Title: Hope

Rating: T

Notes: Cross over with Beyblade. Since I love that show too, I figured it would be fun to fuse the two together, although the characters from beyblade would be older now.

Summary: Tsubasa is having problems dealing with the darkness in his heart, one former blader gives him some advice.

Tsubasa looked down at his purple bey, he was seated on a memorial bench deep within the local park, surrounded by trees, although the canopy had enough of a gap for him to see the sky. He frowned as he looked at Rock Eagle, trying to figure things out, to sort out his head.

How can I go on? This… Darkness… He thought over that fateful battle against L Drago, the darkness that became part of him after that battle was getting stronger, so much so that he felt like giving up on beyblading in general, but too much of his life had been interwoven with the sport to just give up so easily; but everyone around him was in danger, he himself was in danger. The power, the darkness, it was too strong.

"You control it," A male voice said and Tsubasa was startled out of his thoughts, looking up to see a man walking over towards him.

Somehow the teen thought the man was familiar, but he knew he didn't know him, wearing a suit, his hair was rather odd, two different shades of blue, light blue at the front and dark blue at the back.

"Sorry?" He asked, unsure what this stranger was talking about, or more to the point, how did this stranger know that he had a problem? Surly it wasn't common for people to talk to strangers?

"You can't let the power control you," The older man said, to clarify what he had just said.

"I know that but…" His amber eyes glanced at Rock Eagle again, knowing what the man was talking about, but for a stranger to just give out advice… But why did he feel like he should know who this man is?

"It feeds off the insecurity that you have," The man said as the teen appeared to be unfazed by what he was saying, but those amber eyes gave the game away, he could clearly see the fear and uncertainty.

The fear of losing.

The fear of reputations going down.

The fear of being helpless.

"You're…" Tsubasa looked at the man in surprise, his eyes wide, no longer did they hold fear, but awe and respect; "You're Kai Hiwatari," Now he realised why he thought he knew the man, though he did curse himself inside, without his trade-mark face paint, Kai looked like any other person on the street.

"Yea," Kai just nodded and gestured to the bench; "You mind?"

Tsubasa shook his head, his mind full of questions to ask Kai, but he knew full well that the former blader was extremely private, more so than any other blader, it wasn't possible for him to ask anything.

"I heard what happened," Kai began, much to his surprise.

"W… What?" He asked dumbly.

"Tch," Kai looked at him; "When you faced L Drago, I know that the darkness of that blade found a place in you. Linking yourself and your Rock Eagle to the darkness that it resides in,"

"And?" Tsubasa felt his wall go up, this wasn't what he wanted to talk about, to anybody. It was his problem and his alone.

"Don't," Kai looked at him sternly; "Don't put your guard up around me kid," The teen blinked in surprise, wondering how did he know?; "I know what it feels like, maybe not to the same extent as what you are going through, but I know what it feels like to have darkness looming over you, like there is no one who will help and you have to prove…"

"I know people will help," Tsubasa interrupted him, and the older man just looked at him; "Ginga, Yu…"

Kai interrupted him before he could finish; "Then where are they? Why are you on your own out here?" He sighed; "You are closed off from your own team and you don't even realise it," He glanced over to the teen, who was now looking at the ground, slumped over; Maybe not, you just never gave it much thought did you?

Tsubasa finally spoke after a few moments; "I… I guess you are right. I have put a wall up, ever since that battle though, I just didn't want anyone to get close in case…"

"But when Ginga faced L Drago nothing happened to him," Kai pointed out and Tsubasa nodded slowly.

"Am I weak?" He asked himself, not meaning to say it out-loud.

"Everyone is," Kai replied, which was a surprise to both of them.

"What do you mean?" How can everyone be weak?

"Believe it or not everyone has weak moments, it's not a bad thing, you just need to remind yourself that you are human," Kai explained as well as he could, unsure if the teen understood, but continued on anyway, knowing that the silver haired teen was smart enough to figure it out; "I've watched your battles, along with the others. You all battle differently, although each of you learn something during the battle you all react differently, even if you don't it's something to focus on when you train," He noticed the look Tsubasa gave him and smirked; "Just because I no longer beyblade any more doesn't mean I don't keep up with it,"

"Why did you re…" Tsubasa stopped himself, not knowing why he was about to ask such a personal question, after all the advice that Kai had given him, even though he didn't need to, he didn't even know him!

