A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, they're much appreciated. Many of you asked me to explain some thing better and that's what I'm trying to do in this and also in the following chapters. However, there will probably be some thing I don't even want to explain directly so you have to figure them out.

Then, Kitty asked about my choice of category. The thing is that this is supposed to be angst in the later chapters but don't be too surprised if that changes because I have this very bad habit of changing the plot during the story which means also the category may change. But, at the moment, this is still supposed to develop into a bit of angst.

And I also must tell you that I don't hate Tala nor Bryan although you might think that after this chapter. I really like them a lot but I need bad guys. So this is not supposed to be Tala+Bryan bashing.

Disclaimer: Oh… how much I would like to own the bishies, but no… I only own the storyline.

Warnings: Swearing, Shounen-ai, Bloody violence, (possible OOC:ness)

Rei shivered and wrapped his arms around himself, trying to vanquish the cold wind of the Russian autumn. He looked down at his dual-haired partner, whose fingers flew over his mini-sized laptop's keyboard with such speed it almost made one's eyes hurt. The said boy didn't seem to even notice the freezing weather. Rei liked to think it was because he was Russian and they must have it in their genes to be able to stand cold better than the poor neko-jin did. After all, he also had lived almost his whole life in Russia and still he hadn't gotten used to the chilly weather yet. Maybe he never would.

Rei shivered again, "Kai, is it just me or are you doing that so slowly just to be mean to me?"

Kai snorted, not letting the rather stupid question slow down his typing, "Do I look like I am?"

Rei had started to walk around the other teen slowly, hoping the movement would warm him up a bit, "Well, the thing is you can never know since it's you we're talking about," he stated softly.

"Geez, thanks love," Kai's voice was almost as cold as the wind trying to win the battle with Rei, "it's good to know you have trust in me," now his voice was softer, telling he really had understood the irony. The Chinese boy smiled but remained silent. He gazed at a huge mansion standing a couple of hundred meters ahead of them. The owners of the house weren't at home so it was all dark except for a few windows on the left wing. Rei decided the rooms probably belonged to the servants. Then he let his eyes explore the building some more. It looked almost frightening. Like it was yelling, 'Don't you dare come near me!'

Rei glared at the mansion warningly before he turned back to Kai, "So I'll get the key?"

Kai nodded, never taking his eyes off the screen of his computer, "From the kid's room at the third floor. The exact location is up to you to find," he said offhandedly. Rei raised an eyebrow at him. He couldn't bring himself to understand how Kai always managed to remain so composed while he himself was always freaking out about every mission they got.

"Sure," Rei heard himself responding. He stopped to stand beside his friend, glancing down at the computer screen, "Really, what kind of an idiot gives an extremely valuable key to a child?"

Kai stopped typing and watched at the swiftly moving text on the screen as the computer was trying to break into the mansion's security system, "Beats me," frankly, he couldn't care less. Everything was fine with him as far as it didn't make thing more difficult in any way.

Suddenly the computer let out a quiet peeping sound, making Kai smirk as he closed the laptop, shoving it into his bag. Now he straightened up, "All right, now the security system will be down for twenty minutes which means you've got about nineteen minutes to get the key and get the hell out of there," Kai looked at Rei as if asking if he had understood everything. The ebony-haired boy had paled visibly. Kai smiled. He knew how much stress it always caused for the boy to have to do this. The Russian planted a soft peck onto the other boy's lips, "Come on, it's fine," he received a small nod from Rei before they started running towards the mansion.

They got into the building easily since breaking the access code had unlocked the gate and every door of the house. In the huge lobby they parted, both moving soundlessly into different directions. Rei headed to the stairs while Kai went right for the library.

As the slate-haired boy had found the huge double-doors of the library, he quietly opened them and walked in, cautiously glancing around in the huge room. The whole room was surrounded by high bookshelves rising proudly against every wall. Once he was sure to be unseen, he quickly made his way to a desk in front of a huge window. Again he took out his laptop and started typing. He was determined to find a way to open the door to a secret room he knew was connected with the library.

