Compared to the noise and bustle of the campus outside, the American Duel Academy’s infirmary was as quiet as a grave. The silence was suffocating. Almost like it was wordlessly judging David’s actions. He could understand that, at least. David judged his own past actions well enough. All the things he had done under Tragoedia’s orders while he was possessed… it was only snippets. Snippets and fragments of half-remembered memories.
Those snippets and fragments were enough to make David nearly vomit each time his brain brought them to the forefront of his mind without permission.
And there he was again. Thinking around in circles about the same old things. Over and over again. David shook his head violently in an attempt to rattle the bad stuff in his brain around to the back again. Where he could safely ignore it. Right now, was mission time. Once an ominous phrase, but now it was like a pure ray of light breaking through the close ranks of dark clouds that seemed to be his life nowadays. He had a part in all of this. He couldn’t afford to mess that up.
David slinked down the rows of hospital beds, ticking each name on each nameplate off his fingers one by one. There were no orderlies in sight to disturb his mission. None of the occupants of the beds were awake, for one reason or another. Not like there were many to begin with. From what he could see, David only counted three or four teens aside from himself in the infirmary. Some slept off broken bones, others snoozed through bad decisions made the night before or unfortunate summer sicknesses.
Then David finally reached his target. His shoes scuffed against the squeaky-clean tile floor as he halted all of a sudden to read the nameplate.
John, no last name.
Now, David Rabb had seen his fair share of what a therapist would likely feel quite comfortable calling ‘traumatic sights’. He had distant memories of the other David, the possessed one, gleefully condemning duelists to the shadow realm for the sole fact that they had stood in his way. He’d worked with Reggie to hide bodies left over from Tragoedia’s experiments. Hell, he’d made more than a few people disappear back then just because he’d felt like it. The other David Rabb was simply that bloodthirsty. Fun fact? Hogs were really good at making dead bodies turn into thin air overnight. All you had to do was starve them a bit beforehand and pick through their shit afterward for the hair and teeth since they can’t digest those. Another fun fact? The American Duel Academy had an agriculture program available for students with an interest in adding a backup plan to their arsenal in case dueling didn’t work out for them long-term. And some hogs. On the other side of the campus, near the river.
Some pretty wild stuff for sure. But as David stared wide-eyed at John’s body, the only thought that went through his mind was ‘I need to puke’.
Every single scrap of skin on the boy’s body had been removed. Yet, there didn't seem to be any excessive bleeding. Sure, the sheets were a bit pink, but nowhere near as pink as they should have been given that the occupant of the bed was currently missing all of his skin, the very thing that tended to keep blood inside of the body.
David lurched over to a nearby trash bin and emptied the contents of his half-digested breakfast into it. He spent a few more seconds hovering over the receptacle, took a glance at John’s body, and then let loose a stream of pure acidic bile from the bottom of his gut.
“Just what the hell… did he do to you?” David hoarsely rasped the rhetorical question once he’d regained control over his now-empty stomach. The view felt like it got worse and worse every second David kept his eyes on John’s body. Not only was every single inch of his skin missing, but his eyelids were gone, and clumps of his tendons were cut in half like a child had been allowed to go wild with a pair of scissors. He could see the muscles, parts of the organs that weren’t hidden from sight behind the ribcage, and all the various fluids that generally like to stay within the human body. The weirdest bit of it all was that even though all of that damage had been done to John’s body, there was still a duel disk strapped to the boy’s left arm. There was even a deck still slotted right in place.
Despite his nausea, David moved a finger forward and made to poke John to see if he reacted. It was silly. Pointless, really. The kid was definitely dead. No one could survive with that much damage done to their body. But he still poked John in the side. No reaction
“Terrifying, isn’t it?”
David whirled around with his hackles raised like a startled cat caught stealing a bowl of tuna to face the owner of the unfortunately familiar voice.
Reggie MacKenzie stalked towards him with a calculating air around her. The heels of her shoes 'click-clacked' against the tile floor with each step she took. It wasn’t quite clear how she had gotten that close without him hearing that noise.
He took a cautious step backward. “As always.” David eventually replied. For a moment, neither of the teens spoke until Reggie stopped right next to John’s body. She absentmindedly stroked John’s exposed muscles and continued to speak.
