Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Dark Moon Ascendant ❯ Prophetic Visions ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2: Prophetic Visions

Schwarz apartment HQ, Downtown Tokyo

Crawford woke up in a cold sweat, the images from the nightmare still burning against his retinas. Covering his face with his hands he cursed softly as he forced the visions to recede and leaving him feeling drained and almost physically bruised. It was times like these that being a pre-cog sucked. The sheer horror and devastation his vision foretold had managed to bring one of the coldest, most ruthless assassins to a near wreck. However, Crawford was more angry at not being able to piece together what it was that the visions were trying to tell him than at the frequent late night showers he had had to take after each sweat-drenching nightmare. His logic told him that until the mystery was solved, he'd have to make do with his daily catnaps to refresh his system.

This was beginning to effect his performance in small ways and it was enough to concern him. Because of this, Schuldig and Nagi began to take on more responsibilities in the managing of their 'business'. As much as he was thankful for it, he detested the fact that he had to rely on them. Brad Crawford was a man who never needed help from anyone. His skills and pre-cognitive talent had carried him through some of the most gruelling and intense training at Estet as well as in handling their business, and damn if he'd let any weird unexplained spooky visions take him down. Shoving aside the bedcovers, he headed for the shower after picking up a change of clothing.

Feeling more relaxed after his shower he headed to the kitchen to make a cup of strong black coffee. A slight prickling and a quick flash of a vision passed through his mind as he returned to the living room. Sitting down in his favourite armchair, he sipped the hot brew as he waited for the door to open. A minute later, he heard the slide of a key in the lock before the door swung open. Glancing up, he took in the man's form as he closed the door behind him while flashing Crawford a lazy smile. Tossing his jacket over the back of the couch, Schuldig dropped down onto it with languorous grace. The easy, almost relaxed pose and hooded eyes did not surprise Crawford. Schuldig had been out looking for a good time, and by the look of things had succeeded.

"I take it your hunt was successful?" he asked with a faint smirk before taking another sip from his steaming mug.

"Got me a foxy lady," Schuldig replied, his lazy smile widening further. Running a hand through his barely tamed flame-coloured hair, he leaned back into the plush sofa's embrace. He then recalled the sexy little vixen that fell into his 'trap' earlier that evening. She had been so accommodating. And so very talented. The smile on his face widened at the very pleasant memory.

"I don't doubt your abilities to get what you want, Schuldig. As long as you are careful."

"Do you worry about me that much, Crawford?" he almost purred back. "I'm touched."

"Until this matter with Weiss is settled, I don't particularly care. You don't know what the future holds."

"But I have my personal fortune-teller right here to guide me. Plus a telepathic link for instant message delivery," Schuldig replied, tapping the side of his head with his finger. "And at no extra charge," he continued chuckling.

"It doesn't guarantee perfect results every time. Especially not with these damned visions," Crawford retorted, his frown causing the telepath to straighten and narrow his blue eyes. Crawford never admitted to any weakness and this was the closest to a confession if Schuldig ever heard one.

"Spill it, Crawford. You know that the rest of us have a right to know what the hell is going on. I don't have to lecture your own words back at you now do I?" Schuldig said, his voice hardening. He wasn't blind to the fact that Crawford's performance was lagging from the usual highly competent almost perfect state. The fact that he had to pick up the little extra slack had alerted him to the problem some time back. But he knew that Crawford would never admit to anything short of a deep mind probe, and Schuldig had seen no need for it - yet.

Crawford didn't look at the redhead who was now tense and expectant on the sofa. Schuldig was dangerous in that he was very protective of his own skin and held little belief in the concept of compassion for his fellow man. He knew deep within that the telepath would give him a major mind probe if it served in his best interest. Schuldig and he had an understanding, for want of a better word. Crawford was the leader only because Schuldig was smart enough to know that he lacked the leadership and organisational competency to maintain Schwarz's high standing. The man was also unpredictable at times although this was because of his basic nature.

Schuldig was on constant threat from the world outside. Thoughts, emotions and other mental processes bombarded him daily and only the incredible mental barriers he created stopped him from becoming another Farfarello in berserker mode. An enraged telepath was only matched by an enraged telekinetic and Crawford briefly recalled witnessing Nagi's powers at the death of that Schreint brat Tot. And lucky Brad had the two of them in his group and a real berserker as an added bonus. Needless to say, he had had to put in a lot of work to ensure the group's success in working together.

