Chapter 6: Collapse of an autocratic ruler

Kagome, Miroku and Sango emerged from the ancient gate. They found themselves standing before countless dead. Their had to be over thirty soldiers all who were lying on the ground either burnt to a crisp or killed by some unknown virus or chemical. Agent Orange had taken care of any obstacles that would hinder them from finding InuYasha.
Sango approached one of the many dead and stared at the blood seeping from his eyes, mouth, and nose. The scene was far too horrific for one not to feel bad for the enemy. Sango also found that some of the burnt men had some strange masks melted onto their faces. The female demon slayer felt sick to her stomach, the smell of burnt human flesh was overwhelming.

"How could anyone do such a thing to another human being?" asked Sango as she stood up and covered her face in disgust.

"I would've thought that InuYasha would run into them first. But, it seems that these men found someone far more dangerous than him." Miroku walked up to Sango and suggested to the two girls that they better get going.

Kagome took the lead and approached one of many doors, the one she choose had to be the correct one, seeing as how one soldier had his head crushed against it. Kagome quickly moved the corpse aside and became appalled as his brain matter slid off the door. She picked up a small card from the floor and inserted it inside a card reader. The door opened revealing a sea of dead soldiers. These were different, their faces were frozen in pain and agony, and their skin was a crimson red, it appeared that they had died an excruciating death. Kagome, Sango and Miroku were extremely careful not to touch any of the dead; maybe what killed them could be transferred by touch.

Kagome and her two friends exited the long corridor and found themselves in a room filled with six enormous creatures. The large beasts were wearing tattered military fatigues, and stared at Kagome, Miroku and Sango as if they hadn't eaten in days. The creatures were more of Chimera's failed attempts to create a perfect soldier and it seemed that these had been released purposely or had escaped. Sango and Miroku gently moved Kagome aside and took their usual defensive stances. The former men began to advance on them and opened their mouths snarling loudly, their countless sharp teeth glistened under the bright lights. Sango hurled her boomerang at the former soldiers and two in half, the upper torso of the two creatures were still alive. Sango caught her boomerang and threw it again, this time she decapitated three of the men, the altered men stumbled into the walls and clawed away at whatever was in their paths, before finally falling dead.

"This isn't working as well as I thought it would" Sango caught her boomerang and felt the thick blood squish on her hand as she placed it on her back.

Miroku moved ahead and removed the prayer beads from his hand. The powerful wind tunnel began to draw the creatures. The altered men howled and tried in vain to run, but found themselves picked up from the ground. Their massive bodies were sucked into the void and their shrieks became silent. Kagome felt remorse, after all those creatures were once men.

Miroku sensed Kagomes distress and placed his hand on her shoulder, "It's better for them that way, and no one deserves that fate. That way they can at least be at rest."

Kagome nodded and continued walking towards the next series of doors, "I wonder where InuYasha is right now?" she wondered.

Meanwhile, a couple of rooms away…InuYasha stood in front of his black clothed enemy, "You going to show me who you are?" asked InuYasha while holding tetsusaiga. His enemy nodded in agreement and was about to unmask, when a large door behind him opened. The dark silhouette of a tall man appeared, he slowly walked out from shadows.

"InuYasha, we finally meet." The man was Chimera and he was dressed in a black suit. He had his two hands in his pockets. He approached his "aide" from behind. Chimera pulled one of his hands out from his pockets and stopped his aide from unmasking.

"Not quite yet…" Chimera said while lowering his aides' hand. "Maybe my project here didn't really fail. He did after all kill my assassins and he managed to lure you here." Chimera placed his hand on top of his aides' head and grabbed the mask, "I know you're dying to know who he is…InuYasha, meet…" Chimera pulled off the mask and InuYasha gasped in shock, "…InuYasha001. I can tell by your loss for words that you're in shock. Now, to finally know if he's your superior…InuYasha001, Kill InuYasha." Chimera turned around and walked back into the shadows. The large door shut tightly behind him, leaving InuYasha to face his clone.

InuYasha squeezed the handle on tetsusaiga and began to circle around his clone, "So, you're me?" asked InuYasha in a curious voice.

"No, I'm better than you! I'm faster, stronger, and far more intelligent than you could ever dream to be!" yelled the clone as he unsheathed his titanium sword from its scabbard. "When I was created they removed all of the flaws that you have. I don't have your pathetic emotional weakness to human girls like you do! And once I take your head, I'm going to enjoy dismembering Kagome and your other friends…slowly."

