Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Bradley's Devils ❯ Meetings ( Chapter 2 )

On second thought, steal it and get the inspiration for Farf and the inspiration for Schu. And I'll call Schu a donut° first. She really doesn't like that.

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Bradley's Devils

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Four years later:

Brad had proved himself both a success and a failure. While he could predict almost anything with uncanny accuracy, both in the near and far future, and the telepaths could usually understand him, he could not hear them at all.

Darin shook his head and reflected that Alice had again been slightly mistaken in her prediction. He wondered if the Elders would insist on this one's death as well. He hoped that he wouldn't have to do the deed if that was the case.

"Goodbye, Darin," Brad said calmly.

"Goodbye?"

"You are going to die in about seven minutes."

"Ah, I see. How will I die?"

"Quickly."

"Thank you." Well, it seemed not.

As she rode to her new destination, Schuldich hid her surprise well at how easily the Gestapo had been convinced to give her up to this other group, ß. Only two dead, and they had backed off. Unusual, really. Although she supposed the mode of death was rather frightening…

The man next to her looked at her speculatively, and tapped the one in front of him, not the driver, on the shoulder. "Test?" he whispered.

"Test," the other agreed.

"You want me to kill the first mind that touches mine," she said.

The man seemed surprised. "Yes."

"Starting when?"

"Now."

She nodded and sat back. After a moment, her face twisted slightly, and she nodded again.

"Not good," said Man 1 to Man 2. "It showed on her face."

"Wait until we see who it was," Man 2 replied.

The car came to a stop, and Schuldich opened the door as the thought came to the men to order her out. She glanced down, raised an eyebrow, and stepped out, then over the man slumped by them. "That's him," she said.

Man 2 looked down and whistled. Man 1 looked frightened. They turned abruptly away and started for the entrance to the building. Schuldich trailed after them.

"Who was he?" she asked aloud for their comfort.

"Darin. He was our strongest telepath. Killed six people who tried that on him before."

"It was eight," Man 1 muttered.

"Eight, then. You've just proved yourself our best, my dear."

She murmured a thanks.

Brad glanced at the clock and noticed that the time had passed. He did not cry, although he mourned the passing of his mentor and closest friend behind the walls that he had built around himself.

**Why are you crying?**

He was very surprised that he could hear her, but his grief mellowed that. He pictured Darin as he had seen him in his vision, dead and cold, and tried to send it in the right direction.

**Sorry about that,** came the response, rather wry. **I was told to.**

**I know.**

**Now you're getting the hang of it!** She sent him a mental smile. **You're kind of fuzzy, but it's getting better.**

Cordin, the eldest of the agents, stifled a gasp. **The precognative has made a connection with the new telepath!** he told the Elders.

**Ah, good,** the woman replied. **See that they train together whenever possible until the time she is released, then have them work together.**

He sent an affirmative to her, then passed along her message to those who would fulfill it.

Jei looked down at the man she had just killed, dimly remembering that he was the father of the church. It seemed a decent enough way to get her message to God that He really needed to answer her one of these days. She looked at the knife in her hand, wondering where to put it. There was no safe place. So she stuck it into her hand, ignoring the faint twinge of pain that came with her action. She needed her right hand free.

She smiled at Sister Ruth and Mother Gwenis, said simply, "My eye has caused me to sin," then reached up and pulled it out.

Sister Ruth shuddered.

Mother Gwenis shuddered as well, but went for the telephone and called a much-hated number for the men in white coats to come and take the child away. She was undeniably psychotic.

When they came, they carefully avoided the girl and the blood, going to Sister Ruth, since Mother Gwenis was relieving her stomach of any food in it and could not come to answer them.

"The answer to why you're asking us to take her away is right here, ma'am, so we won't disturb you to ask you to tell us. But - the Mother Superior wasn't very clear - who is she?

"She's Jei-"

The sound of something popping cut her off, and they turned to look at her, blood dripping from her left hand, with the knife still in it, and splattered eye dripping from her right. "I am Farfarello."

