Sorry for the wait with this chapter, I've been really busy this week. This chapter does get long in places, so bare with me; it's basically two chapters in one.
Please enjoy.
When Life Flashed Before My Eyes
It had been almost six weeks since Kai had slipped into a coma and Tala had had plenty of time to brood over his own situation as his arm healed. He had had enough of being kept here just because Kai was and it was time he did something that he should have done the moment Kai had set foot in the abbey.
Boris had let Tala walk through the maze of the abbey as long as he did not go to the upper levels. Tala had soon realised that there were way too many guards for him to take down, so for now he followed orders.
Tala crept through the halls to the place they were keeping Kai. He opened the door and was confronted by the smell of disinfectant and detergent. Kai looked pathetic lying in bed, almost blending into the white sheets. His muscles were practically gone from not moving around and despite being fed through a tube he was amazingly thin.
Tala smirked, knowing that he was the one in control and not Kai. He walked over so that he was right beside Kai. Tala took off Kai's scarf and his breathing mask and put his hand onto Kai's throat, only needing to press gently onto his windpipe to cut off the boy's air supply. He watched as Kai's face started to gain a blue tinge to it. Tala scowled; Kai was supposed to wake up and defend himself.
Tala watched as Kai gave a tiny gasp for air. That was it? No struggle? No fight?
Tala's triumph turned to shock then fear. Kai must be in bad shape if he did not even wake up. Tala quickly removed his hand and forced the mask back on, watching as Kai took in huge breaths of air. Tala never thought he would see the day that he would want to help Kai, but it had just arrived.
Kai woke up on the soft grass, just before it was taken over by the sand near the lake. The wind, which had dropped in speed, lightly pulled at his hair, trying to get him to go into the clear lake. He took a deep breath, taking in everything around him and then releasing it slowly.
He unwrapped his scarf from around his neck and took off his black top and put them on the rock he had first been lying on. He did the same with the rest of his clothes before jumping into the clear depths. He came up breathing heavily because of the icy temperatures, but there was a large smile on his face. He had never felt so free in his life and he had yet to think about beyblading.
His face became serious as he looked back towards his clothes. He was so much happier when he was not worrying about training or beyblading in general. He had never realised how much beyblading had a hold on his life. He had become World Champion along with the rest of his teammates. That had been his goal for what seemed like forever and now that he had achieved it was there really any point in continuing?
Suddenly something pulled him underwater, knocking the wind out of him and making him unable to breathe. Somehow his body just froze and he could not even struggle against the grasp of whatever had its hold on him. He felt himself loosing consciousness before he heard a faint screech as Suzaku wrapped her arms around him and placed her forehead on his. Her opposite wrapped her arms around his waist, her face touching his cheek. Both smiled at him.
"It is time you woke up and faced life once again."
Tala watched Kai closely, just in case there was any kind of damage when suddenly Kai's eyes flew open. Tala was caught off guard and fell on the floor with a yelp. As he got up to look at Kai he watched the young beyblader move his head slightly.
"Hey." Kai's greeting was very raspy and was quickly followed by a coughing fit.
Tala grabbed some water. "I'm sorry."
Kai could not sit up on his own, so Tala sat him up and moved the mask away from his mouth and put the cup there, adding, "Don't swallow."
Kai nodded and sipped the water before spitting it back into the cup and giving Tala a questioning look.
"I almost killed you just a few minutes ago."
Kai's expression did not change as Tala poured the water down the sink. "Thank you."
Tala's eyes widened and he looked at Kai. "What?"
"Thank you for the water… and for not killing me." A small smile made its way to Kai's lips. "So now that we seem to have got over our hate for each other shall we get out of here?"
Tala's confusion only grew. "There are too many guards and you are in no condition to move let alone fight."
"You don't mind waiting a bit longer do you?"
It was a couple of weeks before either thought that they were ready. Both were on edge and Tala was taking in any detail that might help as he walked along the corridors to Kai's room.
"Hey Kai, today's the day we… Kai?" Tala opened the door to find Kai was missing.
Tala sprinted down the halls until he was at the nearest ventilation shaft to the monitor room. He climbed through them until he was inside the monitor room, where he saw Kai in a glass tube with Boris looking on in one of the screens. Tala knew the worst thing he could do would be to go and jump in on them, so he waited, passing the time by looking through Boris's files.
Tala started to read one of them that had been labelled 'BEGA.' Scanning the files inside of it he started reading about his planned teams: Barthez Battalion and the BEGA league. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the already chosen star beyblader of BEGA – Brooklyn Kingston.
Brooklyn Kingston was apparently was a natural beyblader who no one would be able to beat. All of this boy's briefings had been on how to destroy Kai. It seemed Boris still had a grudge on the Hiwatari heir. What did not seem to make sense was if they were going to kill him why would they need this kid? Unless this was a back up plan, just in case they could not kill him. It would make sense.
He soon found his file as well as Kai's. The hospital had removed the damage Boris had done to him for the finals, which was a welcome relief after all that had happened. As he clicked onto Kai's file he let out a gasp.
A knock on the door signalled to Kai that Tala was here. "About time." Kai grumbled as the door opened.
"Kai, if I had known you were that eager to do this I would have brought you in last week." Kai's eyes widened as Boris stood smiling at him.
"Before Tala decides to kill you I want to get one experiment over with."
"What are you talking about?" Kai was speaking through gritted teeth.
