As rain poured down onto the Earth, it gave rise to the smell of rich-mud of the surface; petrichor. Numerous droplets raced down, challenging each other as to who reaches first. Cool, breezy wind blew in from towards the West, elevating the overall mood and atmosphere of everything.

Yu watched as it rained cats and dogs, his palms placed on his cheeks in a bored manner. He pouted, thinking of something fun to do.

"Aw, did it have to rain today?!" Yu laid back on his bed and stared at the fan for a long time.

His mountain of plushies weren't help either since he was pretty much done playing with them all. He thought hard as his forest eyes bored into the fan, but then a little bulb went off in his head and sat up straight.

"Wait...maybe I'll go hang out with Ryuga! Oh, he's so cool!" he hopped off from bed, "but- what if he's busy with training? It's very un-Ryuga like for him to stay back and do nothing. I can go hang out with Tsubasa and Zuki! You're such a genius, Yu."

Giving himself a pat on the back, he dashed out of his room and towards the duo.

Meanwhile, Zukira and Tsubasa were having another friendly match in one of the training rooms, sounds of metal clashing on metal filling the air. Yu entered and ran to the railing, gripping it with his small hands.

"Hey! I wanna battle too!"

Both heads turned towards him as he hopped down from the railing and towards the ongoing battle.

"Sorry, Yu but this battle has already started," Tsubasa informed, focusing on his moving bey.

"But- I wanna join too! Unfair, unfair, unfair!"

"Okay, Yu," Zukira gave a polite smile, "you can join us too."

"Alright!" he punched the air took his own side. He pulled out his launcher and attached Flame Libra to it.

"Let iiiit rip!"

Once the yellow bey was released, it sped towards the other two, clashing onto them headfirst, causing the trio to push back and rebound.

"Huh, this'll be one interesting training session," Zukira commented, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

It was quite the battle for today: two balance and one defense types fighting against one another to prove who came out on top.

"Alright then, I'll make things easier for myself, Libra!"

Libra moved to the centre and created a spiral of wind and soon, the stadium slowly turned into sand.

Okay, that is something I definitely need to work on.

"DragonKnight!" The bey moved right at the top edge of the stadium with Zukira struggling to think of a way to counterattack.

"DragonKnight? When did you get a new bey, Zuki?!" Yu exclaimed, clearly distracted.

Using his quick wits, Tsubasa called out to Eagle and the bey went speeding through the sand and clashed into Libra.

"Ah!" Yu bounced back, clenching his fists.

"Did you enjoy that, Yu?" Tsubasa crossed his arms, "Eagle never loses the sight of its prey, you see."

"Prey?! I'll show you prey! Libra, Inferno Bl-"

"Not so fast."

"Huh?!" Tsubasa and Yu exclaimed in unison before a golden light erupted, drowning the room in its powerful glow.

"Seems like you forgot about me," Zukira wiped her upper lip, "and I don't like being forgotten."

Pushing both beys back with an invisible force, DragonKnight took centre stage and switched to balance mode, the crevice line in between its metal wheel opening, separating the upper & lower parts.

Zukira smiled triumphantly, opening her arms. "What you're about to witness is something none like other. Something which has never been done before. DragonKnight, show them!"

Soon, the stadium was covered in glistening, but thin red gas, hovering over the two other beys like a thick fog.

"I call this one: Eternal Fate."

As the gas took the beys under its hold, they slowly began to wear out and decrease in speed.

"Woah! What's happening?! Libra, get out of there!"

Much to Yu's dismay, Libra was the first one to fully wear out and stopped spinning, thus 'falling asleep.'

Tsubasa looked over to Eagle who was wobbling in its position, "Come on, Eagle! You can do it!"

The bey struggled to move in its current position. It moved for a split moment before falling limp as well. Sweet victory.

"Oh my goodness," Zukira blinked, "It- it actually worked?! No way!" the brunette punched the air in excitement. "Alright, I think that's enough. You can stop now, DragonKnight."

The bey continued whirring, the red gas swirling around.

"I said- you can stop now, DragonKnight," Zukira repeated with a slight edge, but again, neither the bey nor the gas budged.

"Um..." she felt herself break into a cold sweat. Why wasn't the gas going away?

"Woah, everything alright there, Zuki?" Yu studied the mysterious new bey, his head tilted to the side. "Your new bey's kind of cool, but-"

"It's not listening to her. Zukira, you know well that you shouldn't just keep things from an unknown person, right?" Tsubasa let out a soft, stern sigh.

"I-I know! But...I'll figure something out. You two evacuate the room: I don't want the gas to spread out or anything."

The duo nodded and DragonKnight gave out a gust of wind which sent Libra and Eagle flying right into their hands. They exited the room, leaving Zukira back to deal with the problem at hand.

"Well then," she rolled up her sleeves, "lets see what we can do."




                                       1 hour and 30 minutes later




Zukira sat at the edge of the stadium, her palms placed on her cheeks. She had this frustrated smile on her face as her left eye twitched. Blazer and DragonKnight were placed together, remaining motionless beside her feet. Turned out that the gas not only effected beys, but humans too.

"Now this is a huge problem," the brunette let out a yawn and picked up both of her beys, "I just gotta...take DragonKnight to the lab and...figure this out."

