Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Warmth ❯ Part Four ( Chapter 4 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Author's Notes: I sincerely apologize for the lateness of this. If you've followed me through this far faithfully, thank you so much. Words cannot say how much I appreciate the feedback I've received on this fic.

I apologize in advance for the ending of this part, but please stayed tune for the next and final part. I hope I can finish it more promptly this time. ^^

Part Four
Call and Answer

Ken barely contained his sigh as the screen flickered out, erasing the image of a computer generated Persia and immersing the room in darkness. Omi stood up and turned on the overhead light, leaving all of them in a dim, hardly generous glow.

The mission was like all others. The nature never did change. A faction composed of crooked doctors were taking newborn children from the hospital and selling them to slave traffickers that in turn sold the infants on the black market. The parents of the children were told that their infants died of natural causes, that they did everything in their power to save their lives, but 'sometimes these things happened.'

"Your target is the director of this trade, Fuji Takashiro, and to destroy the base of operations itself," Birman explained. She glanced around. "Are you all in?"

Ken let his eyes drift to Aya. He stood with his back to the wall as he always did, arms folded, head bowed. For Aya, it was never a question of whether he went or did not. It was always obey and proceed with orders without question. Ken supposed it easy for him to be that way. Without morals, it was easy to do anything.

"I'm in," Ken said. He stood up, stretching his arms out behind his neck and cracking his knuckles. He saw Youji cringe from the corner of his eye and resisted the urge to grin. Youji always twitched uncontrollably when he popped his joints. It was one of the few things that got to him.

"Me too," Omi echoed.

"And me," Youji said.

Birman turned slightly, a hand on her hip as she angled herself to face Aya. "Then everyone." She did not need to ask him. She already knew that he was in.

Aya pushed away from the wall. "Let's go," he intoned softly, and the others followed him without question. Ken always thought it strange -- Weiss had no 'leader and his followers' system. Yet somehow Aya always had a way of taking complete control of the situation and of them. No one ever complained. It was just the way things were.

He trooped up the stairs to his room to change into more 'mission efficient' clothing. Honestly, he figured as long as he had his bugnuks, he would be fine no matter what his attire was. Why he dressed in one thing specifically for missions was more for convenience than anything else. It was easier to clean blood, dirt, mud, and everything else thrown at him from just one outfit rather than five or ten. It kept his laundry loads smaller. He knew that Youji, on the other hand, just liked to dress in the same thing to reaffirm to the world that he was (in his own words) indeed a super hero.

The others were waiting downstairs for him. Somehow he always was the last one down the stairs. Late to everything, always last to know. It sucked.

"You'll come with me," Aya said.

Ken blinked. "Eh?"

"Omi and me are going to be wiring up the bombing system to take our their base," Youji said. "You and Aya will take out the target."

Seemed like Youji and Omi were getting the better end of the deal, but Ken held his tongue. "All right."

Aya was silent as he lead the way to the car -- not that Ken expected words from him. Aya rarely did speak on missions unless absolutely necessary, and especially not on the way to or back. He had too much on his mind in those moments. All of them did.

In the beginning the silence had bothered Ken. But over time it had developed into a companionable silence more than an awkward one. They understood each other better and how each of their minds worked. It was not necessary to have to share words any longer.

Still, sometimes it could be annoying. Sometimes it was so quiet Ken wanted to jump up and scream at the top of his lungs just to make sure he was still alive and everyone could still see him. But he figured that if he did that, Aya would probably throw him head first into the nearest wall. The temptation to scream never did outweigh that possible outcome. He would rather keep silent than have his head crushed.

Youji and Omi were waiting for them outside of the warehouse when Aya pulled up in his car. Ken glanced around his surroundings as he stepped out of the car into the darkness. The warehouse was nestled between several abandoned buildings. He doubted that -- aside from the ones dealing in the black market trade within the warehouse -- they would have much resistance.

But the eerie quiet bothered him. It was the classic movie style paranoia. When it was quiet, it inevitably meant something bad was going to happen.

"We're going to wire up the bombing system," Omi said, voice hushed despite the fact they were completely alone in the empty lot outside of the warehouse. "Make sure you keep your headphones on so I can tell you when we're all done. Here." He handed a headset to Ken. Ken pulled it over his head, positioning the mic so that it was near his mouth but still not in his way.

"You'll have maybe five minutes after I trigger it," Omi continued, "so make sure you're near an exit."

"I don't think the target is going to conveniently be near an exit so we can kill him, Omi," Ken said, somewhat sourly.

