Relief spread through my body as we pulled up outside of a small hut, and Geiger walked out, "Thank you for coming."
Stretching, my back popped as I gave a tired smile to him, "Part of the reason we agreed to come is the fact that Jack has been having visions about Archfiend lately, and it's stopped him from sleeping. Forewarning, he's a pretty big grump right now."
Jack climbed off his runner, and rubbed his eyes, "I have gotten about four hours of sleep in the past 24 hours. Let's just say that I have a right to be upset."
Geiger walked up to us, "Part of the vision I saw was that Jack would eventually be destroyed by his own power if he did not find a new way to duel."
Speaking through a yawn, Jack rubbed his face, "That might explain why Archfiend was chasing me."
A slap echoed across the ground as I buried my face in one hand, "And you neglected to tell me why…?"
"Just remembered?"
Taking a deep breath, we walked with Geiger over to a tall pyramid-type structure, "This is the tomb of the Crimson Devil. Recently, nearby villages have had strange occurrences happening to their livestock, and lights have appeared every night. It can only be the work of him, and it caused me to think about his legends. The legends about his involvement with the Dark Signers and Earthbound Immortals varies on who wrote the story, but they all agree that he worked alongside them. The legends also say that one of the Signers would one day tame him with their powerful soul. After I had the dream about Jack, I realised that it was talking about him."
"So I have to duel a demon, and my nightmares will stop? Sounds like a deal."
Geiger smirked, and stretched, "I have to do a ritual to get the duel to work, so go ahead and stretch while I set everything up. And just to warn you, my siblings know nothing of what happened during the Fortune Cup or war against the Dark Signers."
We nodded, and I went over to check on Justice. Her paint was fading, and there were some dents that I just couldn't get rid of.
After the WRGP is over, I'm either going to have to replace nearly everything, or I just will have to make a brand new runner. Neither idea is appealing.
"Mr Jack, sir? Can you look at my deck?"
I glanced over and saw a young boy talking to Jack on the steps of the pyramid, "Why do you want me to look at your deck?"
"Because I want help making it better!"
Jack spread the cards out, and scanned it carefully, "It looks pretty well balanced."
A smile spread over his face, "I made it based on your deck!"
"The only thing I can tell you is that if you take good care of it, and show your cards respect, that one day they will help you out during duels. My sister takes care of her cards really well, and she hasn't lost a duel in almost four years."
Both of them looked over at me, and I smiled, "He was the last person to beat me, and I think that if anyone ever beats me again it will be him."
"Then you are like the Quetzalcoatl! He's the ruler of the skies and the Earth! He's on the temple right over here!"
I walked over and looked at the carving, "He looks really tough."
The smile that I received should have been illegal, because it was just so adorable, "He is! Whenever I see him, I would think of Jack, because they are both strong, cool, and lead the way forward. But I guess you are too!"
Geiger walked out with a torch, "Let's light up a path, shall we? Yusei, I will get the main two paths, can you get the other lights lit up?"
"Sure," I said as one of my eyebrows drifted into my hairline.
Carefully, I got on Justice and cruised around lighting up torches as the sun set. Meanwhile, Geiger and his little sister lit the ends of the torch ropes.
As the standing torches lit up, I raised an eyebrow and returned to Geiger's side, "Any reason why we are lighting up the mark of the Whale?"
"It made a pretty good race track the last time, so I figured that it would work again this time."
My skin went cold as a wave of hatred flew over us, and Geiger's brother went stiff.
The mountain of a man turned to the two of us, "Jack, you'll be dueling Max, not me."
Both of us marched over to Geiger, Jack's fist clenched by his side.
"Are you insane?"
"He's not going to duel a child!"
"Absolutely not!"
But he wasn't even phased as he walked over to his brother, "But he's the perfect person to bring out Jack's potential."
I ended up stepping away from Jack to avoid feeling his anger as he spit out, "I just looked at his deck. How is that fair?"
