善良妈妈的朋友

Chapter 64

"But I\'ve met your mom and your sister," Yoki pressed. "They came to visit you after Battle City."

"They were... are..." Edna frowned, not sure what word to use, "they\'re my family but not my original family."

The Pharaoh frowned. "What happens to the Chaos who was living on that Earth when one of you showed up?"

Edna, just worn down by all the questions, snapped, "Maybe they go to the Digimon universe!"

Solomon moved to stand beside her, the Spirit of the Millennium Belt having taken Baby Yugi from him (And she was smirking up a storm at all the blackmail her and Tea would be able to thrust onto their best friend when this was all over), and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Do you mind answering a few questions for me in private about how you got here?"

Edna let out a huff but then nodded. "Yeah... yeah, you deserve that much." Solomon led her over to a table by a window, allowing them a view of the street and the people walking by. "So, I guess I should start with how I got here-"

"We can go over that later," Solomon said, waving his hand slightly as if he were trying to physically brush the topic aside. "I just thought you needed some time to breathe and not deal with them all pressing you." He smiled slightly. "They\'re young... and that means sometimes that can\'t see that their need to ask questions is only causing more harm than good."

Pressing her lips together Edna glanced at the group before giving a slight nod. "Yeah..."

"It\'s hard for you, isn\'t it?" Solomon asked. "Seeing him with his dad and brother."

"...yeah," Edna admitted.

"How long as it been since you saw your family. Your actual family from the... world?" Edna nodded at that. "The world you are from?"

"I\'m going on... over a year. Just a few months past a year."

Solomon nodded. "And it was okay when you had people that resembled them in your life but..."

Edna nodded, the Millennium Ring slowly emerging from her chest. "I shouldn\'t even have this. When we did the ritual to allow the Queen to be free of the Puzzle-"

"The Millennium Items are drained of their power and buried in his or her tomb," Solomon said. Edna blinked at that and Solomon smiled. "I think this earth is greatly different from yours. The Millennium Items came about when for you?"

"It kind of fluctuates depending on the earth... but usually anywhere from 1990 to 2000. Dates are odd... I\'ve gone to worlds where everything is stuck in the 90s... others where its modern for me. Of course it is futuristic for you, I guess, but-"

"It happened in 1945 for me."

Edna blinked in surprise. "...seriously?"

Solomon leaned back in his chair, a smile on his face. "Arno told me on his world there is a series of films about some guy named Indiana Jones. I\'m thinking that they must be based on my life, just with a name change to keep me from suing them in some interdimensional court. Anyway, during WWII I got hired by the United States Government to stop the Nazis from raiding this tomb of an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh. They believed there was a mystical artifact that would help them win the war and well ol\' Adolf was getting his willy hard thinking about that. That mission is actually how I met Arno... he was real confused, waking up a military base he\'d never been at, and I took him on rather than him getting sent to jail.

"Anyway, we traveled around, ran into my gal Marla and hooked up with my friend Arthur and chased after the Nazis. I won\'t bore you with the story-" he smirked and Edna had a feeling that she wouldn\'t be bored at all hearing the tale, "-but at the end the four of us made it into the tomb and discovered a bunch of Egyptian Artifacts. Marla got the Scales, Arno the Necklace-" He chuckled at that, it clear that was an old joke, "-Arthur the Key, and I got the puzzle... and let me tell you, when I solved it and unleashed the spirit of Pharaoh Aknamkanon... that was a trip."

"You held an item?" Edna said, surprised.

"Held, yes. We defeated Zorc and freed the Pharaoh... oh..." Solomon settled back, doing the mental math, "just under 40 years ago."

Edna couldn\'t help but shake her head at that. "And I thought I was the Chaos who was furthest along. All the one\'s I\'ve met are usually in the middle of their journey." She didn\'t discuss Wyatt Chaos as his world was so vastly different from the \'standard\' timeline as she\'d come to call it that it wasn\'t worth bringing up. "And you\'ve just been traveling around?"

"Yup," Solomon said. "Marla and Arthur off seeing a show; Arno isn\'t into that and I don\'t like sitting for too long in a dark theater, brings back bad memories." He glanced over at Baby Yugi, his smile turning a bit more meloncholy. "And someone needed to watch him."

Edna sighed. "There seems to be two constants in the Multiverse... Yugi Muto ends up raised by you."

"Hmmm," Solomon murmured to himself. "And the other?"

Edna looked over where Edwin was. "Chaoses always lose a parent."

~MC~MC~MC~

"How?" I asked my brother. Well... not so much asked as complained rather loudly.

"I\'m good with money," Josiah said (\'Kurt,\' my mind reminded me; it was Kurt. But even he had said we should stick to our new names, so we didn\'t confuse everyone else and while I hated how he tended to be far more logical and in control of his emotions than me I saw his point). "I decided to begin playing the stock market... it\'s a bit like Fantasy Football." He pressed his lips together in a clear sign of annoyance. "Which my world doesn\'t have."

