Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ In the shadows ❯ In the shadows ( Chapter 1 )

In the shadows

by Mikiya

Schuldig sighed tiredly and rubbed his weary eyes, shifting his position for what seemed the hundredth time, leaning back against the wall. From where he was sitting on the roof of the building he could see everything that was going on about eight floors beneath him. Well, that was the theory. He would have been able to see everything if there had actually been something worth watching. There wasn't. Apart from the fact that it was in the middle of the night, way past midnight to be exact, it was raining heavily and everything around him was dark, wet, cold. There was nothing on this damned roof where he could find any shelter from the heavy rain that had started only a few minutes ago. His clothes were already clinging to his body like a second skin and he was shivering from time to time, his hair plastered against his skull, hanging down limply in front of his eyes. Annoying him like nothing had ever annoyed him before.

A flash of lightning lit up the scene for a moment and he cursed inwardly, counting the seconds until the thunder followed, then groaned when the loud rumble sounded only moments later.

“I'll get you for this, Crawford…” he grumbled to no one in particular and reached up to brush his sodden hair out of his eyes. Damn the Oracle and his surprise missions, he couldn't understand why their leader had wanted him on this goddamned roof that night, right in the middle of an oncoming thunderstorm. No briefing, no explanation, only a few instructions as to where he had to be at what time and what he had to do there. Which was plain simple: “Stay where I told you and watch the room.” The American had been tense when he'd given him this mission, something had been bugging him that much he had been able to tell then, but he had never gotten a chance to say something, Crawford had been gone once he'd instructed him.

“Bastard.” He growled in annoyance and checked his watch, again, willing time to pass faster… Only ten minutes left until he could leave this rotten place and get back home where it was warm and dry. Where he would force good old Braddy to tell him why he had been ordered to watch this goddamn room. Where apparently nothing ever happened.

His fingers were itching to do something, anything. He'd been staring at this window for ages and nothing had moved behind the glass. Hell, he even knew that the fucking apartment was empty, he'd scanned the room about four hundred times already, and nobody was there. Why was he still sitting here, getting rained on and freezing his ass off?

Well, at least Crawford had not forbidden him to use his talent to amuse himself. Even if he had, by now he was feeling so royally pissed off that he'd even ignore a direct order from the head of Rosenkreuz himself. He leaned his head back against the slippery wall behind him and briefly closed his eyes in concentration, casting out his senses into the darkness, prowling through the night like a big cat in search of a mouse to play with. Most people in his vicinity were already asleep and he skimmed their minds briefly, lingering here and there for a moment. Watching, remaining in the dark, playfully nudging one mind or the other to watch them stir or even shrink back instinctively from his mental touch.

It didn't take him long to find a very agitated thought pattern that roused his curiosity. She was a girl in her late teens who was sitting in her dark bedroom, watching the clouded sky outside. She was very upset; her mind a swirl of conflicting emotions, all of her attention was centred on some pipsqueak she was deeply in love with. Currently she was debating whether or not she should go with him to some hip party where she was pretty sure he would try SOMETHING to get her into his bed and was this a good idea to go there because if he really loved her he would surely understand that she was not THAT kind of girl and would never sleep with somebody other than her true love and he was her true love and maybe, at this party she should give in and…

An amused chuckle escaped him at those teenage problems and he narrowed his eyes to cat-like slits then, preparing to enter her mind to confuse her and help her “true love” to get some fun the next night, when he suddenly picked up a familiar mental whisper, more like a stray thought, that made his head snap up.

Everything is cleared, Abyssinian, it's your turn. Bombay out.

Weiss.

The girl and her sexual problems forgotten in an instant he was on his feet the next moment, searching for those familiar thought patterns of the flower boys. It was almost too easy to find them, it seemed as if the members of Weiss had some kind of mental beacon that shone brightly in the confusing mass that was the combined imagination of the world. It was even easier to access their single-minded thoughts, he knew at once that they were on a mission, a mission that had sent them directly into the building he was observing.

It didn't take him long to make out the dark shadows that crawled through the apartment only a few moments later, using the binoculars Crawford had given him earlier he was even able to make out the individual figures that moved in the darkness. The one they called Abyssinian was standing near the windows, watching without moving a muscle as Balinese searched the apartment, looking for some compact disk that seemed to be of great importance to them.

