Hi guys! I'm in the midst of working on a new story, more in the horror genre. I'm finally working through the details so hopefully I'll be able to share that soon, too!

Anyway, thank you all so much for your support since I posted the last chapter! Special thanks to meamaya101, striker86, Fanfic Jewels, SailorCandy, and Guest for reviewing! Glad everyone is still enjoying this! I've also peeked at my traffic stats, and there's quite a few of you reading this. Thank you for stopping by. 3

I don't own Metal Fight Beyblade.

Madoka sat in the emergency room, rocking back and forth on her hands. Gingka had been at the hospital for over an hour already, but nobody had told her anything. She'd called the others as soon as she got there, but so far only Masamune, Kyoya, and Wales had shown up. The others hadn't picked up their phones, but she'd left them messages anyway.

"C'mon, dude. Pull through," Masamune was pacing in a corner nearby.

Finally, a doctor called for them, leading them down a hallway. He stopped at one of the rooms, not opening the door.

"He's going to be fine." The group breathed a collective sigh of relief. "He was extremely lucky. He lost a lot of blood, but his arm isn't broken. The shark didn't get a good hold on him. He'll make a full recovery with time."

They went into the room. Madoka nearly gasped.

Gingka, asleep and oblivious to what was going on around him, was deathly pale. His arm had a deep, nasty gash running down it. It was an angry red color, but the blood had finally stopped oozing from it.

Madoka didn't know whether to start crying or collapse. Masamune put an arm around her comfortingly.

"He's going to be fine," he said. "Everything will be fine."

Madoka started crying, thankful things hadn't gone the way she was dreading.

Everything was going to be okay. Gingka was alive. Their summer still had a chance.

Gingka's eyes opened. He surveyed the area with confusion, stopping on the others. "What-"

"Gingka!" The others cheered and ran to his side. "How do you feel?"

"What happened?" He asked groggily.

"You don't remember?" Kyoya looked confused now. "You were attacked by a shark."

"Oh. Right," Gingka blinked slowly, then drifted back to sleep.

"Is that normal?" Madoka asked worriedly.

"He's probably out of it from the pain medication he's on," Wales reassured her. "He'll likely be in and out of consciousness for a while."

"I'm going back to the condo to get the others," Kyoya backed out of the room. "They should be here."

Madoka stared down at Gingka's figure, relieved beyond belief that everything was going to be okay. If he hadn't pushed her out of the way, she would've been the one the shark bit. She would have been lying on the hospital bed.

"You do too much for me," she murmured, quiet enough that no one was able to hear it.

She stared at the long shark bite on his arm, some of the deep tooth marks visible. That was going to leave a scar, there was no doubt. A grim reminder of what had happened on their trip. They'd had way too many close calls.

Chao Xin, Mei Mei, Hikaru, Ryuga, and now Gingka… Madoka didn't want to know who was next. Not to mention the encounter with the strange woman…

They all had made it through, though, that was what mattered. A faint smile appeared on her lips. The summer was starting to draw to a close. A few more weeks, and they'd be headed back home. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

She just had to make the most of the time she had left.

Hikaru noticed the pile of books on the counter as soon as she walked into the house. She picked up the note, reading it carefully, then started flipping through the books. Madoka had brought the ones she thought were the most promising, but there were still a lot to go through.

Her phone had died while she was at the beach, so she plugged it in and started reading one, but her heart wasn't in it.

She was still distracted by the note. She knew it was from Ryuga, but she wasn't sure what to do. She definitely didn't want to talk to him, that much she was sure of. Part of her wanted to know what he wanted to tell her, though.

Hikaru slammed the book shut, irritated, and went over to her phone. One new message. She went to voicemail.

Hikaru dropped the phone.

Gingka was… in the hospital? He'd been attacked by a shark?

She grabbed the book she'd been reading and ran out of the condo. She passed Sophie on the way out.

"C'mon, we've got to go!"

Sophie looked at her, lost. "What are you talking about?"

"Gingka's at the hospital. We've got to get there now!"

Sophie didn't waste any time. The two of them passed Kyoya as they ran through the town, and he gave them information on Gingka's room and his condition. They relaxed slightly knowing he was okay, but adrenaline was still pumping through them. Kyoya kept going in search of Mei Mei and the other guys who still didn't know.

Finally, they made it to the hospital and used Kyoya's directions to find the room.

"Gingka!" Hikaru gasped. He was awake, but she saw a large bandage wrapped up around his arm. Sophie looked equally as stricken.

Madoka sat in a chair near the foot of the bed, looking pale. "He's stable, but he's been in and out of consciousness."

Hikaru sat on the floor. "We ran into Kyoya on the way here. He said the same thing."

