OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! GUESS WHAT! I'VE BEEN LISTED IN A C2! TEEHEEHEE! LOL I know a lot of you authors are going, what an idiot right now but this is really big for me! I'm so excited to be listed in C2! Oman now I feel all giddy inside. Well be happy guys. Because of this recent event, I have decided to update with only 4 reviews! Well I probably would have gotten more if I waited longer but I guess this is good enough since I was listed in a C2! WOOT WOOT!

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Chapter 10: A Ruthless Irony

"Mia?" Kai called out as he raced to the girl. She looked so helpless in the smoke, and tears were dripping from her sapphire orbs.

"Kai. I'm so glad you're here. I was so stupid and so reckless, I didn't think that this…" More sobs were heard from the girl as she was unable to continue any further.

"Oh dear, your arm and leg." Kaya exclaimed with a shocked expression. Her hand covered her mouth in surprise and everyone turned to the girl. Her white trench coat was dripping with a red liquid, and her left sleeve was flat. Looking down to her right leg, her pant leg was flat as well. Bits and pieces of metal were scattered everywhere with the red liquid. It was safe to assume that the metal was from her broken arm and leg. Finally, realization dawned on the teens.

"Where's Daryl?" Tyson asked. Mia had stopped her crying and she looked at a body near her. That was where all the liquid had come from. It was blood. Not only was it blood, but it was Daryl's blood.

"It was Draconian's doing." Mia answered. "We found him."

"What, really? That's great!" Max shouted happily, but his smile quickly retreated when Mia glared at him.

"It's not great at all." Mia whispered. "Look at what he did to my brother. He's dead now."

Mia woke up with a throbbing headache. Her eyes slowly opened, and the light shot into her eyes like a bullet. She closed them quickly before she might've gone blind. There was a mattress underneath her, a pillow under her head, and a blanket over her body. She obviously wasn't in the Coliseum, but after adjusting to the light she could see she wasn't even at home. It was strange. Her surroundings weren't familiar at all. Then she remembered.

Was it a dream? She prayed to the Lord himself that it was, but then another thought occurred to her. Since when was God so kind to her? Her missing arm and leg was answer enough. It hadn't been a dream at all. But that still didn't explain why she was in such a strange place.

"Finally, you're awake." Ray walked into the room with a weary expression. "You've been out of it for the longest time. It's been about a week since you collapsed."

"I don't care." Her voice was raspy, but it hadn't been used in a week so it was reasonable. She tried getting up, but everything around her blurred in her vision, and she collapsed back into the bed. "Where's Daryl?" She asked finally. Even if it wasn't a dream, she could have been wrong.

There was a silence from Ray, and she looked towards him. His gaze was away from hers, and she could see small glimmers of tears in his eyes. Of course, being the perfect child she was never wrong. Always right. She hated it when she was right.

"I'm sorry." He managed to whisper it for Mia to hear. "We were waiting for you to wake up so we could have his funeral. We brought you both back to Japan, and now we're in Tyson's dojo. Kaya's working on a new arm and leg for you. She has the arm ready now, but she still has to finish the leg. Oliver and Enrique stayed behind in Europe, and everyone else is here with us, but they're outside training in the backyard. It's only the Bladebreakers now in the dojo, along with Kaya of course." Ray explained as Mia took in everything. This wasn't happening to her.

Ray left Mia alone in the bedroom and walked back downstairs into the living room where everyone was sitting. Hiro had finally come back from his short travel to Canada to visit his friend.

"How is she doing?" Hiro asked.

"She just woke up, but she's not taking Daryl's news very well. But it's better than I expected." Ray explained.

"Well of course, she's as stubborn as a mule. She always has been, and she always will." Hiro said. Everyone eyed him curiously. Why did Hiro know so much about Mia? "I'm going to see how she's doing. Do you mind getting her something to eat Hilary? I know she's starving." He told her. Immediately she sat up and headed into the kitchen.

Hiro walked up the stairs and knocked on Mia's door three times once he arrived. He heard a shuffling noise from behind the door but no sound. He opened the door and she was sitting up in the bed.

"Get some sleep, Mia." He ordered. "I know I'm not your teacher anymore, but you still have to take my words into consideration, especially if it's concerning your health." She didn't listen and ignored him.

