Annex 088: Away from Now

"You guys again!? Are you here for a fight?" Eric instinctively rose as soon as his mind processed that the 'Zodiac travelers' were standing there in front of them all. "You wanna play again? It didn't go so well the last time!" Neter was eager to answer his provocation. "We have better things to do than waste the minutes on you." For once August was the one who declined the opportunity for a duel. "Such as?" Iria could imagine a dozen reasons for their sudden arrival, two of those reasons were among the duelists standing in the street. "Since our previous encounter, the four of us have done some 'investigating'.. Outside of time and space, so to speak. It was important to confirm the existence of the second timeline, to understand the cause and to discover which world held the irregularity." June directed her attention towards Uno. "We came back to this time, this moment, because of the imbalance you created. We now know there are two irregularities in this town, you.. and the girl." Her finger fell on Alice. "N-No!" She closed her eyes and refused to listen.

"You did not know about the second timeline? I was told that you had the ability to travel through time, how could you have missed it?" If Adamant accepted that they truthfully did come from another future, he also had to accept that there was yet another timeline which the guilds had not found yet. These four were definitely not the type to live by normal hours. "We do not have to tell you anything!" August growled at him. "Then neither do we." Adamant growled right back. "Oh. You're just as grumpy as August." Neter laughed. The two sides seemed to be at a stalemate, until Decembers voice rang through. "Tell them." That was their leaders one and only command. "What? We can't do that. They already know too much as it is! I thought we were here to.." Augusts protests were loud yet brief, as December gave him a penetrating glare. "Alright. If you deem it necessary, December."

August rolled up his sleeve. "But just telling you will take too long. So I will show you.." He grit his teeth and concentrated deeply. The crystals on his armbands began to glow, and so did his arm itself. "It's the symbol again!" The mark of a dragon appeared on his skin, the same mark he had seen when he dueled before. "You have no clue what this is, have you?" August asked the whole group. None of them said a word, which he took to mean 'no'. "Exactly. That is because a power like this has never been forged in your world. This mark is from a time that was forgotten, my time. We spring from a future no longer in existence, we told you this already. But we each come from separate futures. Each world had a champion, an heir to a great and unique power. Because of that power, we were chosen.. by him." August pointed at December. "He was the first, he survived the crisis that destroyed his dimension. He traveled back in time to chase after the one who caused the destruction; Tempus. In time he gathered more allies; us."

"Wait,wait,wait. Now there's more timelines? Some older than others? How does that work? Dont they all exist at the same.. well time?" Erics could not begin to wrap his head around all this information. "Time is not like a single line, Stoney-well. It goes back and forth, like a loop-de-loop!" Neter happily jumped into the explanation. "There's an infinite amount of possible worlds, but only one can be. You don't really travel through time, you just reverse or fast-forward it.. and only you remember what was changed. But sometimes you go back so far, even the smallest misstep can turn the world upside-down! When that happens, there is no future for the old anymore.. Everything will get overwritten. That is what happened to your friend." He turned the focus on Alice. "What?" She twitched. She could not shut him out. "You're from waaay back for these people, probably from one of the timelines we chased Tempus through. Every time we follow Tempus, he slips away into the past, and everything he leaves gets destroyed and forgotten by time."

"But..but I saw the machines.. They took everyone away." She said with a shivering voice. The memories were as clear as the day now. "What you saw where no machines, they were the Guardians of time." June proclaimed with a reverent tone. "Guardians?" Eric sputtered. "Think of them as angels; beings outside time and space that control the damage that timetravel can create. If one time has to be erased, they freeze the world and purge everything. That you, Alice, saw them at all is a miracle, you were already out of sync during that event. Somehow you came across a pocket of frozen time in your area. It gave you a temporary immunity from the Guardians powers. If I were to guess, which I don't often do, that 'pocket' was a consequence of your timeline already being temporally damaged. Tempus had already abandoned it." As she spoke, Uno was starting to see images in his mind. "Wait. Those guardians.. I met one... There was one like a giant stone with a big eye at the middle." He hadn't put two-and-two together until just now.

"We have all seen them." Iria eyed her Qliphort cards. "So you discovered that too? Well now you know why your creator, UNO, is a fraud. All he did was recreate the cards for this new timeline." August snorted. "If he could replicate what they looked like, he had to be aware of the guardians. It would also explain how UNO can communicate with this timeline. Only those who freed from time can see them without harm. For instance, if you have a pendulum." June gave her earring a slight nudge. "Wait. You know for a fact that UNO is from the other timeline?" That had been a running theory of Uno, but there was no way to be sure of that. "We traced every image of this world. He cannot be found here." Unless of course you had teleporters and psychics on your team. "I knew it. And I guess the Guardian kicked me back to my timeline back when my pendulum threw me into limbo?" At least that made sense to Uno now, slightly.

