* TwElVe * Discovery

Retrace your steps.

Both of us walked into the living room to find Koki watching the television and looking at a big piece of paper.
"Want some eggs?" Kei asked, smiling. "There's no good bacon so don't want that."
"Sure," Koki answered, not looking up from the paper.
"What's that?" I asked as Kei set the plate on the coffee table, where the paper was.
"It's a map of the Regions. It has marks on it, probably indicating where other Rulers are or hideouts." He rolled the map up.
"I guess we'll just have to find out," Kei said, biting some eggs.
"Hey, where did Eeris go?" I asked, looking out a window.
They both looked at me with identical blank expressions. I looked at them closely and said, "What?"
"Why does it matter?" they said at the same time and looked at each other.
I giggled. "Well, maybe she knows what the marks are."
They continued to look at each other.
After a long pause, "Let's go look for her," was what they said.
I smiled, while they glared at each other. "Okay, I'll check outside. You two go check anywhere you can." I casually walked out the door and headed for the front door. Placing my hand on the doorknob, I heard a low rumble of a motorcycle. Quickly I pulled my gun over, held it ready, and opened the door. I fast-walked out onto the porch and aimed down at the person getting off the motorcycle and taking off their helmet.
Dan was then looking up at me on top of the porch. "How in the bloody world did you-?"
"Shut up! You want to die like Droi?!" I yelled.
"Droi?! Dead?!" he asked, baffled.
"Yeah, I killed him. And I know you do not want to die."
He eyed my bandaged wrists, raised his arms, and looked at my face, "Fine, you're right. But really I'm glad Droi is dead, that was the plan."
I watched him carefully.
He sighed, "Anyways to answer that question when I kidnapped you, no, I'm not evil. And before you tell me to shut up, take a look at this!" He threw his arms and turned around quickly to reveal a man getting out of a car nearby.
The man had a bright green bowler hat with a blue ribbon. His bleach blond shoulder length hair flowed down his neck.
"Ridiculous," I muttered, lowering my gun.
The man finally turned around to face me and smirked his normal proud smirk. "Why, hello, my pretty!"
I brought my free hand to my mouth to try and hold in a laugh.
"Surprised, eh? That was good, wasn't it?" he urged, smiling.
"Steve," I said through my muffled laughter, "why on earth are you here? Now I'm just confused."
"Well, Dan here came all the way to Tron to get me. He told me you guys were in danger-or something like that. So naturally I rushed to save what turns out to be nothing!" Steve explained with a wide grin.
"So Dan . . . wait, he put me in trouble!"
"He had to get you guys to this mansion."
"But-wait! How does Dan know you?!" I asked, totally confused.
"Ha, you never knew, but we are brothers," Steve said, grinning and grabbing Dan around the neck with his arm to make their faces side-by-side.
I gaped at the closely alike faces only different by age and hair. "But why does Dan have an accent and you don't?"
Steve chuckled, "Deary, I have been living with your family for as long as I can remember, that I lost my accent long ago."
"So . . . why . . . he . . . I really don't want a long explanation," I said utterly speechless.
"Let's just say . . . your parents told me about Droi and Rio and told me to have my little brother be a spy. He's been working with the Rulers for a while now. Good job, my adorable little brother!" Steve said excitedly, hugging Dan.
"So you can try and guess the small details. I had to get information and blah blah and what-not. You get the idea," Dan said, smiling lightly.
"Oh . . . okay. Um, then you can give us information? Please??" I asked, smiling kindly. "Oh, and don't be surprised about Kei." I lead them into the mansion and walked into where Koki and Kei were in each other's face and yelling about something. They heard us walk in and looked over to see Dan. Immediately they pulled out their guns and pointed them at him. "Guys! Calm down!! He's with us . . . a spy."
They stared at me in utter confusion.
I stared back with a blank face. With no luck to think of what to say, I looked at Dan and Steve. But they were not looking at me, they were eying Kei with shock.
"What happened, while I left?" Dan asked, while Kei looked behind him in embarrassment.
"Koki?" I asked him to explain.
"We freed Taryn, but our uncle showed up. We fought him until he grabbed Kei and bit him. Then Taryn shot him in the head," he tried to explain quickly.
