"The worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere friendship." ~ Sir Francis Bacon
Anubias leaned against the wall in Bakugan Interspace, looking irritated as ever. Sellon, predictably, leaned on the other side of the corner, glaring out at the world around them. More and more, as Anubias became acclimated with the human culture, he was thinking of her as goth. He was just beginning to hope he'd be able to avoid conversation with her when she spoke.
"So, how have your recruits been going?"
The casual question hid some sort of ulterior motive, he could tell.
"Fine. Yours?"
"I think they are progressing... satisfactorily." He couldn't see her from his position, but he could just envision her examining her fingernails experimentally. To anyone looking at her from more than ten feet away, she'd look perfectly harmless. Maybe like she was trying to look cool. But Anubias also had a feeling she was smirking. When she smirked, she was a snake.
"Chris and Soon would be my top choices, but if that girl... Julie? would only come out and fight... It would certainly be interesting to see how the tides of battle would turn with her on our side," Sellon continued. Anubias detected the movement of her head out of the corner of his eye, but didn't turn his own head to meet her gaze. "Who are your recruits of choice?"
He knew she was enjoying making him talk. Enjoying baiting him. Fine, he'd take the bait this time. "Ben seems to show promise, as do Robin and Jack."
"That small boy? He's an... Aquos brawler, correct?" she questioned. He grunted in response, glancing at the rotating screens a little ways away from their positions. Shun was supposed to be battling in a little while, and he was interested in witnessing it.
As he gazed at the rotating screens, Sellon continued to try to patronize him, but he had tuned her out again. Something on the screen was wrong. Anubias narrowed his eyes. "Why was Shun's battle delayed?" he interrupted her. He wasn't sure if he had irritated her or not, but she trailed off.
"That is odd," she murmured a moment later, pushing off the wall absently. Anubias did the same. Shun's battle had been delayed three hours, which was quite unlike the dark haired ninja. Even with Dan's disappearance, Shun had still fought his battles with impeccable punctuality. The fact that this one, right after Runo's disappearance, took place, raised suspicions within the two brawlers like red flags.
"Do you think Princess Fabia's woken up?" Sellon asked, watching him out of the corner of her eyes. She had placed a hand on her hip in a classic posture of femininity, just as Anubias had crossed his arms while he frowned at the screen.
"I'm not sure. It's possible." Then, he smirked. "If that's the case, then things are bound to get interesting."
Sellon smirked herself, then returned her gaze to the floating screens. "I find that I must agree with you. The ungraceful fall of the Brawlers has begun."
"What's a Prophetess?" Baron asked as he stared at Fabia in confusion. She shifted uncomfortably under the stares of her friends, who were all gathered around her bed. Mira, Julie, Runo and Alice were the only ones missing. Fabia was dressed only in a simple hospital gown, the kind with a bare back, and it was taking a toll on her. She was used to being the epitome of strength and courage, so this sudden change of roles was unsettling.
"A Prophetess is a Nethain with the ability to share dreams or tell the future," Fabia said. "We talked about this right before Stoica butted in."
"So you are a Prophetess." Eyes flicked to Shun, who was leaning against the wall near Fabia's bed. She nodded, then appeared to set aside her nervousness and take control. Her voice was stronger when she spoke again.
"Yes. My abilities are limited, though, to just dream intervention. I can walk in the realm of dreams whenever I wish. I cannot sense the future, but I can tell if someone is lying."
"Why were you always so suspicious of me, then?" Ren questioned. There was no trace of animosity in his inquiry, only curiosity. Fabia looked at him and sighed.
"I couldn't get sure signals from you. Plus, I let my own anger at the Gundalians as a race get in the way of recognizing the truth, that you had changed. You were so adept at lying it was unnerving. It was almost as though you really wanted to be on our side..."
"I did," Ren said quietly. Lena, Zenet, Jesse and Mason all glanced at him, but he didn't look back at him. He stood at the foot of Fabia's bed, his arms crossed. His serious, golded gaze was fixed on the floor at first, but he lifted it now to meet Fabia's surprised expression. "Marucho was the first person to actually treat me like a friend, and I started to have my doubts about Barrodius and the others. I mean, Lena, Zenet, Mason, Sid and Jesse, you were all great." Their surprised expressions began to soften. "However, we all let our duty to our country get in the way of friendship. We all began to be professional and refused to let the falls of our teammates bother us.
