Greetings and welcome once again to the Angst Theatre where tonight's performance of "Cold November Rain" reminds everyone that this particular playhouse comes by its name honestly from time to time.

{looks a little nervous as he puts on the tuxedo and he can't help but wonder what people will think about tonight's show as he lights the marquee and hands out playbills quickly wanting to let the readers get to the action right away}

Our performance opens with Part 40 wherein a number of mysteries are answered in a truly heart wrenching fashion as a certain Scotsman reappears and shows his true colors. In the second part of the program we discover the reactions of those confronted by the news of what occurred the afternoon prior and Abyssinian leaves on a solo mission in the hopes of making right something that is very, very wrong.

{still feels worried and is afraid his loyal readers might want to string him up for this one, but since it's some of Melpomene's best work in months, he runs it anyway but only *after* he adds a warning that's stronger than last night's were}

Reminder/Warning: This story *is* rated "R" and after too many "PG-13" Parts, it is returning to its true angst level for this posting run. Also, Kleenex might be a good thing to have handy if you're prone to strong reactions when things go badly for characters you've come to care about.

Enjoy the Decidedly Higher Angst!

~~~Enigma~~~

(who literally fell asleep at the keyboard very early in the morning today after getting the fic posted to fanfiction.net and totally forgot to double-check the copies that went to the MLs when he woke up again some time around 11am, geez, *what* a llama!!)

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Title: Cold November Rain [part 40/?]

Book 1 of "Redirecting Destiny" and prequel to "Romantic Resolutions"

Author: Enigma

Series: Weiss Kreuz

Written: January-March, 2002

Rating: R

Pairings: (Yohji + Ken + Aya) (Omi + Nagi) (Brad + Schu)

Category: Dark! Yaoi Angst Action/Adventure Violence Blood Squick Language Romance Original Characters. 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, original characters designed to highlight the true stars, rare touches of sap, cigarettes, destiny, cruel cliffhangers. AU-OOC.

Disclaimer: "Weiss Kreuz" is the property of Takehito Koyasu and Project Weiss. All original characters featured herein (including but not limited to: Calico, Norwegian, Korat, Sokoke, etc.) are © Enigma, 2002, and are not to be used without permission. 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: 3. time: 1530-1600 hours. Location: Kritiker Headquarters. ++

*****

Several hours after sharing a highly successful feast prepared with love and a strong desire to give more than she had before, Sokoke made her way past security at the entrance to Persia's inner-offices, humming a happy tune to herself and feeling as if nothing could ruin her good mood. The honey-blond secretary was far more than satisfied with the results of her long morning of cooking, the people she had prepared the meal for had been more than gracious with their thanks.

She couldn't keep herself from smiling as she recalled the shy smile of gratitude Ken had given her when she stopped by the intensive care unit to see if the miso soup had tasted good to him and whether or not he wanted more the next day. The evidence of the brunette's injuries had been somewhat disconcerting, but Yohji and Aya's reassuring presence allowed her to feel welcome in the strange environment.

By the time she and Yohji had left to work on the slightly overdue report for Persia, Sokoke was confident that miso soup would remain on her menu for those at Tokyo General Hospital until further notice since it seemed to please not only Nagi but Ken as well.

As she dropped a diskette containing Yohji's preliminary report on the disastrous mission that left Ken injured on Persia's desk with a small note apologizing for its lateness attached to it, the secretary-cum-chef contemplated the five unique young men she'd been so glad to help feed recently.

Siberian and Nagi certainly didn't seem to fit the image of assassins in her mind, they were both too gentle and sweet. But Bombay didn't either considering the brilliant smile he'd had on his face when he presented her with the adorable origami flowers he'd made that afternoon which she planned to keep in her tiny apartment just to remind her of her new friends. To Sokoke, even Balinese didn't seem likely to be a cold-blooded killer with his many charming mannerisms and light-hearted, teasing nature. At first only Abyssinian had seemed to have the edge she imagined would be needed to have destroyed so many in the name of justice, but after his unexpected kindness and talk of cooking shows she was finding that hard to believe, too.

