look! LOOK! behold, i have finally finished this chapter! i know, i know, long time coming… i'll explain at the bottom.

disclaimer: as always, i am just not cool enough to own gravi, even though i had… what… two months to get the rights? nope. didn't happen.

note: as in the last chapter, tachi is written by midori-chan, but i've added a great deal to make his thoughts more accessible to us poor mortals. and with that, please enjoy chapter nine. i know it's been a long time coming. ^^;;

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            "NO!!!!" As fast as lightning, Eiri sprang forward, slamming into Sakuma-san with enough force to knock the boy's aim off-kilter. As he moved, the right hand in his jacket pulled outward, and in it... a gun. Eiri used his momentum to scoop Ryuichi into his left arm, pinning the singer's arms so that he could do no further harm, aiming his newly-revealed revolver unerringly at Aizawa Tachi.

            Ryuichi was breathing hard, crying openly in the empty silence of the church. His body went limp as Tachi eyed the tables that had suddenly been turned on him. "...What did you want Sakuma-san for?"

            Breathing ever-so-slightly heavy, Eiri smirked. "If I let Tohma's lead singer blow his own head off, I'd never hear the end of it." Inside, though, there was a kernel of warm satisfaction beneath the flippant exterior. We're not out of this yet... but we're closer, and no one had... to die. Things are going to be different this time. The little voice he tried so hard to suppress, the source of his reluctant compassion and the betrayer of his secret heart, whispered softly, You were right to have faith in him. He allowed himself a slight smile at this thought before his expression went frighteningly blank. "Now... tell me where Shuu-chan is." The gun was still pointed straight at Aizawa, and something about Eiri's stance suggested that he knew how to use it. Aizawa, still shaken from the earlier conflict, could only point towards the altar. He felt the sudden urge to faint envelop his senses. Shit, shit, shit… He doesn't get it. He doesn't get it at all. What the hell do I do now?

            Ryuichi was still a mental mess, squirming in Eiri's arm and crying pitifully, tracks of tears staining his cheeks red. Holding him gently but firmly, Eiri backed towards the altar, gun still trained on Aizawa. His aim never wavered, though Ryuichi could feel the slight trembling of his arm and, with concentration, could distinguish the sweat beading on his forehead. As easy as he made it seem, holding that gun steady was quite possibly the hardest... well, the second-hardest thing Yuki Eiri had ever had to do.

            Step by step, he inched backwards until he was flush with the wooden altar. This is it... With a steadying breath, he took his eyes off Tachi for the first time, out of necessity, and glanced behind the altar. In the darkness, he could barely make out a dusty trapdoor, with a heavy wooden handle latched to the side.

            The moment Eiri's eyes were away from him, Tachi grabbed the gun Ryuichi had tried to shoot himself with, and aimed it at the two. He cocked the gun with a click. "Shouldn't have looked away..." Tachi exhaled in relief, though the fact still remained that both he and Eiri had a gun. This thought gave way to a grim sneer. If you weren't such a fucking self-centered egotistical asshole, we wouldn't be in this situation. Fuck you, Yuki Eiri. Despite the obvious gravity his predicament, Tachi was almost tempted to laugh. What irony.

            Eiri's eyes snapped back to the sneering, black-haired singer. Fuck! Eyes narrowing, he cocked his own revolver, still trained on Tachi. His voice was even and smooth as he very slowly released Ryuichi. "Sakuma-san. Go and open the trap door." Ryuichi nodded through his dry hiccupping sobs and dropped to his feet, biting his lip tremulously as he cowered behind the altar and tugged at the handle. Tachi glared at Eiri through angry eyes, feeling as if he has already lost this battle, though trying desperately to still keep a handle on this situation. The only sounds that could be heard in the church were the creaking of metal and the vocalist's sobs. Sweat beaded on the writer's forehead and trickled into his eyes, but he didn't dare blink. It was sheer torment to force himself not to look over at Ryuichi, not to try to help in some way... but he knew better than that. One false move, one careless stumble, and both he and Sakuma-san would be dead. I can't look... I can't. I just have to trust him.

