Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Light Meets Darkness ❯ Prevailing Shadows ( Chapter 7 )

Light Meets Darkness

Prevailing Shadows

By Chaosdreamer

Disclaimer: There will be slight gore. You have been warned.

"You didn't have to hit me on the head." Dameon grumbled, his arms bound at his sides, seated in the middle of the mission room surrounded by the assassins of Schwarz and Weiss. His pale green shirt and black slacks were rumpled from being dragged and bound downstairs. Really rude, in his personal opinion. Going out of his way to come and visit…

"Shut up. You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Yohji commanded angrily, still furiously pissed and shaken from the incident several minutes ago. He had managed to surprise both of them in his room by taking a nearby candle on the dresser next to the window, smashing and breaking it over the man's head.

Schuldich snickered softly. "So it was you who screamed like a girl."

Yohji snarled furiously, pointing his finger in Schuldich's direction. "And you! What about that damn shield you set up earlier?! How the hell did he get through that?!"

"Good question, actually." Schuldich's amused expression flickered off of his face in an instant, humor quickly tossed into the wind. "My shield was flawless. I should have sensed you."

Dameon grunted faintly, turning his head with a disdainful sniff. "Please. You're not the first telepath I've run into. All a person has to do is feel their way around the wall that was set up. Every structure has a door, it's just the method of finding it." Dameon winked smugly at the German. "Trade secret. Sorry."

Ken shook his head, already sensing that Dameon was the kind of person to purposely try to irk others. He crossed his arms, now clothed in a loose long-sleeve red shirt, black pants and sneakers. Honestly, the rate he was going through his clothes, he'd be lucky to have anything by the end of the damn month! "Why are you here, Dameon?"

Dameon grinned at the shorter man, his hair shifting as if alive when he turned to face Ken. "Couldn't I come to see you? You're such a cruel man to deny me your pleasurable company." Ken's shoulders tightened at the hinted message behind that question, already having enough experience of having been within Dameon's 'company'.

Aya must have been thinking along the same lines. "If I remember correctly, the last time you were around Omi and Ken, you were trying to force yourself into Ken's mind."

Dameon scoffed, becoming mildly irritated. "Like I explained to you, I was merely proving a point. He lived." Dameon's eyes stared into Aya's, his beast swimming beneath the surface of his silver gaze, his tone a challenging whisper of power. "Be thankful for that."

Aya's hand tightened at his side, unconsciously resting near the area his katana would usually be if not for being upstairs in his room. Crawford cleared his throat, stepping in before the situation escalated dangerously. "In any case, you're a dangerous individual, Dameon. You are not human, but we don't know exactly what you are. You know so much about us yet you tell us so little." Crawford frowned at his last sentence. "Are you the hacker that provided us with the information on Weiss."

Dameon smirked, seemingly at some private joke. "Sorry, I personally can't stand computers or similar technology. Irritating little pieces of wires and metal."

"Do you know who the hacker is?" Crawford asked.

"No."

"This is getting us nowhere. I don't know why we're wasting our times with a creature like him." Schuldich growled, already disliking being around the man.

Dameon glanced at him from the corner of his eye, seizing the opening the telepath offered him. "You should talk, Schwarz. You murder little girls and defenseless bystanders. Don't group me with your kind. Or have you forgotten your demon shooting Bombay's half-sister through the heart from behind?"

Ken's heart seemed to stop, sensing the threat hanging in the air. :Gods, not now. Don't bring this up:

Dameon snarled nastily, his lips pulling back in a tooth grin. "How long did she last, Schwarz? How long did she have to struggle to breathe and realize that she was slowly bleeding to death? The child wasn't even eighteen. So sad to be murdered so young."

"Ouka…" Omi whispered painfully, his eyes downcast as the memories of his half-sister's last moments of life flooded through his mind.

"Don't do this…" Ken begged softly, not sure if the plea was directed at the silently enraged telepath or the bound man on the chair.

"The girl would have died eventually, most likely from committing suicide." Farfarello cut in calmly, his words halting any conversation.

Time seemed to stop for Ken. He looked at the demon beside him, a sudden wave of cold slowly filling his body. :Please no, not this…:

"What did you say?" Aya demanded furiously, turning to Farfarello. Dameon watched the interaction silently, his blank gaze watchful. This was obviously something that had not been discussed before his arrival.

