Author's Note: It seems I may have exaggerated a bit when I said we were approaching the climax of this story. That climax is just around the corner, but there's still a good chunk of this story to go.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.

Chapter 15: The Final Night

The sun at almost completely set on Heartland, bringing an end to another day. The final night before the last day to save Yuma from a cruel fate had come. After their little encounter with Samantha, Kotori and Kaito immediately headed to Heartland Tower. Once there, they met up with Droite, Vector and Alit. As soon as everyone had gathered in the lab, they all caught each other up on what had happened with Mr. Gizmo, Moe and Samantha.

"Okay. Well the good news seems to be that Mitaka is out of followers." Kaito told the others. "Assuming of course that Moe Chiba was the last girl working for her."

"You're all welcome, by the way." Vector cut in.

"The bad news though is that we're about out of time." Kaito continued. "According to Mitaka, unless something is done, Yuma will be dead by tomorrow afternoon."

"So in other words, we can't waste any more time." Alit observed.

At that, Kaito nodded and reached into his pocket. The item he pulled out was a small transparent geometric item with a blue sphere inside it. Kaito handed the object to Kotori.

"What is this?" Kotori asked.

"A sphere field cube I just finished working on." The photon duelist answered. "It's based on the Barian Sphere Cubes the Barian Emperors used, only it uses the power of Astral World."

"You want Kotori to duel Mitaka inside that thing?" Vector asked.

"The cube wasn't created for use in a duel." Kaito answered. "I was made to provide a space for Yuma and Kotori to be alone."

At this, Kotori's face turned a bit red. "You mean I'm supposed to get Yuma into this sphere field so we can…?"

"Exactly." Kaito confirmed before Kotori finished. "That field might be the only place where Mitaka or the other Death Queens can't get to you. They're Barians, which means theoretically they shouldn't be able to enter the field. Plus since Yuma seems to be technically of Astral World, the field might have a healing effect on him."

"But… aren't sphere fields transparent?" Kotori asked, her face turning redder. "I mean everyone could see Yuma's duel with Tron, not mention his duels with Mizael, Alit and Gilag."

"Don't worry. I've got that covered." Kaito assured her. "I've added a light barrier to the field to make it impossible for anyone to see inside it. No offense, but I certainly don't want to see whatever you and Yuma end up doing inside that thing."

"Neither do I." Droite agreed.

"Affirmative." Orbital 7 responded.

"Same here." Alit replied.

"You're preaching to the choir." Vector spoke.

"The light barrier should also theoretically provide an extra layer of protection against Mitaka." Kaito continued. "Bottom line, this sphere should be able to protect you and Yuma for at least several minutes."

"Oh, okay." Kotori replied. "…Um, is this sphere field also soundproof?"

This time it was Kaito's face that turned red. "Oh… uh, I'm not sure actually. To be honest I didn't take that pert into account. Though the light barrier I added should be able to block sound, theoretically at least."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Droite told Kotori as she placed a hand on her shoulder. "For right now, you should go home and get some rest. Tomorrow's the weekend, so we'll spread out and find Yuma."

"Yeah, okay." Kotori replied as she pocketed the sphere cube. "I'll see you guys tomorrow then, I guess."

With that, Kotori left the lab to head for home. Alit and Vector left soon after while Orbital 7 went to go take care of something.

"I sure hope Kotori will be up to what she has to do tomorrow." Kaito spoke.

"Well I'm sure she has the worst kind of performance anxiety imaginable." Droite assumed. "But she'll be able to go through with it. After all, she's doing it to save Yuma's life."

The last rays of the sun had only just departed as Anna headed towards Yuma's house. When she got to the door, she immediately rang the bell. The person who answered was a young woman with long red hair tied in a ponytail. Anna quickly deduced that the young woman was most likely Yuma's older sister, Akari, who he had mentioned during one of their dates.

"Can I help you?" Akari asked.

"I'm here to see Yuma. Is he in?" Anna asked.

"Sure, though he says he's not feeling all that great tonight." Akari replied as she stepped aside to allow Anna to come in. "He must've caught some kind of bug going around or something."

"I hope he's okay." Anna responded.

