Dark Tea

Chapter 4

Shortly after Tristan was evicted from her room, a young lady about 25 entered. She stood about 5'5". about 140 pounds, with bright red hair. While she wore a nurse's name badge that said Catherine, what surprised Tea was what she saw around her neck: A spiked collar similar to what a Goth would wear!

"Hello Tea. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Catherine Colby, or CC, as most of the staff calls me. I'm a rehabilitation specialist, and have been hired to work on getting you back on your feet" the red head said, with a smile on her face.

Catherine knew that to help Tea out, she was going to not only have to push her in her therapy, but also have to be a friend as well. This young lady had a goal, and CC was going to do her part to get her on the path to that goal. The therapy would help Tea to either become the lead dancer that she wanted to be, or a solid supportive dancer. Either way, Tea would need someone to push her to overcome her problems, or, someone to listen to her when she needed someone in that capacity.

Tea's dark side was also interested in CC. Seeing the collar on her neck, caused a smile to form on her face. "A fellow Goth? Perhaps things will work out that I CAN come out to play" she thought to herself, looking forward to getting to know this lady. With that, Dark Tea went back to her chair, and waited for Yami Bakura to come by, for a lesson in dealing with people and for another round of Duel Monsters.

Over the days, weeks and months, CC was good to her word. She worked Tea for hours at a time, pushing her to her limits and BEYOND! Many a time Tea, would be SCREAMING in pain from the amount work that she was going through. The pain was intense, and it took time in saunas and hot tubes to ease the pain that she was feeling each and every day. CC was there, pushing her, helping her. There to deal with the pain that Tea was going through each and every day. Even though it was Tea who was going through this, her Dark Side was feeling some of it as well. She though, used the pain to focus on her goals: Get a chance to be in the flesh and to get REVENGE on the person who had raped Tea weeks ago!

One thing that helped out both sides were visits. Joey stopped by, and was welcome by Tea, since Tristan had proved that he had no desire to be there, and was more focused on learning to be a pimp. Yami Bakura spent much time with Tea's Dark Side, improving her dueling skills to the point that she often called him Sensei. When he

found out what Tristan had done, and had offered, he got ANGRY! Angry enough that he decided that it was time to teach Tristan a lesson for doing this to the young lady. And this was a promise that he was going to keep. Tristan was NOT going to know what hit him, or how!

Over the next few days, Yami Bakura spent time carefully following Tristan, making sure that he was not seen. The more he saw, the more he wanted to teach him a lesson! Not a physical lesson, but one of a mystical nature. And doing this would save a lot of trouble further down the road for one and all involved.

Finally, Yami Bakura made his move. He watched Tristan heading from one building to another, coming out with money from both the businesses there, as well as the girls that were working there for the mob. Tristan was doing all he was asked to do and trying to do more. He was trying to impress people so that he could move up in the organization and make more money. But, this night, all those plans were about to go up in smoke!

As Tristan left the business, he made sure that the money was in the proper place that he could access it and hand it over when the time came. He also had a notebook of the girls he was in charge of, and what state they were in. As he left the building, he saw a flash of white nearby. Much to his surprise, it was Bakura! "Hello Bakura. What brings you to this part of town?" he asked.

But it was NOT Bakura that was in the shadows of the alleyway that Tristan saw. This version of Bakura had WILD blonde hair, and had a unusual looking necklace around his neck. The ring was gold, with a pyramid in the center surrounded by a circle. The Pyramid had an eye in the center of it, and the circle around the pyramid had five spikes on it as well. "Mortal, you have threatened someone who is both a friend, and a pupil of mine. You have two options: 1) Leave Tea Gardner alone, and you will not be harmed. 2) Refuse, and you will loose your soul. The choice is yours" Yami Bakura told the young man who was learning to be a pimp.

"You don't look or sound like the Bakura that I know of. So, I am going to reject your options" Tristian said, as he got ready to turn and leave. However, before he could, the Ring around Yami Bakura glowed and the scene changed to a mist filled area.

"I told you, that you had two options. Your choice, when you refused to answer, made your choice Option #2. And this, is a SHADOW DUEL! Your soul is on the line. Now, get your deck and DUEL!" Yami Bakura told him.

Tristan reached into a pocket that was mainly filled with dust and of all things, a dueling deck! Tristan had given up dueling, and used the card mainly for trade and threats to those who refused to pay up. Now, he was being forced to duel to save his soul. "Very well, then, lets proceed. I play the spell card Call of the Wild LV5 and summon both Swamp Battle Guard and Lava Battle Guard in defense mode. With that, I end my turn" he told Yami Bakura.

The thief just smirked at Tristan. "You just played right into my trap. I activate a Trap Card: DARK MIRROR FORCE! This card allows me to destroy all defense mode monsters on my opponent's side of the field. That means that your two monsters are destroyed and sent to the card Graveyard. And with no monsters to protect you, I summon The Headless Horseman in attack mode" Yami Bakura stated. The Headless Horseman came forth, showing that it had 2000 Attack Points, enough to take out Tristan.

"NO!" called out the pimp in training, as his Life Points were cut down to 0. With that, the thief looked down on his victim. "I told you that this was a shadow Duel. And Now, you pay with your soul" Yami Bakura told Tristan, as the Millennium Ring glowed, taking the soul of Tristan Taylor from his body and sending it to the Graveyard. "I'm going to be merciful this day. I'll let you live, but you will remember this duel. And you will NOT harm Tea Gardner in any way, shape or form. You do, and we will duel again. And the next time, you WILL be in the Shadows FOREVER!" With that, the Ring glowed again, restoring Tristan's soul to his body.

A few minutes later, Tristan got up, brushed himself off and moved on. While he did not consciously remember the message, he did subconsciously. And after that, he did not go near Tea again.