Luna!
She was flipping through the pages of the earlier manga she had bought. Kaiba was so merciless and right out murderous back then. Not only Kaiba though, Yugi as well.
Luna!
Things were so wild before Yu-Gi-Oh! decided to focus on the card game. Still, she enjoyed it quite a bit. She wondered if she could get her hands on all of the manga for her collection one day. But as she lay on her yellow flower patterned bed, she remembered that she already did own all of the OG manga of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Didn't she?
Luna! Come on, don't die on me!
Sitting up, she touched her bed sheets. The softness of it had always brought her comfort as a child. But it had been a few years already since she had moved out of her parents' place.
Luna!
"Mom?" She wondered as she got up, off of her bed and walked towards her childhood bedroom door.
She is breathing, you idiot. She isn't dead.
As she approached the door, her desire to simply stay in that room and go back to bed increased. She could just take a nap, after all. When was the last time that she had done that?
Why isn't she waking up then?
But for whatever reason, she forced herself to put her hand around the doorknob.
How should I know? Do I look like a doctor?
The cold metal knob felt unpleasant in her hand. Despite that, she felt like she had to go through that door. But why? Why couldn't she just go back to bed? Her soft, warm, comfortable, and ultimately safe bed.
If you don't wake up, our deal is done, Luna. I will murder everyone here, I swear to Ra. Hey! Calm down, I was just seeing if she would wake up! What's wrong with you?
She couldn't remember why, or even what difference that would make. But she knew people depended on that. But what people?
What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you!
Right through that door, that's where she belonged.
Will all of you shut up!
With that thought, she turned the knob and opened the door.
"I'm just saying, it's just a matter of ti-" Joey sure sounded flared up.
"Shush, I think she's waking up!" Jaden's voice was somehow softer.
"Luna?" Marik sounded- worried?
She opened her eyes with some effort. It was too bright. But she could see Jaden's and Marik's faces hovering over hers. The fact that they were still in the building came back to her as she saw the destroyed ceiling past their faces.
"Give her some space, guys!" Mokuba chimed in as his face also appeared in her field of vision and held up four fingers. "Are you okay? How many fingers do you see?"
Luna blinked a few times and tried to sit up but a killer headache stopped her mid motion and made her close her eyes shut.
"Oh no! What's wrong?" Mokuba asked.
"I can help." Someone with a thin, weak voice said.
She felt a cold hand on her forehead, and when Luna opened her eyes once again, Bakura was smiling at her.
"Get off of me." Luna moved his hand away and effortfully sat up.
"Wow, how did you do that, Bakura?" Mokuba asked.
"He didn't do anything!" Luna protested as she tried to get up and faltered.
"Geez, Luna. We were all pretty worried about ya, including Bakura." Joey said as he came to her side and helped her stand up. "You don't have to be so mean to him."
"She can be mean to whoever she wants, she just saved all of us." Marik said, his arms crossed.
"I was sure one of you was going to use your Egyptian god card. But to think Luna had such power even without using Slifer." Jaden observed, also beside Luna, putting her arm around him.
"I made a promise to Luna that I would not use Ra unless absolutely necessary." Marik stated as his hand dropped down to hover over his deckbox.
"We were up against fifteen dragons and five immortal douchebags, you didn't think that was absolutely necessary?" Joey asked as he walked up to Marik.
"What would a peasant like you know?" Marik said, standing up straighter as he and Joey had a standoff.
After a moment of silence, Joey simply smiled before turning and walking away.
"We should get out of here." He said as he walked towards his Black Skull Dragon.
"A- agreed." Bakura stammered as he followed after Joey like a small puppy.
"Let me help you up to your dragon." Jaden said to Luna. "But uh- which one are you going to ride?"
"Oh, uh, Slash Dragon." She said as she pointed to her trusty favorite amongst her Red-Eyes dragons. "That one."
"You know, you remind me of someone I once knew." Jaden said as they approached her dragons. "I've seen a lot of people use Red-Eyes decks, but none quite like you or him."
"You mean Atticus Rhodes, the Nightshroud?" Luna asked, remembering that some of her earlier Red-Eyes deck designs took his deck as inspiration.
"No, Atticus is just okay, but he's got nothing on you guys. But I'm surprised you know Atticus!" Jaden admitted. "I was talking about Nox Bane. Do you know him?"
Nox Bane. Nox Bane?
Luna scoured all of her memory for a character named Nox Bane, but came up blank.
"I don't think I know a Nox Bane. Is he from Duel Academy?" She asked, wondering if she could have forgotten someone.
"Oh, no. He is a-" Jaden suddenly looked back and around them, then lowered his voice. "He is a traveler like us."
Luna looked at Jaden, wondering what he meant by that, but he didn't seem to have noticed.
