Rise of Destiny
Chapter 23
Prelude to the Final Battle
Atem and Anzu stepped onto Auros's winged ship. Atem surveyed the area. The ship was rather plain, with only a door leading down to the lower-deck, and a short stairway that led to the front of the ship. He spotted the soul-less bodies of both Kaiba and Mokuba lying near the edge of the ship. Anzu also noticed.
"Oh, no!" Anzu shouted. "Kaiba!"
She turned to face Auros, who was grinning. Then they noticed that men in black cloaks were circling them. There had to be 50 men, give or take a few.
"Meet my final battalion, my two lovebirds." Auros said coolly. "They're experts at breaking up happy couples."
Anzu blushed. Atem just scowled at Auros. The cloaked men moved closer, and finally stopped when Atem and Anzu had been backed up so much that they were back-to-back, with the men still moving slowly closer...
Two guys grabbed Atem's arms, and forced them behind his back, forcing him to drop the Sword of Milleniums.
Two more guys grabbed Anzu's arms, but instead of holding them behind her back, spread them out to their full length. Three other men moved in toward Anzu. One of them reached out and placed his hand on her thigh.
"Ew, don't touch me!" She said shrilly, kicking at the man as he tried to move his hand further up. Two guys grabbed her legs, holding her like a hammock, so she couldn't fight back.
"Atem...help...there's too many of them..." She muttered weakly. One of the men reached out toward her chest, and she screamed.
"That's enough. Put her down." Auros said coldly. The men backed off immediately, leaving only the two men holding Anzu's arms. Auros walked forward, and all of the muscles in Anzu's body immediately tensed.
Auros only grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"Such a pretty face you have. Such a shame it will never open it's eyes again." He said with such bitterness in his voice that Anzu almost winced. Auros placed his hand on her stomach, and a split second after that, a small white orb of energy floated out as he moved his hand away, and she lost consciousness.
"Can we have 'er, Auros?" One of the cloaked men asked hopefully. Auros glared at the man, a tinge of red in his eyes for a moment, and the cloaked man dropped to the floor. He was dead.
"If any of you touch her again, I will personally see to it that you never touch anything for the rest of your lives." Auros said as he turned toward Yugi. "My powers are growing with each soul I take. Once I have your soul, I'll be like a god."
"Auros...how can you be so coldhearted?" Atem asked, looking at the soul-less bodies of Kaiba, Mokuba, and Anzu with sadness and anger. "How could you take so many innocent lives?"
"It was easy. I want to create a world where no-one has to suffer. A paradise. The Haven." Auros said calmly. "No-one should have a life like mine..."
FLASHBACK
A young boy with short black hair and blue eyes is standing beside a long, black coffin. With him is a tall, balding man with short, graying black hair and a stubble of a beard. Both are wearing tuxedos.
"We are gathered here today for the burial of Saera Hanslow, beloved mother and wife, who died from sickness on the date of 1/1/1976."
/FLASHBACK
"My mother died of sickness when I was very young. I never really knew her well. However, I paid my respects to her by building the virus deck I used on your friend Jounouchi." Auros said solemnly. "But the worst was yet to come...it seems as though my mother was a link between the nice and naughty in my life. Because a few years after she died..."
FLASHBACK
The same young boy from before is walking to school. He has a bruise on his cheek, and he looks older, wearier then before.
He reaches the school yard, where he's 'greeted' by a tall, burly boy with red hair and a face like a monkey's.
"Got the money I wanted?" The red haired boy asks, cracking his knuckles menacingly.
"I'm sorry, but no." The black haired boy says in a quiet voice. "My dad wouldn't lend it to me, and..."
The red haired boy didn't let him finish. He punched the smaller boy in the gut, making him keel over.
"You'll get much worse if you don't have the money by this afternoon." The bully said, walking away. The black haired boy heard voices in the crowd that had almost surrounded them.
"What's going on?"
"Looks like Takata's beating up Auros again."
