A/N: Hey everyone, since my other fic got deleted I am posting this fic much earlier then I planed. I am trying my best on this one; I think that through my fics I have gotten a bit better in my writing so I am trying to make a good fic that by the end I will be proud of. So here it is. Oh, this s back in the time of the abbey, I don't know what year that would be but Tala s ten years old. So let's begin.

Childhood Hell

Chapter 1

A ten year old girl stood leaning against a wall in Boris' office. She had mid back length pale purple hair and wore a dark blue top and black trousers and boots she also wore a phoenix shaped necklace around her neck that seemed to glow in the dim room and had a grey backpack on the floor by her side.

The girl lifted her head and opened her eyes to reveal a dark deep blue eye colour, they seemed to hold disgust toward her surroundings, she turned her head to look at Boris who was sitting in his chair behind a desk. He had been watching her every movement ever since he had sent a guard to get her room mate. She looked at him; her eyes held hatred and if looks could kill then Boris would have been dead the second she laid her icy glare on him. There was a hard knock on the door and Boris broke their staring contest "Come in" he said in a dull voice.

The girl turned to look at the door when at Boris' command the door opened, she watched as a boy her age walked in followed by the guard that had brought her into Boris' office earlier that day. The boy stood in front of Boris waiting to see what he had been called for and hadn't noticed the girl that stood by the wall.

"Tala, this is Serenity and is our new boarder here" Boris said gesturing to the girl who had just stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the room.

Tala gasped at the name when he heard it, he wasn't exactly sure if he had heard right, Serenity was a girl's name, he had to see for himself; he turned his head to see the girl, she still had her arms crossed and held a blank stare.

"She is your new room mate and you will help her get settled in and explain to her the routines" Boris continued telling Tala.

"Yes sir" Tala said as he looked back at him.

"If you have any questions ask him" Boris said walking to Serenity. Serenity nodded and picked up her backpack and swung it over her shoulder. "Take her to her room and then she starts training" Boris said as he turned his head to the right to look at Tala. Boris walked back to his chair and sat back down, "Dismissed" he said with a wave of his hand.

Tala nodded and gestured for the girl to follow him; the girl sighed and followed him out of the room. They walked for what seemed like forever through the stony hallways and finally Tala stopped at a door and quickly opened it. They both walked in and Serenity looked around the room, there wasn't much in the room; three beds, a dressing table and a door to the right of the room which she took was a bathroom.

---15 minutes later---

Serenity stood in the middle of the training room that Tala had led her to, she looked around the room, the ceiling was high and there was a huge dish in the centre of the room, apart from that the room was empty though she couldn't see what there was in the dark corners of the room. Serenity took out her beyblade from her pocket and stared at it for a while; the blade was an icy blue colour with a dark blue colour. She attached it to her dark blue launcher and waited to start.

Tala started to teach her the daily training routines, Serenity learnt almost everything with ease but she had gotten very tired from too much training and after more long hours of training she collapsed from exhaustion, she was tired and Tala couldn't really blame her. He slowly walked over to her to see if she could continue but Serenity was far too weak to even move even though she yelled at herself to get up when she heard foot steps getting closer but at the time her body just shut down; disallowing her to do anything.

Tala walked back to Boris' office and after knocking once he was allowed in, "Sir, Serenity has made great progress but now she needs some rest; she is unable to continue for tonight." Tala informed.

"Then she needs to be punished" Boris said simply.

"No," Tala blurted, "She is just not used to this type of training and just needs rest, I assure…" he had tried to continue but got cut off.

"I think you're letting your emotions get in the way, she gave up and I do not tolerate it, she needs to punished or she will never learn" Boris interrupted, angry that Tala would even try to defend her.

Tala was at a loss of words; he couldn't really argue or else his fate would be the same. Boris got up and pushed Tala aside and left the room. He walked to the training room and locked the door behind him. He picked up Serenity and put her lying on her stomach on a table which until now was hidden in the shadows in the corner of the room. He opened a draw that was attached to the table and took out what looked like a whip; he turned back to Serenity who still lay unmoving on the table but not for very long because Boris hit her hard across her back with the whip.

