Oh hi there.

Guess who's back from her COMPLETELY UNINTENTIONAL hiatus… without updates for her poor unfinished fics, but with a completely new one instead! Yeah, this is a great plan.

This is for Bighead98, who asked for it and kept poking me until I wrote it.

It's also for everyone who wrote PMs and reviews to me in the last two years, because I treasured every one of those messages and I would probably have drifted away from writing altogether without them.

And finally, if she ever reads this, this is for DragonFang2016, simply for being the first and best friend I had in this fandom, all those years ago.

Phosphorus

Chapter 1

The nights so high up in the mountains were wild and dark. That was fine, though. The wind howling through the gaps in the freezing stone walls would keep even the most stubborn of hunters in its den, and the darkness was so deep that even the moon couldn't pierce all the way to the base of the ruins.

It was here that the Dragon hunted.

He did not hunt prey, for food or for sport. He did not hunt for shelter. Instead, he sought one thing as relentlessly as the sun travelled across the sky.

The Dragon was hunting for power.

He had found it before in a place like this, standing wreathed in flames as the stars cascaded down on him. There were no flames here, save the tiny flicker of his campfire, but that didn't mean he was in the wrong place. The power of the Star in his bey called to its sister strength, and he knew another fragment of the Star was nearby, another part of the cosmic force he had sworn to make his own. Now all he had to do was find it, and take it.

Those who didn't know him well, which was pretty much everyone, probably would have assumed he was only after the power because he wanted it, because he wanted to be the strongest. They were wrong, of course, but he wasn't about to tell them that.

He was already the strongest, after all.

Now, he needed to understand the power. Understanding just the tiny piece he'd picked up was difficult – he needed more to even begin to comprehend where it had come from and what it could be used for.

But that was a thought for later. He had to actually find the power first.

The embers of his fire had settled to the same deep red as L-Drago's scales, still radiating with the heat he had used to cook his dinner. It had been a good day, as far as days went now. He had food, warmth, a place to sleep, and best of all he had L-Drago purring sleepily in his head, content to be here in the heart of the wilds with just his blader for company.

At least, that was the plan.

A soft skittering of stones off to the left of his campsite brought both Ryuga and L-Drago to full awareness instantly, though they both remained perfectly still. No predator was that careless, but no prey animal would be this close.

So, a human. Treasure hunter? They were much more dangerous than wild animals, and there were plenty of them around, but most of them had been further down the mountain. There wasn't much left this far up to be worth the trip. Villager? Unlikely, especially in the dark.

Someone looking for him?

The sound came again, this time much closer. Well, if someone was trying to sneak up on him, they were going to be the ones surprised, not him.

"Come out," Ryuga growled as he got to his feet, not prepared to waste any time at all on this intruder. "I know you're there."

For a long moment, he heard nothing but the sound of the wind wailing through the ruins. Then there was a clatter, a muffled squeak, and something tumbled out of the darkness into the light of his fire.

It wasn't human. That was Ryuga's first, fleeting thought as the strange form stumbled into view. The shape was all wrong, the colours were all wrong, and the face was too big, too – abstract?

An ember flared, and in the brief flash of light Ryuga managed to see the whole of the creature at once. It – whatever it was – was wearing an enormous mask, nearly three feet tall and covering the creature down to its knees. Human knees, or at least they looked it. Ryuga wasn't prepared to assume anything about this strange creature.

The masked thing came closer, close enough to the fire that he could see more of the details in the massive wooden headpiece. It was a work of art, even he could tell that. Mesoamerican in design. Probably older than the thing wearing it. But why wear a mask in the first place? And what was the creature doing here?

Before he could ask, the mask raised a hand and pointed at the single fish still slow-roasting in a packet of leaves at the edge of the fire, ready for breakfast, and Ryuga heard the unmistakeable sound of an empty stomach. Really? This thing came all the way up here to beg him for food?

"The food's mine."

He got a soft whimper in return, and if the mask had been able to create expressions he was fairly certain it would have looked devastated.

"I told you, it's mine. Find your own." The mask just stared at him. "Scram."

