Set Me Free

Compassion is not an Option



What made me do it? What made me care? I am a cold being devoid of feelings. I have no heart and my soul is dead. That is what I tell myself everyday when I wake up in this hell.



Everyday is the same; research, build, test, heal, and then sleep until the next day. I don’t even get breaks to eat. My food is brought to me to eat while I work. Nothing like eating a meal while testing a weapon. You just have to pretend that the pitiful screams of the subject are really music serenading you while you dine. You have to tell yourself something or you would surely never eat again.



I do my job, I keep my head down, and I try to get through the day drawing as little attention to myself as possible. That has been harder and harder lately. Something must have happened on the outside. The Council of Elders sent a message stating that our weapons were not strong enough. They demanded that we used stronger magic. Don’t they understand that the stronger the magic, the more potentially unstable it is? They probably know, but don’t care. We are expendable after all.



Since we started to use this stronger magic, there have been several “accidents”. This chamber used to have 6 weapons masters. We are down to 3 including me. The pressure is on. Every move is scrutinized by the Shadow Guard. They are the council’s eyes and ears in the chamber, and they also supply the chamber with test subjects. They are creatures of magic and seem to be made of shadows. They are everywhere. They stay hidden and watch, until you mess up. Then they come to dish out your punishment. They do not seem like shadows when they are punishing you. All the sudden they are all too solid. They love inflicting pain. It almost seems like they feed off of it. You do not want to get caught doing something wrong.



So why did I do it? I think it was their eyes, their sad frightened eyes.



They brought them in a few days ago, three fox demon children, two boys and a girl. I had never tested a weapon on a child and had no desire to start now. I heard one Guard telling another that they had been after the kits’ parents, but the parents had fought to the death thinking that the Guards were going to hurt their kits. They killed several of the Guards in the fight, and the remaining Guards had been injured. The injured Guards had brought the kids in as a form of retribution.



I felt sick looking at the three children. They were shackled together. They clung to each other and cried. Cried for their dead parents, cried for their lack of freedom, and cried for a future that had suddenly become a bleak and scary thing.



Three members of the Guard approached them. They each grabbed a child. They undid their shackles and took them away from their siblings. They were quickly shoved in three separate cells. You’ve got to hand it to the Guard; they knew how to shred away any sense of security in the blink of an eye.



I couldn’t sleep that night. My sensitive hearing picked up their sobbing. I knew if they didn’t stop soon, the Guard would stop them. I crept out of my room and went to the room that housed their cells. I half expected someone to stop me, but no one seemed to notice me at all. Why would they care if I wonder around, they knew that there was no way that I could leave.



I approached the first cell, “Hey!” The little girl looked at me with red puffy eyes. “You need to keep it down or you are going to be hurt,” I told her quietly.



She seemed to understand and calm down, so I moved on to the second cell, “Hey!” A small red-headed boy looked at me. “You have to be quiet or the Guard will come to hurt you,” I said calmly.



The boy also seemed to understand and started to calm down, so I moved on to the third cell, ”Hey!” A larger boy with gray hair and large eyes looked at me. “You need to stop crying before you get in trouble,” I said and was ready to leave, but this boy did not calm down like the others. He started to wail louder.



“Why are you doing this to us? We have done nothing wrong! Let us go, please, we just want to go home. Momma, Papa, please help us,” he screamed.



“Shh, please stop!” I tried to calm him down realizing that I had made the situation worse.



“No, I want to go home,” he continued to scream.



At this point I was frantically looking around for the Guard. I knew they had to be on their way. I had to get him to be quiet. I said the first thing that I could think of that might calm him down, “If you calm down right now, I will do everything that I can to get you released.”



The boy stopped crying and came up to the bars where I stood. He looked me in the eyes and asked,” Do you promise?”



Without a second thought I responded, “I promise.”



This did the trick. The three were quiet and I went back to my room. I initially had no intention to keep my promise, but I was haunted by those eyes. Those big sad eyes. Then I found out that the children were to be my subjects.



This caused me to do something that I had never done before. I requested a meeting with the head of the Guard to try to change the order that I had been given. I explained to him that the children were not acceptable test subjects. I said that since they were weaker then a fully grown demon, they would give false test results of a weapon’s power.



The head of the Guard stated that he understood that I was working on a weapon that would be used to torture prisoners to obtain information during questioning. He asked me to explain how it would work.



