InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Shadows Within ❯ Waking Up ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or any of the related characters...do I actually have to write this every chapter?

A/N The beginning's going to back track a little bit.

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The Shadows Within

Ch.4

By: Quiet Escapist

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Inuyasha leaned back in his seat again after setting the data pad down in front of him, the small holographic image of the girl hovering at a bit below eye level. It was in perfect likeness to the girl that had fallen out of the container, capturing her petite frame, soft face, and even the delicate fingers on each hand. The only thing out of place was the small glowing pink ball in the centre of her chest.

He felt as if his eyes were drawn to it; he couldn't seem to tear his gaze away.

He had been reluctant to believe Miroku when he spouted off all that bullshit when they were flying through the belt, but now, after seeing a piece of visual proof... he didn't know what to think.

But he sure as hell knew what he felt, and that was a growing resentment towards the girl. At first, he had sympathized for her; she didn't deserve this treatment just because she was a bit different and someone saw it as `dangerous'.

Eventually the anger overcame that emotion when he recalled everything he lost in the span of mere seconds. His brother's business, which was the only place he could ever work, as well as his brother, who was an arrogant bastard most of the time but had provided him a place to live and food to eat. Even his friend's who were in the hangar when it gave way to the flames.

His whole fucking pathetic life was taken from him in an instant, and it was all because that girl was a part of their shipment. It could easily be blamed on Sesshomaru; he was the one who agreed to take her as cargo. But it was even easier to channel his anger towards the girl he didn't know, and didn't care to know.

He had already decided that she wasn't his problem; he didn't care what happened to her. He had his own shit to deal with. So now all he wanted to do know what leave her unconscious body at that stinking med base and get the fuck away from her as quickly as possible.

Inuyasha's long fingers ran along the cold hard beads around his neck, trying to soothe his frayed nerves with the placid movement, but he found that it just seemed to irritate him even more. The dark beads, which usually felt weightless, now seemed to become heavier as he sat there lost in his thoughts, as if to remind him of who he was...of what he was.

A hanyou.

The product of an illegal joining between a human and a demon.

Unstable. A threat to others. An animal.

Inuyasha felt himself flinch as that last word stuck in his mind...animal. The most common name among humans for his kind was `animal'. Something that was primal and dangerous, that didn't deserve the rights other living people got. Something that really didn't deserve to live.

Humans feared him, and demons couldn't care less. But because the Universal Government was almost completely run by humans, they had total control over his life, or lack thereof.

The Universal Government was insistent about eradicating the intolerance between demons and humans, but they still deemed it illegal for the two species to inter-mate. In the early years of trying to bring demons and humans together peacefully, they allowed and sometimes even encouraged for the inter-mating. What better way to bring them together than to blur the line between species. It had made a difference in human racism, so surely it would do just the same in this case.

Wrong.

In the years that followed, several incidents involving hanyous losing control of themselves, also known as `hanyou-rage', were brought to light. Scientists quickly disclosed them as unrelated occurrences, even though no medical study was made, and the rest of the world was told to forget it and move on.

Soon the fragile new relationship between humans and demons became strained, as the incidents of `hanyou-rage' grew more and more common. A count of deaths related to `hanyou-rage' was started, and not too long after the numbers reached into the hundreds was a medical study was finally made. The results showed that demons and humans could not mate without the possibility of losing their child to blood-lust. The demon blood was much too strong for anyone less than full demon status to control.

The law was made days later, dooming Inuyasha to a life of hiding in the shadows before he was even born. Of course, even today hanyou births still happened on occasion, but if anyone found out, the `threat' was quickly `taken care of'.

Which is why Inuyasha wore the beads, to keep his demon blood dormant. When Inuyasha moved in with his older brother at the tender age of nine, Sesshomaru had the necklace made specifically for him. He hadn't explained where he got it, or what it was made of; he just placed it around the young boy`s neck and told him to get used to it. Twelve years later the necklace was still doing its job.

And not only did it keep him from losing control, but it also altered his scent, so that to any other demon Inuyasha smelt like a full demon. The only ones able to sniff out the truth about his lineage were wolf and dog demons. Those types of demons were so rare in the universe that Inuyasha didn't have to worry too much about them...usually.

