A/N: Hello everyone. Welcome to the wonderful world of Surviving Through Changes. Please proceed to read the chapter and enjoy the drama.
Disclaimer: The themes of this story do not belong to TTY7. Yugioh and Sailor Moon belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 35
The Notorious Bandit Keith
The next morning
Joey P.O.V.
The sound of my footsteps echoed in my ears as I desperately and frantically tried to run away. I'm not sure of what I was running from, but I knew I had to find some place to hide. Otherwise, I'd be doomed.
Still, out of curiosity I turned around, wanting to know exactly what was chasing me. The second I caught sight of the Blue Eyes White Dragon I screamed and ran faster, wishing I hadn't turned back.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The dragon roared as it flew closer. In my haste, I tripped over my feet and landed on the ground. The white dragon roared again, its blue eyes gazing down at me with malice.
There was a sudden familiar laugh behind me, so I looked up to find Kaiba looking down at me.
"Kaiba!" I screamed. "Call off your dragon."
"Poor scared Joey," he said. "He calls himself a duelist, but he's really just a puppy dog cringing in fear, scrounging on the scraps of past victories and begging for mercy out of the real duelists."
I clenched my fists. "I'm not scared of you Kaiba!"
"Bad dog! Don't contradict your master."
"What the heck," I thought angrily. "Your not my…"
"Quiet! Sit!"
Suddenly, I find myself wearing a dog suit while Kaiba grows to be ten feet taller than normal. I hate to admit it, but the sight of him being so tall was intimidating, maybe even frightening.
"Sit at your master's feet where you belong you mongrel."
My head bowed and I closed my eyes. This was degrading, humiliating, and just plain awful. I just wanted to curl up into a ball and run away into a corner or under a big rock.
A sudden droplet of water splashed onto my face, waking me from the nightmare seconds later. I sat up and glanced at my friends, who were still fast asleep.
"Just a dream," I thought, calming my breathing just before my temper flared. "I swear I'll show that Kaiba that I'm not a stupid dog. Wake up everyone! Come on! Rise and shine!"
"Ugh," Yugi moaned groggily. "What's wrong Joey?"
Bakura sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Something happen?"
"Nothing is wrong you guys," I told them. "It's just a new day and I'm ready to duel."
They all looked as if they wanted to kill me, but Tristan was the only one that spoke up. "You don't have to yell about it Joey. Sheesh!"
"Hey guys," Tea called, walking toward us with the tent rolled up in her hands. "What's all the commotion about?"
"Good morning Tea," Yugi greeted.
I glanced behind her. "Where's Mina?"
Tea's expression darkened. "Well, she said she had to go."
"What to the bathroom?" Tristan asked.
"No," Tea replied with a heavy sigh. "She told me to give you this Joey."
She held out a piece of paper that had Mina's bubbly handwriting on it. I skimmed over it and then decided to read out loud.
"Dear Joey,
Sorry that I didn't stick around with you and the others. I still have star-chips to win you know and due to my condition you all probably would have tried to stop me if I didn't leave. Anyway, I just want to thank you for saving my life as well as Tea and Mai for tending to my wounds. We'll meet up at the castle okay. Later.
xoxo,
Minako Aino."
"That's all she had to say?" Tristan asked.
Tea nodded. "Pretty much, though she wanted me to let you know that she plans to give you the star-chips she owes you, Yugi."
"I see," Yugi replied. "And I guess Mina took Artemis with her, seeing that he's not here either."
I skimmed over the paper again, wondering why Mina had said so little after all that had happened. After all, it wasn't like I really saved her. The reality was that she'd saved me, not to mention that she had supernatural powers. Maybe she left because she's afraid I'll tell the others or maybe she thinks I'm still mad at her. Whatever.
"Let's get a move on everybody," I ordered, taking command. "We've got duels to win!"
Meanwhile
Mina P.O.V.
"Are you sure that leaving them was the best thing to do?"
"I don't think Pegasus will go after Joey and the others again," I reassured Artemis as we walked out of the dense forests and onto the meadows. "Me being around them will end up attracting more danger to them. Pegasus does want me dead after all."
