Disclaimer: Whew, I'm on a roll over here! Been writing like a maniac lately! ^^ So, anyway, these characters don't belong to me. Do we really need to say that? Oh, well - the fic looks kinda bare without these things up top. The characters belong to Take-san. 'Nuff said.

Silent Messiah
by Crystal Dawn Phoenix
Chapter One

The sound of keystrokes almost echoed in the cold, empty room. The black walls flecked with stars seemed to travel on forever. Those stars, white and far away and small, seemed to wink at the room's sole occupant. Whether it was a wink of understanding, or a wink of malice, he was never quite sure. Every so often, one would fall from the firmament and travel limitlessly down beneath his feet. The room gave the impression that one was floating in space.

And he was sure it was meant to give that impression of vertigo. What was up and what was down when you were suspended in the night sky, anyway? At any rate, he strove to ignore it, concentrating instead on the less mind-warping task on his computer screen.

The track lighting that served to give boundary to the stars at least kept the room from being engulfed in almost total darkness. For that much he was thankful - he didn't like reading from the screen in the dark.

He clicked and drug his mouse a few more times in rapid succession. Several keystrokes were entered impatiently. A firewall broke. Then another. Passwords were meaningless in his master hands.

Finally, the machine began to load a jpg file to accompany the page it was loading. When the picture was finished loading, he sat silently, staring at it and balking inside.

Her hair was different. That was the first thing he noticed. It was no longer bright, cotton candy blue. Now it was whitish blonde, the obvious effects of bleach. Even though the color was different, it was still the same style, the same two rabbit ears and chin-length bangs framing her face.

The information on the page indicated that the middle-aged man and woman standing with her were her new foster family. They had taken her in after the incident that had taken her first, more suitable family away from her. The state had placed her there, according to the page. He generally assumed that they had forced her to change her hair color when they took her in, too.

Something about this made him quietly furious. He knew that she was still too young to live on her own, but the fact that they had changed her somehow irritated him. From the look on the girl's face, he could also tell that she wasn't happy either. Her lips were turned up in a half-hearted smile, but her eyes seemed sad.

He could understand that. He was sure his own eyes were sad as well.

He sat staring at the screen, a strange feeling quietly rising inside. It ached dully and burned a bit, and he wondered why he'd been so compelled to get this information in the first place. So engulfed with the picture was he, that he didn't notice the small change in air circulation around his small corner of the room.

You want her back, don't you? a tinny voice spoke to him in the back of his mind. He didn't turn around or flinch. He knew who was there.

"What does it matter to you, Schuldich?" he asked coldly, closing the window on the computer.

The man standing behind him grinned an open-mouthed grin and folded his arms over his customary green jacket. His red sunglasses glinted from the top of his head in the dim light. His shaggy red hair stirred in the room's air conditioning. The look on his face spoke of self-satisfaction and cockiness.

"Now, is that any way to greet a friend?" Schuldich asked smoothly, "It was just a question. I was just curious to see what you were up to this late at night." The boy in question fidgeted with the display properties on his machine.

"I was bored," he replied simply. He hated having Schuldich nose around in his business. It always seemed as if he were mocking him. The worst part was the fact that there was nothing secret or sacred to the man. If he didn't tell him what he wanted to know, it was such a simple matter for him to pick his brain to find it. There were no locked doors to a telepath.

"Oh?" Schuldich replied, easing over beside the machine, "You've got school in the morning, you know. You've not even changed out of your uniform yet." He looked down. It was true; he hadn't changed out of his dark blue school uniform.

"If that's all you wanted to tell me, you can leave now," he replied evenly, wishing the other man would go away. Schuldich looked undeterred.

"I was just concerned about a young teammate, that's all," he replied, unfolding his arms and sliding one hand into his jacket pocket, "But the question still stands, Nagi. You want her back?" There was a condescending lilt to his voice as he said it. It was almost as if he were keeping the girl in the photo in a box in his closet and teasing Nagi with her. Inside, he stuffed his anger down. Outwardly, he sat still and calm. It was several minutes before he even thought about answering Schuldich.

"It doesn't matter," he said quietly, "She's gone now." He stated it matter-of-factly, but there was still a hint of sadness in his voice. He knew that Schuldich had picked up on it.

"But what if you could get her?" Schuldich asked, obviously a leading question, "Would you?" The smirk on his face belied the fact that he was definitely playing a game. Was he just trying to get him in trouble, or was there something else there?

