Though the lab was situated in the middle of a dense forest about half an hour from Tokyo, all the trees within about a hundred yards of the complex had been cleared away. A ridiculously high fence ringed the open area, wicked looking barbed wire edging the top. The occasional rotting bird or squirrel body at the base of the fence let us know that touching it would be a really bad idea, and we could hear the hum of electricity along the wires in the still air. To top it off, it was mid-afternoon and the sun was shining brightly, leaving not a whole lot of shadows for cover. It made me uncomfortable to be working in daylight - traditionally Weiss' missions were carried out under the cover of darkness.

None of the trees near the fence were anywhere near high enough for us to try the trick that had gotten us into the Schrient mansion - shooting a rope over the top of the fence then sliding along it from the treetops. In addition, there were surveillance cameras everywhere. We'd had to disable two of them already just to get this close, which meant we had very little time before our presence was noted and the alarm was sounded.

Nagi had made it this far under his own power, but he wasn't holding up well. Leaning against a tree, he was trembling visibly and panting for breath. Sweat stood out on his face and the strain of effort was clear in his expression. He wasn't going to make it much further without help, and we all knew the impending disastrous explosion was getting closer with every moment that went by.

"There's a gate, about a hundred feet from here," he gasped, voice ragged with tension. He pointed shakily off to the left, and by squinting I could just make it out. "I have codes that should open it without setting off the alarms. After that, though, we're almost sure to be spotted crossing the grounds."

"We'll have to take that risk," Youji said. "There's no other way in, and we can't afford to wait for darkness. Let's go."

Nagi stumbled twice on the way to the gate, and finally I slung my arm around his waist, supporting him. He looked frustrated at needing the help, but he didn't protest, leaning his weight against me.

Ran took care of the cameras around the gate, and Nagi reached up with a shaking hand to punch in the access code. The little keypad beeped twice, then the lock clicked back and the gate swung slowly open.

"Keep your eyes open," Ran instructed as we filed through the narrow passage. "This has been far too simple. Stay alert and watch your backs."

"Hai, hai, okaa-san," Youji teased him, and Ran frowned. I just shook my head, glad to see that we were falling back into being a team so easily. We braced ourselves, then took off across the open area, heading for the door directly across from us.

The only warning of danger we had was a single, sharp bark; then the dogs were on us, snarling and biting ferociously. From my left, I heard Youji cry out, and then his wires sang. Two of the dogs were caught up in the fine strands, choked yelps of pain cut off as their windpipes were severed. Ran was fending off two more with his katana, which left the last two for me.

I clenched my fist around the lever that made the claws spring forward, and slashed back at the warm, furry body throwing itself against me. Nagi was clutching at my off side as the second dog jumped at him, crying out in pain as the teeth connected in his forearm. I had just that much warning before the blast hit me, sweeping me back off my feet and sending me tumbling head over heels. One of the dogs was tangled up with me, whining in confusion and fear. I knew how it felt.

The sheer force of it was crushing my body against itself, until it felt like my chest was going to implode. I could hear my ribs creaking in protest, and there was a horrible wet choking noise beside me as the dog's body gave out beneath the pressure.

"N-Nagi..." I gritted out, fighting to draw breath into my squeezed lungs. Just when I was seeing stars from lack of oxygen, the devastating force vanished, leaving me gasping for air.

Struggling to my hands and knees, I saw that Ran and Youji hadn't fared much better. Ran was pulling himself up against the building of the wall, and I swear there was a dent where his body had impacted. Youji had managed to haul the two bodies of the dogs around to take the brunt of the blast on his side, but he was bleeding heavily from his thigh and one shoulder where he'd been bitten, and was cursing profusely.

Nagi was curled up on the ground, clutching his head. I could see the glitter of his eyes from between his arms, so he was still conscious, but he looked like he was in a lot of pain. The bite on his arm seeped blood, but thankfully wasn't particularly serious.

I hauled myself over to his side. "Hey, you okay?" It was a stupid question, since he obviously wasn't okay, but it was the best I could do on short notice.

