Flames and Tears

posted: 9/21/09

ISF: Ah, finally! This chapter was a bit tough to write, since I'm in college now, and don't have the drive or time to work on it. Plus, the internet in my dorm is down. I'm hanging out in the student lounge getting this done. There may be some typos, now, but hey, take what you get! Thanks to MissDomaYuset (loyal reviewer!) and Distant-Moon for reviewing, I'd say more but I'm strapped for time blah blah ENJOY THE CHAPTER.

o o o o o

Yami swore, wincing at the rubbing alcohol that Tea was using to clean the wounds he received from Felina's monsters. Aside from the throbbing pain in his shoulder from the Spherous Lady's attack, he was fine, though more than a little battered; if anything, he feared Tea and her first aid kit, which brought searing stings of agony, more so than the pain of battle, which had already ebbed away to a dull ache and stiffness.

"Just a moment more, Yugi, I'm almost done," Tea said to him, wrapping gauze around his exposed shoulder.

"It's Yami, Tea," snapped Mary smart-aleck-like, always one for specifics. "It's so obvious that it's Yami and not Yugi, he grows like a foot taller! And I don't have any idea why all of you guys keep on referring to him as Yugi, they're completely different people, they don't even sound alike—"

"Shut...the...hell...up..." Sarah ground out through her teeth. She had recovered her consciousness only just after Felina disintegrated into sludge, and was sporting a still-bleeding gash on the back of her head. Tea had managed to patch it up well enough without needing to cut off her hair, and while Tea cleaned the wound she and the two others brought Sarah up to date with the events that aspired. She blearily watched them with clouded eyes, remnants of her head trauma still affecting her ability to think clearly. Yami was stoically silent and Tea attempted to talk before being interrupted by Mary and giving up. Mary had spent the last fifteen minutes describing in detail the "absolutely awesome duel" which had just taken place, speaking excitedly about the cards chains, graphics and sound effects. Sarah was used to bearing this burden, but, understandably, the events of the day were clearly wearing her patience thin.

"Geez, Sarah, what crawled up your butt this morning? Woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something?" Mary said, her high-pitched voice especially mocking.

"I was just knocked unconscious, probably have a concussion, and woke up to find the block an apocalyptic wasteland."

"Oh, why do you have to be such a stick in the mud? You're always trying to ruin everything interesting or halfway exciting, and I'm sick of it! This is the best day I've had since, well, yesterday!" She babbled like a brook, her conversation degenerating into the sort of talking one usually finds on fan forums. "...let's see, Joey should be dueling somebody about now, but Kaiba usually doesn't start dueling until way into the season, unless you count the first episode...."

"Mary, this isn't fun for me, you know..." began Yami, clearly frustrated. Mary paid him no mind.

"Somebody who doesn't usually duel will probably do so this time around, it seems like. Tristan? Bakura? Duke? Ooh, I hope it's Bakura, that would be so cool—"

"Mary, don't you think that—"

"Be quiet, Tea, I wasn't talking to you!" yelled Mary. "I don't know who the enemy's going to be, but it should be somebody obvious, like how it was with Marik—"

At that moment, Sarah had thrown herself on her sister.

"What is wrong with you, you stupid, spoiled child?!" Sarah snarled at her sister, shaking her so roughly by the shoulders that Mary's neck looked like it would snap. "Were you dropped on your head as a baby? Are you mentally handicapped?" Yami and Tea did nothing, shocked into silence at Sarah's sudden lack of composure.

"S...stop, I can't...." Mary sputtered, her teeth rattling in her head.

