The Rise and Fall of History II: Opposing the Present

by Medigo

The world of dueling has reached its climax. Many stories have been told through these cards, and the final story brought everyone together. People are united and yet, an unknown world suffers in their shadow. The fallen one returns in the midst of their peace, pursued and still a stranger to those around. There is not much time to save both his home and his friends.

30. Fallen Through the Looking Glass

Redux 61: Fallen Through the Looking Glass

"We are making no progress." Iria griped as she sat behind a computer. Even the mainframe of this tower could not find a trace of Dom or the Fusion Guild. "I agree." Adamant did not have much luck with his projects either. "The victims of Martel are still not waking up. Bishop is not talking, if he knows anything at all." If Martel usually kept his puppets in card-form, they likely wouldn't know where the guild's base was anyway. "..I am not even sure if I would want Creffield to wake up yet." The disciple sighed, thinking about what Bishop went through. Zach didn't deserve that kind of pain. "What makes you so sure the guild will even have a base here?" If Iria were in Phoebe's shoes, she would have moved as soon as her first attack failed. "They have the gate. It is not an object you can easily relocate. It needs to stand on the same coordinates in both dimensions to work." That was the only reason Adamant assumed Phoebe's people were stationary. "Well it doesn't help us bring us anywhere near her. Especially not if other unknown parties are attacking us. We are running out of time."

"You are." The door to the computer room opened. "Silver." Adamant instinctively reached for his dueldisk. "Oho... I would love to take you on, but I am not here for my jollies." Her smile changed into a scowl. "I also want to know how someone could have tampered with my Templars." In her hands she had a dueldisk, Iria's old dueldisk. "You believe us now?" Iria asked. "I believe that there is a world you know more about than me. However I have the access to all security and surveillance." She handed her counterpart the disk. "...an exchange of information."

...

"Just remember, don't force yourself." That was what Uno told her, before Marco came to fetch him. The 'lord' was there with Alice to see if he could help her use the pendulum. But apparently some sort of official business was going on and that could not be put off anymore. So she had to try it alone for the rest of the day. And she did try, well into the night. It was all she could do while everyone else explored their own options.

"Just use my imagination,.." Uno made it look so simple, he could blink from one side of the hall to the other. "Please..." She held the pendulum crystal firmly and put an image in her head. It wasn't even the room with her parents, she just wanted to see if she could warp into the garden outside her window. But no matter how much she begged, prayed, wished or dreamed; she did not go anywhere. "I know you can do it!" This room she was in, this prestigious palace bedroom, became a detestable sight. It was tiring. Everyone was probably asleep already, she couldn't. "Come on!" The more hope she lost, the stronger her frustration got. "Why!" When it could go no further, she angrily tossed the crystal across the room. At first she wanted to scream. But when she saw the thing bounce against the wall, she immediately crawled to the floor to pick it back up. "No nonono! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to!" It wasn't damaged, thankfully. "I'm..sorry. I know.. It's not you. It's me." She just couldn't do it, she could not use the crystal like they could.

"Huh?" From the corner of her eye, Alice saw something flash by the window. "What was that?" She peered through the glass; a streak of light seemed to shoot across the garden grass like a large firefly. It was an oddly colored light, white, golden and orange. "What..was.. what!?" And that same kind of glow was coming from the pendulum now, faintly but consistently. "I..did.. Something? Maybe?" It was no teleport, it felt more like the crystal was transmitting flickers of energy to the place she envisioned. Or was it some place she had to be? "I..okay." She shoved the window of her room open and climbed outside. There were a dozen templars swarming in the dark clouds above, but they did not seem to notice anything. "I guess it will be okay if I go by myself." Her curiosity overpowered her other senses and climbed out her window into the garden. She let the pendulum guide her; it seemed to grow brighter if she went a certain direction. It only took her a few minutes to get the light as high as it could go. She had reached the endpoint. "It's that tree again." The same thickrooted tree she saw on the first day, was it always this close to her room? "No.. Not just that tree. It's The Tree!"

