R Amythest: second to last chapter, I believe... ^^;; but... it's going to be a while until I start the sequel, "Descending from Heaven, Rising from Hell." Erm... mostly because I have a new YYH trilogy going...
Leafe: *mutters* traitor... *pokes*
R Amythest: What? I'm going to get this thing over and done with, then go on a little updating spree for 'The Music of the Stars,' my little Ryou/Malik fic, and 'Conspiracy of the Dead,' the first in my YYH trilogy.
Myst: Oh, so you're going to let me stay dead for a prolonged time?!
Yugi: *glompie* I'LLL MIISSSSS YOUUU!!!!
R Amythest: you two LOVE spoiling my plot, don't you?!
***************************Chapter Twenty-Three: Final Battle for Light; Banishment and Prevalence*********************************
Dark clouds circled the sky. Lightning filled the air, screeches and cries of foes clashed; and among this, my friends and I fought the greatest battle of our lives. Listen, and you will hear of the most dramatic battle of our lives. A single star sparkled and caught my eye. From it descended Crygif, Recarn, Reggie, and Chance.[3]
"Sword of Silence, STRIKE!" I hollered, the dark beam of fury heading toward Crygif, but was dispelled easily with his own golden beam.
Above, in the skies, Kaiba attacked with all his fury, but was met up with three other Blue-Eyes, each seemingly darker, and below them was Recarn, smirking in all his glory. Leafe protected the city, his magic making up for his low attack power. Mai, Tristen, and Joey were relatively weak on their own, but teamed up to destroy larger foes. Harp streaked through the sky, a golden streak, getting behind the front lines and attacking the slightly weaker monsters behind them. Bakura controlled the strong monster in the front to destroy the ones behind them. On to the side were Myst, Tea, and Shimmer, who resorted to soothing those in the village—the panicked, the pained, the worried.
Crygif didn't seem to understand why such a small community was putting up such a huge struggle.
And somewhat, that was a reason why we felt we could overcome him.
"Please, calm down!" Myst soothed, holding a little Dark Elf close to her. "Your mother will be all right... she'll do fine...." The elf refused to listen, screaming and kicking like before.
Suddenly, there was a flash, and the Dark Elf screamed in pain, disintegrating in her hands. Myst gasped, quickly turning to the source of the flash... Reggie. She smirked, holding a dark hand in front of her, pausing for a moment as a staff materialized in her hand. Myst cringed, grabbing her own light blue wand. Reggie stops in surprise at this. "Well, how very touching." She spun her own blood-red staff around in her hands, creating a blur. She stopped it, and slowly pointed the black sphere at the top at the star on Myst's wand. "The Void Scepter finally meets its counterpart, the Soul Gliss."
"What?" Myst asked, raising her wand. "Counterpart?"
"Ancient lore tells of two staffs, forged each in their own universe, one of cruelty, and one of love." Reggie painted a scene in the sky above them, of two elves. "They were said to have belonged to the greatest warriors of their time. But they were never destined to meet." The docile scene changed to a battlefield, barren and desolate. "And alas, the greatest clash of unforgiving hatred of torrential fury and gentle winds of mercy and kindness was aroused. It was a fight to the finish."
"Who... who won?" Myst breathed, clutching the Soul Gliss tight in her hand.
"They say history repeats itself," Reggie answered, "I am not one to believe it. But if it truly goes that way, then we shall do battle... and find out."
That's all I heard before I found myself blocking Crygif's attack with a dark shield.
Behind our beams, Bakura went to control a Vorse Raider, but was stopped by Chance, who swarmed in front of him. "Now, do you REALLY think I'd let you do that?!"
I thought you were on OUR side!!!!
..............................................................................................
...I don't want to deal with Audra's spirit.
...what?
But I had no time to ask more, as my shield was destroyed and left me in a cloud of dust. I coughed as it entered my lungs, but stayed strong, all the same, watching the spot where I was certain Crygif was. "Sword..." cough "of silence..." cough "STRIKE!"
The beam ripped through the dust, giving me a narrow look at the outside world. The attack missed Crygif's head by a few inches. "I must say I'm impressed by your power," Crygif growled, "but that will be no longer!" He aimed a beam at me, and I attacked back with a steady black ray of my own, neither gaining area.
It happened there. The answer to a thousand questions.
"Don't you think it's ironic," Reggie said steadily, paring Myst's spells with her own, "that our little top spy is currently rebelling with all her might for the love of our greatest foe?"
"WHAT?!" I couldn't keep the beam up, and I barely dodged it. All the others, too, were breathless. An eerie bubble of silence surrounded all of us. Myst stayed silent. Leafe muttered random curses under his breath, hesitantly taking out a bottle of Tribute to the Doomed. No, Leafe, no...
=Yugi, I hope you've come to the point of realizing that this is a war, and if she's our enemy, I have no choice.=
^B-b-but how could you be so HEARTLESS?!^
\Who? Leafe? Or... me?\
A great feeling of anger rose within our bubble of silence, and it popped with Crygif's ear-splitting attack. I retaliated quickly, the beams again piercing the darkness.
And no one could guess the relief that rose within me as Myst shouted into the night air, "I'M NOT ON YOUR SIDE ANYMORE!!! FOR RIGHTFULNESS!!! FOR TRUTH!!!!" She quietly added, "For Yugi..."
The battle once again wound itself upon us, everyone attacking with his/her full devotion to his/her cause.[1] Swords clashed, spells blasted; betrayal and deceit joined the atmosphere around us. Off to the side, Tea and Shimmer wound up fleeing with the rest of the village.
::What's going on?!::
#R-r-r-r-relene! HELP!#
War, that's what's going on! Hurry and help us!
=Of course, unless you're a traitor like Myst.= I cringed at Leafe's bitter thoughts, my anger driving the sword's ray even further.
