Hey there everyone! Well, it's been a few months, and not much has really been heard of from me, so I'm sure everyone is curious what's up. First off, life is good as usual. No problems right now. My grandfather is doing well as before, and seems to still have good memory, for the most part. Rarely, he will talk off the wall, but normally he's still with it.
Next, I'm still working on Another and Minutes to Midnight. Neither are completely finished, just so all of you know in case you're wondering why I'm not posting three chapters a week instead of two. It will finish, but it's not at the moment, so no worries.
Ok, I would like to thank all of you for patiently waiting for this story. I was curious to see where it would stand myself back in February when Forgotten Guardians ended, but I must say, I'm pleased with it's progress. So, no worries, this thing will continue on.
Before I begin the chapter, I would like to thank my co-author ardee. His ideas on this story thus far have been terrific. Working with him has been a real pleasure, and I can see he's a rather talented writer. So, thank you so very much ardee for all of your help.
As I mentioned in the last story, Minutes to Midnight will mark the end of the Illidan and Marie series. Their story ends here, which is kind of sad, but at the same time good I suppose. Heh, I don't want to drag it any further, so this is it for our lovely couple. Their days of future stories are over.
At any rate, I do hope you all will enjoy this story. Me and ardee have worked hard on it, and I think that it will work out really well. That's about all I have, other than the disclaimer, so I hope you all enjoy, and starting Friday, I'll begin answering reviews, like always. Thanks!
Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh GX, Yugioh, or any other anime or characters within this story. I do however lay claim to Marie and Illidan, although Illidan's name is borrowed, lol. At any rate, if you wish to use my characters, let me know and we'll discuss it.
And without further ado, enjoy!
Chapter 1
The roar of the crowd was nearly deafening when a young man with mid-back length brown hair that was unbound, with brown eyes, a fair face, and a lean, toned body walked out from the tunnel to the locker rooms. He wore a simple black shirt that was unbuttoned, revealing a white undershirt, and a pair of blue jeans. On his belt was a deck holder and on his left arm was the newest model of Duel Disks from Kaiba Corp.
"Let's give it up for the first of our two finalists! From Kyoto, Japan, he is one of the newest stars of the Pro Dueling League, Illidan Stormrage!" the announcer belted out over the intercom system of the dueling arena.
Smirking at the sound of hearing Illidan's name being called out was a woman with long brown hair that reached her lower back and dark brown eyes, wearing a purple blouse with a blue jean skirt smiled. She held a small child in her arms that had light brown hair and brown eyes and smiled once more at the child and then looked down at the man entering the dueling ring. Their eyes met, and she knew he saw her, making her smile again.
The baby in her arms lightly gurgled, making the woman look down and smile at her, saying "There's your daddy Arya."
Cooing back, the baby smiled lightly and giggled. Looking back down at Illidan, the woman smiled happily once more.
Glancing up at the woman in the stands that held his daughter, Illidan softly smiled. "Marie and Arya are rooting for me it seems." he mused in his mind.
Thinking back to how life was so different from the Academy, he softly smiled at the memories. After the trip the pair had won for summer break, Illidan and Marie decided to leave Duel Academy, with Illidan making a decision to professionally duel so he could spend more time with his pregnant wife. Months had passed by since that decision, with Illidan being happy over it. He had spent time competing in tournaments and other Pro League events, easily earning enough money to support himself, Marie, and they're soon to arrive bundle of joy. After New Years, Marie had given birth to their first child, a daughter like Marie had predicted, and named her Arya. With little thought, the couple immediately named Yugi and Tea as the godparents of their child, ensuring that if something were to happen, that Arya would be taken care of. It was now a month later, and Illidan had begun competing once more in tournaments.
Looking up once more at his beautiful soul mate, Illidan lightly chuckled at himself for still being so amazed at her devotion, beauty, and innate ability to keep him so steady in life. With a smile, he waved to his wife, earning him a smile back from her.
"Good luck!" she yelled out, which he barely heard over the roar of the crowd.
"Luck, as if I need it. After all, the guy I'm going up against never has done very well against me in any kind of duel." Illidan mused.
Clearing his throat, the announcer's voice cut through the air once more, saying "And now, from the United States, former Intercontinental Champion Bandit Keith!"
A loud series of deafening boos were let loose as a man with blonde hair covered with an American flag bandanna, wearing sunglasses, a black leather vest with a red t-shirt underneath, black leather pants, and a Duel Disk. The man just sneered at the sound of the boos and continued on till he arrived at the dueling ring where Illidan awaited.