"I need a crutch." Was all she said. There was no way she would be able to walk in this state, but all she needed was a crutch and she'd be fine. "Why are you here anyways?" She asked finally.

"I'm Tyson's older brother. I live here." He stated simply. They all knew she was going to need something to help her walk, and Kaya reassured them she would be able to with a crutch. Hiro took it out from the closet and set it near the bed. Mia grabbed it and held it firmly in her right hand. She put her left leg down onto the ground and she stood up, using the crutch as a temporary right leg. Mia walked out of the room with less difficulty than Hiro had thought. She was in a comma for a week and she was walking perfectly even without an arm and leg. But he supposed those were the quirks of being the perfect child.

She had finally reached the bottom of the stairs and everyone stared at her wide eyed. Hilary had just entered the kitchen with a tray in her hands, and she almost dropped it but she leapt forward to catch it.

"You guys look like you just saw a ghost." Mia said with her raspy voice. Everyone was still silent, and they didn't know what they could say.

"Oh, hello sleepyhead. How are you feeling?" Kaya asked as she walked into the room with Kai. A smile was adorned on her face as usual, and Kai was…well…Kai.

"It's about time you woke up. A couple more days and I was afraid you would shrink into a bean." Tyson remarked.

"More short jokes, huh? You'll pay for that one." She didn't give as much enthusiasm as she normally would, but they didn't blame her. Tyson's hopes of cheering her up were brought down somewhat, but he quickly retorted and tried again.

"Well at least you've got enough energy to fight back. You may be small but you're full of energy, that's for sure."

"Just shut up. I'm not in the mood for your games." She said. This time Tyson did be quiet. She walked over the couch and sat down, setting the crutch against it so it wouldn't fall. There was another silence until Hilary walked to where Mia was and set the tray in front of her.

"You're probably hungry, you should eat something." Hilary urged.

"I'm not hungry." She replied harshly, but with a voice barely above a whisper. It was the truth though, Mia wasn't hungry one bit. She had been asleep for a week, and was overly famished to the point where even the slightest sight of food would make her gag.

"Mia, you have to eat something." Hilary pressed on. She had a bowl of soup on the tray with a delicious sandwich and a glass of the purest water in Japan. Mia looked at it with a repulsive look, and immediately she pushed the tray further away from her.

"I know I have to eat, but I'm not eating that." Mia protested, looking sicker than ever. Hiro sat up from the couch he sat in and headed to the kitchen. There he grabbed a piece of bread and walked back into the living room. He handed the bread to Mia who was still looking sick from the food on the tray.

"Eat." He ordered. She took the bread from him and nibbled at it bit by bit. She hadn't moved her mouth in a week, and it would take getting used to for her jaw to move like this again. It hurt every time she bit into the bread, but it was plain food, which was what she needed, and she was kind of hungry.

"Do you two know each other or something?" Max asked cautiously. Everyone was staring at Mia and Hiro awkwardly, waiting for an answer.

"I taught her everything I knew about Beyblading, and then some. That was the reason why I left home. It wasn't planned at first, but I met up with Mia and…Daryl. They were still pretty young and were amateurs at the sport, so I decided to teach them after I found out about everything." Hiro explained.

"You mean Hiro knew the entire truth the whole time?" Tyson asked them. Mia answered them this time, although her voice was still weak.

"He was the only person Daryl and I ever told the truth to." Mia said. "I don't know why we trusted him, but I sensed something about Hiro when we met him. Something that said to me that he would help us along the way." She finished. The Bladebreakers' were surprised she hadn't started crying at the mention of her brother's name. Her dead brother's name.

"Mia, may we ask what happened to you back in the Roman Coliseum? You don't have to say anything if you don't want-"

"It was my fault." Mia cut Ray off right when he was about to finish his sentence. "Back in the Paris Catacombs Dante dropped a small piece of paper on the ground in front of me as he was running away. I dropped to the ground and picked it up. Once we were back in the hotel, I read it and it said to head to the Roman Coliseum, and that was where we would find Draconian. Daryl knew we shouldn't have, but I was too stubborn to realize something was wrong. Draconian was there, but something went terribly wrong." After stopping to take in another breath, she continued as the others waited patiently for her answer. "Ironic, isn't it? Daryl and I went into the chamber hoping to have our bodies back, but instead Draconian took away our bodies. Our punishment for a selfish thought, I suppose. Or should I say, my selfish thought? It was after all my idea in the first place. There's no one else to blame but me."

