Loki's Eyes

"Looking at the sky in which the tomorrow will come, I don't know what to do with my heart that is only lost," I sang as we walked.

"Why are you singing that?" asked Joey.

"I dunno, really. It's strange: ever since I spoke with one of Shizuka's traveling companions on the phone, I had that song stuck in my head. I'd like to think there's a logical explanation for that…since the explanations for everything else are far from logical."

"I agree. For example, is there a logical reason for why I'm the one who's carrying Rex!?" he snarled.

"It's because Tristan already carried him a mile. But if it's too tiring for you, I can take him for a while." So, Joey moved him to my back. "He's not so heavy. You could probably bench-press him if you wanted."

"Yeah, but I'm not used to carrying another person in this heat for this long!"

"Fair enough," I said as I shifted Rex so I could carry him easier. "Here's a thought: why don't we each grab a limb and simply drag him?"

Tristan thought about it for a minute. "…No, it's probably better if we carry him. I mean, he's gonna be pissed if something happens to his body while he's away."

"Keep in mind that he did try and take Joey's soul. …Alright, let's go." About an hour and a half later into our walk, Joey froze. "What's wrong?" Joey pulled out his magical dragon card. "Hermos?"

To our shock, Hermos appeared before us and flew into the sky. "Follow that dragon!" instructed Joey as he broke into a run.

"It's easy for you to say," I grudgingly thought as I dashed after him. "You're not carrying a duelist." Eventually, we reached a field with Pharaoh and Téa, who stood next to a crashed Kaiba Corp plane. "Why am I not surprised to see you guys here?" I asked with a smile.

The plane to the door opened and Kaiba emerged, holding the soulless Alistair in his arms. He looked down and muttered, "The dweeb patrol," as he jumped down. Mokuba poked his head out the door and waved down some Kaiba Corp helicopters.

"You won the duel?" asked Joey.

"Of course I did. What are you all doing here?"

"The three dragons led us here," answered Pharaoh. "It looks like we're destined to fight together."

"I don't believe in destiny," he replied, though not unexpectedly.

One of Kaiba's men ran out of the helicopter and yelled, "Thank goodness you're not hurt! But…I have terrible news! Kaiba Corp's been bought out!"

Kaiba growled. "Doma!?"

A minute later, we were in one of their helicopters. Mokuba was sitting down saying, "My brother and I each own half of Kaiba Corp's shares, and we didn't even know about the buyout!"

"There's only one possibility," Kaiba grimly stated. "Doma must control the whole global market!"

"But how could they get past your security system?" asked Téa.

"We're obviously dealing with a very powerful organization."

"Seto-sama…" murmured one of the suits.

Kaiba shook his head. "Save it. I'm not your boss anymore."

"I'll stand by your side until Kaiba Corp is yours once more!" declared the other suit.

"That goes for me too," agreed the first.

Mokuba looked up, impressed with their loyalty. "Roland…Fubeta…"

Kaiba smiled slightly. "I'm glad."

"We need to get to Florida," said Pharaoh, "to decipher those ruins."

"Doma has already expanded its terror into that area."

I frowned. "You're kidding! Then the clues we have will be intercepted again!"

"There's still hope."

A second later, the pilot turned back and said, "Mr. Kaiba, there's an emergency message on the red line!"

Kaiba opened his briefcase, revealing a laptop. "This could be just what I'm waiting for," he said.

A voice message stated, "We're ready to upload the images of the undersea ruins, Mr. Kaiba!"

I grinned. "You had men arrive in Florida before Doma."

Mokuba gave a confident shrug and replied, "What did you expect? My brother is always one step ahead of everyone else."

"Go, Kaiba," I admired, in spite of myself.

As it was uploading, however, there were several crashes and screams to be heard on the line. A second later, it disconnected. "Oh well," Kaiba sighed. "At least we got what we needed."

"Alright," I said. "Now, transmit the data to the Hawkins' laptop." Once I gave him the IP address, we set up a teleconference with their computer. "It should be arriving any second," I told them.

"Got it," confirmed Rebecca on the other side. "My grandpa's looking at it now."

"Good," replied Pharaoh. "We should meet up as soon as possible. …Rebecca…I'm sorry."

"Bad news," said Professor Hawkins. "The quality of the images is worse than I thought. Unless we clear up the photos, I won't be able to read much."

"Alright," said Kaiba. Turning to the pilot he commanded, "Set a course for Kaiba Corp headquarters."

"Are you crazy?" asked Tristan. "It's probably already filled with Doma's goons!"

"Probably, but the only way we can clean up the images in time is to use the Kaiba Corp computers. We have no choice."

I nodded. "I dislike agreeing with Kaiba, but his computer system is among the most sophisticated in the world; not to mention the best we have at our disposal."