"Hey Yuma! One of your friends is here to see you!" Akari called up.

As Akari left the room, Yuma headed down the stairs looking like he had just woken up from a long nap. He became wide-awake though as soon as he saw Anna waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey Anna." Yuma greeted as he came down. "What brings you here?"

"Can't a girl just stop by and surprise her boyfriend?" Anna asked.

"Uh… yeah, about that." Yuma began as he looked away and rubbed the back of his head. "Anna, I think you and I need to have a talk."

"A talk?" Anna repeated as she suddenly got a bad feeling. "About what?"

"Well, you see… I do like you Anna." Yuma began. "You're fun to be around and all, but… I just don't like you in that way."

"You're… you're breaking up with me?" Anna realized.

"Yeah… I guess I am." Yuma confirmed. "Sorry 'bout this."

"It's because of her, isn't it?" Anna yelled. "That green-haired tramp, Kotori!"

"Uh, well…" Yuma began.

Before Yuma could finish, Anna punched him in the eye with enough force to knock him onto his butt. The furious redhead then turned on her heel and stormed out, slamming the door behind her. As Yuma sat up, Akari ran back into the room.

"What the hell's going on?" Akari asked.

"I just dumped my girlfriend." Yuma answered.

"You were dating that girl?" Akari asked with a raised eyebrow.

"For the last couple days, but it was nothing serious." Yuma replied. "She has kind of a temper."

"Oh. You're probably better off then." Akari told him.

"There's… actually someone else I'm interested in anyway." Yuma admitted. "This other girl at my school named Kotori. I don't really know her all that well, but I kinda got this crush on her."

"Huh… weird." Akari responded.

"What?" Yuma asked.

"Nothing. It just sticks in my mind that you knew some girl named Kotori when you were real little." Akari recalled. "Then again, maybe I'm just imagining things."

"Well, whatever." Yuma replied as he stood back up. "I'm going back to my room."

"You feeling any better?" Akari asked.

"A little." Yuma answered as he headed up the stairs. "I'm sure I'll be a hundred percent in the morning."

"Okay. Well let me know if you need anything." Akari told him.

"Roger." Yuma responded. And with that, he continued up the stairs.

Samantha wandered aimlessly through the streets of Heartland trying to figure out her next course of action. It seemed like she would have to get rid of Kotori herself, but there was also the problem of Kaito and the others. Samantha was fresh out of coven members, and though she and her followers had seduced and brainwashed a good number of male duelists during her time in the city, none of them were likely to be a match against duelists at the level of Kaito and the others. At the most, those duelists could probably only serve as cannon fodder. It seemed to Samantha like she was fresh out of options.

As Samantha walked, she accidentally bumped into the back of a man in a black leather jacket. The man turned around and Samantha let out a small gasp when she saw his face. He had tan skin and reddish-brown hair with a large patch of yellow on the front. Beneath one of his eyes was a long vertical scar. Samantha didn't know how it was possible, but the young man looked like someone from her past life, someone who was very significant.

"A-Adam?" Samantha spoke. "Is that really you?"

"Sorry, but I think you've got me mixed up with someone else." The young man replied. "The name's Thomas. Thomas Arclight."

"Oh… yeah, sorry. I don't know what I was thinking." Samantha replied. Suddenly she recalled something about the name the young man had told her. "Wait. Aren't you that duelist known as IV?"

"I've kind of stopped calling myself that, but yeah." Thomas confirmed. "You a fan?"

A small smile formed on Samantha's face as a new idea popped into her head. It seemed that the solution to all her problems had just presented itself to her.

"Why yes I am." Samantha lied. "You're probably one of the best duelists I've ever seen."

"Thanks." Thomas replied.

"So do you live around here in the city?" Samantha asked.

"Yeah. I was actually just heading for my apartment." Thomas revealed. "This might sound kinda weird, but would you like to come with me?"

The redhead's small smile turned into a large grin. Everything was going exactly the way she wanted it to.

"I'd be delighted!" Samantha told Thomas as she took hold of his arm.