Serenity quickly sat up with a start as she screamed, she was breathing heavily and every breath seemed pained, she held back tears threatened to fall but she knew that even if one tear slipped then it would probably be enough to get her killed.

"Shut up," Boris yelled at her, "That's what happens when you give up, now leave" he continued angrily.

Serenity winced as she pushed herself off the high table and almost fell on her face but managed to catch herself in mid-fall. She walked slowly to the door, still heavily breathing, she placed her hand on the back of her bleeding shoulder, she opened the door to see Tala's icy blue eyes staring back at her, "You ok?" he asked with some worry in his voice.

Serenity looked at the blood on her hand before nodding slightly, her vision started to blur a little at the movement but managed to keep herself from falling over. Tala helped Serenity back up to their room; Tala quickly went to the bathroom and came back to Serenity with things to tend to the whip mark on her back. Serenity held down the front of her top, while Tala lifted the back to tend to the cut properly even though the back of the top was ripped. Serenity winced and hissed slightly when a cold liquid touched the open cut and when a piece of cloth scratched against the red stinging area surrounding it. Tala looked at her to see if she was ok but she just signalled him to continue so he did, being more careful not to hurt her.

When he finished he stepped away from her not really being sure of what she would say or how she would react. During training she hadn't even said one word to him but just the occasional cold look but now that he thought about it she had never said a word to him, he didn't even know what her voice sounded like. Until now, "Thank you" she said quietly, "But I need to ask…why did you help me?"

Tala was a little taken aback by her question and by the kindness in her voice but answered simply, "It's easier to have someone tend to those wounds that to try and do them yourself"

Serenity softened and gave him a sympathetic look, "I am sorry that you had to go through that on your own" she said just above a whisper as she thought about how hard it must have been for him to live like this with no help from anyone.

Tala just shrugged, "Doesn't really matter anymore, I got used to the loneliness besides at least I have you to talk to now"

Serenity nodded, "I am also sorry for the way I acted towards you earlier, it's just…with both guards and Boris watching my every movement I couldn't really be kind to you since that would in danger us both so I thought that I would act cold toward you n front of them and that we could start over when we wouldn't get beaten for socializing" she explained before she stood up and smiled a little, "So…I'm Serenity from Japan" she introduced as she held out her hand.

Tala smiled too, "Tala from…right here" he said laughing a little as he shook her hand. "Why don't you go change first, we need to be downstairs for dinner soon" he said when he realised what time it was.

"Sure…thanks" Serenity said nodding, she picked up her backpack and went to the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Tala walked to his bed and jumped onto the window sill that was just above it, he sat on the window sill leaning his back against the window frame and watched the pure white snow outside and thought about how sweetly Serenity had acted and glad that she was as cold and heartless as she looked. He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the bathroom door opening, he turned his head and what he saw almost made his jaw drop.

Serenity was wearing a loose pale blue gown, that just went past her knees and the sleeves elegantly slipped off her slender shoulders. She had let her hair loose and it just slipped over her shoulders. She put her bag on the floor by her bed and then looked u at him, "Bathroom is free" she said.

Tala nodded and jumped off the window sill and walked to the bathroom. Serenity lay on her stomach on her bed, she was sure what life at the abbey was going to be like but knew it wasn't going to be very good but she also knew that she wasn't alone and even if she were on her own she had faced far worse before. She felt really tired but knew that she had to show up for dinner or else Boris would have her head. She closed her eyes thinking that she would just rest and not fall asleep. She sighed when she heard the bathroom door opening again, she just wanted to sleep or at least rest but she pulled together enough energy to sit up. Tala had just come out of the bathroom wearing dark blue trousers and a white top. "We better get downstairs" he said walking to the door and opening it. Serenity nodded and jumped off the bed and raced out the door and waited for Tala outside the door wile he closed the door and they both ran down the cold stony hallways to the dining room downstairs.

