Hello peoples! I'm back! Sorry, if you thought it was a bit of a long wait. Anyway, big thanks to my reviewers! Without you, this chapter would not be written… trust that…

Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Don't own beyblade.

Kai and Mariah quickly raced back to the campsite through the blinding darkness of the night. Sweat trickled down his face and into Kai's crimson eyes that seemed to light up in the dark, but he wasn't about to stop. He definitely knew he was being watched, but nothing was going to prevent him from his current goal: saving Tala.

He was slightly relieved as he entered the moonlit camp spot, seeing as he had reached his destination with no problem. Now that he was there, he had two very big reasons not to be calm. One, everyone was in a panic and crowding around Tala, and two, Mariah was no longer behind him.

"Where did she go?" he looked around fear-stricken and worried that the killer had Mariah, but before he could dwell on the worry any longer, Hilary ran up to him.

"Kai! Kai, Tala can't breathe! There's something wrong with him!" she dragged him over to the, now parting crowd.

Body trembling and heart pounding wildly in his chest, Kai walked up to his seemingly motionless friend. The thought of losing him was unbearable and he simply wouldn't allow that to happen, not today or for another sixty years or so. It was only when Kai knelt down beside Tala, did he notice the swift rising and falling of his chest and the shallow, rough breaths he was taking.

"Tala, where's your pump!? Please don't tell me you didn't bring it!" Kai shouted to the Russian who's eyes were slightly closed.

"He said it was in his bag, but it's not there anymore." Ray informed standing on the other side of Tala's lying form. "We emptied everything out. It's not there!"

"Kai, what are we going to do!? We can't let him die!" Salima shouted with tears streaming down her cheeks. Kai couldn't quite understand why, seeing as she hadn't even met Tala before.

"Shut up! He's not going to die!" Kai bellowed furiously. Stupid, emotional females! "Back up, all of you! He needs air!" On Kai's command, everyone glided back from the two Russians on the ground. The slate hair teen felt like crying at the moment, but he needed to be strong. He now knew what it meant to be stuck in the middle of a rock and a hard place. Mariah was missing and he couldn't look for her because Tala was losing air and he didn't know how to save him. Think Kai, think! He growled helplessly.

There was no control over the situation and Kai hated that. Nobody held the antidote, no amount of money could get someone there fast enough to save his best friend. Nobody was aiming a gun at him or holding a knife to his throat, so there was no negotiating. This was a battle within and if not won quickly, Tala would lose and Kai knew that.

"What's wrong with him?!" Salima cried.

"Asthma." Ray said solemnly, never once taking his eyes of the disconsolate scene.

"Oh," the redhead looked down, sadly. Then she remembered something and her head darted back up. "Ray, do you remember when I dragged you to the movies that one day?" she asked quickly.

"Salima, this is no time to reminisce!" the raven-haired youth shouted.

"No! The movie we saw was about a girl who got kidnapped and while the guys had her, she had an asthma attack. They didn't have an asthma pump so they used coffee' to open her airways!" now she had Julia and Mariam's, whom was hold a crying Karma, attention.

Ray's eyes widened. "Yeah, but it was just a movie."

"You got any other ideas?" she asked placing her hands on her hips. "Anybody here got coffee'?"

"Salima, this is no time for a coffee' break." Max told her.

"It will help Tala! Coffee' opens airways!" she yelled, tired of people questioning her thoughts and motives. No one ever questions Mariah. Suddenly everybody was in a rush, looking for coffee… or so it seemed.

Emily and Kenny were on the laptop trying to find a plant that would help if they couldn't find coffee. "Has that laptop been working this entire time?!" Tyson asked.

"No, it didn't have any signal before, but now it does." The orange haired girl said.

"Then call for help, dumb ass!" Kai yelled at her, frustrated that she didn't speak up before and that things were falling apart.

"Sorry, I was trying to find something that could help him right now." She retorted in a snobby tone.

"Wait! Emily, didn't you say you packed coffee before we came here!" Ming-Ming asked walking to Emily's bag. "You said that you and Kenny were going to need something to wake you up in the mornings to do research or some crap."

"I don't remember saying that." Emily denied.

"Well, I'll check."

"No!" she shouted darting for her bag. "You shouldn't touch other people stuff." She grabbed the bag and dug through it for a bit. Everyone was watching her. "Nope, nothing."

"Gimme that bag, bitch!" Salima snatched the bag from Emily's hand and pulled out a small can a coffee, which was lying on the top of everything in it. "Julia!" she called, tossing it to the Spanish girl whom was standing somewhat near Tala and Kai.

"Got it!" Julia announced then pulled the open can thing (Boy does that mess up a dramatic moment.) and the lid came off. "What now?"

"Let him breathe it through his nose." Ray told her, recalling the movie, then began to glare at Emily. "You guys, I think we may have found our first killer."

Emily's eyes went wide. "No! I didn't know… I…" she tried to think of an excuse. Kenny got up from beside her and took his laptop with him. "I…"

"Forget it, Emily!" came a voice, the owner unknown. "Come on, my plan is already in action. It was easier than I thought. If I knew that Tala was first on Kai's "Loved One's" list I would have kidnapped him instead."

