InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ "The Matrix Has You" ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

"Great, we all get to meet Arc," Inuyasha said, aggravated, in the elevator.

"You know him?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Yea we've met." he replied more to the clear metal wall than to Kagome.

Kagome looked at Inuyasha for a long time. This was the first time they had been able to talk to each other since when they defeated Naraku; she was extremely joyful that he was all right and that he had come to save her. But she was still unsure if he was still with Kikyo in his heart still.

Inuyasha turned to look at her with concerned amber eyes. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing," she said quickly, whirling to the elevator doors. Inuyasha, understanding, didn't say anything else.

The elevator doors opened to another hallway, this time the walls on either side were more regal looking with simple, but attractive, architecture. This floor had dark-colored carpeting and was a big change from the metal office building Kagome had seen on the other floor.

"Come along boys and girls," Disk said, quickly walking down the hall, making his way out of the elevator without looking at Inuyasha and Kagome. They caught up with him still confused and frustrated.

Suddenly Disk stopped at a wooden double door with bright bronze handles. The oak wood of the door had the same color as the carpet and seemed almost an extension of it.

Disk turned to the both of them with a calm yet serious look on his face. "You have to understand that right now the truth may not what you want it to be. He's not offering what you want, just the truth."

"And what is the truth?" asked Kagome, mystified.

Disk looked at her for a few seconds though his sunglasses, and then turned to twist the handle with a sigh. The door opened with no sound and they all walked into the room.

It was quite huge, although not as big as the first floor. Three comfortable looking dark red chairs- two on one side and the other one across a circular coffee table with two full glasses of water were sitting in front of a fireplace. The room kept the design of the hallway and door going with dark, twisting wood wrapped around the frame of the fireplace. To their left facing the fireplace was an expansive window giving a wonderful look to the city and the slowly setting sun.

A door opened on the left and there stood Arc, his hands behind his back with what seemed like a grin, seeing everyone safely in the room. He was wearing the same outfit he wore when he had talked to Inuyasha.

Inuyasha looked at him in uncertainty, Kagome was hopeful to talk to him, and Disk nodded to him in respect. Disk walked up to him leisurely and said, "Here are the two as you requested, Sir."

"Good job," Arc said. "You may go now." with that Disk went through the door Arc had came out, which left Kagome and Inuyasha with the leader of the operation, Arc.

"I can assume," he started, walking to the single chair. "That you have quite a few questions."

Inuyasha wasn't in the mood to have a pointless conversation with this guy. "Yea! Hurry up and tell us what the hell's going on here!" He yelled, angrily, making Kagome look at him, troubled, and whisper to him.

"Inuyasha, calm down."

Arc looked at Inuyasha, his smile switching to a stone glare. "There is no reason to get angry," -he motioned to the chairs.- "Please, sit down."

Kagome sat down automatically while Inuyasha stood for a few seconds and eventually took a seat next to Kagome.

"As I was saying," Arc looked to Kagome. "Kagome…ever since you've started going through the well, have you ever thought `This can't be real, how could this be possible?'"

"Well, I guess," Kagome replied, thinking back to the first time she was in Feudal Japan and how scared she had been.

"But you knew that you had been there for a purpose…But you found the answer and completed the Jewel." Arc paused and Kagome grabbed her shirt, checking if the Jewel was still there.

"Now there's a new question for the two of you…it gnaws at the back of your head. Any clue what that question is?"

"What is The Matrix?" Kagome responded.

"Yes."

"So what the hell is it?" Inuyasha asked, still annoyed.

"The Matrix is all around us…this room, the city outside that window, the air you're breathing right now, all part of it." Arc said slowly.

Seeing the confused faces of the two, Arc reached into his pocket and pulled out a small square silver metal case. "Unfortunately…no one can be told what the Matrix is." He opened the case, reached inside and put the contents in both his hands "They have to see it for themselves."

He put out both his closed hands to Inuyasha and Kagome. He opened his right hand, two bright blue oval-shaped pills in his palm.

"If you take the blue pill, the question is forgotten. You'll wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe."

He then opened his other hand, this time with red pills. "If you take the red pill, the question is answered, and a new purpose begins."

Inuyasha leaned over to Kagome. "I don't think we should trust this guy," he whispered into her ear even though he himself wasn't sure what he was talking about.

"Then who are we supposed to trust?" Kagome replied, looking at him sadly.

