A/N: Gosh, these last few weeks have been high-stress! From dealing with my postgrad course, to helping my sister with her wedding plans (under two weeks left until the big day!), to having my dog stab herself on a tree branch, requiring staples and a lot of TLC, as well as a great lack of sleep on my part! I finally got this chapter done! And yes, I reiterate the fact that I will be side-stepping writing a lot of battles, for the sake of my sanity. In unrelated Beyblade news, I see Kingdom Hearts Unchained has made it to the USA! No idea if it's available over here yet, but then again, I wouldn't go for it, anyway, because I've been doggedly playing the Japanese version for six months now, so I'm not about to switch servers! No idea if any of you are Kingdom Hearts fans, but I heartily recommend this game! It's lots of fun! Anyway, welcome to chapter 21! Enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I was working on the whole owning Beyblade thing, but the legal fees, they're just too much! So no own, no sue! That would be the very definition of a frivolous lawsuit!
Twenty-one: Pieces Of The Puzzle
Shortly after the battle came to a close, Kai disappeared. No one asked any questions as he left the arena; he needed the time alone, as that was just how he operated. The last thing he needed was to be bombarded with questions from overly curious friends. They were content enough to leave him to his own devices, and as Max went about escorting Tyson to another of his physiotherapy sessions, Ray and Daichi chose to abscond from watching the remaining match to train for the upcoming leg in Moscow, and Kenny and Hilary returned to the hotel, with everyone's Beyblades in tow, to do some maintenance repairs and the like.
"Was it just me, or was that match weird?" Hilary asked from where she had seated herself at the end of Kenny's bed, watching the young mechanic at work. "I mean, how long has Santiago known us, and yet he seems to know all this stuff about Kai? It just doesn't make sense! And to bring it up in the middle of a match, like he was trying to throw him off? That's not like Santiago at all! I mean, it seemed downright dirty to play it like that! And another thing-"
"Hilary, you're rambling," Kenny sighed, exasperated with the young woman in his company. It wasn't that he didn't agree with her, because the events in the dish had struck him as somewhat odd, but he couldn't concentrate on that as well as making vital repairs to Strata Dragoon. Didn't she know that men couldn't multi-task?
"Sorry!" Hilary flopped back on the bed, her gaze now fixed on the ceiling above. "But seriously, Kenny! It was like he hacked Kai's mind! We've known him for years, and even we can't do that! Why would he go into such personal stuff like that in the middle of a match if not to throw Kai off his game?!" Kenny sighed again. She just wasn't going to let this one go. She was like a dog with a bone, in that respect.
"Hilary, I need to make these repairs to everyone's Beyblades!" Kenny decided that the best way to stop the girl before her tirade really started generating momentum was to hit her with the cold hard truth. It could well get him hurt, but it was worth the risk if peace and quiet was the potential prize. "I know you're upset about the battle, but I can't concentrate while you're rambling!" The young brunette was suitably chastened by this, and fell quiet to facilitate the continuing repairs. The silence only lasted a short while, however, as Hilary found herself growing steadily frustrated by the weight of what she had to say on her chest, and so, with a loud enough huff so that Kenny would know he was to blame, the young woman jumped up off of the bed, and left the room. Maybe Kenny didn't want to talk to her, but someone was going to listen to what she had to say!
It didn't take her long to locate someone she could, potentially, use as a sounding board, as she encountered the entire White Tiger X team in the lobby of the hotel, sitting on the couches situated there, looking rather disconcerted.
"Aren't you guys gonna watch the match?" Hilary asked as she approached them, curious as to why they hadn't stuck around to watch the Stryker match, when she had spotted them in the audience at theirs.
"Those Stryker matches are a massacre," Lee reported grimly. "It doesn't make for the most pleasant viewing. It seems inevitable that the Majestics will lose, and I don't know how many more teams we can watch lose to those monsters..." It was a true enough statement, and Hilary knew that even her bone-headed friend Tyson had to find the Stryker matches tough viewing. "We figured we could be putting our time to more constructive uses, so we decided to start a training plan to implement from now until our match in Moscow."
"There's something about Moscow, isn't there?" Hilary continued her questioning, sitting herself down beside Mariah, regarding the faces of the Chinese team with interest. She could tell from their expressions that she wasn't wrong. "What is it? What's so important about Moscow that no one seems to want to tell me?"
