Attention Fanfiction.net Friends:

Welcome to my latest Angst Epic, "Cold November Rain." It's a prequel to "Romantic Resolutions" but is such a huge departure from all my other Weiss Kreuz pieces here I wanted to say a few words about it before you began reading it. First, unlike most of my stories, this one is not completed in rough draft form yet. Ordinarily, I'd not make it public until it was completed if at all possible, but my Real Life Nightmares are too great and my muses are shutting down on me and not helping get this one finished, claiming they need support in the form of feedback. Hence, I'm going out on a limb and beginning to post this here as well as at selected mailing lists in the hopes folks will leave me uplifting comments to encourage Melpomene (my angst muse) and Erato (my lemon and romance muse) to come home and try again at getting this one done since it's supposed to be Book 1 of the new "Redirecting Destiny" series.

If you enjoy the story, please leave me a note or two as it progresses, won't you? There's a total of 20 Parts for this on my ZIP drive and as long as there's a continuing flow of encouragement, I'll do my best to keep adding more to the tale as quickly as possible. Also, I'll be listing at the end of each part an indicator of which parts are being put up together so you'll know if you've read all of the latest posting run or not. I hope it helps take away some of the pain of hitting a major cliffhanger and then wondering if there's more yet or not!

Enjoy the Angst!!

~~~Enigma~~~

(who hopes people will add more than one comment if the mood strikes them as the story progresses, it's kinda fun to see what people *think* will happen and/or what they *want* to see happen as the various cliffhangers hit, ne?)

{oh, and by the way, one last "first" about this WK fic, it's the first one of mine that does *not* have lemon in it! gomenasai, but sex truly has no place in this story *however* this is part of a new story series which already contains lemony fun, so if you have a request for something citrusy that fits feel free to mention it in your comments! ~E~}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: Cold November Rain [part 1/?]

Book 1 of "Redirecting Destiny" and prequel to "Romantic Resolutions"

Author: Enigma

Series: Weiss Kreuz

Written: January, 2002

Rating: R

Pairings: (Yohji + Ken + Aya) (Omi + Nagi) (Brad + Schu)

Category: Dark! Yaoi Angst Action/Adventure Violence Blood Squick Language Romance. AU-OOC.

Archive: fanfiction.net [author: "E-sama the Llama"], Scripta Manent: http://digilander.iol.it/sakaba/Home.html

Spoilers: None, safe for new viewers as well as old.

Warnings: dark! yaoi, heavy angst, action/adventure, graphic violence, large quantities of blood, squick: medical and other, coarse language, agonized and overwrought romance, rare touches of sap, cigarettes, destiny, cruel cliffhangers, original characters. AU-OOC.

Disclaimer: "Weiss Kreuz" is the property of Koyasu Takehito and Project Weiss. This unauthorized work of fanfiction is intended for entertainment only; kindly do not sue me.

Notes: When Ken falls in battle, how can the other members of Weiss cope with the guilt and blame that they all seem to share and will he survive in spite of the odds against him?

++ date and time reference within the storyline beginning with the day of the battle ++

{{telepathic speech}}

*****

++ day: 1. time: 0400-0500 hours ++

*****

It was a dreary November night in Tokyo. The kind of drizzly, raw night where the wise stayed home and sipped hot tea, ate steaming bowls of noodles, and let the world outside their doors carry on without them.

No one ever accused the men of Weiss of being wise, however.

The mission that gods-forsaken night had seemed to be a simple one at first. Break into yet another illegal drug production facility, locate all computer files that could be used to track down who had funded the latest stream of poison into the veins of Japan's bored middle class youth, copy them, and then destroy everything they had found.

As Omi sat inside the makeshift labs working feverishly on his laptop trying to download everything from a non-compatible system and running into problems he could never have predicted, he cursed silently and wished that he could've had his lover's expert help on the case. However, despite the fact that Yohji had discovered Nagi and him in the midst of an act of passion and had forced a full confession from them which allowed them to be open about their relationship with his teammates, there were very clear limits. The young couple continued to face off on the battlefield on a regular basis with all three of the elder members of Weiss doing their best to keep Schwarz from noticing when the youngest pair of assassins invariably vanished rather than fight one another.

Aya hadn't been pleased with the new situation, saying it was too much like complicity for his tastes. But his two lovers had made it very clear he didn't have the authority to override them for a change, this was Omi's decision. Ken and Yohji were both backing the genki youth without doubt or question, they knew the power of true love and were pleased that the once lonely and sorrowful computer expert had someone special in his life.

This situation highlighted a key feature of their organization that remained a mystery to those outside their understandably limited group of most trusted friends. Who, exactly, was the "leader" of Weiss was a complex matter few understood or would've been able to accept, and not even Persia knew the full extent of the four young men's interdependence on one another. [1]

Before an assignment from Kritiker was completed, the team's tactician was unquestionably in control of mission-related issues like strategy, pre-selection of weaponry, timing, and personnel. The demands of the position often interfered with Omi's schoolwork and it wasn't unusual to find him hacking information from yakuza files at the same time he was writing a paper on the history of Okinawa or something similar.

