Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Black Dragon Empress ❯ Imperial Judgement ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh!

Author Notes: Ok I finally got the courage to write down this duel scene… it sucks probably, but bear with me here… you don't see many people describing a duel in such detail, and sorry if I offended any Joey fans… you have permission to stop reading if you don't like it.

Key:

"__" - Speech
'__' - Thought

[__] - Yami speaking to Yugi through his puzzle.

{__} - Yugi talking back to Yami

Chapter #2: Imperial Judgment

"Joey doesn't even think about it! She isn't going to give you mercy, I doubt you can win," Bakura warned.

"I don't care, I wanted a duel, I'm gonna get a duel, even if I lose, which I wont," Joey also took out his deck.

The two of them sat down, immediately people gathered, Yugi, Tea, Tristan, and Bakura stood in the middle watching as the two shuffled their decks. Joey was excited, but Riley was indifferent, which how she was on the tournaments, dueling with eerie calmness that seemed to freak most duelists out so much, they made dumb mistakes, undoubtedly it was all part of her game.

"I think I'll let a lady go first," Joey spoke up, but he got no reply from Riley, she only drew her hand and an extra sixth card for her opener.

"Thank you Joey, but… you might have as well as written your own death warrant, and signed it too," she said calmly. "First… I'll lay this face down, and now… I'll summon one of my weaker dragons, Koumori Dragon… in attack mode!" laying the purple dragon down with a ghost of a smirk on her features.

Joey picked up a card and looked at his hand carefully, a smile crossed his features, "that's an easy one… for my Axe Raider," he put down the card, "Bye, Bye Koumori!" he said confidently.

Riley smirked, "Did you forget about my face down card?" she asked. Joey instantly froze in one place as the girl flipped the card over, a reinforcement trap card, "This gives my Koumori a hefty power boost… turning him twenty hundred strong, just enough to destroy your Axe Raider, and put a dent in your life points," she added.

"Joey stay focused!" Yugi warned as he watched the girl draw a card from her deck.

Riley meanwhile remained unphased by anything around her, Yugi could see her hand, and to say the least she had a heavy hitter, already one of her three red eyes was in her hand, but he couldn't warn Joey, so the way Yugi saw it, Riley was toying with Joey, that Koumori was a trap all along.

"I switch my Koumori to defense mode, and I play this second Koumori in defense mode as well, and that ends my turn," Riley spoke.

Joey drew his next card, "Alright, this time your trap wont work since you don't have any! My Garoozis will make short work of your Koumori," Joey was extremely proud of himself at the moment, because he destroyed one of Riley's precious Koumori, but as he looked up to gloat, he noticed that Riley still seemed indifferent to it all, which made him think.

"She's messing with Joey's head," Bakura commented to Yugi.

"She's good at it too," Tea pointed out.

"Yes… very good," Yugi was worried about that Red Eyes in the girl's hand, if she threw it down, Joey was as good as gone, if he didn't pull out his own, which would equalize the balance, but not for long knowing how many equip cards the girl had in her deck.

"That was a very good move Joey, but good doesn't cut it with me," Riley drew another card, Polymerization. "Hmm…" the girl got a mild frown for a split second. "Oh dear… I think You Garoozis has cornered me, I can't really play anything," she said in a calm tone.

Joey began to smirk, 'Yea! I have her on the run!' he thought to himself proudly. He drew a card and nearly smiled, 'Yes… all I have to do is wait for her to play her own Red Eyes… and I'm all set!' he thought, "Alright Garoozis, take out that last Koumori," Joey was proud of himself.

Riley yawned, "This is tedious…" she drew her next card, "Alright… one face down, and I summon one of the trio… Red Eyes Black Dragon!" she laid down the card, "Bye, Bye Garoozis," she mocked Joey by repeating his earlier statement.

There were some shocked exclamations in the crowd. "He's in it now," Tristan commented.

"Technically Tristan, her strongest dragon isn't her red Eyes, Joey will really be in it if she draws summoned skull, after all, she did use Black Skull Dragon in the tournament," Bakura pointed out.

"Let's just hope she doesn't" Tea spoke quietly, she really didn't want to see Joey loose, but she wasn't a fool either, she knew he had little to no chance, only if he got really lucky would he be able to beat all three of her red eyes.

Joey reached to draw his next card, looking at it he nearly laughed, turning it so that everyone could see he gave a curt chuckle, "I hope you know what Raigeki does… because I use it," he said cockily.

The crowd clapped at this move, "Way to go Joey! Keep it up!" Tea cheered.

Riley growled and discarded her Red-Eye, "That's just one, there are still two more, and let's not forget my newest pets… the thunder dragons," she replied, waving a finger in the air.

'Man… How can I forget?' Joey thought to himself, "I also play my flame swordsman, in attack mode!" he added.

