RTC: Hey, I'm back with the new fic!

Kai: Oh great, all hail the mighty RTC and her evilness. Don't you have anything better to do than torture me?

Ray: Um, think about that one, Kai.

Tyson: Yeah, she lacks a life, remember?

RTC: Oh, shut up! Can't you guys be positive for once?

All Muses: No, we can't! Someone's got to keep your ego in check!

RTC: I don't know why I put up with them. Anyway, for any readers out there that haven't read Just When You Think It's Over, It Starts All Over, I've written a short summary on the points you'll need to know to understand this fic. (This fic is a 'what if things didn't turn out so nicely?' to that one.) (Even if you read the other fic, you might want to read the summary because it's been a year since it was posted! Yay, one year anniversary of becoming an author!) If I missed anything, I'll just add to it in my author's notes. And there are brief descriptions of my OCs on my profile, if anyone is interested. (Please give the OCs a chance! Don't automatically start hating them!) A big thank you to Iluvbeyblade for helping me write the summary, enjoy!

Summary: While the team was deciding whether to spilt up or stay together for the next world championships, Kai take off on a walk, promising to meet back up with the others soon. When he fails to show, the team goes looking for him, and find him unconscious in a park. Kai is transported to a hospital, in desperate need of a blood transplant. As a relative is needed to make the closest match, the Bladebreakers don't hold out much hope, until they find someone they had never heard of before. With the help of his twin, Kari, Kai recovers, and, feeling unsafe, the Bladebreakers and Kari leave town, and head to Ray's hometown. There, the team gets attacked once more and they find out that Ray might not be telling them something. The next place the team heads is Russia, with a group of thugs on their tail. They don't move fast enough - Kai is kidnapped. Two days later, Kai returns, but he is being controlled by Boris through a specially-designed suit and is using Black Dranzer to try and take his friends down. Fortunately for him, his friends and sister mange to come to his rescue and get him out safely. However he has more injuries, for which they transport him to New York to treat. The team somehow manages to get kidnapped again while in New York, and have to be rescued by Hiro, causing Tyson's emotions to go haywire at the reappearance of his brother, who he hasn't forgiven yet, Max suffered a concussion, and Tyson is not about to forgive his brother anytime soon for joining BEGA. Also, Ray's cousin brings the news that his mother wants to see him and Ray leaves. Tala, Kai and Kari head to her home to pack her things and send them to Japan. Soon after, Kai and Kari get home, and the team is faced with another loss - it seems Ray's plane crashed in the ocean. On top of this, Ray's family never made it to the airport, and soon his sisters turn up, needing help. The Bladebreakers take them in as they head back to Japan, only to discover a surprising, and worrying, medical fact about Ray. Trying to lure their mystery attackers out into the open, the team take part in a tournament, but the plan backfires when a group of gunmen go loose in the stadium. Ray isn't the only one hiding something in his family, Lizzie was keeping her share of secrets, and these ones more dangerous than the one Ray kept. That secret is revealed abruptly when she collapses, so ill that only a transplant could keep her alive

while Lizzie was in the hospital, Tala, Kari and Kai all get taken during the night by Biovolt. The team, minus Lizzie, all decide to go to Russia, where Tala believed the new Biovolt abbey was and bust their friends out. Assisted by some old friends, the Bladebreakers go to Russia and Biovolt in an attempt to rescue Kai, Kari and Tala. While there, they meet up with the very last person they would ever have suspected-Ray's mom! Ray and friends bust Diana out of her restraints, and rush to save Kai. Kai is in serious trouble - they couldn't get there in time to stop Voltaire. Voltaire's attacks put Kai in the hospital in a coma and that's where this story starts.

RTC: Okay, disclaimer please!

Kenny: Ray-Tiger-Cat does not own Beyblade, because if she did, there would be new episodes everyday.

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Shattered

It was a cold blustery night in Russia, just past midnight, but in one hospital room, nothing was quiet or still.

"We have to get him back! Come on now, kid, wake up!" a doctor was screaming. Add this to the noise to the defibrillator, the scurrying people in the room, also attempting to resuscitate the young boy, and the screaming and crying from his sister, and you'd understand why this room was so loud.

"Kai, come on! Please wake up! You promised you'd always be here for me!" Kari screamed through her tears. But it looked like her words, along with the doctors' and nurses' were lost on Kai. He was still unconscious and not responding to the increasing shocks that were given to restart his heart. "Come on, Kai! I know you're stronger than this! Fight it! Please..."

"Put it up a notch! Okay, clear!"

"Come on, why isn't he responding?! That's the highest setting!" The medical team's constant talk did nothing to calm Kari down, on the contrary, she got more upset. Kai's body was violently shaking as the electricity hit him, and it looked pretty grim. She had always known there was a good chance of him dying, but she had never thought it would happen and even if it did, not like this! However Kari's hysterics did not go unnoticed by the medical team and against her will, she was escorted from the room.

