THE WEDDING
"Stupid makeup artist!" Mariah snapped, moving her hands to tear at her hair, but stopped when the hairdresser screamed.
"Don't touch your hair! It will ruin my work of art!" said the man with a slight lisp. Mariah eyed him strangely, before sighing and continuing to pace around her bedroom at a rapid pace. Ray had gone to Max's place to get dressed, and Emily had come over to their place, so literally they'd done a swap. The only child that was there was Amy, and she had wandered off somewhere, looking for Marth, who had disappeared, along with his two older sisters.
'Here's hoping Marth gets back in time,' Mariah thought to herself.
"Mariah! Stop pacing, it'll be alright," Emily soothed.
Mariah smirked in return.
"That's what I said to you at your wedding day. Argh... I shouldn't have had these lilies put in my hair... I think I'm allergic..."
"While you were trying to feed Marth at the same time and he wasn't being terribly cooperative," Emily smirked back.
"Yeah, well now he's old enough to get his own nutrients, so it works out."
Speaking of the devil, Marth dashed into the room, covered in mud. Mariah eyed her son with a look of hopelessness on her face, and then buried her face in her hands.
"I told you to stay clean."
Marth shivered, his mother's voice was deadly quiet.
"I'm sorry," he said, attempting to look sincere but failing.
"Just hurry up and get clean again," Mariah snapped. Marth's bottom lip began trembling; his mother never yelled at him like that. Mariah saw the expression on her son's face, and flopped down into a chair and held her arms out.
"Come here."
Marth nodded and dashed over, jumping into Mariah's lap in the process and winding her. Immediately, the mud that was stuck to him got smeared onto her clothing as well.
'Good thing I don't have my dress on yet...' Mariah thought, before stroking her son's hair gently away from his face.
"Look, I don't want to get mad at you, but you've got to help me here. Go and get cleaned up quickly, and then go find your sisters."
"I think they went to see Daddy."
"Why did they go over there?" Mariah questioned.
"Because I said I'd tell you that they were the ones that pushed me into the mud... Oops!" Marth realized what he'd said and clapped his hands over his mouth violently.
Mariah glared into nothingness and tightened her grip on whatever she was holding... she didn't care what it was...
"Ow! Mummy, you're hurting my arm!" Marth whimpered.
"Oops! I'm sorry, but can you please do what I asked you?"
"Yes, Mummy."
"Good boy," Mariah sighed with relief, pushing a kiss to her son's temple.
"But first I've gotta find Amy."
"She's around here somewhere, she shouldn't be too hard to find."
"Okay," Marth nodded violently, and hopped off his mother's lap and left the room. Mariah sighed deeply and once again started pacing, occasionally pausing to look out of the nearest window, hoping the makeup person would be hurrying down the path, angry with herself for being so late.
"Damn it... only ten minutes until we have to leave!" Mariah screamed half an hour later, while also attempting to squeeze into her dress.
"And still no sign of any of the four kids..." Emily muttered, applying the finishing touches to her dress in the form of earring that were a matching emerald green to the dress.
"Well, the girls will already be dressed because they were going with Ray. But they were supposed to stay here so I could put on their makeup and their jewelry..." Mariah half-shouted back.
"That's good then... ARGH!"
"What happened?"
"I poked myself in the eye while I was putting in my contact lenses," Emily said, while wincing and covering her left eye with her hand.
"Tough it out, we've both been through worse," Mariah commented. Emily blinked, thinking she'd misheard; it had been the first time Mariah had even come close to mentioning what had happened to them all ten years ago.
"DAMN IT!" Mariah suddenly screamed, thumping her fist against the wall. Emily jumped and eyed her with interest.
"Come on, we can't delay any further- the Limo just arrived. We'll have to do our own makeup."
The two women hurriedly applied mascara, lipstick, blush and a bit of coverall where it was needed, and rushed outside. Or, at least Mariah tried to, but got her dress caught in the door, that she had hurriedly closed behind her. She yelped, before continuing to fall over, using her hands to break her fall, but tearing the material on one of her gloves in the process. Emily looked back to see Mariah cursing violently whilst trying to yank the back part of her dress free from the bottom of the door.
"Don't pull on it! You'll rip it," Emily sweatdropped as Mariah taught her a few new Chinese swear words and wiped a smudge of dirt off her face angrily.
"Hold still and I'll unlock the door," Emily stated firmly, and Mariah did as she was asked, but continued to have a greatly disgruntled look on her face.
Emily grabbed the key from off the ground, where it had fallen from Mariah's grasp, and unlocked the door. Mariah immediately stood up, looking very red in the face and hitching her skirt up until the hem rested around her knees, and grumbling as she sat down in the Limo. Emily sweatdropped and followed her as fast as she could walk in stiletto heels.
"Good morning, ladies. The champagne is in the cooler just in front of you," the driver stated professionally, sounding like he really needed a hobby of some description.
"Thank God..." Mariah muttered, reaching for the small glass in front of her and then the bottle, ripping her gloves off roughly in the process and tossing them over her shoulder.
"I wouldn't have too much of that," Emily warned. "Being drunk for your wedding isn't attractive."
"I won't. Do you think I'm stupid or something?" Mariah questioned, as she finished pouring herself a shot of the alcohol and drank it in one gulp.
"Eh..." Emily said, watching Mariah pour another shot of the champagne.
"I'm not going to go over the top," Mariah muttered indignantly, sipping the drink and smiling at her friend. "Don't go all Doctor Phil on me, thanks."
"Just don't make a fool of yourself. Don't make Ray remember his wedding day as 'the day that Mariah got pissed'."
Over the other side of the village, Ray wasn't having an easy time, either.
"Damn hair..." he muttered, while trying to tame his unruly black tresses. Trinity and Kirra watched their father with interest, as he gradually grew more frustrated.
"Do you want us to do it Daddy?" questioned Kirra.
"Yeah, we could do it up pretty for ya," Trinity blinked as a hairbrush flew past, centimeters from her face.
"No thank you," Ray said, eying Trinity's hair, which was her own doing. She frankly looked like a spastic Maltese Terrier that has stuck a fork in an electrical outlet, but no one had the heart to tell her that. But she usually looked somewhat like that anyway, because her hair was so uncontrollably curly.
