Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.

Warnings: Blood, gore (Sorry HeatherR!), a little swearing.

Pre-note: This chapter is dedicated to GillianSillis, because she is wonderful (and isn't afraid to kick my ass into gear).

Chapter 48

Because

Darkness, that was the sum total of my conscious thought as I drifted somewhere between waking and sleeping. Or...I thought it was somewhere around there anyway, but I couldn't be sure. I'd fallen asleep, hadn't I? I remember, no, wait, I don't...

"...he's here, I just have to wake him up."

A voice in the void, my voice. Slowly, torturously, the world wrenched back into focus and the darkness began to dissipate. I blinked, waiting with the anticipation of a condemned man, trying so hard to remember and yet somehow trying desperately to forget at the same time. No, there was no time for that, there was no time to be scared anymore. Ran was dying, I am dying, fading, both of us. There was light shining through the dark now, in burning patches, like disintegrating celluloid. They shrivelled at the edges, the light like greedy fingers reaching out for each other, fighting to conjoin, to dispel the gloom. I blinked again but the picture did not change. The darkness was slowly consumed and I was left, finally, in a void of hazy white, like thick fog.

"I thought I told you to wake up," Ran's voice, but lost into the white haze all around me I couldn't locate him.

I felt my breathing speed up and forced myself to move. Amazingly, considering all of the weird crap that had been happening to me lately, I felt no hindrance to my movement. I stood up easily, staring about myself fruitlessly. I couldn't see anything, I couldn't see him! Dammit Ran!

"Ran? Ran!" I couldn't help the panic, I couldn't stop it, oh god, am I dead!?, "Where are you?"
"Baka, I'm right here," a voice brushing past my ear, I shivered and turned but there was only more fog. Then the thought hit me and I froze.

No, no! I can't be dead, I can't! This...this is just another dream, I'm dreaming aren't I.

Aren't I?

Oh god, oh god.

"Ran," my voice was failing, cracking, head filling with desperate thoughts, "Ran please..."

The fog swirled calmly, glowing as if lit from behind with bright sunshine. I thought I felt a hot, wet tear slip down the side of my nose but, when I lifted my hand to brush it away...blood.

"Ahh!" I actually took an involuntary step back, trying to get away from the sight that followed me; blood dripped thickly from my fingers, seeping steadily down under the cuff of my jacket, staining it red, "no, no, not like this..."
"You're dying," Ran's voice was hesitant, somewhere behind me again, why can't I see him!
"I'm dying," I said hollowly, more just repeating Ran's words than actually registering them, "dying."

I looked down, trying to find the source of the blood but couldn't see anything except the widening pool beneath me. I blinked, choking back a horrified cry, feeling bile rise into my throat. It was running, running down my legs staining my jeans with thick streaks of red. I couldn't take my eyes off it, away from the rivulets of blood trickling over my boots, down through the eyelets and soaking into my socks before leaching out through the stitching, tumbling over the laces and dripping down onto the white ground. I heaved in breath, forced it back out. I brought up my other hand and numbly pulled my jacket open, terrified of what I'd see, terrified that Ran was telling the truth, terrified...

I felt the scream come out but didn't register making it. The sound fell away and was absorbed into the thick atmosphere. My hands trembled as I held open the loose flaps of my jacket and stared, transfixed, at the knife in my chest. It was slipped neatly in between both halves of my ribcage, straight through the sternum, run so deep that only the hilt remained visible. I felt more tears running down my face and blinked absently. I felt my knees shaking and didn't have the presence of mind to stop my body from falling, slipping down to a jarring stop as my shins hit the wet ground with a slap. The pool was widening by the second, drifting out into the haze as if in search of something.

I wanted to look up, I wanted to look away but I couldn't. It was only as I felt my slick fingers slip and let go of the leather that I realised something. The hilt, it wasn't of a knife, I recognised it, it was...

"Sword," I croaked out, feeling the atmosphere twitch upon hearing my voice, "Ran's sword."

