Disclaimer: The Arcan Blades don't own Beyblade.

Mike: I'm feeling unusually chipper… And why wouldn't I be? We're into the Quarter Finals, so did everyone we know, and Kai danced the flamenco…

Alexia: (bristling) Do you really have to bring that up?!

Patrick: (snickering) Keep me laughing for years, that one will…

Jade: Quit it, you two… (looks at Alexia) You're getting to be real close to him, aren't you?

Alexia: (turns away with a red face) …it's not a crime…

Jade: (sigh) Whatever…I figured this… Anyway, here's the next chapter! Read and Review, everybody!!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Gone into the Night

"No, really! It was amazing!"

"Shut the heck up! If you say one more word about it, I swear, I'll leave!"

Max laughed. "Oh come on, Kai, can't you let us enjoy such a spectacular match? And it's only the Elimination Round!"

Kai only grumbled to himself, still haven't lost the red appearance of his face as well as being unbelievably crabby the entire ride home. Kai had insisted that they go home right after they finished their match, or he'd go by himself.

Now, they were walking up to their hotel room, and Kai was still grumbling because he had been made to do 'such a ridiculously degrading thing' but everybody just agreed that it was very amusing and that he was actually rather good at it.

"Well you should've enjoyed it," snapped Kai. "Because I'm not playing in the Quarter Finals. That, I swear."

"Aw, you're such a spoilsport and you're still a crabby captain," Tyson made a face at him. "Hey, who are we fighting in the Quarter Finals, anyway?"

Kenny, who'd been wide awake since Kai's rather unorthodox match, said, "Oh, well one more match went on after we left, and according to the update I got on my laptop, we're fighting the Philippine Orient Pearls tomorrow. They beat the Irish Green Dazzlers just by the skin of their teeth."

"Orient Pearls?" Ray blinked.

"It's an all-girls team that came in from the Philippines—everyone said that it was quite a dark horse victory for them and for making it this far," said Kenny.

"All-girls?" Kai snorted. "Now I'm definitely not playing. I've had enough with ridiculous females."

Kenny opened the door to their room and went in, switching on the lights, and he added, "And tomorrow, the All-Stars are going against the Relic Bladers too."

"Well, good luck to them," said Max. "I think they'll need some of it. The Relic Bladers have yet to disappoint in their battles, I've heard."

"Yeah, well," said Ray, yawning, "Don't you guys think we ought to get some rest now? We've had an exciting first day and we're going to have another one tomorrow…"

"Yeah, we should…" said Kenny. "But I'll bet anything that the All-Stars aren't getting proper sleep tonight."

"Run it again," said Michael, staring fervently at the screen of the large monitor connected to their computers in their room where he and the rest of the All-Stars were gathered.

"Michael, we've been running it for over a dozen times now," Emily said, groaning from the controls. "Give it a rest!"

"No," said Michael. "I want to see their moves again and again so we'll know what we have to face!"

"Michael, we've only got Patrick, Alexia and Jade's moves," said Emily. "Okay, and counting Kai's match with him, we have Mike's too. But we can't be entirely sure that this is all they're capable of!"

"They barely even revealed their strengths so far," said Judy, looking up from where she was scanning the status of their beyblades after the fight with the Afterburners.

"Still, we have to be ready, right?" said Steve, twisting around to look at her from where he sat on the floor. "We can't just go in there without knowing what they're capable of."

"I think we do know what they're capable of," said Eddy. "They're capable of a lot of damage!"

"Again, Emily, please?" said Michael. "Eddy's right—they can do a lot of damage, and that damage can be done to us tomorrow if we go there blindly."

Emily sighed and hit the replay button.

Jade passed by the All-Stars' room and smiled as she heard the sounds of a videotaped match in there. I guess they're preparing… Already? They must be incredibly dedicated to beating us tomorrow.

And she walked down the hall. She spotted Alexia vanishing around the hall, and to the elevators. Jade wondered, Now where could Alexia be going?

She hurried down the hall, and tried to follow after her. But as she rounded the bend, she had to stop, because an elevator just opened, and Robert stepped out. "Hello, Robert," said Jade as he came out.

"Oh, hello, Jade," said Robert, smiling at her. "What're you up to at this time? Night just fell outside."

