The last few hours flashed by in inconsistent memories of coming out of the pitch blackness and falling again into the slumber was everlasting. The time flew by without Katyusha's consciousness. But when she reopened her eyes, she knew time was the least concerning thing among the actuality of her situation.

After working hard for so long, Katyusha's eyes flickered open ever so slightly to see where she was. Her eyelashes fluttered on her skin as she blinked innumerable times to get her eyes to open well for her to make sure of her condition and whereabouts. As she squinted through the pain, she could see the various shades of blue displayed in front of her. She let her eyes drink in the view, giving it enough time for it to process through her mind. She had not shifted from one place to another, it seemed.

Previously when she had been able to open her eyes, she had spotted Psykicks running around in this room, minding their own business. She had been able to roll on her stomach to look closely at her atmosphere. Even in the daze, she had been able to spot the familiar pattern of colours. The grey and black stood bold, while the neon lights bursting from the experimenting utensils glowed low and steady.

Katyusha attempted to sit up in a seated position. Only then she realized her feet were held by into a stone-like structure. Her legs reflected pale against the transparent crystal blocking her leg into space. That's when the realization hit her as she looked at her hands in the same condition. The blocks were heavy enough for her to use all her core power to move them from one place to another. No other forms of security seemed to trap her in. But who knew this was enough for her to have a panic attack.

The most logical explanation she could think of was that the Psykicks knew what they were doing. Looking at all the possible ways they have trapped her by now. The barriers, blocking Kai and her together. The bag over her head, and now this. It was no way a pile of coincidence after coincidence. Any person's first thought of conduct would be following around tying a rope or putting them in a position where they were not able to move. It won't ever be placing a box on someone's hand. Not until to trap them in a pattern that can affect the victim. Or maybe if they didn't have ropes.

Whoever was behind the reappearance of Psykicks, they weren't playing around this time either. The last time they had targeted Blade Breakers, the conducting system, the research and observation was even more detailed than All Starz. But the possibility of her weakness revealed was next to impossible. It was rarely ever openly displaced on the front. It had been years since the last attack took place. It was in front of the Bladebreakers but the Pyskicks couldn't know about it. So how did they get to know about something so personal?

Even though seeing someone's fear wouldn't be very hard, but she doubted it was mere guessing from their side. The amount of effort they put into putting her in a trapped situation was huge enough for it to be based-off on a mere hunch. Or she can have been overthinking the situation. Maybe it was just a very consecutive coincidence.

Katyusha sighed. Sad as it is, even in the situation of a life-threatening condition, her mind can still have the time to overthink. Whatever, Katyusha thought. Let's see where this goes before getting to conclusions.

Katyusha willed herself to concentrate the flow of blood to her hands and legs. The only way she could get these blocks destroyed was by using her powers. With drowena locked between her pant pockets, she had to get another way to remove the blocks. She felt the nerves draw in as the energy started to grow around her wrist and ankles. With her eyes closed, head bend Katyusha let her powers twist and form a hammer kind of structure inside her mind. Detailing the weapon she was forming in her mind, the ice figure started to penetrate through the block around her ankles and arms. The white light which had begun to cover her mind diminished as the weapon broke through her binds. Ray of neon purple light burst through the bands, blinding her already aching eyes.

First, the binds around her wrist came out. The strength of the material enclosing her wrists was much looser compared to that in her legs. Katyusha was sure these precautions were taken for keeping her from walking. But with her weakened state, she doubted she could take actions. Even before the use of her power, claustrophobia had made it hard to breathe.

The major disadvantage of her powers was power consumption and the light emitted while performing magic. With practice, the power consumption can be tolerable but the light only gets brighter as the magic expand. She again dragged her attention to problems.

Other than on her hand and leg, she couldn't see any attachments to the floor or wall behind her. she could positively get up and find a way out. She kicked aside the broken pieces of blocks spilt due to the non-uniform blasting of the material.

But for some reason, this seemed too easy for any escape, at least for a person with such powers. Risking kidnapping in front of someone but later leaving the victim to herself unattended didn't sit well with her.

Possible sensors could alarm her movement. Maybe it was much complex than merely tying her up in her position like shooting her with electricity. But she wasn't going to get the answer if she continued to hesitate. Trying is all available. Who would save her but if she did get electric shook if her suspicion proved her right?