Snidely staring at Illidan, Bandit Keith snarled "You may have beaten me in that Tournament of Power, punk, but you're going down!"
"Are we here to duel or dream?" Illidan teased.
Keith was about to answer when the announcer broke in, saying "The following duel is for the Japanese National Championship, and the winner shall be crowned soon enough. Duelists, activate your Duel Disks and standby!"
Both pulled out their decks and shuffled them. Each then tossed their decks into their Deck Slot, making both Duel Disks begin to glow. Holding their arms out, both watched as their Duel Disks pushed their blade like arms out and shoot a hidden blade out of itself. Instantly, both life point counters climbed to 8000, leaving the two ready to duel.
"Duelists, draw your first five cards. Once done so, Illidan, you may begin the duel!" the announcer bellowed.
Following directions, the pair drew their first five cards, crying out to one another "LET'S DUEL!"
Drawing his sixth card, Illidan examined it and pondered on his strategy. "For now, I should play defensive. Who knows what surprises Keith might actually have in stored for me. Besides, once I figure out what his strategy is, I can use it against him."
Pulling a card from his hand, Illidan placed it horizontally onto his Duel Disk, saying "I'll set a monster in defense."
Instantly, a horizontal hologram card image appeared out in front of him.
"I think that's enough to start out with." (Illidan 8000, Keith 8000)
Sneering at Illidan, Keith drew and arrogantly asked "Is that all the great Illidan Stormrage has for me!? I'll rip you to shreds quickly with this, my X-Head Cannon (1800/1600)!"
Slapping the card onto his Duel Disk, Keith once more sneered as a blue and yellow machine robot with twin cannon barrels sticking out of it's chest appeared. The robot appeared to be hovering above the ground on a small spiked ball structure, and clenched it's fists as it took up an offensive pose.
Eying the creature, Illidan rolled his eyes. "Same old Keith... I saw that stupid machine monster more times than I care to in both Tournament of Power and Duel Academy."
"Blast his face down with Cannon Menace!" Keith commanded, breaking Illidan from his thoughts.
Taking aim with both barrels, the machine creature's twin barrels began glowing with golden energy at the tips till finally two twin blasts came flying out. The blasts struck the face down card image, shattering it and revealing an elf warrior wearing a green armor with brown clothing underneath. He held up his sword, trying to defend himself, but the blast tore through him, easily destroying him and kicking up a small bit of smoke.
"So much for Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (1400/1200)." Illidan grumbled.
Smirking at his handiwork, Keith placed a card in his Spell/Trap Slot and said "I set this face down and end my turn." (Illidan 8000, Keith 8000)
Picking up a new card, Illidan smirked lightly and commented "That wasn't a surprising move by you Keith, but watch this one. I summon Armed Dragon LV3 (1200/900)!"
Forming onto the field was a small orange dragon with dull grey armor surrounding a majority of it's body. It had short stubbing wings and clawed hands protected by metal gloves. Looking up at the machine creature with it's golden eyes, the small creature let out a little roar, making Keith about fall over laughing.
"That's even more pathetic than you thinking you'll win!" he blurted out with laughter still spilling out.
Smirking once more, Illidan calmly showed a card to Keith, which immediately made him stop laughing. "My, my, you still haven't learned to not underestimate my monsters, have you Keith?" Illidan chided. "I play the spell Level Up, allowing me to sacrifice Armed Dragon LV3 to special summon Armed Dragon LV5 (2400/1700)!"
Vanishing from the field, the small dragon was immediately replaced by a larger version of it's self, this one with sharp spikes covering it's dull grey armor, a spiked ball like mace on it's tail, short stubby wings, and clawed hands covered in metal gloves. The dragon let out a loud roar, making the machine monster tremble a bit in fear.
Keith only gaped at the new monster while Illidan slightly smirked at his reaction. "I activate Armed Dragon's special ability. By discarding my Exarion Universe, I can destroy a monster with 1800 or less attack points. Armed Dragon, blast his scrapheap back to the junkyard with Shrapnel Needle Blast!"
Letting out a massive roar, the dragon fired all of it's spikes out at once, sending them like small missiles. The spiked missiles soon struck their target, sending out a large explosion and making the machine creature loudly groan before vanishing completely.
"Damn!" Keith loudly cursed.
