Warning: It got dark again. And then good. And dark. And sometimes I wonder about what is going through my head as I write these chapters.
Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh GX.
Year Two: Descending Light
Jesse Anderson was pretty sure he wanted to transfer to Duel Academy.
It wasn't a spur of the moment decision, of course; he'd been thinking about it for months, ever since his first trip there with the rest of North Academy for the School Duel, which Crowler had disbanded when he'd become Chancellor, without citing a reason. No, Jesse had been thinking about transferring ever since he'd first met Jaden Yuki.
Jesse was many things (kind, outgoing, helpful, a good student and a good son, once upon a time), but most of all he was a boy, and a boy who loved adventure at that. Jesse was irresistibly drawn to tales of knights and dragons and castles as a child, much in the same way Aster Phoenix had been drawn to Greek myths. But where Aster read to better understand the heroes at the end of the tale, Jesse had always read his stories for the journey. It was the adventure, the trials and tribulations and dangers that lurked around every corner that had suckered Jesse in. He'd lived his whole life, hoping something amazing would happen to him. He waited with breathless anticipation for something to change in his monotone life and make it exciting.
The change had come, and he wished, with all his heart and soul, that it hadn't.
But time had made the wounds more bearable (not healed them, not completely, not yet. Jesse wasn't sure he ever wanted them healed; wasn't sure he ever wanted to be able to think of their faces without that stabbing pain that came with the sweet rush of affection), and Jesse had learned that, no matter how painful it seemed, life really did go on, even when there were people who were now missing from the world. They had really been so small in the grand scheme of things that by the next day, he'd been expected to move on, just a little, and try to figure out how he was going to live without them.
And in doing so, in moving on just a little, day by day, Jesse had rediscovered those old fairytales and found that, regardless of the pain his wishing had brought him the first time, he couldn't stop wishing for something amazing to happen.
And amazing things seemed to happen at Duel Academy.
The Society of Light sounded like a villain from one of his novels. Ruthless, cruel, bent on something that would undoubtedly spell disaster for the rest of the world, and willing to go through anyone, even an innocent, to get what they wanted.
That was evidence by Lia Shanner.
Jesse remembered her, albeit vaguely. She'd taken a picture of him and Jaden as they'd said goodbye, and made some joke about the two of them staring into each other's eyes (so he'd gotten a little sappy! He'd wanted Jaden to know how much he'd inspired Jesse, there was nothing wrong with that!), and that was really all Jesse could recall of her. He thought that maybe she had short, brown hair, but at the sight of her braid, he'd had to realize that her hair hadn't so much short as it had been caught up in a high ponytail. He was also pretty sure that she'd worn her Ra jacket over her shoulders, not tied around her waist, and her colour scheme was darker than he remembered it. The older looking camera she'd sported had been replaced by a sleek, silver digital camera.
Still, Jesse was glad she hadn't lost herself completely after the attack. The markings on her neck were disturbing, to say the least, and it left a bad taste in Jesse's mouth to think that someone had willingly done that to her.
" Oh, I remember you. The guy from North. The one who kept hitting on Jaden."
Still, he had to laugh at that.
' She's amusing.' Amethyst Cat purred, shimmering into existence mid stretch, her sleek tail flicking back and forth. Jesse glanced at her.
' Ya think so?'
' For a human.' Cat said, settling down and starting to lick her paws.
' Strong too.' Topaz Tiger said at his side. ' Or else she would've broken by now.'
' Oh, most definitely.' Sapphire Pegasus added from Jesse's other side.
' What're ya talkin' about, gahys?'
Cat shrugged elegantly.
' Little Ruby has been talking with your scarlet boy's monster.' Jesse paused, and called up the image of a brown ball of fur with pretty, fluttering wings.
' Apparently, this isn't the first incident to happen here.'
' Cat, be more specific." Jesse chided, starting to frown. Amethyst Cat gave him a coy look and started stretching again. He turned to Topaz Tiger to ask if he could talk to the other feline, but found the jungle cat was not by his side. Looking around, he felt his heart leap into his throat as Topaz Tiger milled around Lia's bed, putting his huge paws up on the mattress and leaning over her , sniffing at her face. From her position curled up on Lia's chest, Ruby opened one eye, looking grumpily at Topaz.
' Now, now, Little Ruby.' The big cat pressed his nose to Lia's cheek. ' I just want to see what all the fuss is about.'
