Chapter XXVI: Heartbreak
--Yubel walks on stage, not truly thrilled to be on stage—Hello, everyone. I am here at the request of Jaden, Peach and Ani to do the introduction. Peach and Ani thank you very much for your support of their works of fiction, and your continued reading and reviews.
–Yubel looks over at the edge of the stage to Jaden—C'mon, Yubel! Keep going; you're doing great! Just tell them what Ani and Peach said!
--Yubel manages a smile—Okay, Jaden. Anyway, I suppose you all would like a summary. Last time, the gang lost Violet and Bastion went into depression, yelled at Annie and she yelled back. Though you didn't see it, I and the other monsters were surprised. The group tried to hold Bastion together, but it seems he was emotionally far more damaged than they could heal. So what will happen next? Please read on…
Oh, yes… Peach and Ani don't own the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise. They own their OCs, this version of the Yugi-verse, and their own plotlines. Thank you. Oh yes, and a warning… Nightmare imagery… --Yubel gets off-stage--
Unfortunately, with the new attack came a new bunch of disappearances, courtesy of Darkness. Jaden's group, as well as those who were left on the island and in the rest of the world, learned of this in the morning.
"Bastion and I are now the only Ras left," Tyson groaned when they met up in the morning. "Professor Sartyr's movin' up to Obelisk... The enemy keeps gettin' us..."
"Yeah... how do we fight this enemy?" Jasmine wondered, gripping Atticus's hand. "It knows where to hit us and it can make what we're thinking worse..."
"Knowing that should give us the ability to combat it and yet... it's not working," Blair sighed, picking at her scrambled eggs. "If we can't figure this out... we won't be here for long..."
And then, as if the bad news couldn't stay as it is, it got worse. The group's PDAs rang with the tone that meant an important news message had been sent. "Oh, no...you guys don't think it might be...?" Alexis muttered, pulling out her PDA.
They all took a look and all their faces went pale as the faces of Noah and Serena Kaiba, age 11, and Angela Wheeler, age 10, looked up at them. "No," Chazz groaned, reading the headline. "They're gone..."
"And Kisara's in the hospital," Jaden muttered, aching for the young pregnant mother and her husband as he glanced through the article. "She got really upset and her blood pressure went up too high. They were afraid she'd go into labor and it's too early. Since she's having twins again, it's risky."
The teens knew that this meant more people had likely disappeared all over the world. Domino was probably starting to look as empty as Duel Academy. "This has to stop... There has to be something we can do so that they can't use our fears against us," Syrus stated, a hand on his head.
Annie was already crying. "All those kids... How can Seto, Kisara, Joey, Mai, Yugi and Teá stand it?" she moaned, having a good idea as to how it would feel if she had a child that was suddenly snatched from her arms.
Syrus pulled her into a hug. "I don't know, Annie... But we'll get them back somehow... And we'll find a way to stop them from taking anyone else... We have to..."
"Yeah, Sy... We're gonna stop it," Jaden asserted, his eyes set. "There's got to be something we're missing... Right, Bastion? Bastion?" But the British-Japanese-American Ra was picking at his breakfast, not really paying attention to what was said.
Breakfast had been quieter than usual without Violet there; they all felt her absence. But it was even worse that Bastion was only there in body, his mind somewhere else. "Bastion? Are you feeling okay?" Alexis asked, reaching to touch his arm and get his attention.
Bastion jerked up. "Hmmm? Oh... sorry, Alexis... what did you say?" he asked, trying to cover his mood and failing miserably.
"I asked if you were feeling okay... We're worried about you, Bastion," she answered, frowning. Everyone was looking at the Ra with worried expressions.
"I'm all right. Thank you," he answered.
"Bastion," Annie tried, "please don't hold it in..."
"I'm not holding anything in... There's nothing left to hold in," he answered softly. He took one more bite of his breakfast, a buttered crumpet, and then drank down his orange juice. "I'll be studying, should you all need me," he finished, standing up.
"Bastion," Atticus called, getting the Ra's attention.
"Yes, Atticus?" Bastion asked, turning around.
"If you need anything, call us, okay? Or if you just want to talk..."
"Thank you," Bastion answered softly, and headed off to his room to get a book. He would spend the day studying and going to class with the group. And then he would head back to his bedroom at Obelisk to fall into a restless sleep.
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Late that night, down in Jaden and Alexis's room, Alexis began to moan softly in their bed. "Lex?" Jaden asked, waking up beside her.
