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There is a fourth measure of controlling chimeras currently in development. Dubbed by some to be 'the final failsafe' it is a terrible and frightening thing to even contemplate. For even though I cannot condone the creation, or even the use of such a thing, only time will tell if it ever becomes necessary to use it.

B.O.D. Report # WTF

Chapter Fifteen : Echoes of the past.

Everything hurt. It was a strange sensation that seemed to define his entire existence. All he knew, all he had ever known, was pain. Until eventually, even that too ceased to be.

He began to wonder. Had there ever been a man named Kato? Or was that just a dream. A figment of some, other's imagination.

He could feel still feel himself, floating, drifting along without shape or form in a world composed of utter darkness.

Where, where am I? Is this a dream? Hello? Somebody! Anybody! Answer me! Vanishing of their own accord, even his thoughts seemed to fade into formless nothing.

Softly, he asked. Am I, dead?

A light pierced the darkness. Shining like a small star in the infinite night he felt himself begin to drift towards it. As if drawn on by some inexplicable force, he found that he was unable even to look away.

A room took shape around him. A child's room filled with toys, it was at once both alien and familiar, as were the people in it.

“I want my son.” Screamed the woman in a red dress. “Tell me you bastard, tell me what you did with my son!”

A young boy, no older than six was busy tugging on the hem of her dress. He was trying desperately to get her attention. “I'm right here mother.”

That's, that's Johnathan when he was younger. And, what was her name? Sharyl. I think that was it. No, I'm sure. Her name was Sharyl.

“Give him back to me.” Sharyl was crying now. “You took him away from me and I want him back!”

I remember now. She was always arguing with John about their son. Something about, I think it was about how holding him never felt right, like something essential had somehow gone missing. That was the day the doctor's came and took her away. They said that, there was an anomaly in her neural pathways, that a breakdown had begun to occur, and that if she was losing the ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality, then the only way for her to survive was . . . complete erasure.

The room shifted around him. He was standing in an office now. It was one that was kept as clean and orderly as the man who always inhabited it.

“You're a King, now act like one!” The admonition was familiar, he had certainly heard it often enough to recognize it in his sleep.

Finally forced to acknowledge his father with a reply, there was a sullen and empty scowl on Johnathan's face when he said. “Yes, sir.”

When Johnathan left the room so did he.

For a moment, it felt as if he was forever following behind, silently serving as his living shadow, ever alert for danger. Just like he had been taught.

“I can't stand him. He's always giving me orders. Do this, do that. And you. Your always the one toadying up to him. Your just a good little chimera. Aren't you?”

He wanted to cry out. Who am I! But the vision dissolved around him, fading once more into the endless darkness before he could.

More stars started to appear. Filling the night, they became an endless sea from which to pick and choose, and each demanded his attention equally.

With no way to know which was which he let himself drift past them, content to listen to the whispers they emitted as he sought the answer to the question he had attempted to ask.

Like black ichor it began gathering around him. The familiar presence of an emptiness so suffocating and thick that it threatened to drown him in the endless nothing.

He knew it for what it was almost instantly. It was the nightmare that he had always had, the same nightmare that had haunted his dreams for the last twelve years of his life.

No, not this, anything but this. He tried to shut his eyes, to turn away from the horror that he knew awaited him. Anything is better than this. But it was no use, he was suddenly four years old again. And it was the last time that he had seen his mother alive.

Men and women wearing protective silver suits and masks were surrounding him on all sides. They were trying to grab hold of him, to force him down on the ground, so that they could snap a control collar around his neck.

It was pointless to try and run. The room they were in only had one door, and they were standing in front of it.

“Leave us alone!” He had shouted at them. “We haven't done anything wrong!”

The words didn't matter, they never did. He had seen what had happened to all those who had been collared, how it had served to change them, making them less than they had been before. And he refused to let the same thing happen to him without a fight.

Looking to his mother for help one of the handlers made the mistake of grabbing him by the tail. He spun around, bitting down as hard as he could, his sharp teeth found purchase in the soft web of the hand that held him.

The handler he had bitten, a man, judging by the sound of his voice, screamed in pain and rage as he fought to pull his hand free.

Dropping his tail to the ground, the handler pulled free with a great tearing sound as he ran to stand by his mother's side. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she offered him her strength without ever needing to say a single word.

The other's all started to laugh at the handler who was now dancing backwards in pain. “Fucking kid bit me. Someone get that collar on him.” Waving his injured hand in the air he started to swear up a blue streak.

Licking the blood from his lips his eyes darted back and forth. It was almost impossible to distinguish one handler from another. They came and went, and all of them were issued the same utilitarian uniforms that hid their faces and eliminated their scent.

None of that mattered to him now. Forcing the fur on his body to stand on end he sought to make himself look bigger and more intimidating. He didn't care how he did it, only that doing it felt right. It was a purely instinctive reaction. And it was working.

Not one of the handlers seemed inclined to come within reach of his razor sharp teeth and claws.

“He's just a kitten.” Said one of them, obviously a woman. “Look, maybe we should just come back later and try something else.”

“He's vicious!” Shouted the one he had bitten. Aiming a kick at him a low growl from his mother made the man step back in surprise. “Both of them are. Someone should have put them both down years ago.”

“He's just trying to protect his mother, that's all.”

“Naww, there's no way chimera's are that smart.”

While the two of them had been talking one of the other handlers had gone and gotten a pole with a noose on the end of it.

They started circling around him once more. Refusing to give ground he would lash out at those who came too close.

