Drago knows he's fighting a losing battle.

The unfortunate high-end street that got ripped out of the ground to be used as a battlefield now lays in ruins around them. More than one block of offices caved under Naga's energy pulses or under his own fireballs.

Smoke curls around both him and Dan, the wind that should have been blowing it away suspiciously absent. Smoke is practically scented air to a Pyrus Bakugan, but Dan's already coughing so hard he's tearing up on his shoulder. Not good.

Naga's footfalls crunch on the pavement, cracking the street as he advances. He flashes both of them an arrogant snarl, fangs glinting in the midday sun.

"Give up" he calls. "You, Drago, are but a distraction. I will admit you are a fearsome warrior, but even you are no match for the Silent Core on your own." His expression shifts into a mockery of a smile, but bloodlust still dances in his eyes. "Convince my dear sister to surrender the Infinity Orb and I will let you and your little Human live."

"Liar!" Wavern shouts. She's still standing where Naga let her go, flaring her wings to make herself look bigger. No, not to look bigger. To be the bigger target.

Naga turns towards her menacingly, a low growl rumbling in his chest. Drago has never been more aware of the veins bulging out on Naga, pulsing faster in tune with the Silent Core. He wishes he had never seen it.

"Gather your courage Drago." she says, shivering in fear but still refusing to move, even as Naga flares his wings as if to fly over to her. "And remember what you told me."

He does remember. He had made a promise he had hoped never to keep, but what other option does he have now?

"Drago!" Dan's voice cuts through Drago's roiling emotions. He looks down to his partner.

"I have an idea" Says Dan, pointing behind them. Drago knows that behind his goggles Dan has the same look he had when he challenged Masquerade to battle a second time, where he knows exactly what he can lose and is determined to not let that happen.

The plan itself is vague and clearly born of desperation, but it's the best he could come up with. Drago will be damned before he gives up so easily.

"Stalling for time, are we?" Naga charges up a negative energy blast between his claws. "I expected better"

Drago breathes in and stares straight into Naga's eyes with every scrap of courage he can gather. Power builds up in his throat, fire crackling through it in a familiar way. He lets loose the blast, which rockets past Naga and ... hits the invisible wall placed around the battlefield.

Naga laughs cruelly and hard, energy blast spluttering out between his fingers. "Is that all?" He asks with his shredded voice, but Drago isn't paying attention to him anymore.

Wavern is still for a second, confused and waiting for a strike that never came. The expression on her face is wrong, Drago notices with a pit in his stomach, like it isn't hers at all. A stranger in a familiar body.

"COME ON!" Dan shouts to Wavern, who snaps out of her daze to stare at him. "WE CAN'T DO THIS ALONE AND YOU KNOW IT!"

The realization flashes through her eyes. She shakes her head and smiles. In earnest she taps into the power of the Infinity Core. Cracks form where Drago has struck the wall shine like auroras, widening slowly.

Naga notices it, and puts his hand up to counteract his sister's power. The cracks stop widening, but they refuse to heal over.

As a burst of green wind impacts the wall from the other side and just like that, the stalemate is broken. The wall shatters.

The entire field plummets towards the earth, so fast that the three bakugan float up like they're weightless.

"Whoohoo!" Dan cheers from Drago's shoulder and he can't help the smile that curls at his lips in response, wild with relief. "Alright! Let's kick this freak back where he belongs!"

"I couldn't have said it better myself." Drago spreads his wings as the rest of the Battle Brawlers jump, fly and scramble into the battle.

Naga is suddenly on the defensive, blocking and dodging attacks from all six of them. It is obvious from the start that fighting six-to-one is a recipe for chaos. Everyone's in danger not only from Naga's enraged fighting but also from friendly fire. Yet, it's working. Naga doesn't have enough time to stop and tap into the power of the Silent Orb, and without it his fighting skills are next to none.

Hal-G notices this and raises the staff in his hand, which is immediately stolen by a smirking Chan Lee. His undignified screeching is something she'll laugh about later, for sure. (He doesn't know Alice's grandfather well enough to guess if he would be embarrassed, amused or disgusted by the display. He hopes he gets a chance to ask.)

"Wavern!" Joe jumps onto her shoulder from the sidewalk. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine now." She smiles. "We must not let this opportunity go to waste!" She flaps her wings and fires off a stream of energy into Naga's wing.

"You traitor!" he screams.

Preyas chooses that exact moment to punch him in the snout with a cry of "Look who's talking!".

Naga lets loose a blast of negative energy that sends him and Marucho flying, just in time for Gorem's hammer to hit Naga right in the back.

Tigrerra and Hydranoid decided to attack at the same time, narrowly escaping each other's claws when Naga jumps up to dodge them both.

A crowd's starting to form when most Bakugan and their Humans realize that the battle's no longer cut off, and the number of fighters is steadily increasing. Most of them focus on not letting Naga get away, forming a loose barrier around the fight. Drago's immensely grateful they decided to heed Joe's words.

"Ability Activate: Puppeteer!" Screams Shuji, and purple strings shot out from the claws of a Darkus Mantris to bind Naga and cut off his escape.

Naga lets out an unholy screech that has most people flinching. On the other hand, Mantris seems pretty pleased with its handiwork. He attaches the strings to the ground and scurries back to his Human.

