Hello everyone!

OMG! Has it really been over a year! O.o' :bows: I'm SOOOOOO sorry! I honestly didn't realize it had been that long until someone messaged me and told me!

By the way, to whomever messaged me about that, I want to thank you! You were very…nice about it, polite even in my book, compared to others I've received. Because of that, I put this next chapter high on my list to complete!

It really makes me happy when people are polite, or in good nature when they tell me to update. I don't mind updating, or even putting a rush on a chapter because of that! But if you get rude, and demand things of me, telling me how LONG you've waited, etc…that just pisses me off, and really puts me out of the mood to write.

Yeah, this is probably redundant if you read my other fics…but it will happen no matter how much I rant about it.

But anyway…

I haven't touched this for a while, so I hope everything still comes out alright. I actually wrote a lot of the coming chapters a long time ago, so hopefully everything will flow, considering I haven't had the time to go back a re-read things!

I left such a huge cliffie, didn't I? Heh…oh well! You'll finally find out what's going on now!

And I kinda rushed through this chapter…if it isn't noticeable. It's boring, and I wanted to get it over and done with! So yeah! I don't care what you say about it…I just want to get this over with, so I can start with the real action!

BTW…a big thanks to Kimkizna, whose idea I incorporated into this chapter!

Enjoy if possible…

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Chapter 5 – Explanations

The wail of sirens pierced through the calm night as an ambulance raced toward the nearest hospital. Inside, a pained and unconscious teen lay upon a stretcher, surrounded by his teammates and friends and the two medics that had come to the rescue.

"What did he take?" One of the medics asked as he placed an oxygen mask over the teen's nose and mouth.

"This…" Hilary handed the medic a bottle of Kai's prescriptions, with only one little pill left inside.

The medic read the small print on the bottle, nodding to himself every so often. "And how much do you think he took?"

"Um…" The teens all looked at each other. "We don't know…"

"It's alright…we'll just estimate here…" He handed the bottle to his partner, who was readying an injection of some clear liquid.

Kai's heart rate was frantic on the EKG. He would twitch every so often on the stretcher, and let out a gut-wrenching moan filled with agony.

Once the injection was ready, the medic stabbed it unceremoniously into Kai's chest, releasing the fluid into his body.

The noise coming from the machines died to a soft rhythm…almost too slow for the likes of the medic.

"Hey!" One of them called up to the driver. "Speed it up! He won't last much longer!"

Hilary felt tears stream down her face at those words. Kai had tried to kill himself…and it looked like he was going to succeed! It was too much to take, for any of the teens. Even the boys were getting a little choked up at the sight of their captain, clearly in pain from the overdose.

"Don't worry kids. If we get him to the hospital in time, they'll pump his stomach and get him the right dose to combat what he took. This will help until we get there." The medic was calm, and tried to get the teens to be the same.

They all nodded, and tried to focus their attention at something other than Kai's body, or the loud beeping coming from the EKG.

---

Hours later…

"Are you here with Hiwatari?"

Each member of the waiting group nodded, eager to hear the news.

"Well, the medication we had given him seems to still be working, but his blood test shows that he's been taking a little more than he should. Something has been stressing him out lately..."

"I'll say! He nearly took my head..."

"Shhh! Let him finish Tyson!" Hilary interjected.

The doctor cleared his throat before continuing. "If some measure isn't taken to relieve his stress, it will put his heart in danger. And for someone his age, this could kill him soon….or rather, he will kill himself."

A surprised gasp sounded in the room. No one was expecting to hear that.

"What can we do then?" Mr. Dickinson finally broke the silence.

"Right now...just make sure he's comfortable and that no extra stress is put on him, and set up some sort of watch so that he doesn't take any more medication than he should. He could very well overdose again."

"Are you saying he's suicidal then?"

"…we aren't sure. We will have to watch him a little more. He could just have lost track of how many pills he was taking over the course of this week." The doctor paused for a moment, turning his attention to the teens. "Have you noticed any…strange behavior on his part recently?"

Rei and Max looked to Tyson, Hilary and Kenny as they pondered their answers.

"Well…he has been acting a little strange lately…" Hilary started. "He was acting like he thought someone was following us a couple of times, on the way to school…"

"Yeah!" Tyson exclaimed. "And last night before we all went to bed he was sitting outside all Kai-like, and when I went to talk to him, he almost took my head off!"

