InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cold ❯ Chapter Sixteen ( Chapter 16 )

Chapter Sixteen

March 14th, 4035

‘Scan complete. No recording device detected.’

Kagome took in her accommodations with a shrewd glance. She and Sota had settled on a fairly normal bedroom projection after a satisfying mean and refreshing shower. Two comfortable twin beds, soft blue walls and plush white carpet. Currently, Sota was snoring lightly in his own bed. Her brother had always been a wild sleeper, and tonight was no exception. His little body was sprawled across the surface, the pillow and covers pushed to the floor and headboard as he tossed and turned.

The room seemed ordinary enough.

A decent sized space, responsive and attentive computer system and privacy. Or the illusion of privacy. She’d had her system scan for any recording equipment, visual and audio planted in the room several times and come up empty.

She didn’t believe for a second there weren’t any. Not in a ship this expensive and certainly not one owned by Mr. Elusive. Knowing what she knew about him, she knew he would leave nothing to chance. Wouldn’t miss any detail if he could help it. She ran the scan once more, desperate for a hit. Minutes ticked by and again, the computer denied the existence of anything unusual.

They’d have to be careful, every move they made, every conversation they had would have to be treated as thought they were being monitored.

Disquiet washed through her.

She didn’t know what was worse, knowing she was being watched and not being able to prove it, or being recorded and having proof. Both scenarios left her nervous and nauseous.

It hit too close to home.

Being observed by someone she couldn’t see, someone trying to figure out how she ticked. She’d been down this road before, had vague recollections of being a bug under a microscope. Never ending nightmares of being scared to move, scared to breathe wrong and trigger the interest of those watching her. Standing on pins and needles, hoping and praying and begging whatever deity in existence that the door wouldn’t open. That she wouldn’t be dragged away.

Her stomach clenched, sweat breaking out over her skin.

Any little thing had been of significance to them, with seemingly no rhyme or reason, no pattern that she could follow to avoid their sadistic curiosity.

Panicked blue orbs darted from one dark corner of the room to another, remembering another room, another place, one much smaller, much colder. Much darker. One where there were no hidden cameras.

Why hide them when they had wanted her to know?

Instead they’d been mounted in every corner, their silent surveillance enough to drive her mad.

Her lungs constricted.

Cameras, unblinking, unwavering, staring at her day in and day out. Murky two way mirrors dominating the stark white walls of her prison, masking curious, malevolent eyes.

She could feel it still, the memory seared into her mind.

Cameras, watching her. Everywhere she turned, everything she did, someone was watching; plotting, planing. The moment she made a mistake, the moment she showed too much, they’d take her away…

Back to that place.

The room with the men and women in white. The men and women that did things to her. Painful, horrible, soul crushing things that threatened to tear apart her sanity. The smell of blood leaking from her eyes and nose. The feeling of her fingernails tearing as she clawed at the freezing metal slab beneath her.

And those eyes.

Bright red and pitiless eyes boring into her. Intense and excited.

‘Do you see it?’

She didn’t want to see it!

The same question from lips curled into a cruel grin. More pain, her insides covered in acid, her skin tight against aching bones.

‘Tell me…Do you see it?…The threads…The gates…Do you see it?’

Electric pain shot through her, screams tore from her throat. Those eyes, those crimson eyes piercing through her soul.

‘Do you remember?’

She didn’t want to remember!

Kagome shot up with a gasp, lungs heaving, hair plastered to her moist skin. She winced as pain lanced through her arm, outshining the hard pounding of her heart. Panting, she gripped her sore arm, her body trembling. She felt ill and disoriented. The remnants of the nightmare still fresh in her mind. The fear, the painful sensations, the intensely cruel crimson eyes fresh in her mind. Blinking back tears, she clenched her teeth against the nausea twisting her gut, breathing hard and slow through her nose in an effort to calm her pounding heart.

Tremors wracked her petite form.

A shaky hand smoothed damp bangs from her forehead.

The pain, it had felt so real.

The despair, the hope for death she’d carried close to her heart through it all. She knew in her mind, it had been nothing more than a nightmare of time past and yet in the yawning darkness, in an unfamiliar place, she felt more terrified than she’d ever felt in years. Despite herself, she felt her eyes shift, drawn to the corners of the room. Peering hard into the darkness, she searched for cameras, the two way mirrors.

