Warnings: Cryptic, annoying dream sequences! You've come back to me!
Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh GX
Year Three Part One: Journeys
It took some doing, but they managed to round up all of the students scattered around the school in varying degrees of disarray and fear and put them in the gymnasium. Fortunately, that was where a lot of them were already, given the fact that the Bio Band-induced exhaustion had forced the staff to turn it into a make-shift hospital.
It had been Jesse's idea. He proved to be, if not cool-headed, then a least logical under pressure. He'd started giving instructions to the borderline panicking Crowler and the sullen Bonaparte. Neither had seemed to know what to do, so Jesse hard simply started firing off orders. Crowler had jumped to obey, ready to do anything besides sit around and feel anxious. Bonaparte was sulky about taking order from a student, and an exchange student no less, but got up and did as he was told.
That was the easy part.
The students were scared and emotions were running high. All it took was one to fan the flames of that spark into a bonfire.
" What's going on?"
" What happened?"
" Where are we?"
" How the hell did we get here?"
" How do we get home?"
The usual, general questions were flying about, and up on the balcony that surrounded the lower part of the gym, Jesse sighed.
" We gotta trah an' explain thahngs ta 'em."
" How?" Chazz crossed his arms. " We don't even understand what happened."
" We still gotta trah. We owe it to 'em."
" We don't owe them jack."
" Chazz." Jesse turned beseeching eyes on the older boy. " It's partly our fault that they got landed here."
" It's Viper's fault and that's the end of it." Chazz replied coldly. Down below, Alexis had found Mindy and Jasmine while making her rounds and counting students. The two girls had their arms around her and were crying. She was the only one to have come with them. Jim and Hassleberry had agreed to go and check the outside really quick to see if anyone had gotten stuck, and Syrus wasn't to move on Miss Fontaine's orders. Jaden still hadn't woken up, and they'd left Lia to watch over him, as it was obvious the girl wouldn't have been much help anyway. She'd been listless and distant since they'd arrived, seeking physical comfort when she needed it, but hardly saying two words to anyone. She seemed to prefer sitting at the end of Jaden's bed, staring into nothing, or else, staring at his face, puzzled expression on her own.
They let her be.
Jesse gulped.
" But Chazz...Vahper had already paid fo' his crahmes. An' he can't answer fo' 'em anymo'."
" Your accent's getting thicker." Chazz observed.
" Damnit Princeton!" Jesse banged his fists against the railing. " Don't ya understand what's goin' on here?!"
Chazz sighed and turned. Leaning back against the railing Jesse was abusing, he looked up at the windows that comprised the roof of the gym. Outside, the world was black, without a single star or moon. The only reason they had lighting within the school was because the light that had transported them had been kind enough to also transport the basement where the generators were stored.
" It can't be you." He said at length. Jesse looked up.
" What?"
" It can't be you who tries to explain this."
" Chazz, Ah was there, Ah know what happened-"
" That doesn't matter right now." Chazz cut him off. He was looking into the great black sky.
" Then what does matter?" he asked waspishly. He didn't mean to be so rude, but Chazz was rubbing him the wrong way after his nerves had been fried over and over against throughout the day.
" You're not from Duel Academy."
Jesse paused, blinking.
" Chazz, what-"
" You're not from here." The older boy repeated. With a sigh of frustration, he whipped around to look at the students in the gym below. He dragged a pale hand through his hair.
" I know you've shown up for three years. I know you're our friend. I know that you're a part of our little group, even if you are a little too close to Jaden for comfort." The black Slifer smirked at Jesse's incredulous look. " Come on, Fairytale, you're him with a southern accent."
" Ah...No Ah'm not." He protested weakly. Chazz snorted.
" Yeah, you are. We all agree, so don't try and argue."
" Nahce ta know y'all think so much o' me."
" Hey, you signed up for this. Any person with halfa brain woulda been running for the hills years ago."
" So whah didn't you?"
Chazz coughed and looked away. Jesse smirked to himself when he saw that the older boy was blushing.
" We're getting off topic."
" Don't we always."