"The tree!" Tala managed to get out even though his lungs were still trying to get in some much-needed air. Emily walked over to the tree that the masked killer was standing in. Everyone looked up.

"Kai, you have a choice to make." The murderer announced boldly. "You could either stay here and wait for Mr. Dickinson and back up, I had Emily call him for you, see I do look out for you little bro," at that "little bro" comment, Kai thought of L.K. and L.D. and saw that neither of them were on the scene… or maybe one of them were. "Or, you could go and look for Mariah, but if you choose the second one, it will be a waist of your time for you see, she's mine."

"How dare you! If you wanted Mariah that bad why didn't you just try and seduce her the old fashion way. Why kill! Answer me! You killed your own brother's, why!?" Kai yelled, still hovering over Tala, afraid that his brother, the killer, would try and shot him or something.

"Kai, you're so dumb! This was not about Mariah from the beginning! Well, it kinda was in a very small way, but I wasn't intending on stealing her from you! You brought her into this when you stayed at her house!" he said.

"Hey, don't give him any information!" Emily yelled.

"Don't tell me how to run this! You leave!" he yelled down at her. That's when the orange haired girl left. Ray was about to run after her, but Mariam held him back. "So, Kai, do you want to play a little game I like to call Kitten, Cat and Tiger! Come and play if you dare." And with that, he jumped and disappeared into the trees.

"I have to go find Mariah!" Kai said getting up from beside Tala whom was now sitting up himself.

"I'll go too, you need back up." Ray said strongly insisted. "Mariah's my best friend, there's no way you can stop me."

Kai took in a low breath, knowing Ray wasn't going to leave Mariah's life and safety to him alone. "I'm coming too." everyone looked at the now standing Tala.

"No Tala! Did you not learn from what just happen to you!" Kai declined.

"Did you not learn from what happened to your brothers. There is power in numbers. We could watch each other's backs." Kai couldn't deny the logic in what Tala was saying, but he still didn't want the redhead in this dangerous position. "You need us, Kai."

"Why do you want to help Mariah, you don't even like her!" Kai tried to reason.

"But you do. And if you and all your brothers are after this girl, I just gotta see what all the fuss is about. Plus, I'm your best friend, we have to watch each other's back. Remember our promise?" Tala finished giving Kai and meaningful and sincere expression. Suddenly sirens were in hearing distance.

"That's probably Mr. Dickinson." Kai said trying to figure out where they were coming from. "But why would my brother call for help?"

"Duh Kai!" Tala rolled his eyes. "He wanted to get you alone, knowing that you wouldn't leave Mariah. You falling in love with her wasn't in his plan, but since it happened, he's going to use that to his advantage." the blue eyed Russian once again made perfect sense.

"He really should have listen to Emily when she told him not to give us so much information. We got Sherlock Homes on the case." Max entered the conversation and patted Tala on the back.

Suddenly Tala's face expression was annoyed. He turned to Max. "Don't ever, ever touch me again, Blondie." she sneered ominously.

"Sorry." Max apologized and shrunk back.

"Is anybody out there! Is anybody out there!" the adolescents turned to see moving figures in the distance and all started to yell at once. That was Kai, Tala and Ray's cue to leave the scene.

"Tala!" the guys stopped running to see Salima running to them with something in her hand. The female redhead stopped in front to the Russian and held out her hand. It was the red and blue coffee can. "The coffee. I thought that... maybe... you might need it again." she looked down and blushed. Tala took the can. "Just... don't die o.k." with that she walked off to the rest of the group.

"Wow, looks like someone's got a crush on Tala." Ray teased as they walked along.

"Wha- I thought you were going out with her!" the object of Salima's affection shouted slightly embarrassed.

"We did, like a year ago. It was really awkward because she felt like just another one of my friends, so we decided to be just that... friends." Ray informed.

"Oh, so you two weren't going and making out when we first got here?" the Russian asked.

"No! Who could make out with a killer on the loose!? Are you crazy?"

"Just wondering." Tala sighed. A few weird moments of silence passed. The sun was now lighting the sky with its brilliant rays, making the vast forest a little less... confusing. The redhead then looked at Ray and asked, "Didn't you and Mariah break up because you felt like just friends?"

The raven-haired youth scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I gotta get less girls as friend because they always just see me as a friend." the guys started to laugh including Kai whom had been thinking about Mariah the whole time. Another silence. "Hm... you think I should start dating guys?" Kai and Tala looked at Ray in shock and glided further from him.

"Ray, don't even kid." Kai stared at him, still keeping his distance.

"Maybe I'm a girl on the inside." he mused. All Kai and Tala could do was stare at the Chinese teen horrified, wondering if they should continue this search with their seemingly metro-sexual friend. "Those Victoria Secret thongs would look nice on me, don't you think?"

Mariah: Hey, Jashomara! Why was I not in the chapter?

Jashomara: Because you got kidnapped.

Salima: Yep, this was my time to shine!

Lady J: Yeah... Mrs. Ivanov. -teasing-

Mariah and Lady J: Salima and Tala sittin' in a tree... -singing- -Now running from Salima-

Jashomara: -trying not to get hit by flying objects- Please Review!