"Mine neither."

Our dad shook his head. "Football didn\'t take off here. It\'s Duel Monsters that gets the major airtime."

I groaned at that before returning to the point at hand. "I am on the board of directors for KaibaCorp. And that was after I won several million dollars from Pegasus and after I got Seto to pay me a ton of money." I threw my hands out wildly. "HOW are you richer than me?"

My bastard of a brother merely flashed a smile and I felt my teeth set on edge. We had been going over what we had all gotten into, what our lives had been like, and I had mentioned my job with KaibaCorp and how much money I had. And then my brother had calmly admitted that he wasn\'t a millionaire.

He was a fucking billionaire.

"Want me to invest some money for you?" he asked.

"...yes," I said finally. "Won\'t hurt to have another nest egg set up somewhere, in case things on my Earth get dicey."

"You know you could do that on your Earth as well," my dad pointed out.

I forced myself not to groan. "You know I hate the stock market."

"It\'s not that bad," he said, pushing on. "You just have to dedicate a little time each day doing some research, looking into stocks-"

I tuned him out as m brain focused on more important matters. The thing that my dad and brother should have been focused on, honestly: we were together again. The three of us, once more able to sit and talk.

\'I suppose it just shows how close we are that we slotted right back into our normal routines,\' I thought to myself. My dad and I discuss what we had been doing since we last saw each other. The unspoken rivalry my brother and I had to prove who was doing better at life. My dad pushing us to do more and be better and me reminding myself that he was just trying to help and NOT being a picky picking picker. My brother being quiet at times and the all of a sudden being such a snarky bastard he made me look like Shockwave.

It was... so very, very nice.

Naturally I had to risk ruining it by asking the question that had been needling me the entire time I had been with them.

"Mom?" I asked.

At once my dad and brother grew silent.

"She\'s gone on my Earth," I whispered.

My brother just gave a nod.

"I looked," my dad said. "I never found her or Syl or Betty." My jaw worked at that; my grandparents on the Earth my dad had been on weren\'t there either. "I don\'t know if I should be glad for that or upset."

"What do you mean?" I asked only to answer my own question. "It would be cheating."

"Yeah," he admitted.

My dad loved my mom. Present tense. Even after she had been taken from us (and while I knew that it had been cancer and not anyone\'s fault I would still hold it against the hospital and her doctor that they hadn\'t saved her... I would always blame them even though I knew that was wrong) he had stayed in love with her.

"Did you try dating anyone else?" I asked. About a year or so after my mom had passed my dad had tried dating again. At one point getting just serious enough for him to suggest us meeting his girlfriend. I had been fine with it, much to my own surprise... I knew my mom would want him to be happy. She had told me once that her hope was she would die first because she knew my father would be able to carry on and she wouldn\'t have been able to. So him dating... I had given my blessing. But something had happened and he\'d broken it off and never dated again. I didn\'t ask.

But just as every night I sent a prayer to her... every morning my dad would pray before her ashes.

"Yeah," he admitted. "A few people. Never really worked out."

"You?" I asked my brother.

He shook his head. "Got caught up with saving Tea and her friends."

My dad and brother looked at me and after a moment I sighed and pulled out my phone. As odd as it was, what with them being far more social and \'cool kids\' than me... I\'d had the more active dating life even before all this. "This is Mai," I told them, pulling up a photo the two of us had taken back at Duelist Kingdom when I\'d first figured out how to use the key.

Josiah frowned. "Mai Valentine? Her?"

"What?" I complained.

"She\'s... not nice on my world."

"On my Earth she\'s great. I had to buff out some of her rougher edges as she had trust issues but..." I smiled. "We\'ve been dating for a few months now."

"I\'m glad," my dad said.

I nodded and pocketed my phone.

"What\'s wrong?" he finally asked.

"Nothing."

"Don\'t lie," Josiah said. "We can tell."

I pressed my tongue against the inside of my check before sighing. "I\'ve... had to do bad things. Really bad things."

"Yeah, we know," my brother said with a bucket full of snark. "Tricking people, conning them-"

"I killed people."

My brother went silent.

"They were going to kill Yugi\'s grandpa. My Solomon Muto. And Serenity Wheeler." My dad tensed at me mentioning Solomon while, oddly enough, my brother stilled at me mentioning Serenity. "They had captured them and were forcing Yugi and Joey to duel. Whoever won... their family member was spared and the other would die." I looked down at my right hand, squeezing it into a fist. "I didn\'t like that. So..." I trailed off.

I couldn\'t look at either of them. Couldn\'t see the disappointment in their eyes. Yet... I never thought once about lying to them. Because I wanted them to know the truth, especially letting it come from my own lips. It made things better, doing that. Lying... well, as much I tended to lie, twisting the truth to make a story better or to cover my back end... I had found that when it came to my family lies had a habit of coming out into the open, the falsehoods ripped away and the truth-

"Did you have any other choice?" my dad asked.

