A/N: Hey everybody! Next update will probably be in July. I'm joking... Maybe... Possibly not... It really depends on my life schedule... Also, writing battles is still hard as hell. Hard. As. Hell.

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade. Maybe I could, though. I mean, this has been done for a while, right? Someone look into that.

Twenty-Eight: Power Over The Sands

"This is getting out of hand!" Hilary shrieked as she paced up and down in Ray and Kai's room. Like everyone else, she was on-edge after the match they'd just watched, and things had gotten worse when they'd all seen the bleeding wound on Kai's right cheek. It had taken twenty minutes to get the story out of Kai, and knowing it made the situation all the worse.

"Calm down," Kenny tried to assuage Hilary's frantic concerns. "No one is hurt-"

"It looks like someone tried to cut a piece of Kai's face off!" the young woman's voice crept up a few octaves, betraying the level of distress she was feeling.

"Kai is fine, Hilary," Tyson sighed, exasperated. "See? Patched himself up and he's fine." He gestured over to where Kai was sitting on his own bed, his back against the wall at the headboard, a gauze patch adhered to his cheek with medical tape over the injury Yama had inflicted upon him.

"But a Bit Beast did that to him!" she refused to let this go, and though her tone grated him, Tyson could well understand her concerns. "That monster came for him! If it can do that to Kai, it can do that to anyone! We're in real trouble!"

"We'll figure it out," Max stepped in next to try and soothe her. "We need to follow Kai's advice now and focus on the Desert Snakes. They're the immediate threat, and when we get past them, it's just one team between us and Stryker." It went without saying that Stryker would make it to the Grand Final. There was no one that could stand in their way, as far as they were concerned.

"So," Ray cleared his throat, trying to diffuse the tension that was building in the room. "We have the Desert Snakes coming up. Chief, you got some stats for us?"

"Oh," Kenny stumbled over himself a little, pulling out his laptop to go through the team stats he had compiled on all of their potential adversaries. "Desert Snakes... Team of four, lead by Khalid. Other team members are Aisha, Safi, and Anwer. All of Middle-Eastern origin, and all using snake Bit Beasts. I think for this match the format is that the teams submit their three players, and then they're put into order, with the alternate last, and that decides the match-ups." The younger man pushed his glasses up his nose as he continued to read. "In my opinion, Khalid will send up himself and Aisha, because they're the strongest members of the team."

"So, what are our odds like?" Max asked, feeling the heavy atmosphere start to dissipate.

"Well," Kenny shifted his glasses. "Looking at statistics side-by-side, our odds are good, but only if both Ray and Kai perform at their peak levels."

"You mean if I perform at my peak," Ray laughed lightly, smiling softly through the self-deprecation. "My form hasn't exactly been consistent in this tournament..." That fact alone concerned the Chinese Beyblader more than he could ever admit. "I should probably go and train, to prepare. Kai's right in saying we can't underestimate the Desert Snakes. We can't just assume we'll win because we want it bad enough; we have to prove our skill in the dish."

"I'll help!" Daichi offered, leaping to his feet. "If either you or Kai fail, I'll have to step in to save the match, so I should be prepared!"

"Daichi, the odds are not in your favor, so don't get your hopes up," Tyson pointed out, shaking his head in disapproval.

"What do you know?!" Daichi fumed, bounding over to Tyson, the air crackling as the two silently revved themselves up for a verbal dust-down.

"Okay! Let's get down to the gym to train!" Ray stepped in quickly, knowing both boys to be stubborn as mules, and unwilling to back down from a fight, both in and out of the dish. A hotel bedroom, however, was not a conducive battlefield. "Come on, Daichi! I could really use some help! Max, why don't you help out, too?" Anything to get Daichi to step away. In his advancing years, Tyson had started to learn when to walk away from a dispute, such a skill came with age, but Daichi hadn't reached that plateau just yet, and wouldn't back down unless heavily influenced. And so the Chinese wordlessly begged his American friend to pick up on the hint and help him escort the smaller youth away.

"That's a great idea!" ever the one to pick up on social cues, Max followed Ray's lead, and the pair animatedly escorted Daichi from the room, leaving Tyson alone with Kai, Kenny, and Hilary.

"Are we actually going to talk about what happened today?" Hilary folded her arms across her chest, giving Kai a rather stern look that he artfully ignored, as per the norm. "I don't get why no one wants to really talk about this! He was attacked in a crowded arena by a Bit Beast! This is critical-"

"Hilary!" Kenny leapt up like a man possessed, grabbing Hilary's wrist with unexpected enthusiasm and strength. "We need to run some service repairs on the Beyblades! You can help me make sure I'm logging all of their stats correctly!" he started to pull her towards the door, the young woman utterly confused, allowing the smaller youth to lead her out with ease. "I mean, you're such a stickler for detail, so you'd be ideal to help me out! It's real pain-staking work, keeping an accurate record of everything..." On and on Kenny rabbited, managing to keep Hilary distracted as they exited, now leaving Tyson alone with Kai in the room the latter occupied.

"Is there a reason you haven't left yet?" Kai spoke into the growing cavern of silence, a twinge of annoyance to his voice.

"You're not telling the whole story," Tyson remarked flatly. "You're leaving something out. What else happened? You told us Yama came out of the Beyblade and attacked you, but I can tell there's more to it than that. What is it?"