"Everybody stand back!" Drago calls, and all of the Brawlers gather behind him. It is almost over, Drago realizes. One final attack is all they need. He will make it count, Drago thinks, as power begins mounting inside him.

Wavern watches from the side. Her brother is a wreck, holes in his wings, multiple broken teeth, and she is struck with how different they've become. She would have never considered suicide before. He never wanted to rule anything before all this. Wavern knew she had to make things to go back to how it was before. Before they both decided the other wasn't worth protecting anymore.

"Brother, please." She whispered to him. "Please give up. They'll kill you."

He laughs, a hollow and broken chuckle. He's bathed in a blinding light as the Brawler's combined strength began to coalesce into one final blast.

"Let them."

Dextra, the power of all six Attributes combined, is the strongest attack any Bakugan can call upon. Yet it had an immense downside; once begun, it could not be stopped. No matter what anyone did. They were bound by their own power to continue, locked in a trance.

Wavern knew this.

Nevertheless, she doesn't flinch as she places herself in between her brother and the attack. She doesn't turn around and heed the shouts of the crowd, calling for her to get out of the way. She only looks at her brother in the eye, and holds out her hand. Naga almost bats it away.

"I didn't have to die." Wavern said, as she felt the power of Dextra searing her back. "So neither do you."

The moment the energy evaporated the Puppeteer strings, Naga grabs her hand and channels as much Silent energy into his hand as he can. She does the same.

In unison, the Bakugan compress the rainbow ball of energy, aim and fire at the two siblings.

It never hits them.

Wavern and her brother swim in a bubble of pure power, which now thrums in their veins. The power outside of them dissolves, the Dextra used to create it now gone, but the power inside them sits untouched. They are both intact. They are both changed.

"Wy...vern?" Drago shakes himself out of his trance. He feels a pinprick on his shoulder and looks down at Dan, who is kicking him with tears in his eyes.

"You could've killed them! Jerk!" Dan kicks his partner again. The others were facing similar reprimands from their Human partners, by the looks of it.

"This…" Naga looked down at his hands, shaking with glee. "This is what I wanted. This was all I ever wanted!"

Everyone's attention snaps back to the two siblings. They shift back into battle stances.

"And now you have it." Wavern says with crossed arms and an annoyed expression. "WITHOUT taking over Vestroia and the Human world. The only drawback is that you have to share it with me."

"Unimportant. It took me much too long to figure out how to control the Silent Orb on my own, anyways." Naga didn't seem to get the hint. "And now that we control both–"

"It's one Orb now. The Perfect Orb."

"–Cores. I mean, Core. Singular." Naga corrected, and turns around while looking over his healed body like a dog chasing its tail. "The Perfect Core, since it's going to become the center of a planet–"

"Naga, please!" Wavern grabs her brother's shoulders and spins him around to face her. "You've declared war on Earth! You've destroyed Vestroia and moved all the Bakugan to the Human world against our will and theirs! And that's not to mention the Bakugan that are still in the Doom Dimension and beyond! We need to fix this!"

"And we will." Naga says with a smile. Wavern is taken aback by how nonchalant Naga's demeanor is. "All we need to do is remake Vestroia with its new Perfect Core and pull the Bakugan from the dimensions where they don't belong back to their new planet!"

"Are...you.." Wavern stuttered, trying to piece Naga's plan together. "Are you suggesting we become the Core of Vestroia?"

"Yes, exactly that! We are already connected to the Cores, and it takes at least two spirits to act as a bond in the Core itself. It only makes sense I be one of the two, since it would act as compensation for my actions. That way I don't have to owe anything to anyone."

Wavern was at a loss for words. She could see Naga wasn't kidding, then again he hardly ever was, but this turnabout was too much for Wavern to process after everything that had happened up until this point.

"Wavern?" The two siblings blinked and looked down. Joe was standing by Wavern's foot, looking pensive.

Wavern knelt and let Joe climb onto her hand.

"Are you going to leave?" Joe asks. His tone is soft, almost dream-like, and distracted.

Anybody else would have thought that Joe was halfway into his own head, but Wavern knew that voice as a sign of him trying to make himself enjoy the present moment as much as he could. Wavern was glad she had met and befriended Joe, even though their separation was going to hurt like a knife through the chest.

"Yes, Joe. Every minute we stay here, Vestroia disintegrates more and more. We have to return home."

"Ok," Joe responds, with a waver in his voice.

One of the adults suggests taking pictures, and it takes Wavern a second to remember what those are before she's going back to her ball form.

Everything becomes a blur of tears and goodbyes, with more pictures interspersed in between. She wishes fervently she could take with her pictures of everyone, but printing them would take time, time they don't have. (And even if they could, she would have no use for them as the Core of New Vestroia)

"We have to go," announces Naga from the rock a few ways over, where he had awkwardly watched everyone the whole time.

Wavern nods, and both of them call into the Orbs, hearing it them answer in unison. A portal bursts to life above them, and it's only a matter of asking the Orbs to gather all the Bakugan back into New Vestroia.

"Sentients! This is not a goodbye, but a farewell!" calls out Wavern as the portal closes. She does not know why she does so, but a voice whispers to wait and see.