Disclaimer: I don't own Yuugioh. I might go cry emo tears now, though.
Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I was at my dad's house, then my computer crashed, then I lost my journal (I'm still crying about that one), and then I had to go to choir camp. So this is chapter two and chapter three will be up much sooner, I promise.
Guardian
A Helping Hand
"Mister Atemu, watch out!" screamed Serenity, falling into her mother's arms as Joey shoved her out of danger. "Joey!" He leapt forward to Atemu's side, but was promptly clawed in the face, the Wind Sprite shrieking with demented laughter as her talons ripped Joey's face. Cursing loudly, Joey fell to his knees, his hands on his face, blood slipping through his fingers. The scarlet blood obscured Joey's vision, leaking into his eyes, causing the young man to cry out in pain as he tried to open them. Suddenly, Joey heard the unmistakable sound of the Sprite swooping down once again, and he blindly dove toward where he knew bushes were, hiding temporarily until he could find his way.
Mrs. Wheeler cried out for her son, watching him fruitlessly try and wipe the blood out of his eyes. From the corner of her eye she saw the Sprite plummet to the earth once more, only this time at Atemu. Serenity had watched as Atemu crawled to a clump of bushes and hid Diana while Joey was distracting the Sprite, and gasped when the Sprite managed to sink her claws into Atemu's shoulders. He thrust his legs up, kicking her in the stomach, sending her soaring into the wall of the train station.
"Atemu!" cried Joey, now desperately trying to get the blood out of his eyes. "Atem… Jesus… Atem, I can't see!"
"Hold on, Joseph," grunted Atemu, clutching his bleeding shoulders. He swore under his breath, as he examined the amount of blood on one hand to see how badly he was hurt. The Sprite climbed out from under the debris, she had created from being slammed into the wall so hard and examined Atemu, a look of pure rage contorting her beautiful face.
"I don't want to have to kill you, human," she spat. "But I will if I have to. All I want is the girl."
"You're very kind," gasped Atemu, feeling as though his shoulders were on fire. "But I'm sorry to say, you'll just have to kill me."
"Have it your way," shrugged the Sprite. She suddenly lunged at Atemu; her vicious talons aimed at Atemu's throat… and suddenly she was thrown sideways under the weight of Joey, who had thrown himself at the Sprite. She screamed and pounded her feet against Joey's stomach, and wrapped her hands around his throat. He gagged and clutched her hands weakly, trying to throw her off.
"Atemu, help him!" shouted Mrs. Wheeler, but Atemu was already summoning his Shadow powers. He pointed at the Sprite's shadow and it lurched violently across the parking lot, dragging the Sprite with it. Sweet oxygen found its way into Joey's deprived lungs as he launched himself up, clasping his bruised throat. Vision still severely slurred, Joey found the blob he assumed to be Atemu and stumbled to Atemu, propping himself up by clutching Atemu's shoulder.
"We're still in danger," whispered Atemu to Joey, watching the Sprite struggle against her own shadow that Atemu had momentarily pinned to a tree a good distance away. "Get your mother, your sister, and Diana and run to the car. Get as far as you can. I'll try and buy you some time."
"What about you?"
"What about me? Just get them away, I'll be fine."
"I've heard that one before."
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Atemu watched Joey scoop up Diana and lead his family toward the car, before turning toward the Sprite. He broke the hold he had on her shadow and braced himself as she darted toward him like a torpedo, flexing her talons as if already ripping into Atemu's flesh. Ducking slightly, Atemu carefully tucked his hands into his pockets and sidestepped her attack, swinging his leg up and into her back. She threw her hands in front of her, to break the fall and felt her wrist snap.
Taking her screech of pain as a good sign, Atemu took a step forward, only to receive a claw to the face. He was thrown backward into a trunk of a particularly large tree. A jolt of terrible pain shot through his shoulders, paralyzing him for a short time. But in that short time, the Sprite had returned to the air, cradling her broken wrist to her chest. She scanned the battleground and was infuriated to find that she had let her prey escape.
