Disclaimer: I do not own Magic: The Gathering

CHAPTER 27-The Deal

Aki ran, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her shoes crunched on the gravel path as she sprinted towards the table where they had left Charles. A painful cramp was building in her thigh, but the sense of urgency there had been in Arrathir's voice urged her on.

She didn't know what those things were, but they looked dangerous. When she got in sight of the tables, she saw Charles was playing Magic against another man.

"Charles-san!" she shouted as soon as she was within hailing distance. "Charles-san!" (A/N: The "-san" suffix is the most commonly used. It's generally used for people outside the family unless their name requires a more appropriate suffix. If Aki knew Charles' last name, she would be calling him "Wainscot-san" (Mr. Wainscot))

Charles looked up from his game. When he saw Aki alone, and running towards him, a look of puzzlement ran across his face.

"Charles-san!" gasped Aki, now at the table "Arrathir's in trouble! These green things came out of the ground and started attacking him."

;Goblins!;

;It would seem Numa has returned with a vengeance;

"Gomen," said Charles apologetically as he gathered his cards.

;Let me take over. There will be many of them and you don't have the summoning skills to take them on;

The symbol of blue mana glowed faintly on Charles's forehead as Chiburuu took over.

"Where are they?" he asked Aki.

Too winded from her sprint, Aki merely pointed the spirit in the correct direction. The Keeper of Blue Mana took off, the world around him becoming a blur as he moved.

;What did you do?;

;A simple Timewalk spell. I slowed down the passing of time around us, so while the world around us moves as what we would consider 'normal' speed, we move at a much faster pace;

;So, what are you going to use? My deck doesn't have mass creature removal;

;We may have to look into spells not in your deck. These might be a bit harder to cast, but I am confident I can manage. Ah, we have arrived;

The world around them returned into focus as the spell wore off.

;There's nothing here;

;Yes, but I sense much red mana. Many goblins died here;

;So where's Arrathir?;

:His mana is faint and moving rapidly. My guess is that he has been captured;

;Well? Let's go save him!;

;Yes, but we cannot do this alone. We need another's help;

;Don't tell me…;

;Yes. We must convince Erik Morlock to help us;

;But how? The guy's too stubborn!;

;I think I have an offer that can persuade him;

;What about the girl?;

;Well, if as I suspected, Arrathir told her everything about the Keepers, then we must bring her along. She knows too much and as well, our enemies may target her because of her knowledge;

;Can't you just wipe her memories or something?;

;Yes, if my full powers were returned;

;Fine. You know, I get the sense the Keeper of Black Mana is going to cause us a lot of trouble;

;Oh, he excels at it;

Arrathir was awakened by a rough slap to the face. Grimacing in pain, he shook his head and tried to bring his hands about to rub the sleep out of his eyes, but found his hands were bound. Looking around, he saw he was in a rundown warehouse. He was hanging from his hand, feet brushing the floor. Numa was standing in front of him, victorious.

"Look what we have here," he said "The mighty Keeper of Black Mana at my mercy."

"We'll see about that!" said Arrathir, charging his mana.

Arrathir! No! You mana is extremely low. Any more and you could put yourself in a coma.

"It is useless to resist," said Numa "The mana bind I have you in cannot be broken in your weakened state."

The bastard! Can't you do anything?

I'm afraid in our weakened state, I can't. Maybe if you hadn't tried summoning Hypnox…

Look, I feel humiliated as it is already.

"How does it feel to be helpless?" asked Numa.

"Bastard!" said Arrathir, spitting in his face "You killed Eva!"

"Oh, yes, your little girlfriend," said Numa "Don't worry, you'll be meeting her soon in the afterlife. Enjoy the time you have left to live, Keeper of Black Mana." Numa turned and walked out of the warehouse, his laughter echoing through the cavernous room.

Charles…Help us…

"Did you find him?" asked Aki.

"No," said Charles "Did he tell you everything?"

"Yes."

"Fine. Given the circumstances, you should come with me."

"Where are we going?" asked Aki.

"We're going to save Arrathir," said Charles "But first we need to get help."

"From who?"

"Erik Morlock," said Charles "The Keeper of White Mana. The problem is, Erik refuses to accept his spirit, meaning he cannot utilize the spirit's power. However, he is the only one who can help us."