The two young hanyou's began to circle each other and watched the others movements. InuYasha made the first move and drew his strength from his built up rage. He swung tetsusaiga and missed hitting Inuyasha001. The clone retaliated by slicing InuYasha across the chest. Inuyasha001 thrust his titanium sword into InuYasha's arm, drawing blood a second time.

"Is that the best you can do?" snickered InuYasha001. The clone moved back and brought the sword up to his mouth and licked the blood off the blade. "Feh, your blood tastes like…like the blood of a loser."

InuYasha gritted his teeth and swung tetsusaiga with all of his might, sadly the clone predicted the careless move and jumped behind Inuyasha. Inuyasha001 thrust his claws into the wound across InuYasha's back, causing it to bleed profusely. The evil clone laughed and twisted his fingers inside of InuYasha's back, pulling out a small chunk of flesh.

"Arrggghhh!" screamed InuYasha as the clone withdrew his hand from his back. InuYasha began to stagger forward in an effort to think about his next move.

"Why don't you just give up, you can't even use your sword properly. Just drop on your knees and I promise to take your head off in one clean swipe. Tetsusaiga will be better off in my possession." The evil clone followed behind InuYasha with his sword in hand. "No? I guess I'm going to have to tear you apart."

Meanwhile…Kagome, Sango and Miroku made their way to a small hallway, there were many doors and she wasn't sure which one to enter. Some of the doors had small signs that told them what was inside, but others only had a long series of numbers.

"Which one do we go in?" asked Sango as she read the signs on the doors.

"I don't know, if only we had some kind of sign." Replied Kagome. Just as she said that a group of heavily armed men could be heard running in their direction. They quickly entered one of the open rooms and hid inside with the door slightly open. Ten soldiers in black ran past them and could be heard talking about someone named Agent Orange and how he killed countless men with his flame-thrower and chemical weaponry.

"That's his name…" Kagome now knew the name of the masked man in the N.B.C. suit. He had remained a nameless enigma until now.

Kagome and her friends came out from the dark room and watched where the ten soldiers had entered. They cautiously entered the open door and peeked inside, the room had blood splattered on the walls. As they entered the blood soaked room they could hear the soldiers screaming in pain. Gunfire and loud cries echoed throughout the room and corridors, "Shoot the fucker!" could be heard from one soldier, "He's taking the bullets like they were nothing!" a few loud screams were the last thing to be heard it became quite all of the sudden. Kagome, Miroku, and Sango remained still for a minute and wondered if Agent Orange was in the next room. They had no choice but to enter the next series of rooms and find out. They approached the closed door and found a large pool of blood coming out from underneath the door. Kagome placed her hand on the doorknob and trembled as she turned it. The three of them looked inside the room and found the ten soldiers literally torn apart. Their appendages were ripped clean off their bodies. Their bodies were twisted and mangled, did Agent Orange possess some kind of superhuman strength, what was he really? Wondered the three of them, as they walked around the hideous sight.

"Is this sight common?" asked Sango as she walked quickly past the mangled dead.

"I'm afraid that this is far worse then anything I've seen before. I think that their leader, Chimera, chose someone far more dangerous then any demon we've ever encountered." Replied Kagome as they exited the large room.

They approached a large metal door decorated with gold trim and various warnings. The door read "X-Weapons: Authorized Personal Only!" Kagome noticed that the door had been left open and she pushed it, inside the room were dozens of small tanks, helicopters, and futuristic looking body armor.

"What is all this?" asked Miroku, while he placed his hand on one of the small tanks.

"They're all weapons, but none of these are like anything I've ever seen before. Those over there are tanks, they can level houses. These strange machines with the blades on top are helicopters, they fly high and attack targets from great distances. And those strange metal suits aren't like anything I've seen before…no, actually I have seen them before. I've seen them in anime. Could they have been planning to send them to the past?"

"Shhh…listen…" Sango had heard something in the following room. It was the sound of metal clashing, someone was having a fight.

"Could it be InuYasha?" wondered Kagome.

"Lets go. If that's InuYasha he may need our help." Miroku took the lead and turned the large metal lever on the door and opened it. Inside the room was InuYasha and to there shock someone who looked identical to him.

"That person looks just like InuYasha." Kagome whispered to the others.

InuYasha noticed the door open, his clone had also noticed the three friends standing there watching. InuYasha001 smiled at Kagome and the others and raised his sword in the air. He slashed InuYasha, who was already severely injured, across the chest three times. Inuyasha001 grinned evilly and kicked InuYasha across the room, knocking him unconscious. He began to walk towards them and wiped the fresh blood from his blade.

