Kai had done surprisingly little damage to himself during his fear driven
outbreak. He had pulled some stitches, and given himself a severe
nosebleed, but everything else seemed ok. He was tougher then the others
had ever thought he was. Everyone in the hospital had heard or seen the
scenario, and many came to check on the strange boy they had seen or heard
of. They were turned down at the door by a very angry Mr. Dickenson and Mr.
Granger. They were upset everyone seemed to be treating Kai like he was a
circus show; they weren't concerned about Kai himself.
Kai hadn't woken up yet from the sedative, but he was at least sleeping dreamlessly because of it. His team-mates were seated in various ways around the room, chatting to themselves and to the nurse, Samantha. They had been talking to her about everything they knew about Kai. During the hours that Kai was sedated they had been talked to by the police, as a group and individually. They were tired from all the questions but didn't mind talking to Samantha. She didn't pressure them, or write notes, it was way more relaxed. The police had finally left at Samantha's request. They had wanted to speak to Kai, but she had told them he wouldn't be fit for questions until much later. They had left grudgingly.
"I don't think Kai has ever slept this long in one go before in his life!" said Ray, he knew Kai a little better then the others as he had always been the one to share a room with him when they all slept apart from each other.
"I think your right! I wonder how he can go on the way he does on such little sleep and food, Tyson does both at triple, if not more, time the rate that Kai does!" said Max, his grin had returned in full force since the police had left.
Tyson wondered if what Max just said was a complement or an insult.
"I know Kai the least out of everyone, does he usually surprise you guys like that?" asked Hilary.
"Not like that!" answered Ray, "he's surprised us with his attitude and his habits, and with his blading skill, but none of us would've expected that from Kai!"
Kenny interrupted with a random thought spoken aloud, "I wonder how Kai became so fluent in language to be able to speak Russian and our own with no trace of an accent in either?"
Everyone stared at him with half smiles on their faces. They jumped as a familiar sounding husky voice came from the direction of the bed.
"I was taught ten different languages, seven I am fluent in."
"Kai, your awake!" everyone got up and approached the bed, glad that he had managed to pull himself into a sitting position.
"How are you feeling?" asked Samantha, her hand reaching out to check his pulse, necessary now Kai was off the heart monitor. They had decided to keep the attachments to Kai at a minimum.
Kai allowed her to check his pulse as he replied "I'm fine, though I think you've overdone the painkillers".
"How can you tell?" she asked back.
"I'm used to certain drugs and just learned to recognise them and their effects" came the cool reply.
Kenny pushed forward to speak to Kai, "you said you know ten languages? At your age? What languages do you know?" he seemed overly exited about this, but that thought only crossed Tyson's and Max's minds, the others were more curious about it.
"I'm fluent in Russian, Japanese, Chinese, English, French, Arabic and Latin. I also know German, Spanish and Italian quite well, but I'm not fluent in those yet."
"You speak Chinese?" asked Ray, edging the conversation towards something the others could only guess at.
"Yes I do, so I understood you when you swore in battles."
Ray blushed, and went an even deeper red when Hilary said "and here we thought you were saying something cool and battle related!"
"How did you learn so many languages?" asked Kenny, trying to keep to the point.
"I learned them at the abbey; they have very persuasive techniques to make you learn what you are told to do. Besides, I'm a fast learner. Must be my genetics."
"What do you mean?" asked Ray, trying to keep his blush under control, thankfully it was fading.
Kai looked at him, brows creasing ever so slightly.
"About it being your genetics."
Kai didn't realise he had added that final thought; "Boris and Voltaire always said I was a genetically perfect child. Just the thing they needed for their weapon to take over the world. Guess I backfired on them."
"Oh. What else did they teach you?" asked Kenny, still curious as to what the enigma of their group could do that he hadn't yet revealed.
"I'm not sure; my past is still pretty much unclear. I do know that apart from the training and experiments, I had a full education. Math, language, science, and so on. I was also taught physical things in sports and fighting. And lessons in body control and relaxing techniques."
