Disclaimer: Woopsy keep forgetting these darned things, nevemind. Weiss, I don't own em' so don't you sue or nuttin! Yarrr!
Chapter 6
The connection deep inside
I was running, faster than the wind itself. I had never run as fast as I was doing now, knocking people to the ground and then disappearing before they could know it was I who had done it; leaping over cars as they raced by me; I would have leapt over buildings if it wouldn't have drawn too much attention.
The silence of the factory was left far behind me now. Their silent screams were lost to my thought, only the murmur of the city remained, flitting through my mind as I sped through street after street. Everything was brought down to this one city, as I rushed through parks, through suburbs, through the city centre. Their mundane thoughts were filling my subconscious, but I had them at bay. At times I found myself wondering at some thought that was not my own, or at some memory that I had never witnessed. Every time I felt myself slip though, she was there to catch me. I was already completely acclimatised to her presence within me, a calm still centre to my seeming lack of control. When I would get to boisterous or too advantageous then she would be there to show me my limits, or to pull me back from the brink. Because that was what I felt like I was doing when I let my mind open even just a little to those thoughts that flooded the dark cornered off section of my brain. I felt like I was standing at the edge of a steep cliff that dropped off into dark oblivion; and when my control began to slip then I began to slip also from my precarious standing on the brink of madness. Yet she was always there to pull me back with a slight tug at my hand.
The tall trees no longer looked so tall, I could have jumped to their tops in a second. I could still feel the power flowing through my veins, pumping my adrenaline, making me run faster and faster. I didn't question it, I couldn't question it. She had given it too me as a gift, and I wouldn't throw it back at her like it was unwanted by asking stupid questions. I already knew why she had given me these powers.
They were to avenge her with.
They were to destroy her attackers, destroy those who hated her. I was to destroy all those who stood in my path, and all those who had stood in my path before that. I was to be a plague on these people who I knocked to they wayside, these insignificant fools who knew nothing of the power that lurked in their midst or its dark intentions. Yet no, they are not dark intentions, only just ones. Just ones that would have me take revenge for her. They were nothing now…and I? I am…
"INVINCIBLE!" I cried, a wicked twist to my lips as I jumped to twirl a street sign before rushing out in front of a large lorry.
The hefty vehicle swerved violently to avoid me as I stopped dead in it's tracks. I didn't move as the huge dark form of the truck screamed towards me, tyre pouring out smoke as the river futilely slammed on the brakes as a last attempt. I heard the screams of the people on the pavement nearby as they looked on in horror at my sure death, I heard them in their minds, in my mind…and I laughed. I laughed at their folly, their ignorant foolishness to save that which would damn them. Just as the truck slid so close that I could feel the heat of the engine and smell the burning rubber of the tyres I leapt to the side and continued on my run. I couldn't help myself, I felt too high not to test the limits of my power. I was laughing, laughing in the face of death, and I liked it. I liked it a lot. It made me feel young again, so different to when I had always felt so very old. It made me feel like I had when it was just Aya-chan and me, just the two of us together with our mother and father. It had all been so simple.
It was only me now, only myself and her. And that was enough.
-Faster Ran, faster,- she whispered urgently, -you must get there quickly.-
-But where are we going?- I asked back, still just enjoying the slick of the wind on my face and the pavement disappearing under my feet.
-You will see,- was all she would say, but I didn't question her.
I would never question her, she was my saviour. She had set me free, free to be hers for ever more. I would be her vengeance, and I would come down upon this world like the wrath of Justice itself. I would be a plague on those who had done her wrong, I would be a curse on those who had stood in my way, I would be Death himself to those who had betrayed me…
…Betrayed me?
I stopped so suddenly that I left skid marks on the grass I had been running over. The small green strands flew up around me and settled on my dishevelled trench coat like butterflies settling on a flower. I stood there panting for a moment, my hands outstretched for balance. The moonlight played over my fingers like silver water, glinting on my fingernails as if off fish scales. My mind raced as fast as my heart.
