Chapter 15; death tournament

Tails took out the keys from his pocket and used them to open the door to his house. He immediately went to his room and laid on the bed. He spent over an hour thinking of his long lost friend. Sonic. Gone ever since the completion of their mission to acquire the 3 illusionary beasts or as they were called in-game the 3 egyptian god cards. Cards so strong equivalent to Sonic's ace card. Yet so dangerous and full of dark power.

It had been over a year since the battle of inunaki village between the singed ones and the winged dragon of Ra's owner Nazo. Tails could never forget that cursed day. That day.. when they finally thought they won… Sonic became from their greatest ally and friend.. their worst enemy. The gods corrupted his heart. Now he was out there somewhere. His absence of course didn't go unnoticed. Last time he was gone was because he and Amy were transferred to a parallel dimension. This time it wasn't like this.

The singed ones were now leaderless. Noone wanted to take Sonic's place as leader not even until he was found. Of course everyone chose Amy when they tried to vote for a periodic leader. But Amy… was like dead. Her smile was gone ever since that day. She had decided that until was found she would retire. However she pushed the rest to keep dueling their hardest. Not only for themselves… but for her and Sonic as well. They couldn't let a challenger get past them and challenge Amy in this state… neither take the title because Sonic was gone.

Tails was mostly sad for all this. But inside of him somewhere lied… rage. Rage for himself. He had noticed Sonic's change of attitude when he gave him Obelisk. Had they acted early, Sonic would still be with them. Ancient Sonic came out of the pendant when he saw Tails in this state of sadness.

"How was today?" he asked him.

"Just the same." Tails answered without any 'color' in his voice.

He looked on his desk where Sonic's ultimate blackwing deck as well as ancient Sonic's prison, the ancient pendant that became the start of their adventure, lied. After Sonic's disappearance they collected every last card of his deck. He threw it away in front of them calling it garbage. And he also stabbed the pendant's jewel which was basically ancient Sonic's life energy source with a knife. However somehow when they got it back the lunar dragon appeared and restored the jewel as well as ancient Sonic back to life. Ever since then ancient Sonic was Tails' roommate. Together the first few months they tried to locate Sonic through Tails' mark as well as ancient Sonic's connection to the god cards. They couldn't find a clear location. But they felt both Sonic and the gods were near. In the end they gave up and decided that as long as Tails could feel Sonic's life energy out there it was all ok…. for the moment.

The hardest part of course was telling everything to Sonic's parents. His mother spent the next few days in the hospital. Eventually she was healed and visited Tails. She trusted him with finding her son. Tails said he would do everything to get Sonic back.

He owed a lot Sonic after all. Back then at that tournament 3 years ago, he almost lost his life to get Tails' good side back. Now roles were reversed. It was Tails' turn to save Sonic once and for all.

"So the beginning of the tournament is tonight?" Ancient Sonic asked.

"Yeah. It is just like last time. All of us except Amy and….." he couldn't say the name " as well as a newcomer."

"Newcomer?"

"Yeah. He introduced himself as divine. Nothing more. It is obviously a nickname. I would really like to learn his real name. Anyway he is fighting Wave. There is no way she'll lose to him."

Later that evening Tails arrived at the duel dome with the pendant in his pocket so he could communicate with ancient Sonic. The team was there just like already. In 'honor' of Sonic and Amy 2 thrones were built so they could watch the duels that took place in the duel dome and give the duelists the feeling of 'fear' for the upcoming title match. However this year only the queen was sitting at her throne. Amy wasn't looking at the stadium despite the view she had. She was looking at Sonic's empty throne. Tails approached his friends who were waiting for the first match which was Jet vs Storm. The match lasted long for the kind of decks they were using (samurais vs dinosaurs) but ended a miraculous victory for Jet when he managed to draw soul charge and lock Storm down. During the next match which was Knuckles vs Shadow, Tails visited Amy at the king's view as the gallery for the king and the queen.

"How are you?" He asked her.

Amy didn't answer. She was holding her wedding ring. Lately she took it off her finger a lot and tried to feel if Sonic was alive. She refused to use her mark for this purpose.

"You're not the only one who misses him. The rest of us just decided to be our best until he returns."

"Tails…" she started saying "I fear that something bad is gonna happen. I achieved in feeling Sonic once. But I couldn't see anything about him."

"What do you mean? Why not?"

"There was.. so much…. Darkness."

"Amy. Staying negative will not result in anything positive. Stay positive. He'll be back. He always does."

