Nexus 043: Gone from Memory

December's LP: 7000 June's LP: 2800

August, January, Anastasia, Marco; one by one their voices fell. Time caught one after the other, until only December and June remained. "Just like before.." For June this was just like when she first met him. "I cannot see into your mind, I have to ask it of you. Do you truly believe that, December?" She controlled the Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio(10/6400/2100), powered up by Massivemorph, and Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda(4/1600/1800). "I do believe it. I am Tempus, I can trust any part of me to not abandon you, Anru." He controlled his new creations, the elemental High Kings Ceasar(6/2800/1800), Alexander(6000/2500) and Genghis(8/2800/2400), and the Supreme King Kaiser(7/2800/2100). "How I wish I could follow your words, like before. But everything has changed. December.. Tempus. I cannot let you or him do what you want!" June drew her card and entered the battle phase. "Ulti-Gaiapelio attacks the Flame High King!" As the lord of the infernal lands could negate spells and traps each turn, that was the monster that needed to be destroyed first. Ulti-Gaiapelio rushed Genghis and stomped it down with its claws.

December's LP: 3400

"Anru. I will not let myself be controlled by him! Our thoughts will be as one, 'Tempus' will see that he does not have to destroy the world or abandon his family! It is the only way!" December yelled. "Did you see that in a vision, December? Did you see a future for this world we are standing in right now?" June asked again as she looked at the trees, the skies and the ocean. All of it could be forgotten, if Tempus decided to walk away his path into the past. "I.. No.. I cannot see beyond our union. But no matter what, that will come to pass." And He could not guarantee a different path. "Then it is just hope." June placed one trap card down and ended her turn. "I know you cannot understand how it feels." As December's turn started, 2000 lifepoints were burned away to pay for the Dark Contracts of the Gate and Swamp King. "Can't I?" However before that could actually happen, June activated her trap card: Psychic Trigger. It could only be activated while her lifepoints were lower than his. She banished two psychics from her graveyard (Ritual Beast Tamer Lara, Ritual Beast Tamer Wen) to draw two new cards.

December's LP: 1400

"How many years have we had together, hundreds? How many years has that man lived before that, thousands? Once you and him become the same, what is to say he will not just take full control? Your memories have lived a life of their own, become a new personality." June added both cards to her hand. "Please, December. Do not accept this future." She pleaded one final time. "This cannot be stopped, Anru. I will not stop." December entered the battle phase. "Wave High King Ceasar! Destroy the Tamer!" The emperor in dark armor raised the tides around the island, attacking June's monster with the ocean itself. "When Winda is destroyed, you can special summon one Ritual beast from your deck." He explained her monster's effect even before she used it. "However, High King Ceasar can negate the effect that special summons the monster and give 1800 attackpoints to itself and one other monster on the field!" Ceasar absorbed his Proud Ogre XYZ-material into his blade and cut through Winda. If the effect negation succeeded, the High King Alexander could become more powerful than Ulti-Gaiapelio.

"I activate Ulti-Gaiapelio's effect!" This could not continue. "I banish a Ritual Beast card from my hand to negate your XYZ-monsters effect!" Fortunately, one of the cards she drew with Psychic Trigger was the discardable Ritual Beast Apelio. "It is destroyed! And Winda can summon my monster!" Ulti-Gaiapelio buried the Wave King deep under the earth, while the slain Tamer special summoned a second Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda(4/1600/1800) in defense mode. "Can you not see this is pointless?" The Supreme King Kaiser attacked and destroyed the second Winda. While High King Alexander blew up the Zeframpilica Tamer(3/1000/1500) monster that was summoned in defense mode after the second Winda died. "Nothing is pointless, December. You said that to me once!" She yelled as he moved to the second main phase. "That was a long time ago, Anru." December used the effect of Gate Dark Contract to add a D/D/D Doomking Armageddon monster to his hand. He promptly discarded it with the Trade In spell to draw two new cards. "This is what you stand against now."

"D/D Savant Thomas' effect activates! I add one D/D monster from the extra deck to my hand!" December reclaimed the D/D Savant Copernicus and normal summoned it(4/0/0) to his field. "When a D/D monster is summoned, High King Alexander can summon one D/D monster from my graveyard! Be reborn, Flame High King Genghis!" Hell released another lost soul to the field, the crimson flame king. "Now, descend, D/D/D Oracle King Joan!" After that he reused the Swamp King Contract to fuse Copernicus on the field with D/D Proud Ogre in the graveyard and fusion summon the fallen angel knight Joan(7/2800/2000) in defense mode. "I end my turn." December stated after he placed two trap cards down. "..." It was those cards that concerned June. If she could connect an attack between her monster and the Supreme King, all of his lifepoints would be blown away at once. Yet... she could not negate any of his traps. There were no more Ritual Beasts in her hand.

