Disclaimer: If you're looking for the disclaimer, read chapter one.

A/N:

-This is the last chapter of Open Wound; it was fun at first, very, but once I started Black Dusk it got hard to find inspiration because it was boring and kiddy compared to my other story. I'm not sure if it came out any good, but regardless here's the last chapter of Open Wound.

Chapter7:

The Saint Shields stopped, realizing they had rached a dead end. "Damn!" Dunga sweared. Ozuma remained still, examining the situation. "If the others were caught, Boris would be boasting on the intercom. I think it's safe to find the others.

Mariam sighed, "How can we? This place is like a labyrinth." Joseph nodded. "We'll never find our way out of here." Dunga growled angrily. "I am not gonna rot and die in this place! It's so..." he muttered some profanity under his breath.

"Cool it guys. Don't any of you remeber the story of the minotaur?" Ozuma questioned. "You mean that freaky bull thing with talons, and a snake tail, and--" Mariam began. "The point is, we'll just use something to mark our path. It's a gamble. A guard could find it, but we can't help the Bladebreakers if we're lost. So, anyone got a plan?"

Mariam grinned. "You came to the right girl!" Mariam removed a ball of green thread from her cloak and threw it onto the ground. Dunga and Ozuma stared a her. "Why do you have yarn?" They chorused. Mariam turned scarlet under her cloak.

"Well, um, you see...what I mean is.." Joseph cut off her rambling. "She was probably sewing something for her boyfriend, Maxy." he mocked giddily. "SHUT UP!" Mariam's voice echoed menacingy. Joseph cowered behind Dunga. "Get up." Ozuma commanded and Dunga followed Mariam down a path. "We have a long way to go."

Joseph stared into his leaders eyes. They were solemn. "That's not what's got you so worked up." Ozuma sighed. "You know me too well, Joseph. The thing is, this is Boris' labyrinth, and somewhere, I bet the minatour is lurking.."

-

"So where do you think we are?" Mariah's voice questioned from the dark hall. "Don't know." Lee responded. I know where we are. Lost." Kevin interjected. "That's not a place, is it?" Gary questioned. "Don't be silly, Gary, Kevin's just stupid." Mariah giggled.

"Hey! Watch it! You're the stupid one!"

"No, you're stupid! You couldn't tell the difference between a donkey or an ass!"

"You idiot! They're the same thing!"

"You would know, seeing as how you are one!"

"Will you two quit quarlling? This is no place for sibling rivalry. Did you forget why we're here?" The two siblings hung their heads in shame. "We're here to find Klara and reclaim Dranzer." they echoed dully.

"Right. Now let's not waste any more time."Lee comanded. The team continued down the hall in silence, the darkness none too comforting.

-

Oliver muttered darkly under his cloak. He was really getting on Robert's nerves. "Fine, Oliver! If you shut up about how it 'clashes with your style' then you can take off the cloak!" he growled. Oliver whooped with glee, flinging off the musty garment and allowing it to hit the floor, stirring up dust in its wake.

Enrique sighed in frustration. "This is pointless, Robert! We're lost, we're tired, and we could run into an enemy at any minute. Why don't we just turn back and get outta here!" Robert turned his stern gaze upon the unfortunate speaker.

"Because, my forgetful friend, we made a promise, and one that I intend to keep. We are not leaving here till we find Dranzer, and destroy everything that has to do with Biovolt's foul name. Understand?" Robert barked.

A dull murmur of understanding was emitted from the team, before they continued silently down their path.

-

The large blade hung above their heads, ready to strike. Brian stood frozen to the spot, Tala leaning upon his shoulder. Tala's lips opened, yet only a hoarse crack was released. Klara looked at Kai, and could see the hatred and anger in his eyes. And again, she felt her old self returning.

But she was quick to forget this, remebering Boris, the root of all their pain and suffering. Kai was not her enemy. He may not have been her friend, but he was indeed an ally. Klara clenched her teeth, unable to allow them to die so needlessly.