"It doesn't matter, because I can't get to her," Nagi replied succinctly. He again wished that Schuldich would get tired or bored and move on.

"No, maybe not," Schuldich said slowly, giving Nagi a knowing smirk, "But I can." Nagi's heart almost stopped, but he didn't let it show; instead, he stared blankly ahead, analyzing what his teammate was saying.

"Why would you do something like that?" Nagi asked, directly to the point, "It's not like you care." Schuldich feigned hurt at this and covered his chest as if his heart had been wounded.

"I can't believe you would question my good intentions like that," Schuldich said sadly, "Besides, haven't you ever heard that you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth?" Obviously, he had his own reasons and didn't feel like sharing them.

"I don't trust you, and I don't believe you," Nagi said flatly, not even giving Schuldich the dignity of a sideways glance. Schuldich's cocky expression didn't leave him.

"I'll give you some time to think about it," he said, finally taking the hint that Nagi was tired of him, "You can tell me your answer when you're ready." It was obvious to Nagi that he'd already given him an answer. But he really couldn't have expected any other response from the man.

His footsteps sounded quietly against the floor as he left the room. Nagi looked over just to make sure he was gone, and then began shutting down the computer for the night.

'What is he playing at?' Nagi thought to himself, 'He wants something.' The computer bleeped once to signal that it was ready to be shut off, and Nagi pushed the power button that would silence it.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

The next morning was gray and overcast. Nagi sat in his seat in Math class, blankly staring out the window at the ground. He had picked a window seat because of its wonderful view, but today, it proved more distracting than just about anything. It occurred to him that if the teacher jumped up on his desk and began stripping, he probably wouldn't have noticed it. Which was probably a good thing, considering the teacher was a scrawny, balding, 50-some-odd year old man.

Pushing that thought out of his mind, he went back to concentrating on the problem at hand. Schuldich. Was he serious last night? What if he was? What would be the consequences? Nagi chewed his pencil's eraser in a nervous reaction as he looked out the window at the bleak morning. His dark brown bangs strayed into his eyes, desperately in need of a trim.

He brushed them away impatiently, blocking out the chatter of his classmates and the sound of his teacher. The chime sounded, signaling it was time for class to start. The den of his classmates settled out as they rose to greet their teacher. Nagi obliged mechanically, but without really paying much attention to what he was doing.

As soon as the class was seated, the teacher began to speak. Nagi blocked him out as well, instead concentrating on last night and trying to figure out exactly what was going on. He wished he had as good a head for strategy as Crawford - surely that would serve him here. He went right back to chewing the pencil, having become used to using it for a focus for his nervous energy.

Down on the ground, the steadily falling leaves captured his attention. The cool, damp wind had been blowing them loose for the past few days, but today it almost looked as if the leaves would create a storm of their own. The rain had not yet begun to fall, so they simply flew loose and airy and went wherever they pleased. From the window of the drab school building, they reminded Nagi of the sakura last spring, and how they had fallen like snow.

But the sakura had long since given way to simple green boughs, and now to dry, falling leaves. How long had it been? Four months? Six? And all he'd seen was a simple photo. His chest felt tight for a second.

Looking out at the brick wall that separated the school from the street, he thought he saw something for a second. It was yellow and satiny. He blinked in disbelief as the pale yellow dome bobbed up and down on the other side of the fence. He waited, holding his breath, for the bearer of the umbrella to reach the school's fence so he could get a better look at them. Was it...?

No, no such luck. It was simply a young, black haired woman and a small child, carrying a large yellow umbrella to keep the sprinkles away. Inside, Nagi admonished himself for getting his hopes up, but didn't take his eyes away from the window.

"Hey, wake up, fag," the boy sitting beside him said loudly enough to break Nagi's reverie, punching him on the arm as he did so, "Sensei's talking to you." It was Kawatani, a youth with military-cropped black hair and a reputation as a jock. Nagi recoiled from the strike and wished fervently that he could risk using his telekinesis in public. Instead, he made note that when Schwarz finally did attain their goals, Kawatani would be one of the first people to get it.
Nagi looked up to see his Math teacher, Yamabayashi-sensei, looking at him expectantly. He cleared his throat and tried to retain his dignity.

"What was the question again, sensei?" he asked quietly.

"Give us the answer to the logarithm in question number four on last night's homework, Naoe," sensei replied, "And give us an explanation of how you got it."