But the mask didn't move. Whether it was a last act of desperation or just because the creature had nowhere else to go, it took one step closer to Ryuga's fire, apparently ready to ignore his command in favour of just grabbing the fish.

Ryuga was losing patience. Usually, he wouldn't launch his bey at anyone who didn't have their own bey to defend with, but this was a special case. L-Drago Destructor was clipped into the launcher and sailing in a blaze of fire over the embers almost without a thought. Flames burst between them, sending the masked creature stumbling backwards with a shrill scream. That would do it. It always did.

… except not this time.

To Ryuga's exasperation, when the flames faded and L-Drago swung back to his hand, the masked creature was still there, still staring at him. He rolled his eyes. "Go away."

The mask shook its head. Ryuga's shoulders dropped in irritation.

"I said, go away. You can't have my food."

The mask shook its head again, making the feathers at the crest flop about. Actually, the whole creature shook in terror, but Ryuga ignored that. For a few minutes he stared at the strange figure on the other side of his campfire. Finally, he said "What do you want, then?"

The thing raised a little hand and opened it to reveal something even Ryuga hadn't expected.

"You've got a bey?" he asked. "You want a battle?"

At last, a sharp nod from the mask.

"Why?"

"Everyone else ran away when they saw me. No-one wants to play with me ever."

The voice was high and clear, though slightly muffled. It sounded very young. If it hadn't been for the fact that Ryuga was watching his companion very carefully, he might have thought the voice had come out of thin air.

"So you do talk."

Just a nod this time.

"What, are you shy?"

Another nod. Well, that did explain a few things. Normally he'd reject a challenge like this – what was the point of fighting opponents who were obviously too young to be anywhere near the power level he was looking for? - but it wasn't as if he had anything better to do right at that moment. Besides, L-Drago was restless and a battle would settle both of them, even if it barely lasted a single hit.

"Take the mask off. I'm not fighting someone when I don't even know what they look like."

He wasn't sure if he got a shake of the head or whether the entire body was just shaking, but as there was no move to take off the mask he assumed the former.

"Fine then. Get lost. I said I'm not fighting you unless you take it off."

"But I'm scared."

That was funny enough that Ryuga felt L-Drago laugh through his bones. "If you're scared now, why are you challenging me? Don't you know who I am?" It was very rare that he found someone who didn't know who he was, especially a blader. "I'm the Dragon Emperor."

To his surprise, that got no reaction at all. Or maybe it did, and he just couldn't see it behind the mask. Ryuga opened his hand enough to reveal the edge of L-Drago's fusion wheel hidden between his fingers.

"So what'll it be, kid? Battle, or mask?"

The mask was still shaking, the decorations on either side of the face jumping. But the sight of the other beyblade seemed to crystallise the creature's decision, and two small hands reached up to carefully remove the mask.

"Battle," it – he – said.

The kid, and it was a kid, was tiny. Ryuga was fairly certain he'd been taller than that when he was five. Bright pink hair stuck up in three bunches over his head, and his eyes were enormous in his face as he peeped at Ryuga over the edge of the mask. Other than the mask, most of his clothing seemed to be made up of some kind of traditional poncho with similar markings to the mask, though it seemed to be newer, judging by the condition it was in. Ryuga almost felt sorry for him. He was the Dragon Emperor, he didn't go around attacking small children.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, offering one more out. But the kid nodded vigorously, pulling a launcher out from under the poncho and aiming it straight at Ryuga, who somehow managed to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. "Not here. There's too many walls. Out there, on the flat." So what if that was to his advantage. Just because he wouldn't attack a small child out of the blue didn't mean he wasn't going to go easy on him.

There was a shallow depression in the wide rock shelf just beyond the sheltering spurs of rock that Ryuga had made his camp between. It was nowhere near deep enough to be a proper dish, but it would give them something vaguely sloped to let them pick up speed. It would do for now.

"Are you ready?" Ryuga called, only to see that the boy was already aiming. "Fine, then. Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"LET IT RIP!"

