Life's Second Chance

Kai's Biggest Regret

The silence of the empty office room seemed deafening. Here Ray sat atop a velvet coated arm chair staring beyond a well polished tinted window.
"Kai.." Came her soft broken tones, "What are we really doing..?" Her eyes were glazed with tears that didn't fall.

"I wish I knew.." Came the honestly unsure lyrics. "I really don't see a point to all of this anymore.. Everything was one big stupid mistake." Kaito stood behind the girl, and placed comforting palms atop her shouters. "I'm really sorry about everything Rei..."

The girl placed a hand atop his and leaned her cheek so that it rested on the side of his wrist. "Was it all worth it in the end..?" Ray tilted her head slightly so that her eyes met his. "Wouldn't it be much easier to just come clean? We can both take what comes, and see it through to the end together.. The way we should've a long time ago."

"It's impossible," Kaito's tones drew an angry accent. "I'm in too deep- I have to live up to the quota." Taking a deep breath, the young man admitted, "Truth is.. I'm not really Big Brother."

Ray breathed a sigh of relief,though she really wasn't very surprised with his confession. He really wasn't the Master Mind sort, and he also didn't have that many contacts to start with. With another deep breath she just listened in silence.

"Big Brother has me by the neck Rei... The only way I could've succeeded in my research was with his financial support. That's why I can't just-"

Ray rose from her seat and gave him a tenderly tight embrace. "Just let it go Kai... You can't protect me anymore.. But I can protect you." She knew what he was doing in the end. He just wanted to get out of all of this. He too had given up on everything.

Kaito hugged her all the tighter and pulled her back to him the moment he felt her release her hold. "Please.. Let's just stay like this.. A little while longer." His voice faltered as he held back tears. His ambition had driven him into a deep pit again- only this time he couldn't climb out, and she was left to clean up his mess yet again... "I'm sorry Reilyn.. I'm so sorry." The young man fell to his knees and hugged her waist, burying his face in her stomach.

Ray too released tears of fear and regret. She wished she could've just come clean with her Grandfather, Jake, and everybody..It would've made things much easier. Surely her Grandfather and the guys would've come up with a plan to save her. But truth be told, even if Kaito had the fingerprint password, the main remote that controlled the Pacer was in the hands of Kaito's employer. And it was because Kaito was trying to make things right, he had committed so many wrongs just so he could get his hands on that remote. He knew that Big Brother needed him- so as long as Rei was by his side, she was safe. His employer wouldn't dare detonate the Pacer if it meant losing the only person who knew how to recreate it.

That was the original plan..

Once Kaito learned of Big Brother's true motives- how his employer didn't want to help just for the science of it all- it was too late. He had become a pawn, and a puppet whose script was written to promenade as Big Brother in his place.

Production was well under way- but could not just leave the finished project in the hands of a maniac. Thus he had enlisted Ray to help him hide it.. She was against it at first, but he had promised that it would only be temporary... They were supposed to meet three years later when things had calmed down.

Things... obviously did not go their way..

Jake, Rei, and Himself had decided long ago, to play the MIB in such a way to discover the real identity of Big Brother to stop this , and his plan for mass production by finding the mole in their agency. Knowing how each person in their life would act, the agents knew which information to omit so that things would fall into place their way.

This manipulation of information, action, and reaction, really depended highly on the faith of the people they loved and cared about acting in their typical manner. Though it's success rate was high with their plans well underway, there were a few factors they never thought would play a part. That being the appearance of The Biker Mice from Mars, and Charley.

To top that off, who knew that they would've found the real culprit hiding on Mars?

The factor that none of them had predicted however, was Ray being left behind, then captured-only to be rescued six months later, revealing the Pacer she was concealing.

Not wanting to have their plan exposed to Big Brother's mole at the Agency, they had cooked up this whole mess to make it look like Kai was the bad guy..

Big Brother had taken the bait.

In the end.. nobody expected to have Ray quit in the end... All because her conscience decided to kick her in the tail.

The girl changed the moment she fought along side by side with the Freedom Fighters.

She began to see life through a different lens. The taste of freedom she had on those lonely nights here on Mars made her realize what she really missed in life and re-sparked an old dream that she had long buried in anger and resentment.

In the end, Ray chose to let go her anger towards her Grandfather and Parents go, and finally opened up her eyes. She didn't want to just catch the bad guys anymore.. She wanted to live.

She also didn't want to carry on lying and manipulating everyone. Things just kept getting bigger and bigger, and ever more complicated when it could've ended simply with just them.

In the end..Not only did she have a change of heart, but she wanted a new start with a clean conscience. She had decided to stop living in fear and anger.

By the time she had realized their plan had complicated everything to an uncontrollable extent, it was too late. And because she loved him, she had played along to his tune until the very end, and had become the one person he really didn't want her to see.

He had hurt her..

In the end... it was all.. his.. fault..