Gingka's mind was in turmoil. He did not know what was going on, or where he was, or what he should do to calm himself down. He could not tell whether he was awake or asleep, conscious or unconscious, standing up, sitting down, or laying down. He could not tell whether he was restrained or free. Was he even in control of his own mind? The last solid thing he remembered was what Raiden had told him about the enemy they were now up against.

Gingka narrowed his eyes. Focus. He needed to focus. That much he knew. But focus on what, precisely? He decided to focus on what he remembered, what had happened just before he had found himself here, wherever 'here' was. He remembered sneaking into the building with Raiden, that they had been headed to rescue Kaminari. He remembered meeting Thorgisl and realizing that they had fallen into a trap. Then he remembered Dougal, the first of the three evil triplets that apparently made up Lightning L-Drago. Dougal had captured them, he remembered. And Raiden had explained who the triplets were.

After that, everything seemed rather fuzzy. But Gingka could still recall bits and pieces of it. He remembered long, dark hallways. He could remember, partially, the other two of the triplets. They had met them, at some point. He could remember a brave smile that Raiden had put on shortly before being knocked out cold by the only girl among the three dragons. Nereza, was her name? Gingka was not sure, but Nereza seemed to be the name that came to mind. He could recall no features of her except that she had had an annoyingly shrill and maniacal voice, and that her eyes also glowed red and purple, but in a way that mirrored Dougal's.

Gingka remembered struggling, as he noted that he was rather exhausted, probably from doing so. He did not remember what had happened to Raiden after the bey's eyes had fallen shut under the influence of some sort of sedative, or at least what seemed to have that effect. Gingka hoped that was all that Raiden had been put under the influence of. He could no longer hear anything from the bey, which did not help the fact that he was already worried for him.

Gingka shivered slightly as he remembered that he had indeed been tied down so that he could not move. It was certainly not a pleasant feeling. He remembered shutting his eyes tightly at the sight of Karayan standing before him, looking more frightening than either of his siblings had. Gingka figured this was probably due to the single eye that had glimmered, with a purple iris that still glowed red. Obviously something had happened to the other eye, which had been entirely missing.

It was with a jolt not unlike that of an electric shock that Gingka became aware of what was happening. He opened his eyes, finding himself in a mixture of a dream and a nightmare. The bonds he had with both Pegasus twins seemed to still be open, but he could tell that the power of both was fading. A long look to his right soon identified the two winged horses, their wings neither folded nor spread, eyes closed, heads lowered in a limp, subconscious admission of defeat.

Gingka growled at the sight. "Come on, guys! Wake up!" He yelled, hoping that they could hear him. But there was no response.

Gingka decided to attempt reaching the two. Perhaps his touch could revive them, wake them up, so that he could have their help in getting away from the darkness spreading steadily closer from his left. Gingka turned his back on it and began to run, only for something to snake around his legs, causing him to fall roughly to the invisible ground. The redhead grunted and reflexively rolled over, forcing himself to face the danger that was apparently behind him. He found himself face to face with the very dragon that he had dreaded so much when he was younger, the one he had defeated to save Ryuga all those years ago.

"Karayan…" Gingka growled, recognizing the dark figure even though it had now taken the form of the dragon within it.

"Oh but of course." Karayan sneered as he coiled his long, snakelike body around Gingka tightly, preventing the redhead from escaping and reaching the two Pegasus beys that he so desperately needed help from. "I'm inside your mind now. You could not resist, and now I am going to destroy you."

Gingka growled. "I don't think so." He said firmly. "I beat you, remember?"

"Yes, I remember very well. All three of us do." Karayan snarled, drops of liquid, dark red flame dripping from his fangs onto Gingka's face and causing the redhead to shudder.

"Then you know how strong I can be when I need to." Gingka growled, trying to struggle against the coils that were holding him still, but to no effect.

"Oh, but last time you were fighting with control of your own mind. This time, you're fighting for it." Karayan chuckled, the sound sending shivers down Gingka's spine. "And this time, you don't have a bey to fight with. But this battle is not fought with beys. And I have had years of experience with absorbing people. Yet you have never had to fight this type of battle. Face it. The odds are strongly in my favor."

"I've faced odds like this before and still won." Gingka grunted. "The odds being in your favor means nothing."

"Oh, but I beg to differ." Karayan sneered, more dark flames dripping. "Because before, you were able to even out the odds because you had a bey or your friends on your side. But look over there," The dragon made a slight gesture with his head towards the two motionless Pegasi, "Neither one of the beys you have used can help you. Both of them are fading and powerless to stop Mao or myself. Nereza's draining poison is already running its course through the boy. It will not be long now before he is too weak to even move, and then she will simply kill him."

Gingka growled angrily. "Don't underestimate him."

"Oh but when he beat us he was free to move and was conscious, remember? And so were you." Karayan sneered.

