A/N: This is a prequel to Wintery Regrets, a two-shot story.
Note: Снежинка is Snowflake in Russian, pronounced as 'snieZHINka'.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: Prequel to: Wintery Regrets. A phone call from Tala allowed the past to resurface bringing along memories of a friend who never had the chance to say goodbye. Story alternates between Kai and Tala. R&R!
Last Call (Part 1)
At a large, lavish hotel by the sea, a celebration was held for Tyson's third consecutive world championship title. Limousines pulled up in front of the hotel, one by one; bladers from each team stepped out dressed lavishly in tux and gowns. The lobby filled with chatter; former teammates and new friends talked and laughed, recalling old memories or updating with new events. The golden plated doors of the luxurious hall opened, emitting a soft golden glow. Ivory pillars were intricately decorated with carvings of each blader's bit-beast. The carvings were so life like; it almost felt as if the pillars gained the spirits of the bit-beasts, watching over their masters. Pressed against the walls were tables of food prepared exclusively from chefs brought from countries the BBA visited. On stage at the end of the hall was a small symphonic band with Ming-Ming as the vocalist.
"Isn't this party great?" Tyson exclaimed b-lining to the first table of food. First up: expensive sushi. "All this food! For me!"
"Yes, that's great Tyson," Hilary rubbed her temples watching her date gobble down the first tray of undefended sushi. I can't believe the girls convinced me to go on a date with this moron. Well at least I got a hundred and fifty Yen for it!
Couples walked in pair by pair, greeted by their friends. When Rei and Mariah arrived, everybody flocked to them. Apparently as rumor went, Lee gave Rei the 'approval'.
"So is it true?" Matilda squealed holding Mariah's hands. "You're getting engaged?"
Mariah blushed and nodded. After much consideration and talk in her village, the decision was up to Lee. Through much deliberation, Lee agreed. Rei couldn't be happier; he was about to be engaged to his childhood sweetheart. Placing a kiss on Mariah's cheek, she blushed, elbowing him on his stomach. Entangling herself from him she followed Matilda guiding her toward the rest of Barthez Battalion. Introducing Mariah to Miguel, both shook hands and Mariah had a glint in her eye; something was up! Blushing, Miguel's arm slipped around Matilda's shoulder as the girl had a lot of explaining to do! The rest of the girls began ganging up on them; apparently Matilda had to answer to all of them, followed by Mariah, naturally.
Everybody had a great time at the party as conversations echoed with laughter. It wasn't an everyday occurrence everybody could get together and talk about everything. Every team showed up except the Blitzkrieg Boys. Soon taking the stage, Mr. Dickenson began his speech, welcoming the bladers with open arms. Moving to the side, he allowed the World Champ himself to give a few words, if he could manage it without spilling food out of his mouth! The crowd laughed at Tyson who blushed swallowing the gigantic piece of tempura. Rubbing the back of his head, the teen thanked Mr. Dickenson and his friends, the Bladebreakers or team G-Revolutions. He couldn't do what he did without their support!
The crowd grew louder and louder, cheering at the World Champ! Everybody cheered except Kai, leaning by the wall silently sipping a glass of beer, head in the clouds. Everything is over, he recited in his mind. Swirling the golden liquid, what now? Go back to Moscow? Stay here in Tokyo? Travel the world? Maybe. His eyes glanced around at everybody who had smiles on their faces. Being around lots of people was something he never got used to, especially when everybody was so happy. Lowering his face, he took another sip, downing the liquid moving to the bar. Ordering another glass, he ignored the speeches held from former rivals who were now friends. Friends, huh?
"Aren't you going to join your buddies?" the bartender asked.
"…"
"Not a socialite I see," he gave Kai another glass. "Don't drink too much; the night's still young."
"…"
Kai moved away from the bar walking back to where he stood. He hoped nobody would bother him for the rest of the night. Hell, if he were to disappear now, nobody would notice anyway. Okay, maybe one person: Tyson. Kai sighed, downing more and more of the alcoholic beverage. He should go. Pushing himself off the wall, his phone rang. He grunted, glancing at the screen; in Russian text it wrote: Incoming call from Tala Ivanov.
"What?" Kai snapped, picking up the call, downing another sip.
"Been drinking have you?"
"…What do you want? It better be something worth my attention."
Silence. On the other side of the line, Tala glanced over at his teammates not sure how to break the news.
"Return to Moscow immediately." He instructed. Turning his attention to the frost covered window sill, his fingers traced the frosts' outline.
"Why? I don't—"
"Just come back! It's…" Tala questioned himself: could he do this? Could he break the news to his best friend?
A sudden chill ran down Kai's spine. If Tala spoke in this manner, something was definitely wrong. Placing the glass on a table he left into the silent hallway. Undoing his tie, he tossed it aside. He stood in front of a large crystallized glass panel staring at the glowing moon. The winds howled in pain.
