The weight of the world is a heavy burden to carry. No man can possibly grasp the extent of the pain Atlas must feel as he holds their kind and their world in place. Should Atlas fail, the world and everything in existence upon it will also fail. Mankind depends on Atlas; however, what loyalty does Atlas hold for mankind?

M15: Ministration

Yohji stumbled away from the wreck, his legs wobbling with nervous heat. He took in a gulp of air and collapsed onto the yard. He felt someone hurrying up to him. He looked towards them, but his eyesight was clouded from the dust and acrid smoke. They turned him until he was sitting up and asked him a bunch of questions that he couldn't understand. There was a loud ringing in his ears; he couldn't hear much of anything. His body was aching all over and he was hot. He realized after a short time that he kept coughing and that more people had crowded around him. He was being undressed. Yohji blinked and faced the closest person to him. She was female and smelled like flowers. He smirked at her and went to speak, but then suddenly, the lights went out.

Ken was on the other side of the car on Schwarz's yard. He squirmed away from the curb, stopping when he felt a shock run across his spine. He urged himself not to move, though just a few yards away, Aya's car was in flames. He let his head fall onto the grass and watched the smoke rising into the night air. Everything hurt; it was best just to lie still. Someone approached him and kneeled next to him. He looked over.

"Are you all right?" It was a middle-aged woman. Behind her was a young man about Ken's age.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm…I'm okay…" Ken said, though he was still afraid to move. "Someone was in the car with me… Is he okay?"

"The paramedics are with someone now. He was walking, so I think he's okay." Ken nodded, closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

"Jun, go get someone to help him," the woman said. Ken heard Jun's hurried footsteps away from the house. He felt the woman's hand on his shoulder.

"What's your name, son?" she asked.

"Ken…"

"Well, that's a nice name. My name is Eriko. Can you look at me, Ken?" Ken squeezed his eyes shut and opened them. They were sensitive to the air and started to water. "The paramedics should be with you soon. Try to stay with me, Ken." Did she think he would fall unconscious? Ken nodded and looked back up towards the sky. Probably he would have if she hadn't been talking to him. "Ken?" Ken faced her.

"They're putting your friend in the ambulance now, okay?"

"Is he okay?"

"He's just passed out," an approaching EMT said. "They'll do further tests at the hospital." He and two others kneeled next to Ken. One of them strapped something around his neck and then he was lifted twice. The second time, he was moved away from the heat.

"This is Ken," Eriko said, sounding winded.

"I'm Lee. Can you tell me what's wrong, Ken?" Ken blinked at him.

"Um…Aya's car blew up…" he said.

"I mean with you," Lee said. "Are you in any pain?"

"Yeah. My back hurts a lot." Ken continued to answer their questions as they started poking and prodding at him. Then suddenly, they lifted him onto a stretcher. It shook a lot as they got into the ambulance. Ken closed his eyes and relaxed, feeling better now that he was going to get some help. He felt someone take his hand and squeeze it.

"Ken-chan?" Eriko said. "I need you to stay with me."

"I'm all right, Eriko-san…" Ken said. Eriko brushed some of his hair from his forehead.

"Ken, my son thinks he knows you. Do you know Jun Yamada?"

"Yamada…?" Ken murmured. He swallowed hard and shook his head. "No…I don't think so…"

"I see…" Eriko leaned down towards him. "Well, Ken, I'm going to ride with you to the hospital, is that all right?"

"Eriko-san…?" Ken said. The doors were shut and then Lee came and sat near Ken's head.

"You all right there, Ken?" he asked.

"Yeah," Ken said. He shifted as the ambulance siren came on. He looked over to Emiko. She was smiling warmly at him.

"Are you in high school, Ken?" Ken shook his head.

"I…I…graduated last summer."

"Oh, so you're a college kid?" Eriko asked. Ken was ashamed to admit to her that he wasn't a student. She seemed eager to hear that he was in school.

"I…can't afford it," Ken said.

"I see…" Emiko looked at him sadly. Ken felt the pain in his back suddenly. He shifted again and the EMT leaned over.

"My back hurts a lot," Ken said. "Couldn't you…give me something?"

"We'll be at the hospital soon enough, Ken," Lee said. "Are you hurting anywhere else?"

