36 Hours ago:
Through the darkness and the harsh bitter night air, a pair of yellow eyes glowed from the low-light of the moon that hung in the sky above. Even with the temperatures having dropped after the sun fell across the horizon they were lucky that the darkened skies were clear of any snowfall as the winter months were steadily approaching.
Having landed in Russia a mere few hours ago, as well as the long drive from the airport to the rundown Abbey, everyone was on high alert as they crept just outside the fencing that surrounded the grounds of the broken down building.
For Mariah it was the first time she'd ever set foot near the soil whereas for the other two it was like walking back in time even with the sorry state the building was in.
For Tyson the place had occasionally haunted his dreams from the very first time he set foot through the main gates. For months when he returned to Japan, after the first worlds, he could still hear the screams of the boy he defeated in a mock battle in front of Boris as they had dragged him away echoing in his head at night and he was alone from the others.
Over time the Abbey had just become a far off memory for him, until Dickenson had approached him and the others four years ago with the Fusion project.
How he went from a simple nobody in a small town just on the outskirts of Tokyo to being a three-time Beyblading world champion, to what he was now, he really didn't have the right answers for. All he really did know was that at the time he felt like he had made the right choice, chose his side and stuck by it by standing where he was now. And he didn't regret even a second of his decision.
For Spencer, the one who was practically born and raised behind those stone cold walls that now sat in heaps of rubble, it was almost like coming back home that held no fond memories for him.
He'd been raised to be a soldier behind those walls. Starved and beaten like all the others before and after him for one man's goal that he had hoped died with him. He had never wanted to return to the Abbey in his life but now there he was, waiting to storm the same familiar halls that stole his childhood from him as well as his soul.
Looking at it, broken and nearly forgotten to time and those who truly didn't know about the actual horrors that went on inside, he felt no real closure being there and seeing it like that. If anything, he would have preferred it to still be standing just as he remembered it to be just so he could knock it down himself.
"We're in position, Judy." Mariah whispered to the earpiece that was connected to Judy's who had set up a temporary base station five blocks away from the rubble.
"You're all set to go in, be careful in there you three."
"Roger dodger." Tyson sent back, clasping his hand to Mariah's shoulder alongside Spencer just before they were all gone in a flash of pink.
Holding their breaths as they slowed their paces through the broken rubble, Tyson leading the three-man group, he held his right arm up to halt the two behind him as they ducked for cover around the corner of the wall.
Mariah's ears strained to hear anything she could yet once more, and just like it had been since they arrived inside the Abbey, there was only the sound of their breathing alongside the occasional gust of wind whistling through the broken walls and ceiling.
"Which way Spence?" Tyson asked once his nerves settled on him, releasing the tension in his muscles yet that didn't stop the sound of his own heart slamming in his ears like it had been since they got inside the dilapidated building.
"We need to go straight still, pass two more corridors and then the one on our right will lead us underground."
Tyson sucked in a breath, "Right." He said as he let it out, pulling out away from around the corner of the wall first and keeping his eyes peeled for any oncoming attacks.
The only sound between the three were the soft tapping of their boots along the broken stone floors, the odd kick of a pebble or snap of a twig that had blown in through the broken walls and ceiling adding to the noise at times but for all it was worth they were shrouded in an eerie silence the entire time.
As they passed the two corridors, Spencer pushed his way past Mariah and up to Tyson where he clamped a hand down on his shoulder to stop him from going down the next one that would lead them down.
"Let me go first. I can shield all of us as we go."
"But what if you can't hold it for long?" Mariah hissed back in a harsh whisper.
"Then you take him and run."
"You can't ask me to do that!" She shot back, "I didn't bring you here to leave you here, either of you. We agreed Tyson would lead because he can handle the bullets." She stated more pointedly, looking up at Spencer with a fire in her yellow eyes.
Looking between the two, Tyson felt a cold sweat form under his clothes, shifting the gun he had strapped around his chest nervously.
"It's your call, Spence. But if you got a timer for your powers it's better I lead."
Glancing down at the other two beside him, from Tyson's more understanding eyes to Mariah's fired up ones, Spencer released a slow breath through his nose as he weighed up the options given to them.
In the end it would be better for Tyson to lead given his armored skin where his powers would only last a mere few minutes and with each blow to the shield he could produce it only weakened it and him more.
