'My scan detects a match with another scan in my database. The match - Rena Hamada.'

'Rena's blood.' Hiro whispered, his hands beginning to shake. 'Something's wrong.' He stepped backwards, almost tripping over Gogo's outstretched leg.

'Hiro-' Gogo said, standing up and extending a hand towards him.

Hiro walked backwards, shaking his head frantically like there was water in his ears. Without another word, he turned on the heel and bolted down the hallway. His footsteps echoed loudly but he couldn't hear them. His head was pounding and his thoughts were running a mile a minute. He could hear Gogo and Wasabi pelting after him, running so fast he could hear them slipping and sliding on the tile floors. He dove down some stairs and landed roughly on his knees; wasting no time in getting himself back on his feet and almost falling flat on his face when he skidded around the corner. Everywhere he looked, there was no sign of them. Not Rena. Nor Tadashi, for that fact. Hiro kept running until he reached what he was looking for - the public lab.

He crashed through the doors and whipped his head from side to side. No sign of them. Only one person was in there, their back to him and they appeared to be making a cup of coffee. Hiro bent forwards, gasping for breath.

'HIRO!' Gogo screeched, diving into the lab and grabbing his shoulders. 'What the HELL?!'

'Are... Are you okay?' Wasabi panted, coming in close behind her.

Hiro waved them off. 'Good. Perfect. We... We need to... Find... Them...'

The boy in the corner of the room turned as he heard them speak, evidently alarmed by Gogo's angry screeching. 'What's going on here?' He stepped towards them and surveyed the scene before him.

Hiro looked up, red-faced and fearful. As he did, the mug from the boy's hand slowly fell downwards and crashed onto the floor. Coffee splashed in waves, slowly trickling towards them.

Hiro fought back the urge to scream his head off. He blinked rapidly, staring at the boy with the horn-rimmed glasses and blonde hair. His eyes drifted to his hands. The same hands that had held him back. His nose. The same nose he had broken. It had been months, but he would remember that face anywhere. 'You.' He breathed, clenching his fists as though it was a reflex. 'How? H...How are you HERE? And... Why?'

'Hiro?' Wasabi asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. 'What's...What's the matter?'

'Absolutely nothing.' Caine said smoothly, an almost evil glint in his eyes. 'I believe this boy is mistaken. I've never seen him in my life.'

Hiro stared at him, fear slowly plaguing his mind. That boy has been here the whole time. The boy that encountered him on that night. The night he still dreamt about. The night that that woman had died. The night that he had first encountered Jason Fournier. The most evil man in the entire city. Best botfighter around. What had he been doing? What had he been planning? Was he getting revenge?

'Hiro, it's only Caine.' Gogo said, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

'No,' he muttered, 'it's not though. Why are you HERE?' He demanded.

Caine gestured to the room. 'Because I work here. Now if you'll excuse me,' he nodded to the spilt coffee on the floor, 'I'm going to get a mop.'

He stepped past them and exited the room. Hiro began pacing up and down, his hands in his hair. 'There's something going on here. Where's Rena? Tadashi? Are they even here? What the hell is going on?'

'Woah there, slow down buddy.' Wasabi said.

'Hiro, they're probably just outside.' Gogo said, 'what's going on? Why'd you freak out about Caine?'

'Explain the blood then!' He snapped in response. He pulled his phone out his pocket and dialled Tadashi's number. It rang a couple of times and fell dead. 'Tadashi always answers his phone. Always. We need to find them.'

'I think you're overreacting.'

'Gogo!' Hiro exclaimed, tears in his eyes. His voice and hands were shaking; still recovering from that chance encounter with Caine. 'What if they're hurt?'

'They're fine!' She replied, shaking her head. 'Stop being ridiculous.'

'I've had to sit at both their bedsides this year, at the hospital.' Hiro said quietly, 'I had to hear Rena flatline. I had to watch Tadashi run into a huge fire because I couldn't stop him. Forgive me if I'm being a little afraid.'

Gogo studied him, then pulled him into a hug. 'Okay then. Fine. We'll find them. And they're gonna be fine. Yeah?'

'Yeah.'


'Get off!'

One of the men had Rena's arm in a tight grip. With a grunt, he yanked her to her feet and dragged her over to the chair. She struggled against his grip but it was no use. After all, she was only a teenage girl. A pretty strong and fiery teenage girl, but still a teenage girl. This guy was built like a house with a thick neck and biceps as wide as her head. It was difficult not to be afraid of him.

He pushed her roughly into the chair and seized her arms, pulling them behind her back and tying them together tightly with the rope. Rena winced as her wrists were slammed together, her skin already cutting into the rope. 'So uhh... what we planning on doing now then?' She asked nervously.

The second guy chortled. 'We only received one instruction - make you suffer. How do you feel about being filmed?'

Rena felt sick. 'Filmed?' Her palms were beginning to sweat at the prospect of possible torture.

