Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Gray Destiny ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

It hurt. It hurt so much. What happened to that blessed darkness? Where did the pain come from? What happened? Where was he?

"Ken!" Youji yelled as he ran into the building, "Ken! Where the hell are you?"

Luckily, he didn't have to look far. Footsteps echoed down the hall and Youji tensed in anticipation, not knowing what to expect. A moment later, Ken rounded the corner.

"What do you want? I thought you were staying with the other children..." he was cut off as Youji grabbed his arm, "What the...Youji! What are you doing?"

Ken wrenched his arm from Youji's grasp. The building trembled as a blast went off.

"Omi's bombs were set off. We have to get out of here now!"

Ken. Where was Ken? Were they dead? That would mean they were in hell, which would explain the pain. Shit it hurt! What was that American saying? No, the other stupid one….oh yeah. It hurt like a bitch. How could he be sarcastic when he was in such pain?

"What?!" Youji could clearly see Ken's eyes widen as he registered what he was told, "Why did Omi-"

"It wasn't him. Now come on! I'm not dying here....not with you!"

A grunt of approval came from Ken as they ran back to the exit. The building shook again from the force of another blast, this one much closer.

'We're not going to make it.' Youji thought, putting on more speed. Ken ran beside him, barely breathing hard. Now, more than ever, Youji wished he wasn't such a big smoker, 'Damn him and his training.'

Just as the open window was in sight, their path was blocked. Both assassins snapped into a fighting stance as they recognized the madman of Schwartz. One eye glinted in the fire created from the bombs, a twisted smile on his face.

"Ours deaths will hurt God."

Oooo…That felt good. The pain was going away. Whatever it was that was doing that…if felt really good. Cool, soft, gentle. He moaned and pressed into the thing wanting more. "Mmmmm, baby that feels good."

If there had been time, Youji would have laughed at the situation. No matter what, things could always get worse for them. Apparently Ken wasn't thinking the same thing. His claws snapped out and he was eyeing the guy for any sign of weakness.

"Ken, we don't have time!" Youji yelled over the sound of another, closer blast. One that was so close they could feel the heat.

"Neither do we. Farfarello, let's go. They are not our concern." The youngest member of Schwartz stepped out of the shadows. Like Farfarello, he didn't seem very concerned with the explosions around them. However, Farfarello didn't want to listen. With a battle cry, he charged Youji and Ken. Neither of them expected such a quick attack and where sporting quite a few cuts once they started fighting back.

"Farfarello! Let's go!" Nagi yelled as the last explosion went off. Everyone stopped for a moment as a loud crack was heard. Everyone looked up as the first pieces of the roof began to fall. After that, everything went blank.

"You're awake? Youji-kun?" That voice…he knew that voice. It was Omi. So that meant, he couldn't be dead yet. Omi had been outside of the house, not with them. Managing to crack open an eye, Youji peered at the youth next to him. Sure enough, Omi was hovering above him, worry and stress making his eyes shine brightly.

"Yeah, I'm awake." He replied hoping to ease the boy's worry slightly. And it seemed to work. Omi sagged into the chair behind him, placing his head in his hands. But it was only for a moment. The pain returned and Youji hissed. He couldn't tell one kind of pain from the other; they all melded together making his body throb in pain. "Don't wanna be though."

That earned him a sympathetic smile from the boy. There was a tense silence between them as Omi finished bandaging Youji's wounds. Uncomfortable with the silence, but not knowing what to say, Youji fiddled with one of the bandages on his arm. But Youji also noticed that Omi's attention was divided between his work and glancing at the door. The worry the boy must have been feeling was clearly etched on his face. Once he was done bandaging Youji, however, he didn't leave.

"So," Youji began, trying to both find something to talk about and gather the courage to talk to the boy. "How'd the mission go?"

"Failure." Was Omi's clipped response. Youji winced; this was going nowhere.

"How's Ken?" That question surely hit a sensitive spot in the boy. Long blonde bangs fell in front of his eyes, effectively hiding whatever emotion was shown by them.

"He's…he's all right." Omi's voice was raspy and forced. It was clear that he was struggling not to cry, "He's not much worse than you, but he was unconscious when we found him. Aya's with him now. Told me to take care of you. He's fine. He'll be fine."

"Why don't you go check?" Youji suggested, almost lightheartedly as he reached for the pack of cigarettes that was supposed to be on his desk. He frowned when he couldn't find them.

