(A/N) Thank you all so much for your positive responses to the story. Let's hope I can continue to please you (or, y'know, rip your hearts out with agony whilst making you enjoy every minute of it...my God, what's wrong with us?).
Love Don't Die Easy
Chapter 2: The Heart Keeps On Beating
He was torn apart and put back together a hundred times over. Pieces of him he hadn't known existed were destroyed, replaced with things that just couldn't be imagined. The physical torture he might have been able to withstand, but all that while, Callaghan played with his mind...showing him how much Hiro was suffering without him.
"I have a surprise for you today, Tadashi," Callaghan told him when he came to after a particularly violent session. "You've been such a good patient these last few days, taking your medicine, I thought you deserved a little treat."
With that, the door to the former professor's workroom slid open, revealing both the only and last thing in the world Tadashi wanted to see.
Hiro was standing in the doorway, his small form framed by the light from the hallway. A look of horror twisted his features when he saw Tadashi.
"No," Tadashi whispered in anguish, struggling against the ropes that held him, despite the pain in his body. "Hiro...run...get out!"
"T...Tadashi?" Hiro called out in shock as he moved further into the room. "What happened to you?"
"Hiro, please...run. Just run," Tadashi begged him. "He'll kill you. He'll kill you!"
Hiro reached out a hand, as if to touch his face. "There's no way I'm just gonna leave you here, Tadashi. I didn't-" He was cut off when he was stabbed from behind, a katana blade piercing through his chest.
"NOO!" Tadashi screamed, fighting all the harder against his bonds, but still unable to reach Hiro...unable to save him.
"I...I...Ta..." Hiro gasped several times as blood gathered at his lips...but then those lips twisted into a cruel smile and the image of Hiro's face flickered and twisted away like smoke. What was left was a vaguely human-shaped mass of microbots, which dissolved into a mass of twisted metal on the floor as Callaghan passed through it. It wasn't alive. It never had been.
"What did you think of the holographic technology? Very convincing, yes?" Callaghan asked him, the same cruel smile twisting his lips.
"You're sick!" Tadashi snarled, turning away from him, but Callaghan turned his face right back to his.
"How does it feel? Watching him die? Knowing you can't do anything to stop it? That you can't save him?" Callaghan taunted him. "Not good, perhaps?"
Tadashi did nothing but stare back at him in morose silence. Begging and pleading did no good. Callaghan didn't have even an ounce of mercy left in him. He'd learned that the hard way.
"Think about it this way. When we're done here, you really will be able to protect him. You'll be strong enough to protect everyone...just like you've always wanted."
"If you really believe this is the way to help people...you're even more fucked up than I realized."
"You're probably right...but that doesn't make me any less right. I regret you'll end up losing yourself along the way, but I'll say to the Tadashi that still exists...you'll be grateful for what you're able to accomplish," he promised him before sinking a hypodermic needle into his neck, emptying its contents into his system.
The regimen of drugs only grew worse after that day. From then on, Tadashi was never wholly able to distinguish reality from illusion again.
XxX
Callaghan knew Tadashi would never believe it, but what he was doing was for the boy's own good. Despite the fury he knew was hiding just beneath the surface, Callaghan knew Tadashi would have trouble consciously causing harm. By doing it this way, breaking him down and destroying his spirit, he would be able to protect his heart from what they would have to do. He would never be forgiven for any of this, but he couldn't let himself care about that anymore. Only one thing still mattered. Tadashi Hamada was...inconsequential.
The former professor was using a combination of drugs, holographic technology, and the microbots to shape his protege's reality. He was currently watching Tadashi work his way through an obstacle course. If he completed the course quickly enough, the reward was a night free of having to watch the microbot copy of his brother die again...or of rewatching the footage of Hiro screaming at the burnt out wreckage of the exposition center. The young man was willing to do almost anything to not have to experience those things, even for a minute.
Really, it was amazing to see how greatly his martial arts skills had improved when fueled by that desperation. Callaghan had been truly awed when he'd placed a katana in the boy's hands. It would be very interesting to see the results of his experiments when Tadashi finally came up against a human target. He wasn't ready for that just yet, though. There was still work that needed to be done.
Tadashi wasn't aware of it, but he'd been through many hypnosis sessions with Callaghan. He'd been spying on the Hamada brothers for nearly two years now, but there was still information he didn't have. The sessions were his attempts to glean every last possible piece of information he could from the boy's head. There was no telling what knowledge he might need once the current operating system had been erased. He was backing up the hard drive, as it were. At the core, human beings weren't really all that different from robots. The human brain could be programmed just like any other machine. It was just a matter of knowing the proper codes. With Tadashi, it was his love for his precious baby brother. Manipulate that and Tadashi Hamada would become the perfect weapon. It was also the last hurdle his former student had yet to cross.
