Just like in book one, chapter ten is all exposition, a pattern which I just now noticed. It's exposition about Karen, though, so I think we can all agree that it is vital and necessary.
Chapter TenThe Story of the Order
John
“No,” said Karen, “this can’t happen.” She stepped back. Monty and Lawrence moved to join her. Monty looked thoughtful, and Lawrence looked angry, but not at us. Rocky, Kimi, and Amanda moved to join me, Sarah, Tucker, and Jen across the walking path from our enemies.
By then I’d formed a pretty good theory as to what was going on with the Duelists of the Order. Just as I’d guessed, as impressive as my three newest team-mates had been, the Order likely would have won had they been fighting at full strength. I had a theory, but before I acted, I needed proof.
Hiro, I asked mentally, you still watching?
Yeah, Hiro answered, and I could sense him there with me in spirit, and I think I’m thinking what you’re thinking.
So that energy that you sensed around the thugs behind the mall, I said, you sense it around these three as well?”
Yes, Hiro answered, and I had all of the proof I needed.
Meanwhile, the darkness behind the Order came to life, forming a large face with glowing red eyes. It approached the three and said, “You have failed me again. I have already told you that failure will not be tolerated. Now, return my magic to me, and prepare to feel your spirits devoured!”
Previously invisible tendrils of energy linking the shadow with the Duelists of the Order retracted, and I felt their magical energies disappear into the shadow’s incoherent form. All three members of the Order took deep breaths, shocked looks on their faces, like they were waking up from a dream. I sensed in that moment that the fighting within their psyches had stopped.
They were free of the shadow form’s control.
The shadow reached out to them, and they took up defensive stances. With the shadow’s full attention focused on the Order, I took the opportunity to act. I walked slowly toward the shadow, my hands in my pockets to indicate just how confident I was. My Soul flared up, and the shadow’s “hands” dissolved. “You may want to rethink that,” I said. “You are made of shadows. I control shadows. These three are under my protection now.”
The shadow smiled, “I’m surprised, Dark Duelist, that you would protect these three after all that they have done to you.”
“Cut the act," I snapped, "I already figured it out. These three didn’t do any of those things of their own free will. You made them through brainwashing, or through some form of magic mind control. I’m not really sure which. Either way, I know that you've been in their heads. I know now that they are not my enemies, but that you are. Now leave, or I swear, wherever and whatever you are, my next attack will destroy you.”
The shadow frowned, “This isn’t over. Their life forces are mine. They belong to me, and I will have them!”
And the shadow and the darkness that surrounded us faded away.
Karen sighed, truly relieved, “Thank you. You saved us from Yami.”
“Yami?” I asked.
She smiled, still disoriented, “The master of the Order. We call him Yami because he’s never been seen without a shroud of darkness covering his face. Yami means darkness”
“And he’s been controlling you?”
“Not completely,” said Monty, blinking like he was trying to clear his vision. “It’s more like he was influencing us, dredging up the darkest parts of us and bringing them to the surface.”
I looked at Lawrence, expecting him to speak as well, but he only glared at me, Guess his real self is just as charming as his “influenced” self.
“I don’t understand,” said Tucker, standing at my side.
“Well then,” said Karen, “I guess I should start at the beginning.”
“It all started a couple years ago,” Karen said. The ten of us were sitting in the moldy old gazebo in the back of the Old Park. “Apparently Yami, whoever or whatever he is, was trapped in the Shadows as a penalty for losing a very high stakes Shadow Game, but he managed to hang on ever so slightly to his place in this dimension. Soon he started to take advantage of his new non-corporeal form, communicating subliminally with duelist in our dimension.”
She noticed Tucker scratching his head, confused, but she continued anyway, “After enough time perfecting his new abilities, Yami discovered a way to influence certain duelists the way that he influenced us. It takes a lot of energy, and he can only control people who have experienced tragedy, or people who have evil hearts, so he’d rather not exert force over someone if he doesn’t have to. That’s why when anyone proves too weak to serve his purposes, he gets rid of them, like he tried to do to us, consuming their entire being to increase his power. There is a rumor that he can appear in our realm, but only for short periods of time.
“I was training under Maxamillion Pegasus at Duelist Kingdom, as part of a program for orphaned kids, the first time I felt Yami’s presence in my mind,” Karen explained, sparking a feeling of sympathy from me, “though I barely even noticed back then. Eventually I decided that Pegasus’ program wasn’t for me and, guided by Yami’s influence, I found my way to the Order, which promised to take in troubled kids,” she glanced over at Lawrence, “or kids with troubles, who were good Duelists, and help them make lives for themselves.
“I was teamed with Monty and Lawrence and the three of us trained to work together. But when Yami put us together, he screwed up. He let us see enough of the Order that we were able to figure out the truth. The Order wasn’t helping kids, it was turning them into soldiers to use to hunt down the magical Shadow Items, even going so far to train its more loyal members in the use of the Shadow Items and to kill anyone who got in their way. The Shadow Items are powerful. Powerful enough to turn even an amateur Duelist into a serious threat, and to increase Yami’s magical powers in this realm in order to one day facilitate his return. We faced Yami, meaning to confront him about his real plan, and he hit us with a mental attack meant to force his will upon us, but somehow it backfired, at least partially. Even though we were unable to control our darker impulses during our waking hours, whenever we slept the same mental link that let Yami control us allowed us to communicate in our dreams.”
“Best we can figure,” Monty added, “because Yami hit all three of us with his metal attack at once, he created a bridge between our minds, one that dissolved just now along with his connection to us. While we slept, we could come together in a single dream and do our best to continue to fight Yami.”
“We got to know each other,” Karen continued. “I learned about how Monty sought out the Order after his parents died, and how Lawrence, a student of Seto Kaiba, joined the Order to escape from his foster home. The three of us became friends. We were under the influence of a dark force when we attacked you and we’re sorry.”
“I’m not,” said Lawrence. Monty elbowed him in the ribs.
I ignored them, “Don’t think anything of it. It’s not like you wanted to hurt us.”
Tucker huffed. He didn’t yet believe our former enemies, but I did. Lawrence huffed right back, and Monty hit him again. Karen shot them a look, and they fell in line immediately. I was impressed.
“Anyway,” Karen went on, “we managed to limit our own power during our most recent duels, betting that when Yami came to destroy us, you would see what was going on and step in, and we might actually get the chance to go free.”
Lawrence huffed again and shot a look at Rocky, “I didn’t.”
Rocky smiled proudly.
“So what you’re saying,” Tucker asked, “is that you were counting on your worst enemies to rescue you?”
“No,” Karen replied, looking at me, “I was counting on John to rescue us. The first time we met, I saw that, in your heart, you, John, are a good person, and that if any of you were to see the truth it would be you with your powers over darkness, and that you would help us when the time came.”
I couldn’t help but blush in light of the compliment, saying, "You used the same skill that allowed you to predict my moves in our duels to guess at what I would do when the time came."
Karen nodded, “That's right. So thank you. Thanks to you we can continue to resist Yami.”
“Not alone you won’t,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t know when, but I know one day it will fall upon us, the Duel Force, to bring down Yami. You’ll join us, and we’ll beat him together.”
I stood and walked over to Karen, offering her my hand. She stood and accepted it. Just like that my team grew to ten members, and a powerful new alliance was formed.
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