The Queen's Gambit: Season Zero

The Queen's Gambit: Season Zero

Sehrazat never believed the ancient magical stories of her family and the Millium Fragment they had kept safe for over 3000 years, was just an amulet.

Nothing more.

This all changes the day when she meets Yugi Muto and his unfinished Millennium Puzzle.

Where was Kihana when she needed her?!

Yugi/OC, Yami/OC

So yeah, watched Season 0 on YouTube and the plotbunnies plotted. So have this little Spin-Off Series to Queen's Gambit. It's not canon in the normal Queen's Gambit Universum, but more of an alternative universum.

I'm making Au's of my AU's, that deep I'm now XD

Anyway, enjoy Season Zero with Sehrazat and a very dark Afya :P

Chapter 1

Sehrazat wondered where all had gone wrong in their lives.

Was she dramatic?

Perhaps.

Her mother wasn't supposed to teach at Domino University yet! She should have begun teaching there next half year.

However, the Professor, who currently had the job, decided one day after another that he was sick of city life and not only quit his job but also moved into the wilderness of Japan.

So Domino University called desperate her mother, who still taught in Lisabon, if she could come sooner.

Domino in Japan had a special place in her mother's heart, that's where she had met her husband and Sehrazat's late father.

This was the main reason why she wanted to teach there.

So she said yes.

Also started the Faizan and the Schariq's, Kihana (Sehrazat's best friend) family to pack their things for Japan.

Of course, that's when Uncle Djamal had an accident at his work, breaking both his legs.

He couldn't travel like this!

For the first time in 3000 years, the Schariq and Faizan had to go for a while their separate ways.

Unbelievable!

Sehrazat and her mother Amira would move first to Domino and wait that the Schariq's, Rahila, Djamal, Kihana and little Sadiye, would join them after Djamal was healthy again.

The big house they had decided to move into together, stayed empty and Sehrazat and Amira moved into a flat.

It was so weird.

Sehrazat wasn't used to being really alone with her mother.

Since she could remember, there were Aunty Rahila, Uncle Djamal, Kihana and Sadiye with them.

Let her rephrase it, not weird, it was just plain wrong.

She missed them all so much, the most Kihana.

What should she do without her best friend at a new school?

Or even in life?!

Kihana protected and loved her.

Sehrazat never faced the first day in a new school alone.

Oh dear Isis, she felt like throwing up.

Brushing her mid-length dark blue hair, the Egyptian girl looked into the mirror.

By the Goddess Isis, Domino High School Uniform was an eyesore. Orange Blazer with green skirt and bow.

She may have orange eyes, like Topasz, but still what a colour combination, it didn't make her look good.

Unenthusiastic she made her way to the kitchen where her mother had made her pancakes.

At least something nice.

"Now princess, I know you are nervous since you will be without Kihana.", began Amira, looking at her daughter, who poked her pancakes more than eating them. "So I want to give you this."

Amira placed a little golden box with hieroglyphs all over it before Sehrazat.

The 14-year-old nearly choked on the bit of pancake in her mouth.

"You want to give me the Millenium Fragment?!", yelped Sehrzat, eeying the box. "But...but don't I have to wait for my 15th birthday to inherit it?!"

Her mother signed and caressed her hair: "My little princess, all is so different now. I think the gods will forgive us if I give it to you now. I think you will need its strength."

Oh no, not the magical mambo-jumbo bullshit!

The dark blue-haired girl wanted to protest, yet she saw the worry in her mother's eyes.

For Amira, it wasn't easy either to be away from the Schariq's, from Rahila her best friend.

She should accept how her mother just wanted to protect her extra, now that they were only in two.

"Okay, Mama."

Sehrazat put the box in her backpack.

How bad could it be to carry around a rumoured ancient magical item?

(*)

In Domino High School a young and really short boy named Yugi Muto listened to what his classmates were so excited about.

Since he really didn't have any friends, he could only so get the newest gossip, rumours and information.

"Did you hear?", said Anzu Mazaki, a girl who was the closest he had to friend, to Miho Nosaka. "We get a new student!"

"Oh is it a boy or a girl?"

"A girl, and she is so short. It's really adorable!"