On the day Tadashi finally crossed that line, he would be ready.
XxX
Tadashi had never been much of a fan of black clothing, but as Callaghan had told him, it kept him concealed in the darkness. There was no way to tell what sort of obstacle the man would have him facing tonight, but if the sensors detected him too soon, he would fail the challenge. Failure meant punishment. Punishment was unbearable.
Callaghan's maze-like obstacle course somewhat resembled the seedier streets of San Fransokyo. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this was partly due to holographic technology, but he couldn't always remember that. Sometimes he felt certain he was really out on the streets, stalking the night, waiting for orders on his task. Sometimes he felt this was what his life had always been...always waiting for orders from Callaghan...always struggling to escape punishment. Perhaps it would always be like this...always dancing just around the perimeter of pain and heartbreak.
"Continue sweeping," Callaghan's voice sounded through his earpiece.
"Am I going to be receiving a target anytime soon?" Tadashi asked as he glanced surreptitiously around the next corner, hand held lightly on the hilt of his katana.
"Believe me, Tadashi, you will know your target when you see him. Be patient."
Tadashi couldn't say how long after the exchange it happened, but when it did, he was ready.
"Police!" a voice behind him shouted. "Drop your weapons!"
Tadashi turned on the spot, drawing his katana in the same motion. There were three of them. The first he decapitated and the other two he gutted, all without hesitation. Even the slightest hesitation meant punishment.
No hesitation. No mercy. Kill anyone who stands in your way.
He could hear them screaming as he killed them...see their blood splash onto his gloved hands. The sharp coppery tang of it filled his nose and mouth. Sometimes he knew the system wasn't that good...that he was just insane...but he didn't know that right now. It didn't take long for the targets to dissolve into waves of microbots, but before they did, he was rewarded with distinct visions of his first victim's severed head and his second victim's spilled intestines.
"No mercy. Good," Callaghan praised. "Continue."
With that, Tadashi found himself surrounded on all sides by adversaries, both police and criminals.
It doesn't matter. None of it does. Eliminate them!
Immediately, he sank into battle trance, attacking and killing without thought or conscience. Gut one, decapitate another, sever a spine, slice a throat, a shuriken through an eye - there were so many ways to die...so many ways to end life. The human body was frail and pathetic. It took little more than the speed of a thought to cut skin.
Weak. Weak! All of them weak! Cattle for the slaughter. Kill them! Cut them down! Destroy!
He didn't stop until the street was deserted...until the pavement was painted red with blood. Then he heard another voice from behind him...a voice full of horror and pain.
"Tadashi...what have you done?"
Tadashi turned slowly at the sound of the familiar voice. Hiro stood before him, trembling...shocked and afraid.
"Hiro..." he whispered, feeling his own shoulders begin to tremble as his mind rapidly shifted between two possible realities. Real. Not real. Real. Not real. Real. Not real. .RealNotrealRealNotrealREALNOTREAL!
"Kill him," Callaghan urged quietly in his ear.
"Tadashi, why?"
"Don't look at me like that," he hissed at his brother, frightened and angered by the hate he saw blooming in his eyes.
"Tadashi, he is your target. Kill him now!"
"All that talk about helping people...making the world a better place...was it all a lie?"
"I SAID DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!" Tadashi screamed, raising his katana to strike. He couldn't take this. He couldn't bear to have the little brother who had looked up at him with trust and love look at him with such revulsion in his eyes.
"Kill him!"
"Do you even really love me? Was that a lie, too? You're a monster, Tadashi!" Hiro shouted at him.
Tadashi screamed as he launched himself at Hiro, a wordless sound of anguish and despair that echoed throughout the streets. When he plunged the blade into his brother's beating heart, he had no idea whether the feeling in his chest was joy or shock.
Hiro gasped several times as Tadashi thrust the blade in deeper, already choking on his own blood. Tadashi pulled his little brother closer, smiling in an unhinged way as he whispered in his ear, "You aren't real."
But even as he spoke the words, he realized...the image wasn't dissolving into a mass of microbots. It remained solid in his arms. He wasn't feeling cold metal through the static tingle of a hologram. He was feeling cooling flesh against his own...the weight of a human body in his arms. As he slowly sank to his knees, he gazed into brown eyes, empty and sightless as they stared up at nothing...and when he finally understood, something inside of him broke.
