Disclaimer: I don't own Weiss Kreuz or any of the characters or situations, only a twisted mind which even then belongs to my insane muse! Ah! I own nothing!

Warnings: Violence, angst, gore, swearing (pretty much the whole package…)

Pre-story note to HeatherR – This is an apology in advance considering, in your last review, you said that you "don't particularly relish the torture parts". There's going be a quite gory scene in this chapter and it's quite near the end, so I'm sorry but it's necessary! You'll see why! Just thought I'd warn you, now on with the story…

Chapter 35

Repercussion

It was as if, even as I felt myself hit the ground, the solid concrete jarring my skull with the impact, my already sore and battered body taking the brunt of the blow, I just kept on falling. It was as if the floor had never even existed, or perhaps that I was just suddenly too ethereal in substance for it to sustain. I watched in silent horror as the faces of my friends and enemies sped away from my quickly blurring eyes as I continued to fall, their yells travelling as if through a piece of foam, distorted and muffled. I was falling into darkness, nothing but the small patch of reality, seeming like a television screen in size and quickly shrinking and just as unreal, rushing away from me too fast for comfort. My clothes flapped wildly around me, as if actually caught in the winds of my fall, the air being sucked from my lungs and I even felt the distinct rushing of blood from my head as I fell head first into the unknown.

All around me was darkness as I plummeted, the pace quickening until the real world seemed only a spec in the distance, Yoji's blazing eyes winking out like candles in fierce wind, his face disappearing even as he yelled my name. His breath was caught in the same storm that seemed to have swallowed me up and suddenly I was alone. I could feel bile rising in my throat, my headache throbbing wildly, and I felt the distinct urge to yell; however I also felt the distinct urge to vomit so I decided not to open my mouth just yet.

What was happening to me! Was this concussion, was I dying? What, what is this place, where am I falling to…why can't I wake up? What's going on..? Only the distinct sound of blood pumping rabidly through my ears and the rushing of wind greeted my questions, and no answer was forthcoming.

Of course, that was until I landed.

I hadn't actually been banking on it, landing anywhere, even though I had rightly been falling, even if only in a dream sense. Or so I had thought anyway. It wasn't so much a landing as a sudden lack of movement. I simply came to a stop, such an unobtrusive and sudden stop that it was almost as if I'd never moved at all and the feelings I had experienced had simply been the effects of the overwhelming nausea I had felt before blacking out. That was until the sound of rushing wind slowly dissipated, leaving behind instead the calm burbling of what I was sure was a stream. The blood rushing furiously through my ears also slowed leaving behind the quiet rustling of a breeze. My heartbeat steadied and the lack of rushing wind allowed me to breathe once more, even though I didn't remember actually stopping. Just like I didn't remember closing my eyes, yet when I finally "landed" I found that I had to open them. When I did however, what I saw was the last thing I had been expecting.

I had been expecting Kudo Yoji's worried face.

What I received was an eyeful of Fujimiya Ran.

He was looming over me, face cast half in summertime shadow, his hands placed on either side of my head and his eyes boring into my own as they must have been before I even opened them. I swallowed loudly, my mouth suddenly dry and useless as I could only stare at him in complete and utter shock, inadvertently noticing the way the breeze ruffled his hair and twirled around his dangling crimson ear tails, the way the sky was startlingly blue behind his black clad back and that there were blue gentians dancing all around us.

For what seemed like far too long a time for anyone to politely stare at anyone I gawked, open mouthed, at Ran. He didn't seem to notice however and simply kept up his own unblinking game of out-staring the hideously confused Ken Hidaka he was practically lying on top of! I blinked three times in rapid succession and then tried shaking my head; neither of them took me back to reality. Again the distinct urge to throw up welled in my throat. I pushed it back down with an audible swallow. Put it this way, if I had been wearing ruby slippers I would have clicked them.

"…Uh," I finally managed to push out, although it sounded more like a strangled cry than a confused wondering, "R-Ran, you…what..?"

"Sit up," he said suddenly, cutting me off and pulling back to sit on his haunches displaying his lean chest trapped under skin hugging black cotton, "come on Hidaka I haven't got much time!"

