A/N: Hi guys, it's me again! Shout-out to Desastrus, chibiduo, Lyndis Cealin and a la mode for reviewing the last chapter, and to anyone and everyone else who has faved, followed or read this story so far. I realise its been a bit of a rocky road. I am a bad person who apparently likes to take unannounced two year hiatuses, and I'm sorry! Anyway, here is an update. I hope you enjoy the chapter. Taking off pretty much straight after the last one, and diving into some action near the end. Things are going to be tense for our boys over the next few chapters. If you're lucky, a long-requested reunion is waiting in the wings.

Echo

Pale, yellow lights strobed overhead. They filtered softly through the tinted windows, glinting over and into a pair of tired eyes. Crimson, then startling amber for just a moment before turning crimson once again. Light and shadow, light and shadow; the story of his life. Heavy lids drooped some, and then slowly slid shut.

In the back of the car, Kai Hiwatari was fighting sleep and he was losing.

Vaguely, he heard the news on the radio, muffled as though from several rooms away. Something about a sudden stock-market crash and a television celebrity found dead in their apartment. This was followed bizarrely by recent panda births at a local zoo. There was something about a trial, too, though Kai didn't catch whose. Some small part of his still-waking brain told him this was important, pertinent, relevant to him; the rest of it - the much larger, sleepier part that he was more inclined to follow at present - told him to simply ignore it. What would be would be.

"Almost there," said a voice from somewhere before him. Who it belonged to, Kai could no longer tell. It had taken on a reverberating, dream-like quality. I'm almost there. It echoed around in the empty dark with the gathering smell of damp and mildew. It bounced softly off the narrow stone walls he hadn't noticed were there a moment ago. Almost. Occasionally, the whispered word was joined by the clanging of metal against metal, or the echo of a distant scream.

"I'm almost there," a young Kai breathed to himself what seemed like several lifetimes ago. He didn't dare look behind to see how far he'd come. The journey hardly mattered, only the destination. Victory or defeat. Life or death. It happened today. Besides, if Kai stopped to look and realised the way back was shorter than the path ahead, he might turn around. He might turn and run and run and run and... then he'd be caught and killed anyway.

"Just keep moving," Kai told himself. Every step brought him closer.

But the echo of his footsteps was like a funeral dirge.

Kai forced himself to put one foot in front of the other. Strange how the cool, smooth stone could feel like tar when enough dread was pooled about his legs. The narrow corridor was damp and dark, lit only by the faintly flickering fluorescents hanging nearly ten feet overhead. In some areas, the stone floor was covered in shallow pools of water that dripped from somewhere above, creating little polished mirrors that reflected the nothingness above.

A few, reluctant steps further brought with it the tang of salt and copper, a slightly nauseating combination. As if the nerves churning around in his stomach weren't debilitating enough. Kai heaved a sigh which misted into the cold, stagnant air and forged ahead.

He just had to be brave. That was all. And he was brave every single day - it was all he knew how to be. Brave, and smart, and quiet. Quiet enough not to draw too much attention. But no amount of quiet could help you escape the Reaping.

The Reaping. A time to separate the wheat from the chaff, Boris had said. A time to celebrate our strength.

Kai caught himself thinking of this time last year when Spencer was called to the Barrows with the older boys for the Reaping. When he returned at the end of the day, Kai, Tala, Bryan and Ian were awed to see his new star tattoo, still smarting and red around the edges, that graced the back of his neck - but they soon realised that the new ink wasn't the only thing different about him. Spencer was quieter after that, and walked with shoulders that hung a little heavier. He never told them why. But something in him, some quality of light, had been snuffed out that day. He'd said there was a tradition to be followed – a ceremony. He said that his rank was a symbol of strength, something to take pride in, something to celebrate.

If that was the case… why did so few return each year?

Kai had known this day was coming for weeks. He'd felt it in the chill of the air and seen it in the grim lines of the older boy's mouths. He could hear it in Spencer's quiet. Spencer usually had little to say, but rarely did he withdraw so completely.

Nothing but a short few months had spared Bryan from the Reaping that year, and Kai and Tala were younger still. Ian – Spencer's latest cellmate – seemed too young by far. It would be a few years yet before he had to attend the Reaping.

Just put one foot in front of the other.

Kai wondered what had become of Tala and Bryan now. Where were they? Were they walking down another corridor like this, somewhere else below the bowels of the Abbey? Would they return from wherever it was they were headed?

