Scorching/Kramer

It was late, I needed to take a rest. I walked away from my office, on my way to my quarters to tuck in Kristina tonight. I heard movement behind me and whirled around, but seemingly no one was there.

I shrugged. My mind was playing with me after the experiments earlier, I assumed. I was about halfway down the hall when Richtofen jumped out and stopped me.

I sighed in relief.

"Hey Ed." I said with a warm smile. I could tell Richtofen was straining to smile back. I couldn't blame him, he was going through a very difficult phase. He just lost his wife so I took it easier on my pal.

"Groph needs you at the labs, come along, Kramey."

I opened my mouth to protest, but he grabbed my arm. His fingers were stronger than I thought. He half-dragged, half-pulled me down the hallway.

"What? I thought I finished Die Glocke!"

Richtofen didn't reply. That's when I got a little nervous.

What was going on with him? He doesn't usually act like this!

Groph and Richtofen shared a serious glance as they entered the hallway, and a slight nod. My eyes widened as Richtofen left the room. Groph yawned.

"Dr. Maxis wants you to work on Blauer Vogel Project." Groph said with a smile.

So there I went to work on putting together the machine, when I heard some yelling coming from down the hall. Groph sighed.

"Maxis and Richtofen are probably arguing over something. Don't bother. I'm going to go get a coffee refill."

But I would bother, I thought slyly, and walked away as soon as Groph was out of sight. I heard Richtofen scream my name.

Terror seized me for a split second. I slowly opened the door to the teleporter room to see Maxis with a knife piercing Richtofen's neck. I ducked out of their sight, but peered out of a crack. To my dismay, I couldn't quite hear what they were saying.

Horror struck me. Maxis got stabbed in the stomach and shoved into the teleporter.

He cried out for me, spotting me right away. I ran forward and seized the Ray Gun, pointing at Richtofen as he stumbled to the floor, screaming at the pain in his head.

"Stay still, I'll remove the voice parasites! Don't move!" I stammered uneasily. This all happened too fast. His condition had grown worse.

"Nein-" he began, but got cut off. I could tell immediately they were telling him something terrible, and he was going to listen.

I pulled the trigger but nothing happened. I shook it frantically, then noticed the ammo was depleted.

"NEVER!" Richtofen roared. He squirmed, screaming, covered in blood, on the ground again.

My body went numb. I slipped to the ground into unconsciousness within seconds. Why? I wouldn't have learned it until later on.

When I awoke, I was lying in a bed. Adelina was knitting worriedly on a leather chair, and Kristina had a tear-streaked face. Elric sighed and continued to write.

"Where's Richtofen?" I said, but I sounded ravaged. My throat was dry and I realised I could barely move. We were in the labs, the same place we had taken Richtofen after the tragic accident that gave him his horrible parasitic infestation.

"Kramer, you're awake!" Adelina exclaimed, and kissed my cheek.

"He left, Kramey, with his patients. He was mad at himself he killed Maxis and made a run for it. He got you safely to your bunk but we had to carry you here, it was the only safe place when the zombies killed everyone else." Elric said dully.

Xena looked up from her blanket where she was depressed, curled on the floor. The poor child had lost both her mother and father within a few years. I wasn't sure she would ever recover.

Elric patted his adoptive niece carefully and picked her up in his arms, quietly singing a german lullaby until she finally fell asleep. He looked dismal and sad. I felt the same. But I couldn't move. I was almost frozen in place.

After a month we decided we needed to leave 935 forever. I was able to move properly again, and I think I may have shed a tear the day we managed to leave. We stared at the ruins of 935, the hallways we'd never use again. The lab. The rooms. The bunker. Everything. All of it was gone.

I think the main reason I was sad is that I believed in my heart Richtofen was dead. He made a run for it and died in the process, I told myself. And I would never see the man-who had been the boy I met at the playground many years ago-ever, ever again.

For the next few years, all five of us managed to make it to the hometown we grew up in. We lived in a church. We were homeless. Xena was like a second daughter to me. Then we found Rosemary, her sister, at an orphanage, 12 when Xena was 16.

We finally managed to make some money and get a new house and car. We gave Elric the guest room with Xena and Rosemary, who all stayed in the two beds there.

One day we decided to go see 935, a wasteland. We drove as far as we could but ended up walking the last half. Too thick a forest to make the rest of the trip.

Miserably I stared at the massive ruins of where I had once lived, worked, and thrived. I could almost see it now, the peaceful, happy place it had been. Now destroyed. But then something caught my eye, down by the pond. A man was laying in the grass with a sigh, watching the clouds go by.

The emerald eyes, the dark brown hair!

"Richtofen!? You're alive!?" I cried. Happiness filled me finally. He wasn't dead!

To my shock, he stood up furiously. He looked like a mad hatter-literally! His hat was off and his hair messy, his bloodstained clothes and wild eyes, made me wish we had come sooner to rescue him.

