(A/N): We are getting so close to the intermission now! Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up by next weekend, and then the story's going on hiatus for a little while. Once chapter 10's up, we're officially half way through!

Err…I don't like this chapter much, but how is that different to any other chapter, really? :P

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade or any of the characters, except for Nikita.


The next morning I sat beside Kai in the passenger seat, half welcoming the silence and half wishing it were being filled. I'd been gently awoken rather early to find a smart grey suit laid out for me at the end of the bed, complete with matching knee-length skirt, jacket and shoes. Kai now drove beside me, eyes fixed on the road, clearly in deep thought as I'd always known him to be. Still rather self-conscious of my less-than-presentable appearance, I opted not to look at him and stare out the windows. Much to my relief, they were tinted so nobody had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the driver of the black limozine the Leader drove. It always remained a mystery to me why Kai had a limo in the first place if he always insisted on driving it himself, but I didn't voice my consideration at that moment. I concluded the silence was a sweeter sound than my own voice.

Stepping out into the real world for the first time since entering the solid oak doors of the abbey, I realised I must have forgotten how bright the sun could really be. The snow had melted in my absence, and it almost seemed as though I were in a different country. After recovering from what I believed had caused me some retina damage, I was struck dumb by my surroundings.

I realised that never once had my imagination been exaggerating; Kai's cosy abode really was a palace. It was two stories high, yet each floor stood higher than my entire house. Looking from side to side, I concluded its perimeter must be half a kilometre. I made a mental note to explore it further at some point during my stay, which I believed to be temporary at the time, and slowly made my way down the large marble steps. Kai had already been waiting for me, I could see him through the open door on the passenger side, fumbling through what I assumed to be important documents of some sort. The limo was situated in the centre of the front courtyard; a courtyard so large it could probably fit another palace over it. I'd slipped into the seat with only minor difficulty, we politely greeted eachother, and drove off through the high, black gate.

Knowing exactly where this little drive was taking me, I found myself unable to even appreciate the sight of the other beautiful Russian buildings. The very same I'd been to enthralled with the day I had arrived in the country, and now I could barely look at them. The place I was heading towards looked nothing like them; the filthy, grey stone walls were by no means beautiful, even in their own twisted way like I had originally thought. Nothing about that horrific edifice could ever appeal to me again.

When we reached the buzzing square, I sharply turned my gaze down to look at my lap, making sure to keep my eyes from drifting back to the tinted window. I knew we were nearby now; I could remember the walk I had taken the day I had arrived, the café I had sat in while trying to read a paper I couldn't understand, listening to the happy crowds and avidly pondering over my promising new experiences. Such a turn I had taken.

Before my mind could collect itself, I heard my friend clear his throat beside me and realised we were no longer moving. Taking a deep breath and allowing my eyes to drift closed for a moment, I unbuckled the seatbelt and made to open the door. Kai, who had been patiently waiting for me, walked around to my side and helped me to my feet.

My pulse increased a little as I finally found the courage to take my eyes from the floor. Even the very sight of it seemed to make the wounds throb again, as though every bruise were being beaten and every slit re-opened. A voice in the back of my head scolded me for deliberately damaging myself, not allowing enough time to heal, strolling back into the hell I'd only recently escaped from, playing pretend that I could handle it and everything would be alright.

But I knew deep down I was pretending nothing. I could barely bring myself to even take a step across the courtyard, and had Kai not been beside me I might have turned and ran. Though it looked somewhat smaller than I remembered it, knowing exactly what sickening possibilities I could face once on the inside of those grimy walls terrified me to no end. But remembering my pleas for Kai to take me with him, the thought of being left on my own again so quickly, I didn't voice my discomfort and hobbled in silence towards the doors I had always been afraid of entering.

I learned that day that the abbey was at least twice the size I had originally thought it was; half of the narrow underground tunnels and control rooms only to be used by the guards who worked there, and some rooms, corridors and whole stair-cases reserved for Kai only. He intentionally led me down corridors where we wouldn't be seen by students, and I realised we were heading for the observation room above the enormous battle room. I gulped and preyed we wouldn't be remaining in there for long.

