Chapter 21 – Part I

The others were noisily discussing – or rather arguing about – their battles and losses, what errors and reckless moves they should have avoided in the fights, while they were walking back to the hotel. Kai didn't pay attention to them, his mind was crowded with loud thoughts around the Russian girl's bitbeasts.

She obviously had more than one, Kai was positive about that. He was also certain now that he hadn't hallucinated what he had seen on the other night. The two attacks still looked different though. When she was just training, she had summoned much more bitbeasts and they all had been different. Whilst today when she called out her Baladrac, each spirit looked the same; white, dragon-like creatures.

Did he remember wrong?

It drove him crazy that he couldn't recall the experience with the proper details, as if his mind decided to antagonize against his will. It was just the usual thing; anything he couldn't keep under control made Kai irritated beyond measure.

The possible instability of his memory was also troubling him, especially since he had had these nightmares with unsettling scenes that he still couldn't decide if they were real or just a creation of his exhausted mind.

Someone was calling his name in the background, but Kai didn't care to respond. He waved his hand absently in a dismissive way, refusing any invitation from his teammates, whatever idea they had come up with this time.

He was trying to turn back to the train of his thoughts, but that voice kept calling his name.

"Kai!"

"What?" Kai bit back, frustrated that they didn't leave him alone and was continuously interrupted.

His own harsh voice pulled him out of his muse, looking around himself with a frown on his face. He was standing in the training room with Ray. The others were nowhere around.

How did he get here? When?

"Skip the training tonight. You should rest." Ray advised with a furrow of worry. His tone indicated that he was repeating this sentence for a while.

"No. We already missed the training today morning because of Hilary's stupid secret meeting." Kai protested, rubbing his sleepy face to shake himself up a bit.

Ray was ready to argue with him when they heard an angry Russian voice from the Blitzkriegs' training room.

"I told you not to underestimate me! You wanted to fight then fight! For real! I'm stronger than you think!"

Kai assumed Tala trained with Alexandra again, although it was odd that she was yelling with the captain so impolitely. Tala didn't tolerate the disrespectful behavior.

Easing his frown after the Russian yelling and turning back to Kai, Ray continued their conversation.

"The team needed that meeting as much as you need the rest now. If you keep this up, you'll risk our championship title. Or worse, you'll get injured."

"Hn." Kai shook his head, not bothering to keep up the argument with Ray anymore. That would only carry off his valuable remaining energy, which was not copious.

He was already thinking what exercise he was going to do, when they heard Alexa's furious yelling again.

"You still don't take me seriously!"

"What are they doing? It sounds as if they were combating." Ray asked, staring at the closed double winged door that connected the two training rooms.

"They're just training." Kai said, but Ray already walked to the door to crack it open and peek through the slit.

The phoenix glared at the back of his Chinese friend, it seemed Hilary had a bad influence on some of the team members. He didn't remember Ray had been so nosy.

"Yep, I was right. They're having a hand to hand combat." Ray reported.

Now, it was Kai who furrowed his slate eyebrows, confused at the thought. Tala and Alexa were having a fight out of the dish? He followed Ray and took a glance into the Blitzkriegs' training room.

Alexa was combating with Boris, not Tala. That made more sense, but not as much as he hoped. He blinked and deepened his furrow, trying to figure out what these two idiots were doing.

"Alexa's wilder than she looks." Ray whispered, giggling mischievously when the Russian girl threw the falcon to the floor.

Kai arched a brow as he looked down at the top of Ray's head; he didn't hear often the boy laughing at others' fail attempts, but apparently, he held some grudge against Boris.

Alexa squatted down and said something to Boris in a low voice that he couldn't make out from there though she looked uncommonly monstrous. Whatever conflict the two had, it was not their business, so Kai put his hand on Ray's back to pull him back from the door and close it, when unexpectedly fast, Boris leapt forward with the unmistakable intention to grasp the girl's neck.

Alexa reacted just in time and jumped onto her feet, moving aside to avoid the threatening hands. She seemed surprised at first, but after dodging Boris' attack, she loudly cackled at the boy, who was clearly annoyed more by the derisive sound. The falcon immediately charged again.

