Sinners & Saints: Redemption

Part 9

They stopped the cars when they were still quite some distance from the prison complex, not knowing what kind of advanced security the place might have. They pulled Aya's sports car and Youji's convertible over off the road, hiding them among the trees and brush with the ease of long practice.

"All right, last communications check," Omi said as they climbed out of the cars. They each toggled their mikes in turn, checking to make sure that everybody could hear everyone else. "Good," Omi said when he was satisfied that everything was in working order. "Now here's the plan.

"Originally I'd intended this to be a reconnaisance mission, but as Nagi has pointed out, if we're spotted, these people will probably move out, and FAST. If that happens, we'll never get another shot at rescuing Schuldig and Crawford," Omi said. "So instead we're going to give it our best shot on the first try."

"Are you sure he should be here?" Ken asked uncertainly, nodding at Nagi. They'd already been through this argument once, back at the Koneko, but obviously neither Ken nor Aya was quite satisfied with the results.

"YOU try getting him to stay behind," Omi replied, laughter in his voice. Ken raised an eyebrow and turned to Nagi. The telekinetic started to shrink back under that critical gaze, but then remembered his newfound determination. He bit his lip and stared back at the other man.

Something in his eyes must have convinced the white hunter, because Ken shrugged. "Okay. But what are we going to do if his powers cut out on him again? He's not exactly a front-line fighter type."

Omi nodded. "He's going to be staying in the back with me. If we're lucky, we'll have his powers to help us get in there. If we're not, we'll still have his knowledge of the weaknesses of psychic powers. Siberian, Abyssinian, you're on point. Prodigy and I will take the middle, and Balinese will cover from behind. We need to get in as quickly as possible; our only advantage in this fight will be the element of surprise."

"This is assuming they don't have a precognitive of their own," Aya pointed out.

"If they do, we're screwed anyway, so we may as well not worry about it," Omi replied with a shrug. "Once we're inside, we're probably going to have to split up to search the place effectively. If you run into a psychic you can't handle, call back to me and Prodigy will tell you how to deal with it." He looked at Ken and Aya in turn. "It's not going to be easy. This is going to be about as brutal as going up against the Estet Elders was." He swallowed. "I know there's no love lost between you and Schwartz. I want to thank you now for helping us anyway. We'll owe you, big time."

"Let's just get this over with," Aya growled. "We'll decide whether or not we believe your stories when we see Schuldig and Crawford for ourselves."

Youji rolled his eyes. "Right. Good to know you're giving us the benefit of the doubt. You heard the man, you're on point. Lead the way."

"Prodigy," Omi said as they headed for the prison, "if your powers cut out, I want you to get the HELL out of there, understand? You can come back and try another day; I don't want you dying because you wouldn't run when you should have."

Nagi nodded reluctantly after a moment of thought. "All right," he agreed, and Omi sighed with relief. The telekinetic didn't HAVE any other skills that would be useful in a combat situation; without his powers, he was nothing more than a moving target. Since Nagi had suddenly begun insisting on being included in this mission, Omi had been having nightmare visions of the telekinetic being killed just moments before they rescued Schuldig. He would never be able to live with himself if Nagi was hurt on a mission HE had organized and led.

They were used to covering ground quickly as a unit; the addition of Nagi slowed them somewhat due to the boy's varied injuries, but they reached the prison relatively quickly. It had been a high security facility, surrounded by tall barbed wire fences and guard posts. Omi squinted at the guard towers, and made out a flash of sunlight off of metal. "We've got guards up there," he said, unslinging his crossbow from where it was strapped across his back. "Balinese, can your wire make it up that high?"

Youji held up a hand to visually measure the distance. "I'll have to be practically right under it, but yeah, it should. As long as there's not more than one guard per tower."

"The towers are too small for more than one person," Ken noted, flexing his fist to check that his claws were moving smoothly. "They'd be squished up against each other. Besides, this is a PRISON... it was designed to keep people in, not to guard on all sides."

"True enough," Youji conceded. Omi nodded.

"All right. Balinese, you take the tower on the right, its got cover closer to the base. I'll take the left tower. On my signal." He hefted the crossbow and loaded a bolt, then made his way through the underbrush to a spot that gave him a decent shot at the guard.