"You're right," agreed Pharaoh. "We have to stop these criminals before they make their next move, and we have no time to lose!"

Kaiba raised his eyebrow. "You're more gung ho than I expected, since you lost your title and all."

"I'll use all my strength to defeat Doma. No matter what happens, I must get back the soul of my partner!"

"You'll have to bleach the stain of your loss first."

"And knowing our luck," I thought, "that's not as much an option as it is a prerequisite."

000000000
Shizuka's Eyes

I frowned when Daisuke pointed out the crumbling temple on the pathetic patch of earth it barely stood on. "Is that really it?" I asked.

"Absolutely," he confirmed. "It doesn't look like much, but the fact that it's stood for over 10,000 years should count for something, don't you think?" Edward responded by blowing a raspberry. "Ok, Mr. Picky. If I ever pay a visit to your world, we can do whatever you want to do."

"You know," I said, "I'll bet Edward should be able to give this place a quick patch job."

Edward frowned. "That'd require a transmutation circle half the size of the island."

"But I thought you knew how to perform your alchemy spells without those circles?"

"Yeah, but it works a lot better if I'm turning an object into several objects, not the other way around." Edward studied the island for a brief second. "…Well, everything seems to be just stone and dirt; it shouldn't be too complicated." And so, once we edged up on shore, Edward hopped out, put his hands together, and placed them firmly on the ground when he landed.

I watched in awe as the entire island began to glow. Then the fallen pieces of rock flew back into shattered blocks, which soon became whole again. When Edward finished, the temple was completely rebuilt. Immediately afterwards, he collapsed in exhaustion.

"Big brother!" called Al as we ran out of the ship. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," gasped Edward. "It wasn't complicated…but it still took almost all my energy."

"Rest easy, mate," said Daisuke. "It's our show now." Daisuke suddenly frowned and thought silently to himself. "…Wait. I think this requires a third person to read the inscription of the Sword of Justice."

"I'll do it," answered Edward as he sat up. "I'm not so tired that I can't read." I shrugged and handed him the Sword of Justice. "…'With this Sword of Justice, I shall make sure everyone gets what they deserve in the end.'"

"My turn," said Daisuke as he pulled out his. "'With this sword of Wisdom, I shall teach the ignorant the value of righteousness, and slay those who would still resist it.' Take it, Shizuka!"

I nodded and recited, "'With this Sword of Renewal, I shall take ashes of the vanquished and help build a better world.'"

Suddenly, our swords turned to dust and fell through our hands to the ground. The dust piles reformed themselves into three cards, each one named after its respective sword. A second later, Daisuke's Duel Disk crest emitted an eerie sound. Then three of the slots lit up yellow: one on the monster zone, one in the spell/trap zone, and the graveyard slot.

"I see," said Daisuke. "I guess we're supposed to place the cards in those slots. …But which cards go where?"

I thought about it for a minute before I stated, "I see. It's a logic puzzle."

"So how do we solve it?"

I picked up the Sword of Renewal card. "Maybe…ok, follow me on this. 'Renewal' is a synonym of 'rebirth', alright? Therefore, it should go into the graveyard." I walked over and slid it into the graveyard slot.

"Maybe you're right," admired Daisuke. "In that case, I can probably guess the next one. Um…Sword of Wisdom…sorcerers have wisdom…sorcerers cast spells…so it goes into the spell zone!" He picked up the card and slid it into the spell zone. As he marched over to the final card he declared, "So by process of elimination, it means that Sword of Justice goes into the monster zone!" With that, he slid it in the final slot. "…So, now what?"

I looked at the occupied slots for a second and saw that they were all colored red. "I think we're completely wrong."

Daisuke looked at the crest and frowned. "But that seemed absolutely right!"

Edward raised his hand. "Maybe you're looking at the cards in the wrong way. Try comparing them to other Duel Monster cards."

"But that's what we did, and this is the most obvious answer."

"You came up with plausible explanations for the first two, but why is Sword of Justice on the monster zone?"

I picked the cards off the crest and studied them again. "He's right. We're missing something important." I thought back to the battles with Timaeus, Critias, and Hermos, trying to remember if there was anything they said that could give us a hint.

"Wait, I think I got it now!" said Daisuke. "The effect of Sword of Renewal lets it fuse with monster cards, so it belongs in the monster zone. The Sword of Justice fuses with spells, so it belongs in the spell/trap zone-"

"And Sword of Wisdom fuses with traps, but it doesn't necessarily belong in the graveyard," I pointed out. "No, we need to look at this symbolically." With that, I slipped Sword of Justice in the graveyard.

"Huh!?" demanded Daisuke. "What's that for?"

I also placed Sword of Wisdom in the monster space, and Sword of Renewal in the spell/trap zone. "Now that I have Wisdom on the field, I can use Renewal to bring back Justice!"

