Windstar: I can't believe that I actually managed to get this whole thing done on time. After working furiously to complete this story I can honestly say that while it isn't completely done, by the end of the month I'm ninety five percent sure that it will be done. Right now we're looking at well over three hundred pages long. It's currently sitting on Chapter Twenty-One and it is only beginning a new arch. Lies and Deceit is going to be a doozy of a fic and so I need to take the time now to write a very good summary for it because with a word count limit it probably sounds terrible:

Summary:

Years after the rigged World Championships, the Demolition Boys find themselves running not only a school of Abbey boys who are trying to fit into society, but also missions for the ISA. Everything ran smoothly for a long while, before multiple disasters start occurring all climaxing when Anna Jones vanishes off the face of the earth. The only thing left behind is a note that says that she wants nothing more to do with them or their school, and that she simply wants to be left alone. Heartbroken, Tala tries to find her with no luck. (see Operation Desert Storm) Almost six years later however, new information starts arising. Someone is using the Black Dranzer program to break into the ISA and the BBASS. Someone's leaving a series of complicated hacks and back hacks and it's all to get information that shouldn't be released to the public...Believing it to be Anna, the Freedom Officers (Demolition Boys all grown up) embark on a mission to not only find their friend, but also stop a new evil that is threatening to shake the grounds of the Earth once again. Tangled in this web of lies and this path of deceit are people long thought to have been dead, and friends who really were foes.

On The Three: This story is a sequel to On the Three. Because of this, a great deal of events and characters may not make much sense. I strongly urge you all to read OTT before you read LAD. I have to admit that there is more OC involvement in some chapters than actual characters. And some actual characters may seem like OCs when they're undercover. Because of this you need to read OTT to understand the depths of the situations that they're in. Characters may very well seem angery and egotistical and without udnerstanding their background it will be difficutl to process.

As a recap: The Demolition Boys purposefully lost the World Championships to Tyson because they were running an operation for the International Security Agency. Their boss, Tristen Michaels was killed by an unknown faction the day of the tournament. Tala Ivanov is Kai's older brother. He was adopted when Kai was two and Ivanov is his father's last name. After an accident in which their parents were killed, Kai started using his mother's maiden name of Hiwatari.

Kai's real name is Sacha Ivanov. "Kai" is a nickname Voltaire called him. Tala's real name is Yuri "Luka" Tala Valkov Ivanov. His birth mother named him Yuri Valkov, upon meeting Sacha he called him "Luka" and because of his adoption he's part of the Ivanov family. His birth parents were Marina and Boris Balkov.

Marina was respnosible for the creation of the Abbey and Boris followed her orders. They had one other son - Kiril Valkov. Kiril was four when the Abbey was taken down. Not much is known about him other then Tala was asked to take care of him before his mother died.

The Demolition Boys have shown that they have an extaordinary amount of control over their bitbeasts. Because of the elements their bitbeasts rule over they too can manage some of their skills. Such as using Dranzer to send fire towards people Kai doesn't like or simply incapable of being burnt.

Anna Ottilia Jones is the name of a girl who was friends with Kai when he left the Abbey. They worked together in the ISA. She was Tala's girlfriend for a long while. Her parents abandoned her in Russia before disappearing. On one mission to America, Kai and Anna were responsible for killing her uncle - a known member of the mafia and suspected child molester. In retaliation, her family was responsible for killing her adoptive father Korg Jones who helped create a copy of the Black Dranzer Server. Tala and Kai responded by killing the man who killed Korg.

The Black Dranzer Server is run and operated by a computer system. With the help of Black Dranzer and using her personality as a guide, one can visualize hacks made into the cyber world and take control of any computer. The goal was to have Kai pilot the server and dismantle all of the government's weaponry and computer systems so that when Boris sent his students out with their bitbeasts they could easily take over a country one at a time.

Anna and Korg worked together to create the Black Dranzer Server Two (BDS2) which is another version of the Black Dranzer Server that doesn't need the bitbeast to control it. They made it to combat the BDS2 if the need ever arose. It never did.

