Deus ex machina - chapter 17/?
Title: Deus Ex Machina - The Instruments of Fate
Chapter: 17/?
Pairings: Ohmiya, OhnoxOC, NinoxOC, AibaxOC + other background pairings
Rating: PG - 13, rating will go up
Disclaimer: I do not own Arashi
Beta: r_tenou
Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16
Chapter Seventeen - Hide and Seek
Where are we? What the hell is going on?
The dust has only just begun to fall,
Crop circles in the carpet, sinking, feeling.
Oily marks appear on walls
Where pleasure moments hung before.
The takeover, the sweeping insensitivity of this still life.
Mmm, what you say? That you only meant well? Well, of course you did.
Mmm, what you say? That it's all for the best? Of course it is.
Mmm, what you say? That it's just what we need? You decided this.
Mmm what you say? What did you say?
Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth.
Mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut-outs.
Speak no feeling, no I don't believe you.
You don't care a bit. You don't care a bit.
“Aubrey?” She didn’t know how long she’d been out there, only that she was so cold. By now the diamond pattern of the cement tiles must have been permanently embedded into her cheek just like the deep welts that were now embedded in her heart. Someone was trying to lift her, getting strong hands under her and heaving her up, but she was too cold to care now. She just wanted to stay there in the empty void she’d fallen into and lose herself. The person standing over her cursed as she was lifted from the ground and into their arms.
“MatsuJun?” Her own voice sounded far away even to her ears, like she was submerged in deep water. She looked up into that very distinct face and tried to smile, but it came out as more of grimace. He knew what she meant anyway, trying his best to return the gesture, but he only managed to look slightly less horrified than when she’d first managed to make her eyes focus on him.
“Hey kiddo,” Jun said softly, tucking a curl behind her ear. He was failing miserably at his attempt to shield her from his shaking outrage. She could feel it trembling through him as she curled against his chest like a wounded bird. “Look at me. What did he do to you?”
“Nothing I didn’t deserve, I guess,” she said with dry humour. Aubrey felt so naive, so stupid. How could she have let herself be so affected by someone she’d known for less than a week? It was ludicrous. In any normal situation it would have never happened, but this was not a normal situation and these were not normal people. Nothing she felt for Ohno could ever be classified as normal. Trying to rationalize it to herself was just making her go crazy.
Above her Jun made a tsking noise, but only because he didn’t know what to say; there was nothing to say. He bundled her protectively to his body and took her inside, back to the warmth, and though she could feel her limbs thawing out there was nothing to be done about the cold she felt inside. She couldn’t keep track of the doorways they passed but she felt herself be deposited on soft sheets, surrounded by a familiar smell: Nino’s smell. Attempting a smile once again she turned her face into the blankets and closed her eyes - that was when she remembered that Nino and Sachi were missing. Aubrey bolted straight up in panic.
“Oh no you don’t,” Jun snapped pushing her back down on the bed, “You rest here. I’m going to go have a few words with Leader.”
“No,” she cried, catching his sleeve as he attempted to storm from the room, “You can’t!”
“I can’t?” He laughed incredulously, “I walk outside because you’ve been missing for an hour to find you lying on the ground practically catatonic? He’s lucky he won’t be having words with my fist.” It was so bizarre to hear Jun speak in such violent terms, almost as if it were a joke; but there was no trace of humour in his eyes. Jun was a lot of things: arrogant, a drama queen, extremely sadistic in nature; he had a fantastic temper, but he wasn’t one to threaten violence.
In fact, everyone had been acting wildly out of character all evening. Even in the face of Johnny himself, Sho had always remained level headed and calm. He was usually the peacemaker rather than the disturbance and it seemed wildly ridiculous that he would ever freak out the way he did in the library, even in the event of a life or death situation. And Aiba had actually punched someone in the face - someone who’d been one of his best friends his entire life. Aiba whose reality was made of idealistic dreams and puppies and sunshine. Aubrey didn’t believe there was a violent bone in his body and yet he was in another room sulking and immobile because he’d been the first one to throw a punch. She could understand that emotions were running high, but something was seriously wrong. Jun’s jaw was clenched so tightly it was practically sideways, the hostility rolling off him in tangible waves. He was itching to hit someone.
“Jun are there psychics who can control moods?”
“Don’t try and change the subject right now Aubrey. Nothing is going to stop me from going out there and knocking that guy’s head in and -”
“Are you listening to yourself?” her hysterical cry was enough to cut off his anger mid sentence, “Doesn’t something feel a bit off about all of this?” He was gearing up to snap back at her but then his eyes flew wide, looking around himself as if wondering how he got there. He visibly relaxed, hackles going down as if waking up from a nightmare and nodded.
“You are a genius!” He exclaimed, tugging her off the bed urgently, “I would kiss you if I were a straight man.”
By the time they reached the library arch the situation had escalated out of control. Unable to find what he was seeking, Sho was venting his frustration by toppling bookshelves. The sounds of them crashing to the ground with the force of a falling tree and splintering on impact was bone jarring, but worse was the expression on Sho’s face - he looked positively savage. In the midst of the books flying and the dust clouds rolling off the ancient shelves Aiba and Ohno, the two most peaceable members of the household, were full on out-and-out fighting using whatever means at their disposal. Not only were punches flying, grappling with fists and knees and elbows and teeth, there was also so much psychic energy flying around the room it was causing books and ripped paper to float around them like they’d stepped into a space with no gravity. Though Aiba was physically larger than Ohno, the smaller man had the advantage of the sheer brute force power of his mind. As he straddled Ohno’s squirming hips and punched any available surface he could find, Aubrey could see Ohno’s mental force rocking Aiba’s body rigid with pain.
