Emptiness

By: Black Dranzer

"." speaking and thinking

---------- Scene Change

--flashback sequences--

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade. I only own any of the characters that you haven't seen in the original Beyblade series.

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In the last chapter of Emptiness:

(("Robert? Oliver and Enrique?" Johnny's surprised voice rang through the hallway and the Bladebreakers turned to stare.

The three boys in question were standing in the hallway.

"Hey, how's it going?" Enrique asked and walked in, leading the unusually quiet Oliver.

"Yes," Robert said to Johnny, "How are you my friend? We have just decided to drop by."))

((No one noticed Johnny and Jackie walking upstairs nor that they didn't come back down until a little while after Tyson had finished his fiftieth plate of food. They were all too busy trying to cheer Oliver up, other than the blue-haired leader of the Bladebreakers of course.

Kai had his own plans for the afternoon.))

(("Tomorrow at the training center in Building C. We'll start at 7:15,"

"Ok," Kazuki said and closed the door in the boys' faces.))

((Tala looked at the closed door again. Something made him think that the girl was frightened of Boris. He had noticed the slight shiver going down her spine even though she had tried to hide it.))

(("Who's that?" Jackie asked as she pointed to a figure walking towards the thorn hedge maze. The McGregor siblings were on a balcony on the third floor of the McGregor Mansion and the figure was a few feet away.

Johnny narrowed his eyes and looked closely at the figure, and then he smiled, "Its just Kai,"

"Kai?" Jackie asked, she didn't really get to ask the names of the Bladebreakers yet, "He's the captain of the Bladebreakers right?"))

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Chapter Eight: Thorns

Kai Hiwatari walked inside the thorn hedge maze and looked around with a satisfied smile.

"The perfect place to train," he thought to himself and launched Dranzer into one of the hedges.

Listening to his Beyblade's spinning sound, he used his senses to figure out where it was and ran after it through the maze.

Once in a while, his Beyblade would be found and he launched it again in another direction.

This continued for about five minutes before Kai picked up his Beyblade suddenly and looked around.

He had heard a noise in the bushes.

"Who's there?" he asked. He caught a glimpse of red before another Beyblade came shooting at him.

The red Beyblade landed smoothly on the grass and was followed by a girl.

"Hello Kai," the girl said with her long, blue hair waving in the wind, her turquoise eyes were fixed on him.

"And you happen to be?" Kai said with challenge glinting in his eyes.

"You may not have heard of me, but I call myself Changer," the girl replied and picked up her Beyblade.

"Well 'Changer' care to test me out?" this was clearly a challenge.

"Definitely," the girl replied and both Beyblades shot into the hedges.

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Kazuki walked in the shadows of the abbey towards Building C.

This was not the original Building C where she had slept four years ago. That had been demolished. This was now set up as a training center for the senior Beybladers.

Walking up to the familiar building, she shivered at the thought of her mother dying here. But as she set eyes on the four boys whom she had defeated, she composed herself and walked up to Tala, who seemed to be their leader.

"What now?" Kazuki asked, her voice hard and icy. She didn't like the thought of training with others; she had always been a kind of loner. She was afraid that if she let anyone else get as close as her mother had been, and then disappear, she couldn't handle it.

"We'll train outside first," Tala replied with coldness equal to hers and motioned the back of the building.

Kazuki followed the boys to where he had indicated and stopped at a plain, Beyblading dish.

"Who should go up first?" Ian asked.

"I'll take all four of you on," Kazuki replied before any other suggestions could be made.

Tala nodded without protest and beckoned the others to follow his lead, "We should do what she wants," he told them, "Boris was insistent."

The others nodded with a shrug and took out their Beyblades.

"Let it rip!" they all shouted as five Beyblades hit the dish.

The Demolition Boys' Beyblades circled Kazuki's but she made no attempt to attack or defend.

Telling the others to be careful, Tala led the attack.

"Wolborg! Blizzalog!" Tala's white Beyblade shone a pale, emerald green and a giant snow wolf came out of the center bit. It howled and a fresh blast of snow and ice hurled out of its jaws.

Kazuki had her eyes closed.

But she wasn't unaware of the events though and when Wolborg attacked, her brown eyes snapped open.

But her eyes were tinged silver and danger, though unnoticed by her opponents.

A digital voice confirmed inside her mind, "Battle Form. Choose strategy,"

Kazuki hesitated a moment before turning down the offer, "Quit form," she thought back, hoping that it was the right command.

"Confirmed, normal form engaged,"

Sighing, Kazuki returned to the battle with her normal brown pupils.

"Zenborg!" She commanded. Her silvery swan rose out of its bit and glared at Wolborg.

"I've seen this too many times," Tala smirked as Wolborg fired its blizzard at the swan.

"Who said I was going to use Silver Radiance?" Kazuki teased as her eyes slitted, "Zenborg! Use your Mirror Wall!"

"Mirror Wall?" Tala asked bemused, how did Kazuki manage to come up with a new attack so soon?

He watched as Wolborg's blizzard seemed to hit Zenborg.

Wait, or did it?

Zenborg had spread out its wings but the light that shone from it didn't come from its chest jewels, it came from its entire body. The second the blizzard had hit; Zenborg had used the light from its body to absorb the attack into its chest jewels.

As the confused Wolborg looked on uncertainly, Zenborg sent the attack right back at the unsuspecting opponent.

Tala and the other three boys gasped as Wolborg was hit with the full blow of its own attack. It fell to the ground with a pain-filled whine.

"Now use Nightmare Shadow!"

The familiar black swan appeared and, using its wing blades, defeated its weakened adversary.

Tala's Beyblade came to a halt.

Everyone, except Kazuki, stared at the immobile Beyblade with wonder.

"Who's next?" Kazuki asked with a bored tone, her eyes scanning the faces of her remaining opponents.

"All three of us!" Spencer shouted. His light blue Beyblade, alongside with Bryan's and Ian's, charged towards Kazuki's Zenborg.

"Let's test out your Black Hole Zenborg!" Kazuki commanded, her eyes slitting once again.

"Black Hole?" the other three boys asked stunned.

Their question was answered as the black swan spread its wings like its Hikari had and from its chest jewels came a dark flash of light. The light slowly started to grow and grow until it covered the entire Beyblade dish.

When the dark light died down, the other three bit beasts were nowhere to be seen and the three Beyblades had stopped spinning.

Zenborg stood spinning in the middle with Kazuki smiling smugly at the four defeated boys.

"That was impressive," Tala said, "not only have you beaten us, but you have the power to create new attacks for your bit beast as well."

Kazuki didn't know what to reply.

She had expected the other boy to argue over whether she had truly won or not.

"I guess," she replied, then added as an afterthought, "I suppose you guys weren't too bad either,"

An awkward silence followed.

Then, Kazuki turned around and walked away quickly as if their company scared her.

"She is an interesting character," Tala mused quietly to himself, "Not like the snobby girl I had thought she would be."

But also, he had sensed a kind of jolt as he had looked at the girl.

Then, out loud, he said, "I think that's enough for today then as it seems she is not coming back any time soon,"

The others nodded and they returned to their own training inside the building.

Tala however, when the others weren't watching, followed the girl's freshly made footprints.

--To be continued