HI MY AMAZING READERS! I AM TYPING TO YOU FROM MY NEIGHBOR'S COMPUTER BECAUSE WHILE I WAS FINISHING MY STORY ON FRIDAY, MY FREAKIN' COMPUTER CRASHED!! I GUESS IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME AFTER MY REALTIVES SPILLED SODA ON IT A YEAR AGO, HUH.
SO TO THOSE WHO I TOLD IT WAS COMING OUT ON FRIDAY, I AM SORRY, BUT THERE WAS NOTHING I COULD DO ABOUT IT! JUST BE THANKFUL THAT MY NEIGHBOR IS SO NICE!
I'M GETTING A NEW COMPUTER (TRUST ME, THE ONE I HAD WAS ANCIENT) SOON, I ALREADY ORDERED IT! I HAD TO PAY (BUT I WAS SAVING UP FOR A NEW ONE ANYWAYS) SO UPDATES WON'T BE TOO BADLY DELAYED! THERE'S STILL PAPER AND PENCILS TO WRITE ON AND THEN TYPE IT OUT WHEN I GET IT AGAIN!
OH, TWO MORE THINGS LEFT!!
ONE:
CLUELESSANDPROUD MADE ME A VIDEO OFF OF WITHOUT YOU!! I THINK IT'S AMAZINGLY GOOD AND FOLLOWS WHAT WE KNOW PRETTY WELL!!
TYPE IN "WITHOUT YOU AXJFAN" IN YOUTUBE AND IT'S THE FIRST ONE!
TWO:
MY GOAL IS TO HAVE THIS STORY REACH 250 REVIEW MARK, SO PLEASE REVIEW AFTER THIS CHAPTER BEFORE YOU READ THE EPILOGUE!! PRETTY PLEASE?
ONTO THE INCREDIBLY LONG (27,241 WORDS) LAST CHAPTER! YO WILL DEFINETLY NEED TIME TO READ THIS ONE!
THANK YOU GUYS FOR BEING AMAZING!!
(WIPES AWAY A DRAMATIC TEAR) JK
Chapter 26
(Jaden POV)
2:15 am
"Then marry me."
I laughed, ruffling her hair with my free hand absently. "Yeah Lex, we'll have a rocking multi-dimensional wedding. Can you imagine the invitations? We'd have to conveniently lose Nick's invite of course, but where should it be? Do you prefer tail, wings, or neither?" I laughed again, and she bristled under my touch.
"Jaden, I'm being serious," she whispered, not quite meeting my gaze. I fell silent, just looking at her without comprehending.
"Serious?" I repeated unsurely, tilting her chin again to see into her hazel eyes. She finally looked at me and nodded, biting her lip.
"We love each other Jaden, and we don't have a lot of time left to be with one another. Why shouldn't we make it official?" I noticed that the rebels suddenly distanced themselves from us so that we could have privacy, well at least they're thinking logically.
"Lex... we're only seventeen," I had to make it clear.
"We might as well be eighty-nine Jaden!" she snapped, offended that I hadn't jumped at the offer. "We'll be dead before we turn twenty!"
"Alexis... I just..." I failed to find the words. "Listen Lex, I do love you and I always will... but marriage?"—wasn't she supposed to be the intelligent one in this relationship?—"Alexis, I've never even met your family, and you haven't met my mother. We've hardly been dating for a month. We're in the middle of a warzone. We can't just go off and get married like that! We should just let it wait for a while; get to know the other's families first. What would your parent's think if you suddenly were engaged to someone they didn't know? Think about it Lexi!"
"Then elope! We don't have the time Jaden!" Alexis snapped, sitting up and removing my hands from her hair. I just lied there, watching her watch me. She leaned closer again until our noses just brushed together and stared into my eyes, hers imploring all of her pure intentions. "Jaden, I've just been thinking lately about what Niemona told us, and I've made my own goal that I want to happen before we're gone. I... I want my grave to read Alexis Yuki; I want to die yours and only yours Jaden. That's how I want us to be remembered, not the perfect young couple, but the madly in love newlyweds. Can you understand that?"
I was at a loss for words, and she could tell. Her eyes softened and she bit her lip. "I'm sorry for just springing something like this on you Jaden, it's not like you don't already have a full plate of things to think about, but please consider this. I just love you too much to not let the world know."
I objected, "Lex, trust me, this is the best thing I could think about on my 'plate'. I will think about it, I promise. Just listen to me for a sec; I do love you more than enough to marry you. I do understand. I do want to be with you forever. Remember that. I love you."
She smiled sadly and curled back up on my chest, staring at the stars. "Thank you Jaden." I squeezed her hand tightly in response and kissed the top of her head, still a bit shaken up by this turn of events. But somewhere in my tangled heart I felt a soft glow that thawed the tension of all I had been forced to do. I had someone who truly loved me and wanted to marry me, and I'd always have her. That just made my life so much more bearable.
"Sleep well angel," I whispered in her ear.
(Nick POV)
2:21 am
I watched with precision as my best men filed out of camp and into one of our portals to earth, satisfied. Things were going as planned, as usual. My other men were sleeping with the exception of the watchers who had taken their leave earlier in the day. Now they silently prowled the air around us, waiting to raise the alarm at the first sign of any rebel activity.
I already had the exact location of the Rebellion pinned down thanks to the bodies I had flown upon with our arrival. All it took was a bit of willpower and messing with memories of the half-dead rebel to get the information out of them. It was a harder challenge than I imagined because most of them had keeled over before I had even touched them. Later I discovered they were taking poison pills or stabbing themselves rather than giving their secrets up to me. Or even, like Alice, playing tricks or illusions to try and confuse my men into killing them first.
I hated to admit we had only been able to stop two before they killed themselves or got us to for them. But, they were all I needed to determine the location of their home and of portals closest to them.
Yes, all was going as planned.
2: 30 am
Allian threw down a document rather aggressively as she stood, her feet pounding against the stone to the tempo of their leaking time. Darkal watched her pacing with calm eyes, saying nothing. He had no plans to save them; no safe houses up his sleeves for them to hide. Allian was all the hope they had left to survive.
"We can go to the hotel first," she was suddenly saying, her wings moving agitatedly. "And see how the Everlost Rebellion is doing. Consult Mystic, make sure Mrs. Yuki knows Melody is alright." Darkal nodded in approval, waiting for the next step in her thought process. Allian bit her lip and continued to move, going faster and faster to match her thoughts.
"Nick knows the human world better than us, so we'll be at a disadvantage. Jaden and his friends can guide us through it by night so we won't startle anyone with our wings. We'll have to stay somewhere with water for the sea members, so maybe an island somewhere? Jaden mentioned something when he was younger about several small islands dotting one of the Earth oceans. We could send out Ondine and her top men and woman to find a safe haven."
"We can't fly there," Darkal added slowly, prompting his leader.
"Right, so we'll have to use a boat or a plane otherwise it's within flying distance for Nick to find. And it'll have to have a lake or something without any portals in it inland so we can avoid anything from the Queen. We'll need to stay away from the beach and hide in the middle, so a forest—or maybe mountains. Nothing too thick or we'll be in danger of wild animals and disease from bugs..." Her brow furrowed at the complications. "We don't get sick very easily, so as long as we can figure out a way to shield ourselves from mosquitoes, we'll be back in the game. It will need to have a portal into both worlds at some point on the island but it will also have to be hidden from recipients on the other side of the gate. This is difficult." Her electric blue eyes looked up, sullen. "Any input?"
Darkal thought about it for a little while and offered, "We could go to a desert and find a mesa, maybe one made from an almost inactive volcano. When Lillian stumbled on one of Jaden's geography textbooks she couldn't stop talking about how there are tunnels left over from old lava flow underground and natural springs with clean water from the center of the Earth. She commented that it would be like our Earth base. Finding portals would be hard around the desert because of the constant sand and sandstorms but it's doable."
"Perfect," Allian nodded, "we can look for that on wings. We'll split up right after we leave and search. Both teams will need to keep one mirror with them at all times and never let the connection die in case of emergency. So we'll leave at dawn and keep chatting with each other as we go. We'll have to let it go at night and then reboot it when the sun comes up again, but it's the best we can do."
"What about Jaden and his friends?" Darkal inserted suddenly, leaning forward slightly so that the thin scar over his eye was visible behind his hair. She flinched at the sight of it and then continued to answer his question.
"Right, he'll be normal again when he's back home, so he'll stay at the hotel with his classmates and Gravelon and the other members who can't fly right now because of... injuries." She clapped her hands together once as if calling for attention to an unruly classroom. "Alice should've been back by now, which means the worst has happened. We'll have to hold a memorial for her once we settle down again. I've noticed a few others missing as well, so Yuki most likely has our location, no more luck on our side."
"We're moving out tomorrow before first light, spread the word with me. You take the men's corridors; I'll take the woman's."
"Are you sure you don't want to switch?" Darkal chuckled, and Allian came to a crashing halt, her eyes fixed on him.
"You just made a joke," she said. "It truly is the end isn't it?"
"Every ending is the start of something new Allian," Darkal shrugged, getting up and walking out the door.
Allian scowled at his back and shuffled out likewise, cursing lightly under her breath. She sighed, releasing the tension in her lungs and walked with Darkal up to the front of the woman's corridor to start from the beginning.
They walked in a comfortable silence, stopping all that darted past them to tell them the news. Finally unable to bear the quiet, Allian glanced at Darkal out of the corner of her eyes only to find him doing the same thing. "What?" she snapped, narrowing her eyes.
His lips curled into his usual smirk and he said nothing for the longest time. Then, "You looked a lot like your mother there Allian."
That caught her completely off-guard, but she didn't let it show on her face at all. "And your point is?"
Darkal shrugged, "I was just thinking that I was glad you chose us over him."
"Of course I'd choose the Rebellion, you were the right path," Allian said with confidence, squarely meeting Darkal's eye. "What does that have to do with me looking like my mother?"
"I didn't mean physically Allian. The look in your eyes matches hers when she was the leader here."
Allian frowned again, infuriated by Darkal's lack of answers. Of course they both knew that he did it on purpose as it was the way of his kind, but that didn't stop her from grabbing his shirt collar and giving him a hard shake. He smirked again and sighed quickly afterwards. "She was our greatest leader Allian, and I think that you are matching up to her in greatness."
"Like daughter like mother," she answered, watching his exposed eye carefully.
"Then why does it still bother you when you see my scar?" he demanded quietly.
"Why can't you ever just get down to the point with these things instead of dancing around the issue and making me seem greater than I am to try and get me to answer?" Allian growled, letting go of his shirt and walking forward again.
"Because you don't answer if I ask any other way," he said slowly, brushing the hair out of his face and then chopping it shorter with his sword haphazardly. Now the thin line was visible to all that came across him. "And I wanted to know when I'd be able to do that. I hated it in my face, it's impractical."
Allian stared at the mark marring his face and briefly decided that it wasn't as bad as she had made it out to be. But still, it was her fault that it hadn't healed properly. "If you hated your hair in your face why did you have it there?"
"I'm very tolerant," Darkal shrugged, "and I was waiting for a time when it would not be a burden on your rule Allian. Now is that time, you've moved on, we all have. You need to acknowledge it as well."
"You've been saying more than you ever have in these past few days Darkal, what do you know?" Allian asked after an appropriate length of time.
"Nothing absolute," he answered. As soon as the quiet stretched between them for a solid two minutes she was sure that was all he was going to say, but then he said, "But I do have this feeling that something is going to happen, something that will change the face of this war."
"For better or worse?"
"I am a fallen angel Allian, it's always for worse."
(With Jesse, Syrus, Hassleberry and Melody)
2: 52 am
"Ouch!" Jesse shouted, backpedaling smartly from the wooden stick Melody was sparring with. He cradled his injured fingers objectively as the other two charged at her bellowing like morons. Melody simply moved backwards so the two crashed into one another like in an old cartoon. She sighed heavily.
"I know you guys wanted me to teach you more ways to defend yourselves, but you're doing it horrible! And it's late; you should probably be getting to bed."
"It is not late, it's early ma'am!" Hassleberry announced, loudly, punching his fist into the air. "'Sides, nothing can keep a good soldier down!"
Syrus groaned and pushed Hassleberry off of him, retrieving his glasses from a few feet away irritably. Jesse was still nursing his hand, the wooden stick he had carelessly tossed to the side.
She sighed at the pathetic display. "If these are what men are like today we're all doomed," she muttered at them. That roused them back into fighting position, save a few seconds where Jesse had to find where she had knocked his stick to. "Alright now, show me what you're made of!" They stayed a reasonable distance away from her, waiting for one of them to go first. "Oh come on!"
"Fine, fine! I'll go!" Syrus answered, and then he whispered to Hassleberry, "Jaden's real best friend would be more willing to help him so he'd train harder!"
"What?! Not so fast Private! I'll go up against the Serge's cousin before you!" he shouted, butting Syrus out of the way. Of course that didn't go down too lightly with the bluenette and soon they were fighting each other with the make-shift swords, occasionally yelps of pain coming from them whenever they landed a blow. Melody sighed again and Jesse laughed.
"Now if only we could get them to fight the enemy like that instead of each other," she continued, tossing her 'sword' off to the side of the empty training room.
"Not gonna happen any time soon I think," Jesse answered as Hassleberry continued to swing the stick like a caveman at the shorter rival who used his size as an advantage to move away rapidly and then launch his own swift jabs that usually hit their mark.
"Ouch!"
Well, maybe it didn't work that time.
"I'm going to hit the hay," Melody yawned, revealing her teeth to him before turning away. "Make sure they don't kill each other 'kay?"
"Wha—hey! Don't leave me here like that!" Jesse announced, jerking his thumb at the feuding friends. "I don't know how to stop 'em!"
"Like this, paying attention Anderson?" she called, walking over to the boys who now had angry red stick-marks all over their arms. She grabbed both of them by the wrists and jerked down so they both pitched forward and knocked foreheads together, knocking them both out silly. "Got it?"
Jesse slowly backed away from the younger girl, waving his arms around, "Yeah, I got it alright!"
She yawned again and gestured at him to come with her, "You coming or are you gonna stay here with the sleeping beauties?"
"Comin'!" he announced and walked rather quickly to her side, casting an apologetic glance at the now sleeping forms of Hassleberry and Syrus. Now it seemed like they were in a snoring contest, they never gave up! "So you use a water deck, huh Mels?" he commented, trying to start up a conversation with the youngest Yuki.
"Yeah," she answered, blinking rapidly as if trying to clear the sleep from her eyes.
"That's strange considering you're in the Rebellion. Shouldn't ya have a mixed deck then?" Jesse wondered, petting Ruby when she appeared on his shoulder. Melody shook her head no and picked up the little duel spirit and held it in her arms like a kitten, stroking her just as delicately. Ruby snuggled right into her arms and let out a little content sound, making Jesse smile softly.
"Nope, I was part of the Everlost Rebellion Jesse, so it was more natural for me to use a water deck," she explained, taking it out absently and handing it to him. "Wanna look?"
"Are you sure?" Jesse asked, taking her deck and holding it out in front of him. Melody nodded again, tickling Ruby under the chin. "Cool!" Jesse announced, pulling out Maiden of Aqua from her deck, "Axel says that this monster helped him a lot in the Dark World! It's cool that you have her in your deck!"
Melody smiled softly, looking Jesse right in the eyes. He blinked, "Wait, did you send her? But—how?"
