She woke up drenched in sweat as rain came pouring down her open window. She didn't know whether it was the storm that woke her or the ferocity of her dream. "W...What was that?" she asked herself as she sat up trying to recall her dream, or nightmare, she wasn't sure. She remembered how in her dream she was with her father and her friends the bladebreakers. They were all together and happy, but then everything changed. The happy the picture that she had created was melting, black flames engulfing everything that was good and happy. Maria heard laughing, as if killing her good dream was the best of fun. She grew dizzy trying to remember what happened afterward, but the only thing she knew was she had a bad feeling about it. ]
Maria had known the bladebreakers for three years now, though to some it wasn't a long time she knew everything about them. Walking towards Tyson's house she was lost in thought, thoughts about her dream and the bad feeling that was still nagging at her. She was so lost in thought that she didn't see the beyblade come spinning wildly out of control towards her. Next thing she knew she was on the dirt looking straight at what looked to be Tyson's beyblade, Dragoon sitting next to her. "Ouch, that really hurt." Maria said as Kenny, Max, Ray, and Tyson came running out of the dojo gates. "Are you ok?" max asked offering her a hand. Some how during the time she fell and the time she got up, her hair had positioned itself in front of her face. So as she was dusting herself off she had to continually move her hair back into its original position, which she wouldn't of, had to do if she had not been so lost in thought that she forgot to tie back her hair. She had also picked up Tyson's beyblade, "here you go, no harm done." She said handing it to Tyson. Tyson gave his thanks, but suddenly got a terrified look on his face. Maria turned around to see Hilary standing not far behind her, an angry look crossing her features. "You knocked her over with your blade again, didn't you?!" she said as Tyson took off running down the street.
By the time she was finished with Tyson he had a gigantic bump on his head and immediately apologized to Maria with Hilary watching not far behind. Maria couldn't help but giggle a little as she watched ray and max battle. Their blades Driger and Draciel going at each other like enemies with a grudge. With one final strike max hit ray out of the dish, "yahoo! I'm totally on a roll today! This new blade is awesome Kenny thanks." Max said jumping up and down. Kenny was a genius when it came to the construction and research of beyblades. He looked over at max from over his laptop. "Don't get to excited max that's only a proto type. But thanks for the compliment." He said as he looked back down to his computer apparently analyzing the data he just collected. "But I need more data on the progression of your guys' bitbeasts in order to make a blade that won't break. But i`m just not getting the results I need when you battle each other." He said frustrated. "so what does that mean chief?" asked ray sitting next to him, "well basically one of you needs to battle someone other then each other." He replied. Everyone thought for a moment, but came up with nothing, Tyson just got a headache. Everyone they knew was either to busy or no where near them. "Why not let Maria try?" said Kai. "W…what?!" cried Maria, "yeah that could work, I hardly have any data on you or Artemis." Replied Kenny happily. "B…but I-I-I I can't I mean…" she stuttered out. She really didn't have a reason why she couldn't but her own low self esteem.
Everyone decided to ignore her pleas and push her towards the dish, when she was finally standing in front of it she decided that she might as well try. She pulled her blade Artemis from her leg pocket; she stuck the rip cord into the lancher then her blade. Tyson started the count down, as he yelled the last number both of there blades slammed into the dish. "Lets go Draciel!" max yelled as his blade came hurdling towards Artemis, but at the last minute Artemis dodged and attacked Draciel from behind. "Go artemis!" Maria yelled, suddenly the battle, max, everything. It was all swallowed up by the same black flames from her dream. That wasn't the only similarity, the voice was there also, continuously calling her name behind her. When she turned to see who it was, it all disappeared; she was back battling with max, who was currently winning. "Artemis, flame spiral tempest!" She called as a black wolf appeared out of her blade and headed straight for Draciel in a fiery whirlwind, catching max off guard and sending Draciel flying out of the dish. Maria stood there mortified by what just happened, she actually won, true it was just a practice battle. But she won! Of course instead of doing what any normal person would do to celebrate such an occasion such as jump up and down or say yay, instinct took over. "I-I sorry!" she cried bowing over and over again, this reaction of course gained her looks of shock from all of the people around her, except kai, he just kind of raised an eye brow. "W…what?" she asked as they all continued to stare at her, completely speechless, Artemis meanwhile jumped from the dish to her waiting hand. When no one would answer her she finally decided to give up and walk back to her original sitting place. "Did you get enough data chief?" max finally asked, breaking the silence. "Hmm oh, oh yeah I did. Thank you, Maria." He replied as he began to type on his computer. Everyone decided it was time to take a break, max and ray spent there time watching Kenny continuously tap on his computer, while kai continued to do what he usually did, stand around looking deep in thought. As for Tyson and Hilary, they spent their time arguing over, well everything. Everyone knew they liked each other, not that any of them would ever admit it to the other.