In her dream, Alexis was back reliving the day when Atticus had disappeared from the face of the earth. "How could this have happened?" Scout Rhodes moaned, crying as any mother would, having been told her son wasn't coming home.
Alexis, in her last year of Duel Academy Prep school, was crying as well. However, she had never been one to sob or cry violently, usually letting out silent tears. She sat at the kitchen table with her parents, the tears slipping down her cheeks. Jack Rhodes held his wife, crying much the same way that Alexis was. "I don't know, Scout... I just don't know..."
"How... did he just disappear?!" Scout moaned. "Lexi, sweetheart, come here..." And she pulled her daughter close as she had before in reality.
The three Rhodes hugged, crying together at the loss of the fourth member of their tight-knit family. "Mom...when I go to Duel Academy...I'll find him... I promise," Alexis asserted in a muffled voice, sniffling a little from her tears. It pained her that she was unable to help her brother, had been unable to help him when he needed her the most.
"Honey... we don't even know what's happened... We can't lose you too..."
"You won't... Mom, I need to find him... He said he'd always protect me...and I said I'd protect him too..."
"Lexi...there was nothing you could do... You were in school here in Domino, and he was on that island," Jack soothed.
"Alexis," Scout said sadly, "baby, it's been a week and the police have no leads. They have nothing to go on... And all those other kids that have gone missing... Atty's just... gone," she finished, voice breaking. "My sweet boy..."
"He may be gone, but I'm going to find him! I will! I'm not giving up..." Alexis pulled away from her parents and ran out of the kitchen. She wanted to go to her room, to be alone, to think of how she was going to fix this. But instead of finding herself in her bedroom, she found herself out in the open air, with the smell of sulfur close by. It was the volcano at Duel Academy on the night Atticus had returned.
Jaden was unconscious on the ground, some burn marks on his cheeks and uniform. But also lying on the ground was a figure with dark brown hair. In the dark clothing he wore, along with the strange dark mask with jewels, he had been almost unrecognizable. But with the mask off, his visage was unmistakable to the sister who had been waiting for nearly two years to see his face. "Alexis, who is it?" Zane Truesdale asked from above her, and then he was stunned into silence.
Alexis felt tears brim her eyes as she pulled the teen into an embrace. "It's him, Zane... It's Atticus...it's really him... He's back..." The tears finally fell, and she tightened her grip on him, afraid that if she let go he'd disappear again. Atticus was clearly hurt, and she'd been unable to help him, again.
"It's really him," Zane muttered in disbelief. "But...how could he have been a Shadow Rider?"
"I think we need to get them to the infirmary! I'm calling ahead to Miss Fontaine!" Bastion stated as Annie Hanson pulled out a small first aid kit from her backpack to do what she could for the unconscious boys.
Alexis buried her face in her brother's slightly singed hair, unable to speak. She just cried, feeling relieved and pained at the same time. "I'm sorry, Atty... I promised I'd protect you... I failed you...I'm so sorry," she whispered, almost inaudibly.
The scene dissolved and Alexis again found herself somewhere else. She had run down an alley with her mother to find Chazz, her future brother at the time, limp and surrounded by trash. "Mmmm," he groaned in obvious pain.
"CHAZZ!" Alexis dropped beside him, eyes wide. "Bro, are you okay?!" Meanwhile, her heart felt a pang of guilt and regret. She'd promised herself to protect everyone, since she'd failed her brother twice. But here she was, again, looking down at a hurt friend that was about to be a brother.
"Slade and Jagger... couldn't let them hurt you guys..." And then, unlike in reality, Chazz began to cough up blood. This indicated major internal trauma.
"Oh, my gosh! He's bleeding internally! Sweetie, hang in there!" Scout tried to sooth her adopted-in-heart child.
Alexis gasped, taking her brother's hand. "Chazz, hang on! We're going to get help!" She bit her bottom lip, feeling the tears stinging at her eyes. 'No...no, no, no! Don't do this...I'm sorry! I should have been here to protect you!! I failed you just like I failed Atty,' she thought, anguished.
Darkness twisted the dream even further. "JACK! CALL 911 NOW! WE CAN'T MOVE HIM!" Scout shrieked, frantically working over Chazz.
