Wah! So much to do so little time! I'm dying under it this all! I've had to reload so many chapters because of something that's so bugging me! I don't understand this formatting thingummy that Fanfiction has! But that's not so bad... What is is the last name mistakes I've made! It's Boris Balkov, not Yevgeny, Robert Jergins, not Boleyn, and Johnny McGreggor, not McKenzie! Oh! And I was also too lazy to change Biovolt Abbey to Balkov Abbey, but that's what it'll be from now on. Oh Yeah! Thanks for those new reviews! May good fortune come your way, reviewers ^-^ (Rein aka Gracewolf, Silver- eyes Magician Girl, Labrat)! And to Lorien: I'll look into it. Thank you.

9. Prophecy And Persuasion

"But Mr. Dickenson, please! You must listen to me! My uncle has extremely bad feelings about Goadbwa and you must listen this time! Boris may have done you wrong in the past, but he's serious this time! He wouldn't send me unless this threatened more than Biovolt!" Sarah protested to Mr. Dickenson.

Mr. Dickenson turned away from her. "As much as I want to trust you, Sarah my dear, I'm afraid I can't. Boris has done too much to betray my trust forever."

"Well, you trusted a relative of his, his niece, with helping the Bladebreakers. What would have made you thought that she couldn't have been corrupted by him?" Tala countered.

Kai stood with folded arms, not wanting to intrude unless absolutely necessary. "Tala, you're from Boris' side, so I wouldn't be talking much if I were you."

"Yeah? Well you're not me, so just but out!"

"Please, please, boys. There's no need to fight. I'm not sure. Tala makes a good point and so do you, but I'll have to reconsider your offer. I'm afraid I still don't have perfect trust in Boris," Mr. Dickenson said, lowering his head.

Sarah stared at him with hurt sympathy. She paused before replying. "Okay...Thank you, sir."

"I agree with my uncle. Do you guys?" Sarah asked as she walked with Kai and Tala back towards Biovolt.

Neither Kai nor Tala was really paying attention, but they both said "Yeah," and nodded their heads.

When they finally reached the Abbey (coming from the hospital), they saw Boris standing in the courtyard talking to a quartet of teenagers about up to his nose. "Who are they?" Tala asked rhetorically.

Sarah cocked her head to one side. "Hey, aren't they the team the Blade Sovereign? The team that the Celestial Myriad battled yesterday?"

Kai squinted his eyes at them from a distance. "Yeah, they are."

The two boys observed as she skipped over to Boris. They saw the teens look down at her as she asked something and then Boris replied. Sarah seemed to draw back quickly from the four in surprise and fear. Tala and Kai rushed over to see what was going on.

Tala was the first to arrive. "What happened? Who are they?"

The female with reddish-brown hair and dark blue eyes replied prissily. "As if you wouldn't know. You don't remember me? I'm Anya Romanov."

Tala cocked his head to one side in confusion. "Sorry, I'm afraid I don't."

A look of hurt surprise crossed Anya's face. "What?! You don't remember your own sister, Tala Romanov? I'm ashamed to be your relative."

Tala began to sweat a cold sweat. 'She...she's...my sister?! An overexcited girl like that?!'

Kai smirked but didn't say anything.

"Hiwatari..."

Kai looked up at the other girl, blue-haired with brown eyes; like him. "Yeah?"

"Do you recognize me?" she asked solemnly. She had no smile, the life seemed drawn from her eyes and features. She stood there gravely with her hands at her sides dressed in a black baggy turtleneck, full-length pants and boots. Her ensemble was all black. Though she bore a resemblance to Kai, her hair was only one shade of blue: light. Her hair layered, short and clung to the sides of her head. Her voice was as death-like and quiet as her physical appearance.

"Aren't you Rhea, the one Elvin battled yesterday?" Kai replied, feeling like a total stranger to this sedate female teen.

"I'm Rhea Hiwatari, your older sister."

Kai didn't make the same reaction as Tala had, though he would have if Anya was his sister. He merely stared with wide eyes long and hard at Rhea, who did the same with dull ones.

Sarah glanced at the reactions of Kai and Tala and then turned back to her sibling; a male, Samson Langley. He stood taller than her and glared deeply in to her green his eyes with his. His were of a slightly different colour, though. His were more of a greenish-grey colour that only looked dark blue on occasion. His brown hair was a different shade, too; a darker brown, though not as dark as Eva's. He wore a white T-shirt with collar and buttons. Underneath, he wore a black T-shirt. He also wore a brown belt with silver buckle and black full-length pants. He wore white tennis shoes. Unlike her friends Philemon and Elvin, his hair was slightly shaggy and didn't spike without gel.

