Blue: OK! I haven't been on here in forever, and so this is going to be a little strange for me…because I don't know how to break up the timeline. So therefore I apologize if chapter one is a little harder to read…but I will get it!

NOTE: the beginning of the story and the author's note will be separated by a song lyric that has something to do with the story…ok? Ok.

Dedication: This one goes out to Peppermint-Angel, who is really being an Angel by reading this thing though she highly dislikes Kai/Rei! YOU GO GIRL! Thank you for everything.

And a special shoutout to Irridecent Goddess for her wonderful e-mail that just made my week! Thanks girl!

When your world breaks down and the voices tell you turn around.

When your dreams give out

I will carry you, carry you.
When the stars go blind and the darkness starts to flood your eyes.

When you're falling behind,

I will carry you.

Clay Aiken, I Will Carry You

CHAPTER 2

Turning to Spencer who dropped Tyson and Max on their rears, Tala motioned to the pods. "Alright guys… get ready for the ride of your lives."

The egg-shaped pods were very well manufactured (from what Rei could tell initially). The seats were leather and quite comfortable, and the inside of the pods themselves were…well…what you would expect to see on a ride in an amusement park. Very white and empty with no particular designs or decoration on the inside, with plenty of leg-room and a couple of bars on the left and right for one to grip during the game.

"This is going to be so cool!" Rei heard Tyson exclaim from the pod beside him as he jumped in. Rei copied him and jumped in as well, nearly purring at how comfortable the seats were.

When all four Bladebreakers were safely tucked inside, with there seatbelts fastened (Blue: Safety first, kiddies! Buckle up! And don't drink and drive!) Tala gave a thumbs up to the scientist.

With a harsh jerk, the pods lurched forward, causing Rei to lose his breath for a moment before it jerked backwards and finally lifted up off of the ground, hovering about a foot above the ground. A very airy sound made the neko-jin's eyes glance up to the top of the pod…a tinted window came down to block Rei's view of the real world and to encase him inside entirely. It shut quickly and a mechanical locking noise sounded in Rei's ears. He winced.

'No turning back now.' he thought to himself.

The cover lit up in front of him, speckled of white and black dancing all about before it faded into the colors of purple and blue, mixing and dancing together around a circular vortex. Just like what the screen they had seen earlier looked like…except without a vortex in the middle.

"Please hold still as we conduct your character scan." A monotonous voice said through invisible speakers…

"Cool." Rei muttered, reaching up to touch the screen out of curiosity when a green light shone out of the middle moved to his head…fanned out…then scanned him down and up. "Hahaha…this is great!"

In the screen, four figures appeared. "Please select your character." Said the voice. But before Rei could reach out and pick what looked to be a knight-like figure, another figure blinked and they disappeared. "Character selected. Welcome to Critical Error."

The poor, confused boy didn't have a chance to say or think anything as, in front of him and from the vortex, a screen slowly moved out of it…and hovered in front of his face. Looking around, Rei wondered where the holographic projectors were when images began to move.

It was, what looked to be a medival joust…two men rode horses, attacking one another with a lance and trying to knock one another off of their horse.

Rei was nearly beaming. "Aww man, this is great!"

Words appeared on the screen like movie credits in bright yellow;

"Once upon a time, long before today's race of Man had even dreamed of being born, the world was a different place. Time moved slowly; the inhabitants of the lands were happy. The world was not as it was today, but much smaller. Ravaging oceans separated lands and only messengers of great power told each race of the others that lived in the far-off world.

Man was different then. Wars were not fought, because the simplistic mind of humans were unable to comprehend that they should fight for more than what they had. Man felt he had enough then. He saw no need to conquer all. There was rule, of course, but little need for it. There was government, but much of it was used to settle small disputes that usually ended up with sharing. It was a peaceful society, filled with trust and decency, void of violence, and Man wouldn't change it.

Woman were different. While most worked as hard as men, there were some that wanted more than what was shown. Their numbers were small at first, but gained in popularity as the dark witch Ursula traveled from land to land, spreading her prophecy amidst lies of power and false promises of hope.