"..I want to get back to my earlier question." Adamant coughed. "What do you want from us?" All this story was fine, but time was not an unlimited resource to half the people here. "To find Tempus." December replied. "Yeah. Guess he was tired of being chased by us. Every time he changes the past, we are right there with him. First there was December with his crystal that could travel through time. Then there was June with her magical eye, who could make sure we would never forget what everyone else did. Then August and his tattoo gave us eternal strength and youth. Which was nice too. Did you know I am actually 1000 years old?" Neter waited for the looks of surprise to set in. "Nah, just kidding. I'm only 19. I think? It's hard to tell when you dont do days the normal way. Anyway, I was the last to join. I had my special gift, wherever I wanted to be, I could be. Any place would be my 'Utopia'" He said with a wink. "So we're the perfect team. No matter when Tempus goes, we find him in the end and stop his plans. Only this time he cheated! He jumped back in one time and we jumped back in the other! He made two worlds at once somehow!"

"And that is the problem. You cannot have two timelines at once, they will destroy each other. You already discovered that and tried to fix it yourselves, didn't you?" June looked at Adamant, as if she was judging him. "Anyway. The fact that this world still exists means Tempus has not jumped back in time yet. He had us fooled, we had no idea this could even be done. Our thought now is that he did not travel alone, he might not have been alone for some time. UNO has to be one of his allies, a man who perpetuates the cycle of the cards. If this is true, it is possible for him to forced something else back in time with him. He would go one way, and someone else.. would come this way." Her eyes fell on Alice again. "Why..why are you looking at me? I..I do not know any Tempuses." She stammered. "That time pocket you found saved you and you alone, Alice. When Tempus left your world, and the guardians erased it, you were left behind. Eventually you had to come back to linear time, who knows how many timelines you skipped in between. I suppose that bubble you were in took a while to become stable, to form a one-way portal. Allthough for you it seemed to to look like a few seconds. Either way, you might be what caused this world to exist. There is no way to determine 'when' the branching happened. But the first provable difference is you. There is only one of you, there is no Alison in this world or Uno's world. It wasn't Uno's pendulum that protected you from us. It was you, you were already like us.""

"... You're here for her." Uno concluded and immediately stepped in between them and Alice. "Her presence here is causing an instability. That is why you ended up here, Uno. Her surroundings are temporally damaged, that made her town the weak point between the two worlds, a weak point for you to break through. The second time you were lost, you used her as a focal point, didn't you?" He loathed to admit it, but June was right on the money. It was something else he had failed to realize until now, the pendulum was drawn towards her. "But I didn't want to hurt anyone." Alice said weakly. "That may be so. But we need more time, and you are a danger to that time." August grunted. He was getting impatient. "So what? What are you going to do? Send her back?!" Eric did not comprehend a third of what had just been said, but he did understand that Alice had no time to go back to. "Not that. Alice, you have to become like us, disconnected from time." June slowly approached the girl. "But..than I'd have to.." Alice tried to hide behind the others. "I know, you will have to leave this world. It is the only way.." The woman extended her hand. "You have to come with us."

"No." Uno declared, still standing in front of Alice. "No? You cannot say No to this! Did you listen at all? Even that Cassius person you were with earlier understood the danger!" August angrily shook his hand at Uno. But the duelist remained inflexible. "I did. I get what he wanted to say now. And if I see him again, I will tell him what I am telling you now. You can chat about dimensions, timelines and Tempus as many times as you want, but I believe in what I can touch and see first. I see a girl who lost everything else and finally found a new family. She has lived here for years and loved it. If she wants to stay, she can stay with me. I have a pendulum too." Uno took the crystal out. "The four of you, me, we all don't belong here. This is what keeps us safe, right?!" Uno had seen the pendulum protect others as well; it had to work for Alice. "Your belief is that you can control that power?" This confrontational stance prompted December to step forward. "You cannot fathom its potential." He stated dismissively. "I don't know, I am a fast learner. A live demonstration should prove that to youl!" The pendulum duelist anticipated how they would resolve this, so he beat them to the punch. "For weeks now I have been pulled from one side to the other, played with like a pawn on a chessboard. I am tired of it, I am going to do what I want to do! December. I challenge you to a duel!"

"Dude, no!""You can not win against these people!" Eric and Iria shouted respectively. "Uno.. you don't have to.." Alice was similarly horrified by his ultimatum. "Alice. I promised you before, if I can help you.. anyone..I will. I remember nothing about who I was before you, before everyone here. I am not going to betray that now by turning a promise into a lie." Uno went one step further and took out his dueldisk and cards. "He's really going for it!" Neter was giddy with excitement. "Let me crush him for you, December! I still owe him!" August was halfway prepared to rise to the challenge. "No." But December was the one Uno had provoked, December would be his opponent. "Uno of the magicians. You think you have hope, but I have already seen your defeat. Walk away now, this is your final chance." December took out his dueldisk and flipped it open. "Thanks, but I am not changing my mind. We're doing it now and here." Out in the streets of the abandoned town where he first woke up; there was no better place to close the circle. "December, it is Showtime!"

