Inner Apocalypse

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Or its characters! I only own my OC's, and the fanfic! I'm not getting any money out of this! Ok, back to the story… Just for entertainment purposes!

Rated T for violence at times… Just in case. Language at times.

And any questions about the story that won't make me spoil the story, ask me.

Chapter 20- Trapped and Slapped

R

We reached a building that looked a lot like one of those Roman coliseums, where the competition would take place. The pillars held up the stone walls, keeping them intact. I wonder what would happen if one pillar broke… Um, not such a good idea…

After going into the entrance, we saw a fat toad like goblin sat on a chair, wearing sandals and some sort of robe-like outfit, with a sword sheathed on his belt. Apparently he was the administrator of the tournament, and he (or it? I really don't know) could speak and understand English. I was so relieved. Imagine having to croak so it could understand you… That would be pretty awkward. Correction, extremely awkward! And I don't think any of us knew how to speak frog.

"Um, we would like to enter in the competition please, err… Mister." I said, trying not to make it look like I was staring at the creature. Flies flied around him, making it harder.

The creature looked at us with disbelief. "Do you really think that one of you can beat our champion?" Then it eyed one of the flies hungrly, and a long tongue like one of a frog's came out of its mouth. The tongue caught the fly, and returned back to the creature's mouth. The host swallowed loudly. "I mean, do you have the skill to?"

The rest of us made faces. I tried not to throw up on the spot. Yes, that creature was definitely part toad. I just didn't want to learn that by watching him eat flies.

Yugi managed to look the most expressionless, and tried to persuade the host. "Please, we need that Niwatori card. At least give us a chance to prove to you that we can win."

The creature sighed, and put his hand on his chin, thinking thoughtfully. A long pause filled the air. We waited impatiently for his response and all of our breathes were held in anticipation. Would he agree? What would we do if we weren't allowed to enter the competition? It was pretty obvious there were no other Niwatori cards in the entire town.

In the end he shrugged. "Well, why not? I'm not the one taking the risk… So I guess you can have a shot at it."

"Yes!" We all cheered, finally relieved. It may have been a small success, but if one of us managed to win and get that Niwatori card… We'd be even closer to saving Kaiba!

The creature turned around, and dug through a pile of stuff, before pulling out a cape and mask… A pig mask. Just the type of mask any hero would want to wear, eh? He handed the stuff to Yugi. "This is your battle mask and combat cape. The person who's going to battle is going to need to wear it." Then he walked out of the room.

"Ok… Only one of us is going to wear the stuff and participate…" I muttered. "Even though I don't want to look like a pig, I'll go."

Joey shook his hand, and took the costume from Yugi. "Nope, I'm going." And his face showed that he wasn't going to change his mind. But that didn't stop me from trying to.

"Hey, Joey, you already have the least life points out of all of us!" I argued. "You'll be at a disadvantage! Let me go instead."

Joey shook his head, again, but this time, his face broke into a dumb grin. "I'm not going to let the little strawberry head be the hero today. Do you want to humiliate yourself even more? Besides, you're much shorter than me."

My face turned red from embarrassment and anger. I almost forgot about my pink hair. And did he just insult my height? "Hey, stop making fun of my hair, and my height! Gees, being shorter than you proves nothing… And I don't make fun of your stupidity!"

"You only do it like, five times a day." Joey scoffed. "And besides, being taller has its perks. I can look down at you, which makes you seem a lot less intimidating… No offense, Yug."

I pouted. "So you mean offend me but not Yugi? You're so mean."

"Complain all you want, short strawberry head." Joey laughed, and ruffled my hair. "But I'm going and that's that."

I growled, and my bright pink hair stuck up in messy clumps. Then I started smiling. "Fine, you can go and enter that tournament…" At this, Joey smiled triumphantly. Then I muttered the last bit to myself. "As a pig."

Mokuba must have heard, because he started snickering, but immediately stopped when Joey gave him a weird look. He straightened up, and said, "We'll be cheering you on from the sidelines, just don't mess up."

