Forsaken Fallen Headquarters, Chaotic Dimension, 17th Universe (Time Unknown)
Ray couldn't say that he was surprised when he crossed the portal and found himself in the sky, falling down at a rapid pace. No, he was more surprised by the world they had fallen in to really question why they were falling out of the sky. Like Brooklyn's mind dimension, they had the ability to fly so that kept them from becoming human pancakes in the home of their opponents.
"This is crazy!" Kenny yelled, clutching his laptop as he tried to not fall on his face. That was a sentiment Ray was certain that they all shared as they floated down to the ground gracefully.
"No wonder Katsu couldn't find this place, no matter how hard he searched," Daichi said in awe as he reached the ground, "You can't find a place like this if you were an ordinary human."
"No kidding," Emily said as she fixed her glasses and looked at their surroundings, "It looks a lot like Earth. Except filled with more plant life and with less pollution." That made Max freeze, looking around more closely to see what Emily had noticed. It reminded him a lot of Night's prison, what with the clear skies, clean air and lush greenery.
"A castle is up ahead," Robert pointed up ahead, "That must be where the Forsaken Fallen is located."
"Let's go, then." Hilary said, before walking ahead. Everyone saw no other choice but to follow her.
~~~MIAB~~~
When Dark Dranzer had said that there was going to be a surprise waiting for them, they hadn't expected Zeus to be the surprise.
Mariah had gone up ahead and they had all heard her terrified scream before running up to see the state the Forsaken Fallen had left Zeus. The poor beast was hanging from the entrance, nailed to the wall. He was wearing a crown of thorns on his head that made him bleed while his right eye was swollen and his arms and legs looked like they were broken. His wings were out and were in a terrible state. Not as bad as Dark Dranzer's wings but a close second.
"Zeus!" Tyson cried out, shaking.
Zeus stirred and lifted his head before rolling his eyes, "It took you guys long enough." He coughed, chuckling weakly, "I was just about to die before you came here." He stopped talking, letting his head hang limply.
"We have to get him down from there!" Ming-Ming cried out, her eyes looking watery as if she was ready to cry.
Tyson jumped up and so did Kai and, thanks to the different dimension, they flew towards the limp Zeus. Tyson slowly pried the nail out of Zeus's palm, looking horrified while Kai did so without showing any emotion. Hilary looked away while the rest trembled, now aware of what cruel things the Forsaken Fallen could do to those they deemed to be 'useless' or 'traitors'.
Eventually, Zeus was brought down and they laid him down on the ground. Up close, the extent of his wounds were more visible and they all felt coldness seep into their bones at the cruel reality that this was not going to be like their previous battles. This was going to be a war.
"Go on." Ming-Ming muttered, kneeling down next Zeus, "Defeat those cold hearted beasts."
"I'll stay to look after Zeus as well." Garland volunteered before he was glared at by the blue-haired pop star.
"No. You need to there. I'm not going to be needed." She replied, "Go. We'll be okay, after all." Oliver kneeled down next to her and began to put pressure on Zeus's still bleeding wounds while Ming-Ming tried to clean the other wounds with her glove, looking like she was ready to cry.
"Take care. And be careful." Kenny told her and they left Ming-Ming, Oliver and Zeus/Brooklyn on the entrance. They opened the elegant double doors and entered the place that had kept Tyson a prisoner for a month.
It looked just like you would expect a castle to look like but Tyson shivered when he saw more of Takao's macabre paintings. The largest painting had all of their fallen friends asleep at the foot of Chaos's throne. In the distance, they could hear someone playing the harp and someone was singing a haunting tune.
"This is creepy." Ian muttered as they walked, each painting making them wonder what the artist had been thinking when drawing these beautifully dark paintings. They stopped in front of a door where they could feel power.
"Let's see what's behind door number one." Tyson stated before pushing the door open.
The room was one that made Tyson freeze on his tracks, immediately recognizing this room. The paintings on the ceiling were the same ones he had admired with Kaori before she had fallen.
Kaori.
Did that mean that-?
