Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Second Stringers ❯ The Last Test ( Chapter 8 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

SECOND STRINGERS

Chapter Eight --- The Last Test

//mental talking//
‘mental thoughts’


Sünde stood in front of Brad Crawford’s desk and shook. Her hands were gripping the sides of it so hard they had gone past white and were beginning to turn purple. To say she was mad would not have begun to cover what she was feeling. She was so angry it was all she could do to keep breathing. Even that was difficult for her at the moment. She could not conceive how he was telling her this. How dare he. Once was one too many, but now, again. He had the balls to stand there and tell her to go back to Taro. The one source of everything that had ruined anything that could have been. No, scratch that, even angry didn’t begin to cover how she felt. Pure rage boiled from depths within her she hadn't even known existed. ‘Maybe I have been wrong all this time. ‘Maybe I should have let Tink kill him when she wanted to, Hell, maybe I'LL do it now.’ Sünde thought to herself. ‘No I won’t, I cant, why not, because I care, not really, because I love, doubtful, because I still…’
“JEPARDY!" his voice called her back to herself. Called her to focus on him, to not lose to the overpowering thoughts. ‘Focus on him!’ That thought ran like venom through her head. ‘I’d rather die, or at least kill him, no, I wont focus on him. That would just be another victory for him. And I wont give him that, not now, not ever.’ She began to lose herself again to the thoughts running through her head. She had been able to control it to a reasonable extent until now. Now her rage was building so fast it was over powering her ability to control it. Just like Nagi, emotional control could make the difference between sanity and chaos.
“JEPARDY!” he yelled again. He was getting worried at this point. She wouldn’t take his help, and she was losing herself because of it. The second time he yelled out her name though, he did get a reaction. Just not the one he was looking for. She leapt across his desk and threw herself at him. Gripping him by the collar of his shirt. She was knelling on his desk, scattering his perfect papers everywhere, and doing her best not to kill him on the spot.
“You have NO RIGHT to call me that. That is NOT my name! That is a code to everyone but Tinkerbell. A code to show how pointless I am in the world. To Tinkerbell it is a symbol of friendship, the only one I fucking have!! You are NOT Tink, don’t EVER call me that again!!” she screamed at him through clenched teeth. He gave her a look of cold ice and pulled her hands from him and roughly shoved her off the desk. She ended up sprawled in a heap on the other side.
“If I recall, Sünde isn’t your name either, now is it?” he asked her in a cold tone he normally reserved for enemies. She on the other hand looked ready to attack again.
“It’s the name that fuck holes like Taro gave me now isn’t it, you BASTARD!!” she screamed at him. He stood there and looked at her with indifference. He waited for her to calm down. After 20 minutes he realized that wasn’t going to happen and tried to move on regardless.
“Taro Yukio is one of Esstet’s top trainers. He is in charge of new recruits. Everyone must go through him to be established in to Esstet.” He explained.
“I don’t give a flying fuck!! I’m not doing it! I’m not Esstet to begin with. I’m SCHWARZ!! That’s what counts. He already ‘went trough’ ME! I’m not doing it!” she screamed at him. She was terrified of going back to him. It was bad enough that Braddy hadn’t been there the first time, but that she dealt with. But to SEND her to him. That was low. To low for even him.
“I’m sorry. I don’t want this either, but it has to be done.” He told her. There was sympathy in his voice. It was real too, she didn’t care. She was scared and the one person who was supposed to be helping her, protecting her from that fear, he was doing the opposite. She was almost in tears. She didn’t want this.
“Tomorrow a car will come by at 9 am to pick you up. I expect you’ll be waiting for it.” He told her with a simplicity she was coming to hate.
“And if I’m not?”
“You’ll still go. It will make no difference if its voluntary or forced.”
“Funny, that’s what he said last time.” She told him as she left his office. She slammed the door so hard in her wake that it knocked one of his pictures right off the wall. She was pissed, and scared, and wishing she could blame it on anyone except him. Crawford sank down in the chair behind his desk and pillowed his head in his hands.
