Author's Notes: Nadda

Disclaimer: I don't own Weiß Kreuz. Rated R for everything. AU and not

Roasty Toasty Porcupine Toes!

Chapter Five

Hands in Chains, Death in a Smile

Brad Crawford wanted to scream, to break something, to do anything to break the awful silence that had settled in the kitchen of his apartment. Yume was sitting across from him with a stunned expression on her face. He'd told her everything, every secret he'd ever harbored about his life, his abilities and his past. For almost an hour he'd talked to her about his visions and the way he'd used them to make his career as a boxer. Now she was looking at him as though she'd never seen him before and he couldn't help but wonder if this had been a mistake…

Before another thought could glide through his brain and into the chaos this conversation had created, his girlfriend surprised him by throwing her arms around his neck.

"Oh I'm so glad!" She exclaimed.

Brad blinked, not quite sure how he was supposed to react.

"You ah…you're glad?"

"Of course I am!" She pulled back to show him a brilliant smile. "I can do things too! Do you have any idea how wonderful it is to find someone who actually understands what it's like to be able to do things no one else can do?"

He didn't breathe for a full minute. Then he inhaled, exhaled, and struggled for something to say.

"What do you mean you can do things?"

She grinned and grabbed his hand, dragging him toward the window that looked into the apartment across the street.

"I can make people do anything I want them to." She explained. "Watch. I can make Mrs. Nelsen throw her potted plant out the window for no reason."

Stunned, Brad watched as his girlfriend gazed silently across the way into the next apartment. A few seconds later the elderly Mrs. Nelsen appeared, a confused expression on her wrinkled face. Without preamble she plucked her beloved aloe plant from its place and promptly chucked it out the window. It landed on the road with the sound of shattering pottery, leaving a very surprised old woman to stare down at it.

"See?" Yume looked quite pleased with herself.

"But…but how…?"

"I can manipulate people's thought processes." Yume replied. "It's a little bit like hot-wiring a car I guess."

"You can make them do anything?"

"Just about." Yume shrugged. "If it goes against their natural inclinations though it won't last for very long. Their body will begin to fight what I've done to it and eventually they'll be able to ignore whatever suggestions I try to plant in their mind."

"Wow." Brad leaned against the countertop. It was his turn to be shocked into utter silence. After a few moments he looked back at her, a goofy grin on his face. "What are the odds huh?"

Yume hugged him again, smiling brilliantly.

"I think this is cause for a celebration." She said, moving to grab her purse. "I'll go pick up a pizza at the place down the street okay?"

"Pepperoni and sausage. I'll set the table and make a salad. Hurry back all right?"

"You got it." Yume winked at him and disappeared into the hallway. A few moments later Brad heard the front door open and close. His mind was still a whirl of chaos and confusion but…well, he was happy. That was all that really mattered, wasn't it?

Feeling better than he had in several weeks the boxer set about laying out plates and napkins and retrieving lettuce from the refrigerator. It was as if a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders, leaving him free and content. He'd finally found someone he could be himself with and…

The door clicked open and he turned around, an amused expression on his face.

"Forget something Yu…" He trailed off as an unfamiliar figure appeared in the doorway. "Who are you?"

"I'm sorry." It was a man, and he was holding a gun in his hand as he advanced on his victim. "I don't want to do this."

Bradley opened his mouth to say something and stopped as his eyesight became dim, the world slipping away from him.

"Bradley!" It was Yume, screaming at him as she ran into the apartment. There was desperation in her eyes, and a strange, gut-wrenching fear…

He dodged the first bullet out of pure instinct, throwing himself to one side in a smooth motion that almost put him through the side of the refrigerator. His attacker cursed and swerved to aim once more, finger squeezing on the trigger.

"Bradley!" Yume slammed into the strange man, knocking his arm to the side so that the second bullet went into the cabinet instead of into Bradley's forehead. Then she grabbed the man by the arm, swinging him around so that she was gazing into his eyes. "Drop your gun." She said in a soft voice.

"Wha…" The man gasped as his gun dropped from his fingers. "What are you…?"

"You will forget why you came here." Yume growled. "You will take the first flight back to wherever you've come from and you will never come here again. Do you understand?"

The man blinked, his eyes slightly glazed.

"What am I doing here?" He murmured. "I'm sorry, am I bothering you?" He moved to the door. "Please, forgive me. I'll leave right now." He turned, hesitating at the doorway. "Am I forgetting something?" He asked.

"No." Yume assured him. "You're not forgetting anything. Just do as I told you and everything will be all right."