"Lots," I admitted.

"In that moment though did you have a lot of choices?" he pressed. "Not after the fact." My jaw worked. "Kevin..."

"No," I said softly.

"So it was either let innocent people die or do something that go others killed." I glanced up at him and he shook his head. "I\'m not happy you did that. You put yourself in a lot of danger."

"...you\'re worried about ME being in danger?" I asked only to at once understand just how stupid my comment was. Of course my dad was worried... he was my dad! He\'d always thought first about my safety and my security and then everything else.

"I\'ve done things too," he admitted. "How long have you two been running around in these worlds?"

"About 6 months," I said. "Time kind of... blends together."

My brother nodded. "Just a bit shorter. You\'re in the middle of Battle City?" I nodded. "It hasn\'t been announced yet but your girlfriend is setting it up."

"Not my girlfriend. Just her doppelganger."

"Sure."

"I mean it," I snapped.

He merely flashed a patronizing smirk.

"I swear-"

My father cut us off. "I\'ve been running with Solomon for over 40 years."

THAT made both of us blink. I knew he\'d mentioned that he\'d been around the man for a while, I knew he\'d mentioned the 40s... but it was another thing for him to just flat out say that.

"In that time the group of us... we all did horrible things. Solomon. Arthur. Marla. Me. We all did what we could to survive. There were people that wanted us dead."

I swallowed at that. My father was a religious man though like me he hated the church. He viewed his relationship with God as a private thing. For him to admit, even without saying the words, that he had killed...

"I\'m not going to judge you on that," he said simply. "I just want you to be more careful so you don\'t get in that kind of situation again."

It was so very... very odd... but having my dad tell me that instantly caused the burden I had been feeling to be lifted from my shoulders. I had been so concerned about what it meant for me to do that but him saying he understood... he didn\'t absolved me from killing those people and I doubted that anything would ever allow me to truly forgive myself for what I had done.

But I didn\'t feel like the world was crushing me anymore.

"So... a girlfriend?" he asked innocently.

"Shut up," I said with a light laugh.

"She\'s better than the last two, right?"

"Yeah," I say instantly. "Better than them both. I can\'t wait for you to meet her..." I paused. "Uh, there is something I should mention."

"Always a catch?" Josiah asked.

"She is the mortal form of a deranged moon goddess who wants to make me immortal."

My father just stared at me.

"Huh," my brother said. "Which one?"

"Selene."

"Ah." Josiah chuckled. "I have Athena and Hera and Aphrodite fighting over me."

"...bull fucking shit," I snapped.

"Language!" my father snapped and I\'d forgotten how much he hated me cursing.

My brother shrugged. "Yeah, it\'s a thing since I\'m the protector of the items. The last one was someone named Paris."

I just rolled my eyes skyward. "Trojan War. Heh." I let out a huffed laugh. "Captain America in the Trojan War but it\'s... that Leonardo DeCaprio Romeo and Juliet movie."

"...yeah," my brother finally said.

"Lay off me, referencing pop culture is the only way I\'ve survived my world." My father merely smirked and glanced at the picture of Mai. "No. We aren\'t talking about that." Standing up I looked skyward, letting out a long breath. "Give me a moment here."

"For what?"

"To think on how we are taking out Enigma."

Edna, hearing me say that, spoke up. "I\'ve been trying to take out Enigma for a while now. No offense but it isn\'t as easy as you think it will be. Today was the first time he ever showed up... usually he\'s a lot more careful than that. Likes to just send his Dueltroopers at us. And that\'s assuming he even cares. Most time he doesn\'t."

"There must be a way to lure him out," the Pharaoh stated.

The Spirit nodded her head. "If we make a grand showing... something that would truly get him to need and come and face us."

"But what would that be?" Solomon asked.

"Ruining his plans," I stated. "That\'s what brought him to the battlefield... Akiza threw a wrench into his plans and he came marching in. We just need to do it on a grander scale."

Edna though wasn\'t convinced. "He\'ll still have us beat, number-wise. He has hundreds of dueltroopers as his disposal... possibly thousands. He\'s been tearing apart the mutliverse for a long time... all of us-" she gestured at the group, "are merely new players in the game."

"And even if we do beat him," Yoki stated, "he\'ll still have all those troopers to send at us."

I glanced at my father before looking back at Edna. "Actually... I know how to take out his army."

"You do?"

I nodded.

"You aren\'t going to like it though."

~MC~MC~MC~

Arno frowned as he they all stepped onto the new Earth. He had tried to get his sons to agree to sit this fight out and let him handle it but they were both stubborn in their own ways. Josiah (and while it was strange he did agree that sticking with their new names for now made sense; too many people now knew them by those monikers) had merely shrugged and said that he was going because it was his job to protect Tea and he wasn\'t going to hear otherwise. Edwin... well, his eldest had always had a temper and it had come out when he\'d tried to tell his son to stay behind. That rage came from his mother and her side of the family, as all of them had burned hot and fast. His own side had colder tempers, able to hold grudges for decades. In fact every generation of their family spanning back as far as he knew about had seen one set of siblings enter into a cold war feud. Brothers and sisters had died without ever speaking a word to their family members.

