Everything gets sorted out now, and we see Kai again!
"Maxie!"

"Mom!" The others smiled, watching the ecstatic Max hug his mum tightly. "No-one told me you were here!" he said delightedly. Judy Tate looked down at her son, smiling. "Yes, that's because I only turned up five minutes ago!" She suddenly noticed how Max was wincing every time one side of his body touched anything.

"Are you OK?" she asked worriedly. "Have you torn your stitches?" Max looked gratefully up at his mum. How was it that mums always knew what was wrong?

"Yeah." he said simply.

"Come on then, let's get you sorted out!" Judy smiled, gently leading Max over to the door. He pulled out of her reach. "No, mum! I'm staying here 'till we see Kai!" And find out what happened! he added silently.

"Oh, OK!" chuckled Judy, holding up her hands in submission. She could see she wasn't going to get anywhere.

"Mr D. told you about Kai, then?" asked Ray, who'd noticed that Judy hadn't shown any surprise when Max had mentioned him. Judy nodded.

"Stanley told me just before you all came in." Mr Dickenson coughed importantly.

"Ah-hem, should we go through?" Everyone nodded, and Kenny pushed open the door. They followed him down a corridor till they reached one marked; Intensive Care - Private. This time, it was Max's mum that opened the door, and they all stepped inside, suddenly nervous.

The second Hilary stepped inside the room, the part of her brain that worked without thinking kicked into action, looking round the room. IV, drip, oxygen mask, thing for measuring blood pressure - Silently telling her brain to shut up, she took a couple of steps further into the room and looked towards where the others stood, finally realising how serious Kai's condition was. Kai was lying in the hospital bed, surrounded by bleeping machines, his head swathed in a large bandage, face covered by an oxygen mask, tubes everywhere. She swallowed, guilt flooding over her again. Seeing her face, Ray knew they had to tell the others, now, what had happened, before Hilary lost it completely. He threw himself down in a chair with a sigh.

"OK guys. You want to know what happened." It was a statement, not a question. Everyone nodded. "All right then. I guess I'd better start." He took a deep breath.

Five minutes later- "And then I grabbed Hilary and threw her up to Kai."

"What happened to you?" asked Max.

"Jumped." Ray said shortly. He looked across at Hilary, silently asking her to carry on. Hilary looked blankly at him. What was Ray asking her? Why had he stopped? She blinked slowly and looked away, fresh guilt pouring through her. It was my fault… All my fault… Ray bit his lip, wincing as he nipped a bruise. Hilary was in no state to talk.

A muffled sound rang out behind them. Everyone's head turned towards the hospital bed. Kai's hand twitched impatiently towards his head. Understanding, Ray leaned forwards and carefully removed the oxygen mask from Kai's face.

"Ray, I really don't think you should be doing that…" said Judy tentatively.

"Well, we're just lucky the nurses here believe in privacy, aren't we?" Ray said grimly as he drew back, watching as Kai slowly opened his exhausted violet eyes.

"That is not possible!" muttered an incredulous Kenny. "Kai should not be awake! There is absolutely no way-"

"Ssh!" hissed Max, nudging Kenny fiercely. "This is Kai we're talking about, remember?"

"Yeah, but still-"

"Kenny. Shut up. Now."

"Yes Max. Sorry."

Kai closed his eyes briefly. When he started talking, his voice was barely audible, interrupted by rasping, laboured gasps for breath. "So, after Ray decided… to show off his cliff-diving, I was left up… there with Hilary…" There wasn't much to tell, though Tyson wasn't only person who swallowed when Kai got the part about Hilary panicking and kicking him in the head.

"Ouch! Sounds painful!" Max commented, wincing at the thought.

"Nah, I've… had… worse…" Kai's voice trailed away and he slowly shut his eyes. Judy stepped up. "Kai needs to rest now." she said firmly.

"Yeah." Ray agreed, replacing the mask over Kai's face. "I'll carry on."

"Are you sure?" Judy asked anxiously. "You might want to leave it till tomorrow…"

"No, it's fine, really." Ray said reassuringly, hoping no-one would notice how much he was shivering. He gulped and started again. "So, they'd got to the bottom of the cliff , and I'd noticed Kai's head looked painful, so I decided to keep an eye out for any signs of concussion or anything. Then, next, we were walking back to the hotel, and Kai was starting to get dizzy and stuff, so we stopped. Then, me and Kai started talking about Hilary."

"Hilary? Why?" Tyson asked.

"Because…well, when she'd got angry before, right, there'd been…oh I don't know, some sort of red light in her eyes."

"Red light?"

"In her eyes?"

