Smoke rose up in columns, casting across the sky. The canvas of what used to be blue turned into a murky grey color, overshadowing the city in a pathetic color.

The stadium was on fire.

I picked up my pace, running, dashing, but I couldn't warp time. There were people dying in there, probably, by the screams of those who were terrified inside.

My footsteps pounded in my ears, and every breath was another hit to my lungs as I wasn't getting oxygen fast enough and good god, there's people in there dying and suffering-

The air changed, tainted with the scent of flames and something burning. It rippled around me, heavy with smoke. Instead, I just sucked in a breath and darted through.

My eyes were starting to sting now, and damn, did they sting badly.

"Dammit...!" I hissed, the words escaping me in a flurry. I passed by a family, a family whose's eyes looked traumatized and hurt.

The stadium's walls were on fire, flames licking up and down the walls. They danced in a show of death, of glory at the destruction.

"Hey!" I screamed, letting my voice carry through the stadium. "Is there anyone in there!"

In immediate response, there were cries coming from inside.

Dammit, why did I decide to be the hero?! Why was that a good idea at the time?!

I chewed the inside of my mouth, blood washing over my teeth and the side of my tongue.

"Tess- what the hell are you doing here?"

"Shut it, Tategami!" I snapped, unbuckling the pouch I had linked around my waist once I had taken Aries and my launcher out. Dropping it on the ground beside me, I was just about to start running in when a hand on my arm caught me. "Let me go!"

"What are you, a moron?" Kyoya growled, the volumes of his voice trembling alongside the air. "You're going to die in there!"

"So what? People are going to die!" I retorted, trying to pull away from him. The place where he had touched me heated up in a flare, although it might just be the goddamn fire.

"What is Eagle going to do if you die?"

With a burst of energy, I jerked away from him, but his words rang in my ears. Turning away from him, something burned at my eyes, tears starting to gather at the corners.

Was it the fire? Was it Kyoya Tategami himself?

My entire world was on fire.

It was like I was in a different universe, a universe where everything was made from flames. A universe where there was nothing but flames and fire eating away at everything. A universe where fire was the primary source of everything- where it was our oxygen.

There was a family of four near the entrance, but the father was pinned under a crumbled rock. His shirt was torn, burn marks scorched through, face slick with sweat as he tried to tug it out from under a rock.

His wife scrabbled at the rock, hitting it with her nails while the older of the two sons tried to lift it off of him.

"Aries!"

Launching the bey, the ram beyblade spun towards the rock, smashing into it without mercy. Particles of rock flew off, and the older son tossed a look over at me, then at the beyblade that had cracked it in half.

"Are you okay?" I coughed, dirt flooding through my lungs. Something scorched my organs- the arching temperature of the air around me.

The man nodded as he pulled out his arm, welts and deep marks from the rock pressing into his skin obvious on his arm. One was bleeding, but I tore off the cuff of my pants without hesitation, handing it to him.

Did I just kind of tear off a portion of my pants? Yeah. Maybe.

Note to self: it's both a good and bad idea when you're in a goddamn burning stadium.

One, while the air is basically on fire, you were roasting with it. Take off your clothes, and you seem free of added heat. Yay!

Two, there was also the fact that something called 'burning flesh' exists when you don't have clothes to protect the said flesh. Because damn, that type of stuff hurt.

"Goddammit, Tess-"

Kyoya was behind me again, and this time he pulled me towards him, just so that we faced each other. His dark green hair contrasted unbelievably to the red of the background, eyes hard like diamonds.

"Can't ya take care of yourself without me having to run after you like some goddamn mother of a child?"

"You're welcome to leave."

It was scorching now, my throat dry because of the fire. People dashed by me, desperate to escape the flames, but I remained rooted, staring down Kyoya.

"I can do stuff on my own, y'know. Eagle... Eagle's not listening to me but that's okay! Eagle... Eagle's important to me but he doesn't define my entire being!"

Kyoya stared me down, his jaw ground. In his hands, he clenched Leone and a launcher.

"You're an idiot," he finally sighed.

"Glad to know," I shot back, reaching over to pick Aries up from the ground.

His eyes flashed to the movement, a predator watching it's prey. He was like his beyblade in every aspect- cold, a hunter, a king. Someone who ruled with an iron fist.

But Kyoya had a heart.

He had mercy, he had kindness, but it was just buried underneath his blood, underneath the skin he had built up over the years. He had learn to fight for himself.

And I couldn't say anymore until I learned more about him.

"Idiot," suddenly he was there, right next to me, matching my stride and gait without a problem. "You think you can save everyone here on your own."

I blinked, just for a moment, letting my voice carry over the melting of the air.

"Watch me. Don't get in the way."

His presence next to me disappeared, but I paid no heed.

My hands pressed against rocks, skin peeling away. Aries slammed through obstacles. I just passed from family to family, hair sticking to my forehead in wake of the fire. It had ravaged across about half the stadium now.

My lungs rusted in my chest, and I let loose a cough, letting go of the small girl I had been helping out of the fire.

"Girlie... yo... you see that m... man over there?" I coughed, my words bristling. At the sound of my loud coughs, her eyes widened, one grubby hand reaching out to clutch at my sweaty hand. Her fingernails dragged down the skin of my palm, but I slid it away from her and pointed to where Kyoya was 'helping' another family.

(probably barking at them, but that could also be his version of helping. I dunno yet)

"W..." the girl burst into coughing as well, and it was only when I firmly landed a hit between her shoulder blades that she stopped. "W-Will you be... o-k, Miss?"

More coughing.

"Yeah," I pressed a tired smile to my lips, so matter how much my eyes burnt. The words, loaded with hot coals, pressed against the back of my throat, sucking the moisture out of my body.

With that, the little girl ambled off to the King of Beasts himself, and I could see the confusion in his eyes.

The sudden glassiness at the sight of the girl waddling towards him with her pudgy hands clenched tight at her sides. The slight parting of his mouth in surprise. The quiet change of his stance to accommodate her.

Despite the scream of the atmosphere, my mind, and my lungs, a small smile skirted across my lips.

At least, until my mouth was pried open by a rattling cough, immediately falling to my knees and pressing one hand to my chest.

The moment only lasted seconds, but they felt like minutes. Everything was drawn out in this fiery tornado, where minutes stretched out to become hours of agony.

One hand pressed into my shoulder. I didn't look to who it was, but fabric and a hand covered mine, a bundle being pushed into my hand. Prying my eyes open, I found myself looking at a ball of green- Kyoya's jacket-vest-whateverthehellitwas.

"Idiot," I heard him say again, voice caught on the fire. Even through the heat, his presence bloomed a distance away from me, towering and obvious. He knew he had power.

I brought the fabric to my mouth once I stopped coughing, muffling my breathing. Kyoya spared me a look where his sapphire eyes hardened into roughly-cut stone, letting his hand slip off of my shoulder.

His mouth moved, but the thunderous roar of blood and the hissing of the fire overtook it. Instead, I ducked my head and came to my feet, scraping Aries off the ground as I did so.

Hesitation.

I could see it, out of the corner of my eye. The slight movement of his hand to stabilize me (maybe?), then freezing up, clenching into a fist, and dropping by his side.

Instead, the King of Beasts looked towards the sky, the sky with the color of his skin swirling with ashes and red before he let out a splintering cough, pounding one fist against his chest.

Without any words exchanged, I dug my nails into his forearm, dragging him towards the entrance of the stadium, the two of us, against the fire behind us.