I knew this was bad. The bastard already knew exactly how the weapon would work. Hell, he had approved the idea. All weapon ideas had to be presented and approved before we started the necessary research to actually build the weapon. Making me explain my weapon now meant that he was going to use something I said against me. I knew this game, but I was powerless to stop it.



I explained that the weapon would look like a normal short sword. The sword would not cut like a normal sword. Instead, you would concentrate on the organ or muscle that you would like to attack. The sword would guide the hand of the user to line the strike up accurately while the sword handler decided if the targeted body part would be shocked, punctured, poisoned, or slowly dissolved. The magic of the weapon would allow it to pass through the body without affecting anything other then this target. The sword would be inserted into the target and would release its attack. This would allow interrogation of an enemy to go on for an extremely long time before the victim would eventually expire from the stress on their body. It will make torture much easier, cleaner, and more controlled.



The Head of the Guard sat back and nodded, apparently pleased with my explanation. Then he explained that a large part of the testing of the weapon would have to deal with the accuracy of the strikes. That is what would be tested on the children. If the weapon could accurately strike their small organs, then it would be extremely accurate when dealing with an adult with their larger organs.



As soon as this explanation was given, I was dismissed. I went back to my room and vomited. Not only would the children be test subjects, but they would be used to test a weapon of torture. A fate worse then death. To make matters worse I was to be the one to dish out their torture. A torture that I knew could last for days.



I couldn’t do it. I may be a monster, but even a monster can have a soft spot and mine was children. I never had a childhood, but for some reason I wanted these kids to have one. Too bad that could never happen now. The best that I could do for them would be to kill them quickly. That is the gift that I would give them. A quick pain free death. By this act, I would set them free.



My mind was made up. The next day I told the Guard to bring my test subjects. Three Guards returned with the three children. They took their time strapping the crying children to the tables.



“You said that you would try to help us,” pleaded the gray haired boy. “You promised!”



“I did, but I was unsuccessful,” I stated coldly.



“What are you going to do to us?” asked the little girl through her tears.



“Gag them,” I yelled to the Guard.



The Guard that is always stationed in the testing room came forward and gagged the children. He had such a satisfied look on his face; you would think I gave him a gift. Sick Bastard! I felt ill, but it was now or never. I had to act quickly and without hesitation or run the chance of being stopped before I accomplished my goal and these children were doomed to a death by torture. I picked up the sword and plunged it into their chests, one after the other. After the third stab was done, I put the sword down and waited.



The Guard came forward a few moments later. “Their dead?” he questioned.



“Yes, it appears they were not strong enough,” I replied.



“Did you kill them on purpose?” he asked.



“No,” I responded quickly.



He could sense my deceit. He grabbed me and called for the Head of the Guard. Which brings me to the present; I am sitting in the testing room awaiting the Head of the Guard.



He walked in and slowly took in the scene in the room.



“You are accused of ignoring your orders and deliberately ending the lives of these children, Kagome,” he stated coldly. “What do you have to say?”



“I have nothing to say,” I replied trying to sound calm.



The Head of the Guard shook his head and laughed, a truly cold and frightening sound. “Remove the bodies and strap the hanyou to a table. I have a weapon to test,” he told his comrades.



This is my life. A life filled with pain and suffering. Today I will suffer from my own creation. The ultimate weapon of torture that I created will be tested on me, but they will not kill me. I am too valuable alive. I will endure countless hours of pain, but I will know that it was worth it to set those kids free. I was just glad that my deception worked.



It was a last minute decision. The Guard underestimates my skill with my own weapons. Their ignorance left the window open for me. Those kids did not deserve this torture.



Unfortunately, I do. I deserve it a hundred times over for all the things that I have done in my life.





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2 days later….



Three fox demon children pulled themselves out of a mass grave. They did not know what happened or how they had gotten there, but they knew it had something to do with the girl with the cold eyes who had promised to help them. They were so happy to be alive, free, and together.



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I may be a monster, but even a monster has their limits. Today I made a decision. A simple act that the free do everyday. Something that I have never been allowed to do before. I suffered for it, but even the suffering could not take away the feeling that I had received from that one simple act. The lightness that I felt knowing that those children would get their childhood after all. Maybe this is what it feels like to be free.