Chapter 36- Despair and Hope

Drake remained there for quite some time. Exactly how long he didn't know. All he knew was that Julie had just had her soul ripped from her body and was now laying in the snow, as good as dead. His entire body had gone numb. Maybe it was from the snow. But Drake could hardly feel the snow.

The others were in similar states of paralysis. Flynn was staring at the space over Julie's body with wide eyes, an open mouth, and a loose grip on his rifle. Keith had fallen over backwards and was staring blankly into the sky. Helen was staring at Julie's body on the ground, mouthing soundlessly.

Brooklyn was the only one who was unaffected by the horrific event. He was moving around and trying to snap the others of their stunned state.

"Come on, come on, we can't stay here." He said, hitting Flynn across the face with his fist. When that didn't work, Brooklyn grabbed Flynn's arm, turned, and threw Flynn over his shoulder. The pain of landing on his back, even if the fall was softened by the snow, shocked Flynn out of his shock.

"Ow… what was that for?" He asked.

"Because you're just standing there!"

"What do you expect me to do?!? Julie just got her soul torn from her body in one of the most brutal fashions I've ever seen!"

"It doesn't matter! Do you want that to happen to you?"

"Uh, no! Duh! Are you stupid?"

"No! Hurry up and snap the others back into it!" Brooklyn moved over to Helen and punched her hard in the stomach. She fell over, winded.

"What the heck… you idiot, what was that for?!?"

"Shut up, stand up, and get ready to go!" Brooklyn said. Helen stood, towering over the little Brooklyn. Brooklyn didn't back down. "That only works on me when Matt does it." Helen stopped trying to intimidate Brooklyn and let him move on. While Flynn was working on Keith, Brooklyn crouched down next to Drake. "Come on then."

Drake continued to stare off into the distance. Nothing mattered anymore. Julie was gone forever. She had lost her soul. Now she was just a cold corpse lying in the snow. Drake didn't care about anything anymore. He didn't care if the fiends came and killed him, at least he might be able to find Julie…

"Drake. I don't want to do this, but it's for your own good." Brooklyn punched Drake in the jaw. Drake rolled with it and continued to stare. He couldn't feel any pain but the horrific stabbing in his heart. Brooklyn scowled. "Come on, we need to go!"

"There's no reason." Drake said. "She's gone."

"Not if we can help it." Brooklyn said grimly.

"She lost her soul!"

"We can recover it, and, with help from Matt's notes, we should be able to restore her."

"What?" Drake stood up so quickly he almost knocked Brooklyn over. "We could?"

"Of course! A torn soul can't be mended, except with the Millennium Star, and even then that's hard, but if the soul is still in one piece, it can be stuffed back into a body. We can just hide her body at the point and go to recover her soul. But we need to hurry, if we're not careful, they might do something with it that we won't be able to save it from."

Drake nodded, ran over to Julie's body, and threw it over his shoulder. His resolve had returned with the prospect of saving Julie. Everyone gathered around Brooklyn.

"Where's the Point?" Flynn said.

"It's right there." Brooklyn said, pointing up at a large rock sticking out of a mountain. There was a tall rickety-looking hut (thought, Drake thought, nothing is as it seems) on the end of the point, which was so far out without support it was ridiculous.

"How can no one find that?" Keith said.

"It's concealed by some kind of Shadow Magic. They mostly only find it when mountaineers fall onto it. Come on, let's go before they send another hunt squad." Brooklyn said. He started toward the mountain and the others followed. After about five minutes they found themselves staring almost vertically up the mountain.

"How do we climb that?" Helen said. "Even an idiot like you should realize that's impossible." It seemed like she still hadn't gotten over the incident in the Murciélago.

Brooklyn glared at her. "Only Matt gets to call me that, and that's only because his intellect far outstrips mine. Yours, on the other hand, doesn't, so shut up. And come on, do you think I climbed down this? Look at me, I have no athletic talent!" Brooklyn hit the mountainside with his fist and it slid open.

"You and your secret doors." Keith said, shaking his head.

"Hey, they're good when you don't people to find you." Brooklyn stepped into the elevator behind the doors and the others piled in behind him. "Oh, yes. Someone needs to put their hand on the scanner to turn it on. I can't reach it."

"Why would any of ours activate the elevator? Wouldn't only yours or Matt's do it?" Drake asked.

"If I know Matt well enough, he'll have put you all in."

Drake placed his free hand flat on the plate. The elevator lights turned on and the doors closed. A computerized voice spoke to them through speakers on the side.

"Drake Stizen, eh? How many are with you Brooklyn?"

"Five active, one, uh, incapacitated, right?"

"Soul?"

"Yeah, that one."

"That would be incapacitated."

"Okay, good. I'm not as stupid as Matt thought, I guess." The elevator started moving up.