Compared to some of the other Kritiker "deadly force" operatives she'd met, the five assassins she'd recently spent time with were all warm and friendly people. They were attractive young men she would enjoy getting to know better in the coming days instead of being some of the dark and brooding types she often feared more than anything else. The more she thought about it, the more the honey-blond woman realized that people were rarely what they appeared to be on the surface and that included herself.

Without thinking about the stacks of mostly empty dishes in her car, Sokoke moved from Persia's office into her own and slipped comfortably into the chair in front of her desk. Happy smile firmly in place once more, she began checking her messages somewhat distracted by thoughts of a certain nurse she looked forward to spending time with. Okazaki's invitation to cook together soon had caught her off-guard, but it was a delightful surprise since she'd only been spending time lately with a certain co-worker who wasn't half as much fun as he liked to think he was.

"Well, well, if it isn't my dear little Sokoke," a voice thick with a Scottish accent unexpectedly spoke from behind her, asking, "Where have *you* been lately? You stood me up for lunch for two days in a row without leaving me so much as a note! I'm crushed!"

Turning her head only slightly, the secretary missed the look of jealous venom in the orange-haired man's eyes and she laughed lightly before answering, "Don't be silly, Cal! You *know* I have work to do other than keeping you company while the other members of Grün go for some extra training in Osaka! I've been over at Tokyo General Hospital helping Norwegian with Weiss." Failing to realize that she was lighting the fuse on what amounted to a powerful set of emotional explosives, she added with a wistful sigh, "They're all just so sweet! No wonder everyone around here loves them!" It was sheer luck she hadn't made any allusions to Nagi's presence there, it would have only made the diminutive telekinetic a target of the infuriated Scotsman's anger and he had enough of those already to vent himself against.

Despite Sokoke's mention of the three young men he himself was destined to lead, Calico refused to think about his own teammates who were tracking down and eliminating various yakuza members for much needed practice since he alone had been a hardened killer before joining Kritiker. Instead, he simply simmered quietly for a moment as the woman continued to check messages blissfully unaware of the danger in his words when he asked with hidden enmity, "Tell me, how *is* Siberian doing? The last thing I knew, the poor boy was barely holding on. Has he finally given in to the inevitable?"

To have been informed by Persia himself that one of the two men that Balinese greedily called "lover" was severely injured had given the orange-haired teen a twisted sense of joy and actually seeing Ken laying unconscious in the intensive care unit had made it all the sweeter. The source of Calico's hatred for Yohji was no longer important and even though he'd enjoyed taunting the man a few nights prior, it hadn't been anywhere near as fun as what he'd done to him while on Hokkaido. Instead of giving him a sense of fulfillment, however, memories of fear and terror filling jade eyes brought a desire to see even more of the same emotions and the Scotsman had hoped that the brunette's impending death would provide them in abundance.

Unaware that the young man she was speaking with had so much emotionally invested in the situation, Sokoke looked up and smiled into hazel eyes that were filled with false friendship and she answered, "Actually, he's doing a lot better!" With sunny smile still in place, she looked away so she could finish writing a requisition order for more serving dishes before continuing, "Siberian woke up last night around midnight. He's feeling a lot stronger now and Norwegian brought some great new regeneration drug to help with his spinal injury. I'm sure he's going to recover fully at this rate! Isn't that great?" Peering up at the man, she was shocked to discover an expression that told her this was far from acceptable news as far as he was concerned.

With a dark and angry voice, Calico growled, "No, you ignorant little *bitch*, that is *not* 'great' by any stretch of the imagination!" Reaching out to grab the startled secretary by the wrist and insuring skin-to-skin contact, he yanked her from the chair and brought her to her feet in front of himself. Exerting his psychic gift of persuasion, he reached into her mind and rapidly sorted through her subconscious before picking out the one image that seemed most appealing for the evil act he suddenly wished to perpetrate. [1]

With a sneer, the Scotsman added ominously, "In fact, that is really *terrible* news! If Siberian recovers you can give up on your unrequited love for Balinese forever, can't you?"

Since early adolescence, the skinny, orange-haired Scotsman had discovered that if he was able to touch someone directly, he almost always had limited access to their mind as well as several different methods by which he could influence them. The nineteen year old could see his victim's hopes, dreams, and fears, and over time he realized he could twist the images he saw to convince them to do whatever he wanted them to instead of what their logical minds might have chosen.

