Chapter one - Choosing Home

Max stared out the window, his mind blank. No thoughts crossed his mind, they were too painful to deal with and every thought reminded him of her.

There was a knock on the door, and as Max did not reply there was another knock. When there was no reply the figure came in.

"Max, it is time to go." Judy said to her blond son. Max walked like a robot in a comatose, not seeing, hearing or feeling.

In the beginning Max had denied that Kaie was dead, but after five days he had started to cry, knowing she was dead. There was a deep dent in the wall; Max had needed to expel some of his anger and sorrow and the wall was the result. In the process however he had also fractured his knuckles of his right hand.

Then there was silence.

Max's mind closed itself off to the world, and responded to no one, the grief overtaking him. The counselor had said that he was still in shock, and that the best thing to do was to try and get him to talk about it.

Judy guided Max down the mansion's stairs to the car where all the other All-Starz were waiting.

"Do you have your script Max?" Judy asked.

Part of the healing the counselor had said was writing down how you felt, and acknowledging that someone had died, and that was the only way to move on. Max had written completely from the heart and the counselor had asked if he could read it at the funeral.

Judy had agreed, hoping she would get her son back or at least part of him back. Judy knew she would not get the Max that she had originally had; the one who laughed, loved chocolate and sugar, that would stay up watching movies late at night, raided the freezer for ice cream, and was so innocent. All Judy wanted was a piece of her son which had been taken by the tournament.

Max's father started the car, as they left the mansion to the funeral. The cause of death, according to the coroner's report was body failure, a vague term used when the coroner is unsure. Max knew the truth however, and that was also why he was so upset, angry, full of grief, and sorrowful.

Kaie won the tournament, but that alone would not bring all the lost bladers back. The blader who won - or the four most powerful bit-beasts - must sacrifice their souls in order to bring all the bladers who went to the other world back.

The 'Other World' bladers' souls' would return to their body when called by a piece of another's soul, and the spell was cast. Max was especially angered by that because they had repaired Kaie's soul just so that it would be whole, only for this purpose, so she could die at the hands of their spell. It had not been out of kindness or sympathy that they had healed her – it had been part of a plan.

The bit-beasts that Max had come to love had killed- no murdered- Kaie because they didn't want to die. Bit-beasts are reborn when they die, but they have amnesia so they know nothing about the bit-beast they were before.

But they are still alive. Kaie was dead, dead for all eternity, because the bit-beasts were selfish. And for that Max would never speak to Draciel again.

The chapel, near the small Kamiah River, was filled with many people, and the roads outside were filled with camera crews covering the funeral, as well as the families of those affected by the "Other World Tournament" as it had been dubbed.

Max was guided to the chapel, through the bustling crowd, past uncaring cameramen to the front row where all the All-Starz and Blade Breakers were sitting, as well as Mr. Dickenson. All the other team members had taken their seats in the rows behind. A prayer was read, and Mr. Dickenson got up to say some words. Among other things he said that a memorial of Kaie would be erected in the park which she and Max had trained in, by the far side of the field.

Then he was finished, the Kleenexes were whipped out and put away again, another prayer was said and it was Max's turn.

Max stood, after a little push from his mother, and walked up to the podium.

"Since Kaie's death there has only been one thought going around in my head; a quote that Kaie once told me. She said that evil is a concept not a personality. You can be thought evil, but you can not be evil.

I find it ironic that Kaie was defeated by this evil. I say defeated because a person like Kaie can not die. She is as much a part of us as our eyes; as a part of her soul lies in every blader that journeyed to the Other World.

Draciel told me that Kaie sacrificed her life for us. Dranzer hit her with a powerful blast of energy at the same as other bitbeasts casted their magic; causing her to say alive long enough for her to give up her soul.

In each of us Kaie placed a shard of her soul which caused our soul that were in the Other World to return to our bodies. We awoke because our soul formed around that shard. Kaie's actions caused a chain reaction around the world and every soul was called back.