Farfarello glanced at the leader of Weiss, appearing curious at the man's sudden fury. "Takatori planned to use the girl as a sex toy for his own pleasure. He did the same with the eldest sons. He only spared the boy known as Mamoru because he considered the boy tainted since he was not born of his blood, but of that of his younger brother. That kind of abuse was a probable cause for Masafumi's slight insanity and disgust towards his father. The middle brother for some reason or another felt as if he must continue to please his father whether through political gains or his own body. Omi's half sister would have followed the tradition within several month's time."

"SHUT UP!!!!" Omi screamed, fisting his hands in his hair, eyes squeezed shut. "It's not true! It's not true-"

Ken's knees faltered slightly, the weighed throb of Omi's power suddenly rolling over him, the power curling around the smaller assassin like a large feline protecting its young.

:It's awakening: Ken's mind groaned in dismay, his breath catching up to match the pulse of the seething mass surrounding the trembling boy, :his abilities are reacting to his anger, sadness, and confusion. If it awakens, it may tear Omi apart:

"It's true." Schuldich answered softly, condemning the reality within the Tamer's mind.

Ken turned to Schuldich, his face showing his hurt and betrayal. "You knew about it? And you didn't bother to tell any of us?"

:You didn't even bother to tell me?:

Schuldich forced himself to look away from the betrayed look of his younger lover. "Yes." The simple finality of that word seemed to shatter a piece of Ken's heart, the empath feeling as if he should look down and try to gather whatever broken pieces lay upon the ground.

"That didn't give you the right to kill her!" Yohji roared, his hair blowing back from his rising powers, small sheets of paper and small objects blasted away from his body.

Farfarello growled at the impudent man acting as if he understood anything about Schwarz. "You murder people yourselves. You have no more rights then we do. We are all murderers."

With a mournful howl of indescribable pain Omi ran from the room, moving past Nagi's pleading grasp. Ken distantly heard the sound of the store scooter taking off, the smaller assassin obviously planning to put as much distance as he could between himself and the Koneko.

"You bastard." Ken didn't bother to stop himself from speaking. Farfarello looked at him, his face portraying nothing, his one visible eye not even holding a hint of regret from his previous action. "When you hurt one of my friends, you hurt me." Ken lifted his enraged gaze to Farfarello, laying out his pain and fury within that one gaze. "You call us equal to you since we are murderers. I rather be a murderer then a cold-hearted monster like you." Ken shook his head, this time addressing both of his lovers. "It's sad, really. For knowing both of you for such a short time, I gave you so much of my heart and trust. You'd think an idiot like me would've learned after Kase. But then, maybe I was just fooling myself."

Ken turned away, walking towards the same doorway Omi had fled out of. Schuldich reached out and grasped Ken's shoulder, trying to hold onto the man in some form or another, feeling the younger man slowly slipping away from him. "Ken-"

Something snapped in Ken at that touch and voice. He felt the rising cloud of anger flood him, his vision red. :DON'T…TOUCH…ME!!!!!!:

That mental scream wasn't the only thing to throw Schuldich back and away from him. A sudden blast of air assaulted both of his lovers, Ken's empathy forming into a physical force against the threat of pain and sorrow to its owner. Both of the older men slammed into the wall behind them, barely managing to remain on their feet.

With an enraged snarl Ken pushed his way past the others, hastily throwing on his leather jacket and grabbing his keys to his motorcycle, ignoring the heated protests behind him. Ten seconds later he was speeding away from the Koneko without the aide of his helmet, the streets passing by in an indistinguishable blur. The stars were just coming out, speckles of white across the canvas of darkness blanketing the earth. He hoped he was heading in the same direction that Omi had gone, given the direction he had heard the scooter going. The wind buffeting against his face and body was a small comfort, the sensation of flying only seeming to speed his flight away from the drama taking place within the Koneko.

:I can't believe I trusted them so much. Gods what a fool I am. I'm sure you're laughing at me, Kase:

After a brief moment Ken heard the sirens running behind him, briefly catching an image of the flashing lights and police car trailing him in his rearview mirror. He cursed under his breath, forcing his motorcycle into a steady crawl until he came to a stop nearby a park, the trees along his left side a solid wall of ink blackness.

Ken groaned to himself as the police car pulled up behind his motorcycle, its engine shutting down while the flashing lights remained on. He distinctly heard gravel crunching behind him as the office came out of the vehicle and approached from the back of Ken's motorcycle.

"Sir, you were going twenty miles over the speed limit." The officer said, coming parallel to Ken's side. Ken turned slightly in order to better face the officer, offering a sheepish grin. The man was probably in his mid-twenties, his outfit crisp, cap pulled back to reveal short strands of black hair and soft black eyes.

