Shaedowe: Oh yes, I haven't been thanking my reviewers. So, thank you the following people.
Obs3ssi0n ( thank you for reviewing so frequently!!! Thank you many times over!!!)
kanilla (many, many times over as well because you are one of my most frequent reviewers. Thank you so much!!!)
el-drydzia (thank you too!!!)
Sorry if I left anyone out. Tell me if I did.
Now for the most depressing part of the story. The disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade.
-sniffles-
"You know, Alan, if you hadn't shouted at us to run, then we wouldn't have to run." Chance was irritated and he showed it.
"And leave poor, cute, li'l me to face the music alone? Not my style." Alan grinned.
They turned into Geogory, a road at the very edge of Atlantis. It seemed that Atlantis named its road and lanes, even its deserted alleyways after famous people. Maybe Geogory wasn't very famous, that was why he was at the very edge.
Not many people knew this road. Which was why they would be more difficult to find here. They knew Théorden, their Orphanage Keeper wouldn't be far away though. Théorden knew them very well. Which was probably why he was their Keeper.
"Hey guys, done something wrong again?" A boy with almost white hair greeted them, falling in step with their running for no apparent reason at all.
"Derek, hey!" Chance grinned. "You know us. We're innocent. But little Alan Pertroupie here…" He cast a dark look in Alan's direction, who immediately began to flutter his eyelids.
Jade blushed. Derek was cute. And he was funny. And witty. And charismatic. And a thousand other things. "Hi." She mumbled.
The raven-hair girl shoved Derek, her eyes dancing with amusement. Of all of them, she was the one who got along with Derek the best. They were the best of friends, and knew each other inside out. There were no secrets between them.
Derek laughed and shoved back. "Reave, be nice. I could abandon you all and no one would even know I had escaped form the Orphanage."
"Ah, but you wouldn't." Alan turned around to face him and started running backwards. Flashing another one of his trademark grins.
Derek turned to the last boy of the group. "Hey, Kai. You still angry with me? She's yours if you want her."
Kai, the slate-haired youth, rolled his eyes, his blue tattoo on his cheeks hiding a slight blush. "I don't know what you're talking about." He answered coolly.
Derek rolled his eyes as well. "Sure you don't."
They slowed down and finally stopped running, certain that no one would be crazy enough to follow them to the very edge of Atlantis, which was where they were now.
None of the Atlantians wanted to leave Atlantis at all. They had a livelihood, and a great place to live, away from the war of the Outside World, though what was so Outside about it wasn't clear to the Orphans.
That was who they were. Orphans. Not just any orphans, but The Orphans. They had no parents that they knew of, and no living relatives either. It seemed that they had all simply disappeared. Which didn't matter to the Orphans at all. They, as a team, were all the family the needed.
The Orphanage was their present 'home'. They had to live there, work there, play there, eat there. In other words, do everything in the Orphanage itself. It was a very boring-looking building, slate-gray with peeling paint.
Its facilities were rich, but they'd all been bored with what the Orphanage had to offer. They wanted so much more. They wanted so much more than even Atlantis had to offer.
The Orphans were supposed to be 'gifted'. They didn't know what the Director's – the head of Atlantis - definition of 'gifted' was, but if it meant physically and mentally, then they were really gifted.
An example would be that the Atlantians had recently imported a thing, an electronic box which could transmit sound waves and coloured pictures for entertainment. The coloured pictures were boring, but it had been fun to play with: they had dismantled the box and reassembled it, then built many more improved versions of the box with the raw material they had found.
They could run and do physical things as well. One of their gang, another Orphan, had been sent to compete in the Olympics two years ago. And had won many medals. The problem was he never came back. No one knew what happened to him, and no one sent participants out anymore.
And Atlantis had once again become lost to the world. The Outside world.
Then Chance tensed up, followed by Derek.
"Shh…" they quieted the group down and the group obeyed them. They were plainly the natural leaders.
They all heard it now. The swish-swash sound of the cloaks that they wore. Dark, black coloured cloaks. They all wore dark clothes. It reflected their hearts and feelings. It reflected them.
It was the Discipline. The Discipline was a group of 'hunters', who were sent to discipline anyone who got to evil, too bad. These bad, evil people never came back. Sometimes it seemed that the Discipline were even more veil, but hardly anyone - who was sane, sober and valued their lives - stopped them.
It seemed that the Orphans had crossed the line. They had escaped many times, and done many things, disrupting the peace of Atlantis. There had been many threats, but none of them had taken them seriously. Until now. But they were still the 'gifted children' of Atlantis, and there had been many lectures that they had to behave as they were the 'future' of Atlantis.
Would the Director or maybe Théorden their Keeper aka caretaker destroy the future of Atlantis? It was all too scary to think about.
