Update again! Three updates in a month - it's almost an achievement. I'm satisfied with myself. :D None the less, this chapter's twice longer than the previous six ones. We're talking about around 4,000 words! Okay, the other chapters' length was 4k around, too, but I always decided to slip them in two so I could update faster.

I'll try to keep this up but I can't promise you anything.

Anyway, please, enjoy the seventh chapter!

Chapter 7

The knot in Tyson's stomach didn't disappear since he had spoken to Alexa, although, he also was certain that Kai did everything to be the champion. Why the heck would Kai do otherwise? But then again, why was he still thinking on that? If he was so sure about Kai's true intention, why couldn't he forget Alexa's words? He hated to admit it but the possibility that the dualhaired boy might betray him again and not elsewhere than in a beybattle, its thought itself hurt his pride and reputation because he believed beyblading was the most majestic duel a man could fight, and Kai would never show such disrespect.

"What is it, Tyson?"

Hearing his name, his thoughts were interrupted and he looked up to meet with Ray's serious golden eyes, framed by raven black hair. The team was having breakfast, the dojo was noisy with the others' joyful laughter and chitchat. With the end of the qualifiers, the tournament was getting to finally begin for them, and it made them excited.

They already had a light workout with Kai at early morning. As they leave Japan to Dubai on afternoon, they wouldn't have the time for serious training.

"Hmpf?" Tyson managed to push his voice out of his full mouth. Tyson's grandpa made his grandson's favourite because, he was certain Tyson couldn't eat the original Japanese foods in Dubai.

"You haven't stuffed all the food yet and I barely hear your voice. Is there something bothers you?"

Now, everyone silenced and turned to their dear friend's cheerless eyes. Ray was not the only one who became aware of the slight change in Tyson's behavior. Only Kai kept his attention to his bowl up until Tyson mentioned Alexa. The sticks in his hand stopped in the air and his eyes shut open with the dangerous mixture of anger and concern.

"I have met that girl from Blitzkriegs." Tyson said after he swallowed the bite of his breakfast.

Kenny looked up from his computer. Finally, Dranzer's missing parts were delivered yesterday and he immediately got to work and tried to rebuild the phoenix, not wasting any minute.

"So…?" Hillary asked, confused, because Tyson refused to continue his narrative.

"Did she say something?" Ray pushed him further.

"I told her what we had talked about the last night and asked…" Tyson began but Kenny cut in.

"Wait, wait! Did you tell her our conjecture about her identity that she might live in the Abbey?"

Tyson, looking at Kenny, lost countenance.

"Y-yeah… I-is it a problem?" He stuttered.

Everyone in the room theatrically sighed.

"Typical Tyson." Hillary facepalmed.

"Listen, Tyson." Kenny tried to talk as serious as he could in order to get this important lesson into his friend's head. "Do not ever share any information, guess or data with anyone who's not in our team. You literally sell out our position in the competition, putting us into disadvantaged situation." At the disadvantage word, Tyson's stomach twisted with stress, intensifying the knot. "I need you to understand strategy is as essential in the tournament as the skills in beybattles." Kenny finished but Tyson wasn't convinced.

"I know strategy is important, Chief, but you can't use it in the beydish when the beybattle depends only on the two bladers' skills. Strategy's not working without the passion for beyblading and the skills earned by lots of hard trainings. I didn't win my matches because I was smarter than Kai, Tala or Zeo. Only my will and my believe in Dragoon helped to win the tournaments, strategy had nothing to do with that!" Tyson argued, almost vehemently. He respected Chief for his genial mind but he must understand that in the beydish his analytical data can't win a match for you without skills and power. The proof for that was Kenny's own match with Tala from the previous year.

"I can't believe you still don't see the point, Tyson." Ray shook his head.

"My defensive play is a strategy, as well, Tyson." Max tried to explain. "It is well-known that I'm not an aggressive beyblader so I have to find another way to balance my play in a beybattle and gain advantage over my stronger opponent."

"So what is supposed to do with that I said some things to Alexa?" Tyson crossed his arms in his frustration. When his friends talked too much he always got nervous and lost his temper after a while.