"You ran out. The last pack was ruined in the fight." Omi supplied him, then shook his head, "Do you need anything? Tylenol? Water?"

'Always the caring one, aren't you?'

"No, I'm fine. You go visit Ken. If I need anything, I'll make Aya get it for me." He forced a smile for the boy. It seemed to work, if only slightly; the gauze in Omi's hand wasn't being crushed nearly as bad.

"I'll tell him you said that, then." Omi seemed to hesitate for a moment longer, still uncertain about leaving Youji. The decision was taken out of his hands as the wounded man waved him away. The door shut softly and Youji was left alone.

He couldn't walk in there. He couldn't make himself move. Seconds past, maybe minutes, as Omi stood outside Ken's room. It wasn't wrong for him to want to be there. But, the way Aya had looked and…he felt as if he was intruding. Shaking his head, Omi knocked on the door before entering. The atmosphere in Ken's room wasn't much better than that of Youji's. There was a strained sort of silence just hanging over them. Aya sat by Ken's bed, arms and legs crossed and head bent. If he hadn't known better, Omi would have sworn he was asleep.

As it was, any illusion of sleep was destroyed when Aya spoke to Omi without looking up.

"You're done with Youji?" He asked crisply. Startled, Omi could only nod.

"A-un." Finally raising his head, Aya looked at Omi, his eyes piercing the boy's.

"Go to bed then."

"What about you, Aya-kun?" Omi wasn't quite ready to leave Ken just yet. His eyes flitted over to the bed to glance at the still unconscious boy.

"I'll be fine. Go, Omi." Feeling oddly put off, Omi turned sharply and left the room quickly. Omi stood in the hallway for a moment, not sure where he was going or what he was doing. He definitely wouldn't be able to sleep at the moment, Youji was taken care of and Aya was basically guarding Ken. With a sigh, Omi headed down to the basement. He did have to inform Kritiker of what had happened.

Back in Ken's room, Aya watched as Omi left. He stared after the boy for a moment before leaving the chair and sitting beside Ken. It looked surreal with the soccer player lying there, wrapped in bandages. Aya's hand clenched and unclenched in his lap as he looked down on the sleeping boy. Whether it was unconscious or not, one pale hand reached out and brushed some stray strands of hair off of Ken's face.

A moan escaped Ken's lips as he shifted in his sleep. The movement startled Aya for only a moment. Once Ken had settled down, his hand continued to drift over the brunette's face.

'Come back, Ken. Come back to me.'

Omi's footsteps echoed in the empty mission room. He hadn't even bothered turning on a light when he had come down. So he paced the room in the dark, bumping a piece of furniture every now and then. The report had to be written, he knew that, but his mind just wasn't in it at the moment. He wanted to see Ken, make sure he was okay and just watch over him. It was stupid. He was being stupid. Ken would be fine; there had been no sign of his life being in danger. Shaking his head to rid himself of the thoughts, Omi moved to the computer and turned it on.

And it wasn't even that he was worried about Ken. He just wanted to be near him, to be the first thing he saw when he woke up. The light from the computer screen lit up the small alcove, highlighting Omi's face. There was no reason to worry and Aya would be sure to let him know when Ken woke up. The program clicked open as Omi pushed the mouse over the screen. Right….no reason at all to worry. Right?

'Mission Report. Schwartz has returned…'

Wrong.

God he hated how the light always hurt your eyes when you woke up. Couldn't the sun be more considerate and turn down the brightness some? Not everyone loved waking up blind.

Ken winced as he opened his eyes. Nope, the sun had to be that bright *and* shine directly on him. He tried to move and instantly regretted doing so. Pain flared across his body making him dizzy. Once the room had quit spinning, he opted to just turn his head seeing as how that didn't hurt too badly. The first thing he noticed was that he was in his room. Well, that would be a relief if he knew how he got there. The next thing he noticed, or sensed, was that someone was in the room with him.

Turning his head a little more, Ken noticed the person next to him. It didn't take long to place the red hair as belonging to Aya. Aya. What was he doing in Ken's room? And why did he hurt so much? Not wanting to wake his teammate just yet, Ken settled back in bed.

With nothing to do but wait, Ken tried to remember what had happened the previous ight. With the few disorganized memories he could remember, he came up with absolutely nothing. Great. So that meant what? He lost his memory? Was knocked unconscious? Before he could ask himself any more useless questions, his door squeaked open. Should probably get that fixed, he thought absently.

