Have I mentioned that I love Rachel? Because I love Rachel. Especially when she punches me in the feels like she does here.
Chapter Seven
Loss
I couldn’t believe it, but I forced myself to. James was my friend, but the others had known him longer. If I couldn’t handle his death while there was still work to be done they might break down too. So I tried to be strong so that the group could keep things together. Still, I’d never seen something like this before. I’d seen peoples’ spirits ripped from their bodies, able to be put back later, but never this.
I stood up, hardening my expression, and I looked around. The Order thug was already gone. Where to, I couldn’t tell you. Who was this guy that he could take down an Elite veteran like James? From what I’d heard James never lost at anything, especially Duel Monsters. He was at Pro level, in the league of any member of the Duel Force at least. Whoever this particular thug had been, he was more than just a generic minion.
Maybe Prof was right. Maybe something was happening within the Order’s ranks.
I tried to think what that could be.
I couldn’t think.
That’s when Rachel and Charlie walked in.
“Mission complete,” Rachel began. Then she saw James. I thought that I saw a look of pain in her angry eyes for a second, but when her expression didn’t change I figured that I’d just imagined it. She stood there in the entrance to the exhibit room, unmoving. Charlie, his often-stoic face full of concern, rushed toward James, but I stopped him.
“It’s too late,” I said. “He’s gone.”
Charlie nodded, and then he did what I hadn’t done. He knelt down beside his fallen ally, coming to the same conclusion I had, “James was as strong as any of us. No simple thug could do this to him.” Charlie lifted up James’ sleeve and revealed his Shadow Item, a dark-colored metal band, “They didn’t even take his Shadow Item.”
Charlie unclasped the band, and removed it. “That’s as much as we can do for him,” he said, “as much as we’re allowed to do. Taking the time to transport a body makes us vulnerable”
He stood up. Rachel stepped in close to us, “We don’t have time for this. That guy is getting away with that Shadow Rod.”
I was stunned, “Are you kidding? Yeah, that’s a big deal, but your friend is dead. That’s important too. The least you can do is pretend that you care!”
“For one thing, Rocky,” Rachel spat, getting up in my face, “my attitude, my behavior, is none of your business. And for another thing, James was my team mate, not my friend. Team mates die. It happens. I’m going after the Rod. Come with me or don’t, I don’t care.”
She turned and stormed toward the entrance to the exhibit. Charlie followed. I frowned and I went after them. After all, there was nothing more that I could do for James other than find his killer.
I caught up with Rachel and Charlie quickly. We turned one corner, and then another, and we found ourselves watching a duel between Prof and the dark-haired Order Duelist. He was holding the Shadow Rod under his arm. He also wore a triangular, flat pendant around his neck. His entire field consisted of the red and white mecha, ‘Perfect Machine King’ and the Spell card ‘Machine Assembly Line’, which had the effect of powering the machine up (ATK: 2900). Prof controlled the mighty hodge-podge battle robot ‘Giant Kozaky’ and two face-down cards. ‘Giant Kozaky’ wasn’t destroying itself, which meant its effect was negated. Its Attack was up four hundred, which meant Prof had used the Spell ‘Forbidden Chalice’ (ATK: 2900).
“Is this guy telling the truth,” Prof asked us as we came into view, “did he kill James?” Prof looked in bad shape. He was bruised and scorched and his cloths were tattered. I glanced at his LP readout. Only three hundred points.
“Yeah,” said Rachel, “he’s telling the truth.”
“Well,” said Prof, his eyes dark, “that means I don’t have to feel bad about what I’m about to do. I reveal ‘Backup Soldier’ to return ‘Kozaky’, ‘Ancient Brain’, and ‘Woodborg Inpachi’ to my hand, and I activate ‘Double Attack’, discarding ‘Woodborg Inpachi’ to give my monster the power to attack twice. I reveal ‘Mystical Space Typhoon’ to destroy ‘Assembly Line’, and I attack.”
‘Giant Kozaky’ crushed the mighty machine which stood against him (ATK: 2700) with his hammer (5350+2700-2900=5150), and then stabbed the young man in the side with his drill. I saw the drill slice his flesh, blood running from the wound (5150-2900=2250). They were fighting a very high level Shadow Game.
The young man smiled a wicked, bloody smile, “I’ll live. You won’t. At the end of the turn the effect of your ‘Forbidden Chalice’ wears off, your monster’s effect returns, and he self-destructs, blowing you away.”
“Wrong,” said Prof. “I play ‘Shien’s Spy’, giving my monster to you until the End Phase,” ‘Giant Kozaky’ moved to the enemy’s side, “and I end my turn. I get to choose which of my effects ends first, ‘Chalice’ or ‘Spy’. I choose ‘Chalice’. ‘Kozaky’’s effect returns while he’s still under your control.”
