And that's it, Damien Curran, the most legitimate threat to the entire Duel Force all at once since Blackheart, or the DDF, is dealt with. This is also where the second big antagonist of this book (third, if you count Richie or James, fourth if you count both) makes an appearance. He wasn't really set up in this book specifically, but I have been setting him up since the beginning of the series, so it still works. And this isn't the last time we'll see him, either.
I mentioned that defeating Damien would be a bit of a team effort. I also mentioned that I wasn't fridging anyone. Hopefully it's clear what I meant now.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Darkness and Light
At first I couldn't move. I could only stare, looking from Karen's pale face to Damien's. He was grinning ear to ear. The other members of the Duel Force, fresh out of their respective corridors, looked on in a similar state of shock and horror. I'm embarrassed that I wasn't the first to act. That honor went to Max. He surged forward, toward Damien, who, upon seeing Max's advance, pulled his sword free and vanished into the Shadows again, reappearing standing on the rail at the far end of the arena. He was laughing. I still couldn't move, but I breathed a sigh of relief when Max caught Karen and lowered her carefully.
Then my entire universe collapsed when I saw her chest stop rising and falling, and Max laid her still form gently on the floor.
The periphery of my vision grew dark. Sounds grew muffled and distant. Only Damien's laughter was clear. I felt my blood start to boil in my veins. A voice screamed in the back of my mind, demanding to be heard, to be given retribution.
See, I have a dark side. And not in the sense that you might think. I have a complete other person, a complete other version of myself living in my soul. I don't know exactly how, but when I made a pledge on my father's memory all of those years ago to ignore and suppress my darker impulses, it created him. I'd fought him once before and been shocked by his power. And I'd merged my mind with his once before, and almost lost myself.
But as much as my dark half and I were different, as much as his raw selfish desire and boundless power frightened me, the truth was, he and I were still the same person. I cared for Karen, so he did, too. Maybe not in exactly the same way, but the feelings were there. He wanted revenge against Damien Curran, just as I did. And he was more powerful than me.
So as I turned to face Damien Curran once again, my eyes ablaze with rage and a desire for blood, tears of sadness and anger rolling down my hot cheeks, I let the other me out.
Max
I've known about the Dark John for a long time. I think I'm the only member of the Duel Force, past or present, with the possible exception of Karen, Jen, probably, and John himself, who does. As far as the others could tell, John's occasional bursts of dark power were just some bizarre, inconsistent ability of Soul of Darkness. His abilities over the minds of others were something that Blackheart had left behind in him after the possession. But I've always known better. One of the powers of the Soul of Life is to see the greatest fears of others, and John's greatest fear is the other John.
And yet, in that moment, John opened the floodgates, and let his greatest fear free, aiming it like a raging bull at the mystery man. His hair fluttered in a nonexistent wind until his distinct, hanging bangs pointed up and outward at haphazard angles. His already dark hair darkened until it was the purest black. If his skin had lightened as well, he would have looked just like Blackheart. The raw magical power that rolled off of him in waves almost felt like Blackheart, too. His shadow peeled off of the floor, and slid up his back, sprouting from his shoulder blades, forming crude, rippling wings. Then his shadow spread across the rest of his body, and flared out like flames, wrapping him in a deep, blacklight purple aura, that spread to the edge of his blade.
The mystery man stopped laughing. He'd taken notice of the changes in John. His eyes flashed with fear, and he held his blade at the ready. Unfortunately for him, that was a mistake, because lifting the blade brought it, and the blood still glistening on its edge, into the scope of John's vision. I could almost taste his renewed anger. He rose into the air, and shot toward the mystery man. Their blades clashed, and the mystery man was knocked from the railing where he stood. Desperately, he twisted his blade, and faded into the Shadows, John following just behind him.
Meanwhile, while that was happening, I was kneeling at Karen's side. Another of my Soul's abilities is the power to heal myself faster than usual. But as Karen fell limp in my arms, I felt that part of my Soul connect with her. This had happened before, when I'd stabilized an injured detective enough to get him to a hospital. Now, like then, I could see the severity of the injured person's wounds in my mind. I felt it when she stopped breathing, and her veins stopped pumping blood.
The others didn't know what to do. They stared at John as he changed, and chased the mystery man into the Shadows. They stared at Karen as blood ran from her back and abdomen. Out of everyone, it was Reiko who found the strength to act. She dropped to her knees at my side, and she asked in a soft, trembling voice, "Is she...dead?"
I would have said yes, but through my Soul, I could feel something, like a tickling in the back of my mind. It took me a second to realize what it was: electrical impulses still lingering in Karen's brain. She wasn't gone yet.
"Almost," I answered, "but that won't be the case for long."
I realized that I was shaking. This brought back painful memories. But I wouldn't let that trip me up.
I've lost people I care about before, I thought, each time because I arrived too late to save them. This time I'm not too late. I'm here. I won't lose someone else that I care about. Not this time.