"What's wrong?"
Tala fell silent. His knuckles turned white, lowering his face he asked, "Do you remember 'Project V-0717'?"
"…What?"
"V-0717 Codename: Arachnoid."
Butterflies fluttered in his stomach. That was… that was…
"What of it?" He tried keeping his voice sturdy but inside, cracks appeared, slowly…
Tala breathed, "Spencer and Bryan went to see her this morning and—"
"And?"
"Viktoria's dead."
Lightning flashed across the sky, the winds howled, the sea thrashed against the shoreline. Lights within the hotel flickered. Kai hung up. The lone wolf shook his head. No, it couldn't be true. It… just couldn't.
'Beep… beep… beep…'
Tala placed the phone down and breathed. Suddenly a small body purred around his legs. Glancing down was Viktoria's cat, Snowflake meowed.
Picking up the feline Tala spoke, "Снежинка…"
The feline sensed something was wrong. Rubbing his head against Tala's chest, the ginger cat purred, waiting. Unfortunately Snowflake was ill; yesterday Ian took the feline to the vet. Snowflake was diagnosed with FIV, Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. Nobody knew how long the feline suffered the disease but it was in its last stages, nobody could do anything. It was almost too coincidental; with the death of Viktoria, Snowflake's demise was soon to follow. Tala walked out of the room placing the weakened feline down on the table. Picking his coat from the rack, he threw it on followed by snow boots, gloves and a thick, wool scarf. Picking up the cat, Tala cradled it, walking to the door. Bryan and the others waited for him. With their leader joining them, the boys nodded slowly making their way to the edge of town, to the cemetery. As they walked, they passed a florist. It was Ian's idea to buy flowers, especially white lilies.
Arriving at the black metallic gates, Spencer pushed it open walking to the grave at the end of the cemetery. Snowflake jumped out of Tala's arms onto his owner's grave. He meowed weakly as his paw clawed the marble tombstone. The feline turned to the boys, meowing at them before walking in circles, flattening the snow and curled into a ball. Snowflake closed his eyes to rest.
Bryan shook his head, fists tightening; none of this should have happened! The amount of guilt washed over him when he remembered his days at the abbey. He remembered mistreating Viktoria and Snowflake without concern. God, he was a fool! Ian lowered himself petting Snowflake, placing lilies on the grave.
"It's our fault," Ian spoke quietly stroking Snowflake's head. "If only we weren't so blinded by greed and power,"
"Understandable," Spencer crouched down dusting away the snow from the tombstone. "We were foolish to treat her like dirt. My apologies," Spencer lowered his head, placing down a lily.
"For all the things we've done, it's all our fault." Bryan whispered, placing down another lily.
Tala remained silent. He was the one to blame. Memories took him back to two years ago; Boris ordered Tala to take 'good care' of her making sure she stayed in line and made sure she was available for 'other services'. He closed his eyes remembering the day Viktoria was presented to them. He remembered Boris introduced her as a test subject to test out the power of a new bit-beast: Arachnoid, a large, menacing and highly uncontrollable tarantula. She was a defect and Boris used her because she was disposable. Boris knew this bit-beast could kill her if it chose to. At the time, Tala and his teammates didn't care about her well-being; human lives were expendable. Tala's fists tightened; if only he wasn't so blind she wouldn't need to have suffered.
"Tala," Ian broke the silence as his hand left Snowflake.
Tala, Bryan and Spencer gazed down at Snowflake. The feline ceased to move. His breaths were no longer visible in the icy wind.
"Snowflake's finally at peace." Ian picked up Snowflake passing the feline into Bryan's arms.
"To be with his owner…" Bryan felt Snowflake's body warmth fading.
Spencer walked passed Bryan kneeling next to Viktoria's grave. His bare hands dug into the snow. The soil was frozen over but the teen needed to do this; for all the sins he and his teammates committed, this was at least something he could do. His fingers were numb and sore but Spencer continued digging. He managed to dig a foot deep grave. Signaling Bryan, the teen approached the hole gently placing down Snowflake.
"Be with your owner, Snowflake," Spencer rubbed Snowflake's head one last time. "Make her happy."
"Hey, we're really sorry for what we did," Bryan said. "I know that you can't forgive us but at least, if it makes you feel better, you can forget us." Nodding to Spencer, the large teen pushed snow into the grave, paying his respects for the fallen feline.
Ian sniffed. Tears slid down his cheeks. "I was a coward! I should have stopped Boris!"
Everybody looked at Ian, confused. What was he talking about?
While BEGA was being formed, Boris tried to recruit her to crush the Bladebreakers, harnessing the power of the volatile bit-beast. Ian remembered hearing Viktoria out right refuse Boris' offer. And it was then it happened; Viktoria's blade was used against her. The gigantic monstrosity exploded out of the blade piercing its large venomous fangs into her heart.