"Nothing, really," said Jade. "How about you? Was it only now that you and the Majestics returned?"

"We decided to cram in some quick practices and upgrading," said Robert. "We're to face the White Tigers tomorrow, of course…"

"Well, good luck," said Jade. "They're a pretty good team."

"Nothing we can't take on I'm sure," said Robert as he walked up to her. "So…has anything out of ordinary happened?"

"Besides the Demolition Boys stealing relics? Not much…"

"You know what I'm talking about."

Jade sighed but she smiled. "This reminds me of the reason why I'm so glad that you're around, sometimes. I get the feeling that someone cares for me."

Robert smiled, but before he could say anything, someone cleared a throat from behind them. It was Oliver, and he'd just come out of the elevator. He smiled and said, "I'd hate to break up the reunion, but I'm afraid that we still have to do some more things for tomorrow."

"Right," said Robert.

"I'm going outside for a while," said Jade. "See you tomorrow, Robert."

Jade left him, and she went into an elevator, wondering where Alexia had got to now. She couldn't blame her, really. It still must be a shock to her to finally find Tala and see him like that. She saw that Mike held up quite amazingly, though, and remained calm. Of course, she didn't know what happened when Mike and Tala faced off in the hall when the Afterburners' bit beasts got stolen…

Alexia sat down at one of the stone benches in the hotel grounds and sighed. "I can't believe that this is all happening…" she said to no one in particular. "How could Tala be like this?"

There was a long pause, even the wind was still and did not reply to her. And then a voice said, "So Tala must really be important to you, huh?"

Alexia nearly jumped and turned, and saw Kai standing there, not looking at her, only staring ahead, his hands to his pockets. She stared at him. "Kai. What are you doing here?"

"I'd ask you that," said Kai. "You're all by yourself out here."

"I just…well, I just thought I needed time to think about things."

Kai paused, and then he turned around. Alexia said, "Hey wait, where are you going?"

"Well you need space, don't you? You said you wanted to think."

"Why Kai, don't tell me you actually care," Alexia smiled at him. Kai raised an eyebrow at her, and Alexia said, "If it's all right, stay awhile. I really don't like being alone much…"

Kai watched her for a moment as she stared at her hands, and then he sat down on the bench, a good three feet from her and not even facing her. There was a long pause, and Kai said, "You didn't answer my question earlier."

"Oh, that," said Alexia, laughing a bit. "Yes, well…he is. I mean, why wouldn't he be? He's the only one I've got now… And he isn't at all what he used to be before…"

After a moment, Kai said, "What was Tala like before BIOVOLT?"

"Well…let's see… Tala was a good person, a little calm and quiet, like Mike, and he was nice towards everybody, and he was rather easily tempered if pushed. But he can also exercise great patience. He was responsible too, and looked after me and my friends…"

She laughed. "I guess that's one reason why we all liked him a lot. He wouldn't bail on us." She looked up at the starry sky and said, "But it looks like he finally has… He always wanted to be the greatest beyblader in the world… and now that he's so close to achieving his dream…I don't know whether I want to stop him or let him go on…"

And to which Kai replied, "Wanting to be the best is good and fine…but it'll all be useless if you don't do it right and forget other important things… like the people close to you… BIOVOLT has this way of making people forget that…"

Alexia smiled at him. "Didn't you use to be the same?"

Kai ignored the fact that she knew and let it fly away. "I used to be, yes. I used to be like him…I want to be the best beyblader in the world…and I still do…but not like that anymore."

"And so what happened to you?" asked Alexia. "How come you're not like the other Demolition Boys now?"

After a brief moment of hesitation, Kai looked up, staring ahead as he said, "My friends. They didn't give up on breaking me down and getting me back to my senses. They made me realize that I was being wrapped up in my own power and it'll eventually ruin me."

He glanced at her and said, "And I think that if you really want Tala back that badly…you guys are going to have to do the same. You can't just let him run around going about things the wrong way…or he'll never fulfill himself."

There was long silence that followed after this, and Alexia smiled. "…You're right. I can't give up on Tala now. I need him back too badly. What with our parents gone and everything…"

"What?" asked Kai, instantly looking up at her.

"Yes, we don't have parents anymore. They died…"

"No, not that—I'm sorry about that, but what did you mean by 'we'?"

