The boy known as Jaden Yuki slept soundly on the grassy lawn of Duel Academy. He was relaxed, he did not need to worry about the shadow realm or other forces of evil today. Today was going to be different.

"Jaden!" A kid with pale hair and small glasses ran over towards the brown haired boy.

"Hey Syrus what's wrong?"

"Haven't you heard Jaden?"

"Heard about what?"

"People have been found around the world…" He gulped "Dead"

Jaden looked at him for a moment with a confused look on his face. Sure the harsh reality of life was that people died every day, was Syrus really so simple minded?

"Er…Syrus how sheltered of a life have you been living?"

"Jaden I don't mean like that! People have been found dead with Duel Monster cards at their sides" He exclaimed his body shaking. This had obviously come as a great shock to Syrus.

"Couldn't it be just a coincidence?" Jaden asked cocking his head to one side as he looked at Syrus.

Syrus never got to reply. There was the sound of an alarm going off. In a matter of moments people came rushing over the grassy lawns of Duel Academy. Some were chatting, some were screaming, some were crying?

"Why did the fire alarm go off?" Syrus asked puzzled as he looked around the crowd of duellists.

Jaden noticed one of the girls were knelt down on the ground her face in her hands as tears poured from her eyes. Next to her side was a girl with long dirty blonde hair wearing a white and blue duel academy uniform. Her eyes met with Jadens. She motioned to him to come closer.

"Alexis what's going on?" Jaden asked as him and Syrus walked towards them, sometimes struggling with the amount of people that barged in their way.

"He…they…he's…blood…" Then weeping girl croaked her eyes swollen and red. She wore the same uniform as Alexis but was shorter and had short deep red hair which fell over her amber eyes.

Alexis looked at the girl stroking her back gently "This is Gale she's a new student here...Syrus?" Alexis asked tenderly looking towards the boy. He seemed surprised that she acknowledged his existence.

"Can you take care of Gale I need to tell Jaden about what just happened" Syrus nodded but in a dumb fashion. It was obvious he knew next to nothing about how the hell to cheer a girl up. But the moment he sat down beside the weeping girl she grabbed him and clung onto him like he was the only thing to hold onto. Naturally Syrus broke into a huge blush, Jaden would have chuckled but with the seriousness of what was happening he couldn't bring himself to.

"What happened?" Jaden asked Alexis in a whisper his eyes still looking towards Gale for a moment.

Alexis paused. Her mouth open as she tried to bring the words together, "Today…a boy…he was just killed"

Jadens eyes widened his face full of shock as he looked at Alexis. His heart beating faster for the wrong reason. Murder? Here of all places?

"They found him…butchered…with his deck…shoved into his mouth" Alexis croaked her body shuddering as she felt herself begin to crack. Normally she was a strong person. But the way Gale had described the boy's death to her. It was too much even for her.

"Are you ok?" Jaden asked ignoring his own feelings of fear and disgust as he noticed Alexis shudder. She seemed to stare at him unsure of what to do or say. The crowd around them was getting louder and more and more people were filling the grassy fields.

"I…I'm scared Jaden" she spoke softly her hands now trembling "Here was the only place I felt safe and-"

She was cut off as Jaden reached forward and cupped her shaking hands, "It's alright their going to find out who did it they can't run away"

Alexis blanked out. His hands were warm. The words were few but they already seemed to stop her body from trembling.

"It'll be fine" He spoke softly his eyes staring deep into hers.

The moment was suddenly broken by the voice of Professor Crowler, a thin bony pale skin man with pale blonde hair, he was shouting down a megaphone, "All right is everybody here! We shall now take your names! Whoever is not here will be arrested do not try and leave the field you will be caught-"

"I will be caught eh?"

Jaden looked up now. He swore he had just heard a voice. Crowler was still shouting down the megaphone trying to get order over the hundreds of duellists which were alight with talk of the murder, "Now all Obelisk Blue stand on the right! Slifer red stand on the left and Ra yellow stand in the centre!"