My face broke out into a wide grin. "Joey," He looked at me, and I saluted him. Then I gave him a tiny wink. "Sergeant Little Strawberry Head salutes you, wishing you the best of luck in your battle!"

Joey started smiling, but forced his smile into a straight line. "I won't let you down, Sergeant LSH!" Then he returned my gesture with a salute of his own.

Mokuba and Yugi had sweat drops, laughing nervously. … Yeah, the two of us must have sounded really stupid.

I smiled. "You better not!" Then I looked back at Yugi and Mokuba. "Let's go, before I start some other weird conversation."

The two of them nodded rapidly, and walked out of the room. Then I glanced at Joey one more time. He tried to throw the cape over his shoulders dramatically, as if to impress someone, but failed. It just floated onto the ground, in a messy heap. I couldn't help but laugh.

Joey glared at me as he went to pick up the cape, but then his eyes narrowed… In suspicion? Or was it confusion and worry? "Hey, Rox, do your eyes always change color? Sometimes they're green, and sometimes they're blue, like right now. Are you feeling alright?"

I laughed nervously. Right… Never got to explaining to everyone about me… And I'm guessing Roxanna never did either. But I have my suspicions that Yugi knows about me. "Er… I haven't ever noticed… Maybe you're turning color blind?" Before he could say anything else, I ran out of the room. I didn't want to have to explain things to him now. Not with all the things on my mind.

I met up with Yugi and Mokuba, sitting in the ring of seats around the center stage where the competitors would battle. I felt a little uncomfortable, because other than me, there were no other girls. The entire place was packed with a bunch of guys… Which all of them were shouting positive comments about their champion at the top of their lungs, shaking their fists or standing up as they did so. I was surprised my eardrums didn't burst.

Then I spotted two people I seemed to recognize. One was the old man who told us about the Niwatori card, and he was sitting all the way at the top, while we were sitting at the bottom. He saw us, and his eyes twinkled with his familiar amusement. So he knew that one of us was going to participate in the match! That sly old man…

Then it was Kai, that girl that Roxy helped out… So I wasn't the only girl! Kai sat near the box where the host (aka the toad dude) was at. But she wore a sort of cloak, hiding most of her hair. I almost didn't recognize her. She caught my eye, and smiled slightly, winking as if to signal something. Not knowing what to do, I smiled back. I wonder what that little girl was here for…

"We have at last found a soul brave enough to challenge our champion!" The toad dude stood up, putting his hands in the air as most of the crowd was cheering even louder than before, if it was possible. "I present to you Senor Porky!"

As you might guess, I wasn't happy to hear my buddy being called a 'Porky'… Oh, if I had a knife right now, it would go straight through that toad's heart. No, I would want to drag his misery on for as long as possible… Wait. I am sounding a bit too much like what Roxanna would want to do if it was Lucifer insulting Joey… Never mind, she'd be even more violent.

Joey walked out of one side of the arena, with his green cape on, and the pig mask over his face.

The crowd started to jeer and boo at him, except for Kai and the old man. They seemed to be rather neutral in who they would prefer to win. I glared at all the people close enough to me, and their insults died in their throats. I can look rather menacing when I want to.

"Go Joey!" I cupped my hands around my mouth, projecting my voice louder. People gave me weird looks, but I ignored them. Then I smiled, making my voice sound sweet and innocent. "And anyone that starts taunting him again will regret doing it for the rest of their life."

At that, most of the booing died down, though I did hear one or two whispers. But good enough for me.

People should know better than to insult my friends.

Mokuba and Yugi continued to cheer Joey on. I threw in one or two encouraging words.

The toad dude cleared his throat, and continued speaking. "And on the other side of the arena, is our champion, Madame Butterfly!"

Now almost the entire crowd was cheering, stamping their feet, waving their hands, shouting like maniacs, and the sound was deafening.

The champion was a girl? This was going to be interesting…

Roxanna folded her arms, in her spirit form next to me. 'Can I… Um… You know.'

'Sure…' I muttered. I can't enjoy a decent time outside the hourglass… It always has to be painful at one point or another… But I guess I needed more time to think in there. I fumbled with the hourglass, and it started glowing with its usual gold glow.

