Katyusha let her rage boil down to her core. Forcing the door ajar with a bang, she turned around and stalked up to where the girl laid motionless, locked due to Ray blocking her way. Half-minded, she pushed Ray aside, scooping the girl up against her. Katyusha's hand-dug behind the girl's neck, the guard's pulse-pounding against her palm. She felt her hands practically burn against her cool skin. Pushing through the agony of fire against her skin, Katyusha spoke through gritted teeth, "Care to explain what's happening?"

She could barely hear herself over the pounding of her nerves. Blood gushed over to her skin, scarcely easing in keeping her calm. She felt hands over her arms, trying to pull her away. Before she could react, Ray's hand came off. He fell backwards, his hands in front of him, palm upwards. Burn marks ringed his scar-free palm. That was when she realized she was burning- literally.

Katyusha jumped back, away from the girl. She might have been in a dejected mood, but this girl didn't deserve to pay for it. At least not alone. If she could, Katyusha would make each member of this community suffer. She guarantees they knew the price they needed to pay to give the Bit-Beast such a treatment.

She turned back to see a handful of guards running towards the door. Katyusha's mind went to a standstill. The control left her body, abandoning every flight or fight method.

"THE BLADEBREAKERS!" one of the guards, who seemed to have recognized them, cried. Ray cursed under his breath. Catching hold of Katyusha's arm, he took off away from the door that was left hanging ajar, displaying the collection of Bit Beasts. Katyusha's mind clicked right into the moment. An epiphany.

When she made sure they were safe enough from any peering eyes. She came to an abrupt stop, causing Ray to stop beside her. Her breath was uneven, but her head was flowing. She couldn't possibly leave the Bit- Beasts alone after witnessing them in such a fragile condition. There was no way in hell she would willingly take part in leaving them behind. It was her duty as a Beyblade, as a fighter. How could she possibly abandon them?

She turned to her groupmate, her spirits blazing with an enormous responsibility and determination to save the Bit-Beast, "We need to go. We can't leave the Bit-Beast alone, Ray. We need to get them out."

Ray caught her around the shoulder, squeezing it, "I'm not going to leave them behind, Katyusha. I would never do that. But we're not saving them right now. Not without a proper plan to foresee the worst-case scenario. We can't go back in there with them crowding the hallway like a pack of wolves. Let's draw them away from the door. One step at a time. Okay?"

Katyusha understood his reasoning, but the torture they might be restraining right now was something she could never come to picture. How could she possibly stay still after seeing them in such a state? She had to extricate them. She had to come up with something advantageous before the Bit-Beast paid the price of time.

She looked around, trying to find a solution to the problem. The red light from the emergency button blazed in all its glory, drowning in the same colour. She absently registered Ray looking like a blood-drinking protagonist from a forbidden book's cover. There had to be something that could help her. She kept looking around, regarding, but not finding anything worth her while. The guards. The hallways. The-

Control system.

Bingo!

"Ray, do you think the control system might have the controls connected to the Bit-Beast laboratory too?"

"The possibility is high," Ray answered, nodding his head, "but it's a possibility. What if we waste our time and energy and find nothing there?"

"That's not the point here. It's a hit or miss. We may or may not find the main system, but when is the brain of a machine not useful? We might even gather the other members in the process. With any fluke, they might even be at the same place."

Ray still looked sceptically. Katyusha rushed him in, "The probability of even a single member being around that place is high, considering we got parted into groups. And we are a big group to top it off. You know that each member of The Black Muse can hold their own. With that in mind, they must have already parted ways, like how Therese went away the moment you stepped in. They are individual workers; they learn their way around. And as for the bladebreakers, I think we have gotten used to it by now."

They sighed in unison. They both knew the story well enough, with them being accustomed to such unusual play of events.

"But only if we get our hands on Kenny first. Which group was he in?" Katyusha inquired.

"The usual, Tyson and Max."

"Wait, what about Hilary then?" she asked in confusion. The usual pairing would be the four of them together. Where was Hilary?