"Oh." He smiled. "Okay. Sorry I bothered you." He left as quietly as he had come, seemingly unconcerned with everything that had just occurred. When he was gone Yume turned to Bradley, her eyes still wide.

"Oh god," she whispered. "If I hadn't come back to get my wallet…"

He hugged her, becoming aware now of the fact that his heart was pounding in his chest and she was shivering against him.

"I don't understand." He said softly. "Why would someone want to kill me?" Then something seemed to occur to him and he pulled back to look down at her. "How did you know what to do? You were so calm…you didn't even hesitate."

Yume drew away from him slightly, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"I went to a special school." She said.

"What? What do you mean?"

Yumemiru smiled slightly, cursing the world in silence as she struggled to think of something to say. She hadn't expected to have to work this out so soon. She'd wanted a few more days before she introduced him to the idea of the school. Gods, she just wanted some more time with him before…

"You'd probably better sit down." She said finally. She waited until he had done so before moving to sit beside him, grasping for a place to begin. Then she began to explain that there was a place, a place for people like them to learn, where you didn't have to be anything other than yourself…

God what a bunch of bull shit She thought bitterly. But she continued talking just the same, her mind focused on the brochure for a college in Japan, where she would study what she wanted and find out what it was like to be just like everyone else…

At the same time that Suichi Takatori was failing his mission in America, the rest of his teammates were in Germany preparing to take care of their own target. They'd picked up the trail in the airport, following the line of deaths and mysterious destruction into the back alleys of the city. Their target was hiding somewhere in the darkness of the warehouse district, killing indiscriminately, cutting a swathe in the thick crowd of humanity that littered the streets.

"We've got to be getting close." Tanake murmured, covering his nose and mouth against the stench of death that filled the air. Flies buzzed in black clouds over the bodies that littered the streets, their humming the only sound to be heard in the unearthly stillness.

They rounded a corner and Jin stopped in his tracks, staring at the building that sat before them. It was a church, small and almost lost in the shadow of the two massive warehouses surrounding it. From where they stood the members of Weiß could see the bodies of the priest and the altar boys lying in the courtyard. The arms and legs had been torn off, throats and intestines ripped out in a welter of gore.

"I think we've found where he's gone to ground." Jin said softly.

"A church?" Kiro demanded, wide-eyed. "Why would a murderer hide out in a church?"

"You remember what the file said?" Jin asked, leading them slowly through the courtyard. "He was raised Catholic and he's supposed to be some kind of religious fanatic. Makes sense, if you think about it." Then he motioned for silence as they edged around the bodies and began mounting the steps toward the church doors.

They found another body just inside. It was a woman this time, lying face-down with a rosary still clasped tightly in one hand. She looked as though she'd been in the middle of prayer when she was attacked, barely having enough time to stumble into the aisle before she was murdered.

He likes to mutilate his victims Jin thought absently as he glanced over the woman's body. These aren't just murders; he wants someone to suffer.

He scanned the room carefully for any sign of their target. There was no sign of life in the massive chamber, just spatters of blood here and there and the odd pieces of furniture that had been overturned. Someone had turned the cross upside down over the altar and Jin shivered. It looked disturbingly unnatural, even to someone who wasn't Christian.

All right, where are you?

"Looks like he bolted." Kiro muttered.

"Hush." Jin snapped, shooting the other man a glare. He surveyed the room once more and, after a moment, he shook his head. They would have to search the place from top to bottom. He gestured to the others, indicating that they would stay together and look for the target. After seeing the reports on the other attacks he wasn't about to have them split up and die one by one.

Time to go hunting…

He smiled darkly and adjusted his grip on his weapon, a smooth piece of wood that was four feet long and had a blade on one end. It squeaked under the pressure of the leather gloves he wore to handle it and he felt a shiver of anticipation slide down his spine. In his mind, their quarry didn't have a chance.

He woke up in a hospital bed. The first thing he noticed was the bandage wrapped tightly around his head. The second thing was that someone had tied his arms and legs to the mattress so that he couldn't get up. For a moment panic chilled him, put a lump in his throat and a weight in the bottom of his stomach. Then he swallowed, closed his eyes, and tried to think.

What happened? Mother, where's my mother?

A flash of memory slipped through his mind, the image of his mother lying lifelessly on the floor, eyes open and staring blankly. The panic came back in a suffocating rush and he let out a terrified sob as tears sprang to his eyes.

"Mother!" He cried. "Where's my mother!" He started to fight against his restraints, ignoring the terrible pounding in his head as he twisted to bite at the cloth that bound him.

