A/N: Hikaru begins her training, and meets a familiar face.

REAWAKENING

Hikaru grunted as she swung her ice pick into the iced cliff-face. The wind was mild, but the temperature was cold enough to freeze boiling water in seconds, and the lack of oxygen due to the altitude was suffocating. No ordinary human could do what she was doing without thermal wear and oxygen tanks. Nature was out to kill her.

But she powered through it. A little cold wasn't going to stop her. She wouldn't allow it.

With all her might, she lifted herself and buried her other ice pick even higher, and once more repeated the process. A single mistake would result in a 100-foot death drop.

After over an hour of torturous climbing, Hikaru finally reached relatively flat ground. There were a few trees, and the summit was only a few hundred feet above her. She made her way to the largest tree in the area and slung the winch cable around it. Making sure that the cable was secure, she slid down the cable, which was attached to the winch of her pickup truck. She landed on the hood with a thud, but the pickup truck was tough enough to not even receive a dent. She activated the winch, and slowly, both she and the pickup truck were pulled up. She occasionally had to kick at the cliff-face to prevent the pickup truck from rolling, but other than that, there were no complications. Slowly but surely, the pickup truck made it over the cliff, coming to a stop in front of the tree where the cable was tied. She turned off the winch. This was pretty much the highest camping spot possible, or at least the highest possible spot where she could park the pickup truck.

She had begun her climb at first light, and now the sun was peeking occasionally through the clouds, so she put on her sunglasses so that the reflections from the ice wouldn't blind her.

Hikaru placed her ice picks back in the pickup truck and began exploring. She could melt the snow, but she needed food. She trudged through the knee-deep snow, trying to find a rivulet or some sort of berries. Even small creatures would do.

Soon enough, Hikaru came upon a stream, although it was completely frozen over. She was, however, anything but inexperienced. A stream this big at this height meant this was a volcanic spring. Which meant that under the ice, there was still flowing water, and possibly fish.

She let out a deep breath, and with slow, calm movements, placed Aquario in her launcher. Controlling her breath and ignoring the cold, she focused. Too little power and the ice would remain unscathed, too much power and she'd blow up the whole section of the stream. This needed to be just right. She visualized her target and launched.

Aquario made a neat hole in the ice, and water exploded from it. And with water came fish.

Aquario landed safely in Hikaru's palm. She placed her bey in its holder and reviewed her spoils.

She had gotten two big fish and a medium-sized one. Enough for the day. Although since it was going to be nearly impossible to light a fire, she was going to have to eat them raw. She removed her gloves and released her hunting knife from its sheath. She quickly gutted the fish, washing the blood away before the stream froze over again. Satisfied with her work, she dug in.

It had been two weeks since she had left Metal City, and arguably civilization. She had made two stops to refuel, but that was it. For the last two weeks, she had not once eaten at a restaurant, nor had she drunk coffee. Everything she ate, she caught herself. Her old training routine had taken some getting used to, but old habits had kicked in, and she had been back on track within days.

However, a year-long break had taken its toll. She had immediately noticed that her skill and power as a blader had dropped significantly. It was disappointing, but she had quickly regained that strength through rigorous training for hours on end. Now, she was stronger than she had ever been, and was steadily getting stronger by the day.

Of course, she still was in contact with civilization. She was the Head of Operations of the WBBA after all. In just two weeks, Chris had made quite a name for himself, clearing out rioters in seconds. Woe betide those anti-beyblade punks who had never witnessed the power of a world-class blader, let alone a legendary blader. As if sticks and stones could so much as scratch something with the power of a thermonuclear bomb. Tomoka Misaka was also performing spectacularly, dropping Chris in extremely unsafe zones. Now the UN was asking her to loan him to them, to which she had agreed. Of course, Chris would still answer to her, first and foremost.

Tsubasa also had his work cut out for him. Amongst the hooligans and punks, there were actually a few who did put up a fight. Of course, to someone as strong as he, they were nothing, but over days of continuous fighting with little rest, even Tsubasa had taken quite the beating. He wasn't too injured, but it was still very concerning.

She had put in a word for Ryo Hagane, and he had been re-hired as a field agent. Hikaru didn't feel too fond of him for pushing all of his work onto her, but his strength was undeniable. From what she had heard from Aashif, Ryo had actually wizened up a bit, and was taking his new job seriously.