"The Black Muse's Lyn took her."

Katyusha took a step back, stuck in a conflict of wits. "Why did Lyn take her?! Lyn is going to scare the living hell out of Hilary! We might need to arrange to escape Hilary from Lyn's clutches now," she sighed," where did you part ways?"

"Rather than were during the 'first cut'."

"The 'first cut?'"

Ray started with his hands first. Oh god, this was going to be complicated.

"See, what Kenny found out about this place was the fact that the whole site, was broken into four quarters which rotate at every equal, even interval, meaning it will rotate every two hours. Due to the change in the quarter's placing, the passage connected to the quarters changed too. So, we are on a different side of the passage than we entered from. So, we can't say where the people are exactly."

"AND WHERE HAD THIS INFORMATION BEEN FOR SO LONG?!"

Ray chuckled nervously. "I really-I mean-I didn't get the time-?"

Her fingers found her hair, gripping it tightly, and she groaned. This was one of the most laborious forms of trouble she had found in years, if not the hardest she has ever tried to solve. But even this horror-she hated to admit, she did-was amusing. A good piece of the puzzle. Just the type of situation in which someone wouldn't have said puzzle piece during their final exams. Unfortunately, she always appeared to get the people of the fate wouldn't wish for themselves.

"So, it's been about four hours since you entered the building, correct?" Katyusha recited the event again, trying her hardest to make sense of the situation.

"Yeah, so by now it must have changed twice already. We are on the other side of the entrance. If we run to the end of the tunnel from here, we might have a chance to get to the exit."

"But where does it start from, anyway? Do you remember?"

"I remember-where I left Kai. It was roughly around that area."

Oh no. In the heart of everything that was going on, she barely gave him a thought. Guilt panged inside her. It might have shown on her face though since Ray laughed.

"You forgot about him, didn't you?"

"Well...I've got enough things on my head right after a kidnapping. And it's not like I was given any time either. I barely blinked out of my daze when Therese walked up dressed in" She broke off at the right time. The word had nearly slipped out of her mouth.

"Dressed in?"

"In- gangster costume-?" she finished herself, cursing herself with beautified words.

"Are you asking me, or telling me?" Ray gave her a sidelong look before looking away, to the area they had come from. After a minute of ticking, she broke the silence. He looked deep in thought.

"Ray?"

He turned to look at her once again, "What's wrong? Everything okay?"

"Okay, don't take up the thought of killing me right after you hear this, okay? But wouldn't it be better if we parted ways?" How did the words affect him so fast? Yup, she is going to be dead meat even before she finishes this sentence off. Ignoring the alarming expression crossing Ray's face, Katyusha spoke, "There's no point in trying to search for the members together. I can find the central power on my own. In the meantime, maybe you can gather everyone up together. Since the side you guys came from didn't have the control room, I can look at the other possible places. If the others had seen it before somewhere, I'm sure they might have already tried to work that out in our favour; whichever way it might come to be."

"I was considering that as an option too. And you can look for Kai, too. Fine with me." Ray interrupted her before she could reject his last option. "Seriously though, are you okay? You abandoned the fight back then too…"

"Oh, about that, I'm sorry I couldn't help you more." She was truly sorry for her inability to help him out but forcing herself so early on in a mission is never a good option. Especially not when she was the victim of the mission. She needed to have enough energy to get on her feet, and not become a burden for the people who came to fight with her.

"I wasn't really up to my level then. If I had continued, I doubt that I might have been able to walk to the opening, or even escape on my injured leg. To avoid any mishap, I gave it away to you."

"Now? You feeling better?"

"I can walk, I guess that's good enough."

"Forget it. I am staying with you." Ray stated. "'I can walk', yeah sure kid, but that's a necessity."

"It's fine, Ray. I'll be able to manage after this. The aftereffect of the whole kidnapping was hard on my legs, I wouldn't have run to you with Therese otherwise, right?"

