InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Shadows Within ❯ Finding the Truth ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I always tend to forget these...but I don't forget the fact that I don't own the characters.

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The Shadows Within

Ch.3

By: Quiet Escapist

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Inuyasha sat dumbfounded for some moments later after the realization hit him. It just didn't make sense. A human, a girl no less, locked container that was totally inescapable from the inside, so much so that it could have trapped a full demon with ease. Was she that dangerous?

His eyes darted over her petite body, and he decided that if she was dangerous it couldn't be because of her strength. He lightly squeezed her thin arms, testing the way the flesh and muscle gave way to the pressure.

If she was an android, even though it was illegal to produce them, she had to be the most advanced model he'd ever seen. But then, if she really were an android she wouldn't be giving off the small amount of heat that she was.

Cautiously he leaned forward so that he held his face beside hers, and he inhaled deeply. Her scent was faint, but he contributed the faintness to that fact that he nose had yet to recover from the gas he had inhaled. Still, he made out the human scent which did away the thought that she wasn't real, but in turn brought on millions of other possibilities. His head swam as the thoughts drown out everything else around him, his focus solely on the girl beneath him.

He didn't even realize he had been pushed onto the ground until he heard Sango's scolding voice.

"Inuyasha! Get off her!"

The hanyou's grasp on the world around him returned. He watched curiously as Sango knelt beside the girl brushing her hair in a soothing, almost protective manner. She stopped and let one of her hands drift to the girl`s throat, checking for the faint pulse of life.

"She`s alive..." she muttered to no one in particular.

Her thin brows drew together and Inuyasha assumed she was having the same thoughts he was. She turned her questioning gaze to Miroku who had taken a kneeling position on the ground beside her.

A strained expression came across his face, and both Sango and Inuyasha could tell he trying to figure out how to get himself out of the mess. The annoyance that Inuyasha previously held for Miroku returned, though not as strong as before.

Nevertheless, he leapt up from where he sat on the floor, his mind still slightly befuddled by the earlier thoughts though it was clearing now that his focus was elsewhere.

"You wanna start explaining now, or do I have to come over there and make you like before?" He cracked his knuckles in a threatening manner, even though fighting with the man again didn't hold the same pleasure as it had before. At the moment he just wanted to sit down and get a handle on the events of the past hour.

Miroku sighed before forcing a smile.

"I guess what they say about half-demons being unstable is true, judging by this morning's events."

"Keh. Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint you by not living up to my name," he growled as he took a step towards the other man. Miroku was quick to act, raising his hands in a gesture of peace before Inuyasha could move another inch.

"I guess I have no choice but to explain," he paused, as if deciding just how much he wanted to explain.

"First off, she's unconscious at the moment, but I'm not sure for how long. The chamber was filled with a enough gas to keep her that way for the whole trip and then some, but now that she's been removed, I'm not sure how long it'll take to wear off."

Inuyasha nodded, looking up to the container to find the door had been shut. Miroku must have closed it.

A sudden jolt of the ship sent everyone to the ground.

Inuyasha practically landed on top of the poor motionless girl on the floor. Sango however, had her short tumble broken when she fell into Miroku, both of them now splayed across the floor. She blushed furiously at the compromising position she found herself in and moved to get up only to have the ship jerk again, causing her to fall on the man beneath her once more.

Inuyasha quickly got up and bolted to the cockpit to find out what was wrong now, leaving the pair behind to help themselves off the floor. He managed to take his seat at the main controls before a shriek resounded through the ship.

"Pervert!"

The hanyou clenched his teeth at the thought of Miroku groping his friend, but he decided she was a big girl and could handle her own problems. Besides, he had other things to deal with.

His sharp eyes quickly scanned the vast expanse of space that the large front window gave him a view of, noticing off to the far left the white border patrol ship that had stunned their ship. The stun blasts had not only been the cause of the shocks, but it also stopped the ship in it's tracks. A glowing blue light from the tractor beam surrounded the ship keeping it a locked distance from the border patrol.

Shit! This day just keeps going from bad to worse.

Sango took her place beside him, her face a deep shade of crimson though he was sure it was not from embarrassment. She shot him a nervous look after she noticed the other ship.