Jack got on his cell phone and called the paramedics in seconds, telling them their location. "Chazz...Chazz! Stay with us!" Alexis tried, squeezing his hand and feeling her heart race uncontrollably. 'My fault...I should have been here... Because of me,' she thought. And in reality, actual tears brimmed her eyes, conveying the sadness she felt. "Chazz...my fault....no...."
"Not... your fault... sis," Chazz struggled to say.
"Sweetheart, hang on, and save your strength," Scout murmured, doing all she could. But by the time the ambulance arrived, it was already too late. Chazz died just as the ambulance arrived at the hospital.
And in reality, Jaden knew what was happening. "Babe, wake up! You're having a nightmare! It's not real! Fight Darkness!" He took her hand and squeezed it. "It's me, Jay... I'm here!"
"Chazz...!" Alexis cried out, still lost in her nightmare. The thought of losing one of her brothers for good was just too much; it practically broke her heart. And then Jaden did the one thing he was sure would wake her up. He gently lifted the top of her pajama top, exposing her flat belly, pressed his lips to it and blew, giving her a tummy raspberry.
Alexis giggled through her tears, squirming at the strange touch suddenly cutting through her dreams. Opening her eyes, she lightly smacked Jaden's head. "J-Jaden! Stop! What are you doing??"
"Ouch!" he yelped. "Babe, you were having a nightmare! I had to do something to wake you up, especially if Darkness was doing something to you!"
"W-What?? A nightmare?" She asked, blinking a few times. And then she felt the wetness on her face, and how her heart was slowly returning to its normal pace.
"What do you remember?" he asked, pulling her into his arms.
"It...it was just old memories... When Atty went missing...when we found him at the volcano... But then...then Chazz, he...." She stopped, unable to bring herself to say the words.
"Tell me," he urged, rubbing her back softly and kissing her forehead. "It's okay... It was just a dream..."
"But...it was so real... He...he DIED, Jaden... He was dead," she moaned, burying her face in his shoulder as more hot tears fell.
"He... died? Back in the alley?" he asked, knowing when Chazz could've been taken from them.
She sniffed, nodding against him. "And I couldn't do anything... I couldn't help Atty...I couldn't help Chazz... I couldn't even help any of our friends who have disappeared..."
"Lex... I've felt that way too," he admitted. "But first, I remember back when Atticus first came back. You helped him come back to us. You didn't leave his side when he was still waking up."
She met his eyes. "But I couldn't stop him from going missing..."
"Alexis... where were you?" Jaden asked gently as they lay down. He cuddled her tenderly, trying to send his own strength into her.
"At...at school," Alexis muttered, resting her forehead against his chest.
"And where was school?"
"...Duel Academy Prep..."
"And where's Duel Academy Prep?" he asked, brushing a lock of her golden hair out of her face.
"Domino City... But, Jaden..."
"What?" he asked, knowing by now that she needed to talk it out.
"I promised I'd protect him," she muttered, frowning.
Jaden took a very deep breath. "Babe... I realized something. Do you know what has gone through my head for nearly three years? And since I was a little kid?"
Alexis shook her head slightly. "No...what?"
"I hated myself when I couldn't protect the people I cared about... I kept thinking maybe it was my fault... You know?"
"Yeah... That's exactly what I thought..."
"But then... I realized something. I can't be in two places at once. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't protect everyone from everything. But what I could do was be there to help my friends through whatever happened..."
"Y-You're right... But I still feel like I could have done something...anything..."
Jaden held her with his gaze. "Babe... that guilt... it only eats away at you... And it can push you away from people... Without you even knowing it..."
"It...it can?"
He nodded. "I held myself back from you guys..."
She realized he was right again. "You did... Jaden, have I...have I held myself back?"
"What do you think?" he asked gently. He didn't want her to feel forced.
"I...I don't know... Maybe," she muttered, frowning, and trying to think back on if she'd ever held anything from the gang or Jaden.
"Do you remember when we first found the Horakhty dorm?"
"Yeah..."
"You and I had dueled, and we'd become friends... But it wasn't until the night Chumley, Sy and I came to the abandoned dorm that you really talked about Atticus. You didn't tell me that he was missing until then..."
"So...you're saying that's one of the times that I held back?"
"I know you weren't ready to tell me then," he said gently. "I don't know if you were holding back at that point. Do you think you were?"
She looked down. "I...maybe I was... I haven't exactly told anyone but you how...guilty I've felt about not being able to protect our friends..."
"Babe," he murmured, kissing her softly, "it's okay to feel that way, but what's not okay... is letting that feeling dominate you and slowly eat away at you..."
