Chapter Sixteen

Another late Chapter, and the last one ended on such a vicious cliffhanger, too. Well, this one should clear things up, but it's still not over. And for everyone who panicked in their reviews, don't worry! I've never killed a main character in a fic yet, and I don't intend to start with this one.

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Kai had to concentrate hard on the clean white walls and the cloying stench of disinfectant just to keep himself from collapsing. The doctor's words rang through his head like a bell, sounding out then beginning again and again and again. No hope. Rei's going to die. All that work, all the planning, the months of hoping and praying, all for nothing because Rei was going to die and there was nothing they could do.

Tala stepped behind him and whispered to him, disguising his words as just idle chatter to the others.

" Go in and see him, Kai. It may be the last time. I'll tell them."

Kai walked into the ICU without looking back. There was a fringe room on the edge of the unit for people on life support to be seen by relatives and loved ones, but that day, Rei's bed was the only one occupied. The machines that surrounded him chirruped and beeped reassuringly, letting him know that Rei, for the moment, was still alive. His body was covered from the chest down by a thin grey blanket that made his skin seem even more pallid, dots of red from the intravenous needles in his arms providing the only real colour in the room. His hair was covered by a grey cap to keep the tangled locks from interfering with the oxygen mask obscuring half of his face.

Kai leaned over the bed and gently ran the tips of his fingers over the unconscious boy's face. He had dreamed of doing so in happier times, and imagined it would feel like silk to the touch. Now that he was finally able to do so, it felt more like cold wax. But that was probably due to the injuries, he reasoned. His fingers drifted closer to Rei's eyes, and felt the eyelashes brush against his knuckles as the lids flickered and then opened.

Rei's eyes were dilated to such a degree that they were almost black, with a thin ring of amber skirting around the pupil. His vision was blurry, but as it focused he recognised the person leaning over him. The pale-hued hair, the high cheekbones, the crimson eyes, it could only be one person. If the oxygen mask had allowed it, Rei would have smiled. His old crush on Kai flared up as he remembered how most of his dreams had contained this very scenario, of him waking to find Kai looking down upon him. He had been forced to put such feelings behind him once for the sake of maintaining the fragile friendship rekindled with the White Tigers. It seemed so irrelevant now…

Europa sat beside him, a murderous look on her face.

What the fuck are you doing? You can't reminisce now, Rei! Save your puissant sap for later! I don't know if you realise this, but you're strapped to a life support machine and you're dying! You should know this, you woke up during the operation three fucking times!! And you know what? You know what's wrong, but nobody else does! And how the fuck are they going to find out if you don't fucking tell them?

Kai frowned as Rei's hands began to move in a jerking motion towards his face. What was he trying to do? The hands were twisted into a claw and tugged insistently at the oxygen mask. Kai reached out to stop him, thinking he was having a fit of delirium. Rei's hands slapped his away with surprising force, and tore the mask away from his face. He took a few gulps of air, choking on them at first. He coughed, bringing droplets of blood up to spatter on the surface of the mask. But as soon as he was sure he could speak, he grabbed the collar of Kai's shirt and pulled him close.

" He poisoned me," Rei hissed into Kai's ear. Those three words chilled Kai's blood. Rei's hand fell away as the Chinese boy lapsed back into merciful unconsciousness. Kai wiped the mask with a tissue before fixing it over Rei's face. Then he ran out of the unit as fast as he could.

In the corridor, Max and Takao were in the process of comforting each other. Max was clearly in shock, he couldn't even bring himself to the verge of tears. Takao was sobbing violently, his head buried in Max's chest. Even Kenny was in tears, though not in hysterics. Bryan was comforting him, a grim look etched into his chiselled face. Spencer and Ian averted their gazes politely, leaving the team mates to their grief. Tala observed it all in silence, until Kai practically launched himself at the stoic boy and whispered harshly to him.

" Rei spoke to me," he hissed, " He said he was poisoned. Could that be why he's not getting better?"

Tala chewed his lip as he thought. Then he gestured towards the ICU.

" Get his chart. Ian!" he called to the smaller Demolition Boy. " I got something to ask you."

Kai ran back into the ward, retrieved the chart and rushed out again. Tala and Ian were talking softly. When Kai handed him the chart, Tala showed it to Ian.

" Ian's our chemistry expert," said Tala, to reassure Kai. " If there's something up, he'll know."

" There's damage to the blood vessels, cirrhosis of the internal organs, even muscle wall disintegration. This indicates the gradual inducing of a corrosive element that's near impossible to trace." Ian broke off to think. " That's either arsenic or belladonna."

" Are you sure?" asked Tala.

" Certain," Ian nodded.