"DUCK!" she roared.

Rei veered backwards, able to see the blade descending upon their heads. He wheeled back furiously, tackling Kai and Tyson, and bringing Kenny and Zeo down with his arms, and tripping Max.

The weapon cut through the air, its metallic hum echoing in the corridors. Kai rose steadily to his feet. "So this is the true Boris, huh? Figures you'd be mad enough to experiment on yourself." Kai dodged a swing.

"Are you going to swing that freak-show arm of yours all day, or do you want your henchmen to do the dirty work?" Kai casted a hateful glance towards Tala, Bryan, and Klara. "Them?" Boris responded. "I was just on my way to exterminate these pest." Kai spat on Boris. "Got tired of them, wanted new ones? That's the sorta sick bastard you are!"

Kai rushed in blindly, flinging his hands out for protection, as his body hurtled into Boris. He staggered backward, skinning Kai off and resuming his attack.

"Where's Dranzer?" Rei snarled, delivering one of his kicks. "Tell us!" Tyson had loaded Dragoon.

A grin creeped its way onto Boris' face. "I don't know. Ask, her." Boris point a long crooked arm at Klara. No sooner had he, thta Kai was upon her. "Where's Dranzer! I don;t want games! Tell me where--" Klara opened her outstretched palm, revealing her beyblade, Dranzer's bit on its front.

"You're giving it to me?" Kai murmured, unsure.

"It's what you want, isn't?" she said, her voice unchanging and flat.

"Y-yes, but I expected a strug--" Klara snapped.

"It's yours, so take."

Tears pour romKlara's eyes as she turned and left Kai, who's expression was one of bewilderment. He looked from the helpless expression of Tala to Bryan, and back. "What's going on?" Kai said, unsure. Tala tore his misty eyes away from Klara weeping on the floor.

"Kai," Tala said weakly, a trickle of blood passing over the already dry blood on his lips. He cast his gaze towards Boris, who was still dealing the rest of the Bladebreakers. Tala emmited a weak sough, the hatred and disgust clear on his face. "There's something you should know."

-

Kai's eyes hardened at his gained knowledge. Built up anger overflowed and gushed forward at the thought of his own memories, manipulated by the disgust excuse of a cyborg named Boris.

"Boris! You think... you think you have the damn right? The right to mess with our lives, our own memories!"

Kai glanced at his own blade, then down at Klara's as it glowed, Dranzer's red spirit released from her own beyblade and shifted to his. He smirked as he glanced at his bit, whispering under his breath, "Welcome back, Dranzer."

His gaze turned frm once again as he gazed at the monstrosity defending itself from the other Bladebreakers, easily shaking them off and tossing them aside, allowing there bodies to crashing against the walls.

"You fools honestly believe you ca ndefeat me? Me, the ultimate cyborg, the creator of bitbeast, the harnesser of all power? You fools think that you can conquer a being as powerful as myself!"

Kai loaded Dranzer to his launcher, pointing it directly at Boris' chest. "Yes, we do."

Boris could not help but release a mirthless laugh. "Kai, ever the persistent one. You had such talent. Both you and Klara."

"Don't talk to me like that, you bastard. Dranzer!"

Dranzer launched from his launcher, whizzing through the air like a dart as it sped toward Boris, bouncing harmlessly off his reinforced armor.

"You're a fool Kai. You always were. Come back to us, and we can teach you so much more than you know."

"Thanks, but I'll pass. Dranzer!"

The blade ricocheted off the opposite wall, cutting through the air as it slammed into Boris' face, ripping the remainig flesh from his being. "I see there's no changing your mind. That's a shame, Kai. So much talent, put to waste."