Before many knew what was going on, all was lost. The poor communication between the people caused their downfall as Ursula took over lands unnoticed. A witch or wizard is only as strong as their following, and by the time the other wizards knew what was happening, Ursula's following was so large almost all hope was lost. Her following was made up of women, of the strongest and the smartest, and those females who resisted were killed almost instantaneously.

She took over all. She forced Men to be her slaves, and all other species of elves and dwarves and whatnot were put under strict limitations. Blood was shed, something the inhabitants of Earth had never seen before. There was havoc everywhere. No one knew what to do. And Ursula crowned herself the queen of all.

But Ursula made one critical error. You see, she wasn't perfect. The entire society was trusting and while she made effort to take over all, she was not suspicious enough to make sure her follower's had complete loyalty to her and her alone. Ursula trusted that her followers were her own, and the other wizards and witches saw this and began to rally her followers as spies.

Ursula began suspecting something only when a shadow of a rumor came to her by those who were still completely loyal. But it was too late. Ursula was overthrown in a matter of days after having for so long what she had taken. However, the world had changed. Man had seen power and he had seen betrayal. He had destroyed almost all intelligent life forms but his own. There was no turning back.

And though Ursula was overthrown, she was not gone. She bided her time carefully, until the world was old and everything had moved. The waters had calmed, had shrank, and the lands were closer. She waited and watched, and finally had her perfect revenge.

There was a king and his wife who had a single beautiful daughter who would inherit the king's throne. Now, remember that the world had changed by now and Man's mind had become more complex. Plans were more devious, for to try to trick even the smartest of the race. But Ursula's mind was still simple, and she knew she could use this to her advantage.

She took the daughter and locked her away, casting a spell to preserve her in case of need. Ursula did not particularly like killing, and refrained from killing the daughter because she knew she would have to get rid of the king first. She changed her body to look exactly like the king's daughter, and soon found herself infiltrating the kingdom's deepest secrets.

Wizards are a lot like humans in that their minds grow and expand with time. Notmerlin was not an exception to this rule. He was the good wizard of the present day's world and he knew immediately that things were awry in the kingdom. However, wizards were feared and to save the kingdom and remain undetected by both Ursula and the society in general, he needed help.

The question is, can you provide the help he needs?"

As the transmission seemed to fade out, Rei was lurched forward…and wasn't stopped by the safety restraints! With a cry of surprise, Rei fell through the vortex of purple and blue.

There was no sound but the gentle rush of wind passing Rei as he fell. Dots of light all around, whilst ahead was simply plain black, and on either side the colors…he had to admit it was breathtaking.

"REI!" Blinking, golden eyes darted over to see Tyson coming to fall beside him, on his other side Max then Kai.

Rei winked at the world champ and shouted "This is so cool!"

"YEAH!" Was the response from all but one stoic blader…but even Kai seemed to be impressed no matter how hard he was trying not to show it.

After that, they fell for only another few short seconds before what looked like a giant web of green lines criss-crossing back and fourth blocked their path…with a yelp, Rei felt himself being slowed down as he approached the webbing…but not slow enough. He was still moving…

Holding out his hand to stop himself, his jaw nearly dropped when his hand passed right on through, the webbing moving to cover him as he went. He closed his eyes as the rest of his body passed through…then felt a bit of an electric surge around himself. Opening his eyes, he blinked…but didn't dare look down to see what happened. Ahead of him was a projection ten times bigger than the one back in the pod….

They could smell the horses and hear the cheers this time…they could even smell the dirt and the damp, murky air…

On the other hand, the horse hooves running toward them didn't seem to be a good thing.

Rei blinked only once and suddenly found himself lying on soft, dusty Earth. Coughing, he sat up and looked about…only to see a black horse running full tilt towards him, a knight sitting comfortably on it's back with a lance in hand. With a quick look behind him, Rei knew that on the other side was another knight…

He didn't have any more time to look anywhere as a pair of powerful arms wrapped around his waist and he felt himself being pulled from the oncoming path of destruction and rolled out to safety. "Idiot." Was the word whispered in his ear and Rei twitched, turning around and meaning to push the arrogant ass away when his hands hit what seemed to be armour…

Only taking a second to realize that Kai was in a costume, he continued pushing the other boy…causing him to fall backwards into what looked to be a nice little gift from one of the horses…

"Oh, Kai, why did you sit down in horse poop?" Max's shaken voice floated over to them and Rei grinned as Kai fumed, giving him a rather rude gesture as a response.