What can I say, how can I refuse him? Even when I suddenly find myself at the mercy of another of my tantalizing and awkwardly strange dreams after fainting for no good reason onto the concrete floor of an abandoned warehouse, I still can't say no. Oh well, at least I knew that this wasn't some sort of subconscious journey of self discovery; it was simply telling me everything that I already knew about myself.

When I finally managed to pull up into a sitting position, rather awkwardly since Ran was balancing steadily over my knees, I couldn't help but gasp. We were sitting in the midst of a sea of blue, swaying gentians, sporadically sprinkled with long green grass fighting through to the sunlight. They waved back and forth gently in the breeze, rippling as if waves were actually tipping up and down over their surface, melting off into the light blue horizon. The only fault in the almost smooth surface they created was our small indentation and a meandering crease where the stream must have been flowing, the gurgling noise pleasantly missed with the rustling flowers.

There were gentians waving lazily in front of my face, gentians swirling down by my hands, even gentians spreading into the trees I could see a little way away. Wait, trees? Was I…I was on a hillside?

Covered in gentians.

With Ran.

So it is a dream, well, at least we've cleared that one up. Now things didn't seem so very surreal, not that, considering everything that had been happening to us recently, anything really seemed surreal to me anymore. I was taking these dreams in my stride now, practically waiting for them to jump out of my subconscious at me and throw me into a fantasy world that usually involved Ran in some aspect or another, and also a lot of silly philosophical nonsense or arguing. Not exactly what I was looking for out a dream involving Ran, a pity really because before this all happened and Ran was just the cute silent guy who prepared the flowers on a Tuesday afternoon and was good with his sword in a fight was so much easier to dream about. This Ran was complicated and, unbelievably, much more difficult.

Hard to believe isn't it?

"Where are we..?" I breathed out, the sight of the long sloping hillside, awash with deep blue flowers under the pale, crisp blue sky couldn't help but take my breath away, even if none of it was real.

"I don't know," Ran said back, pulling my eyes back to him almost involuntarily, "I don't know anything much anymore."

"Ran..?" I started, feeling suddenly embarrassed by the fact that he was practically sitting on me, even though it was only a dream so…, "umm, what do you mean?"

"But I do know one thing Hidaka," his eyes blazed fiercely as he spoke, ignoring my statement and pinning me to the spot, "I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to be trapped in this place, forgetting my own name, forgetting my own past and to all intents and purposes adopting yours!"

"Ran, I," I stuttered, alarmed and unsure and confused, "please I don't know any more than you do! I don't know why I keep dreaming about you, honest I don't! But don't shout at me okay?"

"I'll shout at you if it'll get a result!" Ran yelled back, practically pouncing forwards to grab me by the collar and hold his face only inches from my own, his hard amethyst eyes boring into my own; and, even though he seemed angry beyond belief, I couldn't help but be reminded of that kiss, that one kiss I could almost believe had really happened, even though it had only been another dream…

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?" I said back in slightly annoyed alarm, my hands coming up to push at his bare shoulders.

"I want answers, I want to know how I find myself again! You have to do it Ken, do you hear me? Are you listening?" he growled so low that I could feel his hot breath puff against my face before the breeze snatched it and carried it away.

"Y-yeah," I muttered out, my heart pounding unsteadily in my chest for more than one reason, "I hear you."

"You have to Ken, you have to put me back, you have to find me! I can see myself, I can hear him you know, sometimes…" Ran's eyes, only moments before so keen and sharp, seemed to turn dreamy as he practically looked straight through me to something I could not see, "I've seen things, terrible things, I don't want you to see them too…but, I don't want to see them anymore, understand me? You have to take me back!"

"I'll…I'll try," I managed to scrape out as he once more focused on me intensely, pulling himself out of his reverie, "I promise you, that's what we're doing now, that's what we've been doing from the start! I swear Ran, I'll find you, I won't let you down!"

