Author's Notes: Final chapter: here it is! Just as a word of warning, I suck at writing duels. I'm not totally familiar with all the rules and such (and definitely wasn't when I wrote this this past spring), so I'm sorry in advance if there are problems in this. I usually avoid writing full duels for that reason. If you ever read anything else I've ever written (or will write in the future), you'll notice I only write parts of duels. (Not to mention I think they're boring to read anyway.) And, yes, there are cards that I made up. I tried to keep made-up cards out of Yusei's deck, but I think there might be one or two.
Anyway, enjoy!=)
Chapter Four - Secrets and Regrets
"Ladies first!" Naomi declared whipping out the top card from her deck. "I summon Witch of the Black Forest (ATK: 1100, DEF: 1200) in defense mode! That'll do for my turn."
Yusei drew a card. "Then I summon Speed Warrior (ATK: 900, DEF: 400) in attack mode! Due to his special ability, Speed Warrior's attack points double during the turn he's summoned. (ATK: 1800) Speed Warrior, attack her Witch!"
Naomi smiled as her Witch of the Black Forest shattered into a million golden pieces. "I was hoping you'd do that! Now I can activate my Witch's special ability! When she's sent from the field to the Graveyard, I get to select one monster card from my deck and add it to my hand, provided I show you the card. I select Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid!"
"I end my turn with a face-down, and Speed Warrior's attack points return to normal," the raven-haired duelist responded. "It's your move."
"I draw! Then I summon Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid (ATK: 1200, DEF: 1800) to the field in attack mode! Now Aurkus, take out his Speed Warrior!"
"I activate my face-down, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow! Not only is your attack negated, but I also get to place my Scarecrow face-down again for use later."
Naomi growled. "I place one card face-down and send the top two cards of my deck to the Graveyard due to Aurkus' effect. A small price to pay, really."
Naomi: 4000 LP
Yusei: 4000 LP
"My move then," Yusei declared. "I draw, then summon Junk Syncron (ATK: 1300, DEF: 900); but he won't be staying for long! Thanks to the Card Syncro Tool, I can summon a level two or below monster from my hand to the field as long as I syncro summon this turn! So now Junk Syncron tunes with Speed Warrior and Sonic Chic to summon out Junk Warrior (ATK: 2300, DEF: 1300)! Go, destroy Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid!" Once again Naomi's monster shattered into pieces. "I end my turn."
Naomi: 2900 LP
Yusei: 4000 LP
Naomi drew another card. "My turn then. I summon Armageddon Knight (ATK: 1400, DEF: 1200) in attack mode, then end my turn with a face-down."
Her opponent added another card to his hand. "Junk Warrior, take out Armageddon Knight!" he ordered.
"I activate Card Defense! By discarding a card from my hand, I'm allowed to negate your attack and draw another card."
"I end my turn then."
"Good! I draw!" She winced inwardly when she saw the card she'd just drawn. For a moment she debated upon playing it, but in the end, what other option did she have? "I summon Guardian Angel (ATK: 1400, DEF: 1800) in defense mode. That's all for this turn." She wondered if he could see the tears she was biting back or hear the strain in her voice. 'I sure hope he can't' she thought.
Yusei added yet another card to his hand. "I attack Armageddon Knight with Junk Warrior."
"I activate Guardian Angel's special ability! When my Angel is in defense mode, I can sacrifice it to negate the attack on another monster and end the battle phase! I also get to place Guardian Angel on the top of my deck. So if you're done" - Yusei nodded once - "then it's my move! I re-summon Guardian Angel to my field in defense mode. Then I activate Graceful Charity, allowing me to draw three cards as long as I discard two of them. I place one card face-down and end my turn."
"Alright then," Yusei spoke as he whipped another card from his deck. 'Another spell?' he thought. "Junk Warrior, take out her Guardian Angel!"
"I activate my face-down, Broken Wings! By paying 500 life points, I can prevent a Warrior or Spirit type monster from being destroyed. The battle phase also ends immediately."
"Ya know, the way you duel is a bit ironic: You're trying so hard to protect those two monsters, yet you simply throw others away," Yusei pointed out.
"I didn't 'throw them away,' Yusei Fudo," Naomi spoke bitterly. "Every move I make has a purpose; you call yourself a duelist, but you don't even see that!"
"I never said it was without purpose," he responded. "I simply wonder why Armageddon Knight and Guardian Angel are so valuable to you."