No, can't be, no it can't be, it can't...

"I'm killing us," Ran's voice said hollowly, "it's my fault."
"No," I felt my voice break into a gargle and then my eyes watered and I panicked as blood churned up my throat and splattered out to join the rest on the floor.

I heaved and coughed and felt the stickiness on my chin but I was losing feeling in my arms and couldn't bring them up to wipe it away. My mouth filled with the bitter metallic taste that made me gag and I felt the sick retching up my oesophagus, heaving out into the pool of blood. I choked and spat, coughing harshly. I felt weak, I was shaking all over now, suddenly somehow feeling the blade inside me, moving with me. I could imagine it protruding from my back, simply because I had seen it run through so many other men, dripping with gore. A soft whimper escaped my throat and blood dripped from my chin. When the last of my energy left my limbs and I slumped onto my side, blood splashed up all around me, creeping outwards, streaking down my shirt, soaking steadily in through the leather. I could sense the feeling leaving my extremities, everything seeming to be drawing back to the epicentre, the sword imbedded in my body.

"Ran, please," my voice was hoarse, eyelids fluttering, breathing coming shorter, harder, pain beginning to radiate out through the nerve endings that still functioned, "please, don't do this. I can't die, we can't die. Have to save you..."
"You have saved me," I felt fingers gently pressing against my side, against my jacket and desperation seized me, forcing me to strain my eyes up to the left, trying to see him, please let me see him..! "You saved me and doomed yourself."
"Ran," I wheezed out, trying to ignore the liquid coating my face, soaking into my hair as I tried to move, "why is this happening?"
"You shouldn't talk," he said quietly, fingers tracing the hem of my jacket; was he really behind me? Why didn't he help, why couldn't I see..!
"What?" I was losing the ability to think straight, my head was clouding over, feeling heavy, "Why?"
"Someone might help," Ran's voice sounded suddenly terse, angry, "someone might...damn it. Ken I'm sorry, believe me. I'm sorry for all of this."

The hand stilled. I wished above all else that I could lift up my hand and place it in his, or even touch him. He must be behind me, lying behind me, or he wouldn't have been able to...wait.

"You alright?" I managed a whisper out, the thought that I could hardly speak anymore only just registering, "Ran, are you alright? Ran please, answer me..!"
"Ken, stop talking," he snapped out, the hand returning jerkily, as if he was straining to even manage the light contact, "I told you not to speak."
"Gonna die," I said, feeling light headed, "need to tell you..."
"No," then I heard the pain in his voice and if I wasn't panicking then, I sure as hell was now, "Ken don't."
"Ran," I coughed out, feeling his had reach over, shaking against the bared skin as my jacket rode up, grasping my wrist loosely and pulling it slowly upwards, "what..?"

I didn't understand why he was doing it. Surely, my unhelpful, failing mind asked, he didn't want to hold my hand in his dying moments? I would have laughed if it hadn't been so fucking painful. Only as he began to pull my arm over my side and, effectively, up my back twisting my limb that I protested.

"Ran what..." I coughed, "the fuck are you doing?"
"Shut...up," he wheezed out, "you're the one who asked why."

And then my fingertips were running over soft, warm fabric laid over hard muscle. I would have cried out when my fingers came into contact with the blade and it's merciless edge cut into the skin but the pain was insignificant compared to the throbbing agony in my chest. I realised the situation all too clearly, considering my mind was slowly disintegrating all around me. The blade, it went in through me, and out through Ran. No wonder I couldn't see him.

"Oh god," I said, more a whisper than anything else, "we're going to die.
"Ken," Ran's voice was filled with pain, "I'm...I'm sorry. For everything."
"Can't die yet," I was just speaking without thinking now, I couldn't control my thoughts, I was...scared, "no, no...not like this. Not after everything..."
"Please, please," there was a voice by my ear, cracking with grief, "Kami-sama."