::WHAT?!::
=Wow, that seems to be a popular phrase today. How about you simply just FIGHT?!=
[How about you not? This world will soon all surrender to me, and you'll all experience the pain I went through before!!!]
"What happened?" I asked weakly. I didn't get a response, and in my heart, I knew I wouldn't get one. The battle continued around us, ever-shifting, ever moving in its disastrous, yet sparking ways. Paring blows, one after another, neither side moving so much as an inch. Sure, we pushed them back, they pushed us back, but in the end, we were in the same position as before. Except that my emotions swarmed in a chaotic mess inside.
"I don't want to do this, I don't want to fight this war!" Myst shouted, creating a mirror wall. Reggie didn't reply. "I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT!!!"
Reggie took a single blow from Myst's staff and smirked as Myst froze over, eye twitching, body unmoving. "You can't attack me without losing something. Just as you can't earn freedom without a price." Reggie slowly pointed her staff at Myst. "And your price... was just raised."
A red beam shot out.
Screaming filled the air.
Sparkles landed in my hair.
I found myself where Myst used to be, sparkles hovering around me, and to be truthful, that is one part I do not wish to tell. It's my own private moment. It's a part I would like to leave out in this epic tale.[2] But in the end, I stayed still, and Crygif attacked me.
The miraculous thing is, my sword and Myst's wand both glowed. A small figure rose from the star of the staff, one that was not unlike Shimmer. I didn't know it then, but now I know that the card was called Happy Lover. It glowed some more, then disappeared. The beam stopped harmlessly right before touching me.
=Here comes the quote of the day, I'll bet.=
"WHAT?!"
=Told ya.=
But I was in no mood for Leafe's puns. Myst was gone... gone...
"What happened?!"
The Happy Lover came back and hovered in front of Crygif. "Love, that's what!" it chirped, before vanishing for good.
Crygif stared at the spot in the sky, and looked back and forth between the village and the spot before his face. I still lay gasping and sobbing, wallowing in my misery.
Crygif sighed, flapping his wings and taking off, using his power to teleport his troop one by one to their rightful place – home. "I can't fight this power anymore," he softly sighed.
It's all happened for a strange feeling for one that happened to betray me, but betrayed herself in the end... love. For Myst. For the spy that turned this revolution around.
Reggie, out of fright and confusion, shook the Soul Gliss roughly. "WHAT HAPPENED?!" she screamed into the silent and unreplying night. Recarn walked behind her and gently laid a hand on her shoulder, bringing a shudder through the mutated mystical elf.
"It's over."
::What happened, really?:: Relene also whispered this into the night for Magest to hear.
Leafe sighed, submitting to the truth. "I'll tell you all of it," he whispered, gently pushing Relene and Magest into a quiet alley to talk.
Crygif took off, taking Reggie, Recarn, and Chance with him. A puffy white cloud billowed beneath them, the pure aura contrasting against the dark summer night sky. "Someday, we'll meet again... but I am at peace with the world," he told the land, the cloud rising into the sky. Shaking on the ground, I looked up in time to see them disappear into a star's light.
"Starlight, star bright, the first star I saw tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, that Myst will come back the next night," I chanted, sighing. I hoped that worked.
I *hoped*. But what's there left to hope for?
Above me in the clouds, I could sense some mental conversations.
@Umm... Reggie?@
@Hi in there?@
...Reggie...
%Yeah, what?%
@What's on your mind?@
%Her sparkles filled the arena. Her insisting, pleading words now tore at my heart, the words that I had ignored until now. I had destroyed the one that taught me how to understand. . ..%
@......................@
Yes, I understand what she means.
@Somewhat, I feel in my heart that I do, too.@
%How could you? You don't even correspond with the legend.%
Legend? What legend?
%In the first battle of the Scepters, the Soul Gliss-wielder won the fight, and darkness was demolished. But I won this battle on the surface... but I also believe that history repeats itself.%
@But didn't you win this time?!@
%On the surface, Recarn, on the surface....%
Recarn, not everything is what it appears to be.
%Yes, yes... she has won... because I have submitted to the light.%
A beam shot through the sky and entered the sword in my hand. I clasped my hand on the sword, seeing what Crygif sent. It was a memory... filled with darkness and pain. It rolled through my head like a video... the memory... the pain...
***
And then we were all sent back to the world we knew.
***
Kaiba found Mokuba's body soulless-- just a shell.
***
Joey and I woke the same night that we left for the Duel Monsters World.
***
It wasn't a dream—it couldn't have been; the experience was impossible to forget, and my naiveté had left me.
***
Hopefully, you shall remember the greatest battle of all time... the Journey of Wandering Hearts.
~~Owari~~
[1] I took an English test a little bit before I wrote this. X_X So... yeah.
[2] Don't worry, you get little flashbacks in the epilogue.
[3] I actually considered naming Reggie "Persephone." I eventually voted against it because it had nothing to do with 'revenge.' But if I had, The phrase "Chance, Persephone, and Reggie" would have the abbeviation CPR! [AKA: I get to french-kiss Ryou in order to revive him! ^x^]
********
R Amythest: Owari means end. *blinks* Well, there's still the epilogue, but Yugi was the storyteller all along for this. Notice that gaps are still left, even with Yugi's end summary. Why? *winkwink* This story was told in past tense, the next is in present tense. *grins* So Yugi doesn't KNOW what happens to Myst and who Audra is! *evil laugh* But I do!
Yugi: Why couldn't you have hinted more that I told this thing?!
R Amythest: Uh... 'cause I didn't plan for that?
Yugi: -_-
R Amythest: anyhoo... I've already gotten the Epilogue typed up, and will be posted after three people review for this chapter! ^.^ Ja ne!