Title: A Matter of Time
Author: Anna Maxwell
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: The original characters of Weiß Kreuz do not belong to me. All original characters not in Weiß probably do.
Archive: Absolutely! Just email me at starchaser478@hotmail.com to ask me, and tell me where. (You can comment at that address as well.)
Don't forget to review. ^_~
Turn Back Time
Chapter One: Birth, Death, Time, and Other Impossible Entities
Bradley Crawford sat back and set his pen down after putting a blue 'x' through another day on his five-year calendar. He marked out the previous day every morning when he got to the office. It was a routine, it was habit, and it was comfortable to see the progression of the month. This month, May, was the hardest month of the year for him. All the children left for summer vacation, and the halls of Rosenkreuz were eerily silent. It made him feel old –older than forty-eight- and every year he dreaded it. Not to mention the fact that in five days it would be the twenty-first, and it would signal the day his life changed twenty years before. Almost like an anniversary.
He sighed but gave a slightly lopsided smile as he surveyed his office. Eighteen years ago he'd come back to Rosenkreuz and slowly taken it over. It's abusive, power hungry headmaster had been the last man he'd ever killed, but it was a death he could live with. He'd announced to the student body the next day that he was the new headmaster, and things would be different from then on. Brad had quickly weeded out the students who were to tightly tied to the old way of things and moved them away. He made several changes to the cirriculum and brought new students in. It had taken some time and adjusting, but Brad Crawford had made it a haven for 'gifted' children instead of a hell on earth. He was rather proud of his project.
The American moved a picture of a dark haired little girl back into perfect symmetry on his desk and smiled again. She had come along eighteen years ago as well. Her parents had left her to the faculty of Rosenkreuz right before his arrival. After he had replaced all of the staff, he found out that her parents were dead, and that the child had no name. Seeing no other option, he adopted the girl and named her Lai.
Lai had been a mystery from the beginning. She looked like him, with straight black hair, bright blue eyes, frameless glasses, and a gift for the future. But Brad had figured out early on that clairvoyancy was not the child's foremost talent. It was secondary, as if it were a part of her main ability. When he had been a victim of her ability and realized what it was, he had to wonder if she was the only one in the world. She would be eighteen in summer and that meant she did not have to come back to Rosenkreuz in the fall.
His eyes fell back the calendar and he frowned. He picked up his red pen, which had lain exactly parallel to the blue one, and circled the twenty-first in the piercing color. He counted the days again. Five, he mused. "Twenty years," he murmured. And still he was haunted by images from that day.
A knock interrupted his reverie. He glanced up.
"Enter."
A student aid opened the door. "I beg your pardon, Herr Crawford. I know you do not wish to be disturbed during this time."
He waved it off. "It's no matter. What can I do for you?"
"Herr Naoe is here to see you."
"Show him in." Crawford said. Nagi Naoe dropping by was quite a rarity indeed. He had become very successful in his Internet security company.
A very grown up Nagi stepped into the office as the aid left. He grinned at his former leader. "It's been a while, ne, Crawford?"
Brad stood and they shook hands over the desk. He motioned for the younger man to sit and they both did. "An understatement. I haven't seen you in what, five years? Your son brings pictures when he comes back during the term. Come to make sure we're training him right, have you?"
Nagi laughed easily. "I'm sure you're doing a fine job. He was much more relaxed than ever before on his last break. He had me worried, you know. He's just like me when I was younger. Serious, brooding, passive. I realize what a handful you had."
"We turned out all right, I think." Crawford said.
"Yeah. I never could find Farfarello, though."
Crawford stood and poured them both drinks. "I think he's happier, wherever he wound up. I think he finally realized hurting God wasn't everything."
Nagi nodded and took the drink he was handed. "So what's Lai going to do? She's graduated, isn't she?"
Brad nodded. "Yes. I don't think she plans to come back for advanced classes. I'm going to take her to Tokyo over the summer, maybe find her an internship there. We went a few years ago; she enjoyed it. What are you and your family going to do this summer?"
Nagi grinned. "Yushimi and I thought that since Yui is ten and not quite as dark tempered, we'd take him to Disney World."
Crawford stared at him before laughing. "Just make sure he doesn't 'enhance' the effect of the rides like you did the time we went to that carnival."
Nagi pretended to look hurt. "Doshite? Wasn't it fun?"
He laughed again. "Loads, all though we were all planning to kill you."
The Japanese boy laughed. "Yeah, and Schuldig was threatening to scramble any noticeable brainwaves I ever had if I didn't let him off."