Gingka mostly hung around the outskirts of Metal City – close enough to get hamburgers, but far enough to battle without worrying about destroying anything. Kyoya had gone off on his own, and the tracker which had been secretly implanted into his leg showed that he was in the middle of nowhere in Africa. Aguma had gone back to China, to the hidden village of the Beylin Fist. Somehow, Kenta had managed to disable his tracker, and no one knew where he was. King and Masamune were under close supervision, and for the sake of safety, they had been moved out of New York. There were plans to hire them as a demolition crew. Tithi and Yuu were having fun somewhere in Afghanistan. Yuki had gone back to his observatory. Dynamis was back in his temple in Egypt, now with unlimited Wi-Fi.

Now that the kids-only tournaments were over, the adults had been able to join in as well, increasing the strength of both the WBBA as well as the rioters. Several of them were world-class bladers, which was both boon and bane. She couldn't overwork Chris because he was their ultimate weapon, and Tsubasa already had his hands full.

Regardless of the obstacles, however, they were slowly making progress towards global restoration. It was only a matter of time. Soon enough, the world would be back on track, and then they could make plans about more tournaments, and then the second beyblading world championship.

Done with her meal, Hikaru stomped on the spot where she had made a hole, and the thin ice broke. She dropped the leftover bones in and washed her hands. Her hands freeze-dried in seconds, and she broke off the ice on her hands.

Judging by the cloudy sky, setting up the solar panels would be useless, and there was no way even an amplified signal would get through that. With no office work, there was only one thing left to do.

Hikaru grimaced as her bare hands came into contact with cold rock as she pulled herself up. Her body was complaining, but she had to keep moving because she knew she would die within minutes if she stopped. Cargo pants, a tank top, and a jacket did little to protect her from subzero temperatures, although this was intentional.

One hand in front of the other, Hikaru continued to pull herself up the steep slope without any equipment. Her muscles were sore from the early morning climb to begin with, and now her fingers were bleeding from repeated abrasions. She ignored the pain and continued to claw her way up the mountain.

Several times, she lost her grip and slipped down 20-30 feet, colliding with rocks and trees. But she kept going, and when the sun was at its peak, Hikaru made it to the top.

Occasional beams of sunlight pierced through the cloud cover, lighting up her surroundings. The blood on her fingers had frozen, preventing any more from leaking. She took deep breaths, taking in as much oxygen as possible. She removed her sunglasses and took in the sight.

The sight was truly something, having clouds both below and above you. Pillars of sunlight joined the clouds below to the ones above. Winds forced the clouds to warp in unpredictable ways, especially around mountains such as the one she was standing on. She could see the tree cover under which she had parked her pickup truck, but she had passed the lower cloud layer while bringing it up. The wind whistled just a little in her ear, but other than that, the scenery was the very definition of peaceful.

However, she could not enjoy the view forever, as she sensed frostbite beginning to creep into her bare feet. She analyzed the slope, noting the positions of obstacles, put on her sunglasses, and ran without abandon.

Downhill, on that sort of incline, it was impossible to slow down without crashing into something or falling over, but Hikaru's objective was not to slow down – it was to dodge all the obstacles at high speed for developing reflexes. Throughout her mad dash, she jumped, slid on her hands and feet, and even flipped over obstacles, but never did she slow down, until the slope levelled out. She slid to a halt mere feet from her pickup truck. Aaaand her feet were definitely bleeding, as evidenced by her red footprints in the snow. But she didn't care. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and she could feel her blood racing under her skin. The adrenaline rush was incredible, and minor injuries like these would only make her stronger.

She did have to wait for her feet to stop bleeding before she could put her socks on, and thanks to the snow, it took under a minute. She rubbed snow against her feet, melting it and washing off the excess blood. She quickly put on her socks, shoes and gloves, and began to search for a suitable spot for bey training.

A month passed.

It had taken a while, but Hikaru's body had adapted to the extreme cold, as well as the diet of raw fish. The training had nearly killed her, especially meditating naked in the biting cold and regularly climbing a mountain. Surviving in such extreme conditions had left her incredibly fit, and she felt stronger than ever before. She had definitely grown at least an inch, and the fat around her stomach thanks to her desk job was now gone. Her body was once more covered with lean muscles and toughened skin.

