Blue: I'm alive!!
Bladebreakers: damn...
Blue: I love you all too! Anyways, because of my short disappearance from the face of the writing world...
Kai: over a month
Blue: quiet!..and I am REALLY sorry! So much has happened and I just never got around to writing. NE who, on with the next chapter to this action-packed fic!
Red Rain: MEOW! (I want a line!)
~~Fic starts~~
Red Rain: Mew.. (dang)
~~~Rei's POV~~~
I can remember vaguely what happened in the grove..Michael was attacked and then when I tried to rescue him I was outnumbered. By how many I can't remember...it's so hard to do that as well. They used something to knock me out and that's my story.
Now I'm slipping in and out of consciousness and when I'm actually awake for two seconds all I can see is the ground moving below me..then I go back to unconsciousness.
Hold it...the scenery has changed. The last time I woke up there was dirt moving, now there's concrete...
I hold my head up as best I can with a groan and all I can see is, grey? What's going on? Oh no...slipping...back...
"She's falling back sir"
"Good, she need not see this..." That line echos through my darkened mind on an on, ricocheting off one wall and coming back into full force once again.
She need not see this.
Need not see this
Not see this.
See this.
See what?
I hear somebody groan and my eyes open. Everything is out of focus but not moving anymore...two shapes hover above me, voices cutting through my head that's already hurting enough!!!
"She's...top form to work..."
"When...start?"
Ow! Do they have to be so loud...and yet I can't even understand them. Augh...my head hurts again.
Everything fades away once again and it's starting to get quite annoying. Not that I don't mind the sleep, I haven't been able to do that for the last few days and Kai was starting to get worried.
Kai...where is he? Ok, now I'm scared. Where are you Kai? Kai!?
"KAI!!!" I hear somebody screaming that name and my eyes snap open. I close my mouth and realize that the one screaming was me.
~~~~~~~~Normal POV~~~~~~~~~
Rei sits up shouting, her breathing heavy and forehead covered in sweat. She blinks a few times to bring the world into focus as two girls hurry over to sit beside her. Both had tight buns in their hair pulling it back and out of their faces, but one was a very pretty blond and the other a brunette.
The blond reaches over to a side table beside the makeshift straw bed Rei was laying on and dips a cloth in it. Wringing it out, her pretty blue eyes watch Rei worriedly as her friend tries to comfort her. She gently pushes Rei back onto the bed and presses the cloth against her forehead.
"Shh, it's all right stranger" she says soothingly. Rei's golden eyes look at her and her companion.
"Who..who are you? Where am I?" she sits up again. "Where's Kai!?"
She's pushed down again and the brunette's own black eyes look somewhat saddened.
"Ok," she starts off, "Just calm down...you are in Fanelia. You were brought here by the soldiers from the battle. I am Tanya," the brunette then motions to the blond girl who was watching Rei intently "and that's Cheryl. Were workers for Fanelia...and you are?"
Rei blinks and looks around the room she's in before saying "I'm Re..." she stops and looks at Tanya. "Lindsay" she says bluntly, swinging her legs over the side of the wooden, straw bed, taking a better look at the room she's in.
It's not even a room, it's a horse stall turned into a room. The open walls between the other stalls in the building were boarded up and the door going out was a swinging iron one. The stall itself had a sink, a mirror, a bed (obviously), a small box beside the bed that made for a bedside table, and another small pile of straw in the corner. The floor is just plain concrete and the walls, wooden. Very nice wood though..
Rei notices something on the floor that catches her attention. Turning around she smiles slightly at the sight of a window with sunlight, glorious sunlight, streaming in through it.
"Lindsay, eh?" Cheryl ponders out loud then nods. "Nice to meet ya and I sure hope you get used to this life quick, cuz if you don't your as good as vulture food"
Rei's eyes go wide. "What are you talking about? I only just got here and..." she moves her hand to gesture and feels something odd around her right wrist. Looking down her eyes go wide.
Around her wrist is a shackle. It's thinner than a normal one should be, but it's got an intricate design circling around a blue gem in the middle of it, on the top.
