Just One Moment

by JuniperGentle

Sometimes all it took was one tiny moment to change everything. Sometimes there was a question that needed answering, a question so small and yet so large - "What If...?". What if... someone spoke two words and changed the outcome of Yuu's battle against Reiji? Metal Fusion AU.

Well, here we are, seven years and a bit after I first started this profile, with my traditional anniversary upload. It was meant to be up a week ago but it got wildly out of control and longer than anything I've ever written in one go before, so here it is a week late. There are NINE battles in it. NINE. (okay some of them are in the background, but yeah. NINE.)

And then I had some computer and internet problems on top of that, but that's almost besides the point.

This is a story I've actually been working on bit by bit for several years – I first had the idea back in 2014, and I've slowly been adding bits to it ever since, though I probably only had about 3000 words before I tackled it for this anniversary and now it's well over 25,000. It's also part of a series which I will get to writing eventually, a series of one-shots exploring the consequences of tiny changed moments in various places along the timeline of the Metal Saga. The observant ones among you might realise that yes, technically Phosphorus is part of this series too, but this is the first one I had the idea for and until the rest of the series is finished I won't be adding Phosphorus to it.

So enjoy! It's so long, but I'm immensely proud of it, and I just hope you like it as much as I do.

---

Just One Moment

What if... two words were spoken where once they were not?

"Stop, stop it! That's enough already! This isn't... this isn't any fun at all!"

It hurt more than he thought he could bear. Libra was screaming in his head, crying from the pain and the terror as glittering fragments of him scattered across the sandy dish like tears. But Reiji's eyes just glowed with a deeper malevolence, and he ordered Serpent back in to attack, the vicious fusion wheel tearing into the immobilised, defenceless bey.

Collapsed on his knees, shaking from the shared agony, Yuu could do nothing.

Someone... someone help me.

"Enough, Reiji."

The voice was as cold as it always was, and demanded immediate respect, and immediate obedience. Serpent stumbled as his owner lost concentration, falling away from the relentless attack and letting Libra stagger back. Hope flared painfully into life in Yuu's chest as he swung his eyes up to the high platform where the young, white-coated lord of Dark Nebula stared down at the battlefield.

"Ryuga?" Reiji spat. "What are you doing here?"

With lazy, fluid grace, Ryuga vaulted over the rail and landed silently a few feet from Yuu. "I said, that's enough. This battle is over."

The animalistic hiss that broke between Reiji's teeth was almost enough to extinguish the warmth spreading through Yuu's body and spirit – almost. But Libra was rallying slowly, regaining balance and calming as the pain lessened, and so Yuu's heart was also slowing. He had known Ryuga would help him once he saw what was happening, of course! That's what friends did, wasn't it? Who cared what Doji had said earlier – Doji didn't know Ryuga like Yuu did; he'd never battled him or seen the fierce bey-spirit glowing deep in his eyes.

Okay, he was a bit late and Libra was going to have to go through a lot of repairs, but who cared about that? Yuu's best friend had come to rescue him.

"Ryuga, explain?" Doji's glasses flashed from his high seat overlooking the stadium, clear indicators of his displeasure.

"If the battle goes on any longer, that bey will be destroyed. How will he be of any use to Dark Nebula if he has no blade?" Ryuga's brilliant, golden eyes were fixed on Yuu, who couldn't even speak up in his own defence because Libra had just informed him just how badly he was damaged.

Doji, however, looked less than impressed. "If he forfeits the match then he will have to stay," he informed Ryuga icily. "That was the agreement we made."
Ryuga just tossed his head proudly. "That's all the better then, isn't it? I trust that you remember what I told you."

"Of course, Master Ryuga..." Doji's voice dropped into a strange, ingratiating tone that Yuu didn't like at all. "As long as everything else goes perfectly to plan, then there should be no problems with that. Reiji, the battle is over."

The red-haired teen hissed again, but obediently recalled his blade. Libra shuddered and leapt back to the safety of Yuu's grasp, the constellation settling back into his mind to lick his wounds and draw some measure of comfort from the closeness of his blader.

"D'you hear that, Libra?" Yuu said very quietly, clutching his hand around his precious bey. "Ryuga came and rescued us. I knew he wasn't as bad as that Tsubasa guy said he was." Ignoring Libra's pointed remark about the hundreds of beys Yuu had seen broken at the hands of his hero, Yuu continued "I don't want to stay in Dark Nebula, but at least I'll get to fight Ryuga again, won't I?"

"What are you babbling about?" Ryuga's icy voice cut across Yuu's chatter, and the blonde-haired blader looked up into diamond-shaped irises. He tried to open his mouth to thank Ryuga for what he had done, but somehow the words wouldn't come. Libra's voice was buzzing around his head, frantic and terrified, jumping from thought to thought with every rapid heartbeat. With such a distraction, he couldn't think of an answer to Ryuga's question fast enough to stop him from turning on his heel and walking out again.

But the most important part was that he'd been there at the beginning, not that he stayed at the end, surely?

.

Yuu returned to his room, curling up on his bed and pulling the covers over his head. There, cocooned in a world of his own with the battered, yellow bey, Yuu finally allowed himself to relax. Tremors ran up and down his whole body as the shock sank in. Just how close had he been to losing his bey, the beautiful heart-of-his-heart? If it hadn't been for Ryuga... he shuddered to think of what Reiji would have done to Libra. He didn't want to stay in Dark Nebula any more, but if that was where Ryuga was, then that was where both he and his damaged bey were safest.

"Don't worry," he murmured to his constellation, who hummed a couple of comforting notes in response. "Ryuga'll look after us." Libra's answering trill was questioning. "Of course he will. He's done it once, why wouldn't he do it again?"

But already there was a shadow of doubt in his mind. After all, Doji had been absolutely convinced that Yuu would soon become food for the Dragon himself, and if there was one thing Yuu knew about Doji it was that the older man always got what he wanted in the end.

.

The next morning, Yuu traipsed down the steps of the Dark Nebula Headquarters, Libra safely stored in his pocket. There was no sign of anyone anywhere, which was really weird because Yuu was certain that the second round wasn't due to start until ten, and it was barely eight o'clock. He peered into each of the training rooms as he passed, but the only person he spotted was Ryuutarou, who was sitting cross-legged in front of a training dish, concentrating on his Thermal Pisces. Oh yeah... he had a battle with Tsubasa today, didn't he? Yuu wasn't sure what to think of that, because whilst Tsubasa had been good fun to battle, the guy was not only a traitor, but he was also a bit of a wet blanket when it came to fun outside of battles. But he'd never be able to beat Ryuga, so it didn't matter.

Talking of Ryuga, why was he never around when you wanted him?

"Ah, there you are, Yuu..."

Yuu froze in shock. How on earth had a man as big as Doji managed to sneak up on him completely silently? Hiding a shudder, Yuu turned to look up into the bespectacled eyes of Dark Nebula's leader. "Yeah?" he asked, quite proud that he had managed to say it without his voice betraying his thoughts.

"I would like you to be up in the Dark Nebula box today to watch the battles, as you do not have any of your own. After all, today is the day when Ryuga gets to take on that little rat Tsubasa, and that at least promises to be a good battle."

Yuu frowned. "No, Ryuutarou is facing Tsubasa, that's what the battle order says..."
Doji's eyes widened almost imperceptibly. "Oh, well, that's who I meant. Yes, Ryuutarou, of course."

Yuu was suspicious, but the two of them had pretty similar names so it was easy to mix them up if you weren't paying attention. "Okay, fine. But where is everyone?"

"Never you mind." Doji's voice was suddenly harsh. "Do not meddle in matters that don't concern you, Yuu, especially as you have been given a second chance."

Yuu might have been young, but he was wise enough to recognise a threat when one appeared. This one had been standing in front of him in a dark purple suit for far too long. If he wanted to survive much longer, it would be a good idea for him to get out from under those eerie eyes and off to somewhere where he couldn't be found too quickly – and where he wouldn't get in any more trouble.

The Dark Nebula box seemed like a pretty good option, even if the battles weren't due to start for another few hours. Maybe that was where Ryuga was, as his battle with Kyouya wouldn't be until later.

Yuu thrust his hand deep into his pocket to find his bey, sensitive fingertips immediately feeling the cracks and chips taken out of the otherwise smooth edges. He had to stay out of the way of Reiji, at least, for the sake of his bey. He couldn't manage another battle until Libra was repaired.

"Go along with you," Doji said pointedly. His voice was hovering on the nasty side of threatening, and Yuu took the hint, putting as much distance – and as many stairs – between them as he could.

.

The Dark Nebula box was surprisingly cold, considering Doji's love of comfort. The wind whistled uncomfortably around Yuu's ears, and the stadium floor seemed such a long way away. He curled up on one of the seats and wondered how long he had before the battles were due to start and Doji arrived. Then he'd have to find somewhere else to sit, even if Doji had told him to be here. He wanted to stay as far away from the man as possible.

"You know it's rigged, don't you?"

How were all these people sneaking up on him today?

"Rigged? How?"

Ryuga tilted his head back, feet crossed at the ankle where they rested on the railing in front of his seat. "You'll see. This was never meant to be a fair competition."

Yuu stared at him in shock. "Wh-what? But I thought this whole thing was meant to make you the best blader in Japan? If you cheat, that won't mean anything."

Ryuga's strange, golden eyes slid sideways to meet Yuu's, a long, measured look that carried equal threats of destruction and amusement. Yuu knew well enough that Ryuga only laughed in battle. "I don't care about being the best in Japan. Best is subjective anyway. You've got better stamina than me, so if we just had a stamina competition without fighting, you'd probably win. So you'd be the best then. But most powerful? That's easy to measure." His eyes flickered. "I'm going to be the most powerful in the whole world. Just you watch."

Yuu wasn't sure he liked the sound of that. Yeah, Ryuga was awesome, and of course Yuu wanted him to be strong, even the strongest, but – but there was something in Ryuga's voice that wasn't quite right. "Tsubasa's fighting today," he said, changing the subject.

"Hmm," Ryuga agreed. "That little rat. I guess I'll have to show him what happens to traitors in my world. He got away from me last time thanks to that Phoenix guy."

There it was again! "But Ryuga, Ryuutarou is meant to be facing him today. You're facing Yo-yo."

"Who?" Ryuga's eyes flickered again.

Yuu laughed. "Um... Kyouya. But I call him Yo-yo 'cause it's funny when he gets all angry."

"Heh." That was closest thing to a laugh outside of battle that Yuu had heard from Dark Nebula's number one. "Yo-yo. I like it. Maybe I'll try calling him that so he gets angry. Then he'll be even better food for L-Drago."

Yuu opened his mouth to ask another question, but before he could speak, the door at the back of the box opened to admit Doji's butler. Yuu jumped to his feet, not wanting to stay anywhere nearby if Doji was on his way, but Ryuga shook his head almost imperceptibly.

"Stay," he ordered. "I want you to watch this."

Yuu hesitated. "Can't I watch from down there instead?" he asked. "Doji's being weird and I don't want to be here even though he said to be here. If you said I could go it would be fine, right?"

The smile that crept from Ryuga's thin lips to his eyes would have been cruel on anyone else's face, but Yuu was used to Ryuga's smirk and ignored it. "You've only just worked out that Doji's weird? Pathetic."

"Hey!"

Ryuga ignored him. "Fine. There's another box on the other side of the arena you can watch from. Doji won't care if you're with me."

Watching Ryuga stand up was like watching a thundercloud rearing over the horizon. Yuu suppressed a shiver. He was very, very glad Ryuga was his friend. As much as he liked Gingka and Kenta and their friends, he didn't really want to find out what it was like to be someone Ryuga was actively trying to crush. All things considered, this was where he was safest.

As Ryuga strode towards the door, it swung open again, this time revealing Doji himself. "Master Ryuga," he said, before turning sharp and disapproving eyes on Yuu. "And where are you going, my young friend?"

Doji was definitely not his friend.

"He's coming with me," Ryuga said coolly. "We're going to watch from the other box. It's got a better view."

For a moment, Yuu thought Doji was going to object, but then the man met Ryuga's eyes and something in him seemed to collapse. "Very well. You have the last battle of the morning, Ryuga, make sure you're there in plenty of time."

Yuu tried to keep Ryuga between him and Doji as they left. It was a relief when he reached the corridor and Ryuga closed the door behind them, eclipsed only by the delight when Ryuga shook his head at the closed door and muttered "Fool," before striding away.

The other box didn't actually have a better view. On the other hand, Yuu couldn't see Doji in the original Dark Nebula box, which meant that Doji probably couldn't see him either. Ryuga didn't sit down, instead standing with his arms folded, staring down at the dish. Yuu clambered into one of the chairs, pleased that it was warmer over here too.

"So who do you think will win, Ryuga? Benben or Kenchi?"

Ryuga looked at him blankly. "Who?"

"Benkei or Kenta!" Honestly, was he going to have to explain all his nicknames?

But Ryuga still looked blank. "Again, who?"

Oh yeah. Ryuga hadn't exactly met them. "Kenchi is Kenta and he's Gingki's friend with the green hair that isn't Yo-Yo. He's got a Flame Sagittario. And Benkei is Benben and he's Yo-yo's purple-haired friend with the… with the… hang on, let me remember… oh yeah! He's got a Dark Bull bey. I think Doji said he was almost in Dark Nebula aaaaages ago before you woke up so it was back when it was totally boring, but he didn't end up in it in the end which is good but you'd have beaten him anyway."

Ryuga didn't seem to have been listening. "Do you give nicknames to everyone?" he asked, and for a moment he looked so much younger that Yuu blinked.

"Most people," he said. "Not you, though, you're way too cool for nicknames. And not Doji or that creep Reiji, 'cause I can't think of one, and not Tsubasa because he doesn't deserve one."

That almost – almost – got a smile. "Does it matter who wins?" Ryuga asked, proving that perhaps he had been listening after all.

"No, not really," Yuu sighed. "Though whoever wins that battle will face Ryuutarou or Tsubasa in the next round."

"You mean they'll face me."

That was the third time! Yuu was beginning to think that it wasn't just a simple mistake. "But Ryuga, you're facing Yo-yo. And then you'll face Gingki in the semi-finals because Reiji's super-scary but Gingki's awesome and he'll beat him no problem."

"And I told you – you'll see. Look. Here they come."

"Shouldn't you be down there with them?"

"No. Advantage of this box – I can see them, they can see me, I don't have to be down there."

"Oh. That makes sense." Yuu fell quiet for a moment, then said "Ryuga?"

"Hm?"

"What are you going to do once you're officially the best?"

"What kind of a question is that?"

Yuu leaned forward and folded his arms on the top of the ledge at the front of the box. "I just wanna know. When you've beaten everyone, what are you going to do next?"

For a moment, Ryuga looked as if he was actually considering the answer, but then the amplified voice of Blader DJ echoed through the stadium and both of the Dark Nebula bladers turned to pay attention.

"Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to Battle Bladers! Today we will be entering the second exciting round! With the top eight bladers remaining, who will be the last blader spinning? We won't know until we launch some beys, so let's – huh?"

Something very cold seemed to drop into Yuu's stomach. The battles listed on the giant screen – Gingka vs Reiji, Tsubasa vs Ryuutarou, Ryuga vs Kyouya and Benkei vs Kenta – were changing, all of them flipping between the pictures of the contestants. This wasn't right. Was this what Ryuga and Doji had been talking about? They were changing the pairings?

Click, click, click went the screen, and the pictures slowed and locked into their new places. Yuu instinctively looked for Ryuga's picture first, and found it in line next to Tsubasa's. So all the 'mistakes' that morning hadn't been mistakes at all. Ryuga and Doji had known about this, planned this, but why?

Scanning along the line, Yuu took in all the new pairings. Gingka was now listed against Ryuutarou, Benkei against Kyouya -

- and Kenta against Reiji.

No. No, anything but that. Yuu had fought both of them and he knew Kenta's kind, honest spirit wouldn't stand a chance against Reiji's poison. Kenta wouldn't just be beaten, he'd be destroyed. He reached up and grabbed the edge of Ryuga's coat. "Ryuga, make him change it back! Please!"
Ryuga looked at him coldly. "These are the pairings. They were organised as soon as the first round was over. They'll make the best competition for everyone."

"No it won't!" Yuu didn't care that he was being shrill, and could probably be heard halfway across the stadium. "Please, Kenchi can't fight Reiji! He'll completely destroy him! You fight Kenchi instead, please! Let Tsubasa battle Reiji."

Ryuga's expression didn't even flicker. "No. I'm fighting Tsubasa. I want his power."

"Then let Kyouya or Gingka fight Reiji! Ryuga, please! Kenchi can't possibly beat Reiji, it's not a fair battle!"

"I know this is sudden, but there has been a slight change in plans, very slight." The voice came from the direction of the Dark Nebula box, and any answer Ryuga might have made was swallowed up in the gasp from the crowd.

"I knew it!" That was Gingka's voice, distant at the bottom of the stadium, but still clear enough for Yuu to make out every word.

"Doji!" And that was Kyouya beside him, rage making his voice crack. "This is an outrage! You can't do this!"

"Just watch me," Doji sneered. "I am the master of ceremonies for Battle Bladers. I have complete authority to decide who battles whom, and if they battle at all."

"This is a joke!" Kyouya roared, voice loud enough to be heard everywhere in the stadium as he agreed with every thought in Yuu's head. Surely something about this was illegal. But Doji was having none of it.

"If you do not follow my decision, you will be immediately disqualified," he said. "I certainly hope there aren't any bladers here who are scared off just because they can't handle a change before a match."

"Fear has nothing to do with it," Kyouya snarled, but Gingka interrupted him.

"That's it," the master of Pegasus said, and Yuu wished he could see Gingka's expression because if his voice was any indication then it would be ferocious. "We have to go along with this if we want to settle the score. Ryuga's going down. We'll move forward no matter who we have to fight!"

Yuu glanced at Ryuga to see what his reaction to Gingka's declaration was, but Ryuga's face was stonily expressionless and Yuu could read nothing in it.

"I'll accept this, Doji!" Gingka was still shouting. "But I'll win and keep on winning! We will not stop until we crush your plans!"

So Gingka thought there was a plan? That didn't sound right, unless he meant the plan to make Ryuga the best, and who wouldn't want Ryuga to be the best? Ryuga was awesome.

...except Gingka had said Ryuga was going down. And Ryuga had been rather aggressive against Hikaru, and in Dark Nebula the night before when he had taken the power of the bladers who hadn't won their battles. Might Gingka know something that Yuu didn't?

No, impossible. Yuu knew Ryuga. Ryuga was his friend. Ryuga would never hurt him. Ryuga had saved him from Reiji, had protected him from Doji, had kept him and Libra safe all this time. There was nowhere safer for Yuu and his blade than at Ryuga's side.

But if Gingka had accepted Doji's changes, that meant Kenta was definitely going to fight Reiji. Yuu swallowed. Kenta was the third-coolest blader he knew (after Ryuga and Gingka of course), and he deserved to know what was about to happen. It was one thing seeing it in Hyoma's battle, but Kenta needed to know about the mind games Reiji liked playing, and how dangerous he was even when you took him seriously.

Ryuga was still standing by the balcony, his back to Yuu, arms folded, coat rippling slightly as he breathed. His battle wasn't until the very end, and Kenta's would be just before it. Yuu would have enough time to get down, warn Kenta, and come back up before Ryuga's fight with Kyo – no, it was Tsubasa now. And if Doji was still in the Dark Nebula box, he wouldn't even run the risk of meeting him.

"I'm going to go and talk to Kenta," Yuu said aloud.

He wasn't expecting Ryuga to whip around, eyes like broken diamonds. "Stay," he snapped, suddenly angry, and Yuu flinched.

"But, Ryuga..."

"I said, stay. I want you here."

"I'll be back in time for your battle, I just..."

"No. You stay here. You don't move until I tell you to move."

"Why not? Kenta's really cool, I don't want him getting hurt by Reiji! You stopped Reiji hurting me, why can't I stop Kenta getting hurt by him?"

"Because we will need you alive."

That didn't sound like Ryuga at all. For a moment, it had barely sounded human.

"Ryuga?"

If Yuu had not been watching Ryuga very carefully, he wouldn't have seen the subtle shift in the way he was standing or the stiffening of his shoulders, nor heard the quiet intake of breath that was almost a gasp. "Fine. Go. Do what you want. But don't go near Doji, and be back before the start of the first battle."

Deeply, deeply unnerved, Yuu ran.

.

Kenta was easy to find. Gingka and the rest of his gang were gathered in their team room, attention focused on Benkei and Kyouya, whose battle would be first. All of them looked very surprised to see Yuu outside their door, especially Tsubasa. For a moment, Yuu forgot how important the message he was bringing them was.

"Hi!" he said, cheering up immediately the sight of all the other cool bladers he knew. "How's it going?"

"Did you know about the battle order changing?" Tsubasa asked, voice and eyes suspicious. "Was this Doji's plan all along?"

Yuu shook his head. "I didn't know anything about it. I was really looking forward to seeing Kenchi fight Benben." Tsubasa didn't look too convinced, but Yuu wasn't here to talk with people who were double-dealing traitor agents who never had any fun. "Kenchi, can I talk to you for a second?"

Kenta hesitated. "You can tell everyone here anything you have to say to me," he said. "Is this about the battles?"

Yuu nodded. "You're fighting Reiji. I've… I've fought him." He swallowed as Libra whimpered at the memory. "Kenta, you've got to be careful. I know you've seen him fight Hyoma, but that's not enough to know what it's like. He doesn't fight like the others. He's not interested in having a proper beybattle, he just wants to win."

"I thought that guy was always pretty… intense," Benkei commented.

"It's more than that. He controls the battle so you don't even notice. Then you'll end up like a rabbit staring at a snake, not able to move as he closes in. Don't let him get to you, Kenchi! He plays mind-games with his opponents. He'll try to break your spirit and your bey. You've got to watch out for his Dark Move. It'll pull you down into a pit of fear and darkness."

"Why are you telling us this?" Madoka asked. "You're in the Dark Nebula, aren't you?"

"Because Kenchi and Gingki are the coolest bladers I've ever fought – apart from Ryuga 'cause he's the coolest of all, but still. Reiji's not like that. Being afraid of your opponent, that's not how a beybattle should be fought. Beybattles are a clash of two spirits giving it their all to fight fairly with their opponent. That's how Gingki fights, and that's how I want to always fight. Reiji doesn't fight like that, he just wants to crush people into nothing!"

"Yuu," Gingka said. "Why are you staying in Dark Nebula? You're such a good blader, you don't have to stay with them."

Yuu shrugged uncomfortably. "I wanted to leave," he admitted. "So Doji made me fight Reiji. If I lost, I had to stay in Dark Nebula."

"You lost against Reiji?" Kenta gasped. "But you're so strong! You beat Gingka once!"

"I was going to lose, I think. But then Ryuga stopped the battle. He rescued me. He stopped Reiji from destroying Libra completely."

"Ryuga saved you?" Gingka asked, eyes wondering. "But he's..."

"He's my friend," Yuu insisted. "So I'm not really staying with Dark Nebula. Doji's creepy and Reiji's creepier and Ryuutarou is weird. But Ryuga's still there, and he's still my friend and he'd never hurt me. He'll keep me and Libra safe from Doji and Reiji. So I'm staying with him."

"Yuu, I don't think…" Gingka began, but just then the loudspeaker in the corner pinged.

"Kyouya Tategami and Benkei Hanawa to the entrance tunnels, that's Kyouya Tategami and Benkei Hanawa to the entrance tunnels. Your battle will begin in ten minutes. Thank you."

"I've got to go," Yuu said, not wanting to find out what would happen if he didn't get back to Ryuga's box in time for the start of the first match. "Good luck, Kenchi! I'll see you around, Benben, Gingki!"

And he dashed out of the room. Behind him, he heard Benkei muttering (as much as the loud young man could mutter) "I'll never understand that kid. He's here, there, happy, sad, up, down like a yo-yo."

But… Kyouya was Yo-yo, though? Never mind. It was time to get back to Ryuga.

.

Yuu skidded in through the door of the second Dark Nebula box just as Blader DJ was beginning the introductions of the bladers. Ryuga was almost exactly where he'd left him, leaning on the balcony with his shoulders hunched up underneath the white coat. He didn't turn when Yuu entered, eyes focused on the dish below.

"I'm here, Ryuga!"

"Good. Now watch this."

Yuu came around the seats to stand next to Ryuga. He was only just tall enough to see the beydish over the edge of the balcony, so he couldn't prop his elbows on it and look cool like Ryuga. "So who d'you think is gonna win this time? I think it's Kyouya, he's super-tough."

"I want his power," Ryuga said, his voice oddly distant. "I don't care about that Benkei guy. He's got force but no real strength or power. He's no use to me. But Kyouya… he's like Gingka. He's got true strength. I'll fight him next."

That was probably true. Tsubasa wouldn't stand a chance against Ryuga. He was sneaky, that was sure, but for raw power Yuu had him beat, and Ryuga was definitely above Yuu's level. Yuu shivered happily. That was going to be such a good battle. And if Kenchi could somehow manage to beat Reiji, he'd face either Gingki or Ryuutarou… probably Gingki, actually, now that Yuu thought about it. Unless Doji changed the pairings again.

"Hey, Ryuga?"

"What?"

"Is Doji going to change the pairings again for the semi-finals?"

"He changed it so that Gingka would be on the other side of the battle order," Ryuga said. "Gingka gets stronger with every battle he fights to get to me. If the pairings had stayed as they were, I would have fought him in the semi-finals. Then he wouldn't have been quite as strong as he could be. As long as everything goes according to plan, he'll have to get past Ryuutarou and Reiji to get to me. They'll make him strong enough to be worth a proper fight."

"What if they beat him?"

Ryuga laughed, but it was an empty sound that didn't sound happy at all. "They won't. He's Gingka. If someone like them can stop him, he won't be worth my time."

"And what about them? What will happen to Ryuutarou and Reiji if they lose?"

Ryuga looked at him with strange, sharp eyes. "You know the answer to that one."

Food for L-Drago. "But not me, right?"

That got him what might have been a smile, once. "No, not you. You're more useful to me here."

"Are you ready?" Blader DJ shouted from below them, and both Ryuga and Yuu turned back to the dish. "Let Battle Bladers b-b-begin – three, two, one, LET IT RIP!"

"Benben!" Yuu cheered as Benkei's very first attack sent Kyouya's blade flying across to the other side of the dish. "Yeah! Kick Yo-yo's butt!"

But Kyouya wasn't going down so easily. Leone roared into life, charging straight back at Dark Bull and giving as good as he got. Dark Bull retaliated, throwing the lion off once more. This was a brilliant battle!

"See?" Yuu said, grinning up at Ryuga. "Told you Benben was cool."

Ryuga didn't move, his eyes focused firmly on the dish. With every attack the control of the battle switched from Benkei to Kyouya and back again – even though Kyouya was probably the stronger overall, Benkei was determined to make his friend pay attention to him and was fighting at his limit in order to challenge the lion. Yuu suddenly realised he was holding his breath from the tension. This was exactly the sort of battle that Battle Bladers should be celebrating! Maybe it wasn't so bad that the pairings had been rearranged if it meant awesome battles like this could happen. It was the kind of fight he wanted to have with Ryuga, once Ryuga was the winner of Battle Bladers. Yeah, Yuu probably wouldn't win, but he just wanted to fight his friend again and show him everything he'd learned from his battles with Gingka and the others.

All of a sudden, the air in the stadium was whipped into a storm of monstrous proportions as Kyouya unleashed the King Lion Tearing Blast, his best and ultimate attack. Benkei put everything he had into the defence, but Dark Bull just couldn't stand against the whirlwind, and in an instant the red bey had been picked up and thrown out of the dish.

"WELL DONE BENBEN!" Yuu shouted as loud as he could, hoping his voice would carry over the cheers of the crowd. "YOU WERE AWESOME!"

Down in the stands below, he could just see Gingka and the rest of them jumping up and down, cheering. Yuu looked up at Ryuga, who was still completely focused on the dish.

"What do you think of Benben now?" Yuu asked.

"Useless. All that power and he can't even control it properly. There's no true strength in him, just force that hits things until something happens. No wonder Doji didn't want him in the Dark Nebula. It was a waste giving that bey to him."

"That's really mean, Ryuga! Benben's cool!"

Ryuga's long, slow, sideways look was chilling. "Suit yourself," he shrugged after a long silence. "I'm not interested in bladers like him."

Below, the dish was being reset for the next match, so Yuu went back to his seat. "Gingka's fighting Ryuutarou next," he said, deciding to ignore what Ryuga had said. "That'll be a good battle too, right?"

That just got him another shrug. "If Gingka can't get past Ryuutarou, he's even weaker than I thought he was. I could take Ryuutarou's power right now and it wouldn't make a difference, except that it wouldn't do anything to help Gingka get even stronger."

Yuu stared at Ryuga's back, uncertain what to say next. "It… it doesn't really hurt to have your power taken, does it?" he asked eventually. "I know Doji called it food for L-Drago, but you said L-Drago likes eating people's fear and despair and anger, so then you're left with all the happy feelings, right?"

