1 Chapter One: The Granger Dojo

Seventeen year old Stephanie Summers stood outside the wooden gates of the Granger Dojo, her suitcase in one hand and her phone clutched tightly in the other as she debated the proper etiquette for announcing her arrival. The former Bladebreaker had never used the entrance to the house itself, but rather the rear entrance via the Dojo, where her best friend and teammate, Tyson, was usually found practicing in the yard. Under normal circumstances, ringing the doorbell would seem rather formal, but was using the back door acceptable when you hadn't seen the aforementioned best friend in over a year?

It had been fourteen months since she and her bitbeast, Seraphina, had stood alongside Tyson and the Bladebreakers against the BEGA league. Together, they had defeated BEGA's top five, outed Boris Balkov as a criminal and helped to reinstate the BBA as the governing Beyblade body in Japan. It wasn't exactly a small accomplishment for a group of rag tag teenagers.

The Dojo hadn't changed in the year she'd been away. Inside the wooden gates of the compound were two buildings - the main house on the right was a two story traditional style Japanese house with a gabled roof and surrounded by a wooden verandah. On the left was the dojo, a large square single story building separated from the main house. Both buildings were ringed by gravel path and garden of dormant cherry blossom trees. The Dojo would be home for Steph for the next year while she attended the prestigious Bakuten Academy, an international high school where each of the Bladebrakers had been offered a scholarship with their return to the Japanese team.

It's a late bloom this year, she thought to herself. In Tokyo, the cherry blossoms bloomed in early April, but here in Bakuten, which sat further south of the capital city, they were usually in full bloom by late March. It would be a treat to see them bloom this year, since she often missed sakura season during her brief trips to Japan.

"Why are you just standing there? I could use some help here!" The loud voice snapped Steph out of her riviere and she turned to see her younger cousin and teammate struggling up the stone steps.

Jet-lagged and her usually neat blonde hair in disarray, Rebecca Carter dragged not one or two, but four suitcases behind her. It wasn't like Becky to travel light, after all, especially when travelling transcontinental from Italy.

Tucking her phone into her pocket, Steph hurried down the steps to help Becky. She grabbed one of the suitcases and was taken aback by the shear weight of it. "You didn't need to bring half the house with you," she told her cousin.

"You'll be thanking me when you realise you brought half a library instead of a wardrobe," the younger girl replied as they struggled up the steps towards the Dojo. Somehow, as she glanced at her lone suitcase, Steph suspected her cousin may have been right. Unfortunately, most of her wardrobe, while fitting for a warm Italian summer, was far to light for the milder Japanese climate - she would have to do some shopping for a winter wardrobe to fend off the cold months ahead.

Instead of agreeing, however, she said lightly; "don't make fun of my library."

Becky rolled her eyes and with a heave of effort, she dragged her remaining suitcases towards the rear of the dojo. "Well come on then," she called.

Through the dojo it was then, Steph decided. Front doors were overrated anyway.

They made their way through the garden of dormant cherry blossom trees towards the rear entrance of dojo where a teenage boy of about their age was sprawled on the grass, one arm draped over his face, blocking the sun from his eyes. A blue and white baseball cap lay discarded on the grass next to him, and a few meters away, in a small, shallow beystadium that had seen more than its fair share of beybattles, a familiar white beyblade was spinning. Its owner hadn't heard them approach yet and a smile tugged at Steph's lips as she leaned over him.

"Glad to see you're slacking off as usual," she said.

The teenager's eyes shot open and he scrambled to his feet. "Steph! Becky! When did you get here?"

Tyson Granger, the three-time Japanese World Champion had certainly grown up in the year since the BEGA Tournament. He was taller and lankier and his navy hair had grown longer and unrulier than Steph remembered, and he had filled out in the shoulders but the sheepish grin and the excitement filled brown eyes were exactly as she remembered them.

"Only five minutes ago," she told him. "Our flight was delayed in Amsterdam so we - " she stopped short, feeling the wind knocked out of her as he reached over unexpectedly and pulled both girls into a tight hug.

"Tyson!" Becky exclaimed in protest. "You're pulling on my hair!" Delightedly, Tyson squeezed his arms around them even tighter.

