Interposed Fortunes

by Matt Morwell

IMPORTANT: This story is the sequel to Imperiled Future. If you want to read this story and haven't read its predecessor first, it is highly recommended that you do so in order to understand the associated characters and events hereto.

Author's Notes: With the coming of September comes a new fic; my hiatus is officially ended. I guess I should insert the requisite disclaimer here. (Yu-Gi-Oh! is not mine, nor are its characters, its events, or its duel disk specifications. So I'll never get rich off those. Damn. But all of the original characters, events, and technological concepts ARE mine, so ask before you use them.) This has officially become the biggest writing project I've undertaken. That is, until another one I write later on takes its place. This is the fourth epic tale in the Shielded Destiny series, and I'm pulling out the big guns for this one. I have no idea how long it'll be, and I barely know how it's going to end. So I hope you'll indulge the director and let him sit in the theater as he watches the premiere of his big movie with the rest of you.

The scene before her looked more like a road chase movie set... skid marks and shreds of rubber gave way to pieces of metal and a swath of dark blood, all leading to an unmoving form. Hands fumbling slightly, she unbuckled her seat belt and scrambled out of the car.

It was Kyle.

He was lying at an awkward angle on the blood-tinged pavement. His right leg was pinned under the wreckage of his motorcycle, but it was bent at an impossible angle. His right arm bore gashes in it and it hung limply away from his collarbone, as if it had been pulled out. It could have been her imagination, but she almost thought she could see something white poking out of his arm. The side of his head was bereft of hair and skin; the flesh underneath had been exposed and provided a horrific splotch to the rest of his countenance, which was pale, almost chalk-white. A wide pool of blood surrounded him.

But possibly the most frightening of all, he didn't even seem to be in pain.

And the reason was apparent in the lack of movement in his chest.

He wasn't breathing.

He's dead, she thought, shuddering. They were going so fast. The bike must have gone over. He's dead.

She tried several times to lift the bike off his leg – it was large and heavy, even in its mangled state, and she lacked the leverage needed to move it as easily as he did. Once she had it off him, she dropped it to the side and knelt down to check his pulse. I have to, her mind noted dazedly, it's just one of those things that you do.

Her fingers found the hollow of his throat and rested there, half-heartedly seeking a familiar beat…

And astoundingly, it was there.

But faint, so very faint...

Stunned, it took her a moment to comprehend what she was feeling; during this time she could do little else but stare. When her mind finally caught up, she made several logical decisions. She had to get him to a hospital, she had to move him to do so, she had to move him despite the fact that it may make his injuries worse, because she simply had no other choice.

He's not breathing. Do something about it!

"Kyle? Kyle, wake up. Kyle!"

For several moments, it seemed as though nothing was going to come of the desperate command. But then, miraculously, as if he'd heard her, his jaw tightened slightly and he noisily sucked in air.

"Dammit," she swore, fully realizing the situation she was in. "Hang on, Kyle."

There was something strapped to his back, large and bulky and gold-colored, hidden under him but naggingly familiar… That pendant that he wears. It looks a lot like that. But… full size. What's going on?

The only possible way she could carry him would be to lift him under his arms. "Kyle, can you hear me? Listen to me. It's Jade." She tried to pull it off him, but straps went over his shoulders and she could see no buckles. Her mind darted back to her car, wondering if she had anything inside that would cut the straps so she could move him.

A slight groan escaped his lips. It was a gross understatement of the pain he must have been in at that moment.

Kyle! I know you are there! Jade is here! Wake up!

KYLE!

...Theoris...

Kyle's eyelids tightened oh so slightly over his eyes, the only indication he could give that he was still here. He wanted to move, but he knew that was impossible. He tried to think, but even that was a difficult task to accomplish. Theoris... what... what's happening...?

Jade is here! She is trying to help you!

Jade... what...?

His tongue clicked against the back of his throat as he tried to form the first letter of her name. Even then, he could only whisper. "J... J..."

Jade stopped trying to pull the straps off. "I'm right here, Kyle," she said. "I'm going to get something to cut these straps off with so I can take you to the hospital. Don't try to move, okay?" She felt the need to keep talking, knowing that he probably wouldn't be able to answer.

She hated to leave him alone on the road, even if it was only to run to her car; nevertheless, she ran back to the car and retrieved from the glovebox a small pocketknife. Returning to his side, she said, "Don't worry. We'll get this thing off."

His teeth chattered against each other as he tried to close his jaw. "N... nnnn..."

Kyle, do not let her cut the straps... shrink the shield!

I... I'm trying... I...

Kyle, focus on my voice. I am here with you. Put the shield in your mind. Think of it, on your back.

O-okay... I... I have it...

Now, think of it as small. In its pendant form. Around your neck, on the chain, where it belongs.

