Okay, I redid the ending of this chapter just because I didn't really like it that much. Anyway, here's the new (and hopefully improved) version! Enjoy! I don't own Yugioh GX.

Edit: I've added more details and fixed grammatical and spelling errors.

Haou watched the village before him burn to the ground, listening to the screams of the people inside as they were engulfed in flames or attacked by his Evil Heroes. It was their own faults—they had tried to resist his reign, his supremacy. When would these people learn that it was inevitable that Haou would rule this entire world?

The screams died down as the last of the villagers were all sent to the stars. Once they had ceased completely, Haou turned and made his way back to the castle.

"Uh-oh. Here comes the army!" Sho said, looking nervous. "Are you sure you're ready for this, bro?"

Ryo nodded. "Don't worry about me, Sho. I'm fine." He looked at Jim. "Are you ready?"

"I've been ready, mate. Let's go save our friend!"

They didn't have the best of strategies laid out; they simply planned to march up to Haou and challenge him to a duel. Yubel assured them, though, that this plan would work.

"Haou isn't going to let you waltz up to him and issue a challenge without accepting. That would be a mark on him, and he won't allow that. He can't seem weak if he's going to rule over these fiends. But you should know that Haou knows no mercy! He'll start with you, but, should you lose, he'll be more than willing to duel everyone else until there's nobody left."

Ryo nodded in understanding. "In other words, I really can't afford to lose, and not just for my own sake."

"Exactly," Yubel confirmed.

"Haou-sama, what's that up ahead? Standing in front of the castle?" Chaos Sorcerer, one of Haou's servants, asked.

Haou looked. Sure enough, there were two people standing in front of the doors to the castle. But...one of them couldn't be standing there. He was dead. He had seen him die with his own eyes!

"What kind of trick is this?" Haou demanded of Ryo and Jim as he approached.

Standing before Ryo and Jim was a man dressed in black armor, with a mask covering his face. On his left arm was a shield-shaped object they assumed doubled as a duel disk.

"No trick, Haou. I'm challenging you to a duel!" Ryo said. "Do you accept?"

Haou lifted the mask covering his face. Jim and Ryo stepped back slightly; they had suspected that this was Judai, but they hadn't expected his eyes to be such a fierce gold.

"Very well," Haou said, activating his duel disk. The five blades of his shield spun around, forming into a line fit for dueling as they stopped.

Recovering from the initial shock, Ryo activated his own duel disk, saying, "Then let's get started, shall we?"

Haou: 4000
Ryo: 4000

"I'll go first!" Haou said, drawing a card. "I activate Dark Fusion."

"Dark Fusion!?" Ryo had never heard of that card before, but he was sure it wasn't good.

"With this card, I fuse my Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix to create Evil Hero Inferno Wing!"

A female creature with wings appeared. Her hair was green, she had a blue visor, red outfit, and green-feathered arms with claws and regular hands poking out of the middle. ( Atk 2100)

"You fused two heroes to create a villain!?" Ryo demanded.

That wasn't anything like their prince, from what he knew. Judai was known to be a sort of hero in his own right, always doing what he could to help those in need. Besides that, he was supposed to respect and trust his monsters infinitely. Turning them into such a creature wasn't respect, as far as Ryo was concerned.

"I end my turn," Haou said, ignoring Ryo's question.

"Then it's my turn. Draw!" He glanced at the card in his hand before laying it on the duel disk. "I summon Cyber Dragon! (Atk 2100) And, because you control a monster and I don't, I can special summon it without any sacrifices. Then, I'll also summon my Proto-Cyber Dragon!" (Atk 1100)

The two snake-like metal dragons appeared on Ryo's side of the field. The Proto-Cyber Dragon was slightly darker in color.

"Next, I activate my Different Dimension Capsule. With this card, I remove one card in my deck from play. But I'll be getting it back soon enough. On the second turn after the turn I used Different Dimension Capsule, the card I removed is added to my hand. I play a card face down to end my turn."

Haou drew a card. "Inferno Wing attacks your Proto-Cyber Dragon!"

