Title: Resurfacing
Authoress: Ladya C. Maxine
Rating: M
Summary: see chapter one
Warnings: see chapter one
Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade or any of its characters. Any and 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.
"Hold still, Tyson; it's only an ice-pack," Judy sighed as she tried to hold the boy's head still while applying the cold compress against his black eye.
"It hurts! I'm going blind!"
"It was just a punch, not a bullet, you wimp," Michael argued as he helped Judy hold the navy-haired blader down on the couch.
"Just a punch? It feels like a freaking train ran me over!"
"Cool! Any blood?"
"Kevin!"
"Ouch! What?" the short blader asked while rubbing his head, which Mariah had just thumped.
"I don't get it. Kai has a short fuse but I never thought that he would strike out at his own team mate, no matter how annoying Tyson can be."
"Hey!"
"My thoughts exactly, Robert," Oliver said, ignoring Tyson's glare. Turning to Ray and Max, the French teen asked, "What did he do anyway?"
Another howl erupted from the couch and Ray cringed before answering.
"Tyson was goofing off. It was funny at first and Kai didn't seem to care but when Tyson started to make fun of Tala...I guess he went too far this time. He made some crack about Tala and Boris and Kai just snapped. He tackled Tyson right off the table and pinned him to the floor, told him to take it back and when Tyson refused, he punched him."
"That was a cheap shot, by the way!" Tyson defended from the couch where Eddie had taken over from Michael. "He almost tore my head off my shoulder!"
"Awesome!"
"Shut up, Kevin!" Mariah and Lee said in unison.
"What?"
"Well, I can't say that you didn't deserve is, sport," Bruce said, leaning against the back of the couch.
Tyson looked up at his father with his good eye wide in disbelief.
"Dad! Whose side are you on?"
"There are no sides here. You were wrong from the start to mock Tala and you should have stopped when Kai told you to if he was obviously upset about it."
"Big dude is right, little dude. You were cruising for a bruising."
"Grandpa! You too? Isn't there anyone in here who feels sorry for me?"
"In what way?" Enrique couldn't pass up a chance to poke fun at the down and hurting blader.
"Of course we sympathize with you," Judy confirmed while she and Steve held Tyson down as he struggled to get to Enrique, who snickered in his chair. "But Tyson, it wasn't very sports man-like of you to do or say the things you did. You should take responsibility for your actions despite your inner conflicts."
"...Huh?"
"You have to apologise, brainiac," Johnny elaborated.
"Apologise? Me? I'm the victim here!"
Ray clapped his hand over Enrique's mouth, muffling another cracking comment, and tried to make Tyson see the light, despite his swollen eye.
"Look, Tyson, enough with the arguing. Just talk it over. Things like this shouldn't be left un-discussed."
Enrique pulled away and stuck his tongue out at Ray.
"You can't stay mad at him forever Tyson," Lee pointed out.
"You just watch me."
"Enough already! We're a team and teams shouldn't fight." Max became uncharacteristically serious as he looked at Tyson. "If you don't wanna apologize, don't. But you have to at least talk things through."
"Oh, suuure! I'll make some tea and bake some cookies and the two of us will sit down and have a nice little chat. Get real! Kai doesn't talk unless he wants to, which he never does."
"So will you consider it?" Kenny asked.
"I..." He sighed. "Fine, I'll do it. But I'm not gonna like it."
"Don't worry, we'll give you a treat if you do it. How about a nice, big frozen steak that you can put on that shiner?" Enrique laughed as Tyson ineffectively tried to get to him. Bruce took over from Eddie in restraining him since the American was getting tired.
"I guess we'd better be going now."
Oliver grabbed Enrique's arm and pushed the snickering Italian out the door. Johnny followed the two bickering bladers. Before he left Robert turned to the others.
"We have some things we still want to do in Moscow so we will meet again at the ceremony."
"Think you can find us? They say that there will be a lot of people there."
"We'll just look for where the lights will reflect off Tyson's eye!" Enrique shouted from the in the hall.
Robert sighed and closed the door as another tirade of curses poured out of Tyson's mouth.
begin flashback
"You shouldn't have come."
The blue eyes that had been sparkling happily dimmed at his words.
"B-but I thought you would be happy."
"I..."
"I thought we were friends."
The redhead's narrow shoulders slumped sadly and Kai felt a flash of guilt for having ruined the reunion.