“Sometimes I begin to think that Tragoedia will reach the limits of his cruelty, of his willingness to tear through the bounds of human decency with his dark magic. And then something like this happens.” Reggie withdrew her hand and observed it with an air of mild disgust. There was a small splotch of pinkish liquid on the very tips of her fingers. Her nose wrinkled in distaste and she wiped it off on John’s bed sheets.
“So.”
David looked at her evenly. With as steady as a look that he could muster in the face of the unexpected and potentially lethal situation. Did she know?
“So?” He eventually replied, making the word out to be like a question.
Reggie sighed and pulled out a duel disk from behind her back. The movement barely seemed to disturb her pure white academy uniform.
“Idiot. I’ve known for the longest time that the impact you suffered in your duel against that guy snapped you out of it.”
David instantly took several steps back and snapped his own duel disk into place. Here it was. The danger zone. But if Reggie had known for all this time… “Then what’s the deal?" David cautiously sent verbal feelers out to gauge the situation. Reggie had to be playing some sort of angle in all of this. Otherwise, she would have simply told Tragoedia what she knew almost immediately. "You know that I'm normal again.”
“Of course.” Reggie said dismissively. “Never underestimate a woman’s intuition. And I let it slide because that creature never ordered me to report cases like this. A loophole, if you will. A chink in his armor caused by sheer hubris.” She sighed and shook her head. For a moment, it almost seemed to David like he could see hints of despair floating in her cool blue eyes.
“I’m sorry David. I can’t let you go now that you’ve seen John’s body without permission. His orders are ironclad with this.”
Her voice cracked right in the middle of her sentence. David’s eyes widened. For another moment, he could even see glimpses of the old Reggie. The way she had been before that dark spirit had destroyed his adopted family like a bomb detonating in the middle of their household.
“Reggie…”
Her body shuddered. Her eyes flickered, and her spine straightened to a completely upright position. Like something else was speaking to her in her mind. Asserting control.
"Silence." A cruel smile floated over Reggie's face. She brought a single finger up to her lips in a shushing gesture. "There are patients all around~. It would be such a shame to let them get hurt. How about we take this somewhere else. Out of consideration, of course.”
Without any further words, she snapped her duel disk into place on her arm and swept out of the infirmary like the calm before the storm. David sighed and followed her. All the way down the hallway. Up the stairs. And onto the roof.
The roof of the infirmary building was empty aside from a singular man, one of the nurses who was enjoying a quick smoke break amid the warm summer air. He looked at the pair questioningly, as if to ask why the hell two students were up on the roof.
Reggie thinly smiled back and the man fled like a rabbit in the presence of a starving fox.
“Reggie I-“
“It’s too late.” Reggie interrupted David’s half-hearted words. “I don’t have a choice, David. You’d be forced to do the same if our positions were swapped. And for the record, I’m… I’m sorry it came to this.”
The warm summer air abruptly cooled out of nowhere. Shadows flitted around the pair, a stark contrast to their pure white academy uniforms. David’s heart chilled. His hands moved mechanically. Like old habits were threatening to move in and take over his own actions. It was a familiar feeling. A familiar chill in the air. A familiar whispering. How many shadow duels had he been a part of by now? He didn’t know the answer. Most of them were half-forgotten echoes of memories long past. The rest were more solid recollections that David was doing his best to turn into fully-forgotten echoes of memories long past.
The two siblings stared at each other. One with a playful, yet slightly pained air to her posture. The other floated in a sea of despair, wondering if there had ever been a chance to prevent this.
A distant thundering rumble of a motorcycle broke the standoff, and the two students flew into action.
David: 4000 Reggie: 4000
“I’ll take the first turn!” David instantly snatched the chance dangling right before his eyes. If Reggie’s deck was similar to how he remembered, stealing a turn to set up his plays before she was given the chance to lay down a myriad number of counter traps like an unending minefield at his feet was beyond the utmost importance.
Reggie calmly nodded. Despite being apparently put at a slight disadvantage, she seemed as cool as a cucumber in Springtime.
David drew a card and considered his options. He had to start this out right, not letting a single advantage slip from his grasp. Why?
It was because of one simple reason (other than the counter trap issue) – Reggie was just a better duelist than him, and he knew it. She knew it, too.