Schuldig smiled darkly, leaned back against the wall and folded his arms in front of his chest. This was going to be fun, his target was nowhere to be seen and Crawford had said nothing about keeping his fingers off Weiss if he happened to stumble across them. It would surely take his mind off this mission gone boring and, who knew, maybe those fine assassins knew something about the guy he was supposed to be watching. Crawford loved information and Schuldig loved getting them. His smile grew wider, his eyes narrowing playfully as he deliberately stared at Abyssinian's back, sending a feeling of being watched into his prey's head.

And it worked. As soon as Weiss' leader became aware of his presence he whirled around and scanned the house in front of him, freezing in mid-motion when their eyes finally locked. He was about to say something to taunt them mentally, but then something broke is concentration and he frowned...

He only had a split second's warning before his instincts sent him diving to the ground where he almost landed face first in a puddle of rain that had formed during the evening. A soft Japanese curse made him look up at the third member of Weiss, Siberian, who was standing behind him, claws extended, ready to slash at him again. Schuldig silently cursed himself for letting his guard down, he'd completely forgotten that where there were two of them, the rest was always around. He jumped to his feet, one hand going for his gun, watching as Siberian adopted the classic fighting stance and stared at him, his claws gleaming in the moonlight.

"What do you want, Schwarz?"

Schuldig just smiled at the younger man and straightened a bit. It would take the other two some time to come to their friend's rescue, so why not entertain himself with taunting the mentally disabled?

"Wenn das nicht Weiss' kleine Wildkatze ist.. Willst du ein wenig deine Krallen wetzen?" (1)

He smiled at Siberian's blank look, the younger man clearly had not understood a word and he used that split-second of diversion to draw his gun in one swift motion, pointing it directly at the other's chest. The dark eyes widened in fear and Schuldig's smile grew even wider when he saw that Siberian was going to attack.

The smaller man was very fast, he had to admit that, the sharp claws repeatedly missed their target only by few inches. The smaller man even managed to hit him twice with the back of his hand, seriously breaking his concentration for a moment and in the end he even had to rely on his lightning reflexes to keep him from being slashed into shreds. Nonetheless, it took him only a few seconds to work out the other's tactics and he really started to enjoy watching irritation cloud Siberian's features whenever he dodged out of the way of a well-aimed attack.

Schuldig never knew what broke his concentration at one point, but whatever it was it distracted him long enough to suddenly slip on the wet ground. He went down hard, knocking the breath out of his lungs. And before he could move he felt cold metal that pressed against his neck.

"Don't move."

Great. He grumbled softly under his breath, lifting his head a few inches to keep himself from drowning in that damned puddle his head was lying in. He was so tired of feeling wet…

"I said 'don't move', scumbag."

The metal slid across his skin and he could feel the pressure that was being applied to it. He let out a long, impatient sigh and closed his eyes, growling low in his throat, "I strongly advice you not to do that, wildcat, I will have put a bullet through your brain before you know what happened."

"And then you would lose your head, Schwarz."

His head shot up at the equally menacing growl and he groaned inwardly when he looked at Abyssinian's katana that hovered very close to his neck. Balinese was standing next to him, absentmindedly toying with the long silvery chord he used to strangle his victims. Schuldig rolled his eyes, but kept his head still, watching the assassins through narrowed eyes. He was feeling kind of cornered and to be honest all those armed assassins were sending a small shiver down his spine. Why had they been so damned fast?

"So what now, Weiss? What are you going to do with me? Or, should I say 'to me'?"

A reflection close to Balinese's right ear caught his attention and he almost sighed in relief when Crawford stepped out of the shadows only a moment later, pointing a gun in Weiss' general direction.

"Get back."

The three men turned simultaneously, staring at Crawford with more or less surprised expressions.

"I said 'get back'." Crawford repeated coldly, watching as the three assassins took a few steps back, allowing a very dishevelled and soaking wet Schuldig to sit up. He was glaring at Weiss furiously, he really didn't like looking the fool, but he tried to cover his slip by keeping his temper in control, shooting an annoyed glance at Crawford.

"What took you so long?"

