Taiy-Chan: I'm actually starting to work on this chapter early because my internet is screwed up and I have nothing better to do.
Thanks to all of the reviewers! You guys all rock! I hope to reach the 300 mark before this fic is done. Think I can make it?
And, BTW, from the last chapter, Sataki was Emily's bit-beast, there was some confusion about that.
Anyways, on with the chapter!
Disclaimer: Does Beyblade have a 4th season? Does Kai, Tala, and Ray get merged into one mind? No? Then I don't own it.
Chapter 14
Dreading
Thoughts, muddled and clumped, swarmed through his head. The world was spinning around him, images whirling, going so fast that they were just a blur of colours. His eyes were closed, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find the energy to open them.
Memories flew through his mind, happy times, hard times, and times where he was overwhelmed with sadness. What were all these memories before him? Where did they all come from? How could he, just one person, have gone through so much in only fifteen years? Was it even possible?
Different feelings, different opinions and thoughts. How could he have such a split personality? One minute he was happy, the next annoyed. Emotions switching every second, like the long hand on a clock. And time never stopped for him.
Suddenly, everything came to a screeching halt, thoughts, memories, images, they were all gone and he was left in the darkness of an empty dream. Lost and confused. Shadows appeared before him, three different people looking over their shoulders back at him. They were all so different, yet so much alike. Small smiles graced their angelic features as their eyes pierced through the darkness. Crimson, gold and ice blue never leaving his gaze.
But who were these people? And why were they here, stuck in the same nightmare as he?
The shadows became clearer, more colours could now be seen. Black, red and blue, crimson, gold and ice blue. Who were they?
Their smiles vanished and the darkness seemed to claw at their feet, wanting to envelope them in its black arms. But they stayed still, their eyes never leaving his, as if wanting to say something, but couldn't.
They had been through their own hell, he could tell. The way that the emotions passed through their faces, the way their eyes seemed to know far too much for such young people. They held the answers, he knew.
He reached out for them, but now they turned away. He tried to call out, tried to tell them to stop, but they just linked their hands, their shadows coming together, merging, changing, until there was only one. The last figure turned around, and he found himself staring into his own eyes.
His mirror image smiled, ice blue eyes dancing, streaked black hair twisting in a non-existent wind, dark blue tattoos marring his perfect face. His twin held out his arms to him, drawing him near, calling to him, but he hesitated. There was something wrong.
"Have to break free..."
"Can't let him win."
"Let's not give in yet."
These voices stopped him. They were so strange, yet so familiar. He didn't know what to do, nothing was making sense. His head started throbbing and he fell to his knees onto the dark floor beneath him. His double stared down at him, cold eyes narrowing, annoyance flashed across its face.
"Don't listen to him.."
He backed away from his mirror image, hands slipping on the dark ground and he fell. He couldn't get up. All his energy was gone and his twin came ever closer with each passing second. And time never stopped for him.
He closed his eyes as the boy stopped in front of him, but the voices only got louder.
"Fight it!"
"Wake up!"
"You are not who you think."
He opened his mouth in a silent scream as the pain overwhelmed him and the darkness of the dream finally covered his world like a thick blanket.
Taiy gasped and shot up, sweat trickling down his face. A warm hand held him down, however, and he was pushed back into the mattress under him.
"Taiy... Are you okay?"
His breathing was coming out fast and labored, his eyes were wide with fear but he couldn't see anything. His breath came out shorter and he struggled under the hand holding him down, muttering frantic words that were jumbled and slurred.
"Taiy, Taiy! Calm down, everything's going to be okay." a soothing voice said in a quite tone. "Shh... Take deep breaths, you're going to hyperventilate."
Bit by bit, Taiy calmed down and his breathing returned to normal. The black haired boy closed his eyes, sighing deeply. When he opened them again, ice blue met auburn and he stared, confused.
The girl beside him smiled kindly and got up from the side of his bed.
"You worried us for a bit there. You okay?" she asked.
Taiy just blinked, trying to place her familiar face.
The girl laughed.
"I'm Morgaine, remember? From the Canadian team? We found you in the hallway of the stadium, well, more like Caitlyn did. She was out to teach you a lesson about how to treat a lady but instead found you passed out on the floor." the chestnut haired girl explained, shrugging.
Taiy nodded and slowly pulled himself into a sitting position.
"I'm going to go tell the other's you've woken up. Give your self time to calm down and think things over, it looked like you had one hell of a dream back there." she said as she closed the door behind her.
