Chapter 9: - It's All News to Me
It been had three months since the first incident, and Cynthia was once again racing up Mt. Coronet.
While the Sinnoh League held their funeral for the Aspiring Champion who was assumed dead after being sucked into a dimensional vortex, the greater majority of the world's Elite Trainers and Champions were making the same flight they'd tried three months ago, but this time they had less hope.
So far Team Galactic had seemed to be pretty quiet, not like those weird robed people who seemed to be working alongside Team Galactic and had been causing chaos with their illusionary monsters. Of course there had been no way they could trust this so Lance, the Champion of the Kanto League and a Pokemon G-Man had worked his way into Team Galactic, working behind the scenes to find out what they were up to.
It hadn't been good.
While they had been using Palkia and those illusions to terrify the people of the Pokemon world into submission, to the point where the world was now polarised, those who followed the league and those who were under Galactic rule, with Trainers having to state their intentions before they entered a town and Pokemon Centres being the only truly neutral grounds, Team Galactic had been using it's powers to manipulate the dimensional walls, and Lance, in his position as a guard, had overheard someone talking about a power greater then that of Palkia and how it wouldn't be long before it fell into their hands.
Lance had managed to free Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf, but not before Team Galactic had been able to forge a second Red Chain, which they planned to use to awaken Dialga, the Lord of Time.
If Team Galactic got control of both the Lord of Time and the Lord of Space, it would all be over, as it was Palkia's Spacial Rend had been used all over Sinnoh, in an attempt to open a pathway to where ever the hell they were trying to get to.
With Dialga's Roar of Time, Team Galactic could manipulate time as well as space and all those who opposed them would feel their wrath.
But that was just it. Lance had said that he hadn't seen hide nor hair of Cyrus, their leader, in the whole time he'd been there, Mercury, Pluto, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, but no Cyrus. He wasn't high enough up the chain yet to ask either…
They were still working to a plan created by Cyrus, but he was nowhere to be seen…
Garchomp swooped overhead, landing between Saturn and the all important altar. "Not this time."
"You couldn't stop us last time." Saturn laughed, "You couldn't even protect that Aspiring Champion, yet alone a legendary Pokémon."
"You. Won't. Win. This. Time." Cynthia snapped, as Lance arrived just behind the group of Galactic grunts. "In the name of the Sinnoh League, I'm placing all of you under arrest!"
Saturn snorted, "Palkia, come forth."
Cynthia snarled as the huge water/dragon appeared in front of her, roaring.
"Now, you can move aside or you can join the Aspiring Champion…"
"Garchomp?" Cynthia said, hands balling up into fists.
"Gar Garchomp Gar." Her dragon/ground type gave her that look, the one she'd attributed to 'since when have I ever backed down?'
Cynthia nodded, "Dragon Pulse!"
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Bakura, having helped the leader of the Rare Hunters with the first part of his plan, was now looking for someone to… acquire some more locator cards from, having already borrowed a Duel Disk from one loser and acquired a locator card from another…
He didn't miss the big, almost black shadow that passed overhead, and looked up to see a Charizard passing rapidly overhead. Since at one point or another he'd swiped the greater majority of Team Galactic's Pokémon, including the Flygon he now kept on him, by permission of the Day Care Leader, he knew that there was only one Charizard in this world and it belonged to the one he'd called 'his toy' earlier.
Something was going on.
But right now, it was getting late and he had bigger fish to fry…
Heading towards the graveyard, he was only a little ways in before he could hear voices.
"Stupid Duellists." Someone was crowing, "There's no ghouls here!"
"Just us scaring people in dropping their locator cards!" Someone else crowed.
Bakura smirked, it these goons weren't even proper Duellists, it would be all too easy to get their locator cards from them, and then all he'd have to do would be win the 'God' cards from whoever had them and he'd be on easy street to the Millennium items. Not that he actually trusted Marik to keep his word about the things, but he would know where to look.
If he was honest, he didn't believe Marik's promises about being able to stop the Galactic Grunts from chasing Jamie either, but at least the Rare Hunters were being called away from her.
He wandered further in as the sun went down, keeping an ear out for those idiots.
"HAUNTER!" Bakura just stood there and stared at the ghost Pokémon who had appeared out of nowhere. "Haunt?" It looked confused, having failed to scare him.
"Hello Haunter." Bakura snorted, "I thought you'd learnt that you couldn't scare me." He remembered taking Haunter to the Day Care Centre, it escaped to cause mischief on a regular basis, and as long as it wasn't causing too much trouble, Jamie didn't worry about it too much, after all, ghost Pokémon were notoriously hard to keep in any one place.
"Feel up to causing some mischief?" Bakura asked, getting a rather evil idea.
Haunter gave him the most derogatory look it could muster. It always felt up to causing some mischief.
"Come on… lets go scare the prats."
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"You can't possibly be thinking about victory…" Saturn snarled, "Dragon Claw!"
"Garchomp, Dragon Rush!" Garchomp folded itself in and swooped forward, slamming into Palkia, "I don't have to think about it, I know that I'll win!"
"That's it, no more Mr. Nice Guy, Palkia, Spacial Rend!"
"Garchomp return!" Cynthia reacted quickly, diving behind a pillar to avoid getting sucked into the vortex, just as she had the last time she'd been here. It was why she wasn't presumed dead too…
Unfortunately this distraction gave Saturn the chance he needed to reach the altar, putting the Red Chain down alongside the Adamant Orb.
The ground shook.
"Saturn!" Cynthia's eyes widened as Lance's bellow, "Do you have any idea what you've done?" She looked around the pillar to see Lance standing firm against the pull, surrounded by odd purplish blue aura.