            Ryuichi's hands trembled as he struggled with his task. (I can't do it...I'm too weak...I can't open it...) He let out a cold sob, hands shaking violently upon the metal. (I...can't...) | Godamnit, Sakuma-san, if I thought you were going to be this much of a wuss, I wouldn't be talking to you right now... | Ryuichi did a double-take as he heard his voice reprimand him for the first time rather than taunting him. (...what...) *That's right, Ryuichi, you damn fuck. I'm not staying here any longer if you can't even open that door, what with Eiri counting on you...* (He's...what...?) | Counting on you. Are you deaf? Open that door. | (I...I...) He wrenched on the handle, and the door flew open, filling the room with dust.

            A loud bang reverberated throughout the building as the door clattered to the floor. Tachi jumped as the sudden sound broke the uncomfortable silence falling about himself and Eiri, but recovered himself quickly enough to use the distraction to his advantage. Moving quickly, he hid the object he'd extracted from his pocket when he had Sakuma-san pinned, fingers dancing over it in a familiar pattern. Please, please let me do this right… Luckily for Tachi, Eiri was distracted by the noise—not enough that he took his eyes off the singer, but enough that the movement went unnoticed.

            On Eiri's right, just out of his peripheral vision, Ryuichi peered into the darkness below. A pair of shaking, wet blue eyes stared up at him from a veil of dirty pink hair and a pale face graced with cuts and caked blood. The boy stared at Ryuichi for a moment, completely dumbfounded and perhaps a little nervous. Finally he spoke. "Sakuma-san..." Trembling to the point of another near mental breakdown, Ryuichi reached down into the orifice in the floor and embraced the Bad Luck singer. "...Shuu…"

            Eiri finally let out the breath he'd been holding for goodness-knows-how long. He couldn't even remember himself. He did not, however, take his eyes off of Aizawa as he raised his voice slightly to call out, "Shuichi... get up here. Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused us...?"

            "YUKI?!!" Shuichi's voice rang as clear as a bell as he looked past Ryuichi in shock. "Hai hai, I'm sorry..." He grinned, wiping the tears from his eyes. "I'm fine." Ryuichi pulled him up out of the dark hole he'd been in for god knows how long and fell down in exhaustion, another barrage of tears falling down his alabaster face. Shuichi reacted instantly. "Sakuma-san?!" The pink-haired one was immediately at his friend's side, holding him with his ashen arms and asking, "Are you okay?" Ryuichi didn't respond, though, just lay there, quiet...

            Eyes still fixed on Aizawa, Eiri spoke again, voice tight with worry—though it could very easily be misinterpreted as annoyance or coldness. "Shuichi, help Sakuma-san up." His eyes narrowed, glaring coldly at ASK's lead singer. The gun did not waver. "We're leaving."

            Shit, shit, SHIT! I have to distract him… Aizawa searched for something, anything to say, anything to keep the writer in place. "I'll tell you something." He moved his body closer to Eiri, both hands coming to rest upon the gun, now that he no longer needs his left for other things. "I was the only one that visited that poor bastard in his little white prison cell. I came looking for someone else, but I found him... you all didn't even care enough to visit him..." His voice grew tight with anger, though he refused to voice the fact that he'd been looking for his bandmate Ma-kun, the man Yuki Eiri had beaten senseless for Tachi's own crimes… No. I can't think about that right now. Have to focus.

            Frowning suddenly, Eiri couldn't help but glance in Sakuma-san's direction, if only for a fraction of a second. When his eyes pulled back to Aizawa, their expression had not changed, but his mind was racing. Tachi knew about this, too? Was I the only one kept in the dark?! Went looking for someone else, huh? What could he mean? What the hell is the truth? Eiri's grip tightened ever-so-slightly on the gun. "Step back, Tachi-kun." His words said nothing of the turmoil within his mind.

            "No." Tachi growled furiously, obviously beginning to lose his cool about the whole situation. "He was the one that started this, right? If he hadn't told me about that unfortunate incident with Shuichi, I wouldn't have been involved, would I? It's his fault..." He glared straight into the writer's cool eyes, then faltered a bit. Fuck, fuck, fuck… I'm messing this all up, and time is running out… Behind the altar, Shuichi was cradling Ryuichi's head in his arms, talking to him softly, trying desperately to wake Sakuma-san from his self-dug pit of despair. He looked up, topaz eyes full of pain. "Yuki...I want to go home..."

