Title: Innocence

Author: PandaPjays

Chapter Title: Unfeeling

Rating: T

Warnings: See Chapter One

Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Author Note: Ok, this is a whole heap shorter then I wanted it to be- it's only 5 pages. But I can't think of anything else to put in it so here you are – a slightly shorter chapter than normal. I've finished my exams/Cheers/ And now I have two weeks of lovely lovely holidays with which to write incredibly long chapters/Listens for applause-Cricket chirps/ - -; Oh and thanks to animeobsession for looking over this chapter and for telling me to add in a Tahlia/Mariah glare scene. That scene is dedicated to her!

:System overload imminent:

"T-the medical team?" Tala asked fearfully.

"Yes, they found them very useful." Boris smirked at Tala.

:Information levels reaching critical levels:

Tala took a second to digest this new fact. "You mean? No…"

:Information levels too high. System overload. System shutdown. Vital systems only:

No! Tala felt tears prickle his eyes in that horrible moment his body and mind shut down. No! You can't do th-

Rei felt all of the muscles Tala had been holding taut relax. The redhead's head fell on to the floor with a thud, his eyes staring into nothingness.

Rei's eyes widened. What had happened? He tugged Tala's arm harder than he had before but received no reaction from the comatose boy. Tala? He mentally asked the redhead, to afraid to say anything aloud. What had he done? He hadn't meant for this to happen.

Rei became aware of another presence beside him when a shadow fell across both him and Tala. He looked up at the tall figure beside him, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the new darkness. Kai.

The Russian stared down at Rei. This wasn't how he had imagined finally finding the neko-jin. He didn't know what he had been expecting but this hadn't been it. Never in his wildest dreams- or nightmares for that matter- had he imagined it would turn out like this. This was like living in a nightmare.

Kai shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind. As much as he wanted to take his time pondering over Rei's conversion- and Rei himself for that matter- Tala was more important at that moment.

Focussing his attention on the problem at hand, Kai bent down to Rei's level, ignoring the neko-jin and focussing his attention on Tala.

Rei stood up, disgusted with himself. How could he have felt sorry for what he had done to Tala? Maybe he hadn't meant for things to turn out how they had but it was still inescapable to him that Tala had Kai's heart no matter what he did.

Kai stood up with Rei and placed him hand on the neko-jin's shoulder. "Rei-" He felt two hands grip his own and had the sudden sensation of flight before landing with a grunt at Rei's feet in front of him.

"Don't touch me." Rei hissed at Kai, his eyes slitting in anger at the sight of what he could never have. "Just stay away from me." Rei was aware that he was hiding the pain that he was feeling under anger. He just didn't care. He'd had enough of this.

Kai stared up into Rei's golden eyes, trying to regain his breath. Why was Rei acting like this? What had happened to him? Why was he with Biovolt? How could Rei look so damn hot in mascara and eyeliner?

The Russian blinked. Where had that thought come from? He didn't have time for this. He could deal with his own feelings later at the moment he had to concentrate on what was happening around him.

"-Such a selfish bastard! I mean, it's bad enough that you called off our engagement by mail of all things but now you just waltz in here and expect everything to be peachy keen and to top all of that off you've dealt with whatever problems you have through violence, I wish you'd just get over yourself." Mariah took a deep breath after finishing her rant.

Rei glared at the pink-haired girl. "I should be the one saying that, not you. When did I ever indicate to you I wanted to marry you? Never! But instead of looking outside of the bubble that is your perfect world and seeing the hints that I gave you I had to write you a letter! God! You're so thick sometimes!"

Mariah glared poisonously at her ex-fiancée. "Bastard. Those so-called 'hints' were non-existent and you know it. Stop hiding behind excuses like a coward." She snorted. "Oh, that's right you are a coward. You couldn't even break it off to my face. You had to wait till you were halfway across the world!"

Rei took a breath to retort but realised that he was becoming too emotional about it. He could already feel two pairs of eyes boring into his back, Boris's warning him to end the fight quickly and Tahlia's telling him to stop being an idiot.

"Look, Mariah, I don't particularly care what you think." He said as flatly as possible. "I just wish that you'd leave me alone and get out of my life."

Mariah's eyes slitted and she opened her mouth to reply. A hand stopped on her arm stopped her. Mariah looked down to see that the hand belonged to her brother. She looked at Lee quizzically. "Not worth it." He gently pulled down on her arm, easing her back into her seat. "He's not listening to you." Lee shot a sideways glance across the room at the lone figure of Rei. "You could do better than him, anyway," he said loud enough for the entire room to hear.

Tahlia glared at Mariah. She may only have been working with Rei because she was told to but she couldn't help but respect the neko-jin. Mariah obviously didn't see what she saw. Mariah obviously only saw a potential mate. Sure an attractive one but Rei really meant no more to her than that.

Rei swallowed the pain that that comment caused him. He could remember a time when he and Lee were best friends. It was painfully obvious that that wasn't the case anymore. He turned around to walk back to his table but was stopped by a scene that made him want to redo his beating of Tala ten times more painfully.

Kai had managed to crawl from his position on the floor to Tala's side, worried that the redhead hadn't moved. When Rei turned to truly look at the two Russians, Kai was busy checking Tala's pulse, an expression of increasing puzzlement on his face.

Rei had no doubt in his mind that Tala would be fine. He had Kai to look after him, care for him and, most importantly, love him, after all. It just hurt to see what he already knew to be true.

