Disclaimer: I do not own the anime, manga, or novels of K. K is officially owned by GoRa/GoHands. I do not own any of their characters. If I did, then the ending would've been so much more happy than the official one.

Author's Note: Just in case you guys don't know yet (although I'm guessing that you do), whenever there are paragraphs that are italicized then that means a flashback or a dream is occurring.

K: Preserving the Blaze of Your Red

By: TCOOKIES777

Chapter 3: Was It All a Dream?

December.

The weather was freezing cold. She was supposed to be shivering but the power within her provided comforting warmth as if she had an internal furnace. And yet, snow lightly fell from the sky like the cold kisses from an angel as her soft breaths drew up in white clouds. That's how Anna knew it was December. Because no season was as unforgiving and all the more mysterious as winter was.

And then her ears perked up. There was something out there with her…. No—someone. Who could be out here on a rooftop during a cold winter night like this? She strained to hear more as came closer. There was someone humming a song. Was that Ode to Joy?

The tune was familiar to her because Tatara had once attempted to play the masterpiece on a violin he had just bought for his new hobby. The only music that came out though was screeching which had Izumo kicking him out of the bar since he was scaring off customers.

Eventually, she reached the source of the tune being hummed. Leaning on the rail before her was a young man with snow white hair way brighter than her pale strands. His lean figure proved to her that he was only still a teenager and not a grown man.

She felt her hands pull something up to her chest and Anna realized that it was a camera. In fact, it looked very familiar to her. She knew she'd seen it countless times before.

"December seventh, 11:45 p.m." She felt her mouth talking. But what came out wasn't her soft voice. It was the voice of a man. And she knew it too. It was a voice that had comforted her whenever she had nightmares, or when she couldn't speak up for herself. It was the beautiful voice of someone she loved so dearly.

"Hey, it's a nice night out." Tatara continued speaking nonchalantly. Anna tried to move the legs that didn't belong to her but it was like she was stuck in his body watching everything through his eyes. "I came here to take pictures of the nighttime view, but what are you doing here?"

By this time, the boy had stopped humming. She thought that it was already creepy before, but now the dead silence only made things even worse. Warning bells signaled off in her consciousness as she felt a cold chill that didn't come from the weather run down her spine. He leaned away from the railing.

"I'm Tatara Totsuka." The corners of her mouth—no, Tatara's mouth—pull up in a welcoming smile for the mysterious man. "What's your name?"

Run away, she thought. Tatara, no, you have to get away from him! Run, Tatara run! He's going to kill—

Bang.

Dropping the precious camera, she collapsed onto the floor. As she curled up into a fetal position, she realized that she was in her own body this time. She had seemingly replaced Tatara who was no longer in sight. The boy smiled maniacally with a crazed look in his dark amber eyes as he continued to point the gun at Anna. "I am the seventh king, the Colorless King!"

She could hear her small heart pounding against her chest almost painfully. Anna wondered if the boy could hear it too. Or was he too busy smirking in all of his glory and success?

"A nice night you say?" From the corner of her eyes, he waved his hands in the air dramatically as if he was acting in an opera addressing to an imaginary audience. She heard the snow white haired boy laugh darkly. "Indeed it is…."

Another gunshot echoed next to her. Her ears rang severely for a while as she laid on her side frozen in shock. A few seconds later, she moved onto her back as slowly as possible to reduce the pain in her abdomen. Pain? Couldn't she feel nothing before? Now, she could feel everything. From the feverish burning in her body to the bite of the freezing weather.

A small, shaking hand carefully touched the wet spot blooming on her rosy nightgown like a flower. It was an ugly dark red. Her image of a flower was ruined as more blood spread onto the thin dress, giving it more of an appearance of a blob. She could feel more of the red beginning to pool underneath her broken body. It tainted her pure albino hair and stained the tiny tips of her delicate fingers.

Anna knew that blood was supposed to be warm. So, why was her blood so cold… like ice? Ah… because it's December.

