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

Chapter 21

Mixed Blood

Schuldich.

The laughter grew louder.

Schuldich?

This wasn't happening...

"Schuldich!" I said with impatient surprise, bringing my control back into check just as immediately.

I felt my cheeks starting to flush, but was it with anger or something else? I didn't have time to ponder, I didn't have time for anything. My power was being elusive and treacherous and for once in my life I was in anticipation for what was to come next.

Turning to the equally surprised Siberian I growled, "Get that door open" without eve thinking about the consequences.

Siberian, all of his hard headedness seemingly too perplexed by the sudden change of tack, just gave me an oddly cold look and complied. I felt the very air in the room relax, not wholly but enough, as we realised there was probably no fight to be had here. Well, at least I felt Bombay relax; Nagi knew I wasn't in the happiest of moods at the moment. From the sounds of it there were more than two people on the other side of that door which meant Schuldich had company other than Balinese. He knew that there was still a fight to be had, and he wasn't exactly happy about the thought himself. Schuldich wouldn't be laughing for long.

Then the door opened.

-How many things are going to surprise me tonight?- was all I could think as the scene was slowly divulged with the swing of the door.

I felt the tension of the room spring back into life as the door revealed two unknown individuals. However, it tripled when the blood came into view.

Lots of blood; and of course the majority would be on Schuldich wouldn't it...oh holy shit...Schuldich...but...

...but...first things first...

"Who are you?" I snapped at the tall blonde who was looking me over frostily and the smaller brunette with the strange eyes; always deal with the important things first I say.

I felt Nagi surge towards Schuldich instinctively, but I stopped him before he could get a foot past me. He should have known better.

-Idiot,- was all I could think as I glared at the newcomers; Siberian and Bombay more interested in Balinese who was standing beside the heap on the ground that was Schuldich, -who does he think he is bringing strangers here at a time like this!?-

"It's alright," Balinese spoke up finally, trying desperately to get the still laughing, bleeding German into his arms to carry him inside, "they're with us."

"With you? So why should I trust them?" I asked, perfectly reasonably I thought.

"Hell, stop being such a baka and let us in Crawford or I'll kill you," Balinese sighed, his tired expression not exactly matching his threat.

My god that was a lot of blood. I mean, really, that was a hell of a lot of blood...

Funnily enough, considering the horror of the scene before me, thinking "my god that's a lot of blood" was the second thing to run though my mind. The first was "Heck Yoji's going to be pissed, they're his best clothes."

Strange the things that the mind will come up with when you get shocked isn't it?

"You deal with them," I said quickly to Crawford as I stumbled forwards to help Yoji with the confusingly laughing redhead, my shock slowly wearing off, "he needs help now."

I hardly even looked at the two strangers, taking in their appearance sure, seeing that the blonde had an un-drawn weapon in his hand of course, but if Yoji had said they were okay then they were okay. I know, I know I should have been more concerned considering the circumstances. It could easily have been the blonde who had shot Schuldich in the first place, they could be using this to infiltrate our base and...but then Yoji would never have said they were okay. I trusted him with my life and he knew that so he wouldn't take advantage of it.

With Yoji's help I soon had the German in my arms and was leaving the front door behind me, putting my back to an unknown with a gun...not like me at all. Heck, what was I up to? The faint sound of Crawford clicking the safety off on his gun was the last thing I heard as I rushed towards the living room; rather ominous, ne? That's what I thought...

The corridor seemed unusually long as I sagged under the weight of the Schwartz in my arms, his laughter abruptly and worryingly silent and his body a little too limp. I hurried my feet, urging them faster, even though in my mind I was wondering why I was worrying at all.

-An enemy, he's our enemy,- I thought, an outrageous streak of anger flaring in my mind and spreading through my body like quick fire, -an enemy who helped them take her! Little Aya...-

I felt my hands tighten where they had a hold, my vision turning red as I thought back to that night...but, when I recalled the memory, the anger that came with it was different from what I remembered. I always remembered that I had felt an undying urge to kill all the Schwartz in that room as thy surrounded poor little Aya-chan and mocked us with their sneers and their insults. Yet, even though I had been bloodthirsty, it had not been the kind of anger I felt now that had surged through my veins. I had felt outraged for Ran, outraged that someone could do this to a poor helpless child, the only family f a lost soul who without her...would dissipate into dust and be nothing at all...