Then I heard the noise. Banging, there was banging and shouting. Ran was squeezing my fingers with, what seemed the last of his strength. Each tightening of his fingers coincided with the rhythmic banging. Louder and louder and louder.

"Please," he whispered again, soft voice almost lost to the thunderous banging, ringing like thunder.

More and more and more it sounded, until all I could hear was the raging wall of sound. Then a voice sounded out, and it took me a moment to realise that it was my own.

"Someone's at the door," it said, then everything faded to nothing.

"Someone's at the door."

Ken's sudden exclamation almost made me drop my crossbow.

"Ken!?" I cried out, gripping the metal tighter and trying to focus on both his seemingly unconscious form and the shaking, pounding at the door.

I had been right, earlier, when I had heard footsteps. They had been stealthy, yes, impressively so and they probably would have gone unnoticed if it had been just anyone listening out for them. But I'm not just anyone. I had loaded my crossbow in record time, pulled Ken on his makeshift bed up behind a large rusting pipe and placed him parallel to the wall. Then I had crouched down beside him, mostly hidden by the rotting metal, and pointed my arrow sight at the door. The only question that was running through my head, over and over and over, was who?

Who the hell had found us all the way out here? Esset? It had to be, surely.

And now...we were trapped.

Then the banging had started, and despite myself I moved back against Ken, trying to cover him as best I could. Why did it have to happen this way, why couldn't we just be left alone...after everything that had happened with Aya-chan, Ran-kun, the tormenting and the kidnapping...and now this. This execution hunt, sniffing us out, leaving us no time to think, to breathe. Why?

Then the baka had taken that moment to speak.

"Ken! Ken can you hear me, say something!" I was trying not to shout so that I wouldn't be heard, but it wouldn't really matter anyway.

They obviously already knew that we were down here or they wouldn't have found us as quickly as they did. This complex was vast and searching it room by room would take hours. From when I had heard their footsteps overhead to when they had started trying to break the door down had only been a couple of minutes. They knew we were here, knew exactly where we were. But how? And why was Ken talking but not waking up? Suddenly, the banging stopped. I held me breath.

"No use," a muffled female voice from the other side of the door said, "use the grenade."

I only had a moment to blink and mouth the word grenade to myself before registering exactly what was going to happen. I dropped my crossbow instinctively and threw myself over Ken's still prone form. There was a deafening silence and then...

My ears were ringing and I couldn't hear. Heat was washing over me in burning waves and I clenched my mouth and eyes shut. Then there was dust choking my lungs and debris raining down on my back and my legs. I uncurled as quickly as I could and shook my head, trying to get rid of the disorientation, coughing harshly. My fumbling hands found the cold metal of the crossbow, half covered by a large slab of broken door, and hauled it backwards. My ears were clearing as I pulled it jarringly free, crawling back towards Ken as the dust settled and I looked up. I crouched up slowly, retaining my death grip my weapon, desperately wanting to turn, to check on Ken, to make him wake up!

However there were more pressing matters at hand. Like the six masked, armed men in black pointing AK-47 rifles at me.

"Drop it!" one of them ordered, his voice muffled by the helmet and my still disoriented hearing, "Drop it or I'll make you drop it kid!"

I forced myself not to twitch, not to move, not to breathe too heavily. The room had been thrown into harlequin darkness by the blast, half illuminated, half pitch black as one of the lights was blown. The figures shifted uneasily, forming a tight semi-circle around us, the barrels their rifles moving like the head a cobra ready to strike. I swallowed and forced myself to act. If I didn't do something now, I thought, the man would probably make his threat a reality. When I heard the crunching of boot heels over scattered rubble, moving steadily closer, it sparked my mind into action. Slowly, hating every second of it, I lowered my useless crossbow to the ground in the most non-threatening way I could. I kicked it outwards and one of the guards stopped it with a heavy boot, kicking it behind him for safety's sake. Then I pulled back up and stood, hands raised in supplication. The one remaining light buzzed and flickered. The boot heels stopped and another figure stopped at the apex of the semi-circle. Their lithe figure was thrown into sharp relief against the gloom, half painted with light.

