There's a warning in this chapter for some kind-of sexual stuff. Basically if you don't want to read the lemony hinting stuff, don't read the first part of the fic.
FUTURE HOPE
Quote: A friendship is a special part of all that's cherished in the heart. (Hi Galphoe! )
Last time...
Kai and Trinity had some rather intimate meetings, the Wonder Siblings froze their asses off in the snow and Ray and Mariah got to make out. And Voltaire is about to attempt to kill everyone... but Ray and Mariah making out is more important.
(AN: This next segment is a bit rude. Sort of a very detailed lime with musings about Mariah's pregnancy mixed in. If you don't want to read the word 'breasts' or do not know where babies come from, please only read this segment if you feel comfortable doing so. You have been forewarned)
Ray gave Mariah one last soft, tantalising kiss before repositioning himself so that he was on his back and on his side of the bed. Mariah tried to snuggle closer to him but because of the large bulge in her abdomen she could only just manage to place her palm on his chest, so she could feel the calming rhythm of his breathing ad the quick pace of his heartbeat. Ever since Trinity had been moved into the room across from theirs they had been making the most of their nights together. The rare nights where Trinity did not wake up early in the night and cry out until Ray or Mariah went and got her and brought her into their room, like this particular night, were especially looked forward to.
Mariah had sat up and was drawing the sheets up and around their waists so Ray stuck his arms behind his head and glared up at the ceiling, "Hmm"-ing with concentration. Mariah gave him a questioning glance and Ray smiled at her and gently gestured to the place next to him. She smiled back in response and crawled the short distance over to Ray, her stomach softly skimming the mattress, and when she reached him she flopped down, placing her soft hand on his chest again and he responded by putting his left arm around her shoulders and placing his right arm across her stomach and tracing his fingers across the bulging form. The child growing in Mariah's womb gave a few swift kicks that made dents rise in her stomach momentarily before it seemingly settled down again. (AN: You can't exactly say it is Kirra yet. I mean it isn't even out yet :S)
Mariah felt Ray shake his head next to her, so she looked up at him and he sighed slightly.
"Reminds me of that movie, 'Alien'," he murmured and she laughed as he gave some sort of snarling killer-alien face, which was quite effective, knowing the sort of teeth Ray had. Mariah slapped his arm playfully and smirked at him.
"Just remember the 'alien' is half yours, ne?"
"How could I forget?" Ray muttered huskily into ear, and Mariah gasped as he leaned down to her chest and roughly nibbled her aching, swollen breasts. His mouth then moved upwards again, placing a soft kiss on her lips before he gave her a kind smile and lying back down next to her.
"That area is kind of sensitive, y'know," Mariah said, glaring at Ray. He knew she was kidding, however, because she wasn't exactly keeping a strait face.
"Aw, come on Mariah. It can't be all that being pregnant..." Ray started, leaning over to whisper in Mariah's ear.
"Especially to me, right?" Mariah snorted in indignation.
"Sure Mr. Sex God. You make me sound like a piece of property, Raymond. Next time you see a car, try getting out of it through the exhaust pipe and you'll know what childbirth is like," Mariah snapped a bit. She didn't exactly see herself as a weak little girl. Ray smiled to show he'd just been kidding, but she pounced onto his chest and the pair started a friendly wrestling match for dominance. Eventually Mariah managed to pin Ray underneath her and she smirked, folding her arms across her chest and sitting on his.
"Looks like I win," she said proudly.
"Yeah, but you have the weight advantage at the moment," he pouted cutely, but regretted it when he saw her looking slightly hurt.
"You know I was just kidding, Mariah," he smiled and drew her down and back next to him and hugging her. She accepted his embrace and rested her head softly against his chest and he started gently playing with her hair, curling the soft tendrils around his fingers and smiling.
"I will love you, no matter what."
Mariah knew this; she could see it when he smiled at her, feel it when he touched her, taste it when he kissed her...
"But it's getting late... and you need to rest, so let's go to sleep, 'kay?"
Mariah nodded and slowly started drifting off to sleep.
"DRIGER! TIGER CLAW ATTACK!"
A white beyblade flew out of the beystadium at about 100 kilometres an hour and Marth lunged to his extreme right to catch it. He eventually did get there and was about to hit the ground when his eyes glowed a soft gold colour and he suddenly levitated, slowly moving so his feet were underneath him and then his eyes returned to their normal state and he landed softly on his feet with feline grace and a practiced ease. Kirra glared at her own beyblade, which was left teetering in the middle of the stadium, and her mother's blade, with was circling it like a cat about to pounce on it's prey.
"Mysticala! Flaming slash!"
The blue blade swerved, trying to hit the pink one, but the pink dodged and Mariah smiled.
"Galux, cat scratch!"
The pink dashed towards the blue and hit it head-on, finally stopping it, and it landed with a gentle clicking sound, rolling back into the middle of the stadium, due to the slope.
"Too bad Trinity wasn't here... I could've had a great time beating her," muttered Lee, before giving a dismissive wave and leaving the room.