"Cyrus warned us about you, Lance. PKNE04 positive, bound to the dragons of the Pokémon world in a way that no other Champion could ever be, but there's nothing that you can do to stop me. If you try, Dialga will rampage and time itself will stop."
Lance snarled as Dialga emerged from the void…
"You have a choice, you can let us capture it or you can let time itself come to a complete stop."
"There's a second choice." Cynthia growled, as the fighting between the Galactic grunts and the other Elite came to a close, in favour of the Elite, "Lance, you stop Dialga, I'll fight Saturn."
"Cynthia…"
"You couldn't stop me last time, what makes you think that you can do so this time?"
"I'm stronger, you're not."
"Alright Cynthia." Lance nodded, "There's no time to argue it over. Take care."
"You too."
Unspoken between them was… 'don't lose.'
"W…wait!" Saturn stammered as Lance pushed past him, sending out one of his three Dragonites.
"Lance's battle is no concern of yours." Cynthia snapped, "Garchomp, come out now!" Garchomp returned to its place between the void and Palkia.
Lance was reaching into his back pocket for an empty Pokeball. He wasn't stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but there was only two ways to calm Dialga without using that Red Chain.
Defeating it, or capturing it and defeating it would just give them an opening to try this again…
Cynthia needed to break the Red Chain on Palkia…
And he needed to capture Dialga…
No problem.
"Dragonite, get ready." Dragonite nodded as the huge dragon/steel Pokémon appeared, it's Roar freezing time momentarily, before it turned to look at Lance who was holding the Adamant Orb, the Red Chain that had once sat next to it, was on the floor, crushed under Dragonite's foot. "Dialga! I am Lance, Champion of the Kanto League. I challenge you."
"NO!" Saturn protested, "It was I who…" His complaints were cut off by Garchomp's Dragon Pulse.
Dialga looked at Lance, considering. Then it attacked without warning, expecting Lance to be ready, with Ancient Power.
Dragonite had been ready all along, dodging the rocks easily, and blasting the Lord of Time with Hyper Beam.
It shrugged it off, normal on steel, and roared, freezing time, and before it restarted, Dragonite had been knocked into a pillar and was growling the moment he was aware of anything happening.
Lance cursed under his breath, unable to think of anything that could counter Roar of Time, "Dragonite!"
Dragonite was already on the counter attack, using it's Outrage attack, causing Lance to lose control, but knocking Dialga back.
Dialga roared again, but this time, time rewound so that the first Outrage missed.
"This is crazy." Lance heard Bruno complain, "How do we defeat something that can rewind time?"
Lance grabbed the Pokeball he was trying to get. He had 'borrowed' it from Team Rocket, in a bid to make sure that they didn't capture the legendary Pokémon, Mew, which they had been stalking around New Forest. He knew the girl that particular Mew was linked to and she wouldn't have been happy if he'd let them capture it.
Dragonite's Outrage continued, slamming into Dialga, who attempted to counter with Dragonbreath.
Dragonite dodged it, and pushed Dialga back again… Dialga took a step backwards, a portal opening behind it…
"Master Ball, GO!" Lance called, striking the Lord of Time with the Pokeball and before it could react it was inside… everyone and everything froze as the Pokeball shook. There was no way it could have broken out but still…
Wobble…
Saturn attempted to get past Cynthia and was knocked back by her Gastrodon.
Wobble…
Lance edged forward…
Wobble…
Palkia roared, the world shifted and everyone had to grab onto something as a new Spacial Rend opened up, sucking up everything that wasn't held down… including the Master Ball.
"NO!" Lance lunged, but he was too late and was only stopped from being sucked up himself by his Dragonite landing between him and the portal, which closed as abruptly as it opened.
"Did that…?" Bruno asked as the shock wore off.
Saturn was laughing.
"What's so funny?" Cynthia demanded.
"After all of that…" Saturn laughed, "After all of that, that Pokémon's going to our leader anyway!"
"What?" Lance snapped, glaring.
"And the best part is that the brat doesn't stand a chance against it!" Saturn continued to giggle, "You've given us victory, if not here then in the other world! And we still have Palkia here! We can travel freely and all you can do is wait!"
"What are you planning?"
"Our leader, Cyrus, has discovered a power even more incredible then that of the legendary Pokémon, and using this dark shadow power, we'll be able to control the effects of Palkia and Dialga! We will remake the world in our image and you've just given us the tools to do so!"
"Where is Cyrus?" Lance demanded.
"And what do you mean 'the brat doesn't stand a chance against it'?" Cynthia snapped.
"Our most exulted leader is leading the charge from his new base of operations in the new world, aided by one of the wielders of the Shadows and the company Paradius." Saturn was still highly amused, you could tell by his tone, "And your league declared the brat dead this afternoon." This seemed to tickle him, "Wait until I get to bring that up in front of her."
"Where is she? Is she unharmed?"
"She's safe, with a different Shadow wielder, at least for now… she won't be once we find that Master Ball." Saturn looked around, the Grunts were gathering. "And on that note…" Saturn, Palkia and the Grunts vanished into a vortex.
"Get back here!" Lance snapped, he and Dragonite attempted to dive through the closing vortex, just missed and ended up crashing into the ground. "Damn."
"He's gone…"
"Saturn wouldn't have killed himself if he was so sure that they were going to win." Agatha said with absolute certainty. "He's obviously headed to this 'new world' of theirs."
"But surely he's just as stuck as Jamelia is…"
"Not while they have Palkia."
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Jamie was sat on the steps of the blimp, which was parked inside the construction site of what would be White Lightening Stadium, waiting, alongside the others, for the remaining finalists. With Kaiba in slot one, Joey in slot 2, Yugi in slot 3 and Mai in slot 4, they were waiting on the other four.