"We already finished stage one, so now it is time to finish this completely. Or were you referring to Tala?" Boris's smirk grew. "You see a couple of weeks ago, in fact the day you woke up from your coma Tala tried to kill you. He wrapped his hand around your neck and pushed just enough so you couldn't breath. Fortunately he seemed to back out at the last second and he made sure you woke up."
Kai held back a smirk 'That's what you think Boris. I know what happened.'
Kai did not bother to protest. He just hoped the side effects were not going to be as bad as the last stage's effects were.
Kai felt a stinging pain in his arm and before he could register what was happening he was unconscious.
Kai woke up in a tank of bluish liquid with a gas mask on. He soon realised that opening his eyes had been a mistake as he screamed out in pain. He then became aware that it was not just oxygen that was making its way into his mask, there was something else as well.
His skin seemed to be tightening as the experiment continued, but he was suspended with wires and had yet to find the ability to try and move to get them off of him. Kai opened his eyes again to find that he was able to see now, without the stinging. He saw Boris's knowing smile as he once again fell unconscious.
Tala walked into Kai's room to greet him, "Are you OK?"
Kai opened his eyes and Tala gasped. Kai's fiery eyes were now an ashy grey and by the look on Kai's face he knew what Tala had gasped at.
"Boris said it would go away after a while."
Tala put a hand onto Kai's shoulder; "Maybe Suzaku will be able to fix it."
"I just hope they aren't going to stay like this. It feels a bit weird."
Tala opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Kai. "You know what Boris wanted to do, right?"
Tala nodded, "Yeah." He looked at Kai before picking up the younger beyblader's bag. "You ready to get out of here?"
"Is Boris finished with me?"
"Well just short of killing you, yeah."
"You knew about it."
"I figured it out after I almost killed you."
Kai gave a genuine smile, "Then what are we waiting for, Boris to give us an invitation?"
Tala helped Kai out of bed as the two started to walk out.
They soon found themselves in a dark hallway where the light around was not enough for them to see very far. Tala started feeling his way along the walls with his one hand, while the other held Kai.
"What are you doing?" Kai had stopped and Tala turned around to try to see what he was doing.
"Trying to find our way through here. I can't see a thing."
"I'll lead the way then."
Tala's eyes widened, "You can see in here?"
Kai walked in front of him and half-dragged him along. "Why would I make it up?"
Tala suddenly remembered something that he had read in the file.
Raises sensory abilities, making the subjecteasily adaptto changes in the environment.
Tala put it to the back of his mind as they continued to run down the different hallways. Just when Tala was becoming used to the dark, Kai slammed him against the wall with a great force. Tala watched as a laser shot past his vision.
"Tala you need to run as fast as you can, alright?" Tala only needed to nod and the two were running as fast as they could, dodging the lasers as much as possible.
Tala kept running until he saw daylight and they were out of the building.
Voltaire stood outside the front door, sheltered by the stone roof at the entrance. He had spent a long time trying to make sure the BBA was off of his trail; the last thing he wanted was for someone else to do his job. To onlookers he would have seemed like a statue watching over the house, but in fact he was waiting.
The rain hammered at the ground in front of him and every few seconds lightning would flash, temporarily blinding him, followed by a crash of thunder. The storm was right over him, but he would wait in any kind of weather to make sure she arrived.
A dark car drove up, stopping at the entrance as the driver parked it. A young woman stepped from the car and was soon shielded by one of Voltaire's servants. She was a little bit smaller than average height and her black hair was tied up in a neat bun, not a single strand of hair was out of place, even with the strong winds. Voltaire knew she had enough years of experience to know that he was a man of perfection, and a highly rewarding man at that.
Bright blue eyes looked up to Voltaire before she spoke, "I did not expect to be needed for another job so soon sir."
Voltaire looked at her, judging whether she was still trustworthy, before replying, "I need you to find a way to get me to Russia without drawing attention to myself."
"Sir, not to seem out of line or anything, but are you not finished with Boris?"
The man's face darkened considerably and the woman shrunk back a bit. "Boris has taken something of mine and this is not over until I get him back."
The woman's eyes flashed slightly as another fork of lightening shot through the air. "He sir?"
Voltaire turned his back, silently inviting her in, "He has taken my grandson."
"I thought the BBA had temporary guardianship over him."
"He came back." He walked into the living room and sat in one of the chairs that was across from another, inviting her to sit.
As she sat; the woman's eyes, which had become hard from working, suddenly softened. "The boy seemed to care about you a lot, no matter how much he denied it to others. He needs someone to lean on when things are rough." She placed a hand on his leg in a comforting way before continuing, "And so do you."
"Why do you think I employed you?"
The woman smiled, "You know what I mean." She brought out her laptop and started to type the information down.
"Do know for a fact it was Boris who took him?"
"Considering he came into this house at a late hour and dragged him out, I would have to say yes."
"We could go to the authorities about this. Although the BBA would not allow you to see him I'm sure Kai would come back again."
Voltaire considered this, giving his opinion, "I would rather I did this myself. I do not wish for the BBA to fight my battles, even if we would fight for the same thing. Besides Kai left them on his own free will, which proves that he was not intending to go back."
"Shall I plan your trip then?"
"Make sure it is booked as soon as possible. I do not want Boris to have him for much longer."
"Yes sir. It will take some time since we are trying not to attract attention." The woman bowed and walked out.
Yes that was my way of explaining Kai's change in eye colour. I'm going along with the series' plot, so as you might have seen there were some hints for the beginning of Vforce. Anyway, please review!