"Oh, cute!"

Yugi admitted he got excited.

Maybe...he could make friends with the new girl?

If he managed to talk to her at all.

Soon their teacher enters the classroom with the new girl beside him.

Whispers broke out, about how tiny and beautiful she was. Some even said they never saw someone black so up close.

"Kids, this is your new classmate Faizan Sehrazat-Chan.", introduced Sensei her. "Please welcome her to our class."

Faizan-San made a perfect bow in greeting.

"It's nice meeting you all."

Oh, this was interesting she had a soft British accent.

"Would you like to tell us something about yourself Faizan-Chan?", asked the teacher.

The girl turned bashful and played with her fingers.

"Erm...there is not really much to say. I'm 14 and was born in London, but I'm originally Egyptian and I like games?"

She made it really sound like a question.

Yugi had to agree when nearly to whole class whispered she was cute.

Sehrazat was really, really cute.

Their teacher had mercy on her and told her to sit down beside him.

Beside him!

Happy Yugi raised his hand to show her where to go.

Maybe he really could talk to her!

Faizan-San sat down and he turned with a friendly, hopeful not creepy smile to her.

"Hi I'm Muto Yugi, you can call me Yugi."

When Faizan-San turned to greet him, their eyes met.

Topaz and Amethyst found each other.

And both gasped for breath.

Now that she was up close, Yugi noted how utterly beautiful Sehrazat was.

Not only cute but so beautiful it took your breath away.

And these eyes of hers...so brilliant and unique...he had never seen orange eyes...like topas...nonetheless he felt he had looked into these eyes a thousand times...like he was coming home.

Meanwhile, Sehrazat had similar thoughts crossing her mind.

This Yugi...his eyes reminded her of beautiful Amethyst. Eyes that she knew...even if it was impossible...it was like she had found a missing piece of herself.

He was a handsome young man!

Yugi turned red like a tomato, while Sehrzat hid behind her hair.

Both were sweating buckets.

None of them knew what do to now.

Unknown to them Yugi unfished MilleniumPuzzle and Sehrzat Millenium Fragment glowed for a brief second.

It was like the two items wanted to say hello to each other.

Somehow Sehrazat found the courage to crook out to Yugi: "I'm Sehrazat or just Sehra, nice to meet you."

Still, they didn't look at each other.

"Likewise...", mumbled Yugi back.

To their luck, their Homeroom Teacher started the lesson.

They could worry later if they made a complete Buffon before the other.

(*)

Finally, it was Lunchtime at Domino High.

Happy Sehrzat got her Bento-Box out and read in her little old family book hieroglyphs.

All Faizan learned from a young age to read the writing of their ancestors.

The classroom was nearly empty beside her, Yugi, who was building a card house and a boy with a basketball.

"Hey Yugi!", called the boy with the basketball out to him.

This in turn made Yugi lose his concentration and his card house fell down.

"Quit playing by yourself.", said Basketball Boy. "And come play basketball with us for a change, will ya?"

"Well, no thanks...The Team I join usually ends up losing...", reminds Yugi bashful.

"That's true."

With that Basketball Boy left and only Yugi and Sehrazat remained in the classroom.

The girl tried to eat and concentrate on her hieroglyphs.

She wouldn't look at the handsome boy and get tongue-tied around him.

Where was Kihana when she needed her?

For away in Spain was the answer.

However, she didn't look, but Sehrazat heard how Yugi talked to himself about how to finally finish something.

A treasure he always carried around with him.

The sunlight hit his treasure and its golden shine made Sehrazat aware of it.

She looked over, gasping shocked.

"You have a Millenium Item with you?!", she shouted.

This suprised Yugi so much that he nearly fall from his chair.

"Huh, what? What are you saying Faizan-Chan?"

Faster than he could look Sehrzat stood at his table, gripping the edge and staring at his treasure.

"I can't believe it! This must be the puzzle!"

"Excuse me Faizan-Chan.", asked Yugi wondering. "Why are you so excited and how do you know it's a puzzle?"

Without a word, Sehrzat took a similar, yet smaller box from her backpack and put it beside his.

"See? I have one too, it's the Millenium Fragment."