If she was honest, she was feeling irritable. To be fair, she knew she didn't stand a chance when it came to duelling her friends, they would win, there were no doubts about it, but she would have liked the chance to compete.
"I have a bad feeling about this guys…" Yugi murmured causing Jamie to pay attention as someone entered the stadium via the main entrance, wearing a Duel Disk.
"Hey I know you." Joey said, surprise tinting his voice, "You're Namu, right?"
"You saved Bakura's life!" Tea grinned.
"What happened to 'Kura?" Jamie frowned, not having heard this.
"He was attacked by some punks." Joey growled, "He's in the hospital."
"You should have told me!" Jamie growled at Joey, then bowed to Namu, "Thank you, for helping Bakura."
"I'd do anything to help out a friend."
"Sorry Jamie."
Joey was being short with her, but after the day they'd had she could understand why. She was reaching for Iblis's Pokeball when Namu continued, "Is everyone a finalist?"
"No, I lost some of my map cards during a fight." Jamie shook her head, wondering why Joey and Yugi suddenly seemed so uptight. She snorted at her stupidity, of course they were uptight, they were waiting on Marik…
Her right hand fell away from her belt as the next person walked in, via a side exit. "'Kura?" She rushed over, noting the bandage and the Duel Disk on the same arm, "You're supposed to be in the hospital."
"I don't baby you, so don't baby me." Bakura warned.
"Sorry." For a moment it was her Bakura, and then Yugi and the others rushed over and somehow he changed, his eyes became softer, his hair less spiky… Jamie was completely confused as he acted like someone else entirely…
Yugi was shocked at Bakura's presence, but as someone else stormed in, in Rare Hunter robes and with a Duel Disk on one arm, everyone turned to glare.
"Jamelia." Bakura hissed, "I have Haunter and you'd better take these. Don't open them." He pressed a pair of Pokeballs into her hand.
"What's in 'em?" Jamie hissed but was distracted as Joey growled.
"That's the guy!"
"That's Marik?" Jamie asked, glaring and growling.
"That's right." Marik seemed ill amused, "I am Marik Ishtar."
"I'll kick your brain washing keister!" Joey snapped, growling.
"You're no match for me." Marik barely deigned to look at the angry teenager. "Fool."
There was an exchange of bantering, or rather Joey mouthed off at the man who seemed completely unbothered by Joey's ranting.
"Now that seven out of eight of you are here, you may board the blimp." Marik boarded first, Jamie taking the opportunity to pull Bakura aside as the guards tried to refuse to let Tea, Tristan, Duke and Serenity onboard.
"'Kura where did you get these?" She held up the Pokeballs.
"Borrowed them."
"From who?"
"Who do you think?" 'Kura asked, Jamie snorted, "I want Haunter."
"What does Haunter have to say about it?"
Bakura rolled his eyes as Haunter appeared in front of Jamie, making stupid faces and generally trying to scare her. Beyond the first surprised shriek, though, it wasn't very effective. "So what do you think?" Jamie asked it, "You want to stick with 'Kura?"
Haunter nodded.
"I suppose it's alright," Jamie decided, "But you have to live inside a Pokeball during the day and you can't interfere in any Duels, got it?"
Haunter nodded.
"Promise?"
Haunter just pulled silly faces.
"Guess that's the best I'm going to get." Jamie rolled her eyes. The blimp shook and Jamie's head shot towards the door, where a woman was entering the blimp. "We're on the move."
"Guess we'll be starting soon." Bakura looked unimpressed.
"Go report to your room." Jamie smiled, "I'm going to go irritate Kaiba."
"Have fun."
"You too."
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Okay, irritating her boss had been fun until he'd told her off and threatened to replace her with Galactic Grunts at the Day Care Centre. After that she'd gone to the main hall to wait for the draws to be picked, feeding her smaller Pokémon titbits from the buffet table.
She felt a bit torn, she knew that this Tournament was incredibly important to Yugi, but she still couldn't help hoping that Bakura would win it. The problem was that no one had really explained to her way this Tournament was just so important, just that it had something to do with Yugi's magic Puzzle, as far as she could work out, someone had a clue about Yugi's ancient memories and…
Bakura probably could have explained it, but he hadn't really been saying much about the Millennium magics recently. Perhaps he'd already told her everything there was to know… or everything that he was willing to tell her…
He was being surprisingly well behaved considering that he'd always said that he couldn't be within a ten foot radius with Yugi without causing problems, she had to wonder if he was saving it up for later or whether he was behaving for her sake. She was hoping the latter.
"All Duellists must report to the dinning hall immediately, the draws are about to commence." Jamie snorted, passing Aisu some snacks and watching as the Duellists and spectators filed in, Aisu rushing over to Yugi then growling and running back again.
Jamie still didn't get it, why Aisu disliked Yugi sometimes but adored him others. Joey was stuffing his face, and as such had Shade following him around. The Mightyena wasn't proud he'd accept food from anyone that wasn't in Galactic colours.
"Hey 'Kura." Jamie said, wandering over as he stacked his plate up, "You ready for this?"
"As I'm going to be." It was the softer Bakura again, the one she didn't get to see very often, the one that wasn't her Bakura… "I guess we'll have to wait and see."
"I didn't think you were entering." Joey mentioned, having nearly walked into them, "How did you manage to qualify so quickly?"
"I won all of my Map Cards at once, Duelling Bonz and his friends in the cemetery."
"And they gave you all of their map cards?"
"Well I had to be forceful about it…"
Now that sounded more like something her 'Kura would do, and she was unsurprised at the look on Joey's face. It had to be said that Duelling in a cemetery at night wasn't her idea of a particularly fun time either. Joey wandered off to talk to Tea and Mai and Jamie snorted. "Does Haunter have anything to do with the forcible removal of Map Cards by any chance?"