Artemis nodded. "Well, I guess if you're sure about it."
"I am," I replied. "Quit worrying. Everything will be…"
My knees buckled a little as sharp pains shot through my chest. "Ouch."
Artemis's eyes widened considerably as I sunk downward. "Mina! Are you alright?"
Slowly I regained my footing and got back up. My breathing was a little erratic, not to mention that I was still tired thanks to waking up constantly last night. Those nightmares had really done a number on my mental state and my body wasn't in great condition yet either.
However, my body had been healing pretty quickly, which was odd since it hadn't even been twenty four hours yet. With the wounds I'd received last night, I should have been in a coma.
"Don't worry Artemis, I'll be just fine," I told him, forcing a smile. "I'm just a little uncomfortable is all."
"You really shouldn't be moving around, let alone dueling," Artemis stated.
I rolled my eyes. "I know that Artemis, but what choice do I have. Getting into that castle and winning the tournament is the only way I can save my father at this point. My injuries are just something I'm going to have to push through."
His blue eyes stared up at me worriedly. "You're so stubborn."
I smiled and began walking again with him at my heels. The sun was shining brightly in the cloudless sky. The wind was softly blowing the tall blades of grass that made up the meadow. The scenery was a picture of peace, but my thoughts were far from peaceful.
My dreams about E.E. and my mother had haunted me the entire night. The red crane symbol that had been punctured into my mother's skull also stayed with me. It obviously meant something, but I wasn't sure of what. I also didn't know why the symbol seemed so familiar to me either. I had never seen it before in my life until I'd had the dream.
Even so, the reality is the same. I'm not like Rei, so the dreams are just that: dreams. My subconscious is just making crazy things up is all.
"Then why can't you get it out of your head?" my conscious asked. "Face it Mina, you know that your subconscious didn't conjure up a dream like that. It was too realistic."
No way. All this is freaky enough without it being real. My mother…she could have never been involved in Kaiba Corp. or with Pegasus. Pegasus…
Would Pegasus hold the answers? If the dreams were actually real events then…could that mean that he…that he is…
No, that's not possible. My mom told E.E. that I was my father's child. But…she's still…
"I've been waiting for you."
My instincts snapped me back to reality as a dagger came straight toward me. I sidestepped to avoid being stabbed. The knife ended up stabbing the tree that was a little ways behind me and Artemis.
"Mina, be on guard." Artemis told me. I nodded and glanced around, knowing that Artemis and I were both at a disadvantage here.
Moments later, my eyes caught sight of a figure springing towards me, flinging more daggers my way. Artemis and I only needed to step away in order to avoid them, but doing so was becoming more difficult for me. My wounds were still hindering me.
The figure finally appeared directly in front of me. It was a tall, broad shouldered man with dark brown hair and golden eyes. He wore a green t-shirt and black jeans with sneakers. In his hands were two knives, but I knew he had more on his body somewhere. Probably in the pockets of his jeans.
"Who are you?" I asked immediately.
He flung the knives into his pockets, a small smile on his face. "You must be Minako Aino." His smile widened as he cordially added, "Pegasus didn't tell me how pretty you are."
"Thanks, but I don't usually accept compliments from men about to kill me," I replied.
He chuckled. "All that was just to test your skills. You may be injured, but your instincts are still sharp. You're a tough cookie."
"Do you ever plan to tell me who you are?" I asked, motioning with my eyes for Artemis to run away and get help. Transforming and taking this guy down would settle this faster, but I don't know if I can use my powers accurately in this state. Most likely, I'll end up making things worse for myself.
"Fernando," he answered just as Artemis scampered off. "Fernando Green."
"Alright then." I said. "So tell me, if you aren't here to kill me then what are you here for?"
He simply lifted up his right hand, showing off his dueling glove that had eight star-chips on it. "I want to duel you. That's why I'm here."
"Were you sent here?" I asked him.
"No," he answered, bringing his hand back to his side. "I work for Pegasus as a guard, but when I heard that a woman got the best of his assassination team, I had to see what her skills entailed. I also heard that you nearly defeated Yugi Muto. Pegasus is quite interested in him."
