NOTE: Whilst the characters and story line ties in directly to the Japanese subtitled version of the TV show, the card names are taken from the English language game itself, due to the hap-hazard translation of the subtitles. The effects or types of these cards may vary between nations, but it shouldn't get in the way too much. I am trying to write an ongoing series set during the Doom saga to give a slightly different take on events. This does not however conflict with what Yugi and the others are going through at any point and is designed to have played out behind the scenes. A story-that-never-was, if you will, hence the title 'Silent Tale'. Any questions of comments please send them to and I will endeavour to answer them ASAP. I am interested in people's ideas on what should happen next so feel free to send them along.
SILENT TALE: Part 1
By Ben Warren
The YZ-Tank Dragon eliminated Dante's Magic Swordsman and struck his life points for 1100, leaving him with a mere 500 points left. The image of the armoured figure wavered for a moment and then shattered into a million pieces, leaving a distressingly low amount of monsters left to defend his side of the field. Having just invoked Shadow Spell to cripple his Black Luster Soldier, the opponent declared the end of his turn. Smiling smugly, he indicated that he had one card remaining in his hand that would seal the game come his next turn. It stood to reason that with the Tank Dragon on the field the pivotal card would be the final piece of it's transformation into a powerful warrior.
Dante couldn't let him get that far.
His hand consisted of Giltia the Dark Knight, Gaia the Fierce Knight and Primal Seed, but no monsters below five stars. On the field lay a single face down monster and his crippled Luster, which meant that he couldn't summon any additional defence in this turn unless he could draw one now. With another monster on it's way to his opponent's field next turn, he had to get something out or risk loosing the duel, and his reputation to boot.
"Draw!" he announced, pulling a single card up from his deck, he turned it around to face him and a flicker of doubt crossed his face. His opponent, seeing such a look whooped in joy and lent forwards to tease him.
"What's the matter? English champion got a bad hand?" he sneered.
Dante placed the card he had drawn in amongst his hand and waited for the other man to finish talking calmly before he started to play.
"I invoke the spell card Primal Seed!" he yelled and threw the card face up onto his area. "This card allows me to take any two cards from outside of the game and place them into my hand when I have a Black Luster soldier in play." He indicated a pile of some fifteen cards that lay to his right. His opponent had been using Soul Release to cut down his options early in the game, trying to stop him summoning Black Luster onto the field of battle. "I will take Protector of the Throne and Guardian of the Labyrinth." He called out, as he retrieved the cards.
"A desperate move from a desperate man." The other sneered and lent back in his seat. "Neither of those monsters has the power to take down my invincible tank deck."
"And I will play this card." Dante smiled and flicked the one he had just drawn face up. "Polymerisation! Combining the cards I just returned to create this!" he slapped another card onto the field and watched as his opponent shrunk back in a mixture of terror and surprise. "Giltia the Dark Knight!"
The field flickered for a moment, and the imposing figure of an armoured knight brandishing an ornate staff appeared in face up attack position.
"An impressive move, but his attack is only 1850, how do you plan to defeat my Tank with something as weak as that?"
"I don't." Dante's hand wavered over the covered monster card and then flipped it face up. A small figure with a parlour magician's hat and a manic grin appeared and pounced across the field. "Trap master destroys your Shadow Spell!" he yelled.
The chains holding the black-clad knight vanished as he roared in challenge, drawing a viscous looking blade and stepping forwards in anticipation of the next command that it somehow knew Dante would say. "Black Luster, attack YZ-Tank Dragon."
The opponent's monster shattered spectacularly under the superior attack of the black knight, and the remaining damage hit the opponent's life points for enough to reduce him to just over a thousand. "Now Giltia, attack him directly!"
The remaining knight sent his life points to zero, and his opponent screamed in rage.
This battle was over.
Dante left the arena before the crowds could catch up with him. It had been a month since he had come over to America in order to participate in the duels there, but still he had not fought it out with the one who had invited him and that was starting to bother him.
The American champion, Rebecca. She'd asked him over some time ago, but then had mysteriously vanished from the public eye. Disappointed, Dante had decided to stick around to play through some of the smaller tournaments whilst he waited for her to show up, but so far he'd not heard anything.
