Disclaimer: I own a lot of things, but not Yu-Gi-Oh GX.

Chapter 8: Imprisoned Within

"What's going on here Ayato, why are you wearing that cloak, what happened?" Jaden asks, just as confused as his friends.

Ayato pointed his finger at Jaden, "You don't get answers, unless you duel me."

Jaden activated his duel disk, "Alright, lets throw down!"

"WAIT!", Akari yelled. Ayato and Jaden looked at her with confused looks on their face. "I'm the one who is gonna duel him, no one else."

Ayato shook his head in disagreement. "You are not the one I came here to duel, I will only duel Jaden."

Akari clenched her fists. "Look pal, I promised that one day I would defeat you." Ayato remained silent. "So I'm the one your gonna duel, I'm gonna beat you right here and now."

Ayato was confused, 'I feel like I know her, but I can't remember her name, whats going on here?'

"Who are you?" Ayato asked.

Jaden looked suprised, 'He doesn't remember her, this has to have something to do with that puzzle.'

"Come on already", Akari said getting restless.

"Fine, I accept your challenge, but you'll regret it."

Ayato: 4000/Akari: 4000

"You don't stand a chance against me", Ayato drew a card and smiled slighty. "I place one monster card face down in defense, and I'll end my turn with two face downs."

Akari drew a card, "I just want to warn you, I've gotten better since last time."

Ayato frowned, 'Last time, what is she talking about, why can't I remember.'

Akari looked at her hand. "I summon Harpie's Brother(1800/600) in attack mode, next I play Harpie's Feather Duster, now your two face down cards are destroyed." Harpie's Brother unleashed a gust of wind that wiped Ayato's two face-down cards off the field.

Jaden and the others watched intently. "But don't think your off the hook yet, I play the equip spell card Ballista of Rampart Smashing, a monster equipped with this card attack points are increased by 1500 points when it attacks a face down defense position monster, now Harpie's Brother attack!"

The face down card was revealed to be the Mystical Elf, which was instantly destroyed. "And I'll end my turn by playing Tremendous Fire, dealing 1000 points of direct damage to you and 500 to me." A wave of flames licked at the two duelists, taking a bit out of their life points.

Ayato: 3000/Akari: 3500

"So is it coming back to you now?" Akari asked.

Ayato drew his card, "I don't have the slightest clue of what your talking about."

Syrus looked confused, "Whats wrong with Ayato?"

"It seems Ayato must have lost his memory, I don't know what that cloaked man did to him, but we have to help him", Alexis said.

Jaden nodded, "Thats right."

"I play the spell card Back to Square One, I discard one card from my hand in order to return you monster back to the top of your deck."

"Great, now I'm complety defenseless." Akari grimaced as her monster vanished.

"Thats right, now I play Polymerization to fuse Masaki the Legendary Sworsman with The Flame Manipulator in order to summon The Flameswordsman. Next I play Reasoning, you declare a monster level, then I pick up cards from the top of my deck un til a monster that can be normal summoned is picked up, if its the same number I have to send all picked up cards to the graveyard, if not, I can special summon it to the field, but I still have to discard the rest of them though."

"Your really confident, I choose Level 5."

"Alright then", Ayato drew a card from his deck, and another and another. Everyone's sweat dropped as he continued to pull several cards.

Akari was getting annoyed, "What gives, where are all your monsters?" Ayato's deck was looking really thin now.

"Its all apart of my strategy, I've just drawn a monster, and its a level 4, so I get to summon it, but now all the other cards I picked up go to the graveyard."

"Thats stupid, by the look of your deck, I would say you have less than 10, what kind of strategy is this?"

"You'll see later, I summon Space Mambo(1700/1000), and I'll use him to attack you directly!" A giant fish hovered over the field, unleashing a laser from it's mouth that struck Akari in her chest.

Ayato: 3000/Akari: 1800

"Now I could use my Swordsman to end the duel, but I want to give you a fighting chance, so I place one card face down and end my turn." Ayato said.

"Your gonna regret taking me likely, "I summon Harpie Lady in attack mode, next I'll play Elegant Egotist to summon Harpie Lady Sisters (1950/2100), and they'll destroy your Mambo." The giant fish was ripped to shreds by Akari's monster.

Ayato: 2750/Akari: 1800

"My turn, I play Polymerization to fuse the Dark Magician with my Swordsman to create Dark Flare Knight(Atk:2200) and destroy your Harpie Lady." Ayato declared as his monster slashed through Akari's.

Ayato: 2750/Akari: 900

"Your not looking too good." Ayato commented.

"Shut up, I'm gonna beat you!" Akari replied.

"Whatever you say."

"I play Triangle of Ectasy, this card changes my sisters attack points to 2700 and you can't activate any trap cards, but at the end of my turn I have to send this card to the graveyard, say good bye to your Flare Knight." A beam of energy ripped through Ayato's powerful fusion monster.

Ayato: 2750/Akari: 900

Akari looked confused. "Why didn't you lose any life points?"

"When Flare Kinght is destroyed as a result of battle I don't lose any life points, and I'm allowed to summon Mirage Knight(2800/2000)." A new warrior clad in gold armor appeared.

"Fine, I place three cards face down, then I play Emergency Provisions, I discard all four cards in order to gain 4000 life points!"

Ayato: 2750/Akari: 4900

"Well it seems I've underestimated you." Ayato said.

Akari smiled smugly.

"I place one card face down and then I play Monster Reincarnation, I discard one card from my hand and add 1 moonster from my graveyard to my hand, now I summon the Giant Soldier of Stone(1300/2000) in defense mode,
and now I use my Mirage Knight to destroy your Sisters." Ayato commanded as his monster ripped through Akari's.

Ayato: 2750/Akari: 2100

"Whats going on here, I lost way more life points than I was supposed to." Akari asked.

"That's because during battle calculation I can add your monster's original attack points to my Knight, but at the end of my turn I have to remove him from play, now I activate my trap, Exchange of Spirit, I pay 1000 life points in order to switch our decks with our graveyards."

Ayato: 1750/Akari: 2100

"But I only have two cards in my deck now."

"Don't worry, I'll end it now, by activating my other face down, Cemetary Bomb, this card deals 100x points of damage for every card you have in your graveyard, and you have 30, so you lose 3000 points!" Akari braced herself as Ayato's trap card produced an explosion on her side of the field.

Ayato: 1750/Akari: 0

"Did I not tell you, there was no way for you to win." Akari was on her knees staring into his eyes, "Well what are waiting for, aren't you gonna send me to the Shadow Realm?"

Ayato shook his head, "I don't...want to, besides it wasn't one to begin with."

"But why?"

Jaden stepped up, "Ayato whatever happend to you we can help you."

"There is nothing wrong with me, next time will be different, Ayato pulled out a silver ball and threw it to the ground, producing smoke.

Once the smoke cleared Ayato was nowhere to be seen. Jaden punched the ground with his fist, "He got away."

Syrus ran towards his friend. "Don't worry Jay, I'm sure we'll see him agian."

Jaden looked at his friend. "I know that, but we have to stop him before he gets to someone else, we have to stop him before he hurts himself."

Anna and Alexis walked up to the two, "Don't worry, we will."

Ayato kneeled before Exion, his thoughts still dwelled on what had happened, he could feel his memories slowly slipping away, but why he did not know.

Exion smiled at the collection of rare cards and souls Ayato had given him, he was right to replace Faux with him, 'I can't wait to see what he brings next.'