"We are," he assured, pulling the thin body into his arms, hugging the smaller boy. "You're my best friend. It's just that...Boris..."
"Isn't he nice?" he asked, smile back in place as he pulled out of the hug. "He showed me the whole Abbey and said that he's going to train me to beyblade! I've always wanted to learn how to beyblade! Maybe we can train together and...and...and one day, maybe we'll make it to the World Championships!"
Watching the newest addition to the Abbey roster, Kai didn't have the heart to tell him the truth. The frail boy looked more alive than he had ever seen him, excitedly talking about all the things he planned to do now that he was finally accepted somewhere. When the other turned to him expectantly all he could do was smile weakly.
"Yeah, that sounds great."
Tala beamed, hugging him tightly.
"I'm really glad I met you, Kai. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here."
end flashback
"...I'm really glad I met you, Kai. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here..."
The night air was chilly as it blew across the balcony where he stood leaning against the railing as he stared absently out at the night life of Moscow.
"...If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here..."
"If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be there...Because of me..." he said softly, the words twisting to add to the measure of guilt he was feeling.
The glass doors behind him opened. Footsteps and the click of a cane on the tiled floor was all he needed to know who it was.
"I know I shouldn't have hit him," Kai said, not even turning around. "Regardless of what he said or did."
The footsteps stopped beside him and he could smell the cologne their manager always wore.
"Tyson may have offended you, or even hurt you, but you know he was only fooling around. I assigned you as team-captain to keep an eye on them, not take an eye out of them."
"How is he?"
"Oh, Tyson will live. I've known him to suffer worse." Mr Dickenson removed his glassed to clean them. "As sworn leader you--"
"I never wanted to be their leader to begin with. I blade solo. On my own without having to depend on others. That way I can either take full glory of victory or total shame of defeat in battle."
"You say that, but you don't really mean it," the elderly man replaced his glassed and watched him sideways. When Kai looked at him he continued, "You are a lone wolf, or so you make yourself out to be. I will be the first to agree that you do not fancy opening yourself to others. However, you need to be around others."
"That's stupid." Kai turned back to gaze at the streets.
"Kai, I have known you since you first started beybattling in Japan. You may have distant yourself from people but they are always there at the end of that long road. Your old gang, the Beysharks, the Bladebreakers...And somewhere inside I know that, disagree if you want, you hold someone very dear to you. Someone you trust above all others. Someone who has given you enough reason to put all your faith in him."
The blue-haired enigma didn't respond.
"And right now you are blaming yourself because of this friendship, aren't you?"
"He's hurting him."
Stanley took a deep breath and released it. He had feared that the children were being badly mistreated in the Abbey but without any hard evidence the police could not attain a warrant to search the place. This left the young boys training there at Boris and his men's mercy, which he doubted they even had.
"As I told the others, Boris won't harm them. They are very valuable to Biovolt."
"Not anymore. My grandfather's lawyers have managed to weasel him out of prison after he was arrested. I know him and he has no doubt broken off all deals with Boris."
"And the Demolition Boys..." Mr Dickenson looked at his young companion worriedly.
"They are nothing but his whipping posts now," Kai filled in, voice a bit shaky. He turned to the old manager. "Isn't there anything you can do? Why aren't the officials helping?"
"They need evidence. Evidence that they don't have."
"Evidence? Evidence? What more evidence do they need? You have been monitoring the Abbey's activities since before you even formed the Bladebreakers! Boris practically gloated out all their secrets during the tournament! What more fucking evidence is needed? Four dead bodies lying in the streets? Hundreds of children burned alive in an 'accidental' fire? They are hurting every one of those kids in there and the officials are doing nothing!"
Kai brought his fist down hard on the railing, cracking the ice that had formed there. He was breathing heavily, shaken by his own outburst.
"Kai..."
The old man didn't know what to say. He had never seen the team captain this distressed and was unsure on how to address him. This side of Kai was completely alien to him.
"They are hurting them...He is hurting him..." The voice was soft and the long, grey bangs hid the eyes yet Mr Dickenson saw the stray tear fall.
"I'm sure Tala will pull through. He is strong."
The phoenix's eyes remained downcast.
"You just don't get it, Mr. Dickenson. You can't begin to understand what goes on within those walls..."
