FYI: in this fanfiction I will be screwing with a great deal of Aya's back story. His parents were still killed by Taketori, and he still joined the Crashers, and then Weiss, but between being a member of Crashers and Weiss he was a member of the Consortium. In order to make sure he does all the things I need him to do with the Consortium the time between him leaving Crasher and joining Weiss will be longer than in the anime. This fact does make Aya older then he's supposed to be, but I'm going to ignore that. He's still younger than Yohji and older then Ken.
Enjoy.
The damn rock band was playing in his head again. But this time it wasn't the drummer beating on the inside of his skull that made Yohji want to start whimpering. It was the electric guitar that was playing a frantic frenzy of notes six or seven octaves above humanly possible. For that instant Yohji's world consisted simply of his ringing ears, the bright pain in his head, and that screaming, excruciating music.
Slowly he became aware of the rest of his body. He found his joints ached when he tensed his muscles to try and sit up. He couldn't even twitch the fingers in his right hand and his entire left leg was numb in a way that told him he had been injured badly there.
"No, Yohji, don't try to get up." A small hand pressed down on his chest arresting his feeble attempt to move.
"Yeah, Yotan. Take it easy." Yohji heard a second person shift closer to him. "You wanna open your eyes for us?"
So that's why it was dark.
Yohji opened his eyes, only to flinch them shut again as light stabbed like knives into his brain. The electric guitar suddenly started screeching again. Yohji moaned softly in pain.
"Yohji? Yohji, come on. It's okay."
Yohji's breathing hitched at the pain. He clenched his mobile hand and tried desperately to get the other to move. He had only tried for a couple of seconds when his body gave out. He was too exhausted and weak to move, and if he hadn't known that Omi and Ken were the two by his side that would have panicked him. As it was he felt anxious and helpless.
"It's okay, Yohji. You're okay."
"Ken?" he croaked.
"Yeah, it's me. You wanna try opening your eyes again? We dimmed the lights."
Yohji opened his eyes slowly this time, peeking out from under his lids to make sure the lights were indeed dimmed. The first thing he saw was Ken's wide brown eyes staring worriedly down at him. Behind Ken was Omi.
"What happened?"
"How much do you remember?" Omi asked gently.
"Up until they attacked us," said Yohji, scrunching up his nose in concentration. "Then it gets really blurry and confusing."
"They hit you with a dart at the beginning of the fight," explained Omi. "It was a mix of a stimulant designed to up your heart rate so you're physically having a panic attack and a mild hallucinogen, probably to make sure you stay panicked, and therefore useless in a fight." Omi suddenly sounded very angry. "We were able to devise an antidote but some of the nerves in your leg are damaged. You've been out for about eight hours."
"What happened to my hand?"
"What?"
"What happened to my hand?" repeated Yohji, hearing the fear in his own voice.
Ken frowned down at him for a bit, glancing down at Yohji's hand and then back up to his face. "It's fine, Yohji."
"Then why can't I move it?" Yohji snapped.
Ken suddenly smiled gently. "Because it's taped to a board. We had to put in an IV and we wanted to be careful with the needle."
Yohji relaxed a little, some of his anxiety easing. "Can you take it out?"
"Omi?" Ken questioned, looking over his shoulder.
"Give me a minuet," replied Omi.
Omi worked quietly and carefully as he removed the IV and board. While he worked Yohji let his eyes close and relaxed into the couch he had finally realized he was laying on. He noticed the low hum around him and realized that wherever they were, they were moving. Considering how big the room was they couldn't be in a car, so they had to be in a train of some sort. But Yohji hadn't heard any other people and, apart from Ken and Omi, he hadn't seen anyone either.
"Yohji?"
Yohji opened his eyes again at Ken's query. "Where are we?"
"Underground Shinkonsen," answered Ken.
"Oh. Where…Underground Shinkonsen?"
"That's what I said."
Yohji stared blankly at Ken, not really comprehending what he had said. Then he slowly, painfully pulled his arms to support his weight and stated pushing himself into a sitting position.
"Here let me help," said Ken. It was only then that Yohji realized that he couldn't see Omi.
"Where's the chibi?" asked Yohji, trying to relax stiff muscles as he leaned back into the couch.
"Just over there," Ken said, pointing to the other side of the compartment. "He's checking on Nagi and Schuldich."
"Schwartz?" Yohji tried to get himself worked up over that fact, but found he didn't have the energy. Having Schwartz hanging around didn't elicit as much anger in him as it had before. Presumably, the guys that had attacked them earlier had been after Schwartz, and Yohji suddenly had a whole lot of sympathy for them.
"Mmmm. Nagi woke up earlier, but after we got him hopped up on pain killers and put a cast on his wrist he fell back asleep. Schuldich hasn't woken up yet." Ken sat down on a low chair that faced the couch.
