A/N - disclaimer, i dont own the characters from Skip Beat. saying that please don't hate me .

Chapter 4 – Déjà vu

It was well past 11 am when the director, Shinozuke-san, finally let the actors have a ten-minute break. It had been three hours since they started working that morning and everyone was exhausted.

"Anyone want anything from the vending machine?" Kyoko asked, making her way to the hallway where the soda machine stood. Kyoko stood in the doorway for a moment taking count of everyone who wanted something, frowning slightly trying to keep the orders all straight, before she left for the hall.

"Wait, Kyoko!" the stage manager, Tagami-san, said, calling her back to the main stage where everyone was gathered. She looked at him questioningly. "Take someone with you to help carry all of those drinks, you can't do it alone" he said kindly. Ren had told him explicitly not to let Kyoko go anywhere on her own today, the stage manager wasn't sure why, but when Ren asks for something with that much urgency in his voice, you listen.

She nodded and gave the person closest to her, an assistant stage manager by the name of Chyuto, a silent ask for help. Chyuto looked at the stage manager for a moment then went with her. She chatted away with him happily as they made their way to the vending machine and started to get the drinks.

"Chyuto, is that you?" came Rumi's small voice from the dressing rooms, she had to change her costume during this break. "Can you help me? I don't know where my next costume is" Chyuto said that he would bring his half of the drinks back into the main stage and meet her there. Kyoko nodded and continued purchasing drinks.

"Kyoko," Kyoko turned towards the voice, and her heart skipped a beat, she knew that voice, it was Ren. She frowned. No one else was in the hallway. Maybe she imagined it. She shrugged and started gathering up the drinks she had bought for the cast and crew. "Kyoko," Ren's disembodied voice said again. "Let's go!"

"Where are we going?" she asked the hallway, following the voice away from the set and the rest of the cast and crew.

"I can't tell," Ren said

"Why?" asked Kyoko, coming to a door to outside and still not finding anyone. Why would Ren be here? She asked herself absently while smiling. Maybe he finished early, she responded to herself in kind. Maybe he just wanted to see her! She shook her head at the last thought, pausing at the door. He wouldn't leave work just to see her. He was too professional.

"Superstitious" came the voice's reply, so very like Ren's it made Kyoko's heart leap just to think he was nearby. It was true she was superstitious, she thought as she pushed open the door. "Ren?" She asked briefly blinded by the light coming from outside.

Suddenly she felt a sharp nailed hand buried into her hair, clenching at her scalp and pulling her out the door. She dropped the bottles of refreshments she was holding as her hands instinctively reached up to the thing that had her held fast. She was shoved against the concrete of the studio she had just come out of and a different hand held her inches off the ground by her neck, choking her. Kyoko tried with all her might to look for the ones doing this to her, but her eyes wouldn't open against the pressure exerted on her throat.

"Who are you to think you could ever be good enough for Ren Tsuruga?" hissed a female voice in Kyoko's ear. Kyoko tried to say something, but her throat was held tight, and nothing came out. "We saw you this morning, kissing him like the desperate attention seeking piece of filth you are." Said another female voices vehemently in Kyoko's other ear. "Ren will want nothing to do with you, when we are done," said a third malicious female voice, and Kyoko felt the cold steel of a knife tracing diagonally against her cheek, then she tasted something metallic as the liquid ran into her mouth. She felt a yank as something was pulled from around her neck.

Just as the girl was about to pass out, the hand released her and Kyoko crumpled to the ground, gasping for breath. Before she fully caught her breath, a gag was shoved roughly into her mouth, preventing any screams that she made from being voiced. "Lets teach this slut a lesson," said a fourth voice sadistically holding up the necklace. "Did Ren give this to you?" She asked throwing it against the wall, and snarling into the collapsed girl's face. "Too bad your love wont be able to save you from being raped." Kyoko felt a foot standing on each of her upper arms, keeping her from resisting and saw cloth before everything was black. Someone had put a bag over her head. She felt hands, many hands, gripping her costume uniform and tearing it to shreds to get it off of her, and then a knife cutting into her underwear and bra. Her legs were forced in an awkward angle and she heard dozens of different laughs and someone said in a stage whisper, "She is ready, boys!"