Ryuga didn't answer. Yuu bit his bottom lip. This wasn't good. But he was still certain he was safer with Ryuga than anywhere else. And technically he had lost the battle with Reiji, or at least he hadn't won it, and he'd agreed to stay in Dark Nebula if he didn't win. Ryuga had said he wouldn't take Yuu's power and turn it into food for his dragon. Ryuga was his friend. He was doing things that weren't really right, and Yuu didn't like the fact that L-Drago always wanted more and more power, but everyone that had been turned into food so far had been a part of Dark Nebula so they'd all promised to give everything they had to make Ryuga the strongest blader of them all. It was like Gingki's friends lending each other their support. They all gave something to make one of them stronger, just in the case of Dark Nebula it was always the same person.

"It's starting again," Ryuga said suddenly. "Come here."

Only slightly reluctantly (hey, it was Gingka battling!) Yuu got to his feet and went back to stand next to Ryuga. Gingka and Ryuutarou were already stood at the edges of the dish, ready to battle. Even from as high up as he was, though, Yuu thought Ryuutarou looked frightened. Surely he wasn't scared of Gingka?

"It's fate we meet again," Ryuutarou announced, brandishing his fan in Gingka's direction. "But this time I will walk away the winner!"

Gingka just laughed. "Sorry to break it to you, but I will never lose, so I will face Ryuga!"

"Ryuga, huh? You must be dreaming. You don't actually believe you can win a battle against him, do you? You do not understand the huge difference between your powers! There is no-one on this earth who can defeat Ryuga and L-Drago!"

Yuu nudged Ryuga. "He's right, no-one can beat you. You're the best." He didn't get an answer.

In the dish below, Ryuutarou was still talking. "If I cannot defeat you now, my life as I know it will be over!"

Well, that was a bit of an overstatement. Ryuutarou was so weird.

"Gingki figured out how to beat Ryuutarou last time he fought him," Yuu told Ryuga, not caring that the other blader already knew. "How long do you think this battle will be?"

"If Ryuutarou shuts up about the future for a bit, five minutes. If he doesn't… ten minutes, because he won't stop talking and Gingka's too polite to hit him while he's distracted but he will if it goes on too long." Yuu laughed, and Ryuga scowled at him. "What?"

"You're really funny! And yeah… Ryuutarou talks way too much when he should be fighting."

"Look who's talking. I remember a tournament where you spent the whole of your match chatting to the pair fighting next to you because you wanted to fight one of them instead of your opponent."

"Hey! I won, didn't I?" Ryuga had been watching that battle? Yuu hadn't remembered him being there. Maybe he'd watched it from the recordings later? If he'd known Ryuga was watching, he might have fought properly.

"LET IT RIP!" came the shout from the dish, and Yuu whipped back around to look down. He leaned up on his tiptoes to see as much of the stadium as possible. Gingka always used big airborne attacks as his finishing moves, and it was always worth trying to see them from the beginning.

But this time the battle seemed to be weirdly slow. Pegasus wasn't attacking with anywhere near its usual power. Wait, wasn't that Ryuutarou's special move? He could manipulate the air around the dish so that the opponent's blade couldn't move. Cool move, but Yuu had figured out how to get out of it the first time he'd seen it.

"Ryuga?" he asked, suddenly remembering something he'd been meaning to ask for a while. "Why'd you ask Ryuutarou to join the Dark Nebula? Gingki had already beaten him and that weird crab guy AND the weird Cap… Capri… Capri-Sun guy. They were pretty good, but nothing like you. Why did you want them to join Dark Nebula when they weren't really that powerful? Crab guy cheats."

Yuu wasn't quite sure if the movement Ryuga made was a shrug or a slow stretch of his shoulders. "They showed promise." He glanced at Yuu, and his expression was strange, almost… almost fond. "I thought they might be like you. Skilled bladers with massive, unknown power, hidden in obscurity." He shook his head and the strange expression vanished into his usual sharpness. "And they'd all lost to Gingka, so I thought they would be more determined to beat him the next time. That should have made them much stronger. But they were useless in the end. Nowhere near the power I needed. I didn't need to bother with them. All they did was fill up the numbers at Battle Bladers. I never seriously expected them to defeat Gingka."

"Did you think I would?" It was a question that had been running quietly around in Yuu's head ever since his defeat. Ryuga resumed his careful watch of the battle continuing below them.

"Yes," he said eventually. "I was very disappointed when you didn't. But then I wouldn't have been able to fight him in the finals, so perhaps I'll forgive you for that."

"I would have liked to fight you in the final battle," Yuu sighed, leaning back over the balcony. "Oh hey, looks like Gingki's winning!"

Pegasus was beginning to move properly again, breaking out of Ryuutarou's Distortion Drive and unleashing a massive attack on Thermal Pisces. Gingka's grin was wide and full of nothing but joy in the battle as he called out his best move: "Pegasus – Special Move: STORMBRINGER!"

The tower of blue flames that erupted from the centre of the stadium roared almost as high as Libra's Inferno Blast could, picking Thermal Pisces up and easily tossing it out of the stadium.

"YOU'RE AWESOME GINGKI!" Yuu shouted, waving frantically at his other friend, but his voice was lost in the roar of the crowd so he turned back to his companion. "Hey, hey, Ryuga? When you're the best, will you battle me again? I know I'll lose, but I wanna fight you again anyway. I've got so much to show you."

Ryuga turned his head slightly, but didn't actually look at Yuu. "You've grown stronger since joining the Dark Nebula, haven't you?" he said. "That's why Doji kept sending you out on those useless missions to look for more members. And so far the only person who's beaten you since you joined is Gingka." Now he looked down at Yuu, and his smile was hovering just the wrong side of cruel. "And Reiji, I suppose."

Yuu looked away. "Can't we pretend that was a draw?"

Ryuga ignored him. "So I suppose I should defeat you again before I beat Gingka." His smile didn't change. "I'll save you for last. That's what I always meant to do anyway. I thought you'd beat your Battle Bladers opponents and end up against me at some point. But you lost to Gingka so that didn't happen. You're lucky I didn't use you as fuel for my dragon right then."

"Yeah, I know." Yuu muttered, then cheered up. "And of course I'll help you become stronger. You're my friend, Ryuga! Gingka says battling against your friends is the best way to become stronger. You won't need food for L-Drago then."

Ryuga didn't make any answer to that, looking back to the dish. Officials were milling around on the stadium floor – oh yeah, now Yuu remembered. There was a break scheduled between every two battles to let them check over the dish for safety things. There was no sign of Ryuutarou anywhere, but Gingka was being mobbed by his gang of friends, all of whom were yelling in delight. Well, except Tsubasa who was being a wet blanket and Yo-yo who was being grumpy as usual. It looked like fun.

"Can I -"

"No." Ryuga's eyes were fierce. "Stay here. Doji will let Reiji out soon. I thought you wanted to avoid him."

That was a good point. Yuu stuck his hand in his pocket, and felt the damaged edges of Libra catch against his fingers. If he ran into Reiji again without Ryuga nearby, who knew what the other blader might do to Libra? Yuu didn't like being afraid of something to do with blading, but Reiji was… terrifying.

"Where are you going?" he asked suddenly, as Ryuga moved towards the door.

"Ryuutarou lost," Ryuga said, and was through the door and gone before the chill had quite finished running down Yuu's spine. He knew what that meant.

Left alone in the box, Yuu perched on the edge of one of the chairs and swung his legs for a bit. But it was boring without anyone else there. Libra made a soft suggestion – repairs would be good. Then he could start battling again really soon. Of course, Yuu couldn't use the Dark Nebula repair machines until they got back that evening, but he could start on the minor repairs himself, and it would be good to reconnect with his blade again.

The noise of the chattering crowd seemed to fade as Yuu dug his repair kit out and settled down on the floor to smooth out the worst bits of the damage. The fusion wheel had taken the brunt of it, but even the spin track had a few chunks missing. Libra offered advice and a couple of pointers about internal damage, and Yuu was suddenly very thankful that he had such a chatty constellation. What did all the other bladers do when they had damaged beys if they couldn't get their constellations to tell them what was wrong? Of course, Gingka's friends had their mechanic Madoka with her whole shop of clever repair things, but that wasn't the same as knowing yourself what was wrong. He remembered when he'd fought Kyouya in the Survival Battle and Kyouya hadn't even noticed that Leone was breaking apart. Libra had told him that Leone was crying out to his blader, but Kyouya couldn't hear it. It must be sad to be alone like that in a battle, fighting side by side but not together, not completely one. Libra was his best friend, the heart of his heart. If he ever lost Libra, Yuu didn't know what he'd do. He couldn't even imagine it. It would be worse than fighting Reiji again…

… someone was watching him.

Yuu looked up with a jolt to see a familiar pair of black boots right in front of him. Tilting his head right back, he looked up to see Ryuga standing over him. How had he come in so quietly?

"It's starting again." Ryuga said sharply as soon as he had Yuu's attention. "I thought you wanted to watch this one."

Reiji versus Kenta. No, Yuu didn't want to watch this one. But he had to. Kenchi had to win, even if that technically meant he was stronger than Yuu. Then again, Yuu was the one who had given him advice on how to fight Reiji, so really it was Yuu who would make Kenchi stronger. That was how beyblading worked! You learned from your friends.

"How did he even make it into Battle Bladers?" Ryuga asked as Yuu clambered to his feet. He was already looking down into the stadium where Kenta was stepping up to the edge of the dish. "He's even more pathetic than that Bull guy."

"Kenchi's cool!"

Ryuga snorted. "Doesn't stop him from being pathetic. He only got to the second round because he was against Tetsuya." Ryuga's expression morphed to one of disgust. "I can't believe Doji just gave that guy the points he needed to get into Battle Bladers so there were enough Dark Nebula bladers to have one to challenge each of Gingka's friends. He's an embarrassment. Both of them are."

Below them, Reiji was gliding out of the entrance tunnel to take his place opposite Kenta. Yuu swallowed, trying to hide the movement from Ryuga, who had folded his arms and was standing at his full height at last, not slouching against the balcony. Huh. Perhaps he wasn't as disinterested in this battle as he had been making out. And there was something about him now, about the way he moved or rather the way he didn't, that didn't seem quite right. He was almost perfectly still. Yuu couldn't even tell if he was breathing. It was unnerving.

"Why's Doji so weird?" Yuu asked, mostly to distract himself and not really expecting an answer. So he was surprised when Ryuga said "Plans."

"Huh?"

"Doji might have a beyblade, but he's not a blader. Not like me, or you. He doesn't understand it like we do. He just wants to use it, the way humans want to use electricity without understanding lightning. So he makes plans to get power that isn't his, and when his plans don't go the way he wants, he gets someone else to do them, and takes all the credit and none of the fall."

"So… when you win Battle Bladers, he's gonna say it's because of him?"

Ryuga's smile couldn't be mistaken for anything except cruel this time. "He can try, if he gets there."

And back to the weirdness again.

"Heads up Reiji!" That was Kenta, down in the dish, standing strong and defiant in the face of Dark Nebula's second threat. "Beyblade is something to share, but not with the likes of you! You don't understand what beybattling is really about!"

Reiji laughed, the sound little more than a hiss of escaping air. "I heard the same thing from that kid Yuu. But as an answer, I pounded fear into the little guy's very core! I'll show the same fate to you soon enough!"

Yuu clenched his fists. Kenta was being so brave. But that would just make Reiji worse later, as he tried to break that proud, brave spirit. It wasn't fair! Someone cool like Kenchi shouldn't have to face someone as awful as Reiji!

"We'll see about that!"

Blader DJ spread his arms wide from his position in the elevated platform. "Ready? Three, two, one..."

"LET IT RIP!"

"GET HIM, SAGITTARIO!"

Kenta was on the attack straight away, but Reiji was still ahead of him. Serpent swept into place, ramming Sagittario with all fifteen blades on its fusion wheel in a massive barrage attack. Kenta braved the assault for a few seconds, then in a move even Yuu hadn't expected, ordered his bey to jump up and over Serpent, dodging the blades and returning to attack from behind. Serpent slipped out of the way and zig-zagged madly across the dish, but Yuu could see the determination in Kenta's eyes as the young blader tracked the motion perfectly, sliding Sagittario into the wake of the serpent's tail with ease. Kenchi was getting so good! What wonderful, fluid movement! Yuu couldn't help but get excited that he might get to battle Kenchi again really soon. That would be awesome.

"Huh. Maybe you're not quite as pathetic as that other little guy," Reiji smirked. Kenta scowled.

"What was that about Yuu?"

Reiji's hideous laugh filled the stadium. "That little crybaby ran away and hid behind someone else like a coward because he couldn't handle fighting me properly."

"That's not true!" Kenta shouted. "Yuu's really strong and brave, he's not a coward! Sagittario, let's show this guy the true meaning of a beybattle – Sagittario: Flame Claw!"

"Go on, Kenchi!" Yuu cheered, leaning as far over the balcony as he could, breathlessly watching as Sagittario's three claws whipped out of their casing and the blade seemed to burst into flames. Serpent could do nothing as the flaming blade crashed down on it from above, avoiding the sharp fangs on the fusion wheel and pushing the bigger blade back. Kenchi was actually going to beat Reiji!

"What's the scoop?" Blader DJ yelled over the cheering crowd. "I've never seen anyone push Reiji back like this! What a move!"

Reiji's eyes narrowed. "Show your fangs, Serpent!"

"What? No, Sagittario, look out!"

"Let's get rid of those bothersome claws of yours…" Reiji's smile was wicked. "Serpent!"

The green blade tilted slightly, and a moment later, a sickening crunch sounded through the stadium. Yuu saw Kenta's face go white. "No!"

"One claw gone." Reiji's voice was triumphant and Yuu automatically reached out, desperate to hang on to something as terror grew in his mind once more. His fingers closed on cloth, and it took him a second to realise that he'd grabbed the empty sleeve of Ryuga's cape-coat.

"Two claws..." Reiji sang, just as Serpent's cruel fusion wheel snapped the second claw from its holding. "Aw, look. Your blade can't balance properly any more. Can't you feel the venom coursing through you?"

Kenta was very pale, but his eyes were bright with pain. "Get away, Sagittario!"

But it was too late. "Three..." Reiji hissed, as the third and last weapon Sagittario had shattered away from the spin track.

"Kenta!"

"Kenchi!"

"Kenta!

Yuu heard his voice mix with the yells from Gingka and his friends, and wished more than anything that he could be down by the dish to cheer Kenta on from close by, instead of from this stupid box so high up and far away. If he'd had someone like Kenta cheering for him, maybe he could even have beaten Reiji himself – the two of them fighting side by side. No, the two of them fighting as one!

"You don't look frightened enough yet," Reiji said, laughing as Kenta scrambled to get Sagittario out of the way. "That's no fun at all. Let's see what you look like when you taste the full terror of my Serpent!"

Serpent went on the attack, pushing Sagittario before it straight up the side of the dish. Unstable without the claws, Kenta's blade couldn't fight back. No, no, no, no, no! "KENCHI! LOOK OUT!"

"I won't lose here! Hold your ground, Sagittario!"