She picked up the card and looked at it happily when her maiden waved at her in the card, then she turned her gaze up. "Jaden's mom called us when he went missing at the school. So I thought that'd he'd be visiting another dimension. I sent out my Maiden to look for him and protect him, and she found Axel in the Dark World and wanted to help save the world she had become trapped in. Helping to save Jaden from darkness was no happy coincidence."
"He's lucky to have someone like you as family Mels," Jesse smiled. "I'm pretty sure none of my cousins would send out duel spirits to go looking for me if I went missin'!"
"Don't worry Jesse, I would. I'll watch over you too," she said, rubbing the sleep out of her eye. "You'd do the same for me, right?"
His gaze softened when she spoke and he gently answered, "Yeah, you can count on me Melody."
She noticed the abrupt change in tone and blushed slightly from the tenderness in his voice, not knowing how to deal with it. So she held out her hand in front of her to shake his hand, Ruby now watching from her shoulder. He looked surprised, but offered his to her, and shook it firmly. "Deal Jessica."
...
(Jaden POV)
3: 59 am
When I woke up I felt safe and secure. And warm too, like someone was on top of me. Blearily I opened my eyes and saw Alexis sound asleep, her torso on my chest and her arms placed gently on my arms that held her close. She was still breathing deeply, signaling sleep, and I smiled, just watching her. She was just so beautiful.
A strand of hair was hanging in her face, and I was seized with the urge to brush it away, but was incapable of doing so if I didn't want to wake her. So, using my brilliant source of creative inspiration, I leaned up slightly and used my lips to softly push it to the side. I kissed her forehead after that and smiled when she mumbled my name. I wondered what she was dreaming about curiously and decided that I'd see if I could find out.
My eyes closed again and I searched for her always watching presence. I found her conscious after looking for a few seconds and mentally reached for it. When I opened my eyes again we were back in Duel Academy. I looked for her and found her standing on the edge of a cliff, boldly defying nature.
"Hey Lexi!" I called, waving my hand in the air. She turned and saw me slowly, and then she ran and captured me in a hug, moving her hands over my back.
"No wings," she sighed happily, pulling me closer. I smiled.
"None," I assured her, "just me."
"Good!" she shouted, stepping back to look me over. "How did you get back so soon?"
"It's just a dream Lexi, I'm visiting."
"You woke up before me?" she gasped, looking openly surprised. Then the world around us started to deteriorate into black. I glanced around, tensing. "Whoops, I don't think I was supposed to know I was dreaming," Alexis added, watching with some curiosity as her body started to fade away as well, waking up.
"I'll remember that," I told her, stepping out of the collapsing dream as well. She caressed my cheek before she was lifted up slowly and faded. The sight struck something sad within me, and it made me feel like I was losing her, so I hastily exited the nothingness, hoping to find her with me again.
I opened my eyes just as hers started to flutter, and Haou's night vision gave me a clear glance into the beautiful hazel irises. Her pupils were huge in the dark night, and the sight made me laugh a bit. She flicked me on the forehead.
"That was for waking me up," she grumbled. "I was having a good dream."
"Oh? What was it about?" I asked her.
"Well, for starters I was twenty," she said, "and still alive. I was waiting for you to come back from a tournament in Domino and you were taking a short cut through Evermore. I was teaching at Duel Academy. We were going to plan out our anniversary when you came back, but then you interrupted it."
"Jeez, I can't be early? I'll remember that later; always be late," I teased her lightly, holding her chin in my hands and moving to kiss the top of her head. She laughed.
"I should have known it was a dream because you showed up early. In real life that could never happen!"
"True, very true," I answered. I frowned, spotting something in the distance. "Hey, what's that?" She sat up and squinted at where I pointed at, along with several other rebellion members around us.
"I don't know..." she started, frowning. "Is that fire? Like lanterns?"
A murmur of consent flirted through the small crowd of rebels. "That's weird," I ventured. "Are the portal members trying to signal us or something?"—I turned back to the crowd—"Someone go get Allian and Darkal, they'll need to see this."
"I'll go Jaden," Gravelon's voice stated before he shuffled back into the base. We waited until their rapid footsteps carried them to our sides and we all told them what we thought was going on.
"Hmm," was all Darkal said. I blinked in surprise when I saw his face without the hair hanging in his eye—and the scar. I hadn't ever really noticed it before.
"They wouldn't signal us if there wasn't any trouble," Allian announced, peering even closer in the dark. "What do you make of it Darkal? Any vibes?"
He shook his head.
"Do you sense anything Allian?" I wondered, knowing the response would be a harsh glare, even if I didn't mean it in a negative way. She glared at me, just like I said, and grit her teeth.
"Do I ever know Jaden?"
"Yes," Darkal answered for me. "And once is more than enough."
We were all abruptly taken aback by that, but let it go as more and more little dots of light appeared on the horizon beyond the cliffs. "What is going on?" Alexis said, more confused than any of us.
"I don't know," I admitted, pulling her closer to my side absently. "But I'll protect you, whatever it is," I whispered into her ear. She looked up, smiling.
"That's the Jaden I know," she said back, putting her arm around my waist too. "But you don't have to worry Jay; I'm not the reckless one."
"I'll worry anyways," I admitted. "I already lost you once, and that pain is something that will haunt me the rest of my life. I won't let it happen again."
"I know you won't."
"It's an army!" Allian shouted suddenly. "Look, there are too many numbers for it to be part of the Rebellion, and they're coming from the portals! They must have made their way around the in the human world."
"We're surrounded?!" Chris shouted loudly. We all jumped, looking to Allian for advice.
Her eyes were darting around the small fires in the distance. "Jaden." I stood up, pulling Alexis up too without realizing that I hadn't let go.
"Yeah?"
"Get Niemona and tell her that we'll need her to fight after all."
I nodded, grabbing Alexis by the wrist instead and dragging her after me. She stumbled down the first few steps but then caught up with me.
"What difference will Niemona make?" she asked, not rudely, but just curiously. "You, Allian, and Darkal took her out before, so what can she do?"
"She didn't want to hurt us Alexis, that's why we won. She probably could chase us off just as easily as she can kill us. Trust me, if Niemona had wanted us dead, we wouldn't be here."
I tugged her into another staircase that led to the deeper parts of the Rebellion, forsaking the easier flight on the outside in case of spies. "Niemona!" I called, bursting through the door.
She looked up from whatever she was eating—I didn't want to know what it was—and eyed the two of us eagerly. "Yes little ones?"
"Nick's got soldiers stationed out by the portals lighting campfires, and we think that they snuck through Earth to get there."
"So we are surrounded and you need me to fight?" We both nodded and she stretched out her wings, getting the stiffness out of the powerful muscles and tendons. "I'll go now."
"What—why?" I demanded.
"The night hides me more than daylight, and I can catch them unaware. I will return if things get out of hand, but they will wait until the morning to attack."
"Why would they do that?" Alexis asked, baffled.
"To give the other half time to recover from their long journey over I would imagine. And to bring discord into the Rebellion, the reason why they even alerted us with their campfires. They are hoping to scare us into submission," she yawned as if it bored her. "It works for most places, but here it will only make us want to prove them wrong. I will see you in the morning. Be safe young ones."
She lowered her shimmering head to us in a respectful bow, and we copied her. It wasn't long after that her talons were clicking against the stone as she moved forward and tossed herself out of the side of the hidden entrance. Alexis and I watched her for a few minutes then lost her with all of the murkiness of the night. Now the moonlight that shone off of her scales simply looked like stars, a perfect cover.
"Want to fly up?"
Alexis nodded, hopping into my arms. We were unusually quiet, and the night seemed to respect that, no noise drifting up to meet either of our ears. I think it was then, staring out at the fires that trapped us in; I truly realized how little time Alexis and I did have left. I looked down at her, noticing she seemed to be thinking along the same lines, her eyes distant, and said the one word that would change our lives.
"Yes."
4: 27 am
"Syrus! Sy! Wake up!" Jesse called, shaking the little bluenette's shoulders to try and rouse him from his Melody-induced slumber. Hassleberry was out for the count still, but the European teen decided to wait for him to wake up on his own in danger of the "dino-instincts".
"Whasahappenin?" Syrus sleepily asked, opening his gray eyes slightly to see Jesse, who looked uneasy.
"We're surrounded," he said flatly, nervously glancing around the cave as if the walls had ears. "And Allian is preparing a... err... frontal assault? She wants to make sure that we all have lots of things to defend ourselves with..."
"How much soldiers are there?" he asked, alarmed into sitting, thus waking the slumbering dino-lover.
Jesse bit his lip and sighed. "Too much. Jaden set the dragon on them and she's doing a perty good number to them, and the Rebellion will be able to fight their way out with the numbers down..."
"But?" Hassleberry added, settling for listening.
"But the other half of the Overlord's troops are already approaching. Allian won't say it, but I know we won't have enough time. They'll catch us from behind before we can make a break for the portals..."
"Jeez, I'd never imagine you'd be the bearer of bad news Jesse," came another voice. They all turned around to see Jaden standing in the doorway, his expression solemn.
"Yeah, well," Jesse shrugged. "I'll go down fighting at least."
Jaden's expression hardened. "I won't let you guys get hurt, I'll find a way to get all of you out safely."
"Just be careful Jay," Syrus said slowly, looking Jaden up and down. He finally settled for looking into the brunette's chocolate eyes. "And don't do anything foolish."
He gave them a crocked smile saying, "Oh come on Sy, when have I ever done something like that?"
"So what's a fiancé?"
"That's French, isn't it?"
"Or are you really a boy disguised as a boy disguised as a girl?!" (rough translation of Jap. Blair episode)
"GETITOFF!!"
Jaden blinked innocently and the others sweat-dropped. "Where's Alexis Serge?" Hassleberry wondered, curious as to why the usually inseparable pair was... well... separated.
"She's changing," he shrugged, folding his arms over his chest. "So you guys coming? Even if you can't fight very well, Allian wants you all to get weapons... probably something magical that you just have to throw. She won't put us in the main bulk of the army; we'll be acting as archers."
"Magical weapons?" Jesse blinked, standing up from his crouching position and walking over to Jaden.
"Yeah, a few people here can use magic, like sprites can use illusions or pixies and angels can heal." He pursed his lips as if getting his facts straight. "We've got a few half-elementals running around here that can use lightning and people like Chris who can mess with wind, so they can push all of that power into small circles like this," he said, taking out a small electric yellow orb from his belt pouch. "All you have to do is touch this mark"—he turned it around a showed them a little lightning symbol—"and toss it."
"Like a grenade kind of?" Hassleberry wondered, eyeing the thing suspiciously. Jaden nodded, putting it back in its place on his belt before he pulled his green shirt over it.
"Yup, so come on, let's go find Bastion!"
...
(Bastion POV)
4: 33 am
Dear Diary,
Heavens above! Today was the most glorious day that I have ever witnessed since I was sent here with my mother! I feel as if Cupid's desired arrow has embedded itself deep within my very soul and filled me with a joy that could never be ruptured, by cheeks still tingling from his touch. I feel like the giddy school-girls I despise, and I do not care for once! Love is just such a marvelous thing!
I shall record my tale here so as to never forget it.
It all began after my first sparing lesson with the Prince—with Jaden, he insists that I call him that. Oh Jaden...
He walked me out to the bench in the gardens and sat close to me, close enough that my wings brushed against his back. Then he turned to me, his green eyes soft and tender, and just smiled. But that smile is enough to melt even the coldest of hearts.
"I am glad that I can be alone with you," he said, joy pulsing from his usually calm demeanor. "I can never be alone with anyone without my father's guards watching. It's nice."
I found that I was staring and looked away quickly, my face feeling hot. "I agree, Prince Jaden."
"You don't have to call me Prince," he chuckled at my feeble attempt at formality. "Is something troubling you? You seem distraught."
I looked at my feet shamefully, searching for something to lie about. I should have known he would see my feelings; all of his family was sensitive to what others felt. "I just... was wondering something, Jaden," his name rolled off of my tongue more naturally than ever, like his name always emerged from my quill. "How did you know we were in danger when the Everlost tried to take over the castle?"
He looked pensive, his eyes still turned in my direction. "I felt as if something was calling to me and trying to tell me something, something that endangered you. But I also felt as if it was someone else telling me this, but I had to go to see. What did happen?"
"A few girls performed a summoning spell with some herbs and spices I had ground up earlier. But... summoning spells can only reach humans when it's the one they care about deeply—" I stopped talking, feeling his hand on my cheek. He turned my head gently to look at him, and our closeness jumped out at me again. If I just barely leaned forward, our lips could brush...
He did not remove his hand as I thought he would, he kept it tenderly against my skin, caressing it. I stopped breathing. "What is the problem then? I do care for you deeply. You are the person who is closest to me, I tell you everything. Why wouldn't I be called by it then? Do you not care for me in return?"
"Of course I care," I breathed barely, just lost. The one I had fallen in love with was touching me in a completely non-friendly romantic gesture. "The problem is I..."
"You?" he prompted quietly when I fell silent, berating myself for getting lost under his words.
"I care too much," I whispered, trying to escape his eyes, but it was useless when I saw what they held. Hope.
"There is no such thing as caring too much, otherwise I would be guilty as well," he answered. And he kissed my cheek. I pulled away, knowing I shouldn't but couldn't help it.
"We can't! I'm not royalty, I'm just..." I stood up, nervously stroking my feathers which were standing up.
"You are no servant girl anymore," he told me, standing and grabbing my hands to put them in between us. "You're someone who is training with the Prince. Don't be afraid."
"Is that why you talked to your father? To make me look better?" I asked before I could hold myself back and remember my place. He didn't seem angered, much to my relief.
"No, I did it so I could be closer to you. You have talent, and you don't want to end up in the warzone, I don't want you to end up in the warzone. It would be a waste of such a beautiful girl. And this way... if we are ever attacked again, I can be right by your side to protect you. Perhaps I do care too much... but that doesn't matter. I want to be with you, not any foolish Princess that may be thrust upon me from other worlds or higher society families."
"But..."
"But nothing. This is how I feel, and how I will always feel. Something that feels this wonderful is not wrong, and I know you feel it too. Whether you accept my feelings or not, I hope that we can still be friends, still be close." He refused to look away from me, his eyes almost pleading now.
This is really happening; he loves me just as I do him. How could this happen? I can't... my mother would...
I searched his eyes again and found suddenly that my mother didn't matter any longer. All of her plans could rot in hell for all I cared, as long as I was with him.
"I-I love you," I told him. "I've always loved you, even since we were young. I just... I never thought that..."
"Say no more," he commanded lightly, and he kissed me.
My gosh! Whatever repercussions come from our being together, I would like to believe that I will take them easily. I don't know if I would make a good Queen by his side, but I do know that he would make an excellent King. I'll support that boy until the end of time; he'll always have hold over my heart. We cannot tell anyone yet, we must wait. I managed to convince him of that much. I would hate to bring his father's anger on him; I know it is something fierce.
So we will wait, together, until I am older, until we've both grown to bigger and better places, to announce our love. I await the day.
I chuckled as I continued reading the novel, captivated by the story. This girl was clearly so struck by love that she was high on the feeling. It made an interesting read. I wonder what happened though, because Jaden did obviously not end the war. Perhaps he was killed before he could...
I skimmed through the next few pages, waiting for something to catch my interest again. Fighting, advancing another level in sparring, the human teacher explaining that the mid-evil times were already over in the human world and just catching on now, her reaction to a corset...
This thing is pure torture! It constricts my breath and traps my movements in its horrendous claws! I would much rather die than wear this, but unfortunately it is what all members of the castle must wear! I'm sixteen; I don't need a torture device that makes my breasts look bigger just to please society that we can pull off anything a human can! That race is so... strange!
