Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Zweiter Chancen ❯ The End...? ( Chapter 17 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

*****17*****


Another day, another dream, another miracle come true. Monday. Time to open the shop and see what the customers are willing to buy. Koneko no Sumu Ie is one of the most popular shops in all of Tokyo, but as good as their sales are, the customers who come are usually shopping for something other than flowers.

"Eh…? Mariko, doesn't the new guy remind you of someone?" asks a young woman with long, brown hair and honey colored eyes.

"Hai, Michiru." answers her friend, similar in age, but with shorter black hair and an even higher pitched voice, if possible. "He said his name is Emery. Doesn't that sound familiar? He's so bishounen, I’m sure I’d remember us meeting, but I can’t place him at all. Oh well, he's too old for us anyway. At least…for a little while."

The girls giggle, slipping out of the shop after happily loitering, flirting, and making a nuisance of themselves, but naturally, without actually buying anything.

It isn't time for the mad rush of school girls yet, but those two always seem to beat the other fangirls to the punch.

Standing near the front beside a display of tigerlilies, Emery - red-headed, blue-eyed, German, 22 year old Emery - smirks beneath a curtain of his sunset-colored hair as he bends to water the nearby flowers. The girls had bothered him ceaselessly, but he is having the last laugh.

"Emmy-chan, why didn't Michiru and Mariko recognize you?" Omi inquires, watching the girls make their way down the street while coming up next to his older friend. "Didn't they meet you when you first came to work here?" Gasp. "Oh no! If they realize how strange it is for you to be…well… suddenly 5 years older than you were, what will they think?"

Emery stands up straight, satisfied with his work, and tosses his long hair out of his eyes. "No worries, Omi. They won't remember a thing. I made sure of that."

"But how did you…oh! You played with their minds a bit, ne?"

"Nothing against the rules. Just something to keep life simple. As far as anyone knows, I've never worked here a day in my life."

Nodding understandingly, Omi bounds away, back to attend his own work, while leaving Emery to do his.

After a few "family meetings" over the weekend, it had been decided that if Emery was going to stay he had to swear he wouldn't use his abilities for any purpose other than helping others, unless it was absolutely necessary. Emery certainly had no objections; it gave him the opportunity to have many peaceful, quiet moments with his own mind.

Brad Crawford would never have allowed that. Brad would have insisted that Schuldrich use his newfound control to expand his powers and use them to exploit even more people than he had before.

But not Weiss. As a newly appointed member of Weiss himself, Emery - dubbed Chartreux for missions - has never been happier, even after only a few days back in the lifestyle he almost left behind.

"Hey, Emery…can I ask you something?"

"Anytime, Kudo. Though I hope you aren't expecting me to mentally scope out dates for you."

In mid step, Kudo Youji jerks to a halt, blushing deeply. He has come up to Emery near the front, seeing an opening after Omi left, but now stands frozen a few inches away. "I…well…I wasn't going to ask that, but I guess you knew I'd been thinking about it, huh?"

"I'd do it, ya know?" Emery grins, setting down his spray bottle and leaning back against the front window.

Youji's eyes light up instantly.

"But…the new rules say I can't. Sorry."

And Youji's hopes just as quickly deflate. No matter; that isn't what he has come to ask about anyway. "Still have Schuldrich's cruel sense of humor, I see." the blonde sneers, but then smiles - genuinely - before leaning back against the storefront window beside his friend. "Look…I was just curious…well…about the other night…that first night you came back…and…the…umm…well..."

"The noises you heard coming from Ran's room?"

Youji coughs, unable to meet the red-head's smiling eyes. "Uhhh…maybe."

Thoroughly enjoying how he is so easily making Youji uncomfortable, Emery laughs at the playboy's expense and hops away from the window, veering around to bring them face to face. "I *thought* I sensed you outside the door that night, but I didn’t want to spoil the mood. Anyway, you can quell those hentai thoughts of yours, ‘cause nothing happened. I tried, believe me, but Dear Ran has some impressive willpower.”

Emery laughs heartily, and in no time at all, Youji is joining in. Truth be told, the two oldest members of this newly formed Weiss have quite a bit in common.

Too much according to most of their companions.

"What are you guys laughing about?" Ken questions, coming in through the door with a shake of his windblown hair. The young brunette has just returned from deliveries on his motorcycle. "Keep it up and Ran'll have your hides. I'd get back to work, if I were you."

"If you were me?" Emery shoots back. "I shudder at the thought, KenKen."

At the use of that barely tolerated nickname, Ken turns 50 shades of crimson. "Don't call me that! It makes me sound like I'm 4 years old, or something."

