Windstar: This chapter used to be chapter twenty-one, but because of some editing I felt the need to move it up a bit. I doubt there's much of a difference, but where this chapter should have been explaining a bit of what Kiril's been up to, you'll have to wait a tad long. I hope you enjoy!

Thanks to the speedy reviews, they made my week!

Happy St. Pats everyone!

Chapter Twenty:

Somehow, at that moment Kai and Mikhail had been allowed to stay as Adrien's roommates, and they spent most of their time in the medical wing. Mainly because it was airconditioned and they needed so many of the supplies. The beds that were there were far nicer then the floor, and they were loath to leave it.

Kai had woken up about a day or so after Senior had left him alone, and the first thing he saw was a worried pair of green eyes staring at him from across the room. The teenager flew to his side the moment he met his gaze, and it took the man a second or two to realize that he was even still alive. He hugged the boy to him while looking around the room, Mikhail wasn't too far away sleeping in a chair and looking mightily uncomfortable.

"Hey Junior..." Kai said softly as he groaned ever so slightly. He struggled to sit up, but he was still seeing threes and it wasn't exactly the best move on his part. He looked down at himself and frowned at the bandages that were wrapped around his copious wounds. "You do this?" He asked lightly, and the boy shook his head.

"Dad did." He replied motioning towards Mikhail. "He cut your hair too." At that the man raised a hand up and felt for the first time that his hair no longer touched the back of his neck and was now chopped almost crew cut short. He sighed. It couldn't be helped. Christopher had done a nice job in making sure that he didn't look very pretty anymore.

That was one score he was more then eager to settle. That bastard's days were numbered that was for certain. He tried to focus on his son's...or rather his nephew's face, and he noticed the distinct hair cut change that the boy had as well. Another crew cut, and he snorted. Apparently Mikhail's ability to cut hair was limited to one style.

"How're you doin?" He asked lightly as he gave the boy a once over. The teen shrugged.

"I'm alive." That was true, but it wasn't saying much. Wasn't saying much at all. Kai looked down at his own broken bones and sighed. He wasn't going to be much help on any escape plans that was for certain. The way Chris had broken his left hand had insured that he'd never be able to fire a gun again with it. At least it wasn't his right hand...he could still do something with that.

His legs were torn to shreds though, it'd take a monumental effort for him to even think about trying to plan an escape in his condition. The best he could do was stay behind and pick people off to ensure that Mikhail and Adrien got out safely...yet somehow he didn't think that they'd like that plan. Especially Adrien. The way the boy was latched onto him didn't make him pause to wonder. He knew it was true. He grimaced. This wasn't how things were supposed to go.

Mikhail's inability to cut hair properly led to quite a few good natured jokes while the two injured parties were trying to recuperate. Adrien was surprised when he realized that he actually thoroughly enjoyed the bantering. Before hand he'd always questioned his Commander's sanity whenever he saw them making light of serious situations. Now that he was in such a position though, he realized that the strength to do so was far greater than the simply sitting down and let misery over come him.

Actually fighting against the pain and suffering and trying to laugh and joke made the pain almost fade into the background. It never fully disappeared, but it wasn't at the forefront of his mind anymore. He was surrounded by his loving fathers, yes fathers, and it made him happy for it.

He realized early on that as he sat there and thought…he honestly and sincerely loved each of the two men that were before him. He didn't want either of them to step out of his life. Though it seemed the Kai had decided that Adrien needed to spend more time with Mikhail then with him, he refused to let it be so. Mikhail could find his own spot in Adrien's life, and that was that.

He realized that if his father, his blood father, had never come back then it wouldn't truly change things. Kai would still be the person that he wanted to talk to about everything. Mikhail was great, but for the first time his mind put together the truth. Mikhail was simply a memory of a man that he had known long ago. He hadn't really raised him.

Adrien loved him because of childish memories and broken promises. Kai had been the true father there, and while he knew it broke Mikhail's heart – he couldn't deny the fact that Kai had really been the father he needed all his life. So as he was confronted with both of them, his mind put it simply. He would still treat Kai the same, and he would still love Mikhail. Their relationship however, was yet to be defined.

