|next morning|

When Tai wakes up, he feels something wet and warm against his chest and sees that Rachel's head is resting on his chest with her drooling slightly while the rest of her considerably smaller body is diagonally across the bed.

"Wake her up, we need to leave soon." Dick tells the asian teen, who nods in acceptance while rubbing his eyes, wincing a bit when he strains the wound on his shoulder.

"Rachel. Rachel wake up." Tai says gently, rubbing her back with one hand.

"Mom?" Rachel mumbles waking up, having dreamt it was her mother calling her out.

"We need to leave soon Rachel." Tai tells her softly while she sits up in the bed, giving him enough room to hop out of the bed.

"I'm sorry." Rachel says shakily.

"Again, with the apologies. You have nothing to apologize for." Tai tells her, grabbing the now dry shirt from the bathroom and puts it on with some difficulty due to his hurt shoulder.

"I do. I only cause pain and misery." She whimpers while hugging her knees to her chest.

"Rachel, none of what happened is your fault."

"How can you say that after what happened yesterday?" She asks only looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Because it's the truth. You didn't hurt your mother and you tried to prevent me from getting hurt." Tai tells her, offering her a hand once he has his clothes on and his skier case over his unhurt shoulder.

"Come on guys. We don't have all day." Dick says from the other part of the room.

"I'm sorry. For how I treated you." Rachel says accepting the offered hand and scoots out of the bed.

"I still don't understand how I could have mistaken you at that Halloween party." Tai says while the two leave the room, following Dick to his car.

"I don't know what to tell you. The only one I really talked to at that party was someone in a power ranger suit. And I doubt that was you." She says.

"Could we focus and get our heads back in the game guys?" Dick tells them while storing a case in his trunk just as Tai was about to say something.

The two teens stop talking and get in the car, Rachel squeezed in the back again.

While they are driving to the friends Dick told them about he informs Rachel of what he learned.

"I looked into the guy that took you. It seems he was part of some kind of cult believing in the end of days and trying to stop it. Does that mean anything to you?" Dick asks the blue haired girl.

"No. Not really. It's just that bad things happen around me." Rachel says, reaching for Tai's hurt shoulder but stops before her fingers reach his shirt.

"And no one really wants to stick around me. You're gonna leave too, aren't you?" Rachel asks, looking at the two men full of vulnerability.

"No. No, I'm not gonna do that." Dick promises.

"Same here. I will protect you." Tai agrees.

"About that actually. Who are you exactly?" Dick asks Tai.

"No one in particular. Why?" Tai replies stoically.

"Well all of this is rather unorthodox so I am just wondering how you fit into all of this." Dick replies.

"My Grandfather raised me and he was killed in a robbery. I was forced to defend myself during it as well and ... I guess I haven't stopped defending myself." Tai answers while Rachel tries to get a look into his head like she can do unwillingly with other people. She only gets a vision of a bloody and badly wounded Tai standing over 8 dead people before getting multiple flashes of Tai swinging his sword at other criminals, either injuring them, disarming them or in some cases killing them.

"Hah. hah." Rachel pants heavily after seeing this while holding her head.

"What's wrong. Stop the car." Tai says worried and Dick hits the break, luckily with no one around.

The two men get out of the car and help Rachel outside.

"Calm down. Focus on me Rachel." Tai says, kneeling down in front of the keeled over Rachel, grabbing her hands carefully, only for her to get more visions of Tai fighting and of him getting hurt this time.

"Get away from me!" She cries out, a black wave shooting off from her and knocks Tai away, making him land on his back and injured shoulder painfully.

"Leave. Don't follow us." Rachel says shakily and grabs Tai's bags, tossing them towards the teen before getting in the car and telling Dick to drive.

Dick looks at the hurt teen for a moment before getting in the car and driving away as Rachel requested, since she is the one in danger and Dick didn't want to risk involving Tai in the first place.

"What the hell just happened?" Tai groans, getting up and picking up his bags, carrying them over to a tree a bit further down the street.

Once there he takes off his shirt while wincing and stabs his sword in the tree above him, using it as a mirror to look at his wound, seeing the sown together wound reopened with blood seeping down the back of his shoulder.

"Fuck." Tai curses, looking around lost before leaning against the tree with his back and closing his eyes to think.

Minutes later he hears a car approaching and looks up, hoping that Dick and Rachel came back, but instead sees a black muscle car heading his way.

He stops by the road and sticks out his thumb to ask for a ride.

To his luck the car stops in front of him.

"Hi uhm, Can I catch a ride? I'm kind of stranded here and hurt myself." Tai asks, looking into the vehicle, seeing a dark-skinned woman with red hair, a fur coat and a shiny blue dress.

"Ah fuck it, why not." The woman says after stopping to think for a moment.

Tai quickly puts on his shirt and grabs his bags and Katana, putting it in the backseat of the car before climbing in the passenger seat.

"Thank you." Tai says once inside.

"Yeah yeah." The woman says uninterested and starts the car again while turning on disco music.

"My name is Tai Zhou." He introduces himself, offering her a handshake.

"I have no idea who I am. But someone called me Kory so I guess that's my name." The woman replies, not returning the gesture.

"Amnesia? I'm sorry that must be difficult." Tai says.

"All I know is I have to find some girl." Kory sighs, looking at a picture of Rachel she took from the girl's house.

