III. The Crucible

All of them felt uncertain as they walked towards him, fear, bright and blinding, an almost metallic taste on his tongue. Only Ouka was steady and sure in this course of action. After all, they were close. First because he had been the Takatori's designated babysitter and then later as the bodyguard most assigned to guard her at parties. He had saved her life from his own teammates and lately they had been doing some dating.

Saving Ouka's life had been an impulse decision that Ran never regretted although it had put him on Crawford's bad side for a month and made his loyalty suspect. Her sweet ways and at times bratty moodiness was a balm against the Schwartz out and out sadism and power hungriness. He had not been able to stay long from her though he had tried.

They were coming up the driveway now, the three Weiss and Ouka. Balinese, Bombay and Siberian, all expected a trap but having no choice in the matter as much as he did. They had been surviving on the thinnest margin of luck and determination where Schwartz was concerned and they knew it. They just couldn't pass up this offer.

Ran sat down on the chair he had passed in his pacing. He was nervous. So many things could go wrong.

Weiss could refuse, Weiss could decide to turn on me. My teammates could show up.

It wasn't by any means unusual that Crawford would order Schuldich and Farfarello to follow him and ruin his weekly date with Ouka. Heck, the German would do it for entertainment value. Oracle disapproved of Ran's attachment to Ouka. Sometimes, he'd wonder but he knew better. Crawford wasn't jealous, he just liked to think of Schwartz as a self-contained unit.

***

"He met with Weiss just as you suspected." Schuldich reported.

"Good." Crawford went back to typing his own report to their superiors.

"Should we kill him? Weiss accepted his offer." Schuldich said languidly but there was something in his tone that reminded one of a tiger waiting for the kill.

"No. We needed a foolproof way for Weiss to find out where the final rite will be held. Besides Weiss won't count for much after the Night and the causes for Sensitive's betrayal will be eradicated."

"You really think he'll still remain loyal to Schwartz after we're through with him?"

"He will have no choice." Crawford said glasses gleaming cruelly as he looked up suddenly from the screen. His manner threatened dire consequences if the matter wasn't dropped.

"You do know what Sensitive's been up to with his dear Ouka, don't you?" Schuldich said as a parting shot that wasn't acknowledged by the precog. Seeing no reaction was forthcoming, he just sauntered out of Crawford's office.

Ran will, Crawford had Seen it.

Crawford looked into space for a minute, future vistas flying before his eyes. A particular scene in the time stream made his smile wider and harder edged.

Oh, he definitely will.

***

Elsewhere, Ran was lying on his bed staring on the ceiling remembering the meeting with Weiss while guarding his thoughts well from his nosy telepathic teammate.

***

The eldest of the three, Balinese, had lead the way followed by Ouka then by Siberian and lastly by Bombay…

"So why did you want to meet with us." Kudou said after a long silence and an exchange of stares. They had introduced themselves politely enough at the start but had fallen silent ever since. No one wanted to start.

"Estet wants to use my sister as a sacrifice for some mystic rite. I want them stopped."

"And you offer?" The languid tone was reminiscent of Schuldich and raised Ran's hackles but he did not react. Too much hinged upon holding his temper.

"Alliance, until I can get my sister out of their claws…"

"Not acceptable. Kritiker would offer you a place among us with your sister as surety."

"Hn… do I have any choice?" Ran said, cynically. In truth, he only had pretended to consider otherwise. He had contemplated this too many times and knew that he hadn't any choice. It was Kritiker or some other similar organization. He still needed money to finance Aya-chan's care. He'd prefer Kritiker for their veneer of honor. They in their pretense would at least be hampered at disposing his sister for whatever reason.

"Look you, we're trying to give you the best deal we can!" Hidaka said in an extremely annoyed tone.

"Ken-kun!" Tsukiyono said.

"I've had enough of his pain in the ass attitude! He asked us here to start a glaring contest, getting him to talk is like pulling teeth."

"Weiss, I don't pretend to like you though I might have to work with you for Aya-chan's sake."

"We know about what happened about your parents and we're sorry for you but don't you think you should move on. I mean Kritiker had them assassinated because they laundered monye that became the fulcrum of the illegal drug trade. It's not as if they were blameless! Why take it on Kritiker?"

"Kritiker! You and your self-righteous crusade! Did any of you even think that some people have no choice in what they have to do? You're assassins hunting for the Light…" The statement was full of irony.

