Fade to Darkness

Title: Fade to Darkness
Rating: M
Fandom: Detective Conan
Summary: Reincarnation only existed in fanfiction, yet Michael Leo Field was reborn as Akai Senichi, the younger twin brother of Akai Shuichi. However, his new life takes a dark turn; at the age of ten he is kidnapped and at twelve, he is forced to join the organization. [OC Insert as Akai Sibling] [Family/Angst/Drama/Crime]

Arc IV
Chapter IX
Mother
Warnings: Massive Spoilers for Ch 1049

Absinthe was back in England for a mission with Vermouth. Apparently they were going to lure a woman out by disguising Absinthe as her husband. He froze for a brief moment when he was shown the photo but he kept his poker face. 'Akai…Tsutomu? Then…the woman we're meeting…is Sera Mary? It's…Mama? In canon, Vermouth was the one who poisoned her!?' "Alright, alright, I'll do it," 'I don't have a choice. At least I know Mama will survive. She'll shrink to middle school age for some reason rather than a seven year old,'

XXX

Mary leaned against the balustrade of Vauxhall Bridge. She took a sip of her coffee when she noticed someone approaching. "My…you're awfully late, Tsutomu-san,"

Absinthe had removed his red contacts, put on fake facial hair, and styled his hair to match Tsutomu's. He didn't really need a full mask since he looked very similar to his father. "Forgive me, Ma—Mary," 'Shit, I almost said Mama!' "It's been so long that I had difficulty recalling that our usually meeting stop was at the balustrade of Vauxhall Bridge, right in front of the Headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service,"

"And?" Mary asked. "Did you figure out who killed Haneda Kohji?"

'He's alive, Mama. He's alive and Dad's alive too. They faked their deaths,' Absinthe continued his act. "No, only that it was done by a rather large organization. They targeted me so I went on the run,"

"And why did it take you over a decade to get in touch with me?" Mary questioned.

"I told you when we happened to cross paths downtown the other day, remember?" He reminded. "While escaping from them, I injured my head rather severely so I contracted amnesia and roamed about the city for quite a long time. I was finally able to regain my memory thanks to meeting you again, and I should be able to return to MI6 in a year's time. But more importantly, did you bring our sons with you to London?" 'Vermouth knows about Shuu and Kichi…B-But nothing bad happened to them so they should be safe for now,'

"No, I came with our daughter," Mary informed.

'Masumi…' He remembered the meeting from nine years ago at the beach. "Our daughter?"

"Oh my, don't tell me you still can't remember our daughter, who you held in your very own arms?"

'Dad didn't and she knows that. She and my brothers fled to Japan before her birth,' He decided to go along with the act. It's not like Vermouth knew about Masumi just yet. "Did she grow up well?"

Tears started streaming down Mary's cheeks and her smile disappeared.

"What's wrong, Mary?" Absinthe knew the reason. "Why are you crying?"

Mary pointed a handgun at his forehead. "When Tsutomu-san and I parted ways, our daughter was still in my womb! Who are you!?"

Vermouth and two men in black appeared and the goons pointed their own firearms at Mary. "That's right, he isn't Akai Tsutomu," Vermouth held up a pill. "We're the people who are about to poison you with this drug, right MI6 Agent Akai Mary-san? I've finally caught up with you. You see, I've been routinely wandering about this area for quite some time using your husband's face,"

"You allowed yourself to be spotted in that getup by our colleagues just to lure me into this country to confirm whether it's really him or not, huh?" Mary had to hold her hands up, the two men's guns pressed against her back. "You even made sure to let three years go by until we met again only to establish the veneer of coincidence and avoid suspicion,"

"Indeed. You see, if the supposedly dead Akai Tsutomu were to return to MI6, you, that wife of his who suddenly disappeared, could prove problematic," Vermouth said.

