Windstar: Sorry for the late update, but this is the second to last chapter. Next week will be the finale! That means that starting in the first week of November Lies and Deceit will be put out. I hope to see you all there, I really have just fallen in love with the story line. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: See First Chapter.
Chapter Six:
"So...this is it huh?" Luka asked as he stared at the computer. The server was finished. It was blue printed, it was built, it was test driven, it was completely finished. No kinks, no twitches nothing. It was a perfect copy and a perfect simulation. If it was driven with the intents and purposes to destroy the computer systems of the world, it would do it with ease.
"Yeah...you want to send Kai the missive?" Anna asked as she looked at him. He nodded and closed his eyes, imagining the words that he needed to send.
To: F.T. K+I,
Subject: BDS
BD comp. BBA Off. Hugh. Obt file – .
Black Dranzer Server Two was completed. BBA Officer Hughes (Christopher) would be obtaining the file and information soon. Be safe. It was what needed to be said. Now they just had to wait.
Wait and figure out what to do next. Every day, three times a day, they were doing the play. It was taking up a lot of time, but on their days off they found themselves waiting. Waiting and trying to figure out what to do next. They worked out plans and systems. They went through files and paperwork. They needed to find a safe way for Tala to get back into the Abbey. A way where he wasn't going to be harmed.
I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
They waited anxiously for the reply. They wanted to know what Kai had to say about everything and they wanted to know where they should go from there. With their lives in a twist, they knew that they'd have to get things done. They needed to go back before anyone else got hurt or before anyone died.
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
They had abandoned Russia all that time ago because they needed to do what they needed to do. Now Tala was back on his feet and he was ready to return home. He was ready to face the bastard that was ruining the lives of five hundred boys in that God forsaken Abbey.
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted
Time was running by on them. They didn't have time to wait. They needed to go. They needed to go now. There was a buzz in his head while they were going food shopping, and Tala grabbed Anna's hand to stop her. She looked up at him in confusion, and he read to her what the translated missive he'd received said.
"To Luka, Anna, and Korg, reply to Black Dranzer Server. Understood, BBA Officer Dickenson has been contacted and the files have been transmitted. Talked with Personal Freedom Officer Tactical Leader Michaels, package sent and received, be safe. Kai." He looked at Anna and she nodded. It was time to get the ball rolling. Kai had done his job well, he'd gotten in touch with all the right people and informed them of their progress and now it was time to continue.
"Send the next message." She told him. It was time to get the ball rolling. Let gravity do the rest.
"To Freedom Tactician Kai, subject Home, see you at headquarters at 1200 in two weeks." He translated it into the coded form and he sent it to his brother. Then he looked at Anna. Gravity was going to be hitting them hard.
But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
It didn't take long for Kai to respond. He wrote back that he understood and that everything was ago. The two then returned home, and started to pack. They were going to keep the house the way it was. All they really needed to do was to make sure that the server was safe and secure on the transit to Russia.
It would take them two weeks to find all the things they needed to do in order to make sure the server arrived safely, then they would transport everything to Russia and once there they would work with Michaels on how to get Tala back inside the Abbey. Worst come to worst he stayed outside and worked as a Field Tactician like Kai outside of the Abbey until the time came for their downfall. Perhaps he'd even go down to Japan and help Kai with the team he was pulling together. Although last they'd heard Kai was in China now, his team in the Asian tournament.
It had been seven months since they'd left and Kai had gotten his dream team put together. Now it was being put to the test. Tala had no doubts that everything would be fine, he knew that Kai wouldn't allow the team to be too far under par. Still though, he had his doubts and his reservations. He needed to make sure everything was going to go well. If he couldn't get into the Abbey, he'd go to wherever Kai was and help out there.
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame
The next thing they received was not from Kai though, nor was it from Korg who they were meeting in Zurich first with the server before heading up to Russia. It wasn't from them...perhaps if it had been, the pain of that annoyingly sunny day wouldn't have been as bad. It was from Christopher.
To: LA, F.T. K+I
Re: ABORT
ABORT hm. K. gone. Info. To send. Rpt. ABORT. Sty Itly.
Tala recited the missive without really absorbing the information, but then he paused. Abort coming home...Korg is gone...dead...information to send...repeat...abort...stay in Italy. He felt his breath catch in his throat as he stared at Anna. She had a hand on her face. She looked like she was about to break down.