"You can't be so hard on yourself Mia. It wasn't your fault." Hilary reasoned. Everyone agreed with her, but she only shook her head in disagreement.

"You're wrong Hilary. Daryl is dead because I was reckless and I wanted it bad enough. Besides. What's life when it isn't unfair? It would be too easy." Mia said.

She was the exact opposite of Brooklyn before Kai beat him, that's for sure. He had never practiced a day in his life, and yet he was so phenomenal at the sport called Beyblading. It was as if he was born to blade. For Mia it was different though. She worked for everything she wanted, but in return she received nothing. Was that punishment for setting foot on holy grounds where mortals were forbidden to journey? She had seen life as a perfect child, knowing everything there was. Shouldn't her life be perfect as well? It just didn't make sense. If she was a perfect child, then life should be perfect too. Her father definitely didn't take this into account.

"He shattered my arm and leg, and before I knew it Daryl was on the floor bleeding to death, and there was nothing I could do about it. If there was, then I wouldn't even have been able to move." Mia said after a long while. She took another painful bite out of the piece of bread. Hilary handed her the glass of water, and she gratefully took it while sipping it carefully so she wouldn't choke.

Mia looked towards Kai who stood by the window looking into the sunset. She was surprised it was so late, but no one knew when she would wake up. She still had half a piece of bread in her hands, but she was full now anyways. She put it down and grabbed her crutch to walk towards Kai. When he noticed her coming towards him, he provided a spot for her by the window to sit down. And then they stared at the sunset, together.

Max went through his duffel bag to grab everything he needed for a shower. Now that Mia was awake, he could finally rest easily tonight. Then he noticed something was missing. His journal. Mariam surely wouldn't take his journal again, and she was still mad at him. His eyes pondered over the living room, wondering where it could be.

"Thank you, Max." He heard her say. It was Mariam. But why would she be thanking him? He raised his eyebrow in curiosity. The Bladebreakers all eyed each other and nodded, while Kai and Mia stayed at the window. Everyone else came back into the dojo after a hard training session, and they crowded around Mia when they saw she was finally awake.

Mariam smiled at Mia while she just glanced at her and turned back to the others with hollow eyes. She was definitely worried at how Mia would react to her brother's death. They were, after all, twins. If she had ever lost Joseph, being the annoying little brother he is, she would completely go insane. The thought itself wanted to pull Mariam into a pit of tears, and she was now afraid of when the day might actually come. She knew it was harder for Mia, since the twins had such a deep connection after all. Deeper than any other siblings would or should have.

After that distressing thought, she cleared her mind and kept her attention on Max. She motioned for him to follow her outside into the backyard. The sun was setting, and it looked more beautiful than ever. The pond glistened in the sunlight, and shades of red and orange took over the entire city of Tokyo.

"Why are you thanking me? I thought you were mad at me…" Max cut himself off when he saw his journal in Mariam's hands.

"I read what you wrote about me after the building collapsed on us, and we were stuck there together." She smiled and Max felt relief overwhelm his body. He was glad that Mariam was no longer mad at him. He didn't know why, but the thought of having her so frustrated at him made him feel uneasy.

"So, are we friends again?" Max asked with a slight smile. But his smile quickly faded when Mariam shook her head. It suddenly felt like his heart dropped to his stomach. This was so awkward, she was smiling and everything. And yet she didn't want to be friends again? "But…I thought you weren't mad at me anymo-" But Max was suddenly cut off. In all his attempts to put login into place, he certainly didn't expect her to do this.

They're lips had finally met. Mariam had kissed Max, and he didn't know how to respond to it at first. His heart decided that he liked it, so he managed to pull her into another deeper kiss just as her lips left his. And together, they held each other under the moonlight.

The sun shone beautifully over the city. She could feel the cool breeze playing with her flowing hair as the scent of roses overwhelmed her mind. Birds flew past the crowd she was with, and they sang their song majestically as Mother Nature had intended. They drank in the warm sunlight and flew off towards the trees in the distance which swayed gently in the breeze, and the leaves danced in the wind as cheerfully as ever.