"I would if you'd tell me. I want to help you, Kai, but you are making no sense. Are the children of the Abbey being beaten? What types of experiments are being done to them?"
"You wouldn't understand," he insisted.
"But..." he tried to lay a hand on a shoulder but Kai shrugged him off in an unexpected show of tension.
Kai backed away a bit. He couldn't explain why, but the physical contact had rattled him. The hand on his bare skin had sent a tingling jolt through him.
Stanley was at a loss by the strange defensive nature of the boy.
"Calm down, Kai. I only wish to help you."
"Don't touch me."
The topic...the touch...the...the...the moment...Nothing was making sense anymore. He couldn't even think rationally. His mind felt cluttered by an onslaught of thought and memories. Memories he had buried for many years were resurfacing rapidly: the pain, the fear, the shame, the loss of hope, the loss of innocence, the loss of want to live...
Stanley watched on. His concern heightened when the teen began to tremble.
"Take it easy, Kai. I am sorry if I have upset you. Just please, calm down."
He stepped forward.
Reality...Memories...He couldn't discern the two anymore. Which was real? He couldn't pull himself together. He lost what little focus and immediately the nightmares took over, transferring his mind back to when someone else had cornered him, just like this. A worker in the dungeons that had been the only home he had ever known. He had been but eight and the man around thirty. A grown man, married and with a family, with children of his own, had sated his need on a child in one of the many dark corners of the Abbey. He could still smell the dank odour of the corner he had been forced into. Those hands had held his shoulders as they pushed him on to his knees. It hadn't been the first, or the last, time he'd found himself in such a situation. A worker...A scientist...A trainer...Boris...His grandfather...
"Stay away from me!"
His back was against the balcony wall and he jerked at the feeling of the coldness that seeped through his shirt.
"Kai? Are you alright?"
The boy was acting strange and the old man feared that he may have been outside in the cold for too long. Placing a hand on a bare shoulder once again, unintentionally only making the situation worse, he intended to bring the boy indoors.
"Why don't we get you inside? You can trust me, Kai."
That word...The hands...
"No! You're lying!" he shouted, yanking himself free from the elder's hold. "I don't trust anyone!"
Someone entered the suite behind them and Kai used the distraction to dash around and pass the manager.
"Kai! No, wait!"
The manager knew he had no chance of catching up with the youth but luckily the much needed solution turned the corner in front of the fleeing blader.
"Mr Dickenson, are you alright--Whoa!"
Bruce had to put his arms out to prevent Kai from barrelling into him. The teen hadn't counted on there being someone there so the inevitable occurred: they collided.
"Hold him down, Bruce!" Stanley ran up to them, puffing.
"Huh?" the man blinked as he stopped his attempts to detangle himself from the phoenix's scarf, which had gotten caught beneath him. Kai was practically choking himself as he struggled to get free.
"Don't let him leave! Hold him down!"
Not really sure why he was doing this he grabbed hold of the writhing body nonetheless and pinned the phoenix to the floor.
"No!" Kai howled and began thrashing within his grip, catching the man on the cheek with a wild punch. Now Bruce understood Tyson's statement of the train. Kai's punches, intended or not, were hard.
"I can't hold him forever! What's wrong with him?"
Kai's struggled were getting more and more desperate, and dangerous. The red eyes were blazing, searching for a way out.
"I wish I knew but I can't get him to tell me. We must keep him here until he calms down."
Bruce managed to grab a fist before it connected with him again.
"Easier said than done."
"Let go of me!"
"Kai! Snap out of it!"
Hoping to restrain the teen better, Bruce shifted his weight onto the full length of the blader's body.
The pressure of the grown man's body on his made Kai gasped.
'No...this can't be happening...Not again...'
The move seemed to work and Bruce sighed in relief. However, a new sound caught his attention and he looked down in shock as the crimson eyes stared up at him wide, scared and shimmering with tears. Kai's breathing was laboured, not from his struggle but from fear.
"Get off me..." his voice was just above a whisper.
"Kai? What are you talking about?" Stanley asked as he moved to stand beside the boy but Kai didn't notice him, still caught up in his childhood nightmares.
"No...Boris...let us go..." Kai whimpered and tried to squirm away from beneath him.
"Boris?"
Both men shared a troubled look. What did the director have to do with this?
