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. Just for entertainment purposes.

Rated T for violence at times… Language at times.

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

Chapter 24- Cards, Rants, Guilt, and a Smile

Roxanna

We reached the top of the tower. Mokuba dressed in the same armor as Yugi and Mai, Edina in her usual dress, the old lady, and a few guards were already there. All of them looked towards the sky with frightened looks. The villagers seemed to be nowhere in sight… Maybe hiding for safety?

In the dark and stormy night, a small outline of a dark castle started to appear. The Castle of Dark Illusions. The gloomy and thundering clouds surrounded it in an eerie barrier. And the once beautiful sky was just one dark, inky space.

What I saw in the sky made me momentarily forget about how clumsily I was walking.

And a huge army of Duel Monsters were flying towards the palace. No more like thousands! But they were tiny dots in the distance, for now. We might have a chance to get rid of them all.

I glanced at my deck, and smiled lightly. My monsters don't let me down…

I drew my card, and declared, "I summon-" But then the name was caught in my throat the second I actually caught sight of the picture of the monster. Wait, that's not the card I wanted-!

But too late. The card started glowing, and the monster started to form in the sky. All I could do was stare helplessly at the glowing figure, waiting for the outcome. I felt nervous, and my head started throbbing lightly. What was going on?

Then the light dimmed, and in the air, floated the proud Dark Ice Sorcerer. It looked a lot like the Dark Magician, only its armor was dark blue and white. His staff was dark blue as well. His hair was jet black, and his eyes were a faded green. There was a scar dangerously close to his eye; just a few millimeters beneath the eye.

This was the first time I ever saw the hologram for this monster… And the first time I ever summoned it. And now that I looked at him… He resembled my brother, didn't he? The only differences would have to be the scar, and eye color. Ryan didn't have a scar on his face, and his eyes were a deeper shade of green…

And I just froze. I didn't know what to do, and I was shocked speechless. I never expected to even glance at the card ever again… And now I summoned it.

And just to make sure I never needed to use it, I would always place it at the bottom of my deck before each duel. I even managed to use a trick when I shuffled to make sure it was the last card I would draw.

The reason I never wanted to use it… I guess because this was my brother's favorite card. I didn't want to ever want it to lose in a duel. So what's the easiest way to make sure that doesn't happen? Don't use it.

All while I was trying to process the information, my head started hurting more and more. By now, my head felt like it was about to split open. A weird feeling came over me, and I shut my eyes, and then slowly opened them. I had no control whatsoever over myself anymore.

'Warn them…' A voice murmured. It was definitely not R. But it sounded oddly familiar… And my mouth opened to speak.

"Roxanna! Snap out of it would you?" I felt someone shaking my shoulders violently, and slowly came out of my trance-like state. I blinked to see it was Joey.

"What's wrong?" I asked, feeling a bit light headed, and my head was pounding slightly. My vision was a bit shaky. "What did I do? I feel funny…"

Joey looked really worried. "When you summoned your monster, you just blanked out, and your eyes started giving off this weird glow. And then you started chanting on and on about something like mitowu… No, midola… No, melori… Ugh, I can't get it right!" Joey sighed with frustration. "Yugi, what did she say again?"

Yugi thought for a second, putting his hand on his chin. "Err… I think it was: The Midori no Bureka need to unite, and leave away anger and sadness, or the world shall be covered in darkness. Do not let negative feelings cloud your eyes. Let the colors clash, and break the spell." Then he shrugged. "I didn't really understand a thing…"

"What were you talking about?" Mai asked, equally as confused as the other two. "Do you know?"

I racked my brain for anything that might relate to what I apparently rambled on about before. What was a Midori no Bureka anyway? And colors clash to break a spell…? Nothing was making any sense! "Sorry, I really don't know…" I think I was having a mental breakdown. All the pressure finally got to me.

Surprisingly, Edina, Mokuba, and the old lady didn't say anything about my weird behavior.