While standing at the tinted box window, I began to feel sick knowing how familiar this situation was; except this time, I was looking at it from another point of view. It seemed strange that I was watching them from the observation box, I couldn't imagine what they'd say if they knew I was up there. I wondered if Kai had ever watched me battle, noticed my victories and watched the fear in my opponents' faces.

I turned my face a little to look at him, standing right beside me, watching intently as his students attempted in a panic to obliterate eachother. Nothing about the situation sat right with me. Kai had dragged me from what could have caused my death, saved me from a life of torment, but only a moment before that he'd struck out at me for showing him fear, and his guards had beaten me for voicing another boy's rights. And at the dinner table, he really had looked truly sorry, but now he was back again, staring intently at the battle dishes. No losses yet, but it wouldn't be long. And Kai would allow it to happen, as before. I realised I would need to get a reason out of him, whether or not it made me seem a nuisance. My inborn conscience nagged at me to demand a response from him, talk away at him the way I used to, until he became to sick of my plaguing he'd allow it to sink in.

Remembering I was no longer the irritating fourteen-year old girl I used to be, I opted instead to calmly ask some of the questions that had been pestering me. However, no sooner had I opened my mouth to form the first word, both of our attention was caught by the voice of a guard. Kai's hearing was sharp, but unbeknownst to me, I had been secretly waiting for it.

'Victory'.

I looked wildly around the large room for a little while, before sighting the guard, standing with one arm in the air in a strained form of false celebration. The boy beside him staggered a little but was unrecognisable to me as I could only see the back of him. Opposite him, however, was a familiar face, a hundred times more pallid than I had ever seen it. Nikita was waiting for the drop.

I screamed, visibly startling Kai and making him jump. 'Nikita!' I shrieked, banging my fist against the glass and feeling the tears forming in my eyes.

'Hilar-?!'

'Kai, please!' I fell to my knees, ignoring the searing pain it caused me, and began to shake violently. 'Please, Kai, please stop it! Don't let him fall, Kai, please! Don't let him fall!'

Reacting quickly, Kai swiftly reached the other end of the box room, and I heard the sound of a heavy and un-oiled metal switch being pulled. I didn't move. Kai was speaking, and I assumed he was informing the guard beside Nikita that the chute mechanism had broken, or a similar tall story.

'Nyet,' he said calmly into a mouthpiece, 'Release the students early and have them begin their drills'.

I was still on my knees, the way he'd left me. I felt him hoist me to my feet, but still I didn't face him. I stared through the glass at the boys filing out through the large doors, no doubt Nikita was unable to believe his luck. I felt it was the very least I could do, for all the help he'd given me, whether or not he realised how helpful he really had been.

'I'm taking you home,' Kai said softly, regret evident in his voice.

I spun around to face him and my lip quivered of it's own accord. 'I…don't want to be left by myself…'

'You won't be,' he looked at me sincerely, and at that moment I saw it in his eyes again. He was going to ensure I was kept safe. He was letting me know without words, that he would be there for me. 'I'm going back with you'.

I gulped and nodded, gingerly following him until we were once again outside. All the way home neither of us said a word. He was thoughtful again, clearly punishing himself for allowing me to accompany him. Having seen me fall before him, pleading desperately a second time, he regretted seeing me in such a state. If I had known Kai at all, I knew he'd probably never forgive himself for what I'd been reduced to.

I allowed him to help me out of the limo, and escort me up the steps. I allowed myself to be led into one of the grandest living rooms I had ever seen, and sat down gently in a comfortable arm chair. I gulped down my antagonism and tilted my head to look towards the door as I saw him seat himself opposite me. He wasn't about to leave me alone, not now. I gritted my teeth, unable to hold off on speaking out any longer.

'What makes you think,' I could see him watching my out of the corner of my eye, but I continued to look elsewhere, 'that you have the right to treat people this way? Why do you see fit to torment these boys, and have them worship you like some sort of icon?'

