Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.
Chapter 33: A puppet without strings
Her hand inched towards her deck and she drew...
Rebecca looked at the card in her hand with a mix of anger and awe. ("This isn't the card I wanted, but I guess beggars can't be choosers.") She slid it into her deck. "I play the magic card Annihilation. At the cost of 2000 life points I may send all cards on our fields and in our hands straight to the graveyard."
Rebecca- 900
Kaigen- 7650
Both she and Kaigen piled all of their cards up and slid them into the graveyard, leaving the entire field clear.
Rebecca nodded to her silent opponent. "End turn."
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Every duelist on the side-lines was frowning.
"Yug, that wasn't a very good idea. By destroying all of her defenses she's left herself wide open to an attack."
Yugi nodded at Joey. "That's true Joey, but she couldn't attack because of Kaigen's other face-down cards. Now she can."
Siegfried's eyes had yet to leave the field. "She had only 900 life points remaining. If Kaigen draws a monster then she is finished."
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Giovan tapped his fingers together in anticipation. If Kaigen could draw a monster card that he could summon than he had won. Something wasn't right about this situation though... ("My control over him is slipping...")
He extended his will outwards, wrapping it around Kaigen's brain and squeezing tightly. ("You dare to disobey me at a time like this!?")
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Rebecca jumped back in surprise as Kaigen fell to his knees screaming.
The cloaked man clutched his head as if he was in pain. His monotone voice broke into a panicked scream. "No please......not again....the flames!!" His right hand slid over to his deck and he drew.
Shakily he looked at the card and slapped it onto the field. "I....summon La Jinn." (1800/800) A green genie appeared and bowed to his master.
Rebecca could already feel her eyes misting over. She had lost. She braced herself for the attack that would destroy her.
It never came....
"End......turn." Kaigen's voice sounded like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
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Giovan felt his calm demeanor start to break. His will launched forth again and nearly crushed Kaigen's mind with the intensity of his anger. ("YOU DARE TO DISOBEY!?!?")
("I...I...'m...done...being...your puppet...")
Giovan sneered from his seat. He manifested himself further within his puppet's brain. ("So that's the way you want it?")
("............")
Giovan's mental image smiled and raised its out-stretched palm to the floating consciousness in front of it. ("If you won't win this duel then I will.")
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As quickly as Kaigen had collapsed in pain he just as quickly got back to his feet, looking fine. "I may have ended my turn, but don't take it as mercy. I would never show mercy to a bitch such as you."
Rebecca could tell that something was wrong with him. Before his voice had either been angry or monotone. This new tone he had taken on was something completely different though. It was like she was suddenly dueling with someone else.
She drew and placed a monster in defense mode. "I'll set this monster face-down and end my turn."
Kaigen drew his next card and pointed at her. "Now La Jinn, crush this pathetic defender of hers!" The genie took a deep breath and then exhaled a spray of flames that instantly consumed Rebecca's face-down monster.
As Rebecca slid her monster card into the graveyard she ventured to ask, "So, what's the matter Kaigen? You seem so much more animate than before."
From beneath his robes Kaigen snickered. "Silence yourself wench, before I kill you." He placed the card he had drawn down next to his La Jinn on his disk. "I set one monster and end my turn."
Rebecca drew and she couldn't help herself. She had to smile. "Be careful who you are calling a wench Kaigen. It's no way for a gentleman to act."
Kaigen snorted haughtily, "Who ever said that I was a gentleman?"
Rebecca slid her card into her duel disk. "I'm inclined to agree with that. Anyway, I play the magic card Replay. At the cost of half of my life points I may re-use any magic card from my graveyard. I will re-use Pot of Greed."
Rebecca- 450
Kaigen- 7650
She drew her two new cards and grinned. "I just love luck."
Kaigen snorted again. "What a lousy bluff."
Rebecca sighed and shook her head. "Jeez you are a let-down. I'm sure you must be a riot at parties."
