Hyoma: (Walks into room) Okay, so another day of torture for us.

Me: ... (Typing at computer with Hikaru and Tsubasa watching)

Hyoma: So...what are you guys doing?

Tsubasa: What else, plotting way to get you killed in the most long and painful way.

Hyoma: WHAT? ARE YOU JOKING?

Me: Shhhhh!

Hikaru: Tsubasa stop teasing him! (Sigh) Chill Hyoma. Of course he's joking. She's just correcting the mistakes in Chapter 7.

Hyoma: Oh. (Sigh of relief) Good.

Me: That it! That's the last time I write ANYTHING on my brother's IPad! Stupid spelling check! It's changed 'another question' to 'angry question'!

Hyoma, Hikaru and Tsubasa: ?

Me: WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT?

Hyoma, Hikaru and Tsubasa: Nothing.

Hyoma: (Whispering) What's up with her?

Hikaru: (Whispering) She's in a bad mood.

Hyoma: (Still whispering) Why?

Hikaru: (You get the idea) She's had a German test today. And yesterday she had a Biology test. And then on Monday she has a Chemestry one.

Hyoma: Really? Summer exams come early?

Tsubasa: Not really, just an unfortunate set of events in a short amount of time. The only thing keeping her going to the possitive reviews she's getting for making us do awkward and painful things.

Hyoma: Is that good or bad?

Hikaru: Well considering she's just wrote your chapter and you current state of health lies in her hands, I'd say no.

Hyoma: YOU'RE JOKING!

Tsubasa and Hikaru: Shhhhh!

Hyoma: (Whispering) Sorry!

Me: (Mumbling) One of you guys do the disclaimer please (Groans as she opens Chemestry text book)

Tsubasa: Can I? I haven't done a disclaimer in a while.

Hyoma and Hikaru: Sure.

Tsubasa: Sharkey52 doesn't own Metal Fight Beyblade, but does own Shouta and Light Pavo.

Me: Yeah, on with the story and all that... (Falls asleep on top of text book).

Hikaru: (Whispering) Now, run!

Hyoma, Hikaru and Tsubasa: (Quickly run out of the room)

The Light and Darkness Chronicles

Chapter Eight - Betrayal

"He moved! Everyone! He's alive! I just saw him twitch!"

"Go away!" Hyoma groaned to whoever was yelling in his ear. His head was pounding enough without added assistance.

"(Gasp)! He just told me to go away!" the same famine voice squeaked "He's coming round everybody!" Finally unable to take it any longer, Hyoma opened his lilac eyes. The first thing he took in was a giant yellow, black and white bird head with a pale pink beak staring down at him with mud-brown eyes.

"Aaaahhh!" Hyoma bolted upright and the peacock fell to the floor. It was at this point he realised the unusual-coloured peacock had been standing on his chest and peering down at his face. You can't blame him for being spooked, even if this wasn't a real-life peacock.

"Oh, Pavo" he gave a sigh of relief, then clutching his head "Ow! What washing machine did my head fall into?"
"Hyoma!"
"Baaaahhh!" The two other occupants of the room leapt onto the bed.

"Hokuto? Aries?" Hyoma asked.

"Oh thank Canis, you're awake!" Hokuto sounded genuinely happy for the first time in...ages "You've been out cold for over three days!" Hyoma tentatively touched the back of his head. He felt a bandage there, slickly sticky with dry blood.

That was what was killing his head.

"What happened?" he asked.

"You hit a tree" Pavo answered.

"Who's bike was I riding?" Hyoma asked.

"No one's" Hokuto answered "According to Aries you were just running along the path when an explosion went off."

"An explosion?"

"A big black one apparently" Pavo nodded "Whoever set it off, they knew you were coming back home. They were evidently out to kill you. And they nearly succeeded." Hyoma double blinked, taking this all in.

"How bad was I..." he trailed off.

"A list of medical problems" Hokuto answered "Second degree burns on half your body, a sprained wrist, patches of burnt hair on the edge of your scalp and a serious head wound. Shouta nearly had a mental fit when he saw you, and he almost collapsed with exhaustion trying to treat you."

"Shouta?" Hyoma asked.

"You ought to be grateful to him" Pavo nodded "If it weren't for my friend and master, Aries would have had to sit and watch you die of blood loss under a tree unable to do anything."

"I-I guess it means I owe Shouta an even greater debt" Hyoma sighed, then he yawned "Still tired. I guess I need more sleep." Aries bleated, his black eyes blazing with defiance.

"Aries?" Hyoma blinked "What's wrong? When did you start acting like this?" Aries repeated Hyoma's two-word question with a furious bleat before bounding off the bed out of sight. Hyoma paused for a few seconds to take this in. When since did Aries go and loose it with him? Did Aries even have a temper to fray? Well, he was a ram.

"Try to understand Hyoma" Hokuto sighed, as if he had read Hyoma's mind, looking at the ram spirit who Hyoma could no longer see on the floor "Out of all of us, it was Aries who got it in the neck. He didn't sleep for the first two days, and after that whenever Shouta went out he continued to watch over you. Pavo took over his 'duty' today, but even that took an hour-long argument. he was worried for you Hyoma, worried you would never wake up. You can't blame him for being over-protective." Hyoma paled even further upon hearing this. Sure, he cared for Aries like the brother he never had, but he had never seen Aries openly return those brotherly-feelings. He didn't think that was possible since Aries was a bey spirit and therefore didn't have any direct 'brothers' and so wouldn't understand those emotions. He'd been proved wrong by the ram spirit's true loyalty. Was this the loyalty, the ever-lasting bond, that Ginga felt with Pegasus? He didn't like thinking about it. Not because it was uncomfortable, but because thinking hard made his head spin.

