Talon's P.O.V
I scanned the quiet street for what seemed the fiftieth time since dark fell. =Charlie…where are you?! You said that you would be back before dark. Well, okay, you didn't exactly promise to do that but it isn't safe to be out at this time. That must be obvious. It's been dark for over two hours now, why haven't you come back?? Was it because Blaze was too hard on you today? And why did your eyes turn into those purple clouds again? They're so weird. Even you're surprised with them aren't you? That was the reason why you ran away, because you were confused to why we were staring at you. I guess I really shouldn't be so worried 'coz you can take care of yourself can't you? …But the way that you act…why do you always seemed scared? = I looked up at the stars, hoping they would give me an answer. =You still haven't told us anything about yourself. You haven't said anything about your past, you barely talk, and when you do, you seem surprised when someone does talk to you or want you opinion…=
Looking back down again, all I saw was the nearly black street. A gust of wind suddenly blew past, chilling me even further. That was the proof that winter was coming, with all the winds coming and going and it was getting colder in the evenings now. Then, beside me, a sliver of light appeared by my feet. That subsequently widened until a silhouette materialized in the middle of it.
"Talon?" it was Geode, surprisingly enough…not. His shadow alone was enough to tell me who it was; he's the tallest in the gang so it was obvious that it was him.
"Hmm?"
"Don't you think you should come in?" he asked softly.
I shook my head. Not totally sure he had seen that I said, "No. I can't, he's still out th-"
He didn't have to ask who 'he' was. "Talon," he interrupted, "are you sure that he's going to come back? I mean, he would have come back by now, wouldn't he?"
"Geode, he said he wouldn't run away again. I mean, what if he's out there somewhere, hurt, and we're just waiting here! What if he's been in an accident and he's in hospital?!" I was starting to work myself into a frenzy. All my pent up emotions were just tumbling out at the one time. "What if he's-"
"Shhhhh." I felt Geode's hand grab my upper arm. Without realizing it, I had started to walk in the direction where we had last seen Charlie. "Talon, if you go and find him, we're going to have to have two search parties instead of one!"
"But I can't stand waiting around like this! If he is dying somewhere I'm going to blame myself for it!"
"Dying? Don't you think you're exaggerating just a tiny bit? And why would you blame yourself? You aren't the only one who left him there." He said trying to comfort me and to also try and stop me from probably running into a car.
"Yeah, but, I'm the one who brought him out here wasn't I? I'm…I'm beginning to think that that was a bad idea." I mumbled.
"Talon, believe it or not, I think you helped him a lot just by taking him out of there." He said slowly.
I turned back around to him, surprise written clearly on my face. "What?"
"Think this over okay?" he said before I could say anything else, "Think of how Shadow holds himself, how he reacted to certain things; what did he do and what did he say? Now tell me, what does it remind you of?"
I was silent for a few moments as I thought about what Geode was asking me to think about. All I could really think about was his eyes that always seemed to change colour. Then my thoughts drifted to what I was thinking a few minutes ago. I shook my head trying to remember exactly what I was thinking of. I knew that I knew it; I just couldn't remember precisely what it was.
" * Sigh * I don't know. What does he remind you of?"
"Zero, when we first found him."
=Zero? Oh, of course! But he doesn't look like he's been beaten though. Just more of always being scared. Hmm, I haven't really seen him smile either, apart from after me and Blaze got him back to the warehouse and he started lookin' at Geode in that weird way…=
"But what does he have to be scared of? He doesn't have a mark on him."
"We haven't really seen him though."
"Huh?"
"He's always wearing that jumper isn't he?" he explained. "And who knows where he could have been beaten? It could be anywhere on him. It's not as if we can ask him to strip so we can make sure that he hasn't been beaten." Geode stopped suddenly as he thought of something. "Although, I had a little talk with him before, and, well, what happened next I totally didn't expect." He then added.
"What are you talkin' about? I've been there with him the whole time and I haven't seen you have "a little talk" with him." I said.