Jaden said when I complained to him, "If you can learn to fight in that, then you can certainly defeat any enemy you come across! Besides, you look beautiful."
Men...
Amused, I turned the page and read another interesting passage:
My mother and I were talking about things that I will not write down here and we stumbled across the most curious of abnormalities. I had leaned against the wall in a fruitless attempt to catch my breath in this hideous corset and the wall moved! It led into a small room that simply looked like some of the marble had collapsed on itself. Mother says it gives her an idea, but I didn't like it under there, so I left.
I shrugged and turned the page, scanning briefly over a few mushy scenes the girl had devoted countless pages to and hopeless doodles of which I could not decipher to save my life. I did chuckle at them, which caused Chazz to look up from his deck at me, puzzled. "What's so funny?"
I held up the journal. "Love-sick teenager."
His eyes narrowed. "You got a problem with love-sick teens geek?"
I was about to reply when our door opened and Jaden, Jesse, Syrus, and Hassleberry poured in. Jaden eyed the journal curiously before he flickered his gaze elsewhere, taking in the two of us.
"Slacker?" Chazz yawned, stretching out like a cat. "What're you and your lackeys doing here?"
Jaden flopped down on my bed next to me and looked grave. "We've got a little problem."
"We always do," Chazz muttered, rolling over so his back was facing us. "So what is it now? Haou take over you and kill someone?"
Jaden flinched horribly, and I started. Surely Chazz wasn't correct, Jaden wouldn't allow that...
"No, it's kind of worse, but thanks for the vote of confidence Chazz," Jesse cut in, his eyes watching the brunette closely.
"I did kill someone," Jaden piped up suddenly. We all stopped what we were doing and I dropped the journal. His eyes held unbearable sorrow. "Lucian. He was a traitor. He tried to kill me and went after Alexis. I did what I had to..."
An awkward silence fell between all of us, Jaden staring at his shoes. Well that explains why he reacted to Chazz's comment like that, I concluded. "Surely that is not your bad news," I interrupted the silence, "a traitor is dead and you are alive? That's good news. What has you all tense?"
"Overlord-dude sent his troops for a stroll through Earth and they came out where we were going to escape," Syrus answered shortly. "We're going to get magical weapon things and chuck them at the enemy if I understand properly."
Jaden nodded. "I'm sorry for getting you all involved like this..."
"Jaden," I said, managing to get my two-cents in, "when will you understand that we want to get involved and help you? You have helped us all, and we are going to return the favor in any way that we can."
"But you guys are risking your lives for me! Your futures are bright, I'm sure of it, and I don't want you all to throw it away by getting stuck in this conflict with me!" he looked like he wanted to say more, but he restrained himself.
"Your future is the brightest of all of ours Jay," Jesse said, sitting next to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. I mirrored the European duelist's actions. "And don't act like us not helpin' would do anythin' to how long you've got left! If we didn't help you, you'd have less of a chance of pullin' through! We're here to help you buddy!"
He looked like he wanted to say something again, but he held his tongue. "Come on," he started, heaving himself up, "we'd better go to Allian. I'm sure Lex and Melody already have to others rounded up."
I nodded and put the book in my backpack that one of the rebels had given me, moving aside the water to fit it in. I made sure that the caps were screwed on tightly (magically sealed, I should have known) and moved out with them, Chazz trailing behind lazily, talking to his three Ojama brothers.
...
(Jaden POV)
6:00 am
"Niemona!" I called urgently; rushing up to the dragon sprawled out on the ground. She lifted her head and looked up at me with a toothy grin.
"Hello little one," she greeted, seemingly ignorant to her many wounds and the people around her trying to heal them. "And hello human friends and angel."
My friends warily approached the dragon as I kneeled in front of her scaly cheek. "Where are you hurt? What happened? Can I help?"
"I'm fine little guardian," she chuckled with a roll of her green eyes. "The healer pixie and her apprentices are doing more than an exceptional job on healing me up. You just focus on helping your friends. I was just hit with arrows and swords is all, I've handled worse. I just came back to get my second wind to help the fight again. Someone has to carry you all when you drop your little weapons on the army."
I sighed in relief and Alexis came up to me, taking my ring finger with hers absently and smiling.
"I see," Niemona said, heaving herself onto her front paws. Holly made an annoyed noise at her patient and the dragon lied down again, amusement in her eyes. "One-hundred years ago I never would have imagined I was taking orders to a pixie in a pink dress."
"Yeah, well, sometimes we never see things coming until they hit us right between the eyes," I shrugged, lifting Alexis's finger-hold to show her what I meant. Of course, she took that literally and poked me with our fingers right between the eyes. "Hey! I was being symbolic!"
The others didn't seem to understand what we were talking about, but kept their mouths tightly shut, shifting around uncomfortably with the weight of all the various straps and holsters that Allian and Darkal had taken an hour to show then how to use and then attached to them. We waited out for a few minutes, watching the stars, before Niemona was healed one hundred percent and we all boarded her, waiting for Allian's order to charge.
Said angel was soon standing on top of Niemona's head and speaking from it to her crowd. "We all have known that this day would come for the Rebellion, the day that we face the Overlord's Army head-on. I know that our numbers are few, but we have more power than they could ever imagine. We have purpose in this world and are not blinded by hatred and rage and fear. We are fighting for who we are and what we believe in! We are fighting for freedom!"
A few rebels cheered, holding up their swords above their heads.
"I will not lie to you and tell you that no one will get hurt in this brawl, I know as much as you do the gravity of the situation. But know this, I believe with all of my being that we shall pull through this disaster and come out on top once again! The Rebellion can never truly die so long as there are still hearts that beat within all of us! So long as we still can love and forgive with every amount of hate and vengeance that amount to our dark halves. So long as there are still hearts to love and beat, the Rebellion shall never die! Today is our last stand as troublesome annoyances that just gnaw at the ankles of evil! We emerge as the force that defeated the Overlord's best effort to destroy us! We come out immortalized!!"
I smiled and tugged Alexis closer to me. She looked at me strangely and then turned back to our friends, who were mesmerized by Allian's speech. It wasn't so much the words themselves that always held our attention, but the vindication and passion behind them that dug deep into our minds and got us all fired up to fight to the death. More cheers broke out in our crowd and even Darkal let out a small grin.
"Are you ready to become legends?!" Allian shouted over the roar. "Are you ready to kick the Overlord right in the face and tip the influencing hand once again?! Are you ready to show everyone that we are no quiet force hiding like children in the wild?! Are you read for victory?!"
We all screamed this time, and someone chanted the motto loudly. I searched the person out and found it was Chris, his eyes alight with fire. Allian unsheathed her sword and pointed it towards the fires caused from Niemona and finally called, "Then attack and be no longer history! We are now the present, and let us lead the way into the future! Attack!"
Niemona opened her mouth and let out a fearsome roar as Allian launched off of her head and led the army with Darkal by her side. My dragon—still weird to think that—was soon bringing up the rear, looking sharp and aware in the early morning sky. It was still dark out. I reached up and tapped her neck scales yelling over the winds, "I never asked, how many are left for us?"
She sped up at a command from Darkal and then answered my question, "There were 5,000, now there are 500."
"Whoa! How'd you do that in two hours?!" Syrus exclaimed, scooting up to my right side and shooting Hassleberry a triumphant glance. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
"I discovered that they had quite a few tents packed up with explosives. Fire always helps to explode them a little early. We have them to thank for my early success actually."
"Humph," Zane snorted before he could catch himself.
"Well isn't that ironic," Aster commented, squinting against the wind. "Hey, Jaden, how exactly to we fight if the enemy can just fly up to you and attack us?"
They all turned to me as if just realizing the same thing. I spared a glance at the soldiers who were now coming to greet us half-way and smirked, grabbing onto one of Niemona's spikes.
"Hold on tight."
...
(Somewhere in Everlost)
"My Queen," a guard bowed, dipping his head loyally. I turned to him expectantly, fingering the medallion on my almost intangible skin.
"What have you found out?" I asked him quietly, turning my attention back to the surface just a few miles away. I could almost see the sunlight reflecting off of it.
"Our sources confirm that they are heading for the human world," he relayed, keeping his head low.
"And what of the Guardian? Has he figured it out yet?" I wondered, twisting my head back again to look straight into his face.
"It would appear as though he is still trying to find a way out of it, but he is starting to lose hope. It is only a matter of time before he appears at our doorstep with her at our disposal."
"What caused this change?"
"He killed someone, a member of the rebellion our source tells us. He claimed that the man was a traitor and attacked him and his angel, which was true. But our source doubts that is what happened after what you told us, Your Majesty."
"You are dismissed," I ordered him, waving him off with a flicker of his hand. He straightened out again, a different light appearing in his eyes.
"No, you are dismissed, Your Highness," he countered, charging at me. I rolled my eyes at the pathetic display, allowing his to drive his little knife through my skin. It passed right through me as if I wasn't all there, and I smirked, lowering my eyes to his surprised ones.
"Listen you idiot, you are not the first of your power-crazy kind that has tried to take my place, so what gave you the moronic thought that you could succeed where your brethren have failed? I am more powerful than any of you nuisances, and be thankful that I am sparing your pathetic lives. But hear this, if you ever so much as think of trying to kill me again, I will double whatever pain you try to bestow upon me, got it?" I snarled, making my eyes flash deeper red to see if he really did understand.
He nodded feverishly, staring at where his knife was lodged inside of me, the hilt sticking out of my side anyways. I took it out and displayed it to him, showing no sign of injury on me anywhere. "You had better leave for good before I dismiss you, got it?"
"Got it," he quavered, swimming away quickly and closing the doors behind him. I floated over to my window again, running my hand through my hair thoughtfully. When will that race learn that I can't die if I'm not alive yet in the first place? All I need is to take her life...
(Jaden POV)
6: 23 am
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" everyone yelled as Niemona spun around in a steep dive to avoid the bulk of the army, breathing fire in a tornado at the remaining members. Most of them were caught in the inferno, reducing their numbers even more. But those were only those too slow to get the hell out of the way, and now we were dealing with the faster and smarter soldiers.
"Yowch!" Mels shouted suddenly, banging into Niemona's scales painfully. Jesse turned back to her, looking worried, but she pulled herself right back up, locking herself in place with her legs to rub her arm and her side and her head and her shoulder and... you get the picture. "I'm going to feel that in the morning..."
"It's already morning!" Jesse hollered back at her despite the fact that he was clinging onto a dragon's spike for his dear life.
"Exactly!" she shot back, holding back onto hers again when Niemona stopped upside-down. A few dropped swords bounced off her armored belly and then she was facing upright again, searching for a portal to secure.
I scouted the area with my eyes, alert and searching for anyone trying to threaten my friends. There! "I'll be back!" I called, just letting go. I allowed the air currents to carry me farther back and then spread out my wings, spinning like a fighter pilot and coming up on top of an archer aiming for Jim's head. He yelped when I smacked his wings together and tumbled to the ground before shooting off in another direction.
Satisfied, I flew up next to Niemona swatting at a few night fairies angrily as they darted between her paws and fire. I was just about to interfere when Mels stood up, taking a running start and leapt onto one of their backs, banging its helmet visor over its head and then bashing on the side of it with its own dagger. The creature was now flying in helpless circles and screaming, unable to see or hear anything. Its companions faltered, surprised as the rest of us were, and Niemona caught them in her fire.
"You want this open?!" Mels shouted at her poor prey, which was probably deaf by now from all the ringing. She grabbed a yellow elemental sphere from her back pocket and jammed it down the helmet. "There you go!"
"Melody!" Jesse called, standing up and stretching out his hand as Niemona flew past the night fairy. Mels planted her sneakers on the creature's wings and reached out, grabbing his hand firmly just as it erupted into dust. He braced himself between two spikes and used his other hand to pull her closer. My cousin landed firmly next to him and smiled, thanking him probably. I shrugged at Alexis, who had caught my eye.
If it had to be anyone, I'm glad it's him, I sent to her. She nodded and praised/scolded Mels for the stunt. When she looked for my approval I cupped my hands over my mouth and shouted, "Awesome! I bet you can't wait to tell your mom what you've been up to, right?!"
She stuck out her tongue and focused on not falling off again. Fine by me.
3:00, Haou supplied broadly in the back of my head. I moved to the left, coming very close to my dragon as the night fairy's helmet when whizzing past me. That would have been embarrassing if it hit me...
More proof that I should be out right now, Haou responded, yawning.
No Haou. If you were out there probably wouldn't even be anyone left to fight after three minutes, rebel or not.
Probably, he agreed.
I shut him out the best I could and engaged a fallen angel in combat, finally ending it when Alexis tossed a white wind orb at it and blew it out of my path. "Nice throw!" I shouted, grabbing the sword it had before it impaled one of the rebels fighting below me. I noticed Gravelon on the ground running around through the tents and fending off anyone that he could. "Guys!" I pointed and they all got it. Niemona had already started to drop before I even called out to her. I forgot about that crazy dragon-liege bond thing. Oh well.
They jumped off and she took off just as quickly to cover our escape. "Gravelon!" Alexis called out as we ran up to him. Hassleberry threw two orbs at the same time and dispatched a good portion of the enemies battling the wingless gargoyle. He turned, completely surprised.
"Oh! Well hello friend of Jaden and Jaden!" he said cheerfully, swinging his heavy club onto the chest of one of the wary live members. It fell back with an 'oof' and landed on his companion's shield, trying to catch his breath. The man that he had knocked down cursed and rolled out from under him aggregately; calling for more help before Gravelon casually cut a string that supported a hastily made weapons shelf and buried him under armor and chainmail.
"What are you doing out here?" I shouted over the war cries and clashing of steel and steel. He gestured with his hand expansively over the camp. "Gathering information on which of these tents is hiding our portal! Chris, Rouge, and I couldn't find it in the air—or at least they couldn't while carrying me—so we're searching around camp. Chris stole these... walkie talkies?" We nodded patiently while the old gargoyle turned around the phone on his belt. "From one of them when we first landed here, oh look, here comes Chris now!"
We turned, seeing Chris being chased by twenty men in full armor. "I found it!" he shouted, running. He looked up to see us and added, "Don't fly or throw anything at them, there's an elemental in there somewhere!"
"How can we fight it then?" Zane asked calmly. I hefted my duel-disk. "Now you're speaking my language! Cyber Dragon!"
I noticed Gravelon had slipped into another tent while we fought and decided to follow him. My friends had that situation handled. I bent down to the ground and peeked my head around, a trick that Allian had taught me. People always looked higher when they think someone is watching them, they don't expect an enemy to be close to the ground, especially not here. I just had a strange feeling that he didn't want to anyone else to see what he was doing.
You're welcome.
Shut-up Haou.
I finally spotted him squatting down in the center of the tent, a piece of parchment in his hands with the Overlord's insignia on it.
Oh, he's just looking through the documents now that he has a chance to.
Just wait, Jaden.
What for?
"A-ha!" Gravelon announced to no one in particular. He toke the page and stuffed it into his knapsack with a smirk. What the heck?
He started to move towards the exit and I retreated back to my friends so he wouldn't know that I had seen him doing... well I don't know what I just witnessed. It had looked like the paper contained the Overlord's orders, so maybe he found something useful? After all, what other kind of document would be hanging around in a warzone?
"Volcanic Devil, finish this!" Axel shouted, drawing my attention back towards them. Pegasus and Alexis seemed to be the only two that noticed my disappearance, but neither of them commented. They had handled the threat and most of the guard had run off.