Focusing on the continuous hits and swinging limbs, Alexa didn't have time to laugh anymore; her face distorted with anger and concentration. Boris landed more blows successfully than Alexa, but she always quickly got up, returning to the battle without missing a beat, rolling on the floor if it was necessary.

"She's good!" Ray commented enthusiastically, astonished by their fight.

The punches were not loud, they didn't seem dangerous either. Still, every time Boris or Alexa made a hit, each groaned with great pain, exhaling sharply to unload the stress from their bodies. The combat itself didn't seem serious, but the tension between the two was intense.

'Something's off', Kai thought as he scrutinized their expressions and wild movements.

The moment that made Kai step into action was when Boris used Alexa's biggest disadvantage, the blind spot on her right side, landing a powerful punch on her face then thrusting another fist quickly into her gut that made Alexa spit blood as she flew to the floor.

"Call Tala and Sergei!" Kai commanded as he pulled back Ray and tossed him to the exit of the training room.

"No, I'm helping!" Ray objected, jumping back to Kai's side, eye slit, muscles tensed, ready to combat.

"CALL TALA AND SERGEI!" Kai bellowed and this time, Ray might have seen the fright he felt on his face because he turned on his heel and darted out.

Kai entered the Blitzkriegs' training room and hurried to the two fighting Russians as he kept calling Boris' name to distract the boy, but it was futile. He didn't seem to listen.

"Boris! What are you doing? BORIS!"

Boris pulled up Alexa's almost limp body by her shoulder. She was too disoriented to stand by herself but she was conscious enough to realize the danger she was in as she looked up at Boris, trying to shift away from the next attack.

At first, Kai intentionally didn't run into the scene, determined to keep his cool head, and prevent to escalate the fight into something ugly with his sudden moves, but in the end, he had to sprint if he wanted to protect Alexa. Boris was visibly committed to finish her.

The air resonated with loud thuds and Alexa's weak whimpers as the falcon started trashing repeatedly her head to the hard surface of the floor.

"BORIS!" Rallying himself for the upcoming battle he was willingly rushing into, Kai cried from the top of his lungs, gathering all his courage to face an opponent who might be not as strong as him, but definitely more murderous with his undoubtedly sharp combat skills.

His fist collided with Boris' cheek with an audible crack as soon he was in the proper range, finally distracting the pale boy's focus from the Russian girl, who laid unconsciously on the floor. Kai didn't have the opportunity to check her condition, he tried to chase Boris away as far as possible from her, landing more strokes on his head. Maybe it would help Boris to come back to his senses.

Staggering a bit before gaining back his steady position, Boris now fixed his gaze at Kai, sniffing the blood that poured from his nose, forcing a gasp out of the phoenix as he sensed the essence of his life froze in his veins.

Boris was not there in those pale eyes anymore.

A heartless soldier looked back at Kai without defined command and boundaries. Just like when he had frozen to the ice on that lake, no strategic plans, no helpful instructions ran around in Kai's mind, only the unshakeable fear that his life was in real danger. He was completely clueless what to do in a situation like this.

Should he fight? Could he win? Would he provoke Boris more if he hit back? Would Boris kill him in this state? Should he take Alexa and run instead?

He didn't know.

After the two seconds, when they finished staring down each other, Boris moved forward with striking hands and kicking legs, and Kai tried to dodge each attack, but the kicks, even the punches were so strong, he felt a sick vibration running through his whole body. His muscles automatically tensed in the pain, making his attempts harder to dodge the attacks.

A particularly strong hit on his ribs made Kai cry in pain, being forced to retreat from the crazy falcon-wielder a bit.

"You fucking…!" He cursed, rubbing his side and gulping the air.

Sensing the force of the quiet hits, Kai now understood why Boris groaned in agony when Alexa successfully landed a blow at him. The technique that both Boris and Alexa used was not as spectacular as the combats from the movies with loud punching sounds, but sensibly more harmful than it looked. The silent strokes that seemed so powerless and non-dangerous from the distance became a poison in his muscles, numbing him, slowing him.

