CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

~ Fragment ~

A soft glow gently brightens in the sky and pierces the sleepy atmosphere inside a quiet bedroom of a large residence. Morning's fragrance soon drifts inside this room from the outside as the celestial objects once visible fades into the sky. The room, originally darkened begins to shift in color to warmer, gentler tones. Sleeping in silence are two: a girl whose face is framed by golden strands and a two toned blue haired boy at her bedside. However, soon, one of them is awakened by a repeated ringing noise originating from another part of the mansion.

The irritating noise repeats itself again and again, alarming all in the residence and making its desire for attention known. Slowly, Kai shifts in his sleep and slowly, he opens his eyes. Almost immediately he winces slightly as a burning sensation becomes noticeable on his left eye. Nonetheless he hears the call and decides he should answer it, letting go of the gentle hand he had been holding onto while he slept.

Finally arriving at the room the phone is located in, Kai picks up the phone quickly in hopes of stopping it from waking Lux.

As soon as the phone was beside his ear, the voice on the other end of the line said, "Kai, I got an email from Judy this morning about the bitbeast fragment from Lux's launcher."

Kai recognizes the caller immediately from the voice.

"She also sent me the data she collected from her tests." Kenny continues on the other line, "I'll be at Tyson's place. I'll show you everything there, ok?"

"I'll be there." Kai answers before hanging up. He turns to return upstairs to get ready but sees Lux standing in the doorway holding onto the door of the parlor for balance with one hand while her other hand was placed over the wound on her side.

"Lux!" he exclaims, hurrying to her in fear that she might reopen her wounds by moving around. "What are you doing here? You should get more rest."

"I heard the phone ring…and you weren't there…so I thought I'd come get it…" she replies.

"Don't worry about it." Kai tells her.

"I want to come too." She says just above a whisper. "I heard Chief say…he got more data from Max's mother. I will come too."

"No, you should stay in bed, until you're better." Kai tells her, hoping to convince her to stay put. However he was disappointed by a gentle shake of her head.

"I want to know…" she says softly.

Kai looked at her for a moment. Then, he finally decides that it should be ok for her to come with him as long as he can make sure she doesn't hurt herself further.

...

Later at a familiar dojo, after a careful ride from Kai's chauffeur, Kai and Lux enter to find a familiar sight: Tyson and Daichi fighting over some trivial matter and Hillary scolding them as usual with Max and Ray sitting nearby watching them and the Chief typing busily away on his laptop. The two are greeted immediately though Lux's apparent condition causes for concern from the bunch and brings Tyson and Daichi's quarrel to a halt.

"Lux, what happened to you?" Hillary asks as she rushes over to help Lux take a seat on the porch. Most of the others surround her in concern.

"She was more or less kidnapped by some freak called 'The King'." Kai answers for her, knowing that it would be best for her to sit and rest.

"The King?" Max turns to him. "You mean like the way Kull called herself 'The Witch' and stuff?"

Kai nods.

"So there's more of those freaks?" Tyson puts on an annoyed face. "Why do they keep calling themselves that…?"

"'The King, the Sage, the Dragon, the Urchin, the Knight, the Witch and the Princess'…Ventus said they're the Magnanimae; augmented souls that can awaken special abilities." Kai goes on.

"Ventus…" Lux whispers looking to Kai for more information.

"Ventus? Who's he?" Daichi asks.

"He said he's a relative of Lux. Her cousin to be exact."

"That explains the pictures." Tyson points out, remembering the pictures sent to Lux from before. "He must've been the one to send them."

"He also mentioned a guy named Bizmark that was running the research lab that performed some experiments on Lux. He didn't say much more about him."

The group remained silent for a moment to think. Soon however, Kai breaks this silence.

"So about the data you told me about on the phone…" he turns to Kenny. "What did Judy find out?"

"Well, according to what she sent me, it would appear that all of their volunteers that launched a blade from a launcher that had the bitbeast fragment in it became emotionless and zombie like until the blade stopped spinning on its own." Kenny explains.

"Emotionless and zombie like…?" Hillary repeats, a little perplexed.

"They manually stopped the blades of one of the test subjects in a beybattle at one point though…" Kenny goes on. "That person…well…he died."

Shocked eyes fell on the small boy. Silence took over momentarily until it was broken.

"From what though?" asks Max.

"They don't know." Kenny replies. "According to the report Judy attached, every time the blade was hit, the blader acted as if he took damage as well though no injuries were found at all. When the blades stopped, the test subject's vital signs stopped too and the body just fell limp. Each of the volunteers were confirmed to have been in tip top condition prior to the testing."

"But how is that possible…?" Ray asks.

"There's one other thing though…" Kenny continues. "None of the volunteers exceeded the capabilities of an ordinary blader…none of them produced a crater upon launch."

Each of them turns to Lux who stares back with a rather blank look.

"And none of them were experimented on either like Lux was…" Ray points out.

"Nor are they Magnanimae." Kai adds.

Another silent moment dominates the air.

"You said before that the bitbeast has a special ability, right?" Kai asks Kenny.

"Uh…yeah," Kenny answers.

"Is this it?" Kai asks him.

"It could be." Kenny answers.

"Hey guys," Ray calls to them. "When Kull's blade was hit, wasn't she also acting as if she was taking the hits as well?"

"You're right…" Tyson agrees. "But why…?"

...

A soft wind travels through the air almost silently, passing by a red haired youth clad in white and orange standing at the gates of a large mansion. He looks up through the distance as if able to see inside. Watching him with large, curious yet innocent golden eyes are a couple of kittens sitting at the window of one of the upstairs rooms. Though they've no clue why the familiar stranger stands there so, they continue to watch him. Eventually, after some time, he turns to leave but is stopped when he sees another youth with light blond hair clad in dark leather clothing. He eventually, silently walks pass the other stranger but stops shortly past him after the light blond one whispers something. Nonetheless, Tala kept moving away from the magnificent residence and the light blond stranger towards wherever he is headed.

...

Elsewhere, a figure draped in purple holds in his covered hands, a lifeless bundle with dark purple hair. Looking around through the cloth, the figure runs from the stone runes near him towards an unknown location.