Nisa-chan666: Yay! This story has fans! Just a quick thank-you to KiraraCutie for the story favourite, to Tysonkaiexperiment for the story alert and review, and to Kenzie Jedenwie for the story favourite, story alert and review. To the reviewers of my last story, I know I didn't thank you all personally, but I really do appreciate all your support.

Michael: Before you ask, here's the disclaimer: Nisa-chan666 doesn't own Beyblade or any of the official characters (thankfully). But she does have full ownership of both the main OCs (unfortunately for us.)

Nisa-chan: Aren't I lucky to have him as a muse?

Michael: I'm just parts of you lumped together with a slightly different result. It's not my fault you made me a pessimistic sod.

Nisa-chan: Point taken. On with the story.

Chapter 3: The prophecy.

Garnet stepped back from the river, sucking at where she'd cut herself. She gripped the handle of the whip and slipped it from her waist. She examined it for a moment. The handle was perfectly sized for her to grip it, and her hand was protected with metal spikes arched from the base of the whip. The whip itself was thin and dark green, almost black, with thorns dotted evenly along its length that ended in murderously sharp red points. She flicked out her wrist experimentally. It snaked through the air, flipping up at the end with a loud snap. It returned to its previous position, lightly coiled in her hand.

"Kinky," she grinned, placing it back on her waist.

The mischievous smile left her face as she thought about the task ahead of her: finding her friends. She had no idea whatsoever how she was going to go about doing it. She stood frowning to herself. A noise alerted her to something in the air above her. She looked up to see Kenny hovering inches from her head, a pair of black wings poking out of his back.

"Kenny? Is that really you?" she asked as he slowly descended.

"Yep, it's me. Weird, huh?" he replied, indicating their present forms.

"To say the least. Slightly kinky too," she said, eying his bare chest with a small grin.

"Erm... yeah," he murmured, staring at his feet with cheeks afire.

"You're so innocent!" Dizzi giggled in his head.

"Shut up," he snarled.

"Who're you talking to?" Garnet asked, a cutely puzzled look on her face.

"Dizzi. She somehow managed to get transported from my laptop to my head. And she's annoying when you can't shut the lid on her," Kenny answered, annoyed.

"Why you little! I would smack you for that, but I can't. Damn that stupid dimension warp. I wanted to materialise, but no! I have to get stuck in your head!" Dizzi shrieked (literally).

"Jesus, woman! Keep it down why don't you?" Kenny hissed, clutching his ears.

"Oh dear," Garnet muttered, sweat-dropping anime-style. "Can you two stop arguing for a moment? We still have the little problem of finding our friends."

"I realise this, but sweet old Dizzi won't shut up. Excuse me for a moment," he replied, an extremely impatient frown on his face.

For a moment he just stood, frown still firmly on his face and his arms folded. A satisfied smile came to his face.

"Okay, we came to a truce. She's stopped screaming now," he grinned.

"How'd you do it?" Garnet asked, thinking of the ever-stubborn Dizzi.

"I apologised for calling her annoying," he answered, grin slipping slightly.

"I won't ask. Now to our present dilemma. How do we find our friends?" Garnet wondered aloud, hand on her chin thoughtfully.

"We could fly," Kenny answered, blushing slightly at what Dizzi had suggested in a low giggle.

"How?" Garnet asked, a smile on her face.

A minute later, they were both airborne, Kenny hugging Garnet to his chest. He had to use all his concentration to keep scanning the ground. His eyes kept darting to his girlfriend. It wasn't hard to guess why. She was beautiful in an innocently kawaii way. Everyone knew that he blatantly adored her. Except Garnet herself. He just wished that he could let her know everything. Everything he hid in his little heart.

"I think I just found someone," Garnet yelled, pointing to a lithe figure below them.

Hilary stepped out onto one of the forest paths, nervously biting her lip. The path was dark and barely more than a slight gap in the trees, making its meandering way through the forest, towards the heart. Suddenly the soft glow of the fire-flies was sorely missed. She had been walking for twenty minutes now, and every path seemed to go deeper into the forest, where she could well be walking around in for the rest of her life. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering slightly. She was well and truly lost. Unbeknownst to her, she was being watched. A shadowy figure crouched in the branch of a nearby tree. He had been following her for the whole twenty minutes, flitting from tree to tree with as much noise as a shadow. His dark grey eyes watched her with interest. His orders had been to bring together the heroes of legend he had spent the last two centuries surveying the land for. But he had been strangely drawn to the heroine, her energy and spirit. It tugged at his usually distant heart. It disturbed him, because he hadn't felt any emotion for so long.