Taiy sighed deeply and leant against the headrest on his huge bed. He closed his eyes for a minute, searching his mind... Then, something seemed to finally click.
"You guys?"
"Oh my God, are you two okay?"
"What happened?"
"I dunno, but I think..."
"It happened again, didn't it?"
"I think so. Our minds fused together."
"It was frightening. It felt as if... I couldn't get through to you guys, couldn't control what we were doing.. Then... We were all together, but this time, we weren't different people, we were just one..."
"That dream... I don't get it... We were facing ourselves."
"When we go up against someone in an important battle, our minds fuse together without us knowing. This creates a person who doesn't remember anything from before it happened the first time. All he knows how to do is fight, and win."
"This is getting really freaky."
"I know, it wasn't this bad the last time..."
"It's like an illness, it's going to get worse over time."
"How do you know so much, Kai?"
"Because I've thought it over, put the facts together and used the information that I already had."
"Which was..."
"That Boris had fused us together for what seemed to be no apparent reason. But now..."
"It seems as if he's just waiting.."
"For us to come to him. God damn it. When did this all get so confusing?"
"That bastard, he knew this would happen."
"What are we going to do...?"
"The only thing we can do."
"What's that?"
"Get him before he can get us."
"We only have so much time, right?"
"It's like a bomb waiting to go off, the clock ever ticking."
"And time never stops for us."
Taiy swayed as he pulled himself to his feet, stumbling the first few steps before finding his balance and heading for the door. He was still dressed in the same clothes from the tournament, the material ruffled and disordered. Running a hand through his wild hair, he reached for the doorknob and pulled it open just as someone else was about to come in.
Morgaine raised a fine brow as she looked the other teen over.
"You really shouldn't be up yet." she said, placing a hand on a slim him. "You have to rest-"
"We have to talk about what happened." Taiy interrupted in a gruff voice.
Morgaine pursed her lips together in a hard line, frowning. Finally, she sighed.
"Your choice. But don't come crying to me later." she said, slinging an arm under the boy's shoulders and helping him away from the wall.
Their teams were in the main room of the hotel suite, sitting around the TV on the plus couches laid out for them. They were all relatively quiet, some breaking the silence only to trail off and slump back in their seats.
When Taiy and Morgaine entered the room, their friends looked up. Morgaine helped Taiy seat himself on a chair before joining her team on another couch. All eyes were on the mixed boy before him.
"Just how are we going to explain this?"
"Wait, wait, wait. We're forgetting something here. Or rather someone"
"Yes. Where is Emily?"
Taiy's eyes traveled through the people sitting around him, worried faces staring back at him. Finally, his gaze landed on the small blond girl at the end of the second couch, leaning against Caitlyn.
Emily looked tired, but she kept her blue eyes opened and tried not to lean too much on her brown haired friend. Taiy could see the various bandages on her arms, probably from when she fell. But other than that and the fatigue evident in her baby blues, the girl looked fine. When she felt Taiy's eyes on her she looked up and smiled. Taiy felt a great weight lift of his shoulders.
"I... I'm sorry about the match, Emily." he said slowly.
Emily just shrugged.
"I have a feeling that you didn't really mean it." she answered.
"He better not of.." Pauline grumbled from the seat beside Morgaine.
"Taiy. Do you know why this is happening?" Kenny asked. The others nodded, they had been wondering the same thing.
"And also, what the heck is happening anyways?" Tyson said.
Taiy sighed and began his explanation.
"When Boris first merged us together, how he did that, well, it's still a mystery to us, but at the time we didn't know what his point was and what he would get out of it. At the tournament in China, when we faced against Lee of the White Tigers, it happened for the first time. We, I guess you could say, lost control. It wasn't until after the match that we actually could talk to one another again. Back then, we didn't know why it happened or what the hell happened either. It wasn't until it happened a second time, with Emily, did I finally figure it out." Taiy paused.
"Who figured it out?" Max questioned. "What I mean is, which one of you?"
"Kai."
Tyson rolled his eyes.
"Of course Mr. Know-it-all has the answers." he muttered. Hilary smacked him over the head and Taiy glared.
"Anyways," Taiy went on. "now, we know that our minds had merged together." this got shocked looks from his friends. "Our bodies were fused together, our characteristics, even our bit-beasts," he explained. "But our minds were still separate. Every time we participate in an important match, our minds come together to make a person who only knows what his name is and how to fight. Nothing else."
