Disclaimer goes HERE.
Required Listening: Requium Inori, from Trinity Blood's OST. I don't own it, but the song was majorly inspirational for the final portion of the chapter.
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She opened her eyes and felt strangely... cold. She hated it. In a flourish, she whipped off the sheets and stripped herself of yesterday's clothes. They were beaten up, covered with dried tears and yesterday's dinner. A moment later, she took the shower and turned it onto its hottest setting. It burned, but felt better than usual.
Kai always took hot showers... she recalled faintly, before she threw the shampoo at the wall. Goddamn it, she wasn't supposed to be thinking about that. So much for ignorant bliss.
A head poked in the door. "Audrey, honey, are you okay?"
"Fine," She snapped at her aunt, who sighed before closing the door to her bathroom.
Haphazzardly, she finished washing, throwing miscellaneous bottles that seemed to laugh at her pain at the wall. She then proceeded to drip all over the floor, like a shaggy dog. Wasting no time to straighten her naturally wavy hair, she left it wet, wrapping the towel around herself long enough to shut the door to her bedroom. Stepping over to the closet she shared with Kai as of late, she dropped the towel and stared into it. Everything smelled like him. She threw a pair of jeans and a tight-fitting shirt onto her bed, before stepping into both her undergarments and the selected clothes.
She looked distressed, but sexy, as most people loved to see her look the way she did currently. She whipped her hair around in the towel on the floor, drying it most of the way, before throwing it at the bathroom door and gathering her purse and some other selective materials.
A moment later, she stook the steps two at a time, stopped in the kitchen for her breakfast - well, a can of Monster since she couldn't seem to stomach any food, and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Carolyn asked her.
"The BBA, then possibly back here. I've gotta do something," She responded miserably, the sadness on her face concealed by a pair of amberish-pink tinted, gold rimmed aviator sunglasses. She removed them for a moment. "I'll be back by dark. If not, call the cops."
The woman smiled sadly and nodded. AJ pulled out a set of keys, obviously to Kai's truck. "Be careful."
"I'll try."
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"Move it!"
The large man, who they had learned was called Rex, shoved Kai roughly with his enormous hand.
"You have half an hour to clean yourself up. Any longer and you take away from the rest of their time."
Kai said nothing, knowing damn well that he could clean himself up in half that time. After all, he was an 'Abbey Kid,' the term most of the kids had adopted to describe their condition. He would be finished in fifteen. Maybe then 'Mom' could have some extra time.
Strange was one word to describe this predicament. He was so caught up in thinking about himself - usually. This was the complete opposite. Whatever the Carsons needed, they would get. Every other day, the group was taken from their cells, their clothes were washed, and they were permitted to shower. It was bizarre, though the rest of their time was spent staring at the walls.
The portions of food given to them twice a day was rather meager too, nothing fantastic, though to Kai, it was better than most prison food.
He got himself cleaned up quickly, then exited, his damp hair dripping slightly at the tips. "Go ahead," He said gently to Rose. The woman looked at him. Kai, however dark he could be, was nothing short of his typical, respectful self. She on the other hand, had found herself short and mostly silent. Her husband said little, and since there had been no contact between them and the outside world, he feared horribly for their company. It would not be pretty at any point in time when they returned.
Rose nodded and entered the room, leaving Matthew to stand in silence beside Kai.
"She's going to lose it," Kai said quietly.
"What?"
The champion closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. A guard looked at him menacingly, but it phased him not. "She's going to explode one of these days. You can tell she's distressed."
Matthew nodded. "We're not used to this type of treatment."
"It sucks, but I've been through worse."
"How much worse could it have been?"
"Don't ask."
The man looked at Kai fearfully. The champion took his scarf and wound it around his neck wordlessly. "Do you think they'll find us?"
"If they're after Viatsu, yes. No matter what, someone makes a blunder that the Chief can pick up on. Not to mention that Dickenson's probably getting harrassed something fierce by AJ..."
Kai's silence surprised Matthew. The champ had been nothing short of supportive, leaving the two of them with nothing but encouragement. It had been weeks that they had gone without being found, yet Kai instilled the same beliefs in them. They would make it out of this. They would be found. Kai was rather defensive of them, constantly provoking their captors as to deflect attention away from the couple. Never once did he look hopeless, instead, he kept his calm demeanor. At this moment, Matthew realized that it was a facade, one that his daughter had told him about.
In the captain's hand was a beyblade lacking its bit chip. "That's the one she made, right?"
He nodded.
Matthew smirked. "She'll be able to get us out. All hell will break loose eventually."
A smirk illuminated Rex's features from down the hall. "She's taking far too long!" With a few stride from his massive legs, Rex began to pound on the door to the bathroom that the trio used for their showers. "We have punishments for people who take advantage of what they're given."
Rose emerged a moment later, her face pale and ghostly, her body trembling like that of a mouse before a hungry snake.