It was not one of his most heroic fight, but Kai managed to attack back with his heavy fists, distracting Boris' balance and focus for the slightest moment that he was not able to use because the falcon recovered too fast.

Undoubtedly, Boris had been well-trained in combating. He dodged the punches easily, not only forcing Kai to miss the hits, but also used the wasted energy against him. Boris was perfectly aware how to neutralize and make an advantage out of his own limitation against a stronger opponent.

Kai had to wail in the pain when Boris caught his wrist and violently bent it back. The falcon applied a light pressure beneath Kai's elbow, pushing it up, risking to break the whole arm. In this vulnerable position, Boris simply lead Kai backwards without any effort as if they were practicing a choreography. Every time Kai used his free hand or legs to strike back with the attempt to escape from the painful grip, Boris bent the wrist more and pushed his elbow up. Kai already felt the muscles in his arm overstretched, if Boris had put anymore pressure on them, he would tear them apart, and he could say goodbye to his beyblade-career.

Not in the position to fight back, Kai let Boris to lead him wherever he wanted. He was forced to back all the way to the wall, where a huge mirror hang. When they reached the mirror, Boris threw him savagely against it, shattering it to pieces on Kai's back. It was fortunate that he didn't take off his coat this time, it protected his skin from the shards.

He didn't have time to get over his shock, Boris grabbed his jaw and thrust Kai's head against the sharp edges of the mirror that remained glued to the wall. Kai immediately felt the skin on his head cut open, giving way to the red liquid to rush down on his neck. Gathering all his might and strength, he tried to push himself away from the broken mirror, avoiding the blades, but Boris was an experienced fighter.

Pulling him back from the wall suddenly, Kai automatically relaxed his struggling muscles then Boris smashed his head against the wall with brutal force again, not meeting with any resistance from the phoenix this time.

Boris skimmed Kai's head on the wall, and beside his own painful groan, Kai could hear the mirror fragments in his ear creaking under his skin as the small pieces stung deeply in his hairline, shedding his blood.

Finding his strength again, Kai landed several blows on Boris' head and torso, but the crazy boy barely felt it. He couldn't hit him from a good angle, thus his attacks were not as strong and effective as he'd wanted to.

The freak!

Kai was now desperate. If one of the keen edges hit his neck artery, he was dead!

The pressure on his head suddenly disappeared as if a greater force teared Boris away, and Kai slid down, relieved that he escaped from the sharp pain and possible death. Breathing shallowly with crazy speed, he was unable to examine the situation around himself.

His thoughts came by sluggishly and unfamiliarly, as if he had been observing everything outside of his own body. Turning to the center of the training room for some reason, he noticed that Alexa was awake and now was wrestling with Boris. She removed the madden boy from him, dragging him away from Kai and locking his head in a death grip from behind that Boris couldn't break.

Kai registered this situation in his mind nonchalantly like he was just watching a roleplay. The danger was fake, the characters were actors, creating a dramatic atmosphere for his entertainment.

"Along with underestimating me, hurting him was the last mistake you made in your life!" Alexa spat blood as she grumbled the words in a raw voice.

Waking up from his stupor, Kai tried to jump to his feet, but it was not easy. The floor was covered with sharp mirror pieces that threatened him with more cuts, and also making the floor slippery at the same time. When he managed to stand up, he froze.

Aghast by the sight, forgetting all pain that pulsed in his body, he stared at Alexa. Kai saw the same dark, cold-blooded emptiness in her eye what he saw in Boris'.

What the fuck is going on with these two?!, Kai kept asking himself.

He was not able to make harmless Boris; how could he alone stop two crazy adult men with military skills?

Boris made a bubbling rattling sound in the deadly grip.

"Alexa, let him go!" Kai ordered, finding his voice at last, but the blonde didn't seem to hear him.

Boris' eyes widened, struggling furiously against the suffocating lock.

"ALEXA, LET HIM GO!" Kai roared, louder than ever. His voice bounced desperately between the high walls of the training room.

The girl finally stared at him as if she would see him for the first time. Then she looked down at her hands with Boris in them, and she immediately let go, dropping him to the floor.

She heaved the same way as Kai did while Boris was violently coughing on the floor, gaining back his breath and life slowly.