Lifting a quivering arm up above her head, she curiously inspected her red hands. Drops of the color streamed down her pale arm. I can't tell if this is real… or not, she thought faintly. This can't be real. And yet, why am I in pain? Why does it hurt so badly? Tatara, am I dying? Or am I already dead….

Is this my punishment for not being able to save you, Tatara? I'm sorry… I am so.. sorry.. everyone….

Something bubbled next to her all of a sudden. From the corner of her glazed eyes, she saw thousands of drops of her blood lifting up in midair just above her head. They shifted together to form various sizes of what appeared to be red marbles. A hundred or so marbles made of her blood and power. They glistened and shined under the beautiful night sky.

Anna squinted her eyes at them critically and then softly gasped.

Memories. In every single blood marble was a fond memory of everyone in Homra. She watched each and every one of them from her cold spot on the ground.

In one of them, she saw herself doodling a childish drawing of a flower on Mikoto's face as he slept. Then, there was Tatara baking cookies with her along with Izumo's help. Yata was chiding Kamamoto for eating the dough. Off to her right, there was a memory of her and Mikoto going on their 'date' since everyone had left to go fishing for the day. She smiled a little at that. Another memory showed the baseball game they had some years before. Anna hadn't exactly participated in the game herself. But she enjoyed watching her boys have so much fun, especially Mikoto who was proud of his homerun.

And then she saw herself feeding a forkful of home baked red velvet cake to her king. Everyone was crowding around a couch wishing Mikoto a happy birthday and presenting him his presents. Tatara was encouraging her to feed the king his cake herself. Even Mikoto was smiling warmly at her as she sat before him.

Then, there was that time when Homra had gone to the beach during the summer. She somewhat wondered how the boy from the cave was doing now. A marble floating directly in front of her face showed riding a huge horse. Oh, Basashi, the strain, she thought. Can you fly now? Another blood marble stole her attention. She was stuck—weel, not exactly stuck—between two machines and Saruhiko was trying to free her… unsuccessfully. No matter what, she told herself, Saruhiko will always be one of Homra.

A marble at the corner caught her eye. Mikoto was holding onto Munakata of Scepter Four. She saw the blade sticking out of his back, glinting under the snowy sky. And yet, Mikoto's expression was so satisfied. He was at peace. This is wrong, she thought. It's not a happy ending for any of us, Mikoto.

Sorry, Anna… I won't be able to show you that lovely red anymore….

"Don't go…" She whispered softly. "No, don't leave me! Not again, please…"

The memory faded away to a new one. Tatara was on the rooftop where she was lying on right now. He introduced himself before the boy turned and shot him. Anna gasped but couldn't take her eyes off the marble. She saw Tatara bleeding by himself, exactly like her right now, as he called Izumo with all the strength he had left.

Tell Anna… I don't think I can wish her happy birthday….

Cracks spidered all over her blood marble before it shattered into the harsh and unforgiving night.

"Ah? Birthday?" Mikoto paused in the middle of his drinking. Sitting beside him was Tatara who shot a glance back at the girl sleeping soundly on the sofa.

"Yep! Yep!" He turned back to the king. "So the plan is that all of Homra's members will give her a rose that day!"

"Make sure to congratulate her." Izumo added in from behind his counter as he routinely polished his wine glasses.

"In honesty, I wanted to make it more of a mature party" Tatara mused happily. "But then they were like 'let's make a giant cake'… but we have to wait five years for that and all!"

Izumo quickly hand chopped him from across the counter before continuing his admiring of the glass in his hands. "That's why I wanted them to stop it…."

"Well, let's celebrate in our own style!" Tatara said enthusiastically. "Right, King?"

Mikoto opened his mouth to mumble back an answer when the drink in his hands suddenly floated up into the air. It stopped a few feet above the counter and shook violently before shattering to pieces. Water showered down at the men with their mouths gaped open in surprise—excluding Mikoto who was frowning in either irritation or confusion.