"Yeah, figured that last part out a long time ago," I replied.
He shrugged. "So are you going to duel me or not?"
"You've got weapons," I stated with a shrug of my own, "so obviously you're not going to take no for an answer."
"Perceptive."
I narrowed my gaze, knowing that dueling this guy wasn't a good idea. Still, there may be a way for me to shift the advantage.
"Alright, I'll duel you," I stated, "under one condition."
"You have conditions?" he asked with a small laugh. "Didn't you just go through saying how I wouldn't take no for an answer?"
"Yes, but my conditions will make this duel a lot more interesting Fernando."
He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm listening."
"If you win the duel I'll let you have all my star-chips," I began. "You'll get the credit for eliminating me from the tournament and a raise. But if I win…"
He raised his eyebrows when I paused. "Well?"
At first I wasn't sure of what to say to him. As far as I could tell he wouldn't be of much use to me unless…
"Do you know anything about a woman named Cecelia?"
"Cecelia Pegasus?"
"Bingo," I thought. "Yes, Cecelia Pegasus."
"Yeah, I have some info," he replied.
"How much?"
He chuckled again. "Tell you what. If you beat me I'll tell you everything I know about her."
I nodded my head in agreement before pulling out my deck from my pocket. "Sounds fair."
"Good, then let the games begin."
Yugi and his friends began to scout the area for more duelists completely unaware that three duelists were watching them. The leader of this spy group was the shortest among them, a boy with dark spiky hair and wide grayish blue eyes that made him look like a zombie. He wore a long grey t-shirt and light colored jeans. On the leader's left was a lanky British fellow that had shaggy red hair and grey eyes that were hidden behind black frame glasses. He wore a lilac colored, long-sleeved t-shirt and black jeans. On the leader's right was a tall bulky man with tanned skin, grey eyes, and spiky black hair. He wore a stripped t-shirt with a lilac colored jacket over it and blue jeans.
The three of them referred to themselves as the zombie duelists, mainly because the three of them were extremely creepy.
The leader of the group, Bones, stared down at Yugi and his friends. He noted that two out of the five in Yugi's group were duelists. Yugi himself and the tall, somewhat dense blonde next to him. Joey Wheeler.
Bones chuckled softly and conversed with his allies. They all decided to report this back to their main leader. The real head honcho of the group.
Bandit Keith
(With Keith)
"We found two duelists boss. One good one and a chump."
Bandit Keith perked up. "You don't say."
Bones nodded. "One of them was that Yugi kid."
"Yeah, he beat Kaiba," the British one stated. Keith secretly wondered again what his name was. He could never seem to remember, not like he cared anyway. He was just a useless guy in Bones's loser posse.
"Yugi huh?" Keith asked, a smile tugging at his lips. "I've heard of him. He's supposed to be a tough little squirt. That is…if you believe in his reputation."
"That's right," the black haired one noted. "We've never seen him duel. How do we know if he's any good? He probably ain't good at all."
"Right," the British one agreed. "Even if he is good, no one is going to the castle except us because we're teamed up with the best blooming duelist on the whole island."
"Exactly," Keith stated, "so if you bums want to win this tournament, you'll keep your traps shut, keep cool, and let Bandit Keith do all your thinking for ya."
The black haired man chuckled. "No argument from me boss. You got all the brains. I'm just the muscle."
"And we'll make sure to slam any duelist that gets in our way," the British one added.
Bandit Keith smiled before glaring behind him where the castle resided about ten miles away. "Hear that Pegasus?" he thought as he stared at it with hate in his eyes. "Soon it will be payback time. Payback for how you humiliated me at the Duel Monsters Intercontinental Championship."
(Flashback)
"It had all come down to you against me and I had you right where I wanted you."
"Any last words mullet head," Keith had stated, staring at Pegasus directly, unafraid and not the least bit intimidated by the reputation of the creator of Duel Monsters.
"I was sure that I was about to win, but you just scribbled some notes and called over some kid from the audience."