"The fire from the hangar explosion must have knocked out the cloaking device," he said. She nodded and made a move to get up but he stopped her, his hand on her shoulder pressing her back down into the seat. "We can't fix it right now."

He flipped a flashing switch above him, opening the communication link between the two ships.

"What?" he barked, settling his hands on the controls in front of him.

Miroku came up from the cargo room carrying the girl in his arms as he took his seat behind them. He sported a bright red handprint on his cheek, and Inuyasha couldn't fight the smirk that spread across his face.

"Sir, you're not allowed to leave this sector without proper ID. Return your ship to the departing checkpoint in the Mars atmosphere so we can run a proper identification check."

The monotone voice crackled through the speakers in the cockpit, irritating the hanyou's sensitive ears. His hands tightened their grip on the controls as he did some quick thinking.

Not too far ahead of them, the asteroid belt around Mars began, millions of odd shaped rocks floating through the thick darkness. Usually he was able to get by border patrol with the help of the cloaking device which would prevent their ship from being displayed on any other ship's radar system, and refract objects around the ship so that it appeared invisible. When it was on, he could either take the long route under the belt or sneak through the departing tunnel that led a safe straight path through the belt.

But now that it's not working...

"Come again, I didn't hear you. Bad static," Inuyasha shouted, stalling for time as he formed a plan in his mind.

The voice filled the room again as Inuyasha motioned for Sango to look at the asteroid belt. It took her a few moments before she was able to deduce what he was planning to do. She shook her head violently, her long black ponytail flipping behind her. Her friend nodded, a smirk coming upon his lips before he turned his attention back to the border patrol ship.

"Fine, we'll turn back to the checkpoint."

"Confirmed. Releasing the tracking beam."

The glowing blue light around the ship dissipated. Inuyasha counted to three before he thrust the controls forward, the main thrusters roaring to life at the sudden movement, forcing the ship ahead and away from the patrol ship.

"What are you doing?!" The fear was evident is Sango's words as she cringed in the seat beside him.

"Listen, if we went with them they'd identify the ship and then we'd be in really big trouble." He pushed aside the violent images of the burning building they left behind; moving the controls smoothly in his firm grip, piloting the ship between the smaller rocks at the beginning of the belt. "They won't follow us in here. Trust me, they're chicken shits."

The rocks that floated past them became larger as they moved further into asteroid belt, and Inuyasha took to pulling sharply on the controls, sending them soaring past the immense boulders in their path. One of the massive asteroids careened out of no where and headed straight for the small ship, causing the pilot to jerk hard on the controls to try and pass by safely. The metal exterior of the ship came into contact with the rock, a thick crunching noise come from the left side.

"Inuyasha! You're going to kill us!"

"Am not! I've done this before. Not shut up and let me fly."

He winced as he recalled the state of the ship after the last time he took it through the meteor field. He had barely made it out that time. It wasn't something that he enjoyed piloting through, but if the need arose he wouldn't complain.

The atmosphere in the cockpit became thick with tension and fear. Inuyasha decided a distraction was needed.

"Miroku, you were explaining..."

Inuyasha jerked hard on the controls again bypassing another mammoth chunk of space rock.

"You want me to continue now?" Miroku choked out.

"That's what I was asking wasn't it?" he snorted back.

He glanced behind him quickly, momentarily catching the way Miroku seemed to be mesmerized by the scene outside the front window.

"Well?"

His keen ears picked up a shuffling noise coming from where Miroku sat and then a few electronic noises; he assumed Miroku was looking at some sort of data file on a touch pad similar to the electronic lock.

"Kagome Higurashi. Female. Age 19. Born on planet Earth, in the America district. Previously resided with-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, just tell me why you're taking her to that medical base."

"That's a bit of a long story..."

"I'm not going anywhere."

An audible sigh came from Miroku. "Remember, this is classified information-"

"Just get on with it already!"

"A week ago, one of the Senate's global energy scans on Earth picked up some odd fluctuations in a suburban area just outside of Seattle. Upon closer inspection they found the source to be from this girl, so she was watched closely for a few days, constantly being monitored and having her actions recorded. They deduced that the fluctuations became wilder, more unpredictable whenever she had a strong emotional response to something. The fluctuations aren't felt by most people because it's such a high frequency energy, but it didn't matter in the long run. She was deemed dangerous... because you can't do away with emotions, right?"

