Alex was sitting in the Three Broomsticks of Hogsmeade. He had decided to take a small "vacation" as he called it to get away from the city and get to see a bit of the mountains and country side. It had been a week since the invitation to go to the Tournament held by Schroder had been given to him and he needed a break. Kirsta had Texted him and told him that the following weekend at Hogwarts would be a Hogsmeade weekend and that she wanted to talk about a few things. Alex had replied yes and went to stay the week in Hogsmeade to wait for the day to come. He had checked out of his London hotel/apartment and left. He didn't carry much with him except his rucksack and his black coat, which he was wearing now. In the ruck sack it carried all of his regular gear. His card folios, a few spare changes of cloths, his mask, along with his leather jacket. He also had a small photo album that he had found at the ruins of his old home. It held all the photos of him and Ana when they had started going out and on a few of their dates. It held memories of a past life and Alex didn't want to give it up, but he knew he had to. He would give the album to Krista after their meeting and have her get rid of it so he would not be tempted. He had to let go of the past, and this was the first step. He had ordered a Butterbeer as he had gotten to like the taste of it. It had hardly any alcohol in it and it left a nice tingling feeling down his throat, similar to his favorite soda. The bottle was brought over to him by the hostess of the inn and just as he began to drink Kirsta walked in with Kaiba. They both saw him and walked over to his table. Kaiba took out his wand and cast a spell and the noise of the inn just almost faded into the back ground.
"Alex, good to see your still alive," Kaiba said as he sat down.
"You too Kaiba," Alex replied with a small grin on his face, "so what did you both want to talk with me about?"
"Well it is not me who wanted to talk with you but Krista," Kaiba replied.
Alex turned to look at Krista who was sitting next to Kaiba, "Well Royal Sorceress what is it that was so urgent for me to talk with you about?"
"As you probably know all spellcaster level shadow wielders need to be tested," Krista started, "we need to speed up the process since the Orichalcos is returning however we cannot do the tests until the magic of the Orichalcos is revealed. So after the tournament, because I am sure that the Orichaclos will be played I want you to come to the castle and we will commence the test."
"Why not now?"
"Because it is not your time to be tested yet," Kirsta responded, "the time for your test is not to come so soon, the queen has to take her test first."
"Why the queen, and not me?"
"Because you have more power than her to resist the temptation longer than she does, and I believe that it won't be long before the shadows test her on their own anyway. But it will strain a bit on her relationship with the Pharaoh and the Chosen one. But I want to be the one to administer your test persoanally with the high priest as if you fail the test and succumb fully to your sin, it may take both of us to stop you, I have a theory of what your sin is based upon what we talked about a month ago."
"Then pray tell, what is my deadly sin?"
"Anger," was all she said.
"Anger?"
"Yes, you hold onto your rage Alex, Rather than let the past go, you hold onto it and fester in your pain, you use it for power, and I think that is why your darker half resurfaced when you faced your brother, you haven't let go of the pain that you felt growing up and part of you wants revenge. And it doesn't help about the tragedy that befell you the night of your attack. That only made it worse and set it in stone of what your flaw is. You have anger and rage far beyond anyone can imagine, even me and Seto, I have already moved on with my justice, but you do not seek justice, just revenge for your pain, and part of it can never be atoned for. Barty Crouch Jr. is essentially dead and there is nothing you can do to change that, but I did look into what you asked me to. She is alive and where your brother said she is. But I do not think that it was of her own validity, I think someone put her there, someone who has s deep connection to you. Is your father still alive?"
"No, he died after my brother was born and he never got to start teaching me to control my power and I never heard from his Mother, she was the Desendant of the family not his father. My mother didn't like her and kept me away from her as I was growing up, I would talk to her on the phone but that was it and my mother monitored to phone calls to stop grandma from passing any knowledge of the shadow arts to me."
"then it may be her who did this to your mother."
"she wasn't that strong."
"How do you know?"
