Chalcedony Cross speaking here, for just a moment.
If you're reading this, chances are you've come from the Schatten der Gegenwart synopsis (and if you didn't, you do need to go read that first to get even a little out of this), and I've already cried on your shoulder about the Old Yeller moment that saying good-bye to this story has been. Well, I think I might have done that on the archive page rather than the actual fic page, but ... whatever, enough of that already. Posting this was somewhat less jarring to me anyway; once you've already shot your poor sick dog, the second bullet it takes to end the suffering is almost an afterthought ... to continue an increasingly disturbing analogy. ::ahem:: Besides, it only ever existed in the back of my mind as some vague future thing. The summary I had written down was a grand total of three paragraphs on my hard drive, about two Word pages long in Arial 10pt font. Seriously.
So, there's really not much to this, but it is the end of the original story I came up with ... I seriously do not remember how many years ago. I want to say either it was either 1998 or 1999 when I posted the first bits of Erinnerungen an die Zukunft, and here we are in 2007. WHERE DOES THE TIME GO!? Wow.
Um ... where was I? Oh, yeah. This is going to be super-short and vague, but it's all I can piece together of my original intention from the few notes I have left. I'm sorry.
Thanks again, you guys, thank you so much for sticking around for the ride. ::heh:: Until I stopped laying track and left you stranded, that is. You're the only reason I ever accomplished as much as I did. ::loves on you::
- Chal
Niner's Story
Niner - revealed at the close of Schatten der Gegenwart to be Yushi (Knight, the leader of Crashers, Aya's team prior to joining Weiß) - tells Weiß and company of how the end came on with frightening speed. There was a hiccup in communication with Kritiker, but this was far from abnormal, so they didn't worry much until they lost contact with the few other teams they had any contact with to begin with. Even then, their first indication that anything truly drastic was wrong was when Pawn, the youngest member of their team, was struck and killed by a car right outside their home. The rest of the Crashers rushed outside, thinking it an accident, but as soon as they cleared the door they took gunfire from the car. Bishop was hit and would later die of his injuries, but not before the three of them took out this first team sent to take them out. Unable to make contact with Queen or any other Kritiker operatives he trusted, Knight fled the country with Rook, and they managed to evade pursuit for two whole weeks. The Purge caught up with them in Canada, and Rook died of a stab wound he suffered while trying to protect Knight from the pair of swordsmen who took his eye and almost his life. Alone now, Knight stayed low for a little while longer, survived a few more close calls ... and then, very suddenly, all pursuit stopped. He kept running for a while but, eventually, he felt safe enough to make his way back to Japan and start looking for survivors. He still couldn't get in contact with Queen or any other familiar operatives, but he decided that if anyone else could have survived this ordeal, it would be Ran Fujimiya, and he set about trying to track him down.
Yushi was able to relocate some contacts who weren't Kritiker-specific, who were able to survive the Purge by shifting their business elsewhere and severing ties. Through them he created and fleshed out the Niner identity and set up a shop of his own. He traded goods and information and kept his ear to the ground, and the first apparent Kritiker agent he found this way was Calico. Not that Calico was hard to find; he was talking to almost anyone who would listen, asking questions of everyone. He was at least protective of Weiß and what he knew of them, so Niner had to carefully insinuate himself into a position of usefulness to Calico, without giving himself away. He was painfully close to a breakthrough when Ran died ... but intuition told him there was something very odd about all of this. He believed in Ran. After Ran's "death," Calico was more desperate than ever for allies he could trust, and Niner was able to convince him to house the remainder of Weiß in the apartment under Niner's "bookstore". He gained Yoji's trust and cooperation through drugs, but he unfortunately wasn't able to hold on that way. All these events have made him much darker and more manipulative, and he is relatively unapologetic about what this set-up might have done to Yoji; there is some indication that he blamed Yoji for Ran's death, though knowing now that Ran isn't dead and that Yoji was the only one who never gave up on him does make him more sympathetic than he was.