"When they all disposed of all of you one by one, my doubts about the emperor just got more and more strong. What kind of person was I working for that would get rid of his own soldiers simply because of one or two losses? And this was the man that wanted ultimate power?"
"The answer seems clear to us now, Ren," Lena said. "But then, you had been promised your freedom. The rest of us, well, we were just prodigies. We were told it was our duty to serve in the army."
"We didn't know any better, Ren," Mason sighed. "And little by little, we began to see what was wrong with our way of thinking. It eventually just became about surviving."
"They would have killed us without a second thought if we deferred," Zenet pointed out with wide eyes. "Why do you think Jesse ran?"
"Jesse ran away?" Jake repeated in surprise. Jesse grinned as he turned the pages of his book. He seemed to be enjoying the fact that the rest of the people in the room had turned their eyes to him.
"I was hoping at first to prove my worth to my superiors, but after they disposed of me like a filthy traitor, I knew that I was on the wrong side. Unfortunately at the time, I was in no position to change my mind. Once we were released from the clutches of that witch, however, we acted on our newfound enlightenment, and penned our own ending, in which we were the stars and victors!" His voice had mounted in volume as his speech went on, drawing the stares of his allies. Ren blinked at him, but then returned his attention to Fabia.
"I suppose it was because my intentions at the time were clouded that you couldn't tell if I was lying or not," he said. She nodded.
"So what was your dream about?" Ace asked. Fabia bit her lip.
"Well, I can't tell that right away. Right before we got tine information that Dan had been taken, on Nethia, I had a Prophet Dream." Linus and Rafe looked startled, but Fabia ignored their reaction. "In my dream, Kazarina found me in a hallway, and I had Aranaut with me. For some reason, though, she kept saying that I had invaded her dream, when I most certainly hadn't. I thought she was dead."
"Wait, so you found out they were alive before?" Zenet exclaimed. Fabia nodded.
"Yes. Kazarina made Aranaut vanish, and then she took me to Barodius. In the dream we were on Gundalia, in some dark hallway, then she took me to what I assume was Barodius's throne room. There were these two platforms and red stairs connecting them, and Barodius's throne was at the very top." Ren and the others exchanged glances, and that was all the others needed to tell that Fabia's description had hit home. "Kazarina asked if Barodius wanted me to know something, which I'm assuming now is the information that Dan had been kidnapped. He said no, that fear had to mount. The only other thing he said was that his price was the same: the powers of the Sacred Orb."
"So he was planning all this from the beginning?" Marucho asked before taking another sip of his coffee. Fabia glanced at him.
"Have you gotten any sleep at all?" she exclaimed, noticing how he still had dark circles under his eyes. "It's been a week since he vanished. Please tell me you've at least slept a bit!"
"Yeah, I've been sleeping... Ren locked me in my room after I passed out the other day," he replied sheepishly. His tired eyes had lost their sparkle. Fabia stared at him with parted lips as he yawned, then gestured to her to continue. "Keep going, I'm fine."
"Alright..." she sounded doubtful, but continued nonetheless. "Um... Yeah, they must have known what they were going to do for a while..."
"Wait Princess," Rafe said quietly. "How was Barodius in the dream if you were in Kazarina's dream? He couldn't have been real, Prophet Dreams don't work like that."
"He's right," Paige muttered. "I've read about them. Prophet Dreams can only be shared by two people."
"Well, it wasn't just Barodius," Fabia sighed. "It was all of them, aside from Nurzak." The Gundalians and Castle Knights gasped in surprise. Fabia closed her eyes. "It didn't make sense to me either, and I was confused for a moment, but then, because I could tell that they were all real, I was shocked. I couldn't believe they were alive, and when I woke up, I was trying to process it, but then I was informed of Dan's disappearance. It eclipsed my own problems, but now I've had time to put things together."
"So that was only the beginning?" Linus said. The question sounded more like a statement, but it was still obviously that. Fabia nodded.
"Yes. I was a bit unnerved when Kazarina appeared in the arena. By that time, I had been suspecting that she was of Nethian lineage. Of course, it was obvious. She had blue skin while everyone else had gray skin." Lena and Zenet were nodding.
