A/N: Hey all again! I've managed to finish another chapter, mostly due to procrastination, so here it is! Again, I'm still sorry that it takes me so long to get out chapters. I know I cut the time in half this time compared to last time, but I'm still working on getting back up to several chapters per month. Just bare with me. Exams are coming up and I'll be focusing on those soon, but hopefully after that, with any luck… Anyway, enjoy this chappie!
Disclaimer: Don't own Beyblade if you haven't figured it out yet…
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Craving Freedom
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Chapter 12: The Snowy City
Tuesday December 28, 2004
When Tyson woke the following morning, many thoughts flooded his brain. He remembered the bizarre events of the night but they seemed blurry in his mind's eye which made him wonder whether they'd happened at all or if it was just a dream caused by the rich food from the day before. As he tried to think on the subject, footsteps came up to him.
"C'mon Tyson, we were going to go down to breakfast," said Ray.
"Huh? Oh, right," Tyson replied quickly. Ray had been surrounded in electricity…
As Tyson got up and dressed, the cut on his stomach stung a little. Tyson pulled his beyblade from his pocket. Dragoon's bit was also cracked. 'Dragoon, you've been fighting your whole life, haven't you? Those people in cloaks from my dream, they were the Saint Shields; Ozuma's and the rest of them, those were their ancestors,' Tyson thought.
"Tyson…" Max reminded Tyson of what he was supposed to be doing.
"Yeah, coming. Heh," Tyson said as he quickly put his beyblade back into his pocket.
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When the boys came to the dining room, Voltaire was already sitting there with Kai. Kai was saying something about memories when he spotted them and immediately fell silent. Tyson, Ray and Max each took their seat wondering who they were sitting with, whether it was their friend, Kai, or the dark spirit of Black Dranzer.
Kai busied himself with eating to escape a conversation so Voltaire took the opportunity to talk. "After the little ordeal last night, I decided to put your worries at ease," he said to the group. "I hope this is proof of my good intentions." He nodded to a man standing in a corner of the room. The man left and came back a short time later accompanied with another guard and two younger people. They seemed confused and scared and their clothing was dirty, but apart from that they were perfectly alright. At the sight of their friends, Kenny and Hilary shouted out and ran to them, throwing their arms around Tyson, Ray and Max and knocking some food to the ground.
"So you guys are alright?" Max asked sounding a bit concerned but mostly overjoyed that they were well.
"Actually, I'm a little hungry," Hilary commented, blushing slightly.
"Yeah, rocks don't make for very good meals" Kenny mentioned matter-of-factly. Everyone laughed but Kai and Voltaire.
"Sit down. There's plenty of food here," Voltaire stated. Then, at another nod of his head, another man came and set up two more places at the table. Once it was set, Kenny and Hilary gratefully took their seats and started eating. "Kenny and Hilary will be staying with you three. I'll have your room set up so that all five of you can stay together. I assume that would be the most popular choice for accommodations?"
All five of them nodded. 'Good,' thought Ray, 'we'll stick together from now on.'
"Very well, I'll leave everyone to get reacquainted. Last night was very long indeed," Voltaire said as he got up from the table. As he left, he nodded one more time and most of his guards left, leaving only the waiter and the children in the dining room.
The attention turned towards the silent one in the group. "Kai, is it – really you?" Ray asked. He noticed the uneasiness of the others, especially Kenny's and Hilary's. It seemed Voltaire's version of events was the most accurate, and that meant that Kai had betrayed their trust and injected them with sedatives.
"'Course it's me. I don't let Black Dranzer control my body unless there's reason to."
"And last night was reason enough?" Tyson exploded. "I suppose Black Dranzer asked nicely to put your friends through the ringer and you just gave him control of your body!"
Kai remained calm in spite of Tyson's anger. "He didn't say what he was going to do. I know he shouldn't have done it, and I shouldn't have let him, but I also trust him."
"Why?" Tyson yelled. "How could you trust someone enough to put Kenny's and Hilary's lives on the line?" he spat angrily.
"Black Dranzer's been a friend to me!" Now Kai was raising his voice. He didn't understand why he was getting upset, but Tyson's voice was beginning to annoy him.
"And we aren't!" Tyson continued.
"What good are friends who are halfway around the world?"
"What? Kai, we came here to save you!"
"I didn't ask you to!" Kai had lost all composure and he was shouting at the top of his voice. He got up from the table and walked out. Nobody spoke at the table for some time afterward.
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Tyson, Ray, Max, Kenny and Hilary headed back to their room after breakfast and stayed there talking for the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. Around half past one, a man appeared at the door with a cart of soup and sandwiches for lunch. They supposed Voltaire was still trying to please them and he wouldn't be doing a very good job if he let them go hungry. However, they did find a very curious note leaning against the vase of flowers at the centre of the table.
In 3 days, you'll know everything.
The man who had brought the cart wouldn't tell them where it came from and at one point even denied its existence as Tyson flapped it in front of his face. When he left, Max commented that he'd never known a worse liar in all his life.
"I suppose Voltaire told him not to say anything," Hilary suggested.
"But he must have known that we'd know who sent it," explained Kenny.
"Guys, I think you're jumping the gun." Everyone looked up at Tyson. "I don't think Voltaire sent this note. Look at the writing. Look familiar?" Tyson asked Ray, to whom he passed the note.
"It's Kai's writing," Ray stated. There was no doubt about it. The cursive writing was identical to the training schedule Kai used to pin up and to his signature when they rented hotel rooms and signed up for tournaments. As the captain, it had always been his duty to do those types of things.
