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.

78. The Immovable Object

Annex 078: The Immovable Object

"Gah!?" One minute Dom, Eric and Emily were running with pounding hearts. The next they were immobile and utterly calm. All momentum was undone. "Alice?" Then there were faces present who had not been here a second ago and a bright light that covered everything. "Sis, you're better!" Emily could feel her sister hugging her. "Uh..what?" It was like waking from a dream, while standing. "...You were all stuck! But Uno saved you!" Alice pointed to the source of the light, Uno and his pendulum. "I did.." Uno was as amazed as the rest of them. "Did the pendulum pull their minds back to this world? Was it because I summoned a synchro monster?" It looked like he had not even scratched the surface of what this crystal could do. "Ehhr, where did he come from?" Eric was more concerned with the bodyguard who lied there in the corner. "I can explain everything later. First, let's get out of here!" Jim wouldn't stay unconscious for long. They had to find a safe space. "Good idea!" Dom said as he crouched down to remove Jims gun. Just to be safe. "I'll Lead the way!"

So while Cassius stumbled upon Jim, the others were already far ahead. "Alice? How are you?" Along the way Emily asked her sister about her emotional state, which appeared to be normal from the outside. "I am fine, sis. Why are you asking?" She was all smiles now, when she certainly had not been like that two hours ago. "But.. Never mind." She had seen Alice forget things that upset her after a long sleep, but never this quickly. And in this situation, that could snap at any moment, so she did not press the issue.

"Why are we going like this? Are you lost or something?" Eric meanwhile noticed Dom seemed to be taking every path but the straight one. "We're following directions, Stonewell. Since the blackout disabled all their cameras, the 'inner circle' has to track us on foot. Silver is using the private line to keep me up to date on where every dueldisk is, where they all are. This is the best path to the exit." Dom said tapping his mask. "Wait. If we can do that? Can't they do that too?" Alice was beginning to worry about the devices she was carrying around, specifically the synchro guild disks. "Good point!" Dom suddenly stopped. "What now?" Eric growled. They were going up the stairs, this was no time to slow down. "This area is free, for about 5 minutes. Silver says there's a lot more activity upstairs. We can't slip by, with or without those things." He weighed his options. "Can't we talk to them?" Emily offered. Even if this Circle group was after them, they did not represent the whole synchro guild. They could approach duelists like Akai. "Maybe not the best idea. The whole castle is put on high alert. Adamant broke out of his cell, and they are blaming Dreamworld for it. Which, fair enough. But then they add that Uno and Eric were accomplices."

"A classic framing ploy." Uno groaned. "So they are looking for you guys, but not me and Emily?" Alice was surprised to not hear her name. "I guess Aaron can't stretch his story far enough to make us look like the bad guys. Either that or he is still.." Emily flinched. "Dom. Where do you need to be?" A plan was forming in her head. "Out of the castle, preferably near my station. All our long-distance signals are being jammed here. Are you planning to use yourself as a distraction?" That was what it sounded like to him. "What? Emily, No!" Alice cried out. "Someone has to. I can't see Aaron doing anything to me, not if I go up there." Despite everything, he was still half the guy she grew up with. "I'm not running from him; it doesn't solve anything. Either someone talks some sense into him, or beats it into him. I am the perfect duelist for both jobs."

"I am not up there, Emily.." Emily's words were tested sooner than anticipated. "Ack, Cassius at ten a clock!" Eric saw the synchro duelist pop up beneath them. "You're a fast fella." Dom remarked. Cassius caught up to them in the time it took his disciple to realize there was an incoming dueldisk. "...Alice." The synchro-duelist stared at the younger sister. "What is your real full name?" He asked with a harsh tone. "Wh-wh-what?" Alice stuttered. "Hey! What the hell are you about?" Emily shouted as she placed herself in front of Alice. "Emily. This is important." Aaron began to say. "Yeah? You can send your questions to me then!" Emily cut him off. "You can't. Alice is not what you think she is." Cassius took another step towards them. "What do you think she is?!" Emily asked even louder. "I do not know that either, that is what I want to find out."