Tatara was the first to respond. He blinked his eyes before checking the other two. "What just happened? Hey, are you both all right?"

"King!" Izumo cried out and grasped the sides of his head "What was that for?! Oh, my precious bar!"

"That wasn't me." Mikoto told the panicking bartender. His brows were furrowed deeply together. "Didn't you see that there were no flames?"

Grabbing a broom and a dustpan, Izumo walked around to clean up the glass shards. Tatara obtained a cloth and began to wipe at the spreading water on the counter along with Mikoto.

"Then who did it?" Izumo said exasperatingly. "Because surely cups and drinks don't just suddenly float in midair all by themselves. Somebody—"

"Uh… he.. lp…." A small voice softly cried out a few feet away. The three men turned around to look at Anna who was still asleep. Though, this time, she was shaking uncontrollably as she gave short gasps of breaths.

Being the first one to react, Tatara dropped the cloth and scrambled over to the princess in distress. Kneeling on the couch, he pulled the tangled blankets off of the girl. "Anna! Anna, it's only a nightmare. Remember what I told you before. It's just a dream. Nothing is real."

"Totsuka, look…." Izumo quietly said behind him.

Tatara turned around with a worried look on his face. "Anna is—whoa!"

All of the objects in the room were rising up and floating precariously now. It was as if there were invisible strings pulling them up and dangling them playfully. Mikoto was frowning and rubbing the back of his head while Izumo all around in awe.

"Is this… Anna's doing?" Mikoto asked.

Before anyone could answer, the bell at the door tinkled as Yata and the rest of the excited Homra gang walked in with all sorts of shopping bags and groceries in their hands.

"Hey, we're back!" Yata announced. The men placed their bags on the counter and started pulling out various items and materials for the surprise birthday party. "We got a lot of stuff! There's plenty of red frosting to use for the cake! Where do you want us to…. Hah?! What the hell happened to all the furniture around here?!"

"They're… up there." Izumo pointed upwards for them. They all followed his direction and glanced at the ceiling.

"Eh?!" Kamamoto's jaw dropped open as did the rest of the guys including quiet Eric. "Is this the doing of a ghost? Oh, Ghost-sama, we are only humble men! P-please, don't hurt us! We've done nothing wrong! Well, there was that one time when I ate Chitose's crackers—"

"Idiot!" Yata whacked him before backing up to behind Kamamoto who was being stared at accusingly by Chitose himself. "T-there's n-n-no such thing as g-g-g-g-g-ghosts! This must be some kind of magic trick Totsuka-san is practicing for Anna. Right, Totsuka-san?"

"Heh, you're such a pussycat, Yata." Eric teased him in his fluent English.

Yata was about to tell him off when a bottle of expensive whiskey smacked the back of his head. He instinctively powered his fist with flames but remembered that the liquid was alcohol which was dangerously flammable. Not to mention he didn't want to get in trouble with Izumo. The bottle continued over to Tatara who pulled it out of the way.

"This isn't a magic trick, guys." Tatara reached up and grabbed a plate slowly flying by their heads. "We're not the ones doing this…"

Mikoto started towards the little girl still resting on the couch but a chair came and blocked his way. Growling, he grabbed it and set it aside. He took another step before several more objects cut off his path again. As a lazy man in his spare time, the mighty king was tempted to just burn all the items floating around to clear the way. But then he would only get an earful from his second-in-command, Izumo.

"Totsuka-san?" Dewa looked at him in confusion. They had begun to help Izumo and Tatara extract the items dangerously zooming around the place like they had a mind of their own.

A whimper filled with suffering cut through the moment. "No… please.. don't…."

"Eh, is Anna here?" Fujishima asked. He looked for their soon-to-be birthday girl but so much stuff kept blocking their paths and view. They would set down one thing only to have another take its place.

