Disclaimer: Gee… Rurouni Kenshin to Weiss Kreuz wa atashi no mono de wa nai. Sore dake.
A/N: Welcome back people! Here's the mission, and here they finally meet (well retrieve anyway) Yahiko! Warning: this chapter contains some violence and dark/angsty undertones. You have been warned! Thanks to all my reviewers for reading, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter!
Reviewers' Space!
Neko Oni - ^^;; yes, Kenshin is smart indeed ^^ but then of course, he is also Kaoru's HalfSoul, so he is wise enough to know that if he complained about her cooking, she would wreck havoc on him later! Lol. Yeah, everyone just wants the deal about Kenshin and Kaoru's relationship ^^ and of course Kaoru wants the digs on the relationship between Aoshi and Misao. Mwahah XD yesh, you'll just have to wait to find out how important their link is ^^ Ooh, graphic design? Kewl. ^^ I'm sure you'll do fine! See you around for the next chapter!
Wenqi-chan – scary? In what way? Yup, I'll definitely continue it! Thanks for R&Ring!
Missaw – nah, it's just that I've got time to write, that's all. But school starts next week, so the updates will be a LOT slower, sorry to say. Glad you liked the last chapter, and hope that you enjoy this one too!
Rekka's Angel – Wow, all 10 chapters in one go? ^^ I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for R&Ring!
Chris – lol, yes ^^; I can just imagine Kaoru yelling at all of them; and the three men standing there rooted to the spot, pale and white ^^;;; Do stay around for more!
Baka-Ryu – Yup, thanks for reading! Here comes Yahiko!
Aislinn – I refuse to answer this question that has been asked over a million times already. Please read the Author's Note in the last chapter.
missaw – no prob! Gotcha!
Meirou – Yeah, ff.net's been acting up lately. ^^ Considering that I've only got a couple of days left until my holidays end, I'm trying to do as much as I can. Glad that you enjoyed the little interlude between Kaoru and Kenshin; just hope that it's not too mushy, but at the same time not too serious either. Thanks for R&Ring!
TaioraCrazedGirl – I'm glad you're enjoying it! Do stay around for more chapters to come! Thanks for R&Ring!
Kaoru – Yeah, Japanese seiyuu have a heck-load more training than English VAs do. Nothing compares to the original. All the anime that I've got is subbed, except for the 3rd OVA of Fushigi Yuugi, which is in English (eeeeew, it sounds absolutely terrible). To answer your question, it's a definite NO. Lol. Sorry, put too much work into it to let someone else take all the credit.
Nicky – Well, that's all that Misao knows about the legend really, so it's up to her and Kenshin to figure it up by themselves, or wait for Katsura to fill them in. Ah, Yahiko? He'll probably end up being added to the mix, but as for his memory…well…that's something else that I've got to work on. Yeah, Kenshin's always nice ne? But Sou of course ^^ would MURDER him if he made Kaoru unhappy. Aoshi definitely would as well. Heck, what can I say? They're a very protective little family. Thanks for R&Ring!
And now, on to the chapter!
Chapter 11 – Black Dawn
Thoughts are in ' '
Speech is in " "
Telepathy is in italics.
Kaoru made here way stealthily through the large compound of Sylven Laboratories; Kenshin right behind her. For a laboratory that had only one patient, the place sure was large, and the six had paired off to enter from different parts of the facility. Kaoru with Kenshin; Sanosuke with Soujirou; Aoshi and Misao. Although Aoshi had obtained the floor plans of the lab, there had not been a set location as to where the boy they had come to retrieve was. The team had agreed to let the others know once they found the boy either via telepathy or by the sophisticated communication set. Sanosuke would set the bomb off as soon as the boy was found, giving them a short time of 5 minutes to evacuate the place before it blew up.
A sentinel passed by Kaoru and Kenshin's hiding place, and Kaoru's arm snaked out towards him, twisting his neck swiftly before he had time to cry out. Orders came first, guilt later; the pair had reverted into full assassin mode; Kaoru as the Kuro Bara, Kenshin as the Battousai. They advanced on, leaving the broken body of the man behind them. They briefly passed by the room the Sanosuke and Soujirou were in; Sanosuke gave them a thumbs-up and flashed a smile; Soujirou was using his Hex abilities again to store all the information that the lab had into his memory before they detonated the lab. Moving forward down the dimly lit corridor, the pair soon encountered a fork in the straight path; Kenshin nodded to Kaoru as he started down the left path; Kaoru took the right. She sent him a mental Good luck. Before she disappeared into the darkness of the corridor, which he returned.
