Speechless

7: Bye-Bye Bitbeast

Max and Tyson had returned to the room shortly after Ray and Persephone's talk. Persephone was curled up in her pajamas in her bed, book in hand. Kenny was still in his study room working, and from what Tyson had said before passing out and snoring in his own bed, he might be there all night. Kai was still nowhere to be seen, but Persephone did her best to push him out of her mind.

Soon she had fallen asleep, three out of the five boys she was traveling with snoozing in the room as well.

Her slumber was quickly woken up by a shrill voice echoing through the room.

"Guys wake up! It's Ray and the White Tigers! There's trouble!"

Persephone squinted to see Kenny standing in the doorway, panic written all over his face.

"What? What happened?" Tyson said, his voice groggy.

"Kevin stole a disk with all our data when I stepped away from my computer! I was so tired I just wanted some tea to keep me up. He ran off with it before I could stop him!"

Persephone jumped up, slipping on her shoes and throwing up her hair into a messy ponytail.

"We gotta go help Ray," she said.

The others nodded in agreement, and soon all four of them were sprinting to the outdoor beyblading dish. Ray was already in the midst of battling Kevin, Ray seemingly dominating the dish. As Persephone approached, she could hear Kevin's voice whine above the sound of the rain.

"Please Ray, have mercy! I'm your friend! You wouldn't do this to your friend would you?" Kevin pleaded, eyes wide.

Persephone even saw tears in his eyes. At least, she thought she did.

Ray hesitated, his conflicted feelings about his old friend and teammate evident on his face. Driger hesitated as well.

Before everyone's eyes, Driger rose high above the blade spinning in the dish, looking back over is shoulder at Ray before disappearing into the clouds above. Shock arose on everyone's faces. Everyone's but one. Kevin smirked at Ray.

"Not much of a tough guy without your bit beast are ya Ray? You hesitated, and now your bit beast is gone forever," He cackled.

Ray stood with his jaw dropped, staring down at his now ordinary blade.

"That's it!" Tyson yelled, marching to Ray's side, "You and me monkey boy let's go! You're gonna pay for this, and you're gonna give Kenny back his disc!"

Tyson took Kevin on, everyone watching in awe as be defeated him as soon as Dragoon made its appearance. Ray stood by him, staring blankly at his blade in his palm.

Surprisingly, Kevin kept his word and returned the disc to Kenny before disappearing into the dark.

"Hey are you okay?" Tyson asked, putting his hand on Ray's rain-soaked shoulder.

"No he's not okay," a voice boomed from behind Persephone.

Persephone shivered as Kai brushed past her and out into the rain.

"I'm disappointed in you Ray. You let your feelings for your old teammates get in the way of your beyblading. Now, Driger is gone," Kai said as he stood in front of his drenched teammate.

"Hey Kai will you just shu-"

"Tyson drop it. He's right," Ray murmured, "I messed up."

Kai turned and walked back to shelter, stopping as he stood in front of Persephone. She gulped, not meeting his eyes.

"We need to talk."

She nodded, following him back inside, casting one last worried glance over to her teammates. She made a mental note to check on Ray the next morning.

She followed the grey-haired boy back into the maze of the hotel, but instead of leading her back to their room, he lead her to what seemed to be a conference room. She stepped inside and he shut the door behind them.

Persephone could feel her nerves ball up in the pit of her stomach as she took a seat in one of the black leather office chairs surrounding the table.

Kai said nothing as he sat in one of the chairs across from here, crossing his arms.

"So... what did you wanna talk about?" she murmured, tracing the wood grain of the table with her finger.

"About your little outburst earlier," he said, his voice cold.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I-I didn't mean to yell like that. I normally don't have a temper I-"

"Persephone."

"Yes?"

"You were right."

"What?" she said, looking up at him for the first
time since they entered the room.

She scanned his face for any sign of sarcasm, but found none.

"I said you were right. I shouldn't have expected my training to help with everyone on the team. They need their own training regimens if they are gonna succeed."

Persephone sat there, dumbfounded. Was he trying to....apologize? Kai didn't seem like the type to admit when he was wrong, but there he was. Persephone composed herself before speaking.

"Thank you. I appreciate that. But even so, I shouldn't have lashed out at you like that," she murmured.

Kai looked away, and Persephone couldn't read the emotion on his face.

"It's fine," he said.

They sat there in silence for a moment, Persephone unsure what to say next.

"So...a-are we okay?" she asked, biting her bottom lip.

Kai seemed a bit shocked by that question, but answered confidently nonetheless.

"Yes."

She nodded, sitting there quietly for another minute before yawning.

"Well we have to get up early, so I'm gonna go try and get some sleep for tomorrow," she said, standing up and heading towards the door

"Persephone?"

His voice made her freeze in the doorway, and she looked over her shoulder at him.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you come with me?"

"Hm?" she asked, leaning her shoulder against the door frame, "what do you mean?"

"You knew seeing me train wasn't going to benefit the team in the first place so why did you come with me?"

She paused before answering, drumming her nails against the doorknob.

"Well, you're my friend.." she said.

"Friend?"

"Yeah. You're my friend." she said confidently, flashing him a small smile before strolling through the door.

Kai watched her go, an unknown feeling knotting up his stomach.

A/N: Here's the new chapter. Hope you guys like it! Also! If anyone 18+ is interested in a beyblade rp partner lmk!! :)