Title: Cold November Rain [part 4/?]
Book 1 of "Redirecting Destiny" and prequel to "Romantic Resolutions"
Author: Enigma
Series: Weiss Kreuz
Written: January, 2002
Rating: R
Pairings: (Yohji + Ken + Aya) (Omi + Nagi) (Brad + Schu)
Category: Dark! Yaoi Angst Action/Adventure Violence Blood Squick Language Romance. AU-OOC.
Archive: fanfiction.net [author: "E-sama the Llama"], Scripta Manent: http://digilander.iol.it/sakaba/Home.html
Spoilers: None, safe for new viewers as well as old.
Warnings: dark! yaoi, heavy angst, action/adventure, graphic violence, large quantities of blood, squick: medical and other, coarse language, agonized and overwrought romance, rare touches of sap, cigarettes, destiny, cruel cliffhangers, original characters. AU-OOC.
Disclaimer: "Weiss Kreuz" is the property of Koyasu Takehito and Project Weiss. This unauthorized work of fanfiction is intended for entertainment only; kindly do not sue me.
Notes: When Ken falls in battle, how can the other members of Weiss cope with the guilt and blame that they all seem to share and will he survive in spite of the odds against him?
++ date and time reference within the storyline beginning with the day of the battle ++
{{telepathic speech}}
*****
++ day: 1. time: 0710-0725 hours ++
*****
In his bedroom, Nagi lay curled in a fetal position on his bed, shivering slightly as he tried to regain control over the fear-laden images in his mind.
Recollections of earlier battles against Weiss that had left Omi bloodied due to his own actions or those of his teammates were the things that haunted Nagi's worst dreams, but right now they were his waking nightmare. He'd seen his lover suffer greatly at the hands of those he himself adored as if they were family and it left him torn and confused as to how to rectify the contradictory aspects of his life.
Matters had actually worsened for the Schwarz psychic when he had been welcomed with almost open arms by the members of Weiss, a group of men he had expected to want to tear him limb from limb for having "corrupted" their young friend. However, only the person he'd previously known as Abyssinian seemed truly adverse to his presence after the initial hostility that was to have been expected. Yet over time, the aloof redhead seemed to be coming to accept him, too, and now Nagi felt comfortable around them more than he had expected to. The only problem he still had with them was when Crawford tried to order him to hurt them and he had to find a way to outsmart the command without giving anything away about the true relationship he had with the members of Weiss.
Now, a mere month after the strained morning of confessions following the incident when Balinese had caught Omi and him making love, Nagi knew he could walk into the flowershop where his lover lived and worked yet not receive a death threat for simply being there. The troubled fifteen year old wished he could go to the Koneko right now and hopefully get answers, but he'd need to leave to catch the subway soon for school.
With a sigh, he decided to check his email one last time on the off-chance he'd find a message that would put his mind to rest even as he stuck a Band-Aid over the cut on his thumb, foregoing cleansing it properly and not caring.
Omi and Nagi were true children of the computer age and routinely emailed one another on and off all day long before settling into lengthy instant message chats during the nights neither had to be away from home due to their darkly dangerous secret lives.
The sable-haired boy had known his boyfriend had a mission the night before, but Omi had assured him it would be a proverbial cakewalk and he expected to be home in time to send Nagi a quick note of reassurance before he went to bed and another before school. Upon arising, the worried telekinetic hadn't found any such messages and he'd triggered a search program to detect activity on Omi's accounts not knowing that at that time, the four members of Weiss were racing through Tokyo en route to the emergency room.
Settling into the chair in front of an impressive though jury-rigged computer system, Nagi allowed his fingers to fly across the keys to initiate a full connection to multiple online providers and at the same time queried the search program for information.
A small information box appeared on Nagi's screen that read:
"Searches for the following screen names have failed to detect activity since 0400 hours this morning: Bombay, LittlestKitten, FreesiaFanatic, RobinofLocksley. Do you wish to have the searches maintained, Scherehände?" [1]
With a sad sigh, he typed in a confirmation while silently wishing that the last one, the most private account Omi maintained, had shown even a flicker of life recently. The first screen name was how Kritiker contacted him, the second was so his partners could reach him when they were on remote assignments, the third was for his casual friends, and the last was his alone, reserved for Nagi and protected by the most advanced encryption methods known.
The miserable youth then opened his inbox wondering if there was any chance Omi had used someone else's account to send a message the way he had once when he was helping a classmate online and thought that sending a message from "I'mMarySueToYou" was funny. There was nothing new since before the disastrous breakfast incident and he felt defeated and sad as he closed the account.
Turning on the small television set that he usually ignored, the boy with midnight blue eyes pulled on his usual gray school uniform and set about gathering his textbooks and putting them in his satchel. On the screen, a typically neat and attractive Asian woman was reading the morning weather report. He half-listened as she told the latest predictions for clearing later in the day and remarked that the worst of the rain had hit Tokyo during the early morning hours and wasn't it a good thing that was when most people are asleep?
