Chapter 26
Sitting back, leaning her head against the walls of the cream coloured walls Claudia closed her eyes, they held slight purple bags underneath, wearing a blue t-shirt with just a normal formal black waist coat over it, pair of black Khaki's, brown leather wrist band on the right wrist, silver bracelet on the left, she wasn't wearing any make up but her hair was up. Rubbing her face slightly allowing the aroma of Italian roasted coffee to fill her nose, she let out a small groan.
It had been a few days since she had her emotional breakdown in front of Mrs Fredrick, cuddles with Steve and finding out about Professor banners disappearance. Everyone was trying their hardest to find out where Banner had gone to but it was like he'd completely vanished off the island, there wasn't even a single trace of his fat yellow cat Pharaoh.
She closed her eyes to give them a slight bit of rest when she heard the chair next to her pull out, opening them back up she saw Chazz and Alexis sitting down with their own coffees. "What are you two doing here?" Chazz was just wearing black jeans with a red t-shirt, Alexis was in blue boot cut jeans and yellow button up blouse. "All mighty gay boy said we could find you here, we wanted to talk to you" spoke the black haired boy, crossing his arms sitting back.
Claudia's eyes twitched trying not to get pissed off, but with the lack of sleep at the moment plus the three sacred gate keys she wore around her neck wasn't helping, "Do not call him that, Jinksy is my BFFE, we've been through a lot together. Now why would you want talk to me?"
Alexis sighed, she had been stopping with Claudia at the moment "Claudia I'm concerned and worried about you, you look shattered I know you're not sleeping why?" Claudia looked away from the blonde picking up her coffee. She grunted slightly taking a sip. "I know you only get 2 hours, after that you wake up screaming no and then stay up all night working on that blue gun." Claudia almost choked when she looked to Alexis. She sighed placing the coffee down and laced her fingers together.
"You know about my Therapy sessions right?" the blonde nodded, but Chazz didn't know so he leaned slightly closer to listen, "I've not seen Abigail since this whole shadow riders thing started two weeks ago so…. My old nightmares and fears are coming back, talking to her and sorting out my problems made me able to live normal without feeling like a freak," she placed a hand on her forehead and gripped her bangs rather tightly gritting her teeth.
Chazz reached over taking her free hand and gave it a slight squeeze, both him and Alexis noticed her flinch slightly before she squeezed back, "It happened a few years ago now, I thought at the time my dead brother was trying to contact me, I kept seeing and hearing his voice so I immited myself into an institution, but that didn't help they kept coming and Dr Michner decided to try a new form of treatment apart from the meds and talking, Electroshock therapy…. Three times a day for at least a month before I pretended that it worked and discharged myself, as soon as I left that place I ran…but I still kept seeing Joshua,"
Alexis looked confused considering that Joshua was inside the infirmary, in a coma yes but very much alive, "He'd tried human teleportation and it worked….but he had been trapped there for 12 years, I tracked my old man down Artie and we managed to save him, he'd gone to work for Cern and I began working for the NSA yeah I'm young I know but I have the skills and connections, But the nightmares kept coming I began to think that my life was a delusion until I began to have Therapy sessions with Abigail, the fear was going and I was getting better but now….. it's coming back, especially with Zane."
The blonde 16 year old moved her chair closer to Claudia and brought her into a hug, "You need to see Abigail and also get some sleep, your running yourself ragged Claud, You are not crazy, Joshua is right there in the infirmary…. He's alive, you saved him again, and we are going to save Zane as well as Jaden, we will do it together ok?"
Chazz watched as the red haired teenager held back the tears, he knew she was tough, even refusing to cry but it had pissed him off that some doctor would use electroshock therapy on anyone. "We will not leave you alone Donovan ok? I respect Zane, he's a top duellist so close to becoming pro," Claudia nodded holding a small smile, "Thanks Chazz, just call me Claudia ok?"
He nodded and sipped his coffee.
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Time went by rather quickly for the teenagers to the point where they walked Claudia back to the dorms, Alexis forced the girl to bed, in which the girl fell asleep instantly, Alexis sat on the top bunk holding her hand which brought comfort to Claudia.