Maria of course decided to spend her time sketching. She never thought she was very good at much of anything until she tried this, which she was incredibly good, she had the ability to sketch anything she just saw, even if it just lasted a moment. But today instead of sketching one of her friends during battle she sketched her dream. 'it might make this stupid feeling go away.' She thought as she drew each flame and each moment and person with precision, she was so concentrated on what she was doing she didn't notice someone standing behind her looking over her shoulder. "Wow, Maria that's kind of creepy." Said Daichi, Maria gasped as she jumped from her sitting position and dropped her sketch book in the mud. "Da…Daichi?! Geeze you scared me! Don't sneak up on people." She said holding her chest to calm her racing heart. "Hehehe soooorrry!" he replied laughing and jumping up and down. Daichi had gotten homesick a little while back and decided to travel back to the island both to see his father and to get some training in. "but seriously Maria is that like a new project you are working on or what, cuz that was a really creepy picture." He said crossing his arms. "Da…Daichi, its nothing really I…." she stopped short as she noticed kai picking up her sketch book from the mud and looking at the now very muddy picture. "Please don't." she cried as she took the book from his hands. Now once again she got the shocked eyes of everyone around her staring. "I-I-I'm sorry. I have to go." She said quickly as she ran from the dojo, she ran and ran till she couldn't even run anymore. 'Why? Why did I do that? That was so stupid. I mean what am I freaking out about? It was just a stupid nightmare, its not like anything is going to come from it.' She thought as she slowed down to a complete stop.
Maria heard her name being called behind her, she turned to see that all of them had followed her, "Maria, please wait. We really are sorry, it's our fault. We didn't realize what tomorrow was." Ray said with an apologetic look on their faces. 'Oh, right. I completely forgot. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my mother and fathers deaths.' Truthfully sense she met the bladebreakers it hadn't really affected her as much as it used too. "Oh, hehe yeah. Yeah that's it, but it's alright. Even after all this time it still hurts to think about. But still I had no right to yell at you kai. And for that I am sorry." She said as she bowed in apology. She truly was sorry for yelling but the rest was just an excuse to not tell them, they might think she was going crazy, she actually thought she was too. She woke from her thought as she felt someone rubbing her head. She looked up, it was kai, "come on, let's get you home. It's getting dark." He said as he started walking down the street. She waved goodbye to her friends, and ran to catch up with kai. Even though they were walking by a busy street, there were hardly any cars. So the walk was really quiet, Maria had no idea what to say to him, or why he was always so nice to her. But it didn't matter; it was always nice when ever it was just them two. The quiet wasn't awkward or uncomfortable, it was the kind of quiet you need when you need to think about things or you just liked being with the other person so much it didn't matter if you talked about the weather or about nothing at all. Maria blushed, why was she thinking like that, obviously kai couldn't possibly feel that way about her. He said it himself, 'his only love is for the sport of beyblade.' Her heart started to hurt at the thought; she decided to think about something else. Suddenly she walked right into something hard and fell to the ground, "ouch! Again seriously?!" she said angrily. "We're here." Kai stated as he pulled her up from the ground. "Oh, thank you." She said as she started walking towards the front door. Kai watched as she entered the house and closed the door behind her. He turned around and slowly started making his way back to Tyson's dojo. As he was walking he noticed something he hadn't before. Someone was watching him, he could feel it. He turned around and looked back to Maria's house. There in her bedroom was a figure, it was wearing all black and had eyes the color of blood. Kai glared at the figure as it started to smile an evil grin. Kai blinked and it was gone, 'that was definitely odd..' he said as he turned and continued walking back to the dojo the figure plaguing his thoughts.