"If you thought that was bad, just wait till I direct attack! In fact, why wait! Go Armed Dragon, hit him with Infernal Roar!" Illidan called out.
Roaring loudly, the large orange dragon charged forward and slashed Keith with full force with both it's two clawed hands, making Keith stumble backwards and begin to lightly pant.
"I end my move." (Illidan 8000, Keith 5600)
Growling loudly, Keith yelled angrily "No one makes a fool out of Bandit Keith!"
"You're right, no one does. You seem to do that yourself." Illidan nonchalantly replied.
Grinding his teeth together, Keith grabbed a new card from his deck, but instantly smirked at it. "You're going to pay for that comment. I summon Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast (2800/2000)!"
Appearing instantly onto the field with a loud machine buzzing sound was a powerful orange-red machine dragon with tank tracks for legs and a long metallic tail on it's backside.
"Due that you summoned it using it's effect, it loses half it's attack and defense points (2800 / 2 1400/2000 / 2 1000)." Illidan informed calmly.
Turning red with anger, Keith snapped "I know my own card's effect! But you had better figure something out, that things aren't as they always seem! I play my face down trap, Skill Drain! Now I pay a grand in life points to activate it. Thanks to this trap, all monster effects are negated!"
Both monsters on the field instantly began glowing with a light red aura, making each roar out a bit. The large orange dragon with dull grey armor roared in pain while the machine dragon roared with a touch of happiness.
"Now my dragon gets all of it's points back (2800/2000)!" Keith bragged and smugly smirked. "Next, I activate the equip spell Megamorph, doubling my dragon's points (2800 2 5600/2000)!"
Immediately, the machine dragon let out a massive roar while it's body glowed with golden energy.
"I'm not done with you yet! I play one last spell, Limiter Removal! This doubles my dragon's attack points once more (5600 2 10200/2000)!"
Letting out a massive mechanical roar once more, the machine dragon's body glowed golden again, increasing it's power even more.
Illidan stared in shock at the creature and lightly gulped at the prospect of it attacking soon enough. "This is going to hurt a lot..."
"Fusilier Dragon, obliterate his dragon with Explosive Missiles!"
Roaring loudly, the machine dragon launched millions of small missiles into the air, each sending out a sonic screaming sound. Watching the oncoming missiles, Illidan took up a defensive stance and crossed his arms. The missiles easily tore through the large orange dragon quickly, blowing it apart. The remainder of the missiles then struck Illidan hard, knocking him off his feet and to the ground. The explosion rocked the dueling field, sending out a plume of smoke and hushing the crowd with shock.
Slowly, the smoke cleared, revealing Illidan on the ground clutching his side and panting hard. Keith only loudly laughed arrogantly, and pointed at the downed figure of Illidan.
"You're dead you punk!" he obnoxiously declared.
Slow to stand, Illidan eventually stood and breathlessly muttered "We'll see…"
"I end, meaning my dragon goes away." Keith nonchalantly said. Upon finishing his sentence, his dragon began glowing brightly and suddenly exploded, leaving nothing on his field.
"Let's see if you have anything left to show for yourself, you punk." (Illidan 200, Keith 4600)
Lightly panting still, Illidan closed his eyes and calmed himself. Reigning in his emotions and body, he reopened his eyes and calmly drew his next card. Looking at it, he slightly smirked.
"I may have the least amount of life points right now, but that doesn't mean I'm finished. I summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV4 (1600/1000)!" Illidan confidently called out.
Rising up onto the field was a silver dragon that looked more like a large silver bird. It had large silver wings for arms that were tucked in and large talons on it's feet.
"Since you have no defenses, it makes this turn all that much easier! Direct attack his life points with Darkness Flames!"
Flapping it's wings, the silver dragon lifted off into the air and opened it's jaws. Black flames began to lick the tip of it's mouth, showing it had plenty of fire. In a simple motion, the dragon shot out a stream of black and red flames, striking Keith hard enough to push him backwards a bit.
"I end my turn by setting a face down card." (Illidan 200, Keith 2800)
Gnashing his teeth with fury, Keith drew his next card and glared at Illidan. Showing off his new card, he called out "I activate the spell Monster Reborn, bringing back my X-Head Cannon (1800/1600)!"
Reviving onto the field was the blue and gold colored humanoid looking robot with twin barrels sticking out of it's chest.
"Next, I summon Y-Dragon Head (1500/1600)!"
