Silver in the Moonlight

By Agent Malkere

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX. I write fan fiction and therefore have no need of explaining this.

A/N: This story is a little strange. If you're confused at first, don't worry! Things will become clearer as you read. Because I never got around to putting it in, Zane is in the infirmary because he was in a bad accident – but no worries, he'll be fine. Please enjoy!

The moonlight made his skin glow a soft silver and his hair even more prominently shadow black. The white bandages wrapped around his chest and arms almost melted into his body, becoming one with him; hiding his pain like he always had in the past. The hard angles of his face smoothed and softened under the moonbeams' gentle touch. Soft – that wasn't normally a word she'd associate with him. Stubborn – yes, arrogant – yes, coarse – yes, unfeeling – yes, but soft? No. She must be more tired than she thought.

Pushing several long strands of dirty blonde hair out of her face, Alexis slowly stood up and stretched her tired limbs as she continued to stare at the boy lying in the bed on the far side of the infirmary next to the window. She yawned quietly then glanced back at Zane over whom she had been keeping a silent visual so Syrus could get some sleep. Zane wouldn't be waking up right now, even if he wasn't in a chemically induced coma to help him make it through the worst of the pain, the medication he was being given would have made him drowsy. She knew he wouldn't mind if she left him for a few minutes; it wasn't be as though she'd be leaving the room or anything. Besides, Zane had been getting visitors all day, whether he knew it or not, and only Jaden had come to check on the infirmary's other patient.

Alexis took a few steps forward then stopped; a horrible ball of conflicting emotions writhing and twisting in the bottom of her rib cage. Her exhaustion was probably the only thing making this seem like a good idea. Oh, well. Sitting beside someone for a few minutes wouldn't hurt anything. She moved forward again, her boots making muted clicks as they struck the tiled floor. As softly as possible, Alexis reached out and pulled a chair up next to his bed, then sat down just as a cloud passed in front of the moon throwing his face back into shadows. With the moonlight gone, the oxygen mask fitted securely over his nose and mouth contrasted harshly with his pale skin. From her seat next to his bed, Alexis could also now see the dark purple bruise staining his right cheekbone. The bruise she had given him. Alexis was being to regret doing that. She wasn't sure anymore that Chazz had really deserved it. She closed her eyes, remembering….

As Alexis lay, aching, on the ground her mind desperately tried to sort out what was going on. What had happened? All she knew was that she had lost, but at what? The wait of a duel disk on her left arm answered that question, but against who? Alexis struggled to remember, not wanting to open her eyes until she was in complete control of the situation again. Finally, her most resent memory surfaced. Chazz! She had been dueling Chazz to save the Obelisk Blue dorm and stop it from becoming the White dorm! Chazz had been about to attack with his final monster which would have wiped out the rest of her life points… and she had just lost the duel she was in. That meant she had failed! Chazz and his creepy Society of Light were going to take over the Blue dorm now because of her! Well, they wouldn't get her without a fight.

She slowly opened her eyes and blinked, trying to bring the blurry world into focus. Alexis could hear voices and running feet coming towards her. A pair of boots stopped about a foot away.

"Alexis! Are you alright?" A hand reached down towards her and she grasped it, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. Alexis swayed slightly as the world finally slid into focus. A hand hesitantly steadied her. "Are you okay?" the voice asked again. Wait a minute! That voice belonged to Chazz! The person she'd just lost to, who was planning on destroying the Obelisk Blue dorm! Alexis focused on the teenager standing in front of her, spiky raven black hair as always jutting out over his forehead, dark eyes as inscrutable as ever. A worried, almost pained expression was on his face, mingling with something that might have been hope. Something about Chazz was different from her last memory of him commanding his monster to attack, but fiery anger and rage at what was about to be done to Obelisk because of him made her ignore this discrepancy. Just as he was about to repeat his previous question, Alexis curled her hand into a fist and punched Chazz in the face as hard as she could, which turned out to be a lot harder than she had expected.

Chazz went flying backwards into the oncoming Jaden, Syrus, Hassleberry, and Atticus. Wait, Atticus? What was he doing here? Alexis didn't remember him being there when the duel had started.

"Wh- What was that for?" gasped Chazz confusion and hurt warring for dominance over his expression as Jaden helped him to his feet. The others had stopped nervously several feet farther back – out of the range of her fists.

"Obelisk Blue!" Alexis snarled, something she wouldn't normally do as a rule, but there's an exception to every rule. "I know you're not an Obelisk any more Chazz, but how could you?!? How can you destroy Obelisk Blue to make way for your retched Society of Light and all with a clear conscience?!?!?!?" He stared at her, dark eyes wide, as desperation joined the emotional battle being waged across his face.

"I don't know what you're talking about…."

"Um, Alexis?" Jaden cut in before she could start shouting again. "You do know who you just dueled, right?"