"Kagami here. All clear." Aoshi's voice crackled through the earpiece in Kenshin's ear. "No sign of the boy."
Sanosuke's voice followed through. "Zanza. No interruptions here. Coast all clear."
Kaoru's voice was like music to his ears. "Bara. Nothing yet. All clear."
Kenshin finally spoke into the mouthpiece quietly. "Battousai. No signs of the boy. All clear. Report in 10 minutes."
Murmurs of assent filled his ears; the earpiece fizzed once more before going silent.
The path he was following sloped upwards, and he followed it, keeping close to the left wall; as attuned as his senses were, he didn't want any unwanted surprises leaping out to ambush him. Amber eyes narrowed as a sliver of light shone through from the edge of the corridor.
He waited.
~*~
The system welcomed him as his consciousness entered it. This time, Soujirou had no need to run past the security protocols that he had had to the first time around, basically because he was in the facility itself. He scanned the files easily, imprinting them onto his eidetic memory. They would erase all the records of the boy and the facility itself; both would be dead to the world, just like the members of Black Dawn were (1). Pulling the database off the Internet and the rest of the network system, he 'snapped' all ties to it, erasing the leftover data in other systems, before erasing everything else on the computer. He barked a command to the encrypted system, telling it to self-destruct all the information it held before he pulled out of the swim of numbers, and back into the real world.
Sanosuke watched the younger man shudder slightly as he 'returned' to his body. Although he would never admit it to Soujirou's face, it creeped him out sometimes when he saw the way that Soujirou's eyes went blank during the use of his Hex abilities. He nodded at Sanosuke to reassure him, the green glow of the computer glinting off his mask as it ate away at its own memory. There was nothing more that they could do now except wait for the other two pairs to find their target.
~*~
The sounds of talking and laughing filtered through the dimly lit corridor; the source seemed to come from a group of scientists relaxing in a room, unaware that there was, at this very moment, an assassin who had come to take their lives outside. Kenshin crouched by the half-open door, blending with the shadows as he listened in onto the conversation; he might be able to gain some information as to the boy's whereabouts in the facility, not to mention any extra information that was not recorded on the computer database that was being accessed by Soujirou.
" …and then he said 'Stop!', but his eyes were blank, even though his body was writhing on the table, like some electric eel or something; the look on his face would have killed you!" One of the scientists; a man, laughed cruelly.
"It seems that the boy reacts most to the brainwave shocks and the burn torture; physical cuts on his body don't seem to phase him anymore. I think we should intensify the treatment to gain more positive results." Another spoke, adding to the conversation.
"I second that suggestion. Our research has been getting rather dull lately, and we should turn to new avenues to gain more results. How do you think he would react if we inputted rape memories into his brain?" Kenshin couldn't help but feel disgusted; it was a woman who was saying something that was so utterly sick and obscene.
"We can voice our opinions to the Board; I'm sure that they'll be quite happy to grant us the right to further our experiments on the boy. Quite fascinating, even if I do say so myself." The first scientist spoke again.
"Well then, it's settled! Let's drink to our progress!"
Wine glasses clinked together as they drank to their success.
Kenshin had heard quite enough, and he was seething anger inside. He couldn't believe the nerve of these people, using a young child as an experiment, as if his thoughts or feelings didn't matter; the way the boy was being experimented on, he would probably be better off dead, and put out of his misery. 'And these people call themselves humans!' He was very angry, and his eyes burned dangerously as his thumb slipped his katana out of its sheath. 'They have very well earned the right to die by my hand. Allowing them to live would mean that other children could get hurt, and if it means that I have to kill more of my fellow "humans" so that these children will not suffer, then so be it!'
His katana made no sound as he drew it fully out from the sheath, moving into an attacking position even as he kicked the door open, hard. The scientists in the room looked up, surprised, as the door crashed hard into the wall; doorknob leaving a deep dent. They had not been prepared to see a man with furiously burning golden eyes, hair the colour of fresh blood; he was wearing a mask that covered his lower face, and wielded a sword. They stared at him stupidly, silently, unaware of the life-threatening situation that they were in, spellbound by his appearance. The words that he spoke next jarred them out of their staring reverie.
