Kay, I'm sorry I misunderstood you last time! I'm glad you don't mind though. ( Ray's gonna battle against Jordan in a major battle! There's also going to be an unexpected twist...sort of. Well, unexpected or not, that's for you to decide!

Chapter Twenty-Two – Discoveries

"Oh, we managed to get inside and snooped around. We found a guy around 15- 16 sitting in a cell," Mariam answered.

Zarine's ears perked up at this point. "Was it a guy about Kai's height and had dark brown hair?" she asked breathlessly.

"Yeah, why?" Mariam asked, studying the girl in Ray's arms.

"He's my brother," Zarine answered expressionlessly.

Mariam looked at Zarine sympathetically. She couldn't imagine life without Joseph. She had to admit that her brother was a pain sometimes, but she still liked to have him around.

"So how was he?" Zarine asked, hoping that her brother was fine.

"He was fine," Mariam lied, she didn't want to tell Zarine the truth yet.

"Phew! I was so worried that they might have done something to him," Zarine said, relieved.

"We were going to get him out, but one of the guards appeared. We had to scum before we got caught," Joseph said.

Zarine's heart was filled with disappointment. It looks like someone in her family was still in the Dark Force's evil grip.

The Saint Shields accompanied them back to the hotel. They had many unanswered questions. They followed the others to Tyson and Max's room while Ray carried Zarine into theirs.

"Do you want to eat something?" Ray asked.

"No, I really want to sleep right now," Zarine answered. Then she smiled, "Thanks for asking though."

"Okay," Ray said, covering the tired girl with the blankets. "Have a good sleep, then we'll go out for dinner, all right?"

Zarine nodded, and closed her eyes. Ray stayed in the room and watched over her until she fell asleep.

Max and Mariam were walking in the garden while their teammates were upstairs discussing about the Dark Force. They were quiet for a few minutes, then Mariam broke the silence. "Max, I'm sorry we couldn't get Zarine's brother out of there."

"Mariam, it's alright. You did your best. At least, Zarine knows that her brother is okay," Max said, looking into those emerald eyes he loved so much.

"Not exactly," Mariam said, looking down.

"What do you mean?" the blond-hair teen asked. He was confused.

"He was.......he was covered in bruises and cuts. He was so wounded he could barely talk to us," she said, her voice breaking as she remembered the awful sight. "I didn't want to tell Zarine that. Not when she was like that."

Max considered the matter, and said slowly, "You know you're going to have to tell her eventually, right?"

Mariam nodded miserably. "What is Zarine like?" she asked. "I need to decide how to tell her."

"Alright, well..." Max began telling her all about his newest teammate.

After Max had finished, Mariam suggested, "Let's go see how Zarine is doing." She walked off in the direction of the lobby.

Max grabbed her wrist, "Have you decided how to tell her?"

She sighed heavily, and answered, "Yeah."

They walked into Zarine's room and found her sleeping. However, she was thrashing around and whimpering.

"I wonder what's wrong," Max said, frowning. He walked over to her bed. Mariam followed him.

"Maybe she's having a nightmare," Mariam said. "Should we wake her?"

"Yeah, I think we should," Max said. He shook Zarine's shoulder. She woke up as the pain shot through her.

"Don't touch me!" she gasped painfully. She sat up quickly. Her back was hurting her more than ever.

Max drew his hand back quickly in surprise. He hadn't gripped her shoulder very hard.

"What's wrong?" Mariam asked sharply.

"Nothing," the injured girl said, in attempt to conceal the truth. She really didn't want them to worry.

"Yeah, right, it's nothing," Mariam scoffed. She touched Zarine's back gently, and Zarine flinched.

"Max, get out of here, and don't let anyone come in either!" Mariam commanded in a crisp tone.

Max scurried out, he knew better than to argue with girls when they're like this. (Good thing too!)

Mariam waited until she heard the click of the door knob before asking the silver haired girl, "Can you take off your shirt so I can look at your back?"

"No," Zarine answered.

"Just do it! You'll end up doing what I want anyways," Mariam told Zarine in a dry voice. "I assure you that doing it by yourself will be less painful though."

"Fine," Zarine gave in. Judging by Mariam's tone, she knew that Mariam meant what she said.

Mariam gasped when she saw Zarine's back. It was all red, and there were visible marks of many whiplashes.