Sighing inwardly, Crawford psyched himself up to face the serious redhead on the sofa. He knew that the group had a right to know about these visions. If what he had seen was true, their very survival hinged on him being able to interpret and devise a counter plan to either avoid or eliminate the threat. The fate of the world didn't concern him. Humanity had a way of getting back on its feet given enough time, resources and fulfilling its petty jealousies. Besides, Schuldig may actually be able to help decipher the jigsaw puzzle of images in his mind.

"You're right, Schuldig. The group has a right to know about this. But I would rather the two of us kept it from the rest in the meantime. Until I can start making head or tail of it, it's useless to worry about it."

Crawford leaned back into the armchair as if preparing to tell a story. Opposite him, the telepath relaxed once more into the sofa. As far as Schuldig was concerned, Crawford had agreed to save him the need for a prolonged mind probe and the resulting migraine after accomplishing that. Crawford's mind was like a steel trap, and Schuldig didn't like going in there unless he had no choice. As skilled as he was, such mind probes were draining and it exhausted him at the end. Unless the victim was more susceptible, the effort took a lot out of him. But it didn't mean that he wouldn't. He just had to be manipulative and sneaky about it to get his victim to give it to him either willingly or unintentionally.

Briefly, his mind recalled the girl that had been bait for Weiss. She made it so easy for him with her misplaced guilt and schoolgirl crush for the Weiss leader Abyssinian. The only time she had made it difficult was when he wanted to make her shoot the bastard. He had had a headache after that and took it out on her later in the lab. He had no remorse in slapping her. If she had done as he commanded, both of them wouldn't have had to nurse their respective hurts. 'Stupid bitch' he thought before pushing the memory aside and focusing on the issue at hand. He could see Crawford settling back and followed suit. 'Guess it's story time,' he thought before paying attention as Crawford began to describe his visions.

"I don't quite know how to start in explaining this…" Crawford began, his frown deepening as he tried to organise the random images in his head. "There's no real beginning although the ending is pretty much the destruction of the world as we know it."

"So what's new about the Apocalypse, Nostradamus?" Schuldig joked half-heartedly. He never did see the pre-cog as one of those maniacal prophets of doom spouting crap about the end of the world. If Crawford had been having such visions, Schuldig would probably have to start finding a religion to believe in soon.

Crawford ignored the jibe and pushed his spectacles further up the bridge of his nose, his mind quickly organising his thoughts into a satisfactory order. Looking up at the redhead, he paused for a moment before continuing.

"The visions don't explain how the Apocalypse comes about, Schuldig. All I essentially see is the result of it happening, the deaths and the fear of people. I feel it as well so there's no way I can just shrug it off. That's why each time I wake up, I feel like I've gone 10 rounds with a really pissed sword-wielding Abyssinian without my powers to help me."

He heard Schuldig give a low grunt at that. They both had had an opportunity to tangle with the dangerous Weiss redhead and were equally unwilling to admit that if it weren't for their special abilities they would have been pushing up daisies a long time ago. As much as they despised Weiss, they had to grudgingly give them some credit for being able to take care of some of the nastier scumbags of the underworld without any special abilities to aid them.

Schwarz on the other hand, only served to protect their own interests and anything else was either unimportant or inconsequential to their organisation. Weiss in its own way served as pest exterminators, their purpose at times indirectly benefiting Schwarz. But that did not mean that Crawford and Schuldig were grateful; on the contrary, they wanted to bring about the downfall of Weiss in order to satisfy their own need for revenge.

Nearly three years ago, Weiss had seriously undermined their plans to take control of Estet and especially of its resources in order to establish an organisation dedicated to the creation of chaos and anarchy. It seemed a twisted idea given Crawford's need for order but it was only within Schwarz itself that this sense of order was in effect. Schwarz's specialities included manipulation in its various nasty forms and dirty dealings, with murder as a side dish to be indulged in occasionally when the situation demanded it.

But on the whole, Weiss was a thorn in their sides that needed to be eliminated. But with this unforeseen problem stemming from Brad's visions, those plans may have to be shelved for the time being. Ah well, all in good time. If Weiss had to be relegated to last place in the 'important matters' tray, so be it. Besides, they could now hold some entertainment value for Schwarz in the meantime. Gently rubbing his temples distractedly, Schuldig waited for Crawford to continue with his explanation of the visions.

