DARK HIGHWAY
chapter 21/vulnerable

"Odion, stop the car for a bit!" Akane yelled loud enough for him to hear through his window. They were close to entering the desert. Reaching their old home would take about another 20 minutes. Odion did as he was told.
"What's wrong?" Marik asked after opening the window where he sat.
"Nothing, get out."
"What?" he said in disbelief.
"Get out of the car and come here. You're riding in the back with me for the rest of the trip."
Without questioning her motives, he got out of the car and climbed into the pick-up's trunk. He sat down, leaned to the front of the car and pulled Akane down with him. She flopped down harshly between his legs, as the car suddenly started moving again. Then she just leaned on his chest and let him hug her from behind.
Only after a long pause, Marik spoke up: "You're not telling me something."
Akane didn't answer. She wasn't even sure how to answer this question of his… Especially when even she didn't know what exactly will happen. Her staff was still in her hands, but she wasn't holding onto it like mad, unlike before. Soon after she let go of the staff, leaving it to roll to the back of the trunk.
"Don't leave me in such obscurity, Akane…"
"Just stay away from me when we're there and… Everything will be alright."
She heard him sigh. "These days you tend to lie…"
And again, she stayed quiet. She only felt him take another deep breath and hug her even tighter.
It felt like she became vulnerable to every action and emotion as soon as she let go of the staff. Oh how she wanted to just let her emotions take control over her and just cry for a while, so her nerves could calm down. But she couldn't even do that, as then Marik would know that something is terribly wrong.
And they just sat there in silence, waiting for the inevitable.

Time flew by and Akane soon heard a familiar roar.
They arrived.
Without even looking at her destination, she escaped Marik's grip and reached out for her staff. Akane grabbed it and then reached into her pocket. To Marik's surprise, she took out a few of her duel monsters cards. The girl eyed her target – the car was still moving, now sideways of all the monsters.
There they were. The two vandals that were screwing with her head for this whole time, and their guardians – the monsters from the cards. As Odion was about to stop the pick-up, she stood up, put one foot on the edge of the trunk and got ready to jump, but then felt a grip on her arm. She looked back to see Marik, also standing, staring into her eyes. That was a look that said "don't go"…
"I'm sorry…" she said and kissed him with every bit of love and passion in her heart she had left.
"For what?.." he asked, as she broke the kiss.
"For letting you down."
Those were the last words she said to him before jumping out of the trunk. Holding back her tears, she stood up after landing softly on the sand. This was it. Her eyes were on the target. Her staff was in her right hand, while her cards were in the other. Now wasn't the time to be sad, or get scared. Now was the time to ignore Marik yelling her name for that very last time… and run into battle.

And thus, she let the madness take over her once more.

Akane lifted her hand with the purple swirls and twirls into the air, holding her staff.
"NOW!" she yelled and the spirits that resided within her were released. Right after that, she threw her cards into the air. The ghosts, her minions, quickly charged at the cards, taking the bodies of the monsters that were on those cards…and soon she was surrounded by an army of her guardians.

Yami and Bakura were about 10 meters away, loudly arguing about one of them being wrong. She could see that they are surprised, a lot, what was an advantage. Then she turned her attention to her minions assembling around her.
"Eatos." she called out, looking for her beloved monster. Guardian Eatos completed her deck. It soon appeared in front of her, as the leader of the rest.
"Protect them." she said, "Don't worry about me and just protect them."
Eatos nodded and hovered by her side, waiting for the permission to attack.

"What now?! I told you we need a back-up plan!" Bakura yelled at Yami, who was carefully watching Akane and her movements. To him this seemed like a game. A game with a lot of violence. He would send his monsters to attack her guardians. While they are busy, she would obviously charge at them, but it's one fake millennium item against two of their. And if she's hiding something, he would send his monsters after her beloved Marik – his hikari, who he despised. And if their monsters are too busy, well, he'd go after the guy himself.
But he didn't like the confident and angry look on Akane's face. She was standing far away, but even at such proximity he could feel how courageous she is. She seemed…insane. Mad. Crazy. Yami didn't like that either – it was his job and nobody could do it better.
"Oh well, Bakura." he simply said, "Looks like we'll have to fight back, then. Who knows, this might be fun."
Yami raised his millennium Rod into the air and with that the monsters, both his and Bakura's, hovered behind them. Bakura groaned and got ready for battle as well, letting his energy flow through his millennium Ring, making it glow.
"Careful with the spells. We don't want them to backfire again." Yami said.
Then, he moved his arm in front of him and declared attack.

And so did Akane.
"GO!" she yelled. As the spirits started flying towards the enemies, she started running as well, glancing at Marik one last time. He was ready for battle too, standing his ground and eyeing the approaching monsters.
Aka put her eyes on the target again. With the staff, she created a shield around herself, to repel attacks from monsters. They had already collided, while she was catching up. Before getting within a fairly small distance between her and Yami and Bakura, she yelled out to her monster:
"Fairy Archer! Change of plans, get rid of the irrelevant one!"
Fairy Archer shot an arrow at Revival Jam and quickly flew to her master, floating with her as she ran towards the enemy.
Luckily for her, the irrelevant one was standing in front of her real enemy. Akane took down her own shield and put one up around Fairy Archer. When Yami noticed she was charging at him, he tried to blast her, but due to the shield, it once again backfired, making what he said before quite ironic. Akane knew he won't make any more surprise attacks, so she took back the energy from the shield and left Fairy Archer to deal with Yami. She then ran a few more meters and found herself standing in front of Bakura.
"So, how am I so relevant?" he asked, making Aka understand that he heard what she yelled before.
His ring started glowing even more, eager to unleash its power.
"Yami isn't much of a problem. However, you haven't just gotten on my nerves…"
He released a blast at her, yet Akane swiftly dodged it without even putting up a shield. It was easy to see all of the invisible blasts, as the sand moved from the wind that they create
"You've angered someone much more powerful than I."

AN: PROFILE GO. New picture of Aka running to battle yo. I'm actually pretty okay with this one.

Okay so not ONE chapter left.. The next one is last I swear.