"That guy never stops."
/FLASHBACK
"I was bullied at school. Mostly by the same two or three blockheads. They didn't stop for a while, until I learned to control my life."
FLASHBACK
Young Auros is standing at the door to his apartment, with a few more bruises on his face now, and a faint black eye. He walks in, and says loudly, "Dad! I'm home!"
A wine bottle smashes against the wall, empty. A large, lumbering man with grey hair and a stubble of a beard walks out from the hallway drunkenly.
" 'Bout time. I've been waiting all day. Where've you been?" He says, a slight slur to his deep voice.
"A bully tried to beat me up. I barely got away." Auros said softly.
"That's a lame excuse!" Auros's father yelled. He kicked Auros aside, forcing him painfully into a wall. Then he walked toward Auros, his eyes blank and dark...
The only sounds that broke the quiet were Auros's screams.
/FLASHBACK
"It had been a hard year or two, living like that. But I had at least one solice. One day while browsing through the library, I stumbled upon a book of black magic spells..."
FLASHBACK
"I can use these to set my life straight!" Auros exclaimed to himself. He was now 11 years old, and had been living with his father for five years. Four years after his mother had died, Daron Hanslow started drinking, and taking his anger out on his son. Now, Auros had found a way to pay his father back: A small black book with ancient religious symbols on the cover.
He checked out his book, and left the library.
At home, in his small room, Auros is poring over the pages of the black magic book.
"Heh heh heh...this book will make everything better...ah...let's try this one...Kah Arum Na! Healing Spell!" Auros shouted. The bruises on his face immediately disappeared, and his eyes healed. He had become fully healed again.
"Amazing!" Auros exclaimed, touching his face in awe. "Let's see what else I can do..."
/FLASHBACK
"I used my powers to escape from my father and his drunken rages. I found a nice family who took me in for the next three years, while I secretly perfected my black magic skills. Little did I know that the business with my father was not over yet..."
FLASHBACK
Auros is 14, and he looks exactly as he does in the present times, except much younger. His hair is now long, and he's wearing the infamous blue trench coat over black pants and boots. He was standing on a long, shingled roof of an apartment.
The door opened below him, and a tall man wearing scruffy clothing walked out of the doors below him. It's Auros's father. He climbs up onto the roof, stumbling a bit, but he makes it.
"Auros...you've been a thorn in my side for too long..." He said with a slur to his voice. "I've finally found you after all this time..." He pulled out a knife, and advanced toward Auros. "This is the end!"
"Yes, it is the end. But it won't end the way you planned it, Father dearest." Auros said in an eerily quiet, mocking voice. His British accent was now apparent in his voice.
Auros raised his hand toward his father. Suddenly, the hand holding the knife began glowing, and started to move slowly toward it's owner's heart...
Auros's father screamed as he fell to the ground, the knife buried deep in his chest.
Auros chuckled as he walked over to his father's dying body, sneering.
"W-w-wh-what d-d-did you do?" Auros's father said weakly in his dying breath.
"I've been studying my black magic for the last five years. It helped a lot." Auros said coldly. He threw his head back and laughed cruelly.
/FLASHBACK
Atem's eyes widened. "You killed your own father!"
"It was necessary. After I killed him, I used his soul as the first victim of the Haven. That's what started my quest. Over the next 15 years, I searched for lost souls like myself to help start an organization to create the Haven. The first one I found was a young homeless boy of around 6 years old. His parents were killed, and he had been living on the streets for a few days. His name was Zabano." Auros laughed a bit. "He looked up to me like a father."
"And you took his soul just like all the others!" Atem shouted. "You cold-hearted fiend."
"I take that as a compliment." Auros said shortly. "We've reached our final destination.
Atem looked past Auros to see a huge transparent ball of energy, made up of every color in the rainbow, in front of them. It was at least as big as our moon, if not bigger.
"Welcome to the Haven," Auros said, holding his arms out to their full length.
TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT: The Final Battle part 1