It was strange, really, how the dynamic of Kai and Tyson's friendship had changed over the years. What had started as something that was purely in place for the sake of a mutual objective had grown into one of the more genuine connections in the Dragon's life. Sure, they'd had a lot of bumps along the way, largely thanks to Kai's total unpredictability, but in the end, they both had one another's backs, and though Kai would never admit it out loud, Tyson was the one on this team that he trusted the most. Unbeknownst to both men, each felt closest to the other out of everyone else on the team, in spite of their lengthy and difficult trials throughout their friendship. Tyson felt he could be his honest, true self with Kai, and vocalise fears and concerns he just couldn't in front of the others. Kai was his confidante, whether Kai was happy about that fact or not, and Tyson knew he'd get the answer he needed from the Phoenix. For Kai's part, Tyson was someone he could be open with, someone he could talk to and who wouldn't say anything to anyone else, which was just as surprising to him as the fact that Tyson was now considered an important and valuable friend. One day, Kai was sure he'd tell Tyson how much this friendship had come to mean to him, how important this brotherhood was, and how much he had come to rely on it. Maybe when he was on his death bed.

"Wyatt was here," Kai confessed, and Tyson sat down, giving no indication of any judgement for what was being said. Tyson knew Kai had struggled immensely after Wyatt had passed, and that he had claimed to have seen Wyatt on a number of occasions since. His death haunted Kai frequently, and Tyson knew to take any mention of him seriously. "He told me Yama is looking for a new host." Dark blue eyebrows shot up to his hairline. This was news.

"You think he's looking to you," Tyson quickly concluded, and when he garnered no response in return, he knew he'd hit the nail on the head. "Well, Yama can look for someone else, because he's not getting you."

"I know," Kai agreed.

"There's no way that monster Bit Beast is gonna- wait, what?" Tyson had been so invested in his tirade that he hadn't immediately caught on to the fact that Kai had already agreed with him.

"I know," Kai repeated simply. "I'm not going to let that thing anywhere near me. Whatever he's offering isn't worth what I'd lose in exchange." He got up from where he was seated on the bed, going over to the window to watch the setting sun beyond the glass. "A few years ago, I probably would have taken that offer. Absolute power. It would have been tempting."

"And now?" Tyson shifted himself to face Kai, watching his old friend's profile as it suddenly dawned on him just how much time had passed since they'd first met. Not because the older youth looked haggard, tired, or worn out: because he looked like an adult. When they'd met, the whole team had been baby-faced and youthful, but now they'd all grown tall and lean, their faces sculpted by strong jaws and cheekbones, looking less like hopeful, idealistic boys and more like wisened, battle-hardened young men. Of all of them, the most dramatic transformation had been in Kai. He'd always been tall and lean, but now it seemed so much more apparent, and he seemed a lot older than his eighteen years. Then again, he'd been through enough to have possibly prematurely aged him, anyway.

"What I have now is better," Kai replied honestly, looking over to his friend, speaking with complete confidence. "Back then, I had a different view of the world. We form ourselves in those years, and because of how I was raised, I was made to believe that power was absolute in the world. I grew up, and I realized the world was different. I found a better way to live: my own. I don't have to live the way my father or my grandfather lived: I have my own way."

"True," Tyson agreed with a smile. "We're not the same. We've all grown up. Too much has changed for us to look back now."

"And besides," Kai returned his attention out of the window, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. "That man is behind Stryker, and I'll be damned if he's going to win any battle, on any battleground, over me. A win for Ryall, or his Bit Beast, is a win for him, and I'm not going to let that happen."

"And there he is, folks!" Tyson half-laughed. "The Kai we all know and love!" Kai shot his friend a stern look, but the younger just dissolved into laughter, getting up with the help of his metal cane, relieved to be parted from both the wheelchair and the crutches that had been a part of his life for so long. "Come on; let's go see if we can find Tala and the Blitzkrieg Boys. They've actually been fun on this tour! I mean, seeing you and Tala fight in a fountain is still one of my tournament highlights!"

"Let it go," Kai warned, heading to the door with Tyson, stopping as his friend passed through it ahead of him. "Wyatt said Yama couldn't touch me yet. He said I was protected; it's why it could only scratch my cheek. It wanted to do worse."

"It's probably Dranzer," Tyson pointed out. "I mean, this is one of the sacred Bit Beasts we're talking about here. They're guardians, so she's probably protecting you from Yama's power. Maybe that's part of why Yama takes away people's Bit Beasts: to take away their protection so he can suck them dry."

"Maybe," Kai shrugged, though he wasn't sure if he believed it. The conversation soon met its natural end, and the pair departed the room in search of the Blitzkrieg Boys. Tyson was content knowing more of the details of the story, but it didn't settle the uneasy feeling brewing in his gut. The worst was yet to come, he was certain of it.

"G'day Australia!" DJ Jazzman practically screamed into his microphone, earning peals of excited cheering in return. "This is it! The final day of the main tournament. Next stop: the finals! But what teams will be heading on to the big event?!"

