Kai was still bothered by Zeshin’s odd behaviour at the meeting. The memory of it was keeping him awake which is why he saw Goemon sneak out of bed, dress and pick up a gun before leaving the dorm. Kai dressed swiftly and followed.
Goemon arrived in time to see seen the older pair of Rosenkruez agents die at the hands of the pale haired boy and the red-haired Weiss. They'd known that Fujimiya and Kudoh were Weiss, but not that the supposedly sickly near albino was one of them too.
Seeing Ise die at the hands of the kid proved that, gun or not, he stood no chance. He ran. Talented or not, he wasn't trained well enough to fight people like Weiss and he knew it.
Running across the camp he headed for his motorcycle, the weight of the pistol in his hand the only reassurance he had that he might escape with his own life.
He skidded to a stop. There was a man in the parking lot. One with short cut white hair and an patch over one eye.
Dear God... That's.... Berserker.
Goemon froze, his guts turning to water. Weiss and renegade Schwarz here at the same time? How was that possible.
He backed away slowly, moving to the left and nearly tripped. Looking down he saw that he'd almost fallen over the body of the last member of their team. Harridan, the only one of them who'd been really good in a fight.
She'd been gutted like the catch of the day, her sightless eyes staring up at him, mouth open in her final cry of agony.
By the time Kai was dressed and out of the dorm it was in time to see Goemon racing across the camp as if he had all the demons of hell on his tail. This was a very different attitude to the one he’d shown when leaving the dorm. Breaking into a run himself, he chased the other boy to the parking lot.
Farfarello hopped to the top of a car and crouched there, staring out into the trees.
Goemon froze his heart in his throat. If he's here then.... Schuldig might be here telling him where I am.
The boy's eyes filled with fright. Rosenkruez agent or not, he was terrified of Schwarz. A lot of them were. With good cause. The four men were dangerous. They were also renegades that Rosenkruez had yet to recapture.
And any single one of them was quite capable of killing him with the ease of killing a fly.
Berserker jumped from the top of the car and ran off into the forest heading away from the terrified boy.
Goemon ran for his bike. He had to get it and get out before any of Weiss or Schwarz found him.
Kai skidded to a halt as he saw Farfarello. The silver-haired man’s presence had immobilised Goemon and Kai crept forward, intent on finishing him. Then Farfarello was gone as if he’d never been there and Goemon was running for his bike.
Kai had to rub his eyes at what he saw next. A slight figure stepped out of the shadow of the trees and made a crushing gesture with his hands. Goemon’s bike was rendered down into so much scrap metal. Prodigy! He glanced back to where the telekinetic had been standing but he was gone.
So now he was left with Goemon and a gun. So be it. He pulled out his sai and stepped forward expecting a bullet at any second.
Goemon stared at what remained of his motorcycle. He knew what had happened. Prodigy.
He was trapped with no escape. He turned, seeing a slender form in the dark. "I'll kill you! Whoever you are!" He fired the gun, not even bothering to aim before he ran, heading through the thin line of trees for the area where the cabins were. If he could reach the far line of trees before they found him he'd have a chance.
Kai moved to the right, taking a route that would cut his prey off before he reached the shelter of the forest. He was good enough to throw a sai but needed to be a lot closer before he could do that and Goemon was still running like a startled deer.
Goemon ran for all he was worth, but even that hope of escape was dashed when a broad-shouldered brunet stepped out of the shadows. The man was blocking his escape in that direction. He knew who the man was from the pictures Rosenkruez had shown them. Weiss. Siberian. He fired off another couple of wild shots and spun around to retreat.
Going back the way he'd come, terror filling him, he found he was yet again unable to go forward. Another boy was blocking his escape. He fired off another shot, and kept firing until the gun clicked empty.
Kai didn’t know why two total strangers had come to his aid. Prodigy he knew of as he did all of Schwarz, but who had the other man been? But now was not the time to speculate. Especially as Goemon’s last bullet had whizzed past his left ear, missing him by scant inches.
