No Place Left to Run

By Secera Crystalfire

C3: Revelation Insanity

Schuldich had notified him that the Weiss assassin had the epidemic. And that he had recovered from it, although only partially.

Aya had recovered from the disease that plagued the Oracle's mind, but how? What had caused Aya to recover, when Crawford foresaw himself dying? What was the difference that condemned one and allowed the other to live?

He knew that going anywhere near the red-haired assassin might be the single event that would incapacitate him like in the visions. He didn't know how the disease was spread, after all.

But, was living with these visions really life at all? Every moment, knowing and fearing that he would suddenly fall into the world that his precognition dictated he would digress to…this was no way to live. And that was no way to die.

"And so," he concluded fiercely, "I challenge you, fate. I'll follow your dictation, but I will not allow myself to die in such a manner. These visions are false!"

The first to attack was Ken. The impulsive one, Farfarello remembered that much. However, the Weiss assassin's wantonness was not lacking reason. He was talented and athletic, and had reflexes that almost matched the speed of the Berserker himself. Almost.

Farfarello sidestepped and caught his adversary in the stomach with his knee. Only a former soccer player's deft agility saved Ken Hidaka from the Berserker's blade, which glistened red in the tainted light of sunset as Farfarello spun to parry Yohji's attack from behind.

"Give it up!" Omi resolutely advised the Schwarz warrior as Ken lifted himself to his feet, coughing blood.

"You're outnumbered," Siberian added forcefully, determinedly adopting a battle stance regardless of the blood flowing from his mouth and the lack of his usual weapon. "You cannot defeat us!"

"No way I can defeat you?" the Berserker sneered while circumventing Yohji's assault. "There's no way I can not defeat you!"

"And how is that?" Yohji inquired through gritted teeth.

"You are weak. Weiss is weak!" Farfarello's blade slashed the side of Yohji face, creating a superficial cut that quickly became a horizontal line of red. "You've been out of the profession for too long!"

"No!" Yohji shouted, catching Farfarello in the stomach with his fist. The latter remained indifferent, he did not feel the pain that most would have recoiled from.

Incapable of physical pain, the Berserker continued to live up to his name in the dying sunlight. The Weiss members could not defeat him, no one could defeat him! A feeling of elation rose above the torrent of pure hatred in his head. This was the same rapture that he knew whenever engaged in a battle, and only in a battle. The reason he chose to remain, to continue fighting…

A vague feeling of urgency suddenly broke through the drunken exhilaration of the fight. He could not place the thought, it seemed foreign amongst the chaotic mixture of emotions raging through his mind. But of course…Schuldich. The Mastermind who was losing his powers to the extent that a once vivid thought was now just a vague feeling.

Giving no explanation to his adversaries, Farfarello turned his back and retreated into Crawford's HQ building.

"What the…never mind." Not desiring to continue the fight if it was unnecessary to do so, Yohji turned back to where Omi was supporting Ken.

"He doesn't look good," Omi stated the obvious, "shouldn't the bleeding have stopped by now?"

"Yeah," was Yohji's response. "Forget stopping, it shouldn't have started in the first place. He wasn't hit that hard."

"I wonder if…" Omi trailed off.

Ken looked up weakly. As each moment slipped by, it was becoming increasingly difficult to remain standing. "…Omi? Yohji? …Go ahead without me…I'm…not feeling exactly well…" He slumped downwards, finally giving in to the pain and fatigue. Omi was hard put to keep him from falling and injuring himself. With Yohji's help, Ken was lowered gently onto the cement.

"Yeah, it's the epidemic. You stay here with him, I'll go find Aya," Yohji concluded softly. A silent agreement passed between the two Weiss members who remained conscious. They parted ways without further discussion.

Schuldich stood in a brightly-lit hallway. Behind him was the door that led to the office Aya had been imprisoned within. In an uncharacteristically nervous gesture, the German man flipped his orange hair back over his shoulder. He was waiting.

