Jaden POV

Jaden: 5400 LP
The D: 1100 LP

I was breathing pretty hard now, trying my hardest to make sure that I kept calm. I may have stopped my inner darker ego from coming out, but I knew it was only a matter of time before it came bursting out. I knew Haou was trying his hardest too, since it would also be effecting him as well as me. But I was really worried that he wouldn't be able to do it since I could barely even control it.

The D shakily got back on his feet, also breathing heavily. "Alright, now you've made things interesting. You've managed to drop me to little over a thousand points, and managed to wipe out my best monster. But now you've made me realise that I need to crank it up a notch. If that's the case, THEN SO BE IT!"

He drew his seventh card. "But what I'm gonna do is bring back the monster you've tried so desperately to get rid of. I activate the spell card known as Monster Reincarnation: by discarding one card from my hand, I can bring back one monster from my graveyard and add it to my hand. So I'll discard my Destiny Peril spell card, in order to bring back Destiny HERO Plasma to my hand."

Oh man, I thought to myself. All that effort and he's still gonna bring back that monster.

"It's what he wants," Haou said. I looked at him, and for the first time since this duel started, I could see the toll it's already took on him. His face was paler than before, and his head was slightly sweaty from exhaustion. "Even I can tell that he's getting desperate. He's hoping to win with Plasma because he knows it's powerful, but what he doesn't know is that we're prepared for it when it comes out."

I nodded in agreement with him. I just hope we can hang on for long enough, because I'm really starting to get tired here. We can't let our inner darkness take over, because now that we're facing a host to the Light Of Destruction it's getting restless.

"Next up, I send one more card to the graveyard in order to Special Summon the monster known as The Tricky!" The D announced.

What looked like a joker came out from its card, with two big question marks on its head and chest.

(The Tricky - 2000/1200)

"Next, I activate this spell card: Tricky Spell 4!" The D smirked.

"Oh boy, that ain't good," I muttered.

"Why is that?" Haou asked in concern

"You're about to find out."

"I tribute my first Tricky, in order to summon as many Tricky Tokens as I want, depending on how many monsters you control," The D explained. "And since you've got two already on your field, that means I've got two Tricky Tokens!"

(Tricky Token X2 - 2000/1200)

"Next, I Normal Summon this: my Archfiend Life Golem in attack mode!"

(Archfiend Life Golem - 1500/1800)

"When my Archfiend Life Golem is summoned when there are monsters on either side of the duelling field, I regain four hundred Life Points for each one," The D explained. "Right now, there are five monsters on the field. That adds up to two thousand of my Life Points restored."

Jaden: 5400 LP
The D: 3100 LP

"And now to cause some serious damage, I sacrifice all three of my monsters to Special Summon a monster that you may know already."

"Grrrr..." I growled in nervousness and annoyance.

"Arise once again, Destiny HERO Plasma!" The D shouted, just as another pool of red plasma appeared in front of him and Plasma shot right out, his wings shaking off all the red liquid.

(Destiny HERO Plasma - 1900/600)

"And now my Plasma's ability activates: now it can absorb one of your monsters, gain half of its attack strength and gain its ability. And I choose to absorb the power of Evil HERO Lightning Golem!"

Plasma spread its wings and red lightning shot towards Lightning Golem, wrapping around it like coiled tentacles. The last I saw of Lightning Golem was of it being sucked into Plasma's right wing.

(Destiny HERO Plasma - 3100/600)

"And now it's newly acquired effect allows me to destroy one monster on your field, so that means your Paradox Knight can wait even longer for the apocalypse to come!"

Plasma sent a blast of red energy towards Paradox Knight, who roared in pain before exposing into nothing but red embers that burnt out of control. I grimaced, just as my whole body sparked with red electricity.

"AHHHHHHHH!" I screamed, as I was electrified on the spot. I sank to one of my knees, steam coming off of me.

Jaden: 4400 LP
The D: 3100 LP

"Whoa, looks like Jaden didn't mention anything about his Paradox Knight having another ability!" the announcer cried out again. "It seems that when Paradox Knight gets destroyed, Jaden is inflicted with a thousand points of damage!"

"And now Plasma, attack Jaden DIRECTLY!" The D yelled loudly.

Plasma was about to strike me down, it's clawed arm almost coming down on me, but I was quick on my feet.

