Author's Note: Ah only ten chapters to go and this is all done... So around 30,000 words I still have to write. Anyway, sorry for the late update but: sadly I'm kind of...using the sister site, FictionPress more than FanFiction. Not uploaded anything yet but, there are a few stories I've been working on which means this fiction has been getting neglected. But thanks to those who reviewed last chapter!

suzanne - Thanks for reviewing by the way! Rei isn't being targeted and so isn't really the main focus: which sadly means he doesn't get a lot of time in the story. (Sad, I know). Kai's the main character in this Trilogy so, expect to see him a lot of the time.

ShadowBlade7330 - Haha, sorry, I had a mean plot bunny that just needed to get into the story. Plus adds onto the tension, but, thanks for reviewing no matter how passive aggressive it was, haha!

Amanita Virosa-Amaranthus- Is Mariah dead or alive, you ask? Well gladly that shall be answered in this chapter so you don't have to wait that long for the answer. Thanks so much for reviewing!

Ma.anda - Well at least you gave kudos to Mariah by calling her smart. You really want Lita and Kai to share that kiss haha, no worries, it shall come...Or will it? Hmm, no the father is not in the manga (seeing as I've never read it) nor the anime. He's the figment of my imagination. However like I said, the mother on the other hand is in the anime. Thanks very much for reviewing!

Chapter 25

What was this place? Kai couldn't make out anything. He put his hand closer to his face still he could not make out even the hand that was touching his own face. However, he couldn't feel anything either – was it warm or cold? Maybe he was dead? Maybe this was it; the end; his own judgement day had come. "Where is this place...?" He heard himself say, he squinted his eyes trying to make out where he was and how he had got here.

There was a reply from the darkness, a harsh and cold voice echoing around him. "You're dead. For the moment." Kai shook his head – if he was honestly dead, what was going to happen to everyone else? Still how had he been engulfed by this dark cloud, why was he here and not burning in Hell?

"How?" Kai's voice didn't carry the same way as the other had done, he heard himself... how weak and childish he sounded unlike the way he used to be. Again the voice came back, still cold but with a hint of disgust lining its' words as it answered.

"You got stabbed, remember." Yes, Kai remembered the burning sensation which only seemed to spread until he had felt so tired. Now that Kai thought about it – he was no longer in pain, no dizziness or shooting pains whenever he tried to breathe.

"About time." If he was dead a least that meant he would not have to put up with people accusing him of murdering Emily and he didn't need to be pitied anymore. It was over after all. However before Kai could celebrate about those small facts the voice came back, enraged.

"About time? Listen to you." It mocked, "don't try to be so pathetic." Kai realised that he was no longer fine he felt cold, freezing cold as if he'd just noticed the chills that were running from his feet to the back of his neck. His blood felt like constant pins-and-needles, not painful but not pleasant.

"I can do what I want." Kai spoke back, again he spoke like a feeble child and he heard the voice chuckle, one merely to him more uncomfortable. There was something about this voice that Kai found so memorable. He was sure he knew that voice...It was a little different but...he was certain he knew it.

"Correction you're dead, you can't do shit." The voice answered, again Kai didn't know whether to rejoice at his own death or cry in frustration. Hadn't he just told himself that he didn't seek death? Then again it wasn't as if he could be given a second chance: he'd had too many chances and screwed each and every one of them up like usual.

"So I'm going to end up in Hell then..." Kai took a deep breath waiting for the ground, the darkness to suddenly turn into raging fire and burn him for eternity. There was no immediate response from the other voice and so Kai believed that he would probably be right about going to Hell.

"If you want to go there be my guest." The voice seemed a little louder than the other times it had spoken, as if it was coming closer. Kai frowned, was this meant to put him into a false sense of security before the lovely event? How could he not go to Hell?

"I killed my mother, was deceived by my father and couldn't protect anyone, why shouldn't I?" He grimaced when his voice became distorted, his head suddenly ached and Kai tried to put his hands up to hold his head, but he couldn't. He couldn't move.

"Stop going on about it!" The voice had lost its mocking tone and had reverted back into the callous way in which Kai was so familiar. "Why don't you be grateful that you lived and your mother died?" There was suddenly the sound of someone sighing, loudly. Kai's pride stopped him from sounding so petty.

