Disclaimer: Beyblade and all its likeness does not belong to me.

Author's Notes:
I'm very happy so many people were okay with this style of writing I tried! Hmm this chapter, it may seem as though we haven't gotten anywhere in the end, but it's just beginning.

The Moment

I wish that I could stay in this moment, for eternity…

Chapter 2: The Duty

The alarm clock buzzed, and Kai awoke with a start from his restless night of sleep. The voice from the phone had haunted his dream.

"We can change everything," were the words that came from Tyson's lips after Kai had kissed them. "We can change it all."

What did that mean?

Going through the motions of getting ready for work, he grabbed his helmet and made his way out the door. Disk, Kai's pet cat, meowed at the closed door before returning to the bedroom and jumping up onto the bed. Disk curled up on one of the pillows, her piercing green eyes staring at the photo next to her owner's clock.

It was always the same when he arrived at work. He'd park the motorcycle and walk into the building, which had a slightly tangy smell from the disinfectants and detergents the custodians would use to wash the floors before the day started.

Other early employees would say good morning or nod as he passed them in the halls. It seemed like everyone who worked there had a coffee mug permanently attached to their hands. This was never where he pictured himself, seven years ago, and he didn't think his co-workers pictured him there either, threading on their mundane lives as if he were normal himself.

As Kai would walk through the third floor reception, business department, his office was the second on the right, there would be the secretaries already answering phones.

There was this one secretary, her name was Hanah, with very short light blue hair and a sunny smile on her face. She would always try to talk to him.

At first, Kai hadn't cared. He never cared. All he seemed to do was live as a default; go to work, eat, sleep, dream… But for the past two years he'd worked this job, Hanah had been trying to make him care.

About her.

He knew what she wanted. She wanted a future with him, a relationship, a marriage, a house. She wanted to live there with him until they grew old, and she wanted a child from him, with him, and to name the baby "Amy" if it was a girl, and "Freddie" for a boy.

But he did not want that, not with her.

He wouldn't have even known her name if it hadn't been on a little gold nametag that she pinned to her blouse everyday. It made him sick to think about a 'normal' life. Settling down and starting a family when Tyson was settled in the ground and his family had mourned until there was no more of his family left to mourn.

"You can't change the past."

He loved the past, not her. He loved it more than any of the people in this world may have loved him. He could not change his love for it, nor bring himself to forget it. He'd given up trying to forget.

"Why is your life a hell?"

Because Tyson died.

A piece of Kai exploded in a white hot blinding bang, like a star. All the light faded away leaving him dark inside. Tyson died, that was the reason why.

As he passed the reception desk on his floor, he barely registered as a girl with short light blue hair waved good morning to him, or as her face fell slightly when he walked right by.

Kai took his jacket off and hung it on the coat hook on his wall. He sat in his chair and turned on his computer.

How was he supposed to know what to do?

How could he ever keep on going like this, when all he could think about were the dreams that his mind replayed all day?

Those memories were hazy and nothing more than cloudy images in his nightmares, which were always more frightening because of their softness. A soft fear. More frightening because they were images of things he did not know.

What could he say when someone talked to him and the only words he knew where what his heart wanted to say and on the tip of his tongue?

The voice on the phone had been right that night. Things needed to change, but he didn't know how.

There were moments when the memory of the dead world champion was muted. Sometimes Kai got through the days normally, following routine. And although he did not know the details of the other Bladebreakers' lives, he knew that they were not as pathetic as he. They had tried to forget, and they had not failed.

The dream was always the same. And because of that crystal clear view of sparkling stars flying through deep blue eyes etched in his mind, he could not move on as it seemed everyone else was capable of doing…

Kai pulled the first report off the large pile on his desk and sighed.

The sound of his calloused hands against the keys of a computer… was so wrong.

A large crowd of people in the streets of Bay City were circled around the Seaside dome. Previously used as a Beystadium for when the sport had been worldwide, now it was filled to the brim with representatives from all over the world for a news conference.

BioVolt was unveiling its latest project.

Many flashes from cameras went off, and the crowd hushed as the head of BioVolt Corporation, Boris Balkov, walked onto the large stage followed by several other higher ups for the company.

