The Hunting – Chapter 7: Revenge

Disclaimer: Well, I'm sure that you realize that I don't own Weiss, nor Schwarz, as much as I want to, but if I did, this wouldn't be her, now, would it? No, I did not think so. I own absolutely nothing! Mwahahahaha! Except for ummm well, no, nothing. I own nothing. Except the hiding place. I do own the hiding place! Yes, it took me seven chapters to realize that.

Yoji woke up to find Ran sleeping next to him. He cried out in a vain attempt to wake the younger man, but he was too deep in sleep. He cried out again when Crawford stepped in, trailing snow and Night at his heels. Yoji knew what things to be terrified of, and this was one of them.

"I think," he said to Yoji, through a surgeon mask, "that it's time I let you go."

Yoji froze, both literally, and figuratively. "Let me... go? You would... do that?" He was shivering violently.

"Oh, yes." Crawford's smirk seemed promising even to him, at this point. "Come along then, Balinese. Let's get you... home." He held the door open, letting the cold tumble in.

Yoji stepped out into the night with Crawford, his blanket held tight around him as he shivered. He barely walked two steps when Crawford nailed him in the back of his head. A voice within, deep, deep within him, told him that he was going to die, and to sit back and watch the show. He saw the movie of his life pulse before his eyes in a matter of seconds before he found himself no more.

Schuldich decided his work was done for the moment. He looked to Farfarello. The Irishman was sleeping in his upside-down entrapment. He was being punished again. Why do I have to watch you? Schuldich wondered. It wasn't like the silver-haired boy could get down on his own.

"What did you do now?" Schuldich asked him, opening the eighteen-year old's mind. He had been out taunting God again. "Why can't you just let Him be? I thought you found out about what really happened to your family." Answers were always difficult to extricate from this one, especially on his own. The thoughts flowed as if in a ball of twine. The owner usually knew what to do on how to find things.

Farfarello woke up. There was very long silence. "Is God in your mind?" he asked after several minutes passed. "Can you talk to Him?"

"I try not to find out."

A single golden eyeball penetrated Schuldich. "If you find Him, will you tell Him something for me?"

Schuldich began to walk about casually, fully aware of the half-gaze following him. He shrugged. "Depends."

"You can tell Him that I don't want to live with Him."

"I'll see what I can do." He didn't want to, really. And so, he wasn't going to.

Farfarello went back to sleep, and Schuldich sat on the floor, against the wall. The situation Japan was in needed analyzing. Everything he'd assumed was wrong. Firstly, the Ritalin had nothing to do with anything. Secondly, Weiss was being harvested for the work of darkness. It was questionable whether or not they would be able to live. Thirdly, it was, indeed, Crawford who was behind it all. The real question was, "Why?" And, "How?" And, "When?" And then, another, "Why?"

Schuldich couldn't remember anytime when it could have happened, Crawford's transformation, and eventually, he bruised his head trying to reach Crawford's mind. He wasn't sure what had happened since the last time he saw his gun-toting business-suit friend. Well, Schuldich thought bitterly, I really wouldn't consider him a friend. But saying that Crawford's shields were stronger was a bit of an understatement. Whatever did this to Crawford, Schuldich was sure that there was another person somewhere who was responsible for this. And he knew exactly what to do.

He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. His breathing slowed, gradually. And he let the thoughts of the universe flow in and out, granting him privy to each and every one of them –save for Crawford. There was one thing that perked his interest. Before he had the time to pick up on it, he was rudely interrupted by one of those minds. He had trouble staying focused, as he was violated. And then the one mind was cut off forever and ever. It was dead. And Schuldich passed out under the fluctuating energy waves.

Crawford prodded Ran with his shoe. "Wake up," he muttered angrily. He wasn't exactly patient at the moment. What, with barely more than one day left before they get out of this God-forsakened country, and still much to do. He knew that nothing could –nor would save any one. He had no time to waste on waiting for a spoiled brat of an assassin to wake up. Finally, with a growl, he picked up Ran by the ear-tails. "Fujimiya, your sister is going to die soon."

Not that it had anything to do with what Crawford wanted, but it served its purpose. Ran awoke.

"Uhn...?" he moaned in pain. Crawford dropped his head to the floor and turned away. "Augh–!!" There was silence, and then, "Leave my sister alone."

"I have no intention of doing anything to your sister. Nature will take care of that meaningless job for me." He prodded Ran with his shoe again. "Tell me what that syringe is for. It's really bothering me. I'm quite curious."

"It's... it's..." Ran was gasping and had some trouble getting the words past his teeth. Finally, he burst into tears. "I donate my eggs!" he conceded with a wail that rattled even Crawford's brains.

Crawford half-expected this, but not to such extent, so he could not help but be surprised. "Eh... what was that...?"

