Okay, I know. Its been a year, no, more! And I dont have a good reason at all. I am very sorry. But I'll finish this now, I promise you. After this, I'll probably post two more chapters, and then I'm done.

Many thanks to Kai to Gaara no Koibito, whose review inspired me to finish this once and for all.

Chapter 41: Forever

"There they are," Gryff said, waving his hand to someone Max wasn't able to see. He leaned his back towards the great, thick wall surrounding the Abbey. He could hear the heavy breaths of Ray and Tyson behind him. They looked toward whoever Gryff was waving to, and saw Tala, Byan and Ian standing at the other side of the wall. They could be seen through the gates.

"Do you know what they're doing?" Tyson asked, leaning closer to see. Gryff grinned.

"Old tricks," he said. "We need to get inside unseen. I think they're connecting to the cameras."

"Oooh, clever," Tyson said. "You mean we're gonna be invisible?"

"That's the signal," Loki said. Max looked up to see Brian nodding in their direction. Loki tip toed out from behind the wall, followed by Gryff, Max, Ray, Runa and Tyson. Tyson followed Gryff, and remembered to stick to the shadows. He was surprised to see that the Abbey had no gates. Getting inside was like stealing candy from a kid. The neverending snow kept falling, nearly blinding them as they came closer to the main building. It was like a huge, black shadow within all the white.

And that's when Tyson noticed. The black thing in front of them was not the Abbey at all. It was moving, not much, but still. He stopped, and Ray walked right into him.

"Wha- Tyson, what are you doing?" he whispered. Tyson gripped Gryff around his wrist to make him stop. He pointed with his left hand towards the shadow.

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is..." he said. Everyone stopped and stared. Tyson could clearly hear Max's pounding heart. No one moved, except for the wind everything was quiet. Now Tyson couldn't understand why they'd thought it was a building. Max suddenly felt the skin on his arm burn, and he pulled up his sleeve. A black handmark could be seen on his right arm. He stared at it, not able to move an inch. Then he looked up at Tyson.

"Please...We have to get out of here..."

"But we have to-"

"No. Something is very wrong. Please just trust me..." Max could feel panic rise in his chest, and suddenly felt hot tears on his cheeks. That's when Tyson noticed the boy was shaking with fear.

A sudden cry filled the air. The shadow moved, came slowly towards them. They all took a step back. Tyson couldn't take his eyes away from the shadow. And then he understood what it was.

"Oh, my god..." he whispered. The ground started shaking as Black Dranzer took several steps towards them, lowering her head. The bitbeast was tall as a building, its feathers swiping over the snow covered ground, making patterns of grey from the stones beneath. Behind it, the Abbey could be seen, guarded by Black Dranzer. But none of then were even thinking about getting inside.

Tyson suddenly felt Gryff pushing him aside, and run forward, towards the bitbeast. "Gryff!" Tyson yelled after him. It seemed like an eternity, where all sounds disappeared, and the world turned into a white land where only the snow was real. Tyson reached out to grab Gryff before he could get any closer, but he missed and could only stand watching as Gryff ran up to the black phoenix.

"NOX!" Gryff yelled up to the phoenix. He could still see her, his beautiful bitbeast, somewhere insde those barely visible, pitch black eyes. Somewhere from far away he could hear someone yell something, but he didn't care much. He was there, with her. The person he had missed for so long.

"Please..." He said to the phoenix. "Please come back to me. I can still see you, and you're more beautiful than ever. Please..." He reached out his hand, stretched up towards the eyes looking down at him. Suddenly someone lept at him and pushed him to the ground. Next second he could feel snow and rocks raining down at him. He turned around quickly, only to see his phoenix rising from the stroke. The spot where he'd been standing only seconds ago, was now a deep hole in the ground. Lying beside him was Max.

"Are you okay?" He asked. Gryff could see that he was shivering, but not from the cold. He nodded, then rose to his feet and looked up at Black Dranzer, to see that she was looking back.

Kai felt a sudden shiver in the floor, and a vase fell down from its table. He stumbled backwards and had to grab the back of a chair in order not to fall. He could see Boris still sitting beside the desk, and still smiling at him.

"What the hell was that?!" Kai asked. He could hear a loud cry from outside, and froze to the spot as he saw a large shadow rising outside the windows. No.

"I see your friends are here," Boris said, smiling. The shadow moved, and the floor shook again, even more powerful this time. And then Kai saw his chance. As the whole room shook, the pictures fell down from the walls, and the chairs fell over, Kai ran for the door. He could hear Boris rising from behind the desk, but he didn't dare turn around. He stumbled outside and ran down the hall. Doors opened on each sides and people started running with him, screaming. Kai saw that they were children, students.

"Follow me!" he yelled, and some of the faces turned to look at him. He grabbed a little girl in his arms and kept running, leading them all to the entrance doors. In the far end of the hall, five guards stood, waiting to make them all go back to their prisons. Ain't gonna happen, Kai thought. As he ran, he used one hand to pick his blade out of his pocket, the other one to launch it, while still holding the little girl. The blue beyblade went flying in front of them all, hitting the first guard in the face and made him fall over two others. As they ran by he could see the two remaining guards being ran over by the crowd. Some kids even threw a couple of punches at them. Kai led them down the main stairs and down, further down the building. They finally came to the entrance hall, where the ceiling was barely visible from the dark, and the open entrance door threw shadows of light across the floor. Kai laughed in delight as he saw all the Abbeys kids already running out of the entrance door. They ran past him, and Kai almost felt like he was moving in slow motion. He stopped, while hundreds of kids ran past him and out, out to face their freedom. He laughed again, and the little girl looked up at him.

"Are we finally leaving?" she whispered. Kai looked into her eyes, smiling for real.