It was the eldest member of the team who was responsible for keeping the tools of their trade in good working order, often spending more time than he liked hunting down the unique chemicals and pharmaceuticals that the Weiss archer added to his various darts. From time to time, Yohji even went so far as to abscond with his scarlet-haired lover's infamous katana to see to it that it never lost its razor-sharp edge, visiting remote locations to have only the finest bladesmiths work on the treasured sword.

While Omi was busy planning their covert activities and Yohji keeping them stocked with weapons, Ken rose to the challenge of seeing to it that their everyday lives went on without any undue difficulties despite his hatred of grocery shopping, becoming a regular Hausfrau when the occasion demanded it. [2] His self-taught cooking skills were put to the test time and time again yet he very much preferred that task to the often disturbing issues that the laundry provided. Getting blood off leather was easy but the occasional pieces of human bone found in the lint trap of the drier often made the chocolate-eyed nineteen year old understandably nauseous.

Meanwhile, Aya saw to it that the Koneko no Sumu Ie continued to function smoothly, insuring the four florist/assassins of Weiss an income since Kritiker never saw fit to compensate them sufficiently for their efforts. [3] However, once the team moved into position, if there was a possibility of battle erupting, the coolheaded swordsman took control, keeping close watch on not only his pair of lovers but the young archer as well. The violet-eyed man had already lost many that were dear to him during his life, he would do almost anything to protect the three men who had become his family from any and all threats but sometimes it just wasn't enough.

Their interconnected support system almost never failed. Sadly, the "exception that proved the rule" occurred on that November night even as the rain became heavier and the drizzle became a moderate downpour.

"Bombay," Aya growled into his headset, disturbed that the deadline for them escaping before the people they believed to have been hired to guard the facility might return, "We're running out of time."

"I know, I know!" The usually genki assassin snarled back, unaccustomed to having as much difficulty as he was at the time. Uncharacteristically, he cursed and complained in annoyance, "It's their goddamned Apple computers tripping me up! Shit, they make enough money off their stupid drugs, you'd think these idiots could afford a decent computer system!"

Ken snickered softly into his headset's microphone, then wandered away from his post by several meters, curious what a new noise was that had just disturbed the silence of their night. "I've got some kind of action over here by the backdoor," he spoke softly enough to remain undetected, yet loudly enough to be understood by his teammates. New players in their game were arriving and odds were good that they weren't going to be friendly.

"Shit, shit, shit!!" Omi cursed angrily and let his fingers fly across the keyboard in the vain hope of still accomplishing his task against all odds, he hated to fail but detested disappointing Persia and Manx even more.

"Stay calm, Bombay," the scarlet-haired man warned quietly, glancing to where he saw a frown of worry on the elder of his two lovers' faces at some distance across the room. He asked softly with more loving concern than he was willing to admit to, "What's the matter, Balinese?"

Yohji sighed deeply and shook his head, soft, shoulder-length blond locks floating freely around his face as he answered in a tone that spoke of a fear that haunted him whenever they faced the unknown this way, "It's Siberian, Abyssinian. He's moved out of my line of sight."

Aya growled low and dangerous in his throat, then spoke words he wasn't certain he believed even as one hand reached within his burgundy trench coat in search of his katana, "Don't worry about him now, Balinese. He can handle himself."

"I certainly hope so," Yohji answered, knowing full well that Aya was as worried about their occasionally unlucky lover as he was, yet the swordsman was unwilling to abandon his position guarding the boy who continued to type maniacally on his computer ten meters away.

"Bombay! Abort mission!" Ken suddenly screamed into his microphone. "Get out of there *now*!!"

"Why, Siberian?" Omi asked in confusion, "What's happened?!"

"Damn it, Bombay!" Yohji's stressed voice broke into their conversation as he ran towards Ken's last known position and heard a sound like firecrackers exploding crackling across the connection beneath his voice. "A dozen gang members burst in the back entrance and they're firing on us! We need to bolt!"

"Goddamn it!" The youngest member of Weiss swore angrily and began to shut down his laptop so he could withdraw from his location, silently praying there would be time for them all to make it out safely. "Abyssinian! Abort! Do you copy?"

"Roger that," Aya's angry voice responded as he thumbed the katana free of its scabbard and held it ready to defend both himself and the blue-eyed blond who had almost extracted himself from the computer link he had to the drug producers' system. "Balinese? Do you copy?"

"Roger! Siberian, are you clear?" Yohji worried about where one of the two men that he'd fallen in love with was at, but knew better than to try to seek Ken out at this point, bullets were flying past him too thickly to contest at the moment.

"They've spotted me, I'm outta here!" Ken's voice held an unfamiliar note of panic as he added, "Everyone, scatter! I can't hold them back!!"

The connection with the claw-wielding assassin's communication device fizzed and hissed in Weiss' headsets and suddenly the sound vanished all too completely.

