I? akyta akir æ mei? lengur n' nyurv'?'o
I? xalyon de xan?wawao, xalyon de huol'awao
Shadra was floating in darkness. Except, she could see herself perfectly fine. She could move her head, but not her arms and legs. On closer inspection, they were tied thereby crimson ribbons. Her arm no longer hurt, and there was no blood in her eye.
Visions of fighting Holly flashed through her mind. At the last one, where she had drained Holly of energy, the ribbons snapped and Shadra was falling.
Faster and faster she fell. The she lurched to a stop, before righting and touching ground. Except it looked the same to her. All black.
She heard singing from behind her.
"I? akyta akir æ mei? lengur ne nyurv'?'o
a?'xka maaylma æ ?ann', dei joten dovere naurv'
maaylma ?ynno, i?apam' vanwa nyurv'
apalum' i?lan?' a?'xka ala nyurv'
to aun dei maaylma tyei, i?akir r'na naurv'?au
xe maaylma ?ynno, joten parin vanwa?au nyurv'?au
kala neki phala miuro?au, neki phalo miuro?au
?i i?mei? y?ru, ?i ma?t y?ru
I? akir aveta yenikanta mello mo ?a ryta
xe parin ?'na dei ækarian' ?er' ainæ
I? akyta akir æ mei? lengur n' nyurv'?'o
I? xalyon de xan?wawao, xalyon de huol'awao
I? akyta akir æ mei? lengur ne nyurv'?'o
a?'xka maaylma æ ?ann', dei joten dovere naurv'
I? nalonta nyurv', nalonta vanwa nyurv'
aun ?i ?eten hynion
ono ?'nanau xyl naurv' mai, ? hanya myuro ne nyurv'
eryn?' akir t' ortyri uvrai nyurv'"
After the last line, the song reverted to English. The whole song.
"The beast spirits won't be the Masters' servants anymore
The humans deserve them, the humans need them
The beast spirits won't be the Masters' servants anymore
For the survival of the world, this must be so
But will the Masters ever agree?
To give up immortality, to give up their power?
One will decide, one will know…
Even if it means eternal death.
This one knows that there are more important things
Than stepping on humans, than being pampered
Friendship, love, and conscience
Are more important to her than that
The beast spirits won't be the Masters' servants anymore
The humans deserve them, the humans need them
The beast spirits won't be the Masters' servants anymore
For the survival of the world, this must be so
The world will crumble, futures will be lost
The prophetic weavings will be for naught
And tied to this world, is the Masters themselves
If the world crumbles, so they will be lost
Unless one has the courage, one has the brave
To give up their servants, to give up their power
The Masters may live on with new mortal bodies
If they only decide to carry this through
The beast spirits won't be the Masters' servants anymore
The humans deserve them, the humans need them
The beast spirits won't be the Masters' servants anymore
For the survival of the world, this must be so
Battles will be fought, battles will be lost
To regain their immortality
But once the choice is made, it can not be undone
The sole Master will be on top of all"
As the last two lines were song, a mysterious figure walked out of the darkness. Shadra stepped back, gasping. This was the woman from her dreams… the one she could only presume to be the First Master of Time.
The woman, with cat ears and tail, stopped in front of her. Her very long black hair lay against the purple clothing. The woman, the First Master of Time, smiled, showing cat fangs. All this made her wonder if Ray was the Time Master, since the resemblance was uncanny.
"So thee are the one who followed their heart, not their head."
Shadra frowned. She liked to think that she was logical.
"That's a good thing, not a bad thing. The heart knows what the mind will never comprehend. Besides thy foe was the Master of Mind, was she not?"
"Yes."
"I just wanted to tell thee, while I had the chance, that thee did a good thing. Thee are the first mortal Master to escape the confines of their sacred duty. Thy father would be proud."
"My father?"
"He was the Master before thee. Just as thy child will be the Master after thee. That is why he couldn't be there for thee. When the new Master is born, the old one must die or chaos will rule."
"Ah, who cares."
The First Master just smiled. "Thee will care soon enough, little one. There's no escaping, nor hiding, from it."
Shadra just glared at her.
Now thee have to return to thy friends. Blessed be."
Shadra felt herself rising. Faster and faster, like when she had fell, just going the opposite way.
Shadra blinked. White met her eyes. Quite the opposite of before. White and her friends, who stood out from the white. It only took her a few seconds to realise she was in the hospital. She had seen enough of them in her short lifetime to know.