"I attack Genghis!" Instead the Ultimate beast targeted the Fusion King for a second fight and overpowered its flames with a blaze of the four elements. "Have your resources been depleted? Anru? I do not need to see into your mind!" December countered with a trap card: D/D/D Contract Change. "!" The spirit of Doom King Armageddon suddenly rose from the graveyard. "As your monsters attacks, I banish one D/D/D monster from my graveyard and subtract its attackpower from yours!" Doomking threw his full force, 3000 attackpoints worth, into the attacking Ulti-Gaiapelio(3400/2100). "No.." Though she nonetheless managed to kill Genghis, her monster was no longer strong enough to survive an attack from Alexander. "I set one trap card! That was my turn." And as December's next turn started, he began gaining lifepoints instead of losing them. The Oracle King Joan converted the damage of the two Dark Contract spells into healing energy and blessed December with her dark cure. Everything June was building was slowly unraveling.

December's LP: 3400

"So this is when.." December seemed prematurely distracted. "?!" It was only after he announced it, that the teleportation event took place. "I did it!" Alice and the others arrived on top of the mountain. "Gah! This is higher than I expected.." Marie barely avoided stumbling down. The environment took some getting used to. "Geez. What happened here?" The motionless bodies of Neter, Marco, Anastasia and August played a large part of that. "And who is that? Is he that December/Tempus guy?" Stonewell did not see the resemblance. "He is." Eric knew better. "What? But he's...Hey!? Werent you supposed to be her friend?" Tory chided him. "You were told wrong, miss Tory. We all were." December talked back to her, surprising her with the fact that he knew her name. "What's with him? June, do you need help?" From the look of things, it was not going well for anyone besides December. "Eric... No. You.. Alice, how did you find us?" Normally June would have been happier to see them. But this was not a happy time. "It was hard. The crystal didn't want to tell me where December was.. It didn't want to tell me where Uno or you were either. But thanks to Marie, we could track your dueldisk."

"December no longer exists, Alice Brandt. He never truly did. My mind if already partially merged with the memories of Tempus. You are too late to prevent it. You might as well not have shown." He looked away and turned to the cards in his hand. "You sound awfully certain of that! What if we want a piece of you too?" Not a minute in, and Stonewell wanted to punch this guy. That was a new record. "Then you will lose. You cannot change the outcome of this duel. The same applies to this world. You cannot change the future." December started his turn proper. The effect of D/D Savant Thomas returned Copernicus to his hand a second time. "Surge, D/D/D Wave Oblivion King, Ceasar Ragnarok!" This time the Swampking Contract fused Copernicus with the Supreme King Kaiser on the field. One D/D and one D/D/D monster together could create the the horned dark ocean lord: Ceasar Ragnarok(10/3200/3000). "Alexander's effect..." Now that a D/D monster was special summoned, Alexander the High Gust King could and would revive Genghis.

"No, December. Any future you can see, we can change! I activate The Lost Wind!" If it hadn't been for June's trap card. "I negate your monsters effect and halve his attackpoints!" A prison of wind rose up around Alexander, giving him no means of escape. "Whoa! Look!" Eric gasped. Instead of doubling his attackpoints, the Gust High King(1500/2500) lost half his original attackpower. "I see." Unfettered, December skipped his battle phase and switched every other monster besides Wave King Ceasar to defense mode. "I activate Contract Laundering! I destroy a Dark Contract to draw one card and gain 1000 lifepoints!" Both the Gate spell and Swamp King spell turned to dust, and added even more lifepoints to the dimensional duelist. "Gah. That's the kind of cards this guy uses?" Tory cringed. She almost preferred Tempus' playstyle over this. "He is strong. Almost as strong as Tempus. But.. that does not mean he has to win. You can do it, June!" Alice started cheering for her. "These are the people you fight for now.." He placed two trap cards down and ended his turn.

