/ Duel Universe
/ Author: The Cowboy of Oklahoma
/ Ch 23: Hurt Healing
/ word count: 2188
Monster World:
People and monsters alike watched the horizon where the massive storm had been. They had seen the beams of light, the lightning, and the explosion of power that had rocked the ground even back to the castle. Dark Magician Girl and the human council members watched it as well from the castle's towers. They had never seen such might be unleashed before. It was greater than several megatons of nuclear weapons power.
"He used it. He used the card to decimate his opponent." Dark Magician Girl muttered.
"What? What did you just say?" General Marcellus leaned closer and whispered his question.
She clasped her hands together and seemed to go into prayer. "Nothing General Marcellus. It's nothing." She stated.
The General stood back but eyed her intently, he didn't like what she implied, but he didn't have the information to back up his inquiry. Several minutes later, they saw as Dark Magician was heading back to the castle, and he was carrying another individual in his arms. Not far behind him was a red dragon and on its back sat Ka'an, alone. Dark Magician noticed them on top of the tower, but he motioned for them to come down as he flew into the castle proper. Akiza lay on a makeshift gurney/hospital bed, tubes and wires attached to her in several places. Dark Magician landed close to her and let Shelly down to her feet. Shelly ran to Akizas' side and held her hand.
"Aki!" She wailed, looking to the medic and monster nurse that had been attending to her wounds. "Will she be alright!?" She asked in desperation.
"Calm down Lieutenant Commander," the female medic said, "she's fine. A little worse for wear, a few cuts, and bruises, but nothing life-threatening. She had a bump to the head, but Injection Fairy Lily here has some mighty strong healing ability. She got the swelling down and helped me clean up most of the wounds." The medic motioned to her monster assistant and patted her on the back.
Fairy Lily flapped her little wings happily in response. Shelly sighed some relief of worry off her shoulders and thanked them both. Then the red dragon landed just outside the entrance and she saw me step down from the monster. She steeled herself and nearly ran full steam, headlong right at me. I barely noticed her coming at me when I looked up and felt a sharp pain across my cheek and was sent reeling back against the dragon. I held my cheek for the pain, and I looked up at her somewhat surprised.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YA' THINKIN!?" She screamed at me.
I hadn't responded yet when a pair of arms wrapped around her in a bear hug and pulled her back from me.
"NO! HE JUST RUSHED IN, NO PLAN, NO IDEA WHAT HE WAS GETTING INTO, AND NOW AKIZA IS HURT BECAUSE OF HIM!!" She stated
"Calm down Lieutenant!! Now!!" General Marcellus ordered because he was the one that had grabbed her from behind.
He nearly had to wrestle her to the ground, she was a little younger and very much full of rage and feistiness. He later said he compared it to a bucking bronco in a rodeo. It eventually took him and a monster to hold her down till she calmed down enough to regain some composure.
I was moved inside to another room and was given a check-up there. I had a scrap, nothing else, so I was given a clean bill of health and left alone. A few minutes later, or maybe it was hours, I wasn't paying attention, General Marcellus stepped in and came over to me.
"Are you okay son?" He asked in a way that made me think of General Fornsburge.
I had to close my eyes at the thought, trying to banish the image that sprang to mind.
"I...I think so..sir." I said with no amount of confidence behind my words.
"Are you sure? You don't sound convinced that you're fine." Marcellus noted.
I had to let out a long exaggerated sigh, he wasn't wrong. Age always seems to know what you're thinking before you are.
"I don't know sir. I was so fired up to just go and help them, save them! That when I did find them, first Akiza was in a compromising position, and then Shelly being dangled from a chain like a cheap piece of jewelry. I..just lost it." I breathed to steady myself. "There wasn't anything I wouldn't have done to make those monsters pay and I did make them pay! I obliterated both of those sick sons a bithces to atoms with as much force as I could muster!" I clenched a fist with unused, nearly uncontrollable rage.
The General walked over and sat beside me, placing a hand on my back like a caring parent would.
"You did good son. You got them both back. They're both safe again. And if that display out there was your doing, I don't think anyone, human or monster, would dare cross you to get to them again." He stated.
But I wasn't so sure, "I..didn't like it..sir. I mean, I was there, I saw it happen, I wanted it to happen! And I don't think I could have done it any differently. And after it was done, I wasn't upset, not really. Not until Shelly gave me a what for, just like she did a little while ago." I held my cheek from the memory.
The General sat in silence for what seemed like forever beside me. Then he got up and turned to me with a well-practiced quick heel turn.
"Listen here, sailor!" He affirmed his voice to try and snap me out of my fog.
It worked, in a practiced manner, almost out of my control, I stood at attention and faced him, but I didn't speak.
"I am hereby giving you a temporary leave of absence from active duty!" He said while almost looking down his nose at me. "And you are not to duel or engage in any activity that would be considered strenuous to your mental health. Do I make myself clear sailor!?" He barked his order.
It rang a bell deep inside me, I straightened and cleared my throat. "Aye, sir!"
"Dismissed. And get out of that uniform. From now until you're called in to fight, you are going to be a civilian and nothing else!" He added.
"Aye, sir!" I confirmed.