Naomi couldn't stop a tear from escaping the corner of her eye. She knew he probably meant how they were important to the duel, but she also knew the other reason for keeping Guardian Angel on her field. She wiped away the wet streak from her cheek, but she knew the raven-haired boy had already seen it. There was no hiding the truth now. "My brother gave me that card," she whispered, ducking her head. "A few years ago I decided I didn't need him anymore and struck out on my own. I earned my way into a duel gang by defeating one of the team members..."
Flashback
"Welcome to Team Avenge, Naomi!" the leader, Ryou congratulated as Kira's life points hit zero. "That was really quite impressive!"
Naomi smiled. "I hadn't even brought out the big dogs yet!"
Ryou laughed. "I think you'll fit in well here!"
End Flashback
"And I did fit in well... I dueled along side those I now considered to be my friends for almost three months. They taught me new strategies and helped me get rare, powerful cards into my deck. In return, I continued to help them gain territory. ...But it didn't last. I wasn't the only girl in the gang, so I soon found out they didn't want me just for my dueling skills. When I refused to give Ryou what he wanted, I suddenly wasn't wanted there anymore. But I knew too much about them - their dueling styles, secret entrances into the hide-out - so, fearing betrayal, they wouldn't let me leave either..."
Flashback
"Get HER!" Ryou yelled. "Don't let her get away!"
Naomi, breathing hard from trying to out-run the other ten members of Team Avenge, turned a corner. Too late she realized it was a dead-end alleyway. She spun around, wide-eyed.
Ryou laughed. "You should know better than to try to run from us, Little Mouse!"
"Ya know, I can't believe I ever thought any of you were my friends!" Naomi spat, giving them an icy glare. "I actually trusted you guys!"
"Your first mistake, Little Mouse," Ryou responded. "You shouldn't trust people you don't know! So now you pay the price!"
"Or you do!" a baritone voice spoke from behind the gang. "No one - I repeat NO ONE - messes with my little sister and gets away with it!"
The ten parted enough for Naomi to see Ryan, Jori, Alex, and Mieke all standing with arms crossed in the mouth of the alley.
"Hate to be the barer of bad news, but you're out-numbered two to one!" Ryou spoke with a smirk.
"Yeah," Jori answered, "but the five of us could easily kick your butts! Anyone care to see? 'Cause we'd love to demonstrate!"
"Let's just go, Ryou," one of the girls suggested icily. "Naomi's not worth the trouble."
Ryou nodded. "Let's split."
*Later at the warehouse*
"I'm so sorry!" Naomi sobbed into her brother's shoulder. "I - I know I shouldn't have left but... I don't know why I did anymore!"
"Shh... It's alright, Naomi," Ryan comforted. "It's okay! You're safe now. It's all been forgiven and forgotten."
The brown-haired girl gulped in air. "I'm sorry!" she whispered, wiping her green eyes with the back of her hand. "I'm never gonna leave again!"
"Good." Ryan smiled down at her. "But just in case you ever get the idea of being off by yourself again, here's a little reminder that I will never leave you." He handed his sister a duel monsters card.
"Guardian Angel." Naomi smiled.
End Flashback
"I decided no one was worth trusting after that," Naomi spat, anger evident in her green eyes. "No one except my brother and the friends I already had. But enough chit-chat! We're not here to talk; we're here to duel!"
"It's your move," the boy spoke quietly. Did her story really have that much of an affect on him? Either way, she had to end this soon before he managed to get anything else out of her.
"In that case, I draw! By removing a Dark attribute monster - Witch of the Black Forest - and a Light attribute monster - Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid - from play from my Graveyard, I'm able to summon forth Chaos Emperor Dragon (ATK: 3000, DEF: 2500) to my field in attack mode! Now, my Dragon, destroy his Junk Warrior!"
Yusei smirked. "Did you forget about something? I activate Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!"
"No, I didn't forget," she responded coyly, her green eyes glinting dangerously. "I just happen to have my own little face-down that I've been dying to use for several turns now: Trap Jammer! This little baby negates the effect of your trap AND destroys it!" Scrap-Iron Scarecrow and then Junk Warrior shattered into golden shards.
Naomi: 2400 LP
Yusei: 3300 LP
The raven-haired duelist drew yet another card. 'Finally! A chance to use all these spell cards!' he thought. "First I activate Syncro Rite! By removing any two monsters from my deck from play, I'm allowed to summon a syncro monster without tuning! Come forth, Stardust Dragon (ATK: 2500, DEF: 2000)! Stardust, take out Guardian Angel!"