"I won them, fair and square." Bakura protested, "Just because I might have used Haunter's help to get them to pay up," Not that I really needed it, with the Shadows on my side, "Doesn't mean I didn't win them."
"I never said you didn't, it just seems like something Haunter would have enjoyed enough to want to team up with you."
Bakura laughed, attracting the attention of Yugi and Joey, "Well he does like playing tricks."
Said Pokémon was playing games right now, and had just scared Tea silly by appearing directly behind her and grabbing her around the waist, making her scream and wheel around, only to find the ghost Pokémon pulling faces.
"Francis, get your Pokémon to behave." Kaiba admonished, after telling his goon to go and collect the eighth duellist from their room.
"Sorry, Haunter's not mine." Jamie shrugged, "Besides, have you ever tried to get a ghost to do what it's told?"
"Who's is it?"
"Bakura's."
"Figures." Joey snorted.
"Bakura…"
The lights went out and a bingo machine with just eight balls in rose from the platform. "Here we go then."
"Duellists and guests, may I have your attention please. Now, the first two Duellists for round one will be chosen by lottery. To guarantee fairness each set of opponents will be selected completely at random, you've all been assigned a number, one through eight, the selector will now choose the first two numbers. The second pair will not be drawn until the winner of the first match has been decided. Thus you will not know your opponent's identity until just before you duel"
"Sounds fair." Jamie murmured, thinking that this made it a better challenge then allowing them time to prepare for a specific opponent, playing the best you could with the cards you had…
"All eight balls are of equal size and weight," Roland continued, "The selector produces results that are one hundred percent random. Does everyone remember his or her number?"
"If they don't they must have brain damage." Bakura snorted.
The selector was activated.
They waited a couple of moments, then the first ball dropped. "Number 6. Ryou Bakura."
"You're up 'Kura." Jamie grinned, "Good luck."
"Are you sure you're up to Duelling, man?" Joey asked, worried.
"I'm fine, honest."
The second number came out, "And Number 3, Yugi Muto."
Jamie bit her lower lip, of all the match ups to get… Yugi verses 'Kura…
"Be careful, please 'Kura?"
"You should have more faith in me." Bakura, her Bakura answered.
"I have plenty of faith in you, just… you worry about me when I'm hurt… now I'm worrying about you."
Roland explained the rest of the rules and the two Duellists left. Jamie rushed along to the elevator…
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"Are you prepared to lose it all?" Bakura asked, putting Jamie on edge.
What is he doing?
"I won't lose." Yugi growled, "Before we begin this Duel, why don't you tell me who you really are and stop this charade?"
Jamie frowned, that was 'Kura up there, right? Why wouldn't Yugi believe that it was?
'Kura just giggled.
"Alright, have it your way then, but I think I know who you are."
The Millennium Ring appeared with a glow from beneath 'Kura's shirt.
"It is you!" Yugi growled. "The spirit of the Millennium Ring!"
"Spirit of the…" Jamie frowned, "But that's 'Kura…"
"You may not recognise the difference, because you get the spirit of the Ring whenever you're dealing with Bakura." Joey growled, "But that isn't Ryou Bakura, that's the spirit that lives inside the Millennium Ring and who possesses Bakura."
"I didn't wish to reveal myself so early, Yugi, you've left me in a bind. I expected to have time to explain to Jamelia myself, or thought that perhaps you might explain yourself to her, after all, you're not exactly Yugi Muto are you? You're the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle."
"Can someone explain please?" Jamie growled as Joey and Tristan went off on one about the Millennium items.
"Please, I don't understand either." Namu complained.
"Basically Yugi and Bakura have these really old items with incredible powers…"
"They have Millennium Items, I know that much." Jamie growled.
"Right, well, Yugi's Puzzle is good, while Bakura's Ring is bad, so the spirits that reside within those items are like that too. Yugi's possessed by Yami, who's a good guy, while Bakura's possessed by…"
"'Kura." Jamie frowned.
"Yes, but you haven't seen all of him there is to see." Joey warned, "He's probably a lot more dangerous then he's let you see. I just hope he doesn't drag Yugi into the Shadow Realm again."
"Shadow Realm?" Namu asked, but Jamie already knew the answer to this one, that had been covered in Bakura's Shadow Magic 101 classes.
"Well then, now that the introductions are over with, why don't we begin this Duel?" 'Kura asked, smirking.
"First, tell me why you've entered the Battle City finals and what it is you hope to gain." Yugi who wasn't Yugi demanded… Yami… Jamie had to try to remember that. "Is it about the Millennium Items?"
"Perhaps." 'Kura admitted, with a smug smirk on his face. "Yugi, perhaps there is something else that I plan to take away from you, besides your Millennium Puzzle."
"What are you talking about?" Yami demanded, afraid for a moment that Bakura was going to go after Yugi or one of Yugi's friends.
"You ask a lot of questions don't you?" Bakura snorted. "There is so much about this tournament that you are unaware of, so many secrets being kept from you, for instance how do you know that I am working alone?"
Tristan and Duke turned to look at Jamie who glowered at them, "Sure, I'm working with a guy I didn't know existed." She snapped and glared at Bakura, "You have some explaining to do once this Duel is over." She growled.
"I will fully answer your questions, once I have removed this thorn from my side." Bakura acquiesced.
"You don't want to believe anything he says." Joey spoke up.
"Considering I've been told more about everything by 'Kura then I have anyone else, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt." Jamie replied.
"And now, the first Duel of the Battle City finals will begin, it's time to Duel."
The systems set up, the Duel Disks became active and the two Duellists faced off.
The life points hit 4000 each.
"Just know," Yami growled, "Whatever it is you desire, you will fail."
