Disclaimer: I don't own Weis Kreuz or Schwarz, or the anime would have been quite different :P

Warnings: Violence (it's becoming a bit of a staple), angst (who could do without it?).

Chapter 44

Tomodachi

The dripping of the water around me was steadily increasing, like a simple voice building into a chorus until it is all you can hear. Yet, despite the subtlety of the noise, it left no room for disregard, forcing you to listen to it. Believe me when I say that I had tried to distract myself, but my ears always managed to pick out the steady beat.

"I'm worried," I said out loud into the noisy silence, "it's been almost...three hours now. I wish I knew they were all right."

I don't know why making the words heard, making them concrete, made it any better. As the soft echo of my voice faded the drips answered me with their tuneful dance across the concrete floor. The lights flickered briefly and then stabilised, emitting a brief buzz. One of the old rusty pipes to my right creaked like feet on floorboards and I jumped, staring at it warily as if waiting for something. I waited the length of another silence before relaxing again, it was nothing but the building shifting under the pressure of the rainwater. I sighed, scratching my itchy nose before standing and stretching.

I felt disgusting, it wasn't so bad when I sat still and tried to focus on something else, but when I stood and moved around I couldn't help but smell the fact that I was badly in need of a shower. I could feel the grime, a layer between clothes and skin, feel the itch of grease in my hair. If there had been a mirror handy I'm sure I would have died of shame, but thankfully everything in this basement was corrupted with rust. My stomach rumbled as I walked across the damp, cold floor and I ignored it as I had done for the past hour.

"Here's me worrying about showers and food," I smiled sadly, "and whether everyone's okay, and whether...has there ever been a time where I didn't have to worry about something?"

As my shoes scuffed against the floor as I stopped I shoved my hands into my pockets and let the silence descend on me again. I dropped down to crouch on my haunches and, as I balanced there, the sound of soft breathing reached my ears over the dripping. Ken's eyes didn't flicker behind his closed eyelids, he simply lay stagnant, prone before me.

"Suppose I can't help it," unconsciously I brushed a soft lock of hair from his closed eyes, "I'm sure you'd tell me I don't need to but..."

My hand fell away as I left the sentence hanging; I found that my heart was beating faster and my head dropped down to my chest. I wobbled on my feet and then put my hand out to steady myself on the warm straw packing sheet which I had laid him on.

"Everything will be alright Ken," I said as if to him, although I knew it was to myself, "I promise."

As I sat down beside him and pulled my legs up to my knees, my helplessness and torpor weighing down heavily on me, I let Ken's even breathing soothe me. I pulled the solid bulk of my crossbow towards me, the scrape of metal on concrete loud in the silence. There was nothing I could do so no sense in worrying, I could only hope that Yoji made it back in time, and that he brought Ran with him.

I stopped thinking about it and the silence returned. The drips sounded oddly like laughing voices this time, like children playing in the rain. It was so distractingly familiar, such a welcome change to the sound, that I almost missed the thumping of feet on the ceiling overhead.

The fire was everywhere, its intense heat and overpowering roar instilling in me the urgency of the situation. Of course, the fact that the building I was currently running through was on fire, and probably had been for a while now, really should have been incentive enough.

"Do you know where you're going?" I pulled the piece of cloth away from my face and called to the slight figure of Yami as we avoided another blocked hallway."Just stay close, I can feel it, I know where he's hiding!" he called back over his shoulder, Tatsuha up ahead shimmering in the heat.

I had no real reason to trust him, but in my situation I didn't have any choice. I must be a freaking lunatic to do this...but then it wasn't the first time I had run into a burning building to save one of my team. Albeit that Omi was unconscious when I found him, but then I could only hope that Ran would be unconscious when I found him. It would make my life all that much easier. Of course, with the way that my lucks been going, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Ha ha ha, no pun intended, honestly.

The room we had just passed into seemed vividly cooler than the hallway, the fire not having spread to it yet. We seemed to be steadily moving away from the source of the blaze, which would make sense. I couldn't see our enemy hiding in the burning part of the building, although weirder things had happened.

Of course there was one thing I could thank the fire for, there was no real chance of us coming up against any real resistance. So far we had only come up against one other person, a man dressed in long flowing dark robes, skin pale with sweat and eyes almost unseeing as he ran straight past me and through a door to my left. It seemed that all of our enemies were too engrossed with escape to notice insurgents. Well, can't really blame them now, can you?

We finally barrelled out into an almost quiet corridor, only the faint sound of cracking wood and dull screams echoing its surface. I frowned, blinking as the lights flickered.