Suddenly, Ray's son dashed in and stuck his hands onto his knees and started panting heavily. After a few seconds, Amy followed him in and walked over to her kitchen to get herself a drink.
"Daddy! I came to get the girls!" Marth yelled. Trinity and Kirra shot each other a "How did he get out?" look, but didn't say anything. Ray's eyes shot up to the clock on the wall, and he frowned.
"No point in that now, buddy. I'll have to take all three of you with me and Max."
A small cough was heard and Ray turned to see Amy tapping her foot and eying him with her large blue eyes, as if impatient.
"Fine, all FOUR of you. We'll have to leave right away though, otherwise we'll be late."
Ray had gathered all of the kids, and Max into the car and was driving down the road to the place in the village where he and Mariah were to be married. The kids were chanting "Faster, faster, faster!" and Max was looking worriedly out of the windscreen of the car, shouting out loud every time they came within a meter of a tree.
When he arrived there, he saw Mariah stumbling out of the Limo and giggling slightly and grabbing Emily's hand, yanking her out of the car violently and causing her to fall over. But they both got up and giggled again, their faces slightly flushed pink, the empty champagne bottle still clasped in Emily's hand. Ray and Max sweatdropped at the women that were their wife and almost-wife.
Trinity blinked at her mother's slightly tipsy behavior.
"Dad, what's wrong with Mum?"
"She looks like she does just before you two go to bed," Kirra commented innocently.
Ray's eyes flickered back to his daughters, but he let it go. But, after he'd finished looking at them in a suspicious manner, the two girls gave each other a wink.
It was still about twenty minutes away from when the wedding was due to begin, so there was nothing much to do but simply sit around, looking bored.
About five minutes after Ray had arrived, Tyson had shown up, flanked by Hiromi.
Hiromi eyed Mariah's shimmering white dress beadily and snorted.
"What's the point of you wearing white? You've had three children," Hiromi snapped.
Mariah glared up at Hiromi and snarled.
"Look, this is my wedding day, not yours, so I'd appreciate it if you'd shut up for once!"
"This is awfully familiar to me."
Mariah's eyes flickered upwards to see Trinity standing on a rather thick bough of the tree that was towering over her head. She was dressed in her usual black attire, and looked like she was going to a rock concert rather than a wedding. About the only part of her that looked alive were her eyes, shining with a complex mixture of emotions- but the most predominant ones were definitely amusement, and a form of envy, while she looked down on her mother, who looked so beautiful in the wedding dress she'd chosen out of the thousands of others.
"You're at a wedding, not a funeral!" Hiromi snapped, eying Trinity, who was ignoring the slight cracking sound coming from the end of the tree branch she was perched on.
"Oh, shut the Hell up," Trinity snapped, "When you get married, whoever you are, you can bitch as much as you want. Until then, don't screw this up for my Mum and Dad."
"Your Mum and Dad? How can they be your Mum and Dad? You're almost as old as they are, judging by the look of you."
"Long story..." Ray muttered.
"Yeah, too long to go into right now," Max backed up his friend.
"Where's Kai?" Tyson questioned, breaking through the sound of everyone fighting.
Trinity shrugged.
"He went to catch the escapees."
"Escapees?" Emily asked, tucking a particularly annoying strand of her orange hair behind her ear.
"The twins."
"Kai, huh? As in Hiwatari Kai?" asked Hiromi.
"Yes," Trinity stated simply, giving the brown-haired woman a slight glare of possessiveness towards the aforementioned man.
"He was so cute..." Hiromi sighed dreamily.
"Yeah..." Mariah murmured, subconsciously agreeing but blushing when she realized that Ray was giving her a look like a hurt puppy. She smiled steadily at him in reply.
"But he doesn't compare to my Ray."
Ray grinned and the whole group watched as the two got lost in their own little world of love and dirty thoughts for their honeymoon.
However, everyone's attention turned from Ray and Mariah when they heard what sounded like someone yelling, "Let me go!" echoing through the forest.
It turned out to be Kai, along with the two kids of course. Kurai was tucked under his father's arm, all his limbs hanging loosely from his body, although he was facing directly in front of him with a look of intense dislike on his face, he overall looked like an extremely discontented animal that was too lazy to do anything about its current unfortunate position.
Lita however was the exact opposite to her twin brother, as per usual; she had managed to swivel around in Kai's grasp and had attached herself haphazardly to her father's arm, and was yelling at the top of her lungs, explaining the sound everyone had become distracted by.
"Come on Daddy! Let me go!" Lita wailed at the top of her lungs. After receiving no answer, she started yelling once again.
"Lemmego Lemmego Lemmego Lemmego Lemmego Lemmego Lemmego!"
Kai finally did what Lita wanted him to do; he dropped both the kids without asking them if they were ready. Mariah was about to question Kai's controversial approach to fatherhood, but both kids landed perfectly on their feet without any trouble at all.
"Thank you, Daddy," Lita said, before looking at the younger Trinity, Kirra, and Marth and of course Amy.
"You look like my aunty," Lita stated simply. Kirra blinked at this statement, but didn't reply.
Then the three siblings looked up to lock eyes with Trinity, and they continued to stare at each other without blinking for a large portion of time. Hiromi looked confused but everyone else knew they must have been speaking to each other.
'Where are the Holy Beings?' Trinity thought, only to be answered by the smaller version of herself.
'They are around here somewhere. They didn't believe it was their place to be here.'
'Driger and Galux left together,' Marth pointed out.
'They always do, though...' Kirra added.
'I should tell them that their cubs are safe,' Trinity stated to the three younger people who were standing below her. Kirra blinked, but Marth and Trin didn't react at all.
'They ended up with you?'
'Yes... because we have their bit chips, and you don't. At least not yet.'
'Ah, I see,' Kirra murmured in a low purring voice, 'So they're here simply to protect my mother and father. Otherwise they probably would have ended up with you...'
'The Holy Beings are wise creatures, which have survived throughout the ages,' Trinity began, but was cut off by Marth.
'Don't you think we know that? I mean, you know what we are.'
Trinity smirked down at her littler-than-usual little brother.
'I forget that, sometimes. But you seem to resent showing the powers you were blessed with.'
'Mum, everyone is staring at you,' Lita's voice cut into the four people's minds.
'Okay, we'll stop now,' Trinity muttered.
'About time,' Kurai snarled. 'I'm dying of old age.'