"No, it is you who shall lose." 'Kura replied, "Everything you have!"
While the Sinnoh League held their funeral for the Aspiring Champion who was assumed dead after being sucked into a dimensional vortex, the greater majority of the world's Elite Trainers and Champions were making the same flight they'd tried three months ago, but this time they had less hope.
So far Team Galactic had seemed to be pretty quiet, not like those weird robed people who seemed to be working alongside Team Galactic and had been causing chaos with their illusionary monsters. Of course there had been no way they could trust this so Lance, the Champion of the Kanto League and a Pokemon G-Man had worked his way into Team Galactic, working behind the scenes to find out what they were up to.
It hadn't been good.
While they had been using Palkia and those illusions to terrify the people of the Pokemon world into submission, to the point where the world was now polarised, those who followed the league and those who were under Galactic rule, with Trainers having to state their intentions before they entered a town and Pokemon Centres being the only truly neutral grounds, Team Galactic had been using it's powers to manipulate the dimensional walls, and Lance, in his position as a guard, had overheard someone talking about a power greater then that of Palkia and how it wouldn't be long before it fell into their hands.
Lance had managed to free Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf, but not before Team Galactic had been able to forge a second Red Chain, which they planned to use to awaken Dialga, the Lord of Time.
If Team Galactic got control of both the Lord of Time and the Lord of Space, it would all be over, as it was Palkia's Spacial Rend had been used all over Sinnoh, in an attempt to open a pathway to where ever the hell they were trying to get to.
With Dialga's Roar of Time, Team Galactic could manipulate time as well as space and all those who opposed them would feel their wrath.
But that was just it. Lance had said that he hadn't seen hide nor hair of Cyrus, their leader, in the whole time he'd been there, Mercury, Pluto, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, but no Cyrus. He wasn't high enough up the chain yet to ask either…
They were still working to a plan created by Cyrus, but he was nowhere to be seen…
Garchomp swooped overhead, landing between Saturn and the all important altar. "Not this time."
"You couldn't stop us last time." Saturn laughed, "You couldn't even protect that Aspiring Champion, yet alone a legendary Pokémon."
"You. Won't. Win. This. Time." Cynthia snapped, as Lance arrived just behind the group of Galactic grunts. "In the name of the Sinnoh League, I'm placing all of you under arrest!"
Saturn snorted, "Palkia, come forth."
Cynthia snarled as the huge water/dragon appeared in front of her, roaring.
"Now, you can move aside or you can join the Aspiring Champion…"
"Garchomp?" Cynthia said, hands balling up into fists.
"Gar Garchomp Gar." Her dragon/ground type gave her that look, the one she'd attributed to 'since when have I ever backed down?'
Cynthia nodded, "Dragon Pulse!"
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Bakura, having helped the leader of the Rare Hunters with the first part of his plan, was now looking for someone to… acquire some more locator cards from, having already borrowed a Duel Disk from one loser and acquired a locator card from another…
He didn't miss the big, almost black shadow that passed overhead, and looked up to see a Charizard passing rapidly overhead. Since at one point or another he'd swiped the greater majority of Team Galactic's Pokémon, including the Flygon he now kept on him, by permission of the Day Care Leader, he knew that there was only one Charizard in this world and it belonged to the one he'd called 'his toy' earlier.
Something was going on.
But right now, it was getting late and he had bigger fish to fry…
Heading towards the graveyard, he was only a little ways in before he could hear voices.
"Stupid Duellists." Someone was crowing, "There's no ghouls here!"
"Just us scaring people in dropping their locator cards!" Someone else crowed.
Bakura smirked, it these goons weren't even proper Duellists, it would be all too easy to get their locator cards from them, and then all he'd have to do would be win the 'God' cards from whoever had them and he'd be on easy street to the Millennium items. Not that he actually trusted Marik to keep his word about the things, but he would know where to look.
If he was honest, he didn't believe Marik's promises about being able to stop the Galactic Grunts from chasing Jamie either, but at least the Rare Hunters were being called away from her.
He wandered further in as the sun went down, keeping an ear out for those idiots.
"HAUNTER!" Bakura just stood there and stared at the ghost Pokémon who had appeared out of nowhere. "Haunt?" It looked confused, having failed to scare him.
"Hello Haunter." Bakura snorted, "I thought you'd learnt that you couldn't scare me." He remembered taking Haunter to the Day Care Centre, it escaped to cause mischief on a regular basis, and as long as it wasn't causing too much trouble, Jamie didn't worry about it too much, after all, ghost Pokémon were notoriously hard to keep in any one place.
"Feel up to causing some mischief?" Bakura asked, getting a rather evil idea.
Haunter gave him the most derogatory look it could muster. It always felt up to causing some mischief.
"Come on… lets go scare the prats."
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"You can't possibly be thinking about victory…" Saturn snarled, "Dragon Claw!"
"Garchomp, Dragon Rush!" Garchomp folded itself in and swooped forward, slamming into Palkia, "I don't have to think about it, I know that I'll win!"
"That's it, no more Mr. Nice Guy, Palkia, Spacial Rend!"
"Garchomp return!" Cynthia reacted quickly, diving behind a pillar to avoid getting sucked into the vortex, just as she had the last time she'd been here. It was why she wasn't presumed dead too…
Unfortunately this distraction gave Saturn the chance he needed to reach the altar, putting the Red Chain down alongside the Adamant Orb.
The ground shook.
"Saturn!" Cynthia's eyes widened as Lance's bellow, "Do you have any idea what you've done?" She looked around the pillar to see Lance standing firm against the pull, surrounded by odd purplish blue aura.
"Cyrus warned us about you, Lance. PKNE04 positive, bound to the dragons of the Pokémon world in a way that no other Champion could ever be, but there's nothing that you can do to stop me. If you try, Dialga will rampage and time itself will stop."
