.Breathing.


Prologue:

We had another mission again today. I remembered quite clearly how things went from the briefing session till the real mission. I remembered listening Crawford telling me to shut up and listen.

*****

"Schuldich, shut up for once and listen carefully. You play an important role in this one and if you mess up I will personally screw you up. One of these days this attitude of yours would really be the death of you." Those were the exact words of the stoic leader of team Schwarz. His dark raven-black hair shone beneath the light and his glasses betrayed not the eyes that lay beneath their gleaming surface.

"Why, Bradley…I didn't know you cared," I said to him, blatant and brazen as usual. I added a wink and a flick of my equally brazen red hair to top it off. He merely glared. That had always been the only reaction I'd been able to get out of him lately. Not less and not more.

"I don't. Now stop that and listen," he spoke. My mouth was in position to retort to him but I had caught a sudden change in his voice and for half a second, behind those thin-rimmed glasses, his stone cold sorrel eyes softened. It nearly went by unnoticed. There was barely a hint in his voice that sounded like he was entreating me…almost pleading. At that I did stop and listen.

Later that night at the Mission Location:

The night was still young. Too dangerously young for our mission. I had noticed it from the start (I think Crawford had noticed it as well) but it wasn't important. We are the best and no little mishap like this should slow us down.

We entered swiftly, silently. The building's state of the art security was easily breached and within seconds we were in the main building without the slightest brawl, commotion or chaos. We spread stealthily and covered our grounds. The mission was to rupture the building, collect and terminate all evidence.

We did as we were told. Once the information was retrieved, we headed for the conference room where all those dirty old bastards lay their dastardly plans and play their pawns. Ironic, isn't it?

Cornered, they started to cry like wounded animal and little children. Those that were brave and stupid enough (a dangerous combination as Crawford always said) dared to point their weapons and throw threats in our face before Nagi snatched away their toys and slammed them against the wall several times, telekinetically, of course. Now with their little toys taken away, they whimper and beg. Pathetic really. I could just kill them in a blink of an eye just for my satisfaction and actually make the world a better place. But that wasn't the reason I was there. I was to probe their pathetic little mind while Crawford and Nagi downloaded the information. Farfarello was guarding the huddled group in the corner. The Irish lunatic looked as if he was a kid who just received a big new toy for Christmas.

The fear oozed out like pure sweet honey. It was exciting, just like pure ecstasy most of the time. But lately it disgusts me, especially now. Their minds collapsed completely and I could read everything…just like a book. All their fears and all their past sins flash through my mind. Rape, manipulations, assassination, treason… I saw everything, everything there right in front of me. I could hold on much longer. I was told not to do any harm but I couldn't help it. I lost my control and fried the mind I was prying. Somehow it felt right. Right as rain.

Somehow while Farfarello was busy with his beloved knives, a lady managed to slip away. She managed to sound the alarm button under one of the tables. The beacon blared and rang loud, right above my head. My concentration snapped and all the energy I released bounced off. Nagi lost control of his focus and his barrier shattered, bounced off the walls and hit me square on the head, hard. When Nagi's barrier broke, all the frightened little 'animals' ran off in every direction to escape their 'hunters'. Before they managed to get far, they were slammed against the wall again and trapped once again in the telekinetic barrier.

I managed to recover quickly. I re-positioned myself and re-arranged all of their memories and thoughts. Some were unfortunate enough to get their brains fried. Minutes later, the main entrance was bursting with security guards. I stood in front of the door and forced them back mentally while Nagi tried to push them out with his powers.

I could hear Nagi yelling to Crawford but I couldn't focus myself. I was to warped in my state of concentration. Half a moment later, I could swear I felt my feet left the ground, a jump and followed by a long fast fall. Reality slapped me in the face when I felt myself submerged in ice-cold water. I looked around to see a very pale Nagi flailing around in the water with Farfie on is side, approaching me. I heard gurgling noised and I turned to look behind me.

Crawford was sputtering for breath as he clung on my waist and pushed me upwards, trying to keep me from drowning. That's when I realized that we had just jumped out of the 20th floor of the tall building right into the lake outside. A loud explosion blew the 20th floor to pieces. I paddled my hands slowly and took a role reversal. I dragged him out of the water with Farfie and Nagi on my tail.

It was once I had managed to drag Crawford out did I realized his left hand was grasping tightly a heavy metal suitcase. He looked pale under the light moonlight, almost angelic. I almost didn't want to wake him but I only had to shake him a few time to revive him. He stared right into my eyes and told me to help him up. I did. Gladly.