Christoper Hughes is the leader of the BBA Secret Service (BBASS) no one likes him. He's usually called "Miss. Chris" because it's nicer then saying he's a "Mistake"

The Pulse:

Damion Fratello is an old actor who looked after Anna and Tala when they were hiding out in Italy. After shooting Anna on Boris's orders, Tala fell into a tailspin. Fratello looked after him and helped him get his feet back on the ground.

The Pulse takes place in the middle of OTT and while you don't need to read it to understand either story, it's just a helpful addition to the series.

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblading or it's affiliates. I own only the characters that do not appear in the series, as well as anything that is odd or unusual and has not been seen before. The black dranzer server is mine. The nicknames are also mine. Everything else however, is not. Thank you.

Wishes: I hope you enjoy this story. So far I'm assuming it'll be around Twenty-five to thirty chapters long. Enjoy!

Prologue:

"No, don't!"

"Adrien-"

"Stop, don't touch him!"

"Adrien!"

"Put your hands on your head and get down on the ground!"

"Adrien-"

His hands were grabbed and he was thrown to the floor, arms pinned behind his back. He looked around, and stared at the still brunette on the floor.

"Adrien!"

"Shut up, get him in the van!" Chaos.

Chaos everywhere.

"Adrien!"

He yelped as his head snapped against the side of the truck. He opened his eyes and stared up straight at the young woman who couldn't take her own eyes off of him. She reached out, but her hand was shoved away. A boot hit his face and his world went dark.

He blinked up at the cold ceiling, his wrists locked and his hair falling into his face, and he thought about the past.

It was raining. Raining and cold. Kai was in Japan visiting Tyson on a "Blade Breakers Reunion Party" at the BBA headquarters of Japan. Four years after that botched world championship that the Demolition Boys had thrown to save the world, Kai and his old team were on somewhat reasonable terms. Kai didn't spend much time with them, and they didn't pry into his life; but they spoke every so often and met up occasionally.

Kai didn't live in Japan anymore. He stayed in Russia and he lived with his family members there. Slowly rising to become the well known heir of Hiwatari Enterprises, Kai spent more time in the office then he did anywhere else. At twenty years old he was famous for so many things, and his connections with various international organizations was only the tip of the ice-burg.

He was quickly making it known just what knowledge he received over his strange upbringing. Master hacker and computer programmer, he was not afraid to do anything that the people in his corporation were dealing with. Whenever a problem arose anywhere, he went there and saw to it himself. If it was on a construction ground or in the office he worked tirelessly and without much care.

Tyson had went on to be world champion for all five years before he finally decided to retire from the game and instead run the BBA in Mr. Dickenson's stead. The fresh faced leader of the group made for some hard times as people tried to take advantage of him, but he was showing them that he wasn't some scatterbrained loser, and that he too could bring the beyblading spirit into the group just like Mr. Dickenson did.

After that first fated championship, Tyson had been so broken up about how he hadn't truly won, that he'd drafted the help of the Demolition Boys in order to train under them. He was convinced that they were better, and he wanted to excel. It hadn't taken all that long to convince them, especially when the Japanese boy was playing them for every card he had – including the 'you let us get kidnapped and could have gotten us all killed' card.

Tala had a bleeding heart at times and had let the teen live with them in Russia for a few months. He co-mingled with the various people on the Fortune Five-Hundred (F-Five) campus. As much as Tyson had improved though, he knew as well as everyone else on that campus that the only reason he'd made it those five years had been because the F-Fives had decided not to compete. Curiously enough, he'd retired the year the first batch had gotten their act together enough do so.

Max inherited his father and mother's jobs and after combining them he was working on a top of the line beyblade chain that sold almost anything and all of his new products and experiments were hitting the markets every week. He was more then capable of showing everyone just how well he was doing for himself. Kenny was his vice president and between the two of them they were making top of the line equipment.

As for Rei? He was back at home doing God knows what in the mountains with Mariah. No one asked, and no one told, at least not to Kai. He was currently typing away on his laptop in the corner. The object had been a fix at his side for the past few years, after the downfall of Bio-Volt he'd been promoted and that promotion carried a lot of responsibility. It meant that people were more then willing to email him at any time and ask his opinion on things. Running around with both HE and all his connections from the ISA on his tail while also having to deal with being a field officer for the F-Fives who were fast coming to the age where they were accepting missions left and right, he had very little free time for himself.