'How do they...?' Trin began, but was cut off as the mental connection between their four minds was abolished.
Marth, Kirra and Trin glanced up at Trinity in question. She remained straight faced so the three children gave up and got back to what they had previously been doing, which was staring Lita and Kurai down; it was rather hard to tell which side was winning. Three golden glares against another plus one of a deep red hue...
Ray walked over to Kai and sighed. Kai's eyes flickered over to his friend, but no other part of his body moved.
"I have a favor to ask," Ray said. Kai inclined his head, showing he was actually paying attention to Ray, and Ray took a deep breath, and let it out again before opening his mouth to speak.
"Will you be best man?"
Kai smirked and nodded.
"Why not?"
Ray and Mariah looked thoroughly relieved, and Mariah yanked two small glistening objects off her right ring finger.
"You'll need these then," she said, dropping the two wedding rings into Kai's outstretched palm.
The slate-haired man studied the rings in his hand, one was gold, and one was silver and slightly broader than the other in width. And engraved into them both... Chinese characters...
He glanced at Trinity, who was finally getting off the tree branch and jumping down to join Kai and everyone else on the ground.
"What does that say?" Kai questioned her, and she answered without even looking at the rings.
"Wo ai ni."
'Wo ai ni... I love you in Chinese..." Kai thought.
"How would you know that without looking?" Hilary snapped.
"Because my parents have ones that are perfectly identical to them?" Trinity questioned sarcastically.
"Oh, here you go again with those lies..."
Suddenly, the three Kon children (AN: Well, technically, wouldn't Kurai and Lita's last names be Hiwatari?) snapped around to face the road where their father had parked Max's car.
'One of them is approaching...' Trin thoughts echoed in Kirra and Marth's minds, and her siblings nodded in agreement.
'Can you not tell which one?' Trinity questioned from her high perch on the branch of the tree.
'It's vaguely familiar... like I know it from a long time ago,' Trin mused, but both her siblings made it clear that they had no idea to who it could be.
Suddenly, a man emerged from behind the car and Mariah's face broke into a huge grin.
"Lee!"
Lee grinned, exposing his teeth, which were the usual fangs that were often seen in their hometown... and it felt good to be back there too, after almost eight years...
Mariah was running towards her brother in a fit of hysterics and Lee held his arms out, but Mariah didn't just run into his embrace she jumped and wrapped her arms around Lee's neck. Lee grunted very softly as he got used to carrying his sister's small weight, and he hugged her tight. Ray smiled, happy to see his best friend again but obviously not as excited as Mariah.
"I thought you wouldn't come... I thought you'd be too busy!" Mariah practically screamed into Lee's ear.
"Yeah, well I'm here to make sure little Raymond has been looking you."
Lee's eyes flickered to his nieces and nephew and smirked.
"Judging by the number of kids you now have, I think he has."
Mariah rolled her eyes, and then matched the smirk her brother had on his face practically down to the very last detail.
"For all you know, he could be tying me up every night and forcing me to..."
"Stop there. I don't need to know any more about what you two do. But you obviously have way too much time on your hands if he has time to do that to you every night."
Lee then looked behind Mariah, back to the kids who were eying him somewhat suspiciously, excluding Trinity who was staring at him, with her memory slowly stirring.
"I haven't seen those two girls since they were babies... when I left, Kirralee was only three days old... and assuming the boy is Marth?"
"Yes."
Lee looked behind Max to see Trinity standing there, examining her black fingernails in the sunlight.
"Ah, so you're back to, huh?"
"Yeah, we're both back," Kai said in his usual tone of voice.
"Can I ask you just one question?"
Trin's voice rang out into the now quiet group, and Lee nodded.
"Can I please see your beyblade?"
"I suppose so..." Lee murmured, looking unwilling but nevertheless letting her examine it.
Her eyes immediately traveled to the black blade's bit chip, and she glared, her eyes glazing over very slightly.
'Gone... they're all going to be gone...'
The Black Lion motif was gone, instead, the dark colour of the usual bit chip glinted up at her in the sun that had managed get through the heavy leaf cover above her head.
"Where is Galeon?"
Lee grinned, despite the serious look on Trin's face.
"I thought you, of all people, would know, Kintora."
Galux sat, flicking her tail against her mistress's bed, scratching her ear with her elongated fingernails.
"We really should be there with our masters," she stated evenly.
"No. It is not our place to impose on what they choose to do for recreational purposes," Driger replied, not fully turning around to face her, but he turned around just enough so that she could see his right eye, his acid-green gaze drilled through her own electric blue one.
"I do not think it is recreational... Mariah has not been terribly relaxed about the matter," Galux purred softly.
"I would not understand anyway," Dragoon admitted, attempting to shift but instead just jamming his large blue coils even more severely into the tight space. Galux noticed her comrade's discomfort, and glanced at the window, intensifying her gaze for just a moment, but then the window flew open, and Dragoon spun itself around and stuck his tail out of the window.
"I thank you, Galux. I now have room to breathe," Dragoon commented, mirth playing with his usually serious tone.
"What is the cause of your amusement?" questioned Draciel, sticking his head out of his shell momentarily. Trygator was perched on top of his shell and she flicked her long sandy hair back over her shoulder, before answering.
"I would find it amusing if your humans came back and found Dragoon's tail sticking out of their window."
"It probably would not shock them as much as most others," Driger chuckled.
Suddenly, the White Tiger's hilarity was put to an end, when he sensed a power, close to he Galux's in likeness, yet strangely familiar. Galux's head suddenly snapped around also, obviously sensing the same aura of power that Driger was.
"I recognize that power... but where from?" Galux murmured.
Abruptly, Dragoon's azure blue scales were darkened by a shadow that leapt into the room; at least, at first glance it appeared to be a shadow. But it couldn't have been, because it landed directly on top of Galux's lengthy tail, causing her to yelp with surprise.
"Oh, I apologize for that error in my judgment of distance."
Galux gave the figure a sharp glare, before yanking her tail out from under the foot of the new arrival, causing him to trip over and land close to Driger.
"Galeon, I always thought of you as a greater judge of your own power than that," Driger commented to the black lion, or at least the figure in front of him, that happened to be the aforementioned Holy Being's more human state.
