Disclaimer: Don't own them, just playing with them at the moment and I promise I'll give them back later………

Chapter 29

Reunion

He was looking right at me, but also right through me. It was an odd look, one that I have seen a lot of times before, yet it was the first time I had ever seen it on him. He was always the sort of man that I thought was constantly focused on the here and now, odd considering he's a precognitive ne? Well, just because he knows the future, it doesn't mean that he isn't firmly rooted in the here and now. He maps upcoming events, but he has to start somewhere right? Well, right now it looked like he wasn't using the "here and now" as his base of operations and it was a little odd. I just made myself comfortable, not really sure what he was wanting me for, and tried to relax.

"Bad day at the office?" yet still I couldn't help being a cocky bastard; something things just never get old.

Crawford obviously didn't deem me worthy enough to afford a reply. He simply changed his posture, his shoulders slinking smoothly underneath his jacket, before walking steadily over to the couch where I was lying. Still, as I watched him curiously, trying to catch any stray thoughts he might have been letting loose, I thought that my comment had some backing to it. Crawford was being awfully strange, his behaviour rather erratic and unpredictable recently. Also, we had just talked not twenty odd minutes ago and now he was coming over here, to all intents and purposes looking at me as if I had been avoiding him, and looming over me. Was there something I missed, was there something I had done to annoy him? If there was then I was oblivious to it and unfortunately Brad was shielding his thoughts too well for me to dredge any sort of explanation from them.

"Don't lay there and look confused," he said dryly, coldly, "are you really that idiotic or have you forgotten that you still haven't explained failing your mission?"

Well slap my ass and call me Yoji but if I was actually that stupid. I could have almost laughed out loud at the thought, the fact that everything had been happening so fast, everything moving in such rapid succession that I had completely forgotten that I had even been on a mission in the first place. But then, shit, what the hell did Brad think he was doing being so angrily cold all of a sudden? I mean, I know that this is how he gets when he thinks you've failed him, when he feels that things haven't gone exactly to his planning, but still…I didn't think that I deserved to be talked to like this. I mean, didn't I bring the strangers back with me, wasn't that good enough? I know I was supposed to get the information from the Esset pick up crew but, well, that wasn't possible, it hadn't been an option. Hell, it probably wasn't an option any more considering the fact that they were obviously on to us, bearing in mind we'd been ambushed. Crawford would surely pursue it though, against my better judgement, simply because he believed more in himself than he did his team mates. That's what that means isn't it? Surely? I can't think, haven't been ableto think over the past ten years or so, why it would mean anything different.

"I think that…well," I started, trying not to think about being angry and distracted while I talked to Crawford because he would only pick up on it and use it to his advantage, "things are becoming a little more complicated than we thought."

"Why don't you just elaborate on that," Crawford said back, his face still shrouded in shadow and his posture hard and solid.

"It's, well," I wasn't sure why I was hesitating, why I wasn't just telling him who it was that had actually foiled his precious mission so that he would stop bugging me and find something more useful for his calculating brain to do, "the last person you would think of."

"I am in no mood to play guessing games Schuldich, I want you to tell me why you failed and I want your explanation now," he said it in that way, that uniquely Brad Crawford way, that promised so many threats underneath his words that he didn't even have to say any of them out loud.

However, as I lay there looking up at him, the ceiling sprawling away behind him at its ridiculous height, the soft feelings emanating from the others in the room permeating my mind no matter how I tried to keep them at bay, the wounds in my chest and shoulder throbbing from when Yoji had shoved me up against the couch, I found that I couldn't duly reply to him. The only thing that was really on my mind, when I looked hard enough, deep, deep down in my subconscious where all the real thoughts are kept, I found that I could only finally reply with one simple question of my own.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

I could feel more than see his face react to it, first in confusion and then in frustration. I could feel from him that he wanted to know what it was that I was insinuating he had failed to do for me and then he was again feeling that detached anger that showed me that he really didn't care when it came down to it. I sighed very softly, feeling rather exhausted all of a sudden, like I didn't want him to be near me, like I didn't want anyone to be near me at this moment. There were thoughts and feelings hovering just outside my consciousness and I was definitely sure that I didn't want to feel them right now. This was…this was…

This wasn't funny any more.

I sighed deeply, forcing the madness away as it tried to make itself known to me, tried to force its way into my mind. I made myself harden, like I always did, to the reality that was unfolding in front of me. It was the feeling like when you finally resign yourself to something, the feeling I've felt from people who know their about to die and have just...accepted it. It was like an ultimate finality, a proper resolution to feel something yet without any of the zealousness that it usually involved. To put it bluntly I felt cold, almost numb.

"It was Lorelei," I said in as detached a voice as I could muster, trying to gauge his reaction more than focusing on my own, "it was my sister. Why…didn't you tell me, Crawford, that she was still alive?"