The nameless girl had learned to be a nameless boy. The gangs left her alone after she had nearly killed one of their leaders with a flare of her power that she was completely unaware of. Still, that made it harder to find food.

~~~-~~~

One year later:

Brad and Schuldich were sent out. She was told to dress as a male. It was the first time he had ever left Switzerland or the ß compound, and it was her first time outside of Europe. They were sent to the US, upon his request to fulfill a prophesy.

After a few weeks of dithering, he took her to a fast-food burrito restaurant in Washington, DC.

"You sure this is the place, Boss?"

"Yes. Calm down, Schuldich. We've half an hour yet. Would you care to eat?"

She looked at him oddly, then consulted both her stomach and the menu. Why not?

They ordered, and ate.

Schuldich looked at Brad again. He was studying his watch. Finally, he seemed satisfied, then reached over to her, drew her across the table, and kissed her.

When he let her go, she sank back into her seat and blinked. Then she blinked again, for good measure. "Why did you do that?"

"I had a vision… several years ago, now. I saw this place, and this time, and this day, and I saw that if I did not do that," He colored slightly. "then you would eventually kill me and go off on your own. And if I did, then we would work together well and be close friends."

Schuldich decided that blinking was a good idea. She did so several times. Then she prodded his mind and he let her see the memory. It was as he said. "Alright," she said slowly. "I can accept that. There's just one problem."

"What's that?"

"I can't call you Boss any more."

"For a friend… I prefer Brad to Bradley."

She nodded. "Then you must call me Schu.

"You are aware that that sounds like the French for cabbage?"

"Yes. It's an endearment."

Brad copied Schuldich and blinked.

She blinked back.

He stared off into space.

**Brad?**

He came out of his reverie and shook his head slightly. "Ehh, whatever. Let's go back to the hotel."

She nodded and took his arm.

Annoyed at the doctor for poking her and at God for ignoring her, Farfarello demonstrated that regular straightjackets were not enough to hold her and killed the man rather messily.

The staff, much disturbed, tried to invent a better straightjacket.

The gangs began to forget their fear of the nameless child.

~~~-~~~

One year later:

As they walked through the back streets of Tokyo (with French her fourth language and Japanese her sixth, Schuldich was doing well) from a meeting place to the hotel they were currently staying at, Schuldich stopped Brad with a hand to his arm. **That child,** she told him, nodding at a small child doing its best to avoid the larger teenagers taunting and chasing it, **is a girl. They,** this time, she indicated with her eyes two young men in their late teens, leaning against a building and watching the others, **know this and want to see if she'll survive a night with them. If she does, they mean to sell her to a rich pervert.**

He shrugged mentally. This happened all the time.

**She's a telekinetic. Rather strong one, too, and it's about to break out.**

Ah, now he understood. Glad that mental speech was so much faster than physical and that they had only paused a few seconds, he pretended to glare at her for stopping him and walked on. She followed.

As they passed, one of the young men screamed in agony as the other keeled over. The others scattered and quickly forgot that there had ever been a nameless child. As for her, she was picked up, soothed, and whisked back to the hotel room and given a bath.

"She'll need new clothes," Schuldich said, frowning at the tatters she had worn before.

"You'll have to get her some before we leave, then," Brad returned. He was carefully not looking at the girl even though she was bundled up in a towel. It was to reinforce that he was non-threatening.

"Mmn. What's your name, child?"

The girl shrugged. "I don't know. Mother never named me, as far as I know, and neither did the others, although they'd occasionally mock me for being the brat of a fallen Naoe."

"Well, what would you like to be called?"

Being a child, and since she had just mentioned Naoe, she only thought of names that began with 'na'. "Nagi," she said at last. "Naoe Nagi."

"Nagi's a nice name." Schuldich told her. "It's fit for a very special girl."

"Sir?"

"Ma'am," Schuldich corrected her. "I'm a girl, too. And my name is Schuldich."

Nagi tried to twist her tongue to repeat the name.

"You can call me Schu, if you like."

Brad mentally looked at her sharply.

