A/N Not much to say at this point besides hope you enjoy this chapter. Now READ DAMMIT! XD

Chapter 16 "Polta"

Only Mesa and I were in the room and, as I turned my attention from the door Mrs. Gladys had disappeared behind back to her, I was surprised to see her looking upset.

"What's wrong? Do you hurt anywhere?" I quiz her, fret spiking my words.

She merely shakes her head, looking down at the blankets covering her lap. She hesitated before she spoke.

"I… did something bad, didn't I?" she whispered softly, like she were telling a secret.

I blink at her, surprised, and not quite understanding what she meant.

"Bad?"

"Yeah." she continues to whisper, looking up at me through stringy light brown bangs. "That's why were here, isn't it?"

I honestly didn't know what to say. It was a true statement after all, but I couldn't just say 'Yep. You freaked out so we took you to the hospital 'cause we think you've gone crazy.' That's just a first class ticket to depression and destruction…. So WHAT could I tell her? Should I explain what happened, or does she remember. Could she remember? I hold her gaze steadily, contemplating and analyzing all the possibilities I could imagine silently. Our eyes stayed connected, and though I wasn't really looking at her, I could see that every dragging second, her features altered slightly more and more into a look of uncomfortable distress until the point came to where she just couldn't keep my gaze any longer. This bothered me. She truly does think that she did something wrong, doesn't she? But that's not entirely the case, if I could prove that she is sincerely ignorant of the event that brought us here.

"Mesa," I spoke, not breaking my eyes away from her.

A long moment passed before she twitched just enough to look back at me from under her bangs.

"What all do you remember doing today?"

Confusion crosses her face.

"W… what?"

"What all do you remember doing today?" I repeat evenly.

My gaze must have been boring into her because she was struggling to keep from fidgeting under it.

"Enough I guess."

"List it off. Tell me everything."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

My tone of authority did the trick. Mesa moved so that she was leaning against the risen part of her bed before beginning.

"I remember getting up this morning and eating…."

Her voice reeked of strain, and her face contorted with uncertainty again. I give her a slight nod, urging her to continue. She swallows nervously.

"After that, we went out to train. We had a battle, then I took a nap. After that…."

"Wait. Is that all you can remember?"

"Did I miss something?"

"No just…. The battle. Do you remember how that went?"

Mesa looks at me like I was the one who was crazy.

"Of course. We counted down, launched, then…. Um…."

She pauses for only a moment, brows scrunching in thought, then lets out a tiny breath, a sudden look of astonishment and realization, and perhaps a little fear, enveloping her face. I expected as much.

"You don't remember, do you?"

At my voice, she turns to me, her horror growing steadily. With great hesitance, she asks a simple question.

"Do you?"

"Remember? Yes." I reply, waiting for the question I knew was coming.

A total of eight seconds passed by before it came, in a voice as low and whispery as the coo of a dove.

"What happened?"

There was an air of much uncertainty around her. Her eyes locked on to her lap. I wait for a few moments, to make sure she wanted to know or that I was ready to tell her, I wasn't sure. In the end, I spilled it out in slow, even intervals; the loud sound of something being ripped, the white flash, finding her on the edge of consciousness… everything. She stayed silent throughout the entire retelling, neither moving nor looking toward me. I told her about finding her blade in the dish, completely vertical, at which she suddenly swiveled her head up to me with an emotion I couldn't quite decipher.

"Do you have Her?" she inquires quickly, catching me off guard in more ways than one.

"Who? Ms. Gladys?"

"No."

I was surprised by the fierceness in her voice as she replied to my uncomprehending answer.

"Her. I think you have Her. You have to have Her."

"Who? Give me a name." I ask again, quickly growing agitated.

Mesa didn't answer me with words. Instead, she looked as if she were at a loss for them, and with nothing else she could probably think of to convey what she wanted to say to me, began motioning wildly with her hands; whirling and making circles. With each motion, Mesa looked to grow more and more frustrated with not being able to make me understand. I had a hunch that she didn't know what she wanted to say herself.

'Maybe she's asking for a something, not a someone.'

In all the haste that had been going on, I had completely forgotten about a certain obnoxious phoenix in my head.

'How do you know?' I ask.

I can feel him shrug.

'I don't. It's just a hunch.'

In actuality, it wasn't such a bad idea. Returning my attention to the distressing girl in front of me, who was still stubbornly making incomprehensible motions, I snap my fingers to get her to stop.

"Mesa, are you wanting an item? An object or something?"

Mesa's face brightens considerably, and she nods.

'NOW we're getting somewhere.'

Giving herself a second to think, she snaps back into motion again, this time, making a fist with her left hand, like she was holding something, placing her other hand behind it, fingers slightly curled, then snaps it back in a quick action that shakes the bed. Mesa repeats the motion again and again, something utterly familiar with it.

'It looks like she's pulling something back.' Dranzer chirps.

'Yeah, or she's pulling something off something else. Or through.'

The more I watched, the more I began to understand, and suddenly, I wonder why I hadn't recognized it the first time.

'Her hand is holding something, and the other is launching it. She's talking about a beyblade launcher.'