He said nothing, so I continued. By now all my fear over the past two weeks, all the terror and anguish I had experienced was resurfacing as anger. Forgetting my previous resolution to confront him calmly, I began to blurt out whatever entered my mind without so much as a thought. 'I was told about your abbey in the form of what I believed to be a horror story. But it wasn't, was it, Kai? It was real, it was very real for those who had seen it, and while I was there I realised that nothing has changed at all since those stories were told to me! I never imagined that you, of all people, would continue with something you were so against before!'

Kai had evidently had enough. Somewhere in my outburst I had found the will to look him in the face, and saw his glare suddenly sharpen. 'I am not my grandfather!' he snarled at me. Admittedly, I was a little taken-aback at the tone he'd used. In my silence, he took a calming breath and carried on. 'You didn't see it for what it was before, you have no knowledge of how I improved it'.

'Kai, people are dying in there!'

He turned away sharply, as though it were suddenly too painful to meet my eyes. A tense silence hung in the air for a few seconds, before he audibly sighed and muttered 'I know'.

It was so quiet I thought I had imagined it for a moment, until he spoke again, only slightly clearer this time. 'My objective was never to have death on my hands, Hilary. I try my hardest to prevent the situation whenever possible, but some of them reach the point where they can't be helped'.

'Giving them better living conditions might keep a few more of them alive!' I spat.

'I can't,' he said regretfully. 'I can't do that, they have to be prepared'.

'For what, Kai? Prepared for what?'

I could tell instantly that I was getting somewhere. He met my eyes again, connected with my desperate expression, and I saw that flicker of sorrow again. The very least he owed me was an explanation, and he knew it.

He rose from the sofa and slowly made his way towards the window, massaging his temple all the while. I watched him, but remained seated, and waited with limited patience for his response. I remember the moment as though it happened recently. So eager and impatient to learn of the life-altering reason; how I wished later on that I didn't know of it. What a difference to me. The beginning of the calm, the acquaintance of the storm which inevitably follows.

After what seemed an age, he brought himself to tell me.

'Asia is entering into war,' he said to the enormous window pane before him, 'and Russia has been dragged into it aswell. All across the continent armies are being recruited, and soon the battles will begin. Total war is imminent; most of the countries are already in the stage. But Russia's army is small and inadequate, the country is in dire need of soldiers to fight or conscription will be forced upon the country. Two years ago, I was informed of this possibility. So I left my home and returned to Russia, refurnished the abbey and rehired it's staff. My goal was to gather a large group of young men, train them to fight and survive in combat conditions, teach them loyalty and the importance of victory. I spent two years preparing students to fight for the country, under the impression they were being taught a sport'.

'W-we're at war?' my voice had softened significantly and become slightly shaky. And for the first time since the day I'd set out with Nikita for the abbey, an image played itself in my mind which I'd almost completely forgotten about over the past few weeks. I took myself back to a time not long ago at all, but seemed like another lifespan altogether. The suddenly fitting image of a boy older than myself, broken down into tears opposite me on the train, for a reason unimaginable to me…until that moment.

'Does the country know about the upcoming war?'

Kai continued to look out the window as he answered. 'Most of the involved countries do, but the citizens of Russia have been left in the dark. It's as though the government's too afraid to accept what's happening' and he seemed to resent it greatly. 'But seeing as there's barely any training camps, young men from our ally countries like Japan and Indonesia are asking for acceptance into the abbey aswell. They'd prefer to live and train in an atmosphere where war is still unknown, rather than where people and companies are already preparing for it. We don't just let them show up; they need to write to us and if they hear back, their names are put on a list and they're welcome to train, so long as they swear to not mention the war to the Russian students'.

I listened very intently, trying my hardest to take everything in, and considering every detail of information being told to me. I couldn't understand why, if all the other Asian countries had been preparing for this time for quite a while, nobody I knew had heard anything about it.