"I'm sorry, officer. I just…had to get away from somewhere."

The officer was silent for a moment. "I need to see some identification, sir."

Ken nodded, feeling inside his leather jacket. "I know it's in here-"

A cold shudder passed through Ken so suddenly it forced him to grab the handrails of his bike, his muscles screaming from the cold sensations whispering across his skin. He gasped in pain, his heartbeat so loud that it seemed to echo within his mind at a quickening pace.

"Sir! Is something wrong?!" The officer demanded worriedly.

"I'm-" A sudden scream was ripped out of Ken's throat from another pass of sensation, this one less forgiving as the previous. Now it felt as if he was being boiled alive from the inside. "Oh god!" He cried out, clutching his arms around his waist in a vain effort to relieve some of the pain.

Ken heard the faint hiss of the walkie-talkie behind him, the officer yelling into it that he needed medical assistance. Ken's empathy seemed to scream suddenly, focusing on the cause of his sudden pain.

It was right behind them.

"Watch out!" Ken screamed too late, a blurred movement engulfing the officer's form, the man not even having a chance to cry out. A wet sound like that of ripping paper towels suddenly surrounded Ken, a splash of warm liquid spraying across his entire front.

In slight shock Ken brought his hand up to try to wipe the wetness off of his face, his hand coming back immediately damp. His breathing quickened when he saw the thick layer of blood and flesh on his hand, the mass of skin just so much wasted meat. He heard the faint squawking of the walkie-talkie lying next to him, distant voices calling the officer's name over the hiss of static. With trembling effort Ken looked further up, seeing the spreading red puddle forming underneath what was left of the officer's body. The man's entire torso had been shredded, his severed head lying several feet away with a blank stare, pieces of the body scattered as if a bomb had exploded within his chest.

:Or as if something had grabbed a handhold of his body and tore it off in one huge chunk: Ken groaned slightly, covering his mouth with his other clean hand, trying to hold back from vomiting all over the side of the road.

An ominous laugh sounded behind him. Ken jumped off his bike and away from the still twitching body, putting the bike between him and the form crouched on the hood of the police car. Long strands of hair, his body reeking of flesh blood and gore, shielded the man's face. His entire body was covered in red fabric of that of a uniform, large portions of it damp with darker patches of warm wetness.

The man looked up under Ken's gaze, his hair falling away from his face. The hair was a little past shoulder length, black and straight, a few strands on the man's left side of his face colored a crimson red. His eyes were black with no pupil, his face pale except for the places with patches of damp blood. The stranger's tongue flicked out to catch a stray drop of blood traveling down his cheek, revealing red-stained teeth.

"Wh…Why did you kill him?" Ken demanded shakily, slowly taking a step back from the stranger.

The man grinned maniacally, with slow ease standing up to balance on the top of the hood of the police car, not answering Ken's hesitant question.

"Pretty little angel. So lost and alone. You're covered in blood." The man took a deep shuddering breath, pulling in the smell of blood and fear. He held his arms out wide, tilting his head in a silent inquiry. "Come to me, angel. Let me hold you in my arms. Let me touch you."

"STAY AWAY!" Ken cried out desperately, holding his arms out to try to ward the man away. The man laughed at his efforts, dropping down to the ground without a whisper, slowly walking towards the smaller shaking man.

With an insane shriek that sent Ken's senses reeling the man flung his arm in Ken's direction, a blur of red extending from his arm and rushing towards Ken. The empath cried out when the blur slashed across the entire outside edge of his arm, tearing through leather and cloth, fresh blood pouring out of the sudden wound. He clutched at the deep wound, distantly feeling his healing powers rising up to start to work at the wound.

:That doesn't help me any,: Ken's voice argued tiredly, :this is only the second time using my healing powers. It's not at its highest potential:

"The angel bleeds." The man snickered, the blur of red coming back to surround his arm. Ken gasped in shock, finally seeing the red form. It looked like a perverse form of a moth eaten red cloth, the thing shifting as if it was alive, ragged pieces of it shifting into more smoother ones at certain intervals.

The man smirked at Ken's obvious surprise, smiling as the strange cloth-like strand came up and brushed against the side of his face with surprising delicacy, wiping away the patches of drying blood. "This is a part of me, angel. I am a blood demon." His smirk broadened. "Ironic, since my name is Blut."

