"First off," Shu said, "I wanted to say I'm sorry about Valt leaving. He didn't deserve..."

For a moment he almost lost it as a surge of emotion welled up from nowhere.

Looking down at the crowd everyone was gathered in the gym wearing solem looks.

"He didn't deserve to be corrupted by Theodore."

Just about everyone in the room was surprised to hear that Valt, their hero and friend, was being corrupted. The room erupted into chatter but Shu interrupted them.

"This is my fault that this happened to Valt, I so badly wanted to believe this was something else but I didn't think something like this would ever happen."

"How are we going to stop Theodore without Valt?"

"Yeah, he's the only one who's stopped a corrupted blader before!"

Everyone started talking again leaving Shu speechless on the stage. The truth was he didn't know how to stop Theodore. It was even a miracle that Theodore didn't get to him the last time.

And maybe he couldn't stop Theodore but he could at least be ready for him.

"I know you're all upset that Valt's gone but we can't just be sad. We need to be ready for when Theodore comes and I know it may seem impossible but he's coming."

"But we're just bladers, you and Free are the strongest here!"

"It doesn't matter." Shu snapped, "Free and I are strong but Theodore could drain everyone's power." He repeated it with all the emphasis he could bring to bear on the word.

"We can't just do nothing! Let's go find Valt!"

"Go where? Cuza, we don't even know where he is!"

The room silenced over Shu's outburst.

"What do we do now?" Sasha asked quietly.

Everyone looked around the room but no one had any answers on stopping someone who could drain everyone's power.

"Now we train." Free said stepping onstage next to Shu.

Meanwhile, Sasha Guten strolled down the hallway headed towards Valts' room. In hope of some clue that could tell her where he went.

For Sasha she was the most upset with Valt's absence and in a way he was almost like BC Sol's sunlight providing them warmth and guidance.

But now there was an emptiness looking around the room Sasha couldn't hold it in anymore.

Laying on Valt's bed she started crying softly to herself.

For days she had been trying to act strong putting on a smile even when she was upset. But Sasha wasn't the only one even Honey seemed not as bubbly.

She had been so focused on herself that she had forgotten all about Valt and now he was gone.

Wiping away the tears Sasha was about to leave when something caught her eye. Peering over the edge of the bed she pulled out a black metallic mask with brown highlights.

A Snake Pit mask.

A million questions swirled in her head as she dropped the mask in horror. Theodore wasn't just talking about some blader he was talking about Valt.
Valt was Brown Eye.

Searching underneath his bed she found Theodore's box stuffed with old papers.

One by one she carefully took in each paper reading its contents. Some were about battles while others were just notes.

It wasn't until she came upon Phi's folder that things got interesting.

Apparently Theodore had folders on a variety of bladers but the main ones Sasha could find were Phi's, Free's, Lui's, Shu's, Valt's and Delta's.

But what Sasha couldn't understand was why Theodore would give something like this to Valt.

Valt didn't really focus on specs or the mathematical side of blading in fact Sasha couldn't remember the last time he looked at the rankings.

So why would he leave this behind? It just wasn't adding up.

Opening the folder Sasha began digging around for answers.

******

And now standing in Kris's office was Shu, Sasha, Fubuki, Rantaro, Ranjiro, Drum, Silas, Delta and Kris herself.

"I've called you in here because as you all know Valt is slowly being corrupted. I knew something was going on with him the whole time, his distant behavior and the way he snapped at people all pointed in the same direction. But I wanted to believe Valt was stronger than this, it's my fault for not saying something sooner."

Looking around the room Sasha's eyes were still red from crying, Cuza and Kris looked exhausted while Silas and Fubuki seemed more angry than anything.

"But I've come to realize that even though Theodore is in jail he's still dangerous."

The solemn silence turned into determination.

"In light of recent events Theodore has revealed that he can still control bladers such as Delta."

In the back Delta tensed up looking away from everyone's disappointment.

"How could you!" Sasha said angrily.

"Give me one reason why we shouldn't kick him out of here!"

"Why?" Drum asked making everyone go quiet.

Before Delta could say anything Shu cut through the crowd.

"So he could spy on us and get the mask but instead Theodore's plan backfired."

"But where is the mask?" Kris asked

"I think Valt may have taken it and since nobody else left that night but him and Delta that makes them our prime suspects."

"But if Theodore isn't controlling us all then it has to be Valt." Fubuki said seeing where Shu was going.

"But why would Valt take the mask?" Silas spoke up

"I don't know."

"Actually I do."

Standing up from the crowd Sasha made her way to Kris's desk carrying Theodore's box.

"Wait isn't that.." Fubuki started.

Opening the lid Sasha took out all the files she had been reading earlier and set them out on the table for everyone to see.

"When you guys were training I was looking for a clue to where Valt may have gone and instead I found these folders. There's folders on every Snake Pit blader and Valt."

Letting that set in Sasha countined.

"It turns out that Free is immune to Phi's power unless he gives in to Phi's power himself which is why Theodore wanted Free in the last tournament."

"But that's not all,"

Taking out the rest of the files Sasha grew more solemn.

"It gets worse, apparently Phi's power is more than just power. When testing Phi, Theodore discovered that the more Phi used it the more he seemed to lose himself stretching across bladers."

"That explains why Theodore was losing it when we were visiting him." Said Kris.

"And it gets worse, Valt's power is still unknown to Theodore but..."

Looking away Sasha swelled up with emotion.

Taking out the last of the box's contents she put a black and brown mask on the table along with a map.

"I think I know where he went but there's something else he's been hiding from us."

"Valt's Brown Eye."