"You're just like Schwartz despite your posturing." Ran continued past the knot of anger in his throat that threatened to overwhelm the words. He wanted to blast the holier than thou attitude out of these people but knew that he could not do that. He needed them as much as it galled him.

"Kenken, we need him and he needs our help."

"Don't call me Kenken!"

Kudou put his arm around Hidaka's shoulders and yanked the latter down.

"Youji-kun! Ken-kun!"

"The final rite will be held in the newly constructed concert hall off the wharf tomorrow night." Ran said tired of their bickering when there was work to be done.

"Huh?" All three Weiss members were dumbfounded out of their friendly brawl.

"The concert hall off the wharf, tomorrow night, be there. I'll take care of the rest." Ran said abruptly standing up to go to the corner where Ouka had been silently waiting for him through out the exchange.

"Let's go, Ouka?"

Ouka had given him a reproachful glance but didn't protest. From her emotions, Ran had deduced that their romantic relationship had caused friction between Ouka and Tsukyono. There was tenseness and rebelliousness that was directed at the younger Weiss and Ran couldn't help but smirk at Bombay as he took Ouka's hand. That made all the Weiss kittens frown on him, Siberian, in particular, looked as if he was going to charge at him. Good, a little way at getting back at him for those remarks on my family.

Ran only managed to push Ouka out of the way before the younger man charged upon him with fists flying.

"Just because Ouka has the bad taste to fall for you, you bastard, don't think that we'd stand by while she goes to make a fool of herself over you!" Hidaka said as he tried to punch him in the face.

Ran coolly ducked and held the enraged Siberian by the collar.

"Don't presume to judge me by your provincial notions, Ouka comes with me on her free will. No harm will come to her while I'm around, unlike some people I can name." Ran said, dropping him down on the ground as he did so.

"Why you!" The former soccer was hot-tempered not dense. He got the implications of that pretty quickly and so he charged again. He was clearly still suspicious of Ran's motives and unable to take the empath in as a team member with a grain of salt. He Felt intensely red of suspicion, anger and disbelief, all mixed into one maelstrom.

Why I should ally myself with these people is beyond me, they couldn't even catch me what could they do against the entire Schwartz? Well, in desperate times…

"Kenken…" Balinese said holding their teammate by the shoulder.

"Fujimiya-kun?" Bombay asked tentatively. He obviously didn't want to touch Ran to get his attention knowing fairly well how well the latter can use his gift but needed to do something to break up the fight.

"Hn." Ran replied looking the youngest Weiß in the eye. There at least was a grudging acceptance. He knew the feeling of it.

Strange that. That the youngest of Them was so like the youngest of Schwartz both had shown more acceptance of him than the others of either group. Nagi had almost the same grudging acceptance of Ran in him for different yet similar reasons. Nagi accepted that while Ran would always cherish him as a surrogate younger brother, he would never replace Aya-chan in Ran's affections. If it came to the choice, the telekinetic knew that Ran would run over anyone and everything including him to protect Aya-chan. On the other hand, Tsukyono tentatively accepted Ran as the boyfriend of his half-sister. After saving her from death, Tsukyono believed that Ran could be relied upon to protect Ouka from the rest of Schwartz or even the rest of the world when it came to it but knew from all this that Aya-chan would still be Ran's top priority. They were strangely akin these two strange boys raised in the assassin's ways…

Then a drawling voice interrupted Ran's musings.

"Save your energy for the fight tomorrow…" Kudou said lazily grinning at Ran. There he saw a wary trust that was starting to grow. All of Weiss knew about Aya-chan though each one took it in different ways. This one had decided to trust since in this situation there could only be Ran's cooperation would benefit the latter.

Cynical of him but then Ran sensed from the feelings of the blond that hardly anything surprised him. Deep and calm like a deep pond, feelings rarely stirred the surface of this one, but the blue coolness hinted dark turbulent depths. With effort, Ran turned his Gift inward. The redhead wasn't the type to pry. It was one of the things that he hated about being an empath, people's emotions should be private and though he could not help but read the surface emotions of everyone he came in contact with he had sworn not to actively snoop into their affairs. No matter how curious he was.
 
 

***

Ran sighed at the images that the meeting called up, he knew now what had made him uneasy with Weiss. Balinese, Siberian and Bombay had brawled easily amongst themselves not caring for personal space. It was something he could do without causing harm to the one he played with. Ran winced at a half-remembered memory of two of his playmates in nursery school. They had only been playing ninjas and had ambushed Ran, both had become unconscious within seconds. No one had ever connected the incident with Ran attributing the summer heat to be the one to lay both children low but Ran knew well their suffering, though both had awakened without any side effects or memory. His gift was such that the emotional backlash would knock the other person's brain into shock. The shock could lead to death or unconsciousness depending on the strength of the blast.

