Title: Memory
Author: Nijino Aya

Email: kakashuno @ yahoo.com [without spaces]
Pairings: So far, Ken X Aya. More to come.

Rating: PG – 13

Warnings: Series up to death of Schreient, Aya's real name

Prologue

            It had been six weeks since Ken had seen him. His hair, his eyes, his skin. Ken missed it all. He longed to be with him once more. The cause, it was still blurry. What happened? He thought.
            Ken walked down the street, looking though his rain-soaked bangs at the sign ahead of him. This is where our new lives began. At this place.
        It was a nightclub, one of the many places that housed a target Weiß once had. Only that mission had been different. The club was designed to look like a warehouse. During a mission to eliminate a weapons smuggling ring, the ceiling beam had fallen. Ah, yes, that beam. It had fallen right after they terminated the target. Probably rigged.
        Part of the ceiling had fallen, separating the four assassins by a wall of ceiling chunks and debris. Youji and Omi were both on one side; the side by the door, and Ken and Aya were covered, trapped in a pocket, which was only large enough for two to lie on the floor.
        Ken couldn't hear any voices on the other side, and Aya had probably been hit in the head, because he had passed out. Ken was scared, and moved closer to Aya, lightly laying his head on his slowly breathing chest. He almost screamed when he felt warm arms wrap around his shoulders.
           Ken looked up at Aya, who was still coming into consciousness. Probably a natural reaction. He couldn't have possibly been holding me out of anything more than that.
        Ken attempted to move his head off the redhead's chest, but froze when he realized that Aya was fully conscious, and holding him down.
         "It's ok, Ken," Aya whispered, and pulled Ken closer, a bit frightened himself.

        That was the day our relationship started...Ken thought, his thoughts coming back to the present. But what he didn't understand was what happened six weeks ago, when, during a normal mission, something happened, something unclear. Ken's memory was blurred, and he couldn't remember all of that evening.
        It felt like a mind rape, like Schuldig's favorite past time. Only Ken knew that it wasn't his doing, because it didn't leave the "Schu was here" signature that the German so loved to do. It was something more powerful, something inhuman.
        And Ken was to find out what that "something" was, and to find Aya.

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           I didn't remember much about the night Aya disappeared. It was only a few days after the downfall of that female group, Schreient. Everything was normal, everyone was doing fine, especially Omi, who seemed to be at his happiest, and Ouka-san used to think he had a girlfriend.

But I did remember one thing about that night in particular. I could feel it, a strange presence at the house where they were supposed to collect data from a computer that a drug dealer had. It was some useless info on a new drug that was being produced.
            Omi was to do the data stealing, while the other three of us were to stand watch and finish off anyone who saw us. As expected, Schwarz showed up, and while the kid was off trying to get the data for SZ, we were left with the other three.
            We were about to beat them (yeah, what a shock, huh...) when we heard a piercing scream from inside the house, and then another one following it. It was Omi, and the Schwarz kid Nagi who screamed. Immediately, Schwarz and Weiß stopped the fight, and all six of us ran in the house. I was a bit surprised to see that they cared about their teammate. I always thought of them as being heartless.
        When we got to the source of the screams, we were not ready for what we saw. Omi and Nagi were screaming, on their knees, holding their heads in pain. Blood was slowly trickling out of their ears. The minute I put one foot in the door, a wave of nausea hit me, and I jerked back out of the room.
            Schuldig knew that it was some kind of psychic attack, or some kind of supernatural force attacking their minds. He put his hands to his head, and looked like he was in deep concentration. He ran into the room, and attempted to pull Nagi out of the room. I found out later that he tried to create a wall to block our whatever was in the room. But, he failed, and soon sank to his knees, struggling under the attack.
        I didn't know what to do. I turned to Aya when I felt his hand squeeze mine, a distant look in his eyes. "No... Aya... don't..."
        He said something to me. I don't remember what it was. It makes me angry to think that I don't even remember what his last words were. Suddenly, he ran in, grabbed Omi, Nagi, and Schuldig, and literally tossed them out of the room. Schulderich barely made it to the door, because Aya was weakening, and had to be pulled out the doorway by Crawford.
        Aya had fallen to his knees, trying to fight the attack. Then I saw it. Hands, I think about the six of them. They grabbed him, dragging him into the shadows of the room. I tried to run in and save him, but Youji held me back. "You won't do him any help if you get caught up in that too!!"
        "I don't care! I have to save him!"
        I felt something warm and sticky on the sides of my face, and realized it was blood, coming out of my ears. I felt Youji collapse beside me, and that is it.
         I don't remember anything else. I know I didn't pass out there, because when I woke up early the next morning, I was in my bedroom, in our house above the flower shop. Somehow we had all gotten home, and without Aya. No one remembers how either. We haven't seen Schwarz since then, but I have that sinking feeling that they are still alive.

Aya, where are you?

 
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End prologue.