She returned her gaze to her opponent just as his paralysis wore off. He crumpled to the ground, gripping both of his shoulders weakly, gazing back up at her.
"Who are you, human?" she asked, glaring at him contemptuously.
"That, my dear, is neither here nor there. You are trying to take what I have, and I won't stand for it. Sorry, love," said Atemu sternly as though a professor lecturing his student.
"Look you," said the Sprite, placing her good hand on her hip. "This doesn't concern you. So why don't you just go scoot home and give me the girl?"
"I can't give you what I don't have," said Atemu, struggling to his feet.
"Maybe not, but you can stay out of my way," said the Sprite; suddenly interested in the thick tree trunk Atemu was leaning against.
"I can't do that either," said Atemu somberly. "You see, I've a promise to uphold. And, sadly, I'm a man of my word."
"Then I'm make you stay out of my way," whispered the Sprite and sent a giant tumultuous gust of wind at Atemu from the tips of her fingers. He dived forward onto the ground in a desperate dodge, sending another paralyzing jolt of pain through Atemu's torso. Suddenly a thought bolted through Atemu's mind: That was too easy…! Suddenly a loud creaking noise erupted from behind Atemu: the tree was collapsing. Atemu's heart skipped several beats. I'll be crushed flat…
Time suddenly slowed down. Every possible escape flew into Atemu's head; summoning his Shadow Powers, but there was no way he'd be able to get enough power to stop a tree that size in time; simply roll out of the way? No! He still couldn't move. One by one thoughts of routes to safety popped into his head, each one feebler than the last. All he could do as he shadow become shorter and darker.
"Lord Guardian!"
Suddenly, Atemu felt a strong grip latch onto his arm and pull him out of danger as the tree collided with the earth, sinking half a foot into the ground. Wincing at the fresh pain jolting his shoulders, Atemu suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded. The sky above him was spinning slowly, his vision blurring. He closed his eyes against the light now giving him a headache. He heard the Sprite shriek with fury and swoop down again but grunt with pain. A thud meant that Atemu's rescuer had temporarily subdued the Wind Sprite.
"Lord Atemu, are you alright?"
Atemu cracked an eye open suddenly recognizing the voice. A pair of deep silver eyes met his, watching him carefully.
"Proteus?"
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"I cannot believe I just Atemu there!" grumbled Joey, turning a corner sharply. His face was covered in dried blood, ripped and swollen. Under the mess, his face was white and taut, as he continued glance at the sides of the road as if hoping to see Atemu hitchhiking. "What was I thinking, believing 'I'll be fine'? He was hurt when I left… what makes me think-"
"Joseph, watch the road!" cried Mrs. Wheeler, gripping her seat desperately, the world around her a desperate blur as her son sped down the freeway fifteen miles per hour above the speed limit. Serenity clutched Diana to her chest, both girls terrified.
"Mister Wheeler?" said Diana politely.
"What?" snapped Joey carelessly flipping someone the bird as they honked indignantly at him.
"Where's Atem? I'm scared."
This was the last straw. Griping the wheel so hard his knuckles were white, Joey skidded onto an exit ramp, darting into a gas station parking lot, and then rocketing into a U-turn back toward the train station. Poor Mrs. Wheeler was near a heart attack and purely shocked that there were not police cars chasing them right now.
"Joey, Mister Atemu told us to get to safety!" protested Serenity, flashes of the Sprite's claws ripping into Joey's face and Atemu's shoulders flashing through her mind.
"What if he's hurt Serenity?" asked Joey, almost beside himself with worry.
"Then his sacrifice will be in vain if Diana is hurt," said Serenity, tightening her clutch on Diana.
"She won't be," growled Joey. "I'm going to get out and if the coast is clear we can get me and Atemu back home safe. If not, Ma, you need to get behind the wheel and get yourself out."
