"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"Leo, do you really think that asking, Are we there yet, over and over is going to get us there any faster?" asked Luna.
"I'm sorry, I just so bored. And why do I have to come on this trip anyway? I'm not a signer, so this clone swearing revenge thing really isn't an issue for me."
"It'll be your issue if he kidnaps and tortures you unless Luna gives herself up." said Jack.
For the next five minutes Leo was quiet.
"I want my piece of wood." he finally said.
"Do you honestly still have that thing?" asked Trudge.
"Well of course I still have it!" said Leo "Or do you not remember who gave it to me?!"
Almost a year ago Leo had been given an ornate circular piece of wood with his name on it by the same mysterious bearded man in white who saved Jack's life. Some of Yusei's friends still had trouble believing who he had to be.
"Leo, I don't think it's anything but an ordinary but a piece of wood."
"Well I believe he gave it to me for a reason. I just don't know for what reason yet."
The safe house was outside of town. It didn't look very big, so Yusei wondered how they were going to fit everyone inside.
"Why do Yusei and Akiza get their own bedroom?" asked Crow.
"Because they're married, you bird brain."
"Oh right… Well why does Mina?"
"Because I said so." replied Trudge "Now the rest of you, go kill each other for the last room."
Jack ended up being the one to get the only remaining bedroom; he was determined not to end up sleeping on the floor.
"The rest of you will be in sleeping bags, boys on this side of the room, girls on the other."
"What sleeping bags?" asked Rally.
"Oh great…. Knew we forgot something."
Trudge pulled out his radio.
"Someone's gotta go back into town and get a boat load of sleeping bags!"
Days at the safe house turned into weeks and still nothing had come up about the clone. A general day was generally slow for Yusei and the others. One morning Crow had been holding up the bathroom, and the only thing that stopped Trudge from breaking down the door was that he didn't want to express his fury in front of Mina. One day Akiza pulled Yusei aside from the others so they could perform another test.
"Please let this work."
Akiza kept her fingers crossed as she performed the test, but it was to no avail.
"I don't understand it." she said as her eyes started filling up with tears "Why can't we have a child? Is God still punishing for my actions as the Black Rose?"
"Akiza you're not being punished for anything. I'm proof of that." said Yusei "Everything happens for a reason. Maybe we're just not ready for a child yet."
"That can't be the case! We're financially secure, I'm determined not to repeat the mistakes of my parents, and above all I want a baby!"
"Well… Maybe you're right. Maybe we're still doing something wrong."
"Yusei we've made love with the intent of conceiving five times already."
"Hmm… The doctor's did say there was nothing wrong with you… But maybe you should try fertility drugs?"
"I don't like the idea of messing with something like this. We might end up with conjoined twins."
(This is not an attack against conjoined twins, I'm just under the impression that most parents would probably prefer it if their children didn't come out that way)
"Well then I guess our only option is to keep trying… Hey, cheer up; we're bound to get it right sooner or later."
That smile never failed to get Akiza back in spirits.
"Well… I guess this means we'll get to enjoy ourselves again."
As Yusei and Akiza walked out of their room Leo noticed the cup she was holding.
"Hey, is that apple juice?"
"No." she said holding it away from him.
It was bound to be just another boring night, so Trudge decided to spice things up.
"Hey, have any of you ever heard the story of… The evil card?"
"Trudge, there's a lot of evil cards. We speak from experience."
"Yes, but this one in particular is a legend known only by us who work with Security."
"Whatever. It can't be any worse than the Earthbound Immortals, or Aggemoah."
"It happened years ago. It was a dark and stormy night in Domino City. Some officers were on patrol, when suddenly they stumbled on a little boy standing in the rain. When they went to investigate the boy ran away. The officers continued after him, when they finally caught up to him he just stood there crying, the card made me do it!"
"The card made him do what?"
"The officers had no idea what the boy was talking about, so they took him back to the base and found out who he was. It turned out that he was the son of card designer who was living in the city. When they took him home to question his parents about what was going on… And you know what they saw when they got there?"
"What?"
"The parents had been hacked to pieces!!! And that's not the scariest part; the kid's fingerprints were all over the bloody ax!"
"You're saying the boy killed his own parents? Why?"
"He kept saying the card he had told him to do it."
Luna could talk to spirits; she could understand that card's could speak to their owners, but one that actually told someone to commit so heinous a crime?
"What card was it?"
"Uh... I don't remember. It was some kind of prototype synchro monster that the kid's dad had been working on, one of a kind."
"What happened to it?"
"Supposedly the analysts who looked at the card started claiming that they were hearing voices telling them to do something similar to what the boy did. So they locked it up somewhere… But of course it's just an old scary story."
(To be continued)
Coming up next...
The clone strikes!
