I had stuff to take care of this week so this one was finished later than I thought it would be. Anyways, be sure to review. Enjoy and thanks for your support!

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

~ Dream into Reality ~

The lush, green scenery is decorated with blossoms of pure white and soft pinks. The breeze, warm and gentle is saturated with pleasant, florid scents. Fluffy puffs float by above, occasionally casting its weak shadow upon the bright scenery. The sun shines brilliantly above all this as if smiling upon the beautiful landscape below. A slender, young girl dances amidst a bright field, her soft, delighted voice filling the sweet, spring air.

A pair of cold iridescent eyes watches the entrancing sight from some distance away. Its owner's stone like feet shuffle through the grass and flowers, trampling over them to approach the sprite like being as she twirls and sings in unrivaled bliss.

A red headed youth sits upon a sturdy branch of a tree not very far away. He bites into an apple and looks up. Finding nothing interesting to look at in the sky, he redirects his gaze elsewhere and catches sight of an august demon bearing a large, scaly wing on one side of his head at a fair distance away. Recognizing the creature, he descends from the tree and slips behind it to hide himself from the creature's view.

"Hey Nex-" a voice belonging to a spiky periwinkle haired youth laying on the ground starts.

"Shhh!" the red head shushes. Then he whispers to the youth, "Quiet, Tanor. Its him."

Tanor's eyes widen and he immediately gets up from his spot on the ground to join Nex behind the tree. The two of them watch as the pale demon moves steadily closer to the golden haired sprite.

Lux twirls melodiously in the fields, occasionally greeting the birds and butterflies that fly by. Round and round she twirls, her giggles audible to all fauna around her. Suddenly, she feels herself bumping into someone and turns around. She finds herself facing the chest of an ashen skinned creature clad in a long, dark, sleeveless attire. Gray straps line his chest, arms and legs, each about an inch in width and fastened with a buckle of silver. Lux looks up to see the creature's pale face. The sight of his dreadful face causes her to shiver. She takes a step back, frightened by the physical appearance of the demonic creature.

The demon chuckles as he watches her back away. "It's alright, you do not need to be afraid."

Lux watches still scared as he takes a step closer to her.

"I'm not here to harm you." He tells her. "Rather, I'm here to…"

From behind the tree a good distance away, Nex and Tanor try to make out the contents of the conversation between the platinum haired creature and the golden haired girl. They watch as Lux slowly becomes less afraid of the platinum haired demon. She seems to be inquiring about something but the two are unable to hear her. The demon then answers her and takes a step closer towards her, his gestures seem to indicate he is proposing something to her. The red haired youth with orange eyes turns to the spiky periwinkle haired youth with cerulean eyes.

"Can you make out what they're saying?" Nex whispers to Tanor.

"No," Tanor whispers back.

"All I could hear was Lux asking something about Kai and that's it." Nex whispers. "What do you think that freak's up to?"

"I don't know…" Tanor replies. "But whatever it is, I doubt its good…"

The two of them return their attention to Lux and the one winged creature. Although they are unable to hear the conversation from where they are, they can tell that Lux is now uncertain of something. They watch as the demon extends a hand towards her while saying something to her, apparently in an attempt to convince her of whatever it was he proposed before. She hesitates but eventually takes the hand. He then begins to lead her away.

"Nex…" Tanor calls in a low voice.

"Yeah?" Nex turns from the two in the distance.

"Let's go." Tanor steps out from the tree.

"Go where?" Nex asks, puzzled.

"To Kai's place." Tanor answers while jumping over the bushes.

"Huh?" Nex looks at his companion confused. "Why?"

"Ventus made us realize how pointless it was to serve Bizmark." Tanor explains to him while moving forward. "I just think we're not the only ones who deserve to live a normal life and be with those we wanna be with. Lux isn't so different from us. She might be a ditzy airhead but if Kai or those goofballs she hangs out with were ripped from her, she wouldn't feel too different than you did when you lost Xen and Remphy. Don't you think?"

"Well…" Nex returns his gaze to the two as they fade into the distance. "I guess so…I never thought about it before…about that…or anything."