"I have come to collect the debts for your sins."
The spell was broken; one of the men was outraged that an intruder had been able to get through their security systems so easily.
"Who the fuck are you and what the hell do you think-----!!!" The rest of his sentence was cut off as Kenshin's katana slashed through his skull, cleaving his face right down to his waist.
The seriousness of their situation seemed to dawn upon them due to the death of their colleague right in front of their eyes. The two women started to scream, fear overpowering their sense of self-preservation; their screams stopped abruptly as their bodies slid to the floor bloodily, beheaded by the swing of Kenshin's harsh sword. Another man's body fell in the blink of an eye, his eyes gaping wide open as blood sputtered out from his mouth; his body had been slashed wide open from hip to shoulder and his blood puddle around him on the floor. The remaining scientist was shying away from Kenshin as the assassin advanced, face bleached due to fear while terror shook his features.
"G-g-get away from me!" The terrified man all but shrieked.
Kenshin's icy voice was a glaring contrast to the man's terror; the mask that he wore didn't hinder the taut anger that was withheld in his voice. "Where is the boy?"
"I-I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Terror made him stupid as well, and he was not gaining any brownie points in Kenshin's book by denying it.
The red head stepped closer to the scientist who was now up against the wall, with nowhere left to go. "I said: Where is the boy?"
"D-d-demon! I'm telling you anything!" Kenshin's eyes narrowed, and the tip of his sword was placed at the man's throat, pushing slightly against his Adam's apple; the man gulped.
"Let me ask you one more time: Where. Is. The. Boy."
His fear got the better of him. "C-c-corridor on the right! F-f-first r-room on the left!"
Without warning, the sword smashed into his heart, impaling him to the wall as blood splattered messily. The sword slid out again, coated in red blood as Kenshin drew it out, and shook it slightly to remove some of the blood on it. Leaning near to the dying man's ear he whispered.
"I am neither an avenging angel nor a demon (2); only the one who brings Heaven's Justice."
The red head turned and left, leaving a room with bloodied walls and broken bodies in his wake.
~*~
Kaoru's footsteps echoed lightly in the corridor; katana held out near her waist, its scabbard tucked snugly into the belt that adorned her black trousers. She had been wondering down the corridor for sometime now, not encountering any rooms, but slaying a few guards easily. Considering that there were no reports from Kenshin or Aoshi, she figured that neither of them had found the boy yet. As if on cue, the earpiece crackled in her ear before Kenshin's voice spoke briefly.
"Bara, the boy is located near you. First room on the left." His voice fizzed out again as he finished.
"Roger." She saw the door to the room not far from her line of sight. Kaoru walked up to it quietly, one hand on the knob of the door, the other poised to thrust straight into the abdomen of any guard who happened to be on the inside of the door. Turning the knob of the door smoothly, she entered the room, ready for any surprise attacks to hit her.
The pitiful sight on the bed was another thing entirely.
A thin, almost skeletal figure lay on the bed, an IV drip hooked up to him. Messy hair embraced slightly tanned skin that was riddled with pink scars, and many other scabs. His eyes were closed, but his face was twisted in something that was far from peaceful sleep, his weak hands clenching and unclenching themselves in the sheets. Kaoru made her way closer to the bed, sheathing her sword; the boy seemed to be having a nightmare; he writhed within his sheets, as if he was fighting something, and some of the barely healed wounds on his arms reopened. His face was clenched in pain as he dreamed, arms reaching to non-existent phantoms.
His voice was painfully soft even as he spoke within the realms of his dreams.
"Help me…please…someone…anyone…help me!" Salty tears leaked from the corners of his eyes
The sound of his voice made Kaoru feel like crying; she was no Empath, but the pain that the boy was feeling was so great that it even broke through her mental shields, giving her only a small taste of the pain that he had been, and still was going through. She reached for one of his small hands, cupping it in both of hers.
"We have come."
Eyelids that covered dark brown eyes slid painfully open as the emotions of this stranger flooded into him; anger and sadness and pain…all for him. He had never seen her before, and yet she had drawn him out of his nightmares, the ones that promised never-ending pain and hurt and violence with her soft voice. Yahiko could barely believe that this woman was here to save him, but the shimmering compassion in her eyes told him so, and her emotions betrayed her. It had been so long since he had felt comfort in a human touch…so very…very long…
"Are you here…to save me?" His small voice was rusty with disuse; for 3 torturous years, he had not used his voice for anything, save screaming from the pain that was inflicted on him.