"Kai, put that damn thing away and come hang out with us!" Tyson shouted from the yard. He glanced up for a brief moment, sighing heavily. He didn't want to. He really didn't. He had more paperwork then he cared to imagine sitting on his desk back home, and he didn't have time to go around and play. He had work to do. Even if it made him a stickler, he still needed to do it, some people actually had world changing jobs.

"Give me a minute." He mumbled back anyway, glancing at the incoming email that was just itching to be opened. One more couldn't hurt. Opening it up he frowned. It was from one of the F-Officers.

After the battle with the Abbey, the six children who had been involved in Operation Freedom (and later Free-fall) had been given a new codename. Their team all received honors for their work, and they were given the title of F-Officers, the Fortune Officers. It was something that they all enjoyed and it was something that made them feel important about their work. With nearly unparalleled power, they'd been given field command on all missions pertaining to the Beyblading Division of the ISA. Outside of that if they were working other cases, they were just beneath the commanding officers of that unit. The world was indebted to them, and it was the least they could do to be promoted back.

FO Hiwatari – FO Jones missing. FO Ivanov OTM to J HQ ETA 2200. : FO Brevda.

Spencer's way with words was endearing as always, but the message was more disconcerting then that. He looked at his watch. 2130. If Tala was going to be at the Japanese Headquarters in thirty minutes, that didn't give him much time to ditch the brats. Sighing heavily he closed his laptop and stood up. He made it three feet towards the door when a shout caught his attention. Startled screams sounded next and there was chaos and crashes shortly after that (or perhaps commingled...it always sounded different when you were in the field...)

The laptop hit the ground before he could blink and he was running towards the shout. His hand dipped into his hip holster for the gun he kept beside his blade. He didn't have bullets though, he didn't need them. Dranzer hooked right into the side arm and he fired it without warning towards whatever it was that elicited the scream.

A blade hit Dranzer's in an instant just as the phoenix rose to defend the Blade Breakers a wolf appeared to defend its master. Kai called his blade back without even blinking. There in the dark, standing shivering and cold in the rain, was Tala. His wide eyes stared unflinching towards Kai who wanted to know just what the hell was going on.

"Tala, you scared the crap out of us man!" Rei called as he placed a hand over his heart. Tyson was flat on his back, apparently he was the idiot who screamed and caused all the ruckus.

"Sorry." He didn't sound sorry. In fact, he sounded like he didn't care in the least. Kai took a step towards him, worry in his eyes.

"You alright?" He asked slowly, he thought back to the email. If Anna Jones had disappeared, of course Tala would be worried. The girl was practically married to the guy. In fact, Tala was more then ready to propse any day now.

"Anna...she's gone." Tala whispered softly. So softly that Kai almost didn't hear. He moved out into the rain, ignoring the questioning looks that the others were giving them. He didn't care about them right now. Tala needed someone.

"We'll find her." Kai said. He'd do anything if it meant his brother would be happy once again. The soaking wet red hair turned in the rain, sending droplets soaring as he shook his head. Vaguely Kai thought that he needed a haircut sometime soon, it was getting far to shaggy these days.

"No...we wont."

"What is it Luka?" He asked gently, using the name that he'd always called the brother of his heart. Luka, the name that had been bestowed upon the redhead when they'd first met. Tala had come later, by Voltaire in fact, but Luka had always been that first name that Kai could never resist calling him by. Just like how Sacha would always be his true name. The name his parents had given him. Voltaire had a way with picking out nicknames.

"She left." Kai's heart froze. He had to have misheard that. Anna was in love with Tala, she wouldn't just leave. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. "She left saying she could never be married to someone like me, that I'm a horrible father and she couldn't possibly have a family with me because our children deserve better. I'm too broken and too emotionless to stay with her." Kai's mouth dropped. That wasn't possible. Anna Jones could never have said anything like that. She couldn't have. It wasn't in her nature. It was impossible. Tala raised a shaking hand, and there it was. A letter written by Anna, it even included her code to prove that it was in fact her. It said everything that Tala had said she'd said, and more.