He jumped forward, sai spinning in a blur of ceaseless movement. Then he was on the other boy and made short work of cutting his throat.
Standing up he gazed around. There was no sign of the other two and he had to get back and let Aya know that Goemon was down.
But it wasn't Aya he found. Siberian stepped into the boy's view, "Hello Bengal,“ he said voice flat and devoid of emotion.
“Siberian? What are you doing here?” Kai demanded.
"Yes. I'm Siberian. Yes, I'm supposed to be dead. No, I'm not dead, I was told Abyssinian and Balinese were dead. We don't have time to chat. Come with me or stay here, but either way, I'm going."
Ken turned to leave. He knew where he'd find his team mates. Safe with Schwarz, which was the most unbelievable joke he'd ever in his life heard.
Other than the joke about a person named Takatori Mamoru being his friend.
Siberian? What the hell was going on here? “Wait up,” he said. “Abyssinian and Balinese are at the camp under cover. Aren’t you wanting to see them? Isn’t that why you’re here?”
"No, actually I came here to keep them from being killed," Ken replied shortly.
“Then what are we doing out here? Yohji’s meeting with one of the targets right now!”
Kai had a lot of respect for both Aya and Yohji and if they were in danger he would do whatever he could to help. He turned to head back to the camp only to have a powerful grip descend on his shoulder and stop him.
"Don't bother. This mission is over," Siberian told him. "Now come on. We're leaving." Brown eyes met the boy's gaze, "With or without you."
Kai gazed back at Siberian, trying to get some sort of read on him. The brown eyes were sad too as if he‘d suffered a recent loss. He nodded.
“Okay, lead the way,” he said.
Ken trotted off, triggering the comm. he’d worn since he'd refused any telepathic contact with the Schwarz telepath. "I've got Bengal. Where are you Prodigy?"
“I’m right here, Siberian. We need to head for Sapporo.” Nagi stepped out of the shadow of the trees and gazed at Kai for a long, assessing moment. The fourth member of the pretend Weiss didn’t look stupid even though he’d been played for a sucker.
“Hello, Bengal. We’ll reunite you with the rest of your team. Siberian can carry you. I’ll make my own way.”
"Did they find Abyssinian and Balinese before the kid got them?" Ken asked, his voice brittle and full of rancour over how his team mates had been dealt with by the boy he'd once trusted with his very life. With his heart.
Nagi nodded and smiled, a shy expression. “They had to stop Abyssinian from killing him, but yes, they’re all safe.”
"Hardly a loss if he had," Ken muttered sourly. He didn't give a rat's ass about Singapura. Not when he'd helped to train the boy how to fight with Yohji's own weapon never realizing he was training him to kill the older pair of Weiss.
"We'll meet you in Sapporo," he added as he jogged off toward where he'd left his own bike.
Nagi nodded once then, to Kai’s great surprise, disappeared in front of his eyes. He’d known he was a telekinetic but that must have been teleportation. How had Weiss three ever survived Schwarz?
He stopped goggling and ran after Siberian, having the feeling that the man wouldn’t wait for him. He found him astride his motorbike, helmet and goggles in place, ready to go. He climbed on the back.
Without saying anything Ken handed the boy the extra helmet he still carried.
The last person to have worn it was Omi. Not Mamoru. Omi. His lover Omi. The smiling carefree boy he'd fallen in love with. Who he'd made love with.
The pain rose up in his chest threatening to consume him but he shoved it away.
It didn't mean shit.
Betrayal. Being double-crossed, treated like trash. None of it mattered anymore. It was a road he'd been down already, a familiar rut in his life.
And like his life it didn't mean anything.
He waited for the kid to be ready then he hit the accelerator and spun the bike around, spraying leaves and pine needled everywhere as the motorcycle tore out of the trees.
In moments they were out of the camp, the first few confused people leaving the cabins to milling around wondering what all the noise was.