"It was early in the morning, so it instantly rules you out as being there." I could hear the teasing in his voice. "Anyways, I pretended that I was nasty and a bully. You know, just lying down the "rules" and stuff like that."
"And they would be…?" I interjected.
"Um, he has to follow my orders and when he talks to me he has to look down and call me Sir."
I spluttered with laughter at that. "I can't believe you said that! And what did he say in return?" I had to cover my mouth because I was making so much noise. It was just so funny that he tried to be the serious leader for once; he thinks that that's the wrong way of leading people. He believes it's better to have people trust you than for them to fear you.
"That's what I didn't expect." my laughter died in my throat as I heard the soft tone in his words. "What he did…what he did was exactly what I told him to. He bowed his head and whispered "Yes Sir." Just like that. No argument, just…"Yes Sir." I thought he was joking at first when he instantly put his head down. But when he said it, I knew. I knew he wasn't joking. And when I told him to look up I could see it in his eyes. His fear and apprehension. No one can fake that. After that, it was like he closed up again when I asked him to wake you guys up. It's the way that he acts; it doesn't point straight away to the fact that something bad happened to him. To us, it's just like he isn't keen on talkin' and wants to keep himself to himself. It's little things that point to a bad childhood. And you'd only see them if you knew what they were and probably if you're lookin' for them as well." He was now leaning on the wall beside me gazing at the stars like I was before he came out.
I suddenly remembered a few things that Charlie had said while we were going to the hideout after I found that they others weren't there.
~*~* Flashback ~*~*
"Right, first off, what's your name and what were you doing in a place like that?" I asked so I would at least be able to tell Geode his name.
"My name's Charlie and um, Ah don't really know what Ah was doin' there."
* * *
"You didn't answer my question, what were you doing there?" I demanded. "And 'I don't know' isn't an answer. And also, you wanted me out of there so badly but you yourself were so hesitant to go. Except you suddenly changed your mind. Why?"
"I . . .I can't say. Could you please respect my privacy and not ask me again? I'll tell you in my own time, just, don't force me to tell you right now."
~*~ * End Flashback ~*~*
=How could he not know what he was doing there?=
"Something on your mind?"
"Yeah, I'm thinkin' about some things that he said after I met him."
"And those things would be…?" Geode said after it became apparent that I wasn't going to say anything else.
"Things like how he didn't know what he was doin' in 'The Modern Castle'. When I tried to get him to talk more about it he sort of, got all formal."
"What did he say?"
"Something along the lines of 'Please respect my privacy and don't ask me again. I'll tell you what I was doing there, just not right now.' And not in the near future either it sounded like it me. Which is kinda of weird now that I think about it. One minute he's saying that he doesn't know what he's doing in there, a while later, he's hinting that he might tell me." I blew the air out through my teeth, getting more frustrated than ever. "Maybe he is insane." I muttered underneath my breath.
"Why would you say that?" Geode seemed more surprised than angry when I said that.
"Well, I think he hears voices in his head."
"And what gives you that idea?" As always, he wants facts that prove it and not just what people think.
"When I first bumped into him, when he saw me he was so shocked like he had never seen a girl before. He then pretty much dragged me out…oh wait, he did drag me out of there."
"What?!"
"I'm getting' to that bit! But before he had done that he was pleading with me to get out. He seemed so jittery, always lookin' over his shoulder and lookin' about the place like he was expectin' someone to jump out of the shadows. Hmm, he said something about a they. 'They mustn't find you here!' When I asked him who 'they' was he suddenly changed the subject that would get me out of there as fast as possible. That's when I explained about the dare you guys gave me. He was quiet for about a minute and then he cried out 'Trilox! You're not helping!' -"
"Waitaminute." He said, interrupting me. "Did you say Trilox?"
"Yeah," I said whilst also nodding. "That's what he said. Anyway-"
"Talon, do you what Trilox is?"
I was confused about that. "What? I thought Trilox was a person with a really weird foreign name."