"I went to see her one day from a distance and I could feel her power, she is low spellcaster at best, and not enough to cause any trouble. Her powers are limited and she does not have the strength to even think of doing a shadow game with my mother. It would probably kill her. And her father is dead as is her mother so anyone who has that kind of connection to me is either dead or not strong enough to do what was done."
"well that kills that theory, but never mind. We will work on how to test you as we have very little to use as material," it was then Kirsta noticed the small book in Alex's left hand, "what is that book your holding?"
"A part of the past I need to let go," Alex replied and he gave Krista the Album, "I want you to get rid of the album. It is a part of the past that I need to let go of. It is filled with good memories, which unfortunately bring me nothing but pain and sadness."
"I know just the place for it. It will not be destroyed, just hidden. I will hide it for you so that those memories will not truly be destroyed."
"Thank you," Alex Replied. He had let go of part of his past and that she would never come back, and now he could focus on his mission to assist the court in the area beyond the shadows, the area of true darkness. He continued to drink his butterbeer as Krista and Kaiba got up. They could tell that he wanted to be alone for a while as he had just let go of a great burden and that it can do a lot to a shadow wielder to let something like that go.
Alex sat alone at the table for a while and finished off his drink. He got up and left a few sickles on the table and left the inn for a while for a walk. A few of the Hogwarts students were walking around the village trying to forget the war that was going on around the area. Alex was lost in his own thoughts and wasn't paying attention to where he was going and bumped into some one and he fell back ward. He didn't notice that he had bumped into a young woman who was holding a small box and she had dropped it when she had bumped into him
"Sorry," he replied, "been thinking a lot."
"that is okay," said a female voice., "hey where are my cards?"
"cards?" alex said, he looked around and saw a small box that had opened a bit. He picked it up and realized they were duel monsters cards. He picked up the box and looked at the source of the voice she was a young woman no older than 19 years old. She wore a pair of black hip hugger jeans and a Red blouse that was very form fitting. She had brown hair and lovely green eyes. She had a small jacket on as it was a bit cold out and it was un zipped to reveal her blouse. Alex got up and helped the young woman up. And handed her the deck box
"Are you a duelist?"
"more like a casual player, I saw a few of the duelist's dorm pay it in the halls on those duel disks, and it got me interested, on summer break my family went to America to see a few of the sites and I found a shop and bought some packs, strange thing was that most of them worked together and I could make a deck with them. do you play too?"
"yes I am friends with a few of the duelist dorm." Just as he said that he saw two young men run past laughing manically one had sand blond hair and was a bit dark skinned for the area and the other had pure white hair and was unusually pale.
"the prankster brothers are at it again," the young woman sighed.
"Prankster Brothers?"
"Ryou Bakura and Marik Ishtar, they are not realted by blood but they might as well be, they think so much alike."
"Speaking of names," alex replied, "I didn't catch yours, I am Alex Yachira."
"Sapphire Mitchell. I go to Hogwarts up the road, I am a seventh year Hufflepuff."
"Well I don't go to the school, I am a traveler."
"A traveler?"
"I wander from place to place, not really settling down in one area for very long." They had started walking down the road a bit out of town and into a clearing where they could see the sun starting to peek out from behind the clouds. Alex enjoyed the sight and a small tear came to his eye. Sapphire saw this and just ignored it, she then saw the pack he had with him, it was slightly open and she saw his old duel disk in the bag.
"would you like to duel?"
"are you challenging me, Ms. Mitchell?"
"Yes I am, I saw your duel disk, and I want to see what you have got. I haven't really had the courage to ask any one of the duelist dorm to duel me as they are all world class duelists, even Professor Kaiba's little Brother."
"and how would you know that?" Alex asked setting his bag down and pulling out his old disk and getting his new disk out and fastening it to his arm. He pulled out two deck boxes, one was red the other was blue, the red box held his monarch deck he had been working on, the other his level deck, he decide to go for the Level deck and put his red box back in his bag and loaded his Level deck in the disk.
"I saw the tournament two summers ago, that was held by professor Kaiba, I am a Half Blood Raised by my Father, My mother was a witch and she died when I was young, but my father kept me rooted in both the real world and the magical world. Both actually share a lot of common folk lore."
