Chapter 3 Revised, I'm on a roll today :P, here you go hope you enjoy.
Chapter 3
Matter VS. Dark Matter
Joey, Tristan, Téa, Regan and Yugi met at the front gate.
"Where's Bakura? Tristan asked.
"He couldn't come; he has to work today." Téa answered like he should have known that.
Atem came from around the corner of the wall with his cartouche on so he was quite whole. Regan eyed him until he came closer to the group and poked him.
"Why?" Atem asked with a hint of annoyance.
"Curiosity" She answered.
"You ever heard of curiosity killed the cat."
"Good thing I'm not a cat then." She retorted as a much taller male came up behind Atem.
"Yugi." The man said.
"Kaiba what are you doing here?" Yugi asked as Atem turned around to look at the visitor.
"What? You...?" Kaiba looked back and forth between Yugi and Atem. Kaiba was about six foot four with straight, hockey style brown hair and piercing, navy blue eyes with a hint of sadness.
"What's wrong rich boy, cat got your tongue?" Joey taunted.
"Enough with the cat phrases." Téa pleaded.
Kaiba collected himself and challenge, "Yugi I'm here for a duel, so get out your duel disk and duel me."
"Sorry, but Regan is going to duel Joey first so you're going to have to wait." Tristan stated as Yugi passed Regan his duel disk.
"Who?" Kaiba looked at who his opponent passed his duel disk too. Kaiba's eyes looked directly at Regan and distant all at the same time.
"Hi, my name is Regan Heartin." Regan answered with a fragile smile.
Kaiba's gaze softened a bit and gave the same kind of smile, "I'm Seto Kaiba the owner of Kaiba Corp."
'Their smiles look very similar, don't they?' He thought not expecting an answer, but got one anyway from Atem.
'They do and Kaiba actually smiled, I wonder how many puppies died?'
Yugi sent Atem a dirty look, physically.
"Let's test your skills then." Kaiba finished not smiling anymore.
Regan nodded and placed the duel disk on her left arm. She followed Joey out into the empty bus loading zone. Yugi, with the rest of his friends and Kaiba stood on the sidelines as the two duellist placed their decks in the deck slot.
"Alright, Let the duel begin." Kaiba ordered being the ref of the game.
Joey Wheeler VS Regan Heartin
Joey – 4000 Regan – 4000
Turn 1: Regan Heartin H: 5 LP: 4000
"I'll go first, I draw." Regan said drawing a card. "I'll set one card face down and summon Sapphire the Restorer in attack mode, I end my turn"
A blue haired warrior with a large sword resting on her shoulder came out onto the field.
Sapphire the Restorer Fiend/Effect Attack: 1800 Defense: 1500
Turn 2: Joey Wheeler H:5 LP: 4000
Joey drew a card, "My turn I summon my Panther Warrior in attack mode."
A purple armored panther leaped into front of Joey and growled angrily at Regan's monster.
Panther Warrior Beast-Warrior/Effect Attack: 2000 Defense: 1600
"Now activate my Scapegoat magic-"
"Not so fast." Regan interrupted Joey by pushing a button on the duel disk. "I activate my trap card Magic Jammer. By discarding one card I can negate the activation of your magic card." Regan discarded then Yugi saw her grin. "Now I can special summon this card, say hello to Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord as he decreases your life points by 1500."
Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord Dragon/Effect Attack: 2800 Defense: 2500
A purple and red fierce dragon grinned as he appeared on the field and Joey winced as his life points took a hit and left him with 2500.
"No way, now my panther can't attack, I switch him to defence mode and end my turn." Joey said clearly upset.
Turn 3: Regan H: 2 LP: 4000
Regan drew a card. "Now I activate my Dark Core magic card, it lets me remove a monster on the field by discarding a card from my hand." She stated discarding a card. Yugi watched Joey's Panther Warrior disappear out of play.
"I'm defenceless!" Joey panicked.
"I attack with Van'Dalgyon." Regan ordered and Van'Dalgyon attack. Van'Dalgyon slashed Joey and he went flying backwards.
"Well that's not supposed to happen, when someone loses they are supposed to get thrown back a bit yes, but that was ridicules." Atem said in shock.
"Joey! Are you alright?" Yugi and Regan asked at the same time. Yugi ran to Joey's side to see if he was okay.
"Ow... ha that was fun; that felt like a real attack, how did you do that?" Joey asked in a daze and his eyes widened. "And why are your monsters still on the field?"
"Joey must have hit your head because you're hallucinating." Yugi replied and turned around to see that the monsters were on the field. Regan shrieked beside him.
"Oops." Van'Dalgyon said and disappeared with the Sapphire the Restorer.
"Hey get back here, we need an explanation. Whatever I'll figure it out myself later." Regan hissed in irritation.
