—Yay! I finally have another Chapter up. Thank you all for being so darn patient with me. I know it's not hard, especially when I leave you with evil cliffhangers…heh. Okay, well I'll cut the chit-chat for now and let you read.
Chapter Ten – Double Duel to the Death
Everyone was very hesitant about the fact that Ryou had returned to their side. He explained that it was never his idea to betray anyone. That Bakura was doing this all for his sake.
"I say we hang the traitor!" Weevil snapped.
"Then that means we'd have to be hanged as well, idiot." Rex said with his arm around Serena's waist.
Simon was the only one to notice the odd way Ryou was clutching his materials. He was holding them as if they were a lifeline or the thread between life and death. Then the old Druid realized something and his eyes widened. The White Druid's soul had a gapping hole inside it. Simon stepped forward and put a comforting hand in Ryou's shoulder.
"You poor boy…" he said, quietly. "Nuriel was separated from you, wasn't he?"
Ryou was trembling now and he fell to his knees. "Nuri's gone! He's gone; I don't know where he is. Bakura severed our bond. That's why I came back. I did it because I couldn't take all the guilt. All the innocent people that the Immortal Thieves have killed…their blood stained me as well as Bakura. I'm to blame just like he is. Go ahead and hang me! I deserve this punishment…"
Cara crawled over to Ryou and gurgled softly, pulling at his robes. She buried her face in his arm and squealed happily. Ryou looked at her. "Bakura promised me he would spare two lives. The life of the Rose Duelist and the life of this child; but everyone else would be killed." Ryou picked Cara up and cuddled her.
"Can't you do something?" Tristan asked.
"Like what?"
"Stand up to him, dammit!" Joseph snapped. "You've got magic powers! Use 'em already!"
"I can't…" Ryou said quietly. "I wish Nuri was here."
"Ryou?" the White Druid looked over his shoulder and saw Jhada standing behind him. The half-elf looked at him with concern in her silvery amber eyes. "It's been a while, my friend."
The White Druid jumped to his feet, dropping all his books and scrolls. He ran to his friend and embraced her, sobbing loudly. "Jhada! I'm so glad to see you again!"
Jhada hugged her friend and said, "Easy, Ryou, hon. Everything's going to be all right. Nuri's safe and sound."
Ryou released her and his eyes glistened with hope. "Really! Jhada, that's wonderful!"
"Yes. You will see him soon, I promise. But I have a feeling you didn't just come to be a part of the winning side."
Ryou nodded and turned to face everyone. "I have information on the Immortal Thieves. I'm going to tell you how to destroy them easily."
——————
"Fin…" Melisanne said in shock as she was walking towards Diana's room.
The elf blushed slightly when he saw the young servant. "Melisanne…um…" Quick, Fin, he thought to himself, say something witty. No! Say something charming! That's right…it works for Daelin…
"Is something wrong, Fin?" Melisanne asked.
Fin cleared his throat and said, "Vanimle sila tiri."
Melisanne giggled and Fin blushed even more. Dammit, I must've said the wrong thing. Melisanne looked at him and asked, "Silly, I cannot speak in your language."
"Oh…uh, it means 'Your beauty shines bright.'"
Melisanne's face fell and Fin mentally slapped himself. "Melisanne, I—"
"I am not beautiful, Fin. Please do not say that again." Melisanne bowed her head and walked towards Diana's room.
She opened the door and saw Jun and Xiao sitting on the floor near Diana's bed. The two children were stroking and grooming the two pookas. But Diana was lying on the bed with her face buried in the pillows. Melisanne could hear muffled sobs coming from the pillows. Melisanne told her siblings to leave them alone for a while. Jun and Xiao obeyed and left, carrying Diamond Dust and Nuri with them.
Melisanne went closer to the bed and said aloud, "My lady? Is something the matter?"
Diana sat up and wiped her tears away. Her cheek was still red from where Yugi had slapped her. She told Melisanne everything and the servant sat on the bed and listened attentively. When Diana was through, Melisanne said, "Do you…love the King?"
"Of course. I will always love, Melisanne. He helped me believe in myself. I never believed I was strong, but Henry saw through my wretched life and gave me hope." Diana sniffled.
"Fin thinks I am beautiful."
"Fin?" Diana blinked. "That's so sweet. How do you feel?"
"I do not know. Is it possible for him to love someone like me?"
Diana stared at her. "There's nothing wrong with you, Melisanne. You're a very nice person."
"Thank you, Diana-san. But…what I mean is—"
"Diana!" Fin, of all people, burst into the room. "Daelin needs to see you outside now. It's very urgent!"