Crawford merely raised an eyebrow and looked down at him without saying a word. Schuldig rolled his eyes and got to his feet, knowing without having to read Crawford's thoughts that they would talk about this later. Well, he could live with that, he just wanted to go home now and get out of this dripping...

A shot rang out, piercing the quiet night. Schuldig and Weiss started in like manner, staring at the smoking barrel of the gun with wide eyes. Crawford was still staring at Schuldig, his glasses flashing in the darkness. The telepath looked down onto his chest, where a red stain slowly spread across his white shirt, warm blood oozing through the tiny hole in the fabric. He staggered back, brought a hand up to the wound and pressed it against the wet clothes, gasping for air with a strangled sound and then looked at Crawford, a look of utter bewilderment creeping across his features.

"Was..."

His knees buckled and he staggered a few steps backwards, then slowly sank to the ground, still staring disbelievingly at Crawford.

The three members of Weiss could only watch incredulously how the redhead's body slowly tilted to one side and collapsed to the ground where he lay, moaning breathlessly and weakly clutching his left side were the bullet had hit him. When Abyssinian looked back over his shoulder, Crawford was gone.

Shit.

Yoji's eyes were glued to Schuldig as he lay on his side, his eyes squeezed shut in obvious pain as he gasped for breath, watching the blood that slowly seeped out of the shivering body, forming a new puddle on the slippery ground. His rusty detective instincts kicked in then and he immediately scanned their surroundings, expecting the remaining members of Schwarz to step out of the shadows and pull guns on them to finish them off as well.

But nothing happened, there was no movement nor sound, except for the pained wheezing that came from the fallen man.

Why did he do that?

His thoughts were racing, he looked at his teammates to ask what they could do now, but Aya was already moving. The redhead had tightened his grip on his katana and was taking a few cautious steps towards Schuldig, watching him intently for any signs of movement. But he obviously didn't have any strength left to do anything but lie there and fight for every single breath. He didn't even react as Aya slowly lifted his sword and stood over him, looking for all the world as if he was going to behead him. But Yoji sensed a certain hesitance in his moves; he watched how the assassin looked down at Schuldig and briefly closed his eyes then tightened his hold even more...

"No, DON'T!"

Ken had taken a step forward, looking at Aya with a shocked expression, but Yoji wasn't really sure if the shout hadn't come from himself. He followed Ken on his heels as the younger one rushed over to Aya and forcefully pushed him back, standing between him and the crumpled form. "You can't do that, Abyssinian, he's hurt!"

Yoji slowly and cautiously approached Schuldig, alternately watching him for any signs of hostile intentions and repeatedly scanning their surroundings for a possible ambush. He kept an eye on Ken and Aya as he slowly knelt down beside the wounded man, frowning at their leader when he saw the furious glance he directed at Ken as he whispered coldly, "Then he won't be able to fight back." He still had his katana raised over his head, eyeing the redhead behind the shorter man with open hatred in his glare. He didn't seem to notice Yoji and his gaze snapped back to the man in front of him as he growled threateningly, "Get out of my way, Hidaka, now!"

Yoji almost flinched at the pure hatred in Aya's voice, but Ken didn't back down, he just shook his head and his back tensed up as he clenched his fists at his side, looking ready to strike out in anger as he yelled at his friend, "Damnit, Aya, I didn't think you would be such a bloody coward, you don't slaughter helpless people!"

A low, pained groan next to him tore Yoji's eyes from his yelling companions and he looked down to find Schuldig squinting up at him through the heavy rain. "What do you want, Weiss?" he whispered breathlessly, then squeezed his eyes shut and arched his back, coughing weakly, ".. fuck, that hurts..."

Yoji frowned, then bent over him and cautiously pried the bloody hands from the chest, hesitated slightly, then took a look at the wound, wincing when he finally saw it. It didn't look good. He really hated bullet wounds.

"Jesus, why did he do that?" he asked softly, mostly to himself, then started when tired green eyes opened and blinked up at him, clouded with pain and confusion. He could tell that Schuldig was about to say something, but before he got the chance a small coughing fit took hold of him that left him breathless and completely winded. Yoji gently pushed him back to the ground and mumbled quietly, “Lie still, don't move…”

Behind him Ken was standing his ground, had even shoved their leader back another few steps to get more space between them and Schuldig. Yoji could hear Aya snarl menacingly at Ken, "He would do the same thing to you if it was you lying on the ground, don't protect that bastard!"

