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

Chapter 1: Chasing Aya

Ken... Where are you? I'm waiting. Why didn't you save me? I needed your help. I thought you said you loved me?

        Ken woke up with a start. He was having those persistent nightmares again. Aya needed my help, and I couldn't save him. Now I don't even know if he's alive or not.
        Ken slumped out of bed and walked to the kitchen. As cliché as it sounds, it wasn't the same without Aya. Omi had stopped making breakfast for everyone, so Ken had to make his own. Youji had started smoking more often, and hadn't been on a date since.
        As for Ken, he started sleeping in what used to be Aya's room, until the redhead had moved into Ken's room. He slept in Aya's pajamas, used Aya's shampoo, and even wore his old orange sweater on days that he was home alone.
            One morning, Ken just didn't feel like waking up. He lay in his bed, Aya's bed, and stared at the ceiling. He rolled over burying his face in the comforter like he did every morning. He didn't know why he put himself through all the pain of memory. But he kept doing it, reminding himself of Aya, but he did.
        Finally getting restless, he slid off the bed, and sat on the floor. Slowly, he lay down on the floor in between the dresser and the bed, turning his head to one side.
        Aya... I miss you. I love you. Where are you?
        Ken opened his eyes to look under the bed. There was nothing underneath except a shoebox. Ken reached for it and pulled it out, surprised that it was actually really heavy. It weighed much more than shoes. Ken opened to box.
        Inside the box were papers of typed data, and a pile of photographs. He looked over the papers first. It was a written report of an experiment. He tried his best to translate the English.


The human brain is not used to it's full potential. Certain human beings are capable of many things deemed impossible, or unheard of, if helped through technological service. We have found those human brains.

They belong to special individuals. The first are four males under the employment of one of our branches, codename SZ.

Schwarz! This is info on Schwarz's supernatural powers. But why does Aya have it? Ken mentally pondered, and then continued to read.



Three of these humans are females what worked under an SZ affiliate, Kritinker. They were three of the four women in the group Schreient.

Oh, my God... But three? Who didn't have powers?
 

The three members' supernatural powers were also the causes of their fatal encounter with Schwarz. The women were codenamed Hell, Neu, and Schoen. The fourth member, Tot, still lives, but has no powers, and is ignorant of her former teammates' powers, and therefore is no use or danger to us.

The last person we discovered is a young male, and is uncontactable. He is under the protection of a rival
company, owned and operated by a man codenamed Persia.


Oh, God, no. Not one of us... not...

His true name is unknown as of now, but he calls himself...


No! No! No!!!!

Fujimiya Aya.


"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Ken screamed. "This isn't real!!!!"


            Ken frantically grabbed at the other paper. It explained how the powers of each person mentioned worked. Schwarz's he already knew. But what sent terror into his soul were Schreient's powers.

            They had not known of their powers. If they had, both Weiß and Schwarz would have been gone. Schreient was destroyed because of their powers.

Neu, New, formerly the detective Asuka Murase, has succubus-related powers. Usually described as Astral Projection, this woman can project her astral being into another human being, creating a type of possession case.

Schoen, Beautiful, Karen Kitaura, has control over another living thing's body makeup. Through concentration, she can perform such changes as to raise the amount of acid in the body, literally making the object boil from the inside, creating a painful death.

Hell, Light, Katsuki Masako, can absorb a life energy from a human. This can cause extreme internal bleeding, and cuts throughout the body. Tendons and ligaments will weaken severely, causing one's limbs to fall off.

            Ken frantically rummaged through the box to retrieve the photographs. When he looked through them, his heart sank.

Pictures, pictures of Schreient and Schwarz on operating tables, wires were not only connected to their body, but it looked as though they had wires going into their brains. Farfarfello's looked particularly bad. He had steel rods inserted into his body.

These didn't look like laboratory photos, but rather spy shots. There was a picture of Tot trying to get past a scientist. Ken recalled from the report that she was unaware of her teammates' powers, so she was probably trying to see that Schwarz kid that she was so interested in.

The table that Farfarfello was on looked like it was straight out of a medieval torture chamber. In some pictures, the person was conscious, in others, they were not. A picture was taken of Nagi held under water in a tank.

The pictures were disturbing, to say the least. Ken showed them to Youji, and then to Omi. They all came to the general conclusion that Aya was the one who took the pictures. Youji spotted a building in the background of one picture, and its address on a sign. It was the address of a tile factory in Tokyo. The three Weiß members went out to the factory as soon as night fell.

            They were determined to find Aya. Judging by the position of the view in the photo, they determined that the building in which the testing took place was an old, three-story fish factory.

            Ken was the first to go inside. The building was empty, absolutely nothing was inside. They continued upstairs, and to the third floor. It was pitch black inside. Ken, being the ever-impatient one, ran inside and tripped over something made of steel.

            Youji took out his cigarette lighter and flicked it on. Dust. Lots and lots of dust. And a metal stretcher-table with out its legs. Suddenly, Omi threw a dart into a dark corner, which was followed by a snort, and an "Ow…"-- two separate voices. A flash of silver and orange-gold, and the three Weiß members were facing Schuldig and Farfarfello.