The door opened and three men hurried into the room. They were wearing uniforms and they moved to hold him down, tightening the restraints and keeping him still so that they could inject him with something. Almost immediately his thoughts became scattered and he felt somewhat sleepy. He struggled to keep his eyes open, tried to reach for his gift to fight the men off. Then his body gave out and he went limp, no longer able to summon the strength to resist.

"My…mother…" he whispered.

One of the men scowled.

"He doesn't remember what he did." He muttered. "He put his mother in a coma and he doesn't even know that he did it."

"No….didn't…not me…"

Another of the men shrugged, checking his vital signs briefly before moving to the door.

"I wouldn't worry about it. He can feel guilty about it later on. We're just supposed to keep him sedated for now."

"Guilty…"

"Yeah, that's right kid. You're guilty. Put your mom in a coma and drove your step dad right over the edge of sanity. Maybe we'll bring him down later and let him rough you up a little."

"I didn't…mean to." He sobbed weakly, feeling tears slide down his cheeks. "… didn't mean it…sorry…mother...please…"

He heard a disgusted snarl before someone's fist slammed into his cheek. He saw stars behind his eyes then, and he felt warmth blossoming across his skin as he slid back into the blessed darkness.

As he drifted away once again the only thing he could think about was the emptiness in his mother's eyes. Somehow he'd done that, he'd hurt her, he was the one who had done all of these bad things. He was guilty and one day, he knew, he would have to be punished.

I'm guilty…

Suichi was in the airport, still caught in the strange daze that the woman had put him in when his cell phone rang. Confused and still mostly out of it he dragged the device out of his pocket and pressed the large green button that said 'talk'. It seemed to take a great deal of effort to raise it to his ear and then he couldn't think of what he was supposed to say. Finally he managed to clear his throat, emitting a single, strangled sound…

"Ugh…"

"Calico. We've been trying to contact you for over an hour now! Where the hell are you?"

"Mmm." Suichi looked around, seeming to see the airport for the first time. "I think I'm at the airport."

"You think? You think? Did you complete your mission? Has the target been taken care of?"

"It's all a little fuzzy." He mumbled. "What mission?"

"What do you mean what mission? Christ, were you brainwashed or something? Agh, forget it. Just get your ass to the HQ in Germany as soon as you can. Your team had a mission while you were screwing around in America." The person on the other end of the line sighed. "Look, I can't say anything more on this line but…it's bad."

"Okay." Suichi shook his head, trying to clear out the lingering cobwebs. There was a big piece missing from the past twenty-four hours and it was making him somewhat uneasy. "I'm on my way now."

He hung up and put the cell phone back in his pocket. Germany. Now he had to go to Germany. It didn't feel right for some reason, as if he were supposed to be going somewhere else. But they'd said Germany. The HQ in Germany…

There was a ticket booth somewhere. He should get a ticket and find out when the next flight left so he could do what they'd told him to do.

"You will forget why you came here. You will take the first flight back to wherever you've come from and you will never come here again. Do you understand?"

For a moment he was staring into a pair of dark eyes, and the world was spinning around him so quickly he felt sick. Then, with a sickening lurch it stopped and he felt the first trickle of horror fill him.

The woman. He'd been sent to kill Bradley Crawford, and he'd almost succeeded but there'd been a woman. She had done something that made him forget what he was doing there and now…He shook his head almost violently, trying to clear away the urge to take a flight back to Japan.

His team was in some kind of trouble. That's why Siamese had called him on his cell phone. He needed to take a flight to the headquarters in Germany because there was something wrong with his team.

Still feeling sick and terribly disoriented Suichi went to the ticket counter to find out when the next flight to Germany was. As he went he silently cursed that woman and whatever she had done to him. If he ever saw her again…his hands clenched into fists and he let out an involuntary snarl of anger.

If he ever saw her again, she was going to die.

"So, you think that it would help me? If I went to this school?"

Bradley was sitting across from Yumemiru at the kitchen table, staring at her as she struggled to find the right answer to his question.

"I cannot say for certain." She admitted finally. "If I had not gone there, I would not be able to control my abilities the way that I can. That man would have killed you then and there and we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place."

But then maybe we'd have met on our own and I wouldn't have to break your heart in a few weeks.

"It would be nice, not to have the visions come on me at random the way that they do." He mused. "I almost got run over once because I had one in the middle of the street and it didn't let me go for almost five minutes. If I could control when I had them, or if I could somehow maintain consciousness of my surroundings…"

Yume could tell he was thinking seriously about it. He was weighing his options, trying to decide if it would be worth his while to spend the next few years as a student learning to control his gifts. There were a thousand and one things that she could have said to encourage him.

