Title: Untold Truths
Authoress: Ladya C. Maxine
Rating: PG-13
Summary: see chapter one
Warnings: see chapter one
Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade or any of its characters. All unrecognizable characters belong solely to me and are not to be touched. I am not making any money off of this and I write with the sole intention to entertain.

/Is she there with you/

"Yeah, she's sitting right here in my lap, eating her cereal and watching cartoons. Here, I'll put her on."

Ray tapped Saskia on her shoulder and she craned her neck back to look at him upside down.

"Do you want to say hi to my friend Mariah?"

She smiled and nodded eagerly so he held the phone to her mouth.

"Hi, Mya!" Saskia said cheerfully before handed him back the receiver.

/Oooh, she sounds so adorable/ the Galux blader squealed.

Saskia, who had slept in his room the night before and had taken the role of his alarm clock, woke him that morning. The little bluenette was very excited and for a good reason. Kai was coming home today. And the mysterious Ata was coming with him. She had bounced on his bed in excitement and he couldn't help laughing despite the fact that it was five o'clock in the morning. He didn't know how he did it but he had been able to get her to sleep for a couple more hours before she woke up again at something to eight. Now they were eating breakfast before the TV in the living room. It had taken some time to persuade Natasia but in the end she allowed them to drink and eat around the expensive furniture.

While Saskia was happily munching on her cornflakes, Ray had decided to call his friends in China. He had tried Lee first, but no one picked up. He had been more successful with Mariah.

/I'm glad you're okay, Ray. It's funny, but I felt like I was deserting you when I left that day. I felt as if I needed to look after you, like your my baby brother or something./

"Please, I'm two years older then you!" Ray laughed, careful not to make Saskia lose her balance from where she now perched on one of his stretched legs, eyes still intent on the horses that ran about on the large TV screen. "But I am very touched. I do miss you guys."

/We miss you too. When are you coming home/

Ray sighed.

"Some airlines tried to fly yesterday but the snow was so bad that they were forced to land immediately. It's strange, we had a picnic in the park in the morning and the weather was great. We arrived back at the hotel a heavy blizzard hit about an hour later."

/And Kai is traveling in that weather/

"Kai does whatever he wants, whenever he wants," he said regretfully.

/Just be careful. That evil Boris is still out there and so is Voltaire. I don't think that they took their loss very well./

"Yeah, well..." Ray trailed off when a strange sound reached his ears. Looking around, he quickly tracked it to his lap where Saskia sat hunched over her bowl, her breaths coming out heavy and ragged.

"Saskia? Mariah, I have to call you back."

/What's wrong/

"It's Saskia. I need to go."

/But Ray--/

Ray didn't hear the rest as he hung up just as Saskia's plate fell from her trembling hands onto the carpet, the white milk now pink; blood was dripping from her mouth!

"Saskia?"

His only response was a sudden session of wracking coughs that grew fiercer and fiercer. More blood started to dribble down her chin and she whimpered, clutching her throat.

"Saskia! Natasia!" Ray called as he looked her in the face. Her creamy complexion was now ghostly white and her eyes had rolled back into her head. The heart-shaped lips were bright red with blood.

"Natasia! Ivan!"

He was scared. Saskia was gasping for breath and the blood continued to dribble out of the corners of her mouth. She started to gag on the crimson streams so he turned her over, allowing the blood another escape route other than her windpipe. It helped a bit but still the coughing grated his ears.

The sound of footsteps brought Natasia running into the room, clutching something in her hands. She quickly assessed the situation and kicking away the fallen bowl, she knelt before the panicking blader who held the convulsing body protectively.

"What's wrong with her!" Ray asked, growing more and more worried when Saskia began to cry, choking out sobs.

Natasia didn't answer but placed the items she had brought on the low table; a white paper bag and a brown bottle. She shook the bottle as she opened the bag. To Ray's utter disbelief, she pulled out a wicked looking needle that was at least three inches long, its sharp point gleaming. Holding the bottle upside down she pushed the needle through the plastic top and withdrew a maximum capacity of green liquid.

Saskia cried loudly in between her coughs and her hands were squeezing her throat so hard that Ray feared that she would suffocate herself. Her body was convulsing violently and his hands, arms and shirt was covered in her blood.

"What's happening!" he shouted, frustrated when Natasia didn't reply but just then Ivan ran in from upstairs. Large strides brought him over to the couch and he took the small girl from Ray's reluctant arms.

Needle ready, Natasia stepped closer to Ivan and stroked Saskia's hair. Scared and hurting pink eyes watched the needle warily. Gagging on the blood, she turned to bury her face in Ivan's chest. The man rubbed her back comfortingly, his crisp white shirt smeared with the blood from her face.

Natasia pushed away the loose blue hair, exposing a slender neck. Gingerly, her index and middle finger felt the neck bone. She nodded to Ivan who secured his hold on the trembling body.

