Original Yu-Gi-Oh Series
Parallel
Chapter 066
Originally Written: Tuesday, May 3, 2022 858AM to 944AM
. . . . .
Tristan Taylor looked up at the burning building falling down around him. It was one of Domino's last skyscrapers. Skyscrapers made it difficult for the members of Zorc's growing forces that flew, so they'd taken to knocking them down. Skyscrapers made great vantage points, so the world's armies took great leaps to protect them. Once they were knocked down, they wouldn't be going back up.
Instinct had him taking quick steps and leaps forward, along with the middle-aged woman next to him. The woman next to him flinched, kneeling to the floor. Soot and dust filled her stark white hair. Frightened brown eyes looked up at him.
"W-why are you stopping, Tristan?"
A fire woman and her team were nearby. They were trying to work a way around a large piece of the collapsing building. The piece was blocking their exit. They needed to get low enough to reach the ladders. Now they were blocked.
"I'm making it worse." Tristan tentatively took a step back. The building rumbled. He took a few more steps back. With each step, the building blocking their path worked its way back up to where it belonged. The fire, caused by the Duel Monsters, seemed to shift backwards. "Yep. It's me."
"Miho!" Tristan called.
The fire woman looked at him. The white haired woman looked at him in terror and shock.
"Need you to do me a favor."
She jogged over to him.
"Could you take Ms. Bakura the rest of the way?" He gave her a smile.
"Of course." She looked solemn, resigned. The hard hat on her head only added to it. Strands of purple hair fell out from the bun hidden underneath the hat.
"N-no. No!" Ms. Bakura, Ryou and Amane's mother, reached for Tristan and shook her head.
"Don't worry. I'll be alright." Tristan smiled, he grabbed his wallet and other items from his pants pocket. "Could you give this to Joey, though?" He handed the items to her.
"You can give them to him yourself." She demanded.
"I'll meet you out there to do it." Tristan winked.
Miho huffed as Tristan took a seat on the tiled floor. "We'll see you out there."
"Uh huh." Tristan gave a two fingered salute. Miho guided Ms. Bakura away. He waved to the group of firefighters and the people who passed him by on their own escape.
He laid back on the ground, with his hands folded behind his head. He looked up at the ceiling. "I know you don't gotta, but if you could make it so everyone makes it out first, that'd be really nice."
He watched the flames shift to the center of the ceiling. Ceiling tiles fell around him. He saw firefighters look at the strange flames, that didn't seem to move in any way that made sense.
"Thanks." Tristan waited a long time. The heat in the building became unbearable. The floor fell from underneath him as the building crumbled. Tristan didn't focus on that however, but rather on the beam on a fast track to impale his head. 'Nice...See you soon, Ryou.'
Miho and her team watched Joey Wheeler pull the fire away from the building. It wrapped around him like a cloak. Yami Marik's hands pressed against his back, guiding him. Joey admitted he still wasn't that good, but the world needed him and he was tired of hiding, while everyone else around him died.
The millennium puzzle glowed from its place around his neck. A violet red tint to his eyes had turned them dark and harsh. Streaks of red and black filled his wild blond hair.
Seto and Ishizu summoned various duel monsters to defend against the ones trying to pick up humans, to take them to Zorc. Mokuba, with his hair cut short to his shoulders and not so little anymore, healed the small wounds he was able to. A little brown and white terrier hopped around Mokuba's feet, barking at the corrupted duel monsters.
When Joey and the others pushed back the duel monsters, and got the fire down enough that they could put it out without the aid of magic, Ms. Bakura gave him Tristan's wallet. Joey looked through the wallet. Tristan looked up at him with a cocky smile on his driver's license. His badge was in there too. Credit cards that weren't of any use anymore, the odd gift card, a few receipts, index cards of encrypted notes Joey couldn't decipher.
Joey's arms trembled. He nearly dropped the items. Seto told him something in his head. He gave the police items like his badge, to the police standing around wondering why the commissioner hadn't come out of the building. He gave various people of importance to Tristan his other items.
"Heard you're one of the many holding the fort ma'am." Joey looked at Ms. Bakura. Joey nodded his head like a bow. "Thank you."
She looked at him with dark brown eyes, and he knew she was just as upset as he was. Ryou's eyes always seemed darker when he was upset. "That monster killed my children and my husband." She held Tristan's license in her hands like it was her lifeline.
Joey sat on the curb in front of the fallen building. The crowd dispersed, most running back into hiding. Others remained, planning. They needed to decide which base of operations they would move to now. The others stayed with him, long after the crown left. The terrier climbed up on Joey's lap. Mokuba sat next to him, leaning up against his side. Joey slumped over the dog, careful of the puzzle around his neck.
"It's just Duke and Pegasus now, Kiba. Yami." He murmured into the dog's fur. "Hope they're okay."
Pharaoh, Yami, stayed silent in Joey's mind. A warmth filled Joey instead. Joey nodded to words only he heard in that warmth. Kiba licked his face. Ishizu, Yami Marik, and Seto kept watch, waiting for Joey to get up.