"Yeah…"

Ray shook himself and turned to Max and Tyson. "So, before I carry on, mind if I ask you two something?" The two boys exchanged glances.

"Sure, fire away."

"How did you two know where we were? And why we needed help?" They exchanged looks again, Max's hand unconsciously creeping to his hurt side. Spotting this, Tyson answered.

"Well, when me and Kenny were going round town, we suddenly got this really strong feeling that summing, I dunno, had gone wrong, like someone was hurt or something. So we ran back to check on Gramps and he was fine, so we rang Max up. He'd got that…feeling too, and he was running around like a headless chicken, so me and Kenny came over as fast as we could."

"I'd already packed some stuff, so we made Kenny phone the ambulance, grabbed a map and ran off to find you all." finished Max. He wasn't in the mood for long speeches, his side hurt like crazy.

"Oh." Ray wasn't that surprised. He was too damn tired to be surprised. "Just one more question. What time did you get this feeling?"

"About two. Why?"

"You'll see in a minute. Right, where was I?"

"You and Kai were talking about Hilary."

"Thanks. So, we finished talking and I wasn't watching Kai enough, and he went to sleep." Everyone winced.

"Yes, I know it was stupid." said Ray, the self-disgust he felt plain in his tone. "So, of course, I panicked. Hilary was sitting a bit away from us with her back to us. I yelled to her to come and help me and…and…"

He broke off, tried to compose himself, his breathing quickening. "She turned around and-" He stopped again, wrapping his arms around himself. Shaking, his eyes closed, he tried to speak, couldn't, saw again what'd happened when Hilary had turned around, felt all the hair go upon his neck- "Driger, help me!" he sobbed out. A green light lit up the room. A massive white tiger leapt out of nowhere, gently brushing against everyone. Every person in the room suddenly knew exactly what had happened, felt the evil, malevolent presence, saw the red glow fill the room. As the light and the tiger died away, it was a shaken group who turned towards Ray, wanting answers.

Hilary was floating in a dark mist. My fault…it was all my fault…everything was my fault…

Ray was sitting in the chair with his legs drawn up and his head resting on his knees, face hidden from sight. Tyson stepped hesitantly forwards.

"Ray?" he asked shakily. Ray raised his head. His voice shook as he replied.

"I don't have any more answers, OK?" He leaned over to Hilary, who hadn't moved since sitting down and whispered softly into her ear. "Dhan a kha mia di." He moved back to his seat and put his head back down on his knees.

"Dhan a kha mia di." Wake up, my lost one. Ray? Is that you? I can't tell them, they'll blame me, they should blame me, it's my fault. But…I don't know, maybe I should…they have a right to know…Okay…I'll try…

Hilary blinked and woke up.

Her eyes were bleak as she looked round the room.

"So, Ray's told you has he?" Her voice was too calm, Tyson thought anxiously. Hilary sighed. "OK, then. But it's not going to be pretty." Judy abruptly stood up and took a step forwards.

"Stop it! There's no point in telling everyone things that are just going to make you all upset!" she said fiercely, almost shouting. "Please," she pleaded, her voice softening "Save it for tomorrow." No-one looked at the unhappy woman except Max, who smiled gently at his mother and shook his head.

"Leave it, mum." Judy tried to reply, but was interrupted by a muffled voice.

"He's right, Judy." She looked, shocked into Kai's eyes. The flame in them flickered in dismissal, then faded as Kai fell into unconsciousness again . Judy turned on her heel and walked quickly out of the room, closely followed by Mr Dickenson and Kenny, who was looking decidedly green. As one, the remaining Bladebreakers turned to face Hilary, who carried on as if nothing had happened.

"Ten years ago, when I was four, there was a massive house fire. I was upstairs, fast asleep, when the fire alarm went off. I woke up and didn't know what it was for a minute, then I realised. I ran for the door, then remembered about my sister. She was only about six months old, didn't have a clue what was going on. I raced into her bedroom and picked her up. I stood still and listened, trying to work out where the fire was. Judging by the fact that there was no smoke, yet, I reckoned that the fire was still pretty small and probably downstairs. I was only four, wanted my mum so much I could've screamed, but if she wasn't here, I was gonna get my sister out of there, through hell or high water. Unfortunately, I didn't know that my sister's bedroom door - not the one that connected her bedroom with mine, the main one - was specially designed to block fire for as long as possible. This was a big problem because it also blocked the smell and sound of the fire. So, when I opened the door, I was completely unprepared for the raging inferno just outside. I slammed the door shut and screamed." Hillary's voice was emotionless. She could have been reading a documentary. But it was her eyes that were scaring Max and Tyson. They were blank, glazed. It was like she was dead inside. The two of them looked at each other and shuffled closer together, both more scared than they'd admit.