"So where is this portal Chris?" Gravelon sounded from behind me. I almost jumped a foot in the air; I hadn't heard him come up at all for someone who usually has such a heavy walk.
"Follow those runaways and you'll see," he smirked, heading back the way he came. "There's about seventy of them guarding the tent, so it's not that hard to figure out what's inside of it. Come on."
He jumped up onto the supports of one of the tents and ran across them like some kind of ninja. We glanced at each other and shrugged as if saying, "Well why not? We've seen everything else already. Why don't we try out ninjas?"
I boosted Syrus up to the rafters after Hassleberry swung up on his own and walked very slowly across the wood. I shook my head and went last after Gravelon, resisting the urge to stick my hand down his backpack and grab whatever he had taken from that tent. By the time we caught up to Chris (we had to stop and get low whenever soldiers darted past engaged with rebel fighters) he was already poised to attack the main tent, his sword angled away from the moonlight.
"What are you doing?" I asked him.
"Waiting for you slowpokes," he responded quietly, eyeing the large amount of men surrounding the tent. "I can't see any way in without being spotted, and we can't distract Niemona from keeping us all alive with her fire to break in. We'll have to take them head-on and hope for the best."
"Not so fast fairy," Zane cut over him. "You all are falling right for their trap."
We turned towards the older Trusedale. "This is exactly what I would have done if I was still... well I am still dark. When I lost my respect. I would place a hell of a lot of troops around one tent to make the enemy reveal themselves in a last-ditch effort to get in, while inside the tent is just booby-traps or something pointless to finish them off. No, it's not in there."
"Oh, well why don't you grace us with your endless knowledge human, where is it then? Unguarded among the many others?"
I looked at my friend, surprised at the harsh tone. Maybe the castle had changed him after all. "No," Zane answered coolly, and I suddenly didn't blame Chris for being angry at the tone Zane was using. "It would be just as well guarded as that tent."
"But then..." Syrus trailed off, confused.
"Which tent is it already Trusedale?!" Chazz growled, and Aster suddenly laughed.
"Of course!" he whispered. "I get it! That's genius!"
"Just tell us what it is already!!" Chazz hissed, practically foaming at the mouth.
"Calm down Chazz," Alexis sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Zane took his sword absently and then thrust it through the heavy fabric of the tent, making a long slit. He dropped down into the tent and said smugly, "It's right below us."
We all dropped down next to him, not believing until we saw the glittering piece of air ourselves. "You, my friend," Bastion said, "are quite ingenious. This tent is right in front of them so if they saw anyone enter they could easily charge, and yet no one would think that they would leave it without anyone in front of it..."
"There are probably friendly guards waiting outside for us though," Chris inserted, jerking his thumb to the portal. "That's the Overlord's most basic move. Set up a few men outside the portal to take down whoever comes through and the others won't notice until it's too late."
"Well then," Jim said, experimentally holding out one of the orbs, "let's give them a nice warm welcome, shall we mates?"
We all grabbed one devilishly, placing ourselves in front of the glimmer in the air.
"Fire!" the Aussie whispered loudly (magician Australian!). We all chucked the things through the portal and waited. No one came out. Cautiously, I stuck my hand through, waiting to see if I got diced up. Not my brightest idea, but what else could I do?
"I think we're clear," I murmured, pulling my hand back and examining it. "Let's just double-check."
We all filed out, seeing a few (definitely winged) people sprawled out on the ground, out cold. I leaned over one and checked his pulse, she was still alive. Axel was eyeing the armor on the ground and looked up at Zane and Aster. "Give you guys any ideas?" he asked. They followed his gaze and grinned evilly.
"Cosplay again Axel?" Aster teased, taking off the armor of one guard and leaving him in his pants and shirt. I blinked, what are they talking about?
"What are you guys talkin' about?" Jesse asked for me, just as confused. The trio eyed me and I felt nervous, like they were going to bring up something else about Supreme-King-Me. I was right.
"We dressed up like soldiers to get into Haou's castle," Zane commented off-handedly when it didn't seem like anyone else was going to say anything.
"Oh," Jesse replied awkwardly, "so what do you plan on doing now?"
"'Escorting' you 'captured' rebels around the tents so we can poke around some more," Axel answered, pulling on a helmet.
"It's a good idea, but it won't work," Chris sighed, heading back towards the portal, which wasn't even visible in the first feeble rays of dawn.
"Why not Chris?" I asked, moving my wingless shoulders happily. I was in no hurry to go back into the battle zone.
"They don't have wings and your wings are kind of... specific?" he finished unsurely. The others slumped in defeat, feeling foolish.
"Right, I knew that..."
"C'mon," I called, waving my hands and picking up one of the guards by the shirt collar. "Let's see if we can't make straight-jackets out of these shirts and tie them away, huh guys?"
6: 57 am
Allian ducked low, barely avoiding death from the countless enemies she was facing in the brawl. She punched her assailant in the gut when it came close to her—that would teach it to not wear armor—and followed up with a kick to its wings. It tumbled towards the ground and pancaked as she pulled the kick around in a complete circle, aiming low for her next victim. He went down quickly, as most do when facing a dirty fighter. But that was one thing you learned quickly in this life.
Dirty fighters live.
Another body replaced the one before, and when that one was gone, yet another would take its place. Niemona was doing all she could and was probably the only reason that they had not suffered the finishing blows yet. She could still see her rebels fighting their way towards the camp and she desperately hoped that her scouts had found the portal.
"Allian!" She turned, paring a blow with her sword and shattering the metal of her opponent to get to whoever was calling her. "Allian!"
She knew that voice, it was Darkal. "Where are you?!" she called, slashing her way through the impossible crowd.
"At the center of the circle! I'm fighting the leader! Allian, the Overlord is coming! Get everyone the hell out of here!" his voice came. Her body tingled with surprise, Darkal actually sounded fearful. But not for his life, for all of theirs.
She flew higher and indeed found that the reason for a huge group of soldiers in the same place at once was because they had formed a ring around Darkal and their leader to trap him in. Her breath left her. If he defeated the leader, he'd be killed by all of these soldiers. If he lost, then it was over for him. She gathered her breath, regaining her composure before diving in there. Darkal could yell at her later, he was in danger and she was going to protect him at all costs.
"Hey!" she called, tackling into the man that Darkal was just barely avoiding. He looked up just before they collided, shocked. She winced at the impact of bones-to-metal, felt some things crack, but ignored it. Darkal was in danger. Her closest friend. She would not let him die.
"Allian get out of here!" Darkal shouted, coming behind her to fend off the blows coming from the viewers. "The just want me and him to fight, you stay out of this! The Rebellion needs you!"
"And I need you Darkal!" she shouted back. "You point out my flaws, you piss me off, you say wiz-mystical things that no one understands until later, and you're my partner! I don't leave my friends on their own!"
"Wiz-what?" he hollered back. "You're making no sense!"
"I don't care!" she screamed, clawing her nails into the leader's eyes. He screamed something horrible, but that didn't matter now. She had an opening and she was going to take it!
Allian pushed herself off of him as he had his hands over his eyes, his sword dropped and forgotten. She reached onto her back and pulled out an arrow, and dove again. Darkal grunted as he was hit behind her, and she flinched. But she had to finish this.
Take out the leading head and leave the body helpless and confused.
(Allian POV)
7:00 am
I dodged as he swiped at me blindly with his talons and drove the arrow as hard as I could into his eye socket. He thrashed and screamed, blood flowing from places I didn't understand, and we fell. I just kept jabbing the arrow over and over again, but this bastard just wouldn't die! The ground was coming closer, but we hadn't been that high up anyway. He would survive the crash with his armor.
Somehow his talons found my face and he racked deep wounds across me. I bit back my scream, showing him what a real leader was like. Strong and unafraid to make her own sacrifices for the good of her people. I was about to flip over so that I was the one under him, facing the ground to jam the arrow right through his thick skull when Darkal caught up. He shoved me away from my position and pushed me to the side, forcing one of my wings open with his foot so I spiraled out of control upwards.
I saw him do exactly what I was going to do, wrap his wings around his body and brace himself for what would be the fatal crunch I had been about to take for him. Why had he jumped in like that? Why?! I didn't ask him to give up his life for me!! He was supposed to live and continue the Rebellion! He would have been a much better leader than me! Dazed and dizzy I righted myself, tears streaming down my cheeks for the first time since...
NO! I will not think of that time. It is in the past, and I promised myself to not be weak. I forced myself to watch as they fell, hoping against hope that he would survive. All time seemed to stop, every person holding their breath. The noise was horrible, as if every single bone in his body had snapped from the impact and the metal on top of him, but it did its job. The arrow was sticking out through the metal helmet. His hand was white he was holding onto that weapon so hard, and when the body over him disappeared, his hand went limp and a soft orange glow started to surround him.
"DARKAL!!" I hollered, taking out whatever weapons I still had with me. My sword was in its sheath. I took it out blindly, swinging it in every direction until they all had either run or perished in my sorrow. I pulled myself together and landed gently next to his broken body to prevent any further pain. My first question.
"Does it hurt?"
"N-no," he answered, his voice barely a whisper. His eyes were distant, but still held that quiet intensity that he always had boiling inside him. I took a shaky breath, wiping away tears from my cheek and blood from his lips. Second question.
"Why?"
"Rebel needs you..." he managed between a few weak coughs, "... and I care... about you... too much... to let you... die for me."
I froze. Third question. "You care?"
"Of course... more than... best friend... family."
I got teary up again. Fallen angels hardly ever admit their friends, let alone think of them as family. Last question. "Do you want to go now?"
What was left of his gaze looked at me, hard. "Not by you..."
"Thank Zeus," I breathed. I looked down at my hands, remembering what I had learned with him by my side. "Darkal... please don't... I wasn't lying when I said I needed you. You proved to me that someone can love without it going bad. I don't care if I'm like your family and you wanted to save me because of it!! Just please don't go..."
"New beginning..." he reminded me softly. I forced myself to look at him and received a shook. He was crying too?
"First jokes and now tears?" I chocked out, trying to laugh but failing miserably. His hand twitched near mine, so I took it like he probably wanted. I wouldn't let him die alone.
"I... trust you..." he told me as firmly as he could. "You... won't fail... you'll soar..."
His eyes seemed to be losing something quickly, and I bit my lower lip to prevent a sob. "... my guardian angel..." he smiled finally, and I cracked. He hardly ever smiled, and to see him smile in the face of death...
"NO!!" I hollered, holding onto him and pouring my everything into him, needing him to stay with me. He was my protector, my guardian. He was with me at every turn, no matter where it led us, and he always knew what to say, even when it didn't make sense. I couldn't let him die! He was Darkal, he had pulled me right out of the castle after I betrayed them—he couldn't die!
"Heal!" I hissed through clenched teeth, releasing all of the pain and anger and sorrow I had held throughout my long life in this single desperate moment. Everything washed out of me, my happiness, my hatred, my spite, my laughter; it all came out in this single wave of solid emotions in the frantic attempt to heal.
His eyes closed forever.
(With the Jaden, Alexis, and Melody)
7:25 am
Jaden walked stealthily on the thin beams, keeping his head down and trying to ignore the pain in his back that had yet to subside from emerging back into this world. He wasn't sure why it was still hurting, but Haou seemed to insist that it was because they kept changing worlds so quickly. He ignored his other half and took off when he was far enough away, searching up high for Allian and Darkal. He had received a little 'welcome' message from Nick. They needed to know he was coming right now. Alexis was running far below him with Melody, although he had seemed a bit reluctant at first to let both his cousin and his love run through an enemy camp.
Alexis was already in contact with him, sending reassurance that she was fine every few seconds. He did the same, knocking everyone who came close to him away with anything he could. First the orbs, but he ran out soon. Then he flew with the bow that Darkal had strung across his back and fired arrows at random, but he had run out of those too in his search. His left wing was bleeding pretty badly from a knife wound, but he ignored it. He could patch it up later.
Every beat that he did from his wings was painful, but so was the prospect of Nick catching them from behind before they finished the battle with his troops here. The sun was rising quickly now, forcing them to lose the cover of darkness that their dragon had had. He cast out a quick message to her, searching for her strange mind, and felt nothing for the longest time. Sure, he usually didn't feel anything, but she usually would hear his calls and respond in some way. Surely she wasn't?
No, Melody and Alexis would have spotted her on the ground.
Jaden!
Speak of the Angel—Lex, what's wrong?
We found them! It's Darkal... I think he's...
She didn't have to say anything else. He cast out his senses and found Alexis' body quickly, flying as fast as he ever had towards it. No, Darkal couldn't. He was invincible. He was always the one that came out unscratched. He couldn't be...
He and Allian were the only two he couldn't ever imagine dying!
He spotted Niemona crouched on the ground and spraying fire up at anyone who was foolish enough to try and come near her. She paused to let him pass and then continued with her little happy rampage. Jaden landed sloppily, stumbling over to Alexis and Melody. They both captured him in their arms immediately, being careful with his injured wing. "Where's Allian?" he soberly asked, his eyes trying to glaze over the tears in theirs.
"She's with him," Melody whispered, breaking the hug to point. He shifted slightly until he spotted Allian on her knees with her hands over Darkal's right one, crying. "He won't last for much longer. A mind can only stay so long in a broken body..."
The trio held back respectfully, each one with tears streaming down their faces. Allian lowered her head onto his chest and sobbed hard as the orange glow intensified around their fallen friend, then she took her hands and clung onto his hand again as tightly as she could. Darkal's lips moved, saying something, and then he smiled and they knew it was over.
They closed their eyes tightly just as he did, not wanting to see his body leave the ground in orange dust. He didn't deserve this!
Allian screamed loudly when he must have left, and that only made them close their eyes tighter. Hearing their fearless leader in pain was almost as bad as losing the other. This just wasn't right. Allian and Darkal were a packaged pair; they weren't supposed to be separated. Separating their leaders was like trying to cut down an ancient tree with a plastic knife. It just couldn't happen...
It couldn't!
Jaden didn't know when he fell to his knees, but he did remember Alexis shaking him and feeling the mud below him move as someone approached him. He looked up, and Allian was standing where Darkal had been, her face blank. In her hands was his sword and duel-disk, the only things he had left behind. She bowed her head and placed them in her backpack, swearing to give him a ceremony when they were free.
The angel took a deep breath and seemed to lock away all of her sorrow, turning her now pale face to them, seeming to be hard as stone. Jaden stood up and bowed his head, trying to stop his own tears from running their course.
They took off and Jaden followed, dropping Melody off on Niemona's back and carrying Alexis with him. Melody had commented that she didn't want to see what Nick was like when he wasn't at least pretending to be decent. He couldn't blame her. When he caught up to Allian she was squinting over the horizon, trying to spot any signs of Nick and his approaching, and monumental for this world, army.
When Allian finally spotted then in her binoculars the others had already caught up to her after Chris had stumbled on the enemies' winged beast tent. He had liberated them from carrying all of the weapons and fed/watered them, and they were on their way. Now they were flying around above them, keeping anyone that tried to get close (and wasn't a rebel of course) away.
Jaden kept glancing between the dots on the horizon that was Nick's army and the brawl behind him, trying to judge if they could pull out a victory before being attacked.
"We marked the tent with a smiley face," Chris was saying, "opening on the top of it. You can blame Syrus for that." Said bluenette heard his name and looked down curiously before turning away, getting a bit farther away from us to respect whatever we had to say.
Allian nodded, walking out of earshot so she could get a better look at the approaching army.
