Disclaimer: Weiss and Schwarz are not mine, but I like to think the others are (although I'm sure they'd tell you something different)

Warnings: Oh the usual hehe

Chapter 49

Goodnight

"I'm with you," god what was I saying? "Let's finish this."

I had the pleasure of seeing surprise on Ran's face before he simply blinked and nodded. God I would never get tired of seeing that expression, it was the only satisfaction I was going to get out of this situation anyway. But...but would it be worth it? Would I be able to get this Ran Fujimiya back to Ken and..?

I've never felt so clueless. Considering all of the horrors and crazy paranormal crap we've been up against in the past, you would think that this situation would be like a walk in the park, ne? Still, it was the not knowing that was driving my anxiety more than anything else. If we got Ran back, then what? How did we pull one out of the other and put him back? I couldn't even begin to comprehend how Ran had ended up with Ken in the first place, never mind pulling off the reverse procedure.

Still...

It didn't mean that I wouldn't try anything in my power to make it happen.

I pulled myself back to the present, glancing at my companions out of the corner of my eye. Yami and Tatsuha seemed separately scandalised and shocked by my words. Yami's ageless eyes seemed to burn with righteous indignation, whereas Tatsuha's seemed more, well, conflicted. The sound of burning wood invaded my senses, forcing me to remember the danger at hand, but then what wasn't dangerous about this situation? Oh right, that'd be nothing then.

"You can't be serious..." Yami said, wide eyed, "this is the man who has been trying to kill you since this started..!"
"No, that's not entirely true," I shrugged, feeling more than a little reckless, "if I am to believe everything that you have told me, then why am I to disregard what Ran has said? Why am I supposed to only take your account as fact? Let's get real here, if you want me to trust you, then I have to trust him, that's the only logical course of action I can come up with because I have no reason not to. Or, on the other hand, I could just disbelieve you all and sort this out on my own. However, considering that sounds a little like a one way trip to me and I don't generally sign up for those, how about we try my way instead and bury the fucking hatchet?"

If the building hadn't been on fire I was sure the silence that followed that statement would have been ominous. But I couldn't stop, I didn't care what they thought. I only cared about my own team, getting them back, whole and then we could fight. Of course, I didn't think that would sit too well with my companions. If I was to believe their story, they'd been waiting for over five hundred years to finish this job. I could respect that, but in the end I wasn't going to bow to their every whim because of it!

"There's more at hand here than just revenge," I continued when no one else volunteered anything, "more than our own feelings, we can't stand here like a bunch of idiots and let our own vendettas get in the way. We have to take this demon out, this guy who's possessed Aya-chan, or there won't be any vendettas left to chase."

Yami seemed determined to say something back to my little speech but, surprisingly, Tatsuha stopped him.

"No Yamagata-kun," his voice was quiet, yet no one spoke over him, "he's right. He's right."
"Yoshitsuna!" the dark haired boy protested.
"I said no!" his blue eyes were fierce, "Everything he's said, it's all true. If we let revenge cloud our judgement, then the whole world will suffer. If Uesegi succeeds in his plans, he can bring not only his entire army back to life, but anyone he wants! Think about it, our feelings don't matter here, this was never really about us!"
"But that's not true!" Yami seemed shocked by his own words as they left his mouth, lowering his eyes to the ground, his face showing his shame as his partner stared back at him, "I mean...I..."

The tension in the air was heated and thick. I shifted on my feet and tried not to scream at them that they were falling back into it again, falling back into that emotional trap that made them lose sight of their goal. However, I also wanted to keep my head attached to my body and I don't think that shouting would have been conducive to that.

"Yamagata," surprisingly, Ran's voice managed to sound different when spoken by this other, even though it was unmistakably his, "if you're coming with me, we have to go now."
"Just give me a minute..." the blond started, swallowing as he looked into those amethyst eyes.
"We can't wait!" Ran snapped out, but didn't seem to realise what he would get in return.
"No you never could, could you! Everyone else was always left flagging behind the great Fujimiya Ran who never even looks behind him to see the people he's stepped over, who got him there in the first place! The people who respect him, who like him, his friends, his..." the angry words choked in his throat and caught on whatever else was coming next, "you never looked back, you never noticed us."