December's LP: 5400

"I fight for everyone, December. Not because I want to deny the truth, or because I am enraged by it. But because I know we are the ones who shape it!" She drew her card and smiled. "I activate Psychic Path. If I may 800 lifepoints, I can add two banished psychic monsters to my hand. I choose the Tamers Wen and Lara." Now, with two more Ritual Beasts to banish, June could activate her cards more comfortably. "Then I will use this! Zefra War! This is a trap card that I can activate from my hand when I control two Zefra pendulums!" Those two were the tamers Zeframpilica (scale 1) and Zefrawendi (scale 7), which the others did not notice until now. "Where did she get those?" Marie's visor possessed no records of them. "My bet is.. from Uno." Emily grinned. Now she knew what that trade was all about back then. "Zefra War destroys a Zefra card to bring one of your cards to ruin!" June targeted her own Zefra Oracle field spell and the Oblivion King. "..." The Zefra tree toppled forward and fell to pieces. One large sphere shattered on top of D/D/D Ceasar Ragnarok and broke the lord's body.

June's LP: 2000

"I Pendulum summon, Zeframpilica!" With the grace of her scales, the penguin rider Pilica(3/1000/1000) was free to leave the extra deck. Something she hesitated to do before because Ceasar Ragnarok could take advantage of multiple monsters on the field. But now it was gone. "When Zeframpilica is pendulum summoned, one of the Spiritual Beasts in my graveyard comes back as well!" The pendulum tamer used her magic and granted Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda a second chance at life. "I summon you too, Tamer Wen!" June normal summoned the young green-haired maiden(3/1500/1000) whose effect special summoned the Spiritual Beast Cannahawk(4/1400/600) from the banished dimension. "Cannahawk banishes the Spiritual Beast Apelio from my deck. And after that.." Wen made contact by jumping on the back of Cannahawk. "After that I fusion summon the Ritual Beast Ulti-Apelio!" Tamer and the Beast were banished into the fusing vortex and created the fiery lion Ulti-Apelio(6/2600/400).

The battle could truly begin. "Apelio, attack Alexander!" Her Ulti-beast crashed its burning body into the King of the sky and smothered his storm permanently. "Split!" Ulti-Apelio's defusion effect followed, sending the fusion back to the extra deck to summon the lion cub Spiritual Beast Apelio(4/1800/200) and Tamer Wen back in defense position. "I know that destroying your power little by little will not be enough, December!" June activated the effect of Apelio and banished the other Spiritual Tamer Winda in the graveyard. The result was an extra 500 attackpoints for all her Beasts. "So I will destroy it all at once. I wont give you anything to hide behind!" The Tamer Winda(2100/1800) killed the defending High King Ceasar. Ulti-Gaiapelio(3900/2100) settled for obliterating Oracle King Joan with a well-placed water blast. And the little tamer Zeframpilica(1500/1500) landed a direct attack from above with her wind spells. "I am starting to like her." Stonewell said. He did not think she had this turn-around in her. "I'll schedule a date for you, loverboy." Tory snickered.

December's LP: 3900

"I choose to activate my trap card." December suddenly interjected with the Dark Contract of the Witch. "We're not done yet, are we?" June quickly shut it down. Ulti-Gaiapelio banished the Ritual Beast Tamer Lara from her hand and swept the continuous trap of the witch away. "..No, we are not." Now though, December could activate his traps without reservation. He activated D/D Recruits. "For each monster you control, I may add one D/D or Dark Contract card from the graveyard to my field!" The surplus of five monsters allowed December to reclaim his three Dark Contracts along with the Supreme Kaiser and D/D Night Howl. "I was affraid of that.. Then I banish my four monsters." The Tamers Wen and Zeframpilica joined the Spiritual Beasts Winda and Apelio, performing a double contact fusion to create two separate Ulti-Cannahawk(6/1400/1600)'s in defense mode. "Against you, I need as many chances as one can find." Both Ulti-hawks used their effects to shuffle four banished ritual beasts (Cannahawk, Wen, Zeframpilica, Rampengu) into the deck and add two new cards (Ritual Beast Steed, Ritual Beast Tamer Wen) to June's hand. "I set one card and end my turn."