The winged fiend created a blue fireball in her hands, ready to throw it at the metal dragon.

"I activate my face down!" Ryo countered. "Photon Generator Unit! Using this card, I sacrifice two Cyber Dragons to summon another monster!"

"But you only have one Cyber Dragon," Haou protested.

"That's not entirely true, Haou," Ryo said. "When my Proto-Cyber Dragon is on the field, its name is considered Cyber Dragon!"

Haou scowled.

"So, I sacrifice my Cyber Dragons to summon Cyber Laser Dragon from my deck!" (Atk 2400)

Another metallic, snake-like dragon appeared on the field, this one with blue designs on it and a laser in its tail.

"Now, then. Do you still want to attack?" Ryo asked.

Inferno Wing's attack faded out as Haou made his decision. "I switch Inferno Wing to defense mode and end my turn."

The monster knelt down on the field, crossing her arms over her chest.

"That won't help you," Ryo said, drawing a card. "Cyber Laser Dragon attacks your Inferno Wing!"

The laser on the dragon's tail activated, firing a blast at the fiend on the other side and destroying it.

"I play two cards face down and end my turn."

"It's my turn! Draw!" Haou glanced at the card, then, "I summon Infernal Prodigy from my hand! Like your Cyber Dragon, my Prodigy can be special summoned, as long as I control no monsters! Next, I'll sacrifice Infernal Prodigy to summon Evil Hero Malicious Edge!" (Atk 2600)

The monster appeared, covered in spiked bands, claws on its hands. Sprouting from its shoulders were two scythe-like wings.

"That's a level seven monster! You need two sacrifices to summon that!" Ryo protested.

"Normally, yes. But, if my opponent controls a monster, then Malicious Edge only requires one tribute!" Haou responded. "Now, I attack your Laser Dragon!"

Malicious Edge shot the claws on its hands at the Cyber Laser Dragon, destroying it.

Haou: 4000
Ryo: 3800

"I activate my trap card!" Ryo declared, revealing the card on his field. "Rope of Life. I discard my entire hand to bring back the monster you just destroyed, and it gains 800 attack points."

Cyber Laser Dragon reappeared on Ryo's field, with 3200 attack points this time.

"I play one card face down. At this moment, Infernal Prodigy's other effect activates. I draw one card. That ends my turn," Haou said.

Ryo drew his card and said, "It's been two turns since I activated Different Dimension Capsule. That means that I now add the card removed by its effect to my hand. Now, let's put it to use, shall we?" Turning the card to face Haou, Ryo revealed it to be Power Bond.

"You don't have anything to fuse!" Haou said. "You sent your hand to the graveyard!"

"Then let's improvise," Ryo said, activating the other card in his hand. "Cybernetic Fusion Support! This card has me pay half my life points to remove fusion material monsters from my field or graveyard from play in order to summon a machine-type fusion monster. So I'll remove my two Cyber Dragons in my graveyard from the game."

"Hold on! There's only one Cyber Dragon in your graveyard!"

"Not true. When I sent my hand to the graveyard to activate Rope of Life, I sent a second Cyber Dragon to the grave. So come forth, Cyber Twin Dragon!" As the two-headed metal dragon appeared on the field, Ryo added, "And, because I summoned it using Power Bond, its attack points are doubled. (Atk 5600) So, are you ready, Haou?"

Jim, meanwhile, was just watching this go down. He could tell that there was something definitely wrong with Judai. He could see the Judai they knew deep down inside, trapped in the darkness.

How did this happen? Jim wondered.

Meanwhile, the others were watching from on top of a cliff nearby.

"Well, I didn't expect him to do this well. He's still alive," Yubel muttered, watching Ryo's duel. Then, she got up and turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" O'Brien asked her.

"To interrogate the Dark Army. I want to know what they did to Judai to cause this, and I'm going to make sure it never happens to another prince again!"

"I'll go with you," Amon offered.

"No. I'm doing this alone. It's a job best done by small numbers. Besides, you'd just hold me back."