Max spoke, his voice scratchy, as if he had been yelling for years, "It will be an honor to duel the king."
Geiger helped the small child into his sidecar, and Jack slammed the arm of his runner down, "Using a child is unacceptable."
I pulled up the duel screen on Justice, and plopped Geiger's cute little sister down on the seat, "Here. You can have a front row seat."
What are you thinking, Geiger?
Max calmly spoke up, "Speed World 2, set on."
Both runners shot forward, and I started tapping my leg as I watched Jack slow down at the first corner, Jack, have you really changed that much?
Little Max started, every move as stiff as his voice, "I summon Free Bird in defense mode."
Free Bird-0
"Then I place a facedown and end my turn."
Jack nearly lost his card with how much flair he used to draw it, "When my opponent has monsters and I don't, I can summon Vice Dragon from my hand by halving his attack and defense points."
Vice Dragon-1000
"Whenever my opponent summons or special summons a monster, Free Bird gives me the ability to summon another copy of itself from anywhere in my deck or hand."
Free Bird-0
I leaned forward as Jack sighed, "I summon Dark Resonator in attack mode."
Dark Resonator-1300
"And another Free Bird is summoned due to your monster's arrival."
Free Bird-0
Geiger glanced down at his brother, and Jack paused to look at his hand, "I tune my monsters together to bring out the creature of my soul, Red Dragon Archfiend!"
Red Dragon Archfiend-3000
"Whenever he destroys a monster in defense mode, all of your other monsters in defense mode will be destroyed. Archfiend, attack any of the Free Birds!"
As the attack launched, a small note appeared on my screen: None of these were in his deck when I looked.
That's right, Jack helped him with his deck planning!
I watched as all three birds shattered, and Jack glanced my way as his turn ended.
All I could do was shrug.
Max drew a card, and his voice changed again, growing even deeper, "When only my opponent has monsters, I am allowed to special summon Bewitched Butterfly."
Bewitched Butterfly-800
"If my opponent has a stronger monster than my Butterfly, my Butterfly destroys itself. Next, I summon a second Bewitched Butterfly."
Bewitched Butterfly-800
What on Earth?
The second one destroyed itself, and Max spoke again, "And now I summon Bewitched Butterfly."
Bewitched Butterfly-800
A third Butterfly destroyed itself against Archfiend's snout, and my eyebrows were getting closer and closer together.
"Finally, I summon Ancestor Bird in defense mode. He cannot be destroyed by anything as long as I have three or more monsters with the same name in my graveyard."
Ancestor Bird-0
In order for Jack to beat that monster, he has to get rid of two monsters in the graveyard!
"I place a facedown and end my turn."
My brother stared at his new card, and then at the other cards that he had out, "If you think that will scare me off, you are wrong. I summon Lancer Demon, who has the amazing ability of giving all of my monsters piercing damage."
Lancer Demon - 1600
"Red Dragon Archfiend, attack that Bird!"
Both facedowns on Max's side of the field flipped up, completely identical, "I activate Magical Mirror-Smoke Mirror, which gives my monster the same points as a monster on the opponent's side of the field as long as I have three or more monsters in the graveyard with the same name."
Please don't choose Archfiend.
"I select Red Dragon Archfiend, and Ancestor Bird gains 3000 attack points for each of the traps activated."
Ancestor Bird-6000
A mirror appeared in front of the bird, and Archfiend stopped mid-attack to stare at his reflection. A fiery version of him exploded out, and destroyed Archfiend. As soon as that happened, it continued over to Jack and punched the Wheel of Fortune.
Life Points Jack=1000
My eyes widened in horror as Jack became covered in flames, and spun violently off the track.
Sitting down, I raced over to his crash site and climbed out from behind Geiger's sister, "Jack!"
"Don't touch me."
I crouched next to him as the other family gathered behind me, "Are you physically hurt?"
"It's nothing compared to dueling a Shadow Duel. Just one hit."