"Urgh! Damn it! Why can we beat you!" moaned Kirra, jumping into the beystadium, grabbing Mysticala and pocketing it. Her parents smirked, their pupils narrowing, their shoulders shrugged and their undeniably triumphant grins making the sides of their lips twitch. Kirra snivelled; her eyes filling with glossy tears before she threw her head tragically down onto her arms and started sobbing. Marth, Ray and Mariah all sweatdropped at their blubbering sister/daughter, who was forming a small puddle of tears in the middle of the beystadium.
"Why can't we win? You always beat us and it sucks! LIFE IS FULL OF SUCH INJUSTICE!"
"Kiz, life's a bitch and then you die," commented her mother, shrugging it off.
"But you're not the ones who lost!" she snapped back.
At that moment, Kirra looked up at her parents and brother, and then stood up, brushing herself off and snivelling a bit.
"I'm okay now."
She then calmly stepped out of the stadium, and walked out of the room. Ray raised his right eyebrow in mild surprise and Mariah raised her palm to her forehead.
"Sometimes I wonder about that girl."
"Speaking of girls, do you know where your other sister is? I haven't seen her for a while."
'Good thing I'm brazen,' thought Marth to himself, 'Otherwise I'd be screwed.'
'Don't lie to them, Marth.'
Marth blinked and blocked his thought to all other than Kirra. His parents had their bit beasts and because of that, could probably hear what they were saying- or more accurately, thinking. 'Kiz, they're asking about Trin. And you know where she is right now.'
'Ah, I see, Theo. In that case, look 'em straight in the eye and lie to your little heart's desire.'
'This coming from a person who can bitch about her parents for three hours behind their backs and then go crawling back to them like a sick puppy.'
'Yeah, yeah.' She then left his strain of thought. He smiled his fanged smile at his parents and looked at his parents who were becoming suspicious due to the length of time he was taking to come up with an answer.
"I think she took a mission in the past- I think it was very early this morning and she didn't want to wake you up to tell you."
Ray stared at his son for a moment, and Marth felt as though his father's golden gaze could see right through the lies. However, he nodded and Marth almost exhaled with utmost relief.
"Alright. Please tell us when she does something like that straight away next time. We need to see if she's okay, she hasn't been herself lately," Ray then slipped Mariah's hand into his own and started leaving the room. Mariah gazed back at her son; she sure as Hell didn't believe him. But she let it go... I mean where else could her daughter be?
Marth shifted a bit after his parents were out of the room and then flopped down on a nearby bench and retrieved his beyblade from his pocket and stared at the bit chip.
'If only they knew, Cisia. If only they knew what she was doing right now...'
It was winter. It was cold. And Kai had offered to "Warm Trinity up" as he had so adequately put it. Who could refuse?
'If only my parents knew what I was doing right now,' thought Trinity as she ran her slim fingers over Kai's bare chest and he smiled at her- a rare genuine smile that expressed his suppressed emotions. She smiled back, flashing her pearl white fangs in his direction and snuggled up to him, closing her eyes and smiling with contentment. Kai pulled her just about as close to each other as two people could get and buried his face into her long, sweet smelling strawberry coloured bangs. A few minutes later, Trinity had fallen asleep due to the 'fun' they had about 7 minutes prior to the moment.
Kai was tired, but he was also hungry. So he gently slid out of the bed, kissing Trinity gently before making a quick attempt to put on his clothes. He pushed open the door, closing it again to save Trinity's pride. Personally, he always thought no one would ever want to have sex with him before he started Beyblading. He was just the sadistic, triangle-faced teenager who everyone avoided. Then when he started Beyblading he swore to God that he probably would have drowned in all the mail that his fangirls sent him daily. He probably could have picked one of those chicks up, but he assumed most of them had died along with 3.15 billion (AN: That's approx. half of the world population, ne?) of the world's people, also along with most of Ray and Mariah's fangirls/fanboys, which had turned out in their favour anyway.
After that, he'd assumed any chick would just jump for him because she was a ditz looking for a night of fun. Then he'd met Trinity, who was the complete opposite. She was beautiful and smart and voluptuous (okay... so what male would say that wasn't a good thing) and didn't take any shit like her mother but had that sense of dignity, kind concern and slight blissful ignorance like her father. Plus she was a reasonable Beyblader but didn't really have the power her parents did. Stella, to him, seemed more like a guardian or close friend to her. He assumed it has chosen her a its master because it was descended from Driger and Galux.
Yawn, scratch of the arm. He walked into the kitchen, assuming it was about 8am, knowing that Ray and Mariah would already be up, due to the fact that their daughter regularly kept them up most if not all of the night anyway, if certain other activities didn't that is. Chibi Trin had grown big; it was actually hard to believe that just about 2 years or so ago she'd been a little tiny defenceless baby. Looking at the older version of her it was hard to believe she hadn't been born full grown and able to take care of herself from the beginning.