The bastard in question frowned weakly and tried to turn his head towards the fighting assassins, then doubled up with a miserable whimper and Yoji dimly noticed that Schuldig had established sort of a death grip on his arm and was digging his fingers painfully into his skin as he started to shiver violently. Yoji grumbled under his breath and shrugged out of his coat, then took off his shirt and began to tear it into two bits.

"But I do, he's injured, he can't defend himself!"

Ken's voice got even louder and Yoji looked up in time to see that he had shifted his position slightly and Aya was now glaring at him furiously.

"What are you doing there, Kudou?"

"Aya, please, not now. We have to get out of here, okay?"

He took one half of his shirt and slowly turned Schuldig onto his back, then placed his shirt on the wound, applying some pressure to try and stop the bleeding. Schuldig's eyes flew open and he doubled up again, curling his shivering body around Yoji's hand as he cursed feebly and tried unsuccessfully to dislodge Yoji's hand that was causing him even more pain.

Aya looked ready to take someone's head off, he let his gaze wander from Yoji to Ken and then back, dropping his voice to the most threatening growl they had ever heard him use, "So you're both cheating on Weiss then?"

"I'm not cheating on Weiss, Aya, I'm just helping a dying man..." Yoji said calmly, as he took his jacket and carefully covered the heaving chest with it.

"He's Schwarz, our enemy. It's not wrong to kill him. He would kill you in an instant if he had the chance, he tried to kill you one minute ago." Aya was glaring daggers at Ken, pointing at Yoji and Schuldig with his sword. "Don't you see that?"

The longer Aya yelled at Ken the more nervous Yoji got, he repeatedly threw quick glances over his shoulder and scanned the surroundings, he couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched. But he couldn't see any-damned-thing amidst the heavy rain.

Fuck, what the hell is happening here? Why are they leaving him here, why are they not taking him with them?

He once again looked down at the redhead beneath him, took in the pained features, the confused look in those strange green eyes and shook his head. Something was wrong here. Taking advantage of the fact that Schuldig was again rather laying on his side than on his back he bent over him for a moment, checking the shivering back for any signs of an exit-wound. He didn't need to look long, the dark stain covering the back of the redhead's jacket told him at once that the bullet had passed through. A voiceless whisper reached his ear and he leaned back to look at his patient who was gazing up at him through heavy-lidded eyes. “How… bad… is it?”

He didn't know what to say for a moment, just stared down at the other man, but apparently his hesitation seemed to be enough for Schuldig to draw his conclusion and he drew a shuddering breath, squeezing his arm shortly. “That… bad… huh?” His eyes closed again and he tightened his hold on Yoji's arm, clinging to him with every ounce of strength he seemed to have left.

"But he's injured, he can't do anything right now, Aya. Yoji said he's dying, you can't kill him, I won't let you!" Ken's voice almost cracked on the last words and Yoji distractedly looked up at Aya again, watching as violet eyes widened. He drew himself up to his full height, hovering threateningly over Ken, tightening his grip on his katana.

"Don't you realize that he's our enemy, Hidaka?"

I need to do something, we have to get out of here...

Yoji was about to shout something rude at his team-members, but in that instant Schuldig went completely limp and slumped to the ground, his hands falling to his side as his head rolled back and even his shivering subsided. Yoji's eyes went wide and he put a hand to the pale neck, nervously searching for a pulse, then realized with a start that he was feeling oddly anxious about the thought of Schuldig dying at his feet. He really, really didn't want that.

He closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated hard on pushing those distracting feelings to the back of his mind, locking them away for later inspection, and then sighed in relief when he found a pulse, a slow, unsteady beat that thrummed sluggishly beneath his cold fingers.

“Aya, you can't be serious, you can't kill an injured man who isn't able to defend himself, that's...”

He really didn't need that at the moment, he wanted some peace and above all he wanted to get out of there, the icy rain was still pounding mercilessly onto his skin and he was by now trembling even worse than Schuldig. Yoji looked up at his fighting team members and cleared his throat and they turned to him, Ken giving him a pleading look, obviously wanting him to back him up, while Aya just stared at him, his face impassive as ever.