I felt his fingers relax a little, my collar creaking slightly as he let the leather go, pulling back a little to look at me properly. His eyes had softened slightly and his hair was a little mussed making him look oddly innocent considering who he was and how he had just behaved. I found myself smiling at him slightly, despite my confusing situation and the fact that this was Ran and no one in the right mind would ever smile at him like I was and hope to get away with it. Yet he didn't seem to notice my smile, in fact, when I became a little wary of his vacant stare, I noticed that he didn't seem to be seeing anything at all. I sat forwards in my sitting position, my legs still stretched out beneath him, placing my hands behind me for support and to help push me forwards. He'd gone deathly still and silent, his eyes taking on that same misty quality they had only moments before. I felt a twinge in my temple as I watched him, bringing a hand up to rub at it absently and cursing under my breath that I was sill able to have a headache in my dreams.

"Ran?" I practically whispered, waving my hand in front of his face and frowning when he did not react, "Ran are you there?"

I almost jumped out of my skin when he finally reacted, not just from the sudden movement but also because of the look in his eyes. I had only rarely, usually during a very disturbing moments involving his sister, seen fear in Ran's eyes. She had seemed to be the only thing in his life that he feared losing, anything pertaining to himself or any other human being did not seem to bother him in the same way. However now his eyes were wide with it, still misty but the fear shone through. He stared at me for a moment before his lips finally managed to move.

"He's coming…" he said softly, "…get out of here…"

"Ran please don't go, wait, I can't move…" I stuttered out, shaking my head and trying to pull back, to extricate myself from between his legs.

"No, no more excuses," he said harshly, his eyes suddenly narrowing perceptibly and making me frown momentarily…wait, what did he mean "he's coming"?

"What do you mean no more excuses? Who's coming?" I asked warily, watching Ran with as keen an eyes as I could muster as he once more pulled away from me and began to smirk.

No. No wait, I had seen that smirk before…

"Ran…" I said warily, "are you alright? Ran..?"

"I told you excuses were not acceptable but if you refuse to comply…" his eyes wondered away from my face, flicking to the flowers at his shoulder, "I will have to remind you how we deal with disobedience."

And when he turned back to look at me, when his now cold, hard yet malice filled eyes locked with own I felt myself start to scream. I don't know why I was screaming, simply that I was, and that I needed to wake up, fast. As his eyes had locked with my own I had felt the fear, just like the fear I had seen in Ran's eyes moments before, just like Schuldich's fear back at the Esset base, pierce my brain and bein leaking into my nervous system. I was shaking my head, feeling an odd sinking feeling in my stomach like the sensation of falling from a height, and tried to make my flapping mouth say something useful. But nothing came out, and all I could do was lie there as Ran advanced on my fear stricken, prone form, his claw like fingers digging into my thick jacket sleeves as he crawled his way up towards my face. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I couldn't even look away as he came closer and closer towards my face like a spider creeping over its paralysed prey.

All around us the beauty of the scenery was disappearing. Large black bulges had appeared like storm clouds in the sky, seeming to burst like bubbles and run down an invisible surface like ink down a wall.

-Wait, wait they are walls!- I registered, -there are walls dripping down around us!-

I tore my terrified gaze from the sliding black substance that was erasing the beautiful morning sky and looked back to Ran, my eyes wide, tears spilling down my cheeks, my head throbbing intensely, the fear I was feeling so extreme that it was making me tremble. The walls continued to appear until they had extended down past the stream, cutting off its cheerful gurgling, passed over the sun until nothing but an eerie orange glow was left. But the glow wasn't coming from the sun, it was coming from behind the silhouetted, crouching figure of Ran.

There was a raging fire behind him, fizzling and popping and roaring and I couldn't take my eyes from his demon like form as he continued to advance upon me. The flickering light it threw into the room that had dripped down around us showed the vague outline of large rain spattered windows, tadami flooring and fusuma tucked into the long walls. I felt as if I were tied to the ground yet I could not tear my gaze away from Ran to check my bonds; it was as if my limbs could still obey me but were simply obstructed from doing so. I felt the bile rising in my throat again, the screams finding it harder and harder to make it out of my throat. Ran stopped about a foot from my face, leaning over me from a kneeling position, the firelight glinting off of his sharp shoulders and sparkling in his eyes. His voice was as cold as ice when he finally spoke again, yet alight with the fire of passion, malicious passion.

"Let me show you how we get results."

