【79 - The Battle of Fire and Darkness and Dokindam and Zeron!】

Heidi's body ignited with red energy - it was palpable to anyone nearby that Mars's soul was completely synced with hers. To Heidi, she could feel his war-mongering personality as he anticipated the fight, watching along with her in her mind. She could also feel their strong sense of allyship. Mars knew Amira was a threat to their goal.

Still, Heidi accepted something: "Thanks for reuniting us. It wouldn't be possible without you…" Heidi admitted that, her hair now billowing less as it moved with the energy that surged upwards around her.

Amira reached into her jacket pocket and turned over a card. Supernova Pluto Deathbringer; Heidi reacted. The card wasn't glowing. Amira turned it back and looked at it.

Amira spoke quietly enough that Heidi had to strain her ears against the wind, "He's not chosen anyone else, he's just gone silent. I can't tell if he's waiting to be separated from me, or if he's still waiting for me to change sides again… in any case, I can't hear him at all now. Why was I chosen to begin with…?"

Heidi started when she remembered Kanoa's meditation that time, "Pluto chose you because you'd do anything to survive."

Amira frowned but didn't shift her gaze, "And how does that help them?"

"Because doom is an aspect of darkness, just like death," Heidi was realising this herself as she spoke, and wondered if it was Mars' influence. "That means of all the phoenixes, Pluto understood the situation best. Maybe he knew you would understand it better than the other chosens too. Maybe… you were chosen because you were compatible with Gatekeeper power. And maybe we were chosen together, so that I could influence you and bring you back, so you could use that power to help us now."

Amira was staring at Heidi now. She stared back.

Amira's body ignited then too, with pitch-black. She took out her deck with her other hand and raised it, two tables misted solid between them. Ten teal panels shimmered to life between them, all the city lights cast them aglow.

Amira explained, "The decision was simple, at first. Can't beat Gatekeeper Pluto. But the more time goes by, being faced with the possibility of dying along with everyone… it starts doing funny things to your head. I get why Urobach and the lieutenants are so loopy."

"Same," Heidi said. "One of the lieutenants told me all about what life was like back in their colony. They're just as trapped as we are, worse even."

"It's stress," Amira shook her head, "I also told you when we met, that human brains hadn't evolved to comprehend astronomical size. We learnt to count pieces of fruit, or animals in a herd. We could do fight or flight. This was something the water chosen once explained to me." Amira wore a slight smile and wide eyes, Heidi listened without interrupting, "It's constant stress working for some cosmic deity with motivations you don't really understand, that could kill you along with everything on a whim. You have nothing to give, and nowhere to go. I can be anywhere in the whole world with a thought, and wherever I go I'm still cornered. We can't fight or flight, so we just freeze, and months go by, and we're still frozen because the danger will never leave."

It was an insightful speech. Amira put both hands on her table and leant forward. Heidi didn't know what to say but understood very well that the amount of stress everyone was under, simply due to the presence of a Gatekeeper in their dimension - that itself was unhealthy.

Heidi raised her eyes again as Amira looked up and said: "If I can just kill the chosens, and Urobach becomes the undisputed ruler of the world, maybe then the Gatekeeper will go back to wherever he came from and forget us."

Mars growled from within Heidi and she said, "Now that we know they exist, we can never forget. The guarantee of safety you want doesn't exist."

Amira thought she heard something, or maybe it was just a memory. She looked at her hand on the table, at Supernova Pluto, and remembered him once saying to her that as the darkness chosen she needed to master fear. She needed to use fear instead of being used by it. Amira put the card back in her pocket then and zipped it shut. She started shuffling her deck and Heidi did too, figuring there was nothing else to talk about.

On both zones terrifying, locked creatures appeared.

Heidi saw a ghostly portal turning behind Amira, two veils of darkness unravelled on either side and purple sarcophagi rose from beneath them, angled inwards.

"You're not playing with Dormaggeddon?" Heidi challenged.

"This is Zeron. You start with an extra card."

