Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Calico ❯ Chapter Ten: The Edge of the World ( Chapter 10 )

Calico

By: Banshee Puppet

Chapter Ten: The Edge of the World

**********

"Ran gets out of the hospital today, right?" Ken asked.

Yohji nodded. "Aya is there with him, again. He's not due to check out until this evening, but tell that to his 'wife'." Yohji sounded bored, but in truth, it amused the hell out of him-- not to mention that Aya got really flustered and aggravated when Yohji called him Ran's "wife". He was the man, damnit!

"It's going to be weird. I haven't seen her--him---uhm…well, you know, I haven't seen Ran conscious since before I knew he was a she. I don't know how I'm supposed to act."

"Act the same way you would if Omi or Aya or I were coming back from the hospital after being tortured to within an inch of our lives. If Ran wants to pretend he's a boy, that's his business. He's just Ran, however you slice it. You can't help it if you feel weird, but something like that doesn't change what kind of person he is. Ran is just a reckless and immature guy who knows nothing about flowers but probably a hundred times more about music than we do. He's easily excitable and awkward with limited social skills and a bad sense of humor, not to mention almost as little fashion sense as Aya, and that's not going to change just because we happen to know that he pees sitting down."

Omi snickered. Leave it to Yohji to say things that way. Once in a while, the playboy really was very smart.

"If you've known so long…haha…Yohji-kun…hehe…I'm surprised you haven't hit on Ran yet…hahaha," he said, still stuck on the 'pees sitting down' comment.

"Pfft," Yohji said. "Ape-women who are stronger than me don't appeal to me at all. I like delicate flowers, not overgrown cacti, thank you very much. Besides, Aya would kill me."

"You've got that right," Aya's voice said from the doorway.

"Uh…hi guys," Ran said with a meek, bandaged wave. "Long time no see. Did I miss anything?"

Ken looked up to find Ran wearing Aya's orange sweater and a pair of baggy jeans. He pushed his glasses up his nose with one finger.

"Brazil won," he stated.

"Hah!" Ran announced triumphantly. "You owe me ten bucks!" He pointed at Ken, grinning. "Oh ow!" Ran winced, grabbing his side.

"Didn't the doctors tell you to take it easy?" Aya sighed from behind him.

"Take it easy is much different than pretend to be comatose Aya," the small blonde pouted.

"Why are you wearing 'the much loathed orange sweater'?" Omi asked. "Don't you hate it?"

"Well, technically, yeah…" he said slowly. "Orange looks stupid on red-heads, but it's still really comfy…and warm…and it makes me want a nap…or… that could just be all the drugs running through my system right now, not really sure…"

"I'm going to bring him upstairs and force him to get some rest," Aya informed them. "I'll be down to take my shift in a little while."

"Hey, Aya?" Yohji called when the pair was just about to ascend the back stairs.

"What?"

"Wasn't he supposed to be in the hospital for another five hours or so?"

"They got sick of me!" Ran grinned proudly, turning to face the green-eyed man. "Ow."

"The doctor said, 'if she stays here much longer, she's going to instigate a riot. And the nurses are sick of finding new and interesting ways to keep her in her room.' And there was something about condom balloons," Aya stated matter-of-factly before swooping the girl up in his arms.

"Hey! Put me down! AYA!" Ran protested.

"If I put you down you'll hurt yourself again."

"Bastard! I'm not an invalid! Cut it out! GRR! Put. Me. DOWN!" Ran demanded.

"Stop squirming," Aya said dryly as he continued to carry the blonde up the stairs.

The three boys in the shop looked at one another, smirks peeling slightly upward until they were all laughing hysterically. "Condom balloons?" Ken asked between giggles. "He wouldn't, would he?"

Omi blushed slightly, and Yohji smirked at the soccer player, eyes lit up with mirth. "Do you think they were for the kids in the Children's Ward?" the ex-P.I. asked bemusedly.

Ken shook his head. "You're right. Who am I kidding. This is Ran, we're talking about. He so would…hahaha! Those poor nurses. Haha."

~**~

"You didn't tell them why you're really wearing my sweater," Aya commented as he sat on the edge of Ran's bed after pulling the covers up over him.