He'd been right. Trin sat at the end of the table, sitting on top of boxes and books and all sorts of things in place of the highchair they couldn't get, giggling like a drunk. Mariah and Ray sat to both sides of her, looking completely screwed (no pun intended), yawning, Mariah omitting the occasional strangled sob. Trin suddenly took an interest in her mother's shiny pink locks of hair and grappled onto a fistful and started yanking at it, trying to rip it out of her scalp. Mariah yelped and freed her hair from her child's grasp, now not really caring whether she wanted to look strong or not and started sobbing into the top of the table. Being 5 months pregnant, everything pissed her off or made her cry or she overreacted to the smallest of situations, which just upset her or pissed her off more- it was a vicious cycle.
Trin, having been relieved of her glistening prize, started howling at the top of her lungs, tears streaming down her chubby face. Ray suddenly snapped out of his trance-like state, realising the two most important people in his life to him were both crying. He looked from one to the other hurriedly, confused, not knowing which one to comfort.
Kai did his trademark and legendary "humph" and walked into the room, snatching the smaller female life form from her perch on the boxes and giving his former teammate a 'look after your girlfriend, you idiot!' look. Trin immediately calmed down, hiccuped a few times before smiling, and went to sleep, leaning on Kai's chest, much like the older version of herself had done a few minutes beforehand. Ray sweatdropped and walked over to the opposite side of the table, picking up Mariah (which required a fairly big effort, because of her pregnancy) who was still sobbing, and began cradling her like a baby, and went and sat down on the couch with her. Mariah sniffled and stopped crying, deciding it was a waste of the energy she already didn't have enough of. Ray smiled at her and it warmed her heart, he then stroked her hair gently and held her close; it comforted her more than words could describe.
'At least I have someone to help me take care of Trin...' Mariah thought. 'I don't know what I'd do without Ray's help.'
'They love each other a lot. It almost makes me feel happy for them... almost. It's like they can speak directly to each other's hearts...' thought Kai, before the toddler in his arms squirmed, signalling their few seconds peace and quiet was over. The child's large golden eyes met his own mahogany eyes, and she pointed stubbornly at the ground.
"Down."
Kai obeyed this command, not wanting to risk upsetting her. His hands reached the ground and before he'd managed to let go of her, she raised her finger again.
"Up."
Sigh. Kai heaved himself upright and sighed.
"Are you happy now, little one?"
"Down."
"..."
"DOWN."
'Grr. Memo to myself: never ever even consider having children,' Kai snarled to himself before gently resting Trin on the ground and starting to walk away.
"Up."
"No."
Kai turned around to face the child, who was trying to pull herself up and onto her feet. She eventually succeeded and immediately started wobbling. Ray and Mariah were watching their daughter's actions with interest, waiting to see what she was trying to do. Trin gripped onto the coffee table, and took one single, strained step and then fell flat on her bottom. Mariah smiled at Ray and went to pick up their child; it was times like these that made having children worthwhile.
This dream again... not again... Trinity writhed in the bed. It was the same vision every time. Darkness... and the Quadroon creature floating in the air firing some sort of red glow with a large golden tiger creature- also in the air, retaliating by shielding itself with a veil of silver, dashing towards the Quadroon, leaving images of itself as it ran, and holding up its large paw, ready to strike. And Kai, her Kai... jumping on something to shield it and getting hit... fatally. Why? Why did this happen? No. NOT AGAIN! She couldn't lose him again!
Trinity shot up in the bed, breathing heavily. It wasn't real... was it? She'd never had a prophetic dream before; it wasn't going to start now. Of course she was worried for Kai's safety, but why would he die? What did this have to do with it? It was just her imagination...
Yes...
That's what it was. She suddenly felt nauseous so she wrapped the bed sheets around her body and dashed down the hall to the toilet and threw up. She then stumbled over to the bathroom sink, turned on the cold water and cupped her hands underneath so her hands became filled with water. Trinity then gulped the whole lot into her mouth and felt relieved as she felt the cool liquid trickle down her parched throat, quenching her thirst and making her stomach calm. She repeated her previous actions of filling her cupped hands with water several more times before walking out of the bathroom and shivering inwardly. She felt that she was just getting herself so worked up over nothing. She sighed and walked calmly back to Kai's room and clothed herself, and walked down the hall, ready to face the new day. She would not let mere setbacks such as this cloud her judgement; she was not a weak person; that was the thing she prided herself on. She would remain strong for herself, her siblings, her parents and most of all, Kai.
Her stomach rumbled violently yet again, and she winced and remembered back to the dream she had.
She could feel its presence approach. She didn't know from where, but its power was haunting the back of her mind, making her nervous. It was getting strong... its power was forever increasing... her younger siblings never said anything, but she knew they felt it too, haunting the backs of their minds like lurking shadows. Something bad was surely going to happen soon, and she would be prepared for it, come Hell or high water.