The one word that probably could have been used to describe Galeon at that point was dark. Shadowy, unruly hair, glowing scarlet eyes, a sleek, ebony tail flicked like a whip against the wall. It also could be said that, although his skin did have the usual white glow of unseen mystic power to it, it was definitely darker in hue to the other Holy Being's hides.
"Perhaps you should consider the fact that you had many masters that did not unleash your power to it's fullest potential, until you were inherited by my master's friend, Driger. At least I know how to show my power, even when it is not truly needed."
The fur on Driger's back bristled violently, and he looked like he was about to rebut Galeon's comment, but Galux gave him a sharp look and he stopped.
"Perhaps you should both remember that the old days of rivalry of the beast's of our clan is over."
"This is coming from one who tended to take sides," snarled Galeon. Galux's ears became pinned to her head out of anger and when she spoke, it was in a low hiss.
"I, like my mistress, was not truly on anyone's 'side'."
"Suit yourself," Galeon snarled, and Driger regained his usual cheerful nature.
"You know Galeon, you so remind me of your master, when he was younger of age."
"Ah, yes. I will not deny that the boy had a ferocious temper, but he really is a good boy... but he was commonly lead to believe that the world revolved around himself."
"And Galux's mistress," Dragoon smiled.
"Yes, he is rather protective of his next of kin."
"I am surprised that he is letting Ray and Mariah go through with this, even though I do not understand what it is, I am sure it is important," mused Draciel.
"Perhaps he is letting it go ahead because it is already too late to try and prevent it?" suggested Trygator.
"No. You forget that he wouldn't do anything to upset my mistress, even if he couldn't stand seeing it," Galux replied.
"Ah, but have you forgotten that Ray and Mariah truly began to bond to each other when Lee refused to teach her to beyblade?" questioned Driger.
"I'm glad someone showed enough compassion to teach her," Galux smiled.
"And he taught her well, without our influence," commented Driger. "Usually, to make those two get anywhere, we had to tweak their thoughts."
"As we will have to do again, soon enough," Galux murmured, her voice stained with guilt.
"What they do not know will not hurt them," Galeon reassured. "They already had feelings for each other when you came to them. We simply... shall we say... 'Hurried things along.' It was our duty, we fulfilled it, and I dare not say that they could be happier with the ways things have turned out for them- in their favor, for a change."
Galeon's tail suddenly hit a lamp that was sitting on Ray and Mariah's bedside table, and it shattered, overloaded from the electric energy from Galeon's body.
The other five bit beasts stared a Galeon momentarily, before Galux's muscles relaxed and she murmured, "I do not think they shall miss it anyway."
"They probably will not noticed anything has changed at all," Driger said, with a mischievous look on his face that greatly resembled his master, "The way they have been acting lately, I doubt they will notice if the world ends."
"Don't jinx it, White Tiger," Trygator commented.
"We will not let our masters perish, if worse comes to worse. Their survival may influence the outcome in the long run."
"It is our duty as bit beasts to make sure that our masters are kept out of harm's way," affirmed Galux. "And we will live on that pledge until we ourselves perish."
'Okay, so it's Mum and Dad's wedding... can't be all that important... because the stupid, boring old Elders showed up for it,' Kirra thought, as she commando-crawled away from the wedding, closely followed by her brother and sister, who had pretty much come to the same conclusion.
In the minds of children who were ten, eight and seven years old respectively, learning equaled boring, boring equaled Elders, Elders equaled learning- it was a huge triangle of juvenile terror.
"Stupid loose clothes," Marth snapped; although his traditional Chinese-style shirt was rather tight, his pants were extremely loose and baggy. He had to pause every minute or so he could stop the loose bottoms of the legs covering his feet and shoes.
Marth was quite a good distance behind his two sisters, who were currently crawling under a spiky looking bush on their chests- in their best clothes, no less. He was probably that far behind him due to the fact that he had to pause every few seconds to save his modesty.
'Mummy's gonna kill them for getting those dresses dirty..." Marth muttered, before attempting to crawl under the same bush that his sisters had passed under a few seconds ago.
However, he was suddenly halted by his pants- they'd become entangled with the thorns on the bush and were slowly being worked downwards due to his struggling...
"Hey! What the...?" Marth yelped as he felt the rim of his pants get pulled downwards, practically resting around his knees.
"Tri-hi-hin! Help me!" Marth yelled after his eldest sister, but she obviously couldn't hear him- if she could, she would have at least turned back to mock him a bit.
Marth shut his eyes tight, and concentrated on his eldest sister.
'Trin!'
'What's wrong, squirt? You've fallen behind a fair way, haven't you?'
'I'm caught in a bush...'
'Heh, heh, heh...'
'Trin! It's not funny! Come back and help me!'
'Okay, okay. Just give me a second...'
"Uh, Kiz? I've gotta go back for a second."
"Why?" Kirra asked, he golden eyes widening.
"Umm..." Trinity began, but stopped because no ten-year-old girl in their right mind would ever admit they were worried about their younger brother.
"I lost one of my bows..." Trinity muttered.
"No you..."
"I'll be back in a second!" Trinity said, before standing up and hitching her skirt up until it rested around her knees.
After a one hundred meter backtrack, Trin came across her baby brother hanging in a thorn bush with his bare butt pointing to the Heavens.
"Heh..."
"It's not funny," Marth snapped, glaring at his older sister. "Just get me outta this."
Trinity reached through the thorns carefully, so she didn't scratched herself, but managed to find the seam of her brother's pants and underwear, caught around a rather menacing looking thorn.
"Hold on, I'll be done in a second," Trin muttered to her brother, who nodded timidly, whimpering like a small puppy that was unaccustomed to his surroundings.
She managed to get a reasonably good grip on the seat of her brother's pants and eventually tensed all the muscles in her arm and gave one forceful tug, and her brother came flying out of the thorn bush, his pants and underwear still hanging around his knees.
She placed her little brother on the ground, on his feet, and he immediately attempted to pull his pants up. Trinity watched him do this, before opening her mouth to comment.
"Mum would say that you're definitely your father's son."
Marth blushed angrily and gave an angry little snarl.
"Not funny. I don't need to know that. You girls can gossip all you want but I wanna remain with a clean record. I mean, you sure know an awful lot of a ten-year-old person."
"When Mum's had a few glasses of wine, you can get almost anything you want out of her."
Trinity shrugged at the end of this sentence, before grabbing Marth's hand and tugging him along, back to where Kirra was standing. Marth was still making a futile attempt to keep his pants up.