Lance snarled as Dialga emerged from the void…
"You have a choice, you can let us capture it or you can let time itself come to a complete stop."
"There's a second choice." Cynthia growled, as the fighting between the Galactic grunts and the other Elite came to a close, in favour of the Elite, "Lance, you stop Dialga, I'll fight Saturn."
"Cynthia…"
"You couldn't stop me last time, what makes you think that you can do so this time?"
"I'm stronger, you're not."
"Alright Cynthia." Lance nodded, "There's no time to argue it over. Take care."
"You too."
Unspoken between them was… 'don't lose.'
"W…wait!" Saturn stammered as Lance pushed past him, sending out one of his three Dragonites.
"Lance's battle is no concern of yours." Cynthia snapped, "Garchomp, come out now!" Garchomp returned to its place between the void and Palkia.
Lance was reaching into his back pocket for an empty Pokeball. He wasn't stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but there was only two ways to calm Dialga without using that Red Chain.
Defeating it, or capturing it and defeating it would just give them an opening to try this again…
Cynthia needed to break the Red Chain on Palkia…
And he needed to capture Dialga…
No problem.
"Dragonite, get ready." Dragonite nodded as the huge dragon/steel Pokémon appeared, it's Roar freezing time momentarily, before it turned to look at Lance who was holding the Adamant Orb, the Red Chain that had once sat next to it, was on the floor, crushed under Dragonite's foot. "Dialga! I am Lance, Champion of the Kanto League. I challenge you."
"NO!" Saturn protested, "It was I who…" His complaints were cut off by Garchomp's Dragon Pulse.
Dialga looked at Lance, considering. Then it attacked without warning, expecting Lance to be ready, with Ancient Power.
Dragonite had been ready all along, dodging the rocks easily, and blasting the Lord of Time with Hyper Beam.
It shrugged it off, normal on steel, and roared, freezing time, and before it restarted, Dragonite had been knocked into a pillar and was growling the moment he was aware of anything happening.
Lance cursed under his breath, unable to think of anything that could counter Roar of Time, "Dragonite!"
Dragonite was already on the counter attack, using it's Outrage attack, causing Lance to lose control, but knocking Dialga back.
Dialga roared again, but this time, time rewound so that the first Outrage missed.
"This is crazy." Lance heard Bruno complain, "How do we defeat something that can rewind time?"
Lance grabbed the Pokeball he was trying to get. He had 'borrowed' it from Team Rocket, in a bid to make sure that they didn't capture the legendary Pokémon, Mew, which they had been stalking around New Forest. He knew the girl that particular Mew was linked to and she wouldn't have been happy if he'd let them capture it.
Dragonite's Outrage continued, slamming into Dialga, who attempted to counter with Dragonbreath.
Dragonite dodged it, and pushed Dialga back again… Dialga took a step backwards, a portal opening behind it…
"Master Ball, GO!" Lance called, striking the Lord of Time with the Pokeball and before it could react it was inside… everyone and everything froze as the Pokeball shook. There was no way it could have broken out but still…
Wobble…
Saturn attempted to get past Cynthia and was knocked back by her Gastrodon.
Wobble…
Lance edged forward…
Wobble…
Palkia roared, the world shifted and everyone had to grab onto something as a new Spacial Rend opened up, sucking up everything that wasn't held down… including the Master Ball.
"NO!" Lance lunged, but he was too late and was only stopped from being sucked up himself by his Dragonite landing between him and the portal, which closed as abruptly as it opened.
"Did that…?" Bruno asked as the shock wore off.
Saturn was laughing.
"What's so funny?" Cynthia demanded.
"After all of that…" Saturn laughed, "After all of that, that Pokémon's going to our leader anyway!"
"What?" Lance snapped, glaring.
"And the best part is that the brat doesn't stand a chance against it!" Saturn continued to giggle, "You've given us victory, if not here then in the other world! And we still have Palkia here! We can travel freely and all you can do is wait!"
"What are you planning?"
"Our leader, Cyrus, has discovered a power even more incredible then that of the legendary Pokémon, and using this dark shadow power, we'll be able to control the effects of Palkia and Dialga! We will remake the world in our image and you've just given us the tools to do so!"
"Where is Cyrus?" Lance demanded.
"And what do you mean 'the brat doesn't stand a chance against it'?" Cynthia snapped.
"Our most exulted leader is leading the charge from his new base of operations in the new world, aided by one of the wielders of the Shadows and the company Paradius." Saturn was still highly amused, you could tell by his tone, "And your league declared the brat dead this afternoon." This seemed to tickle him, "Wait until I get to bring that up in front of her."
"Where is she? Is she unharmed?"
"She's safe, with a different Shadow wielder, at least for now… she won't be once we find that Master Ball." Saturn looked around, the Grunts were gathering. "And on that note…" Saturn, Palkia and the Grunts vanished into a vortex.
"Get back here!" Lance snapped, he and Dragonite attempted to dive through the closing vortex, just missed and ended up crashing into the ground. "Damn."
"He's gone…"
"Saturn wouldn't have killed himself if he was so sure that they were going to win." Agatha said with absolute certainty. "He's obviously headed to this 'new world' of theirs."
"But surely he's just as stuck as Jamelia is…"
"Not while they have Palkia."
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Jamie was sat on the steps of the blimp, which was parked inside the construction site of what would be White Lightening Stadium, waiting, alongside the others, for the remaining finalists. With Kaiba in slot one, Joey in slot 2, Yugi in slot 3 and Mai in slot 4, they were waiting on the other four.
If she was honest, she was feeling irritable. To be fair, she knew she didn't stand a chance when it came to duelling her friends, they would win, there were no doubts about it, but she would have liked the chance to compete.