Faint sirens wiped Blut's smirk off of his face, the man turning towards the two oncoming vehicles with a visible rage slapped across his face. "A nuisance, these humans." He raised both hands, more strands of blood-cloth forming around not only his right arm, but also his left. "Let us wipe away these annoying bugs."

"No!" Ken screamed, his cry ignored as the man whipped his arms in the direction of the oncoming vehicles. One long strip of blood-cloth tore clean through the front section of one vehicle, ripping apart the engine, igniting the gasoline within so that the one vehicle exploded in a small ball of flames, the men's screams from within lost to the roar of the orange and yellow flames. The other cloth tore through the side of the remaining vehicle as well, this time smashing through the driver's window and coming out through the passenger's, blood spraying across the insides of the glass and interior. Both vehicles slammed into the railing on the opposite of the road, the one burning car now becoming a black skeleton of its previous glory. The blood-cloths returned to their master, sinking into Blut's skin to curl beneath the surface, awaiting the next command.

Ken was already running when Blut's powers smashed through the second vehicle. No matter how cowardly he felt in running, he knew that he wouldn't have been able to save anyone. The only thing he could possibly do now was hopefully lead Blut away from anymore possible victims.

:Not like I have potential of not becoming a victim as well: Ken drew in deeper breaths of air as he ran, ignoring that one stray thought. He didn't care where he was running to. The further away from Blut, the better.

:I hope Omi hasn't run into someone like Blut. He doesn't even know how to consciously summon his ability:

:Doesn't mean I stand an even better chance, with or without my own abilities!:

For a moment the trees and branches were a blur to Ken, passing him by in his desperate flight away from the sudden appearance of his new enemy. The deeply integrated instinct of 'fight or flight' had obviously taken over, the logical side of his mind deciding to cut his losses and try to salvage whatever hopes he had left of escaping and saving other innocent lives.

A blunt object smashed into Ken from behind, slamming him into the ground without any regard to the damage from the rough surface beneath him. His nerves screamed from the electric pain across his face and his entire front, the empath's limbs going numb due to the shock of the sudden force that had smashed into his body.

"Bad little angel. You just prolong the inevitable." Blut tsked scornfully, admonishing the younger man's 'rude' behavior of running away. He flipped the prone man over onto his back, allowing the empath's arms to lay limp at his sides, his eyes dazed and unfocused from the sudden movement.

"You bastard…you didn't have to kill them…" Ken gasped, spitting out a small amount of blood from the cut along the inside of his cheek due to his teeth cutting into it from the sudden fall.

Blut wiped the trace of blood away with the pad of his thumb, flicking his tongue out to clean away the metallic taste of blood. "How naïve you are. More lives are lost each day from starvation and war. Japan suffers nothing from the loss of a handful of lives. They will be replaced with more. You, on the other hand…"

With that Blut lifted Ken slightly by gripping his lower face with his hand, smashing the back of Ken's head into the ground, the trapped man's cry muffled against the warm press of flesh. Ken distantly heard Blut finish his sentence as the darkness reached to pull him under, drawing him into the deepest corners of forced unconsciousness.

"You, on the other hand, have much bigger problems."

*************************************************************** *********

Cold. It's so cold…

I can't breathe…

Ken drew in a deep gulp of breath with a ragged draw of air, the sound painful to his ears. With a pained effort he pushed himself up with his elbows.

The ground beneath him…it was pitch black. There seemed to be no end to anything in any direction, everything fading into nothingness, Ken's body lying on a sturdy surface yet no physical plane visible to his eyes. There was also no noise other then his breathing, the silence around him overbearing…almost terrifying.

His hand came up to search the back of his head for a possible knot from being smashed into the ground, silently thinking that he was suffering from a concussion.

:Strange…There's nothing there…: Ken pulled his hand away, staring at it in disbelief as if it would possibly offer him some sort of answer. He knew he was capable of healing such a wound, but this place…

"So, you are finally aware…" A voice interrupted his musing. Before Ken could leap to his feet several thick strands of dark material rose up from the ground beneath him, curling around his wrists and upper arms, others wrapping around his thighs and ankles. He screamed hoarsely in outrage, bucking and pulling against the ungiving strands of material.

"Careful, you'll only hurt yourself." The voice cautioned, an outlined form walking towards him, the figure slowly coming into focus.

The man before him was tall, almost to the point of reaching seven feet in height. He was clothed in a sliver-gray material, the shirt and pants blending to form a similar design to that of traditional Japanese wear, the sleeves broad and reaching almost to the man's fingertips. His hair was only slightly past his ears, thick strands of pale whiteness framing an elegant face.