"It's very rare for a Gundalian to have blue skin," Lena agreed. "There have been a few great Gundalians in history that have had blue skin and attributed it to a rare skin disorder, but a few admitted to having a Nethian parent."
"That was when I asked her how she was alive when I had witnessed her body myself. She told me she was a Prophet Illusionist, which is a type of Prophetess. However, the ability to induce illusions only comes from the union of Gundalian and Nethian blood, and this information is only known by Nethians." Fabia lifted her gaze to meet Ren's. "Kazarina is half-Nethian, half-Gundalian. Her ability to hypnotize is purely Gundalian, but the ability to create illusions and even nightmares is from the mixture of her blood."
"You don't look very surprised, Ren," Shun said quietly. They all looked at Ren, who had been glaring into a corner. He met Shun's serious yet impassive gaze evenly before explaining what was on his mind.
"Both Lena and I have had our suspicions about Kazarina for a while. This just confirmed them," Ren shared. "But I must admit that this complicates things. She never used this ability in the past, but the fact that she's pulled out all the stops this time around suggests that this is going to be the final battle. This will end in the complete and utter destruction of one side, and now that they have Dan, you can kinda guess how this looks."
"That's not good," Baron said nervously.
"Of course it's not," Ace agreed rudely. He crossed his arms and glanced at Percival on his shoulders.
"I hardly think that they'll be a match for all of us together, regardless of the fact that they have Dan."
"But that wasn't the whole story, was it, Fabia?" Gus frowned. Fabia shook her head and sighed, hugging her knees to her chest.
"Princess..." Aranaut said quietly. Fabia gave him a forced smile in an attempt to console him, but it didn't have the desired effect.
"In the dream I had while I was unconscious, Kazarina had summoned me back to Gundalia, and she blinded me. Barodius was there, too, but his voice sounded much deeper... and more guttural. And his breath is disgusting." She shuddered. "They told me that they wanted Drago's powers, and I was resisting, then they shocked me with their lightning. Geez, that hurt." She rubbed her neck unconsciously, remembering being held against the wall. "Then they told me I had better cooperate because they might hurt Dan more."
"More?!" Marucho repeated, sounding startled. Baron and Jake's eyes both widened and everyone visibly tensed. Fabia gave them all a nervous look.
"Yeah... They said he'd had an "unforgettable experience."
"Does that mean they did something that will leave a scar?" Linus asked.
"Or some of her mind-torture?" Paige asked. Ren and Marucho exchanged glances, then all gazes fell towards Drago, who sat on the nightstand beside Fabia's bed.
"Drago?" Marucho asked quietly. "Are you okay? You've been awfully quiet."
"How would you feel if someone important were taken from you and hurt intentionally?" Trister asked Marucho bluntly. Marucho bit his lip and turned his blue gaze toward Drago nervously.
"It's a horrible feeling," Drago said quietly. The whole room was dead silent as they listened to him speak. "To know that Dan is out there somewhere, and I can't help him. It's just like when I was the Perfect Core and watched all of my friends fall at the hands of the Vestals." Ace, Gus, Keith and Baron all lowered their gazes in shame. "Only this time, it is much worse. There is no one there to help Dan the way the Resistance fought for my comrades, and Dan is my closest friend."
"Is this like when you watched Wayvern...?" Marucho asked softly.
"It's worse. When Wayvern asked me to kill her and take the Infinity Core, I could at least justify my actions, even though I never wanted to hurt her in the first place. I loved Wayvern. I still do," Drago murmured. "But knowing that Dan is suffering because I don't surrender my powers, even though I know if I do, I'll be hurting everyone else, that is a pain unlike any other. It is as if Dan is being slowly killed in front of me, and I can't do a thing."
"Drago," Aranaut said quietly. Drago shifted his position to look at Aranaut, who had been joined by Runanoid.
"Please know that we were once in the same position as you," Rubanoid said quietly. Linus nodded from his seat beside Fabia's bed.
"Yes. We have all experienced the loss of either a partner Bakugan or Brawler," Linus agreed solemnly. "I never wanted Neo to die, but he did his duty and entrusted his power to you. I can justify and honor his sacrifice because I trust in your judgement and the just use of the Element."