Alice finally realized where she'd seen this before. It was the timeless tree from her old life; her destroyed world. "How?" It was exactly the same; the roots, the branches, the leaves. It looked as young and strong as it did eight years ago. "Did..they move it here? That doesn't make any sense!" It couldn't be here. "Maybe it just looks like it? Yeah that's it!" Alice walked inside the hollow space in between the great roots. "Ah.." Even here it looked the same. This was the spot where she read her favorite books. "This.. this isn't happening." She wanted to turn back, get out and run away. But behind here was nothing but darkness. The pendulums stopped glowing. "No!" She only saw more roots and branches. What should have taken a few retraced steps, only took her deeper and deeper into this 'cave'. "Help! Can someone hear me! I'm lost!" There was nothing above her, only ground below. Ground and wood, the earth was slowly replaced with an even floor. "Planks?" It was getting weirder and weirder. "Ow!" She slammed her head against something. "Is that.. a door?"Her hand found a doorknob. Something turned inwards..

"Good night."

A purple orange glow illuminated what lied beyond the door; light coming from an unknown source. She was inside a large room now, with the walls covered in books, a check-pattern floor replacing the ground, and large roots cracking through the ceiling. "You.." And there was someone to greet her, a woman who sat behind a small round table. "You're one of.. the sisters! Veronica!" It was the one from Uno's visions, the second Prophecy Sister. She was a bit younger than she expected, and her hair was straighter and parted to the side. But the rest of her matched the description. "So you know the story. Good. That saves us a bit of time. Hello Alice Brandt, welcome to our library." Veronica said, all smiles. "How.. Is this a dream?" For all Alice knew, she fell asleep in her bed halfway during her pendulum training. "Ah, wait no! I didn't mean to ask that!" Yet even if this was a dream, there were rules. She remembered Uno's stories very well. "Sorry. No takebacks. This is quite real, to an extent. Our library does not care for the physics of time and space." The sister raised two fingers. "Now there's two questions."

"Why.. why am I here? Why can I see you? What... what do you want?" Alice didn't like this. She thought only Uno could see these people. They may have helped him in the past, but there was just something untrustworthy about them. "I will treat those questions as one entity, since they serve the same subject. Nice of me, isn't it?" Veronica closed her eyes and giggled. "You are here because we can help you. You are trying to unlock a power within the pendulum, a power that transcends dimensions. Just like we do.. You can see me, because you are like me. The present is dearest to you, so I am too. As for what we want? We want to see this power develop. Where does it go? I cannot say; the future is not my division. Allthough I very much appreciate it that you care. Most of time we only get questions that involve the persons own selfish needs and wants." She stated with a deep sigh. "One question remains. Be careful. I do not know how it will end, but three answers are all I have."

"I don't..I don't know what I want.." The girl said with a trembling voice. "You want something. It is as clear as the light of day." The sister insisted. "But.. " Alice thought about what she could ask. However if Veronica could only tell her about the present, that did not leave many options. Alice could request the exact location of her father. But that wouldn't be enough to save him. "I want to help my dad. I want to help Eric's mom. I want to use this crystal." All of her desires focused on the future, on the third sister. She was nowhere to be seen. "How do I save them?" Still, she had to try. "Unfortunately. You cannot ask that yet." Of course Veronica rejected the question. "Yet?" Still, her words left a glimmer of hope. "You are stuck between yesterday and tomorrow. You never look back and you rarely think ahead. That is why you cannot see my sisters, why you cannot ask them. You will have to change that." Veronica told her as she clasped her hands together. "Then I will! Please, let me see them!" Alice pleaded as she pressed her hands on the table. If this was reality, she had to take the chance. "Seeing is one thing.." The second sister mused.

"You found me!" The first sister screeched. "Eeh!" Cloe nearly gave Alice a heart-attack as the girl in white popped up from underneath the table. "Cloe.." It was the youngest of three, or the oldest. In any case, she did not look any different; same sage, same braided hair, same piercing red eyes. "I met you before. You're the one who always ran from me." Cloe rasped and tilted her head. "You tried to get Margots help, didn't you? Well, as my sister said 'you are gonna have to face your past before you can chase your future'." The girl coughed at the end her sentence. "Apologies. That present tense was like poison to my tongue." She wiped away what seemed to be blood from her mouth and grinned. "I... I wont run this time. I want to know." Despite how uncomfortable this girl was making her, she did not move from her spot. "Uno dueled me once." Cloe stated. "..So I have to do the same?" Alice concluded. And Cloe nodded her head. "But not with the cards you used. Not as the duelist you became." Cloe reached inside her hat and pulled out a deck of cards. "As the duelist you were."