O'Brien was about to protest when Johan caught his eye and shook his head. Taking the hint, O'Brien let it go, and Yubel went off on her own.

"Why are we letting her do this?" Fubuki asked. "Isn't this a little dangerous?"

"What's dangerous is getting in Yubel's way right now," Johan said knowingly. "She's fiercely loyal to her friends, namely Judai, since she doesn't consider anyone else a friend. Trust me, she can handle herself. I'm more worried about the fiends. They've incurred Yubel's wrath, and that is not smart."

"Judai!" Jim called from the sidelines. "What's going on here, mate!? What happened to you!?"

There was no answer. Haou was completely focused on his duel. Particularly the fact that he was staring at a monster with 5600 attack points at this very moment.

Haou: 4000
Ryo: 1900

"You haven't even scratched me yet! And, with that move, you've reduced your life points to less than half. But not for long, because Power Bond's cost will take the original attack of that monster out of your life points at the end of this turn!"

Ryo narrowed his eyes. "That's if you survive this turn, Haou. My Cyber Laser Dragon attacks your Malicious Edge!"

"I activate my face down card: Mirror Force!"

"What!?"

As Ryo's monster attacked, the attack was reflected back to him, and his monsters were both destroyed.

"Your monsters are gone! But you still take damage for activating Power Bond," Haou said.

Haou: 4000
Ryo: 0

Ryo dropped to his knees. He had lost. Honestly, he should have paid more attention to that face down card. I was careless. I was trying to rush the duel, and I paid the price. He looked at Jim. "It looks like it's up to you now, Jim. Save Judai! Don't let this go on!"

Those were his last words before he was sent to the stars.

Brron hadn't expected this: He was pinned to the wall by a winged fiend that none of his minions could hurt. It resembled a woman, but its hair was all white on one side and all purple on the other. Its eyes were two colors as well, orange and green, and it had a third eye on its forehead. The woman controlling this fiend had ordered the Army to "get lost" if they didn't want their master to be destroyed. Needless to say, they didn't listen to her, and they were all destroyed themselves. It happened so fast, Brron wasn't even sure what had happened, but he had a fleeting image of a two-headed dragon before his army was all sent to the stars.

In other words, this woman didn't mess around.

"I'll ask this nicely, just once. What did you do to Judai!?" the woman demanded.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Brron answered, holding his tongue.

The woman narrowed her eyes. "Nightmare pain."

A vine left the creature holding Brron, coiling around him as he screamed, feeling an intense pain. "Alright, alright! What exactly do you want to know?"

"I want to know how you turned Judai into that...that thing."

"It's the same way we turned the other prince into Haou: We used his friends against him," Brron answered.

"No, because none of us were there when it happened and we're all alive."

Brron didn't look happy when she said that. "If I had my way, none of you would be alive!" he said. "But it wasn't so. I get my orders from Darkness, and he wanted to deal with all of you himself. Unfortunately, the guards at that prison camp must have been completely incompetent. Otherwise, you wouldn't have escaped."

"What!?"

"The ruler of this world, Darkness. That's all I'm telling you."

Yubel scowled. "Fine, then, back to the point. If you didn't actually use us, then what do you mean you used Judai's friends against him?"

"We had to use a lot of Mimicats, but it was a small price to pay. We made duplicates of each of Judai's friends and sent them to their deaths, with their dear friend watching. He couldn't do anything to prevent their demise, and they thought he was watching of his own free will, if only because we told them to act like they thought that way," Brron explained. "Now let me go!"

Yubel narrowed her eyes. "Oh, I'll let you go, alright. Straight to the stars!"

The last thing Brron saw was that two-headed dragon that had destroyed his army. Then he was reduced to stardust.

Jim stared. Ryo had just lost. In Dark World. Stunned, all Jim could think for a moment was, Sho's not going to like this.

Haou looked at Jim. "Are you next?" he asked.

Jim looked at Haou. His face set, he activated his duel disk. "You know I am, mate! And I'm going to save you, Judai!"