Edwin though... Edwin\'s temper was hot and it came out like a snarling dog. More than once he had caught him revving up for an explosion and worked to calm him down; he wondered what he was like on his Earth, if he had people there that knew how to keep him calm and focused. He hoped his girlfriend understood what to do to help him... even if she was a goddess.

Arno shook his head. \'What a weird life we now lead.\'

"Huh," Edwin said, looking about. "Game of Thrones."

The Earth then had arrived at did have the vibe of that show and Arno REALLY hoped that the names of the people there were normal. His sons loved sci fi and fantasy (Edwin more than Josiah but Josiah still had a strong taste for it) but honestly he always had a hard time remembering half of those names; admittedly sometimes he played dumb because it was amusing to see Edwin try and twist himself into a pretzel describing who a character was, thinking he couldn\'t remember them. A man had to get some joys in life and watching his son think he was stupid while not wanting to say it out loud was a hoot.

"Not quite," Edna said and Arno\'s heart clenched a little at the sight of her. Every one of his siblings had had a daughter. Every one of his wife\'s sisters had had a daughter. Only he and his wife had never had a girl and seeing Edna there he couldn\'t help but see bits of his wife in her. It was like Edwin had a twin and from the way his son was hovering around Edna he could tell he was feeling the same way about his female counterpart. "In this world Yu-Gi-Oh! is a medieval manga. Duel Monsters exist but they are summoning cards used by those with magic in order to bring forth monsters."

"How interesting," Solomon said, looking down to make sure Baby Yugi was doing okay; thankfully the boy was still fast asleep. "And how very different from our worlds."

Arno nodded at that. The Earth he had landed in had been very much like a pulp adventure... there was dueling (something he was decent at but he was always willing to let Solomon handle the cards while he made plans to get out of tough situations where cards couldn\'t help them) but not as much as there was on Edwin and Josiah\'s worlds. And this world seemed RADICALLY different from what any of them had experienced.

Edna held up her phone and a digital woman appeared. "Right, so in this world there are a multitude of kingdoms all fighting for control and power. The manga originally started by focusing on several of the important houses: House Muto, which had just seen its leader, the unnamed King Muto, die, forcing a bit of a power shuffle between the three remaining Mutos: the King\'s father, the former King Solomon who gave up the throne, and the King\'s sons Yugi and-" She twitched, "er, the Pharaoh."

"You truly can not tell me my name?" the Pharaoh asked.

"Space time continuum, wibbly wobbly," Edwin stated before Annie could say a word. "Go on."

"There was also House Pegasus, Hosue Ishtar from across the sea, and House Kaiba. The big shocker at the end of the second year of the manga was when House Muto had Lord Seto Kaiba murdered and installed his half brother Noah as the lord of his lands. The next few years were supposed to follow his brother Mokuba\'s attempts to regain his brother\'s kingdom only for it to fail with his death but also House Muto exposed, leading to a war between Muto and House Siegfried."

Edna frowned. "A Chaos interfered?"

"He did," Annie said. "Edwyn Chaos. He was a sellsword who saved Mokuba early on and united several fan favorite characters together to save Mokuba. He plotted out the attack that saw Noah killed and they took back the Kaiba Family\'s Ancestral Seat."

Arno already felt a headache coming on trying to keep everything straight.

"What happened?" Josiah asked. "I get the feeling there is more than you are letting on."

"Mokuba declared that his kingdom would declare itself independent... and he nominated Edwyn to take Lord Seto\'s seat and become the new King of Cards. He took up Seto\'s deck."

"Shit," Edwin said.

"Yeah, he\'s doing WAY better than you!" Josiah teased.

Edwin rolled his eyes. "You do realize that with most Chaoses being me that makes you the odd man out, right?"

"It means I\'m special," Josiah commented quickly.

"You\'re special alright," Edna said.

"Just because you two are jealous..."

Edwin and Edna began to squawk in protest.

"Guys, enough," Arno snapped and all three stopped joking around. "What\'s the plan?"

Annie smiled. "Thank you Mr. Chaos." All the male Chaoses looked at her when she said that. "Oh, that will be confusing. Oldest Mr. Chaos. Anyway, the plan we came up with is to make contact with Edwyn and get him to make a whole lot of noise. Do something that will force Enigma to come to this Earth. After that-"

"Leave things to me," Edwin stated. He had refused to tell anyone but Edna his plan... and from the way she had been scowling after they\'d gotten done with their private meeting Anro had a feeling he wasn\'t going to like it. "Alright, so let\'s go meet up with King Edwyn."

"Perhaps I should do the talking," Solomon said as they began to walk through the quiet halls of the castle. "I am, after all, the most charming..."