“I AM sorry. I am so sorry.” He said, it was meant for Sünde, but only his ears heard it. ‘Too little too late.’ his heart told him. But then, he had learned to block those feelings long before this.

The car pulled up at precisely nine o’ clock. Brad stood in his office looking out the window, making sure Sünde went as she was supposed to. Sure enough she came walking outside nearly the same instant the car showed up. He knew she had to be scared, he just knew that fear had to be running rampant through her head. But she didn’t show it as she walked. She just strode out to the car and calmly climbed in to the backseat. Though just before she sat down she shot one look back at the mansion, directly at the window where Crawford was standing. Pure violet ice shot from her eyes as if she was willing him to death. As the car then pulled away he realized she probably was. Somewhere deep inside of him a voice kept screaming at him that this was wrong, to not force this on to her, but like he had so many other times, he ignored it completely.
It was the same building as last time. His office was still on the second floor, the corner suit with the big window. It was something she would always know. Even if she hadn’t been Jepardy and the answers hadn’t come to her the way they did, she would still know. That office was where her time in Esstet ended the first time around. And now it was where it was supposed to start. She wasn’t looking up, more concentrated on her sneakers as she stepped off the elevator and began to move down the hall. The guard who was with her was talking to her, but she wasn’t even pretending to listen. She was more focused on contemplating the fact that she needed to get some clothes of her own. Nagi’s pants were just to big on her, falling off of her waist and making them even longer. Which wasn’t a good thing considering that even there normal length was to long. She thought that thinking about pointless shit like that would ease the terror that she hadn’t felt in so long, and was now running rampant through her. It wasn’t working. All to soon she was at the door, as the guard swung it open she finally looked up. Sitting inside of it behind a too big oak desk was Taro. As he saw her there he quickly dismissed the guard. Once the door was shut a large grin broke out on the fat mans face.
“Well, well, well, back again are we?” he asked her in a near laugh. She didn’t react. She held the cold front that she had perfected so long ago in place. As he stood up and began to walk towards her she felt a light breeze drift across the room. A small glance to her left showed her what she already knew, the window was open. Just like it had been last time. And also just like last time the dumpster was below it. When Taro was less then a foot away from her she finally looked back to his pig like face. It was then she realized something else. While so much was still the same as last time, one thing wasn’t, her. She was no longer that small child in desperate need of help to shut off her mind. She was no longer weak and scared. She was older, stronger, and her powers were her own now.
As he went to take another step forward she finally changed her expression. The cold front melted off and in its place was razor sharp violet for eyes, and a smirk so sadistic that even Farfie, Schu, and Tink together couldn’t hope to top it. Taro froze for a second, realizing that something wasn’t right. And it was all to soon he figured out that when Jepardy places a look on her face like that, very bad things are to come.
It was barely noon when Tink gave up on sleep and came upstairs. Farfie had been cleaning his knives, again. And as much as Tink loved both knives and Farfie the constant muttering of ‘must hurt god’ and the occasional hysteric laugh for no reason made it impossible to sleep.
She was still trying to get the hang of just where in the hell everything was in the mansion, it seemed as if it moved all on its own whenever needed, and had been aimlessly looking for the bathroom for the last 15 minutes when she noticed Jep. ‘Whoa, just how long have I been wondering around. Jeppys not supposed to be back for a long time yet.’ Tink wondered to herself as she came up closer to her friend.
Jep was simply leaning against the wall with her back to Tink, standing so still she could have been a statue.
“Hey Jeppy.” Tink called out when she was almost on top of her. Nothing, Jep didn’t even twitch.
“Jep, what’s wrong?” Tink asked, concern filling in to her voice, this wasn’t like Jep. Well it was, but not towards Tink. Jep just gave a small shrug of her shoulders and put her hands in to her pockets as she straightened up off of the wall. As she finally began to turn towards Tink, the first thing Tink noticed was the blank look on her friends face. The second thing was the fact that Jepardy was covered from head to toe in blood.