“First off the bat, I summon Machina Soldier (1600/1500) in attack position. And since I controlled no other monsters when Machina Soldier hit the field, I can use his effect to bring up some backup! No soldier fights alone without an eye in the sky covering his back! I summon Machina Sniper (1800/800)!”
Reggie raised her eyebrows in faint surprise as a green-plated machine wielding a fierce sword parachuted out of the sky, with a brown machine warrior carrying a sniper rifle landing right behind him.
“Oh~. You changed your deck up quite a bit, David. What, did you toss away your normal Big Saturn one-turn kill strategy in the hope of tripping me up?”
David threw down a facedown card and activated the continuous spell card Machina Armored Unit before replying. “Now that our father lacks control of me, I don’t need arrogant and risky strategies like that. I’ve tossed away my chains. And this deck shows my resolve to stay free! Turn end!”
Reggie silently nodded.
"I see. A conviction to be proud of. But I think you're forgetting something important. You know how strong Tragoedia is. Once upon a time… I had hoped that the Light and Darkness Dragon could be used to cast him down from his throne. But now? With the new power he wields?" She shook her head and helplessly chuckled. "It's over. I don't know what you're trying to do with this little rebellion of yours, but David… you should have just taken your freedom and ran away. Far, far away. Where father would never be able to find you."
“I-“ David barely got the words out of his mouth before Reggie’s eyes flashed and her turn began.
“Cry over your spilled milk in the afterlife, David! You’ve forced my hand! I activate the effect of Angel 01 (200/300) in my hand. By revealing one level seven or higher monster in my hand, that being the brilliant light of Splendid Venus, I can special summon it from my hand. Then, I activate the continuous spell card Court of Justice. Because I control a level one fairy monster, Angel 01, I can special summon a level one fairy monster from my hand. Come to me! Freya, Spirit of Victory (100/100 -> 500/500) in defense! Then, I tribute Angel 01 to summon Airknight Parshath (1900/1400 -> 2300/1800).
“Wait.” David’s eyes narrowed. “How did its attack go up? Isn’t Parshath’s native attack 1900 points?”
“Freya’s effect, brother dear.” Reggie smiled. The movement hardly seemed to reach her eyes, causing the smile to look completely empty. “While she stays on the field, all my fairy monsters gain 400 attack and defense points. Oh, and she can’t be chosen as an attack target while she has a friend around to cheer on to victory.”
She flicked her hair over her shoulder in a single automatic action. “Now onto battle. Airknight Parshath, destroy Machina Soldier!”
The blue-armored centaur reared his hind legs and began to charge forward, but just as he was about to strike the defending green warrior, Machina Sniper’s brown eyes shone with a taunting light, forcing the knight’s attack to be redirected towards the sniper.
“Sister dear.” David said chidingly in an attempt to cover up the cold chills that ran down his spine upon facing down the knight’s merciless strike. “Machina Sniper has an effect of his own that prevents you from attacking any Machina other than him.”
Reggie smiled grimly. “Birds of a feather, huh? It hardly matters. Airknight Parshath has more than enough attack power to deal with either of them.”
David: 3500 Reggie: 4000
David nearly fell to a knee as the pain hit him right in the chest. Sure, it was the aftershocks of an attack mostly absorbed by his metal defender, but it still hurt like hell. No matter. He couldn't forget the next step. Otherwise, he'd be placed on even further of a back step.
“Playing right into my hand!” David shouted with confidence that only he knew was false. “With the destruction of my machine-type sniper, the effect of Machina Armored Unit activates! I get to special summon one machine monster with less attack and the same attribute as the earth attribute Machina Sniper. Say hello to Machina Irradiator (1700/2400) in defense position!”
Out of the ashes of the brown machine’s smoldering form, sheets of green metal were bolted together to form an immobile gun platform that scanned the skies for anything that moved. A single gigantic gun poked out from the middle of the chipped green paint of the platform, while two missile launchers watched the sides of the apparatus.
“Oh~” Reggie giggled. “Such a strong defensive monster out of nowhere. You continue to surprise me, David. Well, I still get to draw a card due to Parshath’s effect since it inflicted battle damage this turn. I’ll also immediately place that very same card face down for later. Pass turn.”
“Draw card.” David clenched his teeth. The movement had aggravated the wound taken from his sniper’s defeat. “Soldiers! Increase your defenses! I activate the continuous spell card Machina Defense Perimeter!”
