Chapter Text
The crowd roared around the two as the battle had ended. Droplets of sweat continued to drip from both Bladers as they laid on the ground across from each other, exhausted from their match. Pulling himself up from the pain, Valt Aoi ran over to Shu, giving out his hand to him.
"...Valt?" He asked, barely out of breath.
Valt just smiled, water starting to emerge from his eyes.
"Welcome back Shu."
Shu just stared at him, then stared at his hand. Accepting his offer, he was back on his feet standing in front of Valt who was trying to hold back from crying.
It was done. He did it!
Shu was finally back! After what seemed like forever, Valt finally had his friend back. Free of Requiem's control.
Valt couldn't help it anymore. He threw himself over to Shu, hugging him tightly. Letting all that bottled up emotion spill out from his tears.
"Y-your back..." He cried. "Your f-finally back!"
"V-Valt...? Why are yo-"
Confused, Shu's brain soon clicked as his eyes went wide opened. Memories started to flood right back to him. From Free beating him, to the Snake Pit - Ashram, Lui, Requiem... These suppressed moments all came running back to him, just like that. Laced with fatigue and regrets, now that he was no longer filled with dark thoughts coursing through his mind.
From that realization, he cried. Returning Valt's hug back, eyes dripping, surprising the blunette with the sudden return of force.
"S-Shu..?"
"I'm sorry Valt!" He choked. "I'm a terrible friend! It's all my fault."
"W-What-! No! You’re not a terrible friend Shu!" Valt shouted. "And it's not your fault. It was all Theodore's fault. He did this to you."
"No Valt,” Shu insisted, getting out of the embrace. "It's true. I-I was weak Valt. I couldn't stand losing against Lui... or Free! I was so upset with losing that, when Theodore came around and asked me about the Snake Pit..." Valt's eyes widen in shock. "I accepted his offer." Shu continued, turning away his gaze from him. "I was so obsessed with winning, I was willing to give up anything. Anything to make me stronger." He took a deep breath. “I was so full of bloodlust. Blinded by my rage for revenge... Losing sight of everything because of it... I started forgetting what was important to me." He lamented. "I didn't realize what I lost till it was too late."
“Shu…” Valt was at a lost for words, staring back at him.
"I destroyed many Beyblades, including yours. But the one thing I broke the most, was our friendship." He turned his head away from him, guilt and shame eating him from the inside. "You, Rantaro, Ken, Daigo, Wakiya... I hurt all of you, because of me."
Valt didn’t know what to say.
"...Well, that brought the mood down."
The two turned around to notice Rantaro and the other three Bladers standing behind them.
"Here we are, coming over to see you back to normal, then all of a sudden it becomes a giant angst dump." Wakiya remarks. "What happened to all of that hugging earlier?"
"W-Wakiya..."
"Listen," Wakiya started. "From first hand experience, losing sucks. The fact that I wasn't able to beat you back then, was... frustrating to say the least. And understandably, Lui’s a jerk." The blond recited.
"Yeah but," Rantaro added. "Was it worth it? Giving up everything, us, for power?"
"No." Shu said immediately.
"Even though you were finally able to defeat Lui?" He added, jokingly.
"Yes.” Shu immediately replied. “Absolutely. I hurt you guys. I was acting as much of a jerk than Lui." Shu's eyes widened. "I WAS Lui." Shu fell to his knees, realizing just how low he sunked. The fact that he became the very person he despised scared him. Recalling those times, calling Valt a weakness, ripping Ken’s puppet, destroying all those Beys. He felt sick.
Daigo walked over to Shu, putting a hand over his shoulder, rubbing his side.
"Calm down Shu," he calmly said. "Breathe in and breathe out."
Shu did what he was told and took a deep breath in, and slowly exhaled out. Repeatedly doing it till he was calm.
"Feel better?" Ken asked through Besu.
"Yeah," Shu looked up. "Sorry for ripping you up earlier..." he mumbled.
In return he was hugged by Besu, playfully clawing onto his neck.
"Its okay, you weren't really feeling like yourself."
"Thats because I wasn't." Shu smiled, hugging the puppet back, then promptly hugging Ken with him gladly returning the embrace.
"Hey Shu?"
"Yeah Valt?"
"Even after everything, even after what you did to me, Valtryek, to everyone, your still my friend. Our friend. No matter what. It wasn't your fault Shu."
"Yeah! That Theoden Glass is the one at fault here!" Rantaro retorted.
