AN/ Hello again, just wanted to thank you for the reviews. They are really inspiring and I guess we all like to know that others enjoy our writing… Anyway I suppose I should get on with it. I DO NOT own BeyBlades nor any of its characters but the following list are mine. Sam Hanara, Her family, the LoveSeekers, The WildFires, the DarkHunters & the Avengers. Tenebrae belongs to Drago-Kai and so if you wish to borrow or use any of those people then please oh please ask me or Drago-Kai first. Thanking you. Tis very much appreciated. Now on with the story!

Chapter 14:- Dark calling

Sam's eyes widened slightly as she stared at the ground. Her back stiffened as the grip increased in pressure.

"Poor little Sam, have you realised that Biovolt is the only place you belong? Away from us you grow weak, but that isn't your fault. We can blame your dear cousin for that." Came a laughing voice. The tears dried instantly and rage surfaced just below the skin.

"Come to mock me Tala? Or is there something else that you want?" Sam sneered, sitting back on her heels and glaring at the other teen.

"Both." Tala said simply and traced her back slowly inching lower.

"Don't touch me." Sam hissed and took his feet out from under him before doing a hand spring.

"You will be mine Hanara. Just wait. Voltaire won't wait for his precious warrior forever and as soon as you fall from grace, my time will come!" Tala hissed, snapping his head to the side to look at her.

"You are not a Hiwatari. You will never get me. And I promise you, I will not fall from grace." Sam sneered Tala slowly got to his feet and looked Sam dead in the eye.

"You're turning." He said as his azure eyes widened.

"You can not defeat the darkness." Sam said hollowly and advanced on him. Tala's eyes skipped around the room before he turned and leapt from the balcony. Sam sighed and tried to calm down now that he was gone. The danger had passed. He would not touch her again.

'You can't suppress me forever girl.'

'I can try.'

'I will make us strong again, why do you deny me?'

'You only made me strong in one way. By myself I have learnt to be strong in many.'

'Your wrong, but you will see that in time. Until then good luck' Sam shut and locked the balcony door. Sam sat back on her heels and thought. The dark child was right. Since meeting up with Kai again she had become soft. Her stinging wit seemed to have been forced further and further into the background and again her vision was clouded by this emotion called love. Sam closed her eyes before collecting the rest of her memories as a child. Any picture that remained of her and Kai together was put aside to a different pile. The light of the stars outside lured the young brunette to walk outside. Unconsciously, her hand clenched and the photos were screwed. Sam jumped from her balcony down to the ground. With new found Confidence, Sam then walked into the study and lit the fire. Tears threatened to blur her vision as she looked down at a picture her mother had taken of her, her father and Kai.

"Good riddance." Sam growled before flinging all of the photos into the fire. She could not stop the tears that burned her cheeks as they fell. "Enough. Leave me alone. It's dead. It's gone… it's gone…" Viciously, Sam swiped at her tears and was mildly surprised when a pair of arms came around her. It was Jazon and the LoveSeekers.

"Oh Sam." Jazon murmured and gently rocked her back and forth.

"We're here." Rachelle said gently and closed off the room from the rest of the house. The others simply crowed around her and offered their support that way. Sam clutched unseeingly to Jazon's jacket and buried her face into his shoulder. The heart wrenching sobs echoed around the room as she tried to get a grasp on what was happening to her. Tala, Voltaire, Boris, Rick, her father, Kai. All of their faces all of her memories returned with a vengeance and she was forced to relive it all. The taunts, the torture and the punishments.

"Let go." Sam whispered finally as she forced herself to deal with it the only way she knew how. She withheld all the emotion deep inside and didn't, wouldn't allow it to be seen by others. Tala was right. Yet again she was turning. Jazon let go quite reluctantly and the others slowly stepped back. They would not ask what was wrong with their friend. Although the emotional outbursts didn't occur as often as they once did, the violence never let up each time they did. Sam unsteadily got to her feet and swayed. The LoveSeekers looked at her, unsure but said nothing. They got to their feet and looked at the anguish that wasn't quite hidden in their friends' eyes.

