The Rise and Fall of History: A Past Unseen

by Medigo

The world of dueling has reached a standstill. Many stories have been told through these cards, and the final story pits every side against each other. It is a game no more. Duelists are divided, and an unknown enemy watches from afar. In the midst of all this chaos is one man who brings a new power that can forever end the conflict; a stranger to this world and to himself.

75. Decompression Sickness

Annex 075: Decompression Sickness

Alice's LP: 8000 Emily's LP: 3700

"Alice. You don't have to worry. We are the only ones here, nobody will hear us." Emily had touched a personal subject, known only to the direct members of their family. "I don't.. I don't want to talk about it." Alice was terrified, and that terror was linked to that secret. That was what Emily reasoned. "I know, I understand. But I want to help you and I can't do that if you don't tell me what you are thinking. We never told Cassius, Eric.. or Uno. Maybe it is time. You can't keep running from it." A matter like this could not be kept from everyone forever. "I can, I want to! You promised me. You still have to win." Alice wouldn't listen, not as long as this duel was happening. "Very well." Since her little sister had taken the kids gloves off, it was time for her to do the same.

"I special summon Superheavy Samurai Scales from my hand!" Her opponent had four monsters on the field, twice more then was necessary to fulfill the conditions of her scale-wearing warrior(4/800/1800)'s effect. It could summon itself to an empty field and also summon a Superheavy Samurai from Emily's graveyard. "I am bringing Superheavy Samurai Drum back." The hand-drum tuner(1/300/300) re-materialized. "And since there are no spell or trap cards in my graveyard, I can special summon Superheavy Samurai Big Waraji from my hand!" The third piece of her soon-to-be-finished puzzle was the sandal-body Superheavy(5/800/1800).. "A synchro monster.." In total there were ten levels, so Alice could calculate which card would come from the extra deck. "Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo!" The Drum tuned itself with Scales and Big Waraji. The strongest warrior at Emily's disposal, the earthrending Susanowo(10/2400/3800), made a smashing impact on the castle walls. "The card he will attack is your Nekroz ritual monster!" The Warlord raised his weapon and swung it down on Nekroz of Trishula(9/2700/2000). The dragon warrior burst into a million pieces of ice.

Alice's LP: 6900

"Now it's my turn to say sorry, Alice. But I really can't lose. So I am going to have go a little further. Susanowo can take one trap or spell card in your graveyard, so.." Emily used the effect of her synchro monster, and swiped away Vanity's Emptiness. "I take your continuous trap and set it on my field. With Vanity's Emptiness on my field, neither of us can special summon monsters." This was the right time to set this lock, after she had special summoned her synchro samurai. "End turn." On the other side Alice only controlled monsters that could not touch Susanowo, whether he was in defense or attack position. Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands(4/1400/1000), Dance Princess of the Nekroz(4/1600/800) and Exa Enforcer of the Nekroz(5/2000/1000); they all had to be switched to defense mode. "Emily, are you really doing this because you want it? Or is this because Aaron asked you to stay? I know you like him.." Alice questioned her sister now, touching another deep-seated subject. "Hey, what does that have to do with it?!" She reacted with exasperation. "Maybe its been years and maybe he changed a bit, but I trust him a hell of a lot more than.."

"More than me?" Alice looked at her while she placed two trap cards down. "What? No! I didn't say that!" Emily stammered. Luckily or unluckily, a loud noise covered the area before either sister could say anything else. "They're back." It was Zach's helicopter.

The chopper landed near Doms temporary station, which Iria and Zach quickly entered. "Huh. They were in a hurry." The two disciples had been rather on edge the whole trip. Uno wondered what that was all about. "What about you, Eric? Can you stand?" He checked with the other passenger. "Ergh. In a minute.." Eric groaned. He was still recovering from his recent duel, and from the side-effects of Dame Phoebe's mind manipulation. "Don't push yourself. It should be okay to relax here." Uno looked around for anyone who could help him bring Eric inside. "Huh? Alice and Emily?" The only two people he saw though were in the middle of a duel on the castle walls. "You can see them?" Eric was surprised too. "Yeah.. We missed something apparently. Stay here. I'll see what's up."

