Ennead: Battle of the Gods - Night on the Blimp

“I’m sorry, Jou, but I’m breaking my promise.” Yugi’s tone was apologetic and soft as she smiled at him ruefully from across the dock. His mind, which was still recovering from kicking Isis out of his head, stalled.

She couldn’t mean…

“Mystical Ref Panel!” Yugi’s gaze turned upwards, to the pixie holding the magic mirror containing the very last card Isis had managed to make him play, the direct assault card, Meteor of Destruction and his heart froze. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t… “Direct your attack towards me!”

“Yugi!” Jou screamed as the fireball launched itself out of the mirror and consumed the opposite side of the field.

And then he woke up.

Gasping for breath he quickly scanned the room he was in, only to find he had not woken any of the others who had crashed in his room. A fact he was both grateful for and irritated by as he had to weave between them to grab a drink of water.

This was the third time this evening he had been woken up by the duel at the docks and he knew it would be almost impossible to get back to sleep again. Especially when every time he closed his eyes he saw Oneesan having to pick herself up after a direct assault, or Yugi falling after the meteor’s attack or worse, his best friend lying limp and unbreathing on the docks after he had pulled her from the water…

He thanked every god he had ever heard of that her heart had still been beating and that he had learned CPR.

He knew it was not safe to wander the blimp, but staying here would not help either. He wanted fresh air to clear his head, or to go for a walk, but they were trapped by Rich Boy’s insistence on showboating and Isis’s insane other self that seemed to want to rip Yugi’s friends apart to get to her.

He flinched as he remembered Mai’s Shadow Game and the harm Yugi had taken upon herself in order to not only interfere in the Game but protect him and Mai from Ra’s fire. He had sworn that he would defeat Isis and save Mai, but he had no idea how he was going to do that. Not yet anyway.

Part of him wanted to check on Yugi. She had been tired and sore when she had come around after the attack, but he had let Anzu talk him into heading into his room and sharing it with the others, giving Yugi the space Anzu thought she needed. He was not so sure. Yugi did better around her friends. She always had.

After the incident earlier today though he could not be sure that she would want him around. He had hurt her. Isis had had him under her control, but it had been him playing the cards. Him who had taken a piece of the Puzzle out. Him who had broken his promise to Oneesan and made Yugi scream in anguish and emotional pain at the betrayal.

He had to make things right but he did not know how.

Oneesan was okay now. He knew that. He knew he had managed to fight Isis’s control enough to put the piece back in and free her once again, but he had still done it. Yugi had, somehow, forgiven him for his treacherous actions, but he could not forgive himself. Not yet. Not until he had worked out how he could ever make it up to them.

He did not think that he ever could. Yugi had nearly died because of him and he had sent Oneesan back to the Shadows. He had not broken free from the brainwashing until it had nearly been far too late to save his friend and even then he had needed Kaiba’s help to revive her.

Jou cussed quietly, causing to Honda grumble in his sleep and roll over. The blonde grimaced and made up his mind. He’d go for a walk and see where he ended up. Isis had to be in bed by now and he needed to clear his head or he would be in absolutely no state to duel in the morning. That would be bad. Yugi would need the emotional support of having someone in the competition with her.

He was still tempted to knock on her door but he suspected Yugi was most likely either asleep or trying to sleep and would not appreciate being woken because of his nightmares.

He slipped out the door, locking it behind him so Isis could not hurt anyone else because of his carelessness and headed down the darkened corridors. He was unsure of where he was headed but he did not care as he tried to calm down.

Despite everything, Yugi did not hate him for what had happened. Oneesan had even deliberately pulled him aside to tell him that she did not blame him for sending her back to the Shadows and that if he wanted to be mad at anyone, he should be mad at Isis. Logically he knew that. He was just a normal duellist. He did not have any magic of his own that he could have used to protect himself from Isis’s Millennium Rod. He could not have stopped her from taking control of his mind and brainwashing him into trying to kill Yugi.

That knowledge did not help when he closed his eyes or awoke from a nightmare but it did help now, as he wandered the hallways and let his feet lead him around the kitchens, past the control deck and back down to the bedrooms, stopping him right in front of Yugi’s door.

He hesitated. She was probably asleep. He knew he himself was only awake because of the nightmares. Oneesan would probably behead him if she had finally managed to talk Yugi into sleeping and he woke her up but…

He knocked on the door.

“One minute,” Yugi’s voice was shaky as she answered, worrying Jou, “Who is it?”

“Just me, Yuge.”

“J…Jou?” He heard her scramble for the door and when it opened it was to reveal Yugi was still dressed, the Millennium Puzzle hanging in it’s customary place and she looked worried. “What’s wrong?”