Ray could only stand there, horrified as the long needle was slipped between two vertebrae discs in the pale neck. He felt sick and almost threw up when Saskia let out a strangled shriek before going limp in the old man's arms.

Natasia injected the remaining fluid and withdrew the needle from the still body, wiping the spot with an alcohol soaked cotton ball. She then felt for a pulse and, finding it, she let out a relieved breath and confirmed the child's condition to Ivan.

"What...what's w-wrong with her?" He could not remember having ever felt so scared and useless in his life as he did now.

"Saskia suffers from acute bronchitis. I fear that we might have stayed outside in the cold air too long yesterday," Natasia said in a tone that meant that she didn't want to talk about it.

"Bronchitis? I've never seen or heard of such a violent attack," Ray said, watching as Ivan gently moved Saskia in a more comfortable position in his arms as he answered.

"Miss Saskia is a very fragile creature. The coughing fits easily tear her throat's walls and thus the bleeding."

"Why don't you use an inhaler or something? Why a needle?"

Something just didn't make sense here and he believed that the two elders were hiding something.

"You wouldn't understand, Master Ray. Her condition is incredibly unstable. Ordinary medication don't work for her."

"But--"

"Enough, Ray!" Natasia snapped and he fell silent. The lady took the child from Ivan, whispering rapidly in Russian but Ray's hearing picked up Kai's name once or twice.

"I will bathe her and put her to bed."

With that she turned and whisked the little bluenette away.

Ray stood there, stunned. He had never seen Natasia lose her temper and certainly not at him. He couldn't help it, he was also worried and no one seemed willing to fill him in. Feeling unexplainably miserable, he turned to Ivan who was wiping his bloodied hands off on a handkerchief.

"Perhaps you should take a bath as well, Master Ray," Ivan said as he started to collect the abandoned breakfast plates.

"I'm sorry," Ray said softly as he crouched down to help.

"None of this is your fault."

"I shouldn't have pried."

"Natasia is not angry at you. She is simply upset. It always upsets her when this happens." Ivan placed everything on a tray and stood. He offered the young man an encouraging smile. "Do not fret, Master Ray. Natasia will calm down and Miss Saskia will recover. She always does."

"Is she sleeping now?"

"Yes. The serum we have given her relaxes the muscles in order to do its work properly. She should be awake within the next two or three hours."

The butler turned to bring the tray to the kitchen and to get the something to clean the carpet which was stained with milk and splatters of blood.

"Um, Ivan. If she had bronchitis...why was she given a needle in her neck?"

The man stopped and shook his head softly.

"Some things are best left untold."

Ray was left standing in the room, rubbing a bare and goose bump covered arm uncertainly. The joyful music from the TV annoyed him and he turned it off and started for his room to take a bath but the items on the table caught his curiosity.

Looking over his shoulder to make sure that no one was there he picked up the small bottle and checked its label. The printed letters were all Russian. No help there. He sniffed the top. This was not medicine. It had a smell to it that was more like...like...a cleaning solution?

'What the heck is going on?'

Snow covered hills and trees flew past as the train barreled down the tracks, going as fast as the conductor dared in this weather. Luckily, the tracks were heated and that prevented snow from collecting or ice from forming on the rails, which would be disastrous. A mighty whistle broke through the air as they swept through the countryside. The cold winds howled angrily at the passengers of the ultramodern speed train as they easily cut through them.

Outside the thundering of the train was deafening but inside it was quiet and calm. Passengers slept, read, talked or simply looked out the window at the winter wonderland that was Russia. The economy cabins were moderately full but the business class was completely empty with the exception of two.

The seats they sat on had piles of paperwork stacked up and the rhythmic clatter of a keyboard was the only sound the pair made.

Behind the business-like glasses, calculating eyes roved the screen before him as he searched for the needed information. He had been on his laptop since waking up this morning and now two hours into their trip he was still busy. He had at least 10 discs already with useful information that he would have to print out once they got to Kai's home. The phoenix himself was silently going through his own collection of finds, putting the important ones to one side and throwing the others in the paper basin beside his seat.

A ring broke the silence and Kai picked up his cell he had sitting near his wallet on the bench beside him.

"Yes Ivan?...When!...Did you give her the YY-10 serum?...And how is she now?...Alright, we should be arriving within the next two hours. Have Jeremei be there on time...Yes; Ata is with me...Alright then. Thank you for notifying me."

He hung up, rubbing his aching eyes.

"She had another seizure?" a soft voice asked after a few moments of silence.

"They had to use the YY-23 to calm her." He slammed his fist against the cabin wall. "Dammit! She cannot take much more of this! With every minute that passes they are closer to getting her and the closer they get, the lower the chances are that we can get her free."

The boy opposite him remained silent, knowing that his friend needed to vent out his frustration.