            "You're getting good, bishonen," Schuldig smirked at Omi. "You've learned to react fast to your thoughts. I didn't pick it up fast enough." He chuckled, pulling a dart out of his arm.

            "I was aiming for your head," Omi glared.

            "I know," Schu smirked. "I never said I didn't pick it up."

            "This is all well and good," Ken interrupted, "But I for one would like to know why­ you two are here."

            "Oh, but kitten! You should know!"

            "What do you mean by that, Shoe?!"

            Schu ignored that. "We received a phone call from the high ups. He told us to come here to receive a job."

            Ken and Youji exchanged a look. "You… do remember what happened here?" Youji began.

            "Don't speak to us like teammates!" Farfarfello barked, suddenly covering the space between himself and Youji in an instant. He whipped out a blade, balancing it between his fingers. Youji gripped his wire, taking a step back.

            "Of course we do, you idiot! Just because you're lost teammate saved me, doesn't mean—Wait. What did you just ask? How do you know what happened here?!"

            Ken swiped out the photographs, holding them up for Schuldig. He grabbed them away, swearing. "Who in the HELL took these?!" he demanded, totally forgetting how much he wanted to kill the three Weiß men.

            Ken looked away. "I think Abyssinian did. You know what happened to him, don't you?!" Ken snapped his head at Schulderich, unsheathing his claws.

            "Ken-kun!" Omi whispered harshly, putting his hand over Ken's, lowering it.

            "Tell us what happened here!" Ken yelled at the two Schwarz members. Tears began to form in the corners of his eyes.

            "You wouldn't want to know, kid," Schuldig said, losing the joker face he so proudly wore. "Painful shit. Shit you should be praising God that you didn't have to go through."

            "So who is your employer this time?" Youji dared to ask.

            "We don't know," Schu smirked, happy to change subject. "At first Farf here thought that it was you, when you came in here."

            Farfarfello glared at Schu. "My impatience does not hurt God, Schu. I am wasting time."

            Schu rolled his eyes at the Irishman. "I'm a bit tired tonight. So you Weiß kids get off easy." Farf raised and eyebrow, and three looked at him with and incredulous look.

            As Schuldig began to leave through a side door, a crash was heard from a floor down. "What the hell?" he exclaimed.

Forgetting their differences for a moment, Schwarz and Weiß ran down the stairs to the second floor to see a figure, swathed in black, break through a wall. What looked to be the wall, turned out to be a cover for a room on the inside. It must have been recently used, because a dull light was on inside the room.

            As the figure hacked away at the wood, its dark hair was swept back, revealing a feminine shaped jaw, and dark lipstick-covered lips. She spun around to see them, but all they could see was her mouth and chin; all else was shadowed in the dim light. In a moment of obvious panic, she dashed to the nearest not boarded-up window, and leapt out of it.

            Omi ran to the window, but it was too late. She had already escaped out of sight. The other four approached the secret room; a dull hanging lamp swung over an old card table, and a wall was lined with computers, all but one broken. It was still whirring; a sign it was still on. The occupants had obviously left the room in a hurry, and boarded it up hastily as well.

            Omi returned with no luck on identifying the unknown woman, or where she went. He sat down at the computer, with Ken and Youji leaning over him, and turned the monitor on. Schulderich leaned against the wall by the new door, and Farfarfello sat at the table, playing with a pocketknife.

            I say we let them figure this out, since the kid is the only one who knows how to work with computers, and we don't have Nagi with us. Schuldig telepathically spoke to Farfarfello.

            Whatever, just don't do anything to anger Brad. I'd like to stay on Earth and hurt God awhile longer. Farfarfello responded.

            Was that just humor I heard? Schu joked, and Farfarfello glared at him.

            Omi pulled up the only file on the computer. It was an outcome of a half-hearted effort to encrypt data. Through a brief hacking and translation, he came up with an address of a manor in northern Honshu, near Sendai. Copying it down, Omi went through the file further. He pulled up the last readable piece. He was waiting for it to finish, when Schu swore.

            "Scheiße!!" he cursed. "Farf! We have to leave!"

            Farfarfello gave him a bored look. "What?"

            "I can hear a REALLY angry thought, belonging to a person coming here. And from what I hear, they have a REALLY big gun. And I'm unarmed. Gottfluch es!" he began to leave, Farfarfello in tow.

            "Omi let's go!" Youji grabbed his shoulder.

            "Oh my God! Ken! Youji!" Omi gasped, oblivious to the warning.

            "Omi! Now!"

            "No! Look!"

            Omi pointed to the screen. One word, among garbled encoded words, stood out.

            Fujimiya.

            "It says that Aya was to be a test subject, but his arrival was delayed until March 19 of this year," Omi turned to Ken. "Six weeks ago."

            "Ken's eyes widened. "No…"

            "He's being held at this address," Omi held up the address he had copied down.

            Omi stood up, and began to move out of the room. Suddenly he stopped, and pulled out his cross bow. Using the largest, thickest arrow he had, he shot directly into the computer. "The person trying to get in here wanted the data, and was not on our side," Omi explained as they ran out to the windows. "They should not have that data."

            Weiß was going to get Aya back.

***

            Aya, I found you, I know where you are! I'm coming for you! Wait for me, Aya; I love you!!