"Please...I...don't..." He broke off and sobbed. He turned his head to one side in a display of what appeared to be submission. "Don't touch me...Stop touching me...Leave us alone..."
Realisation dawned at the same time on both men as the words sank in. Bruce turned to the older male, disbelief on his rugged features. Before their very eyes Kai's own eyes lost focus and closed, his head rolling to one side. He had fainted.
Mr Dickenson was just as affronted as he was but he pushed these emotions down long enough to say,
"Lay him on the couch and give him some air."
Bruce asked but did as he was told, lifting the smaller body easily and bringing him over to the sofa. Assured that the phoenix was comfortable, he turned to Stanley.
"Is it what I think it is?"
"Assaulted," Mr Dickenson said, the words still unable to truly register as believable to his own mind. "He's been a victim of sexual assault."
"Shit," Bruce breathed. His jaws clenched and he looked back down at Kai but he didn't budge. "Are you sure? I...I can't imagine him hiding something like this from anyone. When? For how long?"
"Since childhood, I fear. Before he panicked he had been telling me that the children in the Abbey were exposed to those who worked there. I didn't understand what he had meant and when I tried to approach him he lost it." He gripped the cane hard. "Why hadn't I noticed it sooner?"
"But this is Voltaire's grandson!" Bruce barked. "Surely he isn't that heartless as to allow something like this to happen to his own kin? His only living kin, at that!"
"He is as heartless and cold as the mountains. But what disturbs me as well is that Kai mentioned a specific name."
"Boris...that bastard!" Bruce's hands fisted.
He had felt strong dislike towards the Abbey director since the day they first met in the library. There had been something about the man that had set off a warning in his head. The man had appeared sneaky, cold and dangerous. One that no adult in his or her right mind would trust with anything. But a child abuser...It had never crossed his mind. Now, the more he thought it over, the greater the nausea bubbled within him. A sexual predator...in charge of an Abbey? The sole 'parental' figure who had total control of all those youngsters.
"This is despicable! How can a man like that be allowed anywhere near children?" Stanley voiced their fears out loud, pacing as he tried to come up with an answer to his questions. "Is he still preying upon them? Are they..."
"...He's hurting him..."
"The Demolition Boys! Good heavens..." he breathed, finally realizing just how wrong his belief in their safety had been. They were still in the Abbey. They had lost the championships. And Boris was angry. Everything added up to a thought that made him shudder.
"Are we going to tell the others?" Bruce asked as he started to undo the long scarf around Kai's neck.
"No. Kai would never trust us if we reveal this to anyone without his permission. The best thing we can do is call the authorities. However, they won't be able to do anything since this appears to have happened a long time ago and there is no lasting evidence."
"You're wrong," Bruce said from behind him and he turned to see the man studying something on the teen's neck. Looking up, his face was grave as he shifted to give him a better view.
The pale skin that the scarf had been loyally protected all this time was covered with ugly blue and purple bruises. Long lines that looked like healing scratch marks made their way from below the jaw to beneath the black top the boy wore. On the right side where the neck met the shoulder was a large, angry mark. Teeth marks.
Bruce's voice was trembling with suppressed anger as he spoke.
"Looks like Boris gave Kai a fare-well gift."
The large, dark room was silent as the night wore on. Moonlight filtered in through the window and cast a soft but cold glow into the chamber. Caught in its beam were two figures that lay in the large bed. One was contently asleep on his side with both arms wrapped possessively around the second body.
Tala slowly opened his eyes, not needing any time to adjust to the dark. He had been here for probably three days now with no food and one cup of water per day. His muscles were stiff from lack of movement and his cuffed hands had long lost feelings in them. The injuries he had sustained from his beatings were healing too slowly because of lack of nutrition. But the worst injuries recurred every night when Boris retired to the bedroom after working all day.
'Guys...I hope you are okay. I'm sorry that I couldn't be stronger. I just pray that someone will come and put a stop to Boris and his followers...I fear that I no longer can...'
The man behind him mumbled something incoherent and pulled him closer, strong arms causing the injuries to sting and some even break and bleed. A mouth found his neck and suckled at it lazily before falling still as the man drifted back off to sleep. Tala let out a silent breath of relief. He had feared the man would awaken and take him again like he always did. He didn't have the strength to go through another round for tonight.
'I just want to get away...Why can't I leave...Why...?'
Pain finally took its toll and his vision went black.
Tbc...
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