"Aww, the little Kaetzchen wants to be all grown up." Emery teases, speaking in a babyish voice and reaching over to ruffle Ken's hair. "But you’re such a cute little boy, KenKen. See what a mess you’ve made of yourself by being on your own?”

Moving his hand from the recently made snarls of Ken's hair - which is disarrayed because of forces beyond his control - Emery reaches down to pinch the brunette's cheek, causing the young man to groan and angrily push him away.

Youji joins the merciless German in laughing at their younger teammate, but their fun is soon interrupted.

"Would you two stop acting like idiots and get back to work!" booms a sudden and very menacing voice. "If I have to tell you one more time -"

"No sweat, liebe." Emery winks, sauntering seductively over to the irritated red-head that has appeared to ruin their fun. "I'll be happy to get back to work…for a kiss."

Do the others know about Emery and Ran? Check. Does Ran know they know? Not so much.

Emery laughs a very pleased, very soft and teasing, laugh in reaction to Ran’s white face turning so adorably pink. “Pretty please?” he pouts, pulling Ran close by grasping the waist of his pants. “I promise I’ll be on my best behavior the rest of the day.”

“That’s not saying much.” Youji laughs under his breath, thoroughly enjoying the show.

“Can it, Kudo.” Emery snarls, though he turns just as naughtily back to Ran as he had before. “Pucker up now, beautiful. I’m not a patient man.”

(Don’t worry. They know. I’m just making you sweat a little.) Emery sends into Ran’s mind, while wrapping his arms around the still pink and rather annoyed looking red-head. (A kiss isn’t too much to ask, is it?)

Ran seems as if he is about to protest, eyeing the three other members of Weiss who have gathered around to see just how amiable he is going to be about this. Then - to everyone’s surprise - he starts to lean in...

CRASH. No chance for a kiss. The moment is interrupted as something comes flying through the shop’s large, front window, shattering the glass in a million different directions.

Ran shields Emery instinctively, pulling both of them to the floor. The others dart off to the side, all managing to avoid being struck by flying glass, although the object that has caused all of this commotion, lands right beside Emery’s head.

An old cliché: a brick with a note. The original part, however, is that this particular note is tied to the brick with a yellow bandanna.

Jumping to his feet, Emery backpedals almost a mile, desperate to get away from what he knew he would eventually have to face, but what he isn’t prepared to deal with yet.

Slowly, the others pick themselves up from the floor and gather around as Ran retrieves the brick, carefully examining it.

“It’s from Brad.” Emery breathes, his face pale and oddly blank.

“How do you know?” Omi prompts softly, gazing up at his spooked friend in hopes that he can offer at least a little comfort.

Emery merely taps the side of his head. “He says ‘Hi’.”

With a stern look of his own, Ran carefully unties the bandanna and unwraps the note. He doesn’t read it, as tempted as he is, but hands it - and the familiar, yellow cloth - to Emery.

“What does it say?” Ken pipes in, after Emery had stared far too long, and with far too stricken features, at the note.

Straining his eyes, Emery uses all the strength he has to keep them from tearing up, and to keep his emotions from seeping into his voice. “It says...”

/I hope you’re happy with your choice, because you won’t be enjoying it much longer. Weiss was never a serious enough threat to get rid of before, but you’ve changed all that. Rest assured that we will kill every last one of them, and it will not be the quick deaths they may have been granted once before. I will personally make sure you are there to watch them die before we dispose of you, as well. That’s a promise, Schuldrich. Yes, I called you Schuldrich. Because that is who you are, and you can never go back. I am giving you one chance to return to Schwartz. Come tonight - with four dead bodies - and the insignificant part of you that has found remorse will not have to watch them suffer. Don’t, and we play this my way. The choice is yours./

“Signed...Crawford.” Emery adds with a bitter smile, holding the note limply in one hand, and his once treasured bandanna in the other.

Without a word, the fact that the shop still has a few hours to go before closing means absolutely nothing, as Youji moves to the front and pulls down the shutters. The broken window will have to wait.

After the shop is successfully locked up, everyone once again gathers around Emery, who has barely moved, and who can’t seem to unglue his eyes from the items in his hands.

“Emery...” Omi’s very small and very frightened voice breaks into the deafening quiet of the shop. “...you...you’re not going to kill us...are you...?”

In any other situation, Emery would have burst out laughing, but the sad truth is, he doesn’t find it very funny, because...he doesn’t know how to answer.

(I had a plan.) he reasons with himself, closing his eyes to keep out the piercing stares of his...possible friends. (I knew what I wanted, I took it, and I liked what it gave me. So...why do I find myself questioning my choice again?)

