Shu woke to a blood-curdling scream.

He immediately glanced around, checking if someone died in his room. Everything seemed fine. Now he was just irritated, then realizing it came from one of the other's apartments, pissed as hell. After a late night of training, this was exactly the last thing he needed, especially as his other clothes hadn't even dried yet. Whoever the hell woke him up was going to get it.

No clothes other than the boxers he was wearing. The only option other than catching the cold was...

Shu hesitated, then opened a drawer in his nightstand and took out the Red Eye armor. Just touching it made him feel sick, remembering the destruction he'd caused that made Phi look like a kid. Crap, he'd been awake too long if he was focusing on this.

Valt said to move on, it's all over.

Fubuki just smiled and took the flexible armor, folding it up and putting it in a box.

Daigo looked once at Shu's calm face and shook him by his shoulders. You're torturing yourself over nothing.

So why couldn't he stop?

Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it.

Not a good time, not with kitchen knives in the next room over.

Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it...

He shook his head and put on the armor. Shu's heart pounded when he found the remnants of the mask next to the black arm brace. Not wanting to think about it, he turned and marched into the hallway.

Suoh's apartment was clear. He was sound asleep next to a gaming console- the fact that he had his own console and still used his made Shu want to break it- and snoring softly. His hair covered his eyes, but Shu could still tell his sleep wasn't faked.

Hartes was passed out on the floor, his beyblade and launcher next to him. Judging from the line of shattered plates, he had been trying to practice on a smaller surface than normal. Hartes was a crazed lunatic, but once in a while he had good ideas. Shu resolved to try that later.

Not Suoh, not Hartes, which left Phi. The prick. He'd better not have a girl in his room with him, or they were both dead.

Shu marched down the hallway. First door to the right. The door was cracked, and he gripped the handle of his launcher. It wasn't sharp, but it was metal. Good enough, if there was any threat other than the self-serving bastard behind the door. Crimson eyes peered into the opening.

He'd never been in Phi's apartment before, assuming it was full of pictures of beys and girls and wine in the refrigerator. It was close to the opposite, actually. There was wine in the glass-door fridge, but the rest of the room was completely empty, like no one even lived here. Almost like Shu's room. The only difference was the bed in the corner, a nice one. King sized, looked extremely soft. Phi lay on the bed, no sheets, no girls, just full battle armor like what Shu wore. What Red Eye used to wear. Why did he sleep in that armor? At least the cape and neckpiece was on the ground next to the bed.

Lay was a docile term. Phi was thrashing around like he'd been chained down, white hair flying around him, eyelids rapidly fluttering. Nightmare, then. He unleashed another scream, even worse this time, and stopped. The Lord of Destruction was shaking and Shu gritted his teeth in anger. He'd been woken up because the bey-destroyer was having a nightmare?

He marched in, shaking Phi awake. "Hey you. Get your ass up."

Phi groaned and blinked at him. His eyes were dilated, pupils expanded so much, the albino could barely see his iris. "S-Shu?" He choked and started coughing. The Chimera blader rolled his shoulders, ready to chew him out for waking him. When Phi's body relaxed again, the long-haired male looked up.

Shu took this moment to start yelling at him. "WHY'D YOU WAKE ME UP! YOU WERE SCREAMING IN YOUR SLEEP! BOTHER EXPLAINING?"

Black seeped from his iris, flooding to the rest of his eyes and turning them black. Phi was silent, not making any obnoxious jokes for once, but when Shu hesitantly touched his shoulder, it was tense. Getting ready for something. To attack him, if he was as dumb as he acted... or... to hold himself back?

Shu bit his lip. "Phi?"

He slowly looked up, alien eyes not focusing on him. What was up? Phi was usually sharp-witted, seductive, and drove Shu insane on the best of days. Even when he was drunk, he lost absolutely none of that. The nightmare must really have been bad, but what did Phi have to be scared of?

"Shu." Phi's head snapped up, white hair shifting back to normal and settling neatly on his back. "Where's the nearest stadium?"

Shu watched him as Phi approached the stadium in the park. He inhaled slowly andached his bey to the launcher. Just Revive Phoenix now. Not Dread Phoenix, with the overwhelming power, which did lead to the question of how he had even lost.

"Go... shoot!"

Phoenix spiraled to the center so fast, Shu's red eyes could barely track it, but Phi snarled and scooped it up. "No." He attached Revieve Phoenix to the launcher again and did the launch even faster. "Go... shoot!"