" Belladonna, definitely. It has links to the Renaissance. Arsenic isn't his style. Go get the doctor."

Within minutes, Rei was moved from the ICU to the operating theatre. It took twelve hours until Rei was completely out of danger. When the doctors came downstairs and told his friends he was going to survive, Kai dissolved into tears.

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The recuperation period for Rei was much longer than the other victims of the abductor. Whereas most of the men were allowed to leave the hospital within two weeks, Rei was kept under medical supervision for over a month. The belladonna had done serious damage to his lungs, and there was even discussion of a transplant. Five weeks after the prisoners had been released, he was allowed into the General Ward of the hospital. Police Investigators requested a rape kit for the case file, which Rei protested vehemently against. His objections were ignored and the examination was carried out, though there was no good reason for it.

Kai visited every day, along with the others. They found Rei to be quieter than they were used to. He spent most of their visits nodding and smiling while Takao or Max chattered away about nothing in particular. He always smiled but never laughed, and seeing them all again seemed to put him under strain. But as they prepared to leave at night, he would come up with some excuse to keep them there longer. Kai realised he didn't want to be left alone, and so he volunteered to stay at the hospital.

The sixth week passed, and Rei turned sixteen while lying in a hospital bed. The celebrations were muted, especially after they received word of one of the victims. His mother had found him lying in the bath, where he'd been scrubbing himself raw, with his wrists opened. She'd collapsed and died herself the next day. Her son was all she had. The seventh week drifted by, taking two more victims with it. Apparently, the news of the first suicide had set them off. The eighth week started with Rei leaving the hospital ward and beginning counselling. He moved into their new hotel room with the Blade Breakers, but their first night began badly when Rei woke up screaming bloody murder. His counsellor responded by prescribing antidepressants.

Having Rei back caused Kai's crush on the Chinese boy to intensify. His previous feelings for Rei may have been a simple physical desire, but seeing Rei so fragile and vulnerable and still willing to struggle on convinced him that he was in love. For all his faults, though, Kai was a prudent person. He knew that Rei was frail, emotionally and mentally, for the time being. Any upset, no matter how slight, could cause lasting damage and that was the last thing he wanted. So he buried his feelings deep in his mind until he could barely feel them himself. He told himself he would allow them to be revealed as soon as this whole sorry mess was sorted out.

For his part, Rei was just utterly terrified. Now that he was out of the cell, he didn't quite know what to do with himself. Everything seemed cold and dark, he needed to hold on to something familiar. Having his friends around helped, but as soon as they were gone the terror would grip him again. And unless he was surrounded by noise, he could think of nothing but the fact that Cesare was still out there, that he hadn't been caught. His friends had tried to keep this from him, but he had found out from one of the nurses. Cesare had tried and failed to kill him, would he try to finish the job? All Rei wanted to do was forget what happened, but the police, the journalists, the doctors, just everyone was trying to pull information from him until he couldn't find any more words to express how he felt. The rape exam was the worst, he felt even more violated by that than by anything Cesare had done to him. He was adamant he hadn't been raped, and that five weeks after the incident nothing of worth could be found inside him. They hadn't listened.

He found sleeping in his hotel room near impossible, having been locked up in a room just as small for so long. As soon as he was sure everyone was asleep, he often got dressed and moved outside to sit out the rest of the night on a bench in the hotel gardens. He knew how dangerous it was, but he had been taken from his room as he slept! How could sitting outside be any more risky? On the fourth night of the ninth week, he was joined by someone. He had been about to scream for help when he recognised the person sitting beside him. He was relieved, but only a little.

" This is the seventh night in a row. Isn't this a little risky?" asked Bryan calmly.

Rei tensed. He knew that Bryan had been vital to the team while they were looking for him, but the incident at the World Championship was still etched in his mind.

" How did you know I've been coming out here?" he asked, a little timidly.

" I saw you on the first night. I've been keeping an eye on you since, but I figured you'd like some company. Even if it is me," he added with a shrug. " I know why you don't wanna be inside. That's cool with me. I prefer the great outdoors myself. But you shouldn't be out here alone, especially looking the way you do."

Rei closed his eyes. He didn't want to go down that road, especially with Bryan.

" Wanna hear a story?" Bryan stared straight ahead, though he was addressing Rei.

" What kind of story?" Rei asked, suspiciously.

" It's a sad story, but it has a happy ending. I think, anyway. Not too sure just yet."

" Okay. Go ahead."

Bryan exhaled once, and began.

" Once upon a time - yeah, it's that kind of story - there was this man. Even when he was young you couldn't call him a boy, he was born a man. Stood well over six feet tall, with shoulders as wide as a bull's and hands that could crush bone. But he was a gentle giant, he loved children and they loved him. All he wanted was to get married and start a family of his own.