"Fine… But any sign of trouble then you get the two of you out. I can bide you enough time that way. Understood?" He sent back, mainly looking Mariah in the eyes as he spoke.
Although she had a growl rising in her chest she swallowed it down.
"Understood."
Shuffling his way to the back again, letting Tyson lead them down the darker corridor to the stairs, Spencer followed along as the grip on his gun tightened with each passing step that suddenly sounded louder than all the others before it.
Coming down the flight of stairs at the end of the corridor, Tyson's grip on his gun tightened, keeping it trained at the space in front of him as they descended the stone stairs and came up to a metal door that separated the underground of the Abbey from the rest of it.
Nudging his way through the metal doors, the hinges squealing as they cracked open wider to let them all through and they all flinching at the loud sound that was produced, they held their breaths until the squealing stopped and all three had made their way past the doors.
Straining her hearing again for any signs of an oncoming attack and not getting even the smallest of peeps, Mariah motioned for Tyson to keep moving on through the new dimly lit corridor they found themselves in.
Another set of identical metal doors sat just a few feet away from the first set of metal doors to their left, yet unlike the first set of doors this one had one door completely broken and on laying it's side in the doorway.
Stepping through the opened space where the broken door once stood they found themselves in some kind of control room where rows of desks were lined up side-by-side, the room completely void of any life inside it.
Amongst the computers that were sitting upon the desks and the empty chairs that looked as though they hadn't been sat in for weeks, there were papers and files scattered around the tops of the desks between the computers as well as a few under the tables and chairs; clearly having been knocked over in haste to evacuate the premises.
Blood splatter and stains marred the stone flooring and walls, even puddles of it had dried in and around the work stations while the double doors that sat past all the computers were nearly torn and hanging off their hinges just opposite of the ones they had walked through.
Edging their way towards the broken doors, their guns held up and pointing in every which way for any signs of actual life, the three carefully stepped through into the smaller room where another computer lay on the ground smashed into pieces with its keyboard and wires caught on the chair that had been tipped over.
Noticing the glass panel across from the doors inside the room, Tyson kept moving forward as Spencer went to the desk and through its drawers while Mariah stood at the doorway keeping an eye and ear out for anyone coming their way.
Shifting the gun strapped around him to his side and placing a hand on the glass that separated the room and what looked to be a pit of some kind, Tyson swallowed hard as a cold shiver ran down his spine as more blood presented itself along the walls and at the bottom of the pit.
"What do you think this was for?" He managed to question, not taking his eyes away from what he'd come across.
"I don't want to know." Mariah voiced from the doorway quietly, "But whatever you're looking for hurry up."
At that Tyson pulled away from the glass, going around the room and taking in the monitors that hung off to the side near the glass wall. A few of the screens were cracked while another monitor had been ripped from the wall completely and was smashed on the floor.
"I don't know if you guys have noticed, but this place is empty." He said as he continued to walk around.
"But… Why?" Mariah questioned with a small shake of her head, the gun in her hold lowering in her defeat.
Just as Tyson went to shrug his shoulders, Spencer came away from the desk he had been rummaging in with a small picture frame in his grasp.
"Do either of you recognize this man?" He asked, holding out the picture frame for the other two to look at.
"Nope."
"I haven't before, no."
Spencer nodded back to them, holding the frame tighter. "This man here. His name is Roman Yahontov. He is the head of the Government faction Kai, Tala, Ian, and myself worked for. He also seems to be Anette's husband." He informed, moving his thumb away from Anette's face in the picture.
The picture itself was simple enough, just the two of them stood side-by-side with Anette's arm linked through Roman's yet both their wedding bands were on display sitting there on their fingers.
"You're kidding?!" Tyson's mouth dropped, "I mean, we know he was working with her but they're married?!"
"Seems so. We'll take this back with us, let everyone else know." Spencer answered, snapping the frame in half and taking out the picture from inside before folding it and placing it in the pocket of his black cargo pants.
"This place doesn't seem like it's going to be useful to us, we should head back."
"I think we should keep going, maybe someone got left behind when everyone else was leaving. Or we can look for another place they may have moved to." Mariah jumped in quickly, fearing that if they didn't look for something then all they'd already gone through to get there would be for nothing.
Spencer seemed to consider it for a moment, Tyson holding back to the side between them again as the silence creeped back over the three of them until finally Spencer nodded.