Inuyasha looked down to the floor, growling under his breath. "This is a bunch of crap; you know you're safe with me!"

"I am only offering the truth," Arc interrupted, not having moved from his position. "There's no going back once you make a choice."

Kagome looked to Arc then turned to Inuyasha with a stern face. "I'm taking the red pill; I have to find out the truth." She whispered.

Inuyasha was about to protest but seeing Kagome's face knew that she had made her decision and wasn't going to change it. "All right, fine," he said, crossing his arms.

Kagome reached out her hand and took a red pill, Inuyasha doing the same.

"You don't have to do take it if you don't want to," Kagome said to him.

"Heh, You think I'm gonna leave you with this crazy guy?" He replied with a trademark boastful smile.

Kagome smiled also, cheerful to his loyalty. They then tossed the pill in their mouths and took a drink of the glass of water to swallow it.

"Excellent," Said Arc as he put the other pills in one of his pockets, standing and walking towards the door. "Come with me." Inuyasha and Kagome both stood up and walked behind him, unsure of what they had gotten themselves into.

The three of them walked inside the room. It still kept the style from the previous rooms although it was much darker from closed curtains. Kagome and Inuyasha were shocked to see an amazing amount of computer equipment with hundreds of cords slithering across the floor. At nearly every machine was a person wearing clothing that many would find odd if they wore that strolling down the street. Most of them were typing away furiously or making some adjustments to the equipment in some way. On one of the screens Kagome noticed odd letters that looked somewhat Japanese but were still very different as the light green symbols fell downward and disappeared.

Inuyasha was more amazed than Kagome; although he had came to Kagome's time often he had never seen machines like this, which only added more uncertainty.

"Those pills where a tracking program we use, they help us know where you are in case of danger." Arc said, breaking the observation of the room by Kagome and Inuyasha.

They then came to the middle of the circle created by the machines with their dark steel giving the room and even more depressing feel. There were two very basic wooden chairs that were unattractive compared to the soft cushioned seats from before. Kagome observed some kind of bands on the end of the armrests and front, she had a feeling that they were used to strap whoever sat there.

Arc led them up to the ring and turned to inspect one of the computers, leaving them with a kind looking young woman who, like most everyone else, had a pair of sunglasses on. She wore a dress-like outfit that was pearly white and reminded Kagome of a wedding gown. It started a few inches off the floor and rose up to her breast. It was quite tight and looked like she could move very easily in it.

She walked up to Inuyasha and Kagome, her shoulder-length spiked tipped red hair swinging along with her strides and led them to the chairs, not saying a word. Arc, talking to another crewmember, nodded his head and looked at Kagome and Inuyasha who were about to sit down.

"We require both the Shikon Jewel and the Tetsusagia; it is required for the process and for your own safety."

"Hell no!" Inuyasha yelled. "We aren't that stupid!" taking no precautions. Kagome knew that Inuyasha was very stubborn but she still agreed that she didn't trust these people well enough into giving the Jewel to them.

"Please, Kagome, you have to trust us," said a familiar voice behind Kagome. She looked to see Disk standing there with his sunglasses off, his bright blue eyes visible. "After everything that has happened…. who else can you trust?"

Somehow listening to Disk made Kagome know that she could trust him. She couldn't explain it but she felt some sort of connection to him somehow but she eventually ignored it. "Come on, Inuyasha, we've gone this far. Like Arc said, there's no turning back now."

Inuyasha, shocked, looked at her with a face that looked to ask "are you serious?" and Kagome looked back at him with a face that said, "Yeah, I'm serious." Inuyasha grumbled and pulled the Tetsusiga out and held it out as one of the people who were working at the computers came up and took it and walked back. Another person grabbed the Jewel that Kagome removed from her neck.

"Thanks," Kagome heard Disk say as he ran off to take care of something.

"All right then, go ahead and sit down." said the red-haired woman. She and another crewmember helped Inuyasha and Kagome get their legs and upper arms strapped into the chairs. Inuyasha needed a little more convincing but finally agreed to sit down. The straps weren't that tight but were able to keep the two where they were quite easily.

The two who helped them into the chairs walked away and Kagome sighed, looking down to the floor insecurely. The chairs were close enough that Inuyasha could grab Kagome's hand and hold it reassuringly. Kagome looked at him to see a rare smile with caring eyes. She smiled back and turned to her right to see some sort of floating bright yellow round light in front of her.

