Prophecy

Disclaimer: Monkeys are cucumbers in disguise.

"When legend becomes reality,

Three warriors of ancient monsters will rampage the earth,

Of light, dark, and element.

Look to the Heavens,

They will come from there…"

Chapter 19 – Reflections

When Erica woke up in the morning, she thought something was wrong since she was the first one up. As the girl headed downstairs for breakfast, she heard the snores of Jackie's uncle and the fidgeting of Mokuba as he dreamt in his bed.

"So everything is okay…" Erica murmured.

Then she stopped in front of Jennie's room. Gently, she set her hand on the door and thought of everything that had happened so far: the first attack of the Shadow Realm when she had found her cards in the fridge and was chased by a black dragon, the second attack for Jackie when he was forced to fight a monster that could shatter everything with just a touch, the third attack when Jennie had met that crazy man with the candy cane stick, and the other was rescuing the Kaibas from the big boss itself. All had the prospect of them being killed. If they died here, then they would never go home…

Erica's hand that was on Jennie's door turned into a fist. She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to risk hers and her friends' lives. But…they had no choice. Slowly, Erica knocked on Jennie's door.

There was no response. Wondering if Jennie was still asleep, the girl opened the door and walked in. To her surprise, Erica found her best friend already awake, out on her balcony, watching the rain fall past the roof she was under. Quietly the dark-haired teen went across the room and stood next to her buddy, watching the rain with her.

"You know," Jennie smirked, glancing at Erica, "I was wondering when you would come in."

The girls shrugged. "Well…A lot's been on my mind lately. It's just overwhelming…"

"I always thought that being in worlds I wanted to be in would be fun, but now…now…" Jennie sat down on the floor, her knees folded to her chest, her arms covering half her face, "now…I know the truth. I don't want to do this again. I'm tired, Erica. I just want to go home."

Erica sighed as she continued to stand, looking out at the dreary world. She wondered if time still continued back at home and if it did, did their parents miss them at all? What about their friends? Or were they forgotten?

"If we die, what will happen to us?" Jennie asked again.

"I don't know. If we're lucky, we might be able to go back home, but with the luck we've been having lately…" Erica drifted off and cocked her head to the side. "I think the real question we have to ask is if all this is really worth it…our lives, I mean."

The braided-hair girl closed her eyes and didn't answer for sometime. Erica patiently waited for her friend's answer, unsure of her own. Finally, Jennie opened her light-brown irises with a slight smile.

She started, almost reminiscing, "When I was in the real world, I always thought Yu-Gi-Oh was babyish, but strangely entertaining as I saw several monsters duke it out on the battle field. I couldn't help it. I was addicted.

"Why did I think Yu-Gi-Oh was babyish? No, duh, the characters on it were so two-dimensional; in other words, stupid. I mean, who shouts out their cards when you play them? Another is that who goes all whoop-de freakin' doo when making a victory? Aaaaand, their hair is not physically possible."

Erica laughed lightly at this, grinning a bit.

"But…" Jennie continued, face falling, "but as I entered this world, I realized that the YGO cast weren't such idiotic morons as I thought they were. Teá doesn't actually say friendship speeches every single second, but is actually pretty brave. Bakura isn't as twisted and massively evil as I first thought and Seto...well, he's still a jackass, but when he's around you, Erica, he's a little bit nicer. Even Joey and Tristan are smarter than they are shown on T.V. Yami and Yugi aren't that bad either. As long as I am here, they still exist and now that these 2-D characters are my good friends, I can't just run away from this problem. If our situation was to be switched with the YGO cast being in our world and having to save us from this impending doom…"

"I think they would try to save us anyway," Erica smiled. Jennie nodded.

There was silence once again, but this time, it was one of comfort and understanding.

Then the amber-eyed teenager stretched happily and set her hand down for her friend to hold as she got up, too.

"Come on," Erica said with a content face, "Let's go find Jackie, so we could bother him about the weather again."

Jackie winced as he got out of the basement to get some headache medicine.

'Already into the morning and I have a splitting headache from the damn computers,' the hacker-boy grumbled in his mind.

As the male walked down the hall, he came by the mirror and stopped. When he looked closely at it, he noticed some things he didn't see before when he was in the bathroom. Jackie had slight bags under his eyes, hidden shadows around his face, and the mischievous glint that he had in his eyes were now gone. It was like he had aged ten years. When the boy distanced himself from the mirror, the tired face quickly disappeared. The only difference was that the shine from his eyes were visibly missing.

'I guess I had aged throughout this whole ordeal,' Jackie thought.

Forgetting about his medicine for a few minutes, the hacker-boy leaned against the mirror and looked around him. He was tired. He hated the Shadow Realm for keeping them here. He wanted to go home.

Home.

He had lived in this house for sometime and had gotten used to living close to Domino City and didn't freak out every moment he saw the YGO cast waving at him from a distance. He liked where he lived. Of course, there were the exceptions living with Jennie, Erica, and the Kaiba brothers, but they were his friends-it was natural that they would bother him every single day. In a way, he didn't mind. The two girls and Mokuba were able to drag him away from staring in front of the computers for the whole day and they kept him in check when he decided to sabotage KaibaCorp's mainframe when Seto was being particularly mean that day. The YGO cast also came by their house every once in awhile and everyone would have some fun. There was Tien-Xiang, too; his favorite uncle. No, he didn't only like where he lived, he loved where he lived.

So when the time came to leave this world, would he want to? Which was his real home, anyway?

Jackie pushed himself off the mirror and continued to walk down the hall. Did he really want to go back? He stopped again.

"What am I thinking!" Jackie shouted, smacking his forehead.

