(DISCONTINUED) Skyfall /// Beyblade Burst Fanfiction

Chapter 4: Hidden Secrets

The Snake Hunters were granted a formerly abandoned village in the Kage Kingdom to stay in.

Ashtem did not appreciate that. "How can we help defend the kingdoms if we are not at the heart of battle?" he had complained to the Mizore king.

The king glared at him. "The royals have agreed you would be best situated at the perimeter to... protect us. After all, what use would you be in the center of the kingdoms? King Kurai and Queen Aina have generously agreed to allow you to reside in an abandoned village on the edge of the kingdoms."

A snake appeared, writhing in Ashtem's hands. The man gripped it tightly. "You do not trust us?"

"Perhaps some of the others do not," the king answered coldly.

The snake turned to dust in Ashtem's hands. The dust floated up into the air, turning into a dark gray smoke. It drifted towards the Mizore king, who gasped. "You dare use the smoke of the Spriggan Fire?"

Ashtem smiled. "This is not the smoke of the Spriggan Fire, naive king. This is a gift from the gods Skyvor and Fafnir, who gifted us this power long time ago."

The king squared his shoulders. "This is our final offer, Snake God. If you do not accept it, we will have to forcibly make you leave the kingdoms."

"We will stay there." The man who spoken had teal hair and a gray robe with gold highlights. "Gold Eye!" Ashtem snapped.

Silver Eye, the man next to Gold Eye, smiled coyly. "Put away your smoke, Ashtem. You'll see it's the right choice."

Now, nearly a month later, Ashtem was still displeased.

For one, he stumbled across a young woman. Her eyes were wild and fearful. She was dressed in what had been fine clothes, but were now ripped and torn. "Please help me," she begged.

"If you want help, go to the Anzen," Ashtem told her curtly. "We are here for one purpose and one purpose only. We are not here to help rebuild."

The woman's eyes ignited fear. She fled east, her satchel flying out behind her.

"That was a little cruel," a violet-eyed hunter commented.

"Close your mouth, Violet Eye," Ashtem snapped. "Unless you want to be kicked out too."

. . .

Unbeknownst to his parents, Free had heard them fight.

After she had fled his father, Free could hear her quiet sobs. He could hear her pull herself together. He could hear her running.

Silence.

Free had lived with it his whole life. The quiet comfort of his mother, the brooding silence of his father. The boasting air of his brother, the joyful aura of his friends.

But he hadn't truly accepted the majesty of silence. Up until he heard his parents fight for the first time and his mother losing, he had thought silence was nothing but a placeholder for when no one talked.

Now he knew better.

Silence was power.

Power was silence.

And silence was unstoppable.

. . .

Tears were diamonds.

He rarely saw them. And when he did, he never bore them. A rarity. Except he didn't treasure it. He hated it from the bottom of his heart.

Pain was stone.

Buried under a thin layer of lies of happiness and other worthless things. If you broke through the lies, there was still a long way to work and mine before you found the diamonds.

After all, there was a reason Shu Kurenai, Lui Shirosagi, and Free De La Hoya didn't fight nearly as often as they used to.

Shu had learned to bury his emotions long ago. He hid them under a deep ocean of calm. Only friends dared to dive so deep they could see the ocean floor, but even then, they had a long way to go before they reached his core. Pain and tears had grown so abundant, that if it wasn't for the ocean's endlessly changing currents, they would have rose to the surface long ago.

Lui hid his pain and tears in a blazing inferno of fury. No one dared to run through. If they did, they would scorch before they mined through the stone and found the diamonds. Flames burst out at random intervals, sending a clear message. Don't even try.

Free trapped his grief and anger in a dense jungle. Sundews and pitcher plants hung down from every tree, ready to swallow any emotion that dared to escape. No one bothered entering the jungle. It was wild, it was dangerous, and nothing could possibly live there. The diamonds in there wanted to be found, but the barriers of the jungle would never let them.

But Valt, Daigo, and Zac, saw life differently.

For Zac, life was climbing a frozen waterfall. A once in lifetime experience that would soon crash down. So he took a risk. And eventually, it could pay off. He did everything and anything, and he would until the ice melted.

For Daigo, emotions were lunar eclipses. Something to be interested in at first, something to share, but eventually something that he wouldn't tell anyone about, but he wouldn't hide it either. Once in a while he stumbled across a new emotion, but it wasn't anything special. Not for long.

For Valt, his personality was the sun. Bright, glowing, and always shining, even if it was hidden. His spirit was always jumping and beaming. It was a ray of light that could be blocked off for a while, but never destroyed.

But whether they were aware of it or not, everybody had their own secrets, and those secrets would likely never surface.

. . .

"Forward."

Their commander was a vengeful spirit taking the form of a fiery bird. He had once been a Hikari prince long ago. He forced the army that had once been Skyvor's forward, on and on and on.

"Are you sure about this?"

The man asking had been a family, of some sort, to the spirit. Occasionally, they argued, but between them was a common goal: destroy the kingdoms. The spirit had granted him immortality, and now he seemed to think he was above the spirit himself.

"Do not question me," the spirit growled. "This is what is to come. Have you not been hoping for this yourself?"

No reply.

"I thought so."

"We're not ready, my lord."

The one who spoke was now a mortal general.

"What?" the spirit snapped.

"We can't go to war," the general repeated nervously.

The next thing he knew, he was dead.