However Kaie did not have to make that sacrifice. She did not have to die. The spell requires one human or the four most powerful bit-beasts. Bit-beasts are reborn with their original power in their world, but humans are not. Humans die."

Tears began running down Max's pale freckled cheeks.

"Kaie gave her life, everything she had for us, for the rest of the world's bladers. She told me she wanted to make a difference in the world, but she didn't believe that she could. Kaie you made a difference. Because of you I am here, all of us involved in the tournament are here. Everyone is…the good and the bad. Kaie, you wanted to be a hero…and you are."

Max sat down in his seat, and another prayer was said. The Kleenexes were now in full view, as the final prayer was said. Everyone filed out of the chapel leaving flowers, or a token of their sorrow by her coffin.

The last people to leave were the Blade breakers and the All-Starz. Emily went first, placing a lily in front of the coffin. Earlier that year Emily and Kaie had argued over which flower was prettier – a tulip or a lily. Emily was offering a final truce to the late blader.

Michael placed a small bouquet beside her coffin, said he was sorry for not being a better captain and leading her till the end. Joel placed a picture of her next to the lily.

Emily hugged Michael, tears now running from her eyes to Michael's shirt. "I was so mean to her…" she said.

Michael returned the hug and held her tighter, "Kaie loved to argue back…she told me she enjoyed it; it gave her some entertainment."

Tyson solemnly placed a bouquet of carnations in front of the coffin, with the help of Rei, Kenny, and Hillary.

The area around the coffin was filling up, as everyone in the tournament had left something. All the flowers were going to be buried with her in her grave.

They left and the only people still in the chapel were Kai and Max, and of course Kaie.

Kai pulled a single white rose out from his coat and placed it on her chest, the rose representing family. "I guess it was never meant to be." He said quietly. And a single tear came from the cold-hearted teen's eye, which for the first time ever had betrayed his inner thoughts. The connection between him and his twin was gone, and the only person that shared his blood and did not want to kill him had been murdered, just like her parents.

Max walked down the isle to where Kaie's coffin was situated, her face pale and lifeless, her brilliant green eyes shut to the world. Tears freely flowing down his face he placed a red rose over her heart, knelt, and whispered in a shaking and quite voice, "I love you." and he kissed her hand.

Max held her hand, his eyes downcast and blurred; the flowers mixing together into a conglomeration of colour.

Then the hand moved.

Max looked up, blinking back tears. The hand, still in his delicate grasp moved again and this time he was sure it was not his imagination. "Kai? Kai! Are you still in here?"

Kai turned around, as he was about to exit the chapel. Max had stopped crying and now looked frightened. Without saying anything, Kai was afraid that his voice might crack, he went over to Max.

"Her hand…it just moved…"he stuttered.

Kai looked at his deceased twin. "She is dead Max." he said quietly, his voice only a murmur.

Then green eyes opened to the world.

Kaie blinked a few times, refocusing her eyes to the world of the living. Using her left hand, as her right one was in someone's grasp, she sat up.

Kai and Max both looked at her, their eyes wide with shock and amazement. She looked from them to the cross at the front of the chapel, to the coffin in which she was sitting in.

"Damn it!" she said. "I was too slow! They warned me but…" Kaie sighed and got out of her coffin, taking her right hand out of Max's grip and clapped her hands together, whispered an incantation and closed her eyes.

Kaie's hands began to glow and she pulled them apart, and the light flew everywhere, through everything and everyone.

She opened her eyes and looked at her twin and her best friend. "I guess I have a lot of explaining to do huh. Max would you please go outside and call everyone who is out there in here."

Max was too shocked to do anything but follow instructions, and so he went to the door and was surprised to see, not the crowds he had pushed through, but around eighty people standing outside alone. Max motioned for them to come in, and they did.

Kaie stood at the front, and as everyone took their seats their jaws dropped. Once everyone was seated Kaie began to speak.

"In order for all of you to understand I guess I will have to start at the beginning, or when Dranzer hit me with his light. I don't remember that but apparently I was glowing and such…you all know, but all I remember is black darkness…"

Flashback

Kaie fell, and felt herself hit something solid and also soft. Kaie felt like she had had a bad dream, and then was now waking up. But as she opened her eyes, her stomach filled with dread as recognized her surroundings.