Roxanna

I blinked, and looked to the other side of the arena. Four masked men carried a throne. A blonde girl wearing a butterfly mask on her face, and a red cape over her shoulders, sat there with her legs and arms crossed, looking smug and confident.

… Why does this girl seem so familiar? That hairstyle… I've seen it before! But where? I couldn't quite put my finger on it…

"So someone finally decided to challenge me?" The girl jumped off the throne, and stood gracefully on her feet. "But too bad you're going to lose faster than you think."

Joey growled, "You can insult me all you want, but you're the one who's going to lose!" Then he drew a card from his deck, and held it up in the air. "Flame Swordsman!"

The card started to radiate with a bright white light, and his monster materialized onto the field. The swordsman grunted, holding his sword in front of him, poised for an attack at any moment.

The champion's smug smile remained on her face. "Hmm, not a bad move." Then she drew a card, and raised it into the air. "But this card will bring you down! Harpy Lady!"

The card emitted a bright glow, and her monster appeared in front of the champion. The Harpy Lady looked just as confident as her owner, with the same smug smile plastered to their faces.

Harpy Lady… I know I've seen that card before! But I can't remember where… Curse my short term memory! I mentally kicked myself. I never remembered anything useful these days.

"Hmph, my Swordsman is powerful enough to beat your monster easily!" Joey smirked. "Now, Flame Swordsman, attack her Harpy Lady!"

The swordsman raised his sword over his head obediently. Then he charged, ready to destroy the opponent's monster. But before the swordsman could slice the Harpy Lady, Madame Butterfly pulled out a card from her deck.

"I use the trap card, Mirror Wall!" The card glowed, and a wall of mirror appeared around the Harpy Lady in a dome. The swordsman's sword came in contact with the wall. He was flung back to Joey's side of the field, and while his attack power was halved, the Harpy Lady remained unharmed.

That strategy, I saw it before, I'm sure of it… Then it hit me. The Madame Butterfly was…!

Yugi's eyes widened, probably coming to the same conclusion as I did.

Madame Butterfly smirked, and drew another card. "This is the end for you, pig- boy! Now I power up my Harpy Lady with the card, Rose Whip!" I had no doubt now. Only one person would do that combo. The most important question was: What was she here for? "Now, attack his monster!"

The Harpy Lady raised the whip, and it went flying towards Joey's swordsman.

"Wait!" Joey removed his mask quickly.

Madame Butterfly gasped, and ordered for the attack to stop. Just in time too, or it would have destroyed Joey's monster.

"Joey?" The girl asked, sounding shocked. Then she slowly removed her mask as well, to reveal a familiar looking face. "Is that really you?"

"Mai!" Yugi and I jumped over the seats, onto the arena. Mokuba followed behind us.

Mai blinked in disbelief. "Yugi, Mokuba, Roxy, what are you guys doing here?"

"Well, why are you in the game?" I asked. "It's really dangerous in here."

"I was testing this game for some suits at Kaiba Corp." Mai shrugged, not looking the least bit concerned that her life might be at risk. "So what about you?"

"Those suits kidnapped my big brother." Mokuba sighed, sounding hopeless. And that's how things were right now. We're not even close to even crossing that desert without that Niwatori card. Besides, Mokuba and Kaiba were just reunited maybe a few days ago, and now they were forced to separate once again. That must have hurt.

"He's trapped in a temple across the desert." I explained. "But we need to get a Niwatori card to get across."

"That's the prize card for this match!" Mai realized.

Before we could reply, the crowd started booing and complaining. Oops, almost forgot that they were here… And they were demanding we continue the fight… They wanted to get a winner out of the match. But we didn't have time to finish the duel! Kaiba was already in enough trouble, we can't risk wasting more time.

"Hey, what the-?" I heard the toad dude yell. "What are you doing?"

We all turned around to see Kai had jumped into the announcer's box. She had taken off her cloak, and smiled mischievously. Then she nimbly grabbed the Niwatori card from the box lined with velvet it sat in, and jumped out of the box onto the arena. At first the toad dude just sat on his seat, and blinked dumbly. But then he glared, and yelled. "The card, they took our prized card!"

