Sorry this one took a while. I've been a little busy lately. Anyways, Enjoy and thanks for the support!

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

~ The Princess and the Witch ~

Gray masses in gas form gather high above a darkened world and seem ready to condense. A single lamp stands amidst a park below illuminating some teenagers. Two girls sit on a bench encircled by the others nearby. A clock that stands close to them reads five minutes to eight in the dim light. A pair of iridescently glowing heterochromatic eyes watches this clock with worry.

It is now close to the time indicated by the note Kai and Lux had received two days ago. Though the note was only for the two of them, its contents had apparently gotten out and quite swiftly. Waiting along with Lux and Kai for the sender of the note to arrive was Ray, Max, Tyson, Hilary, Kenny and Daichi. It would seem after Ray had gotten word of the appointment when accidentally eavesdropping on Lux's conversation with her pet in the park, he decided that it would be best to inform the rest of his team so that Kai and Lux might not be alone in facing this new foe whom they knew so little about. Since neither Lux nor Kai had much against the idea, the entire team decided to come along.

Lux turns from the clock to the gun-shaped launcher in her hand. It was much like the one she had with her since her first memory with the difference of this one reading "Synchro" instead of "Extend". Lux had wondered who the sender was. Whoever it was seem to know her and according to Kai, it may well have been the same person who sent her the images as well. Kenny had also examined the launcher earlier and determined that no bitbeast fragment existed in it, but instead the launcher is at least several times more powerful than the one Lux had been using.

A small drop lands on the launcher in Lux's hands causing the golden haired girl to look up. It would seem that the weather forecast from earlier had been right and soon they may well be caught in a storm. She turns back to the clock. It now reads seven fifty nine. There is now only one more minute left until the given time of the meeting.

"Argh! Where are they!" Tyson bursts out from impatience.

"There's still one more minute left, Tyson, so just wait." Kenny tells him.

"But it is only one more minute and there's still no sign of anyone here but us." Max joins in.

"Yeah and I'm starting to feel hungry again." Daichi whines.

"You can't be serious, you ate half of my share at dinner!" Tyson says with crossed arms.

"Yeah well, I'm a growing boy!" Daichi retorts.

"Just wait, guys." Ray speaks up. "That note only said to be here by eight, not that they'll arrive here by eight. Besides, there's still a minute to go."

"Well alright…" Tyson agrees reluctantly.

Hilary turns to the girl next to her. "Lux, is something the matter?"

Lux turns from the clock to Hilary. Putting on her best smile, she tells her, "No, nothing's the matter...I was just-"

"Well, well, well…" says a high pitched voice from far away. "Seems likes Wyvynn forgot to mention the words 'come alone' in the note."

The eight of them turn to the place where the voice seem to originate to see a small girl clad in a black cloak. Beneath the cloak, dark, ragged clothing were visible in the dim light. The girl wore her dark purple hair in two bunches that spiked out and seems quite unhappy to see Lux's companions yet quite happy to see Lux. Her most unusual feature appears to be the iridescent glow in her eyes. Though similar to that of Lux's, they were much more unstable.

The unfamiliar girl approaches the group of teenagers calmly, a smirk forming on her face. She stops in front of Lux and holds out a hand to stroke her cheek.

"What a pretty face!" she squeals. "I'm so happy to finally see you, I'm sure we'll get along well."

Lux looks at the dark purple haired girl confused. "Who are you...?"

The dark purple haired girl pulls back. She seems rather taken aback by the question. "Oh my, I almost forgot to introduce myself, how rude of me!"

She straightens herself up with much effort and then turns back to Lux.

"I'm Kull, the Witch." she states.

"Witch?" Hilary repeats.

"You're joking right?" Tyson says trying to hold some laughter back.

Kull sends him a glare but returns her attention to Lux. Her expression softens as she stares at Lux. She continues this for a while, making Lux wonder what exactly she was staring at. She leans closer causing Lux to lean back. The others watch unsure what Kull is trying to do. Then, without warning, Kull threw her arms around Lux, surprising her and causing her quite some discomfort with her strong grip and loud squealing.

"So cute!" she squeals, holding the girl in her arms as close as she can to herself. When she finally notices how uncomfortable Lux was and that she was in fact struggling to push her off, she lets go confused.

