They had lost.
All of their preparation...
All of their journeys across dimensions...
It was all for naught.
And to think, it was all because of her.
Her; the one woman in the world who managed to do what no else could:
Bring Red Hat and the Signers to their knees.
Konami hissed as his body slammed against the floor of the Vylon Temple. The open wounds sprinkled across his body surged with pain upon impact, and he was fairly sure that his right arm had been broken the blow. He pushed past the pain and crawled to his knees, searching for the clarity that Yusei had displayed earlier so that he could rise back to his feet-
"No."
His enemy's hiss was the only warning he received. A second passed, and Konami let out a roar of pain as a mechanical spear drove its way through his left leg, pinning him to the ground.
Konami gripped his sweaty palms around the spear and attempted to remove it from his appendage, but it was no use. The weapon launched from the woman's machine was simply too heavy for a mere mortal to lift on their own.
He was stuck there.
Unable to move - unable to dodge-!
"Finish him."
A second spear launched, poised for his very heart.
The attack struck true.
But the victim was not the one expected.
It was...
"W-Wisteria..." Konami breathed, staring wide-eyed at the woman who was suddenly standing before him. The spear had impaled her right through the center, but despite the immense pain she must have been feeling, there was an unmistakable smile on her face as she turned toward him.
"Konami-kun..." she whispered softly, "Are you...okay...?"
Konami didn't answer. He couldn't answer. How could he, when he'd just watched her take a fatal blow for him?
"W-Wisteria-" he gasped, extending a hand toward her.
She smiled and reached back, but before their hands could meet, the spear retracted, releasing a neverending spray of blood into the air. Wisteria fell forward with a gasp, collapsing into Konami's arms as she gasped and choked for air.
"No...No, no, no..." Konami whispered, cradling the girl with his hands as he searched for any way to stop the bleeding. Of course, there was none. The attack had torn through her completely; she wouldn't last a minute.
"K-Konami," she frothed, blood bubbling from her lips as she tried to speak. She raised a hand toward his face, "I-I'll always love you-"
The hand fell, and her head rolled to the side.
She was gone.
"No..." Konami whispered, bowing his head as he held the corpse close. "Wisteria, I... I can't..."
"Can't what?"
Konami's eyes widened as he heard the voice of his enemy, and he raised his head only to find the older woman standing mere inches before him. Her lips were set in a thin line, masking her emotions with an unnatural veil of calmness one could expect from the creator of the Vylon. Konami felt his rage bubble just by looking at her - she didn't have the right to wear such an expression. Not after what she had done, not with what she planned to do!
He felt his Duel Disk twinge on his arm. If he could just play one last card-!
"No." The spear in her hands tore through his shoulder, and it was with a firm snarl that he found himself lifted high into the air by the weapon's sharp tip. "I've seen the magic you and your 'friends' are capable of. I will not fall for such tactics again. Besides..." the woman muttered, glancing at the beaten Duel Disk resting on Konami's arm. "They've hit zero long ago."
"I'm going to kill you," Konami promised the woman. "I swear to God, I'll find a way to do it."
The woman must have found some humor in that, because her calm facade cracked, exposing an amused, if not smug, smile.
"God?" she inquired. "Dearest child, haven't you realized by now that it's because of God that I'm here?"
She stepped forward and pressed a cold hand to his cheek.
"You've failed, Konami Kodo," she whispered, rubbing the sweat and blood off his face with her thumb. "All who would oppose me are gone. The Signers, the Nobles, the Rune-eyed heretics... From famous Yusei Fudo, all the way down to your precious little fangirl. They are all gone, but they needn't be. Give me the God Card, and I promise you...in my new world, some of your friends will still be alive."
"Never."
The woman sighed and lowered her hand, "Then you will die. Goodbye, Konami Kodo." She reached for her spear-
"Wait, don't kill him! I'll give you what you want!" a voice called out.
Konami stilled. He knew that voice; he heard it every time he stepped out of his apartment-
"Enzo, what are you doing?" Konami sputtered.