"Anna?" He whispered in dumb shock. He felt his hands shaking as he reached out to her. She shook her head. She couldn't believe what she'd just heard. She couldn't accept it either. Her father was dead. Something had happened...something had happened and Korg had been killed.
He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
Their glorious seven months of freedom and healing. Tala's heart had been healed beautifully, he was back to his old self and better. He had adopted a caring gentle side that could be rivaled. He was so kind and so compassionate that it was a wonderful last few months.
The play had been a God send. They had done so well in it and they'd made so many good friends. Fratello had become a father figure to Tala, one that he'd desperately needed. Giana was a lovely woman who was always looking after their best interests.
Tala and Anna had discovered a passion for the arts. Their home was now filled with various drawings and doodles that Tala had done when he'd been bored. Around his neck was the locket that this grandfather had given him, and around Anna's finger was a ring that he'd given her for their anniversary which had passed not too long ago.
It was simple white gold with a moon stone on it. It wasn't anything expensive but it was pretty to look at and it was something she treasured. The seven months of freedom away from all the pain and suffering had come to a crashing end. It had been destroyed. Everything came to a screeching halt. There was nothing left. There was nothing left at all. Tears started to fall down Anna's face.
Her father was gone.
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came
He was gone and there was nothing she could do about it. Something had happened. Something horrible had happened. There was nothing left anymore. He was gone. He had left, he was no longer apart of this world. She collapsed in Tala's arms and he held her to his chest, his heart breaking painfully as he held her too him.
They were too late, something had come to find them. They had waited to long and now one of their own was dead. They were lost in the dark once more, the painful agony of knowing that they could have done something. There was nothing left. There was nothing left at all. They rocked back and forth on the floor of their kitchen, crying and feeling intense waves of misery.
The phone rang on and on, but they didn't answer it, they didn't leave. They did manage to call Giana to tell her to call their understudies, they wouldn't be making it to the performance that night. There wasn't a chance in hell that they'd be able to sing after all that.
And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
They had had so many dreams, that Korg would be able to see them grow up, that he'd be able to see his work be put to good use. That he would be able to see them free at last from the claws of the Abbey. They had so many memories and so many dreams and it was all meaningless and broken now. Anna cried harder and harder with each passing moment as she gripped onto Tala's body. Her tears stained his shirt and he held her to him and he cried with her. There would be no more awkward sock offerings. There would be no more informative chats online. There would be nothing.
Korg was dead, and there was nothing they could do about it.
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather
"Luka, answer me." Kai's voice filtered through his head and he reeled back slightly from shock, but he realized what had happened, Kai had gotten into his LXCom and had forced him to listen to him. He should have felt angered by the interference, but he couldn't. He couldn't do it. He needed his brother here with him.
"It's Kai." He whispered, and Anna looked up at him with a tear streaked face. "What?" He asked the voice in his head, and the teen responded quickly.
"I'm coming to Italy. I'm catching the next flight out." The words appeared in his mind, and he realized that what he had originally thought was a phone hacking was really his mind substituting his texting for his voice. He knew who it was and so it had translated automatically to his memory of his brother's voice. He answered back in kind.
"Aren't you in China with your team?" he wanted to know what the hell Kai thought was going to change if he showed up randomly.
"I am, but we're done with the tournament and are heading home for a break. I've got time now and I'm going to Italy. We're going to figure this out."
"I'm going to kill that son of a bitch that killed him Kai." He announced, and when he looked at Anna's face he knew she felt the same.
"I know, and I'll help. Just wait for me." The teen's voice was soft, or perhaps that's just how he imagined his brother's voice would sound, but he nodded to himself anyway.
"Always." He said, and as he sat there on the floor with Anna in his arms and silence in his head, he knew that their dreams were slipping away. Their lives were going to change for the worst before they got better. He knew that instinctively.
I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
He wished things had turned out differently. He wished he could honestly say that everything was going well and that there were no problems. He wished he could hold Anna's hand wherever she went. He wished he could flaunt her through the streets of Russia, screaming to the world that she was his girl.
He wished for all of those things, but right now, he wished that Korg was alive. He wished that he was there, and he was sitting awkwardly with his socks. He wished that Anna didn't have to be thrust into a world of abandonment and misery once more. He wished that she wouldn't feel like she had no family. He was her family God damn it. He was there for her, but he wanted her to have her father back. He wanted her to have a home to go home too...one that wasn't their run away shack in Livorno Italy.
