Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Author: Higuchimon
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Keeping The Cover
Characters: Ryou, Juudai||Romance: N/A
Word Count: 500||Status: One-shot
Genre: Drama||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, A80, T rated fic; Easter Egg Basket Advent day #21, write a drabble a day for a week, 5/7
Challenge Location: Diversity Writing Challenge & Easter Egg Basket Advent located at Duel Monsters Writing Academy Forum on FFnet.
Notes: This takes place in my reversal world, where Juudai's powers are those of the Destructive Darkness. This one is set before Ryou's status as a spy is uncovered.
Summary: To keep his cover in Haou's army, Ryou has to do a lot of things that he doesn't like.

Almost at the same moment, the row of houses and cottages, once so neat and well-kept, burst into flames. Virtually every member of Haou-sama's army burst into cheers, waving fists or weapons. Only a few dared to remain silent, but not one of them looked disapproving.

Among those silent stood Hell Kaiser, arms folded over his chest, his attention focused on the chaos and carnage as if he'd seen such matters every day of his life and found this boring.

He'd only seen this since Haou began his war and the last thing he found it was boring. But putting that sort of expression on his face meant that no one would ask why he wasn't cheering with the rest of them.

The back of his neck tingled and he turned in time to see two figures approaching. Without hesitation he dropped down to one knee: the usual salute of a warrior to Haou-sama and his consort.

Haou's lips thinned in approval. "Have you been enjoying your time with us, Hell Kaiser?"

"It's everything I imagined that it would be," Ryou replied at once. He didn't lie. Lying to Haou could be a very bad idea. No one knew if he could sense lies or not, but he chose not to take that risk. Not until he learned what had been done to Johan and if it could be undone.

"I'm sure." Haou stared down at him before he looked toward the burning wreckage. Only a handful of captives had been taken and most of those would end up in the arena, or worse. Haou enjoyed seeing people suffer at his command. "Are there any rebel establishments in the area?"

Ryou considered what he knew. "There was a place not that far from here. I don't know if it's still functioning." It hadn't been one of those scheduled to be shut down after his supposed defection, but once the word became widespread, he suspected Edo would take certain measures to close down some of them that he didn't know about. The point was to convince Haou that Ryou held important, useful information, to consider him an asset. That meant sacrifices, as hard and as painful and heart-wrenching as it could be.

"How far away is it?"

Again Ryou considered. "Less than a day on foot. Quicker with transportation of some kind."

Hoofbeats sounded and Ryou looked up to see Firewing Pegasus standing next to Haou, with Advanced Gem Beast Sapphire Pegasus next to Johan. In front of him there now stood a Golden Pegasus, a creature that he'd only seen in cards before.

"Mount up," Haou ordered. "Take us there."

Ryou didn't offer any objections. There weren't any that would've been accepted. He did as he was told, gripping onto Golden Pegasus's mane, and urging it to the skies, the other two following him.

The base hadn't been shut down. Haou took care of that, with Johan's assistance: and just enough escapees to spread the word of Ryou's new allegiance.

The End

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.