Pale Stained Darkness

Pale Stained Darkness

Rating: T

Summary: The rewrite of Smile Empty Soul! Kai is sent to live with a foster family. He's a silent, moody and sometimes hostile teen but once among the Granger and Tate home will he change for the better or will what he experienced in the past rule his future?

Author Note: (Pokes her internet connection) hey look! It's alive, but it's only 11:00pm so who knows what the green light will be doing tomorrow…. (laughs) I am not working this whole week, so therefore that means a lot more time to write and update for all you nice folks. I'm just going to say right now that this story isn't going as I planned. Seriously, none of my stories ever do. But, with that in mind I am continuing to charge on, (pull up reins and throws down lance shouting 'Cavaliers! CHARGE!!') I do hope you all continue to join me for this ride through unknown territories of my plot-line riddled mind. Alright, enough bar talk from this sleepy author, onward and upward!

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade, V-Force, or G-Revolution or any of its characters/settings or ideas. This is a strictly fan made thing and no money is being made from its writing. Pure enjoyment is all I ask and maybe a few reviews.

Pale Stained Darkness

Chapter 11: Old friends

"Uh Judy?" I ask slowly, approaching the woman in the living room. The house is starting to get ready for bed and before I head into the room with Ray I feel I need to ask her tonight so she can mull the request over. Judy looks up from some papers and smiles at me, pulling off her reading glasses.

"Yes Kai?" I don't think I've ever been this nervous confronting an adult. Since coming to this home I've grown use to Bruce and Grandpa Granger, but Judy I am very unsure about. Although she isn't a mean person, the complete opposite; Judy is a very kind woman but I still can't see beyond that 'I'm a psychologist' mannerisms I've seen too many times before. I fidget slightly and resist the urge to say 'never mind' and go ask Bruce.

"Stop being such a baby." I repress a groan, the voices are back

"Shut up, no one asked you." I snap back, narrowing my eyes slightly

"Well then grow a set will ya?" The over voice sneers and for a moment I feel like slapping at it but know there isn't any possible way since the voice isn't really… uh.. real. I stare at Judy for a few minutes and she stares back, totally unfazed.

"Can I go to the gym with Garland tomorrow after classes?" I ask quickly and wait for her answer. Judy nods once but the holds up her finger

"Is all your school work finished?" she asks and I nod, declining to tell her that my homework is done through this coming Friday.

"Is your room clean?" I frown slightly before nodding my head, thinking that my boots aren't neatly tucked under the desk piece, but that's a fairly quick fix.

"Alrihgt, you can go. On one condition, you have to be home by six-thirty, no later. Understood?" she asks and I nod again, giving her a quite thanks before heading out of the room.

(School Next Day)

"Okay class! Are you ready for your two month progress exam?" My science teacher shouts as the students take their seats. I cast a look around the room, finding most of the students wide eyed with fear or half falling asleep on their desks from cramming all night. Even Ray was up late last night cramming for his own Progress Exam. I give a growl and lean back in my chair as the Chemistry teacher starts her annual sputtering about her 'brilliant achievement of weeding the intelligent students from the dumb ones.'

"This test is eighty-five questions long, with open response, multiple choice and matching. I herby call this test the Super Ton Mega Test From HELL!" Eskin roars as the students around her shudder as the test is placed before them on their desks.

"Class. Begin!" she announces and sits on her work bench top, hawk like eyes watching for any kind of cheating or foul play. I give a tired sigh and open the test.

Question 1: To keep yourself from being asphyxiated while mixing bleach, you must do what?:

A. Bend over and kiss your ass good-bye (nothing will save you)(MUWAHAHAHA)

B. Mix bleach in an open and well ventilated area

C. Mix in a cold, dark basement but always bring an asphyxiation buddy, he may have to resuscitate you

Yeah, well which one would you pick?

Thought so.

With a growl I continue on, sailing through the simple questions of Alkaline Bonds and Chemical Reactions, the Photosynthesis cycle and why it's a part of Chemistry.

