I don't own Yu-gi-oh GX.

Takes place right after Zane left the island and returned to the underground during the second seasons.

The Sweetest Thing is Salt

"Agggg…" the duelist screamed as he fell to the ground, the electrical shocks still encircling his body as he fell to the ground. Hell Kaiser smirked as he watched another victim fall after enduring his own unique brand of purgatory.

"Careful there Zane, if you continue at this pace there won't be anymore of us underground duelist left," a taunting voice called out to him. Zane turn to around to address the new comer with his own acidy response, but all intentions of offensive vanished when his eyes landed on the speaker.

"Well, it's good to see that your snide little attitude hasn't changed while I was away, Jo," he said as a smirk appeared on his lips. His eyes did a scan of the girl in front of him. She was an average sized girl at 5'4 ft, and slightly on the thin side. She had waist length ebony black hair that stood out even more against her pasty-ashen white skin, and the most scandalous jade green eyes that the Kaiser had ever seen. In her jet-black outfit, she was the prim example of an underground duelist. Jo had been brought into the underground by Shroud right around the same time that he had, and dumped Shroud out of her life right before he had. They weren't exactly what you would call friends, but they were the closest thing to a friend that ether of them had at the moment.

"Well if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black I don't know what is," she replied with a little smirk of her own. "Did you find what you were looking for at that little academy of yours?"

"I went there to test my new deck, not to find anything," Zane replied with an offensive retort.

"Surrrrre, Truesdale, whatever you say. I head you ended up dueling you old best friend, Atticus, and your little brother. So how did that going?"

"It went fine. I won didn't I?"

"I was refereeing to your feelings about the duels, not the duels themselves. I mean we both know that 'I have no feelings' act of your is just straight up bull."

"What feelings would I have about them? They were just duels; it's not like I care about whom they were with."

"I bet it hurt when the challenged you, like a knife to the heart. They probable spent the whole duel talking about how they wanted to save you from the 'darkness' right? Like now, all of a sudden they care. Pffffft."

"Just what is that suppose to mean? As you very well know I don't feel pain of any kind when I duel."

"Your friends remind me of this story my mother use to tell me when I was young," Jo said as a brief look of nostalgia washed over her, but in the blink of an eye the look of wistfulness, was once again replaced with a look of apathy.

"Ohhhh noooo, it can't be story time, I haven't had my milk and cookies yet," Zane said as pushed his lips into a fake little boy pout.

"Just zip your lip and listen would ya," Jo said annoyed.

"Once along time ago a king had a beautiful daughter who he thought he loved more than anything else in the world. Therefore, one day he called her to him and asked her how much she loved him. The daughter replied that she loved her father as mush as salt. Now the king was outraged at this, he had expected her to say that she loved him as much as gold or jewels, but salt what kind of love was that! The king was so anger that he had his daughter thrown in the dungeon.

Now the daughter was a very smart girl and formed a plan that not only would get her out of the dungeon, but would also show her father just how affectionate her words were. She asked the royal Chief to leave out salt when he cooked her father's food. The chief agreed and left out salt when he cooked that evening's meal. When the King tasted that night's meal, he was disgusted and asked the chief what was wrong with the food. The Chief replied that he had left out salt when he had made that evening's meal. At once the King realized just how important salt was and how warm, and adoring his daughter's words had been. He went at once to his daughter and told her that he too loved her as mush as salt."

"That's a toughing story Jo," Zane said with a sneer as he rolled his eyes, "but just what has this story got to do with me?"

"It must hurt to be your friend's salt. When you were going though your losing streak did, they call you? Write to you? Did they seem to care at all? When you were all alone during your very first underground duel where were they? They didn't seem to care at all until they thought they had lost you to the darkness. You're just like salt to them. Sure people know about salt and put it on there food and stuff, but nobody really gives a damn about salt until it's gone. That is not how real friends should treat you."

Zane just turned and stared at her not knowing what to say as her words had hit a little to close to home for his liking, not that he would ever let anyone no that.

"That's why you're so mad. Nobody wants to be salt. And that's why you're putting all your hated and hurt into your dueling isn't it?"

"So what's wrong with being angry, and putting that angry into my dueling?" Zane asked aggravated.

"Absolutely nothing, I mean that's what dueling is really about isn't it? It is not about respecting your opponent and having fun. The most important thing about dueling is that it express what you're feeling, and if you feeling angry then that's how your dueling should be; dark and merciless. Your friends should realize that you just need to be angry right now."

"So let me guess I'm suppose to tell my friends why I'm angry, and forgive them and ask them to forgive me so we all can live happily ever after, right. And if I don't I'll end up regretting it my whole life and end up all alone." Zane taunted.

"Well I'm guessing that's what most people would say. They would say you need to let go of your anger before it destroys you."

"And what do you say?"

"Me," Jo asked, "I would say that people who say that are the same people that put presser on a wound to get it to stop bleeding, and watch as the cut slowly heals into a scab until all you're left with is a scar that you can pretended you don't see. But me, I like to let a gash bleed until it stops on its own, and if it doesn't then it just wasn't meant to. I let my fury and rage flow until it evaporates. Anger may destroy you if you don't let it go, but so does suppressing it. You can't be afraid of anger either; it's as much apart of being human as love is."

Zane glanced over at Jo and let out a little grunt. "So I'm in the underground because I'm salt, why are you here?"

"Because I have never even been close to being someone's salt, let alone something more since my mother died."

"So Jo," Zane asked intending to steer the conversion in another direction, "you up for a little duel?"

"Careful Hell Kaiser, after all 'hell have no wrath like a woman scorned'."

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So there's my very first fanfic. I hope you like it. Please tell me if I should turn this into more than just a one shot. If you're going to leave a flame, I have just one rule. Tell me why you didn't like it and how I can improve it. Also, if you see any grammar mistakes please point them out so I can go back and edit them. I did look over this before I posted it and I used spell check, but some things still could have been missed. Thank you for reading!