The time seemed to slow down finally as they stood in the training room, getting over their shock though with not much success for now.

It was over. Kai was striving to steady his breathing, relieved that they all survived this madness. He had never seen Boris so blinded by his own anger that he completely lost the control. Nor Alexa. A shameful, unsettling thought troubled his mind; it could be him if he hadn't kept his temper under check. He must have been a frightening sight for his team when he had learnt Kenny had given away his Dranzer.

Alexa glanced at Kai in her shakiness and noticed the running blood on his face. The dark, murderous gleam disappeared from her eye, it was unusually clear, almost affectionate.

"Are you alri–"

It was over, or so Kai had thought, not realizing that Boris was still prisoned in that psychotic, murderous haze.

The air stuck in Alexa's lungs as Boris knocked her off legs with a bestial force and such speed that they didn't have a chance to foresee it. Pinning her down, the pale boy grabbed a bigger shard from the floor, and with the intention to finish her for good, he struck down, aiming to her chest, at the exact point where her heart frenetically beat.

Alexa reacted in the last moment, stopping the attack with her arms, crossing them right before her ribs. Everything happened so fast, and Kai's head was so heavy due to the many strokes he got from Boris, it took him too much time to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. When he finally processed the circumstances around him, Kai thought that she was over, he couldn't reach them in time to intervene.

That was the moment when a huge weight crushed into Boris, removing him from Alexa, who was shortly pulled up from the floor by someone else, in a not-so gently way.

"Did he stab you?" Tala asked with panic in his harsh voice as he immediately began stroking Alexa's body with two hands, searching frantically for any serious injury.

She probably was in shock because Alexa didn't reply to Tala's question, just stared at him.

"Did he cut you?!" Tala repeated, shouting louder at her while swiftly scrutinized the neck and torso, avoiding the private area of her breast.

"I-I don't think so…" She stuttered.

When the Russian captain touched a sensitive spot under her ribs, making Alexa involuntarily yelp, Tala instantly pulled up her shirt to examine the wound. Confirming there was no life-threatening cut on her, the redhead whipped around to glare at Kai like a maniac.

It was the first time he saw the icy-blue eyes widened in wild horror since he had known Tala.

"You! Alright?" His barking tone sounded almost scoldingly. Kai guessed this was the way Tala handled the stress in such tensed situation.

"I'm okay." Kai managed to say in a casual manner, silently praising himself for this performance, however, he was far from 'okay'.

Tala didn't seem convinced by his reply, but he left anyway, rushing to Sergei who was still wrestling with Boris. The muscled blonde struggled to keep the falcon on the floor regardless that he was pushing him down with a knee in his back.

"What happened?"

Kai turned to the asking voice and met with Ray's bewildered eyes.

"We need to take you to the medical room, you're bleeding." Ray said after not receiving answer from Kai, reaching for his elbow to navigate him out of there.

"I'm okay." Kai uttered again, shaking off Ray. He was more troubled with the Blitzkriegs.

Tala always seemed to be a reason voice in his team, influencing the others to act the way he expected from them. He hoped his former teammate knew how to handle Boris in this state and finish this madness.

Apparently, even Tala thought this time that he needed to respond in an uncompromising way. He roughly grabbed Boris' head by his hair, leaning close to him as he pointed to Alexa and Kai with his finger.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" He yelled. "You almost killed them! You almost killed one of your teammates!"

"I don't care!" Boris shouted back viciously. "They want to hurt Tala! If you hurt him, I'll kill you, too! I'll kill everyone if I have to!" He growled savagely at his captain, completely blind that Tala stood right beside him, as he grappled more under Sergei's weight.

Kai watched as Tala jerked Boris onto his feet the same way as he pulled up Alexa from the floor before, but he used more force now, grasping roughly the falcon by his neck and extracting him from Sergei's strong hands.

The redhead Russian was always lean with long, wolf-like limbs that gave him a wiry appearance rather than a muscular one, yet he tossed the taller and stronger guy so effortlessly as if he weighted nothing. It was amazing what was capable of a human body in fury.