Oh right, the people who kidnapped her. The sole purpose couldn't be only to kidnap and keep her like a monument in a hidden place. Even for bribing anyone, they need the victim in proper condition for any reason. Or not. She could expect at least that much from Psykicks. And again, they would not kill her off this early. Or so, she would like to believe.

Katyusha pulled one leg at a time, helping herself stabilize on her leg. Her leg seemed to be in a better condition than she had suspected. The harm done was directed towards her mind, not body, Katyusha reminded herself. She took turns shaking her arms, legs as quickly as possible. She needed to start working her body fast before anyone came in.

When she had ensured every part of her body was in a reliable condition, Katyusha proceeded to move forward.

First step. Nothing. Not a movement was heard other than Katyusha's racing heartbeats. With years of training, her light-footed step was much softer. It seems that the years of training couldn't help her heart. With a sigh, she got control over her raging breathing pattern again.

Katyusha took another step. The silence sustained. She willed for the silence to remain the same.

With the third step, the silence broke into shrieking sirens. The alarm went off from all around Katyusha. The noise reflected against the walls around her, confusing the source of the signal.

Katyusha spun around to recheck once again if there was anything that caused her the problem. She couldn't spot a single. There was nothing in front of her nor was she bound to something for her movements to be detected.

Her thoughts were broken down by approaching guards. She counted them mentally. Four guards from her eastern exit. From where she stood, she could see more paths in front of the opening. While her attention stuck on the door, four more had guards came in from the southern doorway. All the eight guards were outfitted in the Team Psykick uniform.

She didn't doubt she could take down the guards approaching her, but they didn't give her the scary people vibe. Guess she could use her energy for her brain to get the information she had wanted.

"Look who is awake. The lil mice were trying to run away, it seems." A young girl approached Katyusha. She looked a few younger than herself.

Katyusha gritted her teeth. Another victim of the Psykicks.

Years before when the Bladebreaker's had first encountered the Psykicks, many people were sacrificed to the Psykicks for a similar cause. To defeat the Bladebreaker and steal their bit beast. In the end, it had ended well enough for most of them. The period of such brutality displayed on young kids made her heartache differently. She couldn't understand why they brought this upon themselves.

The girl pushed Katyusha back a little, shoving her against the wall as she closed the in. Katyusha let in a struggle. She had to make them believe she is vulnerable. The wall hit her head, producing an unexpected gush of blood from the back of her head. The blood slipped beneath her t-shirt, chilling on her skin. Katyusha tried relaxing her composure before they see through the cracks in her body language. Pretty contradictory to what she was aiming for before, but she wasn't planning to use real fear to deal with this situation. She needed an answer before she lost her mind over thanks to her fear of the unknown.

"How did you.." Katyusha started in a small voice, "How did you..bind me here?"

The girl jerked her face up, catching her gaze with her own, "Don't play dumb, Katyusha. You would better than anyone what this is, isn't it?" The girl's face split into a predatory smirk.

It shouldn't be possible. It was not going right. How would someone know about this? No one-

Before her mind could process further into the meaning of this unexpected meeting, someone entered through the door once again. Rather than someone, it was...something. Her vision got blurry, fogging up right in front of her eyes. The next thing she knew, the room exploded into chaos, the room sung with shouts and barks. Wait for a second, barks? How? She rapidly blinked, trying to make the white lens covering her eyes get removed somehow. Blinding light burst through the room, definitely not helping the eyes.

After a few minutes of rubbing and blinking the eyes, the sight came back to the functional level. The scene unfolded in front of Katyusha was terrifying enough for her. It had been someone else, the possibility of them fainting from plain shock. The guards were fighting against a large dog. Wait, not a dog, a wolf. Not even a-

The dog-wolf was switching between animal forms.

It happened at such a speed it was next to impossible to follow. On top of that, the wolf-dog was chasing down the guards, lashing and sweeping from below their feet. The place burst into various shades of chaos. Three guards stood their ground and tried attacking the creature coming at them, but it turned into waste. The girl who had been by her side till the last moment fled for her life. The other guards followed suit and chased out of the examination room.

Seeing the opportunity, Katyusha took off towards the main crowd of people. She stopped right in front of the beast, hindering his view of the guards right behind her. At the sight of Katyusha, the guards ran away. She brought back her attention to the beast in front of her. On all fours, the beast stood there staring right into her soul with a fake intensity. There was no depth to the gaze it held. It had all been to make the bad guys scared. Katyusha sighed.