Serenity and Tala had just stopped in front of a large door; they walked into the large room and as if on queue all the other kids turned to look at them, well…not really, they wanted to see if the rumors were true about a girl being at the abbey so they all looked at Serenity. Tala turned to see Serenity's reaction to the stares; she had tensed up slightly at being the centre of attention, quickly her eyes seemed to change colour, they turned an icy blue colour which gave her a sharp look. Tala shook off the sharp glare and walked to the end of the table where the older kids stayed with Serenity following behind. They sat at the end of the long table, every kid in the room still staring at Serenity, she held her head in her hand as she leant against the table, she closed her eyes and when she opened them again all the boys were still staring at her especially the older ones. Serenity rolled her eyes at the site, "Ok, let's work something out…if any of your eyes go lower than my neck then I will break all your necks." She said coldly as she leant back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. At seeing all the anger in her eyes all the boys turned their heads away from her with a slight blush creeping to some of their pale faces.

A few minutes later Boris walked in and sat at the head of the table, he introduced Serenity and quickly left the room to continue his own work leaving all the kids to eat their supper. Serenity and Tala finished their supper quickly and got up to walk back to their room when three of the older kids stood in their way, the leader who Tala had pointed out was Jeremy walked in front of Serenity and grinned, Serenity looked at him blankly as he placed a finger under her chin, Jeremy lifted her head up slightly, he moved closer to her but she just grabbed his wrist and pushed him away, Jeremy stood up straight again and walked to her with a look that seemed to be threatening Serenity, she didn't seemed fazed by the glare, she just crossed her arms again and walked past him and his crew. Just when she got past them a hand grabbed her arm and squeezed it tightly, Serenity turned round to see the other kid that stood by Jeremy as Jeremy stood forward and spoke when he knew he had her full attention, "You may not know this but I am leader around here, everyone has obeyed me while we have been here, I expect you to obey like everybody else around here or if Boris and the guards don't kill you then I will, understood?" he said.

Serenity smiled, "You really think I am afraid of you?" she asked not really expecting an answer, "Well let me tell you something, I obey no one, I don't follow rules instead I break them and create new ones to fit my own purposes and if anyone kills anyone around here it would be my killing you." She said coldly.

"Is that a threat?" Jeremy asked trying not to show any sign of the great fear he was feeling. He had under estimated this girl and that was only his first mistake.

"You don't even want to know." Serenity finished coldly. She sent one quick glare before walking past him, victory was hers, she knew it and Jeremy knew it. She seemed to have the upper hand. Tala had just watched as they had spoke, not really sure if this cold arrogant girl was his same kind and gentle room mate. He followed her quickly before another argument broke out between the abbey bully and this girl he just met. They silently walked back up to their room, trying to avoid any more fights for the night, they walked into the cold room and Tala lay in bed quietly not being sure if he should talk to Serenity since she might still be a little annoyed, he watched as she walked over the dressing table and looked in the mirror that hung over it, she turned her back to the mirror and pulled down the back of her night dress to see a bit of blood seep through the gauze.

Serenity sighed when she saw the blood; she fixed her night dress again trying to forget about the blood and the pain. Tala had seen the blood and offered to tend to them again but Serenity refused anymore help, saying that he has already done enough for her but when she refused she had refused kindly instead of arrogantly. Serenity sighed again and got into her bed; she turned uncomfortably on her stomach again and closed her eyes. She kept her pain to herself, she had for a while now and this pain seemed no different to her; she would get through it, she thought about how she would do it on her own but her thoughts drifted to think about how much she was worrying her room mate. "I'm fine" she said softly, but far too tired to open her eyes.

Tala's eyes widened slightly, not sure as to how she knew that he was still looking at her and that he was still a bit worried. 'What? Does she read minds or something?' he thought confusedly.

"Not really" Serenity said smiling when she heard Tala sit up quickly in his bed. Tala was just about to ask how she knew but Serenity beat him to it, "How did I know? I can just tell…I don't know how to explain it but I just know how someone feels sometimes; when they are worried they have this certain look in their eyes"

"But your eyes weren't even open" Tala reasoned.