Now Yugi was the one who gasped.

Both boxes seemed to be a pair.

"Incredible!"

The blue-haired beauty nods in agreement.

"I never thought I would find another Millenium Item here in Japan! They are originally from Egypt."

Before they could talk more, a tall blond guy took Yugi's box.

Surprised Sehrazat blinked up at this intruder, while Yugi said his name in question.

Jonouchi.

"Yugi, whatcha talking about with the cute new girl? Are you boring her?"

"He didn't bore me!", talked Sehrzat, yet Jonouchi ignored her.

Okay, rude!

Grinning he held Yugi's box up and poor Yugi tried to reach it.

"G-Give that back!", begged Yugi.

"You are really rude.", mumbled Sehrzat, she wasn't courageous enough to say it louder.

Without Kihana she had zero courage.

Jonouchi didn't listen to either of them and threw the box away before he caught it.

"Man, caring so much for a box like this...", grumbled Jonoichi. "You know, Yugi...It's that part of you that...well, it really pisses me off. So I'm gonna have to put you through some trainin' so you can be a man and talk to girls right. How about it? Ya want this box back, right? Then come at me with all you got!"

Sehrazat made a face, while Yugi shouted: "I hate fighting and violence!"

Both Jonouchi and Sehrazat hold their ears.

Damn, Yugi could be loud.

"You may not have got any guts but you sure got a freaking loud voice!", pointed Jonouchi out.

"Anyway, just give me back that box!"

"That's right!", said another boy's voice. He was a brunette with really pointed hair. "Knock it off, Jonouchi!"

"Oh did you say something? Honda-Kun, the first year, who wants to make the school a better place by running for Student Council president but ended up rejected and falling to Janitor Patrol!", sassed Jonouchi.

"It's not Janitor Patrol!", corrected Honda angrily. "It's called the Beautification Patrol!"

"Your voice is friggin' loud, too!"

Then Honda started to talk more, but since Jonouchi and Yugi talked over him, Sehrazat didn't get what was going on.

Too many voices at once.

She only saw how Jonouchi opened the box and proclaimed the inside as boring.

Out of nowhere a tall brunette girl took the box from him and walked over to Yugi.

"Masaki!", said Jonouchi and Honda together.

"Anzu!", said Yugi happy.

Ah, was she his friend?

Jealousy raised its ugly head in Sehrazat.

This Anzu was taller than her and a pretty girl too.

Sehrazat had only bigger breasts.

Anzu scolded Jonouchi for taking Yugi's box and didn't back down as Jonouchi started his spiel about making Yugi a man.

Then another girl appeared, with lilac hair and a yellow bow in her hair, and thought Anzu was scolding her.

"Miho-Chan!", called Honda out to her.

This Miho took a few steps back.

"S-Sorry."

"That wasn't directed to you, Miho.", explained Anzu.

"That sure surprised me!", told Miho. "I wanted to eat lunch, but there's still so many people in line..."

Like horny horndogs Honda and Jonouchi stated they would get her something and off they were.

"Those two are hopeless...", summed Anzu perfectly up.

Miho just followed after them.

Sehrazat looked at how Anzu gave Yugi back his box.

"You're sure something.", praised Yugi with a tiny blush. "One word from you and they were scared off, Anzu."

"Guys like that would just get cocky if I didn't tell them off.", she explained. "You need to stand up for yourself once in a while, Yugi."

Oh...she reminds Sehrazat of Kihana...

That's when Anzu saw the other golden box on Yugi's table.

"Is this your too?"

"No, it's Faizan-San."

Anzu smiled friendly at her and Sehrazat felt bad that she had been jealous of her.

"Both your boxes seem to be a pair, that's cute."

The brunette sat down on the table before Yugi, Yugi back in his seat and Sehrazat in hers, so turned that she could talk with the other two.

"We were talking about them before this blond guy showed up.", told Sehrazat.

"Yeah, Jonouchi has the knack to interrupt everybody."

"Jonouchi-Kun is not really that bad of a guy.", said Yugi shy to the girls.

"It's because you think like that you get picked on.", rebuked Anzu. "By the way, what are your boxes, if you don't mind me asking."