"What? These are my.." Alice took the cards and recognized them immediately. "My Mermails!" It was her deck from before the tournament. They weren't recreations either, each card carried that familiar wear and tear. "You must defeat the past with the past. Or else you will never escape the present." Veronica explained as she gave her chair to Cloe. "Oh.. okay. I will!" Alice took her own chair. Oddly, as soon as she sat down, the table seemed to get much bigger. It was as if she shrank inside her chair. "I made some room." Cloe proclaimed as she grabbed her own set of cards. "Now then, we have a duel. Let it begin!" Veronica clapped her hands.

Alice's LP: 8000 Cloe's LP: 8000

Cloe took the first turn, as she always did. She put a green-haired fairy(4/1800/900) in a flowery dress on the table in attack position. "I normal summoned The Spirit of the Fall Wind." Cloe pulled a card from her deck; Prediction Princess Coinorma. "So I could add a flip monster from my deck to my hand with her effect." After that Cloe placed a trap card down.

"My turn?" That was seemingly it for the sister, for now. "Then.." It only felt a little strange to see her Mermail deck again after all this time. But she remembered its ins and outs like it was yesterday. She hadn't put it away either, so how the sisters got a hand on it was a mystery. "I'll activate my field, Lemuria, the Forgotten City." The table was covered with a layer of water that hovered in place. An ancient roman-style city partially rose out of the sea. "And I summon Mermail Abyssturge." A merman lancer(4/1700/1100) with blue ponytailed hair also swam to the surface. The effect of the field spell gave the water monster(1900/1300) additional attack and defense points. "Since he's summoned, he discards one water monster from my hand and takes one back from the graveyard if it has a level of 3 or less." Alice discarded the Atlantean Marksman. As it was a 3rd level monster, Abyssturge could immediately return it to his masters hand. However in between, the effect of the Marksman was activated. "My Atlantean went to the graveyard, so he destroys a face-down card!" Her seaserpent fired an arrow from his crossbow gauntlet, and skewered Cloe's trap card; Changing Destiny. "I also attack your monster." Abyssturge pierced the Spirit of the Fall, who turned to gusts of wind after she died.

Cloe's LP: 7900

"A Pity. I had a whole experiment lined up. But you shot straight through that." Cloe remarked after she put her Changing Destiny card into the graveyard. That trap would have forced Alice to choose between taking damage or giving Cloe more lifepoints. "Uhm.. Sorry?" She sailed around that test this turn. "It happened. We moved on." Now it was Cloe's turn again. She placed a different trap down and set a monster card. "My turn has ended."

"O..kay." Alice continued, cautiously. "I summon Mermail Abysslinde." Abyssturge was joined by the blue-haired merwoman(3/1700/1400) in red armor. "She will attack your set monster." Cloe was difficult to read. However Alice knew what was set face-down at least; the card Cloe added to to her hand last turn. Abysslinde flipped and destroyed Coinorma the sprite-sized coinriding girl(3/800/1400). "You flipped Prediction Princess Coinorma." Coinorma's flip effect allowed the player to set a level 3 or higher flip monster from the deck. One level 5 monster was set. "I have chosen, Prediction Princess Crystaldine." Alice only got a glimpse, which was enough to tell her that she Abyssturge couldn't overpower it. Crystaldine possessed 2200 defense points. Yet Cloe provided her with another target, she flipped her trap: Burst Rebirth. "I've activated Burst Rebirth so I could revive this monster face-down: Coinorma!" The princess of coins was alive and once again face-down.

Cloe's LP: 5900

"If I attack it..it will just set another flip monster. But if I don't." Coinorma was going to be flipped regardless. It was better to get rid of it while she could. "Abyssturge attacks that card!" Sturge tossed his golden spear into the set monster, destroying Coinorma and triggering her flip effect. This time around, a 4th level flip monster was summoned from the deck. "I've set Prediction Princess Arrowsylph." Whatever that could do, Alice had nothing to attack with anymore. So she placed a trap card down and ended her turn. "You could have done better than that." Cloe admonished her as she now flipped both her monsters. "Instead, you stayed on the predicted path..." The snake-like air spirit Arrowsylph(4/1000/1400) and the jellyfish-like fortune teller Crystaldine(5/1400/2200) took ritual cards from the deck with their flip effects; a ritual spell and monster respectively. "When Arrowsylph was flipped, I added Prediction Ritual to my hand. When Crystaldine was flipped I claimed Prediction Princess Tarotrei." Tarotrei was a level 9 ritual monster, and Cloe controlled that exact amount of levels. "This is what you allowed!" Cloe activated Prediction Ritual.