"Joey, you just got your ass handed to you." Tristan laughed forgetting about the weird occurrence.
Yugi still wanted to investigate on the subject, but now wasn't the time so he let it go for now.
"I've never seen Joey lose that fast, not even to you." He told Kaiba quietly on the sidelines of Joey and group.
"Well it seems like I was right and Wheeler is second rate."
"If you're so great then you go against her." Joey retorted from hearing Kaiba with his strange sense of hearing.
"Gentlemen it's only a game so calm down." Regan stated glaring at Joey who kept his mouth shut, then turned to Kaiba. "And you, what is the point of insulting someone for losing a friendly card game. You don't need to act all powerful and mighty when we all know that you are a stronger duellist the Joey, so save the insults for your own game."
"Are you sure Regan isn't a cat in disguise?" Tristan asked Téa; who responded by stomping on his foot.
"You're different from other people..." Kaiba replied searching Regan's face.
'It's like he has seen her before.' Atem thought in Yugi's head.
'Yeah.'
"Yugi we will duel later, until then." Kaiba said looking away from the new girl. Yugi nodded and watch Kaiba walk away.
"Well if we are done standing around here, let's head to Grandpa's house." Joey said putting away his duel disk.
They all agreed and started to head to his house. Regan thanked Yugi for the use of the duel disk and continued to walk in silence. When they turned the corner Yugi saw his grandfather sweeping the sidewalk in front of the shop entrance.
"Grandpa, I'm home." Yugi called to him.
Grandpa looked up, "Hello Yugi, oh you brought company I see. There is someone inside here to see you."
A teenager with black hair in a ponytail and bright green eyes came around the corner, "Long time no see Yugi, so Joey how is Serenity?"
"She's away from you so she is excellent, Duke." Joey retorted in front of Yugi's house.
"Hey, who is she?" Duke asked grabbing Regan's hand.
"She is completely innocent so off limits to you." Joey answered separating Duke and Regan.
"My name is Regan Heartin."
"I'm Duke Devlin." Duke replied trying to impress her. The impressing moment failed miserably as Yugi watch Regan move away from Duke and closer to him.
"How about you see who you are saying hello too." Téa told Duke in disgust breaking the awkward moment for Duke.
"Well you, Joey, Tristan, Yugi, Regan, and Atem... Atem! What are you doing here, never thought I'd see you again." Duke exclaimed giving Atem a high five.
"How about you come inside?" Yugi asked.
"Can't, I have some business to take care of; I'll see ya later though."
Everyone said their good byes as Duke walked away.
"Oh I know you, you moved into that house across the street a couple of days ago." Grandpa said to Regan.
"Yeah, with my mom, so I'm told. Can we head inside I think that visitor is waiting?"
Grandpa nodded and opened the shop entrance. Everyone entered the room with Yugi first and saw the guest. "Hey, it's-"
"Shadi." Regan finished looking like she just seen another ghost, which she did.
"You know him?" Tristan asked and Regan nodded.
"Yeah I had seen him at my old house." Regan answered with a deadly glare, "I have some questions that need some answers."
"I'm glad that everyone is here, now we can talk about the real question." Shadi responded ignoring Regan. Everyone sat down with queasiness in the air.
"Shadi, you are the guardian of the Millennium Items which means you should know the history of Regan's item correct? Atem asked.
"Yes my pharaoh, but I'm surprised that you don't remember this item yourself. The original owner and you have history." Shadi responded with stillness, "The River's Puzzle is similar to the Millennium Puzzle. They both had the be built be a person capable of welding it, they also had two beings locked away, but the difference is that if the Millennium Puzzle wasn't around the River's Puzzle, then the being with no connection to the other item would have ruled over the item banishing the other."
"You mean if I hadn't brought the puzzle in time then the evil in the puzzle would have been in control of Regan's item?" Atem asked and Shadi nodded.
"Wait a minute, you called him Pharaoh I figured out that he was locked in the puzzle before, but I didn't realize he was royalty." Regan realized putting an invisible puzzle together. "Also, why did you ask me that riddle, tell me to go home and I manage to get here a week later?"
Yugi looked between her and Shadi in confusion.
"I did tell you what would happen if you answered my riddle." He answered as he got up from the sofa. "I must go for there is trouble ahead."
Yugi watched him leave the room.
"Can I see your puzzle; it took my grandson eight years to complete his?"
Grandpa asked with a sparkle in his eye. Regan took off the item and handed it to him.
"How long did it take you to complete yours?"
"About five minutes Mr. Muto, but it probably changes its difficulty with mood and age." Regan answered intelligently. Yugi had sympathy her, he knew exactly how strange it sounded and new the dangers that could arise. "So the being in the item is a good being, but what am I supposed to do now?"
"Well I prefer to be called Grandpa, and I suggest that you protect this item with your life. It is a very powerful item, if used correctly for chaotic or orderly reasons." Grandpa answered looking at Yugi and Atem.