It's just my luck that Sesshomaru did business with the few wolf demons out there.

A green light on the console began to flash, alerting Inuyasha to their approaching destination. In the distance, set against the sea of blackness was the orange planet Saturn, the rings of dust surrounding it glowing almost unnaturally. Not far off from Saturn was a smaller blue dot, Titan.

He swivelled in his worn seat, turning to Miroku to wake him, but he stopped himself when he saw the not-so-innocent grin stretched across the older man's face.

I guess he's not sleeping after all, the fucking perv.

"Will you stop that?!" he growled, not actually caring what Miroku was thinking about, but feeling like an argument would help relieve some of the tension building up in his body.

"Stop what?"

Inuyasha sighed inwardly, remembering now that Miroku wasn't exactly the type to get angry.

"You know what."

"Inuyasha, you can't stop a person from having his own thoughts." The hanyou smirked at the idea.

Now wouldn't that be nice...

"On my ship I can, so if I catch you with that look on your face again I'm throwing you out."

He turned away from Miroku as he went into pilot mode, flipping several switches before pressing a button to disengage the auto-pilot. He wrapped his hands around the controls, some of his tension easing as he flew the ship, knowing at least there was one thing in his life he had control over.

Their small ship quickly made it's way towards Titan. The large moon looked remarkably similar to Earth; it's thin blue atmosphere full of white clouds, the visible ground area below was speckled with green vegetation and bright city lights. The reminder of the other planet brought a twinge of pain to Inuyasha's heart.

"Go wake up Sango. We'll be landing soon." Only after the words left his mouth did Inuyasha remember who he was speaking to, and though he was sure his friend wouldn't want to be woken up by Miroku after the incident in the cargo room, he couldn't very well give her a personal wake-up call at the moment.

"Miroku," he said, a hint of warning in his voice as he looked over his shoulder. He flashed him a look that quite noticeably said `make on wrong move and you're a dead man' before returning his attention back to steering the ship.

After Miroku left the cockpit, Inuyasha flipped on the communication switch above him before entering Titan's man-made atmosphere. Thick clouds surrounded the small ship, greatly reducing visibility but Inuyasha didn't slow down, his hands pushing down firmly on the controls as his guided the ship towards the building on the scanner.

The ship soon burst through the line of clouds, a looming building came into view with the words `Tanaka Fuels Inc' boldly labelled on the front. The blue-tinted glass skyscraper stood a fair bit away from the rest of the city, taking up a large chunk of land with the main office building surrounded by smaller factories and hangars.

Harsh static crackled through the cockpit speakers before an authoritative male voice came on.

"State your reason for business and your clearance code."

"Requesting permission to land for emergency repairs," Inuyasha replied, noticing two small patrol ships flank him on either side. He smirked at the new safety precautions Tanaka Fuels felt necessary to take, wondering if it the ships actually had some firepower or if it was all for show.

"Code?"

"I don't have a code."

"We can't let you land without the proper clearance." The patrol ships continued to fly at his sides, guiding him in a large circle above the building.

"Feh. If I had known I would need emergency repairs, I would have got a clearance code before I left," he said dryly. When did these idiots get so uptight?

The voice on the other end became demanding.

"Sir, you'll have to leave the surrounding airspace if you don't have a code."

The two patrol ships suddenly closed in on either side, bringing themselves dangerously close to colliding with Inuyasha's ship as they swerved away from the building, the larger ship stuck between them. Barrel guns appeared on the front of the patrol ships, turning to aiming at his ship, daring him to defy the control room's orders.

"Oi! Get Kouga! He'll give me a code!" As much as Inuyasha hated having to converse with the wolf demon, right now it was more appealing than being blown to pieces.

"We can't do that sir. If you don't leave now, we're going to have to-"

The distinct sound of shuffling came across the speakers before another male voice spoke, this one slightly lower in tone and a bit harsher than the first.

"Emergency repairs, huh? What did you get yourself into this time, dog-breath?" Kouga taunted.

