My entry for the Masters of Metal forum challenge "Show Off Your Spirit". Libra-fic!

Balanced

Yuu?

Hey, Yuu? Yuuuuuu?

Hey, wake up, sleepyhead! Oh c'mon, you're being all boring now. Are... Are you okay? You're not normally this quiet when you're asleep.

Look, I've got a bone to pick with you. Seriously, racing me against the Eagle? What kind of a stupid idea is that? I'm a Stamina type, you nitwit, not for all this running around. I want a promise that from now on, you won't make me try to outrun an...

Yuu?

Yuu! Wake up! Wake up!

Why won't you wake up? You always wake up when I want to talk to you. That was our promise. The balance we decided on at the very beginning.

I wish I could shake you awake, but I can't nudge you like Pegasus can to Gingka, and I can't tug at your hair like Eagle does to Tsubasa. I can't even bite you, which is what L-Drago does, which is mean but very funny because then Ryuga yells at him. I can't touch you at all. All I can do is hear you, and you can hear me.

Are you ignoring me? Because that's very rude and I don't like it. Come on, Yuu, I need to talk to you! Though most of the time it feels like I'm talking at you, but never mind. We've got a big battle soon, and we need to think up a really good strategy and my blade's in no shape for challenging anyone. What did you do to it?

Yuu!

Right, if that's the way you're going to be, I'm going to go and sit in the corner and sulk. Not that I can really sit, you know, and there aren't any corners in a beyblade, but who cares? I'll pretend.

And I'll definitely sulk.

Hmph.

.

No, I'm not talking to you. I'm cross now.

Yes, I know you can't see that I'm sulking, but I am. So go away.

.

Yuu? I take it back. Please come and talk to me. Please?

I'm all lonely in here by myself. As you would say, it's really stinky. I don't like it, and I want to get out. But first, you're going to have to tell me what you did to my blade! How did you let it get so damaged without calling me? I bet I'd have beaten the other guy in no time.

Oh for goodness sake, Yuu, stop sleeping! You're not even in your own bed, so wake up already! If I could, I'd have pulled off those stupid round things that the people in white stuck on your head. Are they keeping you asleep? If so, those people in white are horrible and I don't like them.

You're so pale.

I'm perching at the end of your bed – I use the term "perching" as loosely as possible – just staring at you. Tsubasa's close to you, and he's sleeping too, even though it's really not the right time of day for sleeping. We should be outside battling! That's what daytime is for, not stupid sleeping.

Eagle is sitting next to his master, and he keeps stroking Tsubasa's cheek with his beak. I want to ask him what happened, but I can't. I can only talk to you.

That was the promise, remember? You gave up something and I gave up something, and we were bound together. That's the price that every Libra bearer pays, and the greater the loss, the greater the bond.

Ha. I remember what you wanted when you first got me. I remember your look of disappointment. You didn't want a Stamina type, you wanted an Attack type that would blast your enemies out of the dish with a single shot. You hid your disappointment so well, but I saw it. I felt it.

Yuu, come on. Please wake up. You're the only one I've got left. Don't think I'm letting you get away with it, because I won't, not now. We've come too far.

I wonder if Eagle can see me? Or Pegasus? Probably not. I know Leone can't.

Nor can L-Drago.

You know, I always thought that guy was odd, right from the beginning. Yeah, yeah, you adored his master and all that, but I used to know L-Drago long before I met you, and he wasn't purple then. He was red and gold, shining. Perfectly balanced. I wonder what tipped him down and over the edge? Not that it's any of my business. After all, he represents both halves of the Draco constellation. I'm just the representative of the Scales.

Pretty useless in a battle against a dragon, eh? What are you going to do with just a single pair of scales when the dragon is covered in them? Haha. Ha.

You figured we could beat him, so off I went happily, because that's what you'd said. If you thought we could win, I was going to try my very hardest for you, because I knew you would be right behind me all the way. Always behind me, which is where you're meant to be. I'm your spirit; I protect you. And you always know exactly where "behind me" is. You always know where I am, even if you can't see me. That's one of the reasons I like you so much.