"Tyson..." Chief was about to repeat his explanation again with words that a 6 years old child could already know, when Kai noisily placed his empty bowl with his chopsticks on the table, stealing the attention from him. The elder teenager wanted to put an end to this hopeless conversation.

"The point is, Tyson, if you tell our opponents everything we know about them, you basically give weapons in their hands against us. The more we know about them, the easiest to lead them by their nose but it won't work if you leak out everything we know." Seeing Tyson's confused frown, he added. "Shortly, do not talk to anybody, about anything! Especially to Alexa. She looks smart enough to lure you into a trap."

"Oh, so you know her?" Hillary asked, flashing a cheeky grin.

"I said, I don't!" Kai categorically denied and looked daggers at her as a warning, hoping it will prevent her and the others to talk more about the Abbey and their theory about Alexa again. Sometimes he could be naive, too.

"Hmmm… It quite seemed to me that she knew Kai." Tyson pondered loudly.

"You said you don't remember that part of your life." Ray repeated Kai's words from the previous day and they glared at each other. "Or do you? First, you affirmed there wasn't any girl trained in the Abbey, and then you said you can't remember it. You talk quite paradoxically. So, which one is the truth?" Ray tried to speak lightly but his words were followed by a deep, uncomfortable silence, the tension could be cut with a knife. What happened between the two elder boys that they were so hostile to each other?

"This is getting ridiculous." Kai growled at last, and he started to consider the thought of taking a walk.

"Why do you think she can be that smart, then?" Ray kept questioning him. The whole conversation was getting to turn into an interrogation.

"Obviously, being smarter than Tyson isn't a challenge." Kai snorted and Tyson's head shot up.

"Hey, give me a break, will ya?" Kai's words definitely didn't help Tyson to get rid of his knot in his stomach. Could it be that the solemn teen had deceived him afterall?

"We have wandered off the point." Hillary's high-pitched voice silenced the boys, and then she turned back to Tyson. "You said you had talked to Alexa. So, what? Did she say something important? Did she admit she grew up in the Abbey? What happened? Tell us!" She urged the champion.

Tyson looked at the wood cellar to revive his memories about that conversation. His expression became painful in the process of thinking.

"I don't remember she'd denied that she had grown up there..."

"So she did grow up there." Ray stated.

"What else you talked about?" Max asked in a matter of curiosity.

"I talked about Chief, being one of my best friends..."

Chief's mouth formed a long O and whispered shyly. "Me…?"

"Aaaaand..." Tyson kept thinking but realized Alexa only talked about his final match with Kai, and he wasn't ready to tell his friends that yet. Not while Kai was in the same room with them. "That's all". He lied awkwardly.

Kai immediately knew Tyson was lying, and he narrowed his eyes as though it would help to reveal the truth. It could be that Alexa had told Tyson about their match? Kai concealed that beybattle as best as he could before his teammates but he knew sooner or later it'll be out and they won't jump into his neck in their pleasure, hearing he wanted to betray the team again.

'Betray…' He thought to himself and his lips turned into a disgusted expression. His "friends" acted sometimes as though the championship wouldn't be actually a competition.

Suddenly, decisive footsteps were approaching and grandpa Granger popped his head into the room.

"Yo, dudes! Shouldn't you be preparing yourself for the journey?"

Everyone jumped in realization and hurried to pack the necessary stuffs.

ooOoOoo

The G-revolution team was already sitting on the flight to Dubai. The plane had just taken off but Kenny already opened up his laptop and continued his work with Dranzer. He wanted to do some modifications on it to improve its capacity. Challenge yourself – that was his motto, so he always tried to enhance his previous upgrade. He strongly believed this was one of the reasons that the G-revolution team could adapt to the opponents so fast and, in the end, be victorious.

Tyson was amazed by the Chief's work and ideas for 6 minutes but he fast got bored and sooner he was chatting with Max who sat beside him and kneeled on his seat, leaning to the headrest. In this way, he could keep Hillary included in the conversation. Ray occupied the seat next to the window beside Kai because he liked watching the landscape below them, and not incidentally, he didn't feel himself safe in a closed box which was flying above the ground thousands of meters in the air. Over the years, he got used to the flights and learnt to control his anxiety but he always fought for the seat next to the window.