"We'll search, but no more than an hour." He offered, looking down to Tyson on his right next.
"See if you can get one of these computers out here to work, find a file on something that can point us in the right direction."
"What're you two going to do?"
"I know where the holding cells are, if anyone got left behind they'll be in there." Was all Spencer gave him before he pushed through the two beside him, heading for the opened doorway with Mariah quickly rushing after him to follow.
Rushing down the empty corridors, coming across empty cell after empty cell, Mariah felt her spirits weaken the further they went down the long damp and moldy halls. They were running out of time and options as it were now, and she was going to have to go back empty handed.
Continuing to follow Spencer through the halls, her ears perked at the faint sounds of someone breathing through a corridor they'd just passed, her feet stopping as she held her own breath and strained her hearing to try and pick the other's up more clearly.
Noticing her stop, Spencer too came to a halt and turned back yet stayed silent since he could see her trying to concentrate.
"This way!" She suddenly blurt out, turning round and running through the opened hall towards where she could hear life near the end of the corridor.
Keeping silent, Spencer rushed after her, the only sound between them the heavy thudding of their boots along the stone flooring until they reached the final cell at the end of the darkened hallway.
Pulling the flashlight from it's pouch attached to her belt, Mariah clicked the switch and shined the dull light through the glass wall of the cell they'd come to where her breath hitched in her throat, the flashlight dropping from her hands and clanking against the floor between her feet and the cell doors.
With the light pouring in along the floor, giving them a darkened view of the creature sat on the floor past the glass wall, it's human head with green mane lifted, squinting through the bit of light that was shining upon it.
The violet eyes of the creature widened, almost as if in recognition, it rising onto it's four shaky legs before carefully trotting up in the small cramped space closer to the glass.
Having moved up beside Mariah, pulling his own flashlight out of it's pouch around his hips, Spencer too became just as frozen in place as Mariah had beside him.
"What're you doing here?" The creature asked.
Mariah's mouth gaped, unable to fully believe what she was seeing yet with the evidence of it all right there in her face it was hard to deny it.
"Oliver?" She questioned back, not blinking or taking her eyes off the creature in front of her.
The violet eyes went sad, it's human arms touching the long white horse body attached to his human half.
"I was." He muttered back quietly, the distress clear in his tone.
"W… What did she do to you?" Mariah nearly cried back.
Oliver shook his head back, his longer green hair that looked more like a mane than hair going around him with the movement.
"I don't even know…" He responded with the same distressed tone, eyes downcast now.
"She got both Johnny and I, but I haven't seen him in… So long…" He welled up, bottom lip trembling on him.
"We'll get you out of here!" Mariah cried back at him, "Just step back, we'll fix this!"
Oliver shook his head back at her, "Please don't… I'm better off here."
"HOW?!" The first of her tears slipped down her cheeks, it becoming harder to breathe just looking at him.
"Because I'm a freak now! Look at me!" Oliver wailed back, gesturing at his half human and half horse body. "Not even the Reversal Process will work on this, they already tried!"
"Maybe we can-" "NO! I don't want your help! Just leave me here!" Oliver cut over the top of her, his own tears being held back best he could.
As Mariah went to plead with him again a strong hand came down over her shoulder, her mouth snapping shut as Spencer gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
"There's nothing we can do for him if this is what he wants."
Mariah wanted to protest, beg with Oliver more, but the humanoid horse had already turned around in his small enclosure and sat himself back down on the cold stone floors of his cell and turning himself where his back faced them.
"Oliver…" Mariah let out in a heartbroken whisper, shifting closer to the glass and putting her hand upon it.
"Kenny is three halls down and then to the right. I don't know where Johnny is being kept, or if he's even still alive." Oliver responded without looking back at the other two.
Seeing Mariah's hesitance to leave Oliver behind like he wanted, Spencer gently tugged her away from the cell though her eyes never came away from Oliver until she was forced to turn around and walk along with Spencer towards Kenny's cell.
"Kenny."
At his name being muttered, shaggy brown hair lifted into the light that was pouring into his cell from where he sat on the cell's dirty floor shivering from the harsh and bitter cold.
"Mariah? Spencer?" He questioned back, trying to peer through the darkness that surrounded them as all the light from the flashlight was shining into his cell.
