Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"That the deck isn't here... Ryu 'is' using it, he's called out Superia, Black Luster Soldier, Bastest and a Change of Heart spell card activated for him..."
Silence consumed the helicopter, as the two men processed what she said. While Mahaado's card, as well as Black Luster and the Change of Heart, were all mass produced. Superia and Bastest were one of a kinds as manifested by Yugi. Elation and hope reignited in Malik for the first time in decades! When Mokuba attempted to use the deck his siblings were the first two to appear. But for Seto's own Ka as well as Ryou's to manifest and take effect?
"You saw Kaiba and Bakura's..." Malik closed his eyes to stop the tears from welling up, his posture straightened as he leaned forward.
Mokuba merely growled his annoyance before he resumed the search for the park. "Even if the city goes back to 'normal'," he scoffed out the last word. "Placement of the copter still is relevant, land it in the wrong place and I could have a building around part of it."
"Um ok, a park, you're looking for a park..." Witch wasn't really sure why both men had such extreme behavior. So she opted to just look around. Plant life was easy to find normally, but with everything being smothered under the weight of the concrete. "Kinda sucks everything is like this."
Plant life had a struggle under the glaring darkness overhead, with the only light it was getting being so paltry. Many plants were shriveled now, and not just in the city! "I sense the roots from the grass, but a lot of the plants are struggling with the limited light..." She explained before pointing her wand. "Its not far now, but I sense a large square of grass and tree roots, in that structured way you humans go for."
Mokuba didn't even offer a 'thank you' as he eased the helicopter in that direction.
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Shizuka's place was very pleasant, one full of the most vibrant colors from paintings to plants. As though her near permanent loss of sight had spurred her on to fill her life with color and beauty. After all, their father had shown her the ugly side by the time their parents had gotten divorced. It was a pleasant enough place and Shizuka sat on the couch 'watching' tv. At least it could be 'called' that, but it was more that she was merely staring at it.
Among the pictures around her place where pictures of her with her mom and or her with Jounouchi.
Red Eyes laid behind the couch like the worlds biggest pet dog, on his stomach, head resting on his front claws. Used to be Jounouchi would visit his sister around this time of the year. Take two weeks off from work and just bum around and catch up with her. They would be watching Kamen Rider or binge on past series in an attempt to compile their personal favorites...
Only Shizuka was alone, while Jounouchi's fate had been unknown she had watched with the grim determination that he 'would' come back. She had stacks of dvds, folders of episodes all of it that they had to watch, stuff they needed to catch up on. Grim determination had crumbled into crying with boxes of tissue at her side.
There really wasn't anything he could do either. Something he had long ago accepted.
But when he heard a 'roar' that had nothing to do with the fighting on screen. He couldn't help but take notice.
While Kaiba did what he could to replicate the roar of a dragon, it was one thing to hear the approximation made by man about a dragon's voice.
And then there was hearing Blue Eyes White Dragon vocally cutting loose. Neo Domino was a neighboring city and voices did carry far more easily...
For Red Eyes the sound of the roar had been distant, but it was 'purely' Blue Eyes. After so long hearing her genuine voice had been startling. So much so that he thought he imagined it. But there was no imagining the sudden pop up on the tv warning of a very sudden very 'unnatural' storm that sprang fully formed over Neo Domino.
Hearing a voice that sounded like Blue Eyes 'and' a sudden mega storm?
He was supposed to 'also' be looking in and after Fubuki, and if something happened to the kid...
So he slumped out of the apartment, only to see the sky over Neo Domino and was found himself completely stunned. From above he could see that same black swath of darkness that blocked the stars, yet below it. There was this churning black mass of clouds that Red Eyes could still recall from when Kaiba and Blue Eyes were around. It stood out from the darkness above thanks to the lightning that kept dancing between the clouds.
More over now that his head was out of the apartment he could hear more of the distant thunder from that storm and the worrying glow of light. Regret brought him back to the present, making him turn to check one more time on Shizuka. The woman sat there alone her light brown hair cut in a bob, her clothes looked tired despite their bright clean appearance.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save him Shizuka..."
Jounouchi had been like her. Sitting alone in that dark, dusty tunnel until dehydration and infection closed his eyes forever.
Guilt made him speak uselessly into the air before he spread his wings and flew back to Neo Domino. Like it or not, Jounouchi had entrusted Red Eyes and the deck to look after Fubuki. A storm as sudden and massive as 'that' appearing screamed of Kaiba. So what had the kid done to get Blue Eye's attention? 'How' could Fubuki get her notice?