"It's probably because of Kai," Mariah pointed out, and the pink-haired girl knew immediately that she'd hit on the other girl's main point of inquiry. She was here to dig around about Kai, which Mariah couldn't exactly blame her for, after what had just happened in the dish between the half-Russian and his Brazilian opponent. "He was born and raised in Moscow, at that Balkov Abbey place. Horrible place; gives me the creeps just thinking about it!" An involuntary shudder rattled the Chinese girl's spine. It really was just an unpleasant place, even in thought.
"Kai was raised in an abbey?" Hilary cocked a brow at this. Of all of the members of their team, she knew the least about, well, pretty much everyone. It was expected that Kai be the most enigmatic, since everyone else was much more inclined to share their stories, but to have been raised in an abbey? "Aren't they religious buildings? Where priests live? Kai doesn't strike me as being someone who believes in any one God..." He didn't strike her as a guy who believed in anything at all, with the notable exception of Dranzer.
"It was a front," Lee clarified for her. "They had it up as an orphanage for kids in Moscow, run by the jerk behind BEGA, Boris Balkov. He played the role of a priest, looking after 'wayward boys' in Russia's capital, but he was using the place to train the next generation of Beybladers. It was all funded by the Biovolt Corporation, which is where Kai comes into it."
"You've lost me..." Hilary admitted. How was Kai connected to Biovolt? What was a Biovolt?
"Biovolt was run by a guy named Voltaire," Kevin stepped in. "Voltaire is Kai's grandfather."
"Ohhhh...!" Hilary gaped a little at this, but at least it was some clarity, at long last. Why this had to be such a big secret amongst her friends was anyone's guess. "Hey! Come to think of it, Kai's never mentioned any of his family!"
"Probably because Voltaire went to prison," Lee said, his fingers knotting together. "After the Bladebreakers' first tournament outing, he got outed as being involved with illegal weapons smuggling, and then on top of that, it got out what exactly he was allowing to happen to the boys in Balkov Abbey, so he's currently rotting in a Moscow prison, I'd imagine."
"And I hope he stays there!" Mariah stated firmly. She'd only seen him in passing, but she hadn't liked her initial impression of him. He seemed to exude 'maniac'.
"And what does any of this have to do with what happened at the match today?" Hilary finally felt safe in pressing at the center of her problem, hoping that, maybe, she'd get some decent conversation out of this topic, and perhaps even the understanding that her friends seemed to feel she didn't need.
"Honestly? I don't really know," Lee admitted. "In case you haven't noticed, Kai isn't exactly the most chatty guy on the planet. Wouldn't even go as far as to call him friendly..." He'd never known the half-Russian Beyblader to be outwardly kind; merely respectfully civil, at the best of times. He seemed to like to keep a good distance between himself and pretty much everyone else, and Lee wasn't about to press that button too much. He didn't really know Kai well enough to actually care. The extent of his knowledge, and care, of Kai came from Ray.
"Ugh!" Hilary huffed, sounding more agitated and disappointed than she had planned to, immediately looking apologetic. "Sorry! It's not you! It just feels like there's this big secret that everyone's in on but me, and it's not fair! I mean, what's a girl got to do to be included?!"
"Well," Mariah started. "I can't speak for everyone on your team, but as far as Ray, he's known Kai long enough to let him come to it in his own time. He knows better than to push for something that Kai doesn't want to own up to. I'm sure he and Kai are friends, at least; they're getting on well sharing a room, anyway." Here was some news Hilary could work with, and Mariah knew automatically that she'd made a mistake in hinting that Ray and Kai may well have private talks away from the others. If this got back to Ray, he'd be mad at her, for sure.
"See, I'd always thought Ray and Kai would be closest, but everyone else seems to think it's Kai and Tyson, and I guess I understand that, but at the same time, I don't, because they're rivals, right? How can you be best friends with your rival? Does that even work? Is that supposed to work? And in that respect, how does Tyson know so much about Kai? I know they've known one another longer than Ray, or Max, or Daichi have known him, but how does the closeness even work? Tyson seems to understand Kai without either of them having to speak to one another, so is it ESP, or something? Have they been battling for so long that they just have this unspoken understanding now? And even then-"
It was now that Hilary, finally, realized that her companions had abandoned her. She might have heard mention of them needing to get some work done, mid-monologue, but she hadn't been paying attention. She had, most likely, been talking to herself for, at least, a couple of minutes, which would explain why everyone around her was looking at her like she was deranged. Sheepishly, the young brunette got to her feet, and left the hotel, trying to will away the red from her cheeks. Without meaning to, she found herself back at the stadium, the match between Stryker and The Majestics now in full-swing, and she was so distracted by her internalizations that she failed to see the young man standing in her path.