The once head of the abbey where Kai had lived now stood at the podium, his wrinkled face set into a gruesome smirk as flashes of light bounced off his shallow pale skin.

"Mr. Balkov, Mr. Balkov!" The reporters all waved their arms with their microphones at him, wanting to be the first to get the quotes to plaster all over their reports and magazines.

The old Russian man held up his hand to hush the crowds. He cleared his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, BioVolt has come to you today to present our most prodigious endeavor as of the short ten years we have been a corporation. To help me in explaining the ambitions BioVolt has for Bay City, and, the World, I'd like to call forth my head of Technological Advancement and Design – Kenny Dion."

He was the same and yet he wasn't. The brunette stepped up to his place next to the podium and the large screen on the wall of the stadium flared to life with light and images. Long bangs that sometimes covered his eyes completely, his glasses were on properly for once, so that he would have the sight to explain BioVolt's vision.

His vision. His memory.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, I'd like to introduce to you Defragmentational and Instantaneous Zoom Intelligence. Or as I like to call her, Dizzi, for short. Through the main process, utilizing the theory of defragmention of particles, and "zooming" in on the instantaneous velocity at said defragmention, we've developed an intellectual machine that is capable of pinpointing and magnifying in order to reproduce excellent conclusive results."

There was a murmur throughout the crowd and several images of a large machine with what seemed to be hundreds of computers connected to it formed on the gigantic screen. The footage involved a 360 degree rotation of Dizzi and also shots of the lab with Kenny and his team working during the developmental stages.

Balkov chuckled as he subtly pushed his employee away from the podium, stepping close and taking the microphone in hand. "What my technician has just informed you of is the biggest breakthrough in history. You've read about it in books, watched movies about it, dreamed about it… but now that dream is a reality."

"In English, please, Mr. Balkov sir?" A reporter yelled out, holding his microphone high.

"Ah yes," The Russian's smile widened, showing off his slightly yellowing teeth. "My friends, BioVolt is pleased to present, Dizzi, the world's first fully operational time machine."

"Mom, you shouldn't be up."

A woman in her early fifties frowned. It marred her soft features of clear blue eyes and what once had been short sleek blond hair. This voice, it kept interrupting her work, her research. She couldn't get anything done with its incessant whining about her condition.

"Leave me be." She forced out, her bony fingers that had been typing vicariously against the keyboard switched to sorting through files that were on her desk. The files had sat there for the past two years, they'd been sorted and resorted, always reaching chaos and order in the space of a day and night. She didn't have many of those left.

"Mom…" The voice, her son. He tried to touch her shoulder but she tensed and he immediately backed away. He had always been such a nice boy. Such a nice boy, but she couldn't afford the time to return the favour. She didn't have the time. Never had the time.

"Max, please. Leave me to my work!" She gritted her teeth, blue eyes narrowing as she sent her son Max an icy glare over her shoulder.

No time at all.

"The doctor's said you have to rest, I can't just stand here and watch you work yourself so hard everyday, and for what?" The woman ignored him and turned back to her files, hands raking through the hundreds of documents each held. Knowledge at a touch, she just needed time.

"There is no cure, Mom." Max whispered.

Judy Tate smiled somewhat at the familiar statement, knowing in her heart that it was true, but her brain refused to cooperate. It had always been that way. She snatched a folder from the pile and began riffling through it, sticking her nose into all the statistics and numbers that flowed off the pages and into her lab, down to the ground at her feet. Lengths and lengths of information just waiting for her to discover, to decode, to somehow find that fading ray of light in the jumbles of black text.

"Not yet, my Max, not yet. But when I've found it," She paused then looked at his heartbroken face. "When I've found it, I'll finally have the time to do everything we've missed out on."

Max stared at his mother sadly as she resumed her research, watching her frail body but strong mind fight each other in a losing battle. He remembered the moment when his mother had started believing in the impossible. It had been the day she'd seen Tyson defeat Tala in the first World Champions. It had always been about that. Winning. Losing. They'd lost many things over the years.

He was losing her too now. Cancer, from exposures of the many volatile materials she'd worked with at the PPB labs. But she'd always been so deep in her ambition, never any time for anything else. Now, even on death's bed she still found a way to bury herself.

"It will really be something special." Judy spoke softly.