Somehow, and I consider myself a little bit of an expert on these things considering I am a very successful ladies man and can generally read people as easily as dentist waiting room magazines, I felt that when Tatsuha said 'us' he really mean 'me'. I frowned at the implications.

"And now you've sprung back to life and you think we'll all just fall into line behind you, agree with your every idea and obey your every whim?" the bitterness there was tangible, "You abandoned us! And I can't ever forgive you, don't you understand what that means, what you've forced me to do? I can't ever forgive you, and it tears me apart!"

More silence. I swallowed, shifting from foot to foot, my angry inner monologue of only moments ago somehow lost to the despair of the display before me. I shook my head. No, I had to focus. But before I could speak however, Tatsuha beat me to the punch.

"So give me a minute, okay?" he said softly, almost pleadingly; this guys mood swings were impressive, and I say that having lived with both Ken and Ran combined.

When I looked back to Ran, again I had the pleasure of seeing shock cover his features. Tinged with sadness though, and somehow that sucked the victory out of it. I felt my frown turn to a scowl. I looked over to Yami, noting his dark eyes fixed still on his feet, and his clenched hands.

"You really...it's us you believe in, isn't it?" he said finally, surprising Tatsuha by speaking first, "I know, it isn't about us, but this is our fight. You can't just..."
"I'm not going anywhere," Tatsuha said firmly, stepping forwards to take hold of Yami's shoulder with his right hand, gripping tightly, "I promise you that."

Yami's stare was enough to make a grown man quail, but Tatsuha just stared right back. I guess in a relationship that's lasted as long as theirs you become immune to any sort of intimidation. Slowly and quietly I stepped around them and walked further down the corridor, checking for the presence of the enemy. But still the building was strangely empty. We hadn't seen a single soul since that one fear blinded man ran past us in the hallway earlier. And even though it had registered with me on some level, I had been ignoring it until now in favour of trying to find my way to Ran. Now he had presented himself however, my senses were kicking back in. Where the hell was everybody?

"Alright," I heard Yami's voice and turned away from my search of the corridor to watch the boy, "okay, I'll let him come with us."
"Let me come with you?" Ran's eyebrows raised into his fringe; however his tone was not malicious, only confused.
"No antagonising the compliant people now Ran," I smirked; even if I didn't know him, I couldn't help acting towards him as if he were my Ran, my Aya, "now let's get on with it, ne? Ran, which way do we go?"

The redhead gave Yami one last stare, which then passed to Tatsuha and seemed to soften. Then he shook his head, turning to me instead.

"Uesegi is gathering his men in the main hall," he said pensively, taking point as he started down the corridor and we, ironically, fell into line behind him, "we should find everyone there."
"Everyone?" I asked, surprised, "Is that why we haven't seen anyone else around?"
"Yes," Ran said simply, "Uesegi has retreated with his lieutenants and what remains of his followers. I believe he wishes to complete the heigou kokugen no jutsu as soon as possible."
"Then we're walking straight into a fight," I said through gritted teeth as he took a left into an identical corridor, then a right, god this place was a labyrinth.
"No, actually," the assassin shrugged, leading us forwards, "for the jutsu to work, the people it uses as hosts for the souls of the deceased must themselves be dead."

I started at that, not expecting it at all.

"You mean," I said uncertainly, "that when we go in there, that the only person that's going to be alive is...Aya-chan?"
"Uesegi," Ran corrected me darkly, quickening into a run and forcing us to follow suit, "and yes, that should be so."
"Why would he make himself so vulnerable?" Yami said with suspicion, "With his current body he's in no position to fight."
"He believes that you are the only threat here that is worth worrying about," Ran said dismissively, "and that I am dealing with you."
"So this spell he' going to use," I asked, forcing my feet faster to take me close to Ran as I spoke, "it brings only the souls of the dead back? What the hell use is that?"
"Not just the souls baka," Ran bit out irritably, sounding strangely like his real self for a moment, "I told you, it merges time. It brings the body and the soul into the same temporal distortion. The soul is pulled up from the underworld into the chosen corpse, and then time itself tries to right the abnormality by pulling the spirits original body into synchronisation. The trick is to keep the body here in your time line when you finish the jutsu, and not to let both body and soul be wrenched back into the past."
"Eh," I said, panting, "I didn't really get the half of that. But you seem to know what you're talking about so...um, how the hell do you know so much anyway!?"
"I'm a shinobi of Iga," Ran said as if that should explain everything.
"And?" I said leaving the comment open.
"The heigou kokugen no jutsu was created by the leader of Iga village," Yami supplied and I felt my eyes widen in shock.

