Well haven't I just been forever and a day, and after I said I wouldn't take long to update. Meanie old me! I have no excuses of course, other than that I'm lazy, distracted and a bit of an airhead. And there's nothing anyone can really do about that...except of course me, but I'm lazy...it's a bit of a problematic circle to be honest.

Anyway, back with a new chapter no less. And with a new chapter for Bones Reborn (YEAH, I KNOW) and a new story - Silver And Gold. It's a Gundam SEED one so go check it out! - shameless advertising. Hey, if I don't sound my own trumpet then who will?

So, on to Human.

WARNINGS: Bad language...can't think of any more. OOCness? Grammar, maybe, although no one has commented on that for a while. Spelling? Just keep an eye out.

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade, nor any of its characters.

Progress in this chapter, folks! INTERACTION BETWEEN THE MAIN CHARACTERS! Who knew it would only take SEVEN chapters!

Enjoy!


Human

Chapter Seven: A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

Things were not going well for one Kai Hiwatari, it had turned in to one of those days where one looked forward to the night for the simple reason that the day just couldn't be gone faster and time just couldn't move quicker. Not that it had started out like this; that very morning Kai had attended his hospital appointment to discover that his eyesight had been saved and that, over time, it would return completely, the world was still a little half hazy now but the phoenix was more than happy to live with that in the knowledge and assurance that it was only for a period of time.

However, that had been the only good bit of news he'd had that day. It had started late lunch when, while sitting in the Tyson's kitchen with the dragon babbling on about how the fans were piling up outside his door with flowers for Ray, Kai had received his first bit of irritating news.

The White Tigers were on their way.

As a rule, Kai didn't actually have any feelings towards Ray's hometown friends, but the news they were coming to visit was an annoyance if not something he hadn't seen coming. But they would be a problem, a big problem Kai could live without. By now, Tyson, Max and the other relevant people in Ray's life knew the person behind his attack; the problem was, they didn't know the reason. Not the real reason. They'd chalked it up to Bryan's increasing foul mood, his inability to control his violence and various other theories Kai had allowed them to conjure up, anything to keep them from the truth. And this was fine, because all of them had, in one way or another, accepted Kai's decision to put Bryan in the retreat.

That would be something the White Tigers would not accept.

They would want a better reason for Ray's beating rather than the falcon had been walking along, bumped in to Ray and randomly lost his temper. They wouldn't be happy about it. Nor would they be content with Bryan's punishment; Kai knew without doubt that Lee would be looking for blood, and their traditions dictated that punishment would be carried out personally.

Kai's eyes narrowed.

But the White Tigers weren't the only problem he had buzzing needlessly round his brain; he'd just been told about the Capital Punishment that was now hanging over Bryan's head. Kai frowned at Hiro who stood above him with papers in one hand and a mug of coffee in the other. From somewhere in the dojo Tyson could be heard ushering Max and Daichi about as they tried to arrange a room for the approaching White Tigers.

"I don't understand why this happened" said Kai.

"It's because you went over the heads of the police" Hiro explained lightly leaning back against the kitchen side "they didn't like that, not one bit, so they did the one thing they could and changed the judge. As it stands now, if Ray dies then Bryan will find himself on death-row"

"But that's why I sent him to the retreat" Kai answered, "to avoid that situation"

"And so far that's working in his favour" the Granger brother agreed "but one foot out of line and he's finished"

Kai looked away; this situation was becoming more problematic every day, and the worst of it was that Ray had shown no signs of recovery. The doctors were unsure and unwilling to make a formal diagnostic should their prediction prove wrong and they found themselves staring in to the blackened expression of the all powerful Kai Hiwatari. It was annoying, and inconvenient to say the least; he needed a proper professional doctor's opinion but the whole gang of them were more concerned with their reputations and keeping their place of work from being sued.

"I want Ray moved" he said, looking back up at Hiro "can you do that for me?"

Hiro was taken aback, firstly by the sudden change in conversation and secondly by the request "why? What's wrong with the place he's in now?"

"They're too scared of who I am to give me a proper outlook of Ray's future, and that's what I need right now" Kai stood up "if I stand a chance of taking the Capital Punishment from Bryan's head"

Hiro's eyes widened "what! Remove the Capital Punishment! Kai, are you even serious!"

"It has to be done"

"I know you have power and status around here, but I don't see how you can possibly persuade the Judge to remove the sentence, you're out of your mind!"