"To those just joining us, Brad Best and AJ Topper here," Brad introduced on his colleague's behalf. "We're now at the final battle of this intense weekend in Brisbane, Australia, which has seen Stryker maintain their unbeaten streak and guarantee them a place in the finals. Going in alongside them are the Blitzkrieg Boys and shock newcomers the Side Winders. This final battle will determine the final rankings, and with it decide who will be joining them in the fourth slot at the finals in Bay City."

"This has been a high octane weekend, Brad!" AJ picked up where his old friend left off, the stadium preparing for the final battle. "The Side Winders have truly surprised everyone here by getting to the finals, and no one was shocked to see the Blitzkrieg Boys, consistent performers on the world circuit, get there, as well. I've gotta say, everyone is going to be watching this next match and expecting the G Revolutions to pull out the win, but you really can't discount the Desert Snakes, who have really shown their mettle in this tournament!"

"There is a lot on the line for this match, AJ," Brad nodded. "Both teams are going to have to give their best performances if they're going to join Stryker, the Side Winders, and the Blitzkrieg Boys in the finals."

"Brad, I'm so excited I could explode!" AJ practically squealed with delight.

"Please don't," Brad deadpanned. "We don't have money in the budget to clean that up..."

"The final match of this Brisbane weekend sees old-guard champions, the G Revolutions, take on impressive newcomers the Desert Snakes!" Jazzman declared, the crowd whooping and cheering, the teams now assembled on their respective benches.

"You gotta admit, though, guys: the new dishes are interesting!" Tyson remarked as Ray started preparing himself for battle, the Chinese turning slowly to Tyson, giving him a somewhat incredulous look. "Stressful, but hey, interesting!"

"Tyson, stop talking," Hilary groaned, rolling her eyes.

"First up to the dish, we have Ray from the G Revolutions, and Aisha from the Desert Snakes!" Jazzman introduced the two combatants, and both took their places at the side of the as-yet-unknown dish. Ray looked across the dish to his opponent, a determined young woman with warm brown eyes, who had expressed herself throughout the tournament with her colorful hijabs, today sporting a white one that was covered in pink-toned peonies. He couldn't help smiling as he looked at it, a part of him wondering if she was wearing it for him, or if maybe she just liked flowers.

"Aisha is a swift young Beyblader with a colorful personality," Brad introduced Aisha. "Speed is her greatest strength, and her Warp Anaconda's Choke Rapids attack is a quick way to a watery end!"

"Ray is a stalwart on the circuit, but he's had a rocky tournament so far," AJ started. "He's been on the path to redemption for some time now, alongside his faithful Driger, and seeks now to help seal his team's place in the final. He won't be an easy mountain for anyone to conquer!"

"Are you ready for this?" Aisha looked over at Ray with a smile, adjusting the cuffs on her sweater, smoothing the soft fabric of her hijab. "Picked this one for you today! You're the White Tiger, and peonies are an important flower in China, or so the internet told me, anyway." Aisha used her headwear to reflect everything from her mood to her surroundings, and in this tournament, she'd been using it to show deference and respect to her opponents.

"Ready," Ray nodded, smile growing. "I won't go easy on you. And I expect the same in return."

"You can count on it," Aisha returned his smile.

"Let's take a look at the dish for the final Brisbane brawl!" Jazzman brought everyone's attention to the arena floor, the floor opening, the dish lifting up to the ecstatic peals of the crowd.

"It's the Barrier Reef Dish!" Brad exclaimed. "Paying homage to one of the greatest natural wonders of the world, the beauty and majesty of the Great Barrier Reef is encapsulated in this colorful, rocky dish, filled with watery surprises that will fill our competitors with fear and wonder!" Water. Of course, it had to be that. Kai closed his eyes and groaned lowly. This was going to be an unnecessary handicap for Dranzer when his match came around.

"Beybladers are you ready?!" Jazzman watched as Aisha and Ray loaded their launchers, readying to begin. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, are you ready?!" The stadium erupted into a cacophony of noise, the excitement practically rattling the windows. "Three, two, one... LET IT RIP!"

Driger and Warp Anaconda flew into the dish with power, colliding harshly before springing back, circling around, and clashing again. Bobbing and weaving around large stacks of colorful coral wasn't terribly easy, but the two Beyblades found one another with every crash. Ray scanned over the dish quickly, trying to assess for potential pitfalls and traps, knowing this tournament's dishes were never simple and straight-forward, but not knowing what to look for made things difficult. He didn't know what a 'trap coral' looked like, and wouldn't know it even if he saw it.

"They seem pretty evenly matched right now," AJ remarked as the match continued with gusto. "I can't really see which one could win this, Brad!"

"Right now, they're matching one another move-for-move," Brad agreed. "But it takes just one move, one mistake, to distinguish between the two and give one the edge!"

"Come on, Warp Anaconda!" Aisha called out to her Bit Beast. "This is our element! Let's let him have it!" That's right: Warp Anaconda's element is water. Ray's jaw tightened as the Bit Beast rose up from within its Beyblade, the great snake, with glittering blue and crystalline scales, writhing large above the dish, hissing in Ray's direction. Ray could agree that the beast before him was a stunning creature, even if it did look like it could eat him alive without needing to exert any energy, but he couldn't get distracted. He had to remain focused.

"Driger!" Ray called out in turn. "You can do this!" On command, Driger rose from the Beyblade, golden armor resplendent, letting out a booming roar as he bore down on the snake before him, the two beasts colliding above the dish as the Beyblades clashed within, swerving and dancing around coral edifices as claws and fangs met above.

