Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Destined for More ❯ Painful Memories and Odd Dreams ( Chapter 4 )

Destined for More

Chapter Four

Joey sat down on his bed. It was almost time to go to bed. He thought about putting on his pajamas when he heard a knock on the door. "Who is it?" he called.

"It's Serra," said the voice from beyond the door. "May I come in?"

Joey smiled. "Yeah, sure," he responded. The door slowly opened and Serra walked in. She plopped down on the bed next to him. "So, what did you want?"

"Oh, nothing," Serra responded. "I just thought it would be nice to talk."

Joey looked at her with slight puzzlement. "About what?"

"I don't know," Serra responded. "May I see your deck?"

Joey removed his deck from his Duel Disk. "Yeah, sure." He handed the deck to Serra and she looked at it.

"Hey, this monster looks interesting," Serra said, pulling out a card. "Panther Warrior?"

"Yeah, Panther Warrior is a good monster," Joey said. "Problem is, you need to sacrifice a monster to let it attack. Scapegoat works well for that." He pulled the Scapegoat card from the deck and showed it to her. He then put Scapegoat back and drew another card.

"Ah, here's a staple of the game," Joey commented. "This spell is Monster Reborn. It can call any defeated monster from either player's Graveyard and put it on the user's side of the field." He then pulled another card from his deck. "And this monster is my all-time favorite. This is the Red-Eyes Black Dragon. It's strong, but you need to use two monsters as tributes to summon it."

Serra then removed a card from the deck. "What's this one?" she asked, showing Joey.

"This is one of the rarest cards ever made," Joey said. "Only three others exist, and Kaiba has all three. This is the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. I just got it yesterday. Like Red-Eyes Black Dragon, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon needs two tribute monsters to summon it. However, look at its stats. It has 3,000 Attack Points and 2,500 Defense Points. It's insanely powerful."

Serra then pulled out another card. "Oh, this is the one monster you mentioned. The Winged Dragon of Ra."

Joey nodded. "Ra needs three tribute monsters to summon it, but it's worth it. You see how its stats are all question marks? Well, that's because its Attack Points and Defense Points are the combined total of the three monsters that were used to summon it. The more powerful, the better. Also, it can't be affected by the negative effects of certain monsters, spells, and traps."

Serra removed another card from the deck. "Oh, this is the other monster you mentioned."

Joey looked at the card. "Yeah, that's the Claw of Hermos. It can fuse with any other card on the player's side of the field, and the results are awesome."

"Have you ever tried fusing the Claw of Hermos with The Winged Dragon of Ra?" Serra asked.

Joey shook his head. "Don't know if I want to, either." He put the card back in his deck and set his Duel Disk on the night stand.

Serra thought for a moment, trying to find another way to make conversation with Joey. "So, do you do anything besides dueling and advertisements?"

Joey nodded. "I'm going to school to become a mechanic," he responded.

"Do you like cars?" Serra asked.

"Like 'em? I love 'em!" Joey responded enthusiastically. "I don't have one of my own, though. I live in the city itself, and I rely on public transportation. I'd like a car, though. Especially some kind of classic car, like from the '60s or the '70s. Especially something from '69."

Serra smiled. "Neat," she remarked.

Joey frowned. "You know, there's one thing that's been bothering me. How come I haven't seen your mother, the queen?"

Serra frowned and looked down. "She died ten years ago," she muttered sadly.

"Oh, sorry to hear that," Joey said. His parents were lousy, but at least they were alive. "I haven't seen my mother since the divorce. She took Serenity with her and left me with a gambling drunkard of a father."

"Wow, doesn't sound like much of a mother," Serra remarked. "No offense, of course.

"By the way, I've heard you talk about your sister. Do you have a picture of her?"

Joey reached into his back pants pocket and pulled out his wallet. He opened it up and pulled a picture out of his wallet. It was Serenity's most recent yearbook picture. "Here you go."

Serra studied the picture for a moment. "Your sister is pretty," she remarked. "Whose side does she get that from?"

Joey laughed. "I have no clue."

Serra laughed in response. Then, she noticed two other pictures that had fallen out of Joey's wallet. She scooped them up and looked at the first one. It had a picture of Joey and four of his friends at their graduation ceremony. "Are these your friends, Joey?"

Joey looked at the picture and nodded. "Yeah. The tall guy is Tristan Taylor. Great friend, I've known him for ages. I don't like his advances on my sister, though."

Serra laughed. "Who is the girl? She's very pretty."

"That's Tea Gardner," Joey responded. "A long-time friend of Yugi's." He then pointed at Duke. "That's Duke Devlin. He invented a game called 'Dungeon Dice Monsters,' based off of Duel Monsters."

Serra giggled. "He's cute. Then, who's the short guy?"

"That is the one and only Yugi Moto," Joey answered. "The greatest duelist in the world, and the best friend a guy like me could ever ask for."

Serra handed the picture back to Joey and looked at the second one. "Who is this?"

Joey hesitated. I really hope it's not . . . However, his worst fears were confirmed when Serra showed the photo to him.

"That . . . is Mai Valentine," Joey responded. "She was a great person. She, like me, had a rough past, and grew to distrust everyone. Yugi and I managed to right her in that regard, though. We ran into her several times, and I even risked my life to protect her in a duel where her soul was on the line.