"I know that, but still people have a certain feeling coming from them when they feel certain emotions, like I felt your worry and how I felt Jeremy's fear when we were in the dining room, if it weren't for his fear of me I would have probably scared the hell out of the guy but then that should teach him not to be such a jerk" Serenity explained, opening her eyes, they seem to hold kindness again; they kept changing, it was like all her emotions could be seen in her eyes and only in her eyes.

"He is a jerk, it has been like that for ages, he always thought that he was better then the rest of us" Tala said lying on his back.

"He is no better then anyone else here, otherwise he wouldn't still be here" Serenity said simply.

"Very true" Tala agreed, "Maybe with you around…things might change" he thought out loud.

"Yeah, maybe things might just change for the better." Serenity said smiling a little. 'Or for the worse' she thought. "How bad have kids gotten hurt around here?" she asked out of curiosity.

Tala was a little hesitant in answering at first but thought that she should know the truth of what has happened before her, "Kids have gotten hurt a lot, they've been punished for every little mistake they've made, one kid…actually…got killed after many failed attempts of learning a new technique" he said with fear in his voice, he wasn't sure about how Serenity was going to react to finding out a kid younger than her got killed in the same training room she was in earlier that day.

Serenity's eyes widened, 'They killed a kid? Who do they think they are? How could they do that, he was just a kid.' Tears welled up in Serenity's eyes; she couldn't stand the thought of a little kid being beaten to death. She noticed a tear quickly stream down her cheek and hit her pillow, she gasped and quickly wiped her eyes. She felt sick to her stomach, even though she had felt deep sadness before; this seemed to break her apart inside. She sat up in bed and held her head in her hands, covering her face, as a couple more tears streamed down her face, 'What am I dealing with? Mommy, I really need your help through this' She thought and prayed.

Tala saw her as she placed her head in her hands, he wasn't sure what to do at the time, he had never been in this type of predicament, he slowly stepped out of bed and went and sat next to her on her bed, he slowly placed a hand on her shoulder being careful not to touch the cut on her back that had snacked its way up to her shoulder. Serenity flinched slightly at the hand on her skin, she looked back at Tala who looked at her with a look of hope, she pulled herself together and wiped away all her tears. She felt really tired again and all the emotional stress was only making her feel worse.

Tala got off her bed and stood by her bed till Serenity laid back down and pulled the thin covers over herself. He walked back to his bed and got under the covers, "Good night" he whispered to her before reaching to switch off the light.

"Good night" Serenity whispered back.

---Next Morning---

Tala had woke up very early that morning and had already changed, but Serenity was still asleep, he sighed a little and walked over to her and gently took her by the shoulders and shook her slightly telling her to wake up until she finally did. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up into his eyes as she sat up a little. "What time is it?" She asked rubbing the sleep out of her tired eyes.

"About time to wake up" Tala said stepping away from her, "You better get changed before Boris finds out you're still in bed." He suggested.

Serenity got out of bed and picked up her backpack from near the bed and ran into the bathroom to get changed. She came out a couple of minutes later wearing, the same outfit she had wore the day before but she had kept her hair down today, she placed her bag on the ground and kneeled down to find her beyblade, she picked up her icy blue blade and pocketed it quickly and attached the launcher to the back of her jeans. Serenity nodded indicating that she was ready; they both walked out of the room and went to the training room.

Serenity was determined to do better than she did yesterday, she took out her launcher and her blade again and after setting up she went over all she had done the day before. Her blade started to spin in mid air and quickly crashed down into the centre of the dish, breaking the dish, a thin layer of ice covered what was left of the dish; her blade skated around on the ice before Serenity called for her blade and it jumped into her hand. She looked at the centre where an ice blue phoenix gleamed in the dim lighting. Serenity clutched her blade tightly in her hand and the phoenix changed to its bright red colour. She turned back to look at Tala who had been watching her practice, "Was that any good?" she asked quietly.