"I activate one of my facedown cards!" I screamed, just as one of the trap cards revealed itself. "A HERO Emerges!"

"Whoa, now that's a risky trap that Jaden has just sprung up!" the announcer cried out in his microphone. "What could he be planning?"

"Thanks to A HERO Emerges, you pick one card in my hand. If it's a monster, I get to summon it to my field. If it's not a monster, then it's all down hill from there." I held up my hand, showing the three cards left in my hand. "I've got three cards, so let's see which one you'll pick."

"Three choices," The D mused out. "Even though I'd rather just let Plasma keep attacking you, I'll play your little game. I choose the one on the right.

I smirked. "Good choice: you've actually allowed me to bring out a good friend of mine. So come on out - Elemental HERO Neos!"

My signature monster came rushing out of the card that I just played, punching the air with a yell before landing in front of me.

(Elemental HERO Neos - 2500/2000)

"Next up, I activate my second trap card: Invincible HERO! Now for the duration of this turn, my Neos can't be destroyed in battle - no matter how many times you attack!" I shouted as my second trap flung itself straight up.

The D didn't seem the least bit interested at all. In fact, he smiled sadistically.

"It's amusing how you seem to think that you've got me in an annoying situation," he smirked. "Just because you've made your monster invulnerable to my attack, it doesn't mean that you're out of the woods. Your Life Points can still be damaged. And, I've got just the card in my graveyard to help me do just that."

"In your graveyard?!" I exclaimed, stepping back slightly.

"Remember when I played Monster Reincarnation? I sent a card to my graveyard to play it, and that card was none other than my Destiny Peril spell card. This card can only be used on Destiny HERO Plasma, and all I've got to do is banish it, along with one DARK attribute monster - like my Des Feral Imp - from play its effect." He pointed at Neos. "It drains half your monsters attack points and adds it straight over to Plasma."

"You've gotta be kidding me!" I yelped in horror, as tendrils of energy zapped Neos of half his strength.

(Elemental HERO Neos - 1250/2000)

(Destiny HERO Plasma - 4350/600)

"Now that my monster is more powerful than yours, I ATTACK!" The D roared loudly.

Plasma opened its wings and sent a blast towards Neos and me, causing a huge explosion of fire and lightning as it burnt us up like we were standing in the core of the sun. I screamed in pain, the heat being too much for my mind and body to handle.

"Jaden!" Aster cried out.

The flames died down, and I fell to both my hands and knees, gasping as my heart raced out of control, which forced me to grasp my chest tightly as I tried to calm it down. My clothes were steaming wildly, and I could barely hear my duel disks Life Point meter drop rapidly as I lost thirty one hundred Life Points due to the powerful attack.

Jaden: 1300 LP
The D: 3100 LP

"Jaden, talk to me man!" Aster shouted over to me. "Are you alright?!"

I didn't say anything, too tired to even speak as I tried to stand up again. I wobbled slightly to the left, my duel disk feeling heavier than usual.

"Now that you've had a taste of my true power, I'll let you have a break," The D sneered, as he played the last card in his hand. "Since you played your Card Of Sanctity yourself, I'll activate my own. So now that I've played it, we both draw cards from our decks until we each have six cards in our hands." He looked at his new hand, and nodded slightly. "I'll place one card facedown, and then end my turn. Let's see if you can come back from that, punk."

I shakily drew cards from my deck until I had six of them in my hand. I could barely see them since my head was pounding, but it was also something else. I could see a dark aura around my right wrist, and my alarm grew even further. It seemed like that last attack had triggered my inner darkness's rage even further, and now it seemed like I couldn't even control myself any longer.

"I can't...ah, control it Jaden," Haou muttered as he appeared beside me, clutching his chest in pain as he gasped for apparent air. Sweat poured down his face. "I don't...know if I can take it any longer. All this...pain, all this...hate..."

Looking at my own friend going through the same pain as I was made something in my head snap. I would not see my friend like this. No way! We came too far in this duel, only for us to give up! We had to finish this duel before our inner darkness self took over.

"We can't give up, Haou!" I told him firmly, just as another spike of pain hit my chest. "No, not now! We can't ever give up!" I looked up and the dark aura around me intensified even further. "JUST KEEP FIGHTING!"

I threw my hand out. "I activate my trap card: Dig Of Destiny! Since I took battle damage this turn, I get to draw a card from my deck! And since it's now my Draw Phase, I get to add another card from my deck!"