A test that was meant to take the whole hour and a half block was completed in under twenty-five minutes by me.

How kick as am I?

(In the Cafeteria)

"Maaaaa, what a day! I hate progress exam day!" Ray whines as he plops into the seat and pillows his head in his arms, golden eyes blank and listless. I sit calmly, chewing thoughtfully on my Guava and sketching the scene before me. Art is next, which is also another horrible Progress exam, but at least this exam is simple. I stand up in front of the class and tell them about my drawings.

Real Hard.

Almost as hard as Eskin's insane test of stupidity.

"Aww, it's almost done, you only have what? Three more tests left?" Garland laughs from where he's sitting. Ray casts him a nasty look before sticking out his tongue.

"I hope your milk explodes out your nose!" he curses and Garland only snickers. I give a small smile as Ray sulks, his golden eyes roaming around the cafeteria.

"Where's Brooklyn?" he asks and I frown, finding the name of the red headed and green eyed freak to be unnerving. Miguel is the one to answer

"He's at the medical office, I guess he passed out in class." He says idly and I store in the information given for a later time. Brooklyn Masefield, the serene teenager who seemed wiser than his years and was almost too calm. He reminds me of Jiro, the Kayo's oldest son. He was a serene person, always speaking calmly and moving in a way that said 'i'm totally harmless, you can trust me', perhaps that's why so many children fell prey to his perversions. Children trusted Jiro and that bastard did horrible, unthinkable things to those who were to innocent to know better.

SNAP

"Jeez Kai, relax!" Ray exclaims in shock and I look down, finding my charcoal pencil to be in two pieces now. I stare at the utensil in shock before bringing my eyes up to find the others all staring at me. With a glare I brush the broken pieces of wood from my hand and then wipe them off the drawing onto the floor around me. With a final glare at those around me I return to my drawing while the others return to a conversation about some function or whatnot. Taking another pencil out of my art box I struggle with myself, mind still stuck with thoughts of Jiro and memories from back then. Too frustrated to finish the drawing I roll back up the paper and shove it into the tube. I finish the last few bites of my Guava. Sucking on the juicy bit as I wait almost impatiently for the bell to ring.

(End of the day)

With the final slam of my locker door I turn, slinging the satchel over one shoulder to let it hang against my hip. I scan the crowd, looking for Garland's face and frown when I don't see him. He told me today at lunch to meet him here at the lockers before we set out for the gym. With a weary sigh I lean against the metal frame and allow my eyes to slip closed. Today had been rough, the numerous exams and even more vigilant memories that kept clouding my mind. My last two exams nearly caused my brain to hemorrhage as I tried to focus on the mundane questions that were attempting to test my intelligence and the memories trying to take over the present I live in.

"Hey! Ready to go?" I jerk up off the lockers and swing my fist out of instinct, realizing at the last minute Garland's smiling bejewled mug was smiling at me I pull the punch at the last second. Garland only laughs and claps his hand onto my shoulder, his own satchel across his chest.

"Oh sure, I see how it is." He jokes and I lightly punch the other in the arm, laughing with him as we exit the school. We walk in silence for a while, till we hit the end of the school zone and the other students who walk have thinned out a bit. I cast a sideways glance at Garland who is happily walking along, his pale gray eyes focused straight ahead.

"So, tell me what have you been up to since you left the Kayo's?" Garland suddenly asks and I stop midstride, narrowing my eyes and glare slightly.

"No, I've already repeated parts of my misadventures to you, I want to know what happened to you; and more importantly, why you didn't come with me." I ask and resume walking beside my old friend. Garland is silent for a few more steps before speaking, his voice almost hollow and frozen.

"Well, remember that night when you said to me out on the back porch 'I was thinking about running away, today. Do you want to run with me?'" I nod, remembering that night like it was yesterday. "Well I almost too you up on that offer, but something was telling me that if I left I would never find the other half of my family. That's why I stayed Kai, I mean if I had run with you I would have been denied the rights to search the data bases. As it was the court system split us up for that amount of time, I refused to make it permanent because I ran away." I nod again, not saying anything as Garland confesses his reasons for staying behind.