A quick subway ride later, they were at Erik's hotel. As they walked up the front steps, the security guard stopped them.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Wainscot, but Mr. Morlock had banned yourself and Mr. Arrathir from this hotel permanently."

;Let me handle this;

"You don't need to obey Morlock's orders," said Chiburuu.

"I don't need to obey Morlock's orders," said the guard, his voice suddenly monotone.

"We may enter the hotel."

"You may enter the hotel," said the guard, still in his monotone voice.

"Thank-you," said Charles, holding the door for Aki to enter.

"How did you do that?" asked Aki when they had entered the lobby.

"A simple mind trick," said the spirit as they entered the elevator.

"How are you going to convince this Erik to help us?" asked Aki as the elevator took them up to the penthouse.

"Well, you know how Arrathir has those rat ears? Well, wait to see what Erik has! All the Keepers were half-demons, so their demonic traits emerge as their Keeper regains their power."

The elevator doors opened and the left the cabin. The apartment was empty with no sign of Erik. As they stood waiting, a door opened and Erik walked in, talking animatedly on his cellphone."

"No," he said "We don't have the time! I want the report by Friday or you're fired!" He hung up and did a double take when he noticed Charles.

"What are you doing here?" he shouted "How did you get in?"

"You really thought you could keep me out?" asked Chiburuu "You have no idea of the power of the Keepers."

"I don't care how you got in, you'll be leaving soon enough!" said Erik, flipping his cellphone open.

"Wait! Arrathir has been captured," said Chiburuu.

Captured? His host must be weaker than we thought.

"I need your help," said Chiburuu "To defeat the Planeswalker who captured him."

"Why should I help you?" said Erik "Quinn's been nothing but trouble."

"Because," said Chiburuu "If you agree to help me, I will give you back your former appearance."

"You mean this," Erik gestured to the beak on his face "Would be gone?"

"No," said Chiburuu "Nobody can make your demonic traits disappear. What I can do is cast an illusion to hide it."

Don't tell me you're actually considering this?

Anything to get rid of this thing.

This sounds like a trap. The ghell talked him into helping him murder you. I told you this would happen!

"What do you want me to do?" asked Erik, ignoring his other's protests.

"The Planeswalker who killed Eva, Numa, he's behind this," said Chiburuu "We must find and defeat him."

"This would be in a mana duel?"

"Yes. Do you know how to summon, despite not having accepted your Keeper?"

I can help you summon.

Does this mean I would have to accept you?

No. Just play your cards and I will cast the spells through you.

"The spirit says he can summon through me," said Erik.

;Can he do that?;

;I suppose. If this is the only way we will get him to help us, the let's take it;

"Fine," said Chiburuu.

"I accept," said Erik "Now do the spell thing."

Chiburuu placed his hand of Erik's beak, his hand glowing a faint tinge of blue. The beak began to shrink and melt. When Chiburuu removed his hand, the beak was gone and Erik was left with his human nose. He reached up to feel it, astonished.

"Thanks," said Erik "Now let's go."

;There is still hope for him;

"Who's the girl?" asked Erik, noticing Eva.

"This is Aki," said Charles, who had taken over "Arrathir believes she is a summoner."

Aki merely gave a small bow.

"Why did you bring her?" whispered Erik.

"Look, Arrathir told her everything about the Keepers. She knows too much for us to let her go."

What a nuisance.

A short elevator trip later, the three of them were in Erik's car, roaring through the streets of Tokyo.

"So where is he?" asked Erik to Chiburuu who was tracking Arrathir's mana radiations.

"Turn left!" said Chiburuu "His mana is faint, but he is definitely alive."

"What am I going to do?" asked Aki.

"Leave it to us," said Chiburuu "I'm sorry, Aki, but you know too much about the Keepers. We can't just let you go. You're also with us for your protection. We have many enemies. I'm going to be frank with you. The only way we can let you go is if I make your forget everything that had occurred in the past days, but I won't do it unless you want me to."

"No, I want to help," said Aki.

"What kind of deck does this Numa have?" asked Erik.

"Goblins," said Chiburuu.

"And you have a counterspell deck?"

"Yes. I'll take care of returning his creatures to his hand while you attack him. Turn here."

Erik's car stopped in front of a decrepit warehouse. Many of the grimy windows were shattered and there were gaping holes in the rusty metal walls.