Ray Striker walked through me the other day. It was very uncomfortable, but I couldn't tell him what he was doing. Remember how much I complained about it to you afterwards?

Oh no... am I sulking too much? Is that why you're not talking to me? I don't think I could bear it if you decided you were fed up of me.

I'm sorry! I won't sulk again, I promise. Just please open your eyes. I don't want to talk at you any more. It's miserable. I haven't felt this miserable since you first got me and looked so disappointed.

I know I wasn't the most splendid of constellations, but I tried for you so hard that first week, because you were so young and strong, and your spirit burned like my own. You desperately wanted something with fangs and claws and the sharp, hot breath of a predator to scare the living daylights out of your opponent. I was just a little, shiny, inanimate object. I could twinkle nicely, but as far as you could see, that was all I could do.

Then I beat that guy – remember him? The one with the bright orange bey. Because he was a defence type, you knew you couldn't attack him, but he didn't want to attack you. So we just waited, perfectly balanced, and his bey wobbled and collapsed after a couple of minutes. But I spun on, and your very first victory was a sleep-out.

You talked to me that night. It was the first time any of my owners talked to me outside of spin-time. You never really stopped talking after that.

So why won't you talk to me now?

Was it that boy I saw, the one with the glowing eyes and the flying white cape? I didn't like him. His balance was all out. Did he do this to you? Make you have to sleep forever in a bed that isn't yours, and break my home into pieces?

If he's broken me, he must have broken you. I'm your Libra, the balance in your young, wild life. If you are confident, blazing loud with your power, so am I. If your voice ripples across the stadium, mine ripples through it and turns it to sand for you.

If you are broken, I am broken.

That's our promise. Balance. What happens to you happens to me. What we take, we give back equally. Always.

.

It's late. The redhead and the girl left hours ago. Eagle's gone back to sleep in his blade. I'm all on my own now.

There's all sorts of sounds around me, little flutters and beeps and rustles. I hum quietly to block them out, not that anyone can hear me except you. Actually, I don't even know if you can hear me any more. I've been calling for hours and you haven't even moved.

The last time you were this badly hurt, inside and out, it was against that snake-boy. I've broken on the outside countless times, and that's fine, because that doesn't take long to repair. The girl is very good at fixing blades. But when you cracked on the inside, poisoned by fear of the snake and betrayed by a dragon, I broke too. Me, Libra, the spirit of your bey. I couldn't be turned to stone, but I could be scared, very scared. My blade wasn't balanced the way I thought it was, and I couldn't attack properly. I knew I was letting you down, but I was so afraid. All I wanted was to run away and hide.

But you were crying, and I cried with you and... and you heard me. You stood up again. I was so proud of you. You called my name and I sang for you, and I've been singing ever since, though only you can hear me.

L-Drago watched from the sidelines and the air crackled around him, flowing the wrong way. Unbalanced. He couldn't see me, and that's why we escaped him. If L-Drago had been able to see me, he would have pinned me down to the sands of the arena and left me to the mercy of the snake.

But I gave up the other constellations, all my old alliances and friendships. I gave up having a physical form that can interact with anything and anyone so that I could interact with you. So that I could talk to you; talk with you.

In ancient times, the humans made a whole ceremony out of it. The night that we were bound was nothing like a ceremony. You launched me to spin in front of you, then sat and talked - you always were such a chatterbox. I didn't care. I liked the sound of your voice.

Even now, I'm not sure how it happened. One second, my blade was working perfectly, and then all of a sudden it wobbled. Now, I'm a Stamina type, so I just don't do that. You kept talking, didn't even notice. I didn't want to topple over, not when my new owner was talking to me – that would have been very rude. So I concentrated everything I had on your voice, distracting myself from anything that might cause me to wobble again. I was not going to disappoint you again.

And then you said it.