With that sudden epiphany, I figured out what she was asking for. Without saying a word, I reach into my pants pocket as pull out a cold, metallic, blue top and hand it to a now excited Mesa, who eagerly takes it away from me and cradles it in her hands like a baby bird. I lean over to watch her as she slowly raises a slender finger and strokes the bit chip; actually, to be more precise, the picture ON the chip. In all the haste from before, I apparently also forgot about the new addition to Mesa's blade. With a look that almost resembled love, Mesa gazes at the image of the strange bit beast, smiling. And I might be crazy, but it looked like the image smiled back at her. She stroked the image again, her finger lingering on it, then unexpectedly spoke.

"Polta." She whispers out in the open.

"Um…. What?"

Mesa turns to me, gray-blue eyes shining.

"Polta."

I still didn't know what she was talking about.

"She's my friend."

"You mean, that's its name? The bit beast's?" I ask, my bewilderment steadily mounting.

"Her. That's HER name."

'Okay…." Dranzer caws bluntly. 'I'm confused.'

'That makes two of us.'

'Since when did she have a bit beast?'

'I don't know. I guess it….'

Another epiphany hit me.

'The white flash. That's when it happened.'

'When what happened?'

'When the bit beast entered Mesa's blade. I don't know how it did, or where it's from, but that's the only time it could have happened. It wasn't there before the battle, but when I found it after, it was there.'

'And Mesa doesn't remember ANY of that because….' Dranzer drags on.

'I don't know.'

I recalled the hideous ripping noise, but no idea's came up. Mesa continued to stare and stroke her blade, unconcerned about the world around her.

'I don't know, but I'm gonna find out.' I finally sum up, then slide off the bed, knocking Mesa out of her trance.

"Where are you going?"

"We're leaving. Mrs. Gladys will be back soon to get us."

I reach over to take the blade from her.

"Get dressed and we'll get going."

Mesa resists me and clutches the blade to her. I sigh and decide to drop it.

"I'll be right out here. Hurry up so we can go" I order before turning and exiting the room.

I had never felt my mind rush so much in my life. It's practically revolving a billion times a minute; recycling, reanalyzing, re-everything.

'I don't know if I can take much more of this Dranzer.'

'Neither can I. It's getting crowded in here.'

'Drop…. Dead….'

Dranzer giggles, then moves to the back of my mind as I turn to the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. Mrs. Gladys smiles at me.

"Can we leave?"

"Yes. The woman at the main desk kept trying to convince me to keep Mesa here. If there hadn't been two little kids in the room, I might have ripped her head off."

"Whoa…. Calm down now. This is a hospital." I say, raising my hands defensively.

Mrs. Gladys merely gives me a look the equivalent of rolling her eyes, and motions to the closed door that I was currently leaning my back on.

"Is she getting ready?"

"Yep."

I didn't dare tell her about the new bit of information I had just been told. She could do without it for now.

"Did you tell the receptionist about that doctor?"

"I did, but of course she didn't do anything about it. The nerve of some people."

We waited a minute or so in silence before Mesa came through the door dressed in jeans and a t-shirt.

"Alright." Mrs. Gladys smiles to her, then leads the way down the hall.

No one attempted to interrupt the quietness in our little group, me especially. I was having enough trouble trying to quail the hurricane inside my mind. I felt oddly irritated and angry for some reason. I was mad about everything; not knowing what was going on with Mesa, the reason why she was in her in the first place, not having had the power to stop that reason…. I was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed and, lets face it, helpless, and I HATED feeling helpless. What kind of a person am I? What kind of guy? What kind of MAN? Sure, I did not take pleasure in conversing and interacting with the female race ('cause most of them are rabid and make obscenely obnoxious marriage proposals to me), but I do have the decency to protect them if need be, like a true gentleman should. What did that make me for letting this happen then? I didn't realize that I was raging until something touched my fisted hand. Softly, the fingers gently pried mine apart and slipped in, a silent form of friendly reassurance. I didn't look up at her, and I was pretty sure that she didn't look at me, but that was okay, her hand did the trick. My anger dwindled until it was a smooth pool once more, and my breathing returned to normal. The warmth and softness of her hand felt good against mine, and casually, I hoped that my calluses didn't bother her. They mustn't have, because she didn't let go until we got to the car. I didn't sit in the front like I normally would have. Instead, I sat in the back and, even though we weren't holding hands anymore, she laid hers right next to mine, so that they were barely touching. Looking out the window, I move my pinkie and lightly twine it with hers in the universal sign for friendship.

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A/N Yay for fluff! Okay, I know I've said this about a hundred times, but an old friend will appear in the next chapter for sure. From there, things will get TRULY interesting. ^^ Please review! Oh! Wait! I forgot. I uploaded a crappy Paint picture of Polta on my emo named photobucket (darkness_heart) for those who wonder what she looks like. And also, she isn't an original. She is one of the bit beats you can find on one of the beginner beyblades, so I don't claim her, I just use her because she is my bit beast and it fit Mesa perfectly. So there you have it. Thankies again! :D