"How is that unlike any other day?" Rei started.

"Uh…how about the fact that if I hadn't moved backward at the last second, I would be in the ER as well!"

"You were probably annoying him though…weren't you?"

"I'm telling you, there was something wrong!"

The doctor was busy scratching down everything that was being said in his notes. "Thank you. I'll take all these in account."

"Hey! When can we see him?" Max suddenly asked.

"We are still trying to stabilize him, and get all the drugs out of his system. It shouldn't be too much longer though. I suggest that you all go back home and get some rest. We'll call you in the morning."

With a depressed sigh, the teens drooped their shoulders in disappointment and turned around to follow their manager out of the building.

---

Morning finally came, and the hospital waiting room quickly filled up with the young teenagers, along with Mr. Dickinson.

At first, everyone thought the previous night was repeating itself. No one could spare them any information about their blue haired friend, and they still weren't allowed to go in and see him.

"I can't stand it anymore!" Hilary jumped to her feet with a frustrated cry. "I'm going for a walk, anyone care to join me?"

Turing around, she found Rei sleeping calmly in his chair, Kenny typing away on his laptop, as usual, and Max and Tyson with their nose buried in a comic book.

"Wow! See that! I told you that Superman would win!" Tyson exclaimed, pointing to something in the magazine. Max's face fell slightly in defeat.

"Only 'cuz he's made of steel…"

"Ha! Now you owe me a candy bar!"

"What! I do not!"

Hilary rolled her eyes at the argument. Even in dire situations such as these, those two always seemed oblivious!

Nevertheless, the brunette walked out of the waiting room, and down the sterile white halls, hoping to find something less depressing to do.

She ended up walking out the back of the hospital and into a large atrium

"What the hell…"

Hilary stopped at the sound of the voice. It was so familiar to her…

"Calm down Mr. Hiwatari…you aren't in the greatest of health at the moment!"

"Whatever. Let go of me already!"

The brunette felt her heart leap at the voice. It was Kai's! And he was definitely awake now! She ran back down the hall toward the waiting room, eager to tell everyone the news, even if they already heard it.

She skidded into the waiting room, only to find Kenny and Rei the way she'd left them, but Tyson and Max were no where in sight! Not like she really cared…

"Chief! Rei! REI!" She rushed for the Chinese blader, grabbing his shoulders and shaking as hard as she could.

The raven haired teen instantly woke up in a daze. "What the heck Hilary? Where's the fire!"

"Kai's awake! I just heard him in his room!"

The two teens gasped, immediately on their feet.

"Really! That's GREAT!" Rei exclaimed.

"We'll have to tell Max and Tyson!" Kenny added, closing his laptop and securing it under his arm.

"Where did they go?"

"…snack bar…"

Hilary grabbed her friends by the wrists and pulled them out of the room and down the hall toward the snack bar. She wasn't quite sure which room it was in, but the loud voices gave it away.

"Hey! That was mine!"

"No it wasn't! You owed me one, remember!"

"Tyson! We didn't have a bet going!"

"Would you two shut up!" Hilary screeched, finally releasing Rei and Kenny. "Kai's awake!"

Tyson nearly dropped his candy bar at the news.

The two both seemed to brighten up, and cheered loudly.

"It's about time!"

"I guess that means he's going to be okay then!"

"We don't know for sure Max." Rei started. "We're still waiting to hear from the doctor!"

"Screw doctors! All that matters is that he's alive and conscious!" Tyson interrupted. "Kai's gonna be alright, now that he's awake!"

"Not like you'd know much about consciousness…" Hilary's ruby eyes narrowed at the navy haired blader.

"Hey!"

"There you all are!" A different voice interrupted the argument. The teens all turned around to be greeted by Mr. Dickinson's smiling face. "I suppose you all heard the news!"

"Yup!" They all exclaimed joyfully.

"Come on, the doctor's going to let us see him!"

With that, everyone rushed out of the snack area, the argument about the candy bar completely forgotten.

They all met with the doctor near the waiting room, who led them further into the hospital wing and straight to Kai's room.

"I'll let you have five minutes. We are still running some tests, and he is pretty exhausted."