Both Max and Tyson were in rather fitting getups for the two of them – Max seemed to be some sort of a mage, a dazzling dark brown cloak sitting comfortably about his shoulders, as well as a tunic and baggy pants covering the rest of him. Rei hated to admit it, but he looked good!

Tyson's outfit…and HIM… were jaw-dropping, to say the very least. It seemed that he was almost a pirate character…loose ruffled tunic, long coat, high boots up to his knees that his pants tucked into, a sabre at his side…it suited him!

With a start, Rei remembered that Kai was behind him as the boy pushed himself to his feet, dusting himself off. Kai was the knight in shining armour…or that's what he was supposed to be, the neko assumed. He wasn't wearing the clunky, shining armour of course, but the expensive looking black tunic and pants laced with gold, as well as the huge sword he carried at his side was enough to give it away. Rei pouted at how good Kai looked. 'Damn…can't make fun of him for that…'

"I didn't sit down in the stuff, Max," Kai spoke, words coming out evenly and forcibly nice, "Someone pushed me into it. And that someone will most definitely pay for it later…"

Rei whistled innocently in response.

When Kai twitched, he laughed and winked at Tyson and Max. "You two look good."

It was as soon as he said that, that Rei realized that they just nodded…then immediately took a second look at him. "What? I don't look too dorky do I?" he asked, then for the first time looked down at himself….

And nearly screamed.

Rei couldn't, however, as the four blanched visibly at the same time to see another set of horses and knights coming right at them.

"AH!" They took off, dodging the pair…then there was another set…and another (Max almost got speared in this one) until finally they found the end to the madness…a crowd.

Of course, by end to the madness one must mean the beginning. Immidiately, they were sucked into it, pushed through the stinking mass of pesant spectators of the tournament with no way to direct themselves…

Rei yelped as an area he wasn't used to was grabbed before he turned around sharply, slapping the person's face before being continually pushed along.

After a few bruise-gaining minutes (which also resulted in quite a few special words being used) the group tumbled out of the crowd and onto the dusty earth.

"Urg…everybody alright?" Tyson asked, pushing himself to a sitting position whilst rubbing his head. "Sound off!"

"One….my butt hurts!"

"Two. Quit complaining."

"Three…WHY DID I HAVE TO BE THE GIRL?"

Going rather frigid, Tyson, Max, and Kai looked over to Rei with fear…indeed, for the game, with everything included, Rei was the girl. (a very good looking one at that ) And what made things worse was that he…or she…was in a rather revealing cerulian blue archeress outfit. Why archeress? Well there was a bow and quiver of arrows strapped to her (or is it a his?) back.

After a few moments, Rei started to rant angrily about how he always got chosen for the worst parts, and that went on from there…basically he exploded about nothing. Like a real girl. On PMS.

A low chuckle caught Rei offguard and she snapped around to glare at the person who was laughing…it was Kai.

'Oh sure! Laugh at my pain!' "What are you laughing at? At least I won't be picking a wedgie out of my tights every five minutes.

Kai rolled his eyes and pointed up to the sky. "You're a girl because the computer's chose randomly who would be what, and associated each person with the character they best suit."

"Wow, when did you grow brain cells?"

"I took them from Tyson. He never uses them anyway."

"HEY! I resent that!" Tyson protested from beside Kai.

The silver haired boy merely smirked…and Rei wanted so badly to just smack that smirk right off of his face. 'Waitaminute…' she/he thought to his/herself. 'I'm a girl now…I can do whatever the hell I want and he can't beat me up! MUWAHAHAH! His life shall now be a living Hell…ooh. And I can blame it on PMS. Mariah, wherever you are, for the first time I am grateful for the many beatings you gave me whilst you were pmsing…'

"Anyways, Kon, if you must know Tala has made it so that he can communicate with me in my mind."

"Wow, that must be annoying." Max chirped, poking Kai's head.

