Hello everyone and welcome to my EPIC FANFIC! MUAHAHA! (Yes Smeepalicious, this is it, don't read it. You're not allowed to.) (You might want to read this, but if you're lazy and you don't want to, proceed to the disclaimer.) Now a few things about said fanfic, this takes place a few years after the series ends, everyone's out of high school and such. Zane's heart condition is slightly better, but he's still going to die because of it, and he is no longer Hell-Kaiser, he has really gone back to he was before. And Jaden's back from the whole wandering around thing, and Yubel is gone. Why? Because when I started this fic I hadn't known Yubel even existed. (No, I haven't been working on this for years; I just have been watching the episodes online.) YAY! This fic is novel-length, I have the vast majority of it done, but I've reached a pit of writer's block (NOOOOO!) which has caused me to hit a block in the road with it, therefore, I thought I'd post the chapters I have (Ha, all like, 20-something of them) and maybe the brilliant reviews would give me the kick in my caboose that I need to get this thing back running. Yes, I'm modest as well. Now it's going to be in "books", the books take turns being from two different people's perspectives. Like the first book is from Zane. And yes I use the American names, why you may ask? Because I'm lazy and would rather spell Chazz than Manjoume. Please no flaming, I worked my ass off on this fic (ask Smeepalicious) and I really don't think that it's a Mary Sue, due to the fact that I find my OC a horny, despicable person. But constructive criticism is fine, just don't be rude. Fanfiction is fun; it's a hobby and really shouldn't be taken that seriously. If you are really that devoted to writing that you think people shouldn't have fun with this crap than stop writing on here. (Sorry, done with my rant now.) And yes, I use the names Claire and Dieter far to often in my fics, but I think all ya'all have to deal with the fact that they're my favorite names. One last thing, this fic was inspired by a bunch of songs, but mostly Yellow by Coldplay. Some others come up as the book quotes, but I just wanted to give special props to that song.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN YU-GI-OH OR THE FEW YU-GI-OH CHARACTERS IN THIS FIC. I DO NOT OWN DOMINO CITY OR ANY OF THE CARDS USED IN THIS FIC. DON'T ARREST ME PLEASE! I WOULDN'T LAST TEN MINUTES IN THE SLAMMER!
Rating: T, for some lime (in later chapters), swearing and epic romance for the ages.
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Book One: Zane
"Because diamonds appear to be just like broken glass to me."
-Panic At The Disco, Northern Downpour
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When she walked into the room, my eyes immediately went towards her, as did every one else's. My brain told me that it was just charisma, but something from somewhere else was completely enthralled. There was just something in her air, in the way that she carried herself, which made me look longer than everyone else. It didn't seem like anyone had expected her, but for some reason she was there.
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Two weeks ago the Blue Eyes- Under Twenty-Five tournament had started, and advancing to the finals was child's play. At least for me, it was. My brother, Cyrus, didn't make it past the third duel. But the finalists consisted of an uninteresting bunch of people. It was almost a Duel Academy reunion; Jaden Yuki, Alexis and Atticus Rhodes, Jesse Anderson, Aster Phoenix and myself were all finalists. There was also an anonymous boy from North Academy and a girl that no one seemed to know was also there. The latter two seemed more separated from the group, especially the boy. The girl however, stood close to Aster, closer than strangers usually stood. It seemed like they were making it a point not to look at each other. Everyone's guess was that they knew each other from something or another, and Aster was just being kind and letting her stand near him to feel more included. I didn't really care; I left Aster's concerns to Aster.
"Ladies and gentleman," Chazz Princeton's annoyingly high-pitched voice boomed over the P.A. system. God only knew why Kaiba had given him the job of being the announcer for the tournament considering, as Jaden said, he had the face for radio, but not the voice. "Hello and welcome to Seto Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Under Twenty-Five tournament!" Almost immediately the overexcited crowd began to cheer uncontrollably. Chazz took almost a full minute to settle them down. "Are you ready to meet our eight finalists?" The cheering started up again, and yet again, Chazz had to take another minute to settle them. The amount of time it took to get forward was beginning to really annoy me. "Good. Then welcome the host of this tournament, Seto Kaiba, who will introduce them!"
The roar that Kaiba received as he walked onstage was deafening. The boy from North Academy, obviously unaccustomed to having to hear such loud noises, covered his ears. But as soon as Kaiba raised his arms the crowd was silent. He then relaxed into his usual stance and grabbed the microphone out of Chazz's hands, much to Chazz's dismay.
"Welcome to my tournament." He said without a smile, or any emotion really.
