Big thank yous and hugs go to:
Midnight Insanity: hee hee, thanks for continuing to review! And yeah Albina has a very hard life. Hope you enjoy the rest of the story!
ShadedRouge: Wow, thankyou! What a fantastic review to get- I feel very honored! I hope you keep reading :)
Ariotlatio: I think she called Tala her boyfriend because that's what she wishes he was, but she doesn't really know much about love anyway. Thanks so much for reviewing!
X Shadow Wolf X2: Thankyou for continuing to review! And this chapter may satisfy your wish! ;)
Disclaimer: If I owned Beyblade, I'd put my character Albina into it.
I really love this chapter, it's was my favourite to write so far! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Chapter 8 – Lust or Love?
Later that day at the Abbey, Albina was stood in one of the practice rooms, fiercely pulling the ripcord again and again, getting more and more angry as her beyblade failed again and again to meet her expectations.
"Faster! Go faster Polborg!"
"Uh, Albina?" She turned around and was startled to see Rei from the Blade breakers standing behind her in the doorway. How odd, she hadn't even heard him.
"What are you doing here?"
"We, um..." Deciding that he could trust her, he continued- "Sneaked in. We're trying to find Kai."
"Are you crazy? It won't do any good even if you do find him. He's got Black Dranzer now." But then she thought- if Kai rejoined his team and gave up Black Dranzer, maybe they'd let HER have it! "But, if you want to find him, he's just down this hallway. Where are the others?"
"They're exploring the highest floor," Oh no, Albina realized, that's where the bit beasts are growing! "We're meeting up later to report. Well, thanks. Will we be seeing you in the tournament?"
"No. Those idiots wanted an all boys team. Though I suppose it makes sense, since they only train boys here."
"Then what are you doing here? You seem nice," Albina looked up at him with wide eyes, not believing what she was hearing. "But this place feels, well evil. I'm sure you could escape if you wanted-" She grimaced and replied with a smirk,
"Rei, you don't know the half of it. I don't want to be caught talking to you, so go and find Kai already!"
"Okay then, but, we'll see you again sometime, I know it-" And with that he ran off, as silent and stealthy as a tiger stalking his prey. Albina looked down at the floor confused, She seemed... nice? Since when had she been nice? She hardly knew the meaning of the word. But, she knew that despite herself, she liked Rei.
Several minutes later she heard commotion outside and walked out of the room to a strange sight. Boris was ordering the Blade breakers to leave, and she saw Kai give Tyson a red beyblade, which must've been his old one, Dranzer. She had found chance to speak to Kai a little bit, and she got on well with him, despite his bad attitude. He'd told her a little about Dranzer, his old blade, and about the time that he'd used Black Dranzer as a boy. When she'd said that she bet she could control him, Kai had just laughed and said "In your dreams!"
At that moment Boris marched up to her and strictly ordered her to go to training, and she obediently went. It was just the usual sit-ups, push-ups and running and she showed up all the boys, as usual. Amateurs. She went to bed without seeing any of the team or Boris, and woke up the next morning to loud arguing, the air thick and heavy with panic and confusion. Pulling on her clothes and running to the control room, where the voices were coming from, she found an interesting sight- Boris was in there, yelling at the Demolition Boys to go after Kai and at his hench men to repair the computers, which had all been smashed up. White sparks crackled over the chrome, yet Albina risked her hand through the electric field and clutched something hard and dark, which clicked in her fragile fingers.
Black Dranzer.
Just holding the blade shot a feeling of intense power lust through her, and she revelled in the feeling, grinning from ear to scar.
"Albina, put that down! It's too dangerous for you to hold." Boris cried in shock of seeing little Albina grinning so manically.
"No! Boris, listen! It doesn't matter that Kai's gone, I could control Black Dranzer!"
"But you're so young and delicate; Black Dranzer would crush your bones, Albina!"
"Trust me- I can feel it. Let me use Black Dranzer, and I'll win us the tournament! I'm Kai's sister- I'm probably the only one who can control it other than him." Boris looked at her doubtfully, a father's worry written in his wrinkles. But, she had a point.
"Alright," he agreed hesitantly, "I see that this is the only way we can quell his hunger and continue our mission. You can fight instead of Kai in the battle today." Albina felt so happy; both her dreams were coming true at once!
Clutching the dark beyblade tightly, she ran to go and get ready for the match. Soon, the team were at the stadium and waiting to be called on. Albina glanced at Tala- he'd had a strange, pained expression on his face the whole way here, not to mention that he hadn't joined in the argument on the helicopter they'd journeyed in. What was the matter with him? Suddenly, his wide, pale eyes met hers and she found out.
"Albina- please, please don't do this!" He blurted, fast and awkward.
"What?" This was almost a bigger shock than finding out she had a brother.
"Please, don't do this! Black Dranzer will destroy you!"
"Keep it, Tala. I know you're jealous, but we can't all be Hiwataris, you know."
"No, that's not it!" He stammered, "I- I care about you! Please, don't do this!" She couldn't believe what she was hearing. And were they... tears, in his eyes?
"How can you expect me to believe that?" She retorted, a little less sure than before, "The whole time that we've been together, you've ignored me and acted like... like, you hated me!" They could now hear the commentators beginning to introduce the battle outside. Soon, they'd be calling out the teams.