Kai ignored him and looked out of the window thinking; Hiro was right of course, persuading the Judge to change his mind wasn't easy even for him. Money placed in the right hands could solve the problem, but that would give the Hiwatari name a bad reputation and he would lose all standing he had.

"Why are you protecting Bryan?" asked Hiro "why is it so important? You can't tell me he doesn't deserve it"

"Bryan is a team-mate, I have to protect my team-mates no matter their crime"

"I may point out that Ray is also one of your team-mates and is a lot more deserving of your attentions" Hiro said in a hard voice "maybe you should focus your efforts on him a little more"

"If pouring money in to the hospital would wake Ray up I would" the phoenix answered with warning in his voice, Hiro was stepping on thin ice "unfortunately snapping my fingers won't induce Ray to wake up any more than it would persuade a mountain to grow legs and walk"

"So instead you're going to try and get Bryan off the hook? That's not going to work, Kai"

"It's something I can do"

"This is Ray Kon we're talking about, he's a friend to you but throughout Japan and much of the world he's a respected and much loved celebrity, they're not just going to let Bryan walk away from this with consequences"

"That may be the case, but protecting Bryan is still my main priority"

"And what if Ray doesn't wake up?" asked Hiro cruelly "what if he dies, Kai? Have you thought about that?"

Kai glared at him, and his voice softened threateningly "you're discussing a dangerous topic, Hiro, I wouldn't let Tyson hear speak of such things"

"It's not Tyson I'm talking to" Hiro folded his arms "I'm a friend of Ray's too, I do not want him to die. But as Bryan's lawyer I have to think of all eventualities. There are people out there who think it's already too late, they want Bryan to be punished and the Judge isn't going to ignore them. Ray could die, and it would be Bryan's fault"

"I'm aware of that"

"And still you don't think that falcon doesn't deserve punishment? I don't get it"

"Don't mess with things you don't understand" the phoenix said calmly.

"But-"

"I will protect Bryan, whether Ray dies or not. I realise you don't understand my motives for taking such action, but you know nothing of the past or how it relates to today and I won't explain it to you"

Hiro paused "is this what it's all about?" he enquired "the past? Did something happen in the past to make you promise to protect Bryan no matter what?"

"That's none of your business"

Hiro leaned across the table at the phoenix "then maybe you'd better make it my business. After all, it was you who hired me to be Bryan's lawyer"


Bryan was lost. Not that he actually minded this turn of events; anything was better than traipsing along some crappy forest path listening to some bastard teacher telling him that he should listen to the voices of the trees and return to a place of calm inside his head. It had been a party of six or seven that had set out from the retreat about an hour ago; this party had been headed by a man who reminded of a beetle that had once been stood on by Boris, it had made Bryan laugh to think of it and the teacher had turned to him expecting some sort of positive feedback in regard to the nature walk.

What he'd got was a list of verbal abuse ranging from what Bryan felt of this fantastic plan, to what Bryan thought of him and his bedraggled team of loonies and fucking weirdoes.

However, if Bryan had thought that this was going to get a slap on the hand and an order to return to the retreat, which is what he had wanted, then he'd been mistaken. The beetle man had only smiled and replied that maybe Bryan needed to look deeper in to his being to discover the sauce of the anger and aggression.

Bryan had then replied that he didn't need to look deeper inside himself to find the answers because he already knew them. He was angry because he'd been dumped in a retreat, which he had compared to a stinking foul heap that belonged in hell and he was aggressive because there was no chance he was going to trail around some stupid forest listening to the birds and the bees.

He had hoped this would warrant enough for him to be sent back.

It wasn't.

Ten minutes later Bryan had found himself walking along a sandy path next to some chick who looked like she'd just walked out of some old zombie movie. She'd kept reaching out to him as if he wasn't there and to make Bryan feel even more edible she'd repeatedly licked her lips. The falcon had been creeped out to say the least and his mood hadn't improved when a small mousy man, who had asked him if he knew the way to Amarillo, subsequently joined him.

That had been some twenty minutes ago and now Bryan found himself on a new path when he'd managed to separate himself from his newfound friends; sneaking away from the group hadn't been all that difficult as he had imagined, the teacher had been babbling on about some little bird they'd found and had turned away.

With his newfound freedom Bryan had realised that he could go anywhere, it would be another two hours before anyone noticed he was missing and he could be long gone by the time that happened. All he had to do was find a road…

A task that was proving more difficult than he'd first imagined.