As the pocketknife neared the strap, the Millennium Shield suddenly blazed with golden fire. Jade pulled her hands back with a yelp.

Before her eyes, the shield transformed into bands of pure light... bands which flowed out from behind him and bent around him – something else which seemed impossible – before finally meeting each other again on the thin gold chain about his neck.

The light congealed into the pendant that Jade had come to know.

She didn't question... at least, not right there, at that time, because she still needed to get him to the hospital. As she pulled him toward her car, a second trail of red made a wake from the wreck, making her stomach turn. She laid him across the backseat, wishing for a moment her car was larger, and then started the car.

She drove as fast as she dared, taking the first open off-ramp, looking back every few seconds to gauge how Kyle was doing. "Are you listening to me, Kyle? We're going to the hospital. Stay awake."

Kyle's breathing was heavy and labored, as if he couldn't get air in as fast as he needed it... or as if he wasn't getting enough. He was still bleeding badly, and he tried desperately to find a way to talk to Jade. Unfortunately, the speed he wanted his mind and body to move was quite different from the speed they would let him move.

His teeth continued to chatter and his whispering was full of violent shuddering. "C... c-c-c.... co..."

She made it to the hospital in record time, honking her horn wildly and screeching to a halt straddling the curb and the emergency parking. She leapt out and opened the backseat door.

"Hold on. If you fall asleep, I'm going to kick your ass later," she quipped, before she was pushed out of the way by the doctors who had come running out of the building at her arrival.

"What happened here?" one of the doctors asked.

"He was in a motorcycle accident."

"And you found him?"

"Look, just help him!" Jade snapped. The tone of her voice was vicious enough that the doctor didn't ask any more questions. She watched as they put Kyle on a gurney and rushed him through the doors. Try as she might, she couldn't suppress a shudder at everything that had happened in the last five minutes.

"Miss, wait, where are you going?" One of the nurses tried to stop her as she got back in the driver's seat.

"I'll be back soon." She shrugged the nurse off.

–

She expected the scene to be rife with police and morbid bystanders, like most accident scenes were, even one on a supposedly closed highway. Yet there was no one around – there was just the wreckage of Kyle's motorcycle and the drying blood to mark where he had been. She walked around slowly, trying to memorize how everything looked.

His duel disk had fallen off his forearm when she had pulled him into the car, and the Gate Guardian card was still pressed to the play area, undamaged – though the disk was probably ruined. She felt distinctly guilty when she picked up the Gate Guardian and put it in her pocket. She slowly combed the scene for the rest of his cards. Most were still in the same area, but a few had traveled to the edge of the road in the light wind. A few – and it took a good deal of willpower to pick these up – were utterly ruined from where they had been saturated by his blood.

Once she had collected all of the cards she could find, she rolled the wreckage of his bike as far off the road as she could. She put the duel disk on the passenger seat beside her, and drove back to the hospital.

–

"Excuse me." She flagged down a nurse in the hallway. "There was a guy about my age brought in earlier. He was in a motorcycle accident. Can you tell me where I can find him?"

The nurse offered a sympathetic look. "You are the one who brought him in, yes? He's still in the emergency room. He lost a great deal of blood and his body is having trouble incorporating the transfusions we are trying to administer. Our doctors are doing everything they can for him."

The last phrase was spoken with a sort of false sincerity to it, as though she were trying to reassure Jade that everything would be all right, when the actual situation was much worse.
Jade pushed her hair back from her face with both hands, sighing. There was, for the moment, nothing she could do. "Okay," she said. "Then can you point me in the direction of the waiting room or something... and let me know when he's out of emergency...?"

The nurse nodded. "Of course." She pointed to Jade's left. "There is a waiting room on his floor. Take that elevator up to level three and it should lead you to a lobby there. I will tell you as soon as we know anything at all. Is that satisfactory?"

She nodded, following the directions. The waiting room was noisy and crowded, and Jade squeezed into a hard plastic chair on the end of a row. And despite her best intentions, she fell asleep; her dreams consisted mostly of squealing tires, the crunch of metal on pavement, and glowing necklaces.

–

Hours later, the nurse lived up to her word and sought out Jade in the waiting room. By now, it was past midnight, and surely the Battle City finals were already taking place. People were watching the television, transfixed on the tube, as they heard the latest updates from Kaiba Craft 3, the blimp in which the finalists were apparently being transported and – even now – dueling.

The nurse gently shook Jade's shoulder. "Miss? I have news regarding your friend."

Jade woke disoriented, looking up at the nurse. "Where is he? Is he all right?"

"He is alive–" the words made Jade breath a sigh of relief "–but far from 'all right'. His injuries are very severe. If you had reached him even five minutes later than you did..." The nurse sighed. "He is very fortunate that you came at that time. His chances for survival are certainly better now, but... full recovery is not probable. For now, he is in stable condition, but still very frail."

