A/N: Hey everyone, I am so sorry for updating so late but I have a couple of good excuses…well I think they're good; during my exams school finishes extremely early so I sometimes go to Mc Donalds which is across the street from school since nobody will be at home so I can't go to my house or to my grandmother's house, after 3 days of eating there and the day my exams finished I started throwing up and I got really sick. I couldn't write much for the simple reason of me not being able to get out of bed so my second option was writing it out on paper but my fear of feeling sick on the long chapter told me to do otherwise. And then Saturday my friend was bored and because of my weak stomach I couldn't leave the house and so she came over and then I finally started to write. It has been hard to get to a computer and stay long enough to write a chapter in my condition so I really hope you all understand. Sorry if this chapter isn't up to your expectations and please forgive me if it is very short compared to my other chapters.

I got another question from Ray-Tiger-Cat, here it is.

Review: It was a good chapter! Keep writing! And I'm glad that you think that I ask good questions, I thought maybe I ask too many. I'm sorry for not reviewing sooner, but I've been typing up chap 2 for my fic (which I've posted today). Who knew being an author was so much work? (It's worth it though, I love getting good reviews!) Know what I've never asked you? Why you have 1978 in your pen name?

Q: Why do I have 1978 in my pen-name?

A: I didn't think anyone would ever ask so I don't have a good answer to it. 1978 is just an important year to me, I know I wasn't even born at the time but it still is important to me, it has something to do with the astrological charts but I can't really explain what it means for the simple reason that I don't even know the exact meaning to it, all I know is that it is related to the astrological charts, demons fear it, good magic respects it. That's all I can say. Hope that helped a little.

P.S Ray-Tiger-Cat, feel free to ask as many questions as you like, you can never ask too many, I truly enjoy answering questions so anyone can ask as many as they like and I will answer them all as best I can and I never get bored with them so ask as many as you like. Let's move onto the chapter, can someone do a disclaimer.

Serenity: Phoenix from the flames 1978 does not own beyblade or anything from it, she just owns me and this plot.

Chapter 3

Tala gazed at Serenity as she slept peacefully but got distracted when he felt another flash of pain rush through him. He gripped his shoulder tighter, hoping to ease the pain as he sat on his bed with his back against the wall. He closed his eyes to rest but in the short amount of time of resting he drifted off to sleep.

The room fell silent and all that could be heard was the cold wind outside crashing against the abbey walls. Both bladers had been sleeping for over an hour and after a while Serenity slowly started to stir and her deep blue eyes fluttered open; her vision was blurred at first but after blinking a couple of times her vision seemed to clear up though she still felt dizzy. She felt the damp piece of material still on her forehead and moved her hand out from under the warm covers and reached to remove the cloth and place it on the dressing table which she just managed to reach in her weak condition. She moved her warm hand back to her forehead to replace the damp feeling and thought about what had happened and remembered about her attack not working. 'Luna what happened to our attack?' Serenity questioned her bit beast weakly.

'I don't know what happened, please forgive me Mistress' Luna replied in Serenity's mind with deep sorrow and fear in her gentle voice.

'It's ok Luna, everyone makes mistakes, for all we know it could be my fault' Serenity replied to the worry.

'I assure you Mistress that it wasn't your fault' Luna said.

'Whatever you say Luna' Serenity said finally giving in since she knew that they could argue about whose fault it was all day. She realized she hadn't heard Tala in the room and wasn't sure if he was still downstairs and felt too weak to move her head to look around the room. 'Where is Tala?' she asked worriedly.

'He is here, he has been with you for a long time now but…I think he is hurt' Luna replied.

'What?' Serenity asked in alarm, she sat up quickly despite the dizziness and turned to look at Tala who still sat against the wall. She weakly pushed herself out of bed and unsteadily walked over to Tala. She sat next to him and lifted his head up slightly.

'It appears he didn't tend to the wound on his shoulder' Luna informed.

'How could he be so careless, he should have looked after himself instead of helping me' Serenity replied, angry at what Tala had done to himself.

'You should try to help him' Luna suggested.

'After all he has done for me you actually think that I wouldn't help him?' Serenity replied almost bitterly. She pushed Tala down into bed, but Tala's grip on his arm hadn't loosened in the slightest. Serenity moved his hand off his shoulder, she walked over to the dressing table and took the role of bandages and walked back to Tala and tied a wet piece of cloth around his shoulder, making Tala wince more at the pain. Serenity stood up and sat on the floor by her bed, she reached under her bed for something and pulled put a small trunk, she opened it and took out a dark blue blanket and went back to Tala and placed it over him, after making sure he was warm enough she checked the time and realized that they had to be downstairs soon.