So he flew, with all the grace of a battered pigeon as he was forced to abandon his post looking after Shizuka to go to his new post. Looking after Fubuki. 'Well at least Aki and the Dragons can see and make me be seen.' He thought to himself...
With flight being the eternal ground eater he was over the city limits in minutes chewing through the space between the two cities with ease.
When did everything get flattened to the 'ground'?
It was a strange thought to cross his mind, it sounded like Jounouchi, and he wished the man was here. Visual landmarks were always important, and he always had the KaibaCorp office buildings as a type of visual cue. Yet there were also a number of buildings below it, there were things that... started making him slow down in his flight. Buildings were missing, and when he looked at the ground... was that... dust?
'When the city was blown up everything was in rubble but that's not rubble.' He noted to himself, there were no knocked over buildings made of large chunks of stone. As he got closer it became more and more clear that there was just... dust and in the distance further into the city...
Red Eyes squinted as he studied the landscape, a single building was standing seemingly surrounded by next to nothing. Amid flashes of lightning he could see buildings standing in the back, just these lone rectangles that might as well been spears in the ground. But... the...
He opened his wings and sought elevation, needing a proper dragons eye view of the situation.
There was this ring of nothing, there were buildings standing, but not near one particular...
"Isn't that Momentum... wait something nuked everything 'around' Momentum but 'not' Momentum itself?!" It brought to mind the image of the day Jounouchi stopped time in Domino. Kaiba had been at KaibaCorp and had fully transformed back into his Egyptian form as he began reading from his Book of the Dead. Calling back death itself and restoring the city, at that time only KaibaCorp stood straight up, everything else had been frozen in that Hollywood action explosion sort of way. Now here was Momentum still standing while everything around it was dust...
From above he could see a formation of Blue Eyes White Dragons and off in the distance he could see the expanse that was Stardust Dragons' wings. Stardust was far more amicable than Blue Eyes, and that was all he needed to decide the direction he would go.
'Its so eerie...' he mused as he began to bank and just glide after the other dragon. He had been in Domino, and now Neo Domino for so long. The roads were gone under the valleys of dust, everything was muddy gray. Gone were the street lamps and lights... Gone was...
It was strange. He felt weird...
"Hey! Hey Stardust wait up!" He roared out, only to hear his roar crack.
The dragon in question lifted his head in response before turning it a bit to look behind him. Red Eyes was soaring behind him, yet was he ok? It was strange to hear a dragons' cry break like that...
So Stardust lifted up his wings, slowed his momentum and waited patiently for Red Eyes to catch up. "Hey Red Eyes, is everything ok?"
"Yeah... just what happened he-here?"
Stardust blinked his orange and yellow eyes at the black dragon, they weren't solid there wasn't anything to choke on... "Battle between the Dragons, Yubel and Trueman. Yubel tried to blast them with an Orb of Corrupted Light and Blue Eyes White Dragon showed up with the storm. Rosie says its Kaiba's doing, that he was empowering Blue Eyes in response to the prayers for protection." Stardust explained as they settled into a side by side flight path.
"They did this?!" Red Eyes demanded in disbelief, where was the shop that Jounouchi used to work at?!
"Yeah..." Stardust slowed his words, enunciating them as he did so in concern. "Is something the matter?"
"The matter? Look at what they did to the city! Who's going to want to come back to... to this?!" Red Eyes demanded as he flung his clawed hand out flexing the claws as he did so. "I go off to look after Shizuka for a week and 'this' happens?"
"Life happens, and people 'will' come back because the Project is still here. It needs to be manned properly..." Stardust paused for a moment as he thought of how Momentum 'worked' before opting to move on. "Fubuki is ok..."
"That's one positive... I should have been here..." Red Eyes grumbled in frustration. "I can't believe Blue Eyes was so careless."
Stardust began lightly grinding his teeth, sharpening them a bit as he thought of approach after approach discarding as he did so. "Did you try to eat something? Your voice sounds a little strained..." He tried finally, "I know that when Aki lets us be solid sometimes I try a food that doesn't agree with me. The tofu did, once they fried it... slap on some soy sauce and its nice if mushy..."
It had actually been kind of fun sitting on Yusei's shoulder and having Aki feed him fried tofu squares.
"No... Its strange, my eyes, throat and chest all hurt and I don't know why..." Red Eyes admitted as Stardust began his descent causing Red Eyes to do the same.