**If she doesn't end up with us, I'll change it,** she told him.

"Schu," Nagi said, trying it out and liking it. "Why did you bring me here?"

"Because, like I said, you're a very special girl. You can pick things up and move them around without touching them. We're going to take you to people who will teach you how to master this specialness inside of you and make it do what you want. They won't always be nice, but you must try your best to learn, alright?"

Nagi nodded solemnly. It was the first time she'd been told she was special in a nice way.

Farfarello proved herself able to escape again. This time, she had to dislocate some joints to do it, instead of just using her toes, but she managed it, and was happily bleeding all over the floor when they found her.

~~~-~~~

Two years later:

Schuldich held a crying Nagi in her arms and did her best to comfort her. "Why did you send me to them?" Nagi wailed. "It was awful!"

"We had no choice," Schuldich said simply. "I spent a year there, and Brad was born there and lived there until only a few years ago."

Brad clenched his fists, but could do nothing.

Schuldich carefully modified Nagi's trust for them, and indicated that he could join her in comforting the girl. He knelt and held them both.

"Y-you mean, Brad spent a really really long time there?"

"Yes," he told her solemnly. "Twenty years.

"Oh." She was silent for a while. "Did you want me to go through it too, so that I'd have been like you?"

"No, Nagi. We don't dare disobey standing orders like the one that forced us to send you to them." Schuldich shifted. "You know, when they got me, I'd already been trained by the Gestapo, so my entire year was spent teaching me the right attitude towards them."

"A wh-whole year?"

"Yes. A whole year. Pretty bad, huh? To tell the truth, you're lucky, kid. Neither Brad nor I had anyone to comfort us when we got out."

"Yeah, but you're grown-ups."

Brad snorted. "Schu's eighteen," he said. "She's not going to be a grown-up for a while yet."

Schuldich had to chuckle mentally at that. **Not even after last night? And the night before?**

**Even after the past month,** he said firmly.

"Come on, Nagi," Schuldich said, her mental silence scoring him a hit. "Because of your age, we've been put off duty for a while, so we get to be a family, okay? You like that?"

Nagi sniffled. "Uh huh."

Schuldich squeezed her gently, then extricated herself from the embrace and returned with tissues. She was not at all surprised to find her charge sitting on Brad's lap, leaning against him trustfully. "Let's dry that pretty face," she said. She did so, then gave her another tissue to blow her nose. "Better?"

"Uh huh."

"Alright. Now, let's go decorate your room, shall we?"

Farfarello's new straightjacket, although capable of holding her, did not resist the knife she held between her feet well enough. It tore, and she killed a visitor and two inmates before they managed to subdue her.

~~~-~~~

One year later:

"'Neechan! 'Niichan!" Nagi yelled, throwing herself into Schuldich's arms with the enthusiasm only 12-year-olds possess. Schuldich swung her around before depositing her in Brad's arms. She gave him a kiss on the cheek, then took Nagi back to set her on the ground again.

"You wanted to talk to us, Brad?" she asked.

Brad smiled down at her for a moment before adopting a business manner. "It's ß. They're sending us the fourth member of our group - another girl-and they say we have about three years to get ready to become active again."

"That's not very like them."

"Well, they said they need us as soon as possible, and it'll be just under three years until Nagi is fifteen."

"Gotcha. Nagi, you should go do your homework." Ignoring the girl's protests, she pushed her out of the room before turning to wrap herself loosely around 'Niichan'. **So, got a date yet?**

"Of course not," he returned, frowning a little at the sending and the embrace.

**I do.**

"I'm not surprised."

Schuldich sighed at the impossibility of teasing him, and changed topics. "So… Any idea what she's like?"

"Who?" Brad asked, surprised. He'd found out since their romantic relationship faded that Schuldich liked girls as well as guys, but how was he to know what the girl would be like? It didn't concern him.

Schuldich clucked. "The new member of our group, silly! Any clue?"