"At least now he can blame his maniacle behaviour on the voices in his head. Heck, the voice is pretty insane too." Tyson commented offhandedly.

"Tyson.." Kai warned, his voice low and his eyes giving him the death glare.

Tyson and Max laughed sheepishly before the bluenette turned to Rei and muttered "In Kai language, that means shut up or I'll kill you…or it's his mating call. ACK! DON'T KILL ME!" Tyson screamed and ducked behind Max.

Rolling his eyes, Rei looked to Kai. "So…why is Tala in your head?"

"He's not in my head. Stop making it out like I'm insane!"

"Well you are quite unstable…I mean, what's with the triangles? And the two toned hair?"

"I'll have you know, cat-boy, that this is completely natural!"

"Is it really?"

"YES!"

"I don't believe you."

Kai smirked. "I could prove it to you…but then you'd probably have me arrested for indecent exposure."

Crickets chirped as Rei, Tyson, and Max tried to figure out what he was hinting (he used big words) at before…

"EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

"Kai's a pervert!"

"Only to you, Tyson."

"Ok, that's just disturbing."

Rei rolled his eyes and stepped forward, having had enough of the immature idiots on his team… "Kai, what has Tala told you about this game?"

Sending a glare Rei's way, Kai stared off into space as he said almost monotoniously "Basically we just need to go through the game, beating any challenges or challengers we come up against. The more we fight or do deeds, the higher our levels become. Once we hit level twenty-five, our bit beasts will be unlocked and we will be able to summon their forms to help us fight. At level forty, their powers will be given to us so we can use at our own free will. Meanwhile, we still have certain powers we can use…though the bastard won't tell me what the hell they are…"

Rei rolled his eyes. "Please keep the language under PG. This isn't an R-rated fanfiction, you know."

"Yes it is."

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is."

"No it isn't."

(YES IT IS!)

The group looked around, wondering who the heck could have just said that… (Blue: Yes! Authoress intervention rules!) before Kai looked to Rei and smirked, causing Rei to growl, fold her arms and look away whilst refusing to speak to him. Yeah, he knew he was acting like a four year old who didn't get the toy he wanted, but he really didn't care. If it worked when he was four, it was good enough to work now!

Kai was about to retort when his face visibly paled and he put his hand to his forehead, his eyes darting back and fourth…but they weren't looking at anything.

Rei watched for a moment and was about to ask what was wrong (though, truth be told, he really didn't want to…Kai deserved whatever was going on in his head) when Kai shouted out of nowhere "TALA? Damnit, DON'T YOU LEAVE US!"

"Kai? What's going on?" Tyson asked the obvious question and walked over to the Captain, putting his hand gently on his shoulder only to have it smaked away roughly.

"Don't touch me…Tala just cut out. He's not responding to anything I say." Kai growled, his fists clenching as he looked up towards the sky.

"Gods…did he say anything to you at all before he cut out?" Max questioned hopefully…

"Yes. But before you start asking me what it is, it's not good…the last thing he said to me was the word Virus."

The group stood in silence for a few moments, each most likely wondering the same thoughts – if there was a virus in the program, what was going to happen next?

Tyson broke the silence first. "Well, whatever this virus is, we're gonna face it together, right?" he said cheerfully, putting his fist in the middle of the group. Max giggled before agreeing and placing his fist in as well.

Rei looked to Kai for a moment before chiding himself for doing so and placing his fist in the middle. He didn't care what Kai thought…at least he shouldn't. The bastard.

When Kai looked as if he was going to place his own fist in however…that's when things went bad. The ground beneath the group lurched and Rei was thrown to the ground, falling on his behind as the Earth shook and trembled beneath them.

Kai looked around and Rei could faintly hear his shout of 'Stay together!' before the sky seemed to explode in a wave upon wave of blues and purples, with hints of red that Rei had never seen before.

Scrabbling to get a hold of anything, Rei winced as her hand got caught on a sharp piece of rock and brought said hand to his face…he was bleeding. And it hurt.

The safeties were off.

