Ren: (Walks in looking like she just received a 2 day lecture on the lifestyle of an ant) "Pottery I is soooo booooring!"
Tyson: "Ren does not own Bladebreakers if she did she would be a multi-billionaire."
-Chapter 8:
Ren walked around town not really aiming to go anywhere just getting lost in her thoughts trying to think of a way to find Rika her recently disappearing and kidnapped sister. She finally found herself down at the beach facing the glorious sunset though she saw nothing glorious about it as she took off her shoes and socks and sat down squishing her feet in the gritty yet smooth sand close to the ocean where the waves lapped up over her toes and back. She propped her knees up, crossed her arms on top of her knee caps and rested her chin on her arms and with her shoes at her side and nothing but the sound of the lulling waves she stared at the slowly sinking sun wandering and swimming in her own thoughts.
"Dammit! I'm such a failure as a sister. I mean heck she got fucking kidnapped twice, for Pete's sakes! The second time I couldn't even saver and I barely did the first time! I ditched her for my own personal needs and wants and left her to deal with 'Dad' and the Black Dragon gang alone for three years when I was supposed to be protecting her like I promised mom," she put her face in her leap and clenched her fists in anger and sorrow.
"Tch, some big, protecting sister I turned out to be," She said bitterly into her lap.
"No one expected you to be perfect," a deep voice responded beside her and she jumped about ten feet in the air.
Clutching her racing heart she looked to her right and she saw Ray sitting there with a small smile on his face.
"Good God, Ray don't do that! I'm not a Neko-jin like you I don't have nine lives. I down right had a heart attack," Ren uttered as she tried to calm down her racing heart.
Although, it was kinda hard to relax when someone good looking and though you may not know it, that good looking someone happens to have a crush on you and is sitting there almost touching your shoulder with his.
Ray chuckled and slung an arm around Ren's shoulder pulling her closer to where they were practically touching each other and her cheek rested on his shoulder much to her discomfort.
"Um, Ray?" She asked trying to hold back a blush as she stiffened.
"Yes?" He answered in that smooth voice of his with a question of his own as he smiled at her showing some of his fangs.
"Um, forgive me if this may sound rude, but, um, why, um, are you, um, you know! Hugging me?" Ren asked meekly as she felt her cheeks burn in a slight blush.
Ray quirked an eyebrow as his smirk grew somewhat wider showing more of his fangs.
"To comfort you. You know it's a natural thing for people to hug each other in order to comfort them when they're down in the dumps," Ray answered.
"Oh," was all Ren said awkwardly.
Ray chuckled. "You act as if you've never been shown a single shred of compassion in your life," he said not knowing his words would hit a soft spot with the girl.
Ren stayed quiet in embarrassment as she bowed her head casting a shadow over her eyes and shifter head away from Ray looking at anywhere but him. Ray had to be as blind as a bat not to notice all of these signs. Fortunately, he wasn't, and unfortunately for Ren he didn't know when to stop trodding on people's toes about their past.
"You really haven't, have you?" He whispered softly in shock with a frown as he stared at Ren and continued his voice slightly higher, "You mean no one has ever said 'I love you' or 'I care about you, Ren' to you before? Never before in your entire life?"
"Well……my life hasn't exactly been peaches and cream as some people seem to think everybody has," Ren whispered back closing her eyes and resting her chin on her arms again with her head turned completely away from the face of Ray.
When Ren opened her eyes again she saw a pair of black sneakered feet stepping into her line of vision as she looked downward at the sand. Ren used her eyes to follow those shoes; the shoes connected to purple pants and the pants connected to a grey muscle t-shirt with a black jacket over it. A white scarf draped over broad shoulders that made up muscular arms with arm guards and black fingerless gloves. Up the neck, past the frowning mouth and finally Ren's confused midnight blue eyes locked on with Kai's concerned ones. A bunch of question marks appeared over Ren's head and Ray and Kai could practically see them.
"Kai? What the hell are you doing here?" Ren asked completely bewildered as she stared up at the crimson eyed boy.
Kai stayed silent as he lowered down to his haunches to Ren's eye level. He picked up Ren's shoes beside her and threw them aside. Then without warning Ray's other hand shot under Ren's knees making her jolt in surprise with a yelp as she was raised off of the ground by ray. Ren shifted his torso to face Kai fully who sat down scooting close to where his crossed legs touched Ray's. Ray lowered the frozen stiff, shocked, wide eyed, and freaked out form of Ren onto their laps as he and Kai wrapped their arms the now scared Ren who didn't look anywhere but out at the waves of the ocean and the now night sky.