" This is important, Anderson."
" Alrahght, fahne. Whah can't Ah 'xplain what's goin' on ta th' masses down there?"
" Because you're from North."
" So ya keep sayin', but Ah don' see-"
" Jesse." Chazz said, and the other boy froze. He'd learned a little about Chazz Princeton in his years of coming and going from Duel Academy, and one was that if Chazz used a first name when he didn't normally, then it was serious. As Jesse watched, Chazz leaned over the railing, his fingers interlocked.
" Everybody's scared. They're terrified. They won't want to show it, but they are. They'll cover it up with anger, and frustration, and they're going to lash out, no matter who explains the situation."
" Are ya sayin' ya don' think Ah can handle tha'?" Jesse asked, his tone a trifle resentful.
Chazz shook his head.
" No, that's not what I'm saying at all. Jesse, you're not from Duel Academy. You hang around with us and you keep showing up and you stalk us on Facebook-"
" Ah do no such thahng!"
" –but at the end of the day, you're a North boy, and they'll resent you for trying to take control."
" But Ah'm not-"
" Jesse." He shut up quickly. Something in Chazz's tone quelled him. He'd never heard the other boy sound so serious. " I know, okay? I know that. I know you. You're an idiot and you're too much like Jaden, but that also means you've got a good heart even if you don't have much going on upstairs."
" Gee, thanks." Jesse muttered sarcastically to himself.
" But Jesse, they don't." He pointed to where Alexis had finally managed to get Mindy and Jasmine under control and was trying to comfort a freshman. Mindy was hugging and shaking Blair and Jasmine was trying to coax a small boy of out the fetal position he'd curled up into. He barely looked fifteen-years-old.
" They're scared, and they're angry, and if they see you trying to tell them what's happening, they'll snap. You're an outsider." He held up a hand, pre-emptively stopping Jesse's protest. " I know you're not really, but that's what they'll see when they look at you. They'll see a foreigner who doesn't belong, trying to take control of the situation when he doesn't have the right."
" Tha's..."
" I've had a little more experience with PR than you, okay? I've been down to that section of the Princeton Organization, and I've seen the way these things can blow up in someone's faces."
" You seem to know a lot about people." Jesse said cautiously. Chazz' face went dark and, for a moment, Jesse was flung back in time several years. Jaden and Chazz stood across each other in the dueling arena, Chazz's voice strained and Jaden's eyes sympathetic.
" My brothers made me learn psychology." Chazz laughed quietly to himself. It wasn't a nice laugh. " I could've diagnosed myself over the years ago, but I never did."
Jesse was silent, but that seemed to be what Chazz needed.
" I was too scared of what I'd find out."
" Chazz..."
" In case this has escaped your notice, and it wouldn't surprise me if it had, your nose being buried in your cards all day," Chazz took a deep breath. " I'm fucked up, Jesse. I am fantastically, brutally, royally fucked up."
" You're not th' same." Jesse said softly. Chazz looked at him. " You're not tha' person anymo'."
Chazz rolled his eyes.
" What would you know about it?"
" Ah'm from North, 'member?" Chazz started. " Ah was there th' day ya came. Ah'd just gotten mah Crystal Beasts an' tha's whah Ah-"
" Dropped out of the School Duel, right." Chazz wouldn't look at him.
" Tha' gahy befo'? Tha' ain't who ya are now, Chazz. Ya're so much mo' 'an him tha' it's amazin'. Yo' better 'an him, Chazz. Don' ya evah forget what Jay said last year. Yo' th' pinnacle o' human strength, Chazz Princeton. Don't let nobody tell ya aneh different."
There was silence, in which Alexis slowly made her way up the stairs to them.
" Well, I counted somewhere in the high 80's, though people kept moving, so it's possible there's more." She said as she approached them. " They're getting restless though. What should we do?"
" You and Chazz sit 'em down an' tell 'em what's happened." Jesse said, pulling away. Alexis watched him go.
" Where are you going?"
He turned to smile at her over his shoulder.