For as long as they had been friends and teammates, Tyson had derived a certain amount of pleasure from good-naturedly antagonising the younger girl, similar to the way one might antagonise a much loved sibling. Steph couldn't be certain, but she thought she heard his voice catch when he said; "It's good to have you home."

She smiled softly. "It's good to be home," she agreed.

"You know what's also good," Becky muttered, her voice muffled beneath Tyson's arm. "Oxygen."

With a sheepish grin, the Japanese boy released them both. Becky's hands instantly went to her hair, adjusting the carefully styled curls to sit around her shoulders once again. Tyson leaned back, as though examining them both, and his grinned widened. "Steph, have you gotten shorter?"

Steph glowered at him. Tyson had said that to her and every year she had returned to Japan. It wasn't her fault that she had stopped growing over two years ago while he continued to shoot up like an over fertilised tree.

Before she could complain however, Becky said; "is that Dragoon?"

At the mention of his beyblade, Tyson's brown eyes lit up. "Sure is," he said. He reached out his hand, and the white beyblade revolved once on the spot, then returned to his hand. Proudly, he held it out for both girls to see. "The Chief rebuilt it after my last battle with Dranzer. We call it Dragoon MF."

Dragoon had undergone a number of modifications over the years, and this latest model was no disappointment. The new HMS system beyblades were twenty five percent smaller than their previous beyblades, and made of entirely metal. Steph could see that Kenny had tweaked the attack ring and weight disk from the previous model to make it slightly more balanced. In the centre of the beyblade, the emblem of Dragoon shimmered in the sunlight.

Dragoon was one of six sacred spirits possessed by the Bladebreakers, along with the phoenix, Dranzer, the great turtle, Draciel, the white tiger, Drigger, and the twin dragons, Ophelia and Seraphina. Kenny had rebuilt each of their beyblades before their match with BEGA. Steph had made some minor tweaks to both Seraphina and Ophelia since, but she would have to annoy the Chief for a fresh build if Tyson had one.

The shoji door to the dojo opened and Steph felt herself grin when she saw the old Japanese man step out into the yard, a kendo stick balanced carefully on his shoulder. "Hey, Grandpa." Everyone, even if they weren't related to him addressed the oldest living Granger as 'Grandpa'.

"Steph, Becky! Welcome home, girls."

Grandpa had raised the two Granger boys since their mother, Yoshie had passed away when Tyson was barely older than a toddler. Despite his gentle nature, Grandpa had no qualms about extending a stern word of wisdom to Tyson and his friends when the need arose.

"Bro, where are your manners," he turned to Tyson with a frown. Grandpa had picked up a fair few American phrases over the years, and it was humorous to hear them spoken with a thick Japanese accent. "Help the girls take their things to their new room."

Eagerly, Tyson scooped up his cap and placed it on his head, backwards of course. Then he held out his hands and took one of the two suitcases Steph was holding. Becky happily offloaded another of hers. "Come on," he said, leading them inside. "Grandpa's been so excited you're staying here. We cleared out Dad's study - he hardly uses it anymore."

Struggling with the two suitcases, he nudged the back door open with his foot and held it open for them, revealing the Granger's kitchen and living room.

"Shoes," Steph reminded her cousin, slipping off her own and stepping into the kitchen, her suitcase catching on an old loose floorboard.

The kitchen was small and and cramped, but it was exactly how Steph had remembered it, from the old clock on the wall with its faded numbers to the wonky chairs around a wooden table where Tyson would eat at least three bowls of cereal before heading out for practice. The living room on the other hand, was spaciously built in traditional Japanese style, with a short legged table in the centre of the room surrounded by traditional cushions. The TV was on and tuned to the local sports channel; in the off season Tyson and Hiro liked to watch soccer. A single photo frame sat beside the TV with a photo of Yoshie.

"Grandpa brought some cereal for breakfast," Tyson told them, pointing to the cupboards above the kitchen sink. "Yes, we have coffee," he added hastily, interrupting Steph before she could even ask. The lack of coffee culture in Japan compared to Italy had always been a sour point for her.