"You don't even know? Well I know one thing! She's family, no matter how you slice it." So Emily took a dueldisk from Alice's hands and activated it. "Emily.." Her sisters eyes welled up. "I do not want to fight you." Cassius' hand hovered over his dueldisk. "Is that you talking, or the other you? Either way, tough break, I am challenging all of you." Emily glanced at Dom. "Get the others out, I will buy you time." As a response, Dom placed his hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to say that twice. They will be safe with me." He was the first to continue the climb up the stairs. "Kick his ass, Emily!" Eric gave her his support before he followed the cardmaker. "You're gonna win right?" Alice hesitated. "..I am sure of it. C'mon Alice." It took Uno to get movement out of her. "Okay.. But I wont say goodbye!" Alice tore herself away from the scene. Now it was just the three. "Uno.. don't tell Alice about the world ending. Not yet." Emily had one last request for him. "You got it." Uno nodded and at last, he was gone too. "Now then, Aaron. Let's have your story."

Cassius' LP: 8000 Emily's LP: 8000

"Emily, Alice was immune to our synchronizer. Tat shouldn't be possible." Cassius tried to get her to listen again. "Your fancy machine? For all I know it can make icecream out of mud, that tells me nothing. And so what? Uno broke us out of it too! No, we are not talking about her anymore, Aaron." It was as useful as talking to a brick wall. ".. You are right." He finally started drawing his cards. "I should have known. You respond better to force.." His turn was first. Because he controlled no monsters, he could special summon Speedroid Terrortop(3/1200/600) from his hand. "I add Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice." With the search effect of Terrortop he claimed the three-sided tuner dice(3/300/1500) and normal summoned it. "And now I synchro summon Hi-Speedroid Kendama!" The dice tuned itself with the top toy to summon the Kendama machine-jet(6/2200/1600) in defense mode. "Fire!" Cassius banished a machine from his graveyard, Terrortop, to activate Kendama's burning effect. The Hispeedroid fired a laser from its forward tip, inflicting 500 points of damage upon contact with the opponent.

Emily's LP: 7500

"Just like the last time huh? When I got into all of this mess." This was how Cassius started out their previous duel. "It had to happen this way, Emily. You would never have agreed to join us." Cassius placed a spell card face-down and ended the turn. "That's for damn sure. But what's done is done!" Emily drew a card. "At least I got a little smarter since then, and stronger!" She normal summoned Superheavy Samurai Soulpiercer(4/1200/0). Next, as she had spell or trap cards in her graveyard, she could special summon the tuner monster, Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter(2/300/600), from her hand. "I'm synchro summoning Shutendoji." The trumper player and the piercing arrow started the synchronizing process to summon Emily's level 6 synchro monster; the Superheavy Samurai Ogre Shutendoji(6/500/2500), in defense mode. "Shutendoji, destroy his spells or trap." The Ogre's effect destroyed Cassius' set Limiter Removal.

"That card? If you are trying to make me feel nostalgic. It aint working." Emily had more effects to use and activate. As Superheavy Samurai Soulpiercer had been sent to the graveyard, she could add a new Superheavy Samurai monster from her deck to her hand. In this case she claimed a second Trumpeter. "Superheavy Double Horns, I equip it to Shutendoji!" After that she gave her synchro monster new horned shoulder armor. "Now it can attack twice every turn, get ready Aaron!" Shutendoji materialized a second spiked club in his left hand. With his two clubs he struck from its defensive position. "Then I will negate one of those attacks, by banishing Tri-Eyed Dice from my graveyard, Emily!" The dice tuner launched itself up into the air to smack one club out of Shutendoji's hand. "One attack then!" The second attack went through and smashed Hispeedroid Kendama into an unrecognizable scrapheap.

"I know you have grown. You surpassed my expectations. But.. last time we dueled, I wanted you to join. Limits were set." Cassius' turn came for the second time. "This time, I am going to give a 100 %, Emily." Cassius normal summoned a speedroid Emily had not seen before; a colorful cowboy-kid toy(3/1000/200). "Speedroid Ohajikid. Because I normal summoned him, I can take 1 Tuner monster in either graveyard and summon it." The kid shot a marble blast into the graveyard below. "Ah-hey!" She saw her own Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter switch sides to the enemy. "Immediately afterwards I must synchro summon a wind-type synchro monster." The resummoned level 2 tuner and the Ohajikid speedroid leaped into circles of synchronized energy. "That monster will be Hi-Speedroid Chanbara!" The red/gold chariot(5/2000/1000) raced out of the extra deck. It rose high above the duelists, hanging its blade over Emily's monster.