"Sam…" Raelie began but Sam shook her head firmly and looked at Jazon.

"Did you need something?" Sam demanded as she steadied herself

"Wanted to double check that we were still on for tomorrow."

"No problem. We should be able to perform the actual show sooner than first thought."

"Yeah we were thinking about this time next week. If that is alright with you." they all glanced nervously at the blue tinge that had discoloured her right eye.

"Sounds good. So long as the WildFires are ready." Jazon nodded once and the others moved in and kissed Sam's cheek once before heading out the door again. Sam stood in the middle of the room, her bangs shadowing out her eyes as the fire sparked and snapped in the background. Her eyes flicked once, twice before settling naturally. A last photo had escaped the fury of the flames. The door that the LoveSeekers had left gently opened and emitted Ray. Sam looked up startled and hid the photo behind her back.

"Hey Sam, saw the LoveSeekers leaving and looking rather worried. Anything wrong?"

"No." Sam's monosyllabic response alerted the Neko-gin better than anything that something unsaid was in fact wrong.

"About earlier, we were really worried. We didn't know what had happened to you and the whole prank kind of put us on edge for the rest of the afternoon."

"Gomen Nasai." Sam said simply and Ray tensed. This wasn't the girl that had so enjoyed herself but moments ago in the training room. Sam simply bowed again before moving more sedately from the room, dropping something into the fire as she left. Ray immediately went over to the fire and saw the fire starting to lick at the edges of the photo. Quickly he fished it out of the flames and gently put out the embers at the edge of the picture. Lifting it to the light, Ray was surprised to see a picture of a little girl with long brown hair, dressed in deep emerald and black top with khaki pants and brown boots, sitting on the lap of a young boy with two toned blue hair and maroon eyes. Both were smiling slightly and proudly held out their BeyBlades to the photographer. Ray's eyes widened as he realised it was his team captain and a little Sam Hanara. He was the one that had seen Dyane before. He was the one who befriended and trained with her, and he was the one who had hurt her so many years ago. Ray looked up as the young boy who had become the harsh teen walked into the room.

"What is it?" Kai asked his expression unguarded for once

"It was you." Ray simply said, his eyes filling slowly with anger and helplessness for the girl who had been broken so long ago.

"What was me?" Kai asked, confusion flitting across his eyes at the unusual actions of his team member.

"You hurt her." Ray spat as the others came into the room

"What do you mean he hurt her?" Tyson asked or rather demanded.

"Did she tell you that?" Kai asked softly, his voice becoming dangerously cool.

"She didn't have to." Ray spat and thrust the burnt picture at the teen. Kai's eyes narrowed at his disgruntled team mate before he glanced down at the picture and paling. His eyes grew wide as he looked at the photo that had once been a fond memory. Tyson, Kenny and Max all gathered around their team captain and looked down at the photo that lay in the older teen's loose hold. Max's hand flew to his mouth as he stepped back.

"This explains a lot." Kenny murmured as Dizzi saved the photo to a file composed on their elusive female team mate.

"I think we deserve an explanation Kai Hiwatari." Ray said in a monotone. Kai snapped out of his trance and nodded once before sitting down on a chair before the sofa and holding his head in his hands.

"I remember little of that time. But what I do know, I will relate though it is no business of yours. My grandfather has long been searching for a means to take over the world and at one point he had a vision that used young bladers who were honed to perfection thanks to his abbey in Russia… Biovolt."

---Flashback---

Lucas Hanara, a successful businessman of 23 years paced the living room as he waited for his wife to give birth to his son or daughter. His long standing friend Voltaire sat in a chair and watched with mild amusement at the mannerisms of the younger gentleman. Finally there was a scream and baby cries from the other room as a nurse ran out gathering more cloths before running back in again, not giving either man a chance to ask questions. Lucas walked quickly to the other room and looked in on his pale wife as she lay there covered in sweat, with a slight smile gracing her mouth.

