Chapter 3 First Conflict

-"They are playing it cool, don't they?" uttered calmly with a bitter grin Boris, his eyes pierced on the mix up group of one teenager and three young adults on the large gorgeous yard below the balcony he was standing on. "They are not even looking at each other, as if nothing is happening," he continued, his hands that he kept on the metal fence, colored in dark black color, tightened the hold of it almost painfully.

The same businessman with a big leather bag stood beside him, just nodding at his words. An advisor, whose advices had all been said out already. How tragic.

-"Blind, they simply think me blind, don't they?" snarled Boris, his teeth bearing in an evil expression, and he was not taking his eyes, hidden under the black mask, off the group in any reason.

-"No, Sir, I doubt that they do. I doubt that they care about anything anymore at all," replied the businessman patiently, feeling quite exhausted to repeat the same thing over and over again.

Boris growled in anger and with a strong movement pushed himself away from the fence, walking back inside of the building.

The room was cozy. It was decorated slightly in a Victorian style, and everything had a soft, partially antique, taste. The slow and calming cracking of the wood in the fireplace was giving the room a quiet and clean impression of the castle-like mansion.

The peace of the antique times was broken once Boris rushed into the room; the long dark green cloak, shoulders of which were still soaked after the rain as usual, was floating behind him, as he came over to the rich wooden table in the middle of the room. He stopped there and his eyes glared at the small round tornado-like piece of metal on the stock papers, and that was nothing else but a beyblade.

-"Are you sure that he won't see any difference?" asked Boris quietly, reaching for the beyblade and grasping it roughly in his hand.

-"Believe me, Sir, our best professionals worked on making it absolutely identical," hurried to please his boss the businessman, and stood adjust to the table. He caught an angry warning look from Boris and stoop away from the table.

Boris grinned. "I hope you've done the best you could, because if this is not going to work, you will be the one hanging in the dungeons with your neck broken from practices."

The businessman swallowed hardly and nodded, his confidence slipping away from him with unbelievable speed. "I'm...sure no difference will be seen."

-"Excellent," replied Boris and with a low chuckle sat himself down on the office chair. Now I only have to get Tala play a teammate part.

-"Arwen, why do you suck so much?" asked Tala, looking quite annoyed and bored, his eyes looking tiredly at the two small colorful beyblades spinning in the dish.

Arwen frowned. How dare he? She thought of turning to look at Kai who probably stood somewhere behind her with his eyes closed, but changed her mind right in time. He would tell her about everything he wanted her to know tonight anyway.

Without saying anything more, she raised her hand and the dark red beyblade flew out of the dish, jumping right in her palm and leaving the slightly red marks with its metal blades. "We're done for today," she said dryly, and turned around, walking away from the dish.

Tala raised his thick red eyebrow up and a second later his own beyblade was back in his pale hand. Bad nerves, Arwen, bad nerves…won't save you from anything.

Keeping inside a deep sigh of frustration, Arwen didn't even put her eyes up to look at Kai as she passed by him, but Kai's purple eyes did follow her every move, but he didn't move at all, just kept standing there cross armed, feeling marginally helpless inside.

Spencer watched her walking away with a surprised look, and then, still keeping a questioning look on his face looked to Tala. "What the practice's over? Chto Boris skazet?" (What will Boris say?)

Tala's eyes moved to look up at the balcony of the building right above all of them, noticing a fade seemingly irritated figure of Boris standing there and obviously watching them, and his eyes narrowed in a frown. "Nothing, I don't care anymore."

Kai glared at Tala calmly as usual, not planning to say or do anything anymore either. So the practice is over, how interesting, especially when each of their practices always lasted for at least five hours. Strange, but he partially stopped caring about this as much. But he couldn't help but remember the practices he had had with Bladebreakers.

Whatever…

Without saying a word, Kai turned around and the wind blowing freely towards him, blowing his long white scarf back as he walked away.

Tala looked down from the balcony and watched Kai walking away, thinking his own thoughts about Boris's plans and how he advised them to him…He had to.

A loud impatient knock on the door.

Boris turned his spinning office chair around and finally taking his eyes off the view he had from the window, locked his gaze on the door. "Who's it?"

The wooden door opened and a slim figure of Tala walked in, his eyes looking down, looking quite gloomy.