" Ah'm gonna go an' make sure Jim an' Hassleberry got back okay." He waved as he walked. " Have fun now."
Alexis blinked as Jesse turned the corner and vanished, her one brow raised.
" Well, that was weird. I was expecting him to insist on talking to everyone."
" He knows they wouldn't accept it. Not from him." Chazz righted himself. Beside him, the blonde looked into the crowd contemplatively.
" You think? I mean, Jesse' pretty charismatic. He and Jaden have got that in common."
" They've got a lot more than that in common, and not all of it's good." Chazz stretched. " Well, come on then."
" Hmm?"
" We've got to try and make these people understand what happened."
" Do we even know what happened ourselves?" Alexis bit her lip.
" Jaden and Viper dueled. There was light. We ended up here."
" It's not the best explanation..."
" Lexi, you're underestimating the kids at this school." Chazz shot her the tiniest little half smile. " If they can find out that there are soul-sucking cards in the basement and still want to come back, then they're stupid enough to handle anything, believe me."
" Why Chazz Princeton." Alexis looked at him with laughter in her eyes. " Was that a compliment to the masses?"
He shrugged, and linked his arm with hers as they started towards the stairs. Ways to begin his speech were already flitting about in his head, but for one moment, he was going to enjoy the banter with his friend.
" Statistically speaking, it had to happen at some point."
And as Alexis laughed softly, Chazz let himself enjoy it. It would be the last time in a good, long while.
He took a step back, staring in horror as the blackness slid up to his feet, curling around the stone where he stood. But it didn't touch him, it slunk around his feet, going around wherein he stood in a small oval, giving him enough berth to step back and forward, tapping lightly at the inky black that ran by him like water.
It rippled out where he touched it, spiraling circles emanating from where his toe had touched it. And then it was black water, rushing up to meet him, splashing against his legs and rushing back and forth, as though dragged by a vicious tide. He looked up, confused, and above him a great blue moon hung, dragging the water back and pushing it forward again, until great waves rose and fell, crashing against the rocky shore he was standing on. And the crash of the waves became monstrous roars, breaking over the eerie silence with trembling force that nearly shook his legs out from under him. He fell to his hands and knees, submerged up to his elbows in the black water (was it water, it felt too thick, too full, too alive and burning and hot to be water), staining his red jacket to ebony.
And the water seeped up higher and higher, hardening and molding to his arms, glinting like obsidian in the golden light that was shining overhead. He looked up again, and saw that he was in the abandoned dorm, his flashlight casting a singular beam of light out into the dark hallway. In front of him was the mural of the Millenium Items, glowing a blazing gold in the darkness.
"It feels safe." His own voice echoed out in the emptiness, and he reached his fingers up to touch the glowing eye of the Millennium Puzzle.
And then it was the medallion he'd own from the Gravekeeper Chief, huge and spinning, staring back at him as he was bathed in its glow. He took a step back, almost blinded by the intensity of the heat and radiance coming off of the enlarged medallion, which had begun to spin. As he watched, the piece of gold spun faster and faster until it was a blur, the intricate carvings all whipped together, and all he could see was the great eye in the center, staring down at him. It began to rise, still glowing.
" May it serve you in times of need." The Chief's voice echoed as the medallion rose to the sky.
And then it was a blinding sun, blazing out over an empty desert, the sand whipped into the sky by an unforgiving wind.
But he couldn't see the burning sun or the ruined ocean before him. The blackness was solid on top of him, closing him off, severing him from his senses as though he was losing a limb. The air around him felt dark and damp and all around the smell of death and decay hung like unlit lamps from a ceiling. Something pushed hard on his chest, and his mouth flew open to release the air that was forced up. At the breath escaped him, something coiled around his middle, pulling him upright (but what was upright? What was up and down in this insane, spiraling world that he couldn't see?) as he struggled to take another breath. The stuff slid over his mouth, covering it, choking off his air. Another, thick strand, so heavy he could actually feel it settling on his face, clamped down on his eyes, molding itself onto his skin, forcing him to remain blind.