He lived in this tiny village in one of the most remote places of the world. There were two ways to make a living in this village; on a farm or in the coal mines. He worked as a farm hand until he was twenty-one, and then he met someone.

She was seventeen, as beautiful as an angel and as small as he was large. He fell for her as soon as he saw her. She loved him back, and they wanted to get married. But she was from a good family, one of the richest in the country. Her parents didn't want her marrying some poor farmer, they'd already promised her to a family friend. She defied them to marry him, so they disowned her. She didn't care. They were happy together, at least for a while.

She got pregnant, less than a year after they were married. She had a little boy, and they were so happy it was unbelievable. But now that there was three of them, he knew they couldn't survive on his farmhand wages. So he got a job in the mines, and hated it from day one. It was a horrendously dangerous job, barely a day went by without someone being injured or killed down there. Any money he had left over, they stored away to buy a small patch of land so he could grow their own food. He came home every night, lungs aching from inhaling toxic coal dust all day, and put money in a little jar under the bed. Then he kissed his wife and embraced his son, and was glad that this was the life he'd chosen. He loved his wife and son more than life itself.

While he was working, his wife was having trouble coping. She was used to having things done for her, being waited on hand and foot. She loved her husband and her son, but sometimes she got angry with them. She sometimes hit her son with more force than was necessary, but he didn't mind so much. His father explained to him that she was highly-strung and he had to be patient with her. The little boy worshipped his father, his words were very important to him."

Bryan broke off for a moment, breathed deeply, and continued.

"Then, one day, there was a landslide in the mines. The man was trapped under a wall of solid rock, but he managed to survive for two days. In the end, his air ran out and he suffocated. The entire town mourned him, he was so well liked by everyone. The local undertaker even made his coffin free of charge. There was a crowd of people outside the day they buried him. They were all sorry to see him gone.

The ones who suffered the most were his wife and son. You see, the boy thought his father was indestructible. He was only four years old, what did he know about death? His mother was inconsolable, and I wish I could say it was all for her husband. But, really, the thing that weighed on her the most was how she was going to support herself and her child now that she was a widow. She could barely cook, she rarely cleaned and that little nest egg her husband had been saving she had taken without his knowing. She'd spent it on a dress and some shoes. I believe, on those few days, she actually hated him for leaving her.

Barely a week after her husband was buried, her mother came to see her. She still loved her daughter, in spite of the choices she had made. She had an offer for her; if she moved back home, all would be forgiven. But there was a price. She would have to forget she was ever married, never to even speak the name of her former husband. And this also meant she would have to give up her son and pretend he didn't exist."

Bryan laughed, but harshly.

" I wish I could say she thought long and hard about it, but the truth is she decided on the spot. She brought her son, her four year old son, to the nearest orphanage and left him at the gates. She didn't even look back."

Bryan broke off again. His jaw was set in a hard line.

" Have you seen her since?" asked Rei. He had figured out a little into the story who Bryan was talking about.

" She married again, moved to France. Not seen hide nor hair since. I hated her then, but I loved her too. She was my mother, how could I not love her? How could I hate her? I couldn't, so I forced myself to bury all my anger deep inside me. The orphanage was taken over and converted to the Abbey, I got sucked into Beyblading. I was able to release some of my anger into my blading, but not all of it.

I guess it all came to a head during the World Championships. I thought I'd caught a glimpse of her that day in a high society newspaper I saw in a dustbin. And then, I was called up to blade. Against you."

Bryan turned to look Rei in the eyes. He saw no anger there, whereas the day of that fateful match there was nothing but anger.

" You look like her, you know. I remember she had long black hair, like you. Most of all, I remember she was incredibly beautiful, and so are you. It seemed like adding insult to injury. All my anger just made its way to the surface. I didn't just want to beat you, I wanted to physically hurt you. I wanted to hurt her, but she wasn't there, so I had to hurt you.

I thought beautiful people, like you, like her, were used to getting everything you wanted without even trying. That as soon as the going got tough, you'd give up. And not only did you see it out to the end, you actually defeated me."

He laughed again, this time much more warmly.

" I gave you quite a beating, didn't I? And you didn't give up. That day I went from hating you to admiring you. And my anger was gone forever. When I heard you'd gone missing, I had to help out. I still hadn't made it up to you, what I did that day."

Rei smiled back at him.

" I forgave you a long time ago, Bryan. But, thank you."

" I hope you don't let this beat you, Rei. Your strength is what I've always admired about you. If I had half your strength, I would have apologised to you long before all this."

Bryan trailed off. The two sat in silence until the sun came up.