Even if he loved living here, home was still home in real world. Jennie, Erica, and Tien-Xiang would come back with him to that place when everything was done. There was his family, too. How could he forget them? He had a little sister, a mom, and a dad back home. They were waiting for him and if he didn't come back, they would feel devastated.

'No, wishing to stay here would be selfish,' Jackie thought. He couldn't stay here just because he wanted to. He had a real life back home, his real home.

But even if he thought that in his mind, why did his heart feel like he was missing something? Oh, yes…Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Teá, Bakura, Seto, and Mokuba.

The boy sighed, "I have friends here, too."

The two girls found Jackie absentmindedly staring at the computer screen at the basement and took a few yells to make him snap out of his reverie.

"What's with you?" Jennie said with concern, plopping down on a swivel chair. Erica simple leaned against the computer desk.

Jackie shrugged and muttered, "Oh, nothing. You know, tired."

Erica and Jennie glanced at each other.

The hacker-boy messed up his hair in frustration. "Oh, fine! I was just wondering if any of you are going to miss this place. Did you even feel that you didn't want to go home?"

"Jackie," the amber-eyed female explained, "at some point in our lives, there are times when we don't want to go home. Even right now, Jennie and I know we're going to miss this place because of the friends we made, but that's not going to stop us. Home is still home. We all knew that we were going to leave this place, leaving the YGO cast behind in their world. We just have to accept that."

Jennie added, "It won't be the same, though. Watching Yu-Gi-Oh back at home…on the T.V….It just seems too surreal. We'll probably turn off the T.V. and wait for thirty minutes to pass."

"Yeah, nostalgia'll probably kill us if we watch it," Jackie grinned ruefully.

"Well…at least we'll feel bad together!" Erica said cheerfully.

Jennie snorted as she said sarcastically, "Oh, that's sooo nice! Crying our eyes out together will make me feel SO much better!"

Jackie laughed, feeling more energized than before. "But it'll still be nice being together and all."

Erica and Jennie grinned and scooted over to what Jackie was looking at before the two girls came in. As Jackie explained that he had just gone on this weather website for Domino City, the amber-eyed girl looked at her two best friends, talking calmly to each other.

'We really have changed,' Erica thought with kind eyes. Jennie had gotten more mature and possibly more sensible. Jackie was a little more tolerant toward other people, not the hermit he was before. As for herself...well, she couldn't really judge herself, could she?

Jennie glanced at Erica. "Hey, you admiring our faces or something?"

The dark-haired girl shook her head and looked back at the computer screen. "No, it's nothing. I was just thinking. So, Jackie, anything interesting?"

"Well, our battle with the Shadow Realm might come faster than I thought." Jackie frowned. "Look here."

With that, he gave out different newspapers and opened different weather websites on the several computers that were in the room. Erica and Jennie looked through all of them and exchanged newspapers.

"Okaaaay…We have a lot of weather reports. So what?" Jennie inquired.

Jackie replied, "They ALL say that it's going to be sunny tomorrow."

There was silence as the two girls looked at the weather reports with new eyes.

Erica's eyes widened. With an amazed voice, she exclaimed, "Then we can take on the Shadow Realm tomorrow! It'll be weaker than normal so we can get in easy!"

"Do you really think we can do this?" the braided-haired girl whispered, voice hoarse from sudden fear.

Erica smiled. "I know this sounds really corny and stupid and Teá-like, but as long as we're together…"

"…We'll always pull through," Jackie completed with a determined nod.

Jennie looked at the newspaper in her hand. Suddenly, she threw it behind her, ran past her two friends, and rushed out the door.

Her voice echoed in the halls, "The last one to the kitchen has to eat moldy bread with sour milk for breakfast!"

The hacker-boy and the amber-eyed girl gave each other a look and started to sprint out the basement door, too, pushing each other to get first. As they caught up with Jennie, the trio laughed, faces happy and strong.

…As long as we're together, we'll always pull through…

Somewhere else, in the rain, a man stood in front of the gate of the Kaiba mansion, unafraid of the pulsing dark aura that only a few people could see. He held an umbrella above his head, his face hidden in the shadows of it.

"You will fail." the man said with chilling calmness. The dark aura seemed to pulse even faster as if it was offended by his comment. "All those I summon will…but that's alright. In the end, I will be the only one standing."

Then the man turned and disappeared into the rain, the droplets erasing his existence.

A/N: I know by now that my apologies for updating late are meaningless now, but still…I'M SO SORRY!

The reason why I took such a long time updating this time is because one, I really looooove procrastinating, two, teachers loooooooved giving me homework, and three is because I had to revise this whole chapter because it was so messed up in so many ways…AND I had to type it up. Yeeeeeah…

Also, I would like to mention that this story has already been written and finished so I will not be accepting any advice on the chapters besides grammer and spelling mistakes. Don't get it wrong-I really love all of your advice and I wish I could use them to change the story and make it better, but I don't think I have the willpower to change the whole story…again.

Thirdly, in my things to tell you, is that this story is drawing to a close and I'll be starting Prophecy Beta right after this story has ended. Yes, there's Prophecy Beta. Soooo, if you would like to continue the series until the very end, I highly recommend you to refresh or learn about the basic plot and characters in Cardcaptor Sakura. If you don't want to, then…just forget about the Prophecy Beta and Gamma.

Now, lastly, are my lovely reviewers and some new ones that I'm very happy to introduce. They are: Isis the Spinx, blackangel04, Sora-777, Skidoodle-Snickerdoodle (your name is awesome!), ElementalDemoness23, fairy'smaiden, candy-animelover600, and Akari Ishtaru (who updated three times! W00T!).

Alrighty, now! Since it's summer, expect new updates every week on Monday (YAY!) aaaaand have some awesome dog days while you're waiting for your other stories and mine on Sayonara!