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.

64. The Emperor's New Play

Redux 27: The Emperor's New Play

Uno's LP: 5400 Rujans LP: 7400

It was hard to defend your own case, when you did not have the emotional context for your own actions. "Look, I created the machines that turned people into cards, and my when my brother decided to use them for our enforcers, I did not stop him. But I had no idea who they were used on. Marco and his Inquisitors were the ones in control of that. I was the one cast out, not him." The best he could do was give the facts, and they did not seem to have a great effect. "Its not Lord Marco whom I trust. All I know is what I saw in those documents! How can I even accept your side of the story, when you Nisells have been hiding yourself from us from the start? The Union.. was that even something the leaders of the world decided upon? Or was it you all along?" Besides anger, Rujan only harbored more and more questions. "It was.. us.. but we just wanted a world where everyone was content!" Uno insisted. "While you just lock up those that didn't agree?" Rujan hissed. "I don't even know why you were locked up!" Not everyone was innocent. Or so Uno told himself. "It doesn't matter. I speak for everyone who was put through that hell. You wanted us out of the way, Lord. No more. You wont talk your way out of this!"

"Very well." It looked like the duel would continue, Uno could only summon one monster thanks to the Kaiser Colosseum. Rujan controlled one monster, Mecha Dogoran the Kaiju hunting Warmachine(8/3000/0), and Uno was not allowed to have more than his opponent. "Unless.." Uno took a monster from his hand. "I summon Timebreaker Magician!" The crowned temporal swordsman(3/1400/0) claimed the monsterzone. "Until my next turn, Timebreaker Magician can banish himself and one other monster! He will banish Mecha-Dogoran!" Timebreaker spun his sword in a clockwise direction, opening a gateway to the future. "What!? Tch!" Rujan activated a continuous trap. "Kaiju Capturing Mission! I can switch my Kaiju to face-down defense position to create a Kaiju Counter!" The Mechanic Kaiju was flipped down before it disappeared into the future dimension with Timebreaker. "I don't know why you did that but.. I do know that Kaiser Colosseum only counts when you're actually using monsters!" Rujan controlled nothing now, so Uno could have as many monsters as he wanted.

"Pendulum summon! Odd-Eyes, Lizardraw, Uni!" Performapal Camelump (scale 2) and Performapal Odd-Eyes Unicorn (scale 8) resurrected two pendulum monsters from the extra deck, the odd-eyed dragon(7/2500/2000) and the lizard gentleman(3/1200/600). Uno also pendulum summoned the playgirl dancer Performapal Uni(3/800/1500) from his hand. "When Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon attacks, Odd-Eyes Unicorn can add give it the attackpower of another Performapal on the field!" Lizardraw jumped on the dragons back and channeled his power into the dragon(3700/2000) through the Unicorns horn. "Rujan, I attack directly!" Both the dragon and the lizard rushed to the other side of the arena and crashed into the prison duelist. "You.." And after that Performapal Uni declared her own attack, blowing heart bubbles at Rujan with a kiss. "No matter what monsters you use, you will always be a monster."

Rujans LP: 1700

"And.. I will not give up. You wont put me back!" Rujan drew his card. "Gameciel!" Since Kyoutou Waterfront still contained more than three Kaiju counters, Rujan could add a second Gameciel Kaiju monster to his hand with the spells effect. He also activated a Trade In spell, discarding a level 8 Gameciel to draw two cards. "Grrgh." Regrettably, this did not bring him what he needed to restart the Kaiju lock. There was but one solution. "...When Kaiju Files has three counters on it, it can selfdestruct to take a Kaiju spell or trap from my deck." The continuous spell broke down, for another spell. "I take this one, Interrupted Kaiju Slumber! Once I play this; two Kaiju will be special summoned from my deck to each side of the field, after all previous monsters are destroyed!" Odd-Eyes and the Performapal brigade were cast out of the arena as the floor cracked open. Two titanic beings fought each other and reached the surface. "Hey!?" Uno was given Mecha-Dogoran the warmachine(8/0/0). "No attackpoints?!" Uno's graveyard was Kaiju-free, so there was nothing to give power to the mechanical Kaiju slayer. On the other side, Rujan could special summon his new monster. "Jizukiru Jizukiru the Stardestroying Kaiju! Attack Mecha-Dogoran!" Jizukiru, a metallic space dragon(10/3300/2600) flew up high and hovered over Uno. "Tsk." The space-kaiju bombarded Mecha-Dogoran until nothing but slagged metal remained.