"Why did you need to look for that kind of word?" Flynn asked.

"S.C.A.N. set up a code for anyone who wants to come in. You have to state the condition of everyone in the elevator. He knows already about how many are in here, he can see us all. But this way he can assess if there's a threat in the elevator if someone finds us."

"I see."

"Oh, yes. Brooklyn. There's someone here already."

"Who?"

"Her."

"Oh, great. This isn't going to end well." Brooklyn looked tense.

"Who is 'her'?" Drake asked.

"Matt's girlfriend."

"HE HAD A GIRLFRIEND?!?" Keith said, deafening everyone in the elevator. Brooklyn frowned and put his hand over Keith's mouth.

"We can all hear you." He said. "And no, not exactly, but I call her that anyway. She's extremely attached to him, but he seems oblivious to it. I call her that because I think he liked her too. But since he's dead… oh, great. She's going to be very hard to get rid of."

The elevator pinged and the doors slid open, revealing a very dark yet rather warm room. It was coated in technology, with computer equipment and other such things everywhere. A massive plasma television took up one wall. The other two walls (the ones that weren't coated in computer stuff) were filled with books. A very sad looking woman was sitting in front of the T.V., staring at it despite the fact that it was off. An empty mug was on the table next to her, still smoking from whatever had been in it. She turned to look as they walked in.

"Oh, you're back at last. I was worried… I could see you on the news. The fiends have taken over everything… and they decided to broadcast that. You have to be more careful with Matt's car." Her voice cracked noticeably when she said Matt's name.

"Hey, sorry I like to drive fast. We needed to get here."

The woman started when she saw Drake carrying Julie. "Another one?!?"

"She's not dead."

"Then what is she?"

The metallic voice cut in here. "Ashley, calm down. Sit down. I'll get you some more hot chocolate…"

"I don't need any more… I'm done." She said. She pushed the mug off the table as she stood up. A metal hand shot out of the floor and caught it. Ashley came toward them. "So you're the ones he told me about."

"I suppose." Flynn said.

"You guys can share pleasantries, I've got some stuff to do… give me the PDA." Brooklyn said. Flynn handed him the PDA and Brooklyn took it up a set of spiral steps and out of sight.

"Sit down, I guess." Ashley said. She turned to Drake. "You should put her back there before you get tired from carrying her. I'll look after her." Drake went toward the back of the room and set Julie's body on a white bed in a blindingly white room.

Probably a medical bay, Drake thought. After all, Matt had one at that temporary place. He rejoined the others, who were sitting in complete silence in a huge curved couch. Drake hadn't noticed it before, but it looked like Ashley had been crying.

"So… you were with Matt when he died?" She asked when Drake sat down. It sounded like she was trying to force conversation.

"Yes." Flynn said shortly.

"I still can't believe he died." Keith said. "He was so indestructible last year."

"I suppose it had to cut out eventually." Ashley said, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Was it quick?"

"Not in the least." Helen said. "It was probably the worst death I've ever seen. Pretty bloody too. I think he lost about two liters of blood before he died. And he probably deserved it."

"Oh, don't be like that!"

"Why not? He was a cruel, evil person, who deserved to die."

"You didn't know him like I did…" Silent tears were falling now. Ashley stood up and left the room. Helen didn't look sorry at all. Brooklyn came down the stairs in time to see Ashley walk past him.

"Thanks a lot." He said. "Who did that?"

"Professor Helen." Flynn said.

"Great job. You can see she's an emotional person, why did you have to go and do that?" Brooklyn said.

"She deserves it if she liked someone like him."

Brooklyn rolled his eyes. "There's no point in arguing. The simple fact is that we have to go back out. And we'll probably have to go back to the Shadow Realm."

"But we don't have anyone who knows it that well." Keith said. "We used to have Matt, and now we don't, and I have few doubts that you are capable, but I'm not sure you know it well enough."

Brooklyn grinned. "Don't worry. I won't be leading you in there. I saw this coming, so I went and got us someone who knows that place as well as Matt. Ready to meet him?"

"Who's that?" Drake said. There was the sound of footsteps behind Brooklyn. Drake saw black pointy shoes emerge from the upper level, closely followed by dark blue pants. A man wearing a blue jacket was coming down from the second floor, and he had the most hair Drake had ever seen. It spiked it in several directions. But he wasn't completely unfamiliar…

"No way…" Flynn said. "That's…"

"Yes. I got him." Brooklyn said.

"So." Yugi Mutou said. "Are you ready to save your friend?"

The Fight Continues…

Author's notes: Whew! whips sweat from forehead One more to go! Hope you enjoyed this one as much as the first, despite the slightly darker tone here... but hey, stick with me, I'll try to make this ending memorable. Don't know when I'll start the next one though... anyway, hope you enjoyed my pitiful writing:-D