Disclaimer: I don't own Weiss or Schwartz but Yami, Tatsuha and Lorelei are alllllll mine bwahaahaa….! Oh and also the last couple of lines in this story are taken from a series called "Firefly", if you've seen it you'll recognise it! I love Firefly! So addicted, he he, but well there ya go. On with the story…

Chapter 38

Someone Else's Reality Sets In

"She's not my sister any more!"

The words seemed to reverberate loudly around my skull before sinking in. I simply stood there after feeling them pass my lips, blinking as I realised something; I was hearing my own voice in the air! It was like hearing something for the first time. I actually felt my short nails digging into the palms of my hands as I balled my fists tighter and tighter in frustration. I felt my eyes opening slowly from their scrunched up state to stare incredulously around me.

Around me.

A dank, strangely pale basement it seemed, with all of these people staring at me as if I had grown three heads and sprouted geraniums out of my ears. I felt the breath rushing in and out of my lungs as I breathed in, out, in, out, in…

I was inside, but not just inside, I was filling the space inside this body, I was in control of a body, I was..!

I looked down hurriedly and gasped in dismay at the sight. There, hanging from my sturdy frame were Ken's usual clothes, his dilapidated leather jacket, his orange jumper. His hands were the ones I held out in front of me as I prised them open, watching the crescent shaped indents left by his nails fade and disappear slowly.

"Ken…Ken what the fuck is the matter with you?" the voice I recognised as Yoji held none of its usual anger or frustration as when it usually asked me such a question; but before I could wonder as to the reason for this I realised what he had called me.

"I'm not Ken," I said simply, pushing my eyes slowly up to meet the figure I recognised as Yoji Kudo, looking at me with half crazed eyes in a worried face.

"What? Shit…what? Ken you really are fucking concussed dammit, I knew it..!" he started ranting, suddenly walking towards me purposefully, his intent clear in his eyes.

"Dammit Kudo you'd better keep the hell away from me or I'll make you regret it," I hissed out, effectively stalling him in his tracks, his face turning pale as he stared at me; a light seemed to have flicked on behind his eyes and an apprehensive recognition settled there.

"Oh god…" he said softly, staring at my eyes more than looking at me.

"Ken," Omi's voice now, I located him at the other side of the room, staring at me in disbelief, "Yoji what's the matter? Ken are you alright?"

"He fainted twenty minutes ago, you expect him to be normal?" Crawford spat out, his eyes still trained on Yami and Tatsuha, yet even their gazes were now focused on me too.

Finally Crawford swore colourfully and followed their gaze towards me, snorting through his nose and turning to Yoji with an incredulous look for the now gaping, speechless man.

"Well, he's still all there," he sneered, "what the hell is there to get so fucking worked up over?"

There was a pause, a moment of silence that I cherished. Things had been noisy recently, in the place where I had been, and now I was here, inside what seemed to be reality.

The real world.

When I breathed in I felt the air, when I moved my fingers I felt the muscles and tendons working under the skin, when I blinked the world disappeared and then reappeared. Then, suddenly, the silence was broken, once more by Yoji's breathless voice.

"His eyes," he finally choked out, taking another step hesitantly towards me to get a better look, "shit Ken your eyes…"

"What about them?" Crawford practically roared in impatience.

"They're violet," he said simply, taking the last step to cover the distance between us and this time I didn't resist him; I even allowed him to take hold of my face and look deeply into my eyes, although they narrowed contemptuously at the contact.

"W-what..?" Omi sputtered, "Yoji that's madness, Ken has blue eyes what are you..?"

"That would be because I'm not Ken," I said again, this time hearing my voice, my voice, coming out of Ken's mouth.

"Holy shit," Yoji breathed out, letting go of my face as I heard Omi gasp in final recognition, Yoji's hands slipping down to rest on my shoulders, "…Ran?"

There was another silence. I blinked and then continued staring into his emerald eyes, revelling in the sheer pleasure of their vibrant colour. I smiled softly to myself, allowing that small contentment before having to come to terms with the situation.