Frantically, he tried to raise his hands to his face, but found them bound at his sides as the substance thickened and became heavier, seeping into his clothes and wrapping around his body, molding itself into hardened, black coils that hung from his arms and legs like twisted, ripe fruit from a tree. Choking again, he tried to move his limbs, but the weight held them firm, hanging uselessly at his side. His lungs burned, but the grip of the strange blackness around him had not lessened, and his eyes watered under the thick limb laying over them.
It smelled like a tomb, like a-
No. His mind whispered. No. Anywhere but here. Send me to any grave but this. I will not rest quietly here.
It happened in a split second. There was a half an instant of silence, and then the shadows let out pitiful wails as they were blasted off of Jaden's body, flung by some unknown force into the far corners of the surrounding abyss. Their shrieks of pain echoed all around, and Jaden stood at the very center of it all, unmoving, his face still down-turned and his eyes still hidden in shadow. The light surrounding him grew brighter, swirling over his limbs and through his hair until it was a shifting, blazing sphere. It encompassed his whole being, hot and strong and pulsating in time to his steady, sure heart.
And then he was moving, moving within the sphere of the silver light, being hurled through time and space, jagged edges memories sliding over his eyes, remembered, understood, and forgotten in a split second. He was flying beyond time, beyond space, hurtling towards a destination that had no name and no reason. Fields of emerald vanished beneath him, lakes of sapphire little more than blue blurs as the sphere pulled him closer and closer. To what, he didn't know, but he knew he had to reach it, had to see it, or fall.
As the green gave way to gold that finally gave way to churning black, his eyes got something. She stood, on the very edge of a high cliff, eyes transfixed on something in the distance. She was slim and pale and very beautiful, and so familiar to him that it made him ache. He reached out a hand to touch her, but the sphere pulled him forward once more, and she was lost as he crashed, flung backwards into oblivion...
There was white all around him.
It was blazing in front of his eyes and so searing hot that it made his skin blister. He flinched back, trying to walk way, but the heel of his foot found nothing but empty air and he stumbled, falling to his knees. Glancing back, he gulped as he saw that all around him, wicked, threatening spikes rose up, encircling him and boxing him in, until there was just him and the whiteness in front of him. Because it wasn't all around him, like he'd thought. It was in front of him, and he'd been touching it with his hands, and it had stung, racing across the palms of his hands like a heavy whip. He'd stumbled, trying to get away. Or had he been trying to get closer? The pain was gone now, and there was a pleasantly hum of warmth in his hands left in the wake of the whip crack. Or maybe it had always been there, hidden under the sting. He thought that maybe he could endure the sting to feel the warmth. He wanted to try again. His hands didn't look blistered anymore. In fact, they looked sturdier, somehow, as if the pain had made them thicker.
He reached out and touched the whiteness.
There was a slight sting, smaller this time, and he bore it until it became a slap, a punishing surge of electricity that set his nerves alit. He yanked his hands back, cursing, and then tripped on the spikes again, throwing his still stinging hand out to catch himself before his impaled his body on the them.
And then, instead of cool metal, there was gritty stone, and he realized that they weren't so much spikes as they were spikey rocks that jutted out around him, and for some reason, that was so much worse.
The feel of rock under his fingers made him shake, and he hastened to let go, to pull away and stop holding on to them like they were his lifeline when they weren't. When they shouldn't ever be.
But a great, empty darkness had opened up around him, and he was slipping into it. He scrambled up the rock even more, fingers curling around the spike at the tip.
" Stop it!" He shouted, and from somewhere, the wind started howling. " Stop it, this isn't funny anymore!"
But when had it ever been funny before? And for that matter, when was before, anyway?
He had no answer. The spike was stabbing his palm, and he felt something wet run down his wrist. It should've been hot, but it was cold, and when he looked, there was no blood on his arm, only water, and then he realized that it was raining and he was soaking wet and the rocks –spikes- were slipping out from under his fingers, and he hand to grapple with his hands just to stay up and out of the great nothingness that was opening up underneath him.