Right on schedule, Crawford turned the corner and entered the corridor that Schuldich was guarding. "Are you going to stop me?" he asked without further explanation.

"I am. I will not allow you to kill yourself." Schuldich's voice remained forcibly calm and even.

"Move aside," growled Brad. "I order you, as leader or Schwarz, to get out of my way!"

"No." Still calm.

"Don't you see?!" Crawford tried a different tactic. "I cannot go on like this! If I become infected, the visions will go away!" He thought a moment, then added, "You cannot go on like this either, can you? It is killing you, just as it is destroying me."

"I don't care, damn it! I will not allow you to die!" Voice now rising with both anger and concern, the façade of calmness shattering.

Crawford's eyes shone with recklessness and derangement behind reflective lenses. "I will not die!"

"You know you will! I've seen everything you have, and there is not a single future in which you survive!" Schuldich stretched his arms outward to block the Oracle's path. "I don't care what people think, even what you think. If it means protecting you from this fate, I will do anything."

"Protect me? By doing so, you are condemning me! Life as it is now is not worth living, the only way to truly survive is to write my own future! …You've always been on top of the world, you can't know."

"Stop being irrational." Schuldich's hand wavered as he reached for his gun. 'Just to scare him, just to make him see sense', Schuldich repeated that thought in his head.

He was too late. Crawford, even as unbalanced as he was at the moment, saw his associate's ominous movement and whipped out his own pistol during the other's hesitation. "Move out of the way," the Oracle ordered with a dangerous tone.

Schuldich's fingers loosened and his gun dropped to the floor. Its clattering was the only sound that could be heard as the two colleagues faced each other, one with an expression of maniacal determination and the other with resentful alarm.

There was no choice, Schuldich stepped out of Brad's way and submitted to fate.

"Tot wants to show Nagi something," the smiling blue-haired girl declared.

"Huh? Just a moment." Nagi Naoe was concentrating on his computer screen, watching the exchange between Crawford and Schuldich.

Tot walked over to where Nagi was sitting. "Nagi shouldn't pry into other people's problems."

"That's strange to hear coming from you." 'What are those idiots doing?!' He watched Schuldich move to the side, defeated.

"Tot wants to show Nagi something," Tot repeated insistently.

"Okay," Nagi conceded, turning off the computer. "What is it?"

"Come with Tot."

Crawford walked past Schuldich and opened the door to the office.

"What…Damn him!"

Schuldich peered into the room from behind the raging Oracle. Aya was gone; the window was shattered. Mastermind sighed softly with relief.

"He must have jumped down, maybe we can still catch him."

"No, Bradley, I don't believe you'll be doing that today." Just as the Oracle realized that his back shouldn't be to his opponent, Schuldich knocked him out. "For your own good."

There was a large building situated behind the Crawford headquarters. A sign above the doorway read 'RESEARCH LAB #3'. Tot from Shreient, employed now by Crawford at Nagi's insistence, led the Prodigy through the doorway into an expansive room. After being in Masafumi's group for X number of years, the Shreient girl had become adept in the field of science. Thus, Crawford had agreed to take her on as an employee despite the immaturity that she had never quite grown out of.

Now, she was pulling Nagi towards a table in the corner of the room. On the table, the large and expensive mechanisms and scientific equipment that surrounded it dwarfed a simple microscope. The sound of lab animals could be heard from all corners of the room, as per the fact that the two intruders had rudely awakened them.

"Here, look here!" Tot urged Nagi towards the microscope, "Look in it."

Nagi followed her direction with curiosity. On the microscope slide was something moving. He adjusted the focus and several small shapes became clearer. They were dyed bluish-purple. "What are they?"

"They are beautiful, that's what Tot thinks. Does Nagi think so, too?"

"But what are they?"

"Fine." She stuck out her tongue teasingly. "A disease. They will kill Weiss, and everyone else who hurt Tot and Nagi. They will avenge Masafumi, Hel Shoen, and Neu…Tot's family."