"This isn't from her. Something's wrong." Kai whispered. He refused to believe it. It was not possible. Anna Jones wasn't able to do something like this. It wasn't possible.

But it was possible. The teen clenched his eyes tight as he pressed his fists to his face. Tala had been so broken after that. The rest of that year had been absolutely horrible.

Kai gently moved the young man through Tyson's house, shaking his head when the others asked him if everything was alright. He pushed the redhead through the door to his room and he forced him to sit down. Tyson had followed them, worry on his face.

"Go get me some water alright Granger?" He asked and the younger man nodded quickly, vanishing within seconds.

He returned a few minutes later, and when he did he bit his lip. He didn't ever want to see the brave man before him as weak and as broken as he was now. Tala was crying. His head was tucked down and pressed against his brother's chest, and Kai was holding him softly, whispering in his ear. The older man was unable to be calmed though. He was crying so hard that he had no hope of calming down. The letter lay on the nightstand and Tyson picked it up, scanning it for a brief moment.

Luka,

While I'm sure this may come as a shock to you, I mean this honestly and truly. I can no longer stay here with you. After four years of this, I can't take it any longer. At first, I hoped that things would get better, that you and I would be able to actually have a real relationship. I've seen the way you and Kiril have been with each other and committing my life to you through marriage or anything would mean that I would have to accept that that would be how you would treat any children we'll have together...and I cannot accept you to be a father to this child in that manner. Kiril was already here, there was nothing we could do to stop that...this child doesn't deserve you and neither do I. We deserve better. I've tried to bite my tongue and not say anything throughout this whole while, but I can no longer do so. Besides, this is far to dangerous of an environment to raise a child in. You wouldn't know anything about that would you? You've never cared at all about danger.

Goodbye,

Anna Giana Ottilia Jones Fortune Officer 006.

Tyson bit his lip. He couldn't believe what he'd just read, and upon reading it he felt sick. No wonder Tala was a mess. Looking at that letter and then looking at Tala it was obvious that everything had been swept completely out from under his feet.

Shit had been figuratively hitting the fan for the Fortune Officers for close to three months now. First, Ian found out that his newly found father had cancer and had fallen all but completely silent towards the F-Fives as he struggled to help out his family the best he could with the difficult change. He'd practically removed himself completely from their lives

Spencer had been on a mission not to long ago and his car had been rigged with a bomb. He'd barely made it out alive. He'd been thrown into a video store across the street and had been rushed to the hospital. The doctors said said that if he had been any later he would have been killed.

Bryan had gotten shot only two months later. He had been in the office of all places when someone had fired at him through the window. He too went to the hospital and was helped out. Tala had gotten into a car accident with Kiril and Kiril's best friend Adrien on the way to the hospital, they were mostly unharmed, but their car had been totalled.

Going to Italy had been in order to try to catch a breather. They were going to just try to calm down from everything and get a break. Just for a few months and then they'd go back to Russia to work at the school, but the small family had decided they needed to relieve some stress.

Tala and his brother, now nine, had been out for some gelato and when they'd gotten back into the house Anna was gone. All that was left was that letter. Tala had flown to Japan almost immediately, and with that thought, cold dread filled Kai's heart.

Kiril.

"Where's Kiril?" He whispered to his brother. The redhead reeled back as though he'd been struck. His mouth dropped, tears flooding down his face as horror struck him.

"Oh God." He whispered, his body shaking.

"Luka. Where is Kiril?" It would take them forever to get back to Italy, this late at night there was little chance they'd catch a flight back. However long it had taken Tala to get to Japan meant that that was how long the boy had been by himself, and Kai could only hope that the redhead had enough sense to not leave the little boy alone.

"He-he-"

"Is he back home? On the Campus?" Kai asked as he tried to steady the man. Almost instantly though the man had leaped to his feet and had stumbled forward, trying to get towards the door where Tyson was watching the scene with growing horror.

Tyson knew by now that there were a few things that Tala treasured in his life. His family was at the top of that list. Kiril was someone that he had all but pledged to both father and brother. Kiril was his responsibility and his little boy. Everyone of the make shift family members had fallen in love with the child and they spoiled him rotten at times.