Gingka growled, trying not to lose hope. He had to beat this. If he did not, who knew what would happen? But he had to admit that he was terrified. And alone. Just about everything that Karayan had pointed out so far was true. Gingka did not have any help from either one of the Pegasus twins. Kaminari was locked up elsewhere. Raiden was unconscious and his power was being drained from his body. His friends were waiting for him to return from rescuing Kaminari, and he did not know how long it would take them to figure out that he was missing, or even if they would realize it. If they did realize that something was wrong, then they would likely be too late to come save him and Raiden. Gingka shook violently as despair overcame him. He was painfully aware of the fact that Karayan's hovering face was gaining more and more of a smug, sadistic sneer on it as the dragon watched his prey begin to succumb to his own inability to do anything.

"Now you're getting the picture." Karayan purred darkly.

"Stop…" Gingka muttered, despite not really wanting to. He hated having to plead with enemies. It only gave them more satisfaction, after all, and the knowledge that pleading with them was the only thing he had left to fight with.

"Oh? Did I hear an admission of defeat? Pathetic." Karayan sneered, looking extremely pleased with this.

Gingka glared defiantly. "I will defeat you." He said in as form of a tone as he could muster. Granted, considering the current situation and the fact that both of his usual ways of defeating anyone were laying unconscious nearby and likely were already fully defeated, or at least rapidly heading towards a complete defeat that they would not be able to recover from.

This thought made Gingka's breath hitch in his throat unwillingly. He mentally cursed as he spotted Karayan's sadistic smirk grow slightly wider. Gingka was beginning to break under the pressure, and Karayan knew this. The redhead tried to stay calm, stubbornly refusing to give in any further. So what if he was being trapped by a dragon that wanted to kill him, slowly and with no mercy, while he had no hope of escape? Then again, Gingka reminded himself, maybe he did have a chance of escape. This was HIS mind, after all. Therefore, he should be able to control what happened here. This was not the test of a bey battle. This was a test of willpower. Amount of blading power did not mean much.

The question came down to one thing, Gingka realized. Was his desire to not succumb stronger than Karayan's desire to feed off of his mind? Even if he could not hold off the dark being indefinitely, he could at least stall for time, and probably lots of it. The question was, what tricks should he use to accomplish the task at hand?

Gingka decided to take a page from Tetsuya's book, so to speak. He had to admit that the crabby blader was quite the master at diversions, if one was not paying attention. He raised an eyebrow as if confusion and craned his neck, taking his eyes off of Karayan and looking at one spot far behind the dragon, repeatedly, as if there were something there. Soon enough, there indeed was something there. It was a stupid idea, Gingka thought, but it was something.

"What are you looking at?" Karayan demanded, clearly annoyed at the fact that his threat was now being ignored.

"Nothing." Gingka said quickly, as if he did not want the dragon to see whatever it was that was behind him.

Karayan growled, and, just as Gingka had expected, turned, only to see a giant hamburger just floating there randomly in the distance. Gingka smirked as the dragon paused and stared in utter confusion at the sight Gingka had created. The redhead then focused deeply on the burger, until it grew larger and larger and hit Karayan in the face, causing the dragon to recoil and lose part of his grip on Gingka before turning and snarling angrily at the redhead, tightening the coils.

Gingka grunted, wincing at this, but smirking.

"How DARE you try to distract me." Karayan snarled, more dark flames dripping onto Gingka's face and causing the redhead to flinch away at the heat.

"Well it worked, didn't it?" Gingka grunted, suddenly looking up and widening his eyes. "Look ou-" He interrupted himself and imagined an enormous bottle of root beer smashing down on Karayan's head. Gingka closed his eyes and turned his head away as he and Karayan were both splashed with the fizzy beverage. Karayan let out an angered roar and fully uncoiled, releasing Gingka, who immediately put all of his mental resources into imagining all of the food he could come up with. His plan was working and he was not going to give up. He only hoped that Karayan would not realize that he was being distracted until it was too late.

As he slowly backed towards the two Pegasi floating limply a few hundred feet away from him, Gingka chuckled to himself, figuring that anyone who saw what he was doing would probably call him an idiot. Perhaps this idea was stupid. But hey, it was working, so Gingka figured that it could easily be argued that his distractionary attempts were a stroke of genius on his part. He merely had to stay calm. He knew that Lightning L-Drago had always fed off of rage and anger. Considering that Karayan was one-third of that bey, he figured that it was the same. But what happened if Karayan was the one who got angry? Gingka was half tempted to make the bey angrier and see if it would keep him further distracted, or if it would snap him to focus and cause him to end it before Gingka could do anything more.

Gingka glanced backwards. He had almost reached the horses he was trying to get to. Good. If he kept this up for just a little bit longer, perhaps he could wake one. But he needed a new idea. Karayan was beginning to simply dodge the food, and seemed to be realizing it was just a diversion. Gingka took a deep breath as an idea popped into his head. It was daring, but it might work. As a matter of fact, it might get Karayan out of his head completely, if Gingka could play it right. He glanced between Kaminari and Raiden for a moment before looking back at Karayan. For this idea to work, it would have to be pulled off flawlessly. Karayan would immediately notice if it was not.

Gingka took a deep breath and focused. The food slowly stopped flying and vanished. Before Karayan could think enough to locate Gingka and get back to trying to take him over, Gingka had imagined Dougal standing there.

"Brother." The image of the other triplet called out.

