Prologue : The Beginning...
"GET OUT! HURRY!" Omi winced at Ken's scream, magnified through the mics they used on missions. He couldn't move; he was trapped under something, and it was cutting off circulation to his legs. Sighing, he shook his head. "I'm out, guys. Meet back at the shop!" he lied easily, not wanting any of his team-mates to worry about him until after they were safe.
"Liar," came a small voice. Omi jumped, and looked around. A familiar blue-clad figure stood there, and Omi sighed again. Schwarz. Figures.
"What do you want?" he asked resigned to a painful death. The youngest assassin dropped down into a crouch beside him.
"Why aren't you leaving?" he wanted to know. Omi blinked at him. /What is going on here? I must be dead already. Schwarz is being civil./
"I can't move. I'm stuck under this rock. And even if I wasn't, I wouldn't be able to get out in time anyway. Why aren't you? If you hadn't noticed, the building's coming down around us."
"What's your name?" He asked, his voice gentle, and quiet. He didn't expect him to have such a pleasant voice. He'd never heard the other boy speak before. The telepath's voice was raucous, and annoying. The white-haired demon had a voice that sent shivers down his spine.
"Omi." Omi said, closing his eyes.
"Omi..." He repeated.
"Are you leaving? You're going to die as well if you don't. No sense in both of us dying needlessly." Omi said, wondering why he was still there.
"No, Omi. I'm not leaving." He had a small... smile? Omi blinked, squinting in the near darkness.
"Are you insane?" Omi wanted to know.
"No. I'm Nagi." It took him a moment to figure this out. /Why is he doing this/
"Nagi? Is that your name?" he asked stupidly, and Schwarz nodded. "Why are you telling me this?" he wanted to know.
"Because, Omi." Omi felt shivers run down his spine when Nagi said his name. "I wanted to."
"You idiot!" Omi shouted suddenly, pushing him. "Get out of here, and stop playing games." Nagi fell back off his feet to his butt with a small 'oof'. Omi realized what he'd done when Nagi sat on the ground looking around, looking clueless. "I'm sorry," Omi said, wondering if Nagi was going to kill him. In fact, Nagi started laughing. /He's lost it/ Omi thought, leaning away from him. Standing, Nagi was still chuckling. He held his hand out, a familiar gesture, and Omi waited for the pain of whatever Nagi had planned for him.
What he wasn't expecting was for the weight of the stone lying across his legs to lift. With a tremendous CRACK the stone fell apart, and he was freed. Climbing slowly to his feet, he swayed slightly, and watched Nagi get his bearings back. /I wonder what it's like to control power like that.../ he wondered briefly, and then Nagi took his hand and began pulling him. They ran, dodging smaller pieces, and Nagi's powers kept the larger pieces from coming near them. "Why are you helping me?" Omi shouted, over the din of the collapsing building.
"Shut up, Omi, and RUN!" Nagi shouted back. Omi obliged.
Omi could see the door that lead outside the building, to safety. His legs felt like heavy wooden blocks, and there was a pain in his side from running. /Just a little farther.../ he heard someone call out Nagi's name, and then something struck him on the back of the head, sending him flying.
Nagi'd let go of his hand moments earlier, and didn't see him go down.
---
Outside, Nagi collapsed onto the ground, breathing hard. He watched the building fall, and covered his mouth to prevent from breathing in the dust. Schuldig smacked the back of his head. "ARE YOU CRAZY? You could have both been killed!" he said. Nagi glanced up at him.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you cared." he said, coughing. Now that he could breathe, he looked around. "Where's Omi?"
"Finally got his name, did you?" Schuldig asked. "I could have told you, but NOOOO. You had to hear it from HIM." Nagi took a swipe at him. "Where is he?" Schuldig shrugged.
"You were the only one who came out." Nagi paled and looked back at the building. He'd tried SO hard, too!
---
"He wasn't supposed to die," Nagi told Crawford later that night. "You told me he wouldn't die." Crawford shrugged.
"He tripped. I didn't know he was going to until a few seconds before he did. What did you want me to do?"
Nagi sat in his room for a long time, thinking about the littlest Weiss. With his blonde hair and bright smiles, he was the one that frequently haunted his thoughts. He knew his story; he knew everyone in Weiss' story. But Omi's fascinated him. How could one person go through SO much, and still... SMILE... that way? Nagi hadn't gone through but a fraction of what Omi could, and he never found reason to smile. Except... earlier... when Omi had pushed him. It made him laugh. Omi's expression had been priceless. Nagi chuckled, remembering, and then sobered as he realized that Omi would never smile again. He was dead, crushed, perhaps, under the hundreds of tons of concrete that had fallen on them. That thought made him almost sad. The idea that something so beautiful was gone was ... depressing.
----
A heavy rain had begun shortly after everyone was away, drenching the dead bodies of hundred's of employees. Weiss met outside their shop and realized that Omi was not among them, and was not answering the radio calls.
They stood in shock for a while, disbelieving. Omi... dead. It couldn't have happened. Not to the youngest of them. Yohji was supposed to die first, Yohji who had seen more of the world than any of them. Yohji who'd had everything and lost it all. Or Aya, who had no reason to go on now that his sister was safely in college, living her own life. Omi was young, Omi had a future. He couldn't be dead. Ken started punching the wall.
"It's not true! He's not! HE'S NOT!"
----
A homeless man was scouring through the wreckage of the building. Cops were everywhere, but they were on the other side. He thought he'd seen... AhA! Something moved; someone was still alive. He started digging, and pulled an attractive blonde boy out from the rubble. He was covered in blood, but he was breathing. /This is who they've been looking for/ he realized. A week ago, he'd been hired by a group of men to kidnap pretty boys. They gave him more money than he'd ever seen in his life just for agreeing, and promised him more if they were satisfied with the boys he brought, and he gladly did this for them. They had requirements, though. Sometimes they wanted fat boys, sometimes skinny. Sometimes brown haired, sometimes red. Their newest request was a beautiful blonde boy, preferably with blue eyes. The hobo checked his eyes, and smirked when he saw that they were an oceanic blue. /Perfect./ Looking around, he scurried away, his prize tucked in his arms.
----
Hmm... this kinda sprang up out of nowhere, but i WILL finish it! i won't abandon it. Then i'll start working on some of my older things that need updating, like Accidentally in Love. ehehe...