Hey guys, I know you don't expect Lawrence to want to help you, but aren't you being kind of conveniently ignorant of his and Monty's odd attitudes toward each other here? True, you are dealing with a lot, but you should really be more wary.
So yeah, this chapter is noteworthy for a few of my characters tossing the idiot ball around a bit, and for the return of jerky "I don't know you so I don't like you" book one Tucker. I didn't miss him. I did miss chessmaster Karen, though, and we see more of her in this chapter when she's dealing with Hiro. So there's that.
No Card of the Day this chapter.
So yeah, this chapter is noteworthy for a few of my characters tossing the idiot ball around a bit, and for the return of jerky "I don't know you so I don't like you" book one Tucker. I didn't miss him. I did miss chessmaster Karen, though, and we see more of her in this chapter when she's dealing with Hiro. So there's that.
No Card of the Day this chapter.
Chapter Seventeen
Hiro’s Purpose
Hiro
“I trust you,” said Karen. “I’ll help.”
“That’s good enough for me,” said Monty.
“I’ll help you,” said Tucker, standing with his arms crossed, “but not because I trust you. I’ll help you because I don’t see any other way to get my friend back from Blackheart, save waiting around with my thumbs up my butt and hoping for the best.”
“Me too,” said Rocky. Sarah nodded, and so did the others, except for Lawrence.
“Alright then,” I said. I sat down and leaned in, talking loud enough for everyone at our two tables to hear me. “I have a pretty good idea where Blackheart is going. I need all of you who still have Souls to come with me.”
“No way you need all of us,” Lawrence interjected.
“Not that you could possibly know that,” I told Lawrence, already annoyed with him, “but my plan would work minus one Soul.”
“Good,” Lawrence declared, “I’m staying here.”
We stared at him.
“In case Blackheart shows up here again,” he told us as way of explanation. “That and you people bore me.”
He glared at Monty, and Monty glared back. I ignored them. There just wasn’t time for their problems right now.
“Blackheart’s goal is still the same as it was three thousand years ago,” I explained, “to gain power over the Earth and the Shadows by accessing the immense combined power of the three Egyptian God Monsters. Most people don’t know this, but the Gods have an even more powerful combined form that can be commanded by anyone who knows a specific word. A word that Blackheart knows, because The Forgotten Duelist knew it. Between fighting you guys and waiting to establish how great a threat I would be if I ever appeared I don’t believe that Blackheart had time to secure the remaining Gods yet.
“From what I can tell, Blackheart doesn’t have the strength to command all three yet, but it’s likely that he’s already set in motion his end game. That’s how he likes to operate. It’s likely that he will have the power he needs within the hour. That means that his next move will be to gain possession of the cards, making sure that he will be ready to use them at the first opportunity. Even if he can’t use all of the Gods yet, gaining possession of the other two will make Blackheart stronger than he is now. We can’t afford for that to happen. We have to try and beat him to the cards. I think I know where they are, but so does John. That means that Blackheart knows too.”
“When do we leave?” Karen asked.
“Now.”
“Alright,” said Karen, rising to her feet, followed by Tucker and then the others.
“Get ready,” I said, summoning the Shadows, “because here we go.”
In the presence of other Duelist's Souls, my power came more freely to me. My Pseudo Soul flashed, and we were gone.
Monty
“Finally,” said Lawrence, “we can settle this.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth,” I replied.
“Oh no, please don’t fight,” said Max with absolutely no enthusiasm. He stood up and said, “You guys kill each other if you want, I don’t care. I’m leaving.”
Lawrence and I waited until the others had all left to go about their business. They could feel the tension building and didn’t want to stick around, so they left pretty quickly. They had no idea just how serious things between Lawrence and I were this time. I was sure that Lawrence had turned on use, and I didn’t plan on letting him live to regret his decision.
He and I walked out behind the mall and faced each other.
“I didn’t sell out to Blackheart,” said Lawrence.
“I don’t believe you,” I replied.
“You’re sounding crazy!” Lawrence exclaimed.
“Shut up,” I said, “and duel.”
I drew six cards as the shadows rose up around us, boxing us in. “Blackheart missed some of my Soul’s energy. I’m going to use it to banish you to the Shadows.”
“You won’t,” said Lawrence. “I won’t let you.”
He drew his cards, and the worst duel of my life began.
Hiro
We emerged from the Shadows outside of a half-ruined temple in the middle of the desert.
“What happened here?” Jen asked.
“‘Great Maju Garzett’ battled ‘Osiris’,” I answered.
“Ah,” said Jen, “I see.”
“So this is where the other Gods are?” Amanda asked.