Heidi mentally flashed back to sitting with Kanoa yesterday at their rest stop by the hill. He relayed everything he knew of Zeron, and after overhearing them Sinan had drifted over to confirm with what he knew as well. They'd both won their duels, but without fearing death Amira hadn't taken them seriously. Here, Amira was plenty serious - she looked more serious than Heidi had ever seen her. This was a game where Amira would do whatever it took to win. That's why she wasn't using Dormaggeddon - because as powerful as it was, Amira still couldn't finish the game with it. Not without annihilating everybody in this city and likely herself too.

Heidi shifted her eyes and stared at Dokindam X who floated crucified to a stoned tablet. Six red X's floated around it, representing the seals taken from the top of Heidi's deck. Last time they duelled here they were able to figure out what happened days after the fact - only Urobach could've moved Dormaggeddon and Amira away so that its shockwaves struck the desert and not the city. If Amira almost died then, perhaps battling Heidi was the only time she was emotional enough to let herself be in real danger.

Heidi drew her extra card.

Amira went first, charging mono-darkness, "I cast Bloody Cross! We both mill two cards!" From her deck Codename Dread Blood then Dugenda Gig floated up and turned over before landing in her graveyard pile. Heidi lost her Bolshack Dragon twinpact and Mendelssohn.

She drew, now holding seven cards and charged fire-nature.

Amira went again, charging water-darkness, "I cast another Bloody Cross!" Streaming Shaper and then Lapis Lazuli were discarded next. Heidi lost Ryusei the Earth and Shishio Kaiser, her deck which was already half its starting size was progressively shrinking.

"I cast Mendelssohn!" The spell shone red and green. Glenmalt and MaltNEXT were revealed and both being dragons, were added to Heidi's mana.

"I summon Ragnarok the Clock," the wizard on the huge clockface weaved his arms, and with a resounding toll Amira's turn immediately ended.

"I cast Explosive Ninpo, Phoenix Jutsu!" The spell finally served a purpose again, and fire ignited around Heidi before twirling up. Two X's around Dokindam were seared off, the seals: another Explosive Ninpo and… "Ryusei the Earth!" The scaly dragon was green, orange and blue with a thunderbolt horn on its head. A third seal burnt off and landed in the graveyard. Heidi peeped Bolshack Dogiragon from her deck and decided to keep the revolution zero card in her hand instead of charging it. "Go, double break!" With an action-hero roar, it flew and unleashed a stream of fire.

Amira tensed against the heat, grunting under the explosions of glass. When she lowered her arm she saw a trigger forming. "Cyber Brain! I draw three cards!"

Amira then drew for turn, "I summon Dugenda Gig," a leering object of chains and maces appeared. "I draw two and discard two," she tossed out another Dugenda Gig and Team Tech's Wave Go, "with nine cards in my graveyard the Ceremony of Graveyard is fulfilled." One of the veils tore so its edges resembled jagged teeth, it now fluttered like it was alive. "Ryusei has -3000 power until the end of the turn. Next, I summon Lapis Lazuli, False Millionaire." The purple imp surrounded by jewels snickered and Amira tossed out her hand: Hayabusamaru, Team Tech's Wave Go and Bone Dance Charger. Heidi knew this meant Amira intended to complete two ceremonies this turn. "Now, Ragnarok attacks Ryusei the Earth, ike!" It flew out and collided with the dragon's neck, they thrashed and battled until both decayed into lights.

A ripping noise came from the other veil, "And now that I end my turn I complete the Ceremony of Hands, I gacharange summon: Dododo Dopydope," it was a 7000 beat jockey with blonde dreads.

Heidi reached to draw but paused. She'd figured that this deck Amira was using, her main one was only darkness splashed with water. It wasn't a big deal to add a fire creature to her gacharange deck, which spat out creatures randomly. Still, Heidi couldn't help recalling what Kanoa said during their last duel: 'the added fire in this deck is supposed to represent the mark Heidi left on you while you were together!' It had then seemed like Amira only had fire in her deck that time to play Mars, but Kanoa had felt confident in what he was sensing. And now that Heidi was connected strongly with her phoenix, she felt like she was sensing the same thing.

As soon as she thought of her phoenix, Mars noticed and gave her a supportive inner push.