Crawford smiled, but his face lost all expression, as he happened to glance at the calendar. Nagi looked at him.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"
"No, no. I don't know why it still bothers me."
Nagi and Brad both knew it was a lie as they stared at each other. The door flew open.
"Oi! Otousan! The bus…. ah! Gomen ne, I didn't know you had company." The flustered girl stated as she backed out of the door.
Brad waved her in. "Lai, this is Herr Naoe."
Recognition sparked across her face. "Ah! It's a pleasure to meet you, Herr Naoe. Daddy's told me a lot about you, and Yui too."
"Nagi, my daughter, Lai."
Nagi stood and the two exchanged normal Japanese greetings. He turned to Crawford. "I'd better be going. I promised Yui I'd take him to lunch. Listen, we're staying in a hotel outside of Berlin until school gets out in two weeks. We should have dinner sometime. Yushimi would love to meet you."
Crawford nodded and shook his hand again. "I'd love to. Give me a call anytime. It was good to see you."
"Hai, you too. Ja ne, Crawford."
"Ja, Nagi."
"It was nice meeting you, Lai."
"You too, Herr Naoe."
With a final wave, the youngest ex-member of Schwarz was gone.
Crawford smiled. "What were you saying about a bus, Lai-chan?"
Lai was still staring after Nagi. "Wow, Yui looks like his dad."
Brad rolled his eyes. "Lai, darling, a bus?"
She looked at him. "Oi! Hai! The buses with the summer guests arrive in half an hour." She said with a smile.
Brad stared at her. "Tell me you're kidding."
"Iie, the driver called."
"They aren't supposed to be here for two more days! What happened to the layover in Paris?" the American said.
"The hotel misplaced the reservations. No layover. Gomen nasai, otousan."
Brad flopped down in his chair. "I'll have to compensate with room arrangements. Half the rooms we need won't be ready."
"Open the lower east wing." Lai said, lying haphazardly in the chair across from him.
"Absolutely not."
"Daaaad. They were isolation rooms once, but they aren't anymore. They have windows and everything. All they need is a little cleaning and some decorating. We can do that in half an hour. Especially with the telekenetics."
He relented. He had put off renovating the lower east wing for quite a while. He knew a lot about that wing that others did not. It was time to move on, he decided. "Very well, Lai. If you can do it, go for it."
"Hai! Arigato, otousan!" she was out of the room in a flash.
Thankfully, the busses were fifteen minutes late, giving Lai time to complete her project. She had enlisted the help of several students not in class, and they had the lower east wing cleaned up in no time. She now stood at the end of the hall, eyeing the line of dorm rooms critically. Everything had to be just right, or it wasn't fit for her father's standards of perfection. It was something she picked up from him.
A young girl dashed into the hall, tapping her on the shoulder. "Ne, Lai-chan! They've arrived."
Lai gave the hall once last glance over and nodded. "Good. Tell my father, would you? I have some work to do in the library."
"Hai, Lai-chan!" the second year student dashed away again.
Lai brushed a lock of hair out of her face and went up to the library. She did have work to do, but it also offered the best view of where the busses came in and the students that came in on them. She sat in the window seat and stared down at the parking lot. And in three, two, one…
The first bus pulled into the driveway. This would be the younger kids, she knew. They'd be staying the other halls. They piled out of the bus, abandoning the majority of their luggage in their excitement to get inside. She grinned to herself. She knew there had been a time when the children had been dragged through the gates and kept in by bars and guns, but now they were happy to be here.
Lai watched the second bus pull up and the older kids get out. They weren't as gung-ho about it, but they were glad too. She waited until all of them were off and stood up from her perch. An image danced in her head, which made her look back outside. Sure enough, one more boy got off the second bus. Lai sucked in her breath.
His deep chestnut brown hair fell a little past his ears and his dark hazel eyes glittered in the sunlight. /He's beautiful, / Lai thought.
Then he looked up at her. She jolted and backed away from the window, hiding in the shadow of a library stack. He continued to gaze upward for a moment, before catching his bag from another student. Lai watched him until he vanished into the building.
She caught an image and spoke just before Crawford walked up behind her. "I didn't think we were getting any students over sixteen this year."
"Just one. An American, if I remember his papers correctly. He's nineteen. He's already finished high school, but he's never had training for mental barriers and whatnot. Just what he's done on his own."
"What ability does he have?"
"He was listed as a telepath." Crawford replied quietly.
"What's his name?"
"He calls himself Hitner."
Lai looked surprised. "An American with a one word German name?"
Crawford shrugged. "You're a German with one word Chinese name."
"Touché."