Alexis leaned into my ear and whispered "He makes you look like Jaden." She giggled, thinking she was funny, even though she wasn't. Kaiba continued his speech, but I couldn't focus. Not only because I had heard the same speech by the host of every contest that I had ever been in, but also because my eyes kept wandering over to the mysterious girl duelist. It surprised me that she made it into the finals, I hadn't seen her in any tournaments before, and I know that she had never participated in a professional duel. And it wasn't like she was a forgettable person, with her chin length orange hair and bright blue eyes, I would have remembered her.
"I will now introduce our finalists." I vaguely heard Kaiba say after a few minutes, and I began to focus. "Jaden Yuki," The crowd gave a deafening cheer as the fan favorite walked onstage and attempted to give Kaiba a high five, and was rejected. "Atticus Rhodes," My friend walked up onto the stage and winked in the audience and did a finger point at a few of the girls. Every woman screamed and shouted for joy and began to swoon. "Jesse Anderson," Jesse rushed up onto the stage and stood next to Jaden, they both smiled at each other, and then looked out at the crowd. "Dieter Multov," The boy from North Academy's head popped up and he slowly walked onto the stage, which obviously annoyed Kaiba. When he got up there he stood awkwardly away from everyone else. He got the least applause out of any of the other finalists so far. "Alexis Rhodes," My fiancé walked up to the stage and gave a quick nod to Kaiba before standing next to her brother. "Claire Rodgers," The mysterious girl, who's name was apparently Claire, gracefully walked up to Kaiba, who reached out to shake her hand. It was strange that she was the only one that he made contact with, he had ignored everyone else. "Aster Phoenix," Aster waved to the crowd as he walked up onto the stage. The cheers for him were almost as loud as Jaden's, people liked Aster's charisma. He immediately stood next to Claire, he nervously glanced at her, but her eyes were fixated on the crowd. "And lastly, Zane Truesdale." As I began to walk up to Kaiba, Claire's eyes caught mine. We made eye contact for a moment, then with a small smile, she looked away. My heart was beating fast, and I didn't know why. Usually when it beat like that, I was in pain due to my condition, but this time, it didn't hurt. I took my place next to Alexis, and felt my fiancé's caring eyes on me, all to aware that something was wrong. "I'd like to congratulate our finalists and let everyone know what tomorrow's match-ups will be, at 9:00 am Zane Truesdale will face Dieter Multov in the first bracket, and at 3:00 pm Claire Rodgers will face off against Alexis Rhodes on the second bracket." Kaiba walked offstage as Chazz took up the microphone again.
"That's right ladies and gents, tomorrow's match-ups will be Zane verses Dieter and Claire verses Alexis. Be there…" he added a dramatic pause, "or be square!" He winked at the audience, who were all very confused. "The Chazz is out!" Chazz walked offstage and signaled for the finalists to follow him.
Chazz took us down a long hallway that was obviously not open to the public.
"What's up Chazz?" Jaden's annoyingly bright voice said.
"Not much loser." Chazz said in response, trying to end the conversation.
"Can we please get this meeting over with?" Alexis pleaded while she intertwined her fingers with mine. "I just want to get to the hotel." I glanced over at Claire, who was smirking at me, and our eyes met. I kept my poker face on, though embarrassed, and turned to look at a smiling Alexis.
"Fine." Chazz said, his voice slightly more bitter than usual. "We, meaning Seto and I," he paused with a triumphant smile, he obviously thought that we cared about his name-dropping, and even worse, he thought we were impressed. "wanted to tell you how the finals would be run. For the first round of duels, there will be two duels a day, every other day. For the second round, it will be one duel a day, every two days. Three days after the last duel of the second round the final duel will be played. The first group of people knows whom they'll be dueling tomorrow, and the second group's opponents will be announced after Claire and Alexis's duel. There are two brackets, and if you don't know how that works, then go back to Kindergarten. If there's a draw in a duel, each person draws until they get a monster card. The first monster card they get, they put in attack mode on the field, whichever monster has a stronger attack, is the winner. Got it?"
Everyone muttered a positive response and Chazz gave everyone to okay to leave. As people began walking towards the door Jaden's voice rang out.
"Hey everyone!" Jaden projected. "I'm going to have a party in my room tonight! Bring anyone you want!" We were all staying at the Chateau d'Kaiba, all expenses paid. Alexis smiled at me and I knew that I would be forced to go. I tried to look for Claire, to see what her reaction was, because for some reason, I was morbidly curious. But it seemed that she had already walked out before Jaden had even finished talking, and curiously enough, Aster was missing as well. "We'll all meet in my room, room Elemental Hero Clayman on the Earth Floor at about seven. Bring food!"
I sighed and told him that Alexis and I would be there.
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Once we walked out of the building, my fiancé cornered me.