Would he?

There was a shift in the quality of the shadows around him, and Kai glanced up to see the change. A faint bar of yellow light lay some several metres ahead. Kai steeled himself, took a deep breath – tasted the sharpness of copper and mildew that came with it – and pressed on.

What was waiting for him behind the door? What would he have to do to earn his star? Would he have to fight? Who would he have to fight? And with what?

A small hand dug in to the pocket of his trousers and his fingers clenched around the only source of warmth for miles.

"Dranzer…" Kai whispered softly to it. The blade responded with only the tiniest pulse of warmth, but it was enough. "We can do this," he affirmed.

Kai reached the door, knowing the time for hesitation had come and gone. This was it. His breath came in short, sharp bursts. His heart hammered a staccato against his ribs. He lay a hand upon the doorknob, and pulled.

Thick and dark, warm and wet. It rushed out in a wave and smothered him from head to foot. His head cracked back against the stone floor as it crashed over him. He gasped and choked and fell beneath the waves of so, so much blood.

The smell of it, the taste of it.

Inside his mouth, inside his head.

Kai awoke, coughing and spluttering, gasping for breath. He struggled against the seatbelt's restrictive hold, flailing against the transition from memory to nightmare to reality.

"Hiwatari-sama!"

Kato's voice was barely audible above the sound of Kai's ragged heaves. The car swerved suddenly to the side and slammed to a stop. In the next moment, his passenger side door was swung open and a pair of hands grasped him around the shoulders.

"Hiwatari-sama – are you okay?" His voice was tight with worry.

Kai unbuckled the belt and shoved Kato out of the way – an uncouth but timely intervention, for the rising bile in his stomach had no intention of waiting on formalities. Kai staggered several footsteps away before evacuating the contents of his stomach onto the side of the highway.

What on earth had triggered that awful turn of events?

Kai had begun to think of the corridor as something akin to an apathetic fear – something which didn't really care either way whether he was frightened by it or not. But now… Kai heaved again at the memory of the blood in his mouth.

This, he was certain, could not have happened. It was obscene. An impossibility. A scene from a horror movie which just isn't plausible in real life.

Behind him, Kato was pacing animatedly, talking on his cell phone with a strained voice. As soon as Kai heard the word 'ambulance' he had to intervene.

"No – no ambulances," he spluttered, trying to regain some measure of control. He wiped at the corner of his mouth and straightened up. "It's just a little… travel sickness," he asserted, waving his hand around the lie and hoping it sold as truth.

Kato looked sceptical.

"I'm fine, really. I just need some fresh air," he continued, turning to face the cold breeze and breathing slowly, deeply. "And water, if there is any."

His assistant went to rummage in the trunk for a moment and returned with a bottle of mineral water. "You haven't been yourself for some time, Hiwatari-sama," Kato said, a little sternly.

Kai took the bottle and rinsed his mouth, before sipping and swallowing a little hesitantly. When his unsettled stomach appeared to have accepted the offering, he drank a little more. "It's nothing," Kai shrugged. "I just need a few moments, then we can continue. I want to arrive before dark."

Kato eyed the skyline – sunset had already begun – knowing there was little chance of that happening. Nevertheless, he replied, "As you wish."

The remainder of the journey was uncomfortable and pervaded by the taut kind of silence which holds a great many things unsaid. Kato kept shooting discreet glances at him through the rear-view mirror, and at several points seemed to open his mouth to say something but each time he reconsidered, shook his head, and said nothing at all.

Kai, on his part, kept his gaze firmly out of the window, though he saw little of what went past.

"We are here."

Kai rose from his reverie and peered through the darkness of his window at what looked to be a pair of tall, ornate, wrought-iron gates which glided open without a sound, and a long drive down to an old building. They drove slowly past the grounds, which were covered in the faintest dusting of snow, lending it a slightly otherworldly feel, like something out of a fairy-tale. The school itself – or, at least, what appeared to be the main building – was several stories high, and of an obviously western style: stone and brick with straight edges, decorative marble trim, and so many windows that Kai thought were more frame and patterning than actual glass.