The red bey landed on the stadium in a blur, and without any pause, shot to the red inner ring. It was spinning fast enough that when Phi snatched Phoenix off the stadium floor, the armor sliced into his palm. The light caught on the liquid seeping from his hand, but it was like Phi didn't even notice.

The tall albino growled, "No." He assumed the same stance and launched again. And again. His eyes were still shot through with that black liquid that normally meant he was going to destroy something. Shu sat and watched him from the hill. Phi was at his worst right now, thrown off balance by whatever the hell had happened. And when anyone was at their worst, they made mistakes. This was Shu's best chance to spot a weakness.

The thing was, he noted, it still didn't look like he had one. Phi was launching from pure anger, trying to burn off energy or was just dumb enough to think the practice would help him get better. Still, the speed of his bey was faster than Shu's and was spinning for much longer, and hit like a freaking freight train. So, no weaknesses in the battle, but what about before it? Anything to throw him off balance would be a step in the right direction.

A loud crack jolted through his thoughts. Panic lashed through him, making him shoot to his feet and look around. A memory of Valtryek's shattered tip, of more and more beys was suddenly burning in his mind.

Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it!

Phi lifted his head up. The black in his eyes were still there, but it only followed a few blood vessels. "Let me use your launcher," he called, holding up his own. Or the remains of it. The handle was the only thing left of it. Shards of the launcher were in Phi's long hair, embedded in his skin, and mostly scattered on the ground.

Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it. If Phi saw him react, he'd think Shu was as vulnerable as he was, and there was the death of his advantage.

"Fine." He tossed a spare one towards him lazily. "You break it, you buy me a new one."

Phi didn't respond as he launched again, not bothering to yank out all the plastic shards in his skin and armor. Shu took a deep breath, told himself to get his shit together, and settled down to watch again.
An hour

Two hours.

Three.

Shu was about to call the fourth hour of finding no weaknesses when Phi collapsed. His armored body was shaking again. The launcher and his bey clattered out of his hands, and the albino reached for the latter, teeth clenched.

The albino ran over to him, deciding immediately that weaknesses were less important than a dead guy. "Phi, you good?" He nudged the bey towards his hands. "You just dropped. Something happen?"

He didn't respond right away. His head was turned to the side, and after he slowly stood up, the albino looked him in the eyes. "Hey. Shu."

That was surprising. "Yeah?"

"When I collapsed. Why didn't you laugh?"

His brain absolutely broke just then. "Huh?"

Phi bit his lip, drawing more blood. His hand was covered in it; the blood almost looked black in the streetlight. "It was a failure, a weakness if I fall down. Why didn't you laugh? Hartes would have."

Shu waited for him to continue. Exhausted as Phi was, he was sure to make a mistake when he was rambling to him. Shu was sensing a potential emotional weakness to exploit. That probably made him a terrible person, but not like he cared anyways. Anything to get his win.

"You're a perfectionist, aren't you?"

He tensed.

"Of course you are. That's why you still have that." He gestured to the Red Eye garb. Shu jolted back, teeth clenched with the effort of not screaming. It looked like Phi had been keeping tabs on his weaknesses as well. "Did it scare you when you first lost?"

Shu bit his lip.

"That's what I thought." Phi closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were normal. "Too much pressure. If I lost in anything, I know something bad would happen. I don't ever want to be laughed at. I don't want to be weak." The heterochromatic albino spat the last word with venom.

There it was; his weakness, but it seemed like there was more.

So Phi continued.

My father was rich and had a flair for dramatics, so he created Dread Tower to live in. It was a little dark and very empty, but gave us plenty to do. Hartes liked to challenge me to things and I always won. Each victory, even though my little brother was inferior to me, felt amazing, but less and less amazing every time. I started noticing how Hartes was getting closer and closer to beating me in each thing he challenged me at. If I ever let him win... I don't know what would have happened, but I know it would be bad. Something terrible would have happened and I had no idea what it was. Of course, now I know it was the idea of being weak, but then it was like, maybe a dark cloud.

One day, we were playing keep-away with a soccer ball. I put him on his knees from his defeat. Soccer was one of the things he was shit at, so it was easier than anything, but his expression when he lost haunts me. Not because he lost. He looked disappointed, but his eyes were analyzing everything about me.

Hartes was learning from my crushing him. Little bitch had the nerve to take his defeats and find hope in them.

Phi snarled, eyes revealing his sudden bloodlust. "His still standing is a failure. Any hope I didn't crush is a failure."