"Of course, him!" She jabbed a finger at Chazz who shrank back as though he had just been stabbed. She about to continue when Jaden once more interrupted her tirade,

"Uh, no." He grinned uncomfortably and nervously ran a hand though his hair. "Actually, you just dueled me!" Alexis stared at Jaden, finally taking in the activated duel disk on his left arm. She glanced at Chazz again, no sign of a duel disk and his deck was in its normal place on his belt. The thing that had been bothering her about his appearance finally clicked into place. He was wearing all black again for the first time since Jaden had disappeared. She frowned at him; Chazz shifted his weight from one foot to the other and avoided her gaze.

"Where's that stupid white uniform of yours that you've been flaunting around school lately?" she asked sharply. Chazz flinched and stared off towards the stadium seats around the dueling arena.

"I hate white," he snapped. Alexis stared at him, then at Jaden, then at Syrus, Hassleberry, and Atticus who were all looking extremely uncomfortable. Jaden cleared his throat,

"Uh, yeah, we've got a lot of explaining to do, Lex, so it's gonna take a while. And you probably won't be too happy about hearing any of it…."

Opening her eyes again, Alexis sighed. She still couldn't remember anything between the final move in her duel with Chazz and the explosion when she lost her duel with Jaden. Several weeks of her life – gone. But Chazz…. She watched the uneven rise and fall of the teenager's chest beneath the bandages. Chazz's period of memory loss could be measured better in months than in weeks or days. No one had even noticed that he had been brainwashed until he had started converting the rest of the Academy to the Society of Light. Everyone had just assumed that crazy Chazz Princeton had finally gone off the deep end this time.

The cloud which had been hiding the moon finally passed and pale, silver light once more pored through the window and across the bed. The black haired teenager stirred in his sleep, his body suddenly going ridged as his dreams where overthrown by nightmares. Without thinking, Alexis reached out and brushed her fingers across his forehead in a comforting manner, pushing some of the hair away from his face. His body relaxed and he lay still once more. Alexis pulled her hand away hurriedly and rubbed her eyes. I shouldn't stay up this late – it does strange things to my head. I can't believe I just did that! That's Chazz, who is as of this moment the source of most of my problems, and I shouldn't be feeling sorry for him! And that's all I'm feeling for him – sorry.

Alexis gently massaged her temples and yawned again quietly. Tomorrow, Jaden could take the night shift and have the moonlight wreak havoc on his emotional state. She almost got up to go back to her seat beside Zane, but she hesitated. There wasn't any point in running away from the situation because it was one that she had created and she was the only person involved, except for Chazz and he didn't really count because he was unconscious and therefore unaware that there even was a situation. She might as well think things out here as over by Zane. Anyway, this chair was more comfortable than the other one had been. Leaning back and staring up at the nearly full moon which had climbed high into the night sky, Alexis let memory sweep her away once more….

Even though it was her third night back in the Slifer Red dorm, Alexis still couldn't sleep. Finally tiring of staring at the cracked ceiling and giving up, for now, on the prospect of sleep, she rolled out of bed and slid on a pair of shoes. Pulling on a coat on over her pajamas – wearing a nightgown in Slifer wasn't a good idea since the dorm's population was ninety percent male – she stepped quietly outside and tip-toed silently down the wooden steps, jumping over the final two which creaked notoriously and landing softly in the darkness.

Her feet began to walk the familiar path down towards the Lighthouse; she'd always been able to do some of her best thinking down there by the gentle swirling and splashing of the waves. She shoved her hands into her pockets shivering slightly as the wind whipped her long hair around her face. She'd forgotten to tie it back before she left. Oh, well. She had no desire to go back for a while yet.

The tang of cold ocean salt seemed to clear her head and make her thoughts more defined. After quickly glancing to make doubly sure that absolutely nobody was around, she took several quick steps with a grace which belied her years of dance classes and figure skating and let herself twirl beneath the moonlight, long coat flaring up around her. Suddenly for no apparent reason filled with energy instead of the lethargy of sleep deprivation, Alexis took several bounding steps and twirled twice more before continuing down toward the Lighthouse feeling much better than when she had started out.

She was on the crest of the cliffs above the Lighthouse when she noticed the figure standing in her favorite spot out on the end of the pier staring out across the ocean. She squinted trying to make out who it was, unable to think of anyone else who would be out there at this time of night, but she was still too far away to make out any details which could be of any use to identify the mysterious person. Curiosity made the hike down the steep cliff path to the Lighthouse seem twice as long as usual and she soon lost sight of the figure behind the expanse of whitewashed stonework. By the time Alexis reached the bottom of the path the waxing moon overhead had reach the peak of its celestial arc across the star-strewn dark and had begun its slow decent towards the ocean's surface. The figure was still where she had last seen him at the far end of the pier still staring out over the wave crests.