"Do you think...that this nightmare is a sign that I'm doing that?" she asked, fingers clutching at the bed sheets worriedly.
He kept her close to him. "It... it might be..."
She frowned, burying her face in his chest. "Then....how do I stop...?"
"I don't know," he murmured. "But we've got to do something..."
"Before I get cornered and convinced to go with him," she muttered, saying their fear aloud.
Jaden shivered, an image of an empty academy and himself there, trying to fight the dark enemy without his love and his friends. 'I'm not going to let this happen,' he thought. "Babe... let's talk it out... Maybe talking will help..."
"Okay... But, can we do it tomorrow? I'm really tired," Alexis replied truthfully, stifling a yawn.
"Okay, babe... Just please promise to talk," he murmured, yawning himself.
"I promise..." They sealed the promise with a kiss and drifted to sleep cuddled close together.
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As Jaden and Alexis fell into a deep sleep, Bastion began to toss in the bed he'd shared with Violet. "No," he moaned softly as the duel spirits around him watched.
"It's happening... This isn't a good sign," Pacifica muttered in beast tongue, watching her master worriedly.
Vulcan sighed sadly, also in beast tongue. "Bastion can't fight this alone... but he won't allow his friends to help..."
"If he doesn't change his mindset soon...he'll be gone," Tiffles agreed.
The duel spirits knew how strong his nightmares were, but had not looked into them. And perhaps it was a good thing they hadn't... Bastion was in Cleveland and being held down by members of Mike's gang. "Heh... you pathetic wannabe," Mike snarled. "There are more of my guys than there are of you..."
"Bastion!!" a distressed Violet called, tears streaming down her cheeks. She too was being held down, with Mike looming threateningly over her.
"Your precious Bastion-baby can't save you now, Violet... You're pathetic," he said, slapping her across the face.
"WHY YOU--!" Bastion shouted, cut off as one of Mike's goons socked him.
Violet sobbed, unable to fight back even if she hadn't been held down. The emotional trauma was obvious. "B-Bastion...help me...please..." Her tone was pleading, begging; like a kicked puppy whining to be saved.
Bastion struggled. "LET ME GO!"
And the goons began beating him badly. "Vi-olet," he moaned as her blood-curdling screams as Mike hit her became moans.
"B...Bas...tion," came Violet's weak reply, her breathing barely audible until a few coughs could be heard. He could also hear the distinct sound of blood smacking onto the ground and then a body following after it.
"Goodbye, Violet... you pathetic nothing," Mike grinned wickedly. He snapped his fingers and his gang let go of the couple and left.
Bastion, mortally injured, clawed his way over to Violet. "Da-Darling," he muttered weakly, taking her badly injured hand, knowing that the end was coming.
Violet's breathing was getting shallower, at least a few of her ribs obviously broken and her internal organs injured. She coughed a bit more, blood staining her now-pale lips a sickening cherry red color. "Ba-Bastion...I," Violet wheezed, obviously using her remaining energy to say the next few words. "I...l-love...you..."
"I... I love you, Violet... I... couldn't... save you," Bastion moaned weakly, his head spinning. Violet, unable to say anymore, seemed to give Bastion a sad look before the life faded from her eyes. Her last breath rattled out of her beaten chest, and her hand fell limp in his grasp. "No," Bastion was just able to get out, before his own hand went limp...
That part of the nightmare dissolved and he found himself in the coliseum. "VIOLET!" he called out.
She was again chained to the wall, though for the moment unscathed aside from exhaustion, hunger, and dehydration. "BASTION! I believe in you! I know you can beat her!!" she called, a ghost of a grin on her face.
"Taniya!" he shouted, but he couldn't see the woman's face this time. He could only see a shadowy figure with her build. The Amazon Tiger's attack launched and Violet was hit. "VIOLET!!!"
Violet screamed as the claws dug deep gashes into her flesh, legs shaking. She probably would have fallen had the chains not been holding her aloft. "I-I'm...I'm okay...Bastion! You can do this!!" Violet called, though her face displayed her agony quite clearly.
The shadowy figure smirked as the duel went on and Violet was hurt worse. "Taniya... please end this!" Bastion pleaded. But the shadowy Taniya would not do it.