"If only I hadn't been so stupid! I caused this! I screwed up her life! They wanted her to be like me. They tried to make her like me and in the end only succeeded in destroying her. She depends on me and I going to let her down. I am what he says. I am weak."

A sudden sting on his painted cheek caught him off guard as a hand connected with his skin. He fixed a stunned, and slightly insulted, glare at Ata who calmly resumed his seat. Removing his glasses, a sign that he was dead serious, Ata folded his arms.

"Stop bitching, Kai. This is your sister's fate you are talking about. You cannot face this half-heartedly. Either you are positive or you are negative. You are the captain of the world champion Bladebreakers. If you think that I will sit here and watch you pity it all away then you've got another thing coming."

Still fuming at the slap, Kai sighed.

"Sometimes you are too damn smart for your own good."

"I'm too damn good for my own good," came the cocky reply and Kai raised a brow.

"You sound like Tyson."

"Now that is an insult."

Kai chuckled and returned to his papers, allowing the clatter of keyboard keys to help him focus.

Ray knocked on the pink doors softly and a voice bade him entrance.

"Natasia?"

He stepped onto the soft carpet and closed the door behind him. Again the smell of fresh flowers in an English garden invaded his senses and he felt himself relax a bit. Remembering why he was there, he walked across the room and climbed the three steps to the pedestal.

The chubby cook sat on a stool next to the bed, a hand gently brushing the purple bangs of the small figure as she hummed softly, more to comfort herself then the soundly sleeping child. When the newcomer didn't come nearer she looked up, a bit confused.

"Come and have a seat, Ray," she smiled and gestured to the edge of the bed

"Yes, Natasia." The Chinese blader nodded and sat down but didn't relax. The red-haired woman thought he looked like a beaten puppy (or kitten), those golden eyes kept down and on Saskia, trying hard not to make her lash out at him again.

"I'm sorry, Ray," she started but he only nodded, keeping his eyes down. "I shouldn't have ever taken my anxiety out on you. You didn't know what was going on and was only worried about Saskia like Ivan and I were."

"I could have at least help. I just stood there."

Smiling sadly, she leaned over and pushed a lock of his loosely bound hair behind his ears. That same hand captured his chin and she tilted his head up to look her in the eyes, gold meeting jade.

"You did the right thing, even if you didn't know it. You would have most likely gotten in the way if you had tried to help us. Ivan and I have helped Saskia through many of these seizures and know how to handle it. It was very wise of you to hold her face down so she wouldn't choke on her own blood."

She fell silent and they remained quiet for several minutes, watching Saskia as she lay in her king sized bed, Mica resting at her side.

Ray was glad that Natasia wasn't really mad at him. He had only been here for a few days but these people had become rather close to him. Saskia, Natasia, Ivan, Jeremei and... He sighed and shook his head. Not Kai. The enigma seemed to have grown even more distant from him then ever and that hurt. The memory of playing pool with the older boy was the only real interaction he's had with Kai during his stay here.

'Why do I want to be friends with Kai? He's so cold and anti-social some times. He never sees humor in anything, except when it is ridiculing someone else. He does whatever he wants and doesn't care what happens to others.'

He looked over at Saskia.

'Well, maybe the last one isn't true. He does care about Saskia a lot. But she is his sister. It is only natural for him to love her. Why can't he act that way towards others? He never opens up. He just keeps to himself.'

"Ray?"

"Yeah?"

"I have to go get some things ready. Kai will be arriving within a couple of hours. Can you stay with Saskia? I don't want her to wake up alone."

"Sure. No problem."

"Thank you. The medication should wear off soon. Here are some pills and a glass of water she has to take when she wakes up. Only after she has taken it can you give her the pudding."

"Okay."

Ray took Natasia's chair when she rose and left the room. Sitting there he looked at his little friend. If possible she looked even more angelic as she laid there amongst the pastel colored pillows and sheets.

"What are you hiding from me?" he asked the girl but of course she didn't respond. "Why do I feel that you are so much more then just Saskia Hiwatari?"

Sitting back in his chair, he reviewed what he had observed so far.

Saskia was deaf and had an obviously extremely fragile health balance. She hadn't always been deaf; he had figured that out the night when she told him about Kai teaching her that song. She had been kept a secret from the rest of the world as if Kai was afraid of something. Was it the Abbey? He remembered Kai's reaction to that question his first day here. And what about the fact that she knew Bryan? She had admitted knowing the Demolition Boys. So she must have been in the Abbey. She spoke of bad people making Bryan the way he is today; these were no doubt Boris' goons.

And what about Kai? That was a whole other mystery. What was he doing? Going about town all day. Staying up all night for several days locked up in the study. Traveling to St. Petersburg to pick up unknown people who apparently could help him with whatever he was up to. Ray had never seen Kai so...business-like. Ray recalled what Mr. Zalm, the kind man they had met in the hotel upon arriving, had said; 'Congratulations with your court victory.' Kai had not told him what that had been all about.

