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.

53. Brother Above, Brother below

Redux 38: Brother Above, Brother Below

"He copped to it!?.." Tory did not expect the Lord of the Union to reveal his crime. "How could you do it? To your own family?" Alice could not fathom that he committed the act in the first place. "Yeah well one thing is for sure, he is not getting away with it again!" Eric was angered enough to just jump in the duel to help Uno out. "How soon we Forget!" But Marco grabbed the pendulum from his pocket. "I believe My words were something to the Effect of this Battle being between the Two of us!" The crystal lit up and placed a bright forcefield around the two duelists. "Hey!" Eric and the others were kept outside. "marco..why.." Anastasia could not get through it either. "You of all People should know Why. Or were you as Oblivious as our Brother? I had hoped to Spare you this Sight, sister. But that Time has passed!"

Marco's LP: 5300 Uno's LP: 8000

On his field Marco controlled the the Rockstar of the Burning Abyss: Virgil(4/2500/1000) and the powered up Traveler of the Abyss Dante(3/2500/1500). "I banish Good and Evil in the Burning Abyss!" His already used ritual spell activated from the grave, discarding a Malebranche Graff from his hand to add a The Traveler and the Burning Abyss trap card to Marco's hand. With Graff sent to the graveyard, Marco could activate that monsters effect to special summon the bearded brute Malebranche Barbar(4/1700/1000) from his deck. "By banishing Terminus of the Burning Abyss from My graveyard, one Burning Abyss demon shall be Granted 800 attackpoints until my next turn!" Both Terminus fusion spells were exiled from the grave to redirect power towards the demon Barbar(3200/0). "My Abyssals, attack the Fallen Brother!" Barbar caved the face in of Uno's Performapal Handome Liger(4/1800/400). Virgil rocked Performapal Salutiger(4/1700/500) to death with a fiery dirge. And Performapal Skullcrobat Joker(4/1800/100) was slain by Dante's dark magic blasts. "Gwah!" Uno was caught off guard by the remaining damage and knocked down to the ground. "Uno!" Adamant shouted. The Lord had gone beyond mere holograms.

Uno's LP: 5000

"Heheh, I get it." Uno chuckled. "What is Hilarious to you Now, brother?" Marco roared. "I remembered what your favorite story was. You always compared me to Dante and yourself to Virgil. Now I know why. You were jealous of me." Uno shrugged off the damage and got back up. "Fantasize while You have the Time, Brother." Marco placed two trap cards down and ended his turn. "Oh its more than a fantasy. You took my title, but I was always fathers first. I will show you what the True UNO can do!" Uno winked at Dom as he activated Dragonpit Magician (scale 8). The tribal mage would replace the destroyed Fireflux.

"You mock our Fathers inheritance with those Pendulums!" Marco laughed and flipped his trap card. "Fire Lake of the Burning Abyss! It sends two of my Burning Abyss monsters to the Depths, to Cast as many as Three of your cards into Hell as well!" A chasm opened in the floor revealing the burning lake of the inferno. Barbar and Dante were sacrificed to it to feed its flames. "Remove the those Pendulums from my Sight!" Dragonpit Magician and Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer were pulled in next, and immolated into the blackest of ashes. "So much for my cards." Dom sulked. "It was a fine effort, sir." Zach cheered him up. At this point Barbar's effect was activated. The dying demon-barbarian consumed the fallen Malebranchi: Draghig, Scarm and Cagna from the graveyard, and sent their souls out to haunt Uno. He took 300 points of damage for each banished monster. "Huhnn.. Is that all, Marco?" The attack made him feel physically ill, but it was nothing that could keep him down.

Uno's LP: 4100

"Is it My show now then, Brother? How unfortunate then, That Your hell has only Just begun!" Marco activated his other trap card. "The Traveler and the Abyss! Each Burning Abyss monster sent to their Death this turn is given New life!" The Traveler Dante(3/1000/2500), the Barbar Malebranche and even the attached XYZ-material Malebranche Draghig resummoned themselves from the graveyard. "Great.." Uno's field was spent, lacking even a defense. "I activate Pot of Riches! I recycle three pendulum monsters from the extra deck and graveyard to draw two cards!" The pendulum drawing spell was his last chance. He returned Performapal Gold Fang, Skullcrobat Joker and Fireflux to get his two cards. "...Tuning Magician?" They weren't new pendulums, but Uno saw them as an omen. "I set one card in the spell/trap zone. And end my turn." At the very least he got one more shot. "Marco, father gave me the Magicians. But what did he give you?"