"I wanted this to explain to Yugi-Kun before the blond interrupted us.", began Sehrzat and had the attention of the two others. "These are Millennium Items. Mine is called the Fragment and Yugi the Puzzle. There exist 8 of them and they all come from Egypt."

"Wow.", chorused Anzu and Yugi together.

"Do you know more, Sehrazat-Chan?", asked Anzu.

"I only know that the Fragment and Puzzle are supposed to be connected to each other, but the way it is right now, we can't check."

"What do you mean?"

Yugi answered her: "I'll show you, Anzu, if you promise to keep it a secret."

"Sure. I won't tell anyone, so show me, show me!"

Dramatically Yugi opened the box and the pieces of the Millennium Puzzle were shining in gold.

"Wow! It's pretty!", said Anzu and Sehrazat together.

Anzu picked a piece up.

"I understand now, why it's called the Puzzle, these are all puzzle pieces, right?"

Yugi nodded.

"My family runs a game shop. We've got games from various countries. I found this in the corner of a shelf, covered in dust, and I was allowed to keep it."

Then Yugi told how Sehrazat had been right about the Puzzle coming from Egpyty since it was found in a tomb there.

"Here! See these strange hieroglyphs written on the front? I bet they translate to something along these lines...Whoever solves this ouzzle, shall be granted one wish. Yeah right.", laughed Yugi. "That'd be too good to be true! You must be making fun of me with that look..."

Anzu laughed and promised she wouldn't then asked Yugi what he wished for.

Now he was a bit cheeky and said that this was his secret.

"Erm...if I can say something...", shyle Sehrazat raises her hand.

Her two classmates turned curious to her.

"What is it, Sehrazat-Chan?"

"Erm...the box actually says: Ye who solves me shall gain the power and knowledge of darkness."

For a moment, all was still.

Then...

"You can read hieropglyps?!", yelled Anzu surprised.

"Family Tradition.", Sehrzat shrugged her shoulder and got bashful. "Everyone has to learn how to write and read them."

"That's so cool.", complimented her Yugi, which made Sehrazat only shyer.

"What does your box say, Sehrazat-Chan?", asked Anzu excitedly.

"Erm...It says: Ye who inherited me shall gain the power and knowledge of darkness. Pretty much the same."

Then she put the two boxes besides each other and pointed at the back.

"To you see this, here is another text. Only when you have both boxes you can read it."

The brunette girl formally jumped in her seat.

"Oh, tell us Sehrazat-Chan!"

"Please.", added Yugi.

"Okay, it says: Alone we are nought, together we are one. Thy great pharaoh and thy great queen shall rise again."

Anzu and Yugi let out surprised sounds.

"So these items belonged to a pharaoh and queen.", summed up Anzu.

Sehrazat nodded.

"Yeah, pretty much the same is told in my family. The Fragment has been with us since 3000 years."

"So long, wow, and you kept it safe, that's impressive.", told her Yugi.

"Meh, I actually believe this is all a scam...some stories around the Millenium Items are just too crazy."

Before either Anzu or Yugi could ask what she meant by that Luchtime was over.

Both owners of Millenium Items put them back in their backpacks and Anzu made her way to her seat, as their other classmates came in.

When it was getting interesting, darn it!

(*)

Finally, the school day was over and Sehrazat could walk home.

Well, she would have if she hadn't stopped to watch some buff guys train.

What were they doing in Osiris' name?

And the boss from these buff guys had huge eyebrows.

Wow!

"Faizan-Chan!", called Yugi out to her and came beside her standing. Damn, he was at least five fingers taller than her. Sehrazat was really tiny. "Are you going home?"

"Yes, Muto-Kun, you too?"

"Mmh-Mmh."

Awkward silence falls over them.

"Erm...do you need something Muto-Kun?"

"O-Oh...Please call me Yugi!"

"Then call me Sehrazat or Sehra."

"Alright, Sehrazat-Chan I wanted to thank you for showing me your own treasure and reading the hieroglyphs, it's nice to know that my wish could come true."

Well, how he got that from inheriting dark powers Sehrazat would surely not know today, since Big Bushy Browns came over to them.

