Kon'nichi wa minna!
So here's another chapter of Koneko Wars, out in a somewhat timely fashion, ne? I'm going to try and discipline myself so I can get the story finished. We're heading towards the conclusion here and, yes, there will be some relationship resolution. If you're ever curious as to the current progress of KW, feel free to check out my new, spiffy Livejournal, user Whisper132. I'll be posting updates there as well as any misc. ficlets that happen to crop up.
Enjoy the read,
Whisper
The Koneko Wars
Chapter 16: Time to Burn
:Don't move, just listen to what I've got to say.:
Ran took a deep breath and sunk deeper into his bed. Three in the morning was no time to be discussing this, particularly with a wide awake Berserker sitting against his door, still reading the Bible despite the fact that there were no lights on. :Mastermind, I am not interested in any plans you may have concocted. Go to bed before Crawford shoots the both of us.:
:Crawford won't know, just listen.:
:Crawford will know. Crawford probably already knows and has set a knife licking barricade at my door as a result.: Ran concentrated on the high pitched voice echoing in his room. Deuteronomy was almost done.
-&-
"Your resistance to my methods has been impressive, Siberian, but I grow tired of waiting." Lenka's blew a stray bit of hair out of her face, snarling slightly. "You have forced me to be cruel and, while I do not enjoy it, I will be cruel if need be." She walked to her briefcase and pulled out another long needle, this time filled with something orange. Noting Siberian's slightly wide gaze, she smiled. "This is a muscle relaxant to keep you from struggling. I have noted your strength and, coupled with the adrenaline that is about to be produced, you might break through your restraints." She squirted a bit of liquid out of the needle, just for fun. "I can't have that, can I?"
-&-
"Why hello there little missy. I don't suppose you'd like to let me out of these straps, would you?" Yohji smiled as Brigit walked in, hands behind her back, eyes cast to the ground. "At the very least, would you mind bringing me a cigarette? Even men on death row get cigarettes." Despite the casual words, Yohji was shaking, not from lack nicotine, but from the horrible thoughts of what the nice looking little girl might do to him. Ludger had been very polite while torturing him, which had made the experience all the more painful. Under other circumstances, Ludger might not have been a bad guy-- except for the joyous light in his eyes when he popped Yohji's kneecap out of joint.
"Shhhhhh. Ludger is busy now. You are safe until tomorrow. Rest." She walked to the side of the room and turned on a small tap, gathering water in her cupped hands. "All of the cups here have drugs on the rims, be careful. Drink."
Yohji didn't care if he was being drugged or not. The faintly chlorinated scent of water was a temptation he couldn't resist. As he drank the slight liquid offered to him, he watched the girl. She'd come in before, usually apologizing before something horrible happened. It was a brilliant torture technique, trying to give him a sense of false hope. He wasn't going to fall for it. "Thanks." He wasn't going to fall for it, but he couldn't be rude, either, just in case.
"Ken-sama will be screaming soon. I came to warn you. He is your weakest point. Him and that woman, they're always at the front of your heart, burning like fire." She brought Yohji another handful of water. "Lenka is going to shatter his heart. She's going to destroy every corner of him and rebuild it the way she wants, just like with Stefan." A tear trailed down her cheek, but was quickly wiped away. "Kellen says Ken-sama will reveal nothing. There is nothing you can do to save him, please do not try. It will only make things harder for the both of you."
Yohji watched Birgit walk out of the room, not quite sure how to react to the strange encounter. They were going to rip Ken's heart to shreds and there was nothing he could do about it. Sturm was going to torture the both of them and there was nothing that could prevent it. Damn but he could use a cigarette right now.
-&-
"Look Lenka, I know you're really gung ho on getting information out of this guy, but this isn't going to work." Hahn's smile was nervous with just a tinge of fear at the corners, right where his mouth refused to turn up all the way. "If it's all the same, I'd rather not do this."
"You will do this or you will be punished for insubordination." Lenka held a small girl, around seven, by the shoulders. The girl was gagged, bound, and blindfolded.
"But she's just a little kid. If I knew that killing little kids was part of this..." Hahn paused as Ken screamed behind his gag, "...then I never would've agreed to be on the team."
"Estet found you half dead and gave you a life worth living. If you dare rescind your pledge now, I will have no mercy on you." Lenka's gaze was unyielding. She shoved the child in the center of the room and carefully attached her bindings to a metal ring in the floor. "You've done it before, do it again."
Hahn looked up at Ken and mouthed a very heartfelt "sorry" before raising his hand, igniting the child aflame. Hahn's arms widened and an arc of flame encased Ken and the girl, obscuring the both of them from the firestarter's sight. It was days like these that he really, really hated his job.
-&-
Crawford dropped his coffee mug. "Where are Prodigy and Bombay?"
"I would think, given the hour, that they are asleep." Ran threw a towel toward Crawford and continued to stare at the tea kettle on the stove. If it would hurry up and boil, they could get this stupid "meeting" over with. "Send Farfarello over if you're that concerned."
