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SHADOWS OF THE ENEMY
by Phantom Sunstorm
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Give to me all the nothingness in your head
The day in done, darkness won
They think we're better off dead
My time has expired, I'm leaving now
we'll burn in the fire, together somehow
You'll figure this out
Sometime today
My luck has run out anyway.
-- "Escape Fatality"
by Northern Poets,
Sagi at the Rhine.
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Kudoh Yohji's Thoughts on Life...
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I don't even know if there is a god...
To me, Irony is a living force. Irony, with a big capital Important "I". Maybe that's something I should pray too. Maybe that's something worth believing in.
I never had a reason to be a man of faith, not after all the things I've seen. I never had a desire to cling to something called hope or immortality or redemption. If this life is followed by a void of nothingness and destruction I would welcome it openly. Tch' I know I wouldn't make it to heaven anyway. If one existed.
Besides, I know what happens when people put too much faith in god. When their belief becomes something that festers and consumes every part of their life. That's what happened to that Irish nut bastard from Schwartz, isn't it? That's his story, am I right? The devoted Catholic forsaken by everything he ever put faith in.
I guess I'd go crazy too if that happened to me.
Funny how I'm thinking of Them after all these years. Them, with a big capital Terrible "T".
Them, whos whispers and manipulation still haunt Omi's dreams, side-by-side with the blooddrenched nightmares about his family. About his whole terrible, morbidly Ironic life. And I thought I was cursed. Them, we aren't even allowed to say Their name in front of Ran. Not after what they tried to do to Aya, what they tried to do to Sakura. They're like ghosts to us, living, breathing demons that shadow our every footsteps. Ken can't even see the color black without tightening his fist and clenching his jaw.
We only knew them for a few brief months, months that seemed to stretch on into eternity, and... and they left such an impact on us.
I guess its man's folly to think of himself as immortal. Even I'm guilty of it. I've been thrown down to the ground so many times, only to find myself crawling back to my feet, plastic grin in place, ready to get hurled again. Nothing could touch me, and if anything did, it only left a scratch.
I walked away from Asuka's death with just a scratch. I left the police force without even a tear to darken my face. I survived, I survived like god, Irony, wanted me survive. I was the one of the few people directly involved with the chaos and destruction that Takatori and his short, violent reign of power had created, carved into the delicate society of Japan. All of Weiss survived, our reputation torn at the seems, but our bodies still in tact. Our minds, somehow, still intact.
And then there was Este.
And Them.
And I survived that.
But I didn't walk away unscathed. None of us did. In those short few months that we spent dancing and being manipulated by Them, a realization struck us. They, Schwartz, were pulling the strings the whole time. Everything we did, every move we made was carefully plotted out and orcastrated by Them. Like mice being trained to locate the cheese in a maze, they controlled us. And we didn't even realize until the bitter end. The day of the ceremony, where Immortality met Fatality and every one of us realized that we were not indestructable.
The thought always lingered in the back of my head. The nagging acknoweldgement that if it wasn't for Them...
We wouldn't have made it to shore.
...we wouldn't have even made it out of the Ceremonial Chamber.
This is something Aya and Ken would never admit and Omi would never want to talk about it. But as we locked in battle, each of us paired up by our respected opposite, we knew. We saw it in their eyes. They were in complete control, completely casual. This was a dance to them, a joke, and the final notes were drawing to an end. The American one even had the arrogence to lecture us as it all came crashing down.
We talked, him and I, just as the pillars were starting to break apart. I should have panicked in the chaos. I should have thought about the two girls, about young Omi, and bold Ken. I should have been plotting my escape, screaming names, and yelling for a retreat. The building was crashing down on us. The building was going to crush us. But that was the last thing on my mind.
Amazingly clear my mind was at that moment.
/'...and so ends our dance, Weiss kitten.'/ The telepath had whispered.
I thought I was winning, my wire around his throat. "You think this is a game?" I growled.
The wire went slack and I was stunned. It felt as if the strained edges had been cut in half by invisible hands. I searched out for the kid who could move things with his mind and when I found him, I knew he was too preoccupied with Omi and Ken to have had a hand in this. Was it the telepath? And his inhuman speed? The wire was still around his throat, but loose, he looked smug.
Throughout our encounters it always felt like they had an advantage on us.
/'To us this has always been a game,'/ He said just as the floor was starting to give way. /'A very important and deadly game.'/
The red head grabbed me and pressed me close to his body. Everything was exploding into loud violence, we sank together. He held my head and his lips brushed against my ear, muttering one last taunt before we hit the water and were seperated forever. "Life's a game, kitty. We're all players."
The water was cold and the world was turning Black.
/'...and the game was over.'/
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Kudoh Yohji's Resentment Over the World at Large
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[Docking Harbor 8A, East District, Tokyo, Japan]
Games, games, games, games.
