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.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Taste of Vengeance
Character: Chronos de Medici, Echo
Word Count: 449||Status: One-shot
Genre: Drama||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: 31halloween: prompt #3, bats
Summary: [one-shot, 31halloween, prompt #3, Chronos de Medici, Echo] Chronos lost to Camula once. Now in Dark World, he's got a chance for just a little payback. Sort of.


Water dripped from the trees and from a few overhanging rocks. It was hard to say the sky grew darker, since there was little light in this world anyway save from the eternal comet. But nevertheless, clouds filled the sky blocking even that illumination as the rain fell. Chronos de Medici cursed it in two languages, glad that he wasn't anywhere where his students could hear him.

He would've liked it if he was, since then he'd know where they were in this strange world, but he took what little pleasures this world of shadows and sorrow could offer.

"We need shelter!" His companion declared, leaning closer so he would hear her over the echoes of thunder. Echo gestured toward a range of mountains on the far side of the forest. "Let's look for caves!"

Having no better ideas himself (and it was a good idea anyway), Chronos nodded and headed that way. Stepping out from the shelter of the branches resulted in getting thoroughly soaked in just a few moments, but he didn't care. He could see a dark archway not that far away which promised some kind of haven.

With Echo a few steps behind, he peered into it curiously, hoping not to find any current inhabitants. There were plenty of monster spirits he would like to meet (he'd always had a fondness for Black-Winged Magician), there were plenty more that he would prefer just to meet as cards.

At first he thought the cave was entirely empty. Then something caught his eye, perhaps a flicker of movement, and he looked up. Red eyes looked back at him.

Lots of red eyes.

Memory surged back; a duel, standing on the edge of a lake. Across the field, that evil vampire, Camula. Her taunts revealed her true target as the Kaiser Ryou, for what purposes he hadn't known at the time. He'd fought with all of his heart to keep her away from his precious students. Only to fail. Only to fall.

Only to see her Vampire Bats slicing into the last of his life points.

For a single moment he stood there frozen. Then a single thought slashed across his mind. This isn't that duel.

He could fight back this time.

Echo wasn't a duelist. She was deadly with her knife, of course, but too many bats stirred there for her to take them all out. But he was a duelist.

"I summon Antique Gear Soldier!" Antique Gear Soldier outstripped the bats in attack points; he wouldn't have any troubles there. Antique Gear Golem would've been more satisfying, but he wanted to keep the cave habitable.

Chronos and Echo spent a very comfortable evening in the cave.

The End

Note: I originally posted this back in October 2012, but now am reposting these ficlets separately instead of as a collection, in order to have each listed under their proper character and rating.