"The key points of these visions include certain people who appear to crop up more frequently. It seems to me that they are either the cause of the apocalypse or its salvation. Whatever the case, we need to find them and monitor their activities. If they are in fact the cause of the problem, we eliminate them on the spot."

"No problem there. But if they happen to be our knights in shining armour, what's our plan? Protection until they finish handling the problem of saving the world?" Schuldig asked pointedly. "So, what do they look like and where can we find them?"

"I'm afraid, that's all I have to go on for now. " 'Hopefully I can get more soon' he thought to himself.

Crawford turned to stare out of the large window that spanned across half the living room. Silence descended as each man tried to think about what to do. Things did not look too good from where they were standing. What was worse, in Schuldig's opinion, was in knowing when he would be facing death but not in knowing how to escape it. It did not mean that the flame-haired assassin was afraid of dying though; he just wanted it to be on his own terms, like of old age and in bed with several beautiful and talented young nurses to ease him into that final moment. This was the reason why he took Crawford's predictions and pre-cog abilities seriously. If the man told him to jump into a crocodile-infested river, he would do it because it meant that he had a higher chance of survival than if he were to remain on the deck of a soon-to-explode ship.

But there was also something in this vision that didn't sit well with the telepath. He didn't believe Crawford was lying or keeping something back from him but still, something was decidedly fishy. And Schuldig's spidey sense was tingling.

'But not right now,' he thought tiredly.

Sighing, Schuldig decided that 4 in the morning really wasn't a very good time for dwelling on the Apocalypse. Besides, he'd had a rather exhausting night with a very demanding lady so he was in no real mood to attempt to deal with the puzzling visions of Crawford. Lifting himself out of the comfy sofa to stretch, he tossed a meaningful look towards the leader of Schwarz before picking up his jacket to head down the hall to his room.

Crawford eyed the redhead as he stood up and stretched the kinks out of his lean body. The look Schuldig gave him was blatantly clear. The man had bought his apocalyptic vision but he had yet to sign the check. The serious lack of detail was a major hindrance that Crawford had to overcome if he were to avert the disaster to come. Cursing under his breath, he too got up and stretched lightly. There was little he could do about it at this point in time. Crawford's belief in his abilities was strong. He had yet to fail in interpreting his visions and he wasn't about to fail now. Walking towards his office after dumping the now cold coffee into the sink, he wondered if he should surrender himself to the visions and let them control the direction of the dreamsleep.

It was a very dangerous thing to do as such a loss of control could kill him with the intensity of the emotions it caused. Among the pre-cognitive few, it was understood that such a manoeuvre was tantamount to cerebral suicide. Sitting down at his desk, he steepled his fingers below his chin and weighed the pros and cons of such a dare. He seriously wished for a moment that he didn't have to think about this as he had no need or desire to want to play the hero. He knew that he needed to find the individuals who appeared to know what was happening and seemed to be doing something about it. And when he did find them and they took care of the damned problem, he'd then shoot them for the inconvenience it had caused him. Smiling grimly at the almost pleasant thought, he switched on his computer and started to take care of 'business'.

Author's Notes: This was an interesting piece to write. So much dialogue, considering I detest having to figure out the punctuation in writing dialogue. Ugh! (chuckles) No doubt some readers are going psycho with my interpretation of Crawford and Schu. The fact is I refuse to use most fan-based work to influence my understanding of their characters. I don't see Crawford as being Mr. Perfect if Anal-retentive Leader nor do I see Schu as being overly playful and secondary to Crawford. They can joke a little where necessary but I don't really intend to create a humorous fic. I've basically written them according to what I've seen and interpreted from watching the anime and how I believe they would interact out of sight of other people.

Their relationship with each other is not all that 'brotherly' and how they view each other helps to strengthen their respective characters further. I also made it such that they also have their weaknesses as it makes them a lot more human than what is generally portrayed. I think psychic abilities tend to drain one if used too much or too frequently. This is why it was focused on in this chapter. I hope you'll see why I portrayed these two in the way I did. If I do screw this story up, I hope that it'll be due to a weak plot rather than character depictions and descriptions.

I'll be bringing the Weiss boys in for the next chapter with primary focus on Yoji and Ran. Like I said in the beginning, there'll be NO YAOI! [ducks behind computer table from assorted thrown objects] They do have a relationship of sorts and I'll be attempting a lot of 'angsty' thoughts by Yoji. I'm getting into the swing of things but the proofing is still difficult, but I don't think it's that bad. Till the next time, please bear with me and any constructive C&Cs are most welcome. Thanks!