Kaie was home.

Her clock read 6:36, an hour after she had won the original tournament, the one she had fallen down the black hole through. Kaie looked at what she was wearing and it was a perfect replication of what she had fallen into the blading world wearing, the same clothing that had been torn to shreds.

Her homework was laid out perfectly on her desk, her math open to the page she had been working on, about a year ago, or this morning depending on how you looked at it.

Kaie began to cry. Everything had just been a dream, something that her contorted mind had made up to make her feel better about life. Well now she was miserable.

For the first time she had ever had real friends and actually fit in, and it was fake.

The guy she liked – fake

Her first kiss from the guy she liked –fake.

A twin who looked like her and was family – fake

Kaie dried her tears, her practical side regaining control over her emotional side. The only thing to do was to move on, and never trust her mind again.

So she sat at her desk, and did her math homework.

Her mom returned the next day to find her daughter miserable. Kaie had won the tournament, as the paper had said, but for some reason she was very unhappy so while Kaie was making lunch her mom confronted her.

"Honey, what is wrong?" she asked her "I read that you won the tournament."

Kaie nodded as she continued making her sandwich.

"Well then what is the matter?" her mother asked.

When Kaie said nothing her mom came over to her and put her hand on her shoulder. Kaie looked at her mom and her mom was surprised to see tears in her adoptive daughter's green eyes.

"Kaie what happened?" said her mom gently. "Please tell me."

Kaie felt her eyes beginning to water, but held back her tears. "I had a dream, after the tournament. The dream only lasted an hour but…in it I had everything I had ever wanted, everything I had every dreamed. I was so happy…then I woke up and all of that was gone. It had never existed in the first place; it was just my mind making everything up."

Her mom pulled Kaie into a hug. "That is rough." She said quietly. "But is it makes you feel any better your father is coming home tonight and so to celebrate we are going out to celebrate."

Kaie smiled. At least something was going right.

At six o'clock Kaie went to her room to change into formal clothing for the night. As the restaurant was very high end. She flipped through her closet till she found her dress pants and the blazer and shirt that went with it. It was a compromise between her parents and herself, as she refused to wear a dress.

Kaie pulled off her shirt and her hand brushed metal on her left arm. There, on her upper arm was the silver band that Max had given her in the box. Kaie collapsed onto the bed, now thoroughly confused.

What was real?

Kaie pulled on her shirt and her pants and blazer and put the thoughts out of her head. She would figure all this out once she got home that night.

The dinner was exquisite as usual and Kaie's father entertained her with stories of his most recent research.

They returned to their quiet house and went to sleep, Kaie got everything organized for the next day of school, which she hoped would be better than they had been before the tournament.

However her thoughts were in vain. Nothing had changed at all. She was still ignored, but this time more pointedly. Kaie still had to wear her contacts and dye her hair. Kaie was pushed around and every night she went home mourning for the world she had lost.

Kaie stopped eating and caring about her appearance. The roots of her hair turned their natural blue, and her eyes had dulled so much it was unnecessary to wear the contacts that changed the colour of her green eyes to brown.

Life was as had been before and it was horrible.

It was two weeks after her return to this world and Kaie had done all her homework twice over. Kaie was so lonely and had nothing to do so she did her homework again, and did it better. Her mind was empty. This world had no magic, none of the bit-beasts or anything special at all.

And as for Blue Dranzer…he had been a figment of her imagination as well evidently as she had seen nothing of him since her return.

Kaie lay on her bed wondering what the next day would hold. The oddest thing was that she had gone to school in her dream and had retained all the information she had learned so it was as if she was redoing the entire year. Technically she should be in grade eleven, as she had finished all the grade ten work in her dream, but Kaie decided not to stress that point as it more than likely result in a trip to the counselor's office.