"Oh, Zarine, what did they do to you?" Mariam asked, horrified.

"I think my back has the answer for you," Zarine answered quietly. She knew this was going to happen, and she hated herself for ever letting them know.

"You're going to need something for this," Mariam said thoughtfully. "Put your shirt back on, and stay here. I'll be back soon."

She was back in ten minutes. She went to the pharmacy around the corner, and got some ointment for Zarine.

"Lie on your stomach," Mariam said. "This is going to hurt, but I have to apply this onto your back. It'll make you feel better."

Outside of the room, Max was waiting impatiently. He really had to go pee. [What's taking them so long?] he thought. [I'm just going to go. It won't take me long. I'll be back before Mariam comes out.]

When he came back from the lavatory, Ray was just turning the door knob to his room.

Max nearly choked at the sight. "Ray! You can't go in!" he yelled.

"This is my room. Besides I just want to check on Zarine!" Ray said. He opened the door and walked in.

He just caught a glimpse of the room before a vase was thrown at him.

"Get out!" Mariam screeched.

Ray didn't need anymore encouragement. He ran out like there was a lion in the room.

"Mariam will stripe my hide off for this!" Max said, panicking.

Mariam said angrily, "Max should've stopped him! I'm going to give him a tongue lashing that he won't forget in a fortnight."

"Ray probably just insisted in charging in. It's not like he'd listen," Zarine said.

"Yeah, when it comes to you, he doesn't listen to anyone. He seems to think that he's the only one here who cares about you," Mariam said.

"But that's not true," Zarine said, frowning. "The Bladebreakers are really nice to me, even Kai."

"He's just blinded by love," the sapphire-hair girl told Zarine bluntly.

Zarine blushed. She didn't feel comfortable talking about this with Mariam. "Can we change the subject now?" she asked, embarrassed.

"Sorry," Mariam said apologetically, "I went too far, didn't I? It was really none of my business."

"It's okay," Zarine said.

"There! I think you're good to go now," the older girl said brightly, closing the cap of the ointment

"Thanks!" the younger girl said. The applying of the ointment was painful, but now she felt better.

Mariam went out to the hallway to get Max. She opened the door to find Ray standing right in front of it.

"So why was a vase thrown at me just because I wanted to go into my own room?" Ray demanded. He was glaring at her.

"Because there was whip marks all over Zarine's back. I had to make her take her shirt off to put some ointment on her to make it feel better," Mariam explained calmly.

"You didn't have to throw a vase at me, you know," he said grumpily.

"I had to make you get out before you see anything. I don't think Zarine would like it if you saw her half naked," she said dryly. "Come on, Max, let's go and talk to the others."

"Coming!" Max said, quickly following his crush.

Ray walked into the room. He was greeted by the sight of Zarine looking out the window. "Hey," he said quietly.

She turned around, startled. She didn't hear Ray come in. "Hi," she said.

"Mariam told me what happened. Why didn't you say something?" he asked.

"Uh....I didn't want you guys to worry," she answered, looking down.

Before Ray could say anything else, Tyson charged in. The rest of the gang followed. . "Come on, let's go eat!" Tyson said excitedly.

"I suppose we better, or else he would whine the whole day," Kenny sighed. He had entered the room just after Tyson barged in.

Max turned to the Saint Shields, and asked, "Care to join us?"

"Uh, no thanks, you know..." Ozuma said, looking pointedly at Tyson.

"I see..." Max said, disappointed, but understood the reason.

"I want to come," Mariam piped up.

"Yeah, whatever. Just don't come back too late," Ozuma said indifferently.

"Sweet!" Max exclaimed happily.

"Come on! Let's go ALREADY!" Tyson said impatiently.

At the restaurant...

"Now I know why Ozuma declined your offer," Mariam told Max quietly.

Tyson was stuffing his face, as usual, which was quite appalling to the other customers.

"We have to put up with it everyday. I wish Hilary was here, at least she would try to put a stop to it," Max said wishfully. "Sometimes, Tyson would even stop, just to make her stop screeching in his ears."

"Come on, Zarine, you should eat more," Ray urged the younger girl on the other side of the table.

Zarine shook her head, "I'm not hungry anymore."

"But --," Ray said, then Tyson snatched the plate away from Zarine.

"If she doesn't want it, then I'll have it," Tyson said enthusiastically.

