Chapter 15

It was the sound of a spinning Beyblade that broke through Ray's sleepy conscious, forcing his amber eyes opened. Groggily he sat up. Next to him, Max woke up too, rubbing his eyes.

"Was it my imagination or did I just hear a Beyblade?" the blonde kid mumbled.

"I heard it too." Ray said. He scanned the room, noting immediately who was gone. Jade and Kai.

Then he remembered why those two would have gotten up so early. They were probably training after what happened yesterday in town. After Jade had lost to a member of the Titan Bladers from Greece.

"Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauties!" Dizzi sang. Kenny had inconveniently left her plugged to a direct power line and had left her lid open.

"Morning, Dizzi." Kenny greeted sitting up in his bed. "Morning, guys."

"Candy! I want candy!" the boy next to him shouted.

All three boys turned to look down at Tyson sprawled on the floor with sweatdrops.

Dizzi read their thoughts. "That's Tyson for you."


A Beyblade hit the bark of a tree, sending chips flying. Without slowing down, it bounced back onto the ground and zeroed in on the other blade coming at it from the other end. Both blades collided and fought back with equal determination. They pushed at each other, fighting to gain ground.

Finally they pulled apart, summoned by their owners. Kai caught his as Jade snatched her blade out of mid air and inspected it.

Still not good enough.

Kai fixed Dranzer into his launcher and held it out. "Ready?"

She copied his actions.

But before they could launch their blades, voices interrupted them.

"There you guys are." Ray said, walking up to them. "We were beginning to wonder where you two went."

"Figured you two would be out here training." Max put it.

Kai crossed his arms in front of him. "Like all of you should be?"

Max beamed. "That's why we are here."

"Except Tyson that is." Kenny added warily. He had an arm looped around Tyson's arm, dragging him towards the group while Tyson enjoyed the free ride, snacking on what's left of his breakfast. After he was done licking his fingers, Tyson planted his feet on the ground, energized to start training.

"Come on, guys." he exclaimed. "Why is everybody just standing there? We got some training to do. Let's get moving!"

From there on, Kenny pretty much took over their training. He made them run laps around the area, push-ups and sit-ups. They practiced their launching while Dizzi analyzed their launch power.

"Tell Max he needs to check his launch angle." the Bitbeast in the laptop instructed.

Kenny echoed Dizzi's suggestions. Moving on they ran through an obstacle course Kenny cooked up for them so that he may analyze their Beyblade capacities.

The training lasted the whole day. By the time they stopped, Max, Ray and Tyson were on the floor, trying to regain their energy.

"What are you trying to do, Chief? Kill us before the tournament?" Tyson gasped struggling to reach the bottle of water next to Kenny under the tree.

"Don't be ridiculous, Tyson." Kenny chastised. "This is only the light training. Wait until tomorrow to see what Dizzi and I have installed for you."

The three teens on the floor moaned.

Jade wiped her forehead with her hand. Her physical fitness was nearly as good as Kai's. To them, it was just a warm-up. "So, Chief? How was I?"

"Not bad." Kenny said as he typed into Dizzi. "There's more room for improvement. Really, compared to the others, you seemed to have no trouble at all getting through that obstacle course."

"I thought it was pretty impressive." Dizzi said.

Jade smiled secretly, a smile which no one saw except Kai. She caught his look on her and fixed her eyes to meet his with in defiant lift of her chin. "What?"

"If I didn't know any better, I would say you ran through that course before." he said.

She tilted her head innocently. "What makes you say that?"

"Just a feeling." he said. It wasn't just a feeling. He could tell by the movements of her blade, its speed and power that it had been through the obstacle course before.

She smiled mischievously. "You have feelings? That's a surprise." she shrugged. "There's a lot you can learn in the outside world if you know where to look."

He stared at her, puzzled.

"Try opening up your mind a little." she said. "It doesn't always help to think inside that ice cube you call a brain."

A frown appeared on his lips but Jade was already walking away.

Ray stepped up to Kai. "You know...that is the first time I have seen you let a girl get away with an insult."

Kai grunted, ignoring Ray. It'll be a cold day in Hell before he'll let that girl get on his nerves. It was bad enough he had those dreams to deal with.

"Kenny, can we please take a break now?" Tyson begged.


Chris stepped into the training room where he found his teammate, Megan and his sister, Juliana in a Beybattle under Nicky's watchful eye. Nessa was watching from the sidelines, calling out suggestions to Megan who was loosing bad to Juliana. Chris smiled at the sight of his baby sister, feeling proud of her. Anyone looking at them could have never guessed they were siblings. While he was born with jet black hair and dark eyes, his sister had long blond hair and innocent blue eyes. While he radiated chaos like the power of his Bit, Juliana gave out love like the power of her Bit. In some places they were known as the Yin and Yang siblings.

