Unbound

-That Night-

The tactical room was dimly lighted with the soft glow from the blue tabletop at its center. Shippou sat in one of the three tall chairs at the right of the table; a portable video game enthralling his senses. Next to him sat Songo who was resting her head in her hand at the very peak of boredom.

The door at the other end of the azure tinted room slid open revealing the figure of a grumbling female.

Songo shook her head still keeping her eyes closed.

"Hi Songo." She called out while unenthusiastically waving her hand.

"I hate these damn morning briefings." She growled behind her cup of coffee. "Doesn’t Kaiede ever fucking sleep?"

Songo took a moment to look around.

"Speaking of which, where is she? I thought the meeting was at seven."

Kagome pointed over her shoulder at the door at the opposite end of the room. Songo focused her attention and gradually began to hear the sounds of a fierce argument going on behind the reinforced steel door.

"Miroku has been at it for fifteen minutes." Shippou said not averting his eyes from the game.

"Think he really wants to off the new one."

Another muted roar came from beyond the door. It was so strange to hear Miroku as angry as he was.

‘Why wouldn’t he be?’ the little voice in Songo’s head querked. ‘He only just last night saw him about to murder his towel-clad fiancee. If they hadn’t come he might have even…’

"That abominable thing deserves to be put down like the animal it is!" Miroku bellowed as he suddenly emerged from Kaiede’s office in a rage. His eyes blazing with hate, he marched across the room meeting eyes with no one.

Songo could feel his fury and felt a small pang of guilt resonate through her body. ‘Why do I feel so damn guilty?" She thought.

Miroku stopped mid stride to take in the view of his bride to be now bowing her head in shame. His eyes glistened with angry tears before he whipped his gaze away.

"I swear that he will pay for doing what he did…"

Breathing in sharply, he took off for the exit leaving behind a vacuum of silence.

-Songo and Kagome stared at one another in the awkward wake their commander had left behind.

"Yikes…" Kagome flatly commented.

Songo only shut her eyes and shook her head in frustration. A moment later the girls turned their eyes to the sound of the opposing door sliding open. Colonel Kiaede emerged from beyond the steel entrance with a troubled look settled about her brow.

"Miroku will be fine in time. He is very protective of you Songo."

Songo bowed her head in respect to the head of the institute. Kiaede was the person who originally commissioned her team. Without her, she would have probably never met Miroku or Kagome. It was also Kiaede that helped Songo through the difficult time of her family’s death. She had been only a child when it happened, but Kiaede took her in and gave her a home at the institute. She had been like a mother to her.

"So what about the hanyou?" Kagome chimed in a somewhat hopeful voice.

Kiaede and Songo both glared at the obviously smitten girl.

"What?" she defended showing them the palms of her hands.

"The hanyou is to be retained and reeducated for possible recruitment." Kaiede announced.

"Inuyasha…" Songo whispered under her breath..

"Hmm?" Kiaede voiced even more surprised at the slight show of concern in Songo’s demeanor.

"Uh…" Songo fumbled. "I guess it is what it calls itself."

"Inuyasha, huh?" Kagome mused. "That’s kind of general isn’t it? Oh well."

"I expect that you two will help in the reeducation process." Kiaede interjected.

"What?!" They both responded.

"Kiaede," Songo retorted, isn’t that a bit of a conflict of interest. The thing did break into my quarters and held me hostage.

"Are you saying that you are unable to handle the situation sergeant?" Kiaede replied in a low, chiding tone.

"No Colonel Kiaede."

"Good. Then you two are dismissed." She turned slowly back to her office as the two beautiful young women began to head for the opposing door.

"Oh, and another thing you two."

Kagome and Songo both turned once more to face their commander.

"Miroku is no doubt going to be especially hard on the new potential. I want you two to make sure he doesn’t cross the line."

"Yes Colonel." The replied in unison.

The two girls exited the room as their commander’s door slid shut.

"Woooo Who!" Kagome squealed once she got out of earshot.

"Oh shut up Kagome."

"Aren’t you excited?"

"Excited? Yeah, I’m fucking thrilled to have to break in a demon that was about two seconds from killing both you and me.

"But that’s the fun part. By now he has had chip put in so he has to play nice."

"What?"

"Just think about it Sarge. Imagine the look on his face when he realizes that in order to have any kind of freedom ever again he has to do what we tell him to."

Kagome offered one last triumphant smirk before trotting off in the other direction with a noticeable bounce in her step.

‘Poor Inuyasha…’

The bitter metallic taste of blood lingered in Inuyasha’s mouth. The floor was cold and stank with the scent of a hundred other demons that had no doubt found themselves in the same situation as he.

‘Why haven’t they killed me yet?’ He thought staring into a small puddle of his own blood.