"I'm guessing she didn't go with them out of her own freewill right?"

"No. She doesn't even know about...anything. She was taken from her house in the middle of the night."

"So if she's so dangerous, why is she being taken to a medical base?" Sango asked softly, struck by the things Miroku had told them already. The tension that had previously stiffened her body was gone. She made herself comfortable in her chair, her attention solely on the words spoken by Miroku instead of the boulders flying past them outside.

"Med Base 00157, Research Center for Studies Relating to Humanity. I'm not exactly sure what goes on there, but I know she's being taken to have her memories erased," he sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and fore-finger. He rolled his shoulders back casually, trying to release the tension that had begun to form across his shoulders.

"The members of the Senate came to the consensus that it would be much safer that way. To have her memories erased and then put in isolation would greatly decrease the risk of the energy releasing itself or becoming released by some other person. It would also make it much easier for her to be monitored."

Inuyasha's stomach churned as Miroku's words bore a hole in his head. Memories erased... isolation... to be monitored...

Losing his concentration, the ship came into contact with another asteroid, a screeching sound coming from above.

Sango jumped at the sound, but ignored it as the conversation was too intriguing as horrible as it all sounded.

"What kind of energy is it?" She leaned forward in her seat, cocking her head to the side thoughtfully.

"We don't know."

"Keh. Some `research' department you got there."

"We know there are two energies. One surrounds the other, like a sort of containment... as far as I know the department didn't have any methods to get more readings on the inner energy without breaking through the outer. The people at the med base have such methods so they're going to deal with it."

"So no one knows what this energy can do?"

Miroku shook his head solemnly. The small cockpit fell silent, the only sounds heard were the constant whirring of the engines and the slight shifting of the group, each of them uncomfortable to some degree with the information given to them.

"Do you realize how fucking messed up this all is?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

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Miroku opened one eye lazily as he lay on the couch-like seat to glance over at the pilot. Inuyasha was leaning back in his seat, his legs stretched out with his feet resting firmly on the console in front of him. Clawed fingers petted the exposed strands of beads around his neck, removed from where they had hidden under his worn white t-shirt. His ears moved sporadically on his head, catching noises Miroku's human ears could not. His amber eyes took on a distant look as he became fully consumed with his thoughts, staring ahead into the inky expanse ahead.

An unsettling feeling took it's place in Miroku's stomach; it was probably safe to assume that what Inuyasha was thinking was somehow related to the information explained to him earlier.

Miroku frowned and tried to pushed aside the thoughts about the girl, knowing it did no good to dwell on things he couldn't change. He tried to conjure up images of the events that took place after the weighty discussion, finding that they were more light-hearted and set the gnawing feeling in his stomach at ease.

After the exciting and somewhat bumpy trip through the asteroid belt had come to an end, Sango ran a systems check and found there was more damage caused by the fire and the rocks than she originally thought. It wasn't possible for them to make it all the way to the base with the internal damage they sustained; they would have to make a stop on the way to have the ship repaired.

To Miroku's delight, an argument ensued between the two friends on where they should make a stop. Eventually Sango won, a confident smile taking it's place on her rosy pink lips. The coordinates on the auto-pilot were changed to that of a large fuel supplier, Tanaka Fuels Inc, on the moon Titan.

Inuyasha pouted for some time afterwards, muttering some choice words under his breath, some of them sounding like `leaving the second the ship's fixed' and `that shit hole reeks like the fucking wolf".

Exhaustion finally caught up with the mechanic, so Sango moved to a small room near the cargo hold where two cots were set up. The girl, Kagome, still dead to the world, was carried into the room by the hanyou. Before she left, Sango shot Miroku an icy stare, and he knew well enough to stay away from the room where the two girls slept.

Apparently she didn't believe me when I told her my hand slipped... well, at least I think it slipped that time.

He absently rubbed his abused cheek, still a little surprised that she had managed to slap him so hard. When her palm made contact with his cheek the sound reminded him of a whip cracking, which seemed a little odd considering there wasn`t a whip in sight. It wasn't until seconds later when the searing pain hit him that he understood what happened.

A woman had never hit him like that before...at least not that hard

Miroku suddenly realized he was unconsciously staring at the pilot until Inuyasha turned to him, a scowl taking over his face again.