Concentrating hard, he said, "Follow the moonlight, even if it strays from the path. That way, you shall find the path to your friends."

Hilary started from where she had been wallowing in her own despair. A voice had whispered something in her ear, yet she was sure she would have felt the presence of someone behind her. She turned, and sure enough, there was no-one there. She sighed, and set out again, following the patches of moonlight that littered the ground like gouts of silver blood. She walked for another ten minutes when she heard the beating of wings above her, and suddenly Kenny and Garnet dropped to the ground in front of her.

"Hi, Hilary!" Garnet laughed, hugging her.

"I see I'm not the only one with strange changes," Hilary muttered, staring at Garnet in amazement.

"So I have green skin. Your point?" Garnet muttered dangerously.

"Sorry. It's just not quite what I expected," Hilary laughed nervously.

"Look, can we get going? It's cold standing here with no shirt on!" Kenny complained quietly.

"Right! But, we may have a problem. I doubt that you'll be able to carry more than two, right? So what happens when we meet the others?" Hilary asked.

"Let's just hope that we're all in a group by the time that becomes a problem," Kenny mused.

Rei had slowed to a walk and was now calmly ambling along the riverbank, tail sweeping the ground lazily. Now that he had used most of his energy running, all he wanted to do was curl up somewhere dry and warm. He yawned, wondering irritably when he would find his friends. And Max. He sighed. He was really worried about the American boy, knowing the kind of trouble he had got into in the past... The deep water of the river beside him basically exploded, and a translucent shape crashed into him, knocking him clear off his feet.

"Rei! I found you!" Max yelled happily, nuzzling up to the Chinese boy affectionately.

"Hey, Maxie. Nice to see you too," Rei laughed, relieved that Max was okay.

After a moment's studying, Max said, "I always thought you'd look cute with cat ears. I was right."

"Thanks. I never quite imagined this to be the product of you and Draciel," Rei replied with a nervous laugh.

"I didn't either. You don't mind?" Max asked, surprising Rei a little.

"No, of course not. Why do you ask?" Rei enquired, concerned.

"I don't know. I thought you might not like me like this, so you wouldn't like me," Max replied sadly.

"Don't be stupid. I'd love you whatever happened to you," Rei murmured, hugging Max to his chest. "Promise me two things. One, that you'll never think like that again."

"Promise. What's the second thing?" Max said, nuzzling into him.

"Don't jump on me again when you're soaking wet," Rei replied, sounding half amused, half exasperated.

"Oh! But that was fun!" Max laughed, as he stood up, dragging Rei with him.

Tyson floated past the trees, deep in thought. He missed Kai, more than he could say. It wasn't as bad as when Kai had been poisoned in Prague, but it still felt as though he'd been cut in two. He knew that he was whole with Kai, and Kai knew as well, try as he might to hide it. He felt Dragoon stir in his mind and frowned. He liked his bit-beast, but it quickly got tedious when the dragon kept trying to correct things about how he was using his abilities. It reminded him strangely of Grandpa in kendo training.

"Tyson..." Dragoon began.

"Don't tell me, I'm blowing myself too far to the right," Tyson interrupted sarcastically.

"No, I was going to say that I feel the presence of another of the sacred bit-beasts," Dragoon sighed.

"Oh. Which one?" he asked, a slight blush appearing on his cheeks.

"I believe it is Dranzer and Master Kai," the dragon answered after a moments thought.

"Kai! Where!" Tyson yelled.

"Up here, Tyson," a familiar voice answered in a lightly teasing voice.

Sitting in a branch above him was the captain of the Bladebreakers, and Tyson's boyfriend, Kai. He grinned, an affectionate glint in his eye.

"Hey koi," he whispered.

"Nice wings," Tyson commented, staring at the huge red wings coming from Kai's back.

"I could say the same about the claws. Not sure about the eyes though. I preferred them blue," Kai replied, slipping from the branch with an easy grace.

"I don't know. I like them," Tyson grinned, fangs glinting in the half-light.

"Hmmm. Well, you can certainly do an evil grin when you pair them with the teeth," Kai grunted, walking slowly beside a (still) floating Tyson.

"I suppose. But now we need to think about finding the others, not the strange changes that we've gone through," Tyson replied, draping his arms around Kai's neck.

"I suppose so," Kai sighed, looking up at the moon through the trees.

"Why do I have a very bad feeling about flying now?" Hilary squeaked after she looked again.

