Author's Note: Suspenseful, no? Gotcha thinking and hating me for writing this, no? Don't worry. Keep reading. and for Mac/Kaori fans, you might just like this chapter, for things are starting to look brighter for them starting. now!

Venue 8: Rekindling

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{We're dead meat...} Allegra's mind said as she clearly saw her and Kaori start to plummet to the harsh canvas below. She was convinced that it was over for both of them... {Psymon must be loving this... Wonder how he'll feel after he finds out that he caused two deaths...}

Then... they stopped. Their fall stopped as someone latched onto Allegra's board and held on tight.

"Brodi! You better hold on tight. We're gonna haul them up!"

"Don't worry about me, Nate! JP! Viggo! You guys got Allegra?"

"Yes! Now just HURRY UP! I rather not see two ladies die on my watch!"

{JP? Brodi? Nate? Viggo?} Kaori thought in surprise. Honestly, that was the most unlikely type of team but now wasn't the time to be picky.

"You guys better hurry!" Allegra screamed. "I'm losing grip on Kaori!"

"Okay! Ready, guys? PULL!!!"

A huge heave quickly hauled the two boarders up to the surface of the ice track and on their backs, breathing hard. Brodi and Nate came over to see if they were okay.

"Are they alright?" Viggo asked with concern. Brodi nodded. "That's good news... That wasn't cool..."

"You got that right," Allegra panted. "I swear I'm going to get Psymon for this!"

"Psymon?" Nate asked. "He did this to you?"

"Hai," Kaori said breathlessly as she put a hand on her heart. "You guys didn't see him up top there?"

"No," Brodi answered. "I thought that I saw him boarding out the other way when I passed by. Then I saw you girls and I had to yell for assistance. Luckily these three weren't far away.

"That jerk..." Allegra muttered as her body relaxed a bit. She then checked on Kaori, who was just now sitting up and looking away from her, as if to spot someone. "Kaori... You alright?"

Kaori then immediately responded in a calm voice, "I shouldn't have hit him... What the heck was I thinking? Come on... That was Psymon, for crying out loud..."

Viggo blinked. "You? Hit Psymon? No wonder he went off the handle... but why would you do something like that?"

"Guess I was just so tired of having him pick on me... I know it wasn't like myself..."

"Yeah... like how you did that run on Happiness. Of course, Kaori. You're changing... Just maybe you could use... this change for the better but..."

Suddenly Viggo trailed off. Both Allegra and Kaori looked up, ignoring that JP had just boarded off, and noticed that two figures were approaching them fast. As they got closer, Kaori found herself smirking a bit.

"It's Mac," Nate muttered, not forgetting what happened the last time they met. He then looked over and identified the other SSX boarder. "Moby's here with him..."

This fact, of course, didn't register to either Kaori or Allegra. As soon as Mac rode up he began asking questions.

"Kaori... Allegra... Just what the heck happened here??"

Allegra just shook her head then leaned over to Mac and whispered something in his ear... then got on her board and without saying anything else took off down the safe side of the track, leaving Mac staring at Kaori.

"Psymon must have found his brain and lost it again..." he muttered. "I SWEAR that frea-"

"Sssshhh..." Kaori hissed while putting her hand over Mac's mouth. "Not so loud, okay? I'm sorta not really feeling up to the shouting and such, okay, Mac?"

As Mac looked over towards Mac Brodi silently whispered to Nate and Viggo that the two should probably be alone and rode off as well, taking the same path Allegra went. Kaori then took her hand away from Mac's face and spoke, "I knew I left you at the bottom of the mountain... and this incident happened about a few minutes ago. You can't teleport... so I figure that you were on your way up here on your own terms..."

Mac felt his stomach rise up on that quote. "Well, yeah... How did you know?"

"You know me... I have a knack for figuring things out. So... I don't know... What were you up here for? Does it involve me?"

A pause...

"Well... yeah..."

Kaori put her hands behind her back while saying, "I'm here... and no one else is around. Want to say it now?"

Mac paused again... and grabbed Kaori by her shoulders. "Yeah. I'm starting to get the feeling that... you've been through a lot. I just got wind from Moby that you went through an avalanche and literally went out of character, busting out tricks and such. Now I find out that this thing over here happened... and that you, YOU of all people, clocked Psymon. I expected Nate or Zoe to do it, since I doubt that Luther would even be bothered... I... just don't want to see that trait go too far. You could see that messing with you-know-who only really wasn't a cool idea..."

"Yeah... You're right on that... So your saying that..."

Without letting her finish her sentence, Mac did something that he hadn't did before... at all... Mac pulled Kaori close to him and quickly pecked a kiss on her lips, instantly making her blush from surprise. She really didn't expect Mac to do such a thing... and so suddenly... He then broke it and quickly belted out. "I'm saying that maybe you might want to balance out this new-found thing you got here. It could be used for something a little more... useful, you know what I'm sayin'?"

Kaori took a pause, gathering her senses, and smirked, finally getting the message. "Sure... I get it... So what now?"

"We find the nearest lodge and warm up..."

"Hey, mates..."

Both Mac and Kaori jumped when they finally got the message that Moby was standing right behind them, so quiet that they didn't notice. For a split second, Mac seemed to raise his hand up and made a gesture that he was going upside Moby's head, but feinted it and smirked.

"You know, that wasn't what I call 'respecting privacy'," he said in a light-mannered voice. Moby shrugged.

"Just making sure you two were alright. Now then, let's get out of this blasted cold."

"You can NOT have put it in better terms, my man..."

As the three picked up and headed for the lounge, Mac and Kaori hanging close together, Kaori asked on more question.

"Mac?"

"Yeah, Kaori?"

"Since when were you and Moby buddies?"

".I don't even know how to answer that."

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End of venue