“No!” the young man exclaimed, but it was too late. ‘Giant Kozaky’ exploded, and the Young man was thrown hard into the wall behind him. He fell to the floor, slumped into a sitting position, his head down. Prof walked over and stood over him, scrutinizing the Rod and Pendant.
“I was right,” said Prof, “and this is one time when my being right is a very bad thing.” He reached for the Rod, which had fallen to the floor, but the young man snatched it up. Both Items glowed, and the young man cried “ALL HAIL EMPEROR!” He pressed the two items together, and they disappeared, transported away by some spell that I was too fresh to know. The young man fell forward, dead, his energy used up.
“This is bad,” said Prof. “Worse than I imagined. We have to go. Now.” He was pale, his eyes glittering with fear. The kind of fear that cripples you. Prof strained and his Shadow Item glowed so bright that we had to look away. When the glow faded, the four of us were back at HQ, standing in the middle of one of the duel fields in the midst of a duel. Prof nearly passed out right there, but Charlie and I caught him. He let us support him for a few seconds, and then he straightened up, walking briskly away.
We all knew that Prof and Gregory were discussing something important in Greg’s office. We weren’t allowed to interfere, and none of us wanted to. Rachel headed off on her own, claiming that someone dying is no reason for her to fall behind in her training. Once again I was disgusted by her lack of feeling, but I said nothing. Not long afterward, Charlie and I drifted off toward the Artificial Environment. Charlie jumped up effortlessly into his favorite tree. I sat at its base. Charlie was the first to talk.
“I’m pretty distant, I know it, but James was still like a brother to me.” I looked up at him. He was turning James’ Shadow Band over in his fingers, again and again, studying it with interest.
“He was a good guy,” I said. “He was my first friend here, and I let him down. I walked away and let him go forward. If I’d taken the other opponent, maybe he’d be alive.”
“Yeah,” said Charlie, “and maybe you’d be dead instead. You didn’t let anyone down. It was just bad luck.”
I nodded, but I didn’t reply. He was right, but I felt that it would be an affront to James to admit that his death was nothing but a bout of bad luck. It needed to be more, to be worth more.
Charlie and I sat in silence for several minutes. Again, Charlie broke the silence, “Don’t hate my sister, okay?”
My face darkened. “I’m way beyond hating her,” I said.
“She’s not heartless,” Charlie argued. “She feels things more than anyone I know.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it.”
Without warning, Charlie dropped from his perch, “Come on, I want to show you something.”
I followed Charlie. He led me into the section of HQ that housed the members’ quarters. I followed Charlie to a room in the back. The door was pulled to, but it wasn’t shut tight. Charlie swung the door open a couple of inches and motioned for me to look through. The room was dark, empty except for a bed, a trunk of clothes, and a punching bag. It was Rachel’s room. She was sitting on the bed with Timothy Hendriks. Their backs were to us, but it was clear that she was sobbing. I stumbled back, looking as shocked as I felt, I’m sure. Charlie pulled the door quietly shut, and he turned and walked away. I followed.
“You see,” he said, “she feels. She just doesn’t like to admit it. She’s been through a lot. She and I both have, but she’s been through more. Rachel’s Item is a Shadow Necklace. A necklace that used to belong to my mother. She wore it as a normal piece of jewelry. She had no clue about its power. But the Order did. They wanted it. Three Order agents broke into our house one night. Our parents heard them and moved to defend their home and family and possessions. The Order agents killed them.
“I didn’t see it. I slept through it, but Rachel woke up. She saw three men kill our parents over a necklace. She picked up that necklace, and she found its power. She killed those three men right there. She’s never been the same since. When we lost our parents, I was hurt. I vowed to do something meaningful with my life. I taught myself to fight and stay strong. To move quietly and efficiently against my enemies. But all the while, I built bonds between myself and others. Rachel on the other hand was broken. She took things a step further. She decided to never, ever show weakness again. She vowed to stay strong so that no one that she cared about would ever be hurt again. She vowed to protect everyone, and to destroy the Duelists of the Order. The only person that she’s connected with since then is Timothy Hendriks. She trusts him, and only him, with her deepest secrets and her emotions. And he’s good enough to let her lay all of that on him.
“I’ve entrusted Timothy Hendriks with the task of rebuilding my sister," Charlie concluded, "because he’s the only one who can.”
I nodded, “I see. I get it. I was wrong. Really wrong. Sorry.”
Charlie frowned. We were about half way back to the AE now. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Just don’t let Rachel know that you saw her like that. And don’t show either one of us any sympathy. I don’t need it, and she doesn’t want it.”
I nodded, “Yeah, okay.”
Just then Gregory Hendriks’ voice chimed over the intercom, “I need to see my brother and the members of Team Two in my office now.”
“Team Two is us,” said Charlie. “This sound big. Let’s go.”
