Disclaimer: I don't own Weiss Kreuz or any characters contained therein, but I do like to play with them nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Chapter 20

Memoria

I was walking nowhere. My legs were moving but my feet weren't touching the ground, I could tell. It was just a soft black, under my feet, like velvety space, cold to the touch.

Touch, ha, I was sure I wasn't touching it.

Yet still I walked, waiting for just one hint that I was actually moving, some sort of change in the void that was my scenery.

How long had I been here? I wasn't sure I could answer. There had been moments when I wasn't even sure if I was here, feeling at times like I was somewhere with a fire. I was sure I could feel the heat on my skin, that comforting warmth.

But I was here, there was no mistaking it; wherever here was...

How long was I going to be here? I found myself folding my arms across my chest as I walked, or at least I think I did. I couldn't really feel myself, only seeing a shadowy outline every time I looked down to check my feet were still moving. It was as if I was becoming nothing but the same as the blackness surrounding me. I had caught myself forgetting important things, like the colour of my sister's hair, when my birthday was, even what my name was.

"Ran," I said softly as I continued on my endless journey, "Ran."

-Orchid,- said that unknown voice, echoing softly around me in a mimic of my own words, -orchid.-

It had been doing that for a while now. The first time I had forgotten my name I had begun to panic. I had stopped in my futile walking, staring of into the void with unseeing eyes, my mind straining to remember that one vital element of myself. I had begun to shake, I remembered that, feeling the coldness of the dark creeping up through my leg like a dire frost, eating away at me while I strained and pulled and fought with the barrier around my memories. Finally, just as the cold seemed to take a proper hold, just as I thought I would never remember...

"Ran!" I had shouted, "My name is Ran!"

"Orchid!" it has shouted back just as loud like some terrible echo, making me jump severely, "Orchid!"

The voice had sounded so suddenly it was as if it had come from the dark air itself, springing from the void and ringing in my ears. I had just stood there, like a rabbit in headlights, wondering what on earth that had all been about. An orchid? What on earth was it talking about? But, well, my name, it meant orchid. Yet why would it call that out to me? Strange I had thought, and annoyingly insubstantial in its clues...just like the rest of this place.

I had just stood for a little while after that, shaking uncontrollably as the freeze melted away, as my consciousness reasserted itself. I had felt very small at that point, even if a little relieved. It was like I had felt, even if only for a moment, just how large this void I was walking through really was. It was like an infinite cavern, spiralling away into forever. I had no idea how large it was, no idea if it even had an end.

Well hell, I didn't even know where it was.

Yet I kept walking. Even if it just gave me something to do. I didn't exactly think that standing still would be a good idea considering what had happened the first time. That cold had been really very...enticing. Like the death one has always been waiting for, so sweet in its oblivion. I could feel the pull of that which is the ultimate escape, that which I guess I had been waiting for for so long.

Aya...I had...nothing left to live for.

Ken?

Ken.

Well...I...

...didn't want to think about it. So I just kept walking.

Somewhere, somewhere other than here, something was happening. I felt myself feeling severe surprise, yet I wasn't sure what at. All I could think was that I should be feeling entirely focused and indignant as I usually did.

"Need to focus, just concentrate," I said sternly to absolutely no-one.

In the distance, I could feel the calm of the detaching of emotions. Omi's big blue eyes were staring back at me and I frowned in surprise.

Firstly at the fact that I had seen something other than pitch darkness, and second at the fact I had said that name...

...Well, I mean, who was Omi?

AN: Short and sweet, eh? Er, okay maybe not so sweet, but definitely short! Please R&R!