Our Last Moment
By KellyQ
Tori stood on the ruins of Barian World. The perimeter was on the secluded marble floor with five pillars erected to the black-reddish sky. Before Toi was Ryoga, also known as Nash, a Barian, the only Barian left, was dueling Yuma and Astra, a spirit, who would advise him on the best strategies to use when Yuma was in a tight pinch. Their heated duel was reaching a climax. They had their best monsters towering over them, ready to strike at each other's life points. During their duel, Yuma expounded how their previous duels were the most important to him.
Tori perceived the duel to be one of the most heart-rendering ones she had witnessed. It was a duel between two people giving it their all, and the most painful because they tried not to hurt each other physically and mentally, knowing it would probably be their last duel. That hard fact was biting at Yuma's consciousness throughout the duel, and he didn't want that because if Ryoga lost the duel, he could disappear like all the rest of his friends.
On the other hand, Ryoga knew the only way to save Yuma's friends was to lose; things would go back to normal if he did that. He wanted to be omitted from Yuma's life ever since he realized his true purpose as a Barian, which was to be Yuma's enemy.
Yuma wasn't going to see it that way, and Ryoga knew why. As a result, he didn't understand how Yuma could be so forgiving and accepting of who he was when all Ryoga did was cause so much hurt to him.
Yuma was down to fifty life points by this point, and Ryoga had twelve hundred life points remaining. Ryoga sighed, knowing that he could use his monster to whip out the last of Yuma's life points which meant that Yuma would lose Astral, and the sensible spirit wouldn't be able to obtain his memories, and that wouldn't be fair to either one of them.
"It's my turn," Ryoga said, whipping out a card, "I draw!"
He glanced at it before he made eye contact with Yuma. Then, he slapped a spell card, Glorious, on his duel disk, saying that the spell card can attach the rest of the Banished Chaos Over-Hundred Numbers to Dystopic Barian as Overlay Units, raising its attack points to 7,000. A portal opened, and two more stars appeared next to Ryoga, and his monster's attack points went from 300 to 7,000. From there, Ryoga explained more about the spell card effects, and one of them was to drop the rest of his life points to zero.
Astral's eyes widened when he asked Ryoga if that was his plan from the start. Yuma's eyes widened, too, and he tried to convince Ryoga not to do it. Unfortunately, the spell card activated before Yuma and Astral could react. Ryoga went flying backward due to his monsters being destroyed.
"Shark!"
Yuma dashed forward and caught Ryoga before he hit the ground. It's finally over, Ryoga thought, allowing Yuma to steady him.
"Are you okay?" Yuma asked, looking him up and down for any blood.
Usually, Ryoga would be incensed by Yuma's fuss, but he was too focused on making sure that he left with no regrets; he didn't mind.
"I'm fine, Yuma," Ryoga reassured, looking compassionately at him.
"That's good," Yuma said, pulling out a rag and started to rub the dirt off of Ryoga's face.
As much as Ryoga liked it, he had to give Astral the number cards and say three words to Yuma since he didn't have that much time at all. So he moved Yuma's hand away from his face and leaned close to Yuma's ear.
"Thank you," Ryoga whispered, moving to kiss Yuma on the lips.
At first, Yuma was surprised, but he deepened the kiss and wrapped his arms around Ryoga, not wanting to let go of him. Tori watched with sympathy, knowing that it would only be a matter of moments before Ryoga would disappear.
By now, Ryoga was glowing and handing the number cards to Astral.
"Wait!" Yuma panicked. He wasn't ready to accept that he wasn't going to see Ryoga ever again. By this point, Ryoga was slowly being pulled toward a ball of light that was behind him.
"Thank you, Astral and Tori ... you two were great friends .." Ryoga paused and glanced at Yuma, who had tears in his eyes, and he was shaking his head in despair. "I love you, Yuma ..."
"Shark!" Yuma cried, ready to dash forward, reaching for him again.
"I always have ..."
Suddenly the light taking Ryoga blinded the three temporarily. Once it was safe to see, Yuma stood there in shock in his eyes, and his hand was still outstretched. It only took a moment for the three to realize that Ryoga was gone, and they were back in Heartland City.
The End