There was the sound of a metallic pump as both of Boris' blade-like arms lifted off their sockets, two more arms emerging from them, the ends rounding in a cylindrical machine. They vibrated as a ghostly wail seemed to fill the room, screeching as it filled the ears of every being present. The bit-chips seemed to glow as theit spirits were extraced, wandering from the chips as they were taken into Boris' body.

"No! Driger!"

"Cerberus! You can't go too!"

"An unlimited power source, to secure my existance." A smile crossed Boris' face. "And your moans of grief only empower me more."

The moan of their owners chorused as one voice as Boris' absorded their powers. Kai threw a frantic glance towards Dranzer as it glowed a faint red, wobbling as Dranzer struggled to resist.

"No! You're not taking Dranzer!"

The glow faded as Dranzer's spirit dropped back into the bit, his blade steadying itself. "We're not going, not without a fight!" The gleam of each bitbeast seeming to envelop his form.

"When I have the power of nearly every bitbeast in this room? You are a fool."

Boris' cylindrical arms trembled, the ends closing and allowing five sharp claws to emerge and join, forming a drill-like weapon. "It's a shame you'll die."

He charged, slapping away Dranzer as it attempted to defend claw. He tackled Kai, both of them colliding to the ground as he shoved one of his drill-like weapons into Kai's waist, forcing him ot cry out in pain.

"Is the pain enoguh? Are you ready to give in Kai?"

Kai struggled to gurgle words through mouth, quickly filling with blood.

"Not in your wildest dream, Boris'."

Boris' clenched his teeth in anger. "Will you just give in, you can't win Kai! You alone, outmatched, and outpowered!" With every word, Boris cut at Kai's face with each of his two blade-arms, goading the blood the trickle along his face, running down his head and drenching his hair crimson.

A chuckled was emmited from his grinning mouth as his blood-soaked hair matted against his face.

"You don't get it, Boris. I may be weak by myself, but together, we can take you down anytime. Even now, because I'm not alone."

"Kai's right." Rei struggled to his feet, wheezing as he did so. "He has us. All of us."

The rest of the Bladebreakers rose as well, though admittedly, fairly weak and exhausted. Boris laughed.

"Four weak teens and their misguided leader? How touching." He drove his blade deeper and smiled at Kai's pained grimace. He screamed in pain.

"Dranzer!"

The top has long stopped spinning, the blade itself broken and shattered, except for the bitbeast, being the only untouched piece. It trembled, shaking with an unseen force as it rolled back and forth upon the ground.

"What the hell are you doing!" Boris' voice sounded urgent as he drove his weapon further still. This was a fatal mistake. Dranzer's beyblade tremored, cracked as a red gleam of light escaped from the faults in the quickly fragmenting top. The vibrating stop, and the blade stood still.

"Hmph. A show of nonexistant power. Now, if I believe, I was about t-"

-Clang!-

Klara pounced upon Boris' back, gripping in her hands a metal pipe as she beat at his back. He roared, flinging her off easily so thjat she collided violently with a wall, a slouched upon the floor.

"Klara!"

Kai found himself calling her name in worry, as she glanced up at him with blood stained upon her face. She rose again, taking the pipe within her hands, and again Boris disposed of her violently.

"Klara, what are you doing!"

She glanced up from the blood stained floor, her grey eyes overflowing with tears as she struggled upright.

"Atoning."

She limped weakly towards him, flinging the bent pipe, before it shattered upon Boris' hard exoskeleton. Klara collapsed to the floor as Bois rose from Kai's bleeding form.

"You poor, misguided child."

Klara snarled. "Get away from me! Misguided? You've misguided me for four years of my life! Wasted, here! Don't tell me I'm misguided now!"

Boris' uppermost blades retracted, turning instead into hands. He gripped Klara in his cold arms. "It's alright now," he said, willing her to glare into his eyes. "I'm going to make everything better."

"No!" She sobbed, strugglin weakly to break free. "Not again!"

Kai watched, his own blood staining his hands as she sruggled to free herself from Boris' control. He felt her pain, her misery, her suffering, and soon found a clear tear of making its way down his cheek. He had seen enough.