"I cast Scramble Change to reduce the cost of my next fire dragon by five! I summon MaltNEXT, Super Battle Dragon Edge!" A hero of half orange fire, half blue fire emerged with an echoing grunt. The fourth seal on Dokindam burnt up. "I bring out Heart Burn, Galaxy General Fortress!" Her hero grunted again as electric chains shot up and spiralled, convexing then pulling open hyperspace. The fortress was similarly half-orange and half-blue and buckled the cement roof as it landed. "MaltNEXT, double break!" It leapt out as Heidi pointed and smashed two shields with its fists, glass bounced off the sleeves of Amira's jacket as she covered her face. No triggers. Heidi's creature landed back in a crouch before straightening up, "MaltNEXT untaps and Heart Burn dragsolutions into GuyNEXT, Super Battle Victory Dragon!"

A 17,000 giant straightened up and illuminated the city at night. It wasn't as big as the surrounding skyscrapers but was just as bright, in a condensed fiery form. Amira turned her head right up and almost overbalanced backwards, the fear brought out a semi-delirious laugh from her lips. Heidi ordered, "MaltNEXT, again, final shield break!" and he threw himself forward, punching out the last panel.

"Shield trigger…" Amira waited for the card to assemble in her hand, "It's a super shield trigger. Spiner, Shock Doctor!" A human-ish fiend zapped electric prongs together. Amira threw her arm out, "-9000 power to MaltNEXT!" The creature sprang and stabbed both into the draguner whose entire body lit up with electricity before dissolving. "And then, I revive Dugenda Gig, Dugenda Gig and Hayabusamaru. The Ceremony of Resurrection is fulfilled and I mill two." The sarcophagus on the left unlocked, opening to reveal black smoke that added its power to the swirling portal. Amira started on her creatures' effects, drawing two cards then tossing out Gyasuka and Bloody Cross. Her newfound smile flickered as she drew twice again before discarding The Lost and Bone Dance Charger. To complete the last ceremony she wanted a second Codename Dread Blood in her graveyard, but she wasn't out of options. She hadn't chosen Ragnarok as he'd immediately end the turn, nor did she feel comfortable emptying her hand by reviving Lapis Lazuli, "I give a Dugenda Gig blocker."

"GuyNEXT todomeda!" Heidi yelled in frustration.

"Dugenda Gig block!" It flew up obediently toward certain death, cracking apart against a heat-glowing sword that was larger than a bus. "My turn then…" Heidi started to feel helpless and Amira continued, "I sacrifice Dugenda Gig and Hayabusamaru to revive Codename Dread Blood," the creatures came apart into black ooze that gathered together before assembling into a horrible zombie dragon with a multitude of snakes making up a mane around its skull head. "Spiner attack GuyNEXT!" The physician sprang and seemed to evaporate once it got close to the heat emanating off the dragon's body. Amira's voice took on an eerie excitement, "Since that was the third creature destroyed this turn I fulfill the Ceremony of Destruction!" Amira returned a darkness card to her hand as the last sarcophagus opened, "Zeron is born!"

The portal swirled and there was a loud unlocking noise followed by a hissed sneer that made goosebumps rise along Heidi's body. She steadied herself and looked up as the nebulous creature appeared, bigger than any dragon or phoenix. Away from its transparent edges it was bone-white in its centre with a multitude of red eyes and spikes all over its body. Standing against it was no trivial thing, especially with Heidi's more attuned ability to sense Kaijudo energy.

"...It has no power?" Heidi murmured.

"Zeron has zero power but wins all battles and can never leave the battle zone so long as its power remains zero or less! This is the end!" Then Amira lost the high and became resolute, "I gave you what you wanted. A fair fight. You came against me with all your convictions and with Mars. But fighting for the sake of fighting… is just dumb."

"You're wrong!" Heidi fired back, "Running for the sake of running is dumb! I'm gonna die a hero! But you… you're just gonna die a villain, a traitor and a coward!"

Amira's eyes snapped open with emotion and fear, she pointed like she was suddenly running out of time, "Zeron world break!" In one hasty breath she gave the order and a darkness like antimatter poured out, forcing the shields to all at once shudder and crunch inwards.

A single trigger formed for Heidi, "Shishio Kaiser!" The robotic dragon torso rolled forward on its tank.