"I see," Alex replied, he gave the old disk to sapphire, "here use this."
"Are you sure?"
"I saw a bit of your deck, not on purpose though, and I think it would be fun to see in the solid vision rather than on a table."
Sapphire took the disk and put it on her arm. She took her deck out of its box and loaded it into the disk. After she had loaded it the disk sprung to life and activated. The blade extended out and folded in to the ready position, as Alex's did the same.
"You ready?" Alex called over. He had stepped back about ten yards and was standing at the ready.
"Yeah," sapphire said. she had seen how some of the duelist dorm had dueled while part of the DA and now she wanted to try her luck. She drew her top five cards as did Alex. Both were now ready
"DUEL!" they both cried out. their life meters rose to 4000 and the duel began
"I will make the first move," Alex called out, he drew his card an looked over his hand, "I start with Horus the black flame Dragon LV 4 in attack mode and active the spell card level up, this turns my Horus to its adolescent form, Horus the Black flame Dragon LV6!"
The silver Falcon like dragon cawed and shone a bright Green, then it grew taller, leaner and much fiercer.
"that is it for me sapphire, now show me what you have got."
"right," she squeaked a little nervously. Alex smiled a bit, she seemd a bit unsure of herself and he found it a bit cute,
'well she is beautiful I wonder if she is seeing anyone?'
"I draw," sapphire called out, she looked over her hand, "I set a monster and four cards face down to end my turn."
'a reverse monster and four set cards, she must be planning something, so I had better take it slow.'
"Draw! I play one face down card and play the shining angel in atk mode."
"Hold on I activate a trap card, Go trap hole, this destroys your monster and sends it to the graveyard!"
"good play sapphire, Horus Move to attack the face down monster! Black flame Burst!"
The silver dragon roared and shot a ball of black flames from its maw, and it struck the face down monster, it flipped face up to reveal the morphing jar, it cackled a bit and then shattered.
"Damn, a morphing jar!"
"that is right, when morphing jar is flipped we both discard our hands and draw five new cards" sapphire called as she discarded her one card and Alex discarded three.
"I end my turn," alex called, 'she is pretty good, she set up that trap a head of time and refresher her hand in one go, those other cards may cause a bit of problem later on if she ended up setting monster of her hand'
"I draw! I play pot of greed which lets me draw two more cards, next I activate front line base, this card lets me summon one level 4 or below union monster from my hand ever turn, so I summon Z metal Tank in attack mode! Then I play the spell card Graceful Charity! I draw three cards and then discard two, then I activate monster Reborn to revive my Y dragon head which I discarded! Then I normal summon X head cannon in attack mode! I then union x head cannon and z metal tank to form the xz tank cannon! I then use the union special ability that is given to x head cannon when unioned with z metal tank I discard one card and destroy a spell or trap card on the field, I get rid of your face down card!"
The tank charged its main guns and fired on the reversed card on Alex's field. The card was revealed ad destroyed.
"Alright now I am free to attack! To xz tank cannon! Attack Horus the Black Flame Dragon! But before it is destroyed I play gift of the mystical elf, it gives me life pints equal to the amount of mosters on the field Times 300, so I gain 900 life points."
The mystical elf appeared from the trap card and showered Sapphire in light and her life count rose to 4900, just as Alexs droped to 3900 from the destruction of his dragon.
"next I have my Y dragon head attack you Directly!"
The red mechanical Dragon roared and shot alaser which struck alex in the stomach, he winced and staggered a bit, as his life count dropped again, this time to 6400.
'she is good, maybe I might take her for some lunch later, get to know her a bit more, that is if she manages to beat me.'
"I play one card facedown," she called, "and that ends my turn."
"your good Sapphire, But I am better, first I play swords of revealing light t hold your attacks for three of your turns, then I play Level modulation, you draw two cards," sapphire did so, " and then I summon a monster from my grave yard with LV in its card name ignoring summoning conditions, I revive my Horus LV 6, his effects are negated and cannot attack this turn, but he won't be here for long because I play the spell card Level up! I raise Horus LV6 to LV8!"
