A night's sleep help restore order to Kai's mind. Nightmares had an odd tendency to do that for him. Maybe it was because, after a night of living the horrible, he was better able to deal with the somehow less horrible reality.

It was the familiar grind of blades that woke him. Tala was already up and leaning against their bunk, arms crossed as he watched a small gathering of assassins in the middle of the room. Two girls had let their blades loose, though their blades weren't the usual black, but the silver-gray of something else. Naturally, the obsidian assassins blades, while perfect for invisible kills on flesh and out running anything short of a bullet, they weren't fit for repetitive beybattles.

Kai watched them while he took stock of all the various aches of his body. His arm had fallen asleep from having used it as a pillow all night. One of the girls had short cut blond hair. All the girls had short cut hair, but the light color brought Ayah drifting up to his mind, swathed in her long rivers of white.

He sat up. "Do you know of the girl Cain has with him? Long hair, creepily pretty."

Tala glanced at him, then looked back to the battle. A few other assassins watched from their beds with laptops on their laps. The lighting of the room had improved a bit, but not by much.

"Think Darrin said something about that. She walked into that den of his five days ago and hasn't been seen since. You know her?"

"Hn." Kai pulled his beybelt around to check through his gear. "His den, you mean that room in the back of the cafeteria, the one he retreated to last night?"

Tala snorted. "Not many rooms in this place to confuse it with." Then he shrugged. "No one's been back there except the nerd girl. She comes out for food, but that's it. Then the door locks automatically behind them, and it's a metal monstrosity, that one. Makes you think he's afraid of us or something."

"We do kill things."

They watched the girls' beyblades bounce about each other for a bit in silence. The girls didn't seem too intent on attacking one another or training. Even as Kai watched, he couldn't help but think the two were finding some odd comfort in their duel and wanted it to last for as long as possible. The onlookers didn't seem too keen on it to end either. They occasionally said a word to those around them, but otherwise said nothing.

"Some say there's a back exit in there," said Tala in something barely above a whisper.

That would make sense. Having only one exit in this damn place would essentially make it a giant cement coffin. Not even Tyson would be stupid enough to design an underground bunker like that. But Cain would be the only one interested in surviving should anything happen, and keeping only one exit to them made it easier to watch them.

"He sounds lazy," said Kai.

"Yes," confirmed Tala.

This was good. The creature's profile was becoming clearer. Impatient, lazy, perverted, egotistic, and obviously uncaring to the death of humans.

"Is this room bugged?" Kai asked.

Tala snorted. "What would be the point?"

Granted. "But keeping that door lock implies—"

"Implies he doesn't want us getting into his stuff or bugging him while he's on the john," said Tala, his tone gone harsh. "He controls the air, Hiwatari—"

"And assassin's blades are designed to cut through it," said Kai patiently—he just wanted knowledge, after all, and you always had to start with asking the stupid questions. "What's stopping someone from taking a pot shot at him?"

The dueling beyblades gave a sudden 'chink' of finality and jumped into their owners' hands. The air in the room had suddenly grown tense and fragile as thin ice. Kai glanced up through his bangs to find every pair of eyes in the room trained on them, grim, and then turn back to whatever they were doing.

He squeezed his hand about his blade. It protested with pins and needles at the movement, but he ignored it.

"Bryan and Spencer are what happen when you take a pot shot," said Tala.

Kai closed his eyes. "Like picking apples at a store?"

"I suck at analogies, you know that. People don't slice at all like apples."

You're a real jerk for making him relive that, his teammates were all he had! said Tyson's voice in his head, but he pushed it aside. He wasn't in Tyson's world anymore. "But what happened to their blades?"

"Excuse me?"

"Their blades. Where are they now?"

"Nerd girl swiped them up the moment they stopped spinning. Don't know what she plans on doing with them, so don't ask."

"But they didn't hit him? You don't dodge those blades, Tala, unless you're telling me he has super human speed as well as air whatever."