“Emery...?” Omi prompts again, sounding even more afraid than before, and with a quiver in his voice that betrays the presence of tears.

(Fuck. What am I supposed to do? Weiss is no match for Schwartz, no matter what side I’m on. Besides, a few days here, and permission from a computer screen to be apart of the group, doesn’t mean anything. Does it...?)

“Emery, please...say something.” Still Omi. Still desperate.

At last, Emery opens his eyes again and turns his head slowly to look down at the young blonde beside him. “Am I...going to kill you...?” he repeats, sounding very far away, as if watching himself speak. “I...I don’t...I’m not...”

“Turning on us now would be really bad karma, ya know?” Youji puts in, attempting humor, but meaning something far more serious.

“I...I just don’t know.” Emery finishes, clenching the note and bandanna so tight, the skin around his knuckles becomes whiter than Ran.

“Don’t you?” asks a deep voice from just behind him. Before Emery can turn, strong arms wrap around his waist and pull him back against a very firm body. “I won’t let you go. Not again. If you want out...then you’re going to have to kill me like he asked...because nothing else is going to get rid of me. And I know the same goes for the others. Right?”

“Damn straight, it does!” Ken announces proudly.

“Every word.” Youji grins.

Even Omi manages a slight smile through his lingering tears. “We won’t let you go without a fight.”

“Well you’re getting one!” Emery growls back, pushing Ran away and stumbling a few steps forward to distance himself from the group. “It was easy to choose you when I didn’t have to deal with them. But Brad is serious. Dead serious. If I don’t go...he’ll do things to you...you couldn’t even imagine. I don’t want that to happen-”

“What’s the difference?” Ken cuts in, clenching his fists almost as tightly as Emery. “If you stay and we lose, we’re dead. But if you go back, the only way he’s going to accept you is if you’ve got four heads in your back pocket. The difference, Em, is *you*. You are guaranteed survival if you turn on us, but you’re not if you stay. How can you refuse risking it all for that third possibility - we win and everyone lives?!”

“Because it’ll never happen!” Emery cries, throwing both the note and the bandanna to the floor. “We can’t win! We can’t.”

“So you’d rather save your own ass than try?” Youji sneers, unafraid as he stalks right up to Emery and glares emerald daggers into the blue. “You’d rather kill us yourself to save us from suffering, instead of trying to beat the odds by our side? You want that extra blood on your hands? You want to murder the first real friends you’ve ever had?”

“I..I don’t know...I just -”

(I love you.)

Emery stops dead, no longer able to think at all as that simple message booms into his mind. Still where Emery had left him after pushing away, Ran stands stone still, betraying nothing of his feelings on his face, but expressing them openly right where Emery can catch a glimpse.

“I...” he trails off, seeing nothing but Ran, and forgetting what he had been about to say.

(You heard me.) booms Ran’s inner voice once again. (I love you. And if I remember correctly, you said the same to me only a few nights ago. Did that mean nothing? I’m not trying to play the heartbroken romantic, because we never really promised anything, but didn’t saying all that mean something to you?)

(It meant everything to me!) Emery answers, half wanting to leap forward and dive into Ran’s arms. (I don’t want to sound like a sap either, but...it didn’t mean nothing.)

“Then choose us.” Ran pleads aloud. “Choose me. You’d be lying to yourself if you tried to go back and be Schuldrich now. We’re all willing to risk our lives for you. Is it so much to ask the same?”

Ouch. That’s a powerful blow. So what now? Choices...choices...choices. The only guarantee is that Emery will live if he does as Brad has demanded. Nothing else can be certain. But does nothing else matter? Is his own life the only thing he treasures?

Not anymore.

“It isn’t going to be easy.” Emery smiles, allowing his defenses to drop and pull in all the support around him.

“To hell with easy!” Ken shouts. “We’ll do whatever we have to.”

“And we won’t let them win no matter what!” Omi chimes in.

“Even if every odd is against us.” Youji grins next.

“And even if no one believes in us.” Ran finishes. “That is...except for each other.”

One thing about true friendship: it doesn’t know when to quit. Ever.

“Alright, boys.” Emery calls, leaving every ounce of doubt, regret, and fear behind. “Let’s go beat the odds.”


*****


Speaking of the odds, what of the other side? Weiss has made their choice, so how is Schwartz going to handle it? After all, they don’t need to wait for an answer. They have their very own glimpse into the future as the leader guiding them through this. So, what is their reaction to the end of their “family” as they have known it for so long?

“He can’t! He can’t choose them! It isn’t possible!” Brad screams, punching angrily at the wall in his bedroom. As was said, he didn’t have to wait all night for Schuldrich’s answer, because Emery’s choice came to him in a very unpleasant vision. “He knows where this will lead. He knows they stand no chance against us. Why would he throw his life away?!”