This thing, this spell that seemed to hold the key to ultimate destruction had been created by the good guys? Hey, it might sound naive but these sorts of things never cease to amaze me. Yami continued, forcing me to look over my right shoulder to watch him, trying not to trip on anything as I continued to run.

"When he lost his lover to the jealousy of the shogun himself, he made a pact with the evil spirits and begged them for the ability to bring her back from the underworld," Yami's voice was full of mockery, which seemed a might distasteful considering the subject, "of course the fool did not know that to bring her back would mean sacrificing himself in the process. The aramitama give nothing away for free."
"Ara-mi-what's that now?" I asked, non-plussed.
"Put simply, it's the negative side of the spirit, the mitama," Tatsuha clarified, "in our case, we are referring to the evil spirits that inhabit everything, rocks, trees, water, even humans. So technically they are the same, whilst being separate."

Trying to follow this conversation was like trying to take a fucking history exam.

"I'm guessing that as a back-up he thinks that we won't kill him before the ritual is complete because it means killing the girl as well?" Tatsuha was saying to Ran, in his tone ran an undercurrent of mirthless laughter.
"Perhaps, although I think he knows that you are also very determined," Ran said, taking another right, suddenly slowing his pace, "he knows that you would kill one innocent to save thousands more."
"Wait, wait," I said shaking my head, beginning to pant at Ran's set pace, "didn't you say they have to be dead? Then what about Uesegi, he's the one you said is doing the ritual right? So how does he change Aya-chan's body to his own if he's still alive?"
"That's the easy part," Ran said, voice irritably calm and not out of breath at all; I inwardly cursed him his unholy stamina, "the jutsu kills whoever uses it. It's a suicide pact. You are offering the body of yourself in sacrifice to the aramitama, and in return they give you the power to reincarnate souls. The living flesh of a being willingly given is what they hold precious."

I shuddered, focusing on the sound of our feet hitting the floorboards, the unsteady rhythm of my heartbeat. Such a sickening thought.

"But I thought you said no one had ever performed this spell properly, that it had never been done before," I argued, still trying to straighten things out in my head, "now you're saying this village leader guy did?"
"No," Ran said hollowly, taking a sharp right and forcing us all to skid and slip to catch up with him, "to complete the jutsu properly means saving the soul inside the sacrifice, the one performing the ceremony, for the body that is to come. I have no idea how Uesegi plans to make sure it is his soul that will be implanted into his body when he brings it into this time line. If the jutsu is performed incorrectly or without strong will, the aramitama themselves inhabit the body and use it to wreak havoc on the living."
"Y-you mean, like a possession by pure evil?" I said blinking.
"Yes," ran said back, as if he were speaking to a five year old.
"Then, well then what happened to your leader, the guy in your village," I asked indignantly, eyes fixed on the back of Ran's impertinent head, "if he was possessed by evil, what happened then?"
"I killed him," he said simply, as if it was the most natural thing on earth; I shivered in response.

Ran then simply slowed to a jog before suddenly stopping. I stopped just behind him, on his left, and looked at the non-descript door displayed before us. I blinked, a little thrown off balance by how quickly we had reached our goal. After all that stupid fighting earlier, and our enemy was only a couple of minutes down the hall...or many, many, many halls...

"It's now or never," Ran said quietly, eyes fixed on the dark doorway; in a way, it was almost as if he were talking to himself.
"Fujimiya," Tatsuha walked up on Ran's right, standing beside him, and I winced internally at the thought of further delays, "...do you have a plan?"