Diana stood and grabbed her staff. She smiled at Melisanne and hurried out with Fin behind her. They exited the castle only to be faced with two Immortal Thieves. Daelin was standing outside facing them. Diana came to stand beside him.
"So what's going on?"
"These Thieves are here to challenge you to a duel. They say if you win, they will stay out of Tanna Undome. But if you loose against both of them, then their entire army will pull out of Thar Amrun and invade the British Empire and slaughter everyone inside the castle first."
Diana frowned at them. "So which of you is going first, eh?"
The knight on the left stepped forward and spoke. His voice had a metallic sound to it. "We shall duel you together. The two of us against you, Rose Duelist."
"Excuse me! Those odds really aren't in my favor. I want a partner too!" Diana snapped.
"Very well. Choose your partner."
Diana looked at Daelin. "Would you mind dueling with me?"
Daelin was about to say yes, but then he noticed the staff she had and remembered that Diana had a Blue Eyes White Dragon in her deck. He gripped the shoulder that had been wounded by that same Dragon. "Sorry, Diana. I admire your strength and courage and dueling skills…but dueling with a Blue Eyes White Dragon is something I cannot do."
"Please Daelin…you're the only other duelist here, except for Rosenburg. And I would rather have my lungs ripped out than go crawling to Rosenburg for assistance." Diana said. "If you duel with me, then I promise not to use my Dragon."
Daelin was silent for a few minutes, but then nodded. "All right. This is a double duel between me and Diana vs. you two jackasses. First team to zero life points looses. Any questions?"
"No. But you won't like how we double duel." said the second knight. Suddenly a black whirlwind surrounded them and Daelin and Diana were lifted high above Thar Amrun. Surrounding them was darkness and it was freezing cold. Daelin had his armor to keep him warm, but Diana felt like an ice cube.
Four, little orbs of blackish-purple light floated around each duelist. The first knight said, "Each orb represents 1000 life points. When you loose 1000 life points, then one orb will strike your body, draining a little bit of your life away. When you reach zero, you will die."
Diana rubbed her arms. "You could at least make it slightly less cold, boys."
"Don't worry, Diana. You and I are both strong duelists. We'll slaughter these two." Daelin said.
"Right." She summoned Val and Daelin summoned Buster Blader.
The first knight summoned Vampire Lord as his deck leader and the second summoned Banisher of Light (100/2000). Diana and Daelin were worried now. "Val, that card is bad news. As long as it's face-up, the cards that go to the Graveyard, stay in the Graveyard. Monster Reborn is useless."
"Yes I know, my lady. But we will triumph." Val said.
"Let the double duel begin. I shall start off." said the first knight. "And I play Gora Turtle (1100/1100) in defense mode." A turtle with big amber eyes and a puckered mouth appeared in front of Vampire Lord. "Now you cannot summon any monster with an attack power of 1900 or more. It's the girl's turn now."
Diana drew and summoned Harpy Lady #3 (1300/1400) in defense mode with one card face-down. The second knight's turn and he played Skull Dog Marron in attack mode. Daelin drew and smirked. "I summon Warrior Dai Grepher (1700/1600) in attack mode." A muscled man in a tight, black outfit, carrying a long sword appeared in front of Buster Blader. "Warrior Dai Grepher, attack his Gora Turtle!"
Gora Turtle was destroyed easily and the first knight lost 600 points, not enough for one of the orbs to strike him, though. Daelin ended his turn by playing a card face-down. It was back to the first knight and he played a monster face-down in defense mode and that was it.
I can't exactly figure these two out, Diana thought. They don't duel like experts and one of them already has 3400 life points. They've got good cards though, I'll give them that much. She couldn't activate her face-down card until one of the Knights played a magic or trap card. Diana drew and said, "I summon Raging Flame Sprite in attack mode." A little girl with a body engulfed in flames appeared next to Harpy Lady.
"I activate Raging Flame Sprite's special ability. Sprite, attack the second knight's deck leader directly." The Sprite threw a huge fireball and it crashed into Banisher of Light perfectly. The Knight only lost 100 life points, but it was a start. "Since my attack was successful, I can increase my Sprite's attack power by 1000." Now Raging Flame Sprite's attack was 1100.
The second Knight was up now. He drew and said, "I summon Absorbing Kid from the Sky in attack mode." A fat child with angel-like wings appeared on the field (1300/1000). "Now attack her Raging Flame Sprite!" The Kid flew forward and punched Flame Sprite, destroying it. Diana's life points were at 3800.
"Now I can activate Absorbing Kid's special ability. Since your Raging Flame Sprite was a Level 3 monster, I can increase my life point by 3 times that much." Now the second Knight had 4800 life points! Maybe I was wrong about these guys, Diana thought.
