Phantoms

Rei's golden eyes snapped open in confusion. At first he was disoriented by the vibrations around him until he remembered he was on a bus. His eyes too had a haunted look to them and carried dark rings beneath. He absently ran his fingers through his mid back length hair and cringed at the memory of how it came to be that way. He'd had to let Mao cut most of it off because of Akiao. He sneered at the thought. Damn brat. Akiao, Mao's and Gary's youngest child, had poured a whole bottle of glue on his head while he was asleep.

'heh heh asleep? Who the fuck am I trying to fool anymore. I was falling down passed out drunk.. It's the only way I can get rid of these feelings and sleep without flash backs, dreams, or visions. Damn you Kai. Where did you go? And more importantly what did your stupid grandfather have that idoit Boris do to the rest of us?'

Rei held his bitchip up letting it catch the dim interior light inside the bus and reflect off the faded outline of a once proud and vibrant tiger inside. He'd let Kenny mount Drigger's bitchip onto a necklace pendant as well. But only after he had realised he was'nt likely to ever get a response ever again. He had only caved to the cheifs idea after a year or so had passed. A year that he had spent meditating, praying, and flat out begging for the tiger to respond to him. He rolled the pendant slowly between his slender fingers looking at it. Turning it delicately around to look at the once proud tiger on the front of it a vague and dim shadow.

'I don't even know if you're around anymore Drigger. But I lost a part of myself that day. Something more then my team mate Kai even. I lost my best friend, you.. Where did it all go so wrong? Where did I go wrong? I wish someone could tell me the answers. It's been ten years and I still can't remember or shake this damn feeling or guilt off. Ah Drigger I don't deserve you at all my friend. I think maybe I never did..'

Rei had gave up on hoping to ever get a answer in return. After all he'd not gotten one in ten years. But still it never stopped him from talking in his mind to his missing guardian spirit. With a sigh he dropped his necklace back down under the collar of his shirt. Then leaned his head against the smooth surface of the cold window glass. Turining his gold gaze to look at the city lights as they passed by.

'Why should this time be any different for me? When Kai vanished, Tyson fell apart. He could'nt even talk for almost a year. He seen something that day. Something that rattled him more then anything else ever could've that's for sure. But he says that what ever it was, he just could'nt remember it not matter how hard he tried. His mind won't let him recall anything past Kai jumping up to that tube. Kai and that damn machine.. The one he had stepped up onto to unhook and free Tala from. For some reason all the bit beasts had fallen silent and inactive that day at that same exact moment. Nothing makes sense anymore. It has'nt for years for any of us that was there. There's pieces missing for all of us..'

Most everyone who had a bitbeast wore the chip as a necklace and reminder now days. Just like Rei, Max, and Tyson. Kenny had been devastated because he'd lost his best friend too. Dizzy had appeared on the decal ontop of his laptop where he had carefully pried her off. He mounted the decal seal to a necklace he wore over his heart to this very day. Max had the ideal the they should all do it to keep their silent friends close so that if they ever woke up they'd be there for them. So that's exactly what they all had done.

Rei heaved a tired and depressed sigh and closed his luminous golden eyes, only to have them snap back open a second later at the loud rumbling purr he thought he had heard. He tiredly shook his head and went to lean back against the glass when a gruff voice that was barely a whisper called out his name inside his mind.

"Master Rei?"

'I really need to quit drinking. I'm starting to loose it completely now. And my hair will be the least of my worrys..'

"What? I figured you'd be a tad more talkative then this. After all, it's been along time has it not little one?"

Rei sat up and fumbled around inside his bag looking for his medicine bottle. He kept shaking his head at his own stupidity.

'Great. I'm loosing my damn mind now. I should'nt spend so much dwelling on the past and things I can't fix or remember. I gotta get myself back in control. It would'nt do for the others to see me like this at all.. They think I'm doing okay. I can't let them see me like this or they'll worry.'

A sudden growl made him almost drop his bag and look around wide eyed.

"Kitten you're stronger then this and I know it. Not to mention you're starting to annoy me. Now put down those pills, you don't need them! And listen to me already."

Rei: "D-drigger?"

"Yes Rei. And you do deserve me... I'm sorry I abandoned you. But there was a good reason I promise. And it is I whom should feel I let you down. I'm the one underserving of your friendship and love."

'Oh my god.. It really is you is'nt it?'

"Yes Rei, now listen to what I'm about to tell you because it's very important. Okay?"

'Yes.'

"Good. Kai has returned. But he has something within him that is'nt supposed to be in this world. It can not only hurt, but utterly destroy him. Kai does'nt know this. And he's confused about what happened ten years ago and where he has been all this time. You have to get there before he accidently sets it off and shows Tyson what he is. Do you understand me Rei?"

'What he is?'

"Yes Rei what he is."

'Is he a monster or something? I mean I know he always acted inhuman but this kinda pushes the buck..'

"No Kai is.. Well he carries the soul of Black Dranzer."

'Kai's really that disgusting and cruel monster?'

"No! Calm down and listen. Boris found a way to use artifacts that had spirts sealed inside. His grandfather in his ambition funded this research. When Kai was just a baby Boris decided to try a human experiment. Kai's grandfather was all to happy to let him be the lab rat. They pulled a massive amount of spirit energy from 3 gemstones that had been found at the base of a volcano. A crystal, a ruby, and a onyx. The crystal shattered and the energy fled before they could contain it. Which angered Boris to no ends. No one's quite sure where it went, or to who. Or even if it was like or what I am."

'A sacred spirit?'

"Yes. Anyhow the ruby held the ever burning flame of a phoenix. They contained its life force within Kai."

'Dranzer, that makes alot of sense I guess. And the onyx?'

"Black Dranzer.. She is'nt evil though Rei. Merely lost and alone. Angry for being abandoned."

'Oh.. So how did she end up inside of Kai?'

"They was trying to synch the bit with Tala or Tyson with that machine. Between the three though Kai was always the top choice for the shadowbird. She's hard to control because she's always wanted herreal body back."

'Her body back?'

"Yes. Sheis a she and she's not much older then you and your friends are in her own world little one."

Rei sat wide eyed in his seat clutching his sleeping pill bottle as the bus traveled through the rain soaked night. His mind reeling but his complete attention fixed on the gruff voice echoing inside his mind. Rei's golden eyes narrowed to mere slits..

'So Black Dranzer is inside of Kai right now? And basically he does'nt even know it?'

"Exactly. Not only that but her rightful body is sealed there too. Kai carried both over with him when he forced his way back into this world the first time."

'The first time?'

"Yes when he was 7 they tried to synch him upto her. He ended up destroying half the abbey in the process and then vanishing. He showed back up one day wondering around a few years later without a clue in perfect health. The only difference was those markings on his face."

'Oh.. I always thought that was just face paint. So he's disappeared like that before? Towhere?'

"To my world. A world where he does not belong. There she's just like you all are here. And he's the spirit or guardian. Hers in fact. For now she's sleeping. She's the dreamweaver of all the dreams and nightmares here though. And the one who is blocking out all the memories and truth that Kai can't handle. No, not just Kai. But all of you. Even us other spirits. She put us to sleep.. But When Kai forced his way back he loosened her grip on us."

'So you're saying that thing..'

"Girl Rei."

'Right girl has been protecting us? And sparing our minds and feelings?'

"Sadly yes. Like I said she is'nt evil. Merely misguided and for the most part lost and lonely."

As he stepped off of one bus to board another Rei did'nt notice the whirling darkness behind him. Or the cloaked figures that had stepped out of them watching him in silence.