"It's not," I saw him shake his head from the light from the door. "Trilox is definitely an It. Don't you remember hearing it before?"
"You mean he's had another crazy moment?!" I exclaimed.
"No. He hasn't. You don't remember? He shouted it out." He answered without really answering my question.
"Nuh-uh. I think I would have remembered if he shouted that word again."
"He did. It was during our beybattle."
Now I was getting even more confused. "Why would he shout a random name in a beybattle?"
"That's the point. He didn't." he took a deep breath before starting again. "When he shouted out that name, that's when that three headed velociraptor bitbeast came out. And think of its name, TRI-lox. The tri would stand for the three heads its got. I've no idea about the lox though, it's not like it has any hair or anything…"
I didn't laugh at his little joke. I was too focused on remembering the battle to even notice it. "That would explain it though wouldn't it?" I murmured.
"Explain what?"
"Why he never said anything in the battle apart from to shout out Trilox's name. It has a mind of its own. But why would he seem like he was talkin' to it then? Sure, they're some kind of spirits but that doesn't mean they're goin' to answer back does it?"
"No. It doesn't. Talon, what happened next? After he said the thing with Trilox?"
"Somethin' kinda weird. He did a half shrug for no apparent reason, walked up to me and then dragged me outside. Maybe he heard that Trilox 'talk' again and it told him to get me outside? Yet again, he got all edgy when he let go of me in that playground bit." I felt myself smile faintly as I remembered the next bit. "That's when I realized that he wouldn't let me in another time so I decided to bring him for the dare. That's another weird thing. He chaperoned (A/N Is that the right spelling?) me out of there, desperate for me to leave before 'they' find me, but when it comes to him leaving," I shook my head, "it was like, I don't know, he didn't want to leave. No. That's not right…He said that he couldn't. He was quiet again for a minute. Then for some reason he pulled out his beyblade and did something on his wrist with it. I didn't really notice what he did 'coz I was sayin' somethin' about my dare being completed." I turned my face away from Geode's as I thought about it more. "When he took it away, there was somethin' else there…a gold bracelet. Now that I think about it, when it was off, he looked so relieved. But why would he be happy with a piece of jewellery being off his person?"
"Who knows? Maybe he'll tell us in time? Maybe me won't. It's up to him isn't it? Now, are you sure you don't want to come in and wait for him there?"
"I've already answered that question and it's still the same. I'm not comin' in unless Shadow's with me."
I saw a small white cloud come out of Geode's mouth as he sighed, showing how cold it was and probably showing that it was going to get colder. "Okay, I know that you won't change your mind anytime soon. I just hope that he comes back soon or else I'm goin' to have to do my mean act on him again. I'll leave the door open so you might be able to see him better." After he said that, he ruffled up my hair before entering the warmer warehouse.
I attempted to straighten out my hair as my breath became more visible but it didn't really work. Looking skywards again I silently asked them to send Charlie this message, =Charlie, where are you?=
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I finished this one quickly! Yey! So was the spelling right? I'm thinking about doing a system where I e-mail people to tell them that I've got a new chapter up. It's just that I usually upload when I've got the majority of people reviewed, (okay, granted that's only three people so I usually upload when two people review) which takes a while since you guys usually take your time. Should I do it?
So what did you guys think about this chapter? I thought their talk was going to be shorter but * shrugs * ah well. Truthfully, I have no idea on when or how this fic is going to end. I'm just writing what I planned out before and well, this is the last planned chapter. I have the gist to what's going to happen in the next chapter, but…well, we'll have to see how this pans out won't we?
Anyways, this bit is for my reviewers:
Dudems: Lol. Yes, I know how hyper you were. And lookie! I uploaded a new chapter pretty fast this time!
Um, in the next chapter there's going to be a bit of romance in the next chapter. I know it sounds a bit weird after saying what I said a couple of paragraphs up but I've started writing the next chapter already.
So don't forget to review!
Dark Ice Dragon