There was a huge, painful thud on the wall as Boris's nape collided with the wall. Grabbing him by the shirt on his chest, Tala roared into his friend's pale face and eyes.

"I AM TALA! I'M HERE, RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, FUCKING MORON! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!"

After the intensive fights and killing attempts that caused constant ruckus in the training room, the silence like a massive veil descended on them, its touch was soft but suffocating. They all witnessed as Tala finally managed to snap Boris out of his frightfully blinded state, who slowly and agonizingly recognized the situation around him.

"Tala?" Boris said on a shaky voice, staring at his captain then running his gaze around in the room. He stopped at the point where Kai and Alexa stood in their own stupor, with blood on their clothes and face. Boris was awestruck by what he had done.

The redhead roughly shoved Boris towards the exit, fed up to the back teeth with the mess his teammate landed on his head.

"Go back to the room! Keep walking before me and don't look back!" Tala ordered, more ferocious than ever.

The falcon obeyed, not showing the smallest resistance, he glued his eyes to the floor as he walked out of the room with Sergei and Tala on his heels.

"Alexa, come!" The redhead called back when he realized the girl didn't move. His voice was still harsh, but less menacing as he gently encouraged Alexa with a hand to follow them.

They disappeared on the corridor, leaving Kai and Ray behind with the unnatural, uncomfortable silence.

It was finally over, Kai sighed with ease. As his adrenal glands stopped pumping his body with adrenaline, the pain relief effect slowly seeped away, and soon he started to feel the shards in his wounds unpleasantly stinging into his meat.

"Will you go now to the medical room?" Ray asked.

Kai nodded weakly, feeling dizzy.

"I'm going." He gave in reluctantly. His bleeding wounds needed to be treated.

"I'll accompany you." Ray offered, standing on Kai's side to support him like he was some sick old man.

His care immediately made Kai growl in annoyance.

"I can walk there by myself!"

"I know!" Ray rolled his eyes, a very rare gesture from him. "I have questions. I want to know what happened."

"Delightful." Kai commented bitterly as they left the training room.

oOoOo

Ejecting the guests forcefully from the metal box, seizing the elevator for his team only, people shot an angry look at Tala for his rudeness, but he couldn't care less their indignation.

The doors closed with a bell, ringing disturbingly joyful comparing to the weight of the moment. Boris stood right in front of the doors, Tala intentionally positioned the falcon before him and Sergei, while Alexa stood deep inside of the elevator, in one of the corner, behind Sergei's protecting broad figure.

They travelled like that, in deep, uncomfortable silence for a long time, occasionally breaking the stillness with a sniff or a shaky sigh.

Just minutes ago, Tala had been in a totally different state of mind. He was laughing and joking with Sergei while they were trying to build a new beyblade for Seaborg, oblivious to anything else, happy with his victory against the Bladebreakers. After a long time, his mind had not been loaded with strategics and winning methods, not troubled with the championship.

After completing Sergei's new beyblade, he had planned to celebrate a little bit with the team, just to smooth the tension that had been constantly around them in these days.

Now, it was all long forgotten. His exultant mood was quickly replaced by shock and vexation.

Staring at his friend's grey hair, Tala tried to reconstruct what he had just witnessed with his own eyes. When Ray had knocked at their door and told him to hurry to the training room because Boris had been combating with Alexa, Tala hadn't known what to think at first.

Of course, he had scoffed at such nonsense and scolded Ray for sinking so low that he had disturbed him with a stupid prank like that, but the tiger had insisted him to follow, and the next thing he remembered that the three of them had been wildly running down the steps.

He couldn't recall when had been the last time he had felt such a shivering panic in his veins. Tala's mind kept repeating the horrific picture about Boris with a big, sharp glass in his hand, struggling hard to stab Alexa who had fought with all her might to stop him.

They barely arrived in time.

What might have happened between the two, he didn't have a single idea. As a captain, he had noticed for a while that Alexa didn't like Boris for some reason, but Boris had never been a kind, likeable person, thus he hadn't given much thought to it.

He scolded himself for being so ignorant. He should have asked Alexa about her grudge with Boris, then he could have prevented this whole incident.