I looked at my hand, nodding to myself. "Now, I summon this: my Evil HERO Fusion Sage!"

Haou's newest HERO was what looked like a demon warrior with a helmet restricting its face like some sort of iron mask, it's legs reminding me of a scaly reptile.

(Evil HERO Fusion Sage: 0000/0000)

"And now I activate its first ability: when he's summoned while I've got another HERO monster on my field, I get to summon a HERO monster from my graveyard, as long as its ability is negated and its attack points are zero. And the HERO I'm bringing back is Evil HERO Malicious Edge in attack mode!"

(Evil HERO Malicious Edge - 0000/0000)

"Why would I worry about that?" The D asked with an amused look. "So you've got three monster out on your field - that doesn't mean a thing. Destiny HERO Plasma is far more stronger than they are. All you've done is played too pathetic cards that have no chance against my monster."

I clenched my right fist tightly, my anger and rage building up again, the dark aura around me getting worse by the moment. I could hardly contain myself any longer...and this time, I couldn't care less. I looked over to Haou, and despite him looking hesitant for a fraction of a second, he nodded steely and glared at The D with hatred.

"Pathetic?!" we both uttered, my voice going monotone again, as we let all the anger that built up inside me out. "My cards aren't pathetic! You hear me?! All you've done during this duel is just proving to everyone that you don't care what happens to your opponents, so long as you have the most powerful Destiny HERO in the world. But you know what? That's all going to change, starting NOW!"
============
Alexis POV

The others and I watched the duel in horror, as we watched Jaden lose control of himself yet again, only this time it was worse than before when he duelled Atticus at the Abandoned Dorm. There was nothing but pure rage and hate in his eyes, and if I looked closely, I could see the ghostly form of Haou beside him, his own aura of darkness pulsing madly.

"This is bad," Yusei said with wide eyes as he looked at the screen. "Really bad. I've never seen Jaden act this angry before, but now he's seriously losing it."

"We've got to stop Jaden from going full blast!" Syrus exclaimed. "If he does that, he's gonna bring the whole place down!"

"Are you crazy?!" Chazz freaked. "It's safer in here rather than out there! I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have today be Volcano Day."

"But what about Jaden?!" Syrus demanded. "Right now, he's a danger to himself and to everyone else in that arena! If he completely loses it-!"

"Let's just hope he doesn't," I said, my eyes watering as I watched Jaden slowly getting more and more angry.

Jaden pointed to his Fusion Sage. "Fusion Sages second ability activates! I can sacrifice him, so I can grab Polymerization from my graveyard! And now, I'm activating it!"

He held up his returned Polymerization. "D, your reign as a duelling pro is over: its time for you to pay! With your Life Points, and Destiny HERO Plasma!"

"Huh?" The D frowned. "What are you saying? My Destiny HERO Plasma has an attack power of four thousand three hundred and fifty attack points. How can you possibly stand up to something such as this?"

"Just watch me," Jaden snarled as he played his Polymerization spell card. "Because I'm fusing Evil HERO Malicious Edge and Elemental HERO Neos together to form a new HERO, the likes you've never seen! And D, this next move..." He grimaced in pain for a second, his closing for the briefest of moments before they snapped open, revealing his golden flared eyes. "...WILL BE YOUR UNDOING!"

His two HERO's jumped up, just as a portal of blue, white and red colours flashed into existence and they got sucked into it, before they flared with red and dark blue lights.

"By joining together two of the strongest HERO's in the universe, I'll create a HERO that's all the RAGE!" Jaden bellowed. He punched his right fist outwards again. "I Fusion Summon...ELEMENTAL HERO RAGING NEOOOOOOS!"

To my amazement, a stream of pure red fire slammed down from the ceiling above the arena, making a few members of the audience scream in surprise as it collided into the ground behind Jaden. Then suddenly, a massive pair of fiery wings shot right out the blazing stream, just before a massive bull twice the size of Jaden lunged out onto the field with a roar of defiance. The newest HERO looked like it was born from both darkness and fire, it's face the same angular look as Neos, but the sides of it looked like molten magma, and it's eyes blazed red. It's fists were fire as well, and it chest and legs were all black.