They noticed that she was awake. Max and Tyson did a happy dance, which was quite entertaining to watch. Yuki and Ray were sitting on her other side, opposite from what looked like hippos dancing (not that they were fat, just silly looking). Ray looked ecstatic and Yuki—well, he looked like Yuki always does. On her night table was her beyblade with Darker sitting proudly in the center, right where she should be. Kai stood at the end of her bed, smiling for once.
That triggered a memory. She smiled. "This again," she said. Her voice was a little louder than the last time she and Kai were in this position. "Better hope extra hard this time that I don't ever get out."
This brought confused looks to the before very happy faces. Even Kai looked a bit confused.
"Don't tell me that you don't remember."
From the look on his face, she knew he was drawing a blank.
"After my roommate fell out of the tree onto you, she kidnapped you to visit me while I was in the hospital wing. It was the first time we met. I sent you the picture of Dranzer shortly afterwords."
"I don't remember that," Yuki said.
"Of course you don't, Yuki-girl," she said.
Yuki looked away, ashamed. As well he should be. He was the one who landed her in the hospital wing. Although, she had turned his hair pink and called him a girl…
"You still have yet to beat me," Kai said. She knew he remembered now.
"What can I say, I'm giving you a second chance," she replied.
Before anyone could reply, a nurse walked in. A very familiar nurse.
"Nurse Comfort!" she exclaimed.
"Miss Bellona. I told you not to come back to the hospital." Her tone was menacing. But then again, over the last year, Shadra had been to the hospital wing as many times as the rest of the student body combined. One thing she had learned about the woman was that first visit she was nice, second not so much, third worse and so on and so on.
"What about you? Do you work at every single hospital?"
"Only in the common wealth."
Shadra didn't have a comeback, so she had to settle for shaking her head. Nurse Comfort (who once again threatened her) checked her respiration and heart monitor and what not. She felt like she should know the whole spiel, but she guessed she could save learning it for her next hospital visit. Hopefully, when she was ninety.
After the nurse had left, the group got back to talking.
"So where is everyone?" Shadra asked.
"Well… you have been unconscious for a week. Everyone had to get back to their lives," Ray said. "Oliver got back Unicolyon, and I never knew that your nickname was Chaton, ma petite Chaton."
"A whole week!"
She decided that she'd save that anger for Oliver for later.
"You got off easy. Holly is in a coma. The doctors don't expect her to wake up anytime soon."
"Vampire," Yuki teased.
Shadra gave him a very dirty glare.
He shrugged. "You stole her energy like one… psychic vampire, I mean."
"Better her than you," Kai said.
"Hmmm," was all she said. She felt really bad. Not just because she was in the hospital (which meant she wasn't well). She'd done something horrible to—
"So which one of us do you like best?" Yuki asked, interrupting her thoughts. Sometimes, he was just a very thoughtful person.
"Out of who?" Shadra asked.
"Your akkae."
"Ray," she said, almost instantly.
"What?" the other two boys exclaimed. Ray just blushed.
"He doesn't ask such stupid questions."
The group laughed… kind of. More like Yuki glared, Kai huffed, Tyson falling down with laughter, Max giggling, and Ray grinning.
"Hey, where's Balla? And Kenny for that matter."
"Balla can't come in. She's a cat and this is a hospital. Kenny's with her at the hotel to make sure she doesn't order any more room service."
Shadra laughed. Only her cat had to be watched for that reason.
The group talked for a bit more. Sometimes silly things, sometimes less silly things, but never anything serious. Just jokes. And laughing.
Realisation hit her. This time not in the head, where there was a gash with four stitches in it, or in the arm, which was green broken. It didn't really hit her at all. Sort of tapped.
"I have to get out of here quick or I'll miss the start of Everto's school year."
Everyone else looked at each other nervously. Like they had some big phenomenal news that they didn't know how to break it to her. Oh, no. She was going to prison.
"You're not going back to Everto Academy," Ray said. He was good at breaking horrible news. She almost felt comforted. "Yo—"
"Your mother has contacted Children Services," Yuki interrupted. He's not so comforting. "She wants you to come and live with her."
…
…
…
…
…
"Holy shit, the talking purple kitty was right."
The End.
Author's Notes: Finally finished, the year long struggle against percrastination and laziness. Let's hope the next one goes by faster, eh? I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed especially. I originally had a big long list with responses and everything, but I lost it. Oh well, everyone knows who they are. I'd like to thank especially Caroline (her ff.n username is Casaline) for beta testing this whole thing, not to mention agreeing to beta the whole next one. Also, I'd like to thank everyone who read this, and didn't review. But since you didn't review, you don't get as much gratitude than the people who reviewed.
Anyway, if you're wondering what the adventures the talking purple kitty was prophesizing, you'll want to mosey on over to Battle of the Masters: Ancient Shadows.