Mikhail turned slightly in his sleep, and woke up. Adrien turned over and smiled at him. For a moment the recently revived father was struck by just how innocent his child looked in that one moment. Then as he glanced over towards Kai he was sobered and brought back to reality. Not everything was as it seemed.

"I thought I told you to get some rest." He sighed as he looked at the young boy.

"I couldn't sleep..." Adrien muttered as he looked at the man. Kai laughed and shook his head.

"Well go get some now, I'm up and at 'em and I'll still be awake when you need to get up alright?" He grinned and the boy yawned, trying to deny that he wasn't tired. Still, it only took a few minutes before the boy was out like a light.

Mikhail looked over to Kai who finally let the pain he was feeling show. He leaned back against the wall and groaned, sweat forming on his brow. Mikhail sighed and grabbed some water from the fridge next to the doctor's desk. He popped the cap and started to pass it to him. He helped Kai's sip it when he realized the man's hands couldn't hold the glass.

"Thanks." Kai whispered softly. Mikhail nodded. Then he just couldn't take it anymore.

"What'd you do to Black Dranzer?" He asked at long last. A dark brow raised and red eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at him.

"Why do you ask?"

"I heard her voice. Talking through you. You said 'you'll never use me again.'" Kai sighed.

"Did I now?"

"Not 'her,' 'me.' You were talking as though she were you...that she was inside of you. And then you...Kai...did you...eat her?" The heir didn't say anything, just pierced him with a look. "Jesus Kai, why the hell would you do that!?" Adrien shifted slightly, and he quieted. "Do you know just how fucking stupid that was of you?!"

"When we had a plane crash all those years ago, Dranzer told me to take parts of her and eat her. It would keep us alive long enough to get help..." He sighed and looked away. "Dranzer couldn't do it forever though, it would have killed her. Black Dranzer told us then that because we were blood bound to her when Boris created us that if we...took her in...we could be healed completely. Luka wasn't going to make it...he was going to die...so...I made the call. She said he wouldn't feel any lasting effects as long as I was the one who took the last of her in." He closed his eyes. "I never told Lu...I couldn't do that to him. He was unconscious and dying and so she had made herself into a more spiritual form that his body could absorb to keep him alive. But he found out. I had Dranzer out a few months after he started to heal...it took a while. Months actually...but it was going so fast I knew he'd think something had happened. One day he just walked in when Dranzer was out, and he saw her wing that hadn't healed yet and I knew he understood what had happened. I took the last of Black Dranzer in though...and because of that the remainder of her spirit lives on in me." He closed his eyes and looked up at his brother who stared at him with such a sad expression.

"So she's gone?" He asked softly. Kai shook his head.

"No...she's still alive. In me...and she's growing in power the longer she's in contact with my blood and body. It was the other factor for why it had to be me...I was always supposed to be her master. Luka wouldn't have been able to handle it if he took in the last of her. She'll feed off my life force until I die, and then she'll be reborn again." Mikhail nodded slowly.

"They'll kill you if they know that your death will bring her back." Kai just smirked.

"If they do that, then they won't have anyway to control her." Mikhail shook his head.

"You don't understand-"

The door opened to the medical wing and the two men looked up and stared slightly in surprise at the sight of Tala who also seemed to have a ridiculous hair cut and a long scar running down the side of his face. The redhead smirked.

"Well, lookie here. We got all three people I was trying to find in one room. Lo and behold my search has come to a close." He sauntered in and gave Mikhail a quick hug before heading towards Kai's bed. "You doing alright little brother?"

For a moment no one was quite sure what to do or say. Kai was staring at him as though he had just swallowed a bug. His eyes were bulged out of his head and his jaw had dropped. He could hardly believe it. Mikhail seemed better suited for the situation, but even he was having a few problems. The suddenly random appearance of the redhead took a moment to process. Still, Sacha jumped back into the heat of things after a quick head shake to settle his thoughts.

"I'm doing just dandy, you're going to get killed if you're seen without that helmet on." Tala shrugged off his concern easily enough.

"They can't kill me, everyone loves me!" He snickered as he plopped himself down on the bed next to Kai's feet and leaned against the wall. His face turned serious all of a sudden, and he looked at Mikhail with a piercing gaze. "Although what we really should be talking about; is in the event that I am killed, what's to stop them from bringing any of us back?" Mikhail sighed and looked away. "I'm not the only one here who's noticed that my eldest brother is alive and well, right?"

