Beta-ed by xenosaiyan
"Age before beauty," Yang bowed her head. "So unless you're secretly a stud under that Grimm mask…"
Banesaw sneered at her, his Grimm mask vibrating over his completely hidden face, but he nonetheless slammed a monster down on his hulking duel disk. "I Normal Summon Labyrinth Heavy Tank in attack mode!"
A cheer went up from the lower tier of the stands, the faunus contingent of the audience howling for their champion as an enormous blue tank manifested before him, the huge machine bearing a truly unhinged amount of red drills (ATK 2400/DEF 2400).
"Level Seven with over two thousand attack points? Impressive," Yang glibly remarked. "I take it there's a drawback of some kind?"
"Can't attack the turn it's Normal Summoned. Not really a problem on the first turn," Banesaw shot back. "I activate its special ability! Once per turn, during my Main Phase, my tank can drill into my hand, deck, and banished cards, and place one of a certain three monsters in my Spell and Trap Card Zone as a Continuous Spell Card."
Labyrinth Heavy Tank's numerous crimson drills span and a card flew from its masked master's deck and into his duel disk. A coffin bearing an ancient Mistralian character manifested behind the machine, the circle forming the background colored in bright yellow.
"Monsters in the back row," Yang noted. It seemed Blake's Pendulum Monsters weren't the only practical application of the tricks the faunus had learned from their mistreatment in the Great War.
"Then I activate the field spell Labyrinth Wall Shadow!" Banesaw roared, his duel disk opening up as he smashed the card into its field zone, the aura reflectors lighting up.
All throughout the cage and the hardlight dust barrier running within it, thick walls of stone sprouted up from the floor. Yang's view of her towering opponent was obscured by a winding maze of stout weathered bricks, the blonde completely surrounded by his field spell and the cage bars.
"As long as Labyrinth Wall Shadow is out, monsters can't attack the turn they're summoned unless their original level is five or above," Banesaw's voice echoed through the walls, Yang's eyes flicking about trying to track where he might be. But all she ever caught was the whisper of a shadow zipping across the edge of the maze, just beyond the sight of her violet eyes. "It also has the same effect as my Labyrinth Heavy Tank. So I'll activate it to put another of those three monsters into my Spell and Trap Card Zone!"
A pillar of water shot up from the floor of the maze, reaching as high as the cage's enormous ceiling before falling back down on the opposite side from Yang. She had a feeling there was another coffin sitting by her opponent.
"I lay two cards face down and end my turn!" Banesaw shouted. "Think you can back up your bravado, human?"
"Easily. Draw!" Yang replied, ripping a card from the top of Ember Celica. She grinned wide and bright when she saw it.
Banesaw wasn't the first person to call her cocky. She preferred to think of herself as confident. After all, it wasn't just bravado if she really was as good as she thought she was. And despite her bluster, she was far from a hothead when it came to dueling.
Well, she wasn't just a hothead. She wouldn't have lasted a minute under her dad's training regimen if she was. She dueled with all instinct during a match, but beforehand, she studied her opponent and plotted counters for their go-to strategies, as she had with Pyrrha prior to their exhibition duel. And ever since her team had told her about the White Fang's reliance on Polymerization, she'd been researching ways to shut it down. And the card she'd just drawn was the counter she'd landed on.
Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell. A powerful Counter Trap Card that could negate an opponent's spell and prevent them from activating cards with that same name for the remainder of the duel. Using it on Polymerization would lock her masked opponent out of Fusion Summoning. All she'd need to do to activate it was discard a spell card. And wouldn't you know it, she had one ready to go in her hand.
Banesaw was probably planning some grand summoning of those monsters in his spell and trap zones so that he could use them to Fusion Summon once they were on the field. Once his Polymerization was shut down, they'd be trapped on the field. Though if they were as strong as his Labyrinth Heavy Tank, they could still be trouble…
… if she didn't have a super magical Stardust Dragon-esque silver dragon with effects specifically to counter high-level monsters! Hahaha!
"Since I have no monsters on the field, I can special summon Vice Dragon with half its original attack and defense points," Yang announced, a bumpy, gray gargoyle dragon roaring on the field (ATK 1000/DEF 1200). "Then I normal summon Red Resonator, whose effect lets me special summon Wandering King Wildwind from my hand."
