Chapter 12
Crossroads

He stroked her honey-colored locks lovingly. But deep inside, he knew the one lying against his lap was not his. He pushed his conscious away. This Alexis was his, he'll fight for her if he has too, but then again, he knew he would eventually. His other self will come to this world with the help of the Guardians. He'll be dragging his friends with him and in this reality, he would have the advantage. He'll win the keys from the remaining Data holders and unite the realities at long last.
But through his thoughts, there was a faint voice asking him. Was this all right? Was the violence, death and ruin all worth it? Zane grimaced at his conflicted thinking.

All the damage inflicted… it'll all be repaid a hundred fold for everyone…

He shook his head, careful not to wake the dozing Alexis up. He started to shift his hand towards her's in uneven movements. Just a centimeter away, he hesitated, then withdrew it. He sighed and rubbed his face with the same hand.
Can't be mine… Not unless he dies first.

She'll be devastated.

We're the same person.

Memories shape out who you are.

Zane bent over in the opposite direction in self-defeat. This wasn't right. It wasn't supposed to be like this. He got up. Moments ago, he longed to hold her hand, now he just couldn't stand her presence. He stood up slowly, he still didn't want to wake her, then walked over to the door and opened it slightly. The door closed again with a soft click and he was gone.

- - - - - - - - -

"You're being awfully gentle, now aren't you?" Aries jeered, his ink black hair concealing his eyes. He was leaning against the wall in the corridor leading from Alexis's prison. Zane walked past him, not paying any attention to his remark. Aries straightened up and followed him with quick steps.
"Why're you being so nice to her? Just be straight forward, duel, kill her and take her key. Yeah, another person dies. Big deal."
Zane stopped in his tracks. Aries stopped as well. "Excuse me?" He said quietly. His pitch didn't hide the fact that there was venom behind his words.
Aries glared at the back of his teal head since the other didn't turn to face him. He almost spat at him. "You heard me. You're slowing down the process. If you want to fufill your goal, she's going to have to die. Stop being so soft and take her out already!"
"Process…" Zane echoed dangerously. Aries expected a violent blow to the head but stood his ground. The man in front of him disgusted him. He was letting emotion get in the way,

However, whatever reaction he had expected from the other did not come. Instead, he grunted and continued his way indifferently. "Aries-" He jumped at the sudden mention of his name. "-This is an order. I want you to find the others and take them all out except for… my counterpart or however you want to refer him as. Got it? They're in this world, I can feel it. And you better not screw up."

Aries rolled his eyes at his authority. "Yeah, sure whatever. But my hard work better not be in vain, or else…" he threatened despite the darker aura he had started to feel. He turned and vanished on the spot, leaving a trail of black smoke that quickly faded off.

- - - - - - - - -

When he regained consciousness, the first thought that ran through his mind was, "Why the hell does this always have to happen when we enter a different world?"
Aster rubbed his pained head in annoyance. He looked around to find Jaden was sprawled on the ground, and he seemed to be simply snoozing instead of being knocked out. Aster placed his hand on his shoulder and vigorously shook him awake.
"Yo, wake up… Not the time to be sleeping, Jaden!" With a start, he awoke.

"A-wah?" He muttered dully. He rubbed his eyes clear and looked around instinctively. They were surrounded with nothing but sand and dunes. They remembered they were in a high ceiling room when Zane said something about a gate. Then they pulled out their keys and...
"Er… Where's Zane?" Jaden asked slowly, nervous that Aster will flame him for his slacking.

Aster narrowed his sapphire eyes as he scanned the horizon. "Not with us. Probably walked off without us, that idiot."

Jaden shook his head and pointed. "No footsteps. Maybe he was transported to some other place."

The other shrugged. "Oh whatever. We better start doing something, like look for the guy who's behind this. We might find Zane along the way."

Jaden agreed. "Yeah, think he'll be okay?"

"If he doesn't kill himself. Yeah sure, it's Zane we're talking about. Why not?" That didn't really help the dual brunette's worries.

