Beyblade Fan Fiction ❯ Sanctified ❯ Cries in the Night ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2: Cries in the Night

Later that night, Dr. B giggled madly as he held Max's Beyblade up to the light. "You're all mine, Draciel! Now, let's get started with the analysis right away."

"I'm afraid you'll have to postpone that analysis, Doctor," said a cold voice behind him. "Permanently."

The older man whirled around, shocked as he recognized his late visitor. "What are you doing here?!"

"The same thing as you," Kai replied, his eyes narrowing. "Getting revenge."

"You can't stop me!" Dr. B shrieked. "Nothing can stop me now!"

"I'm not going to stop you," Kai stated. "I'm going to help you."

That caught the doctor off guard. "What…?"

"You wanted the ultimate Bit-Beast. I'm going to show it to you."

Dr. B smirked. "Dranzer is hardly what I would call the ultimate Bit-Beast."

"You've never seen this Dranzer before," Kai said as he pulled off his shirt. "It's stronger than all your Cyber Bit-Beasts combined."

"Impossible! Nothing could be that powerful!"

"You just keep telling yourself that." His eyes flashed dangerously, becoming cloudy and gray.

Dr. B watched, rooted to the spot as Kai's hair began to wave, as if caught in a phantom wind. The boy's features seemed to become more angular, almost as if he was willing his spirit out of his body.

And something DID rise from Kai's back. Something huge, of the darkest black, and with crimson eyes.

"No," Dr. B whispered, shaking his head slowly. "It's not possible…"

Kai's voice started off in a whisper, and ended up in a scream. "Avenge us. Devour his filthy, worthless soul! GO, BLACK DRANZER!!!"

The dark shape screamed horribly as it tore through the air and dove straight into Dr.B's chest.

The mad doctor felt as if he were being burned from the inside out. He opened his mouth to scream, but he was dead before his brain could even begin to send the message to his body.

* * * * *

Joseph had been wandering aimlessly around the abandoned warehouse for hours.

He had never even considered the thought that he might end up an only child. Mariam had always been there: to tease him when he slipped up, to kick him when he wanted to quit, and to celebrate when he achieved something. There were times when he had considered her the greatest pest alive. But then he would remember her caring for him when he was sick, or defending him when he was too little to fight, or helping him when no one else would.

But no more would she do any of that. She was gone, thanks to that freaky old doctor with a screw loose. Joseph had wanted to track the madman down and make him pay for what he'd done.

Ozuma had said no. More than that, he'd actually forbidden Joseph & Dunga to go after Dr. B. When questioned about his decision, he had only replied that it just wasn't necessary.

Joseph had toyed with that thought over and over again, but he couldn't figure out why Ozuma didn't want to bring Mariam's killer to justice. Well, their unique brand of justice, anyway.

It wasn't as if Ozuma didn't care about Mariam. Far from it, in fact. More than once he had called the Saint Shields his family. If that was true really, how could he let someone get away with this?

Joseph, for one, couldn't let it go. Ozuma may have considered Mariam family, but she WAS family to him, his own flesh and blood. Such a horrendous crime could not and would not go unpunished. He made up his mind to tell Ozuma that to his face. If Ozuma had a problem with that, well…he might be missing two Saint Shields before the day was done.

He found Ozuma with Mariam's body, and suddenly gained a whole new respect for him.

Having carried Mariam all the way home and personally wrapping her body in pristine white cloth, much of her blood still stained the front of Ozuma's clothes. If that made him at all uncomfortable, he did not show it as he knelt before the shroud, his head lowered in deep thought and reverence.

Joseph paused at the door, almost hating himself for what he was about to say. "You seem like you care."

Ozuma's eyes snapped open at once. "You're angry with me for not letting you go after Dr. B."

"Just tell me why and maybe I'll forgive you. Eventually."

With a sigh, Ozuma stood up, passing his hand briefly over what would've been Mariam's face. "I loved her, too, Joseph. Do you think for one minute that I don't want to be out there doing the same thing?

"Then why aren't we?!" Joseph cried. "Why are we just letting him get away with this?!"

Ozuma closed his eyes in a show a great patience. "Dr. B will be dead by morning, if he isn't already. I promise you that much."

That made Joseph pause. Ozuma had never broken a promise before. "How do you know?"

Instead of answering, Ozuma turned back to the shroud. When he faced Joseph again, he was holding a Beyblade in his hand. "I swear on Sharkrash that Mariam's death will be avenged. I can't explain to you how I know, only that I do know."

Joseph slowly accepted his late sister's Beyblade. "That's good enough for me…for now. But what about the mission? It's not like we can replace her…is it?"

"No," Ozuma replied, hearing the challenge in his friend's words. "But four Saint Shields are needed for our mission…and we will be four again, very soon. No one can replace Mariam, but someone can fight with her blessing."

Joseph's eyes narrowed. "No stranger is gonna fight with Sharkrash!"

