InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Project IY14 ❯ Chapter 5 - The Scent of Flowers ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The year is 2500 A.D.

The blood of humans and youkai is almost completely integrated. IN fact the full blood youkai died out almost 600 years ago, taking with them the ability to transform into the great beast Gods that ruled the lands of the earth. Many attempts have been made to recapture this lost power through cloning and genetic engineering, but with no genetic map from a full blood youkai all attempts failed.

Until now...

Pairings: Sessh/Rin, Inuyasha/Kagome, Miroku/Sango

Disclaimer: I do not own the anime or manga InuYasha, they belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I'm am writing these stories as a fan or her work. This story was partially inspired by the movie Alien: Resurrection, owned by 20th Century Fox.

Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Sci-fi | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 04.08.2006 | Updated On: 05.02.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.8K | Visits: 938 | Status: Work In Progress

Chapter 5

Kohaku yawned and his eyes drooped as he read the screen. The lines of text were mesmerizing, as the computer automatically typed up the chemical compounds from the substance that was being put into the analyzer. In an effort to stay awake he switched the music track to the first movement of Ludwig Van Beethoven's fifth symphony, and turned up the music.

The other scientists all gave him funny looks for listening to music that was nearly a thousand years old, instead of the latest techno metal. But he found this “classical” music really helped him to concentrate even on the most mundane tasks. Plus, you could turn up the music more without destroying the hair cells in your ears as much. This was good for Kohaku, because he could turn up the volume loud enough to drown out the moans emitting from IY14 in the background.

Kohaku yawned again and grabbed his cup of coffee, but found much to his dismay, it was empty, and Kanna had left to give the first section of readouts to Naraku. This meant he could not leave the room. This particular lab room was so new they had not installed security cameras yet, and most of the guards were up doing security checks on the supplies that had just arrived. Naraku would literally kill him if he found out Kohaku had left IY14 alone.

Naraku. The chief science officer was a genius, but a total nutjob. Nothing had made Kohaku's spine tingle more than seeing the sadistic smile cross Naraku's face during one of the recovery experiments, where the soldiers were ordered to break one of IY14's limbs.

IY14 was screaming in agony and Naraku was smiling!

If this project had not been the top secret work that it was, Kohaku would have left long ago. But he knew too much now, and letting him go would be too much of a risk as he might spill the beans to the outside world. So it was either work or die.

Kohaku yawned, yet again, and the lids of his eyes were growing increasingly heavy. He looked over longingly at the empty coffee cup. He needed a caffeine fix, and he needed it NOW!

The lounge area, where the caffeine was kept, was just down the hallway. It wouldn't hurt if he ran down there just for a few minutes….

***

Rin stepped out of the elevator, and it only took a couple of minutes to realize she was in the wrong place. She cautiously walked down one of the hallways, trying to ascertain exactly where she was. The dark metal gray of the walls made the simple hallway look ominous. This coupled with her dread of being in one of the places she was not supposed to go, made the hallway absolutely terrifying. She walked another couple of steps and saw the biohazard signs on the doors, and realized with a rush of horror she was in one of the restricted areas.

If she got caught down there, she and her crewmates might get fired, or worse. And it would be all her fault.

She made an about-face and dashed back to the elevators. The doors were closed now, but when she pressed the button, it asked for her to slide her identification card through the scanner.

Oh shit!

She frantically thought of how she was going to escape from this place before somebody came along and spotted her. She decided to take the hallway she had gone down before, in hopes of finding a fire escape or something.

She passed by one of the labs, but stopped she heard moans emanating from it. The door was part way open and she peeked into the room. It was unoccupied except for someone lying on an exam table. Against her better judgment, she slipped into the room, and quietly walked over to the table.

The man lying on the table was unlike anyone she had ever seen before. His hair was as white as snow. It reminded her of Inuyasha's hair, except while the hanyou's was matted and thick, the “patient's” hair looked smooth like the finest satin and shimmered like strands of silver. A crescent moon adorned his forehead, as well as burgundy stripes on the sides of his face and arms. She also noticed a tattoo of the number 14 on his wrist just below his palm. Strangely enough the stripes and the moon did not look to be tattoos, like the number. In fact they looked like they were supposed to be there naturally, like some birthmarks. However, all of this beauty and wonder was marred by the state he was in.