"H-hold on! We'll get you out of there!" Mariah nearly cried back as Spencer stepped forward to the iron bars of his cell.
"Step back."
Kenny did as Spencer commanded, pressing his back up against the opposite wall to his cell while his heart slammed erratically in his chest.
Firming his stance and pulling his right hand back closer to his side, Spencer's fist came out in a fast strike against the bars where they rattled and shook from the impact, the echo ricocheting around them as it sounded like he'd taken a metal pipe to the iron bars.
As they continued to vibrate rapidly from the hit, the iron began to crumble and slowly crack in on itself where piece by piece the bars began to disintegrate to dust before them leaving an open archway and a pile of dust at their feet.
Rushing through, Mariah went up to Kenny holding the flashlight higher, darting it and her eyes all over his person.
His skin was pale, hair dusty and his clothes looked well worn with wet stains and dirt caked on the fabric. There weren't signs of him being harmed for which she was able to breathe a sigh of relief to, yet with the way his cheeks seemed thinner as well as the way his clothes hung off his body she could tell he'd been starved for some time now.
"H… How did you find me?" He finally asked once the bright light from the flashlight had stopped darting all around him and was no longer shinning right into his eyes.
"Emily received your message; we came as soon as we could." Mariah explained, tears pricking at her eyes at the relief she felt rushing through him.
"You shouldn't have come…" Kenny muttered, pressing his back closer to the wall behind him.
"But… I thought…" Mariah stuttered, her wet eyes going wide.
"It's not safe here, you need to go." Kenny said as he shook his head back at her, his nails digging into the stone wall at his back.
"Nobody is here, the entire place is empty." Mariah explained quickly, reaching out to grab his wrist in order to pull him out of there herself.
"We can go, get you out and get you to where you'll be safe."
Kenny's head lifted up slightly, "They're gone?" His weak voice asked in a whisper.
"They are, so please we have to hurry. Get you out of here." She repeated, holding her hand out between them for him to take.
Slowly, as if he were unsure, Kenny lifted his hand off the wall, pausing as it hovered over Mariah's for a minute more before putting his hand in hers and wrapped his fingers around her hand tightly to the point she could feel him shaking.
"I know where the others are, we have to hurry though." He said in a stronger voice than before, dragging Mariah out of the cell quickly with Spencer following once more behind the two through the dark corridors.
Present:
Walking his way back through the hospital's halls and to Tala's room, this time holding Kain on his hip instead of taking him over to Hilary's for the day, he let himself into the room when he reached the closed door only to pause when he caught sight of Bryan sat there beside Tala's bed in the same chair he'd been sitting in just the night before.
Swallowing the anger and all the other negative emotions he held for the other down, he let Kain off his hip to toddle around the room as he shut the door behind them and made himself comfortable at Tala's feet on the bed.
He had been asleep, until the weight and smell of the other stirred him awake, icy-blue eyes fluttering open with the oxygen mask replaced back over his face during the night and a small smile appearing under the plastic the moment he saw Ray sitting there with him.
Instantly he could tell Ray either hadn't slept well or not at all by the dark circles under his eyes, and the way his shoulders were slumped slightly forward as he sat there in front of him.
He had a feeling Ray wouldn't have slept, and if he did he was sure it was going to be pretty shitty without him home and to be honest he hadn't slept all that well either in a hospital bed with wires and IVs stuck into his skin all night with the occasional check up from the doctors.
With his strength having finally returned to him he was able to take off the oxygen mask himself this time, and although he had his strength back it took all he had to do just that simple task before he felt drained, the hand he'd used flopping right down at his side with the mask still clutched in his hold.
"Can at least look a little more happy to see me." He managed to mutter through a strained breath.
"I am." Ray said, having watched Tala move around and then see whatever strength he'd managed to conjure up fade quickly.
"Have they said anything more?"
"Not yet, at least as far as I know." Tala answered best he could, head lulling along his pillow almost lazily to take in Bryan sitting there beside him.
"Well hey shithead, when'd you get here?"
"Been about an hour now, you were out cold." Bryan answered with a small shrug of his shoulders, "Surprised you didn't smell or hear me."
"Makes two of us…" Tala muttered back, forcing his head along his pillow again to take in Ray at his feet yet this time the other wasn't looking back at him again.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm fine…"
"Ray."