"Stop you two...You're Muto Yugi-Kun and Faizan Sehrazat-Chan, right?"

"Yes?", they said together and got a bit shy that they said it together.

"I actually have something I'd like to ask you.", said Bushy Eyebrowns. "Are any of you being bullied by any particular students in your class?"

"I just moved here.", answered Sehrazat confused, while Yugi disagreed with Bushy Browns.

"Now wait. People who are bullied often say that they are fine.", counter Bushy Browns. "I've been looking into the matter. But you two can rest at ease, Yugi-Kun and Sehrazat-Chan. Starting today, I, Ushio, shall take responsibility for you as your bodyguard."

"But we are really okay!", told Sehrzat. "Please we don't need your service. Let's go home, Yugi-Kun."

"R-Right!"

With that both turned towards their homes, not knowing what Ushio already had planned.

"That guy gave me the creeps.", confessed Sehrazat as she walked with Yugi home.

Both lived in the same neighbourhood as they found out.

"Yeah, me too.", agreed Yugi and shuddered.

Together they signed and then looked at each other with little shy smiles.

"Hey Yugi-Kun...shall we walk from now together to school and back?", took Sehrazat all her courage together.

Yugi's brain formally short-circuited.

Did a beautiful girl ask him to walk with her to school?!

"R-Really you want to walk with me?"

"I-I mean we talked a little bit only, but I would love to get to know you..."

"Me too!", shouted Yugi, which made Sehrzat smile pretty and the boy had nearly a heart attack.

"Okay, this is my stop.", told him Sehrazat and pointed at an apartment complex. "I live there."

"A-Alright, I will pick you up then tomorrow."

"Awesome! Till tomorrow Yugi-Kun."

"Bye Sehrazat-Chan."

Waving at each other they turned to their homes.

Not knowing what tomorrow would await them.

The flap of Butterfly wings...

Once upon a time, Hiccup had a best friend and Toothless a mate.

But through his decision to pick Berk and Astrid over them, they lost the girls.

In one world Hiccup and Leandra lived their lives away from each other…yet destiny is a funny thing.

Their first story "To Belong" was just one of endless possibilities and this here is another one.

Will Hiccup and Leandra finally be together?

Or will destiny repeat itself?

Chapter 2: Freedom

The next few days our dragon riders try to coax out the scarred and confused Christa.

She had to be for a long time a thrall, she mislearned what it meant to be free.

What it meant to not be hurt for the singles thing.

Trying to get her to eat or doing something nice for her, was too much for the girl.

She couldn’t handle it.

Hiccup and Leandra were starting to get desperate.

How could they help this traumatized child, if they didn’t have a clue how to even work through such terrible experiences she had to endure? What they had suffered on Berk was a joke against Christa’s life.

At night when they slept, Christa stood often up and sat down out in the cold.

She didn’t understand Hiccup and Leandra at all.

Why were they so nice to her? Treated her like a human being?

She was a thrall and nothing more.

Anybody could do with her what he wished.

That’s when the dragon with the golden eyes would join her, Starchaser was her name and sat beside her without touching.

The dragon only purred to her.

Like she was singing a lullaby to a babe.

Like her father once did, before the Eldians came for their tribe.

This…she could handle.

Since the dragon didn’t talk, didn’t want to do something for her, wanted to take care of her.

Starchaser just sat with her and purred. Expecting nothing in return.

Before the Eldians came she remembered that her village had been raided sometimes by dragons too.

It was tiny raids, but still a hassle for her people. Her father told her to be careful around dragons, that they would kill you given the chance, yet neither Starchaser nor Toothless was hostile.

They were loving towards each other and their riders and respectful around her.

But given what she had lived as a thrall for the Eldians it shouldn’t shock her that dragons were much kinder than humans.

So that’s why she let Starchaser sit with her.

Sometimes for hours long, while the others slept.

Never tried the dragon to touch her.

She was just near her.

A comforting presence that Christa nearly had forgotten what it felt like.

After a month of living with Hiccup and Leandra on the vacant island, Christa touched Starchaser for the first time.

She had seen the day before how Leandra had given her dragon a good scratch and pet session and…something like curiosity came to the surface.