Meanwhile Rei had sneaked his way up to the third floor and was now peeking into what appeared to be the fourth living room he had already seen in this mansion. After making sure there was no-one around, he stepped into the room and started moving in the shadows towards another door on the side of the room, carefully making sure his feet made no sound at all. That was actually rather easy for him. He was a neko-jin, after all.

Finally he reached the doorway and peeked out, immediately pulling back and jumping behind a huge chair behind him with as much grace as a real cat. He hid himself into the protective shadow of the chair and watched quietly as a tall and sturdily built man dressed like a butler walked past him. Luckily the man hadn't seen Rei, which he was really happy since the man surely looked strong enough to break the poor boy's spine like it was just a little branch.

The man looked like he was just doing his usual check which meant Rei and Kai's antics hadn't been revealed yet. And Rei really hoped they also wouldn't. Kai had tricked the security system so that the guards wouldn't notice anything odd if they would check the recordings the security cameras were sending to the monitors.

Finally the butler was gone and Rei was able to continue his way to where the key to the box Kai was currently looking for was supposed to be hidden. He glanced at his wristwatch and noticed he had about eleven minutes left. He quickly made his way out of the room to the hallway and from there to a surprisingly-not-so-huge room which looked kind of a library or yet another living room. Then he saw a door on the other side of the room. A smile found its place on his lips. He knew that was the room he had been looking for.

In the huge library downstairs after being typing for several minutes Kai received a peeping sound from his laptop as it showed him a picture of the room. Everything in the picture was shown dark blue except for a little yellow spot on the desk next to the laptop. Kai moved his eyes from the computer's screen to look at the object next to it. It was a black antique inkbottle. He smirked and took a hold of the bottle, carefully turning it clockwise a bit until a small clicking sound was heard. He threw the laptop back into his bag as a bookshelf started to open, revealing a passageway to the hidden room.

Kai quickly moved to the secret room, scanning it through with his eyes until he spotted a safety-deposit box behind a desk. He walked over to it, kneeling down in front of it. He started rummaging through his bag for the needed tools to open the box.

At the upstairs Rei was standing in front of the dark wooden door, ready to open it. Then, as he was about to open it, he stopped, listening. Then as he was sure he was alone, he reached for the knob but before he could take a hold of it, the door opened in front of him, making him jump backwards.

"Mom? How come you're already at ho–" the sleepy voice was cut off as the owner of it realised it wasn't his mother who stood in front of him. The teenaged boy stared at Rei with his eyes slowly widening with surprise.

Rei was in at least as big of a shock as the other boy in front of him. No, he was terrified. This was because he recognised the boy to be a friend of his. The neko-jin started backing up but soon his back made contact with a wall, leaving him no ways to escape.

The other boy just stood there, staring at Rei. He obviously hadn't realised who he was yet, which Rei was really grateful. That didn't last long, though. Soon the boy's eyes widened some more and he had to take a double take of air into his lungs.

"R-Rei?" his voice was shaking.

Rei gasped out of his trance and shook his head violently, "No," his voice was hardly louder than a whisper, 'shit, shit… goddammit…' Rei wanted to kick himself for being so… seen.

"You- you are the White Tiger they all are talking about?" the teen asked, gaining more confidence.

"No! I'm not…" Rei's voice broke. He quickly moved his hand to feel his waist line, looking for something from his belt. Then he raised his hand again, this time pointing a gun at his friend.

The said friend jumped slightly at the action, "Wha–"

"Shut up!" Rei demanded, "Or I'll shoot…" he couldn't believe he was doing this. Sure, he had killed people before but this was different. He really wasn't going to kill his friend.

"Rei, please, don't… we… we can think of something," the teenaged boy in front of him offered, visibly afraid.