Bigger hands grasped her waist and upper thighs, and she felt something long, firm and slimy against her inner thigh. There was a piercing pain in her lower belly as something large was shoved roughly in a place she had never felt before. She tried to scream at the pain, however she only succeeded in forcing the gag further into her mouth. The laughing around her continued as Kyoko struggled against the many hands that held her. She felt kicks to her face, chest, and stomach every time she tried to struggle against her unknown captors, even as the pain turned into a fast throbbing in her lower stomach. The thing pulled out, and she felt something wet across her bare chest. Tears cascaded down her cheeks as something even larger crept its way into the same place, penetrating deeper into her middle. She tried again to call out, but the gag worked its way deeper into her throat. Her breathing became more ragged and she tried desperately to get at the thing that was choking her.

She felt the same throbbing three other times, along with the wetness before the hands finally let her legs go. She felt deep knife cuts in her stomach, and tried to kick at the culprit before feet stood on her thighs, holding them down. She felt a thin dull object plunge deep into her ribcage and her body seized as she tried to cough, each ragged gasp drawing the cloth deeper down her throat. There were gales of laughter at her reaction, and more dull thin objects were plunged into flesh all over Kyoko's body. She felt her face kicked through the bag and her head hit the cement wall hard. Stars popped in front of her eyes and she wondered when this would all be over. But no, she couldn't leave Ren. She loved him. Kyoko knew it now; she did love Ren.

Just as she thought she couldn't take anymore the door opened again and Kyoko felt footsteps hitting the pavement. "Kyoko?" asked a kind familiar voice. "The director wants to start filming again." Kyoko gave a weak cough. "Oh NO!" Rumi's voice said hysterically. "Help!" she called distantly back inside "Please, someone! Help!" The petite girl knelt by Kyoko's naked body and Kyoko felt cloth covering her again. After another moment the bag was off her head and she could see, although not much better because her eyes were swelling rapidly. The door opened again and more voices joined Rumi's. Kyoko didn't want to try to make them out she was too tired. All she wanted to do, was sleep for a long time.

"Rumi, what is it? What happened?" asked Tagami-san , Shinozuke-san and Chyuto-kun all at the same time. Then they caught sight of where Rumi was kneeling beside a Kyoko who's breathing sounded ragged.

"Oh, my god" the director breathed, horrified. "How did this happen?" Then he shook his head, as though trying to get it working again. "Chyuto, call an ambulance," he said with an authority he didn't feel. "Kyoko," he turned to the girl and picked her up gingerly, and cradled her in his arms, "please stay awake sweetie." He said with equal tenderness. He saw a bit of cloth hanging out of her mouth, and pulled it out, pulling out much more than he though was possible to fit in such a small mouth. As soon as the cloth had been removed, she started coughing. Shinozuke held the girl to him until the coughing died. When the coughing finally died, her breathing sounded like it had eased, but not by much, it was still labored and ragged.

Kyoko had only one thought in her head at the moment. She had to tell Ren. No matter what, she had to tell Ren. "…Ren…" she breathed weakly trying to sit up, "Tell… Ren" she said, trying again. She then collapsed into coughs that racked her whole body. She buried her face in Shinozuke's stabile form and gripped the director's white shirt with one hand as her body shuddered violently again, scarlet stained his white shirt.

"Shh." Tagami said, gently forcing Kyoko back down into the directors arms, trying to get her to lie flat. "You will be fine, you can tell him yourself." Kyoko didn't seem to hear him. Only one thing mattered to her at the moment.

"Sensei… Tell…" She tried again, only making some of the words out, "I… love…." She fell silent, eyes closing, chest rising and falling laboriously trying to keep her alive.

"Kyoko?" Rumi said, panicking. "She isn't dead, is she?" she started crying. "She can't be dead!"