"Sid gave his life so that Ren would be able to redeem himself in the eyes of the emperor, and maybe have the time to realize that he was on the wrong side," Rubanoid said. "He also gave his life so that I would be able to continue living, and avenge him by taking down those who had made him suffer so much."
"I allowed myself to dwell in the guilt of loosing Jin. Of being unable to protect the one I should have been able to protect, no matter the cost," Aranaut said. "I didn't mention him because his memory caused Princess Fabia pain, but I continued to fight for him. Drago, the three of us have felt the loss that you should not have to feel. I promise you, we will do everything in our power to keep you from feeling that pain."
"Yes," Rubanoid agreed. Linus nodded, his lips set in a fine line of determination. Fabia's eyes sparkled with tears, and she nodded in agreement.
"Thank you," Drago said softly.
Suddenly, the door to the room they were in opened, startling all of the brawlers in the room. The next sound that reached them was hysterical sobbing, followed by soft, soothing sounds.
Alice and Mira were attempting to console Julie, who was limping into the room. The two were supporting her as best they could by bracing her arms in their own. Julie was crying hard, large, fat tears streaming down her face.
"Shh, shh, calm down," Alice was saying as she led Julie over to the bed that was a few feet away from Fabia's. All of the brawlers that had been in the room before their arrival stared on in surprise, until Drago flew over to see what the commotion was about.
"What's wrong?" he asked fearfully, floating in front of Julie. She couldn't speak, only gasped and then burst out sobbing again. Alice and Mira glanced at Marucho frantically.
"Can you please divert the signal from her Baku-Meter a screen in here?" Alice asked quietly. "She got a message that you all need to see." Alice's grim tone made Marucho nervous, and he scrambled to do as she asked. Ten seconds later, a screen was floating in the center of the room, and all attention in the room was focused on it.
Almost at once, the looks on everyones faces changed from varying degrees of nervousness to shock, and the one who had experienced the worst of it was Julie. At one look at the screen she had again let out a wail, then buried her face in her hands.
The video playing showed a girl with long blue hair strapped to a chair, staring around in fear. Her eyes were bloodshot, her skin pale, and her eyes rimmed by dark purple half-moons. She was wearing a skin tight, dark blue cami and jeans, and a white sweatshirt with black wings printed on the back laid on the ground nearby. There was a purplish bruise forming on her unwounded cheek, and that combined with the bright lighting made her appear sickly.
Then, a blue skinned, white clad woman stepped into the frame, keeping her back to the camera. She stood a bit to the side, so that Runo was still visible in the frame. She addressed Runo with a coldness that could only be attributed to a snake. "Now then, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Which would you prefer?"
"Damn you!" Runo snarled, her body jerking forward with the force of her outburst.
Kazarina chuckled. "Now, now, is that the right response? I'm feeling merciful, maybe we'll try this one more time? You're quite pretty when you're not beaten up like this. So, how about we try again?"
"Leave me alone!" Runo cried. "Let Joe go!" Shun and Marucho gasped, drawing the gazes of their fellow brawlers like lightning.
"Wrong answer, I'm afraid." Nothing could disguise the sheer, inhuman glee in her voice as she snapped her fingers. Runo's screams filled the room, making Julie hyperventilate as she pressed her hands over her ears. Alice, who was standing next to her, clamped her own hands over Julie's, despite her obvious distress. When Mira glanced at her, she could see tears in her eyes, and her own started to prick.
"Why is she doing this to her?" Marucho cried out as he dropped to his knees. Tears fell from his eyes and his glasses fogged up, but he made no move to clear them. Hearing the horror was enough, he didn't need to see it too. He got no response.
The screaming subsided to be replaced with Runo's frantic panting, and Coredom made a small sound. He had turned away from the screen, just as Jake was watching it with a horror-stricken look on his face. It was like he couldn't bear to watch, but couldn't bear to look away either. Shun glanced away from Jake and back at the screen with enough information to assume that Kazarina had done something like this to him.
Kazarina was now chuckling again, and she stepped forward so that she stood in front of Runo. The view on the screen shifted so that the angle was on their left side. The glee-filled smirk on Kazarina's face was absolutely sickening, and when Runo lifted her gaze, she fixed it on something behind the woman despite the wetness of her eyes.
