Disclaimers and other things:
1. no copy-right infringement meant! This is entertainment from a fan for fans only.
2. What you are reading here is the re-done version of my very first story, What he certainly hadn't planned. I'm ashamed, touch and also very impressed how many people haven't forgotten it even despite my deadly long break on it. What you find here is a newly redone version of the story, with new scenes, less old left-open questions and an (hopefully) improved story-line and much better grammar.
3. Thanks to Michie-chan for beta- and test-reading this for me!
4. I absolutely hate the formatting system here! (I'll try to come up with something better soon.)
5. Enjoy!
´The best way to influence the future is still to participate in it's creation.´
Who did speak those wise words once again? Brad Crawford blinked, irritation about this evident lack of proper memory shortly rushing through his multi-tasking trained brain as he seemingly effortlessly dodged another sway of the enraged redhead's katana without even breaking a sweat.
It only took him moments to carelessly swat the Japanese's sword away, hitting just exactly the spots to make the other drop his weapon and dodge the last attack completely all the same. Absolutely furious violet eyes met with calm amber-golden ones and with a flex of sleek but incredibly strong muscles the taller American sent the other assassin airborne before crashing hardly on the ground.
Making a seemingly lazy step forward Crawford smirked haughtily at Aya, considering the option of killing him right now before the obnoxious hothead would attack and bother him again. On the other hand… Fujimiya and his little playmates had done them a great favour by direction the Elders attention to a threat that had been boosted by the own subordinates to something much greater than it originally was. If Crawford wouldn't have foreseen their usefulness to their plans, Schwarz would have obliterate each and every member of Weiß without them ever even realizing what had hit them…
Following this thought lazily with half of his head, Crawford stepped on the dropped katana, thus successfully blocking the Abyssinian from recovering it. This earned him another hateful glare as the redhead still tried to scramble back on his feet, fighting with some parts of his body that seemed to have taken the brute of the battle more fiercely than the rest. Crawford watched him with an expression of amused interest, the way other people would watch an particularly strange insect before squashing in nonetheless.
"When will you finally realized that it's futile to fight against us…?" That was what Crawford had wanted to say, but the black-haired assassin - no, now that he didn't have anybody paying him for his actions anymore he was a simple killer, Crawford corrected himself - stopped himself before even opening his mouth as a rush of different visions of the nearest future assaulted his head. An inner part of Crawford immediately wanted to react to this brute and unwelcome onslaught with a shriek of pain. It was quenched just as quickly as it had begun as the trained precog identified the nature of the intrusion and reacted by splitting his awareness into just as many parts as the were possible futures at once while his body in the present automatically reached for his gun and aimed it at the wounded assassin in front of him.
´.."During moments of crisis, leave no space for any source of distraction, no matter how minor and unimportant it may seem."..´
While the present and now were loosing their importance rapidly, the things Crawford did see and especially the events he did filter out of all the truths caused the precognitive to tense more and more up. ´Me killing Aya… Aya killing me, while I'm shooting the blonde's that's strangling Schuldig… two Weiß ganging up and killing Nagi before Farfarello kills them both…´ Most of the futures were filled with murder and bloodshed. Crawford brushed them past, following the fine sense that was telling him that there was something wrong. Moments later, and he felt an avid curse racing through his head. (He'd made it long by into a habit to keep his reactions to his visions to himself.)