He looked down. "Uhm, Aster, since when did we bring along duel disks?" He gestured at his and Aster's arm. Indeed, the devices had somehow found their way to them. Their decks were neatly placed in the slot.
"You don't think-" He didn't finish. Instead, he drew a card. "Uh… I summon Elemental Hero Avian."

Jaden saw it coming. The familiar flash of yellow light came and his green E-hero appeared, brandishing his talons. "Oh wow," He admired at his own monster.

"There's probably a catch… Be careful." Aster advised. He decided against to test his new disk out. When Avian saw that there was no threat and that Jaden had no commands for him, he vanished in a duller flash of light. Jaden gingerly returned the card to his deck.

"The monsters are real here, then?" Jaden asked. Aster nodded slowly. "Yeah, more reason for us to be on our guard. This place is loaded with… you know." He didn't want to say the generic word.

There was a moment of silence before Jaden said out of the blue, "I hope Chazz isn't mad since we left him behind."

"I doubt it."

- - - - - - - -

"THOSE FREAKING IDIOTS!" Chazz screamed in frustration as his jeep hit a dip in the ground. He did not appreciate his organs being misplaced as he dunk in and out of the rough terrain. His instincts were telling him that the others had gone out without him. "'Stay here' my ass! Damn, damn, damn." When things couldn't get even more irritating, his three duel spirits appeared, hovering steadily beside his head despite the speed he was going at. Wonder how he hasn't flipped over the last time he hit a dip.

"What do you dorks want?" Chazz demanded through gritted teeth. They always had to appear when he least needed them. He fumed.
"It's bad for your karma to use bad language." Ojama said in a sing-song tone since his voice was far from musical. Green and Black echoed. "Bad you're your karma, bad for your karma!" Chazz refrained from smashing the spirits with his bare hands. He didn't want to lose control of the wheel.
"Okay guys, whatever. Now unless you want me to flip over, explode and die, I advise you all to shut up." To his surprise, they actually obeyed.

Well… Not for long.

"Why are you mad?" Ojama Yello asked, leaning over towards Chazz.

"Personal space please!" Chazz bellowed as he single handedly pushed the duel spirit away while keeping his eyes on the non-existent road. "I'm mad because... I don't know!" He was impatient. He had been driving for over ten minutes now. He strained his eyes to see through the scorching heat. Yet… In the distance he can made out a black dot. He made a violent turn (ignoring the cries of protest from the Ojamas) and headed in that general direction. As he neared, he noticed the dot was a jeep just like his, and there were three sets of footprints leading to a trap door.

Chazz slowed down to a safer speed then stopped, a small distance away from the other vehicle. He stumbled over the shifting sands but he finally made it to the old wooden trap door. "They're probably down here. There destination was underground after all," Chazz said to himself. He really didn't feel like paying any attention to the spirits.

Chazz knelt down to observe the padlock. To his surprise, it was locked. The outside of it was dusty with sand. He noticed that the shackle was slightly damaged where it was fastened at the handle of the doors. He looked at the cracks in the shackle carefully and noticed that they were fresh since it revealed a clean, dustless inside.

"Someone locked them in and they tried to break out…" Chazz concluded. He wasn't the type, but he couldn't help but worry about the five. "Well… Atticus was defeated. Man, Alexis, can't imagine how you must be feeling right now."

The Ojamas solemnly made no comment. Chazz stood up and lifted his foot over the lock. "Hopefully, they damaged the shackle enough for me to break it, here it comes." He brought down his foot with full force, successfully smashing apart the shackle with his heel. He kicked aside he pieces and grinned despite the situation.
He bent back down and swung open the doors to look inside. The harsh sunlight lit a reasonable amount, but the rest was still dark. "Tch, should of known..." He made his way back to the vehicle and pushed around junk, looking for something. "Could of sworn I packed one... Ah, here it is." With breath of relief, he took a black flashlight and stepped quickly to the underground entrance.