"Once I'd stopped screaming, my sister decided she'd start. So I almost didn't hear the voice yelling our names." Hillary's eyes glazed over as she remembered…

"Hilary! Annie! We're coming! Just hold on!"

"Mummy! Where are you?" the four-year old Hilary screamed, running towards where she thought the sound had come from. She tripped over, recovered herself and realised she'd lost the sound of her mother's voice. "Mummy? Mummy! Help!" she screamed desperately as she looked up and saw a massive piece of the ceiling poised to fall on her and Annie. Faintly, she heard her mother's voice again, and stumbled blindly towards it, tears of terror evaporating in the intense heat. She paced up and down beside the window, knowing that her mum was out there, but not brave enough, or strong enough to open, and jump through, the window. She beat helplessly on the glass with her fists, yelling as loud as she could, petrified.

Hilary stopped talking, choked with tears, overwhelmed by the memories. Ray raised his head long enough to give her a reassuring nod. She swallowed and dived back into the past.

Hearing an unsteady creak, dreading what she might see, she turned around slowly, stood there, frozen. The piece of ceiling was slowly, slowly, slipping downwards. Hilary watched, paralysed with fear as it swung down, peeling away piece by piece. As if in slow motion, it fell, Hilary standing there, petrified, still with Annie in her arms. She looked slowly down at the screaming baby. Suddenly, everything went red. Must be something to do with the fire, thought Hilary absently. Unexpected rage filled her. No stinking fire was getting it's hands on her sister! Hers! No-one else's! With a shriek, she ran at the window, using her whole body to break the glass. She jumped out, still holding Annie tightly, and the two of them landed safely in the net below the window. Her parents ran up to them and Hilary was hugged so tightly she could barely breathe. It would take a long time before she stopped having nightmares about that night…

"It was only a year later, when my mum told me that my eyes had been glowing red when I'd come out."

"Why'd she only tell you then?" asked Tyson, puzzled. Max sighed. He would have kicked Tyson, but he didn't have the strength.

"Because it happened again, you idiot!" he snapped.

"What, the fire?" Max would have walloped him there and then, exhausted or not, but Ray stepped in.

"No, Tyson, the…glowing." Ray said uncomfortably, not really knowing what to call it.

"Oh. Right." Tyson squirmed uncomfortably under his friends' combined glares. Max gave up in disgust and drifted off to sleep.

"Anything else?" Ray asked, sensing that Hilary wasn't finished.

"Yeah - but not much!" Hilary said quickly, realising Tyson had just about reached the end of his attention span, Max was asleep, and Ray wasn't much better, eyes dull and only half open.

"OK, blow us away!" Ray sighed, rubbing his gritty eyes with the back of his wrist. Nodding, Hilary started to talk again.

"So, that was the first time I felt the…" She paused for a minute, then decided to call it by the name she'd always thought of it as. " The…redness. Over the next eight years, it happened over and over again."

"Wait a minute," Tyson interrupted, frowning. "You said you were four when you started it. Four plus eight doesn't make fourteen, last time I checked anyway. Wait-" He started counting on his fingers. Hilary grinned

"I haven't had it since I joined up with you guys."

"Except for today," Tyson pointed out. "Ow, Ray, whadd'y do that for?" He rubbed his arm and tried to sulk. Hilary pointedly turned her back on him.

"So as I was saying, each time it happened, it got stronger. The first two or three times, it was just a bit more strength than usual, I used to use it on Sports Day. Then, I started getting violent. Mum would have to lock me in my room before it started, because not even her and dad could do anything to me once it had started."

"How long did it usually last for?" Ray asked, suddenly.

"About an hour or so. Why?" Hilary asked, then gasped as she remembered what had brought her out of it so early. She blushed furiously, Ray colouring slightly as well. Tyson looked from one to the other, suddenly noticing the bruises on both of their lips. He grinned. If this was what he thought it was, he was gonna have a lot of fun with it!

He got out of his chair. "We should probably get moving, guys, the nurse's coming, and we don't exactly look like we've been quiet!" His eyes moved from Hilary and Ray's tear-stained faces to Max, asleep and with congealed blood all over his side. Ray and Hilary followed his gaze.

"Yep, you're right for once, Tyson!" Hilary giggled, pulling herself and Ray out of their chairs. Tyson manoeuvred Max onto his back and, all laughing, they ran out of the room, leaving the nurse to peer in suspiciously and tut quietly to herself.


Well, that's that explained! Only one more chapter left.