You know, I wish you could talk back. I'd rather have a Stamina type I can talk with than an Attack type that just fights. 'Cause, you know, I get kinda lonely sometimes.

The world bent and flexed around me, and both my blade and I shuddered with the forces that wrapped around us and reached out to you. I think you realised something was happening, because your eyes went very wide.

I knew what was going on, of course. The stars of my constellation had been made aware of the imbalance between us. You had given up your dream of being the owner of a fierce, strong attacking bey, and that meant that we were out of sync with each other. Now it was my turn to give something up too and concrete the binding before the imbalance drained all my power and killed me.

But what? I didn't have much I could give, and the forces that bound me to you were growing tighter and tighter until I couldn't even think. I didn't want to die, not when I was so close to finding a new, proper owner! It had been centuries since I found someone who actually wanted me properly, not just to hit things with! I wanted to live and fight by you, with you, forever – and if the binding destroyed me first, I would never be able to do that.

I want to talk to you too, Yuu! But I want to stop hurting first!

The pain vanished the moment that I finished my sentence. I was so relieved that for a minute or so I didn't even realise what I'd done.

Thank goodness that's over. Now...

I will never forget the yell you let out. You knocked my bey over with the force of it. Um... I never told you before, but it was that which gave me the idea of how to use sound as a weapon!

"Who's there?"

No-one's there, Yuu, it's just you and me here... oh!

If I had known how the stars would interpret what I had said, maybe I would have hesitated. But in the end, I think, I would have done it anyway. They had removed the pain, yes... by removing my body.

From that moment we were bound in spirit and strength. You surrendered a dream and gained an ally and friend. I had lost my body and gained a voice.

It seemed like a pretty fair exchange to me.

The rest of the night I can only remember as a blur. You probably told me your entire life history. I wasn't that interested. Sorry. I was a bit too occupied with the discovery that I could now not only get out of my blade when it wasn't spinning, but that I could walk through walls!

Yeah, that freaked you out a bit, didn't it? You adapted fast enough, though not until you'd tried to do it yourself. You always were good at adapting.

But you're not adapting now. And I want to scream at you for staying still for so long because yes, that is how a Stamina type wins, but you have to fight too!

I won't scream, though. I won't raise my voice at all. Not in anger, not in song. I can't do any of it without you.

I don't have a physical body. I'm just aware of where I am and what I sound like. Yeah, it doesn't make sense, because wouldn't I need ears to hear myself? But that's just how it works, and I don't question it. All I know is that when you call on me, I can make sound visible and physical, and we use that as a weapon together. That's why I'll never use sound, my sound, my voice, against you.

You're my master, after all. And you're my friend.

I miss the days when you and I would just be out in the desert, training together. That big helicopter came and took your heart away from me for a while, until the red-haired boy brought it back and reignited your true spirit. And you got so much stronger after that, as did I. I even worked out how to sing a thousand notes at once and turn my song into a light-show the likes of which has never been seen before.

You worked out how to trick Tsubasa when he thought he was tricking you.

Yes, we didn't win in the end, but the important thing was the balance. You and me, blader and blade. One step stronger, one step smarter. Together.

You see? We have to both work as one to be strong. Our spirits are bound together until the end of time. We balance each other out, and when the balance is perfect, no-one can defeat us.

So please wake up. I need you back, Yuu. I miss your voice.

I hope you miss mine, wherever you are in dream-land.

Alright then. You're not waking up, so I'll just stay here until you do. I'll be here for you, always. I'll wait for my owner, my ally, my partner.

I'll wait for Yuu.

A/N – I apologise for the awful pun on "scales", but I couldn't resist! L-Drago wearing hundreds of Libras, indeed... Oh, and feel free to come and join in the challenge - just leave a note on the forum ("Masters of Metal", under the Forums tab on the main Metal Fight page on this site) to say which beast you want! Deadline for entries is 30th June 2012.

Hope the moderators don't mind me shamelessly advertising this; the more the merrier as far as I'm concerned. Have fun!