"I'm afraid I'll have to postpone our Tokyo trip for about two weeks. I want to be here as the kids settle in, and I just have a funny feeling about leaving to soon." Crawford said.
"A vision?"
"Iie, just intuition."
"Can I ask a question, otousan?"
"Of course."
"Why did you never get married?" Lai had been meaning to ask for quite some time. Growing up, she had thought it was natural for every child only to have one parent. She had only realized that most kids had a married mother and father (or divorced mother and father) when she had befriended Yui. Yui talked about his mother and father a lot. He asked her once why she didn't have one and she had told him she didn't know.
Brad paused. He knew the question had been coming. He just never thought of an answer to give the girl. "I suppose I always felt guilty." He replied softly in German.
Lai accepted the answer, noting the accent on 'guilty.' She knew more about her father's past than he thought, but only because of her ability to see the past, present, and future, and her ability to control time. She knew of his time in Schwarz, and that Nagi was one of four, but she had never been able to get clear pictures on the rest of that time. It was well guarded in her father, and since he had never worked on strengthening that aspect of her mental control, she hadn't been able to dig any farther. It bugged her.
"I have to give orientation. Would you like to be there?" Brad asked.
"Sure!" Lai nodded enthusiastically.
All through opening orientation, Hitner stared blankly at the platform, ignoring anything Brad Crawford was saying. He really didn't want to be here, there was nothing these people could do for him that he couldn't do for himself. He didn't encounter that many other people that could pry into his brain. But for some strange reason, he found himself drawn to the offer that showed up in his mailbox one day. All he had to do was show up. He didn't even have to pay. So he went.
And now he was completely bored. He pried into most of the little kids thoughts, which wasn't drop dead exciting, and the older kids were the same. They were all pretty much gripped by what the man in front of them had to say. That's when he saw her. The girl that had been watching him from the window. She was sitting on a chair amidst other faculty members of the school, smiling diplomatically. He tried prying into her brain. No avail. She had mental shields that he had never encountered before. Maybe this place was worth something.
Lai felt someone watching her. Not just watching her either. She was getting the feeling she got when she instructed the second grade swim class of telepaths. Prying, eager little minds trying to read her and dig up memories. She had always been wary of telepaths. She scanned the room, keeping a smile on her face, until her gaze landed on him.
Their eyes locked and time slowed to a stop.
Quite literally.
Author: Anna Maxwell
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: The original characters of Weiß Kreuz do not belong to me. All original characters not in Weiß probably do.
Archive: Absolutely! Just email me at starchaser478@hotmail.com to ask me, and tell me where. (You can comment at that address as well.)
Don't forget to review. ^_~
Turn Back Time
Chapter One: Birth, Death, Time, and Other Impossible Entities
Bradley Crawford sat back and set his pen down after putting a blue 'x' through another day on his five-year calendar. He marked out the previous day every morning when he got to the office. It was a routine, it was habit, and it was comfortable to see the progression of the month. This month, May, was the hardest month of the year for him. All the children left for summer vacation, and the halls of Rosenkreuz were eerily silent. It made him feel old –older than forty-eight- and every year he dreaded it. Not to mention the fact that in five days it would be the twenty-first, and it would signal the day his life changed twenty years before. Almost like an anniversary.
He sighed but gave a slightly lopsided smile as he surveyed his office. Eighteen years ago he'd come back to Rosenkreuz and slowly taken it over. It's abusive, power hungry headmaster had been the last man he'd ever killed, but it was a death he could live with. He'd announced to the student body the next day that he was the new headmaster, and things would be different from then on. Brad had quickly weeded out the students who were to tightly tied to the old way of things and moved them away. He made several changes to the cirriculum and brought new students in. It had taken some time and adjusting, but Brad Crawford had made it a haven for 'gifted' children instead of a hell on earth. He was rather proud of his project.
The American moved a picture of a dark haired little girl back into perfect symmetry on his desk and smiled again. She had come along eighteen years ago as well. Her parents had left her to the faculty of Rosenkreuz right before his arrival. After he had replaced all of the staff, he found out that her parents were dead, and that the child had no name. Seeing no other option, he adopted the girl and named her Lai.
Lai had been a mystery from the beginning. She looked like him, with straight black hair, bright blue eyes, frameless glasses, and a gift for the future. But Brad had figured out early on that clairvoyancy was not the child's foremost talent. It was secondary, as if it were a part of her main ability. When he had been a victim of her ability and realized what it was, he had to wonder if she was the only one in the world. She would be eighteen in summer and that meant she did not have to come back to Rosenkreuz in the fall.