Nobody ever told me being a Florist was such a high-risk job, we should have gotten a better health plan.
The storm clouds made the night turn Black, the darkness made worse by the isolated part of town. Irony stuck again as we were assigned to a mission that involved the same pier and city beach that we had drug ourselves out of almost one year ago. I had stared into the dark waters with a grimace of distaste, remember how cold they were. I never wanted to return here. And by the look of my team members, neither did they.
This place, this former site of Immorality, just reminded us about how stupid and vulenerable we really were.
"Abyssian and I will cover the south enterance, Siberian please station yourself on the roof. Balinese, guard the waterfront exit." Bombay was giving orders again. Funny, I used to be bothered by having a little runt almost five years younger than me tell me what to do. Now it just seemed natural. "If the information given to us is correct we only have a short amount of time before the explosives go off. Let's try to enter quietly and remove as many hostages as you can. I don't want to say this, but if time draws short, we will have to abandon some of them before the bomb self destructs. Their lives are important, but so are ours."
Aya once told me that life was cheap. His especially.
I wanted to grin.
It was hard being subordiant to a teenager that killed people in gym shorts.
"Everyone be careful," Ken muttered. This mission didn't exactly involve the neighbourhood little league, but almost all of the people involved in this heist were a little younger then Omi. Such cases always hit the Universal Big Brother right in the soft spot. He looked towards the poorly lite wearhouse with cautious brown eyes. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
I checked my wire, pulling it out quickly then letting it snap back into my watch. "I'm not going to die here." I told him.
Aya just snorted.
And we were off.
This was a simple mission. And you know how those kind always went to hell.
We were sent by Kirtker on a locate and retrieve mission. The targets were children, teenagers actually, victims of a rising youth cult that was predicted to end its short fellowship tonight in a nitrogen bloodbath. Due to recent implications of religious rights advocated in the media, the cities public defense had to be easy careful about whos toes they stepped on. Anything that looked like an infringment on another groups rights could easilly turn into a political scandel. Even with all the evidence to support busting in on this seemingly harmless new age support group it was still a better choice to let Weiss take out the garbage and save the publicity for another social distater.
On my headset I could hear Aya and Omi moving into position. We had to get the fantical idiot kids out before their leaders - fantical idiot adults who, of course, were also linked to several large, more diabolical criminal machines - went gun happy on their congregation. Once again the Hunters of the Night were denying these evil beasts their tommorows.
I heard something shatter off-site via Ken's head set and then the gunshots began.
"Damn it," Soccer boy muttered, "they saw me."
Surprised shouts and howls echoed from the inside. Aya and Omi abandoned the idea of stealth and crashed right in, waving their weapons and yelling at everyone who valued their lives to get out. Of course, when you became wrapped up in something that involved faith and trust and god and belief and that thing suddenly became threatened, your life value suddenly dropped to zero.
"Well yeehaw," I muttered, storming forward across the peir planks. "And I thought this was going to be boring."
Aya was trying to push through the hysterical teams and target the leaders, the ones with the shiney guns. Omi was trying to find a perch on which to rest himself so that he could clip them out with his long ranged, but that was difficult when he was suddenly rushed by seven screaming girls. Ken jumped into the frey about the same time I did, punching and kicking his way to the center.
I tried to work on damage control. "Hold your fire, you're going to hurt the kids." In the throng of bodies I had no chance of being able to get the leaders. The leaders, who at that point, were starting to clip off the teenagers in an attempt to get to us.
I never really saw the point of suicide.
"The bomb is going to go off in ten minutes." Aya reminded us.
Never really saw the point of dying.
I was rushed by a couple of boys. Dog piled. My headset flew off and landed across the floor where I heard it shatter from the weight of another berserker. Somebody stepped on my fingers. My arms were penned to the ground and fists were flying into my face and stomach. And this was so embrassing.
I survived Asuka, Takatori, Este, and THEM, and I was about to be beaten to death by a bunch of high schoolers in pink robes and shaved foreheads. Somewhere in the heaven that I didn't believe in, the Irony gods were sitting on their golden thrones laughing themselves retarded.
Someone was screaming my name and all of a sudden the blood that split on my face was no longer entirely mine.
Aya had no formal training really, but he had skill. Not many modern kendo fans actually knew how to slice one human being, much less three, in half with one swoop.
I stared into his cold purple eyes and took his offered hand. If those frozen orbs could say anything right now it would be: Fuck morality.
Ken wouldn't have killed them.
"Are you..."
I waved him off, "I think one of my ribs are broken."
Something crackled on Aya's headset and he turned to look behind him. "Bombay said he no longer thinks we can get the targets out safely so he needs help trying to deactivate the bombs." His expression darkened as more thugs, I mean victims, I mean targets, crowded around us. "Get out of here. You're in no state to fight. We'll meet up after the bomb has been deactivated."