Luckily, Kai never did care where his seat was, and he probably knew about Ray's phobia but he didn't take any comment at once about that and Ray was grateful for that. Everyone grew up in a modern environment while he and his teammates, the White Tigers spent their childhood in a little isolated village, therefore he was quite unfamiliar with the technology.

He sought a comfortable position in his seat as much as the small place allowed it to him. Trapped in a metal box for twelve hours… This flight was going to be really long but he might sleep through it. He tried to enjoy the last rays of the sun and relax his muscles.

However, his meditation was disturbed by a vehement but stifled Russian speech. Ray looked at the direction where the noise came from, as though his only scolding face could silence the speakers. But Sergey and Alexa didn't see the glares around them, or rather they didn't care.

Ray turned to Kai and realized the elder too was intensely but secretly listening to the Russian conversation.

"What is the subject of their argument?" He asked.

"They're not arguing." Kai simply replied, not even looking at Ray who waited a bit, hoping he would give more detailed explanation but when he became aware that's not going to happen, he heaved a sight and pushed Kai further.

"Then what are they doing?"

Kai ignored Ray until Sergey bowed to Alexa and she thanked him with a sigh of relief. After that, just like the people sitting around, the loner boy finally stopped staring the two Russians and frowned by the heard. Before Ray could remind Kai to tell him what the conversation was about, Tyson grabbed Kai's seat from the back and leaned as close to the sourpuss as he dared.

"What was that?" He whispered.

Kai's brow twitched in annoyance. He put his palm in Tyson's face and shoved it away from his own.

"C'mon, Kai, tell us what this whole fuss was about!" Tyson whined, beggingly like it would bring Kai to do so. Actually, it was working but in an opposite way. Kai would tell anything Tyson for the sake of some peace.

"Alexa can't stand Boris and she doesn't want to sit beside him. End of story."

The others remained in silence, waiting for some miracle or plot that Kai might leave out.

"I love how glowed you can be when you're talking." Tyson retorted, expressing his dissatisfaction with the details.

"Alexa is in the team only for two weeks but there are already conflicts? Now I know why they didn't have a girl in their team before." Max joked and Tyson chuckled.

"You're lucky that Hilary didn't hear you." Ray said in a disapproving tone. "Anyway, what's her problem with Boris?" He asked Kai again who seemed quite lost in thoughts.

"I don't know." He replied absentmindedly.

"Ask Sergey." Tyson urged him when he saw the big Russian coming.

Kai rolled his eyes.

"No." He denied. He didn't care what the Russian team's problem was, and to prevent any more silly questions he took out his discman and put the earpiece in his ear. Ray, Max and Tyson immediately understood the hint and everyone turned back to their job.

Their flight arrived at dawn, when they reached their hotel the sun was already rising. Thanks to the night flight and jet-lag, even Tyson couldn't sleep so the G-Revolution team decided to have a breakfast instead. As it was really early morning, not many people were found in lunchroom for which they were grateful. The crowd and noise sometimes could be pretty frustrating.

"Ah man, only we are here yet?" But not for Tyson. "Where are all the people? The other teams?"

"BBA is the first that arrived." Replied a familiar voice.

"Hey, good morning, Tala! The food is your priority over the sleep, too?" He flashed a toothy grin at the Russian captain and his blonde teammates who already started to fill their plates with delicious food.

"Where is Boris?" Ray asked while was pouring orange juice for himself. Not like he would miss the merciless, rude boy.

"He's coming." Tala said and headed to the coffee maker.

"I heard they're not fond of each other." Tyson said with a chuckle, pointing with his head to Alexa.

"What?" Tala's voice was alarming and shot a dangerous glance at Alexa who apparently frowned at the champion's words.

Sensing the cold air, Tyson immediately found out he nosed into something he shouldn't have.

"Or not. Perhaps I just misunderstood the situation. Let's sit down and eat!" His attempt for distraction was futile, Tala ignored Tyson and he hissed at the Russian girl.