The day was turning out to be a terrible one.

She held a red rose in her hands along with everyone else, and she leaned forward to look into the pit that was dug in the ground. A wooden coffin lay at the bottom of it, carrying her big brother. Her fingers slowly parted from the stem of the rose, and it dropped, swaying in the air until it finally reached the coffin. It should have been a soft sound, but to her the world had come crashing to the ground.

Mia felt a firm hand on her shoulder, and immediately she knew it was Kai. He was the only person she had opened up to other than Daryl. She wouldn't even let Kaya get close to Mia personally, even though they were such good friends. It just didn't compare to the relationship she had with Kai. Or if there ever was a relationship.

Silence was what she needed. And silence was what he would give her. No words were needed to comfort; just those that she cared for being there meant the world to the girl standing before them. She still had the crutch in her hand, and her dress looked awkward without two limbs. But still, she was beautiful. Her eyes that would shine brilliantly into the distance, as if looking into the future itself was now hollow. She no longer looked into the future, and instead a pit of despair.

Many were found shedding tears at the funeral, either in sobs or in silent droplets. The tears were shed for him and him alone.

"I don't get it." Mia finally said. They all looked towards her. "Why must he pay for my sin? It should have been me."

"Mia…" Kaya sighed. It was no use. No matter how much they told her it wasn't her fault, she would always blame herself. Kaya hated to admit it, but she blamed Mia for Daryl's death as well. But fortunately, the gentle nature of her personality overcame that, and she was able to suppress the anger towards Mia. "We're here for you." She managed to say. It may have only been four words, but Mia felt relief in her body. She reminded herself she had friends, but no one could ever replace her big brother.

Kaya came back into the hallway after another long night of working. Mia's arm and leg were close to being finished, and soon she would be able to attach them to Mia and she would once again be able to walk. However, she admitted the metal was not very attractive, and she wished she could do more. But her bit beast Oracle could only do so much. Oracle wasn't a God, and merely a bit beast that provided enough powers for Kaya. She was thankful to her bit beast and she loved her greatly.

"Kaya, you're still up?" Ray called up to her. He walked down to her to see the bundle in her arms. Immediately he gave one of his famous smiles, although lately they looked forced upon. "You shouldn't work yourself so hard. You could get sick, and I don't know what Kai would say about that." He tried to joke. These days, jokes were only responded with a forced smile instead of the laughs they used to share. And Kaya gave that exact forced smile, like she always had.

"Please don't worry about me, Mr. Kon. I'm perfectly fine." Kaya reassured. Ray cocked his head curiously, and he gave out a small laugh instead of a smile. That too was forced upon.

"Don't be silly Kaya. There's no need for such formalities with us. Just Ray is fine. You're making me feel old by the way you treat me." This time Kaya gave out a small giggle. At least that wasn't forced.

Thinking back to the funeral earlier that day, it was amazing how everyone at the funeral shed tears, and yet Mia was found with no red eyes nor a tear stained face.

They continued down the hall and frowns were seen on both teens. They looked at each other, and then averted their gaze else where as despair fell upon them. Sounds of crying were heard from Mia's room.

The smoke gave way, and a black Beyblade lay on the ground. It was one of their latest creations, only fit for a strong blader. The new bit chip it possessed shone brightly through the smoke as the man picked it up. He smiled wickedly as he looked into the bit. He could feel it trying to escape this prison known as a Beyblade.

"Soon, you will be released."

Author's Note:

xD Cliffie! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ok I'm done lol. Well I hope you guys enjoyed that. Yes, Daryl really is dead, and I'm not planning on bringing him back, sorry guys. Well, he was an OC anyways so I'm not even sure if you guys were a big fan of him. Lol I'm evil for killing someone huh? Well usually Beyblade authors out there don't have anyone die in their story, so I wanted to take a risk and see what happened lol. And this did work out perfectly for my plot anyways. I'm in a happy mood, and I'm giving up on the whole must review thingie. I'll just update whenever I can now, and I have now reached 2 000 hits on my fic lol.

Review PLEASE!