"What?!"

Tot looked hurt at Nagi's reaction. "Don't you want to pay Weiss back for what they did, Nagi? Tot wants to pay them back, she hasn't forgotten."

"Of course I do, but this isn't the way to do it. You do know that this is killing thousands of others as well, do you?! And that's only the beginning!"

"They would hurt tot and Nagi. They already have hurt us. They deserve to die!"

"I'm sorry," Nagi shook his head, "I cannot agree with your method."

"Wha…" Tot looked dazed. She had never imagined this reaction. "Why…doesn't Nagi like Tot?"

"No, that's not it! It's just that-"

"Nagi hates Tot, doesn't he?! Otherwise you wouldn't…" she broke off, wiping away a single tear.

"No, Tot, I do like you! Please, please just listen," he started, mind racing.

"No! Tot won't listen!" she ran from the room and slammed the door behind her. Several birds and rats screeched at her as she left.

"Tot!" Nagi ran after her, slapping himself mentally for reacting the way he did even though there was no other way he could have reacted under the circumstances.

Aya was balanced precariously on a thin ledge protruding from the HQ building. He was three floors up, level with the window that he had shattered and climbed out of. The ledge ran along the whole side of the structure, and Aya was inching along it towards the only way down apart from jumping: a tall pine tree that was growing alongside the building. It would be a bit of a jump to get to, but not as far as it would be if he were to fall three stories to a cement parking lot.

After moving Brad to a different office and positioning him on the couch, Schuldich made his way down to the first floor and went outside. The red-haired German wanted to make sure that Aya was disposed of before Crawford woke up and got any more strange notions. He doubted that the assassin had survived the fall, as ill as he already was, but it was always best to make sure. And, even if Aya had died, he would need to be moved. Schuldich loathed the idea, but it was of necessity.

Walking around the side of the building, Schuldich heard someone running and breathing heavily. He reached for his gun.

"Schuldich!" It was Nagi's voice. "Where'd she go?!"

"Who?"

"Oh, Tot! She…" he was gasping heavily, "ran away…the disease…where'd she go? Did you see her?!"

"Tot…Disease? What about a disease?!"

"She created it…the one that's killing everyone. She told me about it. Where'd she run off to?"

Schuldich involuntarily took a step back. "She…she created it? Nagi, is that true?!"

"She said she wanted…to avenge Masafumi and Shreient, to kill Weiss." He jumped as his associate's face suddenly became a mask of pure hatred and fury. "It's not her fault, don't hurt her! As long as none of us get sick, everything's all right! Isn't it?"

The expression on Schuldich's face clearly stated 'NO'. "You…you don't know, do you?"

"Huh? Know what?"

"I'll kill her!" Ignoring Nagi's stricken look of terror and vehement protests, he ran off in the direction that the Shreient girl had most likely been heading.

Aya had been watching the exchange between his two enemies from the ledge, hoping and praying that neither would look up. About halfway through the dispute, the disease had begun doing its work again and he had felt a violent need to commence coughing. Blood started flowing into his mouth once more and he let it pool there for as long as possible, wishing fervently that the two would leave.

Finally, Schuldich ran away and was followed shortly after by Nagi. Aya gratefully let the blood gush out from his mouth and fall to the cement below. The coughing fit followed and Aya did his best to remain quiet enough as to not alert anyone to his presence there.

Soon after, it all stopped, leaving Aya feeling weak and lightheaded. Intelligently, he waited for a minute before beginning to inch along the thin ledge once again.

'So it's the Shreient girl,' he thought to himself, raging inside. 'She did this…SHI-NE!'

End Part 3.

Note of the Authoress: Yep, we're nearing the end. Poor Bradley and Schuldich…that was harsh, I know. Ah well, you'll have to read the next installment to find out what happens! Oh, and please review! Secera loves reviews! They make me feel happy and inspired! Wouldn't you like to make someone feel happy and inspired?

~Secera~