So different now from what it seemed
There was a knock at the door and a few moments later Fratello had walked in and found them huddled on the floor of the kitchen, tears still rolling down their cheeks. He took one look at them and hurried to their sides, he checked them over for any injury but then settled on looking at them intently.
"What happened? What's wrong, son?" He asked Luka who was staring at him the whole while.
What would happen now? Would Fratello be next? Would this kindly old man die next? He didn't know. He didn't want to think about the danger he'd put this man in. He didn't want to think of the pain he had forced on this man's life. He didn't want to think about any of that. His happy life was over. There would be no happy ending. There would be no father to walk Anna down the aisle, there would be no father to dance with her on her wedding night if she ever got there.
She was an orphan twice over now, and his heart was breaking for her.
"M-my father....is dead." Anna whispered at long last when Tala fell silent. "My papa is dead!" She looked up at him with huge wet brown eyes. The man felt his own heart break at the girl's distress and he quickly pulled her into his arms, and because she was latched onto Tala he too came along for the hold.
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.
The three stayed on the floor for another few hours, before the man finally pulled them up and placed them at the table. He went to the stove and started to heat up some milk and chocolate to give them something to fill their bodies with. He then cooked them dinner, making sure that they ate every bite of their food before he gently led them to the couch in the living room where Anna held onto Tala for dear life and the boy returned to the terribly quiet state he'd been in in the beginning of their run away state.
The terrible thing was that they didn't even know what had happened. They didn't know what was going on. They didn't know who had killed the man. They didn't know anything. They didn't know anything at all. It was horribly distressing, and they felt like their souls had been ripped from their chests.
"What are you going to do?" Fratello asked softly as he looked at the two. Tala glanced at him at long last, the misery clear on his face.
"We're going back to Russia." He answered softly.
"Why?" The man demanded, suddenly horrified. If they went back they'd be going back to that hell. They'd be going back to that world which had demanded so much of them and had broken this beautiful male child's spirit.
"We need to see this done." He said softly. "We need to see this to the end." He held Anna closer.
It had been hours by now and they weren't surprised when there was a knock on the door and then it opened before anyone got up to do so. Kai was standing there looking exhausted and jet lagged. It looked like he hadn't slept a wink since he'd heard the news. He really had gotten onto the first flight out to Italy and as he stumbled forwards he walked to them and he threw his arms around them.
He was shivering and cold and it looked like he'd run the whole way here. He looked so tired and sweat dabbed down his face. Damion wasn't all that surprised to see him there, it seemed like the teen truly cared for his family, and would do anything he could for them. Including catching the first flight out to see them during this crisis.
Anna grabbed onto him and cried harder and harder in his chest. He held her close, kissing the side of her head lovingly as he looked up at his brother. Tala would feel no jealousy over the actions of that he was certain, but he wanted to see if Tala himself was handling the news well. It didn't look like he truly was. So the teen reached out and cupped the teen's face in his hand.
"You alright brother?" He whispered as he looked at the redhead.
"No." He switched to Russian so Damion wouldn't hear the words coming from his mouth. His eyes had narrowed dangerously and there was a power welling in him that hadn't been touched in seven months. "I want this man dead." He hissed as he looked at his brother who also answered in their native tongue.
"Then it will happen."
The two were wrecks for the rest of that day and night. The fact that it had been sunny all day long did nothing to make them feel better. It only mocked the dreary mood that they were in. Even God didn't have the decency to make it rain. He made it sunny. God damn sunny. Not even partly cloudy. Forecast for the rest of the day was God damn sunny. It only made things worse. While they were grieving, everyone else was happy and laughing in the sun. it sucked majorly.
Going to Giana and telling her that they were leaving broke their hearts. She was infuriated and she was hurt. Everyone was boasting about how extraordinary her two youngest stars were and now that they were leaving it would be up to their understudies to fill very big shoes.
"You can't just leave! You have a contract!" She cried as she stared at the two who looked unabashedly straight back. They couldn't stop anything now. They couldn't stop the flow of time. They needed to leave. They needed to go back to Russia.
"We're sorry." They told her softly.
"We need to go back." Tala continued. "When we do...you might see me on TV a few times." He warned softly.
"Why on earth would that happen?" She hissed as she stared at him.
"My name isn't Luca Trapasso Signora...it's Tala Ivanov."
