Title: Aekeis

Disclaimer: Beyblade rightfully belongs to Takao Aoki. Not me.

Pairings: Kai/Rei, Boris/Yuuri (Bryan/Tala)

Warnings: Shounen-ai, boy/boy love, if you don't like, don't read. I also use their Japanese names, not their English ones.

Wordcount: 2450

Last Edited: 8/4/10

Prologue: How it All Began

Screams of terror breached the looming stone castle as a young man sprinted down the long stretch of hallways with all of his might. His top priority was reaching the nursery, not the raging war that resided just minutes away. His unkempt obsidian hair occasionally whipped him in the face as he dashed around the last corner and into the room he had been searching for.

Taking a quick scan of the room's occupants, the young man let himself catch his breath. Sitting besides an empty crib, a woman around the same age as the young man, was holding a tiny baby. She was desperately trying to sooth the obviously distressed child in anyway she could. Her bright magenta hair often fell in front of her somewhat panicked gold eyes, getting in the way. At the arrival of a new person, her head snapped up, ready to cry out in case of an intruder.

The baby in her arms continued to emit loud whimpers, as tiny, pearly-white fangs poked out of his small mouth. His pupils were mere slits in the vast amber oceans of his eyes. Recognizing the young man who had walked through the door, his cries quieted so they were barely heard.

"Prince Rai?" The magenta haired woman started to rise, but stopped as Prince Rai held up a hand.

"Mao, where's Kiki?"

"I'm right here, what's going on?" a small but squawky voice sounded from right behind the prince.

Hastily turning around to make sure that it was indeed Kiki standing at the doorway, Prince Rai let out a breath of momentary relief. He turned back to Mao, ready to give out orders.

"I'm going to open a portal to Earth," Prince Rai started, quickly getting to the point. As he was talking, he started walking over to Mao to pick up the baby. "I want you and Kiki to bring my brother there and hide-"

"But what about your parents!" Mao interrupted hastily, fearing where the conversation was going.

A look of mourning came over the prince's face as he fought off the memory that happened only moments ago. The event that had created this torrent of quick decisions. Staring down into his brother's wide-amber eyes, he finally got the courage to answer Mao's question.

"They've been killed."

Gasps of shock and disbelief escaped both Mao and Kiki before they could contain them. Kiki, being the first to recover, suddenly realized how serious their situation had become. Looking between the two close brothers, he spoke up quietly.

"What do you want us to do once we're at Earth?"

"Hide, I'm not sure where the portal is going to lead, but I'll try to make it an unknown place. Then I want you and Mao to find a new home for him and leave him with someone who seems trustworthy. You aren't to have any contact with my brother until it's time to bring him back home. That, or if the situation calls for it."

"You want us to leave your brother with some unknown family!" Mao practically screeched, cutting the prince off for the second time that evening.

"I'm not done Mao. We don't have much time left."

True to what the prince had just said, another wave of terrified screams breached the walls around them, sending shivers down three spines.

"Yes, you are to leave my brother with an unknown family, but you are to keep watch over him. That's why you're staying on Earth with him, for his protection. To make sure that he's being taken care of, and to take him back here on his sixteenth birthday. That will give us three years to prepare him in the event that he needs to take the throne when he comes of age. Understood?"

Mao and Kiki shared a quick glance at each other before turning back to Rai, both nodding their heads. They knew that it would be a lost cause trying to convince their prince to choose a different path for his brother.

"Good. I don't think it's safe to leave the nursery so I'm going to open the portal here with a veil. When I tell you to go through it, go, don't hesitate. Using my powers will not only drain me of most of my energy, but will alert the enemy of where we are, which is dangerous enough with me at full strength."

Not waiting for a response, Prince Rai promptly walked over to Mao, and gently handed over his little brother. He then proceeded to walk in front of the nearest wall, pushing a small tiger plush out of his way. Holding up a hand to the wall, he pointed his forefinger upward and lightly touched the stone. He closed his eyes and took in three deep breaths, trusting Mao and Kiki to not interrupt him at this vital moment. Rai slowly ran his finger down the wall, never letting the contact break as he formed a straight line, letting power flow out of his finger tip forming a shimmering green line.

It wasn't until he was at the bottom of the wall that Rai stood back up and opened his eyes. He placed both hands, touching back to back, on the green line, letting the power flow through him. Then, as if he were opening a curtain, he pulled his hands apart making the line stretch out to form a rectangular portal.

The veil covering the portal obscured where it led, the only visible scene being darkness broken only by a swirl of dull stars. They could only hope that its destination was somewhere safe where the youngest prince could be raised peacefully until his sixteenth birthday.

"Go!" Rai turned his head to look over his shoulder to see where Mao and Kiki were. While he had been opening the portal, they had quickly grabbed some random objects from around the room and had put them in a traveling bag. Now both were scurrying toward the portal, Mao holding the young prince tightly in one arm and the tiger plush in the other, while Kiki was carrying the small amounts of luggage that they had managed to gather during the short period of time they had.

Kiki went through first, letting the shockingly cold sensation wash over him. It was like jumping into the ocean in the middle of the snowy season as tingles ran over his skin as if millions of tiny fingers brushed against him. He faintly heard Mao's gasp as she entered after him. This being the first time Mao traveled though portals, the immense cold was a surprise for her as she held the tiny baby in her arms tighter.

Somewhere behind the traveling trio, a saddened voice could faintly be heard. "Goodbye Rei, little brother. Until we meet again."

Then the traveling group was consumed by pitch black shadows, as Rai closed his end of the portal. The shadows didn't last for long, leaving as fast as they had come. Kiki, being the first one of the group, shot out of the portal first, landing easily on his feet. He had traveled by portal enough times to know what to expect at the end of the journey. Mao, on the other hand, didn't, so Kiki dropped the luggage quickly and turned toward the portal exit, ready to catch the possibly falling woman and baby.

