For the last two years he had served the Snakepit, Azure Eye had done so diligently. He had pushed himself to the brink and back, working himself to the bone for the Snakepit's reputation. Even his affiliation with the Back Stabber Jade Eye changed nothing. All it did was give him more reason to rise up the ranks. But now, things were different. She was suffering for her mistake. As much as he had suffered. And she didn't have to. She suffered only because she had felt like she needed to, for the sake of her friends. Even though they were no longer friends. And he had lost. All the promises of power and fame, and he had lost. So where did his loyalties lie? He didn't know. He had to give this further thought, but for now, there was only one right answer if he didn't want to get deported, "No, sir. I remain on your side. I'm no idiot, I know which is the right decision." He replied robotically.

Ashtem nodded, "Alright, then. Leave. But from now on, you're on a three-week probation period. Failure to keep up with expectations will lead you to be put on bee-keeping duty."

Azure Eye shuddered. Bee-keeping duty was what it sounded like. Extracting honey from the hives. But some of the hives weren't bees. They were hornets. Extremely aggressive. The stings would hurt a lot, and if you were unlucky enough to be allergic to them… well, there weren't any hospitals near by or emergency services around. Too bad.

It wasn't until he probation was over that he saw Boa. Perhaps it was intentional. But the Snakepit couldn't afford to record every waking moment of its members' lives, and luckily, as one of the Shadow Bladers, he had managed to figure out which windows of time and space were available for him to talk to Boa. Alone. Which was how they were 'coincidentally' signed up for deforesting duty together. Boa barely acknowledged him when they met each other for the first time in seven months. The last time they had been together was when right after the investigation of Felictiy's survival and defection. Now, he was guarded, unwilling to trust, such a cold contrast with the funny kid he had found in Mexico City, that Kajuri found himself wondering why he didn't realize sooner what was happening. Now he was just a grunt. Another face in the crowd. A cookie cutter blader. And it was so wrong. As they worked on chopping down the branches of one of the trees, for export of construction, he called out to Boa, "You've changed."

Boa didn't look at him, focused intently on his task, before replying, "So've you."

He hummed, "Not for the better, though."

Boa didn't answer. But Kajuri continued talking anyways, "I met Fliss recently. Did you hear?"

It got a rise out of Boa at least, "Heard that, and also that you lost to the turncoat."

Kajuri nodded, "She talked to me after she won, you know. Alone."

A derisive snort, "Convinced you to defect, too, has she? Now she wants you to pull me over to her side as well."

Kajuri shook his head, "It wasn't that. She just wanted to say sorry. Showed how much she meant it too. She gouged it into her arm. Not that deep, but damn it was old. She had been hurting too, you know?"

Boa looked at him, "Well, I don't see her here getting us out, or even apologizing in person, so she mustn't be that sorry."

As he was talking, a white splat hit his poncho. He cursed, "Ew, gross!" and threw off the poncho, before looking up, "Damn bird…" he caught sight of a white blur, with accents of red. "Wait… is that…?"

Backtrack two weeks, right after the commercials finished rolling, DJ Blader was off again, "Now, stepping up to plate, are the two powerhouses on either side! Felicity Comas and Ferdinand Puragris!" Ferdinand and Felicity walked onto their own sides, as their pictures flashed on to the screen, "Beigoma Academy needs two points to win, and BC Sol needs three! Which blader will win out?"

Ferdinand wove through handsigns, which made the sign language translator jump in, "Don't get overconfident. We can still turn this around."

Felicity nodded, "I'll be sure to keep my guard up, I hope you haven't been slacking off while I've been gone."

Ferdinand signed, "Likewise."

They both grinned, well, Felicity did, Ferdinand's eyes just creased up, since the rest of his face was hidden by the mask, before shifting to serious battle mode. They took their stances, Blader DJ was blaring in the background, and 3! 2! 1! Let it… rip!

They burst into stadium, two perfect launches. Forneus struck right into the center, Falcon circling from above. They clashed fiercly, for first contact, each side fighting for the upper hand, completely unyielding. Forneus ducked away first, causing Falcon to slam into the slope, before charging back down at an even higher speed. The two beys exchanged blows as Falcon circled around, looking for a chink in his defences. Sparks flew and no one was pulling any punches. Forneus swung back as Falcon moved forward, before swinging forward like a pendulum and punting the light bey into the air. The bey moved in an arc, cartwheeling backwards, nearly out of bounds of the stadium, before it glowed, just a faintest indentation of white, and heated up, its feathered blade opening up and pulling it back into the edge of the stadium, where it started moving back towards it target, gaining speed. Felicity's eyes glowed with a white fire, as her aura pounded away, Falcon's figure floating behind her in the Aura Field. Meaning no one could see her. Both handler and avatar spoke in tandem as the two beys collided, "Aura Launch!"