            Stuck in the middle of a situation he couldn't fathom, Eiri could, at first, do little more than stare at Tachi. There are too many lies here. Way too many. What am I supposed to believe...? The gun remained pointed at Aizawa's head, but Yuki did not move forward. After a long moment of silence, staring into the gun-toting singer's eyes, he spoke quietly. "Someone in this room is going to tell me exactly what has been going on—and I mean everything. Right. Now." He was greeted by silence. Having bought himself the time he needed, Tachi was simply content to glare at Eiri, mouth drawn tight. Shuichi could only stare up at Yuki sadly, and Ryuichi was... comatose...

            All right, apparently he's going to make this hard. Eiri took an experimental step backwards towards Shuichi and Ryuichi, gun still aimed at Aizawa, without looking where he was stepping. Careful... He couldn't really say, at that moment, who or what he believed—all of his attention was focused on finding out the truth, and since Tachi apparantly wouldn't cooperate, Shuichi and Ryuichi were his only links. Now if only he doesn't blow my head off...

            Tachi glared as he watched Eiri take a step backward, and his mouth twisted into a manic smile. One more step, you bastard... I did my part. I've seen it through. You were just too stubborn to listen. If you do something stupid, after all, who's to say I didn't act in self-defense…? Shuichi's voice cut into Tachi's thoughts, high-pitched and nervous. "Yuki? What's going on? I can't see..." He rose suddenly, with Ryuichi's head still in his arms, trying to catch a glimpse of Tachi.

            "Shuichi, stay down," Yuki snapped tightly, stopping in his tracks. Damn it... if Shuu-chan gets in his line of sight, he could.... The thought was quickly stifled; Yuki refused to let it go any further. Shuichi stopped and rolled back on his legs with a worried sigh, gazing down at the man lying with his eyes open and blank. "Gomen nasai, Yuki..."

            A rock and a hard place... isn't that the American metaphor...? More than anything, Eiri needed to know what had happened to Ryuichi... but with Aizawa's threat hanging over him, he couldn't move any further backward. Grimacing slighty, he decided that he'd have to go for plan B: getting information from the other source that seemed to have something to hide. "Tell me why you're here." His eyes, narrow and cold, were unswervingly fixed on Aizawa.

            "Fuck off," Tachi answered promptly. You'd know already if you weren't so damned thickheaded! His eyes narrowed. "I'm the one with the power here, not you."

            "You seem to forget that we are at a stalemate. Tell me how you got Shuichi in here, and what you have to do with Sakuma-san's condition."

            Tachi grimaced as Eiri's words pierced his ears, but again thinned his lips defiantly as he refused to answer. Inside, though, he was screaming. Where the hell are you, you bastard?! It's taking too damn long… this fucking writer and his fucking boyfriend and their fucking crazy friend are going to kill me, right now, right here, and you're going to walk in two seconds too late. Maybe that was the plan all along…Tachi did his damnedest not to let his growing desperation show on his face. He still had a gun. Things could still work out.

            Eiri's lips tightened almost imperceptibly with frustration, but he kept his cool in front of Aizawa. "Tachi-kun... you are beginning to get on my nerves."

            "I could say the same damn thing about you, Eiri... san..." For the first time, Eiri began to get the feeling there was something else Tachi was withholding, something that didn't have anything to do with Shuichi at all. The writer frowned and took another look at Tachi, who raised an eyebrow, impeccably generating the phrase "Why don't you just figure it out for yourself?" from a single motion. Sweat was beginning to pool in the crevasse of his Tachi's neck and he sighed exasperatedly, eyes glaring hard at Eiri.

            That's it. I'm through with playing games. It was a gamble, but Eiri had had enough. In his previous encounters with Aizawa Tachi, the man had talked tough, but he seemed to have some sort of fear of the novelist... Eiri would just have to rely on that. He won't shoot me. Even he is not that stupid. With a single quick, decisive movement, Eiri closed the distance between himself and the altar, moving without taking his eyes from Tachi. He knelt beside his two charges; a quick, fluid motion which nonetheless keeps his gun aimed right at Aizawa. "Shuichi... hand me Sakuma-san."