Materializing onto the field was a red machine dragon that let out a low mechanical roar. The machine dragon spread it's red wings, displaying an impressive wingspan.
"Since Y-Dragon Head is a Union Type monster, I can move it to my Spell/Trap Zone and equip it to my X-Head Cannon, raising X-Head Cannon's points by 400 (1800 + 400 2200/1600 + 400 2000)! Merge together now my machines and help me destroy Illidan's pathetic creature!"
Thrusters underneath of both creatures instantly fired as the two machine monster flew into the air. Flying above the red machine dragon, the humanoid robot's sphere that it sat on began spinning rapidly, prompting the red machine dragon to open up a port on it's back for the robot to dock. The two gently came together and fell back down to the field to display their teamwork.
"Blow away that dragon X-Head Cannon with Cannon Menace!" Keith yelled out.
Both barrels of the robot and the head of the red machine dragon instantly took aim on the silver dragon. Blue energy began to accumulate within the machine dragon's mouth while a golden glow formed within the twin barrels of the robot. With little warning, the two blasts were released straight for the silver dragon that only stood there with little movement.
Lightly chuckling at the oncoming blast, Illidan pointed at his face down card, which instantly rose up. "Sorry to disappoint Keith, but I play my trap, Draining Shield. Now your attack is negated and your monster's attack points are added to my life points."
A light blue round energy shield immediately formed in front of the silver dragon, taking the hit square on. The energy was immediately absorbed and shot directly to Illidan's Duel Disk, causing his life point counter to surge upwards.
Gnashing his teeth once more, Keith growled out "I end!" (Illidan 2400, Keith 2800)
Nodding curtly, Illidan drew and calmly said "I place a card face down and switch Horus to defense."
Immediately, underneath of the silver dragon a horizontal card image with the dragon's picture on it appeared. The dragon hunched down a bit, seemingly moving to a defensive position.
"Your move." (Illidan 2400, Keith 2800)
Picking up his card, Keith examined it and grinned. "I start by placing a card face down. Next, I play the spell Card of Sanctity! We each now can draw till we hold six cards in our hands."
Drawing six cards, Keith watched while Illidan only picked up three cards. Looking over his new hand, Keith evilly grinned and said "You're about to be obliterated Illidan."
"I doubt that for some reason." Illidan mumbled lowly.
"I first unequip Y-Dragon Head from X-Cannon Head, lowering X-Cannon Head's attack points (1800/1600)." Keith confidently declared.
The large machine creature instantly burst into the air with it's thrusters, and suddenly came apart and reformed the two machine monsters.
"I sacrifice both in order to summon Perfect Machine King (2700/1500)!"
Both smaller machine monsters instantly vanished from the field, giving way to a new machine creature that was a huge red and white robot with many missiles and other pieces of heavy artillery attached to it's body. It's eyes lit up as it stretched it's arms to show it's power.
Smirking at this, Illidan commented "As powerful as that monster is, it's kind of useless since it won't get any stronger with no other Machine Type monsters on the field."
"Keep thinking that Illidan, but you're about to be sadly mistaken!" Keith countered. "I activate the almighty spell Machine Swarm! This has me first pay half my life points. Next, I can special summon Machine Type monsters from my deck equal to half the stars of the strongest monster on the field. If the number happens to be odd, like Perfect Machine King's is, it is automatically rounded upwards. Since Perfect Machine King is a level seven, that means I get four new Machine Type monsters!"
Illidan could only gasp in shock while watching Keith sift through his deck. Finally, Keith slapped four monster cards to his Duel Disk and began manically laughing!
"Read it and weep punk, I special summon Machine King (2200/2000), V-Tiger Jet (1600/1800), W-Wing Catapult (1300/1500), and Z-Metal Tank (1500/1300)!"
The first monster to flash onto the field was a huge blue and red machine monster with large looking arms. Next to it, a gold and green blue machine tiger appeared on the field with a small roar. Black stripes covered his head, but the rest of his body was nearly normal looking, except for the jet engines sticking off metal wings.
Beside of the two new machine creatures appeared a huge blue jet like creature with a huge arsenal of missiles and rockets on itself. The last monster finally materialized, revealing it to be a large yellow and blue tank like creature with large tank tracks.
Letting out a maniacal laugh, Keith yelled "With these four monsters out now, both Perfect Machine King and Machine King get a boost to their points. Perfect Machine King gets 500 attack points per a machine (2700 + 500 4 4700/1500) and Machine King gets a 100 attack points per a machine (2200 + 100 5 2700/2000)!"
