The next day Kai woke up at dawn. He'd been having bad dreams again, memories were coming back to haunt him. At least, he thought they were memories. Things were so jumbled in his head; he wanted to be able to think straight. He headed down to the pier to clear his head; he liked to go there to be alone.

Today was not his lucky day however. Because right there where he liked to stand stood Rage.

He paused, and then stood next to her. He enjoyed the view of the sea from here, it was strangely calming.

"I thought you wanted to stay away from me". She said that without turning.

"Ray says you're going to leave today". It was a bad effort to restore peace, but an effort none the less.

"He's right" There was an uneasy silence, in which both looked out to sea.

Then like she had just heard something, Rage's head sprang up. She looked around alarmed, before her eyes seemed to focus on something in the distance.

Kai felt it too, something wasn't right. It was like being watched. He tried to see what Rage was looking at. There was a flash of light, glinting off something. He swore under his breath.

"Run" Rage shouted, reminding Kai harshly of the memory in which their escape had gone so wrong.

She needn't had bothered, Kai was already running. He had been as soon as he saw the flash. His instincts weren't that slow.

Suddenly a searing pain shot across his neck. He put his hand up and felt metal. A dart, he stared at it fascinated. Rage was screaming at him, but it didn't matter. It sounded so far away.

He barley felt the second dart pierce his shoulder before he fell. The last thing he heard was shouting, it sounded like Ray's voice. Then smothering blackness rose over him. And he was gone from consciousness.

When he awoke, he blinked dully. There was a light in the room and it hurt his eyes. Cold metal encased his wrists, everything was blurred and hard to focus on.

He leaned forward so he was on his knees, half wanting to retch. There was a dull metallic taste in his mouth and he wanted rid of it.

His ears were immediately assaulted by voices.

"Kai's awake"

"Finally"

"Are you alright Kai?" That was from a figure kneeling in front of him, Ray. Kai moved his gaze upwards so he was glaring him in the eyes. His special death glare.

"Guess that was a stupid question, huh?" Ray was shaken by the anger contained in that one look.

Kai cleared his throat, it felt uncomfortably dry.

"Where?" His voice sounded horse. "How?"

"We don't know where, as for how. I was shot with a dart when I went to look for you guys. Tyson and Max were given chloeform."

"We can tell our own story Ray" Tyson objected.

Kai spaced out from their meaningless banter for the moment. Why had they been captured? Was it for their bitbeasts again? No, Dranzer was still in his pocket, so why?

Kai realized that Max was looking at him with expectant eyes.

"Huh?" he asked, having apparently missed something.

"These goons came in, and they really seemed to hate you Kai. They gave you that" Max said pointing at Kai's mouth.

Kai put a hand to his mouth; his lip was swollen and sore. When he took away his hand, blood gleamed wetly on his fingertips.

"So I was kinda wondering if you knew why?"

"I apparently know less about this situation than you Max". Kai said the words slowly, not wishing to irritate his bloody lip. His gaze did not move from the blood until after Max had blushed and gone back to talk to Ray.

Then he examined the room closely, hoping it would answer some questions. The room was small; it looked like an old fashioned cell. Or a dungeon, the bricks were cold and uncovered. The door was metal. He shuddered suddenly; this was too much like his past.

He drew comfort from the sharp glare of the light. The cell was bigger than the dark room of his dreams, he supposed at least. It was quite hard to judge just how big the dark rooms were.

Also, fitted in the wall surrounded by grey lifeless bricks was a monitor screen. He was surprised that he had not noticed it until now. Although being grey itself against the grey background of the wall probably hadn't helped.

Something was missing.

"Where's Rage?"

"I don't know, she hasn't been in here." Ray said, a frown on his face.

"Hey, maybe she didn't get caught" Max put in, forever the optimistic.

"Hmph" that didn't make sense, he knew she'd only been a little in front of him when he went down.

She seemed to be making a habit out of disappearing. As much as he hated to admit it, he had drawn a small comfort at having her around. She at least had a vague idea of what horrors he faced in his dreams. His memories.

Flashback

Hands were shoving him into a tank. He didn't want to go, he tried to run the other way. But a sharp slap shocked him, and before he had regained his wits he was in the square container. The younger Kai stared helpless at the adults that watched him.

Then the tank bubbled, beginning to fill with water. He clawed at the glass, but the opening had already been sealed. There was no way out.

He shuddered uncontrollably as the liquid passed his neck. This was another punishment, that he was sure of. And as the icy water passed over his eyes, he stared at the watery image of his grandfather and wondered. Just what had he done this time?

End Flashback

At that moment there was a huge rusty creaking as the door was slowly opened.

Kai jumped up from his sitting on the floor, he had been waiting for this. The fact that his wrists were cuffed together made little difference to him.

He readied himself to fight. Ray saw this and did the same. Then a figure came through the door and stood before Kai.

Kai just stared, shocked.