Kon'nichi wa minna!
Wow, it's been a long time, longer than anyone should have to tolerate. And yet, you've stuck with me, and for that I thank you. Here you have it, the long overdue update of KW. Enjoy.
-Whisper
The Koneko Wars
Chapter 15: The Longest Night
"What do you mean you left him there?" Ran had Crawford pinned against a wall and was occasionally shaking the precog, causing his head to smack against the drywall.
"It means, Fujimiya, that I did not succumb to inevitably falling into the pit and ensuring our demise. Everything will work out. Ken will return in a week." Brad was calm, controlled, and getting a headache. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to stop Schuldich from forming a rescue mission before he sends himself to a messy death." He pushed Ran away with little effort, smiling thinly at the redhead's shocked expression.
"You saw this and you didn't..."
"It wouldn't have changed anything." Brad assured as he left the room.
-&-
"So, you played soccer, right? I hear you were pretty good."
Ken sat in his cell, uncuffed, freezing, and trying for all the world to ignore the inquisitive man who'd walked by his cell and decided to "come say hi." So far Ken had been forced to listen to Kellen's family history, his views on someone named Lenka (which were not particularly positive) and answer stupid personal questions. This combined with the overly bubbly fangirl that kept popping in was enough to drive him batty. Couldn't they just kill him already? The only tolerable one had been the grumbling kid who'd come to let him out of the chains. "Yeah." It was Ken's stock answer at this point. Coupled with "Really?" and a surprised-but-intrigued "Huh," he was ready for anything Kellen threw at him.
Kellen smiled the sort of smile Farfarello was famous for. "You're going to be tortured tomorrow. Thought you might like to know." Mirth faded into boredom. "Lenka's always torturing people, maybe she'll let Stefan give it a go. He needs the practice."
Was this guy for real? "Hi, excuse me." Ken waved his hands frantically. "You're talking about my impending torture. Do you mind keeping the details to yourself, please?" What kind of nutcases were these people? Sturm was full of crazy fangirls and overly talkative assholes. Estet really did breed a fine sort, didn't they?
"I was just being nice; you don't have to get pissy. See if I help you again." Kellen rose, sparing a moment to examine Ken in all his brooding glory. "You're going to live, if that helps any." Before Ken could answer, Kellen was gone, the sound of a lock sliding firmly into place echoing behind him.
-&-
Visions, particularly intense ones, always made him crave sharp cheddar cheese. The taste helped to wash away the bile-like aftertaste of having your stomach jump into your throat. He didn't have much time to act, but he should be able to be suitably convincing in his pajamas-- provided he had his gun with him, of course. Nobody would be terrified of Bradley Crawford at three in the morning, wearing red and blue striped flannel pajamas if the man weren't carrying a very clean, very shiny gun. He ate his cheese quickly.
Two minutes later, footsteps were heard on the apartment landing. Crawford was in position, his gun properly holstered as he leaned casually against the catwalk railing. "Abyssinian, go back to bed."
"I'm going to find him." Ran's eyes flickered in the dying yellow path light, and Crawford could make out the dark circles forming around them. How touching, Abyssinian really did care.
"Yes, you will find him. Then, you will be captured. Both of you will be tortured and you will strike a deal; if they let Ken go, you'll tell them whatever they want. You'll tell them, they'll shoot you, then they'll go into the next room and shoot Ken. Both of you will die and I will not have the resources necessary to stop Sturm from destroying everything you've worked to create in these last few years." Crawford flashed the gun. It was a subtle movement, but the spazzing light made bright fireworks across the metal. "No matter what you do, Ken will not come out of this unscathed. He can come out alive if you handle things properly." And, as an afterthought, "Yohji will be tortured as well. Neither of them will reveal anything."
"When will it be safe to retrieve them?" The click-clack of a katana being popped in and out of its sheath bounced down the empty catwalk. Ran never could rid himself of that nervous habit. Luckily, he was rarely nervous.
"We won't have to; they'll come back to us." What Crawford declined to mention was the half-dead condition he foresaw the pair returning in. If he mentioned that, Abyssinian would do something stupid. So many futures ended with Abyssinian doing something stupid, the precog was amazed that the rest of Weiß featured him as such a stoic man. "Now go back to bed and pretend to sleep before Omi wakes up and begins asking questions you do not want to answer."
Abyssinian lurched back to his apartment, sparing one worried look to the unoccupied bed next to his. Despite everything, Yohji was still his teammate and he did still care for him. The silence and the smokeless air were depressing. The door opened before Ran could realize he was already mourning the loss of his comrades. "What are you doing here?"
"Crawford sent me to babysit you." Farfarello shut the door quietly and sunk to the ground against it. "I'll be staying here until Yohji and Ken come back. Now go to sleep." Farfello pulled out a book from a dingy backpack that might once have been powder blue.
"I'm not keeping the light on."
"Be quiet, I'm going to read you a bedtime story." Pages turned until Farfarello cleared his throat. "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth..."
Ran covered his head with his pillow and sunk into the overly firm mattress. Yohji blowing a cloud of smoke in his face was better than this. Even Schuldich was better than this.
-&-
"You have two options. One, you can cooperate. Two, you can die."
Ken looked up at the woman holding the syringe, already knowing his answer. "I'll die before I betray them." He had been freed to walk around the cell, he could take this slip of a lady.
"Stefan." Lenka snapped her fingers and the teenager appeared at her side. "Hold him in place while I prepare him."