A tall boy for his age, with short cut white hair and slim features. He was about eighteen years old and had been playing Duel Monsters for only a short while. He'd first leant about the game through a friend, who had imported cards early into the country before they had officially been released and found that he had a talent for the game. When it had been translated into English he had set about constructing a deck themed to his own personal passion – the knights templar.
His deck had fast become the strongest and most powerful around back home, and coupled with his keen mind for tactics, he had risen in rank until finally winning away the title of champion from the current holder. A viscous match against a pure fiend-type deck, he could still remember the deciding conflict, where Black Luster had fought it out with the Ultimate Obedient Fiend. It had been an intense fight between knight and devil, but ultimately he'd won through, claiming both the victory and the title.
Black Luster Soldier had become his trademarked card since that day, victory was almost always within his grasp as long as this was still hovering in play.
And then there was the other card . . .
Dante flicked through his deck and pulled it out, laying it down before him and just staring at it. The card was named Tius the Holy Knight, and was stared at the max possible rating of three sacrifices. Despite looking all over the net for mention of it, and through the volumes of text that had recently began to spring up about the collectors value of Duel Monster cards, it was nowhere to be found.
In a moment of clarity he had even thought to write to the creator of the game, Pegasus, but all he had received was a small note from the company saying that he was unavailable at the present time.
Attack and defence were both marked at exactly 4000, and the special effect was to raise the attack of all warrior or spellcaster type cards currently in play by 1000.
He'd found it one evening, resting on the edge of his bed. When he had questioned his parents about where it had come from they claimed not to know either, and assumed that he had gotten it in a booster pack some time and forgotten about it. Confused, Dante had just accepted that explanation and continued on with playing the game. But the mystery remained.
Such a powerful card must be mentioned somewhere. But so far nothing had turned up.
Dante had never played this card in a duel. He wasn't even sure that he should, but he held onto it in the belief that someday it would make it's meaning clear.
"Look!" Someone yelled from behind him, and he turned his gaze to the sky, following that of the other person.
In the sky above them, there was an odd flickering light, almost like that of the northern lights. But America didn't have anything like that did it? Sure enough it was there though.
Hailing a Taxi, Dante made to return to his hotel.
His room was sparse, despite the fact that he had been living there for a while now. Clothes were folded back away into the suitcase once they had been cleaned, and only his spare cards were lain out on the small glass table. He liked to sit up in the evenings and read, but when he needed to clear his mind Dante would rummage through his cards, seeking solace in the creation of new and more efficient combos.
He was a little homesick to tell the truth, but was determined that he would stick around long enough to face Rebecca in battle. They said she was really something.
They'd only ever met face to face once, she'd been in the audience at one of his matches back home, then spoken to him afterwards. The two of them had sat in a restaurant and shared lunch, talking over tactics and the thrill of the game.
Apparently she had flown over there with her grandfather, who was researching into possible connections between English mythology and that of the ancient Egyptians. From the sound of it he had theorised that a group of pilgrims had come west early in the development of the culture and influenced a few of the more common beliefs.
It all sounded rather far-fetched to tell the truth, and Rebecca obviously felt the same or she wouldn't have taken the time out to come see him play.
"You're pretty good," she had commented between mouthfuls. "The second best I've ever seen."
"Really?" he had replied through a mouthful of potato, "Who was the best?"
She'd grinned a little and smoothed over the subject pretty fast, but it sounded like she'd fallen pretty hard for whoever the lucky guy was. He hadn't pushed the matter though, but in hindsight he wished that he had. Duelling strong opponents was a large part of the lifestyle they lived by, if she thought that this guy would give him a run for his money he would jump at the challenge.
She'd left him her card, telling him that she would be entering a tournament in America some time in the next few weeks and would like to have the chance to duel him some time. He said he would be there and they had agreed to meet up, even set a time and a date.
Dante flicked on the laptop and searched his inbox for mail. Aside from the usual selection of game flyers and friendly contacts, there was nothing.
"Darn." He murmured, "you'd think a girl could write."
He was about to turn the computer off again when it chimed and announced that he had just received a new message. Looking closely, he was surprised to see that the sender came up as a blank.
"What the?" he commented, and clicked open the message. There was nothing there except a video file. Filled with a sudden interest, Dante clicked to view it.