Nagi stood, picking up the book and homework in front of him, and read mechanically from it. For once, he projected his voice across the room, but it was still only barely audible to those sitting furthest from him. He thought he heard one or two of the more popular girls in the room stifle giggles as he read, but he ignored them, instead opting to scratch their names down with Kawatani's in the back of his brain.

As soon as he finished, he once again took his seat, placing his book in front of him. The teacher nodded his approval as he scratched down Nagi's answer on the blackboard, pointing out some tough areas that he expected the other students to have problems with. Nagi sighed to himself, and went back to looking out the window. Soon the falling leaves would be replaced with snow. Would she forget him by then?

He chewed the pencil again, realizing that he really had no choice in the matter. It was obvious that Schuldich's mind was already set - it was only a matter of time. Besides, he reasoned, would it really be that bad? He did want to see her again. Being able to keep her would only make it better.

He put down the pencil, noting that it looked as if a rabid dog had mauled it. He really had been deep in thought about all this. Then he looked back out the window, noting that the rain had begun to come down. The leaves outside continued to fall, bearing silent witness as Nagi made his decision.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

That night was much like any other night.

The rain fell heavily outside, soaking the already damp autumn ground, but Nagi couldn't hear it. He was inside the starry room again, typing away on his computer. Small earphones were tucked into his ears, playing something soft and sad by Akino Arai. It felt appropriate.

The other three had disappeared hours ago, leaving him to his own devices, as they often did. Crawford had presumably gone to make some contact with the remaining Estet or had gone off to plot in quiet somewhere. Farfarello was probably out killing something. And Schuldich...

'Where is he, anyway?' Nagi thought to himself, continuing to type, killing time until the other man arrived. He fully expected him to appear out of nowhere, much like Mephistopheles did to Faust. 'That's probably a very fitting analogy,' he thought to himself, 'He likes to characterize himself as a devil, anyway.'

"I think it's very fitting, too," a voice said from behind him, "Devils are very charming, aren't they?" Nagi didn't turn around. Instead, he paused the cd in his computer and took the earbuds out of his ears.

"I was wondering when you'd show up," he said, showing no emotion in the tone of his voice. Instead, he clicked a link on the computer screen and brought up a different page.

"You make me sound so predictable!" Schuldich said, once again playing hurt, "But I see that you've an answer for my proposal?" The smirk again. Nagi hated that smirk, especially when it was directed at him.

"Name your price," Nagi said, his voice low and defeated. He fully expected Schuldich to ask something horrible of him.

"Why don't we just say that you owe me one?" Schuldich said, winking, "I don't want repayment now. I'll get it later." If Nagi was suspicious that something was up before, he was certain of it now. Since when did Schuldich not want a set payment for such a daunting task? Nagi clenched his teeth and screwed his eyes shut.

"What are you playing at, Schuldich?" Nagi asked, not really expecting an answer this time, either. Schuldich shrugged and turned to leave.

"Well, if you don't want what I'm offering you," he said, obviously baiting Nagi, "I'll just go away." Nagi was becoming so frustrated that he wanted to pull his hair. Instead, he restrained himself and called the other man back.

"I didn't say that," he said firmly, holding his breath and not wanting to have to speak again. He knew what the next words out of his mouth had to be. The pause seemed to drag on forever as Schuldich stood there, waiting patiently for what he wanted to hear.

"Do it," Nagi finally gave over, hanging his head in defeat, "Get her." Schuldich grinned triumphantly, perhaps even with a little touch of the sinister, as he turned to leave. Somewhere inside, Nagi half-expected Schuldich to disappear in a puff of fire and brimstone. Instead, he just walked out the door.

The door snapped shut, leaving Nagi to look at his computer screen. Soundlessly, he hung his head, directing his gaze downward onto the desk and at his hands. There was no way to tell exactly how Schuldich planned to extricate the girl from her new family, or how he intended to get her here. Worse, Nagi felt that the payment he wanted would be even more terrible than if he'd asked for it up front.

"What have I done?" he asked himself.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Another bleak, dreary, late fall day passed quietly. The rain didn't stop; instead, it drizzled all day, creating an invariably overcast, dim atmosphere. Nagi somehow appreciated this. It seemed to make the day go by faster.

The night was much like the one before, and the one before that. He sat alone, bleary eyed, at his computer, typing away. He tried to rationalize to himself exactly how he had allowed Schuldich to wrest his approval out of him. When he got right down to it, he could only think of it as kidnapping, though. What if she didn't want to come here? What if he'd been wrong when he'd seen the picture? What if she was actually happy with her new family? The endless what-if's and questions raced through his head, disallowing him rest or peace. In fact, they were starting to make him dizzy.