"Yes. Everything is fine now, you're free." He dropped her, and she threw him a last glance, before she disappeared in the crowd. Kai stared after her, saw her running out of the door, her long, blonde hair dancing in the air.

"Anya..." he whispered. Kai started running through the crowd, towards the dungeons. There were still kids down there. He had to get them out, now. As he ran down the stairs, he could see guards lying on the floor around him, unconcious. The light diappeared completely for a while, before he came to a hall, with doors on both sides. Kai ran to the first door and saw another hall, with doors leading into half exposed rooms with bars separating their occupants from the rest of the world. Suddenly, all the bars were covered with childrens hands, and he could see faces stare out at him. Someone yelled: "What's going on?", but he didn't have time to listen. He found a little door in the wall closest to him, and opened it. Inside he could see weird buttons and wires, but he knew wich one was the right. He'd seen the guards do it many times.

Kai turned around as he pressed one of the buttons, and saw as all the doors opened. "Get outta her, all of you! Go home to your families!" He ran in front of them, out of the room and into the next one. After a couple of minutes, the dungeon was filled with screams of delight, and battlecries. Kai stood by the door and watched as they ran by him.

A thought stroke him. The room where they'd kept him looked nothing like the usual rooms. He started walking through the crowd, looking for an extra door. Moving forward was not easy, as kids of all ages ran for the door behind him. But then he saw it. A door in the back of the hall. He started running. Now, as he came closer, he could clearly hear voices yelling from behind the door. He tore it open, and saw a dark corridor, with a couple of doors on each sides. He started looking for the little door, but found none. And then he noticed a key hanging on the wall in front of each door. Kai picked down the first key and opened the door. It was empty. He threw the key away and went for the next one.

He looked at his wristwatch and nearly froze with panic. If the others had got inside, the bomb would go off in five minutes. He forced the key into the keyhole, and opened the door. A little boy looked back at him from the far corner of the room, where he sat on the floor.

"Its okay," Kai said. "Come, we'll get outta here." He reached out his hand. The boy hesitated for only a second before accepting it. Kai helped him to his feet, and then ran outside to get the next key. The three next rooms were empty. As he opened the fourth door, he saw someone lying on the floor inside. He walked inside and leaned down. The girl lay on her back, her empty eyes looking up at the dirty ceiling. Kai forced himself to to walk out of the room. But he left the door open, she was free. The boy was standing in the middle of the corridor, waiting for him to follow him outside.

"Anya!" He yelled. Not a sound was heard. Kai started sobbing without even noticing. A tear fell down between his feet. Maybe she was dead. Maybe Voltaire killed her long time ago. Maybe it was too late. Kai shook his head. He didn't want to believe it.

"ANYA!" He yelled again. The boy looked scared, and backed away from him, looking towards the door. Kai lifted his hand to his face and felt the soothing darkness embrace him.

"Kai?! Is that you!?" Kai froze and lifted his head. Had he just heard...? Could it be...? He looked around at the remaining doors. The voice came from the one right behind him, he was sure of it. He grabbed the key and unlocked the door.

"NOX!" Gryff yelled through the falling snow. A wing was lifted high above them. Max dragged him with him and out of reach, but Gryff kept fighting. In the corner of his eye he could see Tala and Bryan sneaking past the phoenix and disappear.

"Gryff, please!" Max pleaded. Four beyblades shot out of nowhere. Max heard Tyson calling for Dragoon, could see the familiar sight of Drigger running in the snow, giving the phoenix a warning growl. Gryff pushed Max aside and ran forward. Five voices yelled after him to come back, but he didn't. He never would.

When he was only meters from the phoenix's sharp claws, Black Dranzer lowered her head in a strike. He lifted his eyes and saw right into hers as her sharp beak came closer and closer for every second. Everything happened within a couple of seconds, but for two souls, it felt like an eternity. Gryff reached out his hands in front of him, and suddenly it felt like time had stopped. He opened his closed eyes and saw. He was covered in a bright, white light, coming from his hands. In front of him, two huge eyes were looking at him. The black phoenix had stopped only centimeters from his fingertips. Gryff looked up at her. Everything was quiet. They were the only one in this white world. And as he watched, Black Dranzers black eyes started changing. The darkness disappeared, and a light was lit in them. Gryff felt a shot of happyness shoot through his chest. The black feathers started shining, before turning bright white, shining like the sun. Nox rose and lifted her new wings to the heavens, letting out a cry of pure love. Gryff laughed with all of his heart, tears of happiness started streaming down his cheeks. He felt like he wanted to dance and sleep at the same time. Dance like the wind, or sleep forever in this wonderful dream.

"I love you so much..." he whispered, sobbing even harder now as he saw his beautiful phoenix in the eyes. It was like staring into the eyes of the sun. But it didn't hurt, his eyes were made for this light. She reached out one wing, and Gryff understood what she wanted.

"Is it time to go?" He asked. Of course it was, he thought. He reached out and climbed onto the birds soft back. As she lifted her wings and flew into the bright light, he leaned his head towards her soft feathers. Gryff felt like he could sleep for an eternty.

"I'll never leave you again," he whispered, and he knew that when he woke up, she would be there, and never leave.

Max covered his eyes as a bright light appeared in front of him. The light burned right through his hands and into his eyes, like he was standing in front of the sun itself. Then, the light slowly disappeared. Max opened his eyes, and blinked the dots of light away. He was lying on the ground, as were the others. He rose to his feet, and looked around. His eyes locked at where the dark phoenix had been. It was gone. Max felt his legs were shaking as he walked slowly towards where someone was lying on the ground, right where the phoenix had been.

It was Gryff, and he was dead. His eyes were closed, like he was sleeping, his lips formed in a smile. In his hand, he was holding a bitchip, with the picture of a white phoenix lifting her wings towards the heavens.