And, somehow, Sagittario did exactly that. The cameras focused on Reiji just in time to see his double take as the yellow bey suddenly stopped dead, right on the lip of the dish, millimetres from elimination.

"How are you doing that?" he spat. "That shouldn't be possible, not with so much of Serpent's venom circulating through that bey! I don't like this. I don't like this at all!"

"Push back, Sagittario! We can still do this!"

"No, stop it! Stop it! You shouldn't be able to move any more, you should have stopped spinning long ago! How can you still be moving?"

Kenta pulled himself up to his full height. "Because a true bey spins with its spirit! It doesn't matter how much of Sagittario you try to break off, if its spirit isn't broken Sagittario will carry on spinning!"

Ryuga moved very suddenly to lean on the balcony, staring down at Kenta with unblinking eyes. Slightly unnerved, Yuu was about to drop the sleeve he was still hanging on to when Reiji's expression morphed to something truly horrible.

"Then I'll just have to break its spirit too, then! Serpent, Dark Move!"

Fear flooded Yuu's whole body. "GET AWAY, KENCHI!"

But it was far too late. Reiji's fingers formed claws as he shouted "Venom Strike!"

A shadow like that of a gigantic snake filled the stadium, and Yuu clung to Ryuga's sleeve in absolute terror. Serpent seemed to pull Sagittario towards it, digging its vicious fusion wheel under the other blade's edge and flipping it high into the air, following it into the sky with a massive jump. High above the dish, Serpent's bitter edge cracked into Sagittario's spin track, chewing away at the last of its defences as far below, Kenta stood perfectly still as if he had been turned to stone with fear.

Yuu felt it more than he heard it. The air itself seemed to shudder, and a huge explosion blew out above the dish.

"SAGITTARIO!" Kenta screamed, paralysis broken in the destruction of his bey.

It was over. Flame Sagittario fell back to earth, broken and still. Kenta collapsed to his knees with a sob as Serpent landed next to Sagittario, still spinning.

"It's… it's all over!" Blader DJ called, passing a hand in front of his eyes as the dust from the explosion settled. "Reiji takes it! Sagittario has stopped spinning!"

Yuu opened his mouth to shout something encouraging to Kenta, but before the slightest noise could leave him, Serpent suddenly moved again, leaping high into the air and smashing down onto the motionless Sagittario.

"It's not over yet," Reiji hissed, eyes alight with bloodlust. "Its spirit isn't completely broken yet! Take that! And that!"

The crowd were completely silent in dumbstruck horror as Serpent leapt again and again, attacking the helpless bey in the centre of the dish that had no way of fighting back.

"Um, the battle's over, Reiji," Blader DJ said, trying to sound firm, but the Dark Nebula blader ignored him.

"Stop it! Stop it, please!" Kenta gasped, reaching a hand out towards his bey. "Sagittario!" And he broke down into helpless, terrified sobs.

This was wrong! This wasn't how things were supposed to go! Yuu looked up at the utterly dispassionate Ryuga, wondering why he wasn't stopping Reiji when he was clearly going too far again. Ryuga might not really know Kenchi, but surely he could see that what was happening wasn't right!

"Ryuga!" Yuu tugged on Ryuga's sleeve, voice trembling. "Ryuga, please, make him stop, Kenta can't handle it! Please!" He was completely unaware that he was crying, until he realised Ryuga's coat sleeve was getting wet. But Ryuga still didn't move, neither to stop the battle nor to touch Yuu. "Ryuga!"

"Enough."

The word echoed and re-echoed around the suddenly silent stadium, but they had not been for Reiji. Ryuga turned on Yuu, finally showing some kind of emotion clearly in his furious expression. "Be quiet," he snarled. "This is not your battle, do not interfere."

"You interfered when it was me! He's attacking Kenchi's bey when it's stopped spinning! The battle's over! This isn't how a beybattle should be fought, you know that!"

In the dish below, Kenta was screaming as he pleaded uselessly with Reiji to leave his bey alone. Then, suddenly, he staggered to his feet and stumbled down into the dish, grabbing his bey and shielding it from the oncoming attack with his body.

"KENCHI, NO!"

But the flash of light that erupted from the centre of the dish was not the poisonous green of Serpent, but a brilliant blue. Ryuga looked up, full attention back on the battlefield as Gingka Hagane sprinted up the steps to the dish, Pegasus firmly standing guard between the cowering Kenta and the eerily still Serpent.

"That's enough!" Gingka shouted. "This battle's over!"

Reiji hissed, but Poison Serpent didn't move. "A beybattle is for crushing your opponents completely, their bey and their spirit. That bey still has some spirit left!"

"That's not what battles are for! And I'll prove it to you!"

The cameras focused on Reiji just in time to catch his leer as he called Serpent back to him. "Then I'll enjoy breaking your spirit and your bey just like I did to all the others – to Hyoma, to this guy, to little Yuu..."

"Leave Yuu out of this!" That was Kenchi's voice! "He's better than you'll ever be!"

"And yet I destroyed him. Look where he's hiding to stay away from me." And Reiji pointed up towards the box where Yuu stood. Suddenly frightened, Yuu ducked behind the balcony to get away from Reiji's unnerving stare, even if it was all the way at the bottom of the stadium. Ryuga gave him a disgusted look.

"I have an announcement to make." For the first and probably only time, Yuu was glad to hear Doji's voice interrupting what was clearly about to become a full-blown argument. "I have decided that the first battle in the semi-finals will be between Reiji and Gingka!"

Yuu looked up at Ryuga to see if there was any reaction, but the older blader wasn't where he had been a second ago. Looking around, Yuu spotted him already at the door. "Ryuga?"

Of course. Ryuga's match against Tsubasa was next. That was definitely going to be one to watch, but it meant Yuu wouldn't be able to get the answers he wanted. And if Reiji knew where Yuu was and Ryuga wasn't there…

Afterwards, Yuu was never quite sure how it happened. He was certain that Ryuga never moved from the doorway, and there was no-one else but Yuu in the box. Yet Yuu suddenly found himself picked up by the collar and dumped unceremoniously on the ledge of the balcony, with a perfect view of the stadium far better than the one he had from standing on the floor. For a moment, he thought he felt something scaly brush past his cheek.

"Stay there on that balcony where I can see you. Reiji won't come here. If he does, if he even touches you, he'll answer to me."

Something like joy swelled into life in Yuu's chest, and Libra trilled happily. Ryuga was watching out for them! Maybe he just hadn't helped Kenchi because he didn't know him. But he knew Yuu, so he was protecting him. If Ryuga could always see him, even down in the dish, then Reiji couldn't hurt him without Ryuga knowing. Yuu would be safe.

"Don't get the wrong idea," Ryuga snapped as the delighted smile spread uncontrollably across Yuu's face. "You're mine. If Reiji comes near my things, I'll destroy him myself." His voice dipped suddenly into something ugly. "We still need you alive."

Oookay. Now Ryuga was being weird again. "I'll stay here. Go and show Tsubasa how strong and cool you really are!"

For a moment, something flashed in Ryuga's eyes, like a spark from flint striking rock. But then it was gone, and Yuu was almost certain he'd imagined it as Ryuga disappeared through the door.

This would be Ryuga's first proper battle. Yeah, he'd fought Hikaru, but she'd been so scared of Ryuga she'd barely managed to launch. Anyway, Yuu had beaten her at the same time as Benben and Kenchi – there was no way someone like Ryuga would have any difficulty with her.

But Tsubasa was tricky. He'd always claimed to be hiding his true power, and he'd certainly not shown off everything he could do when he'd fought Yuu in the Dark Nebula dish. He watched his opponents and learned from their battles, and he'd been able to watch a lot more of Ryuga's battles than any of Gingka's other friends just by sneaking into the Dark Nebula and being assigned to 'watch over' him with Yuu. Not that Ryuga ever needed someone to look after him.

So this was going to be a good battle. Then again, anything would be better than the battle that had just happened. Yuu looked down into the stadium to see where Kenchi had got to. He spotted him eventually, being supported by Madoka and Gingka as they led him slowly away towards the team rooms. Of Reiji, there was no sign.

Yuu shivered. He felt weirdly exposed sat on the balcony, and he reached back to grab hold of the inner edge with both hands. He didn't want to fall off, even though he'd just land on the people below and it wasn't actually that far. It would be totally embarrassing, though.

"Welcome back," Blader DJ announced, grabbing the attention of everyone in the crowd, "to Battle Bladers! Are you ready for the final match of the second round, folks?"

A deafening cheer went up. Whoever won from this pair would go on to face Kyouya in the semi-final, and for some reason Kyouya was a massive favourite with the crowd. Yuu didn't understand it to be honest, but judging by the banners being waved at a couple of points around the stadium, there were several fans even more devoted than Benkei. Weirdos.

"Who will be the last to join Gingka, Kyouya and Reiji in the semi-finals?" Blader DJ continued. "Will it be the wild eagle whose stadium is the sky, Tsubasa? Or will it be the blader who demolishes anything and everything that stands in his way, the Dragon Emperor of Destruction, Ryuga?"

Dragon Emperor of Destruction? Now that was an awesome title. Yuu kicked his heels against the balcony, grinning. He loved watching Ryuga fight. It didn't matter how worried or scared he was about Reiji. His best and coolest friend was battling now.

"And here he is – the guy with the eye of the eagle, Tsubasa!"

The cameras fixed on Tsubasa as he emerged from the tunnels to thunderous cheers, catching the steely determination in his eyes. A part of Yuu was a bit upset that Tsubasa had turned out to be a traitor, even if he was a complete wet blanket about fun times. It had been kind of nice to have someone to travel around tournaments with. If he'd just been a bit more fun, Yuu would have been happy to call him a friend too. But he'd never beat Ryuga. No-one could. As for Ryuga himself…

"Hold tight, folks, Ryuga has come a-callin'!"

Yuu was expecting the stadium to roar even louder for the magnificent blader who had been so dominant in every one of his battles, but instead it fell strangely quiet. So quiet, in fact, that even all the way up in the box, Yuu could hear Ryuga's echoing footsteps as the newly-named Dragon Emperor of Destruction stalked towards the dish and his waiting opponent. The cameras weren't quite as close to the Dark Nebula side of the dish, but they were still close enough to get a glimpse of Ryuga's expression. Yuu shivered involuntarily. That wasn't determination in Ryuga's eyes. That was arrogance, absolute confidence that this battle was going to go Ryuga's way and no-one else's. It was like staring at a lightning storm, so intense that even the cameras cut away quickly.

"Ready?" Blader DJ called, regaining his composure now that Ryuga's intensity was focusing on something. "Three, two one –"

"LET IT RIP!"

Sometimes at the start of battles, Yuu could see which blader launched first. Some bladers launched as they shouted rip, some finished the shout and only then launched their bey. Some were a little bit slower, some a bit faster. But Ryuga and Tsubasa launched at exactly the same time, blades flying towards each other at ferocious speeds until they collided in the dead centre of the dish.

Entering a direct power struggle with Lightning L-Drago was always a risky move, but Tsubasa seemed to relish the challenge. His heavy, defensive-type bey held its ground equally against the lighter, faster and more vicious Attack-type L-Drago. Ryuga actually looked slightly impressed.

"So what happened to your pal, Phoenix?" he called across the dish, mockingly. "Bring him out, I'll fight both of you at once if you like."

"Save it," Tsubasa spat. "I'm more than enough for you by myself – Eagle!"

Instead of putting more force into the dominance struggle in the centre of the dish, Eagle broke away and circled to the edge of the dish, skimming lightly around in soaring loops.

"Hah! That won't work!" Ryuga crowed, and swung L-Drago up the other side of the dish, racing clockwise to meet Earth Eagle head on. Yuu gripped the edge of the balcony for dear life. This was going to be a clash of titans, both of them running at their full strength and stamina with all of the speed that the slope of the dish could give them. Closer and closer the two blades drew, and then -

- nothing.

Yuu blinked and looked harder, just as the two blades started to head towards each other once more, each of them running in a different direction. Ryuga's course was direct, aiming for the core of Eagle. There was no way someone like Ryuga would miss.

And yet Lightning L-Drago didn't connect once more. This time, though, Yuu saw it – a last-second dodge from the darker purple bey that let it slide around beneath Lightning L-Drago without touching it or taking any damage at all. The beys circled around towards each other for a third time, and again Tsubasa flicked his blade out of the way of L-Drago's charge at the last instant, without making any answer to the all-out attack.

Tsubasa was running away.

Well, that was very disappointing. Earth Eagle was good, but it wasn't a Stamina type, and neither was Lightning L-Drago. They were designed for big, aggressive matches, not dodging and waiting. Understandably, the crowd were beginning to get a bit restless as Tsubasa dodged attack after attack, never making any move of his own.

"Hit him, hit him, hit him, c'mon!" Yuu heard someone yell from a few feet below his seat. "Do something!"

Yuu was about to add his own voice to the shout when he saw Ryuga tilt his head to the side. Oh. This was a plan. And now Ryuga was working it out. Of course, Tsubasa was always one for tactics rather than all-out power – Doji had forced Yuu to watch the battle Tsubasa had fought against Gingka, and even through a screeen Yuu was able to tell that Tsubasa wasn't putting in a hundred percent. But Gingka hadn't realised, and had used his best moves to defeat Tsubasa, who had only fought back as hard as he needed to force Gingka to show off everything, and had walked away with all the information he needed.

But Yuu knew Ryuga. Ryuga was just as clever as Tsubasa when he needed to be, and he wouldn't be taken in by something like that. He didn't just have to rely on his own tremendous strength to win. He was Yuu's friend, and he was the best.

"So that's your plan," Ryuga said suddenly. "Waiting for me to use my real strength and then force a counter-attack on me? Trying to be clever, are we?" The cameras just caught Tsubasa's expression as he gritted his teeth. "You're not an eagle – you're a chicken! L-Drago!"

L-Drago suddenly stopped circling around the dish and returned to the centre. Ripples of purple fire seemed to cascade out of the blade, a physical manifestation of Ryuga's overwhelming power reaching out to drag Eagle down. Tsubasa jerked back.
"If that gets me, it's all over," he snarled, almost to himself but loud enough to be picked up by the stadium-side microphones. "Fly now, Eagle!"

Oh yeah, now Yuu remembered. Mid-air battles were Tsubasa's thing too, and L-Drago wasn't quite as good at flying as Eagle was. Tsubasa really had learned a lot about Ryuga's fighting style from his time in the Dark Nebula.

"Is that all you've got?" Tsubasa taunted, confidence returning now that his blade was pretty much out of reach. "Bring it on!"

"Hah! Is that what you want?" Ryuga laughed, and Yuu couldn't help grinning at the sound of his proper laugh, the one that meant the battle was going his way. "Your wish is granted – L-Drago! Dragon Emperor: Soaring Bite Strike!"

