Grey: Well, I gotta say this one was much quicker. What brought this on?
Free: Got bored of hunting Fallen, Hive, Vex, Cabal & Taken on Destiny.
Grey: Wanted to give your 'Light' some time to recharge?
Free: No I just finished maxing all my Hunter subclasses. Things get boring once you do that.
Grey: Well then, 'Guardian', care to do the honors today?
Free: Neither of us own YGO just the words below.
"The subject is waking up."
"Good. Once she's stable, begin the brainwashing treatment and this time double it. We're going to need a stronger output to make sure my diamond in the rough stays under my control whenever she runs into any old acquaintances she has."
"Are you sure that is wise, Sayer?"
"Just by coming into contact with New Domino's new champion, the brainwashing started to wear off. In order to prevent any repeat performances down the road, we need to push things passed the limitations we put up."
"But...the last time we tried going beyond the safety measures with the brainwashing…"
"You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, Sierra. Besides, that boy was weak and barely had any psychic powers compared to Akiza. Whereas my diamond here is from Satellite and made of tougher stuff."
"That does not mean we should ignore the safety parameters!"
"To a certain extent, I'm not worried about the dangers involved in this. However, if the brainwashing wears off on my diamond...Let's just say she'll be like my rose when she loses it only without the unstable psychic power storm."
As her mind drifted in and out of consciousness, Will barely recognised the voices of Sayer and that nurse woman who helped dress her injuries during her duel with Akiza. It was all starting to come back to her. Her past…Her friends…Her sister!- And then Sayer came along and took her away from all that she had just for his own personal agenda...
"Fine! Place her in a cell and monitor her health. The moment she's stable enough, we're putting her back under." She heard Sayer order Sierra although his voice seemed to be getting further and further away as she slipped into unconsciousness. "In the meantime…
When she regained consciousness again, Will knew that she had been moved somewhere as her body felt comfy rather than still but she dared not open her eyes as the nurse was still hovering around her.
"...keeps happening, it could be fatal." She heard Sierra sigh sadly. "I know it's all for the sake of research but...how can all this be worth it? And after we vowed to not make the same mistake as before…"
Cracking one eye open slightly as she heard the hiss of her cell door slide open, Will watched as a troubled Sierra left the room leaving her alone in the rather homey looking cell. Guess even if Sayer wanted his pawns to be obedient vegetables, he made sure they had some comforts. But when you come from Satellite, anything with a warm comfy bed was a five star luxury.
Now alone, Will wasted no time in pulling herself to her feet and stumble over to the large mirror like window that allowed her to see into the next room over. Asides feeling stiff and sore from her nap and duel with Akiza, Will noticed that her hair had grown and she was sure she had gained an inch or two since Sayer had kidnapped her.
"Jeez, girl...You have been through hell." She muttered pressing her head against the cold glass as questions ran through her head a mile a minute.
How long had she been here? What had Sayer done to her? Was Kari safe? Did Crow and the others find her? Was everyone okay? Was Kalin back? Was he back to normal for that matter? Was-
...please…
Jumping backwards in shock, Will felt like she almost twisted her head off as she looked round for that invisible person speaking to her.
...somebody please help me.
There it was again! It was like deja vu of that strange dream just before she got abducted only this time the voice was much younger like that of-
"No way!" Will nearly swore as she remembered the voice from the frozen forest and what she had been told.
Scrambling over to the bed, Will lay down and closed her eyes in the hopes of hearing the girl's voice more clearly.
Would somebody please help me? I'm being held prisoner in the Spirit World.
Can anybody hear me? Please…
Okay, so this child she was to help was now in the spirit world. The only trouble being, she was stuck here in the real world. How was she supposed to save her if they were literally worlds apart?
Opening her eyes, Will swore there must be something wrong with her. One minute ago she was lying down on her bed listening to a girl's s.o.s. call, now she was standing in the middle of a green forest. Perhaps all that psychic mumbo jumbo coupled with that blow she got from Akiza's Black Rose Dragon really did do something to her.
"I've gone and stepped into a fairytale…" Will muttered as she scratched the back of her head in frustration. "Okay...I've somehow gotten myself back into the Spirit World...guess I should at least try to find this girl I'm supposed to rescue...although how exactly I'll do that when all I've got is this uniform. No deck, no disk… I'm not Yusei but I'm pretty sure I could use my head if I knew just how badly Sayer scrambled my eggs…"
Trailing off as she began walking in one random direction, Will was pretty sure she was lost before taking even five steps forward. It was only when the light caught off of something on the ground did Will actually take a proper her look at her surroundings.