The newcomer walked into the room hesitantly bringing with him something that smelled incredibly good. It was then that Ken realized he was extremely hungry.

"I hope that's for me." He called to the person without looking up. There was the sound of a tray being set down and then a chair scrapping against the floor. A moment later, Omi's head popped into his line of vision, "Omi!"

"You hungry?" The boy asked, smiling. Ken nodded his head vigorously regretting the action immediately, "Here."

Omi handed him some white pills and a cup of water; most likely pain killers, how thoughtful. Ken leaned forward slightly as Omi pushed his pillows against the headboard creating a nice backrest. The tray of food was the next thing to be brought to him. After swallowing the pills, Ken set on the food. Omi watched him the whole time, not caring that he was staring or that Aya was still in the room, even if he was asleep.

"How do you feel?" The blonde asked after a while.

"'m fine. Jus' sore." Ken replied around a mouth full of food. The food was gone in minutes. As Omi removed the empty tray, Ken moved over slightly and motioned the boy over. Taking the hint Omi carefully crawled up next to Ken and just as carefully wrapped his arms around the wounded boy.

"Omi, what happened?" Just then, Aya decided to wake up. As quickly as possible, Omi extracted himself from Ken's arms and pretended to be looking over the bandages. Slowly Aya raised his head blinking once, twice against the light. His attention quickly focused on the two boys before him. With eyes that didn't look inhibited by sleep, Aya stared at them. Omi felt a blush rising on his cheeks and fought against it.

"Good morning, Aya-kun." Omi supplied, giving him a bright smile. Aya carefully raised himself out of the chair and stretched. He looked down at Ken and Omi, his eyes not staying on one for too long. Self-conscious, Omi finished "fixing" Ken's bandages and stood next to the bed.

"The shop needs to be opened." Omi was about to resist, but thought better of it. He headed for the door without looking back. Ken stared out the window as Omi left him and Aya alone. He could feel the other man staring at him but ignored it.

"What happened yesterday?" The silence stretched between them as Ken waited for an answer. Turning on his heels, Aya left the brunette to his thoughts. However, before he left, he supplied Ken with an answer.

"Schwartz has returned."

The clicking of the keys interrupted the silence in the room. Pausing for a moment, the room was bathed in complete silence. Omi leaned back in his chair running a hand through his hair, frustrated with the little progress he had made. The packages, pictures, note....not being able to contact Kritiker and, now, the reappearance of Schwartz. What did it all mean? Where they all connected? Or, was it all coincidence? He had to find out.

Omi was so concentrated on his work and lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice when someone entered the room. He didn't notice the shuffle of a limping walk, nor their soft breathing as they stood directly behind him. It was the hand on his shoulder, seemingly from out of nowhere, which got his attention. With a strangled yelp, he quickly spun his chair around to face the newcomer. He visibly relaxed once he recognized the person.

"Ken-kun, don't do that!" He reprimanded before turning back to the computer. The chair whined as he faced the computer once more but it wasn't long before he was again facing Ken, "What are you doing out of bed? You need to rest; you haven't healed yet."

The older boy batted him away as Omi got up to escort him back to his room. He did, however, allow the boy to lead him to the couch.

"I was getting bored, ya know, just laying there. So I decided to come see what you were doing. I haven't seen you in a few days. Have you been done here the whole time?" With a small wave, Ken motioned for Omi to sit beside him. They sat there for a moment, neither saying anything.

"I haven't been able to find anything on these...stalkers," came the tentative reply. "I don't know what to think about it. They've covered all their tracks and, well, it's not like there's much to go on. But now, I can't help but think that Schwartz may have something to do with it as well. I thought they were dead, after that one mission, but they're back and we can't overlook them as a possible suspect, however unlikely it seems."

Ken gnawed on a thumbnail as he listened to Omi. Schwartz' reappearance did seem odd. But would they have been following them ever since that mission? And why would they? It didn't really seem like their style.

"Have you contacted Birman yet?" Ken asked after a moment of silence.

"Un. But I'm worried they didn't get it. Next time we see her, I want to ask if we can have a more secure line. Maybe something I make up." Omi began to babble as he thought. It was one of the few traits he had that Ken found annoying. But this time, Ken let him talk.