Naomi felt as though her brother had been stripped from her a second time as the card shattered. Anger blazed inside her heart, making her even more determined to win the duel.
"I end my turn with two face-downs!"
Naomi whipped out the top card from her deck. "Perfect! I summon out the tuner monster Night's End Sorcerer (ATK: 1300, DEF: 400)! Unfortunately for you, he won't be sticking around; this is why I gave everything to protect my Armageddon Knight, by the way! For this particular tuning, however, I'm required to send the spell Darkness Reigns to my Graveyard; not a problem since I happen to have it in my hand!" Naomi held it up for Yusei to see before inserting it into the Graveyard slot on her duel disk. "Now, with the power of Darkness Reigns in place, I tune my level 2 Night's End Sorcerer together with my level 4 Armageddon Knight and my level 8 Chaos Emperor Dragon!"
"What?" Yusei called out in surprise, his sapphire-blue eyes widening in disbelief.
"Now, I know there's no such thing as a level 14 monster, but guess what? The level of the tuner I use doesn't matter! Trust me: You've never seen anything like what I'm about to summon! In the darkest of times, midst turmoil and chaos, only one stands ready to fight and defend! I syncro summon Chaos Dragon Knight (ATK: 5000, DEF: 4500)!"
On the playing field appeared a dragon similar to the one used in the summon only entirely coal black. Atop the dragon, standing upon its back, was a knight in coal black armor, holding a set of black reigns with which to control the beast. Only two things about this monster where not black: the piercing red eyes of the dragon and the shining silver sword of the knight.
"Now, Chaos Dragon Knight, destroy Stardust Dragon!"
"I activate my face-down, Syncro Tribute! By sacrificing a syncro monster on my field, I can negate your attack and destroy the attacking monster!" The hologram of Stardust Dragon flew towards its enemy, seeking to wrap its wings around the attacking beast. As it drew near, however, Stardust was repelled with a cry. "What?" Yusei shouted in disbelief, eyes widening in surprise as his trap shattered.
Naomi smirked. "Because your trap would have destroyed my knight, my warrior's special ability cancels your card's effect completely! Chaos Dragon Knight can't be destroyed by monster effects, traps, or spells. So don't even bother trying it!" Stardust Dragon shattered into a million golden shards as her monster's attack landed a successful blow.
"I activate Syncro Shield! When a syncro monster is destroyed by battle, I only take half of the damage!" Yusei declared.
Naomi: 2400 LP
Yusei: 2050 LP
Naomi growled. That wasn't supposed to happen. 'Oh, well,' she thought. 'It'll still be over next turn!'
"I draw!" the raven-haired duelist stated. "I activate Hero's Return to resurrect Stardust Dragon to my field! His special abilities are negated, but they don't do me much good in this case anyway. But thanks to this card, my Dragon also gains 500 attack points as compensation for losing his special abilities (ATK: 3000). Then I activate Syncro Weapon! For every monster I remove from play from my Graveyard or hand, my Dragon receives a 500 point boost! Unfortunately, I'm only allowed to remove up to three monsters (ATK: 4500)."
"Hate to tell ya," Naomi scoffed, "but that's not really gonna help you any."
"Maybe it will, maybe it won't," Yusei smirked. If he could just last one more turn... "I place one card face-down and end my turn."
'Hmm... What's he planning? ...Well, it doesn't matter 'cause I'm gonna end this right now!' She drew a card. "First I summon Dark Witch (ATK: 1800, DEF: 1700) to the field in attack mode. Then I activate Call of the Haunted to summon Maiden of the Moonlight (ATK: 1500, DEF: 1300) from my Graveyard! Now, I equip Chaos Dragon Knight with the United We Stand spell card! Thanks to this little spell, my Knight gains 800 attack and defense points for every face-up monster I control! (ATK: 6600, DEF: 6100) It's over, Yusei Fudo! Any last words before I end this duel?"
"Actually, yeah," her opponent stated, much to Naomi's surprise, "I do have something to say.
"It's strange how much you can tell about a person just from dueling them. Even if they say very little, you can learn so very much. So here's the first thing I learned about you: You duel with a chaosworn deck, meaning it's comprised of Light and Dark attribute monsters.
"What I learned about you from that? Your life is chaos; you've been through the dark, but you also know what it's like to be in the light. You've had your share of hardships, like the one you mentioned, but you also have known good times with your brother and friends. Right now I can tell you're in pain; you feel like no one cares, and it seems like there's no hope left, but your deck tells me otherwise! Hope remains in your heart, Naomi, though right now only a glowing ember remains of the fire it once was!