There was a feeling in Ryuga's head like opening a window in the middle of winter, fresh and cold and wakening, and L-Drago Destructor thundered across the makeshift dish to meet the yellowish bey head on. It felt good to battle again, even if this was only going to be a short fight.

"This is fun! This is so much fun! I can't believe I'm finally battling someone!"

What.

Ryuga stared at the boy on the far side of the dish, hovering between confused and alarmed and liking neither of those options. He hadn't been expecting a complete change of personality in battle.

"Quetzalcoatl, let's go!"

Ah, so that was the name of the bey. Interesting. Ryuga let L-Drago pounce, reading the shape of the doubled fusion wheel in the way the yellow bey bounced off of his own, and watching the movements it made across the stone as he tried to work out which performance tip it was using. His own Flat performance tip was running at full power, and the chance of him needing to use the Survive tip was slim to none. One hit would decide this.

"L-Drago!"

His dragon bellowed a challenge to the other bey, rising in a pillar of flame to tower over them both. With a satisfying click, L-Drago Destructor's fusion wheel flipped into its full attack mode, letting the triple dragons loose to chew their way through the admittedly impressive defence Quetzalcoatl boasted. Castles always fell to dragons, after all.

"Ooooh, you're really strong! This is fun! I've never fought anyone like this before!"

Ryuga narrowed his eyes. This definitely wasn't going the way he'd imagined. Quetzalcoatl was no ordinary bey, almost perfectly balanced across Attack, Stamina and Defence. He was beginning to doubt that the kid he was fighting was just an ordinary blader either. It took exceptional skill and strength to withstand even one of L-Drago's full attacks. Time to turn things up a notch.

"Wait – what are you doing? Quetzalcoatl! What's happening to you?"

There was power in this bey, much more than Ryuga had expected. Whether it was the power he was looking for, he didn't know, but there was only one way to find out.

L-Drago spat flames across the dish, then reeled back to wait, flipping the fusion wheel back to expose the lower rubber parts. Ryuga didn't engage the Stamina tip – there was no need for that, after all. Now every strike would bring power into his blade, enough to find its source and see if it matched the blazing wellspring that had lain hidden in L-Drago since that night he had stood beneath falling stars and screamed his name to the heavens as they drowned him in light. And if it was from the same source, then maybe, just maybe, Ryuga would be one step closer to understanding why it had come to him in the first place.

Quetzalcoatl was wobbling. Even a bey as magnificently balanced as this one couldn't possibly stand up to the combined force of the Dragon Emperor and his dragon for long.

"You're… you're taking Quetzalcoatl's power away! That's a horrible way to win!"

Oh, so he'd noticed at last. "That's how I fight, kid. There's more where that came from – L-Drago!"

"Stop! Stop it stop it stop it stop it! This isn't any fun at all!"

For a split second, the words cut into a memory fragment he hadn't even known he still had, one from the time he didn't like to think about, when Ryuga had not been Ryuga, and L-Drago had been three in purple smoke instead of one in flame and glory. But then it was gone as L-Drago blazed even brighter, beautiful and terrible in the night. The boy looked terrified, taking a step back and dragging his bey away from L-Drago Destructor.

"Dodge it, Quetzalcoatl! Don't let him hit you any more! Run away!"

"You wanted a fight," Ryuga called. "You're being a coward! How are you going to try to win if you don't hit me?"

"No! I don't want to do it like this! You're being mean, I don't wanna play with you any more!"

And the other bey skipped away from the depression in the rock and circled to tuck itself behind the child's legs like a scared puppy.

"Play?" Ryuga asked, failing dismally at keeping even the tiniest bit of disgust out of his voice. "You think this is a game?"

"Beyblading's supposed to be fun! This isn't fun any more and you're being a big meanie!"

Ryuga had neither the patience nor the good nature required to actually form an answer to that. This was a battle, and he wasn't Gingka. It was easy enough to let L-Drago's flames seep into his stare, and the aura of the massive dragon roared around him. The boy shrieked and backed up several steps, tripping over his feet and his bey as he did and ending up sprawled on the ground. "Go away! You're being scary, I don't like it!"