"The fool need not do such a thing I'm right here"

"I said move!" He yelled his eyes narrowed on the ground of children. His fists were clenched. He clearly was not able to shrug off the truth that someone was dead.

"Your so afraid Crowler…all of you children are…you cannot run from me…you cannot run from us"

Jaden was sure he could hear the voice now. It was all around him. He let go of Alexis's hands before he began to wade through the crowds of people.

"I'm close children…"

Crowler now stopped shouting. He could hear the voice too. In fact everybody could.

"I am the puppeteer you dance in my play of death of fools"

Duellists were beginning to slip into silence as the voice went on.

"I went by the name of Professor Marion Ette in the last school I was in...But you all can call me Mario"

Some of the children were beginning to stir uneasily. The sound of Gale crying was the only thing that could be heard.

"I can see you child"

Jaden walked towards Gale. She still clutched onto Syrus, perhaps even tighter than she had before.

"I can touch you child"

"No!" Jaden yelled out. He saw it. The stone grey face and locks of blood red hair. The white hooded cloak covering the attacker's body. It had a wooden puppet at his side about to grab Gale and Syrus.

The attacker looked up a dark portal opening up behind him into endless shadow. He looked back at Gale and Syrus lunging for them with the aid of his puppet. But Jaden was already there. He crashed into the unknown creature sending him and Jaden flying back into the portal he had just opened.

The puppet seemed surprised as it looked back at the portal before jumping in after them. The name 'Jaden' being shouted as it closed behind them.

---

The attacker and Jaden fell to the hard ground. He was shoved away by the unknown foe.

"You little prick how dare you interrupt my kill!" The creature looked down at Jaden. The boy was trying to glare back at him. He was trying to be brave. But he could sense the beating of his heart, inside he was scared.

"But…you have an abnormal heart beat…tell me…what is your name?" He asked the boy who was now getting to his feet.

"Jaden Yuki" He declared glaring at the attacker "Who are you? Are you the one that killed that boy?"

"Yes I am" he replied bluntly he looked down at Jaden with a smirk "Jaden Yuki you've got quite a winning streak I hear in Duel Monsters according to the database I hacked into"

"I don't care what you know about me why did you kill him!" Jaden yelled at him his fists clenched.

"Manners Jaden…like I said I am Professor Marion Ette but you may call me Mario" He gave a short bow before snapping his fingers. A puppet appeared at his side. It was human like minus for the lack of legs and the sphere like head with a crudely drawn face on it.

"This is Clarissa" He motioned to the puppet "As for the boy…well the little prick found me hacking the database after you all left class…I had to kill him…I had to eat his rich delicious heart"

Jaden lurched backwards clutching his stomach "You…you're a cannibal!"

"I'm also a murderer and since were both here in the void of death, the endless nothingness or as you call it the shadow realm…" he clicked his fingers again. Clarissa suddenly transformed in front of him to become the same table he used to duel Ryan.

"I challenge you Jaden to a duel…a card game…whoever wins gets to leave here" Mario grinned at Jaden who simply glared back at him.

"Your on murderer…" he snarled before crying out and clutching his arm. The same red and green duel disk that Ryan had previously duelled with grafted onto his arm.

"Painful I know and I may as well warn you this won't be like your average card game…I also better add that were going to play with 8000 life points not 4000"

"I'll be keeping every one of them" Jaden growled bringing out his deck and slotting it into the duel disk.

"Very well then" The darkness around them suddenly transformed into a pulsating fleshy purple environment. The sound of a heart beating echoing in their ears. This was going to be brutal. This was going to be a duel that different to any Jaden had played.

"Hold on to your heart" Mario growled before drawing five cards…

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Well that's chapter two glad I got the gx characters in felt bad cheating you all out of them :) well R & R people oh and I may as well apologise now about the miscalculations and mistakes I made in the last chapter hopefully it won't happen again  chapter 3 coming up…"Heroes can never die"