"T-Tala Ivanov? You're that beyblader that my kids watch on TV!" She stared in dumb awe. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"The world that I'm going back to may portray me in a bad light...and I might not appear to be very kind or considerate. I want you to know...anything I say and do is not really how I feel." He didn't know why he was saying all of this. He didn't know what the point was, but he wanted to tell her. "I really appreciate all your help in this...I really do. Thank you for everything Signora." He walked forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek before slowly starting to walk out the door.
Kai was waiting for them when they go home. Fratello and he had been talking while the two had been finishing up their dismissal from the play house. It would be sad to see them go, but Giana seemed to realize how important it was for them to leave.
They were going to leave the server in Italy, and Damion promised to stop by and look after the house while they were gone. He promised that he'd make sure everything remained clean and tidy, and they thanked him for it. They didn't know what they'd be able to do without Damion there to help them.
Anna and Kai stepped back to let Luka have his last few minutes with the man and he walked forward slowly, looking at him in quiet silence for a while. He didn't know what to say. Then he managed to get his wits about him and smiled slightly.
"You're a therapist aren't you?" He asked softly, and the man blinked in shock.
"How'd you know?" He asked lightly as he looked at the teen.
"Just how well you handled all my out bursts and the like...everyone kept alluding to it at the theater too."
"Well...I never considered you my patient Luka...always my little friend and Marius." He said kindly with a smile.
"Thank you for everything..." He said sadly, he honestly didn't want to leave...but he knew he had to. He had work to do. Then the man did something that he'd never done before. He reached out and he pulled the teen into his arms for a hug that was entirely personal and filled with paternal love and compassion. It was different from the hugs the man had given him the night before, this hug was entirely separate. It was a hug filled with the love of a parent...the kind he'd not felt since he had been a child in Niko's arms.
Luka tensed, his eyes widened in dumb shock as he stayed motionless. It had been so long since he'd felt the comfort of such an embrace. Anna was standing not to far away, her mouth open in slight shock at the sight. Not too far away Kai was watching with an impassive gaze. He didn't seem to have anything to say about the topic, and yet as he watched him there was a slight smile formed on his lips.
"Don't be afraid." The man murmured to him gently. Tears welled up in the red head's eyes as he slowly raised his arms to hug the man back. "And come home safely alright kiddo?" He nodded into Damion's chest, breathing in the smell of chalk and paint and feeling oddly comfortable. It had been so long since he'd felt such a way...since he'd felt at such peace. It was just what he needed. "I'll keep an eye on the place to make sure things are normal while you're away." He nodded again. "Come home safe mio figlio..." My son. Luka looked up, startled at the words, he met the older man's worried expression, realizing just how much the past seven months had meant to the man as well.
"I"ll come back Jean." He murmured. "I promise I'll come back. All of us will." He motioned towards Kai and Anna who were waiting for him at the car. The man glanced towards them and nodded stiffly. He slowly let the teen go and ruffled his hair affectionately.
"I'll watch the TV for you." He said meaningfully, and the teen sighed.
"You won't like what you see..." He warned softly, looking away. The man reached over and tipped his chin up, forcing him to meet his eyes.
"I see a young boy who wants desperately to be at peace at home...and regardless of what the media says, you will always be my Marius....and you will always be just like this when I remember you."
"Damion..."
"Now get going...you have a job to do right?" The man looked like he was struggling, but Tala nodded quietly, knowing he had to leave soon.
"I'll be back."
"I'll be waiting."
And so they left. After seven long months of healing and recuperation, the two runaways were returning home. Damion would never know that when they got to Russia, Anna died her hair blonde so that she would be different from how Boris recognized her.
He would never know that that night the two brothers embarked on a journey to track down Korg's killer. They chased him through the night, and on the rooftops where they were about to get their revenge, the man announced who he was from. The Ottilia family, coming to seek their revenge from years before. With those parting words, and a promise of judgment hanging over their heads for once more baring fangs against the family, the man leaped from the roof top and was killed on the concrete below.
Damion would never know any of this. That night though, as he stood out on the stage and he sang his songs with Angelo as his Marius, he sang one of his solos with an entirely different meaning behind it.
God on high
Hear my prayer
He closed his eyes and imagined the faces of the three children he had gotten to know in those months. The two he had known each day of their stay, and the one who was always off in the shadows watching and listening as the wold spun around them.
