and flowers grown in graveyards, perpetual outcasts

Suzuka stood in the nosebleeds of the arena stands, staring intensely at the match below. A scowl appeared on his face. Kinomiya Takao versus Hiwatari Kai.

It was always that way.  

Beyblades golden goose, and favourite child up against his sworn rival. Another exhibition grudge match intended to line the pockets of a couple old men who needed to make sure their cash cow was still a profitable, household name. All at his opponents expense.  

He didn't deserve it.  

It should have been Kai.

Suzuka had known from the moment they'd met that Kai was destined for greatness. It had been Kai who’d guided him when he was just a sprout, teaching him everything he knew. Who had made him part of his team when everyone else didn't spare a second glance at an unremarkable blade of grass. Kai had seen Suzuka's potential where everyone else had seen mediocrity. 

He ran his fingers through his blunt cut bob in agitation. How annoying that Kai would then spend the next five years of his life chasing after Kinomiya Takao, the gentle moon to Kai's violent sun. Forever and eternally just out of arms reach.

All while Suzuka was right there.

Every match, event, birthday, or holiday, he'd sent him well wishes, cheered him on. And time and time again his loyalty was repaid with silence as radiant gold continued its endless pursuit of soft silver.  

Suzuka wrinkled his nose, clenching and unclenching his jaw as he descended the stadium stairs as the match reached its end, with the same predictable outcome as always. He turned as he reached the landing, disappearing into the interior of the building. He didn't need to see it, the look of another crushing defeat on Kai's face, not again.

Nor did he need to see the apathetic look Kai gave as the one he still chased was joined by the partner they had chosen. The partner who wasn't and would never be him.

He slipped into a dimly lit, empty corridor in the depths of the stadium before aggressively messing up his hair with his fingers and kicking the brick wall several times.  Baring his clenched teeth at the white painted stone. 

It should have been the one who shone with an endless ferocity.

It should have been Kai. 

“Was the match really that bad that you left early to… kick rocks?” Kai's voice sent a jolt up Suzuka's spine as he immediately stood at attention, turning his head to look in his former team mates direction. 

“No– I just hate watching Kinomiya always win,” Suzuka grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest, his body rigid. 

“Hm,” was all Kai replied as he slung his bag over his shoulder and continued walking down the corridor passing the taller man.  Suzuka's eyes stayed trained on Kai's every movement whilst his body remained frozen. “I wonder why you come at all then?” He added suddenly, Kai's tone feigned a curiosity that his expression betrayed. The smirk screamed he already knew the answer.

“Who knows,” Suzuka replied as haughtily as possible.

“Who knows,” Kai echoed, seeming to agree as he stopped and glanced over his shoulder before motioning Suzuka to follow him: “I have something I want to test, come with me.” 

Without another word he did, happily. 

As mid training camp, Julia gains a spot on the Justice five, and Kyoujyu and the team build a her a hard-metal beyblade.

And Raul stares at the ground as the bladers leave inside for food.

He hears claps for him.

He spins around to see Hiromi. She smiles at him warmly.

"It doesn't matter who wins," she said. "This slight shift in the line up may mean something."

"She's the stronger blader anyway," he said, as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I guess," she said with a smile.

He sighs.

"But you're not so bad, you know?"

He blushes a bit at that.

"C'mon. Let's eat."

.

Julia ties against Ming Ming with a hard fought battle. But Max, who falters, loses against Mystel, bringing them back to the tie.

The outcome is exactly the same, as King of Darkness unfolds, and Raul finds himself in this strange dimension, as King of Darkness is slowly swallowing the stadium, in and overhead Brooklyn is destroying fighter jets.

Lightning streaks across the sky filling the stadium with a blue light, as his sister searches the crowds for him from where she's standing near the G-Revolutions.

Raul hears footsteps towards him, and he sees HIromi.

"Is there... is there anything we can do to stop it?!" he asked her.

"No," she says. "Not yet."

He swivels his head around to look at her.

She crouches beside him. He stares at the hourglass in her hand. They have a few final grains of sand.

"So here's what happens now."

Julia is looking for him. Max refocuses her attention to the battle, and she steels herself.

"Brooklyn released King of Darkness. The world has a few minutes left, before he swallows it whole. And everyone's bitbeast merges forces with Seiryuu to stop him."

Streaks of light from people's beyblades emerge at the point where Takao is fighting in the sky, and it's a bright comet that fills the dark skies with light, and glows.

His heart wants to soar with them, but Hiromi holds onto his arm, and he turns to look at her. She shakes her head.

He turns back to the skies.

The bright comet light streaks out.

"Where did it go?!" he asks.

"See, in all 25 cycles, I've not been able to figure that one out exactly..." she said. "And well... I always assumed that Zeus pulled that off. But what if he's not really responsible for that either. Someone stole that power. So now everyone but you in this stadium has a beyblade to fight Zeus."

Brooklyn's dimension started to crumble.

"But it's too late."

The hour glass shattered in her palm. She smiled at him as she took a seat beside him.

"I'll see you at the start of the next cycle."

She smiles at him. The light from the shattered glowing sands illuminates her face. The world splits apart before them.

.

Cycle 26. Or the second cycle for him.

He runs to the beach, where he finds HIromi beyblading, and her beyblade circles the bey-dish.

He comes to a stop.

She smiles at him.

"U-um," he said.

"Yes, I am the origin of the loop," she said. "Welcome to the 26th cycle."

And Raul wonders how she's not lost her mind yet.

"This is... infuriating," he said. "To think that... to think that someone stole the strongest beyblade from the skies?! How is that even possible?!"

"I don't know."

"There has to be..." He paced around on the beach. "Someone who has to be behind this. Zeus!! Brooklyn!! Something!! Well, it is his dimension."

He's pacing around furiously.

"Yes of course, I've considered that. I've put more effort into delaying Justice five or rigging the match outcome... but now that you mention it."

"Someone powerful!"

She shrugs. "I've tried in later cycles, to stop them from helping Takao. I've tried everything. No one listened to me. Mao gives me the benefit of doubt once, but she too didn't."

He stopped and he looked at her.

He remembered her running up to him and holding onto his arm, as he was about to let Torch Pegasus go fight off this dark dimension. He remembered wondering what she wanted.