"It's a bitbeast." Mikhail said softly, sitting down next to Adrien and drawing a blanket around him as the boy slept.

"I figured that much. I wanted to know is how it was that you and Michaels were brought back if this bitbeast only listens to you in the first place." Mikhail raised an eyebrow. "Oh come on, we all know that Anna's not the sharpest tool in the shed. She might have bought his 'they cut off my arm and left it there for a DNA test' excuse, but there was no arm that was left behind. There was a corpse one minute and a vacant autopsy table the next. The whole body was gone, not the whole body minus and arm." Kai scooted himself up in bed so he was in a more comfortable position, his eyes pinned on Mikhail. "Besides, Michaels has aged and you haven't. That means he was brought back sooner rather than later. My guess is that you're still around twenty two, you haven't even spent a year newly alive."

"Now here's the kicker, did you get all of that from the fact that you're observant, or did you actually hack into the files and figure it out for yourself." Tala scoffed at Mikhail's comment.

"We all know I can't actually control that server worth a damn." The edge in his voice exaggerating the lie easily enough. Considering he too had Black Dranzer in his body he should very well be able to control it. "So back to my original inquiry. We can assume that Michaels broke under torture and made a comment about you," he looked at his oldest brother, "which made them bring you back to life. What I'm still trying to figure out is just how it is that they did that when they needed you to control our bitbeast friend." The man across from him sighed.

"It's a DNA soak."

"A what?" The two technically younger people asked as they looked at him.

"They couldn't control Vita, that bitbeast, without me. So they used a machine to electronically force her out of the bitchip. They used her DNA to create a solution that they soaked me in until I woke up." He left out the fact that it took months if not years to do, and that every single nerve ending needed to be reconnected. He vaguely recalled it when his optic nerves had first reconnected and he could watch as his body started to piece itself back together. It was much like being in the womb again, a mechanically run and bitbeast powered womb that ripped him clear out of the land of the living and tormented his soul the whole time.

"That's disgusting." Tala muttered, and even Kai looked a bit peaky.

"I never said it was pretty."

"If they have this solution, why do they need your progeny?"

"Supposedly it'll go faster. Apparently I was soaking for nearly a year and a half." The redhead made a face.

"Like I said…disgusting." He shuddered slightly and glanced over towards Kai who seemed to find the whole ordeal rather unfriendly. He didn't appear to like how this situation was going at all. Looking back at Mikhail, he continued. "So this kid of yours, what do they want to use her for?" Kai snorted at how Tala was hamming it up, seriously.

"They want to make her bring someone back to life. I don't know who…a man…umm…Terry? Tony?"

"Antonio Ottilia?" Kai hissed as he pushed himself up more, his eyes wide for a second. Mikhail frowned.

"Yeah, you know him?"

"I killed him." Silence filled the room and Tala looked at him sternly.

"Why don't you share your story with the class?" He advised at Mikhail completely blank look on his faces. Tala had been in the hospital at the end of that excursion, he knew what had happened and what was going on. The other didn't.

Kai stepped into off the plane with a yawn. He was exhausted from the flight and he just wanted to head to the hotel and take a long long nap. Anna was at his side grumbling about something or other, and when they made it through the airport they were greeted by a pair of police officers in blue. Both teenagers glanced at each other as though this was the last thing that they wanted.

"We're here to escort you to the station to give you your briefings special agents." Kai groaned at the man's done. He obviously didn't think highly of the fact that a couple of kids were taking over one of their cases, and in all honesty – he didn't think highly of the fact that he was taking over one of this country's cases. He was very happy in Russia doing his work for Operation Freedom. He did not have time to gallivant around playing in America.

Still he knew that they needed to do this. He glanced towards Anna who nodded slowly. Together they followed the policemen into their patrol cars and into the back seat. The child locked doors and bars that separated them from the drivers did nothing to make them feel any better about this situation. Not in the slightest. Kai glanced over to where Anna was scowling at the world around her.