A small fiend with a flaming robe, a tiny scythe, and a tuning fork (ATK 600/DEF 200) manifested on the blonde's field. The blazing gremlin threw up a cascade of sparks, a muscular feline warrior in a green cape (ATK 1700/DEF 1300) leaping through the glowing curtain.
"Alright," Yang muttered to herself. She took a deep breath, letting the thrum of the crowd wash over her as she looked up at the ceiling. Her gaze was not focused on the enormous spider symbol engraved on the club's roof however, instead trying to peer up at the heavens beyond even the sky. "Watch me, mom."
She double-checked her aura, molding it to her will just as she had a hundred times before. Vice Dragon broke apart into five twinkling stars, floating into a perfect pillar. Red Resonator soon morphed into two green tuner rings, the star pillar sliding through them both. Once they were in place, a column of shining light surged through them.
"I tune Level Two Red Resonator with my Level Five Vice Dragon!" Yang declared. "Synchro Summon! Level Seven! Clear Wing–"
RRRRAAGAAAGGGHHH!
"Gah!" Yang cried, her hands flying to her head as a thundering roar shrieked through her skull. It was like the agony she'd felt whenever Weiss or Blake summoned their dragons before Clear Wing's card had crystallized, when the non-crystalized card couldn't probably maintain balanced magic into her or whatever.
This time though, the shadow of an angular hypersonic dragon flickered through the pillar of light that'd consumed the stars and tuner rings. The beast glared down at Yang, the blonde making out the scattered emotions emanating from the mighty creature's roar, frustration, and disapproval seeping through her.
The dragon's shadow whipped away and the Synchro Summon collapsed. Vice Dragon and Red Resonator reformed from their level stars and tuner rings, a shockwave tearing out from the broken matrix. The labyrinth's walls cracked from the impact, while the cage and its hardlight barrier held fast.
Years of training allowed Yang to hunker down and take the blast as well as possible. It still felt like getting rammed by a car, but she was able to merely fall to one knee instead of being blown back like someone less experienced might have been. Still, the fiery duelist panted hard for breath, her aura crackling.
"Ha! Was that supposed to impress me, human?" Banesaw laughed, his cackles echoed from the crowd and supplemented with a chorus of boos even from the upper echelon of prejudiced humans. "This isn't the place to be trying to play hunting duelist, little girl! Run along back to whatever beauty pageant Junior pulled you out of–"
"I tune Level Two Red Resonator with Level Four Wandering King Wildwind!" Yang roared, her voice booming through the maze's walls, even the shadow fleeing from her rage through the bricks. Her two monsters flew into the heavens above the labyrinth, two tuner rings and four twinkling stars, smooth as butter before a pillar of light seared through them. "Synchro Summon! Level Six! Red Rising Dragon!"
A dragon of wild, untamed flames screeched down from the blazing pillar, its red stomach scales the only flesh and blood portion of its body (ATK 2100/DEF 1600).
Yang smirked up at her Synchro Monster, summoned with grace and expertise even after she'd just had her aura slammed. Her new magical monster didn't think she was good enough for it? Fine! Who needed it?! She'd been kicking butt without magic for years. She didn't have a magic dragon or a Signer Dragon, but she'd made her own awesome ace that could tear this terrorist apart.
"When Red Rising Dragon is summoned, its effect activates–"
"Like you just activated my trap card! Or rather, trap monster," Banesaw shouted. "Prey of the Jirai Gumo! Devour her monster!"
"Huh?" Yang exclaimed, only for a giant spider (ATK 2100/DEF 100) to leap out from the maze's shadows and wrap its spindly legs around Red Rising Dragon's blazing form. The enormous arachnid bit into the burning dragon's neck, the Synchro Monster letting out a gasping death knell as it was shredded into sparks. "What the heck?!"
"When Prey of the Jirai Gumo activates, it summons itself to the monster zone in the same column as it was set as a trap card," Banesaw gloated, his spider skittering back into the labyrinth as his voice boomed. "It then can destroy one monster of yours in the same column."
"So you set it in the same column as the Extra Monster Zone," Yang growled, guessing that his second facedown was likely in the column of the other Extra Monster Zone. Even if it wasn't another Jirai Gumo, the bluff would make his opponent guess twice.