"She's been raised as a guy, is Catholic with a nun as a birth mother, seventeen years old, either highly resistant to pain or doesn't feel it at all, and is reported to be completely insane. The asylum that keeps her has to use a special straightjacket just to keep her contained. She kills with such finesse that ß wants her with us even though she isn't technically a newtype, and she hasn't gone through the training." Brad paused to extricate himself. "We'll go pick her up tomorrow. I expect you to restrain her if necessary."

Schuldich grimaced, but agreed.

Farfarello looked up from where she'd been fiddling with her straps as the door opened. Maybe it was time to send God another message? The young man with the long orange hair would make a nice- what had she been thinking? Oh well, at least something different than the boring usual was going on.

Schuldich grimaced to herself. She did not want to be taken apart by this psycho. **You coming in, Brad, or do I leave?**

Brad stepped in the room.

Farfarello's eyes widened, then relaxed, and a dreamy expression crossed her face. This man was so handsome, and he radiated such cool control… Maybe he was an angel sent by God to be His messenger… Ooo, but how she'd love to work for him!

**You've got a devotee.** Schuldich smirked.

Brad flicked her off.

The smirk widened before fading into a fairly pleasant smile. She walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, looking at Farfarello. The message was clear: You get him, you get me.

Then, while Farfarello was still confused and mulling over that and the fact that there were these strange people in her cell, Schuldich threaded herself through her unconscious, added a few false memories and connections and insinuated herself as an important person. Careful to make everything smooth and reasonable, she took a full minute and a half before retreating and clearing her throat. "It's been a while, Jei."

Farfarello blinked, Jei coming through for a fraction of a moment. "Schuldich? Why are you dressed as a guy?"

Schuldich shrugged. "New group, new orders. The Big Ones decided that you'd make a nice addition, and sent us to collect you."

"You'll need to break me out first. And the Gestapo dunna have any business in Eire."

"New group, dearest. They're called ß, and they're based in Switzerland. As for the other stuff…" She walked over, knelt, and started undoing the straightjacket. "As soon as I get you out of this thing, you're free. It's all arranged. We'll have to send you to ß base for about a month to deal with the mandatory conditioning, but after that, you're with us."

"What will we be doin'?"

"Oh… The usual. Breaking things, breaking and entering, killing and maiming, spreading blood around, fighting… We're assassins."

Farfarello grinned. "I like that," she said, and as soon as her arms were free, she hugged Schuldich.

"Gah! Not so hard, not so hard!"

"As if it were really hurtin' ye," Farfarello said fondly. "Oh, and by the by, I go by Farfarello now, instead of Jei."

"Farfarello, huh? Hold still and let me finish this! Farfarello's such a long name. Mind if I call you Farf?"

"I got no problem with that." Farfarello obeyed Schuldich, but craned her neck to look some more at the man. "Who is that?"

Brad bowed. "Brad Crawford."

"Brad's short for his real name," Schuldich said, making Farfarello giggle. "But don't call him Bradley - he hates it!"

"Spilling my secrets already, Schu?"

"Where would be the fun if I didn't? There we are!" She pulled the straightjacket off and hung it over her arm. "Shall we go?"

Farfarello stood up and took Brad's arm as he went out the door. Schuldich, exasperated, took his other arm. They walked down the halls and out of the entrance to the asylum, completely ignored.

"So," Farfarello said once they were outside. "Is it just the three of us?"

"There's Nagi as well," Brad said. He wasn't sure how to feel about these two girls holding onto his arms. "A girl of twelve who sees me as her brother and Schuldich as her sister. I'm sure you'll get along well."

"Hmm…" Farfarello considered pulling more firmly on Brad's arm, but Schuldich let go and moved around to hold her other arm, so that it looked like two gentlemen escorting a strangely dressed girl. "Och, oh well." She smiled. "What will be will be."

They had paused to buy Farfarello some new clothes, since the ones she wore were rather obvious in their origin. With those and a set of very nice knives, they set off to the airport. Brad drove and Schuldich and Farfarello sat in the back seat.

"You're going to have to learn Japanese," Schuldich said. "Anything else I can give you as needed, but you might be on your own at some point, and we're going to be posted in Japan eventually."