I nod and wonder why these idiots wanted to die anyway.
"Well, you little shits," My fingers hurt from being stepped on but I wasn't immobile yet. I drew my wire from my wrist and stared at the objects that blocked me from the door. "if you want to die so much, then I guess I can give you a hand."
The exertion erased any doubt of my ribs status out of my mind. I had to hurry and get somewhere safe before I did pass out. I killed and staggered and killed and staggered and generally did what I was best at: surviving and walking away. It felt like I had taken a couple of blows to my head because everything was beginning to feel light and swimmy and I almost made it safely out into the night before a particular gunshot bang went off that I couldn't ignore.
I saw the blood shoot off and hit the planks below me. Irony or luck caused my side to instantly go numb and when I drew my hand away to look and smell the blood I was a bit doubtful that it was really my own. I took a few steps forward, another, I made it off the pier and to the alley way. One of our escape routes. Five minutes. I couldn't stop staring at my hand.
One thought raced through my mind: I'm not going to die here.
The brick wall offered a hard support for my sagging body. I had to stay calm, I told myself. Press your hand against your side and keep the blood in. It tingles, owch. And fuck. But it felt numb at the same time. It was then that I noticed my nose was bleeding too, I could taste the copper in my mouth and tried to spit it out. Three minutes.
I could be dead in another three minutes.
I survived Asuka and Takatori and Este and THEM and I could be dead in another three minutes. Dead. Dead, dead, game over, dead. How fucking embrassing. Another minute passed. I slide to my knees and drew a cigratte pack out of my trench coat. I pulled out a stick and gave it a cool look, at least I wasn't going to die alone.
The building exploded. I guess they weren't able to deactivate the bomb.
Omi....Aya. Ken, you made it right?
I stared at the smoldering, shooting pile of shit that was moments away from sinking into the sea and hoped that each and everyone of those prick kids were going down with it. I remember how cold the water here is.
This was suppose to be a simple mission, right?
I took a drag of the cigarrette and coughed. I had a concussion, I think. Broken ribs for sure. And I'm pretty sure that oozing pile of scattered flesh that was once my belly side is more than just a paper cut. I was going to bleed to death unless someone found me.
Omi. I'm dying. Come get me.
No headset. I wish...
"Ken..."
I wish I could talk to them and make sure they were all right.
"Don't let me die here."
The cigarette fell from my lips into my lap. My whole body was tingling and slowly shutting down.
If I was one of THEM I wouldn't even need a headset. I could just use my psychic powers.
"Aya..."
Footsteps, was it them? My eyes were closed, or were they. Everything was blurry. Too many footsteps. Too many to be just three people. Aya, Ken, Omi.
"Oh my, looks like someone beat us to the target."
"That's not fair."
That wasn't my team. Those weren't their voices.
"Less work for us."
"Its pretty."
Come on, Kudoh. It was too early to go into shock now. Open your eyes. Those voices, do they sound familiar? Accents. Wake up Yohji. You're such a fucking pussy.
"...just sit back and watch the fireworks."
Another explosion rocketted off in the distance.
"Cops will be here soon, lets go home." A nasal voice commanded. Hey, don't leave me here. "What a waste of time. I'm going to talk to you-know-who."
Don't... come get me.
Fading footsteps, then a pause. I didn't believe in god, but was there hope?
I don't want to know if theres a heaven or if theres nothingness.
"...what do you see?"
"I see many things. None that you need to be concerned about." Was the wise-ass reply. "Get back in the car, I'll meet up with you."
Gone.
I coughed a little and sighed when soft hands pushed up against my forehead.
"Hmm, whats this...?" A moment of silence, maybe shock. I was shocked. I was in shock. I was dying. I'm not going to die here. "A stray kitten?"
Oh...
...hell no.
Hell no.
No. No.
No wonder that voice sounded familiar.
"Shit, Kudoh, you're badly injured. Where are your little friends."
I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, but I was too far gone. Fading out of this reality. If I died right now, and I was going to, because HE was here, I was going to march up to the heavenly palace of the Irony Gods, pull out a cigratte, and start laughing hysterically right beside them.
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Between Reality and a Nightmare...
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[Unknown, Tokyo Japan]
Something about THEM always bothered me.
I knew they had psychic powers, I knew they were smarter and faster and stronger than I was. But something about THEM never added up. Take all that speed and strength and intelligence and you still didn't physically have the abilities to accomplish what they did. It was as if...
As if...