' Does she smell strange to you, brother?' Cat padded over, taking the other side of the bed. Jesse began making wild hand gestures, trying to signal the spirits to get down, and felt eternal gratitude to whatever god had decided that Miss Fontaine was needed in the other room, Jasmine and the two other girls had class they needed to attend, and Syrus had gone running out as soon as they'd noticed that Jaden was missing, determined to bring the other boy back before he did something stupid.
' Not strange. Not...exactly.' Topaz shifted so that his nose brushed her forehead and the air from his mouth ruffled her bangs. ' What do you smell, sister?'
Cat shrugged, hopping up onto the bed and standing at the girl's side, looking over her with disinterest.
' Blood and sweat and hardship. Human things, Topaz. Fear, sadness, hope. Nothing to be concerned about. She is a human girl.'
' She is strong.' The tiger argued. The pale purple panther scoffed.
' So she is strong. So are many humans. Our Jesse, for one. And his scarlet boy. Strength does not equal strangeness, brother.'
' Perhaps not, but it merits watching.'
" Will y'all kahndly get off the bed?" Jesse hissed, grabbing a hold of Topaz's collar and tugging. The large cat refused to be moved, and turned to look at Jesse as a person might look at a fly that had landed on them.
' What on earth are you doing, Jesse?'
' Darling, you know that won't work.' Cat said, looking up as Pegasus trotted to her side. He too, observed the girl in the bed.
' Cute.' He said, smiling. ' She's a pretty little girl, you have to admit that.'
Cat sniffed.
' I'm prettier.' And she sat back on her haunches, bringing up a paw to start licking. Ruby settled back down to sleep, the jewel at the end of her tail flashing in the light as she brought it curl towards her face. Jesse kept tugging at Topaz, getting increasingly red in the face.
" What if someone one sees ya?"
' No danger of that. Your scarlet boy left.' Cat kept licking her paw, levelling him with a bored look.
' And she doesn't have the power.' Pegasus bent his neck a little, snuffling at the juncture of her neck and shoulder. Lia moaned a little and moved away from his nose, and Pegasus backed off, wary of her neck.
Cat put her paw down, looking annoyed.
' I told you, just a human girl.'
' I still say that the strength of her is too...'
' What?' His sister challenged. Topaz stole another look at the sleeping girl, and sighed.
' ...Inhuman.'
' I'd really appreciated it if you'd quit talking about her like that.'
The voice sounded out of nowhere. A second later, a dark-haired woman in a red body suit appeared in a flash of red light, shoving Topaz away from the bed and sweeping a booted leg out at Cat. The panther leapt in the air to avoid the leg, flipping over herself and landing on all fours, where she bared her fangs and hissed. The woman lowered into a fighting stance, two balls of molten red appearing in her hands.
' And you are?' Cat hissed, preparing to pounce. The woman smirked.
' One who defends those who are defenceless.'
' Touching.' Cat made to leap forward.
' Burst Lady, it's been a while.' Topaz acknowledged with a bow of his head. The woman blinked and looked at him.
' I don't go by that name anymore. I changed it when-' She cut herself off, a look of anger passing over her face. ' A long time ago.'
" Um, you know her?" Jesse whispered to his tiger, looking at the red lady with slight apprehension. He really didn't want to start a fight, but if she insisted on attacking his monsters...
' Burstinatrix belongs to your scarlet boy.' Cat sat back up, the look of hostility slowly melting away to reveal one of boredom again. The lady, Burstinatrix, turn to look at Jesse.
' Your scarlet boy?' She raised a brow, and Jesse felt his face go red.
" Well Ah...y'see the Crystal Beasts, they, uh...um..."
' Jaden belongs to no one but himself.' She gave him a stern look. ' Remember that.'
" 'Course!" Jesse started rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. " It's just Ah talked 'bout him a lot to these gahys and uh, they, um, just kahnda started...callin' him that." He flushed again, and looked away from her bright green eyes. "Sorry."
' Why are you here?' Topaz asked, trying to cover up the awkwardness of the conversation. Burstinatrix looked down at the girl in the bed.
' I'm protecting her.'
Cat looked up from her washing.
' From what?'
Burstinatrix's eyes darkened considerably, and the temperature in the room dropped by several degrees.
' From the Light.'
The reaction was instantaneous.