...
"Girls, what's going on here?" Uno said once he got up the stairs and reached the castle walkway. "Uno!" Alice and Emily would have been happier to see him under different circumstances. "Alice talked to Adamant, and he got her worried with his doomtalk. I'm trying to get her to see that it is safer here." Emily explained. "By dueling her?" Uno scratched his head. "Uh, yes. At least, It made sense at first." She had only wanted to cheer her sister up, but now things got out of hand. Moreso than with their usual sisterly spats. "But it is not just doomtalk. Uno agrees, right?" Alice looked at Uno with welling eyes. "Agree?" He still did not really know what either of them were talking about. "The other world, Adamant said that the enemy came from there. Like you!" If anyone could ever recognize the reality of this parallel universe, it would be the one who had visited it. "Yeah but.. I still don't remember any of it. Most of it. All I saw that last time was a ruined theater and a strange sky with weird robots in it. I didn't meet anyone there. Allthough if that wasn't the future, maybe that theater did not just get destroyed by age."

"Not the best evidence here." Emily grumbled. She would leave aside the fact that this whole timeline business sounded far-fetched. "As far as I can tell, we only have Adamants words to go on. That is just not enough!" Emily took her next turn and summoned a warrior, a knight(3/1200/400) in silver armor and an chefs apron. "Marmiting Captain. I am going to send a card in my hand back to draw a new card." Emily shuffled her last card into the deck. "If that card is a monster, I can special summon him!" She pulled the card that had now been shuffled to the top. "Oh for.." It turned out to be one of the few traps that Emily's deck possessed; Dauntless Stance. "I set this card. Then I will flip yours face-up." Vanity's Emptiness was finally activated. If even fate was going to put up a struggle, she would hold nothing back. "I enter the Battle phase!" She could still kill two of her monsters at least. Marmiting Captain killed the defending Dance Princess with a quick hit from his soup-spoon. Susanowo stomped towards the bigger target; Enforcer Exa.

"What about my words?!" Alice activated one of her traps, Impenetrable Defense. "Ah?" The very same trap that Emily had lent to Alice when they started their days in the guild. The trap targeted the defending Exa. Because it had less than 1500 defense points it could not be destroyed as a result of battle this turn. " "You always tell me that I daydream too much. But this is not like that! What he's talking about is real, I just know it! And no matter what we do, we can't stop it!" Before her turn ended, Emily reactivated the effect of Susanowo to take a trap card from Alice's graveyard and set it on her field. Alice's next turn came and she was not going to stay on the defense anymore. She activated the field spell, Ritual Stage, and switched Exa the Enforcer to attack mode. "Attack the Marmiting Captain!" The seadragons claws ran straight through the warrior chef. Now that a card had been sent to her graveyard, Vanity's Emptiness destroyed itself and, like all of the warlords stolen cards, was banished instead of being returned to the graveyard. "Ugh. Okay, suppose this enemy exists, and that it is not just Adamant making up things, that does not mean Aaron is working with them. What about the fusion guild?"

Emily's LP: 2900

Ritual Stage, Field Spell
Ritual monsters you control gain 1000 atk during the batlle phase.
While you control a ritual monster, your opponent cannot target non-ritual monsters for attacks or with effects.

"It can't be the fusion guild either." Said the duelist who had been part of that guild until recently. "Eric!?" The sisters cried out together as they saw their friend climb the stairs to the wall. "Eric? I thought you were going to rest?" Uno reminded him. "That was just me trying to avoid everyone. But I can't do that. It wouldn't be nice.. I came here to say sorry, Emily, Alice.." He took a deep breath. "And also to talk to you about what I've seen. I heard what you were shouting about. I think Alice may be right. When I was.. following Dame Phoebe, she told me all kinds of things. Probably because she didn't think I would ever leave her. I can't picture it that well anymore, she still did not trust me with the details. But I remember her talking about an ancient secret that Dom supposedly was hiding with his decryption codes. And there was this great powerful army from a place nobody ever heard of. She believes that the XYZ-guild is the one who partnered up with this force, that their entire speech about wanting to fight against them is just a lie and they really just want to give Doms secrets to the Enemy. I don't know where she gets this information from though.."