“Wh, What happened?” Tink asked in shock as she looked at her friend.
“I killed him. Oops.” was all Jep said as she simply walked away. Not giving anything else to Tink as she disappeared around the corner in the hallway.
“Fuck.” was all Tink could mange to respond with in a near whisper as she watched Jep leave. She then quickly shook off the open mouthed wide-eyed expression she had and marched off. She was destined to find where she was going now more then ever. But then again now the bathroom was the farthest thing on her mind. She needed to find that asshole Braddykins office and NOW.
Crawford shut down his laptop and looked up just as the door to his office flung wildly open. As he saw the fuming green haired girl standing there in his doorway he did nothing more then let out a small sigh.
“What?” he asked her coldly. She let out a small snarl at him for just acting so fucking calm about all of this before she answered.
“You knew this would fucking happen.” she bite out at him in a barely contained scream. He simply looked back at her with his ever present calm exterior before replaying.
“If I had known this was the outcome and still let it happen, Esstet would be very angry at me.” He told her as he realized she wouldn’t actually stop him from his work the way he thought she might and opened his laptop back up again.
“You still knew.” Her voice had steeled back down to normal range, but that didn’t stop the venom from coming out with every word she spoke.
“And what if I did, Tinkerbell?” he asked her with a more then dulled tone. Not even looking at her anymore as he began to review the last document headquarters sent him.
“Don’t think this makes it right, don’t think that this covers for all of your past sins.” she told him as she began to back out of his office.
“I never said it would.” he told her simply.
“No, But your acting like it should.” she spat at him as she left, slamming his door so hard yet another frame crashed to the ground, joining the one still there from Sünde the day before. He continued to look at the file in front of him, but his mind was nowhere near it. Finally a small whisper escaped his tight pressed lips, so soft and unexpected it shocked even himself.
“Maybe I was just hoping it might.”
It had been three days since Jep had come back covered in blood. No one had really seen her since then, not even Tink. It might have worried anyone normal, but Tink knew her friend and when to give her space. She figured when Jep was ready she’d find her. Until then she was killing time with Farfie, catching up and all of that sort of stuff.
At the present moment Tink and Farfie sat together in Farfie’s cell, doing as they usually did when no one would let them play blender, playing jacks. It was a childish fascination Tink had, and she was good at it, she could even beat Jep. So of course Tink was in the lead and on the verge of beating Farfie once again. It was at this moment when Brad walked through the door. He gave the usual scowl and glare he gave, nothing out of the ordinary, when he walked in on the two of them doing something somewhat ‘civilized’ Nagi had politely put it once. Tink didn’t have an opinion on Nagi yet. She didn’t know whether to like or hate him, so even despite the dreaded ’Dasha’ incident she mostly just tolerated him for now. Who she did have an opinion on though was the man that just came trough the door, and that opinion was nothing short of pure and unrelenting hate.
“Tinkerbell come here. You have a mission.” his hard cold voice never changing. His glass covered eyes holding more than the same hatred back, and something else, another hidden emotion trying to stay buried deep with in him. He didn’t keep the contact long, she could steal his soul in a second. He couldn’t keep her out all the time, and even though she didn’t want to, gods she never wanted to know what the hell was going on in his head, there was the chance that she wouldn’t be able to stop it.
Tink stood with some uncanny amount of glee, not wanting to leave Farfie and her game, but realizing she wasn’t going to be allowed to say no. At least if she did have to leave it was a mission. Going on missions and hurting people always brightened her day, well her night in most cases. That had to be a part of Farfie that was still in her, that made her excited about hurting others. At least she didn’t still run around yelling ‘Must hurt God’.
“Yes Braddykins, what is it?” Brad hated that name so of course she loved it. The scowl on his face at the sound of it only made her smile bigger.