"Calm down Rumi," Shinozuke-san said, trying to calm the wailing girl while at the same time making sure that the one in his arms was still breathing. "She isn't dead, she just fainted, probably from the pain"

At that moment an ambulance wailed its way into the lot by them and two men jumped out of the front, two more out of the back, holding a gurney. They took a look at the unconscious girl in the director's arms and carefully took her from the director, immediately laying her on the rolling bed, bringing the covers up to screen her naked body. They carefully put a breathing tube down her throat and strapped her down to the bed. "I am coming with you" Shinozuke said, his authority coming back. "Please call Tsuruga-san, and tell him what happened," he said directly to Tagami-san while getting into the back of the ambulance. The stage manager nodded glumly, not looking forward to telling the tall intimidating man that he had failed in the only request Ren had asked from him.

/\

Ren was filming with his female costar when Yashiro got the call. The actor had been slightly distracted most of the morning, but when it came down to the actual filming, he was as professional as ever. When Yashiro picked up Ren's phone and turned pale as a ghost, Ren noticed. He didn't move, because they were filming, but he knew in his gut that something had happened.

The director released Ren five minutes later, which to him seemed like the longest five minutes of his life. As soon as he was free to go he headed straight for the door, not even waiting for Yashiro, knowing that his manager would catch up.

"She was attacked, wasn't she?" Ren asked when he heard Yashiro's running footsteps behind him.

"Yes," Yashiro said quietly, then steeling himself he continued. "She is injured very badly, but she isn't dead. However, they also don't know if she will make it." Ren's face paled, but his features were set.

"What hospital is she at?" He asked, getting into his black sports-car.

"Shinjuku" Yashiro answered, getting in the passenger seat. As soon as the door was closed, Ren flew out of the garage. With practiced motions and a determined look Ren took them through the city as fast as the city lights would allow. His eyes would harden every time they were caught at a red light, and by the time they pulled up to the hospital's garage, his brown orbs were ice.

They ran in and found the director, covered in blood, sitting in the waiting area. He looked up as Ren and Yashiro came in. "She is in surgery now" Shinozuke said, forestalling the question. "Who ever did this to her had a nasty sense of humor, she was nearly dead by the time Rumi found her."

Ren sat down, rested his elbows on his knees and put his head into one of his shaking hands, eyes wide and unseeing. Yashiro sat down next to him and put his hand on the younger man's shoulder.

Hours later it seemed, the waiting room started filling up with the cast and crew of Box 'R'. When Tagami-san arrived he scanned the room for the director and walked straight up to where the three men were sitting. "I talked to security." He said, not wanting to meet Ren's eyes. "Takayama-san said that they admitted a group of twenty or so girls in, claiming to be friends of Kyoko's. They are still not sure where the boys that ran out with them came from, apparently there were about six." Tagami-san pulled out a cell phone and Kyoko's necklace. "One of them dropped this," He said showing the others. "This necklace was near where she was found," He said directly to Ren, "I thought you would want it. Ren nodded and took it, then turned back to where everyone else was gathered around the cell phone. There was a picture on the display of the kiss that Ren gave Kyoko that morning in the garage before they left for work. "There is also this." Tagami continued, playing a recording. "Kyoko…..lets go….I cant tell…..superstitious" Ren's voice said clearly from the phone.

Yashiro looked shocked. "Ren, I think they recorded our conversation this morning after we left the trailer," he said finally. Minutes passed in silence before he stated what they all were thinking "They were…" started Yashiro

"My fans…" finished Ren in a snarl.

A/N - to be fair, we all knew that was coming. Ah irony, such a lovely little literature tool :D see if you can guess what about the story is ironic - as of now, anyway. Btw, what do you think, should she make it? or should the final stage of the premonition come true?

Translations

Sensei - literally means teacher, often used to refer to creative types; authors and the like

~-san - politely referring to someone. most of the time using their last name, its instead of saying Mr or Ms, or Mrs. We have alot of terms to use in front of a name, they just have one at the end. gender neutral.

~-kun - less formal than san, and often used with first names. This is my way of telling you who i am giving you the first names for, and who the last (Tagami-san, Shinozuke-san, and Takayama-san are all last names, Chyuto-kun, is a first name)

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, i love reading them. I am not, going to answer them all here, however i am going to tell you just how much i LOVE reading your reviews. it makes me all warm and cuddly inside :D