Tala took in the damage that Serenity's blade had created and then nodded at her affective attacks. "How did you do all that?" he asked pointing to the dish and the layer of ice that slowly became water.

Serenity crossed her arms and looked at the ground, "Boris is teaching kids not to show emotions but my attacks are a reflection of my emotions, my emotions play a big role in my attacks, if one emotion is out of place then it is enough for me to lose" she said in almost a cold manner but kept a tone that Tala would know that she wasn't angry or anything.

Tala had never thought about using emotions as attacks and in the abbey it was unheard of since most of the kids there became cold and never showed emotions yet this girl created a way to hide emotions but to express herself all the same, like she had said the previous night she creates her own rules yet she still manages to keep in line and apart from passing out the other day she hasn't done anything to upset Boris.

'By finding out what happens around here…it was enough to fuel my emotions…my anger…I swear that no one else will get hurt while I'm around' Serenity thought as she swore to keep everyone safe.

After a couple of minutes they moved over to a punching bag and Serenity started punching away at it fiercely, she hadn't wore of any gloves and moved away from it a couple minutes later, with her hands red with a couple of red bleeding cuts and just wiped her bleeding hands in her jeans and watched as Tala started to punch at the punching bag himself but not as hard or fierce as Serenity had. Tala moved away from the punching bag a few minutes later and wiped a few beads of sweat of his forehead and looked at his stinging red hands that matched Serenity's though there was no sign of blood on his. He waited a while till he got the feeling back in his hands before taking out his blade. He launched it onto the dark stony floor since the dish was thrashed, his blade just circled his feet until Serenity launched her blade and a one-on-one battle started out, they both attacked each other head on, they hit each other hard, Serenity pushed Tala's blade against a wall but his blade managed to push her away from him. They both hit each other one last time and as quickly as the battle started it was over, they called their blades back to them they both took a deep breath as they leant against the cold stone walls.

"Bravo" A voice said as he clapped. Serenity and Tala looked up to see that the voice belonged to Boris; he had apparently been watching their little bey-battle along with a bunch of other kids. He stepped forward and Tala and Serenity straightened up as he walked in front of them, "An excellent first battle between you two, I must admit that it was good but after more training it will be much better" he said looking from Serenity to Tala and then turned his head to the right, "Line up" he ordered.

At his command all the other kids ran to Tala and Serenity and lined up next to them according to height and then started a whole boring speech, "Maybe, you can all learn something from each other, most of you have been trained by me from the very beginning but Serenity here…" he said as he placed a hand on her wounded shoulder, the bastard knew that it was her wounded shoulder but pressed his hand onto it harder none the less, "She has natural talent and does not need some of the training that you do, she has only been here a day and has made progress, she does not show much emotion and I didn't even need to explain to her what happens when someone shows emotions." He said moving his hand off her shoulder as Serenity tried not to show pain when he brushed his hand along the cut on the back of her shoulder. "I will leave you all to get back to your training" he sad before walking out of the training room.

The second he left and everyone moved out of alignment they all glared at Serenity, who just crossed her arms and glared back at anyone who got too close. She ignored everyone else and walked back to the punching bag and took out all her anger and pain out on it instead of taking it out on herself which is what she would usually do either that or she would take her anger out on someone else and she really didn't want to get into a fight with any one of the other kids. She kicked the bag with all her might and the bag broke off its hinges and flew across the room, smashing into a wall almost hitting on of the boys who just managed to step out of the way. "Hey, what the hell is wrong with you, what were you trying to do?" The boy yelled angrily.

Serenity crossed her arms and slowly walked over to him while speaking, "I'm really sorry" she said, even though it was true she had spoken to him in a slight cold tone.

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" The boy shot back angrily.

"It's not like I hit you intentionally or anything, it was an accident" Serenity said raising her voice at the older kid.

"Well, accidents shouldn't happen, now should they bitch?" The boy countered moving in on Serenity.