His whole body was trembling, his eyes were squeezed shut, and his jaw clenched so tightly one would fear his muscles would break it. It only took her a few seconds to see why. In the back of his neck where his left shoulder met his spine, there were several needles pinned in one section there, the needles all came together at the base, which connected to a cord, that ran to a machine in the wall. Her shocked gaze traveled along his arm and ended at his hand where it looked like his fingers were bound up in splints. She gasped in horror when she realized they were not splints at all. At the tips of the “splints” needles branched out and stuck up under his nails. Tubes branched out behind the splints and congregated together to form one larger tube, and all of them filled with some sort of green liquid

Rin's mind raced as she searched for reasons why this was being done. She spotted the lab table and walked over to it and began looking through the papers, until she saw one that read, "Poison extraction". At first she was relieved. Apparently the person on the exam table had been poisoned, perhaps by a chemical spill, but as she read on, she found to her revulsion, that the poison being extracted belonged to the patient.

"...Impulse emitted to stimulate subject IY14's sympathetic ganglia, to ellicit venom production in the poison glands located under subject's claws..."

Rin nearly crushed the paper in her hand out of both sorrow and rage. She had enough medical vocabulary to know exactly what they were doing and it sickened her. The needles in the back of IY14, as they called him, sent an electric impulse stimulating his sympathetic nervous system. That was the part of the nervous system that made the body ready in a "fight or flight" situation. When this system was activated in IY14 it induced his venom glands into production, and for whatever reason the needles positioned under his nails were collecting that venom

Rin felt a lump rise in her throat as she turned back to look at IY14.

She walked over to the exam table. If only there was something she could do. Then casting all fear aside she knelt and examined the rod that had the needles in his shoulder. She pressed a button on the rod, and all of the needles retracted out of IY14's back and back into the rod.

Almost instantly the ragged gasps from IY14 stopped and he slowly opened his eyes…

Suddenly the pain stopped. Relief washed over his body as the terrible impulses coursing through him ceased. But that relief was soon gone, when his logic centers kicked in and told him that it was merely the end of this experiment, and that either he was going back to his dark and oppressive cell or on to the next test.

He waited for a moment, his eyes still closed; he no longer wanted to look at this horrid world he had been brought into. Then a strange scent entered his nose. When he felt no movement and heard no voices, he slowly opened his eyes. And he saw her. At first he thought she was just another one of the experimenters that followed Naraku's bidding, but as his vision cleared he saw she was dressed differently, her hair was longer, and her scent was different. She did not smell of chemicals or oil or metal, she smelled sweet like...

What were those called.... they had shown him one before...Flowers. Yes, she smelled of flowers...

IY14 furrowed his brow eyeing her warily, his throat felt tight and dry, but he managed to speak. “Who are you?” he rasped.

The lump in Rin's throat grew bigger as she realized he was fully sentiment and fully aware of the torture that was being inflicted upon him, but she managed to fight back tears. “Rin. My name is Rin.”

“Rin...” IY14 whispered.

On impulse Rin took off one of her gloves, and gently wiped away the sweat from his forehead

“I'm sorry....” Rin said in a shaky voice as she was on the verge of tears.

IY14 gazed at Rin for a long moment, as she wiped the sweat from his brow. It felt good. None of the experimenters had ever done that. She was not one of them.

But if she was not one them, what was she doing here?

Then a terrible thought occurred to him. If they found her they might destroy her like they had destroyed him. The scent of flowers from her would be over taken by the stinging smell of antiseptic, pain would mar her beautiful face, and the spark of life in her eyes would die. He could not let that happen.

“Go. You must go...” he whispered.

Her eyes widened, he could see the hesitation in them. She did not want to leave him?

“Go!” he said as firmly as his strained voice could muster.

Slowly Rin backed away from IY14, regret and helplessness now in her eyes, before she turned and ran from the room.

He watched her go, longing with all he had left in him to follow, but the shackles and straps kept him firmly entrapped upon the table. And yet, despite being left behind, he did not feel the same emptiness he had felt before opening his eyes and gazing upon the maiden that smelled of flowers. Instead he felt something that was completely foreign to him, yet it was undeniably familiar to his fractured memories.

Hope.