Thanks to: Molly Yokunaii, Demoness-MarlstonWells69ner, Bluestray, and DancerInTheDark101 for reviewing for reviewing! I hope you guys still like where the story is going.
Disclaimer: I don't own beyblade, just my OC's.
Last time:
That's when Ray, Ming-Ming and Mariam came in our little camp spot. Kai still wasn't here though… What if he's lost? That thought pasted soon, Kai and the word 'lost' just didn't go together. Then I saw Hilary, Tyson, Max and Julia come through. Still no Kai. Emily and Kenny came later. I think that's everybody, but Kai's still not here… wait… someone else is missing. Salima…
Now:
With Karma still on her hip, Mariah turned and walked to Tala whom was still speaking in Russian to L.K… L.D. really didn't appear to be listening. He was leaning against a tree in Kai pose.
"Tala, Kai hasn't come back yet and I'm worried." Mariah admitted un-hesitantly to the redhead.
L.K. ran a hand over his black braid and said, "Well, he cain't be lost. Hiwataris' neva get lost." He boasted with the Hiwatari trademark smirk.
"I know something happened to him. I have to go look for him." The pinkette was now beginning to panic as she look up at the sky and noticed the sun was beginning to set.
"You can't go by yourself." Tala protested when the girl began to walk off.
"I'll go with her." Came a smooth unknown voice. Mariah look to see that it was L.D. He gracefully pushed himself away from the tree. Tala wasn't to sure about letting Kai's brother, whom Kai had never met before, go off with Kai's girlfriend… well, Tala referred to her as that.
"No offence L… D, I think," Tala struggled not to get their letters mixed up. "But I think I should go with her." He began to walk off with the pinkette a few steps ahead of him.
"What? You don't trust me?" L.D. asked with something that Tala couldn't place, covering his voice. The redhead looked back to see a tiny smirk in play on his face. Sea blue orbs looked with poison apple red ones, as they seemed to try to see through one another. L.D. no longer looked calm, but slightly demonic and Tala wasn't liking it.
"No, I don't trust you." The redhead answered solidly. Mariah had just gave Karma to Mariam and was now beginning to pull him in the direction Kai had disappeared in previously. The brown haired half-Russian answered with a nonchalant shrug and went back to his tree.
I have a bad feeling about that guy… the Russian thought, trying to keep up with Mariah. Tala noticed Mariah seemed to walking much faster than before. He couldn't believe he was actually having trouble keeping up with her.
She kept this solemn expression on her face, like see was in very deep thought, which she was. Her pink hair pounced up and down as she trudge through the thick forest as if she knew exactly where Kai was. The redhead couldn't place it, but there was something different about the way she looked now. She seemed angry and not up to talking like usual.
"Did you notice that Salima was missing too?" he asked and was aware that Mariah tensed at the sound of her name, but said nothing.
Is that what this is all about? Mariah's mad because there maybe a slight chance Salima and Kai are out here somewhere together…
"Nope, didn't notice." She lied knowing good and well that both her and Tala was aware of the female redheads absence.
Did Salima really steal Ray from Mariah? He pondered. If so… I'm guessing that Salima is number one on Mariah's suspect list. His smirk was unseen by the pinkette as he walked along. Wait! I wonder if I'm on her suspect list…
"Hey Mariah?" Tala asked trying to break the new and growing tension between them again.
"What?" she sounded a little on edge and anxious which took Tala by surprise. Her tone could almost be taken as rude.
Someone's got PMS. "Um… am I on your suspects list?" he asked even though he knew Mariah wasn't in the mood for conversation.
"Second suspect." She answered matter-of-factly with a hint of apathy.
"Second! What?! Why would I want to kill Kai! He's my best friend!" the redhead yelled outraged. He was almost sure Salima was at the top so did that mean she thought he could be more of a threat than Kai's brothers? He was about to protest when they heard…
"Help! Help!" Tala's thoughts were cut short by someone screaming, it was a girl's voice. "Somebody please, help!" The two teens suddenly started to run. Both were trying to find the source of the noise. Trees and stumps and branches scratched and tripped them as they ran though the thick mass of trees. Hearts pounded wildly as they wonder what would await them at their destination. Would Kai be there. If so, is he o.k. "Help!" Once out of the bushes Mariah and Tala came to the spot that the noise was coming from… and a cliff.