/Schuldig, Nagi, Farfarello -/ he whispered the warning into the link which the telepath kept established during fights just for this case - the case of the precognitive seeing something it was about to prevent and either didn't have the time anymore to let them know aloud or didn't want to do it out of other causes. /-The roof's going to come down any moment now. Retreat. Get out of here/
He felt the incredible looks of his team-mates against his backs, even as he moved in to finally kill his opponent. /Leave-/ came Schuldig´s nasal voice in a sneering answer. /If you haven´t noticed yet, o wise leader, we've got some annoying bugs trying to kill us./ ..An exclamations of pain the was followed by an even rougher curse indicated that the wire-armed Weiß was landing some hits on him.. /We´re kinda tied-down here/ Crawford snorted, aiming his gun for the only shot it was going to take to get rid of his own white problem just to have it knocked out of his habd in the very last moment by that annoying secretary Weiß kept. /Then get rid of them./
/Yeah, sure-/ Whatever else of a sarcastic retort Schuldig was going to make was cut short by a heavy crunching sound and several shocked outcries as pieces of the ceiling and walls started to come down. Evading a quickly spriding crack that was racing through the floor, Crawford spared a rushed glance to the whereabouts of his team-mates. Nagi was standing closest to the door, returning his look with an expression of fearful surprise; Schuldig was currently freeing himself from the Weiß assassin with some impossible quick moves and Farfarello kept trashing the other Weiß like nothing had ever happened.
A quick, wry smirk fluttered across Crawford´s face. ´So I'm the one who's the furthest away from the exist…?´ He quickly sidestepped, evading the redhead's blade by mere inches. ´Well, so be it.´ His thoughts didn't hold any traces of amusement anymore, just cold, unfeeling determination.
/Farfarello, Nagi…Schuldig! This is an order and good advise/ he ´screamed´ at them over their mind-link against the sounds of the now quicker and quicker crumbling building. A feeling of irritation and tense awareness answered immediately to the statement from Schuldig, accompanied by a wave of for instructions begging confusion from Nagi and the ever just mildly-curious presence of Farfarello. /An order-? And do you know what you can do with your so-called good advise, you-/ Crawford cut Schuldig´s cussing simply off, ignoring the redhead's tendency to cuss during times of great stress.
/Schwarz, this is my last order as your leader. Get out of here and try to bloody stay alive/
Before any of them could react, he broke off the link that had until now connected them and re-concentrated on fighting the vivid leader of Weiß who didn't seem to take any noticed of what was going on around them. Having an increasingly more difficult time dodging all of the katana swipes and the down-coming debris, Crawford evaded a last furious strike that'd been aimed for his throat before feeling the ground under his feet lifting and throwing him and Aya off their feet like a bucking horse. The room they'd been fighting in had long by turned into a boiling inferno of dust, deadly enemies and shouts from various team-mates.
Crawford didn't worry about them.
Nagi was capable, no matter how irritating this turn of events had handed him, and Crawford didn't doubt a second that the telekinetic had by now already erected an stable protection field and was now collecting Schuldig and Farfarello to guide them to an secure exit. Even less he doubted the splint second of doubt the young teen would experience before trying to go after him too - the loss of a potentional girlfriend had cut deep, even if it was a mental one like Tot had been.
It was the split second that would be missing when the boy would finally try.
Strangely enough, Crawford felt about nothing about his speedily upcoming death. ´Maimed by several tons of rocks..´ he wondered wryly. ´Who would have thought..? I always kind of assumed that it´d be one of my team-mates or a final slip of attention that would kill me.´ A unheard scream escaped his throat as the ground lurched once again underneath his and send him a helpless skidding fall toward a crumbling window and the building sea beneath it.
´Ok, being drowned in the sea while having several stories of building falling on top of me is more of a stylish end I'd go for.´
Another tremor racked the hell his surroundings had become and Crawford's mind turned blank against a moaning blackness. The vision only took a few seconds, but it left Crawford with a look of utter terror etched onto his face when it left. Thrashing desperately around himself, Crawford tried to catch a hold that wouldn't crumble under his searching fingers only to get hit by several smaller, but extremely painful pieces if debris in the process.
Not like that, he didn't want to go like that-!
It was over. His time was up, but the precog kept on thrashing around even as his body was forcibly hurled against a part of the momentous window-sill -now a gaping jaw leading to a boiling grave in the sea- like a rag doll. Narrowed golden eyes shot open and it hurt…
Moments later the museum gave a last quivering shiver before it broke down completely, taking all it's cultural riches, dead and wounded bodies of it's inhabitants and whatever else it might have been holding with it into it's watery grave.
CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 1…?