Aquario bounced off frozen trees, ricocheting from one target to another. Hikaru willed it to dodge the falling dislodged snow. Aquario continued to rebound off the previously marked targets on the trees.

Hikaru herself was sitting with her legs crossed and her eyes closed. Her training was going spectacularly. It was about time she relocated to a place where unleashing her full power wouldn't accidentally cause an avalanche.

Aquario bounced off the last target and returned to Hikaru's awaiting palm. She grinned. Her accuracy was back, and now it was time to go.

She reversed the winch motor, and allowed the pickup truck to descend downwards, slowly. It would take a while, so she could scale the peak once more. It wasn't too hard this time around. Her skin had toughened, and she pulled herself upwards with ease. The first time, it had taken her three hours. Now it took her five minutes. By the time she reached the peak, she could see her pickup truck lowering itself through the lower cloud layer.

The view of the sunrise was great as always, except that today, Hikaru saw a column of smoke rising from one of the mountaintops, several dozen kilometers away. This was a volcanic area, so maybe a dormant volcano had activated?

She pulled out her binoculars, focusing on the other mountain. Smoke rose in plumes, and nothing looked out of the ordinary. She was just about to look away, when a figure emerged from the smoke.

At that distance, Hikaru could only make out a flaming red and yellow blob, which was probably the person's hair. Focusing her binoculars, she could more or less make out a distinct human figure, most likely female. She marveled at the girl's speed as she tore down the slope with reckless abandon. She entered the forest line and disappeared from Hikaru's view.

"What could she have been doing there? Training like me?"

Hikaru's thoughts were cut off when the earth trembled under her. The whole mountain shook, and she could see avalanches occurring on several mountains, including the one she was on. She didn't move from her spot. If she climbed down, she could get caught in an avalanche.

The ice and snow on the volcano quickly began to melt, and Hikaru felt the temperature rise. The light breeze rose to a howling gale, air rushing towards the volcano.

For a moment, all was still. Eerily still. Birds flew from their nests as fast as they could. The sun was at its peak, clearly illuminating everything.

Then the volcano exploded.

Hikaru knew that volcanic explosions were supposed to be devastating – An unstoppable force of destruction that flattened everything in its path, the shockwave alone powerful enough to kill anything that was too close.

But this was something else entirely. The entirety of the mountaintop had been converted into a vertical pillar of destruction which extended straight into the sky. Around the volcano, mountains crumbled, and Hikaru felt the mountain under her feet very nearly collapse. The aerial shockwave hit her a few seconds later, as did the sound of the volcano detonating, and it very nearly deafened her. She gaped in amazement at the power that nature wielded.

Then the dragon appeared.

Hikaru's awe quickly changed to shock, and then terror, and the fiery dragon rose from the volcano and shot into the sky with a terrible roar. She had only seen that dragon twice – the first time at the finals of the first beyblade world championship, and the second time when it had torn through Hades city. She knew all too well who that dragon belonged to.

"Ryuga's alive! How is he alive?! Why is he alive?!" Hikaru thought in a panic as she set a speed record towards the tree where the winch cable had been tied. It had gone slack, meaning that the pickup truck had touched down. She unhooked it and attached it to one of the weaker trees closer to the edge of the cliff and jumped. She grabbed on, ignoring the friction against her hands. Within seconds, she landed on the hood of her pickup truck. She launched Aquario upwards, breaking the weaker tree in one shot. By the time Aquario returned, the winch cable was being wound up. She inserted the key into its slot and turned it. The engine roared to life, and Hikaru pushed the pedal all the way down. It was high time to get the hell out of there.

"The pickup truck's not going fast enough! Why is it not going fast enough?! Where's the nitro button?! Oh yeah, I don't have it. Why don't I have it?!" Hikaru screamed internally as she continued to race down the snowy slopes at upwards of 150 kilometers an hour. "Oh shit oh shit oh shit!"

Within minutes, the snow disappeared, and now she was racing across the plains. The roar of the engine could not compare to her screaming thoughts. Within an hour, the mountains were well over a hundred kilometers behind her, and it seemed as if the volcano had settled down.

Now that she had calmed down a bit, she was starting to think more logically. Taking a moment to assess her actions, she realized that she had no idea where she was headed, just that it was away from there. Now to find out where she was and to get back to Metal City as soon as possible.

Hikaru was just about to calculate her position, when the engine died.