In a few minutes, Samantha and Thomas arrived at the rather classy apartment building where Thomas lived. Thomas' apartment was on the top floor and had a large deck that gave a breath-taking view of the city. Samantha made herself at home on the couch while Thomas went into the kitchen to get her something to drink. The whole time, the redhead couldn't stop thinking about how much Thomas looked like that young man from her past. It was brining back some very unpleasant memories for her, and if it were up to her she'd have nothing more to do with Thomas. But the fact was she needed Thomas as a pawn to get rid of Kotori.

"Here you go." Thomas spoke as he returned and handed Samantha a glass before sitting on the couch next to her. "So you called me by another name before. If you don't mind me asking, who was this Adam?"

"Well…" Samantha rather hesitantly began, "I guess you could say he's my ex-boyfriend. He and I ended up being very close. I was sure I was even going to marry him one day. But in the end he betrayed me and wound up with the bitch who called herself my best friend."

"Sorry to hear about that." Thomas told her.

"It was a long time ago." Samantha bitterly replied. "I was young and foolish back then. Just a small-town girl who had no clue about how this world really works."

"If it helps, I've recently had my heart crushed too." Thomas revealed.

"Oh?" a very interested Samantha asked. "What happened?"

"This girl I was interested in for the past couple of years ended up with someone else." Thomas answered. "I didn't even get the chance to tell her how I really felt about her."

"So some guy swept her out from under you, huh?" Samantha assumed.

"Actually it was another girl." Thomas revealed. "Guess this means I never had a chance with her to begin with."

Inside Samantha was doing a little victory dance. She knew that the girl Thomas was probably talking about was Rio Kamishiro, who had recently become romantically involved with Cleo Atlas, one of the Signers. This meant that Thomas didn't just have a broken heart; he was probably emasculated as well. Bending him to her will was going to be like taking candy from a baby. The fact that Thomas looked like Adam was throwing the redhead off her game a little bit, but she was still in total control.

"You poor guy." Samantha spoke as she put her hand on Thomas' leg. "You must be going through a rough time right now, huh?"

"I thought the tournament I've just come back from would've taken my mind of things. But it didn't." Thomas replied.

Samantha took hold of Thomas' chin and gently turned his head to stare into his eyes. Thomas felt himself becoming lost in the redhead's gaze. Samantha moved in and kissed the puppet duelist hard on the lips. Their mouths opened and soon their tongues began to grind against one another. When they finally broke for air, Samantha got up from the couch and began to head for Thomas' bedroom. She paused, looked back at him and removed her shirt, carelessly tossing it away onto the floor. Thomas blushed upon seeing that the redhead wasn't wearing a bra.

In moments Samantha was in Thomas' room and had stripped down completely before waiting on his bed. Samantha found that she was feeling a sort of excitement, though she didn't know why. This seduction was no different than any other she had done. At last Thomas walked into the room wearing only his grey jeans. Samantha found her breath taken away by the sight of Thomas' bare well-muscled chest. Her heart started to beat faster as the excitement she was feeling grew.

Thomas undid his belt and pulled down his pants and boxers in one move, freeing his hardened erection. Samantha found herself blushing at the size of it, but she was at a loss as to why. Some of the other young men she had conquered in the past were just as well endowed as Thomas was, so there was no reason for her to be getting so excited. Thomas walked over to the bed and gave Samantha another passionate kiss on the lips. The redhead let out a deep moan as Thomas slipped his tongue into her mouth.

They rolled on the bed until Samantha was on top. The redhead sat up and moaned softly as she slid Thomas' rock-hard manhood into her. She began to rock her hips at a very gentle pace. Samantha tried transforming to her true form to begin bending Thomas to her will, but there was something holding her back. Suddenly Thomas flipped Samantha onto her back and pushed himself up with his arms. He began plowing into Samantha hard, and the redhead found herself feeling a kind of pleasure she had not experienced before.

Samantha wrapped her legs around Thomas' waist and reached under his arms to hold onto his shoulders. Thomas took this action as a signal to plunge into Samantha harder and deeper, causing her to moan and throw her head back. Samantha felt almost as though her body was on fire, it was a good kind of fire. The heat she felt was nothing like the pain of being burned alive, the pain she felt at the end of her past life. An eternity seemed to go by before the two of them finally climaxed at the same moment. Thomas withdrew himself and rolled back onto the bed. The two of them looked up at the ceiling as they caught their breath.

