of it.

The whole scene looked like a warzone. The house was in ruins, a smoldering husk with several smoky flames still burning. Corpses were everywhere. They appeared human at first, but on closer inspection, it became obvious that these were all Moreaus. Some had dog-like features, others were more feline in appearance. Several had the looks of apes or bears. A couple resembled foxes. The closest one even resembled a bat. The physical anomalies were as numerous as the bodies. Animal-like ears, pelts, tails, snouts, turned-up noses, claws, triple-jointed legs. The bat Moreau even seemed to have vestigial wings connecting his arms and torso. There were about three dozen different bodies immediately visible, but there was one thing certain about all of them: their auras had faded away. They were all dead.

Several patches of the land were scorched and burned. Some still smoked and smoldered. A barn for the livestock had been knocked down and only a few remaining cows, goats, and chickens walked among the ruins while the rest lay slaughtered among the grounds. One of the cows had even been mutilated as if predators or scavengers had been picking at it for hours.

All in all, it was a scene of horror and brutality. It shook Kagome to her very core. She had gotten used to the sight of blood. But this was a massacre. This was butchery. So many lives taken in cold blood. For a while, Kagome found it strange that two Moreaus would do this to their own kind. And that's when it hit her: humans did the same to one another every day. The Moreaus who did this were no different than human killers. Rather than bring comfort, the realization only made Kagome all the more disgusted. Moreaus were every bit as human as humans and psions. And that was both a good thing and a bad thing.

Before the car even stopped, Inuyasha opened his door and bounded out. He went first to the corpse of the bat Moreau, checking him over.

Kagome stopped and climbed out, looking back at Shippo who merely sat numb with horror at the scene before him. Kagome bit her lip and opened the door. She gently placed a hand on the Moreau child's shoulder. "Shippo?"

In that moment, the tears flowed freely. Shippo curled up into a fetal position and sobbed and wailed uncontrollably. Reality had sunk in at last, and he was beginning to feel the pain of having his family, his friends, his whole life destroyed.

Kagome felt her chest tighten and tears stung her eyes. At the moment, there was nothing she could do. Best to give Shippo a moment alone and go help Inuyasha with whatever he was attempting to do. She walked toward the canine Moreau who was stepping away from the bat Moreau with a sigh. She caught an odd smell in the air. "Is that ozone?" she asked.

"Ozone!" Inuyasha barked in the tone of someone remembering something that should have been obvious. "That's what I smelled before. Anyway, the wounds on this poor bastard prove it. The two Moreaus who attacked this place were using electricity. That's a new one."

Kagome swallowed down the lump rising in her throat. "How long do you think they've been...?"

"Dead?" Inuyasha finished. "'Bout an hour. Maybe two. I'm gonna look around some more. Whoever these s'um'bitches were, they're long gone. But I want to find them. So I can kill them. The last thing we need is Moreaus loyal to the Project after us."

"How do you figure they'll come after us?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Just a hunch," Inuyasha grunted before striding off toward the remains of the ranch house.

-x-

Inuyasha tried to keep his wits. The stench of blood, smoke, and ozone was setting off so many warning bells it was hard to think straight. And through it all was the scent trail, still fresh. Two Moreaus who smelled of ozone and scales. Apparently, the Project really had managed to perfect mixing human and reptile genes. The first attempts they made back in '80... well, the few that got past being embryos didn't last too long.

Inuyasha tossed aside a charred beam of wood and started scavenging through the wreckage of the house. A couple of fires were still burning here and there. But for the most part, it seemed everything had been destroyed. Pretty quick work for only a couple hours. The two Moreaus had probably put most of the fires out themselves before leaving. The last thing they would want was to attract attention to this whole scene. But then, why would they leave the bodies lying around? Unless... unless they planned to come back later!

Inuyasha kept his mouth shut. He didn't want Kagome and the kid to panic. He needed to buy some time until he could think of a way to ambush the two Moreaus when they returned.

Suddenly, he spotted something. It was a hand sticking out from around a corner. Another victim it seemed. Out of morbid curiosity, Inuyasha turned around the corner to see what sort of Moreau had been slain, but he was unprepared to see the battered and charred corpses of two fox Moreaus, one a male and the other female. What stood out was not their burn and slash wounds, but rather the fact that where they should have had tails, there were only bloody stumps. Judging from the amount of blood around those stumps, the tails had been cut off after the two were killed. Why? Did the Project want some kind of proof that the ranch was destroyed and the refugees were dead? Sounds like something Tanaka would do. But he was dead. Wasn't he? Though Inuyasha didn't want to think about it too much, he certainly wouldn't doubt that Naraku was too twisted even for Hell.

