Chapter 33

A month later, after the destruction of the Alternative, Keith, Gus, Mira, and Blake arrived on New Vestroia for Blake to get her stuff from there and put it back in her parents' mansion, to which she earned official ownership not so long ago.

"Wow, I never knew you'd stay here. How come I and the others never noticed you?"

Mira said with a surprise in her voice.

The Resistance van was mostly in this area where Blake's cave. How they did not cross paths was beyond her imagination.

That thought aside, Mira looked around the place with memories resurfacing from the time when they will play different games as kids. Fun times.

"Indeed is surprising."

Gus added his opinion.

"What can I say? I'm not a day person."

Blake said, typing the code for entering the cave.

The entrance opened itself.

Mira and Gus went first, while Keith decided to go last with Blake.

"It's noticeable."

Keith whispered.

"Shut up."

Blake scoffed and went further from Keith, to which he chuckled.

Now that everyone was inside, the entrance closed automatically.

The entrance hallway of the cave was long and wide. There wasn't much stuff around this part of the cave as it was devoid of any furniture. There were two nearly transparent looking doors right next to each other. In reality, if one could look closely, though, the ground was scorched beyond imagination, and parts had some dried blood.

Keith glanced through the doors directly at the dried blood, quickly returning his attention towards the others.

"It won't take …"

Before Blake could finish her sentence, an empty bottle of a sweet liquor rolled rather loudly on the floor.

Keith, Gus, and Mira looked in the bottle's direction while Blake raised her non-existent eyebrow and picked the bottle.

"Strange. I don't remember drinking this one."

Blake held the bottle, guessing that maybe Pandora had drunk it when she told her to pick up the comatose-like bakugans not so long ago.

Not only that but also the fact that

"Wow, you must have a haunted cave."

Mira chuckled.

"Far from haunted."

Blake walked forward towards the vast hall with the liquor bottle until she reached her messily organized lab, with the computer and the turned-off simulator and the coach in the middle of the room where there were books on top of books. And those were the ones on the table as near her computer there was a shelf with books.

"You weren't exaggerating about the books."

Keith stared at the books, now fully understanding why Blake wanted them back on Vestal.

"Haven't seen so many books stacked on top of each other for a while."

Mira commented, looking around.

Some of the books had elaborate leather like covers or textured ones where they'd feel rough when held

from what was visible.

Even the coach had books upon closer look, but unlike the somewhat orderly stacked ones on the table, the couch's ones were left to fate. Most of them were opened in grotesque manners that would make any book lover have a heart attack just by sight.

Keith decided to grab one of the sideway ones that could tear any given second without realizing it himself, starting to read it.

"A psychological book."

Keith continued reading.

Gus and Mira looked in Keith's direction.

"Most of the books I own are psychological or either horror or philosophical, plus the ones I smuggled from my Witch boss."

Blake left the empty bottle of liquor near her computer and grabbed something.

"Why do you call her that?"

Gus was confused as, unlike Keith and Mira, he hasn't spent much time with Blake to know most things.

"The witch was crazy. So crazy that not even similar words could describe her insanity. She was the whole lunatic asylum."

Blake walked towards the shelf near her computer, stacking four books on top of each other, and carried them near the other stacks. Luckily she didn't have many books there, so two trips to the shelf would be enough.

Blake put the books on the floor near the table because if she put them on top of the already created stack, they'd fall and get damaged. And one thing was for sure. She disliked too damaged books.

"I will stack the books on the couch. It'll be quick, and then get the motorcycle, and we will leave."

Blake explained.

"No need to hurry that much. We can stay for a bit if that's okay with you."

Mira said.

"I don't mind. It's just for the bakugans. After all, we left them with Ace and Baron, and I'm sure they are bored out of their mind as we speak."

Blake said.

Mira chuckled.

"They won't.

Mira answered.

"If you say so."

Blake replied.

Mira and Blake started to converse. Gus saw that the girls were getting deeper in their conversation and decided to help by closing and organizing the books in a stack like Blake as he felt the conversation wouldn't be short.

Blake stopped their conversation as she noticed Keith was missing.

"Has anybody seen Keith?"

Blake asked, looking around.

"I think he went near the entrance."

Mira pointed out.

Blake nodded and went there, leaving Mira and Gus alone.

Gus internally sighed, saying nothing, and continued to stack books on top of books, wondering why Blake need so many books.

Blake walked until she saw Keith staring at the nearly transparent doors.

Keith knew she was there, giving her a small nod. It was quiet between the two, but it wasn't an awkward type of quietness.

"I never realized how bad the damage was. I'm surprised you managed to escape unharmed."

Keith got a better mental picture than the one he did when he had a little.

"Life is like poker. You either lose everything or win more than you asked for."

Blake answered.

"Of course."

Keith said.

"I'm sure you don't want to talk about that only."

Blake said, looking him in the eyes.

Keith chuckled.

"Nope."

And then Keith gave her a quick kiss on the lips to which Blake gave a small smirk.

"I'm glad we met again."

Keith looked at her with a smile.

"Likewise."

Blake replied.

That followed with another kiss, but this time instead of the two breakings apart, Keith continued kissing her, which shocked Blake as she knew he preferred short kisses.

As much as she wanted them to continue, they knew they weren't alone.

"Once we are completely alone."

Blake commented with slight lusty eyes, to which Keith replied with a similar facial expression.