"That… that was unlike anything I've ever felt before." Samantha breathlessly spoke.

After a few moments, a cocky smirk appeared on Thomas' face and he pulled Samantha in for another deep kiss. The kiss did not last long though and Thomas began to suck on the redhead's neck, digging his teeth into her skin. Samantha let out another moan and dug her nails into Thomas' back. After a few more moments of this, Thomas got onto his knees and pulled Samantha to her knees as well. With Samantha facing away from him, he pushed her forward so she was using her arms to support herself with the headboard.

Thomas shoved his re-hardened manhood into Samantha's rear end, causing her eyes to shoot wide open. Samantha felt almost as if she was paralyzed as Thomas plowed into her, but it wasn't simply a paralysis due to pleasure. She was at the mercy of some other feeling that was familiar to her but couldn't name. For the first time she could remember, Samantha was not the one in control, and a part of her liked it very much. After a while Thomas pushed into her harder and reach under to push two fingers into Samantha's moist womanhood. Samantha felt almost as though she would lose her mind if she didn't climax soon.

At long last though, the two of them reached their peak at the same moment. Thomas withdrew himself and collapsed onto the bed, seeming to doze off in an instant. Samantha remained where she was for a moment and looked down at him. She was taken completely away by how much Thomas looked like Adam, the young man who had stolen her heart in her past life. Samantha reached down to stroke Thomas's cheek but stopped half way. In that instant she suddenly realized what the other feeling that had overtaken her before was and became disgusted. It was the feeling that humans called love.

Regaining her sanity, Samantha quietly and quickly gathered her clothes and left the apartment. A few short minutes later she was back outside the apartment building. The cool breeze felt good against her still burning-hot skin. Samantha walked away from the apartment building as quickly as she could. She was appalled that she had let herself be swayed by memories from her past life. All her encounter had done was stir up old feelings that she thought were long dead.

"And here I thought I'd completely gotten rid of that stupid little village girl." Samantha spoke. "How pathetic."

Samantha kept on walking for several more minutes, not paying any attention to where she was going. The redhead ended up bumping up against Anna, who at that moment was heading in the opposite direction.

"Hey! Watch it!" Anna told her, almost shouting.

"Sorry." Samantha told her. "I didn't see you there."

"You've got eyes, don't you?" Anna shouted. "Why don't you use them, you dumb bitch?"

"Hey! Lay off!" Samantha shot back. "I'm not in a good mood right now."

"Yeah? Well neither am I!" Anna told her. "My boyfriend, Yuma just dumped me!"

Samantha let out a startled gasp. "Did… did you say Yuma? As in Yuma Tsukumo?"

"Yeah? That's him." Anna admitted. "Hey! What business is it of yours?"

All the color completely drained from Samantha's face. With all that had been going on, she had been completely oblivious to Yuma going out with Anna. This sort of development had never occurred to Samantha during her plans. While Yuma was at least moderately attractive, it never occurred to Samantha that anyone besides Kotori or the somewhat desperate and damaged girls she had recruited into her coven would even bother with Yuma in that way.

"So… you and Yuma were really going out." Samantha spoke.

"We were, but he just dumped me!" Anna loudly repeated. "He left me for that little tramp, Kotori!"

A sinister grin quickly formed on Samantha's face upon hearing this. What could've been a very costly oversight on her part had just turned into the very solution she had been looking for.

"I think you and I got off on the wrong foot." Samantha told her. "I'm Samantha, but you can call me Sammy. And you are?"

"…Anna." The furious redhead answered after a moment.

"Anna, you and I have a lot to talk about." Samantha told her as she put her hand on her shoulder. "Particularly about a certain birdie-girl we both want dead."

Author's Note: This chapter ended up serving three purposes. The first was to show the breakup between Yuma and Anna. The second was to drop a few hints about Mitaka's past life. The third and most important purpose though was to try and fill the little plot hole about why Mitaka hadn't done anything about stopping Anna from getting her hooks into Yuma (or trying to). Anyway, the action is just going to heat up from here.

Please review and let me know what you think.