They'd all had a hand in personally raising the child from the time he was four, and the past four and a half years or so had been enough for the boy to mean the world to them. The child had been a huge part in the healing process it had taken them to overcome many nightmares and fears that they'd had.

While they weren't comfortable calling him their brother, something that seemed odd because they'd never had a problem calling any of the other F-Fives their brother, they did call him their favorite little nephew. Which was enough to make the older of the two blood brother's blush.

It had been recently that the child had started to call the redhead "Bropa" (Brother/Papa) or depending on the country they were in "Frapa." (Fratello/Papa). Because the redhead had for so long acted as both sibling and parent it had been something that had come naturally for the child. Tala had in turn called the boy his Chiro (child/brother). He had explained to the boy that calling him a Sro or a Bron sounded far too strange to him.

In truth, the nicknames had come along when Kiril had misbehaved in school. Or rather, he had told the truth in school and the teachers didn't believe him. He had been called down to the headmaster's office and his father had been called. He cried and begged and pleaded and all but got down on his hands and knees in hopes that his father wouldn't be called.

"Please don't call my father! Please, I don't want to see him, please!" He'd cried, and when Tala had walked in, he'd thrown himself at the young man in tears. "They were going to call him! They said they were going to call him!"

"Shh...shh little love, who's going to call who?" He'd asked gently as he stared at the boy (who hardly ever cried) in his arms in confusion. He held the boy to his chest and snuggled into his bronze hair lightly. He rubbed the (then) seven year old's back in hopes to calm the child down.

"Ah, Mr. Ivanov, you're here." A voice had said behind him. The nineteen year old looked up and stared at the man who walked in. The man reeled back for a brief moment upon seeing him and blinked rapidly for a moment. "I'm sorry, I think there's been some mistake, who are you?" The child gripped the teen to his body, and pointed.

"He said he was going to call father!" He accused angrily.

"Hush now little love, give me a moment." The teen soothed gently. He looked at the man. "I'm his brother, what seems to be the problem?"

"We called your father." The man snapped as he growled, clearly annoyed. Kiril let a few more tears fall from his face as he buried his face in his brother's leg.

"Ah, on the paperwork you'd have seen my name under that. I adopted him." The redhead explained easily enough. The man blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"I adopted him two years ago when our father was declared unable to suitably raise him, none of that seems to matter. I'm his legal guardian and I'd like to know what the problem is."

"Excuse me for asking, but just what is it that you do Mr. Ivanov?" The man looked like he hated the idea completely that Tala was the boy's guardian, and it was clear he didn't think the teen was telling the truth in the slightest.

"I'm the Executive Field Commander in the International Security Agency overseeing all of the F-Fives of Russia, I had to leave my men in a training situation with my second who's does not especially want to be teaching them at the moment, and he'd rather be running surveillance on the mission he was assigned two weeks ago. So now that we've agreed that I have a job, one that I'm away from at the moment, that Kiril's upset, which he shouldn't be, and that you're going to have to deal with the fact that I'm his guardian, I want to know what exactly there seems to be the problem at the moment." Tala's voice was like ice.

Nobody made Kiril cry.

The headmaster licked his lips, feeling awkward all of a sudden.

"Well...he's been telling lies to the other students."

"What lies?" He asked calmly even as the child hissed "I don't tell lies!"

"He said that his father was undergoing an investigation for crimes against humanity and that he's one of those Abbey children and that he knows all the big secrets of beyblading that no one will say, and that the tournament two years ago was rigged." The man said triumphantly.

"None of that contained a lie in it. Our father is Boris Balkov, he is in jail, and he is under question for crimes against humanity. He is an F-Five, he does know all the big secrets of beyblading, and the tournament was rigged. If that's all, I think we're through here – my brother doesn't lie."

The two had left the school, Tala insisting that they were through for the day, and had then decided to splurge and give the boy some ice cream to ease his fears (so what if Bryan was busy, he didn't particularly care in all honesty). The boy had been absolutely terrified at the possibility that he was going to see his father again after all this time. Even though the last time he'd seen the man in person had been a long while ago, the boy still had that in grown fear that all children of the Abbey had.

