Author's Notes: Thanks for being patient everyone, and sorry for the delay.
I've been out of town for a couple of weeks, with limited computer access.
Enjoy! R&R!
Chapter Four: Do You Think Time Would Pass Us By?
Lai waited until they were out of earshot from her father's office to attack Hitner with the plea again.
"Why? Why can't we change it?"
He looked around and leaned close to her. "Do you have any concept of what you're really suggesting? If we go back and stop that man –criminal- from dying, everything would change. Your father would never come back to Rosenkreuz, Nagi would never meet Yushimi, Yui would never be born, and people who were supposed to live will die. It only takes one person to screw up history."
Lai slapped him. "That criminal meant something to my father, you creep. And I would look in the mirror before you use that word on anyone else. Did you ever stop to think that maybe the two of us were brought together so he could live?"
Hitner had recoiled with her physical hit. He glowered at her. "Did you ever think that maybe he's just supposed to be dead?" he asked coldly.
"You heard what my father told him just as clearly as I did. We could be the way." She said.
He shook his head. "I refuse to have any part of it. There's another trick to this, angel. If we turn time back before the dates of our birth, we could cease to exist."
"Could or will?"
"Could. I've never tried. I've just been warned."
Lai tilted her head. "Warned? By another time controller?"
Hitner nodded.
"There's a third?" she exclaimed.
"He was old when I met him. He told me I was the only one left. He's dead now."
"I'm sorry." Lai said.
Hitner shrugged. "No skin of my nose. I was perfectly happy being alone until you showed up." He began to walk away.
Lai put her hands on her hips. "Excuse me, you showed up here! And I'll do it without you!" she shouted. "Men." She growled when he was gone.
The two young people avoided each other adamantly all through the rest of the day. Crawford watched with passive interest. He knew, just knew that something was up between the two of them. He was still concerned about Lai lying to him. It all had to do with her time ability, too, he knew. He attempted to discuss it with her, but she dismissed it; and he let the matter drop.
Watching her go off to her room for bed that night, he wished he hadn't. The funny feeling he'd had all day was growing by the minute. He retired to bed as well, restless and feeling alone.
Lai sat on her bed and focused her mind. She found the mental rewind button that she had created and pushed all her energy into it. She could feel the world blur by her. It was like being underwater in a storm, and she was subject to the will of something out of her control. She let go, and the blur disappeared, leaving her in her room, still on her bed. She looked at the clock.
The neon green light flashed an ominous 10:50p.m.
"Ugh!" She yelled. She flopped back on her bed. "Five friggin minutes. A lot of good that does me. I can't go back twenty years five minutes at a time." She threw a decoration pillow at the wall.
Lai closed her eyes and focused again. When her head started to hurt, she let go.
10:42p.m.
"Shimatta!"
Her door flung open. Hitner stood there, auburn hair falling around his face, hazel eyes flashing.
"What in the name of the saints do you think you're doing?" he hissed.
"Come in and shut the door if you're so interested." Lai snapped back.
He shut the door and sat on her desk chair again. "It really was annoying to re-read four pages in a book before I caught on."
"The maybe you should read an easier book." Lai said flatly.
He started laughing. "How far did you get? Twenty minutes?"
She hesitated before blurting out, "Thirteen."
He laughed even harder and shook his head. "You're completely hopeless."
"I don't see you helping."
He sighed and stared at her. She was lovely in a fierce sort of way. There was a fire subdued underneath her cheerfulness. A passion that was showing in her honest if not futile attempts to change the past. She looked up and blue locked with gold.
"You are really willing to risk your life and the course of world history to save one man?"
She nodded. "But not the man you think."
"If you can be patient enough to wait until midnight," Hitner started; he sighed and softened his tone, "I'll help you."
The spark lit in her eyes. "You mean it?"
He nodded.
She jumped up and hugged him on the spot. "You're beautiful." She exclaimed.
He shrugged her off. "I'll be right back."
Lai sat back on her bed and waited. If everyone had a reason for being born, this –just maybe this- was hers. And his.
Hitner reappeared. He was dressed in black slacks, a black turtleneck, and carried a black bag.
"What's that for?" she asked.
"In case we survive and show up in Tokyo, 2002." Hitner said. "You may want to pack some stuff too."
She nodded and grabbed a bag from under her bed. As she packed, she thought. "If we just disappear, do you think we'll be reborn later?"
"I don't know. It's possible."
She placed some clothes, books, and her weapon of choice in the bag. "Will they remember?"
"No."