"That's it? I thought you had Batocross to stop Dopeydope… in that case-"

"I don't need that! Shishio Kaiser removes the last seal holding Dokindam!" As Heidi yelled the crucified figure began shining a deep red.

"Not even Dormaggeddon can stop Zeron! It's unbeatable and it can't leave the battle zone!"

"But it can be sealed!" Heidi insisted and saw Amira's jaw slacken. Heidi raised her arm, "Dokindam liberate!" The figure prized himself free.

A familiar overwhelming force swallowed the duel. For several seconds everything became stark silhouettes against red. The cells in the girls' bodies seemed to vibrate like reacting to the gravity of a black hole. When everything stabilised, their eyes adjusted to the new space. Dokindam hovered, a being of white, red and black shrouded in purple flame. Two gold halberds swung from his neck like haunting pendulums. His presence was unmistakable.

"Crap…" Amira muttered before looking up and seeing two red shrine gates fall, pinning Dread Blood and Dopeydope to the cement ground, it cracked as they thrashed uselessly. Then a ginormous shrine gate, larger than a skyscraper, fell to pin Zeron who thrashed and screeched in a painful pitch the likes of which they'd never heard before. The city trembled under an explosion. Amira clenched both hands over her ears and turned back, her voice shook as she repeated, "crap…"

The building seemed to lurch. Since Zeron was still hissing about furiously it could've slashed away the bottom of the building. Suddenly they were rushing toward the ground, winds blowing faster than ever before. Dokindam reached out with a hand and they stopped. The girls steadied themselves. They were level with Zeron's head again and could see it shrieking, enraged, its teeth vibrating with its deep howls.

"...Your turn's over, Amira. It's mine." Heidi said it weightedly, and Amira was leaning against her table, looking back before the understanding settled in.

"I… I think I'm glad it's over and that I don't have to run anymore..." she said with a miserable honesty, tears brimming. "No, it's more than that… part of me is glad that you won."

Amira was absorbed by some kind of guilt-ridden impulse, and it sounded like she didn't intend to teleport away. She felt somewhat responsible for the millions of lives lost in Urobach's bombing of all major cities, and she was exhausted by the uncertainties that the Gatekeeper brought. Heidi thought she was over showing kindess to Amira at this point, but surprised herself by feeling a bite of compassion.

"You were like a sister to me, that month we spent in the coal province."

"I felt the same," Amira cried. "But I don't have the same stuff in me that you do…"

"Yes you do!"

"You say that like you know me better than I do. I already showed you that you were wrong before, remember? Look what happened the last time you helped me! What if I just run away again!?"

Dokindam hovered patiently above them. Zeron screeched furiously again.

"Amira…" Suddenly Heidi thought of the mission she'd just been a part of, the memory rushing through her and finally breaking through the distraction their anticipated showdown had been, "Amira! Urobach is tired of working for the Gatekeeper too!"

"What do you mean…?" she asked, confused and miserable.

"That rocket is going to the moon! He's going to destroy Aurellia with a quark laser that will shrink the planet, blast it into that vortex thing and slingshot the moon out into the galaxy! He thinks that the gatekeepers wouldn't be able to find him then!"

Amira stared and didn't say anything for a while, "...what?"

"That's what he's been doing! That's why we're trying to stop him! It's not a satellite he's launching, it's a moon base!"

Dokindam lowered so Heidi caught sight of him. His patience was almost up, and he was waiting for Heidi to begin her turn and call the final attack. Amira was staring off to the side, thinking about Urobach's goal and what it meant for everyone.

Heidi pushed, "Kanoa still has charges and if he hasn't been captured yet, we just need to get them to the third engine, or damage the higher levels of the rocket and then Urobach won't be able to get to the moon and his plan will stall!" She watched as Amira looked at her, "Help me… or he's going to kill everyone to get free."

Amira nodded and swept her cards together. Heidi did the same.

Their creatures faded and abruptly the building-top started turning and falling once more. Heidi's eyes widened as her feet drifted off the ground, she looked back against the buffeting wind and saw roads and an overpass curving closer to meet her. She looked forward again and saw Amira edging her way close in black bursts, teleporting in jumps until she was close enough that they could both grab on to each other.