On the spot, the beast transformed into a young man. The two-coloured hair strayed in every direction, dressed up in the same outfit as the Psykicks. If she hadn't known him better, she would be given running away a thought too. With his harsh lines, sharp features, terrifyingly tall built and fierce-looking eyes, he was intimidating. Katyusha reached out a hand and patted his head. His demeanour melted away.

"Look who came," Katyusha said with a smile. Therese looked back at her and shared the gesture, patting her head. Therese had been one of the closest people to her since the time they had first met. When Jake had first introduced Therese to the team, Katyusha had assumed it had been for his unfiltered interest in the boy, but with time Therese showed more potential than ever before. After she had left the Black Muse's side six years ago to hunt down a good competition for her debut in the beyblading world as a soloist, she had never seen the extent to which his natural abilities had grown. Today, she was reminded again of the reason behind Jake choosing him as a member of their team again. The swift shift between the two animal form was hard enough without any opponents. With the number of people he faced at the moment, it was shocking how easily he had delivered each stance without a show of weakness.

She was struck with terror if he was here then-

"Who all came with you?" Katyusha asked, her voice dripping with the feelings.

Therese face tensed. She knew the answer already. "Where is he?"

"He went off alone before we even decided to partner off with someone."

She released an exhausted gasp. She took a step away from Therese before he caught her arms, stopping her right on track. She flinched under the grip. The hold wasn't strong. Due to the skin blistered, hurt flashed. She hadn't noticed this one before.

"What?"

"Stick with me. You can't go off alone. At least not with the Pskicks ready to hunt you down."

"I can protect myself."

"Yeah, I saw how you could."

Katyusha pulled her hand away from his grip. "I know it doesn't seem right. Please believe me. I knew it all along Psykicks were going to come after me soon. And judging from what I saw, you guys knew it too what Psykicks are after, right?"

Therese bit his lips, giving away the answer. Katyusha had wondered for a minute why he wasn't with Lyn to help him remove the memories of the fight. Therese had used his powers in front of the people. He had broken the law of secrecy. Even after the transformation, the guards hadn't seemed to be terrified of him due to his appearance. But more because he attacked them. The initial surprise was shown by most of them, but no one seemed confused. They seem more disgusted by the animal's presence.

That's when she realized. They were the monsters here. For everyone around her, she was a monster in disguise. The truth about her origins was unacceptable and undetermined before. She swallowed the bile rising in her throat. With the time she had to spend with the Bladebreakers, what had she expected out of it? Did she expect that they will openly work with her? Even after knowing the truth about her and her originality? Would they ever get used to having her around? Kai had taken more than ten years to open to her. His disgust on the day they had clashed again five years ago still replayed as a nightmare in her wakening.

This thought alone was the great test for all the exams she had ever passed before. The fact that she was all alone between them. Even after having friends like the Black Muse members, Bladebreakers had served their importance in her life. They had lived and laughed with her, hurt and cried with her. They had made the Katyusha of Bladebreakers.

The laughter, the memories weaved together would be forgotten if they get to know about her. About her lies and her truths. Would she be able to misremember them when she leaves for good, with no plans of returning? Will they ever forgive her?

It was not the time she got sentimental over her future losses. The only way she could repay the kindness they had shown her, the love they had provided Katyusha was by defending them and saving them. It was her duty as a friend and as a soldier brought back from death to protect. She had chosen to live for someone else than dying in the accident eighteen years ago. In the face of danger, Katyusha was ready to fight again. For her people, for her family.

But another question pushed through her channel of thoughts.

"Therese, how did you know about their plans to kidnap me?"

Dear Readers,

Let me apologize for my delay in updating this chapter. I usually update a chapter per month. Not that the month is over but generally I tend to write it before half of the month has passed. Unlike most of the times, I was bound by the author's block from the last month onwards. I started this chapter a few days ago not even feeling the will to write this. I even contemplated skipping it this month but I was just pushing forwards so sorry for the bad content.

Even when my previous plan was to write around 1000 words, it might have gone higher due to my flow of writing. I am genuinely sorry for the time I took. I can't say for sure when I will be uploading the next chapter considering I got two exams coming over in 2 weeks time.

~Rowena