"Reruns of Takeshi's Castle are on at five, Grandpa gets the TV then - but there's another TV in my room. There's some pretty good game shows on after dinner too."

A narrow staircase on the opposite side of the kitchen lead to the second floor. Tyson rolled their suitcases across the living room. "Geez, Bec, did you bring half of Rome with you?" he remarked as he heaved one of the pink suitcases up the steps.

"Ha, very funny Tyson," Becky said as she followed him up the stairs with her much lighter carry on. Steph was careful not to bump the walls with her suitcase as she followed.

"Daichi called this morning," Tyson was saying. The younger and last member of their team had returned to his hometown a few months after the BEGA match. "His mom is doing much better, so he might be able to visit over the term break."

They had reached the first floor landing, where the staircase opened up into a long corridor that was barely wider than the stairs themselves. "That's Grandpa's room," Tyson pointed to each of the doors one by one as they passed. "My room … Hiro's room … oh, there's only one bathroom."

A look of horror crossed Becky's face at this. Steph knew all to well that Becky's morning routine was sacred. Neither of the girls could describe themselves as morning people, but while Steph was usually satisfied if she at least had caffeine in hand in the morning, a Becky without appropriate pampering time was a very unhappy Becky indeed.

"I'll make a bathroom schedule," Steph said hastily. "You're fine with that, right Tyson?"

Tyson shrugged his shoulders. "Works for me," he said. "Come on. The study's on the third floor." Becky still looked slightly apprehensive as she followed him down the corridor and Tyson updated them on the movements of the rest of their teammates.

"Max came home last week," he said, stopping to lift Becky's suitcase up the second set of stairs at the end of the hall. "His mom and dad moved back into the Hobby shop with baby Charlie." Charlotte Tate was a year old, and from what Steph and Becky had seen in pictures, the splitting image of her older brother.

"Ray's flight landed yesterday," Tyson went on. "And I got an email from Kai last week - he was still in Russia, but he promised he'd be back before school starts."

If it wasn't for Becky accidentally knocking her carry on into the stair railing with a thud, Steph might have thought mention of their former captain had gone unheard. Tyson, however, didn't notice his teammate's discomfort - he had gone on to explain how he and the Chief had been working on Dragoon all summer, tweaking it to perfection.

The stairs creaked as he heaved Becky's luggage to the top of the landing. Their bedroom wasn't a study by most standards, but rather a large room with a sloped ceiling at one end and a large gable fronted dormer window at the other. There were two beds on either side of the room and a small wardrobe each (Becky was going to find it very hard to fit all her clothes in), and someone had pushed two small desks up against the wall opposite the doorway.

"It's not much," Tyson said, and Steph got the sense he was feeling rather embarrassed. "Grandpa is going to put up some curtains, and Hiro fixed the heater. There's a spare bookcase in the garage we can bring up - "

"It's cosy," Steph interjected. While the Summer's home in Rome wasn't nearly as elaborate as the Tornatore Manor, Steph had never had to share a bedroom before; and sharing one with Becky and her numerous suitcases would certainly be a challenge.

"The bookcase would be nice," Becky piped up. "I don't want to be buried under all the books that Steph brought."

"I didn't pack that many books," Steph corrected her again. Honestly, what was wrong with a healthy appetite for reading? She surveyed the room. It would take more than just curtains and a bookcase to brighten up the old room. And a line, she decided. A line on the floor to seperate Becky's inevitable mess from her overly organised life would be necessary.

It took a further two more trips to carry all of Becky's things up to the attic, with Tyson grumbling something about needing a chiropractor by the time he was done. With a sigh of effort, he flopped onto Steph's new bed and continued to give them the lowdown of everything they'd missed over the last fourteen months, including his trip to America to visit Max.

"America was awesome! Judy showed me the new beyblade designs the PPB are working on. And I got to hang out with the All Starz - Michael and Rick are going to be tough to beat at the next World Championships."

"My money is on Emily being tougher than both of them," Steph said, unzipping her suitcase and watching in dismay as a handful of books tumbled out onto the wooden floor. Ignoring Becky's jeer of "I told you about those books," she scooped down to pick them up and Tyson bent down to help her.

