Warnings: Prepare to be confused! So very confused~!
Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh GX. I don't own anything.
Year Three Part One: Journeys
Lia had no idea what was going on. Of course, that was her natural state when watching a duel. She was almost always confused, and more often than not, dependent on someone else to explain what the hell had happened, how the hell it had happened, and why the hell it did any good in the grand scheme of things. And then, just for good measure, someone would probably have to explain to her again why they couldn't just go to where the bad guy was standing, and punch them out. And then maybe wail on them for a little bit. It seemed like the logical thing to do, but no, card games were the way to go. She never understood, but she kept her mouth shut (well, not really.) sat with her friends, and tried to make sense of things.
But it wasn't her natural confusing that was keeping her from understand at that moment.
It was the pain.
Everything had started out as well as was to be expected. The villain was there, they were monologuing about power or some crap like that, and Jaden had been challenged to a duel, which of course he accepted. Jaden was throwing down cards, the others were yelling pieces of advice, and she was confused as all get out, watching monsters appear and the ground be covered in a muddy, murky, swamp-like field spell.
And then Viper had started talking.
Not just the usual 'I am villain, hear me ROAR' type talking either. Most bad guys explained their plans, being incredibly proud of them. But Viper wasn't going on about power. Well, he was, but not the way Lia had expected. Viper wanted their energy (and he was sounding more and more like that really bad Sailor Moon dub of the early 90's), but he didn't want it for himself.
He'd shown them his arm, a grotesque, mutated thing, covered in scales and an unhealthy shade of purple. He'd started ranting about a night long ago, driving through New Mexico and finding a capsule on the ground. He'd shouted and raved, flinging the arm about. Alexis and Chazz had looked disdainful, Lia remembered that, and Syrus and Jesse had been yelling at Viper for something, but it was all white noise in her ears.
Because Jaden had stopped moving, had stopped doing anything, and the pain had started.
By this point, she was used to it. It hurt to watch Jaden duel, it was as simple as that. She was used to it by now. She knew what to expect whenever Jaden threw down. It was just common sense by that point (which in and of itself was a terrifying prospect. It was common sense that she started bleeding every time Jaden dueled? It was common sense that she was going to be in pain before the last card was played? That couldn't be healthy. And yet, for some reason, she could never stay away. She'd written it off as stubbornness but there was something else at work, something that made her dream of storms and black oceans at night).
But what happened wasn't as common.
It was pain, yes, but it was a different kind of pain. It was there, but at the same time, it wasn't. It was strong, yet she could barely feel it. There had been one, ripping, terrible surge of it, like a wave rushing up the very center of her, tearing her apart. It felt as though a spear had taken her chest and sent her heart flying out of her back, her body arched, blood splattering down over her torso. Agony dulled everything, and for a moment, she knew nothing.
She felt as though she was falling, tumbling down, down, down into a dark abyss that had no end...
A tower was gleaming in the distance, shining as the sunlight was reflected off of it, the moat around it lapping at the marble. She willed the image to change, aware only of the fact that the gleaming structure upset her, and she wanted it gone. The tower started to sway, and she wonder if it was going to fall, and come toppling down in a hundred thousand pieces. She remembered something about a card and her cousins showing her different ways to arrange them, and she looked up at the sky. There were clouds rolling in on the horizon, blocking out the sun. She wondered if it was going to thunder. The sky looked dark enough for it.
She looked down at her feet and was surprised to see that she was standing on the edge of a cliff, the wind whipping up clouds of dust at her feet. Only it wasn't dust at all. It was sand, and when she turned around, she saw that she was on the very edge of a desert, under a forlorn, dark green sky. She turned back to look at the tower, gulping as she took in the storm clouds that were rolling in. They seemed even darker than black, and when she looked under them, she saw that they were being reflected by the ocean.
Her eyes widened, and she took a step away from the cliff. The image of the clouds on the smooth water's surface was distorted by a ripple that started in the very center. It spread out, growing larger and larger, waves following its path until Lia realized it was a huge whirlpool, spinning faster and faster.
She took another step back.
The low roar of thunder met her ears, the clouds lighting along their bottoms in sheet lightening. She took a deep breath, trying to force herself to walk backwards. The clouds rumbled again, louder this time, and a bolt of white lightening shot down just behind her. She let out a shriek and darted forward, her hands pressed to her ears.
" What is this?" She called, the wind howling around her.