"That's enough." Kai steps up between the confused child and Lux. "Why did you want to see Lux and what do you want?"

Kull glowers at Kai. Then she takes a step back.

"Fine, I'll tell you." she says. "I came to bring Lux back with me."

"So you cloaked freaks are still at that?" Kai asks.

"I don't know what you mean by 'still' but Lux belongs with me and my brothers." she says in a childishly firm way. "Afterall, she's the Princess and we need her."

This catches Lux's attention. "Princess...?"

"Yup, that's right." Kull says. "You are the Princess that completes us."

"I do not...understand." Lux tells her.

"We need you." Kull replies. "Without you, my brothers and I can't grant Lady Psyche her wish or any of our own wishes at all."

"Grant your wishes?" Hilary repeats, confused. "Huh?"

"Oh wait, I wasn't suppose to say that!" Kull mutters to herself. Then she turns back to Lux and her friends, impatient. "Now will you come with me or not? I can't say more here!"

"I don't want to…" Lux says, a little creeped out by the strange girl.

"But you have to!" Kull exclaims. "If you don't come…if you don't-"

"Forget it!" Tyson shouts, annoyed. "Lux isn't going anywhere with a freak like you. I don't know what you mean with the witches and princesses and stuff but we're not gonna listen to your bogus nonsense and let her go with you, so give it up."

"Yeah." Max steps up. "We don't even know you and besides, if Lux said no, then it's a no!"

"Who asked you!" Kull bursts out angrily. She then stomps past Kai to Lux. Her eyes grew melodramatically teary as she tries to beg Lux. "Come on Lux, you don't mean that right? You have to come, I can't bring myself to…to…oh, I can't say it!"

"Can't say what?" Daichi asks.

Kull turns to Daichi with angrily. Then she shouts at him through her tears, "NOBODY ASKED YOU!"

"Kull," Ray approaches her as she turns back to Lux. "Why don't you tell us what you mean by all those things?"

Kull turns to him angry and teary as well. "No, I can't! I said too much already and big brother will be mad!"

"Kull…" Lux says. "Maybe this…"

Kull snaps her attention back to Lux.

"If I go with you just to grant your wishes...you will let me come back to my friends...as soon as I grant you your wishes?" Lux asks.

"It doesn't work that way…" Kull sobs. She then falls to her knees and cries on Lux's lap.

"Why not?" asks Hilary.

"Noone asked you, you ugly hag!" Kull sobs.

"Who are you calling an ugly hag!" Hilary yells.

"But why not?" asks Lux, returning to the subject.

"I can't tell you!" Kull sobs. "But if you don't come willingly, I'll have to kill you and bring you back dead even if I don't wanna-"

At this, Kai jerks around and pulls Kull off of Lux and throws her as far from Lux as he could.

"Hey, what was that for!" Kull screams as she sits up.

Kai steps in front of Lux as if to bar Kull from her. "Stay away from her."

"Why!" Kull demands.

"Hey Kull, was the thing about you having to kill Lux what you couldn't say before?" Daichi asks, having suddenly thought of it.

"Uh…" Kull sat still realizing what she had just blurted out without thought.

"Kull…" Lux calls to her from behind Kai, causing the small girl to return her attention to her. "I don't think I can help you...if it means...I'll have to say goodbye to all my friends forever…I'm sorry."

"Fine, then…" she mutters. Kull gets up silently. She brushes the dirt off her without looking up from the ground. Then, she snaps her head up to face them. "I guess you left me no choice. Well, too bad!"

Lux watches Kull pull out a gun shaped launcher extremely similar to her old one. As Kull loaded her blade onto it, she recalls the way Nex and Tanor had done that and aimed their blades at the ones they were intending to hurt.

"It's too bad you don't wanna come…" Kull says. "I would have liked it much better if you had picked otherwise."

Kull gets ready to pull the trigger. Noticing this, as if by instinct, Lux quickly takes out her blade and loads it onto her launcher and launches her blade as Kull shoots her blade at her. The move surprised not only the people around Lux but Lux herself as well. She watches as the two blades collide in midair, creating a huge shockwave before falling onto the ground.

Lux regains her composure quickly and gets up from the bench and stands next to Kai. She had previously felt a little sorry for having to disappoint Kull but after seeing Kull launch her blade at her, that feeling disappeared.

"I'm sorry. I won't come with you." Lux states firmly.