Alexia blinked at him in puzzlement as he looked at her and she said, "Well of course we have the same parents—Tala is my older brother after all."

There was a pause, and Kai choked, and then suddenly burst into laughter that he tried to stifle back in vain. Alexia stared at him as he went on like that, and, stunned, she asked, "What is the matter with you?"

"N-Nothing," Kai managed to say, finally managing to gain some control of himself. But he couldn't have helped but laughed at that moment. And all this time I thought that Tala was her boyfriend or something… Then he turns out to be her brother… I don't even understand why I'm so relieved! Oh…well… I figure it's something about her then…

As his laugh faded out, Alexia suddenly laughed and said, "You know, you look a lot more becoming when you laugh like that."

Kai instantly stopped and flushed scarlet at this. He frowned at her through his flaming cheeks. "Stop that."

"But it's true," said Alexia, smiling. "I think I like you better like that."

Kai turned away and said, "Oh…whatever."

Alexia stopped her giggle and said rather seriously this time. "Thank you, Kai. I'm really glad that I talked to you."

"Hm…" Kai glanced at her and stared at his hands with a shrug. "Yeah. Sure."

Jade smiled from behind the tree she had been looking at Alexia and Kai from. Ah, what a nice sight. Now I know what Zeus had been hinting to us about those two…

She had to admit. They did make a pretty interesting couple… Especially since Kai's ice had been melting bit by bit…

"Ahem. Eavesdropping are we?"

Jade jumped and whirled around. There was Ray, standing there behind her, wearing a thick coat and a rather tentative smile. Jade clutched her chest. "Ray, you scared the life out of me!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," said Ray, walking a few steps towards her. "But I was actually following Kai and wondered what he was up to."

"Well, I guess I was tailing Alexia, too," said Jade, looking back at the pair sitting apart on the bench and yet speaking to each other. "They make a pretty pair, don't they?"

"I guess so," Ray laughed.

There was an awkward pause, and Ray said, "Um…are you still mad at me?"

"Huh?" Jade looked at him.

"Well…you are mad at me, aren't you? You've been ignoring me…"

"No, I'm not," said Jade, turning to him. "I wasn't ignoring you—you're the one who keeps walking away!"

"That's only because Mariah pulls me around," said Ray, smiling.

"And then there's her," said Jade. "I wrecked her beyblade."

"Okay, that I was a little upset about."

Jade turned away from him, and Ray said, "Hey, I said a 'little', didn't I? Besides, if you haven't done that, Mariah's Galix would never have become as strong as it is now."

Jade didn't say anything, and Ray said, "And I've also been staying away from you because…well…there's Robert…"

"Robert?" Jade blinked.

"Yeah…he knew I upset you, I guess…and he told me to stay away… Not that I wanted to…"

Jade sighed and shook her head. "Robert is too protective sometimes. He's always looking after me at every turn. But then again, he is an only child, and I am his only cousin…"

"So he's your cousin?" Ray blinked.

"Yes, he is—didn't he tell you?"

"No…but I kind of figured it to be like that…" he replied, even though it was otherwise. I really thought something else when Robert confronted me that time…

Jade smiled and said, "Well…I'm glad that we're on good terms again."

"Yeah," said Ray, smiling back. "You're the only girl other than Mariah who I've gotten along with."

"Wouldn't you have? You're a gentleman," said Jade, turning around and looking back to where Alexia and Kai were, so she missed Ray's crimson face.

Ray, to cover this up, said, "So Alexia is Tala's little sister… That means he's Arcan, and that you must've known him well, huh?"

"Very," said Jade. "He was a good friend of ours. And we'll get him back—you'll see."

"I don't doubt that."

Back at where the pair sat at the bench, Alexia glanced at Kai's immobile figure on the other end, looked up at the stars and then let out her breath. She stood up and said, "I'm going inside now. It's getting chilly. Aren't you going to go too?"

"Uh…no, I'll stay here awhile," said Kai.

"All right," said Alexia, smiling. "I'll see you tomorrow." And she hurried down the path, heading for the hotel doors. But halfway there, she stopped and turned to him. "Oh, and Kai?"

Kai looked up at her, and she grinned as she said, "You know, you dance very well."

And at this, Kai turned magenta from his collar up as he leapt to his feet, facing her. "Why does everyone keep saying that?!" he cried.