"Not a happy look on your face." He commented lightly as he looked at the girl with a small smile. She glanced back.

"It's the first time I've been home in a long time Kai." She told him softly. "It hasn't changed much, but at the same time…it has changed."

"It's New York, it's not likely to have stayed the same no matter how little time you were gone for. Besides, you won't have to even talk to your family if you don't want to."

She grinned and nodded, and they were quiet for the rest of the trip. They both were used to sleepless nights spent in the office, and so they didn't particularly begrudge these policemen for wanting to do this meeting now instead of later. The only thing was that they wished that it had been only half an hour later. Neither of them was dressed for a meeting with their superior officers. They were in travelling clothes that were comfortable and weren't liable to make them fidget on the plane.

They entered the ISA's station easily enough and they walked inside to meet with Commander Boone. The man didn't seem too surprised that they were dressed in street clothes, but he found the need to hold it against them.

"Couldn't find the time to dress more appropriately for a meeting with a superior officer?" He snapped. The two glanced at each other for a moment. They both had snapped to attention and saluted appropriately enough to the bastard, and considering what he'd done to get them there they really couldn't believe that he was commenting about their clothes.

"No sir. Next time we'll be more efficient, sir." Kai said though, he really didn't want to deal with this man any longer then he absolutely had to. The man just waved them off.

"Your target, privates, is Antonio Francesco Ottilia."

"Excuse me?" Anna's demeanor fell instantly, her eyes widened as she stared at him. Boone just cracked a grin.

"I thought you could provide us with some more details about him and his business Miss. Anna since you came all the way here for this mission."

"I wasn't aware this mission was going to be about my family sir." She snapped back. A few of the other officers in the room glanced over, surprised to hear those words come from her mouth. She continued though, knowing that she'd dug a hole for herself. "They abandoned me in Russia when I was a child, I haven't spoken to any of them since that time. What makes you think that I know anything that could be of use to you?"

"Oh, I thought you might know something. You'll be surprised how quickly it all comes back to you." The man stood up and walked around the table.

"Sacha-"

"It's Kai."The boy snapped, his eyes narrowing. "Do not call me that name."

"Honestly, kids and their nicknames-"

"Sacha's not my name, my family doesn't call me that, neither should you. The next time, I'm on a plane out of here." The man scowled and looked at him in annoyance.

"Do not talk to a superior officer in that manner, boy." Kai growled but held his tongue. He knew his place well enough. Still, that didn't mean he had to like it. "Kai you're going to be running intel on the ground. I want you monitoring that man's activities for the rest of the week. If you can somehow manage to do that without screwing up, I'll agree that your unit in Russia is actually helpful…somewhat. Is that understood?"

"Sir, yes sir." The boy replied, closing his eyes and counting to ten. He was getting a bit frustrated as it was.

"As for you Anna, since you're training as an Operator, you're going to be running as his Operator while he's on the ground. The same rules apply, understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, now get out of my office. I expect to see a report every day. Starting tomorrow at six am." The two saluted and then left, hungry and tired and very much annoyed they climbed into the back of a taxi and went to their hotel.

What they didn't know then was that Boone very much had set them up to fail. The first thing that happened when they walked through those doors of the hotel was run directly into Antonio Ottilia. The bastard was signing some papers and talking with some business men.

When they walked inside, Anna caught Kai by the arm and forced him to walk around the lobby until they got to the desk where they signed in as fast as they possibly could. He gave her strange looks the whole while until they reached the elevator and Antonio actually rounded the corner and bumped clear into them. Anna cursed under her breath as she looked at her uncle. It had been years since they'd last seen each other, hopefully it would be enough.

The man looked at her for a long while, head tilted to the side in confusion as she apologized and jumped into the elevator. She made a show of calling Kai her big brother and that mummy and daddy were waiting for them upstairs. She even added a British accent just to add to the case, but in the end it wouldn't do much to hide her identity.

For the first four days Kai was on the ground following the man around New York City and trying to figure out just what he was involved with. During those days Anna followed him, tracking him with surveillance cameras that she hacked into and various other outlets. She was constantly monitoring Kai and their communications log was submitted each day to the appropriate authorities.