"Did you miss the part where your counterpart killed this world\'s Seto?" Edwin stated as Arno hung back, getting Edna to match him step for step.

"This all must be difficult for you," he told her, following after the group as they wandered the castle, Annie\'s digital form doing her best to try and help but Arno had to guess that with her being a living computer and the world they were in clearly being techno-illiterate that she wasn\'t going to be able to do much.

"I\'m used to doing weird things like this," Edna said. "I knew what I was signing up for when I decided to try and save the multiverse."

"That\'s not what I was talking about," Arno said.

"What did you mean then?"

"I meant me and K... Josiah." He scowled... he didn\'t know if he\'d ever get used to calling his sons by their new names. "Us."

"I\'ve met different Chaoses before."

"All ones that are alternate versions of yourself," he pointed out.

She shrugged at that. "It helps that most of the Chaoses I run into are guys. Not sure why..." Her mouth twitched. "Okay, I have a feeling it\'s because I\'m the variant and Edwin is closer to the \'main\' one but..." she just trailed off.

"Edwin does the exact same thing when he doesn\'t want to talk about something. Dismisses it, leaves the conversation open ended."

"Its fine," Edna said a bit more hotly than she clearly intended, if the way she flinched after right after saying the words was any indication.

"He does that too," Arno told her. "You\'re more like my son than you realize."

"Yeah," Edna stated. "You\'re a lot like my mom."

"Which must be hard for you," Arno said. "That\'s what I was trying to say." They turned a corner and found themselves as some stairs which the others began to go down. "It was hard enough, on my Earth, running into my parents or my brother and sisters and knowing they weren\'t actually them. They were just people that looked like them. I can\'t imagine what it\'s like to see someone else finally find their family... after you\'ve been searching for them for so long."

Edna was quiet for the rest of the walk down the stairs.

"I know I\'m not your dad," Arno finally said. "According to you it would be more like your mom. Maybe that makes it a touch easier, because we aren\'t physically the same." He paused, giving her a chance to speak up if she wanted him to stop talking. But Edna didn\'t say a word so Arno continued on. "But... I can be family to you too. Extended family, an uncle maybe, but-"

"I\'d like that," Edna whispered. "I\'d like that a lot."

Arno smiled before looking ahead. "Edwin said we aren\'t going to like his plan."

"You\'re going to hate it."

"Hmm... but he\'s still going to do it."

"Me and him are stubborn like that." She paused, glancing at Arno. "We get it from our parents."

Arno laughed.

~MC~MC~MC~

Josiah glanced at his brother as they approached the doors of the throne room. "So, what is your plan?" He knew how his brother liked to plot and scheme... and worry. While he also liked to come up with plans and strategies his brother was an utter worrywart at times, going over worst case scenarios and coming up with ways he could get out of them. It didn\'t even matter that the chances of him getting stuck in such a situation were utterly slim, the man who now called himself Edwin couldn\'t help but cycle through them within his own mind. More than once Josiah had seen their father work to try and get him to calm down when he got caught in an almost feedback loop of worry.

There was no doubt in his mind that his brother had gone over already every possible angle and come up with not just a plan but countermeasures should things go wrong.

"This," Edwin said before slamming the doors of the throne room open with a burst of Shadow Realm Magic, knocking over the guards as he walked into King Edwyn Chaos\'. "HELLO YOUR HIGHNESS!" he called out.

Josiah just slowly turned to stare at the Pharaoh.

"What?" he whispered.

"What did your world do to corrupt my brother?" he hissed.

The Pharaoh stared blankly at him and with a huff Josiah turned away and moved forward, figuring that Edwin was going to need backup.

"Who art thou, stranger?" King Edwyn Chaos asked from his throne. It was made of white stone and had been carved to resemble the open mouth of the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Edwyn spoke with a powerful voice, one tinged with a British accent.

"Don\'t recognize my good looks?" Edwin asked with a smirk.

It was rather startling how much the two looked like each other. There were differences of course that would keep anyone from thinking they were the exact same person; these were bred from their worlds and lives within them. Edwin was dressed in modern clothing, though Josiah had only seen him wear suits when he\'d gone to wedding or funerals and not as everyday attire. Edwyn would have looked right at home in Westeros with his leathers and furs. Edwyn\'s hair was short but he sported a full beard, something Josiah\'s brother had never managed to grow out completely, always shaving it off when it began to itch. And the thin scar that ran just above Edwin\'s right eye, just before his eyebrow began, was instead a long and vicious looking wound on Edwyn\'s face, running through his eye but not taking it.

"King Muto," Edwyn hissed, his guards instantly moving to draw their swords at the sight of the Pharaoh. "I see thou hast brought Princess Tea with thee... and old King Solomon." He narrowed his eyes. "Bold of thee to march into mine castle..."

"We mean you no harm," the Pharaoh said quickly, stepping forward, hands outstretched in the universal sign of \'calm down and listen\'. "We are not who you think we are."