"Dranzer!"

Dranzer's blade erupted, its metal fragment shower the room as a red burts of light exploded from its contents, illuminating the room. He screeched, his shrill call filing the room as he swooped downward, throwing Boris from lara's being as he rescued her, before turnig to Kai.

He glanced up in shock, finding both himself and Klara resting upon Dranzer's breast, each embraced in one wing. Visablly their wounds sealed as they rested in its warm clasp.

"D-Dranzer?" Kai stuttered in surpirse.

It nodded.

"What're you-?" Klara's soft voice eached Kai's ears.

Both teens gazed into the phoenix's eyes, and both nodded in acknowledgement.

"We... understand."

Boris rose weakly, his armor dented and cracked from Dranzer's assault. "You fools DARE to defy me! A being almighty!" Dranzer waved one aura-like wing lazily, prompting a glow from within Boris. "What are you doing, you retched bird! I'll destroy you-"

One spirit sprang forth, taking the form of a cougar as it disappeared into the light surrounding kKlara. Tears of joy sprang from Klara's eyes.

"Cougara. I never stopped hoping, never stopped believing you were alive..."

Kai placed one hand upon Klara's, impelling her to look up in surpise, and nod through her tears at his statement.

"Klara, let's end this, for good."

The sacred spirits within Boris combusted, springing forth in a shower of light as they envoked their rath upon him, tearing at his flesh and armor alike, till it fell, tattered, to the floor.

Boris collasped to his knees, weakened as the blitzkrieg bitbeast departed, not for their bits, but instead to envelop both Klara and Kai, enshrouding them in a sea of light as their entire beings transmuted into another.

They watched fascinated as Dranzer's red feathers themselves disappeared, paling to a bleach white as the phoenix faded into their backs, leaving instead only its white wings, tipped with gold. The swathing aura of bitbeast quelled, taking up one form of residence as they assimilated themselves into both teens' being.

Klara and Kai found themselves embraced, their eyes pools of white, seemeing to contain such force and power that their sockets craved to crack and burst. Blanketed in a cloth of snowy, translucent white, their feathered wings like doves, their aura pure.

Boris peered fearfully into Klara's eyes, and then Kai's trembling as they seemed to bore into him, unflinching.

"Now do you see it, Boris?" Kai cried, his voice an echo of potency, defined as each bitbeast within them. "This is pure power, in its quintessential form."

He waved one arm, the force of thei combined power exerting itself upon Boris, sending him colliding into the wall as they drifted toward him, descending slowly till their feet reached the ground.

"Boris, this battle is one sided." Klara boomed, her voice mirroring Kai's. "There is no hope for your triumph, no probability that you can emerge the victor. Your fate is now predetermined."

She clenched one spectral-like fist, before thrusting it into Boris' central chest cavity. "Your heart, made metal from flesh, no longer beats, so why should you continue to exist?"

See ripped her hand outward, revealing the metallic pump, working vigourously as it attempted to pump both blood and oil, little of its structure actual flesh. Kai placed hs own hand upon it.

Boris gripped his chest in both shock and pain, wheeling over inept. Kai took one disgusted glance, before they shattered the fusion of metal and flesh in one squelech, allowing its gruesome contents to spill to the floor.

"We, the Sacred Spirits, have deemed your existance unfit!" A swirl of light enveloped Klara and Kai's joined form as the spirits dispersed, returning to their respective beyblades.

"Your pertinent end has been justified!"

In a dull roar of splendor, they were left two lone figures as they collapsed to the ground, exhausted and strained. Immeadiately, Kai's teammates rushed to his aide.

"Kai!" It was Tyson, only he could have an annoying voice so loud. "Are you alright? You had me freaked out there, buddy!" Kai opened one eye to find his team staring at him intently, worry etched across their faces. He smiled.

