Author's Note Part 1: Thanks goes to Ulrich362, mcdinh, iloveyugiohGX93, and Doccy Larsson Seraphim for reviewing the previous chapter!
I've really been spending too much time playing Bravely Default. It's clearly inspiring depressing stuff. I mean, the game is written in such a way you start to feel for the antagonists of all people. Yeah. So, on that note, I seriously suggest listening to "World of Scattering Flowers" from the Bravely Default OST, because it seriously fits the first like, two-thirds of this chapter.
I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds, but I do own my OCs. I hope you enjoy, although if you are the type to cry while reading depressing stuff, I suggest having a tissue box on hand.
Chapter 24
"Just… just… finish the Duel. Release me from my suffering. Please. I… end my turn."
I can't bring myself to draw the card for Crow. I just can't. The person standing in front of us isn't some twisted version of Alice anymore. This is my former best friend, the one I had lost several years ago. And I know, if I draw the card, all that has to be done is attack with Black-Winged Dragon, and… she'll die again.
"I can't… I can't do it," I say quietly, trying to but failing to hold back tears. "I can't kill you, Alice!"
"There has to be another way!" Crow adds. "You've overpowered the control the darkness had on you! Can't you just, I don't know, switch sides?"
She shakes her head. "It's not that simple, Crow. I gave myself over to Kurai Fenikkusu when I died. This mark," Alice looks at the glowing purple mark on her arm, "is a part of me now. As long as I have it, I can't choose to join any side but the Earthbound Immortals'."
"Then… then… There has to be a way to get rid of it!" Crow exclaims.
"The only way is when I am defeated in a Shadow Duel," Alice replies quietly. "I'm sorry that the two of you have to do this, but… I've accepted my fate. I never should have come back—my time here ended four years ago. Please! If you think you're doing this in my interest, you aren't! Just let me go! Let me be at peace!"
"What about Jack?" I ask. "Surely you want to—"
"No," she cuts me off. "I don't want to see him. It would just cause him more pain than he already has."
Her words are so sharp that I take several steps backward, almost feeling something stab me in the stomach. She doesn't want to see Jack?
'Who doesn't want to see me?' Jack's voice suddenly booms in my head.
Crap. This was going to be difficult enough to explain to him in person. Although… 'Jack? Why aren't you in a Shadow Duel? Shouldn't you be taking on a Dark Signer right now?'
'Never mind that! Who doesn't want to see me?' he repeats, this time much more forcefully.
'It's…'
'Alice,' Crow supplies for me.
The mental connection breaks off so quickly, it sends my vision spiralling. When I regain my senses, I can't contact Jack even though I try, but I can tell he's coming this way.
It seems Alice does as well, because her voice gains even more urgency as she says, "Hurry up and finish this!"
There is no reason for me to stall any longer now. Even so, I unwillingly draw the card and show it to Crow. Delta Crow-Anti Reverse. But we don't need it nor can we use it right now.
The air hangs still as Alice waits for us to do something, but neither of us step up to do what she wants. It stays like that for an infinite amount of time, until Crow breaks the ice. "Black… Black-Winged Dragon, attack… Flamvell Guard."
That's clearly not what Alice wanted. She screams, though more in frustration than pain, as my brother's dragon creates another energy sphere that electrifies her curled-up dragon. The dragon shatters into a million pieces.
"Sorry," Crow says, "I just can't… and neither can Angel."
"Even if I want one of you to do it? To put me out of my misery?" Alice asks.
I shake my head. "We've been through times together, both good and bad. We've laughed together, cried together, fought together! You can't just ask us to do this!"
Alice closes her eyes as more tears fall. "Then I see how it has to be…" She opens her eyes, her swollen eyes that are the normal white, and looks at us. "Is that the end of your turn?"
"Yes," Crow says.
Even though I want to argue, I can't, because it wouldn't be a very convincing one.
"Then it's time for me to end this… I draw…" Alice doesn't even look at her card, and by then I realize what she's going to do. Before I can even form one word of protest, she's already shouting, "Neo Flamvell Hedgehog, attack Black-Winged Dragon!"
"No!" Crow and I shout at the same time.