"Oh! Sorry!" she apologized as she crashed into him, though both remained on their feet. Hilary finally brought her attention to the unfortunate she had tried to bulldoze through, and was surprised to find Tala standing before her, looking a little perplexed by her presence. "Tala! I didn't see you!"
"No, you didn't, but that's because you weren't actually looking," Tala replied, deadpan. "What are you even doing out here? Aren't you supposed to be Tyson's handler?" Hilary couldn't but prickle a little at this, the prickling worsening on spotting the gleam of mirth in the Russian's icy blue eyes.
"Max is with Tyson," came Hilary's clipped response, and Tala couldn't but continue to draw amusement from her. She really was so easy to rile. "And since you're so chatty, maybe you can explain to me what happened in the dish earlier today! Stop treating this all like it's Black Ops classified and just spit it out!" He should have known his finding glee in her discomfort would come back to bite him. He didn't even need to ask for clarification to know what she was asking about. Tala knew well enough that Hilary wasn't 'read-in', so to say, on Kai's history. With the rest of the G Revolutions, with the notable exception of Daichi, who didn't really seem to care, anyway, they had had to know, owing to events of the time, and now they kept the information close to their chests. Knowing her to be about as stubborn and bull-headed as Tyson himself, Tala knew he couldn't just brush Hilary aside. Not if he valued his continuing ability to hear.
"I don't understand why it's so important that you know," Tala, eventually, formulated a response that he hoped would get him out of actually providing a more succinct reply. "Kai is Kai. Why don't you just accept him for that, and stop trying to get involved in his business?" It was a fair enough remark to make, in hindsight, but it didn't mean Hilary had to like it. Or listen to it, for that matter.
"Because I care about my friends!" Hilary countered, and internally, Tala cringed. Prior to their little drunken escapade in Dublin, the redhead wasn't even sure if he and Kai were friends, but he figured, after that, they'd definitely have to be. Now this girl was pulling the friendship card, like it was a legitimate excuse, and he knew that she was going to keep plucking at this thread until he felt compelled to smash his head through a wall.
"I still don't get why he's so important," Tala shook his head with a sigh, knowing he'd have to cave, or he'd never escape the brunette. "Look, it's no big deal. Just seems like Santiago knows some stuff about Kai. That's all. You know as much as I do on that score. I never met Kai's parents when we were at The Abbey, but I heard rumors about them. His dad ran off and left him, and his mom went crazy and died, or something like that. It doesn't even matter. The past is the past; it's history. It's not important right now, so stop digging around." To Hilary, however, it was important. Very important. If these 'hidden truths', as they were, were going to be used against her team, then they were very important, and she was going to know everything. By hook or by crook.
"But Santiago implied that Kai got Dranzer as a result of his mother's death! That's not nothing! That's a pretty big something!" Hilary pointed out. She knew she wasn't wrong: it was a huge something. Not much was known of the origins of the Bit Beasts, aside from that they were passed down through families, and it hadn't mentioned anything about people dying in order for the Bit Beast to be passed on. Sure, that worked in most heirloom cases, but he was implying something much more... sinister? Was that the word she was looking for? "Is he implying that there's something of Kai's mom in Dranzer...?" Now that was an interesting theory.
"Seriously, what is wrong with you?" Tala frowned as he regarded the young woman next to him. "Why have you got to pry so much?" While he could admit that the possibility of a deeper, perhaps familial connection between his one-time teammate and his Bit Beast was an intriguing prospect, he didn't actually feel the burning desire that this girl, clearly, had to uncover the truth of it. "You need to just leave it alone already! How does any of this affect your team's performance?! How does it affect how you view Kai?! It doesn't! So just let it-"
His retort was interrupted by a groaning shudder that rattled the stadium, and it could only have come from one place. No further words were exchanged between the pair, as the broke out into a run, heading for the center of the arena, and the explosion's origin.
"I'll be so grateful when I can get out of this thing!" Tyson half-groaned as he and Max left the hospital, with the former still in his wheelchair. While he knew it was necessary, it was still becoming a burden, and he couldn't wait until he was liberated from its wheel-clad confines. That would still be a while yet, though.
"Well, they said you may be able to move onto crutches in a week or two," Max pointed out, a fact he knew would bring more relief to his bluenette friend. "But you can't rush this stuff, Tyson. You need to take your time with it, or you'll make things worse."