"But- uh… erm." Regan argued miserably either with Grandpa or herself, he couldn't tell.
"Sharing a body with two minds can be confusing, but Yugi has tons of experience and together you might be able to conquer over all forms of evil that stand in your way." Grandpa stated.
"Grandpa's right, Yugi and the Pharaoh got through every problem that was placed in front of them." Téa agreed cheerfully as Grandpa gave the River's Puzzle back to Regan.
"What about the thing I released, it could be out there doing who knows what right now and we would have no way of finding out?"
"Well we are going to smash that thing to pieces before it gets out of control." Joey stated jumping from his seat.
"Yeah and with Yugi's and your duelling skills, how could we lose?" Tristan agreed also jumping from his seat. Regan smirked
"She's a duellist, eh? How do you know that she is as a good as my grandson?" Grandpa asked.
"Because she handed Joey's butt to him on a silver platter on her second turn without losing a single life point and only four cards." Tristan answered giving Joey a nuggy.
"Plus, she made the monsters come to life." Joey replied placing Tristan in an arm lock. Grandpa's face looked between confusion and thinking mode.
"So what's the plan? Do we just sit and wait for something bad to happen?" Téa asked.
"No, but the being in the puzzle might be able to give us an idea of what we are fighting. All we have to do is get it to talk to Regan." Grandpa answered, and then simultaneously everyone looked at Atem.
He looked back, "What?"
"How do we make a dead guy talk?" Joey asked.
"Try an Ouija board." Atem growled with sarcasm.
"How do you make a spirit talk?" Téa asked punching Joey in the gut.
"They won't come out if they don't need to; also they need to adjust to the situation because it is just as strange to them as it is the holder."
Without warning Regan's puzzle started to flash. Yugi's puzzle only did that when it sensed something crazy was about to happen, in which this was no different. Regan ran to the shop window and left without warning.
"What's wrong?" He called to her, making her stop long enough for him to catch up to her.
"My mother is in trouble." Regan answered and started to run across the street.
0000000
Regan knew there was something wrong as soon as her puzzle started a light show. Her stomach knotted when she looked out the window to see her mother's shop door open. Sure that would be normal, if the wasn't welded against the house. She heard her newly found friends calling her name, but she just kept going across the street.
She almost got hit by a car, twice. The second time she slid across the hood of a Honda. When she got to the door way she found the door on the floor of the shop and slowed down. She quietly entered the door to the right that headed to the stairwell and the rest of the home. She was about to head upstairs and heard something from the kitchen.
'Déjà vu, much' She thought as she sneaked into the living room and peeked into the kitchen. Somebody with a black cloak that covered his head that went to the floor was looking for something in the cupboards.
She walked into the kitchen, "Hey! Who are you and what are you doing in my house?!"
It turned around and all Regan could see were two glowing red eyes.
"My name is none of your concern as for what I'm doing here is to collect a prize for my collection." The hooded man stated.
'It sounds like a man's voice, but it sends chills up and down my spine in its raspy and deepness.' she thought to herself trying to collect herself.
"There is nothing interesting here and last I check if the owner of the house asks the intruder a question it's only natural to answer, so let's try a different question. Where is my mother?"
The cloaked man didn't answer and came towards her with speed. She barely managed to dodge her attacker and pinned him against the wall with his left arm behind his back. It wasn't very hard to keep his movements to a minimum for he was only Yugi's height. Yugi, Joey and Atem entered the kitchen, which seemed to make the man cease his struggling.
"I'll use simple words for you; there are only two questions now. One, who are you? Two, where is my mother?"
The man laughed like he just hears a great joke and licked her arm. She noticed then that there was a dagger in his left hand and he had injured her right arm.
'That is the object he was looking for? The Dragonfly dagger, why? If he wanted to kill me any knife would do, hell a spoon from the spoon collection would've worked.'
"I like the taste of your life force; it reminds me of someone that almost killed me." The cloaked man said with his face still in the shadows and he turned his head towards the group of friends. "Oh look more prizes for my collection. Hello Pharaoh, long time no see, are you still mad about the day I was sealed?"
Atem looked at him blankly.
"Huh. I guess someone erased one too many minds. Oh so this is your reincarnation, Master talked about him quite a bit and I have always wanted to meet him, but our paths never cross." The cloaked man stated and shrugged, "Oh I love this dagger, it has the beautiful insect, but at the same time beauty is just as deadly."
The man laughed again and shook his hood off as the glow in his eyes dimmed.
Bakura was underneath the hood and grinning.
"We checked up stairs for Regan's mother, but the only thing we found was cat that was guarding Regan's room." Tristan reported. "Hey what the hell is going on here?"
Téa whipped out her phone.