"N—No…" Ken said. He took in a deep breath. "Is Yohji okay?" he asked.

"Is Yohji your friend?" Lee asked.

"Yeah."

"There's no telling the extent of his injuries at this point, but when they loaded him up, it looked like minor scrapes and bruises. He was disoriented so there's a chance of a…possible concussion."

"And me?"

"We're going to do further tests at the hospital. You have some burns and bruises, too."

"Oh… Ok." Lee leaned towards him.

"How are you feeling now?" he asked.

"My back is killing me."

"You just hang in there, kid," he said. "Right now, I'm going to give you a face mask, all right? It'll give you oxygen." Ken nodded and let the man slip the mask on. He kept talking to Ken, reassuring him that they would be at the hospital soon and that the doctors would help him as soon as he arrived.

At the hospital, he was hounded by all types of personnel, everyone asking him questions he wasn't sure how to answer, even though he was sure they were questions had been asked before and had been able answer then. They had cut off his clothes and he was naked now. By then, the pain in his back was becoming unbearable, but no one paid attention to that part of his body. People with masks on were pinching and poking at him and the pain grew in each of the many areas they visited. Everything around him was becoming red. Then, someone told him that he had a foreign body that and they were trying to remove it. Ken's head felt too light to understand them, but he knew his body was not foreign and he didn't want them to take it away. He tried to stop them; the pain throughout his body was reaching a plateau. They put something over his mouth and he calmed down. He was crying and he wanted to wipe the tears away. His arms were suddenly too heavy for him to lift. He tried to find someone to talk to, and someone leaned close to his face and spoke to him. Then, he fell right to sleep.

Another Area of the ER

"Birman?" Yohji asked, startled to see her so soon. She was walking over to his bed quickly, her heels clacking over the sounds of rush in the ER's holding area. Yohji looked her up and down. She was in a short dark red skirt with an unbuttoned white blouse and a black vest. Yohji didn't know which was more appealing, her ample cleavage or her cherry red lips. He had a thing for that shade of lipstick. "You didn't have to get so dolled up, though, babe," he said. "But I'm honored." She stopped in front of him, giving him a comical look.

"As well you should be," she said. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Time?" Yohji asked. "Who cares about the time? I'm hospitalized, you know?"

"Please," she said. "Everyone knows you're one step away from being released."

"What?" Yohji fake coughed. "No, no, I'm sick, you hear? Sick."

"Sick in the head, maybe," Birman said, folding her arms. "You aren't fooling anyone, but if you're going to fake it, at least stop flirting with the entire nursing staff while you're at it."

"Who told you about that?" Yohji said, feeling disappointed that he couldn't play with Birman like he wanted.

"Oh, did anyone have to?" Birman asked. "Anyway, it's how they know you're all right, so let's get going."

"Where?"

"Away from all of this chaos. The nurse will be by so you can sign yourself out."

"All right," Yohji said. He stood up and looked at his IV, then at his clothes. He decided to wait until the nurse took it off before he changed out of the icky gown they'd given him. He looked to Birman again. "Hey, what about Ken? No one would tell me what was going on with him."

"Well, his condition's worse than yours, but they're confident that he'll be all right come morning," Birman said. "So don't worry. We're not worrying."

"What's wrong with him, though? Did he…did he get burned?"

"Oh, nothing that won't heal," Birman said. "He lost a lot of blood when they began to take the glass and metal pieces from his body, but they said that he's doing a lot better now. He'll be all right in the morning." Yohji sat back down and thought it over. He felt sorry for Ken, for the pain he went through, but he knew that if Ken hadn't have done everything that he'd done exactly when he'd done it, they would have both been blown into oblivion. Thinking that brought Yohji's mind to Aya.

As soon as the IV was out, he'd released himself and he'd changed, Yohji got his belongings back. He excused himself from Birman and stepped outside for a long overdue smoke and a call to Aya.

Aya picked up on the first ring.

"Yohji? Where are you guys, I've been calling all morning."

"Hey, I've got a lot of crazy news for you, so calm down and listen good," Yohji said.

"Why don't you come here?" Aya asked. "I have to plan to get Omi back. We can talk about anything while we're getting ready to implement it."