Banesaw may have looked like a hulking brute, but he clearly knew what he was doing. His previous win streak wasn't just due to his Fusion Monsters' raw power. He was good.
Fortunately, Yang was better.
"Even though it was destroyed, Red Rising Dragon's effect still activates. I special summon a Resonator from my graveyard. In exchange, I can't summon monsters from my Extra Deck this turn except for dark attribute dragon synchros," Yang revealed, Red Resonator blossoming back onto her field. "Red Resonator's effect now activates. When it's special summoned, I target a monster on the field and gain life points equal to its attack points. You still got that Labyrinth Heavy Tank?"
Red Resonator threw up a ball of flames and smacked it with its tuning fork, rushing through the labyrinth. The fiery fiend soon grew even brighter, warm hearth washing over Yang.
Yang Xiao-Long: 6400 Life Points
"Now, let's just give this one more go, shall we?" Yang said. "I tune Level Two Red Resonator and Level Five Vice Dragon!"
"A third Synchro Summon in one turn?" Banesaw grumbled, a chorus of gasps rising from throughout the audience. "Guess you've got some teeth on you after all."
He could say that twice. Jaune had a mountain of aura and he'd struggled to Xyz Summon again during his Promotion Exam duel after flubbing his first attempt. Yang didn't have as much as him without her semblance, but she'd had over a decade of training on how to use what she did have as efficiently as possible. She minimized her loss on the rare occasion she failed a summon (or her magical dragon decided that she wasn't good enough for them!) and vastly reduced the cost of her successful moves. She was still improving, her dad and Uncle could do many more, but she'd be good for one or two more Synchro Summons.
"Hello there, my enemy! My punching spree echoes the ruler's shouts and shatters the very earth with the hammer of victory!" Yang chanted, managing her aura precisely as Vice Dragon and Red Resonator took their positions once more. "Synchro Summon! Level Seven! Exploder Dragonwing!"
The pillar of light blazed through the tuner rings, a gargoyle-like black dragon emerging from the blinding column. A massive bile sac swung behind its throat as it roared, its leathery red wings spread and ready for battle (ATK 2400/DEF 1600).
"Battle!" Yang declared. "Exploder Dragonwing attacks Labyrinth Heavy Tank! King Storm!"
"What?!" Banesaw screeched. "Why? They have the same attack points."
"But not the same effect," Yang noted, her monster taking to the air and soaring over the labyrinth. "When Exploder Dragonwing battles a monster with equal or lower attack points, it destroys it at the start of the Damage Step. And you take damage equal to its attack on the field. Your tank has how many again?"
Exploder Dragonwing heaped a fiery typhoon down on the opposite end of the labyrinth, an explosion emanating out from the point of impact. Yang smirked as she spotted bits of blue and red machinery among the smog, the crowd muttered with impressed awe.
Banesaw: 1600 Life Points
"Sorry about what comes next, dude," Yang whispered, regretfully rubbing the smooth black surface of the shock collar on her wrist. "But you knew what you were getting into when you stepped in here."
"Raaaaggggghhhh–-huh?" Banesaw's voice called out as if prepping for pain, only to be cut off by confusion.
Yang's eyebrow quirked into her forehead. She'd seen underground duels before. The shock collars should have gone off by now.
"I… I didn't feel a thing? I… I must have gotten so used to them that they don't even tickle anymore! I am invincible!" Banesaw exclaimed, Yang able to just imagine his pumping his fists in the air as the faunus crowd roared. "The invincible champion of the faunus!"
Yang ground her teeth in annoyance at the brute's acting, as if he didn't know well what was going on. He was in on this mess. Him and others.
"Junior," she snarled, clenching her fists as mentally plotted out exactly how she was going to burn The Club down and salt the ground beneath it. She snagged two of the three cards in her hand and shoved them into Ember Celica. "I end my turn!"
She had Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell set and Return of the Dragon Lords in hand ready to serve as its cost. Her Polymerization counter was in place. Her Exploder Dragonwing was in the same Extra Monster Zone his Jirai Gumo trap monster was in front and therefore safe from another's summoning. She had four times her opponent's life points. She was going to crush Banesaw.
And then she'd put Junior in his place.