Tala and Anya continued to glare at each other, disgusted with one another. Anya's hair was less vibrant and more brownish while her eyes were a much darker blue than her brother's. She wore a dull brown jacket with matching bell-bottom pants of the same colour. Underneath, she had a bright red shirt and then brown ankle-boots on her feet. Her bangs were similar to that of Mariah's, and the hair at the sides of her head was tied back in half-pigtails with red glass balls. Her hairstyle was exactly like Sarah's when she was little, Tala noticed.

Those three bore similar appearances to those of their younger siblings.

Kai, Tala, and Sarah then observed the other boy, who had a sly smile and nonchalant look in his red eyes. He had dark grey hair, his natural hair colour, it seemed. Why would a teen be greying? His hair was quite shaggy and like Samson's, didn't spike. He wore a white, baggy, long- sleeved shirt that had laces in the middle from the chest up. He had the slit where they were strung open slightly. He had black full-length pants with black shoes.

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself? Not that you didn't yesterday... but formally." Boris urged the boy.

He took his hands out of his pant pockets. "My name's Kieran Temagami."

"Temagami! That's Eva's last name! Are you her brother or something?" Sarah gasped.

"Yup," he answered with a nod of his head. "So, how's she doing?"

Sarah withdrew slightly. "She's fine. Quite the Beyblader. Did she learn from you?"

"No. I thought you taught her."

"Not exact-"

Boris intercepted. "Could you two possibly talk later? There's something I have to show Hiwatari, Langley, and Romanov."

Without waiting for a reply, Boris turned and walked into the Abbey as the seven followed him. Their footsteps echoed down the empty hallways as Boris led them towards the main control room. Halfway down the long corridor, though, he stopped and turned to face the stone wall. "Here is where your destiny begins," he said simply.

"Um... Uncle Boris? Are you sure that those glasses of yours aren't malfunctioning?" Samson asked innocently.

"Yeah. That's a wall, Mr. Balkov," added Anya.

Boris pulled a card from his green trench coat. He slashed it through a reader in the wall. "Yes, but a very special wall."

There was a beep from the reader, and then a rumbling as the stone wall began to rise, revealing a dark staircase passageway. They all watched as Boris reached inside and picked up a lantern from inside the doorway. "Kieran, I would ask that you find the other teams and bring them to the Abbey. Vladimir should be in the front Abbey there to await their arrival."

"Yes, sir," Kieran replied as he made a quick bow and ran away, finding it difficult to tear his eyes away from the sight.

Once Kieran was out of ear and eye shot, Boris continued to explain as he lit the lantern with a match. "The members of Balkov Abbey found this a few weeks ago. We're trying to make sense of it, but we need help. That is one of the reasons why we need the BBA and the other teams' help. Your minds are younger and they have the technology."

He stepped inside and descended the staircase. The six could see that the staircase spiralled downwards along the wide the wall, and far. They made their way down the staircase with extreme caution, because there were no guardrails and it was very narrow.

When they finally reached the bottom about forty metres down, they came to a strange, small corridor that Boris almost had to bend down to get into. They all gazed around the chamber, surveying the strange writing on the walls. It was in no language any of them understood, if a language at all. Yet some characters were extract from that of the English, Russian, and Japanese alphabets.

When they finally came to the end of the passage, Boris lifted the lantern high to find a dead end. The wall in front of them was covered in the same scrawl, and in front of it stood a large, stone, rectangular object embedded in the floor.

Anya stepped forward to look at it. "What's that?"

Boris lifted his head and glanced around the passage himself. "It's a coffin."

Four except the Hiwataris jumped back.

"This is a tomb we're in. The tomb of the Hilanovs, to be exact. As you can see, this corridor is covered in a strange writing that must have been used by some ancient civilization. Balkov Abbey must have been built over it to conceal something. Though what secrets these walls hold, I've no idea," Boris explained.

"So what does this have to do with us? And what exactly is a 'Hilanov'?" Sarah queried.

Boris turned back to the six teens. "Long ago, people lived in peace with the souls of the world. There was no known evil, none that was a threat, anyway. But then, just when everything seemed perfect, that's when the evil rose. These people tried to combat the evil, but to no avail. The war and torture continued for years until three of the victims who had grown up in the environment could stand it no more.

"They took a stand to suppress the evil. Though only thirteen, they fought bravely, with a courage that none of the other victims had or displayed. With help from the souls, they defeated the evil and saved everyone from an eternity of oppression.

"Everyone thanked them in the end, and recognized their names; Hiwatari, Langley, and Romanov. Their names were morphed together to make the name Hilanov."

