The Price For Immortality

Darkness and Despair

Freddy... Bowie... Mick... I won't let Lui hurt you...

Zac lays on the ground, trembling. Xander and Valt are battling. Lui is laughing. He must be impressed. He also must be thinking about what he's planning on doing to the Superstars. Zac cringed even more from the pain. His ribs, his face, his heart, everything hurt. His heart was knotting itself in fear, fear for his own life. Fear for his teammates lives. He couldn't bear the thought of Lui hurting them.

You guys may not know this... but you mean the world to me...

Zac forces his eyes to open. Darkness is enveloping him. It's closing in, suffocating him. No, he doesn't want this to happen! Not again! He shuts his eyes again. No, no! He is Zac the Sunrise, he glows, he shines! He isn't dark, he's bright. Brighter than the sun itself! But even the sun casts a shadow over the Earth. An eclipse can block out the sun's rays. Clouds can even cover it up. People think of the sun as strong. The sun isn't strong. The only thing it can do is blind and burn. It lights the way, but light without darkness is blinding. Darkness without light is an abyss. They have to coexist, or else one becomes too much.

You want strength, Lui? I'll show you strength.

The darkness completely encloses him. All Zac can see around him is blackness. Zac's hair begins to turn from golden blond to jet black. His shining blue eyes lose their sparkle. His heart, which had been twisting and coiling in agony, stops hurting. His warmth turns cold. His sadness melts away, replaced with nothing but emptiness.

He wasn't Zac the Sunrise anymore.

Now, he was Zac the Darkness.

It's been awhile since that side of Zac awakened. Lui had been enough to awaken it. Zac thought about his teammates and felt nothing but a strong desire to keep them alive. He thought about the pain Lui had caused him before. He didn't feel anything at all. No fear, no dread. In fact, he wanted revenge. He found himself envisioning Lui covered in his own blood and bruises. He thought about Lui, curled up in agony. Lui deserves to feel everything that he felt. In fact, Lui deserves it more.

He stands up. The darkness surrounding him fades away. He looks over at the stadium just in time to see Valt win with a survivor finish. Xander was a lot stronger than Zac had been the first battle. The reason Zac knew that Xander had been stronger was because Lui didn't get mad at Xander for losing. In fact, Lui was laughing like a maniac. He'd definitely enjoyed that battle. Zac, however, felt nothing as he stared. What was there to enjoy? It was another meaningless battle to test Valt's strength and his bond with Valtryek. There was nothing to like about it.

"Yes!" Valt let out a cheer and a jump for joy. Why though? He still has another few battles to go before Lui will accept him. He has to fight Shu, still, and that's going to be a tough opponent to beat. He has to fight Lui, too, and there was no way he was beating Lui at anything. He also needs to go up against Zac again and face him for real. The first Zac he'd faced had been overcome with worry. This Zac isn't worried about anything.

"Dammit!" Xander grabs his Bey and looks at Valt. "You have gotten stronger. I'm actually impressed." He laughs and walks over. His giant hand falls on Valt's shoulder. "That was a good match. We've gotta do that again sometime. You know, when you're not fighting to become one of the Supreme Four."

"Yeah! Definitely!" Valt looks at Lui.

Xander wants to fight again. Why? What's so enjoyable about these spinning tops crashing into each other over and over? That's not all there is to being in the Supreme Four. You get immortality, you get power beyond belief. Yet, all anyone can focus on is how good they are at spinning their Beys. Zac's mind wandered to his teammates again. How dare Lui threaten them. They are completely innocent. Zac glares at Lui and growls. If Lui dares to lay even a finger on Freddy, Bowie, or Mick, then he better watch out for Zac.