A sudden soft, floating arrival of a collection of bubbles signalled to Ray that things were about to get difficult.

"Oh no, an environmental event has been triggered!" Jazzman declared loudly, the bubbles increasing in frequency, starting to come through in dense clouds.

"There are environmental events in this dish," Brad explained. "The bladers can trigger these, and some, like this one, trigger automatically at sporadic intervals, because you can't predict the course of nature, AJ!"

The nature of this event soon exposed itself, however, as jets of water started to fire upwards from the base of the dish, startling the two combatants, Ray's golden eyes going wide with each geyser of water that jettisoned into the air. One barely missed throwing Driger off-balance, and another only missed Warp Anaconda by a hair. The jets of water kept shooting up for a few minutes more, before finally ceasing, though Ray didn't feel he could relax. He had no idea what had triggered this, and what else could still be triggered to trip them up, so he couldn't afford to relax for a moment, willing Driger to continued his assault against his snake adversary.

"These two are still matching one another pretty evenly," AJ pointed out. "One of them has to start standing out, otherwise this match could go on forever!"

"Come on, Ray..." Tyson muttered, tapping his cane on the ground repeatedly, a stress-induced tic he'd only just developed, and which Hilary swiftly put a stop to by holding the cane still. "He needs to push. He can't just keep going like this! He's not an endurance blader! If this were Kai's match, yeah, drag it out, he can handle it, but this is Ray..."

"Those water jets were something else," Daichi remarked. "What else can-"

Daichi had been about to ask what else could go wrong, but spoke far too soon. A trap was triggered, which was made obvious when one of the larger portions of coral seemed to lose all of its color, bleached, and began to crumble down into the dish in great chunks.

"Looks like one of them triggered one of the dish's traps!" Jazzman announced, to the delight of the crowd, and the two Beyblades forced themselves apart to flee the debris falling from the reef, Driger taking refuge behind another chunk of coral that remained intact, watching as the coral crumbled and practically disintegrated, large pieces of it remaining in the dish.

"The coral bleaching trap was designed to bring attention to the rapid bleaching of the world's coral reefs," AJ declared in explanation. "The trap means the bladers have lost some of the dish's cover and upper plateau, and have gained more ground-level obstacles. This will make combat challenging, to say the least!" Ray grunted in annoyance, looking around the dish for where Warp Anaconda had gotten to, but he couldn't find it anywhere. Where was it hiding?

"Steady, Driger..." Ray could feel his Bit Beast's restlessness, keeping his eyes open for Aisha's Beyblade, knowing it would be waiting, lurking, ready to pounce the second he became complacent. He knew he had to be patient, and calm, if he was going to have any chance of overpowering Aisha and pulling ahead in this battle, and the evenness of this was causing some frustration. Any breakthrough would be better than none, but he couldn't even find his opponent in the dish, so things weren't going well.

A thought came to Ray and he let his eyes slide shut, trying to tune out the cheering and shrieking of the crowds, focusing on just the softer sounds from the dish, the beat of his own heart, and the slow intake and expulsion of his own breath. His time with the White Tiger X had taught him a great deal about these kinds of practices, rooting yourself back in a calm place, and this enabled him to rely more on his hearing over what his eyes were telling him. Through all the chaos, in the midst of the gentle calm that had descended, he could hear water rippling and dripping, a sound that became sharper, punctuated by the whirring of gears that were unfamiliar. He knew what Driger sounded like, the pair had been together since the beginning, and this was not Driger.

"Driger!" Ray's eyes flew open. He'd found his enemy. "There! Attack!" The tiger quickly found its mark, and launched an unexpected attack on the hiding snake, the two Beyblades attacking one another with energy, though Driger had certainly taken the edge.

"Ray has taken the advantage, and he's on the attack!" AJ exclaimed. "The tide is turning in favor of the G Revolutions!"

"Go on Ray!" Max called out in encouragement.

"Take her down, Ray!" Daichi joined the chorus of positivity for the Chinese youth.

"Stay calm, Aisha!" Khalid advised his sister. "Don't let him overcome you!" Aisha's jaw was tight as she watched the two Bit Beasts brawl. She could see, and feel, that Warp Anaconda was being essentially wailed on by the White Tiger, and she'd never felt such strength from an opponent. This was the power of the sacred Bit Beasts.

"This is their power..." Aisha remarked quietly, speaking to herself, watching the mighty tiger as it mauled at her snake. "Let's test it..." she fixed her determined gaze on her Bit Beast. "Warp Anaconda! Choke Rapids attack!" The snake let out an almighty hiss and started to coil its long, watery body around Driger, ensnaring it tightly, water starting to encase the pair of them.

"Looks like Warp Anaconda has unleashed their special ability!" Brad remarked. "Driger is pretty much underwater! And last I checked, cats can't swim!"

"This is one bath I'm sure Driger could have done without!" AJ added. "This could be it for Driger!"

"No...!" Ray grit his teeth as he watched Driger writhe and struggle in his watery prison, his Beyblade slow and sluggish in the dish. He couldn't let Driger just suffer like this; he had to come up with a plan. But what could he do against a watery fortress?