I remembered back to Reiko's words in the duel room, after the holograms of James Prescott and Pete Coppermine had disappeared.
I took a deep calming breath, and I took Reiko's hand in my left hand, and placed my right hand on the wound in Karen's abdomen. I closed my eyes, focusing my will, and my Soul of Life began to glow.
John
I can't describe what I felt as I moved to attack Damien Curran because, on one hand, I wasn't exactly me anymore. I was me and him, our minds merged for the second time, though this time we shared the same goals. On the other hand, I didn't exactly feel anything, at least not anything distinct. My rage, my sorrow, my loss, it all just kind of swirled together into a numbing sensation that I can only describe as dark, blood red.
We emerged from the Shadows just behind the Dark Factory. Damien stumbled, and scrambled to find his footing. I took in my surroundings, and then moved to attack. My arm moved almost independent of my will. I slashed and slashed and slashed at Damien Curran. My movements were wild and erratic, and too swift to avoid. It was everything that he could do to defend, and he was tiring. Of course I was tiring too. My arm burned with fatigue. But that pain just drained into the swirling pool of red, and became insignificant.
In a moment of intense desperation, Damien pulled back his blade, taking that risk knowing that I might be able to press in close and cut him down. He turned the blade in his hand, trying to shift into the Shadows and slip away. Realizing what he was doing, purely on instinct, I allowed my aura to bleed into the Shadows around us, saturating them, blocking my opponent's way. My blade came down toward him. He had no time to raise his own blade in defense, so instead he tried to twist out of the way. I felt resistance as my blade carved through flesh. Damien Curran was knocked back, his footing nearly lost, blood pouring from a deep gash in his left shoulder.
Damien stumbled, but he ignored the wound. He couldn't afford not to. Instead, he raised his weapon again, and resumed defending against my wild strikes. But I could feel his efforts growing more and more fruitless by the second. In only minutes, Damien Curran would grow too weak to defend himself any longer, and he would die.
Max
I opened my eyes again, feeling my Soul connect with every fiber of Karen's being. I saw thoughts and fears and memories swimming around in her head. I felt like I was intruding on something private, but I had no choice. I did my best to ignore what I saw. I had hope that I would be able to save her. I had to save her. It wasn't just a matter of saving someone I care about. I could feel John's power growing even from here. It was the attack on Karen which had opened this Pandora's box. Without her, I didn't know if it would ever close again.
So I watched, and I waited. Seconds seemed like mini eternities. I felt my will begin to strain against the severity of the injuries, to have to actively force the internal wounds to repair themselves, much like I'd had to bear down in order to heal myself not too long ago, after sustaining a wound to the chest. Reiko must have seen that I was straining, because she squeezed my hand tighter. I looked over, and I saw that she was straining too. She was sharing the effort with me. I smiled, and looked back down in time to see Karen's external wounds finally begin to close as well.
As this was happening, in the back of my mind, I made note of an exchange between the others. Tucker and Sarah could sense John outside. They wanted to run back through the Factory and go to his aid, and several of the others agreed. It was Jen who recognized what was really happening, and argued against it. She didn't come right out and expose the Dark John, instead making whatever other excuses she could. They argued with her, of course, but she was occupying their time. Which, more likely than not, was saving their lives.
It was almost done. The wounds were almost gone. I was wracked with pain. The more I forced her to heal, the more my head throbbed. But it was almost done. I almost had her back. I just needed a few more seconds. Unfortunately, that's the moment when disaster struck.
My Soul of Life cracked, and shattered into hundreds of pieces.
All eyes were on me, and the pile of glass shards scattered across the floor at my knees. I'd failed. Karen was in better shape than she had been minutes before, but she still wasn't breathing. I felt my will disconnecting from what remained of hers.
Then, suddenly, she gasped. Her eyes opened. They were glassy and distant, but they were open and grasping for awareness. In the last moments before my Soul had broken, I'd managed to heal her just enough for her to come back on her own. She looked around, her eyes focusing, finally falling upon me.
"You saved me," she said, and I nodded.
"Something's wrong," she said, struggling to sit up. She looked toward the back of the Dark Factory, instantly aware of what was happening. I saw her face grow stern, and the Soul of Imagination sparkled with rainbow light. That light spread like an aura around Karen's body. Her wounds closed the rest of the way, and she lifted herself to her feet. Then, she was gone.
John
With a final swing of my sword, I finally knocked my opponent's blade from his grasp. Blood flowed from his hand where I'd cut it while disarming him, as his blade fell to the ground several feet away with a heavy thunk. I bent down and picked it up in my left hand, and moved to stand over my opponent. He pleaded with me. He begged for his life. I ignored him.
"Damien Curran," I announced, "you have trespassed on my soul. Your penalty is death."
I raised both blades high over my head, ready to bring them down and lob off my foe's head, but before I could, someone spoke behind me, the sound of her voice making my heart skip a beat.
"That's enough," Karen said, "he's beaten."