Rei shook his head again, "What, Max?" he felt tears trying to form in his eyes. He couldn't let anyone know who he really was without eliminating them. The organisation he worked for, Biovolt, was not to come to the daylight just like he himself.

Max had started to shake, "I- I don't know yet," he whispered.

Rei glanced quickly at his watch, his eyes widening slightly. He had only nine minutes left and he hadn't found the key yet. Then a thought practically hit him right against his face. Max was the kid of the family they were currently robbing. Max was the kid who had the key they needed.

The Chinese boy glanced his friend up and down and up again until his gaze stopped at his neck. Around his neck, the boy had a golden chain which was partly hidden under his bathrobe.

Flashback

Rei had just gotten a huge pile of dishes washed and was drying his hands with a towel in the backroom of the Chinese restaurant he was working at.

Suddenly something very pink came rushing in, "Rei, the cute blond friend of yours is here, said he wanted to see you," the girl informed.

"Oh," Rei smiled, "thanks, Mariah," he followed the girl through the door to the restaurant where he saw the said friend sitting at the counter, smiling brightly as he saw Rei.

"Hi!" the blond greeted.

"Hey, Max," Rei answered, leaning against the counter in front of the boy, "what's up? Haven't seen you in a while."

Max shrugged, "Yeah, I've been travelling."

"Oh," Rei sighed. He wanted to go travelling too, but he could never do that. Suddenly his eyes spotted something golden around Max's neck. Or rather, something interesting hanging from the golden chain. There was a little black object which resembled a bit of a key but was somewhat different, "What's that?" he asked, making the other boy follow his gaze.

"Uh… it's the key of my diary," Max said quickly and slipped the chain inside of his collar, out of sight.

"Right, sorry," Rei smiled, thinking he had hit a too personal spot.

Max smiled, "God I'm hungry. Aren't you gonna offer me anything to eat, last time I checked this was a restaurant after all…" Rei laughed at his friend and handed him a menu.

End flashback

Rei blinked, "Max, give me the key," he then said.

Max shook his head, "No."

"Now, give me the key or I'm really going to shoot," Rei warned, unfamiliar hardness in his voice. Max flinched and shook his head but then reached his hands behind his neck to open the lock. Then he held the chain in front of him for Rei to take. The neko-jin reached out his hand carefully and snatched the chain with the key from his friend, all the time watching him intensively, ready to react if he would try anything stupid. That didn't happen and now they both were in their previous positions again, Rei against the wall pointing the gun at Max who hadn't moved from the doorway.

"What now?" Max's voice asked after a while. What now? Rei had absolutely no idea. A quick glance at the clock told him he was seriously going to run out of time soon. He had only seven minutes left.

Then Rei came to think of his dual-haired boyfriend downstairs. He raised his left hand to his ear, pressing a little button on his earphone, "Uh… Phoenix?"

"What? I'm in the middle of something," came Kai's voice almost rudely into Rei's ear.

"Yeah, me too. I need you up here," Rei pleaded. He heard a soft sigh on the other side of the line.

"What is it?"

"Uh, can't explain, just please come up here."

Kai was silent for a moment, "Sure, I'm finished off here soon and then I will come, ok?" he then said.

"Ok, just hurry," Rei felt very small at the moment. The line went dead. He glanced at the clock. Five and a half minutes.

Max shifted his weight from one foot to another nervously, making Rei focus on him. An awkward silence made the air thicken around them. This situation remained until after what felt like hours, Rei's sharp ears spotted soft steps approaching them quickly. He glanced at the clock. Two minutes.

Then Kai was standing in the room with them. He glanced at Rei and then at Max before walking behind the latter one who was too shocked to react.

"Don't move," He ordered coldly and after a small nod from Max he took hold of his chin to bend the teen's neck a bit. Then Kai took something out from his pocket. It was a syringe with some clear liquid inside. Max flinched a bit as the needle penetrated the skin of his neck.