"Well, look who finally came home." Nessa announced looking at him.

"I went jogging. Got a problem with that?" he retorted.

"Not again." Megan wailed as her blade spun out of the Beystadium.

Juliana smiled. "That was a good fight."

But Nicky shook his head in disapproval. "Not good enough." he turned to Chris. "Where had you been?"

Chris grinned. "Out. Guess what I heard."

"Cut to the chase." Nicky said impatiently.

Nicky had never been the patient one but Chris let it off this time. "It seems Nessa has the Bladebreakers pretty shaken up."

"You were spying on them?" Juliana asked suspiciously.

He shook his head quickly. Juliana can be reasonable at time but when it comes to fairness, she's the queen. "Nuh-uh." he lied. "Heard it from a friend. Told me the Bladebreakers are training their butts off just to beat us."

Nessa smirked. "Good. Nice to know they're taking us seriously."

"Hm...If the Bladebreakers are training then we should too." Nicky said.

"Come on, Nicky. Those kids are as good as done once we're through with them." Chris said.

"We don't need to train to beat them." Nessa said.

Their captain glared sharply at her. "Just because you beat one of them doesn't mean we're guaranteed to win. May I remind you the only reason you won was because you had Poseidon and she had a fire Bitbeast." he turned to regard the whole team now. "I'm not going to lose just because we underestimated our opponents. Do you understand me?"

They nodded, well aware for their leader to acknowledge the opposing team doesn't happen very often.

Then Nessa coughed. "I still think we're ready for them."


"Okay, overall I think we are pretty much ready to face the Titans." Kenny announced to the team after dinner.

"Awesome!" Tyson exclaimed. "We'll finish the Titans off so fast they won't even know what hit them!"

They sat on the couch in front of the blazing fire in the fireplace, trying to get the best of the comforting heat radiating from the flames. There were only four of them for Jade had retired to bed early as soon as Max suggested a game of Truth or Dare. Kai had gone outside to train. Tyson had called him crazy but the bluenette had ignored him the same way he ignored Ray's concern suggestion to put on a windbreaker. Italy could get cold at nights. Kai went out all the same.

"Yeah." Max agreed. "We'll beat them as a team and avenge Jade's lost."

The Bladebreakers nodded their agreement unaware that their voices carried through the walls that separated both rooms.

Jade lay on her side, staring at the wall but not really seeing it. She had heard what Max said and she was surprised.

Did they actually think her as one of them even if it's only temporary?

Even if she didn't?

She held Draizer closer to her, recalling what she told herself what seemed like a long time ago when she stood on a rooftop looking out at the vast field of light below her.

Friends will get you hurt...or you will....

My past will....

Tears stung her eyes but she forced them away. In her hand, Draizer glowed faintly reaching out to comfort her.

Rolling on her back she held out the blade to the pale light spilling in from the open window. The light bounced off the attack ring.

There has been improvement in Draizer's performance since she joined the team. She didn't want to think it was because of them or some other possible reason that had something to do with being in a team.

Does it? she wondered.

Even then....

She gazed at Draizer thoughtfully.

It isn't enough...


The two mornings before the tournament, they found a note on the breakfast table along with a plate of pancakes for everyone. Kenny read the note aloud.

"Gone out to take care of something. Enjoy the pancakes." it said. "Signed, Jade"

"Is this her way of a peace offering?" Kai grumbled.

"Well...it's hard to get angry with her with something like this." Ray commented staring at the mouthwatering pancakes.

"Basically I guess there's nothing we can do but accept her offering before-" Kenny started to say when a blur shot passed him.

"PANCAKES!" it screamed before it lunged at the pancakes on the table.

"Tyson wakes up." Kenny finished his sentence lamely.

They stared at a very happy Tyson gobbling up the pancakes.

"Guess I better start whipping up more pancake for the rest of us." Ray started for the kitchen cabin with a resigned sigh. He opened it and found a note inside. He took it out with a confused look and read it.

"What's it, Ray?" Max asked seeing the grin on Ray's face.

Kai took the note from Ray and read it silently.

'There are plenty more pancakes in the oven for the rest of you, knowing Tyson...'

Max and Kenny read the note over Kai's shoulders and they shared Ray's grin as they looked at Tyson.