“Guys!” Jun bellowed but got no response, unless you counted the white-hot ball of something blue and crackling thrown at him, narrowly missing his head with the hiss of singeing hair. Pure energy, Aubrey realized; the static feeling in the air was due to the bursts Aiba was generating, causing her hair to start to stand on end. “Sho?” Jun tried sounding almost desperate. “Sho we have dark psychics, snap out of it please.” Possibly because he thought it would be effective, or maybe just to quell his own rising urge to hit something Jun strode across the room and delivered a tight slap across his boyfriend’s face, knocking his glasses off in the process. Aubrey winced at the sound, but when Sho managed to right himself again he looked dazed and aghast at the state of the library.
“What the-?”
“Dark psychics,” Jun reaffirmed briskly before once more moving into action and springing on AIba’s back, winding his long limbs around the larger man like a spider and heaving backwards, trying to pull him off of Ohno. Sho immediately moved to help him, trying to pin Aiba’s still windmilling arms to his sides as MatsuJun wrestled him to the ground.
“Oi! Get off me!” Aiba all but snarled as he struggled with the two men, but Aiba wasn’t a fighter really and when Jun kneeled on his chest yelling for him to get a fucking grip already he went still, though the furious look in his eyes didn’t subside.
As soon as Aiba’s weight was off him Ohno lurched unsteadily too his feet, turning his head to the side to spit out a mouthful of blood; Aubrey could see it starting to pool at one corner of his lips. As he gazed expressionlessly at the three on the floor Aubrey could see his eyes were black again. He took in one slow shuddering breath and she felt the air in the room shift towards him like a voracious black hole. For a fleeting moment she was thankful she hadn’t turned around on the balcony, for if she had, she was sure she would have found this great and terrible Ohno behind her and not the gentle one she’d grown to love. There was nothing in him now - no love, no empathy, just cold and robotic. And hungry, Aubrey realized a beat too late and he was in motion before she could even blink, advancing on them even as Jun realized what was happening and tried to drag Sho and Aiba backwards.
“Aubrey!” Jun yelled, “Get him out of here! He could kill one of them!” Judging by the shining purple bruise on Aiba’s cheek, that was going to be easier said than done. Ohno was stronger than he looked. And fast. He was on them in an instant with the grace of a jungle cat, and though he could have reached for any of them he seemed hell bent on ending Aiba’s life first. She took her cue from Jun and followed Ohno as he moved, somehow managing to lock her arms around his neck from behind, but it was becoming abundantly clear that she wasn’t going to be able to force him backwards the way Jun had with Aiba. She wasn’t strong enough. Instead she dropped the dead weight of her body on his back and managed to knock him off balance - but not for long. How had she ended up in the middle of this tangle of snarling boys and thrashing limbs? Someone kicked her either by accident or on purpose and pain blossomed in her ribs. She ignored it.
Sho was helping Jun now, trying to drag Aiba out of harms way and in the confusion of shouting and scrambling, Aubrey breathlessly found herself face to face with Ohno’s empty eyes as he tried to get around her, actually snapping like an animal. She did the only thing she could do - she kissed him. Crashing her lips against his forcefully, she managed to shock him into stillness long enough for the other two to remove Aiba from the library completely and long enough for it to click somewhere in Ohno’s mind that she had what he needed. She could feed the burning thirst inside him. He shocked her limp in his arms, searing pain coursing through her with only an easy push of his powers; pain was in the mind after all and he had total control in that domain.
“Go ahead,” Aubrey whimpered as she tried to stop her legs from folding beneath her, “You don’t have to take me down like I’m some sort of rodent. Just do it already,” He was beyond hearing her as his lips skinned back from his teeth to graze over the cold place on her neck, but she wasn’t resisting him at all. She drew her hair back to allow him what he wanted, as she had in the genkan and in that simple gesture whatever seemed to have overtaken him shattered.
“Aubrey?” Her name was almost a sob against her neck. His eyes were flickering between black and brown like a broken signal as they met hers in despair. She gasped in relief, cupping his face in her hands and running her thumbs over his cheeks as they trembled, rapidly warming from ice cold to warm under her touch.
“It’s okay,” She whispered even as he shook his head. “Shh, yes it is. Everyone was affected - not just you. It’s okay,” She didn’t dare wonder about the rooftop to him now; it would have been more than he could take. Besides Aubrey was afraid of the answer. Had he meant everything he said or had it been the psychic influence? But then her blood ran cold as she remembered what he told her: you can’t lie mentally. She dropped her hands immediately, finding she was steady enough to walk away. She missed the flicker of disappointment across his face as she turned her back on him. “We should make sure Aiba is okay.”
* * *
Nino was becoming increasingly uneasy. It wasn’t just that they had been in the Inbetween too long, although that was part of it; it bothered him that they’d been poking around in here for hours and Sho hadn’t even tried to find them. Even if everyone was asleep, with that many people in the house someone should have noticed their absence by now and then the Inbetween would be the first place Sho would look. No one had looked yet, Nino was sure, or they would have been found already. More than that, it was that things were shifting in the Inbetween. For as long as Nino could remember it had always been one infinite hallway, uniform in the even placement of the doors no matter how far one traveled. But now there were other pathways branching off the main artery where there should have been doors; multiple hallways with multiple exits. They were starting to become trapped inside a labyrinth and that in itself was reason enough to panic.
He was also starting to doubt his certainty in the blank future. Someone was clearly screwing with Sho’s powers right now, and if they could mess with Sho, who was to say that someone couldn’t also be causing Nino’s own powers to become faulty? Maybe everything went dark because someone was running a similar disruption on his own abilities. Either way he couldn’t stop and he couldn’t go back; the only person with enough power to do something like that was Johnny. He was going to find out the truth.
“Ah-” Sachi made a soft sound of surprise at his back and he whirled, already edgy enough, to see that the corridor was just that again - one long hall with no offshoots. Everything had snapped back into place. Nino’s anxiety peaked.
“We have to get the hell out of here,” he growled, gripping Sachi and towing her along behind him, moving much more quickly than the cautious pace they’d previously been keeping.
“Isn’t this better?” Sachi asked in an annoyed grunt as she wrenched her wrist out of Nino’s grasp and massaged it painfully. “That it’s going back to normal?”