"Oh, that" Cheryl says, disgusted, and holds out her own right arm which has a shackle as well with the same design except with a purple gem in the middle. Glancing over, Rei notices Tanya has the same. "These say what our jobs are...but you got lucky!" she says enthusiastically.
"Me and Cheryl," Tanya starts off, closing her eyes and leaning against the wooden wall behind her. "We work in the field so our shackles are purple."
Rei still had not caught up with everything and looks a little confused. "In the field?"
"Yeah, searching for minerals, food, underground springs, and alloys that can be used to make beyblade parts...I think" Cheryl explains. Rei's eyes go wide again.
"Beyblade parts?" she asks, looking down once again and noticing her garments were changed from her pants and tank top to a red, knee-length skirt and a yellow tank top, while Tanya and Cheryl were wearing dark blue, baggy pants and a baggy green shirt as well.
"Yeah. But you don't have to worry about that, we don't even know what a beyblade is" Cheryl shrugs then continues. "But what you do have to worry about is your job. See your Blake's personal slave" she says bluntly, ignoring Rei's paling face "Your job is to follow him around and do whatever he orders. You also have to go wherever he does, into any meeting or social event and wait on him. It's not that hard...but he has gone through about 6 in the last three years"
Rei gulps and, shaking slightly asks "How did I get that job?"
Tanya laughs sarcastically. "Easy. You were inspected and found to be perfect for the job." she opens her eyes and holds up a finger for each reason "Your beautiful, you've got a model's body, your athletic...just look at your arms!" he leans back. "To put it lightly he also picked you out himself. Oh, and another reason is that were to tell you"
Rei looks at her, feeling sick to her stomach and with her heart aching for Kai, she felt like she was going to vomit.
"If you agree, the longer you last the longer your friend in the next stall" Tanya points opposite her to the wall behind Rei's head "will get medical attention. See, he took a real beating from the battle and will need, and has used many medical items. So, in order to pay for them, you will work."
Rei jumps up and runs to the door. Looking through the iron bars she looks surprised and awed at what she sees. Opposite to her are only two other stalls across a large walkway between, they too have people in them but they are sleeping. Looking down the hall, a little ways away, is two large barn doors and beside those, beside her own stall, is one more stall. The one Michael is in. But what amazed her is the wood used in the place and how it wasn't a Hell hole, but more of a neatly kept horse barn without the smell.
She moves her gaze and her own self so she could see into the other stall. What she saw made her gasp. Michael was leaning against the wall, eyes closed tight in what looked like a lot of pain.
"Michael...I will get us out of here" she whispers and turns to Tanya and Cheryl. "So, what can I expect and when do I start?"
The other two grin and Cheryl starts.
"Well, a couple rules." she grins, sitting on the bed with a jump and motioning for Rei to sit beside her. "One: Don't get too close to Blake. Trust me, it's very dangerous in the city to be close to him right now."
Rei sweatdrops. "Well, I'm going to be right beside him all day every day for how long again?"
Cheryl grins sheepishly. "Yeah, your right. I'm just saying don't get emotionally attached. (Rei: *mutters* no problem with that) Two, try to stay away from the mansion. Anybody who goes really near it except for the Tyrant, his assistant, and Blake are never heard from or seen again. And finally three: escape is impossible so don't bother trying."
Rei raised an eyebrow and sighs. "Damn...I was hoping to just waltz right out of here" she says sarcastically.
Tanya and Cheryl snicker but jump and look slightly annoyed at the sound of a bell ringing throughout the barn, and obviously outside too. Nobody could miss it.
"What's that?" Rei asks as Tanya and Cheryl stand up, brushing themselves off and standing beside the door, waiting.
"It's 9 AM, time to work" Tanya shrugs and Rei's jaw drops.
"What? How long have I been here" she asks and Cheryl just looks at her with a non-chalant expression.
"A long time"
Rei's heart plummets and her hopes of getting back to Kai soon shatter as a guard...somewhat familiar in uniform but Rei's too caught up in her own worries to think about it...opens the creaky iron door and motions them out along with the other two cells.
As she's walking with the others someone grabs her arm and she's spun around to face a guard.