The small fiery hedgehog looks confused for a moment, likely at the fact that this is clearly a suicide mission—and not only for it—but eventually curls into a ball and releases the majority of his quills. They shoot through the air, but Black-Winged Dragon uses his tail feathers to knock them out of the air. Enraged, his wings turn dark again, and he retaliates with yet another crackling orb of energy. It tears through the sky and the hedgehog… and Alice. I can hear her howl of pain.
Alice's Life Points: 0. Winner: Crow Hogan.
The volcano and lava vanish, but I'm already racing for the fallen form of the girl I need to make sure is okay. Crow makes it to her first, kneeling down and scooping her up in his arms to where he's helping her lay on his lap.
"Alice, please, you can't go! I… Don't make me have to say goodbye again!" Crow tells her, the fact that he's crying completely clear by the fact that his voice wavers more than I've ever heard it before.
"I told you… this was my choice…" Alice says, coughing a few times. "Just… don't blame yourself… That goes for you too, Angel."
"Ali—" my voice cuts off. I can't speak because of the throb in my throat. So instead, I just let the tears flow, grab her out of Crow's arms, and hug her closely. The noise that comes out of my mouth is something akin to an infant's wailing, and even that doesn't portray how I really feel.
I feel her hug me back, and my shoulder dampen slightly, but Alice forces me to let go of her. Still sobbing, I just watch through blurred lenses as she kisses my brother. This only makes me cry even harder, because the full force of everything hits me all at once.
She'll never be able to live through the joys that so many people take for granted. And the fact that she just told Crow about her true feelings and is showing him just how strongly she feels them right now, in this kiss… I know my brother. It's going to take him a very, very long time to figure out how to cope with this.
"I had to do that. Just this once," Alice says. A smile appears on her face. "Now I can… I can… rest easily now…"
"No, wait," Crow says, suddenly reaching for his Side Deck holder. It only has one card in it, so he pulls it out. "Here, this card belongs to you."
She looks at it, straining her eyes. "Hiita the Fire Charmer…?" She gasps. "This is the card I let you borrow in that one Duel! The one that you used to beat me!"
I remember that day. They had some argument about whether DARK or FIRE monsters were better, except they ended up swapping cards—Crow getting Hiita the Fire Charmer and Alice getting Dharc the Dark Charmer. Alice managed a huge advantage at one point, taking Blackwing Armor Master, but Crow turned the tables, using Hiita to steal Ancient Flamvell Deity and won attacking Dharc with it.
That was the day before I was kidnapped by Gushizawa, and the day before Alice was murdered.
"I meant to give it back, but I guess I forgot about it…" Crow says. "I didn't realize I still had it until…" He looks away, and we all know what he means.
"You kept it…" Alice whispers, before laughing a little bit. "I can't believe you kept it, after all this time…" She reaches under her robes, and also pulls out a card. Dharc the Dark Charmer. "Well, if we're returning cards… you can have yours back, too."
"Alice…"
She closes her eyes. It looks like she's really made her peace, and is ready to move on, for real this time.
Or not. A Duel Runner comes to a sudden halt close by, the brakes screaming in protest.
"ALICE!" Jack shouts, literally jumping off of his Duel Runner—a white one that only has one giant wheel that goes around the entire thing—and sprinting towards us.
"Jack…" Alice says weakly. She still manages to wrench out of Crow's arms, stand up, and start to walk toward her older brother.
The gap closes quickly, Jack already reaching his arms out, ready to pull her close and never let go. But just as he goes to touch her—his fingers are less than an inch from her—Alice turns to dust, just like Mia. Scattered in the wind. Instead of getting to hold his sister one last time, Jack rushes through the small cloud of her remains.
The blonde doesn't just stop running, he collapses to his knees, putting his hands on the ground in front of him. He stares ahead blankly, before looking up at the sky, shouting, "A few more seconds! That's all I needed—all I wanted!"
No response comes from the sky, as to be expected. But it doesn't change the fact that an old scab has been ripped off of all of us—a new wound to be dealt with that we don't want to. I keep crying and stand there, watching Jack.