Without a moment of hesitation, the sword-wielding Machina Soldier hopped onto the back of Machina Irradiator, which had deployed a series of metal plates from its sides to form an unyielding metal defensive bunker to shield the weaker members of David’s mechanical army.
“While this spell remains on the field,” David explained, “my level seven and higher machine monsters will protect my level six and lower machines from attacks and card effect targeting. This means my level eight Irradiator will provide the perfect defensive frontline. And now that I have an entrenched formation, allow me to call in some backup! I normal summon Machina Gearframe (1800/0)! Its effect will pop off to take one Machina monster from my deck and add it to my hand. Here comes Machina Defender!”
Now that he had a bit of follow-up and a great deal more protection to rely on, David could breathe slightly easier. Only slightly, though. There was no telling what terrifying move Reggie was capable of making next.
Reggie began her turn and immediately began to prove him right.
“How scary~," She said, scanning his field with playful eyes. “It’s such a terrible thing that I have something far scarier at my fingertips. I normal summon Guiding Light (0/0). When it is brought forth onto the field, I can special summon a level one light monster from my graveyard. That, of course, will be Angel 01. Because Angel 01 has been special summoned, its secondary effect is unlocked for my use, allowing me to conduct the tribute summon of a level seven or higher monster in addition to my regular normal summon.”
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David’s eyes widened in fear. He knew exactly what was hitting the field next. Reggie had shown him the card during her last turn.
“I sacrifice Angel 01 and Guiding Light! Revealing the glorious mistress of truth! The four-winged queen of angels, resplendent in her glorious golden glow! I summon Splendid Venus (2800/2400 -> 3200/2800)!
The noon sun felt like it had doubled in brightness and heat. David’s legs trembled, and it felt like the wound he’d been dealt earlier had tripled in size. He could feel waves of strength leaving his body by the second.
It was a sight he’d admittedly seen many times before. They were faint memories seen by the other David, but they still flitted around the back of his head. The four pure white angelic wings. The golden armor and staff. The merciless, pupilless eyes. The high attack power and the utterly terrifying effect that made all non-fairies on the field lose 500 attack and defense points by just being in the presence of Reggie’s planet series card. Her signature boss monster.
“Attack.” Reggie’s voice cut through David’s fear-clouded mind. Splendid Venus’s staff blasted through the side of Machina Irradiator’s heavy armor like it was made of air.
“Defense Perimeter, activate!” David hastily shouted. “Now that one of my machines was destroyed, I can take one machine monster in my graveyard and add it to my hand! Come to me, Machina Sniper!”
Reggie completely ignored the new development. Airknight Parshath’s sword sliced right through Machina Gearframe’s sleek, orange-painted body, triggering the effect of David’s Machina Armored Unit to special summon the earth attribute Commander Covington (1000/600 -> 500/100) in defense position.
David: 2500 Reggie: 4000
David wiped a trail of blood off his arm. His eyes narrowed and he glanced at the life point counter. His were halfway done for, while Reggie’s were untouched. Just another sign of how badly he was outclassed.
"Well, I won't go silently," David vowed. "You made a mistake in destroying my Gearframe over Machina Soldier. I activate Graceful Charity!” David roared out the card’s name. This was it. Double or nothing. If Reggie had an answer to his next series of plays, then there was little he could do unless Lady Luck kissed him square on the cheek and gave him a wink.
“I draw three cards, and then I send Machina Sniper and Machina Overdrive from my hand to the graveyard. Spell card, activate! Iron Call! Since I control a machine monster, I can special summon Machina Sniper from my graveyard to the field. Then, I normal summon Machina Defender.”
David took a deep breath. Another. And one more. He centered his mind with ironclad resolve. “Now! Commander Covington! Show off your greatest tactical maneuver! I send Machina Soldier, Machina Sniper, and Machina Defender to the graveyard to call to attention the strongest soldier in the world, Machina Force (4600/4100 -> 4100/3600)!
A green, brown, blue, and steel-colored soldier wielding a sniper rifle and shoulder-mounted rocket launchers crashed onto the roof to stare down at the golden glow of Splendid Venus. It shook its armored shoulders and moved one of its hands away from its sniper rifle to grasp the combat knife attached to its waist.