The two continued to stare at each other until a voice snapped them out of their trance.

"Hey, lovebirds, come here."

Mira shouted from the different parts of the cave.

The two dropped their facial expressions and walked back to where Mira and Gus were.

"While you two were busy, we managed to stack all books."

Gus stated.

"Thankfully, they weren't a lot and finished much quicker than we thought we would."

Mira said.

"Thanks."

Blake awkwardly smiled.

Mira smiled too.

"Now that the books are stacked, I will get the motorbike, and we are good to go."

Blake got to her usual self.

"By Mira and me."

Gus muttered quietly, close to a whisper.

"Anyways."

Blake said, ignoring Gus's muttering.

"It's time for the cherry on the top."

Blake said, getting a remote she got earlier when she discarded the empty liquor bottle.

She tapped one of the buttons, and sounds of engines could be heard.

"I present to you my motorbike."

Blake said as the motorbike arrived quickly, but at a slow pace, not trying to destroy the cave.

It stopped once it got near Blake.

"Wow."

Mira was impressed.

Gus and Keith were quietly observing the motorbike, which was slightly bigger than average, and the fact that this motorbike had parts from different motorbikes combined in one. The two could notice it because of their experienced eyes when it came to mechanics. Despite this, it didn't look out of place.

"It's so well preserved."

Keith said, noticing the lack of scratches and missing black paint.

"I haven't used it in 3 or so years. I think it's good."

Blake shrugged.

"And besides, it wasn't always without scratches."

Blake went and grabbed her helmet from the compartment of the motorbike.

Keith chuckled.

"Let's just say that this motorbike has seen some hell."

Blake said, running her fingers around the helmet.

Keith continued to look at her.

"It happened twice. The same person both times."

Blake was annoyed and angry just thinking about J, and she wasn't going to let him live in her mind rent-free.

"You must dislike that person a lot."

Mira said.

"If food supplies aren't available through the Universe and one of the chances to get food is making a sacrifice to a spiritual entity, without a second thought, I'd sacrifice that person for one sandwich."

Blake described how much she hated J.

"That's brutal."

Keith was at a loss of words for the most part, while Gus and Mira were silent.

Immediately after that, they packed everything on the Vestal Destroyer, ready to get back on Vestal.

In few hours, the four brawlers arrived back on Vestal and landed nearby Blake's mansion, putting everything she picked from Vestroia in her estate's living room.

She was going to organize stuff later as she would meet with everyone in the park and pick Reaper up.

The four walked to the designated location in the park.

Baron waved at them, smiling while Ace was sitting on the bench with the right leg on top of the left and crossed legs.

"You arrived much earlier than we thought you would."

Ace said.

"You are saying it like it's a bad thing."

Mira said, laughing a bit.

"Shut up."

Ace answered with a smirk.

"Damn it."

Helios said.

"You lost the bet. You owe me a battle later."

Reaper said.

Helios grunted.

"Can someone fill me in on what just happened?"

Blake raised her non-existent eyebrow in confusion.

"Helios and Reaper played a 'bet.' Helios betted that all of you would be on Vestroia for one entire day, while Reaper betted half a day. Even though I think it should be the other way around, but that's just me."

Baron said.

"I don't have much of a patience, and as much as I like books, I'd rather get tasks over as quickly as possible."

Blake cut Baron's explanation short.

After that, she sat on the bench as her legs felt like noodles.

"Told you. It wasn't what you were thinking, Helios."

Reaper jumped near Helios, to which Helios grunted.

Keith let out a tiny smirk knowing what Helios implied.

Blake rolled her eyes.

"Anyways, as I was saying, it wasn't much of a bet as both sides owed each other battles if they lost."

Baron explained.

"Besides that, nothing eventful happened."

Percival decided to join the chat.

"Indeed. We were mostly relaxing."

Nemus jumped on Baron's shoulder.

"And enjoying the quietness."

Vulcan added.

Gus smiled, picking him up.

Vulcan was now happily dancing on Gus's shoulder.

Mira giggled at the cute moment.

"So what are we going to do now?"

Baron asked.

"I don't know. We can stay for a while and talk."

Gus said while yawning at the last part.

Blake was barely holding her eyelids open while at the same time Ace was fighting his tiredness.

Keith wasn't any better but was the best at hiding it.

"Or we can rest at our respective homes and meet another time."

Baron said while looking at his friends.

Everyone nodded, and they headed back to their respective places.

Mira was going with Ace to his place.

Baron was going to his parents' home.

Gus was walking towards his small apartment that wasn't far from the park they were now.

And Keith was walking Blake to her mansion as he didn't trust her in her current sleepy state to get there safely.

After a short walk, the two arrived in front of the mansion.

Blake opened the door with a yawn.

The two entered the mansion and then locking the door after.

The mansion was mostly empty. All the furniture in the estate was transported to New Vestroia and later destroyed in the fire years ago.

One set of stairs later, the two were in front of Blake's room.

Blake sleepily removed her boots and her outerwear, leaving her in her tight jumpsuit that reached her mid-thighs. Once she was stripped of the unnecessary clothing, she flopped on the bed, falling asleep immediately.

Keith chuckled, stripping himself out of his clothes, leaving him only in underwear, and then joined Blake on her bed.

The two then slept peacefully, and the same could be said about their bakugans who were sleeping on the desk.