"OH GOD, OH GOD, WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO!? OH GOD, HOW DO I GET MYSELF INTO THESE THINGS? OH GOD, WHY DO YOU TORTURE ME SO AND HAVE TWO HOT GUYS HUG ME? WHY DO YOU HAVE TO DO THIS TO MEEE!???" she shouted in her mind as she gulped discretely to scared and shocked to even move or say anything.
Then she started shaking slightly when the two bloody idiots (Ray/Kai: "Hey!" Ren: "Hey-you guys all of sudden come and hug me putting me in your laps and rest your heads on my shoulder acting as if it was nothing. Do you know how much trauma that can do to a girl?" Ray/Kai: "Ummm……." Ren: "Yeah, I thought so.") rested their chins on her shoulders.
Ren was inwardly running around like she was chicken with its head cut off screaming bloody murder that she was going to die and it was the end of the world as we know it and that she was going to kill Naruto. Wait Naruto? Who the fuck is Naruto?
Somewhere in the fire country an orange blonde sneezed a couple of times.
"Hn, what is it dobe?" Sasuke asked seeing Naruto having his sneezing fit. Sakura rolled her eyes.
Itachi whom they were fighting was about to strike at them when Ren appeared and seeing Naruto shouted-
"NARUTO I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!" And began to chase him around.
"AAHHH, REN WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!?" Naruto shouted back as they ran around the three ninjas with Ren seething.
"REN! YOU'RE BACK!" Sasuke, Sakura, and for some reason Itachi shouted happily.
"I DON'T KNOW HOW! I DON'T KNOW WHY! BU I KNOW THAT IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT THAT GOD HATE'S ME BECAUSE KAI AND RAY ARE HUGGING ME IN THEIR LAPS AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO REACT AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!" Ren shouted as they circled Itachi with Ren trying to strangle Naruto.
"WHAT!?" Itachi and Sasuke shouted outraged. Just then both Kai and Ray appeared looking for Ren.
"Where is she? There she is!" Ray said giddily spotting a frozen Ren who was in the midst of shaking Naruto by the neck strangling him trying to choke him.
Ren "Eeped" and bolted out of the clearing with Ray and Kai chasing her trying to get her.
Back on the beach with Ren's misfortune she was sure she was going to faint if something didn't happen soon. Then Kai raised his head off of Ren's shoulder and then unlatching a hand around Ren's back and side and used the same hand to cup Ren's chin and turned her head to look at him with her wide midnight blue eyes.
"Tell us," he whispered to her while stoking her chin.
Ren swatted the hand away in annoyance and said, "Pardon?"
Recapturing the chin he rephrased his words, "Tell us why you are like a closed book. Tell us what secrets you are hiding about your past. You're our teammate, Ren, and yet we know nothing about you except that you like to beyblade, cook, make electronic things, and travel. We've told you about our pasts and our adventures so tell us yours. Open up, Ren."
Then a hand was laid on her shoulder and she twister her torso around to see Tyson and Max standing there smiling down at her.
"Tell us Ren, tell us what makes you close up when you should be opening up," Tyson said with a pleading smile.
Ren turned back around with her eyes cast downward and her head bowed. "Maybe I shouldn't, I don't know how you guys will react if I tell you my past," She said softly her voice laced with sorrow, fright, hatred, anger, and confusion.
"Did you mot learn anything when we told you the story of Black Dranzer and how we reacted when we found out Kai was from the abbey in Russia or how we found out Ray was from the team White Tigers and he never told us? Did we turn them away or scoff at them? No, we helped them and now it's our turn to help you," Max said softly as he came around to sit in front of Ren partially in front of Ray and her and Tyson sat in front of her and Kai and both the Dragoon master and Draciel master put their hands on Ren's arms and their heads on their arms, staring up at her expectantly.
Ren blew a sigh that made her bangs sway before she caved.
"Alright, fine. But you guys are going to have to get off of me so I can be comfortable when I tell you the story," She said.
Immediately Tyson and Max got up off of Ren's arms and Kai and Ray let go of her. She got off of their laps and standing up she dusted what little sand she got on her bum.
"Where are you going?" Kai asked bewildered when she walked toward the ocean tow here she was touching the water with her feet.
"In order to tell you about my past I have to tell you the history of my lineage to understand why my past is so dark, and as I tell you I'm going to show you. You better get comfy though because this is going to be a long story," Ren explained as she got Drystilion out.
The four boys nodded and got comfy looking at her expectantly. Ren loaded Drystilion and launched him.
"Oh, and if you want to you can launch your beyblades and call out your bitbeasts so they can hear the story, too, because I'm sure they would like to hear it, too. I'm just calling out Drystilion to help me tell the story," Ren said in an afterthought.
Shrugging, they launched their beyblades and called out Dragoon, Draciel, Drigger, and Dranzer and they settled down in the sand with their heads up watching her with keen interest.