While most the trees were towering oaks, every now and again, there was a small sapling with a strange staff stuck in the ground. The staff was nothing special, similar to those used by spellcaster-type monsters although the size signified that they might be used by apprentice and kid mages. What caught Will's eye were the two horizontal needles of black metal near the top of the staff pinned on top of one another. Wondering if someone had deliberately attempted to sabotage the staff, Will tentatively tapped the needles knocking the top one so that it resembled an English Cross like she had seen in a damaged book once.
In a flash of light, Will suddenly found herself sprawled in front of a towering oak. Stunned, Will scrambled to her feet and cautiously shifted the needles so that they were overlaying one another again. Now more prepared, Will watched in amazement as the oak reverted back into a sapling again.
"Weird…" Will uttered as she picked up the staff.
Her knowledge of Duel Monsters was not extensive but she was sure a magic or trap card of this staff would have been popular especially among Sector Security when detaining people like herself and judging by the number of these staffs littering the forest, she doubted it was a rare card. Whatever this staff was, it was restricted only to the Spirit World by the looks of things but for what purpose other than rewinding tree growth was beyond her.
"Okay...I'm now armed." Will muttered as she twirled the staff in her hand. "Dunno how dangerous that makes me though…"
"Put it this way: just having it in your hands makes you my enemy." A voice behind Will spoke out causing the duellist to tense up. "That being said...Hands where I can see them."
Raising her hands in surrender, Will turned to face her detainer only to find her jaw go slack as she instantly recognised the girl standing before her with bow primed and aimed at her face.
"Ranger of the Ancient Night?" She blurted out before she could stop herself.
This was the wrong thing to say as Ranger of the Ancient Night frowned at Will. Were their card names taboo in this world or something?
"Been awhile since I heard someone call me that." She admitted although she kept her bow trained on Will. "The last time was just two years ago. Just before my Master abandoned me and the rest of my friends."
Will's mind was going a mile a minute. While the fact that she had been under for nearly two years was not lost on her, the real kicker was her being in another world having a heart to heart with a Duel Monster. A Duel Monster she owned. A Duel Monster who was deadly with a bow that was currently aimed at her!
'First things first, girl. Convince her you're here to help not hurt' Will thought to herself trying to think of a way to get the Warrior-type to lower the weapon. Recalling what she had just been told, Will recalled what she had been doing just before Sayer came and took her away from her life.
She had quit the Enforcers; she had snapped at Kari and made her run off; she went out looking for Kari; Kalin finally flipped; Crow talked about how the bridge was started right after-
'That's it!' "The last time you came to the Real World, it was to fight against against Blackwing monsters alongside Mage of the Ancient Arts." Will told the archer slowly not wanting to find out just how good her monster was with a bow. "Using his ability to boost your...strength, you took out the Blackwings' master with one shot."
She was suddenly having second thoughts when Ranger of the Ancient Night took several steps back now looking more defensive than ever.
"Okay, you're starting to creep me out here!" Ranger of the Ancient Night growled. "Either you start explaining how you know so much about me or I turn you into a pincushion before sending you back to the Ape King!"
"The who?- Never mind that! The reason I know that is because, and this might come as a shock to you...I was the one who summoned you. I'm your master I suppose...although I use that term lightly." Will finished lamely.
Ranger of the Ancient Night stared at Will as if she had an extra head- or whatever counted as strange in the Spirit World rather. Then she stared at her as if looking at her properly for the first time. All Will could do in response was pray in her mind that the archer either believed her or at least lowered the bow. She had been given points in things before but getting the point literally was something she would rather not experience.
"You're…? Are you really…? But how can this be?" She muttered out loud.
"Do you think we could talk without the bow between us?" Will asked cautiously, starting to break out in a sweat as the Ranger's bow remained pointed at her as the wielder went on a mental bout of twenty questions.
"Hm? Oh!" Realising she was still aiming at Will, Ranger of the Ancient Night finally lowered her bow.
Now finally out of the firing line, Will breathed a sigh of relief only to have the breath knocked out of her when Ranger of the Ancient Night roughly grabbed her and threw her into the base of the nearest tree.