A butler, one of Father's favorites, came up to us then, preventing me from acting. I preferred to deal with Hartes alone.

"So you beat him up?" Shu asked.

"Of course not!" the Phoenix Blader protested. "If you're good, you don't even need force to win. Just a few words, and you can put someone on their knees."

He had a box with him, and when I saw it, I dropped the ball. There was something... other about the box that was strange, like a caged animal, I guess. "Your father wanted you two to have these as you birthday present." He opened the box and both Hartes and I stepped forward.

"A beyblade!" Hartes gasped, eyes lighting up with excitement. "I've been wanting one forever!"

I suppose that was the first time in his miserable life he was hopeful about something. I didn't even know what a beyblade was. I felt like I was falling behind, and it pissed me the hell off.

Hartes snatched the one on the right, the one I had been eying. They were both colorless, probably so we could design the colors ourselves, but the one on the right was more circular and looked heavier and stronger. Not that I wanted it. The one on the left was cooler. Faster, probably. Power would never matter if you couldn't hit a target. "I want this one!"

I suddenly felt angry at Hartes. "Put that back," I growled.

"No!" Hartes clutched it to his chest. "You take everything I want, but this bey... it belongs to me!"

"I'm the oldest. I. Get. First. Pick." I didn't care about that so much, but I had to crush that spirit before he ever did something that crushed me. Never liked him, never trusted him. When it was convenient, we used each other.

Phi tilted his head at Shu. "That's what siblings do, right?"

"I'm an only child... but I really don't think so." He frowned.

He shrugged. "I don't see why not. It was very effective with Hartes."

I felt something, suddenly. Very angry, but a little different, somehow. I guess more controlled, more... directed, I guess the word is?

Hartes flinched back shaking out of his stupid wasted skin. Satisfied at that reaction, I turned back to the box. The second beyblade glinted. That one. That was the one I really wanted. "What's this one called?"

"Phoenix."

"And the other."

"Hades."

"And which between them is stronger?"

The butler considered that. "I believe that depends on the blader."

I smiled softly then, probably the first time I'd shown weakness, and picked up Phoenix. Behind me, I heard my brother sigh in relief and thank the butler.

Every day after that, I practiced and learned and completely devoted myself to beyblade. And never once let Hartes see. That one choice that Hartes made that day: it was a loss and for once, I think it made me stronger instead of him.

I made myself a promise when I collapsed from exhaustion one of those days. I never wanted to lose again.

"Atychiphobia," Shu cut in. "The fear of failure. Different symptoms tend to happen between most people, but a common one is either self-handicapping or working so hard you just drop." He frowned. "We had the same reaction to atychiphobia?" That was awful, having something in common with the bastard. He remembered the moment when Spryzen's energy layer exploded into pieces and the days after it when he couldn't get out of bed. One day, he just stopped and accepted the offer to train in America.

"I'll do whatever it takes to become stronger," he had told Ashtem. "Whatever you want, as many times as you want. I never want to lose again."

"It seems so. But I never realized it had an actual name," Phi mused, twirling a lock of his hair. He didn't seem to be bothered by sharing his past with the person who wanted to completely destroy him. That was weird. "I wish it were a little more pronounceable."

"Same," Shu muttered, remembering when he screwed up that exact word in a presentation a few weeks ago.

When I battled Hartes, I wanted to crush him once and for all. If I didn't, I would be losing. Even if I got a burst finish, it still wouldn't matter, because 4-0 is not a win. Only if he felt despair was I going to win. I wanted to see him on his knees." Phi laughed humorlessly, and the only thing in his eyes was hopelessness. "So I did, and I took parts of his bey and used them in my own. And it nearly killed me.

All of a sudden, everything was ice cold, and the moment the bey touched my hands, I felt something shatter in me. And I felt what Hartes must have felt about blading.

Phi frowned and shook his head. "Believe me, it was probably a good thing I took that bey from him. As long as he wins, he has no problem with how he acts. He doesn't care if he has to destroy the last bit of sanity in him or chop off an arm to do it."

Shu couldn't stop himself from saying, "There's no difference between you two, bastard."

"YES THERE IS!" he snarled violently. The reaction was so sudden, purely instinctual, the crimson blader flinched.

That. That was the albino's weakness. He was dead set on never failing again, in anything, but that wasn't all of it. He never wanted to be like Hartes. It terrified him more than anything. If Phi had been telling the truth, he viewed Hartes as more or less everything he hated. Phi was a purely analytical blader, seeing strengths and weaknesses and accounting his skills to check every final outcome.