“First off,” said Greg once everyone was present, “I want to express how sorry I am about your team mate. But we have bigger issues to discuss here. There are questions that I'm sure you all want answered, about what the Order wanted with the rod that they stole today, and about the Shadow Pendant that you saw, that scared Prof so much. There is a story known among only a few of us here in the Elite. Only a few know it because it’s dangerous knowledge, but I believe that it is time that you all were told. Three thousand years ago, an Egyptian Pharaoh and his priests created seven mythical items, the Millennium Items, to combat a threat to his kingdom. Not long after, the Millennium Items were sealed away. They had immense magical power, far greater even that the power of the twelve Duelist’s Souls. They were hidden to shield the world from that power, since power corrupts. The Millennium Items resurfaced a few years ago, and then disappeared. My sources tell me that they were destroyed.”
“Nice bedtime story,” said Rachel, “but what does any of this have to do with the Shadow Rod?”
“Simple,” said Prof, picking up where Greg had left off. “After the Millennium Items disappeared the first time millennia ago, sorcerers and priests all over the world learned of them and tried to recreate them. The results of these attempts are the Shadow Items. No Shadow Item ever possessed the same degree of power as the Millennium Items, but one series of Shadow Items came close. Seven were made, the same number as the Millennium Items. These particular items even shared similar forms to the seven Millennium Items, as well as similar capabilities. Today only a few of these items are known. All but one were thought to have been destroyed, until today.
"The items we saw today were the Shadow Pendant and the Shadow Rod. The Rod has the power to manipulate weak or vulnerable minds, and the Pendant has the power to unite the others, increasing their power. All of the Items give the wielder magical abilities from teleportation to telekinesis. The man I fought today used such a teleportation spell to send away the Items in his possession, and the strain of the spell on his injured body killed him. Also, based on what we saw today, I think there are still more of these Shadow Millennium Items out there, just waiting for the Order to find them.”
“Prof thinks,” said Greg, “that this Emperor person, that the dead Order member mentioned, somehow discovered that the Items still exist. He, and now I, believe that Emperor is collecting the known Shadow Millennium Items in an attempt to gain power enough to rule the Order, or maybe the entire world. With even four, maybe five of the Items, he would have power enough to nullify every other Shadow Item. The Elite would be nothing to him.”
“And to make matters worse,” Prof added, “the more Shadow Millennium Items the Order has, the easier it will be for them to find the tombs of the others. It’s my theory that the Pendant can resonate with the other Items to track down more.”
“This is all informative,” I said, “but what I want to know is why did that Order guy kill James? What did he ever do to them?”
“It’s understandable that you’d be confused,” said Charlie. “During your time as a member of the Duel Force, you knew the Order under a different leader. Yami wanted the spirits of strong Duelists because their energy kept him in this world, and so he often disregarded the physical bodies of those Duelists. It probably doesn’t sound like it, but taking someone’s spirit without killing their body takes far less effort that taking their Spirit and killing their body. His minions weren’t always strong enough to do both. Or they just thought it would be more fun to leave the victim’s friends with some hope.”
“But things are different now,” said Greg. “Without Yami directing them to collect spirits and search out the Duelist’s Souls, members of the Order have been fighting without limits to collect Shadow Items and increase their own power. Now that they no longer have to preserve the spirits of their foes for Yami, they have started letting their intentions alone determine their enemy’s fate in a Penalty Game.”
“James must have made his opponent very angry,” suggested Tim, “to bring on as harsh a Penalty as Death.”
Either that or that guy just really likes killing people, I thought, not wanting to think that James might have somehow caused his fate. Everyone was silent for a moment, uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken. Then something occurred to me.
“Wait,” I said. “You guys mentioned that these Shadow Millennium Items can shut down other Shadow Items, but what about a Soul?”
Prof smiled, “I told you he’d see it Greg. Yes Rocky. If Emperor succeeds, you will be the only Elite member with any power against him. If he manages to unite all seven Shadow Millennium Items, he will possess a power equal to the combined power of the Souls.”
“Which is why we aren’t going to let him find the others,” said Greg. “That’s why you’re here, Tim. I’m sending Team One to seek out the other two known Shadow Millennium Items: the Shadow Eye and the Shadow Key. You will find them, and you will bring them back here where they will be safe.”
“And in case you fail,” said Prof, addressing Greg as much as us now, “I’ll be getting my team ready to fight back.”
I felt like I’d been slapped in the face. Tim, Charlie and Rachel didn’t look much better off. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. There was a power out there that was as great as the Souls, and the Order might be on the verge of acquiring it?
And that’s when something else occurred to me, “Prof, you said something just now about the Shadow Rod. That it can manipulate weak or vulnerable minds. Is it the same Shadow Rod that -.”
“Yes, Rocky,” Prof cut in, “this particular Shadow Rod is the Rod that you have heard so much about, the weapon of choice of the late Order founder Yami.”
Greg dismissed us, and Prof walked away, leaving me feeling even worse, if that's even possible.
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