"Why did they bother to teach you all that if you were just meant to be a weapon?"
"Knowledge is power, as they saying goes. The more I knew and could do the more I could be used for in a variety of situations. I wish I knew more about what happened." The last was said in a near whisper. Kai really did wish he knew his past, why he was used the way he was. He felt like he didn't know who he really was.
The others exchanged worried glances, Kai had never revealed so much in the time they had known him.
Now it was Samantha's turn to ask a question, she had waited patiently for a pause in the conversion. "Kai, why did you panic so much about the injection, and what's all this about being used to certain drugs?"
Kai looked at her blankly for a second before answering. "I was used in a good deal of experiments at the abbey. Painkillers were essential for keeping me from passing out from the pain I was in some times. As for the needles thing, id rather I didn't tell you. Those memories are some of the worst."
Ray stared at his friend as a scene played back in his head. He and Kai were talking in the garden, one line burned into Ray's memory. "You don't know what pain is Ray, and as your friend I hope you never know." Kai knew real pain. What had they done to him in that abbey? And to others? Ray suppressed a shudder that still went unnoticed by those deep mahogany eyes. They made him shift uncomfortably.
"I'm sorry to break this up, but I have to do Kai's first physio session. You can wait with Mr. Dickenson if you like; we will only be an hour. It's to early on in the healing process to do too much" said Samantha, her nurse face back on as she shooed the other teens out of the room, ignoring any protests.
Shutting the door she turned back to Kai, "right, let's start shall we!"
"By doing what?" asked Kai, wary now he was alone with the nurse. He couldn't help not trusting her, there had been too many seemingly nice people turn on him and he wasn't willing to risk anything just because she smiled.
"Don't look at me like that Kai; we need to see what you can do with your injuries. The more you can do the quicker you can go home. I know you've had a tough time of it so far but you've just got to trust some people!" her voice pleaded.
"What do you want me to do?" asked Kai coolly; not letting her think that he would trust her. Trust was a broken word to him, and was something that took a long time to put together.
The tasks were simple to Kai, pick up a heavy object with his injured arm, sit up without assistance, he even managed to walk around the room with a limp, but he could still walk. The last task was to change his own bandages. This was something that Kai could do with ease, but he couldn't remember why he knew how to dress wounds.
He frowned as he continued to wrap a clean bandage around one of his wrists, the last bandage to do. His mind snatched at images in his head. He was a lot smaller in them, and he was working with rags compared to the clean and white material he was using now. He worked at small wounds of his own, on his legs, arms, chest, back, anywhere on his body, all at different times. The last image made his breath stick in his throat. He was kneeling in front of an even smaller child, dressing a gaping wound in the boy's leg. Other equally distressing wounds had been worked on to the best of a young Kai's ability. Yet he knew the boy was too far gone.
He whispered encouraging words to the dying boy, telling him of how he would be better soon, how he would get out of the abbey, and how he would see his family again. The boy smiled at Kai as his body slowly drained of his lifeblood. He managed a whispered thank you before slipping away from Kai forever. Tears fell from the small face onto the now peaceful face of the boy who had found his release.
Yet in Kai's tortured mind he still thought that he could have done better, he could of saved the boy, helped him escape, anything, just so long as he could do it. But he hadn't been able to save him, and the hopelessness of it tore Kai's soul apart. He remembered as he was dragged kicking and screaming from the body, as his struggles had earned him more physical pain, but nothing hurt more at that point of his life then the death he was unable to stop.
And yet the boy had still thanked him. Nothing was ever said as sincerely as those words uttered by the boy, and Kai didn't even know his name.
Something was talking in the blurry distance of the present. It snapped Kai back. He found himself staring into the startlingly green eyes of Samantha and the strange look on his friends face as they had ran back in when they had heard the nurse shout Kai's name.
"Kai, what's wrong, are you ok?"
"I, I remembered something. How could they do it, why did they?!"
"What Kai, what happened?"
Kai just buried his head in his hands, before pulling back up and punching the wall with the side of his fist, leaving an obvious dent in the now cracked plaster and paint.