Kaie saw a glimmer of blue on the ceiling, but as soon as she blinked it was gone. Her heart broke all over. Kaie rolled over and smothered her face in the pillow. 'Stupid' she thought to herself "It's not real'

Then from the corner of her room came a soft voice "Don't be upset my child."

Then in an instant there were wings around her that pulled her out of the pillow and sat her on the edge of the bed.

Kaie was shocked and unable to react, then as if she had been hit with a glass of ice water her eyes went hard and she said in an soft angry voice full of malice, "This is not real, all this does is make me feel better for a moment, but then it breaks my heart, it tortures my soul. Reality is so much worse afterwards."

The bit-beast known as Blue Dranzer felt the words pierce his heart. Then he understood. She thought that everything had been a dream. He would have to prove it wasn't.

"Kaie" the bit-beast said in that same whimsical voice, "here is your necklace. I'm afraid I blew it off after I attacked you." In the talons of this creature was the necklace she had always had, she had been wearing it when she was adopted except that it was the wrong colour…then she remembered and spoke in a incredulous voice, "This is Kai's necklace, it is blue. Though it is really mine…" Kaie had thought it was in her jewelry box, as she only wore it for special occasions.

If everything she had been told was true then the story was that before her parents' death her mother had made Kai and Kaie switch necklaces so they could always be reminded of each other. Then they had been separated by Voltire – Kai had gone to the Abby and Kaie had been banished to what Voltaire thought was a black abyss so that she could not interfere with Kai's training.

The black abyss had turned out to be this world, and the then the blading world was apparently her home.

The bit-beast spoke again, "The story is true." He said reading her thoughts.

"Kaie are you unhappy here?" he asked

Kaie looked into the glowing blue of her bit-beast. "Yes, but only because of the dream."

"Kaie that was no dream. I swear it. Bit-beasts can not lie."

"Okay then" Kaie said "Say that you are a hot dog"

The bitbeast tried to speak, but nothing came out. A feather fell from his wing to the ground where it vanished in a plume of smoke.

Kaie stared at the floor where the feather had disappeared, "What was that?"

"When ever a bit-beast lies they loose a minor part of their body such as a feather or a scale."

Kaie looked at the glowing light and was immediately sorry. "I didn't mean-"

But she was interrupted, "I had to prove to you that I was not lying, and if that is want it took then so be it. Now Kaie I have come to offer you the return to the land of your birth."

Kaie looked at him scarcely able to believe it.

"We will return you to the land you visited; forever. Do you wish to go?"

Kaie nodded slowly.

Dranzer looked at her hard. "Kaie this is a decision that can not be reversed ever. Before you make your final decision I am obligated to tell you what your future will be on this Earth.

Kaie you have the green eyes of a royal, and thus you are royal. Your father uses the cover that he is researching ancient history, but he actually is a prince, the prince that is next in line to inherit the throne.

When he was a little boy they staged his death to keep him safe from their enemies. He met your mother and they got married. They adopted you because the royal family was told about you by a Russian adoption agency.

If you stay in this world you will not only be a princess but you will also become a queen during your life. This is your destiny.

If you go to the land of your birth there is no guarantee of what will happen to you. Your future is not written there yet."

Kaie looked at him this new knowledge exploding inside her head. "What is my future there if I stay here?

Dranzer entered her mind and showed her. A memorial was created in the park where she and Max had bladed. She saw Max there, placing flowers on it, and then she saw Kai with a white rose, and on the day she somehow knew to be the final day of the tournament, she saw many people around the memorial, placing flowers, pictures and remembering Kaie. The inscription said what a great person she was and everything that she had done to save the world.

Kaie opened her eyes back in her room. "And what if I go to that world? What will happen to my future here?"

Dranzer entered her mind again, this time filling it with a snow covered Moscow. In a dark alley way she saw a girl her age, dying. The girl was shivering violently, and then she stopped, and Kaie realized with a sickening feeling that she was dead.

Dranzer's voice came into her ears as the image stayed in her mind. "This girl will die tonight and if you choose to go to the world of your birth then she will take your place here and carry out your destiny. You will leave half your soul here so she can become you and you will take half with you to sustain your life there."