He stood up shakily and pushed his runner back up, "I just need some time to myself."
Geiger walked to my side as Jack rode away, "Yusei, we need to talk about what just happened."
Geiger and I sat outside the hut as the two kids settled down to sleep, and I poked the fire with a stick, "This reminds me of living in Satellite, almost. The fire, wondering how much longer we will survive, things like that."
"You are comparing a barren wasteland to a trash heap."
Pretending to smirk, I looked at him, "If you ask some people, they would call Satellite a barren wasteland. They are just two seperate kinds of wastelands. Anyway, what did you want to talk about?"
"None of those cards that my brother played were ones that any of us had. In fact, I have never seen or heard of those cards before."
Staring at the fire, I thought for a second, Didn't Jack look at Max's deck? And Max said that he based his deck off of Jack's, which would not be anything like the one used.
"Are you completely sure?"
I saw his head nod out of the corner of my eye, "And surely you heard how his voice changed as we passed the statue of the Crimson Devil. I checked the deck after we stopped, and there wasn't a single card that was the same from the duel to when I pulled the cards off the disk."
Poking the fire again, I glanced over at the mountain of a man, "Did you ask Max?"
"He says that he remembers starting the duel, but the next thing he remembers is the runner coming to a stop. Once his voice changed, Max's memories are gone."
Dropping the stick into the fire, I turned back to the table, "Why on Earth would you have a child duel a man who has literally dueled for his life?"
"I have no idea. I remember the vision, I remember the outcome, but I have no idea why I chose Max-"
The chair skidded back as Geiger stood up sharply, "Did the Crimson Devil manipulate me? Did he WANT Jack to come here?"
My heart skipped a beat as I tried to stay level headed, "Can he even do something like that?"
"I told you that it can destroy villages overnight. Its power is overwhelming, and I wouldn't be shocked to find out that I was controlled."
"Jack! What are you doing?"
I opened my eyes to see Geiger and his sister run out the door.
Brushing my hair with my fingers, I blinked rapidly, I really need to learn his sister's name for crying out loud.
Staggering, I stumbled after them to see Max at the foot of the pyramid, "Jack just disappeared at the top!"
Pushing everyone out of my way, my legs carried to the top of the ridiculous building to see a hole at the top, "Geiger, this wasn't here before, right?"
He slid to a stop next to me, "No. And there's no way that Jack could have done that. These blocks were extremely difficult to move one at a time-"
We looked inside, and his whole body went stiff as he whispered, "I never built any stairs."
My eyes drifted to the clear set of stairs in front of us, "If that thing can use mind control and destroy cities, let's not be surprised that it can make a hole and a set of stairs."
I led the way down the stairs, and about halfway down I could feel Jack's irritation, "He's definitely down there, and he is far from pleased with whatever he is seeing."
Geiger ran his hand along the wall, "This is definitely not something that I could have created. Something else must have created it. I just hope that Jack isn't in any kind of mortal danger because of me getting controlled by this thing."
"Trust me, Jack has probably been in worse scrapes."
Light drifted up the stairs and we rounded the final corner, "There he is, but something's wrong."
I glanced over to see a-
"Am I crazy or is there a child made of fire dancing over there?"
Geiger looked over, and his eyes became the size of dinner plates, "What in the world?"
The creature looked over to us and spoke in a voice reminiscent of Lazar, "Ooo, guests. But you can't help!"
I crouched as the ground shook violently, and watched in horror as Jack was left standing on a tiny little pedestal while the rest of the ground fell away. Not too many steps past me the stairs also fell away, leaving my brother with absolutely no way out of the death trap.
Words slipped out of my mouth no louder than a murmur, "If Dad ever finds out what happened here, I won't be able to evade Illiaster and leave Neu Domino, because I'll be locked in my room."
A/N: Thanks to LinaFair, Bravemaridin, Anolaszun, manganime fangir23, Athina of Olympus, and Yue in the Stars for reviewing the original version of this chapter!