Yuu only just remembered in time that he was sat on the edge of a balcony as he moved to stand up and cheer. Finally! Ryuga's special move! This was what the battle was all about! The three purple dragons twisted out of Ryuga's blade, cycloning towards the descending Eagle.

"Now, Eagle! Counterstance!"

That was the move Tsubasa had used to break the Inferno Blast! It released a shockwave to counter vibrations, but Ryuga's Dark Move didn't release vibrations so surely it wouldn't work…

"WHAT?"

That was Ryuga's voice, high and incredulous as Eagle pinned down L-Drago with perfect precision. Neither the blade nor the triple dragons could move, trapped by the talons and tall spin track of Eagle.

"GO TSUBASA!" Yuu heard Gingka yell over the sudden roar of the crowd. "THAT'S IT, YOU'VE GOT HIM!"

Yuu was unaware that he was mirroring Ryuga's open-mouthed stare at Tsubasa. So he really had been hiding his true strength all this time. He could equal Ryuga's full output of power in his special move. That was… quite frankly, that was magnificent. Yuu stared jealously at the dish, suddenly and inexplicably wishing that he had paid more attention to Tsubasa when he'd been in the Dark Nebula. If he'd known Tsubasa could fight like this, he'd have had way more fun going out on recon missions with him. They could have gone back to Yuu's desert and had a no-stadium-outs battle. They could have done anything.

But instead, they'd argued and fought and argued some more, and then Tsubasa had betrayed Yuu and Ryuga and the Dark Nebula he'd pretended to pledge his loyalty to, and fled into the night on the wings of a Phoenix.

In the dish, the clash between Eagle and L-Drago was over, and it was the paler purple blade that was reeling backwards, wobbling, as dark purple Eagle spun steadily on. Yuu's jaw dropped even further. Tsubasa had done the impossible. He had broken the Dragon Emperor: Soaring Bite Strike. Ryuga's most terrifying attack had been defeated.

"I'll take over this fight now – Eagle! Diving Crush!"

Tsubasa was ahead of all of them, making his move before Ryuga had even begun to regroup from the shock of his Dark Move being broken. Eagle launched high into the air, swooping down with a metallic screech and striking Lightning L-Drago with such force that it was thrown up and back, remaining airborne just long enough for Earth Eagle to spring back up and land a second, then a third hit, each one sending the pale blade skittering over the dish. Tsubasa was in complete control, eyes alight with victory and confidence shining through every move. Yuu held his breath. No, this was impossible! Ryuga was the best, no-one could beat him! Why was Ryuga allowing this to happen? Did he really not have an answer to Tsubasa's constant aerial assault?

Tsubasa was almost smiling now. "I'll finish this with one hit – Special Move! Eagle, Metal Wing Smash!"

A straightforward attack, but a powerful and direct one, ad it struck Lightning L-Drago with all the force of gravity. Yuu had withstood that attack before because he had been in full contact with the dish and had a defensive move he could use. Ryuga had neither. He'd never been pushed back so far, not in all the battles Yuu had seen him in. What was going on?

"Just because you stopped my attack, don't think for a second you've beaten me!" Ryuga's voice was clear and challenging, ringing through the stadium. "The Dragon Emperor: Soaring Bite Strike won't be done in by something like that!"

"Oh no!" Yuu just about recognised Madoka's shout over the hubbub. "It's a trap – get away, Tsubasa!"

"It ends here!" Ryuga snarled. "I'll admit, you've put up much more of a fight than I expected, considering you had to be rescued the last time you tried to challenge me. Very entertaining. But – it's all over now!"

Yuu felt his heart leap in a strange mix of delight that the battle wasn't over, exhilaration that Ryuga had something more up his sleeve, and an unexpected fear at the odd sound in Ryuga's voice and laugh. It didn't sound like Ryuga at all. The laugh was too shrill, too high, too… inhuman.

"DRAGON EMPEROR: SOARING BITE STRIKE!"

He could use it twice in one battle?

Yuu scrambled backwards, falling into the relative safety of the box just before the shockwaves from the erupting dragons blasted through the stadium. By the time he got to his feet and managed to look over the edge of the balcony once more, the triple dragons were bearing down on Tsubasa's Eagle, urged on by the mad laughter of their master.

"My Eagle!" Tsubasa gasped as the dragons bit deep into his blade and the soaring constellation within. "No!"

"What's wrong?" Ryuga laughed. "I thought you could get out of this one! Go on, give it a try. Dodge it, why don't you?"

Both blades were in mid-air now, L-Drago shrieking as it clawed through Eagle's defences from below. Eagle might have had the upper hand in mid-air battles when it was doing the attacking, but this was something else entirely. Even the Wide Defence performance tip was no good against a power like that, and with no stadium to use as a launching pad, there was nowhere for Eagle to go but straight into the maw of the dragons.

"I congratulate you for making me use some of my real strength," Ryuga said, almost happily, as L-Drago forced Eagle back to the ground where it was helpless against him. "As a reward, I'll take extra special care in stealing all that power from you."

What? Yuu stared down at the dish in horror. No. He must have misheard. Ryuga wouldn't do that. L-Drago took anger and fear and turned that into food for itself, not the blader's power! Not the blader's spirit! But there was a link of light between the two bladers and their blades now, glowing purple and getting stronger and stronger on Ryuga's side of the dish. Could it be?

"Haha! You were reckless and foolish to even consider challenging me in the first place." Ryuga's eyes seemed to be glowing in the strange light arcing from the dish. "So, say hello to the pit of despair!"
Lightning L-Drago broke the attack momentarily, just long enough for the three dragons to soar into the sky, high, high, high above even Eagle's furthest reach. Then they corkscrewed downwards, pinning Eagle into the dish, pressing down, down, through -

Tsubasa screamed.

Yuu would have liked to compare it to the cry of a wild eagle, soaring through the skies, proud and aloof and untouchable. But it wasn't. It was a human scream – a child's scream of fear and pain in the face of something utterly horrible and utterly merciless.

A cataclysmic explosion of light towered into the sky, blowing the roof off of the stadium and cracking stonework and metal girders alike. Something – perhaps a rock or maybe even Earth Eagle – went flying out of the dish and smashed through the giant screen, turning the display to static and adding flashes of electrical discharge to the chaos. Yuu felt the box tremble beneath him as L-Drago's power shook the very foundations of the stadium. He ducked behind the shelter of the balcony wall and pressed his hands over his ears, screwed his eyes shut, and waited for stillness.

It seemed to take forever, but finally Yuu dared to take his hands away and pull himself to his feet once again. Carefully, just in case that monstrous attack had damaged the wall, he leaned up on tiptoes to see what had happened to the battlers.

On one side, Ryuga stood tall, drenched in purple light and wrapped in three dragons. He was splendid in victory, but Yuu wasn't looking for him now. His eyes were drawn to the far side, where, hair cascading around his shoulders, Tsubasa lay fallen, his blade cracked at his feet. His eyes were closed, and from such a distance, Yuu couldn't tell if he was even breathing.

The decision was instant and automatic. Who cared if Reiji was outside? Who cared if Ryuga had told Yuu to stay put? Who cared if Tsubasa had been a traitor? He was hurt, maybe dead, after putting up such a tremendous fight against such a strong opponent and he deserved better than to be left alone by the side of the dish. Yuu dashed for the door of the box, sprinting out into the main stadium seating and down the steps to the arena, dodging fallen masonry as he went.

By the time he reached the dish, there was already someone there. Gingka had been closer to Tsubasa's side of the dish, and had clearly had the same thought as Yuu. He was already next to Tsubasa, and the rest of his friends weren't far away either. Yuu skidded to a halt just next to Gingka, falling to his knees and grabbing one of Tsubasa's shoulders, shaking it.

"Tsubasa! Tsubasa!" He'd wanted Ryuga to beat Tsubasa, but not like this! This wasn't what he'd wanted at all! "Tsubasa, wake up!" He got no response, but at least from closer up it was clear that Tsubasa was breathing, if terribly injured. What on earth could have made Ryuga do this to someone?

"Well, that was good for some laughs, anyway," said a voice from the other side of the dish, and Yuu looked up. Ryuga's eyes were wild and cruel as he sneered at his comatose opponent, and Yuu shrank back from them. But before he could say anything, the lord of Dark Nebula swung around, coat flying like white wings behind him, and strode away from the destruction he had caused, laughing as he went.

"He'll have to go to hospital," Madoka was saying to Gingka as Yuu turned back, shivering in shock. "He's hurt so badly…"

"First Hikaru, then Kenta, now Tsubasa," Gingka said grimly. "Whatever Dark Nebula is up to, this has to stop, now."

"I didn't want this to happen," Yuu said aloud, voice trembling. Benkei was the only one near enough to hear him. "Not even to him."

"Of course you didn't," he said kindly. "You're a good guy, even if you are with Dark Nebula. You tried to warn Kenta about Reiji. If you wanted people to get hurt, you wouldn't have done that."

Gingka offered a wan smile as Yuu looked over at him. "Hey, Yuu," he said. "Still determined to stay with Ryuga even after this?" He now had Tsubasa's head cradled in his lap, pressing two fingers against a long, heavily bleeding cut near the unconscious blader's right eye.

Yuu bit his lip. "I… I think I have to," he said. "Reiji still wants to finish what he started with me, and Ryuga's the only one keeping him away from me. I'm risking enough being down here, but I had to come."

"We can help you," Madoka began, but Yuu shook his head and took a step back.

"What Ryuga did wasn't right," he said. "But… but he's still my friend. He's still looking out for me. I told you, I don't want anything to do with Dark Nebula or Doji. But Ryuga's different. There's got to be a reason why he's doing this. I'll get him to tell me."

"Yuu, I don't think-" Gingka started to say, but just then the stadium medics arrived and began shooing everyone away who wasn't actually injured. Yuu found himself next to Benkei, and suddenly realised he could find out the answer to another question he had.

"Hey, Benben?"

"Yeah?"

"Is Kenchi okay?"

Benkei hesitated for a second. "Why don't you come say hi to him? He'd like to see you, I know."

"I… I can't. I've got to go back. I'll come this evening, after the last semi-final, okay?"

"Okay," Benkei said, but he sounded sad. "Just… take care. That Reiji guy is a real creep. I don't wanna see anyone else getting hurt."

"Gingki had better beat him!" Yuu agreed, cheering up at the thought of Reiji getting defeated by Gingka's wonderful Pegasus. That would be a fight worth watching. "I'll be cheering for him from the box up there! Tell Kenchi I said hi!"

If Yuu hadn't turned away quite so quickly, he would have seen Benkei shaking his head sadly as he watched him go.

.

The box was empty when he got back. That was a bit odd. He'd spent ages down with Gingka and the others, and Ryuga could definitely walk faster than Yuu could. Maybe he'd got caught up with something in the team room? He'd be back soon enough, surely. Then Yuu could ask him what exactly was going on.

The break between the matches was longer this time, as they had to repair a bunch of things and get everyone sat down again after they'd scattered to avoid L-Drago's attack. Yuu went back to sitting on the floor with his repair kit in front of him, working on fixing the little bits of Libra he could immediately sort out whilst he listened with all his might for Ryuga to arrive.

But Ryuga never came. A new display screen was winched into place, the elevated platform Blader DJ had been stood on had been pushed upright again, and most of the crowd were coming back to their seats by the time that Yuu was starting to get tired of fixing his blade. Where was his friend? He needed to find out why Ryuga had attacked Tsubasa like that. It wasn't the Ryuga he knew.

Just as he was wondering whether to go and look for Ryuga himself, there was a knock on the door of the box. Yuu froze. But no, Reiji wouldn't knock. He'd just barge right in.

"Come in?" he called tremulously, and the door opened to reveal someone he really didn't expect – Doji's butler. "What are you doing here?"

"I have been sent by Master Ryuga," the butler said, bowing. "He wishes you to join him in the primary box immediately."

"But…"

"He said there would be no excuses accepted. Come with me, now."

Yuu shivered. He didn't want to go anywhere near Doji. "I guess I have to."

Doji's butler led the way back through the corridors of the stadium. Some of them were showing cracks now from the intensity of Ryuga's battle against Tsubasa. Yuu ran a hand along one of the cracks, feeling the paint flake off. If there were more battles like this to come, would the whole stadium collapse?

"In here," Doji's butler ordered, opening the door to the Dark Nebula box.

Yuu stepped in warily, looking around for Doji. But there was no-one there, except Ryuga, lounging in Doji's usual seat with his feet on the balcony in front of him. He looked almost the same as he had when Yuu had first seen him that morning.

"There you are." Ryuga's voice was… weird. It took Yuu a second to work out that it was lower than before, more like a growl. "You're late. They're about to start the next battle."

"Gingka's fighting this one, isn't he?"

"Was that supposed to be a question?"

"… no." Yuu came around the row of chairs and looked at Ryuga. "Ryuga, what happened in that battle? What's really going on here?" But Ryuga didn't answer him. Instead, he took his feet off the balcony and stood up, drawing himself to his full height, easily twice that of Yuu. "Hey, where are you going?"

"There's something I have to deal with," Ryuga said, and his voice was still weird. "You will stay here until I get back. Do not leave this box."

"What kind of thing?"

Ryuga grinned, but it looked all wrong. "There's been an… incident at headquarters. I'm going to deal with it myself."

"Incident?" Yuu looked over to where he could just see the dish at the top of Dark Nebula Headquarters. "Did someone try to break in or something?"

"Something I should have dealt with a long time ago," Ryuga said, clearly not listening. "I should have known he was – never mind. You stay here."

"Don't you want to watch Gingka?"

Ryuga's eyes flashed red for a split second – if Yuu hadn't been looking directly at him, he would have missed it. "I've seen him battle before. This is no different. If he cannot get past Reiji, he isn't worth my time."

Yuu was about to point out that Yuu hadn't got past Reiji, so was he worth Ryuga's time, but something seemed to catch the words in his throat. Instead, he just nodded, and sat down on the chair closest to him.

"You want to know what's going on?" Ryuga said suddenly, and this time his voice was closer to normal, which was reassuring but not by much. "You'll find out soon enough. Come and find me after the semi-finals. I'll tell you everything you want to know then."

Yuu looked up at his friend, and was surprised to see how intense Ryuga's expression was. "O-okay. Do I have to stay here the whole time, though? What if Doji comes back? Or Reiji?"

"Reiji is battling next, so he'll be down in the stadium. If he loses, he knows where he has to go, and it is not here. If he wins, then Gingka Hagane has lost, and then I won't care about this competition any more."
"You really only want to battle Gingka, huh, Ryuga?" Well, that was something they had in common, still. Except Yuu wanted to fight Kenchi too. And Benben. And Tsubasa… if Tsubasa ever recovered.

"He's the only one of them worth fighting." And with that, Ryuga stalked out of the Dark Nebula box and slammed the door behind him.