"How do you add 'because my boobs aren't strapped down today' into casual conversation. No thanks. For now, I just wanted a simple 'welcome home'. We can worry about the other stuff later."

Aya leaned down and planted a firm, yet soft kiss on Ran's lips. "Welcome home," he whispered.

"Thanks. Now go to work. I promise I'll sleep like a good boy, or try to, at least."

Aya nodded. "And when you're at a hundred percent again, we'll get that bastard father of yours and end this mess once and for all. I promise."

Ran yawned. "Mmkay. Sounds good. G'night."

"Goodnight, kitten."

Ran stuck his tongue out at the closed door between them. "He's getting so mushy," he grumbled before closing his eyes to get some rest, as promised.

~**~

Ran sat in the couch, trying to ignore the fact that Aya was fussing over him and checking his bandages while they were being briefed. Finally, he'd had enough. "Will you cut that out! They're fine! You checked them an hour ago! I don't even know why you insist I keep wearing the damn things. They've already scabbed and the bandages are itchy," he complained.

Aya just frowned at him and went back to what he was doing.

Ran sighed. "Well, it's obvious what we have to do, anyway, right Birman? Distract Schwarz and kill Kodomo. Honestly, those guys, who knows what the hell they're thinking." He sounded more put out than anything else.

"You're in no shape for that," Omi told him, getting ready to get chewed out over that.

"Well no shit," he said instead. "But it's going to have to be good enough. You think they're going to wait around forever? We should attack tonight. That eye-patched freak seems to like me, so I should be able to serve as a decent distraction at least."

"You're not coming," Aya blanketed.

"LIKE HELL I'M NOT!" Ran protested. "It's MY problem, MY friggin' bastard of a FATHER. Don't you DARE try to tell me that I'm NOT GOING!"

"It's too dangerous."

"Stop treating me like a kid!"

"I'm not treating you like a kid, I'm treating you like a…"

They all knew the next word that Aya was about to say, and Ken and Omi couldn't help but wince, glad Aya stopped himself at the last moment.

"THAT'S EVEN WORSE!" Ran demanded, shoving him away angrily. "Ever since you found out it's like you don't have any faith in my abilities anymore. I'm not some weak little girl and I don't appreciate being treated like one, Aya. So just do me a favor and fuck off. I don't need your pity, or your protection. I'm going, and my reasons are my own. Have you got the blueprints for me Manx?"

Manx handed them over. "We think he'll be here," she said, pointing, as Calico leaned over the blueprints thoughtfully.

Behind his back, Yohji gave Aya a light slap upside the head. "Idiot," he whispered.

"If you're going to sit around and chat, then go upstairs and tend the shop. I don't need a couple of stupid little boys distracting me," Calico bit out as he shoved his glasses up his nose in aggravation.

"Aye aye sir!" Yohji replied, dragging a protesting Aya upstairs after him.

~**~

"You should know better than to say something like 'treating you like a girl' by now, Aya," Yohji laughed as he lifted the order list and scanned over it. "You know how irritated he gets."

"He is a girl. What's so wrong about treating a girl like a girl?" Aya grumbled.

"Obviously she's pretending to be a boy for a reason. Sometimes, fate pulls a joke like that, making a person like that born as a female. Everyone else can see it, why can't you? You treat girls like they're helpless. Why would anyone want to be treated like that? Anyway, you know how he gets, so you shouldn't be so surprised. You two have been bickering a lot lately. What's the problem, not getting any?" he teased.

He didn't really expect Aya to start grumbling under his breath. "Shut the fuck up, Yohji," he bit out finally. "Just because you're a pervert, doesn't mean that I am."

Yohji nodded knowingly to himself. Obviously knowing that Ran was a girl was getting the better of the red-head's hormones."

"Aya, I've got it covered, alright. Go take a cold shower or something and try to calm down."

For once, Aya listened without complaint. He wasn't about to admit out loud that aside from always worrying about Ran, his hormones were DEFINITELY getting the better of him.

~**~

"Calico, Bombay here, corridor three is clear."

"Roger Wilko, Bombay. Then we're going up," Calico replied. In the end, Aya had agreed to let him take off his bandages (as if he really had much say, when he found them in the garbage can and the box of spares dropped out of the second story window to the sidewalk below, Ran already zipping up the jacket of his Weiss gear. "I told you I was going," the blonde stated frankly.