Lai zipped the bag and stepped into her closet to change. She picked out a dark purple shirt and black jeans. Hitner couldn't stop himself from watching her silhouette as she changed, and looked away blushing slightly as she reemerged.
Completely oblivious, Lai flopped onto her bed and sighed. "Time yet?"
"Not yet."
Minutes ticked by in silence as neither could find anything to say.
Finally, "We can go now." Hitner said quietly. He moved and sat across from Lai on her bed. He held his bag in his lap and she did the same.
"Give me your hands." He ordered.
She slipped her fingers into his and waited for the next step. He took a deep breath. This wouldn't be so bad either way. He didn't have anything to live for in this time, so if they vanished it wouldn't be his loss. He could always find something new if they made it. They were better off either way. Even if she was beautiful.
"Close your eyes." He said.
They both did.
/Now focus, like we did with the memory. Just focus everything. Hold nothing back at all. Nothing. Your entire mind has to be on this./
Lai cleared her mind of everything. Or so she thought.
Hitner half smiled. /You've got to let him go if you're going to change it for him."
/I don't know if I…/
/You can./
Lai Crawford bit her lip and slowly let the image of her father fade away. Hitner instinctively squeezed her right hand.
/Find the rewind button./
/Got it./
/Me too. Ready?/
/Ready./
/Let's go./
Their combined energy slowly melted the world away. The underwater blur Lai had felt before was now a raging tempest of events taking place in the twenty years they were so casually undoing. They held on tighter to each other's hands as the strain became greater and greater, and the pressure became stronger. Years melted away, as the two of them un-wrote what had been written.
Crawford turned his head, as his sleep became restless. There was warmth emanating from something on his right, but he didn't know what it was. He felt something brush against his forehead and his eyes flickered semi-open.
"Well, well. The almighty Brad Crawford decides to wake up."
Crawford frowned. That voice…it was strange but somehow familiar.
"Come on, Braddy, we don't have all day here. Some of us have meetings we have to go to or suffer the consequences. Did I mention the consequences involved golf clubs?"
Braddy? No one had called him that since…"Schuldig?" he gasped.
The tone in the voice dropped slightly. "At least we know you don't have amnesia."
"Why would I have amnesia?" he asked absently. He was so disoriented…
"Then again…"
He forced his eyes fully open and met a green, sardonically smiling gaze. A gaze that belonged to Schuldig. Schuldig, sitting on the right side of his bed, grinning at him. He was wearing his usual shirt and slacks outfit, minus the blazer.
The blazer, blood on the blazer…Brad inhaled sharply and looked away. What was happening to him? There shouldn't be anything strange about Schuldig sitting on his bed, alive and breathing. He lived with the man, and Nagi and Farfarello. Why then did he feel like he was lying next to a ghost of the past?
"I know I'm not the most pleasant thing you would pick to wake up too, but you don't have to be so blunt about it." Schuldig said, a teasing note in his voice.
Brad turned his head to look at him again, a mask of disbelief and confusion written on his face. Schuldig frowned and placed his hand on Brad's forehead for the second time.
"What's the matter?" he asked, serious now.
"What happened?" It seemed like the most sensible question at the moment.
Schuldig sat back and watched his leader carefully. "We had a mission a day and a half ago. You got hit in the head by flying debris, believe it or not. I can't figure out how you didn't see it coming."
Brad shot him a look.
Schuldig held up his hands. "I meant literally. The brick that hit you wasn't pebble sized, you know."
"I don't remember." Brad mumbled.
Schuldig patted his shoulder. "Don't stress it. It's probably not something you want to remember anyway. Getting smashed in the head by a brick isn't something I would want to remember." He looked at his watch. "I have to go. I'd stay, but I don't trust Nagi and Farf on their own…" he shrugged.
The German stood and moved away. Brad curled into the sheets as the warmth left him.
Two minutes later he heard the nasal voice again, from downstairs. "Crawford, what did you do with my coat?" Schuldig shouted.
/I didn't do anything with your coat./ Crawford said. He didn't feel like shouting, and why bother when you lived with a human intercom?
/I heard that./
Brad suppressed a grin, half hid in his pillow. Five minutes later he heard:
"Never mind! I found it behind the couch!" /Of all places…I must have been drunk or something…/ He added mentally.
/It wouldn't be out of the ordinary./ Brad retorted.
Schuldig didn't dignify the comment with a reply. He, Nagi, and Farfarello were out the door a moment later, leaving the Schwarz household silent.
Brad turned over and stared at the ceiling. Why did this seem so surreal? This was everyday life, just as it always was. He sighed. It was probably just the after-affects of the bump on his head.