"You're the one who asked me for a battle, kid," Ryuga snarled, losing all patience and lining L-Drago up for a final attack. "I warned you – L-Drago!"

"Quetzalcoatl, Ashen Spark!"

To Ryuga's shock, the cowering bey suddenly shot out in front of its owner, whipping dust up in its wake. Catapulting off a rock, it spun up into the air, whirling around as if caught on the inside of a tornado. And then -

"What's that?"

The beast that screamed out of the facebolt was as serpentine as L-Drago, but pale cream instead of the fiery brilliance of his dragon. For a second, Ryuga thought it might be made of wood, only to lose the thought in the punch to the chest he felt as it wrapped itself around L-Drago and tightened.

He couldn't breathe. His dragon bellowed in pain, using every coil of strength to throw his opponent off as the other beast drew tighter and tighter, wings curling up to protect its head as L-Drago blasted flames at it. Distantly, he registered that the boy was getting to his feet, no longer trembling. What kind of bey was this? There was such power in it, even after he'd stolen so much. To bind L-Drago like that took incredible skill.

He was actually going to have to use some of his true strength. That hadn't happened in a while, and certainly not with an opponent this young. The last one like this he could think of was -

Haha! That's how you say hello? Interesting!

It had been a long time since he had thought about the first time he met Yuu Tendo. This battle was nothing like that one had been, all full of pillars of sound and blades of light and the thunder of his purple triplicate dragon towering over all. He hadn't understood the concept of only using as much power as was needed then.

Well, now a little more power was needed.

"L-Drago!"

His dragon roared a challenge to his strange, serpentine opponent, and a rising tide of flames cracked through the constricting loops of Quetzalcoatl's body. The other bey wavered on the attack, and Ryuga was there in an instant, L-Drago Destructor tearing into the fusion wheel and tossing the yellow bey up and out of the dish.

The boy stared up at him as the bey clattered to a halt at his feet. Ryuga fixed him with a glare.

"I've won. Now get lost."

To his shock and confusion, the boy's eyes grew wider than ever, and his mouth curled into a massive grin. "How did you do that?" he asked, suddenly animated again, all terror lost. "You just broke my special move, no-one's ever done that before!"

Ryuga decided not to answer. If it had been daylight, he would have walked off, leaving his strange opponent to collect his thoughts and his bey alone. But it was night, and the wind was still wild across the stone, and so he just stalked back to his fire, sat down with his back to the gradually-warming rocks, and ignored the boy.

"Can I fight you again?"

Oh no.

"Can I, please? I want to see how you did that! You must be really strong to do something like that."

How had he changed so much across the course of a single battle? Where was the thing that had hidden behind a mask and avoided speaking for as long as possible? "No. Get out of here, kid."

"But..." The boy looked down at his feet and was silent for a very long time. Finally, he said "I don't have anywhere else to go."

He was the Dragon Emperor, but he wasn't a monster. "Fine," Ryuga growled. "You can stay here tonight. In the morning, hit the road. And I'm not going to battle you. It's a waste of my time to fight someone I've already beaten so easily."

The boy looked somewhat crestfallen, but sat down on the far side of the fire and hugged the wooden mask to his chest. "Okay, Mr The-dragon-emperor."

L-Drago spluttered into laughter in his head, laughing at him. "That's not my name, kid. That's who I am."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

How did he end up in this mess? "No. Otherwise your name would be Tiny Annoying Thing. Which I presume it isn't."

"Oh. No. Tithi's what I'm called." The kid seemed to tuck in on himself slightly, making himself even smaller. "Then what's your name?"

The full force of his dragon suddenly leaned on his mind. He didmake us use a fraction of our power, L-Drago whispered. I think we can afford to tell him who crushed him. Then he will carry our name further still.

He'd already relented on letting the kid stay by his fire for the night, but L-Drago had a point. "My name is Ryuga." He said it with all the pride of the Emperor, all the arrogance of the Dragon.

The boy beamed at him. "It's nice to meet you, Ryuga! Now I'm not going to be lonely any more!"

Ryuga suddenly wondered if he had made a terrible mistake.

L-Drago just carried on laughing.