“Yes and no,” he said absently. “Yes, because that means that whatever was interfering with Sho’s mind has stopped, but no for two reasons. One - I have no idea where the hell we are anymore and two - that means that Sho will be looking for us any minute.” He was ready to pick a door, any door, and find an alternate route to Johnny’s, but then he saw it: the door he’d been looking for. No matter what the Inbetween looked like at any given time, the doorways were always identical, save for this one. The frame was splintered near the handle and the door was warped on its hinges. No one knew for sure why this door was so different from the rest, but general consensus was that it was due to the ugly memories associated with the place beyond it. No matter how many times Sho tried to repair it, this door remained twisted and deformed.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” Sachi was standing next to him with her arms folded across her chest, looking at the door like it was something gross she accidentally stepped in. He had to hand it to her, she didn’t look afraid.
“You can still go back,” Nino tried one more time, “Even if you don’t find the right door, Sho is bound to rip through here any second. He’ll find you and bring you back, you’ll be safe.” He kept his eyes on the door. To his disbelief he was actually hoping she didn’t leave him. He had a weakness when it came to Johnny - even Nino could admit that. When the time came to face his father he didn’t know if he would be able to, and Sachi, for all her nasty back-talk and sarcasm was a solid presence. He was glad to have her on his side. He cast a sidelong glance at her face and was hit with a strange sensation of deja-vu. Was she right? Had they stood here before like this, side by side? But then she met his eyes with a scathing glare and the moment passed. “If you think I’m letting you go alone you are more stupid than I thought.” Nino scowled, but nodded. Deep inside he was grateful.
“Yosh,” he muttered with zero enthusiasm and reached for the handle. The door seemed to bulge out in anticipation of his touch, straining in its bent frame to press the cool brass of the handle into his palm. Nino sprang back from it like it was a darting cobra and Sachi smacked him upside his head.
“What is wrong with you? Just turn the handle,” she muttered as she moved past him and reached for the door, which was now hanging perfectly still and innocent.
“Wait!” Nino grabbed her wrist without thinking and she made an impatient noise in the back of her throat reminiscent of the sounds MatsuJun made when he was frustrated. “When we go in there we have to be careful, alright?”
“I know.”
“I don’t think you do. They might kill us on sight just on principle.” As if it should be obvious Sachi tapped her temple impatiently. “Psychic powers remember?”
Nino looked away feeling resigned all of a sudden. He could very well die in the next five minutes, or get Sachi killed. He wasn’t ready, but then again no one ever was. “Yes, but don’t use them until it becomes absolutely necessary. If they capture us, don’t resist.”
“What? Are you crazy?” She was looking at him like he’d grown two heads.
“Listen, Johnny isn’t just a psychic, He’s an arms dealer, specializing in biochemical and psychological warfare. There won’t just be psychics guarding him, there will be militarized soldiers with guns okay?” He probably should have told her this when he was first trying to convince her to go back, for Sachi had paled considerably. It was too late though; Nino needed her too much now. He couldn’t do this alone.
“So we have jedi mind tricks and they have automatic weapons?”
“Yes,” Nino said grimly. He had been forced to test before. Which was faster - the impulse to pull a trigger or the mental push of a psychic trying to control you? He’d gotten shot every single time. If they were going to be shot on sight there was no avoiding it, but if they were dealing with psychics in the first wave they could manipulate their way to Johnny silently. They could get pretty far before this ever had to turn physical. Nino just hoped his old man hadn’t learned that lesson yet. He turned back to the door. This time when the door bulbously extended out to meet him he didn’t flinch away. He gripped the handle firmly. “Do you remember how to use your powers?” He asked without turning around. He felt her hand on the back of his shoulder, a quick pulse of her fingers splaying and contracting, like he’d showed her in the library. He grinned. “Good girl.”
* * *
“This isn’t good,” Sho said handing Aiba an ice pack and dropping cross-legged in front of the kotatsu. “They’ll have realized we’re onto them by now.” The dark psychics. Aubrey shivered, but continued disinfecting a cut on MatsuJun’s face, having to stop in frustration every time he twitched, or flinched or yelled at her, trying to swat her away using an annoyed and heavily ring-laden hand. No one was really worse for wear after they’d come back to their senses, except for a few minor scrapes and bruises; but Aiba and Ohno were both exhausted after using up so much energy. Aiba was lying on his back, wriggling his head into Sho’s lap and whining about how sleepy he was with his usual good humour returned, while Ohno was attached to Jun’s other side sating his hunger. Aubrey tried not to have hurt feelings when he adamantly refused her, but now really wasn’t the time for feelings like that. Jun had relented to the smaller man begrudgingly with a stony glare. Despite the mood altering effects of the dark psychics no longer lingering in the house Aubrey suspected that Jun still had angry words for his Leader.
“So what do we do now?” Her anxiety had been steadily climbing. It was the same feeling as when she’d been inside the Ginza club, the mounting certainty that something horrible was about to happen. Everyone else seemed to feel it too, all of them pricked like a cat, looking around constantly, waiting for whatever it was to come.
“Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it,” Sho said, combing his fingers through Aiba’s waves while the taller man clutched the icepack to his face with a sleepy contented grin. “Johnny’s psychics know where we are now, don’t they. It’s only a matter of time until they try to bring this apartment down. We aren’t safe here,” Sho’s expression fell into one of hopelessness. “And if we aren’t safe here, we aren’t safe anywhere.”
“Did you check for Nino and Sachi in the Inbetween?” Jun asked as Aubrey pressed a bandage patterned in rainbows to his cheek and sat back on her heels.
Sho nodded. “They aren’t in there anymore, but there are traces of them. It hasn’t been long since they left - maybe minutes.”
“Do you know which door they went through?” Ohno asked, raising his head from Jun’s pulse point and wiping his lips with the back of his hand even though they were clean and dry. Aubrey could tell he was embarrassed about doing such a thing in full view of everyone, but at the rate he’d worn himself down it was necessary and it probably wasn’t a good idea for them to split up right now. Sho shot him a significant look but didn’t say anything and Ohno’s eyes widened.