Of course, there were none.

Kagome clenched her eyes shut, head bowing in anger, burning away the putrid terror.

Dammit.

Not these dreams again.

Her fists clenched the sheets.

Not now, she didn’t have time for distractions. Her head turned, taking in the dishevelment that was a sleeping Sota, her glowing eyes softening.

Too much was at stake.

Sota depended on her for sanity. If she became undone, who would look out for him?

Taking another deep breath, her heart began to slow. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting Sota’s soft snores calm her shot nerves. With the anxiety fading and her heart quietening, the throbbing in her arm increased, discomfort washing over her.

With a grimace, she looked over at the bandage covered wound. Small circles of light blue blood dotted the otherwise pristine white wrap. She’d heal faster, almost instantaneous if she used her cuei but she hadn’t been able to summon even a pinch since she’d used it to get away from 5. Silently she prompted the computer for another pain inhibitor.

One pain inhibitor later, the ache in her arm began to dissipate and her pounding heart returned to normal. Exhausted and shaken, Kagome fell back onto the bed, staring up at the weaving patterns gracing the ceiling.

There had to be a way to put an end to this nightmare.

How much longer?

How much longer could they do this? Running, hiding, no place to call home, nowhere to feel safe.

Thinking of everything they faced, what would happen if they were caught, left her feeling overwhelmed. She’d done a search for the TinO company Sesshomaru mentioned and found little that would help her unravel the mystery of what they wanted from her. With the resources at his disposal, she was hoping Sesshomaru had more information not available on their public page. Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry.

She turned on her uninjured side and closed her tired eyes.

Tomorrow she’d worry.

xxxxxx

“Kagome.”

Kagome groaned, turning away from the voice threatening to pull from a most comfortable slumber. After all her worrying last night, her body was desperate for healing slumber.

“Kagoooommmeeeee,” came the voice again, adding a poke to her cheek as emphasis, “will you get up already?”

“Five more minutes,” she sighed, snuggling deeper into the soft, fluffy pillow.

“Someone’s here, they said Sesshomaru wants to talk to you.”

Kagome shifted, sitting up in bed, suddenly awake. Sota sat on the bed next to her, behind him the uni gender person from the day before standing silently near the far wall, watching the two with keen interest. Kagome cut her eyes to Sota, conveying that he remain cautious while here. They’d talked about situations like this over the years. When speaking freely was not an option, they maintained communication through encrypted back channels over a private line. Such precautions were definitely warranted in this situation.

Sota didn’t make any outwards appearance that he understood what she was silently telling him, but the low hum of him entering the secret channel assured her he got the message loud and clear.

Reaching out, she ruffled his hair, giving him a reassuring smile.

“Be back soon. Try to find something to occupy your time, and please stay out of trouble, kay?”

Sota ducked from under her hand, making a show of smoothing his hair back in place.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,”

Kagome nodded, connecting to her brother over the back channel as she rose from bed.

‘Sota, if anything suspicious happens, if the slightest thing makes you uncomfortable, contact me immediately. Promise me.’

Kagome moved to the door, following her guide through the portal. Her spaghetti strap top and pajama bottoms morphed, shifting into a mid thigh, fluffy sky blue skirt and pearly white, formfitting one sleeve blouse. Tanned wedge sandals formed, gold hooped ear rings pierced her ears while her dark mane was piled atop her head.

‘Only if you promise the same,’came the reply, ‘we’re a team right?’

Kagome couldn’t help but smile.

Last night, they’d had a heart to heart about their precarious position and come to a tenuous partnership, at least until they could return to a somewhat normal life again. It was a concession that she’d been hard pressed to grant, one that she hoped she’d never regret, but one she understood couldn’t be avoided. Sota’s need to protect her was a mirror of her own desire to be his shield. A need that came from a place of love and desperation to preserve the life of the only family they had left in the universe. In the end, the only people they could trust and depend on was each other.

A sad state of affairs, but one she could no longer deny.

They were all they had. As much as she wanted her brother to have a carefree youth, such a thing, at least for now, was unattainable. When their enemies came after them, it was true they sought to capture both her and Sota, however, Sota had yet to develop any detectable levels of cuei. The bulk of their aggression was often targeted at her, Sota seemingly seen more of an after thought at times. All that could change in an instant. They had no idea if and when he’d come into his own cuei and because of the unpredictability, she had to start preparing him now.