Boris Balkov was a man of nightmares and no one stood up against him. Except for the Officers. It was one reason why the F-Fives listened to their slightly older instructors and Officers. These were the people who had stood up against Boris' reign and had proven that they could come out on top. If they weren't scared of Boris, then the F-Fives had no reason to doubt their abilities.

"Why did he think you were my father?" Kiril asked innocently enough as he dipped into his chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, m and m, sprinkled, hot fudged, Hershey syruped, gummy worm conglomeration with some whipped cream on top just to add onto the calories and fattening sweetness the dessert was. No one in their right mind would buy a seven year old such a treat. Some already believed Tala wasn't of his right mind though, so he didn't really care.

"When we left the Abbey, there was some question of your guardianship." He started off, taking a spoonful of whipped cream and a worm dipped in chocolate. "All of the F-Fives who weren't able to be tracked down to a particular parent were also in that position." The little child nabbed a red and green worm and started to tug at it with his teeth while his brother talked. "Since my name's on the deed and such, I'm considered a foster parent to the F-Fives as I'm the Director of the campus."

"So you're my foster father?" He shook his head though.

"No, with you, we knew who you were related too. I decided to legally adopt you. Technically, you're my son." The boy blinked.

"I don't understand."

"According to the law...you're my son. On paper at least." He shrugged and took a huge bite out of chocolate and strawberry, making sure to grab some of the candy as well. "They wouldn't let me adopt you without...ah...motherly guidance as well, so Anna's technically your mother." The boy recoiled. While he hadn't seemed to mind the idea of Tala being his father, finding out that someone had replaced his beloved mother was something he did not approve of.

"I don't want another mother." He told his brother stubbornly. Tala cracked a grin.

"You don't have to call her that. She's still Anna."

"Anya." The little one corrected.

"Anya." He allowed.

"So what are you to me? Are you my papa or my brother?"

"Technically I'm both." For a while the boy was silent. He filled his mouth with ice cream and candy and looked to be very deep in thought.

"So...you're my Bropa?" He asked after a while. Tala cracked a grin.

"Why not?" He threw a few bills onto the table now that their dessert was finished and he scooped the little boy up to place him on his shoulders. "You can be my Chiro."

"Chiro?"

"My child and my bro." He explained. "It sounds retarded any other way." The little boy giggled.

"I don't want to call her my mama..." He whispered once more.

"You never have to if you don't want to."

That had been their relationship ever since that day. The two always together, and always going out for that Sinful Dessert. The two of them were peas in a pod, and it was obvious that Kiril loved the man like a father.

The simple fact alone that amidst all of this, Tala had been so completely shaken off his rocker that he'd forgotten about his brother was enough to show the gravity of the situation. While Kai was trying to restrain Tala, Tyson moved towards the phone and grabbed it. He brought it back, and when he entered the room, he noticed that Tala had slumped over unconscious.

Kai looked up at him for a moment before holding out his hand and taking the phone away from his friend. He dialed a series of numbers before pressing send and listened for a brief moment. Ringing filled the room as he waited, breath held.

"Where in God's name are you?!" An angry Italian voice hissed over the line. He flinched slightly at that.

"Signore Fratello?" Kai murmured as he closed his eyes in relief.

"Kai? Where's Luka?!"

"With me, is Kiril there?" He asked hopefully.

"He's here. He's been here for three days by himself! There's no food in the house, the poor boy was starving!"

"Three days?" He whispered, trying to figure out how so much time had passed since Anna's disappearance. Tala must have tried to track her down before he showed up in such a state at Tyson's house. That he'd forgotten about the boy for three days though...no wonder he'd needed to be so forcibly restrained. He was in a complete panic. For the newly turned nine year old to be left alone in a country he was just passably fluent in its language for three days was nearly serving a death sentence to the child.

"I stopped by today just to see how they were doing and you know what happened?! That poor child was all but bawling on the floor saying something about Anna leaving and Luka vanishing into thin air. I had to take him to the hospital! He was dehydrated and malnourished! So where the hell is that irresponsible brother of yours?"

"He's...he's not able to answer the phone right now. Is Kiril alright?" Kai felt his breath quicken at the sound of that. Things really were bad....

"He's fine, but what the hell is going on!?"