-Betrayed me?-
Where had that thought come from? Was it someone else's, some random person's thought slipping into my own consciousness? But no, it was my own I knew it. Who had betrayed me? Why was I thinking that? And why did it scare me so much that I was thinking it?
-They betrayed you Ran,- she said softly but firmly.
"Who betrayed me?" I said out loud still staring at my now shaking hands.
-They betrayed you,- she repeated, -they didn't help you save me, they held you back.-
"What…what are you talking about?" I frowned at the fear in my voice, fear at what she might say, fear at what she might ask me to do, yet still not knowing what it was she might say or ask.
The park I had stopped in was not very large, only enough for a patch of grass and a handful of trees. I stood in the middle of the small lawn, panting like a dog and waiting anxiously for her reply. The fact that she wasn't replying only made me more anxious. Yet I couldn't be like this, I had to be firm. I had to be alert and focused, I couldn't just run scared every time I got a bad feeling. She needed me, I was her vessel, her tool. I would be an entirely useless tool if I was shaking like a leaf; so I calmed myself, taking a deep breath and fisting my hands by my sides. I put my thoughts in order, thinking about the implications of her statement before I carried on .
"Who has betrayed you?" I asked her seriously; I figured if they had betrayed me, they had betrayed Aya-chan too, and that was unacceptable.
There was a slight pause, and then…
-Weiss,- she said simply.
Silence.
"Weiss," I breathed, the fear that had momentarily lapsed came back in full force.
The silence that had settled on me suddenly became a rushing swell of voices, screaming and humming and shouting and laughing and sneering and blushing and huffing and…and…
…and I felt myself falling. Down into that dark abyss I slipped, my sudden shock and fear letting my control on the power that held the voices at bay slip. I could almost feel Aya's hand on me, hear her voice that screamed yet seemed distant and faint to my numb ears. I could have sworn that, as I stood there frozen in that little park, that I could feel the rush of the wind against my face and through my hair as I fell over the edge of that churning black oblivion. I couldn't stop it, my limbs felt paralyzed as the voices roared and roared almost as loudly as the blood in my ears. I could feel the darkness surrounding me and pulling at me, tearing at my mind like a wolf would its prey, eating at what little of my sanity I had left. I would have cried out in pain if I hadn't been so paralysed with fear. It was then and there, when I had not even began my mission for her in earnest, after all I had gained, that I was sure I would die…
-Where are you Ran?-
It was like a light in the darkness, like a hand reaching down to catch me and pull me back to safety. I could have sworn that I knew that voice, that I recognised the gloved hand, the dark brown jacket, the shock of an orange sweatshirt tied around a waist…but it was all too much for my battered mind to take. I just grabbed blindly for the help, hoping desperately that I could catch onto it in time. I did, curling my fingers around that hand, warm and welcoming, thoughts pouring into my mind at the contact. It was like I had opened up a link with the person I was using as a mental anchor.
-Why did you go?-
I was sure I could place that voice; sure I knew that surly tone laced with hope and need, sure if I thought hard enough I could put a face to it…
-I'm never going to find you…-
My head was settling now, not feeling so light and full as it had a moment before when the voices had tried to overwhelm me in their intense need to be heard. I tried to focus on the mental link I had established, determined to find out my saviours identity, determined to know who had seemed so familiar to me, so safe, that I had grabbed onto their mind as soon as it had come into range. I wanted to know who could have saved me when Aya-chan could not. I could almost make out tattered jeans, a flash of silver from one glove, a smile…
-I really need him, god I really need him.-
Then it was gone. In a flash the image before me melted and dissipated like oil on water, slinking back into the humdrum rumble of voices in the background. I had to blink a few times before I realised that I was staring at my hands once more, that the moonlight was once again surrounding me instead of the darkness.
-You must not lose control!- her voice was reprimanding, angry and it made me blanch just at the tone, -you have to be alert, I need you to be in command of your power.-
-But who was that..?- before I even finished the thought I instantly regretted it.