"What the hell are you doing here? Why have you ignored us for so long?" The Duel Monster demanded of her former master.
"I haven't!" Will gasped around the forearm Ranger of the Ancient Night had pressed against her throat. "Some prick with a perm kidnapped me and tried to turn me into doll for his sick schemes! I only just came around!"
Ranger of the Ancient Night looked to be having none of it and was going to grill Will some more when the sound of a twig snapping echoed in her ears. Releasing Will, the purple haired archer cautiously poked her head around the base of the tree and quickly pulled back now looking worried.
"Keep quiet and follow me!" She ordered in a whisper.
Will wanted to ask what was wrong but wisely kept quiet as the sound of another twig snapping reached their ears. Deciding to do what she was told, Will followed after Ranger of the Ancient Night at a crouch cautiously going from tree to tree or large bush taking care not to disturb the foliage or be too loud to alert who or whatever was nearby.
Eventually, the two girls came upon a large, closed castle gate once powered via a water wheel connected to a nearby stream before the water had dried up.
"How are we gonna get through?" Will asked, not seeing any holes in the wall or ropes dangling from the ramparts.
"You're holding the key." Ranger of the Ancient Night, replied pointing to the staff Will still held in her hand.
Will blinked in confusion as she stared at the staff she was holding. Did this mere trinket do things other than rewind time on trees? Or did it perhaps manipulate time, rewind or fastforward certain objects that were affected by its natural flow?
"Put it in the ground by the wheel and turn the needles like you did before." Ranger of the Ancient Night ordered her.
"Hey, just because I'm in your world doesn't mean our roles are reversed!" Will snapped.
"Just do it before they show up!" Ranger of the Ancient Night snapped back bringing her up bow again and aiming it at Will once more.
"Okay. Okay. Sheesh- what's her problem?" Will muttered under her breath.
She knew the girl appeared to be holding a grudge against her for abandoning them even if it was not deliberate, but this seemed to be about more than just that. Come to think of it, she did say something about her being her enemy because she was holding the staff. Did it have more than just a time trick up the fabled sleeve or was it more because there was someone- or something following them and she desperately wanted not to be found by them?
'I'm not awake two hours and already I'm thrown in at the deep end' Will thought as she speared the staff into the ground beside the dried up stream and twisted the needles so that they were both horizontal.
Just like with the tree, the once dried up stream suddenly becoming a raging rapids. With the stream now flowing again, the waterwheel began to turn causing the gate to slowly open. Not wanting to wait for the gate to fully open, Ranger of the Ancient Night pulled Will through the gate before launching an arrow at the staff shattering it and causing its effects to dissipate which in turn caused the gate to close again.
The first thing Will noticed about the town was that it was empty. She could understand the lack of life in the forest but to come in to a place of civilization that was imitating a ghost town clearly told the duellist that something big was happening in the Spirit World.
"Where is everyone?" Will asked surprised to find herself whispering.
"Captured." Ranger of the Ancient Night replied quietly as she lead her through the empty streets.
Even if she wanted to ask more, Will was interrupted when Ranger of the Ancient Night stopped abruptly causing Will to bump into her nearly sending both to the ground. Up ahead, Will could just count up to four monkey like beast or beast-warrior type monsters she had never seen before carrying staffs identical to the one she had earlier before being tugged round the nearest corner before any of the monkeys could see them.
Will was beginning to suspect that those monkeys were the ones who had captured all the residents of the town. It was reinforced when she noticed that Ranger of the Ancient Night was showing an emotion other than anger for once: fear.
Years on the rundown streets of B.A.D. had taught Will that running around when scared was a bad idea as it could lead to getting lost and ending up landing you square in enemy territory or, as the two realised too late, they had gone down a dead end alley. As they tried to make their way back, the sounds of the monkeys' footsteps could be heard coming their way.
"Not good." Will muttered as she and Ranger of the Ancient Night slowly backed away from the approaching voices.
It looked to Will like she was about to be captured once again, this time by scrawny monkey monsters wielding time-bewitching weapons. At least, that's what she was thinking before an unnoticed individual came through the wall behind her and Ranger of the Ancient Night, clamped his hands over their mouths then pulled them back through the wall into the empty building.
"Don't make a sound!" The stranger whispered suggesting to try going against him would be suicidal.
Luckily, both girls were smart enough to realise he had just saved their lives and merely nodded into his hands as they heard the monkeys enter the alley they had just previously been in.