"I have a bad feeling about this guys…" Yugi murmured causing Jamie to pay attention as someone entered the stadium via the main entrance, wearing a Duel Disk.
"Hey I know you." Joey said, surprise tinting his voice, "You're Namu, right?"
"You saved Bakura's life!" Tea grinned.
"What happened to 'Kura?" Jamie frowned, not having heard this.
"He was attacked by some punks." Joey growled, "He's in the hospital."
"You should have told me!" Jamie growled at Joey, then bowed to Namu, "Thank you, for helping Bakura."
"I'd do anything to help out a friend."
"Sorry Jamie."
Joey was being short with her, but after the day they'd had she could understand why. She was reaching for Iblis's Pokeball when Namu continued, "Is everyone a finalist?"
"No, I lost some of my map cards during a fight." Jamie shook her head, wondering why Joey and Yugi suddenly seemed so uptight. She snorted at her stupidity, of course they were uptight, they were waiting on Marik…
Her right hand fell away from her belt as the next person walked in, via a side exit. "'Kura?" She rushed over, noting the bandage and the Duel Disk on the same arm, "You're supposed to be in the hospital."
"I don't baby you, so don't baby me." Bakura warned.
"Sorry." For a moment it was her Bakura, and then Yugi and the others rushed over and somehow he changed, his eyes became softer, his hair less spiky… Jamie was completely confused as he acted like someone else entirely…
Yugi was shocked at Bakura's presence, but as someone else stormed in, in Rare Hunter robes and with a Duel Disk on one arm, everyone turned to glare.
"Jamelia." Bakura hissed, "I have Haunter and you'd better take these. Don't open them." He pressed a pair of Pokeballs into her hand.
"What's in 'em?" Jamie hissed but was distracted as Joey growled.
"That's the guy!"
"That's Marik?" Jamie asked, glaring and growling.
"That's right." Marik seemed ill amused, "I am Marik Ishtar."
"I'll kick your brain washing keister!" Joey snapped, growling.
"You're no match for me." Marik barely deigned to look at the angry teenager. "Fool."
There was an exchange of bantering, or rather Joey mouthed off at the man who seemed completely unbothered by Joey's ranting.
"Now that seven out of eight of you are here, you may board the blimp." Marik boarded first, Jamie taking the opportunity to pull Bakura aside as the guards tried to refuse to let Tea, Tristan, Duke and Serenity onboard.
"'Kura where did you get these?" She held up the Pokeballs.
"Borrowed them."
"From who?"
"Who do you think?" 'Kura asked, Jamie snorted, "I want Haunter."
"What does Haunter have to say about it?"
Bakura rolled his eyes as Haunter appeared in front of Jamie, making stupid faces and generally trying to scare her. Beyond the first surprised shriek, though, it wasn't very effective. "So what do you think?" Jamie asked it, "You want to stick with 'Kura?"
Haunter nodded.
"I suppose it's alright," Jamie decided, "But you have to live inside a Pokeball during the day and you can't interfere in any Duels, got it?"
Haunter nodded.
"Promise?"
Haunter just pulled silly faces.
"Guess that's the best I'm going to get." Jamie rolled her eyes. The blimp shook and Jamie's head shot towards the door, where a woman was entering the blimp. "We're on the move."
"Guess we'll be starting soon." Bakura looked unimpressed.
"Go report to your room." Jamie smiled, "I'm going to go irritate Kaiba."
"Have fun."
"You too."
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Okay, irritating her boss had been fun until he'd told her off and threatened to replace her with Galactic Grunts at the Day Care Centre. After that she'd gone to the main hall to wait for the draws to be picked, feeding her smaller Pokémon titbits from the buffet table.
She felt a bit torn, she knew that this Tournament was incredibly important to Yugi, but she still couldn't help hoping that Bakura would win it. The problem was that no one had really explained to her way this Tournament was just so important, just that it had something to do with Yugi's magic Puzzle, as far as she could work out, someone had a clue about Yugi's ancient memories and…
Bakura probably could have explained it, but he hadn't really been saying much about the Millennium magics recently. Perhaps he'd already told her everything there was to know… or everything that he was willing to tell her…
He was being surprisingly well behaved considering that he'd always said that he couldn't be within a ten foot radius with Yugi without causing problems, she had to wonder if he was saving it up for later or whether he was behaving for her sake. She was hoping the latter.
"All Duellists must report to the dinning hall immediately, the draws are about to commence." Jamie snorted, passing Aisu some snacks and watching as the Duellists and spectators filed in, Aisu rushing over to Yugi then growling and running back again.
Jamie still didn't get it, why Aisu disliked Yugi sometimes but adored him others. Joey was stuffing his face, and as such had Shade following him around. The Mightyena wasn't proud he'd accept food from anyone that wasn't in Galactic colours.
"Hey 'Kura." Jamie said, wandering over as he stacked his plate up, "You ready for this?"
"As I'm going to be." It was the softer Bakura again, the one she didn't get to see very often, the one that wasn't her Bakura… "I guess we'll have to wait and see."
"I didn't think you were entering." Joey mentioned, having nearly walked into them, "How did you manage to qualify so quickly?"
"I won all of my Map Cards at once, Duelling Bonz and his friends in the cemetery."
"And they gave you all of their map cards?"
"Well I had to be forceful about it…"
Now that sounded more like something her 'Kura would do, and she was unsurprised at the look on Joey's face. It had to be said that Duelling in a cemetery at night wasn't her idea of a particularly fun time either. Joey wandered off to talk to Tea and Mai and Jamie snorted. "Does Haunter have anything to do with the forcible removal of Map Cards by any chance?"