"This isn't a game for me!" Sarah screamed, clearly beginning to lose her mind. Her face was reddening. Veins popped out from her neck. Tiny flecks of foam clung to her teeth. "This isn't fun to be knocked out and have a bleeding head wound! Everybody's gone! We're in a different dimension with no way to get home and to see our father, our only family, ever again and you don't care, you don't even care, do you? Do you? Because this is just a game to you! Yugi's home and store is blown up! He's been torn about by holograms! Look, just...just look, LOOK at this place!" She motioned furiously at the surrounding buildings. "Do you know how many millions of dollars in property damage this is? Do you know how much money it costs? Do you know how much the government will have to take out of programs to pay for this? That it could cause thousands of people with families to feed to lose their jobs, that people are probably dying in the streets right now? You don't care, you don't care! LOOK AT ME!" She started to slap the girl. Yami and Tea sprung into action, prying Sarah away from Mary.

She struggled momentarily before giving up. When they were sure she would not attack Mary again, the two let go of her arms. Sarah dusted off her clothing. Her face was turned towards Mary. Tea looked at Sarah. Her face was a pale, bloodless white and shadows sat underneath her eyes. They had a cold, sparkling sheen in them, yet almost looked empty.

"It doesn't mean anything to you, does it?" Sarah said coldly. Mary was on all fours, face towards the ground, crying silently, her bright blonde curls tumbling over her face. Her faint sniffles and the crackling of fire were the only noises which hung in the air.

"Our father could be dead in a ditch and it wouldn't even matter to you."

Mary hiccupped and wiped her eyes that were hidden behind golden bangs.

Everybody was silent. Sarah stared for what seemed like an eternity. Mary continued to weep silently. Tea and Yami did nothing, perhaps not quite sure what to do in this situation. Many seconds, possibly minutes, ticked by, but there was no way of measuring how much time had passed; all of the clocks and phones had stopped.

Finally, a wave of absolute disgust washed over Sarah's features. She grimaced at Mary as if the girl were the lowest slime imaginable, past the point where one ceased pretending not to notice it and looked over the offending person with complete and utter repulsion. Sarah turned around and, without a word, began to walk away down the street.

"Hey!" Tea ran towards her and grabbed her arm.

Sarah jerked it away. "Don't touch me!" she snarled.

"Sarah." Yami's voice was strong and imperious, yet had a soothing quality to it that resonated with wisdom. "You cannot run away from your duty."

Sarah faced away from the other three. "I have no duties." She spoke coldly, emotionlessly, somebody who made her decision already.

"I cannot make you stay. But you will ultimately regret this choice of yours if you so decide to make it."

His words hung in the air, one last imploration.

She walked away.

o o o o o

The battle was currently in a near stalemate. Joey (1200 LP) and Tristan (900) looked rather beat up. Each was sporting an array of dark bruises. Tristan had a black eye, and dark red liquid was splattered on Joey's clothes. But they looked as if the injuries did not particularly bother them. In fact, the two both looked alert and focused. Their previous street fights proved useful in a simulated brawl.

Bolono (1000) and Malachite (1250), however, despite looking nearly the same as far as outward health was concerned, were in the midst of a heated argument.

"Cease with your petulant attitude," hissed Malachite. "With every move you make, you have to consider all other variables, and the fact that we're dueling together means that it is imperative—"

"Oh, shut up with your fancy words," said Bolono, his voice having the same pitch and tone as a bull frog. "I know that you think you're the smartest one here, but I wanna let you know that I don't need any of your unsolicited advice."

Malachite snorted. "As if you even know what the word 'unsolicited' means."

"Heh." Bolono's laugh sounded more like a threat than an expression of mirth. "Ya better be glad that I'm on your team. You wouldn't want to have me as an enemy."

"Just make your move already, would you!" Joey yelled over to them. "What are youse guys, anyways, a couple of old lovers or somethin'?"

"You're going to regret that, little boy," squealed Bolono, drawing his card. his piggy little pupils contracting in greed when examining his drawn card. "As a matter of fact...I think it's your talentless friend that'll suffer for you."

"What—?!" Joey turned towards Tristan, shocked. Bolono placed a magic card on the field. It was Hamburger Recipe. Bolono threw two monster cards into his graveyard slot as if they were nothing but mere casualties of war. A cloud of smoke (or was it steam?) clouded around the duelists, stinging Joey and Tristan's eyes with the strong stench of onions and hot peppers. Looking t=into the thick fog, the two could barely make out the shadow of a chef's form stirring a large cauldron....