I walked out of the room, past the others still standing around talking about what all happened. I didn't see Akiza or Shelly anywhere, so I figured that they had been moved to a medical tent or a different part of the castle. I walked out without saying a word to anyone, going straight to Shellys' and my quarters and changed, packed a duffel, and headed out into the monster world to relax and maybe find myself somewhere out there. I was not seen or heard from again until some weeks later.
Days later:
Shelly was sitting in hers and Ka'ans' quarters, Akiza had been moved there so she could be watched as much as possible. Ka'an has vanished, nobody would tell her where he went. He had packed nearly all his stuff, his deck, duel disk, clothes, bedding, even some small trinkets he had on the shelf they shared. His side of their room was completely empty, and she didn't like it. She knew what he did was just to get her back, to save her life, but the look in his eyes, the sheer rage, the uncontrollable malice she felt surging from him. That Goldd monster was physically shaken to his core, she felt him through the chains, and he was certain he was going to die. When Ka'an had declared the three sacrifices, and that he wasn't pulling out his Beast King, the fiend somehow knew what to expect, and he knew he was a dead man walking. But where did Ka'an get such a monster? He didn't have that in his deck when they were traveling the stars, nor when he fought the intruders way back in Coronado. And it most definitely wasn't in the cards that he brought back from the monster world. So it was something recent, something he found or picked up here in the monster realm, and she wanted to know exactly where and how! Akiza was doing better, a few days bed rest and she was beginning to show signs of improvement. The fiends had tortured her, both physically and mentally, and according to Akiza, they had done worse. She doesn't remember being rescued, or how she found herself in the castle with a medic looking over her. Just that she knew she was safe. She didn't wake again for almost 30hrs after that. She was already in the quarters of Ka'an and Shelly, her adoptive sis.
"Sis?" Akiza said weakly.
"Aki!" Shelly moved closer. "Do ya' need somethin?" Shelly asked.
"Where's Ka'an? And why am I in your quarters?" Akiza asked.
Shelly had to use more force of will than she realized to make sure she didn't reveal anything in her face.
"How bout somethin' to eat, drink?" Shelly offered, trying to change the subject.
"Yeah, I guess." Akiza sat up and looked around a bit questioningly. "How long was I out?"
Shelly got some of the pot of soup ready and a clean cup of cool water then brought it to her.
"Almost two days. Ye' were really hurt bad. Do ya' remember anythin?" Shelly asked.
Akiza thought back, a shutter was visible when she saw the monsters in her memories. Then it was all black until the castle, and that nurse that was standing over her, she vaguely remembered telling someone something, then nothing till just now.
"Just bits and pieces. That mad bastard, that nurse, and now." Akiza said.
Shelly hugged her gently so as not to rock her boat too much, but she kept a firm hold on Akiza for a solid minute, and Akiza shared the emotion and returned the hug.
"I'm sorry!" Shelly's voice cracked, and she was crying on Akizas' shoulder.
Akiza held her tighter, her own eyes threatening to release waterworks. She stroked Shelly's hair in a comforting manner. Shelly was near wailing to let it all out but kept some of it back so as not to burst Akizas' eardrums.
They let go of each other after a moment, and then Shelly remembered why she was there.
"Oh, the food." She turned to grab the bowl and glass and then gave them to Akiza. Akiza wiped the tears that had gotten through, and then began eating the soup. After she finished what she could take in of both, she watched Shelly go back to the makeshift kitchen and saw that some of the shelves were empty of things.
"Sis. Where is Ka'an?" Akiza asked again.
Shelly visibly dropped the bowl the last inch to the counter clattering it loudly, and almost dropping the cup as well.
"Sis?" Akiza gave a questioning look.
Shelly couldn't turn around, for fear of dropping herself to the floor if she let go of the countertop.
"He..he's gone. Left the same night he..rescued us from the fiends." Shelly finally spoke, emotion betraying her words.
"Left why? To give me space so we could stay in the same place?" Akiza asked. "Sis?" Her words had some concern in them.
Shelly was shaking, it hurt too much right now to talk about it.
"Sis!?" Akizas' word held so much weight all of a sudden.
Shelly couldn't stand it, collapsing to the floor, and held her hand to her mouth, gasping for air as she was crying again. Akiza tried to move, her legs betraying her and she was stuck in the bed.
"Sis!" Akiza reached out for Shelly's hand.
Shelly turned to look at her and had a flashback of a helpless Akiza being dragged off to who knew where in the dark and she almost crashed into Akiza to reach her as fast as she could.
"Aki! Oh, Aki!" She was wailing again on Akizas' shoulder.
Akiza used all her strength to hold Shelly as close to her as possible. The commotion brought someone to the door, and they didn't wait for an invitation when they heard the wailing. They saw it was just two women crying but didn't just leave.
"You ladies need anything in here? A doctor maybe?" The male soldier asked.
Akiza looked at him for a second, "doctor and a counselor." She stated.
He nodded and stepped back out of the door. A few minutes later there was a knock and two Individuals walked in after the door was opened by Shelly. The same medic from days before and a woman neither had met before this moment. The medic went to work checking Akizas' vitals and gave her an all-around check-up. The new woman sat down in the makeshift kitchen with Shelly and began talking to her about her ordeal.