Chapter Nineteen: Unforeseen

Bleh, gak!

There it was, the bodily response he'd been waiting for. The vomit he'd been holding back for what felt like millennia was finally allowed out of his system, and it came out harder than expected. His body was angry at him for doing that, and it was going to make sure he got the message.

With another frame rattling jerk forward Kai puked into the private plane's bathroom toilet a few more times before shifting upward and steadying his feet to gasp for air.

He flushed the foul smelling contents after lowering the heavy lid, continuing hold the loose handle down until the low flow water had bubbled, garbled, and slid its way out into the connecting plumbing.

Slouching numbly in the cramped space, he let the reality of the situation settle in... He was high in the sky for the first time in what felt like forever, given all that has taken place recently, and-

Motion sickness sucks, he thought, sweating bullets and trying to stabilize his churning stomach.

It didn't happen often but when it did, the ailment was hard to shake off. He never understood why something such as this came and went in the ways that it did. Maybe it was all him, completely in his head... Or just nerves mixed with anxiety as Dr. Joe so kindly pointed out some years back? Buuuuut, maybe he was just an odd medical anomaly with a body that did weird things at times? He'd survived being a lab rat so it was plausible. He was also pushing fifty, fifty-years-old! He'd probably never know really.

On the flip side of that coin, the facts still remained; he had three, maybe even four, hours left until they landed and his belongings weren't with him. This meant he couldn't take any medicine to settle himself or do something else productive to distract his mind.

At a swift set of hard knocks on the solid metal door, Kai wiped his mouth with some tissues and leaned to one side to open the door. He moved out of the way so his company could go in, probably needing a minute to themselves as well.

The middle-aged Japanese man Kai had spoken to on the phone several times before, a Mr. Yamin Yakuza, had stepped back after politely bowing. Not two seconds later did his pale skinned colleague inch closer. Then, Yamin left the empty area, closing the thick curtain behind him. Both men knew he'd be waiting but neither cared to verbalize it.

Kai shot his newfound ally a look one could only classify as disbelief. Was he dreaming? Up until now he'd only come across Yamin, and he knew he had others working for him, but him? Will wonders never cease.

The head-and-a-half taller and rectangular faced brick wall of a man shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Turning his grayish blue hued eyes away, he ran a sweaty, beefy hand through his slicked back, sandy blonde tresses. Some of the short strands loosened from the gel that was pinning them in place.

Finding a comfortable stance, long legs wide and feet flat, the well-dressed man stood with his arms at his side. After another minute or two of awkward and tense gazes, he cleared his dry throat. Someone had to say something, and it may as be him.

With a kind smile, and his baritone voice at last found, the man said, "Hey Kai, it's been a long time,"

Upon hearing his voice Kai let out a weighted breath he didn't even realize he was holding, and that was followed by a face filling grin.

"Sergei,"

Sergei a.k.a. 'Spencer' Petrov was a pureblooded Russian who could be compared to Crusher in the 'looks can be deceiving department.' He was someone Kai hadn't seen in decades, and he never thought he would again. He hadn't seen any of the others either, not since that raid. The one Mr. Dickenson conducted on the place all there considered Hell.

Kai took a step forward toward the gentleman, but Spencer took it a step further and hugged him. The single arm slapped his upper back, conveying that he was elated to see him. Kai immediately returned the spontaneous affection, the nervousness leaving him.

"How have you been?" Kai animatedly asked, taking a few steps back so neither felt crowded.

"Never better. Served in the Air Force for a time and now I'm a bodyguard for Yamin," Spencer briefly pointed at Kai, "Word in the skies is you're a big shot businessman. How's that goin' for ya?"

Like him, Spencer's English and overall dialect was fluid and near perfect but most could still tell he wasn't a native speaker. That hadn't bothered him for many years though and it certainly wouldn't today.

Kai looked him square in the eyes and said, "Better than I'd hoped. Sounds like life gave you a fair shake too. That's good to hear,"

"Right back at ya."

"What's taking so long? Did you eat that leftover Mexican for breakfast again?"

Kai cocked his head to one side, looking around the musculature that rivaled his own.

Spencer slid off to his left so Kai could get a good look. Gradually, Kai sighted another (hopefully still) friendly face. He knew the narrow faced man as Tala Ivanov and he had spiky, fire engine red hair with widow's peak style tendrils hanging in the front. His hair was short except for the chin-length strands that framed his sharp, pointed features. Vivacious violet eyes soon locked onto his crimson set and his heart leaped with joy. Like Spencer, Tala was well-groomed and wearing a dark, elaborately decorated, military uniform.