"Do you mind looking after Kiril for a few days? I'll call Bryan and get him to go to Italy to pick him up and bring him home, but can you watch out for him for a little while?"

"Watch out for him?! Kai where the hell is everyone?"

"Anna's gone. She left Luka...she doesn't want to come back either. She said some pretty cruel things in a letter she left, and coded in as proof it was here. Luka's...a bit out of it. He's not going to be able to come back to Italy, it'll tear his heart in two."

"My God...Anna left? What about the baby?"

"It didn't say...but Luka can't go back to Italy right now. Can you look after Kiril for a little bit? I'll figure out how to bring him home as soon as I can alright?" The phone had been passed to the child for a little bit, and Kai had to force himself to say they'd be there as soon as they could instead of rushing over to get him now. He knew that trouble was going to start and that Kiril was safest in Italy where nothing could harm him...he didn't want the boy caught in the cross fire of this... He didn't want Kiril to see Tala as broken as he'd been when the redhead had almost killed Anna all those years ago...

And that had been that. For months Kai and Tala worked each and every day to find Anna. Kiril stayed in Italy, ignored and forgotten for months.

They forgot.

Tears streaked down the teen's face.

They just forgot about him.

Just like they'll forget now.

There was a crashing down the hall. He turned and looked up, trying to understand what was happening.

A man walked in, his eyes glittering with some unknown quality. He reached out and grabbed the teen by the face before smashing his head down on the bench he'd been sitting on. The boy screamed as blood ran down his face.

"Stop it! Please stop it! Leave him alone!" He looked up and stared at the woman that had followed the stranger into his cell. She was gripping at the man's arm, begging for his safety. He felt a surge of anger course through him.

"He's coming with us." The man hissed as he caught the teen by the hair and dragged him up. "He just needs to be roughed up a bit."

They walked forever. He knew he had to be concussed by now. He was seeing doubles of everything and his head was spinning so hard and so fast. Memories of the past kept surfacing in his mind and he groaned as his awareness was fading in and out.

After the year had faded, Kai had shown up in Italy to take Kiril back home. He thanked Fratello over and over again, and tried to give him money to help pay for the costs, but the man refused. He was infuriated with the whole business and he hated the fact that Kiril had been left alone. He honestly did. Still, the man understood that Luka handled changes to his life, particularly changes to his love life very poorly.

So as Kiril left silently with Kai, he could only watch sadly. The boy had practically stopped speaking as the months dragged on. Garbled phone conversations with Kai, Bryan, and Spencer hadn't been enough to make him feel better after the loss of both his parent figures.

His best friend in the whole world, Adrien, had called him almost everyday after he'd heard what had happened. Kiril had been thankful for that, but as time dragged on, he stopped feeling like talking, and wanted instead to just be with his family once more. He just wanted his family back.

After all...that day had been the day he'd decided to do the inevitable.

"I'm going to call her mama when we get back." He'd said to Tala when they were walking home from the gelato stand. The redhead had stopped in his tracks.

"You sure about that Chiro?" He had asked softly, looking at his child with such concern about what the boy was thinking.

Anna was just about three months pregnant. When they'd all found out, everyone had been so excited and rushing about that there was a mass confusion as to what they were going to do. Still, that night, after all the excitement had seemed to dwindle down, the two love birds had gone into Kiril's dorm room on the F-Five campus and asked if Adrien could leave for a little while so they could talk to the boy.

They'd expected Kiril to be a number of things, jealous among the many ways he could the announcement. They hadn't expected him to break out into a great smile and grin up at the two like a child with a new toy on his birthday. What do I call it, he'd asked, my Brophew or my Neister? They'd all laughed at that, saying they'd hoped it wasn't a girl because that sounded far to strange.

The boy had been excited about the baby, just as excited as Tala was. The two of them were constantly running about trying to find ways to make Anna happy. Especially when she started to crave random things. Yet oddly enough, recently no matter what they did she was always in a bad mood. She was always trying to get into fights with Tala, and she'd even started to call him by that name now. Gone seemed to be the days where she called him 'Luka.'

"Last time I saw mama...she was pregnant. Anna's pregnant...and she's my mama now isn't she? I...I want her to be my mama..." He looked up at Tala with big eyes.

