Mission #5: Das Ziel des Lebens
"Arigatou Gozaimasu! Please come back soon!" sounded the cheerful voice of Omi.
Things had been quiet lately. With the exception of the regular thief, robber or other such scum, Tokyo had been free of bad guys. None of my wonderful coworkers were cheering for missions. They were all enjoying the peace. The atmosphere was just too cheerful for my taste. It made me want to puke. I guessed I couldn't really blame them. Every person was entitled to have his or her own opinions and feelings. But damn! It was no fun to be the only one who was bored. It had been weeks since our last mission. My muscles were aching from the lack of workout. If Manx came with a mission, I would be jumping out of joy.
"Hey Sky, you're drowning the plant." Yohji remarked.
"Hmm? Oh!" I absently wiped the small pool dry.
"Well, at least they won't die from thirst." Some snickers from Yohji.
I couldn't seem to concentrate on my work today. Not that I concentrated much on any given day, but still. My thoughts led a life of their own. They pretty much ignored anything I told them to do. Today they decided to keep wandering back to this dream I had some weeks ago. Dreams were meant to be forgotten. If you think about them too much, you will slowly lose your touch with reality. If you ignore them, they will fade before you go to sleep the next morning. I considered that an unwritten rule. It usually applied just fine. However, this particular dream had decided to screw my rule to hell. It was like a photograph imprinted in my mind. A little faded a little around the edges in weeks, but still clear in general. If I closed my eyes, I could still picture it in my mind. Was it even a dream? I didn't know. It seemed so real.
He had grown quite a bit since the last time we met. But then again, what else was I supposed to expect? That by some divine power he got trapped in the body of a ten year old? Of course he'd grow up. I just really didn't expect him to be that tall with me being so…less tall.
The dream or rather the nightmare that had visited me so very frequently for the past 14 years. It was the first time this matured version of him appeared in it. What did it mean?
"What's wrong?" Yohji asked. He was lounging in a chair, long legs stretched out in front of him. The sun covered his whole body. It highlighted all the little curves and bows very nicely. Sunglasses were pushed up his eyes to protect him against the light. He sat there in his usual attire of jeans and tank top and looked perfectly at ease. It reminded me of a cat bathing in the sun.
I sat my chair next to his and looked at the almost empty shop. The rush hours had long since passed. It wouldn't be long before it was time to close up the shop. Today Yohji and I were the ones who had to close up.
"I'm bored." I looked at him and pouted Omi style.
"Bored, eh?" He chuckled. I would never make the pout to perfection like Omi had. Oh well.
"Yep. Oh master Kudo, save me!"
"Ya can clean the basement, tackle the closets and all it's hidden animals."
I raised an eyebrow. "Save, Yotan, not kill. I'm bored, not suicidal." He gave another one of those brilliant laughs. I smiled. His laughs were always sort of contagious.
"A mission, that's what I needed." Something to distract my mind off dreams and other dark ranting.
Yohji's body stiffened.
"Careful what you wish for."
Maybe there was a god after all. Goodbye boredom, hello action. I was flipping eagerly through the folder Manx just handed out. That earned me a few dirty looks. What?
A male target. Not that old. 40 or so. A German drug lord, blah. Heavily guarded, blah. Yummy. Everything I wished for except for one little detail. Why did it have to be Friday?! I cursed softly. Splendid way to spend my Friday night. Killing people, getting blood on your cloths. Why would anyone prefer that over going out and having fun? I believed the second sounded much better. Too bad I couldn't have it all.
I frowned. Why did the name of this dude sound so familiar? I'd seen it somewhere before…but where? Herr Kugenschimm. Worked with….! Ah! That's why it sounded so familiar! I saw the name in the blond babe's agenda. Apparently Herr K had been an old college friend of Herr Yamoto. Looked like it was going to be a very interesting evening after all.