"Lucas, come and meet your daughter." Adonia's voice carried the musical lilt of Ireland as she spoke. Lucas hid his slight disappointment very well and came to meet his child as his wife had asked. A light fuzz of hair covered her scalp and her eyes widened as she looked in the direction of a new sound. Although the child could not yet focus on figures and colours, she knew instinctively that she was surrounded by family. Voltaire came into the room and smirked at the baby girl even as his grandson precariously toddled in.

"Hey Lucas look at Kai." Voltaire said with a smirk. Kai had climbed up onto the bed to get a closer look at the new child. The little Baby blinked twice and gurgled. Kai gurgled back. Voltaire's eyes lit up with a dangerous light as he looked at his friend. "Lucas, I have a proposition for you…"

Years sped by and the young Hanara grew and started walking, talking and blading. Although Lucas had at first seemed disappointed that his heir was a female, he grew to love her and her antics. She was a real daddy's girl, doing anything to please him. As she grew in strength and size, she went out on a limb and trained in gymnastics as well and incorporated that into her training so that her stamina rose and she could blade for longer. At the age of four and a half, Kai was introduced to the girl yet again.

"Kai I want you to meet my daughter Samantha. Samantha, this is Kai Hiwatari." Lucas said with an accent that flicked from German to Russian. Sam bowed slightly as she had been taught but her eyes never left those of the young boy who looked no more than a year older than her.

"It is a pleasure to meet you master Kai." Sam said formally. The boy looked from his grandfather to the girl and back again. Voltaire kicked him slightly and Kai turned his full attention to the girl.

"Yeah, you too." He gritted out.

"Why don't you two kids go out into the garden and play or something?" Lucas said bending down to his girls' level. Sam let out a small laugh before hugging her father and kissing his cheek. She then grabbed the boys' hand, who gave a disgusted look before he was dragged out behind her. The adults looked on before smirking and heading off into the 'forbidden study.' As soon as the kids were outside, the young girl dropped the boys hand and scowled at him.

"Let's get one thing straight you and I. You get in the way of my blading and I'll kick your ass." The boy looked at her startled before he smirked.

"Believe me, I wouldn't dream of it." He sneered.

"Glad to hear it." She said before stalking away to her little blading area. She launched her blade and trained hard. As she looked up, a mountain lioness majestically walked toward her. The young boy came out and in spite of himself stood protectively infront of the younger girl. The girl however hadn't taken her eyes from the animal infront of her and slowly began to walk towards the apparition.

"Sam! No!" Kai yelled and tried to grab hold of her sleeve but missed it by inches. Small silvery white wings seemed to sprout from the girls back as she walked right up to the beast without fear and began to stroke its head. It growled once before settling and the light dimmed. The beast disappeared into the bitpiece of the young girls' blade and the wings faded too. Sam began to fall and Kai instinctively leapt forward and caught her. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled at him. He smiled back "Well this seems like the perfect beginning of a friendship." Kai said laughing.

"Yeah. I'm glad to call you a friend." Sam said and picked up her blade before going off to play with her new friend.

--- End flashback---

Kai rubbed his temples as he related all that he could remember, including the old videos he had found stored in his mansion back in Japan.

"So what was this business proposition?" Max asked softly

"I don't know."

"Was Sam a part of the whole world domination plot?" Kenny asked.

"I don't know."

"Are you alright?" Ray asked

"I… yeah. I'm fine."

"Hey Ty, you spoken to Sam about Hillary coming yet?" Max joked, trying to lighten the mood. It worked partially.

"No." Tyson muttered. As the boys headed up into their rooms, they spoke laughingly and joked. Surprisingly even Kai smiled. He hesitated outside Sam's room and looked again at the photo that she had tried to destroy. He would have to talk to her. Slowly he walked into his room and lay down on the bed. With thoughts and memories of her still running in an endless loop in his mind, he fell asleep with an inexplicable smile gracing his lips.

Sam's night was not quite as peaceful. She tossed and turned through out the night, memories and nightmares chasing through her mind, one after the other until it was difficult to determine where one ended and another began. She was being chased and time, time was running out. Listener becomes watcher, innocent becomes destroyer. The saying ran riot in her mind. Darkness. Darkness was waiting patiently with open arms.