Cloe activated Prediction Ritual. "!" A stone altar parted the Lemurian sea. Torches around a coffin lit up, as the Princesses of wind and water; Crystaldine and Arrowsylph; were sacrificed at the altar. The coffin lid opened; Prediction Princess Tarotrei, the holy priestess(9/2700/1200) rose from her sleep. Her eyes were glowing red, her hair and dress long and dark, and around her shoulders were two wing-like contraptions which extended into a pair of animate doll arms. "You use rituals too?" Alice was surprised, as she was unfamiliar with these cards. It was clear that she was not using her Ghostricks anymore, but she figured Cloe was an XYZ-duelist. "For you I chose this. This is the power you wanted for your future, I deemed it appropriate as your appraiser." Cloe gestured at Mermail Abyssturge with her hand, pretending to crush its head with her fingers. "I have chosen my target." Tarotrei used its extra arms to pick up the male Mermail and crush it into a fine powder. "Aah!" The visual was more visceral than Alice expected.

Alice's LP: 7200

"I suggest you do not take it slow, Alice." Veronica interjected. "You are not fighting just the past, but the present as well. Because that is where you are, at all times. Right now you face Tarotrei. Her powers allow her to flip the position of one monster each turn." Tarotrei pointed her actual hands at Mermail Abysslinde and twisted them around. The Mermail followed the act by flipping herself face-down. "And when Cloe's turn ends, Tarotrei may also summon one flip monster in face-down defense position." Cloe set down a monster and a trap. During her endphase, the ritual princess pulled another monster from the depths and placed it flat on the waterbed. Cloe had chosen to revive Coinorma. "What are you.. saying?" Alice asked, thinking it was okay to give her questions if she was bringing up the subject. "Simply that we only record time, we do not control it. We cannot stop it. While you are dueling here, your friends continue their acts outside. You are getting closer to your answer, a way to save your father. But.." Her voice trailed off. "But what? Why are you even telling me this?" They wouldn't be this liberal with their information. "Is... someone in danger?" Unless it was another game to test her.

They gave no response. "You.. won't just tell, will you?" She would have to keep playing their game. "I.." She drew.. a very potent card. "I discard special summon Mermail Abyssmegalo!" A discard of two water-monsters (Atlantean Marksman & Dragoon) was the price for summoning the great red shark warrior(7/2400/1900). If Megalo was called out with his own effect, he would also search the deck for one Abyss spell or trap card. "I put Abysscale of the Kraken in my hand!" Alice selected an equip-spell in this case. At the same time, thanks to the effects of the discarded Atlantean Marksman. She could destroy the face-down Prediction Princess Coinorma. Atlantean Dragoons on the other hand added a new seaserpent in her deck, Mermail Abyssocea, to her hand. "Ah. The fearsome Abyssmegalo. That card acquired some emotional value with you, didn't it?" Cloe stared the beast and his master down with her bright red eyes. "Huh? Because of Uno?" This was the card she almost lost to the guilds. Uno won it back for her. "It strengthened your connection with the wayward son, Uno. Your duels have always been linked to his, one way or another."

"Even now." Veronica added. "Now?" Alice flinched. "This is..about Uno?!" Was he the one in danger? "A decision lies before you, Alice. You cannot see it yet. But it lies between what you call your family.. and who you call your friend. My guess is, only one can be saved. The choice is up to you."

(To be Continued in Redux 060: Pool of Tears)

New Cards used by Alice Brandt
Atlantean Marksman

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Lemuria the Forgotten City

New Cards used by Cloe
Spirit of the Fall Wind
Prediction Princess Coinorma
Prediction Princess Arrowsylph
Prediction Princess Crystaldine
Prediction Princess Tarotrei

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Prediction Ritual

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Changing Destiny
Burst Rebirth