"Why?" Tai asks, trying to play it cool and not reveal he knows Rachel, following her eyes to the picture of the blue haired girl hanging from the dashboard.

"Hell if I know. I'm just hoping finding her will bring back my memories." Kory tells him.

"Hey, are you going to be OK? You're kind of bleeding on the seat." Kory says, spotting the red smear running down the right side of the seat

"Sorry. I'll pay the cleaning bill." Tai tells her.

"Kid. This isn't my car, so I don't care. I just don't want to have to deal with a corpse sitting beside me." Kory replies.

"How good are you with needle and thread?" Tai asks while she stops the car, looking at him annoyed, but holds out her hand for the items.

"Right. Stupid question, sorry." Tai answers while getting a sewing kit out of his bag, handing it to Kory who in reply sighs and sows him up as best as she can.

"Thank you." Tai says gratefully while Kory cuts off the remaining string and pulls his shirt back down.

"So... any idea where we are?" Kory then asks Tai, looking around, only seeing the single road surrounded by fields for as wide as the eyes can see.

"I think Washington." Tai answers scratching his head thoughtfully while trying to get a signal for his phone with no luck.

"Where are you headed?" Kory asks.

"Uhh, about that..." Tai says wondering if he should tell her about Rachel.

"What?" Kory asks aggressively.

"I'm looking for her too." Tai says, tapping Rachel's photo while pulling the photo he stole from the house from his pants pocket.

"Why?" Kory asks expectantly.

"She is in danger. I want to protect her." Tai answers.

"Is she in danger from me?" Kory asks sharply.

"Dunno. I have no idea who you are either." Tai tells her honestly.

"So, I guess we're stuck together until we find the girl." Kory says.

"Rachel. Her name is Rachel." Tai informs her.

"You know her?" Kory asks.

"She goes to the same school as me." Tai replies while Kory starts driving again.

"And why were you stranded in the middle of nowhere?" Kory asks suspicious of him.

"I don't know. The people I was traveling with left me behind." Tai answers disappointed.

"Sorry kid. Just don't get on my nerves and I won't kick you out as well." Kory tells him, before turning on the radio again.

|2 days later|

Kory and Tai finally get a lead on Rachel and catch up to her at a gas station.

"She's here?" Tai asks the redheaded woman besides him.

"I think so." Kory replies, pointing at the small bathroom next to the gas station where a middle-aged man is pounding on the door yelling for Rachel to hurry up.

"You said her name is Rachel, right?" Kory asks, opening her car door.

"Yeah. But I don't know who he is. I doubt he's the friend Dick wanted to take her to though." Tai says, opening his skier bag and grabbing onto his katana's handle.

"Wait in the car kid. I got this." Kory tells him, cracking her knuckles and walks up to the man, who looks at her terrified before her hair and hands light up and she torches the man and half the bathroom, Rachel ducking in a corner when Kory's flames burn a hole through the door.

"Do you know who I am?" Kory asks, looking down at the cowering Rachel who has her hands in zip tie cuffs.

"No, should I?" Rachel asks nervously.

"Come on. I think you'll be better off with us than with them." Kory says, offering Rachel her hand and the blue haired girl accepts the help getting up before following Kory to the black car Tai is waiting in.

"Us?" Rachel asks nervously while following the redhead.

"He said he knows you." Kory only says, walking around the car to the driver seat and gets in while Tai opens up the backseat door, sitting in the back row himself with his bags on the passenger seat.

"Tai?" Rachel says almost losing her breath as she looks at him while he holds open the door for her from inside the car.

"Come on, let's go." Tai tells her, moving back on the backseat with Rachel getting in the car shortly after.

Kory takes off immediately, briefly looking in the back mirror and spots three people coming out of the gas station.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel asks Tai, looking down at her lap in embarrassment.

"We were looking for you. What happened? Who were those people and where is Dick?" Tai asks her in reply, reaching out for her hands but stops, looking at her with uncertainty.

"Can I take them off?" He asks.

Rachel nods quietly, hiding her face behind her black and blue hair.

"What's going on back there? I thought you two were friends." Kory asks them.

"I..." Rachel stammers but only falls into silence while Tai pulls his sword a few centimeters out of its sheathe and offers the blade to Rachel who uses it to cut through her cuffs.

"Thanks." She says quietly.

"You have no idea who I am girl?" Kory asks again, looking back at Rachel.

"No." Rachel answers confused.

"Let me introduce you. Rachel, this is Kory. She has amnesia and all she knows is that she was looking for you." Tai introduces the redhead.

"Thank you for your help. How did you do that by the way?" Rachel asks.

"I have no idea." Kory replies with a tired sigh.

"Rachel, where is Dick?" Tai asks again.

"He's with his friends. He couldn't stop them from taking me and one of his friends... I think she died." Rachel says tearing up at remembering how Dove got tossed off the roof.

"What happened before? I could have helped." Tai asks quietly, Rachel finally turning to look at him with tear filled eyes.

"You scare me." She confesses heavy heartedly, not having to use her power to see Tai's heart shatter after hearing this single sentence.

A few tears fall out of Rachel's eyes before she wipes them away with the sleeve of her jacket and looks up to Kory.

"Where are you taking us?" Rachel asks.

"I don't know. Away from those guys for now." Kory replies, looking at the teens on the backseat through the back view mirror and notices Tai's change in demeanor. Seeming more like a man punishing himself than the driven, goal-oriented guy she picked up 2 days ago.