Serenity turned back to Tala again and then went to the bathroom to get changed. She stepped into the bathroom and after she removed her clothes she stepped into the small shower, she opened the water and let the cold water run down her back as she let her hair get wet, not caring whether or not she caught a cold later. She switched off the water and got out of the shower as she dried herself off with a towel and changed into her pale night gown. She left her clothes on a counter ready for the next day and went back to the bedroom; she sat on her bed for a while and watched Tala from a distance when the door opened. She turned her head sharply toward the door to see who it was; the same guard that had carried Serenity upstairs earlier stood in the doorway looking at Serenity confusedly, thinking about how it was Serenity that had been hurt and not Tala but just shook it off and informed her that dinner would be earlier than usual and that they should be down stairs soon.

Serenity nodded and the guard left, she sighed and moved over to Tala to make sure he was going to be ok before she left. She couldn't wake him up, he seemed in too much pain to get up and go downstairs, so she thought he would have been better off in bed resting. She hadn't been able to check the wound properly since she thought that she had better check it when he was awake, she dipped a piece of cloth into a shallow bowl of water and wiped the drying crimson blood on Tala's hand. She tied another piece of dry cloth around his shoulder over the wet one that seemed to have absorbed most of the blood. She got off the bed and started her journey to the dining room.

She walked slowly down the cold halls and heard something hit the stone floors around the corner from where she had stood, it sounded like a person fell or something but she couldn't quite tell who it was. Her curiosity got the best of her and she turned around the corner to see what was going on; a boy had just kicked a little kid to the ground, the kid trying hard to push himself off the ground but felt very weak. Serenity gasped when the older kid kicked the boy again, she moved out of the shadows, "What do you think you're doing?" she questioned crossing her arms.

The two boys looked up at her but didn't reply, Serenity just moved forward and knelt down in front of the fallen boy, she placed a hand out to help him up, he stared at it for a second but then took it and pushed himself off the ground. He stood up and placed a hand against the wall for some support after he let go of Serenity's helpful hand. "Mind I ever catch you hurting someone again" She yelled at the older boys, placing her hands on her hips.

"Or what?" One of the boys asked, stepping forward with nothing more than an icy tone and a sharp death glare.

"Or your fate will be the same" Serenity said simply before turning round and walking away and back to the hall way that lead the way to the dining room, with the boy she had helped out following far behind her since he had been on his way to the dining room too before he was stopped by the other two kids. Serenity walked into the dining room and sat down in her usual place, she had started eating a couple of minutes later and tried to get rid of the strong guilt that she felt in her heart but it just clung to her even tighter. She avoided everyone's eyes and thankfully that night, Boris hadn't come down stairs to speak to them before dinner which was definitely a good thing for Serenity because she hadn't wanted to explain where and what had happened to Tala. She stood up when she was done and walked back up to her room; she quietly walked into the bedroom and gently closed the door behind her. She walked over to Tala to see he had shifted position in his sleep and was now lying on his side but thankfully not the side of his wounded shoulder. She made sure he was ok and that he was warm enough and then moved back to her bed; just sitting there she watched him not feeling tired at all but instead feeling very much awake.

'I know you know what's wrong, it's much more than just a shoulder wound so what the hell is wrong Luna?' Serenity told her bit-beast, knowing that Luna knew what was wrong and that a cut on his shoulder was not what was making him this bad.

'The wound was exposed for far too long that after a while it seemed to have gotten infected' Luna replied hesitantly, not wanting to worry her Mistress.

Serenity's eyes widened and then she sighed, 'This is my entire fault, I swore to myself that something like this wouldn't happen. And I failed' she said, her mind's voice filled with self-loath.

'Don't blame yourself for this, he chose this, he would have much rather have helped you and he did, he knew the consequences' Luna said, trying to explain to her that there was nothing she could have done.

'Will he be ok?' Serenity asked gripping her arms tighter around herself for some extra comfort.

'You could remove the infection when he wakes up, he should be fine after that' Luna suggested.

'Do you know how painful that is? I don't want to hurt him Luna' Serenity said with her thoughts filled with fear as a tear slipped down her face.

'He will be in far more pain if you don't do it' Luna fought back.

'I understand' Serenity said, mentally nodding and wiping away the wetness from her cheeks.

'Good, he will be fine Mistress' Luna reassured again, 'you tell everyone to have hope but when it comes to something like this you don't have any, why?' Luna asked.