Both the large red and white machine creature and the red and blue one began glowing with golden energy while their attack points increased. Each of their eyes began glowing bright red as well, showing their new found energies were flowing through their bodies.
"Next, I remove V-Tiger Jet and W-Wing Catapult from play to merge them and form the VW-Tiger Catapult (2000/2100)!"
Both the tiger creature and the blue platform like monster thrusters came to life, shooting both into the air. The tiger quickly moved to above the blue and yellow platform creature and docked with it before returning to the ground.
"Of course, that lowers Perfect Machine King and Machine King's bonuses, but they'll live without it (4200/1500) (2600/2000)."
Pausing for a moment, Keith let loose a truly evil grin and called out "I activate the spell Mechanical Fusion, allowing me to pay 1000 of my life points in order to merge Machine Type monsters into a Fusion Type monster. I use monsters from my hand, field, or Graveyard to use this card, so I choose Z-Metal Tank from my field, and X-Head Cannon and Y-Dragon Head from my Graveyard! Merge together to form XYZ-Dragon Cannon (2800/2600)!"
Reappearing onto the field were both the blue and yellow humanoid robot and the red machine dragon. Along with the blue and yellow tank, the three's thrusters came to life and they flew into the air. Like before, the blue and yellow robot merged with the red dragon, but this time the dragon's wings came off. The two then linked up with the blue and yellow tank that moved in below the pair. Linking up, the three formed into one large robot and let out a small mechanical groan.
"If you thought that was impressive, just wait! I merge XYZ-Dragon Cannon with VW-Tiger Catapult to form the all mighty VWXYZ-Dragon Cannon Catapult (3000/2800)!"
Both the huge machine creatures fired their thrusters, each flying high into the air. Each broke apart and began forming a new creature. Slowly, the form of a large robot on two legs made from the blue and yellow tank appeared, followed by a midsection formed by the red dragon. Next, on the chest of the creature, the large blue platform had docked onto the blue and yellow robot's chest. The arms were the tracks of the blue and yellow tank creature, and on the large machine creature's back were the red wings of the red dragon. Finally, the head of the massive monster was created by the mechanical tiger. Landing on the ground, the machine monster let out a horrifying moan and aimed both cannon barrels sticking out of it's chest at Illidan.
"True, I did weaken my Perfect Machine King and Machine King, but it was worth it (3700/1500) (2500/2000). Now it's time to get rid of your defense, and to do that, I activate VWXYZ-Dragon Cannon Catapult's special ability. Now I can remove your monster from play, so say farewell to any chance of winning!" Keith manically screamed.
Aiming both barrels at the silver dragon, the large combination machine launched twin blasts from it's barrels, incinerating the silver dragon instantly and leaving nothing behind.
Illidan only lightly grimaced at the loss of his monster, which Keith enjoyed. "Let's end this! I activate Limiter Removal one more time, meaning my monsters' points double (3700 2 7400/1500) (2500 2 5000/2000) (3000 2 6000/2800)!" Keith declared with all sanity absent from his voice.
Watching his three monsters glow brightly with a light blue glow, Keith once more manically cackled and pointed an angry finger at Illidan. "You lose little man! Obliterate him now my monsters!"
"Mr. Keith, an attack from one will suffice! Do not use all three, for you could seriously injure Mr. Stormrage!" the judge declared from the side of the field.
Sneering at the man, Keith angrily yelled "SCREW YOU! I've waited twelve years for this, and I won't let you stop me now! Destroy him with Missile Decimation, Rocket Punch, and Lightning Cannon!"
Shocked and dismayed, the crowd watched while all three monsters took aim. The large red and white machine monster instantly released all of it's compliment of missiles, each sending out a screaming screech once airborne. Next to the red and white creature, the red and blue monster aimed it's fist at Illidan and shot half of it's arm, up to it's elbow joint, straight at him with a rocket speeding it up. Finally, the large combination machine creature lowered both barrels towards Illidan and let loose a huge golden blast from each barrel.
"WE NEED PARAMEDICS TO BE STANDING BY!" the judge screamed into his headset while the blast sailed straight across the field.
The crowd could only watch in complete shock as the blasts struck the area where Illidan was standing, sending out a huge mushroom cloud of smoke and an explosion that rocked the entire arena. The force of the blast threw the judge away from the ring and hard onto the ground, while the crowd all held their breath to see what had happened to Illidan.