It took a moment for the video to launch, but when it did the face of a man in his late twenties flickered onto the screen. His long white hair and thin face were instantly recognisable as that of Pegasus, creator of Duel Monsters.
He looked drawn and haggard, tired out perhaps, but with an edge of panic to him. Not at all like the bright, almost comical figure that he had come to associate with the game.
"Dante-boy." The video started, and made him jump a little. "I am using the last of my free time tonight to send you a reply to the letter your wrote me last year." Pegasus spread his hands onto his lap and looped the fingers there, his every move seemed natural enough, but his eyes kept darting to something out of shot. It was as if he were waiting for someone to arrive at any moment and catch him doing something he shouldn't be.
"I don't have much time, so I want you to listen carefully and then delete this message from your hard drive. If a certain third party discovers that you have a card equal to only three others in the history of the game, you will be the subject of much unwanted attention. Hide Tius away where nobody can find it and keep it safe until you receive another message from me. You mustn't use him in combat unless it is absolutely necessary, he hasn't been tested."
That surprised Dante a little. He knew that some cards were more powerful than others, but he hadn't expected them to need testing. Pegasus was talking about them as if they were dangerous – Duel Monsters was only a game wasn't it?
"What makes Tius special?" the question came from the video, Pegasus was speaking again. "That's probably what you want to ask me right? Well Dante-boy, I can only give you a hint as to that. Look into the events of a tournament held in Domino, Japan. You'll find some of the answers in the records of the match, and it's prizes."
Dante's brow wrinkled. Battle City? He'd heard about it, but had been unable to attend for personal reasons. What had the winner gotten?
The video ended, and Dante watched it through one more time before deleting the file and closing down his computer. He paused for a moment before rebooting it and searching for the records on Battle City.
A list of events and contenders flashed up, it was interesting to note that Rebecca hadn't duelled there either. Perhaps she had been called away with her grandfather on another of his wild goose chases?
The winner was listed, as were the four runners up. But he was only really interested in the prize, not the contestants. He couldn't find much out about this, despite the many sites that appeared to have been hosting details. Finally he hit upon one that had recorded footage of the semi-final duel.
Punching it up, the video began to play. Seto Kaiba, president of the Kaiba Corporation was fighting a shorter spiky haired kid named Yugi. According to the rules of the tournament, every player gained a rare card upon victory from his opponent, so this should be quite the epic duel. He had been meaning to look it up for some time, but everybody on the Duel Monsters circuit knew the final result of the battle anyway, Yugi now carried the title 'King of the Duellers'.
The fight went on for a short while, and then two giant monsters were summoned and Dante almost fell off of his seat in shock.
"So those are the God cards . . ." he whispered to himself.
Osiris, Obelisk and Ra. The three most powerful cards ever to grace the game.
Pegasus' words filtered back to him, a card equal to only three others. Dante looked down at Tius, his hands trembling. "No way . . ." he breathed.
Had this been what Pegasus was talking about? A fourth God Card? No, he reasoned. But something close to that, perhaps a card that came before them. A test to see if such a powerful card could exist.
Dante found that his hands were shaking. Carefully he watched to end of the duel and then switched off the computer in silence. He got himself a glass of water and drunk it down without thinking, then moved back across to the window.
The strange lights still fluttered in the sky. Something similar had been reported in Japan a few weeks ago and had been accompanied by the sudden appearance of monsters in the sky. But that had been explained away as a malfunction in the KC holographic network hadn't it? Admittedly Seto had denied it violently on the news, but it was the most logical answer.
But what if it wasn't?
Was Duel Monsters just a game?
Dante returned to his deck and browsed through the cards, coming to rest finally on Black Luster Soldier. It had a calming effect on him, as this card always did. After deliberating a moment, he reached out and tucked Tius into the deck as well. Then went to bed to try and sleep.
The next day nothing happened, there were no more e-mail messages and no duels set up. It was a Wednesday, and he had nothing to do except brood over the events of last night.
Deciding that it was best to leave the hotel and get some fresh air, he wondered through the streets a while, coming to rest in a park not too far away. Settling down onto a bench, he watched the children playing Duel Monsters and felt a little of the tension slipping away.