Once they had been greeted by the Dean, given a brief tour, and shown to the dormitories, Kai began to unpack his bags as Kato brought them in. There wasn't an awful lot to do. Kai wasn't the type to develop material attachments so any belongings he'd elected to take were few and far between. There were the usual items: several pieces of clothing, both smart and casual, accompanied by his new uniform – crisp, new and pressed to the smartest finish; books and study materials which he placed on the shelves and atop his desk along with a brand-new laptop; and his beyblading paraphernalia. To think a life as strange and chaotic as his, with all the events that had lead him here, could be condensed into so small a list.

Kai felt the old man lingering in the doorway, seemingly reluctant to leave his young charge. Despite how he hated anyone hovering, the teen had developed a certain softness – to which he would rather die than admit to anyone – for Kato, the unseen hand assisting his daily living since returning to Japan after the championships. Their goodbye was awkward, but brief. The two parted with a bow and that was it.

Then Kai was left to ponder his thoughts, alone in his room.

Until he wasn't.

No more than five minutes had passed in silence before he heard an audible gasp for breath behind him. He spun around in his computer chair to find a pair of wide, brown eyes peering around the doorframe at him.

"Oh my… wow!" he exclaimed. "It is you!"

Kai turned around to check that there wasn't actually someone else stood behind him, and felt slightly foolish for doing so because of course there wasn't.

"You're the captain of the Bladebreakers!" the boy continued, seemingly beside himself with awe. He stepped around the doorframe and hovered over the threshold.

Kai raised an eyebrow. "No… I'm not," he said shortly.

The boy's eyes widened even more – something Kai hardly thought was possible. "O – oh! I'm sorry, I thought that… There was a rumour that Kai Hiwatari was joining our school and you… you look a lot like hi -"

"No, I am Kai Hiwatari."

Another gasp. "So, it is you!" He practically jumped for joy and stumbled into the room. "I've been a fan of yours for years! You're such an amazing beyblader – your performance in the American championships was inspiring – and your victory against that European blader at Olympia before the world cup – oh man! I can't believe I'm actually talking to the captain of the best beyblading team around! There's so much I can learn from you -"

"Okay, stop right there, kid," Kai said, backtracking. "First off, I'm not here to teach you anything, I'm just here for school. Second, I'm not the captain of the Bladebreakers. There are no Bladebreakers anymore. We split."

Kai watched as each successive statement caused his face to fall a little. His eyes, at least, seemed to have reduced back to their regular size, which was a relief. Kai could really do without them falling onto his dormitory floor.

"But… but you guys are the world champions," he said sadly. "Why would you split?"

Kai just shrugged carelessly. "Call it a conflict of interest. Now, if you don't mind…" He turned back around to his laptop screen and began tapping away, sorting through e-mails and ordering more materials he might need for his studies.

It was cold of him, he knew, but he had no intentions of making friends here – especially the kind who seemed as talkative and excitable as Tyson or Max - never mind becoming some sort of dorm-room sporting star. It didn't take too long for the boy to exit the room again, leaving Kai with some semblance of peace and quiet once more.

The high-street was a busy and bustling place, despite the bitter wind and frozen streets. Even on Christmas eve, people entered and exited shops in waves, barricaded behind hats and scarves, overburdened with gift-bags. The store displays were bright and colourful, framed with lights and colourful balls and bizarre, metallic, furry-looking things his mother said was tinsel. Typical of the season, though Tala couldn't guess what purpose it served, if any.

Tala had walked along the high-street many times before – going to or returning home from his sessions with Donkova, for example. But never had he entered any of the buildings that lined it. Today, however, it felt like he had entered almost all. Toymakers and bookshops, clothing boutiques, scented candle and homeware stores, and food. So much food of every description – things he'd scarcely imagined lining shelves upon shelves upon shelves. Bread that was soft and fluffy, a type of milk so thick it moved more like honey than water, cakes that were so decorative Tala had a hard time believing they were edible at all, and cheeses and cured meats that, strangely to him, didn't stink like death.

Every now and then, Tala thought he felt the prickle of eyes on the back of his neck. He thought he caught strange glances and furtive whispers and an impression of space around him that the other, normal people seemed to avoid by nature alone, but if any of this was the case, his mother was completely oblivious. Natalia glided through the crowds like a leaf upon the wind, pointing at various things on display and chattering on with anecdotes he only half absorbed, and she was smiling. Always smiling. She held up jackets and coats against his back to gauge their width across his shoulders, handsome leather or woven grey with furred lining or shining toggles, to replace his ruined one back home. Sometimes, she urged him to try them on.

