InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cold ❯ Chapter Fifteen ( Chapter 15 )

Chapter Fifteen

March 13th, 4035

Kagome sighed in relief. The throbbing soreness surrounding her wound reduced to a dull ache. The ship’s curerator supply was potent and fast acting. Her discomfort was rapidly declining, and she could only hope it’d completely mute the pain once the tonic had had enough time to properly circulate through her blood. She leaned back against the solid strength of the holographic tree.

A soft breeze ruffled her bangs.

The tranquil silence instilled a false sense of peace, at odds with the hefty weight of stress, several weeks in the making, that was slowly creeping over her. Movement in her peripherals caught her attention. Sota stood over her, his brown eyes soft with concern and curiosity. He took a seat next to her, sharing the cool shade of the tall baby blue tree.

“So, you gonna fill me in on what’s going on?” Sota asked.

Kagome hesitated, taking a moment to gather her thoughts and decide how much to tell him. On one hand, she didn’t want him to worry, to live in fear of what tomorrow would bring but on the other, he needed to be aware of the very real danger surrounding them. Even she knew that letting him stumble around in the dark wouldn’t assuage his concerns and could even get him killed. As much as she wanted him to only worry about being a kid, as hard as she tried to give him some semblance of a normal life, it just wasn’t an attainable goal, at least, not right now and there was a real possibility it never would.

Her fists clenched, and the back of her throat burned.

She didn’t want this for him.

Moving from place to place. Being hunted and threatened. Yearning and never having somewhere to truly call home. They’d been doing so well, had almost forgotten the danger surrounding them. She’d had a job, made friends. They’d had a home, a small one in a shitty neighborhood but it had been theirs.

Kagome blinked hard, trying to keep the tears at bay.

She’d made a promise to mother…

A thin arm circled her neck.

Her throat burned.

“You don’t have to carry this weight by yourself,” he said in a low voice, “Don’t you know that by now? I know you think I’m still just a kid, that you have to protect me, but I can protect myself too. I need to able to protect myself. To protect you. You’re my sister, Kagome. I don’t want you hurt anymore than you want me hurt.”

Kagome squeezed her eyes shut, fighting the tears that threatened to fall.

“You’re only one person, you can’t do it all by yourself and you know that. Mom…” he trailed off, his arm tightening around her, “mom tried to do it herself….and….you can’t do it alone….you know that.”

She knew that.

God did she know it. Mother’s tear streaked face flashed before her minds eye. Her bright blue eyes sad and beseeching. Her lonely form disappearing as a small vessel carried them away from their mother and certain death. It had shocked her, their mother’s sacrifice. Up until that point, she’d been blissfully unaware or willfully blind to their situation. How happy and naive she’d been, being carted from city to city, planet to planet. Her young eyes wide, little heart pounding in excitement at her ever changing surroundings.

She remembered thinking it some grand adventure.

Naive little fool.

Mother had been ducking and dodging pursuers, carting her to and fro to throw them off. Kagome had began to get the first inkling that something was off when mother had left her alone aboard a small ship for several days and in the care of the cybernetic intelligence installed in the craft. She’d returned, disheveled, wounded and with a young boy.

“This is your little brother.”

Mom hadn’t answered her questions of where she’d been, how she’d gotten hurt, why she suddenly had a little brother, and after a while, she had stopped asking. The last few years of the three of them together had been fun and eventful, though an under current of tension and dread had marred their would be happiness. Mother had never shared the source of that latent strain, had lured them into a false sense of normality and safety that was ripped apart in the most vicious of ways. The aftermath had left them brutally disillusioned and lost. Losing their mother had forced her to grow up, to harden herself against the hidden dangers that dogged their steps. She often wished their mother had shared the harsh reality of their situation with them. Maybe it wouldn’t have hurt so much when it caught up with them.

“Kagome?”

Pulled from her morose thoughts and memories, she turned her attention back to her troubled sibling.

“Just tell me.” he urged.

Kagome released a breath and started from the top.

xxxxxx

Sesshomaru stepped over shipment coordinator, blood dripping down his forearm and wrist. The steel handle of the serrated cat o nine felt slippery in his palm, blood splatter on his cheek warm as it slipped over his jagged magenta stripes. The brunt of his rage had been appeased in the last hour and a half, clearing his mind and satisfying his bruised pride, at least for the moment. Cold amber eyes assessed the broken and bloodied bodies in various states of disarray. Brodix lay slouched against the wall, his large form slumped to the side, a spattering of blood and scales smeared along the surface behind him. His form suit was torn and tattered, dark blood oozing from the shredded material. His hard jaw was clenched tight, sharp nails dug deep into the plush floor.

Hikban had curled into herself, lying in the middle of the floor. Pathetic, almost inaudible whimpers of pain rumbling from her chest. Her drooping ears twitched in distress while her polka-dots contracted and dilated.

Sesshomaru tossed the whip to the ground and made his way to the door. Delr’ik had not moved from his spot. He continued to kneel quietly, seemingly unaware of the carnage surrounding him, or the blood coating him. Beside him, Shera lay face down on the ground, her normally glowing light blue lines completely muted. Coral colored blood crystals stuck to the floor beneath her, glinting. Sesshomaru paused a few feet away from the portal.