"This is it," said Chiburuu "He is inside."

Do you think he'll find us?

I'm sure of it. Chiburuu was always a loyal ally.

But is he really going to take Numa on all by himself? The both of us weren't even able to beat him .

He'll manage to get Erik to help him.

Erik? How?

Even though he has not accepted his spirit, Erik is still a Keeper of Mana, a fact nothing can hide, as shown by his recent transformation. If he manages to get Erik to help him, they will have a fighting chance against Numa. The Keeper of White Mana was the only one whose strength was of par with mine.

Chikuro, I want to know more about you…my past.

Why the sudden interest?

I've been having these…dreams.

This is hardly the time to be discussing this.

If we get out of here, will you tell me?

"If?" You underestimate Chiburuu.

"Arrathir? Are you here?" said Charles, walking into the warehouse, followed by and apprehensive Erik and Aki.

"Charles! Over here!"

"Arrathir-kun!" shouted Aki, running over to Arrathir "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," said Arrathir "Now that you guys are here."

"Where's Numa?" asked Charles.

"I don't know," said Arrathir "What happened to you?" he asked, seeing Erik's new appearance.

"It was the only way we could convince him to come," said Charles "Let's get you out of here."

There was a loud explosion as Numa appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Not so fast," said the Planeswalker "You'll never get him out of that mana bind."

"Then we settle this the old-fashioned way," said Chiburuu, taking over and pulling out Charles' deck.

"So, the Keeper of Blue Mana has awakened," said Numa.

"Cease the pleasantries," said Chiburuu "We challenge you to a duel!"

"The three of you?" asked Numa.

"No," said Erik, pulling out his deck "The Keeper of Blue Mana and me against you."

"And who are you?" asked Numa.

"He is the Keeper of White Mana," said Chiburuu "So do not underestimate him."

"How can I resist the chance to take down three Keepers at once?" said Numa "Prepare to die."

To be continued…

Author's note: w00t! 300 reviews! That's 11 per chapter! At this rate, The Awakening will quickly surpass YGOvsMTG as my most popular fanfiction to date! I am, however, planning to go and do a re-write of MTGvsYGO, you know, to correct the many gameplay errors. Actually, what I'll do is pull a George Lucas. Finish this story and then wait twenty years before re-doing them. I mena come on! The Star Wars Special Edition was better, but was it really neccesary? Oh and for the record: Greedo does not shoot first!

Gah! My computer has been reformatted so I've lost ALL my Fanfiction files. I'll need to get the decklists for the Keepers of White and Green Mana as soon as possible. Loosing the files wasn't so bad because I can just get all my chapters off the site. It's just been a pain to re-install everything. Anyways, next chapter: Numa vs Chiburuu and Erik!

A new feature in this chapter, the chapter title actually in the chapter. This was annoying me because Fanfiction puts a limit on how long the chapter titles can be.

This will probably be the last chapter before I leave for Chile and once we're there, I'm not sure how long before we get our Internet access back. So, until next time, Adios!

Khell chapter countdown: 3

Blitz: Well, Arrathir's just venting his frustration.

Khell: And yet you STILL haven't posted in ROL.

MTDL: Don't worry, Numa's got a lot of surprises up his sleeve for the upcoming duel.

YM: Well, unless you're up to making a long road trip, we probably won't be able to meet. I live way over in Ontario. And no, my name is not Quinn Eckhart. Where did you get that idea? Thanks for considering my writing would be good enough to be in print. Half this stuff is written at like, midnight, with plenty of caffeine in me. Edgar Allen Poe is my favourite poet, but he was a drunkard.

Techno: Arrathir is hellbent on saving Eva and he is blinded to the truth. Yes, he is getting selfish, just another of my attempts to make him more lifelike. I put myself in his situation and think "What would I do?" then exaggerate it a bit (or not).

Mega: You bought a Gamecube? WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! No, really, I think the GC is a great system (mostly because I'm a Nintendo fanboy.) Lucky you, you get to play the new, REALISTIC, Zelda (What WAS Nintendo thinking with "Windwaker?")

KoY: Actually, I had this idea before getting your review, but with a twist.

Kitsu: Here, Kitsu, have a trophy. (Props to who can say where that's from)