"Welcome. I've been waiting for you for some time." They all were now face to face with the holy beast that had taken over Kaori Kumai's body. Nemesis looked the same as she did as the day Kai had first seen her. Her eyes still had that maniacal gleam in them and she was still wearing the dark brown dress. The only difference was that it seemed that her short hair had grown up to her shoulders. She was holding her black and gold blade in one hand while the other hand beckoned them inside. Sprawled on the floor in front of her was none other than Ann.
"Welcome to the domain of the holy beast of vengeance," Nemesis said with a bow, "I'm glad that you didn't chicken out because of Hades's warning. He doesn't like Zeus much, you see."
"You're the first?" Tyson asked.
"Of course," Nemesis replied, sending him a charming smile, "I was the first to be betrayed. Oh, I had been such a fool to believe that my old friend Artemis just wanted to show me a valley she had discovered. The next thing I know, she's pushed me down a cliff where my brothers were waiting down there to seal me away into a horrible prison." She glared, "Never again."
"So we're going to meet the order in which the Forsaken Fallen were sealed in." Ray deduced.
"Nemesis, Hecate, Hades, Gaea, Ouranos, Tartarus, Dark Draciel, Dark Dragoon, Dark Driger, Dark Dranzer and Chaos it is, then," Max stated. They weren't very surprised that he knew that. He knew the whole story of these holy beasts better than anyone, considering that Night had told him the whole story.
"Very good!" Nemesis smiled before they saw Ann stir. Nemesis crouched down to grab the girl's hair and Ann cried out as Nemesis stood, still having a painful grip of Ann's hair. They could see that the girl was no longer under the influence of any member of the Forsaken Fallen, judging by the fear on her eyes and the tears streaming down.
"Let me go, please! Let me go home!" Ann cried.
Nemesis showed the poor girl to the bladers, "This is little Ann Giese. She lives a tragic tale, never being to escape our grasp ten years ago. In fact, she was supposed to have been killed by Rin when Dark Dranzer possessed him. It was impressive that she lived despite the hole Rin made on her chest."
"Stop." Hilary whispered, seeing the pained look on Ann's face as she struggled against the psychotic beast's grasp.
"She was useful for a while by letting us control her body . . . but wait!" Nemesis's eyes began to glow while they could see black coils wrap themselves around Ann's eyes like a blindfold, "We have our tamers so what use do we have of her?"
"Please!" Ann was clawing at the hand that held her captive, shaking her head, "Don't do this to me! Stop trying to hurt people!"
"You're no longer of any use." Nemesis stated before the coils around Ann's eyes tightened. She screamed, the sound echoing around the room while blood leaked out instead of tears. Ozuma must have had enough because he launched his blade at Nemesis, hitting her hand.
The beast screamed and, for a moment, they saw a young woman of eighteen with long flowing dark brown hair and golden-black eyes that were filled with pain from the attack. She vanished as soon as she appeared, though.
"How dare you lay a hand on me!" Nemesis yelled before Ozuma was lifted into the air, "Insolent brat!"
"Let him go, Kaori!" Tyson yelled and Nemesis's right eye turned blue for a moment before she covered it and growled at Tyson. He smiled. He knew it; Kaori was not fully gone. She was still trying to fight back against Nemesis's control, "Would Arion want you to do this?"
"Kaori is gone!" Nemesis yelled before she held her head. Kevin gave out a yell as he, Eddy, Spencer, Enrique, Miguel, Mystel, Lee, Michael and Ian rose to the air, just like Ozuma. Rick tried to grab at least one of them before Nemesis glared at them, "I always did hate large groups."
"Kaori, don't do it!"
Nemesis closed her eyes and, when she opened them, they were her eyes instead of Kaori's, "Good-bye."
Tyson didn't even get a chance to blink before his friends were gone. He narrowed his eyes at Nemesis, "Okay, Nemesis, what have you done to our friends? Where have you sent them?"
"They're still in this dimension, just in other places in the house." Nemesis cackled, the signs of Kaori still resisting disappearing at once. She giggled, as if she had remembered something funny, "And they've all been sent to fight the others and, if they lose, they'll lose their holy beasts and be trapped here."