Felicity's eyes sparked as the Aura field encloaked them. The sudden change of scenery caught Ferdinand of guard, making the purple enshrouding him falter, and allowing Felicity's warm, bright white to engulf their surroundings. It was a single flash, and then, the real world resurfaced. Ferdinand was panting harshly, but Felicity was standing slumped, sweating heavily, heaving as she gripped her knees to stead herself. On the stadium, Falcon was stuttering to a halt, next to the burst pieces of Forneus. The two rivals grinned, exhausted, as DJ Blader yelled in background, "Incredible! Felicity Comas has defeated Ferdinand Puragris. Damas y caballeros, you heard that right! Felicity Comas has won the title for Spain's Second Best, and pushed BC Beigoma to win the Islander Royal!"

Fireworks went off, and confetti rained down, but Felicity fell backwards, instead of cheering, being immediately caught by Kiki and Ferdinand. Kiki grinned, "Way to go!" she congratulated her, "Good to know you weren't slouching about!"

Felicity grinned shakily as Rickson Clay dragged both Akiba and Daigo onto stage, congratulating them.

As soon as the crowd stopped following her around, she found herself by the shore, watching the sunset, staring unseeingly at her apology. Azure Eye was right. She was a coward. Why had she been hiding away all this time, hoping they would accept her apology when they randomly crossed paths. No, she had to kill her problems at the source. She had to face her past, and make it worth it.

Akiba settled down beside her, and she rolled her sleeve down before she turned towards him, "Yeah? What do you need?"

Akiba was silent for a while before answering, "What do you feel conflicted about?"

Felicity rolled her eyes, "Conflicted about what?"

He deadpanned her.

She smiled bright, fakely, "You're thinking too deep, I'm just tired. When I'm tired, I get all doom and gloom and broody."

"Sounds like depression to me." He commented idly.

She looked away, "No, its totally different."

He turned to her, "How?"

She fidgeted, "Well..."

He just sighed, "Face it. You need a self care day. Or a mental-health day."

She blinked, "A what?"

He gestured wildly, "You know… taking a day off to focus on yourself. Do what you need to do to make yourself feel better."

Felicity laid back into the sand, "Yeah, that would be awesome, but with the tournament coming up…"

She shot back up, "That's it!"

Akiba blinked, "What's it?"

Felicity grinned, "I'm gonna take a mental health week!"

Akiba whistled, "Geez, how many issues do you need to get through?"

Felicity rubbed her arm, "Two years worth."

Akiba hesitated, "Wanna talk about it?"

Felicity shook her head, "No, but now I know what to do."

She packed everything she had. Ghost was in a carrier and was ready to go. Everything was in one bag and a large suitcase. Taiga-shishou had offered to pick her up and drop her at the airport and she had taken him up on it. The only thing left was…

"First Ken, now you, who's gonna leave next?!" Valt yelled as she met up with them outside her house.

Felicity cringed, "Valt! Calm down! You can talk to me online, y'know."

Shu nodded, "Yeah, but all the same, take care."

Felicity grinned at him, "You bet! I'm good at what I do!"

Rantarou ruffled her hair, "Now, now, don't get a big head now that you're ranked second best! After all, it is just second!"

Felicity stuck her tongue out, before turning to Daigo and hugging him, "Take care, you guys!" she waved. "Shu, take care of the Raging Bulls. They can be pretty pushy when they want to be. Rantarou, don't over do it, remember, fight smarter, not harder." Rantarou winked, and Felicity was about to continue, when a horn honked, she turned around to see Taiga-shishou's truck, so she turned back, "Well, that's my ride! Bye, guys!" she ran into the truck and jumped into the shotgun seat, setting her luggage at the back. She waved backwards as they raced afterwards, before settling back into her seat, "This is gonna be a good time." She promised herself.

"I suppose so…" Falcon hummed in her silvery voice.

Author's Note: So its shorter than usual. And later too. I couldn't find anything good to add on to the end, this was the only one I could think of. Go to my profile there's a poll going on about what I should work on next. And that's about it.

Oh, and Please review, and stay home. Bye~!