Of course it was just a game, what had he been thinking last night? Those Japanese people had a tendency to get far too involved with their games, it stood to reason they took it so seriously. Pegasus' message could be construed in a great many ways, what he was probably hinting at was that if he flashed around the rare card someone would try and steal it.
The children laughed and played, and Dante began to settle into watching them.
"You look depressed." Someone came up behind him and just stood there, a female from the sound of the voice. "Something on your mind?"
Dante turned to look at the newcomer, she was a pretty woman in her late teens. He smiled and indicated the vacant side of the bench, inviting her to sit down. She did so and he got a better look at her. She had long dark hair that platted down her back and freckles about her nose. The term 'cute' could be applied to her with ease, and she seemed concerned with his well being.
"Wanna talk about it?" she offered.
Dante shrugged, "It's not that big a deal." He assured her. "Have I seen you around somewhere before?" he asked.
She nodded her head enthusiastically and pointed back to the hotel. "I work at the hotel you're staying in – room service." She tapped the side of her nose conspiratorially. "I'd have said hi sooner, but the management like to keep the staff on their toes."
That was right, not that he thought about it he could picture her dressed in the little uniform the hotel provided. She was always scurrying around corners when he came near.
"You're quite the talk of the place." She nudged him playfully in the ribs, a surprisingly familiar gesture coming from a stranger, but he found it sweet. "Real live Englishman staying in our hotel. I noticed the cards on your table when I was cleaning, you here to play?"
He nodded, "yeah I am."
She grinned and pointed to the children out on the grass, one of them was smashing up his opponent's life points with a Baby Dragon. "That's about as good as I get when it comes to cards, I just collect them for the pretty pictures."
"Nothing wrong with that, lots of people do it back home." He assured her.
"I wanna be an artist when I get some money together," she confided in him. "I heard that Pegasus painted all of the pictures on the cards himself, is it true?"
"Far as I know."
She seemed heartened by this and stretched out on the seat. "Cool!" she commented and then bounced up to her feet, dragging him up with her. "I'm starving. Common, I know this great place for lunch around here and it's real cheap."
Dante brushed himself down and looked at her, was this girl for real?
"My name is Tanya by the way." She added as they strode off.
"Dante." He replied, following along in a daze.
Lunch was short and sweet. Sweet because of the company and the good food, short because someone had recognised Dante and the pair of them had been swamped by fans eagerly wanting an autograph.
To his surprise, he found that the two of them were getting along rather well. He hadn't made many friends since coming over to the states, but Tanya's easy going attitude put him at ease. He found that he was actually having fun.
All thoughts of last night were erased from his mind.
It wasn't until he returned home to the hotel, and found an envelope pushed under his door that he began to think about cards at all. Opening it he found a note inside from the owner of the hotel, asking him if he would be interested in a friendly game that evening. It stated a time and a place within the building, and had a number to call if he wanted to decline.
After such a great day he decided that a little duel wasn't any great push, and agreed to go.
He spent the rest of the afternoon soaking away in the bath and relaxing with his book before gathering his deck together and making his way down to reception, where he would be given instructions as to where to go next.
The lady behind the counter pointed him to the small private elevator in the corner of the lobby, and assured him that it would take him up to the owner's office with little trouble. Smiling his thanks Dante boarded without a word and punched the button for the top floor.
Inside the office was clean and well furnished. A large desk beside a window dominated the room, which was lavishly decorated. A small flight of stairs led up to the rooftop beyond, and as there was nobody inside the office, Dante assumed that was where he was supposed to go.
The evening sky was at that beautiful moment between night and day, when a bright colour somewhere between orange and red streaked the cityscape. The roof itself was flat, except for a raised section that marked out a duelling arena and the barriers that prevented people from toppling over the side of the building and down the thirty stories to street level.
"Ah, Mr Dante." A tall man with a well-tailored suit, long light green hair and oddly mismatched eyes greeted him. "I have been waiting for you."
Dante crossed the distance between them quickly and extended a hand, which the other took and shook with a firm handshake. "Pleased to meet you Mr . . . ?"
The other smiled and nodded his head "Dartz."
"Pleased to meet you Mr Dartz."
"I have been watching your career with some interest Mr Dante. It appears that you have quite a talent for the game, learning in moments what takes others years to master."