She didn't say a single one. She wanted him to make the decision on his own so that later on, maybe he wouldn't hate her nearly as much.

"You say it's in Germany?"

"Yes. Southern Germany to be exact. It's in the middle of the countryside, near a small village."

"The village you were talking about visiting on my vacation." He murmured, gazing at her, expression curious. "The place means that much to you?"

Yume swallowed. She couldn't lie to him, not outright. But if she told him the truth he would never agree to go to the school and then she…she would be trapped in a life she didn't want. In the end she settled for half-truth.

"It changed my life." She said softly. "Made me a different person than I'd expected to be. I will never forget my time there."

A smile slowly spread across his face and Yume felt her heart begin to sink in her chest. Some part of her had been hoping that he would refuse, that he would insist he was all right as he was. The fact that he trusted her so completely made her feel even worse about allowing him to walk into the trap that Rosenkreuz had laid for him. He would grow to despise her within the next year, once the polish wore off and he saw the school for what it really was.

"I only have a few more matches to win." Brad said. "I want to get at least one title before I retire for good. Maybe we can take that vacation time we were talking about and you can show me the school, introduce me to some of the teachers, that kind of thing."

When she smiled it hurt, and she felt like she was about to cry. She took his hand, giving it what she hoped was a reassuring squeeze.

"Of course. I can even show you my old dorm room." She swallowed. "I think you'll understand me a little better, if you spend time there."

It was true. If he spent any time at all in the school he would understand why she'd been so desperate to escape. Maybe he would even begin to see why she'd had to betray him, why she had been so ready to destroy him for the chance of freedom. Who knew, maybe he'd one day even find it in himself to forgive her for what she'd done to him. She was rather doubtful about that but…maybe…

"Well, we can talk more about that a little later on." Bradley said decisively. "Now, weren't we going to get some pizza?"

This time her smile was genuine. If they didn't talk about it, she wouldn't have to think about it. She could just pretend that she was in love with him and that they were going to spend the rest of their lives together. She could pretend that they were an ordinary couple.

Then, just when everything was going well and they were so deeply in love that it seemed they would never surface for air…

She would tear his world apart.

Suichi arrived in Germany very late at night. Siamese was waiting for him in the airport, looking as though she hadn't slept in several days. Before he could ask her what was going on she hugged him, pressing her face into the side of his neck. He could feel tears on her cheeks and he felt dread settle in his stomach like a leaden weight.

"I'm sorry Suichi." She whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."

He pushed her away.

"What are you talking about?" He demanded roughly.

She brushed the tears from her eyes and he was struck by the sorrow etched into her face. Somehow, something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.

"What's happened?"

"We sent the others on a mission." She said, and her voice sounded hollow. "There was a madman on a killing spree not far from here and we thought that, with all three of them, they could handle it."

Suichi closed his eyes, trying to remember how to breathe.

"We underestimated the target and they had to go in blind because we didn't know where he was hiding out. They tracked him from the airport to a small church in the warehouse district, but they had no surveillance and no escape plan." Siamese drew in a shaky breath. "He picked them off one by one."

"Then they're dead."

"Jin is still alive. Barely. The doctors…they don't think he's going to live much longer. His wounds are very serious and the blade used was filthy enough that there's a great deal of infection. He isn't responding to the antibiotics they've been giving him and…Suichi they don't expect him to last out the night."

She hesitated here and he could tell she was reluctant to bring up his mission, especially since he hadn't filed a report. In the end he saved her the trouble of questioning him and simply said,

"Something went wrong. I'll write up my report later. Right now I want to see Jin."

"Of course." She turned. "There's a car waiting out front to take you to the Kritiker hospital. I'll call ahead so that they know to expect you." She put a hand on his shoulder, peering up at him with concern apparent on her face. "Suichi, I really am sorry. If there is anything that I can do for you…"

"I need to go now." He reminded her.

"Oh, right. I'll see you in a few days, once things have settled down a little."

"Yeah." He spoke roughly, words clipped. "See you."

Then he walked through the front doors, his carry on still slung over his shoulder as he made his way to the car that was waiting for him.

It was a long drive to the Kritiker hospital, which was located as far from the main city as it could get and still remain within an hour's driving distance. By the time the car dropped him off in front of the building he was half-starved and terrified out of his mind that he would be too late to talk to his best friend. He half-walked, half-ran through the lobby toward the elevator, barely even stopping to find out where Jin's room was before he took off once again.

The room smelled of death. That was the first thing that he noticed when he walked through the door. It had that particular odor of blood and shit that told him someone was either dead, or very close to it. He knew that smell from his missions, when he waited around long enough for the true death to settle in. It made him nervous, to find it here.

