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Thoughts and conversations via thought are in italics.

Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own Weiss, only my OC character.

Chapter 2 – Memories

Ran pulled out a chair and sat down opposite the girl. From the way she looked at him, Ran couldn't tell what she was thinking. He hoped it wasn't anything bad.

"I've just realised something." He said to her, breaking the comfortable silence, "I still don't know your name."

"Tabby." The girl replied, "Or Tabby-Kat as Schu calls me."

"Schu?" Ran asked quizzically.

"Schuldig."

"Are you two…?" Ran asked precariously.

"No. Schu and I go way back. We've been friends for a long time."

Ran sighed; she wasn't with Schuldig, that was a relief. Looking at Tabby, Ran desperately wanted to reach across the table, pull her close to him and kiss her but knew better than to act out his desires. His train of thought was broken by a question.

"So why did you save me?" Tabby asked him curiously.

Ran blushed, he couldn't tell her the real reason why, the reason why he wanted to protect her from any harm, but he had to tell her something.

"You save my life first. I was repaying your kindness." He eventually replied, "I guess I don't get why you saved me…"

"Because I'm not exactly a member of Schwartz." Tabby admitted, "Schuldig asked me for a favour and agreed. I'm only there to fight. I have no intentions of killing anyone, at least not at the moment. Anyway, I enjoyed fighting you!"

"Keep it that way." Ran replied sharply, followed by a blush as the last part of her sentence stank in, she enjoyed fighting him, "Don't become an official member of Schwartz." As long as she wasn't an official member of Schwartz, Ran reckoned that she wouldn't appear on the target list.

Before anything else could be said, Ken and Yohji re-entered the room and made it clear to Ran that they had no intentions of leaving until they knew something more about the girl. Ran sighed and basically repeated the conversation that he had just had with Tabby to them.

Elsewhere in a dark room, Schuldig was sitting in a corner moping. He was angry with Crawford for not telling him that he had seen the collapse, angry at Farfarello for liking Tabby and angry at himself for not being able to save her. In his opinion, the only good thing that had come of it was the demise of the red-headed member of Weiss.

With his thoughts on Tabby, his mind slowly trailed back to memories of his youth. He had first met Tabby when he was about eight, she was only four at the time but they had immediately become close friends. Her family travelled a lot so he had been lucky to see her once or twice a year but they never grew apart and, at their reunions, you would never have thought that they had been away from each other for so long.

It wasn't a 'love' relationship or, at least, it hadn't started as one just a close friendship, but now Schuldig started to think differently. As he let his thoughts progress, he started to dose off…

"Tabitha!"

"Where are you?"

"Come on, Tabitha!"

"We only want to help you!"

The cries were all around him, all calling out for the same person, Tabby. After it had happened, she had fled and no one knew where she had gone. Schuldig was searching every street and alley that he could, he had to find her first, this wasn't her fault. In desperation, Schuldig smacked his fist against the trash receptor that he was standing beside. He was surprised to hear a faint gasp from inside the receptor and quickly opened it up. There she was, sitting amongst the trash.

"Tabby, you okay?" He asked kindly. The young girl quickly picked herself up and threw herself into Schuldig's arms.

"Schu! I'm so glad it's you!" She sobbed.

"It's okay now, Tab, you're safe." Schuldig reassured her as he quickly made his way back to his apartment.

Once there, he sat her down on the sofa and got her a warm cup of coco, it was cold outside and she had been out there a long time without particularly warm cloths on. From the kitchen, Schuldig looked back at the thirteen-year-old girl seated with her knees brought up, under her chin and her arms wrapped around them, probably in shock. He quickly returned to her and gave her the coco.

"I didn't mean to do it, Schu." Tabby insisted, "Honest."

"I know you didn't, Tabby-Kat." He said, comforting her, "You couldn't help it."

"Are they…dead?" She asked almost in a whisper. Schuldig did not immediately reply but nodded his head instead, focusing on his coco.

"I killed them?" Tabby asked again, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Tabby." Schuldig said solemnly, "tell me exactly what happened."

"I don't really know…" Tabby admitted, "They were arguing again and Mum told Dad to get out. He said 'no' and she threw something at him. They started hitting each other, I was scared. I...I…was watching the whole thing from the doorway. I shouted to them to stop but they didn't listen. I… I think I held my hand up…" She gestured to Schuldig with her hand up like she was asking someone to stop, "And yelled to them to stop. The next thing I remember was… was…" She started to cry even more, "Was blood, everywhere, all over the place, but not me… Mum and Dad were lying on the floor. I ran to them but didn't move… they looked like someone had fired something through their stomachs or something worse… How did I do it, Schuldig?"

"You've been given a gift but you don't know how to control it yet." Schuldig replied, "I'll teach you how though, just promise me that you won't get angry."

"I promise." Tabby agreed.

Schuldig woke up with a jump and looked around him. It was only a dream… a memory. He recalled how he had then looked after Tabby for several months until they were eventually found out and she was taken away, to a school where children with 'gifts' such as theirs were sent to forget them. He remembered how they had often communicated via telepathy so that she couldn't forget. He would be stand somewhere outside the school and they would chat from time to time. He had met her, two years ago, when he had finally managed to get the church to allow her to leave the school and, almost to his surprise, she was more powerful than ever.

"Was that when I started to change?" Schuldig thought to himself, "Is that when I started to feel like this?"

Farfarello hung upside down in his straightjacket, his eyes closed, deep in thought. He was punishing himself for many things, not least the recent spate of murders involving clergymen.

Minutes past before Farfarello heard the door open and someone walked in. He opened his eyes, fully expecting to see Schuldig standing there. Instead it was Schuldig's friend, the girl that was giving Schwartz a hand. Farfarello closed his eyes once again. He had no time for the girl.

"Tell me." The girl (Tabby) said to Farfarello as she seated herself down on the ground, "Why do you do it?"

"The church is no good." Farfarello replied without opening his eyes, "The church must be rebuked."

"I didn't mean the killings of the clergy; I meant what you're doing now." Tabby replied.

"Punishment."

There was a long silence in which Farfarello eventually opened his eyes and looked at the girl sitting on the floor.

"Why do you hate the church?" Tabby asked curiously. Farfarello didn't answer; he didn't want to talk about it.

"Schu said that something happened to your family…" Tabby pushed, to no prevail. So she tried a different approach. "My family died, well actually I killed them but I didn't mean to. I didn't know how to control my powers then. Schu looked after me after that, until they found me…"

"Who?" Farfarello asked, becoming interested in what Tabby had to say.

"Father Michael." Tabby replied solemnly, "He took me to a special school, to suppress my abilities."

"Like I said, the church is bad." Farfarello replied, before continuing into an in-depth conversation about his past, explaining how he had learnt that his mother was a nun and how he had killed his family and then repressed the memory until recently, when he killed his birth mother.

Farfarello opened his eyes, he had dozed off, and he had dreamed, a rare occurrence for him. He was still hanging upside down but realisation was quickly dawning on him. He actually missed her. She understood him and, for the first time, Farfarello felt that he could actually talk to someone. It was then that it occurred to him the reason why he was punishing himself. It was not for his bad deeds that involved his killing of people, it was her death, he had let her die.