"Like hell they are," Nagi snarled at the innocent remark, annoyed with his own lack of control that he had lashed out verbally instead of ignoring it as usual.
As if in response to his antagonism, the reporter went on with the next story, introducing it with words that were sure to grab virtually anyone's attention.
"We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a breaking news story." The woman swallowed nervously and cast a questioning glance at the man who had handed her the words that she was to read aloud, uncertain what she was being asked to face. Then she said as calmly as she could, "The following live report will contain graphic images and those of you with small children are urged to remove them from the viewing area prior to them showing on your screen. I turn the report over to the national broadcast team live at the scene."
The screen fizzled and turned snowy for a moment and Nagi turned his full attention toward the television a feeling of dread gathering in the pit of his stomach as he zipped the school uniform shirt closed.
Soon the image settled once more and there was a reporter already speaking with a haggard old man, someone who looked as if he'd seen the depths of hell and regretted being sent back to say anything about it to anyone. The reporter held the microphone where the toothless man could speak into it and he was saying, "All I wanted was a place to get out of the rain. I didn't want to disturb anyone or anything, but the door was wide open and it seemed warm inside, so I thought I'd just slip in, find a corner and sleep for a bit. Like I said, I wasn't trying to cause no trouble or nothing, and---"
The man's nearly incoherent ramblings were cut off by the reporter who reassured, "Yes, sir, we understand that the police are not intending on holding you responsible for what you found, so calm down. Please, sir, in your own words, what did you see when you entered the building?"
Gesturing at the nondescript brick façade behind him that was swarming with police officers, crime lab agents, and people whose jackets identified them as morgue employees, the man nodded then said, "It was worse than anything I ever saw during the war in the Pacific, I tell ya. Pieces of boys and girls all cut to ribbons and scattered across the floor like a damned American slasher movie! It was too hideous for words! Some of them had their guts all ripped out and strewn around like banners at a festival. Then there was this one boy, I swear, whoever killed him had something mighty personal against him, his body was on one side of the room and on the other was his---"
"We understand," the reporter interrupted before the man could recount which exact body parts seemed to have been deliberately removed. Then he placed a hand to his earpiece, nodding and announcing, "We've got a live camera feed from inside the building now. As most of our affiliates should've already warned you, the following images will be *quite* graphic and viewer discretion is *very* strongly advised."
The image on the screen shifted and wobbled slightly and suddenly Nagi, experienced assassin though he was, felt violently ill.
A pale hand was clamped over the telekinetic's mouth as the camera panned over the mangled corpses of an uncertain number of people who had indeed been summarily dismembered with extreme prejudice.
Blood was everywhere.
The walls, floor, and even the ceiling in certain places had been painted in broad swathes of crimson with the occasional splotches of gray matter from an open skull or two. Decapitated heads lay scattered about like runaway soccer balls whereas arms and legs were often still attached to portions of torsos whose genders were occasionally indecipherable. Several lengthy portions had both an arm and a leg yet they also bore the slashing cut marks of a wire as sharp as a blade which had penetrated then in any number of places, rending fabric and flesh with equal alacrity.
A bodiless hand lay beside a mound of flesh that had once been a young woman's torso as if to point to the deceased's shirt which bore the logo for the illegal drug company which she had come to so she could pick up a new supply to sell.
To someone like Nagi who had witnessed Weiss' abilities in the past, it was obvious that the damage done to the victims on the screen had been accomplished by Balinese's wire and Abyssinian's katana alone. There was no evidence of Siberian's five-bladed claw or Bombay's darts, crossbow bolts, or arrows having been use in the massacre. This observation only fueled the young telekinetic's fears caused by Crawford's vision.
Bile rose in the terrified teen's throat as the reporter found his voice and began describing the scene as he perceived it, saying, "There are no suspects as of yet in what can only be termed a horrific act of mass murder. The building looks like a charnel house. Grotesque remains of young men and women are scattered about carelessly as if their humanity meant nothing to whatever fiends committed this atrocity. The carnage is overwhelming and despite this reporter's previous fifteen years of experience covering crime reporting, this is easily the most sickening example of depravation he's ever witnessed."
There was some noise off to one side and the camera angle changed, the image shifting to a corner of a wall where there was so much blood on the walls and floor it seemed strange that there wasn't a body to go with it. However, to Nagi's ultimate horror, laying on the ground were two objects he'd never fail to recognize.
Gloves.
Omi's gloves, to be exact, covered in a thick coating of half-dried blood and discarded in a fashion Nagi knew the Weiss archer was unlikely to have chosen since they were a pair that the sable-haired youth had helped him select. In that moment, the telekinetic's mind cried out in despair and he collapsed to the floor where the tears returned full force before he simply shut down entirely, his mind protecting him with the gentle darkness of unconsciousness.
Schuldich was utterly shocked by the sudden psychic scream and he dashed from the kitchen to Nagi's room, throwing the door open without a second thought and rushing in, calling out, "Nagi?! What's happened?! NAGI!!" He heard the television ranting away about some news item or another and ignored it, focusing instead on the fallen teenager.