A grin creased Boris's face and he touched all of his fingertips together, glaring at Tala.

-"Welcome, why aren't you practicing?" he asked, while already thinking of telling his traitorous pupil about his smart plan.

-"I don't know, we're just done for today," Tala answered dryly, not really caring about anything in particular anymore. Especially nothing that interested Boris.

Now that was an absurd. So they had all just decided to stop? Control, everything has to be taken control of again, damn, everything is falling apart. And now he is stuck with Voltaire's "my grandson-has-a-girlfriend" problem. All of this was too much of the tasks and failing for Boris.

-"Get out," Boris replied annoyed, and called in a couple of officers who were most likely serve to him as bodyguards. "Just get out."

Tala frowned again. Oh, so he comes in, tells his "Boss" something real and actually comes here to help him with his stupid not working plan and what his gets is – get the hell out.

Super.

Tala, feeling the anger overflowing him, tossed an angry look at Boris and walked out, slamming the door shut after him.

Boris stopped caring about him and turned to look at officers. "So is everything working the way it should be so far, gentlemen?"

One of the officers nodded and replied. "So far so good. With the practice ending early everything went smoother than a knife in the butter..." he used a metaphor to describe his eight grade's education as best as he could and now he was practically blowing up from the pride filling him. But it wasn't something that would impress Boris. "And of course, one of the professionals was sent to switch the beyblades already. He will be back with the results soon," he hurried up to add before he would get shouted at.

Boris's grin grew wider and he rose up from his office chair, feeling with most triumph then almost never before. "Excellent…simply excellent…" he mumbled under his nose and with a grin still playing on his dry white lips added, "I changed a plan slightly. I want to be there and I will flight back to Russia with the helicopter. I came to miss my old office and bubliki with tea for some reason."

Arwen went into her room, the one where she stopped being in for quite a time and fell on her bed, feeling exhausted. No, she wasn't tired or anything, just exhausted socially. She came to hate this team, everything they were doing, just absolutely everything…everything started to annoy her, she wanted out, something was stopping her from breathing freely like before. But where else is she to go? Her brother literally became her ex-brother and doesn't plan to change. Her old team doesn't want her back and she started to actually miss Bladebreakers: with their friendship, cheering up, caring for each other…this is what a real team should be like, not the one she was stuck in right now.

I'm here for Kai…and I'm here just to be with him.

Nevertheless, this thought was not something that helped her relax. Kai didn't seem to like this team either, then why was he here? Does he care about power as much still?

That thought seemed somewhat sad.

A quiet noise at the door and a familiar soft voice sounded. "Don't let him get to you. Try to ignore him."

Arwen raised her head up from the pillow and saw Kai's figure standing somewhere at the door. His face emotionless as usual, just the way it was during practice. Sometimes she actually wished for him to change that, but she knew that this was never going to happen.

Why are you here, Kai? Why aren't you continuing to practice with the rest?

She slowly stood up from her bed, corrected the slightly rumpled blanket on which she fell on once she came in and walked over to him, keeping quite a distance for some reason. "I try, but it's hard…I mean, what's his problem?"

Kai dark eyes visibly moved to mentally measure the distance between them, but he didn't move to decrease this distance, just looked away from her lost eyesight and walked over to the huge transparent glass window partially covered with light blue curtains and stared into the green horizon of never-ending hills. "He's always been like that. Nothing ever changed him, nothing," he answered quietly, keeping his hands at his sides.

Arwen looked at him with a surprised look on her face, but he couldn't possibly see it, and slowly walked over behind him and leaned her head against his shoulder, wrapping her one arms around his other shoulder and partially chest almost protectively. "You came to care for him over all these years, haven't you?"

Kai flinched and then sighed defeat, looking down. He raised his hand and slowly traced the skin of her arm that was around him with his fingertips, just enjoying the closeness between them. Such closeness, that he couldn't not start lying to her…he did that once and he was not going to start that again.

-"I guess," he said quietly and a satisfactory kind of smirk appeared on his lips. It felt nice and free to actually talk…to her. He felt safe talking to her, sometimes he felt like he could tell her absolutely everything. It was protected by the trust. But there were still questions inside him - the ones that he forgot about – that were still summoning defense over the years. "I care about you more though."