...the anger I felt now was truly blinding. I could feel the indignant rage teetering at the edge of my senses, my vision blurring with the assault. It was a rage tinged with fear, an anger tainted by the terror that a brother would feel for his sister...but I didn't have a sister...and I wasn't Ran. So why the hell was I...

...why the hell, when I remembered that night, did I see myself in my memories as if from another's eyes?

"Put him on the couch," Yoji ordered, breaking my thoughts into shards that melted into nothing as we entered the small room.

He closed the door behind us, shutting off the sound of bickering from the front door, "and..."

He stopped mid sentence as the door he had just closed opened quickly. We both looked at it expectantly, tensing just in case...but it seemed to be empty.

"What the..?" Yoji started, but stopped abruptly.

Nagi walked briskly into view, his small form rigid and his eyes determined and angry. He looked cold and distant as he closed the door behind him without touching it, solely focused on the figure lying breathless on the couch. I didn't say anything as I backed away from Schuldich and stood passively to the side. I wasn't really sure what was going on inside that kids mind, wishing for one moment that I had the redhead's power so that I could just know what was lying beyond that coldly fierce expression. The thought was lost however as Nagi reached the couch, his cold expression beginning to waver as he observed the damage close up.

"Where?" was all he said.

"Once in the back, another in the arm," Yoji answered softly, understanding his meaning while I had been left clueless.

"I need medical supplies," Nagi said quietly, shifting down beside the couch to feel Schuldich's sluggish pulse.

"I'll get them," I said quickly, meriting me an odd look from Yoji.

I didn't have time to explain it to him, but I didn't like the smell that was in the room. It was thick with blood and imminent death, hanging like a reaper skulking in the corners and the dark. I had been smelling it far too often recently.

My head was spinning from the rage that had sent it tumbling in emotion not moments before, and my reason was confused by the abruptness and the lack of explanation. Lately, as I thought on all the odd dreams and thoughts I had bee having, I began to wonder if the pressure of Ran leaving was too much. I wondered if I was finally going mad, if I had finally lost the plot and it was twisting my memories and turning my mind to stray emotions and fancies that didn't even seem to be my own.

-Come back home to us Ran,- I thought as I watched door handle turn absently under my touch, almost as if it wasn't even my hand, -come back home...-

...I need you.

Wow, this hurt.

"Wow" not really being the appropriate word for this sort of situation, yet I thought it nonetheless. Well I mean come on, when was I ever the one to be appropriate? Heck, I had just laughed my head off at our new found friends while bleeding all over our old enemies doorstep, right after finding out that my long lost sister (the fact that she was "long lost" always being her best feature) was actually alive.

I was in no condition to laugh.

Yet here I was, lying in a heap, looking up into Nagi's big concerned eyes and wanting nothing more than to kill him because his eyes reminded me of hers. It was her smile suddenly that twisted his face, her long blonde hair sprouting from his head and tumbling down his now shapely back, his small hands that held those painted fingernails and that ring that had gone missing from Mama's hand that day without explanation...

"Get away from me," I growled out darkly as he reached for my jacket.

He stopped for a moment, his brow creasing in a childlike confusion. That was all it took, thank the gods, and suddenly he no longer looked like her. So it was alright, he could do anything he wanted to me now, just as long as he didn't look like her he was safe from me. I would just lie here and hate her rotten guts until I died form it.

"Is he going to be okay?" I heard Kudo ask Nagi softly from his position safe against the wall.

"Yes," Nagi said, assuring himself more than Yoji.

"I'd better be you idiot," I said with another painful laugh that made the wound in my back heave and my stomach turn, "cause this is half your damn fault."

I suppressed the laugh I wanted to let escape when I saw the look Nagi rounded on Yoji then. It was pure fury, and that look from Nagi was scary I guarantee it. I had experienced it once before, and that was quite enough for me thank you. It was the sort of look that made you quail and want to beg for forgiveness. Yoji looked like he wanted to do that at that very moment.