"It's certainly true that I can tell if it's my husband or not, just as this time," Mary claimed. "I can tell if it's a disguise made by the witch of a thousand faces," She glanced at Absinthe. "But yet your brother, Leo Vineyard, was the one who wore the disguise today rather than you,"

Vermouth let out a chuckle. "You can recognize your husband but not your own son?"

"Son?" Mary's poker face dropped. "What nonsense are you spouting!?"

"Though he used the name Senichi Field at the academy, it was quite easy for someone to trace back his origins if they wanted to know more about him," Vermouth smirked. "Leo Vineyard is Akai Senichi,"

'Of course Vermouth researched my background since I was her student,' Absinthe thought. "Is that why you brought me along? To have an oh-so-touching reunion with my dear mother? Family means nothing to me,"

"Liar!" Mary denied. 'No…it's not him! Senichi's dead! These people are just trying to take advantage of the thin glimmer of hope that Senichi is alive! They're tainting his name!'

"Vermouth, she's right you know. Senichi died in Mad Dog Arena where the world had forsaken him," Absinthe glared at her. "I am not Akai Senichi. I am Absinthe,"

"Even if you kill me here," Mary said. "I've already instructed my daughter to inform MI6 that Akai Tsutomu is a fake if I don't make it back in time. She'll also leave London if that is the case,"

"Then why don't I disguise myself as you and pay your daughter a visit?" Vermouth smirked.

"Ha! You make it sound as though you're aware of my daughters whereabouts," It was Mary's turn to smile. "Although I imagine it especially difficult for you, given that you weren't even aware of her existence," 'Though, I have to be wary of that Leo Vineyard man,'

"She doesn't have a daughter," Absinthe spoke up. "If she did have one, why would she risk her by exposing her existence to us? Though, I'm sure she does have a partner that will relay that Akai Tsutomu is a fake,"

Mary narrowed her eyes. 'Nine years ago at the beach in Japan, Leo Vineyard saw me with my two sons and daughter. He knows that I have a daughter. Why is he lying?'

"I suppose I'll have to postpone infiltrating MI6 for now," Vermouth bit the APTX 4869 capsule. "My only other objective is…" She forced Mary to ingest the poison through mouth to mouth. "Killing Mary Akai. Your survival would be very troublesome for me. I wonder, how does it feel to depart from this world at the hands of your sister's creation?"

Mary screamed as pain wracked her body. She turned and fell over the railings of the bridge, diving into the River Thames. "What should we do?" One of the two unnamed goons asked.

"The poison kills without a trace," Vermouth said. "Our mission is complete. Let's leave the area before people start suspecting us,"

XXX

'Am I dead?' Mary's fingers twitched. 'No…I'm alive. But how?' She sat up and found that she was on a couch and in someone's apartment. 'Where am I?'

"Mary, are you alright?" Tsutomu walked over to her and knelt down. He spoke in his native language of Japanese rather than English.

Mary really wished she still had her gun with her and glared daggers at the man. "You're not Tsutomu-san!"

"He's the real one," Senichi came into the living room, his hair damp. He wore a fresh change of clothes. "I followed your scent and found you unconscious. You nearly drowned. I pulled you out and brought you over to Dad's and Kohji's apartment,"

"Liar!" Mary snapped. "Tsutomu-san and Kohji-kun are dead!"

"We survived," Kohji told her. "We knew that the organization was after us so we faked our deaths,"

Mary turned to Tsutomu. "Tell me something that only Tsutomu-san knows,"

"We first had sex in the back of my car," Tsutomu answered flatly. "You wore a pink sexy bunny suit and I wore a—"

"We do not want to hear about your guys' sex life!" Senichi and Kohji snapped.

'There's no way that the organization knew about that!' "You're the real Akai Tsutomu," Mary whispered. "You're…you and Kohji are alive…" She whirled her head around to face Senichi. "Are you…are you Senichi? Or was she really lying?"