Brad isn’t addressing his question to anyone in particular, because as far as he knows, no one else is there. But someone *is* there. Someone who has become very good at remaining unnoticed.

The other members of Schwartz had been present when Brad’s vision of Schuldrich’s final betrayal struck him, but they quickly split off in different directions to deal with the news in their own ways.

Nagi, however, has no place to go, because in all truth and honesty, he isn’t upset that Schuldrich chose to stay as Emery. Of course he isn’t. He longs for the same freedom, even if he fears it will never be his.

Peering into Brad’s room through a crack in the door, Nagi watches his leader closely, with no need to vent himself, and discovers that the relief he had felt for Emery’s sake isn’t going to last.

“Weiss will pay dearly for this, but it will be nothing compared to what I do to him!”

Slam. Brad punches again, and Nagi flinches backwards into the hallway as if that fist had struck him. Nothing could ever change his mind from believing that Emery made the right decision, but it is a sour victory, because now they are enemies.

Slowly, but swift enough to quickly escape Brad’s continued cursing, Nagi makes his way to the end of the hall and descends the stairs that lead into the basement. Perhaps Farfarello is handling this better.

Sure he is.

Just as Nagi reaches the turn at the bottom of the steps, an inhuman howl erupts from Farfarello’s cell, almost forcing Nagi to sprint back up the way he came. But he doesn’t. His curiosity pushes him forward.

Farfarello is not yelling out threats and punching at his padded walls. Oh no. That would be far too normal of a reaction. The enraged albino is thrashing about his room, scraping his dagger along those walls instead, and panting wildly as he wears himself out through his crazed frenzy.

Nagi wouldn’t have dared to disturb Brad, because that would have been suicide. Why he thinks disturbing the deranged Irishman will be any different, is any one’s best guess.

“Farfarello...” he whispers, inching through the cell door.

The madman halts his assault on the cell instantly, and turns to glare back at Nagi with that single, piercing eye. “What do you want?” he barks, clenching his fingers around the dagger even more tightly than they had been before.

“I...I was just...” Nagi falters, at a loss for what he can possibly say. After all, as much as Schuldrich meant to Farfie, that connection only spurns more hatred now. “Nothing. Forget it.” And he turns around, heading right back up the stairs he so recently came down.

They don’t understand. Both are desperate to get their hands on Emery and choke the life out of who he has become. Nagi, however, wishes him all the happiness he himself can never have.

At first, the young brunette heads for his own room, but soon finds himself drawn to the one Schuldrich has left behind. It holds no mystery anymore, no life or style, simply because...what made it different from all the other rooms...is gone.

“I miss you.” Nagi breathes, closing the door behind him, and imagining that Schuldrich...no...that Emery is sitting on the bed. “I told you I’d miss you if you became *him*. But it feels so empty. They’re determined to destroy you, and...I don’t want to be apart of it. I have no quarrel with Weiss. I have no place here. But...I have no where else to go. Brad would find me anyway. He’d do worse things to me than he plans to do to you. Maybe...maybe I’m not meant to escape...like you did.”

By now, Nagi has seated himself on the bed, and speaks to the shadows as if they might just speak back. After all, every once in a while...they do.

“Maybe...I don’t get a second chance...”

(Everyone gets second chances, kid. Even screw ups like us.)

Nagi whirls around, searching the room for the source of that mental voice. But the room is empty.

(The way I see it, the only thing that can rob you of your second chances...is not believing in them.)

“Where are you...?” Nagi whispers frantically, darting from one corner of the room to another, and back again.

(Waiting for you. But you better hurry, ‘cause Brad’s about two seconds from realizing he’s gonna lose another one of his pawns.)

“You came back for me...?” Nagi asks with a strange, uncommon smile. “But...I can’t leave. What if -”

(What if you’re stuck there forever? What if you help them kill Weiss - kill me - only to end up killing your little girlfriend one day, too? Is that what you want your life to be?)

“But Weiss won’t...they...they’ll turn me away.”

(Oh really? And just who do you think’s in the car with me, huh? Did you expect me to get this close to the fire again without bringing a little protection? Now get a move on, kid. I’m not leaving without you.)

That’s all Nagi needed to hear.

Sprinting to the door, Nagi peers down the hallway - in one direction is Brad’s room and the stairway to Farfarello, in the other is the front door. For once, he knows exactly which direction he is going to take.

(Hey, Nagi? I’ve got one word for ya.)

“What’s that?” Nagi asks, halfway to the door that will lead him outside...to freedom.

(Run.)


*****owari*****