“Truly you surprise me~” Reggie gasped mockingly. Her teeth bit deeply into her bottom lip to let a thin stream of blood leak down her chin. “How wonderful.”
“Forgive me, Reggie!” David bulldozed past his foster sister’s contempt. “Machina Force! I sacrifice 1000 of my own life points to give you the energy needed for your attack! Destroy the Splendid Venus!”
For a moment Reggie held her hand over one of the face down cards in her duel disk, but ultimately she nodded with a strange smile and allowed the attack to strike true. A blindingly bright blue beam of energy shot out of Machina Force’s sniper rifle, closely followed by a barrage of explosives from its shoulder-mounted missile launchers to crack open the head of Splendid Venus like a rotten watermelon.
The attack continued forward to impact Reggie on her forehead and draw a thin sheet of blood from the skin. The liquid oozed its way down her face, skirting around her lips to drip off her chin and onto the roof of the infirmary.
David: 1500 Reggie: 3100
It wasn’t as much damage as he would have preferred, but there was little David could do about that fact until he found a way to deal with the Freya monster that boosted the attack of Reggie’s fairies. Still, the defeat of Splendid Venus meant that at least the attack of his own monsters went back to normal once more.
A flash of a pink tongue darted out from between Reggie’s lips to taste the blood dripping gently down her cheek. “How splendid indeed~.” She muttered. “I draw.”
Silence fell as Reggie sent a strange look toward the new addition to her hand. David’s eyes narrowed. It was clearly something unexpected… but also a card Reggie herself was perturbed by. Otherwise, she would have flown into action right after seeing it.
Reggie put her hand up to her forehead and laughed. The sound bounced all across the roof, between several radiators, and into the warm summer air. She laughed long and loud. David took several unconscious steps backward. Something wasn’t right. Forget being his opponent. She seemed blatantly unstable now.
The laughter teetered off as quickly as it began, and Reggie stared at him with a warped grin.
“Little David, you aren’t the only one who learned from their mistakes during the international tournament. Father confined me and made me pay dearly until I understood where I went wrong.” Her eyes flashed open, ablaze with a fiery fighting spirit that made it feel like the roof itself was trembling under her intensity.
“Court of Justice! Your conditions to activate are met due to Freya still dancing on my field! I special summon Watapon (200/300 -> 600/700) from my hand in defense position. I then choose to sacrifice Watapon to tribute summon the level six Sky Scourge Cidhels (2200/1600)! Though it may be a fiend monster and lack the attack boost from Freya, its effect still activates. Because I sacrificed a light fairy monster to summon it, I can add one light fairy or one dark fiend from my deck to my hand. That’ll be the light fairy-type Sky Scourge Enrise!”
Reggie paused and clicked her tongue. "Such a pity that your defense perimeter remains on the field. Otherwise, I could end this duel here and now.”
David grimly nodded his acknowledgment, staring deeply at the dark-clothed fallen angel that Reggie had just summoned. It was a card he’d never seen before – and it was in use by Reggie, who had always stuck by her fairy deck no matter what anyone said. He shivered, despite the warm summer air that fell onto his back. This was wrong. All of it, wrong.
The turn ended without further fanfare and David drew a card. The problem now was life points. That, and Reggie’s face down cards. She’d yet to reveal what they did, and that was the scary part. The unknown factor in it all. He’d expected to face a barrage of counter traps by now.
Machina Force had one more attack available before it became nothing but an unmoving metal sentry, with David unable to pay any further life point costs to power the machine. The monster could be split apart into the original three cards that formed it, but then David would lack a card with the attack power to defeat Reggie's Sky Scourge monsters, or even her Airknight Parshath.
He could draw another card through Machina Overdrive’s graveyard effect… but that required him to shuffle three of his machines from the graveyard back into the deck, turning off Machina Force’s split effect in the process. Was the draw worth it?
Was it?
David looked back and forth between his field and Reggie’s. One attack left with Machina Force, and the battle damage wouldn’t be enough to end the game. He grimaced bitterly. With the endgame out of his grasp for now, he needed to keep his high-level machine monster on the field so that his monsters would be protected by the defense perimeter David had set up a few turns prior. Without that protection, if Reggie had the resources to summon another Airknight Parshath, she could end the game by tearing through his weaker monsters with the card’s piercing damage effect. She wouldn’t even need to touch anything else.
