Tainted Blood

Chapter 20

by. SilverWolf-Ryuki

A/N: Wow, I'm at chapter 20. Anyway, here's Lee, Mariah and Zeo for you all. At last... heheh, I can't believe I didn't write about them for like, 5 chapters. What babbles I've updated... enjoy my newest page of babbles!

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"Which one didn't we get?"

Lee, Mariah and Zeo sat around in a circle.

"Which ones did we need?" Mariah asked Zeo.

"We were originally supposed to get Rat, Snake, Monkey, Rooster, and Ram." Zeo listed off.

Lee fumbled with the box that they used to keep all the bit beasts they got. "We have snake, ram, rooster, monkey..." He said as he emptied out the box.

"Which one do we need?"

"Rat," Mariah frowned. "No one turned us down though. I wonder if the owner never came."

"No, all the sacred bit beasts were at the event." Lee shook his head. "They all had to come."

"The festival was wonderful," Zeo smiled. "The food was good."

"Did you like the egg spring rolls? I developed the recipe with my mom." Mariah said proudly, trailing off topic.

Lee was about to remind them, when a knocking came from the door. An envelope was slipped under the door's crack.

Mariah blinked and got up to get the package. It was from a part of china she's never been to, one of the farm villages.

"What is that?" Zeo asked, curious.

Mariah shook it like a small child with her Christmas present. She handed it to Lee, who ripped it open with expertise. He flipped the envelope upside down and a small chip dropped out. It was a perfect circle, and in the middle, a rat was looking at them with golden eyes, his long tail twirled around him.

"I guess the rat was eating all their crops."

"Well, I say we did much better collecting bit-beasts than them." Lee commented after everyone got over the shock. He had a grin on his face as he faced Mariah, who was smiling widely. Zeo looked pleased as well.

"Let's see how they are doing." Zeo reached into his pocket to pull out a small portable phone. He dialled a number neither Mariah nor Lee recognized.

"Hello?"

It was Kai's voice.

"Hello Kai, this is Zeo." Zeo put him on speaker.

A frustrated sigh came from the other end. "Does everyone know I have a cell phone except me?"

"Nope," Mariah spoke up. "I didn't know."

"Nor me." Lee replied.

"Who is it?" It was Mariam's voice.

"It's Zeo, Lee and Mariah." Kai replied.

"Awesome, I wanna talk to them!" It was a different voice...

"Enrique, shut up." That was Tala.

"Guys, get along."

"Is that Oliver?" Lee asked; a tone of recognition weaved with his voice. "And Enrique?"

"Yep, the two and only,"

"If you don't know how to reply properly, don't." Ren's voice came.

Zeo smiled.

"Where's Rei?" Mariah asked eagerly.

"Uh, he's... well..." The three could just picture Oliver tugging at his collar as he said it.

"What happened to him? Did he get hurt?" Mariah demanded.

"He better not have," Lee frowned.

"No, not hurt, just drunk." Ren was the one to break the bad news.

"And he's a bit unconscious." Tala added.

"But hey, on the bright side, Kai was drunk too, and he got really suicidal. Then he and Ren got into this huge fight, and we had to call the fire department to pour cold water on him in order for him to snap out of it. They were all beastie and fighting... it was really cool. We didn't have the heart to wake Rei, but at least he didn't get suicidal like Kai. Oh, and Oliver had a press conference in the restaurant, and I think I saw one of the rare butterflies. Oh, and Ren was using this weird thing called Kwan-Dao —"

"SHUT UP!" Came Tala's voice.

"Oh, go eat poop." Enrique's voice shot back.

"Both of you!" Sounds of smacking came along with Mariam's voice, and they guessed that she slapped them in the head.

"Anyways," Oliver's voice was oblivious. "How is it in China?"

"Not as insane." Lee commented.

"We got all the rest of the bit beasts in China." Zeo said, and the background noises stopped.

"Really?"

"Wow, guys, that's awesome!"

"Way to go."

"At least someone's doing work."

"We got the Griffon and the Unicorn. We are going to Greece next, probably. When are we meeting up again?" Kai questioned.

"Um, we can't quite get to where you are."

"I'll send a plane to pick you all up." Oliver offered.

"That would be very nice." Zeo said dreamily. "I'd like to visit Greece. Are you both coming along?"