"We\'re from another world," Edna said.

"Like you," Edwin added.

Edwyn studied them before motioning for the group to step forward. One of his advisors, a dark skinned man in scaled armor, opened his mouth to protest but Edwyn waved him off, his face grim as the group moved towards him. He waited until they were close...

...before a look of utter relief flashed crossed his features.

"Oh holy fuck thank God you\'re here!" he said, his voice sounding exactly like Edwin\'s. "Please tell me you\'re here to get me the fuck out of here."

"Language," Arno snapped.

"Dad?" Edwyn said in surprise.

"Kind of," Edwin said. "A version of him, sorry." He sighed. "We\'re all from different realities. I\'m you. Edna is female us. Kurt... Josiah and dad somehow got sucked into this madness. Apparently there are a bunch of us running around the multiverse causing trouble."

"... there is an evil version of us, isn\'t\' there?" Edwyn asked.

"Aiden," Edwin and Edna both said at the same time.

"Fuck."

"Hey!" Arno snapped and all of his kids, no matter the reality they were from, all squirmed.

After a moment Edwyn asked, "Why are you here then? Again, REALLY hoping it\'s to send me home. It was a struggle to get these people to understand that chamber pots should NOT be a thing."

"Sorry," Edwin said. "We have an interdimensional madman we need to deal with first... and we think he might be coming after your world soon."

"...of course he is," Edwyn muttered with a shake of his head. "What do we need to do?"

"Enigma can freeze worlds except for his dueltroopers, himself, Chaoses, and anyone with a Millennium Item or who once held them."

Edwyn frowned. "What are Millennium Items?"

"Anything that looks like these," Edna said, willing the Ring out. Josiah pulled his shield from his back while Edwin called forth his Key. The Pharaoh and the Spirit held out their items as well but Edwyn merely stared at them blankly. "Your version of Yu-Gi-Oh! doesn\'t have them, huh?"

"Everything is based around decks and powerful monsters," Edwyn stated. "Magic is used only to summon monsters from the cards or to call forth spells and traps." He looked at the group. "So that means I\'m the only one from my world who will be awake if Enigma shows up."

"Yes," Edna confirmed.

"So my army is useless. Damn it."

"Don\'t worry," Edna said, glancing at Edwin who was smirking, "we just need your castle, a banner... and some paint."

Josiah looked at his brother who was grinning like a madman and had a VERY badly feeling.

~MC~MC~MC~

"This is not going to work," Tea said, shaking her head. She had switched out of her normal clothing, donning gear that better fit the world they found themselves in. It was colder around Great Drake Keep, so her sleeveless shirt and jeans were never going to cut it. Now she had on leathers and a breastplate with a long fur cape hanging off her shoulders.

The Spirit of the Millennium Belt appeared beside her. "It actually might," she commented, looking up at the new decorations Edwyn had commissioned his VERY confused servants to get made and put around the castle. "My people..." she frowned.

"Are you remembering something?" Tea asked, excited. She knew it bugged the Spirit that she couldn\'t remember anything of her past, with only vague snipets of the life she had led before Tea had put on the Millennium Belt.

"I... I think I am," she said softly. "I remember a battle... I think I was leading it. There were... sisters... all around me. Yes... my sisters. Many of them. We were taunting out enemy..." She looked up at the banners that were being secured to the walls of the Great Drake Keep on either side of its massive gate. "Much like Edwin is."

"You fought in battle, Spirit?" Tea asked, surprised.

"She did," Josiah said, stepping out of the shadows of the gate. He too had gotten armor, though his was thick leather that would allow him to roll and dodge, which fit him well considering he had the Millennium Shield. If Edwin\'s plan worked though none of them would need it. "As Queen of the Amazons it was her duty to lead her sisters in battle."

The Spirit at once took control of Tea\'s body. "You know who I am?"

"Only a little," Josiah admitted. "And before you ask I was told I could only reveal the truth to you when the Spirit began to remember her past. I was told by the original Keeper of the Millennium Items that if I let you know too soon it would prevent you from fully remembering. That\'s all I know though... you were one of the Amazon Queens."

The Spirit... the Queen... frowned at that, mulling over what he had said. "I\'m not happy you knew, Josiah, but considering how some of the other Millennium Item holders have acted I can understand why you were cautious. Knowledge has proven to be a dangerous thing if one isn\'t ready for it." She shot him a dark look. "But if I find out you are hiding something else from me-"

"Thee will do nothing," King Edwyn warned, once more speaking in his more regal voice. "Josiah may not be the brother I left but he is a version of him... and I will unleash the rage of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon upon thou if thee dare hurt him."

The Queen and the King stared each other down before she finally nodded her head in acceptance and allowed Tea to take back control.

"Okay... can we all remember that we are on the same side?" she complained. "We\'re supposed to be taking on Enigma."

"So long as thy partner remembers," Edwyn warned her before looking at his castle. "The smallfolk will demand many answers for this..."