"I'm sorry, Albina, but-" Realizing the time was near when one of them would have to go up to battle, he panicked more. "The promise! Remember the promise we made! Please..." It was so long ago, nearly five years, but to her surprise the memory came back to her as clear as daylight, of her second time talking with Tala in the uniforms room.
"To become cold and uncaring is everyone's goal- and it should be yours too."
"But not towards each other."
"Alright. However hard I become, I'll never be like that to you."
Before Albina could reply, Jazzman interrupted and introduced the Demolition Boys, forcing them to walk out into the bright stadium lights.
"Battling the Blade breakers today are the Demolition Boys, who have replaced Kai with their own Demolition Girl, Albina! She will be the first to battle, against her former team mate, Kai!" With a final, defiant look at the broken Tala, Albina turned her back on him and walked towards the dish in the middle of the stadium. Her feelings for Tala were now confused, she didn't know how she felt; she felt completely torn between him and Black Dranzer. But her power lust had grown too strong- she stepped up the dish to look into the crimson eyes of her brother.
"Ran back to your little team, Kai? Get ready to disappoint them!"
"Albina- is that Black Dranzer you're holding? You won't be able to control him."
"You won't be saying that when I wipe the floor with you! Go, Black Dranzer!" And with that she pulled the ripcord the hardest she'd ever pulled, an expression of unbreakable determination etched into her gentle face.
"DRANZER!!!" Yelled Kai, pulling his ripcord as well. Jazzman hadn't even started the battle. Immediately, Albina felt a massive surge of anger and power flow through her, cutting through her thoughts. She felt overwhelmed at once and lost control of her blade as her focus shattered. The blades fought but with no control over her blade, she couldn't dodge Kai's attacks and after a confused few seconds, the dark blade lay on it's side, Albina kneeling on the floor clutching her head in her hands. It was as if the bit beast had been trying to control her... when she finally got up, she was shocked to see that she'd lost the first battle.
"What are you doing? I thought you said you'd be able to control it!" Boris's furious voice yelled in her earpiece. "That's it, we'll have to send on Spencer-"
"NO! I just wasn't ready, it was my first time. I'll do it this time, I'm sure of it!" Albina roared back, tears sprinkling her eyelashes.
"Albina, you should stop now, you're not strong enough." This time it was Kai.
"I don't need your sympathy Kai, you don't know anything about me!" She snarled back at him across the dish. Their argument was cut short by Jazzman announcing the second battle of the round. But this time, she was ready.
"Black Dranzer! Destroy him!" Albina yelled, letting the beast into the dish. This time, she opened herself completely to it's darkness, giving it energy as it gave it's to her; until they were a single, unstoppable force. She began to call forth the powers of the bit beasts that Kai had captured before, and they swarmed out of the bit chip, enveloping Kai's blade in a whirlwind before he even had chance to call out Dranzer. And another battle ended, just as quickly as the first. Drinking in Black Dranzer's poison, she smiled at Kai and began to laugh- Kai was too shocked to reply and just stood still before bending to pick up his blade.
"Looks like we have a tie! So it's on to the third and final battle- fasten your seatbelts!" Jazzman said, a little too cheerily. Tala, sitting as if frozen to the bench and biting his lip, hadn't heard. Neither had he blinked for the last two battles.
For the third time, Albina and Kai released their blades. In a rush to beat the other, they simultaneously called out their bit beasts and urged them on to attack. When Dranzer was forced back by it's Black counterpart, Kai realized that it was no good trying to fight it directly and immediately changed his strategy. Changing into a defensive stance, he used all his energy just to keep Dranzer dodging out of the way.
"You can run but you can't hide, Kai!" Albina snarled, beginning to call out the White Tiger's bit beasts. "Galleon, Dark Lightning attack!"
"Dranzer! Spiral Survivor!" Dranzer managed to shield itself from most of the damage. The battle went on like this for a while, until Albina was running out of options. Black Dranzer needed more power, and the captured bit beast's attacks had already failed. Noticing a gap in her attacking, Kai took his chance and called on Dranzer-
"Dranzer! Flame Sabre attack!" Albina began to laugh, a manic edge to her voice- Kai was silenced as he saw Black Dranzer growing bigger, the blackness swelling and pulsating around it's wings. In a stroke of horror, Kai realized it was feeding off Albina- Yet she was putting up no resistance. Still cackling madly, Albina finally screamed:
"BLACK DRANZER! CRUSH HIM!" The gigantic phoenix swelled, enveloping the whole arena in darkness. Confusion overran the stadium. Dranzer's red flames sizzled out as it was swallowed by the darkness, and no one saw Kai's blade explode into splinters.
The blackness slowly began to fade as the bright spotlights flooded the arena once again.
Tala stumbled off his seat in the darkness, willing his eyes to adjust to the lighting change faster; blinking wildly, his vision slowly began to clear and the beydish slid back into focus, a white blur forming a solid shape...
Albina's white body lay limp on the floor, whilst a black blade span triumphantly in the middle of the dish.
Yay, a cliff hanger! I may be asking a bit much, but I'd like to have 30 reviews before I post up the next chapter... So please review!!! :D