"I'm sorry, miss," the doctor said as he came out of the room a short while later. "His heart would not start. We'd tried everything and the recitation efforts went on for half an hour."

At this point, Kari covered her ears and sank to the floor. "I don't want to hear it! You're lying to me! My brother was stronger than that!" But deep down inside, she knew that the doctor had spoken the truth. Kai wasn't coming back, he was never going to talk to her, or beyblade, or even walk off in the middle of a conversation again. He was gone. Dead. And nothing anyone did or said could ever bring him back.

"Are you going to be alright?" a second doctor said, kneeling next to Kari. "Is there anyone you want to call?"

"N-no, our-my friends will be here soon. Th-they shouldn't be woken up to be told that he d-died," Kari managed in between hiccups and tears.

"You shouldn't be alone, you know," the doctor told her kindly.

"No, it's okay. You know, it's his-our-my birthday today," she said, correcting herself as she realized that she would never share the occasion or any other with Kai, "But I've never been in a less celebratory mood." Her tears were subsiding, exhaustion taking grief's place.

"Alright, that's understandable. Now how about we get you someplace more comfortable while we wait for your friends to arrive?" Reluctantly, Kari allowed herself to be led away to a quiet room, where she fell into a deep sleep, not to wake for several hours.

"Kari, what happened?" a stricken Tala asked as he entered the room, "We went to Kai's room, but the nurses wouldn't let us in; they told us to come here instead."

"Have you been crying?" Tyson asked, incredulously. Kari had not shed a tear in weeks, not since that first time she had seen Kai in the coma.

"Guys, you'd better sit down," she advised, her voice croaky and her eyes red from the crying.

"Oh, no, you can't mean, but that's, Kai didn't..." The team wasn't taking things too lightly.

"Yeah, Kai died of a heart failure last night." Kari got to watch as the G Revolutions and Tala broke down on the spot.

Tyson started punching the wall, Hilary started crying, Max dropped to his knees and buried his head in his arms, probably crying too, Kenny turned on Dizzi and started mumbling things such as, this is a nightmare, I'll wake up soon (Kari hoped Dizzi would knock some sense into him.) Daichi ran to the bathroom and they could hear him vomiting, Tala sat on a chair with a heavy thump and Ray looked stoic. Kari got up and sat down next to Tala. He had always been a source of comfort, but today he looked pretty vulnerable. It was to be expected, after all, he had known Kai longest, except for Kari.

"Tala, what are we going to do?" she whispered, before breaking down in tears again.

"I don't know, Kari," he said as he wrapped his arms around her, "I honestly don't know." And there the team sat, all absorbed in their grief, for many hours to come.

"I heard what happened," Diana's voice said, waking everyone from their trances. "And I came as soon as I could. I know what you're all going through."

"And how would you know that, mom? You barely knew Kai!" Ray shouted.

"Calm down and I'll explain."

"Everything?"

"Everything is a long and complicated story, Raymond. I once left the village too. I'd loved to beyblade and the elders had not allowed a girl on the team, but at any rate, I ened up in Japan, where I met Kai's father, Alex, who was there on an exchange trip. He had been put into the abbey and eventually, he escaped and with the help of some friends and me, we managed to take down Alex's father. But happily ever after did not happen, because he got lose several years later and killed Alex and his wife. I've lost a friend at Voltaire's hands too," she sighed. "And now another fatality has come about."

Several hours later, the team was back at Kari's house (It was all hers now that her family was dead.) and they were all trying to put their grief aside long enough to plan the funeral and pack up the things that were in the house, so that they'd be ready to leave afterwards.

"So, what's going to happen to everyone?" Tala asked, trying his best to keep his mind off Kai's death.

"I don't really know, but it looks like everyone is going to head back to their homes," Tyson replied, looking very depressed. "Some of them said they couldn't handle being back in Japan. They said they'd come to Japan long enough to pack up their things and in Ray's family's case, get Lizzie out of the hospital and pick up his other sister, Lynn."

"Tyson, we didn't say we'd never come back, you know!" Max yelled from upstairs.

"Alright, enough yelling. We'll work this out after the funeral," Diana said, taking on her role as the only adult present.

"A funeral... Kai's funeral... SOMEONE TELL ME I'M DREAMING!" Kari shouted and broke down. It didn't look like they were going to get over this for a long time to come.

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RTC: Aren't I evil?

Kai: Yes! Why must you do this to me?

RTC: Hey, on the bright side, at least you won't be tortured in this fic.

Max: That's because you killed him, not really a better option!

Ray: Why was it you felt this urge to kill Kai anyway?

RTC: Just wanted to write a depressing story, after all, in my first one, it was too happily-ever-after-ish. Anyhow, please review and don't kill me! I know that the vast majority of you are Kai fans. (Cowers in fear.) Okay, well just remember that I warned you about this being character death!