"They're a little better than what I thought." Daelin said to Buster Blader.
Buster Blader nodded and looked at Val. "You attacked Evil Diana before. Can you attack again?"
"I do not know." Val replied.
Daelin sighed. It was his turn now. "Warrior, attack Absorbing Kid." Warrior Dai Grepher swung his sword and sliced Absorbing Kid away. The second Knight lost 400 life points.
The first Knight's turn and he passed. Diana blinked in surprise. She and Daelin exchanged confused glances. But Diana continued with her turn. She drew and smiled. "I summon Dark Magician Girl in attack mode and I'll increase her attack with Black Pendent."
Dark Magician Girl appeared and her attack power went up to 3000. "Dark Magician Girl, attack the first Knight's monster." Dark Magician Girl shot a beam of dark pink light at the first Knight's face-down card and destroyed it. Diana saw the card just before it vanished. It was Morphing Jar.
"Now all four of us must return our monsters on the field to our decks and then shuffle our decks, then we draw until we have the same number of new cards as the number of monsters we lost." the first Knight said.
The way he explained it was confusing, but Diana already knew what Morphing Jar did. She returned Dark Magician Girl and Harpy Lady to her deck and shuffled her deck. Now she could draw two new cards. Daelin and the second Knight could only draw one, but the first Knight wasn't able to draw any new cards.
It was the second Knight's turn and he put a monster face-down in defense mode. Daelin was up now and the strategy of these Knights puzzled him greatly. All they've been doing is playing monster/effect cards, he thought. I have yet to see either of them play a magic or trap card. Do they not have any? If that's the case, then Diana and I should have a serious advantage over them.
"I summon Hayabusa Knight in attack mode. Hayabusa, attack Vampire Lord directly." The falcon-headed warrior slashed Vampire Lord, making the first Knight's life points go down by 1000. One of the orbs slammed into the first Knight, making him stumble, but no exclamation of pain came forward.
Daelin ordered Hayabusa to attack the second Knight, making his life points go down to equal Diana's. An orb smashed into the second Knight and his reaction was the same as the first one's. "Good one, Daelin." Diana said.
"Thank you. Now we just need to destroy one and leave the other all alone."
"Right." Diana nodded. She drew and smiled. "I summon Luster Dragon #2 in attack mode!" Luster Dragon #2 had an attack of 2400, which was the exact number of the first Knight's life point count. "Now my beast, attack Vampire Lord and wipe out the Knight's life points!"
Luster Dragon #2 shot a burst of emerald green flames at Vampire Lord, destroying him. The first Knight lost and the rest of his orbs slammed into him, scorching his body to ashes. The second Knight was left all alone against Diana and Daelin.
"My partner may be gone, but I have a card in my deck that will destroy you both."
"I'll believe it when I see it." Diana said.
"You will see…just wait a little longer." the Knight said.
—Oh…fun Chapter, eh? Notice Yugi never mentions that he hit Diana…Jhada's gonna stick with Yugi and the others for now. Considering she knows Ryou pretty well, she's gonna offer him some comfort as a friend should. Those Knights sound like wimps, huh? Yeah they are…oh and what Buster Blader does in the next Chapter is gonna be a sort of semi-surprise to everyone. –review responses–
Jaded – Jhada has yet to find out about Yugi hitting Diana, obviously. But she will in the next Chapter and she won't like it either…the sparks of a Jhada and Daelin romance will become evident in the next Chapter too, if I can squeeze that in, which I probably can
Swift – Yugi and Diana are the classic example of a "cute couple." Of course they'll work it out. Glad you solved your parent problems…-sighs-
SG – heh…Fin called her beautiful to her face. Ain't that cute? xD Yeah…Japanese works for them. I didn't wanna kill Nuri. He's so adorable. o.O Yes you heard a hint of a wedding. Don't get ahead of the fanfic…yet…
DarkShadow – whoa…you said my name…that kinda jumped out at me. Well, what do you think? Daelin and Diana in a double duel…I had to make Daelin involved in at least one more duel. Otherwise people might he was just a one-time duelist or something. I want them to think he's a man of action or something like that.
mariks1andonly – Gah! I keep forgetting to e-mail you about Chapter updates! –smacks self– I'm sorry…Henry hit her only because Diana compared his obsessive behavior to Rosenburg's. Of course, Henry hates Rosenburg's guts, so that comment kinda pissed Henry off. (This is the 1400s, you understand. It was okay to do that sort of thing, I guess.)
Sara and company with Lauren the fairy – oh the drama…tis a freakin' soap opera. Crap! –lol– Okay, take your time with that story. I can wait…