"Theodore Glass.” Wakiya corrected him. ”But yeah, the guy's a creep."
"See - wait a minute - your trying to 1-up me again!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh don't give me that! Here we go again, you just love picking apart every little single thing I say now huh?" Rantaro glared.
"Well maybe if you weren't so easy to do so, maybe I wouldn't do it so often! (Besides, I was just correcting you. What's wrong with that?!)"
"Ladies, ladies calm down. Your both beautiful."
"NOT NOW VALT!" Both of the blonds yelled.
The three at the side couldn't help but laugh. Everything was back to normal. As normal as things could get anyway.
Shu smiled, tears forming once again. He had such great, amazing friends. The fact that he gave such friends up for power was enough to bring him down again.
The five friends circled around him in a group hug. Tears of joy flowed out.
"Glad to have you back man."
"Welcome back dude."
"We missed you Shu."
"Good to see you not trying to kill us."
They all laughed.
"Yeah,” Shu smiled. “Me too."
The crowd cheered for him as Valt went up to the podium to proclaim his prize. His friends watched from the side, clapping him on, congratulating him on his hard earned victory: becoming the new Champion. Chiharu and the twins shouting out his name, celebrating along with everyone else.
However, just when he was about to receive his trophy, the lights dimmed, darkness filling the stadium. Murmurs came from the crowd, wondering what's wrong.
“The hell is going on?” Silas wondered.
“Hey, is it just me, or did it get really really cold all of a sudden?” Cuza shivered, rubbing his sides to warm up.
“Caw, cold-too cold, freezing caw!” Carl squawked.
The kids that were hanging out with Boa hid behind him in fear.
“Boa! What's happening?” One of the kids asked.
“I d-don’t know... ” The brunette muttered - just as confused and scared as the others.
“What the hell is going on over there?” Orochi asked getting up from his seat, the TV going static. The rest of the SuperStars, plus Akira were on the edge of their seat as the broadcast was giving up on them.
“Naoki..?” Jin looked at his best friend, who seemed to be opening something up on one of the monitors.
“W-what is this!?” He stammered.
“W-What?” Jin asked, looking over at the monitor showing an excessive amount of charts, some bars, some lines in the red.
“These energy readings…!” He started typing really fast looking back in forth at the charts and the live casting on the other. “This is bad, really bad Jin!”
‘This feeling… what is this?’ Free internally panicked. All of a sudden his bey started to glow brilliantly, the teen’s eyes widening. ‘Something .. its…!’
Laughter echoed throughout the facility, shivering down everyone's spine. The ground now misted in black.
“What was that!?” Nika cried in terror. Her and Toko were clinging tight onto their mother who was just as horrified. Ranjiro doing the same, staying close with the Aoi family.
“What is the meaning of this?” Norman asked out loud. Theodore was at a loss of words. Still, he pulled himself and grabbed the mic.
“Everyone please evacuated the vicinity immediately! We will-” The mic shocked him, tumbling back from the pain.
Norman gasped. “Theodore!” He caught him just when he was about to hit the ground. He groaned from the pain from his hand steaming out.
Xander, the Sword Flames, the rest of SB Rios stood their ground, trying to calm everyone and escorting them outside. Other teams like AS Gallus, Sunbat United and BC Sol joined in on the help.
“Don't worry Ryota, my vampire powers will protect us.” Clio said trying to comfort Ryota who was hiding behind him in his cape.
“Clio, come on!” Ataru called out to him. Along with him was Ukyo, Yugo and Kit helping bring people together.
“That's it everyone, this way.” Ren Wu shouted waving everyone to the exit.
“C’mon Mr. Aoi!” One of the members of the WBBA called to him. Valt nodded and follow him. He didn't know what was going on, but all he knew at this moment was that he needed to get out now.
His friends on the other hand were trying to figure out-
“What's going on!?” Wakiya demanded.
To answer his call, the dark figure finally made his grand appearance, striking the ground with immense energy causing everyone to collapse to the ground from the wave. It was right then, from the dark clouds starting to fade, in front of Valt stood a huge black stallion with a fiery mane of golden locks. Its eyes, a soulless white, staring right at him.
“Congratulations Valt Aoi. You have proven yourself to be quite the remarkable, powerful individual for someone so young. I, Gillusion, have chosen you, the new Champion, to be my new host! You shall become the Dark Horse!”
It then swiftly charged right into him, engulfing him in shadowy flames. The last thing Valt heard was the cries of his friends and family calling his name. His world soon fading to black.