It seemed very strange to him when he got back to Japan to discover that Weiß alone had survived intact when so many other groups, including Crashers, were destroyed. The breakdown was so severe and the infighting so widespread, the higher echelons of Kritiker are gone; whoever won the ultimate battle for supremacy didn't survive long enough to wield their control, or were forced to flee. Nothing Niner has been able to piece together alone has been conclusive, but he was hearing bizarre rumors just recently of Weiß being under the protection of Schwarz, even while the main organization - Esstsett - was still actively trying to kill them. Now that Ran and Yoji are both in Schwarz' custody, it appears those rumors had some basis in fact, that Schwarz was at least interested for some reason ... but still, Esstsett (which also suffered, but wasn't completely destroyed like Kritiker) haven't changed their position.
Niner (who continues to go by this name for the remainder of the story; Yushi was a knight and an honorable man, but he is dead and the much darker Niner has taken his place) begs to be a part of the plan to rescue Ran and Yoji, to make up for his inability to protect Ran before. There is a little hesitation, but he is ultimately included. They're going to need all the help they can get, and Niner has both information they need and the training to actively assist them. He also no longer has the old Crashers qualms against killing in the name of the cause.
Life with Schwarz
So, we've got Yoji locked up in what amounts to a dungeon in the basement of the building where Schwarz is staying. I don't have this written down so I'm not sure, but I think this was no longer in Japan. When precisely they moved or where they went, I don't know. The building is an old rock and brick monstrosity built into a rocky coast, and when the ocean tide comes in, it's enough to pour in through the barred window of Yoji's cell, forcing him to tread water and breathe as best he can in one of the square notches cut into the ceiling for exactly this purpose. There's a metal flap right outside the bars that can be turned to keep most of the water out, but this is only put in place when Yoji "behaves himself" in some way that pleases Schuldig. Schuldig spends most of this story torturing Yoji, trying to break him down into something Schuldig can control, through near-drownings and near-starvation and physical/sexual abuse, and by psychically forcing him to have semi-lucid dreams in which Schuldig can play a part, as himself or someone else. He's doing this because he believes that control of Yoji is the key to getting control of Aya/Schatten, and though he doesn't know why Crawford is obsessed enough with Aya to go to all this trouble to make him part of the team, he knows that he wants a piece of the action. Also, he's an evil son of a bitch, and the torturing isn't exactly a hardship on him to get done. Yoji has a particularly tasty, guilt-ridden mind.
Just because it becomes important later, Yoji is aware on at least some level that a lot of what's happening to him isn't real, that it's Schuldig playing with his mind, but he's becoming increasingly unable to tell what is a dream and what isn't, and he's starting to have dreams/hallucinations that Schuldig didn't plant in him at all.
For his part, Crawford thinks things are going fairly well. He isn't aware of the prisoner in his basement, or of the fact that Schuldig has brought Aya in on the continuing torment of this man who supposedly raped and almost killed "Schatten". Aya was given "memories" of the abuse he was supposed to have suffered at Yoji's hands, but those are starting to crack and real memories of who Yoji was to him are breaking through in between doses of the drug Crawford has him on. He's confused, and he's starting to build up a tolerance to the drug, which means bigger doses and a quickening physical and mental deterioration. Meanwhile, Crawford has woven himself so deeply into Aya's mind in an attempt to maintain constant control of him - and of the fake history Aya had already psychically rejected three separate times before Crawford gave up trying to force him to believe that Yoji didn't exist, and made Yoji an enemy instead, still a source of powerful emotion but of hate rather than love - his own mind has begun to break down. He's kind of losing his ability to judge whether or not things are going well in the first place. The drug has given Schatten access to sufficient psychic power to keep Crawford from seeing where Yoji is, but everything else is increasingly shared, to the point where they're both starting to use "we" when they mean "I" and other little slips like that.
So, what the heck does Crawford want with Aya, anyway? Well, it goes back to the first story, where Crawford stands over an unconscious Ran immediately after the death of his parents and is unable to see into his future. Despite being clairvoyant, he can't predict anything about this kid, and it reminds him of something told to him by a favorite instructor when he was first brought into Esstsett as a teenager. She spoke of a kind of person called a Nexus. Even the most powerful clairvoyant cannot see into the future of a Nexus, though they seldom have psychic powers (and when they do, they are usually latent). These people are destined to be set at the center point of events that change the course of history, events that rock the entire planet. Crawford believes that Aya is a Nexus, and that having control of a Nexus would make him immensely powerful. He also believes that the connection fostered between them by the drug - as well as the amplification of Aya's mind - might allow him to see even just a glimpse of what Aya is meant to be the Nexus of, which again equals ultimate power. He didn't count on the drug effecting his own mind, or on Yoji messing with things just by continuing to exist.