The sound got closer. So they knew where they were. It wasn't such a surprise. The Discipline were very good at hunting people down, and always got the job done. It seemed that they were very serious about this one job, maybe because Alan had once done something to them. It was really all Alan's fault, Jade thought, shivering in fear. Kai placed a firm hand over her arm, trying to calm her down.
Everything seemed to have gone extremely quiet now.
Derek put his arm around Reave to comfort her - and maybe to comfort himself too - who shrugged it off.
Then, the Orphans took off again, in unison, down the alleyway, their last chance of escape. They came to a crossroads and Jade and Kai ran ahead, keen not give the Discipline any time to overtake them.
But the rest stopped abruptly, and seeing them stop, Kai and Jade slowed, but warily, tersely, keen to get on the move again.
The other road seemed to be calling to them. It was a dead end there, everyone knew, but… it was a weird feeling. Without thinking, Reave broke the spell and barged on ahead, into the dead end.
And, the wall at the very end shimmered.
It was all they needed. They ran towards the wall, but the sound was now behind them. The Discipline were close. Very close to succeeding in ending their short lives of sixteen odd years.
The shimmering space on the wall seemed to get smaller and smaller as each one entered. The Discipline were close now. They could see them, and they were gathering up speed, ready to strike a blow. The fatal blow of Death.
Two people were left outside now, they rest were in the safety of the wall: Jade and Derek.
Derek shove Jade inside with a confident, rueful grin. "Bye."
Jade had only time to scream and hear the cry of Derek in pain before she disappeared through the wall, her face covered in tears.
She looked around herself, peering around through her tears. The others were all there too, looking scared and frightened.
A voice broke her from her thoughts. "Derek. Where is Derek?"
Jade spun around. It was Reave.
"Derek." Jade choked on the word. "Derek… he…" She turned away and fell into Kai's arms, crying, sobbing like a little child.
Reave's voice was hard and resigned. "He's dead, isn't he? I can feel it. I just know that Derek's dead. I can't feel him."
Jade couldn't look at Reave. Reave, she knew, would be hurting more than all of them. She and Derek were the closest; the best pair of friends there ever was and ever would be.
Reave was hiding it well, but there was her weakness of her hand. It always shook when she felt any strong emotion. That was the way the others determined her feelings.
And her hand was clenched now, shaking and shaking like it would never ever stop.
Make it stop. Make it stop, Jade wanted to scream. Stop. But she didn't say it out loud.
Jade turned away from Reave and sobbed even more. She couldn't help but feel that Reave was feeling hatred now, more than anything. And the hatred was most definitely directed at her.
Jade awoke, tears streaming down her face, screaming one word. "Stop!"
Se felt and heard her chest heaving, her labored breathing. She buried her face into her hands, couldn't face the fact that she had been the one who had caused Derek's death. No wonder Reave didn't want her to know.
But it didn't make sense. If it had been her, she probably would have wanted Reave to know, to feel guilty, to know that she was a murderer, and would never forgive her. Forever and ever.
But Reave… she had treated her as her best friend. Best friend. And all Jade had ever done for Reave was to get her best friend killed - albeit indirectly – and create a lot of trouble. She didn't deserve someone as wonderful, as nice, as perfect as Reave as her friend.
Go ahead, she muttered bitterly to herself. Feel sorry for yourself when Reave is the poor one. God, this is weakness. I am so weak. Weak. She let out a bitter laugh and let her eyes wander over to the window.
But there was no window, just an enclosed room.
That was when she realized that this wasn't her room.
Reave stared at the floor. Stared at the wall. Stared out the window at nothing in particular. Stared at anywhere but the girl sitting in front of her, grinning like – guess what – the Cheshire cat once again.
She would hate cats forever and ever, and the Kingdom of cats had only Arrience to blame.
Stupid, know-it-all Arrience who was now smiling all-so-smugly.
"So, you finally remember? Do you hate her, Reave? Little smiling, nice, innocent Jade, aka Murderer of Great master Derek, your best friend? Who is truly your bestest best friend now little Reave?" She crowed, a sound of victory. Of evil over good.
"It wasn't Jade. It was Hiwatari."
Arrience tried to hide her puzzled frown. "What? Kai? Didn't quite catch you there little Reave…"
Reave turned away, staring at the floor. "You wouldn't know, of course. No one except Kai, Derek and I knew. And Kai's in denial. He wasn't even an Orphan. I don't understand why…" Her voice trailed off, remembering the day's event's hazily, like watching a movie through a veil of mist.
Arrience sighed. Oh boy. She hated it when Reave got all deep in thought. Then she would have no one to talk to until the time Derek called for her to bring Reave in. Or, as Derek put it, Reave would ask –no, insist - to be brought to Derek.
She hoped that wouldn't be long.