Rei blanched visibly and shouted over the chaos to his friends to be careful, but to no avail. The sound of the ground breaking apart underneath them was too loud and…

"BREAKING APART?" Rei shouted, looking around him and in that instant, the ground gave way underneath him and the rest of the Bladebreakers, sending them all tumbling into darkness.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"It's your fault."

"You're worthless. You don't contribute to society in any way, do you?"

Rei winced as the all too familiar words were fired into his mind…

"You need to change."

"You suck as a friend."

Rei choked and whimpered "No I don't…"

"Self-centered…"

"Coward…"

"No, I…"

"It's all your fault."

"But, I was told…"

"Why didn't you stop it?"

"I…"

"Why?"

"Stop…"

"Why?"

"Please…"

"WHY?"

"I couldn't…"

"WHY, REI? YOU SHOULD HAVE STOPPED IT!"

"STOP IT!" Rei shouted, then waited…silence…

Sighing in relief, he allowed his eyes to open very slowly…he was so tired.

Those words…those cruel words…they'd haunted him for the past year or so. But now, a different sound was gently caressing it's way into Rei's mind. Melodious, calming, reassuring…Rei looked around and, to his surprise, found that he was actually floating instead of just laying somewhere.

Looking up, he nearly had a heart attack as he realized where he was – underwater. The moonlight was reflecting off of the surface above, allowing streams of light to dance their way into the murky depths around him.

There was the sound again…

Rei turned around and his jaw dropped. '…I've gotta be dead…' he told himself.

In front of him, a pod of orcas was swimming right on past, their large yet graceful bodies moving easily through the liquid surrounding them. But it wasn't just the sight that was helping Rei…it was their song. A beautiful melody of different calls, clicks, and moans that seemed to make the ocean itself sing with joy and hope.

A nudge on his arm made him look and he tensed…there was a baby orca nudging his forearm, it couldn't have been more than a few months old. Reaching out, Rei caressed the baby with as much gentleness as he could manage. She seemed to like it and gave a few clicks of approval before moving and nudging his forearm again…his bandaged forearm.

Looking from the baby to his forearm, Rei timidly reached out and slowly undid his bandages, allowing once again for the memories to come flooding back into his mind…

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Rei whimpered as he heard his parents shouting at one other down the hall…he himself was huddled in his closet, quietly hugging one of his stuffed animals close to him, allowing the tears of fear and sorrow to fall from his eyes quite freely.

'They're fighting again.' He chocked and buried his face in his stuffed polar bear's fur, trembling from the sobs that racked his body. His parents had been really on each other's cases for a few months now…and they had fought almost every night.

Correction – they fought every night.

No, neither of them were stupid drunks, nor did they do drugs. His father was a very respectable man and made a lot of money in his job (which required him to basically wear a suit and tie each day to work. He hated it, but he did it to support his family.)

His mother on the other hand was a bar singer. She was struggling to make a carreer out of it and had already made two CD's, but it just wasn't working. Add to that that she'd been on the road almost non-stop since Rei was about ten…

Jumping a little at the sound of something hitting a wall, Rei pressed himself up against the wall behind him and tried to curl up as much as possible, clinging to his bear with all his might. Why was this happening? Why couldn't they just get along? They'd been happily married for ten years for god's sake!

"It's gonna be alright." He told himself, futily wiping away his tears, which were only replaced with more. "Damnit, no it's not…why is this happening to me?"

He couldn't figure it out…he was a good kid, wasn't he? Yeah, he was a normal teenager…made a big deal outta nothing, gushed over people he had a crush on, but what he didn't do that most teens did was angst about nothing. Lately he'd been finding his parents had been putting a lot of pressure on him to be perfect, but that was all he had to complain about. He didn't, usually, only when it got really bad…

But now…

Rei's ears perked to listen…

The fighting had stopped.

With a sigh of relief, he pushed himself up (wincing a bit because of how stiff his joints were from being in one place for so long) and quietly walked out of the closet. Setting his bear down on the bed, he wiped at his eyes before walking out of the door and down the hall…

And froze.

The hall passed by the front entrance to the house.

His dad was standing at the top of the stairs, glaring down at his mother, as she threw on her coat.

