Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.


Chapter 8: The King's Queen

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Lamia announced. "Now, let's see if you can pull yourself out of the grave you've dug for yourself."

"You sure seem to be enjoying yourself," Alexis remarked as she drew her next card.

"Commander Viper trained me not just as a soldier, but as a duelist as well," Lamia responded. "Because of that, it wouldn't be satisfying for me to eliminate you unless I crush you while fighting at your hardest."

"Well this duel won't end the way you think it will," Alexis declared. "First I activate Card of Sanctity, allowing us both to draw until we have six cards! Then I summon Cyber Petit Angel in Attack Mode!"

Materializing on Alexis's side of the field was a small pink robot with a spherical body. It had stubby arms and legs, and a face with two round hazel eyes and a large mouth. On the sides of its body were two small white-feathered wings, and above its top was a halo made of a golden-white light.

"When Cyber Petit Angel is summoned to the field, I can add Machine Angel Ritual from my deck to my hand!" Alexis announced. "Now I sacrifice Petit Cyber Angel to special summon Cyber Tutubon!"

Cyber Petit Angel shattered into particles of white as a twister of wind surrounded it. In moments the twister subsided to reveal a young woman with short straight teal hair clad in a skintight green, light-blue and red bodysuit. She had a yellow visor on over her eyes, and attached to the top of her head were two large red spherical bells, each with a green thorn-covered vine wrapped around it. A pair of small white-feathered wings was attached to her back, and around her neck was a choker in the form of a green vine with a red rose on the front. Around her waist was an elaborate ruffled pink tutu that was open in the front.

"Now I activate the Spell card, Machine Angel Ritual!" Alexis announced.

Appearing to tower behind Alexis was a large ornate caldron of flames. Its base was made of several grey metal pipes.

"I sacrifice Cyber Tutubon and Cyber Tutu from my hand to summon Cyber Angel Benten!" Alexis announced.

Materializing above the flaming cauldron was a girl with short straight bubblegum-pink hair clad in a white and burgundy bodysuit with a pink tutu and wearing a blue visor over her eyes. Cyber Tutubon flipped through the air and dove into the caldron of flames along with Cyber Tutu. Soon after, a ball of flames shot out from the caldron and struck the field in front of Alexis. In moments the fireball took the form of a woman with long black hair wearing a sleeveless white and red tight-fitting bodysuit and an ornate gold mask over the top half of her face. In her hands she carried a large red fan connected by a chain to a long wooden handle.

"Since Tutubon was used for a Ritual Summon, I can use her effect to return Machine Angel Ritual to my hand!" Alexis announced. "Next I equip Benten with Ritual Weapon, increasing her ATK from 1800 to 3300!"

Appearing on Benten's left arm was a golden armored gauntlet with a small round purple shield on the back baring a strange eye-like symbol. Two curved golden blades were attached to the sides of the shield, and the tips of the blades projected two thin beams of a blue energy that met with the end of an arrow made of blue light loaded beneath the shield, revealing the gauntlet to be a sort of crossbow.

"Thanks to the boost from Ritual Weapon, the ATK Benten loses from attacking even Urubonus won't make that much of a difference," Axel observed. "She drew just what she needed to turn this around."

"Benten, attack Urubonus!" Alexis commanded. "Angelic Arrow!"

Urubonus quickly responded by spraying Benten with venom from his fangs. Benten quickly recovered though and fired the arrow of light loaded into her gauntlet. The arrow entered through the snake's open mouth and shot a hole right through the back of its head. Urubonus fell to the ground dead before shattering into particles of light. Meanwhile, Lamia's life points dropped to 2100.

"And now when Benten destroys a monster in battle, she deals damage equal to the destroyed monster's DEF!" Alexis announced.

Benten twirled around before flinging her fan across the field at Lamia. Lamia raised her arms to shield herself, but the moment the fan struck, her life points took another drop to 1300.

"This changes nothing!" Lamia declared. "I activate the Trap, Serpent God's Wrath! By discarding every single Reptile monster from my hand when one of my Reptiles is destroyed in battle, Serpent God's Wrath destroys all monsters on the field! I discard Black Mamba and two more Jade Cobras!"

The sky darkened and suddenly several green fireballs rained down from above. Both Benten and Jaden Cobra were hit and vaporized in an instant. As soon as both monsters were destroyed, the sky returned to normal.

"If this is the limit of your strength, then you stand no chance against me!" Lamia declared.