'I will make you stronger. Remember what it was like to be weak?'

'I am not weak! I harnessed perfection. I became strong in my own right!'

'You are second guessing yourself. I won't do that to you.'

'Won't you? How about right and wrong?'

'We are patient but we wont wait forever…'

"Weak, stupid, worthless, good for nothing. Not MY daughter… not MY daughter"

"DADDY!" Sam sat up in her bed, covered in a cold sweat and sobbing yet again. She had failed her father when he had needed her most. If she had been the son that he had so longed to have, her mother would not have had to sacrifice herself. She unsteadily got out of bed and walked out onto the balcony taking deep greedy breaths. As soon as she felt somewhat in control again, she looked up at the moon. "Soon." She whispered softly and headed down to her training room to start yet another day. All day Sunday she spent locked in her training room and refused to allow access to the others. They could use the gym and things upstairs. Her training was harsh as so intense that she forgot that she was going to spend the afternoon with her friends. Using her VR system, she ran for miles on end in the harsh climate of a Russian winter. She followed that up with a gym routine and wouldn't stop until her legs nearly buckled underneath her and her body sang with pain from bruises and tension. She swam after that and practised launching until she literally dropped. Sweat ran in rivulets down her back and her hair had come loose sometime during her routine. Breathing heavily, she somehow managed to crawl to her meditation area and sat up. The water cascading down her shoulders and back was soothing and she knew undoubtedly that she had given it her all. Even Boris would be proud of her for that. Again, Sam could feel the darkness calling and forced herself to block it out. "Dara, how much remaining energy do I have?"

"Less than 30. Mistress, you will wipe yourself out if you continue for much longer. Please consider that before continuing with this ruthless regime you have had me create."

"Don't worry Dara, I don't plan on training any more today. I'm just going to warm down and then shower." Sam said softly before stretching out her muscles so that she didn't do more damage than was necessary. She walked into the shower and lathered soap into her hair, blanking out all thoughts and revelling in nothing. Her stomach complained as she slicked soap over the rest of her lithe frame and she smirked slightly. She had her house scan show what the other BladeBreakers were doing and found Max, Kenny and Ray were in the Library, Kai was in the Gym and Tyson was roving around toward the kitchen with a lesser heat source stalking him. "Must be the cat." Sam muttered and turned off the shower. She decided to quickly towel dry herself and dressed in cream coloured full length pants, sky blue long sleeved top and a cream coloured cardigan. She pulled a brush through her hair as an after thought; she pulled on white socks and headed up to the rest of the house. She met Tyson in the kitchen.

"Hey Sam, don't believe we got to see much of you today." Tyson said with a forced smile.

"What do you want?" Sam asked with a slight frown. Tyson rubbed the back of his neck

"Huh oh, nothing, nothing… well actually there is something…"

"Tyson, I usually only ask once and never three times. What do you want?" Sam snapped

"Well there is this girl coming over from Japan and well we were wondering…"

"If you pick her up she can stay but make sure her room is far away from mine." Sam cut his ramblings short. With a smirk she grabbed several eggs and whisked up an omelette and took it with several pieces of fruit, a pack of chips and a can of soda up the stairs to her room. Tyson simply looked on open mouthed and walked off looking like someone had hit him with a baseball bat. Sitting infront of her laptop, Sam looked up the team that they would be up against tomorrow and decided that they wouldn't need her. "Rookies" Sam muttered and almost laughed. Dyane grew warm in Sam's pocket and in contrast, Black became as cold as ice. "Seems like we are ready then." Sam murmured and polished off the food. Sam lay back on the couch and randomly threw a ball up into the air and caught it. She heard a futile oath at her door before what sounded like someone kicking it. Sam tilted her head back so that she could see the door and growled as someone tried a third time and rapped their fist sharply on the door three times. Tensed and ready, Sam gave out the code to unlock the door, waiting to face her next battle.