"You three saved me a lot of time, now I don't have to hunt you down. Who wants to die first?" asked Inuyasha001.

Kagome and the others were astonished that this other person looked identical to InuYasha, "Who are you?" asked Kagome.

With the sinister grin on his face he replied, "Me? I'm Inuyasha001, not to be mistaken with that worthless sack of shit lying over there." Pointed the evil clone.

Miroku and Sango both jumped in front of Kagome and were ready to fight. "Don't come any closer!" shouted Sango, but Inuyasha001 continued walking towards them. Just as Sango reached for her weapon InuYasha001 stopped, Sango wondered if it was because of her threat. Inuyasha001 walked backwards and appeared to be glancing over them. The three of them found out why Inuyasha001 had stopped. The ominous breathing of Agent Orange could be heard behind them. Miroku turned around and stared the mysterious Agent Orange in the eyes. Underneath the reflective glass lens his eyes stood out and Miroku moved back. Agent Orange had crimson red eyes, the likes in which he had never seen before on a human.

Inuyasha001 gave a dirty look at Agent Orange, "I thought I was forgetting someone, well I guess I'll amuse myself with you first." Inuyasha001 leapt over Kagome and her two friends with his sword in hand. Agent Orange looked at the three young kids in front of him and pushed them away with his inhuman strength. InuYasha001 cut Agent Orange across the chest and gleefully watched as his blood discharged out from the large laceration.

"Come on, at least put up more of a fight!" laughed Inuyasha001. "Your other two friends weren't any fun, they died in a matter of seconds!" Agent Orange took a tremendous amount of slashes and cuts before finally falling on one knee and dropping his flame-thrower. "Is that it?" asked Inuyasha001. Agent Orange raised his head and stared Inuyasha001 in the eyes, his emotionless glance struck a hint of fear in the clone. InuYasha001 violently thrust his titanium sword in the masked mans chest, he pulled the sword up and watched as the vast amounts of blood poured onto the floor. Inuyasha001 saw the glimmer in his victims eyes disappear and pulled the sword out, Agent Orange collapsed onto the ground, his blood wet the floor as his body lay there. The cold-hearted Inuyasha001 turned around with a large smile on his face, and watched as Kagome and the others ran over to the unconscious InuYasha.

"What do we do?" asked Kagome.

Miroku stepped forward and threatened Inuyasha001 by telling him that he'd use his wind tunnel on him. "Oooo, I'm so scared of the void in your hand! Go ahead and use it, I'm four times faster than InuYasha and you'll be dead before you hit the ground!" threatened Inuyasha001. He continued advancing towards them and stopped when he heard something following him. He felt a cold chill run down his back as he turned around. He had Agent Orange staring at him once more, the mysterious man wasn't dead. "What the fu…" before he could even finish talking Agent Orange grabbed him by the throat with one hand and lifted him off the ground.

"He didn't die?" wondered Kagome.

Agent Orange quickly grabbed the clones' hand and crushed his wrist, causing him to drop his sword. InuYasha001 attempted to cry out, but found the death grip on his throat tightening.

"Fuck! I guess this is it…" was the last thing to go through InuYasha001's mind, before his neck was snapped like a twig. Agent Orange threw the dead clone across the room, a loud sickening "thud" sounded from the clones body smashing into the hard steel wall.

Suddenly, as Kagome and the others watched Agent Orange begin to approach them, the sound of a loud siren began to wail throughout the room. Red and yellow lights lit up everywhere, and Chimera appeared with numerous soldiers. The room was suddenly filled with life and movement as the soldiers aimed their weapons at them and Agent Orange.

"Agent Orange, I thought that Inuyasha001 had killed you in the past. I guess I was wrong, but since everyone I want dead is here in one spot I figure that I might as well kill you all. It would've been so pleasant to have you on our team, but from what I just saw, it appears that you were only sent here to get close to me. It's a pity…men, kill them all. Let me know when they're all dead, I'll be in the meeting room." And Chimera walked out of the room laughing.

InuYasha regained consciousness and found his friends standing over him, he had also noticed that there was a creepy silence all of the sudden, "Where's that damn look-a-like of me?" he asked.

Kagome whispered, "Dead, Agent Orange killed him."

