Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Demon's Dreaming ❯ Interlude - Girl in the Box ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Pairings: Schuldig x Ran, Yohji x Ran, Crawford + Schuldig + Ran

Warnings: Spoilers for entire series, severely AU, m/m relationships (a.k.a. yaoi), harsh language, violence, lemon...the list goes on and on.

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Weiss Kreuz or any of its characters. I merely use them for my own amusement.

Demon's Dreaming

Chapter 4: Interlude- Girl in the Box

The sun was shining.

Tilting her face toward the sky, Aya basked in the warmth of the sun's rays, allowing her eyes to drift closed. For the moment she was at peace.

That was, until Schuldig's face surfaced in her mind, his cruel, mocking words still echoing in her ears.

Feeling her eyes beginning to water, she rubbed at them with the back of her hands furiously, then chanced a look at her brother.

Who was sitting beside the shore, chin resting on his raised knees, just as he had been the last time she had looked.

There was no sense of the passage of time here, and what seemed like hours could have been days on the outside. But then, the opposite held true as well.

In any case, time didn't really matter to her.

Aya-chan's memories sometimes threatened to overtake Ran's own, and at times Aya felt that one day she would open her mouth and they would come bubbling out, swirling like some fantastical multi-coloured cloud. She refused to acknowledge that that thought in and of itself was typical of Aya-chan.

Unlike Ran, she did not have the luxury of forgetting the man called Schuldig's threats, or his presence. No, she remembered the pain and terror, as well as the spite and disgust that rolled off of him in waves. He hated her, for reasons that she could not even begin to fathom. He wished her dead, even if the fulfillment of that wish would cause Ran irrevocable harm.

She glanced at her brother out of the corner of her eye, not surprised to find that he had not moved.

What did that man want with Ran anyway? Where did his interest lie?

Schuldig's talk of a Gift had sparked something inside of her, something she recognised as a facet of the girl whose face she now wore. Despite that, she truly had no idea of what the man was talking about. Ran was special, of that she was sure; his memories and experiences were locked inside of her, and she could not have denied that fact if she wished to. But…they were one side of a story that she could never hope to understand, due to her nature. If she were to consult Aya-chan's memories, perhaps things would become a bit—

Of course.

Aya sat up a bit straighter, turning to face her brother fully. It wouldn't do to demonstrate her own abilities in front of him - though Ran was convinced that she meant him no harm, she could sense a growing suspicion in him that she was not what she claimed to be. It seemed she hadn't managed to eradicate that after all.

“Nii-san, I'm going to take a look around. Will you be okay by yourself?”

Ran simply shrugged, not bothering to look up as she stood and began to walk away. Well, that confirmed it. Subconsciously, he knew. She cursed herself for not having the strength to fully destroy what was an intricate part of her.

And cursed Ran for not seeming to care that his precious `Aya-chan' was wandering off all by her lonesome.

A few minutes later, and she was huddled beside a stream that ran through the forest, far enough from Ran's location to ensure that he wouldn't hear or see anything untoward. Her discretion was as much for her own protection as it was his. Freeing her hands from their cradle below her knees, Aya leaned forward, staring into the depths of the water. There. She focused on her face, knowing somehow that the blank expression she currently sported wasn't right. With some effort she schooled her features into a more acceptable expression, and something within her stirred once more. It took a bit more energy not to beat that little bit of light into submission, but if she wished to learn anything more about Ran's supposed “Gift” she couldn't very well do that. No, for this she would need the real Aya's cooperation and even, she thought grudgingly, her permission.

It was easy to separate Aya-chan's memories from Ran's own, despite her constant fear of them blending. Aya-chan's presence was alien, a foreign body she would gladly expel if given the chance and the drive. Now though, she needed them if she ever hoped to protect Ran-- and herself.

Focused as she was on her reflection and the distasteful task at hand, she didn't recognise the strange warmth in her chest until it had spread, and by then it was too late.

`Go away.' The thought was vicious, but the warmth did not relent. If anything it increased, and Aya sighed, thoughts drifting to the boy sitting by the seashore. She had promised to protect him from Schuldig, and if this was the price she paid…so be it.

The memories suddenly rushed into her in a veritable flood, and she gritted her teeth against them, struggling to find the ones pertinent to her little investigation. Some were perused and carelessly tossed aside, and some, like the memory of Aya-chan's first hanami, came dangerously close to being torn apart and discarded forever. She had just begun to write off this little endeavour as pointless when a flash of familiar colour caught her attention.

