Hi all!
Well, as I said in my latest story, A Pain Hidden Away, I have been working on this drabble for a while now. But it's finally finished! So here's the fourth installment of my Dark World drabble series, Aftermath: Life After The Supreme King! I hope everyone enjoys this story and please don't forget to review!
X-X
He'd hoped that it was all a dream, that Jim and Axel would be there when he woke up, smiling at him and joking about his nightmare. But when Jaden had woken up, they weren't there and Aster, Syrus and even Zane averted their gazes from him when he'd asked about them. Jaden looked back down to his lap, clenching his fists there angrily. It hadn't been a dream. His friends were gone! All by his own hand.
But that wasn't the worst of it. As Jaden began to shake (whether in fear, anger, disgust or because he was cold, Jaden didn't know), memories flared up in his mind. Memories of burning villages, screaming children and duelists disappearing in a shimmer of golden lights. They twisted and swirled together; a seemingly unending wave of memories of people fighting, screaming, crying and dying. It made Jaden sick to his stomach when he realised that the memories were his, not something Yubel had planted in his head. He remembered feeling triumphant and gleeful when another village had been flattened. He remembered laughing to himself quietly, not out of fear of being heard but out of needing the moment to feel as personal as possible.
Many duelists had tried to challenge him in the beginning. They lined up outside the castle walls, impatiently waiting to overtake the new, boy king; to grasp the power he held for themselves. It hadn't taken the Supreme King long to defeat them all. Dozens of duelists sent to the stars while the boy king laughed evilly.
Jaden could barely hear Aster talking beside him over the roar of painful cries in his ears but once Aster mentioned Jaden's friends needing him, Jaden turned away from him and slumped forward slightly. "Friends? Who would want to be friends with me, after what I did?"
Aster kept talking, trying to help Jaden but all Jaden could concentrate on was the unrelenting pounding in his head. He buried a hand in his two-toned brown hair to try and relieve some of the pressure. The memories of what he'd done - what the Supreme King had done, Jaden couldn't help but to remind himself - weighed heavily on his mind. Coupled with the rather intense duels between himself and Jim, and then himself and Axel, Jaden's body was pushed to its limit and vehemently reminded Jaden of this every time he breathed in through sore lungs.
Another moment passed with Aster laying a hand on Jaden's shoulder and he fell into Aster's embrace. He was exhausted and he knew it. Jaden's eyes fell closed and he heard Aster speak with Zane and Syrus, saying that he had a fever. The next moment, he was fast asleep, with the Supreme King's memories to keep him company in the form of nightmares.
After he'd awoken and Aster was sent away by Adrian Gecko, Jaden began to separate himself from the Supreme King. It was better than admitting it was all on him. The people who died, the villages that were destroyed, the lives ruined; it was all on Jaden. And he couldn't face that, not yet. So he made it clear that it was the Supreme King, not him who had done those awful things. His mind allowed the lie but his heart knew the horrible truth.
Syrus would look at Jaden with that sad, knowing look of his. He saw Jaden lying to himself and instead of stopping that in its tracks, he let it continue. Sooner or later, Jaden could have to face what he had done as the Supreme King. Different name or not, it had been Jaden and while he was lying to himself now, Syrus knew he couldn't do it forever.
He just needed to let Jaden believe it, even for a moment. The time would come where Jaden would need to own up to what he'd done. And thanks to Yubel, that moment came sooner than Syrus had anticipated.