"Damn! She's a much more aggressive player than we thought," Yubel observed as she reappeared next to Alexis.

"No kidding," Alexis quietly agreed. "The more I damage her, the harder she comes at me."

"The effect of Serpent God's Wrath also allows me to add a level eight or lower Reptile monster to my hand!" Lamia announced. "You've proven to be a major disappointment, Alexis Rhodes. Hopefully I'll have a much more satisfying duel from Jaden Yuki when he tries to kill me in order to avenge your death."

"Dammit!" Chazz cursed. "This is the worst thing that could've happened. At this point there's no way Alexis can turn this around."

"Chazz, you really need to have more faith in Alexis," Jaden told him. "I know things look bad, but I'm totally sure that she can still win."

"You just shut up!" Chazz shot back. "None of this would be happening right now if it wasn't for you!"

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Alexis announced. "It's your move, Lamia."

"Indeed. And with this move, you shall be finished!" Lamia declared as she drew her next card. "I play Monster Reborn and summon Jade Cobra back to the field!"

On cue, the giant green cobra reappeared on Lamia's side of the battlefield.

"And now… in the name of Commander Viper, I will finish you in the most devastating way possible," Lamia spoke. "I banish Jade Cobra and all Reptile monsters in my Graveyard to summon the monster I added to my hand with Serpent God's Wrath! Come forth, Evil Dragon Ananta!"

Jade Cobra shattered into particles of light, and twister of black wind suddenly appeared behind Lamia. After a few moments, the twister subsided to reveal a massive light-brown and purple snake with five heads. The central head had a large golden horn growing from the center of it forehead and a purple fin growing from the back of its head like a crown, while the other four heads had pieces of black armor covering their foreheads. Covering the serpent creature's chest was a piece of black armor styled to look like the face of a snake with red eyes.

"Ananta gains 600 ATK and DEF points for each monster that was banished in order to summon it," Lamia announced. "Because five of my serpents were removed from play to bring it to the field, Ananta's ATK and DEF are now 3000!"

Alexis closed her eyes. "I really didn't give it my best in this duel, did I?"

"What're you talking about? You've done great so far," Yubel assured her. "You're not going to give up, are you? Because Jaden and I would not be okay with that."

"Of course I'm not giving up," Alexis answered. "I'm just mad at myself for letting her get the better of me."

"Then let's turn it around," Yubel told her.

"Yeah… let's do it!" Alexis responded, and her eyes snapped open to reveal that they were glowing in the orange and teal colors of Yubel's eyes.

"Whoa!" Axel exclaimed as he noticed Alexis's eyes. "What's going on here? I thought Jaden's eyes only did that."

Chazz's eyes widened with a mixture of shock and horror. "Jaden… what the hell did you and Yubel do to Alexis?"

"It's kind of a long story," Jaden responded.

"Ananta! Attack her directly and paint the ground with her blood!" Lamia commanded. "Thousand Serpent Fangs!"

"I activate my Trap, Machine Angel's Grace!" Alexis announced as Ananta's heads lunged towards her. "When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack on me, Machine Angel's Grace lets me discard Machine Angel Ritual to summon a Cyber Angel from my Graveyard and negate the attack! I summon Cyber Angel Benten back to the field!"

Just as Ananta was about to move in for the kill, a pillar of blue flames shot up from the ground in front of Alexis and blocked the hydra's path. In seconds the flames subsided to reveal Benten.

"In that case, I shall end my turn," Lamia announced. "But at the end of my turn, Ananta's effect lets me destroy one of my opponent's monsters! I use Ananta's effect to destroy Benten!"

Ananta's central head opened its jaws and sprayed Benten with a green liquid. Just as the spray was about to hit though, a barrier of blue-green light appeared in front of the dark-haired Cyber Angel and blocked the attack.

"What!" Lamia exclaimed. "Why didn't that work?"

"Sorry, but thanks to Machine Angel's Grace, Benten becomes unaffected by my opponent's card effects until the end of my opponent's next turn," Alexis explained.

"Now you're just starting to annoy me," Lamia spoke with a scowl. "You clearly can't win, so just give up already!"

"No way in hell!" Alexis and Yubel said together as they drew the next card from Alexis's deck. The card that Alexis pulled from her deck gave off a flash of black energy.

"What the hell was that?" Chazz asked. "Jaden… what have you turned Alexis into?"