"Drystilion, you know the drill-come on out please," Ren said to her beyblade.
With a roar Drystilion appeared in all his might and fury. Drystilion nodded at the four sacred bitbeasts and they returned the nod.
"Remember when we first met and we were driving to Tyson's dojo and Max pointed out about how similar my last name is with Drystilion's the whole Drystilia-Drystilion thing? Well this is like that," Ren said as she knelt down on her knees to get comfy.
The boys and their bitbeasts nodded. Ren turned to Drystilion looking up at the dragon laying on his side in the sand with his snake like neck holding up his head up.
"Drystilion?" Ren asked him. Drystilion nodded and they both turned to the four boys. (Ok this next part may sound cheesy and old and may not go along with the flow of the original storyline the manga artists have going but just go with it ok?)
"Now don't be alarmed but Drystilion can talk just like your bitbeasts they just choose not to," Ren said.
Drystilion started their tale in a deep rumbling voice that rattled their teeth and bones, "Many eons ago, back when just the four sacred beasts were created there were three other beasts created," as Drystilion spoke Ren touched his claw with one hand and using the other she put her palm on top of the water. Images appeared on the surface like a hologram making the boys jump in awe and shock.
The image showed of Dranzer falling out of the sky in flames screeching in fury as he landed on top of a mountain, of a lightning bolt striking the ground in a clearing somewhere in a cast forest and Drigger stepping out of it roaring. Then Draciel washed onto a beach somewhere from the ocean and looked to the sky howling. Finally Dragoon flew out of a tornado in a pasture roaring in his might.
"These other three beasts were of me, my sister Drys, and my brother Drystiliania," Drystilion said.
The images changed to see a Drystiliania falling out of the sky in a green light and crashed into a bog. Then it switched to Drys falling out of the sky in a crimson height and crashed on top of a spewing volcano. Last Drystilion fell out of the sky in a blue and black light and fell into a dark gorge between two mountains.
"As the centuries went by many humans saw of us and our power and became greedy and so attempted to capture us for themselves. We dragons have dignity and honor so we don't just let any one capture us. Dragoon knows what it feels like, after all he is of our kind," Drystilion said and looked at Dragoon.
"Yes, I, too hold honor and dignity, and there is only one person I allowed to capture me and command me," Dragoon said in his majestic and deep voice nodding his head and glanced at a smiling Tyson.
"So we gave ourselves to the only humans who didn't want us merely to control our power. The Drystilia kingdom. I was the bitbeast to Queen Serenity the first grandmother of Ren. Drys went to Queen Serenity's youngest brother Prince Ryu, and Drystiliania went Queen Serenity's eldest brother King Drakonius," Drystilion continued.
The images showed of a beautiful maiden with feet length, raven black hair flowing down her back, she had pale but beautiful skin, high cheek bones, midnight blue eyes, crown, and was garbed in a shimmering blue dress. It was clear where Ren got her beauty just by looking at her. Then it showed of a short spiky, raven black haired man, fair skin, flowing red robes, tiara, and midnight blue eyes. Then a man with elbow length, raven black hair pulled into a low pony tail appeared. Dressed in green battle armor, gold crown, and midnight blue eyes.
"For many years we fought side by side in turmoil and wars with the Drystilia siblings. Until the time came when they died. The next generation was not as pure and were greedy for our power, so we sealed ourselves away waiting for the next righteous heir to our power. Then one of us woke up when Ren's mother was found of pure heart, then I woke up and went to Ren and then Drys went to Rika," Drystilion finished.
Then Ray spoke up, "Wait a sec, what about Drake? He had a bitbeast when we beybattled. What happened to Drystiliania?"
Taking her hand out of the water, Ren patted Drystilion's hide.
"I'll take over from here, Drystilion," She said to her dragon.
Drystilion nodded his head before setting his head down on the side in between his talons on the sand, tendrils of smoke rising from his nostrils as he looked at everyone.
"My mother was the one Drystilion chose to be his master, not Drake," Ren explained.
"What!?" The four exclaimed and Ren nodded in confirmation.
"It's true, about when I was five, Rika-three, and Drake-seven, Drake murdered my mother with the help of my father and brainwashed Drystiliania into getting her to be his bitbeast," Ren whispered and there was anger and bitterness in Ren's tone and she clenched her hands tightly in her lap desperately trying to hold back her tears as she glared at them.
She wasn't going to cry in front of them. She was strong. Drystilion growled in anger and the four boys and their bitbeasts looked at her with sorrow, pity, and sympathy.