"I don't have time to banter with you, half-wit. Just give me the clearance code so we can get this done and over with," Inuyasha said through gritted teeth, his patience quickly wearing thin as it usually did whenever he had to deal with Kouga's cocky attitude.

"What? No time to stay for a visit?"

Inuyasha just growled in response, and Kouga laughed confidently.

"You know, you're lucky I just happened to be in the room when you showed up-"

"Just shut up and let me land!"

"Alright alright, you have clearance to land. Code 9473. Docking bay 7." The patrol ships pulled away, leaving Inuyasha free to steer the ship down to the large hangar. There was a moment of silence before Kouga continued sarcastically. "Hey, no thanks necessary puppy."

"Keh, like I was going to give you any, you mangy wolf." Before Kouga could respond, Inuyasha flicked off the communication switch, smirking to himself that he got the last word.

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Sango felt a firm hand grip her shoulder and lightly rock her, trying to wake her from her state of semi-consciousness.

"Five more minutes," she grumbled sleepily, burying her head further into the stiff pillow. For some reason her bed felt harder than she remembered, and her covers didn't seem as thick as she recalled either, but she brushed those thoughts off as another distraction created by her tired mind.

Though she had tried, sleep wouldn't come to her, even though she desperately needed it. Her mind was working on overdrive, random thoughts popping into her head every time she was on the brink of falling into that sweet darkness.

Sometimes he's so annoying! Kohaku knows that I spent all those nights working overtime on Inuyasha's ship. What could be so important that he... wait... the ship?

Memories flooded her slightly befuddled mind and she tried to take them all in, slowly coming to the realization that she wasn't in her room. Images flashed behind her closed eyes like a scrapbook, laying out the past events like a story. The one image that prominently stuck out in her mind was that of the hangar burning to the ground around them while they worked frantically to get to safety.

Just thinking about it again made her heart quicken, beating loudly against her chest. Though they had been inside the ship, the screams of the other people fleeing the hangar had still reached her ears, and now they filled her mind. Her heart stopped when she thought of her brother.

Kohaku? Did I lose him too?

She searched her hazy memory, trying to remember what happened at home before she left for work. The short conversation she had with her little brother before she left that morning replayed in her mind. He was still in bed, half-asleep when she told him she was leaving. He mumbled a goodbye into his pillow before rolling onto his other side and falling asleep again.

No, that`s right. Kohaku wasn't there. It was early still, and he wasn't coming in until the afternoon. He was still at home... safe.

The hand on her shoulder rocked her again, this time a bit more roughly.

So if it's not Kohaku....

Sango let her eyes flutter open slowly, adjusting to the bright artificial light that filled the small room. A man sat on the cot beside her, looking down at her with a pair of the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen.

A faint heat spread across her cheeks as she realized whom the eyes belonged to. Miroku kept his hand on her shoulder as he watched her curiously, several strands of his ebony hair falling in his eyes. His brows were drawn together slightly, his lips pursed in a thin line. Dropping her gaze from his face, she couldn't help but notice the top few buttons of his navy blue shirt were undone, giving her a glimpse at the top of his tanned chest.

Her eyes rose back to his face, the concerned expression etched there was a dark contrast to his usual calm demeanour. Something seemed to bother him as he sat there, and she wondered what he was worried about. Was it the ship? Or maybe the girl? Was Inuyasha threatening him again?

But the way Miroku's gaze was focused solely on her, it made her wonder...maybe he was worried about her. That's crazy, she told herself, trying to dispel the thought. He doesn't even know me, so why would he care? Besides, there's nothing wrong with me.

For some reason the idea that he cared made her doubt her notions about him. She gave him a faint smile, trying to reassure him of whatever he was thinking.

Maybe I misjudged him earlier. Maybe he was just trying to pay me a compliment that time we first met, and I mistook for a come-on. Maybe his hand really did slip when we were in the cargo room and I just overreacted. Maybe he's really a descent guy...

"I like it when women want to stay in bed," he smirked, the expression in his deep blue eyes suddenly changing from concern to playfully suggestive.

Maybe not.

"Then that's my cue to get out of bed," she said dryly before violently kicking out her leg, knocking him onto the cold floor below. Sitting up on the cot, she undid the elastic around her ponytail, letting her hair fall down her back while Miroku regained his composure from where he was sprawled on the ground.