"I'm still doubtful about that. You won't let on even if you are hurting."

Katyusha sighed, "I'm okay. I'll be okay. But go ahead and get the other people before I stop being okay. The faster the merrier."

"'The more the merrier. Your choice of words keeps reminding me why I shouldn't leave you on your own."

Katyusha straightened. She was a foot shorter than him at her age. His growing sprout had hit him hard enough to make him around a foot taller than he was before. He towered over both her and the other members. Nonetheless, no one could beat Katyusha at being intimidating in the team, with Kai as a debatable exception. Katyusha had an unusual control over her intimidating skills, which had attracted and distracted quite a few people in the past.

"Get going, Ray. We need to get the work done before one of the people who came to get me to destroy something."

Ray sighed, "I feel like we are the protagonists of a fantasy book who always seem to make the wrong decisions."

"Well, that's why the book keeps going. That's how the protagonist learns their lesson," Katyusha countered.

"I don't wanna wait around for the outcome of the disaster that's planting itself in your head," Ray stated with a visible shiver.

"Then stop delaying it further. Don't you think we should leave?"

"Okay fine, we'll gather in fifteen minutes. If you don't find anyone or anything good, come directly to me."

"Alright," Katyusha rushed towards the other exit while Ray left in the opposite direction.

xxx

As the distance increased, the footsteps from Ray's hallway started to fade. Katyusha travelled through the left-wing of the crossroad where they had stopped before. The wing was slightly lit in the red colour, the emergency button still on. She focused on making the sole of her shoe hit the floor as softly as possible. With one leg still bruised, something as simple as that had started to grow tiresome. She had already met three dead ends. Her side wasn't going to be of anyone's use, it was just baselessly made to confuse people. She ran around the route for a good five minutes, trying to find even one useful clue in this building regarding the people but it all went in vain.

The emergency light had been on for ten minutes. But there was no sign of the people-

A bang split the silence. Katyusha dropped to her knees, covering her ears. The noise went on for about three seconds before the power dropped. The red light illuminating the hallway went out, along with the low humming of the noise.

In complete and absolute silence, Katyusha regained her posture. The whole hallway was drained out of light. She took a step forward as aforethought. When no ceiling erupted in her hearing capacity, she started to run towards the sound.

The power had died with the sound, so the sound must have come from the main control room. With at least some kind of direction to guide her, Katyusha took off towards her estimated direction one last time with hope before she returned to Ray and her group.

She made her way through the darkness, her torch bouncing in her hand. Twist and turns greeted her. The ceiling started to grow shorter with every turn, causing her to duck between it. At last, the endless tunnels emerged into an opening. Squeezing her head through the hole, Katyusha peeked at the room. Doing all kinds of neck stretches to cover all the edges of the cabin, she concluded that the only way in through this room was through the tunnel.

Swiftly, she turned her head, angling her body out of the small space. Her hands gripped the railing around the circumference of the tunnel. With her leg pulled out, at last, she took one step ahead into the room. It was an empty room. There was no item to signify what the room was for.

Katyusha walked to the nearest wall beside her. With her hands on the wall, Katyusha tried to detect any hollowness which may indicate another interior to the room. She knocked. The [pin drop silence remained.

Nothing.

The air in the room was much thicker, making it harder to breathe. With a shock, Katyusha realized she stuck in a closed environment. Claustrophobia hit Katyusha then. The close compact surface started sticking to her from all corners. The breath she had managed to take was now stuck in her throat, suffocating her. She needed to get out of here as soon as possible. Her energy was draining. It was getting even harder to keep her powers in this state. She had to escape before the worse situation hits her.

Katyusha turned around to get back to the tunnel and hit something solid. The impact made her trip over her legs and fell back. Her back hit the ground

with a loud thud, her forearms beneath her shoulder. The pain soared upwards through her body. She winced once before looking up, wondering when a wall appeared behind her. Was it even possible?

"What are you doing here?" a voice asked, breaking the eerie silence. This voice-

"Kai."