The Earthbound Immortals have taken nearly everything from one of my best friends—his girlfriend, his sister, and, if my uncle really did cause Zero Reverse, his parents. They've cost a girl even younger than Alice her life, all for the sake of revenge. They robbed Toby of his sister, and also took away the other leaders in the Arcadia Movement who more than likely had friends and family mourning them… They've stolen the souls of almost everyone in Satellite.
I curl both of my hands into fists, and wipe away my tears with the back of my left hand. "I'll make them pay for this. I swear."
"Only if you beat me to it." Jack stands up from his kneeling position, dusting off his pants. "I'm going to knock each and every one of those Earthbound Immortals off of their thrones and annihilate them."
"That goes double for me," Crow agrees. He looks at the sky. "You hear that, Dark Signers? You better watch your backs, because we're coming for you!"
XXX
…Okay, so maybe "we're coming for you" was a bit bold of a statement. We all regrouped at Martha's house, where we learned a downright nasty truth: Akiza, Yusei, and Jack didn't Duel Dark Signers because there was no one at the tower they went to, and the tower itself was sealed shut. Yusei had apparently found a note at his, a riddle. Creature that kisses the sky, beast that crawls upon the ground, and the one who balances those lines awaken tomorrow.
According to Yusei, this means that their Shadow Duels will just have to wait until tomorrow—the Hummingbird "kisses the sky", the Lizard "crawls upon the ground", and the Giant is the one that "balances those lines". It's better than anything anyone else can come up with, so we think that's how it's supposed to go.
Leo and Luna, on the other hand, don't share the level of sorrow that the rest of us do. Both of them were victorious against a Dark Signer—shockingly, Luna had to Duel the one that bore the Wolf Mark in the Spirit World as Leo took care of Devak, the Monkey's Dark Signer. Luna's Duel ended first, just in time for her to return to this world to help her brother win his Duel. To top it all off, they've liberated the Spirit World. Maybe I can't see or talk to Duel Spirits, but I still think that's the good news in all of this.
After we catch the others up on what's happened, Leo and Luna check out mine and Crow's injuries. Having two healers on our side is certainly helpful, but their abilities only go so far, and I still end up needing bandages for my stomach. Lightning is not something you want to mess with.
Then we have dinner, which is an almost completely silent affair. Aside from Leo, boasting about his victory over Devak, none of the rest of us Signers say anything. I'm not sure why Akiza or Luna don't, but I know the rest of us are trying to come to terms with Alice.
I'm absolutely certain Yusei and I will never come to terms with it, and if possible, even more certain that Jack and Crow won't either.
So, after dinner, it's suggested that we go to bed. My old room is still an option—and with two extra beds, Akiza and Luna are my roommates as well. But instead of going to sleep, I head to the roof. If there's ever a time for deep thought, it's now.
But what shocks me is that Crow is already up here, sitting on the very edge of the roof, dangling his legs off the side of it. "Crow?" I ask.
He grunts in acknowledgement. "Figured you'd end up here at some point."
"Well… I have a lot to think about right now," I reply.
He doesn't say anything as I walk over to him, sitting down to his left. It's only once I'm seated that he says, barely above a whisper, "I loved her too, y'know. But when she died, I had to let go of my feelings, because what good does having a major crush on a dead girl do? Nothing."
"It's always hard to lose someone you love," I say. "I remember how much it hurt when Mother died. And when we thought we'd lost Father."
My brother is silent for a few moments. "So do I. At least a little bit with our mother. Amnesia sucks sometimes."
"Well, it wasn't your fault," I say.
Except it kind of was. A Duel Gang had been chasing after us because they learned we were Psychics, and they'd cornered us in a dead-end alley. Crow's powers had gone wild, and after getting rid of our pursuers—they literally just vanished—he collapsed. I'm absolutely certain if Yusei hadn't found us by mistake, he would have died.
"Mm." Crow shifts his weight, pulling his legs back onto the roof. "It's getting late. We should probably get some sleep."
"Good idea."
I go to my room, but I don't get much sleep. There is still too much on my mind.
To be continued…
Author's Note Part 2: So… what did you think? Did it make you cry? I hope it did, because it made me cry just writing it. And if it didn't make you cry, then I hope you at least felt for the characters.
Please leave a review when you have the chance!