The True Slifer Red 8
Chapter 8
-Jaden-
Groaning in pain he tried to look around at his surroundings as he woke up but let out a pained moan as even moving his head the barest amount caused his body to be wracked with pain. It made sense he thought idly, he was in a shadow game and got down to only a hundred life points, he had very nearly had his soul ripped out by the beings of darkness that lived within the shadow realm as a meal. "You're awake!" a voice called out as he forced his head to turn, noticing the oxygen mask on his face for the first time as he did so.
"Alexis…" he groaned out as he tried to force himself out of the bed in what he, now, realized was the school hospital "Missy…".
"No!" the woman, who he noticed was the Nurse Ms. Fontaine, called out in shock as she tried to push him back down gingerly "You're still too injured! You need rest!"
"Alexis…" he groaned out, "Missy…" his entire being focused on finding his friends, on making sure that they were alright…on making sure that they didn't hate him.
"I'm sorry about this." The woman apologized before sticking him with a needle as he felt the little strength in his muscles vanish as he fell back onto the sheets as Ms. Fontaine began adding straps to hold him down "That injection will make it so you can't move your limbs for a few minutes before wearing off," she told him "I can't let you get up and hurt yourself."
"Alexis…" he continued, tears forming in his eyes as he tried to plead silently for the woman "Missy…"
Before Ms. Fontaine could respond a bell was heard as she sighed, "I'll be back in a moment." She promised before moving over to the other room.
"Has there been any change?" he heard the voice of Bastion plead, the Brit's voice carrying through the halls to his room.
"He's just woken up a few moments ago," Ms. Fontaine said with a sigh, "but he's still incredibly weak. He's been asking for Ms. Rhodes and Ms. Kochou."
"What?!" the two girls in question yelled before he heard the sound of running footsteps as the two beauties burst into his room, their eyes filled with tears as they laid eyes upon the sight of him in his hospital bed, an oxygen mask on his face and a heartrate monitor beeping forlornly next to him.
"Jaden." Alexis said with a small sob as she collapsed into the chair next to his bed and clutched his right hand, Missy doing the same on his left while Bastion, Syrus, and Chumley stood in the doorway with Ms. Fontaine.
"Are you both…alright…?" he wheezed out weakly before couching, his body protesting existing as it tried to repair the damage from his soul nearly being devoured.
"We should be the ones asking you that," Missy sobbed, the beautiful insect duelist running her fingers through his hair while tears poured down his face "you…you nearly died back there Jaden. You nearly died…trying to save us."
"You don't…hate me…?" he asked, a note of pleading in his voice that he knew he wouldn't have been able to hide even if he tried.
"Never." Alexis promised as she kissed his cheek tenderly, "We could never hate you Jaden. You…you risked everything for us. Some might call you a monster for what happened in there but to us you're a hero, a warrior, you saved us from being killed and we could never hate you for that."
"I…I can't lose either of you…" he choked out as tears poured out and ran down his face, running across and over his Oxygen mask "I…I can't lose anyone else…"
"Anyone else?" Alexis asked in confusion as the guys walked into the room silently and Ms. Fontaine slipped away to give them some privacy, "Who…what happened?"
Feeling injection wearing off he moved his arm shakily over towards his bedside and his wallet, still struggling to move as Alexis quickly handed him the wallet and opened it for him. "Thank…you…" he said softly as he tugged out a picture of a little version of him with his parents.
"Is…is this your family?" Missy asked him as she took the photo and stared at the smiling people depicted in it.
"They…were…" he sobbed out as fresh tears fell forth "they were killed…car crash…when I was six…"
"No." Alexis breathed out in horror as Missy clutched his hand against her.
"My town hated me…" he continued weakly as he stared blankly at the ceiling, his mind and body too exhausted to keep his past secret "accidents from when I was a child…a vengeful duel spirit…without my parents or the spirit…I was treated like the town Pariah. The only cards that weren't stolen from me were my HERO cards that my dad gave me…two days before he died…and my Five Headed Dragon."
"A duel Spirit?" Alexis asked in confusion "You…you mean like how Slifer and your Cyberdarks showed up during the…shadow game?"
"Her name…was Yubel," he explained "she was a deity class fiend…whenever I lost a duel…she would attack the person who defeated me. I won a contest with Kaiba Corp to have new card designs shot into space to teach any other forms of life out there how to duel…I sent Yubel as well to be exposed to a special radiation as I thought it would help her."
"And when she was sent away…your town decided to try and get 'revenge'?" Bastion asked in disgust.
"I was sent to an Orphanage…" he continued "the matron who ran it hated me as she was overly religious and saw me as devil spawn. The moment I turned eighteen I applied for the Academy but barely managed to pass the written test as my education was always sabotaged."
"You don't have to worry about that again Jaden," Alexis promised him as he looked at his blonde friend, feeling his heart ache as he saw the tears in her eyes "we're with you and we will never abandon you."
"Thank…you…" he said weakly as he tried to remain awake, but his eyelids were growing heavier and heavier as his body needed more time to recover.
"You five can come back later," Ms. Fontaine said as the nurse walked back in, "he needs his rest."
Sighing, he closed his eyes as he began to drift off once again into sleep but just before he fully fell asleep he felt a pair of lips press softly against his own but he couldn't see who it was with his eyes closed. His last thought before he went under was how soft the lips had felt against his own.
