Me: Yes! I have finally had a brainwave!

Hyoma, Hikaru and Tsubasa: FINALLY!

Me: I thought you guys hated it when I wrote about you?

Hikaru: Yeah, but we hate it even more when all you can write is filler chapters.

Me: Well you're in luck, I have a feeling this is going to be my longest chapter yet.

Hyoma: And let me guess, it's all about me going a torture dummy isn't it.

Me: Half-score Hyoma. Yes, it is a chapter about you but you're not exactly a torture dumy.

Tsubasa: Well Hikaru and I better not be the torture dummies. After all, we've already suffered a train crash and had to walk all the way to Koma Village.

Me: Yeah, well, complaining won't get you there any faster. So, who wants to do the disclaimer?

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

Me: Alright! Let the brainwave commence!

The Light and Darkness Chronicles

Chapter Thirteen - Different

After almost a week of way-too-warm weather, it had finally started to rain in Koma Village, but instead of downpour, the rain was no more than a drizzle. It managed to thoroughly irritate those people who had to be outside, in particular Shouta, but didn't get rid of the stuffy atmosphere.

Hyoma didn't have to be outside, though. In fact, he had been expressly forbidden by his normally head-in-the-clouds childhood friend to leave his home, and he was fine with that. Shortly after his conversation with Ginga, he had fallen asleep, and he had slept for a solid ten hours.

It was twenty past eight the following day when he woke up again, feeling better than he had in several days. Sunlight was starting to filter through the curtains, and Hyoma blinked groggily, lifting one hand to block the incoming light. He shifted slightly and felt his muscles protest; the sofa wasn't the most comfortable spot to sleep on.

He got up and stretched briefly, then went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of fruit juice. Aries appeared next to him.

"Good morning" Hyoma greeted him. Aries greeted him in return and trotted at his heels. Hyoma returned to the sofa

He picked up the television remote control, but put it back down after realising that there wouldn't be anything interesting to watch, especially not at this time of the day. With this being Koma Village, electronic signals weren't exactly the best, but Hyoma had learnt to cope with that. Hokuto went against his argument he wasn't a house pet as he leapt up and settled down on Hyoma's lap, curled up and yawned widely. Hyoma watched as Hokuto quickly fell asleep again, then carefully moved into a more comfortable position whilst tickling the white dog behind the ear.

"I'm sorry" Hyoma told him and Aries, who promptly sat next to him, softly "I haven't been good company lately."

He did feel better. He still had no idea what was going on, but the idea that it might not be L-Drago's dark force troubling him calmed him greatly. Having been able to sleep had also helped, of course.

Aries eyed him critically before shoving his head into Hyoma's hand like a cat wanting a stroke might do. They sat in silence for a while, Hyoma absentmindedly playing with the sleeve of his shirts and Aries staring off into space. After deciding he had bore enough holes in the tense atmosphere, the ram spirit looked back at him and bleated.

"I feel better" Hyoma agreed, "I finally got to sleep." Aries bleated again.

"No weird dream. At least, none that I can remember."

"Can you think clearly again?" Hokuto chose then to wake up

"I think so. Sorry for having to put up with me, it must've been terrible for both of you."

Hokuto snorted, but he smiled anyway:

"It was only terrible because we don't want to see you suffer. We're glad to have you back."

"Thanks..." Hyoma smiled slightly. He closed his eyes for a second. In the distance, a clock chimed once.

"It still doesn't make sense though" he sighed "I mean, if it isn't L-Drago's dark force overpowering me, then what is it?"

"I have no idea" Hokuto answered "Do you?"

Hyoma shook his head: "I wouldn't be asking if I knew."

"Just let it go for now. Do something else. Maybe those dreams won't come back."

"We've thought that before. They always come back, so I'd better be prepared for it."

Hokuto looked straight at him: "If you're planning on not sleeping again, forget it. I don't want a repeat of last week."

"Don't worry, neither do I."

"Good" Hokuto, lifted one paw and patting Aries' head. The paw slid strait through, and once again Hokuto hated that only Hyoma seemed to have the ability to touch the ram spirit.

