RTC: Well, this is my second fic. I'm finally posting it; 2 months after writing the first chapter! I find it hard to put up the first chapter because you don't have reviewers to help and encourage you.

Kai: As if it weren't bad enough she tortures me, she decided to torture my dad. Can't you just leave us alone?

RTC: What do you think?

Kai: No...

RTC: Then why do you ask those questions? Do the disclaimer, please!

Kai: Ray-Tiger-Cat does not own Beyblade, got that? Hey, wait, why am I doing the disclaimer when I'm not even in the fic?

RTC: Because it's your family. Te others don't have anything to do with this plot. On with the fic. So here's the prologue!

-----

A Bad Beginning

It should have been a happy day for Voltaire Hitawari, his first child- a boy- had just been born; but it was not. His wife had died giving birth to that worthless son. Perhaps he should be put up for adoption, Voltaire thought. He really was going to give away his only child, but when the moment came to sign the papers, Voltaire found he couldn't do it. Here was the only flesh and blood of his beloved wife, and the child- loud and as annoying as he might be- would have to stay.

Four years later

It was the child's- now named Alexander, for his mother, Alexandra- fourth birthday.

"Alexander, come down here!" barked Voltaire.

"Yes, Father," Alex replied, walking down the stairs in a dignified manner. All his life, his father had controlled him. He was forbidden to talk about his mother, play with other children, and call Voltaire 'Dad'

(Always, always 'Father') and in general, act his own age. How he wished he could be like all the other children, go to school instead of being stuck alone with those evil, strict tutors, playing outside, allowed to cry, and most of all, to have a mother who loved and cared about him.

"I have something for you, son," his father told him, holding out a small, plain, black box.

"A present?" asked Alex, his father never, ever gave him presents. He had his needs fulfilled, but no extras. He took the box and opened it. Inside was a small, blue beyblade.

"I want you to train and become stronger," Voltaire ordered.

"Yes, Father," said Alex.

Three years later

"But why do I have to go, Father?" Alex was asking.

"Son, do not talk back to your elders!" Voltaire stopped yelling long enough to hit Alex across the face so hard he was knocked off balance. "You will go because I say so!"

Alex was told that he was being sent to a school to train him. However, since Alex wasn't as stupid as his father thought, he had gone through his father's desk to find out where he was really going. He was being sent to an abbey, and not just any abbey, Balkov Abbey, where pain, suffering and torture were all a part of daily life. However he couldn't tell his father what he knew for fear of another beating. Alex wondered who in their right mind would open a "school" like that.

Just as he suspected, within a week of being in "school", he was not only in pain from the training, but from being beaten for everything he did wrong. They had so many instruments of torture, it wasn't funny. Also, Alex suspected that maybe they were drugging his food because he felt woozy and dizzy and had a headache most of the time.

A year later, the treatment he got when he arrived at the abbey would have been bliss compared to what they were doing to him now. They regularly locked him into his room and "forgot" to feed him. They chained him down and whipped, burned, hit and stabbed him. One scream, one whimper, one-any-form-of-displaying-pain and the "instructors" would double the punishment. They often stuck needles full of drugs in the children and the drugs were often more painful than the physical beatings. On top of all that, the children in the abbey were expected to train from dawn to dusk or sometimes even longer.

One day, they dragged in a new kid. Literally. He was kicking and screaming the whole way. Alex watched with interest. He wondered where this child would end up- would he even be alive a year from now? Any form of rebellion was not tolerated and this kid was certainly trying to rebel. Alex was most surprised when he returned to his "room" that night to find the child there, on an extra bed that had been placed there. Most people had roommates but Alex ha always been alone; on his father's orders, most likely. The boy looked foreign, so different from Alex, who had silver-grey hair and pale skin. This boy was blonde, with brown eyes and a tan. He was already covered in bruises and had a nasty cut below his lip.

"What are you doing here?" Alex asked.

"I'm you're new roommate. Name's Ryan," the kid replied, wincing as he tried to sit up.