"Yeah, yeah," Tyson waved off his concerns, but only because he'd been made aware of them a hundred times, at least. Everyone had warned him of the dangers of pushing his recovery along too quickly out of sheer impatience, mainly because they knew that patience was not one of Tyson's virtues. They weren't wrong there, either, and the bluenette knew as much, but that didn't make the anticipation at finally being freed from his wheelchair any less heightened. He felt as if he had been shackled into the thing forever, though it had only been a month or two. "We got out earlier than I thought we would, so why don't we go and see if we can catch the end of the match?" When it came to the matches involving Stryker, the young American found himself conflicted. While they were an all-powerful force, and they had to know their enemy, if the old proverb was to be believed, Max couldn't help but feel deeply unsettled every time he watched Stryker take to the dish. It left him feeling nauseated, like he'd just swallowed a lead weight. He'd felt some measure of relief, having been allocated the task of escorting Tyson to his hospital appointment, as this meant he would, in all likelihood, miss the Stryker matches, but they had gotten out earlier than anticipated, and were now faced with one alternative to just going back to the hotel.
"Sure, if that's what you want," Max conceded, choosing not to openly admit that he'd rather be anywhere but near that stadium while Stryker were up to bat. With the stadium an easy distance from the hospital, it didn't take the pair long to traverse their way back, and the journey was passed with the usual idle chatter that was employed to fill potentially awkward silences. Things had never been awkward between Tyson and Max, and conversation tended to flow easily, but with everything that was happening, both young men were on edge, and both held their own reservations regarding Stryker's performance in the dish. Formidable they were indeed, but to more of a sickening extreme than one you could ever admire.
"You'll have to face them eventually..." Tyson pointed out, as the pair entered the stadium, able to hear the raucous noise from the spectators even now. The knowledge that this seemingly-unstoppable team were going to come into the G Revolutions' cross-hairs hadn't gone unnoticed by the blonde, and it did seem like a painfully daunting task to even consider training to take them on. No doubt Kai would work them ragged when the time did come, and for once, Max knew he wouldn't complain a bit about it. He wanted to be prepared for what was coming.
"I know, Tyson," Max said in response, still feeling that uneasiness in his gut. "Whether it be in the finals, or even before that, we're going to take them on. And I'm not gonna lie to you, Tyson: I'm pretty worried..." Some of the best teams in the sport had stood against Stryker and been swatted aside like mere insects, so it struck Draciel's master that worry was probably a sensible feeling to have. "They're the strongest opposition we've ever come across. They make the Justice Five tournament look like a tea party by comparison. I'd rather go through them and Voltaire again than face Stryker, but what choice do we have?"
"I wish I was up there with you..." Tyson found himself clenching his fists at the very thought of his team taking Stryker on without him. He wanted to be in the thick of it, defending his friends, and getting back the stolen Bit Beasts, but he was useless now, and couldn't just enter the tournament halfway through, even if he had been physically able to do so. No, this was not a battle that he could fight. "It just... It all feels so... Dangerous. It's like nothing we've faced before..."
"But we'll face it," Max assured him. "We'll face it, and we'll win. I have no idea how, but we won't exactly have a choice in the matter..." That went without saying. The pair felt an air of uneasiness descend as they went into the stadium, looking about to see if anyone they knew was outside the center of the arena. "Guess everyone is inside watching the match..." While he certainly had no interest in seeing the bloodbath that was occurring in the main arena, Max could definitely see the appeal of wanting to watch such a match.
A groaning shudder, like a vicious earthquake, rattled through the entire arena, rumbling up and through the frame of Tyson's wheelchair, the bluenette clinging to the arm rests in surprise, as his blonde friend gripped the handles on the back of the chair.
"What was that?!" Tyson cried out, though in his heart, he knew exactly what it was. No words passed between the two as they raced to the center of the arena, and the origin of the painful shaking.
"We can't just stop!" Daichi wailed, his hands on his hips as he watched his Chinese friend move over to the water cooler to get a drink. They'd been training with a relentless zeal since their match had met its end, and while Ray could completely understand why Daichi had suddenly become so dedicated to his training, he knew they couldn't just go full-throttle without taking a couple of scheduled rest breaks. The last thing they needed was burnout. "We have to be at our best to take on Stryker!" The two had relocated to the training center that was inside the vast arena, and though they couldn't see the matches unfold in the arena's center, they could certainly hear plenty of cheering and screaming.