"Yeah, and aside from the Red-Eyes, that fierce, burning determination behind your eyes. I've only ever seen such look in good ol' Nox." Jaden continued to speak as they reached the Slash Dragon. "Though, he's got this merciless side of him, but I think that's from all the terrible things he faced in the countless worlds he has been in before I met him. I wonder how that guy is doing."
"You are telling me that you've seen people from other worlds even before you came here?" Luna asked "Are you sure he was from another world?"
"Yeah and yeah!" Jaden replied cheerily. "He was using Red-Eyes cards that weren't even out in our timeline, like the Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, that was his main monster. He was the first duelist to whom I lost ten times in a row!"
Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon? That's a card from TCG, is he from my world?
"That and he told me himself that he was from another world, and by the looks of it, he had been in several. He would sometimes wake up screaming and be a little confused as to which world he was in." Jaden said as his smile diminished. "Speaking of which, he knew all the dangers from my world before they were even an issue. And you seem to know a lot about this time line. Is there something we should be worried about aside from Noah?"
Right.
"Keep an eye on Bakura for me, will ya?" Luna said, being helped up onto her dragon. "Bandit King Bakura is the most fearsome villain that the Pharaoh ever faced, and the one that got the closest to destroying the world as we know it."
"Bakura?" Jaden asked as he looked back towards where the meek boy was being helped up onto Black Skull Dragon by Joey. "That skinny and scared looking guy?"
"He may not seem like it, but he is the wielder of the Millennium Ring." Luna started to explain as she felt a gentle breeze.
"I mean, maybe he could still be a good guy, kinda like Marik." Jaden seemed to wonder out loud. "Marik is still a little scary, but he did look genuinely worried for you when you were- oh by the way, I think you called me 'mom' while you were out."
"What?" Luna felt her face starting to heat up.
"Yeah." He laughed lightheartedly. "I'm not sure how I feel about that, but let's just stick to 'Jaden' or 'dude' yeah? Oh, and don't worry too much, I will try to keep an eye on Bakura."
"Thanks, Jay." She said as she thought about how much lonelier her time here would have been without anyone else knowing what it was like being from another world.
Jaden's smile widened just a little.
"What's taking you guys so long?" Marik yelled, sounding a little frustrated.
To think that Marik was actually worried about her. Was he serious about the whole liking her spiel? She still had no idea when he was serious and when he was joking.
Suddenly the little breeze she was feeling felt stronger.
"Take flight!" Marik yelled, suddenly much more serious now.
She willed her Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon to swoop Jaden off the floor, seconds before said floor crumbled and flames burst out from below.
Not this again.
She willed her other dragons to protect Mokuba as a Tyrant Dragon burst through the floor and tried to bite Luna's Slash Dragon in vain as it took flight and flew out of the building along with her other dragons and friends. But even just this maneuver was making her sweat and breathe more heavily.
"I may need to summon Ra for us to get out of this, Luna." Marik said from beside her. "Hey, are you sure you are okay?"
"I'm fine." She blurted out, feeling tired just to be talking. "Don't summon Ra. I- we can still do this."
"Be that as it may, you don't seem to be in any shape to be fighting again." Marik stated as he took a card out of his deck.
"Do it!" Jinzo screeched, emerging from inside of the Tower. "Do it, it's the only way you can beat us! Let's go!"
Upon his call, Jinzo's four companions also emerged from the dark interior of the Tower, hands raised in unison.
"Stop them!" Luna yelled, but feeling too weak to make her dragons attack.
Metallic tendrils flew from Marik's god slime towards the Big Five as they started to glow. Jaden's Flare Neos charged at them at the same speed that their dragons started being pulled into them. Flare Neos cross chopped at one of the dragons, but there were too many of them. Joey's Black Skull Dragon and Mokuba's Meteor B. Dragon both shot an impressive beam of energy at them, causing a giant blinding explosion.
Luna shielded her eyes with her forearm just in time to hear a second explosion, the impulse from it almost pushing her off of her dragon. It took what little strength she had left to hold on to her dragon.
Did we fail? She wondered.
She wanted to ask if everyone was okay, to ask if anyone had eyes on the enemy. But she no longer had any energy to yell. She almost felt like she didn't have the energy to even open her eyes anymore.
She felt like she could just stay the way she was and slip away into a deep sleep. Maybe she would wake up in her childhood bed.
"Mokuba, stay near Luna!" she heard Jaden yell from a distance. "Anyone see if-"
A sudden earth shattering roar that sounded like a multitude of beasts roaring all at once interrupted Jaden and made Luna open her eyes.
No.
"What the hell is that?" Marik yelled from somewhere to her side.
The demonic sounding roar slowly changed into a demonic laughter as the smoke from the blast dissipated, revealing a monumentally large dragon with five heads.
"This." The voice of all five of them said in perfect, eerie synchrony. "This feels better than we had ever imagined."
Five-Headed Dragon.