Rei watched in slightly growing terror as Max's feet soon gave way, making him fall. Kai, however, caught the boy and lifted him up in his arms, carrying him into his room to lie down onto the bed. As much as Rei saw, Max was now totally unconscious. Shakily the neko-jin put away his gun as Kai came back to him.

"Now, we have less than a minute," the Russian informed as he started dragging Rei towards the stairs.

They had run to the second floor when Rei realised they would never have the time to get out the normal way. So he grabbed Kai's hand and pulled him with him as he quickly opened a pair of glass doors leading to a balcony. He stopped at the railing, gazing down.

"Damn, it's too high…" he turned back to Kai, "the rope!" he spun Kai around so that he could take a rope out of his bag. Then he tied it quickly to the railing and wrapped other one of his arms around the Russian while the other took tight hold of the rope. Kai followed his example, "Hold tight," Rei ordered. Then they climbed up to the railing and jumped down.

The rope wasn't long enough to reach to the ground so they had to let go and fall a few meters without it. Rei fell first, having Kai falling on top of him on the ground. Quickly they straightened up and ran to the gate but unluckily for them, the time was out and the gate was locked.

"What now?" Re asked, hoping for Kai to come up with some clever plan. And quickly before they would be noticed. Much to his disappointment, Kai looked totally baffled. Rei sighed and started glancing at the wall, gauging it with his eyes, "Maybe I could…" he turned to Kai, "I might just be able to jump over that wall, but I need your help," after a brief moment he got a nod from Kai, who moved closer to the wall.

"Are you sure? It's kind of high…" Kai looked at Rei questioningly.

The Chinese boy shrugged, "Yeah, but do you have better plans?" Kai shook his head. Rei smiled and walked over to the other boy, "Uh… then I guess I'm going to jump and you will give me speed…" He trailed off, looking at the wall, "and when I'm up, I'll pull you up."

Now Kai shook his head again, "That's not going to work, I'm heavier than you," he said.

"No, it's fine," Rei smiled again, pulling the other boy closer, "now, we don't have time…" He took hold of Kai's shoulders while the Russian's hands moved to his hips. Then he jumped, feeling how Kai's arms lifted him up, hurling him higher.

Rei landed on the wall, quickly balancing himself. Then he kneeled down, taking hold of the edge of the wall with his other hand while the other was reached down to help Kai, "Jump," he told the older boy standing on the ground. Kai shook his head. Rei was about to protest but went silent as he saw a few security guards running towards them from the mansion. They had been seen. "Shit… just jump you moron! I'll be fine," Kai glanced over his shoulder and swiftly turned back, now pushing himself off the ground as high as it was possible for him. Rei managed to get hold of his other hand and tightening the grip, started pulling as hard as he could.

As they both were sure Kai would never get over the wall, Rei moved the other hand from the wall to join the other holding Kai's hand. Now he lost his balance and, letting out a little surprised yelp, fell backwards to the other side of the wall, landing on his back onto the ground, soon having Kai on top of him.

The slate-haired boy quickly pushed himself up, looking down at his lover who was still holding his hand in a tight grip and his eyes were tightly shut, "Rei?" his whisper held concern.

Now the addressed boy slowly opened one of his eyes, "I'm alive?" he was utterly surprised.

Kai laughed a bit, "Yeah, can you move?" He rose to his feet and held out a hand to help the other boy.

Rei nodded, "Yeah," he grabbed the offered hand and let Kai haul him up to his feet.

"Now, we'd better get going before they catch us," Kai said alluding to the guards. Rei nodded and they ran to the nearby woods.

As Rei was sure they were far enough, he grabbed Kai's arm, forcing him to stop, "What was that back there?"

First Kai looked at him a bit puzzled but then he understood what he meant, "Oh you mean the syringe I gave to your friend?" A nod from Rei, "It was a mixture of medicines that will erase his memory of an hour era," the Russian teen explained casually.

Rei's eyes widened, "You… poisoned Max?" he asked accusingly.

Kai rolled his eyes, "Well, you were going to shoot him."