"Eyes, throat and chest..." Stardust repeated as he looked about the ruined city blocks. "And you've never felt like this before?" He asked seeking clarification he didn't need. When Red Eyes landed next to him and nodded... "So you want to cry."
"What?!" Red Eyes balked in alarm before shaking his head. "Don't be stupid, dragons don't 'cry'. We're powerful, territorial mythic creatures that inspire awe and absolute coolness!"
"You had me until 'absolute coolness'," Archfiend noted as he began rising out of the underground, Black Rose following suit.
"Dragons aren't real," she crooned out mockingly. "Dragons are a creation of the human imagination."
"Have you looked at yourselves?" Red Eyes retorted when Stardust stretched his wing out between the trio.
"You're right that we appear as dragons, but Archfiend, Rosie and I were born from the souls of humans..." He pointed out, his voice as gentle as he could make it. "Come on, we can talk somewhere away from Momentum." He offered and spread open his wings again for lift off.
"You're just a bud, you should listen to Stardust..." Black Rose crooned out as she finished elevating herself out from the ground below.
"I'm not a hatchling!" Red Eyes argued only to have Stardust beat his wings between them again. The darkness of the night normally would have made it easier to not see the expressions on Red Eye's face. But Stardust did have those constant bursts of light that would ignite and then float peacefully to the ground...
"Come on Red Eyes."
"Let the baby cry, its something he's going to have to learn eventually," Archfiend pointed out his bass of a voice rumbling through the air. But his focus wasn't on Red Eyes anymore, there was just so much devastation around him. 'Now if I lost my mind where would I be?' he pondered. It was so dark it wasn't like he could just see them standing out in this wasteland of gray sludge. Even when the sun 'rose' he wouldn't be able to!
"I'm not going to cry!" Red Eyes growled, as he flexed his claws. "I'm a dragon not a soft flesh human!"
"Of course," Stardust replied as he swung his tail out warning the pair not to keep provoking.
"Heed Stardust or listen to Ancient Fairy, regardless of who you listen to if Stardust wants to waste his time on you, APPRECIATE IT!" Black Rose retorted in that way she now spoke to about strangers. Causing Stardust to turn around and give a small nip at the air in her direction.
Resigned to forcing the younger dragon, Stardust lifted off again and grabbed at Red Eyes lifting the dragon into the air.
"I can fly on my own power!" Red Eyes argued as he began to squirm. "And someone needs to teach them respect!"
Stardust chuckled as he took them off to the other side of the Project. Far enough the humans wouldn't hear or the dragons if they didn't follow. But there was no where to properly perch on in an elevated sense now that everything had been thoroughly flattened.
"'Teach us respect'. Red Eyes, the three of us, five if you count Ancient Fairy and her brother date back 5,000 years. We predated the original modern incarnation of God by 2,000 years. Trust me, though they are being rough about it, the others mean well and are stating the truth." Stardust released Red eyes as he landed amid the gray muck and mire, loosely wrapping his tail about his feet as he dropped into his usual crouched sitting position. "Heh, I think I looked like how you did when we lost Fairy to the EarthBound Gods... I didn't like accepting that we couldn't just rescue her."
"I'm not crying."
"There's nothing wrong with crying."
"I'm. Not. Crying! I have no reason to cry!" Red Eyes snarled in mounting frustration.
"Then there's something seriously wrong with you. Because your soul was born in this city right? You've never seen it utterly broken like it is right now, at least not utterly broken without Gods to fix it right back up. And your understanding of 'being a dragon' is the European view of dragons, territorial and greedy. Asians view dragons as wise and forces of nature, territory is fluid in their eyes. That means you would be responsible for the protection of this city and that means you royally failed it for it to get this bad."
Red Eyes opened his own beak like mouth before the words hit his brain and he snapped it shut with a hard 'clack'. The eyes pricked again as did his chest. "This was Jounouchis' town... I was visiting his sister for him... I..." Red Eyes' head began to drop. "I'm a failure like Kaiba always said, I can't protect anyone or anything... Blue Eyes can! She never failed anyone before! Here I... I can't... I don't want to cry... It hurts Stardust. Why does crying hurt?"
"Crying hurts because you care, and so long as you care whatever you're crying about has value. Don't ever feel bad about crying, there's no shame is caring about anyone or anything. Instead be terrified of the day when you feel nothing anymore. That's the day you truly die."