Chapter 16: Mindscape

Hope, Turvy, and Lightwing were in Hope's room. They started out looking at Hope's deck for the next day's duel. But now they were looking at each other's decks.

"How can there be so many uses for Kuriboh?" Lightwing asked.

"Try dueling against it sometime," Hope said, "More annoying than poison joke. No offense."

"None taken," Turvy replied, looking through Hope's deck, "Your deck is annoying too, you know."

"But I only use one Kuriboh monster," Hope replied.

"Two," Turvy corrected.

"Really?" Hope moved across her bed and looked over Turvy's shoulder. Sure enough, there was a Shadow Beast Kuriboh card.

"How did I never notice that?"

"I may have made your mind not notice the card. It seemed like a better idea at the time."

"Really? Well it wasn't a good idea. You should have let me know I had another Kuriboh!"

Lightwing leaned over to Turvy and whispered, "Does she do this often?"

"Only since the beginning of the summer," Turvy replied, "I can fix this."

Turvy leaned over and kissed Hope when she was in the middle of her conversation, shutting her up real quick.

"Thanks," Hope replied, "Darkness likes to mess with my head."

Zach opened the door and poked his head into the room, "Ditzy and I are heading to bed. I probably shouldn't be saying this, but good luck tomorrow. Try to get some sleep."

Zach left the room. Once he was gone Hope put her ear to the door until she heard a door shut.

Hope began to collect her deck, "Okay, we've got about half an hour until Dad falls asleep. Then we've got about three hours before Mom starts kicking and knocks him to the floor."

As Hope grabbed her duel disk off the nightstand Turvy asked, "Why would you be worried about that?"

"Because I wanted to have some fun." Turvy blushed and Lightwing unsuccessfully tried to hide a smirk. "Not really, I'm going to try to get Envy out of Crown."

"Envy?" Lightwing asked, "As in one of that Element of Vice cards?"

"Exactly!" Hope replied, using her magic to pull out night vision goggles from her bag.

"But aren't you supposed to call the authorities if you find out?"

"I have the ability to remove those things from their hosts. I could do it by winning the duel, but only if I win with Galaxy-Eyes or Dark Leviathan. I can't guarantee that."

"Hope," Turvy said quietly, "Maybe you should just wait until the duel. I mean, she hated you. She put Blitz in the hospital."

Hope nodded, "I know that. But I think the Element was most of why she did that. What did Crown ever do before she got that card?"

"Insult us, duel us, threaten us…"

"Exactly, but she never used violence. The Elements of Vice amplify the aspect they represent. So hurting one of us is sort of her way of taking something from us, somehow."

"But why not just wait until the duel?"

"Because those cards are so dang difficult to beat. I already half to deal with Chaos Emperor Dragon, I don't want to deal with Envy in the duel too."

Lightwing hopped off the bed, "I'm willing to help you out to get that thing out of Crown. Can you teleport?"

Hope looked at Lightwing, "Sure, but the layout of some of the rooms are different than the others, I can't risk teleporting into a dresser or something."

Lightwing closed her eyes, "Teleport exactly twenty meters south and two point five six meters west. That will put you just on the other side of Crown's door."

Hope and Turvy's jaws dropped. After a minute Hope asked, "How do you know that?"

"My special talent happens to be remembering exact measurements and being able to mentally measure things with a glance."

Hope thought for a minute before saying, "I think that we might need to introduce you to somepony after this is all over. But thank you for that."

Hope closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Magical energy built up on her horn before she teleported.

When Hope opened her eyes she was in a pitch black room. She slid down the night vision googles and saw an exact replica of her own room. She walked over to the bedside and saw Crown sleeping soundly.

"Here goes nothing."

Hope focused, her cutie mark and horn glowing. Her vision went black for a second, and then all she saw was a white space with a door.

"What's going on?"

"It appears you have to enter Crown's mind and remove the Element directly."

"Why?"

"I believe Crown has a stronger connection to the Element, either by desire or the amount of time it's spent inside her."

"Okay then. Let's see what we're dealing with."

Hope opened the door and stepped into the hall of an old house. The walls were made of wood and painted red. A current of black energy cut through the center of the floor, the flow moving to Hope's left.

"I guess we go this way," Hope muttered.

Hope started to walk down the hall. The walls were featureless, the monotony of the corridor broken only by the occasional door. Hope tried to open some doors a couple of times, but they were locked.