He also didn't count on falling in love with Aya, in a twisted, dark, angry sort of way.
Weiß to the Rescue
Interspersed with scenes of life with Schwarz, there would have been a more in-depth description of what it took to track Schwarz down and formulate a plan to get Yoji and Aya back. That wasn't where my interest lay, so I didn't write anything of substance down. All you really need to know is that the rescue team consists of Ken, Omi, Nagi and Niner, with Calico stationed somewhere out on the grounds to monitor communications and coordinate movements.
Nagi has three conditions before he will agree to help them at all, despite his obvious interest in the case. First, when the rescue went down, he wanted to physically take part in it; he says that with his limited clairvoyance, he has foreseen thousands of ways that this rescue went completely wrong and, while he has never seen a way in which it went off perfectly, he has the advantage of knowing a lot of the mistakes before they're made, so they need him. Second, he says there will be times when Ken wants to question Nagi, to not trust him about something ... if Ken can't just do what Nagi asks him to do without questioning it, the deal is off. Third, if it comes to a choice between leaving Aya in Crawford's hands or killing him, they have to kill him; whatever Crawford wants, he cannot be allowed to have.
Our heroes reluctantly agree to all three conditions
From the moment they enter the facility where Yoji is being held, Nagi is clearly manipulating things. It was very elaborate and all that ... the problem is, I didn't clearly plot this out! And I don't remember where I was going with it! Let me see what I can piece together here ...
At Nagi's command, Ken and Nagi split off to go one way, Omi and Niner go the other; this split is something Ken doesn't like, but he agrees to it because he promised to let Nagi control events which he thinks are important for his own clairvoyant reasons. Shortly afterward, communications are mysteriously interrupted (in a way that makes it clear to the reader but not the participants that Nagi did it). Calico, cut off and still desperate to prove himself to the others, follows them inside, but he's not psychically shielded in the way Nagi taught the others (during the exposition you ain't getting). Schuldig senses his terror and goes after him, not bothering to tell Crawford because it feels like one lost, lonely, scared person to him, not an attack team. Crawford is too distracted and generally loopy to notice himself. This leaves Yoji by himself (except for Farfarello, who has poor impulse control at the best of times and doesn't stick around when there's potential fun to be had elsewhere). Ken and Nagi find Yoji's cell, where Yoji is lying battered and skeleton-thin with his back to the door, so still that Ken is at first afraid he might be dead. When Ken goes in and crouches down beside him, Yoji thinks that this is another of Schuldig's dreams - one of the crueler ones Schuldig has used over and over again is a dream of rescue - and he stabs Ken with a makeshift knife he's sharpened from a piece of metal that washed in on one of the tides. Yoji gets up and leaves, walking past Nagi as if he doesn't even see him. Nagi goes in, and at first it seems as if he means to look after Ken, but he just takes Ken's comm and locks him in the cell, apologizing to him as he leaves: I'm sorry, but this is the only way.
::deep breath:: Omi and Niner are off doing their own thing when Farfarello finds them. Niner gets Farfarello's attention and manages to lead him off, deeper into the building, leaving Omi safe or relatively so. Nagi catches up to Omi, who is immediately suspicious and demands to know where Ken is. Communications have resumed by now, but when Omi tries to call Ken, he gets no response (obvious reasons). Nagi promises to lead Omi to where Ken is, but along the way he "accidentally" takes him to the area of the building where Crawford is waiting and hands him over. He never stopped working for Crawford, or so it seems. Crawford orders the redeemed Nagi to go after Farfarello (who isn't responding to any attempts at communication), and orders Schatten to go find Schuldig (who is also not responding).
I don't remember if I intended there to be a full scene with Calico and Schuldig, but ... suffice it to say, Schuldig found Calico, and Calico did not enjoy the encounter. Partly through the comms he isn't answering and partly through what he's pulled from Calico's mind, Schuldig realizes that an attack is underway. He leaves Calico wounded and handcuffed to a pipe in a hidden corridor, promising that he'll be back to play some more later, when all this is handled. Calico proves to be less useless than he seems, and is able to pick the lock on the handcuffs. He stumbles upon the cell where a wounded Ken is now trapped, and gets him loose; together, the two of them make their way toward the action.