"Now!" Cassius activated a spell card. "Hi-Speed Re-level! Until the end of this turn, my synchro monsters level will change into that of a Speedroid I banish from the graveyard. And its attackpoints will go up by 500 times for each star on that level!" Speedroid Kendama was removed from the graveyard. Meaning Chanbara now only gained one level star, but It(6/5000/1000) also gained six times 500 attackpoints. "Crap." Emily was no stranger to this Hispeedroid. This was very bad news. "Chanbara permanently gains 200 attackpoints when it attacks!" The Hispeedroid(5200/1000) shot down, impaling the defending Ogre Shutendoji with its body. "And it can attack twice in each battlephase!" The synchro machine(5400/1000) flew back up, just so that it could come crashing back down into Emily herself. "Tch. I guess you really were holding back before." A major chunk of her lifepoints were shaved away. "Not going for real damage?" However the monsters were not real, so the only pain she felt was the one in her mind. "We are not the other guilds, Emily. I wouldn't do that to you."

Emily's LP: 2100

"Says the man who hurt himself for some reason. I don't even know who I am talking to anymore." Emily had been trying not to think about it. That was pretty hard. "I get your concerns. I had them too at first, so did the other me. But once we were synchronized, we saw that it was the way." Cassius swore as he placed two trap cards and ended his turn. The boosts of HiSpeed Relevel left Hispeedroid Chanbara(5/2400/1000). "Then you're Aaron Aaron? When does the other guy show up?" Emily still had a boatload of questions. "He is here, he can see what I can see if he closes his eyes. And we have each others memories. But right now I control this body, and he controls his. You have to feel what it is like, Emily.." He gushed endlessly while Emily drew her card. "I'll pass. I know me, I wouldn't want to be stuck with another me for the rest of my years."

Emily normal summoned a Superheavy Samurai Gigagloves, the living gauntlet armor(3/100/1000). After that she special summoned her second Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter(2/300/500). "Time for a different tune! I synchro summon Musashi in defense mode!" The two Samurais synchronized into a level 5 synchro samurai, the Superheavy Samurai Swordsman Musashi(5/300/2300). "When Gigagloves goes to the graveyard, I can rearrange the top five cards of my deck!" Emily scanned her deck and reordered the five Superheavy cards she found (Samurai Drums, Battleball, Torch, Thief and Flutist) "And you probably know that a synchro summoned Musashi takes back a machine frommy graveyard!" The card she chose to reclaim was Superheavy Samurai Soulpiercer. "Of course, Musashi can attack with his defense.. so..." Emily equipped a Superheavy from her hand to her Swordsman; Superheavy Samurai SoulClaw. It was a claw gauntlet that added 500 attack and defense points to its wielder(800/2800). "I can keep this up all day, Aaron!" The weaponized Musashi grabbed his sword and slammed it into Chanbara's blade. The Samurai would come out on top, unless Cassius did something about it. "...Hn!" His hand moved to his left trap, yet it jerked to the right at the last second and activated a different trap. "Power Charge! Because you attacked a Roid monster, I can draw two cards!" The trap replenished his hand. "What..was that?" It was an odd reaction, definitely.

Cassius' LP: 7600

Chanbara was ripped apart by the swordsman regardless. But Cassius gained something out of that as well. "When HiSpeedroid Chanbara is destroyed, I can return a banished speedroid to my hand." Cassius chose to take Speedroid Terrortop out of the banished zone. "..Well, your turn again." Emily had done what she wanted to do. "So it is." Cassius sighed. "...I summon Speedroid Double Yoyo!" Cassius placed a spike-disk yoyo toy(4/1400/1400) on the field. "Its effect allows me to special summon a level 4 or lower speedroid from my graveyard!" The Yoyo snagged Speedroid Terrortop with its thread and placed it back on the field. Since the Terrortop had been summoned again, its effect grabbed a Speedroid from the deck again. "Taketomborg!" He took the transforming robot(3/1200/600) which he could special summon to his field, now that he controlled a wind-monster. "I tribute it to special summon Red-Eyed Dice." Taketomborgs effect made it switch places with the six-sided tuner dice(1/100/100). "I didn't think I would need this." The effect of the Red-Eyed Dice altered the level of Terrortop(6/1200/600), doubling it. ".. I will use these monsters as synchro materials, to summon Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