Tanor stops and turns back to Nex as he gets out from behind the tree and watches him hop over the bushes.

"I remember I used to only think about getting our assignments done…and that was it." Nex goes on, tossing his half eaten apple aside. "But now, it just makes me wonder why I was so stupid before. I could have left Bizmark a long time ago."

Tanor continues to watch Nex as he catches up to him.

What?" Nex looks back at him strangely, having felt Tanor's gaze. "Don't waste time staring at me, let's go!"

Tanor chuckles before taking off. "Alright then, last one to Kai's place is a rotten egg!"

"Say what?" Nex shouts before running after him. "Wait up, Tanor!"

...

The ocean breeze carries the sound of a blue beyblade spinning in a zigzag between empty soda cans lined up on the beach. Seagulls fly here and there as this blade spins, occasionally diving into the waters to catch their prey. On the edge of the water is a two toned blue haired boy watching his blade knock the cans into the air and slicing through them. The sliced up cans land nicely in a stack as Kai catches his blade and examines his work. Not quite satisfied, Kai loads his blade onto his launcher and positions himself for another launch.

Kai had been feeling uneasy ever since the note regarding the one winged creature. He could not help but feel that the "one winged King" mentioned in the note was the creature with one wing he kept seeing in his dreams. Though it seems unlikely such a creature can exist, other creatures seemingly real only in the realm of myths and fairytales have proven themselves real before and this one may be of no exception.

Kai launches his blade toward the stack of cans. To his surprise, a white blade meets his blue one and the two blades then return to their owner's hand. Kai turns in the direction from where the white blade came. His eyes settle on a familiar red haired Russian clad in orange and white.

"Tala…" Kai mutters.

"Hey there, Kai." Tala greets.

"What are you doing here?" Kai asks.

"Just came by for a walk." Tala answers. "Bryan, Spencer and I have decided to return to Russia now that those goons seem to have forgotten about us. We're leaving in a week."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah," Tala turns to go. Then he stops and turns back around. "By the way…"

Kai answers him tacitly.

"How's…Lux?" Tala asks him in a slightly melancholic tone.

"She's fine." Kai answers him. "Why?"

"Just wondering." Tala answers. "She used to be helpless and gullible…"

"Used to be?" Kai repeats, narrowing his eyes a little.

"Nevermind…" Tala turns to go.

"Wait." Kai calls after him.

Tala stops. Kai makes his way towards his former teammate.

"What do you mean by 'used to be'?" Kai asks as he approaches the red head. "Is there something that you know about Lux?"

Tala remains silent but Kai presses on as he steps in front of him, "Well?"

Tala sighs. "Yeah, I do know something about her. I knew her…before she was taken away anyways…"

Kai watches Tala's expression for a moment.

"Long story short, I'm the reason she's the way she is today." Tala tells him before turning to go.

Kai watches as his former teammate leaves, wondering what he could have meant by what he said. Then he remembers the note and the fact that Lux may soon be in danger and returns to his training.

...

Unknown to him, the very person he is striving to protect at this moment follows a one winged creature through a door into a dark empty space. The door closes behind them and Lux looks around. Three pairs of iridescent, glowing eyes greet her through the darkness.

"She's cute." a muffled voice coming from above a crate comments.

Lux turns to the one winged creature. "Who are they?"

"They are our allies." he tells her, his voice muffled by something as well. "We are…like brethren."

"Brethren?" Lux repeats softly. She can feel her eyelids grow heavy.

"Yes," the one winged creature tells her, a sly grin forming on his face behind the cloth covering his nose and mouth. "They will help us…in protecting you and Kai."

"Really?" Lux asks, her vision blurring. She squints a little, trying to see the one winged demon's face better.

However instead of seeing better, what was visible in the almost lightless place begins to swirl and soon Lux could feel herself loosing her balance. She then begins to wobble causing her to grab onto the coat of the one winged demon beside her in an attempt to stay on her feet. In almost no time at all, she looses her balance as her mind drifts off into a timeless darkness. The one winged creature catches her with one arm as she falls, his other arm still covering his nose and mouth. He then turns to the others in the warehouse.