"Now, just look into my eyes, and all of this will go away," the witch said silkily. The group stiffened. "You won't have to worry about anything anymore, and you won't even be sad."
"I'd rather die," Runo spat.
"That's too bad." Kazarina sounded less sadistic and slightly irritated, but the malevolent laugh that erupted from her lips was enough for the brawlers to tell that she was still enjoying this.
Shun exchanged a glance with a clearly confused and nauseated Fabia. "How did she know not to look into that witch's eyes?" Plytheon asked no one in particular. The terrible awe that even he felt couldn't be kept out of his voice.
When her screams turned to breaths again, Kazarina began to circle her chair, stopping behind it. Her clawed fingers circled around the back of it, and she leaned over so that her face was near Runo's. Sweat glimmered on the girl's brow, mingling with her tears.
"Come now," the woman enticed, reaching one hand down so that she lightly trailed her nails along Runo's neck. Runo squeezed her eyes shut as more tears fell. "Why are you putting yourself through this? Just one action could spare you from this pain. And erase so much more..." Kazarina came around the chair again, taking Runo's chin in her hand just like she had Fabia's.
"Tsk, you and Princess Fabia are so much alike, it's almost unnerving." Her tone could now be considered conversational, if not for the sly edge to her words. Runo shuddered, but kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut.
"Now now, I think you'll come to regret that, don't you?" Suddenly, Runo's eyes shot open, and another scream pierced the air. The only other sound besides it was Kazarina's fiendish cackle as she stepped away from the thrashing teen.
"You brought this upon yourself!"
"Leave me alone!" Runo shrieked, and two cries of her name, one male and one female, rose.
"She still has Splight and Tigrerra?" Gus asked.
"Quit putting up such a fuss. This would all be over by now if you'd only been cooperative."
"Then kill me!" Runo screamed.
The scenery changed, melting to form Kazarina standing in a dark room, lighted from behind. Blue light made her skin appear to be glowing, and the white wings on her back looked almost magical. But as everything related to Kazarina, they also had a cold malevolence, and the wings only added to her vampirish guise.
"I trust you enjoyed that little performance," she said, her expression completely serious. "I'll leave the outcome of that event to your imaginations. Within the next few days, the result will be apparent.
"Now, when Runo... came to be in our possession," she continued, earning a hiss out of most of the boys, "she had a companion with her. As much as I had wished we did not have to carry around another dead weight, I have found a use for him."
The view of the screen changed to show a thin, messy brown haired boy standing with two people by his side. One was a Nethian, one a Gundalian, and many intakes of breath were heard throughout the room.
"That's the Nethian that attacked us!" Zenet exclaimed.
"That's Joe!" Shun blurted in shock. Marucho's jaw dropped and Baron whipped his head around to look at Shun.
"Joe Brown, the partner of Wayvern, the keeper of the Infinity Core?"
"No..." Drago breathed. "This isn't possible!"
"Joe here will be punished for every attempt to rescue Dan Kuso and the others we have here," the Nethian said in her deep, guttural voice. She was sneering evilly, and Ren clenched his fists.
"Others?" Mason repeated.
"Who else do they have besides Dan, Runo and Joe?" Mira asked.
"Our terms have been relayed through Princess Fabia, so we have no need to explain them here. However, we will be sending instructions for Drago and the rest of you in the near future," Kazarina took control again. Shun snarled. Kazarina smirked. "Enjoy these next few days, Brawlers. It would be a lie to say we won't."
The screen went black and closed, leaving the group in a stunned silence.
It only lasted about five seconds. Shun let out an angry yell, making everyone in the room jump and in some cases yelp. The next thing anyone knew, Marucho's coffee mug lay in a puddle of broken glass and coffee. "Shun!" Fabia and Ren exclaimed. Everyone stared at him in shock as his chest heaved, making the Ventus cape that Mira had presented him with grow shorter and longer with each breath.
"Shun..." Marucho said quietly, and Shun's breathing slowed. After a moment, he straightened up and ran a hand through his hair, then sighed.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like that. I just need a moment."
"It's okay Shun," Mira said softly. "You don't need to apologize."
