Title: Free Readings (9 Card Spread)
Characters/Pairings: Kriptonbrand
Author's Notes: . OK, I saw the topic and instantly knew who I was going to drabble about. Then the muses began to poke and say… what about the rest of them? So I pulled out some of my few sources of SideB, began matching cards to characters and many hours of furious scribbling later… I finished. Please enjoy.

He sits down every morning with a fresh pot of tea and a well loved and well used deck. For each member of his family, he sets out a pattern to see how they fare. He recalls vaguely in the mists of his tattered memories that there had been a man who had sneered at his cards. But the futures that Free sees are changeable things. He has choice, he sits at a crossroads. He remembers that the Oracle could only walk on the path that was given, never able to change what he saw. Free is a contented Fool.

Richard Krypton has always led by example. For him, his wealth, status and power are the tools he uses to leave the world around him better than how he found it. Never would he ask one of his own to do something he would not. Time and again, his experience and discipline has kept his people alive in adversity. He also knows when to step back, to let the younger backs take the heavier loads. Free hardly ever has to nudge anything for KR, the Emperor knows his course and is wise to the treacherous currents that eddy about him.

She is woman, she is mystery. As KR's personal secretary, Nana Mihirogi slides silently through the halls of power, apparently just one more faceless servant. A beautiful and tasteful accessory for a noble man, she is easy for the eyes to look upon and seemingly just as easily replaced. But Free's cards reveal the truth. Like the ocean that guards her homeland's shores, her mind runs deep, forever tracking and analyzing every piece of data that crosses her path. Every mission has her personal touch in its planning, every dark sacrifice cleansed by the High Priestess, keeping her hunters white.

Ken Hidaka's balance is a hard won thing. For the former athlete, killing did not come naturally. Kritiker threw him into the deep end of the pool and he very nearly drowned. His love of competition drove him forward; he sought to become a good killer, a better killer, the best of killers. His team was disintegrating; it took a disaster to halt his fall. Free sees him now, standing on the edge, still dipping in a foot, but relying on his team to keep him steady, to remind him of Temperance. Free makes sure he is never again alone.

She is the embodiment of everything they fight and suffer for. She will be desired and hunted the rest of her life. Her blood is priceless and it cost her everything. But she faces the unknown with valor, a girl living and working with the killers who slew her parents, who have sworn to protect her. Kurumi Shinjo's road is long and difficult with more challenges than is fair. Life isn't fair though, Free knows that all too well. He sees her surrounded by darkness, her face turned upwards, illuminated by the light of the Moon, chasing the shadows away.

Surviving on the streets isn't easy; in New York it's even tougher. Yuki had a place, a gang where he was accepted, cared for. It all came crashing down in a hail of bullets and blood, falling from the Towers of concrete and steel and swept across the sea to a new life. Sometimes Yuki has trouble coping with the changes, clinging to the last connection to his old life. Free watches the boy, gauging when he needs a nudge into the open or to be allowed to hide behind a redheaded shadow. Free knows the difficulty of starting over.

Aya Fujimiya is a force to be reckoned with. His course is straight and steady, he knows his purpose and he concentrates all his formidable will upon it. He meets his challenges with an upheld sword, his victories strewn behind him, scattered behind a Chariot's wheels, never once turning back to look behind. It is on this unwavering path that Free scouts ahead, Aya doesn't deal well with surprises. Best to keep him warned, allow him to remain focused. Aya is their brilliant red banner and if the flag falls in battle, so too does the army that follows it.

If ever there was an artistic killer, Chloe is the embodiment of it. Everything he does, he does with style, grace, an eye to the beautiful. Plants bend to his will, forming living arrangements to please the eye, when he sits with his owl on his wrist and a cat at his feet, Chloe could be a fairy lord, deigning to mingle with mortals. He is a shining Star, one that Free needs to catch occasionally and bring back to earth. One day, Free fears that he will miss and lose Chloe to the heavens that beckon him ever onwards.

In the most innocent of guises lurks a fathomless depth. Free had been lost, fallen into the dark pull of an insidious drug. Michel stood forward and despite the pain and loss, he refused to let him go. His Strength lay not in bone, sinew and muscle, but in spirit, heart and will. Michel reclaimed him and set him free. Free. He accepts, forgives, and loves. If Michel ever falls, Free knows that he would last only long enough to avenge him and then join him. It is Free's greatest fear and the one thing he works endlessly to prevent.