Of Love and Death.

The Future Chapter 19: Sunrise Pt. 2

Two years later

Bel leaned his head back against the stadium wall. He was breathing too fast, he was panicking too much. Well, maybe not panicking. He had panicked a lot in his life. This was just him being a little bit nervous. He could do this. He'd made it this far after all, and he'd never doubted for one moment that this was his path in life.

That was kind of the problem though, wasn't it? Bel had trained since he was seven for this moment, right here. And now all of that pressure was crashing down. He didn't regret a thing. He would never regret all of those hours that he'd put in. But...still...he wanted to succeed. It needed to all have meant something. The ideal of failing after so long was hard to swallow. Still though, he knew that even if he failed today, he would get back up on that horse. Even if Bel succeeded, he'd keep on training. Keep trying to be better and better and better.

Just two hours. Bel had just two hours to figure out the last vestiges of his plan. To figure out how to defeat the women who had become his rival. Despite the fact that they'd only ever had one battle against each other. Quadra.

Soon, he was to face Quadra. He didn't know if he could redeem himself. But he knew he had to try. There had to be a way. She was his rival, and this was the biggest tournament. Literally. It was the finals of the International Blader's Cup, something which Hyuga had brought back in his time as chairman of the WBBA. He still was the chairman actually. Something that, whenever it was brought up, Mr. Wakiya rolled his eyes at a million different times.

Closing his eyes, Bel took one more deep breath. Hey, try to calm down, Belfyre said. His words were pink and black in the shapeshifter's head. At least you don't have to worry about your best friend being possessed on top of winning this tournament! The bey said, in what was probably a genuine attempt at being friendly. It came off as snarky. As did most of the things Belfyre said. That was what made them such a great team. They were the only ones that the other could fully bite back and forth with in their strange verbal battle.

This time, however, Bel couldn't come up with a quip to fight back. So he simply acted out sighing a long, suffering sigh and walked forward towards the stadium. He fully intended to start practicing, but apparently, the Universe had other plans. Because that was when Den, Crimson Eye, Payne, and Bashara all burst in completely uninvited.

For a moment, Bel just stood there. His foot was still in the air, halfway to the bey stadium, blinking dumbfoundedly at his friends. "Hi...?" The seaglass-eyed blader asked. He actually shot a glance at his mask as well. Should he wear it for the battle? Quadra would almost certainly have hers.

Instead of having time to fully debate the important issue of wearing face coverings which you should always do for safety, especially during times of deathly plagues, but maybe not so much for battles that are really just a bunch of shouting, Bel was rudely interrupted by Den, walking up to him and saying hi. How cruel of her.

Rolling his eyes, Bel tried to put up a show of bravado. He was not convincing. "Thank you guys for coming," he said with a true smile now. "Are ya here to help me practice?" Maybe the answer to the question was obvious, he was still asking it. He didn't want to assume, he didn't want to be rude.

It was Payne who nodded. Bel's friend pulled out Phoenix. "I flew all the way over here, so you'd better believe I'm helping you train!" the heroic blader smirked. "Unlike your sister, who ran off with her ex to battle Quadra." Oh yeah, that was right. Four months ago, Jamie and Lilac had gone back to being friends. Sometimes he managed to forget that. How, he wasn't sure. It had been a large development.

Kneeling down next to the stadium, Bel clicked Belfyre into the launcher. And he watched as Payne took his place as well. Phoenix shining strong. Bel's friend looked good. Like, seriously good. Everyday he seemed a little better than the day before. That was how it went, he supposed. Each day you got better and better, learning to heal from what had hurt you. It was inspiring, and Bel was almost jealous of how much Payne seemed to be in control of his life. But, well, Seaglass Eye was getting better too. And, you know what, yeah. Bel was gonna wear his mask for the battle.