"Daichi, we can't go at this with our feet on the gas!" Ray pointed out, taking a paper cup, and filling it with ice cold water, the liquid providing rejuvenation for the parched older Beyblader. "If we burn out, what good are we going to be? I know it's important to take Stryker down, but we won't do it by going overboard. We'll do it as we always have: with dedication, teamwork, and a proper schedule of training and rest. No human is made to work at 120%, so take a breather, Daichi. Get some water, take a five minute break, and we'll come back to it then." The redhead knew the other had a point, and that what he was saying was rooted in sense and reason, but it didn't make it any easier to swallow. With an agitated huff, Daichi relented, going over to join Ray by the water cooler.
"But they're up there, reaming The Majestics, and we're just standing here!" Daichi continued in his wailing. "How are we gonna beat a team like that if we don't do something now?!"
"I understand that you're frustrated," Ray reasoned, ever aiming to keep a cool head. One of them had to, anyway. "But there's only so much we can do. We can't do anything else. Out of all of us, I probably need the most work. I haven't exactly been on top form since the tournament started..." The Chinese youth couldn't but feel a pang of something in his chest as he dwelt on this unpleasant fact. He really hadn't been doing all that well so far, and by his own exacting standards, he had been letting his team, and himself, down. This wasn't how he was used to performing at all, and while he had overcome the mental road blocks that had lead him to this point, or so he felt, at least, he still found himself lagging behind his teammates. At this point, he had to wonder if Tyson would even be doing a better job on the team right now, and while injured, too. It was a depressing thought, but one that Ray couldn't afford to dwell on, lest he invite the wrath of their less-than-tolerant team captain onto himself.
"I just don't want to lose Strata Dragoon to those creeps!" Daichi clenched his fists angrily, crushing the now-empty paper cup that had been in his hands. "Look at what they've done to every one of their opponents up to now! Ripped their Bit Beasts away and absorbed them! We have no idea if we'll even be able to get them back now they're inside Ryall's Beyblade!" This was a fact that Ray had been trying to push to the back of his mind, but now he found that he wasn't the only one sweating over this particular concern. What if they couldn't get the stolen Bit Beasts back now that they had been absorbed? What would happen then? In defeating Stryker, and Ryall, would they be condemning the stolen Bit Beasts to death? Or would they release them?
"I know," Ray's brow creased in concern. "Now that they've been absorbed, after that fire before, I have no idea if we'll be able to get them back. But we're gonna have to try. We've got people counting on us..."
"And another thing!" Daichi found himself on a roll, and Ray couldn't but laugh and shake his head. "What's going on with these new teams?! Is it me, or do they seem to be in some kind of coalition, or something?! Are they all in cahoots?! Cos they all seem to know a lot about Stryker, and about us! I don't know about you, but this is all making me feel really uncomfortable!" It was a valid concern: how much did the Side Winders and the Desert Snakes know about Stryker? And how much did they know about them? The Side Winders, at least, seemed to have a bevy of information about Kai, anyway, so who was to say what information they had on the rest of them, as well.
"I don't really know what's going on there," Ray admitted, disposing of his paper cup in a recycling trash can. "And yeah, it does make me feel a little uneasy, that they may know more about us than we do, but in the end, they haven't exactly posed a major threat so far, so I wouldn't rank them highly on our list of concerns right now."
"But they got to Kai!" Daichi reminded his older friend. "They got to Captain Icicle! If they can get to him, I think we're all pretty doomed! You can bet that Stryker know as much about us as the other guys do, and they'll use it against us, and we'll come apart at the seams, lose our Bit Beasts to them, and then the world will sink like the freakin' Titanic!" Perhaps he was airing on the side of the dramatic, but that was the situation they were facing as he saw it.
"Then maybe that's what the Side Winders were trying to do," Ray suggested, plucking up Driger from where he had fallen following the outcome of the last practice battle between himself and his shorter friend. "They're throwing out these potential scenarios, so we can harden ourselves to them, and be ready for whatever dirty tricks Stryker try to throw at us."
"I guess," Daichi shrugged, though that whole battle between Kai and Santiago still sat ill on his chest. "I didn't even know that was Kai's soft spot. I'll have to bank it."
"No you won't," Ray hit back firmly, starting to coerce Daichi out of the training center. There was only so much of this pace he could handle. "Don't go using those tactics on Kai. He'll only make you pay for it later." This was true, and Daichi knew that the punishment from Kai for trying to prod at his soft spot just didn't bear thinking about. As hard as he could push himself in training, he always knew that the half-Russian could push him harder, close to breaking point, and it would go beyond that if he started employing those kinds of tactics for his own ends.