            "Ah...oh...okay..." The pink haired boy's tone was filled with misunderstanding and hurt. Nevertheless, he handed the limp boy over to Eiri-san, being careful to place Kumagorou with Ryuichi as he was transferred to the other man's arms. Eiri settled the unconscious boy against his chest, worried that it would throw off his aim, but unwilling to let this fear show on his face. Softly, he spoke to the young singer. "Shuichi... can you walk?" His eyes didn't leave his adversary, but the tone was one that has not been heard since the beginning of this ordeal, the one that Shuichi was only used to hearing during Eiri's rare but precious moments of love and compassion. True, there was less emotion in his voice than he was feeling at the moment, but the restraint was clear—as clear as the reason, who was still scowling across the church, gun pointed squarely at Eiri's head.

            "H-hai, I think," the boy answered, tone still slightly nervous. Just as Shuichi began to get up, however, the eyes of the man in Eiri's arms snapped open, and he threw an arm around the writer's neck, sobbing audibly. The sobs ceased in an instant, though, as blank, pale blue eyes blinked back open, tendering a stare of pure malice down at the trembling singer kneeling upon the floor. Shuichi shrunk back with a sharp intake of breath as Sakuma-san's eyes found his. The older man glared downward, but his voice was focused in another direction. "Don't move, Eiri-san." His grip tightened around his Kumagorou defensively, and he snaked his arm even further around the writer's neck in a strangling hold.

            Completely surprised, Eiri choked and faltered, stumbling slightly as his airways were restricted. "W-what the...?" he gasped, then choked out, "Sakuma-san! Let go!" This was definitely not part of the plan.

            "No." Eiri's new captor grinned in a childish glee, pressing his cheek to Eiri's and staring him maniacally in the eye. "I thank you for retrieving my Kumagorou. Given that it's filled with expensive explosives, it would've been a bitch if I'd lost it!" Eiri's eyes widened in alarm. He was so stunned, he couldn't even react—but someone else in the room was not. Hearing the new and frightening tone in Ryuichi's voice, Tachi choked slightly and faltered, the weary expression becoming evident upon his face as his hands loosened against his gun. Fuck! That stupid shitting writer… wouldn't fucking listen… and now we're all fucked. No, Tachi wasn't surprised. Despite his exhaustion, he pleaded with the other singer, trying desperately to buy them all a few more precious moments. "Dammit, Sakuma, don't do this!"

            Still staring unblinkingly at Eiri, the vocalist replied in a harsh snap, "Tired of trying to tell him that K-chan was loaded without me knowing it?" Tachi paled. Well, at least someone knew what I was trying to do… but why did it have to be him? He had no choice but to swallow his words and hang his head dejectedly. "…Bastard.," he muttered helplessly. There wasn't much else he could do.

            Choking, fighting to breathe, Eiri lowered his gun almost involuntarily. Shit, shit, shit... Why didn't I realize before? That angry personality, the one who snapped at me in the airport... he's been in there all along, manipulating us all. Eiri felt like something that one would scrape off the bottom of one's shoe. Tachi was trying to warn me...  I guess the little bastard really did reform. All of these thoughts and more flew through the novelist's head in a matter of seconds, but only one remained, achingly strong. Shuichi... I need to get him out of here! He tried to speak, to scream, to call out a warning to his lover before it was too late, but all that emerged was a strangled gasp as his vision began to blur, a product of Sakuma-san's stranglehold.

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ta-da!! i hope that wasn't too disappointing, after waiting so long… in my own defense, this was one of the harder chapters to edit, since i actually had to write in a lot of stuff that wasn't there to begin with. i've also been working 9-5 to try to pay for school, so cut me some slack, hai? ^^;;

you know you wanna review… gee, i hope everyone hasn't stopped reading. if so i might cry. well, no, i won't… but midori-chan might, and i might stop posting this fic altogether. -_- so anyway, give us some love. or some hate! i take both. ^_____^

next chapter: who was tachi waiting for? what will become of eiri and shuichi? who is telling the truth and who isn't? stay tumed!

-vethia & midori-chan