It was like he could hear Driger in his ear, a soft whisper, and Ray could feel his Bit Beast in a way he never could before. Though it was hazardous, something he hadn't tried before, he had to take a risk. It was the only way he could think of to save this match and his tiger Bit Beast.

"Driger!" Ray called to his companion, the tiger seeming to calm in its actions, eyes shifting to meet his partner's. "Metal Blades!" The tiger let out a booming roar, the water rippling around him, his body encompassed by a bright light, causing Aisha to wince and shield her eyes. When the light dimmed, Driger was now fully-coated in golden armor, glittering in the artificial light of the arena.

"This is something else!" AJ cried. "Driger seems to now be fully-armoured! How about that?!"

"Never seen a Bit Beast pull out more armor from nowhere!" Brad's surprise equalled his colleague's. "Whatever is about to happen can't be good for Aisha!" From Driger's new armor, a series of gold and steel blades shot out at odd angles, making the cat look more like a porcupine, piercing through the water barrier, and then the tiger began to spin at a startling speed, slashing through the liquid prison, and the snake as a result. The Beyblade in the dish picked up speed, attacking Warp Anaconda's Beyblade with rapid ferocity, and within a few moments, Aisha's Beyblade was knocked into a large batch of coral, taken off-balance, and completely upended, going still in the dish.

"And it's over!" Jazzman called the outcome, to rapturous cheering from the crowds. "Ray has claimed victory in this final Brisbane brawl, giving the G Revolutions a 1-0 lead going into the next battle!"

"What a time to pull this out of the bag!" AJ remarked. "That was a pretty good comeback from Ray to give the G Revolutions the lead!"

"He's certainly proving his credentials as the White Tiger," Brad agreed. "I'd say he's shaken off the funk he came into this tournament with, and reestablished himself amongst the other competitors as a real contender!"

"Way to go Ray!" Tyson cheered loudly as Ray retrieved Driger, the Chinese youth sighing in relief at his gamble paying off. He'd trained to use that move in battle, but hadn't felt confident enough to actually deploy it. This had been the right time for it, and it had granted him a much-needed victory, heading back to the team on the bench. "You did it!"

"Yeah!" Ray was a little breathless, giving his friends a smile. "Pulled it out! I didn't think I would for a moment there!" He then turned his attention to their captain, who was now on his feet. "You've got this. I have no doubt." Kai let his lips tick up in a small smile, giving the other a nod as he started for the dish, which had been reset in the interim, now clear and ready for the next tussle.

"And now comes the captains' showdown: Khalid for the Desert Snakes, and Kai from the G Revolutions!" Jazzman announced as the two young men came to the dish, looking at one another with steely determination.

"Khalid is the impressive captain of the Desert Snakes," AJ gave Khalid's introduction. "He's more than proven his mettle in this tournament so far, and it's now up to him and his Sahara Viper to try and take this back for his team, and keep them in the tournament."

"Kai is a well-known face on the circuit, and someone opponents are wise to fear," Brad introduced Kai. "He's the G Revolutions' intense powerhouse captain, known for his legendary endurance, and his Dranzer is one hot customer!" There wasn't anything about this battle that had Kai concerned. He'd trained extensively, been quietly observing his opponents, and felt prepared for the challenge. Barring something cataclysmic, he felt he had this in hand.

"Beybladers, are you ready?!" Jazzman looked between the two men, who both stood beside the now-reset dish, launchers loaded and ready to fly. "Brisbane, are you ready?!" The stadium erupted into cheers and screams of delight. "Then let's count them in! Three, two, one... LET IT RIP!"

The two Beyblades met above the dish before dropping down into separate parts of the reef, quickly weaving through the coral to locate one another again and engage. It was intensity and power from the get-go, neither man prepared to yield to the other. There was too much at stake for them to do anything else.

"I was hoping I would face you," Khalid admitted, causing Kai to frown. In spite of whatever fellowship or coalition had been established between the teams against Stryker, it didn't mean he wanted to hear this man's hopes and dreams, especially in the middle of battle. "You're the Master of the Phoenix, after all. I want to test myself against you."

"I didn't come here for a conversation," Kai bit out, barely avoiding rolling his eyes. "So keep all your hopes and dreams to yourself and get on with the match."

"Blunt as ever," Khalid chuckled, the two Beyblades continuing to clash in the dish, matching one another move for move. "I'd expect nothing less. You are, after all, born of the Phoenix's fire. That spirit runs within you."

"Can we just battle?!" Kai was getting agitated by Khalid's breezy distraction tactics. He had little patience for these kinds of things, which he would have attributed to growing older, but in truth, he'd always been like this.

Dranzer and Sahara Viper continued to dance around one another, weaving through the extravagantly-colored corals, both Beybladers watching the arena carefully for traps that could be sprung at any given moment. They couldn't gauge where they had been in the previous match, and neither man felt confident enough to believe that the tournament organizers wouldn't have reset the trap locations when they reset the arena.

"Doesn't seem to be much movement in this match so far," Brad remarked.

"Looks like these two are still sizing one another up!" AJ pointed out.

"While also, in all likelihood, trying to guess where the traps could be," Brad added.

"Hey, guys..." Tyson watched the match with a soft frown creasing his brow. "Are you seeing this...?"