"Did any one find Boris after the fire?" he asked, anger fuelling his words.
"No, Kai what's wrong!"
"Boris has my past, and I want it back!"
The finality of his words stunned everyone in the room.
Kai hadn't woken up yet from the sedative, but he was at least sleeping dreamlessly because of it. His team-mates were seated in various ways around the room, chatting to themselves and to the nurse, Samantha. They had been talking to her about everything they knew about Kai. During the hours that Kai was sedated they had been talked to by the police, as a group and individually. They were tired from all the questions but didn't mind talking to Samantha. She didn't pressure them, or write notes, it was way more relaxed. The police had finally left at Samantha's request. They had wanted to speak to Kai, but she had told them he wouldn't be fit for questions until much later. They had left grudgingly.
"I don't think Kai has ever slept this long in one go before in his life!" said Ray, he knew Kai a little better then the others as he had always been the one to share a room with him when they all slept apart from each other.
"I think your right! I wonder how he can go on the way he does on such little sleep and food, Tyson does both at triple, if not more, time the rate that Kai does!" said Max, his grin had returned in full force since the police had left.
Tyson wondered if what Max just said was a complement or an insult.
"I know Kai the least out of everyone, does he usually surprise you guys like that?" asked Hilary.
"Not like that!" answered Ray, "he's surprised us with his attitude and his habits, and with his blading skill, but none of us would've expected that from Kai!"
Kenny interrupted with a random thought spoken aloud, "I wonder how Kai became so fluent in language to be able to speak Russian and our own with no trace of an accent in either?"
Everyone stared at him with half smiles on their faces. They jumped as a familiar sounding husky voice came from the direction of the bed.
"I was taught ten different languages, seven I am fluent in."
"Kai, your awake!" everyone got up and approached the bed, glad that he had managed to pull himself into a sitting position.
"How are you feeling?" asked Samantha, her hand reaching out to check his pulse, necessary now Kai was off the heart monitor. They had decided to keep the attachments to Kai at a minimum.
Kai allowed her to check his pulse as he replied "I'm fine, though I think you've overdone the painkillers".
"How can you tell?" she asked back.
"I'm used to certain drugs and just learned to recognise them and their effects" came the cool reply.
Kenny pushed forward to speak to Kai, "you said you know ten languages? At your age? What languages do you know?" he seemed overly exited about this, but that thought only crossed Tyson's and Max's minds, the others were more curious about it.
"I'm fluent in Russian, Japanese, Chinese, English, French, Arabic and Latin. I also know German, Spanish and Italian quite well, but I'm not fluent in those yet."
"You speak Chinese?" asked Ray, edging the conversation towards something the others could only guess at.
"Yes I do, so I understood you when you swore in battles."
Ray blushed, and went an even deeper red when Hilary said "and here we thought you were saying something cool and battle related!"
"How did you learn so many languages?" asked Kenny, trying to keep to the point.
"I learned them at the abbey; they have very persuasive techniques to make you learn what you are told to do. Besides, I'm a fast learner. Must be my genetics."
"What do you mean?" asked Ray, trying to keep his blush under control, thankfully it was fading.
Kai looked at him, brows creasing ever so slightly.
"About it being your genetics."
Kai didn't realise he had added that final thought; "Boris and Voltaire always said I was a genetically perfect child. Just the thing they needed for their weapon to take over the world. Guess I backfired on them."
"Oh. What else did they teach you?" asked Kenny, still curious as to what the enigma of their group could do that he hadn't yet revealed.
"I'm not sure; my past is still pretty much unclear. I do know that apart from the training and experiments, I had a full education. Math, language, science, and so on. I was also taught physical things in sports and fighting. And lessons in body control and relaxing techniques."
"Why did they bother to teach you all that if you were just meant to be a weapon?"
"Knowledge is power, as they saying goes. The more I knew and could do the more I could be used for in a variety of situations. I wish I knew more about what happened." The last was said in a near whisper. Kai really did wish he knew his past, why he was used the way he was. He felt like he didn't know who he really was.