"We can't waste any more time, then." Kai pointed his blade at Nemesis, looking as powerful and regal as ever. He felt Tyson and Max stand by him, also reaching for their blades.
"I challenge you, Nemesis!"
Everyone turned to who had said that and were all shocked and surprised to see that it had been Hilary. Kenny was just going to argue with her when she walked forward, "Artemis knew you before. This isn't you, Nemesis. She . . . we still believe in you. So we're going to draw your good side out, whether you want to or not."
"Hilary, you haven't had enough training. Don't do it." Kenny whispered.
"She'll be fine, Chief." Tyson grinned at him before nodding at Hilary, "Kick her ass, Hil, and bring back Kaori." Hilary smiled, shooting him a thumbs up before she was now standing across from Nemesis. Nemesis's eyes glinted as she grinned, as if she thought this was going to be easy.
"Don't count me out!" Ray heard Mariah yell before she ran to be next to Hilary, loading her blade, "There's no way I'm letting you go up against an experienced blader by yourself."
"One and a half blader versus one?" Nemesis stated, ignoring Hilary's enraged shout of 'a half?!' before giggling, "Why not? Sounds like this will be fun. I can't wait to end you."
"You can win." Hilary heard Ann whisper, her hair covering her face but she could see blood dripping from her chin. She loaded her blade and frowned, "Let's win this one, Mariah. For Kaori and Ann."
"You can bet on that." Mariah winked before the three girls took their positions, "Three! Two! One!"
"Let it rip!"
~~~MIAB~~~
Deep inside the recess of a certain being's mind, in a place where others could not enter without the help of a beast, a voice echoed through the darkness, slicing through the silence like a blade.
"Kaori!"
The female in question, surrounded in black chains that kept her from waking up, had drawn her knees to her chest with her arms around them while her head hung low. There was a small glow around her, the only light in this dark abyss. The yell made her stir before she opened her eyes.
'Tyson?' She called out, raising her head. She looked around, 'Where are you? I can hear your voice!' She detangled herself and stood up, floating in place as the chains could not let her leave.
'You made him a promise, Kaori. Fulfill it.'
Kaori had no idea where the voice had come from but she knew that it was right. She had made Tyson a promise that she wouldn't fall. Of course, that had failed but she needed to go back and apologize for doing so. She wrapped her hands around the chains and pulled, hissing when they started to hurt her, 'I'm not going to let Nemesis get away with this anymore! I'm going to be free! This is my body, not hers! I refuse to let her win!'
~~~MIAB~~~
The three blades collided and Hilary clenched her teeth when she felt the ground below her shake. Mariah and Nemesis had no trouble holding on while the world trembled but one was a seasoned blader and the other was a beast. How could Hilary hold up when she had barely begun to truly blade?
'Don't hold doubts. Believe in yourself.'
'Thanks for the pep talk, Artemis.'
The three blades separated, Nemesis's blade spinning in the middle while Galux and Artemis circled it. Mariah stared deep into Nemesis's eyes before yelling, "Galux, go!" The pink blade rushed to hit Nemesis and Nemesis grinned, as if she had expected that.
"Too predictable." She replied, the blade moving out of the way. In the sidelines, she could have sworn she saw Ray smirk. She frowned, wondering why he looked so confident.
The answer came when Hilary's blade smashed right into Nemesis's blade and she hissed when it was sent flying before crashing to the wall, her eyes flashing when she saw Mariah's smirk, "You're a devious one, aren't you, girl?"
"I pride myself in believing so." The pink-haired member of the White Tigers replied, spinning her Galux blade next to Artemis, "You forget about our handicap, Nemesis. That was your mistake."
"Indeed so." Nemesis said before her blade began to glow. A black dog that was as big as a house leapt out, its eyes similar to Nemesis's own eyes. She chuckled, "I won't let you win, foolish girls."
Nemesis's blade began to spin so fast it began to float in the air, a small tornado forming that reminded both female bladers of Dragoon's Storm Attack. They sent their blades to different directions, watching but not knowing what to do yet.