"Oh even more prizes, you must be having a party, can I join?" Hooded Bakura asked in a British accent and a grin of delight.
Téa's phone chirped. "That's not Bakura!"
"How do you know?" Joey asked and Téa rolled her eyes.
"That's because I just text him and he responded, welcome to the twenty- first century."
"It's the twenty-first century? Well at any rate you are right, I am not Bakura." Fake Bakura responded and his face features shifted.
When his face finished changing, he had short grey-black hair spiked out like a ring around his head with red eyes that had his pupils were like black flames dancing across his iris and he had a goatee. "Since I am exposed you can call me Dark Matter."
Regan looked at him and grinned.
"What's so funny?"
"Well dark matter is a very unstable substance and well you are very unstable; it's ironic."
"Well this 'unstable' person would like to show you his collection." He moved his arm slowly and reached into his pocket. He pulled out three stone rectangles. "Pick a stone."
She eyed him and picked the middle one.
"It looks like we will be going in order to the collection time. Entry number one is this fella." Dark Matter stated showing one of the three cards he held.
Regan didn't recognized the picture, but it was a boy no older then thirteen with black shaggy hair and blue eyes.
"That's Mokuba!" Téa exclaimed.
"Who's Mokuba?" Regan asked and Dark Matter answered, "He is this stubborn boy's brother."
Dark Matter flipped the stone tablet. She recognized him immediately.
"Seto, but what's the point of having their photos on stone tablets?"
"They aren't photos you naive child, I captured their souls." Dark Matter answered laughing like a mad man.
"Yeah and I'm his sister." She retorted with sarcasm, "That is ridicules."
Dark Matter grinned, "That's what he said on his way back to his office and look how far that got him, a one way trip to the Shadow Realm. I wonder how long it would take for him to go insane five hours; a day; ten years."
Regan gritted her teeth knowing he wasn't lying, but her mind wouldn't accept it. His eyes brighten again in excitement, like the flames of Hell decide to ignite in there. "I still have one more tablet to show, say hello to Jade P. Heartin."
She felt her blood go ice cold and lost her concentration on keeping her hold of the thing in front of her. He took advantage of her disadvantage and flung her across the room into the dining room table. She felt the table snap under the pressure and a striking pain in the middle of her back.
"Regan!" She heard Yugi yell as spots of blackness were dispersing.
Suddenly, a bright light came out of nowhere; blinding her and by the grunts from her friends the light was just as painfully bright. The back injury disappeared as her arm erupted in pain as something sliced against it she shouted in pain grabbing it. She felt something drip onto her leg; more and more drips of a liquid substance kept falling. Then, there was a blood curdling scream coming from Yugi.
"Yugi!" Atem and she called.
'What the fuck is going on?'
The light disappeared as suddenly as it came. Regan looked over to where Yugi's scream was and smothered her own screams as she saw a horrific scene. Yugi was lying on the ground with a pool of blood starting to form from a gash on his chest. She half ran and half fell towards a towel that was hanging in the kitchen. She stumbled towards Yugi and pressed the down on his wound. Yugi yelled at the pressure.
"Here," She called to Joey. "Keep pressure on the wound, the more pressure the less blood lost, but don't apply to much or you'll break one of his ribs."
"Wha- where are you going?" Joey asked taking over her position. "Your arm, its bleeding are you all right?"
"It's just a flesh wound," She responded and felt her puzzle connect with something inside of her head. "I'm going after Dark Matter."
'This is weird... why do I feel like there's someone else around me?' She thought as she rose from her kneeling position.
"Wait, I'm going with you." Tristan answered in a worried voice.
They left the scene and into the dividing hallway and then large banging noises were heard from upstairs.
"What was that?" Tristan asked looking up the stairs.
"That sounded like my room." Regan answered with a strange calm sense in mind. They rushed up the stairs to find Phoenix hissing at the closed door.
Regan opened the door to find a man who was severely injured by the guard cat. The man known as Dark Matter stood in the middle of the room holding a vial in each hand filled with a red liquid substance.
"Thanks for the pieces for our game, Regan's and Yugi's blood were the king and queen of the chess board. I have one more prize to collect before we start." Dark Matter stated and then grinned. "You shouldn't get you heart pumping like that, it just causes the body to poor out more blood, Princess. It is a good thing that your host is in excellent shape, or she might not survive such shock to the human body."
"What are you talking about?" Regan asked.
"Who is your last prize?" Tristan added.
"Oh cover the wound already the blood is dyeing the floor crimson." Dark Matter stated pointing at the floor. She looked briefly and decided to cover the wound so it could start clotting and maybe stop the world from spinning.
"Meet me in Domino Park at midnight sharp." He told them as he opened the bedroom window and jumped out into the outside world.
"Domino Park, where is tha-?" She started to ask Tristan and then the world went black and felt herself collapse, hitting the floor."