"Me thought see monsters run here." One of the monkeys spoke.
"Me think you see things. Me see nothing but dead end." Another spoke.
"We waste time here. Must patrol elsewhere." Another spoke up. "Me not want King angry again."
Hunkered down and waiting on baited breath, the three hiding behind the wall listened as the gaggle of monkeys made their way back towards their patrol path. Only once they could no longer hear them did the stranger release his hold on the two girls both quickly letting out a sigh of relief now that they were safe for the time being.
"Thanks for the rescue." Will began as she turned to face her saviour only to balk as she recognised the monster. "Okay, this is really starting to creep me out now."
She could understand running into one of her monsters, but running into Ranger of the Ancient Night and now Mage of the Ancient Arts, Will could not help but feel like she was having an estranged family reunion.
"I guess you're from the Real World also." The blue haired spellcaster remarked as he stood up.
"What gave it away?" Will could not help but remark as she glared at the monster.
"Seeing as I just saved you, you would have been captured long ago when Monkey boy and his minions first showed up." The spellcaster replied without missing a beat before turning to Ranger of the Ancient Night who had yet to move from where she was squatted. "Yulie? You okay there?"
For a second, Will thought she had misheard the spellcaster before realising that, while they did have their 'name' typed on the top of their cards, monsters were bound to have 'real' names which were bound to be easier than some of those with long card names.
"I'll be fine." Yulie replied finally getting unsteadily to her feet. "Thanks, Blue."
"Blue?" Will echoed in confusion as she watched the Mage of the Ancient Arts place a comforting arm around a still shaken Ranger of the Ancient Night's shoulders. "Are you really called that?"
"Call me what you want. Just remember who just saved your butt from being turned into a tablet." 'Blue' replied.
Will could only glower at the spellcaster's back as he guided Yulie out of the building through a back doorway. Not wanting to be alone in case more of those monkeys, Will followed after her two former monsters while making a mental note to get back at the spellcaster the first chance she got.
Sticking to the back alleys and side streets, the now group of three soon made their way to a disused warehouse. Quickly checking to see if they had been followed or if there were any patrols nearby, the trio made their way inside where Will was nearly floored when she recognised everyone else in the room.
'It's like my deck's come back to haunt me for abandoning it' Will thought as she spotted Warrior of the Ancient Sword, Assassin of the Ancient Shadows and Spearholder of the Ancient Lands spread about throughout the barren warehouse along with a child spellcaster she had never seen before.
"Well, well. Look who's back!" Spearholder of the Ancient Lands greeted when he spotted 'Blue' and Yulie before locking eyes with Will. "And I see we have a new girl...Any one else get the feeling saying 'I've met that girl before', anybody?"
"She's a human from the Real World like Luna." The child spoke up.
"Of course. Why else would the self-proclaimed womanizer not recognise a female monster?" Assassin of the Ancient Shadows scoffed flicking a lock of hair over her shoulder.
"But why is she here?" Warrior of the Ancient Sword spoke up.
"I'm standing right here, Warrior." Will interrupted. "And to answer your question: I heard, I assume it was this girl the kid mentioned, Luna, call out to me and suddenly found myself here."
Everyone stared at Will as if she had just said something taboo. Luckily, she did not have to ask what she had done wrong as the kid spellcaster suddenly threw a hissy fit.
"Will you kids stop treating me like a brat! As your elder, you should all be treating me with the utmost respect!" He yelled waving his arms around like a kid having a temper tantrum.
"Well maybe if you hadn't blundered, you wouldn't be stuck in that form and Luna wouldn't be stuck in the monkey king's castle!" Yulie threw back.
"I'm old! I can't help it if I have sciatica or tell when it flares up!" The kid defended.
"Sy-what-a-car?" Will blinked in confusion. "Okay, I know this isn't the time for a history lesson but, can we backtrack a little and bring me up to speed on things here?"
Free: A bit smaller than the previous few chapters, I know, but figured this could be the teaser for all that'll happen in the next-
(Get's interrupted by Grey bursting into the room and slamming the door shut while panting for breath)
Grey: Free, remember how you said you grew bored of killing Fallen and Hive and such earlier?
Free: Your point being?
(Grey merely runs away from the door as a Hive Knight suddenly breaks it down)
Free: I hate extra work… Okay, readers, while I clean up Grey's mess, you review and like the chapter or whatever.