"So, why is everyone so quiet? And who the hell is Agent Orange?" InuYasha raised his head and saw the multiple armed men surrounding them, "Oh, that's why you're all so quiet." With some quick thinking he stood up and grabbed Miroku's hand, and removed the prayer beads. He pointed the palm of the monks' hand at the soldiers and their weapons were pulled out from their hands. InuYasha closed Miroku's hand and made sure that all the soldiers were unarmed, "Okay, now none of you have any weapons. Who wants to die first?" he asked. The soldiers all looked at each other and ran away, they were far smarter than the soldiers from the first encounter.

Once all the soldiers had fled, Kagome, Sango and Miroku had noticed something, "He's gone!" Sango examined the entire room and pointed out that Agent Orange had mysteriously disappeared.

"I'm confused, is this Agent Orange on our side or not?" asked InuYasha. "Because I swear I heard you say that he killed my doppelganger and another thing. How in the hell did you three recover, I thought that you three were feeling sick!" He asked Kagome and the others.

"We're just as confused as you are about Agent Orange, because back at the cave he injected us with something that cured our illness." Replied Kagome. "And, yes he did kill your clone, I'll explain the rest of what happened as we go."

"Shit! I almost forgot about Chimera. We got to find him before he escapes." InuYasha and the others ran towards the door that Chimera went through and opened it. Inside they found a very long corridor, which lead them to three doors. "There's only three doors, lets find out which one he went through." InuYasha punched the first door, knocking it down, he looked inside and found that it was filled with many frightened researchers and scientists.

"Try again." Miroku said in an almost humorous tone. InuYasha walked over to the second door and sliced it in two with tetsusaiga, the room was filled with many cylinders containing small fetuses. "My god…this must be where they made that clone of you." Kagome entered the room and looked at the lifeless fetuses and babies, all which were frozen in a green liquid.

"We have to stop this psychopath, before he makes more clones of InuYasha." Miroku pulled Kagome out of the room and they approached the last door.

"Guess this has to be it…" and InuYasha swiftly knocked down the final door. Inside Chimera stood behind a long desk, behind him was his emergency escape. He laughed as they looked at him from across the poorly lit room.

"Take a good look, because this is the last time you four sons of bitches will ever see my face! I'll make sure that none of you make it out alive!" Chimera pulled out a small device from within his pocket and pressed a red button on it. A large, thick wall of shatterproof glass split the desk in two and separated him from his pursuers. InuYasha swung tetsusaiga in an effort to break the thick barrier, but found it to be stronger than it looked. Chimera laughed mockingly as InuYasha constantly took swings at the glass, suddenly his laughter stopped. The emergency escape opened and a deep breathing could be heard coming from behind.

"Agent Orange?" wondered Kagome and the others. A dark shadow stepped out from the escape and grabbed Chimera by the back of the neck. The powerful Chimera froze as the thick black gloves wrapped themselves around his neck, he remained paralyzed in fear. Agent Orange stepped into the light and held in his hand a large vial of liquid. His loud breathing could be heard through the thick glass.

"Agent Orange…d-don't kill me…" begged Chimera. "I'll give you anything you want, money, women, power. You name it and its yours." Agent Orange pulled Chimera by his short black hair and smashed his face on the thick glass, but didn't kill him.

InuYasha and the others could only watch as the mysterious Agent Orange opened the glass vial. He shoved the unknown liquid down Chimera's throat and forced him to drink it. In a matter of seconds Chimera began to cough and vomit a thick red substance, his eyes began to bleed, his skin was excreting blood and his veins bulged out. Agent Orange released Chimera and watched in amusement as the autocratic ruler convulsed in many violent spasms. Before finally dying Chimera screamed in a loud blood curdling moan and fell onto his desk. Chimera's flesh splattered on the oak desk and dripped onto the ground like oatmeal, Chimera was dead.

Still in shock to what they just saw, InuYasha approached the protective barrier and spoke to Agent Orange, "Thanks, I think…" Agent Orange nodded his head and reached into a small pouch on his belt. He pulled out a small P.D.A. and pushed a series of numbers. Agent Orange put the device away and waved good-bye, he turned around and exited through the emergency exit.

"What did he just do?" asked Miroku, who was unfamiliar with the device that Agent Orange used.

"I'm not sure…" replied Kagome, but before she could say anything else, a female voice could be heard through the intercom.

The female voice repeated the same warning, "All personal evacuate to the nearest escape. A chemical/biological/nuclear device has been detected. One minute until detonation…"

"Now we know…" smirked InuYasha. The four of them ran as fast as they could through the long halls and corridors, with the mechanical voice still going in the background, "30 seconds until detonation…" The female voice began counting down.