"Just a few hours sleep?" he asked. He needed rest to help him think. Hokuto reluctantly sighed.

"Fine, just a few hours, we'll wake you in the morning."

"In the morning?" Hyoma asked "What time is it?"

"2:36 AM" Pavo answered. Hyoma nodded, understanding. It made sense why it had taken Hokuto and Aries a while to respond to Pavo's call. Before he lay down again, Hyoma looked at the mirror. Because he was in bed, he couldn't see very much of the reflection, but he saw another to make him understand why Aries had been so worried. The left side of his face was some-what crusty from healing burns and his right side was red-raw. His nose had special orange burn-healing cream on it. His right wrist (thankfully not the wrist he launched with) was in a make-shift cast. The edge of his scalp on both sides, mainly his left, was scarred and slowly healing with singed hair around the burn edges; he knew those areas of missing lilac hair wouldn't grow back. And to top it all off with, he had a large bandage wrapped multiple times around his head. He was wreck, no other word for it.

"Sleep would be good" he mumbled before lying down. He had barely hit the pillow before he fell asleep.

As Hyoma slept, two voices watched through the window of the one-room house. They had heard the conversation and seen the boy's medical health.

"It appears he's going to live after all" sighed a first voice.

"He shan't be so lucky next time" replied a second voice, this one deeper, harsher and just plainly more evil.

"The boy has been tortured, he needn't suffer any more."

"It appears you want our plans to fail."

"I don't, it's just, why don't we wait for all three of them to come together? I mean, even if we pick one off there's still the possibility the other two could succeed."

"You don't want to see that boy get hurt, do you?"

"Hey! If you think I'm not 100% loyal to this mission your mistaken!" The first voice, who had just spoken, disappeared into the trees, fuming.

"There will be a time" the second voice breathed darkly "There will be a time you have to kill that boy, my dear colleague. Not matter how long you put it off."

He screams with rage as he feels every single part of his burn in flames. These were flames of revenge, of hurt and anguish, of pain and suffering. How could He? How could He betray him? He'd fought so hard, protected Him from everything, and this was the thanks he got? He won't hold back now. He would let everyone, the whole world, know his pain. Know of his suffering. That's why as he feels his entire body burning from the inside out, he will endure it. Nothing was worse than betrayal, and he was going to be sure He knew that.

"Hyoma! Hyoma stop it! Hyoma!" Hyoma flinched and his eyes flew open as he felt his right cheek sting. He shuddered with pain for a few seconds before taking in what had happened. He must have rolled out of bed. He was on the floor, lying on his side and clutching his stomach. Kneeling next to him, Shouta was panting hard, his right hand raised almost threateningly in the air behind his shoulder. Tentatively, Hyoma reached up and felt his stinging cheek.

"Thank you, Shouta" he said in a quiet voice. Still panting, Shouta smiled with relief and lowered his hand.

"Hyoma" he breathed "Are…are you alright?" There was a pause.

"I-I think so" the one in question said finally. It was a lie, his head was killing him again.

"You've opened the wound on the back of your head" Shouta sighed, shaking his head "Oh Hyoma." Carefully, he picked Hyoma up and sat him down on the bed.

"W-When did you get here?" Hyoma asked, still shivering with shock.

"About five minutes ago, ten tops. I heard you screaming from my house" Shouta said, looking for the first aid kit for some fresh bandages "Now, don't lie to me and say this nightmare was no worse than the last. Whatever was in this one it plainly scared the living daylight out of you. So, explain." Hyoma sighed and relented. Whilst Shouta dealt with his head, he bit back the pain and explained this new development in the nightmare saga.

"Revenge and anger?" Shouta asked "I thought you said in the last one you had someone to protect. Why would you suddenly hate them?" Hyoma drew up his knees and wrapped his arms around them, staring into nothing.

"Kenichi" he said quietly.

"Kenichi isn't going to be the one to solve this" Shouta sighed, now sitting in front of Hyoma "Try thinking as Sato. Has there ever been a time when you felt this that before?" Hyoma paused, staring at plainly nothing and rocking back and forth. Then, finally, he stopped and answered.

"Once, maybe…" he said.

"When?" Shouta asked.

"A long time ago" answered Hyoma "When…when I returned home from the mountains after the fire. I was angry at everything and everyone, but in particular…" He hid his head between his knees.

"Who?" Shouta urged.

"…Ginga" Hyoma answered, his lilac eyes looking pained "I was angry at Ginga. We'd both lost someone; I had wanted us to help each other heal. It would've been easier for both of us. But Ginga left, he didn't even wait for me. I guess a part of me was angry with him, I felt like he'd abandoned me." There was a long silence.

"But it doesn't make sense" Hyoma raised his head, staring into nothing again "I'd never wanted revenge on Ginga or anything silly like that. And the other nightmare had me protecting him. Ginga and I may have been friends, but I never exactly put myself in harm's way to save him. Usually he would be the one doing stuff like that to me." He gave a long sigh.

"You're talking about them as if they're memories" Shouta commented.

"They feel that real" Hyoma sighed. There was a long pause before Shouta smiled.

"Tell you what" he smiled "Stay here, don't go anywhere. I'll be back in five minutes." He stood up and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Hyoma asked, looking at him in confusion.

"To go Pavo's beyblade of course" Shouta smiled "Only way to snap you out of this depression state. This'll cheer you up - I challenge you and Rock Aries to a bey battle!"