"Brad's just grumpy because he hasn't figured out how to save us yet," Schuldich poked his head out of Crawford's refrigerator long enough to give the other two a sharp smile. "He's afraid that we'll all die without your two lost cats." Before he could suffer Ran's scowl of displeasure, Schuldich stuck his head back in the fridge.
"They wouldn't be lost of I could go get them," Ran grumbled, twisting the knob on the stove, just to make sure it was really on high.
"Bombay and Prodigy are planning something. It would be wise to intervene." The stock page was saturated with decaf coffee. The coffee wasn't supposed to be decaf, but Schuldich had switched all of Crawford's coffee in an effort to save the man's kidneys from premature deterioration. Crawford played along because Schuldich's rare show of concern was cute.
"If you want to stop them then go ahead. I don't want the water boiling away and a fire starting." The smile Ran sent to the precog was acidic and the redhead hoped the stupid American's flesh would seer off just from looking at it.
Brad stood still, dropping the soggy newspaper. Seconds later he shook out of his vision and glared down at the mess on the floor. "Clean it up, Fujimiya. I'm going to save your teammate for you."
-&-
"Brad's going to find us," Nagi hollered at Omi's neck. The two were currently riding Omi's moped down the street, ignoring various traffic laws in hopes of finding the two lost Weiß.
"We've got a ten minute head start. He couldn't catch us even if he left right now," Omi reasoned. If only he knew where Ken's keys were, he could've taken the motorcycle. He also needed his legs to reach the ground. Nagi would laugh at him if they fell, so he couldn't take the motorcycle, even if he wanted to. But, if asked, the keys were what really sold him on taking the moped in all its pink glory.
"We're on an electric roller skate. Crawford has a car. He's going to find us and he's going to make me sleep in his room and put Farfie in with you." Unconsciously, the telekinetic held onto the archer a little bit tighter. It wouldn't help Ken and Yohji if he fell off and broke his neck at the offset of this rescue mission.
"He doesn't know where we're going. We didn't tell him the location of the safehouse." He pulled the gas-handle tighter to no effect. "Damn it, why did we take this…"
"You couldn't find Ken's keys and didn't want to hot-wire the motorcycle." Nagi held on a little tighter. "If I concentrate, I might be able to get it to go faster. Don't let me fall off."
Omi took one hand from the handlebars to intertwine with one of Nagi's. "I won't let you go." It was a phrase he had said the other night, in a different and more magnificent context, but it would have to do in its mundane form for the time. He couldn't let Nagi fall. If he did, he'd have to follow. For some reason that defied Omi's logic, he couldn't bear to take another breathe without the quiet boy currently trying to absorb himself into the dark t-shirt that Omi was wearing. He understood how Ran-kun felt, and he couldn't stand idle while his leader was in that kind of pain. Hopefully the ten minute lead would be enough to let them get to Sturm's safehouse and perform the most difficult mission of their lives.
-&-
It was over and everything in front of him had been reduced to a pile of soot. At some point, his gag had even burned. His face was probably scarred. God how he wanted them to kill him and get it over with.
"Are you ready to talk yet, Siberian?" Heavy, determined steps- it was that woman again. If he ever got out of here, he was going to run his claws through her entrails and spit on her remains. A blunt something impacted with his stomach. "Siberian, I asked you a question. I expect a response, and in a timely fashion."
"Go to Hell." The blunt object impacted again, this time with his sternum. If he concentrated on the burnt taste of his lips, the pain dulled a bit, though.
"I see." She sighed. She did that a lot, usually before she thought of something worse to do. At least Ran was safe, and it had been several hours since he heard any screaming from Yohji's direction. Another hit came to his shoulder. She must've noticed his thoughts wandering. "Speak, or I'll bring your friend in next."
It was a lie. He didn't have any special powers, but he could spot a lie like none other. He remained quiet. It was the one thing that really seemed to get to her and what did he have left, really, but to agitate her until she became tired of him or killed him. At this point, death wasn't really so bad a thought. At least it would get the image of little Chihiro out of his mind. It would get her screaming out of his ears. Opening his burnt eyelids a bit, Ken scanned the room, noting that the woman was the only one there. Taking a deep breath, Ken let out a long, agonizing scream. Then he fainted.
-&-
"That was crap," Hahn hissed, pulling a gallon of milk out of the fridge.
"Could have told you that without using my powers," Kellen yawned, poking at the salad before him. Really, his aniki should've known better, but he never learned. This whole Estet life wasn't for them. He'd been telling Hahn that for years, but he was scared of what Lenka would do to them. Still..."We should leave. She won't find us. We could hide out with Weiß if we bring those two back."
"And how do you propose we get them out? Wait until everyone's asleep and just walk out of here?" Hahn snorted and began drinking milk straight from the carton, just the way Lenka hated it.
"Two options, we can stay and you can burn the brunette in the morning and the blonde the day after, or we can leave and have a nice happily ever after life. Your choice, I'm not the one who's going to be roasting people alive."
The milk hit the floor, but not before a nice arc of white clung to the walls and lower cabinets. "We just get them and go?"
"Well, Stefan will be on watch, but I can take care of that." He smiled because he knew he had won. After years of dealing with Lenka's bloody iron fist, they were finally going to be free.