-YOU WILL GO!- she said in that voice, the one she had used before to save my life by instigating the use of my power.
I couldn't help but feel myself relax, feel all questions slip from my mind like water through fingers that grasped vainly at it. All resistance fled, only obedience remained. I was once more in control, and I was ready to do her biding. I thought no more about the strange figure who had saved me, their thoughts seemingly unconnected with my plight now that I was once more reunited with Aya-chan in my mind. Then I heard it, the familiar yet oddly unfamiliar squeal of tyres against tarmac. I instinctively pulled back under the shadow of the trees behind me as a large motorcycle swerved dangerously on the road near to the little park. It halted with sudden precision, pulling its hulking form in a practiced one hundred and eighty degree spin before shooting off again back down the road it had come from.
-FOLLOW IT NOW- I did as she bid me in that commanding tone; I couldn't refuse.
I ran again like I had before, yet there was no joy in my power now. I felt nothing but unswerving duty, her thoughts permeating my own as I kept pace with the motorcycle. She wanted me to kill; she wanted me to maim, to hurt and to avenge. I could do all that with ease; I could do it with pleasure. Yet I shouldn't feel pleasure, I was a failure who couldn't even save his own sister. I couldn't even control the little power she had given me I was such a weakling. Weakling! I wouldn't be one! I would be strong for her! I would do as she asked, not questioning her all the time. I would do as she bid from now on, no hesitation, no holding back. She wanted me to kill, I would kill.
Perhaps it was this blinding duty that stopped me from noticing that the young man who sat on the motorcycle I followed so diligently had an orange sweater tied tightly around his middle. He also had on a dirty brown jacket, and gloves which flashed with steel as he revved the bike faster and faster. I didn't see any of it though, didn't even think about what Aya-chan had asked of me in the first place that had scared me so. I wouldn't be scared, I couldn't be scared and so I just wouldn't think about it. I would follow this bike and then I would kill the one riding it and all his allies. I would do it for her because she had asked it of me, and because I owed her so much that I couldn't refuse her this small task.
When the bike finally stopped, jumping up precariously over the pavement in front of an old familiar looking house I was a little out of breath. I stood in the shadows of an alleyway, allowing myself time to breathe before I rushed in there and began my slaughter. I could vaguely make out the thoughts of the people in the house, but I didn't want t hear them. I just wanted to kill them, whoever they were and have done with it. I wanted to have their blood on my hands, staining my clothes, spurt in my face. I wanted to take proper retribution against these fools who had dared oppose her justice. So it was then that I felt my power rising, felt my hands fly up as I ran out onto the calm silent street and then let out a blast of telekinetic energy against the second story wall of the house. I heard the brick cracking and buckling under the weight of the pressure, exploding just as I launched myself up to the hole and landed swiftly inside a small familiar room. I shook my head to clear it as some rouge memory tried to break through the defences I had built around my mind, the defences that secured my single minded devotion to my duty.
The targets.
They were four, one of them was the one from the bike with the orange sweater around his middle. It sparked something, just like the sunglasses of the taller one did, or the blue eyes of the younger one. I pushed these thoughts away as I lunged forward towards them as they crouched, huddled on the floor away from the explosion. I held out a hand for the dark haired one who was shouting something I couldn't quite catch as the blood once again roared in my ears. Their shocked and hurt expressions did nothing but help me in my bland execution…
…or not so bland as I found out when the fist of the taller one connected with my face.
AN: Right okay I decided to leave the fight till the next chapter because I thought it would be too long if I put down what I want to happen all in one go! Phew, that was a little confusing though, and I hope that I didn't lose anyone during this chapter ^-^ ! If I did then sorry, you have every right to kick my ass. Sorry for this chapter being a little delayed by the way, but I've been kinda busy with work. Bah evil work!
As always please R&R and thank you so much to everyone who reviewed *lots of smoochy kisses and stuff*!