'I don't know, I'm just scared of doing something wrong and hurting someone' Serenity replied.

'You yourself told me that we all make mistakes and I know you by now, you would never intentionally hurt someone unless it were for the greater good' Luna said reasonably, she sensed that Serenity wanted to be alone for a while so she moved back to her place in Serenity's mind giving her space.

Serenity lay down in bed on her side and just watched Tala for a while before closing her eyes. She lay there for a couple of minutes before hearing a whispered groan coming from the other side of the room. She quickly opened her eyes and sat up in her bed, she hurriedly walked over to Tala when she saw him trying to sit up, she pushed him back down, "How are you feeling?" she asked quietly.

Tala closed his eyes again since his blurred vision only gave him a headache, "Been better" he said in a raspy voice as he tried to move his hand up to rub his temples but the pain in his injured shoulder disallowed him to move his right hand at all.

'I bet you have' Serenity thought, "Why did you choose to help me over yourself?" She asked.

"I guess…I just got worried and forgot about myself" Tala replied quietly as he turned his head; even though his eyes were closed, he could feel Serenity still looking at him.

"Well…don't do that again, don't choose me over yourself, I'm not worth it" Serenity said almost yelling in anger but kept her tone down to a whisper because she didn't know what kind of pain he could be going through already and not wanting to hurt him anymore then he already was. Tala didn't reply but just lay in his bed trying not to show anymore of the pain he was feeling, he moved his left hand under the covers and tried to move it to get a grip on his shoulder but Serenity noticed the movement and pulled his hand away from his shoulder, "It won't make things any better" she said, gently placing Tala's hand by his side. "I can try to help you but you have to be able to trust me in this." She whispered.

Tala nodded and sat up a little, Serenity moved to sit against the wall and slowly removed the two pieces of cloth that were tied around Tala's wounded shoulder, she held them in her hand as she inspected the wound. Her face paled more than usual and she had a look that said 'wow, that must be painful' on her face but then looked up at Tala who was staring back at her. "I guess I should work on a better face, huh?" she asked referring to her scared look. "I'm not going to lie to you, this will hurt a little" she said with an apologetic look etched on her features.

"It might not have too be so painful" Luna's gentle voice said as she appeared in her human-like goddess form sitting on the spare bed in the room with her hands behind her back for some support.

Tala's eyes widened at the bit-beast in front of him and was about to speak but Serenity interrupted instead of him with a questioning look to Luna's last statement, "What do you mean?" she asked her bit-beast with more questioning in her voice then ever before.

"You did bring a couple of extra vials with you didn't you?" Luna asked.

Serenity's eyes widened and she smiled, "Yeah, you think it will be good enough?" she asked still smiling and mentally kicking herself for forgetting.

"It should be and will help quite a lot" Luna replied gently getting off the bed and standing up with her hands on her hips.

"Thanks Luna" Serenity replied smiling wider.

"Not a problem, anything for a friend" Luna replied, looking down at Tala and smiling. She stepped forward and disappeared in a gust of wind that spun around her and she returned to her icy blade.

"Why do you always leave me stuck in the middle?" Tala asked turning on his back to look up at Serenity properly.

"Sorry about that, she just likes to appear every now and then" Serenity said laughing a little.

"What was she talking about? A vial?" Tala asked returning to the original subject after he felt another slight flash of pain from his infected shoulder.

Serenity nodded and got off the bed, walking over to her back pack that was still on the floor at the foot of her bed. She pulled out a small vial of clear liquid and took out a long white candle and a box of matches, she clutched the vial tightly and walked back to Tala and sat next to him on the bed placing the candle and matches on her lap. She opened the small bottle and handed it to Tala who had been looking at her strangely for a while, she took his hand and placed it in his hand and curled his fingers around the glass. "Drink this, it will ease the pain" she whispered to him.

Tala gripped the vial tighter in his hand and then slowly brought it up to his lips and took a long sip and quickly moved it away when he felt like choking on the extremely strong and bitter taste. He concentrated on the taste left in his mouth and didn't feel any pain, screwing his ever-blue eyes shut; the strong drink blocking out anymore pain for the time being. (A/N: Please do not and I repeat DO NOT do any of what is now happening cause I will personally come after you and kill you myself if this procedure doesn't kill you, do not do any of the following, if it is not done by a professional so don't do it) He hadn't noticed Serenity strike a match and light the white candle; she placed it next to the deep wound and bring it closer to the torn skin as she let hot wax fall onto it. Unfortunately for Tala the antidote he drank hadn't lasted very long and so he felt every drop of hot wax drip onto the surface of the sensitive skin. Wincing when the fire moved closer, burning the surrounding edges of the cut. After all the cut was covered in a thin layer of wax, Serenity moved the shortened candle away and blew out the burning flame and tossing it and the matches across the small room and onto her bed.

Serenity studied Tala's face for any more signs of pain; when she saw him relax she proceeded in removing the already dried wax, she slowly peeled it off, and taking off with it the dried blood and the infection that had embedded itself in the surface of the wound. She removed all the wax and then slowly wiped the sensitive skin with a wet piece of cloth. She picked up the fallen particles of wax and got up to throw them away along with the other blooded bandages. She walked back to Tala and watched him tremble from time to time; she tightened another dry bandage around his arm to protect the sensitive skin and to keep any more infections from getting in and then slowly moving her hand to his face, stroking his cheek gently, making Tala open his eyes to look back at her. Serenity got off the bed, "I'll be right back" she said walking out the door.

Tala nodded rather confusedly but let her go anyway; he lay down properly on his side and tried to get comfortable but still trying to keep the little pain he was feeling to himself. He felt weak but wasn't very sure why, he looked up at the opposite wall to check the time and noticed that dinner would have just finished though wondered why Serenity hadn't been down stairs for it. He hadn't eaten anything since the night before since they never had breakfast or lunch and had to wait till the next evening for their meal but now he missed it and had to wait longer to eat something which would be a problem since lack of food means lack of sleep and lack of sleep means lack of energy and lack of energy means a beating from Boris along with extra training. He sighed and screwed his eyes shut again, trying to block out the emptiness he was feeling, he couldn't feel any part of himself anymore; he just felt exhausted.

Serenity opened the door and came in with a plate that had two pieces of bread with some butter and held a glass of water in her other hand, she walked over to Tala who looked up at her as she handed him the plate of food and placed the glass of water near him on the table. She smiled a little and sat on her bed as she watched him eat, "I couldn't let you starve" she said still smiling as she sat with her back against the stone walls, shuddering when her bare skin touched the cold surface.

Tala quickly finished the little food and then placed the plate on the table near him, and lay on his back, "Thanks" he whispered to her weakly, closing his eyes to rest.

"No problem, I owed you" Serenity said.

"Is that why you did it, because you owed me?" Tala asked in a disappointed tone, still not moving from his position.

"No" Serenity said simply and carelessly.

"Then why?" Tala asked still in a disappointed and almost hurt tone.

"Because you're my friend and I care about you with all my heart" Serenity said.

Tala opened his eyes when he heard the response and saw Serenity sitting near him, she smiled at him and leaned in and kissed him lightly on the cheek. She blushed a little and quickly got back to her bed, she lay down, "Good night" she whispered, closing her eyes with the deep blush ceasing to leave her face.

Tala had an equally red blush creep to his pale face and he thought about what she had said about them being friends, friends were forbidden but by now what rules hadn't he not broken? He turned back on his side, feeling it was the most comfortable position to be in on the uncomfortable bed, he saw Serenity who seemed to be already sleeping or else in deep thought. He silently wished her a good night and let himself drift off to sleep which didn't take very long in his weak state.

'Please tell me I really didn't just kiss him' Serenity told her bit beast nervously.

'Ok then, you didn't kiss him' Luna replied normally.

'But did I?' Serenity asked getting more nervous by the question.

'Yes you did' Luna said laughing but trying to pull it back a little before it got too far.

'Oh no, he probably thinks I'm an idiot or something' Serenity said burying her head in her pillow as if she were ashamed of herself over a little peck on the cheek.

'Or something' Luna said still smiling, quite frankly enjoying her Mistress' little act of shame.

'Thanks for being so supportive' Serenity said sarcastically.

'I'm sorry Mistress; don't get yourself worked up over a little kiss' Luna said still with a smile on her young face.

'Go away, cant you see someone is trying to sleep here' Serenity said sleepily waving her hand as though she were shooing away an actual person from the room, though she still kept her head under the pillow trying to block out the voice of her laughing bit beast.

'Fine' Luna said before disappearing to the back of Serenity's mind.

Serenity lay in bed and fell asleep after what felt like forever, she hadn't really been tired, she just told Luna that so she could just go away but now she had nothing to do but stare at the moon outside. She slept but woke up from time to time in the middle of the night to make sure Tala was ok with a feeling that something was wrong but every time she checked up on him, he was fine. "What is wrong with me?" she muttered, getting back into bed and pulling the thin white sheets over herself. She slept again but didn't wake up till early next morning. She read the time on the clock, "4 o'clock might as well get up" she said throwing the covers off herself, letting a cold wind touch her long legs.