"Saving your life," Enzo said grimly, stepping forward with his hands held high above his head in surrender. A glowing card shone softly in the palms of one of them.
"Ah, the friend." The woman hummed, tossing the spear holding Konami aside so that she could turn toward Enzo. "You did seem to be the smart one."
"You want the God card? Take it!" Enzo shouted, throwing the shining Duel Monsters card down on the floor. "But let the rest of us live. No more Duels, no more killing."
The woman sucked in a breath, feeling the power emanating from the thrown card. "Truly?" she inquired, "No tricks?"
"No tricks," Enzo promised.
"No," Konami grunted, attempting to move to no avail. "Don't give it to her; you...you don't know what she could do with it-"
"We don't have a choice," Enzo said, bowing his head low. "We'll take the deal, no tricks."
The woman smiled, then reached down and wrapped her fingers around the sacred card. Its light shone even brighter the moment it made contact with her, and she gasped, hugging it close to her chest as if embracing a lost family member.
"Finally, I've found it, after all these years..." the woman breathed, knees buckling as she very nearly fell to the ground in relief.
"You've got what you wanted," Enzo told her. "Now keep your side of the deal and let us go."
The woman's body shivered in excitement, not even listening as she summoned a Duel Disk to her side. She placed the card upon it...then vanished upon a gentle breeze.
Enzo took a simple step back, then let himself fall to his knees in relief. He'd done it; he'd saved them...but at what cost?
"Why would you do that?" Konami asked him. "Everyone...Everyone died to keep that card out of Vylon hands. So... So why would you do that?"
"Because, Konami..." Enzo murmured softly while looking at his longtime friend, "It was the only way."
And then, a great mighty dragon burst from the earth.
-TFS-
Konami's eyes shot open and he gasped for air. The terrible dream was gone, replaced only by the rumbling of the tracks outside as a train roared past. He took a deep breath, calming himself as he brushed the bed covers off of his shirtless body.
That's right, he remembered, rubbing his fingers against his forehead as his eyes adjusted to the darkness of his surroundings. He was in his apartment, away from the nightmarish Disigma and the other monsters found in his sleep. Even so, that dream... it had felt so real. Something about it didn't sit right with him-
"Konami?" a familiar voice asked sweetly from his side. "What's wrong?"
Briefly, he paused, before recalling just what-or rather, who he had been doing before turning in for the night prior. Growing a smile, he cast his gaze down to the bed where the worried face of his bedtime companion was waiting.
"It's nothing Wis," he told her, brushing a stray hair out of her face with his finger. "Just a bad dream. Go back to sleep, I'll be back in a minute."
"Mm...okay," Wisteria yawned, adjusting the sheets to cover her exposed skin, "If you're sure. Promise you're alright?"
"Yeah," Konami promised, rising from the bed.
He strode across the room and snatched his pants off the floor, pulling them up his cold and exposed bottom while pushing past the screen door that led to the balcony. It was his favorite place to go when he needed to think; its unobstructed view of the city divide helped keep things in perspective and provided a clear mind whenever he needed to organize his thoughts.
Of course, there was another reason he liked going to the balcony; a darker, more personal meaning that he dare not speak aloud.
It was one of the few places where he was allowed to look down on others without consequence...instead of things being the other way around.
That reminds me, he thought while gazing down toward the cold streets of the Commons, that guy in my dream...he had to work his way up from nothing too, didn't he?
Briefly, he wondered if his mysterious dream was a result of that; perhaps it was some way of his brain attempting to relieve itself of the stress he accrued in his daily life? It certainly would explain a few things - like the remarkable similarities with his and that other Red Hat Konami's deck.
No, preposterous. He had seen it firsthand, hadn't he? Regardless of the circumstances, come the end of the dream, that Konami had been the one who lost.
It certainly wasn't him, because ever since he'd first partnered up with the unrivaled King of New Domino City, there had been one undeniable fact about Konami Kommons. He never lost, and if it was up to him, he never would.
Because in the world of Synchro, losing was a sin.
And Konami hated sinning.
END