Clenching his fists, he pushed himself upright, gasping from the effort. "I'm sorry. I..." He coughed, doubling over, and a phantom breeze ruffled my hair and tugged at my clothes.

"Calm down, kiddo," Youji rested his hand against Nagi's shoulder, having made his own way over to us. "We're almost there. Just hang in a little longer, and with any luck, this will all be over for good soon."

We all sort of supported each other as we staggered over to where Ran was waiting at the door, katana out and ready to face any more surprises. He looked a little shaky too, and though there were no visible wounds on him, I was willing to bet he'd be a mass of black and blue in the morning.

Nagi didn't have the strength to work the keypad this time, so he gave me the code and I entered it. The door hissed open like a vault or an airlock, and the corridor gaped darkly beyond it.

"Still no sign of any guards," Youji noted, then grimaced. "Well, except for the dogs. But still..."

"They're likely at the lab itself," Nagi informed him breathily. "It's not far - down this hall, to the left."

"Then let's go." Ran moved into the doorway first, gliding forward with that cat-like grace of his, katana held in defensive stance before him. We couldn't walk three abreast in the narrow hall, so Youji scooped Nagi up into his arms, grimacing at the strain on his wounded shoulder, but making no sound of protest. I took the rear, claw out and ready, praying the coming confrontation wouldn't take too long. Nagi was fading fast, and that meant we were rapidly running out of time.

At the T-junction at the end of the hall, Ran paused and peered cautiously around the corner. Pulling back quickly, he motioned us forward.

"Three guards," he hissed quietly, long practice having removed any trace of sibilance from his voice. Another foot away, and I'd never have been able to hear him. It was a trick we'd all learned, during those long bloody nights, years ago.

Nagi shook his head, to clear it I guess, and peeked around the corner to see for himself. Nodding, he pulled back.

"The same two telekinetics he had when he grabbed me. The other one is a teleporter - he can only move himself short distances, but in a close-range fight it can be very confusing. Grabbing him doesn't work, he just vanishes out from beneath you, so watch your back at all times."

"What about the telekinetics?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Featherweights, both of them. They won't be able to hurt you directly, but if there are small objects lying around, they can throw them at you. With enough fine control, that can be disconcerting, because they don't follow the trajectory your mind anticipates for them."

"There may be others inside as well," Ran pointed out. "We'll have no way of knowing what reinforcements they have until they arrive. Nagi, stay here but keep an eye out, and warn us of anyone you see coming. Let's go."

Youji set Nagi down, and the three of us charged around the corner. Ran managed to catch one of the telekinetics by surprise, scoring a serious hit with his sword, and then the battle began in earnest.

Youji's wires sang out towards the second telekinetic as I charged towards the teleporter. He just smirked at me, and the instant I came within range, his form blinked out of existence. A curse from behind me was the only warning of something else going wrong, before the near-invisible strands of the wires suddenly tangled my feet.

"Oi, Youji!" I protested, stumbling against the wall, and managing to turn and deflect a blow from the teleporter at the last second. He'd pulled a heavy club from somewhere, and while he didn't seem terribly proficient with it, one hit would be enough to put me out of commission for a while.

"Not my fault!" Youji protested from a few feet away, struggling to unwrap his weapon from around me. The telekinetic had her eyes half-closed and her hand outstretched towards me, and I realized that she'd managed to catch the wires and redirect them out of Youji's control.

Ran charged past me to swing at the teleporter, who vanished just before the sword connected. I managed to kick the last of the wires free and took a swipe at the woman who'd been controlling them. She bounced out of the way with only a minor scratch to show for my effort, but her concentration had been broken. Youji hastily reeled in the wires, putting them out of reach.

"Just use your fists," Ran instructed him as he feinted and thrust at the teleporter. Youji complied, spinning to land a solid punch on the injured telekinetic, who'd been sneaking up behind him. I saw several sharp-looking metal objects fall to the ground nearby as the telekinetic slumped over, apparently unconscious.