They had divided into groups, with Omi shoved up alone in some tight space doing odd computery things again, Yohji and Ken going one way, and Aya with Calico going the other. Despite the fact that the red-head wouldn't leave the injured party's side, they really did make a good team when they weren't bickering, and they knew how to separate work from home.

They figured Schwarz would be a problem, but they didn't interfere. When they came across Crawford outside of Kodomo's office, he said simply. "Go ahead and kill him. We'll be waiting here when you're finished."

Sure, they still had to deal with Schwarz. Lovely, but at least they knew they could get rid of Kodomo without them getting in the way. It was a relief…well, sort of. They didn't want the man to get away again, after all, but what Schwarz was up to…well, that was another question that left an uneasy feeling in its wake.

Nobody was in the office.

It reminded Calico of the first time she'd met Aya and the others. The office…with the secret room.

They exchanged a silent look of caution before Calico said, "I think that we were just set up."

A fizzle of static and… "Abyssinain, Calico, get the hell out of there!" It was Bombay.

Too late. The room sort of…shifted around them.

"This is a little game I like to call 'home movies'," the voice of a familiar German said. "Hope you don't mind, if I pick your brains for a bit."

'No way I'm letting you get in my head!' Calico thought, and just as she opened her mouth to start singing, the only way she knew of keeping her thought safe, she found a gag tied around her mouth and a stilletto trace over her spine, though it didn't break skin, for once. Farfarello. Crap crap crap. She turned her gaze quickly to Aya who was caught by surprise as well, and had Crawford to deal with.

"Ran!" he called, but he was already bound hand and foot and hit the ground with a resounding thud. His reaction time was slow. Come to think of it, so was hers. She could only assume it had something to do with Schuldich's mind games.

"Mmph," she tried to retaliate, but her strength was…well, unimpressive, and even less impressive than it ought to be, given her wounds.

So she was a little surprised, when the room faded out, and the images surrounded her like a planetarium, that it wasn't her memories that were in front of her, but Aya's. She saw the earrings he bought his sister, and how he called them tacky. He saw the fire, and the car, and the way his parents were killed. He saw manhunts and slaughters and sacrifices; he saw Aya-chan on an altar, and Sakura, a temple of flame returning to the sea. He saw the death of Takatori and felt how hollow it left Aya, not with the relief he'd expected for avenging his family, just with an emptiness--so lonely--and a feeling that he only had one thing left to do. He felt Aya's heart deaden in his chest. He felt…despair. The real world was a mere speck of light in all of this. Calico had, forgotten it. He'd even forgotten himself. For all that he saw and felt through this warped mental plane Schuldich had created, the real world stopped existing.

Aya was no better. Smiling twins flooded his vision from every angle. Too young to know better, but his own mind registered the whispers in the background, the looks given by strangers. Disgust and disdain. A woman who never spoke cradled the children in her arms. She didn't look quite right. Something in the back of her eyes…something…

And then there was a lake. The children were enjoying themselves immensely. "Look mama! Look at the birdie!" the boy said excitedly. "What kind of birdie IS that? It's so black and fat!" he laughed.

"That's a crow, honey. It's a scavenger. It feeds of the death of things around it."

"Mommy, when we get home, can we get a puppy?"

"Puppies are messy, why not a kitten?"

"Ooo! A kitten, a kitten!" the girl spoke up cheerfully. "Sessy down the street has a Calico. It's so cute and colorful. Can we have that kind too?"

"Sure, Rie. You can have whatever you want. I just have to do one more thing. I just have to…I just have to kill him two more times."

"Mamma?"

"Your father…"

"Aa!" The boat tipped. Now Aya understood. The woman had intended that all three should die that day. She wasn't trying to kill her children, she was trying to take them with her. It was just too much to bear, life had become far too heavy.

Water. So much water. Gasping for breath, his lungs burned. Terror. Sheer terror. 'Taro! Brother!' her mind screamed, and she swam. For the first time, she made her limbs move. Had to get to Taro, and like a baby bird knocked out of the nest who then learns to fly, Rie swam.

Relief. Burning. Can't breathe. Need to breathe.

And he saw the looks they were given as they huddled close together in the playground. The sad expression on a stranger's face. "Would you like to come live with me for a while? My name is Tyan Kodomo."