"Those are our last names... but surely that can't mean anything. This happened millions of years ago, didn't it?" Rhea mumbled.

Boris nodded. "Yes, but from the research Biovolt has done, more recent salvations have occurred."

"Well how do know that we're the right Hilanovs, sir? And even if we are, what is the evil?" Tala asked, sounding doubtful.

Boris sighed. "Once again, this goes back to the Black Dranzer incident, when Anya, Rhea and Samson weren't there. So, I have my suspicions of the three of this generation."

Kai unfolded his arms. "What does the Black Dranzer incident have to do with this?"

Boris' arm was now beginning to get tired from having to hold the lantern. He handed it to Sarah and replied to Kai. "Remember after the blade was fired that a red light flew up and destroyed the Abbey? Do you remember the cross that it made in the sky?"

Kai had a dumbfounded look on his face as he tried to reminisce. "Yeah... It was a papal cross, wasn't it?"

"I rest my case."

There was a long pause as no one said anything.

Boris broke the silence. "Do you still have your pendants, Kai, Tala, and Sarah?"

Kai and Sarah reached in to their pant pockets as Tala reached into his shirt. They outstretched their hands to reveal three different crosses each made of a different type of mineral. Kai's, the papal cross, was made of topaz. Tala's, the patriarchal cross, was made of bloodstone, and Sarah's, the Latin, was made of ruby.

Samson, Rhea, and Anya eyed then with envy. They had never seen anything like them before, and they were beautiful.

"Boris, sir!"

They all looked up to see a lady with black hair, lab coat, pink turtleneck, black jeans, and black dress shoes scurry up to them. When she reached them, she stared at Sarah and Samson for a moment oddly and then turned to Boris. "Boris, Vladimir told me to tell you that the BBA and the other teams are here."

Boris chuckled. "Goodness, the whole BBA?"

The woman didn't return the gaiety. "No, just Stanley Dickenson and Judy Tate. Oh! And there's an e-mail from Voltaire in the company's databases."

"What does it say?"

The woman began to stare at Sarah and Samson again. Her gaze wandered to Kai, who stood there with the same solemnity as his sister. She inched closer to Boris, as if afraid that the three were going to gang up on her and attack. "I'm not sure- I haven't read it. Though Lutka has- she'd know."

"Thank you, Irina," Boris replied.

The woman eyed the three a moment longer before scurrying away again.

Boris turned back to them once the lady had left. He was about to speak when Kai interrupted. "Why was that lady, Irina, was it? Staring at me?"

Boris' expression was that of slight astonishment. "You don't remember her? Without her, you probably wouldn't be alive today. And neither would you, Sarah and Samson."

Kai tried to think... This was probably linked to the Black Dranzer incident... everything else seemed to be these days. 'Let's see... I broke into the test facilities, broke the case then used Black Dranzer. Once the Abbey started to be razed, I ran from the room and encountered the security guard and then...'

Kai flashed back in his memory. "Move it!" he heard Irina yell once more.

"Of course! Now I remember! Irina was the one that led me from the Abbey!"

"That's right," Boris said as he glanced at Sarah to see if she'd realized her linkage. He noticed that she had begun to scowl. "What is it, Sarah?"

She lifted her head and looked him straight in the eye. "Yes, I remember her. She's my mother, isn't she? And also the one that agreed to my cry-"

Boris simpered and cut her off, not wanting the others to hear what she had found out... somehow... "Yes, she's your mother too, Samson. Sister Lutka is your mother, Anya and Tala."

There was a huge gasp as the Hiwataris listened intently for who their parents were. Boris didn't pause for effect, though (would you when you know you're about to be pummelled with questions you'd rather not answer and a young girl is about to vociferate the happenings of illegal operations you performed?). "But anyway, let us talk later. Anya, Rhea, Samson, go to my office and read the e-mail. Kai, Tala, Sarah, come with me."

"It doesn't take four teens to read an e-mail, Mr. Balkov," Anya protested.

Boris was too embarrassed to reply and merely left the chamber to ascend the stairs, trench coat billowing from behind him. Kai, Tala and Sarah accompanied him without another word. The other three did the same but stormed off in the other direction (Anya anyway) once Boris closed the door.

"What's wrong, Anya?" Samson questioned once Boris was out of earshot.

Anya replied angrily without turning to face him. "There's something that your uncle doesn't want us to know."

"What's so wrong with that?"

Anya froze and whirled around. She gave him a look as if what it meant was blatantly obvious. "He doesn't want us to know! What if we're missing out on something that our bratty little siblings get to do?"