The silver dragon roared as it shone in green light again and evolved further. It grew a pair of arms, it stood further up on its hind legs, its feathers became brighter and much sharper, and its mane of feathers grew much longer and much wilder, and from its maw black flames flared out as it breathed. Alex's ace monster had just appeared on the field and it wouldn't be much longer till he won the match.
"with my ace dragon in play, this duel has turned in my favor! I play a monster face down, Go Horus! Balck Flame Blast! Attack the xz tank cannon Union!"
The silver dragon roared and blasted the tank cannon, a large eruption of smoke occurred and Sapphires life meter dropped 600 points. But as the smoke cleared the the xz tank cannon still stood."
"why isn't your monster destroyed, your life meter dropped but XZ tank cannon isn't invincible!?"
"the union ability of z metal tank, it protects my x head cannon, and then I activated my Roll out Trap card I choose a union monster in my grave yard and equip it to an appropriate monster so I re equipped it to x head cannon!"
"great, it is one of those decks, I end my turn"
"and I draw!, union summon my Z metal tank and then fuse my X, Y, and Z to form XYZ dragon Cannon! I then use my frontline base to summon heavy mech support platform, I union heavy mech and xyz this increased xyz atk points by 500 points and I use xyz's ability! I discard one card and destroy the swords o revealing light!"
The tank charged its main guns and fired on the face up spell on alex's field the spell card shattered and the swords of light surrounding Sapphire vanished. But unbeknownst to them two people where watching this match. It was Ryou Bakura and Marik Ishtar, but unknown to the prankster brothers they were being watched as well, Kaiba and Krista were watching as well. Marik and Bakura had seen the new face and wanted to see what he was about and followed him, Krista and seen a vision about Alex's secret possibly getting revealed to the whole court because of the two and had followed them when she saw them, and she brought seto along for the ride, but he was gald he did, he knew Alex was a good duelit and now that there was another that had been hiding in the school for a few years was even better. She was using the union cards to a high degree. And things were only going to get better.
"I summon my Decayed Commander!" sapphire called out, "when decayed Commander is normal summoned and I special summon zombie tiger from my hand, and I use the union ability of zombie tiger equipping it to decayed commander, it raises the decayed commander's atk and def by 500 points, raising his atk form 1000 to 1500 and his def from 1500 to 2000! I have my XYZ dragon cannon attack Horus LV8!"
The large cannon charged all of its guns and fired on the silver dragon, the dragon cired out in pain and shattered alex's life meter dropped 300 points to 3600 and he was in a bit of shock, hardly any one got around horus, but Sapphire had done it as if it were nothing. And she still had one attack left.
"I now have my commander attack your facedown card!"
The commander struck out against the face down monster and it revealed the shining angel.
"and my union ability of the Zombie tiger activates, when my decayed commander destroys a monster by battle my opponent discards one card from there hand at random."
"but you have also activated my shining angel's ability I summon a light attribute monster from my deck in attack mode as long as it has 1500 atk points or less. I choose my silent swordsman LV3!"
"you still have to discard one card form you hand Alex!"
"I know," alex turned his hand face down and closed his eyes and shuffled them. after counting to 45 in his mind he opened his eyes and fanned his hand face down and picked one card and sent it straight to the grave yard, he had discarded a copy of silent swordsman LV3 to the grave.
"I end my turn," sapphire called, she had no hand, but two cards still face down. Alex drew his card and smiled as his swordsman glowed in a bright light, the swordsman grew taller and his blade got longer as well.
"during my standby phase, if silent swordsman lv3 is on my field I can summon Silent swordsman lv5, I then summon breaker the magical warrior! His ability activates and he gains one spell counter, his atk raises to 1900 but I remove that counter to use another ability to destroy one card in the spell or trap card zone, you see the funny thing about union monsters, they count as equipment cards while in the spell and trap card zones, so they count perfectly to use Breakers ability so I will destroy the heavy mech support platform!"