'Yeah. Boss wants to send a nice little warning to your brother dearest.' He said, grinning evilly. 'But I reckon we should mess up that pretty little face a bit first. What do you reckon, pal?'

With a final grunt, the muscled man finished tying the knot and stepped back, examining his work. 'Why not?' He stepped round to the front of the chair and licked his lips. 'This will be fun.'

Rena began to struggle against her binds, but to no avail. 'What do you mean, a warning?'

'I mean a warning. Clear and simple.'

'Yeah but like... what constitutes as a warning? Why exactly? Which brother? Who do you even work for?'

The second man's face twisted. 'Stop asking questions. We ain't gonna answer them.' He grabbed the towel from the floor and dumped it into the water bucket, allowing it to soak. 'We ask the questions.'

Rena stared at the water bucket, her mind racing. She knew what was coming. So how could she avoid it? Stall. That was what she had to do. That was all she could do. 'Go on then.'

'Eh?' The muscled man questioned.

'Ask me questions. Fire away. Looks like we'll be here for a while. Why don't we get to know one another?' Her voice was shaking, but she tried not to reveal how scared she was. Once she did that, she'd be dead meat.

The first man laughed. 'Girl, do you even know why you're here?'

'I don't think so. Why don't you enlighten me?'

'Do you really want to know?'

'Yes. Yes, I believe I do.'

He grabbed the towel and squeezed it out into the bucket. 'Your brother.' He said, stepping towards her and brandishing the towel above is head, 'led to the death of one of our own. Nobody gets away with that. No one. Now, take a nice, deep breath if you want.'

Rena didn't even have time to process the information before the towel was pressed to ehe face and she couldn't breathe. Her scream was silenced by the fabric. Within seconds, panic had completely overtaken her body as she sat there, struggling to breathe.

Laughing, he lifted the towel off her face. Rena's head bowed forwards as she gasped for breath, trying not to let tears fall. Showing these men she was afraid was the last thing she wanted to do.

She slowly raised her head and looked up at him defiantly. 'I'm not afraid of you.'

He grimaced. 'You should be.'

He pressed the towel to her face again, this time waiting significantly longer to lift it off. 'What about now, little girl?'

Rena just about had enough breath in her to wheeze out a small 'no!'

So he did it again.

And again.

And again.

After the fifth time, Rena blacked out. After she came to, the muscled man was standing over her, leering in her face. 'Know what? I think waterboarding is getting a little... old. How about we try this?'

He stepped backwards and drove his ginormous fist into her face. For the second time in only a few weeks, Rena felt her nose crack and she screamed, her head snapping back and hitting the back of the chair. He did it again - this time his fist making contact with her jaw.

Rena blinked rapidly, her head was sank down so low her chin was resting on her chest. A single spittle of blood ran down from her mouth and dripped slowly onto the floor. Any second now, she felt like she was going to pass out. She wasn't even that tired, yet sleep felt like it would be so nice...

'Oh no! You're not passing out just yet!' The man exclaimed loudly, 'we've barely even started!'

He grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head up. He grinned evilly, before driving his fist forwards and finding a home in her stomach.

One of her ribs cracked, sending a wave of pain shooting across her whole body. Rena was instantly winded, doubling over as much as she could in her tied up position. Wow. That one hurt.

'Are you done yet?' She rasped, her eyes watering from both embarrassment and pain.

'No, I don't think so.' The muscled man said cheerily, slapping her across the face again. 'We need to make sure you look good enough for film!'

Rena didn't know what was worse. The creepy manner in which he said that, or the pool of blood that was gathering in her mouth. She closed her eyes for a brief second, bowing her head and taking the chance to pray to whoever was out there.

'Look up. Or I'll make you.'

Sighing, Rena lifted her head slightly and spat out a tooth onto the floor. The man behind the camera grinned nastily. 'We have your sister!' he cheered triumphantly, 'we're gonna kill her!'

Rena's heart rate accelerated tenfold. She had a sneaking suspicion that that was what they wanted to do, but hearing it out loud made it ten times worse. Well. All she could do now was... What? Hope that they would come to save her? Put themselves in danger for her? No. All she could do was hope that Hiro had the good sense to keep away. And that Tadashi could snap out of... Whatever it was.

She was snapped out of her daydream by another blow from the muscled man. It took every fibre in her being not to scream out, but the pain was beginning to become unbearable. 'I'm fine!' She rasped, desperate to keep Hiro and her friends out of harm. 'Don't worry about me!'

Of course, this would have been more convincing if it weren't for the fact that her mouth was full of blood. The two bodyguards knew this as well, for they roared with laughter.

'Yeah!' One of them exclaimed, 'looking absolutely fine!'

Rena gritted her teeth. 'Every time you talk I think I loose a few braincells. Just shut the fuck up.' She muttered.

The next blow knocked her out.