-At that, Ray's head snapped back up to him quickly. "I'm fine, now drop it." He bit out at him, a low growl rumbling from his chest after with his upper lip curled back.-
"Kit?" Tala called softly, bringing Ray out his own mind and the sudden image of him having snarled at Tala, his head lifting from where it had hung for the time being as Tala and Bryan talked, looking like he hadn't even heard Tala the first time he'd called for him.
It was just like when he'd thought about taking his hand to Kain, envisioning himself doing something that he hadn't but at the same time wanted to do.
He was torn on telling Tala about it while he was in recovery. Tala needed him to be stronger than this, yet at the same time he didn't know how much more he could take of the awful thoughts running rampant in his head.
Like he always could, Tala saw the distress in Ray's eyes and forced himself to sit up, using whatever else he could of his depleted strength to just reach out and put his cold hand over Ray's.
"Talk to me, Kit."
Ray hesitated, feeling himself crumble even more as those soft blue eyes stared into his and right through him to the core.
"I need to talk to you." He stared, darting his eyes towards Bryan. "Alone, please."
Easing himself off the chair and going to Kain before he could pull out more odd and ends from the cabinet he'd found to play in, Bryan took the babe with him without a protest from the other two and closed the door behind him.
With the soft click of the door closing behind them, Ray expressed a heavy breath, flipping his hand around in Tala's and holding tighter to the frozen fingers that grasped back.
"I don't know what's wrong with me, I haven't for a while now and I thought it was just the same problems as before. Where I feel like I'm failing everyone around me, you and our children included, and I thought seeing Nikita yesterday had made a dent in making it better but it didn't.
"If anything it's just made all this harder because now you're not there, and she's supposed to be able to come home either today or tomorrow and you're not going to be there… A-and the others aren't b-back yet, nor have we heard from them at all, and I don't know what the hell I'm going to do if we lose more people to this." He went off, voice breaking on him as he shook and Tala just listened to him intently with his soft look.
"Then last night… We get home and he wanted to play; I was trying to make something to eat for us… I-I didn't do it, I didn't, but I thought about it and that's what scares me the most because I have never thought about hurting him before. I never would! But I don't even understand why I would have thought about it to start with!" He spewed in an almighty gush, his voice cracking further and his shaking getting to the point he was shaking the bed now.
The soft look in Tala's eyes intensified while also widening at the spiel, doing his best to just rub his thumb along the back of Ray's hand in a bid to comfort him.
"A-and just now, I got angry at you and thought about snapping at you when you've done nothing for me to be angry with you like that. I'm worried about you! So what the hell is wrong with me?!" He cried between shaking his head violently and more at himself than anything.
Finding a spot to jump in, Tala continued to rub his thumb along Ray's hand for him.
"Hey, listen to me. You've been under a lot of stress for… Well, years now. You just had a baby barely a month ago and things keep getting worse for us. I mentioned to you that you may be depressed, so maybe you need to look into getting some help.
"I know you'd never hurt Kain, but at this point you might by accident and not even realize it until it's too late. So instead of waiting for that to happen, go and get evaluated. Okay?" Tala said just as softly as he was looking at him, smiling a little when Ray looked up at him and sniffed with a nod.
"And I'm going to be okay, I promise. May not look it right now but I'll be walking out of here sooner than you think. Been through worse before." He attempted at a joke yet could see it had missed when Ray frowned at him, it only deepening when Tala found the look funny and chuckled at him for it.
"There's nothing funny about this." Ray snipped back at being laughed at.
"No, but your face is pretty cute when you look at me like that." Tala cooed back with a grin spreading over his pale lips, "And really, I just miss your smile."
"I'm sorry…"
"No, don't be. I know things have been hard for you, and I didn't make them any easier for you when I did this to myself."
Ray shook his head at him, "You were just trying to help."
"I still am." Tala voiced softly, willing his other arm to lift and bring Ray's head up to look at him again.
The cool touch of his fingers felt just as calming as his voice did, making it harder for Ray to object to what Tala was asking of him now. He didn't even know where to start or anything about getting evaluated on what was happening to him, deep down he knew he had to do it- should have done it long before he got to the point he was at now.
He was already useless to them being pregnant and unable to do his job properly, had been unable to save Kai from Anette taking him away from them, and if what Lee had said the day before about Black Dranzer being awake then he'd failed the entire world now.