They ran without stopping and avoid the corpses on the floor and finally made it to the large gate. Surrounding the ancient gate were multiple metal cases, all which had blinking red lights. They heard the voice one last time before jumping into the lit up gate, "10 seconds…9…8…" without further hesitation they jumped in and were gone.

"5…4…3…2…1…" The entire underground facility exploded and collapsed. Hundreds of gallons of water poured in from above the ceilings and flooded what the massive explosions hadn't destroyed. The ancient gate was obliterated in the blast and any fools stupid enough to have stayed behind.

InuYasha and the others emerged from the gate inside of the mountain. They all gave a sigh of relief, it was all finally over. They began their journey back to the village and the first thing they did was ask Lady Kaede for the ancient scroll. InuYasha walked outside with the tattered scroll and found a small fire burning, he tore the scroll which predicted events and through it into the flame. InuYasha and the others watched as the bright red flame devoured the old parchment. InuYasha and the others had gathered everything that was brought over from Kagome's time and destroyed it, they didn't want anything that would come back to haunt them. Miroku and InuYasha even gathered the dead and buried them deep in the ground. They rested for a few hours and finally walked Kagome to the Bone-Eaters Well.

She sat on the lip of the well and looked back at her friends. Miroku looked Kagome in the eyes and said, "I think that I have a new appreciation for battling demons, because after today I'm not quite sure on how you deal with everyday life in your time."

"Miroku's right, I thought that the demons we slay were evil, but after meeting Chimera and seeing the clone of Inuyasha, it makes Naraku look like a saint." Sango sighed "I'm just glad that we don't have to worry about them returning to our time.

"Kagome…next time you know something like that, don't be scared to tell me or anyone else." InuYasha gave a reassuring smile and let Kagome get on her way. She jumped down into the Well and was gone.

"One thing bothers me InuYasha…"Sango said in a low voice. "Agent Orange…do you think that we're in danger letting him get away. Another thing that frightens me about this is we still don't have a clue as to who or what he was. He took a massive amount of injuries and walked away like they were nothing."

"…" inuyasha remained silent on what was brought to his attention. "I guess only time will tell…" InuYasha looked up towards the heavens and frowned.

Meanwhile, back at the present, Kagome climbed out of the Bone-Eaters Well and exited the small shrine. Her little brother was outside, almost as if he was waiting for her.

"Kagome another weird thing happened today…" by the look on his face, she was reminded of the time when they thought that they had beat the Agency.

"What happened?" she asked.

"They reported a small earthquake out at sea." He replied. "The newsman said that it was a rare phenomenon caused by gases building up beneath the earth."

"Did he say anything else?" Kagome asked with great curiosity.

"No, that was it. Kagome, did that have anything to do with what happened at the mountain a few weeks ago?" he asked.

"…"Kagome remained silent and walked into the house leaving her brother without an answer. As she passed through the living room, the television was on. It was set on a rebroadcast of the evening news and the anchorman was talking about the earthquake, "The earthquake was considered a fluke, a rare occurrence…the government says that only a few structures on land were damaged, but that the area is to be tested for dangerous gases or contaminants that could've escaped into the atmosphere." She sat down on the couch and watched as people in the background scurried left and right. Some were military personal that didn't want people to get to close to a large warehouse. Kagome suddenly froze as a man in a N.B.C. outfit casually walked out from a damaged building and disappeared into the sea of people trying to get a better look.

"Was that Agent Orange…"she wondered. "it couldn't be…could it?" Kagome turned off the television and walked up stairs to her room. She approached the window in her room and looked outside, a large group of rain clouds could be seen. It gradually began to rain and thunder could be seen in the distance. She looked down at the street and saw Agent Orange, he was wearing his green blood soaked N.B.C. outfit. He was watching her from afar, a bolt of lightning thundered loudly, startling Kagome. When she looked back down he was gone, was she imagining things or was it really him? She moved away from the window and sat down on her bed wondering for hours. Kagome remained in deep thought for a few minutes, different questions would repeat themselves over and over, and "If Chimera was running the country, what will happen without him? What if the clone of InuYasha wasn't the only clone? After all, the clone was named Inuyasha001, could there have been others?" One thing was certain, at least she could rest easy knowing that Chimera and his shadow government were finally gone. Maybe without him, no one else will pursue them anymore. If only she had more answers, but instead she ended up with more questions.

The End?

AN: I'll leave this fan fiction open for another possible continuation. If I do continue the story it won't involve the shadow government. It may involve the "Agent Orange" character, and a story that explains who or what he is. In conclusion, I won't know what anyone thinks if you don't send me reviews and/or letters. Please feel free to write to me at either.