Jin was lying in the only bed in the room. His lower body was covered with a sheet but even so Suichi could see the bulky shape of bandages across his abdomen. There was also a bandage around his throat, stained a cherry red from blood that had still not stopped seeping from the wound. When the door clicked shut the injured man opened his eyes, a ghost of a smile touching his lips.

"Suichi." He rasped, his voice barely audible. "I didn't think you'd be back this soon."

"There were complications." Suichi replied. "I came back early when they told me what happened." He pulled a chair to the side of the bed and sat down, hesitantly reaching for Jin's hand.

His friend was pale, the dark circles under his eyes and the drawn look to his face making him look very ill.

"Tanake and Kiro are dead." Jin said, tears springing to his eyes. "I didn't even know until I turned and they weren't with me anymore. They wouldn't let me see the bodies but…" He swallowed heavily. "Suichi they were putting pieces of them into plastic bags."

"Did you see who did it?"

"He was smiling." Jin whispered. "He laughed and kept saying that God was going to cry." He looked at Suichi, and there was a shadow in his dark brown eyes. "He looked like a kid, no older than ten years old. HQ says he's twelve and he's crazy but…he just looked like a kid."

"Hey, it's all right." Suichi smiled. "It's over now right?"

"No one's told me what happened." Jin admitted. "I don't think they know where he went."

"That's all right." Suichi assured him. "You don't have to worry about it anymore. If he does anything Kritiker will find him again and take care of it. You did good."

"Not so good or I wouldn't be here." Jin replied. Then he sighed, closing his eyes. "They should let us pick our own missions. None of us would have gone if they'd given us a choice. We would have waited, or let another team take the mission instead. It's not the kind of thing we usually do."

"I know." Suichi hesitated. "Jin…"

"Forget about it. None of this is your fault man. If you'd been there you'd probably be dead or wrapped up just like me. You know, they're just waiting to pull the sheet over my head."

"Don't talk like that…"

"Don't worry about it. I'm not an idiot." Jin smiled weakly. "Do me a favor man?"

"Of course."

"Turn on the television. I want to see how the football (1)team did."

Suichi turned to get the remote from the bedside table. He pushed the button, changing to a sports channel. The final scores were playing across the bottom of the screen and Jin gave a short, bitter laugh.

"Looks like I bet on the wrong team man." He sighed, his speech beginning to slur. "I should…have…known….b…better."

The man shuddered and went still and the monitor, which until then had been ticking off a steady beep-beep-beep-beep suddenly cut out and let loose a long, flat -beeeeep-.

With tears in his eyes, Suichi reached out and closed his friend's eyes with the tips of his fingers. Then he put his head down on his arms, suddenly more alone than he had been for many long years.

Chains. The room was dark and stank of horses. He crouched in the corner, rocking back and forth so that the chains rattled constantly. They'd found him after he killed the men, the ones who smelled of blood and death. Then there had been men with chains and needles and they sent him back to that place where everything was still and he had strange dreams. He didn't like that place. When he went there he could remember things that he didn't want to remember.

Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…

He scowled and scraped his fingernails over his arms, trying to draw blood. Images danced in front of his eyes, taunting him. He could see them again, his mother and father and sister, smiling and happy in the hours before their death.

"No." He snarled. "I don't want to see."

There was a heartbeat just outside of his cell, someone guarding the door so that he could not escape.

"Go away!" He screamed. "Sinner! Go back to Hell!"

Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come; they will be done on earth as it is in heaven…

"I didn't!" He cried out. "I didn't do it. It was Him. He hates me. It was HIM!" He tore at his hair, at his face. One fingernail scraped across his eyeball and he paused, suddenly very still. "I don't want to see." He mused, thoughtful.

Curious, he began to dig at his eye. It had possibilities. If he had something sharp then maybe…

He pulled a knife from his boot. They hadn't found it when they searched him, or afterward when they sedated him. With a strange smile on his face he poised it just above his eyebrow, digging the tip in enough to draw blood. Then, in one smooth motion he drew it down, slicing through eyelid and eyeball alike until the blade hit the bone of his cheek.

"I will not see." He said decisively.

He did not take the other eye, not yet. First he would wait, to make sure that the blind eye could not see the memories any longer. Then, if it worked, he would take the sight from the other eye. Until then…

The knife went back into his boot and he sat back to wait, sticking his tongue out to catch the blood that was pouring down the side of his face.

Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name. They kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

(1) meaning soccer for all American-types

Next Chapter: The Peace Before the Rage of God

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