"Seeing what?" Hilary scrunched her nose, tilting her head slightly. "I'm seeing Kai and Khalid battling. Am I meant to be seeing something else?"

"Maybe it's just me..." Tyson sat back on the bench. "But it's... Kai looks like he has..."

"Yeah..." Max nodded, his voice soft as he watched their captain, blinking slowly. "Yeah, I see it..."

"What?!" Hilary was growing frustrated with this now. "What am I missing out on this time?!"

"Wings..." Ray's amber-hued eyes were wide in surprise. "It's like Kai has wings... Big red ones..."

The battle raged on, the two in the arena ignorant of the conversations going on on their respective team benches, with mutterings and mumblings of these wings starting to trickle around the spectator crowd, mainly amongst the Beybladers in attendance. The sight had not been missed by Kai's opponent, who had felt the shift happen as the wings became visible, a soft smile tugging at his lips.

"And what the hell are you smiling about?" Kai snapped, his patience hanging on by a thread.

"It's happening," Khalid stated, Kai frowning as his annoyance grew. "Just another little nudge... Sahara Viper! Let's get started!" The dish seemed to explode into life as the large, sandy-hued snake rose up from the dish, imposing with horns and spikes on its head, fangs large and sharp. It certainly looked much more threatening as a beast than Warp Anaconda had.

"Looks like things are kicking off in the arena!" AJ exclaimed. "Sahara Viper is out, and this snake is not one you should mess with!"

"Vipers are venomous, and are, surprisingly enough, a poisonous creature that isn't indigenous to this country," Brad stated.

"I think that probably shocks me more than anything else I've seen today!" AJ nodded.

"Are you ready to feel my snake's wrath, Kai?" Khalid smiled at his opponent.

"Don't be ridiculous," Kai frowned. "You say that like I'm never ready for a challenge. Dranzer and I are always ready for every battle. You don't stand a chance! Dranzer!"

Calling the Bit Beast forth didn't have the same effect it usually did, and before Kai could react to the strange feeling in the air that lingered on his command to Dranzer, everything around him seemed to still, as if time slowly wound to a complete halt. Kai blinked a few times before he started looking around the stadium. Everything was completely still, frozen in time, and the older half-Russian had no idea what had caused it or why it was happening.

"What the hell is this?!" Kai yelled into the silence, a part of him starting to wonder if this was another repeat of what had happened when Yama had attacked him, only this time, the air didn't feel threatening or dangerous. It was strange, certainly, but there was something of calmness about it, with growing heat, a familiar warmth he'd known since childhood.

Are you ready?

It was that female voice. He'd heard it before. Who was it? No matter how frantically he looked around, he couldn't see anyone.

"Ready for what?" Kai asked, not sure who he was addressing his query to.

To see my true form.

In a flash, time began to move again, Kai finding himself suddenly deafened by the screaming and cheering noises of the crowds after all of the silence from before, and he glanced up to see Dranzer, glowing and resplendent, above the arena, facing down Sahar Viper. Khalid felt his heart rate start to climb, the air around the two young men growing warmer, and he knew this was it. He could feel the change coming, and had seen that flash of green in Kai's lavender-colored eyes. It was about to happen, and after that, there would be no going back.

Dranzer let out a booming shriek that rattled the windows, beams, and foundations of the arena, the great Phoenix spreading its wings as the shriek lingered, its entire body then engulfed in blinding red flame.

"What the hell is happening?!" AJ half-shrieked.

"Dranzer is on fire, folks! Literally!" Brad explained, the excitement clear in his voice. "What could this mean for the outcome of the battle?!"

"I don't know, Brad, but I am excited to find out!" AJ agreed enthusiastically.

Another loud shriek and the flames seemed to explode away from the Phoenix, Kai and Khalid both having to dig in their heels to keep themselves upright from the force of the boom. What remained was exactly what Khalid has expected, but what Kai certainly hadn't: a woman with long, flowing red hair, accented with strands of white at the front, a golden crown on her forehead set into which was a shining emerald stone, her eyes bright green to match. She wore a long, flowing, silken kimono of red and gold, adorned in floral and feather patterns, with a large golden phoenix trailing down the back. Kai was wide-eyed with shock. He'd seen something like this before, at the British Museum, but he had dismissed it out of hand as just being an old story. Before him now was proof it was a lot more than a story.

"I can't believe it!" Kenny shrieked excitedly, nearly throwing his laptop to the floor, causing everyone around him to jolt with shock. "This is it! The true form of Dranzer! The true form of Suzaku, the Guardian of the South! Kai managed to unleash Dranzer's true form! How the hell did he do that?!" That was, regrettably, a question to which even Kai didn't know the answer.

"Holy macaroni.." Tyson muttered, a much more child-friendly version of what he had actually wanted to say. It was mind-blowing to see Dranzer looking like this, giving validity to the legends and stories they'd heard in the British Museum. It was all real, and it made the Dragon wonder what his Dragoon would look like if he took his true form. He wouldn't see in this tournament, he knew that much, but he hoped to see it someday.

"That's unbelievable..." Max gasped, wide-eyed with awe. "It's so..."

"Beautiful..." Daichi gaped. "This is the Bit Beasts' true form... The power they must have like this..."

