A.N.: I'm back! ^^

Kai: Yay. . . ¬¬

-_-' Sorry, you're not liking this, are you?

Kai: Have I ever?

Well. . . no. . .

Kai: Just write already and get it over with!

Eeeeeeeeeeep! OK, here we go! Remember this is an independent ending, starts right where the previous (sad/bittersweet) one did, so there are no connections in storylines between them.

DIFFERENT LIVES

CHAPTER 6 – DECISIONS [HAPPY ENDING]

~//~

Voltaire looked up to his grandson, the one which had been sleeping for so many years, patiently waiting for the time when he would wake up and make the Hiwatari dream come true.

He had no right to take the dream away from him. . .

But then again, he had no right to do a lot of things he did. . .

"Kai, tell me. What do YOU want to do? What do YOU REALLY want to do? Is it to reach your father's dream, or yours? Are they the same dream. . . or do you have something else in mind?" Voltaire asked the youth.

That caught the boy a bit off-guard, since he was expecting one answer, not a lot of questions.

He thought about it for a minute, and he realized. . . what he wanted. . . what he wanted the most. . . was to see his father's smile once again. . . just once more. . . that gentle smile which he always showed Kai when the boy had done something they both were proud of. . .

Just one more time. . .

The boy looked down, breaking the gaze he had on his grandfather until then, his bangs covering his eyes, and gave his answer in a small shake of his head.

Everyone, except Boris, smiled in relief. . . at least they wouldn't have to fight the one person they could bring themselves to. . .

"Then, if nothing is going to be done, what was all that hard work for?! What was all that waiting for?!" Boris shouted, his anger doubling because of the strong arms binding his movements.

"No, it taught us a few important things, right, Kai?"

The boy only nodded his head at his grandfather, still not raising it.

"Besides, Boris, you made an exquisite progress in Bitbeast research, I will continue to support your projects. . . and my grandson."

Boris seemed to call down after that, so the White Tigers let him go, sensing it was OK to do so.

"Yes, Hiwatari-sama."

At this point, Kai raised his head and looked at the bladders around him, ashamed.

"But. . . grandfather, we. . . we can't just. . . look at them. . . we took something very important from these beybladers." the boy whispered. "And we can't do a thing to amend it, since there is no way to revive my clone. . . and even if there was. . . it would be too late already, his time is up, the body would no longer last much more anyway."

Hearing these words, the reality of the loss of a precious friend, and a little more to some of them, dawned of the bladers' minds like a ten thousand ton weight. . . they'd never get THEIR Kai back, the Kai they knew.

"Kai. . ." Rei whispered.

"No. . ." Tala also whispered, and when hearing their leader's sad voice as he spoke that name, the other Demolition Boys bowed their heads, for they too had taken a liking, although none could tell why. [A.N.: Easy, Kai's too hot and cool to be resisted or hated! ^^]

The other bladders looked just as grieved. . . and seeing them like that because of his mistake and his grandfather's only made the real Kai even more ashamed, instantly looking down again.

"If I could, I'd give my soul back to him, you really seem to have become attached to my clone. . . but even if I did, it'd just be a waste, since he wouldn't last more than a few months." he said to all of the beybladers, clutching his fists with such strength they were already white.

"I'm sorry. . ."

At that time, few people, the ones who had the courage to look at what was left of the clone's body, saw a glimmering light coming from a blue cargo pants' pocket.

"Huh? What is that?" Li asked, pointing to the shining spot.

The ones who weren't looking turned to see what the captain of the White Tigers was talking about. . .

And everyone let a gasp escape as suddenly, apparently out of Kai's beyblade, Dranzer flew out, her wings flapping majestically.

She only eyed her master's body - the clone's - and gave out a loud screech, temporarily deafening all those under her. Landing beside it, the phoenix carefully wrapped her wings around it, as gentle as a mother would do. [1]

Dranzer cried out again, but this time, it wasn't like a scream, her voice seemed to be soothing everything. . . as if she was singing.

And to everyone's surprise; including Kai, Boris and Voltaire; Black Dranzer was suddenly besides her counter-part too, joining her in singing.

"What is that song?" Michael asked, his eyes, like all the others', closed.

"It seems so. . . calm and. . ."

". . . peaceful." Enrique completed Mariah's words. "Relaxing, actually."

"I don't know what it is. . . but it's doing something to Kai!" Kyoujyu exclaimed, and they all opened their eyes to see what that SOMETHING was.

Except that it wasn't exactly with Kai that something was happening: both Kai AND the clone seemed to be shining.