"He killed you," I argued. "He deserves to die a hundred times over."
I swung both swords, but they were knocked from my hands by the sudden appearance of a barrier of shimmering light. Karen stepped up to my side. She smiled at me, and said, "I'm okay now. There's no need to be so angry."
She looked into my eyes, and reached up and touched my cheek, "I think it's time that he went back to sleep."
Her Soul shimmered, and I felt my mind clear. The other me was gone, put back into the depths of my heart where he belonged. My hair returned to its original color, and my bangs fell back into my face. I looked over at Damien, where he was whimpering on the ground at my feet. I still wanted him dead, but I knew now that I couldn't have my way. Killing him when I had another choice would make me no better than he was.
I sighed, and my Duel Disk returned to normal. The blade-like card field melted into shadows and rejoined the rest of the device. Still looking at Damien, I said to Karen, "Come on, let's go."
We turned, and I reached out to the Shadows with my Soul. I was surprised, to say the least, when I heard Damien straining behind me. I heard metal scraping against soil. Despite all of his injuries, despite how indisputably beaten he was, he had once again picked up his blade, intending to make one final attempt on my life. I almost admired his strength of will. I prepared to act, but there was no need. Karen, who is not the kind of person to be surprised twice by the same opponent, turned to meet him instead. Her Soul shimmered again, and Damien's Shadow Sword flew into her hand.
"John was right about one thing," Karen told him, "you've trespassed on his soul, and mine, as well as the souls of every other person you've hurt in your misguided quest for revenge."
I should have been surprised that Karen seemed to know details about my conflict with Damien that she shouldn't have, but the truth is, nothing that Karen does surprises me anymore.
"Damien Curran," she said, in a very official tone, "let the darkness in your heart be stripped away, so that you might put yourself together again a better person. Pick up the pieces of your psyche, and learn the truth about yourself. Penalty Game: Mind Crush!"
Her Soul of Imagination flashed again, Damien's eyes went completely blank, and he collapsed. Another shimmer of the Soul of Imagination, and he disappeared. "I wished him to the nearest hospital," Karen explained. "They'll patch him up, and make sure he doesn't die while he puts himself back together."
I smiled.
"What are you smiling about?" Karen asked, amused.
"You," I told her. "You're amazing. There's nothing you can't do. I honestly don't know what I'd do without you."
She smiled back at me, "It's a good thing I'm not going anywhere, then."
I reached out again with the Soul of Darkness, and the two of us faded into the shadow of the Dark Factory, carried together back inside to rejoin the others. They all stared at us, unsure what to say. Unsure what they could say.
"Come on guys," I told them, "I think we've spent enough time in this place. Let's go."
We walked back through the Dark Factory without a word. Everyone was shaken. Not even Nate had anything to say. It wasn't until we were back in front of the dilapidated building that I broke the silence. I only then realized that it was morning, that the sun was rising.
"Max," I said, "you saved Karen. Thank you."
"Don't mention it," Max replied. Then he asked, "How did you know that I was the one who saved her?"
"Your Soul's gone," I replied. "Healing her cost you your Soul and all of your powers."
"And if I found myself in the same situation again," he replied, "even knowing that I'd lose my Soul, I'd make the same choice all over again."
I met his eyes, as he smiled probably the first genuine smile that I'd ever seen him express. "I know you think that I don't actually like you guys," he said, "but that couldn't be further from the truth. All of you on the Duel Force, past and present, are my friends, and I'd give my life for any of you. Except for Lawrence. And Nate."
"Still," Karen told him, "that's a lot to give up. I wish there was some way to give you back what you lost. To restore your Soul."
"It's not like it just disappeared or something," Max told us. "It literally broke. Shattered. I didn't even bother to pick up the pieces."
The entire group stood in silence again, as we all realized what the meant, that even if we could fix the Soul, we would need to go back inside first. And no one wanted that.
Then, the silence was broken by Reiko Kitamori, standing at Max's side.
"Actually," she said, "I did."
"Did what?" Max asked her, puzzled.
She held out her hands and opened them, showing us hundreds of shards of amber glass, "I picked up the pieces."
Everyone smiled, even Nate, who obviously had no idea what was going on.
"Thanks, Reiko," Max told her, "but I don't think it really matters. Even if the Soul can be repaired, none of us would even know where to start."
"Oh."
But standing there, in that moment, I remembered something that my mom had told me, just a couple hours ago.
"They will keep coming. As long as there is even one person left out there who wants the power you have, and remembers who has it, they will keep coming."
And I remembered the story that Maximillion Pegasus had told me and my friends, all of those years ago. The story which had marked the beginning of this entire journey.
"Actually, guys," I said, "I might have an idea about that. But we're going to need everyone for this one. If this works, it'll affect us all. But I think it might kill two birds with one stone."
All eyes were on me, as I summoned up a power of my Soul that I'd known for a long time that I had, but that I'd never consciously used before. I reached out with my magic, and I called to the other Souls.
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