Just like him.

But Hartes was the opposite, using instincts and past victories instead of his mind. Like Valt, which was a little scary. Valt could have ended up like Hartes.

"I refuse to act like him. He doesn't care how he acts, as long as he wins! If I lost with Revive Phoenix, I'd be pissed as hell, but I wouldn't act like that!" He was angry and defensive now, pushed way off his preferred emotional shield. Definitely a weak point, something he could bring up before a battle. Of course, if it made him mad, he might just fight harder. There was no way to tell. "I would never act like him of my own free will."

It was so confusing, Everything was so strange and I felt sick and paranoid all the time. It was like everything was one big sound, and I had to try to pick apart the individual noises and people. Just being able to focus was nearly impossible, so I usually ran on autopilot. I'm afraid that's when more of Hartes's personality bled through.

Phi's panic and hatred had gone cold. He now looked supremely bored, but the Chimera Blader was connecting so many dots. From what he knew of Phi, when he had gotten Dread Phoenix, his personality had undergone major change. He said that all he wanted was to destroy. That was a very Hartes thing to say, he realized. Phi tended to be more refined in his way of insulting him, but when he had that bey, he'd just gone right out and called him weak.

Phi's earrings swayed as he spun a lazy circle. They glowed. "You can imagine what happened when I battled Aiger. I managed to turn autopiliot off long enough to enjoy some of the match."

"Enjoy?" Shu blurted out. "You?"

He shrugged. "Of course. Hartes was no match for me. I knew his every movement. Aiger, when I had Dread Phoenix, was my equal. Our resonance was the same." White hair swished as he turned back around. His eyes were dead black again. "But I fought as hard as I could to keep Hartes away. I would never win if I had him in me, and I never wanted to lose again. I made a promise."

Shu blinked. I never want to lose again. And because he got stronger, he lost to Valt.

I never want to lose again. And because he got stronger, Phi lost to Aiger.

"But I couldn't stop it, and I'm fairly sure Hartes knew that would happen." Phi's black eyes gleamed. "Just so you know, he's never getting his beyblade back."

Phi had acted like a total asshole when he was small, and even more now. Shu should have absolutely no mercy for him.

And the albino could break him right now. Phi was so vulnerable right now. Just a few sentences, he knew, and the Phoenix Blader would be a mess of words and emotions. Even more so than now.

Except.

Except that Shu had heard the pain in his bored voice. I made a promise. Except that his story sounded too much like his own. Except that Valt and everyone had forgiven for Spryzen, and had anyone forgiven Phi for his own twisted ideas? I am more than what you thought I was, Phi was saying. You know what I was, but not why I was. I am asking you to listen to why I was.

Except that Shu had listened, and understood.

"So you crushed everyone who made you nervous, broke their spirit, and then took the pieces of your brother's beyblade and put it in yours, shattering your own mind, which made you lose to a nobody," the albino summed up. "Did I get that right?"

Phi sighed and picked the rest of the launcher out of his skin. His hand was slick with blood, but it didn't waver. "If you're done insulting me-"

"I forgive you," Shu decided.

"Huh?"

"You're a self-serving ass who only cares about his looks and how to win. Welcome to the Albino Squad, dumbass." Besides, forgiveness might give him an edge when he finally challenged Phi to that battle he wanted so much. Maybe one day he'd admit the two albinos as equals at Phi's strongest. Not his weakest, like Aiger faced him at. Shu wanted his strongest. 4-0 is not a win, the Lord of Destruction had told him.

Phi shook his head. "I don't understand you, Shu."

Shu looked him directly in those eyes that used to scare him. "Don't you?"

---

Okay, so I know that was more serious than you normally want, but I planned a lot of devlopment for Shu and Phi. Lets review: Shu has trauma from the Red Eye shit that went down and he's trying to forget it by ignoring it. I tried to make it obvious but I'm shit at that. I'm still not sure where I'm going with the heat stuff. Suggestions are welcome.

Phi: I wanted to see if I could make him more likeable without changing the backstory, okay? I was challenged by a  friend of mine. So his experience with the new bey was similar to Shu's, but for a shorter duration of time, but worse. So, I explained how he hates everything Hartes is. To be just like that would be pure hell. He's trying to forget it too.

Everyone caught up? Good.

So I deleted the Christmas special because I entered the book for a contest and that writing was crap on that chapter. I hope everyone's good with taht.

I'll give you guys a hint for the next chapter: Where's _ _ i _  _ e _ _ _?

Robin out!