"Do you truly Care, Brother?" Marco drew his next card. "Father gave you Everything, he Intended for you to Be his successor. And look how you Squandered his Gifts! I took Nothing, everything you See is My Creation and they have Overpowered you at Every turn! And this is my Greatest!" Marco suddenly discarded a Calcab Malebranche monster from his hand. "By giving up One Burning Abyssal, I can Evolve my XYZ-monster!" He placed a new XYZ-card on top of the Traveler Dante; transforming him into a heavenly lady(6/2500/2800) dressed in white nun robes. "Behold Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal! If I am to be Vergil and you Dante. Then consider this My ode to Our sister!" Marco bellowed. "this is how you see me?" Anastasia murmured. "Now, when Calcab is sent to the graveyard, he returns One spell on the field to a players hand! Brother, this is The End!" Calcab's effect targeted Uno's set card.

"No. not yet Marco!" Uno could activate his spell before it was removed. "Super Hippo Carnival!" And he created five new monsters with it. "What!?" The pink Performapal Hip Hippo(3/800/800) was special summoned from Uno's deck, and so were four Hippo dancers(1/0/0) in defense mode. "This spell summons Hip Hippo and his whole token ensemble!" The hippo tokens had to be destroyed first before anything else could be attacked. "Pfah! It is Precisely because of Cards like these, That I cannot Understand why father chose you." Marco had no choice but to play along. He entered his battle phase; Virgil, Draghig, Barbar and Beatrice attacked the orange, yellow, green and blue hippos. All four tokens perished. "Is that why you banished me? Because you felt you deserved it more? How long have we been together? Why act now?" Uno shouted. "Because there was Finally a world I wanted To rule, and a World where you could Wallow forever. I did not Foresee your Return, certainly not the Way you are now; Brother." Marco was done with his turn. "When I banished you, I didn't expect you to become younger as well."

"Really? Maybe that's why father chose me, because you couldn't control your power that well! You aren't even using pendulum monsters right now, Marco! But.." Uno drew his next card and activated it. "You cannot stop me from using mine! Pendulum Call!" The spell discarded a card from his hand; Tuning Magician, to place two pendulum Magicians in his hand. "I take Dragonpulse and Xiangsheng Magician from my deck and set them on the field!" The dragon mage (scale 1) and the creation mage (scale 8) flanked the pendulum duelist. "And I pendulum summon my monsters! From my hand!" Performapal Cheermole(2/600/1000) bounced unto the field in defense mode. "And my extra deck!" Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer(4/1500/1200) and the crowned Dragonpit Magician(7/900/2700) arrived in a shaft of lightning. "Pendulum Sorcerers effect destroys two cards to add two Performapals from my deck to my hand!" The Sorcerer swung his pendulum through Performapal Hip Hippo and the Performapal Pinch Helper continuous trap, shattering them. Uno then drew the Performapals Changeraffe and Bit Bite Turtle from his deck.

"Yeah, there we go! Show him who's the boss!" Eric cheered on triumphantly. "Uno, it's time for that special card isn't it?" Alice realized his field was foreshadowing a certain monster. "Almost. First I bring in Performapal Changeraffe, who negates your monsters effect when she is summoned!" The pinkhaired giraffe(1/100/500) dropped in besides the other performers to throw a hula hoop around Beatrice's waist. "Negated?" Each turn Beatrice could send Burning Abyss cards from the deck to the graveyard. That was a liability that Uno rather liked to avoid. "Now, watch this! Since I have two Magicians in my pendulum zones, I can special summon Tuning Magician from my graveyard!" Uno's last monster zone was given to the tuning fork mage(1/0/0). When summoned, it would take 400 of Uno's lifepoints and give them to Marco. "What are you Doing now, Brother?"

Marco's LP: 5700 Uno's LP: 3700

"Just .. some fine-tuning!" Uno tuned the Magician tuner with Dragonpit Magician. "Synchro summon! Enlightenment Paladin!" Together they formed his white mage knight; Enlightenment Paladin(8/2500/2000). "Enlightenment Paladin lets me take back one spell, when a pendulum summoned spellcaster was one of his nontuner synchro materials!" The temporal Paladin changed the flow of time for one of Uno's cards: Pot of Riches. He reclaimed it. "So, this is what he has been making with his powers.." Adamant got a good first impression from this card. "Sister, you let a Thing like that Defeat you?" Marco not so much. "She let me win, Marco. Because she wanted to help me return to who I was. To reverse time.. just like this card did. But I suppose you're gonna need something bigger, aren't you Marco? You want proof that I am back to my full power?" Uno picked the Cheermole card from his field. "Then I will create a new synchro monster right now! I tune Cheermole with Enlightenment Paladin!" The cheering performer turned into two green tuning rings. "What!? But Cheermole is not a tuner!" Iria protested. "Nope. But this synchro monster I am about to summon.. can treat any pendulum summoned monster as a tuner!" Enlightenment Paladin jumped through the circles. Its eight stars joined with Cheermole's two.