"Retribution of Hell." Nemesis stated before her blade dropped to the ground, causing the room and the castle to shake once again, the vibrations and impact sending Mariah and Hilary flying, hitting the wall with a yell. Their blades also went airborne but they managed to keep spinning once they landed.
"You'll pay for that." Mariah said, the side of her head bleeding. Ray felt Kai grab his arm so he wouldn't interfere. He growled, hating to see how Nemesis had hurt both Mariah and Hilary.
Hilary stood, her legs wobbly. Daichi clenched his fists, wishing he could switch with Hilary. She didn't have enough experience battling and now she was fighting against a member of the Forsaken Fallen? Tyson must either have a lot of faith in her or he had gone crazy in his stay in this dimension.
"We're not going down so quickly," Hilary smirked, "We've been taking a page out of Tyson and the others. So think again before thinking an attack like that could defeat us."
"You go, Hilary, Mariah!" Mathilda cheered for the girls, feeling herself being fueled by their beyblading spirit.
Tyson smiled, "Show 'em the power of your bond with your bit-beasts, guys."
"You bet, Ty." Hilary said, "We're taking Nemesis down!"
~~~MIAB~~~
Kaori knew she was stubborn but she refused to back down once she was challenged. It was a trait that had gotten her to become an excellent blader and she was proud to say that.
The chains were slowly falling apart and Kaori could feel herself getting more powerful after she had broken three chains. She gave out a yell of pain as she held onto the final two chains and pulled with all her might. Nemesis was not going to keep her as a prisoner of her own body anymore!
'I'm coming, Tyson!' Kaori yelled, 'I have a promise to fulfill and a partner to see!' Just remembering Arion made her fight against her restraints with more power. Her best friend was out there, waiting for her to return. People were waiting for her. And she was not going to disappoint anyone.
She hissed when she felt herself being attacked and looked to the distance, 'What on earth is happening out there?'
~~~MIAB~~~
"Galux, Vicious Claw Attack!"
"Artemis, Starlight Dance!"
Nemesis dodged Galux's attack but was hit by the barrage of star-like lights Artemis had thrown at her. Kenny frowned, wondering why Nemesis was allowing the attacks to reach her. He could hear Dizzi trying to find out why herself. He could see that, when Nemesis's blade moved, it appeared graceful. It seemed as if it was performing a dance. . .
"Mariah, Hilary, it's a trap!" Kenny yelled, his voice overlapping with Dizzi's.
"Too late." Nemesis replied, her eyes glowing while she chuckled, "Dance my puppets. Rhamnous Sanctuary!" Time seemed to slow down while Nemesis's blade zoomed gracefully around the two blades she was fighting against while the black dog that was Nemesis's true form roared, attacking Hilary and Mariah.
There was now a gash on Hilary's cheek while there was one on Mariah's stomach. They didn't even have the time to recover before Nemesis attacked both blades that seemed to pack the same power as all of the attacks that had hit the blade. Both girls yelled as they went airborne once again and Ray could've sworn he had heard Galux scream before he saw that Mariah's blade shattered.
"Mariah!"
The pink-haired girl didn't even get to fall when black coils wrapped themselves around her and enveloped her. The darkness vanished when Nemesis snapped her fingers and, with that, Mariah was gone.
"Where's Mariah?!" Max yelled.
Nemesis chuckled, "She's gone, it seems. She's been taken to Chaos's chamber and you won't get her back until you beat all of us. If you lose, that is what'll happen. That is what you agreed to, after all." She turned to look at Hilary's form on the ground and laughed, "You'll probably lose her too."
"No way." Tyson growled.
"Hilary will beat ya up and then we'll save Mariah!" Daichi yelled at Nemesis, "Just you wait and see!"
Hilary coughed as she tried to get up on her feet once more. She wiped the blood from her mouth, trembling a little. She was terrified of the consequences. If she lost, Mariah and everyone else would become servants to the Forsaken Fallen. She felt a hand close over hers and she was startled when she saw it was Ann.