I floated in and out of sleep, a sleep that seemed enternal. One minute I knew I was dreaming, the next I couldn't tell if I was awake or even alive. If this was death, it was warm and comfortable. But on the inside everything felt dull and banged up. My body held the tissue paper feel of a being whos great pain was being masked by enough pain killers to drop an elephant. I thought about Aya and Omi and Ken and after a few days I had convinced myself that they had found me, all of them alive, and that when I was coherent enough I was going to bitch and moan until they honestly wished they had left me to die on that peir.
It was just my way.
"Need I remind you that I don't approve of his presence." A voice chided. "He makes the others nervous."
Wait. That wasn't Aya talking. That wasn't Omi or Ken.
"He'll leave when he's ready. He just needs time." A hand reached out and brushed hair away from my face. The hand was strange, strong, and cool to the touch. "Its not safe to return him to Weiss just yet. Not in this state. Not with what's after him."
This wasn't real, it couldn't be. His hands were not gentle. They couldn't be. Nothing about him was gentle.
I wanted to open my eyes but found the task to be futile. Drugs or pain or pure exhaustion were keeping me dead to the world. Dead eyes, dead mind, but prying ears. Ugh. I knew I was floating, the conversation didn't flow, which meant large proportions of time were ellasping and I was catching the start and tail end of sentences.
"He's not useful to us at all, so I find it interesting that you continue to hover over him as if you care about him." A voice I've never heard before teased.
A pause, maybe not a pause. Maybe I just blanked out again. "I kept him alive for three years, I'm not about to let him fall now."
I sank away back into the recesses of my consciousness. For awhile everything was black, then it slowly came back again.
"...it will never end."
That voice, that voice that was quiet and rough like a Catholic hoarse from whispering a thousand prayers in penance, had to belong to... My heart skipped two or three beats in hysteria. That was it, I had enough. I had to be awake, right now. I had to know what was going on, who was around me, for what purpose I was being held here for.
Where was Aya and Ken and Omi.
A cold hand touched me then drew back when I went rigid. They know I can sense them. They know, they know. They know - calm down. The hand withdrew and I could feel eyes on me. Whos cold hand is this? Two breaths in the room, two breaths other than mine. One normal, slow and calm, the other so light and silent I could almost miss it. If I didn't know it belonged to the one that just touched me.
Good deductions dectective, now wake up.
"Oh well, whatever. Nevermind." The quiet one gave up, turned on heel and left the room. The other following shortly after.
THEY had me and they were going to control me, again. And use me as a puppet, again. They were going to invade my head and use the information there to hurt Weiss. To hurt my friends, my family, and I couldn't even open my eyes. I knew that THEY were using me, that's why they kept me, and I couldn't even wake up.
WAKE UP KUDOH.
"I still think we should get him a feeding tube." A young, annoyed voice said.
Wake. The. Fuck. Up.
A hand stroked the hair from my face. "Hush kitten."
Wide emerald eyes sprang up. With a single, agonizing lunge I sat up for the first time in three weeks. The motion burned and it felt as if my side was torn apart by the action. A pant of breath released from my lips like blood soaked fire and I was enraged. Enraged.
Enraged and I felt the hand on my face withdrawl and I stared into a pair of shocked, unguarded jade greens. I had never seen that expression on the Mastermind before, an almost human, fragile expression. If only I had better time or better reason to enjoy it. I wanted to cry out in pain but settled for clenching my teeth in fury. It was all building up.
Building up to a breaking point.
And then it ripped.
My back arched and I let out the most frightening high pitch scream I had ever heard.
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END CHAPTER ONE
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Authors Notes
This is a rewrite of a crappy story originally entitled "In the Hands of the Enemy." For anyone who might be paying attention, this follows the same first two chapters, now condensed into one lengthy rant from Yohji Kudoh's first person point of view.
If anyone is interested in reading this fic further be forewarned, the langage will remain strong, no sexual scenes will be added, but something far more sinsiter then smut, bad grammer, or excessive violence will be added into this ficlet. There will be two original characters, both male, that will be key players in the plot of "Enemy." How hypocritic it is of me to force my originals to the access of other readers when I myself tend to cringe away from such works, but theres no way that they can be removed. In fact, this whole arc has been written just to introduce them. So, if you're like me and can't stand that kinda thing, run away while you can. Both characters should make their debut in the next chapter.
On another note, if anyone is still interested in this piece of trash I'm trying to pass off as a fanfiction, sad little Phantom Sunstorm no longer has anything to use as a spell checker. Word Perfect couldn't take the reality of living with me anymore and self destructed on late summer night. Also because I only find myself righting at the crack of dawn or just a few hours before this, the chapters are poorly proof read (if proof read at all) and therefore soaked in grammer errors, spelling mistakes, and horrific sentence structure. Typo. Typo. Typo. I'm sorry.
This is a Schwartz centered fic, I don't own Schwartz or Weiss although randomly the Schwartz and Weiss voices in my head say they own me.
blinks and stares at clock
Good night folks.
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