"Shut up!" He hissed back and couldn't help but sink down to his knees, an unknown force pushing him down. Was the darkness truly out to get him? However the voice started its mocking tone as quickly as it had stopped.

"You don't want to enjoy things because your dear mummy's not here." Kai shook his head, the pain becoming sharper and much more excruciating than what it had started out as. Still Kai couldn't remember why he had felt the need to die, but he was sure for whatever reason he had given himself. It was just and too accurate to ignore.

"That's not--." The darkness grew even colder and the beyblader shuddered and felt himself struggling to breathe once more. On the other hand, the voice was beginning to sound more compassionate, as if it were speaking to someone it cared for greatly or at least held in high regards.

"Then enjoy your life, moron." Kai strained his senses, he wanted to know who was speaking to him – it wasn't Dranzer. "What are you waiting for?" Another sigh came from the voice, "A second suicide attempt?"

Once Kai had heard this he didn't know what to really say, had he tried to attempt to kill himself? Not that he could see, "When was my first?" He hissed back but again his once cold voice seemed shaky, weak and truly pathetic.

"You aggravated a serial-killer." The voice hissed back – the tone in his voice made Kai frown, why did this thing, this person sound like him? "It's not even courageous it's just stupid." The voice grunted and ended up muttering a few things which Kai couldn't make out. There was silence for a few minutes: painfully quiet for Kai as his body tingled with a strange sensation. What was happening to him?

"You think you knew Enya the best?" The way in which the voice had asked this rhetorical question made Kai think, of course he knew Enya better...didn't he? "Sota and Aton lost a mother too. Apparently they're losing a brother too." The thought of his siblings' feelings, made Kai angry – why should they have to be brought up?

"Shut up!" Again Kai yelled back, however this time his voice sounded strong. Like he used to be.

"You really should think about dear Lilita too." There was a pause before Kai even thought of an answer. Why did this thing bring so many people into this?

"What has she to do with anything?" Kai waited for an answer, a detailed one, one which would let Kai know why this voice had brought her up.

"Ri-ight. If you didn't count her as a friend why are you so angry at her so-called betrayal?" The voice continued on, making its' point. "You argued about it, you found out why and when – can't you let go? Or are you still mimicking a hurt five-year old?"

It wasn't immature of him to be angry at her, it was however, a little silly to constantly blame her for telling him the information in which he had asked for. "I don't need to explain myself to you." Kai hissed back, surprisingly his voice held its own and sounded more like the person he was arguing with. Cold, annoyed and actually much stronger than what he felt. However, even at the newfound boldness of Kai, the voice didn't need much time to recover from the shock of it as a few seconds later it yelled back.

"You do: or else you'll die." Kai began coughing, over and over again until he had a frightening thought of not being able to breathe. Although the voice was harsh and whoever it was, was probably livid but that didn't mask the small plead. Why did they, did it, want to know why he wanted to die? Why he was sad? Why was this thing asking so many questions?

Within another few minutes Kai's body was in immense pain, aching from every muscle and joint. "I don't want to die." Kai pleaded back, not really sure if this pain would kill him or not – wasn't he already dead?

"Then live." A sudden burst of blinding light caused Kai to grimace and shield his face. He couldn't really piece together why he'd been arguing with himself: or something that had mimicked his voice but the experience had comforted him. He had always thought that emotions would make him weak, and now they had...He needed to get back into control of these emotions which seemed to be smothering him and even the people which surrounded him.

He felt something sting sharply, just below his last rib. The coldness had gone and was replaced by warm, semi-comfortable sheets. Kai groaned as he opened his eyes, not really enjoying the fact that he was back in hospital. The fake floral smell of some horrible bleach made him cough loudly. He blinked quickly when he noticed someone was sitting near the bed.

A twitch of his fingers made Kai realise that whoever it was, was holding his hand. He rubbed his eyes slowly with his other hand and looked down at a sleeping Lilita. She was hunched over, resting her head on the bed with her hands intertwined with Kai's. It couldn't have been to comfortable as she kept shifting her weight on the seat.