"It'll be all right," Aya intoned quietly. Ken glanced up at him. There was a time -- there were still times -- that Aya's perpetual calm had frustrated him to no end. But now it almost seemed comforting.

He felt a hand suddenly drop to the top of his head and ruffle up his hair. Immediately and instinctly riled up, he whirled around to face Youji.

"Hey--!"

"Be careful," Youji said. "This place is going to go boom and it would suck if you guys were there to watch it firsthand. C'mon, Omitchi."

He strolled away, hands thrust casually into his pockets. Omi hastened to catch up with him.

"I'll contact you before I trigger it! Be careful!"

Ken shook his head as he watched the two disappear into the darkness. Youji and Omi were probably the most relaxed, casual ones of all of them. They were serious about what they did, and they did it well, but they never let it get to them. Omi always had a smile ready and Youji a stupid joke. Despite everything that had happened to them, they could still exist and move on with life. Ken thought it almost admirable.

"Come on," Aya interrupted his thoughts.

He was already walking away. Ken trotted along to catch up with him.

They entered a building through a side door. It seemed that everyone had gone home for the evening. The emergency lights system was on, casting the entire area in a dim glow and making it possible to see only the vague, black shapes of things. Even Aya, standing right beside him, was nothing more than a tall, black shadow.

He heard his headset crackling to life before Omi's voice invaded his head. "There should be a staircase near you guys that leads up to Fuji's office. We're wiring up the bombs now."

"Already?" Ken hissed. "Give us a little time to kill the guy, wouldja!"

He could hear Youji saying something, but could not make out the words. Omi snapped at him to be quiet.

"Sorry, Ken-kun, but we want to get out of here as soon as we can," he said. "Fuji Takashiro has a lot of pretty decent fighters he hired and we don't want to get caught fighting them while the place is blowing up."

"All right, all right," Ken muttered. "We're going after Fuji now."

The headset crackled again before dying in his ear. His sigh was barely contained.

"What?" Aya asked.

"Nothing, we just have to do this real quick like. Can you see a staircase?"

He could see vaguely Aya glancing around. "Because I can't see shit," he added after a moment. "It's too dark in here..."

"It's this way," Aya said, and before Ken could stop him he was walking away.

"Hey, hey, hey, wait up!" Something about being alone and lost in the darkness when the place was going to be blown into nothing soon did not appeal to him. Aya slowed his pace somewhat. Ken stuck close to his side, not wanting to lose him.

He heard the sound of boots clicking on what sounded like steel. Frowning, he glanced up. Aya was suddenly a lot taller than him...

Oh. Stairs.

"Huh, I guess you found the staircase," Ken murmured, laughing sheepishly.

He found the railing in the darkness, and using it to guide him along, followed up Aya the steel staircase. It brought them to a landing that overlooked the entire warehouse. An office with glass windows to overlook likely the production of whatever had been made in the warehouse before Fuji Takashiro had taken over sat on the landing. Aya dropped down to his knees and crept along beneath the window. The light was better up here, Ken noted; most of it was coming from the office. Fuji Takashiro was in there sitting like a duck waiting for its head to be blown away.

"Stay here," Aya said softly.

"What?" Ken burst out. He quickly realized his voice was too loud and hushed down to a whisper. "I can help too," he hissed.

"I'll get it done with faster," Aya replied. "Wait here."

"But--"

"Wait." His voice was soft but firm, leaving no room for debate. Ken made an irritated sound.

Aya stood when he reached the door. He glanced at Ken just briefly before turning the knob and stepping inside. Ken could hear Fuji Takashiro beginning to demand who he was and what he was doing, and then the door slammed closed, leaving him completely alone.

He pulled down the headphones on his ears, allowing them to fall to rest on his shoulders. Aya was doing it all of the time now, forcing him to stay behind while he went ahead to take out the target. And his reasons always left something to be desired. That he could do it faster seemed to be his favorite...

Ken cursed below his breath. Aya thought he couldn't handle it, that was it. He thought he would crack under the pressure. Something like a low growl escaped him. He was going to punch the living daylights out of Aya when he had the chance...

"Let's go."

Aya was suddenly standing beside him. Ken leapt to his feet. "I could have done something, you know, you didn't have to--"

"Shh!" Aya hissed. Ken closed his mouth obediently.

He stood silently, watching Aya, and listening. Head inclined, Aya seemed to be searching for something, a sound, or movement in the darkness. Ken saw nor heard anything.

"The bombs," Aya said finally.

"What about them?"

"They're going off."

Omi had always been incredibly precise in his bomb construction. The right amount of gunpowder, the exact time, all perfectly orchestrated. A nuclear physicist would have been proud.

