Hi All,

Sorry for the delayed upload everyone, seems Christmas is a time for problems technology wise for me lol.

Anyway, here's chapter 7 for you all.

I hope you enjoy and as always, any feedback is appreciated but not expected.

Enjoy x

Chapter 7

As soon as Ray and Alyssa had walked out the door, Alastair had gestured to Kai to take a seat whilst he locked up the main doors. Kai had stayed standing, instead opting to lean back against the bar. When Alastair came back in, he immediately went behind the bar, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and 2 glasses before heading to a sofa booth with a low table. Kai had watched him with curiosity only getting an amused look back.

"Take a seat," Alastair suggested, "I reckon we've got at least half hour."

"Half hour to what?" Kai asked as he sat down.

"You stayed here all night, you tell me," Alastair smirked pushing a glass of whiskey towards him.

"You know where she is?" Kai asked.

"No but I have look outs all over because I know my nieces better than they know themselves or each other," Alastair explained, "I'm also the only one Liana will speak to about what happens when she disappears and I patch her up when she can't go toa hospital. She wouldn't come here until Alyssa left and I had to keep quiet because Alyssa's hearing is a little too good."

"And you think she's on her way here?"

"Got word a little while ago and before you ask, the other thing they told me was just to be ready."

Kai studied the man closely. The concern on the man's face was more grave than he would have expected. Whatever was going on, he was expecting the worst. He downed what was left of his whiskey and poured himself another glass, staying silent and letting Alastair brood in silence. When Kai heard someone outside, he turned his head to the doors, prompting Alastair to get up as whoever it was banged on the door. He stayed seated as Alastair went out but he listened intently.

"Silas? What are you doing here?" Alastair growled.

"Who do you think asked Miyu to call you?"

"I'm in no mood to play your games."

"No shit. I'm not playing games though. Even if I was Liana is a better player. But we've got bigger issues tonight, you're lucky I was at the rings tonight."

"She went to the rings?"

"No she got forced into the rings. Whatever they drugged her with was lethal though. She was a different person tonight. She decimated the competition but she nearly got herself killed in the process. But considering she was in the area to get caught, she was looking for a fight. Now what I'd like to know is why she was there in the first place."

"Her and Alyssa had a fight."

"Well get them to resolve it. She might have shut down the rings for 2 months, but right now she's half comatose, speaking Russian and the undergrounds number 1 choice again."

"Shit. Help me get her out of the car."

The whole conversation sounded very ominous and the Silas person sounded like a dodgy character, but it seemed Liana had all sorts of connections, even if she kept them all at arms length. He was pulled from his musings when the door opened and Alastair walked in carrying Liana who was wrapped in a sheet with a dead look in her eyes. It also looked like she had blood spattered across her face. Alastair set her down on the sofa but she showed no reaction, even as the sheet slipped revealing torn and dirty clothes, scratches, long cuts, bruises and blood stains. Her hands were covered in blood up to her wrists, seeing as her supports were missing and the skin on her knuckles was shredded.

"Liana, we need to clean you up," Alastair stated gently.

"Nyet," she mumbled.

"Do you want Kiyoko to see you like this?"

She mumbled in russian again before passing out and falling to the side. Alastair caught her and eased her the rest of the way down before standing and raking a hand through his hair.

"What did she say?" Alastair asked.

"Must protect sisters. Must kill enemies," Kai answered, "She's on auto-pilot essentially. She have more sisters?"

"She means Alyssa and Kiyoko," Alastair sighed, "This is going to be a long night."

Kai got up, heading to the bar for the first aid kit before coming back and crouching down in front of Liana and beginning to look after some of the injuries they could get to. She didn't flinch or move when he used the anti-septic, however when he was finished and looked at her face, he noticed tears falling from her eyes.

"Did she ever deal with the trauma of whatever happened to her?" Kai asked, looking over his shoulder and at the elder man.

"Why am I not surprised that you figured that out? But to answer your question, no she didn't. She buried it to look after Kiyoko and Alyssa until Alyssa was back on her feet," Alastair answered, "She was so withdrawn, no one realised it until her first episode."

"What caused her first episode?"

"Someone posed as a caretaker for them to steal Kiyoko and Liana caught her. She napped and killed them with her bare hands. The whole thing was an accident and as far as Alyssa and I are concerned, they deserved what they got. But still, everything Liana buried came to the forefront and because she couldn't remember everything about what she did to the fake caretaker, she was terrified of what else she could do without thought or reason. So she ran."