"I guess we'll have to find out..." Ray was watching the battle, breathless at how Dranzer looked, and he didn't need to see her in action to know that there was real untapped power there now. She was going to be unstoppable.

"She is a true beauty," Khalid remarked, and Kai automatically guessed that this man knew more about the situation than he did, so for this one time, he'd allow the man to wax lyrical and monologue a little. If it would explain what had just happened, he'd be silently grateful for the clarity. "Suzaku, the sacred guardian. One of the four Sacred Ones. You've come close to awakening her power countless times throughout this competition, but birds and snakes aren't natural friends, so maybe my Sahara Viper was able to bring it out. Maybe it was just a matter of time. Dranzer's true form has now been awakened, so show me now! Show me the true power of the Phoenix!"

Sahara Viper launched an attack on Dranzer, and Kai still felt tense in the lack of knowledge of what had happened and why. He felt a familiar warmth surround him in his confusion, wrapping around him, soft as silk, and he remembered feeling this sensation in that fire in South Africa. It was that feeling that had saved him in there.

We can do this. We'll do it together, as we always have.

Dranzer quickly intercepted Sahara Viper's attack, holding open the snake's jaws with her hands, wrenching the serpent to the side and tossing it back, the Beyblades below grinding threateningly against one another, steel on steel.

"You want to see Dranzer's true power?" Kai scowled over at Khalid. "You're going to regret that. Because we'll show you! Dranzer!" A weapon came to the Bit Beast's hands, as the Beyblade below reared back, pulling away from its opponent, Dranzer now holding a longbow, drawing the string back as an arrow of flame formed within it. Taking aim, the Bit Beast loosed it, firing it at the snake as the two Beyblades clashed again, Dranzer knocking Sahara Viper back. With every draw of the arrow, the Beyblade below reared back, and every time it was loosed, it flew at Sahara Viper in the dish with the violent heat of fire. As Sahara Viper's Beyblade wobbled and wheeled back, a soft clunk permeated the air, and both young men knew what that meant.

"They've triggered a trap!" Jazzman declared. "What could it be?!" Kai didn't appreciate the theatrics that came with these new dishes, but he could appreciate the extra challenges that were presented by these field alterations. It made the game more complex than just battling in a standard dish.

The trap's nature was soon revealed, as the dish floor began to rattle and shake, small cracks begging to form and grow larger.

"It's the tectonic shift trap!" Brad declared. "The tectonic plates of the earth that lie deep below us are in a constant state of movement, whether minute or major. Their movement, and clashing with one another, even deep in the ocean, can trigger natural disasters like tsunamis, and any kind of disaster could be bad news for our Beybladers!"

The small cracks in the dish started to grow much larger, hissing steam spurting out from them, chunks of coral falling into the dish, falling away from the main stalks as the dish shook. Neither Beyblade could get to the other as the ground beneath them continued to shift and shake, both seeking to withdraw until things settled. This gave Kai a chance to calculate a strategy. To have his Bit Beast in this form wasn't something he had been prepared for, and he wasn't quite aware of her skills and strengths in this form yet, but everything he could feel now told him things would be okay. It was as if Dranzer herself was instructing him, guiding him, whispering to him to tell him what she could do now. It was as if a lock had been removed, and now she was free. The possibilities were endless. But as Kai watched the arena shake and break apart, a thought occurred to him that, as he allowed it to fully develop, formed into a plan to beat Khalid.

Beneath the earth's crust was heat, intense, scorching heat, and that would be the key to his victory. He couldn't help wondering how his geography teacher from school would feel about him actually putting his knowledge to use in a Beyblade battle. He didn't see it going over well.

"Dranzer!" Kai called out to his Bit Beast as the shaking finally subsided, the cracks remaining evident in the dish. "Let's get back in the fight!" The Beyblade made its way back towards Sahara Viper, the Bit Beast shifting from a long-range weapon to a close-combat weapon: a long staff with a large blade at its tip. She advanced on the snake, and as the Beyblades found one another again, the two beasts clashed, tousling violently with one another. For Kai's plan to work, he had to find that trigger switch and hit it again and again until the field looked as he wanted it to. He was also counting heavily on the general theatrics that had permeated this tournament so far to maintain geographical accuracy. If not, he had a plan B on standby. It didn't take long for Kai to spot the switch, and command Dranzer to it. "Dranzer! Over there! Now!"

The Beyblade did as her master commanded, breaking away from Sahara Viper to hit the trap switch, and the dish started to shake and rattle once again.

"This time Kai triggered the trap!" AJ exclaimed. "The dish is being shaken up once again!"

"Now, was it me, or did it seem like Kai did that on purpose?" Brad posited.

"What are you doing?!" Khalid exclaimed with a frown, looking over at Kai. "How are we supposed to battle if you go about triggering traps like this?!"

"I thought you were enjoying all the little distractions?" Kai smirked. "You were certainly enjoying your little speech earlier, so let's try it again, shall we?" The second the dish stopped shaking, the cracks in the dish becoming cavernous, the towering corals toppling down, he sent her in on the attack again. "Dranzer! Again!" And so, the event was triggered once again.

"He is doing it on purpose!" AJ gasped. "But to what end?! What can he hope to achieve by essentially destroying the dish?!"

"Called it," Brad stated. "I called it. Totally called it."