"Because you do!" said Alexia, bursting into laughter.

Kai, clearly chagrined, stared at her, containing an explosion, and Alexia just laughed again.

And then…like it was a sudden nightmare, it happened. Before anyone could react or move, a shadow suddenly came up behind Alexia and grabbed her, covering her mouth. Shocked, she tried to cry out and failed, struggling against her captor's grip.

"Alexia!!" Kai cried, color draining from his face.

Jade gasped in horror and ran into the open for the girl. "Alexia!" she cried.

"Jade, don't!" Ray called after her, he himself appalled and unable to collect his wits about him.

Jade tore across the grounds, but halfway before she could get to Alexia, a shadow dropped down and landed on her, pinning her to the ground. Jade cried out and her mouth was instantly muffled.

"Jade!" Ray tore out into the open as more shadows came into the garden, while the shadow that caught Jade dragged her over to where they were restraining Alexia, and the two Bladebreakers stood frozen, horrified, at the sight.

From a balcony above, Oliver was hanging over the railing seeing the terrible sight, and he began yelling into their room, "You guys! Come here, quick! Robert! It's Jade! And they've got Alexia too!"

The Majestics came tearing out of their room and into the balcony. The Bladebreakers, who were not too far, put their heads out the windows at Oliver's cry and saw Kai and Ray in the grounds, with the two struggling Relic Bladers caught in what looked like a group of seven shadows.

"Oh my gosh!" Emily gasped, as she also saw the scene from their window, and the rest of the All-Stars followed suit. "It's a kidnapping! Guys, we have to get down there!"

"The people down there are in trouble!" Mariah shrieked, pounding on their window from the White Tigers' room. "Lee—do something!"

"Let her go!!" Kai yelled, taking out Dranzer and preparing to launch, but all the other shadows pointed rather generic-looking beyblades as well and launched them all. The beyblades went all over the place and bounced about, hitting Kai and Ray, and they both raised up their arms in defense.

With beyblades raining down on them, Ray and Kai couldn't move and were getting cut at the impact. Meanwhile, the shadows suddenly put handkerchiefs over the two Arcans' nose and mouth, and their struggling slowly weakened as they both fell unconscious.

"No!" Ray choked as he and Kai tried to push past the bombardment of beyblades. "Jade!"

Then they heard a sudden powerful screech of a large bird from above. They looked up, and a brilliant indigo hawk bit beast was soaring in the air. It gripping two beybladers in its talons and prepared to let go as it swooped down.

"Incoming!!" came Mike's furious roar as the hawk bit beast released him. As he fell, he gave the beyblade a mighty rip from his rip-sword and the huge gleaming beyblade flew down and struck one of the shadows. The shadow it struck fell to the ground and didn't move.

Patrick gave a resounding yell and brought his scythe slashing down, and the shadows scattered as he and Mike hit the ground. From above, Zeus looked down from the back of his own massive hawk bit beast, Amaranthine, with a serious look and nodded.

"Yahoo!!" Michael hollered as he came charging with the other beybladers, launching their beyblades, and there was a rainfall of various powerful beyblades from all directions at all the group.

One of the shadows, obviously the leader, nodded, and they all scattered, ducking the beyblades, and they took the two girls with them.

"Jade! Alexia!" Patrick yelled as the shadows and the girls vanished into the Russian night.

"Come on, it's no use!" said Steve, grabbing him back. "They're gone!"

Patrick grabbed Armada and flung it into the pavement in anger, and the stone block pavement it hit split and cracked. While everyone else just stared, stunned, he snarled, "Darn it! We didn't make it!"

The unconscious shadow was still there—left behind. Gingerly, Kai flipped him over with his foot and saw the mark on his outfit. He scowled. "BIOVOLT."

"This is beyond low!" Mike suddenly exploded so that everyone stepped back. "First Tala and now Jade and Alexia?! This has gone too far!"

"Mike, shut up!" Patrick suddenly exclaimed, slapping a hand over his mouth as everyone stared at him, surprised and puzzled, thinking—what about Tala? Patrick hissed, "You don't have to scream for all the world to know!"

Mike peeled himself away from Patrick and snapped, "Well what are we supposed to do now, huh? There's only two of us left!!"