--
Sitting in the stands cooing to Arya, Marie seemed to ignore the explosion. In shock, the man sitting beside of her in a panic asked "Mrs. Stormrage, how can you just sit there when your husband was possibly just seriously hurt!? Don't you know he could die from such an attack!?"
Shaking it off lightly, Marie looked up at the man and softly smiled. Kindly, she replied "You don't know Illidan like I do. He wouldn't lose a duel by a move like that. I'm more worried that all of those holographic explosions will be a bit too much for our daughter."
Shocked by her words, the man worriedly returned his gaze to the field while Marie continued to coo to the child in her arms.
--
Laughter was the only thing heard throughout the arena while the smoke still cleared. Keith only continued to laugh even more manically than before and arrogantly said "You thought you could mess with Bandit Keith and not pay for it! You were so wrong! Now you know the kind of duelist I really am!"
"Yes, I do." a calm voice called out from the smoke.
The smoke cleared more, revealing Illidan was still standing with his life points intact, leaving Keith with his mouth agape in complete shock.
From the stands, Marie called out "Show off!"
Illidan instantly smirked at his wife's comment and returned his full gaze to Keith, who stared at Illidan with veins popping out of his forehead. His face had turned beat red, and he was clenching his fists till his knuckles were white.
"YOU SHOULD HAVE LOST! YOU HAD ONLY A FIFTH OF THE LIFE POINTS NEEDED TO SURVIVE, SO YOU MUST HAVE CHEATED!" Keith angrily accused.
Wagging a finger at Keith, Illidan slyly remarked "You haven't changed much Keith. You still can't remember what's in play. Remember, I had a face down card left before you attacked. That card was a trap called Waboku. With it, I reduced all the Battle Damage to zero, meaning nothing got to my life points."
Anger fully covered every inch of Keith's body, and Illidan only smirked, saying "This duel is as good as over Keith. When you end your turn, all of your monsters are destroyed, leaving you helpless."
"We'll see about that!" Keith angrily yelled. Pulling a card from his hand, he jammed it roughly into his Spell/Trap Slot, saying "I play the spell Mystik Wok! Now I can sacrifice one of my monsters and pad my life points with it's attack points. I choose my Perfect Machine King, meaning I get a nice big juicy boost to my life points."
Appearing around the large white and red machine creature was a wok with a huge ladle on the side of it. Instantly, the machine creature vanished and turned into golden dust that funneled into Keith's Duel Disk, forcing his life point counter to increase greatly.
"I end, meaning my monsters vanish." he grumbled. One by one, the two remaining machine creatures shattered, leaving Keith alone on his field once more. (Illidan 2400, Keith 6500)
Calmly drawing his next card, Illidan examined it and softly smiled. "I guess I should end this duel with a trick a friend of mine taught me back at Duel Academy. I activate the spell Future Fusion, forcing me to send from my deck monsters that can create a Fusion Type monster. I send all three of my Cyber Dragons (2100/1600) to the Graveyard in order to form the Cyber End Dragon (4000/2800)."
Pulling his deck out, Illidan sifted through it and finally grabbed all three cards. Placing them calmly into his Graveyard Slot, he watched patiently as all three were sucked in. Shuffling his deck, he calmly replaced it in it's slot and softly smiled.
"In two of my Standby Phases, my dragon shall make it's grand appearance, but why wait?" Illidan slyly asked, earning a questionable look from Keith.
Growling, Keith countered with "Whatever you summon, I'll smash it!"
"Think so?" Illidan questioned with a smirk. "Then let's find out this turn! I play the spell Power Bond, allowing me to fuse monsters together to form a Machine Type Fusion monster. The monsters I'll fuse are none other than the three Cyber Dragons (2100/1600) I just discarded."
"But they're in your Graveyard!" Keith protested.
Nodding, Illidan calmly remarked "True, but I have a way around that. I activate the quick play spell Cybernetic Fusion Support, which has me half my life points in order to remove Fusion Material monsters from my Graveyard for a fusion summoning."
Keith could only worriedly watch while Illidan held his hand out to his Graveyard Slot. One by one, the three cards slid out, and he collected the three and placed them into a different slot. "Now then, meet the monster that will end this game, my Cyber End Dragon (4000/2800)!"