Arwen closed her dark green eyes and raised her chin laying it down on his broad shoulder. Smiling at his words. "I've no doubt that you do…" she then opened her eyes, and looked at the blue shark fin like stripes on his cheek that was right before her. "Can I ask you a question?" she murmured as she leaned closer and touched his cheek with her lips in a soft kiss.

Kai's smirk changed to a gentle smile and he answered nothing.

Deciding that the easy silence was a yes, which apparently it was, she took a deep breath and uttered. "What about your old team Bladebreakers, they are your true friends…why have you forsaken them?"

The smile disappeared and his face turned into stone: that question not only puzzled him, it almost brought out the horror out of him. And it was not only because he didn't know the answer to that. He tensed and Arwen felt his shoulders rising up as he did so. No, she didn't feel as comfortable beside him now as she did a minute ago. "Why are you asking?" sounded his voice and Arwen felt her heart falling deep down in her chest as she recognized the familiar cold notes in it. Hadn't he…stopped talking to her like that?

-"Kai …" I remember asking him the same question over a year and a half ago. "This team will never give you what the real team will. That team which needs you…and waits for you still."

What's she talking about? thought Kai, feeling himself not only stiffening more and more at her "advises" and questions…but also angry. Angry at her? Why was he doing that, why did he feel like that towards her now? Because she was annoying. I like it with this team; it's none of her business, actually…

-"Why are you saying all of this?" he questioned again, his face shading with a frown, his voice sounding disturbingly cold. Gosh, what's happening? thought Arwen feeling despair and swallowed forcefully and being so close to him now felt dangerous…she could feel the heat radiating off him, but that wasn't the heat that she felt when they were in bed…it was similar to the one when she held him in the embrace a year and a half ago, questioning his every thought and move.

-"I don't like this team Kai…," she started quietly, already feeling like getting away from him and wondering if he felt the same. That was so terrorizing! She knew that she was surely going too far…but she had to say what she needed to say. "And I have no where else…to go and I was thinking…that…we…can…" her voice faded away as her arm fell off him and she had no shoulder to lay her chin on and it felt cold suddenly. Knowing exactly what she was going to say, Kai took steps away and out of her asylum and finally turned facing her, his left shoulder getting covered with a white scarf right away as if he didn't want to sense her touch there. Arwen started to feel hurt…though she'd heard nothing yet.

-"No," he said, the white light coming from the window, making his figure dark and destroying details…giving Arwen an impression of talking to his dark shadow, the one that she started to fear to talk to. But yet the light still glittered almost crazily in his dark eyes as he spoke…coldly and she felt something else too – uncaring. Kai was back. "No," he repeated for a good measure and continued. "I've chosen this team to Bladebreakers for the same reason all the time – power. I thought you've known me good to know that. I'm staying here and Dranzer will help me achieve my goal at last. I guess I was wrong about you…"

Her heart froze in shock and she felt it turning to ice. No, his heart was ice now! Again…once again…

Her eyes started to water up and she just couldn't believe it. Why was she so sensitive? Stop, stop, stop crying…she was telling herself, sensing that she started to irritate him with all of this. But…but does this mean that he grew tired of her?

No, please, don't let it be that way…

Arwen looked down, not wanting to look back up into the steel cold gaze again. What happened? Did all of the things she said and asked upset him too much? But it was true - she knew it was…felt it was. She couldn't be with Neo-Borgs anymore and she thought them close enough to leave together…she was wrong. He was wrong about her. She was wrong…wrong was bringing out all these memories of people saying that she was this infamous "bad seed" of her family. Oh sure, Mike's always been this perfect child and she's always been a wrong one.

She shook her head trying to get these thoughts out and also keep the flowing out tears in. She hated herself for being so sensitive, god, she was crying all the time! He surely hates that…no doubt…he probably hates everything about you now, pessimistic thoughts of yesterday were back and this time she wasn't pushing them away. "I need to be alone," she said quietly, knowing somehow that he heard her, which apparently he did and turned around walking out of her room, looking down. It wasn't any easier to just tell him to get out of her room, so she decided to get out herself…she was going to go outside, take a deep breath, examine the situation carefully…

…and stop beside Kai's room where the door was open.