Christa wanted to know how Starchaser felt.

It was scaly and warm…and comforting.

Starchaser just stayed still and let Christa pet her to her heart’s content. The little human girl was scarred like a rabbit, you needed to be careful around her.

Now, when they were alone together Christa always gave Starchaser pets.

First came the purring to show her that she liked the pets.

Then came the leaning on more for more pets.

Then begs for more pets.

Two more weeks passed and Christa could pet Starchaser as Leandra did.

It was an amazing feeling.

She didn’t know that Leandra was standing in the shadow of the entrance of the cavern and saw her petting Starchaser.

Leandra got an idea and hoped it would work.

(*)

The next day Leandra sat on Starchaser’s saddle and petted behind her.

“Come, Christa, let’s take a morning flight.”

Hiccup and Toothless were shocked to see that the little girl still carefully walked up to the girls and actually sat down behind Leandra!

Sure she wasn’t touching the other human but had no problem holding into the saddle or Starchaser.

Smiling happy that the first phase of her plan worked, Leandra gave Starchaser the go-to fly.

So they flew up the sky, high where the clouds were.

Christa was feeling things…she couldn’t describe them.

No wait…it felt a bit like before her tribe was attacked by the Eldians.

Full wonder she touched the clouds.

Is that what Leandra and Hiccup always felt when they rode their dragons?

This feeling…was it freedom?

A tear escaped Christa’s eye.

Was she truly free now?

After the first successful flight together, Leandra took now Christa always with her to her morning flights with Starchaser.

It seemed to do wonders for the girl.

Later when she talked with Hiccup about it, he agreed that Christa probably was just like them.

A dragon rider at heart.

Maybe her own dragon could help her?

(*)

“It’s so crazy, I really hope it works.”, mumbled Hiccup to Toothless.

It was now six months after they had saved Christa and our quartet with their guest flow together over the Barbaric Archipelago.

They were looking for a herd of wild dragons, in the hope, Christa would bond with one, which in turn would her help to fight against her inner demons.

“I see some Deadly Nadders!”, called Leandra back to them and pointed at a clearing. “Should we try?”

“Why not?”

So they made their dragons land near the Nadder herd.

Christa looked at them in question. She didn’t get why the flow till here and were now near wild dragons.

The girl trusted Starchaser and Toothless, but wild dragons were something different.

“Christa, do you wanna see how one befriends a dragon?”, asked Leandra softly.

Oh…!

They wanted to show her how to make friends with a dragon.

This…this sounded nice.

Shyly she nodded.

Hiccup and Leandra smiled at her.

She still was not used to seeing people smiling at her.

“All right, then watch closely how Hiccup will do it.”

With that Hiccup carefully walked up to the Nadders.

The dragons stared at him curiously. A human who didn’t attack them on sight was not the norm.

A blu-ish Nadder was close to him. So Hiccup did what he did with Toothless long ago and waited for the Nadder.

After a few seconds, he felt its snout.

Smiling he petted his new Nadder friend.

Christa was astonished.

Incredible so you made friends with a dragon?

That’s when she saw something shimmering on the side. For the first time in a long time, she got curious and walked up to it.

“See, Christa, that’s how you make a dragon friend!”, told her Leandra smiling. She turned to the girl beside her. “Do you want to try-“

Leandra stopped herself from talking as she saw that Christa wasn’t beside her anymore.

No, she was petting a dragon.

But not a Nadder.

“That’s a Changewing!”, shouted Hiccup in disbelief, what Leandra thought.

The blond-haired girl didn’t even notice that Leandra and Hiccup were freacking out behind her, feeling truly happy after a long time as she petted her new dragon friend.

As she inspected the shimmer it had turned into a big brownish dragon, who had titled his head curiously at her.

When her blue orbs meet the dragon’s yellow one, Christa feels something strange but wonderful.

Like she had found something she had lost.

She had done it like Hiccup.

Touching the dragon gave her even more of a strange and welcoming feeling.

The dragon liked her pets, purring at her.

Could she take the dragon with her?

Yes, she could.

It came gladly with her and Hiccup, Leandra, and their Night Furries.