One after the other, the questions marched through his brain. He tried to find quiet in the computer screen, but it just wasn't there tonight. And in the back of his mind, the last question - how long would it be before she was here?

"Yo," the familiar voice called from the other side of the room. Nagi didn't turn around this time, either, but at least it stopped a few of the loudest questions in his mind.

"What do you want this time?" he asked coldly, wishing he could just get rid of Schuldich for once and for all. The red haired man stood in the doorway, leaning lazily on the frame. He once again gave Nagi that wolfish grin.

"I've got something I want you to see," he said slyly, "Come on." Nagi's heart felt as though it had frozen for a second as he rose to join Schuldich in the doorway. He gave the older man a cold look as they walked through the door together.

Once into the hallway, though, the vertigo of space left them. The floors and walls were no longer speckled with stars; instead, they were dull beige carpeted and faux wood grain paneled. In an odd contrast to the room they'd just left, the rest of the house seemed entirely normal. More than once, Nagi had been forced to wonder if the starry room really existed on this plane of reality at all, or if it was simply a dimension of its own.

Schuldich walked down the hallway, not turning to see that Nagi was following him. They moved three doors down and to the left from the door to the starry room, and then Schuldich stopped. It was Nagi's own room. Nagi gave him a suspicious look.

"Go in and look in your bed," Schuldich said, more of an order than a request. Nagi complied, but his look didn't falter. He turned the knob on the door, opening it slowly. The air in the room was stuffy from disuse. In truth, he only used his room to sleep, and even then he barely ever saw it. All it held was a chest of drawers with a small reading lamp on it, a table with a few books scattered across it, a gray sheeted bed, and a clothes hamper. The window was covered with a simple blind, drawn up so as not to let any light in or out.

The first thing he noticed was that the lamp on the dresser beside the bed had been turned on. Then his eyes followed the light, surveying what it rested against. There was someone laying in his bed.

Disbelief gripping him, he stepped forward to get a better look. A part of him even wanted to make sure he wasn't seeing things. No, there was definitely a girl laying in his bed.

"I took the liberty of having her hair turned blue again," Schuldich said, having sidled up behind him while he wasn't paying attention, "It was the most awful shade of blonde. Be glad you didn't have to see it in person." Nagi still couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Her foster parents?" he finally managed to choke out, "What about them?" Schuldich folded his arms and grinned again.

"What foster parents?" he asked slyly, "I'm sure they don't remember being her foster parents. But I'll leave deleting her social worker's files to you. You're good at that sort of thing." Nagi continued to stand over his bed, dumbfounded, watching the sleeping girl breathe heavily.

"Well, I'll leave the two of you alone," Schuldich said with a wink, "I'm sure you've got lots of catching up to do." He turned to go, but Nagi didn't reply. He was far too stunned to even think of a response. The door clicking behind him let him know that Schuldich was gone.

Slowly, afraid that if he moved too fast she would disappear, Nagi reached out to touch the girl in his bed. She was fast asleep, her chest moving deeply to each breath, her eyelashes resting against her cheeks. Not only had her hair been recolored, it had also been done up in her customary bunny ears as well. The covers were pulled up to her chin and she was on her back, an obvious sign that she hadn't merely fallen asleep - she had been rendered unconscious.

He stood over her, lightly touching her face, brushing his thumb over her cheek, then her lips. She sighed in her sleep, a good sign that she wasn't injured. Ever so slowly, he drew closer to her, her breath hitting his lips. It was warm and inviting and he hadn't felt it in so long. Closing his eyes, he kissed her softly, remembering how bittersweet it had been the last time they'd kissed.

Suddenly, he felt her moving, kissing him back. His eyes shot open as he pulled away, looking down at the blue haired girl in his bed. Her large, blue eyes were open now, and were regarding him with a look of wonder.

"Tot?" he asked softly, brushing some hair out of her face. She smiled brightly, a look of pure joy coloring her features.

"Nagi-kun!" she responded eagerly, sitting up with enough speed to make Nagi dizzy and throwing her arms around him. He noticed now that she was dressed in her favorite white blouse and pink skirt. Awkwardly, he wrapped his arms around her back, as well.

"I've missed you, Tot," he said softly, burying his face in her neck.