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Schuldich was in the driver's seat of the red Mercedes. The red-haired German was quite irritated, when his employer sent Schwarz to protect his ally Kraus Kugenschimm. And all of this, simply because Bradly got a vision of an assassination. He looked angrily to his leader, but his expressions softened. He loved him too much to stay angry with him. It just forced Schuldich to find some other, most definitely more amusing way to pay back. A small evil grin tugged at the corners of his face. Besides, the fact he actually got to drive a car, was something that only came along once in a thousand years. According to Schuldich there were no such thing called traffic laws. Cars were also meant to be driven at high speeds and countless damages to cars were bound to happen. Crawford had found that reason enough to let the German drive as little as possible. Bradly would even consider Nagi, a kid who didn't even have a driver's license, to be a much better driver than Schuldich. He watched the silent American curiously. Crawford was silent of nature and had been even more quiet these past two days. Schuldich had found it quite disturbing. He shrugged. It was most likely nothing important anyway. Crawford had put up his mental shield, one that was too strong to break for most telepaths and almost impossible for Schuldich.
"Umm Schuldich, the truck?" sounded the soft and yet alarming voice of the youngest of his team. He quickly maneuvered the car out of its very nearly confrontation with a 3000 lbs. vehicle and turned his attention back to the traffic. He knew that his leader and lover would reveal things, when the time came. In the meanwhile he could satisfy with plotting his sweet vengeance.
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I stared into the sky. The darkness had swallowed almost all the stars. Leaving only the moon and one or two stars visible. Aya were to drive us to our mission. Dressed to kill. The way his hair shone under the neon lights of the traffic. Violet eyes that held such a depth. Skin so smooth and white like marble. He would be an angel, if such existed. A fallen angel, sentenced to bring death. Ken accurately examining his bugnuks. Praying that the one he would kill tonight truly deserved it. Omi typing at his laptop with the speed of lightning. Preparing and double checking for the safety of his team members and himself. Yohji played with his wires. Even if he really wanted to go out, he would not desert his team when it needed him.
I'd been on enough missions with them to know the way they worked. We hadn't exactly spent any time on bonding like one big happy family. They were very close. My arrival was more the intrusion on their privacy than anything. Of course, they tried. Omi, Ken and Yohji were all trying very hard to be nice. Aya wasn't being nice, but he was more tolerant towards the things I dished at him. I got fewer glares. I suppose that was his way of showing his 'kindness'.
I didn't belong here. That was the problem. No matter how hard they tried, I just didn't seem to fit into their little circle. It'd been months now and I still felt like an outsider, an intruder. You know what? I really didn't care. There were other more important things that I wanted to worry about. So as long as we could stand each other and work together, no one got any right to complain.
This mission was labeled 'dangerous'. Mainly due to the immense amount of bodyguards the target hired. I guessed none of them knew how big my powers could be. I had been using the minimum of my powers for weeks now, so I had also been happily headachefree. Too bad it was time to change that. I should be able to give them a good show tonight.
I was quite impressed, to say the least. The bodyguards proved to be a very nice challenge. They were no matches for Weiss, but quite entertaining.
I tasted their fear and it made me feel powerful. I loved the way sweet power lingered on my tongue. If you ever had a taste of it, you'd never let it go. You'd spend the rest of your days trying to get another taste. The men knew they had sinned and would be punished for it. Yet they fought desperately and hung to life. They were afraid what would come after their deaths and knew we would gladly help them find out. We would be their executioners.
Most of them killed for the money. A few chased the rushes of adrenaline, just like me. There was a perfect understanding between us. The money was just an extra. We did it because we loved the thrills of adrenaline that will make your whole body tremble and harden. Fighting them was like drinking this dangerous elixir of fear, power and pleasure. It was exciting to kill them. I knew they felt pleasure even when they were bleeding their life away. Death was like a big bang of pleasure. Every time it came, I felt like I was on the verge of drowning in it. It felt good the way sex felt good.
