Author's Note: This chapter takes place during Episode 51 "Mystery Duelist" (or the Broken Millennium Puzzle in the Japanese version.)

2. The Man in Black

When Sakura entered the bland lounge the next morning, more than half of her colleagues were gone. Those that remained didn't acknowledged her presence as she took a seat on the white couch. Avery's sat in the couch parallel to her, his face hidden not only behind his hood, but behind a card, a Duel monster card to be in correct.

Just forget about the stupid card game, huh? Sakura thought to herself.

"Sakura," a deep slow and ruff voice called from behind. Sakura turned to see a tall cloaked man with only a small fraction of his face shown from under his hood, the same part of his face that she's seen plenty of times before and knew him to be Saxon.

"Sakura, we need you to go back to Domino City. An enemy of ours has decided to show up. Team up with Larxy and eliminate him immediately."

Sakura grumbled to herself. She didn't particularly like Larxy, but orders are orders.

Saxon turned on his heel to leave, but stopped halfway though his turn on pivot. "Remember, Sakura, keep your temper."

Sakura bit her tongue to help refrain from telling off her second-in-command leader. Ever since they adopted her into the group, all they've ever told her was to keep her temper down. It was as if releasing the dark power inside her would ruin everything. She didn't understand how, everyone else in the group could release their dark power anytime they wanted. Why was she any different?

"I'm waiting!" shrieked an annoying soprano voice. Larxy, a tall blond with icy cold blue eyes stood by an all ready opened black and purple shadow portal. Grumbling, Sakura followed Larxy through.

"Why do they always have to pair me with the baby?" Larxy wondered aloud as they arrived in the deep alleys of Domino. "Might as well just give me a solo mission; that way I don't have to worry about protecting anyone."

"I'm not weak!" Sakura defended. Larxy waved her hand with a smirk on her face, as if shedding off Sakura's last comment. "Believe what you want. That won't change anything."

"I can fight too, you know!" Rage began to grow within Sakura. This is exactly the reason why she hated going places with Larxy. Larxy always thought she was better than everyone else, when in reality, Sakura found her to be one of the weakest of the bunch. Apparently, Larxy could see Sakura was all ready getting frustrated.

"Tempter, temper," the blond snickered. "It's no wonder the boss is always telling you to keep it down."

Sakura gave Larxy a disdainful glare. "Let's just do the mission and get out of here."

"Fine by me," said the blond beginning to lead the way. "Oh, and Sakura, I'll be doing the fighting around here-obviously." She laughed while Sakura rolled her eyes, hoping that their target wasn't far, so the sooner she could go home.

After a few minutes of wandering around aimlessly in the alleys, Larxy suddenly pinned herself against the brick wall, Sakura followed suit.

"You won't get away with this, you creep!" a young boy's voice screamed, shortly followed by a small boy with spiky tri colored hair ran past, completely oblivious to the two girls hiding against the wall.

"Hey, that's-"

"Shh!" Larxy hushed.

Sakura lowered her voice to a whisper. "He might be chasing after our target,"

"Doubt it," said Larxy quite quickly. "Our target could probably care less about meddling with the people here. For all I know, we most likely have the same objective. We just have to make sure we complete ours first."

"Who do you think that boy was chasing?" asked Sakura.

"Does it matter?" Larxy said in an icy tone. "Whoever it was, they surely wanted him to find them." Her fingers pointed to a red arrow that hung on the walls of the alley possibly leading the way to where the culprit was.

"Well, maybe we should help him-"

"You don't listen very well, do you?" spat the blond. "That boy's problems have nothing to do with the mission. Now are you going to help me find our target, or am I doing the whole thing myself?"

Sakura didn't say anything but continued to follow Larxy through the alleys. Left and right, up and down, and left and right some more. Hours have past and Sakura began to feel that they had searched every alley in Domino City, and still no sign of the target anywhere.

"This is stupid!" Larxy complained. "He's not anywhere!"

"Maybe we should have followed those arrows. They could have been meant for us, instead of that kid."

Larxy growled then cussed quietly to herself.

"Yugi!" a voice called in the distance. "Yugi! Where are you?" "Yugi!" Two different voices added into the calling.

"Hunh." Sakura said under her breath. "Looks like someone's been messing with the arrows." She noticed the arrows now pointing all over the place in complete nonsense.

Sakura tensed up as she heard a swishing sound from behind.

"Who's there?" she demanded whipping around as fast as she could. From afar, a figure also dressed in black with a hood covering his face waved at the two girls, and then broke out into a run the opposite direction.

"That's him!" Sakura shrieked. "That's our target!"

"I got this!" Larxy screamed chasing off after the target. Her blond hair began to turn a deep shade of purple and a green gem in the middle of her forehead began to appear. Larxy had released her dark form. Something that the boss for some reason wouldn't allow her to do. The only option Sakura had left was to chase after them.

Larxy let out a high-pitched scream in order to unleash an attack. A wave of black and silver liberated from her hands towards the foe. The man in black stopped running and turned towards Larxy's attack. He bent down on one knee and shielded the attack with his hands, almost as if he collected all of Larxy's magic in his hands and then pushed the force back at Larxy. The force of the attack ended up hitting a nearby dumpster not far from Sakura, causing the inside trash to erupt into flames. Sakura shielded her face with her arm from the explosion; coughing from the newfound smoke that surrounded her and small pieces of burning ash landed on her arm.