"No, that's not true!" Tyson suddenly said, and they all looked at him. Tyson said firmly, "There isn't only the two of you. You've got the rest of us. And we'll help you get the girls back."

Robert, looking terrifyingly furious, grabbed the collar of the boy in black clothing on the ground and shook him hard. "You!! Wake up!! I said wake up!!"

Robert was so furious that no one dared say anything. The BIOVOLT boy was a trainee. He came to life at Robert's intense shaking, and he began choking. "L-Let me go!!" he yelled.

"No!!" Robert yelled while still shaking him. "Where did you take Jade and Alexia?! Who sent you, huh?! Who?!"

"I'll bet anything it's Boris again," Kai growled, looking intensely infuriated at the proceedings. "That low life scumbag will do anything to—"

"Well?!" Robert roared, just about ready to sock the boy. "Was it Boris?"

"Robert, calm down!" Max exclaimed but Robert paid no heed and none of the Majestics could dare stand against him now—they've never seen Robert so angry before. "Just tell him already!" Mariah cried angrily, shaking her fist at him. "Is it that Boris guy?"

"No!" choked the boy. "It's not—it's not Boris, I say! It's not him!!"

"Then who?!" Robert roared shaking him harder.

The boy, gasping and choking, screamed, "It's Tala!! I swear to god, it's Tala! He sent us! Tala was the one who sent us to catch them!!"

"That's impossible!" Mike thundered.

"It's true!" the boy cried. "Tala sent us to capture one of the Relic Bladers—and we saw Alexia and took her! But we didn't know—we didn't know that Jade would be there so we took her too!"

"Are you absolutely sure about that?" Ray demanded.

"I am! I am! Boris doesn't know!! Tala did it by himself! It was Tala!"

Patrick turned to Mike, his face white as a sheet. "He's telling the truth! But why would Tala want to capture us?! Why would he go that far?!"

Robert turned his deadly sights on the boy again, who quailed and cried, "I don't know! I swear, I don't! Tala just ordered us to do it!"

"Well where did they take them?" asked Michael.

Before the boy could say anything, whistles sounded faintly from beyond their sights in the darkness at the other side of the path leading to the road. The Russian Police were on their way, hearing that there was something going on in the hotel grounds.

The boy took this opportunity and suddenly kicked Robert in the shins. Robert recoiled, and the boy jerked away, and ran like an antelope. Before anyone could stop him, he flew over the fence a way off and vanished into the dark.

"The police are coming!" said Emily. "What do we do?"

"We'll have to go after them!" said Ray. "We can't just leave Jade and Alexia in their hands!"

"Tala's taken things too far," snarled Mike. "I'm going over there and straightening him out with several blows to the face if I have to!!"

"I'm going too!" said Patrick. "I can't just let them run off with our team."

"So am I," said Kai, clenching his fists. "I was that close to Alexia then. But I wasn't able to help her. Tala's going to pay for this."

"I'm going too," said Ray. "I should've done something instead of just stood there."

"Well if they're going, then we're going too!" said Tyson, nodding with Max and Kenny. Max added, "Yeah, we can't just leave these guys to go off by themselves!"

"All right, then!" said Emily. "The less everyone knows about this the better—the Relic Bladers and the Bladebreakers will go to retrieve the girls while the rest of us cover up what happened!"

"I'm going as well," said Robert.

"No, Robert, you have to stay here," said Johnny. "You have to help us cover up what happened. Besides—you're one with the eloquence of words."

"But…Jade…" Robert protested. "I can't leave her like that!"

"Don't worry about it," said Ray fervently. "We'll get her back."

Robert looked at Ray and pointed at him. "I'm counting on you then, Ray." And Ray nodded.

"All right, now go!" said Lee. "You don't have much time and they're coming! Go, all of you! We'll hold the fort here!"

They all nodded and they took off, racing each other. "P-Pardon me, you guys!" Kenny panted as they raced over the direction that the boy had run off to, "But—but do we even know where we're going?"

"Yeah—if this was just up to Tala, they could be anywhere!" said Tyson.

"He's risking a lot by doing this without telling Boris—so they may or may not be at BIOVOLT," said Kai. "How do we find them?"

"That's easy," said Mike as they all leapt over the fence like cats—behind them, the police arrived at the scene and the other beybladers appeared to have been having a match—the feigned reason for the ruckus.