The door opened up to Mrs Fredrick walking in with Steve, they both saw Alexis on the top bunk and Chazz sat at Claudia's desk with his arms crossed, it looked like they was both on body guard duty. "Claud's taking a nap?" whispered the ATF Agent, and the blonde nodded, "She's been having nightmares lately of her past, from the Institution." Steve ran a hand down his face. "I thought wonder girl got past that…."
Chazz looked to Steve from the corner of his eye, "She's not seen her therapist in two weeks genius with all the fireworks lately she's running herself ragged. She was falling asleep inside the local coffee shop so we forced her back here to get some sleep."
The African woman nodded taking off her glasses, "we appreciate that Mr Princeton, with much hope all this shadow riders duelling will be over soon, now I have a proposition for the two of you"
Both teenagers looked to the woman, "I want both of you to help Agent Donovan out when she goes out on her missions with Agent Jinks, currently Agent Trusdale is out of commission and we are short on Agents, Miss Rhodes you will be in training for field work, and you Mr Princeton, will be in training for a Regent position, just like Agent Trusdale is to become Regent too I've only ever seen potential in a few selected individuals here at duel academy and I think Agent Donovan's seen them too."
Alexis looked confused, "Field work? Regent? I'm sorry but I don't really understand what you mean Mrs Fredrick" the African woman just smiled, "it's a job …that will be filled with Endless wonder Miss Rhodes, Agent Donovan, Trusdale, yourself and Mr Princeton are the future of our work. I will allow her" she nodded to the sleeping teenager, "To explain everything to you later, while I also leave this here since she has a tendency to steal Arthurs badge." She placed a leather wallet on Claudia's desk, "It's not NSA she's under anymore."
The smile disappeared from the woman's face when they heard whimpers coming from Claudia's mouth, Alexis quickly looked to the girl seeing her face scrunched up slightly she gently began holding the hand and rubbing her arm, which seemed to calm Claudia down. "I have to leave back for South Dakota soon so I will not be here when Agent Donovan wakes up, please help her through these difficult tasks."
Chazz stood up and held his hand out to the woman, "I accept your offer, so long as I get to work with Donovan, she's showed me a different light in life I owe her." The African woman nodded shaking his hand, "Mr Princeton, you will not receive any title until I've read the reports of your first mission, Steve and Claudia will be watching you and reporting to me. Goodbye for now"
With that the woman left, while Steve was leaning against the wall watching his best friend sleep, his heart had dropped when he began to hear her whimpering, "I'm going to call Abigail soon" the blonde nodded.
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Down inside the Academy's infirmary, a groan was heard from one of the Cots, opening up his chocolate brown eye's, but they looked strained, he looked around confused. "W…where am i?"
He began trying to sit up when he heard a male shout his name, "Joshua! Wow hold on don't move too fast!" his head turned to the side, looking to see Pete standing there hands gently on his shoulder. "What's going on? Why am I in the hospital? Last thing I remember is working on something for CERN and this guy in a cloak blew into the lab."
Pete lust placed hands on his hips "Well Joshua, it's actually a school infirmary, do you not remember what happened? Duelling against Claudia?" the man shook his head and held it slightly "No, in fact…duelling what? I would never hurt my baby sister." Pete smiled slightly, he loved hearing that Claudia was still a baby especially from Joshua's mouth, "everything will be explained soon, I'm just going to give our genius a call so she can come see you ok?" he nodded, "can you grab me some Aspirin while you're at it my heads pounding."
"Sure thing, welcome back to the world it's good to have you back" he slapped his back slightly and walked off to speak to Vanessa before opening his Farnsworth to Call Claudia.
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Back at the Slifer dorms, Claudia was still asleep Alexis had laid down next to her and both teenagers was cuddled up in each other's arms, Steve had found it cute, while Chazz was reading through Claudia's projects. He found them rather interesting when he jumped slightly from the black box buzzing next to his arm.
Steve smiled walking up "Here if your going to be an agent this is how you answer it" he opened it up and pressed the black button to see Pete's face, "Pete what's up? Any news on Banner?"
But what he saw was a big smile on the man's face, "Not yet bro, but I have good news for our technician, she there?" Steve looked up to the bed and then back to the Farnsworth, "She's taking a nap, so I'll take the message and let her know"
But Steve noticed the man's smile growing bigger, "I think she'll want this news now, Joshua just woke up man! He's a little disorientated and doesn't remember anything but I think Claudia will want to see him" that's when Pete saw Chazz's face, "she gets the news when she wakes up on her own, tell her brother he'll have to wait a while" with that he slammed the Farnsworth shut.