"I need to get to her!" Tatara said impatiently. "She was acting weird earlier, remember? Right now, she's having a nightmare. And if her nightmare is bad enough, you know what happens when she loses control... Come on, we need to hurry and wake Anna up!"

"And that doesn't include burning my place down either!" Izumo warned Yata who quickly put down his bat.

They all ditched the idea of cleaning up the gravity reversed place and instead resorted to using the hovering furniture and miscellaneous items as stepping stones for themselves in order to reach their princess. But the objects kept intercepting them like they were trying to shield the men from saving their sleeping princess. What dream could be so terrible that it forced her subconscious to tap into her Strain powers to physically barricade her?

Mikoto tsked and ran straight into the fray with his arms up and covering his face from the hard stuff soaring around hazardously. A thick red aura surrounded him and all the other clansmen like a shield. He pummeled his way through as if he were a preying lion thundering down the golden plains.

"Careful, King!" Izumo called out before a bottle of wine from Greece knocked the shades off his face. Groaning, he saved the bottle first and then his glasses second. "Don't forget what happened to Totsuka when he tried to wake Anna the first time she had a nightmare this bad!"

"This is Anna's doing?!" Bando exclaimed. He was wearing his glasses crookedly and a bruise was forming on the edge of his jaw from a pot of flowers that he hadn't seen coming towards him.

A cat suddenly screeched and hissed out of nowhere amongst all the turmoil.

Izumo paused and narrowed his eyes, scanning the whole chaotic area. "Did I just hear what I thought I heard?! Fu-ji-shi-ma?"

Fujishima quickly took the cat and tucked it safely away in a box somewhere in the corner. The cat started floating upward as well and Fujishima wrestled with gravity to inconspicuously place the little furball down. "It… must have followed me in here…?"

"When this is over—ow! Ah, goddamnit!"

"All this is making me hungry…." Kamamoto grabbed a rice ball that had happened to be floating his way.

"King! Are you almost there?" Tatara asked from somewhere in the midst of the chaos. He tried pushing his way through similar to Mikoto's method but as one of the weakest in the clan, he just wasn't strong enough.

Mikoto shoved a lamp out of the way and bulldozed through several tables before catching a glimpse of albino hair hanging over the only couch still touching the hardwood floor. He built up his aura more after taking a bruising hit from behind. A minute later, the king stood before the sleeping princess. Somehow, he was safe being in the center of the pandemonium. It was like being at the very core of a tornado—not that he knew what that was like—where there was nothing flying around. "I've got her."

"Thank goodness!" Relief sounded in Tatara's voice. "Don't touch her yet! We don't know if the physical contact from outside the body may trigger. Her subconscious might sense your power and identify you as a threat."

"If it's her subconscious then why would it attack us?" Dewa asked from somewhere in the bar. "Shouldn't her subconscious know that we're her comrades?"

"A person's subconscious is based off one's purely primitive instincts." Izumo answered with a grunt. "And all the more reason for her subconscious to act aggressively if Anna is having difficulty telling a nightmare from what's reality."

"So what do I do?" Mikoto rubbed the back of his neck. He wanted to hurry up and wake the poor girl from her misery but Tatara was right; who knew what would happen?

"You…" Tatara declared in a serious voice. "Need to sing her a lullaby."

An immediate hush possessed the whole bar.

"…." Mikoto frowned again. "What?"

"A lullaby?" Izumo echoed.

"Yes, a lullaby." Tatara insisted as he continued his arduous journey to his little princess. "Even in the deepest sleep, the subconscious allows the person to hear from the outside world. Children love being played lullabies as it soothing to hear and calm them down."

"Come on, Mikoto-san!" Yata cheered his king on with a pumped fist in the air. "You can do it! We believe in you! It's just a song."

Mikoto sighed and glanced down at Anna. There was a small crease between her thin brows and her lips were pulled into what looked like a grimace. Her hands were gripping the pillow so hard; he could see the bright whites of her knuckles against her pale skin. "…. I don't know any lullabies…."