Alone again. This really wasn't what Yuu had wanted. It was better than what had happened to the Kumade brothers, and Tetsuya, and Captain Capri, but still. He'd been hoping to watch all of Battle Bladers at Ryuga's side, especially the semi-finals and the finals. Though, now he thought about it, if Ryuga was going to be in the final, he'd have to be in two of those three battles, so maybe he was being a bit overambitious.

Yuu scrambled up onto the edge of the balcony. It had given him a better view for Ryuga's battle, after all, and Gingka didn't tend to use such huge attacks that damaged the stadium so it was safe. He poked the stonework next to him a bit nervously. Well, probably.

"You do not want to miss this one, folks! It's Reiji versus Gingka, and oh boy are they going to give us a show!"

Yuu spotted Madoka and – hey, was that Hyoma? - down in the crowd and waved at them, but they were watching Gingka as he stepped into the stadium, and didn't see him. Oh yeah, he'd said he'd be in the other box anyway. Never mind. There was this battle, then Ryuga versus Kyouya, and then it would be over for the day. Then Yuu could go and see them all again, and say hi to Kenchi – and then get the answers he wanted from Ryuga.

"Is everybody ready? Because here comes Reiji!"

It took a deliberate effort not to flinch back as Reiji walked out to muted applause. It took even more effort when Reiji didn't look towards the dish, but instead turned his head to look up at the Dark Nebula box and fixed Yuu with a stare that threatened nothing less than destruction. Yuu swallowed and tried to stay still so that Reiji didn't notice how scared he was, but then Reiji's mouth curled into a cruel smile and turned away. He'd definitely seen. Yuu took a deep breath. Just… just as long as Ryuga got back from his thing as soon as possible, he'd be okay. Reiji couldn't hurt him from all the way down there. And Gingka was brilliant. Gingka could beat Reiji, especially as Reiji had hurt his friends. Gingka always got serious when his friends were involved.

But Yuu still wanted Ryuga there. Then his friend would be involved too.

"Bladers, on my count!" Blader DJ announced, holding a hand up for attention. "Three, two, one..."

"LET IT RIP!"

Gingka wasted no time waiting for Reiji to come to him, and went straight on the attack, clearly trying to dominate the battle before Reiji's brutal blade could do too much damage. But there was something weird about the way Poison Serpent was moving. It was just as fluid as always, slithering from side to side like a snake, but it somehow seemed to be even more aggressive than usual. Yuu squinted to see if he could spot anything different about it whenever the blade appeared on the massive relay screen, but it was spinning so fast that it was difficult. It seemed to be moving like a true Attack type, not a balance-type with both defence and attack in equal amounts…

"Oh!" Yuu exclaimed aloud to nobody. "He's flipped the spin track!"

Now he thought about it, it made perfect sense. The spin track that had pushed away all the attacks Libra and even Aries had made on it was usually pointing in the opposite direction to the blades on the fusion wheel. But if it was flipped over, so that the spin track pointed the same way, it would be like adding even more blades to the bey. It would be more like Ryuga's L-Drago with its three dragons, causing the maximum damage with every strike.

This was Reiji at his most powerful and most aggressive, bringing everything he had to bear against Gingka's unsuspecting Pegasus.

Gingka appeared to have figured out the same thing, as his stance shifted to something less uncertain and more determined. "Pegasus, Starblast Attack!"

The blade ricocheted off the dish wall and sprang into the air, soaring above the earthbound Serpent. Then it fell with a flash of light, striking direct and true with all the power of the heavens at its command.

"Yes, Gingki!" Yuu cheered. That would show Reiji!

Except that Reiji was laughing. Gingka's expression morphed through confusion into shock and then to horror as the dust of the attack cleared away and revealed the two blades. Pegasus was still effectively airborne, grinding down on the edge of Serpent against the vicious fusion wheel. But Serpent was pressed back down into the dish, using the blades on the fusion wheel almost like spikes to negate all the force of attack and cause even more damage to Gingka's blade.

"Is that all?" Reiji sneered as Serpent threw Pegasus off. "You don't look frightened enough yet! I want to see you cry, I want to watch your spirit crumble into dust!"

Serpent went back on the attack as Gingka tried to scramble Pegasus out of the way, and this time there would be no escape. It was a barrage attack, winding round and round Pegasus in a circle of green and red that left no way out for the blue blade. Left, right, forwards, backwards, every line of escape was completely cut off by the encircling bey. Pegasus was frozen in place, only moving by the will of Serpent, and at the edge of the dish, Gingka was equally frozen, making no move to call out orders or encouragement to his bey as Serpent ground into it.

"Gingki," Yuu whispered, feeling the familiar horror rising up inside once again. He knew exactly how frightening Reiji could be, how it felt like your body was turning to stone as fear flooded every part. "No, Gingki..."

"Look at you!" Reiji taunted, loud enough to be heard. "You're so scared of me you can't even move!"

Yuu had never been very good at reading lips, and Gingka had his head down anyway. But the stadium-side microphones picked up something and amplified it just enough that Yuu heard it through the murmuring of the crowd.

"I am scared."

He shrank back, gripping onto the edge of the balcony to prevent himself from falling. Gingka was frightened. Gingka, unstoppable, brilliant, awesome Gingka was frightened of Reiji.

And that meant Reiji had won.

The damage done to a blade could be fixed, Yuu knew that. But damage to a blader's spirit and desire to fight wasn't so easy to fix. If Gingka had fallen into Reiji's trap, there would be no way to stop Serpent any more.

Yuu suddenly wished Ryuga was there. Reiji couldn't touch Ryuga. And he couldn't touch Yuu as long as Ryuga was close by. With Gingka collapsing under Reiji's assault, Ryuga was Yuu's only safety. Why was he never there when Yuu wanted him?

"But he's always there when I need him," Yuu told himself. "He's my friend. He won't let me get hurt."

"… why are you smiling?"

Yuu looked up with a jerk. Reiji had sounded… scared. But Gingka wasn't -

Gingka was smiling. He had lifted his head and was looking straight across the dish at Reiji, and he was almost beaming. "You know, you're pretty funny," he said, almost conversationally. "You think I'm scared of you? I'm not afraid of you at all. The only thing I'm afraid of – is not getting to the final battle!"

What?

"Barrage attack. Pretty tricky, I'll admit. And the new attack mode too. You did a lot of damage to Pegasus with that. But that didn't make me scared. How could I be scared when I'm facing an opponent so strong? I love battles like this. Push me into a corner and I'll just push back. Battles like this don't scare me, they wake me up! I'm having fun!"

"Fun?" Reiji shrieked, and Yuu wasn't certain whether to be frightened or delighted by the sound. "How can you be having fun?"

"Just watch me!"

And Pegasus jumped.

Of course. Left and right and forwards and backwards were covered by the massive barrage of attacks. But up? Into the sky where Pegasus' wings made it the master? Never.

"Go, Pegasus!"

The counter-attack was glorious. Pegasus swooped again and again, trampling Serpent into the dish. Every strike seemed to be throwing Serpent back now, every move it made perfectly mirrored and retaliated against. Of course. Reiji had flipped the spin track to Attack rather than Defence, and in doing so had exposed himself to the weakness of Attack types. In Defence mode, Serpent could deflect attacks away from itself, even if they were mirrored against it. But in Attack mode, every attack hit with full power, both from Serpent and against it.

And Serpent wasn't as strong as Pegasus.

"How disappointing."

Yuu jumped and flinched away, only to realise a second later that it was Ryuga, once more stood next to him having arrived completely silently. "How do you keep doing that? That's creepy, Ryuga."

"I thought he might manage to put up a slightly better fight than this," Ryuga continued as if he hadn't heard. "This is pathetic."

"Gingki's doing really well!" Yuu objected indignantly.

"Not him," Ryuga said dismissively. "Reiji. This was the purpose that Doji created him for, and look at him. Useless. He's no threat to Gingka now."

Yuu stared down at the dish. There was no mistaking it now. Reiji looked frightened in the face of Gingka's relentless attacks and unending enthusiasm. There was nothing the master of fear could do to Gingka to make him afraid of the sport he loved so much, not when Gingka's spirit was on fire with the desire to get to the final and fight Ryuga.

"From the blood of Medusa / Pegasus sprang," Ryuga said in a soft, almost sing-song voice, and as sharp as his eyes were they seemed to be seeing something a lot further away than the dish. "When the hero Perseus cut off the head of Medusa, Pegasus leapt from her body. That's the myth, anyway. Perhaps from the blood of this Medusa will come an even stronger Pegasus."

Yuu shivered. Ryuga didn't seem to be aware of anything around him any more. "Ryuga?"

"Pegasus! Stormbringer!"

Yuu looked back to the dish just in time to see the flash of blue fire that marked Gingka's strongest move. He bit back the cheer he wanted to give, glancing sideways at the tall young man next to him, whose blank, fierce eyes were tracking the slightest shift in movement in the dish below. There could be no doubt. All Ryuga wanted now was the battle with Gingka. He'd probably forgotten about his promise to tell Yuu what he wanted to know, let alone Yuu's request to battle him. All of that would have to wait until after Battle Bladers was over. Ryuga wasn't thinking of anything except that final battle.

Of course, he had to get past Kyouya first…

In the dish below, the final, thrashing movements of Serpent as it fought against the Stormbringer made it lose control and fly out of the stadium like a – well, like a snake kicked by a pegasus. It slammed into the far wall, cracking the concrete and shuddering to a halt before falling to the ground, utterly defeated.

Yuu took what felt like the first full breath he'd had since the start of the battle. Reiji had lost! There was no need to fear him any more. He hadn't defeated Gingka. In fact, Reiji was collapsing onto his knees at the side of the dish, staring down at his hands in horror, curling in on himself like a snake in its death-throes.

Gingka was waving at the cheering crowd, a victorious grin on his face, and Yuu couldn't help joining in with the chant of Gingka's name. He got so caught up with it that he forgot about Ryuga standing next to him until a cold wind blew across his skin and he looked around. Ryuga had turned on his heel, coat swinging around his shoulder and disturbing the air, and was walking towards the door.

Time for the second semi-final.

"Ryuga?" Yuu called, and to his delight Ryuga paused, though he didn't turn. "You're the coolest blader I know, and you're going to be the best blader in the world. Don't let Kyouya take that away from you."

"As if he ever could," Ryuga said coldly. "Stay here. I'll be back as soon as I've dealt with this nuisance."

"Good luck," Yuu said, but he was pretty certain Ryuga missed it in the slam of the door. "I'll be watching."

He turned back to the stadium again, and quickly spotted Gingka over by the second entrance tunnel. He seemed to be talking to Kyouya. Probably telling him he'd manage to beat Ryuga and then face Gingka in the final battle. Not like that was ever going to happen. Ryuga was so strong now, Kyouya wouldn't know what had hit him.

Suddenly, the air in the stadium roared. Yuu fell back into the box yet again as the air pushed outwards from the dish, this time gaining several bruises when he landed. Muttering to himself, he got back on his feet and scrambled back up on the balcony, looking down at the -

- the dish wasn't there any more.

Where the extra-strength reinforced concrete dish had been, three purple dragons rose into the air like the claws of some terrible beast. Ryuga stood proudly within their shadows, eyes fixed on Kyouya on the far side of what had once been the dish.

"Did – did we just see Ryuga trash a brand-new stadium for fun?" Blader DJ squawked. "Fun?"

What was Ryuga up to? Yuu could just about see the familiar head of white hair through the dust, and tried to see if Ryuga was smiling that strange, wild grin that he'd had when he fought Yuu in the desert, when… when Yuu had destroyed a massive section of the sand just to say hello to this new, powerful blader he'd just met. Was Ryuga saying hello to Kyouya?

Whether he was or not, Kyouya answered in kind. A tornado sprang out of nowhere, picking up the fragments of the dish and whirling them into the air in a perfect circle around Ryuga before dropping them, enclosing him in a ring of stone. Now there was no stadium at all, just a gaping hole in the ground. It was in these sorts of battles that Ryuga was at his best, full-powered battles that weren't constrained by the confines of the dish. Not that it would matter much to Kyouya, whose wild winds always worked best when he had no limits to stay within. Throwing opponents high and out of the dish was easy, and Kyouya never liked taking the easy route.

"Is that all you've got?" Kyouya jeered. "There's nothing you can do that I can't do better! Ryuga, get ready to be smashed into the ground!"

There was the smile! The half-cruel, half-shining smile that Ryuga only had when he was battling a truly strong opponent. "No need," he called back. "Because you're the one who'll be kissing the pavement!"

Blader DJ looked from one to the other with a shrug. "Well, if you guys have finished puffing your chests, it's time to get the main event started! Three!"

"TWO!" roared the crowd. "ONE!"

"LET IT RIP!"

Ryuga was the fastest on the launch this time. "Go L-Drago! Crush him to bits with one hit!"

"Leone!"

The two beys clashed head-on in the middle of the dish, the force of it sending ripples through the air and the ground. Yuu clamped his hands on to the edge of the balcony and hung on for dear life. But unlike in the previous battles, there was a clearly dominant blade. Ryuga's L-Drago made short work of pushing the heavier, less manoeuvrable Leone out of the centre and toward the edge. Purple light exploded from the edges of the left-rotating bey, wrapping around Leone even as the green bey blew the first wisps of a tornado out to meet it.

Ryuga's laugh was the same high, strange laugh from the match with Tsubasa as he watched the unfolding display. "You were all talk and no action my friend. You may sound tough but you need more than hot air to win!"

"Oh really?" Kyouya was glaring now, all of his focus on his bey. "Don't think that such a trivial thing will defeat me! Don't you understand? You're just one small step on my way to get to that final where Gingka waits for ME!" Leone suddenly pushed back hard, breaking L-Drago's dominance, and the two beys separated for the first time.

The cameras just caught Ryuga's face as he rolled his eyes. "You're babbling again! Gingka's mine, no-one else's! Now, try this!"

With a battle-howl so ear-splitting that Yuu put his hands over his ears, L-Drago pounced, all three heads cascading purple fire down on Leone. But Kyouya wasn't fazed even for a moment.

"Leone! Lion Gale Force Wall!"

The howl of the dragons was instantly drowned by the roar of the tornado. A banner of Kyouya's face in a heart spun past Yuu in the box, ripped from somewhere in the crowd, and was instantly shredded by the fierce winds. The scattered remains of the dish were lifted up and whirled into a weapon against the pale purple blade, pressing it into one place. Even L-Drago couldn't get past the solid defence of Rock Leone.

But that wasn't going to stop Ryuga. If his opponent's special move was enough to stop his normal attack, then there was only one thing to do.

"You're full of yourself," Ryuga snarled across the dish, words dripping arrogance and anger. "It's going to ruin you."

Yuu realised what Ryuga was about to do a second before Kyouya, and braced for impact.

"Dark Move! Dragon Emperor: Soaring Bite Strike!"