Kai watched as Ray and Mariah praised their young daughter, who wasn't thrilled by the attention and looked like after all that exercise she just wanted to go back to sleep again. Suddenly the older version of Trin AKA Trinity walked into the room, stifling a yawn with the back of her left hand. Her face was still stricken of colour but she appeared to be in reasonable health so Kai didn't concern himself by getting worried about her- she knew she was more than capable of looking after herself. As Trinity began walking over to the couch Kai was now haphazardly slouched on, she tripped over her own feet and fell flat on her butt.
"Ouch! Fu-", she started, never finishing because she clapped her own hand over her mouth to stop herself from saying the rest of the word.
Mariah frowned, cursing Tyson and Kai. Ray just sniggered slightly.
"Not as sure-footed as we are."
Trinity heard Kai mumble something about the 'bloody neko-jin' before holding out a hand to help her up. She accepted this offer, and he pulled her up and into his arms, wrapping them securely around her waist. She smiled and laughed a bit as he flickered his eyelashes against her neck. Ray and Mariah watched this display with amusement, Mariah sitting on Ray's lap, Trin sitting on Mariah's lap.
Max and Emily emerged from the depths of their room, Max gently letting go of Emily's hand and caressing his lips against her own before walking into the kitchen for his daily sugar/caffeine boost.
Trinity still had the slight scar on her forehead from where the Quadroon had hit her, and Kai traced it gently with his thumb before putting his hand to the back of her head and pulling her in for a kiss. Trinity returned this eagerly and the other two couples and baby watched with a seemingly content air about them. Suddenly a wolf whistle erupted from the hallway and the two broke apart, looking in the direction from whence it came.
Tyson (AN: Who else? pokes the chubby baka Takao) stood there, a triumphant look on his youthful face. He then shivered as her received 3 golden eyed 'leave them/us alone' glares from various older members of the Kon family. Trinity suddenly flinched, her eyes flashing the all-too-familiar golden colour.
'It is indeed good to be back to where I belong.'
"Galeon."
Mariah flinched. She hadn't heard from her brother for quite a period of time and was very concerned that something may have happened to him.
"What about it?" she questioned eagerly.
"It's nearby..."
"That means Lee must be with it!" Mariah squealed like a little girl, wrestling from Ray's arms and sprinting to the front door with Trin cradled in her arms. Ray didn't seem to mind, he was as eager to see his best friend of childhood times again too. Except he wasn't willing to run, so he took his usual calm exterior and walked. Max and Emily looked interested but were more interested with each other at this current point in time so they stayed seated, snuggled against each other's bodies for protection from the cold. Kenny was probably in some zombie-like state working on his laptop, still trying to figure out what the Quadroon thing looked like (with Tyson's help, so Kai assumed that's where Tyson had currently left for) so that left he, Kai, and Trinity. They grasped for each other's hands and smiled at each other, before walking in the direction Ray and Mariah had disappeared to.
When they got there, they found them exchanging conversation with Lee, who hadn't really changed much, albeit he'd got a new pair of clothes. He turned his attention from his young niece and his sister's stomach (which he was staring at with a world-weary, 'why me' look on his face) for a second and looked at his older niece.
"Who's that?"
"Umm... Lee, meet Trinity, older version of your niece Chibi Trin from the future," explained Ray. Lee took one look at Kai and Trinity's hands linked together and sighed.
"As if my little sister and my best friend were not enough. Now it's my niece and my best friend's friend."
"And us. Well, not sexually like the other two couples you were referring to. Just consider us to be your friendly neighbourhood Wonder Siblings."
Trinity immediately recognised her younger sister's smart-ass tone but even before then she had known who the two people were, and the others besides Lee could definitely have taken a wild guess. Sure enough, the remaining two Kon children were standing outside, in the below zero temperatures (They knew it was below zero courtesy of Trin's favourite weatherman). Kirra had once again opted for her tight black 'business' clothes, even though it was freezing. Marth had gone for traditional Mandarin dress, much like his parents used to wear and Ray, Mariah and Lee all knew they were designed to take the cold climate from their own childhood experiences.
"Ever thought of coming home to see your poor mother and father and siblings at all, Trin?" remarked Kirra. Lee looked confused.
"Kirralee and Martheo, my two siblings, one who is not yet born and one who is not yet thought of," said Trinity, explaining it to the astounded Lee. Kirra and Marth flinched- they were still not over their own names. The two younger children of Ray and Mariah actually considered their own names to be quite tragic.
"Call us Kirra and Marth. Or Kiz and Theo," Kirra said, and both her and her brother's eyes glinted dangerously, suggesting everyone should call then by their names of preference otherwise there would be Hell to pay.
"So where are Kevin and Gary?" asked Marth, stepping inside the house, shaking the pure white snow out of his raven black bangs.
"They're doing mercenary work in other parts of the country currently. They should stop by for a visit eventually, though."
Kirra nodded, stepping inside, not caring about the frost that covered her hair.
"Can I have a cup of coffee? I'm freezing my ass off."
"Sure," replied Mariah, handing Chibi Trin to Ray and leading the way back into the lounge. Max and Emily were still there, and Kenny and Tyson had rejoined the group.
Mariah made everyone's request of drink, and then flopped down next to Ray, reclaiming her baby daughter and gently lying the infant's head on her knees, stroking her back softly to try and make her sleep.