"You think the boring stuff is over yet?" asked Marth.
"Dunno... might as well go back and see... I wanna catch the big bunch of flowers that Mum has to peg at the guests," Kirra explained.
"It's called a bouquet, and she tosses it in the air, she doesn't peg it a people," Trinity snapped.
"Oh well, either way, I wanna catch it so I can get married next."
(AN: There- all of you that fantasize about little Marthie's butt can now do it while reading this chapter.)
"Only God makes perfection so divine..." the Elder droned on, and Lee could honestly feel himself dozing off. The sun was pleasantly warm, and the chairs were comfortable for being plastic.
"Only you make this affection seem to shine..." Lee murmured, completing the sentence. If he ever wanted to become an Elder, he already knew the marriage ceremony inside out, because back in the days when he, Mariah and Ray had been kids, everyone in the village attended the weddings held there. Back then, he never would have guessed in a million years that it would be his little sister and his best friend standing up there together right now.
They were looking at each other in a way that was so filled with adoration, it was almost sickening to behold.
Lee yawned, but tried to secrete it- it probably wasn't exactly polite to yawn at your little sister's wedding, but he'd watched this ceremony enough for one lifetime, just with different people, and frankly it never changed.
It was nearing the end of the ceremony, but the kids still weren't back. Mariah had... ahem... KINDLY left Lee to look after the kids, and they'd wandered off... but they promised they'd be back at least...
"I'm back!" a voice whispered, and Trin emerged from in the nearby scrub and sat down calmly, closely followed by her brother and sister. There was a large smear of mud on her dress and she had twigs in her hair. Kirra's hair had completely fallen out of the neat style it had once been in- it now stuck out at odd angles and there was a large tear in her dress. Marth was probably the worst of the lot- he was covered from head to toe in small nicks and cuts, his hair was full of sharp thorns from the bush which had held him captive, and he was constantly yanking his pants back up. Lee sighed; he was going to cop and earful for letting them get like this.
"And so this happy event comes to and end..." droned the Elder.
'Thank God,' Lee, Trin, Kirra and Marth thought all at the same time. Everyone else other than those four seemed to be at least mildly interested, but then again, they hadn't seen it a million times before.
"Go forth and have many children, the Elder droned on, giving a particularly harsh glare to Trin, Kiz and Theo.
'Oh YES, I remember now- we're the bastard children because we were born out of wedlock!' sniggered Kirra.
'Stupid old coot,' Trinity stated simply, 'He wouldn't know a more modern way of viewing things if it bit him on the ass.'
Lee almost burst out laughing.
'They don't exactly need a written invitation to do what the Elder just requested of them,' he thought to himself, glancing down at his nephew and nieces.
At that point, Ray slid his arms around Mariah's waist and pulled her in for a passionate kiss. Mariah blushed a bit but eventually gave in and kissed him back. The Elders gave them both a, 'Well I certainly don't approve of this' look, but said nothing.
Ray then scooped Mariah up in his arms and continued to carry her towards the Limo, whilst she giggled and wrapped her arms securely around his neck. Mariah realized he was still holding her bouquet so she murmured to Ray to stop for a minute, and wielded it violently in the air, so everyone knew why she'd stopped.
Emily, Trinity and all the males and married women stood by, leaving all the unmarried women who were there because they had to be, and Kirra, Trin and Amy to fight it out.
Mariah tossed the flowers over Ray's shoulder and Trin immediately made a grab for them, closely followed by Kirra and Amy. Trin managed to get a pretty good grip on the stalks of the flowers, and Mariah swore she saw her eldest daughter's eyes glint with an unnatural gold colour, before she managed to yank to bouquet free, and wrapped her arms securely around it in a sort of bear hug.
Trinity and Kai looked at each other, and Trinity smirked.
"You should take that as a hint, you know."
Kai just grinned at her momentarily (not a smirk, a grin) and turned his attention back to Ray and Mariah.
They had just gotten into the Limo, and everyone was going to follow it to the reception in their own cars. Lee, the three Kon children, Max, Emily and Amy all managed to squeeze into Max's car (thank God it was a station wagon) and they began to drive behind the Limousine to the reception, which was being held in a nearby town that was larger than the Clan's village.
They were still driving, Amy was yawning slightly and Emily glanced at her only child for a moment, just to make sure she didn't need help, Trinity was staring out the window idly, as was Marth, and Kirra was in a very serious conversation with Lee, which was amusing Max and Emily to a great extent.
"Who're you?"
"I'm your uncle Lee."
"Uncle?"
"I'm your Mum's brother, therefore I'm your uncle."
"So you mean... if I have kids when I grow up, Marth will be their uncle?"
"You've got it," Lee grinned.
"But I won't have kids. Mum and Dad say we're all huge pains in the ass," Kirra said sagely.
Lee raised his eyebrows. "Oh really?"
"Yeah. They reckon that we came from Hell, sometimes. But I think they like us anyway."
"I could probably understand that," Lee sweatdropped.
"Yeah, but they're bad sometimes, too. Like when they go into their room and scream at each other."
"Oh?" Lee became suspicious for a moment, listening intently to his niece.
"Yeah, but it actually sounds more like they're enjoying it- weird, huh?"
'Aa, the innocence of an eight year old...' Emily thought, glancing at her own daughter, who was looking at Kirra with an involved look on her face.
"Yeah... really weird," Lee said, frowning very slightly.
"Mmm. But I don't know how you can be my Mum's brother. You don't look anything alike."
"Neither do you and Marth," Lee pointed out.
"But we're both pretty. Mummy is pretty and you aren't."
Max and Emily sniggered very slightly but didn't do anything more, they didn't really want to fall victim to Lee's temper.
"Well, it's basically luck of the draw how a baby turns out looking. I look like my father did and Mariah looks like our mother."
"Aa, like me and Marthie look like Mummy and Daddy?"
"Yep."
"What about Trin?"
"She sort of looks like them both mixed together."
"Okay!"
"We'll be there in about half an hour, I think," Max said to Lee, who nodded. "Until then, you'll have to put up with your niece's criticism."
Meanwhile, Mariah was perched on Ray's lap, sipping her champagne idly with one arm wrapped around his neck, occasionally putting the shot glass in the cup holder arm rest of the Limo and yanking her stockings back up. Ray laughed as his new wife grunted angrily and yanked the garter back to where it was supposed to rest.