"Yes ma'am." Stefan raised a hand and Ken felt the air pushing in around him. Why did everyone else have super powers and he was stuck with nothing?
"Now then Siberian, brace yourself." It wasn't so much the needle entering his flesh that caused him to scream so much as the way she wiggled it around once it was lodged in his arm. "Come now, it's far too early to be screaming that way. I haven't even brought out the thumb screws yet."
-&-
"What was that?" Yohji's head snapped up at the sound of screaming. It sounded like Ken, but the echo distorted it too much for him to be certain.
"That was Lenka torturing your friend." Hahn sat across from Yohji in a lawn chair, smoking a cigarette and occasionally blowing the smoke toward Yohji, whose nicotine fits had been the firestarter's only source of amusement in the past half hour. "Kellen says you'll both live, so don't worry too much about it. You'll probably just have some scars."
Yohji struggled against his chains, snarling. "Let me out of here now or so help me I'll..."
The door opened and a tall man in loose red slacks and a black t shirt entered. "Hahn, if you're not going to be useful, you can leave." He was carrying a black leather briefcase that jingled when he moved.
"Well hot stuff, looks like it's time for your torture session. Call me a coward, but I don't really have the stomach for what Ludger here's going to do to you. Stay in touch!" Hahn blew Yohji a kiss and sprinted out of the room before Ludger decided to extend the coming activities to him as well.
Ludger set his briefcase down on Hahn's abandoned chair. "You have two options. One, you can cooperate. Two, you can die."
"I'll take the third option, thanks." Yohji's cocky smile was back in place and, as Ludger snapped open his briefcase and pulled out a painfully long needle of something green, Yohji tried his hardest not to tremble. He couldn't scream. If he screamed, Ken would lose hope. As long as one of them lived, there could be vengeance.
-&-
"It's been an hour already." Kellen yawned and searched around for a clean fork to eat his salad with. These days all they were eating were salads of one variety or anther. It was Birgit's idea to help them "stay healthy." Kellen was fairly certain that the girl had just mentioned it to torture his meat-loving soul.
Hahn tossed a pair of chopsticks over to his brother. "Birgit got rid of all the forks. She thinks we should embrace local culture." The pantomimed gag showed what Hahn thought of that particular idea. "I doubt they'll give in to screaming. They're both unnecessarily stubborn."
"They're not going to give anything away. I already told Lenka that." Kellen grabbed one stick in each hand and began stabbing at the spinach in his bowl.
"Yes, you told her that, which means she'll spend the next week or two proving you wrong. In doing so, she'll cross some line with the two which will lock down their resolve and bring your vision to fruition. Pity, really, the blonde one was cute. Lenka's probably going to disfigure him."
"Nah, she'll probably just run him down. The other one's going to be a mess, though. She cuts off his ear in a few visions I've had. The worst I've seen the blonde get is a few toes cut off." Kellen reached for the newspaper, frowning at the foreign characters before shoving the paper across the table. "Find us a movie to go to."
A snap and the newspaper went up in flames. "We'll just go down and pick one. Maybe we can find you a nice Japanese girl to settle down with, too. Then you can stop following me around." Hahn smiled sweetly at his younger brother before dodging the cup of orange juice that flew his way. Unfortunately, he was unable to avoid the arc of liquid trailing behind said cup. "Kellen!" The younger boy took off, Hahn running closely behind him. Hahn never caught his brother, who always used his abilities to cheat, but a day without a good, brotherly chase was far too dull.
-&-
"I'm sorry, but they're making me do this," Birgit whispered as she approached Ken, who was currently tied, electric chair style, to a large, splintery, wooden chair.
"Less talk and more work," Lenka barked, tidying up a few of her "instruments" in the corner.
"Yes ma'am." Birgit placed her hands on either side of Ken's head. "This is going to hurt for a very long time," she said matter-of-factly. She took a deep breath and began. "His heart is very green."
"Find something useful. I am uninterested in the smaller details." Lenka carefully placed her scalpel into its carrying case. It was her favorite torture scalpel and, though she hadn't used it today, she didn't want it getting bent or damaged due to negligence.
"People, so many people." Birgit's hands tightened, gripping some of Ken's hair. "The blonde is there, and the red haired one, and someone else. It's like a large field, and they're all standing, waiting. Children, I see children. No faces, but there are so many of them. Fire, in the distance, and fear. So much fear..."
"Enough. We have enough." Lenka took one of Birgit's slim wrists in either hand and ripped them from the captive's body. "Send for Ludger and Hahn. I will require their services. You are to keep an eye on Balinese and glean what you can from him indirectly. When I have finished with Siberian, we will Scan Balinese. Clear?"
"Yes Lenka.." Birgit gave a quick salute and scuttled out of the room, casting a concerned glance back to the bound Siberian. He was going to have a headache for a few days, but that was nothing compared to what Lenka was planning; that was going to leave him screaming for life.
-&-
Yohji wasn't sure how long he'd refrained from screaming, all he knew was that, at some point, he hadn't been able to hold it in any longer. Ludger, while generally polite about the ordeal, hadn't had any qualms about twisting his arm out of joint, stabbing him in the side, or cutting off his air several times until he passed out. Yohji hadn't talked, though, just screamed until his mind fled to a dark corner reserved for lonely, rainy nights. His worst nightmares were better than his reality at the moment, so he took refuge in them, played them over and over again until the past wasn't so painful. Maybe he was finally learning to move on-- maybe he was going insane. At some point, the waves of new pain ceased and he was left in a total-body ache that pulled him into a sleep from which he never wanted to wake.