“Follow me.” His eye twitched as he said it. Man she could get under his skin. It was even easier today for some reason. ‘Oh well, best to not dwell on it.’ She followed behind him keeping in perfect sync with him all the while, they ended in Brad’s office. The door had his name on it in nice shinny gold letters, ‘Bradley Crawford’. She often wondered why it said Bradley in the first place, he had a hissy fit if you used that name. She also wondered what he would do if one day it just read ‘Braddykins’. He would shit purple monkeys if she had to wager a guess. That would seriously make her life.
He ushered her in to his office. Esstet always gave him the missions and he gave them to the rest of Schwarz. It wasn’t new Tink receiving missions on her own, actually that’s all she really got. A long, real long, time ago she used to get missions with Jep. Not now, Jep had to be re-trained. Tink was alone then by default. Well there was that one time they let both her and Farfie out together, but after that once they decided it wasn’t quite safe to do that any more. Now she was by herself. Alone on her missions, at least until they let Jep back in, which she hoped would be soon. They made a great team. But until then, she didn’t mind being on her own. Go out kill some sick bastard that was in the way, waist a few hours out on the streets, piss Braddykins off, then come home and go play with Farfie, same o’ same o‘. Life to her was good, for now. Well at least as good as it was going to get. Besides Jep was here again, and that made each day just a little more livable then the last.
Brad sat down behind his desk and Tink sat in one of the chairs on the other side of the desk. Her smile bright as ever, she sat fidgeting with her hands, something she always did, she had to constantly be moving. She thought back to playing Jack’s with Farfie, almost winning, she always won he never cared about the game. The only reason he played was she convinced him it hurt God, which was not always a smart thing to do. But at least in this case, it allowed her to have fun too.
Brad pushed up his glasses, the light reflecting off them made her temporarily blind as it brought her back to reality. He leaned lightly over his desk so she could see his eyes. That was new. He normally tried to keep away from looking at her eyes, now he was making sure she could see his. ‘Just what is going on here?’ she mildly thought to herself. This wasn’t turning out to be as routine as she thought it would be, and it hadn’t even started yet.
“One of Esstet’s top trainers was murdered the other day.” His voice stayed ever so calm and cold. When he spoke he had about as much emotion as Nagi did while hacking in to some computer system. Tink looked at him her smile bright as ever,
“Yeah, so who is it I’m supposed to kill?” Continuing as if he was never interrupted,
“Esstet is very upset about this, and they wish for the murderer to be killed.” Tink looked slightly annoyed. She didn’t want the persons life story just the target and to be let loose.
“Who is it I gotta wipe off?” she was getting annoyed at having to repeat herself. Still, Crawford acted like she never spoke.
“Taro Yukio was the best that Esstet employed for the Japan rejoin. His killer is not to be allowed to live.” He told her, never letting his eyes break contact. ‘Enough already Crawford,’ she thought. ‘Wait, Taro, Taro,’ she knew she’d heard that name somewhere else before. ‘Wasn’t that…?’
“The target is Jepardy.”
Tink’s smile dropped instantly, ‘Did he just say what I think he said? No way he couldn’t’.
“Je… Jepardy?” ‘Not even Crawford could do that, not to her, his own…’
“Yes. That’s what I said.” His voice never changed. His eyes never moved from hers. He acted liked he had just said, ‘How’s the weather?' Tink on the other hand was near fuming. ‘How in the hell can he say that as if she were just a piece of trash on the streets? Oh wait, it is Brad we’re talking about. But still, this was Jepardy. My Jepardy, supposedly his too.’
“If you choose not to accept this mission you too are worthless and will have to be dealt with.” Tink could sense the hidden threat behind that. She killed Jep, or she herself was killed, and Jep still would be as well. He gave her a look as if daring her to decline this mission. Daring her to say no, giving him his chance to be rid of them both. Herself she could understand, especially after the extra hostility she’d been giving him, but not Jep, that was beyond her understanding.