His eyes fell back the calendar and he frowned. He picked up his red pen, which had lain exactly parallel to the blue one, and circled the twenty-first in the piercing color. He counted the days again. Five, he mused. "Twenty years," he murmured. And still he was haunted by images from that day.
A knock interrupted his reverie. He glanced up.
"Enter."
A student aid opened the door. "I beg your pardon, Herr Crawford. I know you do not wish to be disturbed during this time."
He waved it off. "It's no matter. What can I do for you?"
"Herr Naoe is here to see you."
"Show him in." Crawford said. Nagi Naoe dropping by was quite a rarity indeed. He had become very successful in his Internet security company.
A very grown up Nagi stepped into the office as the aid left. He grinned at his former leader. "It's been a while, ne, Crawford?"
Brad stood and they shook hands over the desk. He motioned for the younger man to sit and they both did. "An understatement. I haven't seen you in what, five years? Your son brings pictures when he comes back during the term. Come to make sure we're training him right, have you?"
Nagi laughed easily. "I'm sure you're doing a fine job. He was much more relaxed than ever before on his last break. He had me worried, you know. He's just like me when I was younger. Serious, brooding, passive. I realize what a handful you had."
"We turned out all right, I think." Crawford said.
"Yeah. I never could find Farfarello, though."
Crawford stood and poured them both drinks. "I think he's happier, wherever he wound up. I think he finally realized hurting God wasn't everything."
Nagi nodded and took the drink he was handed. "So what's Lai going to do? She's graduated, isn't she?"
Brad nodded. "Yes. I don't think she plans to come back for advanced classes. I'm going to take her to Tokyo over the summer, maybe find her an internship there. We went a few years ago; she enjoyed it. What are you and your family going to do this summer?"
Nagi grinned. "Yushimi and I thought that since Yui is ten and not quite as dark tempered, we'd take him to Disney World."
Crawford stared at him before laughing. "Just make sure he doesn't 'enhance' the effect of the rides like you did the time we went to that carnival."
Nagi pretended to look hurt. "Doshite? Wasn't it fun?"
He laughed again. "Loads, all though we were all planning to kill you."
The Japanese boy laughed. "Yeah, and Schuldig was threatening to scramble any noticeable brainwaves I ever had if I didn't let him off."
Crawford smiled, but his face lost all expression, as he happened to glance at the calendar. Nagi looked at him.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"
"No, no. I don't know why it still bothers me."
Nagi and Brad both knew it was a lie as they stared at each other. The door flew open.
"Oi! Otousan! The bus…. ah! Gomen ne, I didn't know you had company." The flustered girl stated as she backed out of the door.
Brad waved her in. "Lai, this is Herr Naoe."
Recognition sparked across her face. "Ah! It's a pleasure to meet you, Herr Naoe. Daddy's told me a lot about you, and Yui too."
"Nagi, my daughter, Lai."
Nagi stood and the two exchanged normal Japanese greetings. He turned to Crawford. "I'd better be going. I promised Yui I'd take him to lunch. Listen, we're staying in a hotel outside of Berlin until school gets out in two weeks. We should have dinner sometime. Yushimi would love to meet you."
Crawford nodded and shook his hand again. "I'd love to. Give me a call anytime. It was good to see you."
"Hai, you too. Ja ne, Crawford."
"Ja, Nagi."
"It was nice meeting you, Lai."
"You too, Herr Naoe."
With a final wave, the youngest ex-member of Schwarz was gone.
Crawford smiled. "What were you saying about a bus, Lai-chan?"
Lai was still staring after Nagi. "Wow, Yui looks like his dad."
Brad rolled his eyes. "Lai, darling, a bus?"
She looked at him. "Oi! Hai! The buses with the summer guests arrive in half an hour." She said with a smile.
Brad stared at her. "Tell me you're kidding."
"Iie, the driver called."
"They aren't supposed to be here for two more days! What happened to the layover in Paris?" the American said.
"The hotel misplaced the reservations. No layover. Gomen nasai, otousan."
Brad flopped down in his chair. "I'll have to compensate with room arrangements. Half the rooms we need won't be ready."
"Open the lower east wing." Lai said, lying haphazardly in the chair across from him.
"Absolutely not."
"Daaaad. They were isolation rooms once, but they aren't anymore. They have windows and everything. All they need is a little cleaning and some decorating. We can do that in half an hour. Especially with the telekenetics."
He relented. He had put off renovating the lower east wing for quite a while. He knew a lot about that wing that others did not. It was time to move on, he decided. "Very well, Lai. If you can do it, go for it."
"Hai! Arigato, otousan!" she was out of the room in a flash.