To sum everything up this was what he knew; Saskia…Kai…Abbey…court cases.

'Damn it! There are too many open blanks!'

Ray laid his head in folded arms on the bed as the overload of information overwhelmed him. It was so frustrating!

Saskia turned in her sleep and her hand blindly sought out something and settled on his hair that rested on the mattress. Her little fingers wound through the rich tresses and she sighed in content. Watching her sleep Ray himself felt a little tired. Removing his shoes, he climbed onto the bed and lay down beside her. As always, she sensed him and moved closer until she buried his face in the crook of his neck. Ray smiled and ran his fingers through her hair before allowing himself a little rest also.

His cat nap would have been longer had something not tug on his hair.

'One of these days I'm gonna cut it all off.'

He swore to himself and opened a sleepy eye. Pink greeted him and he sighed.

'Way to go, master babysitter! Sleep the day away while your charge has just recovered from a major attack.'

Saskia didn't seem to mind, however, since she had once again claimed all grooming rights to his hair. There were no plaits or ribbons this time, thank God. Instead, she was simply satisfied with combing and brushing the black locks till they shone. The pudding bowl was empty and so was the glass of water and the pills were gone. He hoped she had taken them in the sequence that Natasia had told him.

"Ray hair long," Saskia observed as she moved closer to brush the top while trying not to kneel on the hair that splayed over the sheets. When she was pleased with the back she crawled onto his lap to work on his bangs, carefully handling the brush so as not to scrape his face.

"Your hair is long also," Ray said as he picked up a brush to return the favor. "Do you like long hair?"

"Uh-huh. I comb me hair everyday five times." She held up five fingers for emphasis.

"That's a lot."

"Uh-huh. Sometimes Kai comb my hair for me too."

"Why?" Another Kai-behavior-trivia.

"Kai have no long hair."

'Lucky guy.'

It was true. Long hair was nice but so much work that sometimes he just wanted to scream and rip it all out. He remembered waking up in the room he shared with Kai during tournaments and envying how the team captain had only to simply run his hand through his hair and it would behave. Kai made everything look so easy.

"I like Kai short hair," Saskia continued unaware of his momentary lack of attention. "Kai looks pretty with short hair, yes?" She turned innocent pink eyes at him.

Oh boy, question of the year. How to answer that?

"Uh...Kai's a...and I'm also..."

She cocked her head at his jumbled response. He felt a blush spreading. What was wrong with him? This was a child for crying out loud! She had simply asked him a harmless question. He could answer that, couldn't he?

"Yes, Kai is pretty with short hair," he finally said. He couldn't deny that. As much as he wanted to, he could not.

Kai was exceptionally good looking. Those deep rare crimson eyes, the light blue bangs that swept before them, the strong jaw and smooth complexion. Lips that when smiling, which was very rare, looked so good that Ray couldn't help staring. And that body...How could Kai have such a perfectly toned body when all he did was stand around all day with his arms crossed? He had once seen Kai in only a bath towel and had been mesmerized by the phoenix's curves and--

What the hell was he thinking about! It is one thing to admit another guy to be good looking, but it was a whole other story when you started to worship those looks.

Luckily for him, Saskia's attention was diverted as she looked at her wrist or, more specifically, at the watch/hailing device. Her eyes brightened considerably as it trembled for the fourth time.

"They here!"

Before he could make a grab for her, she jumped off the bed and ran out of the room. That medication must have been a very potent one indeed. Just an hour ago she looked to be too close to death's door for comfort.

Ray stood and looked for his hair band but couldn't find it. Where did Saskia put it? No time to look for it now. He quickly swept back his hair behind his ears and out of his face. He never liked wearing his hair loose but he had no choice now.

Sighing, he headed towards the living room where he heard Natasia and Ivan talking amiably with Kai and Ata. Hearing his team captain's deep voice made something flutter in his stomach and he couldn't help checking to make sure he was presentable before continuing.

Saskia's squeal of delight signified that she had reached them already.

"Kai!"

More chattering before...

"Ata!"

Yup, she was obviously thrilled to have him here too. Why had Kai never mentioned anything about this Ata if he was so close to the bluenette and his family?

Stepping into the lively living room, his eyes fixed immediately on Kai who stood talking with Natasia as he shrugged off his heavy coat. Ivan was putting the bags out of the pathway. And Saskia had made herself comfortable on...Ata's...hip...!

Ray blinked as he took in the newcomer who noticed his presence though he hadn't made a sound. Ice blue eyes turned on him from behind thin-framed glasses.

Ray's mouth fell open.

'No…way…'

Finding his voice he was only able to form one coherent word,

"Tala!"

Tbc...

Read & Review, please.