(Jaden POV)
I felt anxiety overflowing through me with every message Nick was sending to me, knowing what Allian didn't want to say. We didn't have enough time, enough people to fight. We would still be fighting when Nick arrived, and we couldn't just dash for the portal because the guard would flay us when what was left of us tried to get through. And Niemona couldn't breathe fire in case it spread to the portal tent and didn't let anyone get through because of smoke and heat.
Darkal's sacrifice to save Allian was going to be in vain if something didn't happen for the better.
I had to think of something. I started pacing anxiously around the cliff edge, Alexis sitting down and watching me worriedly. After about ten minutes of plan-making with Haou we could only come up with two things.
Either I could try and control my power enough to KO all of the soldiers left and risk all of my friend's lives in the process, something that I definitely did not want to do again, seeing as I was still weak as if was from healing Jesse. I was about 90 percent sure that if I tried it again I would lose this time.
My other option?
I glanced down at Alexis, who was staring out at Nick's army just as hard as I was.
I would lose her.
I couldn't take her with me if I went to face Nick, no matter how much it would kill me to have to leave her behind. If I went anywhere near that monster with my precious one...
Lillian slumped in my arms and I kneeled on the ground in surprise. Her eyes were closed and I felt her last breath leave her before the dust covered her, and then she was gone...
I shook my head, dislodging that image. No, Alexis was stronger than Lillian had been. She wouldn't drop her guard around Nick, she wouldn't let anything like that happen, and I sure as hell wouldn't either. I would rather die myself than let that happen to her. But Allian...
I remembered that scream well.
If Darkal and Allian were just family to each other and it had hurt her that much to lose him, what would happen to Alexis if I left to go and delay Nick and died? Would she do what I had come close to doing in the Dark World before Haou had interfered and (although I hated to admit it) saved my life?
I waited until Jim had fallen asleep again, feeling so much pain that I was completely numb. I had been mulling over the Supreme King's words and remembered the feeling of nothingness that he had gifted me with very well. I craved for it again, it burned against my being, knowing that it was just right there for me to reach out and touch again, to give in and never feel the pain that she had brought me again.
But I knew what that power was, I recognized it as my other half and my power flowing over the gates I had used to lock them in. I had just lost my Angel, I was sure of it. And I hadn't even had a chance to know that I loved her until it was too late. What was the point?
Surely it would just be better to end my world before I end all the worlds, right?
Wrong. Who says that giving into me would be the end? We could rebuild this world together, make it so that no one ever dares to challenge another in a life-or-death duel, make is so we no longer felt pain...
It was tempting, very tempting. But I stood up and walked away, choosing the lesser hell. Or was it? Was taking your own life worse than taking another's life? I didn't know anymore. I let my feet move, trying to tune out the persuasive side of me that was calling out louder than it ever had. It had been relatively silent in Duel Academy, and now I know why. It was because I was near her and drawn to her even then. She lessened my darkness and then drove it right up again...
See what love brings you? Pain. They are connected and that is all love can ever bring in the end. It is better if you just leave it behind. It will be the end of all things if it continues to run its course through you.
I kept moving blindly through the world, all monsters that I came across leaving me alone or even bowing, already calling me Haou. I ignored all of them, unable to respond anyway due to the pain I harbored in my heart. Not only had I lost the one I loved, I had lost all of my close friends as well in one duel. Jesse was already dead. They had come here for nothing and they had lost their lives because of me. They did in vain. There is nothing I can do to save them now...
No, but you can avenge them. You can take out every person who stands in your way. You can create the Super Fusion card to make their deaths worth something. There is still so much that you can do, if you do it with me. We can make a difference.
My feet stopped from my long walk, on the edge of the mountain that we had hidden with Freed. What a fitting place to die. He was the second one to give up his life for me here. The first was Jesse... Tears slipped down my cheeks. This was really the end. I took a step, replaying ever word that I had ever spoken to them. Syrus. Alexis. Hassleberry. Chazz. Atticus. Jesse. Freed.
Then the list continued on.
Lillian. Chris. Darkal. Allian. Gravelon. Alice. Melody. My mother. My aunt and uncle. Aster. Jim. Axel. Zane. Blair. Marcel. Atrus. Adria. Liz.
They didn't deserve the pain that I was going to bring them, and I didn't even deserve to live. Why fight something that should have been done a long time ago? It's not like I'm going to have a long fulfilling life ahead of me anyway. I stopped at the ledge, staring longingly at the ground very far below. I imagined the wind blowing through my hair easily, having dove from tall heights into the water before with my human friends back home. But this would be different. I wouldn't feel anything. It would just... end.
Maybe its better this way...
You know it's not. The answer is to fix the world, to gain the power to do this. You can make yourself worth their sacrifice. You can prevent them future sorrow. Perhaps even if we grow powerful enough, we can discover how to bring them back.
That's right, my power is almost limitless. If I gave into it I could find a way... and I could be rid of all of this pain as well. What have I got to lose? Nothing. If Jim and Axel ever find me, they wouldn't recognize me, they wouldn't fight me. They can just go home. I could just stay here and forget about all of the pain, about love. It isn't worth it.
Now you see. Are you ready to take revenge on this world for our friends? Do you want them back?
I thought it over slowly and I realized just how much I watned to see their faces again, and to get revenge on those who had kill them.
I do.
Then give into me...
Would Alexis fall into the same trance as I had? Only who would save her? She had nothing inside her head other than her own mind, and I would be gone. But then would she end up in the same place as I did? After all, I had taken more than enough lives to earn myself a special place 'downstairs'. If that was the case I hope that she couldn't follow me, I would rather her be where she belongs for living such a kind life instead of following me down.
But was I really that bad? I tried to live a good life and I had also saved countless lives as well.
I'm voting for hell, Haou reminded me absently and I scowled at him mentally.
I know, I know.
I turned, looking at Allian, who was casting glances at the heavens, her eyes sad. She muttered something and bowed her head, allowing no tears to escape past her lashes. Saddened and discouraged by the sight I turned to my friends soaring above us and I softened again.
What would they do if I was gone?
Then my eyes found Mels, and I felt something twist in my heart. What would she do if it was Nick's hands that stole my life? What could she do?
You're overlooking one important fact, Haou inserted suddenly. Your love for them blinds you again.
What is it now Haou? I sighed.
You forget the Queens orders. If we were to die, then they could go unfulfilled.
I froze; this was actually true for once! I could save her and the world at the same time by facing Nick, and I could actually make it out alive. Nick doesn't want me dead—well he wants me dead but he needs me to end the war. So maybe if I go out there and ruff him up a bit, give the Rebellion enough time to finish things, I can then offer myself as a prisoner.
No, that wouldn't work, then I'd still be bound by the Queen's orders. So I either die or risk killing all of my friends?
I sat down abruptly, pulling Alexis down too. She tumbled into my lap, making me aware of her again, of her warmth. "Jaden what is it?" she asked, staring unperturbed into my eyes. "We'll make it out in time."
But she refused to look behind us to see how wrong she was.
"I never told you the story about painting Darkal's wings pink," I was saying suddenly, catching myself even more surprised than her. She blinked, pushing back a lock of her dirty blonde hair to try and figure out what I was getting at. She gave up.
"Ok Jaden, why are you telling me this now?" she breathed, emphasizing 'now'.
Because I may never get a chance to tell you later.
She glanced up, startled by my sent thought. "What do you mean Jaden? You said it yourself; we'll be safe by noon!"
I said and I quote, "You'll be out of here and somewhere safe."
But I didn't send that thought to her, I just held her closer to me like it would be the last time I ever was close to her. "What are you thinking Jaden?" she demanded of me. I shook my head helplessly.
"I don't know. For some reason, I just feel like I have to tell you something," I tried to explain. "I feel like there's just still so much that's been left unsaid."
"You'll have plenty of time to tell me when we get out of here," she cut across, looking fierce. I sighed and pinched my nose.
"I'm not so sure I will," I muttered into her hair, closing my eyes. She twisted around and looked me straight in the eyes, trying to convince me of her thoughts.
"You will. Jaden, I know things may not look good right now, but this is the Rebellion. They've survived for a long time. They can make it out of this situation before Nick arrives. We have Niemona on our side to take out more and more of them. All of us are going to make it out alive this time. Just look at Allian, she just lost Darkal and yet she is still willing to lead us. She wouldn't let anything happen to her Rebellion Jaden; that much is obvious. She won't let Darkal die in vain."
"I know Alexis," I said. She started playing with my ring finger again and leaned up to kiss me gently on the lips. I returned the pressure lightly, my body on high alert still. I would not let Alexis die the same way Lillian had. She drew away when she sensed my discomfort and just showed me her hand.
But I wouldn't either.
"Besides Jaden, I won't let you cope out on marriage. You never get cold feet," she teased, attempting to calm me down. Admittedly it did. Whenever I thought about the future and knew that it would only hold Alexis with me everywhere I went...
I smiled, squeezing her shoulders. "Yeah, I don't get cold feet."
"Good," she said, punching me lightly on the shoulder. We stayed silent after that, standing up to watch over the progression of the two armies surrounding us. I bit my lip as Nick drew closer and closer and we stayed in the same spot. We weren't going to make it if I didn't do something. But what?
(3rd person POV)
8:45 am
He stood there on the edge of the cliff with his love in his arms, staring not at his friends, but at his enemies. Suddenly, he made up his mind.
"Allian," he called towards the angel, not taking his brown eyes off the advancing army. Said angel turned to face him, reading his intentions quicker than humanly possible.
"Jaden, no."
"Take Alexis out of here," he said, ignoring her. "I have to slow them down; we'll never make it otherwise. I'm the only one who has a chance." He spared a glance at the dwindling numbers behind them. "I have to give you all time to break through them."
"I won't let you do this alone!" Allian demanded, addressing him fiercely. "I'm going with you! No one should have to face this!"
"No Allian, the Rebellion needs you," Jaden calmly overrode her. "You're the only angel here; you know that I'm doing the right thing."
Allian visibly hardened at those words, recalling them to be Darkal's. Then her eye blazed with anger.
"We both know that I can't tell!" Allian shot back. "Would I have betrayed the Rebellion all those years ago if I could tell the difference between right and wrong?! No!"
Alexis stared. She then shook it off and held onto Jaden's arm fiercely. "I'm going with you!"
"No Alexis." He lowered his gaze to meet her hazel eyes. Ever so gently, he removed her grip and stroked her cheek tenderly. "I did promise you," he smiled sadly, his eye apologizing for all of the things they could never have together.
"Jaden no! We can still get out of here! We can still run away!" Alexis shouted, drawing the attention of those around them. Chris shot around, landing with power and grabbing Jaden by the shirt collar.
"Damn it Jaden! Don't do this!" he snarled, his eyes flashing red. "You don't have to do this! We've already lost Darkal, we don't want to lose you too!"
"Yes I do," he answered in that same steady tone. "Nick has too many soldiers, he'll overtake us easily. He wants me. He'll have to stop if I come to him... or I'll stop him myself."
Alexis pushed Chris away from her love and clung onto him as if her life depended on it. The tears came easily, flooding them both in an ocean of sorrow. Jaden smoothed her hair in calming motions and leaned down to her ears to whisper one of the last things that she would hear him say. "I love you Alexis. Never forget that."
"DON'T SAY THAT LIKE WE'LL NEVER SEE EACH OTHER AGAIN!! JADEN, PLEASE!"
"Take good care of her," Jaden said, ignoring his angel's pleas. He pushed her into the fairy's arms as if she weighed nothing; which was true to him. There was no physical weight that Alexis could impose on him, only that of his emotions, and right now, he was more broken than he had ever been. "I have to make things right."
"This is suicide!" Allian shouted at him boldly. "How is your death going to make things right Jaden?! You're only going to make things worse if you do this!"
He looked that angel right in the eye, holding the steady gaze while Alexis struggled in Chris's tight grasp. "Allian Pronscea, you know that this is the right thing to do. I know it, I can feel it."
"There's a difference between what's right and insanity!" she retorted. Jaden smiled softly at her and bowed his head respectfully.
"You said to me once Allian," he said slowly, "that you would rather die than have the Rebellion die. You said that so long as there are still people fighting, that there is still enough love that the Rebellion will live on undoubtedly." His brown eyes held the three gazes intensely. "I need you three to be those people. Alexis, I need you to still share your love. Please, I need to do this. I can stop Nick. I can make things right again. Please."
The three friends said nothing, Alexis was too overcome with her struggles against her restraint and with her heart. "I love you Jaden!" she shouted one last time, reaching out for him desperately. His eyes softened and he looked close to tears. "Please take me with you!"
"I love you too, wait for me, I'll be back. I promise," Jaden swore gently. "I have you to come back to. I won't die, Alexis. Nick needs me to end this war. I'll be back."
A great sob shook her entire body as Jaden gently stepped forward and kissed her one last time. She responded immediately, but it was broken too soon, they were broken too soon. And as he spread his wings and escaped towards death, she stretched out her hand again, tears trying to cloud her last vision of the one she loved, and forced her mind to memorize his beauty for what she feared would be the last time.
"You better come back Jaden!" Allian shouted suddenly. "I'll make sure you're grounded for the rest of your life if you don't!!"
Chris looked at her with understanding and quietly told her, "Allian, it's not your fault that this is happening."
She looked back at him crossly. "Actually, Chris, it is. That's why I won't fall anymore,"—she looked at the sky sadly—"not for anyone... not even if I love him." And she took off to lead the other rebels and tell the other's about Jaden's decision. Chris sighed heavily and lifted off with the limp Alexis in his arms, her eyes still following Jaden's fading wings, and her arm still outstretched towards the horizon.
(JADEN POV)
"Jaden!"
Mel's scream when she heard of my plight almost made me turn around again. Almost. Saying good-bye to Alexis had hurt so badly that I found myself searching for a reason to turn around and make a last-ditch effort to flee from this advancing army of about ten-thousand. But I stayed strong for the sake of all of them, my family, my friends, and my love.
Although I had told her that Nick wouldn't kill me, I knew it was most likely the opposite. I could sense his blinding rage coming after me in hot waves and I saw the bloodlust in his eyes even from so far away. His anger was blinding him, just like his darkness had all of those years ago.
I had two promised to keep to both females in my life: Mels and Alexis.
I had promised Mels that I would try and save Nick before I would try to kill him.
I had promised Alexis that I would be the first to die.
Looks like I'm getting a chance to fulfill them both at once now.
Far too soon my feet touched the ground and my eyes locked with evil. Far too soon he came out to greet me. "So you decided to come out and play after all, huh Guardian?" one of his men jeered as Nick emerged from his army. He stood a good distance away from me, sizing me up.
I said nothing, only glared at the shell of my cousin in front of me. He smirked and drew his sword, holding it lazily in front of him and pointed at me. "I get it Guardian, no words, only action."
I stared at the sword and then glanced around him at his army. They wouldn't leave without Nick in lead; they'd stay and watch our fight. Surprised, I felt my old fire grow inside my chest, the confidence in my abilities. I could stall this army by drawing out my fight with Nick! The flames blazed in my eyes as I drew my sword steadily, no shaking entering my muscles at all. I think my mind had already accepted the death that was most likely going to befall me.
Jaden!
It was Alexis, and I cringed, all the feelings I had for her only weakening me, making me want to turn around and go back, and making me want to live more and more.
Alexis, please don't.
She was hurt that I had just rejected her, but she didn't leave. I felt her presence there, watching, always watching me. My Guardian Angel. I tore myself away from her just as Nick launched himself at me. Our blades met in a shower of sparks and he twirled his sword around my guard, nearly slashing open my shoulder. I dodged, leaping to the side and slashing across as I did.