Kai, for his part, was oblivious to anything but his fallen friend at that moment. He had been worried that the worst had happened when Tala hadn't moved at all but had checked all of the redhead's vital signs. They were all in order. It was just like Tala had slipped into a deep sleep with his eyes open. The only difference was that Kai couldn't wake him up.

Rei stared at the scene, thoughts and emotions coursing through his veins like red-hot fire. Everything in him screamed to either run or to rip Kai away from Tala. It took all of his self-control not to do either of those things.

When Kai was satisfied that his friend wasn't about to drop off the mortal coil he looked up at Rei who was still staring at the two boys on the floor. "What did you do to him?" Kai asked accusingly.

Rei blinked and ignored the urge to take a step back. How could he have been so stupid? In getting revenge for his own pain he'd hurt Kai. The one thing that he had truly wanted and he'd pushed it away further. Nice going, Rei. Newsflash you've just ruined any chance that you had. Baka. His mind berated him.

"Well?" Kai asked Rei. He hadn't meant for it to come out so angrily but he couldn't help it. Kai wished that he could just pinch himself and wake up from this nightmare but her couldn't. At least if he acted like he was angry no one questioned him.

Rei shook his head, an expression of helplessness on his face. What had he done? How had it all gone so horribly wrong?

Kai focussed his attention on Boris, smirking behind Rei. "What did you do to him, Boris?" He repeated the question, glaring at the older man. If Rei didn't know what was happening it was obviously something to do with Boris. Boris always had it in for Tala. Kai had never understood why.

"Nothing he didn't deserve." Boris told Kai nastily, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair.

Kai glared at him and stood up, turning to his own table. "Tyson!"

Tyson ripped his gaze away from Boris who was still reclining in his chair. "Eh?" he said, showing off his amazing intellect.

"Look after Tala." Kai ordered, moving his gaze back to Boris, his expression promising pain to the older man.

"Uh… Sure." Tyson said, jumping out of his chair and running to the redhead's side. "What do you want me to do?"

"Stop him from running away, of course- what do you think?" Kai snapped at the younger boy. "Glutton." He muttered under his breath. "All that food has taken the place of brain cells."

Tyson glared at Kai's back "Butthead." He muttered before turning his attention to Tala.

Kai heard Tyson but ignored him. "Boris! What the hell did you do to Tala?"

Boris smirked. "That would be telling now wouldn't it?"

Kai growled in the back of his throat. "For God's sake, Boris! People's lives aren't games! Tell me what you did to him! Then fix it! Stop being such a sardonic idiot and do something decent for a change!"

Rei suppressed a snort. Boris? Do something any decent human being would do? Not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening. I think that the only humane thing he's ever done is hold his breath to go underwater stopping polluting precious air with his presence for a few seconds at least.

Boris seemed to find the notion as amusing as Rei, a sardonic grin gracing his features. "Why would I do anything for that?" He asked, pointing at Tala's fallen form. "Why would you do anything for it either?"

Kai couldn't prevent his lip from curling in disgust. "Tala's a human being! The least you could do is treat him like one."

Boris smirked at that. "It's not as human as it'd like you to believe." Seeing Kai's eyes widen slightly at that statement Boris faked a look of surprise. "Oh! Hasn't it enlightened you on that part of it's sordid history?"

"His history is only sordid because you made it like that." Kai told him, taking a menacing step toward the older man, all of the fibres in his body telling him to rip the man's throat out. "Tell me what you did to him and we'll leave your life gladly. Just tell me."

Boris smirked at the slightly pleading tone that had crept into Kai's voice. "Seems that you've become weak, Kai my boy. I would have considered helping you except for that. In fact no. I wouldn't have considered helping you anyway."

It was the smug tone in Boris's voice that made Kai snap. Kai gave an audible growl before running at Boris, hand outstretched, wanting to take the man and rip him in two. First he had taken Rei away from him and now he wouldn't help him make his friend better.

Kai's rampage was cut short by and arm help in his path. Kai had ignored it and continued running at it, not realising how strong the arm was. He ran into the arm head on, coathangering himself.

As he lay on the ground, winded, Kai glared up at the offending person, only to have his eyes widen when he saw Rei standing above him, rubbing his arm and grimacing.

"I can't let you do that, Kai." Rei told him flatly, ignoring all of the voices shouting in his head to stop being such an idiot and attack Boris.

Kai lay on the ground panting and shocked. Rei was protecting Boris? How the hell had that come about? Couldn't the neko-jin see what a monster he was? "Rei?" He questioned, trying to see if the boy underneath the new clothes and makeup was the same one that he remembered. The Rei that he knew would never let himself work for someone like Boris. So why was he? Why had he left?

Rei looked down at Kai sadly. Carefully, making sure that his back was facing both Boris sand Tahlia, He mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' to Kai.

Kai's eyes widened there was the Rei that he knew but not at the same time. What was going on?

Boris yawned theatrically. "This dinner is starting to bore me. Tahlia? How about we liven it up a bit?"

Tahlia nodded. "Yes sir." She stuck two fingers into her mouth and let loose an ear piercing whistle.

Rei looked at Tahlia, his brow creasing in puzzlement. What was going on? He really should have listened when Boris had explained what was going to happen tonight.

Tahlia's whistle echoed around the room, reverberating against all of the walls. Dark clad figures began to pour though the windows and doors of the hall, wielding small handguns. They fanned out between the tables. On each of the black uniforms that they wear wearing was the Biovolt symbol, emblazoned proudly on the chest.

Boris smirked. "Surprise."

/Grins/ So what do you think? Please tell me! I love to hear from you!