"That just makes them both look worse, they're all pointing fingers at each other and at Aaron too. I've been following this guild. We're all equals here, Aaron never keeps anything hidden from me." They couldn't know that, they hadn't spent as much time with him as she did. "Alice. It is true that you let your thoughts get too creative sometimes. Isn't it possible that you were just seeing something that is not there?" Emily tried to reason with her sister again. She felt like they were going around in circles and getting nowhere. "No. It's not. I'm tired of people telling me that I am imagining things!" Alice snapped and activated her trap; Urgent Ritual Art. "Why can't you just let me do what I want?" While the player controlled no ritual monsters, Urgent Ritual Art could banish a ritual spell in her hand or graveyard and activate that spells effects. "Because I am your big sister! I am responsible for you while mom and dad are gone!" Emily reactivated the effect of Susanowo. It grabbed a spell card from Alice's graveyard this turn; Nekroz Mirror. With it set on her side of the field, Urgent Ritual Art could not target it anymore.

"But.. you're not.. my sister."

"What?" Uno did a double-take. "Alice?" Emily gasped in surprise. "No I.." Alice wobbled a bit as she got selfconscious about the other people in hearing range. "I didn't..mean to say.. That didn't happen." She continued the effect of Urgent Ritual Art and activated a Nekroz Cycle ritual spell from her hand instead. With it she sacrificed her face-up Enforcer to ritual summon Nekroz of Catastor(5/2200/1200) from the graveyard. With Exa's tribute effect she added Nekroz of Decisive Armor from her deck to her hand. "You're not here! Just go away!" Catastor attacked Susanowo. The seadragon could kill any extra deck monster with its new claws, whether they had immense defense or attackpoints. "I was afraid of this.. Alice, whatever you are seeing, it is not real. You're still here, dueling me!" Emily activated the trap card that Susanowo had taken from the graveyard, Impenetrable Defense. "No..Nonono!" Susanowo had more than 1500 defensepoints, so it could not be destroyed by card effects this turn. The attack could not be stopped anymore.

"Emily? What is happening to her?" Eric hadn't ever seen Alice act so stressed. "She's having a panic attack. I can explain later, I have to stop this now." Emily had almost placed her hand on her deck to cancel the duel outright, but the monsters were quicker than her. "I must destroy it!" Alice discarded the Nekroz of Decisive Arms from her hand to make Catastor(3200/1200) stronger. The Ritual Stage field spell added even more attackpower to Catastor(4200/1200). It now had the power to finish off Susanowo. "Alice, we have to stop this!" Her sister was not thinking straight anymore, otherwise she wouldn't have tried to rush blindly into an attack like this. Emily still had one trap left. "I.. activate Daunting Stance!" That trap targeted Susanowo. It would take all his defense points away at the end of the turn, but first it would double his(2400/7600) defense points. "Destroy Catastor!" Susanowo grabbed the charging Nekroz and slammed it down into the ground as it struggled. "Ahhh!"

Alice's LP: 3500

"Hhn... It hurts." Alice reached for her chest. "Why does it hurt?!" Her heart started beating out of control, it felt like it was trying to escape her body. "Alice!" It was not the attack that caused this pain, Emily knew better. She threw her dueldisk away and rushed to her sisters side. "No. Don't.. Stay away!" She tried to keep a distance, but there was nowhere to go. "Alice. I know you're scared, but you're not in danger. Stay with me, don't think about it." Emily carefully approached her. However when she saw her sisters eyes darting left and right, trying to find a way out, she knew she had to be quick. "I'm sorry!" She grabbed Alice and held her close and tight. "Aaaah! No.." Alice's eyes went wide and her breathing sped up. "Let me go, Just let me go! I have to.. I can't stay here! It's coming! They're coming!" She screamed and screamed until her voice gave out. "They're.." Her vision dimmed, and she collapsed in Emily's arms. "Gah! Is she.." Eric feared the worst. "She tired herself out.." Emily sighed. "Guys, please help me get her to a bed."

