Last Ditch Attempt

By: cHiBi MiDnIgHt AsSaSsIn

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade or it's respective characters. *breaks down crying and after a while, composes herself* Yeah, life's tough, deal with it.

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Chapter 3:

The BladeBreakers and Alida stayed in Russia for a few more days, alternating between training and sight seeing. Since Alida grew up in Russia, she made an excellent tour guide.

She showed them places that they would have missed otherwise, places that only inhabitants of Russia knew about.

By the time it came to the day when they were supposed to leave for Japan, she felt extremely at ease around her new friends, all except for Kai.

Kai was still keeping his distance, and most of the time Alida left him alone. Occasionally, though, Alida sought to talk to him a little bit, and try to become friends with him, but to no avail.

"Come on Tyson, or we're going to miss the plane," called Kenny.

"I'll be there in a minute Chief," said Tyson, dressing.

Everyone but Tyson was out in the hall, with their small bags of luggage. Finally, Tyson stumbled out.

"Tyson, you forgot your hat," reminded Alida with a smile.

"Huh? Oh yeah! Thanks," said Tyson, before rushing into the room to retrieve his hat.

Then, they were finally off to the airport in a BBA bus. Kai sat in the back. Tyson, Max, and Kenny sat in the very front. Alida took a seat in the middle, and Rei asked if he could join her.

"Of course," said Alida, scooting over from the aisle seat to the window seat, she made sure that Rei had enough room before looking out the window at the snow-covered landscape.

"Are you okay?" asked Rei. "I mean, leaving your country and all…"

She turned to look at him and gave him a brave smile. "I'm fine. Traveling to a new country will be fun."

Rei and Alida made small talk all the way down to the airport, while Kai sat silent at the back. Max and Tyson were yelling loudly in the front, and Kenny was working with Dizzi on something.

Mr. Dickenson greeted them at the airport. He handed each of them a ticket. They headed to their plane and handed their tickets to the right personnel.

The BladeBreakers had first class tickets. They had middle seats, four-in-a-row.

"May I sit here?" Alida asked Kai.

"Go ahead," said Kai before crossing his arms and closing his eyes. Rei took the seat next to Alida, so that there was an empty seat next to Rei.

Max, Kenny, Tyson, and Mr. Dickenson took the four seats in front of them.

The flight was predicted to take from ten to fifteen hours long. There would be no stops; the flight was directly from Russia to Japan.

After take off, they were allowed to walk around the compartment. There were two built in beydishes off to one side of the room. One was being used by amateurs, leaving the other one for the BladeBreakers to use.

Kenny was making minor adjustments as the team was practicing. Kai was supervising his teammates, and Alida was watching them. They were often interrupted by beyblade fanatics that recognized the BladeBreakers and wanted autographs from them.

Kai blatantly refused to sign any, while the others were only happy to do so, especially Tyson. Kenny sighed; Tyson's ego was getting bigger and bigger once again.

Suddenly, the sound system crackled and the pilot's voice came on the intercom.

"This is the pilot speaking. Sorry for this disruption, but we are heading straight into a storm. Don't worry though, all we will encounter is slight turbulence. All the staff asks is to please return calmly to your seats and to buckle your seat belts. Thank you."

Alida looked out of the nearest window, and sure enough, there were thick black and gray clouds surrounding the plane.

The BladeBreakers put away their blades and were heading toward their seats when all of a sudden, there was a huge gust of wind outside. The plane tilted unexpectedly, and Alida fell.

Kai braced himself along the nearest wall, while Alida closed her eyes waiting to hit the ground. With one arm, he hung onto the wall, steadying himself, and with the other arm, he caught Alida around the waist and helped her to the wall.

"Thanks," gasped Alida breathlessly, while the plane stabilized and she found herself able to stand without having to cling to the wall.

Kai remained silent, and they headed for their seats. Kai was walking slightly behind Alida, prepared to catch her again if need be.

Thankfully, there was no need as they finally made it to their seats. It was now nighttime and the stewardesses were making their way around with food. Alida fell asleep, thought, and Rei ordered something for her in case she woke up.