“Couldn’t sleep either?” His response got a startled and slightly hysterical laugh from his best friend, who moved aside to let him in and locked the door behind him.

The moment it was safe Jou hugged her, feeling her freeze up in his arms before she clung to him, clearly needing the comfort despite the wavering question of, “Are you sure you wouldn’t be safer with the others?”

“I’m here, Yuge. Where I want to be…” He rubbed her back gently, reassuringly and heard her sniffle, suggesting Yugi was about to burst into tears.

“B…but…it’s not safe. I’m not safe…Isis will hurt anyone who’s close to me…” Yugi mumbled as she tried to get herself under control. “A…Anzu was right to keep you all away…you’re…”

“Not going to abandon you Yuge.” Jou promises, edging towards the bed and pulling Yugi into a sitting cuddle, “No matter how dangerous the situation looks. I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”

“But…I…I can’t…” Yugi trailed off, trying not to admit to what she was thinking.

“Can’t what Yuge?” Jou asked quietly.

“I can’t,” Her voice wavered, on the edge of tears, “I can’t lose any more friends…” She started sobbing.

Jou had been expecting it and held her tightly, rubbing her back and cooing softly, the way he would if Shizuka needed comfort. It seemed to help as Yugi’s sobbing soon slowed as the girl curled into him, still needing the contact but beginning to doze off.

“You’re not going to lose us, Yuge.” Jou promised quietly, just continuing to hug her, “No matter what happens, we’re going to stick with you.” He felt her relax and little and began to let go of her.

“Stay?” Yugi’s tone was soft and pleading as she grasped his top.

“Alright.” Jou nodded, lying down with her and staying still so she could drift into an exhausted sleep. He soon followed, the comfort of having Yugi pressed in against him keeping the nightmares away for the rest of the night.

NaNo2014: Shadows of Friendship: Part 14

Pretty much all the ponies that she had spent time with the day before were there. Even Rarity, much to her surprise was in amongst the crowd gathered around trading cards and duelling one another, though to the purple unicorn’s complete lack of surprise she could see that there was a rather pretty looking mat underneath her.

It was to that group that she headed, figuring that she probably had more in common with them then she did with some of the other local ponies. Raindow Dash budged over to make room, smirking at her. “Decided to emerge then?”

“Spike said you were duelling?” Twilight nodded, not bringing up the earlier prank if no one else was.

“Yeah, Pinkie set it up.” Rainbow nodded, grinning, “She might be prone to pranks but she knows how to get everyone enjoying themselves.” Twilight winced slightly at the ‘pranks’ comment causing Dash to chuckle at her, “You realise there’s not a pony in Ponyville who hasn’t been caught by Pinkie once or twice, right? Well, except Fluttershy, no one pranks Fluttershy.”

That kind of made Twilight feel better. Pinkie had not singled her out, she had been including her in the general pranking. It was an odd way to think about it, but it did help her mood considerably even as she snuck peeks at the shelves, trying to see if she could spot anything on the Elements of Harmony upon them.

It was hard to see anything around the horde of ponies that were gathered in her library and for a few moments Twilight resented it. Libraries were supposed to be quiet and this was her space. None of those present besides herself and Spike had permission to be in her home, but they had invaded anyway. She had wanted a nice, quiet night to get some research done before Nightmare Moon showed up. That plan had gone spectacularly out of the window.

Then she did not have time to resent it as Rainbow set her up to duel against a stallion she had never met before and by the time that they were all due to leave, Twilight had not only gained a small following of impressed Duellists but had gotten to know them all a little better. Since this was a step towards the Elements of Harmony working with her, or even possibly understanding the ‘Unity’ mentioned in Celestia’s letter, it did not feel like she had completely wasted the night, but she still not in the position she had wanted to be in when she was herded from the library and along to the town hall.

Something was off as she entered the building, not that she was entirely sure what it was. She could just feel an odd taint creeping through the building. To her magically honed senses it felt like a strange mist that was slowly oozing between their hooves and spreading out into the streets of Ponyville through the open double doors. She did not know what it was, or why it made her feel so uneasy but as she moved towards the front of the crowd she had a horrible feeling that the alicorn on the balcony was not going to be her tutor, Celestia, but her tainted sister.

The mayor stepped forward to give a speech but Twilight was not listening. She was too busy paying attention to the fact the darkness was building around the balcony where the Princess was due to appear. Something or somepony was coming and the darkness knew it. Twilight just did not know how she was supposed to deal with that fact.

If she was the ‘Guardian of the Shadows’ now, then this was her first test in her new role. She would have to stop Nightmare Moon here, before she could do any damage. She just was not sure how.

“And now,” The mayor announced after thanking everyone for their hard work, “I welcome to Ponyville, Princess Celestia!”

