Beloved Fate
Mission Five
"Sea beyond Time"
by Eternal SailorM

Shuichi's eyes stared at the scene below him in something very much like shock, wide and filled with horror. He was plastered against the window several stories up within NG studios and staring down at the chaos below.

"Don't stand so near the windows, Shuichi," K's voice commanded from somewhere behind him. Even his American manager didn't sound so good, nowhere near his usual authoritative self.

"Who could do this, K?" he whispered, stepping away from the window and sitting down at the long table with the rest of his band, Sakano, and K.

"Someone who hates NG a lot," a feminine voice answered. Shuichi's eyes darted up, almost certain it was Mika walking in. Katrina smiled down at him tiredly and sat against the table. "Seguchi-san's going to be beefing up the security around the bands now more than ever."

"What brings you here, Katrina-san?" Hiroshi asked, staring up at her with tired eyes. It had been a very long and trying day for them all.

She shrugged vaguely. "Waiting on things to cool off a bit so I can go home." She rubbed her forehead lightly. "Plus this new band is driving me crazy." She let out a loud sigh, sliding up to sit on the table itself. "I wonder if Kitada-san knew what she was doing when she sent this bunch of amateurs my way."

"Have they said anything about what's going on down there?" Suguru's voice was quiet, but everyone in the room heard it anyway and fixed their gazes on the woman sitting on the table.

"Well..." She paused to sigh again. "There was some kind of an explosion. The lead singer of DRY... his car blew up when he did the auto ignition." She ran a hand through shoulder-length dark hair. "Thank God for the fact he had keyless remote; otherwise he'd have been in the car." Another loud sigh escaped her. "His five year old kid was with him. They both got off with some cuts, scraps, and minor burns though."

"It's getting worse then," Sakano surmised.

"At least no one's died yet."

~ * ~ * ~

Ken and Omi leaned back from the door, a guilty look shared between the two. "Should we..." the older boy started.

Omi shook his head, electric blue eyes sliding closed in resignation. "Do you want to be the one to tell them Yuki Eiri is dead?"

Ken shook his head. "Absolutely not." He nodded away from the meeting room. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

The other boy climbed to his feet as his answer, every movement cat-silent, leaning against the wall as he waited for his companion. Once both were standing and moving away from the door, he turned to look up at Ken. "Do you think we should go check out the crime scene tonight?"

Ken chuckled, wrapping an arm around the teenager's shoulders. "And risk missing our deadline? Risk bringing the wrath of Mount Katrina down on us?" Omi grinned and laughed under his breath. "Do I look that crazy to you?"

He had to grin in response to that. "Of course not, Ken-kun."

"Besides, the place'll probably be swarming with reporters." It was a pretty well-documented fact Hidaka Ken did not like reporters, an emotion left over from his J-Leaguer days and the aftermath thereof, he mused to himself, taking in the faintly disgusted sound in the other young man's voice.

Omi grinned brightly. "Then let's head home and see if Aya-kun has any new lyrics for us, okay?"

Ken pretended to wince, burying his face against the back of the shorter man's neck in mock terror. "On second thought, let's go brave Hurricane Katrina! Anything but another night of watching Aya torture another pencil!"

The look Omi favored him as he turned to face Ken was sly. "Is that all you can come up with for us to do?"

It took an effort, but he reined in a huge smirk. "I suppose I could come up with one or two --" That was as far as he got before Omi grabbed his shirt and started tugging him down the hall towards the empty studios.

~ * ~ * ~

Somewhere a few empty studios away from Ken and Omi, a lone figure methodically counted bullets into a clip. So threats and explosions weren't good enough? They didn't get people's attention?

No problem.

There were other options after all.


02 December 2003

What can I say? This is the chapter we all were thinking would never come. More than a year after Mission 3 was completed (in the first draft form), here is Mission 5.

I'd like to take this opportunity to: (1) thank the kind reviewers we've had so far; (2) apologize for leaving the outdated geneology up, but I have the corrected one online now; and (3) welcome our other co-author: Ryoko Saotome.

For those of you who would like to know what all is going to go on in this fic, take a look here (SPOILER WARNING):
http://www.darkmagick.net/fic/fate/geneology.jpg
Note: This is the updated version. I just kept the same URL.

[ Mission Improbable | A Mysterious Heart | Blood Red Destiny | Gravitating to You | Sea Beyond Time | Out of Heaven | A Few Shades of Grey | Surprise Meetings | Darkly Dreaming ]