Chapter 11: Brotherly Love
My brother lived in the room next to mine. He didn't say hi to me when I got back because we don't have the best relationship. We almost never talk, even if we're in the same room, but that's surprisingly better than how we used to be. We used to get into fights (fist fights, not little arguments) literally every single day. Ever since he got his license we've been getting along a lot better, though. When he showed up at the hospital before Mom did I realized no matter how much we fought, he cared about his little brother.
"Dan," I said as I opened his door. He was still asleep so I yanked his pillow out from under him. "It's noon. Wake up."
He mumbled something (probably a curse) and rolled to the other side.
"I may have a deck for you. If you want it, come downstairs."
He came down ten minutes later in a white sweater and a pair of baggy, grey sweatpants. He has kind of long, curly black hair, but it isn't nearly as long as mine. If it wasn't important he didn't shave, so he had a thin layer of grey. He's a head taller than me and has the same brown eyes.
"Who's she?" He nodded in Jessica's direction. He knew already Alice and Michele.
"Jessica," she offered him a hand to shake and he just looked at it for a minute before shaking it. When he did she blushed hard.
"Dan," his stubble was helping to hide his blushing, but it still showed. "You fighting the 'Shadow Duelists,'" he made air quotes when he said "Shadow Duelists," "like my brother?"
"You don't believe the Shadow Games are back?"
"I don't believe they ever existed."
"But you can talk to Duel Spirits," I butted in. "How do you not believe in the Shadow Games?"
"You can talk to Spirits?" Jessica asked.
"More or less." Dan said. "But Spirits and Shadow Games are completely separate things."
"The Shadow Games are back, Dan," Leyvaten said as he appeared behind me. Dan knew Leyvaten before I did, and they were pretty close. Dan got mad when Dad gave me his deck, knowing that Dan wanted it for so long, but was over it when he got into a local duel school that provides you with decks if you don't have your own. "Why don't you believe us?"
He answered with a shrug.
I knew there was one way to change his mind. "You don't have to believe us about the Shadow Games, but if you want this deck," I held up a card box, "you have to duel with us."
"I won't duel with someone who doesn't even believe in Shadow Games," Jessica said.
"He's a good duelist."
"I don't care."
"What if I beat you?"
She was about to answer when I said, "If you want to be on this team you have to duel me. If I win you're on the team, if you win you don't have to join.
"Nick," Jessica said. "If he's as good as you said—"
"He's better. But he's my brother. If anyone's dueling him, it's gonna be me."
He walked upstairs and came back down with a duel disk. "Let's go."
Dan drove us to the part for the duel. I wanted to have it at home, but after looking through the deck Dan said there were some cards Peter had that he needed. Jessica and Alice thought it was strange that he only used cash to get the cards and didn't trade with Peter, but Michele and I knew how Dan worked. He liked to know what deck his opponents used, so he always carried extra cards with him.
When he was done we loaded up and he went first. He had an amazing poker face so I couldn't tell if he liked his hand or not. "I draw! And I Summon Gem-Armadillo!" The armadillo with rubies in its eyes and armor rose in front of Dan. "And with his effect I can add a Gem-Knight to my hand, and I'll go with Crystal. I'll end with a face-down."
"I draw! And I Summon Dragunity Aklys! And with him I can Special Summon Dragunity Dux—"
"I play my Trap Hole!" A hole opened up and swallowed my monsters before they could fly away.
"I end with three face-downs."
"My draw! And I place one monster face-down in Defense Position and end my turn."
I knew he was up to something. He wouldn't pass up the opportunity to attack me if he thought there was too much of a risk. "I draw! And I summon my Dragunity Legionnaire! Now I'll equip him with the Dragunity Aklys I have in my Graveyard. Then I activate my facedown Dragon Mastery. Now attack that face down!" The face down was a Gem-Turtle with 2000 DEF, 300 points stronger than my monster's ATK.
Nick: 3700
"Thanks. When he's flipped up I can add a Gem-Knight Fusion to my hand."
I didn't care about his monster's effect. "I Legionnaire's effect to send Aklys to the Graveyard and destroy your Armadillo!" Legionnaire threw Aklys at Armadillo. "And with Aklys' effect I destroy your Turtle." Aklys's shell kept going and destroyed the Turtle. "And I end my turn."
"I draw! And I play Gem-Knight Fusion! So I fuse my Gem-Knight Iolite with my Alexandrite Dragon to form Gem-Knight Seraphinite!" I couldn't tell if the new monster was male or female because of all the light grey and copper colored armor it wore. It also had a cape that was light grey on the outside and blue on the inside. "And now I Summon two Gem-Knight Alexandrites! And with their effects I tribute both of them and Special Summon Gem-Knights Crystal and Garnet!" Crystal was tall with normal knight armor, except for the fact that it had crystals on the chest, shoulders, and outer thighs. Garnett was wearing red armor and his hands were covered in fire.
"I play Torrential Tribute!" A giant hole swallowed up all of our monsters.
"Go ahead."
"My draw! And I Summon Dragunity Militum! And I then I use Dragon Mastery to equip him with the Dragunity Phalanx in my hand. Then I use my facedown: Call of the Haunted to bring back Dragunity Dux!" Dan nodded, as if he was approving my move. "And with him I'll attack you directly!"
"I play my Trap: Fragment Fusion! Now I can Fusion Summon a Gem-Knight by banishing monsters from my Graveyard, so I'll say goodbye to Garnett and Alexandrite to Fusion Summon my Gem-Knight Ruby!" The monster had red armor with gold on the chest, shoulders, and outer thighs.
My Dux kept going and Ruby knocked him aside with his long spear.
Nick: 3300
"I end my turn." Thanks to Fragment Fusion's second effect it was destroyed during my End Phase.