"Hey!" Keith shouted, clearly surprised when Pegasus rose from his seat and the young boy named Sam began walking toward the table. "What are you doing? Asking for help is illegal."
Pegasus smirked at him. "I don't need help, a child could defeat you Bandit Keith. I just want to prove it." Keith watched as Pegasus handed Sam a piece of paper.
"Follow these instructions and you'll win."
Moments later, Sam was sitting at the table reading the note carefully as Pegasus went to sit down by Kaiba.
"I didn't know what to make of it. I thought you might have been trying to psych me out or that you had just chickened out. Either way was fine by me though, so long as I took the prize money back home."
"Try and defeat this," Keith had proclaimed, placing a monster with twenty-four hundred attack points onto the field.
"Good card," Sam complimented, "but the note says when you play that I should play this one in attack mode." Sam played a considerable weaker monster, but that monster had a special ability when it was in attack mode. It absorbed the attack points of the opposing monster if that monster was similar. Both monsters were elephant types, which meant that Sam's monster gained an additional twenty-four hundred points, thus making it easy for him to take out Keith's monster.
"Uh…I think I just took all your life-points," Sam stated, somewhat confused about what had just happened.
Likewise, Keith had been in complete shock.
"You little snot nose brat," he had screamed, "there's no way you could have known I'd play that card. Give me that note."
After snatching the paper from same, he began to read it. Everything was there.
"It's all here," Keith exclaimed. "The card I played, how to beat it…everything!"
Pegasus then, in all his glory, got up and took a hold of Sam's hand and raised it high into the air.
"Sam is the winner."
(End Flashback)
"You may have defeated me Pegasus, cheated me out of the money I deserved, but nobody makes a fool out of Bandit Keith and gets away with it."
"Now, you said you found two duelists?" Keith asked.
"Yeah," Bones replied. "Yugi and a dweeb named Joey."
Keith smiled. "Good, take the dweeb out first."
A little later
Joey P.O.V.
The sun was shinning down brightly on all of us. The sky was a perfect blue. It wasn't too hot either, which made this long search to find duelists a lot more bearable, but something was off. Something was definitely wrong.
I heard something snap and abruptly turned around.
"Did you hear that guys?" I asked, quickly glancing at all of them. "I think we're being followed."
Tea frowned a little. "Joey, I think you're being a bit paranoid, not that I blame you for it considering all that's been happening."
"Even so," Tristan chimed in, "you've been acting kind of hyper since you woke up this morning. What's eatin you?"
I continued glancing from right to left. We were being followed. I just knew somehow.
"I'll tell you what," I replied after a moment. "Something is stalking us!"
Something else snapped nearby and I decided that I wasn't going to wait around for whatever was coming. Maybe I'm going crazy thanks to the trauma I've had to go through in the past couple of hours, but it didn't matter to me then. I just needed to get far away from that constant pitter patter of sound.
"Hey!" Yugi called out as I began to pick up my pace.
"Where are you going?" Tristan asked.
"I'm going to stalk whatever is stalking me!" I shouted back before picking up my speed. Before I knew it I was running. Probably not the best idea since my shoulder is still bothering me, but the rest of me is in pretty good shape now.
Eventually, I found myself standing next to a waterfall. My knees buckled a bit, and I gladly let myself fall onto the rocky soil by the small lake. Sweat poured down from my face as I suddenly noted the heat.
Dipping my hands into the water, I began to splash myself with the water to cool myself off. It was fresh water, so I went ahead and drank some too so I wouldn't get dehydrated and pass out.
After doing all that, I felt much better and figured that Tea had been right. That I'd just been paranoid thanks to all the craziness that happened last night. Speaking of which, I wonder how Mina is doing right about now. Hopefully she's not pushing herself too hard.
I suddenly heard a low chuckle from behind me. Immediately I jumped to my feet and turned around to find a burly spiky haired weirdo behind me.
"Who the heck are you?" I asked, balling my fists up.
He only laughed before punching me in my gut. I felt myself fall onto the rocky terrain before slipping into the darkness.
A/N: And that's the end of this chapter. Hope you all liked it. Please review.