"Hey, what's this?" he asked, holding up a small and very worn stuffed dog that had fallen out of the suitcase along with the books.

"That's Biscotti," she told him. "Enrique gave him to me." The stuffed dog had indeed once belonged to her cousin, but he had given it to her when they were little kids during one of their sleepovers. Since then, it had gone everywhere with Steph, tucked safely in her suitcase as a reminder of home.

"It's missing an eye," Tyson commented. Steph felt her cheeks flush and she reached over and snatched the stuffed animal from his hands, placing it on the small windowsill. Digging through the suitcase further, she found the aforementioned eye and placed it next to the stuffed dog. It wasn't the first time she'd had to glue the eye back on - Biscotti was really old after all!

She managed to unpack the rest of her suitcase while carefully watching none of Becky's things began to invade her territory. Her Macbook had run out of charge shortly before their plane had landed, so Tyson helped her shuffle one of the desks over to her side of the room where she set it up. For Steph and Becky's mothers, a condition of letting their daughters undertake her final year of study halfway across the world was daily communication, a feat that Steph anticipated would be slightly difficult given Isabella and Rosa's inaptitude with technology. No doubt Enrique would be roped into helping his aunties Skype call later that evening.

Leaving Becky to finish unpacking, Steph grabbed her toiletries and headed downstairs to the bathroom, where Tyson had cleared a drawer for the two girls to share. On her way, a collection of frames on the wall caught her attention and she stopped to inspect them closer.

Grandpa had framed newspaper cuttings that dated back to the very beginnings of the Bladebreakers. The first frame was from the Japanese Nationals five years earlier, where Tyson had defeated Kai Hiwatari, the former captain of the Bladesharks. In the picture, a twelve year old Tyson was holding a small trophy and wore a grin from ear to ear. On one side of him was a young kid with glasses and on the other, a tall blonde boy with messy hair. Steph stared at a younger version of herself pictured with them, arm in arm with her cousin. Two older and taller boys stood with the group, but clearly not a part of it - one of the boys had dark hair and Asian features while the other had slate hair and wore a scarf and a disapproving scowl on his face. The caption below the picture announced the line up for the Japanese beyblading team; Tyson Granger, of course, followed by Rei Kon and Max Tate, with Kai listed as captain while Steph and Becky had been listed as substitutes.

The following articles depicted each of the Bladebreakers achievements that followed in that year; their championship wins in China and America, their exhibition match against the Majestics and the World Championships in Russia where they had defeated the Demolition Boys. Newer articles and photos chronicled the BBA Revolution's journey around the world in their third Championships.

She was just reading the article from the previous year when a door at the end of the corridor opened and Hiro Granger stepped out.

Hiro was Tyson's older brother and the newly reappointed coach of the G Revolutions. He was tall and broad shouldered, with long azure hair that was tied back in its usual pony tail. When he'd been the coach of the BBA Revolutions, Steph had only ever seen him wear his old bomber jacket, which he'd traded in for leather one when he'd coached BEGA. Today he wore and old t-shirt over jeans and an unfamiliar, but welcoming smile.

"I thought I heard a commotion over suitcases and bookcases," he said, a hint of humor in his voice. "Am I being overly ambitious expecting Tyson and Becky to get along while living under the same roof?"

"Only if you don't enforce the bathroom schedule," Steph advised him.

Hiro chuckled. "That might be easier said than done with three teenagers." He turned to the wall. "So you found Grandpa's Hall of Fame?" he said. He pointed to one of the frames. This frame was even older and dustier than the one from Nationals, and the newspaper was yellowed with age. The headline read; Small town teenager wins Japanese Beyblade Championships. The remaining text had partially faded, but the picture depicted a thirteen year old Hiro Granger, wearing the blue and white cap he'd handed down to Tyson. The year was dated 1997.

"This is mine," he said, and there was a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "Back then, the BBA was only a few years old, and we didn't make as many headlines as the Bladebreakers did. The WBBA didn't exist back then either, so there was no international competition."

"Really?" she asked, surprised. The World Beyblade Battle Association was the international governing body of Beyblading - they organised the World championships.

