Witch-Bitch

Disclaimer: Only the strangers herein are mine.

1st Warning: this is complete AU.

Author's 1st Note: I am using the first Beyblade Kai for this story (first series), not G-Force or Evolution, although I may use outfits, emotions and other things from my glimpses of the other series.

Author's 2nd Note: for the stories sake, I have made Kai, Rei, Mariah, Becky, Louise, Tessa and Ricky (the last 4 are MINE) all seniors. Any other characters that eventually show up in the story, I will let you know their age and grade pertaining to the storyline.

Acknowledgements: I thank the following for their help, even though they may never come across this: Fierce-A Shrine to Kai Hiwatari, at fiercekai()cjb()net (pretend that the brackets are dots), for helping me with the odds & ends of Kai; Spirit, for giving me these gifts & allowing me to share them.

Chapter 7: The Inevitable

His POV

Mr Kristine had finally left me alone to unpack. My two duffel bags were lying unopened in front of the closet, a shimmering black in the lamp's light switched on above the bed. Standing in the middle of the room, I slowly circled round my new room. It didn't amount too much: it was smaller than mine, and crowded, and everything looked from second-hand onwards. It did feel… welcoming, though. Not something I'm used to. The single bed was placed tight against the right wall, right under a window that had a lean-to sill stretching out. A space big enough for a single body separated the bed from a wall-to-wall book shelf, which contained mixtures of yellowed and pristine-white paged, new and old, thick and thin books. An identical space separated a desk from the shelves, on the left next to the room door. Opposite the room door, in the left corner from the bed, was a bulky wardrobe, emptied out for me. And between the wardrobe and my bed was a door which led to the bathroom, which then led to Becky's room. Connected. Linked. Able to walk from either room to the other, unless the doors were locked.

Curiosity got the better of me. Before I had even a thought of denial, I found myself walking through the bathroom, pushing the door open gently, peering into a darkened room that was only lit by the shimmering pale moonlight shining in the rain through a circular pane of glass. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, they picked out the shadows of objects that didn't make any sense to my mind. I fumbled along the wall, finally finding the switch and flipping the lights on. I blinked at the sudden light, and at the contents of Becky's room.

The closed door on my left led my eyes straight to a bulky desk: it was large enough to hold her PC and all its components; a working space big enough for scattered A2 pieces of paper; a thin lamp; and a small shelf which housed papers and CDs and other unidentifiable things. I walked up to her desk and peered down at the sketches, my hands moving them aside to see better in the light. Most of them were black ink line drawings, abstract forms and shapes; one actually looked like a man with wings kneeling over an edge of a building. I shook my head but the image didn't disappear. Another one looked like an incomplete graphic-novel cover, and another was a partial nude of a young male. I shuffled them back into order and looked into the shelves next. The CDs were labelled 'Music Video's' some or other number, 'Fruits Basket' and other strange titles. The papers were actually books thick with cut-out pictures from magazines, labelled 'models', 'outfits' and 'landscapes'. I straightened from investigating the desk, glancing over at her bed. The bedcover was a dark blue, and on top of her pillows were a few stuffed animals. Next to her bed was a small cabinet overloaded on the top with books, and above it was a small wall lamp. In the corner next to the bathroom door was an oversized wardrobe built into the wall that ran to above the bathroom door, ending before the bedroom door. I turned round the room again and then spotted the beanbag and diminutive table under the window, identical to mine. The table was almost bare except for a silver candelabrum for seven candles occupying the wooden surface. Black candles, recently put in, contrasted with the white wax that had dribbled down the sides.

The mental picture I started having of Becky wasn't of someone I could hate. I went back to her drawings, pulled out the desk chair and sat down. I pulled out the one that had freaked me out earlier. I traced along the pen lines, feeling the indentations of where she had pressed down brutally, bruising the paper. I imagined the feelings unburdened in the paper: hatred, anger, pain… all because of me…

Her POV

I was shocked. I couldn't believe that they had done that. I couldn't fucking believe that Kai was now over at my house, unpacking his clothes into the study connected to my bedroom. As my mom had hung up and I had stayed in the same position, my face fixed into a shocked expression, Rei had looked at me worriedly. His golden eyes had searched my face for an answer; I had swallowed, flipped the phone closed, and said in a cracked tone: "Kai's staying at my house for the next two months." The phone slid from my grasp and dropped to the floor, but I had already locked myself into Rei's bathroom by the time it had landed on the floor, spinning.

I was unofficially staying at his house for the night: I hadn't even gone home. Tessa and Louise had gone to my house and grabbed my emergency pack out of my closet, the one reason Mom had phoned me. They had arrived as I was still talking to her. They had scattered round Rei's room, on top of sleeping bags and mattresses that Rei had hauled out for us, waiting for me to finish. But then I had run in here.

Outside, a light rain had begun to fall. Rei had refused to let me go home in that state; I was grateful. I wasn't being myself, and he knew me too well. It was Tessa, uncharacteristically vocal lately, who I heard through the door interrogating Rei.

"What happened? Why are we having a disaster session?" she asked gruffly. I heard someone shuffling about, heard Louise crack her knuckles, the gathering forces of the storm outside. I heard Rei sigh loudly.

"Don't tell me she lost it again?" she stated in disbelief. Louise spoke up in defence of the absent me.