"Good point," Daichi relented, following Ray out, the pair of them now moving at a more sedate pace through the stadium, though still able to hear the spectators' cheering from the battle in-progress. "Guess they pointed out that weakness so Kai could see to it; so Stryker couldn't use it against him. I didn't think it was much in-character for Santiago to go using dirty tactics, but then again, he and his team have never been the types to push for victory..."
"They just aren't the kind of people who will do whatever it takes for a win," Ray agreed. "That much was obvious when Mariana battled Kenny. She could have easily taken him down within two minutes, but she didn't. She didn't even think about using her Bit Beast, purely because she knew Kenny didn't have one. If they were all so concerned with winning, she would have put him to the sword within minutes of the match starting, but she didn't."
"So, what now?" Daichi asked, the pair now stopping in front of a set of double-doors which would lead them out onto one of the balconies that hedged the main arena.
"Business as usual," Ray replied. "But we're going to need to look closely at ourselves, to find our weaknesses, and plug them up, before they can be used against-"
The Chinese Beyblader was interrupted by a powerful shudder that rocked the entire stadium. Both youths were caught off-guard by it, and both wobbled on their feet, sticking out their arms to remain balanced. It was obvious where the quake-like tremor had originated, and without a moment of hesitation, both youths burst through the double-doors, to investigate why such a shake had even happened.
Kai had occupied himself with the company of some of the city's stray cats, prior to his return to the stadium to, perhaps half-heartedly, watch the match between Stryker and The Majestics. It was obvious who would win, but anything to keep him away from his teammates, all of whom had absconded for other tasks. He just didn't have the wherewithal to handle their prying right now, though he knew it to be an inevitability. Truth be known, though, he knew even less than they did about what had happened in the dish earlier. How was it that everyone seemed to know more about him than he did? Was he really so expert at repressing his memories?
"They're terrifying to behold, aren't they?" the voice of Santiago pierced through Kai's internal musings, and it was now that he noticed that he had barely been paying attention to the escalating battle raging below between Marco and Enrique, which both young men could see from their position on one of the balconies hedging the center of the arena, the seating laid out below. Why did he even need to watch the battle, though? It was clear that Enrique would lose, anyway. "I'm sorry about before, Kai. I perhaps came across as more devious than I had wanted to..."
"Why are you apologizing again?" Kai asked eventually, allowing some irritation to slip into his voice, glancing over at the colorful Beyblader at his side. "You didn't need to in the first place. You did what you had to do to prepare me for what was ahead, and if other people are going to let their feelings get hurt by it, it's their problem. I couldn't care less." Santiago could well believe that. Kai wasn't one to hold himself responsible for the reactions of others.
"I'm sure you understand now that the goal lines have changed," Santiago spoke again, after a lengthy silence descended over the pair, in which time Enrique was soundly beaten by Marco, and Robert had now stepped up to the plate, taking on Stryker's merciless team captain, Ryall. Kai remained unresponsive, his expression unchanging, and so the Brazilian continued. "It's not just about being the best anymore: it's about stopping a global catastrophe. What Stryker are doing, what they're planning to do, could change more than just the landscape of this game: it could change everything." The Phoenix found himself struggling to believe this, yet a small part of him felt inclined to allow Santiago to continue his reel. "Before this tournament even started, we became aware of the formation of Stryker, and we knew that we couldn't leave them unchecked. All of us were Beybladers of good skill, and so we entered the World Championships, to try and stop Stryker from realizing their ambitions."
"We?" Kai asked drily, barely concealing his distinct lack of interest in the conversation.
"My team, the Side Winders, and the Desert Snakes," Santiago replied. "We've known each other for a long time, you see, and we all knew of the destiny of the sacred Bit Beasts, even before that exhibit in London started up. If Stryker succeed in their goal of attaining your Bit Beasts, I don't even want to think about what will happen to the world. To have the guardians tainted by darkness would lead to something no one could ever fight against..."
"This may come as a surprise to you, but I don't actually care," Kai dismissed Santiago's concerns out of hand. "I'm not interested in their agenda, and I'm not interested in yours. I'm here to do one thing, and that's win this tournament, and with or without your stupid little prophecy, I will do that, and I will get rid of anyone who is dumb enough to get in my way, including Stryker." If anything could be said of Kai Hiwatari, it was that he was focused. When the need was present, he had a will of iron.