In a world that was quickly becoming over populated and over crowded with cities and towns there was an awful lot of trees about him; they made it hard to see anything around him, and he had lost all sense of direction with the twisty winding path the teacher had been leading them on. Maybe that had been a ploy, a trick to make sure that the retreat didn't lose anyone; Bryan snorted, he'd grown up in Biovolt for crying out loud. If he couldn't deal with a few trees then he wasn't the monster Boris had brought him up to be. He took out the box of matches he'd managed to smuggle in, though they were strictly forbidden; lighting up an entire forest just to see where he was might have been a bit drastic even for him, but it couldn't hurt him if the public then went on to believe that Bryan Kuznetsov had died in a forest fire.

He could change his name and be living in freedom within a couple of months.

Smirking, he took out a match and struck it, looking around for dry wood; if he used accelerant the authorities would discover this and he'd be in bigger shit than he was now. In honesty, fire wasn't really his thing; it was hot and the smoke was just as deadly as the flames, but it was a useful thing when used correctly, and right now his escape from this madhouse was most important.

He lowered the match down to some dried twigs and hovered for a moment, judging the direction the breeze would push the flames-

A soft laugh filled the air and Bryan leapt out of his skin, dropping the match just as it burnt itself out; he cursed and span round in search of the noise, stupidly thinking it was zombie lady back for more tormenting. But there was no creepy woman and the forest was filled only with birdsong.

Bryan hated birds.

But he wasn't stupid or blind; so it was easy to spot the little creature as it fluttered from a low branch in one of the trees and disappeared around the trunk, then the falcon caught the soft sigh of another human being. That was irritating; he didn't care about killing off some random git who happened to be here in the same place, but he objected to someone seeing what he was up to and reporting him for arson. Annoyed, he shoved the box of matches back in his pocket savagely and marched over; ready to give whomever it was a good hard thrashing.

A blaze of orange hair was the first thing he saw, followed by a face and a hand that reached out as the tiny bird flittered about on the ground, before fluttering upwards to land gently on the outstretched fingers.

Bryan swore.

Out loud and heartily.

Brooklyn started in surprise and sat up; looking over his shoulder he found someone standing there angrily glaring at him as if it was his fault global warming was ever approaching. That face seemed familiar, or rather the glower seemed to jog his memory; in the days where he hadn't been here, but in that other place. The place where that man had told him to destroy the world with a beyblade and stand victorious.

"You're not Kai"

Bryan snorted; Kai Hiwatari was the last person on earth he wanted to be compared to, he gave a snarl "well done, genius, at least you don't need glasses"

Brooklyn tilted his head "but you come from that place, don't you?" he asked, "you come from that other world"

"I don't know about you, but I come from a planet called earth, pal. Most of us do"

"No" Brooklyn shook his head as he sat forwards so he could see Bryan better "you come from that other place" the bird in his hand flew away when Bryan moved and Brooklyn turned quickly to watch it go.

It was then Bryan suddenly realised who it was he was talking to; until now it hadn't really clicked, he was slow when it came to recognising people and he wasn't smart like Tala so he couldn't recall the different names quickly. But now he knew for certain; of course he'd known he knew the freak from somewhere but now he knew who this person was "you!"

Brooklyn looked back at him and let out a gasp "you know me?" he asked quietly "you know who I am?"

"Of course I know who you are!" Bryan snapped, "I'm not stupid!"

"Then, do you know him?" asked Brooklyn "do you know where he is?"

Now Bryan was lost; it suddenly occurred to him that maybe Brooklyn was short of a few screws, that maybe the destructive battle with Tyson Granger had unhinged him in some way. He shuddered; he didn't need this, he had plans of escape to carry out after all "I don't know who you're talking about!"

"Him" Brooklyn's hands clasped the tree as he peered round the trunk at the falcon "the master"

There came a point in all conversations where the speakers ran out of things to discuss and deemed a continuation pointless and void; now was that time for Bryan, he had tasks to complete and he didn't need to waste time around here talking to a nutter, even if that nutter was a fellow blader.

He turned around "I don't know what you're banging on about!" he said over his shoulder harshly "now leave me the fuck alone!"

"No, stay!" Brooklyn scrambled to his feet and followed him, reaching out a hand "I just need to know where the master is"

His fingers brushed the falcon's shoulder.

Bryan reacted so fast his elbow cracked; he slammed Brooklyn in to the nearest tree and snarled "don't fucking touch me!" he pushed his arm up against Brooklyn's throat "look, you fucking creep, I don't know what your game is and I don't know who your fucking master is! You hear me!" he pulled back roughly "now fuck off!"

He turned his back on the lost wanderer.

