Seventeen

Fuel emotions, killing me
Pure devotion, cut and bleed,
You're the crystal, the ecstasy,
The drug that keeps feeding me.
So come on.

Torn together we sow the seed,
Bring the pleasure back for free,
The world is frozen but
I can taste new life every time I breathe

Another blood red morning awoke the hospital-ridden Bladebreakers. With the Demolition Boys and Ray and Kenny well on the way to recovery, they were due for dismissal that afternoon, after spending a lot longer than expected in the hospital to start with. It was because they refused to leave without Tyson, Max and Kai, but seeing as leaving with Kai was no longer an option, they just had to settle for Max and Tyson, who were being brought off of the drips today and being dismissed also. They just had to rest, but at least this meant they could be around Kai more often. Ray, Kenny and the Demolition Boys were already out of their beds and back on their feet, and out of sheer anger over what Mariah had said the day before, Ray had torn at most of the flowers she had given him. He had needed the opportunity to vent his frustration.

"Shall we go and see Tyson and Max now?" Kenny suggested. Tala nodded.

"The quicker we get out of this place the better. I know The Abbey is a scary place, but I was never really all for hospitals either," Tala replied. They all walked out of the room and down the corridor to Max and Tyson's room. There was a not on the door, stating that the pair were due for dismissal this afternoon. Considering it was only 9am, they were going to have a long wait.

"You guys up yet?" Ray smiled, opening the door without knocking. Indeed Max was up, but as for Tyson…

"He's been snoring so loudly!" Max hissed, almost laughing as he did so. "He didn't sleep too good last night, which was strange for Tyson. I think he's concerned about Kai, and that he won't be leaving with us today."

"Kai isn't ready to leave yet, he's still very weak," Ray said, a tinge of concern creeping into his voice. Suddenly Tyson's snoring stopped, and he appeared to be in the middle of a nightmare. His expression seemed pained, and he sounded distraught, muttering incoherencies under his breath.

"Tyson?" Max called over to his sleeping friend softly, but there was no response…

~~*+*~~

Tyson was stood inside a church. He could hear the rain falling heavily on the tiled roof above him. It was a dismal day. Tyson looked up the aisle and saw Max, Ray and Kenny coming down towards him.

'Hey guys! What's up? You look so down…' Tyson trailed off his sentence when they seemed to walk right through him. Was this a bad dream? They looked upset. 'Oh lord…I'm not dead am I?' Tyson nervously made his way up the aisle, his footsteps echoing through the vast church. At the very top, near the pulpit, was a coffin. 'That's it. I'm dead.' but as Tyson continued his approach, he caught a glimpse of two-tone slate coloured hair, and a pale tattooed face.

'Oh my god…' Tyson gasped, clamping a hand over his mouth. 'Kai!'

"They say he committed suicide," Tyson heard a priest tell a local what had happened to Kai. "The nurses found him overdosed on morphine in his room and they couldn't revive him."

"That is such a shame," the woman sighed. "Young teenage men like him shouldn't be killing themselves. He'd barely lived his life, why did he feel the need to end it?"

"From what I've heard, life dealt him a rough hand. Apparently his father abused his mother, and is the prime suspect for this case."

"You mean it may be murder?!"

"Maybe. But all the evidence points to suicide: the missing tablets, the smashed glass, the glass remnants found in the cuts on Kai's hands…"

'Why…' Tyson turned away from this conversation and back to the body of his dead friend. 'Why would I dream of Kai killing himself? Is this a dream? It feels too real to be.' cold tears tore down Tyson's face.

"Isn't it sad Tyson?" a familiar voice interjected. Tyson turned to see Hideaki behind him. "Poor Kai…"

'You…you bastard…you killed him didn't you?!' Tyson fumed.

"I didn't get close enough. I must admire his ability to take matters into his own hands though. He saw he had nothing left to live on for, so he terminated his pathetic excuse for an existence. His life energy was drained out from my machine, and my Bit Beast army is now ready to attack!"

'Kai _did_ have something left to live for! Us!'

"He obviously didn't see things that way."

'I _know_ Kai respects us. He may not show it, but he does. He appreciates us, and he'd never kill himself!'

"Well, wake up then."

~~*+*~~

"Kai!!" Tyson yelled out as he bolted upright. He was well and truly awake now. It _had_ all been a bad dream.

"Whoa, Tyson, you OK?" Max asked in a concerned manner.

"Was Kai in your dream?" Ray asked.

"We got concerned when the snoring stopped," Kenny added, trying to lighten the mood.