"So.." Pauline whispered, looking up, she said louder. "You mean to say that Boris-"
"Knew that this would happen, yes." Taiy finished. "By slowly making our minds merge, he's creating a new person, a perfect soldier, if you will. Someone that only knows how to win, and will do anything to accomplish it, and, as you have already have seen, mercy is not in his vocabulary." all eyes turned to Emily and the girl shifted uncomfortably. "We have to get Boris and get our own bodies back before it's too late." Taiy finished.
The room fell silent as the teens processed the new information. The air was thick with tension, so thick that Taiy was tempted to see if he could cut the air with a knife.
And no one made a sound.
"Fish heads, fish heads, rolley polly fish heads! Eat them up, yum!" Taiy suddenly sang, breaking the silence and shocking everyone in the room.
They stared at him and Taiy looked just as shocked as they did.
"What.. the fuck?" he muttered, eyes wide.
"Fish heads, fish heads.."
"TALA!"
"What? The silence was getting to me! I don't like awkward silences..."
"Oh, for God's sake."
"Great, now we have to explain ourselves."
"Thanks, Tala. Go and make a fool of us, whydon'tcha."
"Hey, you did it before too, ya know."
"Well at least I was on topic."
"I was too."
"...I'm just not gonna ask."
Taiy sweatdropped and smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.
"Uhh.. sorry about that..." he said. "Tala doesn't like awkward silences."
Pauline and Caitlyn started laughing and the rest just shook their heads.
"Man," Pauline sighed. "I really wish you guys could stay longer, you're almost as crazy as we are!" she giggled.
Caitlyn nodded.
"Someone just call the asylum and get it over with." Morgaine grumbled, casting her eyes heavenward.
Pauline laughed again and threw her arms around the chestnut haired girl's neck.
"But you love us anyways." she grinned.
Morgaine just rolled her eyes.
"Ya, you're leaving tomorrow for Russia, right?" Emily asked, attempting to bring back the sanity that had left the room a couple of minutes ago.
Kenny nodded.
"We leave in the morning." he said.
"But we'll keep in touch, don't worry." Hilary assured, smiling.
"Yeah!" Tyson cried. "We're celebrities, we can come to Canada any time we want to!"
The two teams laughed and rolled their eyes. Hopefully, some things will never change.
Taiy sighed as he snuggled under the blankets of his bed in the Royal York Hotel for one last time. He yawned, showing off pointed fangs. The next day they would be going to Russia, and the final stage of their journey.
"I've gotta say, I've had fun here so far."
"Do you mean in Canada or in Taiy's mind with us?"
"Both, I guess. Just think, now we can say we've done everything."
"Ya, how many people do you know who can say that they've shared a mind and body with two other people?"
"Well, I do know a couple of people-"
"Fine. How many people do you know who can say that they've shared a mind and body with two other people and are actually sane?"
"Oh, no one then."
"Well, apart from me and Kai."
"Hm? What are you talking about? You two aren't sane."
"What!"
"You are though."
"Well then, if we're not sane, they you definitely aren't."
"That's for sure."
"So? I'm proud of my insanity. I feel sorry for those who are completely sane. It's sad. Poor poor sane people."
"Yup, all those sane people never really get to live, do they 'Tal?"
"Nope."
"Give me a break."
"Aww, come on, Kai! Join our insane party!"
"No. Thank. You."
"Kai, you really gotta loosen up a bit, bud. Come on, we have drinks and sugar!"
"No you don't. We're in bed. We're supposed to be sleeping because we have to get up early tomorrow."
"Where's your imagination, Kai?"
"Let's do it the Canadian way!"
"We're going to sleep, NOW."
"Aww, party pooper!"
The next day, the members of Crazeh met up with the Bladebreakers to see them off at the airport. It was kinda emotional, but Tala just said it was because there were more girls involved. When they all said their farewells, the waved back to the Canadian team as Pauline asked, no, sorry, TOLD them to come visit them as soon as the championships were over.
Taiy smiled to himself as he sat in his seat, the plane steadily filling with people. They were almost there. Once in Russia, they could finally sort this whole mess out.
Back then, they didn't have a clue just how hard it would be.
Taiy-Chan: HOLY CRAP! Am I dreaming or did I actually updated within a week or something? Wow, that MUST be a record. The main reason is that my internet screwed and I was sick the next day, so I had a fair amount of time to work on this chapter.
Not as long as the last, but still long enough, right?
Review and make me happy! You never know! I might ACTUALLY finish this fic before Christmas! Now, is that a bad thing or a good thing?
Along with the fifteenth chapter of Beyblade F Fusion, next time I update, the fourth chapter of Because of You will be up too! So, wait for me, okay?
Taiy-Chan out!