"There'll be other privileges for us. Besides, my sister needs her fifteen minutes of fame," Samson replied simply.

Anya growled. "Yeah? Well don't you think she had enough when her team defeated us yesterday?" She paused and looked over his shoulder at Rhea. "What about you, Hiwatari? Aren't you jealous of your brother, Kai?"

Rhea continued to stare blankly. "Why should I be?" Then she resumed walking and stepped right past the annoyed Anya.

"Yes, Mr. Dickenson, sir. I tell you the truth about Goadbwa Enterprises. I and the rest of the Biovolt team need your help in deciphering the text, which could very well be the vital link between stopping Goadbwa or letting them win."

Mr. Dickenson eyed Boris with suspicion. "You and Voltaire really should be in jail, but I'll give you a chance and listen. Though you'll have to expand on your point, more."

"Yes, of course. We can talk in my office." Boris reached inside his coat pocket and pulled out some pieces of paper. He handed them to Sarah. "Take these and try to make sense of them with the other teams."

Sarah took them and observed them. They had the writings that were on the chamber walls on them. "You can work on them in the cafeteria," she heard him add. "If you don't know, Tala will show you."

The Demolition Boys led the other teams to the cafeteria as Boris took Mr. Dickenson and Judy to his office.

Everyone sat in the cafeteria (except for Ray, Eddy, Kevin, and Enrique) racking their brains out over the puzzle. Most of them had parted into their separate teams and were trying to solve it among each team. Though they were putting their heads together, after an hour or so, everyone was getting annoyed, frustrated, and some even fell asleep (I won't mention any names, Tyson).

Kenny and Emily seemed to be the only ones who were really concentrating. "That just doesn't sense, Chief. That doesn't comply with that letter, though," Philemon heard Dizzi say. That interested him so he pushed himself up from the table and shuffled over to where the two sat.

Kenny threw his arms up in the air in despair as Philemon sat down. "Ugh! Nothing works! This thing is indecipherable!"

"Don't give up, Kenny," Emily tried to console him.

Philemon took a closer look at the screen with tired eyes. He looked at the prophecy's letter equivalents to those of English. He could see that some of them didn't correspond correctly, but he also noticed that if you just switched a couple of letters around...

"Excellent job, kid! Those letters seem to exactly fit! Now it makes sense," Dizzi exclaimed.

Kenny, who hadn't been paying attention, returned to reality. "Huh? Oh! Philemon! You found the answer!"

Everyone perked up and rushed over at those words. Even Tyson woke up. Sarah grabbed Philemon and hugged him. "Oh, I knew you had it in that Academic Award brain of yours!"

"I'll give you the honour of reading it out," Kenny offered.

"Okay..." Philemon trailed off as he brought his eyes closer to Dizzi's monitor. He took a deep breath in.

"The Hilanov Prophecy...

"Destined throughout the generations

To save one and all-

Humanity, animal and spirit-

The world they shall enthral.

"Though aberrations surround their birth;

They're the strongest of their kind;

The source of strength: the spirits of the earth-

Such power that's hard to find.

"Hair of red and eyes of blue-

The one that remains confident and true.

Hair of blue and eyes of brown-

Solemn, solitary, and rebellion-bound.

Hair of brown and eyes of green-grey-

The strongest of the three though they fear to be brave.

"As strong as they are, they won't always prevail

They won't always hold out as the prophecy entails.

The day when it's finally over-

When evil takes its grip-

The end of the Hilanovs- never again-

Forever apocalypse."

Everyone continued to stare at the screen. There was silence until applause broke it. They all turned around to see Boris, Mr. Dickenson, and Judy standing in the doorway of the cafeteria.

Boris stepped over. "Formidable job. It seems you children did a fine job of decoding the prophecy yourself. Who figured it out?"

The answer was unanimous: "Philemon."

"You'd make a good programmer, some day, my son," Mr. Dickenson complemented.

Philemon blushed slightly. "Thank you, Mr. Dickenson, sir."

Once again Kai, Tala and Sarah were in Boris' office. He was discussing with them what Mr. Dickenson and Judy had said. He seemed jovial, they noticed. Things must have gone well for him.

"I finally persuaded Stanley to help us. He says the BBA will provide materials that may be needed in the battles, but he won't send any reinforcement Beybladers. Only you three will fight what Goadbwa deploys, unless you can get your teams to help you. Mr. Dickenson says that he won't ask the other teams to assist, though."

Tala had an overconfident expression on his face. "Hah! We won't need our teams' aide, anyway."

Sarah had a blank emotion while Kai felt used. "Why are we the only ones fighting? What about our older siblings?"

Boris shook his head. "I don't want them battling. They're only a last resort."