“Consider this your one and final warning,” Sesshomaru informed the battered group, “Next time, I will not be so merciful.”

He meant every word.

He’d contemplated making an example of them as he’d done in the past instead of the private punishment they’d received. A public spectacle had not held much appeal, nor had appointing replacements for the three in such a critical time. With the other underbosses watching him, waiting for another point of weakness on his part, it was imperative that he keep thing running smoothly and efficiently. New blood at the helm of important branches of his organization would only complicate and impede the well established routine.

He had more than enough headaches to deal with.

“Never…again…Xaltan…” Shera gasped, lifting herself up on shaky and bloody arms, “thank you…for your mercy,”

“We won’t fail again, Xaltan.” Brodix rumbled lowly.

“We promise.” Hikban whispered.

He was not impressed with their vows. Only time would tell if they rang true. For their sake, they’d better hope so. He had no patience for incompetence. Xaltar had no place for failure.

“Delr’ik.” Sesshomaru called as he moved through the now open wall.

“Sir,” came Delr’ik’s reply.

“Clean this shit up,”

His response was low, fading as the hole in the wall slowly closed behind his retreating form.

“As you command, Xaltan,”

xxxxxx

Inuyasha’s fingers flew over the translucent keyboard, the endless stream of data reflected in his narrowed amber eyes.

He was hooked on this unraveling mystery.  

The information was staggering, the implications amazingly horrific, even with the large gaps in data. Gaps he was sure he could fill. Which was why he was headed for his brother’s ship. The information he had, he didn’t trust to send over computer systems. With what he had, it was entirely possible for a breach of security to occur without their notice. He was a beast at technology, but he wasn’t foolish enough to think he was the only beast.

Not only that, but he wanted to see them, wanted to study theses experiments from Earth in the flesh. He was itching with curiosity, salivating to see how they worked.

If they worked they way the files indicated.

His mind was racing with possibilities, heart pounding in excitement. As advanced as technology was theses days, there were no proven cases of successful, viable life created completely from scratch. It was an impossibility scientist, alchemist, and religious fanatics alike had tried and failed to accomplish. The closest thing to created life were androids and even the most expensive droid lacked the authenticity of natural creation. It was an unexplained aura that surrounded them, an unnerving sense that you weren’t dealing with a creature that housed what one would call a soul.

A shiver ran down his spine.

It was eerie to think someone had created a fully sentient being without using the crutch of robotics.

It left him with a heart pounding question.

If they weren’t androids, then what the hell were they?

He was damn sure gonna find out and what better way than to drop in on big brother?

Inuyasha grinned at that.

Sesshomaru hated when he dropped in unannounced. Said it was tactless and irritating. Inuyasha scuffed at that.

They both knew he was tactless and irritating on the best of days. That’s what little brother’s were for anyway.

At least for this little brother.

His stomach growled.

Inuyasha grimaced and leaned back in his plush chair, the keyboard falling away. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had something decent to eat. This whole Higurashi file had consumed most of his time. He stretched, the bones in his neck and shoulders popping with satisfying relief. His computing system sprang to life as he leaned his head back against the head rest, eyes closed. A menu of food his small traveler ship currently had stored displayed beneath his lids. One in particular piqued his interest. One that could arouse his hunger under the worst of circumstances. The hiss of the wall opening near him reached his ears, and then the heady scent of his favorite dish reached his sensitive nose.

His eyes opened, gleaming ravenously.

His mouth watered.

With eager fingers, he snagged the large bow of ramen and began to devour the tasty dish.

Two bowls of ramen down and a satisfied sigh later, Inuyasha adjusted his holographic chair, lowering the back until he lay prone.

He couldn’t help but think of what the next few weeks would entail if things went his way and if he knew his brother, things would definitely go the way he wanted. Sesshomaru was meticulous about information. He wanted to know the how, when, where, and why of anything and everything. Their father had drilled into their heads early on that knowledge was everything. Knowing more than the next guy was an advantage only a fool would pass up. It was lesson Sesshomaru took more seriously than he did.

Not that he was a slacker when it came to knowing the ins and outs of a given subject, but his brother took it to the extreme.

For Sesshomaru, to be ignorant, to be ill-informed was to be weak and easily fooled. Something the elder male despised with a passion. Inuyasha had never understood his brother’s intense feelings on that. He just chalked it up to another one of his sometimes eccentric pet peeves and kept it moving. You’d go insane trying to understand that bastard.

The latest treasure trove of information was locked behind a tightly sealed security wall, giving only vague wording in the description and a pretty stunning file name. One he’d had to spend several hours searching through the bits and pieces of ancient archives recovered from the long forgotten graveyard of Earther information.

Homunculus.

He’d uncovered the actual definition of the word, but had no idea if the contents of the file were literal or figurative. He wasn’t sure if he was excited or dreading the answer to that question. The only way he’d find out was to get into the damn file, and to do that, they’d need to make a trip to the dead planet and sift through the rubble. He was hoping the humans had left behind clues to break the code surrounding the homunculus file. It was a stretch, but hell, it was their only option at this point if they wanted to figure out the conclusion, the results of the Higurashi experiment.

xxxxxx