Violet was hanging now, forced to stay dangling because of the shackles. Her body was covered in injuries ranging from cuts to burns to bruises, her clothes soaked with her own blood. She coughed up yet more blood, having taken internal damage yet again. "Bastion......it....it hurts," she moaned, unable to keep her eyes open.
"VIOLET!" Bastion managed to summon Water Dragon and end the duel, and as in real life, he ran to Violet's side. "Darling... darling, please..."
Once more a broken and bloody heap, Violet was obviously finding it harder to breathe. Each breath was a ragged gasp, and by this point the very ground was soaked with her blood. "B-Bastion...I...I can't..." She gave out another strangled gasp, more tortuous as she coughed and spit up what precious blood she had left.
"Darling... save your strength," Bastion murmured, pulling out the first aid kid from his backpack.
However, Violet only groaned and forced herself up on shaking arms. "I...I need....can't..." She couldn't form the words, using all of her strength to push her face closer to his.
Bastion pulled her into his arms. "What is it, love?" he asked, tears coming to his eyes.
"I...love you...s-so much," Violet whispered in a raspy voice. She moved up, pressing her bloody lips against his weakly. It was a kiss of death, her final breath brushing against his skin as she pulled away.
"Violet?" Bastion felt her go limp and began CPR. But within a few minutes, he knew it was futile. It wasn't until the teachers arrived an hour later that they forced him away from his love's corpse. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed desperately as Miss Fontaine covered Violet's still form with a white sheet.
But then the scenery changed for a final time, to a classroom darkened by shadows. It was empty aside from Bastion himself and two others; the woman he loved and a menacing-looking man in a leather jumpsuit and sunglasses. "No... no... not this again," Bastion cried out. "Violet! Please! I love you! Don't go with him!"
Violet was sobbing violently, on her knees at the man's feet with her face buried in her hands. "Shut up! You DON'T love me! Why shouldn't I go with him?! Wherever I'd go, it would take the pain away!!"
"BECAUSE I'D RATHER DIE THAN HAVE YOU TAKEN FROM ME AGAIN!" he howled.
And suddenly, the nightmare took a violent and unexpected turn. The man disappeared, along with the classroom, and it was just Bastion and Violet. She stood, glaring at him with a tear-streaked face. "THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULD DIE!" she screamed back.
Bastion moaned. "You... have every right... to say that..."
And then, it got worse, as Violet's beaten corpse appeared beside her from when Mike had "killed" her. "It's YOUR fault I'm dead, Bastion Misawa! I was counting on you! I had faith that you would rescue me from my nightmares!!"
"This is a nightmare... I... you lived... but... I couldn't protect you..."
"No, that's QUITE obvious!" a third voice shouted as another Violet appeared. This time it was her bloody, broken corpse from the coliseum that Miss Fontaine had covered with a sheet. "Look what happened to ME!! I decided to trust you again, hoping maybe this time you would save me! But you FAILED!! LOOK at me! I suffered even worse than before!"
That hit like a hammer-blow to Bastion's heart. "I... I failed," he moaned, sinking to his knees. Tears ran down his well-chiseled face.
The corpses vanished as the remaining, living Violet stepped forward. Dropping down into a crouching position, she cupped his handsome face in her hands. "You did...you failed so many times, Bastion... Don't you think it's time YOU suffered for your mistakes? For your failures?" This, of course, was Darkness speaking. But Bastion either didn't know or if he did, was far too depressed to care anymore.
"I'll have to... I can't live without you, Violet... I can't..."
"Then give in," Violet whispered in his ear, hiding the smirk of Darkness because of her position. "Let the Darkness take you like you let it take me..."
"When I wake... and when he comes... I will not resist," Bastion stated softly, his gray eyes going blank.
Violet's eyes changed entirely to red for a moment, whites and all. Then, they reverted back to their normal green. "Good... I love you, Bastion," she whispered, kissing him.
"I love you, darling," he murmured back, still on his knees. And the dream dissolved, and Bastion fell into a deep sleep. Darkness laughed silently in the shadows of the teen's room, eyes burning. It had worked better than he had even hoped, and he knew that the boy would soon be drifting in the World of Darkness. With that he disappeared, leaving Mr. T to take more students as well as people around the world yet again.
Bastion, it seems, is mentally wounded to the point he can't think clearly anymore. At this stage of damage, even his friends' logic cannot reach him. This happens a lot in cases of severe depression and he can't fight it anymore… Next time, join us for "Piercing Darkness Part I." So until then, please read, review and stay tuned! Thank you!