"Kai was there…" Tyson replied, rubbing his forehead. "He was dead. We were at his funeral. He killed himself. Hideaki showed up. He started trying to tell me Kai doesn't care about us…"

"You know that's not true!" Max interjected. "Besides, it's Hideaki! He's a big fat liar anyway!"

"Max is right," Tala agreed. "Hideaki is not to be trusted."

"Can we…go and see Kai?" Tyson asked cautiously.

"Tyson! Kai hasn't committed suicide! That was a dream!" Bryan tried to reassure Tyson, but he still wanted to check, to be safe. They all followed Tyson out and up to Kai's room door. Tyson slowly opened it, and found Kai unconscious on the bed. What no one caught on to straight away was the heart monitor. The bleeping had stopped, and it was just registering one long monotonous-sounding line. And that was bad.

"Kai!!!!" Tyson cried out in horror, noticing the heart monitor and the long drawn out noise. Tyson shook Kai repeatedly. "Kai!! Kai this isn't funny! Stop playing around!" suddenly Tyson noticed the broken glass on the floor, and the cuts on Kai's hand. "Oh shit…" Tyson cursed. "It…wasn't a dream…"

"What?!!" Ray cried out in horror.

"Just get a doctor…NOW RAY!!!" Tyson bellowed to Ray, and he darted out of the room and down the corridor. "What idiot leaves a guy like Kai alone in a room with a bottle of morphine pills?!!" Tyson growled. Within moments, three doctors and two nurses were in the room, and they ushered everyone out.

"Kai…" Max looked at the closed door, unable to believe Kai had taken his own life. Tyson's fists were clenched furiously. He _had_ to be in there. For Kai. Ray felt the same way. He was the closest to Kai out of the group, and he wanted his friend to be alright. Tyson and Ray took matters into their own hands, and stormed in, making sure the others remained outside. They watched on as all sorts of chaos ensued.

"We need to get his heart beating again, then focus on getting the morphine out of his system," one doctor said.

"Charge the defibrillators. OK, and clear!" another doctor started to try and jump-start Kai's heart with defibrillators.

"No pulse, no respiratory action," a nurse replied back.

"Again. Clear!" the doctor tried again. Still nothing.

'Don't quit Kai…' Ray thought. 'Dranzer please…don't let him quit…' Ray had almost totally forgotten that he still had Dranzer. He delved into his pocket and pulled out the blue Beyblade. Dranzer's bit seemed to glow, as if he wanted to be released to protect Kai. 'I know you want to be there for Kai Dranzer, but we can't do anything for him now but hope.' they tried the defibrillators twice more, still with no luck.

"Kai don't give up!!" Ray yelled, as the doctor tried once again. A loud bleep was heard, emanating from the heart monitor. Then another. Then another.

"Pulse rate is climbing, respiratory functions slow," the nurse replied.

"Kai!!" Tyson called out in joy. Kai was alive. Just about.

"You two should leave now," a nurse looked over to Tyson and Ray, a supportive smile on her face. "Your friend will be in good hands now, don't worry." and so Tyson and Ray ushered themselves out.

"Are you two _insane_?! Or are you just stupid?!" Ian hissed. "What did you go and do that for?!"

"I refuse to let Kai quit on us!" Ray stated, glaring daggers over in Ian's direction. Tyson nodded in whole-hearted agreement.

"But Ray…" Max began. Ray turned to face his troubled blonde friend. "Maybe Kai…maybe Kai wants to die now…he's been through so much these last few weeks…"

"Shut up _now_ Max! Don't you even _think_ of finishing that sentence!!" Ray snapped.

"Ray there was no need to snap at Max!" Kenny argued. "Max has a good point. Kai is in a lot of pain, that much is evident from his suicide attempt. He's losing his mind now, and he'll keep trying to kill himself until he succeeds. Only Kai knows how he feels Ray. And he must be feeling awful to want to kill himself. I mean, Kai is so together and seems to be a lot more level-headed than to drop to killing himself just to--" Kenny's argument was cut short as Ray's hand impacted with his face. Everyone gasped in horror.

"Ray!! What did you do that for?!!" Max fumed, pulling Kenny back to his feet, Kenny nursing his sore cheek.

"I don't have to listen to him bullshitting on about how Kai hasn't got a hope in heaven of living! Kai won't give up! He's too strong for that!" Ray snapped back, his anger mounting.

"Ray…you didn't have to hurt Kenny to get your point across," Tyson said, looking to the angered Chinese teen. "I want Kai to live as much as you do, but they have a right to their opinion. Don't beat them up for it."

"I don't have to stand here and listen to this! I'm out of here!" and so Ray stormed past them and out of the hospital.

"Ray!" Tyson called, about to go after him, but Tala's heavy hand fell on his shoulder.