"Arachnoid!" she commanded. "I command you to—! Ugh!"
"Arachnoid, destroy VIXIS!" Boris commanded. The tarantula didn't hesitate; the monster pumped venom into her. Its large jaws slowly crushed her ribs. Arachnoid watched his master succumbed to her knees, gasping for air. Her hands reached to her bit-beast, demanding answers.
"Why… Arachnoid… why would you do this to me? I… I thought we were… friends…"
Arachnoid threw Viktoria's body, slamming her against the wall. She coughed up pools of blood. The sight satisfied Boris, watching the defect slowly die before his very eyes. If she didn't want to help him, she was better off dead. Wasting all those funds on her was a complete waste of time but she proved one thing true: her bit-beast, Arachnoid was more deadly than he thought. It was quite a shame Arachnoid was destroyed the moment it used up its powers to destroy its master. Her blade stopped spinning, tipping to the side. The bit-chip glowed and exploded, shattering the blade into minuscule fragments.
"Vixis!" Ian ran to her cradling her in his arms. "Vixis!"
"Hi… Ian…" she spoke quietly. Weakly she smiled, "Heh, first time you called me… by my nickname…"
"Oh god! What do I do? Anti-venom! Yes, anti-venom! Please stay put! I'll get you anti-venom!" Ian was frantic! He didn't know if anti-venom would work!
"D-Don't worry… Ian. The venom won't kill me… yet." Viktoria coughed, hacking up blood. The red liquid disturbed Ian. He watched her struggling to speak, "Bring Tala, Bryan and Spencer… Bring them home…"
Ian did exactly that; the moment he heard the world championships were over, he immediately contacted Tala. Ian could barely speak properly but he managed to relay Viktoria's message: Bring them home… They boys didn't wait around; the moment their private jet was ready, they left for Moscow.
The boys entered her room; tubes and wires were attached all over her body. The room echoed with the sounds of the heart monitors beeping in slow rhythms. They feared at any moment, the heart monitors would stop and…
"Hi… guys." She moved her head toward the direction where the boys stood.
Tala stepped forward, "Ian told us everything. How are you doing?"
"I'm fine..." She coughed quickly hiding her face. She didn't want to them to see her bloodstained lips. Quickly wiping her mouth, she turned around and smiled.
Making conversation wasn't something Tala was accustomed to but he had to try; Viktoria was his friend. Viktoria was their friend. "BEGA has fallen."
"I know. Ian told me." She moved her head toward Tala's direction. "I see you're injured."
"How…?"
She reached out grabbing his hand, "I can tell by your voice. It seemed as if someone beat you pretty bad, didn't they? I can feel your fractured wrist…"
"Sharp as ever, aren't you?"
Viktoria giggled. Turning her attention to Bryan and Spencer she smiled at them both.
"And how are you two doing?"
Talking to her again made the boys feel complete. For friends they never had but slowly gained over the years, she was a vital part of that web. Without her kindness, generosity and persistence, they would never have taken a second glance. They would have easily followed down the path of madness, paved by Boris. Human lives were expendable.
"Do you think I can live long enough to see Kai again?" Viktoria asked abruptly pushing herself up. "I… need to ask him something."
"Of course you'll live to see him!" Bryan spoke energetically hiding his pain. Maybe he was fooling himself; he understood she didn't have much time but hope was the last thing he had to offer. "You're a strong woman, Viktoria! Never give up! You're going to beat this!"
She weakly laughed, "Thanks Bryan… Spencer?"
Everybody's eyes moved to the large teen. He uncrossed his arms approaching the bed. Getting down onto his knees he lowered his head. She moved her hand to his cheek. "We're sorry."
Viktoria smiled. She leaned back into the bed placing both hands on her chest. "I'd like to rest for now. I'll talk to you all tomorrow. See you in the morning, my friends."
When dawn rose, the boys never got the chance to talk to Viktoria. She was released in her sleep.
Reaching toward a small boulder, one the size of a small round melon, Tala pulled out a blade carving a snowflake pattern. The boys watched quietly as their leader worked; the blade struck the stone several times over as grooves appeared. A form of a snowflake took shape. Beneath the symbol Tala etched: Снежинка. Placing the boulder on top of Snowflake's grave, Tala stood back glancing over to Viktoria.
"May your souls find peace and happiness, Viktoria and Snowflake."
The wind gently blew around them, stirring up the flowers on the grave. It was time to go. Paying their respects one last time, the boys left.
"Thank you, my dear friends," Viktoria spoke.
She leaned by the gates watching her friends disappear into the distance. Smiling, she felt at peace. Viktoria was happy she showed them the bonds of friendship through times encased by darkness. Now, there was only one more person she needed to see before she could move into the light. All she had to do now was wait.