Hopefully, he was going to get answers to his questions now, he knew he had to make tough decisions tonight.

"Are you hurt?" Sergei asked Alexa gently, snapping Tala out of his troubling thoughts.

"I'm fine." She replied softly.

More words were not spoken after that, and when the elevator stopped finally, it rolled open its doors, followed by another annoyingly cheerful ring. Boris stepped forward without any pressing, heading to their room. Tala hated seeing Boris acting and moving so tamely like an insecure lamb, a shadow of his old riotous character.

Where was the boy who had escaped him from the grip of a Russian policeman when they had been lived on Severodvinsk's streets and had gotten caught for stealing meat from a middle-aged woman? Boris always had kept that hope in them when they had failed to steal any food and had to sleep with aching tummies.

Where was his friend who had stood on his side when he had marched into BEGA with the resolution to stop Vladimir Volkov last year?

What had happened with their friendship that Tala was not able to recognize his only ally anymore? How could he trust him ever again with such a destructive will in Boris' soul?

When had he lost his friend?...

Tala felt his unrestful heart was shattering, but he couldn't show weakness. It was more important than ever to be a consistent captain, a solid point for the team.

Stepping into the common room, Tala ordered Boris and Alexa to stand in front of him with a few meters between the two. Sergei was guarding the former in silence, in case the falcon wanted to do something reckless again.

Examining their appearance, Tala now noticed the various injuries on both teammates' body.

Alexa's temple was bleeding, an eyebrow and her lip were torn open, leaking blood from there too. When she spoke, Tala could see her teeth were painted with red.

His old friend seemed to be in a better condition, however, his nose might have been broken. It stood in an unnatural angle and blood covered the bottom of his face. He was hiding his hands, but Tala already noticed the cuts on one of his palms. He probably got them when he was squeezing that mirror piece in his hand, a well-deserved wound for his sins.

"Tell me what happened." Tala began the interrogation, both eager to hear the details and scared that he was going to learn something he couldn't forget.

Boris kept his gaze down at the floor since Tala directed him out of the training room, probably too ashamed to look at his captain's eyes. Recognizing that she had to answer Tala's question, Alexa spoke up in a shaky voice.

"Boris wanted to fight with me in a hand to hand combat. I accepted his challenge, but I uh… became mad that he didn't take me seriously, so I started to insult him and then…" She trailed off, not certain how to phrase the following part. "I might have said something that infuriated him because he went haywire, and I couldn't stop him anymore."

"And what about Kai?" Tala asked. Alexa's narrative was too vague, suspiciously missing the details.

Alexa furrowed at his question, confused for a moment.

"I don't know how he got there. When I woke up, Boris was already pushing him against the mirror."

"Then what?"

"Then I removed Boris from him." Alexa replied slowly, in an uncertain voice, shifting her gaze at the boy beside her, who just kept staring down at his boots.

Tala frowned and tilted his head.

"Just like that? You pulled him from Kai?"

"It wasn't that easy…" She explained, visibly struggling hard what words she should form. "But I managed to get Boris off of him. After that, I was hurled to the ground by him and… you know from this point." She finished, nervously examining Tala's reaction.

"Is this how it happened?" Tala asked Boris, eyeing the older boy who now looked rather small. Pathetic, nearly.

Boris didn't talk. He nodded once approvingly, sniffing the blood.

"Do you have something to say? Are there any details Alexa left out?" He pressed, hoping desperately that there was something that might prove Alexa was just overreacting and his friend was not a murderous psycho.

But Boris just replied with his head again, shaking it in denial.

Tala barely could contain himself to stop twisting his lip with disgust. How deep Boris could sink, seriously? How could he lose the ground under his feet? He had to fight the urge to step to the pale boy and shake him up, shouting at him to pull himself together.

He rubbed his face and exhaled through his nose, mustering his will to say out loud his next words. Once, he spoke them, he couldn't take them back, so Tala thought over again his options. There were really not many things to reconsider truthfully, he just delayed his decision.

His teammates were waiting in anticipation what he was going to do as a captain in this situation. The team shattered into pieces just like the mirror in the training room, and Tala still didn't understand how everything could get a bad turn so suddenly. Minutes ago, they were victorious, and now, they were literally killing each other.

