Title: Deadly Chance
Characters: Assassin (OC), Haou (Juudai), Elemental Hero Neos, Skull Bishop
Genre: Drama||Rated: PG
Challenge: Diversity: canon divergent/alternate timelines: A57, 500 words; GX Flash Bingo: bloodshed; Collect the Death Duelists: Skull Bishop
Notes: This takes place in a divergent timeline. More after the drabble.
Summary: Someone wants to end the Neo-Spacians. That is far easier said than done.
He took every movement with exaggerated care. He dared not let a single footfall give him away. Not only was he a professional, but he'd been paid to do this without being uncovered in any way.
I wonder why anyone would pay so highly for this.
What caught his curiosity even more was the question of why his employer would pay so much not for him to drive a blade into the warlord, but to steal and burn the warlord's deck. Did he believe that he couldn't defeat Haou-sama in duel combat?
It wasn't such a strange thought. Few indeed ever worked Haou-sama down to under a thousand life points, and even those few ended up dead in the end.
He focused back on his task. The deck awaited him, slotted neatly into Haou's duel disk, set on the table without a guard in sight. He swallowed and moved forward, one hand reaching forward to rest on the cards carefully.
"Who paid you for this?"
Each word clipped and cold sent chills down his spine. He lunged forward, intent on snatching the deck and disk and fleeing, finding his employer and letting him burn the Neo-Spacian cards.
The deck and disk vanished before he could grab it and Haou stood there, Elemental Hero Neos standing in front of him. One glance passed between Haou and Neos, and then a silver armored hand knocked the would-be assassin across the room, slamming him into the wall.
Both of them approached him, footfalls echoing ominously. Neos seized him by the throat, raising him up.
"Haou-sama asked a question." Neos stared at him. No matter how hard he struggled, Assassin couldn't escape the grip. "You will answer."
Assassin shook his head. "I can't!" He couldn't. His employer made certain of that. He'd seen and heard nothing, only an enchanted paper with writing that faded once he'd agreed to the contract.
Neos's gaze flicked toward Haou, who now gripped Assassin's throat with his own armored hand. Acid-yellow eyes bored into his and he could feel something ripping through his mind, leaving streaks of terror and fear and burning light behind. Every thought he'd ever had from the moment he'd become capable of thought Haou laid bare.
What was left of Assassin mewled softly when dropped, little more than a mindless shell. Haou kicked the mess with one armored foot.
"Have it disposed of," he told Neos. This wasn't the first time someone attempted to slaughter the Neo-Spacians and would likely not be the last. It would never work; he and they were too tightly bonded for that.
But it remained annoying. He would have to deal with the source: that rebellion, led by Johan Andersen and Yubel. He would end them, once and for all.
Skull Bishop dared not react. If Haou-sama figured out that he'd paid Assassin for that job, there would be nothing left of him.
He would have to try again later. But he would end the Neo-Spacians, one way or another.
The End
Notes: The source of this alternate timeline is a question I asked myself once: what if Juudai's hope for Yubel to be healed by the space waves/Gentle Darkness came true? And what if the Light of Ruin found Neos & the Neo-Spacians instead?