"Tell me," Santiago started up the conversation again, following another period of quiet, much to Kai's chagrin. He preferred talks that were short-lived. "Whatever happened to Black Dranzer?" Now this was a question he hadn't been expecting. No one had thought to mention anything of Black Dranzer in some years, and Kai had believed that he was the only person who remembered the thing.
"Is that any of your business?" Kai bit back.
"She was created in the Biovolt laboratories, was she not?" Santiago wasn't about to let this go, and he could tell from Kai's facial cues that he was hitting in the right ball park. "She was not a true guardian, but modeled after one. I remember seeing her in action in your inaugural World Championship, and she certainly was a force out of anyone's control. Whatever happened to her?"
"Lost her," Kai shrugged, cutting the line of inquiry there. He wasn't about to admit that he still had Black Dranzer, and on his person, no less. He kept her Bit with him all the time, hidden within the wrist cuff he had on his left arm, not for the purpose of ever putting her out into battle again, but rather to serve as a reminder of what he didn't need anymore. Of how he didn't need to cling to the dregs of his past to be able to forge his future. Black Dranzer had been the start of his understanding of just how much of his childhood he had repressed, but he kept her around as a reminder to never let himself sink too deeply into that quagmire. It just wasn't worth it.
A great gust of air battered their faces, and it was quickly followed by a rumbling groan, and an almighty explosion. Both young men grabbed at the balcony rail to keep themselves upright, and were soon joined by Ray and Daichi, who burst through a nearby door, and out onto the balcony.
"What the hell was that?!" Daichi cried out, running over to the railing, and his question was soon answered by the appearance of Ryall's Bit Beast, Yama, in the center of the arena, glowing, enormous, and formidable. "What?!"
"It's Yama!" Santiago cried out, looking down to see the look of utter shock on Robert's face, and the sneer that graced Ryall's by return made his stomach feel sick.
"It's huge..." Ray gaped, jolting at the Bit Beast lunged at Griffolyon, capturing the other Bit Beast by the throat, digging clawed fingers into its flesh, and the Chinese youth clamped a hand over his mouth as he heard a loud crack come from Griffolyon. "He's a monster..." None of them could believe what they were seeing; not those on the balcony, or those down closer to the main arena floor, where Tyson and Max were standing, alongside Tala and an aghast Hilary. They watched, helpless, as Yama pulled the limp beast to his jaws, and began to tear at its throat, a reaction registering on all of their faces as what remained of Griffolyon was absorbed into Yama.
"Griffolyon!" Robert half-screamed in agony, watching his beloved Bit Beast be ripped away so callously, and so easily. The older youth dropped to his knees, tears filling his eyes, and he let out a loud howl of pain, screaming at the sky, his teammates hurriedly running to his side to offer him comfort.
And yet, Yama remained.
"It hasn't gone yet..." Max pointed out, his voice sounding hollow, haunted, and panic began to spike in him when he felt the Bit Beast's eyes shift to them. "What's it doing...?" Max had a very good idea as to what it was doing: it was appraising them, as a predator would eye up its prey. They were prey.
"Guys, we need to run..." the fear was obvious in Hilary's voice, as she started to back away, grabbing Tala's arm, starting to pull him back with her, not at all surprised that the Russian wasn't fighting her on this. Even he knew that they were suddenly in a dangerous position, something that was confirmed when Yama let out a roar, and then lunged for them. "Run!"
There was only so fast they could dive out of the way, and for Max and Tyson, the motion was a lot slower, and as such, the pair were swatted aside by Yama's vicious approach, and Tyson was upended from his wheelchair, landing a short distance from it on his front. Slowly, he brought himself up onto one elbow, and peered around to look for Max, finding his friend lying close behind his wheelchair, unconscious, a mark on his head suggesting he had probably been hit, likely by the wheelchair as it was catapulted aside.
"Max!" Tyson called out to his immobile friend, a low, guttural growl bringing his attention from the American, and to the scene before him, with Yama glowering down at him. Panic had erupted in the arena, with spectators screaming, and running for the exits, but all of the Beybladers remained, moving now to the main arena floor.
"Tyson!" Hilary called out desperately to her friend, but as she tried to move out towards him, Tala extended an arm to hold her back. "Let me go! He needs my help!"
"There's nothing you can do!" Tala hit back against her, and she knew he was right. The panic in the arena seemed to heighten, as Yama reared back, his dark eyes still on Tyson, letting out an ear-splitting roar, before lunging at the immobilized bluenette. Brown eyes wrenched shut, not wanting to see what he knew would be a messy end, so when that end failed to come, the young Dragon was more than a little confused. Forcing his eyes open, Tyson noticed a shadow descending over him, and when he cast his gaze up, he noticed that there was now a shield between himself and Yama.