They all nodded their understanding and opened the door, piling into the small, dark room.

Kai was lying still as a statue on the bed, slightly propped upright with a pillow, and his arms crossed tightly over his chest. He glared at his teammates as they entered, paying special attention to Tyson as he tripped over something and nearly crashed on top of the bed.

Everyone exchanged worried glances at each other. Kai was pissed, and probably rightfully so.

He was hooked up to several machines via small wires that attached themselves to his chest, and under the skin in his arms. He was more pale that usual, and had dark patches around his eyes. The doctor was correct when he said he was exhausted, even though Kai wouldn't dare show it.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Despite the scenery and his appearance, Kai seemed pretty normal to the rest of the team. They only hoped he wouldn't direct his anger at them…like the last time he was in the hospital.

"Hey Kai! How ya doing!" Tyson exclaimed, rushing over to the opposite side of the bed….where a tray of food lay untouched.

Kai sighed, not buying the whole "how are you doing" from the food crazed blader. "Go ahead…"

"Don't Tyson! He'll need to eat that eventually…right Kai?" Mr. Dickinson stopped the teen before he plowed into a cup of lukewarm soup.

"Hnn…"

"How are you feeling Kai?" Rei's voice piped up. "We were all pretty worried about you…"

"I'm fine…what are you and Max still doing here?"

Changing the subject…like always…

"We were going to stay a week or so with you guys!" Max started.

"So you need to hurry up and get out of here! We have some serious training to do!" Rei flashed a toothy grin at his captain.

"Hn…" Kai's eyes shifted toward the window. He peered outside intently, almost like he was bored with his friends, and the nothing outside was much more fascinating.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments, before some small talk broke out amongst the group. Kai didn't comment on anything, except for a few "huhs" and "hnns", to let everyone know that he was faintly aware of what they were all saying.

It wasn't before long that the doctor appeared again, announcing that it was time for everyone to leave. Kai silently thanked him for that…he also thanked God that no one had asked him the very questions he didn't want to answer…what happened, and why?

"Why don't you guys head out. I want to speak with Kai in private…"

The blue haired teen cursed mentally at Mr. Dickinson's words. He knew he would have to answer now…

"Alright!"

"Get well soon Kai!"

The door closed, leaving the elder alone with the cornered teen.

"Straight down to business, right?" The boy sighed. "…of course…"

"I want the truth, Kai…" the elder started cautiously. "How much did you take?"

"Three…the reason why the bottle was almost empty was because I was running out, and I planned on going to the pharmacy the next afternoon."

"Three! That's impossible Kai! The levels in your blood…it was almost ten times the amount you were prescribed! Is it so bad that you can't tell me?"

"Listen to me!" Kai's voice was stern, and his glare added to his seriousness. "I didn't overdose! I've been taking what they told me to, when they tell me to!"

"But Kai! The tests show that you have an elevated level of..."

"I don't care what the tests show! I know how much I took!" The teen balled his fists in rage. He could hear the beeping of the EKG start to increase rapidly in time with his heart.

The elder sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"I know I'm sounding crazy Mr. Dickinson...but you have to trust me on this!"

"It's hard to Kai...you're asking me to disregard the proof. That could put your health in danger!"

Kai bared his teeth, trying to control his anger. "I can't believe this! After everything that's happened...you still can't..."

"Calm down Kai!" Mr. Dickinson paused for a moment. "Just calm down...I'll have some addition tests done...maybe the labels on the medications were wrong…"

The teen breathing began to slow down. "Alright...thank you sir..."

As the old man disappeared into the hallway, Kai allowed himself to collapse back against his pillow with an exhausted sigh. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, feeling another headache coming.

"You finally did it this time Boris…you've been planning this all along, haven't you?"

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Hmm….it's another mystery! Kinda?

Well….I'm not going to say too much….it will be interesting to see how many people can figure out what's going on…I'm really bad at the whole mystery/suspense deal.

I understand that things may still be confusing, but I will explain everything eventually….at least I hope to!

So yeah…and I apologize for the long wait! I hope to update more quickly now, but please don't count on it! I'm insanely busy…I also apologize for the rushing. I know it's bad…but my apathy is at an all time high right now!

Hopefully we will all enjoy the coming action though!