Inuyasha stared at the bodies a few moments longer before growling under his breath. Kagome was turning him soft. He'd have to give these poor bastards a burial or something later. Better than rotting in the sun in this ruined husk of a home. He backed up a few steps before turning away. It would be best to head back to the car and get ready for the two Moreau's to return. It was pointless looking for survivors and the ash was starting to get in his eyes and nose.

Just thinking of it made Inuyasha sneeze and he realized just how bad it had been when the smells all came back at once stronger than ever. Except... the scent trail of the two killers seemed too strong. A light breeze stirred behind Inuyasha, whipping a couple locks of hair around his shoulder to dance in front of him. The scent was particularly strong now. Oh shit!

Inuyasha sprang off back to the car. Kagome was turning bodies onto their backs and crossing their arms when she spotted the silver-haired Moreau racing toward her.

"Inuya-..." She was cut off by Inuyasha snatching her by the waist as he ran by and carrying her like a rag doll.

"Shut up," he barked. Moments later they reached the car. Inuyasha snatched up a still sobbing Shippo by his shirt and tore into the underbrush surrounding the ranch.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome snapped indignantly. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Ssshhh-shut up!" Inuyasha hissed as he winced from the bite to his hand Shippo just gave him in protest. He placed his hands over their heads and shoved them both down with him into a crouch. "Don't even breathe. They're back."

That was enough to shut them up. At last. Didn't any of them get it? Kagome could sense auras, why hadn't she picked up on it yet? For god's sake, he wasn't smart, but was he really the only one with enough sense to stay alive?

Those thoughts were silenced as two forms tore across the treetops. Even at a distance Inuyasha could see them. The first was humanoid. He had dark skin and hair as long as Inuyasha's tied in a braid. As he got closer, Inuyasha could see his fangs and serpentine eyes. He wore a trenchcoat, and his boots had two red discs that gave off a faint hum. He seemed to be flying with those, as he was steering by moving his legs. Inuyasha also took careful note of the metal staff he had. It ended a single-edged blade and had rubber grips.

The other one flew by use of a hoverboard like the ones Inuyasha had seen on TV, but much more sophisticated. He was squat and stocky with a big, bald lizard-like head full of sharp teeth. He had no weapons, but he looked pretty dangerous anyway. He had a look in his eyes like everything was potential food. He also answered the question of where the fox Moreaus' tails had gone. He had tied them to his belt like macabre trophies.

Inuyasha ground his teeth lightly. Taking these two on would be risky. But fleeing wasn't an option since they'd just get spotted and hunted down. Fighting seemed to be the only chance. And he'd have to get the first strike somehow. That meant waiting for those two to let their guards down. Not easy. And judging from what they had done so far, there probably wasn't any low they wouldn't stoop to. No doubt about it, Inuyasha was dealing with a couple of sick fucks here.

He glanced to his right at Kagome. She was watching the two Moreaus with a mixture of wonder, fear, and loathing. Whichever one was the most prominent changed from one second to the next. She didn't deserve to be here right now. She hadn't done anything wrong, so why did the universe feel like putting her in this situation? If there was a god, Inuyasha figured he must have had a sick sense of humor.

He took one more look down at his left at the kid. It was weird. He had just met the little runt, and already he was looking at him with a mixture of irritation and fondness. He couldn't help feel a little sympathetic too. At least this kid had had parents to grow up with, unlike Inuyasha. Now the Project came in destroyed all that. That was just sick.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Inuyasha settled on his haunches, ready to spring out at a moment's notice as he trained his ears on the two reptile Moreaus.

"So, where do we start, brother?" the bald one asked as they settled in for a landing.

"I say we get rid of the bodies first," answered the humanoid one. The two red discs floated in toward him as he landed and connected onto the ankles of his boots. "I don't feel like getting lectured again."

"Well how were we supposed to know they wanted the area cleared? It's not like we've done this before."

"Bah. You know how those fucking scientists are. They think they're smarter than us and take it as an insult when we don't magically read their minds... Wait a second..." Oh shit. He looks suspicious.