"Kai!" Khalid growled out, growing frustrated. "Stop this! You'll destroy the dish and it'll be a tie!"

"You say that like I plan on allowing myself to lose," Kai continued to smirk at him. "The only way this would ever be a tie is if I allowed myself to be beaten, either by you or by this dish, and you're clearly underestimating me if you think I'd ever allow this to be anything but a victory for me!" He noticed the steam was coming through thicker from the gaping cracks, could feel the heat radiating off of the dish, and see the light of the heat coming from below, and was sure it was enough. "Dranzer! Get ready!" The gaps in the dish were growing so large that it was becoming difficult for the two Beyblades to find a combat field that was large enough for them to engage. After hopping about a fair amount, Sahara Viper made its way to Dranzer and engaged the Beyblade.

"Sahara Viper!" Khalid called out to his Bit Beast. "Desert Sword!" Kai watched, unworried, as the snake Bit Beast regurgitated a large, shimmering, curved blade, taking it in its jaws and coming at Dranzer, a tornado of sand in its wake. It was too late by the time Khalid realized he was making a mistake, tipped off by the prevalent glow of green in Kai's eyes. He'd walked into Kai's plot, having allowed him to trigger that trap so many times in a state of bewilderment, and what was to come couldn't be stopped. It was beyond his capability now. "Oh no..." Sahara Viper kept streaking towards Dranzer, all venom and power, and the other remained unmoved, the Bit Beast still and calm as her attacker advanced. The heat from beneath the dish was growing exponentially, and finally, Khalid understood just how much trouble he was in. Kai was shockingly calm, and Khalid almost couldn't hear him when he issued a single-word command to his Bit Beast.

"Inferno."

Dranzer shifted back, moving towards one of the hot gaping holes in the dish, hitting the edge of it and taking off into the air, the speed of its spin picking up exponentially, drawing up heat from the chasm below. For the Bit Beast herself, she looked down towards the snake approaching her, pointing the bladed end of her staff towards it before flames started to lick up from her kimono, coating the entire thing in super-heated flames. She let out a loud shriek, reminiscent of the one heard before her form changed, and her entire body was engulfed, the air around her heating rapidly. And Khalid could only watch as the flaming Beyblade, and its Bit Beast, tore at his Sahara Viper, sending it, scalding hot, straight out of the arena in a bursting fireball of heat, the Beyblade lodging in the wall behind him, scorched and burned.

"And it's over!" Jazzman declared the end of the match. "The match goes to Kai and the G Revolutions, who will now advance to the semi-finals in Bay City!" Kai quickly caught Dranzer as she returned to him, something inside him saying that the Beyblade was hot, yet he couldn't feel any kind of heat, and made his way away from the dish, only to be stopped by Khalid, who rushed over to intercept him.

"Congratulations," he praised the other youth. "Your performance was outstanding. I expect nothing less from the great Phoenix!"

"Is there a point to this other than to congratulate me for my win?" Kai asked, still feeling impatient with the man. "Because you're someone I just don't understand. You talk a good game, but have nothing to back it up in the arena, so why fill the space with your hot air when you could be proving yourself to your opponents?"

"Prepare yourself for your next challenge," Khalid warned. "You'll get to the final, and so will they, but there's a roadblock in your way to getting there that you need to surpass."

"What do you know...?" Kai frowned, turning to fully face him now, able to hear his team cheering behind him as they celebrated reaching the semis.

"I can't tell you how I know this," Khalid started. "But you'll face an adversary you've faced before, and an opponent you've never faced before." Kai cocked a brow at this.

"Just be direct," Kai ordered flatly. "Be direct and tell me. Skip the mystical mumbo-jumbo, and the riddles, and just tell me right now what-"

"Kai! You did it!" Hilary bounded over, giving Khalid his chance to slip away, watching as the team engulfed their dismayed captain with praise and congratulations. He'd known that the G Revolutions would beat his team, in spite of all of their skill. He'd known all of this. He cast his gaze up to the stands, where his cousin Ardeth sat with the rest of Stryker, as he made his way back to his team.

"So," Ryall smirked, sitting back in his seat. "Dranzer has been awakened. I want that Bit Beast. And I want its current master decimated."

"The rest will awaken," Marco pointed out. "It's only a matter of time. The next battle should reveal them." He looked over to Ardeth. "And who, exactly, will their next opponents be?" It was no secret to any of them that Ardeth had special abilities outside of the dish, and while it sat ill with the man to be helping these people, he knew he had to be seen to be cooperative. It was part of the plan, after all.

"The Blitzkrieg Boys," Ardeth replied. "Their next opponents will be the Blitzkrieg Boys."

"Good," Ryall nodded. "Of course, I would have liked to have claimed Wolborg and Falborg, complete my collection and all, but I don't see either of them causing a problem for the Sacred Ones, especially with Dranzer now awoken. It'll be an easy win, and then they'll be ours."

Ardeth wondered about his visions sometimes. He wondered what they meant, why he got them the way he did, and frequently questioned his ability to interpret them. The same vision recently had plagued his sleep, the scene of snow and blood amongst the rubble of a destroyed building, and a feeling in his bones told him that this particularly disturbing vision would be explained soon. It left him feeling unsettled and distressed, because there had been one prevailing feeling he had felt in every experience of that vision.

The feeling of death.