(Elemental HERO Raging Neos - 3500/2800)

Everyone of us looked at Jaden's new HERO with amazed looks: even at a time like this, he still surprised us by bringing forth a new HERO to help him win this duel.

"No way..." Chazz uttered.

"That's incredible," Atticus said with shocked eyes.

"I've never seen anything like it before," I agreed with him.

"I activate Raging Neos's special ability," Jaden said on the screen. "By banishing one HERO monster from my graveyard, I can negate the effect of one monster on your field! Plus, it's second ability allows it to gain two hundred attack points for each HERO that I've got in my graveyard!"

My eyes widened by that fact. If I remembered correctly, there were seven HERO monsters in Jaden's graveyard, six now that he banished one of them. So that would mean that Raging Neos gained an extra twelve hundred attack points. And since Plasma would have its ability negated, that would mean it lose the attack's points that it gained from Lightning Golem.

(Elemental HERO Raging Neos - 4700/2800)

(Destiny HERO Plasma - 3150/600)

"Oh no you don't!" The D shouted, pressing his duel disk. "I play the trap card known as Plasma Delta Crush! Since I've got my Destiny HERO Plasma out on my field, by sending all the cards in my hand to the graveyard, I can instantly destroy your HERO!"

"Not gonna happen! When Raging Neos activates it's ability, it also negates the effects of all spell and trap cards that you activate this turn! That pathetic little trap card of yours won't destroy my HERO!"

"OH NO!" The D exclaimed, just as his trap card got destroyed. "By if my trap won't work, then Plasma will be destroyed!"

"Exactly my point!" Jaden sneered. "Now Raging Neos, ATTACK! GO - INFERNO COSMIC STRIKE!"

The D ended up losing half his Life Points when Raging Neos sent of blistering blast of pure fire and lightning towards Plasma. The Destiny HERO didn't stand a chance as it was incinerated on the spot. The D had to cover his face as the heat got too much.

Jaden: 1300 LP
The D: 1550 LP

"No matter! Just a minor set back! It's not gonna stop me! Since you've stopped the effect of my trap card, I've still got all the cards in my hand to use!" The D shouted, using one of the cards. "And with my Trap Booster spell card, by sending one card in my hand to the graveyard, I can activate a trap! And I'm using my Call Of The Haunted to resurrect Destiny HERO Plasma!"

Plasma returned to the field again, but this time it looked beat up from the last attack. Which was understandable since it took a major hit from Raging Neos.

(Destiny HERO Plasma - 1900/600)

"Plus, since the card I ditched was the spell card Plasma Value, I get to summon a Plasma Token with the same attack strength as Destiny HERO Plasma in defence mode!"

(Plasma Token - 1900/0000)

Jaden just stared at the scene in front of him, before sneering cruelly. It gave me the chills: his face looked evil, and so definitely not like him.

"How sad - that you're having to rely on monsters that have failed you again and again," he sneered. "Well let me put it this way: I'm winning this! I activate my spell card: De-Fusion! This card splits my Raging Neos into the two monsters I used to summon him! So Neos and Malicious Edge, return to battle!"

Raging Neos vanished with an explosion of fire, before Malicious Edge and Neos came back got the field, looking ready to fight again.

(Evil HERO Malcious Edge - 2600/1800)

(Elemental HERO Neos - 2500/2000)

"Neos, attack his Plasma Token!" Jaden ordered, pointing at the selected monster. "Cosmic Crush!"

Neos sprang forward, and slammed his fist into the Plasma Token, destroying it.

"Now Malicious Edge, strike Destiny HERO Plasma down with everything you've got!" Jaden ordered Haou's monster. "Needle Burst!"

Malicious Edge sent a volley of wrist spikes at Plasma, catching the Destiny HERO in the heat before it exploded into nothing with a loud scream of pain.

Jaden: 1300 LP
The D: 850 LP

"So what?" The D demanded, waving his hand at the field in front of him. "You may have left my field defenceless, but next turn you will lose. No matter how many times you defeat Plasma, I'll always bring it back! You know why? Because it will be the very monster that...will defeat...you?"

I frowned at his stutter, due to his eyes widening in shock and fear. I looked to Jaden, and I could see that he was holding up a card, and judging by the looks of it, it was a good one.

"There won't be next turn for you, D," Jaden told him in that monotone voice of his. "Because thanks to this card, you're THROUGH!"