"Bombay, I'm in position," Youji's voice came over the communicator.

"On my mark, then," Omi replied quietly, taking careful aim at the base of the guard's throat. "Try to make sure he can't call out or scream. Three... two... mark!"

He fired the bolt, pulled another from the thigh sheath, set it against the string and jerked his arm back, cocking the bow again. He raised it back to his shoulder and sighted on the guard, just in time to see the man collapse below the level of the tower railing. Satisfied, he glanced over at the other tower, and could just barely make out the shine of the sun off a slender wire running straight up from the ground to the tower.

"Bombay, target down," Omi said into the mike. A moment later the wire snapped back down towards the ground, and Youji echoed him.

Omi made his way back to the others, and surveyed the main gates. "Getting through there is going to be difficult, even with the guards down," he noted. He looked around, but none of the trees were high enough for the trick they'd used to get into Masafumi's mansion. "Damn it. I could probably rewire the security system from the outside, but it'll take too long... somebody might notice the guards missing."

"I'll do it," Nagi said. "It's only metal mesh, not solid metal, it's not even that heavy. I can open it."

Omi bit his lip. Nagi was still exhausted from the day before, and judging from the pinched look around the boy's eyes, he was probably suffering from a nasty reaction headache too. And for all he knew, these people had some way of detecting psychic powers, which would reveal them the moment Nagi used his telekinesis. But it was also their best chance to get through the gates. "All right, do it," he finally said. “Everybody be ready to move fast - I want those gates open for as little time as possible. Prodigy, if you can, arrange it so they DON'T lock behind us... we might have to leave in a hurry."

Nagi nodded, and moved to a place where he could see the gates in their entirety. His fists clenched and he narrowed his eyes, and the white hunters readied themselves. After a moment there was a scraping sound, then one of the gates swung open just enough to allow a person to squeeze through. "Go!" Omi commanded, and they ran.

Nagi stopped just inside the gate and waited until the others were through, then the gate swung closed once more. Omi didn't hear it latch, however, and he nodded at Nagi. They made their way quickly through the open yard, Omi keeping a sharp ear out for guard dogs. That would be all they needed. But they made it to the doors without encountering any problems.

"Seems like there's minimal security," Ken noted as they caught their breath and examined the doors. "Not much of a lock on the doors, either. You'd think they'd be more paranoid!"

"They probably think that I'm dead," Nagi pointed out softly. "And they apparently don't know about our connection to you, so as far as they know, they don't have to worry about any rescue attempts. They just have to keep Crawford and Schuldig IN, and blocking their powers will do most of the work for them."

"Right," Omi said, fishing out his lockpicks and kneeling before the door. He inserted the slender tools and fished around carefully. Ken was right, the lock on the doors was old and not particularly secure. However, Omi discovered, it was also rusted, which made picking it somewhat difficult.

Finally there was a grating noise, and the tumblers fell into position. "Let's go,” Omi said triumphantly, standing and pocketing his picks again. “Stick together for now, we'll fan out later if we have to. Prodigy, can you feel ANYthing from Mastermind?" Nagi shook his head, and Omi sighed. "Me, neither. All right, we'll just have to find them the old fashioned way. Keep an eye out, there may be more security measures on the inside than on the outside."

They made their way through the hallways, stepping carefully over the occasional place where plaster on the walls or ceiling had crumbled a bit. The building hadn't been in use for decades, and it showed. They reached the end of entrance hall, which opened up into a lobby. Two wings led off in opposite directions; they could just make out the first of the cells lined up in rows on both sides. Another hall led away directly across from them... probably to a cafeteria, workrooms, that sort of thing. Omi glanced around and didn't see anyone in sight, and signaled a cautious all-clear. Ken and Aya started forward, and he gestured for them to go to the right, while he, Nagi and Youji would go to the left. Chances were good the two missing psychics were in the cellblocks, not the rest of the building.

"You're not supposed to be here," a high-pitched voice echoed through the room in surprise. Omi stopped, halfway across the room, and looked up. There was a narrow balcony around the top of the room, presumably for guards to stand on. He cursed himself for missing it. Standing almost directly above the door Weiss had just come out of was a child. Omi wasn't certain if it was a boy or a girl, but the expression on the youth's face was disturbingly empty. "I don't know who you are. I'm calling the guards."