Uno's LP: 2100

"You are behind me again, where you belong!" Rujan placed another trap card down on his field. "And you wont get another chance to catch up! This is the end for you, Lord!" He reactivated his first trap, Kaiju Capture Mission. "I target Jizukiru to switch it to face-down defense position! But when Jizukiru is targeted by a card effect. It can remove three Kaiju Counters from the field to negate that effect, and destroy one card on the field! I will take one counter from Capture Mission and two from Kyoutou Waterfront!" The spatial monster blocked the traps capture nets and fired a shot from its cannon claws. "That pendulum is what I want to see in ruins, Performapal Camelump!" The laserbeams hit the camel performapal and popped it like a balloon. "I end my turn!" When the turn moved back to Uno, Timebreaker Magician and the first Mecha-Dogoran Kaiju returned to the field. "So that's why you switched your monsters position." Uno noticed Kaiju monsters did not mind each other if one was face-down. But Mecha-Dogoran was helpless in defense mode, which was probably why Rujan wanted to get rid of Camelump with its defense piercing effects.

"Is the duel the only thing you can talk to me about, Lord? You are avoiding everything else!" Rujan roared. "Maybe I am. But it's the quickest way I can solve this solution! You challenged me, remember?!" Rujan didn't want to talk, this is what he would get. "I challenged you to show the world your true face! I wont just 'card' you when I win, Lord! I will get you to confess your sins to the whole world!" The man claimed, sweat coming down his forehead. "But what about after that, Rujan? What will happen to you?" Uno did not think he had thought his plan all the way through. "I.. I don't care!" He countered. "I think you do." Uno looked at his card. "I reactivate Timebreaker Magician!" The wielder of the time sword opened another gateway to the future of the next turn and targeted Jizukiru. "Did you already forget?" But Jizukiru countered the effect with its own effect. It removed three of Kyoutou Waterfront's five Kaiju counters to negate Timebreaker's power and to destroy the magician at the same time. "Or do you want to forget?"

"Trust me. Forgetting is not something I want to be good at. My dear brother disagreed... I activate Performapal Monkeyboard!" Camelumps former pendulum zone was now that of the keyboard monkey (scale 1). "When I activate Monkeyboard I can add one performapal monster to my hand!" Uno added a Performapal Trump Girl monster to his hand. And the pendulums were back in business. "You have two monsters, so that's how many I will pendulum summon! Come out, Odd-Eyes and Lizardraw! Fight the Kaiju!" His lizard and dragon pair returned, ready to launch another combo attack with the help of the Odd-eyed Unicorn. "But you are repeating yourself! You're taking me lightly!" Rujan activated his traps as the battle phase began. Kaiju Capture Mission flipped Jizukiru to face-down defense position, while a new trap flipped up. "Hero Switch! We both have the same number of monsters on the field! So yours will be switched with mine!" The face-down Jizukiru and Mecha-Dogoran switched places with Lizardraw and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. "This will not end before I say it does!"

"Ack." Uno couldn't very well use his battle phase with just face-down monsters. At least he could flip Jizukiru back face-up during the second main phase. Jizukiru had a shot at using its effect now. Mecha-Dogoran on the other hand was better off in defense mode. "Rujan. You have to believe me. The longer we fight, the closer my brother gets to what he wants. I admit that I did not always make the best mistakes, but I am not your enemy right now!" Uno pleaded, while he placed a trap card down and ended his turn. "You're all the enemy! I am just getting rid of the ones I can see!" Rujan started his turn. He used Kyoutou Waterfront's effect, with its four Kaiju Counters, to add a Kaiju to his hand that Uno hadn't seen yet. "Since you control a Kaiju, I can summon Thunderking the Lightning Strike Kaiju!" The clouds rumbled, and a bolt of lightning impacted with the Colosseum floor. Thunder King the three-serpentheaded dragon(9/3300/2100) spread its wings and shrieked at Uno's two monsters. "This monster can remove three Kaiju Counters from the field, to negate all your effects this turn! I.."