He turned the card around, and to mine and the others shock, it was a Fusion card. "I activate the Quick Play spell card Flash Fusion! And with it, I can continue this attack! All I've got to do is fuse the monsters on my field together to form a Fusion monster! And since I've got Malicious Edge and Neos on my field, I'll fuse them together to form Elemental HERO Raging Neos one last time!"

His two monsters vanished once again into light, before Raging Neos replaced them with an entrance of fire and flames.

(Elemental HERO Raging Neos - 3500/2800)

"And for every HERO that's in my graveyard, Raging Neos gains two hundred attack points," Jaden pointed out. "And since I've got seven of them in my graveyard, that's means an extra fourteen hundred attack points right off the bat, for a punishing grand total of forty nine hundred attack points!"

(Elemental HERO Raging Neos - 4900/2800)

"But this...can't be happening to me!" The D exclaimed in fear, stepping away from the sight of the monster in front of him. "This is impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible!" Jaden shouted, punching his fist out one last time. "Now Elemental HERO Raging Neos, attack D and END THIS DUEL! GO, INFERNO COSMIC STRIKE!"

Raging Neos reared it's head and wings backwards, and then sent another stream of fire towards The D directly, who let out a terrified yell just as the attack landed on him directly. There was a huge explosion and the whole arena shook with the force of the attack.

Jaden: 1300 LP
The D: 0 LP

The whole audience was quiet for several seconds, before they all cheered and cried out Jaden's name. Jaden just looked out towards The D, walking up to him as he stared down at The D's semi-conscious form. Just then, a white ghostly aura shot out of The D, and vanished into thin air. I sighed in relief - the Light Of Destruction that controlled The D was gone, so that meant that Jaden would be alright for the time being.

Just as I thought that, the dark aura that surrounded Jaden vanished too. Jaden clearly sighed in relief, as he crouched down and took The D's deck out. He must've took Destiny HERO Plasma from it and placed it into his deck. He had done what he needed to do, and was alright.

"Ladies and gentleman, Jaden Yuki is our winner and he will now go onto the next round of the tournament!" the announcer yelled over the cheering audience. "For a long time, The D ruled the duelling field but now his winning streak has finally come to an end as Jaden takes his title away!"

I looked to the entrance to the duelling field, just in time to see Jaden walk into the room with Aster supporting him. He held Jaden up to keep him from falling over. As soon as we all saw them, we immediately rushed over to Jaden and started congratulating him on winning and fussing over him as he sat down on the nearby seat.

"You alright, Slacker?" Chazz asked.

Jaden nodded warily. "I'll be fine. But that was too close for comfort. I could barely control it this time."

"Well, whatever happened, you managed to get it under control at the end," I told him. "But promise me that you won't do something like that again."

He chuckled softly. "Yes ma'am."

He then turned his attention to Aster, locking eyes with him. Aster looked back, not sure what to do. Jaden then brought out his deck, and pulled out Destiny HERO Plasma.

"I believe that this is yours now," he said, handing the card over to Aster.

Aster looked at the card in surprise. He looked at the card with a look of care, but then he smiled and shook his head, before handing the card back to Jaden.

"Nah, you keep it for the time being," he told Jaden. "I want to win it from you fair and square. Besides, you've helped me to see the truth of what D was really like. So thanks for helping solve my fathers disappearance."

Jaden nodded back with his own smile, before shuffling Plasma back into his deck.

"Right, enough of that now," Atticus said, pointing at Jaden. "You need to get some rest, because you've spent a lot of your energy out there."

"I can't yet," Jaden said, nodding towards the screen.

We all looked at the screen and saw that Yusei was up next to duel. And by the looks of it he was going to duel...Aster himself. We all looked back at them in surprise.

"Well, looks like we're up next," Yusei said to Aster.

Aster nodded. "You're on. But no matter who wins, no hard feelings, huh?"

Yusei laughed. "Sure thing. But I'm gonna win for sure."

They both left the room to get ready for the duel. Everyone else went off to do whatever it was they were doing so it left me and Jaden alone together. I looked at him, and saw just how tired he was.

"You really shouldn't push yourself too much," I scolded him.

"I know," he said, looking at me. "But at least that guy has been dealt with."

He then took my hand. "Alexis, stop worrying so much. I'll be fine."

I sighed, before grilling his hand tighter. "I'll hold you to it."