Fluttershy’s bird chorus started up and Twilight held her breath, praying that she was wrong. That the tales of darkness and shadows in Celestia’s letter had made her just image the mist at her hooves and the creeping tendrils of power she could feel surrounding the balcony and reaching behind the curtains.

When they opened, Princess Celestia was missing, causing panic to start rising in the assemblage, including Twilight, who sidestepped, having feared this would happen. Fluttershy’s birds trailed off mid-chorus as Rarity let out a frightened cry of, “She’s gone!”

A dark and slightly deranged cackle started as a purple and black fog swirled around in a tornado of power. Power that was far too reminiscent of the pulse of magic that had erupted from the puzzle when she had completed it for Twilight’s liking, but like it had been multiplied by a thousand.

“Oh horsefeathers…” Twilight whispered to herself as she watched it explode out, coating the walls and ceiling in the same weird maelstrom of an odd mixture of purples, blacks and blues. With the tornado gone, a midnight blue alicorn whose mane and tail were made up from the night sky and flowed like water stood tall and proud where Princess Celestia should have stood. Her silver armour glinted ominously in the strange light that was cast by the power and she looked around with a toothy smirk at the terrified crowd below.

“Bow before your Princess.” Nightmare Moon demanded, “For I have returned and the night will last forever!”

Twilight could feel the power coating the room like a lead weight baring down on her and the temperature had dropped several degrees, leaving most of those in the room with her shivering, though it was hard to tell if it was because of the cold or the fear. It was hard to think through the oppressive atmosphere and Twilight struggled to react to the possessed alicorn’s ravings.

“Where’s the Princess!? The real one!” Rainbow Dash demanded, trying to fly up to the balcony only for Applejack to catch her tail between her teeth and hold her back.

“What’s the matter?” Nightmare Moon demanded with a snarl, glaring at the Pegasus pony, “Am I not royal enough for you? Does my crown no longer matter after five thousand years?! Do you know who I am?!”

“I do!” Twilight bellowed, saving Pinkie Pie from attracting the attention of the dark creature on the balcony by bellowing over her, “I know who you are! You’re Nightmare Moon!”

Several ponies whinnied in terror as the alicorn turned an amused smirk on her, only to freeze, her eyes widening as she took in the unicorn who had called out. “You.” She hissed, anger clear on her face, “You will not stop me this time. I will kill you again! And this time you won’t come back!”

Twilight did not understand what she meant, but she did understand what the wave of purple the alicorn sent at her meant and she threw up a hasty shield spell that protected not only herself but anypony close enough to her to be hit. The powerful attack washed down the sides of her shield and joined the darkness coating the floor around her.

“Who are you this time, Princess?” Nightmare Moon demanded, sarcastically emphasising the title as she glowered down at her, her wings flaring up as she snarled out, “What name should I put on your headstone?”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle, I am Celestia’s Personal Student.” Twilight replied as her shield flickered out of existence, its magic spent, “And the Guardian of Shadows. I won’t let you win. I can’t!”

“The last time you were an alicorn and even then, alone, you could not defeat me, you stand no chance now, little Twilight.” Nightmare Moon hissed, drawing up her magic for another strike. “You will die here and now, before you can seal me again! My Shadows will destroy you!”

Twilight’s world slowed down as the demonically possessed alicorn unleashed a wave of Shadows that would kill everyone present. She could not stop it. She knew she could not stop it. She was not strong enough, but she tried. She dragged up every ounce of magic that she possessed and then drew more from the puzzle, building it into a shield that would cover the ponies in the hall.

The Shadows hit it with the force of a hurricane and Twilight shuddered, barely able to maintain her protective barrier against the sheer weight and potency of the dark power she was facing. Her hooves slid backwards as the barrier shuddered and slowly retreated back from the force pressing against it. “I…I’m s…sorry…” She bit out to the ponies surrounding her as her forelegs buckled for a moment and she only just caught herself in time, “I…I can’t…”

“Die!” Nightmare Moon crowed, knowing she had won as she drove more of her power into the blast.

The shield buckled as Twilight did. The unicorn started to collapse as her shield started folding in on itself, unable to take the force of the attack.

Then the puzzle glowed brightly, surrounding Twilight in a golden glow as the same golden glow bolstered the shield and helped it hold. The ponies of Ponyville watched in shock as the glow took the shape of an alicorn and then died down, leaving a tall, proud, purple Princess in the place of the unicorn, her cutie mark the same as before, her wings badly torn and damaged and quite clearly unable to sustain flight, but sweeping gracefully along her back and draping over her like a noble’s cloak. She glared up at Nightmare Moon with narrowed ruby red eyes. “I don’t think so!” She snapped back, “You will not hurt anyone here!”

