Rectification

Written by Finni
Genre: Angst/Romance

Rated PG – PG-13 for character angst, dark themes, and violence
Disclaimer: Beyblade and all recognizable characters, settings, and situations © TAKARA / Beyblade Project, Hudson Soft and TV Tokyo. All rights reserved. I do not claim any of the aforementioned in any way, shape, or form.  Korudo, Kire, Rise, and Touji are © Finni and cannot be used without my permission.
Summary:  Korudo is given a chance to go back to the past and she immediately accepts, hoping she can prevent her brother's death, but something goes terribly wrong.  Kai X Korudo(OC)

A/N:  (For full warnings/rants, please read the author's note in part 1) Well, this would have been up sooner, only I lost the file when I was about halfway through this chapter.  Then I decided to drop it for a while.  Then I picked it up while on a 4 hour road trip and I had a laptop with me.  Yes, I know, and then I felt like I had to write something so here I am.  I'll update LotEB... later. 

I'm sorry for how out of character Kai is!  I'm trying to make him still angsty-tough-guy-ish but hey, this is my first shot at a romance fic, so let me be!  ^_^;; No really, I'm sorry about the OOC-ness of Kai.  Anyhow, read, review, and enjoy!

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"What did you do with her!?" yelled Kai as he ran as fast as he could down the alleyway, darker and darker as he progressed further in.  The man had a sly smirk on his face, and was fingering something in his pockets with one of his many-ringed fingers.

It didn't take much time for Kai's legs to carry him to the old man, who he immediately grabbed the collar of and, though of similar heights, towered over him like a hawk and its prey. 

"Tell me what you did with her!"

He smirked back.  "She said she wanted it," and shrugged it off as if it was common practice.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear," Kai tightened his grip and started pulling the man's closer to him.  An old smell of fumes radiated off of his body, and Kai winced slightly when coming into contact with the stench.  He repeated his words slowly.  "Tell me what you did with her."

"And what if I don't tell?"

A fist connected to the man's face, followed by a blur of red from the blue-haired boy's brightly colored hand guards, and if one were watching from afar, they would have thought Kai was beating on the man.  His hood fell back and pair of yellow, slit-like eyes were exposed and he hissed a hoarse sound from his throat.

A red rock he was fingering fell out of his pocket, glowing strangely. 

Bewildered at this sight, Kai picked up the stone and upon touching it, he felt the heat from his hand suddenly drain away.  Though the stone was fire red at sight, it felt ice cold to the touch.  "What's this supposed to be?" questioned Kai.

The old man did nothing again but smirk.  "She won't be able to return without it.  She'll be trapped in a realm of her own memories forever."

Kai's mouth hung open in shock until he realized in his mind that he was never going to see Korudo again.  And she hadn't even apologized to him for what she did!  And he had never – it couldn't end here!  And there he stood, unable to stop her from entering a world where she was to be tortured over and over, witnessing her brother's death?

"I'm going after her, and you're going to help me," Kai stated in a demanding tone, grabbing the man by the hem of his coat, dragging him deeper and deeper into the dark alley.

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The sky was raining again.  The heavens were crying onto the shadow of the past as Korudo ran, desperately through the alleys of her familiar childhood.  Korudo's beloved silver locket bounced up and down against her beating chest, her left hand clutching onto the glowing green stone and eyes squinting through the wet droplets of the rain, she ran as fast as her legs could take her.  Dark violet hair flew through the air, wet and tangled as faint yells were heard in the distance.

There.  I'm coming, big brother.

"I told you to leave Korudo out of this, Touji."  Korudo listened to the sound of her brother's voice echoing, as if it were just an illusion – no, it couldn't be.  She had to save him.  She had to stop this fight.  An amused chuckle soon followed.

"You're such the brave one when it comes to your little sister, huh?" Touji mocked, cocking his head to the right and cracking his knuckles.  "It's so amusing to see someone as well respected as you become degraded to a pathetic brother whenever she's in danger."

"Back off, Touji!" yelled Hawk, who Korudo had not seen in years.  She looked just as she remembered her when Kire's gang, the Talons, were still together – short blonde hair and white headband, but with dark brown eyes that Korudo had admired when she was younger. 

The members of the TigerEyes gang laughed.  "Having your girlfriend fight your battles for you, eh?  You really are weak, Kire."

"Shut the fuck up, you bastards," Rise shouted from Kire's right, fists raised and ready to fight. 

"Make us."

"You'll regret this later, you know."

"Oh shut up, Kire.  We're going to settle this once and for all."

Korudo was watching from afar when she realized this was her chance to stop it all from happening.  She darted around the corner, across the crates in time to see Touji land the first blow on Kire, who caught his gloved fist with his forearm, causing it to drip in blood.  "I didn't want to do this, Touji." 

The raven-haired boy narrowed his glare and spit nastily between Kire's eyes, catching onto the lavender hair that fell between.  Kire's eyes focused and filled with anger.  "I'll make sure you never lay a hand on Korudo again," he said before bringing his left hand to swing across the side of Touji's face, knocking him onto the ground.  The fight had begun.

Korudo stood there, frozen, unable to move.  All this for my sake?  Why are you fighting him, Kire?  Why don't you just let me get hurt?  Don't—  Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar scream – Rise brought his left hand up to the side of his face, covered in blood.  His opponent had drawn a knife and slashed him on the side of the face; the wound that would result in the all-too-familiar scar that Korudo saw daily.

