Thank you to Kelly Yeoh for reviewing, and my clone for adding it to her alerts. :) This is the longest one out of them all, I think.

Enjoy!

Dark

Flames from the destroyed Battle Tower leapt high in the air, casting twisted shadows on the two teams gathered half a mile away and watching in horrified awe.

Well, some were.

"Take that, Gideon! We're the best!" Tyson yelled, cheering at the top of his voice and jumping up and down happily. Everyone laughed softly, though Hilary, still recovering from her earlier terror that Tyson and Max had been killed as the Tower collapsed, managed only a wry chuckle. Max and Kane, the two who had received the most severe injuries during their respective battles, were lying on the ground half-asleep. Hearing Tyson, Max blinked and opened his eyes a fraction.

"Shut it, Tyson, I'm trying to get to sleep here." he mumbled, yawning widely and looking down at Draciel for the hundredth time.

"Oops, sorry, Maxie," Tyson apologised, grinning. "You okay?"

"Mmph." Max ignored his best friend in favour of sleep.

"Okay..." Tyson shrugged and turned to stare at the ruined tower yet again.

Ray stretched and stood up.

"How's Kane, Salima?" he asked. The slender red-head looked up at him.

"He's okay, I think, but he'll have to stay in bed for a while!" She and the other ex-Psychics laughed as Kane mumbled something inaudibly under his breath. "Which he won't like."

Ray chuckled, smiled his thanks, and wandered off to stand next to Tyson.

Shaking out her cramped limbs, Salima stood and smiled down at Goki and Jim. "I'll be back in a minute or two, okay? I just need to stretch my legs." Her friends nodded, and she headed towards the trees.

Once she was out of sight, she breathed a sigh of relief. Ray and Kane - when he was awake - were both so awkward around her that it was close to unbearable. And she didn't know why, either. She knew that Kane liked her, and she suspected the same of Ray, but why did they keep acting almost as though they were ashamed? Leaning her head against the rough trunk of a tree, she sighed again.

"Lovesick fools, aren't they?" a voice said from a few metres away. With a cry of alarm, she spun around, only to see Kai gazing steadily at her. She laughed nervously.

"Kai, you made me jump!"

"Yeah, I do that to most people." Kai said smugly. Silence fell. "Well done out there," he said at last, the smirk disappearing from his face. Salima stared at him, perplexed. "I know how hard it is to fight something like that."

"Oh!" The word was little more than a gasp, a whisper of breath. "Do you?" she asked.

"Yeah." He looked down, just for a split second, but Salima caught it and her heart melted.

"Bad luck."

"Don't pity me," he said suddenly, his voice hard, bitter. Hurt stuck a spike in Salima's chest and twisted, but she replied with a smile and a light,

"Why not? It's fun." Kai's mouth twitched, but he shook his head briskly and pressed his lips together.

"What's fun?" he asked in a sharp, strange voice. Salima opened her mouth but was stopped when he continued. "Fun is throwing food and staying up late and getting up later and chasing each other round the hotel at three in the morning with entire mattresses instead of pillows, according to that lot." Who he meant was obvious.

"And, to you?" Kai shrugged.

"Fun is winning. Fun is … knowing that you can do anything, and no-one will ever stop you." Salima's eyes widened as Kai spoke words that were far too similar to what she could remember of her power-mad thoughts while under the control of Cyber-Driger. There was a strange shifting feeling in her head, and she nodded.

Not to show that she agreed! Just that she … understood.

"Only when you have mutant bit-beasts controlling you!" she said, too loudly, wondering whether she was trying to persuade him, or herself.

He looked at her, into her, and Salima could feel something swirling behind his eyes. The clear grey of them was like a dark, deep, wide lake - there was something in the depths, hidden and menacing and only stirring when someone disturbed its sanctuary.

It was stirring now.

"Only then," he agreed pleasantly as his eyes darkened and widened and held Salima rooted to the spot, too frightened and confused to know where to go or what to do. "Did you never watch the World Championships last year, Salima?" She shook her head, again and again; those eyes seemed to follow her everywhere. "Well, you missed a real treat. Screw those pathetic cyber bit-beasts; what's a machine to a living organism?"

"Stronger!" Salima replied instantly, feeling that shifting in her mind again.

"No!" Kai snarled. "Weaker! Weaker, because they have limits! They can't grow!" Salima shook her head yet again, no longer knowing if the darkness was coming from Kai or spreading from the small, secret place inside her that had welcomed Cyber Driger with glad, open arms. "I took down two teams then, without breaking a sweat, without getting a hit strong enough to make her wobble. Eight bit-beasts couldn't match her power."

"Her?" All their bit-beasts were male, Salima knew that.

"Black Dranzer." The name hung in the air, a palpable force between them, and the world disappeared from beneath her feet.

(evil laughter) This was originally going to turn into something longer, but then it didn't, and it was as good as anything else to use here.

Review, please?