"Tessa! It's not like she wants it to happen! God, can you be any more insensitive?" I heard Tessa snort. "What's crawled up your ass?" she asked gruffly. I could vividly see Louise sticking her tongue out at her. Before I knew it, I unlocked the door and said to them, "stop it, you two. If you don't want to be here, get out. I didn't ask for this persona, to be stupidly fragile."

Yes, there were things in my head, but I know I'm too weak to be able to control them. I crave the feel and weight of a blade, even now, four years from when I happened. I'm a weak and pitiful person who doesn't have the strength to control herself. I stare at my sleeve, where the scars are hiding. My lifeline sits in there, silent. I know what I'm thinking is perplexing, making no sense.

"I'm sorry that all of you had to get involved. For once, I'm going to sort this shit out for myself. Rei, please: take me home," I said quietly, my eyes downcast as I grabbed my bag and walked out of his room before they could protest. I had only just seated myself on the porch steps when Louise came and sat beside me. She wrapped one arm around me and squeezed tightly.

"You know not to listen to her, right?" she asked me. I nodded minutely. She smiled sadly and let me go as Rei exited the house and I followed.

His POV

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" my head snapped up at her voice. I had put myself into a trance staring at her sketches, cutting myself off from the possibility that she might return. A look of pure venom was splashed across her face, her cheeks faintly pink, her eyes flashing. I shot from the desk-chair, hitting my knee hard against the desk. Damn hard. I winced, hissing at the pain. She continued to look down at me, her face blank of my throbbing kneecap.

"Becky, I-"

"Get the fuck out of my room, Kai. I don't care what you were doing, just fucking get out." She moved aside, clearing the way to the bathroom door. I opened my mouth to say something more but her eyes wouldn't let anything else in. I limped through the open doorway. She slammed it closed behind me.

Her POV

My fingers still stung. It was a good hurt, I thought, as I shook my hand absently. Supper had been pizza; I had snagged a couple of slices before retreating to my room, where I had immediately put on something loud and upped the volume on the headphones. I was busy eating with my left while I coloured in my colour version of 'Visionary'. His wings were irritating me so I dropped my pencil into the jar with the others and took another bite of semi-warm pizza. . My eyes could've drilled holes into the door, the way I stared at it. Kai was still downstairs, being interrogated by mom. I'm glad he's suffering.

I finished my last slice in my hand, sucking at my greasy fingers. I could've sworn I heard a voice on the other side of the bathroom. Lovely: he managed to escape. Contrary to my bitter tone, my hearing perked up to listen to the movement on the other side. I heard the screeching of the wardrobe hinges; he must have begun unpacking. Wonder what he brought. The other me's mouth opened wide in shock. Why would I care what he brought to my home? I purposefully dropped the pizza crust onto the plate, appetite suddenly gone. I think it was time for me to switch off for the night. I pushed back from 'Visionary', my eye catching on his wings. I swear they twitched.

His POV

I sighed in relief as Becky moved away from my current hiding place and began gathering her toiletries. Everything cramped when I hid myself in pictures, especially hers that were so complex in design and interpretation. I had one last glance of Becky before I rose out of her room and drifted back to my car. I snapped back to my corporeal body, wincing as I opened my eyes.

How can I explain to anyone what I was doing? What I was? No, I thought. It wasn't time to begin thinking of that other life that I would never have. I sighed loudly. I watched as the invisible particles escaped from my throat and whirled in front of me. I thought back to my birth, the words that my parents and bearer had said: human, not human; alive, not alive; individuality and purpose. My mentor told me of my position here on earth, in this particular time frame. My human parents were, are still fuzzy on the concept, but that's because they've forgotten everything in their re-embodiment.

I am Rei, a guardian angel of Union. My purpose in life is to see that my charges remain together, for the internal balance of Gaea. I have a divine soul but a human male corporeal form. I watch over them; through observing, I guide them to their united path. Unfortunately, because of the divine law, we cannot directly interfere: we can't force them together through enchantments, lies or threats. We can only guide them until their souls link to one-another, effectively binding them.

There are only a few thousand pairs of souls on Earth who we watch over, that keep the internal balance. It's strange still to think that we have to be a direct part of their lives, yet still be indirect. It has been fucking hard to keep my charges together… no, I'm lying here. They're not even together yet! Through teenage hormones and their own chain of command, they've been kept apart…again I sugar-coat the truth: these two are enemies, both victims and persecutors. They feed off each-other, hurt each-other and sustain each-other. Even they don't know the intricate nature of their relationship.

I dropped my head to the steering-wheel, ignoring the impact of my forehead against the leather. Kai: my best friend since kindergarten, until your mind was poisoned slowly from the age of eleven and you took that fatal step at the near-end of eighth grade; Becky, my ward from that moment Kai broke you. I felt the first tears drip down my face at the memory… gods, the blood…

"I'm not supposed to fall in love with you, Becky!" I screamed, hitting my hands against the steering-wheel, my head raised and staring upwards. "It's not allowed…" I whispered.

To be continued…

PO: well…

Rei: I thought this was a reality fic! Now I'm an angel!

PO: erm…

Rei: and now you're adding more… PerennialOutlander, what do you have to say for yourself?

(Backstage door swings in the breeze)

Rei: PO?

(Looks around for the absent PO)

PO!