Hiro shook his head. "Nope," he said. "That was all Dickenson's doing in the coming years. He approached Secretary Douglas of the PPB and the heads of the European and Asian Leagues to create the WBBA."

"Was this the last year you competed?" she asked curiously.

He nodded, and his smile faded. "Mom died shortly after. I think Grandpa is still a bit disappointed I retired after that."

"Grandpa has always been our biggest fan," she reminded him. "Oh - this one is new."

The ink on the final article hadn't faded yet and it was dated a mere twelve months earlier following the exhibition match with BEGA. There was no trophy in this photo, but an older Tyson still wore that same grin from the first photo, his fist pumped triumphantly into the air. Max and Kenny stood with him as always, both of them smiling, but this time they were joined in a huddle by Ray and Steph. Beside them, Kai stood with his arm around Becky's shoulders. While Becky looked as ecstatic as her teammates, the Russian wore what Steph could only describe as a sad smile - he had lost Dranzer only hours earlier.

In the middle of the photo was a newcomer, clearly younger than the rest of the team, and, standing next to Steph, he barely reached her shoulder. The younger boy was Daichi Sumeragi - the only member of the former G Revolutions who hadn't accepted the scholarship to Bakuten Academy this year.

The smile on Hiro's face faded completely, and Steph wondered if his role as BEGA's coach was still a touchy subject for him. "Think we can do it all over again?" she asked, jabbing her thumb towards the photo.

"That is the idea," he said. Then he shrugged and changed the subject. "Now what do you say I bring that bookshelf up for you?"

It had taken a combined effort from all three Grangers to move the heavy bookshelf up from the garage and Tyson attempted to read each of the titles aloud in a mock Italian accent as he stacked them on the shelves. ("He's murdering our language," Becky muttered distastefully.)

To Steph's surprise, there was still some room left in the wardrobes for her small assortment of clothes after Becky had unpacked. Grandpa had brought the girls some bedsheets and extra blankets - pink for Becky of course, and lavender for Steph. He promised to take them into Tokyo over the weekend to shop for curtains, so in the meantime Hiro helped them nail an old bedsheet to the window frame.

The rain set in around dinner time, and Grandpa made ramen, one of Steph's favourites, along with an array of home made dumplings.

"We watched all of your matches from the Italian Championships," Tyson told Steph eagerly. "You really gave Enrique a hard time in the final, it was a shame you lost the last round."

Becky stabbed at the shoots of black fungus in her bowl. "Enrique got lucky," she said bluntly. "If Steph hadn't been so worn out from her match with Ophelia and me, she would have won."

There was a degree of truth to Becky's words. The two girls had faced off in the semi-finals and Steph had won the match by the skin of her teeth.

"I had to do some last minute repairs to Seraphina after our match," Steph explained. "Becky and I tweaked the attack ring a bit between matches. I thought the extra defense might work in my favour, but Amphyllion was too tough for me."

Becky's beyblade was built for endurance, whereas Steph used a slightly more balanced attack and stamina type beyblade, which gave her the slightest upper hand against her younger cousin. Enrique's beyblade, Amphyllion, was built purely for strength, and it's overwhelming attack power had proven challenging even for Tyson to defeat.

"It was a good strategy," Hiro commented. "You'll do better if you play to your strengths, but I think your nerves got the better of you the longer the match went on."

Steph poked at her noodles. "I've never actually beaten him before," she admitted. The loss had been her fourth championship loss to Enrique in as many years, and the sting of it hadn't worn off just yet.

"Well, we have the year ahead to plan for your rematch," Hiro offered. "And Becky, we can work on your defence; having an endurance style beyblade is no excuse for neglecting it."

"Don't take it personally, Bec," Tyson said when Becky looked offended. "Hiro thinks everyone has been slacking off since the last championships."

"I certainly haven't seen you out practicing much," Hiro reminded him.

Tyson stabbed at his dumpling rather violently and it toppled over the rim of the plate and onto the table. "I don't need to practice; I'm the world champion, remember?"

As though Grandpa could sense an argument between the two brother beginning to brew, he hastily changed the subject. "Let's not forget you're also here for school," he said. "Tyson tells me your sister is teaching at the Academy this year."