Shit.

It had to mean something, this colour. It had tinged the ends of Ran's dreaming world, and now here it had become a permanent fixture in the sky. There was nothing in Ran's memories to suggest any significance to the shade, but it showed up in the limited amount of Aya-chan's memories that she held, again and again.

Aya frowned, hands tangling in her hair and tugging gently. There were flashes of something, events and images that Aya-chan had found both wonderful and terrible, and all centered around Ran. Try as she might though, she could not find an answer to her question.

That last thought gave her pause. Was it possible that Aya-chan was somehow…blocking her? She believed that the girl hadn't given up all of her memories before her death, but the vast majority of the amount she had were pertinent to her brother. Given that, she was sure that at least one would reveal Ran's supposed abilities, but she couldn't seem to find anything of the sort.

Was the girl protecting Ran, even in death?

Trying again, she gritted her teeth against the warmth building in her breast, yanking harder on her hair. Aya-chan's desire, namely to protect Ran it seemed, was irrelevant now. She had to know.

The sensation of heat increased until it was almost unbearable, but still she hung on, eyes squeezed shut. No no no; she wouldn't be beaten. This was too important to allow one dead girl to get in her way.

Behind her eyelids, a peculiar thing took place. Scenes of the Fujimiya siblings' childhood played in rapid succession, her mind leaping from one to the next as they proved unrewarding. Aya sped through them, darting each to each with growing desperation. Surely her enduring of this agony wasn't completely in vain. One of them had to yield a result.

As she came to the last, she focused all of her energy upon it, displeased when it turned out to be a memory from right before Aya Fujimiya's death. She was just about to discard it with the rest when something caught her eye.

The fleeting touch of a familiar shade.

Frustrated, she tore into it, ignoring a sudden twinge of pain from Ran's end. That would have to be remedied later.

// The girl's memory was fractured: a mishmash of blood and fire, terrible in its intensity. She dug deeper, and the image of the pair's mother and father emerged, their bodies twisted and bloody on the floor of their sitting room. Yes, she remembered this; the pool of blood that spread from beneath their corpses until it nearly touched her shoes. She remembered leaping back in disgust and horror, then turning to Ran, her heart thumping in her chest.

She remembered the organ nearly stuttering to a stop at the expression on her brother's face. His eyes were flat and dead, his face rigid, hands clenched at his sides. She had seen him like this only once before and…her heart flared in terror.

“Ran…Ran, please?”

His hands relaxed, and she had just a second to step back, just one brief moment to get clear, before it began. Then the heat, and the leaping flames, and the sound of her own screams consumed her, and she was spiraling into nothingness even as their home crumbled around them, with only the memory of her brother's cold, dark gaze to accompany her. //

Aya jerked back to awareness with a start, bracing herself on her arms to avoid tumbling into the water, all the while sucking in great gulps of air. So this was it then…this was what Aya-chan had been protecting. This was what Schuldig had threatened to destroy her for. The irony of the situation hit her and she began to laugh, a low gurgle that soon grew into hysterical chuckling as she panted and sobbed all at the same time. There was a ring of girlish laughter so unlike her own, and she sobered, peering fearfully into the water. Aya-chan stared back, eyes wide and haunted. Now she knew. Now they both knew.

What use was it?

What use was it if Ran couldn't even control it?

She thrust her hand into the water with a growl, satisfied by the way her reflection wavered and broke apart, then dissipated completely. Still, the tinkling of warm laughter surrounded her, haunting her even as she clapped her hands over her ears and stumbled to her feet. The sound followed her on her flight from the woods and all the way back to the beach, though the sight before her made it cut off abruptly.

Ran was standing - for the first time in days, she assumed - facing the sea. That was not particularly alarming.

The fact that Schuldig was standing close beside him however, was.

The older man looked over his shoulder suddenly, and Aya took an involuntary step back, nearly tripping over a fallen tree. Schuldig regarded her thoughtfully for a moment before tipping his chin in the direction of the woods behind her. A moment later Aya was on the move, her feet carrying her back into the forest, despite her struggle for control. From the shoreline she could hear movement, then the unmistakable sound of Schuldig's voice.

“Alone at last.”

Notes: Okay, a really short chapter, but one that was hopefully a little revealing. There will be several “interludes” in this story, and most will focus on only one of the main characters: Ran, “Aya,” Schuldig, and Yohji. Speaking of everyone's favourite playboy, he shows up next chapter - I hope. Cheers, all!