From this distance, Alexis could make out enough detail to identify the person, or, at least, his coat. Chazz Princeton's signature black coat could only be taken away from its owner by murder and Alexis was fairly sure she hadn't seen any blood around the Slifer dorm when she had left. So what was he doing out here? She began to walk slowly down the pier towards him. Alexis hadn't wanted company and, if she had, Chazz would have been her last choice, but the sea was calling her and more than anything else she wanted to be out there on the end of the pier with the ocean spray blowing in her face and clearing her thoughts.

Chazz didn't look up as she approached apparently too lost in his own thoughts to hear her crunching footsteps. His arms were wrapped tightly around his chest to hold in warmth against the chill night air. The wind which was stronger and gustier coming off the ocean snatched at the bottom of his long coat causing it to snap and swirl out behind him and showing that he too had left bed and come on here on a whim. Under his coat he was wearing dark green sweatpants and an ancient gray t-shirt which hung on his thin frame. Alexis half smiled and could almost hear Jaden saying, Chazz wearing color! The end of the world is near!

She stopped about five feet away from him and stared out over the water as the moon's reflection danced across the curling waves. Alexis glanced sideways at Chazz again as a gasp whipped his hair against his face. The flying tails of his coat almost made it look like he had black wings unfolding from his back. As she continued to watch out of the corner of her eye, Chazz bent his head so his chin was nearly touching his chest his hair obscuring most of the face from view. She was about to turn away when her eyes by now accustom to the dark spotted the trail of silvery moonlight reflecting off of his cheek. This time surprise made her openly stare. Was Chazz… crying? Was he even capable of crying? Alexis hadn't thought so until now.

He brought his sleeve up and wiped his eyes mumbling something under his breath that Alexis couldn't make out then pulling his coat collar higher up around his neck he began to turn to head back to the Slifer dorm. And spotted Alexis standing only a few feet away. He jumped and staggered backwards in surprise. If Alexis hadn't reached out and grabbed his arm Chazz would have fallen into the icy, churning ocean water below. She could still see his body trembling from the surge of adrenaline which his system had just received even as he tried to regain his dignity. It took him several moments to form a coherent sentence,

"What are you doing here?"

"Couldn't sleep," she answered honestly even though it wasn't completely true. "Why are you out here?"

"I was just… thinking…" he trailed off and she just barely heard him whisper, "Trying to remember."

"Trying to remember what?" Jasmine and Mindi must be rubbing off her more than she had thought, she'd never been this nosy in the past. He looked away apparently having not intended for her to hear that.

"Nothing," he sighed his breath coming out now in a white plume of fog. Alexis shivered, had it really gotten that cold out? Chazz glanced at her then changed the subject, "I'm going to head back to Slifer and you should too it's long past midnight." Looking slightly embarrassed Chazz turned away, "Anyway, bye."

Alexis watched him trudge up the path back towards the Red dorm until he was out of sight then turned her attention back to the sea and her own lost memories.

Alexis blinked and rubbed her eyes. She didn't like where this was going, didn't like the conclusions her own emotions and memories were trying to bring her to, but she'd have to deal with this sooner or later and it was best to get it over with now while Chazz wasn't around to make things awkward. By the time he woke up, she'd be back to normal and able to ignore him just as well as ever. Not that she really wanted to ignore him… right now that was. She just had to sort this all through and everything would be alright.

Leaning forward, Alexis rested her chin in one cupped hand and pushed a few more strands of black hair out of his face. There was just one last memory before she had to relive and the thought of it terrified her but she had to be strong. She had to face her fears. Without realizing she was doing it, Alexis shifted her position and gently took one his hands in hers then closed her eyes…

Right! That was it! If she ever found out which duelist had wagered his boom box in his duel with Jaden, Alexis was going to hunt that duelist down and kill him – in lots of nasty and creative ways. Earlier that evening, Jaden, Syrus, and Hassleberry had discovered several cases of caffeinated soda and now, at nearly 11 o'clock, were all on sugar and caffeine highs and listening to Rock 'n Roll music on the newly acquired boom box with the volume cranked up as far as it could go. She was fairly sure that if they kept it up much longer the sound waves would cause the mainly unstable structure of the Slifer dorm to crumble and collapse. Maybe if the dorm falling apart would make the music stop. That would be a bonus, and then she might actually be able to get some studying done.

Squaring her shoulders, Alexis marched out of her room and several doors down to where the music reached such a level that she had to clamp her hands over her ears to prevent premature deafness. Hoping that she wouldn't be needing her left ear in the future quite as much as her right, Alexis used her left hand to yank open the door. Even louder music – which she wouldn't have believed possible if she hadn't experienced it – blared at her. Her presence in the room went completely unnoticed by its three occupants, that is, until she turned off the music.