Ready to share his decision with his team, Tala stood straight, showing strength and dominance, distancing himself from this moment emotionally.

"Go packing. You'll leave with the first flight tomorrow morning. I'm kicking you out." He said and Tala felt the air was icy around him though he didn't call out Wolborg. His heart was hurtfully breaking to pieces in the arms of his ribcage, as a frozen puddle crackled under the heavy weight.

Alexa looked up at him in shock, tears forming in her eye, and when she realized Tala was not talking to her but Boris, her mouth formed an 'oh'.

The falcon was still staring at the floor; the only sign that he actually acknowledged Tala's judgement was a weak tremble of his eyebrows.

The redhead expected more resistance from him. Arguing with him angrily; throwing hurtful words at him that aggravated the tension, and regretting them a few days later; shouting violently or just simply storming out. Anything a living soul that truly cared would do in this situation.

But Boris just stood in silence, completely accepting the destiny that his captain had just assigned to him, and Tala realized with a stick in his heart that he had failed as an ally.

He had failed his dearest friend.

Tala should have prevented the danger a long time ago. He had seen the warning signs. He saw how Boris struggled sometimes with the people around him. The pale guy was barely able to build a stable connection with anyone.

There was Tala, they were close but mostly because they had shared the same past before the abbey. They didn't speak a lot, they really didn't know much about the other, apart from what they had learnt when they had been wandering on the streets.

And there was Sergei. They liked joking and fooling around, but their relationship stuck at that level.

Boris never talked about his troubles with anyone.

He should have helped him. Tala should have paid more attention to Boris, but he had always convinced himself that his friend was tough enough, and he didn't need his help. Although, in fact, it was Tala who had had no clue how to help him.

Moreover, it would have been embarrassing for him to talk about emotions. About Boris' feelings. What an inconvenient idea! They were men. Tough adult men! Strong men had nothing to do with emotions.

So, in the end, Tala did nothing. He had left Boris alone with his problems, with his demons that ate his soul.

"Tala, you can't just send him away! He must have an explanation, at least listen to him!" Sergei argued with the captain, not accepting the idea to lose a teammate.

"I gave him a chance to speak for himself. He didn't take it." Tala denied, his tone unfamiliarly empty and weary.

"Sergei's right!" Now, Alexa joined too, finding her spirit once again. "I provoked Boris, it was my fault! Send me away instead!"

"It doesn't matter that you provoked him. He should have kept his cool and stay in control. What if he goes crazy in the middle of a beybattle because the opponent provokes him with the proper words? I can't take that risk! I can't take the responsibility for his violence!" Tala bit back, shooting occasionally rebuking glares at Boris in the meantime.

Her following silence proved that he was right. She couldn't find solid argument against his decision.

"Alright. If you send him away, I'll leave, too." She said unexpectedly, folding her arms and standing steadily as if she was planning to spend her entire life on that exact spot.

Boris looked up from the floor for the first time to frown at Alexa.

Tala pitched the narrow bridge of his nose, exasperated by the girl's constant rebellious behavior. She always had to confront him, of course, she couldn't accept his decision in peace, without any fight. His patience was growing really thin with her.

"Alexa, stop this childish act. You won't leave the team and I'm not going to kick you out either, although the temptation is great, I admit."

"Why don't you just discuss it with him instead of sending him away? You can't let him go just like that!" Alexa protested, winding herself up in the argument.

Tala ran a hand down his face; Alexa was not making this whole procedure easy for him.

"I can. I'm the captain of this miserable team." Tala retorted, his voice still low but threatening this time. "By the way, why are you siding with him? He was literally trying to kill you like ten minutes ago!"

"Because I…!" Alexa started with a shout then she suddenly silenced, stopping her tongue to spit the words she initially wanted to say.

Tala arched a patronizing brow, expectant if she had anything else to say that could change his mind.

"Because I know what it's like losing your sanity!" She admitted at last, still speaking with heat. "I was trained the same way as him. I'm as dangerous as him, a ticking bomb that can explode anytime. If you really want to send someone home from the team today, then kick me. You lose less with me."