"You could act a little more excited Zane. I mean, we're both finalists and we're both going to be dueling tomorrow!" I looked into her eyes, both angry and concerned. My expression didn't change. "Is there something wrong?" She asked me.
"No." I told her. "I'm just a little tired." She pulled my arms around her in a tight embrace.
"Is it your heart?" She asked, moving her head so that her ear was against my chest.
"No. I just didn't sleep well last night."
"Okay, we won't stay at the party long. I just want to meet the two new duelists." I considered telling there that we shouldn't bother, that they probably wouldn't show up at the party, especially Dieter, who seemed extremely anti-social, and shy, and it wouldn't matter. And that we would beat both of them tomorrow. But I knew the second was a lie, I didn't know why, but I thought that Claire could be serious competition for Alexis.
"Fine." I said as I let go of her, happy for an excuse to. "Go to the hotel, I'll meet you there in a little bit." I saw the hurt on her face and explained. "I'm going to get some food to bring to the party. I'll meet you before the party in our room, okay?" I kissed her lightly on the lips and walked away, not really knowing where I was going, just wanting to leave the place I was.
After a few minutes I looked back to make sure that Alexis was out of view. She was. I went into a near-by alleyway and slumped against a wall. I slid down the wall until I was sitting with my elbows on my knees, and my face was hidden in my hands. It wasn't that I didn't love Alexis, I did. But only as a sister, she could never be more than that to me. Everything with her leading up to this point had been a huge mistake.
When I had first… asked her out… for lack of a better term, I thought my feelings could evolve, but after time, they didn't. And when my mother gave me the family ring when she divorced dad, and Alexis had found it in my car, I was about to… break-up… again with a lack of a better term, with her. Then I found myself engaged. I had put off setting a date for as long as possible, but I knew that Alexis was getting antsy to set one up. I didn't know how to tell her that I could never love her the way she loved me.
I was still thinking about my situation when I heard a familiar voice and a shadow over me. "Dude, get up." Aster Phoenix told me. I look up to see him… and Claire, the mystery duelist, standing above me, Aster with a somewhat smug face and Claire with a look of concern.
"Aster, leave him alone." Her voice was rougher than I thought it would be, gruffer. "You want to be left alone, right?" I was still thinking about how strange her voice was, and how seemingly appropriate it was for her. I didn't know why I had ever thought that her voice would be more… musical. Her question didn't even register in my brain before she continued to speak a few moments later. "Come on Aster, he's obviously in La-La Land." The two of them walked away almost immediately, after a moment she looked back at me with a confused face. I could swear that I heard her say "And he was the best duelist at that school you went to? Why'd you ever waste your time there Aster?" I winced as she said the words, probably not meant for me to hear. Usually the words wouldn't faze me, but they sounded so cruel… and honest coming from her lips.
Her chin length orange hair blew up in the wind and she gave an involuntary shiver in the chilly October night. Without hesitation Aster put his arm around her waist and she settled her head on top of his shoulder, a tad bit of a stretch for her, but she looked to be extremely comfortable. He pulled her closer into him and I heard them laugh. Suddenly, I felt a rage so strong, and so intense inside of me that I was briefly reminded of me when I was… not myself. Though I still had the image of the… Hell-Kaiser, I was not still him. I had become softer, more like the person who I had used to be. Nearly being killed due to something like that makes you think twice about who you were. I quickly got up and began to walk in the other direction. It was the only thing I could do to keep myself from killing the two of them.
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I reached the hotel twenty minutes later with a bag of generic cookies in my hands. As soon as I got in the door I swiftly walked into a closing elevator, and found myself next to Aster and Claire, whose lips were latched together tightly. The elevator began to move, but they continued. It wasn't until I not only coughed politely, but also nearly hacked out a lounge, that Aster even noticed me and gently pushed Claire off of him. There was an awkward moment while we all stared at each other, but almost thankfully, the elevator door opened a few seconds later at the Water Floor. Claire smiled and waved goodbye to Aster, then got off of the elevator.
"So…" I said to Aster casually, though I could feel the anger rising up in my chest. "Who's playing mind-games, you or her?"
"Mind-games?" Aster asked with a quizzical look on his face. "Zane, I don't know what you mean by mind-games." I smiled, despite myself. He was either a really bad actor, or he was being played pretty hard.
"I think you do Aster." The elevator stopped at my floor. I walked out and turned around. The elevator door began to close, but I stuck my hand in to stop it momentarily. "Why else would you be snogging the competition?"
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Ha. I had some Cyrus bashing. I do not like that kid. YAY! And Kaiba's hotel is, you guessed it! DUEL MONSTERS THEMED! I hoped you like it, if you did review. Seriously. The next chapter will be posted when I can get my lazy ass to post it. Le woot.