"Alright Sage, are you going to tell us the whole story now of why you've been acting so bizarre, or do we have to play twenty questions?"

"Kento..." Kaye said in a warning tone as she looked over at him.

Holding his hands up in surrender, "Alright, alright I'll back off. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who was thinking the same thing."

Sage sighed, his eyes closed as he thought back to the days. "What I'm about to tell you is what I lived through before meeting most of you. Towards the end, I met Rowen so he knows the last bit of my story but not all of it."

Cye raised a brow when he glanced at the archer, 'So it's the reason why Rowen was kicking himself earlier when we were watching the report about the new race track opening. He realized he slipped up and mentioned racing was Sage's interest. But why would they hide something from their pasts from us? Sure all of us have somethings we haven't shared yet but still something as dangerous and illegal as street racing?'

Ryo glanced over at Rowen and gave a small nod, and then turned his attention towards Sage, "It's alright, go ahead no one is going to judge you here, you can tell us when you're ready ok."

Sage opened his eyes and looked over towards Ryo. He gave a small smile of relief and then took a breath as he started his story, "As I said before, this all happened before we met. Believe it or not, I had a rebellious streak. My father was so strick with me I had more than enough and I snuck out of the house one night. I heard rumors about a small crew who were street racing. I thought, why not no harm in checking it out. So I went. I was fascinated with how the cars gleamed in the pale light of the moon. The roar of the engines as they came to life when the drivers revved. I felt so free and alive when I was there. At first, all I did was watch, but then nights became weeks until finally, I got the courage of walking up to my first street racer. His name was Maverick. He introduced me to his younger brother Reno and the rest of his crew. They thought it was hilarious someone as young as me would be interested in street racing. But I was bound and determined to show them I meant business."

"So, did you show them you were serious about joining them? How did you have to prove it?"

"Kento!" Cye exclaimed looking over at his friend.

"Hey, I was only asking, no harm in asking questions right?"

Sage turned his back to his friends and walked to a window. He leaned up against it and stared out waiting before he continued. "It's fine. See at the time I didn't have a car yet. Father didn't think I was old enough to drive. But ever so often Yayoi would take me out for lessons on the weekends. They didn't care, mother and father knew how responsible Yayoi was so they didn't question her motives. Yayoi taught me how to drive. It was thanks to her I learned what real freedom was. What I have to look forward to when I come of age. It was our secret, we never told mother, father or Satsuki. We figured they didn't need to know it wasn't going to hurt them any. So back to the part where I had to prove to Maverick and Reno as well as the rest of the crew I was serious. I walked around each car checking them over one by one taking my time figuring out which one would be the best one to race. Then I made my choice. The car I chose was Reno's, it was the perfect fit considering at the time Reno and I was close to the same height. So I got in and did what adjusting I had to do. This was way different than my older sister's car but I could get used to it pretty quick. Once I was familiar with it, I edged to the starting line. I gripped the wheel as I felt the vibrations from the engine ringing through me. I never felt such excitement. Then I heard a second engine as it revved right next to me. I glanced over and was surprised in the next car was Maverick. I should have known the first race I ever was going to have was to be with the leader of the crew. Before I knew it we were off, once I hit the accelerator the car took off like it had a life of its own. The first race was over before it even started. I lost big time, but Maverick was impressed on the guts I've shown and invited me back again."

Ryo studied the others, they were enticed with Sage's story as he was. None of them, except for Rowen knew this part of Sage. Most of them thought he was always this calm, cool, and collected person who wouldn't let anyone or anything phase him. But this Sage with a wild streak and a taste for street racing was something else entirely. "Alright, but how does Rowen fit into your story?"

Sage glanced over to the archer, "You want to take it from there?"

"Sure," Rowen nodded, "See, at the time I was doing an internship at the paper where my mom uses to work before she moved to the states. I had to find a way to prove myself as a reporter to show the others I was just as good as my mom. So I heard rumors of street racing. I thought hey why not, it would make a killer story. Besides, no one would know it was me who wrote it since she had me take up a pseudo name whenever I wrote something for the paper. The editor didn't want the public to know a teenager was writing full time for him considering I was underage. Anyway, on one of the nights I did some asking around I ran into Sage. We talked about street racing and other things. Before we knew it most of the day was gone and it was getting close to the time for Sage to race. He invited me to come along as a guest not to race but to watch. I told him I didn't know how to drive yet. He was fine with it and so we went. When Sage walked to his car, I took a look around and to say the least I was impressed. The others at the paper would be so jealous when I came back with a hit story like this. I stuck around and watched a few races. They were good, very good. The best I've ever seen even better than a professional racer. Before I knew it, Sage was next in line. He was driving a different car than the one he told me he was supposed to race. It didn't matter a car was a car. But I guess to these guys a car is so much more. I heard the three, two, one and off they went. Wheels squealing and smoke flaring out the back. The smell of burnt rubber burning my nose. I couldn't fully understand how it made Sage and the other street racers felt, but I could imagine it. Everything was going great for a while, until the next round. Somehow, the cops found out about the racing and started blocking people off from escaping. Arrests were made and cars were impounded. A few people got away since it was a huge group it was a little hard for the cops to round up every single person who was there." Rowen explained as he looked at everyone in the room. "Three people were picked up, Maverick, his younger brother Reno, and Sage. You could imagine how Sage's father reacted finding out his son was arrested for street racing. Reno and Maverick were sent to juvie. Sage was sent home with his father."