Boone had to admit that he was impressed by the amount of work that the two were doing, and grudgingly he came to accept that they weren't simply stupid children. Their work was more detailed then some of his own men's work, and that was saying a lot since he didn't accept any lacking behavior in his units.

One night while Kai was running lines, and dropping locating devices; there was a loud scream that sounded from his ear piece. He hissed and tore it out of his ear, all the while back tracking his way towards the hotel. There was no response when he tried to get a hold of Anna, and as he ran up the stairs to see if she was alright, he would be horrified to discover that Anna had been attacked right in the hotel. Someone had followed her and had found her location.

He opened the door to find the whole room a complete mess. The computer she had been using was in shambles on the floor and it looked like someone had thrown it as hard as they could. He could only imagine Anna doing that as she was struggling to hide evidence of what they were doing there.

Later on he would discover that Christopher Hughes had told the Ottilia family about where Anna was and that had been the reason why she had been captured that night. She was nothing if not thorough. She never did a hack that could be traced unless she wanted it to be traced, and the fact that someone had supposedly done so did not sit over well with him.

He sighed and walked towards the computer to see if there was anything salvageable from it. The monitor may have been destroyed but the computer might still live. That's when he saw the flashing numbers that were counting down to his death. He stared at it for only a few seconds before running as fast as he could out of the room.

He couldn't make it to the door and so he took a risk and dove out the window just as the bomb went off. He could feel his clothes catch on fire as he was thrown through the air, and he was falling faster and faster. He managed to angle himself just right though and as the swimming pool on the third floor came into focus, he pulled his dive up and he surface dove into it. His whole body protested the action, but the fire was out and he wasn't dead.

Ignoring the screams of the patrons he made a call to the ISA and told them what had happened. Boone ordered him to return to HQ and forget about Anna, but he couldn't do that. She was one of his best friends!

"You're going to return to the station now!" Boone ordered as he started to protest against him.

"Are you going to send someone after her?!" He shouted back, shaking his head and trying to focus.

"No, she's MIA and I'm not going to waste my unit on a soldier that could very well be dead for all we know."

"You're not even going to try to save her?!"

"It's her own family, she knows how to take care of them. Return to base. Do you copy?"

"Negative, I'm ignoring that order." He hung up the phone and walked away, he wasn't even going to bother with it if Boone was just going to order him away. He wouldn't have it!

For the next eight hours he went to each location that he remembered hearing about Ottilia being. It took him a long time to get from place to place and eventually he commandeered himself a bike and pedaled the whole way. He felt like a complete moron using a pedal bike to get from location to location, but he didn't have any other choice, he had no other mode of transportation, and he couldn't risk a taxi.

When all else failed he went to a local library and called Anna's supervisor. Korg picked up the phone in an instant and he quickly told him what was going on. The crazy looking man was horrified to discover what had happened to his girl and he quickly started to talk Kai through the hack sequence that he needed to go through in order to find the security system to the hotel room they were in.

He watched the whole scene take place. Antonio opening the door to the room and Anna turning around, firing a shot off at the intruder. She missed and he tackled her to the ground, pinning her down and calling her by name. She kicked and scratched and clawed and just managed to dismantle her computer before he knocked her out. Using him as a basis he followed their car through a variety of security feeds until he finally figured out where they were going. A warehouse.

He pulled Dranzer out of his pocket and started to walk closer to the building. As he peered inside though he stared in growing horror at the sight of his friend tied to a pillar and being hit repeatedly by her Uncle who was calling her every name in the book.

"To think my little nipote was the one who has been tracking me for all this time. For the government of all things!"

"International Security Agency not National idiot." She groused, feeling her face flush slightly as she said those condemning words. The man growled low and caught her by the face once more.

"You should have just died when my brother left you out in that country. You never should have come back." He pulled out a gun and aimed it straight at her.

"Don't do that." Kai hissed, forsaking everything and stalking forwards, ire clear on his face. Anna looked up at him in horror.

"Kai!" Antonio and his cronies turned around and looked at him.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Kai Hiwatari, I'm the heir to Hiwatari Enterprises. Let her go and you'll get the biggest ransom you've ever seen. My grandfather would pay billions to have me back." He took his gun out of its holster and slid it across the floor, his hands up in the air as he walked forwards.