Appearing onto the field was a large three headed snake like machine dragon with massive wings on it's back. The three heads connected to a central point where from on back there was one tail. Each head had a bit of a different look, with each having gold mechanical eyes. The three heads immediately let out a loud roar, shaking the entire arena.
"Using Power Bond to summon my monster grants me another unique ability. It doubles my monster's attack points (4000 2 8000/2800)."
Glowing with a white energy, the machine dragon's heads let out another mighty roar, this one even fiercer than the last.
Keith instantly fell to his knees in despair at the sight of the monster. Sweat was pouring down his face while he clenched his teeth tightly. "Not again, not to this punk!" he screamed in his mind.
"Keith, you can't win. I don't want to see you get hurt by Cyber End Dragon's attack. Even though you tried to hurt me, I'm not so cruel, so I give you this one opportunity. Surrender the duel and walk away while you can." Illidan calmly stated.
The entire crowd all hushed in awe and watched what Keith would do. After a few minutes of contemplating it, Keith finally moved his right hand to cover his deck. With the universal sign of surrender given, the crowd burst into a frenzy over the results of the duel.
Clearing his throat, the announcer turned on the microphone and declared "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Japanese National Champion, Illidan Stormrage!"
--
Leaning back in his chair, Illidan let out a small sigh. After the duel had ended and he managed to get away from the press and his fans, and managed to find Marie and Arya. When she suggested going back to the hotel, Illidan had totally agreed.
Relaxing leisurely, Illidan glanced around the suite that they were staying in. Everything was rather luxurious, but it didn't matter too much to him. He had seen far worse, and some better.
Hearing Marie approaching him, he sat still and felt her wrap her arms around his neck softly and kiss his cheek. "Arya went to sleep rather easily tonight." she remarked.
"That's good. She'll be up soon enough though." Illidan grumbled jokingly.
Smirking at his comment, Marie pulled back a bit and gently rubbed his shoulders. "You did well in the duel tonight. I'm surprised though you gave that jerk a chance to surrender."
"Feh, I didn't want him to get hurt. If not for the fact Cyber End Dragon was twice as strong, I probably wouldn't have let him have a chance." Illidan remarked.
Stopping her movements, Marie leaned down to his ear and seductively purr "With Arya in bed, we have some alone time."
Knowing where things were headed, Illidan slightly smirked and leaned back into the chair even more. Releasing her hold on him, Marie moved around the chair and gently sat down onto his lap while facing him. Gently, the two kissed, but soon enough, the kiss deepened into one that showed the hunger each had for one another. Since Arya had been born, they hadn't shared a night alone in some time.
Illidan's hands were just underneath the fabric of her blouse when a knock on the door interrupted him. Cursing softly, he watched with sadness as Marie stood up and moved to a different seat.
Heavily sighing, he stood up and went to the door. "Should I kill the person who dared to interrupt me? Hmm, I'll have to think about it." he lightly mused.
Opening the door, Illidan was shocked to find a young man with tri-colored spiky hair. He had blonde bangs and a pink stripe that went around the outer part of his spikes, with black filling in the rest. His eyes were violet and depicted much innocence. He wore black leather pants, a belt that hung off to the side, a black muscle shirt, and a white long sleeved shirt over top of it.
Grinning at Illidan, the young man waved and asked "What's up old buddy?"
"Yugi, this is a surprise. I didn't know you were in town." Illidan remarked back and shook his friend's hand and then hugged him.
Motioning for him to come in, Illidan led him to the seats near where Marie sat. She instantly flashed a smile to Yugi and hugged the young man herself before taking a seat beside of Illidan on the couch while Yugi sat down on the nearby loveseat.
"Where is Arya?" Yugi inquisitively asked while looking around the suite.
Smiling kindly, Marie replied "I just put her down for a nap. She'll be up soon enough, you know that. She has to see her godfather, no matter what."
Chuckling at that, Yugi nodded. Curious to Yugi's visit, Illidan asked "So, why are you here in Tokyo?"
Sheepishly scratching the back of his head, Yugi replied "Well, it was Kaiba's idea. He wanted to meet with the three of us over something. What, I'm not sure yet."
Without warning, there was another knock at the door. Getting up, Illidan answered it to find the man of their discussions standing there. He had brown hair brown hair that went down to his neck, but was trimmed up, and piercing dark blue eyes. He wore a white trench coat with a black undershirt and black leather pants.
"Seto." Illidan curtly said.
"Illidan." Seto remarked.
Moving out of the way, he allowed Seto in and closed the door behind him.