"SHTAY AVAY SAVAGES!" he screamed, and lunged forward, but Elric was faster. He darted ahead and smacked him down from behind, sitting on him and holding his hands behind his back.

Richtofen screamed longer and then began to sob for Lilith, his deceased wife. I pitied him. Tortured by Maxis and pressured by being alone for years, he must've completely lost his mind. I walked over and sat in the grass with him.

"Adelina, call the doctor. Ed is seriously crazy." I managed to say sternly. Richtofen whimpered as I reached a hand towards him.

"It's just me, Kramer, it's going to be okay." I said quietly. Richtofen looked dazed. Elric sighed, keeping his adopted older brother's arms behind his back.

"We're going to ask you a few questions before the doctor comes to help you, okay?"

Kristina sat with Xena, who was crying, and Rosemary, who had never gotten to know her own parents.

Richtofen nodded, but I could tell he'd soon pass out.

"Voice parasites, they gone?"

"Yes." Richtofen replied between a sniffle.

Elric, even though Richtofen's arms were thin, was struggling to hold him down as Kramer's deranged friend struggled from underneath.

"How long have you been here? Where's your test patients?" I persisted. Richtofen was paling out, and he would faint in a split second.

"S-seven. Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo....zey all died here...too soon...and left me here alone..." he feverishly replied, before his emerald eyes fluttered shut.

I sat with him for a few more minutes before Adelina tapped me on the shoulder.

"Dr. Sullivan will be on his way here soon." she said encouragingly, then looked at Richtofen with a sigh and sad eyes, then went and comforted Xena.

The helicopter came and landed. They put my friend on a stretcher and gave us a ride to the mental hospital, to my relief, and not an asylum. They put him in a small room with a bed. We could talk to him through there if we wanted, but he was asleep. At least it was close to home, I could see him everyday if he needed me.

The next day I sat in a chair and saw him. He was still a bit mad but they'd cleaned him up. He didn't look crazy anymore. If we'd waited any longer to visit 935 he might've been even worse.

"While you were gone I watched Xena for you." I said quietly.

He frantically puts his hands to the glass.

"She's shtill alive!?" he whimpered, eyes wide. I can tell he's not been doing well here.

"Yeah, she is." I said calmly.

He settles down and begins to cry again. He turns away.

"I'm a terrible person, stay away." he cries. I frown.

"No, you're not. You're one of the smartest people I know. You're better than this. Please, Edward." I tried to reason.

"I let everyone in my touch die! GO AWAY!"

Dr. Sullivan walks in, his gray hair sleek and smooth.

"I have to deal with him now. You ought to go home before he has a temper tantrum again. I've dealt with people like him before."

No, no one has ever suffered more than him, I wanted to sharply reply. I didn't like this guy, I didn't think he was nice enough to my friend.

But in the months that came, Richtofen slowly recovered. Not enough to smile. Enough to remember memories long ago and talk about them. Soon enough, he was able to have friendly conversation without bursting into tears. I was happy he was okay.

And the days he did cry, Xena was allowed in. She came and gave him a long hug until he settled down. Adelina and I had a son, who we named Oliver, and Xena got engaged to one of Richtofen's test patient's son, Skye, who was Russian. He was like part of the family already.

I came in to the mental hospital after work to find Richtofen sitting alone at the chair. I sat down in mine. And for once....he smiled!

"Kramer, it's been so dreary." he joked quietly. The walls in his room were a dismal grey, so I didn't blame him.

I began a pleasant conversation. Richtofen asked about Xena. I told him about Skye, and he seemed a bit delighted. He'd been in this hospital for 2 years, it was practically a prison for the poor man.

Then following the next week, Dr. Sullivan decided that Richtofen was eligible to go home. He'd live with Xena, of course, for now. She drove him home and we all waited for Ed inside. I was glad he was okay. He was back in time, on a side note, for Xena's wedding, which was the day after. He was very proud of her, I could tell.

One night, Richtofen and I sat outside. Xena was at another hospital, giving birth to her first son. Oliver was at his older sister's house, Adelina with a friend's. Richtofen was still slightly unstable, and he'd need someone to stay with him. So I volunteered.

He was tracing his finger along a scar under his right eye, like a claw mark.

"I missed you a lot, Ed." I finally said quietly.

"I did too. I'm sorry. I failed everyone, as a friend." he replied, looking away.

"It wasn't your fault. None of it, don't you believe it." I persisted with a smile. I wouldn't let him believe his suffering was ever because of him. Never.

He frowned.

"Most of it was, don't try and get me to believe it wasn't." he murmured.

"If I believed any of that I wouldn't have been your friend since we were not even preschoolers." I joked.

He managed a brief smile, but again he stared at the sky.

There was a long pause, and I felt again the claws of loneliness and longing tearing at my heart. Longing to tell him that I missed him the most, ever since the day he vanished.

"Do you think Lilith's up there?" he finally said.

"I'm sure she's watching over you and Rosemary and Xena, don't you worry." I mused.

Richtofen put a hand through his hair and slumped down in the grass.

I think we were both finally at peace.