"So that's why Sergey wanted to swap seats!"

Seeing she was busted, Alexa just shrugged her shoulder then left and sat down in front of Sergey who already occupied a seat beside to Tyson's team. The hotel accommodated all competitors of the Beyblade World Championship, therefore, for saving as much room as possible, the tables were folded, forming a long line in the lunchroom.

"What is your problem with Boris?" Tala asked discretely in Russian as placing his plate to the table, as well. He didn't allow to be settled that easily.

"I don't like smelling people so I asked Sergey to do me a favor and convince you to change seats." Alexa simply answered in English, not even looking up from her ham and eggs.

Sergey snored into his glass of milk and the G-Revolution team chuckled.

"Considering how many clothes you wear it's not a surprise if he's hot, right?" Hilary said humorously, trying to ease the forming tension between the Russians.

"I'm not smelling!" Boris' harsh voice snapped behind their back and Alexa immediately stiffened, her brows knitted.

"Your aura is!" Alexa shot back dryly.

The lilac haired boy got around the tables and took a seat beside Sergey, not commenting further the blonde's taunt.

"Chief, when will the other teams arrive?" Max asked, breaking the awkward silence. Kenny immediately got the message.

"Oh, uhm… The tournament will be officially continued on Monday, so the teams have to get here until Sunday. If I'm not mistaken, the PPB's teams' flight's landing tonight."

"Yay, I can meet my mom again!" Max enthusiastically cheered.

"Speaking of that, how do the unsponsored teams fly to Dubai when they got no money?" Ray piped in. Coming from a formerly nameless team, he was solicitous for the needful but talented teams.

"Every team is taken up by the regional organisation. BBA is responsible for Europe and Asia, PPB for America, and WBO* for the rest of the world. This was an agreement across the beyblade organisations, thus the smaller teams can apply, too."

"Great!" Tyson slapped his hand to the surface of the table, making his friends around jump.

"These news are getting me fired up! Let's go train!" He urged and Ray and Max cheered. "After breakfast!" Tyson added, rushing to buffet table. Knowing what that meant, the two boys' hands rapidly dropped in hopelessness and before they could breath out a disappointed sigh, Tyson returned and shouted "Second helping!"

At the same time, Kai made a slide glance at the shortest member of the team.

"Kenny?" All he said in a low, commanding voice, he didn't want the Blitzkrieg to hear it, although they held their own conversation. Kai was expecting the genius to give him a completed beyblade, but Chief had to disappoint him again.

"Dranzer still requires some modifications in her balance. I calculate it'll be done by tomorrow at the latest." Chief replied quietly, as well, but tried to sound as determined as he could. He really shouldn't shit his pants everytime when Kai spoke to him. Kai could barely hide his shock.

"I thought you were supposed to be the genius of this team." He finally retorted coolly, which Tyson caught and immediately defended his dear friend.

"Kai! Why can't you be a bit kinder? What's wrong with you?" Before he could continue his wigging, Tyson was interrupted by Alexa who unexpectedly bursted into loud laughter, capturing everyone's attention around the table. Tyson helplessly stood there, he looked at his teammates for some support but his eyes only met with the same questioning expression.

"What's so haha?" Tyson demanded, kind of offended.

"Oh my... sorry!" She giggled, fighting her laughter to speak. "I'm not laughing at you..." She snickered again.

"Then what?!" Tyson frustratingly asked.

Alexa surpressed her laughter and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"It's just..." She began then chuckled. "It's just what you said."

Tyson was totally lost now, and seeing the lots of confused looks, the others were, as well. After a few seconds, Alexa finally could stop laughing enough to explain it.

"It's funny because we all know where Kai's from and that he was grown up as a weapon. You ask him to be nicer but he can't obey your request because he simply doesn't know how he should do that. Basically, you're asking a weapon to get some manner. I've heard legends of your brilliant mind, Tyson, but I admit it, you surprised me." At this point, Alexa giggled again like it would be the best joke of the century.