Both Cat and Topaz went still, then arched their backs in feline fury, fur standing on end and puffing out, their muscles rippling under the glossy layer of hair. Jesse leaned back into Topaz, feeling the power thrum off him in waves, a reassuring, steadying beat in the small of his back. Pegasus had folded his wings and was glaring forward, Burstinatrix in his sight, but Jesse knew that his monster wasn't glaring at the fire monster. Ruby had hopped up from her position on Lia's chest, standing protectively over the girls' heart, fire flashing in her eyes and little puffs of it starting to show at the corners of her mouth.
' So it's true. It's here then.' Topaz said a low rumble, sound more like a tiger than ever. Jesse pressed a calming hand onto his monster's back.
Burstinatrix nodded.
Cat let out a sound of anger.
' How dare It? How dare It show Its face on this plane? How dare It come here and...and...'
' Did you really expect It to stop?' Burstinatrix asked softly. Cat looked at her, daggers in her eyes, but stopped short, considering the question. Then slowly, as if the action caused her pain, she shook her head.
' No, never.'
" Where's Jaden?" Jesse whispered, suddenly feeling very afraid and very excited at the same time. His blood was pumping through his veins and something that might be adrenaline was starting to kick in, making his giddy and fidgety and just a little stupid. For all his monsters seemed to hate and fear this Light, Jesse had the oddest urge to rush out and meet it, if only to say he had.
Burstinatrix gave a small, almost sad smile.
' He's fighting the Light.'
And in that instant, under the rush of adrenaline and the singing of his blood in his body and all the feeling rushing out of his limbs, Jesse felt the unmistakeable prick of fear at his heart, and before he knew what was happening, he was running out of the infirmary, determined to get to Jaden.
The first punch had knocked Chazz off balance.
The second had sent him slamming into the ground.
The third had had his head bouncing off the ground and blood flying from his mouth as Jaden yanked his arm back.
Jaden wasn't thinking clearly. He'd kept enough of his head to realize that. There was a reddish haze all around his vision, and even that was too narrow to be normal. All he could see was Chazz. Chazz, smiling blankly as he talked about Lia and Sartorius. Chazz, his eyes saying what his mouth didn't and the cruel, tauntingly looking out of them, goading Jaden to make a move. Chazz, with his face still impassive and empty, blood smeared across his lips and staining his cheeks.
His face was still so pale. And cold, when Jaden's fist had connected. Part of him had to wonder if he felt like an inferno to Chazz. If it weren't for the way Chazz's mouth opened and gulped in air greedily, Jaden would sweat he was fighting a marble statue.
But no, the chest was heaving under those white clothes.
Jaden scowled, the red haze getting thicker.
He hated those clothes.
Without thinking he got down on top of Chazz, one leg on either side of the older boy, kneeling so that Chazz was trapped between his knees. He curled his fingers in Chazz's collar and hauled the other boy up to face him.
" Now, what was that for?" Chazz sounded sincere, as if he had no idea why Jaden had just hit him not once, not twice, but three times in a row, and wanted to solve the problem by talking it out.
It only served to make Jaden angrier.
Chazz wouldn't have wanted to talk it out. Not the old Chazz. Not the real Chazz. The real Chazz would've wanted to fight. He loved a good fight. He went looking for fight because that was who he was. He gloried in the thrill of battle and clashing swords, even if those swords belonged to holographic monsters. Chazz loved to fight, and more than that, he'd love to fight Jaden, at any given moment.
Chazz fought because that was the only way he knew how to express himself. Years upon years on being forced to live up to the Princeton name by his brothers had robbed Chazz of the abilities of self-expression most children learned in grade school. Chazz had found his outlet in fighting. In the middle of a fight, with the crowds choking on their own cheers all around him and an opponent at his front, duel disk or no, he didn't have to be a Princeton. He didn't have to be part of a plan. For one, single, beautiful moment, he could just be Chazz.
It was the freedom of the fight that made Chazz love them so much, and watching him turn one down, with a genial look of confusion, even as more blood seeped out of his split lip, was more than Jaden could take.
He slammed Chazz's head back down onto the ground.
The older boy let out a yelp, followed by a low moan of pain, and Jaden held firm, pushing his weight forward until most of it rested on his fists, which were still balled in Chazz's collar.
" Give him back."