"English and Literature," Steph answered. Six years separated the two sisters in age, and Daisy Summers had only recently finished her post graduate studies at Oxford University, the college that Steph hoped to attend next year.

"Is she staying in the city?" Hiro asked. The mention of her older sister seemed to have distracted him from his argument with Tyson perfectly. Hiro and Daisy had met briefly in Italy for the European leg of the last World Championships.

Steph shook her head. "She has an apartment on campus. They even let her bring our dog."

The conversation drifted back to more neutral territory after that, but Steph could see that Grandpa was carefully to steer the conversation away from any mention of the tournament or training for the rest of the evening. Steph had a funny feeling it was something he'd had good practice at over the last few months.

"Was it just me, or did it get a little bit tense there between you and Hiro?" Steph asked while they did the dishes. "Are you two okay after…" she trailed off, unsure how to proceed.

Tyson shrugged. The water sloshed dangerously close to the rim as he piled more plates into the sink. "After he jumped ship to BEGA and helped Boris with his insane takeover?" The sound of cutlery scraping violently against the china plates suggested the animosity between the two brothers hadn't dissolved entirely.

"Yeah … that." Steph rescued the plates from his hands and loaded them into the dishwasher before one of them cracked.

"We're okay, I guess," he said, though there was a hesitation behind his words. "We haven't really talked about it to be honest."

"I'm sure he had his reasons," Steph said quietly. At least, that's what she'd been telling herself since Dickenson had reinstated Hiro as coach. She changed the subject. "Did Kai say much in his email?"

Tyson shrugged. "It's Kai - the email basically said, I'll see you at school. I'd figured if anyone you or Becky would have heard from him after he left."

The last match between the two of them hadn't been an official match, but maybe that was what had made it so fantastic to watch. In the end, Kai had won. And then he had disappeared without a word. Months later Steph had received an email from Tala letting her know Kai was in Russia and that the two of them were going looking for Kai's bitbeast, Dranzer.

She looked up to see Becky sitting on the couch next to Hiro while watching anime on the TV. Grandpa had made them chocolate ice cream for dessert.

"She hasn't heard from him since he left for Russia," Steph explained. "He said he needed time. Maybe he thought it'd be easier."

"Sounds like Kai," Tyson muttered, and it was only then that Steph realised how hard Kai's disappearance had been on the rest of her team. "Do you think they found her?" he asked. "Dranzer, I mean."

Steph shrugged. She didn't know if it was possible to find a bitbeast once it had been set free of its beyblade, but if it was she certainly didn't expect it to be an easy find.

After she helped Tyson clean up, she headed out to the Granger's back yard with her beyblade and her launcher. She had always admired Grandpa's garden. Like everything else about the Dojo, it was heavily inspired by traditional flora. The perimeter of the compound was lined with Japanese cedar trees, or sugi, as the Japanese referred to them. A narrow footbridge snaked over the large pond, and Steph could hear the flutter of flippers from the many Japanese Koi that Grandpa had collected over the years. Besides the large pond, Tyson and Hiro had made some renovations to they beystadium to reflect the new competition standards and the new stadium was twice as large, and less shallow than the old one.

Her eyes on the stadium, Steph felt a sense of longing. She hadn't spun her beyblade since her match against Enrique over a month ago. She didn't want to be rusty for her first practice session, so she pulled her launcher and beyblade from her pocket.

The launcher itself had been a gift from Becky for her last birthday. It was a standard dual spin shooter and her beyblade had been one of Kenny's latest heavy metal system designs. Like the other HMS Beyblades, the white and purple beyblade was smaller than Steph's previous designs. Carefully, she slid the G-winder into the shooter and attached her beyblade.

When she quietened her mind, and pushed aside distractions, she could hear the spirit speak to her. Holding the beyblade tightly in the palm of her hand, she closed her eyes and listened for the voice. At first she could hear the sounds of Becky and Tyson's voices arguing over the TV station, then the sounds of Grandpa's radio - she ignored both and concentrated on her breathing, forcing herself to take slow, controlled breaths until she felt something brush against her consciousness.

You've been avoiding me, a quiet voice chastised her.

"Seraphina?"