The Russian redhead smirked to quell the part of him that wanted to literally 'jump up and down in excitement', a long canine poking through his upturned lips.

"Well I'll be damned," Tala said after a bit, taking him in as well, "Kai Hiwatari, the Crimson Horror of the Blade-Wielders, is alive," he paused, "You're lookin' good, for an old man,"

Kai bit the inside of his cheek, stifling the bubbling laugh in his throat. They hadn't changed, and that was a good one.

Giving his other newfound ally an audible snort, he playfully replied, "Careful, I know how to kill a man and make it look like a suicide,"

While Tala laughed, seeing the humor in it, Spencer silently went back and forth between the two, and he decided to focus on Tala first.

"You two are months apart, but the same age. If he's old, what does that make me?" Spencer calmly stated. It was funny, but the time and place were all wrong. They had a job to do.

"A corroding fossil," Tala bit back, his tone playful as always.

Ignoring that comment, Spencer turned his attention to Kai who was chuckling.

"And what exactly did you mean by that statement?"

Kai cleared his throat and answered, "To sum me up, I can make strychnine taste like raspberry tea."

Spencer sent him an icy warning with his eyes before ushering a clearly confused Tala out to talk to Yamin.

The two military veterans turned bodyguards weren't given much in the way of information, just that Yamin needed their help with something important and that he had a surprise for them. Be that as it may, they never thought they'd run into him.

Kai stayed in the back, letting the silence calm his frazzled everything. Sat bunched up in the back row, which was made smaller by the rounded window, he couldn't help but feel torn about all this, and he was sure the others felt the same way. Did Yamin, plan this?

He didn't have to wait long for a chance to find out. Within minutes Yamin stepped in, Tala and Spencer in toe behind him.

Kai noticed that the two soldiers were holding his bags, all three of them. He sent them a darting look that locked them in place, and made them drop the luggage.

"Don't, touch, my, stuff," Kai venomously growled out, it mostly being directed at Yamin considering he was the boss of them.

"Oops, I forgot," Yamin said, sheepishly smiling and going red hot in the face.

"Forgot my ass. We're the same way, so he knows," spat Spencer, visibly unhappy with him too.

"Mm," Kai flatly hummed, wanting to get on with the show. The sooner he got back home, the better.

"As long as you've my fix, I got your girl," Yamin demanded, done with the niceties and general politeness that he'd been using.

"Now that everyone has met, or reunited as it were, I hope you won't mind if I inform them about more of our little arrangement," he added with a confident gleam in his dark eyes, a smug smile creasing his wrinkle riddled face.

Kai scowled, Spencer and Tala doing the same.

"Ohh," Kai began, a knowing gleam in his intensifying pools, "You mean tell where I supplied you with urgent medical care and in gratitude you offered me investigative help on a missing person's case,"

He was getting more heated and red in the face with every word spoken. Rising to his feet, Kai seethed, "You're not intimidating, rich boy, even with buff bodyguards,"

Yamin wasn't having it. How dare this low-level degenerate steal his moment to show him up. No one treated him that way.

"I'm in charge here. You're here today because of me, remember?"

Kai blinked, appearing levelheaded but the air around him was growing cold, meaning that the cage had been rattled. Yeah, this animal was pissed.

Kai briefly peered up at Spencer and Tala who seemed a little more than surprised, but mostly they just appeared flabbergasted. Millionaire or not, what Yamin was doing was totally uncalled for, unneeded.

Kai's blood colored pools darted down at Yamin again, but he waited another moment before speaking.

"Stanley Dickenson started all this, on my behalf. You may have the know-how of things around here, and the money, but he has the ties," Kai paused, "And you seem to have forgotten one teeny, tiny, smidgin' of a detail,"

Yamin gulped, feeling nervous. He'd forgotten something? "What's that?"

"I saved you from the Grim Reaper, I don't owe you shit!" Kai screamed, holding himself back.

Over and over Kai kept telling himself that he wasn't worth it and eventually it worked, dousing his flame.

Before things could escalate further, Tala yanked Yamin away by the scruff of his neck and dragged him out of the room, shoes digging into and along the floor. And a ticked Tala was muttering in Russian as he choked the guy.

Once they were gone, Kai pointed to an empty seat and sat down in the one beside it. Spencer sat in the aisle seat, leaving the middle one open. The last thing either needed was to feel crowded or cornered.