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"Pfft! Pfft! Yuck!" Weiss spat, struggling through the mess of spiders and spiderwebs skittering throughout the secret 'Staff Only' room she'd followed Miltia into.
"What the–" Junior exclaimed, he and the Malachite Twins whirling around from where they were managing the controls of a CCT monitor, Yang and Banesaw's duel displayed on the screen from multiple angles. "Miltia, how hard is it to make sure you're not being followed?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I was still a bit frazzled after you had me negotiate with Neopolitan!" the white-clothed girl screeched. "Asking her if she was okay with us using her pet could have resulted in her accepting the ice cream bribe or having those toon monstrosities of hers shank me in the behind. Probably both."
"But she only did the first one. So stop whining," Melanie snipped back, turning back to Weiss. "What do you want?"
"First, I will be registering an official complaint about the unacceptable squalor of your establishment. I know this is just a cover for your criminal activities, but have some standards," Weiss demanded, breaking out her glyphs to force several spiders away from her before dramatically pointing at the immoral trio. "Second, I demand to know what your evil plan is!"
Junior, Miltia, and Melanie each exchanged befuddled looks with each other before turning back to the Schnee heiress. "No."
Weiss' face twitched with annoyance. "One day that'll work."
"I activate Labyrinth Wall Shadow's effect!" Banesaw announced on the screen, two coffins humming on the field before him. "I place the third of those three monsters in my Spell and Trap Card Zone from my deck!"
A tornado broke out in the air above the bulky faunus, storming down to the floor of the cage and coalescing into a third coffin beside the others. Atop its lid was a green circle, within which was the ancient Mistralian character for 'Wind'. Weiss quickly glanced over the other coffins recognizing the characters for 'Thunder' and 'Water'.
"He's got all three," Weiss fearfully observed. "If he has some kind of spell to get them on his field, and then uses Polymerization…"
"You know about that Polymer-whatever card of his?" Melanie remarked, surprised. "Impressive."
"But you think he needs it for those three," Miltia observed. "Less impressive."
Weiss' heart froze with fear. What were they hinting at? She knew the effects of the three monsters in those coffins, none of them could cause a Fusion Summon. And according to Blake, the only other methods of fusion summoning were Polymerization or an archetypal fusion spell.
Yet, how much did any of them, even Blake, really know about this Extra Deck summoning style? What did they know of its deeper mysteries? What did they know of what was truly possible with it, what danger Yang was trapped in that cage match with?
Or what it meant that Junior turned back to the CCT monitor, where he'd turned down one switch under Banesaw's main screen, and proceeded to raise the switch under Yang's main screen up to its maximum.
"It's time! Let the full power of the faunus, the gift of Adam Taurus, come forth now and crush this human worm!" Banesaw praised. "Begin now! Contact Fusion!"
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"Contact what?" Yang murmured, an uneasy feeling growing in her stomach as the entire labyrinth began to shudder and shake. Exploder Dragonwing growled with concern, edging back to shield his duelist from what was to come.
Three pillars, one of lightning, one of water, one of wind, erupted into the air, crashing together at the roof of the cage. The hardlight barrier crackled and the faunus crowd went wild with excitement.
"Elements of thunder, water, and wind!, Suijin, Sanga, Kazejin, begin! Meld your powers in eternal spite! Show this fool your unstoppable might!" Banesaw chanted, pumping the crowd up into a rampant fevor. "Guardian of elemental might lionized by history! I merge Sanga of the Thunder, Suijin, and Kazejin and call you forth! Fusion Summon! Gate Guardians Combined!"
The three pillars crashed together and swirled into the traditional fusion vortex. A tempest crackled from the whirlpool, a blinding supernova blazing from its depths. And from that brilliant glow, it finally emerged.
Gate Guardians Combined towered over the walls of the labyrinth, Yang able to see the top of the blue elemental acting as the fusion's legs, let alone the green one acting as its torso and the golden one forming its shoulders, arms, and head. The giant extra layer of orange pauldrons scraped at the top of the cage, the air heavy with its suffocating power (ATK 3750/DEF 3400).
"What the heck?!" Yang gawked, her violet eyes wide as her game plan fell apart. "That's not how fusion summoning works?! Where's the Polymerization? The archetype fusion spell? The monster effect that bypasses it?!"