Grabbing the can of Red Bull she had brought along, she trudged her way downstairs to the laboratory, a sleepy smile on her face. She made it to main station and took a seat, placing the golden bey on the counter. She yawned, opening her laptop with heavy, half-lidded eyes.

"Awesome, now I gotta figure out how this red gas made it inside a Beyblade and what it's made of,"

Not even 5 seconds into her research, she slammed her onto the keyboard and let out a loud snore, casting a stare from one of the lab attendants nearby.




The 8-Pit




"Hm..."

Gingka looked at the ground in between his feet, lost in deep though. Madoka was busy working at her desk, running a few checkups on Pegasus. The boy clasped his hands as he recalled the previous event.

*

"Heed my warning, Gingka and friends. One word to Hikaru about my identity, none of you will be spared."

*

"Zukira..." Gingka muttered, catching Madoka's attention.

She swiveled her seat, facing him, "Is everything alright, Gingka?"

"I just don't get it," he kept his gaze at the ground, "what did she mean by that?"

"Not letting Hikaru know who she truly is..." Madoka trailed off, "do you think...she's afraid that if Hikaru finds out the truth, she'll abandon her?"

"Seems like it," Gingka replied, meeting her eyes, "but I don't get it. She has Yu and Tsubasa, so why did she..."

"She must be pretty close to her if Hikaru was the only one she specified," Madoka explained, "she's her only friend outside of the Dark Nebula and besides, I'm sure that she's the only girl there so she's bound to feel lonely without someone like her."

"Hmm...true," Gingka took a brief pause.

Just then, Kenta come downstairs and approached Madoka, "Madoka! Is Sagittario's checkup complete?"

The girl smiled, detaching the bey from her equipment and handing it to Kenta, "All good, Kenta. Just make sure that you make frequent checkups to keep Sagittario in good shape, okay?"

"Okay!" he took his bey from Madoka, staring at it in awe. "Hey, Gingka?"

"Hm?" he looked up.

"Will you...be able to make it to Battle Bladers on time?"

Gingka looked away for a moment. He could still hear the sound of his BeyPointer ring in his ears. That horrible, horrible crush. Nevertheless, he met eyes with Kenta and smiled.

"Aw, Kenta. Don't worry about it! As long as I work hard and battle enough, I'll make sure to make it to Battle Bladers and reach the finals to defeat Ryuga once and for all! After all," he took Pegasus, "what decides a battle at the end is the Blader's Spirit."

"Gingka..."

"Guys, come check this out!"

Upon Madoka's sudden call, Gingka and Kenta stood by her side, staring at her laptop screen curiously.

"I pulled out the list of the members of the Dark Nebula members," she began scrolling down, hovering the cursor over a member which showed a rectangular box with some information about the person, "and while I was going through the list, I found something quite odd."

Reaching the end of the list, there was Tsubasa, Yu and Zukira's pictures. With the other two appearing fairly normal in their photographs, the brunette had that same mask on her face in hers. Upon hovering the cursor over her name, the words 'no data available' appeared.

"Woah! Could it be that she erased the data herself?" Kenta turned towards Madoka.

"It could be a possibility, but the database related to the members is in the main computer which sits on Doji's desk, so it's not easy for anyone to just step into the office without getting caught by the cameras."

"Hm...that's weird," Gingka commented, "I dunno, my gut tells me that Zukira doesn't trust Doji either."

"Oh? How so?" Kenta chimed in.

Gingka's eyes fell onto the photograph on the laptop screen, "First there's no data available about her, she wears that mask all the time, and she has never appeared in any of the battles. Quite the mysterious one if you ask me."

"More like suspicious," Kenta huffed, shaking his head.

"Either way," Madoka scrolled back up to the top of the list, "she's still a member of the Dark Nebula Organisation, and we can't draw any valid conclusions on whether she's an actual member or a spy."

Right below Doji's picture was Ryuga's, staring into the camera's soul with that same insane smile on his face. Gingka furrowed his brows, feeling a new-found sense of determination coursing through his veins.

                                        The Laboratory

THWACK!

Zukira woke up with a start, hey eyes wide as saucers. She looked left, then right and shook her head till she was fully awake. Placing a hand on the back of her head, she turned around and was met with a figure towering over her with a scowl on their face: Ryuga

"Oh, it's you," she narrowed her eyes at him and got up from his seat, "what's your bloody problem that you felt the need to strike me like that? You could've gently shook me by the shoulder you know."

"Hmph, not my fault I couldn't stand you slacking off. Besides, I didn't strike you hat hard, just a light touch to that head of yours," Ryuga's eyes landed on the golden bey placed on the desk, "and where did you get that from?"

"None of your business," Zukira crossed her arms, "Spill it. What do you want?"

-

"YOU! GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!"

Zukira followed the Dragon Emperor out of the laboratory, watching as he walked off without even listening to her. She balled her hands into fists, clenching her jaw.

"Zuki!"

The brunette's anger subsided when she heard that voice and softened her expression. She turned around and looked down, meeting eyes with Yu.

"Oh! Hey, Yu. Good to see you again," she then narrowed her eyes at Ryuga, "unlike somebody else."

"Zuki, Zuki" he approached her and tugged her arm, "let's do something fun while it rains!"

"Oh?" the Blader raised a brow, "like what?"

Yu looked back at Tsubasa and let out a giggle before turning back to Zukira.