"Sharkrash wouldn't fight for anyone else, anyway. You will keep it, as a reminder to us all."

"Then who else but one of us could possibly fight with her blessing?"

Ozuma smiled grimly. "Her avenger."

* * * * *

The rain was coming down pretty hard now, but that was not why Hilary couldn't sleep.

Grief-stricken as he was, even Max had finally fallen into a restless sleep. He couldn't stop asking himself why Mariam had protected him, at the cost of her own life. None of the others had any answers for him; they hadn't even seen the assault.

In all the commotion, only Hilary had noticed that Kai was missing. She knew he'd been getting fed up by the end of the photo shoot, and distinctly remembered him slipping out as they headed to the pizza parlor. Figuring he just needed some alone time, she hadn't said anything to anyone.

Max's brush with death had left its mark on her mind. She couldn't help thinking that Kai might be out there somewhere, laying in a ditch and slowly losing his grip on life. Today had proven to her that the Bladebreakers had made some ruthless enemies, and that they could come out of nowhere without any kind of warning. Kai wasn't the nicest person she'd ever met, but he was a friend, and she was worried about him.

So while the others had gone to bed, Hilary sat by the door, waiting, hoping, and praying for Kai's safe return.

The day's events had obviously taken more out of her than she realized, because the next thing she knew, Kai was standing in the doorway, soaked from the rain, but seemingly in perfect health.

Hilary squealed his name and threw her arms around his neck, ignoring how wet she was getting because she was so happy to see him safe. She didn't see Kai wince as she hugged him, nor did she hear him hiss like a wounded animal. What she did notice was that Kai gently but firmly pushed her away and headed straight to the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

When he emerged half an hour later, Hilary finally noticed how pale his skin was, mostly because he was naked from the waist up. He didn't even look her way as he went back to the front door.

"Kai, wait!" Hilary cried as he stepped back out into the rain. "Please don't go yet!"

Amazingly, he stopped short and turned back to her.

She hesitated for a moment. "You…don't know what happened to Max…and Mariam…"

"I know everything," he said curtly.

Hilary blinked. "You do…?"

Kai walked up to and pressed something into her hands. "Give this to Max. Tell him that everything happens for a reason. He'll understand…eventually."

Hilary gasped as she held the object up to her face. "Draciel! You got him back?! That's great!"

Kai didn't miss a beat. "Tell Tyson he's captain of the Bladebreakers now."

"…are you sure you don't mean Ray?" Hilary asked. "And I thought you were the team captain?"

"Tyson is the only one of us that's never lost his Bit-Beast. Matches, yes, but never Dragoon. There's a reason for that. I realized it, after watching him battle Cyber Dragoon."

"But do you seriously think he won't mess up?"

"Of course he will. He's Tyson. But he'll learn." Kai stepped back into the rain.

"Where are you going?" Hilary asked.

"There's something I need to do."

"When will you be back?"

There was no answer.

Hilary sighed and closed her eyes. "I'll miss you, then."

"No, you won't."

She began to shout at him, but when she opened her eyes, he was already racing into the night. She wasn't sure, but from that distance, it almost seemed like there was something on his back. She could just barely make it out through the darkness and the rain, but it almost looked like a bird. Probably Dranzer, she decided at once. She wondered absently if the other Bladebreakers had tattoos of their Bit-Beasts, too.

Hilary went back into the house and figured she'd clean up the bathroom. Kai, being relatively neat, but a boy nonetheless, had probably left it a mess.

And he had. There was blood in the sink, on the floor, on the mirror, and even on the ceiling.

She found his shirt at the bottom of the hamper, and wondered why he'd even bothered to hide it with the mess he'd left. Soon, she found out, as she lifted it up and found it, too, soaked in blood. However, the blood formed a pattern on the violet: that of a huge bird. The very same, in fact, that she'd seen on Kai's back. And something told her that it definitely wasn't Dranzer.

* * * * *

Dr. B was found dead in his apartment around 2:15 AM.

There was no sign of a struggle or forced entry.

The doctor had died on his couch, apparently of a heart attack, while he slept.

The only odd thing was that he was missing a large amount of blood. Yet, there were no bloodstains anywhere in the house, or even any marks on the doctor that the blood could've been drained from.

Even more suspicious was the unidentified caller that led police to the scene. As the voice had been disguised, and the call made from a pay phone miles from the house, there was no real way to connect it to the doctor's death. Aside from that, the doctor had no known enemies.

Perhaps not coincidentally, though, the doctor had just been fired from a Beyblade research lab, and investigators decided to track down his former employer, a man identified only as Gideon…

* * * * *

Continued in Chapter 3: A Sealed Fate

Kai & Black Dranzer are challenged by Ozuma, but there's a catch: he wants to use Dranzer! Meanwhile, how will the Bladebreakers react to the loss of their team captain?

Notes:

Mariam's Bit-Beast is probably called Shark Rash. But it sounds like Shar-krash to me when she says it (combo of shark & crash), which I think is a good description of how it attacks.