After dinner, Max walked Mariam back to her hideout. For some unknown reason, the Saint Shields prefer to sleep in a warehouse over a hotel.

"Thanks for taking care of Zarine today," Max thanked the blue hair girl.

"Don't mention it. Thanks for walking me back here. You really didn't have to," Mariam said.

"I wanted to," Max told her quietly.

Mariam began to blush. Max saw her cheeks reddening and thought she looked adorable. He closed his eyes, and started to lean closer to Mariam. She did the same. Their lips were just about to touch when...

"Sis, is that you?" Joseph called.

They both jumped away from each other. "Uh, tell Zarine that I'll go see her tomorrow," Mariam said, blushing madly.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Max said awkwardly.

"Good night!" Mariam said, and hurried into her hideout.

The next day, after the Saint Shields and the Bladebreakers had successfully advanced to the next round, the two teams were coming up with strategies to fight against the Dark Force.

Max kept on shooting questioning looks at Mariam. She knew that he was asking her when she was going to tell Zarine the truth. She was really nervous about it. Some of her worry must have showed on her face, because Zarine noticed, and asked, "Is there, something wrong, Mariam? You look really preoccupied with something."

"Uh..." Mariam looked at Max for help. He nodded gravely and gave her a look that plainly said, just tell her.

"Um...it's your brother. I lied yesterday. He...didn't look too good," she said lamely.

Zarine's heart sank. "What do you mean by that? Tell me!"

"Well, he was really hurt. There were a lot of cut and bruises on him. He was also really weak..." Mariam answered, unable to continue.

Zarine didn't say anything. Her face betrayed no emotion, but they could all tell from her eyes that she was really upset. Her friends all looked at her with pity. She hated it. She hated the invisible spotlight that was always on her. People staring at her on the street, guys by the dozen asking her out...she was sick of people looking at her all the time. She just wanted to be a normal person, back in her normal life. No one said anything. They just looked at her in silence. She couldn't take it anymore, so she said, "Excuse me," quickly and hurried out of the room.

"Wait!" Ray called as she left the room.

"Ray! Stay here! Let her have time to herself," Kai said sharply.

Ray stopped in his tracks. He thought that Kai was probably right, but he was still worried.

Zarine returned after a few hours. She was really quiet and depressed. That night, she couldn't sleep for hours. She tossed and turned. Finally, she just gave up. She got up and went out onto the balcony for fresh air. Ray was still awake. He couldn't sleep with all the noise she was making. He watched her on the balcony for a while before he noticed how the moonlight was making her hair look sparkly. He thought that she looked really pretty like that. He decided to get up and talk to her.

"Hi," Ray said as he joined Zarine.

"Oh, what are you doing still up?" Zarine asked.

"I just couldn't sleep," Ray answered, yawning.

"I hope I didn't keep you awake," she said.

"It's alright. So what are you doing still up?" he asked, looking up at the sky.

"Uh...I just couldn't sleep," she lied.

"You know, I have to say that you're a really bad liar," Ray commented. "So what's bothering you?"

Zarine didn't say anything. She could be nearly as difficult as Kai. "Is it your brother?" he asked finally.

"Kind of," she answered. She turned to look at him. "Look, I had been thinking about this. Maybe I should leave the team."

"What?!" Ray said sharply, "Leave the team? Why? Aren't you happy here? Was someone mean to you?"

"No one did anything to me. You guys are all so nice. I like being with you," she replied.

He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. "For goodness sake! Then why? Tell me!"

"Because if I stay, you'll be in danger," Zarine said miserably. "My parents died, all because of me. My brother sacrificed himself for me. He's suffering right now, because of me. Tyson lost Dragoon because of me! Everything bad that happened is all my fault!"

"Stop blaming yourself!" Ray said sternly.

"Why should I? It's true!" she said, tears filling her eyes.

Ray's eyes softened. "There are good things that happened only because of you too, you know."

The tearful girl looked up at him in disbelieve.

"We all got better at blading because you trained us. You are the reason that I know what love means..."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* This is the longest chapter I've ever written. Hehe, I wonder what Zarine will say to Ray in the next chappie. *wink wink* You might wonder why I named this chapter Discoveries. Well, it'll become clear in the next chapter. I originally planned to write more, but I thought this would be a good place to stop. Muhahahaha!