"Forget about that, the monsters are going to overpower ours!" Mai shook her head.

I looked back at the sky, and saw that the monsters were now at the castle, but being held off by Dark Ice Sorcerer and Mai's Dark Witch. Just barely though. They were beating every monster that they could attack, but there were just too many.

Just looking back at my Sorcerer made my head spin. I held my head with one hand, trying to steady myself. What was it about this one monster that caused me to be like this?

As if sensing my unease, my Sorcerer floated off towards a different part of the battle, well out of my view. I breathed a sigh of relief and felt my strength return to normal.

"Guys, summon back your monsters," Yugi said. "I have another idea."

Didn't have to tell me twice. I quickly raised my card, making my Sorcerer glow, before disappearing. Mai did the same, only a bit more reluctant.

"I activate the Black Hole Magic card!" Yugi raised his card into the air. "So now I can get rid of them all at once!"

But our victory was short lived, for a quick silver blur passed by, and pinned Yugi's card onto the ground, making it useless. The kunai had come from above.

We all looked up to see a Strike Ninja on the castle roof. He must have been here to get the princess!

But before any of us could react, the ninja quickly threw a net over the Princess, and was going to run off.

Joey quickly drew a card. "Axe Raider! Get the Princess away from that Ninja!"

His monster appeared, and was holding Kunai with Chain. The monster swung it around a few times, before tossing it at the ninja with precision. The ninja was instantly destroyed on contact, and the net holding the Princess was starting to drop down.

But before we could catch her, a flying Duel monster quickly grabbed the net and flew off.

As soon as the storm and monsters came, they went, and the sky was bright and monster free.

"No!" Mokuba fell to his knees, but his voice sounded oddly different. "They've taken Mokuba, and it's all my fault…"

At first I blinked with confusion. Wasn't Mokuba right here? Then I looked back at him, but more closely. Then I saw it. His eyes… No, her eyes… "Princess Edina?" Ok, she was alright, and I'm glad and all, but then what happened to Mokuba?

Then everyone must have realized it, because we all said the same exact thing. "So Mokuba went in your place?"

Edina stood up, and nodded sadly. It was her in the armor the entire time. "I let him go. He said that if we switched outfits, they wouldn't have noticed… Mokuba wanted to see his brother, and he was so brave. And I was scared." Her face was full of guilt and despair. "It should have been me who was kidnapped, not him!"

"Don't worry, Edina," I put a hand on her shoulder, hoping to slightly comfort the shaken girl. "He did it because he was worried about you, it's not your fault. And we'll get Mokuba back, don't you worry."

But who was I really reassuring, her or myself?

I remember waiting in the car ride towards the orphanage, telling myself that Ryan would be alright. But a small insistent voice in the back of my head kept telling me that he was really gone. And the only person I could blame for him falling down was me. I mean, if he didn't have to push me out; he could have jumped out to save his own skin and leave me to fall. But even if Ryan was a bit of an idiot and stubborn at times, he always wanted me to be safe. It should have been me that died, not him!

And Edina looked as guilty and sad as I felt.

The princess nodded, but didn't look any happier. And I knew she wouldn't be until she saw that Mokuba was ok.

Ok… So our objective was to save Kaiba. Failed. And we also lost Mokuba. Another fail.

What's next, we're all going to be crushed by a giant rock falling from the sky?

"Guys, look!" Yugi pointed out towards the ground below the castle.

The rest of us looked over, and saw a strange view. The ground was flat and dusty. It bore a faint white carving of a bird-like symbol.

"It must have been uncovered by the storm earlier." Yugi observed. "And it looks a lot like the flying machine from the painting that Edina showed us."

There was only one thing to do. Go and see if the carving could help us at all with. Or that giant rock might just kill us.

The land wasn't as flat as I first thought. It seemed a bit rockier, with a lot of rocks and pebbles scattered about. And the carving was boxed in walls of rubble that once were houses.

"Ok, we're at the ruins…" I muttered, tapping the side of my head with my knuckles. "Now what do we do..?"

I was trying to think the way Kaiba would. Now if I was a multi billionaire with too much money on his hands and a huge ego, how would I get a really old plain thingy to fly again? Then I let out an exasperated sigh. I couldn't do this!

"Ugh, this is hopeless!" Joey looked as frustrated as I felt. "Even if we could manage to get the flying machine out of the ground, it can't possibly fly after a thousand years!"

A little light bulb went off. A thousand years ago… Why did that sound familiar? Maybe a Duel Monsters card I heard about before?

"Joey, there is a way to get it to fly…" Yugi said. "If a thousand years passed by to make the plane unable to work, what would make it work again?"

"Turning back time, but that's imp-" But I stopped myself. Nothing is impossible in this game. If Kaiba made it, anything can happen.

"The Time Wizard!" Joey realized. "It can make things seem like they were a thousand years ago!"

The monster appeared in the air, and held up his staff. The clock on the staff began to spin backwards.

Rocks flew into the air, stacking onto the rubble, slowly making the houses like they seemed a long time back. Even the carving was bolder. When finally, the place was restored to how it seemed a long time ago, the Time Wizard faded away.

"Ok… The place looks better," Mai admitted. "But how are we going to get the machine to-" And she stopped when the ground began to shake.

And then the earth beneath us started to crack and crumble into pieces. The pieces started to shoot upwards in random spots, and we tried to keep our balance. And then something beneath our feet started to rise as well. Something wooden...

It was huge! The flying machine… It was made of wood, and yet still resembled some sort of cross between a bird and a lot of helicopters. That's Kaiba for you, messing with something old to make it look modern.

A fairy flew up to us, hovering near Yugi.

"Iru!" Yugi exclaimed. "I guess you're coming with us, huh?" The fairy nodded happily.

The machine was high up in the sky now, and I looked over the edge to see all the villagers gathered at the bottom, including the princess. They yelled words of encouragement.

But two people really stood out to me. Ed and Kai. They stood there side by side, gazing up at us, with smiles on their faces.

I guess he really did manage to get back and find her, eh? Kaiba… I guess you finally proved me wrong about that topic, didn't you?

"You did it!" Mai jumped onto Joey, holding him in a tight hug.

"Ah! Get off me!" Joey blushed, and managed to push Mai off of him.

I couldn't help it. The corners of my mouth tilted upwards. These guys might be weird and annoying sometimes… But they're my friends. Ones that I can actually call my real friends.

"Ah, ha!" Joey pointed at me, looking triumphant. "That's it!"

"Eh?" I tilted my head, I bit confused.

"That's the first time I've seen you smile like that with green eyes!" Joey said. "A real smile, not a teasing one, or a fake one."

"Really?" I mused. "That's… Odd. I never really noticed."

"Yeah…" Yugi smiled. "It is actually the first time…" And Mai nodded, agreeing.

"Yep, little Strawberry Shortcake's finally smiled for real!" Joey laughed, and playfully punched my arm.

"Strawberry Shortcake?" My eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Of all the nicknames he would pick…

… But it's better than having Lucifer calling me Anna, I guess…

Fake friends. They're the ones that lie, and break you.

Like Lucifer.

True friends. They're the ones that can know the real me. No matter how much I act. They're the ones that can see through my walls of ice. They're the ones that help mend broken hearts. And they're the ones that can even replace family at times.

Like Yugi, and the rest of them.

And my smile just got wider. "Yeah, you're right, it's my first real smile in a long time."

Author's Notes:

… The weird thing Roxanna said… I'll just let you think about it for a while, but it won't be brought up in a lonnng time.

And thanks Ria Con for the nickname, Strawberry Shortcake.

And another thing, I'm debating on my title for the next season, should it be 'Inner Disbelief', 'Inner Struggle', or should it not begin with Inner?