Kagome stared at it for a moment, captivated by it and the fact that she saw stuff like this more in Feudal Japan. She slowly reached out her hand toward the ball of illumination which didn't move but seemed to start shining slightly. Inuyasha watched in curiosity as Kagome clasped it inside her fist, making the light radiating from it disappear.

She brought the clasped hand back to the armrest and opened her hand to reveal that the light had completely disappeared. Instead some sort of metal liquid was on the skin of her palm, slowly moving by itself up her fingers, gradually encasing the skin of the hand in the liquid. "Th-That's…" she stuttered.

"Impossible?" Arc finished for her, standing a few feet away.

"What the hell is happening to her!?" Inuyasha yelled, furiously.

"Boy, this is cold," Kagome shivered, the liquid now reaching her chest.

"She'll be fine, calm down." Arc said peacefully and turned to one of the people at the computer. "Have you found them?"

"Almost," the crewmember replied expectantly. "Got it!" he shouted.

The metal liquid then shot down Kagome's left arm and went to Inuyasha's hand, which was still with Kagome's. It zoomed up his arm and he realized that Kagome was right about being cold.

Kagome now had her arms, middle and most of her legs covered in the liquid with it now reaching up to her neck while Inuyasha had considerably less. He could clearly hear Kagome having trouble breathing with the icy fluid all over her skin.

"YOU GODDAMN BASTARD!!" Inuyasha screamed, thinking that they had fallen into some kind of trap, furiously trying to jump up and beat Arc to a pulp. But the straps held Inuyasha's body firmly that was weakened by the liquid.

Arc looked to him sideways and pulled out his cell phone from his pocket. "Hit it, Ram." Kagome screamed as the liquid went inside her mouth and everything went black.

000ooo0o00o0o0o00o00o00o0o

Kagome opened her eyes. She remembered the crew and Inuyasha holding her hand. Now all she could see was an odd red pod that she was inside of and the red jelly-like liquid that she was floating in. She stood up, ripping out of the pod's shell; easy but difficult at the same time because of the sticky liquid handicapping her movements. She quickly ripped out a large tube that was in her mouth and was able to fill her acing lungs with air. Viewing her surroundings, she saw something that she would never forget.

Huge black skyscrapers stood before her on an endless wasteland, all over them what looked like windows but in inspection they where actually pods like hers. Lightning shot up and down the tower and looked like it came from the pods. The sky above her was just as worse as the land, dark clouds covered the skies letting no light whatsoever as lightning flashed in the haze from time to time.

Kagome looked to both her sides and saw even more pods as far as her eye could see. In each of them was a human-like figure in a dream-like state. At this time she became aware of at least 20 cords in her body in her arms, legs but mostly her back. She was also completely naked and in respect covered her breast with her arms hastily even though she knew that no other living person was there.

"Th-This can't be real, can it?" she asked to the air weakly. Everything so far had been hard to believe but was possible considering she dealt with demons and magic on a daily basis in Feudal Japan. But this had destroyed every possible understanding of the world and she stood there in stupor staring out to the desert.

Kagome got back to her senses and reached around to her back to feel a cord much larger than the others that was connected to where her skull and neck met. As she slowly grabbed it she heard a zooming sound in front of her and a horrid sight appeared.

Kagome could only describe it as a monster. A giant rounded jet-black machine floated in front of the pod, an extremely large red mechanical eye staring at her. At each side where cords, claws, machine parts and other random parts that gave it a more malevolence feel to it.

One of the claws suddenly shot out and knocked Kagome to the back wall of the pod, clasping around her neck, slightly chocking her. The eye of the machine zoomed up to her and she saw its insides spinning around focusing on her. After a few seconds the claw let go and she fell into the jelly substance of the pod. A hole opened at the back and she was flushed down into a tunnel.

She sped down the channel that was very much like a waterside. In fact if she didn't have the run-in with the machine she may have been having fun. The tunnel ended and she fell into the water on the bottom of what looked like a giant sewer.

She made a huge splash and tried to stay afloat. Even though she was a pretty good swimmer she couldn't move around enough to stop herself from drowning and simply flailed her arms around.

She was about to go unconscious when she heard something large coming toward her, like a plane. She saw light opening up above and electricity spinning in the darkness, a large crane grabbing and pulling her up into the hover ship.

The last thing Kagome saw before she fell unconscious was Arc's concerned face. "Welcome to the real world." he said and Kagome mind went blank again.