"You know, after you left Jiro was caught, that little set up you rigged before you screwed saved the little one. You'll never believe how it happened either, it was perfect! The Kayo's were having a dinner party, one of those ones that they would have to show us off. Yeah well right in the middle of one of those lulls in conversation all you could hear was the door to Kenichi's room open and close, his little voice asking 'who's there' and then Jiro's husky voice. I look back now and think it's pretty funny but at the moment it was the most horrifying thing to hear. I mean we all knew it was happening, I mean even the Kayo's knew, but for some reason they wouldn't acknowledge that Jiro liked children." Garland is silent for a moment before letting off a chuckle.

"You should have seen their faces! And the faces of their guests! Oh it was priceless!" he laughs and I chuckle with him.

"Jiro was arrested, myself, Sadao and some other kids they had before we arrived gave incriminating evidence to have Jiro convicted. Last I knew Yuudai Kayo and Rika Kayo were divorced, the international trading business Yuudai was working for ripped from underneath him and from what I was told not too long ago Yuudai was picked up on 'Public intoxication and disorderly conduct' charges." I sober up and frown, I never meant to ruin their lives, only to bring it to their attention that their son was a horribly messed up person who liked to prey on children. Jiro is a sick person, one that in all rights should have their identities stripped of them and cast from society with some kind of distinguishing brand.

Sick people like that don't deserve to breathe air.

"So, obviously we kids were all removed from that home and separated. I heard through a friend of a friend that Sadao was adopted into a kind family and is doing well. Heard he got into some trouble not to long ago but straightened out. Kenichi was given back to his birth mother after she was released from rehab, only to be put back into the system when she was picked up for dealing Heroin." I shake my head, sorrow suddenly clouding my heart for the little boy who loved to smile. Hopefully he'll find a good home, I mean the kid is as innocent and untainted as newly fallen snow, who wouldn't love him?

"After that I was brought back into court and Claude and I are now together and wards of my real father and his new wife Ojiko. They're nice people; Jaeger didn't even know Claude and I existed until the courts contacted him in Germany. He packed his bag and came back over here, he had to option of going back to Germany with his job or transferring his corporate office here to Japan. Jaeger decided that because Claude and I know and are more comfortable here in Japan." I blink as Garland opens the door to the gym.

"Claude's your brother?" I ask, slightly bewildered.

"yeah, crazy huh?" he asks simply and signs into the register, signing me in as a guest. The gym is you're basic martial arts set up, mats everywhere but with added equipment for the occasional gymnast who dares to enter a fighting school.

"So, why is Claude so…" I trail off, unsure of how to state that his brother is a major pansy compared to Garland who can beat up a whole team of Lee's and not break a sweat. But I don't have to worry, Garland finishes for me.

"Scared to stick up for himself?" Only in more words than I would have used. I nod and begin to stretch, cracking the vertebrae in my back.

"Claude, when mom was arrested went to a place where the people home schooled their children and refused to let them interact with others. From what I could get out of Claude was that he wasn't even allowed to interact with the neighbors or really have any social outings, so where as you and I were getting into fistfights and arguing with packs of kids at school Claude was being taught the finer things in life, like how to act like a diplomat. That's why he's on the damn debate team." He says, stonily and I nod in understanding.

"Those were some good times though weren't they?" I snicker and Garland breaks into a deep laugh before running at the wall and performing a back flip, landing simply on his feet.

"Damn straight, and now that we're back together, what do you say we rip this joint up?" I give him a feral grin and perform several unassisted flips, coming to land beside him with a crossing of my arms.

"I agree." With a wild laugh Garland launches himself at the numerous training equipment and I follow. For the first time in several months I feel myself become more at ease with my situation.

I finally belong.

Author Note: No this isn't the end, so please do continue reading and reviewing as Kai's life is about to take a drastic turn. I'm keeping this short because I don't know how long I'll have this internet connection for and I want to get this posted. Thank you all for your reviews and word, ya'll keep me going!