Kai slowly took his hand away, not really wanting to wake the sleeping girl but his plan failed as he hissed loudly at the shooting pain he caused when he had tensed his abdomen. Lilita yawned and stretched, she had yet to notice the pair of eyes on her, and continued to look around the room with one eye as she cleared the other of sleep.

"Oh, you're finally awake." Lilita blinked in surprised as she saw Kai was indeed awake, it took a few moments to register but Lilita ended up standing up abruptly and spoke as quickly as she could. She always had a habit of speaking almost in-humanly possible when she was happy or excited by something. "We've all been so worried – I'll go get the others." She was going to dart out the room until Kai hissed in pain again. She didn't know what to do, was Kai still angry with her?

Lilita gripped onto Kai's shoulders and pushed Kai back onto the bed. "Don't sit up so fast, you'll rip out your stitches." Ripping them wouldn't be pleasant especially since the knife had gone in pretty deep. He needed rest and some major healing time. "Kai?" Lilita watched as Kai refused to say anything or even look at her in her direction. The small frown on his face wasn't a good sign either, what was wrong...had he ripped out one of the stitches? Or was he still furious as ever with her? Lilita hoped it was the latter at least then he wouldn't be in too much pain.

On the other hand, Kai was going over in his mind what he had dreamt about. He had been arguing with himself, most likely. Was this the way his mind was trying to sort itself out? Kai sighed and decided that he didn't want to see everyone just after such a bizarre experience. He needed time to think, he wanted to explain to himself why he went to the old hideout, why he ran from those who wanted to help him...

Kai realised that Lilita was watching him, as if waiting for him to say something to her. Kai's frowned deepened when he remembered about the deal, but again the voice had told him that he should forgive her, but how could he?

"Why did you go there, Kai?" Lilita finally asked, she had heard that he was found at the place and that it was indeed Kai that had phoned the police so – did he know that the killer was going o be there? Lilita didn't want to think about it, surely Kai wasn't as depressed to do something so drastic?

"I thought I wanted to die..." The words just seemed to come out of his mouth against his will but he didn't really care who knew it. At least he didn't feel so hollow and empty any more, "...but I was wrong. I just noticed it at the worst possible moment." When Kai had finished he didn't mind the fact that Lilita ended up hugging him, she was probably wanting comfort for herself more than him anyway.

"I'm glad you don't get all the things you want." Kai frowned again when he could hear her sniffing, eventually she was crying – shocked that, Kai really was so sad that he didn't want to live. How could she have not tried to help him?

"Stop crying." He hated when Lita cried as her face would go unattractively red and puffy but worst of all he hated the noise that she made when she was upset it was something between a whine and something like a stifled whimper.

"I was really worried." Lilita whispered and tried to stop the tears from streaming down her face by wiping them away quickly. She hoped that Kai was telling the truth when he admitted he didn't want to die.

"I'm fi--" Kai was about to finish his usual sentence, the standard reply in which everyone was accustomed to. However Lilita didn't want to hear the usual 'I'm fine', she wanted to know how he was really feeling. She slackened her grip on Kai's neck to look at him in the eye.

"If you say that phrase one more time, I will hit you." Her voice lost it's stern tone as she ended up hugging Kai just as tightly as before, "you can never admit when something's wrong...Even if it is eating you up inside." Lilita was happy that Kai was well: she was ecstatic that he had said something to her – to someone other than keeping it bottle up.

"Stop crying, Lita..." Even if the girl was 'hiding' her tears by wiping them away as quickly as possible, Kai could still hear her sniffing and trying to hold back a few sobs every now and again. Kai slowly pushed Lilita off him and made sure, this time, she was looking at him.

"I am fine. Really." There was something in his voice that made Lilita pause from all action. It was as if really was okay... The frown which usually marred his expression wasn't there, it was the 'normal' blank stare in which the old Kai would deal with things. She didn't know if that was a good thing or not, but then again at least he had said something, and not sulked.

Lilita calmed down quickly and smiled, much more positive seeing as Kai had actually spoken to her. "You look a mess." Lilita blinked a little taken aback by the rude comment. She sniffed and hit Kai's leg.