In my need
You have always been there
He thought about how the first night he'd seen the young teen in the sea he had just been coming home from the bar. His wife of thirty years had left him, saying she couldn't take one more moment with him. She left and he found himself alone for the first time. His brother had children and a wife and grandchildren and he was alone in the world. He had gone to the sea to drown with misery when he'd seen the boy struggling to breath as he splashed useless in the too deep water.
He is young
He's afraid
He thought about how he had saved that boy's life that night and how he had found himself drawn to the boy and his girlfriend who were runaways from Russia. He found himself recalling the pure fear in his eyes as he talked about what happened to him. He thought about all of that. At sixteen years old that boy had more misery in his life than he had ever known and yet Fratello had been so close to ending his own life simply because of his wife leaving him.
Let him rest
Heaven blessed.
He wished truly and meaningfully that that child could be free from pain and free from suffering. He truly wished that that boy could be saved from the darkness of the world. He wanted to see him with a smile on his face every time they met. He wanted to see him glowing with happiness.
Bring him home
How he longed to have the boy there on the stage with him. How he longed to have the boy happily eating his pasta as he talked about his exploits. How he longed to have the child he thought so much of as a son to be happy and healthy as always.
Bring him home
He knew now that when the teen returned to Russia, he would be met with a dark life that could very well over come him again. He knew though, that he needed to return and that Tala would never find freedom if he knew his loved ones were still trapped in that world. He knew that this needed to happen. He knew it...but he despised it all the same.
Bring him home.
He truly wished he'd come back though. He'd come back and be better then he was before, would be better then ever before. He'd come back and be so strong and proud that there was nothing that could break his spirit. He wanted to see that boy become the child he was in the past that everyone celebrated.
He's like the son I might have known
If God had granted me a son.
He truly was. Luka 'Luca' Tala Valkov Ivanov was the boy that he had always wished he'd had. The boy he'd longed for but he'd never gotten. How funny, the night his wife had left was the same night that he met this child that his heart always craved for. He wished for that child's happiness, however it might come.
The summers die
One by one
It had only been a few months. A few short months and he'd made such improvements. He had started to become more open and free and excited. He had started to be a child again. A child that he needed to be. No one could deny the change, and yet the time had flown. Now with this tragedy he was gone.
How soon they fly
On and on
Time just kept rolling onwards, and as he sang he could only imagine the boy through his years. What was he like when he was a baby? What was it like living in the woods with a wolf as a guardian? What was it like to be named by a toddler? What did he look like as he grew? Who was he really as a child?
And I am old
And will be gone.
He knew his time on Earth was coming to a close. He was getting no younger, and he needed to think more about his health. He wasn't too badly off yet, but he wasn't doing well either. He was doing just alright, and he needed to make sure that he stayed on the path of the good. Especially if he was going to wait for Tala to come back.
Bring him peace
Bring him joy
It was all he wished for now. He wished only for that child's happiness. For that child and his loved one's happiness. He wanted to see them smile, those three children who were so close to one another. He wanted to see their friends smile. He wanted to see them grow up with bright faces. He wanted to be there for Luka and Anna's wedding if it ever came to that – which he assumed it would happen.
He is young
He is only a boy
It was true. At sixteen years old, he was just barely a man. Age wise he was still a child. He may have acted like an adult most his life, but he was only a child. A young child who deserved the chance to act like a child. He deserved his freedom.
You can take
You can give
God, he prayed as he sang, his mind fully hoping that this would be the truth that would occur. He truly wished for this. He truly wished for what he was singing to come true. This song would be his prayer and each night he would sing it. Each night he would wait for the boy to come home. Each night he would watch TV waiting for any news of the boy to come to him.
Let him be
Let him live
This was all he wanted in life now. He didn't care about his broken marriage. He didn't care about anything. All he wanted was for this one wish to come true. His last dream on earth. His last hope that he needed to be fulfilled. In the play, Marius survived, so please let him survive now in real life.
If I die, let me die
Let him live
He wanted his Marius to come back. He wanted his Eponine to survive. If he could rewrite the world he would do it in a heart beat. He would write those children's happiness. He would write those children's lives. He would write love and joy in them. He would save them all.
Bring him home
Please, he prayed, please do as I ask.
Bring him home
Anna, Luka, and Kai, bring them home and make their lives blessed.
Bring him home.