No matter which way he looked he had more failures stacked against him than he did wins, and that was before he even went down the long list of failures since they arrived in the Village.
If doing what Tala asked of him could somehow help then he'd do it, try and at least have one win under his belt that he could hold onto and then pray that the rest of the pieces would fall into place after.
"Okay… I'll try." He offered, feeling it best to at least respond back to Tala after the silence had fallen around them.
"That's all I want you to do, just try." Tala smiled at him, hoping to instill some kind of comfort and strength into Ray.
He knew what kind of hard road Ray had been walking along even if he didn't have all the details as to why it was happening, as he was sure Ray didn't even have them all either. In the end it wasn't really about why but more of what they could do to make the road easier to travel for him. He'd do what he could, like he always did, but given him being bedridden for the moment there wasn't much he really could do for Ray either.
It was up to Ray to get the help he desperately needed, he could only really push him in the right direction and pray he didn't stray off the new path. It wasn't going to be easy, he knew that well enough, but he'd be there for him at the end no matter what.
Finding a small peace, a breather, while Tala's cool fingers gently brushed the dark locks away from Ray's face where the other leaned more into the touch, finally placing his own hand against the back of Tala's and pressing the other's palm into his cheek more where he could nuzzle into it. All their serene calm was cut short when the door to Tala's room was jerked wide open, Lee coming in at the helm with Bryan hot on his heel with Kain still up on his hip.
"I tried to stop him." Bryan voiced to the two on the bed who had jumped back from each other like they'd shocked the other.
Lee panted some, looking pale in the face and eyes near enough bulging from his head.
"We need you, now." He directed at Ray, not sparing the others in the room a glance.
Reluctant to move away from Tala right now, Ray remained sat on the hospital bed by his feet.
"What's wrong?"
Lee's chest heaved again, trying to get his breath back. "They're home, but we need you. Please."
Ray held in the sigh. He'd made a promise to Tala just now that he'd was more intent on keeping but once again he was being pulled down a different road for the time being.
"Alright, I'm coming." He said as he slowly got himself off the bed, glancing back at Tala with an apologetic look sitting on his features.
"I'll try and be back as soon as I can."
Tala waved him off. Work was calling and as much as he didn't want Ray to go, have more bullshit dumped on his shoulders right now there wasn't anything he could physically do to help him.
"I'll be right here. Don't worry bout Kain though, we'll keep an eye on him." He smiled up at him, getting a weak smile back.
Ray's lips curled into a soft smile, leaning down and placed a gentle kiss to Tala's cold forehead.
"I love you." He breathed against his pale skin.
"Love you too, Kit."
Giving his goodbyes to Kain, leaving Bryan in the room with his partner and son, Ray finally followed Lee down the hospital's hallways and out the front door. Looking back at the building as the doors closed behind them the second they were outside, having to tear his eyes away the further they got away from it and to Lee's Jeep parked nearby.
"Are they okay?" Ray finally asked as they climbed into the Jeep, Lee kicking the engine on quickly.
Lee didn't say anything as he backed them away from the hospital, keeping his focus on the bumpy and dirt roads the entire way back to the main council building.
Ray hadn't bothered to try and press again, having seen the hardened and almost concentrated look upon Lee's face the further they got away from the hospital and down the road. A weird feeling began to twist in his gut, not liking the silence from the other after the abrupt arrival and how pale Lee had looked.
With the Jeep getting thrown in park the moment Lee had pulled up to the council building, he jumped out the side without a word after cutting the engine, face set in that same concentrated look as he led Ray up the stairs and through the large double doors.
Having expected the place to be filled with people running around and busy, Ray was surprised when the halls were empty and quiet; deadly quiet. The only sound between the two of them were the soft tapping of their shoes along the polished wooden floors as Lee proceeded to take him down the longer halls to the back where the jail cells sat.
The questions were on the tip of Ray's tongue yet couldn't find it in himself to get them out as they took the stairs down into the lower level, the smell of mold and the chill in the air hitting them the lower they got down before the wooden stairs gave way to stone floor.
Lee stopped just before the next set of doors that led to all the cells, turning to Ray.
"He wants to see you, said he wouldn't talk to anyone but you."
"Who?"
Lee shifted his weight a bit, looking from Ray to the closed doors he had stopped them in front of before looking Ray in the eyes.
"Brooklyn."