"Go open the doors."

...

A youth with flowing red hair taps his foot impatiently under the moonlight as he waits by the front door of a large mansion. Beside him, a youth with spiky periwinkle hair sits on the steps, gazing at the nightsky. A small butterfly flutters past the red head's face only to narrowly escape being swatted by him like a fly. Irritated by the small thing, he cries out in anger. Having noticed his companion's impatience, the periwinkle haired youth turns to him.

"AAAARRRRGH!" Nex cries. "Where is that idiot at a time like this!"

"Relax, Nex." Tanor chuckles. "Have a little patience, he'll show up sooner or later…"

"Just to make this clear, if anything happens to that girl 'cause he gets here too late, it's not gonna be our fault!" Nex states with his arms crossed.

Tanor bursts out laughing. "It's just like you to say something like this..."

"Oh come on! We've been waiting here all day now." Nex protests. "There's plenty of other things we could be doing!"

"Yes but..." Tanor turns to the moon. "None of them are urgent anyway."

"It's our day off from work!" Nex leans closer to him.

"Not the only day off from work we'll ever have, right?"

"You amaze me…" Nex comments, turning elsewhere.

"Oh look, there he is." Tanor points out.

In the distance is a teenage boy with two toned blue hair whose worn out appearance is barely visible in the dim silvery light. As he comes closer he begins to notice the presence of the two at his door. After trying a little to make out who they are, he quickly recognizes them and looks past them. The lights inside his home were not on. Knowing this meant that Lux was not present, he hurries toward the two at his door.

Kai stops a little ways from them. "What are you two doing here?"

Nex growls. "Could you at least give us a nice greeting after we wasted our day here waiting for you?"

"Huh..?"

Tanor gets up and takes a few steps towards Kai. "We came to tell you what we saw earlier while we were lounging by the fields."

Kai turns to him as he continues.

"Someone took Lux while she was playing by herself there."

Kai's eyes widen upon hearing that. "Who took her?"

"Lok." Tanor tells him as Nex turns away.

"Lok?" asks Kai. "Who is he?"

"He's the guy who killed Xen and Remphy." Nex answers bitterly, still looking the other way. Kai turns to him. "Like Lux, he's what Bizmark calls 'successful'."

"No. 101," Tanor says, recapturing Kai's attention. "That's what some at the organization called him."

"Where do I find him?" Kai asks.

"Dunno." Nex replies. "From what we observed before, he likes dark places and he hates interacting with normal people. My guess is somewhere that's not pricey or decent but has a roof. Some random warehouse maybe."

Kai turns to go.

"You're going to go looking for her?" Tanor asks.

"What do you think, genius?" Kai replies sarcastically, walking from the two.

"Kai, wait." Tanor stops him.

Kai stops and glances back at him.

"Watch out for him. His senses are very sharp." Tanor advises.

"And that wing of his too." Nex adds. "It's more useful than it looks."

At this, Kai remembers the contents of the note from the night before and snaps his attention back to the two. "Wing?"

"He's got one wing sticking out from one side of his head." Nex turns to him. "It's not hard to miss so don't worry about having to look for it."

Kai recalls the one winged being in his dreams. Realizing the creature Nex describes may well be the one in his dreams and the one mentioned in the note, he then focuses his attention on the two again. "Tell me something, does this guy…Lok…have anything to do with kings?"

"Huh?" the two of them look to each other.

"Let's see…I'm not sure" Nex crosses his arms. He then turns to Tanor. "Tanor, you know anything?"

"I think he might have said something before about that." Tanor replies. "When we first tried to capture him, maybe."

"Oh yeah now I remember, he said something about him being the King and something else but I don't remember what it was." Nex says. "But what does…?"

Kai dashes off, leaving the two behind. Though exhausted from the day's training, he could not help but run and run as fast as he could. He could feel his heart throb with increasing fear. This fear was not for himself either, but for the silly and almost helpless girl who had come into his care. Unknown to him, A pair of blueish, iridescent eyes belonging to a cloaked figure watches him from midair.