"Eh?!" His clansmen shouted in surprise.

Someone cleared their throat and began singing in a shaky, off-tune voice.

Hush-a-by Anna

On the tree top

When the wind blows

The cradle will rock

Then the King comes

And his aura will stop

Little Anna from falling

Off the red top

"I… don't think that's the right lyrics to that nursery rhyme, Kamamoto." Dewa said.

Kamamoto shrugged his shoulders. "Well, Homra's version sounds a lot better than the original, don't you think?"

"King, how's Anna?" Tatara clambered over a coffee table. His foot caught on the edge and he tumbled down to the ground with a loud thump. He scrunched his face up and rubbed his sore backside muttering softly, "Man, I'm too young to be feeling this old…."

But he knew he was almost there. If he had to get a thousand bruises and cuts all over his body in order to get to Anna, then he would—and a thousand times over if needed.

"Wait for me, Anna, your prince is coming to the rescue…."

"She doesn't look like she'd doing so well…" Mikoto replied. An idea popped up and he held his hand out focusing most of his warm aura to his hand. Then he held his hand over Anna's forehead, getting as close as he would dare without touching her skin.

He could feel a feverish heat coming from the little girl and he wondered if she had a fever or caught a cold somehow. That would've been normal since it was winter but the fact that he, Izumo, and Tatara always made sure that she was nicely bundled whenever they went out contradicted the idea.

"Mikoto…." She whimpered pitifully.

"It's okay." He whispered to her. "I'm here, Anna. Everything's going to be fine."

"Mikoto, look!" Izumo notified him. "Everything's stopped moving."

Mikoto took in his surroundings and saw, that true to Izumo's words, the furniture had stopped flying around and precious brands of alcohol were no longer chasing people's heads. The chairs were frozen in midair as well. It was as if time had just frozen and only Homra could move around freely.

"Well, whatever Mikoto-san did, it worked!" Chitose remarked.

Not a moment after he said that, everything hanging fell down in synchronized fashion. The members of Homra were hopping all over the place, yelping, as they tried to avoid the heaviest stuff from smashing them. When everything had settled down in a fit of dust and some banging and more screaming, dead silence followed.

"Uh, is everyone all right?" Izumo coughed and wiped his grimy glasses with the edge of his shirt. When he looked around, everyone but the king was lying on the floor with their hands held up to protect themselves. "You guys, it's all right now."

They risked a peek and after seeing that they themselves weren't crushed, they sighed in relief and brushed their clothes nonchalantly in an attempt to regain their manly and fierce composure as proud members of Homra.

"Phew!" Shohei wiped a drop of sweat from the temple of his head. "Let's not do this again…."

"It's a wonder no customers walked in during the midst of all the chaos." Eric mused quietly.

"That's because I put up the sign 'closed' for the day so we could prepare Anna's birthday party." Izumo said as he recovered some of his alcohol rolling around the bar's floor.

Tatara touched a bump on his head and winced. "King, is Anna all right?"

"Get over here and work your magic already because I don't know what to do." Mikoto replied grumpily. He was sitting on the floor watching over the distressed girl lying on the couch.

"Everyone, I want you all to keep your distance for now until I say so, you hear?" Tatara strictly told his clansmen.

Yata frowned in confusion. "But everything's back to normal already. Why can't we come with you to help Anna? She's just a little girl."

"And she's also a Strain with powers that may even rival that of a King's if pushed hard enough." Mikoto stated.

Tatara ran over to Anna's side and checked her for any injuries that she might have received during all the pandemonium. "Please, Anna, you need to wake up. Your powers are leaking out. Didn't you tell me that you didn't want anyone to get hurt anymore because of you?"

"Hey, hey," Kamamoto watched a few feet away. "Is she all right? It sounds like she's hyperventilating."