"Well I'm not giving you a choice anymore!" Kull screams, sending her blade at Lux again.

Lux watches the blade fly in her direction and closes her eyes, bracing for the impact. The voices of her friends shouting her name in concern reaches her ears as she expects pain to flow through her body. She is surprised when the impact doesn't come. Instead, the sound of beyblades clashing was audible and a strong shockwave could be felt. Lux opens her eyes to see three blades locked in midair.

"Stay out of this!" Kull shouts to Kai as the three blades return to the ground.

"Not if you intend to hurt Lux." Kai answers.

"We need her to have our wishes granted!"

Kull sends her blade at Lux again but is blocked for a third time by Kai who had been watching Kull's blade. While the two blades are in midair, Kai takes this chance to attack Kull's blade, causing some minor damage to it. Kull winces in pain and grabs her right arm. It would seem the attack somehow hurt Kull too.

"Guys, it's almost the same strange reading from before!" Kenny shouts, catching the attention of them all.

"Really, Chief?" Tyson asks.

"Yeah, its from Kull's blade." Kenny answers. "But I can't tell for sure what it is. The reading is very similar to the one we got from Lux before but with minor differences."

"If those readings you're getting are what I think you're getting, then of course they're similar." Kull says.

"What do you mean?" asks Ray.

"You don't need to know that." Kull states, sending her blade at Lux swiftly.

Though Lux did not have enough time to react to the attack with her blade, her blade blocks the attack for her again. It would seem the blade either has a mind of its own or it's reading Lux's mind.

Hilary watches as Kull winces again. "Why does it look like she's in pain?"

"You're right," Max remarks. "But why…?"

Kull tries again to attack, but instead this time, she aims for Lux and Kai's blades. She had made up her mind that it would be impossible to attack Lux if she left Lux and Kai's blades spinning. She tries first to take out Kai's blade but is blocked by Lux who also counters her. She tries the same thing on Lux's blade only to receive a surprise attack from Kai's Dranzer. Seeing that it would be impossible to take the two out with only one blade, Kull takes out a normal launcher and launches a second blade.

"There we go," she mutters.

Kull sends her second blade after Dranzer while she focuses her first on Elfe. She attacks Kai's blade, but misses rather miserably. Kai takes this chance to knock out her second blade and returns to help Lux with Kull's first blade. Seeing this, Kull takes out a bunch of other blades from under her cloak and launches them. Not liking what Kull is doing at all, Tyson takes out his white blade, Dragoon and knocks the extras out.

"Hey!" he calls to Kull. "Since when is ten against two or aiming for the blader considered fair?"

"Why won't you non factors just stay out of this!" Kull yells in frustration. She pulls more blades out from the inside of her cloak and launches them all desperately without aiming. Her first blade, apparently the only one with any real power, also starts to go berserk. The blades fly here and there, damaging everything in their path and ricocheting off what they can not cut through.

Hilary ducks as a blade flies towards her. "Oh, what is wrong with this girl!"

"Yeah," Max agrees, dodging an incoming blade.

Kai turns to see a blade flying towards Lux from behind her and pushes her out of the way, sending both of them onto the ground.

"Are you ok?" he asks her.

Lux nods. The two of them turn to see an incoming blade and ducks.

"Hey this really sucks!" Daichi complains as he takes a step back to evade a blade flying in his direction.

"No kidding." Kenny remarks holding onto his laptop tightly and rolling out of the way of yet another uncontrolled blade. "Dizzi! Help us!"

"Sorry, but I'm still stuck inside a laptop." the computerized voice says.

Ray dodges the blades with ease. He then turns to Kull and watches as her first blade flew in her direction from behind her.

"Kull, watch out!" he calls to her.

Kull turns to him, unsure of what he's indicating. As she did, an overwhelming pain flows through her and causes her to scream loudly. Ray watches as she falls to the ground.

The other seven teenagers turn to the fallen girl and watch as a pool of crimson spread beneath her. The blades that were previously spinning out of control calm down as well and eventually slow to a stop. A small drop falls from the heavens and lands on the ground, followed by many more. A pair of blueish iridescent eyes belonging to a youth with light blond hair sitting atop a tree watches the scene from a safe distance. He jumps down from the tree, soundlessly and disappears into the night.

"Looks like my present proved useful enough."