I felt that this wasn't what he really wanted to ask. His face was passive, but his eyes were strained. Of course his real question did make sense. Sure we all seemed to be a bunch of reckless hotheads at heart, but as professionals we also knew that this situation called for slightly more tact than just running in there and hacking Ran's possessed sister into itty bitty pieces. I didn't entirely understand the relationship between Ran's mind and this possessed body either. If Ran were to know that he had inadvertently allowed such an act to happen to his sisters body without trying to save her, or even worse he somehow managed to witness the act, well... put it this way I wanted to bring Ran back to Ken sane and whole.

Despite Tatsuha's vehement words earlier, everyone was hanging on tenterhooks, waiting for some brilliant plan to come tumbling from Ran's lips. He looked to Tatsuha, then turned fully to face us all, face blank. He blinked again.

"No," he said innocently, as if confused, "I was thinking of just making it up as I went along."
"...What?" Tatsuha, Yami and I said simultaneously.

We would have stopped him, but perhaps the strain of all that had happened was too much for us to handle. The next thing we knew, Ran had turned and kicked open the door to our enemies hide out and stormed inside. We all blanched, looked to each other and then followed him quickly inside. I wished he'd given us some time to prepare!

But, in the end, nothing could have prepared me for the sight that greeted us on the other side of that doorway.

Bodies.

Dead bodies.

Hundreds and hundreds of corpses.

No, not just corpses, they were...mutilated, barely recognisable as human. Piled two, three high in places, limbs and internal organs lying on the floor. I stepped back instinctively, hand raising to cover my mouth and nose against the smell and I...trod on something that I felt give under my weight and then burst, but refused to look down and find out what it was. With every step, there was the splash of blood against the floor. It had pooled so high, not an inch of floorboard was even visible any more. I swallowed and tried to ignore the utter stench of death and decay and...massacre. They'd been massacred.

Then Ran's voice cut through my shock.

"Uesegi...it is time to finish this."

I looked up, vision swaying as I tried not to look at the hideous display before me and found her. The one unharmed, pure, pristine little girl in her white frock, kneeling amongst all of this slaughter. She held her hands in a peculiar manner, fingers twisted and joined together. Her smile was wicked and cruel, but the most frightening thing were her eyes. They were completely black, like pools of ink, no whites or iris visible.

"Yes," her voice, so childlike, "you are correct. You thought I didn't know you would betray me? Poor Fujimiya, you always were clueless, right from the start. But now, despite your intentions, you have sufficiently delayed my enemies."
"Teme!" I shouted out, pulling my wire free and myself from my stupor; all of my worry for Ran and his mental state was gone, all I could see was death and death and death..."Like we'll give you the chance to speak after all you've done!"

And the wire flew free of my watch, shining like a silver thread against the harsh landscape, streaming out towards her long, pale neck. But it never reached its target.

"Too late," the cruel smile was now a smirk as she adjusted her hands to some other complicated gesture and she cried out, "Bai!"

I didn't even feel it hit me.

I remembered the day that she had first been 'introduced' to my team at Rosenkreuz. It had been raining, as it was wont to do at the tail end of summer, and it had plastered her blond hair to her head. She seemed almost fragile, flanked by her two stalwart bodyguards, her eyes hidden as she walked slowly down the corridor. I had stared out of the crowded doorway, along with the others in my class, stared at the ragged girl being trawled through the institute like a prisoner on her way to execution. The men had kept her small body out of sight, but when they finally turned the corridor towards us, that was when I saw the blood. Her clothes were thick with gore, bleeding into the ends of her hair against her coat. A prisoner was what I had surmised initially, that was how it seemed somehow, yet I felt somehow proven wrong when I finally caught sight of her expression. Her face hidden behind lank hair, cruel smile shining out around sharp, white teeth, that was my first impression of Lorelei Faxon.

"Schuldich don't be a fool!" I barked out, whilst ironically shaking him roughly; he didn't open his eyes.

"Huh," that cruel tone, sickening, I turned to face her, "you certainly have changed. Never would have thought I'd see the day..."