He blocked it again and came after me with some strange strategies obviously learned in the castle. They were effective though, I stumbled away from him with a nasty cut across my left arm. Angry that he had landed a blow so soon I started pouring everything I had ever learned into my offensive, tricking myself into believing that if any of these blows hit they wouldn't kill him.
He finally sprang into the air, gaining the higher ground and leaving me at a disadvantage. I parried his blows with some difficultly, trying to find an opening for myself to jump into higher ground. It didn't look like it was going to happen anytime soon and the jeers from the men behind me certainly weren't doing anything for my concentration.
Suddenly inspiration struck and I waited, sword raised, for the next offensive. Nick didn't seem to want to disappoint me because that came the next second. I rolled to the ground under the swings and sprang to my feet behind him, using my momentum as a launch pad to get high fast. I felt the buffets of air pressure close to me and knew he was right behind. I pulled out a backwards loop and watched as he did the same in an opposite direction. I poised my weapon out in front of me, waiting for the jolt that came when ramming someone mid-air.
We crashed into each other at such high speeds I was sure our swords were going to shatter, but thankfully they didn't. The strength was zapped from my arms at the impact, but I managed to keep a good hold on my weapon. "Hmm..." Nick said from across of me, causing my eyes to travel to his, something I had told myself not to do. "It looks like we're even on sparring... how about we make this more interesting, huh cousin?" His blue eyes faded just like that into the deep—almost black—purple and glowed, sending ripples of pain through my body.
Now will you let me take over? Haou taunted. I grit my teeth and gave into him; surprising Nick by the lengths I would go to protect my angel. Oh if only he knew the half of it.
I tried not to resist as the first wave of darkness constricted my mind, pulling this half of me down into its domain, but I have to admit that I flailed a little bit at how cold it was to be touched by pure evil.
This is for Alexis. Everyone will be safe if I can delay him, even if that means giving into darkness again.
My feet were very tentative when I took my first step in darkness of heart, glancing around at the mirrors, looking for the one reflecting into the current world. I found it off to my right and walked over to it, amazed at how much I had actually missed not feeling pain or anger or love or joy. It disgusted some small part of me that I had already allowed Haou's strength—our strength—to take away what made me human. But if that was necessary...
This is for Alexis.
Her face appeared in one of mirrors, signaling she was still here for me. I stared at it for a few minutes before turning back to the fight I was engaged in, feeling my arms move as if they weren't apart of me and yet were at the same time.
"Now we can have some fun," Nick was saying, blasting Haou with his free hand. Haou knocked it to the side with a flash of gold eyes, diving at Nick and landing a powerful blow on his wings. I felt a dark satisfaction in my moment of triumph before returning to myself—startled. I could have sworn I just saw someone else down here in the darkness.
Unnerved, I glanced away from the mirror and settled for feeling Haou's strikes. "Hello? Alexis, is that you?"
No one answered, of course not. Berating myself for being so silly (but secretly glad that I could at least still feel some emotions) I turned back to the mirror and tried to immerse myself in the fight. Nick was a few feet away again, he and Haou crossing blades with more power and deadly grace than I had ever pulled off before.
Because we didn't have any intention of killing him before, but now we do.
Don't kill him Haou; the army will just kill us anyway. I felt unusually calm, my arms moving like they were a part of me again, but I wasn't the conductor. Nick landed a punch on the side of Haou's face past the swords, and I felt the pain too. What was going on?
I don't think either of us want to go down without taking him with us.
You're absolutely right Haou. And for once I meant it. I did want to take down this cruel man before me, and I was fighting to do that. But Melody...
I understand, Haou said, and I think he actually did for once. I can't kill him without you giving your consent, and we need each other's support to win this battle. We need to act as one even if we are not.
I nodded, knowing he could sense me, and I let down every barrier of defense I had ever raised against this dark power of mine fall. I saw what Haou saw, felt what he felt, and I could give it my all now. Literally. But my power, that was not mine no matter how close Haou and I were to becoming a single person again. I don't think it was ever rightfully mine, but that was not of our concern right now.
Focus.
And I did.
We moved together, reading the other's thoughts perfectly and propelling ourselves through the air with enough strength to fight against the Overlord and his power. Not to win, no. Sadly that was far out of our reach even now, but we could protect those that we loved—and hated.
The next time the steel we held clanged together, we shattered it, settling for rams and hand-to-hand combat. Nick had the upper hand against us and it showed every time we had to close our wings a fall towards earth to save ourselves from a blast of power. We surged upwards, feeling our muscles tighten with anticipation, and managed to lock onto him, landing a blow to his stomach that made him rear back from us quickly to recover.
Something flickered again in the corner of my mind, a presence that shouldn't be there, something that I shouldn't be feeling. Distracted, I pulled my attention away from Haou and back towards the swirling darkness. What was going on?!
Jaden.
I returned to my place beside Haou without any further prompting, trying to ignore whatever it was that kept coming into range. We fought hard now that we had an opening, getting as close as our wings would allow it and kicking at every part of him, blocking his retaliations with our arms the same way he'd block us. Then he struck, his hand glowing with purple energy. We blocked it without thinking and then regretted the contact, biting our lip to prevent a scream as we fell, electricity-like substances paralyzing us temporarily.
Of course, saying that it didn't hurt would definitely be a lie, but when has that stopped us before? So we tried faking out our body, claiming it didn't hurt as if it could respond any sooner.
The wind buffeted us on the way down, Nick swooping right above us, a dagger in his hands, aimed straight down, at our wing we realized. Painfully, we forced our limbs to move, opening the wing he was aiming for and letting it fill with air to swing us off to the side. He zoomed past, skimming our cheek with his knife. We flinched but recovered, grabbing the various weapons Allian had forced us all to load up with.
We took it out and realized it was another knife, which was fine with us. We took off after Nick, who knew that he had no choice but to land if he didn't want to be amputated by us. When he did—land that is—he pointed the small weapon straight up and his eyes flashed dangerously. We knew what was coming before it happened, so we managed to get the hell out of the way before being blown back upwards rather painfully.
The thin beam of dark energy that had shot up from the knife scorched a few feathers, but other than that we were perfectly fine. We landed a short distance away from him, knowing it wouldn't be best to be in the air during a knife fight that could also qualify as a supernatural gun fight if you think about it.
Not that we noticed of course.
We circled each other warily, searching for an opening to attack. We let Nick get in the first move, trying to convince him that he was winning even though we were only stalling, not trying to kill him. He jabbed at our ribs and we jumped back, flipping our weapon through our fingers like we would a monster card and driving it down at his hand. He pulled it away quickly, stepping forward offensively and taking a stab at our heart.
Something clicked and we jumped a reasonable distance behind. "It was you. You were the one that stabbed me in the gate!"
He smirked and we started to circle again, chuckling with a rather good imitation of Haou. "Of course it was me."
He jabbed and we dodged again, needing to get him to talk. "Why? I thought you didn't want me dead."
"I don't," he answered, "I need you alive if I am going to harvest your power."
"But I controlled it then!" we shot at him, openly confused. "I can't do anything for you if I can't control it!"
"But if you had control over it all of this would be no more," Nick simply answered. "You could have easily removed the Queen and I off the face of this planet to restore your so-called peace. So I had to destabilize you again if I had any chance at reviving that evil within you, and it seemed to work out just fine, didn't it Jaden?"
Haou made a rude gesture with our free hand before I could stop him and Nick laughed. "How could you be certain it wouldn't kill us?" I asked, ignoring Haou's attempt to say something nasty.
"I waited until I saw a healing spirit to make my move," Nick answered with a shrug. "She could heal you when I inserted darkness back into your heart and undid the damage you and that blasted Yubel had done."
"You mean what Yubel had made us fix?" we answered coolly, taking a swing at him. He caught the blade with his own and we shoved him away with a harsh push against the metal. He took the push gracefully, still smirking.
"No, what Yubel had ruined about you. Your true nature, the darkness that can destroy all enemies in your path if you had the guts to use it. But you don't, so it's my job to make you use them," he snipped, and we had a feeling our little chat was over. Damn it.
After a little while we both abandoned the knives and took back into the air, Nick blasting at us and trying to catch us in the range of his little mental torture images and us just getting out of the way and occasionally sending something hurtling back whenever we could.
Finally, we got a hit, a nice kick to his stomach and he doubled over, allowing us to give him a sharp uppercut to his chin.
There it was again! I saw it!
I dashed back into the darkness and allowed Haou to do what he wished with a now defending Nick as I searched for whoever it was that was trying to contact me or was coming into range of my mind. I felt Haou land another heavy blow on Nick's chest and saw it instantly, it was lying down on what appeared to be the ground, its eyes closed. Curious, I took a step forward only to meet an invisible wall separating me from the still presence. I pressed one hand against the barrier, surprised.
Haou and Nick circled each other again, and Nick landed a blow with one of his wings on our chest, and the barrier I was still touching blasted me away, back into the center of my heart. I landed flat on my butt, startled. I felt Haou narrow our eyes, but he didn't falter in his position, striking back with just as much venom. I dashed over to the wall again and slowed, reaching out with my hand so I wouldn't make myself a pancake in my own darkness.
Keeping my left hand out firmly in front of me, I slowly ventured forward as Haou tackled Nick rather unorthodoxly, sending all of us tumbling down towards earth in a giant spiraling circle. Ignoring the unpleasant feeling of vertigo, I picked up my pace, surprised when the slumbering spirit came into view without a touch of resistance. Curious, I bent down and sat on my heels, turning the figure from his sleep on his stomach to his back. Just as I saw his face, Nick tore away from Haou with a painful blast of dark energy, which also sent me spiraling back into my own darkness, because I had just realized where I was.
Nick's darkness. And I had just seen the good side of Nick, trapped and unaware. For a few seconds I just sat at stared at the mirrors, dazed. Nick really was like me after all.
But was he already too far gone to save? I had been conscious—well awake anyway—when I had fallen, and he was obviously out for the count. Plus he had been in here for a decade which was far longer than what I had endured.
I joined Haou in battle again, projecting my questions at him. Can anyone be revived from Darkness after that long? How can we try to wake him up?
We detached ourselves from Nick the same time he did to us, barely managing to avoid a head-on collision with the ground.
No, no one can be truly awakened after that long. If you want to try, we'd have to use our power to connect us to him instead of just landing blows and connecting the Yuki strength for brief seconds.
We refocused on the battle, frowning. Our defenses were still incredibly weak from our last attempt at using the power, so there was only a tiny chance that we wouldn't lose it to the blinding darkness, even if Haou was apart of it. We bent over as we regained ground and took an extendable spear Allian had stuffed up my pant legs hastily. Fingering the weapon and completely unsure how to use it in the air, I let Haou take over again, figuring his connection and like of destroying things would be fuel for using the thing.
After five minutes Nick had disintegrated the spear. Oh well.
But something weird had come into his eyes when he saw us draw that weapon, like he was flashing back or something. But it had hardly lasted half a second before he was trying to murder us again (or at least that's what it looked like).
Falling back on our last option other than the power, we activated our duel disk and drew five cards. Nick smirked and did likewise, still coming at us. Our eyes narrowed. He wanted an actual battle against the Supreme King? We'd give it to him.
We glanced down at the cards so charged with darkness as we were. I flinched slightly at the hand, but Haou used it as if it were a second skin. "I activate Dark Fusion," we said, playing the spell card as we dodged around Nick. "With this I'll fuse Elemental Hero Burstinatrix and Elemental Hero Avian to summon Inferno Wing in attack mode! (ATK: 2100)" The fusion gate opened up, flooding in darkness as our trademark monster flew out, ready to rip Nick's to shreds. He smirked.
"I'll summon Dark Destroyer Knight in attack mode!" Nick called out, rushing us again as his monster appeared at his side. We blinked, we'd never before heard of that card. It was covered in a rough black armor that resembled stone and carried what we assumed was a lance at its side. (Atk: 1700, Def: 0) "Attack!"
"It's weaker than my monster," we told him shortly as Inferno Wing leapt into action, easily destroying the knight. "Where is that card from? You can not get a deck here, you weren't born here."
Nick smirked and declared, "I activate the special ability of Dark Destroyer Knight! When he is sent to the grave, I take no battle damage and you lose 500 attack points." We didn't even wince as 500 points of our life were taken away, something Haou had always easily withstood. "And your monster is destroyed!"
"Not quite," we told him sternly as he tried to capture us in another one of his psychic-ish waves. We waved it aside with a golden glow of the eyes and continued our narration through both of our battles. "I used Dark Fusion, which prevents the monster summoned by it from being destroyed by anything other than battle the first turn it is summoned."
Nick scowled, moving closer and taking another punch at us. We dodged and he placed a face-down violently.
We drew our card as we dropped back to earth to avoid a blow. "I will summon Neospacion Air Hummingbird in attack mode! (Atk: 800)" Our faithful alien friend appeared casually next to us, blocking an attack from Nick for us. We nodded to him to show our thanks. "And his special ability activates! We gain 500 life-points for every card in your hand, so we gain 2000!"
Jaden: 5500
Nick: 4000
"Now Inferno Wing, direct attack!"
"I activate the continuous trap card Shadow Web!" Nick interrupted, stopping himself from getting burned by our monster. "Once every turn I can remove one Dark attribute monster from play from my hand, deck, or grave to negate an attack. So I'll remove my Shadowling from play in my hand."
"Now the ability of Shadowling activates," Nick said lowly, taking the card out of his pocket and showing it to me as if taunting me. "When she is removed from play I can summon one dark token onto my field in my next turn in defense mode and draw one card."
"I attack with Air Hummingbird," I continued, unfazed. Nick threw up his arms in defense when my monster pounded into him before returning to my side of the field. He back up respectively to draw his next card.
Jaden: 5500
Nick: 3200
The small dark token appeared on his field, both power levels reading zero. Nick smirked. "I'll summon Shadow Child in attack mode and then tribute both he and Dark token to summon"—the little boy with red eyes and black demon-y skin disappeared as quickly as he had appeared—"King's Advisor in attack mode! (Atk: 0, Def: 2500)"
We blinked, waiting for an explanation of a level 8 monster with zero attack points. It came quickly, "When King's Advisor is successfully summoned, I can summon King of Darkness to the field in attack mode from my deck, hand, graveyard, or even from out-of-play!" We watched, impressed, as a huge figure rose into existence, looking very much like we had in the Dark World—black armor, spikes, creepy glowing eyes—with the exception of the red cape. This cape was deep royal purple; at its attack points were formidable: 4300.
But these cards did not exist in the human world, where did he receive them?
"He can not be destroyed by spell cards, and King's Advisor negates traps targeting King of Darkness. But he can also not attack being summoned this way the first turn, but that doesn't matter!" We watched King's Advisor's attack points soar up to 3000. "King's Advisor's attack points increase by 1000 for every special effect that any monster other than himself has on the field. That brings him up to 3000 with plenty to destroy your Inferno Wing! Go King's Advisor! Warring Decision!" Once again, we refused to show any signs of pain to the Overlord as he attacked us.
Jaden: 4600
Nick: 3200
"My move, draw!" we glanced at the card and pointed at King's Advisor. "Since Inferno Wing is no longer on the field, your monster loses 1000 attack points!"
King's Advisor: Atk: 2000
Nick's Cards: 3
Jaden/Haou's cards: 4
"I'll set two face-downs," we grunted, leaving us without much of a hand or any defense. Ra, I had forgotten how good Nick was at doing that...