She turned around to look at the tower again, it's brilliance not dimmed by the lack of sunlight in the sky. Instead, it seemed to be brighter, stark white against the black sky. She watched a forked tongue of lightening strike at the tower, and her mind flashed to the image of the tarot card her cousin had shown her, a tower hit by lightening, with citizens who were on fire leaping from the top, screaming.
The lightening split the sky, and she was struck by how white it was. It even made the tower look dark in comparison.
No, that wasn't right.
The lightening was white, but the tower wasn't white at all. It was silver.
And, she looked harder, squinting her eyes, it didn't really look like any tower she'd ever seen. She couldn't make you bricks and stones that should've made up the body. She couldn't see a roof at the top. She couldn't even find a tiny slit of a window where an arrow might be fired out of, or a princess might sit and watch the world outside, hoping to catch sight of someone who would save her. It was a very slender tower too, incredibly smooth, and she frowned as she tried to make out more distinct features.
Without warning, the lightning struck again. The tower sizzled with energy, and she felt her jaw unhinge as she realized that it wasn't a tower at all, but a pillar of silver light blazing a path up to the sky.
She was so transfixed by the tower, she failed to hear the ringing of power around her until the telltale buzz of electricity had her looking up, straight into an on-coming lightning bolt.
The world exploded into white light around her. Unable to move, unable to think, unable, even, to tremble before the might of everything, she fell like a ragdoll, down, down, her visions clouded over with vicious white. She was blind, deaf, and dumb, her screams silenced before they touched the air, air that was humming with a strange power that was both foreign and familiar. Every inch of her hurt, but she was numb at the heart of it all, her senses dulled and her skin feeling oddly cut off from. Despite the blinding whiteness, the world before her was muted, cotton in her ears and mouth, gumming up her words until she couldn't speak. She kept falling, weightless, baseless, a feather blown about in a storm.
Storm. The clouds had been gathering for a storm, a storm which broke around her now, shattering the white light of the lightning bolt. Only it wasn't a storm, because there was no roar of the winds and no icy stabbing of rain. There was nothing but the heavy hanging clouds about her, and she couldn't distinguish one from another. They swirled together, a formless mass of black thunder, but no thunder echoed, not even thunder pretending to be the cries of beasts. Instead, the clouds were sliding into one another, rolling over and over and over until they were one thing, one great, terrible, black cloud. And the cloud descended on her, encompassing her, carrying her far, far away...
And then there were sand dunes stretching out overhead and a sun, brighter and hotter than she'd ever seen it, blazing down on her. She stared out at the vast sea of sand, taking in the barren landscape and the faded, colourless sky. The air scorched the inside of her throat as she breathed in, and her skin felt itchy and tattered as the wind whipped about. An overwhelming sense of sorrow swelled in her chest, spreading slowly outwards until her arms felt heavy and her legs were water, unable to support her. She dropped her knees, hands braced on the stone railing in front of her. Her eyes stung as the tears slide down her cheeks.
She didn't even remember beginning to cry, but the tiny drops dripped off her chin and spattered on the stones beneath her. Cracks spider webbed out from where the tears had hit the stone, and cracks raced along the firm platform that held her. To her horror, the cracks converged, sliding together and opening up great holes in the rocks that supported her. She leapt to her feet, but when she tried to run, her legs were stiff, unmoving, rooted down to the crumbling floor. She looked down, yanking at her immobile limbs, and the dread that had been filling her magnified tenfold.
Seeping up out of the cracks in the ground, in curling, horrible tendrils, was a thick, entirely solid darkness, like the mist back in the cave so long ago, like the mass that had carried her to this desolate place. It had wrapped itself around her ankles, rooting her to the spot as the stone under her crumbled and shook, falling away to reveal a great, black abyss. Her eyes widened, taking in the gaping nothingness, and she tried to struggle, but the tendrils had crept up farther up her body, holding her in place.
And then she was back in the cave, the moonlight casting all the rocks around her into a blue glow. The etching in the stone floor shone in the light gleaming in through the skylight, and she almost had to turn away to keep it from blinding her. All around, the cracks grew, letting the darkness seep in, hauling her down into the abyss beneath her feet.
She blinked, and suddenly she was in the dead center of the circle carving, standing over the glowing stone, the only light in the total darkness around her. Then the sturdy stone under her feet vanished, and she slipped through, falling faster and faster into the inky black chasm, staring up at the circle that shone above her. And then it was the impossibly bright sun from earlier, beating down on her as she slipped away from the light.
The wind whistled around her, and not even she heard the name that was ripped from her lips in a moment of terror.