"To the rings?"

"Not at first. She lived on the streets for a while. Seeing as it was her temper and fight or flight instinct that triggered her first episode, my guess is someone triggered her into another episode and that's how she ended up at the underground fighting rings."

"You guess?"

"She won't talk about it. I had to use my own connections to find out what pieces I could," Alastair stated, "From what I found out, they triggered her into episodes and does her up on a number of concoctions to keep her in them for as long as they needed for the fights. She became the top fighter in a month due to her ruthlessness in that state. But she was learning at the same time to control it. Silas was her caretaker back then and the rare moments she was aware, she opened up a little, when they finally stopped being able to keep her dosed up and in her episodes, she decimated the operation entirely and Silas made sure she got through all the withdrawal symptoms before bringing her home to us. "

"But he's still part of the rings."

"Undercover. Thanks to Liana being undefeated, he's pretty high up so no one unwilling gets dragged in now. Liana has better control than back then but sometimes when she's close to another episode, she goes back and cleans house. She keeps the underground in line whilst Silas helps get any girls that need to be hidden and protected to safe haven. Liana scares everyone including the Yakuza when she's angry enough so for the most part, they all help out in areas to avoid her wrath and Silas gets alerted to her appearances at the ring so he can drag her out before she does anything she'll regret."

"When was her last episode?" Kai asked.

"A year ago. She's going to struggle to come back from this one though. She didn't want anyone out of the family to know about this."

"That's because she thought you'd be all she had."

Kai looked back at Liana to see the tears were slowing and had washed some of the blood on her face away. Carefully and gently, he used his thumb to wipe away the remaining blood before wiping away the tears. With a sigh, her whole body relaxed.

"Huh… that's new," Alastair commented in a stumped tone.

Something vibrating had him stirring, not that he had been sleeping deeply to begin with. Opening his eyes, he looked down towards the noise to see it was coming from Liana, who seemed to have shifted in her sleep to use his leg as a pillow. She was still breathing evenly, deep in sleep still, when her hand reached down and pulled out a cell phone to silence it before dropping it in between his legs when she draped her arm over the leg she was using. Silently he scanned her over and saw a small red stain where the sheet draped over her hip. They hadn't been able to check her over completely after she'd been relaxed. But judging by the stain, the injury causing it wasn't serious enough for him to worry.

He heard a door open behind them and tilted his head to see Alastair walk out with 2 mugs of coffee. He seemed amused when he saw Kai was awake.

"You and Liana are too alike," Alastair stated as he walked over and handed one of the mugs to him, "Sorry you got stuck here for the night."

"It's not a problem," he answered as Liana's phone started to vibrate again.

Kai picked up and checked who it was that was calling. Seeing it was Alyssa, he tossed the phone to Alastair who took one look at it and silenced it, leaving it to go to voicemail, before turning it off. They sat in silence drinking their coffee until Alastair's phone began to ring. With a sigh, he pulled the phone from his pocket and put it on speaker phone.

"Alyssa, I'm not even through my first coffee yet," Alastair grumbled.

"Liana isn't answering…"

"And usually doesn't until she wants to be found. She's a grown woman and you aren't her mother. Stop trying to call her home like she's a petulant child skipping out on a grounding."

"I'm not trying to call her home," Alyssa argued, "Kiyoko's disappeared."

"SHE WHAT?!" Alastair shouted standing up and turning his back to Kai.

"I came to get her but she hasn't been seen since breakfast. She left a note saying she needed to see Liana," Alyssa stated, "I can't find her anywhere."

Kai heard the door open again and whilst Alastair had his back to him still, he turned his head to see Kiyoko. He gestured for her to stay low and she smiled before crawling over to hide behind the sofa.

"Alyssa calm down. She just picked up a bad habit from Liana."

"A bad habit?! She disappeared to god knows where!"

"Kiyoko will turn up either here or at home. So go home and call me if she turns up there. I'll call you if she turns up here."

"Ok, I'll talk to you soon."

"These girls are going to be the death of me," Alastair sighed as he sat down.

"She done this before?" Kai asked.

"Only on my watch. Kiyoko and Liana have a connection we don't understand, such as they can find each other no matter what. Isn't that right Kiyoko?"