Ray and Kai.
"Ray! Kai!" Tyson cried out, surprised to see his friends standing in front of him, silently praying that they hadn't taken the hit for him. He couldn't be able to forgive himself if they had been hurt trying to protect him. A quick glance back told him that Max was now in the company of Santiago and Daichi, the blonde now conscious, but looking bleary and dazed.
"You won't be able to stand between us for long," Ryall stated flatly, and relief flooded Tyson's entire body when he noticed that his two friends were unharmed. "I will claim Dragoon, even if I have to rip through your pathetic bodies to do so."
"I'd like to see you try," Ray hit back, imbued with a strange sense of courage. There was something about the safety of your friends being threatened that made you throw fear and caution to the wind. "Maybe you'll get through one of us, but you won't get through all of us. You can try and take us down, but we'll get back up, and we'll keep standing in your way." Amber eyes took note of a twitch in Ryall's expression, and he couldn't but derive some pleasure from this. He was annoying him; good. "You won't get Driger, or Dragoon, Dranzer, Draciel, or Strata Dragoon. Amass as large a force as you dare, but nothing will change that one truth. It stops here. It ends here."
Clearly, this was irritating for Ryall. He had expected them to be brazen, but he hadn't expected them to be recklessly confident. If they acted together in this way, bringing them down would be so much harder, but he knew the dynamics of a team well-enough to know how to bring an end to this nauseating unity: united they stood, but divided, they fell.
"You can stand there and threaten us," Ryall started. "But how long will your sickening camaraderie last? You all have your own agendas, admit it outright or not, and it won't be long before you start resenting that cretin behind you for putting you in this position. There are weak links, and strong links, in your set-up, but I don't think your captain can protect you forever..." This was a rather pointed barb at Ray himself, making sure that the Chinese youth knew as much, before turning his attention to Kai. "Doesn't it annoy you, Kai? That you have to shelve your own goals and ambitions for this mismatched team of weaklings? I thought you wanted to be the best? The world number one? Has that ambition left you? Have you become as weak as those behind you?" Tyson found himself flinching at these remarks. He knew Kai well enough to know the kind of man he was. He knew winning was important to him, but he also knew he had a strong sense of pride and fairness. A small voice in his head, though, couldn't but think that what Ryall was saying had some truth in it. There was every chance that Kai would be affected by the other's words. And the bluenette could feel the tension from all around him: from Ray in front of him, and from his friends behind him, who were now closing in. Would this all plant a seed of doubt in their captain?
"Hah!" Kai snorted, a slight smirk on his pale face, and his reaction took Ray a little by surprise. "Clearly you don't know me as well as you seem to think you do. I don't want to be the best. Why would I want something that I already have? I am the best, and I'm not so insecure in myself to be threatened by stupid remarks from a stupid person. That's what it means to be the best. If you want to prove me wrong, you prove it in the dish, but you're the only one who needs to prove anything here: I have nothing to prove. I know what I am, and I'm disappointed that, for all your bluster, you know absolutely nothing."
No one had expected this response from Kai, least of all Ryall himself, and the shock played out openly across his features. Seeing this surprise certainly filled the half-Russian with a small measure of delight. It was about time Yama's master was the one getting rattled. The remaining members of the G Revolutions stood to join their captain, as Hilary and Santiago worked together to get Tyson back into his now-upright wheelchair.
"What a let-down," Kai continued, the sneer Ryall had once been wearing now on the face of the G Revolutions' captain. "You're scared. So scared that you don't have the guts to take us on in the dish! Save your diatribe! Actions speak louder than your vitriol! You want Dranzer? You take your shot in the dish! Don't thrash about like a petulant child, taking what isn't yours! You want our Bit Beasts?! You earn the right to them in the dish! Enough of your talk!" If team morale had been flagging in the G Revolutions before, it certainly wasn't now. Every member of the team felt buoyed, sky-high, by their captain's inspiring words. He'd gotten under Ryall's skin, and clearly rattled him, and every knock against Stryker was a victory.
"Fine..." Ryall bit out, dismissing Yama with a wave of his hand, reclaiming his Beyblade, looking briefly over to the defeated Majestics before looking back to the G Revolutions. "I'll prove my power to you in the dish. And I promise you, Kai, that you and your team will regret calling us out. You're all going to pay!"