Before Schwartz, he had been inured to such sights having the comfort of his sister and parents' touch. His family had been immune to his deadly Gift. Schwartz did not "touch" that way, at least not in Ran's sight. He had no inkling of what Schuldich and Farfarello did in their respective bedrooms and Nagi always took Tot out to be alone. The younger Schwartz knew enough not to parade his affections for the entire world to see. Crawford… Crawford only wanted uncomplicated sex not the warm touch blazing with affection.

Seeing that camaraderie between the Weiß members had made him uncomfortable. It was a reminder of normalcy that he had lost. It gave him an inconvenient hope that he might find some semblance of it in Weiß. Though it troubled him more than a little that he would find such a thing with the minions of Kritiker, Kritiker who had his parents murdered or to find it by betraying his primary allegiance to Schwartz, to Nagi.

I do this for Aya-chan, only for her…

Then unbidden the memory of what had happened after the meeting rose up an unwelcome reminder of what could and couldn't be…

***

"Well that's done with. Goodbye, everyone, Omi-niisan." Ouka finally said cutting off further conversation. Something was clearly preoccupying her though she was shielding it with feelings of irritation. Ran was not a telepath like his German teammate but he sometimes could Read thoughts if they were emotionally charged enough. This seems to be such a one though it remained just tantalizingly out of reach… Ran controlled his curiosity yet again, Ouka would reveal whatever it was in due time. This was the reason why he had been caught flat-footed at Ouka's suggestion…an hour later.

Ouka and Ran had been walking apparently aimlessly in city sidewalk when Ouka mentioned that they could continue their date to her nearest acquisition. It turned out to be a new apartment separate from her mother's. She was the Takatori heir just this side of eighteen and was allowed her caprices.

It turned out that she wanted Ran to make love to her.

"Ouka, you're too young for this besides it's not right…" Besides I am not ready just yet. Ran had argued. Despite all their dates, it was true, Ran couldn't yet envision making love to this young brunette beauty whom had been his responsibility for so long.

Maybe in the future when the risk wasn't so great, I could die tomorrow. You're just making excuses. Truth is you're not sure if she could survive sex with you. You're afraid to find out. Crawford comes to mind. That thought made Ran shiver internally in distaste. If I could control myself enough, there should be no harm done. No pleasure for you either, but you'll probably lose control and where would she be.

"What is not right? We love each other and you risk your life every day. At least I can have one night to remember you by in case…in case…" Ouka, herself, didn't want to mention what Ran had planned for fear of being Seen by Crawford and she also couldn't mention the fact that that betrayal could lead to Ran's death.

Ah, Ouka, all this had made you grow up…

"We are not married for one…"

"I'm a bastard remember. My parents weren't either." Ouka said giving him room to pace but devouring him with her eyes. It was no doubt that she wanted this. Her love and care for Ran burned brightly with desire until it was almost overpowering to the empath.

Ran found his resistance wavering and gave a nod. It was his chance to experience lovemaking instead of the cheap copy he had with Crawford. Faced with the fact that he might die tomorrow gave the opportunity a more poignant air and pushed his objections into the back of his mind.

Ouka rose up to meet Ran in half pace to kiss him on the lips. It was his first kiss and it tasted unexpectedly sweet and hot. Rather like chocolate on a rainy day, like the new sunrise of a summer's day...

***

No, better not dwell on that. For better or worse Ouka was lost to me… It was time to go to Crawford at any rate…

Ran rose to go to the bedroom he had grown to hate, but knowing that he had no real alternative for.

Not really, not now…

***

Crawford came in the room and undressed, clinically eyeing Ran who was already naked and waiting as always. It was and has always been. Then the precog came to the bed, trailing expert kisses and caresses all over Ran's body rousing him. Unbidden, memories from the afternoon filtered into Ran's consciousness…

With the issue of sleeping together decided, Ran and Ouka proceeded to take their time taking each other's clothes off, clumsily exploring each other's bodies. Ran sensed that Ouka too was new at this and reveled at the novel sensations they were creating. Ouka was perfectly proportioned, with her slender waist, slightly wider hips and plump breasts. Her hands were tracing the ridges of muscle on Ran's back and stomach was soft and loving. Ran began to explore with his lips sucking at her breasts like a child as well as threading wet kisses down into her navel. Her hands entangled into his hair as he went lower and lower. They barely got into the bedroom, stripped of all their clothes and into bed. She was so different from his daydreams of women in his bed. Better really.