" Stop it, stop it, I don't like it!" He cried, but the wind was screeching around him, and it was sucking the air out of his lungs and stealing his words and choking him. The wind was wrapping around his throat and squeezing until little stars erupted over his vision and he couldn't see straight.
No, not the wind.
Tiny, thin little curls of black that were reaching out of the pit under his to try and haul him down. He loosened one had and swatted at them, slipping precariously down.
There was a low roar that echoed up at him, and he blanched, the stone under his hand wet with rain and the little curls of darkness slipperier than the stone, and suddenly, the roaring was above him and it was thunder, and he could see dark clouds over him.
His fingers slipped a little.
White lightening danced across the darkened sky, and all he could think of was that the whiteness in front of him suddenly looked so much darker...
He had no answer. The spike was stabbing his palm, and he felt something wet run down his wrist. It should've been hot, but it was cold, and when he looked, there was no blood on his arm, only water, and then he realized that it was raining and he was soaking wet and the rocks –spikes- were slipping out from under his fingers, and he had to grapple with his hands just to stay up and out of the great nothingness that was opening up underneath him.
" Stop it, stop it, I don't like it!" He cried, but the wind was screeching around him, and it was sucking the air out of his lungs and stealing his words and choking him. The wind was wrapping around his throat and squeezing until little stars erupted over his vision and he couldn't see straight.
No, not the wind.
Tiny, thin little curls of black that were reaching out of the pit under his to try and haul him down. He loosened one hand and swatted at them, slipping precariously down.
There was a low roar that echoed up at him, and he blanched, the stone under his hand wet with rain and the little curls of darkness slipperier than the stone, and suddenly, the roaring was above him and it was thunder, and he could see dark clouds over him.
His fingers slipped a little.
White lightening danced across the darkened sky, and all he could think of was that the whiteness in front of him suddenly looked so much darker...
But he couldn't see it, because the lightening was blinding him. Spots were dancing in front of his eyes, and he could barely keep them open without them hurting. His fingers ached, and as another little tendril coiled over his foot, he smashed his leg into the rock, wincing. He heard the thing give a gut-wrenching scream as it connected.
Everything on seemed to be burning, as if he'd been lit on fire and left to smoulder. He tried to breathe, but the air around his was too hot, charged with a nameless energy that ripped down his throat and stabbed at his lungs. He choked, and to his horror, something wet crawled up into his mouth and splattered out, staining his lips.
His eyes forced themselves open, even as his free hand, the one he'd been using to bat the curls of darkness away, reached up to wipe his mouth, coming back sticky and wet. The thing in front of him blazed darker than he'd ever seen it, sucking the colour out of the world until Jaden was sure he was black and white, a sketch against rugged paper, easily erased. Wordlessly, he looked down at his palm.
And cried out.
Because there, plain as day and red as rose petals, was a smear of blood.
Jaden choked, and tried to scream, but the wind hit him with a gust that felt like a physical blow, and then he was being hurled back, his fingers unclenching on the rock, and rocketing forward into the not-whiteness that was before him. As he crashed into it head first, he gave a cry, more blood splattering out from his mouth. The current of energy ripped through his skull and sent shockwaves down his body, and it was only distantly, in between the jolts of pain, that he recognized the pleasant warmth the electrical charges left in their wake...
And then Jaden, from the depths of his very being, called up a strength he didn't remember having from a part of him that he didn't know, and pushed at the not-white, burning, painful vastness in front of him. His skin scorched, his body stung, his vision swam in and out of blackness, but he pushed, harder and harder until the blaze of pain was dulled to nothing, and all that remained was the warmth of that slumbering thing deep inside of him. That thing, that glorious, powerful thing that had pulled him from the jaws of death, that terrible, angry thing that had yanked Chazz back from the edge of the abyss, that great, god-like thing that forced Jaden's eyes open and his body forward even as his mind screamed for rest...
And then the not-white and the black spikes and the blood had gone, and there was a great ocean of sand stretched out before him, running miles and miles away from where he stood. The dunes rose and fell like the waves of an ocean, but instead of the steady, soothing motion the tide, there was a stillness that stole the breath from him.