The explosion rocked the stadium and cracked the tornado in half, forcing through to hit not only the blade within the defensive wall of wind, but the blader beyond. Kyouya was lifted off his feet and flung backwards in a wave of dark purple light. Surely that would do it?

"KYOUYA!"

Quite how Gingka had managed to shout louder than the screaming wind and howling dragons, Yuu would never know. But Kyouya heard him. He twisted in mid-air, almost catlike in his movements, and landed firmly on his feet.

"Hah! I'm not done yet!"

Amazing. Yuu stared at Kyouya in awe. Either he'd become far stronger since the Island Battle, or he'd been struggling more than Yuu remembered during that battle. There was no question that he had even more raw power than Tsubasa, if less refined and more visceral. Yuu would have given anything to be able to be right by the dish and see the expressions on each of the warriors' faces, especially Ryuga's. Instead he had to settle for imagining the incredulous look to match Ryuga's tone of voice as he spluttered "What? You're not down yet? That attack should have finished you."

Kyouya held his head up proudly. "Don't make me laugh! Did you really think you could defeat me with borrowed power? I saw what you did to Hikaru and Tsubasa. You've done it to hundreds of others, I know. And there's no way I'll allow myself to be defeated with stolen power! If you have any pride as a blader, then try to defeat me using only yourself and your bey's natural power!"

Once again, the stadium fell weirdly silent. Even the wind had dropped.

But one thing was still there. L-Drago's three heads loomed over the battlefield, eyes burning and necks weaving sinuously as Ryuga appeared to be carefully considering Kyouya's words.

"Come on, Ryuga! Surely you're not afraid to face me with just your own strength? Or do you need to use stolen power because you're afraid to fight your own battles and you've got no confidence in your own abilities?"

The laugh echoed around the stadium. How dare he? Yuu was about to half-yell, half-squawk something excessively angry at Kyouya, but then he realised what he could hear. That wasn't Kyouya's laugh. That was Ryuga's.

"Oh come on," Ryuga laughed, and it was so similar to the laugh Yuu remembered from their first battle that he felt his heart skip a beat. "Do you really think I'd fall for such an obvious taunt? You're not as smart as I thought you were." He grinned. "But fine. I'll accept your challenge!"

The kick in Yuu's stomach wasn't eagerness or excitement this time, but pure jealousy. He knew what this meant. Ryuga was going to fight Kyouya properly. Not with the Dark Move, not with any special attacks, but with just his own strength and will and spirit. How was it that Kyouya could get Ryuga to do it when Yuu couldn't?

But now they would all see the beyspirit Ryuga had, the brilliant fire that had drawn Yuu to him over and over again, the reason he would never leave his side. Now they'd see what Yuu had known all along – that Ryuga was the best.

The stadium was still quiet. Yuu imagined he could hear the two opponents breathing. Neither blade moved, spinning in place as the tension grew around them. Neither opponent took their eyes off the other, glaring daggers as each tried to work out who would be the first to break.

When it happened, it took everyone by surprise except the two in the dish. Ryuga and Kyouya both roared a battle cry and their blades charged each other at full speed. The collision was so strong that Yuu nearly fell of the balcony yet again. The second was equally strong, and the third, each attack striking with the kind of force that was usually reserved for special moves. Back and forth the battle went, each blade giving and taking in equal measure.

"Come on," Kyouya laughed suddenly. "You can do better than that, right?"

Ryuga's open, angry snarl was caught in full by the cameras, and Yuu was very glad that he wasn't down there in the direct line of sight of such a glare. "You haven't seen anything yet! L-Drago!"

Kyouya seemed to realise somewhat belatedly that making Ryuga angrier wasn't the best plan, but before he could get something resembling a defence in place, L-Drago had swept around and caught Leone beneath the fusion wheel, pushing it right out of the dip that was all that was left of the dish, hurling it into the wall. The spectators sat above that wall screamed and scrambled backwards as L-Drago pushed Leone further and further into the concrete – with no stadium, there were no stadium outs, and this wouldn't end until one of them stopped spinning.

"Push back hard, Leone!"

But Kyouya wasn't done yet. With a massive explosion, Leone forced L-Drago away, letting itself fall safely from the dent it had been digging into the wall, and then jumping back to the dip that had once been the dish. Back to an even playing field again.

There was no question in Yuu's mind. Kyouya was a superb blader. His battle against Benkei had been awesome enough, but this was on a completely different level. This was a true battle, blader spirits clashing against each other until one of them flamed out into nothing. This was what everyone should be aiming for in a battle, a perfect storm of attacks and determination that drew in anyone watching until there was nothing but the fight.

One day, Yuu promised himself. One day I'll fight Ryuga like that.

Leone had barely dropped back into the dish when L-Drago charged again. But this time it wasn't a direct attack. Instead, Ryuga looped his blade up and behind the green bey, using the slope of the walls to gather speed and power in order to land glancing blows on his opponent every time he passed. Yuu frowned in confusion and looked harder. No, there could be no mistaking it. Ryuga had changed his fighting style. This wasn't the movements of an Attack type. This was…

This was Yuu's fighting style, lots of little glancing blows to exhaust the opponent and push them off-balance. It was perfect for a Stamina type, of course, but Ryuga's blade was Attack-type to the core, without the staying power that such a style required. What was he thinking?

Kyouya seemed equally unnerved by Ryuga's sudden, silent change, and began to move Leone around the dish in rounded triangles, swooping from one side of the dip to the other and dodging L-Drago at every step. Yuu winced. The last person who had tried dodging Ryuga hadn't had much luck.

It looked like Ryuga did not have the patience to go through the start of his battle with Tsubasa all over again. "You think you're so great," he snarled at Kyouya, anger making him seem even bigger than usual as his coat bulked out his frame. "I'll show you – I'll take care of you in one hit! L-Drago!"

"Go ahead and try! You'll never touch my blader's spirit! This is how Leone and I fight and win!" Kyouya planted both feet firmly against the ground, but L-Drago's next attack was too much and he was thrown backwards for the second time, landing in a crumpled heap by one of the larger sections of the destroyed dish. But it still wasn't over – with an obvious effort, Kyouya staggered to his feet, raising defiant eyes to meet Ryuga's as he roared a challenge back to the Dragon Emperor. "You can't keep me down! I will never be crushed, not now or ever! Leone!"

The crowd went wild. Yuu wasn't sure which side was being cheered for the loudest, or if there was even anyone actually picking a side instead of just bellowing their excitement at what had to be one of the best beybattles in history. Even he couldn't decide – of course Ryuga had to get to the final to face Gingka, which was everything he wanted and everything Yuu wanted for him, but Kyouya was a magnificent opponent. No matter who won, this was going to be remembered as one of the most glorious battles ever.

Even Ryuga seemed a little taken aback as he called L-Drago back for a moment. "You're strong. I can't remember anyone taking so many of my direct hits without completely collapsing. So I'll give you credit for that."

"Same to you, I guess." Kyouya shrugged, grinning through exhaustion. "I haven't met many bladers who can rise up to my level."

"But," Ryuga continued, unperturbed, and with a tone in his voice so dangerous that Yuu shivered even though it wasn't aimed at him. "It ends here!"

The increase in tension was instant. Both blades were wobbling, running on the last dregs of their strength and that of their bladers. Ryuga and Kyouya both looked exhausted, every drop of energy fed into their beys. This would be the last move. This would decide everything in a battle that had been better than anything Yuu could ever have dreamed of.

"Leone!"

"L-DRAGO!"

The blades gathered into a full sprinting charge, both going for a headlong collision. One of them would come out the victor. One of them would leave forever.

The crash when the blades connected was even louder than the earlier special moves. Light burst from the dip, throwing dust and waves of power into the air and completely obscuring the battling blades. Who had won the clash? Who had won the match?
From the depths of the light, a purple-black shadow erupted into the stadium.

Then another.

And another.

L-Drago towered over the dish, eyes red and shape no longer clearly defined. It – he? - was more of a shadow now than a creature, something terrible and primal that had no true master.

"W-what?" Ryuga stammered. He sounded… frightened. Yuu tensed. Something was wrong. So very wrong. The air smelled electric, and his hair stood on end as the three enormous dragons loomed over Ryuga, facing him, not Kyouya.

Then they lunged.

Ryuga yelled in shock and pain as the triple dragons struck him, bleeding into his skin, forcing their way into his flesh and enclosing him with their claws. Yuu couldn't take his eyes off the horror, but in the corner of his vision he saw Kyouya straighten up in confusion, Gingka jumping to his feet in the stands, Blader DJ taking one very large step away from the growing, writhing shadows encasing Ryuga. This was… this was horrible.

Then everything stopped. Ryuga was bent almost double, as if he was about to be sick. Even from as far away as the box was, Yuu could see him trembling, panting for breath. Had he lost control of his own beyblade? Or was it something worse? A lump of icy fear seemed to swallow up all of Yuu's insides as he stared down at his friend.

Then Ryuga flung his arms wide, threw his head back, opened his mouth and screamed.

Yuu had never heard a human make that sound. Even Tsubasa's wailing scream as the Dark Move drained his power was nothing like it. It was more like an animal than a person, a shriek that cracked through stone as waves of purple-tinged power ripped out of Ryuga's body like water.

And there was a word in the scream, so bound up in the sound that it seemed like no-one else could hear it. But Yuu could.

"HELP!"

It took even less of a decision than the one to go to Tsubasa's side against Ryuga's orders. Ryuga needed help, now, and it looked like Yuu was the only one who had heard. He sprinted for the door, ducking under the arm of Doji's butler who was still hovering nearby, and out into the corridor.

He realised his error almost immediately. The main Dark Nebula box was completely separate from the rest of the stadium, unlike the box he had been in before. He would have to go all the way down to the bottom floor to get to the stadium itself via one of the team tunnels.

But Ryuga needed him. His friend needed him.

With Ryuga's scream still echoing in his ears, Yuu ran.

The stadium was shaking around him, and he wasn't certain whether he'd manage to make it outside before the whole thing collapsed. At the bottom of the stairs, he suddenly found he had to make a choice – left of right. Unable to remember in the heat of the moment exactly which direction he was now facing, Yuu chose one at random and dashed along it, praying that he would come out on Ryuga's side of the dish. If this was the doing of Ryuga's constellation, then Yuu wasn't quite sure what to do, but he was going to be there anyway. He had to do something.

Unfortunately for Yuu, he found himself running down a familiar hallway towards Kyouya's tunnel. Well, it would have to do. Doubling back wouldn't save any time, and the longer that this battle went on, the worse things could get for Ryuga.

He reached the end of the tunnel and was about to step out into the stadium when some sixth sense told him to wait.

"Leone! KING LION TEARING BLAST! Shatter him! Let's use everything that we've got left!"

The reply from Ryuga was terrible, more like an animal's howl than a human voice. "Dark Move! Dragon Emperor: Soaring Destruction!"

The attacks struck with an explosion that rocked the whole stadium right down to its foundations. Yuu clung to the wall next to him as masonry and stonework collapsed in every direction, sending rocks and dust billowing.

"Everybody run!" Blader DJ bellowed from high above, and suddenly the dust was replaced by people, all pushing and shoving to get out of the exits. Yuu hung on, ducking arms and dodging legs until the flow of people had mostly vanished.

What he saw when the crowds finally parted chilled him to the bone.

Kyouya's bey had not been enough to stop Ryuga's attack. As powerful as the King Lion Tearing Blast was, it was just no match for Ryuga. As a reward for the best fight Yuu had ever seen, Kyouya was still standing, mouth open on the most horrible groaning, wailing nose, and one of L-Drago's nebulous, purple-black heads had punched right through his chest into the floor, pinning him like a strange bug on an even stranger backdrop.

Ryuga – or was it L-Drago? - was draining Kyouya's power.

From almost directly over Yuu's head, Gingka suddenly vaulted down into the stadium, along with the rest of his group. Yuu started forwards to help, only to find his path blocked by fallen stones from the final attack. Angrily, he pushed them aside, struggling over the debris until he got close enough to see what was happening, and hear what Ryuga was saying to Gingka now.

"Now do you understand, Gingka? From the very beginning, Battle Bladers has been a tournament to make you build power, which I can give to L-Drago!"

"You can't!" Gingka exploded. "It's not your power! You can't use it for your own ends!"

But yes, that's what Doji said they'd do. To build a new world with Ryuga's power. But it wasn't supposed to end like this!

"The final battle is tomorrow, Gingka. I've been preparing what you might call a special stage for our showdown. Don't be late, now."

And the distant figure turned around and stalked out of the stadium.

Yuu's eyes narrowed in determination as he took in the damage to the stadium floor and seating, the unconscious Kyouya half-lying in Gingka's arms, Madoka kneeling by a comatose Benkei (when had that happened?). This wasn't how the battle was supposed to end! Ryuga had a lot of talking to do, and now it was the end of the semi-finals, he owed Yuu an explanation.

"Yuu! Yuu, come back, it isn't safe! Yuu!"

But Yuu wasn't listening any more, not to Gingka and his friends at least. This time, he knew where to go. It was time to listen to Ryuga. No more hesitating, no more backing down. He was going to get answers, and he knew where to find them.

Without even a backwards glance, Yuu took off into the dust and smoke, chasing after Ryuga. But he'd reckoned without the complete confusion that the lack of visibility would cause, especially with the panicking crowd forcing him one way and then another, and ended up at the main entrance to the stadium, facing the Dark Nebula building. Well. The final wasn't until tomorrow, and Ryuga was sure to go back to the building at some point. He might already be there.

Yuu wasn't going to wait around for Ryuga any more. He was going to go after him, no matter what it cost. He'd had enough of hoping his friend would come to him. Now he would have to go to Ryuga. And if L-Drago had hurt him, Yuu would just have to think of a way to fix things.

.

Most of the crowd were going in the direction of the city, heading back to homes or hotels or the stations, so Yuu had to push past all of them to get to the entrance of the Dark Nebula headquarters. How weird to think that this morning when he'd left out of these doors the only thing he'd been worried about was Doji. He pushed the doors open, stepped inside and then stopped in shock.

The entrance hall was completely trashed. Dust swirled around as if a major battle had taken place here not too long before. Only one light was still working, flickering on and off, and the huge chandelier was shattered all over the floor. The doors of the lift were damaged and pushed apart, revealing that the lift wasn't even there, just the empty lift shaft. The tiles near the deserted reception desk were cracked, and one of the big plant pots had been tipped over and smashed.

"Merci?" Yuu called, knowing that the computer would have seen him arrive. "Hey, Merci, what's going on? Where's Ryuga?"

No answer. Well, that figured. Merci only ever spoke to Doji, or to tell Yuu off for doing something it – he? - didn't like. Yuu skirted around the edge of the most damaged bits, heading for the staircase. Ryuga's room was almost at the top of the building, so this was going to take a while. He had almost reached the doors when something caught his eye and he whipped around.

Gingka was lying still on the floor, half-hidden behind one of the remaining plant-pots.