Shit, I'd been having to come to terms with the situation for a while now. Having to come to terms with being ripped from my body, torn and screaming and bleeding and dying…before latching onto that familiar presence that welcomed me so warmly, securely. And now I seemed to understand how it was all working, I seemed to comprehend where I was and what had happened, all while understanding nothing at all. I opened my mouth and the entire room seemed to tense, ready for my response.

"Wipe that look off your face Kudo," I said icily, "you look like a moron."

"…Yup," Yoji said after a moment, his voice cracking a little as he fell back from me in small jerking steps, his face contorted into pained grimace, "definitely Ran."

"But that's not…" Omi's voice was distant, almost a whisper.

And then, a jerk at the back of my head, making me twitch. I closed my left eyes and gasped, my hand touching softly at my right temple. Then suddenly someone was screaming, but not from inside the room, and then I was falling without falling. Falling away from my eyes as the screaming grew distant and all went black.

I was screaming. I felt crushed. All had gone black and I thought I had died. One moment I had been in the basement, in Yoji's arms as he stopped me from falling to the ground. Then my headache, which had doubled in strength as I tried to listen to the argument playing out in front of me, suddenly turned to a blinding pain.

And then someone spoke through me.

"She's not my sister any more!"

And I was falling. The feeling was nauseating, not quite the same as when I had collapsed before, but if it was possible it almost felt worse. It wasn't so much a nauseating feeling as a crushing one. I felt like some one was screwing me up like a piece of paper, crushing me down into an insignificant ball. I couldn't see, I couldn't feel but I was still screaming. I couldn't stop, I was scared, so scared. What's happening to me! Somebody help me, please help me.

I don't want to die!

I'm not ready yet, please don't let me die…

…I promised him I'd save him…

..I can't die yet.

Please!

Somebody…

I was screaming it, screaming my words to the darkness, letting it swallow them. I felt as nothing, I was nothing, I couldn't feel anything! It was as if I had been torn, torn away from myself and now I was floating, floating…leaving. And then it was gone.

I felt a sudden jump and then I was thrown upwards and slammed hard into something. It took me a moment to realise that what I had slammed into had been…well, me. And I was still screaming. I felt like I was being reinserted into my body, pushed back into my head, all of my nerve endings on fire with renewed sensation. I felt dizzy and sick and my head…

"Oh god, Ken!" Omi's voice was next to me as I fell to my knees, clutching at my pounding head and screwing my eyes closed.

"Omi help me," I choked out, my temples burning as if on fire, feeling everyone's eyes on me, "I can't…I can't die yet…"

"Ken you'll be okay," Yoji's voice, far above me, shaking slightly, "don't worry, just lie down…"

"No," another voice, to my right, "that won't help."

"What the hell would you know about it, don't tell me you're a doctor too now," Crawford's angry tone, bitter, urgent.

"I thin the situation is perhaps more urgent than you know," was that Tatsuha's voice? I couldn't tell, I just wanted the pain to stop, please stop talking, it hurts…

"What do you mean?" Yoji asked, a hand round my shoulders, my head leaning onto his shoulder.

"His case is worse than I thought," Yami said, "I think you should find your missing friend as soon as you can."

"Why? What's wrong with Ken? Tell me!"

Omi please don't shout, it hurts…

"I haven't the time to explain anything more to you right now, there's nothing more you need to know, all we need to do is go."

"Look," Tatsuha again, "I'll explain it all once we've done what needs doing. First of all we need your team mates back, and then…"

"Then we can do what we need to," Yami's voice was almost soothing, unlike the others, against my torn mind.

I whimpered against Yoji's throat, feeling my headache begin to ease slightly, trying to force my mind into some sort of order. I was back in the basement, back with everyone but…where had I gone? What had happened to me, I thought I felt better but now I was collapsing again, and I don't know why and oh god, please…

"…I can't die yet, please, I have to…"

"Ken no one is going to die!" Yoji didn't sound convinced, but I nodded as best I could, trying to block out the sound of everyone's voices as I pushed my face into his coat.

"Have to get him out," I said softly, "have to get him back, back to himself."

"Ken, don't speak, you need rest," Yoji soothed, smoothing his hand over my hair, "we will get him back, I promise you."