Antonio was doing the math. HE made billions of dollars a year. The thought alone that the heir was right here and willing to make a trade would give him more money then he'd ever dream of. It was worth it to him. He motioned to his lackeys.

"Go grab the kid."Kai stood there patiently and let the two subordinates surge forwards and grab him by the arms. Anna was screaming for him to leave, but he already had a plan and right now leaving wasn't an option. He was thrown to the floor and his hands were tied around his back. What he didn't let them see though, was that Dranzer's bit was in his hand the whole while.

Antonio laughed as he looked down at the young boy. He could hardly believe how easy it was for him to get money. Kai was like a walking checkbook and he was eager to cash it in, but first he had something he needed to do. Raising his foot he slammed it into the boy. Kai jerked slightly hissing. He knew this would probably happen but that didn't mean that he wanted it to.

Antonio smirked as he stared at the bold look on Kai's face. The boy wasn't scared of him. He knew full well that soon this whole place would be on fire and soon these bastards would be dead. The man knelt down before him, reaching one hand out to cup the boy's face.

"You're a rather pretty specimen aren't you?" And for the first time in a long while, Kai felt his blood freeze. He looked at him impassively, and his defiance only made the man glare at him all the harder. He raised a hand and punched him hard across the face, before kicking him in the gut. The shock was enough to make the boy open his hands just slightly. Dranzer fell out of his grasp; and Anna froze. She realized what he was trying to do, and by the frantic way his fingers were feeling around for the bit chip, she realized that he couldn't do it without the blade.

Suddenly they were moving, Antonio dragging Kai away from Anna and away from Dranzer. The bird lay forgotten on the floor as the two teens stared at it with open anxiety. Kai stared up at Antonio as his terror started to grow. This wasn't how this was supposed to happen!

The man slid a hand up under his shirt, starting to feel his skin and Kai glared hatefully at him. Bull shit. This wasn't happening. This was not happening. He closed his eyes and focused all his energy on Dranzer. He forced himself to fall into a far deeper and more dependent state then he'd ever gone before. This right now was not going to occur. He wouldn't let it.

The second Antonio even thought about stealing a kiss from him was the same second that Dranzer heard his forceful and extremely powerful emotions shouting at the top of his spiritual proverbial lungs. Fire erupted all around him, his very body practically bursting into flames. Antonio was trapped inside it, his eyes widening as he tried to pull away, but he couldn't and the flames scorched him until he could only collapse to the ground – dead. The fire seared away the rope around his back but left the rest of him physically unharmed. His clothes were intact and he could still move.

He moved as fast as he could towards Anna, but not fast enough. One of the cronies called out Diabolo! and suddenly a bullet cut through his chest. He winced, and his pain suddenly made the fire grow stronger. It slashed through the building, stemming off his body but at the same time emanating from the chip itself. It didn't take long before the entire building was being burnt to the ground. Anna's arms were untied and she gasped as he pulled her to her feet.

He wasn't going to be able to keep this up much longer though, he was bleeding badly from the stomach and he was very close to just passing out. He grabbed Dranzer up off the floor and the two of them just managed to get out before the whole building collapsed around them.

"So…Antonio is a perverted child molesting bastard who was scorched to death by a really pissed off phoenix, and we can all thank Boone and Chris for that lovely experience." Mikhail surmised as he looked at his youngest brother. Kai ran his right hand through his hair and sighed slightly.

"Not one of my happier days that's for certain." The heir mumbled. Tala nodded slightly before moving on.

"Senior wants to bring his son back to life…why didn't he just bring him back when he brought you back? He knew the serum worked." Mikhail shook his head.

"It doesn't…not really. I may have been brought back…Michaels too…but there's a big difference between the life I lived then and the existence that I maintain now. I can't even fully describe it to you. I'm not allowed to say much more on the topic either. All I can say though is that he's looking for a way to bring people back without the repercussions of it…and there are repercussions." Tala nodded once more.

"So…how long do we have until he finds out where you kid is?" He asked slowly, eyes refusing to even look at Adrien.