"How do you know that?" Brad asked.

"Your vision, combined with a little something I stole from the Elders."

"You didn't!"

"I not only did, but I can do it again. They had no clue."

"What are ye talkin' about?" Farfarello asked.

"Ah…" Schuldich looked at Brad and prodded.

He sent her a mental shrug, his equivalent of **Why not?**

"Brad's a precognitive - he sees things that happen in the future. Me, I'm a telepath."

"A mind-reader."

"Eh… A mind-reader is a type of telepath, yes. I can feel people's emotions and see any pictures they create and even their memories as well as hear their thoughts. I can also feel things from far away - that's the original meaning of telepath, anyway."

"Why didn't ye tell me?"

They would have killed you for knowing too much. Besides, I was still learning at the time."

"It's something to learn? Can I learn it?"

**No!** Brad said emphatically to Schuldich.

"Um, no. It's a talent first, and you don't have it. Sorry." Schuldich tried not to smile. "Besides, Bradley here doesn't like the idea."

Farfarello giggled.

"Don't call me that!" Brad yelled.

"Yes, dear. Watch out for that car: the driver's not paying attention."

Brad swore and minded the road.

After waiting a while to let him calm down, Farfarello spoke up. "I've got a problem."

"What is that?" Schuldich asked.

"I'm not very good with languages. Learnin' English… I forgot most of anything else, includin' Latin. How am I supposed to learn another language with a problem like that?"

"I'll help you. This is where being a telepath comes in handy."

"I dun wanna lose English, though."

"You won't."

"Alright. If'n ye say so."

~~~-~~~

Half a year later:

"How was it?"

"'Twas nothin'. Some o' my nightmares are worse'n that, but if that's how they wish me ta think of them, that's how it'll be."

Brad snorted from where he sat on the couch.

"You're probably the first of their agents who isn't daunted by them."

"Oh, they're scary as all Hell, there's no denyin' that. It's just that some o' my dreams are worse."

"As you say, dear. Shall we start with the Japanese?"

"In a bit. Who's this lass?"

"That's Nagi. Nagi, come on down and meet Farfarello. She's the fourth member of our group that Brad told us about."

"She's scary."

"Yes, but she's on our side, so there's nothing to be afraid of."

"Nowt ta be afraid of? Och, not ye, lass. But our enemies, yes."

"Ease up on the accent," Brad said. "You're barely understandable."

"Sorry, Brad."

"You're still scary," Nagi said, looking up at Farfarello, who was indeed a very frightening picture. "But I'd rather you be scary for the bad guys as well than to not be scary at all."

"That's the idea! Now, what's your special power?"

"I'm a telekinetic," Nagi said proudly. "That means-"

"That you can move stuff around wi'out touchin' it. I know. Ye'll be scary in your own right in a bit. Oi, Schu! I'm ready to start on those lessons, now."

~~~-~~~

Two years later:

"We're to be stationed in Japan."

"See? I told you."

"So ye did, Schu, so ye did."

"Farf, you're not helping." Brad sighed. "We've also to come up with a name."

"I do like the idea of bein' called Bradley's Devils."

Brad glared. "NO."

"Well then," Nagi said, trying to remain calm. "What should we call ourselves?"

"Now I can get to the other important information. We're to pose as the bodyguards of this nasty character by the name of Takatori Reiji - Takatori's his family name, Farf. The Japanese say it the other way around - and there's a group trying to kill him and take his businesses apart calling themselves Weiß. ß thinks it would be a good idea if we were to pose as their opposites."

"You mean, like Schwartz? And in German, too! I knew my native language would be used at some point!"

"And when are they going ta use mine, I should like to know!"

"You've already forgotten most of yours!"

"Schu, Farf, shut up." Brad said.

"Yessir!" they chorused.

~~~-~~~

Half a year later:

Schwarz met Weiß.

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° SchuSchu, as some of us are so fond of calling Schuldich, sounds exactly like chouchou, which is French for a kind of donut.