"Not you, your to meet Master Blake. You've been asleep far too long" he explains, monotonously and before Rei could say anything she was being dragged away from the group and outside.
Rei had to put her free hand up to shield her eyes from the beating sun. Looking around she has to blink a few times and rub her eyes to believe what she is seeing. All around her of men and teenagers, all dressed in what Tanya and Cheryl were in, were being led out of many different holding barns.
As she looks around some more she also realizes another thing...the ground is grey dirt. In fact everything is grey, no plantation was too be seen anywhere. Not a hint of green at all.
Rei was led in front of the trudging group of workers and she could not believe what she saw.
It was a large city, the buildings are made of stone and there is only a small alley separating all of them. There were ten barns in total and two rows of five. Surrounding everything was a very large and hard looking concrete wall with guards crawling and walking along the small pathway around the top.
She was snapped out of looking at the grey city by shouting and angry voices floating along the air. As she was led towards the front of the city she looked around in awe. For about one hundred metres between the city and the only gate leading out of it were groups of young teenage boys training, and training hard. Their instructors seemed to be merciless and pushing the kids to the limit, but the boys just took the work without any complaint.
Angry voices once again floated to her ears and she looked around. What she saw nearly made her feint if she wasn't being held up and dragged along by this very unruly guard.
Blake was standing there, dressed in normal jeans and a blood red t-shirt, almost like a normal teenage boy. His blond hair wasn't as kept as it normally was at meetings or at the fights, in fact again it was just gelled to tiny spikes around his head. His face was twisted with anger as he shouted at two imposing figures who did not look pleased at this at all.
One was tall, oh so very tall. His deep purple hair was gelled back and his eyes covered in disturbingly red goggles that Rei remembered oh so vividly in her nightmares. Every time she thought of him, the image in her mind alone would send shivers up her spine.
And the other was even worse. He was shorter than the other man, but just as intimidating. His long silver hair hung around his shoulders, highlighted with white hair. His eyes and face were so cold that it could freeze fire...that was the truth. He did not look pleased at all that Blake was stating things to him that were making him angry.
Rei's body shook more and more violently as she was pulled to the group of three men, but she got herself under control as they neared enough so she could hear what they were saying. Unfortunately, she was only catching the ending portion of it.
"Listen to me, old man," Blake spat "I want my people out of there!"
The old man in question just laughed evilly. Even Rei knew Blake had lost whatever he was hoping to gain, and from the look on his face so did he.
"You singed the deal, Blake." the man boomed "Next time read the fine print. Everything stays the same and you" he looked to the tall man beside him who nodded and made a quick move, tripping Blake's feet from under him and making the blond haired boy fall in the mud. "Get to wallow in the dirt like those people you just tried to save, or complete your duties and head to Mantua in the next valley tomorrow for supplies. Your choice"
Blake glared up at the men, his clothes soaked with black and gooey earth. "You don't look like the type to be able to move like that, Boris" he said, beginning to sit up but Boris kicked him back down into the mud.
"There are many things you don't know, Blake" Boris smirked then pulled back to stand beside his master who was grinning as well. "Master Voltaire, the prototype blades are ready for your inspections."
Voltaire nods his head, pointing his cane right at Blake's chest he glares. "Remember your place, Blake. You are no better than your citizens who, by the way, work for me. All you are is my little tool so get used to it and do not step out of line once more. Oh...and the entertainment tonight better be good."
With that, both Boris and Voltaire walk away along with anybody who had stopped to watch the fight. Nobody bothered to help the very pathetic and frustrated looking Blake. Since the guard was gone as well, Rei rushed over and knelt beside him. Ignoring the whispers from around her, she bows her head and looks around, not knowing what the heck she was doing.
"Who are you" the blond growls and stands up, wiping some of the mud off of himself before looking at her again.
"I'm Lindsay, sir" she nods her head and bows. He snaps his fingers.
"That's right, my slave...well than, come on." he begins to walk away. She jumps up, happy that she was still wearing running shoes, and quickly followed him around the city.
"I've got to change, then some errands need to be done before nightfall" he explains monotonously and she just follows.
They walk mostly in silence when Blake shakes his head, frustrated, and turns to her. "Why did you come over without being called?" he asks sharply and she blinks as they stop.
