After 16 kilometers, she switched off her bike and left it behind a dune. She walked around the dune and began climbing another one. As she summated it, she saw the entrance of a bunker. This one was clearly under ground. There were two guards, each with a gun and a beyblade launcher strapped to their belts. To one of there belts was a flimsy piece of paper, she guessed it was a map. She heard a siren sound once and the guards became restless and opened the door.
"How about a light breeze to lift the map off, Anukis? Sandstorm chaos." She initiated her attack ability.
A fierce wind whipped up and ripped the map off his belt. He was to busy trying to get out of the mini sand storm to notice that the map was floating quite serenely over to Charlie. She grabbed it out of thin air and the storm died down.
"Thank you." Charlie said, looking at the map.
She traced the map with her finger, seeing offices and training arenas close together. She would have to be careful. She had to move, the changing of the guard would not last very long. She got up and raced to the entrance, slipping in and walking down the air conned hall.
"A sandstorm, at this time of night." She heard someone say.
This isn't Russia anymore." Another said.
She guessed it was the replacing guards. She saw a closet, opened it and slipped in. She saw the shadows of the man walk past the entrance.
"Hey do you smell something?" he asked the other.
"Yeah, I do." The other said.
"Smells like J' adore," he said, sniffing the air.
"Gold Supreme." He said, finishing his sentence.
They had smelled her perfumed body wash.
"How do you know this?" the first asked him.
"I like that smell." He said, to the other.
There was a silence and the other walked off.
"You're so gay." He laughed.
The other man ran after him and protested.
"I AM NOT!" he said, going out the door and closing it.
She sighed and looked at Anukis in her hand.
"That was close." She whispered to Anukis and she glowed in recognition.
She opened the door and checked both directions before moving on deeper into the compound. She heard the low hum of machines first, and then came the sounds of metal blades crashing into each other as she got deeper. She heard shouting. She heard Alex, Tyson, Max and Kai shouting at each other.
"Kai…" she said to herself, heading in the direction of the screams.
She walked down the dark hall and the sounds grew stronger, but with those sounds were new sounds. The sounds of someone being hurt, badly, screaming in pain, pounding of bodies against hard floors. Her heart raced as she reached the end of the hall and stepped into the light. She looked around and saw no one so she stepped up to the railing. She put her hands on the cold metal bars and looked into the auditorium beneath her. There they were. Tyson, Ray, Max, Alex, a few other bladers that she didn't recognize and Kai. Kenny was in the corner, at a computer analyzing their blades. They were all blading each other harshly, like their humanity had been stripped bare, but other than that and tired, they all looked, okay. Why hadn't they escaped yet, she had snuck in so easily. Charlie turned her attention to the person Kai was blading. It was Tala.
"Bastard…" Charlie whispered to herself.
She watched a little longer, until something caught her attention. Something in Kai's eyes changed. Tala had attacked Black Dranzer and Kai had taken the hit hard. He knelt down on one knee, leaning heavily on his fist against the floor, breathing hard. His hair fell over his eyes and Charlie felt a tear well up. Then she saw it, his eyes flicked from black back to grey. He looked up at Tala and smiled the normal smile he did when he was about to decimate an opponent.
"Still fighting it, hey Kai?" Tala shouted at him.
All the other stopped what they were doing and looked over to the last dish in the auditorium.
"I'll…never…stop…Tala." He breathed looking up at Tala from the floor.
He struggled up and looked at Tala.
"I'll never stop fighting you." He said, calming down now.
Charlie felt like calling out to him. Telling him that it was okay now, that she was here, calling to him to keep fighting, keep strong. But she knew that on her own, she had no chance of getting them out of here. Tala called back his blade and caught it. He strolled over to Kai and stood next to him, facing in the opposite direction.
"You think she's coming to save you." Tala whispered to him.
Kai looked at him and saw Charlie standing on the top level of the auditorium and smiled. She placed her finger to her lips to tell him to keep quiet.
"I do. Sooner than you think." Kai said to Tala, looking at him.
"Well, you're wrong. She's so weak, she can't do anything. Her stronger half is here. I have her sister too. Without Alex, Charlie is nothing. Without you, she's nothing." Tala gestured toward Alex.
"Charlie went toe to toe with Alex in the tournament, if she hadn't seen you; I bet she would have won. She's come a long way in a year Tala. Better than you and I could ever have done. She has a gift." Kai explained.
Charlie saw Tala's expression turn dark and then she saw his arm pull back and his hand clump into a fist. Charlie sunk down to the floor as she heard Kai cry out. She put her hand over her mouth as to stop her from screaming. She closed her eyes and wished she was there to help him. Tears welled up in her eyes as she heard him scream harder as Tala kicked him in the stomach. She mustered up enough strength to look over the rim again. She turned over and peeped over. She saw Kai lying on the floor, clutch his stomach. Tala was leaning over him.
"Even if she does come, which I doubt, you'll be gone by then. After this, you're not coming back again. Goodbye, Kai Hiwatari." He said to him and gestured to the guards to take him away.
As they carried him away, he looked up to where she was standing and winked at her. She smiled at him and winked back. She felt the tears running down her cheeks as he disappeared behind a wall. She heard them coming up the elevator and she ran and hid in a dark hall. She watched as they dragged Kai past the hall. She edged closer to the light and saw them take him into a room. After a few seconds, they came out. They walked past the hall and as they rounded the corner, she checked they were gone, and then stalked silently to Kai's cell. She got to the door and read that this wasn't a cell, it was the lab. She felt a cold shiver run down her spine as she remembered what had happened to her last time she was in a Biovault lab. She put her hand on the handle and opened the door.
The room was dark, except for a green cylindrical tube in the corner. She saw Kai was lying to a stretcher. She quietly closed the door behind her.
"Get on with it Tala. So I can start fighting it again." Kai said to her, thinking she was Tala.
She had seen that Tala was still busy blading down below. He would be busy for a while still. She smiled and silently walked up to him. She put her hand on his arm and he opened his eyes and looked at her. They were darker than normal, like they were teetering on the edge of evil. He sighed and smiled.
"Charlie." He said softly.
She saw that he was strapped down and began working to free him.
"He'll be here soon, hurry up." He said, impatiently.
She took out her blade and used the sharp edge to try and cut the leather.
"No, he's still blading. Where's Boris?" she asked him.
"I have no idea, I haven't seen him at all, ow…" he said as her hand and blade slipped and gashed his arm.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry." She said, trying to stem the bleeding.
"It's okay; just get me out of here. Did you come alone?" he asked her.
She looked at him. She came here on a dirt bike. She could only take one person with her. She stopped and stepped back from him.
"Charlie…what's wrong…Charlotte, talk to me." He said to her as the cogs in her head were working.
"If I get you out of here, then they'll know I was here and they'll disappear with Alex. If I take Alex, I lose you." She said, looking at him.
He looked at her and sighed.
"Go get Alex, I'll get out some other way." He said, looking away from her.
She stepped up to him and forced him to look at her.
"But I love you, I can't lose you, not again." She said, almost in a whisper.
"She's your sister." He said simply.
And that was enough. They both knew that family as important. But she considered both of them family.