“I still don't see why they would want one who is so young.” Said the woman. “Most of them don't go out until they're at least ten.”

“Who cares,” Said the one he had bitten. “Orders is orders. And besides, after today, the little monster stops being our problem.”

Watching as they slipped the noose around his mother's neck he screamed in a wordless rage. Fighting to pull it free the others used the opportunity to rush him from behind.

Struggling to extricate himself from the ones that held him, he sought to hold tight to his mother's hand. But even with the strength born of desperation, he was still losing his grip.

“Mother!” He shouted as his fingers finally slipped free.

“Become stronger Kato.” She said as the darkness stole her away. “So that you'll always be able protect the ones that you love. Like you did me.”

Kato? Hearing the name spoken aloud released him from the nightmare. That's right. He knew it now, knew that it was his and no others. My name is Kato. And these, these are my memories!

He remembered, Exotica Geno-Works had sent him a letter once. It said that his mother had become ill shortly after he had left, that they had done everything they could to try and save her.

Lies! He cried out. It was all lies. She didn't die because she was sick. She died because of what they did to her. She died because I wasn't there to protect her!

“You shouldn't be here yet.” Said a familiar voice.

Mother? Somehow he knew in his heart that it was her. Where are you? Why can't I see you?

“You need to go back. You aren't done living yet.”

No! Not yet. And yet, heedless of his own desire he could feel the pull of the world of life as it began calling him back, back to pain and sadness, sorrow and rage.

Like a child, Kato cried out. I don't want to go back to that life. I'd rather die and be here with you!

“You say that now my foolish little kitten.” Said Sasha. “But is there no one waiting for you?” He felt the warmth of her love surround him, complete and unconditional it served to drive back the shadows that had threatened to overwhelm him. “No one who is close to your heart?”

Kato thought of Lady and what it would mean to him to meet her again, to know that she was safe, and fulfill the promise they had shared.

“You see, whether you wish to admit it or not, you are still needed.” Before she could slip away from him completely they shared what was perhaps a final and parting embrace. And in that world beyond time, he heard his mother's voice whisper to him. “Remember Kato, that I will always love you. Because to me, you will always be, my precious son.”

“Mother!” As Kato awoke he realized two things, the first, was that he was lying in a real physical bed, and the second, was that he was no longer in any kind of pain.

Someone must have treated the worst of my injuries. He thought to himself. But who?

Once his eyes adjusted to what little light there was in the room he began to recognize the familiar form of the one standing guard over him. “Morishita Sensei.” Kato's throat ached as he said the words.

Morishita breathed a singular sigh of relief. “Ah, your awake, for a moment there, I admit that I had begun to fear the worst.”

Lying back down, Kato stared up at the ceiling and asked. “What, what happened to me? The last thing I can remember is . . .” He clenched his fists. “I'm sorry Sensei, I know you taught me never to speak ill of the one's that I serve. But that bastard Johnathan.”

“Its alright Kato,” Said Morishita. “I already know. When I arrived to meet you for our game and found your room to be empty, I grew concerned about you. But when Johnathan saw fit to return home without you. It merely confirmed my suspicions.”

“He returned without me?” Struggling just to rise, Kato felt as weak as a newborn kitten. “Then,” He asked. “Just how long have I been lying here?”

“Three days.” Morishita's face wrinkled in a wry smile. “Give or take an hour or two.”

“And you stayed by my side, that whole time?”

“Yes. Try to understand, I couldn't take you to a normal hospital, they would have asked a great deal of unnecessary questions before treating your injuries and returning you to the King family manor. In all honesty I thought that it was best for you to avoid that place for a time, so I brought you here instead, to my home.”

Three days. Kato did the calculations in his head. But that means. “Morishita what about your job as Johnathan's tutor?”

“I have seen fit to terminate my employment with the King family. It was a necessary act, in order to protect you.”

“You left for me? But why?” I'm just a Chimera. The thought echoed inside his mind. I'm nothing.

“Because one does not abandon their Nakama.”

Nakama, a word that meant more then friend.

“I couldn't stop him Sensei.” He was crying now, hating himself for being weak. “I tried so hard.”

Kato told Morishita everything. How he had helped Lady to escape. How Johnathan had beaten him and left him for dead. And finally, how powerless he had felt when he had first begun to realize that he was unable to prevent them from raping her.

Morishita simply listened to his story in stony silence, the entire time his face remaining a carefully composed mask.

When Kato had finished telling his tale he found he no longer had any tears left to shed, and that his heart had grown as cold as ice. He had gambled on the hope, however slim it might have been, that Johnathan himself would have opened his eyes, and seen that a life lived honorably had value and meaning. He had gambled and lost.

“My heart is a sword, my oath my honor, my loyalty I pledge to thee.” Flexing his hands Kato just stared at the claws that slipped free from their protective sheaths. Because in the end, they were just one more thing, one more thing that separated him from the whole of the human race. “Morishita, you were the one who taught me that those words were more then just a poem, that they were a way of life your family followed for generations. So if there is to be one thing in this world that I can still believe in, then let it be this. I am the son of a samurai, and I served my master with honor!”

“You did,” Said Morishita, feeling a sense of pride fill him, even as it made what had to come next even harder to say. “And that is why someday, chimeras must also become the mirror.”

“Morishita.” Kato knew the words were important somehow. But just like a puzzle that was missing a vital piece, their meaning managed to elude him. “What does that mean?”

Reaching out to pat Kato on the shoulder, Morishita said. “In time, you will understand. But for now,” He moved to turn off the lights. “Do try to get some rest.”