"Why do you try so hard to keep that thing on?" he mumbled into her ear, giving the lobe a swift nip and placing a soft kiss to her neck.
"So you can take it off. With your teeth."
"Oh."
"Aww, come on, it's tradition!" she smirked, poking Ray swiftly in the stomach with her nicely manicured finger and sliding off his lap with what could only be described as a practiced ease.
"Lee will tackle me and kill me with a butter knife," Ray commented.
"Oh, he's not as bad as you make him out to be," Mariah regained the smirk
"Yeah, maybe not to you..." Ray muttered, but Mariah just smirked and kissed him softly on the cheek, not really wanting to get into an argument about her brother.
"He has no word in what I do anymore. He hasn't had a say since Mum and Dad died."
"That's true," Ray admitted idly, "Besides, he's barely here anymore, anyway."
"I miss him a lot..." Mariah sighed. Ray could tell it upset her, so he wrapped his arms round her waist and pulled her back onto his lap- the roof of the car was so high that the tips of the petals of the white lilies in her hair just brushed it.
"He's here at the moment, okay? So don't think about what's going to happen when he leaves. You'll just worry yourself sick. Plus, you should know that he loves you a lot, no matter where he is."
"Same with you, right?" Mariah questioned, pouting cutely. Ray grinned it return, and his warm hand ran up and down her back.
"Same with me."
Mariah smiled contentedly and leaned her head gently against Ray's shoulder.
"I love you, Ray."
Ray smiled and grabbed her left hand with his own; their wedding rings glistened in the light coming through the car window, and the engraved symbols shone in a particularly bright way.
"Wo ai ni, until the day I die, and forever beyond that."
"That ceremony was so boring..."
"Hiromi..."
"AND that red-haired girl showing up looking like some relative of Marilyn Manson..." (AN: I don't own that dude, but he's pretty cool)
"Hiromi..."
"And those uncouth children running off and that pink-haired THING wearing white after conceiving all three of the little insubordinates..."
"Hiromi! Just be quiet, okay?" Tyson sighed. Honestly, he was beginning to wish that she'd never even tried to hunt him down, and just got on with her life.
"Oh! I come all the way out here to see if you're alright, and this is how you thank me?"
"Hiromi, I just want you to stop stressing about it! It's Ray and Mariah's wedding, not yours. They invite whom they want, they dress how they like and they raise their kids in a way that suits them. So, you can nitpick when you get married."
"... Is that a hint?" Hiromi suddenly looked at Tyson with excitement. He sweatdropped, not knowing how to answer; and knowing that if he told the truth it would put her in a particularly foul mood.
"Umm... perhaps."
Hiromi said nothing for a while; she just stared out the window, admiring the scenery.
'Well, one thing can be said for this hole-in-the-ground of a village, it's actually very beautiful and peaceful once you notice..."
"Hiromi? Are you alright?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, sure Tyson."
"We're almost out of the Shantung Province, and the town where Ray and Mariah are holding their wedding reception is only about two kilometers away from the border." (AN: The White Tiger Clan's village is in the Shantung Province in the manga...)
"Ah... okay."
For about five minutes, there was silence between the pair; for once, Tyson seemed very concentrated on the road while he was driving.
"I missed you while you were away, you know."
Tyson's eyes flickered over to Hiromi, surprised by her comment, but she was still staring out of the window. He sighed very lightly, and the corners of his lips slipped into a small smile.
"I missed you too."
"Kurai, Lita, keep up!"
Trinity was dashing through the countryside, to the wedding reception, having no means of transport to get there because all the other cars weren't able to fit she, Kai and the kids in together. So, they were running there. The kids seemed able to run at the speed their mother was keeping up, but Kai proved not to be; Trinity supposed the ten kilometer run was just too much for him; after all, he was only human. So after he'd gotten tired, she'd very decently grabbed him around the waist and started carrying him under her arm whilst running.
Her eyes flickered back to check that the twins were still in view. They were; Lita was about three meters ahead of Kurai, however, she seemed to be tiring at a more rapid pace.
"You know, you probably look like some sort of pro-woman's-liberation-dominatrix, carrying me like this," Kai shouted up to her. She grinned down at him in reply and blinked a few times.
"Was that a hint?"
"Heh... You, Trin, will not overpower me. No matter how powerful you are..."
"Yeah? Well, we'll see about that, Hiwatari."
"You sound like your sister."
"My God! That's so tragic..."
"I'm being serious."
"I know. That's why I said that it was tragic," Trinity smirked down on Kai, who scowled back.
"Or perhaps you look more like your mother..."
"I really doubt it. I'd say my parents' sexual libido is almost ready to go legs-up like a dead cockroach. After all, they're almost in their fifties and they've been at it since they were twenty..."
"Yes, but when you DO think back to when they were twenty..."
"I can't remember back that far. I was only a baby back then."
"Good point... but they were a little out-of-control..."
"Well, look at it like this. If they hadn't been a little 'out-of-control', there wouldn't have been anyone around to save your ass eight years ago. You should probably thank them for being the way they were..."
"Oh yeah, and what would I say?" Kai smirked very slightly, "Hey, thanks for having sex, you two. Otherwise I wouldn't have anyone to save me from dying and raise MY children."
"Ha, ha, ha," Trinity said sarcastically, but she looked behind her to make sure the aforementioned children were still in sight. They were; they seemed to be going remarkably well. But then again, they'd been in training since they could walk...
"Well, it's the true facts of life."
"I suppose so... ah, we're almost there," Trinity murmured, slowing down until she came to a complete stop. Kurai and Lita halted also, but they went slightly past where their mother had stopped, not really being able to control their own strength.
"Let's go," Trinity said, dropping Kai, who landed on his hands and knees at her feet. He stayed in that position for a while, and Trinity glanced down again.
"Now that's more like it, bitch."
"Don't even joke," Kai growled, regaining his footing.
"What are you talking about?" Lita asked, wide-eyed.
"I'll tell you when you're older..." Trinity murmured subconsciously.
"Are we going?" Kurai asked sarcastically.
"Definitely your father's son, aren't you?" Trinity replied.
"Yeah we are," Kai said. "Let's go."