Nightmare Moon watched in furious shock as the other alicorn’s magic soaked up her blast and stood firm. She was not prepared for this battle. Not tired as she was from fighting the Sun Goddess. She had expected to sweep into the peaceful, quiet city and take over, not wage war with another Goddess in the middle of her victory speech.

She had the advantage though. The Princess before her was ground bound. The wounds that had occurred during the battle so very, very long ago seemed to have latched onto her soul and been carried over to the modern day.

Which meant that she, in this mortal frame she had stolen from the Goddess of the Night, could fly away and recover, while the Princess before her would have to walk to find her and burn up more energy, not really getting the chance to pull herself together before they fought again.

“If you think you can stop me,” Nightmare Moon crowed, “Come and find me. I will be at the heart of my old Kingdom!” With that she flapped her wings and lifted off, flying out of the window and into the night. Rainbow Dash broke free of Applejack’s grip and tried to fly after her, but Twilight did not get to see the result as her shield failed and she collapsed, her wings vanishing, her form shrinking, returning to the unicorn she had originally been as her world went black.

C.N. April 2014: Digital Distraction Part 21

When Yami nodded and moved to the spot indicated, Harper spoke up, his voice carrying around the now silent dining hall. “Activate ‘Stageshow Protocol’ Include players Edmund Harper and Yugi Mutou.”

The crowd let out an appreciative noise as the VirtualNet hubs hummed into action and the floor beneath them converted from the plain white tiles to a cobblestone surface, the walls seeming turn into stone bricks, with torches giving off light.

Yami couldn’t help but be impressed and both sadness and anger flickered through him as it occurred to him that Yugi would have loved to see the VirtualNet in action. If, of course, Dimension Software’s sponsors hadn’t kidnapped him.

“I’m just here to summon an opponent or two for you,” Harper explained to Yami, “And give you a demonstration of what to do and what can happen.”

Yami nodded warily, waiting for him to make his move.

“Your deck goes in the holster, here.” He demonstrated, his stack of cards obviously not Duel Monsters cards unlike the ones Yami slipped into his DimDisk. “Then to fight the opponents within the game, we’ve set it up to allow you to summon your Duel Monsters as your ‘protectors.’ You can have five on the field at any given time and you can have five magic or trap cards set, ready to cast at any point.”

With that he drew five cards and set two cards before sliding two cards into the monster slots. Two men appeared in full suits of armour, wielding swords. Yami took a step back and glanced at Harper, who nodded to him, “Use it like a Duel Disk.”

Yami nodded, drawing five cards and setting one face down before summoning out his Queen’s Knight to attack one of the men.

One of them shattered, but the other, without direction from Harper, tapped a face down card, which glowed brightly for a moment, turned into a gemstone, which equipped itself to his sword, causing it to gain a flaming aura. Then it tapped the second card which caused a set of angelic wings to appear, just before the first guard reappeared. The second guard attacked his Queen’s Knight, which shattered just like the first guard, and Yami’s health decreased by four hundred points.

The first guard then attacked and there were more than a few horrified sounds as it looked like the guard had run Yami through. Then Yami let out a pained howl as the guard pulled his sword back out again and the Pharaoh fell to his knees, clutching his chest.

“I know that must have hurt.” Harper apologised, as Yami got up, glowering at the Guard that had struck him, completely unharmed. “We’ve yet to implement safeties on our VirtualNet so I’m afraid that any attack will feel very real, even if it doesn’t leave any lasting physical damage.” He glanced at Yami, whose health had decreased by another eight hundred points. “Care to call it a day?”

“No.” Yami replied with a shake of his head, “Is it my move again?”

“Once a battle starts, when the enemy creatures have all attacked, it’s the player’s turn again.” Harper nodded, intrigued as to what Yami had planned.

Yami drew, then his scowl turned to a smirk as he played Monster Reborn, which created the same wing effect as the card the guard had activated. Once Queen’s Knight was back on the field, Yami sacrificed it for Dark Magician Girl, activated his face down Sage’s Stone to summon out his Dark Magician and the pair of mages took down the Guards with no sweat.

“And once the enemy creatures are defeated, the battle ends and you can go back to the adventure part of the game.” Harper looked torn between amusement and disappointment as the virtual surroundings disappeared. “You guide books have the plot and the rest of what you need to know about the game in them. We’ll be disembarking in about an hour.”

With that he left, leaving Yami to rejoin his friends, a frown crossing his features when he realised that his health points had yet to recover.

“You okay?” Joey asked Yami.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve had worse from the Duel Disk system.” Yami shrugged, grabbing up his game guide. “But I think I need to know more about this game system.”