Ran was sobbing. "I do drugs, okay? I'm a bit delirious right now, if you'll just excuse me. My sister is the only on who knew! She kept it a secret so I could be allowed to stay in Weiss after she woke up."1

"You're a... druggie... who thought that he was a woman." Crawford scoffed. "That's really funny. It really is." He paused to smirk and chuckle. "It's just too bad that no one else will be able to laugh about it. Such a shame... I'm sure that even your friends will have riot about it."

Slowly, Ran regained a bit of his wit. He looked around. "Where are my teammates? What did you do to them? Why are you wearing a surgeon's mask? Are you the one everyone's talking about? Are you the vampire? But Schuldich said that you weren't."

Crawford lit a light of some kind, and Ran assumed it was a lantern. The oracle sat on a crate in the far corner, with an ankle resting upon his knee. "Well, Schuldich doesn't know what he's talking about. Anyways, what are you whining about? You're alive, aren't you? For the time being, at least. You were reunited with Bombay, weren't you? Hidaka is out doing... something or other. And Yoji... Well, he's watching you right now. I had to flat-out kill him. He was too scared, and yet, too willing at the same time. That wouldn't do. So he's with his companion now. Or...no... He would be in Hell, correct? Nevermind then. He's not watching you. He's suffering. And, well, this surgeon's mask is made to block those fetid smells about you."

"Why do you want to do this?" Ran wheezed, his lungs felt bruised, and he remembered that Crawford had been kicking him. And the odor in this room was horrible. He retched.

"Revenge. For leaving us to die in that... unfortunate accident way back when. It was the night your sister awoke. Do you remember? What made you think we would've done the same? Don't be so put off by our villainy. We would have taken you out of there."

"Yeah, and then use us in your experiments!" Ran sat up and spat some blood onto the floor. He tasted the saltiness on his tongue. Crawford had kicked him very hard. He looked up and almost thought that he saw Crawford flinch. If he had seen anything at all, it was gone now.

"I believe you're thinking of Schrient. Those silly women are, of course, gone as well. I even personally saw to the extermination of Tot2."

"Is that all you want to say to me?"

"Yes, pretty much. Oh, and you will all die, in the end, of course. If I were you, I would hope to God that there is no afterlife to separate you from any of your damned loved ones because they won't be in Hell with you. Pray for nothing." And he was gone.

Ran swallowed a lump in his throat.

It was then that Ran felt a warm breeze of mental concentration blowing in through his slit of a window. He grappled at it and managed to get a hold of a 'line.' "Schuldich!" he screamed with his now-raspy baritone voice. It was an odd sound in his world, in his ears, in his mind. He felt an odd feeling cover over him like a blanket. It was something of a sense of being two instead of one.

He felt a violent shudder from the other side, and then heard a very loud pop and then a crack. And he passed out.

Ken didn't know what was happening, things were moving slowly and yet so fast. He was trapped in his mind. It was as if he was seeing from behind his eyes as someone else used his body, moved his body. As someone else killed with his killing hands. He screamed, but heard no sound, despite in his own mind. He could feel this part of him disintegrating, falling away into nothingness. Soon, there would be nothing left of this consciousness, the last remainders of his soul. Soon, there would only be the master, and the servant, heeding every command given.

It was later that night when Crawford cam back to the hideaway. "Your time is up," he said to Ran, as the young man slept. He picked him up off the dirty and disgusting floor.

Well, Crawford thought, at least I don't have to clean it. Just destroy it.

He carried Ran out into the snow and spilled blood. No transformation was made, only the separation of body from soul. It was simply the taking of a life and banishing of it to Hell. Crawford was no longer in need of these... servants. He felt shamed to have used them. He never needed them. But it was a nice way to scare Weiss. Very nice, indeed.

He waited after that soul was gone for the two bodies to return. They came, stumbling through the snow, nothing more than mindless minions. He dragged the two preserved dead bodies into the hideaway. "Make sure they don't rot," he said. "Give them your life force if you have to." He locked the door. They all deserved to be disposed of the next night.

Crawford went back to his motel room with a grim feeling of self- satisfaction. He would sleep well tonight, for the first time, in a long time.

To Be Continued . . .

A/N: 1: Yes, I made Ran be on drugs. At first, I was going to make him a woman, because that would've been funnier, but, also, kind of stupid. No, really stupid. And for those, of you who I told, I'm sorry, but I changed my mind at the last minute, and had to change everything else. -.-'

2: I had to make sure people knew Tot was dead, because in the episode where the rest of Schrient die for the second time, and make you think that Nagi is dead, Tot stood up after she'd been killed. That was kind of annoying, because in the very next episode they're in, Tot isn't there, and Nagi is. Actually, it's very annoying. I don't understand half the things Koyasu Takehito does in that show. As much as I love it, there's so much I hate. .