He couldn’t be a normal child and stay free.

An undeniable fact that made her so unbearably sad.

‘Yeah,’ she agreed with an inward sigh, ‘we’re a team.’

xxxxxx

“Construction is scheduled to begin in three weeks per the agreement with the Saratuo representative,” Delr’ik began, gesturing to the holographic screen, “Tenno Pharmaceuticals will be the main investor, of course, but a number of your business partners and business associates will also be investing in the infrastructure, several of which have requested meetings with you to discuss details and possible future plans to duplicate this venture in other districts.”

It was about what Sesshomaru had expected. Where Tenno Pharmaceuticals moved, others followed. Shrewd business practices and aggressive takeovers had taken his business from small town pill pushers, to one of the most prominent medical companies distributors in the most popular galaxies and districts. A powerhouse of influence, a corporation of significant renown, an impressive establishment of growing consequence.

But it wasn’t enough to satisfy his lust for power.

More.

He needed more. His influence wasn’t strong enough, didn’t stretch far enough, he still felt as though he were living in the wide cast shadow of his father.

An almost imperceptible frown tugged at his lips.

Father.

A sore subject he often stayed away from and yet one that would never completely leave him, even decades later.

His father had been a great and fearsome leader, fierce and honorable, a marker Sesshomaru himself strove to reach and surpass. Sesshomaru remembered the awe in which he used to hold the Xerian, the level at which he had pushed himself from an early age to imitate his sire. The foolish pup he had been back then would make him cringe had he been one to express himself in such an undignified manner now.

Never would he have thought that his own father would violate the zalvan he’d professed to hold in the highest regard.

The same father that had taught him to value pack, to trust only in zalvan, to never take the ties of blood for granted had thrown aside honor and integrity in his pursuit of Inuyasha’s mother Izayoi. Disgraceful actions that shamed him and those of his zalvan, tainting the Tenno name.

Xer observed many traditions and unspoken rules, but those most sacred involved one’s zalvan. Breaking apart the zalvan was taboo, abhorrent to any Xerian of worth. Even worse, his father had not only stepped out on his mating with Sesshomaru’s mother, but called for and obtained severance, dissolving their mating all together. Matings on Xer were rare because of its revered status. Xerian were hesitant to enter into a mating that was uncertain to last. Those that did rarely sought to end their commitment, with severance almost unheard of, only a handful occurring over the last twenty years. Becoming one in the confines of mating was a decision that carried significant weight on Xer, to be unified as daxtan and kieyoshi was a bond revered among his people. While mating wasn’t legally for life, with such a low severance rate, it may as well be to the Xerian people.

His sire had not only violated that sacred bond, he’d pledged himself to another days after the severance, wasting no time to move his new kieyoshi into their home.

Sesshomaru’s brows lowered in irritation.

To think he’d been so enamored with the personification of a male that could so easily shed his mating and yet lecture him about zalvan and loyalty in the next breath.

Ridiculous.

From that point on, his regard for his father had eroded steadily over time, each time he deferred to his new kieyoshi in matters of zalvan, changing himself into a male Sesshomaru had not recognized as the father that had raised him. He’d resented the softening of his sire, the disregard for the bonds that had come before Izayoi and his half brother. The situation of his father’s indiscretion and the need to prove himself as a strong, proud, powerful Xerian male free of his father’s influence had played a part in his decision to leave Xer in pursuit of a path forged by his own hands.

The rash decision had been immature at the time it had been made, even he could admit that, but now, years later, he could safely say he regretted none of it.

The hardship had honed him into to the successful, ruthless, powerful Xerian he was today. The emperor of his own empire. An empire he’d built brick by brick. One he was determined to spread to the far reaches of this universe and any other.

The thought brought him back to the Higurashi situation.

Multiple universes there for the taking if the TinO had indeed accomplished their objectives. The possibility brought excitement thrumming through his blood. A new challenge, a new world to be conquered, it was a sirens call he could not ignore. He thought back with no small amount of amusement to Kagome’s announcement that he was greedy. Giving a mental shrug at that, he turned his attention back to Delr’ik.

He made no excuse and no apology for his greed.

xxxxxx