Breaker's shield glowed and a beam of light shot out and struck the support platform tha had attached itself to the XYZ Dragon Cannon. The platform was destroyed and the Dragon cannons atk dropped to 2800,
"I then have breaker attack your Decayed commander!"
Off in the distance Marik and Bakura were confused.
"why not destroy the zombie tiger with breakers ability they attack it?" Marik asked, Kirsta had heard this and spoke up.
"because he can use it to hs advantage to deal heavy damage to her. He attacks the commander first and it deals minimal Damage, but it destroys the union monster equipped to it. Then it leaves the commander with a lower atk power and he sends the swordsman in for a kill dealing a lot of damage, the heavy mech destruction is to cover himself for minimum damage next round."
"Oh," said Bakura, "this guy is smart! And she has some good skills! We ought to try duling them, eh marik."
"yeah they would be fun to play!"
"I am afraid you will have to wait for him, and I get the feeling for her as well." Krista replied.
"what is it that you aren't telling us Royal sorceress!" Marik nearly hollered.
"you forget your place tomb keeper! I outrank you, so I am privey to keeping secrets even from you!"
"fine! But mark my words We will find out who this guy is!"
"fine, how about a bet, if you can find out his identity before the tournament in December, you will be free from homework in my class from the time you find out till the end of term break. But if you cannot your homework will be double for the for the following term till the final battle!"
"what makes you so sure that the final battle will be at the end of the next term?" Marik asked, "even Bakura cannot find out when this war will end!"
"I have my reasons," was all krista replied they were brought out of ther conversation as the decayed commander was destroyed by the silent swordsman and dropped Sapphires Life points to 2900.
"that ends my turn," alex called.
"I draw. I summon Dark Blade in attack mode! I have dark balde attack your breaker and XYZ will take out your swordsman!"
The two monsters on Alex's field were destroyd and his life meter dropped to 2900, they were even, but sapphire had the edge with two monster still on field, while alex had nothing, unless he drew something this turn this game would be over! He drew his card and looked it over, "I play monster in face down defense mode and end my turn."
"I draw and move to destroy your face down monster with XYZ's special ability!i discard the card I just drew to destroy your monster and then I attack with both of my monsters!"
With no monsters in their way, Sapphire's monsters attacked Alex directly. Alex's life points dropped to Zero. The Duel was over, and Alex had lost.
"I won! I Won!" Sapphire celebrated jumping up and down. Alex unloaded his disk and walked over to her; she jumped onto him and kissed him. Both were a bit shocked. Sapphire had jumped into Alex had had kissed him. . The warm Sensation on Alex's lips was like none he had felt before in a long time and he enjoyed it. Sapphire had dated a few guys in her time at Hogwarts but none were as good as Alex was, he knew how to make her toes curl in her shoes, in her heart she knew that she may have just found her one. They fell to the ground and soon came up for air.
"Well done," Alex said a slight bit of red on his cheeks.
Sapphire's hair was falling down her face and was hanging like a cloak around her face, she was a bit red, "thanks, it was my first duel, I am glad I won! I am sorry for my reaction."
"don't be, I enjoyed it."
"I did too. You think we can do this more often?"
"not as often as you think but I will warn you, I have a job to do and it will come first, I cannot have you getting hurt."
"we are at war with you know who. I can wait."
"are you sure? I know you would want me to put you first but in a way I am, I want to make sure that you are safe."
"I know that, you are sweet but I have to get back to the castle it is getting late."
"I will write to you, I promise!"
"I will keep you to it," Sapphire replied taking off Alex's old Battle City Style disk.
"Keep it," Alex said, "you earned it. Think of it as a gift from me to you, with a promise of more to come."
Sapphire's eyes lit up and she hugged Alex. After releasing the hug she walked back into the town and up the road to the castle.
Alex watched her and turned around to the country side. he knew that the duel had been watched by four people, all of them wielders he had put his disk back in his rucksack and he had to move on to the next area. Even if his duel had been watched, he knew he had given his all in that match and he was proud that he had been beaten. Because now he knew the flaws of the deck and he could work on improving them, along with improving his new relationship to make sure that it would blossom into something more.