“You have to be kidding!” Aiba cried, trying to sit up abruptly, resulting in a head rush and lying back down quickly. “Why would he be so stupid? That’s stupid even for Nino! That’s like a whole new level of -”
“Urusai,” Jun snapped tossing a pillow at Aiba’s face, “We get it.”
“Why would Nino go to Johnny willingly?” Ohno wondered out loud, but as usual Aubrey had no idea what he could be thinking.
Sho looked thoughtful. “It’s possible that somehow he became confused while the psychics were influencing us and decided it was a good idea?”
“I’m sorry,” Jun said briskly, “but doesn’t it seem like the whole goal of that little fiasco was to keep us here and distracted? We should probably get the hell out of here as quickly as possible.”
“We can’t just go blindly charging in all directions,” Sho retorted.
“Shouldn’t we go after Nino?” Ohno asked softly.
“Ohno, there is a very real possibility that Nino left of his own free will. That he didn’t want to be here with us anymore.” Sho said with a sad smile. “He’s been in love with you all our lives, surely you already knew. There’s only so much heart break a person can endure.”
“That isn’t fair -” Aubrey started at the same time as Aiba tried to voice his objection. “Nino wouldn’t do that,” he said from Sho’s lap with absolute conviction, “He just wouldn’t. We’re his family. Us. Not Johnny.”
“And if what you are suggesting were even remotely possible,” Jun said angrily, “Why would he take Sachi with him? That doesn’t make any sense. The only reason Nino would ever go to Johnny-”
“Is if he thought we were in danger.” Ohno cut Jun off with a frown. “If Johnny managed to threaten him somehow, with one of us - Nino wouldn’t think he would just act.”
“Did you get anything from his projections before?” Sho bit his lip.
“A lot of rage and the equivalent of an unscaleable brick wall.”
“See, he probably just left - Ouch!” Aiba pinched the inside of Sho’s thigh to shut him up and they all lapsed into thoughtful silence. So Nino had gone to Johnny; Aubrey felt her heart sink at the thought of having to face that fearsome man again. In his presence Nino had been reduced to a vulnerable child unable to fight back or defend himself. They’d been at Johnny’s mercy.
She felt a gentle tug around her temple and her eyes shot up sharply in alarm, but there was no one touching her. Aubrey realized it was a mental tug and her eyes met Ohno’s guilty ones over Jun’s shoulder; he was not so subtly trying to read her thoughts. She didn’t know how to feel about that. Was he trying to see what she thought about Nino, or was he looking for something else in her mind? Either way she was a little affronted by the blatant invasion of privacy- the tug meant that he had to go digging for what he was looking for, as she wasn’t projecting. She did her best to hold the image of waves crashing violently to shore in her mind and hoped that he wouldn’t be able to hear or see anything beyond the noise of the surf. He strained for a few minutes, a muscle jumping in his cheek and a much more forceful pull this time but then he cast his eyes away from her and his frown deepened.
“Do you smell that?” Aiba asked dreamily, closing his eyes when Sho started scratching at his scalp like he was an over grown cat. “It smells like camping.” Four sets of worried eyes looked up sharply. Gathering around the ceiling corners were tentative tendrils of smoke, curling in on themselves as more gathered and with them came the distinct sharp smell of something burning. Sho’s hands fisted in Aiba’s hair in panic, causing him to yelp in pain and his eyes to fly open again.
“Firestarters,” Jun groaned, getting to his feet. “Johnny even has Elementals working for him.” Despite starting out almost unnoticeably, the room was quickly becoming choked with smoke, the heat rising by exponential degrees.
“Wait! Is it real or is it foile a deux?” Sho demanded.
“Who fucking cares!” Jun snapped, “The apartment is on fire. Real or not it is going to burn us, so lets go!” He dragged Sho into standing position, throwing Aiba from his lap in the process, but the taller man didn’t waste time scrambling to his feet next to them. Together they started crowding Sho’s flailing limbs towards the genkan just as flames started licking into the room from the direction of the library.
“Let’s go,” Ohno was standing over her, offering his hand but Aubrey hesitated to take it. His eyes were earnest and worried, but his hand didn’t waver as he held it out to her. Her fingers threaded with his as something exploded in one of the rooms, causing the fire to roar louder and burn hotter than it had before. Ohno pulled her to her feet and into his arms, narrowly avoiding the great burst of flames from the hallway, flaring into the room like a supernova. It was so hot, even just breathing in felt like fire was scorching her lungs, and as they ran towards the cool air of the entrance way the heat chased them on the trail of oxygen coming from the open door. Hands still clasped, they ran through the open door without looking back.
They stumbled out onto a front lawn, which wasn’t what Aubrey had been expecting at all, but collapsed gratefully into the tall cool grass and pulled Ohno down with her, letting the blades engulf them entirely and steal away the aching burn of the fire. Instead of coming out into the Inbetween, they’d stumbled out of the front door of an abandoned house, which didn’t make sense either since the apartment had been the top floor of a high-rise.
“Daijoubu?” Ohno was yanking her into sitting position urgently, checking her over for burns or injuries. He had soot across his nose that reminded her of the first time she’d seen him: wide-eyed with a streak of paint unknowingly on his forehead. His hair was standing up all over the place; he was dirty and worn out and on the verge of tears but he’d never looked so beautiful to her as he did right then. He still hadn’t let go of her hand.
Sho was standing not far off, Jun sitting at his feet holding a tear-streaked Aiba as he cried softly. They watched the flames swallow it whole - the only place they’d ever been able to call home. Aubrey nodded to Ohno and reached out to smooth his hair back but instead just let it tangle there as and he drew her to him, resting his forehead against hers in quiet relief. She could feel the racing of his heart under her palm as she clutched at his shirt dizzily, letting him wrap his arms around her. They held each other, the rain of sparks and ash blowing off the inferno whipping around them like the end of days, just thankful to be alive.