"Then you should also know that those things are nigh invisible in flight," Tala pushed himself off from the end of the bed. "I didn't get a good look. But ask around. Everyone in here knows an idiot that tried to get a good shot in on the guy and failed."

Kai shook out the last of the pins and needles from his pillow-arm and went to his morning ritual of accounting for all his bey gear. "I take it those who tried to get into his den are dead too."

"They would be if they had actually succeeded."

This made Kai stare. Part of their training had been how to get past basic security doors. There was nothing more embarrassing to an assassin than to infiltrate security just to find a stupid security door in between them and their target.

"It's not electronically locked," said Tala, already guessing his line of thought. "Not mechanically either as far as we know. No one can even begin to guess how he locks it, seeing as he has freaking powers and magic fairy wings, guess anything is possible. But if you think of something, let me know. But don't get caught sniffing around it when he happens to come out."

"When does he come out?"

"At dinner. And whenever he damn pleases. He isn't a prisoner here."

Kai inwardly groaned. And since all of them would have tried to put a schedule on him, when Tala said that, Kai could take it as Cain's schedule really was random. So much for creature of habit, but he did show some human like qualities, and for now he'd have to depend on that.

"I'm free to walk around, right?" he asked.

Tala gave a lazy hand gesture towards the door to say he could. The two girls had launched their blades once more, now that they knew the noise of battle wasn't about to cover up anything important. Kai knew a few of them would have recognized him. He was more or less infamous for scrabbling away from the Abbey's grasp right after hitting top of his class, but what did that mean to them? They weren't friends. Even if Kai had stood and announced he knew a way out, children from the streets and trained by the Abbey were naturally suspicious and resistant to trusting anyone. No, Kai would have to blast a freaking hole through the roof or throw Cain's body at their feet before they gave him any sort of attention.

Home sweet home, he thought bitterly.

After taking another trip to the bare bones, and thankfully empty, bathroom, he set off limping as little as he could down the hallway and to the cafeteria. Tala trailed behind him, the set of his shoulders and the way his glacier eyes trailed along the wall besides them said he had nothing better to do. Something in Kai's chest, possibly the part that had spent too much time with those children he called teammates, whispered of a vulnerable outreach from Tala to the one person he could possibly have claim to. Kai had once been his teammate, after all. Now the last one.

And it was because of that whispering within him that he didn't tell the red-haired wolf to get lost.

The cafeteria didn't seem any larger without being stuffed with black bodies. A few assassins lingered about the square hole in the wall and in the kitchen doorway with the same bowls, eating, what Kai presumed, breakfast. Despite having no interest in what gruel could be served, he stopped by their first for a bowl, which was handed to him by another pale shadow from his past. The oatmeal was bland, watery, but sufficient. One must always keep their body fed. Only an idiot starved themselves of precious energy.

While he ate, he casually walked about the unnaturally wide door that marked Cain's den. Ayah was on the other side. To know only a metal slab kept him from her and the bastard made it hard to swallow.

Tala flinched when Kai kicked the door with his good foot. Having the close fitting, sound-absorbing shoes that had been supplied to the rest of the Abbey kids, it didn't make the noise he had wanted. His steel-toe boots would have been better.

"It's solid enough," said Tala.

"How do you know that?"

"I've heard it close for over a month now, it's thick enough—oy."

It was as close to a shout that he was going to get from Tala, but it didn't stop him from making his way back to the kitchen. The half a dozen or so souls watched him with mild interest as he swallowed the rest of his bowl and tossed it into the metal bin they passed for a sink. He went to the poor sod stirring away at the pot of oatmeal.

"Can I borrow that spoon?"

The lanky, dark skinned boy narrowed his eyes at him. He eyed Kai, probing for his reasoning, but then knocked off whatever would come off and handed it to him. Apparently he must have decided that whatever stupid thing Kai was about to do to get himself killed was no skin off his teeth.

"Kai." Tala's face somehow managed to look even paler against his dark clothes. "You can't break through it. It's metal, surrounded by cement."