Alida woke up a few minutes later and claimed to be full from lunch still. So when Tyson's stomach rumbled, she happily gave her food to Tyson, who wolfed it down.

They finally made it to Japan, many hours later. "Thank God!" exclaimed Tyson. "Being on that plane was boring."

"I seem to recall that when you were signing autographs, you were having a wonderful time," teased Alida.

"Well…that was different," Tyson protested as the others laughed.

They boarded another BBA bus, which drove them to a house in the suburbs of Japan. It was a nice, tiny little house, surrounded by gardens filled with multicolored flowers. Upon exploration, they discovered that the house had six bedrooms, one for each of them, all equally sized. The house had two floors, not including the basement. There were two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, and a living room. Mr. Dickenson explained that if they needed anything they could call him. Otherwise, there were stores within walking distance from the house. Before he left, he gave Kai some money to last them a month.

Tyson went to go check out the kitchen and soon the others heard Tyson scream. "There's no food!" he shouted racing back to where the others were.

"Don't worry Tyson, Mr. Dickenson gave Kai some money, so I'll go grocery shopping, okay?" asked Alida, hoping to calm him down.

Instead, Tyson got more panicked. "What will we do about food in the meantime?" he yelled.

"If you're so worked up about it, I can go now," replied Alida.

"Thanks," said Tyson. "You're the best."

"You're going to need help bringing the groceries back," Rei pointed out. "I'll go with you."

Kai had a vague feeling that Rei liked her and was amused at how Rei reacted around her. He handed Alida some money.

"Thanks Rei, you're sweet," smiled Alida, while Rei blushed. "We better hurry if we want to make it back before dark."

The two left, while the others picked out their bedrooms and personalized them.

They came back, loaded down with groceries, because Rei warned her about Tyson, so they bought as much as they could carry. Alida set down two bags, and Rei set down four.

Max and Kenny put away the groceries, while Rei and Alida sat down to rest.

"What do you guys want to eat?" Alida called out.

"Everything!" answered Tyson. Everyone sweatdropped.

"It doesn't matter," Max responded. "You pick."

In a while, Rei got up to unpack his things in his room, and Alida started to cook dinner.

"Something smells good," replied Rei, coming out of his room. His hair was wet and there was a towel around his neck. He had obviously just taken a shower.

While Rei began towel drying his hair, Kai set the table.

"Need any help?" asked Kenny.

"I'm fine thanks," said Alida, bringing all that she cooked to the dinning room table.

They all took a seat at the table, and everyone commented Alida on her cooking. She smiled happily and started eating with the rest of them.

When everyone was finished eating, she cleared the table and started doing the dishes. After that, she washed the table top and swept the floor. By then, everyone had bid her goodnight and gone to sleep except for Kai.

Kai just sat in an armchair, watching her quietly doing her work. Alida didn't notice until she had finished all her work. By then it was late.

She smiled at Kai. "How come you're not in bed yet?" she asked him curiously.

Kai shrugged. "I'm not tired yet." After a moment's pause, he added, "I wanted to ask you something. Is that alright with you?"

"That's fine, go ahead," she said, looking at him questioningly.

"Did my grandfather…" he trailed off. "Did my grandfather…treat you, for lack of a better term, humanely?"

Her eyes widened, and she looked down. "Of…of course," she stuttered.

Kai walked up to her and tilted her head up with his hand. "Answer me truthfully," he said, looking into her frightened emerald eyes.

"Yes," she answered firmly, staring back into his eyes. "Yes he did."

Kai let go, and watched as Alida retreated shakily to her room. Then Kai followed suit.

In the middle of the night, Kai awakened to a slight noise outside of his room. Through the crack in the door, he saw that Alida was once again checking on the sleeping conditions of the team, like she had every night during their stay in the hotel at Russia.

When Alida had returned to her room, Kai settled down to more nightmares of Black Dranzer.

To be continued…

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Well? Tell me what you think by reviewing, thanks for your time.

~cHiBi MidNiGhT aSsAsSiN