"Synchro summon! Nirvana High Paladin!" The paladin exchanged his white clothes for blue robes, orange orbs and golden rings. The swordsman(10/3300/2500) of time reached a new stage of enlightenment. "You bend the Rules of the Game just to synchro Summon without tuners? Preposterous!" The outrage was clear on Marco's face. "Hey, nothing is stopping you from doing the same. We're all Nisells here!" Uno smirked while his new synchro monster rotated his sword to reverse time's flow again "Nirvana High Paladin can also take one card from the past, any card!" Uno used the effect to take the Pendulum Back trap card from his graveyard. "And he also speeds up time, for lifepoints!" Uno moved to his battle phase. "When Nirvana High destroys one monster, my opponents lifepoints are cut in half!" The Paladin pointed his sword towards Beatrice now. "I attack the Eternal Lady!" With a simple swing from the blade, the Lady Beatrice was taken down. Her spirit dissipated and returned to the abyss. "Graah!" The battle damage was multiplied by the Paladins effect, causing Marco to be knocked back against his own throne.

Marco's LP: 2450

"Things shall not be so easy, Brother!" Because Dante had been sent to the graveyard, Marco could take a Burning Abyss monster out of his graveyard again: Malacoda the Netherlord was chosen. "As well, When Beatrice dies, she can summon Any Burning Abyssal from my extra Deck!" The spirit of Beatrice returned one more time to summon another Virgil Rockstar(6/2500/2000) to Marco's side. "Hmm.. well, my Performapals can't put them down, but.." Uno ordered Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer to attack and destroy the burning dragon Draghig. "My Magicians can, Dragonpulse will destroy one monster by discarding a pendulum!" Uno discarded Performapal Bit Bite Turtle from his hand and let his dragon witch target the older of the two Virgils. The Rockstar was removed by a quick bolt of fire. "Bah!" Thanks to Virgil's destruction, Marco could draw one card. "Before I call this in, let's reuse Pot of Riches as well." The pendulum pot reactivated; sending Performapal Cheermole, Bit Bite Turtle and Dragonpit Magician back to Uno's deck. He drew another pair of cards. "Marco. You should have told me how you felt." Uno placed three trap cards down behind his monsters and let his turn end. "We finally were at peace. Why did we have to go through all of this?"

Marco's LP: 2050

"Peace? The world was not at Peace, brother. You did not see that, Because you were Not fit to rule Millennium. You refused to Take the hard handed Approach with Resistant factions; you fought against the Creation of the Templars and the Inquisitors! You would have Destroyed everything we Built with your soft Ideas." Marco spat. "I activate Recurring Nightmare!" A spell erupted, filling the room with shadows. "I reclaim two dark monsters with 0 defense points: Alich and Calcab!" Two Malebranche monsters left the graveyard to enter Marco's waiting hands. Alich was promptly discarded to activate the effect of the second Rockstar Virgil. "I do not Need your kind of Power! When I have Mine! Virgil, remove his Synchro monster!" If he had his way, the Nirvana Paladin would be forced back into Uno's extra deck. "We need each other, Marco. We are a family!" But Uno countered with one of his traps. "!?" Rather, one of Marco's traps. Uno activated Descent of the Sacred Serpent, which made his synchro paladin immune to the effects of Marco's synchro monster. "He created the same trap that Marco did?!" Tory yelled. "Geez, these guys are both nuts."

"The world does Not need You, Brother. I have Run this Union fine on my Own! I activate Good and Evil in the Burning Abyss!" If extra deck monsters couldn't work, Marco would just summon his ritual monster again. "I sacrifice Virgil!" The Good and Evil ritual spell made the Rockstar forfeit his life and levels to the crimson devil Malacoda(6/2700/2200). "I forgot to Tell you. Malacoda can Sever the Abyssals from my hand, to Drain the power from your Monster!" Marco discarded the Burning Abyss Calcab, and converted its 1400 attackpoints into a pool of black energy. That spell washed over the Paladin of Nirvana(1900/2500) and depowered it. "Fall! Fall far from Heaven!" The Netherlord clenched its swords tightly, as did the Paladin. The two raced towards each other and slashed themselves across the chests. Only one came out of the battle unscathed; Nirvana High fell to bloody pieces as Malacoda cackled loudly.

Uno's LP: 2900

"This is about more than the world now, Marco. It's about the future, of both worlds." Before Nirvana High perished, Uno used one last trap card: Cosmic Cyclone. With it he banished his own Xiangsheng Magician. "What are you talking about? And what are you doing?" The spell cost 1000 lifepoints to use, and Uno was not even using it against Marco. "Because of the split timeline, one of the two worlds is going to be destroyed! You must have known about this! There were people who told you!" Vesper might not have been the nicest person, but she wouldn't have lied about that. "Does it matter? Even if the Worlds are destroyed, the Pendulums will keep us Alive! If I have to Restart everything Without you. I will!" Barbar the Malebranche took his spiked club and smashed Performapal Chaingiraffe's face in. "You can't mean that! What about all the people you leave behind?!" Alice cried. "They no longer Exist, there is Nothing to lament." He stated, fully aware of who he was saying it too. "No.. you.." Because of reasons like his, she lost her family. "How.."