All Blitzkrieg boys stared at her in a bewildered puzzlement, not knowing how to respond at her sudden confession.

Tala's mind ran rapidly with the countless questions that suddenly raised inside him, trying to figure out the girl's intention with this dramatic speech. He still couldn't trust Alexa enough to believe she was telling the truth.

"What training are you talking about?" He asked.

That and many, many other doubts and questions twirled in Tala's mind that made him instantly tired. Why would she be dangerous? Could she lose the control the same way as Boris did today? Why does she want him to send her instead of Boris? Is this another trick of her? Does she want to leave the team?

Alexa gaped at him, and Tala realized that she blurted out more things than she intentionally wanted to.

"What do you mean you were trained the same way? What do you know about my training?" Boris spoke up for the first time; his voice hoarse and unusually hollow, but the curiosity was clear in it.

Tala looked back at Alexa, eager to know, as well. She visibly became nervous at Boris' question, shifting her gaze away. He couldn't stop the memory occurring in his mind when she had battled with Kai for the position in the team.

"…They always mention small, seemingly insignificant details that people like to ignore in general."

"Your investigation included my team, too?"

"Of course not!"

The girl's assertive, sickly-sweet reply echoed in Tala's head.

"I didn't talk anyone about my training in the Abbey. Not even Tala or Sergei."

"They don't know?" Alexa asked back, bewildered.

"No. So, what do you know?" Boris insisted; and Tala noticed a new emotion in his teammate's voice.

Fear.

Alexa kept shifting her weight from side to side in her nervous state, reluctant to answer Boris' questions.

"I saw you once." She said simply, still avoiding Boris' eyes, who could only furrow in confusion at the reply.

"You saw me? When? Where? I always trained with the same group."

Tala and Sergei, sensing the sincerity of this moment between the two, listened to the odd conversation in great silence, pretending not even being in the room with them; anxious to learn the truth.

A long, shaky sigh broke out of Alexa, heavy with the unknown weight that only Boris might have understood. She buried her face in her hands in defeat, and lifting her head after a few seconds, her eye gleamed with tears in the dark room.

"Give me your hands." Alexa asked shakily, turning to Boris and reaching out for him. "I'll show you when."

Boris didn't move, he eyed her suspiciously.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Alexa assured him softly.

The falcon uncertainly obliged, holding Alexa's hands, painting one of them with the blood from his own cut.

Alexa looked deep into Boris' eyes for the first time, and Tala thought this was the moment. The tranquility right before a great storm that swept everything away, destroying the last fragment of their hope that one day things could be the same again.

Putting one of the hands on her throat, Boris shifted uncomfortably, but didn't break the contact, hypnotized by Alexa's touch.

Something similar might have happened with Sergei and Tala, because, despite having a hand on Alexandra's neck, they didn't rush to remove Boris from her. The hand sat gently there, with no harmful intention.

Alexa now lifted Boris' other, bleeding hand and put it on her face. His big palm still big enough to cover the main part of her face, hiding her nose, her mouth, her only eye.

The few seconds while Boris stared at the hand-covered face seemed to last forever, when he suddenly jerked his hands back, as if he was touching fire. His chest started to heave, eyes widened in horror, and Tala couldn't imagine what this gesture between the two might have meant, but he felt terrified at the sight of Boris' distressed reaction.

"I was your trial, Boris. I was the 'boy' you had to kill." Alexa told him in a broken voice.

Her overflowing tears blended with Boris' blood on her face.

A/N: My dear Readers! Thank you kindly for your time reading my story, and special thanks to those who have been brave enough to leave a review, sharing their thoughts and opinion, helping my work! Without your feedback, I wouldn't be able to improve my writing skills. This story would be nowhere without your support!

I know I'm leaving you on a semi-cliffhanger again (sorry about that, haha), but this drama's a bit exhausting for me, I'm struggling a lot with it not to mess up anything. I hope I also wrote everything the way I wanted in this chapter, yiikes!

I'll update the second part on next weekend (25th of September, Saturday, ideally), but I don't dare to make a solid promise, unfortunately.