"So Trin, isn't it about time you came back home with us?" asked Marth.
"Nope. I'm fine right here, actually."
"Mum and Dad are getting kind of suspicious..."
"We don't know you're here?" asked Ray suddenly.
"You guys don't even know about your little girl's relationship with Hot Stuff over there," mumbled Kirra, gesturing to Kai, who snuffled a bit in surprise, but quickly regained his cool demeanour.
"She's staying here."
He then stood up and walked into Ray and Mariah's room, whose door was visible from the hall. Every pair of eyes in the room watched with interest and about 2 minutes later Kai emerged, twirling something around his right index finger.
"Excuse me Ray, can I borrow these?" Kai smirked, catching the pair of handcuffs mid-twirl. (AN: I don't wanna know what Ray and Mariah use those handcuffs for... P)
"I suppose..." murmured Ray, both he and Mariah visibly embarrassed. Lee shot Ray a "What are you doing to my poor sister?" look. Trin woke up and showed half-interest in what was going on around her.
"Thank you," smirked Kai, it was the kind of smirk that made whoever it was directed at very embarrassed or very pissed off. Ray took the first option while Mariah chose the latter. Trin just sort of yawned before attempting slumber once again.
Kai continued to handcuff himself and Trinity together, with Trinity just looking on wide-eyed, not really knowing how to respond to this action. Kai eventually finished what he was doing, and sat back, satisfied. Ray opened his mouth to speak.
"Um, Kai..."
"Don't make any comment Ray, I know I'm crazy..."
"I lost the key to those ages ago."
The room was suddenly filled with an extremely tense, uncomfortable silence as this small but important piece of information sunk in. Kirra and Marth were smirking their neko-jin way and the others just looked on, except Ray and Mariah, who were still visibly embarrassed by Kai's comments.
"... No way. Please tell me your lying," said Trinity slowly. Sure she loved Kai but she didn't think ANYONE could stand being chained to him for the rest of their lives. Ray shook his head, signifying that he wasn't lying. Trinity had never known her father to lie. Lee had a rather evil looking grin on his face and was occasionally shuddering with suppressed laughter. Kenny had even momentarily looked up from his laptop and Tyson's mouth was hanging open slightly, before his lips curved into a smile, his eyes dancing with an amused brightness.
"So Trinny, what're you gonna do this time?" smirked Kirra. Trinity glared angrily at her younger sister. Ray sighed, withdrew his beyblade and held it in his open palm.
"Driger, Tiger Claw Attack..."
The Holy Being emerged from the blade and aimed a perfectly placed slash at the handcuffs. The chain linking the two actual cuffs was broken, but the rings remained on Trinity's right arm and Kai left arm. Trinity slid the metal circle as far up her arm as it would go, and tensed the muscles in her arm, her eyes glowing a soft gold. The cuff crumbled into dust. Lee's mouth dropped open in surprise, however the remainder of the group reacted to the action with very little surprise.
"I honestly don't know how you do stuff like that..." said Lee very slowly, "But it does stand to reason that you guys..." he gestured to Ray, Mariah, Trinity, Kirra and Marth "... are related. I mean, you two look alike," he continued, singling out Kirra and his younger sister. "Except..."
"Make one crack about me having no figure, and I'll rip your head off," snapped Kirra. There was a glint in her eyes suggesting she meant what she said.
Lee honestly didn't know what made his nephew and two nieces so strong, so he voiced his confusion.
"You know that legend we used to hear when we were kids, Lee?" Ray stated. Lee sniggered a bit.
"Which one?"
"You do have a point... there were quite a lot of them..." muttered Ray. Mariah snorted and said, "Quite a lot?" in a sarcastic tone.
"The one about the Golden counterpart of Driger."
Lee contemplated for a moment, trying to remember back to his childhood; it all seemed so long ago these days. Something in his brain tweaked and he suddenly remembered the legend.
"Yeah, I think so. The one about two people from our clan supposedly giving life to a deceased bit beast through their children. So I assume those two people would be you guys?" Lee asked, figuring it out for himself. Ray and Mariah nodded, knowing the fact was true due to the presence of their future children.
"So... you three. My nieces and nephew, Trinity, Kirra and Marth, whichever you prefer. Do you actually use this power you were bestowed with very often?" questioned Lee.
"Umm..." Marth started. Kirra chose to try and explain what her brother had failed to.
"We used to do it quite a lot when we were younger and not as physically strong, even though it was tiring to stay in that form. But then one day we just did it as a sort of joke at school and we almost killed one of our teachers."
"He deserved it," said Marth dismissively. "He used to pick on us because we were different."
"But anyway... when we go into that form we can control ourselves to an extent but like other bit beasts, if we see something we don't trust or don't like or aren't allied with we just attack it. Like other bit beasts, we go all battle-hungry and power-crazy. However, because of the part of us that is human, we don't need a master. However when we were training, we always considered our parents to be our masters. So basically..." Kirra gestured to Mariah and Ray, who were sitting in front of her. Trinny was still asleep on Mariah's lap.