"That must be painful. Try not to move too much. I was watching them bring you in here and I saw you fight. You're good but they're stronger. Be careful," Alex warned. Ryan burst into tears.

"I don't wanna be here," he sobbed.

"How'd you end up here, anyway?" asked Alex.

"My mummy went away when I was five and she didn't come back. My daddy started hurting me, so the police took me away from him. Then this man adopted me, and he wanted me to train here. I'm seven years old now and i didn't think life would be so hard. I used to watch the big kids walk to school without any problems and I always wanted to grow up fast. Now that I'm one of the big kids, I want things to be like they were before," he replied. "What's your story?" Ryan sounded so much older than seven right then.

"My father wanted me to come here to become strong. He thinks strength and power are everything," Alex told him.

"What about your mom?" Ryan asked.

"She died a long time ago," Alex said. Ryan started crying again. It looks like I'll have to watch out for Ryan, he hardly seems like abbey material and he could probably use a friend. I wish someone had looked after me when I first came here, Alex thought. I guess I just found my first friend.

"Ryan, don't worry. It'll be okay. Someday we'll get out of here. In the meantime, I've got your back," Alex tried to reassure him.

"Thanks," Ryan mumbled, already half asleep.

In the months to follow, Alex and Ryan became close friends and they moved through the ranks pretty quickly. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. The higher levels trainees got worse punishments and beatings, but at least they knew they had skills. Within two years, they each had several people envying them (the kids at the abbey that is). When they were both nine years old, they got some disturbing new from their new "teacher", Boris.

"You will both be pulled from the abbey and sent to another training facility. This facility-" Boris sounded disgusted with it- "is run by the BBA. That's Beyblade Battle Association, you morons," he added at their confused looks, "You will not reveal anything about this place. You will not tell them how you train. You will just show them that you're two up and coming beyblade star. You tell them about how we train you, and we will kill you, slowly and painfully. Understood?"

Ryan and Alex nodded. They thought this was too good to be true, but they weren't going to say that in front of Boris.

"They're just sending us away? To the BBA's training facility?" Alex asked nervously, "Something's up."

"I agree. So, the usual plan?" Ryan responded. The usual plan was to break out of their "room" and hack the computer system to find information. Over the past two years, they had broken out several times' sometimes for food and sometimes for information.

"Shh! They're going to hear us," Alex warned.

"Sorry, but I'm having a hard time hacking into this file," Ryan said.

"And hitting the computer will help how?" Alex asked.

"I'm in! Look at this! It's a letter from the head of the BBA," Ryan whispered.

To the staff of the Biovolt Abbey,

It has come to our attention that you do not allow your students outside and that you have never entered a student in a tournament. We would like to use this opportunity to invite some of your students to the BBA facility in Tokyo, Japan or allow some of our students to train with you. Foreign experiences teach children new things and we would like to meet some of your students.

Sincerely,

The BBA

"Well, that explains a few things," Alex said.

"What? I'm not sure I understand," Ryan said.

"Obviously, the kids from the BBA can't come here because they would se our training and it would look suspicious if they didn't agree to the request, so they're sending us and probably some other children," Alex explained.

"Oh, I get it, they're sending us so that this abbey looks like a normal training facility," Ryan said as they sneaked back to their "room".

"We'd better get some sleep. We're leaving tomorrow," Alex mumbled.

"Tomorrow, we get our freedom back," said Ryan.

"Even if it's just temporarily," Alex whispered so quietly that Ryan didn't hear. If his father had anything to say about this, they would be back at the abbey in a few weeks.

-----

RTC: I hope you enjoyed that. I know there wasn't much torture/angst in there, but it was just the beginning and there should be more in future chapters. I'm just going to warn you that this fic might not be updated as often as my other one because I'm not really sure what to do in the plot. I know where it'll end up, but I need the middle. (Remember, the idea for this fic is only two months old, whereas the other fic's has been in my head for two or three years.) I'm open to suggestions, so if you have any ideas, include that in your review! If you know any boy's names that start with Dy, put that in, too. Thanks for reading and bye!