Mrs. Wheeler and Serenity glanced at each other, knowing that Joey had made up his mind. Severely uneasy, Diana squirmed in Serenity's grip. This was the longest she'd ever been away from Atemu. And she didn't like it. I want my Atemu, she thought bitterly to herself, wishing that that wish would come true as easily as the wish that Atemu would come and scare the Boogeyman out from underneath her bed every night. She glanced helplessly out of the window in time to see the three-ton boulder that had just been launched at their car.
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"Lord Atemu, are you alright?" asked Proteus, his kind, round face tilted to the side, his long silver hair falling into his eyes. Atemu was shocked as he saw that Proteus looked several years older than he did the last time Atemu saw him. Lines wore into his face, a short beard had grown in, and his hair reached down to his mid-back instead of to his shoulders.
"Proteus, what are you doing here?" asked Atemu, wincing slightly as Proteus treated his wounds with an acrid smelling paste that stung on contact. Proteus was a little unsettled by how weak Atemu's voice was but continued as though he were not.
"I was sent to fetch you, Lord Atemu," Proteus said seriously. Atemu stared at him wondering if this was the real Proteus when the Water Sprite grinned kindly and broke into his favorite hobby: talking. "It's really good to see you again Lord Atemu, I mean it's been six years, and that's a long time for someone with such a low attention span as mine, and speaking of low attention span how's Joey and Tristan, because they were always really fun, and that dance contest Tea set up was really fun, but I'm not really a good dancer, didn't Yuugi like Tea, are they together, because I think they make a cute couple, are you with anyone at the moment, Lord Atemu?"
Atemu suddenly had the sensation of having to address fifteen different things with one sentence.
"Er… no," said Atemu carefully. Proteus seemed satisfied with this answer and finished wrapping Atemu's shoulders with bandages.
"So where is everyone, oh you know what I found in my sock drawer the other day?"
"I do believe," said Atemu quickly before he learned something he didn't want to, "they are at Yuugi's game shop."
"Game shop? I love games, what kind of game does he have there?" asked Proteus curiously.
"All sorts," said Atemu distractedly. "Why were you sent to fetch me, Proteus?"
"We're having problems with finding the other Element Guardians, milord," said Proteus, suddenly very serious. "You were chosen to protect the element of darkness… which is fine and dandy because there aren't anymore renegade Tainted Shadows which obviously means you're doing your jab and making sure Pure Shadows don't become Tainted… but…" Proteus's sentence trailed off into nothingness.
"But?" prompted Atemu.
"But now the other elements are getting out of control. Empress Typhoon sent me to this realm to ask if you'll help us find the other Element Guardians."
"Well, what elements are we look for at the moment?"
"Right now Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, Ice… those are the Physical Elements, there are others, more abstract elements like yours. Yours is one of the four Abstract Elements: Light, Shadow, Life, and Death. Then there are Celestial Elements. Only three though: Moon, Lightning, and Stars," said Proteus, counting the elements off on his fingers.
"Proteus, that's twelve people!"
"Which is exactly why we need your help," said Proteus desperately. "You'll be able to find them because you're able to sense what element people are, right?"
"Of course," said Atemu stiffly.
"Then all you need to do is find the person with the strongest power of that element and bring them to our realm where it's easiest for the past Guardians to get to them so they can get their title," said Proteus.
"You say that like is actually humanly possible to go to every single realm God created in search of twelve people!" exclaimed Atemu, the thought actually making him dizzy.
"Only eleven," said Proteus hastily. "We've already found you!"
"Well that's oodles better!" cried Atemu in a sort of hysterical sarcasm. "We have to find eleven people. Which is much better than twelve people, isn't it?"
Proteus brushed his bangs out of his eyes and sighed. This was exactly how his brothers, Triton and Neptune, had predicted Atemu would take this new task. The silver-eyed Sprite watched Atemu run his fingers through his hair repeatedly. Proteus took to stroking his beard, a habit he did when he was waiting impatiently or nervous. In this case it was both.
"Are you going to help us, Lord Atemu?" asked Proteus quietly.