Tadashi Hamada had just murdered his little brother.
When the young man turned his pain-filled face to heaven, he gave a scream of such utter hopelessness it raised the hairs even on the back of Callaghan's neck as he approached him. Even though he knew he had him now, knew this was the critical moment, that didn't mean he didn't feel a touch of fear of the creature he'd created. This boy was unstable at best...and completely insane at worst.
When Tadashi felt the man's hand on his shoulder, he felt all of his strength drain out of him. He couldn't even summon up the energy to pull the blade from Hiro's chest to take a stab at the beast who'd caused all this. He just knelt there on the cold, hard street, cradling Hiro's body against him as the pavement slowly grew warm and sticky with his blood.
"Why?" was the only word he could summon up from the void of his shattered soul.
"Tadashi...sometimes, for the greater good...sacrifices have to be made," Callaghan explained as he gripped his shoulder tighter, a look of pain flashing in his eyes.
"Sacrifices?" he repeated, tracing a hand over Hiro's face, gently closing his eyes.
"Yes. Hiro was sacrificed so that you might be set free. This is the moment for you, Tadashi. Cast away your humanity and embrace your freedom. That's what it will take in order to be strong enough to achieve your goal. Do you want to save people...or don't you?"
For several moments, Tadashi just knelt there, thinking about Callaghan's words as he stroked his brother's unruly hair, absently brushing it out of his face. Hiro was so pale. He found he didn't care about strength at all as he cradled his baby brother in his arms. All he wanted was for this pain to stop.
"If...if I do this...if I go with you...will this pain end? Will I be free from that?"
"Yes," Callaghan promised, moving his hand from the young man's shoulder and extending it down to him. "You're an accomplice now. Decide. Are you ready to take your freedom?"
It might have been an eternity or only a moment Tadashi stared brokenly at the hand offered to him, but ultimately he nodded, taking his mentor's hand.
"Yes."
"Good," Callaghan said. "You will be the hand that carries out my vengeance...my Yokai."
At this, Callaghan tried to help him to his feet, but Tadashi realized he couldn't stand because he was still holding on to Hiro.
"You don't think you still need that, do you?" Callaghan asked callously, though he didn't try to pull him away. It was quite plain that that would be his choice alone to make.
"But he...he's my life," the bereft older brother said quietly, looking down at Hiro's still face. He didn't remember a time when his life hadn't been about looking after Hiro. Without him, he would well and truly be nothing. Callaghan didn't say anything, though. He just stood, holding his hand, waiting for him to decide...and finally, Tadashi leaned down and kissed his little brother's forehead before gently laying him down on the street and removing the sword from his chest. "Sleep well, Otouto."
Then he got to his feet and allowed Callaghan to lead him away, never once looking back.
He was Tadashi Hamada no longer.
XxX
The next time the young man was faced with the boy with scruffy hair and brown eyes, he did not know him. He meant nothing to him and when the boy whispered a name in fear, it touched nothing in the young mercenary's twisted heart.
"Tadashi...please."
"Kill him," his master's voice sounded in his ear.
"Nii-chan?"
He didn't hesitate even a moment. He swept his sword up and across, swiftly decapitating the target. The head flew across the room. The body stood for a moment before collapsing to the floor, an arc of crimson blood spraying through the air. Leaning down, the mercenary wiped his blade off on a clean section of the target's shirt.
"Mission completed," he reported tersely as he sheathed his katana.
"Excellent work, Yokai," his master said as he entered the training room. "I think you're finally ready."
"Ready, Sir?"
"Yes, ready to carry out your task," he said as he held out a kabuki mask to his asset. "The neural band is concealed in this mask. You'll be able to control the microbots with it. Remember, you must never remove the mask while in the field, or allow it to be taken from you. More than losing control of the microbots, you will lose possession of your identity if you lose the mask. No one can see your face. No one can know who you are. Anyone who sees your face must be killed."
"Understood," the mercenary said with a nod, taking the mask in hand. He stared at the red and black lines on the mask for a long moment before finally putting it on. The microbots that had comprised his target immediately collapsed into a mass, responding to his thoughts. The bots moved toward him and whirled around him in a small wave.
"Good. They take to you well. Though...I suppose they would, of course."
"Sir?"
"Nothing. Never mind. We need to get moving. Your first assignment is Ruby Krei, Alistair's cousin. She's his head of design," his master explained to him as he led him toward a computer terminal, showing him a dossier on his target: a woman with green eyes and strawberry blonde hair. "You will need her access codes in order to retrieve the plans. Once you've done that, eliminate her."