"I won them, fair and square." Bakura protested, "Just because I might have used Haunter's help to get them to pay up," Not that I really needed it, with the Shadows on my side, "Doesn't mean I didn't win them."
"I never said you didn't, it just seems like something Haunter would have enjoyed enough to want to team up with you."
Bakura laughed, attracting the attention of Yugi and Joey, "Well he does like playing tricks."
Said Pokémon was playing games right now, and had just scared Tea silly by appearing directly behind her and grabbing her around the waist, making her scream and wheel around, only to find the ghost Pokémon pulling faces.
"Francis, get your Pokémon to behave." Kaiba admonished, after telling his goon to go and collect the eighth duellist from their room.
"Sorry, Haunter's not mine." Jamie shrugged, "Besides, have you ever tried to get a ghost to do what it's told?"
"Who's is it?"
"Bakura's."
"Figures." Joey snorted.
"Bakura…"
The lights went out and a bingo machine with just eight balls in rose from the platform. "Here we go then."
"Duellists and guests, may I have your attention please. Now, the first two Duellists for round one will be chosen by lottery. To guarantee fairness each set of opponents will be selected completely at random, you've all been assigned a number, one through eight, the selector will now choose the first two numbers. The second pair will not be drawn until the winner of the first match has been decided. Thus you will not know your opponent's identity until just before you duel"
"Sounds fair." Jamie murmured, thinking that this made it a better challenge then allowing them time to prepare for a specific opponent, playing the best you could with the cards you had…
"All eight balls are of equal size and weight," Roland continued, "The selector produces results that are one hundred percent random. Does everyone remember his or her number?"
"If they don't they must have brain damage." Bakura snorted.
The selector was activated.
They waited a couple of moments, then the first ball dropped. "Number 6. Ryou Bakura."
"You're up 'Kura." Jamie grinned, "Good luck."
"Are you sure you're up to Duelling, man?" Joey asked, worried.
"I'm fine, honest."
The second number came out, "And Number 3, Yugi Muto."
Jamie bit her lower lip, of all the match ups to get… Yugi verses 'Kura…
"Be careful, please 'Kura?"
"You should have more faith in me." Bakura, her Bakura answered.
"I have plenty of faith in you, just… you worry about me when I'm hurt… now I'm worrying about you."
Roland explained the rest of the rules and the two Duellists left. Jamie rushed along to the elevator…
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"Are you prepared to lose it all?" Bakura asked, putting Jamie on edge.
What is he doing?
"I won't lose." Yugi growled, "Before we begin this Duel, why don't you tell me who you really are and stop this charade?"
Jamie frowned, that was 'Kura up there, right? Why wouldn't Yugi believe that it was?
'Kura just giggled.
"Alright, have it your way then, but I think I know who you are."
The Millennium Ring appeared with a glow from beneath 'Kura's shirt.
"It is you!" Yugi growled. "The spirit of the Millennium Ring!"
"Spirit of the…" Jamie frowned, "But that's 'Kura…"
"You may not recognise the difference, because you get the spirit of the Ring whenever you're dealing with Bakura." Joey growled, "But that isn't Ryou Bakura, that's the spirit that lives inside the Millennium Ring and who possesses Bakura."
"I didn't wish to reveal myself so early, Yugi, you've left me in a bind. I expected to have time to explain to Jamelia myself, or thought that perhaps you might explain yourself to her, after all, you're not exactly Yugi Muto are you? You're the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle."
"Can someone explain please?" Jamie growled as Joey and Tristan went off on one about the Millennium items.
"Please, I don't understand either." Namu complained.
"Basically Yugi and Bakura have these really old items with incredible powers…"
"They have Millennium Items, I know that much." Jamie growled.
"Right, well, Yugi's Puzzle is good, while Bakura's Ring is bad, so the spirits that reside within those items are like that too. Yugi's possessed by Yami, who's a good guy, while Bakura's possessed by…"
"'Kura." Jamie frowned.
"Yes, but you haven't seen all of him there is to see." Joey warned, "He's probably a lot more dangerous then he's let you see. I just hope he doesn't drag Yugi into the Shadow Realm again."
"Shadow Realm?" Namu asked, but Jamie already knew the answer to this one, that had been covered in Bakura's Shadow Magic 101 classes.
"Well then, now that the introductions are over with, why don't we begin this Duel?" 'Kura asked, smirking.
"First, tell me why you've entered the Battle City finals and what it is you hope to gain." Yugi who wasn't Yugi demanded… Yami… Jamie had to try to remember that. "Is it about the Millennium Items?"
"Perhaps." 'Kura admitted, with a smug smirk on his face. "Yugi, perhaps there is something else that I plan to take away from you, besides your Millennium Puzzle."
"What are you talking about?" Yami demanded, afraid for a moment that Bakura was going to go after Yugi or one of Yugi's friends.
"You ask a lot of questions don't you?" Bakura snorted. "There is so much about this tournament that you are unaware of, so many secrets being kept from you, for instance how do you know that I am working alone?"
Tristan and Duke turned to look at Jamie who glowered at them, "Sure, I'm working with a guy I didn't know existed." She snapped and glared at Bakura, "You have some explaining to do once this Duel is over." She growled.
"I will fully answer your questions, once I have removed this thorn from my side." Bakura acquiesced.
"You don't want to believe anything he says." Joey spoke up.
"Considering I've been told more about everything by 'Kura then I have anyone else, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt." Jamie replied.
"And now, the first Duel of the Battle City finals will begin, it's time to Duel."
The systems set up, the Duel Disks became active and the two Duellists faced off.
The life points hit 4000 each.
"Just know," Yami growled, "Whatever it is you desire, you will fail."
"No, it is you who shall lose." 'Kura replied, "Everything you have!"