"I then play Pot of Greed, which lets me draw two cards (3). Next I summon Elemental Hero Wild Heart to the field in attack mode (Atk: 1500, Defense: 1600)! Next I'll activate the field spell Skyscraper, which raises his points by 1000 as long as he's fighting a monster above his attack points (Atk: 2500). And since he has an ability too, your attack points increase, so I'll activate Heated heart to raise Wild Heart's attack to match yours! Go! Destroy King's Advisor!"
"Both of our monsters will be destroyed," Nick glowered as our monster raced towards him, understanding that Wild Heart isn't affected by trap cards, like Shadow Web. Our monster sliced through his, but his fought back just as hard. They both exploded into dust, returning to the graveyard.
"Trap activate! Death and Rebirth! I can activate this trap when my monster is destroyed on my battle phase turn! It allows me to destroy one monster on your side of the field, and I choose King of Darkness!" Nick's monster exploded, sending wind scattering everywhere.
"When King of Darkness is destroyed, his heir can appear on the field from my deck! Dark Prince in attack mode (Atk: 2000, Def: 1300)!"
"Useless effort, Death and Rebirth then allows me to summon one monster that was destroyed, so I shall choose my Wild Heart, but he has to attack. But because of Sky-Scraper, his attack points rise once again (2500)! Go!"
Our monster took out the Prince easily, swinging his giant sword and slicing it right in half. Nick winced, recognizing our strength as duelists.
"Really Guardian? Is this all you can do?" he taunted.
We stared him down coolly, refusing to speak at all. He made a satisfied 'hmm' and drew his next card, quickly activating yet another unheard of card. "I shall activate the spell known as Next in Line. I can only activate this spell when both the King of Darkness and the Prince are in the graveyard. I remove them both from play in order to summon, the First and Last Overlord!"
Dark Prince and his daddy appeared on the field, transparent, and then vanished, bowing. A new figure appeared in their place, chain mail decorating his torso and a twisted black crown atop of his head. Unlike his father and brother, he had fierce skeletal wings jutting out from his back and his eyes were pure black.
(Atk: 5000, Def: 3700)
"No way," I breathed and Haou cursed at me. "5000 attack points?"
"Way," Nick laughed, holding his thumb our in front of him. He looked at me and smirked, turning his thumb down. "Attack."
Oh crap.
Jaden: 1100
Nick: 2800
We flinched as the merciless attack nailed our life-points and we tumbled dangerously towards the ground, flaring out our wings more to catch ourselves.
"Losing altitude so soon Jaden?" the Overlord taunted with a sharp smirk. We growled and rose back upwards. There was noting to brag about yet.
"Are you done with this childish taunting?" Haou replied while I silently smirked. Nick scowled but said nothing. We drew our next card. "Graceful Charity! I can draw three cards, but I must discard two of them." We stared at them emotionlessly and then flickered over to Nick's field. He looked bored. We sent Elemental Heroes Sparkman and Clayman to the cemetery and then activated:
"Hope of the Fifth. This spell card allows me to shuffle five monsters with Elemental Hero in their names back into my deck and then draw two cards. And if it is the last card in my hand when activated, I can draw an extra card."
Elemental Heroes Burstinatrix, Avian, Wild Heart, Sparkman, and Clayman shot out of my graveyard and I shuffled them securely back into my deck and drew three cards.
These will do nicely, Haou commented to me offhandedly.
Ya think?
Card Count:
Jaden: 3
Nick: 3
"I will activate my spell, Necro Illusion! I'll use this to summon King's Advisor in attack mode (Atk: 1000). Hmm, I guess your Overlord has a special ability? I thought as much."
"How?" Nick muttered, staring at his turned monster.
"Necro Illusion allows me to take one monster destroyed by battle from your graveyard and put him on my field. Unfortunately, he is sent back to the graveyard at the end of the turn. But guess what? Now that he's out, your King of Darkness comes back from out-of-play and is summoned to my side or the field too (4300)!"
"But I'm far from finished! Next I'll play Common Soul. With this card I can summon a Neo Spacian from my hand to the field. Come forward Grand Mole! I select one monster on my side of the field and add Grand Mole's attack points to him! So I'll choose King of Darkness (Atk: 5200)!"
Nick clapped his hands together slowly. "Very good, so now you can defeat my Overlord, or at least you would be able to. I still have Shadow Web, or did you forget?"
"Of course I didn't," we answered. "Attack him King of Darkness!"
"I'll just send another monster away and negate your attack," Nick coolly countered, sliding another card into his pocket.
"Perfect. Grand Mole! Attack him!"
"What?! My First and Last Overlord has far more attack points than that little rodent!!"
"Exactly! Grand Mole has a special ability which sends both the targeted monster and him back into our hands without any battle damage inflicted!"
"WHAT?!"
Grand Mole returned to our hand and nodded when we thanked him silently. Well, I thanked him. Haou just looked a bit less intimidating towards him. "Now I'll attack with King's Advisor!"
Attack: 1000 (King of Darkness' special ability)
Jaden: 1100
Nick: 1800
"I activate First and Last Overlord's ability! If I take damage the turn when he is sent off the field by battle or special ability I can summon him back to the field in defense mode and destroy all monsters on your side of the field, ignoring any effects they have! But I have to give you one monster with attack points at least within 500 points of half of the destroyed monsters' original attack points! So I will give you Dark Prince (Atk: 2000)!"
(King of Darkness' original points: 4300. King's Advisors': 0. Half of 4300 is 2150 attack points)
"Oh, and your turn automatically ends."
"That is one powerful card," I muttered under my breath when Haou remained silent.
Nick didn't seem alarmed that he had just turned his monster on himself, he seemed... nostalgic. "Strange how things work out, isn't it Jaden?"
"Huh?" I blundered before Haou could stop me. Dang it, maybe I should just let him take over completely again...
"Who do those cards resemble to you?"
"Umm... Royal people who rule darkness?" I exploded, earning me a mental assault from an angry Haou.
You sound like an idiot! Leave the talking to me!
Well excuse me!
"Yes, royalty. It reminds me very much of you and your father actually," Nick shrugged, his smirk turning deadly.
He's trying to distract us.
It's working.
Not if I can help it.
Haou booted me back in darkness without any other warning, knowing that I wouldn't struggle. Haou! I thought you said we had to work together to stall Nick out!
Screw that. Your curiosity and emotions only serve as a distraction!
But you feel them too...
I can make myself feel nothing. Now be silent if you wish to listen to what your impudent cousin must say.
All I could do was obey.
"Both of you stand on the same side against me. You would be the Prince, the one who would inherit the throne if I hadn't interfered. And your father was the King, but he is no more, I destroyed him. I am the Overlord that took your place, the first and last Yuki son. Don't you see? I was born first, but of the second son, so I was born before you, but I was still last for the throne. And there you stand, still against me. But even now neither of you has enough strength to defeat me. You will be destroyed just as easily," he narrowed his eyes dangerously and repeated, "Isn't it strange how things work out?"
"That deck has been passed down, hasn't it?" Haou suddenly said, no tone entering his voice. "It is not rightfully yours, it is mine. What deliriums have you received that would allow you to believe that my own deck would defeat its true master?"
"So you figured it out, did you? Took you long enough Jaden, or excuse me, should I address you as Haou? But this deck has served me for years, and I have met no resistance in using it. I am its master, not you."
"We'll see," Haou shot back calmly. "But enough talk, we're in the middle of a duel, and I believe it's your move."
"I'll switch First and Last Overlord into Attack mode," Nick declared as he drew his card. "And then I'll get rid of this city with a field spell of my own; Dark Winged Kingdom!" I watched avidly through the mirror as Sky-Scraper was destroyed and replaced with what I assumed was a throne room. "In here all monsters with King, Prince, or Overlord in their names cannot be destroyed by traps and their attacks cannot be stopped by them either. So there goes your little trap card Haou."
I felt fear bubble in my chest before Haou shoved it away from me forcibly. We wouldn't survive a hit from that monster! I just hoped that we gave the others enough time to escape...
Here's our last stand, Haou.
We've known that for a long time Jaden.
You know, as far as evil-genocidal-mind-game-playing-maniacs go, you're not so bad to be a part of.
I suppose I could have been stuck with a worse alternate personality to deal with.
I'll take that as a compliment, now let's finish it.
Oh, we will.
Hey, Lex! I called out to her just as Nick declared his final attack. Her presence was there in an instant.
Jaden, she screamed, what's going on? Are you dueling Nick? Whose monsters are those?
We can buy you guys a few more minutes, but this duel will leave us a bit... weak. How much longer do you need?
How much longer do we need?! HOW CAN YOU ASK THAT LIKE YOUR LIFE DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING?! YOU'RE MAKING YOURSELF SOUND LIKE A SACRIFICE INSTEAD OF A HUMAN BEING!
Just tell us Angel.
You stay out of this you contradiction!
The attack swirled towards us, purple, black, and blue mixing together. Haou declared Dark Prince's attack in what looked like a last-ditch effort. I did start to feel the irony that Nick had pointed out. Even in what represented my card form, I was fighting to the death in an attempt to stop the Overlord. But I needed my angel to be with me here too.
This was my last stand, but now I had to take Nick down with me. That should cause enough confusion to ensure their safety... I turned my focus away from the two attacks drawing closer to each other and felt for Alexis again; wanting her to be the last face I'd see before death.
Are you safe? I asked her, feeling Haou clench our hand with anticipation.
Yes... Jaden don't leave me!! Not again!! I can't lose you!
Her voice was like ice digging deeply into my heart, destroying it. She just sounded so hurt and confused... how could I do something like this to her? I sighed, rinsing myself of all of those thoughts and looked behind me, Haou turning our head. I imagined that I could see her still, almost home free, and wished her happiness somehow.
Go, Alexis, we've got this under control. I love you, remember that.
And her presence was gone again, the last thought flickering in a vicious attempt to say she cared. We turned back to the duel, watching as our monsters finally started to connect in an explosion. Closing our eyes, we announced what would be the end of the male Yuki bloodline, hoping that someone could restore balance after we disappeared.
"Trap activates, Final Fusion."
"It's no use Haou," our enemy laughed openly. "You can't stop my attack!"
We opened our gold eyes again, knowing they were glowing as our power finally started to slip out of the cracks that our union had subdued. We felt it start to engulf us in an effort to protect us from dying, but we didn't let it.
"I'm not trying to stop your attack!" we shouted. "This card makes us both take damage equal to the combined attack points of our monsters! This duel is over!"
"Clever," Nick simply said as the field exploded into a blinding light. We were carried around by the gales, completely helpless and battered against the powerful explosion. Haou tried to right himself at one point and just ended up being pushed around more. He hesitated when Nick came into view, deciding something.
Suddenly the smoke cleared, and both of our life points standing strong. Both of our fields were blank, and Nick was frowning deeply, a disturbed look on his face. "Why would you just try and throw away your life like that to try and kill me? Are you mentally ill?"
Jaden: 1100
Nick: 1800
"No, I am not," we replied levelly, power lacing its way into our voice the longer this progressed. "I would gladly give up my own life to save those that matter to me."
"Haou, tell me you have not been corrupted by my cousin's foolish optimism," he demanded, his eyes narrowing.
Haou rolled our eyes and I let him respond, "I have not, trust me. I would much rather let everything loose and destroy all of you. Be thankful that his love protects him from me. Otherwise, you would already be dead at my feet."
I blinked, not expecting that answer. But he was my evil half, so I supposed I should have known he was going to say something like that. Nick simply shook his head and held out a card for us to see.
"I activated the Quick-Play spell Power Balance from my hand. This made both of our monster's attack points read zero, which is why you can even continue to speak to me. It also allows us both to draw until we each have six cards in our hands," he continued as if nothing had happened. "I will then place two cards face-down and end my turn.
We couldn't complain, so we drew our cards wordlessly. "Now my monster comes back because of his special ability, both of our monsters had been destroyed because of their zero attack points. I must give you a monster with half of Dark Prince's so I'll give you Shadow Child. My turn ends here."
We drew our seventh card and checked the child on our field. (Atk: 1000, Def: 700)
Staring intensely at the cards in our hand and then up at the Overlord, we saw a strategy forming. "I activate"—we glanced up, surprised the Nick had used his face-down already—"hand destruction. We both discard five cards to the graveyard and then can draw two cards. There goes any strategy you may have had."
We growled and sent these cards to the grave: Neo Spacian Aqua Dolphin, Grand Mole, Flare Scarab, Dark Panther, and Glow Moss. Now all we needed was to get these two cards... we drew and smirked. This was over.
"I activate Fake Hero which allows me to summon Elemental Hero Neos to the field in attack mode (Atk: 2500)! This is as good as over because of your trap card Nick! Now I activate contact fusion!"
"But there are no monsters on your field other than Neos!" Nick objected.
"But there are six of them in my Graveyard! I can fuse all of them together to form," I shouted loudly, growing excited much to Haou's disgust. I could finally summon this monster! I've wanted to for such a long time and now I could use it to try and defeat Nick and save my friends, "Elemental Hero God Neos (Atk: 3000, Def: 2500)!!"
Nick raised his eyebrows at the golden monster, unimpressed as I shuffled the Neospacions and Neos back into my deck. "It gets better," we told him smoothly, removing all of the Neospacions from play. "We can remove any Neospacions from play and he gains their effects, along with 500 attack points for each of them! So I'll remove all of them!"
We nodded as Nick looked shocked, the six Neo Spacian colors surrounding God Neos and boosting his attack points to 6000. "I think I'll activate Air Hummingbird's effect first, you remember that right?"
Jaden: 3100
Nick: 1800
"Then I'll activate Aqua Dolphin's, which lets me search your hand for a monster weaker than mine and destroy it, giving you 500 points of damage if I discard one card from my hand." I slid Necroshade into the grave. "Let's see what you have in there..."
A female monster appeared on the field, her attack points equal to the Overlord's. We blinked in surprise at the new arrival but couldn't get a better look before our monster blew her away and Nick lost 500 points.
Jaden: 3100
Nick: 1300
"Finally, I'll activate Flare Scarab's ability, which allows God Neos to gain 500 attack points for every spell or trap card on your side of the field! (Atk: 7000) I think that we'll finish this for you now, shall we Nick? God Neos, end this!" we shouted, punching our fist into the air. Then I allowed my gaze to drift slightly and said my silent apology to Melody for having to kill her brother.
"Not so fast!" Nick called, waving his arms around the graveyard. The woman that we had destroyed appeared on the field and took the attack for him. We blinked, surprised as all of the monsters faded away and our duel-disks shut off, ending the duel. "That was Beloved Maiden's effect. When she is in the graveyard, she can defend me by reducing battle damage to zero and automatically ending the duel... You may know her better as the 'Angel' Jaden."
We blinked in surprise, completely caught off-guard by this twist of events. Our power took that chance and made a rush to escape, and Haou didn't fight to stop it, leaving me to forcibly push it back down.
Why aren't you fighting?! I demanded, panting in the darkness as I exerted myself a bit too far.
We have no weapons, and this is a good time as any to try and free your cousin. He has just lost, whether it is official or not, and his defenses are weakened.
But if we let it out we may not be able to rein it in!
That is the chance we must take if you want to save them, he said, pointing behind us were the troops had been pushed far back.
He's right, the Rebellion has almost gotten through; they just need a little more time. I glanced through the mirror at the endless troops and frowned... and a little less bad guys couldn't be that bad, right?
Right.