Dante nodded his head in silent agreement, and listened politely. He liked this guy, he was brisk and to the point, despite the fact that he tended for the melodramatic. Dante liked to keep a neutral poker face most of the time. It helped to confuse his opponents.
"Please, step this way." Dartz indicated the arena and the two of them took up their positions at opposite sides of the playing field. "I presume that you brought your standard deck?" the man asked. Dante nodded, "Good. Then I want to place a wager on this game of ours. I suggest that we play by Battle City rules for the duration of your stay here."
"Battle City?"
"Indeed, should I loose to you I will have to give away my trump card. However should you loose . . . I will expect to be given the Tius card you carry around in your deck."
Dante's shock was evident, and his hand shot to his card pile, pulling it up and tucking it away inside of his jacket. How could this guy possibly know about Tius?
Alarm bells were ringing in his head, they told him to back out, pack up and leave. This guy was dangerous, possibly even the thing that had Pegasus so scared. He would follow the man's advice, and run like hell.
"You're thinking about Pegasus' warning?" Dartz stated simply, his arms folded. "I wouldn't bother, he's no longer in the picture."
"What?"
Dartz held up a small object, it looked like a card but it had the image of Pegasus' face drawn onto it. Something told Dante that this was not an ordinary card, and just looking at it sent a shiver down his spine. Something bad had happened to Pegasus, and this man was gloating over it.
"His soul." The elder man announced proudly. "One of several I now possess. Trapped away within cards just like this one."
"You stole his soul?" Dante repeated, his voice a whisper. Everything that had been said so far seemed impossible, and yet . . . Pegasus has seemed so scared the other night, and had warned him that he would be in danger. Not to mention that this Dartz person was radiating a frightening presence now that hadn't been there a moment ago.
"And I will steal yours now unless you duel me." Dartz promised.
"Why . . . why do you want Tius?"
Dartz threw back his head and laughed, a cruel sound. "Maybe I have overestimated you Dante. It seems that your not as sharp as I gave you credit for."
"I won't do it! I won't give you Tius!" The words were out of his mouth before he had the chance to think them through properly, but he realised that that was exactly the way he felt. He'd never hand over his trump card to a man such as this.
Dartz took a step forwards across the arena and held out one hand, as if expecting Dante to just give it to him. "Oh yes you will boy. One way or another."
A monster appeared on the playing field beside him, Dante recognised it as an Inferno. The monster moved slowly towards him, could actually feel the heat from it's flaming form as it drew closer.
This shouldn't be possible, he told himself, its just a hologram. But it wasn't, it had already moved past the edge of the arena where it should have vanished and was pushing him to the edge of the rooftop. The heat was intense.
"Give me the card." Dartz repeated for the last time.
"Never!" Dante yelled and made a break for the doorway leading back into the office. But he was cut off half way by another Inferno monster and found himself pinned between two of them.
He couldn't let this man have the card. He didn't know why, but he just knew that he had to keep it away from him at all costs. If he got hold of Tius, then something terrible would happen. Screwing up his hands into fists, Dante dashed towards the edge of the rooftop and jumped.
He fell two, three stories before hitting something that bounced him a short distance to the left. Then his arm grazed something metal and automatically he gripped tight. The force of stopping his momentum pulled the arm out of the socket, and he almost let go – he definitely cried out in agony. But his sheer will to live made him hold on.
Stumbling up onto the small iron ledge, he realised that he had snagged the fire escape. A quick glance up at the rooftop he had left behind told him that Dartz had seen him do so, because one of the infernos had leapt down from the rooftop and with a sickening impact that rocked and bent the metal, landed a little way below him on the fire escape.
The monster closed in on him, and Dante stumbled back until he had nowhere to run – pressed up against a secure glass window that he had no hope of breaking.
The monster roared and threw itself at him, and Dante realised with a certainty that shocked him that he was going to die. Worse – that despite his best efforts Dartz was going to get the card.
He scrunched his eyes shut and waited to be set alight by the monster, he could already feel the heat of the thing as it drew ever closer. Suddenly the window behind him slid opened with a click and slim hands pulled him through backwards.
Tumbling into the hotel room behind, the window was slammed shut and somebody helped him to his feet.
"Are you alright? What the hell is that thing?!" A woman's voice yelled and Dante realised that it was Tanya, garbed in her working uniform with her hair up she looked quite different.
