Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade in any way. The only character I own is Marina as she's my OC. Any other references I make are purely coincidental.
Chapter 16: Team-Up
A day went by and neither the Bladebreakers nor the remaining Blitzkrieg Bladers members could come up with an idea. For once, however, Tyson noticed something: even though Kai had saved Marina, things between them were very tense.
"Hey, Max, what do you think is bothering them two? Other than Tala I mean." whispered Tyson to his blonde haired friend.
"I think it could have something to do with how Marina injured Kai in their match. I can't blame Kai for not quite trusting her." whispered Max back.
Tyson just nodded and looked over at Kai, who was leaning against the wall, deep in thought.
"I can't take it anymore, Marina. Either you or Kai can beat Tala so why don't we find him and put an end to this?" asked Bryan angrily.
"Because, Bryan, it's not about beating Tala. We need to restore his mentality." answered Marina calmly.
"Bryan, you have to learn to be less serious. We are all trying our best and Marina is clearly the one who is worrying the most." pointed out Ian.
Marina walked away from the others and Kai watched her go.
"Ian is right. I am more worried than I'm letting on, but I can't show my feelings to the others." she said to herself as the breeze blew her blonde hair back.
Not far away, Kai was silently watching. He didn't trust Marina, but he didn't want her to get hurt.
"I wish I could tell someone how I feel, because all I'm doing is bottling my feelings up and that won't help me." she continued to herself.
She heard a noise behind her and turned. She didn't see Kai; he had gone out of sight.
Later, when Marina and Kai had returned, Kai returned before Marina to not arouse suspicion, an idea had been suggested, by Ray.
"What? You want us to team up?" asked Spencer.
"I understand. If we work together, we will have more chance of trying to restore Tala to normal." said Kai, thinking about it.
Marina hadn't said a thing about it, but she wasn't really thinking about it.
"Can you two work together? I've noticed how difficult things are between you." asked Tyson to Kai and Marina.
"I can work with her." said Kai. "But get this straight, Marina. I'm doing it for Tala, not you." he added to her.
"At least you're doing something for someone other than yourself this time." said Marina harshly.
Tyson half smiled behind Kai. In his memory, no one had even dared to say that to him. Kai just turned away; he wasn't going to respond to her.
"Well, I'm fine with this, and since Kai is being difficult…" started Tyson.
Kai looked at Tyson as he walked past him. He was used to Tyson saying the stupidest things.
"…Marina, I accept working with your team." continued Tyson and he held out his hand.
"Tyson, it has to be a team decision." said Kenny, typical kid being picky.
"I think Kai and Marina need some time to trust each other, so until then." said Tyson with his hand still out.
"Okay, Tyson. I accept, but for Tala's sake." said Marina and she shook Tyson's hand.
Over the next three days, plans were coming, some clearly fruitless, others possible, but unlikely, but no certainties. Finally, a day came when Kai was sitting by himself on one of the hills not far from Tyson's house. Amazingly, Marina joined him.
"Kai?"
"What are you doing here? Your team needs you." said Kai as he looked around at her.
"Kai, you know as well as I that the team are fine without me for a while. I want to apologise." she said sitting down next to him.
"You? Apologise?" asked Kai in slight surprise.
"For what I did in the tournament and for what I said three days ago." she answered.
"I accept, but it's not a big deal anymore." said Kai.
Marina looked at him then turned away looking out at the horizon and the sun lowering slowly. She found herself crying, tears slowly falling, so she hung her head, attempting to hide them from Kai.
"Cry if you want. You don't have to hide it." said Kai who had noticed.
"It's just because I'm so worried about Tala." she said shakily.
"I hope he will be all right, and I am worried about him." said Kai.
"I didn't realise you were so friendly with him." she said, tears still falling.
"I wouldn't say that, but we have both been through a lot." and Kai looked at her again.
"I really hope we can bring him back to normal. I love him." she cried harder and Kai put an arm around her.
"It'll be all right. Tala is tough and when he figures things out, he'll be the same old Russian we know." said Kai and Marina looked at him smiling.
"Thank you, Kai." and she gave him a big hug, surprising him.
"That's okay, Marina. We better get back to the others." and he stood up then pulled her to her feet.
"Have you sorted things out?" asked Tyson when he saw them.
Kai half smiled and Tyson jumped in the air.
"Oh yes. The team is finally united. Now we can save Tala." Tyson was so excited.
Spencer and Ian were happy, but Bryan didn't look so enthusiastic.
"Kai, thank you very much." said Marina.
"We can't always be like that." said Kai.
"That's obvious." said Marina sarcastically then she laughed.
She walked over to her team-mates.
"I hope this isn't what I'm thinking it is." said Ian, but Marina didn't catch on.
"What?" she asked and Ian just looked at her. "Ian, no way."
"I didn't want you to give up on Tala." said Ian.
"You're nuts if you think I would give up on him. I love Tala and I always will. It was just that I could tell Kai how I was feeling and that's very rare. Before Tala, the only person I could talk to was my cousin." said Marina.
With the teams properly united, maybe things will go right now.