“Is he dead?” he asked, indicating the limp figure at Yoji's feet.

Yoji shook his head tersely, noticing the brief relief that flashed in Ken's eyes, and then looked back at Aya. “We have to get him out of here before somebody calls the police.”

Aya didn't move a muscle; he continued to stare at him darkly and watched as Yoji carefully pulled Schuldig upright against his bare chest, resting the soaking wet head against his shoulder.

Aya stayed where he was.

Yoji rolled his eyes at his stubbornness, then said with a calmness he didn't really feel, “Put your sword away, Abyssinian, we need to get back to Bombay.”

He really hoped that the formal address would be enough to break the tension
and pull at least one of the hotheads out of their fight, but unfortunately it didn't improve Aya's mood very much, he just blinked once, then said firmly, "You're not taking him to the flower shop, we leave him here."

With that he turned around and started to go back to the door of the roof, completely ignoring Ken as he once again started to object, "But you can't..."

Ken followed Aya a few steps, reaching out to hold him back, but Yoji interrupted him, his firm voice stopping Aya dead in his track. "He needs medical attention, otherwise he'll die. We can't just leave him here."

Aya whirled around, his expressive eyes blazing furiously as he narrowed them on Yoji, hissing angrily, "Damnit Kudou, he's our enemy, got that? We. Won't. Take. Him. With. Us."

Jesus, Aya, don't make me do this, Yoji thought desperately, but seeing that the furious redhead wasn't going to back down he nodded to himself, took a deep breath and got to his feet, switching on his headset.

"Balinese to Bombay. Mission aborted unsuccessfully; we're coming back to you. Siberian and I have some private business to take care of, do you copy?"

"What happened, Balinese, are you okay?" Omi's worried voice answered at once and Yoji shook his head slightly, mumbling softly, "We're okay, Bombay, don't worry, we'll talk later. We're coming back now, Balinese out."

Yoji was still staring at Aya, then turned to Ken who was watching him somewhat wide eyed and asked, "Can you give me a hand here? We need to get him out of the rain."

Ken nodded slowly, then looked back at Aya who abruptly turned on his heels, sheathed his sword and blended into the shadows without saying a word. He didn't even give them a last glare. Yoji took a deep breath and let it out slowly, wrapping his arms around his torso as he kept shivering in the rain. He often had arguments with Aya, they rarely seemed to be able to agree on anything, but somehow they had always found a solution. Well, most of the time it had been him who had finally relented, given in and agreed to what they had been arguing about. Aya was a real bitch if you didn't do what he told you. Especially during missions. It was his job, he was their leader and he was good at it, both the bitch-part and being their leader.

This was the first time Yoji hadn't backed down, had stood his ground and dared to ignore Aya's leadership. And he didn't even have a good reason for it. He had the indistinct feeling that he'd have to pay for it, one way or the other. And once he'd got out of the rain and stop freezing his ass off he'd probably have enough sense to start worrying about his decision.

If Aya decided to let Kritiker in on this..

No.

Yoji vehemently shook his head at that thought and turned back to Schuldig. Aya wouldn't do that. He was their leader, he had been pretty pissed off, but he wouldn't stab their back. Ever.

He threw a glance over his shoulder at Ken and was about to ask for his help again, when he became aware of an odd look on the other's face. Ken's eyes were still glued to the spot where Aya had disappeared. Maybe it was a reflection from somewhere or the rain was interfering with Yoji's eyesight, but Ken had a longing expression in his brown eyes that had Yoji wondering if he was already imagining things. He knew that look…

"Let's get back to Omi, okay Ken?" He grinned at the way Ken started, how he flinched almost guiltily and looked at Yoji with big, brown eyes that were still showing a strange expression of loneliness. Yoji smiled at him and nodded his head at Schuldig, then bent down to carefully hoist up the unconscious form and together they slowly dragged him into the house and, finally, out of the rain.

Dark eyes watched as Weiss slowly disappeared into the house, taking the limp telepath with them. Brad Crawford stayed on the roof for a long time, ignoring the pounding rain that was soaking through his black suit, staring down at the puddle of blood.

Told you it was strange... :)

(1) “Isn't that Weiss' little wildcat? You're up to sharpen your claws a little?”