They teleported again and crashed into water.

A minute later, they pulled themselves out, sore and bruised from what could've been a four metre dive they didn't land properly. They were at an island during sunset, but not Kanoa's. In view was a touristy little drinks bar and nothing else but palm trees and jungle. The girls walked across the white sand.

Heidi studied the light-up board of a clam drinking out of a mojito glass, "Come here often?"

"Every time Ijiwa or Henka started to annoy me I did."

Heidi stopped by a pile of seaweed and turned, "How are we gonna get back on the rocket?"

"It won't be easy. It's a mobile thing. I need the exact coordinates so I can start to imagine it and then my powers will work."

"How are we supposed to do that?"

Amira shrugged, "I was hoping you might know how."

Heidi made a thinking face, looking out at the coloured horizon, "The water chosen might know… but I need my communicator to work to ask him… but, the communicators need to be in range. It was the water chosen who overcame that by magic hacking, but unless he knows where I am first he can't establish a connection with me, but I'd need to tell him first where I am…" Heidi felt the device on her belt and realised the salt water would've ruined it anyway.

Amira just stared. Not yet worrying, just giving more time for Heidi to think it through.

Heidi bit her lip, "Umm… oh! M-006, he's with the Roly Poly! He's in contact with the water chosen now! But I don't know exactly where that is, just that it's some kilometres north of a town called Fergus."

Amira held out her hand, "Never been, but I know where a map is and we can teleport in jumps down that highway until we find it."

Heidi smiled and took her hand. They burnt up in black and vanished once more.

They appeared in one of Amira's many 'bases'. These were simple public places, out of the way and innocuous. She had many of these locations memorised so she could appear there in a snap if she needed to get quickly to safety. It made sense to Heidi, but she'd not really put much thought into it beforehand. Amira had a bunch of papers hidden in boxes, it looked rather messy, and she rummaged before unfolding a crinkled map of the south-west region of Augus.

Heidi leant over and pointed out the small dot of Fergus, "There."

Amira shoved her papers away and gripped Heidi's shoulder. Another cold burst and they were at the edge of a city. It was ravaged by a battle long-gone, and Heidi recognized it, "Scone? No, we need to go north of here!"

"It's as close as I can get us," Amira used the rising sun to get her bearing of North. "Check this out…" she clenched tighter.

They teleported into the distance, and then again, and then again. They whooshed down, the setting changing every second. Once the road entered forestry they couldn't move so far, but they kept jumping to the furthest distance Amira could see, and again and again, faster than a car could travel. They did for this for about a minute before Amira let go and leaned forward.

"This does get tiring…"

"You're still amazing at it," Heidi admitted, a slightly nautious feeling in her gut. Mentally she was comparing it to what she'd seen Urobach do. In his last duel, if his loss hadn't been apparent before Tsukumo's turn had started, he likely wouldn't have had the time to finish teleporting away. She frowned as she thought that, before a sense of urgency returned to her, "But we need to get on board that rocket before Kanoa's caught, we really don't have time!"

Amira grabbed Heidi's arm and straightened. They kept up blurring along - the world around them flickered like pages of a photo album under a thumb. In time they were moving through the town of Fergus, and then at Heidi's request they teleported slower until she recognized a dirt trail partially-hidden in bush and the hill beyond. It had taken them no more than fifteen minutes. When they appeared before the metal tank-bus, Heidi ran and called out, hammering on the door.

Beep, "Heidi?"

"Let us in! We need to talk to the water chosen now!"

M-006 got the door open and it swung outward. They boarded and the robot blinked its screen-face at Amira. When they asked he allowed himself to be hacked by the water chosen, this included his speakers so they could hear. After the initial surprise the water chosen showed them images on M-006's screen. Something was being used to show footage of the rocket's altitude, zooming right up at it as a blinking dot. Another window of the screen showed a room on the top level from a security camera - central command.

"Photos - that'll be much faster than co-ordinates," Amira said while chewing her thumb.