Which while painful, he still couldn't remember getting.
Chapter Four: Do You Think Time Would Pass Us By?
Lai waited until they were out of earshot from her father's office to attack Hitner with the plea again.
"Why? Why can't we change it?"
He looked around and leaned close to her. "Do you have any concept of what you're really suggesting? If we go back and stop that man –criminal- from dying, everything would change. Your father would never come back to Rosenkreuz, Nagi would never meet Yushimi, Yui would never be born, and people who were supposed to live will die. It only takes one person to screw up history."
Lai slapped him. "That criminal meant something to my father, you creep. And I would look in the mirror before you use that word on anyone else. Did you ever stop to think that maybe the two of us were brought together so he could live?"
Hitner had recoiled with her physical hit. He glowered at her. "Did you ever think that maybe he's just supposed to be dead?" he asked coldly.
"You heard what my father told him just as clearly as I did. We could be the way." She said.
He shook his head. "I refuse to have any part of it. There's another trick to this, angel. If we turn time back before the dates of our birth, we could cease to exist."
"Could or will?"
"Could. I've never tried. I've just been warned."
Lai tilted her head. "Warned? By another time controller?"
Hitner nodded.
"There's a third?" she exclaimed.
"He was old when I met him. He told me I was the only one left. He's dead now."
"I'm sorry." Lai said.
Hitner shrugged. "No skin of my nose. I was perfectly happy being alone until you showed up." He began to walk away.
Lai put her hands on her hips. "Excuse me, you showed up here! And I'll do it without you!" she shouted. "Men." She growled when he was gone.
The two young people avoided each other adamantly all through the rest of the day. Crawford watched with passive interest. He knew, just knew that something was up between the two of them. He was still concerned about Lai lying to him. It all had to do with her time ability, too, he knew. He attempted to discuss it with her, but she dismissed it; and he let the matter drop.
Watching her go off to her room for bed that night, he wished he hadn't. The funny feeling he'd had all day was growing by the minute. He retired to bed as well, restless and feeling alone.
Lai sat on her bed and focused her mind. She found the mental rewind button that she had created and pushed all her energy into it. She could feel the world blur by her. It was like being underwater in a storm, and she was subject to the will of something out of her control. She let go, and the blur disappeared, leaving her in her room, still on her bed. She looked at the clock.
The neon green light flashed an ominous 10:50p.m.
"Ugh!" She yelled. She flopped back on her bed. "Five friggin minutes. A lot of good that does me. I can't go back twenty years five minutes at a time." She threw a decoration pillow at the wall.
Lai closed her eyes and focused again. When her head started to hurt, she let go.
10:42p.m.
"Shimatta!"
Her door flung open. Hitner stood there, auburn hair falling around his face, hazel eyes flashing.
"What in the name of the saints do you think you're doing?" he hissed.
"Come in and shut the door if you're so interested." Lai snapped back.
He shut the door and sat on her desk chair again. "It really was annoying to re-read four pages in a book before I caught on."
"The maybe you should read an easier book." Lai said flatly.
He started laughing. "How far did you get? Twenty minutes?"
She hesitated before blurting out, "Thirteen."
He laughed even harder and shook his head. "You're completely hopeless."
"I don't see you helping."
He sighed and stared at her. She was lovely in a fierce sort of way. There was a fire subdued underneath her cheerfulness. A passion that was showing in her honest if not futile attempts to change the past. She looked up and blue locked with gold.
"You are really willing to risk your life and the course of world history to save one man?"
She nodded. "But not the man you think."
"If you can be patient enough to wait until midnight," Hitner started; he sighed and softened his tone, "I'll help you."
The spark lit in her eyes. "You mean it?"
He nodded.
She jumped up and hugged him on the spot. "You're beautiful." She exclaimed.
He shrugged her off. "I'll be right back."
Lai sat back on her bed and waited. If everyone had a reason for being born, this –just maybe this- was hers. And his.
Hitner reappeared. He was dressed in black slacks, a black turtleneck, and carried a black bag.
"What's that for?" she asked.
"In case we survive and show up in Tokyo, 2002." Hitner said. "You may want to pack some stuff too."
She nodded and grabbed a bag from under her bed. As she packed, she thought. "If we just disappear, do you think we'll be reborn later?"
"I don't know. It's possible."
She placed some clothes, books, and her weapon of choice in the bag. "Will they remember?"
"No."
Lai zipped the bag and stepped into her closet to change. She picked out a dark purple shirt and black jeans. Hitner couldn't stop himself from watching her silhouette as she changed, and looked away blushing slightly as she reemerged.