The long-haired Moreau walked over to one of the bodies Kagome had turned over and folded the arms of. "We didn't leave any of them like this."

The lizard-ish Moreau lumbered over to where the other was looking. "Hmm... What do you think it means, Hiten?"

The Moreau called Hiten looked around carefully and spotted Kagome's car. "Somebody's here, Manten." He raised his weapon and began to look around with narrowed eyes.

Damn! Damn, damn, damn! Why couldn't they have been nearly retarded? Now it was going to be harder than ever to get the drop on them. Inuyasha had to think fast... Damnit, why couldn't he be better at that? Come on, come on, think! He had to think of something before... oh, hell.

Inuyasha just managed to grab Kagome and Shippo and spring away before Hiten swung his staff around and released a blast of electricity from the end. The tree behind them had its trunk shattered and fell forward with a deafening crash. The problem was that Kagome was loose while Inuyasha found himself on his stomach pinned underneath the fallen tree along with Shippo. Breathing was hard enough, but he couldn't see anything through the foliage that covered the two of them. Shippo had been knocked unconscious during the crash. Inuyasha struggled to free himself. He was strong enough to be able to get this thing off of himself if he just had a couple seconds, but he was pinned by the shoulders, which made it difficult to get leverage.

Though he couldn't see anything, he heard it all, and it made his blood run cold.

"Well, well, look what we found." It was the one called Hiten.

"A lovely little human. I wonder when she got here." Manten that time.

"Keep away from me!" Kagome shouted defiantly. Inuyasha couldn't help but admire her ability to stay brave in her situation.

"Sorry, bitch. But you're coming with us." Inuyasha redoubled his efforts at that, trying to free himself while also thinking of how many different ways he could kill Hiten. "We were ordered to kill all Moreaus we found, but they never said anything about humans. Isn't that right, brother?"

"Very true. Do you think they might reward us for bringing her back alive? After all, she probably knows something if she's out here." Manten would also have to die slowly when Inuyasha got his claws on him.

"You read my mind," Hiten remarked in cold humor.

Inuyasha heard Kagome's screams of protest and her fighting back, but the loud sound of a punch silenced her. Inuyasha felt that corner of his mind fighting him again. It was still controllable, but it put up more struggle this time. Instead, he focused his mind entirely on escaping. It was a thought that became all the more desperate as the sounds of Hiten and Manten's strange flight equipment began to fade off into the distance. Inuyasha wanted to roar and howl with rage, but his lungs were under too much pressure.

At last, Inuyasha found the leverage he needed. He slowly pushed himself up off the ground, bringing the tree with him. He gave a quick buck of his hips and was able to toss the burden off. But it was too late. As Inuyasha began to feel the ache of exertion, he saw that Hiten and Manten had already vanished from site. Kagome was gone.

Rage boiled up in Inuyasha. Not knowing how else to channel it, he screamed in the direction of the scent trail "I'll find you, you bastards! I'll kill you both!"

He looked down at Shippo who was still out cold, but free from his burden. Inuyasha scooped the little Moreau child up into his arms. "You're probably gonna want a piece of those fuckers too, kid." As soon as the strain of escaping from the fallen tree had worn off, Inuyasha bounded in the direction of the scent trail, alternating between a dash pumping his legs like pistons, and long leaping strides to cover more ground than any human could in as much time.

He had to rescue Kagome. When he found her, those two from the Project were going to wish they had never been created.

-x-

Author's Notes: And like an asshole, I leave you with a cliffhanger. I hope to get the next chapter and one of LCA! done in the next few days, so don't sweat too much over it.

Anyway, here's some shout-outs to my reviewers...

crazymadness: Let me put it this way. If I get to see the Daily Show, I consider it a good week.
Mimiko: I hope you don't feel too uncomfortable with the imagery in this chapter. I don't want to end up one of those hacks who relies on ultraviolence instead of actual content.
Izayoi: A chapter in which Inuyasha describes a four-day-long torture session made you hungry. Right, I'm going to be here, behind this bullet-proof screen.
Vixen12089: I actually pride myself on not using excuses. I either finish the work or I don't, and if I don't I just have to swallow my pride and face the music.
Araine: You're the first person who gave the answer I was looking for. You were all right, but Hiten and Manten was the answer I had in mind.
Cringe: I still haven't gotten around to that one yet. I need to make some more time for it.