An obvious strain was in the water chosen's distorted voice, "Unfortunately, things are bad. I'd all but given up before you reached me…"

Kanoa and Sinan had been captured and were being escorted by a group of soldiers to Urobach's control room. They'd been cornered before a door was hacked open and guns were turned on them. They were strip-searched and had all weapons removed, including the C2 charges. Now they walked with hands behind their head. They came to laddering and a pair of soldiers went first, then guns were swished, indicating it was the prisoners' turn. Kanoa climbed up, followed by Sinan and they both peered up to see guns trained on them. They continued climbing in that fashion until getting to the top-most level.

They were walking along until Sinan unexpectedly kicked back into the shin of a nearby guard. Kanoa hadn't seen it coming and his eyes widened. There were shouts and gunshots but Sinan spun behind the guy he kicked and tried wrestling the gun from his grasp. When he couldn't, Sinan gave up and ran down an adjoining corridor. A soldier went to follow before the door slid shut.

"Wily, that one," he said.

Two pairs of guns were right in Kanoa's face to make sure he wouldn't try anything either. Kanoa went completely still.

"They still got their hacker helping them."

The door opened a crack then jammed again. They stood around uncertainly for a while.

"Let's just get this one to Urobach. The other one's unarmed and got nowhere to go. We'll catch him."

Kanoa swallowed and was nudged along from behind. He kept walking. Sinan's escape seemed like nothing more than his typical madness. It was the ferocity that overtook him when they'd kidnapped him, the blind fury which required at least two big guys to hold him down. Without the C2 charges there really wasn't anything Sinan could do, and as Kanoa continued along he felt some pity for his fellow chosen. Running away just to get captured again, or gunned down.

Soon, double doors opened and they were in the control room. Urobach turned away from the screen, arms behind his back, and smiled. Kanoa was pushed to his knees. He stared at his enemy and realised that he'd been just as responsible for Meilani's death, along with countless others. Kanoa glared hatefully.

"And then there was one…" Urobach said.

"Sir, the other escaped through the corridors," a soldier reported. "He's unarmed."

Urobach turned to the last lieutenant on board. Saishi stood in his white religious garbs, his broken arm in a plaster cast.

"You go with them and take care of it."

The robed Saishi nodded and followed the soldiers back out. One thrust the C2 charges he was carrying into the arms of a uniformed worker as he went by.

Urobach stepped forward, drawing Kanoa's gaze back. He indicated to the screen which showed the starry space and curve of the planet. They could see the middle section of the rocket floating away, "You were too late, chosen… we're in the stratosphere, second stage separation complete, the weapon is in orbit… How does it feel to know you failed?"

"We've not failed," Kanoa raised his head, "So long as I'm still alive, so long as the phoenixes are all in tact, we've not failed yet…"

"Then allow me to finally, officially, destroy that pathetic strand of hope you've all been clinging to for so long," Urobach held out his hand for a soldier's gun and he made to step over when…

Blackness burst to life. Heidi and Amira were suddenly standing there, to the shock of all. The kaijudo-bots reacted first, and Heidi sprang to Kanoa the moment she saw him. In her peripheral she saw launching wires shoot by and narrowly miss her.

"The charges!" Kanoa was pointing to the guard by the wall, but though Heidi landed with her hands gripping Kanoa, both of them froze at the sound of someone screaming - Amira.

The plan had been to grab Kanoa fast and go. They knew they might get shot, but this was not expected. Amira was shaking in place while four curlicue wires were attached and shooting electricity into her. After a while they stopped and Amira tipped over and hit the floor.

"I forgot…" Urobach was the first to break the silence that followed. "When Henka first told me Amira wanted to betray me and take over, I had the bots in here programmed to fire stun weapons at anyone that appears in this room…"

Heidi and Kanoa stayed hunched together, very still. Amira didn't get up. Urobach started laughing.

『AN: Am getting good Convergence reviews who is now up to chapter 9. I last updated the day before yesterday so we've both been quite busy. I wonder if Shuriken hasn't reviewed yet because he's cross that I killed his favourite character. And of course, I have Acuma who is yet to review this quartile as well. There is an advantage to not reading a final fight until it's all done, that way you can get through everything at once. In any event, I feel pretty good about how this went. It came out relatively fast and now I only need to write one more chapter and arc done! Muy bueno! Much excitement!』

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