Riley shook her head and drew her next card, "Well what do you know," she said coolly looking at the card in her hand, "Just one more of these pets… and you're as good as dead," she added. "But for now, I'll play this face down, and I'll play this Vorse Raider in attack mode, I won't attack just yet though, so that makes it your turn," Riley placed a hand on her mouth, stifling a yawn, "Excuse me," she said.

'Who does she think she is?' Joey thought to himself drawing his next card, he smiled when he saw it, "I call on my own Red Eyes Black Dragon!" he placed the card down, "Vorse Raider is toast!" he added in triumph. The girl yawned again and put her hand on her face down card, flicking it up Joey saw it was 'Negate attack' trap card.

"Sorry Joey, not this time," Riley drew her next card. A mild frown crossed her features for a split second 'I just need one more thunder dragon' she thought, which didn't escape Joey, or Yugi. "I play monster reborn to bring back my red eyes that you toasted… but that's not all, I had this card since three turns back, and I was just waiting to use this, I modify my Red eyes with the dragon treasure, turning him a whopping twenty seven hundred!" the smile on Riley's features was now purely evil. "But I wont attack just yet, I'll let you sweat a little," she added.

Joey breathed a sigh of relief and drew his next card, immediately he smiled, "Salamandra! I use it to boost the power of my flame swordsman, and I attack your Vorse Raider! That's three hundred life points damage for you," his voice was very cocky, and it caused Riley to smirk, a dark glint appearing in her eyes.

The girl reached for her next card, looking at it her dark smirk only became more evil, "I'm sorry Joey… but you just scratched my life points, what I'm about to do will hurt even more, in fact… you can kiss your eleven hundred life points goodbye! I play Thunder Dragon… in attack mode!" the girl paused for a second.

"How do you expect to beat my swordsman with that thing? It only has sixteen hundred attack points," Joey was puzzled.

Riled pulled out two cards from her hand and placed on the field, near her Thunder dragon, "Quite simple Joey Wheeler… I fuse him with his twin! To form the Twin-Headed Thunder dragon!" the smile on Joey's face vanished in an instant.

The crowd froze as the girl laid down the twenty-eight hundred strong dragon, along with her beefed up red eyes the girl had nearly enough to wipe out Joey's life points in a combination attack by the two dragons. "I'm going to wait a little, let you squirm," Riley continued.

Joey drew his next card, he knew that she could finish him easily now, he would only have three hundred life points left if she had attacked, but it baffled him why she was stalling. "I switch my monsters to defense mode," he announced. 'She probably wants to wipe me out in a single hit, I wont let that happen if I can,' he thought. "I also play this card face down in defense mode." He added. 'Hopefully she'll attack that one, with that twin-headed freak dragon of hers,' he was desperate for some form of a miracle.

Riley Drew her next card, and smiled faintly, "You played well Joey, but against this card… your defense mode is useless… I use… Fairy Meteor Crush! With my twin headed thunder dragon… this card lets me cause life point damage to my opponent even though he has his monster in defense mode! I order my Twin Headed Thunder Dragon to attack you flame swordsman… you do the math twenty-eight hundred minus sixteen hundred, that's twelve hundred, and you have eleven hundred life points… in short… I win," a dark smirk crossed Riley's features as Joey groaned.

The crowd was silent, "She toyed with Joey all along," Bakura commented.

Riley continued, "I would normally crush my opponent as fast as I can. But… there is some respect to be earned from a dragon user so I let you have some chance, but my cards didn't. The dragons are merciless creatures Joey, and so are my dragons," Riley gathered up her card, and turned to the crowd. "Now I want to make one thing clear… you don't know my identity, and whoever rats… will get it," with that she walked off curtly.

"I lost…" it finally sank to Joey.

"It's not that bad Joey," Tea watched the girl walk away, she disliked how abruptly the girl finished Joey off, she wiped his life points out as if they weren't there.

"She is very good, that's all I can say… Joey should have expected that, that fairy meteor crush is her dirtiest trick, but what amazes me is the ease she handles her dragons… it's as if she knows the exact order of her cards," Bakura speculated.

"Maybe she does!" Joey said in an offended tone.

"I doubt it Joey, you seen her shuffle her deck, we all seen her," Yugi spoke.

"I guess you're right Yug… but I was never beaten this badly! She practically set me up for a fall by not attacking at first, oh well… a loss is a loss, no use moping about it, now how about some lunch?" Joey's remarks made everyone sweatdrop.

"He'll never change," Tea commented.

Riley meanwhile sat in the hallway, muttering silent curses to herself, 'Damn it… damn it… now the whole school will know… I'll never be able to achieve my goal at this rate' she thought. 'I'll never dethrone Seto Kaiba at this rate! Damn you Joey Wheeler!' she continued to mutter angrily to herself, ignoring all passers who looked oddly at her.

Author Notes: So Riley is after Seto's high position, but why does she wish to keep her identity a secret, and for that matter.