"I had a wish too, Anru.. Have.." December took his turn. "I wish that I could not see ahead. That I could still hope for different outcomes. But this is the last turn, and nothing is different from what I predicted." He normal summoned the tuner D/D Nighthowl(3/300/600). "If anyone can make a difference, it would be you! December!" June was forced to stop D/D Night Howl before it got a chance to revive anything. Ulti-Gaiapelio(10/3400/2100) banished Wen from her hand and destroyed the toothy demon. "I tried. You saw what happened. I could not defeat myself. Therefor.." December activated two spells, Dark Contract with the Gate and Dark Contract with the Swamp King. "I must become myself." Immediately his opponent fired back and defused one of the Ulti-Cannahawks into Beast Apelio(4/1800/400) and Tamer Winda(4/1600/1800). "You don't believe that!" June activated Ritual Beast Steeds, which allowed her to destroy one card for each Ritual Beast card she controlled. "You are not this weak!" Apelio, Ulti-Cannahawk, Winda and Ulti-Gaiapelio fired streams of elemental energy at December's field and destroyed his Dark Contracts along with the Savants Nikola and Thomas.

"Anru. Please. Do not make this more difficult then it already is.." December sighed and placed a spell card on the field. "..I activate the Dark Contract with the Yamimakai. Once each turn, I can activate one pendulum D/D monster from my extra deck as a spell card." The lord of shadows made his contract with December and used dark magic to move D/D Savant Thomas (scale 6) back to the pendulum zone. "And through the effect of Thomas.." The lightbulb savant was activated, and used to retrieve D/D Savant Nikola. "My scales have returned." The tesla coil savant (scale 8) rejoined his current rival Thomas. "Pendulum summon." Together they called out D/D/D Supreme King Kaiser. "What's that gonna do?" Eric wondered. Kaiser was no match for Ulti-Gaiapelio. "It will serve as a sacrifice. Anru, before I mastered pendulums.. this is how I expressed my power." The Supreme King was tributed. "Ah!?" The demon that took its place looked like a giant six-horned blackhaired goat-skull(10/0/0), with another smaller skull as its face and four skeletal arms at its sides. "What is that thing?" Emily said, disgusted by its appearance.

"This is D/D/D Destiny King Zero Laplace! This monster can be special summoned by tributing one D/D/D monster! Its attackpower is double that of the monster it battles!" December anounced the effect just as Zero Laplace headed into battle. "What? Then.." The Destiny King(6800/0) powered up until it was twice as strong as Ulti-Gaiapelio. "June. I told you. This is how it ends. I tried to change your future, but you clung to yours as strongly as I clung to mine." There was no way back, not for either of them. "Maybe. But there is one thing.. I didn't try yet." June closed her eyes. "Huh?" Nephilim's pendulum crystal began to glow at the same time. Alice knew this was no coincidence. "I saved the last of my own power, my millenium eye.. for this!" A glint of light streamed from her eyes and struck December as he caught her gaze. "Argh! Whatdid you.." He reached for his head. "I cleansed you, December. If Tempus altered your mind in any way, to make you more willing to accept his future, than I have removed such influences. If I lose, I want to lose to the December I know!"

"Anru.." December breathed out slowly. "I am sorry. My mind is already clear." He pushed forward. Zero Laplace attacked the Ulti-beast and destroyed it. "...You don't know.." June was defeated. Her lifepoints disappeared, and her clock.. stopped.

June's LP: 0

"You.. you killed her. She was your best friend!" Emily shouted. "I have not killed her. Her loss merely returned her to normal time." The fact that the world was not moving forward was not something he could affect. "So? Are you just gonna leave everyone on this mountain and jump back to your past life yourself? That's even worse than killing them!" Eric was getting so riled up, that the dragon mark on his chest could be seen burning wildly. "You do not understand. They will not be lost. It will not matter either way. As soon as I complete my rebirth, I will release them." For what it was worth, December sounded like he believed what he was saying. Except that wasn't good enough for Alice. "But what if you arent yourself anymore?" June's fear was her fear. Tempus and December were like night and day, it was impossible to predict who would win out in the end. "You wondered where Uno was.." December suddenly changed the subject. "Huh?"

"I will tell you. Because the time is right." December pointed at the land beneath the mountain. "Uhm. What are we looking at?" At first they saw only the trees for the jungle. But soon.. "What what?" Shapes emerged. Visions that resembled humans walked the air, the sea and the land. "Ghosts from a previous world, the people who roamed this space yesterday or a thousand years ago. The seals of the qliphort are breaking, the past is letting out its deepest secrets.. And soon we will see what truly happened in those worlds everyone thought to be forgotten."

(To be continued in Nexus 044: Where Dreams Begin and Reality Ends)

New Cards used by December 'Tempus' Nisell
D/D/D Destiny King Zero Laplace

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Dark Contract with the Yamimakai

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D/D/D Contract Change

New Cards used by June
Psychic Trigger
Lost Wind
Zefra War