I pulled Haou back into the darkness with me, stopping myself from resisting the lull and the numb state that my power gifted me with. It twirled around me, filling up my veins with its presence, and for once I let it run its course. I half-felt my hand lift up and examined my nails absently, then my sight faded, and I was in complete darkness.
(3rd person POV)
The Guardian looked up at Nick, who had gone pale. He flapped his wings, curious as to why the feathers only held white now instead of the three colors. He shrugged, realizing he didn't really care that much as he thought. He turned his golden eyes on the Overlord who was in his way and just stared at him.
"Jaden?" the man asked, surprised. Then he grinned, "No, you're the real him, the Guardian, right?" He didn't say anything in response, just watched him. Nick grinned larger, if that was even possible. "Well Guardian, I have a way to make your job so much easier."
He looked up, seemingly mildly interested, and allowed himself to gently touch down on the ground. The Overlord followed warily, wondering why the other hadn't said anything to him yet. Finally, the Guardian turned to him and observed him, opening his mouth to say, "You've learned control."
Nick smirked, hoping that meant that he was on the 'good side' of Jaden's corrupting power. It would appear that the annoying rebel that he had known was already out of the picture, perfect. "I took your advice to heart," he chuckled, referring to eight years ago. "And it gave me unlimited power."
"Almost unlimited," the teen reminded him, gazing around at the thousands of men and woman gathered around him who looked simply awed. "You've certainly thrown things into a new light."
Nick wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not, but knew better than to anger the Guardian if he enjoyed living. "I have a proposition for you Guardian," he continued when his cousin remained silent and watchful. The mild interest returned to his gold eyes. "If you would join me and my men, we could finally end this war and squash the Rebellion, which has been causing discord among the worlds and to my—our kingdom. We could capture your angel and keep her safe in the castle with us. My army and I could work with you to restore balance in Everlost..." he trailed off, letting the Guardian think of all the possibilities.
"I think," he started slowly, drawing it out, "that perhaps you haven't changed much. Of all of the things that you can control, myself is not one of them. It is my duty to watch over the worlds, and I know that it is not the Rebellion that is throwing it into chaos." His eyes settled onto Nick and held them, showing nothing, no remorse. "And I can keep my Angel safe by sending her to a place where no one else can ever hurt her again. You and your army are the forces that are destroying the worlds, and that Queen in Everlost. The only way you could help me is by killing yourselves instead."
It had gone deathly quiet in the army, all of the men and women staring at the two heirs to the throne. Nick shook his head sadly. "I was afraid you'd say that, so I guess we'll finally see just who's power is stronger now, shall we cousin?"
"If you wish to die so soon," he replied, and held out his hand simply, his eyes starting to glow. Nick picked up a sword that one of his men had dropped and flipped it around, a dark aura shielding his body from any mental attacks. "I see you've learned to block that," the guardian smirked, looking amused. "Perhaps I should let you live just to see exactly what you can do. But this army has to go."
"Go ahead," Nick laughed, "I dare you."
"That is not wise, but since you insist..." His hand closed into a fist and a rush of power exploded from him, searing the men like wildfire and spreading just as quickly. Soon they were all blinded by the light and the screaming started as they were captured in the strange grasp of the fiery energy, bursting into dust. The Guardian flinched suddenly, holding his heart and closing his eyes. The blast intensified, and Nick took a step back and squinted his eyes against the light, his own power barely enough to protect him from this blast.
The Guardian fell back as well, his gold eyes still glowing, the only thing visible to the Overlord in the flames. Jaden fell to his knees, clutching his heart painfully, "What is this pain I feel?" he whispered. "What is this feeling?"
He felt as if something was trying to pull him backwards into a corner, to lock him away. No, he remembered what if felt like to be there, and he liked it like this. Nothing to worry about, no conscious, able to settle things as easily as blasting them out of his way. "There will be no pain soon," he said to himself, closing his eyes and then opening them again. One was brown, and the other was gold.
(Jaden POV)
I have to stop this right now... wait, that's what I'm doing already, ending all of the suffering and bringing calm back into the world... by destroying everyone, which isn't right... unless they are the cause of death and suffering themselves. It's better to end than to try and mend everything...
right? No, it may be harder to mend things, but ending them is just wrong... if they feel no pain, but if they are hurting, it's my duty to end their suffering... but not by ending them. I am supposed to use this for good... or justice, which leads me to destroying this annoying power standing in my way... or is it really just to take a life? Who am I to judge...
I'm the Guardian. It's my job to watch over these worlds and to end the war... with the Angel and she wouldn't approve of just killing anyone in my way... until she sees how beneficial it is to just wipe a clean slate and start over again... and continue the cycle over and over again until the worlds are empty and lifeless?!... Calm and peaceful, no more war if there's no one left to fight... and no more life or worlds to protect...
so then my duty is done and... I would be a cold heartless murderer and the Angel would kill me before it got that far if I asked her too... kill me. But would she really? If she felt pain because of what was happening, it would be my duty to send her away too... but I couldn't kill her, I love her!! Just like I can't kill Nick!
When my vision cleared I stood, with all of my love and hopes, between the two extremes with Haou at my side. Slowly, our sight fell to the right, where my own darkness swirled in oddly bright colors. Then we turned in the same way to the left where only the shadows survived. Steadily, we moved towards the dead area and out of my own domain, my helpless spirits traveling like ghosts into the other world of despair so similar to what our own had been.
There was the figure in the center of it, sprawled out peacefully as if sleeping. The form started to stir as images flickered in the low mirrors that hung around us all. Nick's soldiers, we realized, were being killed instantly by our power. Sad, but sacrifices had to be made to save this world.
The Overlord's gaze shifted slightly and we were staring at where I would be standing, only my glowing golden eyes distinguishable from the intense blast. We watched the Overlord raise his hand and an extra sword which with was protected by his own power. That wouldn't last for much longer.
I walked over to the figure that was stirring after his ten year slumber and took his shoulder in my hands. I took in his black spiky hair and his peaceful face silently. I shook him into wakefulness and watched as those blue eyes opened, confused and lifeless. I stood and so did he, but he did not seem to see me. I wasn't surprised. I didn't belong in my cousin's darkness of heart after all.
"You have a long way to go," I told him, even though he couldn't hear me. He had stopped and was staring without moving at the images displayed in the mirrors. "I may have revived you now Nick, but you can't conquer your darkness on your own."
When we die... is this what she meant? Haou wondered, speaking to me for the first time. She believed that our deaths would spur his good half to react?
I responded. "Nick used to be a good person. Cold at times and always indifferent, but his heart was in the right place."—I looked at the good half of my cousin again—"Nick Yuki, I know you can win. I did in the end too..."
This Nick did not hear me still, but he raised his eyebrows as the Overlord set his sights on Melody in the distance. I could not see a speck of darkness in her heart.
"Now I understand..." I said. "That's what you meant Haou."
Haou wordlessly nodded. The wheels of fate have already been turned. Just remember that our deaths do not only affect those close to you. They affect the fates of these worlds as well. Without you, neither can win the war and they know it.
"On that day, when the tears fall red, their love will end the current world," I quoted from the prophecy. Haou nodded, a sad smile shading his darkened lips.
"Some things cannot be broken Jaden. Love is one of them, I would know, being unable to take over while you are in love."
"Love is not a weakness."
(END POV)
The light suddenly blinded them, blocking everything from view until it faded, and there Nick stood with a total of seventy soldiers and his sword trained on Jaden's neck. Jaden however, was smiling despite the fact that he was on his knees and taking in shaky gulps of air. He did not remember landing, but none of that mattered right now. He had done all he could. His friends and love were safe. Nick didn't have Alexis in his paws.
He was going to see Lillian again, and Liz and Serena. He could finally meet Atrus's little brother Dexter. Maybe... maybe he could even see his father again. He felt his throat growing tight. He could talk to Darkal, tell him how Allian was doing...
But he would lose the one thing that mattered to him more than life itself. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to be bathed in all of the memories they had shared, and the life they almost had together.
The music started playing over the radio as they finished up their card game, and Alexis smiled warmly. "I love this song," she said, reaching over to turn up the volume. I placed my hand over hers, turning the dial with her.
... We crashed into the water, suddenly kissing. It was like some force the neither or us could understand had finally driven us together, showing us how much a person could care in just a simple touch. I let go of my surprise, melting into the wonderful bliss that came from kissing her—the one I love. Everything just seemed perfect, all of my troubles and fears faded as she kissed back. Nothing in the world could keep us apart. No force could destroy us...
... Alexis whispered gently, "I'd be happy to die to save you. I love you! How many times do I need to say it so that you'll believe it?! A thousand? A million?"
"Lex... I can't put you in that kind of danger. I can't let you get hurt, any of you."
"Why? Why won't you let me in Jaden?" Alexis questioned. She closed her eyes and turned away as if in pain. "Why won't you let me share your burden?"
"Because I love you..."...
..."You're always there for me Lex. There have been plenty of times that I've been ready to give up, and you always managed to snap me out of it and keep me fighting. You didn't even know then how dangerous it was for me to give up! You were a great friend, so loyal and beautiful. You could be harsh sometimes, but I still loved you... even if I didn't recognize it until I thought I lost you. Lex, I've had a rough life. Sure, I've had my laughs and my adventures, but it was never different. I was forever lost, just waiting and hiding out from the Overlord until my days were up and I couldn't hurt anyone again. I was just trying to be myself, as much of myself as I could, and prove to me that I wasn't really a monster. You showed me that Alexis. You saved me. You loved me."...
... I simply held her close to me, enjoying the warmth between us. Her arms wrapped around my back and we fit together perfectly, like a puzzle that had finally been completed. I knew it, she was the one. And I love her more than anything. We pulled apart, walking into class with our hands intertwined, and the students went wild. But it didn't matter what they thought about us. All that mattered was our love...
... We swam around in the small lake at 'our spot', laughing like children. I went under, tickling her exposed ribs and she curled up into a ball with a laugh, submerging with me. I leaned in and placed a peck on her lips happily, sharing our kiss. We broke the surface soon afterwards, her arms still wrapped around me. "I love you," I told her softly.
"Promise me something?"
"Anything."
"Whatever the future brings, whatever gets in our way, just remember us now, like this. Just remember us, promise?"
"I promise, because all I can see in my future is you."...
... "Then marry me."
..."Yes."...
... "So what's the name to this song?" I wondered, holding her closer now that the music was starting to get to me. The beat was slow and probably one of the sweetest songs I had ever heard of.
"Your Guardian Angel," she said, leaning her head again my shoulder and closing her eyes, listening to my heart beat.
"Huh. What do ya know..."...
I'm so sorry Alexis, he thought, fighting the tears. But I had to save you. I couldn't let you fall... just like it says...
'Even if saving you sends me to heaven'
I'll see her again, someday. I just know it.
He bit his lip as the barely contained power demanded to be released. He held it down by sheer willpower, having no strength left to even stand let alone stop a flood that he had leaked out. He took a deep breath, his eyes brown again, and looked Nick straight in the eye. Nick seemed uncertain all of the suddenly, gazing into those eyes. But his sword stayed trained on his neck, giving the Guardian one last chance to join him and live. To stop being a child playing hide-and-seek in the cliffs. To become an adult. To gain power.
But...
He seems almost like an adult, he thought in surprise. Why is there no fear in his eyes? Why does he seem almost... happy? He's separated himself from his Angel and he won't see her again. Why isn't he angry? Sad? Scared? Why are none of them afraid to die for the Rebellion? Do they all see something that I cannot? Is what Haou said true? Am I really half-blind?
Could Jaden actually understand more than he did? Was Jaden more than just a foolish child?
Part of him questioned these thoughts, making accusations against the judgment until Jaden was seen once more as a child... a child maturing rapidly as he turned back to meet his death with heavy bursts of breath. What was this feeling... was it... sorrow? Did he actually feel for the death of someone who used to be his close friend?
What were these thoughts?! Where did they come from?!
Jaden looked up to meet the end of the sword, staring down his cousin. "I promised..." he whispered to himself. Even though his eyes were swimming with tears, their unique and blazing fire had not yet been extinguished. "I won't beg," he began in a more steady tone. "I won't give you the satisfaction. Because now... I'm ending the current world."—His gaze drifted slightly to the south, where Alexis hung in Chris' arms, her hand still outstretched, still waiting—"We're ending this world..."
... I woke up back in the ruins, Alexis sleeping on my shoulder. I was surprised to see my friend so close to me, but disregarded it, gently moving her aside to pick up my card. I watched the sky for a while and then decided that I'd let them sleep, they probably needed it. So I sat back down next to Alexis and let her head fall on my shoulder, somehow this situation feeling just... right...
That light in his eyes shone with bright intensity, and Nick could not understand his meaning. What could his death possibly do to change the world? Then it hit him like a tornado, and he almost lost his nerve to strike Jaden down.
"And as love brought them together, it was love that would destroy them
With their dust floating in the wind, all hope vanishes—" Nick started.
"—And with lost hope comes an end to this fight of eternity
And they will all rest in peace," Melody whispered, quoting it to herself as she stepped through the portal, tears streaming down her face and completing the last part of the prophecy.
Jaden smiled up at him sadly, his eyes still blazing. "You can't win Nick. Love is one thing you can't mess with, and that's what brought me to you today... I love her... love her enough to die for her... I'm not sad. I've lived as much as I could... there's nothing I would erase... all of it brought the two of us together. And you... even you can't tear us apart. Even when my last breath leaves me, I'll still love her... she'll still love me. How can you face something like this and win in the end?" His eyes flickered gold briefly. "The Rebellion has already pushed through and escaped. Now you have to kill me, the one hope you have for victory... love beat you Nick. It will always beat you..."
... We had finally made it to our picnic on our first date, settling down at our spot. I ate with gusto as usually, and Alexis laughed softly, glad that she had made me pack extra food for later. We visited the beach by the lake after we ate and sunbathed, me just simply happy to be near her and holding onto her in my arms. I never wanted to let go...
"Damn you Jaden!" Nick spat and his sword swung down, fully knowing the consequences of what he was about to do. But he did not have a choice; Jaden could only be a bane for his powers for a few more minutes, and that would leave them all dead. His own might would not stand against the Guardian with no Earthly chains to tie him down. The only problem was could he do it? Could he really end all hope that his people had for ending this war? What would happen if he took Jaden's life and erased it? What could happen?
"JADEN!!" Alexis sobbed over the valley, her voice the only thing ringing strong and true. "JADEN, I LOVE YOU! I'LL WAIT FOR YOU!"
He smiled softly under the aim of the biting sword and said his final farewell.
I can love you now until the end of time. I will see you again someday, and I will cherish it, Alexis.
I'll never forget you, not even in death.
With his golden-brown eyes soft, he faced the steel that would result in his long sleep, her essence flickering through his mind. And her hazel eyes cried out rivers until they closed in a faint as she heard him.
Then a lone scream pierced the air, haunting to the mourners' ears as the witnessed a single glow of dust Rising above the ocean of monsters blocking the guardian from view, and leaving this world to its Descent.
JUDAI HERE! AxJfan LEFT ME A NOTE TO READ TO YOU GUYS BECAUE SHE IS CERTAIN THAT YOU ARE WELL... GOING TO GET CREATIVE WITH HER!!
SHE SAYS TO CHECK OUT THE WITHOUT YOU VIDEO THAT WAS MADE ON YOUTUBE
(BY CLUELESSANDPROUD)AND TO HIT THE REVIEW BUTTON PLEASE BEFORE YOU GO ONTO THE EPILOGUE SO THE STORY COULD REACH UP TO 250 REVIEWS!