The spirit chuckled. Of course, she said. In her mind, Seraphina's voice had an angelic ring to it. While she knew that bitbeasts could communicate with one another, she had never known the spirit to speak to another human. For Seraphina, Steph was her link to the outside world.

"How about a little fresh air, then?" Steph suggested. The spirit didn't answer this time, and she didn't need to. Steph could sense the spirit's restlessness. Seraphina launched through the air in a wide arch and into the stadium where it landed with the dull clatter of metal against metal.

Her connection with Seraphina had always been a two way relationship, the spirit could only be released from the beyblade when Steph summoned her, and the summoning could only be completed when Seraphina answered the call. When their bond had been new, summoning her bitbeast had taken all her concentration. Now, however, it was almost effortless.

The beyblade revolved on the spot in the centre of the stadium and in a brilliant flash of light that made Steph shield her eyes, the ancient spirit emerged from within.

The dragon stood as tall as the cedar trees that surrounded the garden, with a wing span twice the length of its body. Its scales were two-toned; half were a polished white and the rest were a sparkling purple, like tiny shards of amethyst. Its claws were the colour of parchment and as strong as diamonds. When the dragon fanned its wings, a shimmer of white gold dust was shed from each of its scales towards the ground.

"Better?" Steph asked.

The dragon smiled a toothy grin. Much, she answered. She arched her long neck towards the moon and with a mighty flap of her wings, took to the sky. Steph sat down on the grass to watch as Seraphina circled the Dojo from above. At full expansion, her wings were twice the length of her slender body and beat softly against the air as the dragon climbed higher and higher until she was little more than a irregular dot high in the sky. Moments later, the entire sky above the Dojo was lit up by a mighty jet of purple flames.

Seraphina didn't appear to show an affinity for a particular element the way that Dragoon or Dranzer did and on occasion, she had shown to have a limited influence on a number of elements. but most of her special moves harnessed her control over fire.

Her restless energy expelled, the dragon returned to earth, landing with such a force the verandah rattled violently. She folded her wings around her body as she settled into the grass and snaked her head towards Steph, her nose coming to rest only centimeters from Steph's sock clad feet. What troubles you, child?

"I thought you'd be disappointed in me after last our battle," Steph admitted with a sigh, absentmindedly reaching her hand out to stroke the bridge of her nose. The scales were as rough as sandpaper beneath her fingers. "I lost my nerve in that battle, and Enrique beat us again."

The dragon huffed, a jet of steam escaping from both nostrils and Steph tucked her feet closer to her body to avoid being burnt. The loss was as much mine as it was yours, she said. I underestimated the bond between Amphilyon and his master. I will not be so foolish next time.

"No, we won't be," Steph agreed. She had no intention of losing to Enrique a fifth time. She watched her beyblade as it revolved in the centre of the stadium. Without an opponent, Steph knew it would remain spinning for as long as Seraphina was within the earthly realm.

I can feel the other spirits nearby, the spirit told her. Dragoon, Driger, Draciel and Ophelia. Her amethyst eyes were bright with excitement. Are we to be going into battle again?

Steph laughed. Despite their modern housing choices, Steph had to continually remind herself that they were ancient creatures that had been lured from their realm to aid in the constant wars throughout earth's history.

���There is a new tournament this year," she told the bitbeast. "We're competing for Japan again, with Max and Ray."

The spirit considered this for a moment. Then it is as it should be, she said. The six of us have been allies since the beginning of time itself.

"You can sense Dranzer then too?" Steph asked.

The dragon furrowed her brow in concentration. I can sense the Phoenix, she said. But not as clearly as the others. Dranzer is still healing. Her last battle cost her greatly.

"It took a lot out of you, too," Steph reminded her.

A small price to pay to silence a force of darkness, Seraphina said. At the mention of Zeus, Steph felt herself sudder involuntarily. She hadn't seen a bitbeast that powerful, but she couldn't help but focus on Seraphina's wording. She had said 'a' force of darkness. Did that imply that there were more dark bitbeasts out there that they were yet to face?

As though Seraphina could sense her unasked questions, the dragon nuzzled against her knee. Do not fret, Child, the spirit said. We have each other. And together we will weather whatever storm the future brings us.