"When was the last time you heard from Kritiker, anyway?" Ken interrupted Omi. A frown marred Omi's face for a moment before he turned away from Ken.

"I sent them our report the night we came back from the mission and it usually..." Ken cut him off again.

"When was the last time we heard from them, Omi." Still not facing the brunette, Omi mumbled out his answer.

"Three weeks."

"We can't keep waiting like this. For Kritiker to contact us with a mission and only then talking to them." Ken began before Omi cut him off.

"What do you think I've been talking about?! But this is all we can do right now. Until we figure out what's going on and who's stalking us..."

"What about Schwartz?" Ken asked, ignoring the fact that he had just ruled them out as suspects, "Don't you find it odd that they suddenly appear after a year and we're having all these problems now?"

"I thought about that. But none of the evidence we have points to them. And don't you think they'd be more direct if they wanted to fight us? Remember how they lured Aya-kun out with his sister? They didn't play these kind of games..."

"It's not like they can't change." Ken retorted, getting angrier by the second, "We've had to change, haven't we? You're not stuck away from the missions so much and..."

"But we're still basically the same. We still work in the same way; our missions are always done in the same fashion; go in, kill, get out."

Ken winced at the harsh reality Omi stated. He had never really tried to think about it in such clean-cut terms before. Doing so would make what they did even worse, more hopeless. Omi continued to argue as Ken sat there. Maybe the boy was right. He was the one doing all the research, right? So he would know slightly more than the other three at this point.

"Look, Omi, all 'm saying is that we can't rule them out yet," Ken began, sighing heavily.

"No you weren't." Omi bit back. He turned away from the brunette, playing with a loose string on the couch. "They just offer the simplest answer. You're only looking for the easy way out."

They sat in silence for a moment. There was a double meaning to Omi's words that Ken didn't miss. But he didn't know how to respond. Either way led to situation he didn't want to face at the moment. Instead, he simply reached out and placed a hand on Omi's shoulder. A reassuring touch; neither positive nor negative. And Omi accepted it for what it was. A few moments passed between them before the door above creaked open and footsteps rang on the metal stairs. Both boy's looked up to see what the disturbance was. Omi returned to his computer while Ken laid out across the couch.

Once the people came into view, Ken opened his mouth to greet them.

"Birman." Omi beat him to it.

"What's going on?" Ken asked from his spot, not ready to move. Unfortunately for him, Youji came over and pushed him out of the way.

"What do you think?"

The tape cut off, leaving snow in its place. None of the assassins said anything at first. Again, they were going after the slave ring. Maybe they had messed up on the last mission, but something about this seemed wrong. Birman pushed off the wall she had been leaning against to stand in front of the TV.

"So?" she asked almost as if expecting all of them to agree.

"Why them again?" Smoke drifted upwards as Youji watched Birman. Not surprisingly, Birman stared Youji down before replying.

"Because the mission failed. You were unable to kill the target and..."

"The target was never there." Omi cut in, "The information given to us was wrong. The target never visited the house. And there was no way we could've done it at the conference."

"And therefore, we're giving you a chance to finish the mission. We don't except to see a failure this time," Birman replied forcefully.

"And if there is?" This time, it was Aya that spoke. None of his teammates dared to move at the moment. Time seemed to pass at a crawl during the few seconds it took for Birman to reply.

"It has never happened before, so we don't except it to. If, however, you do fail once more, we will determine what to do then."

Neither good nor bad: an open-ended answer. It was slightly reassuring. In an instant, the atmosphere of the meeting changed as the focus moved to more personal matters. Casually, Birman handed out the folders and put the tape away.

"Have you received any more packages?" She asked once she handed Omi his folder. Three heads turned to look at Youji who was skimming through his information. Feeling the gaze of so many on him made him look up.

"What?" He asked, confused.

"Any more packages?" Ken asked, tossing his folder onto the table. Youji floundered for a moment as he tried to figure out what they were talking about.

"Packa--oi! Why are you asking me?!"

"Because you found all the others," Aya responded. He gave the blonde a sideways glance as he continued, "So it's best to assume that you would know if we have any more."

Omi stifled a giggle behind his hand and turned away hoping Youji hadn't seen him. The man was turning red, whether from anger or embarrassment it was hard to tell. An indignant 'hmph' came from Youji as he responded in the negative.

"*I* haven't found one. But we've also been on a mission for the past week or so. We might get one tomorrow."