Minutes later, Kai sat calmly at the table, drinking a cup of hot tea while Max, Ray and Kenny barred the front door shut with Tyson screaming for them to let him in on the other end.

"Come on, guys! This isn't funny!" Dragoon's master yelled from outside. "I need my food!"

"You need to control your diet!" Kenny snapped back.

"Sorry, buddy. But the rest of us has to eat." Max said.

"We save you some." Ray promised. Then he added quietly "At least we'll try."

Max had already taken the pancakes out of the oven and ignoring Tyson outside, they dug in.

"Yummy." Max exclaimed.

Ray sighed in satisfaction. "You can say that again, Max."

"A champion's breakfast." Kenny agreed.

"And for once we don't have to worry about our food going missing." Ray said.

Max offered a plate of pancakes to Kai. "Try it, Kai. Jade makes the best pancakes."

Kai shook his head. "No thanks."

"Come on, Kai." Ray said. "It's not like she poisoned it. If not we'll all be dead right now."

Kai caught the meaning behind Ray's words and with a sigh he accepted the food. He ate little, admitting to himself it tasted good.

"Hey, guys... is it just me or... has Tyson grown quiet?" Max suddenly asked.

They came to realized that too. Suddenly there was a loud thump above them. Kenny gasped loudly. "That better be not what I think it is."

As if to answer him, something fell in from the chimney and landed in the living room along with a lot of soot.

"Hah!" Tyson declared proudly. "I'm in!"

"Tyson!" they shouted angrily at the soot covered boy sitting in the fireplace.

Only now did Tyson realize maybe climbing down the chimney wasn't such a good idea after all. For one thing, he dirtied the place pretty bad. The second, his teammates looked like they were going to strangle him any minute now. And third, there were no more pancakes left

"You and chimney, Tyson." Kai mused later as he helped Tyson and Kenny clean up the mess Tyson made. "What's it with you?"

"It's not my fault Robert's trapdoors lead down a chimney!" Tyson protested.

"You had to go gallivanting all over his mansion." Kenny lectured. "At least Robert had a butler to clean up the mess you made..."

While they were busy cleaning up the living room, Max and Ray were cleaning the dishes in the kitchen.

"Hey, Maxie. I'm gonna need your help in something." Ray said lowering his voice to a whisper.

Max looked confused but all the same, tries his best to help. "Sure, Ray. What's it?"

"It's kinda private." Ray said quietly hoping Kai wouldn't hear him. If he did then Ray was dead.

Max listened to Ray and as he did, the grin that appeared on his face grew wider.


Crimson eyes opened to a world of darkness as he found himself unable to sleep. The thought of the up-coming tournament rested heavily on Kai's shoulders. He knew Kenny didn't want Jade to battle Nessa again in fear of wasting the tournament but something in Jade's dark green eyes told him that battle was hers no matter what.

Silently he rosed from bed casting a glance at the other occupants of the room and realized Jade had yet to return.

That girl is so dead when she gets back.

He let out a soft frustrated sigh as he grabbed Dranzer on the table with the other blades and left the room as silent as a shadow.

He heard a swirl of a blade as he opened the front door. "Huh?"

A figure was standing in front of the chalet, watching a blade streak across the grass. Hearing him approach, the figure turned and he could make out Jade in the pale light offered by the moon.

"Kai..." she said softly. Draizer flew into her palm and she caught it.

He stared at her. "A little late to be training, don't you think?"

She chuckled, slipping her blade into her pocket. "Speak for yourself. What are you doing up so late?"

"Couldn't sleep." he answered shortly. "Did you just get back?"

"Didn't know you care." she replied.

"Just answer my question."

"Depends. What'll you say if I told you 'yes, I just got back.'?" she asked carefully.

"Well, did you?" he cocked an eyebrow as he continued to glare at her.

"With you giving me that look, I would have to say...um... no." she smiled innocently. Her lips shifted into a heart-crushing pout.

He snorted. "Not getting to me." he informed her. He tried to ignore the look in her pleading eyes and found he couldn't. She never looked so cute. It made him want to laugh. Kai covered up those strange feelings with a grunt. "Where did you go?"

Her face changed, dropping the innocent act becoming serious and guarded. It made him wonder which the real Jade was and which was the mask she wore. "Why would you care?"

"I'm team captain. I have the right to know considering how late you got back." he said coldly.

She looked as if she was considering her options to tell him. Finally all she said was "Had to see a guy about a Beyblade." she said with a wave of her hand. "Just claiming a favor. Goodnight."

He watched her as she left. He thought over the carefully guarded answers she had given him and frowned.