Silence. He didn't move, he didn't speak; he pulled himself so far back down within his mind that it was hard to tell if it was still Crawford standing there or rather a mere mannequin. There were no stray thoughts, no stray feelings, nothing I could use to try and ferret out my own explanation as to why, why in the world he had kept this from me. I couldn't, in my underlying yet steadfastly denied shock, understand why he would do that. Why wouldn't he have just told me that she wasn't dead as he knew I thought she had been? If I had been thinking logically, as the reality of what was happening began to sink into my own mind, then I probably could have found the answer out myself; unfortunately I was finding it hard to just think at that moment, never mind think logically.

He just continued staring at me, the only light on his face being a small reflection on the leg of his glasses, his features masked and hidden. It was another moment, another moment of staring into each others guarded faces before he finally moved. His hand slid from his side, reaching up slowly as he bent his head down a fraction, and pushed his glasses up his nose. Then, of all the things he could have done in the world, he let out a snort of a laugh and shook his head. It was when he let that out, when he let that one little reaction slip, that I wondered whether he had been standing there smirking at me the entire time, whether he had been laughing deep down within himself, at me…

"So she finally makes her appearance," he said smoothly, without any real feeling, making the blood shift awkwardly in my veins as I tried vainly to comprehend the situation, "I was wondering how long it would take you to work up the courage to ask me abut her."

"You…" I whispered meagrely, my throat constricting, and nothing more would come out.

Crawford just took this moment to sit on the arm of the sofa, his unveiled expression now gazing towards the light. It was soft and yet hard all at the same time; it was as if his eyes were looking to somewhere far off, distant, while his face was rooted firmly in the present. This odd juxtaposition made his eyes seem almost unbelievably soft, a strange thing to see on Brad Crawford, especially at this particular moment.

"There's no need to be so indignant," he said, placing his hands on his knees, "if you think about it logically you never have actually asked me about her. In fact, I always thought that you would be happier thinking she was dead than knowing she was still alive."

"And," I said slowly, my mind beginning to wind down slightly as I focused simply on talking, "you thought that you had the right to know what was best for me? What was best for my life when you were walking around every day knowing that that bitch was still alive somewhere and I was oblivious!"

"There's no need to shout," he said coldly, his eyes looking at me through the rims of his glasses, "I've always known what's best for all of you, or is the fact that we are all alive at this moment not proof enough for you?"

"Almost," I hissed out venomously, "although being shot repeatedly doesn't really verify that statement much does it Crawford, that you always know what's best for me? You know what she did to me!"

"I feel no need to explain myself to you," he said back, "what's done is…"

Then I felt it; Crawford's voice fell dead on my ears. It wasn't that Crawford had stopped talking, I could actually still see his mouth moving, but it was the fact that I was suddenly unable to hear him. Something awesomely loud, hideously distorted and mind numbingly painful had just happened only thirty yards away and it was making my brain want to literally crawl out of my ears and hide. I didn't even notice when Crawford actually stopped talking, his face changed, his eyes un-focused in the way that they do when he has a vision. Then he was on his feet and out of sight before I could even gather the piece of mind to call after him. I was too busy trying to make my brain work again so I could figure out what the hell had just happened. My mind ached with the unnaturalness of it, with the abnormality and the element to it that was simply perverted.

Two minds, two minds trapped; tight, constricting, claustrophobic. God, that pain, that sickening pain, it was writhing in my skull. Who had it been? Where was it? What the hell was happening?

I think I must have stumbled upon his mind by sheer accident more than anything else as I raced about. As I tried desperately to figure out the situation I felt my mind passing through something in far more pain than my own. I stopped, albeit slowly, taking time to calm myself before examining this new found psyche. It was crumpled, having been assaulted badly, and was to all intents and purposes only half conscious. As I delved further inside, encountering no hindrances as I scanned the thoughts and feelings, I realised that this could only be…

Yoji- I said in a little shock, -Are you alright?-

"Yoji! Oh god, Yoji are you okay!"

What had I done? What had happened?

"Yoji!" I cried, scrambling over the side of the chair I looked down on his writhing crumpled form on the floor.

I was over the arm and beside him before anyone else could even move, ignoring the rush of feet as I tried to hold the older man still, tried to stop him from shaking, god he was shaking so badly…

"Yoji, can you hear me?" my voice was almost timid now, so…

"Ken what happened?" Omi's worried voice over my shoulder.

"What's going on here?" Crawford's demanding tone above my head.

…so scared. What had I done? What had I done?

"He just, he just…" I didn't know what to say, I didn't know how to explain, "he woke me up and…and then he was staring at me…"

"Get to the point!" I head Crawford snap from somewhere near my ear as I managed to finally gather Yoji up into my arms.