Kai took offence to the comment. "Why? You like them better, don't you? You think they're stronger than we could ever be!"

Boris made direct eye contact with Kai, who backed down a little. "Look, I don't like them any more than I like you, in fact, I like you three better. I have more faith in you. You're less likely to lose because of your superior Beyblading skills and aberrations!"

"Aberrations..." Boris heard Sarah mumble and he knew he had let something slip.

Sarah had had her head down, but now she lifted it to see Boris' grey eyes. "Yes...Our aberrations, human deformities...What we are and what we aren't..."

Tala glanced at Kai. "Human deformities? What do you mean? I know that I'm a cyborg, if that's what you mean...But what about you and Kai?"

Boris didn't reply, waiting and dreading for what Sarah had to say. "Yes, you're a cyborg, Tala, Kai's a syndicate human, and I've been cryogenically resurrected."

Tala seemed confused while Kai seemed petrified as Boris seemed regretful. "What's that supposed to mean?" Tala questioned.

Sarah glanced upward at Boris, who was shaking his head. "Should you tell or should I?"

Boris stopped and walked over to the window. "You might as well."

Sarah turned back to Tala and Kai. "Well, we all know what a cyborg is, right?"

"A human being who is linked to one or more technical devices upon which some of his vital physiological functions depend," Tala replied cockily.

Sarah gave him a puzzled look.

Tala lifted his head slightly and clasped his hands behind his back. "Courtesy of the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary."

Sarah slowly shifted her gaze from Tala to Kai. "Thank you...Okay, then Kai's a syndicate human, meaning that he wasn't born normally like you and I, Tala. Other people's body parts were cloned and then DNA was taken from each of them and injected into the embryo that was to be Kai."

Tala turned to see the fearful look on Kai's face. His brown eyes were shrunken and sweat poured down his cheeks. He shakily lowered his head and lifted his arms to his face. He surveyed himself with trepidation. "So...wh-what you're s-saying is that these arms...aren't actually...mine? Neither are my legs, head...torso...or anything else?"

Sarah continued yet with an empathetic expression. "I'm thirteen, like you two, but I was born in 1980."

Tala averted his scrutiny towards Sarah. "How is that possible?"

Sarah was about to reply when Boris intercepted. He wanted to tell this part. "When Sarah was first born on July 20, 1980, it was a joyous day for those in the Langley family, for me, too. She was Irina and Nigel's first child and my only niece. Her name was Celeste.

"We at Biovolt loved her and pampered her well until one day she ran away from Leon, a Biovolt member. We found her outside the Abbey on the Volga riverbank. She had frozen to death after being out there for a day or so."

There was a slight gasp from Kai and Tala. Boris resumed his explanation. "I carried her back to Biovolt where we had a meeting on what to do with her cadaver. Lutka, Tala and Anya's mother, suggested that she be cryogenated while we replaced her vital organs. The Langleys agreed, and so that was what we did.

"During the ten years she was being cryogenated in, your older siblings were born and so were you two. We resurrected her and renamed her Sarah, and acronym for Select Cryogenic Resurrection Achieved Human."

"That's 'Scrah'," Tala protested.

Boris turned to face him. "We modified it. Would you like to be named Talc?"

Tala hesitated and then shook his head.

"Well, then, on the day she was reborn, we baptized the three of you. A special spell was cast upon you, since we had our prodigal suspicions about you then, as well. The incantation allowed immortality so long as your life force was alive. And since there were three of you, you made a perfect circle, so the only way for any of you to die was if you were all killed at exactly the same time because your life force is dependant on someone that's dependant on you."

"Life force?" the three questioned in unison.

"Yes. Sarah, your life force is Kai, Kai, yours is Tala, and Tala, yours is Sarah."

"Is this the same with Anya, Rhea, and Samson?" asked Sarah.

Boris shook his head once more. "No. You three are the only ones ever to receive the incantation."

There was a long silence.

Boris sat back down in his chair again. "But back to why we were here... Your job is to fight Vitality Extortion tomorrow. We found Enrique, Kevin, and Eddy in the alley of Vladya Street, so we assume that's where they encountered the team. That is where you will go tomorrow to battle them, hopefully. And remember: you're alive as long as your life force is! Oh! But there is one flaw- if the three of you suffer from a mortal wound all at the same time, you will also die."

What will happen in Kai, Tala, and Sarah's first encounter with Vitality Extortion? Will they win or lose? Will they be thrown into hospital like Eddy, Kevin and Enrique? What exactly is causing the three to be in the hospital, anyway? It seems to be more than a coma. Find out in the next chapter!