She managed to smile. She thanked Tails for the talk and then looked back to the field as Knuckles finished Shadow off with his inferno fire blast spell card. He had managed to make his deck equivalent to Sonic's red eyes deck with a few changes. Next was Tails vs Rouge. Tails left Amy alone at the gallery and dueled his hardest emerging victorious against Rouge's newly built rokket deck which she built to rival Amy's world chalice deck. After a few risks and destiny draws Tails defeated bborreload dragon, the ace of the rokkets and proceeded with Knuckles and Jet to the semi-finals. Last but not least was Wave's duel. Wave stood against the so called 'divine' guy. However for some reason at the same time Shadow Rouge and Storm left to go get a drink. Tails ignored the suspicious fact and looked back at the last 2 competitors.

"Let's do this diva-ine." She joked.

The guy was wearing a hood. He laughed. An evil empty laugh.

"Hehehe. I hope you're ready to receive the rage of the gods."

"The rage of the gods?" Knuckles wondered. For some reason this spooked Tails. He found that guy somewhat familiar.

"I'll start this. I set a monster and a card. I end my turn."

"What move is this? My turn. I draw." Wave decided to end it this turn and go all out.

"I summon manju of the ten thousand hands. Thanks to his effect I can add to my hand chaos form from my deck. Now I activate chaos form! I discard blue eyes from my hand and summon upon you blue eyes chaos max dragon!" She looked at her mark remembering her duel with Sonic back in Cologne.

"Sonic just watch." She whispered. However she received an answer inside her head. "I am watching!" she felt happy and couldn't wait to tell her friends that she heard Sonic. It would probably make Amy liven up.

"Now I activate silver's cry to resurrect blue eyes! But before I attack I activate twin twisters discarding my white stone of ancients. Now I can destroy your set card."

"I chain with my trap! Sixth sense. Now I declare 2 numbers from 1 to 6. Then you roll a six-sided die. If you roll what I declared I draw that many cards. If you roll a different number I lose card from my deck equal to what you roll. So go ahead. I declare 5 and 6!"

"I roll. Damn. 6."

"Perfect! 6 new cards for me.

"So what! You will lose right now! Chaos max dragon! Attack his set monster! Chaos burst stream of destruction!"

"You fool! You attacked my cyber jar! All monsters out are destroyed!"

"My monsters! Just joking. Chaos max cannot be destroyed by effects. And he deals double piercing damage!"

"AAAAH!" (divine LP 1900) "I may have taken heavy damage but your monsters are all destroyed!"

"Damn you!"

"Then we both draw 5 cards from our decks and summon in attack mode or set every level 4 or lower monster we draw. The rest gets added to our hand. I draw 5 cards. I set magician of faith and 2 skelengels. Then I add to my hand drowning mirror force and mirror force."

"I draw and reveal blue eyes alternative white dragon, another maju, cards of consonance, ghost reaper and winter cherries, and another blue eyes white dragon. All of them are added to my hand except ghost reaper which I set."

"Go ahead with your move."

"I activate return of the dragon lords to revive blue eyes from my graveyard. Next I show you the blue eyes in my hand to summon alternative white dragon and smash one of your set skelengels with him."

"I discard effect veiler to negate your monster's effect."

"Ok then keep it. I set a card and end my turn."

"Wave's victory is secured. This field is practically unpassable." Jet said proud of his girlfriend.

"My turn, I draw."

"Hold it I activate royal decree. No traps allowed."

"Nothing saves you now! I flip my 2 skelengels to draw one card for each. Then I activate roll of fate. I roll a six sided die and draw depending on what I roll. Then the same number of cards gets banished from the top of my deck. I roll. Awesome! 5! I draw 5 cards and banish 5 cards. Now I flip my magician of fate to add back my roll of fate and reuse it! I roll. Just perfect. 6! I draw 6 cards and banish 6 cards! Here it is! You lose!"

"What?! You practically deck out yourself and I lose?" Wave said confused.

"I tribute my 3 monsters! Doors of heaven and sky! Open up and release the mighty dragon of thunders and storms! I summon the Egyptian god! SLIFER THE SKY DRAGON!"

"WHAAAAT?!" Wave screamed.

A lightning fell behind the stranger. Wave covered her eyes to protect them from the sudden source of light. When she opened her eyes, she was left in shock upon the view of Slifer the sky dragon.

"There's no way! Only Sonic has the god cards!" Wave screamed.

Tails was looking at this scene shocked. This stranger had Slifer?! What did this mean?

"Could it be.. he is…." He thought

"Slifer the sky dragon's stats are determined by the number of cards in my hand multiplied by 1000. And I have 21! So Slifer has 21000 attack points!"

"Say what?! Who are you?!" Wave said trembling in fear.

"Slifer attack! THUNDER FORCE!" divine ordered Slifer. Slifer unleashed a powerful attack that turned chaos max dragon to dust!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" (Wave LP 0)

"WAVE!" Jet screamed as the blast engulfed her as well. When the smoke cleared Wave was lying on the ground with tons of injuries. Jet immediately ran to her side.