"Shut your poisonous mouth you shit eating whore," well, at least I knew Schuldich wasn't dead, I thought ruefully as the redhead pushed away from me, stumbling and falling to the ground, "if you're going to kill us, can't you do it quietly?"

"Ha! Oh, don't tempt me, really, don't, I'm so close to slitting your throat I can almost taste your blood," in the half baked light from the flaming building her visage was almost demonic, "just like I'll taste yours Crawford, and your precious Farfarello."

"What have you done with him?" I demanded before I could stop myself.

"Actually, nothing," she shrugged, her blond hair shivering, a plume of smoke beginning to drift casually out through the broken window where Schuldich had fallen, "but when I find him I'm sure we can have a little fun. That is the plan of course."

She moved so fast that I didn't even register that she had disappeared before she had both her hands in my suit jacket and was lifting me off the ground bodily. I swept around for my gun in my jacket, realised it was probably fruitless, and did the next best thing. I brought my right leg up tight and kicked out with my knee, crushing it into her ample chest. She cried out satisfyingly but didn't drop me, instead taking the time to hoist me up and throw me several metres through the air. I hit the ground hard and rolled, head cracking off the solid ground.

"I never did like your arrogance Crawford," she spat, smiling.

"And I never liked anything of you," I said back coldly, finally placing my hand on my revolver and hauling it out, taking aim and blasting three rounds towards her maniacal grin.

I knew that she would dodge, but I had to try something, anything, god I won't die here, I won't let any more of us die here! I fired the rest of the clip in a panic, and just as I did...

"Going somewhere!?" the scream seemed to startle us both, as from nowhere Farfarello lunged from the darkness and barrelled into her fleeing body, sending her back into the path of the bullets.

One entered through her throat splitting the artery, another through her forehead above her left eye, and the other barely missed Farfarello's ear. They hit the ground in a rain of blood and tangled limbs. When I finally managed to stand up and stumble over the treacherous ground, Schuldich was already laughing. The blood pooled around them both as he still lay beside her on the ground, like twisted halos in the puddles of water, staining her still smiling face. Farfarello stood up, clutching at a thick wound in his stomach to try and stop the blood flow.

"Are you alright?" his pale golden eye was alight with the fire, shimmering, and I knew that there was some sort of pleasure there.

"I think I should be the one asking you that," I said sheathing my gun; I pulled my jacket off roughly and threw it to him, "bandage that up, we're getting out of here. Where the hell were you by the way?"

"There were soldiers waiting at the entranceway, I felt them there, in the dark," Farfarello shrugged, looking down to the corpse at his feet, before smiling, "I went to take care of them. They were meant to ambush us."

"I'd rather you inform me of your plans next time," I said, trying not to sound relieved, walking over to Schuldich.

"Where's Nagi, is he still inside?" I heard Farfarello ask the question but somehow, unbelievably, I didn't want to think about the answer, "Crawford?"

"Nagi is dead," it sounded wrong on my tongue, sounded wrong; Farfarello was strangely silent, "get up," I said roughly, shaking myself, forcing myself to focus; I bent down into the blood and hauled Schuldich off the ground, pulling the sucking blood with him.

"There's no way," his face almost stopped me as I pulled him round, his eyes filled with tears, mismatched with his grinning countenance, "no way she's dead. A demon like her, she'd never die so easily. She took everything away, everything, she can't be dead. I can feel it, I can...Crawford it's coming...Crawford, what's happening to me?"

His cryptic words were the only warning I had before the blast wave hit.

AN: I am a bad, bad lady. How could I leave you all with no updates for so long and then update so quickly you ask? Because I'm bad that's why!

Okay, hope you liked again!

To GillianSillis – Wow, I love your reviews! Really, I never get tired of them! And sometimes you throw some interesting ideas out there too! Hope you liked this one.

To Vera-sama – I'm so sorry I haven't been updating properly! Your last review was way back in April and it's bloody August! I really hope you're still reading and enjoying because there is nothing worse than finding a story you like that never gets updated!

To Ichigo789456 – Sorry about the confusing POV, sometimes when I read it over it confuses even me! But I'm glad you like it and hope you're still reading and enjoying!

Maiko