"She's still fighting for control." She whispered and Hilary felt her put something in her hand, "You can help her regain control and Nemesis will lose. Kaori can wake up, if you can use him to help you."
Hilary was about to question Ann over what she was talking about when the black coils that had taken Mariah away wrapped themselves around Ann's neck. She gave out a gasp for breath before she was lifted into the air by Nemesis. She was flung towards a wall but, before she did, Gary threw himself in the way.
"You okay?" He asked the girl before nodding at Hilary, "Get up, Hilary, and battle. We believe in you."
'And I do too, my dear friend.'
Hilary stared at her wobbling blade before standing, clenching her fists and feeling the thing Ann had given her. She frowned before realization dawned on her on what it was. She grinned before turning to Nemesis, "With this, Artemis and I can bring Kaori back."
"What does she mean by that?" Daichi questioned Tyson when he noticed that the navy-haired teen seemed to have understood what Hilary had meant by saying that. Tyson smirked but said nothing. Ray and Max looked just as confused as Daichi while it seemed Kai had pieced everything together.
"Artemis, let's do this!" Hilary yelled and her blade began to glow before her mighty partner finally emerged, staring Nemesis's true form down. Hilary's eyes turned silver for a moment before initiating her attack, "Moonlight Madness attack!"
Artemis leapt majestically and slammed onto Nemesis while both blades clashed, Nemesis gritting her teeth as the attack formed minor vibrations. Nemesis's eyes widened when she saw the image behind Hilary, "Where did you find him?"
Standing behind Hilary was a majestic silver pegasus that was glaring right at Nemesis. Hilary smiled, "It appears you've stolen Arion's partner, Nemesis. So he wants her back."
'And I am coming, Arion!' Nemesis heard before she heard the sound of a chain breaking. She froze before giving a yell. The two blades separated and spun across from each other while everyone watched Nemesis and Kaori battle for control. She placed a hand on her head, trembling, "Go back to sleep, Kaori! N-Never! Give me back my body! Go back! Ngh . . . Hilary, now!"
"Artemis, let's go again! Moonlight Madness!"
Nemesis shook her head before yelling, "Fortune Retribution!"
The two attacks collided, the two beasts clashing once more before there was an explosion that sent everyone flying, the smoke from the explosion hiding Hilary and Nemesis/Kaori from view. Tyson sat up, rubbing the back of his head, "Are you okay, guys?!"
"Never felt better." Kenny mumbled before jumping slightly, "Wait, who won?"
"We'll know once the smoke clears." Kai said, standing up and helping Tyson up, "Hopefully, it was our victory." They were all silent, waiting just like Kai had said. They didn't wait that long as the smoke faded rather quickly and Ray took a step forward to see what had happened.
"Guys, it was a draw!"
Both Nemesis and Hilary were on the ground, their blades motionless next to them. Hilary seemed like she had gone through hell, her clothes matted with her own blood, while Nemesis only had blood running down the side of her face.
"What does a draw count as?" Rick asked before they saw the darkness that had taken Mariah wrap itself around Hilary while, at the same time, they saw something leaving Kaori's body and enter the blade.
"Hilary!" They all yelled while Tyson and Max ran to their friend. Max was just about to grab her hand when she vanished, taken to Chaos just as Mariah had. Max sat down, grabbing the beaten-up blade where he could see Artemis, "They may have lost one of their own but we lost two." He clenched Artemis tightly, ignoring the urge to yell at how unfair that was.
Tyson, on the other hand, ran to Kaori's aid, Kai following. Tyson shook the unconscious girl's shoulders while Kai helped her into a sitting position. "Kaori?" Tyson whispered and his eyes lit up when he saw her open her eyes slightly. Her eyes were blue-red once more, meaning Nemesis was gone.
"Am I still dreaming? Or is Kai Hiwatari really holding me?" Kaori laughed before coughing, "If I didn't feel like shit, I think I'd be squealing in delight like the fangirl I am."
"You're definitely back." Tyson laughed.
Kaori nodded, closing her eyes before sighing, "And it's great to be back, Tyson."