"Basically, if we ever got a little out of hand while we were in that form, you two would have a better chance of restraining us and telling us what to do that anyone else."
"I remember when you two made us go into a beyblade once. It freaked me out," Trinity shivered a bit.
"I always thought once bit beasts were trapped inside your beyblades they were there for good," muttered Ray.
"Have you forgotten that Driger left you when he felt you were unworthy to harness his power, Ray?" asked Lee, who received a sheepish look in reply.
"We're not bonded to one person," snapped Kirra. "If we feel someone is unworthy to have our alliance we move as we see fit. There are plenty of bit beasts out there that never choose human masters and simply stay wild."
"Your Holy Beings and ours are some of the rare few that decide they want humans to harness their power," explained Marth.
"However... some are forced into alliance like the Demolitions Boys' bit beasts were. But the beasts and their individual dead partners respected each other's skills. But unlike the Holy Beings, the Demolition Boys would have never betrayed their cause and just continued doing evil. Their bit beasts were getting sick of it..." Trinity trailed off suddenly, and both Kirra and Marth flinched.
"Everyone. Stay here. Do not under any circumstances follow us," Marth snapped, contradicting his usual caring nature.
"What? What the Hell is going on?" snapped Ray.
"It approaches."
"What?" asked Tyson.
"What you saw on that day, months ago now," said Trinity.
"Well, I refuse to stand down!" snapped Lee. The rest of the group nodded in agreement, excluding Mariah, who was quietly rousing her daughter.
"There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity and you eight are flirting with it," snapped Kirra.
"Take our advice and stay here. You'll be safer in here. We're only able to heal members of our own family, so only our mother, and our father and Lee are safe. If any of the rest of you are injured, you're on your own. And remember, there ain't anything we can do about death. If you die there is no counterattack," Trinity stated.
"So now do you see why it's safer for you eight to leave this to us?"
"..." No one said anything.
"And don't worry, we'll be fine," Kirra said, although her tone wasn't all that reassuring.
"Now go into your rooms, and lock the doors and stay there. Make sure you have your Beyblades with you, because they will help you defend yourselves in the case that you are attacked."
The eight people nodded and disappeared into various parts of the house.
The three siblings stared at each other, before all three nodded to each other and dashed out the door.
The Quadroon sniffed the air, trying to pick up a trace of the 12 people it was looking for. The three neko-jin teenagers, three other neko-jin that looked barely older than the previously mentioned ones, its master's grandson, two Americans, two Japanese and a young neko-jin child. Its instructions and the faces of the aforementioned people have been burned into its mind, it was constantly fighting to free itself of its bonds and complete its objectives. Only now it was permitted the freedom to find these 12 people and kill them.
It's body had grown in size; it was now roughly equivalent in length to the blue dragon beast it had sensed months ago with one of the Japanese boys and it was easily as wide as two buses parked next to each other. And yet, it was still amazingly accurate in its attacks and surprisingly agile. Its elderly master was huffing along behind it, cursing violently. It was becoming tired of having someone give it orders.
Suddenly the Quadroon froze, its eyes locked on the three people in front of it. It recognized them immediately as the three neko-jin teenagers it had been programmed to terminate. It was about to lunge but its master told it not to. Why? The beast questioned itself. Its master had been the one who had told it to destroy them- why wasn't its master letting it live out his wishes? The Quadroon snarled angrily but conceded.
Trinity felt as though she had just swallowed an ice cube and it had slid uncomfortably into her stomach; the beast was extensively larger that the last time she had saw it, but it definitely stood to reason. It had been quiet for such a long time; this was obviously what Voltaire had achieved during that time.
"Do you like it? Do you marvel at its genius? It's beauty? It is my perfect creating, and it will be your downfall! Do you hear me Kintora? Its soul purpose is your destruction!"
The three siblings did not bother replying to this statement, they knew it was pointless because he was just trying to intimidate them.
"Not willing to speak up, eh? What's wrong, cat got your tongue?" Voltaire laughed at his own joke.
'He is very clearly insane,' commented Marth.
'And bad at jokes,' sniggered Kirra.
'It's not a good time for hilarity Kiz,' snapped Trinity.
'Just try to add light to a death-is-definitely-coming situation.'
"You know you are not a match for my Quadroon, Kintora. In fact, I think that your friends deserve to be here too..."
Trinity flinched violently.
"Marth, go back and make sure the others are safe," Trinity muttered almost silently, out of the very corner of her mouth. Marth's head jerked signifying a nod and in a flash of blinding golden light he had disappeared.
"So he is going back to check on them? Too bad, it will already be too late..."
'Just don't react... that's what he wants us to do,' Trinity thought, and Kirra took in breath sharply to signify she had heard.
"But I wouldn't want to start the party without the rest of your rebel friends... that would be quite selfish of me."
Trinity breathed out a very slight sigh of relief; this would give she and Kirra time to stockpile all the power they could muster.
"But..."