Then, as if from the depths of culinary hell and defying the laws of physics, a monstrous beast shattered the cauldron and devoured the chef. The two friends shivered in unison; even though they were holograms, albeit solid, the chefs screams and writhing were incredibly real. The steam faded away, and Joey and Tristan looked into the sinister olive eyes of a incredibly large hamburger with a row of razor sharp teeth (Hungry Burger, lvl 6 2000/1850. It would almost be laughable if it weren't for the chef's hat coat with blood stuck in its teeth.

"An' now I use Pot of Greed!" roared Bolono, red faced and drunk from power. "And I use it to draw cards not from my deck, but from Malachite's!"

"What...? You can't..." stammer Malachite, but Bolono yanked the man towards him by the duel disk and took two cards out of his deck. He began to laugh, placing both cards down on the field. They were Stim Packs. Hungry Burger's attack rose 1400 points to a total of 3400. Joey looked at Tristan's side of the field. He only had a Super Roboyarou (lvl 6 1200/500) in attack mode on his portion of the field, with only one magic or trap card on the face. Tristan caught Joey's eye. His face was ashen, but his eyes gave away his resignation to his fate....

"Comrade Swordsman of Landstar (lvl 3, 500/1200) take the hit!"

Tristan had no time to say anything. All he could see was the little fairy warrior, absolutely puny in comparison to Bolono's monster, leap out of defense position and in front of the Super Roboyarou, pointing his dagger up at the ravenous beast. Quicker than lightning, Joey flipped over his only trap card on the field, and from the shattering of glass and the white burst of light, Tristan knew what card it was. Mirror Force. The card given to Joey by the woman he loved, the one that Joey told him about but had sworn to secrecy, that he had used to save his oldest and dearest friend. The monsters on the field, all in attack mode, were destroyed, but that did not stop the damage calculation from taking place. Tristan knew the effect.

"Joey, you idiot, why would you—" Tristan began to swear from rage at his friend's absolute stupidity ... but stopped when the debris from the impact cleared.

Two drops of blood dripped slowly onto the ground, followed by a thick stream of it—it was Joey's blood. Joey was grasping at the long shard of glass, longer than the blade of a sword, which had pierced him in his torso. His shaggy hair covered all of his face save for his mouth, which also had blood dripping from it. His legs were trembling, about to give out, but yet he made no cry of pain.

Tristan yelled and ran towards Joey, but in a strange moment, he felt his movements slow as Joey's form was slowly swallowed by a bright light. Time itself seemed to slow down, but his perception of it and his mind did not. Joey slowly toppled backwards, but most of his body had already evanesced into the strange fluorescence....

Then Tristan felt time speeding up back to normal. He nearly stumbled from the jolt it caused. He looked at the pool of dark blood where his comrade once stood.

"Your worthless friend may have saved you momentarily, but your time is up," said Malachite coldly, summoning a Cannon Soldier (lvl 4 1400/1300). It raised its metal arm, which spat out a torpedo that cut through air, flames trailing it—

Mechanically, Tristan flipped over his trap card. The torpedo disappeared momentarily before instantly reappearing, headed towards Malachite and Bolono. It exploded upon contact with Bolono's skull. The flames cleared, and their bodies were gone, their disks and twisted, burned sludge the only thing left of them.

Tristan stared at the sky, eyes empty, but a stream of tears streaking down his face. His duel disk deactivated and slipped off his arm, clattering on the asphalt. He did not notice.

He had used the one card he had that had any real value to it. Dimension Wall. They could have both won.

o o o o o

ISF: Nooooo! How can this be?! Not Joey! Stupid, stubborn Joey, you both could have won! (Dimension Wall has the same effects as Magic Cylinder) D: Anyways, I'm sure there's a mistake in there, so feel free to tell me, just don't expect me to fix it anytime soon, LOL. I'm rushing, so that's all for now!

FIN