"Then, something happened. When we fought against Dartz, Mai had sided with his organization. Some creep named Valon had manipulated Mai into joining them and pitting her against us. Especially me. I was the one who beat Valon, and he lost his soul to the Orichalcos, but right after that, Mai challenged me in revenge. I didn't want to beat her and make her lose her soul, so I . . ." Tears began to well up in Joey's eyes. "I threw the match and sacrificed my soul. I later learned that Mai, upon seeing me throw the duel, caught my body, and realized what she was doing was wrong. She then challenged Raphael, only to be beaten and lose her soul. When Dartz was beaten, all of our souls were released, but Mai just left. I never saw her again after that. After all I did for her, she just . . . abandoned me . . ." Joey then gave way to sobbing.

Serra began to shed tears from listening to Joey's heart-wrenching story, and she placed her hand on Joey's shoulder. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I . . . I don't know what to say."

"Then don't," Joey muttered in between sobs. In response, Serra got up and left the room, deciding that Joey needed some time to himself.

-4-

Serra sat down on her bed. From the sound of it, Joey had experienced a lot of pain. Too much for an eighteen-year-old, in her opinion. She looked at her dresser and saw a picture of her and her parents, taken eleven years ago. He's been through as much pain - if not more than - as I . . . Her eyes watered over as she began to think of the past.

-4-

"Mommy, Mommy!" an eight-year-old Serra shouted as she ran into her mother's room, wearing her new dress. "Mommy, look at me, look at me! See how pretty I am?" Her mother, Queen Dinah, had been taking a nap and was still lying down on her bed. When Serra came in, the queen was not moving.

Serra was puzzled. "Mommy?" she asked. "Mommy, what's wrong?" She climbed up onto the bed and shook her mother gently. "Mommy?" She grabbed her mother's wrist, and found something missing. A heartbeat.

-4-

"Yes, Sire."

Serra looked up, through her constant tears, at her father. The king was addressing a coroner. "Well, what happened?"

"It was poison, Sire," the coroner responded. "We found arsenic in her blood. Also, there was a pair of pinpricks on her left wrist."

The king turned white. "Who could have done this?" he said in shock.

-4-

"Malacoda, on the charges of first-degree murder of Queen Dinah, and treason, the High Chaimellan Court finds you guilty of all charges." Two years had passed since Dinah had been murdered and a suspect had been caught, tried, and just convicted. "As per any case involving treason, you are to be sentenced to death. Guards, I leave him in your capable hands. Court dismissed."

-4-

Five years had passed since the trial. Malacoda was bound by the hands and wings and led onto the gallows in town. The court official said, "Malacoda, you shall be executed on this date. You will be hanged for your crimes of treason and first-degree murder. Do you have anything left to say?"

"I have one thing to say," Malacoda responded. "You can kill me, but you can't kill my cause! The Eclipsians will rule this world!"

Malacoda was led up to the rope. The executioner placed the noose around his neck, tightened it, and walked to the back. He then threw a lever and a trapdoor opened beneath the condemned Chaimellan. He dropped until the noose broke his fall - and his neck.

-4-

Suddenly, the scene changed. Instead of a fifteen-year-old Serra watching an execution, she found herself in a dark, dungeon-like room. However, the noose was still there, but she could see someone else in it. She saw a crown on the floor and purple robes. "DADDY!!!!!!!"

Suddenly, someone started laughing. "Long live the king," the voice cackled. Suddenly, Serra found chains bound to her wrists and ankles. A Chaimellan, who seemed only slightly older than Serra, stepped forward. "Bow down before your master, harem girl," he said.

Serra tried to lunge out, but the chains bound her. "Why you . . . ! I'll NEVER be a concubine! NO! NEVER!!"

"Serra! Serra, wake up!" Serra found someone shaking her and she opened her eyes. She was back in bed, and it was the middle of the night. Serra reached over and turned on a light. "Joey? What are you doing here?"

"Couldn't sleep," Joey responded. "You were having a nightmare. I could hear your screams from my room. After all, I am next door."

Serra ran her hand across her forehead and found it drenched with sweat. "That dream was so intense . . ." she trailed off.

"Well, you're safe and sound," Joey said. "Nothing to worry about. Except the occasional bedbug, but that's beside the point."

"What time is it?" Serra asked.

"About three," Joey answered.

"And tomorrow's a Sunday," Serra said aloud. "Good thing, because I'm going to have a hard time getting to sleep now."

Joey frowned. "Sorry, can't help you there." He then walked over to the door. "I'm next door, if you need anything."

-4-

Joey put his hands behind his head, looking at the ceiling. "Heh. Seems my big bro instincts are still intact," he muttered to himself. "Even if I am just four months older." His eyelids began to droop, and finally close, as he drifted off into a peaceful slumber.

"Joey." Joey found himself sitting in bed, and someone materialized before him. Joey knew this someone all too well.

"Yu - I mean, Pharaoh?" Joey asked in disbelief.

Yami nodded. "Yes. Joey, you were brought to this planet - Chaimel - for a specific reason."

"What's that?" Joey asked.

Yami shook his head. "I don't know myself. All I know is that you need to expect the unexpected while you're here. Such as an old friend of yours dropping in."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Joey asked, but Yami began to fade.

Joey shot up from his slumber. He then grabbed his forehead. "Weird. First Serra has a nightmare, then I have an odd dream. This is not our night." He laid back down and was out like a light.