Kai gave a smile. "Wakatta (I understand)." he whispered, walking towards both phoenix bitbeasts, stopping only mere centimeters form them. . . and suddenly he was also wrapped in their wings, the song never stopping.

All of a sudden, things got so bright, the spectators had to close their eyes, once more temporarily blinded.

When the light died down and they were able to see once again, everyone was a bit amazed that the two phoenixes had disappeared, and now all that was there were the two "Kais", motionlessly lying on the floor. . . and the stripe-faced one no longer sustained an injury.

Silence seemed to take over the room, no one knowing exactly what happened, no one daring to guess, all afraid of making the slightest movement. . . and before any of them could, the Kai who had no stripes on his face woke up and looked at his right, where his clone still remained.

He smiled. . . much to the others' surprise.

"Kai. . ." Voltaire whispered.

"What happened?" Boris asked, his scientist curiousness kicking in.

"Don't worry." the boy replied. "Everything will be OK. We'll explain it when he wakes u. . ."

But before he could complete the phrase, the clone's eyes began to stir. . . and as quick as you cold say "bitbeast" he beyblades were on their knees beside it, hope clearly etched on in their eyes.

Seconds later, clone Kai awakened. . . and was suddenly crushed greatly by a "few" teary-eyed beybladers.

"Kai!" they all shouted.

"We were so worried!" Rei said, tears going down his cheeks.

"Youkatta (Thank goodness)!" Takao whispered.

"You still owe me, damn it! You couldn't have gone off like that!" Tala cried, either not knowing what else to say or not having the courage to say it.

And the ramblings went on. . .

Finally, when they had to let go for him to breathe, Voltaire stood above them, Boris a bit behind. With a gentle smile on the elder's face, he opened his arms and scooped both Kai and his clone into one big hug!

"I'm so glad you're both OK!" he said. "But. . . itai nani ga atta ka (what the heck did happen)?" Voltaire asked.

Kai, the one with no stripes, decided he could now give them an explanation. "A human can't live with half of a soul, but a bitbeast can. Dranzer divided hers, mine and Black Dranzer's souls in two; half of her merged with me and half of Black Dranzer's, the same which we used to fuse with my soul previously, fused with the other half of mine and returned to him." he explained, jerking his head at the clone when the last words were spoken

"I see. We couldn't divided a human soul previously, so we had to make Kai sleep all this time; but bitbeasts can do it. . . so. . ."

"But, if Kai's body was going to deteriorate anyway, what good is it?" Takao asked, flustered, yes, but also worried.

"That's the point. It was going to deteriorate because it held a soulf plus a half of another." Boris started.

"A human can't live with only half of a soul, but not with more than one either. . . it's just too much. . . uh. . . "energy" for it to hold." Voltaire continued.

"But now, it holds exactly one, so all he will need is some rest and he'll be as good as new, and we'll never have to worry about this again!" Kai finished.

The others stared at him wordlessly, mouths dropped.

"Who was researching, you or Boris?" Steve asked, being just able to understand it all.

At this, Kai gave a sheepish look at the ground. "Well, I DID help Boris back then. . ."

"But, if humans' and bitbeasts' souls can be divided and fused, what's the difference between them?" Robert asked, his seek to learn more getting the better of his senses.

"That's a very good question, and it's one we are still trying to find an answer to. So far, what we suspect is that the difference must be some kind. . . flow. . . between the physical, which would be the body, and the abstract, which would be the soul."

"I'm going to keep researching with you, Boris. I have more interest in that than beyblading. . . that part I'll leave to my wonderful. . . twin. . . here. Haha! We'll make quite the pair!" Kai said, turning, and smiling, to his counterpart.

Everyone also looked back to him, both "twins" [2] still in their grandfather's arms, although the clone still had his arms to hanging down his sides, remaining quiet.

"Kai?" Johnny asked, worried at the sudden quietness from the blue-haired teen.

"Oh, well, since my soul was divided in two, he'll be having some problems to remember a few things for a while, but like I said, let him rest and he'll be fine!"

"How come you're OK?" Max asked, a confused look on his features.

"Well, because I've always had this body and my soul, Dranzer is just. . . let me put it this way: an addition. His soul, however, has its origin from the fusion of two different ones, so it'll probably take a bit of time to reorganize all the memories and stuff." Kai explained.

"So, right now, it's like he's 'filing' his memories into different folders or something?" Emily asked, a bit amazed with that information.

"Something like that."

"He sure seems air-headed right now." Kevin commented.

"Yeah, totally opposite of his normal way." Mao complemented.