"Tyson... shut up."

There was a sigh or relief at his relatively routine insult. Rei slipped beneath Kai's right arm, acting as support she lifted him allowing him to lean upon him. "Take it easy. We don't want you collapsing again." His anxious expression melted away with a grin as he handed Kai his bit. "And it looks like Dranzer will be just fine, too."

"You're all fools."

The group tunred in shock at the inert form of Boris upon the floor, his brittle face now cracked and breaking, blood and oil splattered upon his creased lips, yet still he managed a weak laugh.

"That heart," he sputtered, coughing up blood-mix oil. "My heart, is the control unit for this entire factory. And it's rigged to self-destruct upon its own destruction. This entire place is about to blow, sky high."

He managed one more maniacal laugh, before it faded into silence, the last glow of red in his artificial eye disappearing as the deafening alarm sounded again. Kai clenched his teeth weakly as a sign of rage.

"Damn you, Boris. Even in death you're still taunting me."

"What are we going to do?" It was the first time Max had spoken since they had reached Biovolt.

"If you want to live, then you'll run."

Max tunred his head in suprise to see Klara's back fading away into the dark corridor, Tala, leaning on upon her. She turned, casting a fleeting glance.

"If you're worried about your friends, don't be. They'll make it out alive. Biovolt's programmed to reveal several hidden passages upon self-destruct. They're pretty numerous, so if they're not deaf and smart, they'll take them." She turned, continuing to walk with the limping Tala by her side. Kai outsretched a bruised arm.

"Klara, wait!"

She stopped. "Why'd you-?"

"It just.. felt like something I had to do..."

Her expression remained blank as Kai smiled.

"Thank you. You've given an old wound a chance to finally heal."

A small smile broke out upon the corner of her lips. "No, thank you for freeing me from a prison I was never aware of."

She motioned for Kai's team to follow, and they did.

-

The Bladebreakers, accompanied by Klara, Brian and Tala, watched from across the street as the museum collapsed in upon itself, the sun sinking lazily under the horizon. Tyson grinned excitedly as he watched the other teams emerge from the emergency exits, covered in soot and scratches.

"Ozuma, Lee, Robert! You guys are okay!"

Ozuma clenched a fist and delt Tyson a playful blow. "No thanks to you!"

"I concur." Robert complained, whipping dirt from his shirt. "Don't expect to call upon the Majestics for any more favors, Tyson. You pretty much wasted our day."

But Robert! It wasn-!"

"Tyson, I'm afraid the White Tigers agree. It's not our style."

"You guys can't be serious!"

Robert flickd out his cell phone. "Very. Either way, I'm calling for my private helicopter. I want to get back to my yacht. You guys can go back in the helicopter you flew in on."

Within minutes, all three teams had dispersed and had left the Bladebreaks alone, say for Klara and the remaining Demolition Boys. Kai watched them, concerned.

"Where will you guys go?"

Tala motioned for Klara to put him down, allowing him to rest against the brick wall she was leaning on. "Somewhere nice and quiet... where we don't have to worry about the rest of the world."

Brian smiled at the glowing warmth of the sun as the wind billowed in his face. "Yeah. Sounds about right." Tala attempted to struggle upright on his own, immediately prompting Klara to come to his aid.

"Will we see you guys again?"

Klara nodded. "Of course, there's still a Championship Title with my name on it, isn't there?"

Kai smiled. "You'll have to go through me-" Tyson leaned heavily on his shoulder, "-I mean us, to get there."

His smile was mirrored. "I look forward to that, Kai."

They turned, departing down the street as their backs faded into the setting sun. Kai's smile broadened at the prospect.

"I'll look forward to it, too, Klara."

-End Story-

A/N:

-That's the final chapter. Lookng back at it, I think I like how it came out. Not how I imagined, but still fairly good. :P

-Well, Author Notes at the end of a story are pretty much always akward for me so, that's it.