Sage narrowed his eyes as his hands clenched, "To say the least, father was not happy when he found out his one and only son was street racing. It was the first time I was busted for it. I was busted a second time not even a month later. We had the worst fight we ever had and I decided to leave home. My father and I haven't spoken since. Well, ok not entirely true, we spoke to one another at the hospital today."

"More like a daytime talk show fight," Kento said out of the blue.

"What do you mean Kento?" Ryo asked turning his attention towards him.

The orange Ronin sighed a bit when he reached for his cell, "I was going to show this later, but maybe now is a better time. Though I'm letting you guys know it isn't good." Kento replied as he played the app for the story of Sage and his father fighting in the waiting room of the hospital.

"Kuso!" Sage exclaimed he couldn't believe it. Did people record their fight? Didn't they have better things to do instead? If they were seeing this, then more in likely his father saw it too or at least heard something about this from someone at work. Who knows how long this has been going viral. It isn't going to look good for him, his father, or the police station. But the damage was done nothing would be able to fix this mess.

Kento stopped the video and put it away, "Gomen, but I thought you should know about it, and not hear it from someone else."

"It's fine Kento. I guess it's time I owe all of you an explanation of my behavior as of late." Sage replied as he kept his back to them. "For the last few weeks, I've been having nightmares of when we were busted the second time the street racers were raided. My father found out I was sitting in one of his jails and he came down to see me. Needless to say, he was irate. We had words, and he left me there. He thought it would teach me a lesson. Well, I showed him. Once bailed was posted I never went home again. I cut off all ties to my family. I stayed with Maverick and Reno for a short time. One night the three of us wanted to do some racing. So we went out, first, it was going to be me against Maverick and then Reno would take on the winner. Well, everything was going fine, but when were head to head in the last leg of the race, something went wrong. We hit one another's car and Maverick lost control of his. It rolled over and over, caught on fire. I screeched to a halt and scrambled out of my car. Reno and I did our best to get Maverick out of the burning car. If we didn't hurry it was going to explode. We kept on pulling until finally with a last-ditch effort the two of us got him out just before his car exploded. We were pretty banged up, but Maverick took the brunt of it since he was older he shielded us the best he could from the blast. But from then on they blamed me for what happened to Maverick. They say it was my fault he almost died. So I left them too."

"Wow, intense. Sage, I..." Ryo was trying to find the right words to say but they just wouldn't come.

Sage turned around and faced everyone, "It's fine Ryo. You don't need to say anything. But now you know why I reacted as I did from the news report about the new race track which is being built in the city. Also, something else you should know. When Kaye came with me, we ran into Maverick and Reno. They challenged me to a race. Not verbally, but with his car. Maverick was driving straight for us and something came over me. It was the same feeling I used to have when I raced before. I was there again, but then I heard Kaye scream and I was brought back to the present."

Kento's eyes went wide and then narrowed at him, "Why did you make Kaye scream?"

Kaye looked over towards Kento, "It wasn't Sage's fault, not really. Maverick hit the back part of Sage's car and we spun out of control, but Sage snapped out of it and regained control of the car. We weren't hurt. I was just shaken up a bit."

"So it's the reason why you had a dent in your car when you dropped her off at the car shop to me."

Sage nodded in reply, "I apologized for it. I know I shouldn't have taken his challenge but something took me over and well..."

"Alright, everyone calm down, getting riled up over this won't help anyone. So I suggest we just figure out where to go from here." Cye reasoned as he looked at each one in turn.

Kaye leaned back in her chair in deep thought, 'Hmm, I wonder, could it be possible? It's a long shot.'

Rowen looked over towards her with a slight frown, "Kaye?"

Snapped out of her thoughts she looked over towards him, "Gomen Rowen."

"You look like you had something on your mind."

I do. Rowen, did you ever write the story about street racing?"

The blue-haired archer thought back about her question, "I wrote it, yes, but I didn't publish the story. I did keep it. Why?"

"Well it's a bit of a reach, but I was wondering also did you take any photos or video when you were there those times?"