"I don't have a damn point you moron!" I found myself instinctually snapping back.

"Uh, Crawford," Nagi's worried voice, "Crawford, something's wrong."

"Gee, figure that out all by yourself?" I scolded.

"More than you noticed," his young eyes pinned me to the spot, Omi looking around wildly and shaking his head.

"We should go," the young stranger's voice intervened.

"Now," the older one confirmed.

"Wait, what was that?" Crawford's tone was confused as he turned away from us all, looking out towards the black couch where the German was emerging from, "I can't hear you Schuldich, what did you say!"

"For god's sakes Crawford," he snapped, struggling over the floor in a slow fashion that was an odd juxtaposition to the chaos over here, "I was just saying that…"

Then the wall exploded. Well really, I mean talk about timing.

I just dropped to the floor, my ears ringing and my head dazed, covering Yoji's struggling body with my own. I could hear him yelling something underneath me as pieces of rock and debris sailed through the air and he entire building shook with the force of the blow. I could feel the hot ionised air rushing past my ears, burying me in dense clouds of smoke. I found my throat closing up instinctually and it was suddenly hard to breathe. I just lay there, praying to whoever needed it that nothing hit us, trying to keep my head when suddenly so much chaos had descended once more upon us; I just lay there hoping beyond hope that it wasn't…

…Silence. The dust settled. There was the soft sound of crumbling mortar, the vague sounds of a voice although I wasn't sure where from. Then soft footsteps sounded in the gloomy atmosphere, filled with smoke and ash, walking forwards towards Yoji and myself. I spluttered as ash filled my mouth, pushing up through the layer of rock and rubble that had landed over the top of us both. As I broke up and through I realised that Yoji was pushing up with me and was suddenly too preoccupied with being glad that he was okay to actually notice the man standing right behind me as we both sat up. Yoji's eyes went wide, I frowned, he pointed behind me but I never got the chance to turn my head.

Weiss, as a principle more than a necessity, have never used guns. That was Schwartz's territory. That doesn't mean however that just because I don't use one that I don't recognise the feeling of one being pressed up against the back of my head. I stilled completely, my eyes going rigid in my skull as I stared at Yoji, his reaction pretty much mirroring my own. I could tell, from his now narrow gaze, that it wasn't exactly the best of people pushing a gun to my head, yet there was something in his eyes, something that screamed familiarity.

"Don't move," was all they said.

I had been still before, almost completely still, like a statue…but when that voice spoke, when the sound and timbre of its every syllable sank into my brain, well, I felt my heart stilling too. I could feel the blood quickening in my veins, the feeling of bile rising in my throat, the thought in the back of my head that I had been speaking to him not only five minutes ago. But then that had been only a dream, and this was…

"Ran," Yoji growled out, his voice sounding as constricted as my heart felt.

I could vaguely hear the noises of the others, people shouting, people talking, I was sure some of them I didn't recognise but…I couldn't think, I didn't want to think, I…

"Ran," I choked out, not feeling choked because of tears but simply through an overload of emotion and fear.

I shrank back inside myself, trying desperately not to move, not to breathe, yet he was there, right there and I couldn't turn my head! Oh god, god five minutes ago I'd been asleep, asleep and as peaceful as I could be and now, oh god he was there and he had a gun and…

Have to calm down. Have to calm down. Can't…can't calm down.-

My hands were shaking badly as they hung loosely at my sides, my mind was racing from one thought to the other like a lost child and, and…wait, think Ken, wait and think. Before, I had gotten through to him before…I could do it again. I remembered back to the night he attacked us, to that unfocused look in his eyes, to the way it cleared when I made him remember…

"Ran, please," I said slowly, trying to remain calm, hardly believing that he was here again, trying to kill me again, "it's me, Ken."

There was a pause, a pause where I wished above all things that I could see his face, see if I was having the same effect. I looked to Yoji to see if I could gauge what was happening through his reactions; his eyes had gone wide, incredulous. I thought, maybe that it was working again, oh please, please let it be working..!

"Oh I know who you are Hidaka Ken," the voice was livid in its cruelty, a small laugh echoing out through the air, "and if you want to keep your brain inside that pretty head of yours I advise you not to talk."

And that was it, that was all that it could be, all I could do…

It was over.

AN: Wow, sorry this took so long to write, hope no one minded the wait!I've been moving house and only recently got settled (and got my internet back online!) so I haven't written this fic in a while. Oh well, as ever please R&R it's much appreciated!

Ps: To HeatherR: Sorry I didn't have a chapter ready for you coming back from your holidays! And there's not even any Ran Ken juiciness for you, sigh, I'm such a disappointment he he! Hope you had a good time ;) !