It kind of made sense. For the first week, she had been using the pickup truck's heater when she slept. And in her rush to get away from the volcano, she had yet to transfer the fuel from the extra tank to the main one.

Cursing under her breath, she flung open the door and opened the trunk as fast as she could. She picked up the rather heavy fuel tank and began pouring the diesel into the pickup truck's fuel port.

"Come on, faster!" She thought impatiently.

It had taken her well over two minutes, but the extra tank had been emptied. In twenty seconds, she would have been able to put the extra tank back inside and get in herself. Another two minutes and she would have deduced her location and would be headed towards Metal City at top speed.

She didn't even get the first twenty seconds.

A pillar of flame, lightning, and other energies struck the ground not twenty meters away from her. The heat was incredible, the light almost blinded her, and the shockwave knocked her off her feet and into the side of her pickup truck. She gazed at the pillar of energy, unable to move.

Of course, he stepped out of the pillar of energy, followed quickly by the other girl whom she had spotted escaping the volcano, but Hikaru didn't pay her too much attention.

His clothes were torn, his cape-coat hybrid was missing, his gauntlet was missing, and there were scars on his arms and face, but she barely noticed them. Right now, her focus was completely on Ryuga's eyes as he stared right back at her.

"I'm back." Ryuga announced, a smirk on his face.

Hikaru did what anyone would do in her situation.

She stood up.

Screamed.

And ran.

She ran as fast as she could, abandoning her pickup truck and all her equipment, towards the nearest forest, which was still at least twenty kilometers away. She ran, completely uncaring of anything else in the world.

Meanwhile, Ryuga just stood in the same spot, watching her run away.

"Um, who was that?" Ryuga's female companion asked.

"That, Tiamat, is the one last mistake which I have yet to correct," Ryuga said as he began walking. "Now come on. And drag the pickup truck along while you're at it."

Tiamat looked from Ryuga to the pickup truck and then back to Ryuga, and then once more to the pickup truck, which undoubtedly weighed over a ton.

"You're kidding!"

"If this is too much for you, then you should just quit while you are alive. Now that L-Drago Solaris is back and better than ever, the real training is going to begin. Prepare yourself."

Tiamat gulped. Without word, she loosened the winch a little, and slowly began dragging the vehicle with the winch cable. Ryuga was walking slowly in front of her, but he had quite the headstart, and he wasn't dragging a three-ton pickup truck behind him. She just grit her teeth and continued to follow her mentor. She had chosen this path for herself. She would continue to follow it or die trying.

Hikaru didn't know how long she had been running for. She had passed the tree line a long time ago and was well within the depths of the forest. Still, she continued to run without stopping.

The drastic shift in temperature from a few hours ago was getting to her – cold, dry air had been replaced with hot, humid air, and now Hikaru's clothes were completely drenched with sweat. But all that high-altitude training had vastly improved her respiratory efficiency as well as her stamina, thus allowing her to continue running at full speed through the forest.

However, there was no such thing as infinite stamina. Even the strongest stamina type bey would eventually come to a stop. Hours after the little light that made it through the tree cover vanished as night fell, Hikaru felt herself depleted of energy. Her clothes were completely soaked anyway, so she jumped into a pond, drinking as much water as she needed and washing her sweat away. A few minutes later, she walked out, just as drenched as she had been when she had entered.

Her breathing was heavy, and every muscle in her body was complaining. She had to find shelter quickly, before her body gave out. On the ground, the wild dogs would tear her apart in her sleep. With the last of her strength, she pulled herself up a tree. Her wet clothes were uncomfortable, but comfort was not a luxury she could afford at the moment. This would have to do for now.

Hikaru woke up to the sound of birds chirping with the arrival of the sun. She groaned as all her muscles protested in response to movement, but she had no other choice. She checked her watch, which told her that it was six-thirty. She hadn't had any food in twenty-six hours, and she had spent over twelve of those hours running for her life. And before that, she had been doing intense bey training.

She all but fell out of the tree and stumbled over to the pond. If there were any fish in there, then that would be one problem solved. She rolled up her pants, and waded in. She did see a few fish, and her hand shot out with lightning speed, batting one fish out of the water and onto the ground. Luckily, her hunting knife was still attached to her waist. She unsheathed it, gutted the fish, cleaned it and quickly devoured it raw, despite the fact that she could have easily built a fire. She was out of energy, and desperately needed to replenish it. She caught and ate two more, before her danger senses went into overdrive.