But it was all too precise, almost too perfect. Aya could hear the countdown in his head, see the numbers slowly clicking by. Tick tock, tick tock. Time was up.

Ken knew it too. He saw it in his face.

"We're not gonna make it."

Tick tock.

Aya could hear it happening, the chain reaction of one bomb after another. One set off, setting off another. A destructive domino pattern. For knowing what inevitable doom was coming, he felt amazingly calm.

"No," he answered slowly, "we're not."

It happened too quickly for him to realize what was happening at all. One moment he was looking into the fear-filled eyes of Ken, seeing how determined he was to not show that fear, and then the world was crashing down on him, the roar of destruction all around him.

And then as suddenly as it happened, it stopped. Silence fell. He lay flat on his stomach, breathing slowly, straining to see through the clouds of dust circulating through the air. Pain seeped up his legs. He was injured, but he could not tell where or how badly -- only feel the blood dripping down his body.

He pressed his hands to the ground, feeling concrete crack and crumple beneath the weight of his palms. He tried to breathe in, but it was not oxygen that filled his lungs, but dust. Retching, he put his hand to his mouth, coughing against it. Blood came up as he did.

The thick, black clouds were beginning to settle down around him. But he still could not see Ken. Dark shapes appeared through the haze of dust, but he did not know which or if any were Ken. A sudden fear gripped him. Where was Ken? What happened to him?

Aya tried to sit up, but something tugged him back down. Angling himself to look over his shoulder, he saw that his leg was trapped beneath the fallen debris. It was that pain that had assaulted him when he had come to. Not broken, he knew that much, but probably sprained.

He pulled, and with one quick, hard tug, he freed his leg from the confines of the debris. "Ken," he called. Dust assaulted him and he coughed a moment. "Ken," he tried again.

He heard it just barely, the faint sound of a groan of pain not three feet away from him. He followed the faint voice, straining to not put pressure on his pained leg.

Ken lay in his own pool of blood. Aya's eyes passed over him, quick and calculating. The blood was surrounding his head. Something had delivered a quick blow to the skull. Head wounds bled more than any other wound, no matter the severity, but Aya could not help but feel suddenly worried. A loss of blood could kill him. He could go into shock, have a concussion...

"Ken?" He dropped down beside him, touching a hand to his forehead. Ken moved under his palm, his eyes slowly flicking open.

"Aya," he said, voice pained. "Hey. I was right."

"What about?"

"We didn't make it."

"We're still alive. That's what matters."

A blow to the head like that, and he likely had a concussion. Great.

"You okay?" Ken asked.

"You're worse."

Ken grinned, a smile strained at its edges. "You always know how to perk a guy up, Aya."

His eyes were closed, even as he spoke. Aya wondered if his voice was even reaching him at all.

He couldn't let him fall asleep. If he had a concussion and he fell unconscious, Aya didn't know if he would ever be able to wake up at all. He wouldn't let that happen.

"Ken?"

"Uhm."

"Talk to me."

Something shifted between them, the rustle of clothing as Ken moved, movements slow and painful. Aya pressed a hand to his arm.

"Don't move. Just talk to me."

Ken murmured something soft and indiscernable. "What about?" he managed finally, voice low and strained through the pain.

"Anything."

There was a long silence. Aya was reaching out to touch him again, to feel that he was still breathing, when Ken began to speak again. Tone soft, words punctuated by gasps of pain every few moments, he talked.

"I miss soccer," he said. "I miss playing it. I miss everybody on the team. I miss the championship games. I even miss drilling at the crack of dawn on muddy fields in the freezing rain.

"I miss Kase. I miss my parents, and the kids at the orphanage I grew up in..."

He drew in a sharp breath.

"Ken..."

"I miss Yuriko."

Yuriko, Aya thought. He remembered the girl. Ken had never been around when she was there, shirked both his duties at the flower shop and with Weiss. He had smiled more often then, genuine, real smiles. Smiled like Aya had never seen him smile before.

"What else?"

There was no response. Only soft, uneven breathing. Aya drew himself, balancing his weight on his elbow. Ken was now staring wide-eyed at the ceiling.

"Sometimes I think I'd rather die than live like this."

"Don't say something like that," Aya said, low and warning.

Ken closed his eyes. "I just... want to rest... so much..."

Rest. It would have been nice. To not have to do this nightly, to not kill like they did. But there never rest for the weary.

"I know, Ken... I know."

Silence.

"Ken?"

Nothing but silence.

"Ken, answer me."

Nothing.

"Ken! Ken!"