Chazz carefully put forward a foot and decided that the steps were stable enough. Halfway down, He looked towards the Ojamas who have been silent that whole time. "Well you guys coming?" They looked nervously at each other. Obviously, they weren't to keen on following Chazz through a dark, underground passageway. "Uh... We'll be right behind you, Chazz!" Ojama Yellow said.

"Whatever..." He muttered. Personally, he could do without their company. The stair came to an end and Chazz faced flat ground. He noticed a trail of footsteps leading onward. He assumed they were Jaden, Aster, and Zane's. He also noticed how the ground was slanting deeper and deeper and he hit flat floor again. The deeper he went through the tunnel, the thicker the air got.

Chazz grimaced as he came across the hole in the wall that Jaden made. An ancient-looking skeleton's mangled remains laid on the floor silently. Curiosity made him shine the flashlight though the hole. He cringed at the sight of even more dead remains. "Oh how I hate catacombs..." He didn't hesitate on moving forward. Chazz realized that he was alone. He didn't expect any of them to stay anyways.

He reached a fork and saw how the three sets of footprints split. "Im hoping they'll reach the same place eventually." He took the left way. Getting bored of the continuous walking, Chazz focused the light on the walls rather than ahead of him. He assumed that the runes carved into the walls was the same type from Aster's research. "It keeps on repeating..." He said, a little dissappointed. He was hoping for something exciting, something that'll make the whole situation make sense, even though he couldn't read any of it.

However, something did happen. Chazz quickened his pace as he saw a dim, flickering light up ahead. Trying his best to hide the sound of his footsteps, he backed himself against the dusty wall. He couldn't hear nor see any sign of activity. Judging it was safe, he walked into the torchlight.

Chazz gasped at the body of Atticus. He had been propped against the wall, his eyes closed. If it weren't for his paleness or bloodstained clothes and face, he might've looked like he was sleeping. Trembling slightly, he walked towards his friend and knelt down. "He's gone." He would've said more to himself, but the screen around his neck started to vibrate violently. He quickly grasped the key as it continued to shake. The guardian's voice echoed in his head.
Your friends... They were here. Quickly, I'll open the gate for you, you'll be able to find them from here.

Chazz blinked, contemplating the situation for a split second but he shook his head. "Uh alright..." He gave one last glance at Atticus's body and stood up. He walked towards the center of the room, the key still in his grasp. Immediately, it grew hot and he loosened his grip in panic. Close your eyes, it's important for you to not open them. No one can know what lies between realities.

He was confused but he obeyed none the less. He clenched his eyes shut. It took all his will not to open his eyes as he felt the ground vanish beneath him.

- - - - - - - - - -

Syrus stumbled over sand. He was quickly losing energy after wandering for what felt like hours now. The sky was dark, but he felt like he was burning up. Losing hope, he sat down on the spot, breathing deeply.

Suddenly, the surrounding area illuminated for a split second and he head a familiar scream up above his head. Syrus looked up for the source, not thinking that he should probably move out of the way. He had the little wind left in him knocked out as a body landed right on top of him.

"Ow... what the...?" Syrus groaned, craning the neck to see who it was. He blinked, was it really...? "Chazz?"

"Shrimp?" Chazz rolled of of Syrus and got up, rubbing the back of his head. "What are you doing here?"

Syrus struggled to get up. "I should be asking you the same thing. Did you just..." He looked up again to see if anyone else would be tumbling down.

Chazz followed his gaze. "Uh," he said. "Fall from the sky? I think so." He felt strangely disorientated and looked down at his left arm, he was surprised to find he was wearing a duel disk. Then he felt for the screen around his neck and let out a sigh of relief to feel that it was still there. "How long have you been here, Syrus?"

Chazz noticed that he was still recovering from the sudden collision. "I don't know... It feels like days. I'm losing track of time in this place... Come to think of it, do you know where we are?"

"I was sort of hoping that you knew. But since you were kidnapped and all... You know, Zane's really worried right now but I'm not sure where he and rest are."

Syrus was a little confused. "Zane... He was with me... I don't know, a day ago? But he just suddenly disappeared."