"Can we have a kitten?" the smiling Taro asked.

"I think, a kitten would be nice."

The world seemed to fast forward. The husband was angry. Their cat was dead. No idea where Taro was and the broken ribs jarred every time he kicked them. "Worthless little slut. Can't you do anything right? I told you not to come in when I was working didn't I? Well, didn't I???"

"Aah…the door…open. I didn't…ungh."

"Well, since you're here, let's play a little game with that memory of yours, hmm."

"You never ask Taro to help with your experiments anymore." Statement.

"He's just a normal boy."

"I'm normal too."

"No, Rie. You're not. You've been chosen."

"Whatever. When you're finished, can I have my guitar back?"

It was like years passed in instants. Small when she entered the room, grown when she left it.

Taro was standing in the front yard with a beer. "Was it bad this time?"

"I think I want to do something big."

"Hm?"

"Taro, have you ever wanted to be famous? Let's become musicians. I can write songs pretty well, and your voice doesn't suck."

"Yours is better."

"I just want to play my guitar. I've gotten tired of hearing this voice. Let's go to Tokyo and become famous musicians. Somewhere far away, just the two of us."

"Somewhere where he can't touch us."

Rie nodded. "To the edge of the world."

Reality was slipping. It was hard to differentiate anymore. He couldn't feel himself as a separate entity from Rie, or from Ran.

Music. Overcome by sound.

"What is this? This disk…this is…!"

"I know you probably don't want anything to do with any of this anymore, sis, but, can you sit aside and let him hurt people? You and I…even if it's just the two of us all alone, let's do something right for once."

"Get rid of this, Taro, leave no traces. Destroying every normal person in the world…what the hell is he thinking? The secrets on this disk will live in my mind, and die when I die. Heh. He always said I was one of the chosen. But I don't want to be chosen for anything unless you are too, baby brother."

"Stop it with the baby brother stuff, would you? We're twins. That means we'll never be alone, right?"

"Hah! That's a promise."

Never alone. Never ever alone.

His mind flashed on Rie when he'd met her. The overwhelming loneliness. It bordered on insanity. Resignation. Despair. There wasn't any anger, not really. She was just…in pain. All alone. And she looked up at him, the person most like himself, and suddenly his perception shifted, he was himself again. Of course she would choose to be Ran after that. It made perfect sense. Without the person who was born by her side, she felt like half a person who could never be complete.

His eyes snapped open. "RAN!"

There was a moment, in Calico's mind, when he saw his own eyes through Aya's mind, and felt trapped, helpless. The look in Rie's eyes, on that first meeting, so haunted it made his chest tighten up and he couldn't forget. He felt the warmth of Ran's arms around him, shimmying down the elevator cord. He felt Aya's pain at a love he thought died, and a new love he thought would never be returned, and then he heard his name. He groaned. It was hard to shake it off. But…

"A--ay---ay-a," he groaned, feeling his body fall to the ground. No hands, but the cloth came unbound. He and Aya looked in the same instant as the satin strands fell into Nagi's hands. There was an odd blue-haired girl beside him.

"You should get going. He's getting tired. Two people is hard enough. He won't be able to hold back Crawford and Farfarello this way for long."

"Why are you…helping us, or whatever it is your doing. An honest answer for once," Calico grit out, struggling to his feet.

"Our reasons are selfish," Nagi stated coolly. "Generally, we do want revenge for what we suffered for our gifts. But if everyone in the world who wasn't gifted died, we wouldn't really be special anymore. We've lived our lives being better, able to do more than anyone else. To be normal people now, after all this time? We'd never survive it. Schuldich especially. The others don't understand. He would never be able to adapt to that sort of world. Anyway, he likes you, Calico, so he wants to do what he can. You should get going. The person you're looking for is in the basement. Your friends are probably already there. I hope you won't be too angry, if you don't get to kill him with your own hands after all he's done to you."

"Kill him with my own hands? Doing it or not, the thought never really crossed my mind. What's done is done. I just can't let it go any further than it already has. Unfortunately, I can never forget, so, this is the best I can do. Ay---Abysinnian…let's go, okay? We don't have the time to waste."

"Right."