“Fine. I activate the graveyard effect of Machina Overdrive.” David eventually decided his course of action. “By banishing overdrive and shuffling Soldier, Gearframe, and Irradiator back into my deck, I can draw one card.”
David practically tore the card off the top of his deck once his duel disk was ready. This was it. Either it would be a card to get him out of the sticky situation he was in, or he would have to bunker down behind his defensive line for another turn or two.
He frowned. Nothing much. “Still! More defense is more defense!” David shouted. “I normal summon Machina Peacekeeper (500/400) and immediately use its effect as a union monster to equip to my Machina Force, giving it a second life to use if needed.”
The little 'beep beep' of a horn sounded out across the roof as a tiny three-wheeled red vehicle rounded the corner and began to touch up Machina Force's paint job. A little green here, a little tan there, a few more nuclear warheads inserted into its shoulder-mounted rocket launchers and the machine amalgamation was looking brand new, right off the factory lines.
David glanced one last time at his life point counter and resolutely closed his eyes. His defense was set, but Airknight Parshath’s piercing damage was far too threatening. If Reggie could find a way to remove his continuous spell, it would all be over. Even one Mystical Space Typhoon would do the job. He had to take that monster out.
“I pay another 1000 life points to bring my war machine to life for one last strike. Machina Force! Commence nuclear operations. Your target is Airknight Parshath! Eliminate with extreme prejudice!”
One warning beep was all that was given before a single nuclear warhead was launched from Machina Force’s weapons systems. The blue and white-armored knight braced itself, but there was nothing that could be done in the face of such overwhelming firepower. The warhead touched down and for a few precious seconds, the entirety of the roof was dyed in a blinding white flash that engulfed the surroundings.
David: 500 Reggie: 800
Once the light cleared, Airknight Parshath was nothing but a charcoal outline on the roof, while Reggie was covered all over in a series of nasty second and third-degree burns from the life point damage. Bits of her skin were covered in heavy blisters, other patches seemed nearly charbroiled, but there was no bleeding. Her wounds had been cauterized by simply being in the vicinity of the strike.
David shoved the aching in his heart brought about by the situation at hand and silently ended his turn. The next move had the potential to decide everything.
Reggie shakily drew a card. She was visibly pushing through the pain, but her heavy breathing betrayed the effort it took to complete the simple action. The card drew closer and closer to her face. Her eyes laboriously moved to look at its text, and her other hand moved upwards to wipe away a thin trail of sticky, clear liquid that wept from her eyelids.
“I… think this is it, David.” Reggie shakily laughed. Her eyes moved as she read the text on her new card, then read it again, and again a third time. “Ha. Haha. I’m… I’m so sorry. This is it.” She stumbled and fell to her knee. “Firstly, I activate one of my face down trap cards. Stained Glass of Light & Dark! Because of the fact that I control the fairy-type Freya, I can draw three cards and place two cards from my hand onto the bottom of my deck. Then, since I control the fiend-type Cidhels, I can force you to draw a card, discard a card, and then if you still have a card remaining in your hand, you must discard one more card!”
David cautiously observed Reggie and did as he was bid. He drew one card and discarded two random cards while Reggie resolved the off-brand Graceful Charity effect. So intense were his thoughts that he even ignored how the roof strangely shimmered under the sun. Obviously, Reggie was trying to dig for something. Something bad, considering how she acted at the beginning of her turn. Did she need to find one last piece of the puzzle to complete her combo?
He took a step back and the roof stopped shimmering. Where there had once been a thick layer of concrete, there was now an ornate stained-glass window under his feet, one that made up the entire roof of the infirmary. David instantly stilled his movements. That singular step of his was enough to cause the glass to creak slightly. His eyes wandered around the glass while Reggie chose which cards in her hand to get rid of. It was clearly the same art that was displayed on the face of the trap card Reggie had just activated. A white and red-robed angelic woman facing off against a man who seemed like a fallen angel draped in heavy colors of blue and black.
David tore his gaze away from the new roof in favor of studying his opponent. This was a shadow game. Undoubtedly. But to have a card materialize this clearly? To the point that it changed the physical structure of the roof?
