Chapter VII: The True Shadow Game

Hello again, everyone. We're glad you've rejoined us for yet another chapter. Again, we thank all of you for joining us. Now there was a question as to the speed of how "The Necklace of Sacrifice" was made so quickly. As we all know, the Rainbow Dragon card that Jesse got in Season 3 was done in a matter of hours and that is what we did here. Thanks for asking, The Rainwalker and we all hope you and your family are okay and that the rivers have finally gone down.

Last time, the boys dealt with the aftermath of Tyson's death-grapple with Jorge and Rosa's state. Meanwhile, Taniya taunted and harmed Violet while Camula did the same to Annie and Alexis. Annie wasn't taking captivity well and said to Alexis that she wouldn't let Camula hurt the guys. And now, we open the new chapter, and Bastion is about to go fight for the woman he loves.

Disclaimer: Don't own GX. Never will. Sorry.

Warning: If you're a Tigershipper, you might not like this chapter. You'll see why. Further, this chapter does contain violence and character death. Thank you for your attention.

The time to leave to the airfield had come more quickly than expected. It was five minutes until eight at night, giving Bastion five minutes until he'd leave with Pegasus and Chumley. Rosa had been moved out of the ICU and to her own room, where the others now were. The doctors had done a check of her body and discovered that Rosa would have muscle spasms for a while, though they weren't permanent.

Bastion took a deep breath, knowing that this night might just be his last on Earth. He had the Necklace of Sacrifice card ready. All he'd have to do, once in the Shadow Realm and clearly in a losing battle would be to say a special word to activate it and he would destroy himself and take Taniya with him. "I guess...this is...see you in a bit," he said easily, not wanting to say goodbye. "Rosa, get well soon...I hope when I see you next, you'll be having some fun..."

Rosa nodded. "Good luck, Senor Bastion," she replied.

Hiro placed a hand on his son's shoulder, sending him an encouraging smile. "You can do it, son. We know you can."

"Thanks, Dad. Tyson...if you don't get promoted...you're in charge of Ra Yellow. I heard Sy's being promoted from a very reliable source."

Tyson looked straight at his fellow Ra. "I said no rank now, and I meant it, but thank you, Bastion...You'll get Violet back. The Great General's on your side..."

Bastion nodded. He moved to Syrus. "You'll get Annie back...and I know there's a Star Trek nightshirt she wants on eBay..."

Syrus blinked in surprise, then smiled a little. "Thanks, Bastion. I know you'll get Violet back. See you soon," he replied.

Then Bastion shook Aster's hand and Zane's. "You'll face each other again in the Pro Leagues...and next time...it will be a truly honorable match." They nodded. He came to Chazz. "Thanks for helping me find the great love of my life, Chazz..."

Chazz, for his part, was fighting his emotions. This summer had seen him grow emotionally, but he still fought the part of himself that was touchy-feely. "Yeah, yeah...go save her, science nerd..."

Bastion nodded. And then, he came to Atticus. "Thank you, as well..."

Atticus smiled. "Ah, don't worry about it, Bastion. Just don't keep us waiting too long," he joked. The truth was that the easygoing Obelisk was scared one of his friends would not return, so he joked to keep himself from dwelling on the worst.

"I won't...Kisara..." He came to the young mother and doctor. "Thank you...for everything."

Kisara looked up at him. "Can I give you a hug?" she asked. He nodded and she did. "Good luck, Bastion...you will win..."

Bastion took his leave of each of his friends' parents, glad he'd already called the Haverbrooks and told them what was going on. And then, he came to one of the best friends he'd ever had in the world. "Jaden..."

The Slifer Red student jumped, throwing his arms around the taller boy. "You have to come back," Jaden said, his brown eyes frightened. He'd had a long talk with Yugi hours before, and wasn't kicking himself as hard for what had happened with his friends. That, however, didn't alleviate the pain and fear.

"I'll bring her back, Jaden...We'll get them back," the Ra genius promised. Finally, Bastion was with his parents again. "Mum..."

Katai hugged her only child tightly to her, remembering the baby he'd been and looking at the man before her. "Remember how much we love you, sweetheart..."

"We'll be praying for you and Violet every second," added Hiro. He hugged Bastion, hoping to the powers that be that it wouldn't be the last time he did so.

"Thanks, Dad," Bastion said, hugging back and holding back tears. 'Stiff upper lip...you will leave with a smile,' he told himself. He managed it. "I'll be back," he said, praying he would make it back. "I'm ready..."

Pegasus stood as did Chumley. "Have the card, Bastion boy?"

"Yeah..."

"Let's just hope you don't have to use it," Chumley stated as they left the hospital room.

"You won't, Bastion boy...you know how to stop that tiger woman..."