Kai ignored him, as he did to people with no imagination. Honestly, how could he know that if he hadn't even gotten a good listen to it?

Unfortunately, his path to the door was cut short as it opened. Kai quickly turned to hide the spoon behind his leg, listening as hard as he could for sounds from the type of hinges or the doorknob. The other assassins flushed themselves to the walls.

But they might not have even bothered. It wasn't Cain who stepped through the door, but the short figure of Emily of the All Stars.

For someone who Kai had been told was living it up following after her crush, she certainly didn't look the part. Like everyone else he had come to meet in this hellhole, Emily had obvious signs of being away from sunlight for far too long and a thinning to her face. She wore casual jeans and a sweater, however, not the black, close-fitting uniforms of the others.

Her eyes narrowed on Kai as she stepped out. The door closed of its own volition behind her. "What you staring at?"

Kai humphed and was about to break eye contact. After all, it wasn't like he could just ask her whatever he wanted without it getting to Cain. But what stopped him was a need to verify it.

So instead he pulled on the cocky grin that always drove Tyson up a wall and turned his head to look at her from the side. "You like this sort of thing?"

"Oh ha ha. Whatever."

His hopes deflated at that. She walked past him without a second thought to get her own gruel breakfast. He tried to search for more clues, but all he could get was the impression that she didn't seem happy. But, then again, who would be happy if they're dark 'fallen angel' idol found himself an equally glamorous mate? Any girl wouldn't be happy with a beauty like Ayah around.

Thus, he preoccupied himself with hiding his spoon and not looking like a complete moron lingering around like he had nothing better to do. It was easier than he would have thought, as none there seemed too inclined to conversation with Emily around. She must have been aware of the less than welcoming air, for once she got her oatmeal she headed back to the door. Kai held his breath, watching her carefully. But all she did was pull the handle and the door opened.

The moment it was closed, he looked to Tala, who shook his head. But despite clear warning in the other boy's eyes, Kai only waited a minute before heading straight back for the door.

The first thing he did was test the door handle. The metal spoon made a solid clink against it, and it only took a second to verify to him that it didn't contain any wiring, so Emily hadn't entered with print recognition. He ran his fingers along the edges, feeling for air currents, before giving the door a solid bang.

Tala and the onlookers gave a collective hiss, but Kai didn't see what they were doing. He was listening.

What I wouldn't give for Ayah's ears about now, he thought.

But it sounded solid.

Clenching his jaw, he moved more center and gave the door another whack.

"Do you want to die?" hissed Tala.

Kai ignored him. Listening to your fear never got you anywhere. It was why he had gotten to the top. It was why he had escaped.

He hit the door again, this time just to the right of the handle.

A bang echoed back like a tiny, hollow drum.

Kai smirked. Now he was getting somewhere.

Tala dared to latch onto the back of his shirt and yanked him back. Since Tala had two good legs and Kai only had one, there was only so much the phoenix could do to stop him from pulling him away. Without a word he snatched the spoon out of Kai's hand, tossed it back towards the kitchen, and even went as far as to pull Kai away from the cafeteria entirely.

Kai wouldn't have it. His gut violently wrenched at the thought of putting more walls between him and Ayah, who had been alone long enough with the man who thought him her 'Adam.'

"Since when have you been such a nanny?" he snarled, wrenching himself from Tala's grasp and whirling on him, despite the protest of his leg—

To find a Tala he didn't remember.

The boy who had gone through human experiments, countless tortures, and twisted into accepting a computer chip for part of his brain, had gone bloodless and gaunt. His eyes had skipped the bright of tears to white, as they widened in the empty space of their sockets. He had clenched his teeth, but not out of anger, but as a freezing man clenches them to stop their chatter from biting off his tongue.

"This isn't a game," he breathed through those teeth. "We aren't even prey. We're pests. Rodents! And you just went knocking on his door!"

And from behind them came the barest whisper of hinges as that same door opened.

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