"YOU BASTARD!  I'LL KILL YOU!" Rise yelled as he himself drew a knife from his pocket and swiped another guy straight across the stomach, causing him to bend over, clutching his abdomen.  The air filled with the humidity of the rain and the metallic smell of blood.  Crimson liquid flowed down the storm drains, fusing with the dirty rainwater.  It wasn't long until everyone else started drawing their weapons, teeth bared. 

Move.  Move!  What are you doing just standing here!? MOVE!!

She jumped from her observation spot and ran towards Kire, locked in combat with Touji.  "Big brother!" she yelled as loud as she could.  "Stop this! You're going to get killed!!" Kire paid no attention to her as he crouched and tried to knock Touji off his feet with a low kick. 

"Kire! Why aren't you listening to me!?"  Korudo reached out to grab his arm to stop the fight, until she realized what was really happening. 

Her hand phased right through Kire's body. 

She stood there, tears trickling down the sides of her face while the rain continued to soak her from head to toe.  He couldn't see her.  He couldn't feel her.  He couldn't hear her choking sobs and the desperate cries of longing that she was trying so hard not to show.

Korudo tried to hold him, tried to hug him for what it was worth, but she only felt herself falling through her older brother and landing on the cold, wet ground below.  She had passed completely through his body.  She had tried to hold onto her older brother who only looked a year older than she was now but yet –

Yet she wanted to stop it so badly.  Korudo lay on the ground, sobbing, looking up at the sky and crying, asking over and over why she couldn't stop it.  Why!?  God, please just give me this chance.  You've never given me anything before.  Just give me this chance.  Please...

She watched in horror as Hawk pulled out her beloved throwing knives, locked it between the knuckles of her fingers and stabbed them into the chest of her offender, who fell over, gasping in pain.  She watched as Rise, still clutching the side of his face, hands stained in blood, yelled as another person clawed his right arm fiercely.  She cried at Kire's bloody appearance, clothing tattered at the sleeves, bruises surfacing and cuts bleeding. 

Korudo gasped but was unable to stop anything when Touji pulled out a gun, looked Kire in the eye, smirked, and pulled the trigger.

She ran and cried and screamed when the loud bang was heard and Kire's eyes suddenly opened wide, body completely frozen on the spot.  A small red bubble foamed its way out from his mouth, grew larger and larger, and then popped as he fell over on his back, completely still.

She knelt by his side and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Rise!  Hawk!  Gene!  Piere!  Kire's – he's dead!" only to remember that no one could hear her or see her.  And she tried to hold his face, tried to hold back her tears, tried to tell herself that this was all just an illusion but couldn't.  She watched her teardrops fall through Kire's pale face while raindrops kept splattering.  She tried to bend over and hold her older brother and sob again and again, saying how sorry she was, how this couldn't be happening, only to realize, again, that her body passed completely through his. 

She realized, again, how completely helpless and weak she was as Rise was the first to notice the fallen Kire. 

"Hawk! Kire- I think he's –" yelled Rise as he abandoned all thought and ran to Kire's side while Touji was still pointing his gun at Kire's lifeless body.  Hawk was unable to say anything as she dropped her knives on the ground with a loud clang and immediately dashed to where Kire lay. 

Korudo watched in horror as Rise was able to examine Kire's body, putting his hand through her body as if she didn't even exist – in fact, Korudo was quite sure that she didn't exist at this point – and a single teardrop fell from his right eye.  She had never seen Rise cry before.  And here he was, left face covered in blood, entire body battered, bruised, wet, and crying. 

Hawk fell to her knees in disbelief, bringing her hands to her mouth and taking in every one of Rise's words: "He's dead."

"And if you don't move over, I'll kill you too," came Touji's low voice as he cocked the gun and pointed it at Rise's head.  The eagle-eyed boy held the left side of his head in pain and stood aside.  As the black haired boy towered over Kire's dead body, the sounds of sirens were heard in the distance.

"Shit! The cops!"

"Scram, you idiots!" yelled Touji as his gang dispersed and left the Talons standing there, shocked, in the rain, over the body of their dead leader.  And beyond what their eyes could see, Korudo laid on top of her brother's body, crying though she wanted to stop, unable to control the feeling that it was her fault her brother was dead.  Only this time, she witnessed what happened.  She was there the whole time and was still unable to do anything to stop it.  She was totally and completely helpless. 

She looked up at Rise, who held in his arms Hawk, who was crying uncontrollably.  But Rise was not crying anymore.  The only thing that dripped from the side of his face were the never-ending droplets of rain and a clear trail of blood from his left side.  As Korudo looked up, Rise turned his amber gaze away, unable to look at Kire's beaten body any longer, and urged the rest of the members to leave before the police approached any closer.

Then suddenly, Korudo's world started to dissolve.  Kire's body disappeared from below her, and the surroundings of the pier phased into the little alley where she had… first begun…

Oh God, please tell me this isn't happening...

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A/N: Okay! So I'm bad at writing!   Yes very interesting, again, sorry about Kai's OOC-ness.  It'll only get mushier from here on.  Anyhow, please review and make me one happy Finni!