"Yeah...this time, I'm ready," Bastion answered, his gray eyes determined as they headed to the waiting helicopter.

GXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGX

The Industrial Illusions helicopter arrived at the Duel Academy landing pad at 11:00 PM. Bastion looked at the academy as the copter descended. 'This may be the last...stop thinking that, Misawa!' he commanded himself. However, he just couldn't shake the image of himself using the Necklace of Sacrifice spell card, and a sudden flash of bright blue light as the coliseum destructed. 'You won't have to use it,' he told himself again as the rotors stopped. He, Pegasus and Chumley exited and were surprised to see a welcoming committee.

"Welcome back, Bastion, Chumley, Mr. Pegasus," Chancellor Andrew Shepherd, a bald, well-built man with kind gray eyes and a mustache greeted. "I just wish this wasn't under such dire circumstances. Bastion, my boy, are you ready?"

"I am, Chancellor..."

Dr. Vellian Crowler, a very thin man with long blonde hair who also bore an unfortunate resemblance to Frankenfurter in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" came up next. "You'll do well, Bastion. You are a brilliant duelist."

"Thank you, Dr. Crowler..."

"Remember, Bastion, you will achieve victory," Jean-Louis Bonaparte, a rotund man with a pointy beard and mustache added.

"Merci, Professor Bonaparte."

Professor Don Sartyr, the Ra proctor, Card Design instructor and brilliant chef, was next in line. "Bastion, you are the elite of Ra Yellow. If anyone can do this, it is you," he stated, unable to keep worry from his gray eyes. Bastion was his favorite student, if the truth were known, and the thought of that boy being lost was horribly sad to the Ra instructor.

Ms. Fontaine, the school nurse and gym teacher, a pretty woman with auburn hair and gray eyes nodded in agreement. "I'll be waiting at the edge of the woods when you get back, Bastion. Just in case any immediate medical treatment is needed," she explained.

"Thank you, Professor Sartyr...and I will make certain that history does not forget the students of Ra Yellow...And thank you, Miss Fontaine," Bastion said. The teachers, CEO, and friend all wished Bastion one last "good luck" before he went off into the forest. It was dark, but forgetting the way to the setting of one of his few defeats was impossible.

He knew he must focus on the here and now and save the woman he loved. And then he was there at the coliseum. "TANIYA!" he shouted at the entrance.

"So, you're here, Bastion...miss me?" she asked, coming out of the shadows, and smiling seductively.

The young man could remember the boy he'd been and how easily swayed he had been in his first year of school. However, Bastion would not be swayed by her ever again. "Not particularly...now where's Violet?" he demanded.

"Follow me," she said, rolling her eyes in frustration. I'll have him soon enough. Patience, girl.

They were on the field of the great coliseum now, and there was Violet, chained up. "Violet!" Bastion shouted as he saw his love for the first time in over a day.

"Go ahead and talk to her...soon you'll forget about her and move on to the big girls..." Taniya grinned. She was sure that once they dueled again, Bastion wouldn't be able to get enough of her.

Bastion moved right to his love. "Violet, darling... are you all right?" he asked, brushing her bangs from her eyes.

Violet definitely looked worse for the wear. Taniya had given her some water, but the young woman hadn't eaten since last night. As if the pain in her leg didn't keep Violet awake, sleeping wasn't exactly easy in an upright position. He neck was sore and bags were under her eyes as she shook the haze that had settled over her mind. "H-Huh? What?? Bastion-baby?!"

"Yes, love, I'm here...and I'm going to save you...Oh, what did she do to you?" he asked angrily.

Violet was so glad to see him that for a moment she couldn't speak, but quickly forced her voice back. "B-Bastion! Not much, just....my leg," she frowned, glancing down at the throbbing wound.

He brushed her cheek and noticed she was warm. "You're warm...your leg is infected...and...your cheek is..." His gray eyes flashed. "Taniya...you hurt her..."

"She's a weakling and a weirdo. You don't need her," the Amazonian smirked, unknowingly rephrasing Violet's cruel ex-boyfriend.

That did it. "If you think for a moment that I would ever again be attracted to you in any way...you are sorely mistaken, and I will destroy you..." Bastion's eyes flashed again, much as they had that horrible night in Cleveland. When Violet had been so badly hurt, he hadn't hesitated to make the monster pay. And tonight, whatever mercy he might have afforded the Amazon was erased with how cruel she was being to his love.

Violet couldn't help but send a "told you so" look Taniya's way, not knowing that the worst was yet to come.

"So...are you actually going to give me a challenge this time?" Taniya asked.

"Oh, you won't be able to keep up," he countered, his voice taking that same deadly calm, but his face looking as if the fires of Hell were contained within him.

"You know what's on the line...if you lose...you're mine. If I lose...I'm gone..."