"Good," Tea said. "That\'s means that your world won\'t be frozen." She shuddered as she remembered what her world had been like after Enigma\'s attack. "We need to stop him here... we need to stop him and make him undo what he did to my friends."

"We will, Tea," Josiah assured her... just as a servant walking through the courtyard froze. "They\'re here."

Edwyn nodded and motioned for them to hurry into the castle, dropping his fake accent. "The gate can be closed by a single person... though if they have future tech that won\'t work well against it. I\'ll still try augmenting it with cards from my deck." He pulled out a Mirror Wall card.

"Do that," Tea said as they hurried to the courtyard, looking about to make sure everyone was safe. "Solomon, Arno... Baby Yugi?"

Josiah nodded. "Taken to a deeper part of the castle along with Lord Mokuba and some of the younger children. Since he never held an item I think he\'ll be frozen too so at least he won\'t wake up scared."

"Yoki... you and me... King Edwyn..." She looked around. "Where are Edna and Edwin?"

"Preparing the final piece of all this," Arno said, joining them. He shook his head. "I don\'t like this."

"If he gets in trouble I\'ll get him out dad."

"You-"

Josiah shook his head. "I\'ve been trained to do this. More than even Edwin. I can fight." He heard the sounds of the dueltroopers appearing in the field outside of the castle... and their cries of shock as they saw what Edwin had gotten prepared for them. "Though I think fighting is the last thing he wants to do."

~MC~MC~MC~

Something that might have been said about Enigma by their enemies was that they had a million eyes and two. Their own... and each of their dueltroopers. The helmets the troopers wore were all set up to broadcast everything they saw and send it back to their leader, so that they could, if they so desired, see through their eyes.

This might have been said about Enigma... if they had enemies who weren\'t frozen solid, trapped forever in a state of unmovement. Time removed from them and forcing them to remain locked in a single blip of eternity. What few enemies they did have that were still around they\'d never allowed to get close enough to actually learn much about them and their forces.

All of this Dueltrooper Commander 939 thought as he stared at the castle of Edwyn Chaos. Within the stone structure was, according to Lord Enigma\'s findings, a Prime Rebecca Hawkins. The perfect Rebecca to capture and bring into the fold for Lord Enigma\'s plans. On this Earth she had been accidently swapped at birth with a servant\'s child, so that the commoner\'s girl was raised in the Kingdom of Domino as a potential bride for Prince Yugi while the true Lady Hawkins cleaned tables and empties chamber pots. Lord Enigma had been firm that she must be brought to him at once and Commander 939 was eager to please his lord after the failure of the Akiza who had betrayed his trust. That\'s why he hadn\'t minded that his Lord was watching everything through his helmet\'s feed. He wanted to prove that the Lord\'s faith had been justified.

But... it also meant that his lord got to see the banners that had been hung up all over Great Drake Keep...

...which depicted Lord Enigma on his hands and knees getting fucked in the ass by Weevil Underwood.

"Prepare to take the castle," the Commander said firmly. "Whoever did this-"

"I know who did this, Commander," Lord Enigma said over his headset. "Stand down."

"My Lord-"

"Stand down," Lord Enigma repeated, his voice soft, almost a whisper. Such was his power that he didn\'t need to rage and bellow to get the attention of the world. When he whispered all listened. "This is the work of the Chaoses... it is their brand of juvenile arrogance. They are here."

The Commander stood all the straighter. "We will destroy them, my lord. I swear this."

"No," Lord Enigma stated. "There are at least three of them. Each with a Millennium Item. And they have allies... the Pharaoh and a Tea who wields a Millennium Item." There was a long pause... perhaps the longest pause the Commander had ever experienced in his life. "I will lead the assault."

The Commander at once dropped to one knee, his troopers following him, all 50 of them kneeling as portals opened and another 500 dueltroopers emerged onto the field outside of Great Drake Keep, led by Lord Enigma himself. It was the largest gathering of their forces ever.

Great Drake Keep was build on the edge of a cliff face, with the castle itself shaped like a massive wedge so that anyone who wanted to attack it was funneled towards the single gate. While it looked like an average size castle in fact it delved deep into the cliff under it, making it as tall as other worlds\' skyscrapers. There were openings near the pounding surf where servants were able to cast out nets to catch fish and crab, ensuring that it was near impossible for one to starve them out. The cliff face itself was sheer and full of sharpened stones that previous lords had carved into blades to slice apart anyone attempting to scale the Keep, meaning that the gate truly was the only way in for an outside force. And with the murder holes and scorpions that were lined up around the gate an army would take heavy loses trying to assault the entrance, tripping over the bodies of their own dead before they even got close.

But none of that mattered when the world was frozen and Engima\'s troops could easily march up to the gate with only a handful of defenders standing against them.

Except... as Lord Enigma had said... they were Chaoses.

Chaoses with Millennium Items.