"No time to explain," he gripped her arm tightly and pulled her after him. "We have to get out of here NOW!"
They ran through the corridors and down out via the stairs, Dante to scared of the idea of being trapped inside the confines of such a small space with that thing after him to even hear Tanya's pleas in favour of the lift.
Breaking through the lobby as racing speed, half pulling half carrying her along with him and out through the big double doors and into the streets.
"Have we shaken it?" he called back to her.
Tanya looked up at the rooftop for a sign of the monster "It's not on the fire escape!" she yelled, and they rounded the corner into a narrow alleyway. Dante would have been happy to keep running, but Tanya pulled hard on his arm and the resulting pain caused him to stop.
"I am not moving another inch until you tell me what's going on!" she squealed.
Dante slipped down to his knees and sat down, panting for breath. "Your boss tried to kill me . . ." he managed after a moment. "He wanted . . . a rare card . . . I own."
Tanya made a face and fluttered one hand into the sky "Oh please! You expect me to believe that someone would want to kill you over a card game?" she put her hands on her hips and looked down at him "And what was that thing chasing you anyway? Why were you outside the window?"
"I jumped off the roof to escape it, and it followed me." He confessed.
"Well that was pretty stupid, that's thirty floors up!"
"I know." He stated simple, still unsure about why he was so adamant that Dartz not get the card, even if it meant risking his own life to do it.
"And the monster?" she prompted. "Where did it come from?"
"He summoned it up somehow, I don't know." Dante shook his head, his breath was coming back at last. Thinking over the past few minutes in his head, he replayed everything and still couldn't see how he had done that. It wasn't humanly possible. Had it actually happened?
There was a slight noise, like something light falling not too far away.
"What was that?" Tanya asked, getting jumpy.
Something fell down from the sky and landed a few inches from her foot, a piece of tile that was smouldering and melted from exposure to some kind of extreme heat.
As one man the two of them looked up. There, nestled amongst the rooftops were the two Infernos. They dropped down to street level, and quickly moved to block the one exit to the alleyway – trapping the pair of them inside.
Tanya screamed as they drew closer and Dante tried to push her behind him, not that it would do much good. They would be turned to ash in seconds if one of them actually touched them.
One of the Infernos opened it's mouth to make a noise, but shattered into a thousand pieces, a look of mixed horror and surprise on it's face. The second turned to look at its fellow, then suffered a similar fate, vanishing with a spectacular shattering effect.
Dante looked up to see a young man, standing at the open end of the alleyway. He had long white hair and a duel-plate attached to one arm.
"This way quickly!" he called to them, and without thinking they followed their rescuer back out onto the streets and across the quiet road.
He pulled a set of keys from his pocket and used them to start the engine of a small red open-top car parked there. Stripping the Duel-plate from his arm, he tossed it onto the back seat and motioned for them to get it.
Pulling away, he sped down the road. Dante didn't breathe out until they were well away from the hotel, and out of sight from the madman on the rooftop there.
Tanya lent across from the back seat and put a hand on his shoulder, checking his arm for injury. He'd pulled something when he had gripped the fire escape, and it hurt like hell when she did so, but he let her touch and prod it until she made the decision that he needed to go to a hospital.
The other man spared a look up from the road ahead and glanced at him briefly before announcing "You'll heal" and returning his attention to driving.
"Thanks for helping us back there, we were really in trouble." Tanya addressed their saviour for the first time since the rescue.
"Don't mention it." He murmured cautiously, his eyes never leaving the road.
"My name's Tanya, this is Dante." She introduced.
"You guys are lucky I was in the neighbourhood." He spoke directly to Dante, ignoring the unasked question about his name. "You're not American are you?" he asked.
Dante shook his head, "No, I'm English. But judging from your accent neither are you. Japanese?" he ventured a guess, this man's voice held the same singing tones as other gamers he had encountered from that region.
The man nodded, easing off the accelerator a little and moving them into the normal flow of traffic. "Where to?" he asked simply.
"My place, there is stuff there I am going to need to pick up – and a medical kit for Dante there." Tanya chirped in from the back.
"Then I'll need directions." The other man stated simply. "Looks like we're going to be stuck together for quite a while. My name is Bakura." He added with a sly grin.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .