Hehe...so I wasn't as fast as I'd thought I'd be. Oh well, hope you enjoy.

Omi stood quietly before his leader and watched a series of almost-hidden emotions chase themselves across the pale swordsman's face. His statement seemed to echo continuously in the silence of the room. 'We can't kill them'. That was almost like saying that they would help them. Almost like saying that they would offer Schwartz their protection, since that was what they had come for anyway.

Omi didn't like it. He didn't like it at all. But he trusted Aya, had to trust him for the trust he had been shown in the past. Aya had told him that he wasn't a Taketori, wasn't evil like Reiji had been. Aya had trusted him, and he had vowed to himself that if there was ever a chance that he could return that trust, he would. Now was a chance, blind trust was required and Omi was willing to give it.

That didn't mean he was going to relax his guard though. He watched the members of Schwartz carefully. He dismissed Oracle, Crawford, as a threat as the man was obviously hurt and unconscious. Prodigy was still positioned behind Aya's back, which Omi didn't like, but couldn't do anything about. Prodigy didn't seem to be much of a threat either, with his glazed eyes and trembling figure. Omi thought it was possible that he was going into shock. Berserker sat Indian-style on the carpet, tossing a bright red ball back and forth, watching the scene with an interest akin to Ken's when he was forced to watch a cooking show. Mastermind on the other hand…

It isn't nice to stare, katzchen.

…was dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. He looked like even crazier then the last time Omi had seen him. His hair was flung about and tangled, but not in the 'sexy-wind-blown' look that Yohji usually attempted. His usual bandana was twisted on his head, the knot resting behind one ear. He was slumped gracelessly against the wall, his face matching the pale pasty color of the paint.

The silence that had overcome the room was broken when Aya took an unsteady step away from Prodigy and towards a chair.

"You don't honestly expect us to let them stay here," screeched Yohji, his voice an octave or two higher than normal.

"We told the guy who worked here we would," said Ken, saving Omi and Aya from answering.

"We didn't tell the guy anything. Aya just nodded his head at 'im." Yohji nodded his own head as if to emphasize the fact. "And this is Schwartz we are talking about."

"We haven't really been their enemies since Esset went down. We haven't even seen them," countered Ken.

"This from the guy who just jumped one of our 'not enemies.'"

"I thought they were attacking us!"

"Exactly! They could attack us at any time and you want them here when Aya can't defend himself!"

Omi didn't think that Yohji or Ken saw it, but Aya tensed where he was sitting and turned to glare at the back of Yohji's head.

"Guy's…" Omi quiet attempt at cutting the tension wasn't even acknowledged.

"Well what do you want us to do Yohji? Dump them out on the street so that whatever did that," he gestured wildly with his hand, "to them can get another shot off?"

"Why you naive…you just have to save everybody don't you Ken?" Yohji suddenly sounded both exasperated and exhausted. His whole body slumped and the hand with his weapon dropped.

Omi felt something inside him that he hadn't known was tense relax. Ken, he knew, would follow whatever Omi and Aya decided. He wouldn't argue with them after the decision was made, and he would do what needed to be done. Yohji, on the other hand, would have been the big problem, especially since he was right. Aya couldn't defend himself in his condition and Yohji had always been very protective of Aya. Omi was glad Yohji wasn't going to put up to much of a fight against the decision.

Did you say something in there about not killing us?

Judging by how Ken jumped, Yohji's weapon hand jerked and Aya looked over in Mastermind's direction all of them had heard the telepath's message. Omi himself ignored Mastermind, focusing instead on Prodigy and Berserker, thinking that the words could have just been a distraction for an attack.

"Uh…yeah," mumbled Ken.

Great, getting rescued by half-beaten kittens. Highlight of my day.

"We're less beaten than you are at the moment," growled Yohji.

Yes, Kudo, I can see that. Even in that exhausted mental voice, the sarcasm was thick.

"Look, we can fight later okay? Oracle doesn't look to good. Wait, he's Crawford, right? What are your names anyway?" Ken asked as he walked slowly and cautiously towards Prodigy, who had curled in on himself, shivering.

His name is Nagi and the other one's Farfie

'Farfie'?

And I'm Schuldich but what the hell do you care?

"Guilty?"

Omi blinked at Aya, surprised that he had talked, shocked at what he had said. Were Aya's injuries worse than they had thought? A concussion maybe? Because he was talking nonsense.

Yohji say, "Hey Aya, maybe you should lie down."

Ken nodded his head in agreement.

"You can speak German?" asked Schuldich out loud

Omi almost asked what he was talking about until he remembered the world language seminar he had went to the week before. People had come from all over the world to talk to them about different languages and cultures. The woman from Germany had talked about the German court systems and Omi remember 'schuldich' from it.

"What-?"

"Schuldich means guilty," Omi told Yohji and Ken. At their confused looks he repeated more clearly, "'Schuldich' is guilty in German."

"Aya knows German?" asked Ken. He was kneeling in front of Nagi, waving his hand in front of the still boy's eyes. The boy didn't respond.

"Ken?"

"Definitely shock, but he's not injured."

Omi nodded and went in search of a blanket, trusting Yohji to watch Schwartz.

Schuldich was sure he had died and gotten shipped to some twisted insane asylum that had been built on a bit of real estate in hell.

"Kid? Nagi? You look like you had a head on collision with a soccer ball, you okay?" one of the Weiss kittens asked Nagi, who was looking the worse for wear. Schuldich tried to muster up some concern for the kid, but found he didn't have the energy.

"Only Ken would say an injury was caused by a soccer ball," he heard Kudo mutter.

A car actually, Schuldich corrected.

Siberian blinked at him. "What?"

A car. A head on collision with a car. Schuldich still couldn't believe that some idiot had tried to off him with a car, but he was too drained to start ranting about it.

He felt a flicker of concern from Bombay's mind. Concern for him. He pushed at the Weiss's mind, trying to figure out why, and picked up that his 'voice' had suddenly gotten hard for them to hear, softer. Schuldich himself had slumped more thoroughly against the door and his eyes had slipped closed.

"Is that how Crawford got hurt?" questioned Bombay as he carried a blanket over to Nagi.

Yeah. The bitch who did it is in the trunk of the car. Schuldich felt a certain satisfaction at being reminded of that.

"The trunk?" chocked Siberian.

The hell I was letting her ride in the front seat, snapped Schuldich. He was getting irritable. He was exhausted and the mental whispers in the back of his mind kept aggravating his headache.

Bombay sighed and got up from where he was kneeling beside Nagi and Siberian. "Yohji would you go and get her out of the car?"

The whispering hit a dull roar, scraping against his nerves like nails down a chalkboard. He flinched, pulling into himself so that he barely heard what was going on around him.

"Why?"

He clenched his fists, grimacing at the agony in his skull. The feeling, the pain, was somehow familiar.

"Because she probably knows what's going on."

It almost felt like that time, a few days ago, when something had touched his mind. When someone had made his mind so fragile that using his power nearly knocked him unconscious.

"Whatever you say." Footsteps came closer to the door.

They were here.

"NOW!" Someone's yell echoed in Schuldich's mind.

The world exploded in a flash of brilliant light.

'Katzchen' means kitten in German. Schuldich will be using it a lot.

11/18/06

6:27 PM