After many congratulations and what felt like a million photos, everyone got to sit down in the room that had been set up for the reception. It was a large, dimly lit room, but it radiated its own sort of comfort. Tyson eyed the buffet dinner hopefully, but Hiromi grabbed his arm and yanked him away.
"Speeches and toasts first," she said, taking her seat. Tyson sighed and sat down at his place, next to her, with Lee on his other side.
Kai, Trinity, Emily, Max and the three children of Mariah and Ray sat up at the table for the Bridal Party (AN: That's what it's called... right?) and Amy, Kurai and Lita sat a table close to it, so that they were close to their parents.
There were plenty of people there from the village that they didn't know particularly well, but that was the way it was done. The Elders had chosen not to come, thankfully, because otherwise they would have been inclined to make long, boring speeches.
Finally, it was time for the speeches. Kai stood up, getting ready to do his speech, arms folded across his chest. He only opened his eyes when he reaches the microphone.
"Well, I'm Best Man. And I have absolutely no speech prepared because I only found out I was best man about ten minutes before the wedding started, so thanks a bunch, Ray," Kai smirked sarcastically at Ray, who shrugged idly.
"So, aside from that, I would like to say, off the top of my head, that I always knew this day would come," Kai said, looking at Trinity, who smirked.
"And I will say that it couldn't happen to two people who were better suited to each other. Just by looking at them, you can tell how much they care about each other. I think it should be a lesson to the rest of us..."
Mariah eyed Trinity, and nodded in severe agreement.
"And now, I have nothing left to say," Kai stated simply, and walked back to his seat, regaining his usual pose of closed eyes and folded arms.
"FOOD!" Tyson yelled ecstatically, grabbing the tongs that were used for putting the food on one's plate and shoveling it desperately onto his plate.
Hiromi frowned at Tyson, and simply chose what she wanted and sat back down. Tyson filled his plate until it was almost overflowing, ate it all, and went back for seconds. And thirds, and fourths.
It was hopeless. Everyone simply looked on as Tyson devoured the whole buffet table by himself. After his eighth helping, he suddenly groaned and clutches his stomach.
"Indigestion! Argh!" he moaned pathetically.
The room was suddenly filled with a sea of sweatdrops, while Tyson lay back in his chair and moaned like a ghost.
Suddenly, music sounded from the loudspeakers, and Kai sighed. Trinity recognized it as 'It Was You' By Ashley Ballard.
"Dancing... I hate dancing... it's for wimps..."
Trinity laughed lightly and her parents hurrying towards the dance floor.
"They obviously don't think so."
"It's their wedding... they're supposed to dance."
"You know that the best man and the matron of honor are supposed to dance, right?" asked Trinity. Kai looked at Emily with a look of intense dislike, and she looked at him with the same resentfulness.
"Aww, come on Kai," Trinity laughed, as Max grabbed her hand and whisked her away to dance, "Have some fun!"
"Easy for you to say..."
Ray and Mariah were slowly dancing with each other, seemingly murmuring the song to each other, with Mariah's head leaning against Ray's chest. Trinity was red in the face and giggling as Max whisked her around the dance floor in a much more energetic dance than the married couple were partaking in. After that, Lee snatched Mariah from Ray and danced with her, and Max picked Amy up and danced with her, both of them giggling in a very Max-like way. Ray picked up Kirra and Trin with a bit of effort, one in each arm and danced around with them a bit until the added fifty kilos of carrying both of them around got to him and he had to put them down. Marth seemed completely uninterested in dancing; once Amy had been released by Max, she, Marth and Lita ran around, hyperactively trying to catch each other as they ducked under the tables and ran down the nearby hall that led to the toilets and locked themselves in the cubicles until whoever was chasing them gave up. Eventually Kirra gave in and joined her brother and the other two girls with the psychopathic game, as did Trinity. However, Kurai simply sat and watched, occasionally chasing them away if they came to close to him, for the sake of showing off.
Kai eventually gave in and gave a belated dance to Emily, who afterwards wandered off to dance with her own husband, and he then grabbed Trinity and slowly waltzed around with her for a while. She leaned her head against his chest and rubbed against it in a very feline way, and he smiled down on her, gently kissing the top of her head.
Ray and Mariah watched their friends, with the air of contentment surrounding them, their hands tightly intertwined.
"Want to go out to the balcony?" Ray whispered into Mariah ear. She nodded, so he stood up and pulled her to her feet also. Then, the two newlyweds wandered idly out to the balcony.
Mariah's eyes gleamed like the stars that could be seen twinkling in the ebony sky outside, and the cold night air blew a few of the soft pink tendrils of her hair across her face. Ray brushed them away delicately, and sat down on the bench that was positioned on the balcony for people like the, who were simply content to be together and watch the stars.
"I'm glad everything went well today," Mariah whispered, snuggling closer to Ray for body heat. Ray could tell that she was cold, so he took of the jacket from his tux and placed it gently around her shoulders. (AN: Ray in a tux! has a drooling fit and faints)
"So am I," he said, smiling at her. His eyes were shining the way only his eyes could possibly shine, so Mariah leaned over and pressed a kiss to his lips, which he eagerly returned. Once they had broken the kiss, Mariah gently ran the tips of her fingers over Ray's cheek and smiled at him in a loving way. Ray smiled at her and placed his warm hand on her cheek, and slowly ran it downwards, over her neck, shoulder and her breasts, finally ending the trail at her waist.
He then used the appropriate position of his hand to pull her onto her lap and draw her into a soft kiss. His hands roamed her body and pulled her closer, so she wrapped her arms securely around Ray's neck and kissed him back.
And because of this, neither of them noticed the strange apparition in the sky until it was too late...
"So we have arrived."
"It seems quite a shame to destroy something so tranquil..." Pyrus muttered to his superiors, who gave him deadly glares in return.
"I don't know why we took you on," Varsha hissed at him angrily, "You're an over-emotional fool."
"We took him on because he was the best new recruit," Xan snapped, ending the fight between his two juniors. Pyrus looked almost proud, but Varsha gave him a hard look and his face once again melded back to show no emotion.
"Well, we've delayed enough already. You know what we're here to do."
"Yes."
"We'd better go and get it over with, then, and reap the benefits when we tell the Master of our handiwork."
Meanwhile, Ray had managed to pin Mariah to the seat they'd been sitting on, and was kissing her while rubbing her back softly. Mariah still had her arms locked around Ray's neck, but now her fingers had trailed to his hair, which she was messing up playfully.