They looked around for a few seconds before seeing a hand holding on to the ledge. "Help!" the voice was now clear, both knew who it belonged to… Salima.
"Do we really have to save her?" Mariah asked seriously playing.
She could have sworn Tala glared at her before he went to go save Salima. "I've got you." He grabbed her dirt-covered hand and began to pull her up. It didn't take long for Tala to pull the female redhead over the cliff.
"Thanks." Salima said in that my-hero voice.
"Thanks." Mariah sneered under her breath.
Then almost as soon as it left, panic was visible on Salima's face again. In a breathless hurry she said, "But that's not why I was yelling for help!" she didn't even give Tala the chance to looked confused. "Kai fell down there! He's unconscious!" she shouted running back to the cliff dragging Tala by the shirt along with her.
"What did you do you whore!?" Mariah accused letting her temper and past disagreements with the girl get the best of her. She stomped over by the cliff where Salima was.
"Mariah, let's not jump to conclusions." Tala tried to calm the pinkette down while seriously continplating jumping over the cliff to get Kai.
"She just pushed your best friend over a cliff and you're defending her!" Tala looked down at Kai's limp, unmoving form covered in dirt.
"You don't know what happened Mariah!" the redhead yelled at the pinkette. A tense silence passed as the Tala and Mariah stared each other down. The pinkette shook her head before looking over the cliff. What she saw almost brought her to her knees. Kai was lying motionless, face down on a ledge that was coming out of the mountain. His clothes were tattered, and in some places, bloody.
"Kai!" she yelled before jumping over the ledge and down the rocks.
Tala was wondering if he should be worried about Mariah's safety or not. She glided down the mountain like a pro, so he figured she had everything under control. Landing with and 'thud' on the ledge that Kai laid on, she looked over his limp body. No longer thinking about the fact that she supposedly didn't like him in anyway, she looked him over. She was worried about him, terribly worried. She gingerly turned him over him on his back. A gasp escaped her lips as she saw all the cuts and bruises on his face.
"Kai…" she moved a bloody lock of hair away from his face and carefully started to pick him up.
"Can you carry him back up Mariah!?" Tala asked, remembering that going down was easier than coming up and coming up with a person was even harder.
"What do you care!" a stubborn answer returned followed by a grunt as Mariah tried to pick Kai up.
"Mariah stop being so impossible! Do you need help or not!" Kai's best friend was now beginning to get impatient. "I swear, if you drop him…"
Suddenly Ray and Max came out of the brush. "What's going on, we heard yelling?" the blond asked the two standing near the cliff.
"Ray, Kai and Mariah are down there! Kai's unconscious and Mariah's trying to get him, but I don't think…" Salima trailed off and watched as Mariah slowly jumped from rock to rock with Kai, bridal style, in her arms. She was visibly exhausted, but something in Mariah just wouldn't let her give up.
Maybe it was stubbornness, maybe it was determination or maybe… maybe it was her job. L.K. wanted her to protect and help Kai, her. Not Ray, not Tala, especially not Salima, but her and she wasn't going to let anything get in her way…
…Except for the rock she just slipped on. Her and Kai went sliding back down the mountain until she barely caught onto a rock.
"Mariah I'm coming down there!" Ray yelled starting to jump down.
"No! I can do this myself!" she said with anger. Come on, Mariah. You can do this.
"You're crazy!" Tala yelled. He was so close to jumping down there himself, but he knew it wouldn't do him or Kai any good if he committed suicide. Mariah and Ray were neko-jin and what was he? Russian… accused of being a cyborg, which he highly doubted. "Mariah, you are screwing with my best friend's life and I'll be damned if I let you kill him!"
Ray had now reached where Mariah was barely holding on to the rock with on leg on another one and the other dangling with Kai's. He was on a ledge a few feet away from them. "Mariah, give me Kai." The raven-haired teen said.
"No! I can't do this!" she yelled back.