"Baby are you ok?! say something!" Jet said while holding her hand.

Wave opened her eyes and looked at him. Then she pointed at the hooded guy and said with a low voice "please….. beat him. Bring him back" before fainting for good. Jet panicked and called for help. However no one responded. The crowd as today's matches were over started to leave. The singed ones couldn't understand anything. Noone saw the 5th best in the world lose and faint like this. In the end the approached Jet and Wave's body. Amy came as well. But when Jet told them what was going on they all felt they would faint. Wave wasn't breathing! At that moment Jet noticed the hooded guy who literally killed Wave leaving the field and pursued him outside the duel dome. He caught up to him before he rode a black duel runner with a lot of skulls hanging from it. Skulls that seemed real! Jet overcame the shock of the skulls and confronted him.

"Hey you bastard! What did you do to my girlfriend?!"

The hooded guy answered with a familiar voice.

"She is food to the gods!"

"Cut the crap you deadbeat! I'll kill you!" he tried to charge at the hooded guy but at the last moment Knuckles and Tails held him back.

"Jet calm down!" Knuckles tried to stop him.

"NO! HE KILLED HER! HE KILLED WAVE! I'LL KILL HIM!" Jet tried to escape his friends' grasp. However at the next moment Amy who had just arrived at the scene carrying Wave's lifeless body stopped everyone.

"Guys… Wave's mark is gone!" She said shocked.

Everyone turned to her trying to believe what she just said. Even Jet stopped trying to kill the hooded guy and looked at her. Then Tails turned to the hooded guy once again.

"So it IS you!" he screamed in anger.

Everyone looked at him.

"There's no way that Wave's powers would be removed like this. The only one who would be able to do this is a signed one! And this means that…. You're back!"

"Hehehe! How clever! You did manage to deduce my identity!" The hooded guy turned to them and removed his hood.

Everyone froze. Tails managed to overcome the 'paralysis' and looked at the man standing in front of him in the eyes.

"Only one person in the world holds the 3 gods! You! Sonic!"

It really was Sonic. But not the Sonic they once knew. This one was devil himself. His skin had turned to a very dark blue. Exactly like dark Sonic in the spirit world. His eyes were red instead of green. And his smile was an evil mask. Amy's eyes filled with tears when she saw her husband like this.

"Sonic…" she said "why? Why did you turn like this?"

"I didn't change that was always me. I just realized my true destiny! My destiny is to rule!"

"Who cares about your destiny! What did you do to Wave?!" Jet tried to once again attack him only to be stopped by Knuckles.

"I took her life energy to increase my power!"

"You mean…. You killed her?!"

"No. She is in coma. She is gonna stay like this until I'm defeated. And so will the rest of your pathetic friends!"

It was only at that moment that Tails Knuckles Jet and Amy realized Rouge Shadow and Storm were still absent!

"I swear if you harmed anyone of our friends…!"

"They are in a back room in the dome. In the same state as Wave!"

"You mean…. Their life energy was drained as well?" Knuckles said shocked.

"NO!" Tails screamed "I DON'T BELIEVE A WORD OF THIS CRAP! GIVE WAVE HER ENERGY BACK!"

"I can't. And neither can you! The opponent you defeated will stay in coma for as long as I am undefeated! Their life energy is in your hands now! And the best is yet to come!"

"What?" Tails said.

"The same thing will happen in the semi-finals. When I beat you there Jet, you will join Wave! And so will one of the 2 of you" he said looking at Tails and Knuckles.

"NO! I refuse to fight like this!"

"If you don't fight, your powers will be given to the winner of the duel between me and Jet! You WILL fight!"

"Sonic this can't be you!" Amy started crying realizing that he had become a murderer " you are the best person I ever met! This can't be you! Tell me this is just a bad dream!"

"It is no dream love. Soon enough the gods will be free and I will claim my rightful place as the ruler of this world."

"We'll stop you!"

"You will TRY!" Sonic said before suddenly teleporting in front of their very eyes.

Immediately Tails turned around and headed for the back room of the duel dome. He made it to the door but it wouldn't budge. In the end he gave it his strongest kick and it opened. Inside into a corner were the unconscious bodies of Shadow Rouge and Storm. Tails and the others who had just arrived tried to wake them up but in vain. Tails couldn't think anymore. This wasn't anymore a personal fight. The whole world was at stake now. Everyone would end up just like their friends. But the way to save them was to do the impossible. To fight and beat Sonic. Something no one had managed to ever do. Or that's what everyone thought. Tails decided that it was time his friends learn a big secret.