EVOLUTION REQUIEM

[Caius Perspective]

Beep... Beep... Heart rate monitor? I wake up in a hospital bed, looking around slowly and sluggishly, stood near me are Yusei and Godwin.

"How long was i out?..."

The two look at me and sigh in relief; i can tell Godwin's is faked though.

"You are a lucky one mister Yamigetsu. I cannot tell you the trouble it took to not let the Arcadia movement claim you" Godwin says calmly. "You were found unconscious by your duel runner, a shame I'm sure."

I pull myself into a sitting position and look to Yusei, then back to Godwin. "Say Director, wouldn't you say it's about time they knew? Now you know who they are."

The director nods and leads Yusei out, leaving me there with the nurse.

"So nurse... Why did i pass out?"

"You had an incredible amount of toxins in your body, someone poisoned you... Much longer and you would be dead."

"... Well shit."

The nurse chuckles and hands me my duel disk. "This was on the ground beside you, I'm afraid it's broken."

"I'll have to fix it up then, maybe Yusei would help..."

The nurse shrugs. "You will be here for at most a couple of days, we're just checking if any of the toxin is still in your system, hopefully you'll be good to go by tomorrow"

I nod and the nurse leaves, leaving me to look through my deck. The king of the Netherworld has seen it... Highly likely that all the strategies are now at his disposal... My D/D deck will be useless against him now... Guess that dragon poisoned more than just my body.

"Master? Are you awake yet?" Beelze says to me from within.

"Yes I'm up Beelze, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine master, but I must deeply apologize for letting my guard down..."

"You're alright Beelze, Let's just stay safe in future, our dark side will cause problems for us in future anyway. Now my deck is compromised... Even the Dark Dragon Road is gonna be useless..."

"An Evolution is required, master?"

"Yeah, we do need one of those... But it's easier said than done. The Road was my path and that's dead ended..."

"Might I call you to our world master? There is something I wish to show you"

"Sure Beelze." I put my duel disk on my arm and lay back, closing my eyes as I feel myself pulled to the spirit world. But... It's different this time.

I open my eyes at a castle much like that of the Crimson Dragon. It's midnight I guess, the moon is directly above the castle, Beelze stands atop the steps in her human form, and in a much more regal looking dress than normal.

"Hello Beelze, Nice dress"

"Thank you Master, welcome home"

I raise an eyebrow as I walk up the steps toward her. "Home?"

She bows. "The King of Fiends. Was that not your old title?"

That rings a bell... But I don't remember clearly, another snapshot memory... I remember sitting across from Aeon and we were duelling... with very old decks... King of Fiends versus King of Machines.

"Are you trying to say this is the castle of the one who holds that title?"

"This became your castle once you earned that title, against the earthbound immortal. We are inside your soul master, the part that links you to me"

That would mean... This place is new.

"So Beelze, Why am i here?"

The castle doors open, and out walk a small group of girls wearing maid outfits.

"These are the maidens, might we be allowed to renew your deck master?" Beelze says smiling at me.

"You may Beelze... He knows about my D/D strategies though..."

Beelze smiles at me. "Then we will remove all that he knows, this will be a new deck entirely!"

My mark starts glowing and the moon turns the same red, for a moment I feel like my mark has its power increased by a power of 7. After a few moments it stops and when i blink, I'm back in the hospital bed, the nurse and some doctors standing around me.

"He's awake! Heart rate at 100 BPM"

"Check blood pressure!"

"Marginally above normal, he'll be okay!"

I sit up and they all step back like I've just come back from the dead, I look at the nurse. "Uh... what happened?"

She looks sheepish and says, "You have been asleep all day and about a minute ago... Your heart stopped..."

I chuckle. "I'm fine now, don't worry. Run your tests and you'll see I'm fine"

I sit there and they check me over, and about 10 minutes after I'm allowed to leave, with all the doctors giving me a weird look as I do.

My runner is outside; I chuckle, get on, and head home. I find the door unlocked, and the smell of something cooking. I go to the kitchen to investigate, and find Aeon.

"Hello there, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Aeon looks and me and sighs. "You survived. Good. Figured you'd want something when you got back... If you got back"

I laugh. "Ever the optimist Aeon, what are you cooking?"

He shrugs and shows me, he appears to just be doing a fry-up, I smile and pat his back.

"Thanks man, I mean it, but how did you get in?..."

He looks sheepish and I go back to look at the door, a few scratches round the keyhole.. The bastard picked the lock!

After a little bit of food I decide to forgive him for breaking into my house, and we sit and talk about what happened with the Llama immortal and the dark castle.

"I never called you that, you only called yourself the King of Fiends Caius..."

I shrug and put my duel disk on the table, looking through my deck, and it's almost completely different. No more D/D in sight... No Dark Dragon Road. It's all new.

"Care to help me test run it Aeon?"

"You had me at Care, there's something you should probably know first man.."

It's at this point I hear the shower stop running.

"Who the hell did you invite into my house?..."

"She was the one who brought you to the hospital. She found you outside, apparently she wanted to speak with you"

I look over to the bathroom door as it opens, and out steps a beautiful woman with dark hair and crystal blue eyes, she's wearing a red flowing dress and a black jacket, and those beautiful eyes are framed with a pair of elegant black glasses. I cough politely and gesture to one of the chairs.

"Please do sit... What's your name?"

She smiles and bows her head.

"Hello Caius, my name is Estelle, I merely came to congratulate the champion, and ask you about that card you used against Jack... Phantasmal Lord..."

"Ultimitl Bishbaalkin?" I raise an eyebrow; it's been a while since the fortune cup. And she's the first one to talk to me about it.

"Uh. Yes, you referred to it as the ultimate god?"

I chuckle and shake my head. "Don't worry, it's just a summon chant, I doubt the card holds any real power..."

"Uh huh... Well, i must be on my way then. It was nice to meet you." She smiles again and goes to the door, before i realize I've written down my phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to her.

"Come by any time Estelle, was nice to meet you too" What the hell is wrong with me right now?

She nod, smiles, pockets the paper, puts on a travel cloak and walks off down the road, I hear a chuckle behind me, apparently Aeon is amused by this.

"Something to say, brother?" I question, turning to him.

"Nah, Let's go duel outside"

He walks out to the pool area and waves over to Leo and Luna who are with Yusei in their pool area; they look like they just got back from somewhere and they wave back.

"Alright Aeon, you ready?" I say, standing on the opposite end of the pool from him.

He nods and smirks, readying his duel disk. "Sure thing, also you could at least try to hide the fact you had the hots for that Este-"

"SHUT UP AND DUEL ME!"