"You're both going to fall unless you give him to me!" Both the pinkette's arms were getting tired as she held on tightly to Kai's muscular form by his waist. The only reason Ray didn't snatch the slate haired teen is because he knew it might knock Mariah off balance and cause her to fall.
"I can do this!" He saw something in Mariah's eyes that he had seen before. When had he seen it? Was it when her and Salima fought? No. Maybe it was when she fell out of that tree when she was three. No… The thing with the scissors… Oh! He remembered, it was after L.A. died. Mariah was a wreck and that look in her eyes was the same. Dark and cold… almost insane.
"Mariah… please…" he pleased, trying not to push her over the edge. (Jash: this is no time for jokes.)
In response, Mariah tried to push up with the one leg that was on the rock. Ray watch, horrified when the rock broke and crumble into piece as it fell down the seemingly bottomless mountain.
"Mariah!" Tala and Ray yelled at the same time.
"Please Mariah… you're risking Kai's life. His life! Is it fair if you take it away?" the raven-haired boy reached out slowly for Kai. He watched as the pink haired girl looked over her shoulder and at the rocks that were still tumbling down the cliff.
"Is it fair if any life is taken?" Mariah asked solemnly. "Is it?!" she demanded. Her shout echoed everywhere.
"N-no." Ray answered.
"Then why are you trying to take mine. He's mine, L.A. is mine!" her hand slipped more.
"Mariah… that's not L.A." Ray quietly informed. The pinkette looked at Kai as if noticing it was him for the first time. She hadn't been trying to save Kai, she was saving L.A.
Her hand slipped once more. She whimpered, now realizing the insanity of what she was doing. She looked down at the ground… well, you couldn't really see it.
"Ray, help me!" she cried out with a horrified expression.
"I will, just give Kai to me." Ray held out his hands and grabbed Kai and in one swift movement, hoisted him over his shoulder. "Now give me your hand." Mariah did so and Ray pulled her over to the ledge he was on. "Wait here and I'll bring you up after Kai." He instructed. Mariah nodded.
She watched as Ray jumped from rock to rock, taking Kai higher and higher. Averting her eyes, she looked straight into the cold, infuriated eyes of Tala. She shrunk under his malignant glare, wondering what she was going to say to him when she got back up. She nearly lost his best friend… even though it wasn't all her fault. Her mind was playing with her again.
She suddenly remembered the question she asked herself earlier: Wait, I just mention L.A. and didn't feel sad… is that a good thing? She once thought. She thought that she had forgotten too much about him and was losing him more and more each day. She felt horrible for it! She accused herself of replacing him with Kai… but was she? Was she replacing him with Kai, or being with L.A. through Kai? Did it even matter? L.A. was taken away from her and that should have been devastating, but now all she can do is think about his brother. Was she truly that evil?… It wasn't fair… It wasn't fair to L.A. and it wasn't fair to Kai, so from there on out Mariah made a promise that she would not and could not ever be with Kai… never.
The pinkette was so lost in thought that she didn't notice she was no longer staring at Tala, but at a tree that was so tall it could be seen over a cliff. She also didn't notice that Ray was carrying her up.
"Riah, you o.k.?" the male neko-jin asked.
"I don't know." Was Mariah's answer.
When they had finally got up the mountain they found Salima and Max waiting for them.
"Um… Mariah, are you o.k." the pinkette was surprised that none other than Salima had asked this question. Now Mariah just knew she was evil. (She, meaning Mariah.) Here was a girl that Mariah had just accused of pushing a guy off a cliff and she was asking the pinkette if she was well.
Mariah's face reflected much confusion at first, but the corners of her lips managed to curve into a light smile. "I'm fine. I may need a little therapy, but for now, I'm good." Both girls walked ahead, laughing and actually forming none violent conversation.
Staring dumbfound, Ray and Max paused for a moment. "Ray, correct me if I wrong, but aren't Mariah and Salima mortal enemies doomed to battle over whatever forever?"
"That's what I thought." Ray answered scratching his head and beginning to walk. "I will never understand girls."
O.k. people I need constructive criticism, for real! I don't want flames, just tell me how I can make this story better… I feel like something is seriously missing... do you?
And later, you'll find out why the other's had abandoned the other limo.
Please review!