Of course, Uno and Eric offered Emily the help immediately. They carried Alice to the room the Brandts slept in and placed her on her bed. Member of the synchro guild also offered help, since they did not fail to notice what was happening. But all Emily requested was a glass of water and they went on their way. Once it was just the four of them again, Emily started talking. "So I suppose you will want to know the full stor." There was no way around that, Eric and Uno had both had seen Alice's outburst. "I'd be lying if I said no." Eric conceded. "Same here. But, if you don't want to, then you don't have to. It is your past, not ours." Uno did not feel he had the right to ask it of them, though his curiosity, as always, was very strong. "Too late for that. If I don't say anything, it will just make things worse." She paused and readied herself. It would not be easy to speak about this, she did not know how to begin. "Alice is.." She looked at her unconscious sister, at the girl. "She's not my real sister, I mean.. not my biological sister. She was adopted."

"Adopted?" Uno had guessed it was something like that after what he had seen just now. "I never heard about this!" Eric yelled. "Eric. Please keep it quiet." Emily whispered. Alice thankfully stayed asleep. "Sorry." Eric lowered his voice. "It's not a pleasant story... or one that has a lot of answers. Alice was just.. found one day, around seven years ago." Emily shook her head. It disturbed her to talk about this after all this time. "Some people found her in a forest near Seille town, alone. There were no signs of her family, she had no ID, nobody in town had ever seen her before. She was a nobody." Emily paused to swallow a lump in her throat. "What? Did she get lost.. or abandoned?" Uno did not want to assume the worst, but nothing about this sounded good. "Who knows. Her parents were never located, they could be anywhere living under different identities.. or they could be.." Dead. Emily didn't want to say that out loud. "My mom worked at socical services back then. I'm not sure how she did it, I was very young when it happened. But I think when she heard of this case, and how Alice did not seem to have anyone who could take care of her, she wanted to do it herself. She used her connections and made it so that Alice could become a Brandt."

"I had no idea." Eric was dumbfounded, what could he say to this? "I'm sorry Eric. We didn't plan to keep it from you, it was just easier to pretend because we moved around so much. It gave her a chance of a normal life. She had it so difficult at first, she never talked or left her room. Even now she gets nightmares sometimes. She got better and somehow put the past behind her and that happy smile of hers. But at night she still gets panic attacks.. Alice never really talks about what happened before, she might not really remember. She always made up stories.. to cope with it. Saying her mom and dad were kidnapped by aliens, or on the run from the mob, stuff like that. She never had an 'attack' like this during the day. I think what Adamant said brought back all those terrible memories." Between the XYZ-guild and the Timetravelers, it was no wonder something cracked.

"..Damn it. I should have said something." Uno suddenly realized that this was not that new to him. "Said something about what?" Emily flinched. "At the tournament, when she was about to have her first duel, she panicked then too. I thought it was just stage-fright, and she asked me not to tell you." Uno felt like hitting himself for not realizing what was really going on. "No.. I knew it! I knew she shouldn't have been involved in of all of this!"

"Emily." Soon there was a fifth man in the room. "Aaron!" Cassius stood in the open doorway, holding a glass of water in one hand. "If I had known any of this.. believe me, I would never have.." From the choice of his words one could deduce that he had listened to everything. "That doesn't matter now, Aaron. I.. I have to ask something of you. I know I promised to help you, but I can't.. not like this. I have to get Alice back home. She can't stay here." Home would be safe and quiet, that was what Alice needed right now. ".. I can't do that." His response shocked her. "What? Why!?" She yelled, forgetting to keep her voice down. "It is too late now, I cannot let you leave." Cassius was not alone. A few other duelists stood behind him. "Huh? What? Is this about me?! I told you, I am not working for Phoebe anymore!" Eric grumbled. "This is about all of us. I hate to do this, but the XYZ-guild has forced my hand. Emily, Uno, Eric; come with me."

(To be Continued in Annex 076: In Absence of Truth)

New Cards used by Alice Brandt
Ritual Stage

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Urgent Ritual Art

New Cards used by Emily Brandt
Marmiting Captain

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Daunting Stance