I woke up in a dream today
To the cold of the static / and put my cold feet on the floor
Forgot all about yesterday
Remembering I'm pretending to be where I'm not anymore
A little taste of hypocrisy
And I'm left in the wake of the mistake / slow to react

She placed her feet on the cold stone floor and shuddered; she walked to the bathroom and slowly undressed, taking her time for every action since it was still very early. Her mind was clear of all that had happened and she just felt calm and relaxed, nothing in particular was on her mind. She stepped into the shower and let warm water run down her spine and then turned it to cold. She just rested there for a second before switching off the water and stepping out of the shower; she dried herself off with her towel and changed into her jeans and top. She walked out of the bathroom after sorting out her things and picking up her blade and pocketing it for practice later. She sat back down on her bed waiting for time to speed up and rush past her but every second felt like an hour to her, she had nothing to do at the time and wasn't in the mood for practice, knowing that she would get enough of it later.

Serenity sighed and placed her hands behind her head while she lay on her already done bed. She sat up again and went over to her bag and pulled out a small deck of cards, she sat on the floor in the centre of the room and shuffled the cards and laid them in piles face down in front of her, she then turned over a card from the top of each pile and just created what seemed like a puzzle out of them. 'Puzzle' being the key word since if you were sitting near her while she was fidgeting with the cards you would be puzzled beyond belief. She raised an eye brow and continued trying to figure something out to sort out the cards properly; she smiled when she completed them and then packed the cards back together before shuffling them. She put them in her bag and checked the time again, "4:50" she whispered, she looked at Tala who was still sleeping peacefully and thought about waking him but couldn't bring herself to.

Finally when the clock hit 5 she walked over to him and tried to wake him up obviously not shaking him by the shoulders cause his right shoulder was the wounded one and his left one was the one he was currently sleeping on so shaking him by the shoulders was definitely out of the question. She smiled a little at the peaceful look on Tala's young childish face. She placed a hand on his side and tried to shake him awake slightly from there but Tala just waved a hand at her as if telling her to go away but as much Serenity wanted to leave him to rest, she had to wake him up and get him through training without attracting Boris' attention. She shook him gently but a little faster while yelling at him to wake up until he finally did, much to his best efforts to ignore Serenity. He sat up weakly but couldn't push himself up with his right hand but managed to sit up to look at the time and then go to the bathroom to get changed.

Serenity waited for him patiently and when he came out they went down stairs for training. They were made to practice their launches that day, other kids and guards left the training room but Tala and Serenity were made to stay practicing their launches longer and when the last guard left Serenity pulled Tala aside to speak to him about something she noticed earlier. "Hey, are you ok?" she asked gesturing to his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why?" Tala asked.

"Your launches have been really off lately and I thought maybe it was because of it" Serenity said.

"It's nothing, I'm working on the launches so its fine" Tala explained, pushing past her and was preparing to launch his blade again.

"Give me your hand" Serenity said holding her hand out.

"What?" Tala asked turning to look at her almost in fear with a hint of anger.

"You heard me, give me your hand" Serenity repeated.

Tala slowly moved his right hand and placed it into Serenity's open hand and he watched as her fingers curled around his whole hand and squeezed it tightly, he cringed at the pain that went from his hand up the nerve to his shoulder making him loose his grip on his launcher, letting it fall from his left hand. Serenity let go of his hand and letting him take a grip onto his right shoulder. Serenity moved closer to him and removed his hand off his shoulder before he actually hurt himself by pressing against it, "If you keep doing that your just going to hurt yourself more than you already are, so stop it" Serenity ordered angrily.

"You two" A deep voice yelled. Tala and Serenity turned to look at the guard that had just walked in, "Boris wants his top soldiers in their rooms early today and that obviously includes you two" he told them in a monotonous tone and looking at them with disgust.

"Yes sir" Both Tala and Serenity said in dull unison.

The guard left and Serenity and Tala walked up to their room, not saying a word to each other, they kept their thoughts to themselves and both were thinking about why Boris wanted them in their rooms so early. Boris had said earlier that all his top 'soldiers' had been training a lot and that some of them seemed to slowing down, he also said that there will be days when they will have earlier curfews so maybe this was one of those days.

A/N: How was it? Please Review this chapter. I want to know what you liked about it and why and if there was some kind of conversation you might have liked and tell me why so maybe this way I know more about what you like and can use it in later chapters. Please Review, the more reviews I get the faster I will update. Bye!