Sakura looked up blindly, trying to see through the smoke, which wasn't as thick as her lungs felt it was. There, no more than ten feet away was the man in black, their target, staring at her. Sakura figured Larxy was probably running around trying to gain better distance for her next attack, but why wasn't the man taking advantage of how close these two were? Why didn't he attack her all ready? Sakura thought that if this man wasn't going to take up the advantage, she would. Sakura raised her arms in the air, allowing the dark power within her to grow. She didn't care if she was breaking the rules. She knew how to fight, and she wasn't just going to sit there, useless.

"Stay there!" The man in black bellowed, his left arm perpendicular from his body, facing Sakura. Sakura felt an invisible force come upon her, paralyzing her. Her dark transformation came to a halt. The man in black searched his surroundings until suddenly, a flash of purple appeared in front of him. He lifted up his right arm stiffly, his hand opened. Larxy unleashed a scream of pure agony, forcing her to fall at the man's feet before she could release her second attack.

"Tell your Master," the man in black said over Larxy's loud gasps for air; his tenor voice sounded threatening; to Sakura, it sounded almost familiar. "His plan will never work." With the snap of his fingers, his body vanished, leaving behind a small pile of cards that rained to the ground. The invisible force around Sakura broke and she could now move freely.

"Larxy," Sakura bent down beside her. Larxy, supporting herself on all fours and with her purple hair covering her new black beady eyes, said through gritted teeth. "He will pay for this."

Sakura offered her hand to help her up, but Larxy slapped it away. "I don't need a baby to help me."

Sakura backed off. She didn't want to argue with an angered Larxy. If Larxy wanted to do this the hard way, she could. Sakura didn't care.

She left Larxy to take care of herself while she went to check out the pile of cards that were left on the ground. Sakura recognized them all to be Duel Monster cards, some a brownish color, some a greenish color, and others a pinkish-purple color. She collected all the cards and counted a total of fourteen, however, it was the card that wound up on top that caught her by surprise. The card had a picture of a side-profile of a woman's face with long royal purple hair with multiple layers, and a green gem rested on the center of the woman's forehead. At the top of the burnt orange card titled the name: Witch of the Black Forest followed by four stars. The picture of the woman looked almost exactly like Larxy in her dark form.

The answers are in the cards. The mysterious man's voice said in Sakura's head.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sakura wondered aloud.

"Sakura," growled Larxy. Sakura noticed that she was finally on her feet again, but she was balancing herself with the help of the wall next to her. Her purple hair was slowly come back to its original blond color and the gem slowly faded away. The heaviness of her breathing hasn't changed. That man must have hit her hard. "Let's-go."

Sakura approached Larxy in a helping manner, but Larxy closed herself in. "I'll do it myself!" Sakura stepped back, allowing Larxy to lead the way back to the shadow portal to report back home.

"You didn't even bother to fight," the blond said softly, but her tone was full with ire.

"You were the one that said you would handle the fighting," reminded Sakura.

"You didn't even move the whole time. You just sat there!"

"He had me paralyzed. I couldn't move, even if I wanted to."

"Whatever," the blond said with annoyance in her voice. "You really are a baby."

"I AM NOT!" Sakura yelled.

Larxy just shook her head, "I don't know what the boss sees in you. We should've destroyed you when we had the chance."

Sakura didn't respond. To be honest, she didn't know what the boss saw in her, either.

The walk back was much longer than usual. If Larxy had let Sakura help her, they would have been home a long time ago.

"Fire," said Sakura softly, noticing the thick black clouds spewing into the air.

"Jonouchi! Honda!" a faint voice echoed in the distance. "Can you hear me?"

Jonouchi? The boy from the Game Shop? Sakura thought to herself. I saw his friend running through here earlier. Could they be in the fire?

Sakura began to jog towards the smoke.

"Where do you think you're going?" demanded Larxy. Sakura stopped. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't leave Larxy, not the state that she was in.

"I-" the brunette started but was interrupted by the sounds of the loud sirens going off in the streets, not far from where the two stood. "Never mind. We're almost there."

Slowly, Sakura followed Larxy back to the shadow portal, neither saying a word to each other.

"There you are," said Avery, leaning his body over the railing of the balcony. If Sakura got along with anyone in the group, it was Avery.

Sakura was also leaning over the railing, but studying a Duel Monster card in her hand, the one she thought looked so much like her. The answer is in the cards. The voice repeated in her head. Have faith in the Heart of the Cards.

"Avery," said Sakura, not taking her eyes off the card. "What's a heart?"

Avery looked at Sakura for a moment before his dark brown eyes moved to the embers in the mantelpiece from the floor below.

"A vital piece of organ that separates us from everyone else."

"You mean, we don't have one?" asked Sakura, looking up at Avery.

Avery shrugged his shoulders. "It's hard to tell. Only you would know, right?"

Sakura placed her hand over her chest. "How do you get a heart, then?"

Avery chuckled. "Well, you listen to the boss. That's what we're all here for."

"Then why are we fighting people who are exactly like us? Don't they want a heart too?"

"You'd think," said Avery rubbing the back of his head. "Truth is, they are the ones that are trying to prevent us from getting a heart."

"Why? Why would they care whether or not we want a heart or not?"

Avery looked back at Sakura. "You ask a lot of questions, don't you?"

Sakura looked back at the card in her hand. "I just want some answers."

I know it's confusing, but I promise, it'll be summed up soon. Really, tell me what you think. Hate it? Like it? What do I need to work on most? That would help me out the most! Thank you so much for reading! :) Have a nice day :)