The others exchanged worried glances, Kai had never revealed so much in the time they had known him.
Now it was Samantha's turn to ask a question, she had waited patiently for a pause in the conversion. "Kai, why did you panic so much about the injection, and what's all this about being used to certain drugs?"
Kai looked at her blankly for a second before answering. "I was used in a good deal of experiments at the abbey. Painkillers were essential for keeping me from passing out from the pain I was in some times. As for the needles thing, id rather I didn't tell you. Those memories are some of the worst."
Ray stared at his friend as a scene played back in his head. He and Kai were talking in the garden, one line burned into Ray's memory. "You don't know what pain is Ray, and as your friend I hope you never know." Kai knew real pain. What had they done to him in that abbey? And to others? Ray suppressed a shudder that still went unnoticed by those deep mahogany eyes. They made him shift uncomfortably.
"I'm sorry to break this up, but I have to do Kai's first physio session. You can wait with Mr. Dickenson if you like; we will only be an hour. It's to early on in the healing process to do too much" said Samantha, her nurse face back on as she shooed the other teens out of the room, ignoring any protests.
Shutting the door she turned back to Kai, "right, let's start shall we!"
"By doing what?" asked Kai, wary now he was alone with the nurse. He couldn't help not trusting her, there had been too many seemingly nice people turn on him and he wasn't willing to risk anything just because she smiled.
"Don't look at me like that Kai; we need to see what you can do with your injuries. The more you can do the quicker you can go home. I know you've had a tough time of it so far but you've just got to trust some people!" her voice pleaded.
"What do you want me to do?" asked Kai coolly; not letting her think that he would trust her. Trust was a broken word to him, and was something that took a long time to put together.
The tasks were simple to Kai, pick up a heavy object with his injured arm, sit up without assistance, he even managed to walk around the room with a limp, but he could still walk. The last task was to change his own bandages. This was something that Kai could do with ease, but he couldn't remember why he knew how to dress wounds.
He frowned as he continued to wrap a clean bandage around one of his wrists, the last bandage to do. His mind snatched at images in his head. He was a lot smaller in them, and he was working with rags compared to the clean and white material he was using now. He worked at small wounds of his own, on his legs, arms, chest, back, anywhere on his body, all at different times. The last image made his breath stick in his throat. He was kneeling in front of an even smaller child, dressing a gaping wound in the boy's leg. Other equally distressing wounds had been worked on to the best of a young Kai's ability. Yet he knew the boy was too far gone.
He whispered encouraging words to the dying boy, telling him of how he would be better soon, how he would get out of the abbey, and how he would see his family again. The boy smiled at Kai as his body slowly drained of his lifeblood. He managed a whispered thank you before slipping away from Kai forever. Tears fell from the small face onto the now peaceful face of the boy who had found his release.
Yet in Kai's tortured mind he still thought that he could have done better, he could of saved the boy, helped him escape, anything, just so long as he could do it. But he hadn't been able to save him, and the hopelessness of it tore Kai's soul apart. He remembered as he was dragged kicking and screaming from the body, as his struggles had earned him more physical pain, but nothing hurt more at that point of his life then the death he was unable to stop.
And yet the boy had still thanked him. Nothing was ever said as sincerely as those words uttered by the boy, and Kai didn't even know his name.
Something was talking in the blurry distance of the present. It snapped Kai back. He found himself staring into the startlingly green eyes of Samantha and the strange look on his friends face as they had ran back in when they had heard the nurse shout Kai's name.
"Kai, what's wrong, are you ok?"
"I, I remembered something. How could they do it, why did they?!"
"What Kai, what happened?"
Kai just buried his head in his hands, before pulling back up and punching the wall with the side of his fist, leaving an obvious dent in the now cracked plaster and paint.
"Did any one find Boris after the fire?" he asked, anger fuelling his words.
"No, Kai what's wrong!"
"Boris has my past, and I want it back!"
The finality of his words stunned everyone in the room.