The darkness comforted him as she answered softly. "Yes." Light fingers in gloves caressed his forehead lightly. "We will take you away from this place, and give you a new life. You don't have to be scared anymore."
"New…life…?" The concept of the idea sounded so foreign to him.
"Yes."
The conversation was cut short as the door opened, and a foreign voice interrupted them.
"Hey! How the fuck did you get in here?!" The security guard pulled at the gun from his holster as the light shone on Kaoru's figure by the side of Yahiko's bed.
The young boy watched as the young woman transformed into a deadly assassin, katana flying from her sheath and slashing the man dead in one motion. He felt the flicker of the man's life force burn out, but was surprised to find that there was no happiness from the woman who had just snuffed the man's life out in one swing. Instead, he seemed to feel a grave sadness emanate from her, her anger dying down into a gray cloak (3). 'She is different.' He thought with surprise. 'She takes no pleasure at all in killing…and she even hurts herself emotionally.' The scientists had always gone out of their way to be cruel to him, and this strange woman's attitude and emotions was something that was new to him.
Kaoru shook her sword out, and then slid it back into its sheath. She would have rather killed out of the boy's sight, but if she had taken another second, then they might have both been dead. Depressing the little com button on her collar slightly, she spoke into the mouthpiece. "I've found the boy. Set the bomb off, Zanza. Rest of the team out of the facility. I'll meet you back at the starting point." Affirmative responses came from both Sanosuke and Aoshi, and she turned to the door as Kenshin walked in, golden eyes blazing. They didn't speak as they exchanged glances with each other; acknowledging that both of them were safe; there would be time for sentiments later, but they had to bring the boy out now before the bomb went off.
Kenshin walked to the bed, pulling off his black trench coat to wrap it around Yahiko's frail body. The boy didn't protest; he could also feel that this man didn't mean to bring any harm to him, and if the blue-eyed angel trusted him, then he did too. He closed his eyes in the warm comfort, free from the nightmares that haunted him at last. The boy was like a feather in Kenshin's arms, and he and Kaoru exited the desolate room.
There would be no more torture in this place.
~*~
Aoshi's cat-like pupils dilated as he saw the figures of his cousin and her HalfSoul, carrying a bundle in his arms proceed towards them. Sanosuke, Soujirou, Misao and himself had evacuated the facility before them, moving back towards the point on top of the hill where they had first started. They were awaiting Kenshin and Kaoru's return with the boy, and now that they had returned, for the explosion of the Sylven Laboratories.
Dawn was fast approaching; time had sped by while they had been on their mission. They didn't have long to wait, as silence reigned before them, and there was a magnificent 'BOOM' as the facility exploded in flames, small mushroom clouds of smoke rising up from it as the place burned. Seven pairs of eyes watched on gravely as the smoke rose, mingling with the colours of the sun as it rose slowly on the horizon.
They had simply done what they had been named after, and now there was indeed a Black Dawn that they had created.
As the sound of police sirens and fire engines drew near, the six figures seemingly vanished into the horizon; the only sign of their presence was a fluttering piece of paper with a black rose atop it.
Notes:
(1) All members are dead to the world? What does that mean? It means that the team are not recorded as 'alive' to the world. In fact, they are all listed as 'deceased' on any police databases. As to how Kaoru and Sou can get into university, well, Katsura did some fake ID-ing, and there you have it!
(2) Ah, this is a line borrowed from Weiss Kreuz. Aya says something like this in the series. "Tenshi demo, akuma de mo nai. Tada no hitogoroshi nanda." Translates to "I am neither an angel nor a demon. Just a murderer."
(3) Yahiko's Empath abilities have been developed so much (due to all the time that the scientists were experimenting on him) that he can read emotions of a person if they are in close vicinity even without the sense of touch. Capish?
A/N: Woo~ another dark-ish chapter. But well, this fic does revolve around assassins, so there's gotta be killing somewhere! Anyways, Yahiko has finally shown up, and will be taken into custody by Black Dawn, where he'll be free from crazy scientists and whatnot. Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all in the next!