"Don't shoot," I said steadily, figuring that this new addition to our captors was the leader considering none of the others had taken any move since I had disarmed myself, "we're unarmed."

I could have been imagining it, or it might have been a trick of the lights but...I was sure that the leader seemed to jump on hearing my voice. I realised then that they too were armed with a heavy pistol, both hands clasped tightly around it. I watched it intently, keeping other others in my peripheral vision, and watched in confusion as it quickly lowered. I frowned, waiting for the order to shoot.

"Lower your weapons," a voice I felt I recognised, husky and feminine, "put them down!"

The soldiers seemed to hesitate, looking over their shoulders at their leader whilst trying to keep their eyes on me. Finally, after she ripped off her helmet and glared at them, they complied.

And I simply stared, hands falling to my sides in shock more than any realisation of there not being a threat.

"Manx..?" I choked out.
"Omi-kun," she said with a wry smile that reached nowhere near her eyes, hands still clasped tightly around her pistol despite her order to her subordinates.
"What...what on earth are you doing here!?" I burst, unable to comprehend this turn of events; until forty seconds ago I was expecting to be dying in a hail of bullets by now.
"I could ask you the same thing," she said, her bright red hair dancing in the flickering light, "but...damn I can't believe you're here. Are you alright? In all honesty, after what's been happening, I never thought I'd see any of Weiss again."
"I..." I stopped, as if only suddenly remembering, and then turned wildly, "Ken-kun!"

I heard the click of weapons and tried to ignore it. Damn, I was going to have to be careful around these guys, they seemed very twitchy. Not that I was surprised by this or anything, if anyone had a right to be twitchy about this situation, it was Kritiker. Manx however seemed to have taken seeing me as the off switch to any militant action and was ordering her men to "cool it". More than anything, even through that smile, she seemed very confused by this outcome. Obviously the last thing she'd expected to find hiding down in the basement was two stray Weiss operatives.

One of which was entirely unconscious, or so he seemed.

"What's wrong with him?" Manx was standing over my shoulder now, peering down at Ken as I prised his eyes open and tried to gauge a reaction time with his pupil dilation.
"We don't know," I shook my head, swallowing when his pupils didn't react at all, yet his chest still rose and fell steadily beneath my palm, "we thought it was concussion, but I think it might be more than that. He's been getting headaches and he's been acting strange, fainting, saying odd things..."
"Hold on, wait, wait, wait," I looked up over my right shoulder and looked into Manx's eyes; she smiled again at me, this time a bit more civilly, "We can't do it like this. You have to explain everything to me, from the start. Look, I'm not here to rescue you but I think you've already figured that much out. Doesn't mean I'm not going to help you when you obviously need the help. But we have our own mission here and, like it or not, you've just become involved."

My mind was racing. I watched, blinking, as she ordered two of her subordinates to head back upstairs and fetch medical supplies, another to escort them, and another two to guard the main entrance to the warehouse and also the top of the stairwell leading down to the room. That left one down here with us. I wanted to ask why, why guard us when we were obviously no threat? Instead I watched detachedly, fingers straying to Ken's pulse to check its regularity. I looked back down at him and felt my lips thin. He was stable, he was breathing, but he was non-responsive otherwise. Not a good sign. And Kritiker, why the hell had they turned up out of the blue here, not that the friendly face wasn't appreciated but...