Chapter: 17/?
Pairings: Ohmiya, OhnoxOC, NinoxOC, AibaxOC + other background pairings
Rating: PG - 13, rating will go up
Disclaimer: I do not own Arashi
Beta: r_tenou
Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16
Chapter Seventeen - Hide and Seek
Where are we? What the hell is going on?
The dust has only just begun to fall,
Crop circles in the carpet, sinking, feeling.
Oily marks appear on walls
Where pleasure moments hung before.
The takeover, the sweeping insensitivity of this still life.
Mmm, what you say? That you only meant well? Well, of course you did.
Mmm, what you say? That it's all for the best? Of course it is.
Mmm, what you say? That it's just what we need? You decided this.
Mmm what you say? What did you say?
Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth.
Mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut-outs.
Speak no feeling, no I don't believe you.
You don't care a bit. You don't care a bit.
“Aubrey?” She didn’t know how long she’d been out there, only that she was so cold. By now the diamond pattern of the cement tiles must have been permanently embedded into her cheek just like the deep welts that were now embedded in her heart. Someone was trying to lift her, getting strong hands under her and heaving her up, but she was too cold to care now. She just wanted to stay there in the empty void she’d fallen into and lose herself. The person standing over her cursed as she was lifted from the ground and into their arms.
“MatsuJun?” Her own voice sounded far away even to her ears, like she was submerged in deep water. She looked up into that very distinct face and tried to smile, but it came out as more of grimace. He knew what she meant anyway, trying his best to return the gesture, but he only managed to look slightly less horrified than when she’d first managed to make her eyes focus on him.
“Hey kiddo,” Jun said softly, tucking a curl behind her ear. He was failing miserably at his attempt to shield her from his shaking outrage. She could feel it trembling through him as she curled against his chest like a wounded bird. “Look at me. What did he do to you?”
“Nothing I didn’t deserve, I guess,” she said with dry humour. Aubrey felt so naive, so stupid. How could she have let herself be so affected by someone she’d known for less than a week? It was ludicrous. In any normal situation it would have never happened, but this was not a normal situation and these were not normal people. Nothing she felt for Ohno could ever be classified as normal. Trying to rationalize it to herself was just making her go crazy.
Above her Jun made a tsking noise, but only because he didn’t know what to say; there was nothing to say. He bundled her protectively to his body and took her inside, back to the warmth, and though she could feel her limbs thawing out there was nothing to be done about the cold she felt inside. She couldn’t keep track of the doorways they passed but she felt herself be deposited on soft sheets, surrounded by a familiar smell: Nino’s smell. Attempting a smile once again she turned her face into the blankets and closed her eyes - that was when she remembered that Nino and Sachi were missing. Aubrey bolted straight up in panic.
“Oh no you don’t,” Jun snapped pushing her back down on the bed, “You rest here. I’m going to go have a few words with Leader.”
“No,” she cried, catching his sleeve as he attempted to storm from the room, “You can’t!”
“I can’t?” He laughed incredulously, “I walk outside because you’ve been missing for an hour to find you lying on the ground practically catatonic? He’s lucky he won’t be having words with my fist.” It was so bizarre to hear Jun speak in such violent terms, almost as if it were a joke; but there was no trace of humour in his eyes. Jun was a lot of things: arrogant, a drama queen, extremely sadistic in nature; he had a fantastic temper, but he wasn’t one to threaten violence.
In fact, everyone had been acting wildly out of character all evening. Even in the face of Johnny himself, Sho had always remained level headed and calm. He was usually the peacemaker rather than the disturbance and it seemed wildly ridiculous that he would ever freak out the way he did in the library, even in the event of a life or death situation. And Aiba had actually punched someone in the face - someone who’d been one of his best friends his entire life. Aiba whose reality was made of idealistic dreams and puppies and sunshine. Aubrey didn’t believe there was a violent bone in his body and yet he was in another room sulking and immobile because he’d been the first one to throw a punch. She could understand that emotions were running high, but something was seriously wrong. Jun’s jaw was clenched so tightly it was practically sideways, the hostility rolling off him in tangible waves. He was itching to hit someone.
“Jun are there psychics who can control moods?”
“Don’t try and change the subject right now Aubrey. Nothing is going to stop me from going out there and knocking that guy’s head in and -”
“Are you listening to yourself?” her hysterical cry was enough to cut off his anger mid sentence, “Doesn’t something feel a bit off about all of this?” He was gearing up to snap back at her but then his eyes flew wide, looking around himself as if wondering how he got there. He visibly relaxed, hackles going down as if waking up from a nightmare and nodded.
“You are a genius!” He exclaimed, tugging her off the bed urgently, “I would kiss you if I were a straight man.”
By the time they reached the library arch the situation had escalated out of control. Unable to find what he was seeking, Sho was venting his frustration by toppling bookshelves. The sounds of them crashing to the ground with the force of a falling tree and splintering on impact was bone jarring, but worse was the expression on Sho’s face - he looked positively savage. In the midst of the books flying and the dust clouds rolling off the ancient shelves Aiba and Ohno, the two most peaceable members of the household, were full on out-and-out fighting using whatever means at their disposal. Not only were punches flying, grappling with fists and knees and elbows and teeth, there was also so much psychic energy flying around the room it was causing books and ripped paper to float around them like they’d stepped into a space with no gravity. Though Aiba was physically larger than Ohno, the smaller man had the advantage of the sheer brute force power of his mind. As he straddled Ohno’s squirming hips and punched any available surface he could find, Aubrey could see Ohno’s mental force rocking Aiba’s body rigid with pain.
“Guys!” Jun bellowed but got no response, unless you counted the white-hot ball of something blue and crackling thrown at him, narrowly missing his head with the hiss of singeing hair. Pure energy, Aubrey realized; the static feeling in the air was due to the bursts Aiba was generating, causing her hair to start to stand on end. “Sho?” Jun tried sounding almost desperate. “Sho we have dark psychics, snap out of it please.” Possibly because he thought it would be effective, or maybe just to quell his own rising urge to hit something Jun strode across the room and delivered a tight slap across his boyfriend’s face, knocking his glasses off in the process. Aubrey winced at the sound, but when Sho managed to right himself again he looked dazed and aghast at the state of the library.