"I was not!" Rei defended, "I just… pretended I would…"

Kai smirked smugly, "Sure, but you must admit… without me being there you really would have had to shoot him."

Now it was Rei's turn to roll his eyes, "Whatever…" Kai had a point, though, and Rei knew it. They were silent for a moment until Rei broke it, "So it erases his memory you said?"

Kai nodded, "He won't remember a thing and you can meet him again without him recognising you to be the White Tiger."

Rei sighed, relieved, "Great, you're an angel," his smile faded then, "wait a minute… why didn't I know about that medicine? Where did you even get it?"

"Uh," Kai scratched the palm of his left hand, "Tala gave it to me a few weeks ago… I forgot to tell you, sorry," he grinned rather un-Kai-like. Rei snorted but didn't say anything, "Speaking of the devil, they're waiting for us," Kai said and continued walking. Rei sped after him to walk beside him.

As Kai and Rei entered the same deserted factory area as the day before, they saw Tala and Bryan standing in the middle of an empty square, having what looked like very heated conversation. Rather, Bryan was yelling at Tala while the other tried to look as bored as possible though it was obvious he was fuming. Then the redhead saw the approaching couple and raised his hand, silencing Bryan. They started walking towards the other two.

"Hello again," Tala greeted and much to everyone's surprise bowed his head a bit. Kai could tell he was up to something, "How's your life today?" With this Tala earned a pair of raised eyebrows from Kai and Rei.

"Save it, I'm not on the mood, Tala," Kai said then bluntly, taking the key Rei offered to him.

Tala sighed softly, "Yeah, when would you ever be…" He gladly took the little black box as well as the little key from Kai, observing them carefully, "well done, I knew we could count on you," He smiled.

"Um… what about–" Rei started.

"The promise?" Tala cut him off. Rei didn't reply. Tala smirked, "Well, you see I'm not really a trustworthy person…" Immediately, before anyone could do anything, Bryan was behind Rei, locking his arms behind him while he held a big knife on the boy's throat. Kai was left to stand between them and Tala, who looked more than pleased with the situation despite what he said then, "Now, I want you to know that I really wouldn't like to do this but Boris thinks you've been acting a bit… unreliably so we need to teach you a lesson." Now he raised his gun.

"What the hell?" Kai demanded.

Tala shrugged, "Your relationship is starting to hamper your work,"

"That's not true," Rei objected and whimpered a bit as Bryan pressed the knife tighter against his throat. Kai threw him a warning look.

"Why are you doing this?" Kai's voice came colourlessly.

"You need to understand what your position is… did you honestly think we would let you go?" Now Tala laughed, "You can't ever resign Biovolt… unless you die," the red-haired boy smirked at his last statement. Then he quickly jumped towards Kai, his right leg making contact with the boy's back, making him fall flat on the ground.

Kai determinedly forced himself up, pain written all over his face. Now Tala's foot connected with his abdomen, sending him flying backwards a couple of meters.

"No, stop it!" Rei screamed and tried to struggle free. Bryan's grip tightened around the boy who let out a short cry as the knife sunk into the skin under his collarbone, leaving a deep, bleeding cut.

"Leave him alone, you bastard!" Kai warned as he stood up with difficulty, coughing out some blood.

"Your attitude is really getting on my nerves, Kai," Tala remarked as if it was the most natural thing to say at the exact moment. He raised his gun again.

"Why… why are you doing this?" Rei sobbed, both from fear and pain.

Tala tilted his head a bit as he moved his gaze to the Chinese teen, "Oh Rei," he sighed, "can't you understand you can never be free when…" he paused, "… you don't even exist?" Then a sharp gunshot cut the air.

Flashback

A little boy, not more than seven years old, stood in front of a huge fireplace, watching the dance of the flames. He glanced to his left where he saw three other boys standing, all of them staring at the flames. The smallest one of the four of them standing next to him turned to look at him, his big, golden eyes gathering the light.