"Awww. How'd you know?" Kiyoko whined as she stood up to lean over the back of the sofa.

"You might be picking up your sister's bad habits but you haven't mastered her stealth just yet brat," Alastair smirked, "You scared your cousin."

"Oops. I didn't think she'd pick me up until tonight," Kiyoko answered.

"Well unlucky for you, Liana and Alyssa had a big fight yesterday."

"She got on Liana's case about being reckless even though she's just as bad, didn't she?"

"I'm not telling you anything until you call your grandfather," Alastair countered.

"Oh he knows. He helped," Kiyoko smiled.

"Of course he did," Alastair growled.

"Just drink your coffee old man."

They all looked down to see Liana rolling over and rubbing her eyes.

"How you feeling?" Alastair asked.

"Shaky," she answered sitting up, "And in need of a shower. Bratnik, you wanna go get things ready for me?"

"Yes ma'am," Kiyoko cheered with a salute before running off.

"Go on ask," Liana sighed, "I'm sure you've already spilled the beans."

"How much do you remember of last night?" Alastair asked cautiously.

"All of it. It wasn't an episode, it was something else this time," Liana answered as she stood.

She went to take a step but swayed as soon as her foot came off the floor. Kai quickly stood and caught her before she fell, holding her upright by her arms. From his angle he could see the look of frustration and shame in her eyes but he couldn't help but think despite that, she was incredibly strong.

"What do you mean it was something else?" Alastair asked.

"I was conscious but not at the same time. Like I wasn't completely in control," Liana stated, "Nothing else to say about it. Probably something to do with the drug they pumped into me that's now trying to work it's way out of my system."

"Shower's ready," Kiyoko called from the door.

When Liana tried to walk forward, Kai moved quickly sweeping her off her feet and let a giggling Kiyoko lead him to the bathroom whilst Liana protested. Once in the bathroom, he set her on her feet in the shower and bent down to take her shoes and socks off. She glared at him when he stood back up again.

"I'm not helpless," she chided.

"Didn't say you was," Kai stated, "But we can still take care of you. I've done my bit for now and Kiyoko will shout when you're dressed so I can carry you back out, won't you Kiyoko?"

"Yes sir," Kiyoko agreed, "She like Earl Grey tea before you ask."

"Traitor," Liana grumbled.

"You're only saying that because you know you won't win against Kai like you do with everyone else," Kiyoko quipped.

"Still a traitor. You're supposed to be on my side."

"I am but I also want to help you. Kai's helping me do that so don't slap him."

"Fine you win," she conceded and looked at Kai, "Off you go. Your little soldier will call you."

"Earl Grey?"

"If you don't mind."

He walked out with a smirk, closing the door behind him. When he walked into the kitchen, Alastair was already in the kitchen making himself another coffee. He showed Kai where everything was before joking that Kiyoko was the only reason he had gotten away with this stunt without an injury. Whilst they waited for Kiyoko to call, Alastair told him what he'd been through when pulling similar stunts. Liana had been quite inventive with her revenge, which worried him a little.

When Kiyoko finally called, Kai prepared himself for some form of revenge but Liana was smiling when he walked in. Even with wet hair, jeans and a slightly baggy t-shirt, she was stunning. He picked her up and carried her out to the lounge, setting her down on the sofa as Alastair came in with her tea. The men watched as Kiyoko climbed onto the soda and styled Liana's hair into pigtail braids.

"So what are we doing today?" Liana asked.

"Well Stanley helped Little Miss pull a disappearing act and Alyssa went to get her early so we need to deal with that and this young man needs some clothes so he doesn't have to wear yesterday's all day," Alastair offered.

"Kiyoko already called Stan to get him some clothes but just tell Alyssa that we're here and we'll come home when I'm ready so she has the house to herself," Liana advised.

"Or better yet tell her to invite Ray over," Kiyoko giggled, "Can we have a lazy day with movies and takeaway?"

"Sure. What do you two think?"

"It's my place," Alastair sighed with a whine, "But yeah I'm in."

"Sounds good," Kai answered.

So that's it for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.

For anyone who's an Escaflowne Fan, please check out my story Return to Gaea.

As always, any feedback is great feedback, but it's not expected.

I'll be uploading once a month from now on since I'm running out of typed chapters again, but next upload will be 29th January

Until next time xx