"How the heck do you know so much about fusion summoning–oh. Oh, you're one of those humans," Banesaw realized, his voice growing dark. "One of the traitor commander's new masters."
"Well, teammates, not masters," Yang shrugged. "And partner, specifically."
"Heh… hehehehe!" Banesaw cackled. "I'd hoped for the Schnee, I owe her family a debt of vengeance. But you'll do. That traitor left before the true power of Fusion Summoning could be reached. Gates Guardians Combined is only the prototype, the first of the Blood-Soaked Bull's Contact Fusion experiments!"
Yang frowned. "That guy again. And he gave them to you to test, I take it? This winning streak of yours hasn't just been about recruiting people."
"The monsters' natural desire to be one makes their combination far easier to manage than any other contact fusion. But the data from their use has only made our leader's experiments more advanced," Banesaw gloated. "Like this spell card, Riryoku Guardian!"
Gate Guardians Combined let out a base, rumbling roar, Sanga's thick arms rising as an enormous golden sun formed between its palms. Yang cocked an eyebrow at something with the epithet 'of the Thunder' creating a star, only for her violet eyes to widen in shock as her aura took on a sickly green glow and began to flow up into the titan's blazing orb.
Yang Xiao-Long: 3200 Life Points
"What in the world?" Yang murmured, a chisel of fear cracking her voice as the energy of her very soul was sucked away.
"Riryoku! The sun that steals souls so it may burn!" Banesaw pontificated, his element titan's sun growing brighter and brighter (ATK 6950). "When my life points are less than yours, I can target a monster with 'Gate Guardian' in its original name to gain attack points equal to half your life points. By taking half your life points. And you know what that means in here."
"Unfortunately," Yang frowned, tensing her body for what was about to happen.
But even as her collars began to crackle, her violet eyes widened in terror. She may not have ever participated in any underground duels where she would have worn the shock collars before, but she'd watched plenty when she'd swung by for some turbo duels. She knew the sound the collars made when they were about to expel their torturous payload, even for a OTK from full life points. This was not that.
It was much, much worse. A whine that warned of enough energy being built up worth twenty thousand life points. Which meant someone had upped her collar's output. Just like they'd completely shut down Banesaw's.
"Junior," Yang snarled. "When I get my hands on you–AAaaaahhhh!"
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"Yang!" Weiss screamed, the heiress' face stretched with horror as she beheld what occurred on the CCT monitor.
Lightning churled and snapped around Yang, closer to the thunderbolt that had struck Nora during her promotion duel than the sparks that had crackled over Banesaw's last defeated opponent. The beautiful blonde howled in agony as the electricity rippled over her muscular body, her black collars unleashing a torturous tempest as the hunting duelist's aura helplessly flickered.
"What are you doing?!" Weiss yelled at Junior, the crowd's cheers mocking her through the monitor's speakers. "Stop this! Stop this right now!"
"You've got a lot to learn about this world, Ice Queen," Junior stared at the monitor. His body shook with desperation as he watched Yang convulse in pain, his gaze almost pleading as he watched the blonde writhe in the grip of his electric trap.
Weiss deployed Myrtenaster, but that just caused the Malachite sisters to step between her and their boss, duel disks ready.
"Look! I get that she destroyed your turbo duel track and trashed your club, but you said yourself just how much money you stand to gain if she beats this guy," Weiss argued. "Are you really going to throw away a payday like that for some petty revenge?"
"Revenge? You think this is about revenge?" Junior spat, clenching his shaking hands as he maintained the altered collar switches. "This is about safety. The safety of me and those I care about."
"The heck are you talking about?! You know what? I don't care!" Weiss snapped. "Turn the collars off. Right. Now."
"You don't get to make demands here, Ice Queen," Melanie snidely sneered, spiders swinging behind her on thin threads of silk.
"And no one gets to threaten the boss," Miltia added. "Well, mom does. But she's… she's…"
"Not here!" Melanie shouted fearfully at her sister, her eyes skittering after the room's multitude of spiders. "She's not here."
Weiss cocked an eyebrow in confusion for a moment. She knew that vocal tone. She'd heard it many times from her own lips when she was asked about her father–
"Aw, can't take what you dish out, human? Too bad!" Banesaw taunted Yang, his voice booming over the monitor's speakers.