Looking from his mom to his dad, Rei's heart plummeted…he didn't understand…just earlier his mom had said she loved his dad and they were trying everything to stay together…

She didn't even look at him when she left.

His dad just glanced down at him and said "I had to" before he locked himself up in his room, leaving Rei alone to deal with what just happened…

She was gone. For good. His mother was gone…

Immediately, Rei darted to the bathroom…a shower was what he needed…yeah…that was it!

Fumbling with his clothes that he could hardly see from the blurriness, Rei bit his lip to keep from making any noises that would attract his father's attention. Turning on the shower he jumped in…

And let himself cry. The sounds were drowned out by the spray of the water and his tears were immediately washed away…but it wasn't enough. The pain was still there…it was fresh, new pain, and he had no idea how he was going to deal with it!

He'd tried to talk to someone that night…he really had…but nobody was home. His three closest friends Kai, Max, and Tyson either had a busy line or just weren't home…

'So this is life.' He thought to himself just as his eyes landed on something that, usually, he wouldn't have given a second thought…but now looked like heaven.

It was a razor…his mom's razor.

Now, Rei continued with his shower, washing his hair and his body, whilst trying to ignore the constant adding of pressure to his chest, the trembling of his body…the pain of his heart.

Finally he just couldn't stand it anymore…and he'd heard lots of girls in school talking about it and how much it helped for their insignificant little boyfriend and friend problems…maybe it would help him a little?

Without a second thought, Rei reached out and snatched the razor, tore it apart (it was amazingly difficult…and his fingers did get a few cuts on them. Especially his thumb) Looking at the blades with interest, he set one down on the edge of the tub before taking up his wrist and placing one of the blades to it…

Taking a deep breath, he pressed down and ran the sharp blade into his skin and across, making a rather pathetic little cut. He was surprised at how much it hurt…but as the water from the spray hit his wound and cleaned it while letting the blood run down his body and down the drain, he found the sensation he was looking for;

Relief.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Rei jumped as he snapped out of his memory…it was so real…as if he had just relieved it…

And it scared him.

Shaking, he felt a nudge on his now bare arm…he'd removed the bandages so that the scars on his arms were now completely visible. The little orca was still there, as if reassuring him that everything would be alright. With a smile, Rei reached out and hugged the big baby, to thank him for just being there.

Rei heard a few clicks from behind him and turned…and nearly screamed. There was the baby's mother (he presumed) floating right behind him. She turned and swam off and Rei clutched at his chest.

'This world is gonna make me die of a heart attack!' he thought to himself as he watched the baby swim after it's mother. The Chinese boy allowed himself a small smile…he really did love whales. This would definitely be something he'd be telling Tyson and Max when he got home.

Looking back down to his arms, Rei glared at them…covered with scars and even some recent attacks…pitiful memories of times when he wished to escape his pain…

'I'm so pathetic.' He told himself as he rebandaged them almost robotically, as if he'd done it hundreds of times before.

As he wrapped the soft cloth around his skin, he wondered to himself what was going to happen next…after all, Tala and the others would have everything fixed soon, right? And where were the others? Were they in this virtual ocean somewhere else too?

He only had a few short minutes to wait for his answer.

A whooshing sound caused him to look up and Rei moved to get away…A blue and purple portal on the surface of the water was opening up.

Rei yelped and scrambled to get away as the water pushed him into the portal's direction. "DAMNIT, TALA, IF THIS IS YOUR DOING, YOU ARE SO DEAD!"

0o0o0o0o0o0

I'm so sorry for the wait for this one…but please don't rush me. ; I can't very well type when I'm rushed…sooo…t'would be a bad idea…

Anyways, if there are cutters in the crowd…this story is for you. And I suggest you scamper off to read the story Broken Mirror by RaeTB as well. It's very, very good.

IMPORTANT NOTICE NEXT CHAPTER

I love reviews thank you to everybody who had reviewed so far! You're all WONDERFUL! I LOVE YOU ALL! COOKIES ALL AROUND!

QUOTES FROM NEXT TIME:

"Ssh, I'm about to defy you…"

"Why did I have to be stuck with you? Of all the people on Earth, it just had to be YOU!"

RnR please!