A jolt went through her body, and then, suddenly, it was as if she was watching someone else fall to the ground with a startled cry. It was someone else who was clutching the collar of her shirt. It was someone else sobbing and crying, pulling at her hair, desperately trying to make sense of anything in that cloud of torment that was the pain beneath her chest. Blood dripped through fingers that weren't hers, and when Alexis dropped down to try and help her and Jim yelled in shock at the sight, it wasn't her who was the focus.
It was just a strange, pale-faced girl who had no idea of what was going on.
She sniffed, and turned away.
There he was.
Shining like a star, he burned against the drab backdrop of the world. She wanted to reach out, to touch him, to let him know that she was there, right there. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and squeeze so tight that the two of them would meld together, into one person. There had been a spell for that, long ago, hadn't there? She couldn't remember. She didn't care. Because he was there and that was all that mattered.
Of course it was.
How could anything else matter? How could anyone else exist? The snivelling girl down below, blazing with Exitium's gift, the shivering boy in black, that simpering, jittery boy with his gem beasts? Never. Who were they, in the grand scheme of it all? Who were any of them, any of the weak-minded fools who inhabited this world she saw beneath her. She had lifetimes all on them, centuries and centuries of true pain and suffering, of love and devotion, of patience, always of patience.
She hated them every single one of them, that dared to stand between her and him.
She turned, bored, to look at his opponent.
And froze for a second time.
There, on his arm...
That thing...
That hideous, scaly monstrosity...
A scowl curled her lips. So that was it, was it? Now, after all this time, now it decided to move to this point.
' So you've come here to find him, have you?' She thought as Bubbleman was destroyed.
Down below, the crying girl was silent, her tears slipping soundlessly down her face as she stared at his red back.
' Don't you look at him! Never look at him! Take your unworthy eyes off of him, all of you!'
A storm whipped up around her, angry winds tearing and tossing her hair to and fro. Clouds started to gathering, slowly at her feet, dark and heavy with rain. In the distance, thunder rumbled in her ears, blocking out the noise of the duel. The man, the opponent baring that sickening arm, was laughing about something. Neos arrived on the other side of the field in a flash of rainbow light. For a moment, as he hung suspended, summoned, but not yet materialized, his head turned. And those blue eyes found her own.
She sneered at him, even as he was attacked by a watery, curling snake. His points dropped, and she saw his radiance dim.
The storm was swirling faster around her now. To her horror, she found her vision of him obscured by the darkening clouds. With a shriek, she reached out, trying to bat them away, but to no avail. The storm grew thicker, mist settling in around her. The wind roared, and suddenly she was being pulled back, hauled away from him against her will. She struggled, kicking and screaming, clawing at the clouds as he began to fade from her sight, stolen all over again.
' No!' She screamed. ' No, not again! Don't take him away again! Please!'
The crying girl, the only thing still visible in the haze around her, looked up as if startled. She paid her no mind.
' Let me go!' Whatever it was was pulling harder now, wrenching her away from him and the duel. Fury and fear pounded in her body. She reached one hand out to where she could still make out the glow of his energy, her fingers outstretched. Somewhere beyond her, she heard Marine Neos give a cry as he was poisoned, but she ignored it.
' Please.' She sobbed, but it was in vain. The storm was pulling her farther and farther away from him,, pushing her out of the eye where he stood. The world swam in and out of darkness around her, and her body back to tire as she fought, hopelessly, to see him again.
The crying girl was looking from left to right, curiously visible despite the storm. A dark stain of blood covered her front. She was haggard and tired, and looked as though she would give anything to be anywhere other than where she was. The foolish, ungrateful brat was close enough to touch him, and she didn't want to be near him anymore? Rage made her want to spit at the girl, but she couldn't even find the energy to do that. She was so tired, so worn out from fighting. The sound of the rain in the clouds was starting to lull her to sleep.
She looked up one last time, letting out a raw cry as she saw the pale glow a familiar, orange energy.
' You bitch! You monstrous bitch! Don't you touch him, you understand me?! Don't you touch him!'
Down below, the crying girl jumped as thought she'd been shocked and turned her head very slowly. The girl was looking right at her, her eyes impossibly wide, but she couldn't care less. With the last of her energy, the storm pulling a blanket over senses and lulling her to sleep once more, she gave a shout.
' You stay away from him! Do you hear me?! Do you?! Don't touch him, Yubel!'
And then she was gone, lost in her storm, and Lia Shanner gave a puzzled, startled cry as the world flew apart in front of her eyes, and she fainted dead away.