So Christa flows for the first time in her life a dragon and feels true freedom.

Up in the sky, where the clouds were, she was just a girl with a dragon.

No slave.

No burden.

No coward.

Just a normal girl.

It meant she was really, really free finally.

She wasn’t a thrall anymore.

After Hiccup told her, that her dragon friend was male, she knew what to name him.

Frihet, freedom. 

(*)

Two weeks after Christa tamed Frihet, Leandra, and Hiccup asked her if she wanted to travel with them to Spain.

It was high time for the Night Furries riders to be back on the road, but they wouldn’t leave their new friends behind.

Christa didn’t need long to think about it.

Of course, she would stay with them, follow them.

Her village was no more.

She didn’t have a death wish to return to the Eldians and their mad chieftain Fritz.

There was no place she could go besides into the unknown.

No, she rather stays with her friends. That is what Leandra, Hiccup, and their Night Furries were for her and Frihet.

So two dragon riders became three.

In the early morning, they started their journey to Spain.

Our trio flows for some time above the clouds, thinking nothing bad as Toothless' and Starchaser’s ear plates perk up. Frihet also gets tense, he sensed it too.

The dragons glance over their shoulders to see a disturbance in the blanket of clouds.

A strange and arresting masked warrior rises from the clouds, standing upon something unseen. It's armour and cape flap in the buffeting turbulence.

This warrior eyes the dragon riders, pulling up alongside them.

The teens and the young girl sense the approaching figure in their periphery.

“What in Thor’s name…”, Hiccup trails off as he sees the masked warrior.

Is he dreaming?!

“Is this person flying?”, shrieked Leandra shocked out loud, what he thought.

Little Christa hugs Frihet’s long throat tighter, while her dragon purrs at her in comfort.

The warrior stares blankly at them, tilting his head in curiosity while cutting a menacing silhouette.

Then, just as gradually as he rose, the warrior dips back beneath the clouds, disappearing.

“Okay. No sudden moves!”, tells Hiccup his friends.

Suddenly, the warrior explodes out of the clouds before them, standing atop a large unknown dragon.

They circle the three dragon riders forcing them to tread air. The warrior points a staff toward Hiccup, unnervingly, as he returns to face them.

“Hold on, hold on!”, yells Hiccup.

“We are dragon riders like you, we come in peace!”, adds Leandra.

Christa nods her head rapidly.

Toothless, Starchaser, and Frihet growl in warning.

Suddenly, they're ambushed from behind.

Hiccup, Leandra, and Christa are plucked off of their dragons by other dragons and carried off.

“Toothless!”, screams Hiccup for his dragon, who can’t fly on his own.

Starchaser and Frihet try to reach to falling down Night Furry but get ambushed by other dragons too.

The last what our three dragon riders see is Toothless who falls into the ocean.

(*)

Hiccup shivers in the claws of the dragon, surrounded by the strange flock full of breeds he's never seen. He looks back for Toothless, now long gone.

“HEY! YOU LEFT MY DRAGON BACK THERE!  HE CAN'T FLY ON HIS OWN! HE'LL DROWN!”, growls Hiccup at the masked warrior, who leads the dragon flock.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO STARCHASER AND FRIHET?”, yells Leandra for herself and Christa.

The young girl shivers also in the claws of her dragon kidnapper and has to fight her tears.

First a human prisoner and now a dragon one?

Wasn’t she free?

Why did this happen?

The warrior offers no response to them, seemingly immune to the cold as he leads the dragon flock across the polar night an alien landscape, harsh and foreboding.

Out of the fog looms epic ice formations, jagged, and spiked, like an impregnable fortress.

The young dragon riders would be sure in awe if they weren’t currently worried for their dragons and themselves.

The dragon flock dives into its jagged folds. The wild ride suddenly gives way to multilevel, cavernous chambers made of ice and columns of basalt rock.

It's heavily populated with dragons of all kinds, looming in the shadows.

Leandra, Christa, and Hiccup get dropped in the centre.

Both teens help Christa up, who formally clings to Leandra for protection. The older girl hugs her back, trying her best to comfort her.

Hiccup knows he isn’t built like a warrior, but he would protect the girls as best as he could.