"One down, two to go!" I exclaimed, swiping again at the woman before me. She gestured hastily, and a table skittered along the floor from farther down the hall to smack into the small of my back. It didn't hurt, but it did set me off balance and sent me to one knee.

Before I could push myself back up, I felt a weird little tickling sensation on the back of my hand. Glancing down, I watched in horror as a massive hairy spider ponderously crawled up my hand towards my arm. It was huge, and I swear I could see the poison dripping off of its fangs.

Yelling in disgust, I flung the horrible thing away from me as hard as I could. I was hardly what you could term a 'sissy', but if there was one thing that truly, truly terrified me, it was spiders. Somewhere in the back of my head, logic was whispering that spiders didn't even have fangs, but fear easily won out over rationality.

I swore as more of the awful things swarmed out of vents near the floor and rushed up my legs, frantically trying to brush them off my body. Three more appeared for every one I got rid of, and I started to seriously panic.

"Ken!" I heard Youji yelling at me, but the words didn't make it past the terror in my brain. "Ken! What's wrong? What're you doing?"

"Get 'em off me!" I screamed hysterically, raking my claws down my own leg to scrape them away. Blood seeped sluggishly from the furrows I'd made, and the spiders rushed for it like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Any second I knew I'd feel the sharp stinging pain of a bite, followed by another, and another, and then I'd die writhing on the floor from the awful poison...

Somebody tackled me from behind as I took another swipe at my legs, pinning me to the floor as I squirmed and shouted hoarsely. I could feel the multitudes of hairy legs wriggling over my skin, oh my god, they'd gotten inside my clothes, oh god, oh god...

Then suddenly they vanished, and I was left panting on the floor, Ran straddling my back and keeping me from doing any more damage to myself. Stunned and a little dazed, I glanced around to see where the swarm of arachnids had disappeared to. There was no sign of them, nothing to show that they had ever existed. Even the vents they'd appeared from were gone.

"What happened?" Ran let me up as I returned to coherency, and I turned to see that all three of our opponents were down and bleeding on the floor. A fourth was dangling from Youji's wires, choking and fighting to draw breath past the constriction at her throat. As I watched, her body jerked once more and then slumped over, lifeless.

"What the hell was that?" I croaked out, feeling the last of the terror draining from my system. I flushed, more than a little embarrassed, and Youji shook his head.

"She's a telepath," Nagi said, creeping around the corner. "She specializes in pulling your worst nightmare out of your mind, then convincing you that you're living through it. But she can only concentrate on one person at a time."

"What did you see?" Youji asked curiously, as he tore a strip from one of the fallen telekinetic's clothing to quickly bind the wound on my leg. I shook my head and muttered something incomprehensible, and he chuckled.

"Okay, Ken-ken, I'll let you keep your phobias to yourself." Helping me stand, he gestured towards the door. "We're keeping our hosts waiting, boys. Hate to be rude."

Nagi nodded, and Ran reached for the doorknob. There was no keypad beside this one - anyone who made it this far was presumed to have the proper clearance. Sloppy of them, but I wasn't going to protest our luck.

The door crashed open before Ran could touch it, sending the redhead stumbling back into me. I peered around his shoulder and cursed - the man standing calmly in the doorway had a gun trained directly on Ran's heart. From the size and caliber of the weapon, it looked like the bullet would probably punch right through his body and get me, too.

"Welcome, gentlemen," The platinum-blond man fairly purred in lightly accented Japanese. "We've been awaiting you." His cold brown eyes flicked briefly over the bodies in the hallway, before dismissing them as unimportant. "A pity my associates couldn't give you a more entertaining welcome," was all he said.

"Wellesley," Nagi gasped out, leaning heavily against Youji for support. He spat the name like it tasted bad, glaring for all he was worth at the Englishman.

"Ah, Naoe-san, how good of you to join us," Wellesley greeted him smoothly. "I'm certain you're all quite anxious as to the fate of your friend, yes? Why don't I bring you to check on him." He stepped to one side, the gun still firmly trained on Ran, and gestured for us to precede him through the doorway.

