The Dranon Heiress

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade, but Chika, her bastard father, her team mates and the guy Marco and their bit-beasts are all MINE. Got it? They're mine, because none of you recognise them from the anime, which is GOOD. I'm ORIGINAL.

A/N: Sorry 'bout that. I hate not being able to think of good names. That's why the new team has been officially called 'Deadly Terror', after a Sweet Valley University book I read over the holidays. I really have to learn to think more originally . . .

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter of the Dranon Heiress!

---- Chapter Twelve ----

Four seconds . . . five seconds . . . six . . . seven . . . eight . . . nine . . . ten . . .

He was still too slow. There was no way he could get his Beyblade to reach the speed he needed within five seconds. If he couldn't even reach speed, how could he even think about reaching attack and defence power? He needed to find the most accurate way of launching, the most precise technique that would allow him to speed up.

Secure . . . positions . . . arms . . . stance . . . grip . . . LAUNCH!

He pulled the ripcord fiercely, as if willing it to start burning under the enormous friction. His Beyblade sliced through the thin morning air and landed smoothly into the dish, before streaking around the edge at lightning speed. He started counting again. This time, it took him seven seconds to reach top speed. He still wasn't fast enough.

He needed a speed invisible to the naked eye. The image of Count Dranon and Chika's battle haunted him over and over again. Neither of the Beyblades had been seen during the entire course of it. As soon as they hit the dish, they'd disappeared. He hadn't seen such skill . . . it was horrifying to know that these bladers were almost invincible and that they outstripped his powers in all ways.

Another two images forced their way into his mind. A ruthless, heartless and dominant girl with eyes that changed colour like the breeze. The second image was of that same girl, now a whimpering, cowering heap on the ground in front of her father, broken and bleeding, a startling contrast to the warrior he had met before. Wide, dull yellow eyes burned their way into his memory, looking helpless and hopeless - distraught and given up.

"I'm sorry children," Mr Dickenson had apologized when she had been sent to hospital. "There's nothing we can do to help her. She's within her father's control - and out of ours."

So they had let it go and went on. At least, most of them did. The Bladebreakers found it hard to ignore the fact that they had seen a brutal beating of one of their fellow students. Especially when that one student had been trying to defend them. Kai did a better job than the rest of them in disguising his reactions. He preferred to take out his anger at the dish, hammering himself an even bigger reputation as a brutal blader. But that kind of a title would only be complete if he could REALLY defeat the most brutal blader in the universe. Someone who would try and kill his or her own family in a battle.

"I've got . . . to . . . be . . . faster . . ." he said angrily. " . . . faster . . . and stronger."

But could he really do it? Could he really make himself so brutal as to destroy the people closest to him? What was the secret to this form of blading? Why - why was it so hard to grasp this coldness and power he felt when he had seen the battle? Why could he do it?

If only he had known it earlier - then maybe he would have made his grandfather proud. Instead, he had 'failed' the old man and now that 'old man' was in jail. But that wasn't his doing. He didn't ask for Hitawari Voltaire to commit high treason. That was his entire fault.

--------

Blood.

Her senses were alerted to the smell of it. It was in her hair, on her hands, dripping through her fingers and coursing down her face. It soaked her feet, drenched her whole body, filled her mouth and choked her with the coppery taste. There was blood everywhere she turned - she was practically chest deep in it.

[This is the blood you've shed. Look at how many people you've destroyed]

One by one, corpse upon corpse floated to the surface of the blood, face up and staring. All were white, wide-eyed, pale and definitely lifeless. But it was their stare that shook her the most. Nothing could dowse that horrible, clammy feeling of death that fouled the very air she breathed. She closed her eyes, but the image of all those corpses burned into her mind and the next corpse to float by regarded her with dull, but pained eyes.

She trembled violently.

[Why did you destroy all these people?]

[What was your purpose?]

[WHY?]

She clapped her hands over her ears, trying to block out the voices in her mind. They ranted on, asking questions she couldn't find the answer to. Over and over again, they cried out their pains, wanting answers she didn't know how to provide, demanding to know why she had destroyed them. When she next opened her eyes, hundreds of pale arms reached out of the blood and groped for her, clamping themselves around her arms, wrists, her legs, her feet, her shoulders and her hair, crying out and moaning.

She shrieked and - for the first time - terror filled her heart. With that terror came fifteen years worth of pain and grief, all her emotions unlocked and flowed. She felt tears for the first time, letting them run down her blood-streaked cheeks while she fought those arms. Emotions flooded through her, threatening to consume her as she tried to understand them through all her confusion.

[These are feelings]

[Emotions]

[Don't fight them - embrace them]

[They won't hurt you]

[Don't be afraid]

But she WAS afraid. So much, that she hadn't realised that the arms had secured their holds on her and were pulling her down into the sea of blood. The coppery liquid close over her head and there was hundreds of facing looking at her. The faces were those of her victims, the ones who had unlocked her dormant emotions and drowned her with them. She struggled against those arms, tried to scream, but a pair of firm arms came around her waist and something was pressed against her lips to silence her struggle.

--------

Chika was knocked out of her horrible vision and the first thing she saw was a pair of dark green eyes less than an inch from hers. They were still on the roof and she had apparently let her mind wander while talking to him. She became aware of their current, intimate position and pushed him away.

"What - are you doing?"

"Getting your attention," Kaika replied with a smirk. "Apparently, it worked."

Her heart was beating painfully fast. What was that vision about? It couldn't have been anything good. For the first time, she had felt real emotions and it had all started because of her run-ins with Hitawari Kai. She needed to see him and demand an explanation as to why she felt like this. What had he done to her?

Then she cursed herself for letting her attention wander and giving Kaika the chance to get close to her. In all their childhood, she had kept herself distant from his advances, conveniently earning herself the title 'Ice Maiden'. He had managed to break through her ice because of her short lapse in attention.

"You want to try that again?" He asked mischievously. "Bet you thought it was fun. I told you before it was. But you never believed me. No? Oh well, your loss."

"Get the hell away from me."

"I must admit it's more appealing if you wore clothes less baggy. I'll ask Naoko-hime or Miyuki-hime to whip up a new look for you. And don't be so conservative - I'll take you anyway, in a year or two."

"Shut the hell up and get lost!"

She turned away from him and clutched the wire fence. Tears of anger and shame burned in her eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall until he was gone. She hated him and his stupid sense of fun. Her dignity had been ripped to shreds over a week ago and now he had to come destroy her only sense of pride - her iced barrier.

He gave a short, hard laugh and slammed the door behind him as he went down the stairs. It was no fun teasing the hell out of her when she was angry. He knew she hated him, only that he continued to provoke her because she was so damned difficult to decipher. It was a game to him - his goal in this game was to break her to pieces and possess her, because he knew she didn't want him to.

"I hate you!" She whispered fiercely, through her now wet cheeks. "I hate you!"

---- End of Chapter Twelve ----

A/N: I'm seriously evil to myself.

I'm also seriously stupid. I said this was going to be an action/adventure fic, but it's turning into a really bad drama and romance one. I wanted to put more action into this chapter, what with Rei and Kai training to beat the new team and all, but I couldn't resist the blood scene.

Did you like the blood scene?

Anyways, REVIEW!

Bittersweet Angel Chika