Trinity looked up to meet Voltaire's eyes.
"... They only get five minutes, maximum."
Mariah shivered and hugged her young daughter closer as whatever was out there attacked she and Ray's door repeatedly. She was in a crouched position behind her bed and Ray and Lee were either perched on the bed or almost directly in front of the door, ready to attempt to repel any attack.
A metallic grey hand suddenly burst through the door and clawed within the range it could reach. Ray's brow furrowed slightly; more youma? He was positive they had all been destroyed...
The gap in their door was forever widening and suddenly one of the youma burst through the crack and lunged at Lee. Lee was ready; he summoned Galeon who immediately jumped at its opposition and the two creatures snarled and tore at each other viciously in a dangerous match for victory.
Two more of the creatures emerged from through the large crack in the door and Ray summoned Driger and the Holy Being clawed at its enemy savagely. The other youma had immediately attempted to attack Mariah, but was blown back by the force of the shield that Galux had created around her master and her master's child. This obvious mismatch went on for some time. Galeon and Driger were bleeding silvery blood through various cuts that covered their bodies and every time the youma attacked Galux's shield it got closer to completely penetrating it. The shield shattered and Mariah screamed, throwing herself on top of her frightened and confused baby daughter to protect her. Mariah shut her eyes and shivered, waiting for pain to shoot through her and her life to end... but that moment was taking a long time to come, if it was coming at all. Mariah forced herself to open her eyes and saw that Ray had dived over her at the last moment and taken the blow for her, which gave her another reason to scream. His blood was flowing freely onto her hands and a few strangled sobs made her body shudder. She simply stared in disbelief and continued to sob, barely aware of what was going on around her. Lee noticed what had happened and cursed violently and loudly.
Mariah shivered and hugged Ray's body to hers, feeling his warmth begin to slowly ebb away. Trinity was really too young to understand why her mother was so upset and why her father wasn't moving so she did the thing any other toddler would have done: sat down next to her mother and cried.
"No... this can't happen! Please don't die Ray! You can't leave me by myself..." Mariah's tears were soaking the material of Ray's shirt. The youma that had been attempting to attack and kill she and Trin had been momentarily stunned by Ray diving in front of them to protect them but was now rearing up for another attack. Mariah closed her eyes and prepared for the worst, bringing Trinny in closer to her... at least they would be together... But her ears caught a foreign voice among that chaos shout out what sounded like a definite strong phrase or command. The youma screamed their horrible, screeching call before disappearing into the golden flames that had just surrounded them. Marth suddenly dashed into view and hacked down the rest of the door with his own hands with ease. When he entered the room, he panted heavily but stayed upright, surveying the scene. He noticed his terrified mother crouched behind the bed in the centre of the room with his mortally wounded father and swore continuously for about 15 seconds before quickly regaining his composure and asking his mother hurriedly whether his father was still alive. Mariah nodded; she could feel his very weak heartbeat against her hand. Marth closed his eyes for about 5 seconds and directed his open palm towards his father, before muttering something and suddenly opening his eyes again. A golden coloured ball of some sort of energy shot from his outstretched palm and surrounded his father momentarily, before it disappeared into a few sparks. Baby Trin flinched and immediately stopped crying, sitting rigid for just a moment before she sniffled again and looked inquiringly up at her parents.
Mariah was still shivering violently, but she suddenly felt Ray take a few deep breaths of oxygen and shift slightly in her embrace. He then mumbled something incoherent into her chest and his eyes snapped open and he looked around wildly.
"What the...? What happened?" he questioned, looking in all directions. Mariah began to cry again, this time in complete and utter relief, and hugged Ray tightly. Ray looked slightly confused but accepted her embrace and gently stroked her hair, trying to calm her. Trin tugged pointedly on the end of her father's ponytail and he smiled and used his left arm to hug her tightly too. Lee just looked on contentedly, standing next to Marth.
As much as Marth was enjoying watching his parents and his younger older sister's happy reunion, he knew he had a time limit to comply with, so he coughed pointedly to catch their attention and ran out into the ransacked living room, where the other four people were waiting. Max and Emily looked tense, gripping each other's hands tightly due to nerves, and Tyson and Kenny just looked confused as to what was going on.
"It didn't try and come after us. You four are obviously their main targets," Emily whispered quietly.
"Why us!" Mariah snapped suddenly.
"It isn't random choice you know. You two were chosen because of the close bond you shared when you were my age and because of qualities such as bravery, power, honour, love, compassion, and stuff like that. The other bit beasts from our village choose the two they find most deserving of being the parents of the Kintora and know that those two people will raise the child and or children with all the aforementioned qualities. After you and Dad found out what we are back in our timeline, they didn't wish to put the burden on any more children you may have had after me so you just stopped having children." Marth tried to explain it hastily.
Mariah nodded very slowly.
"So you're saying... that if this crazy scheme works and Trinnie and the soon to be born Kirra and the not yet conceived you grow up in times of peace and don't have to use the powers that you had to use often, Ray and me could have more children?"