The lights of the computer ran down her face.

There had been only three of them, not four.

He kept reminding himself of this, trying to forget but not truly forgetting. It was more of a mask, a kind of cover he'd use to disguise all of his problems. An escape route he used out of desperation, not cowardice, because there had been three, not four.

The day it came into stark reality was the day that hole in his heart was supposed to be filled by another.

He'd married, young, two years after Tyson died. The remaining Bladebreakers hadn't attended it. It didn't surprise him, they hadn't spoke since the day of the world champion's funeral.

When he had placed the ring on her finger, in front of the old temple they used to play near when they were younger, when he looked into her eyes like he'd used to in those old days, when he kissed her lips for the future…

All the sunny childish days swept away.

Tyson was gone, he wasn't coming back, no more smiles, not anymore. The past was the past, and with that one kiss to Mariah, Ray locked away his beyblade. He put it in the shrine, took off his bandana and laid the toy on top of it. The White Tiger was finally back, back for good.

And then he sat on the same chair that the elder of the village when he had been so very young, all those years ago, when Driger had been placed in the palm of his hand. He sat there, and he clutched at his new wife's hand for the moment, because now he was in charge, he was the elder. No more days left for him to grow, this was it. Nothing left on his agenda except for happiness.

Because there had been three not four.

It was nearing the hour when night became day but he didn't notice it.

The past. It had been so very long since he'd stopped remembering the past. The pain, the feeling of emptiness that seemed to fill him, how ironic, he knew it was.

But it had been Tyson.

He knew one other time in his life, in which he had despaired so greatly he had been able to forget. The abbey, Russia, the life he did not choose and the life that he had to live anyway. It was the only time he had tried to forget so much, so much, that it had worked.

So well.

He had forgotten that time of his life, to the point of where he hadn't even known it existed.

He was afraid.

Had always been afraid since the night he'd walked into the dark bedroom of his former teammate and stared at it all without seeing a single thing. The night he'd flown back from Russia, his mind flying through thoughts faster than the plane he had been on. The night he walked into Tyson's room, sat on his empty bed, and cried so many tears he had barely wondered if he'd die too – of dehydration, or of a broken heart that could only communicate through his crying, he did not know.

He lied.

He had never tried to forget at all.

He told them all, through his words, his eyes… They said, 'I've forgotten Tyson' to the rest of the world. But he couldn't believe his lie any longer.

He had been afraid that in trying to forget Tyson, he surely would have lost him… forever. And Tyson couldn't be brought back.

Kai walked back into his bedroom, away from the living room where he'd packed up all his half watched tapes of old beyblade tournaments. They'd been watched countless times, he didn't know how long he'd have continued to watch them if… he couldn't change…

He locked his beyblades into the glass display case, covering it with a sheet so he didn't have to look at it anymore. His hands traced the dusty photographs hanging on his walls as he took them down, one by one. Disk fluffed her tail and followed his slow steps, noticing the coldness in the air, the silence that was different than all the ones before.

Kai sat down on his empty bed and Disk jumped up next to him, curling against her owner's side. He didn't seem to notice her as he took the last photograph framed on his bedside table and held it in his lap. Disk's furry paw touched the simple frame, and Kai's mouth twitched as if he wasn't sure whether to smile or frown.

"Do you remember the day we met?" He asked Disk, still staring at the photo. "I remember… it was a rainy day that time."

Disk meowed and tilted her head, ear twitching. Her bright green eyes seemed to see his sadness.

"We were both there that day, visiting Tyson's headstone." Kai's voice was soft and getting softer still. "Both so drenched in it all. I heard your cry and…" A tear dropped against the glass of the frame. "I wanted it to be my own."

Disk meowed again, pawing again at the photo.

Kai's lips trembled as he felt the hotness of his tears kiss them, dropping off and splattering against the photo without a sound.

"This will be the last time." He said clearly, so differently than before. Disk backed away and jumped off the bed, startled at the change.

Kai's mouth was set in a thin line as he placed the photo into the beside table's drawer, face down.

"Kai." The voice from the phone, the past, was now the present. Kai looked at the other man with impassiveness as he walked further into the alleyway.

"Hello, Kenny." The dual-haired man watched as his old friend walked closer out of the shadows. "It really has been a while."