Steve looked to the boy "What? Nightmares remember! This is the first decent sleep she's got in over a week." He nodded agreeing and looked back up to Claudia with a smile on his face, "Well wonder girl won't stay here for long after she hears this news."
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A few hours later, around 6pm at night Claudia stirred from her slumber sitting up she rubbed her eyes when a voice was heard, "Glad to see you've returned to us" she turned her head to the side to see Chazz sat there, looking down she saw Alexis was asleep and smiled. "She stayed next to me?" Chazz nodded closing a book on Ratticus, "yeah, we both stayed, Pete called a few hours ago with news about your brother."
That immediately caught Claudia's attention, she jumped out of the three tier bed and looked to Chazz, "what happened? Is he ok?" the boy nodded, "He's fine, in fact he woke up I wasn't disturbing you when you'd had no sleep Donovan, he's still down at the infirma-" but he couldn't finish his sentence, Claudia grabbed her Ducati keys, running out the door. He sighed looking back up to the bunk then ran after the girl just managing to jump onto the back of her bike before they raced off down to the academy.
What they didn't know was that a tall bulky man had been watching the dorms, so as soon as they left he began walking closer.
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Joshua was sat up on the side of the bed, grey sweat pants and black T-shirt with the Warehouse Agents, he shook his head slightly holding up a hand, "Wait… so your telling me that this Seto Kaiba want's Claudia to take over his establishment? That is ridiculas…. Last time I saw Uncle Kaiba was before our parents death, him and Dad had a large argument and Seto walked out."
Myka leaned forward in his chair, "Well she lost to a duel and now here studying everything there is to know about the game, before taking over the company…. None of us like him due to the way he's forcing her too. Fair enough Claudia made the bet but still…."
"JOSHUA!" Shouted a large female voice running through the door, the girl quickly tackled him to the bed hugging the life out of him. "Whoa! Slow down there….." he looked to the teenager that was holding his head, tears flowing out of his eye's, "Shut up you big loaf! I've been so worried about you!" they both just hugged each other again, Joshua not really understanding but he just held his baby sister.
Chazz walked up into the infirmary, seeing the siblings hug brought a small smile to his face, Steve noticed and gave him a thumbs up, which he just ignored.
After some time they both let go and Joshua had been brought up to speed on what's been going on, he learned that the male with blue hair in the bed next to him was Claudia's boyfriend, in which he wasn't pleased with, over protective brother mode as you call it, then the boy next to him was Jaden his sisters best friend and roommate.
Claudia had told him about everything up to the point of now, he had promised to talk to Seto Kaiba to get her out of taking over, but she just shook her head, "I'm not having you waste any more of your life with something that's concerning mine, this is my problem not yours." He couldn't argue with her, she wouldn't let him and to be honest, he was scared of what Claudia could do. He'd seen the inventions she's made and it made him feel sorry for the people she'd use them against.
That was until Claudia and Chazz both fell to the floor gripping their arms, "CLAUDIA! Sweetie what's wrong?" she removed her left hand, and they all saw a 4th tally mark burned into their arms, eye's widened that could only mean two things, Alexis or Banner had lost a shadow duel, but Claudia's eye's looked over to the Slifer dorms, tears formed up as she knew who it was.
"Alexis….. no….. ALEXIS!" but she couldn't rush off, Joshua had restrained her, Myka and Vanessa did through heading down to the slifer dorms to check on the blonde.
Which was soon brought into the infirmary 30 minutes later, sad looks on both womans faces, as Claudia crashed to the floor… the girl who helped keep her nightmares away was now soulless…..
Anger began to burn inside her heart, she gripped her chest biting her lip drawing blood. "Claudia?"
They all noticed the reddish tint inside her brown eyes, apart from Joshua they all knew what that meant, Claudia's rage was returning, and this time it wasn't going to be pretty.
"Them bastards…..are mine…"
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And that's it for this chapter, more duelling to come next chapter! Who's Claudia going to duel against? Will she let this anger go?
Will they get the lost souls back?
Curedream90 and ArticDragonSlayer! Over and out!