During his roughly five years as a fully empowered "persuader" he had convinced people to do everything he'd wanted them to from simple theft to rape, murder, and beyond. Calico silently prided himself on the twistedness of his own mind and he'd concocted punishments for people who either annoyed him or somehow threatened him that would've made the Marquis de Sade squirm uncomfortably.

In short, he was a sick bastard who wallowed delightedly in his own perversions and he never hesitated to amuse himself at the cost of someone else's virtue or even their life thanks to his extraordinary abilities.

To Calico's unending annoyance, occasionally he had encountered someone he derisively referred to as a "null" who he not only couldn't read, but worse, he couldn't influence. On the very rare occasions that this happened, though, if his intended victim wasn't "open" to him, someone who cared for them was and he didn't mind finding a means to the end by torturing a stranger just to attain his vengeance for slights real or imagined.

The orange-haired man had found precious few "nulls" amidst the Kritiker staff so far and he had felt confident he could work his "magic" as he called it on Sokoke even before he touched her. Even though a tiny ribbon of thought in the back of his mind railed angrily at Manx for being one of those beyond his powers, he remained focused on destroying a young woman whose only crime against him had been bringing him news he didn't want to hear. Of course, she had also been responsible for his eating lunch alone twice, so perhaps that was part of the self-centered and spoiled teen's motivation as well.

Trapped in the web of the Grün leader's psychic powers, Sokoke suddenly felt horribly depressed and teardrops formed in her eyes as she nodded slowly, then whimpered, "Of course, Cal." Sniffling back tears, she added in the words placed into her mind by the man who was controlling her, "How could I have been so blind as to hope that Balinese would find a plain, boring girl like myself attractive? As long as he has two wonderful men like Abyssinian and Siberian at his side, why would he want someone as worthless as me?" Tears flowed from her like fountains and she sobbed helplessly and collapsed against him.

Smirking as his psychic powers asserted themselves even more strongly, Calico petted her on the head and urged her quietly yet inescapably, "I'm so sorry, Sokoke-love, but we both know the answer to that question." The smirk darkened dangerously as teary eyes rose to peer at him seeking instructions and he added, "You know there's only *one* sure cure for unrequited love don't you, Sokoke?"

Shaking her head slightly, confused by everything around her except the warm pressure of Calico's hand on her arm, the honey-blond woman asked, "What's the cure, Calico? I hurt so badly right now, all I want is to be happy again."

Shaking his head as if he truly felt sorry for the tortured soul that was twisting in the cruel talons of his control, the orange-haired man said simply, "Suicide, my dear Sokoke. It's the only answer now, darling." Seeing both understanding and unexpected resistance in her eyes, he snarled harshly, "You've only got one means to express your love for that stupid blond asshole now, so why not go drive your car into a wall or something?"

As he watched his victim translating his suggestions into commandments, the hazel-eyed man added pointedly, "The only other option you have available is murder-suicide and that would mean darling Balinese died, too, but you simply couldn't abide that, now could you, Sokoke?" He had ulterior motives for seeing to it that Yohji survived whatever the totally forgettable honey-blond secretary might end up doing, so he implanted a strong mental directive that she not kill the man he looked forward to torturing again some time in the future.

"Of course not, I'd never wish to harm him that way, he's too perfect and I'm too worthless," the woman answered in a voice that was as dry and vague as it could possibly be. Accepting the man's orders blindly as almost everyone that encountered him in this fashion did, she peered at him through damp eyelashes and asked, "Is there a particular wall I ought to hit to make him see how much I loved him, Calico?"

The manipulative bastard used silence as a weapon and allowed her words and his powers to work together to drive her even farther towards madness.

Desperate for an answer, she reached for his free hand and thereby doubled the damning contact between them before begging, "Please, oh please, tell me what to do! I thought I was happy before when he told me he enjoyed my food and said I was pretty and everything, but now I know I was wrong and was simply lying to myself! What should I do, Calico?! What should I *do*?!?"