No need to mention, apart from her, nobody laughed. Moreover, the Blitzkriegs stared at her with a meaningful seriousness, while the G-Revolution looked at Kai with pity. If Kai wouldn't be trained to control his emotions, he would overturn the whole table on that stupid giggling blonde girl at that very moment to shut the fuck up. Instead, he looked at Alexa furiously, almost shaking with anger. Tyson, Max and Kenny would have run away from him if they saw this look on his face, and even Ray would've withdraw from him, however miraculously, Alexa didn't get scared by Kai. In addition, she tilted her head in amusement.

"How could you say such terrible things about him?" Hilary spoke up harshly and everyone turned their head into her direction. "What do you know about him?"

"It's not terrible, it's a fact. Let's see what a weapon is exactly." Alexandra told as she picked up a knife from the table. "Like this knife, right? It's harsh, rigid and cold. It has no emotion. If you try to bend it, it'll break. It's a tool being used for others' purposes and it can be used by anyone. Even against its own owner. Weapons aren't made to do nice things with them. Weapons are literally created for killing or hurting people. Does it sound familiar?" Alexa told these things like she would have been talking about the preliminaries. It was hard to decide which was more disturbing: her theory or the way she saw the people.

"I'm not a weapon." Kai snarled threateningly and so quietly, he was barely heard. He tried to speak as coolly as he could but his shakening voice betrayed him.

"Then you shouldn't act like one." Alexa shrugged her shoulder.

"If I'm a weapon, I want to be a nice AK-47. I would have no enemy." Sergey said detachedly and everyone chuckled.

"Forget it, my friend. You'll never be so beautiful and slim."

At Boris' words, Sergey theatrically grabbed his coat above his heart and loudly snipping wiped an invisible tear from his eye.

"Incredible." Hilary commented sarcastically, rubbing her temple. "I didn't know I could hear so much nonsense from anyone else than Tyson."

"Hey! Leave me finally alone!" Tyson exclaimed, then pointed his finger to Alexa. He saw how much Alexa's words hurt Kai. "And you! Stop talking crap about my friends! Kai may have some trust issues but we always could count on him in dangerous situations or when we really needed him!"

"That's right, he even saved my and Kenny's life!" Hilary added and Kenny sheepishly nodded.

"Mine, too! In the PPB centre." Max raised his hand.

Kai growled in his helplessness, burying his face into his palm.

"Oh!" That was all Alexa said. The true surprise could be seen on her face, she didn't expect such protectiveness from the others.

"Maybe I was wrong and Kai actually is not as cold as I thought."

"No, he's actually a friendly weapon." Sergey nodded.

"Do you want more friends, Kai?" Boris called him and tried to hand his own cutting tool to him.

"Here, I give you my permission to meet with my knife."

"Ah, yeah. You can take my fork, too. Just bring it back till 10 pm!" Sergey added in a serious tone.

The others laughed at the comic scene, meanwhile Kai was close to explode with anger.

"If you finally stopped your flirting with your prince, come to the training room, Alexa." Tala suddenly cut in, putting an end to the fun. He called Boris and Sergei, then quit the lunchroom with the team. Alexa hurried with her breakfast, he didn't want to keep Tala waiting, but she was roughly interrupted when Tyson slapped the table again.

"Let's battle! You and me, right now! I'm gonna make you take back what you said..."

"Enough!" Kai bellowed. "Stop responding to her little game, she's just making a fool of you! Now, go to train!" He commanded to his team and they headed out of the room after the Blitzkriegs. Tyson's heated voice could be heard at the door, he didn't want to leave until Alexa accepted his challenge to a beybattle. But Kai, grabbing his jacket's collar didn't allow him to turn back and pushed him out of the door.

Meanwhile the Blitzkriegs and G-Revolution left, the Bladesharks and other BBA teams started to fill the room. Before she quit the lunchroom, too, Alexa quickly took out a little notebook and wrote down the whole conversation, then she followed her team in the training room.

AN: Okay, I know. Still not much happened here. The next chapter will finally contain some action. I can promise that! I hope you liked this one, though. :) Alexa may seem a nuisance right now but she has the reasons why she acts the way she does. Although, she'll have some conflicts in the future with others, too... ;)

WBO = World Beyblade Organisation

This is my personal salute to this community.