Jesse thought that it was rather telling of the group and the various situations with varying levels of danger that they managed to get themselves into that the immediate reaction to Lia passing to without any discernible cause was, " Oh Christ, not again!"
Of course, it was Chazz saying it, so maybe that was part of it.
" Lia, honey?" Alexis shook her friend. Lia lay against the blonde's chest unmoving and unresponsive. Syrus was at Alexis' right, while Jim had hunkered down on her left, carefully feeling for a pulse.
" 'Er 'eart's racin'." He observed with a frown. " She 'ave sum koinda condition?"
Alexis was saved from answering (and how she was going to answer, she wasn't sure.) by Chazz dropping to his knees in front of her, glaring at the comatose girl.
" Wake up!" He snapped. When that failed to produce any results save for him getting scowled at, he leaned closer. " I swear to god, if you fall into another coma, while we are on a helipad, I will THROW YOU OFF IT!"
There was a pause. Viper played Venom Shot. Jesse frowned and winced as Marine Neos was poisoned down to 1300 attack points.
Finally, it was Jim who found his voice.
" Don't think that'll work, mate, seein' as 'ow you'd be doin' more 'arm 'an good." His ability to speak seemed to lift the spell of the others.
" You'll do no such thing." Alexis snapped, gathering the girl to her chest. Chazz rolled his eyes
" Chill, Lexi. I wouldn't really."
" Well, real or not, it ain't workin'." Hassleberry climbed to his feet. " Hey, Sarge! We got a man down over here!"
" Girl." Syrus corrected him. He frowned.
" It's an expression, Trusedale. Point is, Miss Lia's down and we need ta get off this thing!"
"Hate to break it to ya, Strawberry, but I don't exactly see a down button on this thing anywhere!"
" Well, we can't just sit here an' do nothin'!"
" It's what we always do!"
" Bullshit!"
As Chazz and Hassleberry leapt at each other's throats and Jim tried to calm them down in very much the same way she'd seen him calm Shirley down, Alexis gathered Lia to her chest and pushed the hair out of her sweaty forehead.
" She was looking at something."
Alexis looked up. Syrus had moved to take Chazz's place in front of her. He was staring at Lia with narrowed eyes.
" What?"
" Right before she passed out." He clarified. " She was staring at something off in the distance. I mean, at the beginning, she was just staring at Jaden like she usually does, but then, it was like she heard something. And she started staring off into the distance."
" Was there something there?"
" I don't know." Syrus gave a dry smile. " You're the one with the special eyes Lex." She frowned.
" I don't think she was seeing the Light-"
" That's not the only thing special about your eyes." He tapped his temple. " Jaden's in the middle of a duel, Chazz spends most of his time pretending he isn't keeping an eye on Lia, and Jesse is watching Aniki's back for this thing. Out of all of us who're left, only you can..."
He looked pointedly at her duel disk. Specifically, the slot that held her cards. Alexis flushed a little under the scrutiny.
" I didn't...I wasn't looking over there and," she glanced up, " there's nothing there now."
" Hmm..." Syrus hummed to himself. On the field, Jaden played miracle fusion, summoning Wild Edge to his side. The gold-plated monster took a look around at the situation, frowning under his vizor.
' I don't like this.' Cyber Tutu whirred over Alexis' shoulder. ' There's something burning here.'
' The Light.'
Her monster spirit shook her head, her pink hair flying back and forth. There were still scars along her body from where she'd been attacked the previous year. Chazz still couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes, even though she'd forgiven him.
' Yes...No...Can't tell. It's the same, but not the same. It's the Light, but not the Light. Something burns, but it burns differently.'
' You're confusing me, Tutu.'
' Everyone's confused. I'm confused! Don't understand. That man...he's...'
' Is he burning?'
Her monster shook her head again, frowning and biting her lip. On the field, a Medusa-like figure crawled out of the muck, her wicked red eyes fixed on Jaden.
' No, not like...' Cyber Tutu shot a look at Chazz. ' Not like...before, just...there's something...something in the air, and on the wind, and all around. Something old, something strong, something I haven't felt in so long.'
' So it's familiar then?' Alexis pulled Lia closer, unconsciously trying to protect the girl from whatever it was.
Cyber Tutu nodded, not looking at Alexis, but at Jaden.
' Familiar...yes, it's familiar. Like an old lullaby. Like a picture you haven't seen in a long time, a memory that your mind almost forgot was there.'
On the field, Jaden trembled as the beastly card on Viper's side sent a snake right through his chest.
' A memory...that's what this is. A memory.'