"You've all been receiving hotel-styled treatment, and all of you have taken advantage." Although where, not even Rex knew. He just wanted to crack the whip a little and make things a little harder for them. After all, the Hiwatari kid was obviously expecting worse. "It's time for some punishments to be handed out."
Rex reached out a hand to slap the woman, but Kai extended his arm, thus blocking the hit.
His look was determined. "Whatever punishment you have for them, I'll take."
A devious smile coveted Rex's features. "Perhaps it is time for you to meet One."
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He was thrown, face down, into the cell. Rose gasped in horror.
"Oh my God, Matthew, oh my God!"
Kai pushed himself up with his hands, and leaned - standing up, mind you - against the wall. A few seconds later, he was lowered to the floor, his head bowed, staring downward. A smudge of blood decorated the slate colored wall from where he slid down.
"Kai, son, are you alright?"
The Russian boy nodded, though the action went almost unnoticed. They had indeed saw. There was blood seeping through the back of his shirt. He had taken off the scarf and kept it off, leaving it in the corner of the room.
"They - they must have flogged-"
"Fifty," He said dazedly.
"That could kill," Rose said softly, tears spilling from her eyes. "Those horrible, horrible people!"
Kai looked up at them, so that they were eye to eye. "I'll be fine."
Matthew shook his head. "You should be in a hospital! You could die!"
Silence took over for a few moments, before Kai spoke levely, his eyes still interlocked with theirs.
"I've been through worse."
The two Carsons stared at him in disbelief. They knew about the abbey. It had been no secret. In all reality, they had to rethink things here. Exactly how tough was Kai Hiwatari?
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Tyson smiled sadly at her. Weeks had gone by, and people had been made aware. The public was in a frenzy. The adult world was in an uproar because of the disappearance of the Carsons, and the beyblading - not to mention every girl from age ten through thirty's - world had been overturned because of Kai's disappearance. The news stations covered this so often that they never watched the television.
No leads had been discovered. Whoever did this, planned out what they were going to do.
"I think they're trying to make me flipping crazy!"
"They never needed any help there," Tyson retorted, attempting to make a joke. It must have been really funny too, since he just narrowly avoided the the plastic bowl thrown at him.
Hilary saw it in her eyes. The hollowness they reflected scared her. She had yet to beyblade. Without them, she had nothing to live for. That was frightening.
"You can't give up," Tyson's grandfather said seriously. "No matter what, you can't."
AJ looked up. "I know. It's getting harder though."
The man nodded. "It will be tough, home-girl. It will be tougher than any other jive you've been through. You'll pull through it, because you're a tough dudette."
"I hope you're right," She said softly. "I honestly pray that you're right."
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After a month had passed, AJ decided that something had to be done. She was going to have to do something, one way or another.
Once it became completely dark outside - not even the moon was out on this particular night - she took everything she felt she would need. Both Kai's launcher as well as her own was packed in her large purse. She then entered her room once more, lifting up the right corner of the mattress. A set of keys was stashed there. Only she knew what it went to, aside from Kai.
She then padded silently past Hilary's room - though Hilary was not home, instead sleeping at Tyson's, as well as her aunt's room. The woman did not stir in the slightest as she took on the stairs, remaining as silent as Kai Hiwatari himself when sneaking out. The cold night air greeted her as she shut the door to what was her current home.
Taking the truck would have been too noisy, so instead, she walked at a brisk pace, knowing exactly where she was headed.
The cold, iron bars of the Hiwatari Mansion gates stared at her with the stone face of Voltaire Hiwatari himself. She knew perfectly well that the place was abandoned, and the creepy, haunted house aura surrounded her. She hit the keypad installed beside the mansion quickly, not bothering to flinch as the gates squeaked open. Every once and a while, a butler - one of Kai's personal ones, mind you - would go and check the premesis after hours to make sure no one was tresspassing, so no one asked questions.
Audrey walked quickly to the mansion's doors, using the keys retrieved from beneath their mattress to open it. The doors squeaked open, only to reveal a blackness associated with frightening images. She was not afraid however, because the worst of fates had already happened to her. She would not be afraid of much as of now.
Groping in the dark, she finally reached a light switch and shut the door behind her. The house was immaculate, though every curtain was drawn, and it looked to her as if it were a gothic masterpiece. However, there was not much that she needed here.
She remembered what Kai had told her, in case anything bad was to happen. With Voltaire locked up, no one else knew that he owned this place, and no one could get in it anyway. There were things here that stayed locked up for both the safety of others and for times when they were needed.
Boarding the staircase on her left, she followed it's curving pattern, noticing spatters of blood-stains upon the floor. Without thinking, she knew they were Kai's. His youngest days had been spent here, under his grandfather's supervision.
She noticed the second door on the right, the one Kai had told her to go into. Picking up the second key on the ring, she slid it into the doorknob, turning it to get the door's handle to turn simultaneously.
When she saw what lay inside the room, she gasped. She had thought it would be Kai's room. However, it was not. This room belonged to someone else.
The name on the desk read this: Alexander Hiwatari.