"He really is Sen-chan," Tsutomu informed her. "Mary…Sen-chan is alive,"

Senichi started to head to the door, refusing to look his mother in the eye. "I…I'm sorry. I couldn't stop Vermouth from poisoning you. I didn't have enough time to come up with a plan. Even if I did have time, I was worried that they'd use Masumi and Shukichi to get to you,"

Mary jumped off the couch and grabbed Senichi's wrist. "It's not your fault. Don't blame yourself. I should've been the one protecting you but…I failed as a parent,"

"I want you to stay with Masumi," Senichi ordered. "You are the little sister outside of the domain. I…I don't want Masumi to be left alone. Loneliness is terrifying. I'm sure you can adapt to being able to protect her in case the crows do go after her,"

"Senichi…" Mary said. "I…I'm sorry for giving up on you. It's that it was so many years since you were taken and Mad Dog Arena was destroyed,"

"It's fine," But deep inside, Senichi was hurt that members of his family didn't believe that he had survived. He suddenly gripped his shoulder and winced. "Damn it…"

"Take off your shirt," Tsutomu ordered.

"I'm fine," Senichi said. "I just reopened a recent wound,"

"Senichi, let us help you," Mary requested. "Even if it's just this one wound, at least let us help because this time we can actually do something,"

"Fine," Senichi sighed, sat down on the couch, and removed his jacket and his shirt. Thankfully Tsutomu and Kohji's apartment had a dryer or else Vermouth would grow suspicious of why his clothes were wet.

Mary audibly gasped. "All these wounds…they're from them?"

"Ignore my scars!" He snapped. "Just focus on tending to my shoulder wound!" He pointed to his left shoulder where it was starting to bleed again. "I…I can't stay here for long. It'd be too suspicious,"

Tsutomu and Mary nodded in understanding and started to tend to Senichi's wound wordlessly. Once they were done, Senichi threw his shirt back on. "I'm leaving England the morning after tomorrow,"

"Not right away?" Kohji questioned.

"Vermouth said that an acquaintance of hers needed someone to sing at a concert since the idol group originally scheduled had an emergency come up," Senichi sighed. "I should probably decide which songs I'll be performing,"

"I want to watch your show," Mary said. "Now that I know you're Leo Vineyard, I want to watch you,"

"I'm sure the concert will be shown live on television," Senichi told her. "I'm not sure which channel it will be on though. This is my first time performing in England,"

"Tsutomu-san, Kohji-kun," Mary asked. "How did you know that the organization would go after you guys? How were you so well prepared?"

"Err…" The two shared a look and then glanced at Senichi.

"It's because I'm a dimensional traveler," Senichi revealed. "You know how I acted older than my actual age? It's because I'm a reincarnate. My name from my previous life was Michael Leo Field. I died at seventeen years old,"

"I understand the reincarnate part, but what do you mean by dimensional traveler?" Mary inquired.

"In the world Michael Leo Field lived in, the world we are currently in is fictional and known as the Detective Conan World," Senichi informed. "I…I was never part of this world originally. I'm an outlier, someone who doesn't belong,"

"Senichi we've been over this," Tsutomu hugged his son. "That's the canon timeline. In this world, you do belong. You were meant to be born,"

"My kidnapping caused you so much pain," Senichi reminded. "If I never existed, you wouldn't have felt that pain,"

"If you never existed, then Tsutomu-ojisan and I would very much be dead," Kohji pointed out. "If it weren't for your warning, then we would've died. Well, at least we'd know that I definitely died. You said that Ojisan's death was never confirmed because his body was never found,"

After going more in depth with the explanation, Senichi looked at the time. "I need to get going. It'd be too suspicious if I stay here any longer,"

Mary brought Senichi into a hug. "Stay safe, Senichi,"

"One day the organization will fall," Senichi told her. "One day we can be a family again. I'm just not sure exactly when,"

When Mary returned to Masumi, she didn't inform her of her older brother, cousin, or her father's living status. The three wanted their status still kept secret for the time being.