"You have no idea how worried he was" Hokuto said softly "We all were, Pavo and Shouta included, but I've never seen him this distressed. He was always worrying... In the end, we had to stop him from leaving, he wanted to find someone to help you himself, because he knew you never would put your pride aside."

Hyoma stayed silent, looking at the spirit lying beside him half-asleep. He bowed his head.

"I'm really sorry." Aries bleated.

"It's not your fault, not really" Hokuto added

"Yeah, but I shouldn't have panicked. It's not like me."

"No, it's not, but you can be excused."

"Who did you want to go to?" Hyoma asked. Aries didn't answer, but Hokuto did.

"Who do you think? The only person who might be able to see him and be capable of helping you."

Hyoma nodded slowly: "Tsubasa shouldn't come here, though."

"Why not?"

"Even if it isn't the dark force, I still wanted to hurt Tsubasa. Every time I had that one dream, I desperately wanted to hurt someone. What would happen if I had that dream and he was actually here?"

He felt the anxiety slowly returning: "I really don't want to hurt Tsubasa, he's my friend! But if he comes here... I don't know. And if it is the dark force, Tsubasa almost died at it's hands. Won't he still be afraid of it?"

"Tsubasa can take care of himself. Even if that were to happen, he still wouldn't let you hurt anyone."

"I'm stronger..."

"Only physically" Hokuto corrected "Besides, a few hours of sleep aren't going to replenish all your energy. You're still weak. And Tsubasa isn't here, so you don't need to worry about that."

"Even so... It could still be dangerous." Arise bleated and Hokuto nodded.

"Don't worry about it. Why don't you just do something else?"

Hyoma picked up the remote control again and switched on the TV, but as he had predicted, there was nothing interesting to watch. He spent some time flicking through channels, but eventually gave up and pressed the 'off' button. He briefly considered looking for a book but he knew none of the ones he had would interest him.

Aries soon left to go and find Pavo to talk to, and Hokuto went back to sleep. But Hyoma missed their company. He would've liked someone to talk to, if only because being alone did nothing to alleviate his worries. In hindsight, it wasn't really logical for L-Drago's dark force to be affecting him, after all he hadn't faced the dark bey himself, too many things just didn't add up. But that didn't help him to solve this entire mystery. He hoped he would be able to find an answer soon. Once in a while, he longed for some sort of normal life. He felt like the only thing he could do was wait and hope that a solution would somehow come to him, but he found it hard to do.

At one o'clock, Hokuto woke up again. Hyoma smiled at him lazily, before getting up and going to the kitchen in search of food. He had spent the last four hours sitting down, just thinking and occasionally talking to Aries and Pavo, who had shown up at regular intervals. They all agreed that a lot of things didn't make sense, but, as Aries had put it, 'the world stopped making sense the moment we met Ginga Hagane'.

He felt drowsy. Hokuto had been right when he had said that he hadn't regained all of his energy yet, and just sitting and doing nothing was very tiresome.

Hyoma quickly finished the sandwich he had made, and then headed for his bedroom, in search of clean clothes and a book. But he had already read the one he found several times before and the plot failed to retain his interest. He yawned, then sighed resignedly. This had happened before, and every time he started to feel tired, he would fall asleep within the hour, even if he tried to stay awake. He'd usually be woken up again within the next two hours, more often than not by the two bey spirits that seemed to have grown to become far too comfortable with his house then their own beyblades.

There was really no way to stop himself from sleeping. Neither was there a way of stopping himself from dreaming.

"You're going to fall asleep again, aren't you?"

Aries and Pavo appeared through the front door, literally. They looked concerned.

"Yes, probably" Hyoma nodded.

"We'll watch out for you" Pavo promised. Aries agreed.

"Thanks" Hyoma smiled slightly and put the book down. As he had predicted, he fell asleep within the next ten minutes.

He stands upon the cliff top, marvelling at the world below him. A pretty village in the heart of the mountains. On the west side is a deep forest, on the north side a lake, on the east side a flower garden and on the south an enormous mountain, the one he stands upon. He nods. He's ready. He knows being the near-servant to Him will be difficult, and painful. But their two of a dying kind, they need each other. They need protection. He would probably disagree, try to stop him or change his mind, but he will do this. He wants to protect Him, and, deep down, that's all that really matters.