Ran moved stiffly forward, and I trailed behind him, not certain of what we could do. Even without the threat of the gun, we didn't know what, if any, powers this man had. I heard Youji and Nagi shuffling along behind me, and saw Wellesley following from the corner of my eye.

The room laid out before us was like something out of a science-fiction writer's nightmares, strewn with unidentifiable equipment and computer readouts. On a metal table in the center, Omi had been laid out, strapped down and one sleeve torn off to allow an IV needle to be inserted into his arm. A man in a white lab coat was affixing a bag of clear yellow liquid to the IV, while two others stood by and took notes from the monitors. In the back, a tall man of unidentifiable age stood watchfully, and I could feel the power radiating off of them.

"Good evening boys," he said to us in a grating voice. His accent was harsh and it was hard to make out what he was saying.

Nagi had turned pale at the sight of Omi's frail form lying stretched out on the examining table, and I heard a couple of glass beakers near him rattle before he took a deep breath and got control of himself.

"What are you doing to him?" He demanded harshly, his grip on Youji's arm white-knuckled.

"Why, we are improving him," the old man chuckled. "Granting him abilities he has never dreamed of possessing. When the procedure is complete, he will be our most powerful tool in existence."

"No!" The little plastic bag of fluid on the IV stand exploded, splattering all over both Omi and the scientist. The white-coated man made a disconcerted sound, staring in shock at the remnants of the bag in his hand.

Nagi panted, struggling to stay focused, and turned his gaze on the old man in the corner. "Let him go!" he ordered, his voice reedy and thin.

"Oh, I think not," the man replied. "That was very impressive for you to muster that much control, but I'm well aware of your current limitations. And if you try something so foolish again, Wellesley will not hesitate to shoot one of your new friends."

On the table, Omi stirred faintly. Blue eyes cracked open and he slowly turned his head to face us. He'd obviously been sedated with something fairly powerful, but was fighting through the effects.

"Itoushi..." he whispered, catching and holding Nagi's dark gaze. He didn't even seem to see the rest of us, having eyes only for his lover. "You're okay. I was afraid..."

"Ah. I'm okay for now, Omi." Nagi pulled himself upright and let go of Youji's supporting arm, clearly trying to be strong so that Omi wouldn't worry for him.

"How very touching," Wellesley sneered, and I felt the gun barrel digging into my back.

"Closest you'll ever get to real love," I snarled at him, glaring back over my shoulder. He shrugged, looking unoffended.

"Love is a weakness," he replied carelessly. "As is friendship. Without those things, we'd never have been able to control either of them."

"Love... is a strength..." Omi gasped, sweat popping out on his forehead. "With Nagi by me... I can do things... I wouldn't ever dream of without him."

"Omi..." Nagi's eyes widened, and his expression firmed. "I won't let you hurt him."

With a strangled sound, Wellesley flew back against the far wall. The gun went off, the bullet flying harmlessly over my shoulder, and I spun, claws out, to take out his throat. Youji had already moved to contain the three scientists, and Ran was flying towards the old man, sword held ready before him.

"No!" Nagi called Ran off, snarling, "He's mine!" A wave of force flew from him towards the Esstet agent, sending the old man stumbling back. I could see the agony his efforts were causing him in the whiteness of his face and the way he had his lower lip clenched between his teeth, but he managed to keep control. Ran had changed his direction, and was now moving to free Omi of the straps. I decided to keep back out of the way.

"You may have been more powerful than me once, but you cannot hope to defeat me in your present state, child!" The man swept his own arm towards Nagi, and everything between them shattered as the two telekinetic forces met in the middle.

The roar of power was incredible, and I could see Nagi losing ground in the struggle. He was forced back one pace, then another, and finally dropped to one knee. I tried to make my way to him, to help support him, but found I was actually pinned against the wall from the residual power.

Eyes blazing in fury, Nagi summoned all of his strength for one final push. "I will not fail Omi!" He cried, and flung his arms outward.