"No!" Nagi reacted, reaching out towards the child. Plaster dust swirled around them in the wind kicked up by his powers, but the youth just looked back at him blankly.

"You shouldn't do that," the child said. "That's very bad. You're a very bad boy, and you're not allowed to be bad. I'll have to stop you."

The wind died abruptly, the debris it had been carrying falling to the floor in a shower of dust. Nagi cried out and raised a hand to his head. "My powers!"

"That kid must be what stopped you all from fighting back," Youji noted, pulling his wire. He sent it arcing towards the child, and Omi winced; he hated the idea of killing someone that young, but they didn't seem to have much choice.

The wire sang through the air, and inches from the youth it too stopped dead, and fell to the floor. Immediately Omi raised his crossbow and fired, but the bolt veered off to one side and buried itself harmlessly in the wall. "What the hell?" Ken exclaimed.

"He's... he's using my powers!" Nagi said. "He's not just blocking me, he's draining me, and using it against us!"

If that was the case, Omi fervently hoped the child wouldn't decide to turn Schuldig's powers against them as well. The telepath was strong enough to kill a man simply by overwhelming his mind, and Omi didn't particularly want to experience that. "Prodigy, get out of here!" he ordered, loading his crossbow again. "If you're not here, he can't absorb your powers. Siberian, Abyssinian, split up to either side... Balinese and I will keep him occupied."

He started to raise the crossbow again, but Nagi stepped in front of him, ruining his shot. He opened his mouth to warn the boy off, but something in the telekinetic's face stopped him. A look of enraged determination, like nothing he'd ever seen Nagi show before. "Get out, all of you," the telekinetic said, eyes narrowing further. The child cried out in surprise, and the wind picked up again, blowing back and forth across the room as if it were water sloshing in a tank.

A moment later Omi realized what was happening. Nagi was fighting back, trying to overwhelm the child with sheer power. And when one of them finally lost… "Oh gods... OUT! Everybody out of the room! NOW!" he ordered, scrambling for the nearest doorway. "They're going to bring it down on top of us!"

Sure enough, the structural supports in the room were already groaning under the pressure of an internal hurricane they had never been designed to handle. Both Nagi and the child were sweating, eyes locked as they battled for control of the telekinetic force. The rest of Weiss had vacated the room, scattering into the hallways, but Omi could see Youji and Aya standing near the entrances, watching the battle just as Omi was.

The sound of a scraping noise and the safety clicking off a gun sent Omi instinctively diving for the floor, without even looking around to see where it had come from. Gunfire sounded, abrasively loud in the enclosed area, making his ears ring. He rolled back onto his feet and grabbed three of his poison darts, spinning to locate the source of the gunfire. There were four guards behind him, running down the cellblock towards the lobby. Omi threw his darts and nailed two of them, then he rolled again as the last two started firing again.

Something stung on his shoulder, and he knew he'd been hit. Shock and adrenalin masked the pain; he wouldn't know how bad the wound was until he had a moment to stop and look at it. His arm dropped to his side, unresponsive to his mental commands. Swearing, he dropped his crossbow and grabbed more darts with his off hand, sending them spinning into the corridor. His aim wasn't as good with his left hand; he hit one of the remaining guards squarely, but only nicked the other.

The man staggered, the poison affecting him even with only a partial dose, but he weighed at least two hundred pounds and his own body mass slowed the effects of the lethal poison. He raised his gun and fired again. Omi tried to dodge, only to realize that he was effectively pinned between the wall, the guard, and the raging telekinetic force in the lobby - he had nowhere to go.

The poison in the guard's bloodstream was just strong enough to affect his aim; his bullet drew a line of blood across Omi's left cheek and then shattered the concrete wall behind him. Chips of concrete flew everywhere, and Omi was certain that half of them ended up buried in his body, but he was still alive. He used the last of his darts to drop the guard, and stood panting in the corridor, praying that no more of them would show up. Out of darts and unable to use his right arm to draw the crossbow, he was effectively helpless.