"You're not exactly Prince Charming yourself." Kai shrugged, not really caring about how he looked.

"I've just woke up from being stabbed, what's your excuse?" Lilita couldn't help but chuckle, at least Kai seemed a lot better - if he was still all depressed he would have probably told her to disappear: even ran out of the hospital.

"I've been worrying...Your heart stopped...You just got taken off the ventilator yesterday." Kai stared blankly at Lilita who now seemed to be a little paranoid about how her hair was sitting as she had began to run her fingers through it. Her attempt to get out any tugs, in which she was failing miserably.

"I'm awake, so stop worrying," Kai rolled his eyes and couldn't help but feel a little annoyed at how close he had cut it. Damn, that killer almost had another victim...

"You're not just pretending to be okay – are you?" Lilita had quickly pondered over whether or not Kai was putting up an act in order to do some major damage to himself. There was an awkward silence as Kai had to seriously think about whether or not he was okay for now.

"I..." It was an odd feeling, he didn't feel happy or the foul feeling of emptiness, but he was content. Content with just managing to live. "If I have any problems, I'll tell you, now stop asking."

Lilita couldn't even wish for more and decided to stop asking about he was, "Thank you. Sorry for breaking down. I've just--." However she was interrupted by a very, weary looking Kai.

"I can't exactly say anything." He'd had a major mental breakdown where he'd blamed everyone, and anyone - how could he comment on some one else's well-being? There were a few moments of silence before Kai sat up, and as previously instructed, he sat up carefully. "The Investigator is quite annoyed with you, you know." Lilita smiled as she saw Kai shake his head, 'Who wouldn't be,' Kai thought, he'd caused a lot of trouble for everyone.

"But I think he'll be lenient because he found a clue...Apparently one of the killers, or even Mariah dropped it." Kai watched as Lilita told the news of what had been happening over the past few days, "It's another hit list."

There was something that didn't quiet make sense to Kai. How could Mariah have found a hit list? "Mariah?" What had happened while he was in a coma struggling for his life? Had Mariah been kidnapped and saved? Or had something more sinister happened?

"Hmm...she was...killed... like four days ago." Lilita bowed her head trying to get the mental image of when the BladeBreakers had found out. Rei had taken it very badly...Selene ended up feeling guilty. Seeing as she slapped Mariah only moments before she had been found by the killers.

There was silence again, until Kai couldn't help but get a little concerned about how his team's moral was doing. Having an unstable captain, and having their friends killed? It wasn't looking good. "How's Rei?"

"Devastated, along with...her brother." Lilita had to think of who the other boy was - who was apart of the White Tigers. She had guessed right seeing as Kai hadn't corrected her. "They found bones and ashes." Kai narrowed his eyes, if she had been burned alive then all his sympathy went out to her... that must have been one painful death. "They only managed to find out it was Mariah through dental records." Rei had wanted to come with Lee to identify the body but the police had told them it was no use...

"I really should go tell everyone they have one thing to rejoice about." Lilita stood up and was about to walk out until Kai decided to say something. Lilita wasn't too sure on whether or not the others would be happy or not – as she had spent a large amount of time speaking to him, and they weren't even informed of him awaking.

"Don't." Lilita stopped and turned to look at Kai, and hoped that Kai had a good reason. She didn't want to leave Kai on his own, not after what she had just heard. "Just leave." Kai said not really wanting to go into great detail on why he wanted to be alone. "Leave. I need to think about something."

If he was just thinking then it couldn't do much harm, anyway Lilita was sure that Kai wasn't going to do something stupid... For once. "Sure, no running off though..." Lilita smiled, Kai never liked hospitals, and he had managed to 'escape' as it were, out of them on several occasions. The boy just didn't like to be contained into one small ward or even a room.

"Whatever." Lilita was sure she was happy to hear that standard answer, seeing as Kai seemed a little more...himself.

Author' s Note: I hate writing dialogue, but anyway it seems that Kai is finally...stable... Next chapter is when dear, Mrs Tate comes onto the scene. Oh yes, and you find out who the mother is of the evil twins is. Well, if you have time drop a review, if not later!