"What did you do that for?" whined Jaden who was bouncing on the top bunk with a sock over each ear for no apparent reason.

"It is nearly eleven o'clock," Alexis stated evenly, trying desperately to keep her temper under control.

Jaden shrugged,

"Yeah, so? We were discussing new dueling strategies."

"Really?" Alexis raised an eyebrow at him. "Then I guess you won't be needing this." She calmly hefted the boom box in one hand and sauntered out of the room to the great protests of the boys but she ignored them. Finally some peace and quiet…

Alexis stiffened as she heard banging coming from Chazz's room. Not more noise! What did a girl have to do to be able to study in this place?!? Well she'd had it up to here with the Slifer male population and noise tonight and she was going to be the avenging angel of silent right now!

"Chazz Princeton will you stop making such an infernal racket!!! Whatever you're doing can wait until MORNING!!!" There were a few more thumps then silence. She had expected some snide remark to be thrown at her from the other side of the door, but none came. Chazz was probably just too tired to come up with something snappy enough to say. Alexis waited a few moments to make sure Chazz was really going to stay quiet this time. Satisfied she was turning to leave when she heard the glass smashing. Glass smashing? That had sounded like a window.

"Chazz, are you alright in there?" she called the previously biting edge to her voice gone. There was no response. "Chazz?" She tried the door knob – locked. For some reason, Alexis glanced down at the floor in front of the door. The edge of something was sticking out from under the door. The edge of two somethings actually. She bent down and pulled them out – they were Duel Monster cards…

She didn't start yelling for Jaden and the others until she flipped the cards face up and suddenly found Ojama Yellow and the Level Ten Armored Dragon staring up at her.

"What is it, Lex?" asked Jaden, screeching to a halt next to her. She handed him the cards,

"They were sticking out from under his door," she said flatly.

Jaden's eyes widened,

"We've got to get in there!"

"Allow me, Sarge." The group stood back as Hassleberry got a good footing, squared his shoulders, and then charged at the door shoulder first. The door never stood a chance. The door flew off its hinges and the group trooped in hesitantly. Chazz's room, which had never been exactly organized in the first place, was now a disaster zone. The bedside table was over turned, the lamp smashed, papers strewn everywhere, broken glass, and Duel Monster cards littered the floor – to be more precise, Chazz's dueling deck. The window was smashed and the curtains snapped and flapped in the draught that had been created. His black coat was hanging from the edge of the bed. In the darkness, Alexis's eyes picked out dark splotches on the walls and bed covers. No…

As if in a dream, Alexis's feet carried her forward towards the far side of the bed. The first thing she saw was a hand, a thin pale hand, fingers slightly curled, palm up, arm flung backwards as if reaching for something. On the arm were the smashed remnants of a duel disk which looked as though it had been attacked with a knife while being used as a sort of shield and where ever the duel disk hadn't covered the arm, blood seeped out of numerous knife cuts. The arm was still thankfully attached to his body… his body. His shirt had been ripped open to expose his pale chest. Blood oozed from the long deep gashes crisscrossing the bare skin. Alexis's knees suddenly gave way and she crumpled to the ground next to him feeling like a part of her heart had just been wrenched out of her body. He was dead…. The others were standing behind her by now in various stages of disbelief and horror. Hand shaking Alexis reached out and brushed her fingers against his cheek and nearly jumped out of her skin when he stirred. His eyes opened slightly and tried to focus on her,

"Alexis…?" he whispered. His voice was hoarse and shaky and terrifyingly faint. A faint tingling sensation ran up her spine. She comfortingly took hold of his hand.

"I'm here. Ly still." The corner of his mouth twitched and his eyes slid closed again. Still holding his hand, Alexis began issuing orders, "Jaden, call for help! Hassleberry, alert security that there's an unsuccessful murderer loose on the island! Syrus, find something to help stop the bleeding until help gets here!" The boys scurried to complete their assigned tasks. Alexis sat on the floor with Chazz's head on a pillow on her lap doing her best to quiet him whenever he woke up and brush her own frightened tears away one handed. It seemed to take years for the medical staff to arrive and load Chazz onto a stretcher to be whisked away to the infirmary to be given a blood transfusion.

Alexis stood in the doorway of his room and helplessly watched them go; there was nothing more she could do.

Alexis reached up and brushed away the tears which had started to form again in the corners of her eyes. He had survived. After all that horror, he had survived. And suddenly, Alexis didn't care that she liked him more than she had ever liked anyone in her life. It didn't feel wrong anymore, just different… and a little strange, but she could get used to it. The hollow which she hadn't realized existed until it was gone in her chest suddenly stopped aching as it was finally filled. Smiling slightly, she leaned forward and gently kissed his temple in the pale silver moonlight. Then she sat back and closed her eyes and gently drifted to sleep.