Why are all the handsome ones jerks?

"Inuyasha told me to wake you. We'll be landing soon."

"Thanks," she grumbled, running her hands though her tangled tresses before returning it to a high ponytail. She made a mental note to thank her friend for sending the lecher in to wake her.

"Were you having a nightmare? Because you were making some odd faces while you slept," he asked seriously as he stood up and brushed invisible dirt off his pants.

His question made her pause before she shrugged casually and she got out of bed. Her annoyance at his perverted attitude softened slightly at his show of concern. So that's why he was looking at me like that...

A wave of dizziness washed over her and she tried to push past it, attributing it to the fact that the only thing she'd eaten in the past twenty-four hours was that measly sandwich.

Just then the ship rocked slightly as it landed, knocking Sango off what little balance she had. She stumbled forward slightly and Miroku moved towards her, holding out his arms to catch her. Thankfully, she managed to regain her balance before she fell into his waiting arms.

"I don't need your help, thanks."

Miroku shrugged nonchalantly and turned to leave the room, but a soft moan from the other cot caught both their attentions. The younger girl, who had been unconscious up to this point, was moving her head slowly from side to side as she lay there, her eyes clenched shut as if trying to push away some sort of pain.

Her movements were sluggish, as if some invisible force weighed down her limbs. She raised her hands to her face to rub her eyes before opening them cautiously, taking in her surroundings in a daze. Her eyes glanced around the room before resting on Sango and Miroku who stood at the other end of the room from her, both of them still at a bit of a loss as to what to do.

The girl's thin dark brows drew together as she tried to place the people she saw before her, coming up with nothing. She opened her mouth once or twice but nothing came to her, though it was obvious she was beginning to comprehend the situation she was in by the way her eyes became full of fear.

Sango suddenly came out of her stupor, moving forward cautiously so as not to scare the girl even more.

"Kagome Higurashi?"

The younger girl nodded slightly, trying to sit herself up but finding her limbs wouldn't support her. Sango reached out a hand and smiled warmly, hoping the girl would accept the gesture and not start panicking.

Apprehension flashed over Kagome's face as her eyes darted from Sango's smile to the outstretched hand in front of her. Sango could see the way Kagome was analyzing the situation in her mind by the way she bit her lips nervously and squeezed her hands together. It was only a few moments before the young girl accepted Sango's offer and allowed her to help her sit up.

"How do you feel?"

"Um...weak...and sore," she said softly, trying to raise her hand to touch the pain at the back of her head, but finding her arm was still too weak to make it all the way up. Sango stole a glance at the back of Kagome's head for any noticeable wounds, but saw nothing and decided it was probably just a bump on the head.

Probably from when Inuyasha jumped her...

"W-where am I?"

Sango's heart stopped in her chest at Kagome's words. Was she supposed to answer that question? She couldn't just tell her everything and expect Kagome to accept it. Her life was being stolen from her.

Sango looked to Miroku, pleading with her eyes to tell her what to do. His brows furrowed as he thought for a moment, his eyes becoming dark as he considered the situation. She hadn't seen it before, but she saw it now in the way he studied Kagome, his gaze lightly looking her over before settling on her bold brown eyes that were so full of confusion and fear; he didn't want to continue on their journey.

Neither did she.

A sick feeling had taken over Sango's body after all the information about Kagome was out in the open. At only two years younger than herself, this girl was going to be erased from existence, and she wouldn't even know it.

She didn't want to take part in destroying a human being's life, even if it was under Senate orders. It was beyond inhumane. But if strict orders from such a high level of authority were disobeyed... who knows what would happen to the three of them.

She could feel Kagome watching her as she waited for Miroku's response, the younger girl anxious to know the answer but too scared to pressure her into answering. Sango wanted to give her a reassuring smile, to tell her it was all going to be okay... but it would all be a lie.

Then Miroku nodded slightly, a gently smile gracing his lips before he turned and left the room, shutting the door behind him. It was a small gesture, but in it she understood what she was supposed to do.

She shifted to face Kagome, trying to be as calm and unthreatening as possible.

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