Kai ran past us, and thrust the card into my hand. Before she left, she gave me a wink, and whispered, "That's for helping me back there. Oh, and if you see my brother, do me a favor and tell him to come back home, ok? Trust me, you'll know if it's him." Then she disappeared off into the distance.

I blinked, holding the card in my hand. What just happened? Then Mai snapped me back to reality. "Hey, Rox, we better run now." I glanced back to see the crowd starting to jump off the seats, getting ready to chase us.

I nodded. "Yeah, running would be a good idea right now!"

Mai ran out through the exit, throwing her cape and mask over her shoulder as she did so. We followed, and Joey ditched his costume too. Our group headed out to the desert running as fast as we could, with the angry mob chasing after us in hot pursuit. I wasn't sure if we could make it to the desert before they caught up with us.

Joey skidded to a stop, and turned to face the crowd. The rest of us stopped too. What did he think he was doing, trying to get himself killed?

"Joey, we have to go!" I grabbed his wrist. "Or do you want to get caught?"

He gave me a small wink. "Sergeant LSH, have some faith in good old Joey! I'm going to slow that angry mob down for us." Then he shook my hand away, and drew a card. "Trap Hole!"

The card glowed, and a huge crater appeared in between us and the mob of people. The crowd stopped suddenly, none of them wanting to fall into the hole. Hopefully they wouldn't find a way around or across it. But we didn't want to stick around and find out, so we all continued running towards the desert.

After running for a long time, we finally reached the edge of the desert. I panted, my throat parched. "Mokuba, are you sure we can't die of dehydration in this game?"

The little kid shrugged. "I don't think so, but I don't think we should risk it."

I nodded. "Good point." Then I gazed over to the other side of the desert. "We should get going. Are all of you ready?"

After they all nodded, I held up the Niwatori card that Kai handed me. "I summon the Niwatori!" Five huge chicken like creatures appeared in front of us, and I blinked. "Um… Now what? How do we use these guys to get across the desert?"

The others seemed to not even think about it, and each hopped onto a Niwatori.

I sighed in defeat and got onto the only one left. "Well, it's better than all the running, I guess."

While the others chatted on during maybe half of the ride, I let my thoughts wander. Kai basically asked me to find her brother, no made me promise to… That is, if he's still alive. She never told me how long he was gone… If it was longer than a week, there's almost no hope left to ever find him. I wonder how she can still believe he's out there. I mean, I gave up after I ended up at the orphanage. If he's dead, he's dead. It's hard to accept, but what other choice is there? I wonder why Kaiba even added Kai into the game… She looked oddly like me… And that scene where she was being bullied, I described that scene to Seto before… But what's the point in adding her into-

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard someone calling my name. "Yes?"

It was Mokuba. "You ok, Roxy? You seem a bit worried."

I shook my head and forced a smile. "It's nothing. Just thinking."

"… I'm not going color blind!" Joey sounded sure of himself. "Your eyes were blue before, and now they're green!"

"Eh? Maybe it's a, uh… Mood thing?" I shrugged. Not the best time to explain about R.

"But-" Joey never got a chance to finish what he wanted to say.

The ground started to rumble, and crack. The Niwatoris were scared, and stopped in their tracks. A huge column of sand spat out through the cracks, and out of that, emerged… A huge creature. Not huge like an giraffe. Huge like the Empire State building. Probably even bigger! It was a sand dragon, and it let out a bellowing growl, that sent shivers down my spine.

But Joey calmly drew a card from his deck. "Leave it to me! I summon Red Eyes Black Dragon! Destroy that Sand Dragon!"

The menacing red eyes of Joey's dragon stared at the Sand Dragon with no presence of fear. Then it opened its huge jaws, and a huge orb of static red energy formed in its mouth. The orb shot out of Red Eye's mouth, and when it came in contact with the Sand Dragon, the creature let out a painful cry, before exploding into dust.

"Well, looks like someone's kicking butt today." I smiled. "That's another monster down… And I'm guessing we'll have like two hundred more to beat."