"What?"
"Why did you come over without being called?" he asks again, getting more frustrated. "Your not supposed to do anything unless I tell you to."
She looks at him, hoping he was joking. "I was being kind, if you really wanna know. Unfortunately, I have a heart!" she throws in his face and he growls.
He glares at her and turns away, saying quietly and dangerously "Don't go mouthing off about things you don't even know about, Lindsay." Rei blinks, not understanding. "You might get hurt because of it one day" he walks off without warning and once again Rei had to jog a little to catch up.
"You know," Blake broke the silence once more as they began heading to a small house. "I think we got off on the wrong foot. Since were both going to be together for a long time, shouldn't we try to get along?" he turns around, making sure nobody was looking, and waits for her answer.
Rei hoped that he was kidding and looked at him warily.
"You do know where I'm from, don't you?" she asks, noting the hurt that shimmered in his eyes as he looked away.
"Yes, I do. You are from the other valley with the female leader" he tells her seriously and looks her in the eye. He motions her to his house. "I guess you should know exactly what's going on, you do have that right"
Rei nods and follows him to his house where he led her to the kitchen. She sat on a chair and waited for Blake to finish changing.
As soon as the boy came out in a new pair of dark jeans and black tank top he leaned on the counter and sighs.
"I don't even know why I'm telling you this but here goes nothing: A little over a year ago, my valley began having money troubles. We couldn't take it to the council because they don't deal with such trivial matters and soon we were in so much debt that there was no way of paying it off, no matter how much harvest we brought in.
"That's when Voltaire showed up. Somehow he had gotten wind of what trouble we were in and offered us a deal we couldn't refuse: he'd pay our debt for us if we gave him free use of our valley and it's resources. Sounds fair enough? Wrong...I didn't read the fine print or between the lines. He's used everything and I mean everything except the women and children..at least until they became teenagers or of age as he calls it.
"Soon our valley was plagued with his and Boris' men and we lost so much more than just a few resources..that's when Voltaire summoned me to his mansion. He ordered me that, in six months from that time, I was to wage war upon your valley."
Blake takes a deep breath and puts his hand to his forehead. Rei noted how tired he looked but stayed silent as he continued.
"I tried to refuse, tried to explain that there was no point. War was something my great-grandfather and his great-grandfather had to deal with and I was hoping it would skip me, but it didn't. The only real reason I found out later was that Voltaire and his minions are looking for some awesome power that could only be found at the end of this war. I don't know what the heck he's talking about or what that means, but I can't turn back now."
He looks up at Rei, but her composure stayed calm and uncaring.
"Lindsay, you have to believe me. The only way I could save my people from harm or being worked to death was this war...my people mean everything to me" he added silently, lowering his head for the first time that day.
Rei was shocked, she couldn't believe what she just heard..not only had BIOVOLT taken over an innocent and desperate village but they were using the very soul of the village, it's people, in it's own personal wants. It was disgusting.
Blake raised his head proudly and looked at her. "Now you know. What do you have to say?"
Rei smiles reassuringly. "Nothing, sir, nothing at all...except for that I do believe this war just got a lot more complex"
Blake rolled his eyes and grins. "Tell me about it...if you have any doubts please believe me that I never wanted war. It also...my dad, wanted me to be perfect and was a major factor in the decision to join with Voltaire. He always wanted me to be perfect at everything, I tried my hardest but in the end I failed" he looks away and sighs.
"Well, there you go, you know more about me than anybody in the village..."
Rei interrupts, trying to cheer him up. He didn't seem as cruel as she first thought. "You know, you remind me of someone I knew..." she trailed off herself and stared out the window.
It was true, he reminded her of Kai. The Kai she loved, cherished, and would probably never set eyes on again. She wiped a tear away quickly before turning to Blake once more as he broke the silence.
"I will have one of the other household servants show you your chores, then you should rest up for the the day. Were heading over to the next valley tomorrow and you have to be well rested. You are dismissed"
Rei nods and curtseys "Yes sir"
After about an hour of wandering around and learning about her daily responsibilities, Rei layed back against the wall and winced as the gate to her stall clanged shut. Staring up at the rafters, she sighs and freely lets her tears fall.