“Yeah,” said Karen before I could answer. “I can sense their power.”
I smiled, She’s grown much more powerful in a short time. I can’t even sense their presence here and I’m more closely tied to the Gods than she is. Amazing.
And then she went and amazed me even more.
“Now,” said Karen, looking right at me, “before we hear the next part of your plan, tell us who you really are.”
Monty
“We both know the stakes of this game?” I asked.
“Yeah,” said Lawrence, sensing my intentions resonating through the darkness, “and the fact that you would impose those stakes is really scaring me.”
“So I scare you?”
“No,” he answered, “I’m scared for you. You aren’t acting like yourself.”
I ignored him. “Just to be sure,” I said, “I’ll go over the terms with you now before we start. The loser will lose his body and spirit forever to the Shadows, and if either Duelist tries to alter the outcome of the Shadow Game they forfeit their body and spirit to the Shadows. Pretty simple. And of course whoever loses this game won’t be able to return unless the winner is likewise killed in another Shadow Game later on.”
“Then as much as I don’t want to,” Lawrence told me, “I’ll make sure you’re sent to the Shadows first.”
Hiro
“Who he really is?” Tucker asked. “I thought you trusted this guy.”
“I do,” said Karen. “I just don’t trust his story. Not completely. If you were just some remnant or shadow or echo of the Duelist or his magic,” she said, addressing me, “then your lack of knowledge would be consistent. You would know about Blackheart as he is today, but not as he was thousands of years ago, right?”
I smiled again. John, I thought, I think I’m starting to get what it is that you see in her.
“Not to mention,” Karen added, “that, seeing how you seem to know all about Blackheart, you should know that no matter what we do, we aren't the ones to defeat him, and you would be helping us resist him, not hatching a plan to take him out.”
It was in that moment that Karen's insight really surprised me, because I realized that, even as she asked the question, she already knew the answer.
“You’re right,” I said. “I would have told you all about this when I first met John, but I was worried that what I’m about to do would become standard practice. I’m no mere remnant.”
I looked up at the starry Egyptian night sky and quoted from the Tablet of the Forgotten Duelist. “‘And so it became that this Forgotten Duelist was cursed by magic and by fate to walk the earth in the form of the Soul until the day that his power was renewed to destroy his Dark Side upon its revival, or to be destroyed by it.’”
I looked back at the members of the Duel Force who stood before me and said, “I’m not a remnant of The Duelist. I am The Duelist.”
Blackheart
I sensed the Duel Force as well as that pathetic Remnant. They were very near. All of the pieces were finally in place for my little endgame. I reached into the rubble all around me with my Shadow Magic, summoning to me two Duel Monsters cards. I smiled and shuffled them into my deck.
This should be fun.
Monty
“I’ll move first,” said Lawrence, defiantly. “Prepare to be crushed by my sheer power! I summon ‘Cave Dragon’ in attack mode, and I lay two cards face-down.”
Cave dragon, a large four-legged wingless green dragon appeared, gnashing its teeth and swinging its thick tail (ATK: 2000).
This is it, I thought, and for a moment I forgot why I was dueling him in the first place, it’s me or Lawrence. I will make him pay!
Hiro
“What!?” said Tucker.
Karen looked me in the eyes, intensity in her gaze.
“It makes sense,” she said. “He wanted to help us and stay close to us, which he did through John, but he didn’t want us to know who he was so that we would have to rely on our own power and our power would grow. Plus, the millennia have weakened him, and there are gaps in his memory. Stop me if I get something wrong.”
“No,” I said, “you’re dead on. Everything you said was right. But I’m afraid that this time your power won’t be enough. The only power that can stand up to Blackheart as he is now is the power of the original Duelist’s Soul. Normally I would have to merge the power of all twelve Souls to revive my Soul, but thanks to John I have a new ability. One that he and I share.”
“The Soul of Chaos,” Karen said.
I nodded and continued, “With the Soul of Chaos I hope to amplify the power of your Souls and merge them with mine to recreate the Duelist’s Soul. Once I beat Blackheart, if I beat Blackheart, I’ll return your power to you. What do you say?”
“We’re in,” said Karen, "whatever the cost." The others nodded, still mildly stunned, but willing to help.
“Then here we go," Hiro said reluctantly. "If this doesn’t work, we’ll all probably die.”
I heard Amanda whimper at that as I closed my eyes, focusing all of my will into the Pseudo Soul hanging around my neck. I took a deep breath as I brought the dark and light aspects of my Shadow, my being, into balance. My Soul became the Soul of Chaos just long enough to draw the power of the others’ Souls into it. Into me. I felt the power, and I felt myself begin to change.
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