"Well, I think that you should hear me out first, especially if your plan involves Ken's help." Aya didn't say anything for a while.

"Is Ken…in trouble?" Aya asked carefully.

"I need to tell it from the beginning, but I'll be quick. There's a lot I need you to know, so I need you calm and listening, all right?"

"All right." Yohji took a long drag on his cigarette, the bag he'd taken from Nagi's room in his other hand. He wiped some ashes from it as he pictured Aya standing tensely with his phone to his ear, one arm tightly around his chest.

"Hey, you standing up?"

"What? Yeah…why?"

"I need you to sit down with something soft and pliable in your other hand."

"Is it that bad?" Aya asked.

"Oh, yeah." Yohji waited until he was sure that Aya was ready, then he told him in scarce detail about the night he and Ken had had. Aya started of with stifled noises that told Yohji he was listening, and he ended in stone silence. When Yohji finished, the silence stretched.

"Is Birman sure that Ken is all right?" Aya asked, sounding deeply upset. "Has she seen him with her own eyes?"

"I…I don't know, but I believe her when she says he's all right."

"And there's no sign that something's wrong on her, right? Does she look like she's hiding something?"

"No," Yohji said. "Are you all right, Aya?"

"I'll be better once I see that Ken is all right with my own eyes. What you two did was dangerous, Yohji. I…I could have lost you both, you know that?"

"I know…" Yohji said. "But…now…why don't you tell me about what you wanted to say earlier."

"It's irrelevant now… We need Ken well, first." Aya was quiet for a short while. "Yohji?"

"Yeah."

"There's…something else, though," he said. "Listen, I… I have some bad news. Aya is here with me."

"What? Why?" Yohji asked, stepping forward.

"Nagi did bring Omi to the shop last night," Aya said. "He brought him there and Aya…Aya came here to talk to me."

"She contacted you?" Yohji asked. "How…? How?"

"She… Yohji… Aya…Aya works for Kritiker." Yohji mouth fell open and his cigarette fell to the ground. He was so stunned, he couldn't form any words. "She's…she's…" Aya's voice was breaking. Yohji shook his head and found himself standing the way that he had imagined Aya doing.

"You can't be serious," he said. "Why the hell would she be doing something like that? What the hell does that mean? What the…?"

"She came here last night wanting to help. I thought we could ambush the shop and get Sakura and Omi out tonight, but…but…"

"If she works for Kritiker, then why did Nagi go to her?"

"He doesn't know."

"How could he not?" Yohji demanded.

"As far as Nagi knows, Aya and Sakura have an innocent involvement in this whole thing," Aya said. "They know about us, but they don't contact us. Nagi convinced Aya that he was through with Schwarz and she befriended him to be able to spy on them. It was through her that Kritiker was able to gather as much information on them as they did. They…they've been using her…" Aya trailed off. "I thought I could keep her here with me," he said a few moments later. "But now she'll have to go back. If Nagi sees that she's gone, he'll know something's wrong. Aya would never wander the streets this late… He knows that."

"This whole time…" Yohji said. "They've been using her this whole time."

"Aya said… Aya said that it was her idea, that she had to beg for the position."

"Nothing excuses the fact that they went along with it!" Yohji said.

"Don't panic on me, Yohji. They're at the hospital now with you, right?"

"I'm outside."

"Alone?"

"Yeah."

"Don't…don't say anything about this to anyone but Ken," Aya said. "I don't want them to know that Aya contacted me or that Omi's been taken."

"How can we keep it a secret?" Yohji asked. "Omi would already be here if he knew what happened to Ken."

"We'll think of something," Aya said. "And I'll tell Aya. I don't want Kritiker to know what happened tonight besides what you and Ken were up to. Think of a good excuse why, just in case."

"Are we getting ourselves in trouble here, Aya?" Yohji asked.

"As long as we finish the mission, Yohji, it doesn't matter how we go about it."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm…I'm going to get Aya back to the shop. If Nagi sees her gone, he may take it out on Sakura and Omi."

"And then what?"

"I'll sit tight here until you check in on Ken. As soon as you see with your own eyes that he's okay, then you come home and we'll work out our next plan of action."

"All right."

"Remember," Aya said. "Only Ken can know."

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