Their clumsy caresses would never match these seductive touches but what they lacked for experience they made up with true feeling…

Emotions flared around them breaking into his restraint. As the tenderness of their unpracticed touches rivaled the flames Crawford unleashed in Ran. Ran moaned as his lips brushed against Ouka's sweet womanhood. He had only read of this in books and had no real experience but he was eager to please. He tightened his grip on his Gift, more than ever he needed the control but it was like holding onto a wet glass figurine. He almost lost it when he felt Ouka's tightness around his finger; she was hot, wet and more than ready for him.

Crawford was touching him there, inside, touching him in the sensitive spot that always made his knees buck with unwanted desire, however, the flow of images from the afternoon didn't stop. They, the images and the feelings that went with them, were a blazing counterpoint to his current situation.

To buy some time to regain his control, Ran put his finger in and out the slick heat that grew slicker with every motion, adding a second and even a third finger. The friction was driving Ouka mad with desire. She strained against him, rubbing into him. Still he hesitated but Ouka mewled a pleading sound and her need was calling out to him, undeniable. He obliged entering her with his hardened shaft.

Ran's breaths were coming in harsh pants now. He was becoming so hard that it was almost painful but he never uttered a sound, he wasn't going to beg, not like this. Oracle looked up to give a feral grin at him before slick fingers slipped out and his hard cock was pushed in. The glorious heat on heat made Ran arch hard into Crawford, losing control and sense of self as he had done earlier…

So tight and hot, for an endless second, he lost himself in the physical and emotional completeness enfolding him then he began to move. The pressure built for them and finally he couldn't distinguish where sensations came from. Whether he was male or female, everything was one with him and before long he felt the shuddering orgasm of the Other.

"Ouka…" Ran had murmured barely aware he had said the name out loud as he finally splattered his warm seed in between him and Crawford losing himself in the happy memory of Ouka's love. One part of his mind denying what had happened when he had been truly with the girl, pretending for awhile that this was what was occurring now. However as he lay within Crawford's possessive grip that had loosened with sleep, he began to remember all too well…

***

I shouldn't, I shouldn't do this…

It was too late. Ran was losing himself in his own orgasm aided and abetted by Ouka's, rising higher and higher in a crescendo of emotion that he was barely aware of the backlash as his control shattered into sharp shards flying every which way.

Ran had awakened thirty minutes later with a headache and a coldly unconscious Ouka. He had been frantic until he found a normal pulse. He hadn't killed her then. He had called the hospital then just to be sure. The doctors were positive that she had only fainted and was going to be all right.

What a relief…

***

Ran couldn't let it happen again. Whatever happened shouldn't have occurred in the first place. Ran had been weak and succumbed to his needs. He should have more control than that. He should break up with Ouka before, he should have known better. She was too good for him. Siberian, Weiß, had been right in that respect. In Crawford's cold embrace, Ran looked on into the night with increasing hopelessness.

All that matters now is for Aya-chan to wake up… That's all I have really…

With that dismal thought, Ran fell into restless, dream-ridden sleep.

***

Crawford opened his eyes as soon as he had felt the redhead's breathing slowing into sleep. He looked over Ran's face and drew his hand down all over the latter's body. His touch was feather light but held every bit of confidence, of ownership. His eyes glowed intensely with some emotion.

That bitch had never been a factor and never would now. You found it the hard way didn't you, Sensitive? You may call her name out loud all you like now but you'll never return to her. You know you don't belong with her. You'll forget her soon, soon enough…

Then Crawford too fell asleep, a cold smile wreathing his features.

***

"We will stay in this antechamber, just in case something goes wrong with the rite. It guards the corridor of retreat that leads to the quickest route outside." Crawford said pointing to a small adjacent room right of the stage. They were in the precog's office hovering around his desk. It was the afternoon before the rite.

"Any questions?"

"How will we know if we're needed?" Nagi asked.

"Either Mastermind, Sensitive or you will have to act as a look out." Crawford replied.

"Hn." Ran murmured into the conversation.

"Sensitive's volunteered, any objections?"

No one objected just as Crawford had known. Perfect. Only he and Schuldich knew what he had planned for the empath.

Everything is falling in place… After this there would be no more Elders standing in my way and Schwartz will be a team undivided… I can hardly wait till tonight…

~TBC~

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