"Hey I didn't ask you to save my life baka!" he said with a scowl, albeit a confused one.

"Yeah, well I didn't ask myself to either, so I'm still blaming you."

Nagi's expression was priceless. I had never seen him show so much emotion in such a short space of time, and especially such diverse ones. He had gone from fury to shock in a nanosecond. He was staring at me in utter shock, his blue eyes wide as he took in my look of utter sincerity. I knew what he was thinking, and at first I wasn't really sure whether to be flattered or insulted. I had saved Kudo Yoji from certain death of a bullet through the heart...but in the process I had let a searing hot, high velocity piece of lead dig into my arm and spill my blood all over his expensive white clothes. I had sacrificed myself for someone else, an enemy no less, and for once in my life I had no real explanation for what I had done. I felt like screaming and laughing all at once; I probably would have if my wounds would have permitted it. I hadn't done it because I wanted to, that was almost too absurd to think, but then why had I done it if that was the case..? I had no answer to that, and the thought was driving me mad.

Not very me at all, and Nagi knew me almost as well as I knew myself...

-Yeah kid, I know, I know,- I said to him with my mind, -I'm not sure what happened either.-

-You saved him voluntarily?- he asked back while Yoji brooded against the wall, his face hidden behind his straggling sweat soaked bangs.

-Of course I did,- I mumbled, -was there ever anyone who could make e do anything I didn't want?-

-.....Good point,- Nagi almost smiled.

Just then the door burst open again and Ken wobbled into the room under a load of bandages, syringes, morphine, melonine, surgical tape and all other manner of medical goodies. I just sighed and relaxed a little, even if I could still feel the blood leaking out from my back and soaking the couch against my skin. I had been putting all of my will power into ignoring the pain, into just staying alive...but I was glad that bumbling idiot had come when he did. I wasn't sure how much longer I could have lasted just with my mind alone...I was slipping and I knew it. My mental power could battle the pain of my wounds with seeming ease, but it couldn't battle blood loss.

"You are going to be alright," Nagi said softly as Yoji pushed from the wall to help Ken; he obviously knew what a strain it was on me to use telepathic speech and had reverted, thankfully, to just talking.

"Yeah," I croaked back, "sure."

As I watched Yoji come to stand up behind Nagi's small form I felt myself smiling. He eclipsed the lone light bulb casting his head into an erratic halo of sweat damp hair and worried eyes.

-Worried eyes...- I almost laughed, -must be hallucinating already.-

I let my eyes slip closed as he leaned down over me to help unbutton my shirt, well his shirt, and just revelled in the touch of his hands on my skin that was so much more comfortable than the pain of the searing bullet wounds. I focused on that deeply, honing in on each feather like touch and each simple imprint, letting my eyes scrunch tighter as I felt myself lifted and the jacket and shirt slipped from my body. I could feel the dried and clotted blood around the wounds sticking to the material, holding on as if unwilling to let it go. My skin pulled and shook in protest, I suppressed a gasp at the pain that flooded my senses, I felt the blood caked shirt snap at my back.

Then all I felt was the needle slipping into my artery and in a sudden wave of the most extreme pleasure I felt the morphine flood through my system.

-Time to give it up Schuldich,- I laughed inside my own now drowsy mind.

So I did...I blacked out the first chance I got...escaping into the void with a heavy heart...

...and her gloating eyes were there to greet me in the darkness.

AN: Right, okay, sorry about the lack of explanation Spawn of Hell, I just read your review when I was almost finished this chapter! Woops. But I will explain it, I promise, I just don't want to take it too fast and ruin all the juicy bits he he! I have a lot planned for this story and I hope everyone can be bothered sticking it out, but if I am going far too slow then just say; I can go the opposite way sometimes and end up leaving a story far too slow for its own good!

I'll just take this space to say thank you for all your reviews! And lots of thanks to Heather R for reviewing all of my chapters (hugs and gives the biggest cookie in the known universe) and for being so supportive of my writing style. Sometimes I worry that I'm just describing random crap no one wants to know about he he. Ps: Sometimes I wonder if I even need to write the next chapter for you, you seem to guess it all in the questions in your reviews ha ha!

Thanks, Ro x