Author's Note: Contains shounen-ai, maybe some graphic details. (Not those kinds of details!) Blood and death. You've been warned.
Anything inside: "Quotes" means speech
'Apostrophe' means thought
Italics means flashback
What happens when the things that you do begin to haunt your dreams and make you lose touch with reality? When Omi begins to question who and what he is, he's pushed to the edge, and his world begins to fall apart. Can anyone bring him back?
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The roof had begun to cave in and the fire that had began when his darts had accidentally started a spark near the gas tanks raged. The mission had been a success and the target was dead. Omi turned to follow the retreating back of Aya when a strange noise made him freeze in his tracks.
He had heard the sound once before. When he was little there had been a pet shop near the Koneko no Sumu Ie. A rabbit that he had been playing with suddenly hopped from his arms and ran into the street. He had chased after it laughing, but then….A scooter that had been zipping down the road didn't have enough time to stop. The poor thing had lain there broken and bleeding…
One step, two steps, and he knelt next to the rabbit. Slowly he reached his hand out to stroke the snow white fur that was slowly soaking with blood and his tears, but as soon as his finger tip touched the soft fur the rabbit began to scream. He jerked his hand away as if it was red hot, and began to back up. The scream was so high pitched…with its last remaining breath the poor pitiful creature was screaming its pain to the world. 'Why won't it stop...?' 'Make it stop..…'
"Make it stop!!" Omi screamed as he took two running steps toward the man screaming as the fire ate him alive. Blazing flames roared all around them, adding crackling and intense heat to the insane chorus of screams from the man trying to crawl away…the man that was reaching out to him…the man that should have died from his shot…the shot that missed. A gloved hand shot out suddenly and grabbed his arm. Pulling him back just as a piece of burning concrete crashed down right in front of him.
Aya jerked him around sharply and looked down at him with cold violet eyes that reflected the light from the fire. "We need to go." Omi tried to pull himself free from that iron grip and go back to the man that lay there and screamed.
"Aya we can't just leave him! We have to go back…"
'Go back and what? Kill him…would I really be helping him?...' The screams grew loud enough to echo inside the collapsing and dieing shell of what was once a proud building. He could see the fire began to eat its way up his body, bit by agonizing bit. 'Yes! I can't just let him die like this. I'm going to make it clean.' In a desperate attempt to get free he rammed an elbow back against the force holding him still and was rewarded with a grunt. But instead of letting him go, the grip only tightened.
"Aya let me go! I'm going to-Ugh!" White spots ate at his vision as he felt something hard come down sharply on the back of his neck-something like the hilt of a katana. Cerulean blue eyes began to mist over slightly as he turned to meet another set of eyes. His mind was filled with the fading scream and violet eyes that seemed to grow until it was all that was left, and then…nothing. "Make…it…stop."
Aya looked down at the unconscious bundle that was Omi. Without a word he picked up the boy in his arms and turned to go. All around them the infernal raged, but if either of the other members of Weiss had bother to look back they would have seen something close to sympathy, maybe something stronger reflected in those normally cold eyes as they gazed down at the sleeping figure. "…I'm sorry."
With his precious bundle cradled safely in his arms he began to walk away from the blazing infernal.
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His sleep was far from peaceful, as ghosts of the past haunted him. Omi could do nothing but try and run away from all those accusing voices…He clamped his hands tightly over his ears and ran, but…
'I'm so sorry…I tried so hard to save you all.'
A little girl in the hospital who waited for a brother that would never come back…"Jin? Big brother, where are you?"
A mad surgeon dissecting so many people, so many deaths…"What happened to my daughter? Dead? She can't be…"
A young boy crying because he was saved, but then again so were the parents of the many that weren't saved…"Why!? Why, why, why…open your eyes, please…"
'If only I had been a little faster…I could have saved them. My fault.'
A monster is next to step from the shadows of his dreams, or nightmares. But wait, the monster reaches a hand out to him. "Ma-ma-rou…"
A second figure joins the first. He isn't monstrous at all, but the blood won't stop flowing from a cross bolt wound. "Mamarou…why? I'm your own borther…"
A third, charred figure walks out behind him. "Did you have to kill me like this?...The pain...The fire ate at me so slowly."
'I didn't have a choice…I…'
Omi droped down to his knees as the figures gathered around him. Accusing him, they chorus, "The blood that stains your hands…our blood…why!?" His eyes widened in fear as he realize that they are right. The blood coating his hands, gleaming brightly at him, won't come off…
His sobs wretch from his throat as something begins to form in his arms. A figure, a familiar figure. 'O-ouka?' Her skin is an ashen gray as she reaches a shaking and bloody hand toward his face. His body won't respond as he stares transfixed. All around him her voice echoes, calling his name. "Omi, Omi, Omi…"And beneath it all was the keening of the rabbit...
'My fault…'
The feeling of hands on his shoulders spurred him from his trance and he was suddenly fighting to break away from those reaching hands… "NO!!! LET ME GO!"
The hands on his shoulders move down to get a firm grip on his arms. As they pinned him down to the bed, Omi slowly realized that the nightmares couldn't reach him. A calm, cool voice followed by a soft carress of breath against his cheek proved that he was safe…for now. "Omi…"
The eyes that were so tightly closed to the sins of the past opened slowly, only to meet eyes that defied the cold voice. His face was hovering inches from his own, and Omi found himself focusing only on one point. Violet eyes that weren't filled with a distant, calculating look, but one of gentle concern.…His voice was hoarse from screaming but he managed to whisper, "Aya?" before the tears began to flow.
Another Note: What do you think? R&R would be greatly appreciated…or maybe I should just go back to Dear Weiss ne? (Either way, it should be up and running again shortly. Gomen na sai to the long leave, but there were finals and…you get the point.)