"Oh Kai...I don't want to be here...I want to be with you...Blake is so different then what we all thought of him at first..aw man. Why does everything have to be so damn difficult?" With that, she steals one of the three blankets from the corner and makes herself a bed on a small pile of hay.
As she drifted to sleep, unbeknownst to her, she let another tear fall as she thought of what she had lost on that one fateful day only...though she may not know...24 hours earlier.
~~~~~Next day~~~~~
Rei steps carefully to Blake's house, large basket in front of her filled to the brim with his clothes. She lifts the list of things she still had to do to her face with quite a bit of juggling. Nothing. She finished it all. Grinning, she would have whooped for joy if Blake had not come out of the house at that very moment.
"Lindsay!" he calls her over, with a grin on his face. She sighs and shuffles the basket once more so she is able to bow slightly.
"Yes sir?" she chokes out, thinking 'I'm never going to get used to calling him that..'
He grins and points to the house. "Put that stuff away and get out here, were heading to the market"
Rei blinks. "Oh yeah, coming!" Quick as she could, Rei carefully places his clothes in the house before heading back out. Blake hands her his large, noble black horse who she takes and leads to the main gate of the village.
As if the zombie kids training everywhere wasn't scary enough, other than that, the gate was what scared Rei the most. It was a huge, medieval drawbridge design with the large arc in the middle and everything down to the last rope hanging beside it holding the large wooden deck up.
Very skittishly, Rei hurried to keep up beside Blake who just strolled through the heavily guarded gate as if it was nothing more than a bridge on a warm, summer day over a clear blue stream.
What Rei saw nearly made her cry and drop the reins, but her self control kept her in line as she followed Blake to the bottom of the drawbridge. The entire valley was grey, stumps of trees everywhere, and the land completely dry. Sky's that were normally blue and beautiful with little or no cloud cover in her valley were overcast and grey, blocking out any sort of light that dared to enter. It was so sad, a skull of what might've been a deer layed just a few short feet away. Everywhere, as well, dust clouds gathered from troops practising in the fields and shouts of commands being given were heard even from where she herself stood.
After talking with his small group of travellers, Blake notices Lindsay's mood and took her hand, leading her to a path between mountains just a few hundred yards away from the city itself.
Once in the path, he takes the reins from Lindsay and mounts his horse. With a grin he motions for her to follow beside him. She smiles, thankful that he actually cared for her ever so slightly, and travelled beside him as intended.
On the way to the market, which was only over the one mountain thankfully, she was able to get to know the other six travellers. The journey was full of laughs and Rei could easily comment that the only time she had ever laughed so hard was with Tyson, Max, and Kenny, her three best friends in the whole world...other than Kai.
At the market itself was an adventure all of it's own. Looking at all the different merchandise and meeting so many great people was a blast, not only that, Rei's favourite part was the hat rack.
It was only her and one of Blake's servants so she picked up a huge, pink plumage hat that was too big for her head and fell over her eyes. The servant clapped and whistled teasingly as Rei walked around until she bumped into someone. Pushing the hat up a bit she paled to see it was Blake. He just looked down and smirked. Taking the hat off her head he put it on his own and looked in the mirror.
"Well? You think Boris would like it?" he asked, Rei just nodded.
"For some odd reason I think he would" she replied and they all laughed as they returned the hat to the rack, all unaware of a shadowy figure watching them from in the bustling crowd. The figure says something into a walkie talkie before pushing his way out of sight and disappears.
Quite a few hours later, the small caravan trudged home with bags over their shoulders filled with, mostly food, but some clothing. Rei herself was quite happy when Blake decided to buy her a very cheap, long, p-leather jacket that she had in a bag. At the moment she was chatting with Blake about different beyblading techniques they'd seen over the years as they walked in the middle of the path. On one side was the mountain, golden rock shimmered in the sun, and on the other side was the edge of a very high cliff overlooking a gorgeous river valley with green trees making it nearly impossible to see the ground.