Only, it wasn't Chazz he was talking to. He was looking into Chazz's eyes, of course, and glaring at them, but he was sure he wasn't talking to Chazz. He was looking for something in Chazz's eyes, some sign, some flicker, of the something else he was sure he'd seen in the older boy's face just before Jaden had hit him...
There!
A flicker of movement just behind Chazz's burning orbs. Inside the burning, actually; a shifting, cold, ugly thing that moved in spurts and bursts of movements, never fully stopping, even when still. It had looked out of Chazz's face, sucking up all the light out of his skin and pulling it into those awful eyes, and it had looked out of them and seen Jaden, and something inside him had howled with infuriated recognition.
Jaden leaned closer, his nose nearly brushing Chazz's.
" I'm talking to you."
" Yes, I can see that." Chazz said cheerily, and his lip started swelling. Jaden watched with disinterest and leaned even closer, until his breath fanned the black bangs that hung over his forehead in stark contrast.
" Answer me." He breathed, his voice barely a whisper and nearly lost to the wind that was starting to whip up around them. Something inside him, the something he was getting used to rising to the surface and helping him, shifted and made the space behind his eyes hot again, like it had just second before he'd hit Chazz.
Like it had when he'd protected Cyber Tutu from the Light as Chazz slammed it into Alexis.
Like it had when the shadows had wrapped around him, down in that crypt, and he had been so sure he was going to die.
The heat thrummed in his head, making it buzz, and the red haze seemed to swirl and change, until it was all dark around the edges, something like white but not bleeding into his line of sight and narrowing everything into sharp focus, until Chazz literally was the only thing he could see.
" I am." Chazz insisted, and without thinking, Jaden pushed the heat outwards, slamming into Chazz as hard as he could make it. His eyes started to sting as the heat flooded into them, but he held it fast, pushing against the resistance he met.
" Answer me." He snarled through clenched teeth, and felt something give, curve around the heat he was pushing against Chazz. It nearly unseated him, but he bit the inside of his cheek to steady himself, wincing as blood poured into his mouth.
" Now, what was that for?" Chazz asked again, but there was something different in his tone. Just under the polite question, Jaden heard the undeniable ring of mockery, a taunting edge that hadn't been in Chazz's voice for so long Jaden almost cried with relief. Somehow, he'd gotten through, because it sounded like how the thing had looked at him through Chazz's eyes. He let his vision clear of the not-white that had all but taken over, and Chazz's face came into focus again. Jaden fought the urge to smirk.
It was subtle, but there was a definite difference in his face. A slight tilt of the lips at the corner suggested a cruel smirk. A tick at his cheek made his smile less sincere. The way his eyebrow slanted was making a mockery of Jaden, daring him to try and push his power, whatever it was, into Chazz again. His eyes burned hotter, daring and actually dark against his skin, which had gone white as new-fallen snow, hollowed at the cheeks and jaw until it resembled a skull. A hint of teeth turned the look feral and wild, and Jaden noticed that Chazz's lips were the same colour as the rest of his face, getting paler and paler and thinner and thinner until his eyes seemed to swallow it up, bright and feverish and filled with something that was too old, too wicked, and too apathetic to be human.
" Hello." Jaden said. " I want my friend back."
" Isn't that a shame?" Chazz said sincerely, but the undertone had gotten a little louder and a little deeper, adding the illusion of a second voice to Chazz's own. " Because I'm quite comfortable where I am."
" No you aren't." Jaden said and somehow knew it to be true.
Chazz raised an eyebrow. It too, looked thinner somehow.
" And what makes you say that?"
" You're killing him." Jaden said in the same, casual tone, and wondered how he could be so apathetic. The heat was rushing up his throat now, sparking at his tongue until it moved, his lips on fire as they formed the shapes for the sounds coming out of him.
The tick of the cheek spasmed.
" I'm just getting comfortable." The other voice had dropped an octave, and the heat in Jaden's body shot up into his head and made his mouth move before he really knew what he was saying.
" He's fighting, isn't he?" Jaden felt his lips stretch into a smile of their own accord. " He's fighting you tooth and nail and trying to get free. You can't hold him."
" I can hold anyone!" The other voice had gotten darker now, the eyes flashing as It moved behind them, curling over Itself. The mockery had gone out of Its voice. Jaden leaned closer, until all he could see were the eyes, and they threatened to swallow him whole.