For Serenity it was the final straw, her hands were still bleeding from beating the punching bag and could only feel a numb sensation in her hands but she balled her hands into fists and with one shot she punched the boy in the face, with one hit the boy got pushed back. Serenity looked at her hands in utter shock and realized what she had done, just when the boy was wiping a bit of blood from his mouth, he was about to punch her back but she just ran away, she ran out of the training room and up the stairs, she made every quick turn possible to avoid guards and to avoid any other boys who she would almost kill. She ran into her room and jumped on her bed as she buried her face in the pillow, she pulled back all the tears that had threatened her life. She sobbed a little and realized that Tala had been watching her and knew that she would have to face him later.

And the second she cleared her mind of all her problems, Tala opened the door and looked at her from a distance before slowly walking over to her, he lay a hand on her back and heard something from under, "I know I was out of line, come to gloat about it?" Serenity asked.

"No, I just wanted to make sure you were ok. Are you?" Tala asked placing his hand higher up her neck.

"I'm fine" Serenity said sliding her hand between the pillow and her face and wiping away the tears from her eyes. She sat up again and looked at him, she looked down at her hands again which were still bleeding, pushed away from Tala and walked into the bathroom and looked into the mirror that hung over the sink, she leaned her hands on the white sink staining it with her crimson blood. She rinsed her hands with cold water and quickly dried them in a towel and walked out of the room, Tala stood alone in the bathroom looking at the blood that Serenity had left on the sink. He pulled out a roll of bandages out of a small medicine cupboard and walked back to Serenity who had sat back down on her bed as she stared at the ground. He sat next to her on her bed and took her hand but she tried to pull away from him but he tightened his grip on her hand. She winced as his skin scraped against her battered hands, he loosened his grip on her when he felt her relax, he wiped more blood off her hands and bandaged them up for her.

Tala looked back up at her when he was done, he heard her whisper a thank you and just nodded, he got up again and put everything back in the bathroom and walked back to the bedroom. He sat on his bed opposite her, he wanted to ask her what was wrong but didn't want to upset her anymore than she already was so he thought he should ask some other time.

Serenity didn't say a word, she just got up, picked up her bag and went into the bathroom, she changed into her night gown and walked back into the bedroom and lay in bed to get some rest. She lay their for a couple of minutes not hearing Tala get off his bed and go to the bathroom and change. He came back out and noticed her still lying on her bed unmoving; he looked at her confusedly and noticed it looked like she wasn't even breathing. He hurriedly walked over to her and placed a hand on her bare shoulder; she felt very cold at the touch of his hand and she still didn't move, he shook her slightly being worried about her, she quickly sat up heavily breathing and she pushed Tala's hand off her as she brought her hand to her mouth and coughed a little. She stopped coughing and looked up at Tala's concerning eyes that always seemed to stare at her in the same way, "Are you ok?" He asked her.

Serenity smiled, "Since I arrived, how many times have you asked me that? I am fine." She said sweetly. As she sat up, she placed a hand on Tala's shoulder and pushed herself off the bed, she stood in front of him and took him by the hand and pulled him up. "Let's go, I want to get through this night quickly and in one piece." She said pulling him out the bedroom door and into the cold hallway; her bare feet touched the cold stony floor, she pulled Tala down the hall and they passed a window, Serenity stopped and looked out the glass window, she could see a beautiful sky of oranges, reds and purples. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she whispered.

"I never really noticed it, being in here for so long made me forget about the beautiful things outside this hell hole" Tala replied, as he looked outside too.

"I want to promise you something" Serenity said as she turned to look at him.

"What?" Tala asked turning to her.

"One day…we will leave this 'hell hole' and be free from this place forever" Serenity said as she smiled, promising that they would all leave someday and they would leave safely and she promised that she wasn't going to leave anyone behind like her family and friends had left her.

"It's not going to be easy or even possible" Tala said.

"Have a little hope, will you? Promise?" Serenity asked.

"Promise" Tala said after sighing.

Serenity smiled and then noticed the time and then dragged Tala by the hand downstairs before they were caught.

A/N: So…what did you think of it? I want honest constructive criticism please. I would like to know what you thought of the OC too please, I want to know what was going through your mind while reading. Please Review!