The slots in Daisuke's crest glowed green. "You did it, Shizuka!" cheered Daisuke as the crest lifted off his arm by an unseen force. "But how did you figure it out?"

"It kind of just came to me," I answered. "I figured that maybe Justice was dead because people kept trying to get around the system. I figured that if people sat down and worked things out, they'd receive Wisdom. And so, they'd be able to Renew Justice."

Once I was finished with my amazingly spontaneous speech – a bit of which I may have fabricated to an extent – the crest flew over to a pedestal in the center of the temple. A second later, an arm appeared in the crest, and the rest of a body materialized soon after, showing a knight that was bigger than all three of the Atlantis knights. "I am Knight of Destiny," he said. "With my Sword of Infinity, I shall sentence the weak to an eternity of suffering."

Winry hid behind Al. "I kind of thought he'd be nicer," she whimpered.

"The light in his soul is equal to the one who wields Legend of Heart," explained Daisuke. "And until it's unsealed, his light is nonexistent. Don't expect any mercy from him."

"That's fine with me," I said as I loaded my Duel Disk with my experimental deck. "The mercy I'll give him will be equal to the mercy he gives. Here it comes!"

4000

"He has no lifepoint counter? What does that mean?" I thought. "I play a monster in defense mode and end my turn!" To my surprise, he raised his sword above his head and cut down my Winged Kuriboh (300/200). The shock from the blast was enough to blow me to the edge of the island. "What the heck's going on!?"

Daisuke trembled. "What power! Clearly, he's acting as his own monster. And I think he has an infinite amount of attack and defense points. And if he doesn't have a lifepoint counter, then his lifepoints are probably infinite as well!"

"But that's impossible to defeat!" protested Edward. "No possible combination of cards can make a monster's attack points infinite!"

"You're right," I realized. "But if I want to defeat a creature with infinite power, I'll have to battle it with a force beyond infinity." Glancing at my hand for a second I thought, "I intended to first unleash this combo against Loki. I guess this'll have to be a test run; if it'll work against this guy, it'll work against anyone." Out loud I said, "I'll place two cards facedown and end my turn!"

Daisuke gasped. "You fool! A direct attack of infinite power will rip your body to shreds!"

"He won't have a chance to attack," I declared. "The weakness of a powerful monster is its own strength. I play my trap, Ring of Destruction! This will destroy Knight of Infinity and inflict damage to both of us, equal to the attack points of that monster!"

"But the damage to him, being infinity, is incalculable! He probably won't even be fazed by it. And you'll still-"

"I chain my trap with Barrel Behind the Door! This'll take the damage to me and give it to him instead! The damage he receives is infinite, as is the damage I'm redirecting. Together, they create a force that's beyond infinity!" My combined traps began to glow, and I felt some kind of pressure. "What…what is…?" The others were clearly feeling the same pressure.

"Such a careless move," groaned Daisuke as he clutched his chest. "The energy it takes to create a force with power beyond infinite…it'll end up destroying the five us!"

000000000
Loki's Eyes

I felt a sharp pain in my chest, and I immediately knew something was wrong. "Shizuka!" I realized. I closed my eyes and concentrated into the deck I lent her. "Are you alright?"

"It hurts," she moaned. "I need…I need the power to create a force beyond infinity! Master…please, lend me your strength!"

"You have the strength within you," I assured her. "It may be hard for you to see, but I know it's there. Unlike me, your power comes from love and kindness." I took Joey's hand; he was surprised, but he seemed to know what I was doing. "Let us help you find that power."

"You can do it, Shizuka!" I heard Joey agree. "We believe in you!"

"I…I feel the warmth of your hearts…so much power…it's overflowing!"

000000000
Shizuka's Eyes

I was thoroughly invigorated by Loki and Joey's guidance. The power I discovered gave me warmth better than a massage, a hot spring bath, and a bowl of chicken soup put together; it's kind of hard to describe it, really. I no longer felt the pressure of universe. In fact, I felt extremely light on my feet.

I extended my right hand to the Knight of Infinity and said, "Here's an eternity of suffering for you!" My newfound energy flowed out of my body through my hand, becoming visible strands of energy that flowed into my trap cards. A second later, my traps unleashed a beam that engulfed the Knight of Infinity. When the beam faded, only the Sword of Infinity remained, its tip embedded in the ground.

4000/0

I felt my energy extinguish like a candle in the wind, and gave silent thanks to Loki and Joey for helping me discover the energy I had within. I could imagine them watching me with a smile before I felt their presence slip away.

Daisuke breathed a sigh of relief. "That was scary. You did extremely well, Shizuka."

I nodded to acknowledge his compliment, and walked over to the blade. I pulled it out of the ground and read the inscription. "'I vow by the Sword of Infinity, I shall forever fight evil.'"

End Chapter