We returned to headquarters and deposited our information. Takatori didn't appreciate the blow up that happened. A meeting was called for. We were to assemble in the meeting room except for Nagi who was excused. Though he was given leave, he refused to go and stayed by my side with us. I nearly think that the kid actually cares about me, or at the least, likes me.

Farfello sat in the corner, oblivious to the people in the room. His attention was fully on the knife he had in his hands. Nagi stood beside me but Crawford pushed him behind us in an almost protective fashion. He may deny it but he felt fraternally close to the brat. Nagi disagreed and tried to slip between us again. I understood what Crawford felt and I placed my hand on the boy's chest and looked down, weariness obvious in my eyes, pleading him to understand. He understood and retreated.

Takatori stood superiorly at the end of his table. In his hand was a shiny metal piece. He approached us with the saunter of a predatory animal eyeing its prey. He's a fucking old bastard.

"What happened?!" his guttural voice boomed out, oozing with supremacy, leisurely tapping the metal head of the gold club against his palm. "Who messed up?"

"I…I …," Nagi's soft voice was barely audible. Before he could do more damage, I spoke to him telepathically. Shh…be quiet, brat. We'll handle this. He looked up surprised. I only managed a little smile to comfort him.

"WELL?!! Speak up!" he demanded.

"No one messed up. The time you suggested was inappropriate. That's all," I said casually leaning to the side and squeezing the water out of my hair

"I messed up Takatori-san. It was my mistake," Crawford spoke as a-matter-of-factly. He was calm even if he was drenched from head to toe. I could barely contain my shock. He never took blame. Not for anyone. It was usually I who always took the blame for little Nagi.

"It was God's fault," Farfie spoke breaking his silent observation from his corner.  "HE made us blind for a moment."

"Very well…" he said approaching us. "If you're not telling me, then I'll just have to teach all of you a lesson."

He swung once at Crawford. The club whizzed past his head and returned to his stomach. Nagi watched with horror in his eyes. His mask did well to hide all his emotions. He was cemented to the floor before he was pushed aside by Crawford. Takatori stood up and stared up at Crawford warningly.

"I hate to have to beat you up…you are after all my right-hand man. Next time don't mess up." With that he turned to me.

"And you, my sweet…" he said menacingly. A disgusting smirk was on his face.

With every step he took I knew what was going to happen. The next moment I felt cold hard steel bashing my jaw. First my mid-section then my arms, my legs and my head again and again. I saw red…a lot of red, the carpeting, my hair and my blood, all mingling together on the wide bloody surface. I felt numb and wet on the fluffy blood red carpet beneath me. I began to get flashes again. After a while, I only saw black. 

He hated me for killing his beloved daughter and he hates me more than he hates the Weiss, who killed his sons. He hated me because I refused him a few years back. He hated me because I fought him when he tried to rape me then. He despises me for hating him still.

I thought I had blackened out but I realize that I could hear Crawford's voice. It sounded like he was asking for that prick to excuse us. He gave in eventually for he loved that bastard leader of ours. I opened my eyes again to see Crawford carrying me out of the office in his arms. Sure I'd have fantasized about it before but not like this. What the hell am I saying! Those hits must have damaged my brain.

Once we got to the car, Farfie entered wordlessly and sat quietly while little Nagi held the door open for me. Crawford lowered me onto the seat, Nagi got in and perched my head on his shoulder. Crawford drove fast and furiously. Nagi let his mask fall and looked at me with concern.

"I'm fine, brat! It takes more than a golf club to kill me," I said patting his head. He was after all, still a teenager beneath that entire hard years-refined exterior.

"But why just you?" he asked.

"Because he and I have a past grudge that he wont let go," I said simply.

I saw Nagi looked at Crawford questioningly through the back view mirror. He looked at me for an instant as if he was waiting for approval.

Slowly, he spoke, "Because he couldn't hit you because you are underaged and it would be child-abuse if he did. It would seem as if he was slapping his own daughter. As for Farfarello, well, don't you realize that he would only be wasting his time by pleasuring Farfie instead, if he did hit him? "

"As for you…he needs you to be by his side to help him and protect him. Therefore, he can't have you too severely injured," said Nagi to Crawford, finally understanding. He became quiet and thoughtful.

"Smart kid! Now let me get some shuteye," I managed to smile before I fall into a dark nightmare-filled sleep. After that, I blacked out and remembered nothing else.