There was no noise; not one single thing sounded in the vastness. The sky hung a sickly shade of deep green, black clouds crawling across it like worms burrowing their way through dirt. Against the pale pallor of the sand, the sky appeared to be darker than it actually once. He squinted his eyes as he looked over the dunes, their paleness reflecting a brightness back at him that hurt. The wind picked up, for a moment, kicking up a dust storm. His arms came to shield his face, the tiny grains leaving stinging marks as they hit his skin.
He became aware of a terrible heat from somewhere up above. Looking towards the sky again, wincing as he got sand in his eyes, he located the source.
Three glowing suns beat down on him where he stood, forming a triangle high, high above him.
Memory exploded over him in a rush of images: A man, a woman, a dagger and a price. The gleam of a medallion, broken in two. A promise. The woman's sad eyes. People down on one knee, bowing to him.
The threat of monsters looming overhead.
A hissed warning, and the quiet death of a noble warrior.
Regret and sacrifice.
He'd been here before. Years ago, but the landscape had not changed and the heat of the suns beat down as hard as ever.
This was-
" Jaden?"
A voice scattered his thoughts.
" Jaden, why would you play with me?"
It was childish, bell-like. The high pitched whine of an ignored child who had yet to learn patience.
It set his teeth grinding.
" Don't you like me anymore?"
The sweat that trickled down the side of his face was cold, despite the heat of the suns overhead.
" Don't you want to be with me anymore?"
That voice, that awful, wonderful voice! He knew it, he knew like he would have known his own reflection! But what was the name?
" I've missed you so much, Jaden. Why did you go away?"
It was on the tip of his tongue, gummed up with flashing images. The table, the cards, the silver-and-purple thing –
" Why did you leave me?"
He hadn't, had he? Because to leave the owner of that voice would be a crime, wouldn't it? There had been a promise, there must've been, because he remembered the vaguest hint of sunset and the peak of a mountain, and vibrant, dual coloured eyes that looked right through to the heart of him.
" Why did you abandon me, Jaden?"
" Who are you?!" He screamed at last, his voice almost lost to the wind that was whipping up around them. The suns had vanished behind a cloak of black clouds. The air was heavy. Low thunder rumbled in the distance, and the storm began to gather.
Again.
" You don't remember me? You don't even remember that much?"
" Show me your face!" His frustration made him bold, and he took a step forward. There were shadows of figures just beyond his vision, outside of the swirl of sand that had kicked up around him.
" You might've forgotten me, but I haven't forgotten you."
" Please!" He begged, hoarse at the throat. " Please, show yourself!"
But the only answer he received was the scream of the winds as the storm grew closer.
But then, miraculously, there was an answer.
A great, terrible eye, surrounded by bulging veins that led nowhere, appeared in the very center of the storm before him, It opened with a sicken sound like a plunger being pulled, and was horrified, held transfixed by the ruby-red pupil that gaze past his flesh and past his bones and right into his soul.
" Soon." The voice crooned, somehow heard over the roar of the winds. " Soon, you'll be all mine again."
A figure was crouched just behind the eye. A figure of a boy with spikey hair, impressions of where his eyes should be staring right into Jaden's own. On his left arm, a scaled, clawed thing rose out of the bright, glowing orange substance that made up his form.
" And I'll never let you go again!"
Jaden sat straight up in the bed, startling Hassleberry and Jim as they lay the bruised and bloody Axel down on a bed for Miss Fontaine to examine. He didn't see them. His eyes were clouded over with tears.
So, now we know what's been going on with Jaden. Kinda. A little. ...It makes sorta sense to me, and will later...ish. Um, symbolism? Yeah, lots and lots of symbolism. All of the symbolism, guys.
Also Yubel. Yay, Yubel. ...Wait, that's not a 'yay' thing! That's a 'run as fast and far as you can thing'! Why am I yaying?
I don't know guys. I just don't know.
Anywho, hope you liked today's chapter, and tomorrow, we'll see Sachiko again, I promise!
MoS