My Time in Battle City [Tales of Luna, Book 1]

Chapter 24

"Any time now." Bakura said, his tone suddenly becoming uncharacteristically soft, as if he really cared that she didn't feel alone in her last moments.

I guess it could be worse.

As her mind slipped into oblivion, her body felt as if it was falling. Luna tried her best to keep her eyes open but it looked like she was no longer on the back of her dragon. It felt as if she had been laying on some kind of puddle.

From the corner of her eyes, she could tell a silhouette emerging from the shadows. A part of her knew she should have been alarmed, but she was too exhausted to care.

"Still stirring trouble I see." A husky but somehow still soothing voice said. "What would you have done if I had been unavailable?"

The man sighed and stayed quiet for a moment.

"I guess they got you pretty good this time, huh? Well, let's not prolong your suffering then." With that, Luna could tell that the silhouette had shifted, perhaps he had raised a hand towards her, but she couldn't be sure.

Suddenly there was a red glow from the general direction of the silhouette's head.

"Eye of my mind, light of my soul." He said, slowly, calmly.

The words had sounded mysterious and yet so familiar. Suddenly Luna felt her own lips moving as she heard herself say.

"Anchor of my life, together we are whole." She was sure she had never said this before, and yet it felt like she had said those very words a thousand times over.

The red glow seemed to intensify as she felt herself warming up. But as her energy seemed to return to her, so did the pain.

She still couldn't move but the pain was getting too much to bear.

As Luna screamed, she opened her eyes and saw Bakura looking confused and perhaps even a little scared.

She quickly grabbed at the air, making her Millennium Rod materialize once again and focused all of her new found will into it as she pointed at Bakura.

"Fuck-" She yelled as loud as she could, all of her frustrations and pent up anger focused into her last word. "-off!"

Bakura's body contorted for a second as if breaking in several places before being blown away, shattering through the veil of shadow that had been surrounding them.

Get us out of here! She thought to her dragon as her heart hammered away inside of her chest. Find my friends!

She quickly looked down and saw that despite her clothes still being bloody, her skin and flesh had been back to normal where the hole had been. Touching the unmarred skin, Luna wondered what in the world was going on.

Who and what was that? She wondered before she noticed a dark shadowy stain on the side of the crystal walls.

As she looked at it, a broken Bakura emerged with a creepy grin.

"You caught me by surprise. But I won't let you do that again." Bakura said, coming forward towards her. Though he seemed to be simply sliding towards her, the more he approached, the more of Diabound appeared as well, making it clear that Bakura had been standing on his monster's horn.

Despite herself, Luna couldn't help taking a glance downwards to see if she could spot her friends.

"Worried about your friends? Or you might even be wondering that at least your friends are safe since I'm here with you. Is that it?" Bakura asked, his face becoming more manic the closer he got to Luna. "Well, you don't seem like a bigger picture type of gal, huh? If I'm here, then who is with your friends?"