"Should we call an ambulance? It seems like she's having a hard time waking up. You'd think all the noise from earlier would've startled her awake." Chitose opened a first aid kit and began helping the others with their shallow injuries.

Tatara shook his head. "You know she hates being in any buildings that are reminiscent to the Institute. Bringing her there could trigger a bad reaction from her subconscious. Right now, we need to be extra careful. If something is harming her in her dream or stands as a threat in any way, then her subconscious may decide to take action."

"Amazing, Tatara, how do you know all of this?" Bando asked him as he and the rest of the clansmen started setting all of the felled items back to the way they were. With so many hands helping, and the burning determination to hurry up and prepare for the surprise birthday party, they were making quick progress of cleaning up.

"I searched it up after that time I burned my hand trying to wake Anna from the first colossal nightmare she had when she was still new to Homra."

"Hey… don't—that's dangerous, Tatara! " Izumo warned the man who had braved himself to put his hand against the girl's neck.

"It's all right, I'm not hurt. Her pulse is sort of erratic." Tatara murmured. He had a look of deep concentration on his face.

Izumo sighed and stuck a cigarette in his mouth but didn't light it. "Is it really all right to touch her right now? Didn't you say that we didn't know what could happen?"

Tatara placed a cool hand on Anna's forehead gently. "She doesn't seem to have a fever or any of the sorts."

"So why is she acting like this?" Mikoto said tiredly from the couch opposite of Anna. "This only ever happens when she's seriously stressed out."

"Maybe she's stressed out over having to grow up?" Dewa suggested.

Shohei snorted. "I think that's just you, friend."

"Anna!" Tatara gently shook her shoulder with one hand and rubbed her smooth cheek with the other. "Anna, come on, we need you to wake up now! You're... scaring me a little, Anna. Please, wake up now."

It was silent for half a minute before the sleeping princess finally made a sound signaling a healthy response. Everyone let out a breath they never knew they'd been holding.

"NO!" The little girl screamed abruptly startling everyone. Anna tossed her head side to side as she kicked and screamed at the top of her lungs. "Please, no! Tatara! Mikoto! Izumo! Everyone—you can't go! You can't!

"Anna?! Anna, calm down!" Tatara got off the couch to avoid her sharp kicks and grabbing her flailing fists, she signaled for Izumo and Mikoto to help him. "She'll hurt herself like this! We need to keep her still and wake her up!"

"What's going on?" Yata started over to assist them but Kamamoto held him back.

"Don't leave me…. I can't be alone anymore! Don't leave me again, please! Come… come back!"

"We're right here, Anna." Mikoto declared aloud. "We're all here. Nobody's going to leave you all by yourself."

Anna stopped and stilled suddenly. Her eyes remained tightly shut and the expression on her face looked like one of pain. A few seconds passed before the three tense men relaxed just the slightest.

Fujishima was the first to say something by whispering, "Is it—"

"TATARA!MIKOTO! " Anna arched her back and screamed so loud that everyone clapped their hands over their ears. The whole bar started shaking like there was an earthquake. Without warning, she dropped back onto the sofa with a defeated sigh before her whole body went limp. Once again, the bar went still and silent.

"Please… don't die…." She whispered aloud for all of Homra to hear. Two tears escaped the corners of her eyes. With a sad and tired smile gracing his lips, Tatara wiped away the princess's tears.

"My dear princess, it is time for you to awaken now."

Tears poured out through the corners of Anna's wine colored eyes as each blood marble holding various precious memories shattered one by one. And each time one of them broke into dust, she felt as if a little of her heart was broken off as well.

Tatara, I miss you and Mikoto so much. And you know what? This is nothing compared to the pain of losing a loved one. This is nothing compared to the torture of Homra falling apart. This is nothing compared to Izumo and everyone else's pain and grief. It's nothing… nothing at all.

She let out her last breath as her consciousness began to slip away. Blackness webbed at the edges of her vision and folding her hands neatly over her chest, she slowly closed her eyes with a soft sigh.