Blood stained the floor in this room as well. A larger puddle of blood than she realized should have been spilt from a human being. She knew it was not Kai's this time. Pictures remained scattered upon the ground, many of them cracked down the center.
Dust was thick in this room, and it was obvious that no one had been inside it for a great while. Everything else in the house appeared to be spotless and dust free.
She had no idea what she was looking for, but she knew she would know, if she knew Kai, when she found it.
The desk drawers were all shut, and she took a moment gazing at what lay upon the desk before opening it. The picture upon it had been of a younger Kai, with a beautiful young woman that looked a lot like him, especially in the eyes. It had to have been his mother. The idea of it, especially in knowing how the story ended, made tears sting her eyes. She blinked them away, sliding the thin, long drawer of the dresser open.
Inside laid a vanilla-colored letter, sealed with an age-old wax seal. She slit this seal, careful not to damage the wax's emblem of the Hiwatari household.
When she opened it, she noted handwriting the equivalent to Kai's, but the paper felt oddly old. This was not Kai's writing, she realized as she began to read.
Beloved -
If you are reading this, then you are truly a friend. You are someone who knows the curse our family is under. This curse can only be broken by one who truly loves one of our own. Though I know that my time waxes thin, you who reads this now knows: Time waits for no being. You must fight for whatever you believe in, and you must not be afraid to risk everything for the sake of everything itself.
Our family has been plagued by darkness. In reading this, you have acquired the task of a Hiwatari: to rid the darkness that outlines the memory of our family. You must remember, dear friend, that you have allies among you. Suzaku will be there to help you. You must have only the truest intentions. Only a true Hiwatari will be able to use her guiding light.
If you are the one, then may God be with you.
Please, I beg of you, protect my son, Mikhail.
In reading this, you are now one of our own. The love that I have for my son and those who love him knows no bounds, whether I be in this world or the one that lies beyond it.
For the darkness in this world may possess great power, but the light of the pure shall always overcome. I pray that you may be that light. Break the curse and free my son - and all those who come after him.
All my love,
Alexander Dmitri Hiwatari
Tears spilt from her eyes. Alexander Hiwatari must have known that he was to die. She gently took the letter and placed it inside her bag, in the side zipper pocket where no pain would befall it. The only other item in that pocket was Dranzer's bit chip, which twinkled to her, reflecting her feelings.
She looked once more around the room, in case this - this Suzaku that Alexander spoke of lingered nearby. Instead, however, she found a golden chain, clasped together, but broken in the middle into two equal pieces. She picked it up, examining it. Something had been attached to it. On either end lingered a smaller circular form, perhaps a clasp. Perhaps, the necklace was not broken at all.
From in her purse, Dranzer's bit chip glimmered a bright crimson color. She pulled out the mighty phoenix's bit chip, pushing it beside the necklace. In a flash of light, the bit chip became attached to the necklace. She sighed, unclasping the main clasp, only to reattach the ends of the chain behind her back.
"Well, Alexander," She whispered, " Father, I will do whatever I can."
Wordlessly, she slipped from the room, taking in everything within it one last time. She would not return to this room until Kai was with her once more. She now knew why Kai would not step foot in it, despite what he had told her to do in case of emergency.
No one wished to step into the room where their father had been murdered.
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At the tender age of ten, Mikhail Alexander Hiwatari stood before his pale father.
"D-Dad, what's going on?"
"I'm going to be leaving soon, Son," he said quietly, his words formed between quivering lips as he held his arms around his body. Voltaire Hiwatari had just left, with every intention of returning at any time to finish what he had started. "And I wanted to tell you something."
The son nodded, confused. Why was his father's room so messy? There were items strewn everywhere, and it looked as though there was blood on some of the furniture.
"Kai, someday, you will find someone you trust completely - with all your heart and soul. Promise me, someday, that you will tell that person-" He broke off.
"Tell them what?"
"Tell them to come in this room, no matter how much you may fear it." His voice became strangely steady, despite the pained tone he now sported. "Tell that person to read the letter I have left them here. They will know what to do, then, if you ever get into trouble."
"What do you mean?"
The sound of loud footsteps echoed from the hallway. "Get out of here, Kai. Please. Just do as I ask you."
"Yes Dad."
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Kai Hiwatari jolted awake with a start. It was a strange dream to have, considering the circumstances. Perhaps Audrey would read that letter, though he would never step foot into this room. He had no idea where it would be anyway, so he doubted that it would be of much use. With a sigh, he touched his cheeks in the location where his triangle-shapped makings would be if he had the appropriate face paint. His father had left him, left him all alone with Voltaire.
Even if it was never his father's fault.
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Notes: Wow, that became very... serious and somber very quickly. Hopefully you enjoyed it, and I hope that you'll review. I'm leaving tonight and I won't be back until at least Monday... school starts Wednesday. So... I expect LOTS of reviews when I get back, or else no new chapter for you.
Love Y'all!
Distant Storm