"I didn't think Droi was serious about that," Dan said in surprise.
"But everyone is all alive, so that's the strong point!" Steve said happily.
Silence.
"Where is the girl? Did she go with Rio?" asked Dan.
"No, she was still here . . . except she disappeared like an hour ago," Koki replied.
"That means she went to Rio. That's not good. Kei, did she try to seduce you?"
Kei looked at him with an "Of course" expression. "She tried and failed easily."
Dan chuckled, "I bet she lied about her name. too."
"Well, we know for sure her last name is not 'Ohayashi,'" mumbled Koki.
"Eeris Mane. She was an experiment of Rio's, also. It failed and made her have amnesia. Rio, of course, ended up lying to her about her life. Her amnesia is obviously permanent, because she hasn't mentioned remembering anything about her old self," explained Dan. "From insight, Rio found her in a car crash long ago."
"But why was she here with Droi?" I asked.
"Rio didn't want her around Koki."
"Around me?" questioned Koki.
"He knew you were on the verge of getting away from him. So he made sure you didn't know she existed. Then you wouldn't be able to convince her to join you."
"That experiment didn't give her any specialties . . . right?" Koki asked.
"Not that I've noticed," replied Dan, scratching his head.
"Whoa! Wait a second! Aren't your parents Rulers?" Koki shouted suddenly.
"Heh, no. Those people you met weren't my parents. They just treated me like I was their son. Their real son died in a fire. No, I did not pretend to be their real son, they just accepted me. Truthfully, when I first saw you, I thought you were Kei. But Steve explained that you were his twin." Dan eyed Koki carefully. "Droi kept repeating to me that the reason you left Rio was because of an influence on your part."
Koki seemed to freeze and looked into Dan's eyes carefully.
"Influence? Influence of what?" asked Tai, walking in with Shylo.
"I think it's not my right to say," Dan chuckled. "Anyway, I know which base Rio is at right now, though I do not know how long he will be there. I also don't think he will suspect me of switching sides, so that might be an advantage." Dan turned to face his older brother. "Brother, my weapons, please?"
Steve went out and came back in with four items: two daggers, a long-barreled shotgun, and a magnum.
"We bought these from your parents-well, I should say they gave them to us," said Dan with a smile to Tai and I, while Steve handed him the shotgun and a dagger.
"Are you guys saying, that they knew that the Rulers were forming?" I asked.
"Yes, they knew for a time," Steve answered. "Actually, they were friends with Rio and Droi before they became Rulers. Rio starting talking about forming a team and taking control of the lands. We three were actually asked to join him. But we turned Rio down calmly, of course, and he accepted it. After a few years when Dan was old enough, your parents asked if I should let Dan be a spy considering Rio didn't know he was my brother. In Kei's matter, your parents allowed him to live with me since he was eight. He might not have told you exactly, but his father got sick of his behavior and kicked him out leaving him to your parents and I," Steve explained, looking at Kei calmly. "I know he never mentioned his father to you those times or even his twin. I even knew a few times that you were actually playing with Koki, but your parents would not believe me. They would always say, 'No, why would Koki be allowed to play? I heard his father is putting deep discipline on him.'"
Koki tensed up, "How did you know it was me?"
"Because I was at the Mitchell's house a few times when I left Kei at my apartment."
"Oh."
"You never told us you stayed at Steve's apartment or that your father kicked you out. You only said you ran away from home," I said, looking at Kei.
"Well, I didn't want to give a complicated story," Kei said with a sheepish smile.
"Then you were unaware of your father building the Rulers then?"
"Yeah," Kei answered calmly. "He kicked me out because I would never obey him. But Koki listened to what he ordered and would always do it."
"I'm sorry that I wanted rewards for listening to my father," said Koki with a bit of anger in his voice. "But still, at least I ended up joining you guys!"
"Okay, that's it! I declare this meeting over!" shouted Steve with a wink.

Author's Note

This took me a while. I needed to set up information correctly and what-not. There's probably lots of mess ups. But either way...enjoy this inside-information-giving chapter!

Reviews

[Dance Or Die]

Wow, lot's of info haha. Awesome part!