"So what does it mean? That Voltaire's plan will come together in three days?" Max asked.
"New Year's Eve: in three days is December 31st," said Kenny.
"Well, we know he wants to use our bit beasts for something and we know he needs us with them as well," Ray began to lay out the information they had.
"He wants to resurrect them," Tyson said with surprise. The thought had just occurred to him.
"What? How do you get to that conclusion?" Kenny asked, just as surprised.
"It's something Dragoon told me. Something about them rising again," Tyson explained.
"But that's silly," Hilary said flatly. "How can they be resurrected when they aren't dead? I mean, their spirits are still intact, right?"
"Resurrected to their own bodies – he wants to bring back the creatures that once walked this earth." Max was speaking to no one in particular but to Tyson, he seemed to be remembering an odd dream of his own from the night before.
"Well, if that's true, then he has Dragoon, Draciel and my Drigger. What about Dranzer? Is that why he got back Black Dranzer, because he couldn't get the original?" Ray continued his listing.
"And what about us? How are we supposed to help him resurrect them?" Tyson mentioned.
"And what does he plan on doing with them if he succeeds?" Kenny added glumly.
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When the Bladebreakers finally decided to go downstairs for dinner, they found the table was set for them but neither Voltaire nor Kai joined them. They supposed that Voltaire had nothing to say to them for the moment and so he chose not to bother with the politeness of his company and for Kai they figured he probably was avoiding them after the happenings of the morning. The only question that provided was why he would tell them about the date of Voltaire's so-called 'ultimate plan'. What did he have to gain from it? He didn't seem to be their chum anymore.
As evening passed on into night, and the Bladebreakers fell asleep one by one, one mind stayed alert in the mansion. Kai lay awake, staring at his bed hangings, a debate going on within his mind.
"But why tell them about that? You finally get even a little information from Voltaire and you go and tell them about it. That's what will stop Voltaire from telling you anything else important," Black Dranzer argued.
"I've already told you. I've decided I'm not going to keep anything else from them. Besides, maybe they'll figure something out that I can't with the puzzle pieces Voltaire has been giving me. He told me three days, so I tell them. He tells me anything else and I'll tell them."
"I guess I just can't see where you're coming from on this. Then what about what he told you last night? He said that that was where everything started – "
"That," Kai spat, "is none of their business until it involves either the bit beasts or themselves. From what I heard last night, Voltaire only talked about his childhood. That has nothing to do with them! In fact, it had nothing to do with you, either. I shouldn't have even let you listen in."
"You don't need to get in a temper."
"Just leave me alone for now!"
"Fine, I will but you know you will have to let go of the past if you ever want to move on in peace." Black Dranzer returned to a dormant state.
'I know I will have to,' thought Kai. 'I just don't know if I can yet. I still miss him. I miss Dranzer.' Kai remembered a snowy day in a metropolis. 'I remember the day I met Dranzer. It was the happiest day of my life even though I was in such agony."
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flashback
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Snow fell on the cityscape. An eight-year-old Kai clambered, starving and freezing, into an alleyway off of a main road. It had almost been a week since he came on the boat to this foreign land. He spoke nothing of the language and had no one to go to. He wasn't even sure of what city he was in. All he knew was the name of the country – he had heard some of the sailors mention it on the boat: Japan.
The weather here was slightly warmer than Moscow's weather, but it was still cold. Usually Kai would be able to withstand this temperature, but he was poorly dressed and the lack of food and water was already deteriorating his strength. He tried to stay against the wall to steady himself and keep himself on his feet, but it was no use. His legs gave in to weakness and he fell forward onto his knees, then collapsed to the ground, face against the icy pavement.
He knew this was it. Everything he had done to get away from his grandfather. Everything he went through to find peace from daily torture. It was all in vain. He would die, here in this frozen alleyway, of starvation and cold.
A flash of a beautiful face crossed his mind. "Who are you?" Kai mumbled. "Are you my angel? Have you come to take me to a better world?" He tried to see her more clearly but she eluded his focus. "If this is it then take me now. I give up. I'm ready to die."
"Not yet." The words were spoken so gently, they seemed to be nothing more than the wind itself. Yet, there was no wind. The flakes of snow glided softly down onto the ground and formed a white bedspread for Kai's final resting place.
Then Kai felt it. A warmth emanating from his heart. The feeling spread throughout his body. It was like he was wrapped in a soft blanket, neatly tucked away so that the cold could touch him no longer. Kai opened his eyes and saw a red glow. He looked around. A creature had bound him within its body. Its long tail circled him and its wings were outstretched like an umbrella against the snow. But the snow seemed to melt before it even touched the creature's body. It was a large red and gold bird. Kai recognized it from mythology as a phoenix: the symbol of life and rebirth. The bird had soft blue eyes. It was looking at Kai with kindness. Kai outstretched his arm toward it and gently stroked the bird's beak. "Dranzer…"
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end flashback
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Kai turned over onto his side. He fought back tears and buried his sadness for Dranzer within himself, numbing the pain. "Dranzer, I miss you. Everything's just so screwed up now."
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Another chapter down. Now we get to see a little more of Kai's past before the big day (New Year's Eve). And for those of you who are curious, we're just past the halfway point now. Anyway, please review! It only takes a few moments and it's nice to hear other peoples' thoughts on my writing. I accept any and all comments and I really do take everything to heart when I'm writing.
The next chapter will be called Missing.
Until then!
What does not destroy me makes me strong. - Friedrich Nietzsche
.:Fey Phantom:.