“What the-?”
“Dark psychics,” Jun reaffirmed briskly before once more moving into action and springing on AIba’s back, winding his long limbs around the larger man like a spider and heaving backwards, trying to pull him off of Ohno. Sho immediately moved to help him, trying to pin Aiba’s still windmilling arms to his sides as MatsuJun wrestled him to the ground.
“Oi! Get off me!” Aiba all but snarled as he struggled with the two men, but Aiba wasn’t a fighter really and when Jun kneeled on his chest yelling for him to get a fucking grip already he went still, though the furious look in his eyes didn’t subside.
As soon as Aiba’s weight was off him Ohno lurched unsteadily too his feet, turning his head to the side to spit out a mouthful of blood; Aubrey could see it starting to pool at one corner of his lips. As he gazed expressionlessly at the three on the floor Aubrey could see his eyes were black again. He took in one slow shuddering breath and she felt the air in the room shift towards him like a voracious black hole. For a fleeting moment she was thankful she hadn’t turned around on the balcony, for if she had, she was sure she would have found this great and terrible Ohno behind her and not the gentle one she’d grown to love. There was nothing in him now - no love, no empathy, just cold and robotic. And hungry, Aubrey realized a beat too late and he was in motion before she could even blink, advancing on them even as Jun realized what was happening and tried to drag Sho and Aiba backwards.
“Aubrey!” Jun yelled, “Get him out of here! He could kill one of them!” Judging by the shining purple bruise on Aiba’s cheek, that was going to be easier said than done. Ohno was stronger than he looked. And fast. He was on them in an instant with the grace of a jungle cat, and though he could have reached for any of them he seemed hell bent on ending Aiba’s life first. She took her cue from Jun and followed Ohno as he moved, somehow managing to lock her arms around his neck from behind, but it was becoming abundantly clear that she wasn’t going to be able to force him backwards the way Jun had with Aiba. She wasn’t strong enough. Instead she dropped the dead weight of her body on his back and managed to knock him off balance - but not for long. How had she ended up in the middle of this tangle of snarling boys and thrashing limbs? Someone kicked her either by accident or on purpose and pain blossomed in her ribs. She ignored it.
Sho was helping Jun now, trying to drag Aiba out of harms way and in the confusion of shouting and scrambling, Aubrey breathlessly found herself face to face with Ohno’s empty eyes as he tried to get around her, actually snapping like an animal. She did the only thing she could do - she kissed him. Crashing her lips against his forcefully, she managed to shock him into stillness long enough for the other two to remove Aiba from the library completely and long enough for it to click somewhere in Ohno’s mind that she had what he needed. She could feed the burning thirst inside him. He shocked her limp in his arms, searing pain coursing through her with only an easy push of his powers; pain was in the mind after all and he had total control in that domain.
“Go ahead,” Aubrey whimpered as she tried to stop her legs from folding beneath her, “You don’t have to take me down like I’m some sort of rodent. Just do it already,” He was beyond hearing her as his lips skinned back from his teeth to graze over the cold place on her neck, but she wasn’t resisting him at all. She drew her hair back to allow him what he wanted, as she had in the genkan and in that simple gesture whatever seemed to have overtaken him shattered.
“Aubrey?” Her name was almost a sob against her neck. His eyes were flickering between black and brown like a broken signal as they met hers in despair. She gasped in relief, cupping his face in her hands and running her thumbs over his cheeks as they trembled, rapidly warming from ice cold to warm under her touch.
“It’s okay,” She whispered even as he shook his head. “Shh, yes it is. Everyone was affected - not just you. It’s okay,” She didn’t dare wonder about the rooftop to him now; it would have been more than he could take. Besides Aubrey was afraid of the answer. Had he meant everything he said or had it been the psychic influence? But then her blood ran cold as she remembered what he told her: you can’t lie mentally. She dropped her hands immediately, finding she was steady enough to walk away. She missed the flicker of disappointment across his face as she turned her back on him. “We should make sure Aiba is okay.”
* * *
Nino was becoming increasingly uneasy. It wasn’t just that they had been in the Inbetween too long, although that was part of it; it bothered him that they’d been poking around in here for hours and Sho hadn’t even tried to find them. Even if everyone was asleep, with that many people in the house someone should have noticed their absence by now and then the Inbetween would be the first place Sho would look. No one had looked yet, Nino was sure, or they would have been found already. More than that, it was that things were shifting in the Inbetween. For as long as Nino could remember it had always been one infinite hallway, uniform in the even placement of the doors no matter how far one traveled. But now there were other pathways branching off the main artery where there should have been doors; multiple hallways with multiple exits. They were starting to become trapped inside a labyrinth and that in itself was reason enough to panic.
He was also starting to doubt his certainty in the blank future. Someone was clearly screwing with Sho’s powers right now, and if they could mess with Sho, who was to say that someone couldn’t also be causing Nino’s own powers to become faulty? Maybe everything went dark because someone was running a similar disruption on his own abilities. Either way he couldn’t stop and he couldn’t go back; the only person with enough power to do something like that was Johnny. He was going to find out the truth.
“Ah-” Sachi made a soft sound of surprise at his back and he whirled, already edgy enough, to see that the corridor was just that again - one long hall with no offshoots. Everything had snapped back into place. Nino’s anxiety peaked.
“We have to get the hell out of here,” he growled, gripping Sachi and towing her along behind him, moving much more quickly than the cautious pace they’d previously been keeping.
“Isn’t this better?” Sachi asked in an annoyed grunt as she wrenched her wrist out of Nino’s grasp and massaged it painfully. “That it’s going back to normal?”