"You showed me that hope remains in you through cards like United We Stand, where your other monsters lent their strength to another. I suppose you could say that United We Stand is a friendship and trust card. Think about it: Those three monsters are standing together to defeat a comon enemy; you wouldn't stand by someone you don't trust completely - "
"Yeah," Naomi inturrupted angerly, "but trust is only too easily betrayed! People whom you think you can trust can turn their back on you without a second thought just because they think they've found something better!"
Yusei ducked his head, raven bangs shadowing sapphire-blue eyes. "I know," he spoke bluntly, bitterly. "Though sometimes that person may not realize what they are doing at the time."
"What do you know?" Naomi spat angerly, tears forming in her eyes, threatening to spill over. "All your talk of friendship and trust! You couldn't possibly have any idea of how it feels to have someone turn their back on you!"
A rye smile appeared on the boy's lips. "Oh really? Two days ago my best friend thought I betrayed him, though what he thought he saw wasn't true. He took the life of a Sector Security Officer, and I was going to take the fall for it in his stead. Unfortunately, the officers already knew whom they were looking for, and it wasn't me. This friend thought I ratted him out, called me a traitor before they hauled him away.
"So don't try to tell me that I don't understand, Naomi," he spoke, the rye smile disappearing. His eyes came up into view, a mirror of the pain she herself felt. "It's just that some people don't see the pain they are causing or the mistakes they are making. They may not be intending to hurt you; that's just the way it turns out. In my friend's case, he got power hungry. That hunger for power blinded him, obscured his judgement, made him do things he never would have done before.
"But even after all of that, I can say that if there's one thing I've learned in life, Naomi, it's this: Bad things happen, but that doesn't mean you shut out the world. Pain is part of life; no matter what you do, you can't avoid it, so you learn to cope with it instead. By shutting yourself away from everyone, you're only hurting yourself. No one was meant to go through life alone."
"You don't know anything!" Naomi cried, tears spilling out of her green eyes. "At least being alone means never having to worry about anyone but yourself! No one has the chance to hurt you because you don't give them the chance in the first place!"
"Naomi," the boy spoke quietly. She could still see the evident pain in his eyes, but she didn't want to hear anymore of this stranger's words.
"Chaos Dragon Knight, finish this!" Naomi cried out as the tears continued to streak down her face. As soon as Stardust Dragon had shattered into a million shards, Naomi turned and sprinted down the street.
"Naomi!" she heard him shout out from behind her. When she didn't stop, it didn't take long before she heard a second pair of feet pounding the pavement behind her. "Naomi! Wait! Please!" she heard him call out. Instead of slowing down or stopping, she picked up the pace; she just wanted to get away from this stranger who somehow made sense out of her shattered life. 'If I can just make it to the next alleyway enough ahead of him...'
Yusei saw as she turned down a narrow alley. "Naomi!" he called again. "Please just wait a second!" He turned down the same alleyway she had a moment before and stopped dead in his tracks, breathing hard. The girl had, quite simply, disappeared.
In one last futile effort to find her, he called out, "Naomi!" to which his only answer was the wind whistling through the ruble of the streets.
Alone. That was how Naomi chose to live now. She didn't need anyone but herself. One day faded into another as she wandered the endless streets of Satellite; the nights were spent sleeping wherever she could find a suitable enough space. There was no one for her to turn to, no place for her to go, and so she would continue wandering day after day after day, as she had always done.
But something was different this time. No matter how hard she tired, Naomi couldn't shake Yusei's words from her head.
'Hope remains in your heart, Naomi, though right now only a glowing ember remains of the fire it once was!'
She shook her head. What did he know of hope? One upon a time maybe she had hoped, but that hope had long since evaporated.
'No one was meant to go through life alone.'
It was true, she was lonely and longed for human contact, but it wasn't worth the risk of betrayal again. It was just easier to go through life alone like this.
'In a city of devils we live,' she reminded herself dully. 'In a city of devils we live...'
Author's Notes: Yeah, I know it's a rather depressing ending. That's why (when I finally get around to starting posting it) you should go read the first of three collabs, A New Hope, between ElodieKumari94 and myself=) It continues years after this one ends and incudes both of our OC's as well as canon characters. There's a better summary on my profile if you want to know more!
Anyway, even though this is the end, I still love reviews^_^