"You're going there?!" Emily was still half surprised when Cassius brought out Doms card; the clear white synchro dragon(7/2500/2000). "For you, I have too." Cassius revealed his second trap now; Follow Wing. "Just what I need." That was another repeat offender. As a continuous trap, Follow Wing would protect Cassius' synchro monster indefinitely. "Emily, We don't know which world is going to survive, one has to die. And it is more likely to be this one.. Emily, Fate brought us back together. We only have a future together!" Anguish was coming through in his words as he moved into the battle phase. Clear Wing Synchro Dragon fired a shot at Swordmaster Musashi. Since Follow Wing had targeted Clear Wing, the dragons attacks would destroy the opposing level 5 or higher monster, even if it had more attackpoints. The Superheavy Samurai was erased by the white light. "Direct attack!" Double Yoyo then rolled one of its spiked wheels into Emily, cutting her lifepoints down by two/thirds. "You have to understand that if you were to die, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Emily's LP: 700

"Yeah and that is exactly what you are doing already. What about the other Emily? Are you gonna ask her? Or do you just pluck them from the street?" She was done with this sob story and sympathetic looks. "It wouldn't be like that, I.." Cassius saw that too now. "I'll end my turn." He placed two trap cards down and left his field that way. "Aaron,. I know you think you are doing this for me, but I wouldn't want to live like that. I have seen a lot of crazy stuff, timetravelers even! Aaron. And I still don't believe in fate. Bad stuff and good stuff can happen to people for no reason.. People can make their own 'fate'." Emily placed a monster on her field, the mechanical mailman; Superheavy Samurai Transporter(5/1200/1800). "I am going to take mine! I use The Transporters effect!" Emily tributed the Transporter. "I summon these two cards to your field!" She placed two monsters in front of Cassius; Superheavy Samurai Drum(1/300/300) and Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei(8/1000/3500). Both in defense position. "What?" Cassius did not realize what she was up too until he was too late to stop it.

"I can draw a card for each monster I gave to you!" Thanks to Gigagloves, she knew what she was about to draw. This was her designed fate. "Battleball!" Emily normal summoned one of the drawn cards, the round-bodied tuner(2/100/800). "Since I only have Superheavies on my field, Battleball can take your monster and tune with it! Follow Wing protects your dragon, but not your Samurais!" The Ball samurai changed into rings of green light. "!" Big Benkei disappeared and its eight stars were pulled into the two rings. "Here you go, Susanowo!" And Emily finally brought out her most powerful synchro; Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo(10/2400/3800). She equipped the Warlord with her Soulpiercer. "Susanowo, attack the Drum!" The warlord attacked from defense position, destroying the drum with a single jab while Soulpiercer shot through the defense points. "See? I found a way!"

Cassius' LP: 4100

And this was the fun part; whenever Superheavy Samurai Drum was destroyed it would special summon a Superheavy from the graveyard. This effect activated regardless of who killed it and where it died. "Big Benkei!" So Emily gave life back to the second strongest samurai, Benkei(8/1000/3500) the ever-dependable. "Attack Double Yoyo!" Her monster punched the ground so hard that the stairwell seemed to tremble. The shockwaves reached the Speedroid Yoyo and snapped it in half. "Aaron, it was a coincidence that we met each other again. From the start you kept this from me.. from my friends. That was your first mistake." Emily ended her turn. She could not use her synchro Samurai's graveyard effect as long as Clearwing was on the field. "You're right.. I should have been honest with you." Cassius looked down. "I still believe that you were always meant to become part of the synchro guild. I would have come for you eventually, but.." He had to confess now, or it would be too late. "It was not a complete coincidence."

Cassius' LP: 2000

"What!?" For a brief moment, Emily thought she had heard him wrong. "What do you mean?" Then came the anger. "That I saw you and your sister again was no accident. I knew what was happening with you and Uno. The Circle knew..."

(To be Continued in Annex 079: The Unstoppable Force)

New Cards used by Emily Brandt
Superheavy Samurai Gigagloves
Superheavy Samurai Soulclaw

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Superheavy Samurai Swordmaster Musashi

New Cards used by Cassius
Speedroid Ohajikid
Speedroid Double Yoyo

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Hi-Speed Re-level

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Power Charge