As they leapt over the fence and landed down on the sidewalk of the road, a bus came skidding up to a stop next to them. It was the Bladebreakers' bus, but the one driving it was Zeus.

"What took you?" Mike asked, climbing into the bus with the rest of the group.

"Had to borrow the Bladebreaker bus from Mr. Dickinson—who willingly let us for the cause," said Zeus coolly as the door hissed shut. "Hang on to your hats, boys."

And with a jerk of the wheel and a slam of a foot on the pedals, the bus took off like a shot down the road. Kenny, bouncing around the back, asked, "But still, the question remains…where are we going to find Tala and the girls?"

"Zeus—you've still got us Relic Bladers tagged, right?" said Patrick.

Zeus burst into laughter. "And I thought you guys didn't know."

"You nut, of course we know," said Mike, making a face at him. "And for once, we're actually glad—even though otherwise it's a gross invasion of privacy! It'll help us find out where the girls are!"

"Let's hope they're somewhere not too far—the scope isn't that far," said Zeus. "Chief, my laptop's at the back. Open it and run the search program you see there."

"R-Right!" said Kenny, finding the laptop and opening it as the rest of the Bladebreakers hung behind him. Kenny typed away furiously at the laptop and said, "Got it!"

"Run the sound transmitter," said Zeus. "You'll find some headphones next to you." He looked at the mirror to the back and said, "Max, you might be sitting on them."

"Oh, sorry," said Max, getting the headphones and giving them to Kenny.

Kenny slipped on the headphones and listened. "Barely anything. Just a lot of static."

Zeus said, "The pins must've been slammed around or something…"

Patrick tore a pin off his coat and said, "They were these things?! Man, I'm never wearing them again!!" He was about to pitch it out the window when Zeus said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you—it'll help me keep track of you all when we get to where the girls are."

Patrick muttered under his breath and put the Arcan pin back on.

"The transmitter's kind of broke, but I still can find where the signal's coming from," said Kenny. He typed again, and a map of Moscow came into the screen. A silver dot and a blue dot were moving. "So this is us," said Kenny. "Mike and Patrick are in this bus, of course. Now for the girls…"

He typed again, and then he saw them. There was a slow moving green dot and a red dot within a building. "I see a green dot and a red dot moving in a building of some sort…"

Kai frowned. "That's an abandoned church. It's not too far from the BIOVOLT abbey—the underground of the church is an extension of the underground passages in BIOVOLT."

Zeus, after a moment, asked, "Tell me, Chief—is there…do you see a white dot near them?"

Kenny looked and said, "Yes. The two dots are heading right for the white dot that's in a room not too far off."

Zeus looked calm, but he said with a slightly perturbed voice, "That…shouldn't be possible."

"What do you mean?" asked Kenny.

"That white dot…happens to be Tala."

"Tala?!" came the chorus.

And hereupon, Kai, who heard things from Alexia, had to explain about Tala and what he was, exactly to the Relic Bladers, who didn't say anything and did not interrupt the explanation. Ray pitched in, and so did Tyson, who, after finishing, said, "But Mike, you never told me that Tala was Alexia's brother."

"You never asked," said Mike simply.

Kenny looked up at Zeus and said, "So you had gotten Tala tagged too, and that should've have happened before he left Arcanis."

"He didn't leave—he was taken," snapped Patrick.

Zeus said, "Well, that's true. I did tag Tala. But…he shouldn't be registering anymore."

"What do you mean?" asked Max.

And Zeus replied, "Because if Tala was really a Demolition Boy—and he really seems to be now—he shouldn't have the symbolic Arcan pin. He should've—or Boris would've—thrown it out. But since he's registering…that means that he still has it."

After a pause, Mike said rather softly, "Why would Tala still have the Arcan pin if he was a Demolition Boy and dedicated to BIOVOLT's whims?"

"Unless…" said Kenny. "Unless Tala isn't all the Demolition Boy that he seems to be."

Quite an awkward silence followed this.

Patrick: That still freaks me out, Mike, you know that, don't you?

Mike: Yeah… Could we've been wrong about Tala?

Patrick: But he did all that stuff… he even kidnapped the girls!

Mike: He must have some reason… And that's what we're going to find out. (to the readers) Review, you guys!!