"I activate Performapal Showdown!" Uno was not going to wait around for that. "I flip cards face-down, one for each spell I control!" The Showdown trap paired off his two pendulum spells; Monkeyboard and Odd-Eyes Unicorn, against Thunder King and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. The two monsters were set face-down. "You.. " Rujan slammed a spell on his dueldisk. "Owners Seal! Control of all monsters turns back to their master!" The face-down Odd-Eyes and Performapal Lizardraw hovered back to Uno's side. "Oh?" But Jizukiru and the face-down Mecha-Dogoran appeared on Rujans side again. "Jizukiru attacks Lizardraw!" And Uno did not have enough lifepoints to survive a fight between the Performapal and the galactic Kaiju. "I banish two Performapals from my graveyard, Longphone Bull and Uni!" Fortunately he could activate Performapal Uni's effect from the graveyard. "Now I can't take damage from the first blow!" As Jizukiru destroyed Lizardraw, Uni reduced the battle damage to zero. "Why.. why won't you just accept it?" Rujan placed another trap card down on the field and gave control back to Uno.

"Because that would be the easy way out, Rujan. I can let it happen, I can let you take revenge, but that wont help anyone else. And it wont make you feel better in the long run either." Uno drew his card. "For.. a long time.. I only thought about the past. But now that I know what the future holds, I cannot dwell on what already happened. I can only own it... and learn from it." Uno normal summoned a monster, a little jester sorceress(2/400/400). "Performapal Trump Girl! When she's on the field, she can use herself and another monster as fusion materials! "First, I'll make an older mix! A spellcaster fused with the Odd-Eyes dragon creates Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" With his two monsters, Uno fusion summoned one of the dragons upgraded forms; the mystical gold-eyed Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon(8/3000/2000). "Rune-Eyes is unaffected by your card effects when he's fused with a pendulum summoned monster! And now!" Uno raised one card from his hand. "A pendulum summon!" As always, fusion matertial pendulum monsters went to the extra deck

"Are you learning from the past? Then what is this now?" Rujan reactivated Kaiju Capture Mission and targeted Jizukiru. "I negate my own trap's effect, to destroy your pendulum again!" Jizukiru took two Kaiju counters from Kyoutou Waterfront to countered Uno's move. Monkeyboard was destroyed before it could resolve. "That? Oh, just some misdirection." Uno set yet another pendulum from his hand; Performapal Le-Bellman the bellheaded bellhop(scale 1). "Pendulum summon!" Since Kaiser Colosseum's limit was now raised to three, Uno could summon Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Performapal Trump Girl right back to the field.

"One Performapal and one Odd-Eyes, together that makes Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon!" The performer and the dragon were melded together in her magical fusion vortex. "Vortex returns one monster in attack position back to the players deck!" The green dragon(8/2500/3000) escaped the vortex and redirected the winds towards Jizukiru. "No!" Rujan tried to chain to that effect by removing two more counters from Kyoutou Waterfront to activate Jizukiru's destruction effect. "Yes!" Uno countered with his fusions second effect. Odd-Eyes Vortex returned a pendulum (Performapal Lizardraw) from the extra deck to the main deck, and blocked the effect of Jizukiru alltogether. "Rujan. My two monsters against yours; lets fight!" Uno started the battle phase. "Rune-eyes can attack twice if a level four or lower spellcaster was used as his fusion material!" The dark dragon fired two beams of holy light from the golden halo on its back. It destroyed the face-down Mecha-Dogoran and Thunderking Kaiju. "And Odd-Eyes Vortex will attack directly!" The dragons whirlwind closed in on Rujan and dragged him up before slamming back to the bottom of the arena "Ghff!"

Rujans LP: 0

"My lord!" The enforcers rushed in the second the duel was decided. "Hey..." Uno'd forgotten his own audience, that's how caught up in the duel he was. In fact there was a pretty sizeable crowd gathered now; factory workers and the city's most wealthy occupants stood on or around the bridge to observe his duel. He could hear them talk, express worry and confusion about this mysterious duelist. Heh. If you are all wondering, I can tell you one thing. I am the infamous Lord. My name is Christopher Fortuno Nisell, and I created Millennium." The buzzing evolved into an onslaught of questions once Uno gave them that tidbit. "Please. I can answer everything in due time, but I have a situation I need to fix first. For now just know that I have your best interests at heart. That man you saw on the screen was right about one thing.. the way things are now has to change. And I will change them."

"Ghh.. guh.. trying to unburden your conscience?" Rujan writhed on the ground, the holograms of his own fighting arena disappearing finally and left him with nothing but his anger. "He's still a threat." One enforcer grunted and he reached for his dueldisk. "No. Stop." Uno blocked the man. "Take his dueldisk away, but do not card him." He ordered. "But my lord." The others gave a few words of resistance. "What was this man in prison for anyway?" Uno countered him with a question. "Oh.. uhm. His records state that he was arrested for brutality during a protest rally." The enforcer admitted. "I see. Well, we are not going to send him back to the monument. In fact I want to start a re-evaluation of everyone who was incarcerated. Starting with him and the others in the palace." He trusted his men to obey, and he gave his opponent one last look. "I think I know what pushed you this far, Rujan. It's not up to me to judge you, though. I just hope, that I can make things right for you too." He nodded to him and took his crystal to warp away from the bridge.