No one had thought of that, apparently, because both sides became silent.

"I doubt we can, truthfully." Enrique sounded serious.

"I've got much to do here," Oliver frowned.

"My dad got me guards so that I wouldn't escape from my lessons. He'll probably say that this would be useless."

"We understand." Zeo said solemnly, in a strangely quiet and mature way.

"Well, I guess we'll see you in a few hours, or a day." Tala said.

"There is really no need for you to send an extra plane." Ren commented to Oliver. "I shall just go back in my father's plane and pick them up, and then we can visit North America."

"What about Greece?" Lee questioned.

"I hope you'll understand if we go onto Greece without you." Ren spoke into the phone. "It will not take much time, and it will give you three some time to relax. Please make sure Zeo is properly introduced to different things. I apologize for burdening you with my job. In a few days, we will come over, pick you three up, and fly straight to North America. I remember Rei saying that there are no bit beasts left in Europe except the Pegasus."

"That's fine, I suppose." Mariah shrugged, although no one from the other end could see it.

"Then it's settled. We shall see you in time. Good bye." Ren's footsteps told them that he left, probably to try to wake Rei.

"We should go too." Kai spoke. "If you want, call us in a day or so, and Mariah will be able to speak to Rei."

Mariah's face reddened.

"Alright, bye." Lee said.

"Goodbye." Zeo pressed a button on the phone to hang up.

¤

"Thank you for supporting our search." Kai said smoothly in perfect Greek.

"We are glad to assist those of such sacred power. It is surely a sign of the gods, and we will do as it is said." The Greek priest bowed deeply. "We will pray Athena for your knowledge, Poseidon for determination, and Zeus for power. Apollo's Pegasus... we hope it will assist you."

"Thank you once again." Tala nodded with appreciation.

"Goodbye; we will look to the sky when the day arrives." The priest cried, raising his hands into the air.

"Are we the only ones who cannot speak Greek?" Mariam muttered out of the corner of her mouth to Rei, while Ren translated what everyone was saying.

"From the looks of it, yeah," Rei nodded slowly. "Let's be on our way."

"You miss Mariah?" Tala raised a brow.

"You've been under the influence of Enrique for too long." Rei shook his head.

Tala froze for a fraction of a second before closing his mouth.

"So, what have we got left?"

"Fox, Deer, Phoenix of light." Rei ticked off.

"We're doing very well." Ren nodded.

"The hard part is about to come..." Tala frowned. "I can almost feel it."

"Until then, off to pick up the others," Mariam said almost cheerily as she got out of the humid weather and into the cold plane.

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A/N: OK, so, an 'inbetween' chapter. I'm actually almost done this fic! Maybe I'll finish it... and that'll be the first ever fic for me to finish. Wow...

Thanks to all who reviewed:

Blackdranzergurl: Kai's quite out of character... eh, it is an AU story, after all. Thanks for the review. :)

ShadedRogue: Ah! Oh goodness... I forgot completely about Kai's little hangover! Ugh... I'll add it into the next chapter. Hey, people can assume that he was just very happy during Greece, right? Right? TT So sad... that would've been hilarious. Anyways, thanks for your review. Hope you liked this chapter.

Darksouled saiyanphoenix: S'OK, I'm OK with long names. (Looks at own name...) I came up with it actually during art class. Whoo, I'm a nerd. xD Hope you liked the chapter, and thanks for the review.

Lunar Fire: Glad you found the chapter funny. Yes, Ren did change quite a bit from the dubbed version... he's much more awesome throughout the subbed version. He's more hilarious too. Here's your chapter – hope you liked it. Thanks for reviewing.

Werecat Rei: Hey! You changed your name! That's cool... I wanted to change mine, but then, it would get confusing for me, and the handful of readers that I have... - -;; How can anyone not love your old name? The new one's cool too though. Thanks for reviewing!

Jacy: Glad you enjoyed my story. Thanks for reviewing!

KagomeHigurashi66: Yay for sugar and caffeine! ("As long as you don't overdose..." "Oh no, doctor, it looks like we've lost her.") It's the heat, getting to me. Anyways. Thanks for reviewing, and hope you liked the chapter.

UPDATE: JUNE 14 - What Tala said, "Miss Mariam" was a typo. It was supposed to be "You miss Mariah?" Ugh... so terribly embaressing. Please forgive me...