"No!" Weiss screeched, her previous thoughts banished as she raised her duel disk with a snarl.
Weiss Schnee: 4000 Life Points
Melanie Malachite: 4000 Life Points
Miltia Malachite: 4000 Life Points
"I activate Melody of Awakening Dragon to discard Galaxy Cyclone and add Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon to my hand. Then I reveal Blue-Eyes White Dragon to special summon the alternative version from my hand," Weiss rapidly speaking, her gleaming majestic dragon appearing before her (ATK 3000/ DEF 2500). "Care to surrender before I just blast you to bits without a duel?"
It was a bluff. She couldn't risk unleashing that kind of unrestrained power when the CCT monitor was right there. Who knew what kind of feedback that would send through Yang's collar, or if she'd even be able to shut the chokers off at all? She needed the restraint of an active duel, but she had to finish it quickly!
"Gate Guardians Combined! Attack Exploder Dragonwing and ends this!" Banesaw's voice boomed. "Demon God Shockwave!"
"I activate–Kahck!–my–Gah!–my facedown!" Yang hacked and coughed, an image of Judgeman holding two axes before a duelist on her raised facedown. "Half of Nothing! Pretty self-explanatory. You pick to halve all your monsters' attack until the end of the Battle Phase, or end your Battle Phase."
"Half is still gonna make you hurt!" Banesaw roared, Gates Guardians Combined (ATK 3475) unleashing a titanic typhoon of lightning, wind, and rain. Even as Jirai Gumo (ATK 1050) was knocked low by Yang's trap card too, the blonde's Exploder Dragonwing was completely disintegrated.
Yang Xiao-Long: 2125 Life Points
"AaaaaahhhhHHHH!" Yang shrieked, her collars unleashing a new roiling tempest across her body.
"No!" Weiss yelled. "Stop this! Stop this right now or I swear–"
"Prey of the Jirai Gumo! Attack her directly!"
It was too late. The spider trap monster skittered through the depths of the labyrinth, leaping from wall to wall, the shadow beneath the bricks thrusting it forward even faster. At last, it charged out the other end and raked its spindly legs across Yang's body.
And the thunder followed.
"AAAaaaaaaahhhhh!"
"No!" Weiss called, tears flying from her eyes.
Yet, her cries did nothing to help. For what felt like a solid minute, the shock collars unleashed a maelstrom of crackling torture over Yang's muscular form, her blonde mane sprayed about. When the collars finally died down, the hunting duelist swayed back and forth, unbalanced and smoking as sparks tingled over her clothes.
Until at last, she teetered over and crashed facefirst to the floor.
"Yang!" Weiss shrieked.
Melanie and Miltia smirked. "No more sun dragons."
"No, not yet," Junior said, his gaze still intense and worried on Yang's fallen body. "Her semblance. If her heart hasn't stopped completely, her semblance can still–"
"I send a Blue-Eyes White Dragon from my deck to my graveyard to special summon Dictator of D. from my hand! Then, I normal summon The Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor!" Weiss frantically called, her bone-armored spellcaster with a Blue-Eyes scepter (ATK 1200/DEF 1100) and a knight of sapphire flame haunting thin black armor (ATK 1000/DEF 2000).
"What? You're still going?" Miltia remarked, raising an eyebrow.
"Wake up, Atlas girl," Melanie scoffed. "Your friend's gone."
"Not yet. Not yet," Weiss rapidly muttered, praying that it was true. She had to move quickly. She had to move quickly before she lost her friend! "I overlay my Level Four Dictator of D. and Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor!"
A golden spiral galaxy exploded out beneath, Weiss having to pinch herself to remember to handle the transformation of her monsters into purple energy nodes. Her panic made her reckless, made her fearful, but fortunately, her years of training served her well. She heard Winter and Professor Goodwitch's voices in her ears, reminding her to keep her aura steady, not to force her monsters through the Overlay Network. A failed summon wouldn't save her friend.
"From the black darkness hidden behind the mirror, bare the fangs of rebellions against the stupidity that would make you guilty of its crimes!" the Schnee heiress chanted, her eyes never leaving Yang's unmoving body on the monitor. "Xyz Summon! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!"