Sometimes, he obliged.

Eventually, laden with bags despite the fact Tala was carrying most of them, his mother seemed to tire of the crowds and suggested they take a break at a cafe for a while. Half an hour later and they found themselves in the queue of a quaint little café a block away from the main street. Tala's eyes glazed over the many cakes, breads and pastries on display while a rich aroma wafted in the air, somehow both bitter and sweet.

"See anything you'd like?" Natalia asked him.

Tala shook his head. He'd be hard pressed to see anything he recognised. "I'm not fussy," he settled for saying, eventually.

His mother tutted kindly, muttered something about his father and how alike they were, but the words were lost against a sudden pressure behind his eyes. Tala pressed two fingers to his temples and tried to knead the pain away. He had the impression of strange lights blinking somewhere in the periphery of his vision, and a high-pitched whistling noise. He tried to shake it off, assuming there was a kettle on the boil somewhere nearby. It caught him by surprise when he noticed his mother calling his name by the till.

"Tala? Is everything alright?"

He shook his head briefly, as if to flick the ringing in his ears away. His eyes were slow to focus on his mother's face, but when they eventually did, the pain was gone. Weird. "Yeah," he said with a slight grimace. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Natalia seemed to place her concerns aside for a moment and paid for their drinks with a smile. While she was busy counting coins from her purse, Tala picked up both drinks and turned to look for a table.

That's when it stuck again, with all the fury of a lightning bolt.

Sheer, white-hot pain against the back of his eyes. He thought he heard the crash of china and a scream over the thunderous static in his ears, accompanied by a high-pitched, elongated screeching sound.

Tala fell to his knees and clutched at his head, which felt about ready to split open beneath the sheer pressure of it all, and yelled.

What the fuck?

What the fuck?

What the fuck?

Everything went black. For a moment, he thought he'd gone blind.

Then a room flickered into view, and not the one he was just in.

It was dark and grainy, like looking through an old monitor. It hurt Tala to look at it, but no matter which way he turned his head, the view persisted – never mind the fact that he could feel his eyes clenched shut tight.

What the fuck was happening?

There was a commotion somewhere in the room, just out of sight. A medical bed – one of many in the room – rolled into view and clattered onto its side on the tiled floor. He caught impressions of raised voices, and screaming. Someone shouted for a sedative just as person crashed into view. Tala could make out little else besides a white lab-coat. And then –

Ian crashed into view from the side.

What the fuck?

Was Tala losing his mind?

Ian looked in a bad way. There were grazes along his forehead, and his lip was split and bleeding. Worse was the look in his eyes, though.

With another stab of pain, Tala heard Ian speaking, though his voice was as distorted as the image itself – grainy and full of static.

'Stay away fr -! …aking boys from the Abb-! Can you hea-?'

There was a moment when Ian was pulled away and out of view. Tala shouted out to him – or tried to – but his voice just wouldn't come. He caught the sounds of a scuffle before Ian dragged himself back up to the monitor.

'…on't let him find-! Listen to me! …ay away from Vasilek! He's the one behind the atta-! He wants y -!'

There was another stretched out scream, and the sound of a crash as the image suddenly died. Now all Tala could see was the polished, wooden floor of the café again, though it spun and swirled before his eyes with every throb of pain that stabbed at his head.

He hadn't felt a pain like this since…

Since Boris' experiments during the tournament.

Natalia was shouting for someone to call an ambulance, calling Tala by his name and shaking his shoulders. He wanted to tell her to stop – that she was pulling at his stitches – but he was reeling in the light of this revelation.

Tala stood jerkily to his feet, and looked around the crowded room full of confused, worried faces without seeing. Through the pain and the nausea that came with it, Tala understood two things.

Ian was in trouble.

And that slimy man in Donkova's office – Dr Vasilek – was behind it.

With a fury that shook his bones, Tala pushed through all the people crowding him in the cafe, and ran.

A/N: Well, there we have it. I have plans for wrapping this story up, so hopefully updates will be more regular, but I can't make promises on how often. Just know that between my studies (update for anyone who has known me for a while, I'm back at university doing my teacher training, so between essays, assignments, lesson plans and marking, I sometimes have a few moments to breathe and take a potty break! xD) and some semblance of a social life, I will be working on this.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. If you have any comments or questions, feel free too drop a review and I'll get back to you in time. :)

Peace and love!

~ Indie