"What are you doing here?!" Karayan snarled. "This is my job, get out!"

"We have a problem." Dougal's image replied.

"Well then spill." Karayan snapped, looking ready to breathe fire at his brother in anger.

"Hagane's comrades are on their way here. They've been spotted and Nemesis wants us to go defeat them."

Karayan froze. "Who?"

Gingka's eyes widened as he realized his mistake. His lapse in concentration caused the illusionary Dougal to flicker and disappear as Karayan whirled towards him, snarling.

"You. That was quite clever, I'll admit. But there will be no more distractions." He snarled, voice growing to an angered roar as he spoke.

"So you think." Gingka said, forcing himself to stay calm. His forgetfulness of Nemesis's other name may have just cost him whatever other time he could have been able to buy, he knew. He should have been more careful. How could he have forgotten that Dougal and the other beys did not refer to Nemesis as Nemesis, but by his real name, Mao? That was obviously the thing that had tipped Karayan off as to who he was really talking to.

Gingka made a break for it and attempted to reach the two Pegasus beys. He stretched out a hand, nearly managing to brush his fingertips against Kaminari's nose, but just before he did, Karayan managed to coil around him once more, this time tighter than before. Gingka grunted, trying to struggle against the scaly coils.

"Give up." Karayan snarled, his jaws now uncomfortably close to Gingka's face. "I have half a mind to just kill you now for that trick."

"This is my mind. I control it." Gingka snapped back, mentally yelling at himself to wake up.

"Do you now? Not for long." Karayan snarled as everything began to grow darker and darker. Gingka could not tell whether it was from the bey taking over or from the fact that the tension in Karayan's coils was currently making it quite hard to breathe.

"We'll… See about that…" Gingka grunted, pushing outwards with his arms and legs as much as he could, even though it felt like he was accomplishing nothing.

"I will crush you this time." Karayan snarled, his single eye glowing a brighter red.

"I… Said… Get OUT." Gingka snapped, suddenly shoving Karayan off of him in a sudden burst of mental strength.

The next thing Gingka knew, he was waking up with a gasp, panting heavily and groaning faintly as he opened his eyes, finding that he was still restrained in an upright position, his wrists and ankles, as well as his waist, cuffed to a slanted wall.

"You…" Karayan snarled, slowly getting up from the floor, his red eye pulsating angrily as his long claws scraped against the ground.

Gingka panted, but looked smug. "I told you…" He said softly. "My mind… You can't take it over…"

"We'll see about that." Karayan spat, straightening his tattered clothing (an action which Gingka thought was rather purposeless, considering that the dragonoid was not exactly wearing the nicest of clothing) and walking back towards Gingka in a stalking motion.

"You said that and I proved you wrong already." Gingka said. "Just give up. I don't need a bey to resist you."

Karayan let out a derisive snort, a bit of smoke rising from his nostrils. "We'll see about that, The fact is, you cannot harm me. You're just a human. Only another bey can harm me."

"I don't need to kill you to stop you." Gingka said. "I just need to hold you off either until you give up or until someone who can kill you comes along."

"You think that ANYONE is going to come rescue you? They don't even know you're here, and even if they did, Mao is not exactly going to just let anyone walk in and rescue you. If they even try we will simply subject them to the same fate as everyone else." Karayan growled, pacing around Gingka.

"You underestimate my friends." Gingka said. "They can and will defeat you. And Mao. It won't matter what you throw at them."

"I could just rip out your throat right now and leave you to die." Karayan growled. "Don't tempt me to do so."

"But then you wouldn't get to take over my mind." Gingka pointed out. "If you kill me before you do so, then my mind will be lost to you. So really, you don't want to do that."

"You don't tell me what to do." Karayan spat flames at Gingka's feet, nearly causing the redhead to flinch.

Gingka took a deep breath as the half-dragon figure approached. He did not want to let Karayan into his mind again. He needed to stay conscious to stay on top. Unfortunately that would likely be more difficult than shoving the bey out had been. For one thing, he could not move, aside from turning his head, and for another, he knew that his body was much more fragile than Karayan's. The dragonoid had gotten him unconscious once. It would not take much to do it again, and there were a number of ways it could be done.

Gingka gritted his teeth and growled, narrowing his eyes in determination. There was only one thing he could really do. He knew that Karayan was intending to knock him unconscious again. It was only logical. It would be harder for him to resist if he were unconscious. The lack of any sort of syringe or object in Karayan's hand betrayed the fact that the dragon was likely planning to simply choke him to unconsciousness. Gingka knew that he was not going to be able to resist that.

The redhead began to panic slightly as his guess proved to be correct, Karayan closing the distance between them and raising one clawed hand up towards Gingka's throat. Which meant that he only had one real chance at this if he was to do it while conscious. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes for a moment before tilting his head back slightly.

"Pegasus!" He shouted at the tops of his lungs, the word stifled at the end by a strangled cry as Karayan snarled and closed his claws over Gingka's neck. It only took a few seconds before Gingka ceased to struggle and fell limp once more. Little did either of the two know that, within Gingka's mind, the ear of one horse twitched slightly at the call.