Even though we were cast in darkness as Ran was blocking the only source of light, I could still see his arm reaching out towards my face. His fingers were long and cruel looking, bone white and thin with sharp nails which flexed as they approached. I wasn't screaming anymore, now only breathing rapidly, chocking on my own vomit as it rose to the back of my throat, and trying desperately to free myself. My head throbbed piercingly but I hardly noticed it, captivated as I was by Ran's talon like hand as it didn't deviate from its path. The fingers converged into a row, like you do when you pick something small and delicate, and then continued, almost painfully slowly, towards me.

Then I realised, realised what he was going to do, I don't know how I suddenly knew, and I know that all that was really running through my head was that I needed to wake up, needed to wake up, Yoji for fucks sakes wake me up! He's going to pull out my eye for fucks sakes, stop him, STOP HIM! Help me, somebody please help me! God no Ran, please! Stop! STOP!

But no one came, and I swear that I could actually feel his long nails ripping through the delicate layer of the cornea, tearing into the lens with a blinding pain that wasn't overridden by the sheer shock of the act itself. I screamed then, flecks of vomit coughing from my mouth and spattering onto my face. At some point his other hand must have curled into my hair because something was holding me still, something held me in place as I wailed and tried to escape, my hair being yanked fiercely as I squeezed my other eye shut out of pure fear and agony. I felt my tortured eyeball burst nauseatingly and the vitreous humor poured down my cheek, my wails more whimpers now as my headache tripled and left me completely helpless, shivering and mewling beneath Ran's cruel hands. I hardly even noticed as he dug his nails further into the socket and then pulled hard, splitting the ruined eyeball from the optic nerve with a sickening pop.

"That, my dear Schwartz, is how we deal with traitors…" Ran was saying almost soothing, patronisingly, as he ran his fingers through the sticky clear liquid congealing on my right cheek.

I didn't reply, I couldn't, because at that moment I felt a sickening lurch in my stomach and suddenly I was floating, the exact opposite in feeling to before when I had been falling. I could still feel the empty space where my eye had been as I watched Ran spiral away from me, the body he was left holding seeming oddly familiar yet, in my state, I didn't have the presence of mind to thin about them. The cold air picked at my wound, wiping away the vitreous humor that stained my cheek like a injury in itself.

I didn't actually remember waking up, but Yoji told me later that I woke up screaming, clawing at my eye like a man possessed. He wasn't far wrong, I felt like a man possessed. Once I had calmed down, finally come back to reality, with my team mates and enemies once more staring down at me with worried expressions, I felt the sickness in my stomach dissipate. The feeling in my right eye returned slowly, the memories of the dream still disturbingly too close for comfort however. I still felt the distinct need to throw up but suppressed it, trying desperately to listen to what Yoji was saying to me, watching his mouth move with a detached fascination.

"Ken, for fucks sake Ken say something to me! Are you alright? What happened Ken, did you have a fit, a dream, what happened? Tell me!"

I turned my head to the side, trying in vain to pull the rest of my physically and emotionally battered body along with it. I felt my eyes blur and then, with an impressive show of strength managed to push Yoji out of the way before I spewed violently onto the dusty concrete. I heard Yoji hiss and step back along with other muttered concerns and disgusted comments of the others. I couldn't focus on them however, not clearly, not with that acrid taste in the back of my throat, drifting up my nose, and with Ran's cruel fingers still fresh in my mind. Then only thing that I managed to hack out, pushing back so that I could shift even just a little bit further away from the pool of cooling vomit, was something to answer both Yoji's question and to discredit something that I had thought earlier in my own "dream".

"That," I said hoarsely, "was no dream."

AN: Argh, I'm such a horrible person! I don't know if anyone's figured out exactly what just happened there, if not then I'll explain it all next chapter, and I know I say that every time, but this time it really will become clear. I also promise to explain about Yami and Tatsuha as I feel bad about leaving it as a cliff-hanger for so long! But, yes, there you have it, the gory chapter! Forgive me, I had to have one, and my evil muse Lien is just a gore whore so blame him, it's all his fault, nothing to do with me honest! Right, anyway! Hope you liked it and please leave a review! Sorry this is late and all but I've had a bad case of writers block combined with having too much stuff to do.

See you next chapter!

Ro x