She slid one of her cards into her duel disk. "I activate the magic card Change of Heart, which seizes control of your face-down monster." An angel appeared on the field and floated over to the face-down monster. She blew it a kiss and it slid over to Rebecca's field.
Rebecca flipped the monster up and winked at the Emissary. "Aww, how cute! I didn't know a guy like you had a soft spot for Kuriboh." (300/200) She flipped the creature up to reveal a brown furball with little green claws and feet.
The glow of Kaigen's crimson eyes was glowing like a small fire now. "Don't you dare mock me..."
Rebecca slid the cute card into her graveyard. "Fine. I'll sacrifice the Kuriboh to summon Airknight Parshath (1900/1400) in attack mode." A white centaur appeared on her field and whinnied.
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Up in his seat, Giovan felt his control slipping away. Kaigen was proving harder and harder to keep control of now. Bracing himself for the feeling of disorientation that would accompany it, Giovan extended his consciousness even farther into his puppet's mind. ("You will not make a fool of me!")
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Rebecca pointed at Kaigen's La Jinn. "Airknight Parshath attack!" The centaur knight launched across the field and in one slash he was the only monster on the field.
Rebecca- 450
Kaigen- 7550
Rebecca drew a card off the top of her deck. "Let me explain my Airknight's special ability to you. Whenever he deals battle damage to you I may draw one card off the top of my deck." She looked at her new card and slid it into her disk. "I'll set this and end my turn."
Kaigen drew and started to laugh, his eyes never leaving the card.
Rebecca raised one of her eyebrows. "Did I miss something?"
Kaigen's crimson eyes lifted to look at her. "Are you ready to burn little wench? Are you ready to face the flames? I have drawn the card that will leave nothing left of you but a memory and a few tears from your friends." He moved to slide the card into his duel disk, but stopped halfway. "End turn!" He seemed to have trouble spitting the words out.
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("NO!! WE HAD HER!!") Giovan extended more of his consciousness into the brain of the vessel that was standing on the field.
He had the win in his hands right there and then! Kaigen had drawn the Hell Meteor magic card. It would have killed the girl instantly.
In his anger he squeezed the original consciousness of his puppet just a little harder, drawing some small pleasure from watching the mental body before him writhe in pain on the ground. "You may have gotten control of your body before, but this time it will be different. The little brat has one turn to beat you. If she cannot then she will face the Hell Meteor in all of its deadly glory."
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Rebecca, eyebrows still up in surprise, drew. "I think you need to go sit down or something. What was all of that junk about me facing the flames?"
Kaigen's voice still rang with that disturbing sneer in it. "We're having minor technical difficulties."
Rebecca shook her head and slid her card into her duel disk. "I'll set this card and then I'll attack you with Airknight Parshath!" The centaur launched across the field and slammed its sword right into Kaigen's chest. He stumbled backwards amidst a spray of blood that had blossomed from his chest.
Rebecca- 450
Kaigen- 5850
Refusing to let the sympathy she was feeling get in her way, Rebecca drew her card from Airknight Parshath's effect. She slid it into her duel disk. "I'll set one more card and I will end my turn."
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Giovan sneered from within his puppet's mind. He extended his will even farther into Kaigen's brain. ("You will not deny me this time.")
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Yugi looked up at the comatose Giovan. He looked over at Kaigen next and nodded. ("So that's it...")
From within his mind Yami had just come to the same conclusion. ("Kaigen is nothing more than a mind-controlled human being.")
Yugi looked back over at the cloaked Emissary. ("Is that why he has passed twice? From the way he made it sound, he had perfect control of the duel. Both times though he didn't finish it.")
("That's exactly it. Kaigen must be fighting off Giovan's control.")
("Can we help him?")
("In fact we can actually.") From within the passage-ways of Yugi's mind, Yami extended his own will towards Kaigen.
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As Yami's extension arrived he immediately could see the damage that had been caused. The stone of the soul room around him was cracked and broken. ("This poor being is on the verge of having his mind destroyed completely. It is by sheer will alone that he is fighting now. I feel no hope left in his mind. Nothing left but a stubbornness not to lose.")