"This isn't right," I whispered out, not sure why I felt the need to keep my voice down."No, it isn't," Tatsuha said as he stood a little way ahead of me, "there is strong magic here. It doesn't stop the fire completely, only slows it.""Why aren't they putting it out?" Yami asked with suspicion, "I know he can.""Perhaps they're setting the stage," Tatsuha's voice was cold and hard as he began to walk edgily down the corridor."You mean they're keeping it at bay simply to give us time to get there?" Yami said, his eyes narrowed."More than likely," the blonde replied, "they don't want to remove the threat of the fire, but they also don't want it to interfere. Also, it'll block our retreat, if it comes to that.""It won't come to that," Yami said confidently, "this is where it ends.""I wish I had your confidence kid," I said with a shake of my head, "but I'm not here for a fight, I'm here for my teammate."

Yami's eyes were almost smiling as he turned to look at me.

"We haven't had any help for five hundred years," his voice suddenly sounded more mature than his face allowed, "we don't need any now. I don't expect you to risk yourself for us. But we have a common goal, might as well stick together, ne?"

I don't know what was wrong with me. I never lose my vigilance, I am always alert to my surroundings, I don't miss details. Yet when Schuldich made his grand entrance suddenly all I could worry about was him. In fact, it seemed that I had worried about him enough that I didn't notice someone wasn't standing where they were supposed to be when I turned around.

"Farferello!" I no longer cared that I was shouting, "Farfarello!?"

Schuldich wouldn't stand still, trying to stand, to walk a little, staggering like a drunk. I kept my hand on his arm, trying not to worry about him, about Farferello, about anything as the world turned upside down around me. Then I heard her voice.

"My, my Crawford I don't remember you as the forgetful type, lost something?"

"You!" so very eloquent, but I could think of nothing better.

One second Schuldich was there, a warm pressure under my right palm, and the next he was racing over the rain slicked ground towards Lorelei. A choked sound of alarm left my throat, but did no good. His nails raked across her cheek, letting the blood flow and mingle with the rainwater. She shrieked, landed a punch on his jaw hard enough to send him sprawling, although it wouldn't have been hard in his state. I rushed to his side as he somehow managed to scramble back to his feet, taking hold of his shoulder.

The rain was blurring everything. All I could think, as I watched the world falling and burning around me was that she surely wouldn't have let me go that easily.

My head hurt, a lot. In fact, now that I thought about it, it wasn't the rain that was making the world blurry. My vision was affected by the pain coursing through my skull. I had only noticed it after Crawford tried to make me walk. Then it started, and then I noticed it was hard to think. Then the searing pain made itself known, and I found my mind trying to crawl inwards, away from the pain, trying to take my consciousness with it. I blinked and staggered, but Crawford's hand wrapped around my bicep with a growl.

All I could hear was his suddenly frantic cries. Brad was never frantic, not even in the direst of situations, and it set me on edge. Or it would have done if I could concentrate long enough to set myself on edge.

"Farferello! Where are you!?"

Farferello? Why was he calling for him? Where was he?

"My, my Crawford I don't remember you as the forgetful type," the voice was startlingly close, enough to make my skin crawl, "lost something?""You!" came the furious reply.

Then there were hands around my arms and I was pulled backwards towards a solid chest. The pain in my skull doubled and my eyes took in the blurred blonde hair of the person in front of me. Dammit, could the bitch not leave me alone for one fucking minute! Images of her cruel smile as Nagi dropped to floor suddenly flooded through my mind and I snarled, hand lashing out, intent on her flesh. Either Brad really was slipping or I was stronger than I felt, either way I managed to break free and lunge for her. Somewhere deep down I felt a sick satisfaction as I felt my nails break her skin and draw blood, the warm wetness slick against my rain cold fingers. I heard her scream out, more in surprise than agony, and then a solid punch sent me flying to the ground. I coughed roughly and blinked, my vision doubling and then solidifying once more. I felt Brad's hand on my shoulder but couldn't bring myself to open my eyes.

AN: Yes it's a horribly short chapter but, you know, I'm having a bit or writers block at the moment (as if you couldn't tell, sorry everything is so hideously late!)

Maiko x

PS: To Gillian Sillis – he he thanks for your message, it's always so encouraging to me when someone bugs me about updating! Sometimes I wonder if anyone's actually waiting for new chapters or not, but you always make me happy with your 'Where the heck's the next chapter!' messages! Okay, hope this is okay until I can get the next chapter up! Thanks again!