"Omi-kun, hey!" Manx was at my side again, this time shaking my shoulder to get my attention; I realised I must have zoned out for longer than I had thought as the two soldiers were back with two cold storage boxes full of painkillers, antibiotics and fluid replacement plus a stretcher.
"We can't move him," I murmured, trying to figure out what the hell was wrong here.
"Well we can't stay here," she said darkly, "Omi, come on, we'll take you somewhere safe."
"No!" I pulled back, suddenly realising that there was more to this situation than our safety, Manx had said it herself, "Wait, tell me! Tell me why you're here. How did you find us?"
"Omi please," she started but I cut her off, not missing the twitchy guards half raising their weapons.
"I said no! Tell me Manx, how did you find us," I couldn't help my tone from darkening, "and why? You didn't expect to find us here, did you. What were you expecting? Tell me!"

The redhead hesitated, seemed about to argue and then simply sighed and stepped back. Her eyes looked more strained than angry, but despite that she acquiesced.

"We were homing in on a signal," she said quietly, only the steady ever present dripping of water as a background, "and it lead us here, to your exact location."
"...What signal?" I asked slowly, trying to think of the multiple possibilities that could stem from this, or whether or not she was lying.
"Omi we know that you've discovered that the One has been raised, and we know that Abyssinian has defected and joined forces with his armies," Manx's smile and her placating voice had disappeared, replaced by a stony business demeanour, "we also know just how dangerous the One has made him. Fujimiya Ran has been marked, we need to eliminate him if we're to have any chance in this fight, it will be a debilitating blow to the enemy. We've been tracking his brainwave activity with the aid of a telepath..."
"Kill him?" the words sounded foreign on my tongue as I cut her off, perhaps simply because the thought had never even crossed my mind; kill Ran? No, we were going to save him... "you can't, no wait you can't! We need him back, you don't understand, Ken..!"
"Omi listen to me," now there was an air of desperation in her voice and she took a step forwards, "I know that you've come into contact with him but it doesn't explain why we're getting these readings! Tell me Omi, why are we reading Fujimiya in this basement! Is this a trick? Because believe me if it is I won't hesitate to blow you both away at the first sign that it is."

I stopped the tirade of curses, denials and sheer fury that wanted to spew out of my mouth and probably get us both killed. Us? Tricking them!? What kind of a sick joke was this? Surely it should be me asking them that! They were the ones who came barging in here spouting crazy stories about tracking Ran and trying to kill him and thinking he was in this basement when he so obviously fucking wasn't...

...here...

...oh no.

"Omi!" Manx was definitely desperate now, but it only filtered in slowly through my shock.
"No, it can't be, I thought he was kidding..." I blinked and looked away from Manx and the twitchy guards, down to the shallow breathing man on the floor.
"What are you talking about?" Manx asked, taking another step forwards that I think she thought was threatening.
"Ken he..." oh yeah, this wasn't going to sound insane at all Tsukiyono, "I think that...Ran is inside Ken."

Oh yeah, it did sound more insane when I said it out loud than when I said it in my head. Who would have thought it?

"What?" Manx sounded more confused than disbelieving.
"Ken he's been acting strange and earlier, before he collapsed he," I turned to look her in the eye, trying to make her understand, "his eyes, they changed colour and he...he spoke like Ran, I mean, he sounded like him."
"That's impossible..." but the word seemed to fade away on her tongue and become lost to the background noise, as if things were becoming more and more believable, even though they sounded unfeasible.

After a moments silence, where I desperately tried to come up with something perhaps more convincing, she sniffed, shrugged like she was finalising an internal debate and looked back to me.

"I think you've got some explaining to do," she said, finally holstering her pistol, "we're getting out of here and you're coming with us. I want to hear this story from the top."

AN: Oh god, I'm so bad, I can't believe I've let this story go for so long without updating. Honestly, I am really sorry everyone! I hope you're not throwing rotten tomatoes at me now...sniff.

Okay, hope this is satisfactory, considering it's the third revision of this chapter and I threw away lots of ideas before finally thinking this was the best way to go. Ugh, still so much left to go, but I will finish it! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed or read this story and has stuck with it, you're bravery is commendable! And I really appreciate it!

Ps: Sorry if Ken sounded a little American Gothic in this chapter, it wasn't intended :P

Maiko