He had never woken up just like that, someone else always had to wake him up, but he was awake now, and no one was yelling. He sat up, and Aries lifted his head.

"Are you alright?" Pavo echoed the ram spirit's thoughts

"Yes, I'm fine" Hyoma nodded.

"Are the dreams gone?" Hokuto was awake too "You looked peaceful."

Hyoma shook his head and frowned: "No, I did dream. But it was different." Aries bleated and Hokuto nodded.

"Must have been" he told the lilac-haired boy "You were calm for once."

"It didn't hurt. There was a village, and I could see everything around it."

"Koma Village?" Hokuto asked. Hyoma shook his head.

"This one was different, but it was in the mountains" he explained.

"Is it a completely unrelated dream?" Pavo asked.

"No, I don't think so" Hyoma closed his eyes briefly, trying to recall the details "There's someone I want to protect. I don't know, but during the third dream, I felt the same."

"Someone you want to protect?"

"Yes..." Hyoma nodded "It's weird." Aries opened his mouth, but closed it again. Hyoma sighed.

"What time is it?"

"Almost nine pm" Hokuto answered "Don't you think you should eat?"

"I'm not really hungry. Maybe later." Hyoma picked up his book again, and opened it on the place where he had stopped reading. The plot still didn't manage to captivate him, but nevertheless, he read on.

"Come on! Speed up!" Shouta watched as a boy appeared into his line of view between the leaves of the tree. He was panting hard as he beckoned to a companion behind him.

"I'm not running again!" a female voice groaned "How do you keep going? We've been at it for hours!"

"Well fast-walk then!" The boy vanished for a second before reappearing, dragging a girl behind him by her wrist. She immediately slowed down, making the boy sigh and fast-walk on ahead of her. Shouta reacted by instinct, leapt out of the tree and landed on the boy's back. The older boy gave a yelp of surprise before falling flat on his front from the sudden weight. Shouta quickly grabbed the boy's neck in a death grip, ignoring the shocked hollering from the girl behind.

"I don't care who you are or why you're here!" Shouta growled "But you've got 20 seconds to leave! NOW!"

Hyoma closed the book he had been reading and put it to the side. He had almost finished it, but now he really was hungry, and the book wouldn't be going anywhere. He decided against cooking, and took out a slice of bread and a knife. He found the cheese near the back of the fridge, and quickly cut off a piece, then grabbed a plate and returned to the living room, munching on the bread. It had been a surprisingly calm day, especially compared to the previous days, and he hoped that he would have a calm night as well.

He was just about to voice that sentiment to Hokuto, who was still standing in the living room with Aries, when someone knocked on his front door.

Hyoma looked up. Why would anyone be visiting him now, at this time of the day? Shouta should be out on patrol at the far north of the village with Pavo. There was another knock, and Hyoma decided he might as well go and find out who was on the other side of the door. He quickly crossed the hallway and turned the key, then opened the door slightly.

He almost reeled back in surprise.

"Tsubasa? Hikaru?"

"Hi there, can we come in?"

It was Tsubasa, and Hikaru could see Hikaru standing behind him. Eagle made Hyoma jump as he made use of the open door to slip inside. Immediately a scrap started between the two animals with Aries trying to separate them.

"What are you doing here?" Hyoma opened the door a bit wider, but still didn't let them enter.

"Getting Eagle back, it seems." Tsubasa pointed at the eagle, who had stopped fighting with Hokuto who was still hollering death threats, and was now perched on the arm of the sofa, looking at him expectantly.

"Are you going to let us in, Hyoma?" Hikaru smiled at him. Hyoma worked very hard not to blush as she did. Wait, why was he blushing at Hikaru?

"I-I'm not sure if that's a good idea..." he began. Tsubasa frowned.

"Ginga called me" he explained "According to him, you're in trouble. Even if you aren't, I'm coming in at least."

"I should've known... I'm not going to be able to stop you, am I?"

"No, you're not" Tsubasa folded his arms. Hyoma sighed, knowing that Tsubasa has a stubborn streak worse than Aries' (And he was a ram!), and opened the door fully.

"All right then, come in."