"I Hate him, my 'father'. Drake, too. Sometimes, I find myself wishing that I was never even born. That way I wouldn't have to endure the anger, sorrow, bitterness, and pain they bring upon me every waking moment of every day. When I got the chance I ran away from my father for the first time and that was back when I was 10 years old. He'd beat me if I didn't clean the house or make him dinner in time, or he'd just plain beat for no reason at all. Drake never did anything to stop him, he would just sneer and sometimes hit me on his own accord. I wouldn't even allow Rika to help me for I promised on mom's death bed that I would protect. Feh, some protector I turned out to be though. When the police caught me out on the streets scouring for food one year later after I ran away they turned me back over to my dad. Dad punished me for a few weeks after that by sending me to boot camp hoping it would knock some obedience in me but I got kicked out when I defied them knowing they were only doing it because of the money my father paid them. When I turned up on his doorstep a year after he sent me he was furious and then he sent me-he sent me-to-to," Ren sighed avoiding their penetrating gazes before muttering, "He disowned me and sent me to an orphanage in Northeastern most parts of Russia."
"What!?" They exclaimed outraged.
"The orphanage wasn't any ordinary orphanage, though. It's like the Abby Kai went to in Moscow, the one your told me about only it's much more colder where I stayed, for we had to worry about blizzards and the chilling sea. For we were on the northern coast of the Arctic and the nearest town was Anadyr which took at least a week tops to get to because it was all the way on the east coast near the pacific ocean. The place was more secluded, and they wouldn't even let us beyblade-at all!" Ren explained putting emphasis on the at all part.
The boys were too shocked to speak and too angry as well.
"They would beat us, starve us, experiment on us and the place was hell on earth. They kept us in prison cells for rooms, made us wear paper thin, ragged, and torn clothes. Since I was a special case they made it twice much more worse for me, I could never go anywhere except for the dining hall, bathroom, torture room, and the lab where they would experiment on us. The place was so cold because of the snow and ice that would get in through the holes in the walls. Our skin or what's left of it or wasn't scarred from the beatings anyways would be close to blue and because of being so undernourished that you could see our bones. The beds they had were cots on the floor with no blanket or pillow. The windows were had no screens or glass panes so they were open all of the time with bars so we couldn't escape. When we were in our cell, because our beds were so close to the window and the window being so close to the ground, the guards would handcuff us to the bars to prevent you from moving anywhere. I was the only one in the block though I have no idea why. If any of got sick they didn't do a thing about it and we never got to take care of our hygiene so people got sick often and smiling like a basket of roses would obviously be thrown out the window. If any of us ever escaped had to worry about blizzards, wolves, and food. And then there were the experiments, heh, don't get me started on them," Ren told them.
"So when I ran away from the orphanage, I came back again and avoided Dad this time. Only he somehow caught me again and forced me to join the Black Dragons gang and then I ran away from that gang when I was 15 I believe, and the rest is history," Ren finished in a whisper staring at anywhere but the four boys feeling ashamed and embarrassed.
Drystilion crooned and nudged his muzzle against Ren's cheek before he silently went back to his beyblade and returned to Ren's hand where she then put him back into her EBP still not looking at them. Ren was getting nervous from all of the silence and tension as she waited for a response from them.
"Come on! Say something! Anything, just don't leave me in the dark here! Hug me! Tell me it's alright or punch me and shout at me to make me go away! Just please say something!" She silently pleaded them as she finally got the courage to look at them.
She wasn't surprised by what she saw: Anger, shock, surprise, sorrow, pity, sympathy, and disgust were etched not only on their faces but their bitbeasts as well.
"It makes me wonder-do they disgust me for running away so much? For not protecting Rika like I was supposed to? Or is it something else?" She thought biting her lower lip.
She looked away again before she decided she should leave for them to think to themselves. So without further ado, she grabbed her shoes and got up her left side facing them as she looked down at the sand.
"I'll go now," Ren whispered and then walked away.
Rika, Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, and Itachi: (Sniff! Sniff!) "That was so sad!"
Ren: (Looks at them oddly) "Okay I get why Rika is here but why are Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, and Itachi here? They're a completely different Anime!"
Naruto: "Well since you put us in your story for a short while we decided to join you so you won't get lonely."
Sakura: "That way we get to see you as well."
Sasuke and Itachi: (Glomps Ren) "We've missed you!"
Ren: "Crap! How the hell do I get myself into these things?"
(Ray, Kai, Tyson, and Max pop in)
Ray and Kai: (See Sasuke and Itachi glomping a freaking out Ren) "Oi! Gaki and Gaki stop hugging our Ren!"
Ren: (Escapes Sasuke's and Itachi's stranglehold when they weren't looking and runs off and hides in the locked closet)
Tyson: (Sighs) "R&R, peoples! Oi, where'd Ren go?"
Ray, Kai, Sasuke, Itachi, Naruto, Max, Rika, and Sakura: "REEENNN!"