At Jesse's side, Amethyst Cat, Topaz Tiger, and Ruby Carbuncle were standing, the smallest monster resting on the tiger's shoulders, shaking with fear.
' The air is full of memories, Alexis.' Cyber Tutu turned her dark eyes on her master. ' Be careful. Not all memories are nice ones.'
Something strange had started to happen. Rivulets of electricity were racing up and down the column of metal that held the helipad up. An orange-yellow glow had overtaken everything else, bathing them all in its glow. Tiny bubbles were starting to rise out of the surface, despite the Venom Swamp card still being in play. The substance, whatever it was, was churning around, melding together, gathering more and more form as the seconds ticked by. On the duel field, both opponents had collapsed to their knees, their Bio Bands glowing the same colour as the bubbles.
Slowly, the substance took shape, floating about the duel arena.
" Rune of Collection!" A high, clear voice said. Jaden and Viper's bands began to burn, the metal glowing red hot against their wrists. Jaden cried out in pain, but Viper was staring up at the symbol, his eyes feverish and face flushed.
" Pierce?" He called. " Pierce, is that you? Wait a little longer! I'm almost done here!"
And then there was a figure in front of the man. He was small and thin and unmistakably male. Spiky tufts of hair rose out of his head, and the shadows played across this skin in the glow from the symbol above. He was made of the same yellow-orange substance, not quite looking solid but not translucent either, not like the monster spirits that had gathered around their masters, shouting in worried voices. No, the boy was really there, that much, anyone could tell.
But what was really attention grabbing was the demonic looking hand and forearm he sported. It was the same colour as Viper mutated hand, but one the ends of the fingers curled wicked looking claws, golden in colour and sharp.
Viper smiled, a deranged, deluded smile, and reached out his hand.
" Pierce..." He whispered, so much happiness in his tone that it made Alexis feel sick.
" Hiya Dad!" That same clear voice spoke. Viper crawled forward.
" Pierce! You've come back! You've really come back!"
" 'Course I did! She promised, right?" Something was wrong. Something was horribly, horribly wrong. The thing had no mouth to talk, and no matter how human its shape, Alexis had had dealing with the inhuman before. Whatever that thing was, it wasn't Viper's son.
" You've come back to me." Viper's hand was just within touching range when the figure held up on finger on its demonic hand, waving it back and forth in a chiding motion.
" Uh-uh, Dad! She kept her end of the bargain, but you didn't keep yours. I don't see Jaden suffer~ring!"
Alexis' insides went cold at the sing-song tone. Viper pulled back, looking shocked.
" But...Pierce, the duel..."
" Nope." The hand suddenly lashed out and closed over Viper's face. " You're taking too long."
It began to squeeze. All around them, a white light was glowing, not like the Light from the previous year, but no less blinding. Jaden was shouting, maybe to them, or maybe to the thing that was slowly crushing Viper's head. The helipad was shaking, rocking back and forth like there was an earthquake. Something silver darted out and enclosed them in a bubble, holding them. Cyber Tutu, at her side, gasped.
' This is...!'
The light was all around them now blotting out Duel Academy and the tree below. There was a dull roar as her blood rushed in her ears, and Alexis tightened her grip on Lia. It was the only thing she had in the sea of confusion and fear around her. Up and down vanished. Left and right fell apart. The ocean was gone and the sky had ruptured, leaving only the white light slowly surrounding them. Jaden was still shouting, and she could hear the others making various sounds of distress. Jesse alone seemed to be shouting at Jaden, but Alexis couldn't make it out over the sound of her own heart beat.
As the brightness became over powering, Alexis squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in Lia's hair. The last thing she heard before the world cracked open and oblivion took her was the dying scream of Thelonius Viper.
Confused yet?
Good. Get used to that feeling. I'm gonna keep it going for a good, long while. I intend to milk this for all it's worth before I reveal what the fuck is going on.
And finally, a little addition to Lia's storm dream. And the dream from first year that she had.
Well, I want to leave you all as 'WTF' faced as possible, so I think I'll take my leave here. See you tomorrow for the somber conclusion of the Viper Arc. Is this an arc? I think it's an arc. If I could turn the Abandoned Dorm episodes into an entire arc in Year One, I can do it here with Viper. So see you tomorrow!
Yubel: Yes, please come! We'll have a ton of fun!
Gah! When did you get here?!
Yubel: M-sie, I've been here the entire time.
OH GOD, I'm about to die, aren't I?
Yubel: Of course not, silly! That would be irresponsible! After all, stories must have storytellers, and words must have wordsmiths.
...You scare me.
Yubel: I should.
MoS