Ray wasn't sure what it was, but at that point, he opened his left eyes and glanced sharply at the stars. There was something that wasn't about the star his eyes were currently locked on...
It was bright red, and seemed to be traveling towards he and Mariah at a tremendous pace. He sat up, and Mariah seemed annoyed at first, until she followed his gaze and saw the bright red sparkle.
Suddenly, it was right in front of them, and the three strangest looking people either of them had ever laid eyes on were hovering in front of them.
"Hello," the one in the middle smirked, obviously meant to be male, and obviously the leader of the three said to them, but it wasn't kind... it was ruthless and cruel tone of voice.
He then held his hand out, pointing it directly and Mariah and Ray, and his accomplices did the same.
"Mariah..." Ray whispered.
"Yes?" she whispered back. Her voice was shaking.
"Run."
A red-coloured blast suddenly shot from the people's hands, and Ray pushed Mariah out of the way, so she stumbled and began running, and Ray followed closely behind her. The blast brushed past his shoulder with about two centimeters to spare, and he winced as he felt one of the other blasts skim his shoulder. Blood stained the white shirt he was wearing, but he continued to run until he was back at the room where the reception was being held.
Trinity eyed her parents with the utmost suspicion, and saw her father's shoulder cut and bleeding.
"What happened?" she demanded.
"Three people... they're chasing us..." Mariah whispered, obviously traumatized.
Trinity gritted her teeth together and stood at the entrance to the hallway, waiting for the attackers to come inside... if they knew that she was here... they would expect an ambush...
Suddenly, Trin, Kirra and Marth stood up, walking over to stand beside her. Trinity snarled at the three but they ignored her.
"You three... get out of here. Go with your parents, understand me?"
The three kids looked rather disgruntled, but complied.
"And you two..." Trinity snapped at her own two children who had wandered up and stood next to her, ready to help, "Go with your father."
Kai abruptly ran up and grabbed both of his children and tugged them away. Everyone else had left the room, leaving it eerily silent.
Trinity stood; ready to lunge at any moving object, her eyes flickering around for any signs of life. A plate behind her dropped to the floor and shattered, causing her to spin around, and giving Xan time to lunge from his hiding place and grip her around the neck.
"So, this is where you've been hiding it. Very clever, Kintora. You held us off for almost a fortnight. But tonight, it finishes," Xan spat in her face, and tightened the grip around her neck.
Trinity managed to grin, causing Xan's face to become furious and slightly questioning.
"You're... so stupid!" she whispered. Her captor's face twisted into hatred and he used his other hand to punch her out of his own grip and into the hallway wall.
The blow had cut Trinity's temple and eyebrow, and her lip was bleeding. And yet, she sat up and laughed.
"You came here alone... you're pathetic on your own... I'll kill you."
"Varsha, Pyrus."
The two people who had been called upon stepped out from behind the corner of the hallway and smirked down on Trinity, looking completely domineering. For a moment, a flicker of terror flashed through Trinity's eyes, but she blinked and it was gone.
"Good try. But you won't get me this time. And you won't get The Star."
Trinity then shut her eyes, and in a golden flash, was gone from their vision.
Xan snarled, looking around at nothing, but e stared through the wall of the hallway and a psychotic grin emerged on his lips.
"She's still here... and I know she has the Star..."
'Aa, but that's where your wrong,' Trinity's voice danced with mirth inside Xan, Pyrus and Varsha's heads.
"Find her!" Xan screamed, and Varsha and Pyrus nodded and rushed off to search the rest of the building.
"I'll get you Kintora..." Xan snarled, clenching his fist. "And I will claim this world and the Bit Beast World as my own!"
Kai blinked; Trinity had appeared beside him, breathing heavily, with blood dripping from the cuts on her face.
"What...?"
"No time now... where's Dad and Mum?"
"They're still in here, but everyone else has run off. They stayed to make sure you were alright."
"It doesn't matter... they aren't after the others... they're after my parents..."
"Why are they...?"
"I told you days ago!" Trinity snapped, trying to wipe the blood off her face but simply smearing it over her face, making it look like war paint.
Kai's eyes flashed with remembrance, and he nodded.
"I'll go find them. I sent the kids with them just in case."
"Good, we'll both go and find them."
Trinity and Kai dashed desperately from room to room, checking every corner, nook and cranny as they searched for their friends.
Trinity dashed into the woman's restroom, pushing open the double doors so forcefully that they snapped off their hinges. In there, she found her father sitting on the bench with the sinks set into it without a shirt on, his breathing raspy from pain. Mariah was desperately ripping strips off her wedding dress and wetting them, sponging the blood off Ray's shoulder and tying the strips around his shoulder in a futile attempt to numb the bleeding. Trin, Kirra and Marth sat near their parents with her own children, looking worried but alert. Kurai and Lita simply looked alert, stiffening when their mother burst through the door but relaxing when they realized it was her.
'Kai, I found...' Trinity halted, realizing that he no longer had Dranzer in his bit chip, therefore making communication in that way impossible.
"I'll go find Kai. We're out of here. Be ready to go when I get back," she commanded, and pointed at Ray at the same time. The cut closed itself and become merely a paper-thin scar.
"There, I healed the cut, now, all of you group together and be ready to be amazed when I return."
Trinity caught up with Kai, who had been checking the male restroom, and dragged him almost angrily back to the female equivalent of the room she'd found him in.
"They're in here."
"The girl's bathroom?"
"Oh, for God's sake Kai, swallow your pride."
"Humph..."
Trinity kicked what remained of the doors off their hinges, and dashed into the room, where all the people she'd left there were grouped together. Kai's eyes widened very slightly, and her murmured, "Don't tell me you're taking them to the..."
However, he never got to finish, because Trinity had grabbed the two people standing next to her- Kai and Mariah, and shouted loudly.
"FUTURE!"
Kai felt the now familiar rush of strange warm air that told him that he was going back. Back to Trinity's time, back to Trinity's family. Except, this time, there were a few more people that were along for the ride.
'Hope you're in for a surprise, Kirralee and Martheo...' he thought, before closing his eyes and giving in to the rush that told him he was going back... or should it be forward...? Either way, he was going back to the place and time he now called home...
Next chapter: Kirra and Marth reappear!