Blake laughs at a corny joke Rei made about peaches when he hears something. A low rumble...he turns to look at the rock face and goes pale. "RUN!" he yelled as his horse reared. Everybody looked up and saw boulders crashing down towards them.
Rei was able to dodge the boulders along with the others and amazingly, Blake was able to manoeuver his horse around them as well. The servants immediately dropped anything they were carrying and ran. Blake turned his horse so he could see everywhere and make sure everybody was gone and began trotting to Rei.
"You all right Linds...oh no!" He looked up and Rei's jaw dropped in shock. A HUGE boulder was rolling down the hill straight towards Blake. His horse reared and he was thrown off, landing with an obviously painful thud on the ground. He groaned and sat up, rubbing his head as the horse ran away as fast as it's legs could carry it.
Rei tried to get to him but an arrow whizzed through her black hair and she looked up...about twenty or so rebels were standing on the cliffs, most had a bow an arrow at hand but only one had it drawn. The obvious leader was watching the entire ordeal with no expression whatsoever on his face as he gave an order to the boy with the taught bow.
"The girl can stay alive, we don't want to kill any innocent lives when we don't have to" the boy explained, the archer just nodded.
Blake, however, had no idea of this and only just dodged the boulder, laying dangerously close to the edge of the crumbling cliff. He sighed in relief at his close call and stands up, looking over to Rei with a tired smile.
Rei, however, was looking at him with deep concern. "BLAKE," she shouted beginning to run over, "Run away..."
She wasn't able to finish her sentence, however, as the unstable rock underneath Blake's feet began to crumble and by the time he figured that, he was practically standing on air. He tried to take a step forwards but the cliff fell out from under him and he began to fall with it.
Rei jumped forwards and was able to grab his hand. She landed with a thud of her own on her chest as she reached down with her other hand to hold Blake up by one arm. Trying to use her own body weight on the cliff, she was beginning to get tired and keeping her own body on the ground was not an easy task.
Blake looked up into Rei's eyes, surprise evident in them. "You..."
Rei gives him a little wink and groans as the land underneath her shifts. "Can't...let you...go like this..." she grins and begins to slip forwards, but somehow pulls herself back up. Reaching up, Blake grabs Rei's arm as well with a smile and whispers
"Thank you...but you should just let me go" he looks down with a gulp, but closes his eyes, accepting his fate. "You can leave...escape...get back to your village and all this will be over!"
Rei thought that over. If Blake died and she didn't, it ment that her side won. But over the last day and a half she had gotten to know the real Blake and he wasn't the Tyrant or monster she had thought he was before. He cared for his people as much as she, she had even glimpsed him slipping a family his portion of his rations and playing with some children. He was not the person she thought he was, he was almost like her.
"We can't wait any longer" the voice of the captain said as they watched the girl try to hold Blake up and failing. "He has to die, even if we do have to kill that girl."
The archer looks at the captain like he was nuts. "But, sir, she's just a slave! She doesn't need to die for our cause.."
"HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE DIED FOR HIS!!" a boy down the line exclaims rushing forwards. Grudgingly, the captain looks down at the girl struggling to keep her friend alive. He nods.
"The boys right...and anyways, one for the price of many. Get ready to fire on my mark" he orders.
The archer nods and takes aim...right between Rei's shoulder blades.
~~~~~~~~
Blue: whiew! Done!
Rei: took ya long enough
Blue: quiet you! Anyways, RnR peeps and tell me what you think of it!!
Rain: hey! It's a real CLIFF- HANGER!!!
Blue: -__-U yes Rain...Cliff Hanger...
Red Rain: MEWL!! (Sure, give your co-host a line!!)
Blue: please RnR and I will have the next chappie out a LOT sooner than this one, I promise! A week, tops!!
Rei: That's her rant for ya, oh, and she would like to thank Theoryofangels, Kit, meow, and neko-jin for supporting me and reminding me that I really do have loyal fans/friends! Thank you all!
Rain: HEY!!
Blue: ^_^U I was getting to you! Oh, and Rain for being my Beta/Editor for this fic! She's my best fweind!
Rain: yup yup...you spelt friend wrong
Blue: *anime falls*
RnR pretty please! (Nice, long reviews are my faves!)