"Shuldich is in trouble," I said softly, trying to stay awake as I felt exhaustion creeping up through my feet, along my spine, "you have to help them Yoji, his eye, Ran pulled out his eye, god knows what else he'll do…"

"Ken please…"

"Ran, we have to get him back, we have to make him right," I sighed as I felt sleep claiming my eyes, forcing them shut but managed to raise my hand drowsily and tap at my head, "he's here Yoji, he's here, I just have to wake him up."

-Schuldich is in trouble-

It wasn't as if I didn't know this already, but hearing spoken with such urgency, a tone bordering on worry, fear. I felt sickness pooling in my stomach, swallowing as I tried to keep a level head.

"What's wrong with him?" Farferello asked curiously, his one golden eye peering at the now sleeping Siberian.

"That banister must have been harder than I thought," I said with a bitter tone, hiding my own worry.

"Concussion doesn't take that long to set in normally," Bombay protested.

"It can," Balinese said with a worried glare up at me, "it can, sometimes…"

I slowly pushed my glasses up my nose and sighed. Things were not well, but if my team is in danger then I can't worry about these things. We had wasted enough time already, trying to work out a plan, getting slowly more and more sidetracked by these events, by problems we could not solve.

"I think we've wasted enough time," I said suddenly, "we need to leave. It's been long enough, we're as ready as we're going to get."

"We don't even have a proper plan yet!" Balinese protested, "And Ken's down, he's not going anywhere. If we're mounting a rescue then someone is going to have to stay with him to make sure he's alright…"

"Then you stay Yoji," Bombay said, his eyes determined, "you stay and I'll go with Crawford and…"

"No," Balinese said as he slowly but carefully handed his sleeping comrade over to Bombay, "I'll go. I promised Ken I'd get Ran back for him. You need to make sure that he doesn't do anything stupid, okay, like dying on us all for instance."

Balinese's smile was less than humorous and Bombay's laugh was forced and laced with pain. Yet they both nodded, both agreed.

"If we get Ran back," Balinese said to Tatsuha, "can you help Ken? Is that what you're saying?"

"…Perhaps," the blonde nodded slowly, "if I'm right. But Crawford is for once right in saying that we've wasted enough time here already. I fear that time is coming to a point, we should hurry."

"See, now that's the kind of shit that makes me not trust you farther than I could throw you," Balinese scowled, "and I don't trust you…but if you can help Ken then I'll go with you. If you can help us get Ran back, then I'll go with you. However, if you make the slightest impression on me that you're going to turn, going to hurt any of us, then you're dead, understand?"

"Naturally," Yami shrugged, disturbingly unperturbed by Balinese's threat, "you have nothing to fear from us, understand?"

Yoji growled but bit back his retort, turning instead to Bombay to help him move Siberian to the mat he had been sitting on previously. His eyes were closed now and his body limp instead of tensed in pain, yet that was probably what was making his team mates worry more for him. Perhaps he was already dying, and even if these strangers could help him perhaps we'd be too late. That was if we could rescue our team mates alive, or at all.

"Crawford," Farferello touched my arm softly, "we should go now."

I nodded, turning to Tatsuha and staring into his eyes, trying to discern his thoughts. He looked back almost calmly, even though I could see the tension there, the excitement almost.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

"Then you are going with us then?" he asked with an upraised eyebrow.

"My sentiment is the same as Balinese here," I said inclining my head to the man behind me, "you'll be dead before you know it if you hurt any of my people, but I think we could use all the help we ca get right now."

"Alright," he smirked tersely, "I'll take that as an insult."

"Good," I said back, "then we understand each other."

"It's just like the old saying goes," Balinese said as he joined us once more, "when you can't run, you crawl, and when you can't crawl…"

I smiled to myself and finished it for him.

"You find someone to carry you."

AN: Hi people! I am so sorry for the lull in updating! I haven't really had a proper chance to write anything for months now and I hate it grrrr! Thankfully I go this chapter finished or I think I might have gone mad! Anyway, sorry it's not much of an update, but at least they're all moving their asses, kind of…in a really slow sorta way…