Chapter IV: Confrontation
Hello, again, fans of Yu-Gi-Oh GX! I feel a lot of love in this room right now… I also feel a lot of fear, sadness and potential rage if I kill Syrus off. Anyway, the responses to this story have been amazing. Thank you, all of you, who have reviewed and/or put this story in your favorites or on alert! While I write for fun, it's nice to know you all are having fun reading it. To those of you who are following my other fic, "The Jedi League of Duelists," don't worry. Chapter 26 will come; I have a lot of stuff written out and it's tough to remold it. This story will help me work through some of it.
A big thanks to Princess Lena aka Lady Kittuna, who wanted to see Sartorius try to make a bargain to save Sy's life. It might not turn out the way you thought, my friend, but I hope you enjoy it… Also, thanks to the good people at Web MD for providing the information on what electric shocks can do to the heart.
Recap: Chancellor Shepherd has had to make some of the most difficult phone calls of his career. Sy and Zane's mom and dad and Atticus and Alexis's mom and dad are coming, as are Pegasus and Chumley and Kisara Kaiba. And then, there is a Code Blue at the Academy… Will Sy live to see another chapter? Just stick around, and I'll show you!
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX!
WARNING: This chapter contains bleeped language, as indicated by Xs. Furthermore, I don't think I could write a complete duel, so you'll just have to imagine what happens. I mostly see Jaden just raging...
"CODE BLUE! WE HAVE A CODE BLUE!" Miss Fontaine shouted. The other nurse, named Meredith, raced in with the defibrillator. Syrus Aidan Truesdale had gone into cardiac arrest, mainly because the initial electric shocks from the duel with his brother had destabilized his heart beat. Sy's only chance of survival was the defibrillator. Miss Fontaine readied the paddles and gave the order. Several volts of electricity went through the paddles and into the heart of the blue-haired boy. His little body jumped, but the EKG monitor still flat-lined.
"C'mon, Syrus, don't give up on us now! Again!" the nurse said to her counterpart. Meredith activated the defibrillator again and this time, Syrus's heart started up again and he breathed. "Oh, thank God… I thought for a minute that was it," Miss Fontaine said softly. She knew the kids had probably heard the commotion, and headed to where they were waiting. "We had a close call, but we got him breathing on his own again. I can't guarantee it won't happen again. That shock collar system may have disrupted his heart rhythms and we can't keep shocking him indefinitely. I may not be able to bring him back next time," she explained.
"Miss Fontaine, can't you..?" Jaden asked, looking desperate. Zane, too, had that look in his eyes.
"There may be nothing I can do," she said softly.
"Perhaps I may be of some assistance," said a silky, yet almost snakelike voice. Everyone turned and saw the leader of the Society of Light. Sartorius looked for all the world like a demon, though he was dressed from head to foot in white. "I might be able to save your little friend, Jaden, and return your brother to you, Zane… All you have to do, Jaden, is join the Light…" He smiled wickedly, certain he'd won.
Jaden, however, had another idea… "How about you go XXXX yourself?" His eyes were blazing like they never had and everyone gasped in shock that Jaden Kiyo Yuki had just told Sartorius what to go do with himself. "Taking my other friends away from me wasn't enough? Why should I trust you can somehow heal him? Is it my destiny to lose to you?! No way, Sartorius! You'll get me to duel you, and then you'll tell me that it's Sy's destiny to die… I'll duel you, if only to kick your sorry butt to the curb and get the Society of Light out of here! You want to get your game on, Sartorius?! Well, let's go out and throw down!"
"Um, Sarge? I thought you were an officer and a gentleman…" Tyranno Hasselberry said, in absolute shock.
"I might be an officer to you, Hasselberry, but right now, I am no gentleman," Jaden said, his voice fairly cold. "Let's go, Sartorius."
Musical choice for this section: Battle of the Heroes by John Williams as featured in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
The violet-eyed, striped-haired leader of the Society of Light walked out of the infirmary, confident that his victory was assured. However, had he bothered to really check his Tarot cards that day, he might've seen his own loss. Of course, Sartorius might have seen his victory and then been shocked by what was to come. For this duel, destiny was on the side of the boy who had been chosen by the Neo-Spacians to fight.
Sartorius drew first, assured that his Tarot-based monster would defeat whatever it was that Jaden would bring to the field. However, the monster that Sartorius was sure would land in the proper position did not land the way he thought, and Jaden was able to attack with Elemental Hero Avian, dropping Sartorius's life points. It happened again. Sartorius sacrificed one monster for another, and then Jaden attacked again, the rage growing in his eyes. For this moment, if the truth be told, Jaden wasn't so much fighting Sartorius as he was fighting the force that was attempting to take his best friend from him. Again and again the combatants clashed. Unknown to the two, a crowd formed near the battle.
"What is going on here?" a young man with platinum blonde hair and blue eyes and wearing a white suit with a gray business shirt and black tie asked.
"Aster, Zane hurt Private Truesdale and the Sarge is fightin' Sartorius," Hasselberry explained to Aster Phoenix in a rush. "Private Truesdale isn't doing so good…in fact, he could go up with all the great generals if something else goes wrong…What in Sam Hill?!" An explosive attack had been launched, and it had come from Sartorius's side of the field. The gathered students who belonged to the Society of Light cheered for Master Sartorius.
"Jaden!" shouted the students not in the Society. If he lost a duel again, what would the consequences be this time? However, he came up laughing. But this laugh was not the happy-go-lucky Jaden Yuki's laugh. In fact, that laugh was reminiscent of one Seto Kaiba when he felt he was in a position to take Yugi Muto down in battle. But unlike Seto Kaiba, Jaden would win.