Both the girls were clutching one of Kenny's hands and basically dangling in mid-air. They had had tried to come up with a different method of transporting them all, but the only other solutions they had come up with that worked, were all very kinky, and made Kenny extremely uncomfortable. So they ended up clutching to his arms, while he flew around looking for any signs of life in the dense forest below. He took a deep breath, shaking his head wearily. There was more chance of a meteor hitting the earth than them being able to find their friends... not far in front of them, a white light streaked down from the sky into the forest with a resounding boom. So much for that theory, Kenny thought as he flew down into the massive hole in the trees where the light had hit. They hit the scorched ground, an eerie silence filling the hollow. Hilary turned on the spot, trying to take it all in. A shadow moved from her feet into the trees with a sharp scuttling sound. She squealed and jumped onto Kenny's back, almost toppling him forward onto Garnet.

"What the hell is your problem!" he yelled, after he had resettled his heart-rate.

"I saw something near my foot. It crawled into the forest. It wasn't... natural," Hilary whispered, still thoroughly spooked.

"Shush. Someone's in the forest," Garnet murmured.

"What do you think that light was?" an innocently puzzled voice asked.

"Don't know. Maybe checking out where it landed will give us some answers," a patient mature voice replied.

"Max? Rei? Is that you?" Hilary asked, smiling.

"Yep. Who did you expect?" Rei grinned back.

They were gathered in hugs of reunion, when they heard the flapping of wings above them.

"Finally, we found you! We've been flying around for ages looking for you. We thought you might come here," Tyson gushed, dropping to the ground in front of them.

"Hey guys," Kai grunted, descending with much more grace, and arms folded.

"Good, we're all back together. We'd better do a head count, just in case. Okay, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8... hang on. How many of us were there?" Garnet said, counting on her slender fingers.

"7," Max replied.

"How have I counted 8 then?" she asked.

"Maybe you counted him," Kai commented, gesturing to the shadowy figure standing next to him.

"Oh... WHO THE HELL IS HE!" Garnet yelled.

"Well, hello to you too," the figure remarked sarcastically.

But Garnet had every reason to be startled. He had literally walked out from nowhere. He waited for everyone to calm down enough for a relatively intelligent conversation. In that time, it is as good an opportunity to describe him as any. He was tall and thin, almost to the point of emaciated. He had no colour in him whatsoever, like a black and white photo from the Victorian era. He had very pale skin with a faint grey tinge to it, dark grey eyes that seemed to pierce everything he looked at, and mid-grey hair that flopped onto his forehead. He was wearing a white shirt, tight black jeans and a black leather trench-coat that went to just above his ankles. A pair of sunglasses rested on the top of his head, totally unnecessary in the circumstances. It was, after all, the middle of the night.

"Okay, I say it again. Who the hell are you?" Garnet asked, hand on her chest as she tried to slow her breathing.

"I am the Lord of the Shadows, servant of the mighty Moon goddess. But my mistress calls me Michael," the boy replied.

"And why are you here exactly?" Kai asked suspiciously.

"I am your guide. The Moon goddess wishes you to take up a quest to bring peace back to the land," Michael answered, seemingly ignoring the hostile glares Kai kept shooting at him.

"Pardon?" Max asked, cocking his head in a curious puppy-dog manner.

"...How can you not understand that?" Michael muttered, giving Max a look that clearly said, "You haven't got two brain cells to rub together, have you?"

"I think he means, why us of all people," Hilary explained, giggling.

"What she said, except louder," Max added, grinning good-naturedly.

"I see. Well... it's kind of hard to explain off the top of my head. My mistress told me to bring you to her, so she'll probably explain it all to you anyway," Michael replied, scratching his chin.

"And how are you going to get us to your mistress?" Kenny asked, a hint of scepticism in his voice.

"Like this," the enigmatic boy replied, rubbing his hands with a sly grin.

He closed his eyes and began chanting underneath his breath. Slowly at first, but gaining speed the longer he called, the shadows started to pool around their feet, until it looked as though they were floating at the top of a bottomless abyss. He stopped chanting and clapped his hands curtly, like a man impatient with his personal servant. At the sound, the shadows reared up and swallowed them, before collapsing into itself and dispersing. By that time, they weren't anywhere to be seen.

"Well done, Michael. You have completed your charge," an ethereal woman's voice purred.

"As requested, my lady. You didn't doubt me, did you?" Michael replied, sinking into a low bow.

"Of course not. But I'm being discourteous to our guests. I am Celina, goddess of the moon. I have been awaiting your arrival for centuries," the woman smiled.

Celina was a tall, slender woman with shining silver hair cascading to her ankles. Her skin was flawless, white like egg-shell china. Her eyes were a dark grey like her servant bowed before her. She wore a black dress that accentuated her natural curves, and a silver circlet rested on her forehead. In a nutshell, she radiated supernatural beauty. But at the same time, there was something alien, forbidden about her.