"Bryan. Your name is Bryan Kuznetsov," said a quiet voice "I remember you now, you came from that other place, you were one of his servants too. One of the bad servants"

Bryan twisted round though his better judgement told him not to; the huge teal eyes reached out to him above a quivering hand with tentative reaching fingers.

"Where is he? Do you know?" asked Brooklyn "where is master Boris?"


The bank along the river was quieter than normal; those who usually used this path were obstructed at one side by road works which had at various points during the day managed to block half of Tokyo's traffic and resulted in several traffic jams. Even now over the sounds of the river Lee could hear the blaring of horns and the screech of rubber on tarmac.

He hated those sounds; from the first moment he'd heard them he'd hated them, he wasn't like Ray who loved new places and enjoyed adventures. He liked to know his surroundings, liked to be in charge of them too. In control. Ray was different; the tiger liked to walk in places he'd never seen simply for the experience, he wanted to know as much as he could so he could turn around and teach it to others. That was one of the things Lee loved about Ray.

But where was Ray now? What had his adventures and new experiences done to him this time? Lee shook his head in pain; it had been horrible to see Ray lying there with tubes snaking out of him and some machine bleeping away his life, Mariah hadn't stopped crying. Even Kevin and Gary had gone pale. As for Lee, he couldn't stand it; to see his best friend there on the edge of death with only the support of a machine. It was wasn't right; if Ray was going to die then the best place for him was back home, in the mountains with the herbs to heal his passing. That was where the tiger belonged, surrounded by the elders and ones who loved him. But he was here in Tokyo breathing down a mask instead.

And it was all his fault.

Lee's fist clenched and his jaw hardened; just the very thought of Bryan Kuznetsov made his blood boil. And to think that villain wasn't rotting in jail as Lee had expected; he was healing in a quiet retreat somewhere taking his peace with herbal tea and good company. Lee was ready to rip out his heart; he wanted blood, and he knew who to blame.

Kai Hiwatari had done this! Lee had never liked the guy, not even for a moment; but the phoenix had been a friend of Ray's and the tiger had trusted him, so Lee had too. But now Kai showed his true colours at last! It was a crying shame Ray wasn't awake to see how the vile poisonous snake really was. That phoenix deserved to boil in lava!

But it Bryan who Lee really wanted; Lee wanted his head, wanted to rip out that bastard's heart. And he was going to pay; one way or another that falcon was going to pay for what he'd done to Ray, it didn't matter if Ray died or not. Lee was going to get Bryan Kuznetsov for this.

He stopped by the river and glared angrily down at the waters; he had a plan, he'd worked it all out. He had thought about involving the others but decided against it; this world wasn't like the mountains of the white tiger, they didn't believe revenge for the life of a friend was honourable, in all likelihood Lee would be off to prison himself by the time he'd finished with Bryan because no one would understand why he'd had to do it. But that didn't matter, none of it did.

Because this was all for Ray.

"I'll do it" Lee whispered to himself his fist held aloft in the air "for you, Ray"

There was a sudden catch of warm breath on his neck and Lee jumped.

"Making promises like that isn't wise," hissed a soft voice "nine times out of ten, they're impossible to keep"

Lee whirled around, lurching from the tall lean figure that stood so close behind him; he gasped partly in surprise and partly in repulsion, this was the last person in the world he'd expected to see, and it was the last person in the world he wanted to see.

"What are you doing here?" he spat furiously "get lost!"

Tala's smirk was cold and crude "you're nothing like Ray, are you, Lee Wong? Nothing like him at all"

Lee glared at him "what do you want?" he growled "I don't want you near me!"

"Well, that's hardly kind" Tala's smile lengthened as his ice blue eyes caught in the sunlight "you'd better start being nicer to me if you want the revenge you seek" he laughed coarsely as Lee's eyes widened in shock "we are going to have so much fun"


So, what do ya reckon? Tala and Lee buddying up? Gonna work? Wait and see!

As I've said before, I have NO idea how to portray Brooklyn's character. I've got the whole nature loving part in there but how far does one take that? I mean surely the guy doesn't go around humping trees for crying out loud. It's also been a while - YEARS - since I last saw Beyblade so my memory is a little foggy. Still, I figured I couldn't go wrong if I just made Brooklyn mad - that way, you couldn't acuse me of making OOC because he was meant to be like that. But still, if there's anything you want to add then please go right ahead...any help where Brooklyn is concerned would be good. This story is turning out to be a challenge.

But enough of that, I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review.

Thanks for reading!

Kiki

Kizzes!