"Please, don't curse us," Joey joked. "Knowing our luck, we will."

The dust that clung into the air before suddenly cleared, revealing a sort of ancient temple at the foot of the mountains, not that far away from us.

"That must be where they're keeping Seto!" Mokuba said, his confidence renewed.

Our group continued riding on, and of course Joey had to do one last crazy thing. "Go faster Drumsticks!" He named his Niwatori.

"Wow…" I said in awe. "This temple is huge!" It looked more like a castle than a temple up close.

Mokuba didn't waste any time admiring the scenery. He jumped off his Niwatori and ran up the stone steps, yelling, "I'm coming big brother!"

The rest of us quickly dismounted our chick- I mean Niwatori and followed him.

The inside looked nothing like the outside of the temple. It was a dank and dark cave, and I heard bats fluttering about. We all stopped walking when we reached a huge set of double doors. They were shut, hiding what was inside. We pushed the doors open, and I felt light headed.

In front of us was a labyrinth a lot like the ones where Joey and Yugi dueled the Paradox Brothers. And I fell down a trap door. Not the best memory in the world. "… I think my head hurts just remembering that place… Those Paradox brothers made me fall down and hit my head…" I winced remembering the pain.

Then I heard a creaking sound, and the doors shut behind us.

"NO!" I heard someone yell. But it was definitely not one of us…

I glanced at the others to see if it was my imagination. But they were looking around too, wondering where the noise came from.

Someone stepped out of the entrance of the labyrinth, a shadow over them, so I couldn't tell what they looked like. "Just when I finally find my way back, it's closed shut!" The guy moaned. "I'm never going to get out of here!"

The person stepped out of the shadows, and my mind went blank.

I didn't know what to think.

"Who are you?" Joey demanded. It was obvious he didn't trust the guy.

"Name's Ed." The guy nodded. "Sorry if I gave you guys a bit of a scare. I got lost in the desert, then lost in here, then I got out of the maze, then I went back to find my way back to my town, and now… I can't get back cause the doors are shut."

Then I managed to croak out the words, "How long was it from being lost in the desert until you found your way here?"

The boy rested his chin on his hand, and thought for a bit. "Three months."

I looked down onto the floor, and walked up to Ed. He regarded me with a curious expression. And then I raised my hand, and a loud smacking sound echoed in the maze.

Ed fell to the floor, one cheek red. "What did you slap me for?"

"You left your sister alone for three months! Three months!" I yelled. "How could you? You don't even seem the least bit concerned about anything! Kai believed that you would come back, and you don't even seem worried at all about her! How can you call yourself an older brother? Do you know how heartbroken she must have felt when she knew you were missing?"

Ed stood up, looking furious. "What do you know? I am worried sick about her, I worry about her every second I'm alone! I just don't want to think about it. You don't know how long I spent looking for a way back!"

The two of us stared at each other defiantly before breaking eye contact at the same time.

"… Sorry about that. It's just… Well, I can't explain it." I muttered. "Kai told me to tell… To tell you to come home soon."

Now I knew why Kai said I'd know her brother when I saw him. He looked like the exact replica of my older brother, Ryan. The same messy black hair, the same kind green eyes. Even the same stupid smile that he always had.

I guess that what I told him was how I felt when Ryan left. I wanted to believe he was still out there. But as each hour passed, each day, each week, each month, each year- I just gave up.

There was an awkward silence, and I remembered that the rest of the gang was there too. I scratched my head and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry 'bout the outburst… Let's go back to the current problem."

We pushed against the doors, but they wouldn't budge.

"Well, I should warn you that-" Ed started, but stopped when a terrified scream pierced the air.

One question popped up into my head: What would cause someone to be that frightened?

Author's Notes:

Finally. Done! This one, I worked hard on, so hope you enjoy! Um, well, other than that, I want to give a big thanks to my sister! She helped me come up with something I needed to add later on. And I was so tempted to say "Name's Ed Elrich." ^^ Fullmetal Alchemist Fan! lol And I just noticed that the title rhymes... Weird...