Thankfully, the busses were fifteen minutes late, giving Lai time to complete her project. She had enlisted the help of several students not in class, and they had the lower east wing cleaned up in no time. She now stood at the end of the hall, eyeing the line of dorm rooms critically. Everything had to be just right, or it wasn't fit for her father's standards of perfection. It was something she picked up from him.
A young girl dashed into the hall, tapping her on the shoulder. "Ne, Lai-chan! They've arrived."
Lai gave the hall once last glance over and nodded. "Good. Tell my father, would you? I have some work to do in the library."
"Hai, Lai-chan!" the second year student dashed away again.
Lai brushed a lock of hair out of her face and went up to the library. She did have work to do, but it also offered the best view of where the busses came in and the students that came in on them. She sat in the window seat and stared down at the parking lot. And in three, two, one…
The first bus pulled into the driveway. This would be the younger kids, she knew. They'd be staying the other halls. They piled out of the bus, abandoning the majority of their luggage in their excitement to get inside. She grinned to herself. She knew there had been a time when the children had been dragged through the gates and kept in by bars and guns, but now they were happy to be here.
Lai watched the second bus pull up and the older kids get out. They weren't as gung-ho about it, but they were glad too. She waited until all of them were off and stood up from her perch. An image danced in her head, which made her look back outside. Sure enough, one more boy got off the second bus. Lai sucked in her breath.
His deep chestnut brown hair fell a little past his ears and his dark hazel eyes glittered in the sunlight. /He's beautiful, / Lai thought.
Then he looked up at her. She jolted and backed away from the window, hiding in the shadow of a library stack. He continued to gaze upward for a moment, before catching his bag from another student. Lai watched him until he vanished into the building.
She caught an image and spoke just before Crawford walked up behind her. "I didn't think we were getting any students over sixteen this year."
"Just one. An American, if I remember his papers correctly. He's nineteen. He's already finished high school, but he's never had training for mental barriers and whatnot. Just what he's done on his own."
"What ability does he have?"
"He was listed as a telepath." Crawford replied quietly.
"What's his name?"
"He calls himself Hitner."
Lai looked surprised. "An American with a one word German name?"
Crawford shrugged. "You're a German with one word Chinese name."
"Touché."
"I'm afraid I'll have to postpone our Tokyo trip for about two weeks. I want to be here as the kids settle in, and I just have a funny feeling about leaving to soon." Crawford said.
"A vision?"
"Iie, just intuition."
"Can I ask a question, otousan?"
"Of course."
"Why did you never get married?" Lai had been meaning to ask for quite some time. Growing up, she had thought it was natural for every child only to have one parent. She had only realized that most kids had a married mother and father (or divorced mother and father) when she had befriended Yui. Yui talked about his mother and father a lot. He asked her once why she didn't have one and she had told him she didn't know.
Brad paused. He knew the question had been coming. He just never thought of an answer to give the girl. "I suppose I always felt guilty." He replied softly in German.
Lai accepted the answer, noting the accent on 'guilty.' She knew more about her father's past than he thought, but only because of her ability to see the past, present, and future, and her ability to control time. She knew of his time in Schwarz, and that Nagi was one of four, but she had never been able to get clear pictures on the rest of that time. It was well guarded in her father, and since he had never worked on strengthening that aspect of her mental control, she hadn't been able to dig any farther. It bugged her.
"I have to give orientation. Would you like to be there?" Brad asked.
"Sure!" Lai nodded enthusiastically.
All through opening orientation, Hitner stared blankly at the platform, ignoring anything Brad Crawford was saying. He really didn't want to be here, there was nothing these people could do for him that he couldn't do for himself. He didn't encounter that many other people that could pry into his brain. But for some strange reason, he found himself drawn to the offer that showed up in his mailbox one day. All he had to do was show up. He didn't even have to pay. So he went.
And now he was completely bored. He pried into most of the little kids thoughts, which wasn't drop dead exciting, and the older kids were the same. They were all pretty much gripped by what the man in front of them had to say. That's when he saw her. The girl that had been watching him from the window. She was sitting on a chair amidst other faculty members of the school, smiling diplomatically. He tried prying into her brain. No avail. She had mental shields that he had never encountered before. Maybe this place was worth something.
Lai felt someone watching her. Not just watching her either. She was getting the feeling she got when she instructed the second grade swim class of telepaths. Prying, eager little minds trying to read her and dig up memories. She had always been wary of telepaths. She scanned the room, keeping a smile on her face, until her gaze landed on him.
Their eyes locked and time slowed to a stop.
Quite literally.