Chazz looked at him. "Really? You sure about that? He was supposed to have entered this place... thirty minutes ago..." He said the last few words slowly. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Er, what?" Syrus asked nervously. He didn't like the look Chazz was giving him.

"Uh, nothing." He felt a disturbance. Something bad was going to happen. He was feeling that something was just about to attack.

And he was right.

"Oh, look who I've found."
Chazz wheeled around, looking for the source of the snide voice. "Behind you."

He turned around rapidly in time to see that a black-haired figure had single handedly grabbed Syrus by the hair and flung him yards away. Chazz quickly took several steps back. The figure turned to face him, his emerald eyes glinting in a sinister way. He smirked. "Yo, I'm Aries, and I'm here to take your little trinket." He pointed at Chazz's chest where the key lay still.

"Not without a duel," Chazz growled. He activated his disk. He twitched as the guy called Aries laughed. He didn't like the sound of it but he shook off his discomfort.

Aries did the same. "Of course. Now, I'll take it easy. You go first."

Chazz glared at his opponent and drew his sixth card. "Alright, here I go. I summon Masked Dragon in attack mode and set one card face-down. That'll be it for now."

Aries scanned his hand for a moment. "I summon Spear Dragon. Since I haven't drawn a card yet, I'll think I'll attack. Go, and destroy that Masked Dragon!" Chazz braced himself as his monster was pierced and destroyed. He let out a cry of pain as the resulting wind cut into his skin. He had forgotten that these duels would still inflict physical pain.

Quickly recovering, Chazz flipped over his trap. "I activate Gravehole of Revival. Normally this would let both of us bring back a monster from out graveyards, but since you have none, it'll be just me. I bring back masked dragon!" A flash of light, and his monster returned to the field in defense position. "Also, that isn't it, since you destroyed Masked Dragon earlier, I get to activate his special ability to summon a dragon from my deck." He slipped out his deck and searched through it, selected a card before shuffling the deck and returning t back to the slot. He inserted the card in one of this monster slots. "I summon Armed Dragon Level 3!" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Syrus observing the duel intently.

However, Aries seemed unmoved by Chazz's comeback. "Whatever, I lay two face-downs and end my turn."

Chazz drew a card, this guy seemed straightforward. I shouldn't have a problem with beating him... "I play the magic card, Dragon's gunfire. Thanks to this one, I'll be able to get rid of your Spear Dragon!" His Armed dragon opened its jaws to spit out a ball of fire. The Spear Dragon shattered as it got hit and Aries shielded himself from the excessive heat.

"I'm not done, my two dragon's are going to have to attack you directly!" Arie's cry of pain was blocked out by the double explosion made by Chazz's monsters. He smirked, this duel wouldn't be a problem it seemed.

Chazz- 3500
Aries- 1400

"And now my Armed Dragon evolves to Level 5!" The monster was consumed by a beam of light before being replaced by a much stronger version. "I end my turn."

Aries drew a card. "Not bad, not bad. I summon Lord of Dragons from my hand. Next, I activate one of my face-downs, Flute of Summoning Dragon. That'll let my play the two cards in my hand! I summon Curse of Dragon and Kaiser Glider."

"Oh no..." Chazz wasn't expecting this.

Aries smirked at his opponent's expression. "Curse of Dragon, destroy that Masked Dragon!" Chazz cried out in pain as his skin blistered from the heated wind. It wasn't over yet. "Kaiser Glider, attack Armed Dragon!" Chazz clenched his teeth to prevent him from crying out again. His field was completely bare now.

"Kaiser Glider's effect prevents it from being destroyed even though your Armed Dragon matched it in strength. But you're lucky, you haven't lost any life points."

Chazz growled. He was right, but his healing skin was already beginning to raw. He glared at the two opposing monsters. They were high in attack, and it'll be hard to summon a monster strong enough to take them out. He regretted his last thoughts. This was going to be a long duel.

-X-

Oh wow, how long has it been...? x-X I rewrote this chapter four times, literally. It took me forever, and now, Im still not satisfied with it. Oh well, hope you enjoy the update while it lasts.

With love xD

Kaisre