He walked down the hallways for a few minutes, until he finally found a large steel door. His hand curled around the handle to the door and he slowly opened it, readying himself to jump back in case he was walking into a trap.
The area he had entered must have been the main consciousness. Around him was the darkness that represented someone's mental projections of themselves. This was the place for someone to project themselves if they had not realized the existence of their soul room yet.
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Giovan was about to draw his next card, but the feeling of another person entering Kaigen's mind had stopped him. ("Someone is here. It must be the pharaoh, here to interrupt my fun.") He made sure that his will was firmly holding Kaigen in place and then he walked towards the door her had used to enter this place. ("You will not foil me Yami. I will kill you in this place.")
He fully extended his will into Kaigen's mind, giving himself a solid 'body' in this place. He looked down at his claws and smiled. ("It's been too long since I have eviscerated anyone. Now was I supposed to puncture the internal organs or simply pull them out for the victim to see?") He continued to rack his brain for the answer while he approached Yami's position.
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Rebecca tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Kaigen to make his move. He had been standing there for over three minutes now and had yet to say or do anything. "Earth to sick freak of nature...WAKE UP!" Kaigen still didn't respond.
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Yami felt Giovan approaching him. He prepared himself to do mental battle. In this place he was going to have to release his full mental power.
Seconds later he saw the faint form of Giovan Garlin in the distance. "I thought I might find you here Garlin."
Giovan stopped about five feet from Yami, smiling to reveal his fangs. He raised one hand to show that it had transformed to a black armored claw. "Hello to you too pharaoh."
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Rebecca sighed and watched the inanimate statue that was Kaigen. She was sitting cross-legged and even the holographic projection of her Airknight Parshath looked bored now. It had been over ten minutes and her opponent had yet to move a muscle.
She would have asked for him to be disqualified, but up in his chair Giovan was in a similar state.
So all she could do was sit there and start to fall asleep.
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Yami screamed in pain as he was thrown backwards by another blast of darkness from Giovan. He managed to erect enough of a barrier to prevent himself from being launched off into mental oblivion though. Pushing with his every bit of mental strength he had he managed to thrust the blast aside and counter with his own golden energy in the form of a spear of light.
Giovan threw one of his claws up and clenched his teeth in pain as the weapon pierced his wrist. It dug in farther and farther, until he finally felt the force behind it weaken enough for him to fling it aside. Despite his mental wound, he knew that he could keep fighting for at least another hour.
Yami on the other hand didn't feel so well. He had never quite faced someone as powerful as this before. Even Marik's magical strength did not equal the power that this being was projecting. "Ready to give up Garlin?"
"Do I look that weak to you Yami?" Giovan felt his energy flowing through his claws. He lifted his claw and launched across the expanse of blackness, ready to run the pharaoh through. "Prepare to die fool!"
Yami threw up another barrier of mental energy, trying with all of his might to resist the dark energy. As the claw hit it looked for a moment like that Yami's barrier would hold against the assault...
Unfortunately it only looked that way for a moment...
Yami's barrier started to bend and twist, small cracks appearing in its edges. He threw more energy against it to reinforce it, but it was too late to repair the damage. The cracks started to spread.
Giovan sneered from the other side of the barrier. "As soon as your little shield is gone pharaoh, I will kill you."
Yami was too busy trying to strengthen his defenses to answer.
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Twenty minutes had passed...
Rebecca was too busy watching as an aura of both gold and black light sprang up around Kaigen's body. His hood flapped in the wind that had picked up around him. The black and gold auras seemed to be battling, tearing away at each other like enraged animals.
She was about to ask someone on the side-lines what was going on, but then the aura's blew the hood of Kaigen's cloak off. Whatever words she had planned to say died in her throat....
To be continued...
Author's Notes: Crazy stuff abound! Mental battles and random insanity in the next chapter! Lemme go write it first though.