"I activate the Spell card, Queen's Eyes!" Alexis announced. The illustration of the card Alexis played showed Yubel's eyes shining through a pitch-black fog. "This card lets me use a single Cyber Angel to summon a Cyber Queen Fusion Monster that uses her as material! I use Cyber Angel Benten to summon Cyber Queen Benten!"

Benten's eyes suddenly began to glow with the orange and teal colors of Yubel, and a second later she became enveloped in a pillar of crackling black energy that shot into the sky. A few moments later the energy faded to reveal Benten in a new form. Her long dark hair had become totally white, and her skin had turned purple. The sleeveless black bodysuit she had on had become black and brown. The gold mask that was covering the top half of her face was now silver and had become more skull-like, and had also gained a vertical yellow eye that covered her forehead. A pair of small curved yellow horns grew from the sides of Benten's head. The pole handle of her weapon had turned black, while the fan at the end of the chain had turned purple and was now decorated with a design resembling a demonic face.

"It looks like a fusion of Benten and Yubel," Chazz observed.

"That's exactly what it is," Jaden told him.

"I attack Ananta with Cyber Queen Benten!" Alexis announced.

"But that queen of yours only has 2300 ATK!" Lamia pointed out. "There's no way it can defeat Ananta!"

"In her current form, Benten can only be destroyed by other Fusion Monsters, and I don't take any damage from battles involving her," Alexis explained. "Furthermore, when Benten battles a monster with higher ATK, she destroys that monster and inflicts damage equal to the monster's ATK or DEF, depending on which is higher. Of course since Ananta's ATK and DEF are the same, you take 3000 points of damage either way."

"That's… impossible!" Lamia declared as her eyes widened in shock.

"Benten! Attack Ananta and end this!" Alexis commanded. "Queen's Turn!"

Benten twirled around three times before flinging her bladed fan at Ananta. In a split second, the fan cut through the hydra's midsection like butter. A few seconds later, the two halves of Ananata began to separate before exploding into particles of purple light. The resulting shockwave knocked Lamia to the ground and reduced her life points to zero. With the duel at an end, Benten vanished from the field. Alexis meanwhile let out a heavy sigh as her eyes returned to normal.

"Lex!" Jaden spoke as he quickly came up to her.

"I probably had you pretty worried for a while, didn't I?" Alexis realized.

"For a little bit, but I knew you could pull it off," Jaden responded.

"I helped out a bit too, you know," Yubel remarked as she reappeared next to Jaden.

"Yeah. Thanks for the help, Yubel," Alexis told her. "The truth is, I probably would've lost that duel if it wasn't for you."

"Think nothing of it," Yubel responded. "After all, you and I are a part of each other now."

Before the conversation could go on, the three suddenly heard a blood-curdling scream. Jaden and the others turned just in time to see Lamia being vaporized by a white light. In a few seconds, there was nothing left of her but a scorch mark on the ground.

Axel walked up to where Jaden and Alexis were standing. "Looks like Viper did away with another one of his assassins."

"I really don't think Viper did that," Alexis declared. "From what Lamia said about her past, Viper essentially raised her. He may be evil, but he wouldn't do something that heartless."

"You're right," Jaden agreed. "To Viper, Lamia was probably like the son he was trying to bring back from the dead using Yubel's help. I'm more certain than ever that there's someone or something else involved."


Viper sat looking at the screen showing Jaden and the others with his face totally blank. A single tear rolled down his cheek. Losing Hudson and Patterson was bad enough, but losing Lamia was even worse. To Viper, Lamia had been about as precious as his dead son, Pierce. Now he had lost both children, and what infuriated him most was that the one who had just taken his daughter's life, Lucia, was standing right next to him, and he couldn't to a single thing to make her pay for what she had done.

"A really pity about your apprentice, Viper," Lucia remarked. "She was actually quite good. On the bright side, I now at least know what Alexis Rhodes is capable of since becoming the Supreme King's queen. She will indeed be a very troubling adversary in the future."

Viper suddenly rose from his chair and turned to Lucia, but stopped himself at the last second from trying to strangle her. He realized that it would do no good.

"Oh dear. You're not going to have another little tantrum now, are you?" Lucia asked. "Because I am in the mood for that sort of nonsense."

"You are right Lucia… I am furious," Viper admitted. "But… I know who to take my rage out on."


"I guess the only thing to do now is to just keep on going to Viper's hideout," Jaden assumed. "Axel, how much longer do you think it'll take us to get there?"