Madoka shook her head. She filled them in on everything that had happened.

Sophie gave her a sympathetic look. "It's nobody's fault. You guys were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"I know," Madoka nodded. "But it still hurts."

Kyoya returned at that moment, scowling. Ryuga was with him. "I couldn't find Mei Mei and Chao Xin."

Hikaru tensed at the sight of Ryuga. "I'll be right back," she muttered, and disappeared out the door.

Gingka started to stir once more.

"Are you feeling better?" Madoka asked anxiously.

"You just asked me that," he answered sleepily.

The group talked quietly for a while, trying to ignore the heavy atmosphere looming over them. Ryuga kept glancing at the doorway, as if expecting someone else to appear, but no one ever did. Finally, a nurse came and shooed them from the room, insisting that Gingka needed to rest, amid his protests. They promised to visit him as soon as they could.

The others left the room, but Madoka lingered for a moment.

"Thank you," she whispered, before turning back toward the door.

"No, thank you." She jumped with a start. Gingka was sitting up, looking much more alert than before. He gave her a small smile. "The doctor told me if I hadn't been pulled out of the way at the last second, I probably would have lost my arm."

Madoka smiled a little. "If you hadn't jumped in front of me in the first place, you wouldn't be the one lying in the hospital."

He closed his eyes and leaned against the pillows. "It was worth it."

Madoka walked after the others, turning so he couldn't see the tears mixed with her growing smile.

Hikaru sat in the waiting room, taking out the book she'd brought with her. She'd felt bad, leaving Gingka like that, but she couldn't stand being in the same room with Ryuga, having him look at her like that. She'd avoided him as much as she could, but it was getting harder and harder. Soon, they'd have to talk.

But she was going to hold out as long as she could.

She stretched out, shifting on the uncomfortable plastic seat. The lobby was practically empty, save a young boy and his mother. She opened the book, scanning the table of contents.

The book was relatively new, published within the past five years. Hikaru grimaced. If there was something going on, this book would have the answers.

Most of the legends dealt with pirates, or some sort of treasure, but Hikaru was certain that wasn't what she was looking for. Some of the legends, she noted as she skimmed through them, did mention a woman, but nothing like the one they'd encountered.

She was about to give up and head back to the condo when a title caught her eye: The Wraith Bride. The information on the legend was hardly a page long.

The most recent of legends surrounding the archipelago of islands is that of the Wraith Bride, a story dating back less than fifty years. A young woman of twenty-four, known then as Elise Warsaw, was engaged to be married with a man belonging to one of the oldest families on the islands. At the time, she was considered to be one of the most beautiful and eligible females on the island. On her wedding day, she suddenly disappeared. The search for her lasted several weeks, but no leads were ever found.

Several years later, a tourist reported seeing a strange woman wandering the beach at night during a storm. She was wearing all white, and seemed to be running from something. Police searched for the woman, but she was never found.

Several more sightings were reported, and eventually the woman was identified as Elise. Those who saw her and recognized her tried to talk to the woman, but she never responded. In addition, it was noted that her appearance was near transparent, and she had a haunted expression, nothing like the vibrancy the woman had possessed in life.

Throughout the past forty-five years, the case concerning Elise has been reopened as sightings became more and more frequent, but no new evidence has been found. The woman was eventually presumed to be dead, and a tombstone was erected for her in the local cemetery despite the grave itself being empty. Sightings have steadily declined over the years, but still persist in the area.

Beneath the article, there was a picture of Elise. Hikaru gasped.

There was no denying it. The dark haired woman in the photo was undoubtedly the woman they had seen the night before.

She nearly dropped the book, shaking. What was going on? They'd encountered some sort of ghost? What had happened to Elise in the first place?

Unsure of whether the others had left or not, Hikaru decided the best course of action was to go back to the condo before doing anything else. She needed to get her thoughts together.

Sophie and Madoka were already at the condo when she arrived, panting and out of breath. They looked at her, somewhat alarmed.

"What's going on?" Sophie asked, her eyes darting around. "Is something wrong?"

"I know who she is," Hikaru said, placing the book on table, flipping open to the page. "The Wraith Bride."

"What?" Madoka asked.

"Elise Warsaw, that's her name," Hikaru showed them the information on the legend. "The story's about fifty years old. And look- at the picture. It's her."

Sophie covered her mouth in shock. Madoka's eyes widened.

"But then- how-"

"I don't know," Hikaru shook her head. "But now we've got a lead. Is the library still open?"

"I think so," Madoka nodded.

Hikaru opened the door. "Lead the way."