After what felt like half an hour of walking, the current turned towards a slightly ajar door. Hope walked through and found herself in what looked like a giant stadium.

"This is so weird," Hope said aloud, her voice echoing.

There was a door on the other side of the stadium. Hope walked towards it, but when she got to the center of the stadium, a duel monster appeared. It was Jain, Lightsworn Paladin.

"Why are you here?" Jain asked, Lightsworn Sabre appearing and replacing her regular blade.

"Well, I'm Hope's Light," Hope began, but Jain interrupted her.

"I know who you are. You are the one who allowed the demon to enter my mistress' soul!"

Jain swiped her sword in front of her and Hope jumped back, "I never meant to let Envy into Crown, I'm not even sure why it happened. All I want to do is help get it out."

Jain raised her sword until it was level with Hope's chest, "I know why you wish to remove Envy. You only want to remove it so you may get revenge for your friend easier."

Hope shook her head, "No, I was always going to get Envy out."

"Then why didn't you when you defeated my mistress before?"

"I had no idea what was going on. Please just let me help her."

Jain though on this for a moment before sheathing her sword, "I will test you to see if you are worthy of saving my mistress. We will have a duel. If you win, then you may enter my mistress' very soul and help save her. But if you do not, then you will leave here."

"Okay," Hope's duel disk appeared on her.

A white, armored duel disk appeared on Jain's arm, "On more thing, we shall both start at four thousand life points. Is this agreeable?"

"Yep."

Hope's Light: 4000

Jain, Lightsworn Paladin: 4000

"I shall go first," Jain proclaimed, "Draw! I'll start out with a simple card, Card Destruction. I know I don't have to explain this." Hope nodded as both duelists discarded and drew. "Now I use Pot of Greed. Next I'll use Cup of Ace." A giant coin appeared in mid-air. It fell, spinning a few times before landing on heads.

"It appears I draw two cards. I activate Trade-In. I discard my level eight Judgment Dragon and draw two more cards. Now I activate Solar Recharge. I discard a copy of myself to draw two cards and mill two."

Hope looked at Jain's now nine card hand, "Is this what Crown's deck is going to be like?"

Jain shook her head, "I based this deck on my mistress', but I created it for this ace. I banish Judgment Dragon and Plaguespreader Zombie to call forth Chaos Emporer Dragon – Envoy of the End (ATK 3000)!" The envoy of Chaos appeared and roared.

CED looked at Hope and asked, "Why am I dueling this shrimp here?"

"We are testing her power," Jain replied, "I pay a thousand points to obliterate all cards on the field and in our hands. Then you take three hundred points of damage for each, which will be the end for this duel."

Jain: 4000-3000

The shards of black energy flew at Hope and exploded around her. But, when the smoke cleared, Hope appeared completely fine.

Hope: 4000

"How is this possible?" Jain cried, amazed.

A ball of jet black fur appeared beside hope and hissed, "Kuri!"

This roughly translated into, "Do da lala, (female dog)."

"I used the effect of KuriShadow!" Hope explained, "When this one gets sent from the hoof to the graveyard, I don't take damage for the rest of the turn."

Jain scowled, "I end my turn."

"I draw!" Hope looked at the card she drew in wonder. It was the Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning.

"How is this possible?"

"Perhaps you subconsciously wanted Soldier to be in your deck after seeing Dragon."

"Okay then, I banish the light Photon Crusher and Dark Shadow Beast harpy to call forth Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning (ATK 3000)!" The warrior descended from the empty blackness above the coliseum.

"Black Luster Soldier, attack Jain directly!"

"I banish Chaos Renewal from my graveyard!" Jain countered, "I get to bring back Chaos Emperor Dragon!"

The two enemy monsters stared at each other.

"It's been a while since we've been summoned on the opposite side of the board," BLS noted.

"Too long," CED agreed.

Suddenly, an overlay network appeared in the center of the coliseum. The claw of Envious Archfiend rose out of it.

"What's going on?" Hope asked.

"Envy has sensed your presence here," Jain answered, "You need to run!"

"Why?"

"Because, if you are killed here, your body will die!"

A dark portal opened behind Hope and she turned and ran into it.

As Hope's sense of being returned to her body, she inhaled deeply. She noticed that Crown was stirring and teleported back to her room.

"What happened?" Turvy asked, "You were over there for a while."

Hope was about to answer when she fell onto her bed, completely out.

"Is she alright?" Lightwing asked. Hope snored.