"SIBERIAN?!?!" Yohji's voice cried out, frightened by what he'd heard and unable to see the younger of his two lovers past the hail of bullets that swarmed through the air.

"KEN!!!" Aya screamed as an unearthly cry tore the air asunder and the chocolate-eyed assassin went down in a hail of gunfire. No longer able to keep himself in place, he dashed towards the sounds of combat thinking himself ready for whatever he might face yet not being so at all.

"Fuck!!" Yohji cursed, drawing forth his wire before descending on the gang members like an avenging angel from hell, intent on dispensing justice for whatever had happened to his beloved brunette. His dark blue trench coat swirled around him like wings as he gracefully leapt and spun, delivering death easily as lithe glove-covered hands wrapped the metallic weapon around unprotected throats and powerful muscles drew it tight with a sickening slip and slide through flesh.

Aya was close behind, razor-sharp blade singing in the air as it swept back and forth, easily picking off the offenders who still had breath in their bodies. He killed without remorse or rational thought after violet eyes took in the hideous sight of his younger lover's mangled body lying in a heap against a wall, blood flooding out of it as if from an obscene fountain.

Amidst the cries of the dead and dying, Omi's agonized shout when he saw his injured teammate was easily drowned out yet his actions were not. Rushing to his dear friend's side, he cradled Ken's body against his own as best he could and did a quick check for life signs.

Tearing recently acquired gloves from his hands and tossing them aside as unneeded, the blue-eyed boy wrapped his fingers across one tanned yet limp wrist and was terrified by the lack of a pulse. However, after noticing the sheer volume of blood spreading over his hand, he looked up and discovered at least part of the problem.

Above his grasp on the former soccer player's left arm, a bone of purest white jutted horribly forth from torn skin and leather, the compound fracture a mute testimony of the power of the bullet that had torn through Ken and drastically disrupted the flow of his life's blood. Scrambling mentally as well as physically, Omi quickly unsnapped the unusual suspenders that dangled from his waist originally placed there as holders for his longbow and arrows, but now to become impromptu tourniquets as he unclipped them from their joining ring in the back. [4]

As he tightened one of the leather straps around Ken's upper arm, the blue-eyed youth became aware of a horrifying wet sucking noise and glanced at the nineteen year old's bullet ravaged chest to see a hole through his dark t-shirt that obviously led to a punctured lung.

"Oh god!" Omi breathed softly, counting the bullet wounds in his friend's torso and coming up with at least three if not more, the blood transforming his usually handsome features and form into the stuff of nightmares. The unconscious man's right leg was also bleeding profusely from both front and back where a bullet had ripped through his thigh, barely avoiding the bone yet leaving once powerful muscles shredded like ground beef and required a suspender-turned-tourniquet of its own as well.

As Omi did his best to perform the tasks of a battlefield medic, Aya and Yohji were decimating the last of the gang members, leaving bloodied chunks of what had once been the sons and daughters of Tokyo's poorest neighborhoods to shed their blood unmourned. The two men were berserkers not hesitating and unstoppable for it was their own heart of hearts who lay dying behind them. [5]

Yanking the leather strap of the tourniquet on Ken's leg as tight as his now blood-slick hands could get it, Omi begged his silent friend quietly, "Please stay with me, Ken-kun! You've got to hold on! Aya-kun and Yohji-kun can't live without you! Oh please, you've got to live through this!"

The soft pleas, unfortunately, fell on literally deaf ears as the claw-wielding assassin slipped closer towards death's cold embrace.

*****

To be continued.

Author's Notes:

[1] Here we have the Llama's personal opinion on the whole "Aya vs Omi as leader" issue. I believe they are *both* leaders in their own right and as I thought about it, I decided to give Ken and Yohji more responsibilities, too.

[2] "Hausfrau" is German for "housewife" yet it often carries a stronger connotation than the term in English does making it more along the lines of "Mistress (or "Master" in Ken's case) of the House" and implies a level of control and responsibility commensurate with such a grandiose title.

[3] I will continue to use the Japanese name for the flowershop here and in the future since the series takes place in Tokyo and it only makes sense it would have a Japanese name which I translate roughly as "Kitten in the House". Further, the nickname "the Koneko" is used interchangeably with the full name and can simply be thought of as "the Kitten".

[4] Thanks again to the members of OmiML who long ago provided me with wonderful input on the genki one's assassin gear. Amazing what Melpomene thought to do with those suspenders, ne?

[5] The imagery for the massacre is based in large part on the astoundingly detailed renderings of Kentarou Miura as shown in the original manga, "Berserk", which is highly recommended if you can stand the gore and other scenes of graphic violence. It is also inspired by certain scenes in "Saving Private Ryan", one of the most disturbing yet accurate representations of war in modern cinema. Sgt. Rock was right, war truly *is* hell whether on a beach in France, on a fantasy field of the middle-ages, or the urban battlefield of any city of the twenty-first century.

Full Author's Notes to Run at Conclusion.

Please be advised: Parts 1 & 2 will be posted together.