"Leave him Tyson," Tala said, looking off in the direction where Ray had gone. "Let him have time to cool down…"

~~***~~

Ray had stormed away furiously from the centre of Moscow. Before long, he came across a small church, that looked so beautiful topped in the freshly fallen snow. Feeling a compelling urge for peace and silence, Ray went in and took to wandering the cemetery. Despite the frost and chill of the season, the graves of those who rested here were decorated with beautiful fresh flowers. All of the people here had to be missed. The thought of laying Kai to rest here boiled Ray's blood. Kai wasn't old enough o die yet. He had barely started to live. He came across a decadent-looking headstone, that was carved in the shape of an angel. The angel seemed to be holding her hands out to Ray. Ray knelt down and read the inscription carved at the angel's feet.

"Here rests the body of Aoi Hiwatari…" Ray's eyes widened, unable to believe what he was seeing. But before Kai had come to Russia he had lived in Japan with his parents. Why was Kai's mother buried here, in Russia?

"Such a pretty young woman," an old man interrupted Ray's thoughts, noticing whose grave Ray was examining. The old man was clearing the footpath of snow. He stopped and looked over at Ray. "She lit up so many lives. That son of hers was her greatest treasure, by far."

"Did you know her?" Ray asked.

"Oh aye, I knew her. I'm not Russian myself, but her mother was, and so was she. She was born not too far from here. I remember that."

"She died in Japan though…"

"Oh her father was Japanese. He moved them all out there when she was a teenager, and that's where she met him."

"Hideaki?"

"That's the one. He was always a nasty piece of work. I was a good friend of her family, and it broke my heart to have to bury her here. Her little boy looked totally devastated."

"Kai…"

"Yeah! That's his name! World champion Beyblader I hear he is now. Teamed up with the Bladebreakers."

"I'm one of the Bladebreakers…I'm a friend of Kai's, my name is Ray."

"I thought you were. My grandchildren are into Beyblading. They love it."

"Well…yeah so do I…" Ray's gaze fell to the floor. Kai's condition still troubled him. Did this man already know though?

"You seem troubled by something. What's wrong?" the old man asked, taking a seat on the bench opposite Aoi's grave, and ushering for Ray to join him.

"It's Kai…he's very badly hurt and everyone thinks he's going to die…" Ray began, taking a seat beside the old man.

"Oh, I bet Hideaki planned his death right from the word go," the man replied, pointing to an empty spot beside Aoi. "That's for Kai. For all these years its been kept for him, and now it looks like he's gonna be using it."

"But…he can't die!!" Ray protested.

"Ray you can't change life, nor can you prevent it from ending. If nature calls for Kai to die, then there is nothing you can do to stop it. This must be Kai's turn. God has decided."

"This isn't fair…" Ray felt tears trail down his frost-stung cheeks.

"Life is full of meetings and partings. That is the way of it. You have to make the most of the time you have left with Kai, and you have to learn how to say goodbye."

"It's too hard!"

"Who said dying was easy? Imagine how Kai would feel if you got all over-emotional on him?"

"He'd hate me for that."

"Well then. If there was ever an opportune moment to learn how to let go, you're in it." Ray blinked furiously to try and prevent an outburst or tears. This old man was right. He knew he was. It was just hard to accept. "I'll be here to see to his grave if and when he does die. Like I've been seeing to his mother's for all these years."

"Thanks for the talk," Ray smiled, brushing his eyes dry. "But tell me…why was she brought here? She could have just been buried in Japan."

"Because Russia was her home. She would have wanted it that way. For her, and for Kai." the old man smiled and pulled himself to his feet. "Well I have work to do, and so do you." Ray nodded. Yes, he did. They said their farewells and Ray walked off back towards the hospital. For Kai's sake he had to do it. He had to let go. He had to say goodbye.

Nobody ever said

Life would be easy

New people

New faces

New dreams

New places

Just keep in your heart

Those you hold dear

So even if they

Are to disappear

They'll never be gone

They'll never go far

Just look deep within you

And you'll see your star

SN: Here's part 17! After some personal emotional turmoil involving next door's puppy being killed, it's finally been posted. And have I not already said there will be NO pairings in this fic? No Ray/Kai, and no Tyson/Kai either. No way. I said it would be clean (haha) and so it shall. Lyrics in first paragraph are from Helium by Feeder: a great British rock band. Booya.

Now there is a way all the reviewers can get what they wants from the ending. But to do that…we're gonna need to kill off someone, namely Kai. What I want you as a reader to think about it do you think Kai deserves to be tortured on or do you think he's earned a break? Want Kai to be happy or endlessly tormented by his father? Your choice…later days! ^^