"Well of course I'm going to help you," snapped Atemu bitterly. "It's just…" Atemu paused, feeling the usual pressure between his shoulder blades begin to squeeze and twist into knots that happened when Atemu was stressed or under pressure. "Proteus, how the hell are we supposed to find eleven specific people in… however many realms there are?"
"I don't know," admitted Proteus. "Triton is thinking of a plan though. He said it would be safer for them in our realm so you should go find them and bring them with us. Aura and Dimys can protect them. We've already got Lady Tea."
Atemu nodded. This was indeed an emergency. Perhaps the other elements couldn't twist and manipulate other people like the Tainted Shadows had done to Dimys and Aura, but the thought of what would happen if the Death element became severely unruly.
"As you can see," said Proteus, dragging Atemu out of his thoughts, "the Wind element is right now the most severely dangerous, mainly Wind Sprite. Without Lady Zephyr, they think they can do whatever the hell they want. They've started slipping to other realms other than their realm, the Tealth Realm."
Then without warning an enormous boulder flew over their heads toward the freeway.
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Diana screamed as Joey desperately swerved onto an exit ramp to avoid the falling boulder.
"What the HELL was that?" shouted Joey. There was massive crushing sound as the boulder landing exactly where Joey would have been had he not gotten out of the way. There was the noise of breaks being slammed on, and crashes and twisted metal as cars collided into the giant boulder and into each other. There was an explosion as an SUV ramped off another car over the fence separating the two freeway roads into oncoming traffic. Debris was shot everywhere, puncturing one of Joey's tires, sending them spinning into an intersection underneath the bridge that was closest to the damage caused by the boulder.
As soon as Joey managed to bring the car to a complete halt, an eighteen-wheeler holding gasoline was sent over the bridge directly over Joey and the others, only holding on by the last two tires. Joey's heart nearly stopped right there. He shoved his mother out of the car, barely aware of what he was doing. He climbed out himself and flung Serenity and Diana's door open, picking both of them out of the car and ran around, clutched his mother by the arm and started to run, all in under three seconds.
Joey glanced back and saw that the truck driver had climbed out of the truck and started climbing up the side of the truck and then latched onto the bridge, the driver surprising nimble for someone his size. And as soon as the driver had climbed off the truck, the railing collapsed, sending the truck into the car that they had just escaped and crushing it flat. The driver and Joey had barely gotten out of danger when the gasoline exploded from a flame from the freeway.
"Oh man…" moaned Joey. His mother looked at him.
"What happened, did we leave something important in the car?"
"Yes!" cried Joey. "The car! We left the car! It was Atem's!"
"Joey! Are you alright?"
Joey turned around to see a woman with long blonde hair and deep violet eyes running toward them. She had a pointed face and sharp features and her clothes, a miniskirt, a tube top, a leather jacket, and boots up to her knees made her look as though she would hit you before asking your name but her face had a gentle, worried expression on it.
"Mai!"
Once Mai reached Joey, she flung her arms around his shoulders. "Joey I saw the whole thing! Are you hurt?" She suddenly spotted Serenity and hugged her as well. "Oh you two scared the hell out of me." She saw Mrs. Wheeler and Diana gave Joey a bemused look.
"Mai this is my ma," said Joey as they shook hands, " and the kid is Diana. She's Atemu's… cousin. He's taking care of her."
"Hello Diana," said Mai sweetly but distractedly. "Where is Atem?" she asked, fully aware of what had happened in Typhoon's realm, so she knew Atemu had gotten his own body.
"We were trying to get to him when-"
"Joseph! JOSEPH!"
Joey turned to see Atemu with Proteus at his heels.
"Atem, you're alright!" Joey paused. "Proteus?"
"Behind you, Joseph!" shouted Atemu. Joey and the others turned in time to see what looked like a worm made completely out of stone erupt from the ground, the size of a skyscraper, sending up another boulder the size of a barn soaring into the sky.
"Jesus Christ!" screamed Mai. "What the hell is that thing?"