Decembers LP: 8000 Uno's LP: 8000

"Scale 4 D/D/D Doom King Armageddon at the left, Scale 6 D/D Cerberus at the right. Seal them in" December initiated the duel and had two pendulum monsters set for his pendulum zones in no time at all. "Pendulum Summon!" With those scales he could special summon level 5 monsters from his hand. "D/D Pandora, in defense position!" He summoned a redveiled demoness(5/1700/2100) that had black belts over her arm and face, and a jar-like lower body. "D/D Cerberus, empower Pandora." The three-headed pendulum beast could activate its spell effect. It boosted Pandora(4/2100/2500) with a blast of hellfire, while lowering her level by one star. "These are your obstacles for the first turn. Now you will show me your answer." December placed a spell card face-down and terminated his turn. "Reading ahead a little? Well, I don't mind." Uno drew his card. "The best way to fight pendulums is with pendulums! Iria taught me that!" Uno placed two cards in both pendulum zones. "I set the scales, Performapal Guitartle and Performapal Drummerilla!" With a second performapal placed, the Guitartle's effect drew one card for Uno. And this would only be the beginning.

"Wavering Eyes." Unfortunately Decembers future had something else in store. "Wavering what?" December activated an unfamiliar quickplay spell. "Wavering Eyes destroys all pendulum spell cards on the field, and activates a number of effects depending on how many cards were destroyed." June explained as the spell wiped out D/D Cerberus, D/D/D Armageddon, Drummerilla and Guitartle. "Ack!" Simultaneously, Uno lost 500 of his lifepoints. "So four effects will activate?" The first effect inflicted effect damage. The second placed a new Pendulum monster, D/D/D Oblivion King Abyss Ragnarok, from Decembers deck into his hand. The third banished one card on the field, but December skipped that effect as Uno had nothing on his field yet. The final effect added a new 'Wavering Eyes' to Decembers hand. "Already you suffer for using that what you do not understand."

Uno's LP: 7500

"Eh, you won that chain, but the turn is not over yet!" Uno normal summoned a new monster, a masked jester(4/1800/800) in a purple/black outfit. "Meet Performapal Skullcrobat Joker! When I normal summon him, I get to put a Performapal, Magician or Odd-Eyes monster to my hand!" Uno added old reliable Odd-Eyes. "And say hi to Performapal Helprincess as well!" As Uno had normal summoned a Performapal, the vixen princess(4/1200/1200) could special summon herself from Uno's hand. "You stopped my pendulum summon, but I have other acts in my repertoire! Like... XYZ-summon!" He overlayed the Joker acrobat with the Hell princess. "Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon!" The black XYZ-dragon(4/2500/2000) was recreated, despite what everyone had seen happen to it. "One of the copies?" Adamant was surprised, until he remembered that Ichirou had returned the copies of Dark Rebellion to Uno's deck. "Yeah, thanks to Uno's printer. And I am guessing this dragon has its own story from a past timeline, right?" Uno detached the two materials from the XYZ-dragon, so that it(3550/2000) could drain away half of Pandora(1050/2500)'s power. "It might just be a copy of a copy now, but maybe some of that power stuck with it. Let's see... Dark Rebellion, attack!"

Uno's monster struck and destroyed Decembers monster with an overdose of dark thunder. "D/D Pandora's power activates when she is destroyed while I control no other cards; I draw two cards." As she died, Pandora opened the lock on her lower body and opened it like a treasure chest to reveal a pair of cards. "Crap. He wanted Uno to destroy her?" Eric figured, and feared, that Uno was just playing along with whatever December had predicted. "This guy can see every past and every future, and I somehow still don't believe this is a lost cause.. Maybe because your pendulums already showed that they arent all-powerful." They had failed to cure Uno's amnesia after all. "Wait a second.." And that put an idea in Uno's head. "I just realized something about you December." He said triumphantly as he ended his battle phase. "That is?" December waited for the answer, even though he already knew what Uno was going to say. "That you are like me. Your friends said it themselves, before you met June you had no way of keeping memories from time-jumps. So that must mean you do not remember what your original world was like! Am I right?"

"... Your facts are correct. I cannot recall all of my past, June could only restore fragments." December admitted freely. "But your conclusion is wrong. You and I are not alike. I have still lived centuries since then, fought kings and gods. You are nothing compared to that. The choice you made made no difference. You may try to stray from the path, but any future I see leads to your defeat. Your actions merely shortened the chain of events. You are getting stronger, certainly. And that is also why we came here, to stop this flow of power. Before you become a threat,we will take your pendulum from you. Then you will hand us the girl and bring us to your world."

"You're going to take away his pendulum if he loses? No. Uno, you shouldn't.. risk that. I'm just.." Hearing his words, Alice just slipped further into sorrow. She did not want Uno to lose everything just to make her happy. "Hey. Alice. You're not just someone. You're a friend. And that as all I need." Uno placed a trap card down and activated Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in one pendulum zone. Then when his turn ended, he could tribute Odd-Eyes to add Wisdom-Eye Magician from his deck to his hand. "Ready when you are, December! Show me that future of yours!"

(To be Continued in Annex 089: D-Day)

New Cards used by Uno
Performapal Skullcrobat Joker

New Cards used by December
D/D Pandora

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Wavering Eyes