“Well,” she forced the smile back onto her face. It was hard. It never had been before, but this time, it was hard. “It is a mission and it must be taken care of, I don’t have a choice. I, I accept.” She had tried not to let her voice shake, but it had at those last words. It didn’t look like he noticed though. Now she hated him with more then simple hatred, more then blind rage, more then anyone had ever hated anything, she detested him. She looked at him as if ripping him limb from limb with her eyes. ‘I wish I were Nagi about now.’
“When?“ she managed to ask despite everything.
“Immediately.“ he told her simply, to simply for something like this. She just nodded her head and stood up, waiting for Brad to stand also. She now knew why Jep hadn’t been around lately, Jep would be in one of the holding cells. And now Brad would have to show her which one if he’d want this mission complete. As if reading her Brad stood up and walked over to the door.
The walk to the holding cells was extremely quiet, and very long. It seemed as if it took forever. Brad suddenly stopped in front of a door, it looked like all the rest in this hallway, but it made her heart skip a beat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys. He unlocked the cell door, stopping Tink just long enough to hand her a gun and a look of disappointment. Then he turned and walked away. He knew she would go through with it, she already said she would. And Tinkerbell never went back on her word.
Tink walked into the cell, it was dark and would have been creepy if it weren’t for the fact that Tink spent most of her days in a cell very similar to the one she was in now. But the air in this one was different. It hung lower and it hurt her to breathe it in. She knew that was just in her head, but it didn’t matter. She walked over to where Jepardy sat, tucking the gun into the back of her pants where her daggers usually rested. She didn’t like guns, she thought if you wanted to fight or kill some one it was better if you did it by your hands, or as close to them as you can get. Guns to her were for those who knew no other way to fight. She hated them.
“Jep, I..” She what? She was sorry? Was she? She was getting ready to kill her best friend, the only thing close to a family she ever had. The only anything she had. ‘”If you choose not to accept this mission you too are worthless and will have to be dealt with.” Hn. I’m going to kill everything my life is worth, I’m already worthless.’
Jep looked up at Tink, no expression could be seen on her face.
“You’re slipping. Your emotions must be getting the best of you.” It took Tink a second to realize what she meant, and then as the words replayed again in her head she figured it out. Jep had answered her in the same language that Tink had started with. A language that she had denounced many long years back, one she only fell in to when things got so out of order that her mind would explode. A language that only her and Jep knew. Russian.
“Just do it, don’t think about it, just pull out the gun and pull the trigger.” Jep spoke again, standing to meet Tink at close to eye level, Tink was taller though. Tink smiled as if she were about to scream ‘Surprise your on candid camera’ but there was no hidden camera here, just Jepardy and Tinkerbell.
Tink reached her hand behind her back and pulled out the gun, looking over it to make sure it was real, she smiled again.
“What’s so damn funny that you keep smiling about?” Jep asked a little irritated at being laughed at when nothing at the point in time was really funny. Yet she already knew, even without her ‘gifts’ on this one, she knew.
“Oh, nothing just thinking about the first day we met. And how even after all these years you and I are the only two who can speak and understand Russian.”
“What’s so great about that?”
“Oh nothing. I just kinda think its fitting for today. Russian started our lives together, and now it’s ending it.” She smiled brighter. Tink slowly began to hold the gun up to Jepardy’s head, Jep looked up to the taller girl, still no emotion in her face. While Tink smiled as if this were a joke, her ever smiling face never changing. She steadied the gun in her hand. Ready to do it, ready to kill her only reason for living.
Jep looked up at her, her hard façade softened into a smile, “Your really going to do it aren’t you?” She already knew the answer to that was yes. Again, she didn’t even need her powers, Tink had always been like that though. That’s why Jep loved her so much. Her smile faded back into her hard unfeeling façade.
Tink looked her in the eyes, smile never even flinching.
“This is what we both want, and I’ll be right behind you.” A single tear descends down both Jep and Tink’s face. Tink wiped away Jep’s tear knowing its not from fear or pain, but happiness.
“I love you Jep.” Tink pulled the trigger.


TBC……