"Kai!" a sharp voice snapped the boy back to his senses as he turned to look at the fireplace again. Now in front of it stood an about middle-aged tall man looking right down at him, "Do you know what this is?" the man held a paper in front of the boy. He took a quick glance at it.

"Yes," the little Kai said bluntly.

"Well?" the man's voice was so cruel it made shivers run down the boy's spine.

"It's my birth certificate," Kai answered.

"That's right. And do you know what would happen to it if I threw it into the fire?" Now Kai nodded. The man smirked and let the document fall into the flames, watching as it burned. Kai couldn't get his eyes off the last burning evidence of his whole existence. He knew the burning birth certificate was only a metaphor for the fact that all the files of him were gone, meaning he didn't exist to the world anymore. There was no place he could ever go. He was now officially a property of Biovolt.

Soon three other similar documents were thrown into the fireplace.

End flashback

"No!" Rei screamed as Kai fell onto his knees, his right hand pressed to his abdomen, blood staining his pale fingers.

"On that day we sold ourselves to Biovolt," Tala said quietly as if not hearing Rei's cry. Then the red-haired Russian laughed and moved the gun to point it at Rei, "Except for you, Rei, who were sold – literally – on the very day you were bought from the slave market eleven years ago," Now Rei's head was bowed down, his black hair hiding his tearstained face. He chose not to say anything to Tala's comment. "Oh, don't tell me you've forgotten about it?" Tala sounded a bit disappointed. No, Rei hadn't forgotten.

"You sick piece of shit," Kai growled as he straightened up. Amazingly quickly, considering his condition, he had pulled his gun out and was pointing it at Tala.

"I suggest you drop the gun," came Bryan's voice coldly behind him, making him turn around. He saw Bryan moving the knife to Rei's throat, threatening to cut it. The scared neko-jin mouthed a word, 'No,' to his boyfriend but Kai didn't find any other choice than to drop the gun. And so he did.

Tala laughed and pulled the trigger again, this time hitting Kai's shoulder.

"Don't kill him," Rei sobbed, "take me instead."

Tala smiled, "That's so sweet, but I can't do that," he said softly, "you see, Kai can be replaced but you… you are a neko-jin and therefore very valuable… although you were bought in absurdly low price…"

Rei cried out as one more gunshot was heard followed by an abhorrent thud as Kai fell onto the ground. Then Bryan made another deep cut next to the other on Rei's neck before shoving him onto the ground next to the dual-haired Russian. Faintly Rei heard as Tala and Bryan ran away, leaving the two figures on the ground.

Sobbing the Chinese boy crawled over to his boyfriend, "K- Kai?" he touched the boy's shoulder, "Please don't be dead…" his voice cracked.

Kai opened his eyes, looking at the crying figure next to him, "Rei," he whispered.

Rei snapped his head up from his hands at the mention of his name, "You're alive," quickly he pushed himself up and grabbed Kai's arm, "come," a sob made him pause, "we need to go to the hospital, it's not far from here…" he pulled Kai up, supporting him as they started walking.

They headed to a secret clinic which's owner had helped them several times before. They could never go to a normal hospital but this clinic was different. The doctor and the two currently bleeding criminals had an agreement since the doctor himself didn't exactly have clean record and even the clinic was illegal.

Halfway to the clinic, Kai fainted. Rei lifted him up to his back and continued walking, praying to every single god and goddess he had ever heard of to let him get there in time, "Don't die, please… I'm nothing without you…," the boy muttered, trying his best to stay in his senses.

Rei was ready to cry for happiness as he finally saw the door to the clinic. Without his determination to save Kai he would already have fainted due to the amount of blood he had lost. His shirt was soaked with blood. Both his and Kai's. He forced himself to take the few more steps until he was in the clinic's reception, seeing the receptionist running towards them. Then the boy sighed and let himself collapse onto the floor as he lost consciousness.

A/N: Thanks for reading, don't forget to review. I need feedback :).