"Everyone, there's something you need to..." Alice started, but Julie's head shot up, and she gave Alice the most awful glare she could. Alice clenched her jaw in discomfort, but tore her gaze away from Julie. Alice now had the attention of everyone in the room, especially Shun's. "I'm sorry, Julie," she said quietly. "There's something you need to know. Dan wrote Runo a letter the night before he disappeared."
"He what?" Keith asked, his eyes narrowed. Alice grimaced.
"How long have you known about this?" Gus asked in that accusing way of his. Alice turned her stricken gaze to him.
"Since Sunday." Her unease was obvious.
"Doesn't this seem like information you'd like to share right away, rather than three days later?" Shun asked. His tone was supposed to be neutral, Alice knew, but he hadn't gotten control back and instead, an accusation slapped her in the face.
"I didn't say anything because Julie and Runo got into a fight over it, and it would have been rude of me to disclose the details of that!" Alice shared, distressed.
"Is that fight the reason why Runo is sitting in that electric chair?" Shun demanded. Alice flinched at his words, but then turned a fiery glare back on him.
"Listen, none of this is any of our faults!" she shouted, taking everyone aback. "Dan's kidnap has set all of us on edge, and look! We're turning on each other and blaming one another for something none of us could have prevented!" Shun looked away, an action Alice didn't fail to miss. Now her voice was sad. "Runo has been hurt more than the rest of us because in that letter, Dan broke up with her."
The gasps that echoed around the room were loud and instantaneous, but Alice pushed forward, her voice back to its normal volume. "And because we've all been losing sleep over this and were at each others throats before that, Runo just lost it. She and Julie yelled at each other, and eventually, Runo ran off. We haven't seen her since, and we sort of assumed she was just trying to figure things out. Her mom called me and asked if she had said anything about going home, so I'm assuming that she tried to catch a plane home. That must have been when she was taken, along with Joe."
The room was silent, but after a moment, Alice continued. "Please. This is not Julie's fault. This is not Shun's fault. This is not my fault, nor is it Drago's. We have to face this challenge just like we did every other one, from Masquerade and Naga to Zenoheld and now Emperor Barodius and his underlings." She looked around at everyone, her sad eyes meeting as many gazes as they could. "I think that we all need a little bit of time to get over this. I'm going to go back to Marucho's house and take a bath or something and just calm down, so anyone that wants to join me is welcome. Just... look. There's nothing we can do about it at the moment, when we're all at each others throats. So at six, we should all meet in the dining room and we can have dinner together. Let's just try to have a normal night, and then we can worry about Dan again tomorrow."
"Alice is right, you know," Mira pointed out. "We're never going to get anything accomplished if we are trying to blame one another for the faults of our enemies."
"I have to agree," Keith said.
"Me too," Ren nodded. "Those of you that need to blow of steam in a battle, you can go ahead. Marucho, maybe you should shut down Bakugan Interspace for maintenance, that way you can focus on just finding Dan." Marucho wiped his eyes and sniffed.
"I'll think about it Ren," he said quietly.
"I'm sorry for the way I acted," Shun said, bowing his head. "It was wrong of me, and using the stress from Dan's disappearance as an excuse is not acceptable because I should not have let my anger rule me. Please excuse me." He walked out then, Hawktor and Taylean floating after him. The group watched him leave in silence, and when the doors shut, Drago sighed.
"Things couldn't possibly get any worse," he sighed. "This has to be as bad is it can get."
"Drago, I only hope that you're right," Linus replied quietly, his expression stony. "If you're wrong..."
"Don't even go there," Drago warned him. "Don't even go there."
Okay, I am so, so SO sorry! I thought that I would be able to update much sooner than I did, but I guess that school and writers block just hit me hard... I'm sorry everyone, and seriously, if I don't update within two months again, someone has to come and smack me until I do. School is starting again soon, and I have to spend the next three weeks reading summer reading books and getting new uniforms and all that good stuff. I adapted my original idea for this story so that I have more breathing room, so hopefully things will go better now.
I have been getting more into my writing and art now, so I'll be writing a lot more! And seriously, if I don't update, harass me here or on DeviantArt. I love all of you guys because I'm still getting alerts that people are subscribing to this story, and it means so much to me! I really need to update for you guys more often, and I'm really sorry I haven't been doing that in the past. Please forgive me!