"What was that all about?" Spencer asked, talking in Russian this time, and noticeably confused.

Kai let out a breath, zoning out the world around him for a second.

Then, his voice got deeper, and for a moment he felt like a child again. In Russian he said, "I could ask you the same thing, but I think we've both come to corresponding conclusions,"

Spencer kept quiet, not wanting it to be real.

"His father told me once while the two were in Recovery that he's addicted to painkillers and will do anything to get them. He wanted you and Tala for security, to intimidate me. When he knew our arrangement was at it's end, he wanted to take all he could from me. Even if it meant using my past against me,"

"I guess he looked into us after all," spoke Spencer, openly saddened at the thought of someone using them for gain again. "He's the son of the couple who took us in. We've been in China since the raid,"

Kai swallowed the jagged lump in his throat, feeling for his comrades, but he didn't voice it.

"You know yourself once you reach a certain point in life it all comes down to the decisions you yourself make, and Yamin made his. I'm truly sorry Sergei,"

Spencer wiped tears from his eyes, feeling heartbroken that the one he'd learned to love wasn't who he thought he was.

"I should've seen it, I'm sorry," Spencer said, voice croaky and hooked nose sniffly.

"You couldn't have. I knew once he was trying to make me look bad that something was up. He's never done that before so I guess he's getting desperate,"

Wanting to change the subject, Spencer asked, "What's this about a girl? Why are you here?"

Kai took a deep breath and said, "I made a promise to a friend when I was eighteen. It was to protect her and her unborn child. The father of the baby was involved with a bad crowd, more-than-likely still is. At some point they caught me off guard and took her,"

Spencer's nodded while his already fragile heart broke at the idea. He knew Kai was a lot like him, a scary looking man with a heart of gold most of the time. Kai looked so downtrodden right now, and for a split second, appeared his age.

"Need a drink?" Spencer asked after a few minutes of meditative quiet, sliding out of the seat and onto his feet.

"Desperately," Kai answered, nodding slightly at the offer.

"And before you ask we don't have liquor," he said, feeling like a parental figure again.

"Heh, I don't drink," he told him, happy about that.

Spencer smirked upon learning that. Kai had certainly grown up into a fine man, just like he'd hoped.

Kai may have been the big brother protector of the youngest and ailing in their variously aged kiddie pool, but even Superman had someone watching over him. And for Kai, that guardian angel was Sergei.

While that one in a million type of memory warmed him up, the darkness was quick to chill him out, and remind him of all the damage he'd done. Visually tell him the physical hurt he'd hammered into him, and everyone else he'd been forced to fight.

While Spencer grabbed the closed cooler nearby, he replayed their conversation in his head. Turning to head back, the proverbial cogs of his mind turned and then clinked together, a realization hitting him.

Thinking the numbers over, the math didn't add up. The girl they'd gotten out, rescued some days ago... She definitely wasn't an adult.

The rest of the flight went on without incident, Tala being filled on why Kai was there and such as well. Yamin kept to himself, eventually found by Spencer sulking in the cockpit with the pilot and copilot. They were fully aware of all that had gone on and were angry at the addict too for trying to take advantage of someone.

When they were getting off the plane, the sun on the verge of setting, Kai hurriedly gathered up his gear. Hoisting his messenger bag up, over, and across his shoulders, he spotted Yamin and glared at him. The routine warning flickered in his eyes. If he screwed him over in any way, there'd be hell to pay.

Yamin skittishly shrank under it, ultimately deciding to leave Kai be and just get this over with. So much for getting his drug fix.

Within an hour Kai was brought to a small motel, Spencer and Tala doing their jobs of being the asshole's shields. Yamin led them up to the third floor where, after plucking it up from the floor, slid a card-key into a reader stationed on the chipped wooden door. He opened it and soon laid eyes on his elderly mother standing at the foot of the bed.

Kai rushed inside without a word, and there on a big bed, covered in a cozy, beige blanket, was a lanky limbed girl with long hair that rivaled Rapunzel's.

After taking her in, anger flooded his system. While it looked like his friend, there was something off about her. It had been thirty-one years and this delicate beauty appeared to be not even half that age.

Turning to face the quartet, he said nothing. He just waited for one of the four to speak, someone to say anything to explain themselves and what they had done.

The eldest Yakuza, approaching in her late seventies, stepped forward and handed Kai a tattered leather diary and a letter. Kai could see forlorn foreboding in her almond shaped eyes and it quelled his temper for the time being.