Kaie looked at the bit-beast. "Dranzer, why did I return here?"

Dranzer explained what he happened to her in the world, how his vision had clouded and he had blasted her into oblivion.

"Kaie," Dranzer said, "We chose to use a human sacrifice because we knew that if your soul was destroyed there that your spirit would revert back here. That is why we had to make your soul whole. The sacrifice is invalid if the entire soul is not given up willingly."

"Did I give it willingly?" she asked.

Dranzer answered with a note of sadness in his voice. "You would give anything for the world to be returned and for everyone to come back. That is the nature of who you are. You were not asked, but the feelings inside you consented."

Kaie crossed her legs and sat on her bed. "You have two hours to decide." said Dranzer. "At that point I will return and ask what your decision is. You can never change your mind so be sure you make the choice you want. If you choose to stay here your knowledge of your future will be erased."

Kaie looked at Dranzer and asked, "Will you be here if I choose to stay?"

"No." Dranzer said. "This is not a domain in which I can exist. I will go back into a slumber for 10,000 years before I receive a new blader."

Then he was gone and Kaie was alone with her thoughts. No matter what she chose she would give up someone she loved. Her parents here or her friends there. What choice was this? Kaie had two hours to make the most important decision of her life.

Kaie felt down deep inside of herself to try and find the answer. She searched her heart for the answer. She had always wanted to be royalty…

The two hours passed and Dranzer returned. Kaie told him her decision and after a final good-bye to her adoptive parent's now sleeping figures Kaie returned to her room and Dranzer and the three other most powerful bit-beasts, including Soliam, cast the spell to bring her back.

As she flew through the worm hole she heard Dranzer's voice, "Kaie I warn you…time has passed in the world since you left and so you might wake up underground."

Underground? She thought. Then she realized what he meant. "Dranzer what do I do if I am buried because they think I am dead?" she yelled at the top of her voice.

"You'll know what to do" was his evasive reply

End Flaskback

Kaie finished her story and looked at her audience. "Everyone who does not have a bit-beast doesn't know that I died. The bit-beasts you all have protect you from all magic, except magic from your own bit-beast, and therefore I have to explain everything to you all. You all still know that I died."

Then behind her Blue Dranzer appeared and around all of the eighty bladers seated in the chapel their bit-beasts appeared, and at the same time they all spoke in their native tongue casting a spell.

"What happened?" Kaie asked Dranzer.

"Everyone's bitbeasts cast a spell so they were unable to tell anyone that you ever died. Only they can talk to you about it and no one can overhear you. And now they are sending everyone home." Everyone disappeared leaving only herself and Dranzer in the chapel.

Dranzer waved a wing and everything in the chapel related to her death disappeared. "And now Kaie, I am sending you to Max and the All-Starz. I'll be along later."

And Kaie found herself in her room in the All-Starz mansion. As she looked at the picture on the wall she realized she had made the right choice.

At that moment Max burst in. "Kaie!" He enveloped her in a hug, tears running down his face. Kaie returned the hug with the same strength. He pulled back only after a long time and wiped his tears away quickly.

After a long moment he asked, "Why did you come back?"

"Because here I fit in and I have friends…I have people who look after me as if they are my parents…and because I didn't really want to be royalty…and if I came here I saved another life in the process."

Max nodded and pulled her into another hug, this time it was more loving and the two of them stood like that until a few minutes later they were called for dinner and they pulled apart.

Kaie burst out laughing. Max looked at her as if she had gone crazy. "Everything is back to normal." She said grinning.

Max smiled back and they both ran downstairs together for dinner.

Kaie is alive! Of course I couldn't kill her! Anyway please review and if anything is unclear tell me! It all makes sense in my head but it may not make sense to you.

Reviewers

StarAngel Caelum SunSoar – Thank you for your review and great job on your latest chapter. Yay for Kaie (and Silver).

Forfirith The dark angel – Here is the first chapter and thank you for reviewing!

Luna-chan - A MaSk Of LiEs – Glad to have you back, and keep writing all your stories!

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