"What?!"

Miroku smiled innocently, closing his eyes again. "Nothing."

"Oi."

"Hm?"

"Pass me that thing...I want to see it again."

That thing? The dark haired man drew a blank for a moment, only realizing what the hanyou wanted when he pointed a clawed finger at it. Miroku reached to the ground to pick up the palm sized data pad that had been forgotten. "This thing?"

"Yes, pass it."

"You mean, the Data Pad?" he teased, testing Inuyasha's patience.

"Just pass it already!"

He tossed the compact device to Inuyasha who caught it with one hand and fiddled with it for a bit before a small hologram appeared just above the handheld device. He gingerly set it down on the console in front of him, his bows furrowing as he stared at the holographic image of the girl projecting from the data pad. The airy blue image kept his attention for some time as he watched it intensely, his eyes locked on the small glowing pink orb that rested in the girl's chest.

The unknown energy.

An annoying little voice inside him told Miroku that he should be worried about the things he had said, telling these people everything in the classified documents. He could lose his job if the Senate found out.

He yawned, unbuttoning the top of his navy blue dress shirt and rolling up the sleeves before resting his hands behind his head like a make-shift pillow. If he was completely honest with himself, he wasn't sure if he cared that he might lose his job.

He knew that he should be; it was his only source of income and decent jobs were hard to come by these days, but working alongside stuffy government officials was tedious work. Lots of paperwork to be filled out, conferences to attend, important phone calls that always seemed to go in circles. For someone who worked in the public relations department, he didn't actually relate much with the public.

It wasn't even his profession of choice, though in truth his choice was still unknown to himself. His father worked in the Senate, following in the footsteps of his own father, thus giving Miroku the opportunity to follow the path set before him. Not wanting to disappoint the man he looked up to, he took the offered job and went on with life.

Most of the time he didn't take interest in the issues the Senate cared about, or he completely disagreed with their actions. Like this trip.

After he accepted the job, only knowing that he would be leaving the planet for some time, he found out the particulars of the `cargo' and was immediately disgusted.

But you can't really fight a government that controls an entire solar system, so he did his best to just ignore the unnerving feeling in his stomach and move on.

The only thing about the job that he really cared about though was the paycheck. It made it possible for him to do the things he wanted, like travel. `Made it possible' being the key words because with his hectic work schedule and few vacation days, travelling wasn't something that could be fit in anywhere.

But the women come in at a close second though....who knew there were so many fine ladies under one roof.

There was no stopping the grin that spread across his face when the images of his co-workers formed in his mind. The women smiled at him, some twirling a strand of silky hair around their finger, some blushing in an almost virginal way. All of their curvaceous bodies, complete with ample breasts tucked underneath suit jackets and firm rears wrapped snugly in skirts, gave him a feast for the eyes.

Now that he thought about it...going to work really wasn't that bad.

A harsh voice broke through his line of thought.

"Will you stop that?!"

"Stop what?" Miroku asked innocently and opened his eyes, noticing the annoyed look on Inuyasha's face.

"You know what."

"Inuyasha, you can't stop a person from having his own thoughts," Miroku pointed out only to have Inuyasha smirk confidently in return.

"On my ship I can, so if I catch you with that look on your face again I'm throwing you out." He turned his seat away from Miroku to face the window, the old chair squeaking as it moved.

They were fast approaching Titan, the hazy blue atmosphere around the moon illuminating it's presence against the endless expanse of black sky. It's surface was dotted with small groups of lighted areas, cities presumably.

"Go wake up Sango. We'll be landing soon."

Miroku raised his eyebrows at the command, especially after what Inuyasha had just said, but kept his mouth shut as he stood up and stretched before sauntering towards the small room where the girls slept.

"Miroku."

He turned around and Inuyasha pierced him with a fierce gaze that immediately told him that if he tried anything funny, he'd be missing some very important limbs.

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A/N I've come to realize that readers on media miner don't give out reviews as readily as those on ff.net - which is fine by me really. But if you ever have anything to say, be it constructive citicism, or to tell me that you're reading and enjoying, or even just to chat, feel free to write me. Email or review, doesn't matter. Anyhow, I hope you're enjoying my story. :)