"I wanted you to attack me, you sick jerk! You're going down!" He flipped over a trap card which took a major chunk out of his opponent's life points.
"Destiny is with me, young Jaden. You will join my Society and serve me. It is your destiny to do so."
"Destiny, my butt! And I'm about to kick yours! I summon Neo-Spacian Hero Neos and I merge him with Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin to form Neo-Spacian Aqua Neos! Take him down, Neos!"
Sartorius shouted in shock as Aqua Neos made his final attack and Sartorius's life points dropped to zero. And then Neos delivered the blow that knocked the light of destruction away from Sartorius. And it was thus that the Society of Light was no more.
"Hey," one former Society member asked another, "what just happened?"
"I think we're free!"
Jaden Yuki, at any other time, might have felt happy and triumphant at the fact all of the people who'd been trapped in the Society were now free. However, right now, he felt emotionally drained. Sartorius, for his part, blinked a few times.
"What in the world? Am I free? What has happened?" Sartorius felt, in some ways, that he'd only dreamed that he had been possessed by the Society of Light. Seeing the students dressed in white convinced him that it wasn't a dream. And so he walked over to his opponent, intending to offer his thanks and congratulations. "Jaden…"
But the brown-haired boy sank to his knees and two of his friends moved to his side. Both were former members of the Society and both had been reasons Sartorius thought that Jaden would eventually turn.
"Jaden, let's get you back to the infirmary," Alexis Rhodes said, getting one of his arms over her shoulder.
"Yeah, c'mon, Slacker. Man, I've never seen you duel like that," Chazz Princeton added, helping the boy stand and walk. Chazz actually looked a bit afraid of Jaden, because he, Chazz, had never seen the other boy duel with such anger. Even Sartorius admitted to himself that he was shaken.
He was righteously angry, in some ways, and even with his anger, he would not turn. I underestimated him, or my dark side did, the tall man realized as he walked a short distance behind Jaden and his friends. Aster Phoenix, too, followed the group. They all entered the infirmary where Atticus was waiting and all sat down.
"Nothing's changed," Atticus informed them. "Miss Fontaine thinks that Sy is stable for now, but there aren't any guarantees. And she still won't let us see him. So, who won?" Chazz told him. "So the Society of Light is done?" Atticus asked Sartorius.
"Yes. It is fortunate Jaden stopped me when he did. That satellite would've enabled me to control every mind on Earth. I am sorry, all of you. Aster, I believe I know who… killed your father."
"Tell me later. I don't think I could handle it right now," Aster admitted. "Zane… did I cause you to..?"
"You didn't, Aster, though it would be easy to blame you," Zane answered softly. "I told Jaden it wasn't your fault and had he beaten me last year, I might've turned then. You just happened to be the guy that beat me and that set me off. So don't blame yourself for what I chose to do."
And then Bastian took a deep breath. "Sartorius… I want to… I need to know…why did you never allow me to duel for you? I know why I was pulled into the Society so easily… I felt alone, but I still felt that way afterward…part of it was because you seemed to think I was somehow unworthy…please answer me at least that." His gray eyes pleaded for that answer, and so did nearly everyone else's eyes.
"Bastian, think back to that duel. Why did you lose?" Sartorius asked.
"I lost because I chose to lose. I wanted to feel like I belonged. I felt like I had drifted away or you mates had drifted away from me," he answered, looking at his friends. "I thought it was logical."
"Bastian, you would have won. You are a strong duelist, but you have a definite weakness. It does not lie in the friends you have chosen. You wonder why Jaden was ultimately able to beat you…I saw this in you and in him. You both function with certain logic when you duel, but you function almost sheerly on logic, Bastian. You don't let your intuition guide you very often. I heard once that 'logic is the beginning of wisdom…'"
"'Not the end,'" Bastian quoted, awed. "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. You know the movie?"
"Yes…You must learn that logic and numbers are not everything, Bastian. You must leap beyond them."
Bastian wasn't sure what to say for the moment. "Thank you," he managed finally.
"So, why did you take most of my friends?" Jaden asked.
Sartorius sighed. "Jaden…I went after your friends because it was a way to get to you to perhaps join the Society if I demoralized you enough. They each had their gifts, but… they could not beat you and you would rather fight to get them out than give up. I was wrong and the future cannot be so easily predicted. My evil side was wrong to torture you like that. Even the side that had control of me did not have the power to bring healing."
"So there's nothing we can do, then…" Jaden said softly.
"No. May I ask why you wanted to duel me just a short time ago?"
For the first time in his life, Jaden hadn't dueled for fun. "I needed to…I needed to fight somebody or something…"
"That isn't like you, Jaden," Alexis said, sitting down and putting her arm around his shoulders. "You usually just duel for fun and end up saving the world in the process. Didn't you just save the universe?"
"Yeah, but Sy should be here talking with us, not…" Jaden choked. Alexis pulled him into a hug and just let him cry.
Meanwhile, two helicopters made their way to Duel Academy, and in one helicopter, a young man said a silent prayer, hoping he and his boss would make it to the academy in time. In another helicopter, a young woman with bluish-white blonde hair looked over at the two worried mothers and fathers and mentally prayed… Please, Lord, guide my hands and help me to help this boy…Amen. She only hoped she would not be too late…
No mean cliffhanger this time, folks… I think I can only give Sy a limited amount of near-death experiences. And before you say anything about Jaden, I know… he seems rather out of character. But he has nearly lost his best friend and after the year he's had, he probably has a lot of pent-up anger. Anyway, please read and review! I love to hear from you, and I'll be glad to answer any questions!