"Probably no more than a few more days. He's testing all the kids he rounded up from the Abbey, he'll figure it out sooner or later." The redhead sighed and suddenly his head fell to the side and his body slumped slightly. "Tala?" The pale man didn't even budge. He didn't react to his name at all. It looked like someone had just turned him off randomly.

And at that thought, they remembered the LXCom.

"What are the chances that someone hacked him?" Mikhail asked softly. Kai shook his head.

"Not good. He's checking something, he'll be back in a second." And just like that blue eyes snapped open and he was on his feet again.

"No one's ready to do anything outside the complex. It'll take them a few more days to even think about organizing any sort of group that'll be able to enter the facility. We'll just have to hold him off for as long as possible. I have to go, they're going to start noticing I'm gone in a few minutes and I need the time to get back to my cell and reactivate the cameras." Mikhail blinked.

Could this man do…anything? He didn't seem capable of not being able to do something. That just didn't seem right!

"Chances are they're going to find Mikhail's heir sooner rather than later, let's just hope we can get her to safety before it happens hmm?" Tala was moving again and heading towards the door. "Take care of yourselves alright? I'll try to come by sometime to see how you're all doing. Maybe next time my favorite nephew will be awake." They nodded and said their farewells and Tala was gone, vanishing down the hallway.

Mikhail snorted slightly and shook his head. He'd never understood just how well suited Tala was for this type of thing. His ability to control any machine that came his way as well as his ability to reason at such high speeds made him almost invincible in the field.

For the rest of that week though, they were living on constant edge. Adrien was the last one that would be called up to test with the bitbeast, and as that came closer and closer they realized that there was nothing that they could do about it. There was no rescue mission set and they were going to get caught.

Even so, as Adrien was tugged out of the medical ward and Kai was dragged to another cell, Mikhail felt terribly, terribly guilty. It was almost as though he wished he could have changed it all. If he just hadn't done something maybe all of this would be different. He followed silently, watching them take his son into the room. The other boys were all there as well, as though they had lied and cheated when they'd gotten near the bitbeast and they were going to try again. Still, Mikhail knew that it wouldn't take long for this bitbeast to recognize the child.

It was the one thing that he should have warned the boy about before he was taken away. He couldn't though. He just couldn't. He didn't know how to explain it to him, and that was another thing he felt guilty about. He felt guilty about the fact that when that boy went to stand before the bitbeast and try his luck, he should have known what he was going to see.

Still, he'd held his tongue. He stood in the shadows and watched as the brunette was forced forwards. He looked far stronger then he had before hand. The boys that had seen him being carried away even let a sigh of relief out as they saw that he was alright. His sickness was gone, and now it was only the infection on his chest that needed to be tended slightly. The wounds on his hands and leg were starting to heal up nicely, but it would take them a bit longer until they were perfectly secured.

Mikhail watched on in silence as Adrien struggled to not be chosen. He tried to get away, but he couldn't do anything. He could only be forced forwards. The more he shouted the more they dragged until at long last he stood just before the bitbeast's chip. He stood before it and he stared at it in silence.

Senior watched on in avid interest as the boy's eyes took in everything about the disk. He took the child's hand and the teenager looked up at him in dumb shock. He didn't know what to say or what to do, but the man simply dragged out a knife from his pocket and made a small cut on the boy's palm. He held the palm over the bitbeast, and like magic, she was there.

Everyone reeled back, no one had quite expected that. Whenever someone else had done it there had simply been silence. Not the sudden burst of light and shadows that overcame everything. Not the sudden shrill shout as if an army was coming ready for battle. Adrien's palm slapped down, clutching the bitchip in his grasp out of sheer instinct. His arm had simply been pulled out of Senior's hold and forced to hold onto the bit chip.

That's when he really saw her…saw her for who she really was. Beautiful light brown hair cascaded down her back and dazzling green eyes stared directly at him. For a brief moment he felt his heart stop, and then he felt extremely dizzy. There before him was a woman who looked so much like him he said the first word that came to his mind as he watched her.

"Mama…?" Her dark hair moved as the head nodded softly, and he took in the long wings that came from her back – one black and one snow white. It was like looking at an Angel and a Devil at the same time, and yet he couldn't care. He couldn't find the will to care. All he could hear was one word that echoed through his head.

Run!