Heart pounding with shock and horror, Yuu pressed his back against the stairwell doors and took a deep breath. Gingka couldn't be here. Yuu had just seen him in the stadium, there was no way Gingka would have got here quicker than Yuu. It couldn't be him. It just couldn't…

… it wasn't Gingka.

Now that he had been looking for a few seconds, it was clear that this person was much, much taller than Gingka, and much older. A full-grown man, then. But… but what was he doing in the Dark Nebula building? Was he dead? Or unconscious? And why was his hair just like Gingka's, right down to the headband?

Yuu was genuinely frightened. There was something seriously wrong here, and the only person with all the answers wasn't there. Yuu had to find Ryuga, now.

Feeling just a touch guilty that he was abandoning the stranger, Yuu backed away through the doors and found himself in the staircase. It was dark. Very dark. Not even the fire exit signs seemed to be working. Yuu looked up the twisting staircase into blackness, and saw a glimmer of light a long way up. The door to one of the upper floors had a working light behind it. Maybe that was where Ryuga was.

Yuu started climbing, hoping he was right. He didn't want to have to come back down these stairs alone, and Libra wasn't great at giving off light unless he wanted to use Inferno Blast, which would probably bring down the entire tower. Up and up he climbed, past the admin offices, the store rooms, the kitchens, the lower training levels. The light was still above him, but it was close enough now that he could tell it wasn't all the way at the top, by the helipad. He considered ducking out of the staircase when he got to the level that his room was on. Ryuga's room wasn't too far from his, not that Yuu had ever seen Ryuga actually go into or out of said room. But there was no light behind that door, and so Yuu summoned up what was left of his courage and continued up into the dark.

Finally, he reached the door with the light. It was the level with Doji's office, which wasn't really where he wanted to be, but at least he'd be able to see.

Yuu opened the door, and immediately saw that the light by the door was the only one that was actually working. The rest of the corridor was full of shadows, shifting weirdly as if they were alive. There wasn't even any light coming from under the door to Doji's office. But at the other end of the corridor, there was a shape. Tall, dressed in white, moving with unmistakeable purpose; Yuu recognised it instantly.

"Ryuga!"

The shadows swirled and roared, and suddenly the white-haired Dragon Emperor was right in front of him, golden eyes burning. His white coat dripped with purple smoke, and his lips curled away from teeth that were just a fraction too sharp to be human. "Libra. I had wondered where you'd run off to."

Yuu blinked. "Ryuga? It's... it's me. Yuu."

"I know that." His voice had layers. Harmonics overlapped and blended into a rush of sound that swept like a hypnotic wave over Yuu. "I was talking to Libra. Oh – but I forgot. Libra can't talk. Not like I can."

"Ryuga, you're scaring me. First that thing with Tsubasa, then with Kyouya... Ryuga, what's really going on here? You promised you'd tell me."
The eyes weren't quite so golden any more. Blood and fire were leaching into them. "Why do you care about them? They're nothing but steps on the road to greatness."

"But, Ryuga..."

"I'm not Ryuga."

Yuu's heart missed a beat. Then another. Ice flooded his veins as he struggled to breathe through the purple-black smoke that was rising through the corridor, choking everything and blurring the lines between reality and hallucination. "What?"

"I said, I'm not Ryuga. Haven't you even noticed yet, Yuu?" His eyes flooded with red. "Haven't you been wondering where Doji is?"

.

This wasn't the battle he had wanted. Not even close. L-Drago was attacking with no mercy, as if trying to force Libra out of the dish before it could summon any attacks.

What was worse was how obvious it was that he wasn't fighting Ryuga. Not his Ryuga anyway, the one who laughed in the glory of battle and whose blader spirit sang with the love of the sport they shared. This was a darkness so choking that Yuu could barely stand against it, a monster on the other side of the dish who wanted to rip and tear and kill, and knew nothing of a good fight.

Libra, still damaged from the battle against Reiji, was just barely standing up to the massive power being brought against it, taking all of Yuu's concentration just to keep spinning. He had to get out. If he could just throw L-Drago off for long enough to get Libra back to his side of the dish, he might be able to run fast enough in the confusion to get to Gingka before the monster on the other side could catch him. Gingka was the only one who could face this thing now. Yuu, with his battered bey, had even less chance of defeating Lightning L-Drago now than he had all those months ago in the desert.

"What did you do to Doji?" he shouted across the dish, wanting answers as much as anything. "Where is he?"

The creature laughed, a horrible sound. "He wanted you. But I wanted you more. So I took him first."

"He's… dead?"

The thing that wasn't Ryuga shrugged. "Mostly. He had hardly any blader's spirit anyway, and he never truly understood." Its eyes flashed red through the smoke.

"So who was the guy in the entrance lobby?"

That got him a hollow, awful laugh. "You didn't recognise him without his mask, then? That was Phoenix. I told you. There was an incident here earlier. I sorted it out."

"But he looked like Gingka."

"He was Gingka's father. Not that it matters. It's no great loss to the world that either of them are gone." The not-Ryuga tilted its head to the side. "Not like you. I didn't understand at first. Now I do. You're the most talented blader I've ever met. You defeated Pegasus once. There aren't many bladers who can do that, apart from me. So now I'm going to defeat you too." It smiled. "I'll take special care of you. I won't tear you apart like I did for that foolish eagle and that lion who thought he was so clever, challenging me to fight alone. I'll keep you whole, so you can see what I become. That's what you wanted, isn't it, Yuu? You wanted to see what Ryuga would become when we were the best. So I'll let you see. But first, I need your power." Yuu could barely stand to look at it now. "Don't you want to help me become the best, Yuu?"

"Gingka beat me." It still stung to admit. "So I'm not as good as him. And Reiji would have beaten me. But you protected me, Ryuga! You stopped him. So stop this now! You're not really Ryuga, and I want him back!"

For a moment, the thing that was not Ryuga stared at him as Lightning L-Drago hung steadily from the lip of the dish. "Oh little Libra," it said at last, words like a storm in its many voices. "Oh Libra. How little you still understand of me. I am Ryuga. He is me. I would not be what I am without him, and he would be nothing without me. I kept you because I need your power. If you had fought on with Reiji, your blade would have been destroyed and then I couldn't have had it. I needed you in Dark Nebula, where I could see you. That's why I stopped the battle. Tell me, little Libra – didn't your Ryuga do this once before?"

The smoke and dust of battle blew apart for an instant, long enough for Yuu to clearly see his monstrous opponent stretch its arms wide like the wings of a dragon casting a shadow over the whole earth. Purple light gathered in malevolent spheres in its half-clawed hands. A high-pitched whine marked the moment that Lightning L-Drago began to move, whirling down the slope of the dish to gather terrifying velocity in an instant.

"Dark Move!"

Yuu knew the move, knew it so well. He'd seen it before; the move that defeated him all those months ago in the desert. He hadn't had an answer to it then. This time, perhaps, he might have a split second of hope.

"Libra, Sonic Wave!"

He aimed at the tip of the other blade, praying that it would knock the attack a little off-target. If he could keep the attack from connecting, he had a chance of getting Libra into the middle of the dish, and then as long as the Inferno Blast activated properly whilst Lightning L-Drago was close to the middle, he might – just might – be able to land the hit that would allow him to escape. Of course, Libra was still damaged from the battle with Reiji, despite all the repairs Yuu had done, and the Inferno Blast needed perfection, but Libra was strong, and it was the last hope he had. It had to work!

The greenish curve of light whipped out from Libra perfectly on target, and connected in an explosion of dust and sound.

"Now! Libra, INFERNO BLAST!"

It was his only chance. The air seemed to shrink around him, then exploded into a scream of light and fury, crashing through the ruined dome of the Dark Nebula building in a pillar so bright he could barely look at it.

For a moment, he thought it was enough. L-Drago's attack hadn't hit. The Inferno Blast was strong and steady, dragging everything towards it ready to be flung out of the stadium. Even if he could just throw L-Drago back for a second, he could get out of there and warn someone, warn Gingka.

Then:

"Dragon Emperor: Soaring Destruction!"

The attack connected with the outer edge of the Inferno Blast, force meeting force with nothing shielding either side. The ground and the air were both shaking now, the power of L-Drago and Libra overwhelming the natural stability of the world and tearing cracks through every solid thing. Around them, the dish shook, and the massive towers of the Dark Nebula Headquarters on either side gave up their tremulous hold on stability and began to collapse in on themselves, slowly letting the dish slip the hundreds of metres to the ground as they pulled away, tearing open vast gaps on either side that the wind howled through like the Dark Wolf Doji had once commanded. Yuu closed his eyes against the growing clouds of dust as the dish crashed to the ground and leaned into the vibrating air, forcing all his will and spirit and strength into his blade. He had to keep going. He had to win. All he needed was one second.

That was when he heard the laugh.

It was Ryuga's laugh – his real laugh, not the inhuman shriek of the monster, – the same high, clear sound that had cut through the Inferno Blast all those months ago in the desert as Lightning L-Drago tore down the attack and flung Libra up and out of the dish.

The sound was coming from the monster, the monster that was not Ryuga. Except that it was. The laugh, the attacks, the strength, the skill – that was all Ryuga. Only the eyes were not his, those cruel eyes that glowed unblinkingly through their cloak of purple smoke.

The weight of it hit Yuu like the full force of his own attack and he collapsed to his knees. This was Ryuga. This was who Ryuga had always been. Ryuga had never been his friend. He had just wanted Yuu's strength as food for his dragon. That was why he had been saved from Reiji – not to protect him, but to keep Reiji from damaging his power.

Libra wailed from the depths of the dish, echoing the despair in Yuu's heart. L-Drago howled victoriously in response, triplicate jaws opening wide and clamping down on the pillar of sound-light. Shatters of broken light scattered across the battlefield as he bit down, cracking into the Inferno Blast.

"It's over, little one."

The Inferno Blast flickered and went out. Lightning L-Drago's triple-dragons on the fusion wheel bit deep into the broken edge of Libra and gained purchase, breaking off a massive chunk of the blade.

Yuu flung his head back and screamed.

The pain went right to his centre, to the line where he ended and his blade began, the dragon's claws ripping him apart from Libra as the endless hunger of L-Drago dragged the constellation into himself. Now he understood Tsubasa's cry, Kyouya's helpless groan. There were no words to describe this. It was as if his very soul was being pulled out of him, crunched up in the jaws of the triple dragon he could never hope to defeat.

Almost as quickly as it had begun, it was over. Hollow with pain and breathless with despair, Yuu slowly looked down into the dish, where only one blade spun on. White and purple flashed as Lightning L-Drago sprang back to the monster's – Ryuga's – hand, leaving behind nothing but broken fragments of Flame Libra, utterly destroyed. Yuu's blade would never spin again.

"I haven't taken all of it." The voice ripped through the air and Yuu curled away from it, flinching from the tearing harmonics. "Your spirit, I mean. You weren't like the others. You were always mine, even if you didn't know it. And you were so helpful in the end. You made Gingka so strong in order to defeat you. So I'll let you see it. See what we become, with your own eyes." And with a smirk, Yuu's opponent turned on his heel, letting the billowing smoke cloak his dragonish form once more as he walked away from the scene of destruction he had caused.

"Ryuga," Yuu whispered, pulling his knees to his chest as he tried to breathe. "Ryuga, why?"

The dragon-man was too far away for him to have heard, but he still stopped and turned. His eyes burned in the gloom, no longer bearing any trace of the human who had once looked across a sandy dish at Yuu and laughed with all the joy of a good fight well fought.

And apparently he had heard Yuu's question, for the wind carried his answer back to the trembling boy.

"Because beneath the Emperor all others are the same. None of them matter."

.

When Yuu opened his eyes, the sky was black, streaked with purple light. He was still by the ruined dish, utterly alone. No-one had come to find him, here at the base of the fallen Dark Nebula building. Libra's song, his constant companion for so much of his short life, had vanished. All was silent and still.

Slowly, Yuu gathered the fragments of strength and courage he still had, and looked down into the dish. Flame Libra had been split right down the middle, its fusion wheel smashed into tiny fragments. Only the Eternal Sharp performance tip was still just about intact, but there was so much damage to the housing that it would never spin true again even if it was expertly repaired by someone like Gingka's friend Madoka.

"Gingki?" Yuu called, hoping that someone might hear him from outside. "Hey, I'm – I'm in h-here..." He sniffed as his voice cracked, trying not to cry. "Gingki? Kenchi? Anyone! Help me!"

There was no answer.

"B-benben?"

Nothing. The wind was building to an unearthly shriek through the damaged rafters and beams, like the victorious scream of a dragon crowing over its prey.

"… Tsubasa?"

But Tsubasa was long gone, torn apart by L-Drago just like Flame Libra. There was no-one left to rescue a stupid child who had believed that the Dragon Emperor of Destruction was his friend. With a sob of terror and despair, Yuu slid down into the dish and cupped the fragments of his beloved blade in his hands, unconsciously mirroring the position Kenta had taken to protect Flame Sagittario from Poison Serpent. But there was no Gingka here to stand in lordly splendour above him with the blue flame of Pegasus shielding him from the destruction of the Darkness. There was just Yuu, crying in the depths of the shadows, and the broken bey that had sung for the last time.

A flash of lightning split the sky above, and Yuu looked up just in time to see a second flash illuminate a huge tower that he had never seen before. A ring of dark clouds was drawing ever tighter above the top of the tower, and just below the lowering darkness stood a sphere of brilliant blue and three streaks of vile purple-silver.

Ryuga and Gingka were battling.

That explained where everyone was. Gingka was their last chance against Ryuga's terrible power now. They wouldn't care about someone who had turned his back on them in order to run back to the side of the instrument of his own destruction. No-one would come to find him here, lost and completely alone.

Maybe, after being so stupid, after rejecting all their advice and all their offers of help, after ignoring all their warnings, maybe he deserved this.

Something like the feeling of Libra drawing on his strength ran through Yuu's body, a shiver barely more than a shadow. That was Libra's incredible power and spirit up there, bound to the triple-headed dragon that had stolen it, being brought to bear against Gingka.

He was the only person Ryuga had defeated who had also defeated Gingka. Yuu didn't have to be able to see to know that even with the support of everyone, Gingka didn't have a chance against Ryuga's full power. He couldn't even summon the energy to cheer for Gingka.

It wouldn't have mattered if he had. A cataclysmic explosion from the top of the tower threw blue light in every direction, leaving only the purple-black of L-Drago burning there, and on the wind he heard the despairing cry as Gingka Hagane's blade shattered, casting Pegasus into the darkness.

Ryuga had won. It was all over. He was the most powerful blader in the world, and everything Yuu had once wanted for him had come true.

And all Yuu could do was curl up beneath the ruins of the Dark Nebula building, cradling the fragments of Libra in his hands, and weep for the man he had once thought was his friend as the sun fell into shadow, and the world burned.