“Yes and no,” he said absently. “Yes, because that means that whatever was interfering with Sho’s mind has stopped, but no for two reasons. One - I have no idea where the hell we are anymore and two - that means that Sho will be looking for us any minute.” He was ready to pick a door, any door, and find an alternate route to Johnny’s, but then he saw it: the door he’d been looking for. No matter what the Inbetween looked like at any given time, the doorways were always identical, save for this one. The frame was splintered near the handle and the door was warped on its hinges. No one knew for sure why this door was so different from the rest, but general consensus was that it was due to the ugly memories associated with the place beyond it. No matter how many times Sho tried to repair it, this door remained twisted and deformed.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” Sachi was standing next to him with her arms folded across her chest, looking at the door like it was something gross she accidentally stepped in. He had to hand it to her, she didn’t look afraid.
“You can still go back,” Nino tried one more time, “Even if you don’t find the right door, Sho is bound to rip through here any second. He’ll find you and bring you back, you’ll be safe.” He kept his eyes on the door. To his disbelief he was actually hoping she didn’t leave him. He had a weakness when it came to Johnny - even Nino could admit that. When the time came to face his father he didn’t know if he would be able to, and Sachi, for all her nasty back-talk and sarcasm was a solid presence. He was glad to have her on his side. He cast a sidelong glance at her face and was hit with a strange sensation of deja-vu. Was she right? Had they stood here before like this, side by side? But then she met his eyes with a scathing glare and the moment passed. “If you think I’m letting you go alone you are more stupid than I thought.” Nino scowled, but nodded. Deep inside he was grateful.
“Yosh,” he muttered with zero enthusiasm and reached for the handle. The door seemed to bulge out in anticipation of his touch, straining in its bent frame to press the cool brass of the handle into his palm. Nino sprang back from it like it was a darting cobra and Sachi smacked him upside his head.
“What is wrong with you? Just turn the handle,” she muttered as she moved past him and reached for the door, which was now hanging perfectly still and innocent.
“Wait!” Nino grabbed her wrist without thinking and she made an impatient noise in the back of her throat reminiscent of the sounds MatsuJun made when he was frustrated. “When we go in there we have to be careful, alright?”
“I know.”
“I don’t think you do. They might kill us on sight just on principle.” As if it should be obvious Sachi tapped her temple impatiently. “Psychic powers remember?”
Nino looked away feeling resigned all of a sudden. He could very well die in the next five minutes, or get Sachi killed. He wasn’t ready, but then again no one ever was. “Yes, but don’t use them until it becomes absolutely necessary. If they capture us, don’t resist.”
“What? Are you crazy?” She was looking at him like he’d grown two heads.
“Listen, Johnny isn’t just a psychic, He’s an arms dealer, specializing in biochemical and psychological warfare. There won’t just be psychics guarding him, there will be militarized soldiers with guns okay?” He probably should have told her this when he was first trying to convince her to go back, for Sachi had paled considerably. It was too late though; Nino needed her too much now. He couldn’t do this alone.
“So we have jedi mind tricks and they have automatic weapons?”
“Yes,” Nino said grimly. He had been forced to test before. Which was faster - the impulse to pull a trigger or the mental push of a psychic trying to control you? He’d gotten shot every single time. If they were going to be shot on sight there was no avoiding it, but if they were dealing with psychics in the first wave they could manipulate their way to Johnny silently. They could get pretty far before this ever had to turn physical. Nino just hoped his old man hadn’t learned that lesson yet. He turned back to the door. This time when the door bulbously extended out to meet him he didn’t flinch away. He gripped the handle firmly. “Do you remember how to use your powers?” He asked without turning around. He felt her hand on the back of his shoulder, a quick pulse of her fingers splaying and contracting, like he’d showed her in the library. He grinned. “Good girl.”
* * *
“This isn’t good,” Sho said handing Aiba an ice pack and dropping cross-legged in front of the kotatsu. “They’ll have realized we’re onto them by now.” The dark psychics. Aubrey shivered, but continued disinfecting a cut on MatsuJun’s face, having to stop in frustration every time he twitched, or flinched or yelled at her, trying to swat her away using an annoyed and heavily ring-laden hand. No one was really worse for wear after they’d come back to their senses, except for a few minor scrapes and bruises; but Aiba and Ohno were both exhausted after using up so much energy. Aiba was lying on his back, wriggling his head into Sho’s lap and whining about how sleepy he was with his usual good humour returned, while Ohno was attached to Jun’s other side sating his hunger. Aubrey tried not to have hurt feelings when he adamantly refused her, but now really wasn’t the time for feelings like that. Jun had relented to the smaller man begrudgingly with a stony glare. Despite the mood altering effects of the dark psychics no longer lingering in the house Aubrey suspected that Jun still had angry words for his Leader.
“So what do we do now?” Her anxiety had been steadily climbing. It was the same feeling as when she’d been inside the Ginza club, the mounting certainty that something horrible was about to happen. Everyone else seemed to feel it too, all of them pricked like a cat, looking around constantly, waiting for whatever it was to come.
“Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it,” Sho said, combing his fingers through Aiba’s waves while the taller man clutched the icepack to his face with a sleepy contented grin. “Johnny’s psychics know where we are now, don’t they. It’s only a matter of time until they try to bring this apartment down. We aren’t safe here,” Sho’s expression fell into one of hopelessness. “And if we aren’t safe here, we aren’t safe anywhere.”
“Did you check for Nino and Sachi in the Inbetween?” Jun asked as Aubrey pressed a bandage patterned in rainbows to his cheek and sat back on her heels.
Sho nodded. “They aren’t in there anymore, but there are traces of them. It hasn’t been long since they left - maybe minutes.”
“Do you know which door they went through?” Ohno asked, raising his head from Jun’s pulse point and wiping his lips with the back of his hand even though they were clean and dry. Aubrey could tell he was embarrassed about doing such a thing in full view of everyone, but at the rate he’d worn himself down it was necessary and it probably wasn’t a good idea for them to split up right now. Sho shot him a significant look but didn’t say anything and Ohno’s eyes widened.