And run he did. He hit the ground and rolled and the guards yelped as he scooted passed them and through the door to the room. The angel vanished from where she had been floating before them, and with her disappearance everyone had jumped into action. The boys had started to fight as hard as they could, attempting to buy their friend time to try to escape. Mikhail ducked out the door and started sprinting after his son who was vanishing around every corner he turned around. Not too far behind Mikhail was Senior who was desperately trying to catch up.

Mikhail had to hand it to the bastard. He may be an old geezer – but he most certainly was athletic. They were running as fast and as hard as they could and yet Mikhail soon lost sight of the boy. He couldn't even begin to fathom which way he'd gone. He simply was left in the crossroads to stare at the emptiness in horror.

Adrien was sprinting as though he had wings. He was going so fast that he was blowing passed hallway after hall way. He cut a corner and stared in shock at the sight of a grim faced Kai being led by that bastard Christopher Hughes. Anger coursed through him, and he snapped forwards, punching the man in the head as hard as he could.

Christopher went down and Kai stared at the boy in dumb shock. Adrien's hand slipped into his and suddenly they were moving again. Only this time, there was no way Kai could keep up with his frenzied pace. They were taking it slow but they were going to make it out. They just had to.

"You need to leave me behind. Get out now, you have the bitbeast right? Get out." Kai hissed as he looked around the corner. Guards had been called forth and now they were ducking and hiding behind each corner and door that they could. Kai knew full well that they didn't have time to wait for him. His body was too damaged to run and there wasn't any likelihood that that would change anytime soon.

"No! You're coming with me!"

Listen to him, you can't stay here. There was that voice again, but this time he shook it off.

"I'm not leaving you here."

"You're being insensible. I'm going to hold you up. You're going to die if you stay here do you understand?! You need to go!"

"I won't, so stop trying to make me!" Kai hissed in frustration, but he knew it was true. There was no way he could fight off Adrien and force him to leave. The boy held all the cards. They'd already left Mikhail behind, there was nothing left that he could do except for continue moving forwards. So that's exactly what they did.

They moved carefully and slowly and they dropped anyone that came their way. It hurt like a bitch, but Kai managed to shoot and kill a few people and even knock some of them out. He tried to recall a mental map of the place. He tried to remember which way to go and which way to guide the boy in.

All the while he watched Adrien's back and made sure that nothing happened. He wouldn't let anything happen to him. He wouldn't let anything happen. They made it around a few more corners and turns and opened a door to a room that was much like a dome. Kai stared at it for a few moments before nodding.

He recognized this place.

It was the most dangerous room so far. The deeper they got into it the more easy it would be for someone to pick them off. There was more than one door to this place and there was nothing they could do about it. They needed to go through this room to get outside.

He looked his boy in the eye for a moment and nodded. They needed to do this, and then they'd be free. He could almost taste the freedom on his lips. He could almost hear his wife calling his name. They would go home and they'd be free. He'd see his children and he'd protect Adrien until the day he died. He'd help Bryan and the others get everyone else out, but right now Adrien was the priority. They needed to get him out to stop this whole plan from taking place.

They made the turn and they started for a set of stairs that were just before them.

"This is it…" Kai whispered softly. "Once we get down these we make a left and then a right and then we're out." Adrien nodded and the two stated down them when a shot fired across the room. The brunette froze when he felt Kai go rigid. Another shot, and blood splashed across the boy's face. He looked at Kai in horror, blood was falling from the man's mouth and he could start to see the man's eyes roll to the back of his head. They were down two stairs already and there was no turning back now. One final shot hit, and Kai pitched forwards.

Adrien screamed, there was nothing he could do. Kai's arm was around his shoulders to help him walk better, and his arm was around the man's waist. When Kai fell, so did he. He vaguely remembered Kai wrapping his other arm around his head and then he just remembered hitting every stair on the way down. Crack after sickening crack echoed in his ears until finally they came to a stop at the bottom.

He opened his eyes. He could hardly believe it. He thought he was dead for sure! Sighing slightly he looked up at his foster father's face and whispered his name…only Kai wasn't moving. He was just laying there was his eyes staring upwards, completely and totally frozen, blood falling from his lips as his head leaned at such an awkward angle.