The center of the golden galaxy exploded, a vibrant violet hide rising from the supernova. With jet-black talons and razor-sharp fangs crackling with lightning (ATK 2500/DEF 2000), Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon roared at the Malachite Twins, the decadent sisters jumping back in shock at the nightmarish monster. Even Junior finally looked away from the CCT monitor, his face twisted with shock.
But Weiss' gaze was still locked on the image of Yang on the screen, broken and motionless on the ground. Junior had overloaded the already dangerous electrical output of the shock collars to outright stop her heart.
If Weiss was going to have any chance of saving her, she needed to restart her heart. The mystical adrenaline boost they all got whenever one of them summoned one of their four dragons was her only chance. But… but if that didn't work… she would lose her… her friend–
"Ragh!"
"Rrrmm."
Weiss glanced away from the screen, rubbing tears from her eyes as she looked to her dragons. Blue-Eyes' roar was not unkind, but demanding, calling on her to stand tall against the danger to come. Meanwhile, Dark Rebellion gave her a softer, more reassuring coo, as if asking her to trust in it and its siblings' powers.
But Yang hadn't succeeded in summoning Clear Wing yet. She'd said she'd felt the adrenaline boost back during Blake's promotion duel, but what if her dragon decided that she wasn't worthy of it or something? What if–
"Raaaaaggggghhhhh!"
"No!" Junior yelled, whipping back to the CCT monitor.
Weiss and the Malachite twins followed his shocked gaze, a guttural, furious roar ringing throughout the spider-filled backroom. A roar ringing from the throat of a very much alive, very much displeased Yang Xiao-Long.
The blonde hunting duelist was back on her feet, her vibrant golden mane literally on fire, her usually violet eyes burning a hellish crimson red. She panted hard for breath, but her muscular body bulged against her shock collars, the black metal expanding as she raged.
"No, no, no!" Junior ranted. "The shocks were supposed to take her out before she had a chance to activate her semblance! How the heck did her heart restart?"
"Junior."
The information broker froze, Yang's voice rumbling through the monitor's speakers.
"I know you're watching. I know you can hear me. I know you tried to kill me," Yang threatened. "After I'm done with your little attack dog, I'm gonna show you what it looks like when I'm really trying to burn this place to the ground."
Weiss' panicked expression twisted into a victorious smirk. It seemed the adrenaline boost from Dark Rebellion had restarted Yang's heart just enough for her to activate her semblance, which… actually now that she thought about it, Yang and Ruby had never actually explained what the elder sister's semblance's specifics were. Her eyes changing color and her hair lighting on fire was a clear indication that something was happening, and Junior seemed to know what somehow, but it wasn't entirely clear how it was allowing her to go from death's door to flaming mad in the blink of an eye.
"Still got some fire in you, human? Alright then!" Banesaw called, setting a card in the center column. "One facedown. Your move!"
Junior pulled out his scroll. "Get every guy we've got down to the cage! Everyone–"
"Thank you."
Junior blinked in surprise, he and the Malachite twins turning back towards Weiss. The Ice Queen's smirk was frigid, yet excited.
"Uh, what the heck are you talking about?" Melanie spoke up.
"Exactly what I said. Thank you," Weiss said, activating Graceful Charity and drawing three cards before discarding two to her graveyard. She set one facedown and bowed her head to pass. "For weeks now, I've been filled with so much… turmoil. To help my friend confront her demons, I had to wade into battles that just felt like worsening my own. What right have I to hurt those driven to crime by my own family."
"Fascinating," Miltia drolled. "And you thank us because…?"
"Because you're not like that at all. You're not victims of a system my family perpetuates. No tragic backstory. You're just a bunch of criminals who tried to murder my friend," Weiss said, her predatory grin with every word. "Which means this is a wonderful opportunity for me to let loose and really enjoy this duel."
Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon and Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon roared in cataclysmic rage, this shared lightning cackling between the spider webs.
Hooray for multiple-part chapters! August is kicking my butt at work, but since this thing is a reasonable word count, I was able to get it out. This contains about what I had wanted to include in the last chapter before I realized the last one was running too long. Flashbacks have lots of words in them.
Remember to check out and add to this story's TVTROPES PAGE! I check my stories' pages often and I always enjoy it when they grow. :)
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!