"Birman." Ken spoke up suddenly, twisting on the couch to look at the woman, "Has Kritiker found anything? Because, well, we saw Schwartz on our last mission...and there might be the possibility..."

It was Omi's turn to 'hmph' from his corner, drawing Ken's attention. The two stared each other down for a moment before turning back to Birman. No one seemed to notice this exchange.

"There has been no connection to Schwartz or Estet. And being able to hack into Kritiker files and find information on your missions requires knowledge of the system."

"They hacked into your system before," Youji pointed out. Birman arched an eyebrow at him but continued.

"Perhaps. But our best guess is that whoever is following you is actually inside of Kritiker intelligence." A slight gasp was heard as everyone leaned forward. "We are currently tracking any leads to see who it might be. Plus, we have people now monitoring the system to catch any hackers."

"Are you sure that's enough?" Birman and Ken turned to look back at Omi. Ken noticed the way his fingers were tracing the keyboard and immediately knew what he was thinking.

"Because if the hacker's good enough, like Omi, they can get in undetected. Right?" Ken finished, catching Omi's eye. Omi nodded and held his gaze for a moment longer before turning to Birman. The woman just sat there, deep in thought.

"Most of Kritiker's hackers are all on the same level. There are a few that are above the rest, Bombay being one. But most of them are active inside of Kritiker and not in a working group. They aren't necessary for missions most of the time; just information gatherers. I'll look into all the high-grade hackers we have and keep a trace on them. You included, Omi." The blonde nodded in agreement. As everyone sat in silence, Aya pushed off from his wall and grabbed his information.

"Until then, we should work on our missions, correct?" When Birman nodded, he turned to address his teammates, "And we'll keep a lookout for anyone when we're out. If they've followed us this far, they're sure to continue doing so."

And with that, he made his way up the stairs. Looking around one last time, Birman picked up her bag and left. Youji was close on her heels leaving Ken and Omi alone once more.

"What do we do now?" Ken looked over his shoulder at the boy. There was also a double meaning in his words. Breaking Ken's gaze, Omi turned on the computer, waiting for it to finish booting-up before beginning his work.

"We work, and we wait."

The gate to the shop clacked shut as Birman let herself out. A quick glance around assured that no one was out as she began to walk down the road. It was unnervingly quiet as the brown-haired woman continued on her way. Unconsciously, she quickened her pace and reached for the gun in her pocket. As she passed by an alleyway, something moved quickly causing some of the cans lying around to clink together. Instantly, the gun was pulled from her pocket and Birman waited to see what had made the sound. As a cat scampered out in to the light, Birman realized just how paranoid she was being.

With a soft, forced chuckle, she replaced her gun and continued on her way. No one would be after her. Why was she so worried? Hadn't she come home from trips like these before just fine? The ensuing silence did nothing to calm her nerves. She knew this area. There wasn't anything or anyone around that would care about her passing by. So she should stop worrying.

"Birman." Her name was spoken softly causing the hair on the back of her neck to rise.

"Who's there?" She asked defiantly, fingering the recently replaced gun. It was always good to be cautious.

"Birman." Was spoken again, closer this time. Against her better judgment, Birman followed the voice into a nearby alley.

"Who's there? Show yourself." No one appeared.

'Turn around, turn around, turn around.' She kept telling herself. But instead, she continued further down the alley. There was the clink of metal on metal and the gun was quickly leveled at the source of the sound.

"Come out." Birman demanded. Seconds ticked by and finally someone walked into the partial light. A gasp escaped from the brunette before she could stop herself. Before her stood a slight, wide-eyed girl. She looked no older than sixteen or seventeen. Relaxing, Birman approached the girl.

"What are you doing out here? Isn't it late to be out?" She knelt before the girl and looked her in the eye. The girl flashed her a smile and withdrew into the shadows slightly.

"It isn't good to let down your guard, Birman." Too late, Birman realized her mistake and turned around in time to see a man standing above her.

"Sorry." He stated apologetically as he placed a cloth over her mouth and nose. The chemical took effect quickly and Birman passed out before she had a chance to fight back. The girl crept out of the shadows and stood next to the man. Sighing, she knelt next to the Kritiker agent and placed her hand on Birman's forehead.

"It's time to go, Nu." The man knelt and picked Birman up, carrying her out of the alleyway carefully. The smile disappeared from Nu's face as she followed the man.

"Yes, Xi. I know."