"Oh, I assure you, he'll be back to his usual self by tomorrow, if he sleeps enough, so enjoy it while you can." Kai said matter-of-factly, but a devilish smile betrayed his voice.

"I'm just glad he's back." Rei whispered, but they all heard, and even though in silence, they all agreed. [A.N.: Yes, that includes Boris!]

~//~

The next day, when Rei woke up, he was quite surprised to find Tala at his side, and not only that, the redhead was also on his bed! And what's more, he wasn't the only "redhead" there: Johnny seemed to have found his way there during the night too.

After everything that happened in BULSE was over, the teams, all tired and worn out, decided to head back to their hotel rooms, but "a couple of them" had remained with the Blade Breakers, wanting to be there when the blue- striped face boy woke up. The others merely asked for a notice of when that happened.

Boris, Voltaire and the original Kai went back to the Hiwatari mansion, but promised to come first thing in the morning to check on him and have a nice talk to the boy to which they'd done so much harm.

"Well, I guess hearts that like alike sleep in the same place. . ." he thought, barely able to keep from chuckling. He had noticed Johnny earlier behavior, and quickly realized "something" had happened between Kai and the Scottish boy when they had been away. Rei smirked at the thought. "I hope he doesn't think he was the only to have ever had that delightful experience." the Chinese teen whispered between chuckles, flashbacks of a night not very long ago. . . a night I which the phoenix had been on it.

And it was obvious to everyone, since he had returned from Scotland, that Tala had a crush on Kai. . .

As he tried to get up, the Chinese teen ended up awakening the other two occupants in the bed.

Strangely enough, they just sat quietly, as if a silent agreement had been made during the night.

Watching the captain of the Blade Breakers, the three were quite surprised when, a few minutes later, he began to stir and, eventually, opened his eyes. Looking around, he caught sight of the 3 expecting teens sitting motionlessly on the bed beside his.

"Are you going to start the party without me?" he asked, smirking. . . to which all 3 jumped on him at once, as if having just been released from a spell by the mere sound of his voice.

Truth be told, that was very close to reality.

Tala lost no time, no longer had he reached Kai, both their sets of lips were dancing in rather intriguing pattern. When they parted, both had a cocky smile and a knowing expression in their eyes.

Johnny and Rei looked at each other and smiled. They'd let Tala have the upper hand this time.

After all, they had a looooooooong time to switch turns, and they had just found out they could get going really well with one another, so waiting would be no problem. . .

END of CHAPTER 6 – DECISIONS [HAPPY ENDING]

[1] If mothers had wings ^^

[2] If you make the consideration that real Kai was cryogenically put to sleep, so frozen in time, and clone Kai grew up to the real's age, you can say they have the same life time, so it'd be like they're twins.

A.N.: OK, I know you are probably like "WHAT THE HELL?!", but let me explain first: 01) I did write there would be NO couple; 02) I've got nothing against relationships with more than 2 people, in fact, I think it'd be fun. . . and Kai is so HOT, he was just the character I wanted to try it with; 03) If you want couples, wait a bit more, my next fics will have them: Tala x Kai and the other will be Rei x Kai; I'm also thinking on other fics, but their plot's still being defined; 04) I wrote HAPPY ending, so I really wanted to make them ALL HAPPY – well, now they not only have Kai, but 2 more lovers (in the good meaning of the word, as in loving and being loved) each, which gives them a good variety, lots of love/chances, and a hell of a good relationship since they all get along OK. . . (in my fic ^_~)

Thanks for reading and please tell me what you think of the ending (s), the plot and the characters; or just tell me all my mistakes so I can correct them. ^^

Thanks to all the reviewers too! Your comments helped me finish this! ^^

And to those that don't know, I usually keep the status on the fics I plan to write/am writing on my bios page, so you can look it up anytime.

Oh, yeah. The first chapter of "Through Eternity" (a Kai and Tala FRIENDSHIP fic, for those who don't like yaoi/shounen-ai, but like both and the Demolition Boys) is up! It's an AU, I don't think it has characters OOC and it's only 5-7 chapters long (I don't remember), so it shouldn't take long to update it.

Oneshots on CLAMP Gakuen Tanteidan (CLAMP Campus Detectives) and Tenisu no Ouji-sama (Prince of Tennis) are also up! (Yeah, I've been working. . . still am. There's another CCD fic I'm finishing and a CCS one I'm starting. Not to mention a few others that. . . just check the fanfictions status on my bios if you want to know.) ^^

Happy Easter, everyone!

*hands out giant-sized Kai-shaped chocolates to all readers*

Syaoran-Lover signing out!