"You don't have to replace her with your mother."

"She was your mother too." He reminded, but Tala was shaking his head.

"That woman...she really never was my mother. I only spoke with her a few times, and while she may have given birth to me I don't think that makes much of a relationship. My mother and father will always be Aya and Nikoli Ivanov....you know they'd be truly pleased to know you took their name."

It had been right after the announcement that Anna was pregnant, that Kiril had decided to change his last name to Ivanov. Where before he'd called himself Valkov, he couldn't take it anymore and finally had asked to change it to his brother's name. The redhead had agreed and they'd filled out the paperwork accordingly. He'd been so happy...

"I want Anna to be my mama...I want you to be my papa...you're my papa right Luka?" he asked hesitantly, looking up at the man. Blue eyes shimmered.

"Yeah, I'm your papa Chiro..."

They had walked through the door, and Kiril had run through the house calling for Anna in hopes that he could tell her his decision. He couldn't find her though. Tala frowned and started to look too. He went to their room, one hand holding the gelato he'd bought for her still. There on the bed was the letter...the heart break...

In his pocket was the golden engagement ring he was going to propose to her with...

He'd left Italy, left Kiril, and now the boy had lost both his parents in one night. Their relationship had never been the same again.

Tala was always on missions. He was always busy or away. When they were together, there was an inexplicable amount of anger and frustration pent up inside the child's nine year old body. The two just got into fights and argued more times then not.

He was dragged through the halls at a quick pace, and yet despite that, and the pounding headache, he could still feel the woman's eyes on him.

He didn't like it. Yet he craved it. Even delirious with pain and concussion, his messed up mind craved her eyes watching him.

The man holding him up finally came to a stop long enough to punch in a password at a door and shove him through it.

They were on a balcony of sorts. Below them was a huge room. There were five machine like chairs that were easil recognized as a rendition of the Black Dranzer Server set up with all the computers connected to them not to far away.

There were people below too. Five people in the BD Server headsets that disguised their features and identities, several technicians and guards, and of all people – Kai.

The man pushed off the wall upon seeing him, his eyes wide with horror at the sight of him standing there dazed and confused. Several of the people in headsets also looked a bit shocked at the sight, and he wondered if he knew any of them you couldn't see their faces...

"Listen up...I know there's been some talk recently of using those servers against us...just as I know that some of you don't believe that we'll follow through with the threats that we made to keep you here..." The man trailed off, pushing him forward so that he was leaning over the rail. His hair fell into his face and he blinked, trying to focus as vertigo overtook him. He was about to fall to his knees when his hands clutched onto the bar that was pressing against his chest.

Vaguely he wondered if this is what it felt like to be holding onto that fatal three...the bar that sat three inches above the ground in the Abbey where Boris forced victims to hold onto it before they were beaten into the ground.

A gun was cocked, and he held his breath, suddenly feeling like his life was going to be over very soon.

"No! Stop it!" He turned his head slightly to see what was happening next to him, but a hand shoved his head downwards so he could see only the people who were standing horrified beneath him. The woman was screaming, shouting, begging him to stop.

"Keep it up and I'll just kill that other boy!"

He felt his breath catch in his throat. What other boy? Adrien? Was Adrien here?

"This is a warning. I know you all know who this boy is. I also know that you don't want to see any kid die even if you don't know who he is...If any of you even think about doing anything, I'm going to blow this boy's brains out before you can blink twice. Understood?"

There was some quick agreements made, no one wanted to see this situation get worse then it already looked like it was getting.

"But, just to make sure..." The gun fired before anyone could even blink.

He screamed, his body pitching forwards farther then he already was leaning. He was falling. Falling far faster then he could even imagine. He was going to hit his head on the ground and that was going to be that. He was going to die.

Someone's arms caught him though. Caught him just before he smashed against the ground. He was bleeding everywhere, and his consciousness was fading, and he was already concussed and in a blinding amount of pain already...and yet he could have sworn that a soft voice whispered in his ear:

"Shh...it'll be alright...just stay alive and wait for me...I won't forgot about you, I promise I'll save you."

And as he slept...he dreamt about the past: