Cipher (1)24: Anyone You want to Be

"Aha!" Xander and Korose finally encountered some activity inside this labyrinth of a complex. They were guards, trying to clean some debris out of the way. "What? How did you get here? Wait. I know you. You are one of those Agents. You responded quicker than the rest!" They put down their weapons when they recognized Korose as one of their own. "He is with me. You need to tell us what happened here." Korose covered for Xander and asked about the room up ahead, which they seemed to be trying to get into. "That is.. was.. Agent N's chamber. Sir Kincaid is trapped in there, buried under the rubble."

"Kincaid? I see. We will do whatever we can to help you."

...

"Ariel. These things.." The entity that his sister had challenged, Dakar did not know if it could be beaten. "I have dueled a catalyst before." Ariel did not think they had a choice, but in her mind she had a better chance than Azar. "They still have to fight to win, they are not invincible." She took her deck, and Pandora summoned hers. "Hmmm." The catalyst then grew a biomechanical D-pad from her arm and placed her cards in them. "Will you take the first turn, or will I?" Her fingers tapped the sixth card, as she anticipated Ariels reply. "If you know my feelings, you know the answer as well." Ariel drew six cards.

Ariels LP: 8000 Pandora's LP: 8000

"I go first! I activate the spell card: Burial at Sea! I discard a water-monster from my hand to take one out of my deck!" Ariel discarded an XYZ Remora and put a Double-Fin Shark into her hand. "I normal summon Double-Fin Shark! It's effect special summons one level 4 or lower fish from my graveyard, with its powers sealed!" The red shark(4/1000/1200) with many fins lurched his way into the field, and its presence drew the hammerhead XYZ Remora(4/800/800) back to the land of the living as well. "I overlay my two Sharks to Xyz-summon the rank 4 Abyss Dweller!" Double-Fin and Remora turned into blue energy and sank into the depths. A creature from the lowest point in the ocean swam up to the surface, the seaserpent Abyss Dweller(4/1700/1400). All water monsters would gain 500 attackpoints, while the Dweller(2200/1400) carried water-type Xyz-materials. "Then I set one card and I activate the spell, Neptune's Amulet!" A talisman of the sea god himself hung in the air. It would protect all water monsters from destructive effects until her opponents third end phase. "Turn end!"

Burial At Sea, Normal Spell
Send 1 WATER monster from your hand to the Graveyard; add 1 WATER monster from your deck to your hand.

"Protection against destruction, and a monster that negates the effects of monsters in the grave. You are well prepared.. you have seen my last game." Abyss Dweller could negate many of the effects that Pandora's Heraldic Beasts had. Those monsters thrived in the graveyard. "Yet at the time, you were busy looking for your dear brother." It said as his voice reverted into that of Dakar. "You will not get to me that way." Ariel refused to let this thing play on her emotions. She had learned her lesson when she dueled Prometheus. "No? You can't fool me, Ariel. You can't fool yourself." Pandora summoned a monster, a winged dragon(4/1700/1100) with a head at each end of its body. "Heraldic Beast Amphisbaena. It takes another Heraldic Beast from my hands, in order to gain more strength." The second head devoured a card that Pandora discarded, a Heraldic Beast Aberconway. It(2500/1100) gained 800 attackpoints for one turn. "Attack." The other head fired a blast of green flames which roasted the Dweller of the Abyss alive. "Your love for your brother, and your concerns; this voice is stirring them. I want more.." Pandora placed a trap card down and ended its turn.

Ariels LP: 7700

"I know what you really want!" Ariel yelled as Pandora ended her turn. "The Numbers I have, you need those." She normal summoned another shark, a blue shark(4/1600/1200) with a straight-bladed nose. "I have Saber Shark. And when I control a water-type monster, I can special summon Silent Angler from my hand!" This time around a shark paired up with a angler fish(4/800/1400). "I now use the effect of Saber Shark. Twice in a turn, it can give or take a level star from another water monster. But I can ony special summon water monsters during the turn this effect is used!" She had Saber Shark use its level raising ability, targeting itself(5/1600/1200) and the Silent Angler(5/800/1400). "I Xyz-summon Number 94, Crystal Zero, with these two monsters!"

An even more violent torrent of water erupted, as her two cards collided and created an portal. The subzero sorceress, Crystal Zero(5/2200/1600) descended through a hail of ice. "Crystal Zero halves the attackpoints of your monsters!" One material was detached from her Number, and the hail scattered towards Amphisbaena. The Heraldic Beast(850/1100) grew weaker with the frost covering him. "Destroy it!" And with the touch of her hand, Crystal Zero reduced the dragon to a thousand ice fragments. "Ariel. Isn't this playing into her hands?" Azar had calmed down a little by now. He was livid yet thoughtful enough to still remember the kind of Number Pandora used. "I know what I am doing." Ariel told him in return and she ended her turn again.

Pandora's LP: 6550

"I only do what I do, to feel the best and worst of you, Ariel. You, your friends, your family; those bonds are so powerful. Yet, I have my own bonds." Pandora drew a card. "This Number. This one does not belong with you..Or even the one you took it from." Pandora talked like Dakar, then Ariel and eventually settled with Rita. "My brothers and sisters made it. They will be happy to have it back..and so I will be happy too. They get what we need, and I get what I want." Once again his/her voice morphed, as it assumed the tone of every catalyst from Cain to Prometheus. "Heraldic Beast Leo." And she continued his turn like that, normal summoning the gold-armored lion(4/2000/1000). "And Heraldry Reborn." A spell was also activated this turn, a revival spell. "Come back, Amphisbaena." Heraldry Reborn could revive any Heraldic Beast. Thus the twoheaded dragon escaped his grave.

"She has the materials!" Azar gasped. "You are right to carry your fear, Azar. And you are right about the rest, Ariel." Pandora picked up her two Heraldics and placed them on top of each other. "I shall summon.. me.." The lion and dragon fused to form the Heraldic King, the fourlegged masked beast; Genom Heritage(4/2400/1800)

"This is what I was waiting for!" Ariel flipped her trap card. "I knew you would bring out your Number as soon as I summoned one of mine! I activate Splash Capture!" Double-Fin Shark and XYZ Remora appeared as spirits on the field. "I banish two fish-monsters from my graveyard, to take control of an Xyz-monster you summoned!" The two spirits flew into the Heraldic King and possessed it. "Ah?" And Genom Heritage jumped across the room, landing on Ariels side of the field. "Your Number, and its powers, are no longer yours! It is time to show us what you are without it!" She had no idea how this would affect Pandora, as this Number was a part of her. "Yeah! I mean, well done Ariel!" Dakar had not even considered Ariel could pull this off. Hopefully it would get it to stop shifting identities and revert him to her first human form. "Oh dear.." And something like that did seem to occur. The mask on Pandora's face cracked, the bolts fell out. "Its face!" Dakar, Azar and Ariel could see what she had hidden now..

"H..Her?"

It was Esther.

"That can't be..." Or rather.. it was the face of Esther, the hair and clothes remained the same as Pandora's. Only her face and voice had changed. This was her true self? "But.. she can not be a Number.. have a Number." An Artificial life could not use a Number, that was what everyone had claimed. "I am her, but not her." Pandora's words did not alleviate the confusion. "Wait. Ion spoke about this.." Azar seemed to recall certain things Ion had said to him, how Esther's appearance was supposedly modeled after a real person. "You are the one Esther was based on?" And that person had supposedly been close to Kincaid.. been. Now he heard Kapha's words echo in the back of his head as well. "People were lost. Kincaid lost.. her?"

"Did Kincaid never tell you? I am not surprised."

"Prometheus?!" The four became the five, as the Ninth catalyst skulked out of the shadows. "Now now. You already have a prize to fight for. I am not here to do business with you. I am stopping by on my way to a new client." His tone was lighthearted as usual, although he had almost sounded bitter when he first appeared. "Kincaid should be the one to tell them. He is the only one with their kind of perspective." Pandora claimed as she ended her turn. "Yes. You might ask him, if he still breathes.." And now Prometheus' resentment echoed through again. Strangely he also seemed to be trying to avoid looking at Pandora's unmasked face. "Ask him about our mutual acquaintance, that he lost." The catalyst had said what he wanted to say, and he returned to the darkness while taking the last word. "Good luck.."

Following that, a short silence was necessary. "I do not know what your shared past is. All I know is that what you are doing right now." Inevitably, Ariel took her turn. "And it has to stop." She activated the spell card, Fish and Swaps. "I discard a card to add two banished fish-monsters to my hand!" She discarded a Shocktopus monster, and took back the two cards that Splash Capture had banished; XYZ Remora and Double-Fin Shark. "By detaching two materials from an Xyz monster I control, I can special summon XYZ Remora! And XYZ Remora itself will special summon two level 4 fish-cards from the graveyard!" The hammerhead shark was brought out once more, and this time it lured out two of its own fellow sea dwellers; Saber Shark and Shocktopus(4/1600/800). "I xyz-summon Shark Drake!" The fish trio was attached to her most infamous rank 4 monster, the shark dragon and thirty-second Number, Shark Drake(4/2800/2200). "Your first Number. And you are not letting me be a part of it." Pandora still talked like Esther did, she appeared to be locked into that form.

"I am not done yet!" Ariel detached Crystal Zero's second material, Silent Angler, specifically so that a normal summoned Double-Fin Shark could revive it. And she did, both the red shark and angler fish appeared in her two last monster zones. "I use these two to Xyz-summon Bahamut Shark!" They were overlayed to form the blue shark dragon(4/2600/2100). "She has enough power." Dakar realized that if Ariel could attack with all her monsters, she would win. "Can she.." Even Azar was starting to think that this could be it. Without Genom Heritage, Pandora seemed helpless. "Pandora. I do not know who you were, or why you became what you are now. I hope what I am doing right now, will free you.. I attack directly with Shark Drake!" The battle phase had begun, her own Number would lead the charge. "Ariel Serin, always trying to understand another. Never too optimistic. Yet even you are feeling it now.. hope." Pandora waited until the last second.. to spring her trap. "Thank you. Trap card: Heraldry Change!" And her card deflected Shark Drake's bursts of water. "What?"

A dark lizard/rooster/bat hybrid appeared in the wake of the attack; a Hereldic Beast Basilisk(4/1000/1400). "Heraldry Change special summon a Heraldic Beast from my hand, and ends the battle phase; all when a direct attack is declared." Pandora had stopped Ariels entire offensive with just one card. "No.." Ariel lost all her confidence for an instance. "No! This is not over yet!" But she threw those feelings aside. As long as she controlled Pandora's Number, she could still win this. "Bahamut Shark can summon a low-ranking water xyz monster from my deck!" One material was detached from Bahamut, and a cybernetic Kappa creature(2/400/1000) appeared in defense mode. "Psychic Kappa can negate the destruction of a monster by discarding a card from my hand!" With that and Neptune's Amulet, Ariel was certain she could weather anything.

"Turn end? It is.. isn't it?" Pandora drew her next card, which was fuller than it had been when she ended her previous turn thanks to an effect of one of her monsters. "Because you detached Leo from my Number 8 earlier, I could add a Heraldic Beast card to my hand." She discarded another Heraldic Beast Aberconway from her hand. "By discarding a Heraldic, Amphisbaena can be special summoned from the hand." Another twoheaded dragon(4/1700/1100) was what Leo had added to Pandora;s hand. "And when two Aberconways are in my graveyard, they banish one of themselves, to send another dead Heraldic back to my hand." Pandora banished the second Aberconway to take back the first. "Normal summon." And the silver plated dragon(4/1800/900) joined the Basilisk and AmphisBaena beasts. "And then, Heraldry Curse." The catalyst equipped Basilisk with a spell card, a crest that created chains of energy. "Hey!?" The chains wrapped around every monster on the field, and on both players as well. "We take damage for each monster on the field." Pandora explained right as the chains were flooded with electricity. "Wh..aaaaahhhh!"

Ariels LP: 3700 Pandora's LP: 2550

Heraldry Curse, Equip Spell
Equip only to a "Heraldic" monster. The equipped monster can not attack.
Once per turn: If your lifepoints are lower than your opponents, you can inflict 500 damage to both players for each face-up monster on the field.

"Ariel!" Dakar screamed. "Stop it! Don't.." He could not do anything, as the shocks seemed to go on forever. Eight bursts for each monster on the field, it was torture. "Ah..haa.." Ariel reached for her chest. Her heart was beating like a train. "Even that...even your pain." Pandora was making the same clutching gesture, and not just to mock her. "Even that is what I want." She did recover before Ariel could. "And you felt hopeful, because you managed to take my Number away. But you forget one thing Ariel.. like Morgana after me.. catalysts can start out with a different Number." Pandora picked up her Heraldic Beasts, one at a time. "Another?" A terrified Azar said, as the three cards were attached to a new rank 4 monster. A large symbol appeared above Pandora, which broke open time and space itself. "But now, let me feel your despair! This is my first Number, my most powerful Number! Heraldry Crest the sixty-ninth!" What descended upon the duelists was a fearsome demon(4/26001400), with white horns and black scythe-like pincers. Its eyes glowed red with hate.

"Heraldry Crest seals all powers of Xyz monsters, all but its own." From the creature's back came five claws of bloodred energy. Each claw plunged into the body of one of Ariels monsters and drained their very color out of them. Their lifeforce was sucked into Heraldry Crest. "And it can use one of those powers by itself!' Number 69 pulled back all of its claws except for the one stuck in Number 8. "I choose my own power, Genom Heritage!" Heraldry Crest let out a bone-chilling and earth shattering roar, as it directed its malice towards Shark Drake. "I will use it on your Number!" The Heraldic King could steal an Xyz monsters power and skills. This effect was now channeled into Number 69 and used against Number 32. "Here we are." And the Eight regained her own power as well;Pandora's face morphed into that of Ariels. And Heraldry Crest(2800/1400) grew stronger, while making the already effectless Shark Drake(0/2200) powerless as well. "..." Ariel did not know what to say anymore, she had nothing she could do. Pandora was using her voice more than she was. "Go." And Pandora's Number began its battle with the Drake, firing a vein of red magic that streamed through Shark Drake and destroyed it from the inside out. "Gah!"

Ariels LP: 900

"You already know that this is the end. Ariel." Pandora detached a material from Heraldry Crest. "Shark Drake can special summon anything it kills with 1000 less attackpoints, and then it attacks it again. You know this power." Shark Drake(1800/2200) returned to the living through it's own stolen powers. "You took me far, I thank you for this as well. But everything ends." Pandora declared her monsters second attack, and permanently destroyed Shark Drake. The destruction did not even phase Ariel anymore, she was already numb from the pain. "!" Nevertheless the consequences of her loss were still felt; four times. "The Numbers.." Crystal Zero, Shark Drake, Nightmare Shark and Shogi Rook. Dakar saw them all disappear from her deck. "They are hers now." Azar winced. That should have been him up there. He should never have believed that Ion was back and pushed everyone to go along with it. He should not have been so naive!

"No. Not actually." Pandora however did not take those four cards. "You rejected them?" The Numbers did not appear in her hands, they were just.. gone. "It's probably because I had this card in my deck." Pandora took out a spell which she had not even drawn. "Chaos Force!?" It was the ranking-up card. "You have that too? Why!?" First Kain was supposedly spreading these around, then Pandora held one as well? "So we can get all Numbers together, of course. You will soon see.." Pandora took back her Number 8 and the mask was re-attached to her face. But energy from Number 8 and Number 69 was going along with the energy of Ariels former Numbers. What did that mean? "I have gotten what I wanted. Goodbye." She vanished, like a flickering candle.

...

Necara stood over another director she had dueled until her Number had been vanquished along with her lifepoints. Not even she, a high ranking politician, could get away from her. This was the last director she needed to deal with. "Six more." And it was at that time that she felt four more Numbers become a part of her. Chaos had claimed someone again. How, without any Chaos Force slaves left, she did not know. Nor did she care. "Eleven left." The girl who was already surrounded by flames of chaotic energy, unleashed a literal inferno of dark flames. "And then.. we will End it all." She gazed at the moon in the sky, and blasted towards it..

(To be Continued in Cipher (1)25: Pyrrhic Victory)

New Cards used by Ariel Serin
Saber Shark

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Burial at Sea
Neptune's Amulet

New Cards used by Pandora
Heraldic Beast Amphisbaena
Heraldic Beast Aberconway
Number 69: Heraldry Crest

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Heraldry Reborn
Heraldry Curse (+)

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Heraldry Change

(+ Based on the spell card used by Tron/Vetrix in YGO Zexal)