Completely oblivious, Lai flopped onto her bed and sighed. "Time yet?"
"Not yet."
Minutes ticked by in silence as neither could find anything to say.
Finally, "We can go now." Hitner said quietly. He moved and sat across from Lai on her bed. He held his bag in his lap and she did the same.
"Give me your hands." He ordered.
She slipped her fingers into his and waited for the next step. He took a deep breath. This wouldn't be so bad either way. He didn't have anything to live for in this time, so if they vanished it wouldn't be his loss. He could always find something new if they made it. They were better off either way. Even if she was beautiful.
"Close your eyes." He said.
They both did.
/Now focus, like we did with the memory. Just focus everything. Hold nothing back at all. Nothing. Your entire mind has to be on this./
Lai cleared her mind of everything. Or so she thought.
Hitner half smiled. /You've got to let him go if you're going to change it for him."
/I don't know if I…/
/You can./
Lai Crawford bit her lip and slowly let the image of her father fade away. Hitner instinctively squeezed her right hand.
/Find the rewind button./
/Got it./
/Me too. Ready?/
/Ready./
/Let's go./
Their combined energy slowly melted the world away. The underwater blur Lai had felt before was now a raging tempest of events taking place in the twenty years they were so casually undoing. They held on tighter to each other's hands as the strain became greater and greater, and the pressure became stronger. Years melted away, as the two of them un-wrote what had been written.
Crawford turned his head, as his sleep became restless. There was warmth emanating from something on his right, but he didn't know what it was. He felt something brush against his forehead and his eyes flickered semi-open.
"Well, well. The almighty Brad Crawford decides to wake up."
Crawford frowned. That voice…it was strange but somehow familiar.
"Come on, Braddy, we don't have all day here. Some of us have meetings we have to go to or suffer the consequences. Did I mention the consequences involved golf clubs?"
Braddy? No one had called him that since…"Schuldig?" he gasped.
The tone in the voice dropped slightly. "At least we know you don't have amnesia."
"Why would I have amnesia?" he asked absently. He was so disoriented…
"Then again…"
He forced his eyes fully open and met a green, sardonically smiling gaze. A gaze that belonged to Schuldig. Schuldig, sitting on the right side of his bed, grinning at him. He was wearing his usual shirt and slacks outfit, minus the blazer.
The blazer, blood on the blazer…Brad inhaled sharply and looked away. What was happening to him? There shouldn't be anything strange about Schuldig sitting on his bed, alive and breathing. He lived with the man, and Nagi and Farfarello. Why then did he feel like he was lying next to a ghost of the past?
"I know I'm not the most pleasant thing you would pick to wake up too, but you don't have to be so blunt about it." Schuldig said, a teasing note in his voice.
Brad turned his head to look at him again, a mask of disbelief and confusion written on his face. Schuldig frowned and placed his hand on Brad's forehead for the second time.
"What's the matter?" he asked, serious now.
"What happened?" It seemed like the most sensible question at the moment.
Schuldig sat back and watched his leader carefully. "We had a mission a day and a half ago. You got hit in the head by flying debris, believe it or not. I can't figure out how you didn't see it coming."
Brad shot him a look.
Schuldig held up his hands. "I meant literally. The brick that hit you wasn't pebble sized, you know."
"I don't remember." Brad mumbled.
Schuldig patted his shoulder. "Don't stress it. It's probably not something you want to remember anyway. Getting smashed in the head by a brick isn't something I would want to remember." He looked at his watch. "I have to go. I'd stay, but I don't trust Nagi and Farf on their own…" he shrugged.
The German stood and moved away. Brad curled into the sheets as the warmth left him.
Two minutes later he heard the nasal voice again, from downstairs. "Crawford, what did you do with my coat?" Schuldig shouted.
/I didn't do anything with your coat./ Crawford said. He didn't feel like shouting, and why bother when you lived with a human intercom?
/I heard that./
Brad suppressed a grin, half hid in his pillow. Five minutes later he heard:
"Never mind! I found it behind the couch!" /Of all places…I must have been drunk or something…/ He added mentally.
/It wouldn't be out of the ordinary./ Brad retorted.
Schuldig didn't dignify the comment with a reply. He, Nagi, and Farfarello were out the door a moment later, leaving the Schwarz household silent.
Brad turned over and stared at the ceiling. Why did this seem so surreal? This was everyday life, just as it always was. He sighed. It was probably just the after-affects of the bump on his head.
Which while painful, he still couldn't remember getting.