The Scotsman laughed cruelly knowing full well that his victim was past the point of rational thought thanks to his gifts and told her offhandedly, "It doesn't really matter, Sokoke. As long as you die tragically, he'll certainly see what you felt for him after it's too late." Moving so that they held hands fully, left-to-right and right-to-left, he added quietly, "But don't leave him a 'good-bye' note, of course. You wouldn't want him to feel responsible for your death, now would you, my poor, deluded friend? But you must also act quickly! Allow your determination and speed to express the strength of your love! Leave right now, Sokoke, and find a good place to die in a spectacular one-car explosion that will call the news media to immortalize your tragic end!"

Galvanized to action by the deceitful words and inhuman psychic powers, the honey-blond secretary teetered unsteadily as she released one of his hands to wipe at the tears which had formed, then nodded sadly, "Yes, you are right, of course, Calico." A strange, incomplete smile of appreciation her heart knew she truly did not feel crossed her face and she moved to place a final kiss to another living soul onto the deceitful man's lips and then she said, "I have to leave right now then. I wish I'd gotten a chance to say good-bye to Persia or Hideo or my family, but there isn't time now, is there?"

"No," Calico answered pretending to be serious and truly regretful of what he was about to do as he gave her trapped hand one last squeeze and imbedded his commands even deeper totally disinterested in the new name she'd just mentioned. With a false smile of sorrow for her upcoming death he added, "Go now, Sokoke! Go and tell the world how badly you loved a goddamned fucking bastard you could never have!"

Accepting the commandments without question or hesitation, the woman suddenly released the Scotsman's hands and ran from the room in tears fully intending to follow his orders to the letter the same way any number of other people had also found their way into death's cold embrace.

Watching her go, Calico chuckled humorlessly to himself and hoped this small act might bring pain to the eldest member of Weiss sooner or later. But even if it didn't, it had certainly been fun causing the woman to kill herself and he wasn't as bored as he had been the days before when she hadn't been there to amuse him at all.

Whistling a happy tune to himself certain that his orders would be followed and that there would be a rather colorful case of "autocide" reported on the nightly news, Calico wandered off in search of the office that controlled the recordings from the security cameras in Persia's offices. [2] Not arrogant enough to think his psychic gifts could outclass modern technology, the Scotsman knew he had to erase the tapes which would show his damning conversation with the soon-to-be-deceased secretary. Having eliminated the evidence of many instances when he had successfully used his powers against the leader of Kritiker, he had no doubts he could do so again with impunity.

With an ease borne of experience, Calico persuaded the security personnel on duty at the time to let him erase the tape and replace it with footage that indicated the room had remained unoccupied during the time he had decided with utter caprice to send Sokoke to her doom. Unaware that she had left the diskette and note on Persia's desk that proved the falsehood of the new security records, he snickered and left Kritiker headquarters. As long as no one thought to review the tapes later and compare them to the fact that Sokoke had obviously been there as well as the dozens of other recordings that indicated Calico had been in the vicinity at the time, his treachery would go undetected like usual.

Making his way towards his favorite no-questions-asked bar, Calico fully intended to watch the late afternoon news coverage of the "late breaking news" about an attractive young woman's suicidal crash into a cement wall somewhere with a Guinness in his hand. After all, there was nothing to make an easy victory over a weak-minded female more enjoyable than a good glass of stout.

*****

To be continued.

Author's Notes:

[1] Calico's psychic powers were only barely hinted at previously and one of the main purposes of this Part is to introduce them fully by showing them in action the way he prefers to use them, evilly, of course! The inspiration for this particular set of abilities came from an episode of WB's "Smallville" wherein two of the apparently limitless kryptonite-spawned mutants that inhabit that community demonstrated similar powers to what I had in mind for the Grün leader. The fact that Clark's birthname is actually "Kal" and my cruel bastard's codename will frequently be abbreviated as "Cal" just now occurred to me and is purely coincidental.

[2] In case you wondered, no, I didn't coin the term "autocide" which refers to the act of suicide using an automobile as a weapon against oneself. Sadly, this is a common phenomenon amongst certain groups of people in the US and elsewhere who wish to be sure that their heirs will still receive life insurance payments despite the anti-suicide clauses added to their policies.

Full Author's Notes to Run at Conclusion.

Please be advised: Parts 40 & 41 will be posted together.