That is, an elegant face covered in black scars.

Where usual scars would be red or a slight pink, this man's was a horrible shade of black, as if the wound had been cauterized in the very instant of the wound opening. Several strips of black covered not only his neck but both of his cheeks and forehead, the appearance almost painful to look at yet strangely intriguing, the slight marring of the man's face only highlighting the sheer whiteness of his skin and the vivid black coloring of his eyes.

The man smiled knowing, clearly noticing the slight observation from the pinned empath. "You are not the first to notice such markings. These are the price of the powers I wield." He knelt down at Ken's side in a graceful drop, balanced eloquently on his knees in order to lean over Ken. "I was worried that you would not become aware. Blut perhaps used a little bit more force then necessary in order to drive you into unconsciousness, thus forcing you into your own mind."

"So this place-" Ken began softly.

The man nodded. "Yes. We are within your mind." He cupped Ken's face with both hands, peering down into startled velvet brown. "I have finally been able to reach into your mind." He brushed the side of his face along Ken's, eliciting an enraged cry from the trapped man. "At last, I finally have you. My boy, my dear boy. I have watched you for so long. My patience has been stretched so far in order to wait for the opportune moment in order to make my presence known to you."

"Don't touch me." Ken ordered shakily, trying to jerk his body away, the dark shackles around his body only holding him more strongly. "Why are you doing this?! Who the hell are you!?"

The man moved his face back to peer once again into Ken's eyes, his hands coming to rest on Ken's shoulders. "I have had many names throughout my long life. The one that I have as of now is Geist."

Ken squirmed further, trying to rid the man's touch off of his body. Even inside his own mind or not, his empathy was shaking from the Geist's presence, the man's power's surrounding Ken as if he was drowning. His angry cries echoed within the endless darkness, Geist and himself mere forms of ivory and gold light within the dark void. "Why are you doing this?!" He demanded once again, throwing his head back and forth in frustration.

"I have wanted you for so long, mein licht. So very long."

The ground beneath them formed even more strands, coming up to surround and wrap around both men, binding them together by long lengths of dark threads. Ken shuddered as Geist was pressed fully against his own chest, his cry muffled from his face being buried into the crook of the man's neck.

"You can't do this!" Ken screamed hoarsely, his body having no way of movement away from the further binding, the threads unmindful to his desperate plea for freedom.

"Yes, I can." Geist's eyes met his, the dark gaze seeming to pull Ken into its depths. Ken felt himself being pulled into the endless darkness, losing sense of his self within his own mind. The power was drawing him in, eagerly grasping at the empath and wrapping itself around him.

"And in doing so, I shall take what is precious to you." Geist brushed his lips against Ken's, the smaller man falling further into the power residing in the larger man's gaze.

"I shall take away your memories."

*************************************************************** *********

Blut: Blood (Ironic. Meh.)

Geist: Ghost

Mein licht: My light

Hah, I'm starting to slightly relearn German. Have no frickin idea how to pronounce these damn words, though! Be merciful, anyone who speaks or knows German. I'm haven't spoken or read any German since I left Germany when I was nine years old. *pulls out trusty German dictionary*

Chaosdreamer: Yeah, I'm done! The fic is over! That is all! Goodbye, everyone!

Cast and reviewers: No! *flames rising out behind the enraged figures*

Chaosdreamer: *cringes away from shout* Sheesh, can't take a joke.

*whimpers faintly* I want my fic to be archived!

Nagi: It already is.

Chaosdreamer: *sniffles* I know, but there are readers who don't go to Mediaminer. I

want others to read this as well. I've tried Fanfiction, but their uploading

method is screwing up my fic. *Falls to the ground, weeping

dramatically* I suffer so much.

Aya: Don't you start now!

Yohji: Kenken seems to always wander away from the Koneko. Not very safe.

Chaosdreamer: Well, if you recall correctly, it wasn't really by his choice. The first time

was to pick up orders for the Koneko, the second was that Omi pulled Ken

with him. The third time Ken left not only to get away from the Koneko,

but to possibly go find Omi as well.

Schuldich: Kitten! Where's my kitten.

Geist: *Appears dramatically, carrying Ken in his arms*

Schuldich: *screams in outrage* Give my kitten back. *runs after Geist's retreating form*

Chaosdreamer: You reviewers are lucky I love you so much! I've updated twice before I

expected to! But the price is another cliffhanger! ^_^

Gotta go, study for finals! Bleh!