Rowen shook his head, "I couldn't take photos they were pretty strict on no camera policy. But it didn't mean I didn't have video. I saved it to my cloud."

Sage whirled around and narrowed his eyes at him, "I didn't see you record anything. So how did you sneak a video recorder inside?"

Rowen turned his attention over towards him, "I was trained to be a reporter remember, and they have their tricks. But I didn't publish any of it I just kept it."

Cye took a step between Sage and Rowen, "Calm down, getting riled up over what did or didn't happen a long time ago shouldn't be the issue."

Sage sighed and backed off from them and gave a nod. "Gomen, you're right Cye. Everything is just crashing down all at once. I guess it's starting to get to me."

Ryo glanced at Kaye, "So where are you going with your questions?"

"I was wondering if you saw anything out of the ordinary on your recordings at the time? Anything stands out to you?"

"Once I put the video on the cloud I left it there never looked at it again. I'm sure I can pull it up again." Rowen replied as he stood from his chair. "Wait a minute, are you thinking someone tampered with Maverick's car before the race?"

"As I said, it's a long shot, but I think it could be possible."

"Ok, fine let's say someone did tamper with Maverick's car. Who would do it and why?" Kento asked as he looked over towards Sage.

Sage frowned deep in thought, "I'm not entirely sure who would sabotage Maverick's car. He was respected, no one messed with him. He was the top when it came to street racing. Though there were times he was challenged, but even then he won."

"I'll get my laptop and bring it down. Back in a minute." Rowen said as he went up to his room and retrieved his computer. It didn't take long for him to come back to the living room. He booted it up and started searching for the videos on his cloud account. It took some time but he finally found them. "Hey come take a look."

The others huddled around Rowen as he played a few of the videos he recorded back then. The first was a short narrative of him and Sage walking around the different cars. The second video was shot of the different racers who were joking around with one another. The third video was where it got interesting. It showed a shot of someone coming out from under Maverick's car. Standing up and wiping himself off, the person looked straight at Rowen and Sage for a quick moment and then disappeared.

Sage's eyes went wide, 'Someone did tamper with Maverick's car back then.' He thought to himself in surprise.

"Rowen, play the video a second time and then freeze it when he comes into view again," Ryo suggested, he and the others watched as Rowen froze the frame in place. "Does he look familiar to either of you?"

Sage and Rowen studied the guy frozen on the screen. They glanced and one another in confusion. "No, I don't remember seeing him."

"I don't remember him either, come to think of it. I didn't even realize he was picked up on camera until now." Rowen replied as they were all still staring at the frozen frame.

"Rowen, do you have any imaging software which can age a person about five to ten years from what they use to look like?" Kaye suggested.

"Sure, but I haven't had any reason to test it until now." Rowen replied and then he understood and smirked, "You want to see what he would look like now in case the same guy might still be in the city somewhere."

The others pulled away from Rowen so he could get to work on the imaging software program. They weren't sure how long it would take Rowen to render the screenshot so they spread out in the living room and waited for him to finish.

"Once Rowen ages the screenshot, who is to say the guy will still be around. He could be out of the country for all we know." Kento pointed out.

Ryo nodded, "True Kento does have a point. He could be, but what if he's still around here somewhere. Since there has been an increase in street racing I don't see why he wouldn't stay away from the action. Especially if he's been at it for a long time."

Sage turned his back on everyone and stared at the fireplace. "I appreciate the help all of you are trying to do. But this doesn't concern any of you. So I think once Rowen is done, I'll take the printout and finish this on my own."

Cye frowned when he looked at him, "What are you talking about, doing this on your own? We're family. We help one another out for a long time now, I don't see why now would be any different."

"But it's too dangerous. These people, they don't mess around, they mean business." Sage replied as he glanced at him from the corner of his eye.

"It doesn't matter Sage, we dealt with worse. We dealt with Talpa and his Warlords as well as others who tried to take over the world. Sure, it got extremely dangerous, but we were there for one another then and we will be there for one another in the future." Ryo stated in a matter of fact tone.

Sage whirled around, fists clenched, "It matters to me. This is my cross to bear not yours. I don't want any of you to be involved with this anymore."

Kento took a step towards him, a fist raised and eyes narrowed, "Look here! We're not going to back down from a fight, not now not ever! You'd better get it through your thick head right now! Rather you like it or not, we're in this with you all the way. So you're just going to have to deal with it."

Sage took his time as he studied every one of his friends in turn. Their expressions were all pretty much the same. They were determined to help Sage with resolving his past. Plus rather he admitted it or not he would need their help. "Alright, fine. I know I can't talk any of you out of this."

"Damn right you can't, and besides, I finished with the rendering. The print outs should be coming soon. Once we get these we can figure where to go next." Rowen stated as he stood from his laptop to go and get the pictures.