Kai knew what the question was and nodded slowly; "Tyson was my rival, of course he had many but…" He looked up at the sky, a white cloud slowly moving across the pale blue sky and Tsubasa looked up as well; "We were always rivals, our battles were intense, not to say when he battled other's it wasn't, but our battles were something else, we put our very essence into it. There were no hidden agendas; we battled to prove our strength, to show each other how much we had grown. It never really mattered who won, although that was our goal, but we needed to prove to each other that we had trained hard to face off once again, as well as enjoy what we were doing," He now looked at Tsubasa intently and those amber eyes looked back at him; "My rival died, there was no point in continuing anymore,"

Tsubasa wanted to say something more; but found he couldn't, what could he say to a man whose rival had been such a big part of his life? All beybladers knew the rivalry that went between Tyson and Kai, all knew that the bond they shared was unique, that the bond grew over the time that they knew each other.

All he was able to say was; "Sorry,"

"Don't be," Kai said sharply; "What is your reason to be in this sport? If you are just trying to prove how strong you are, then don't bother, many blader's who do that learn the hard way that that isn't the best way to go,"

"Even you?" The teen asked softly.

"Yea, even me," Kai agreed; "I learned a lot in our first year as the Bladebreakers, I learnt that I had friends, who would stand by me even when I insulted them or abandoned them,"

"And Black…"

"Everything I learned about beyblading was from Boris, to an extent, but my insecurities lead me being used and betraying those who were my friends," Kai paused, remembering that first year; "I was lucky, they always helped me, even though I kept them at a distance,"

"I… see,"

"It's not easy," Kai admitted as he stood up; "It's never easy. You and I, we've been cut off, we've been on our own for some time, to even consider people being …"

"Friends is scary," Tsubasa said with a slight smile and nodded in agreement; "It's a big step, but, to restrain this, I need to do it,"

"Good luck Tsubasa," Kai said and walked away.

The teen remained where he was, smiling, perhaps there was hope for him yet, although he knew full well that he would never be Ginga's rival, not in the same way that Kyouya was, but perhaps he didn't have to go that far, if he thought about it, he was Yu's rival, although people probably would never guess it, considering that Yu was always his partner in tag-team duels.

Maybe I should try and be friends with him… He thought, hoping that the younger blader would accept his invitation of friendship.

X

Kai continued walking, going deeper into the forest when he stopped and sighed; "I know you are following me Ryo," To his left, a man with reddish brown hair came out of the bushes and smiled over to him.

"That was some speech,"

"He needs to know,"

"He's nothing like you Kai, his family never used him…"

"Maybe," Kai looked into the darkness of the woods, although light hit the leaves and gave it a warm glow; "But he's distant from his team, maybe not to the same extent as I was, but still,"

"Rei had secrets…"

Kai frowned; "Tala might be the best one to talk to him, if needs be,"

Ryo's eyes widened in surprise; wondering why Kai had thought of his former team-mate at a time like this.

"Tala would probably be better, you're right, Tsubasa isn't like me, but I get the feeling that he doesn't have anyone…"

"Could say the same for Kyouya," Ryo pointed out but Kai just shook his head.

"No, he has a mother," He noticed how surprised Ryo looked and smirked; "You just need to know where to look,"

"Tsubasa is…"

"He's not, he just needs to remember that he doesn't have to face it alone," Kai stated; "His team mates are there for him, they support him in every battle, he just needs to believe it himself,"

"But Tala…"

"Tch, even Tala needs his team mates to support him, his team might not have been the most vocal, but the support was always there,"

"Would he help?" Ryo decided to ask, knowing that Tala could be difficult, almost as bad as Kai in that respect; but he also wanted to know if Kai still had any contact with the Russian too.

"Perhaps. It never hurts to ask," Kai shrugged and walked away; "And stop trying to follow me Ryo, you're too loud!"

Ryo shook his head and smiled, but he never moved to follow the other; he did wonder though, why was Kai trying to help Tsubasa? What did he see in the Eagle blader?

I guess I'll just have to wait and find out.