...

When Uno got back to the throne room he found a few more people waiting there. "I can't believe you did that without even telling us!" Iria, Zach, Dom, Adamant, the Travelers and even Alice were gathered there now. "What if something happened to you?" Some were concerned, others were angered. "Guys. Guys. I know you're worried. But this was something I had to do too. And it all worked out." He tried to ease their anxiousness with a smile. "you couldn't have known that, uno. you never learn." Anastasia moaned. "So this is the kind of world you've created eh, Tempus junior?" August chuckled. "Tempus Junior? Is that what you're going with now?" Uno almost preferred 'Christopher' or 'Fortuno' over that. "Well I think it shows strength to want to change that. I know you really want it and are not just putting on a show for once. But there ya go." June shrugged. "Even so, he wasted his time and we nearly lost his pendulum!"

"Yeah. I'm really sorry. I guess I played into Marco's hands after all. Hopefully not for as long as he expected... I dont suppose network security managed to trace the source of that video or anything?" He asked the room. "No, the video came from the network and the source was lost. Likely a dueldisk that they destroyed by now." Adamant concluded. "Well he did something while I was distracted, or else he wouldn't have bothered. We'll just need to find him. I suppose that's what everyone is here for." Now was the time to see who would stay and who would go into the lions den with him. "The six of us should be enough for the raid." Iria explained while Dom started counting his fingers. "Iria, I think I count seven." He stopped at himself, as he did not count Anastasia. "That is because I think you should stay behind sir. For your own safety." She replied. "What!? Outrageous! Did you agree with that Zachary?" Zach solemnly nodded. "I will to go in your stead, sir. I am in your debt, and I do not want to use my own misfortunes as an excuse for idleness." Dom looked long at his disciple. "Well alright, you two convinced me. I'll monitor this from afar. That's also fun!"

"So who shall lead us into the base?" June asked. "Uh. We don't really do leaders, we just work as a team. We may not be mindreaders, but we've done alright so far." Uno recalled her groups usual interactions with their leader December less than fondly, but kept those thoughts to himself. "There are merits to leadership, it might be necessary to have someone take charge to prevent some from going off on their own." Adamant said and he made sure August noticed that his glare. "I guess that's true. Okay them you can lead us." Uno proposed happily. "You choose him?" August twitched. "Of course. He's been a leader, he knows how to coordinate duelists and he knows half of the people were are going to fight." It was not just the Fusion guild that was their opponent, Ichirou and the XYZ-guild were part of it as well. "Then I shall do so. But do not see me as a commander." Those days were behind him.

"Well, if Adamant is going. I am too!" Alice raised her voice. "Alice, are you sure? What did your dad say?" Uno was hesitant to let her come along. "Dad... is still sleeping. But we don't have time to ask him, do we?" She sounded sure of herself. "Let her come. I think she's proven herself." Adamant stood by her. "Aw, I can't say no to more friends. Alright, Alice. Just stay close to me and Adamant." Alice nodded fiercely to Uno's words. "The time-displaced girl is tagging along too now? Tch. Can we at least get a move on? We have wasted enough time!" The red duelist was at the end of his patience. "Yes yes. Uno can you come here?" June beckoned the lord. "I am going to give you the images I took from Martels mind. Focus on what you see and you will find the way into their base." She placed her hand on his forehead. "oooohkay. Do I need to close my eyes or.." Uno barely had time to prepare, he saw a dozen images run through his head. "Ow. Think I got it!" He pulled back. "Ana, Dom. Hold the fort while we're gone."

"Can do!" Dom waved them off. "goodbye.." Anastasia slowly lifted her hand. "We'll be back." Uno touched the pendulum crystal, and whisked the seven duelists away.

(To be Continued in Redux 026: Worst Case Scenario)

New Cards used by Uno Nisell
Performapal Le-Bellman

New Cards used by Rujan
Jizukiru, the Star Destroying Kaiju
Thunder King, the Lightningstrike Kaiju

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Trade In
Interrupted Kaiju Slumber
Owner's Seal

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Kaiju Capture Mission
Switch Hero