"Understood," he responded, quickly reading through the file before moving away from the terminal. "I will leave immediately."
XxX
It was early in the morning when Ruby Krei unlocked the door to the design lab. She was in the habit of getting in early because she liked to get going on her work before everyone else showed up. She liked the calm before the hustle and bustle started. She had a nice predictable morning routine, so when she sat down at her computer with her cup of coffee, she was doubly shocked when her routine was interrupted by a knife at her throat.
Before she could scream, a hand was placed over her mouth. "Shh," a voice breathed at her ear.
"What do you want?" she asked when her assailant finally removed the hand from her mouth.
"Silent Sparrow," a cold voice demanded of her. "Where are the files?"
"How could you possibly know about that?" Ruby asked, her voice shaking. It was supposed to have been buried. She did still have the files, of course, but no one should know about them.
"The files," the voice pressed, forcing the knife a little more harshly against the delicate skin of her neck. It wouldn't take much...
"Second drawer on the left. The green flash drive...but that project was scrapped; it was a complete failure. What could you possibly want with it?" she asked calmly.
Her attacker didn't answer her. She just saw a black-clad arm reach past her toward the indicated drawer, pulling out the flash drive. Rather than just taking the drive and leaving, though, he inserted it into her computer. In order to unlock the drive, the terminal immediately asked for a password. The man shoved her forward to input the code and she felt the blade nick her neck slightly.
"Abby," the man repeated as he watched her type in the code.
"Yes. Abby's the key to everything. Also...if Robert's still somehow alive and I'm not going to meet him now...you can tell him he's wrong. I haven't moved on," Ruby said harshly. She understood what was happening now. She was ready to die.
And Yokai didn't disappoint her. Just as soon as he was certain the necessary files were in order, he slit her throat, leaving her to die choking on her own blood as he ejected the flash drive from the computer.
"The mission is complete, Sir. Was the target's message received?" Yokai asked as he strode out of the lab.
"It was. Forget about it. It means nothing. We've got bigger problems. There's an intruder sniffing around the microbot facility. I need you to go and take him out."
"Understood."
XxX
Yokai didn't need more than a moment to survey his new target. It was a boy...only a boy. He was accompanied by some sort of robot. They weren't any threat, of course, not even any challenge to him. They'd just had the misfortune of seeing too much. This would be an easy hit.
The boy noticed him just as he was summoning up the microbots. Panicking, he tried to hurry his robot away with little success. Feeling a tiny flicker of amusement at the boy's fear, the mercenary made a chase of it, allowing the fleeing pair to stay just out of his reach. He kept it up right until the boy was trying to shove the ridiculous robot out the window. They managed to slip through his grip, but he could take them easily when they were lying helpless on the street below.
It was supposed to be easy. It should have been a simple thing, to send the wave of microbots down to crush them both...but then he locked eyes with the boy.
Frightened, shocked, angered brown eyes...eyes wide and full of tears...eyes...that he'd seen before.
Nii-chan!
Inhaling sharply, Yokai suddenly found himself stumbling away from the window, barely managing to give a command to the microbots to catch him when he lost his feet and fell. For several moments, he just lay there, unable to comprehend...feeling like a knife had been shoved through his heart.
"What have I done? What have I done?! What have I done?!" he couldn't keep himself from crying out, even though he had no idea why. Against his master's express command, he tore the mask from his face, shocked to find tears spilling down his cheeks. What was wrong with him?!
Yokai had no idea how long he was out of it, but when he finally managed to regain control of himself, he jammed the mask back onto his face and got to his feet.
"R-reporting," he called back, drawing several shaky breaths. "Mission objective incomplete. The target has escaped. Pursuit at this time would be unwise. It would draw too much attention."
"Did he see your face, Yokai?" his master snarled at him through the earpiece.
"No, Sir. My identity is protected."
"Good. See that it stays that way. Return to base now. There's work to be done."
"Understood," Yokai said quietly, though it wasn't entirely true. He didn't fully understand what had just happened, and if that small spike of abject agony that had pierced his heart was any indication, he wasn't sure he did want to understand.
The first chance I have, I will kill the boy. He is dangerous.
But while that resolve was planting itself firmly in his mind, there was also something deeper at work. There was something deep inside...something so deep as to almost be gone...something that knew he would die first.
Who are you? Who is...Nii-chan?
XxX
(A/N) Well, I'd say we've punished Tadashi well and enough. Next time out, we'll see what Hiro thinks of all this.