A moment hadn't even passed by yet, as Mao tumbled though the portal's exit, falling into Kiki's waiting arms. Once she regained her sense of what was up and down, Mao lifted her head, and loosened her grip on Rei. Glancing down, she noticed that Rei's eyes that had been squeezed shut during the journey, were now as wide as saucers, frantically darting left to right as if to figure out what was going on. His tiny hands were weakly clenching and unclenching, as a fresh wave of whimpers started up again.

"It's okay Prince Rei," Mao cooed, bending over to grab the tiger plush that had fallen to the ground. She gently nudged one of the prince's fists with the plush's head, attempting to calm him down. Seeing the plush near his grasp, Rei grinned, little fangs poking out from behind his lips as he grabbed the plush and giggled to himself. Waving the plush around, Rei kept giggling, occasionally nudging himself with it.

Mao smiled delightfully at the now calm baby before glancing up at Kiki. He was looking around himself, taking in everything that was around them. It wasn't until then that Mao looked to see where they ended up, surprised to see that they were surrounded by endless forests. Their wasn't a single sign that anyone had lived here before.

"Leave it to Prince Rai to send us to the middle of no where!" Mao tutted, more amused than angry. "How are we supposed to find a family for Rei when their isn't anyone around?"

"Hm," Kiki hummed. He was still looking around with a thoughtful expression on his face. "There might be a town or village around, I'm going to use Foresight and see what I can find."

Kiki let his eyes slide shut, taking a deep breath to relax as he felt the power of Foresight creep into awareness. Keeping his eyes closed, the darkness surrounding him became fuzzy, as colors and shapes came into view. Though Foresight didn't grant him the ability to see things clearly, it was still an advantage for seeing what was around them at long distances.

Allowing the Foresight to take him forward as if he were sprinting, Kiki kept watch for anything that might signal some form of civilization. Whether he heard or saw it. Another gift of Foresight was that it didn't only let the user see what was going around him, but he could hear it as if he were actually there.

All of a sudden, Kiki spotted something that caught his eye. The tree's seemed to let up, before a large clearing with blur-shaped huts. It was in this clearing that Kiki noticed they were in some mountains. Looking around the village, he saw people of all different sizes speaking a language that was somewhat familiar. He couldn't have chosen a better moment to find the village. Two figures who happened to look like adults were heading out for a walk. It was then that Kiki quickly shut off his foresight and turned back to Mao.

"We're in luck, there is a village not too far ahead," Kiki smirked. "Their also happens to be a couple leaving for a walk. If we're quick, we could place Rei where they'll see him. Hopefully they'll take him in, if not because they want a child, but because they want to keep Rei safe."

Mao nodded, following as Kiki swiftly headed off in the direction he knew the couple were going. "Did you recognize the language?"

"Sort of, I'm just having a ha-" Kiki stopped abruptly, suddenly recognizing it. "It was a dialect of Chinese, I knew it sounded familiar. I don't think I know this dialect though."

"Hm, well that shouldn't be a problem for now. We shouldn't worry about it yet," Mao decided still holding onto Rei who had fallen asleep. "How much further anyway? It's getting hot out."

"There is going to be a path ahead, we can place Rei there and wait in the bushes to see what the couple will do."

In just a few minutes, they had reached the path. Looking around, they quickly searched for something to place Rei on, because Mao refused to place him on the bare ground. Not finding anything, and sensing that they didn't have much more time before the couple arrived, Kiki reached in the traveling bag and grabbed a blanket. Placing it neatly on the ground, and placing the sleeping prince on top of the blankets, Mao and Kiki started to quickly hide behind a nearby tree.

Mao stopped and reached into the breast pocket of her dress, pulling out a gold necklace. On the front of the necklace was a gold pendant, the word 'Rei' engraved on it with tiny emerald stones. Slipping it on the young prince's head, she placed a quick kiss on his forehead before running behind a nearby tree.

Footsteps sounded, and laughter rolled Mao and Kiki's way, as the couple appeared walking along the path just as Kiki's Foresight had shown. The first was a woman who immediately spotted Rei, making a tiny gasp of shock.

"Zhen, there is a baby in the middle of the path!" She ran ahead of the second person, a man named Zhen, and to Rei who was slowly waking up.

"Who would leave their child in the middle of a path like this!" Zhen muttered, kneeling next to his wife. He watched as large, confused amber eyes started back at him, slowly filling with tears.

"Poor thing!" The female muttered, before gently picking Rei up, gently rocking back and forth. She started to sing a soft Chinese lullaby in hopes of calming Rei down.

Zhen watched as Rei blinked, tears disappearing as he gazed at Zhen's wife. After listening to part of the song, he started giggling, clutching his plush in what would be a bone crushing hug if he hadn't been so little. Or if the plush had had any bones to begin with.

"He seems to like you, Mei."

"We can't leave him here! We have to take him with us back to the village!" Mei begged.

Taking a quick look around to see if anyone was going to come out and claim Rei as their son, Zhen sighed. "I guess. It would be impractical for us to leave him here."

Mei squealed, "You mean it! Thank you honey!"

"I didn't say we could keep him, that's going to be up to the elders."

"Pft. You're going to be appointed as leader of the village in a couple of weeks. Does it matter?"

Both Mei and Zhen laughed, standing up. It wasn't until then that Mei noticed the gold chain, lifting the pendent delicately.

"Rei," she read, staring back at Zhen."A beautiful name for a beautiful baby boy." She walked away giggling, Zhen following behind her.

Mao and Kiki continued to watch until the couple disappeared with Rei. Mao felt a couple of tears slide down her face as she thought, now it's just a matter of waiting.