Disclaimer: I don't own anything I didn't create. I DO own everything I did.
A/N: Apparently 'omake' means 'freebie'. Interesting. X)
On another note, I got the idea for this chapter from a dream I had last night. Yes, I know, I'm turning into Jaden. Freaking incredible though, let me tell you. XD Well, enjoy. Please review if you're bored, at least.
I was staring him down, palms sweating, cards in my hand and I was shaking from exertion, panting. My pupils were dilated, and I was half crouched over, as if prepared for some monster to come charging at me head-on, eyes wide and frantically searching for the next blow. 'Stop shaking, damnit!' I hissed at myself mentally, eyes narrowing by the slightest amount. 'Don't look weak! He'll see right through you! Cocky bastard.' The last thought was directed at my opponent, curly, tootsie roll brown hair hanging loosely into a deceptively nice face, his eyes a sharp toxic green. It was stuffy in here, where ever 'here' was, and I had a single Draining Shield face down in my Trap and Spell Card Zone, my monsters having been destroyed by his Naturia LeoDrake and some other psychic monster I'd never seen before, only a single card I couldn't remember the face of in my hand. He laughed, tilting his head skywards, and I half-winced, baring my teeth instinctively in self-defense. Something worse was coming.
"What a pitiful defense, Helen Jean Harper." His voice rose and fell condescendingly and he spoke, and my eyes widened in a mixture of fear and anger as he spoke my full name. 'How do you know that! Kuso!' My flight instinct was triggered, but I couldn't run. It was like my feet were locked in place. I had something I was protecting with my life on the line. I couldn't run. Not if I wanted to protect those I cared about. Their faces floated into my mind. Jesse, Jim, Syrus, even Jaden and Hassleberry. The man in front of me lowered his head so that his bangs fell forward to cover his eyes as he chuckled, hands leisurely on his hips. "-and they even said that you dueled best when you were asleep!" I ignored his words as the humor they were spoken with disgusted me.
"What do you have against us?" I shouted at him, very afraid but not allowing myself to feel it, hiding it behind a wall of bravado. The man stilled, laughter dying away, and a faint sense of relief hit me as the sound died away, though it didn't last long. A murderous aura suddenly rose around him, turning the air into a black miasma. I inhaled quickly in fear, eyes wide and leaned back onto my rear foot.
"Against you? In the plural?" He said dangerously, almost growling, and I suddenly realized I was shaking in fear. His eyes were still covered by his bangs, and I suddenly realized that I didn't want him to look up. I was afraid of what his eyes would look like. He slowly straightened up, hair lightening fractionally, head still lowered. I gulped, trembling. "Nothing. You, on the other hand- singularly-" he added, looking up, his hair lightening to a sandy blonde, face changing into a familiar shape. "You…" my chest felt tight, I couldn't breathe properly, eyes widening. Blue eyes were red, and glaring at me in a murderous rage. He raised his hand and pointed at me with a shout. "-KILLED ME!" The two monsters on his side of the field fused into a silvery alien, and charged towards me, my last Trap card activating on it's own, my brain still short-circuiting, having not been given a chance to think through anything. "DIE!" The blast pierced through my Draining Shield, and hit me dead center, pushing me off-center and off balance, sending me off my feet and flying backwards into the darkness as I crossed my arms in front of me, closed my eyes and opened my mouth. It was Jon. Jon was the one I had killed, and was the one killing me.
I screamed.
"Jean! JEAN! Wake up! Get a hold of yourself!" A hand had me by the shoulder in a vice-like grip and was shaking me violently, voice urgent and a little bit afraid. I gasped, a sensation of hurtling through the air at incredible speeds towards a certain destination, a flash of white light, and then my eyes were open, looking at Jim's face. His hat and vest were off, hair wild, shirt half-unbuttoned and one good eye extremely worried, half-straddling the branch I was on, and holding onto a neighboring branch with a tight grip, looking at me intently. I blinked at him, voiceless, wordlessly asking him what had happened. He gave me a relived smile, eye still worried, and visibly relaxed, settling onto the branch I was on. "You shouldn't sleep in trees, Jean. It was hard to find you." 'Yet you did.' My eyes never left his as he spoke, and when that thought ran through my brain, the walls around something very fragile in my chest fractured, and I felt a pressure building up in my eyes. Jim had relaxed his grip on my shoulder, but now he squeezed reassuringly, giving me a warmer smile. "I won't ask you why you were screaming Jean, but just know I'm here for you."
I looked up at him, eyes watering, pressure pushing its way through my eyes, lips trembling. Jim saw that, and giving me a gentle smile, carefully pulled on me until I was awkwardly leaning forward with my forehead against his shoulder. Then his hand left my shoulder, and carefully wrapped around my back. I blinked. 'Hug.'
The dam broke and the walls fell silently, pressure pushing itself out of my eyes and streaming down my face, and before I knew what I was doing, I had grabbed Jim by the waist and yanked him closer to me, burying my face in his neck, sobbing. I hadn't even realized he'd stiffened in surprise, eye widening in shock. I was finally letting him in.
That was when he became such an important person to me. Irreplaceable.
