Poisonous Garden

Alpha

Author: Tenshi no Nozomi

Author's Notes:

Uhm. I've had this typed up for a long time... and I've been meaning to release it. Perhaps there are some mistakes and my style is bound to have changed since I began this, but... I like it, so there. XD I'm not entirely sure how this is going to go... it's kind of evolving on me, all the time, like a snake that continuously sheds its old skin. Hopefully I'll update it less sporadically than so many of my other fics...

I would also like to extend an apology to everyone I promised an update to for tomorrow–I promised everyone that I would have the next chapter of Frailty out tomorrow. Well, I'm a liar, and I'm probably going to hell for it. I'm so, so, SO sorry everyone–I have the entire chapter written out on paper, there's just no way I can type up all of that in time for tomorrow's deadline. Crap, crap, please don't hate me, guys. T.T I tried really, really hard. It's all school's fault. (sniffles) It should NOT, however, take me much longer to get it out–if nothing else, I'm going to release the big chapter in smaller establishments, ie: ch3a, 3b, 3c, etc, until I've finished it off. I wonder if you guys would like that better, anyhow–it would mean shorter installments, but more frequent ones?

Actually, to heck with it, I'm going to try it, at least for the next chapter for Frailty. XD Again... very sorry. So I offer this and part A of frailty to you guys.

Extra:

Usagi-centered FY/SM fic.

Summary:

Sometimes people make selfish decisions in critical moments. See the future of Earth as it would be if Nakago became a god.

Disclaimer: Plots mine. Original characters are mine. The rest are owned by their various creators/licensors/distributors... you know the deal. No money's being made off of this fic. The title was inspired by Concrete Blonde's song "The Sky is a Poisonous Garden," which (again) I don't own/hold any titles to.

Warnings: angst, violence, some gore (especially in this first part).

Usagi watched the tv quietly, mystified by the images on the screen. Her mother had turned it on a moment before, and had been switching it to some cartoons for her, but the phone had rung. Distracted, Ikuko had left it running. It was set to a news channel, but Usagi had been forbade from touching the t.v., so she sat and watched it, blue eyes focused.

She watched the people being marched in lines, hands tied in chains. Usagi didn't understand what was happening, but she knew that the people weren't happy. Many of them were crying, some were screaming, and guards were whipping them with lashes when they struggled. Usagi squeezed her stuffed bunny a little tighter to her chest. This was a bad show, she realized, and mommy would be mad at her for watching it- and yet she still couldn't force herself to turn away.

She watched avidly even while shrinking behind her stuffed toy in fear. Whatever was happening was more than sad, and more than horrifying, but she couldn't understand that yet. She was only six, and still with a naïve comprehension of the world.

They were marched up a small flight of stairs onto a platform, much like the pillory from colonial times. Only this pillory had a large circle cut out of it, and a deep, fathomless pit dug below it. The camera angle showed that inside the pit were hundreds of poisonous, writhing snakes and several crocodiles, which snapped at the air, causing women to scream and babes to cry.

Usagi had not had a fear of reptiles before, but something about them caused a chill to go up her spine. Her mother had once told her, after a cat had scratched her, that most wild animals would rather hide from people than hurt them. There was something wrong with the reptiles, though; there was a menacing aura clinging to them. Something had possessed them, and they dearly wanted to hurt something…

Usagi knew she ought to change the channel, even though it would break a rule. This was wrong, and this was… evil. Even she knew the basic concepts of right and wrong at her age, and this was so far saturated by the stench of evil that it would have taken a fool to ignore it.

The camera panned over to a man, who was watching from some kind of box above the platform. Several women whom surrounded him kneeled dutifully by his side, waiting for any command they could possibly obey. His facial expression was one that bordered between solemn coldness and boredom. He had strikingly cold, electric blue eyes, and blonde hair.

It had been a while since Usagi had seen blonde hair. In fact, thinking on it, she couldn't name anyone else that she'd seen before with fair hair and blue eyes before. Excepting, of course, herself- and even she had not 'seen' herself, and that was a very important secret. The last time Usagi had made the mistake of telling a classmate she had blonde hair, her mother had moved her very far away from the cities.

That was why they lived in the small village that they did, on the outskirts of a much larger town. It was very, very far away from Usagi's last home; in fact, it had taken them more than a week by train to get here. Her mother had told her of many wonderful stories passed down through their families of giant, silver birds that used to fly through the sky with people in them, and how it only took a day to get half way across the world. Her five year old brain could hardly comprehend that; after all, the world was divided by the Great Wall, and nothing could get over it.

There were people talking now, asking the cold man questions. Every once and a while they might get a short answer, but mostly the man was quiet and somber. And then he gave a word of command, and the screams started.

The camera flashed back towards the scene with the people, and Usagi watched as the people began to fall into the pit. No, that wasn't right- many of them were struggling, fighting back, but the guards were shoving them in. The camera angle switched, and the scene inside the pit became clear. It was gory and horrifying, and too much for Usagi to understand.

Her eyes grew wide, and her lip trembled before forming itself into a soundless, gaping 'o.' The people were being eaten and tortured- the snakes bit them with their venomous fangs, paralyzing the adults and killing others. Their wounds did not gush blood, but turned purple, and within minutes their prone bodies began to turn a gray, deadened color. The people who died by the alligators had it worse, perhaps- the snapping, fiendish lizards bit off chunks of flesh, sometimes a whole body part at a time like a foot or a hand. Sometimes they would bite the person on the head, and a horrible grey and red explosion would ensue.

Within minutes the people who had yet to be dumped in were frantic, struggling fervently to get away. The pit had become a pool of seething, hateful creatures, destroying lives left and right. And the blood and debris left from the dead was nauseating to look at. Usagi held her small hands up to her eyes and began to wail as loud as her small lungs and voice box would allow.

Called instantly from the kitchen and her other priorities, Ikuko ran into the room. It only took a moment and a swift glance at the television screen for her to figure out what was wrong. A quick motion and the remote was in her hand and the tv was turned off.

Usagi allowed her mother to hug her very tightly for a long, long time. Neither of them said anything to the other; there were no words that could assuage Usagi. Ikuko knew it, and she was sorry; it was far too early for her daughter's innocence to become soiled, but this was the world that they lived in. Cruelty was a requisite in order to survive.

After Usagi's cries died down, Ikuko sang a soft lullaby in her daughter's ear. The words were nonsensical, but the feeling behind them was what really mattered. "I'm so sorry, musume," she finally whispered, her own teal eyes blurred with tears as briny and cold as the sea. "I hope that you never have to suffer that man again, my dearest, however…"

Ikuko looked around the quiet, darkened room. She had known from the moment that her daughter had first opened her blue eyes and smiled at her that she was different. A feeling of doom had settled into her stomach once she had realized that her darling daughter's hair was not going to change to brown. Her lovely golden locks were going to cost her so much…

Perhaps her innocence. Certainly her freedom. And, quite possibly… her life.

"I'm afraid it might be your fate."

Don't forget to leave a review or send me an email at tenshi no nozomi (a) hotmail (dot ) com or tonbo duo (a)hotmail(dot) comBeit flame, concrit, criticism, comments, questions, praise... I'll accept anything. Just don't ask me to do any kind of pairing stuff, lol–I already know what I'm doing. X3