"This, for you, from, uh, bad home. The baby had it on her," she said, English clearly not her strong suit.

Kai smiled warmly at the shy, short and chubby woman who had no doubt seen better days as far as her health was concerned. As he gently took the blush pink envelope and brown book from her arthritis riddled, brittle hands, Kai was silently giving the innocent lady an A for effort.

Kai looked at Yamin and sharply said, "Take her home."

It appeared that what was supposed to be something between the two of them had turned into a family matter, and Kai didn't like that.

Tala went up to Mrs. Yakuza and kindly urged her to the door, all the way reassuring her in Mandarin that she'd done nothing wrong.

With a lick of his lips, Kai moved closer to her, wanting to say something. The two waited with bated breath, the taller of the two praying it was something good. If not, he'd deck Kai where he stood.

"Fēicháng gǎnxiè nǐ de bāngzhù," Kai said with a sincere smile, a flowing bow following.

Thank you very much for your help, that was what he'd told her. He truly meant it, but was angry at Yamin for needlessly involving someone he supposedly loved in something so dangerous.

His smile broadened upon seeing her light up, the woman obviously wanted to hop up and down like a rabbit but she refrained. The two then proceeded to talk, Kai explaining why he was there and that he was gonna do all he could to help the young woman out. This made Mrs. Yakuza hug him and smother him in red lipstick coated kisses. Amongst the doting Kai heard laughter and was told that he was a very angelic boy, much like her two oldest sons.

When Tala was gone with the matriarch of the family, Spencer shut the door and leaned against it. His body language simultaneously warned Kai not to do anything he'd regret and Yamin that he was in for it later. How dare he recklessly involve their mother in this!

Yamin looked between the two and hunkered down, wishing he could vanish.

"Yamin," Kai started, demanding that he look at him pronto, and the guy complied. "I expect an explanation in some form before I land back in Japan, and it had better be a valid one,"

Yamin snapped his gaze to Spencer who silently told him with his eyes that he was no his own.

Looking back at Kai, Yamin stuttered out, "Y-yes, sir."

Around nightfall, in the same motel room, Kai sat alone with the girl who was still snoozing away. It seemed they'd given her a strong sedative, mostly likely an ivy drip of Benzodiazepines. Maybe she'd been dosed with Midazolam. That was a benzodiazepine used for medically induced comas lasting longer than 72 hours.

Lifting the covers, Kai found the needle edged tube in her left hand. Following it, he soon found the tiny, transparent bag laying beside her scrawny shoulders. Carefully, Kai removed the line and set the stuff in his bag. It'd be another twelve to twenty-four hours before she fully came to. Until that time she'd be in and out of consciousness because of the amount in her system. In the meantime, he'd just monitor her and get some reading done.

He looked at the items placed on the counter by the door.

Guess the letter would be a fine place to start, he thought, pushing himself up from the elongated couch by the covered window, a tall floor lamp lighting the room. It gave a soft and warm but dim glow and that was perfect for him. He could still see to read and write but it wouldn't disturb her.

Picking up the items, Kai sat back down and went to work pulling at the small, cat sticker holding it closed. He smiled the moment he saw the pink and white ribbon patterned stationary. That was definitely her. So much of his dear Mariah was represented here and he adored it all. After he took it out, Kai unfolded the paper and began to read the scratchy but still legible penmanship. Yup, this was Mariah's handwriting.

In a blur, hours flew by, and Kai was still in that spot. Slouched over the couch and experiencing a wide variety of emotions. From happiness to sadness and regret to fear.

He'd read the two-page spread within minutes, it conveying many things, but one thing in particular stood out to him. And it was a great thing if he said so himself. She'd been in love with him but was too afraid to say it because of how things were at the time, his fragile mental state being the main reason why. She'd fell hard and fast for him though.

The diary, however, was where the real emotional roller coaster was stationed. There was a lot in there that he wished he hadn't come across but just like with the letter, one peculiar point was made clear over and over again.

Kai put the stuff away, placing them in one of his briefcases. Sitting back down, he leaned into the musty smelling fabric. He felt defeated and drained, thinking all the new information over.

There was a reason this girl wasn't a woman pushing thirty-two years of age.

He'd failed, he'd broken his promise.

To Be Continued...

This chapter is dedicated to Cutetyhil. Thank you so much for the reviews and motivation girl! :3 I hope you all enjoyed this. You'll find out who our Sleeping Beauty is in the next chapter or two. ;P There's more to come soon! I love you all so much! :D