{{BRAD!!}} The German shouted across the mental link he maintained with his lover, sending him a mental image of the unconscious youth on the floor of what could only be the youngest member of Schwarz's bedroom. {{Something's wrong with Nagi! Get in here!}}
The American man had been donning his favorite white Armani suit and green necktie when he received the summons and responded without question or doubt as to the need for immediate action. {{I'm on my way, Schu, hold on!}}
Swinging into the room within moments of being called, Crawford paused as he saw his lover carefully laying the petite Japanese psychic onto the bed before checking him for a pulse and frowning when it all seemed too normal. Reverting to speaking aloud, he asked, "What's going on, Schu? How did this happen?"
"I'm not sure," the redhead answered, disturbed that the usually emotionally tough boy seemed to have passed out because of something he saw or heard and not having any idea what could have caused such a strong reaction. Looking around the room for clues, he spotted the computer screen that was atypically blank, the ignored collection of school books, and the television whose screen now showed a map indicating a location where some fast-breaking news story was occurring. "He seems to be unconscious but I'll be damned if I know why. There's no sign of fever, illness, or injury other than what he did to himself earlier in the kitchen, so why would he just pass out like that?"
Growling his dislike of the situation, Crawford remarked, "I've got no idea. He's been acting strangely all morning, maybe there's something going on we don't know about."
"Agreed," Schuldich's patience was wearing thin when he finally said, "I wouldn't ordinarily do this, but damn it all, I need to know what happened to Nagi!"
"Do what?" Crawford asked, a sense of disquiet building within him and his instincts cried out that whatever the younger man had in mind, it was a bad idea and he should prevent it.
"I'm going to go into his mind and *see* what the fuck did this to him," the telepath asserted angrily, "Maybe I can help from the inside more than I can like this."
"Wait!" Crawford raised a hand in warning as a vision struck him and sent him reeling before he could insist, "Absolutely do *not* do that, Schuldich! You mustn't interfere!"
"What the fuck do you mean, Bradley?" The shorter of the two sent him a glare that defied their usual closeness, he didn't like be countermanded when someone he held dear was in trouble and he thought he could help.
"There's no way to explain it, but I just saw him leaving us permanently if you do," the usually confident American was clearly disturbed by the vision as he added, "If you force the information from him, we will lose Prodigy and the future we've worked so hard to attain."
Schuldich cursed, "Shit. It figures." Running a hand though his bright red hair he asked with more calmness than before, "So, what do we do instead? Did you get an image of an option that *does* help instead?"
Crawford nodded slowly, it was only a fragment of an image and he didn't like it, but it held none of the eternal damnation the other possible future had held. In a voice older than his years, he answered, "We let him handle it himself, I'm afraid. The visions don't tell me everything, as you well know, but he's got to do whatever it is he needs to do and as long as we don't interfere, he'll come back to us later."
A chill of fear touched the German's spine as he asked in shock, "He'll 'come back later'? You mean he's going somewhere in *this* condition?!" He pointed to the unconscious youth with obvious skepticism and concern before adding, "Where the hell can he be going when he's wrecked like that? But if he *does* need to go, why can't we follow him? I want to get to the bottom of this. He's in trouble and needs our help!"
"No," Crawford insisted and then turned to lead his lover out of the room intending to let Nagi's destiny unfold in whatever pattern wouldn't deprive the other members of Schwarz of their very lives as his visions warned clearly would happen if they tried to stop it. "Not this time he doesn't. I sense that there's more to this than we're supposed to understand, but for now, just leave him be."
Growling his displeasure yet willing to follow his leader's orders for the moment, Schuldich carefully closed the door behind them, leaving Nagi's insensate form on the bed and wondering why life had to be complicated on such a cold, miserable November morning.
It would be several hours before fate pulled the Schwarz telekinetic back to awareness, yet when it did, there would be more fear and pain to cope with for not only Nagi but others as well.
*****
To be continued.
Author's Notes:
[1] Anyone care to guess at the meaning of Nagi's screen name? Explanation of on-line aliases will be given later.
Full Author's Notes to Run at Conclusion.
Please be advised: Parts 3 & 4 will be posted together.
This evening's posting run is dedicated to the wonderful folks who sent me feedback on Parts 1 & 2 including but not limited to: Yanagi-sen, bearilou, Persephone, Seiya-chan (and her sister!), Rubious, my darling kitten Ryoko, Alieu, Erin, Priscilla [at ff.net], Mr. Peabody [at ff.net], Siberian [at ff.net], and possibly others who sent it on-list which I missed due to lack of time to go hunting.
Thanks everyone for the great support!
~~~E-sama the Llama~~~
(who wonders what the fanfiction.net readers think of the chapter titles he works so hard to come up with yet the ML readers hardly ever see. hmm, wonder if there's a way to work those in for them, too?)
Parts 3 & 4 Posted: 25 January 2002.