"Okay, what the hell happened?" Tyson asked, looking around in amazement.

"I transported you to my mistress' palace," Michael replied, straightening with an amused glint in his eyes.

"It's like an RPG," Max mused quietly.

"Max, now isn't time to be comparing our lives to a computer game," Kenny whispered.

"Might I ask what is going on?" Garnet asked nervously, eyes rooted to the floor.

The moon goddess walked up to her in a strange gliding way, an analytical look on her face. She stopped a few inches from Garnet, and lifted her chin so that they were looking at each other, eye to eye. Garnet was struck by a strange mixture of complete panic and complete calm as she looked into the mysterious eyes of the woman before her.

"So you are the guardian with whom our world's fate rests," Celina murmured, a small frown alighting her face. "Such a frail form to have taken. Can you truly take this burden?"

"I don't understand. What are we supposed to be doing?" Garnet asked.

Celina glided away to a small leaded window built in a niche in the wall, and stared out of the window, seemingly in a world of her own.

"When the world was new, one of my brothers disobeyed the laws set down by our all-mighty father and was punished by being banished to spend the rest of eternity in the night sky, along with his twelve servants. In his anger, my brother made a prophecy, that he would one day alight again upon this earth, to either conquer or destroy it. He completed sealing the prophecy before we could restrain him in the sky. When a prophecy is sealed, it means that no matter what actions you take to avert it, the event will inevitably come to pass. Unable to reverse the prophecy, my brothers, sisters and I altered it. We made celestial warriors to fight my brother and save the land from his wrath. My younger brother, the heavenly messenger, foretold of a dragon born in the heart of the storm, who would control the winds," she said turning to look at them all.

"A dragon?" Tyson asked quietly, staring at his claws.

"My eldest brother, chariot driver of the sun, foretold of a phoenix, burning the ways of old, and arising from the ashes to embrace the new. He was inextricably entwined with the dragon, in ways that we couldn't explain," the moon goddess continued.

Kai blushed and glanced at Tyson who was staring at him with a perplexed, but not negative, frown.

"My sister, goddess of the mountain, foretold of a golden tiger who would seek out injustice and evil and lay waste to them with his claws. My brother, god of the sea, foretold of a creature born of the wave crests who would look upon all creatures with an unassuming eye, unless they crossed him. He and the tiger were also inextricably linked," Celina continued, watching the incredulous looks on their faces with each passing minute. "My youngest sister, goddess of the hunt and woodland, foretold of an Elvin warrior woman who would overcome more than physical enemies in her long journey. My mother, goddess of wisdom, foretold of a harpy, unique in the fact that he wouldn't be female. She predicted that he too would conquer more than physical obstacles. I foretold of a boy composed of shadows, who would find a light in his long life of hiding in the gloomy half-light. And my father foretold of a guardian, key to the long quest ahead of them. He predicted that she would suffer in ways few can imagine, but she would come out a stronger person overall."

For a few minutes afterwards, they just stood in silence, words failing to reach their tongues. Finally, Michael stirred.

"Are you saying that I too am one of the legendary heroes?" he asked uncertainly, like the mere idea of it was totally absurd.

"I am. You were the only warrior to have been born in this world. You have remained formless for centuries, occupying shadows until you found the other celestial warriors. This is the reason for training you all of these centuries," Celina replied, sorrow quietly ringing in her voice.

"I see. I won't disappoint you," he replied, turning away and stalking into the shadows, which soon consumed him.

Celina watched him sadly before turning back to the Bladebreakers, saying, "You must rest up. You have a long journey ahead of you."

"One more question," Garnet said, before the goddess could walk away. "The light that landed in the forest; that was your brother's servants wasn't it? What are we fighting?"

"If you look outside, you will see that 12 constellations are missing from the sky. Can you see what they are?" Celina replied, gesturing to the window.

"I can't," Garnet said, frowning slightly.

"His servants are the 12 signs of the zodiac wheel. The signs of fire, earth, air and water. And my brother is the darkness of the night sky. He is dangerous, because he knows that the other gods and I tampered with his prophecy. He knows of you and will use any means to dispose of you. Be very careful," the goddess replied, a sudden weariness in her voice.

Nisa-chan666: Yay, Chapter 3 is finally finished. After several late nights and my sister quoting Chobits behind me (at least for this last night), it is finished! I'm pleased with the result anyway.

Michael: You finally added me. Why did you give me sunglasses?

Nisa-chan: Because I could. Besides, my sister the rabid fan-girl, approved. What more do you want?

Michael: I don't know. I just like complaining about the things you do to me.

Nisa-chan: ¬.¬ Thank you. . Anyway, please read and review. I enjoy getting your comments.