Along the way to find Schuldig, Aya runs into Yoji. Yoji doesn't understand that this is real, and he attacks, weak and disoriented. Aya is reluctant to kill him, though he still doesn't know why. Nagi witnesses this exchange from a higher walkway or something, somewhere out of reach but where he's able to see the action, and he tries to stop Aya. At last, Aya receives the order to kill from Crawford (in his earpiece) along with a hard mental push, and he attacks Yoji with what is meant to be a killing blow. At the last moment, Niner appears out of nowhere and steps between them, taking the hit meant for Yoji. He tells Aya that he would regret it for the rest of his life if he struck Yoji down. Niner falls.
Yushi was never a part of Aya's brainwashing, and he remembers him; this is enough to jar him loose of Crawford's control, to psychically reject the reality implanted in his mind.
You know, now that I think about it, I believe this was all supposed to take place around an open courtyard. Open passageways all around it, on at least two levels, so everyone can see what's going on and who is around them, but they can't necessarily reach each other. Aya is at one end of the courtyard when he stabs Niner, who then falls one story down to the grass below and stays there, very still. Crawford is at the other end. Aya strikes at Crawford with the power of his mind, the power opened up to him by Crawford's drug. He still doesn't have control of it, though, and Crawford is able to resist him and strike back. Nagi makes his way around to Aya's side, where Crawford doesn't try to stop him because he believes Nagi to still be his ally. However, Nagi lays a hand on Aya's shoulder and allows him to tap in to all of Nagi's power as well. The power spike rushes away from them toward Crawford and destroys him utterly, basically burns him up.
So, Crawford done been hoisted by his own petard, but Aya cannot control this power, at a level beyond what he was ever supposed to wield, and he's draining Nagi dry along with himself. Yoji, who has also been stunned out of his dream world, takes Aya's hand, and together with Nagi they manage to talk him down, shut off the flow. Aya collapses into Yoji's arms, but Yoji isn't nearly strong enough to hold him up and they both go down. Calico and Ken make their way out into the lowest level of the courtyard and check on Niner, discovering that he's in bad shape but still alive. Schuldig witnesses Crawford's death, but he and Farfarello manage to escape unharmed.
As they all limp out of the place, Nagi comments that they've created a promotion opportunity for Schuldig that might earn them some gratitude, but they'll have to watch out for him in the future.
The Aftermath
Nagi hypothesizes that the reason Crawford couldn't see Aya's future was because Aya was the one who would kill him. Clairvoyants have a notoriously difficult time pinpointing the cause and timing of their own deaths, and most who are able to do it are driven mad by the knowledge anyway. Nagi can't see any of Aya's future himself now, but he was drained so deeply dry by Aya's final, fatal attack on Crawford, he can't do much of anything anymore. Aya might well be a Nexus, but they might never know for sure.
Yoji is on constant guard now. He's gained a little weight and lost a little of the haunted look in his eyes, but he still carefully avoids physical contact with anyone, and he seldom speaks. The others know enough of what was done to him to know that any or all of them could have done terrible things to him in Schuldig's nasty, fictional dreams. He isn't sleeping, and he and Aya haven't talked at all.
Nagi mentions to Yoji that Aya's temporary psychic overload might have forged a deeper link between them than they are capable of now, but that doesn't mean the feeling isn't real. Nagi understands how everything seems flat and dull now, as if a sense is missing, because that's the way he feels with his own powers drained, but that doesn't make what exists any less wonderful. What Aya and Yoji shared before was like a drug trip, more powerful than normal, and reality may seem like nothing by comparison, but it would still be a shame to let that go.
Yoji witnesses what he thinks is going to be a kiss between Niner and Aya not long after this talk, but he leaves too soon, and doesn't see Niner pull back. Niner tells Aya that this isn't the way the story is supposed to end. He gives Aya one last order as Knight to Rook, and tells him to go find Yoji and give their relationship one last, real try. If it really doesn't work, Yushi may be dead, but Niner isn't stupid enough to turn his nose up at a chance for someone like Aya.
AND you can hate me if you want, but that was the plotted end. Yoji and Aya were eventually going to get together, in as stable and healthy a relationship as these two were capable of, but I had intended to handle that in another story after this one. That isn't going to happen now.
Ta-dah!