The man was shoved right back through the glass observation window behind him, crying out in pain. Staggered and wounded, he shoved himself to his feet, stared open-mouthed at Nagi for a brief moment, saw Ran moving towards him with a clear intent to kill in his face, and turned and fled.

I started after him instantly, but was halted by Omi's soft cry of distress. Seeing him staring back over my shoulder, I turned to see Nagi huddled, shivering, on the floor, arms wrapped around his own torso like he was trying to hold himself in one piece.

"Nagi!" I skidded to a halt, then made my way back to the dark-haired boy, concerned by the amount of power he'd had to gather to defeat the old man.

"I..." He glanced up at me, eyes wide and unfocused. "I can't... hold it..." His entire body shuddered, and pretty much everything breakable around us shattered all at once. "I can't..."

"Nagi!" Omi turned to the scientists, still held immobile by Youji's tight grip on his wires. "Do something!" He insisted, gesturing at the pathetic form beside me. "Or you'll all die with him, when he loses control of his powers!"

One glance at the still vibrating bits and pieces of their lab seemed to convince the three doctors of the seriousness of the situation, and Youji quickly freed them.

"I remember him," one of the men gasped, bending to examine Nagi briefly. "He forced me to give him the anti-psychic drug we were working on!"

"So that's why they've been wanting us to make so much of the antidote," one of the others murmured, wide-eyed. "But we don't have the proper chemicals here to make it!"

"Then..." Nagi gasped, panting for air. "I suggest you run..."

"No!" Omi struggled out of Ran's supporting grasp and stumbled over to kneel beside his lover, drawing the younger boy into his arms. "I won't leave you," He whispered, low enough that no one but Nagi and I could hear it. "I won't let you die alone, Itoushi."

"The antidote is only temporary anyway," I said desperately to the scientist on my other side. "Isn't there anything you can do to fix him permanently?"

He shook his head, but before he could speak and crush all our hopes, one of the others suddenly said, "What if we gave him the enhancement drug?"

The first man - apparently the head of the team - blinked. "The enhancement drug?" he parroted, surprised by the notion.

"You mean the stuff you were going to give Omi?" I asked, confused as to how that would help. But the head doctor was nodding, a slow smile spreading across his rugged features.

"Yes. Yes, that might work. We've nothing to lose, at any rate. Quickly, get him up on the table. Fetch more of the enhancer. Quickly now!"

Ran and I lifted the shivering form of Nagi up onto the table, Omi trailing us clutching his hand. Nagi's eyes were clenched shut as he fought against the pain, his hand nearly crushing Omi's in its grip. Omi didn't protest, soothing back the sweaty bangs from Nagi's forehead with his free hand.

Swiftly the IV was set up once more, this time the needle sliding into Nagi's arm. Long moments passed as we hovered around the tense form nervously, the three scientists checking and rechecking the readings on what few monitors were left.

Slowly, slowly, the horrible stiffness leeched from Nagi's body. He opened his eyes, seeming dazed at the loss of the pain that had been with him constantly for so long.

"Omi?" he whispered, glancing up. "It doesn't hurt any more."

"It's working," one of the scientists confirmed. "Adrenaline levels are dropping, brainwaves are stabilizing. The enhancement drug is counteracting the poison in his system."

I let out a long sigh of relief, not realizing until then that I'd been holding my breath. Omi clutched Nagi against him in a tight hug, careful not to jar the IV in the fragile arm. It didn't make a lot of sense to me that one drug would somehow cancel out the other when they weren't even really related, but hey, I was no chemist. For all I knew, they actually were related.

Seeing Nagi's face as he was held by Omi, free of pain and full of hope and joy for the first time, a warm feeling filled my chest. Omi glanced at each of us in turn, eyes brimming with tears of happiness.

"Arigatou, minna-kun," he whispered, voice choked with emotion. "You'll never know how much this means to me. To us."

I rested a hand on his shoulder, smiling down at him. "Hey. What are friends for?"

|Part 1| |Part 2| |Part 3| |Part 4| |Part 5| |Part 6| |Part 7| |Part 8|

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