This excitement, this sense of power, won't make you mad if you ride it. I knew that Ken was the only one who felt some of this pleasure. His problem was that he might just be unstable enough to surrender and let the power ride him. My other teammates were in a sort of trance when they fight. They just fought because they needed to, but something in their characters would never allow them to enjoy it. I was sorry they couldn't feel it.
The moneymakers. I was rather disappointed when I realized that these pitiful excuses of humans were the only kind left. I liked their fear, but their thoughts repulsed me. Money, money and money. Their life purpose was to live and to have money. The only things that mattered to them. The only thing that existed in their dictionary. Talking about a simple mind.
I was starting to get annoyed. They weren't our match individually, but together they were starting to form a problem. There seemed to be this endless supply of those people coming out of that door and running at us. What was this? The fucking Roman invasion? Each new wave of guards would simple step over the remnants of their fallen comrades and fight us. Encouraged by the promises of wealth through their comms. Stupid and greedy.
There were five of us and about fifty of them. Damn, how many did Kugenschimm hire?! We were all covered in blood and tired. The room seemed to keep getting smaller and smaller. The smell of blood filled the air. It was choking me. Oh fuck, we needed to get out of here.
They had decided to change strategies. The guards had formed a perfect circle to surround us and stood ready. I could feel both sides tensing, but neither of us attacked. The moment seemed frozen, but it wouldn't be long. I glanced quickly at the faces of my teammates. They strengthened their grip on their weapons and braced themselves. As a reaction, my own hands had tightened around the hilts of my daggers. I turned my attention to the guards. They were waiting for the signal to attack, waiting for the voice in their ears to let the fun begin. If we fought, we could take down a lot. But in the end, we would still be the ones ending up dead. Well, I supposed it was time to change weapons. I heaved a big sigh and dropped my daggers on the floor to free my hands. Oh goody. I surprised all the people in the room and used it to distract them. My eyes closed and my mind concentrated to form a circle of power. I had to work fast. Our enemies wouldn't wait for me to get ready.
The trick would be to grill the minds of our enemies and leave my teammates in tact. The power spilled out of my body in a rush. It reached out and short-circuited the brains. I trusted it to disable and most likely kill the guards. If any of them survived the shock, they wouldn't be doing much of anything for the next few months.
I wasn't tired yet. I just felt a little numb and a little light. My senses dull after using too much of my power. No need to worry about the backlashes of this thing. They would arrive soon enough. I wanted to be home when they arrive. I opened my eyes to find three openly horrified faces looking at me. Only Aya's face remained expressionless. Too bad those violet eyes were enough to betray his feelings. Something tightened in my gut. They were horrified because I killed all this people?!
"Gee, so I guess I should have just let us all die a horrible death." None of them moved. I forced myself to contain the anger. Fuck them all. Ungrateful bastards. I picked up my daggers and turned around to leave. They could finish their damn mission on their own. I was going home. The hell with all of them.
I heard the door slam open and turned to await whatever would come through. My hands started to tremble and I dropped the bloodied daggers. The target was behind this door, but that didn't matter anymore. The more important thing was that…HE was near. My legs started to move towards the door, to bring me closer to him…
Four men walked into the room. Aya murmured the word 'Schwarz'. So they were the famous Schwarz I had heard so much about. Schwarz, as opposite of Weiss. Schwarz, an extraordinary team that was even stronger than Weiss. But this couldn't be! I heard about the strong telepath of the team. But never did I think that it would be HIM! I dreamt a thousand times how we would meet again. Never was it anything remotely like this. Fate was such an ironic bitch.
I couldn't see anyone but him. My brains didn't register the fact that Weiss was standing behind me, while Schwarz was standing behind him. It just seemed that the world disappeared and all that was left was him and me. His face was shocked with disbelief, a perfect mirror of my own reaction.
A gasp escaped his lips.
"Vater!"
TBC
"You can feel happy, you can feel sad, you can feel scared. But no matter what you say or do you can't deny. There's a monster inside each and every one of us."
On a side note to prevent any misinterpretations. Vater ISN'T a name, it means 'father' in german.