"Where's Aya?" asked Yohji, not bothering to hide the slight thread of worry in his voice.
"He's in another compartment with Farf."
"Farf?"
"Berserker."
"Is that safe?"
"He got hit with the same dart you did. He collapsed a while ago and hasn't woken up yet." Ken smiled. "Aya is fine. Omi and I made sure he got some rest and he wasn't injured in the fight."
"So where are we going?" asked Yohji, finally starting to really wake up.
"Now that I don't know."
Aya walked slowly over to the side table of the compartment he was in. He passed Berserker on the way and pressed his fingers lightly onto the man's neck, checking for a pulse. Finding it steady, if not strong, Aya continued on his way over to the table, and the phone.
Aya supposed that Sora wouldn't be too happy with him for using the Consortium's private train, but he also knew that that telling her about the attack on the Shiro Kaze was more important than appeasing the Consortium. Anyone with enough information to attack the Shiro Kaze, for any reason, was an enemy of the Consortium and they needed to know about their enemies.
Aya picked up the phone and dialed a number that the day before he would have sworn, no matter the torture he was put under, that he didn't know. He had always kept his secrecy to the Consortium—and had sworn he would never come back. But here he was, forced to ask for help from the organization he had left.
There was a soft click as the phone was picked up on the other end of the line, but no one spoke.
"I would like to speak to the Consort's Second."
"Your title?" asked a sharp, clipped voice. It had the raspy quality of an old woman.
"Red."
The woman on the other end of the line sucked in a sharp breath. Aya heard the sound of chair legs scraping on a stone floor over the phone.
"One minuet, please."
Aya stayed silent, listening to the woman's terse breathing.
"It is nice to hear your voice again," whispered the old woman. "Here is the Second."
There was silence, then another voice came on the line. It was the deep, rich, gruff voice of a man at the end of his prime. As Aya listened he pictured the man in his mind's eye as he had last seen him. Brown hair with small flecks of sliver hanging down over calm green eyes. Tailored clothing covering the slender, athletic body of a swordsman or a dancer, of which this man was both.
"What did you say to my secretary? She looks like she just ran miles around the city."
"Hello, Yuri." Aya smiled slightly, but kept his voice professional.
"Red? I must be going senile. Red?"
Aya's smile got a little wider. "Yes."
"Damn. Long time no see, kiddo."
"I need your help."
"If it's bad enough to send you back to the Consortium than you definitely do," commented Yuri, suddenly very serious.
"Someone attacked the Shiro Kaze."
"What!?"
"I thought you might like to know," Aya said wryly, amused by Yuri's reaction even with the seriousness of the situation.
"Don't be a smart ass, Red. Where are you now?"
"We're on the Neon."
"We?"
Aya nodded even though he knew Yuri wouldn't be able to see. "My team and Crawford's."
"Crawford. Sora's friend Crawford?"
"Yes, but Crawford was taken at the Shiro Kaze."
"Well, shit. I'll call the Consortium together. It'll be at least a day before we can get everyone together though. It's the best I can do."
"That's fine," Aya said, and hung up.
Aya turned around to find Berserker watching him speculatively from his spot on the couch. When Aya meet his eyes he sat up slowly and started to stand, only to halt and fall back into the couch as his muscles gave out on him. Berserker frowned down at himself, shrugged, and then looked back up at Aya.
"Crawford was taken?" asked the man, with much more intelligence than Aya was used to from the madman. Berserker's countenance was calm, lucid, and instead of reassuring Aya it made him shift his feet into a defensive stance
"Yes," Aya replied firmly.
"Then you had better take care with Schuldich."
Aya stared at him, saying nothing. He was both started and confused by the man's statement.
Berserker took his silence as a request for more information, which Aya supposed it was, and kept talking. "Crawford is Schuldich's anchor. Without him Schuldich will start falling apart. You will need to be careful with him, and around him, until he is anchored again."
"You're very…articulate," commented Aya, hoping the man would hear the question in that statement.
"I don't feel pain and I hate God. I'm not stupid," answered the man.
Aya nodded slowly and asked, "What is your name?"
"Farfarello."
"Would you like to help me prepare something to eat, Farfarello?"
As Farfarello stared at him Aya began to berate himself for moving to quickly. But he had to. If they were to face the Consortium they had a better chance of surviving if they were united when they did. For Aya knew one single, unavoidable fact:
The hatred between Schwartz and Weiss meant nothing next to the power of the Consortium.
Okay, in the next couple of chapters I will be introducing a lot of new people. I'll try to make each new character memorable and separate, but if you start to get confused, please tell me and I'll try to fix it.
Review and Return!
01/14/07
11:04 AM