“You have to be kidding!” Aiba cried, trying to sit up abruptly, resulting in a head rush and lying back down quickly. “Why would he be so stupid? That’s stupid even for Nino! That’s like a whole new level of -”
“Urusai,” Jun snapped tossing a pillow at Aiba’s face, “We get it.”
“Why would Nino go to Johnny willingly?” Ohno wondered out loud, but as usual Aubrey had no idea what he could be thinking.
Sho looked thoughtful. “It’s possible that somehow he became confused while the psychics were influencing us and decided it was a good idea?”
“I’m sorry,” Jun said briskly, “but doesn’t it seem like the whole goal of that little fiasco was to keep us here and distracted? We should probably get the hell out of here as quickly as possible.”
“We can’t just go blindly charging in all directions,” Sho retorted.
“Shouldn’t we go after Nino?” Ohno asked softly.
“Ohno, there is a very real possibility that Nino left of his own free will. That he didn’t want to be here with us anymore.” Sho said with a sad smile. “He’s been in love with you all our lives, surely you already knew. There’s only so much heart break a person can endure.”
“That isn’t fair -” Aubrey started at the same time as Aiba tried to voice his objection. “Nino wouldn’t do that,” he said from Sho’s lap with absolute conviction, “He just wouldn’t. We’re his family. Us. Not Johnny.”
“And if what you are suggesting were even remotely possible,” Jun said angrily, “Why would he take Sachi with him? That doesn’t make any sense. The only reason Nino would ever go to Johnny-”
“Is if he thought we were in danger.” Ohno cut Jun off with a frown. “If Johnny managed to threaten him somehow, with one of us - Nino wouldn’t think he would just act.”
“Did you get anything from his projections before?” Sho bit his lip.
“A lot of rage and the equivalent of an unscaleable brick wall.”
“See, he probably just left - Ouch!” Aiba pinched the inside of Sho’s thigh to shut him up and they all lapsed into thoughtful silence. So Nino had gone to Johnny; Aubrey felt her heart sink at the thought of having to face that fearsome man again. In his presence Nino had been reduced to a vulnerable child unable to fight back or defend himself. They’d been at Johnny’s mercy.
She felt a gentle tug around her temple and her eyes shot up sharply in alarm, but there was no one touching her. Aubrey realized it was a mental tug and her eyes met Ohno’s guilty ones over Jun’s shoulder; he was not so subtly trying to read her thoughts. She didn’t know how to feel about that. Was he trying to see what she thought about Nino, or was he looking for something else in her mind? Either way she was a little affronted by the blatant invasion of privacy- the tug meant that he had to go digging for what he was looking for, as she wasn’t projecting. She did her best to hold the image of waves crashing violently to shore in her mind and hoped that he wouldn’t be able to hear or see anything beyond the noise of the surf. He strained for a few minutes, a muscle jumping in his cheek and a much more forceful pull this time but then he cast his eyes away from her and his frown deepened.
“Do you smell that?” Aiba asked dreamily, closing his eyes when Sho started scratching at his scalp like he was an over grown cat. “It smells like camping.” Four sets of worried eyes looked up sharply. Gathering around the ceiling corners were tentative tendrils of smoke, curling in on themselves as more gathered and with them came the distinct sharp smell of something burning. Sho’s hands fisted in Aiba’s hair in panic, causing him to yelp in pain and his eyes to fly open again.
“Firestarters,” Jun groaned, getting to his feet. “Johnny even has Elementals working for him.” Despite starting out almost unnoticeably, the room was quickly becoming choked with smoke, the heat rising by exponential degrees.
“Wait! Is it real or is it foile a deux?” Sho demanded.
“Who fucking cares!” Jun snapped, “The apartment is on fire. Real or not it is going to burn us, so lets go!” He dragged Sho into standing position, throwing Aiba from his lap in the process, but the taller man didn’t waste time scrambling to his feet next to them. Together they started crowding Sho’s flailing limbs towards the genkan just as flames started licking into the room from the direction of the library.
“Let’s go,” Ohno was standing over her, offering his hand but Aubrey hesitated to take it. His eyes were earnest and worried, but his hand didn’t waver as he held it out to her. Her fingers threaded with his as something exploded in one of the rooms, causing the fire to roar louder and burn hotter than it had before. Ohno pulled her to her feet and into his arms, narrowly avoiding the great burst of flames from the hallway, flaring into the room like a supernova. It was so hot, even just breathing in felt like fire was scorching her lungs, and as they ran towards the cool air of the entrance way the heat chased them on the trail of oxygen coming from the open door. Hands still clasped, they ran through the open door without looking back.
They stumbled out onto a front lawn, which wasn’t what Aubrey had been expecting at all, but collapsed gratefully into the tall cool grass and pulled Ohno down with her, letting the blades engulf them entirely and steal away the aching burn of the fire. Instead of coming out into the Inbetween, they’d stumbled out of the front door of an abandoned house, which didn’t make sense either since the apartment had been the top floor of a high-rise.
“Daijoubu?” Ohno was yanking her into sitting position urgently, checking her over for burns or injuries. He had soot across his nose that reminded her of the first time she’d seen him: wide-eyed with a streak of paint unknowingly on his forehead. His hair was standing up all over the place; he was dirty and worn out and on the verge of tears but he’d never looked so beautiful to her as he did right then. He still hadn’t let go of her hand.
Sho was standing not far off, Jun sitting at his feet holding a tear-streaked Aiba as he cried softly. They watched the flames swallow it whole - the only place they’d ever been able to call home. Aubrey nodded to Ohno and reached out to smooth his hair back but instead just let it tangle there as and he drew her to him, resting his forehead against hers in quiet relief. She could feel the racing of his heart under her palm as she clutched at his shirt dizzily, letting him wrap his arms around her. They held each other, the rain of sparks and ash blowing off the inferno whipping around them like the end of days, just thankful to be alive.