" He's winning, isn't he?"
The body under his bucked wildly, trying to throw him off. Jaden was jostled, but held on, his fingers digging past the jacket and shirt and into the too white skin of his neck. He wondered briefly if he should push his fingers in past the skin and watch the thing bleed out of Chazz. Better his friend dead than controlled. The thought should've disturbed him, but it didn't, and that should've scared him but the heat was numbing, pushing out all other thoughts and forcing down his usual emotional reactions.
" He's beating you. A stupid little mortal is beating you."
The body tried to throwing him off again. Jaden moved with the motion, watching dispassionately as tendons strained under the white layer of skin. The hands finally came up, crawling up his arms like white spiders and grabbing at his face, the blunt nails digging into his skin and making little drops of blood fleck out. Jaden ignored the sting.
" He's beating you and you can't stay in there without killing him."
The hands raked line across his cheek. Jaden felt the blood streak sticky trails down his chin. Little splatters appeared on Chazz's hollowed cheek, but his eyes were too big and Jaden just kept staring into them, a flicker of pride dancing over his face. He leaned down even closer, pressing his forehead to the one under him and let the smile, the big, bright, proud smile spread over his face like the sun dawning after a long, cold night. The heat was silent in his body, letting his mouth move of its own accord and form the words he wanted to say.
" Good for you Chazz. I'm so proud of you."
And the body under him seized up in pain, the mouth opening into a gaping, senseless black maw, going down, down, down; the eyes rolled back, still too bright but a flash of something else in them. Under the burning and under the thing, there was a hint of defiance, hope, and pleading all mixed into one.
Jaden felt the heat rush towards his hands.
" You should never have chosen him." He snarled, leaning away from the face so he could whisper in the ear. The body under him bucked wildly again, convulsing as the thing tried to push down a soul that refused to lie dormant. He let his hand fall to the caving chest, his fingers brushing over the visible ribs and finding the hammering heart underneath. The heat sear through the jacket and the shirt, until he was pressing his palm against frigid, marble-smooth flesh. He smirked, and let it colour his tone.
" You should never have taken this one. He is my friend, and you should've known I'd come and get him. You should've seen this coming, and if you didn't, you're even more a fool then you were back then."
" ...I..." The other voice was little more that an inhuman howl by now, a vicious, warped parody of a voice that screeched like nails on a chalkboard. " ...Won..."
" One battle." He whispered, and this time, he voice was lost to the wind. " Not the war."
In the back of his head, he could hear screaming, desperate pleas for the pain to stop. He shuddered, and pressed his fingers more firmly against the thundering heart under them.
' Bear with me, for just a little longer. This has to be done.'
And he pushed, light and sound exploding over his senses in an array of colours that danced like scarves in the wind. He was falling, tumbling head over heels and the blood was rushing to his head so fast he couldn't even see and there was a hand, brushing against his, trying to grab onto him, he could feel it on the very edges of his senses, but they were broken and disoriented, and he was reaching back now, he could feel it, his fingers brushing over skin that had been cold too long and too pale from the lack of sunlight and weak and deprived of truth, and he was pulling harder now, hauling that hand, and the arm attached and the body attached to that closer to him, away from the fire he could feel all around them, rushing faster and faster towards the end of everything...
Jaden gasped, and nearly screamed as he was yanked back from Chazz, falling against a warm body. Arms came around his waist to steady him, but his eyes sought to look up. Green eyes, wide with fear and warm with concern, looked back at him frames, by dark turquoise bangs.
" Jesse." Jaden recognized; saying the word out loud made it true, and he let his body, so sore and aching, sag against his friend's, every part of him shaking with fatigue. He let his eyes drift in front of him, and felt the world stop turning as they fell on an unconscious Chazz Princeton, his hair mussed, his lip split and bloody, and smattering of dirt across his usually impeccable uniform. A uniform that, for some unknown reason, had a hole burned right through it and the shirt he wore underneath it, right over his heart.
Jaden breathed in a gasp, and felt Jesse scramble to support him as his knees buckled.
" Fuck." He swore, and then let the world go dark.
...
Can I get another 'FUCK YEAH' from the crowd? Because this TOTALLY calls for one.
And there you have, the exciting conclusion of the Jaden/Chazz Not-Duel! Next week, ZANE!
...
Oh god, what have I gotten myself into?
MoS