~**~

Bombay closed his laptop and wiggled out of the tight space wondering where they were planning on stashing him when he finally decided to hit a growth spurt--if he ever did, at this rate he wasn't so sure. "Well that's done. Time to go join the others in the basement."

But as he approached the door to the stairs, the door went flying back under Yohji's weight. "Shit," the taller man grumbled trying not to wince as he got up.

"Yohji! Don't move, your shoulder is…"

Pain-filled eyes focused on the youngest member of Weiss. "Gotta…help Ken," he grit out. "Push it back into place for me, would ya kiddo?"

Omi winced, but did as he was told. This is when Aya and Ran came running down the hallway. They looked a little worse for wear, but not too bad, all things considered.

"Sorry we're late," Ran said cheerfully. "What did we miss."

"That guy…bastard. He's like ten Nagis," Yohji grumbled. "He did something freaky with a machine in there."

"Shit! He didn't!"

"Calico wha--"

Calico peeked through the doorway, noting the little grayish bumps forming on her foster father's skin. She ducked around the door as Ken came flying and Aya caught him. "He did," she nodded. "He gave himself the virus. Crap. Bombay, your laptop. Let me borrow it."

Omi nodded, unsure of what she was planning. "How long has he been like that?" she asked as she flipped open the computer, shoving her glasses atop her head in aggrevation.

"About ten minutes, I think?" Yohji asked, dodging something flying out the door again.

"Then he's got about twenty left. He'll get stronger as the virus takes hold, though his body will start falling apart. Gotta finish him off now."

"And what are you going to do?" Aya asked as he saw the NASA website pull up on the screen of Omi's laptop.

She just gave him a mischievous grin. "I'm going to do what I'm best at, lover," she winked. "Blow things up. Now go on, beat the bastard silly for me. I'll just dust off the failsafe data that's up in this under-used brain of mine and we'll put this mess behind us once and for all."

Aya was, well, taking this personally. It didn't matter how beat up he was getting. He was going to kill this bastard Kodomo for all the trouble he'd caused Ran. He was pissed off. So when he slammed his sword into the control panel of the super-computer that was Kodomo's workstation, electrocuting both of them to some small degree, Ken and Yohji weren't going to overlook the opportunity to finish him off. Omi ran to Aya's side.

"Aya!"

" 'mokay," he mumbled. "Ugh."

Much to his pride's disdain, he had to use Omi to support his weight. His palms were burnt, but there didn't seem to be any permanent damage, though a more careful examination would be called for, later.

Kodomo's flesh grayed completely, sizzled a bit, and with a pop, melted right off of bones, which also melted into a puddle of blackened, burnt blood.

"Oh god!" Yohji's hand flew up to cover his nose and mouth. The smell was nauseating. "Let's get out of here before I vomit," he said. And at the same time, Calico's head poked around the door. "T-time to go!" the spectacled boy squeaked. "Not a lot of time…not a lot of…Aya!"

" 'm okay," he grumbled from where he leaned on Omi.

"Okay fine. No choice but to make a door then. Everybody stand back," Calico said, yanking a pin on a hand grenade. Hand grenade! She was carrying hand grenades now! When they got home, Aya was going to have to have a talk to her about this obsession she seemed to have with blowing things into little tiny bits. The fresh air hit them hard. Nothing had ever smelled that good before. And the five members of Weiss escaped into the coming dawn, driving off as yet another building exploded behind them.

"What was that…that lazer thing just now…?" Ken asked as he watched the crumbling building in shock.

Calico smirked at him. "Satellite weaponry," she grinned. "Phase one of 'plan failsafe'."

"How many phases are there?" Omi asked.

"Two."

"Simple plan."

"But of course! It's one of mine, isn't it?"

And they all laughed, before, after a pause, Ken commented, "Hey, are you sure it's okay to let Omi drive?"

~**~

Crawford's eyes shot open. He'd been angry with Schuldich, but couldn't seem to stay mad at the red-head for long, especially when he was unconscious and being protected by Nagi. The boy seemed to finally be growing a bit of backbone. Besides, he had a migrain. He could be angry later.

"We need to leave now."

"Huh?"

"Schuldich's little friend is about to blow up this building. Take him. We're leaving."

"Ah, right. What is with her and blowing stuff up, anyway??"