That would take power. Serious power. Power David didn’t think Reggie possessed. Not when her magical strength was provided by Tragoedia. He risked a glance toward what little of the campus he could see from his position on the roof. There wasn’t any obvious chaos. Not on the campus, at least. No particular signs of Tragoedia sending out bursts of magic for his minions to use.
Reggie spat out a mouthful of red liquid and grinned a bloody, fierce grin. “It is over! This is it! I activate Foolish Burial to send Kuriboh from my deck to my graveyard. Then, I remove from play three light fairy monsters, those being Watapon, Angel 01, and Guiding Light, along with one dark fiend monster, that being Kuriboh, to special summon the feathered fiend of darkness, Sky Scourge Enrise (2400/1500)!”
Then a blinding white light flashed from deeper into the city. A gigantic white dragon burst through the air in the distance, picking up speed with every second until it became practically invisible. The power from its presence alone, even as far away as it was, proved enough to force David to a knee in mimicry of Reggie.
“What… power!” David gasped out between clenched teeth. The might of Splendid Venus. The explosive arsenal of Machina Force. Even his own memories of the dominating aura of his planet card, The Big Saturn, paled before the might of that dragon that sped through the clear summer sky. Then, almost as quickly as the dragon had sped through the sky, it disappeared in a violent burst of flame that reached further up into the air than the tallest skyscrapers of New York City. The flame rose up to lick the clouds. Higher and higher up into the air, until a second, but slightly smaller dragon tore through the tongues of fire with a series of sonic booms that shook the entire city.
Three stars shone so brightly that their light eclipsed the sun itself. The new dragon burst through the air, narrowly dodging buildings and power lines.
Once!
Twice!
Thrice!
Over and over until it was nothing but a white blur in the air.
The glass at his feet began to crack like a layer of impossibly thin ice and David whipped his head back to face Reggie.
“Reggie! We need to move off the roo-“ He began to yell, but no sooner than the words left his mouth that he saw his foster sister collapse like a puppet with its strings cut. The life point counters sputtered and faded out as they lost power abruptly, and Reggie’s new monster vanished into thin air like it never even existed to begin with.
The roof contorted into a latticework of crisscrossed cracks while David rushed over to Reggie, ignoring the searing pain in his gut and the weakness in his legs to toss her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He sprinted off the roof as fast as he could, heedless of the extra weight – and just in time, as the stained glass that made up the roof cracked badly enough that it crumbled and fell to the floor below right as they got clear of it.
David collapsed into a heap with Reggie lying next to him. He gasped for breath, and Reggie let out a hoarse scream of pain as she landed on her terrible burns. For a full minute, the two siblings sat in silence, silence that was only broken by their pained wheezing and Reggie's faint sobbing.
“It’s… it’s so quiet.” Reggie eventually mumbled into the floor through a steady trickle of tears.
David painfully pulled himself slightly up to rest on his elbows.
“What’s quiet?”
“My head.” Reggie elaborated. “He’s not there anymore. Making me do things. Making me hurt people. Christ. How many people have I hurt because of him?” Her tears picked up speed, turning from a stream into a flood. “It’s all my fault…”
“No.” David shortly replied. “It’s his. And if you’re free… that means Phil won. That dragon must have been his monster.”
“I’m free?” Reggie rolled over onto her back, avoiding a particularly large pile of glass to let her head look up into the bright summer sky. “We’re free?”
David smiled, leaning back to look at the sky as well. Though the air was exactly the same as it had been before, it felt… cleaner. Fresher. The sky looked bluer. If that was even possible.
“Yeah. I think so.”
Reggie smiled wordlessly and wiped a smear of blood away from her mouth with an unburned part of her hand. Her duel disk fell off her arm, its straps burned to a near crisp, and two cards dropped to the floor from where they had been slotted in place.
Magic Cylinder lay face up. The two cups covered in arcane symbols twinkled in the faint sunlight.
Sky Scourge Enrise fell face down. Its frame was filled with the image of a white-winged angel with no eyes that had the power to banish any one monster from the game.
“That’s nice.”
During that moment, Reggie’s smile equally matched the brilliance of the sun floating gently in the sky above.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Around the same time David Rabb was stepping into the infirmary and Phil was revving up to duel Tragoedia, there were two students steadily making their way to their own goal on campus.