"It should only take us a few more hours," Axel answered as he looked at the map. "Of course we don't know if Viper has any more assassins lying in wait for us."

Suddenly a beam of blue light projected from one of the trees. Jaden and the others watched as the end of the beam became a hologram of Viper.

"Jaden Yuki!" Viper practically shouted. "I'm going to make you pay for everything that you've done! The blood of Lamia, Patterson and Hudson is all on your hands!"

"Now that really isn't true, is it Viper?" Jaden calmly responded. "Whoever or whatever power you're working with is the one who really killed them. Just like what happened at the academy, you made a deal with the devil, and now the devil is stabbing you in the back. You have no one to blame for the deaths of Lamia and the others but yourself."

"No Jaden. All of this has been because of you!" Viper insisted. "From the very moment our paths crossed I have known nothing but misfortune and despair! Your very existence is to blame for all of my suffering and everything that has resulted from it! And I will no longer rest until I have wiped you, Yubel and Alexis Rhodes from the face of the earth!"

Alexis put a hand on Jaden's shoulder. "You can come after us if you want, but the three of us will take you down no matter what."

"That's right!" Jaden declared. "Viper, let's end this once and for all!"

"Then come to my base. I'll be waiting for you," Viper responded. And with that, his hologram vanished.

"We had better get going," Axel told the others. "We may be close, but we still have a lot of ground to cover."

Suddenly Jaden noticed that someone was missing. "Wait a sec. Where's Chazz?"

Axel looked and noticed that Chazz was indeed missing from the campsite. "Dammit, he was here just a second ago! He must've decided to run off somewhere while we were all focused on Viper."

"Where the hell could he have gone?" Alexis wondered.

"I don't know, but it was pretty boneheaded of him to just wander off like that," Axel declared. "We should probably find him before he falls into one of Viper's trap or run into something else in this jungle that could get him killed."


Viper sat back down in his chair and turned his attention back to his screens. As he looked at the image of Jaden's group, he noticed that Chazz was now missing.

"Viper, tell me that you're able to track Chazz Princeton down," Lucia spoke.

"I am. The poison bands that Jaden and his friends are wearing also have tracking devices," Viper revealed. "And my cameras cover a wide area of the jungle. It should be no problem to locate him."

"Then do it," Lucia ordered in a rather stern tone. "And quickly."

Viper tapped a few keys on one of the control panels in front of him. In a few seconds, one of the screens showed Chazz running through the jungle. Another screen showed a map with a moving green dot representing Chazz's location.

"It looks like he's approaching the pond I found while surveying the area," Viper observed. "He won't get too far from the path, but it's still quite a detour. Jaden and his friends will likely try and retrieve him."

"That doesn't matter," Lucia responded. "The important thing is that Chazz is now totally alone. This will be the perfect opportunity for me to see what he's capable of."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm all out of soldiers," Viper pointed out.

"Not to worry," Lucia told him. "An opponent for Chazz can be easily provided. You just leave everything to me."


Author's Note: Obviously the cards Alexis used to end the duel were cards that I had made up for her. I think in this case to fully explain the concept behind these cards (and I'm sorry for not doing this sort of thing with my previous stories), I'm going to show you their full text right here.

Queen's Eyes

Spell Card

Target 1 "Cyber Angel" monster you control; Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck that lists that monster on the field as Fusion Material. You can only activate 1 "Queen's Eyes" per turn.

Cyber Queen Benten

DARK/Fairy/Fusion/Effect/8/ATK 2300/DEF 2000

"Cyber Angel Benten" + "Yubel"

Cannot be destroyed in battle with non-Fusion Monsters. You take no damage from battles involving this card. At the end of the Damage Step, if this face-up Attack Position card battles an opponent's monster with higher ATK: Inflict damage equal to the ATK or DEF of the opponent's monster (whichever is higher) to your opponent, also destroy that monster.

So when I was thinking about Alexis's duel with Lamia, I decided that I should have her win using some kind of card representing her connection to Yubel. Eventually I came up with the idea of having Alexis use a Spell card that could summon a Fusion using a single Cyber Angel as material, sort of like Mask Change. While trying to figure out the stats and effects for this new Cyber Angel Fusion though, it dawned on me that it should be a Fusion of the Cyber Angel in question and Yubel. So the Spell card ended up becoming like the real world version of The Eye of Timaeus.

Well, next up is Chazz's duel against a "unique" opponent, so stay tuned for next week's update. In the meantime, please review and let me know what you think.