Ryuga and the girl were standing ten meters behind her. Not doing anything, just waiting. Hikaru jumped backwards, landing knee-deep in the pond. She lost her balance, and fell over, thoroughly soaking herself once again.

"Wow Ryuga, exactly how bad did you scare her?" Hikaru heard the girl ask. Ryuga ignored her.

"If I wanted to do anything to you, Hikaru, I would have done it already. So, shut up and listen."

Hikaru wasn't sure whether it was because of sheer terror or sheer stupidity that she actually complied.

Hikaru was asking herself why she wasn't sprinting in the opposite direction at top speed. Ryuga was wishing that she would run just so that he could delay the inevitable, which was highly unusual for the Dragon Emperor. Normally, he would not hesitate to tackle any problem head-on, but he'd never faced this kind of problem before. Well, technically, he had, but he'd been able to deal with Gingka indirectly. Hikaru however, was another matter entirely. A problem which was his responsibility.

He sighed. Time to get this over with.

"I'm sorry."

Those were the words which he had only said twice including this time. Technically once, but the other time when he had truly meant it was when he had been near death.

His words left Hikaru confused, and Tiamat's jaw dropped. Her mentor was definitely not the type of person to apologize for anything.

"What?" Hikaru asked in genuine confusion.

"I said I'm sorry." Ryuga said, looking right at her. "I'm sorry for what I did to you at Battle Bladers. I was weak and let the dark power overwhelm me. I have no excuse."

Hikaru was stunned into silence and was still unsure of whether all the running yesterday had damaged her hearing.

"How? How are you still alive?! They all saw you die!"

"They saw me disappear into light. With the last bit of our energy, L-Drago transported us away from there."

Hikaru hadn't asked the question for information. It was simply a statement that she had formed subconsciously while being horrified. It shocked her when he actually answered. This was entirely different from the monster in her nightmares. She would have assumed that he was an impostor, had it not been for his aura, which no one could hope to replicate.

"Then why are you here? If you're alive and well, why don't you go find Gingka or someone to fight? Why are you in front of me?"

"I made my peace with Gingka and everyone else. Everyone except you, that is. I stole your spirit from you, and I can't give it back. What I can do is help you get it back, if you want to. That is why I'm here."

"And you expect me to trust you?!" Hikaru yelled.

"No," Ryuga said in a totally serious voice. "What I did to you is my one last regret. I am simply offering to help you. It is your choice whether to accept or not. You're doing fairly well as it is."

"So, you're offering to help me out of guilt."

"Yes. I feel guilty and I want to free myself of that guilt. You may not like how that sounds, but I am offering to teach you. I can give you knowledge which no one else possesses, I can help you gain powers unknown to the world. The choice is yours," Ryuga said, before walking away, deeper into the woods. "I know that your answer right now is 'no'. Which is why you should think about it for a week. I'll find you. You'll find your pickup truck at the edge of the forest. Come on, Tiamat."

Within seconds, both of them had walked deeper into the forest, out of her view. It took her five minutes to comprehend what had just happened. Once she did comprehend what happened, she pushed it all to the back of her head and began walking back from where she came.

She wouldn't trust Ryuga with a paper clip. No way was she trusting him with her training, which she was very much capable of doing on her own.

Although, he had a point. He possessed knowledge no one else had. Within a matter of months, he had trained Kenta to be able to go toe-to-toe with Gingka, even when Gingka was a legendary blader and Kenta was not. After he had given his star fragment to Kenta, the boy whom she had once beaten had done more damage to Nemesis than everyone else combined. Kenta was probably stronger than Gingka at this point. And it had taken him less than six months.

So, if she accepted Ryuga's offer, what heights could she reach in a year? Enough to beat Gingka? Enough to beat Kenta? Enough to beat all the other legendary bladers at once? Enough to beat the God of Destruction? Enough to beat Ryuga himself?

No, that was impossible. She couldn't beat Ryuga with his own training. She'd be able to catch up, but not surpass him. But would she be able to rise past his level from when he had fought Nemesis?

Those were questions which could only be answered by one person, and he had just walked away.

And she couldn't wait to find out the answers.

A/N: And thus, Hikaru's journey has begun. And don't worry, despite how he comes off now, Ryuga is definitely not going to be a good guy.