Adrian Gecko liked to consider himself a man of many talents. Of course, dueling was foremost among them, but he was also a pretty darn good cook. Nor was he shabby in the world of fitness. Or even the art of talking to people.
Yes. A man of many talents. One of those talents was a somewhat decent knowledge of security practices. See, one thing he’d learned from watching security audits being performed at his parent’s companies was that simply acting like you belonged was often enough to get you anywhere. That and a high visibility vest. Plus, maybe a clipboard or a ladder if you want to get fancy.
Keeping that in mind, Adrian sauntered down the corridor leading to the aptly labeled security room without seeming to have a care in the world. He didn't have a high-vis vest. Nor a clipboard. Not even a ladder. But he sure as hell looked like he belonged.
Anastasia stuck out a little bit more. She was visibly nervous. Likely because they were doing some pretty shady stuff. Mainly trespassing. But that was just how Anastasia Capet was. Adrian hardly minded. He could compensate well enough to make up for it. They each had their own strengths, and they worked well enough to complement each other. For instance, it would have been much more difficult for him to get overseas without Anastasia’s connections.
Sure, his family was filthy rich, but their resources were largely focused on his younger brother, Shido Gecko. That pretty much meant Adrian was a little bit more limited in what he could do. Anastasia, on the other hand, had freedom. She was the apple of her parents’ eyes. The princess of her family. If she wanted to travel to America all of a sudden with one of her friends, she was going to gosh darn travel to America with one of her friends. No ifs, no buts. Her formidable resources were of great help narrowing down the search area. She’d also put in good work spotting the leg of their newfound ally poking out of a dumpster and was a solid duelist to boot.
Of course, Adrian liked to think of himself as slightly better than her in that last aspect. Not to throw any shade on her skill, obviously, but his dueling style was simply more flexible than hers. It was why Anastasia had lost to Phil in the tournament. Her rigid style was unable to keep up with the dirty tactics of her opponent. That hardly meant her rigid style was weak. She just lacked the experience needed to successfully apply her rigid style against opponents like Phil.
A man passing down the hallway broke up Adrian’s train of thought. As quickly as possible he shifted his posture to slightly hide Anastasia behind his broad back. As expected, she slightly flinched. No matter. This was his strength, a way that Adrian could equally contribute to their shared goal of rescuing their teammate. Without missing a beat, Adrian skimmed the man’s nametag and lazily sent out a two-finger salute in greeting.
“Workin’ hard, or hardly working, Jimbo?” Adrian casually rolled the words off his tongue. The magic words inevitably bantered about by nearly every worker in the world at some point or another.
The man in question, one Jim Harkens, laughed and shrugged. "Oh, you know me. Hardly workin’. You have a good one, man.”
Adrian mentally twirled his finger in celebration as the man walked off while whistling a terrible tune. The third encounter so far and he was still going strong.
“Hm. Here we go, Anastasia. Security.” Adrian abruptly beckoned to a sign outside of a nearby door. She carefully nodded and adjusted the duel disk on her arm. There was almost zero chance that it would be unguarded. The real question was, who exactly would be guarding it? Adrian had bare-bone plans ready for all three scenarios.
Option one: If the room was manned by regular security guards, Adrian would simply push through and attempt to overpower them through the element of surprise.
Option two: If the room contained the so-called ‘Big Shoe’ and their friend, Samui Kori, they would divide and conquer.
Option three: If the room was empty, quickly celebrate and then move on to phase two.
Now, if phase one was pretty simple, phase two was even simpler. To put it bluntly, whoever was still in the room, that being Adrian or Anastasia, would find a water fountain, get a cup of water, and pour it over the electronic equipment that would doubtlessly be running the cameras to fry the delicate gear.
Adrian rested a hand on the doorknob. He looked Anastasia square in her eyes. A pair of cool green eyes looked right back at him. For a second, they wavered, but Anastasia firmed up her gaze and nodded back at him. Adrian nodded back and mouthed the words ‘go time’ before wrenching the door open to reveal the dark room beyond.
A voice met their entrance. An impossibly smooth, easygoing voice. “Hey hey hey. What do we have to-day? Two little East Academy Students, lost and out of their way-hey. Looking for a missing chicklet, perhaps? Hmmm? Am I right in that assumption?”