Kenny nodded. "So you came, so you want to change everything too."

Anger swelled inside of Kai at that statement. Change everything? Change it into what! He clenched his teeth but it didn't help.

"Maybe I just came to this hellhole to finally find out why you forgot. Why you're such a traitor and working for BioVolt!" He raged, fire lighting in his eyes.

"I see…" Kenny seemed put off at that but he adjusted his glasses anyway with a rather harsh frown. "I didn't think you were one to talk about betrayal to BioVolt, Kai."

"Things change." Kai bit out, feeling pain at the remembrance but relishing in it at the same time because it brought back the feel of Tyson's hand in his. It brought back Tyson.

"Have you watched the news recently?" The old Bladebreaker asked, ignoring Kai's anger and walking to stare at the gigantic complex behind the wire fence they were standing by. "It really will change everything. Dizzi, I mean."

Kai nodded, trying to keep his anger in check. He'd watched the news, he wasn't stupid. Kenny had called him to talk about Dizzi, his time machine.

It was completely crazy. A time machine? Was BioVolt insane, and for that matter, was his old teammate Kenny insane for thinking he'd build one for it?

"I know what you must be thinking, Kai" Kenny replied to the silence and brought his hand up to grip at the chain links in the wire fence. "But it's true, it's all true, I'm not head of the technological advancement sector for nothing… I…" He paused as Kai joined him in staring at the building beyond the fence.

"You know why I called you here, why I asked you to help change everything, don't you?" Kenny tried again, his voice pleading.

Kai sighed. "I don't know, Kenny, I don't know. What's there to change?" He asked bitterly, still feeling the tear tracks on his cheeks as the cold night air bit at his skin.

Kenny smiled, the lights from the security tower of BioVolt's lab complex flashing across his face from time to time. "The first trial run will be in one week. We were hard pressed on who should be the test runner, but you know, Balkov just had so many people trained. Perfectly fit, ready for wear and tear, since an early age. I think you know the regiment quite well."

There was a coldness in the pit of the dual-haired man's stomach. He knew it well, it was too powerful to forget now, and he didn't want to forget. Not anymore, not when good memories were entwined with the bad, not when all that light had finally washed over his darkness, when Tyson had smiled and the stars started raining down.

"We are so selfish, aren't we? Working so hard to become better just to win… to have power… working even harder still to bend time itself to our wills. The power is so unimaginable, though so similar to the same greed we fought against in those championships all those years ago." Kenny smiled slightly, his eyes covered by the darkness of his bangs as he turned to Kai once more.

"I have no right to ask this of you Kai. You must be wondering, why I would even bother trying to do such a crazy thing."

Kai nodded briefly. "The past is the past." He whispered.

The other man sighed in response. He nodded as well and crossed his arms. "I do love the past."

The sound of waves crashing on the beach and the silent vision of a million stars raining down on them. The only pitter-patter of the splashes of light in the sky seemed to be the beating of his heart. Beating faster and faster and still…

"We love him." Kai finally murmured.

"Yes," Kenny's voice was a little bit sad as his eyes locked with Kai's. "We do."

Suddenly Kai's fist slammed into the fencing. His knuckles trembled with the crunch of skin against iron wires. He grit his teeth making Kenny take a wary step back.

"We love him, don't we?" The man asked with his eyes clenched shut. "We love him so much that seven years later we're still mourning him. Still wishing he were alive so we could tell him how much we loved him – how I never stopped!"

Kai breathed harshly through the silence that stretched on for what seemed like hours, but was only a fleeting moment. He swallowed, knowing he had said too much of his own feelings and his shoulders tensed.

The ex-beyblader pressed his forehead to the wires. "My therapist – I go to one, you know – I think, she may be getting sick of seeing me." Kai smiled thinly at his ironic words, silent for a moment. "Maybe… I should stop going."

The Chief adjusted his glasses with a grim smile. "Meet me here again, tomorrow at midnight. After that we'll have exactly one week to complete what needs to be completed." He turned to leave, and Kai pushed himself away from the fence, crossing his arms tightly.

"Hey Kai?" Kenny asked quietly before walking out of the alleyway.

"Yes?"

"…We'll change everything."

To be continued…