"The first will not occur, Taniya..."

"And why is that?" she wondered.

"I'd rather die than be your slave..."

Violet flinched at his words, her assumption proven then and there. She turned her gaze to inky black sky and dazzling stars above. 'Please, whoever's up there, don't let it come to that...please,' she silently begged.

Bastion too said his own prayer. 'Dear God...Please let me save Violet...and help us all...don't let evil prosper...not now...' "All right, Taniya...are you ready?" he asked.

"Yeah...let's do this...you're gonna be mine..."

"Never," Bastion answered angrily. Whatever attraction he'd had for the Amazon tiger woman had died.

Taniya smiled in her customary seductive manner. "I should tell you right now...this is a true shadow game...You've learned about them in history class, right?"

"Yes...that means if I lose points, I take actual physical damage. And if you lose life points, you take actual damage to your person."

"Well...there's a twist," Taniya said wickedly. Violet didn't like the sound of that, and hoped it wouldn't be more harm done to Bastion.

"And what might that be?" Bastion asked, getting angrier by the second.

"You'll see," she sneered.

Violet's eyes narrowed in slight anger at Taniya's little game. "Whatever it is, you can beat it, Bastion-baby!" she called.

Bastion pulled his deck and Taniya pulled hers. They flipped their discs into position and began. Taniya played first, putting a monster in attack mode. "Your turn, Bastion!"

He put a monster on the field as well. Taniya attacked and Bastion lost 300 life points. "What the devil?" he asked.

"Surprise...I'm not hurting you," Taniya grinned.

The monster dealing the damage had been Amazoness Tiger, which now turned and ran away from Bastion...towards Violet. It leapt, slashing at her chest and creating three long, but thankfully shallow, gashes. Her eyes widened in shock, and then she cried out in pain.

Bastion's eyes widened in horror. "Taniya! You leave her be!" he shouted.

"No...I want her gone...you'll love me and me alone when this is over..."

"No...I will never love you...and I will see to it that you are destroyed as well as me...You honestly think you can win me this way? No," he growled. He drew and this time attacked Taniya. She was blasted and gashes appeared on her body. "See? I get the damage," she explained, shivering slightly.

"Go...Bastion-baby," Violet cheered weakly, the pain in her chest slowly ebbing away like the pain in her leg had.

"Hang in there, darling!" Bastion called out, knowing that Violet's life hung in the balance. "Taniya...stop this," he said. He didn't want to destroy her, but the tiger woman seemed bent on her own destruction.

"You want to stop this...then let me finish her..."

"NEVER! YOU HEARTLESS CREATURE!! I WILL FINISH YOU!" Bastion shouted. "You are beyond redemption if you can do something so cruel!"

Violet had never seen Bastion this way, not even when the topic of Mike came up. 'Is this...what he was like when he fought him?' she wondered.

"How can you be so heartless?" he yelled, drawing yet another card as he fought. Taniya drew and attacked. Bastion blocked her with a trap card, which ended her turn.

"My mistake was loving an obvious weakling like you," Taniya countered, her jealousy and realization that Bastion didn't care for her enraging her. "But no matter...soon I'll own you and make you into my toy," she taunted again.

Violet felt disgusted at the statement, and would have gagged if it didn't make her hunger more prominent to her. "That's sick! No wonder you...have to go through so much to...get a guy!!" she shouted, forced to pause to catch her breath.

Taniya turned. "You're going to regret that you little brainless..." And then she attacked with the Hinotama magic card, taking 500 life points from Bastion, knowing full well what it would do to the purple-headed girl.

"VIOLET!" he shrieked as his beloved was hit. She gasped, and screamed in pain as the fireball collided against her upper left arm. It easily left a bad second degree burn, and Violet was obviously in pain from it.

'Fire...fire...it just HAD to be FIRE!!!' she screamed in her head.

Bastion's eyes blazed. "YOU ARE A COWARD, TANIYA!" he yelled.

"No...I'm winning..."

"Not for long..." Bastion scowled. They fought and finally, when Bastion was down to 700 life points and Taniya was down to 500, and Violet was a collect of cuts, burns, bruises and broken bones, the teen genius summoned Water Dragon. "Taniya...you couldn't just accept I was happy with her...I love Violet and I would fight and die for her without hesitation. She didn't want me to hurt anyone...but you left me no choice." He took a deep breath, regretting that there was no other way out, other than this. "And so...I end this duel...Water Dragon...take the rest of Taniya's life points..." And Taniya vanished forever in a maelstrom of water.

Instantly, the chains shattered and disappeared, as if they'd never even been there. Violet, close to unconsciousness, fell to the ground in a bloody, burned, and broken heap. There were cuts covering her body, the most prominent being on her chest and right side. There were minor burns on her right leg and inner right elbow, and the bruises were as numerous as the cuts. Violet's left wrist was broken again, and she had a cracked rib on her right side.