They practically ran to the library, eager to find out more. Madoka spoke quickly with the librarian, and found the section with local records. The librarian left them, and the girls pulled out a thick volume. They flicked through the pages, stopping when they got to ones dating about fifty years ago.

"Elise was twenty-four when she went missing. Go back a little further," Hikaru instructed. Madoka and Sophie complied.

They found her birth information and her parents, but nothing more than that.

Sophie picked up a book containing marriage records. "You said she was engaged at the time she went missing. On her wedding day, right? Maybe there's something here."

"Good idea," Hikaru nodded. "Maybe we can find out something about who she was engaged to."

Sophie flipped through the pages enthusiastically, but found nothing. She groaned. "Well that's a dead end. The marriage must never have been official."

"So she vanished before the wedding," Madoka surmised. "But we already kind of knew that from the book with the legends."

"We can't lose hope yet," Hikaru said impatiently. "There's got to be a way to find out who she was engaged to."

"Oh!" Madoka's eyes widened. "The book said she was engaged to someone belonging to one of the oldest families on the island right? Where's that family record book?"

Sophie handed it to her, and Madoka began looking through it again, muttering to herself. The other girls looked on, somewhat lost. Sophie took down another book.

"I'm going to see if I can figure out where Elise lived while she was alive."

"Got it!" Madoka said excitedly. "This family dates pretty far back, and they have a son who would have been about Elise's age."

"Who?" Hikaru asked eagerly.

"Let's see… His name is Charles Melcher."

"I remember seeing something called the Melcher estate when we first got here," Sophie sat up straight. "It was a huge house, set on the outskirts of town."

"We've got to get there!" Hikaru said excitedly. "Maybe he knows something, maybe he's still alive!"

"It looks like it," Madoka said, eyes flitting down the page. "If not, he's got a son and two daughters. He seemed to move on after Elise vanished."

"I've got her home address," Sophie said triumphantly. "We can stop there, too."

Hikaru grinned. Finally, they were making progress with something.

Mei Mei stood at the water's edge, the water lapping up against her ankles, staring back at Chao Xin.

"You wanted to talk?" She said quietly, not looking him in the face.

"Yeah. Mei Mei-"

"I know, I know," she said harshly, unable to keep bitterness out of her voice. "You never wanted to hurt me. You never wanted me to see you with the other girls. Well it's too late for that."

"I know," he hung his head. "But I still wanted to apologize."

"I don't care," Mei Mei looked away. "You can't change what you've done."

Chao Xin opened his mouth to say something, then stopped, choosing his words carefully. "I went into the water," he said slowly, "because I thought I saw you out there. When I got there, you were gone. I did see something though- whoever it was disappeared almost instantly; I only got a glimpse of them. They were wearing all white, and really pale."

Mei Mei's eyes widened. "It's that girl," she whispered.

"What?"

"Last night… We ran into someone just like that," she shook her head. "But that's not important right now. I don't care what happened. The point is, you were gone for days, and the next time we saw you, you were hanging with all the island girls. How could you not hurt me? Ryuga was telling me it was all my fault and I felt awful."

"But it wasn't-"

"I know it wasn't my fault, but all of you had gone after me in the storm. If I had gone inside earlier, none of it would have happened." When Mei Mei looked up at him, there were tears in her eyes, running down her cheeks. "Why? Why didn't you just come back? Why did you go out with those girls before letting us know you were okay?"

Chao Xin didn't say anything, inside staring out at the ocean.

"That's what I thought." Mei Mei watched him, fighting every urge to run away. She needed to see this through to the end.

Finally, he started walking toward her. She flinched, backing up slightly.

"I washed up on the other side of the island. The girls you saw found me, and they helped me recover. Being out in the water all night had nearly killed me, and they were willing to help me out. I was going to head back earlier, but they insisted on getting something to eat before I left. I wanted to repay them," he looked Mei Mei in the eyes, "you know the rest."

She started crying harder. "Thank you. That's all I needed to know." He continued walking toward her. She remained rooted to the ground, letting the waves wash up against her, now reaching her knees.

Chao Xin cupped her face in his hands, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I never meant to hurt you."

She knew he was telling the truth, and as much as she'd been hurt, she was willing to believe him, to accept his apology. She'd spent too much time crying over things she couldn't fix.

She could either be angry and upset, letting that overwhelm the remainder of her vacation, or she could forgive him and move on rather than continue to dwell on things she couldn't change. It was her choice to make. There was an opportunity waiting for her if Mei Mei would just take it.

Mei Mei decided to take it.

He kissed her, and she stood up on her toes to reach him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him back. She never wanted the moment to end, as his hands moved to her waist, and the kiss grew more intense. She'd waited so long for this, and it was better than she'd ever imagined.