A horrid screeching noise echoed through the building, as if the very girders were protesting the events within. Omi started to turn, and a massive force hit him in the side, tossing him nearly a hundred feet further into the cellblock. He hit the ground hard and skidded along the rough floor, crying out in pain as the jolting aggravated the wound in his shoulder. He finally slid to a halt, surrounded by a choking cloud of dust that obscured everything more than a few feet away from him.

He scrambled to his feet, coughing as the dust entered his lungs. He tugged his sleeve down over his hand and raised his arm to his mouth, using the soft cotton as a filter so he could breathe. The dust was simply drifting slowly down to the floor; the only disturbances were where his own breath sent it swirling in the air. That was VERY bad… it mean he was trapped in an air pocket, with no influx of air at all. It also meant the end of the hall had been sealed shut by the collapsing room – and he only had one good arm to move rubble with.

Sternly telling himself not to panic, he picked his way through the debris towards the lobby… or more accurately, towards where the lobby had BEEN. The others had seen which hall he’d ducked into, and they would dig him out. IF they weren’t trapped themselves. IF they were even still alive. When he realized his teeth were chattering, Omi made himself stop thinking of ‘if’s.

“Please, kami-sama,” he murmured as scattered rubble turned to a sloped wall of concrete and steel. “Please, let it be not too thick. Please let them all be okay.” Gritting his teeth against the pain in his arm, he started to climb.

Nagi kept a tight leash on his powers until he was certain all of Weiss was safely out of the room - he didn't want them caught in the backlash. He kept pushing at the child on the catwalk with increasing increments of power, and each time he would be able to use his powers momentarily before the child reasserted himself and Nagi's telekinesis seemed to disappear into a void. It wasn't a void, though... it was the child himself, and he was using that same telekinetic power against Nagi in return.

It was the same trick that had allowed these people to defeat Schwartz in the first place; turning their own powers against them. But this time Nagi wasn't caught by surprise, and he was willing to do anything it took to free his Master. He knew that what he was planning was essentially suicide - after the total power expenditure the night before, using his telekinesis so recklessly now was putting a massive strain on his system. But it would be worth it, if it saved Schuldig.

As the tension in the room continued to build, Nagi poured everything he had into his powers, draining himself into the psychic black hole the child had created. "You're being very BAD!" the child screamed at him as the telekinetic force stopped whipping back and forth and became a whirlwind instead. The youth was starting to lose control of his stolen powers, and was forced to expend them simply to keep his body from overloading. "Very, very BAD, and you're going to get in trouble!"

Nagi gritted his teeth and clung to consciousness as darkness threatened to overwhelm his vision. He could feel his heart straining, beating far too fast in reaction to the energy he was using up. He loosed his control on his powers entirely, letting the full destructive force of his abilities slam into the boy. The youth screamed, a scream of pain rather than defiance this time, and Nagi smiled grimly. Crawford had told him once that he was possibly the most powerful telekinetic ever born, and he was still continuing to get stronger as he matured.

It was far too much power for such a young body to handle. The boy tried to absorb it, then frantically tried to use it up before it could overwhelm him, but Nagi was feeding it to him faster than he could expend it. He screamed again, and again, as the power ate him up from the inside out, literally tearing him apart.

The child wasn't the only thing being torn apart... unable to handle the strain of the massive amounts of telekinetic force the youth had poured out in an effort to save himself, the roof and walls of the room finally gave way. Tons of concrete and steel girders came crashing down on both of them with unbelievable crushing force. Released suddenly from the psychic void he'd been trapped in, Nagi threw the last of his powers outward in a desperate attempt to save himself from being hit by the collapsing building.

Debris showered around the bubble of force he’d formed, piling up on all sides. Belatedly he realized that he was probably going to seal off the side passages Weiss had escaped into, trapping them inside. He tried to redirect his powers to keep those halls clear as well.

He knew he'd gone too far when he felt his heart beat twice in double-time, pounding against his chest... and then stop, sent into shock by the strain. Pain spiraled through him as his powers cut out, and the last of the rubble fell through his shield and pounded into him. The world faded away, seeming to move in slow motion as he collapsed, gasping helplessly for air. His last thought was to wonder if he really WOULD die this time... and regret that he wouldn't be able to see his Master’s reaction to his newfound determination.

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