But as soon as that thought processed, I realised I was wrong. My jaw dropped slightly as I remembered the mystery which began my story. The folded piece of paper in his pocket, laid out neatly beside his bed when I'd said goodbye to him. The letter my brother had received in September, the letter which finalised his decision to take a trip to Moscow, which had seemed so sudden and bizarre up until that very moment. It was as though suddenly everything was being unravelled in front of me.

'My brother,' I whispered hoarsely, 'he was supposed to be in the abbey, not me. He had that letter, he planned his trip. And…his name was on their list when I pretended it was mine…'

Kai made a thoughtful humming noise in response but said nothing. I found myself utterly dumbstruck at everything I had just learned. In the last few minutes I'd been given so much information to process it seemed my brain would explode. I felt the blood drain from my cheeks as he finally managed to glance down at me. We stayed that way for a while, looking at eachother, surrounded by foreboding that was soon to become all too real.

Eventually I spoke, my voice croaky with the lack of use in the last few minutes. 'So there really is something more to the training. You're going to coerce them into the armed forces'.

But Kai was shaking his head. 'No, we don't force them. The training we put them through makes most of them want to join up, and use their skills and strength for armed combat. It doesn't work with everyone, and we don't compel the ones who don't wish to go'.

'You only brainwash them, then?'

'Not…exactly…'

There was another small uncomfortable silence, but I ended it quickly by clearing my throat. I had been right all along about the abbey being more than simply a beyblading school; how stupid it seemed that those boys would walk in simply to beyblade, and walk out a warrior and ready to fight for their country. I resented the dishonesty of the establishment, but knew very well why they had to be lied to. I understood, but still disagreed. Yet I almost accepted that perhaps the idea was essential, so as to avoid the disaster of conscription.

'And I suppose it's entirely necessary to treat them the way they're being treated?' I asked in a soft voice, my anger long forgotten and quite overpowered by shock.

'Hilary, I don't enjoy watching people suffer,' he began to make his way towards me, perching himself on the edge of the mahogany coffee table. I'm not sure what it was, but something about the way he spoke to me made it clear that he was telling the truth. Combined with my determination to believe he was the same person I was once good friends with, I have to say I believed him. 'But these conditions are nothing compared to those they will face in the battlefields, or as prisoners of war, as some of them may well end up. They'll be grateful to know it's a condition they're accustomed to'.

'But it's so wrong to be accustomed to that kind of condition…' I trailed off in despair, knowing that we both agreed, knowing that my argument would not fall on deaf ears, but knowing it would still make no difference.

He sighed and looked away again, letting it show in his face that he was ashamed of himself. Perhaps that little battle had plagued him for a while now; perhaps he had always hated himself for what he had to do. But Kai never was one to let his feelings stand in the way of what had to be done. And I realised that if war was approaching as quickly as Kai was predicting, those boys would leave the abbey soon, either to march out to fight or to return home. I also realised that in order to keep Kai from losing his mind, I would need to pull myself together, and perhaps help him properly to run the abbey; attempt to change what I dare, and grit my teeth with everything else.

I still didn't agree, but he was right; there was worse yet to come.


(A/N): …I'm not even going to bother apologizing for the poor writing quality this time :P

You know it's a StZen story when there's a war thrown in :D! Which reminds me, I really need to get going with that little sequel to Firefly I planned…

Okay so, some of you probably still think Kai is unjustified, and I understand that. I'm an honest person, so I'm going to admit something to you. The basic plots of this story were planned before I began writing it, but I hadn't originally intended to make the abbey quite so dreadful as it ended up being. I suppose I may have got a little carried away. That made this chapter a lot more difficult to write, but hopefully Kai's reason sounded at least somewhat plausible.

Sorry if Kai also seemed a little OOC to some people. Yeah he spoke quite a bit in this chapter but if you think about it, Kai does that when he's explaining something he knows about…also, he's older so he could just talk more now :P

And to those of you who are getting impatient…the KaiHil's not developing as slowly as you might think…

Please R&R :)