Uno's LP: 300

"Alice.. it will never happen again." Seeing her on the verge of a breakdown, all Uno could was to make her this promise. "Uno." It stopped her tears at the very least. "Marco. I have heard enough from you. When Nirvana High is destroyed, it can set itself in my pendulum zone!" There was the reason for his banishment of Xiangsheng. The Paladin (scale 8) had to become the new pendulum card. "It was a synchro and a pendulum monster?!" Zach gasped. "Just like that Odd-Eyes Rebellion card of his." The thought to combine such cards never crossed Dom's mind. "My turn!" Uno activated his last face-down card: Pendulum Back. He took two monsters from his graveyard whose levels worked with scales of 1 and 8: Performapal Salutiger and Handsome Liger. "Pendulum! Summon!" And then he flooded the zones between Dragonpulse Magician and Nirvana High Paladin. The Tiger warrior(4/1700/500), Liger samurai(4/1800/400) and Performapal Splashmammoth(6/1900/2300) all jumped out from either his extra deck or his hand and joined forces with the Pendulum Sorcerer.

"This is the finale, Marco." The band was all here, it was time to commence the battle. "Splashmammoth attacks Malacoda!" The longhaired elephant shot water from its trunk to launch its ball at the Netherlord like a missile. "Uno!?" His friends all thought he'd gone mad. "Brother, what.." But when the ball struck Malacoda, it popped and knocked Malacoda(800/2200) back. "What.. happened?" Marco's monster was losing attackpoints. Barbar(0/1200) suffered as well. "My pendulum synchro happened. When a pendulum monster attacks, Nirvana High Paladin negates all the damage me and my monsters take!" The Splashmammoth was still fine, Malacoda could not retaliate due to the Paladins divine aura. "And when a pendulum battles! All my opponents will lose attackpoints equal to theirs!" The Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer attacked next, hitting the weakened Barbar and destroying it. "Grah. You cannot Intend to end it This way!" His brother cursed. One monster was gone, and Malacoda(0/2200) lost 1500 attackpoints; more than it owned.

Marco's LP: 450

"Handsome Liger, attack The Netherlord of the Burning Abyss!" The next attack from his warriors would take care of the rest, permanently. "Christopher!" In his final moment, Marco reached for his crystal and..

Marco's LP: 5300 Uno's LP: 4100

"I activate Beatrice's effect!" He suddenly controlled Beatrice the Eternal Lady again. "What!?" And Uno was back to his field from before he summoned Enlightenment Paladin, with the Performapals Cheermole, Pendulum Sorcerer and Dragonpit Magician in his control. "She detaches Dante from herself, discards Farfa of the Burning Abyss and banishes Dragonpit Magician for one turn!" But this time the turn progressed differently, Marco banished Uno's dragon mage with Farfa, before Uno could even normal summon Performapal Changeraffe from his hand. And the detached Dante placed a Cir Malebranche in Marco's hands this time. "What, what happened? Weren't we supposed to.." Eric and the others were just as confused as Uno was. "marco, you didn't.." Only Anastasia could immediately process what took place; a time shift. "I made a Mistake in the Past. I simply Needed to Correct it." Marco still held his crystal in his hand, with its pale green glow. "You used the pendulum to reverse time?!" Adamant exclaimed. "Indeed. It seems your Memories were not Erased. You carry too Many pendulums of your Own." Marco chuckled. "That's cheating!" Tory protested. "It is our Power." Marco countered.

"Brother. The Future towards your Victory has been Destroyed!" Uno lacked the materials to summon Enlightenment Paladin now, let alone Nirvana High Paladin. "So this is how..." The best Uno could do was set Performapal Bit Bite Turtle in defense mode, have Skullcrobat Joker destroy Draghig with an attack again and end his turn. "You never Learned how to Do what I could do. Otherwise, you would not be Losing to me Now." Marco drew his card. "This is the end!" He discarded Cir with Virgil's effect to return Bit Bite Turtle to Uno's deck and revived Calcab(3/1400/0) with Cir's effect. "I win!" And all his monsters attacked Uno's two...

(To be Continued in Redux 037: He who Controls the Past)

New Cards used by Uno
Nirvana High Paladin

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Super Hippo Carnival

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Descent of the Sacred Serpent

New Cards used by Marco
Barbar, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss

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Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal

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Recurring Nightmare

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Fire Lake of the Burning Abyss

(To be Continued in Redux 037: He who Controls the Past)