"I want to see him," Jade demanded, standing up.

"It is not advisable for him to have visitors at this time," the nurse protested.

"Look, he doesn't have anyone else who's going to visit him. I swear I won't lay a finger on him, but I want to see him, and you're going to show me where he is."

The nurse was dismayed, but ultimately, she ended up showing Jade to a room on the north end; when Jade entered, her nose wrinkled instinctively at the smell of disinfectant and some other material unique to hospitals.

He looked absolutely terrible, even in a more cleaned-up state. At least half his body had been wrapped up in gauze, and his right leg was in a full cast all the way up to his thigh. His right arm wasn't much better off, either; it was rigged in a sling and had also been tucked away in a full cast. His face was still pale – what there was that she could see of it, because it too had been half-covered in bandages.

She took a seat beside his bed, watching him as he slept, or lay unconscious... whichever he was at the moment.

"Hey," she said, to break the silence. "I brought your deck. Your disk is pretty mauled, you'll need a new one. But I'm pretty sure I got all your cards. Even the Gate Guardian." She fished it out of her pocket and held it up, even though his eyes were closed. "It's right here." She put it down beside his hand on the pristine white bed sheet. She would have put it in his hand, but she was worried he would crush it if he woke.

She closed her eyes for a moment and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You realize how much explaining you have to do when you wake up? Those freaks on horseback, and that necklace of yours... nothing's making sense and I know you know something about it."

He didn't respond. He simply lay there, swathed in gauze and a typical hospital gown that, were he not lying down, would have provided his back with a rather sizeable draft. The blood had been washed away from him, for the most part, except for where the actual injuries were. His lips were slightly cracked, and from under the edges of the gauze, his scraped flesh could just be made out.

Whatever his dreams, they weren't making him stir.

Jade had heard somewhere that talking to unconscious people sometimes brought them around. She wasn't sure if there was any truth in that, but it certainly couldn't hurt. Besides, she mused wryly, I think I just figured out that it's almost as much for the people talking as it is for the patient. "Well, I might as well tell you about the Battle City finals. It's being televised."

She shifted around in her seat. "Yugi Motou and Ryou Bakura played the first match. I didn't see it but apparently it was right down to the last turn. Bakura played the card Dark Necrofear and Motou played a monster I've never heard of before. There are rumors about special one-of-a-kind cards... it had to be one of those."

Kyle's fingers shifted ever so slightly, lifting up and down. The movement was infinitesimal, but it was real. It was almost as if they were trying to move towards his Gate Guardian card... though how he could know it was there was a mystery, if he was asleep.

"The second duel is still going on, the results haven't been aired yet. It's listing Joey Wheeler and Malik Ishtar as the duelists, though."

Kyle remained unresponsive. The bleeping of the various monitors around him was momentarily the only noise that interrupted the silence between the two duelists.

"So that's what's going on." She regarded him frankly. "You're really lucky, Kyle. Your bike is totaled, right trashed, no saving it. You're lucky you're not the same way. I followed you because... hell, I don't even know why I followed you. But I'm glad I did."

She noticed something then, something that hadn't registered because she'd purposely pushed it out of her mind so she didn't drive herself crazy wondering about it. His neck, aside from a swatch of bandages, was unadorned. He wasn't wearing his necklace.

She hunted around until she found his clothing – what was left of it – on the shelf under the wheeled medical tray. She rummaged though it, trying to ignore the blood stains, until she found a paper bag labeled "Personal" and opened it. Among other things, the gold chain was in there. She pulled it out and let it dangle from her fingers for a moment.

The pendant seemed to be catching the light a certain way... which was odd, because there wasn't much light coming into the room, and beyond that, Jade was holding it up against her view of the door. That the front was catching light at all was... disturbing.

No. No, it wasn't catching the light. As impossible as it seemed, it was emitting its own.

It was... glimmering.

Her first instinct was something along the lines of "Stuff it back in the bag" or "Throw it across the room", neither of which she obeyed. Instead, fascinated, she watched it, almost transfixed by the way it shone. Officially moving to the top of the weird list, she thought, but... She leaned over and worked it as gently as possible over Kyle's head and down around his neck.

Whatever it is, whatever it was I think I saw, or did see... it's important to him.

The glimmering of the pendant brightened, but didn't intensify. It was a warm, soft glow. Something about the light seemed to make it imply – as absurd as the concept of a tone of light implying anything sounded – that this was exactly where the pendant belonged... right here, with Kyle, its owner.

He began to stir.

"Kyle?" Jade asked softly.

The same warm, soft glow from the pendant suddenly appeared in the center of Kyle's forehead. The glow had a greater intensity in the center... as if it had form. And the form it took was the same eye shape that was on the pendant.

Kyle's eyes opened.

They were glowing gold.