The weary hanyou strained sluggishly in his chair restraints. Two fully suited guards at either side of him giving no signs of life. His hands and midsection were held by heavy metal bands set by a series of electronic locks at their respective hinges. The room itself was utterly black save for a singular red light that caused the young dog demon to squint with displeasure.

"State your name…" Came the thundering and purposefully distorted voice from a hidden loudspeaker. The sound was deafening and ominous; like the sound of a forest fire, yet for all the apparent doom about him, Inuyasha gave so sign of response. One of the guards brought the butt of his riffle squarely across the hanyou’s cheek soliciting a spray of freshly loosed blood.

"State your name…" The voice demanded again, and once again the command was met with equal defiance. The guard raised his weapon another time to further reprimand the unresponsive prisoner, but was halted by the graveled and emotionless words of the demon.

"…If you do that again… I’ll kill you…"

The guard hesitated for a moment at the sheer hate oozing from the quiet ultimatum he had just been given. It was if the devil himself had stolen the courage from his beating heart. With a brisk shake the guard awoke from his momentary petrifaction to resume attacking the young half-demon. He brought his riffle to bear once more, but was stopped short as the prisoner before him in a single fluid motion ripped the arm from his chair completely off and slammed it into the side of the guard’s head knocking him back and down. The other guard moved to stop the hanyou but was stopped as the demon threw the jagged shard of broken chair into his armor-clad shoulder piercing it and pinning him to the wall behind him. Inuyasha rose from his chair making short work of his other restraints. He moved to the first guard on the floor still dazed from the blow to the head from moments before. His eyes smoldered crimson as he lifted the limp soldier from the floor with one hand at his throat. Inuyasha could smell the fear radiating from his frail human frame as he clutched his throbbing arteries below his claws.

"I warned you…"

But before the familiar sound of the thick wet pop of a snapping vertebrae could be heard there instead came a terrible howl of pain from Inuyasha that accompanied his agonizing collapse to the floor. The pain was everywhere. It was as if his body was being ripped apart. No wound had ever even come close to the kind of torture that he felt. He screamed and convulsed on the floor like an infant being held over an open flame.

"State… your… name…"

"Fuck you!!!" Inuyasha roared back. At that the intense pain renewed itself in him as he was once again was thrown into the thralls of a horrible attack.

"You have been outfitted with the latest version of our suppression modules." The disembodied voice announced. "We can activate this function whenever we see fit."

The pain continued in Inuyasha as he rolled on the floor writhing in agony from the internal assailant.

"If you attempt to remove the device, it will explode, and you will die. If you do not comply with us we will set it on its maximum setting and let it destroy you."

"I’ll make you watch as I clean the meat from your bones." Inuyasha hissed into the floor.

A mechanical sliding door opened to reveal the silhouetted figure of a man holding a staff in his right hand.

"That is unlikely half-demon." The man drolly quipped. Gently his thumb moved over a small control inscribed within the staff. As he pressed it, the pain Inuyasha felt suddenly doubled sending him into a near catatonic state.

"This setting is roughly sixty percent of full power. Eighty is enough to kill you I’d say."

The figure slowly stepped out of the mask of the doorway into the crimson light of the room. Miroku’s darkened face came into view of the incapacitated hanyou lurching on the floor. "Shall we see if I am right half-demon?"

Miroku once again raised his thumb to the small blinking control built into the staff.

"I’ll make sure you never touch anyone ever again you filth." Miroku announced with a sudden personal malice in his tone. A small furl at his lips signaled his intent an slaying the tortured demon in a manner that would make hell seem blithe and temperate by comparison.

"Miroku! Stop!" A female voice rang out from the doorway halting Miroku’s thumb millimeters before executing Inuyasha. The normal incandescent lights came on purging the room of the ominous red light and revealing the stern expression on Songo’s face.

"This is not what Kaiede ordered."

"Stand down, Sergeant." Miroku barked back.

"No, Sir."

"I won’t allow this vermin to continue drawing breath. It nearly killed you, and severely wounded several…"

"He is now a part of the institute. Kaiede’s orders."

A moment past between the two sparring lovers; their eyes locked on one another. The air was thick with the dense presence of their current dissonance. Only the sounds of Inuyasha’s screams echoed in the room, but even his terrible cries seemed distant to the rather unhappy couple. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, Miroku at last averted his gaze while releasing Inuyasha from his punishment. The hanyou fell limp to the floor gasping for air.

"He is scheduled for reprogramming at 0700 tomorrow morning. The Colonel says to make sure that he is well rested." Songo began to turn taking one last moment to glare into Miroku. She continued to move, but before she got all the way out the door she noticed Inuyasha in a heap on the floor. His wounds were not terrible, but it will certainly be a hard day for him tomorrow.

‘He’s more human than I thought.’

With that, Songo briskly exited leaving a very jilted commanding officer with a an unseteling new bit of information.

‘What was that look all about?’ Miroku thought studying the newest member of the institute.