Two of the most dangerous rogue elements in the multiverse... combined and then multipled.

Enigma took a step forward and touched a button on his gauntlet, causing his voice to be amplified for all to hear.

"You clearly wanted to rile me up," he said. "To have me come here. You failed in the former but have achieved the latter. Now then... let us see if you are pleased with your choice-"

And that\'s when the 70s style techno-disco music began to play.

The dueltroopers broke protocol and began to look at each other in confusion as colorful beams of light began to shine out from the castle\'s high walls while ropes were yanked and caused about a half dozen wooden doors in frames to rise from their hiding spots in front of Great Drake Keep\'s Gate.

"Do you know what the difference is between us, Enigma? Why I will be forever remembered and you will go down as a footnote?" a voice called out. "Presentation!"

The spotlights continued to spin about as Edwin Chaos stepped up so the dueltroopers could see him clearly on the rampart. He was wearing his suit though armor had been added to it... and he was holding a mic.

"It\'s a human sign. When things go wrong. When the scent of her lingers. And temptation\'s strong." Edwin smirked as he crooned into the mic, swaying with the music. "Cold, cold heart... hardened by you. Some things lookin\' better, baby, just passin\' through."

He bowed slightly before a door rose and he stepped through... and before them Edna Chaos walked out wearing a pale red dress, a mic in her hand as well.

"And I think it\'s gonna be a long, long time. \'til touchdown brings me \'round again to find, I\'m not the man they think I am at home, Oh no, no, no!" She strutted in front of the gate, flashing a sultry smirk at them all. "And this is what I should have said. Well, I thought it, but I kept it hid!"

She stepped through her own door and now Edwin was the one to emerge from a different one.

"Cold, cold heart! Hardened by you . Some things lookin\' better, baby, just passin\' through!"

Another swap and it was Edna once again.

"And I think it\'s gonna be a long, long time, \'til touchdown brings me \'round again to find, I\'m not the man they think I am at home, Oh no, no, no!" She gave a little twirl, dancing for a moment. "And this is what I should have said. Well, I thought it, but I kept it hid..."

She stepped through her door and both Edwin and Edna walked out of a door on the rampart, the two swaying to the music as they looked down at the confused army.

"Cold, cold heart. Hardened by you. Some things lookin\' better, baby. Just passin\' through."

The two of them walked back to another door before appearing once more before the army... and this time both of their eyes were glowing black and gold. The Commander didn\'t have time to brace himself as they thrust out their hands, sending Shadow Realm magic at them, knocking the first two lines of dueltroopers off their feet.

"And I think it\'s gonna be a long, long time, \'til touchdown brings me \'round again to find, I\'m not the man they think I am at home, Oh no, no, no! And this is what I should have said!"

Edwin began to sing over Edna. "And I think it\'s gonna be a long, long time, \'til touchdown brings me \'round again to find."

"Well, I thought it, but I kept it hid."

"I\'m not the man they think I am at home."

The Commander got to his feet only to be knocked down again as Edwin and Edna strutted towards them in time with the music, still firing off Shadow Realm magic at the dueltroopers, only Lord Enigma able to stand against the assault.

"Shoorah! Shoorah! Shoorah! Shoorah!"

And then the music stopped and the two were standing right before Lord Enigma.

"Was there a purpose to that other than attempting to annoy me?" they asked.

Edwin shrugged. "Can\'t annoying you be a purpose? Feels like it can be a purpose."

"Definitely a purpose," Edna Chaos echoed.

"Thank you for coming out here... it will make killing you all the easier."

"Ah," Edwin said with a smirk. "Thanks for confirming that theory."

"And what theory is that?"

"That you\'re scared of us."

A dueltrooper laughed at that. "Lord Enigma, scared of you? He is-"

Their Lord held up a single finger and the dueltrooper went silent.

"There is no need to be rude," he said gently before looking back to Edwin. "I don\'t believe someone who danced to Elton John is a figure I should fear."

"Have you seen some of his glasses? You could kill Godzilla with the edges on those things." Edwin just kept smirking as he adjusted his own glasses. "And I think we all know that you are lying right now. You are terrified of me."

"I assure you... I am not."

"You are... that\'s why you want to kill me right now. No attempt to make an example of me. No trying show your troops your dominance over me. Just get rid of me quickly." He paused before lowering his own voice. "Because you know in a real duel... you\'d lose. And you can\'t have your troopers seeing how weak you actually are."

Lord Enigma didn\'t say a word.

"Bwa... bwak bwak bwak bwaka," Edwin said slowly, still leering at Lord Enigma.

"Hmmm," the lord of the Dueltroopers said, clearly amused. "Very clever. If I duel you now then I prove that I might be scared of you and I am desperate to proof otherwise. But not dueling you assures that my forces will question my strength and possibly turn on me." He held out his left hand and his gauntlet unfolded into a duel disc. "It will be amusing to destroy you."

"My thoughts exactly," Edwin said as their duel began.