It was arguably the ultimate monster in the OG saga with an unsurmountable 5000 attack and defense, stronger even than Obelisk the Tormentor.
"Summon your gods!" It said, its voice still seemingly reverberating through Luna's entire being. "Or perish!"
"Luna, I think we have to this time!" Marik yelled as he pulled out his card once again.
"No! We-" She took a deep breath as she felt light headed. "That thing can only be taken out by Light attribute monsters! If we all summon our Light monsters, we can still do this without summoning the god cards."
Mokuba was the first to listen and summon back his Rabidragon, but quickly followed by Jaden who unsummoned his Flare Neos before summoning Elemental Hero Thunder Giant and jumped onto his back then continued to summon Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman, Elemental Hero Electrum, Elemental Hero Glow Neos, and good old Elemental Hero Neos.
Then Joey followed suit, unsummoning his Dark Paladin and summoning his Arcana Knight Joker and the other three knights.
"I'm sorry, I don't have any Light monsters." Bakura said.
Typical.
"Damn, that knight of yours is quite beefy, huh?" Marik quipped. "Of course, nothing compared to my Ra. But Luna, I don't have any other Light monsters aside from Ra."
"Then just sit pretty, my guy." Luna said as she unsummoned all of her dragons, save for the Slash Dragon that she had been riding on and summoned her Brave Neos, and two Neos Knights. She thought of summoning one more standard Neos when she felt something dripping from her face.
She looked down and saw a red droplet falling from her nose to her shirt. By instinct, she touched her nose with the back of her hand.
Blood.
She couldn't remember the last time she had a nosebleed. Her right eye twitched slightly as she looked up at the dragon.
In a normal duel, they wouldn't have stood a chance with such monsters. But this wasn't a normal duel. If they all attacked at once, it could work. It had to.
"Everyone attack at the same time so we can break through its defense." She said a little hoarse, hoping everyone heard her.
"You really think you still have a chance without your gods?" The massive dragon taunted. "Come, then."
What a motherfucker.
"Don't push yourself, Luna." Joey said in the Pharaoh's voice once again. "You already did more than enough, we can take it from here."
She figured it would be him, since Arcana Knight was summoned.
"Better safe than sorry, yeah?" She said as she sat up straighter.
"If you faint again, I will summon Ra and get us out of here." Marik said.
"Don't you see that they are doing everything they can to get us to summon the god-"
"I don't care." Marik said as a matter of fact. "I am Marik Ishtar! Never have I ever limited my actions because of others!"
"I only ask that you hold up until we make our attack." She said before turning to look at Jaden, Joey, and finally Mokuba. "Don't get hit. Stay on the mo-"
Suddenly the giant dragon shot an elemental beam in five different directions. All of their monsters spread apart to dodge and stay on the move.
You will need to fly on your own, Slash. Luna thought to her dragon, remembering that it would dodge on its own when needed. I'm too tired to think of that.
With that, she willed all three of her Neos to move faster and get some hits in whenever possible.
As if Jaden and Joey could read each other's minds or perhaps they were just good at adapting to the other's attacks, their monsters seemed to be timing their attacks to hit together for greater impact. Despite that, none of the attacks seemed to be doing much damage to the ginormous dragon.
It didn't seem like they were wearing it down any, but in contrast, with every quick dodge or attack that Luna had her monsters do, the more she felt light headed.
The nosebleed won't stop. She realized.
Did they really need a single monster with an attack higher than 5000 to make a difference?
Should I summon Slifer after all? Can I even handle summoning another monster at this point?
The Five-Headed Dragon, which was stationary up to that point, suddenly beat its mighty wings, pushing most of their monsters away from it.
The impact from that push onto her monsters seemed to drain even more energy from Luna as she started to feel her consciousness slipping away just a little.
"These monsters are mere nuisance for us and we tire of this child's play." Its five voices seemed to shake the skies. "If taking out the loud girl that is calling the shots is a perquisite to Mr. Ishtar summoning his Egyptian god, we will comply."
And despite its sheer size, in just another beat of its wings, it was suddenly in front of Luna's Slash Dragon.
In the back of her mind, Luna knew she had to get out of there. And yet, as the center head of the giant dragon reared its head back to attack her, all she could think of was whether this was her end.
"Get out of there, Luna!" Mokuba's voice echoed on the giant wall of the Tower.
She had a good run, right? Maybe now she could go back to her soft, yellow bed.
"Arcana Knight! Attack it before it shoots!" Pharaoh's voice seemed so distant.
Maybe now she could finally close her eyes and rest. Looks like she didn't have what it took to be a real hero that this world needed after all.
"Our attacks aren't doing anything!"
She just hoped her friends would somehow be able to get away.
With these thoughts, she closed her eyes and swallowed hard, tasting blood in the process.
She heard the sound of a low rumbling noise and imagined the dragon about to make its move.
This is it. Wish I could have seen him just one last time.
"Neutron Blast!"