"You could have had more children in my time too, but you just chose not to because like I said, it'd just be one more kid to put the burden on. It's really your choice not mine. It wouldn't affect us in any way so if that's what you want that's what you do," said Marth, shrugging it off. "But now we have to leave."
The seven grown up people nodded and Trinny simply yawned and leaned her head against Ray's chest, trying to sleep. Marth summoned his bit beast and commanded everyone to put his or her hand onto its body somewhere. Ray recognised this procedure; it was what Trinity had used to help he and Mariah escape the dungeons of the Demolition Boys base when Mariah had been in labour... that seemed so long ago now...
The nine people and baby crowded around the bit beast, Marth shouted, "Teleportation!" and the small group was gone in a flash of light.
"It's been seven minutes! They are trying my patience, girl," Voltaire snarled at Kirra. Kirra smirked and thought of one of her usual comments to cover up her worry.
"But just think about it, Voltaire. When my brother gets back, you'll have a better fight on your hands and you'll be able to kill all 9 other birds with one stone in the unlikely occurrence that we lose to you."
Voltaire snorted but knew she was right. He would only give them one more minute... but they didn't need that extra minute because suddenly the rest of the rebels were standing there in front of his with determined looked on their faces.
"Ah, so you're back, are you? Too bad the youma didn't kill you; they were useless to me. But now this..." he gestured to the Quadroon. "This is the perfect creation. It is perfectly balanced with extreme power in all fields like attack and defence and agility."
"We're like that to, ya know," Marth smirked as he rejoined his two older sisters.
"You're not nearly its equal!" snapped Voltaire. "You are merely humans!"
"We may be humans, but we're abnormal humans, are we not?" questioned Trinity.
"It is about time that we got down to business, isn't it?" questioned Kirra.
"Give it your best shot!" snapped Voltaire, and, as if on cue, Marth jumped and lunged at the Quadroon. He threw a volley of some sort of glowing light at the Quadroon, but it simply swatted it away with its claw and then did the same with Marth. Marth froze for a moment, as if someone had hit a pause button, before slowly descending back to earth and landing heavily on the ground. He forced himself up onto his knees and coughed violently into his palm, and looked at his hand to see it was covered in the blood he had just coughed up. His eyes widened in an emotion somewhere between surprise and horror.
Kirra felt it was her turn so she jumped at the Creature and just hovered in front of its face for a second. It made a grab for her with its clawed hands but in a flash of light Kirra had disappeared and reappeared behind the Quadroon and given it a sharp kick to its head. It flinched, but spun around quickly and grabbed her around the waist and tossed her away like a rag doll. She was flung over the horizon and behind a few abandoned buildings, and the others looked on, terrified that the strongest people they knew could be so easily dismissed by one entity. Within a second, Kirra had returned, but she had many bruises and was putting pressure on a cut near her shoulder to try and suppress the bleeding.
Trinity gritted her teeth and jumped up at the beast in front of her, firing off a volley of blasts at Quadroon. It simply blinked at the blasts and lunged for her. Trinity darted out of the way at the last minute... she could feel people watching her... her brother and sister... her parents... Kai...
She felt its claws dig through her skin as it grabbed her and flung her down onto the ground. It was lucky that the surface below was sandy and she thanked God that it was. Voltaire appeared momentarily into her line of vision and smirked.
"You first."
He then stepped out of her field of view and the Quadroon charged up a harsh whirlwind attack, much like the one that had caused her father's injuries all those years ago… she simply shut her eyes and prepared for death to take her... she could hear the others shouts and yells but she didn't care...
The Quadroon released the attack and Trinity waited for the pain...
But it never came...
Because Kai had dived on her to protect her. She screamed as she watches injuries spread over his body and his crimson red blood spilled onto her tanned skin. The attack finished and she sat up and grabbed Kai into her embrace, afraid to let him go.
"NO!" she screamed and immediately, tears started flowing unchecked, down her face. She suddenly felt a hand on her cheek, and she looked up to see Kai, who wasn't quite dead yet but looked not to far away from it.
"Just know... that I'll always love you... no matter what..." he whispered and she nodded, and he breathed out his last breath, satisfied.
"No! Oh God, please... not again, I can't lose you again! Please, bring him back!" she screamed, but whoever she was talking to obviously didn't care.
Grief then overcame her and she sobbed openly into his chest for a while... his heartbeat was there but she could barely feel it... it wouldn't take long. Her parents, friends and the younger version of herself simply watched on. The other Bladebreakers looked grief stricken, Mariah and Emily were crying softly, and her siblings simply looked on, apparently unaware of what to say, just simply watching over their older sister. Eventually looked up at the creature that had caused her loved one's near demise, but she didn't look sad. In fact, her face was a mask of complete and utter despite. She stood up, and walked over to her brother and sister. She would bring Kai back. She knew she could. She would avenge him, even if it took every last ounce of strength in her body.
"I know we haven't done this for a long time, but it is time to use our powers to the fullest potential."
Woot. OO That was long. But yeah, next chap is the last one.