Bastion raced to her side and checked her pulse. "Violet...Violet, darling...please...please be all right..." He drew a medical kit from the rucksack he had with him and bandaged his love's injured body as best he could. "You'll be all right, darling...hang on...we'll get you home..." He picked her up and carried her through the woods and when he emerged, the teachers, his friend and his friend's boss were waiting. "Miss Fontaine, she's hurt!" he said without preamble.

The nurse quickly rushed over as Bastion laid Violet down on the grass, and gasped. "Hurry and call Domino Children's! We need an airlift, and fast!!" she shouted.

Professor Sartyr nodded. "I'm on it!" he replied, dialing the number on his cell phone.

Meanwhile, Miss Fontaine opened up the larger medical kit she had with her. "Bastion, what on Earth...?" she asked, readying an instant-ice pack.

"It...it was a true shadow game," Bastion answered, his teeth beginning to chatter. "H-help her...p-please..."

Miss Fontaine noticed his stuttering and turned to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Bastion, calm down. You won't help her if she sees you like this," she soothed. Miss Fontaine quickly pulled away to place the ice pack on Violet's feverish forehead, pulling out rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, and more gauze. "Now, Violet, this might hurt a bit..."

Bastion couldn't help it. The adrenaline was leaching out of his system and his body was responding. "Son, let's sit you down," Chancellor Shepherd said, helping the boy sit next to Violet's injured figure.

"I'm...h-here...d-darling," Bastion managed to say. Pegasus watched, worrying about the outcome. From his view, Violet looked terrible. Please, he prayed softly, don't let this young man lose her. Don't let him go through the hell I did. Max Pegasus knew all too well losing the love of his life before the two of them had even begun to live and he didn't want any of these young ones going through it.

Miss Fontaine removed the little gauze pads Bastion had used, cleaning each wound with the disinfectant. Violet winced, hissing in pain at the stinging liquid. "This should keep the wounds from getting infected until she gets treatment at the hospital—oh, my!" Miss Fontaine gasped when she got to the lower left leg. "No wonder she has a fever...that's a terrible infection!" she muttered, wrapping the wounds in fresh gauze.

Bastion gripped Violet's hand. "She had to h-hurt V-Violet to get to me...V-Violet...D-darling...y-you'll be fine..."

Violet wanted to say something, anything that would calm him. But unconsciousness claimed her before she could even part her lips, just as the helicopter arrived. Fortunately, one had already been in the air, heading toward the academy. "Bastion, you're in no shape to carry her. Professor Sartyr, Doctor Crowler! Help carry Violet to the medevac!!" Miss Fontaine ordered, packing up her medical kit.

Doctor Crowler moved fast. "Let's get her onto the stretcher! Bonaparte! Move it!" he shouted.

"Oui, Dr. Crowler!" the French instructor said. Bonaparte grabbed a blanket and once Sartyr and Crowler had Violet safely on the stretcher, Bonaparte got the blanket over the unconscious girl.

"Bastion, let's get you on my helicopter," Pegasus said.

"V-Violet," Bastion said. He didn't want to separate from her.

"The helicopter's too small, Bastion," Chancellor Shepherd explained. "I'm coming with you, son, okay?" Bastion nodded and leaned on the chancellor as they, Chumley and Pegasus climbed into the copter.

The two paramedics quickly rolled the stretcher back into the helicopter and closed the doors. Within seconds it was airborne and headed for Domino Children's Hospital. Meanwhile, Pegasus's helicopter took flight about a minute later, to give the two machines enough flying space.

Bastion kept looking at the helicopter flying next to them as they were airborne. "An ambulance will be waiting at the docks to get her to Domino Children's," Chancellor Shepherd said soothingly. "Bastion, you did well..."

"I...didn't...I couldn't protect her...and she didn't want me to hurt anyone..."

"She'll understand, Bastion boy," Max offered.

"I feel as though I failed her," Bastion whispered. "I'm sorry, darling," he added, the tears starting to come.

Chumley reached out to place a hand on Bastion's shoulder in a gesture of reassurance. "Bastion, you saved her life. I don't think she'd want you to be apologizing..."

Bastion sank into his chair, exhausted. "Chumley boy is right," Pegasus added. "Don't kick yourself for doing what you had to do..."

"You just rest until we get there," the chancellor said gently as the tall young man seemed to blank out, staring at the window.

So Violet is badly hurt, but Bastion managed to save her. Taniya, sadly, let lust and jealousy control her and that led to her doom. So next time, we'll be back at Domino Children's in "Strategy." Until then, please read, review and stay tuned! Thank you!