"I draw! And I end with a facedown."
"I draw! And I attack you with Militum!" Dan took the hit without a flinch. "Your move."
Dan: 1800
"I draw! And I play my facedown Gem-Knight Fusion! Now I fuse Gem-Knights Crystal, Obsidian, and Lazuli to form the ultimate Gem-Warrior: Gem-Knight Master Diamond!" The knight that rose has so many diamonds in his armor it was had to look at him directly. Even his massive, two-handed sword had a line of diamonds in the middle, and his hands were made of diamonds. Aside from all the diamonds, his armor looked like a standard knight suit. "Now, with Lazuli's effect I can add Alexandrite Dragon to my hand! And with Obsidian's effect I can bring back Garnett, but he won't be around for long. I'm using Master Diamond's effect to banish Ruby and have Master Diamond take his name and effect. So now I can tribute Garnett to make his ATK 4800! And now I'll Summon the Alexandrite Dragon! Now, Master Diamond, attack his Militum!" The Gem-Knight destroyed Militum with a hard swing of his blade.
Nick: 700
"And Alexandrite can finish you off!" The blast Alexandrite Dragon finished me off with was brighter than Master Knight's armor.
Dan came over and offered me a hand up.
I took it and tried to hide my sadness. I actually did want him on our team. "You can keep the deck if you want."
"Thanks. Oh, and I think since I beat you you should step aside as leader."
I was too stunned to think straight. "What?"
"If you're the strongest one fighting the Shadow Duelists they'll get what they want easily."
"You're joining?"
"You said that I didn't have to if I won, you never said I couldn't. I just dueled you to see if you had gotten any better with that deck. Honestly if I hadn't drawn that Obsidian you probably would've beaten me."
Jessica wasn't happy with having someone who didn't believe in Shadow Games lead us, but it turns out that was all BS. He said that because he doesn't like Shadow Games, but wouldn't tell us why.
That night he drove Michele and me to the movies. The theater wasn't too far away, so we decided to walk home.
"Michele?" I asked about halfway through. "What's the real reason you wanted to stop the Shadow Games? I mean, I know you want to avenge Aaron like the rest of us, but what about why you joined?"
"I told you, if you think it's the right thing to do I'll follow."
"That can't be the only reason."
"Well, there is one more. You remember how those kids in always picked on me and called me Ice Queen, and Frost Bitch?"
"Yeah." She'd had the that Ice Barrier deck since she learned how to duel. Since all the monsters rely on each other everyone thought she was stupid, that it was fine for some monsters to rely on each other, but an entire deck made because of it was the dumbest thing ever. Every time someone said something like that to her I wanted to punch them in the face (and I had on several occasions).
"Well, I wanted to show them that Ice Barriers aren't shit monsters, that just because they need each other, doesn't mean they can't do some damage." She turned to the stars.
"What else?"
"That's it."
I could tell there was one more, but she was hiding it. "Come on, you can tell me."
"Fine, but you'd better not tell anyone. That last time I was in the Spirit World wasn't the first. That summer when we were ten and I spent a whole month in the hospital," I remembered that month; it was the worst of my entire life, "I was there. That's when I first met Ice Master. She told me all about how the Ice Barriers had been at war with the Dark Worlds for centuries, and they were almost defeated. They had their dragons, Brionac, Gungir, and Trishula, but one night they vanished. Ever since then the Dark Worlds have been fighting harder and harder, even Dewloren couldn't keep them back. And anyone who left to get help never returned. That's why wanted me; I could get people with other decks to help. I when I got back to our world I tried to gather some strong duelist, but by the time I got any help the Ice Barrier was almost destroyed. That's when the Dragunities came to help. They were fresh warriors with more experience than we had. They easily drove the Dark Worlds away. The Ice Dragons are still missing, though. Until I find them I can't stop dueling. Without them, the Ice Barrier is still a sitting duck."
I didn't know what to say. I just stared at her in awe. "That's a better reason than I have."
"What's yours?" It was clear she blamed herself for what happened to the Ice Barriers and hated talking about it.
"I was just doing what Leyvaten told me."
We kept talking about the Shadow Games the entire way back, and for the first time, they didn't make me sad, they made me feel like I had a purpose in life.
"I love you," she said after I kissed her by her front door.
"I love you, too," I kissed her one more time before she sent inside.
When I got back to my house Dan was waiting for me.
"What?" I asked.
"I don't want you fighting in the Shadow Games anymore," at first I thought he was joking, but the look in his eyes told me he was dead serious.
"Why? I've been able to hold my own so far, why now?"
He held up a card: Dragunity Knight – Barcha. "This is the card Dad forgot to give you when he died."
I took the card and sat across the table from him. It was the one Dragunity Synchro I didn't have. "Why now? Why are you telling me this now?" I had a feeling I knew what was coming next, but didn't want to believe it.
"Dad was already dying when he gave you the deck. He lost a Shadow Game and his soul was leaving his body. He was fighting so hard just to get back home and give you his deck. And when he did, he left because he didn't want us to know about the Shadow Games. He told Mom he loved her and what was happening, then he walked as far away as he could before his soul couldn't stay with his body anymore. Mom promised herself and Dad that she wouldn't let us get into the Shadow Games, but in the end, she couldn't keep that promise."
"We've already started, so why stop now?"
"Do you realize how long Dad was fighting the Shadow Duelists? He started when he was only ten."
"Dan," Leyvaten appeared behind me. "Nick is ready for this."
"No he isn't! He's only sixteen!"
"Dan," I butted in. "I'm not giving up. The Shadow Games will be stopped, but now I'm fighting to avenge our father."
How's this new motive going to change Nick? Well, I guess we'll have to wait until next chapter to find that out, won't we? Until then, please read and review!