He stands before them calling out into the darkness: “We have to head back for my dragon! Also, give my friends their dragons back. Christa needs Frihet.”

As to prove his point he hears how Christa whimpers, as best as she can with a cut-out tongue.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.”, mumbles Leandra to her. “We won’t let anything happen to you.”

A hissing dragon closes in, sniffing, leering, and aggressive.

Hiccup holds his hands up to show he isn’t armed, then puts a handout and looks away.

The warrior watches keenly from the shadows, as the dragon coo curies at Hiccup, before he touches with his snout the hand of the young boy.

Several aggressive dragons close in behind the three dragon riders. Hearing their hisses, Leandra pets Christa on the head and says to her: “Just do what you did with Frihet. You know that dragons are our friends.”

Still, a bit frightened Christa lets go of Leandra and does as the older girl says.

Leandra does the same too.

After a few heartbeats, both girls feel a dragon snout in their hands.

This seems to calm down the other dragons as well.

The warrior tilted his masked head, curious. He dismounts his dragon and approaches Hiccup and the girls.

“Who are you?”, asks Hiccup.

Christa is again hugging Leandra who looks at the warrior in caution.

“You must be a dragon rider like us, why did you kidnap us?”, she wants to know.

He circles them in silence, taking them in.

This boy who is clearly from a Viking village, the tanned girl in a Viking dress but clearly a foreigner, and the little scarred girl in a dress who seems a bit too big for her. Clearly, it belonged to the older girl once and was sewn to fit the younger one.

“Do you even understand what we are saying?”, wondered Hiccup frustrated.

In answer the warrior whirls and hammers his staff.

In response, three large dragons ascend from the depths, carrying Toothless, Starchaser, and Frihet.

Hiccup and Leandra say the name of their dragon relieved, while Christa smiles big.

Toothless is dumped on the ground next to Hiccup, sopping wet. Hiccup rushes to him, petting him reassuringly. Toothless coos in relief.

“It's okay. I'm glad to see you, too, bud. You really had me worried there.”

Next Starchaser and Frihet get dumped before their riders.

Christa just hugs Frihet tightly, who wraps himself formally around her, while Leandra gives Starchaser a lot of kisses on her head.

“Oh Star, thank the lord, you are okay!”

Her dragon nuzzles her in a way that spells that she is glad that Leandra is okay too.

The warrior rattles his staff at a nearby dragon.

In response, it and the surrounding dragons produce firelight from their throats, spotlighting the three dragon riders and their dragons.

Then he sets down his staff and shield, and approaches Hiccup, cautiously and animal-like.

Toothless snarls and circles Hiccup defensively, but then instantly yields to the stranger's outstretched hand. With a quick, disarming gesture, the warrior lays Toothless down in a state of bliss.

Of course, Starchaser wants to protect her mate, but the same trick works on her too.

Now two blissful Night Furries lay on the ground.

Frihet gets ready to spit his acid, yet one upward gesture from the warrior, and he is a blissed-out dragon too.

Hiccup and the girls are astonished.

The warrior's hand continues toward Hiccup's face. He recoils, but the warrior persists, finding the faint scar on Hiccup's chin, glinting in the firelight.

Their kidnapper gasps and retreats a few steps.

“Hiccup?”, says surprisingly a female voice, shaking with emotions. “Could it be? After all these years? How is this possible?”

“Uh, should I... should I know you?”, asks Hiccup and looks to Leandra and Christa who shrug their shoulders at him.

They haven’t the faintest idea what is going on right now too.

“No. You were only a babe...”, starts the strange woman who slowly removes here mask.

A beautiful woman with green eyes and her auburn hair in three braids was hiding behind it.

Leandra and Christa look from her to Hiccup and back.

These two… look like they could be related!

What?!

The woman’s eyes meet Hiccups, equally wide-eyed and aghast.

“... but a mother never forgets.”, she ends her sentence.

Hiccup stammers, tongue-tied, aghast.

Christa has wide eyes and blinks.

Leandra is the only one who sums up the situation in perfection: “What the heck?!”

(*)

Our three dragon riders run after the woman through tightly winding corridors.

“Hold on! Wait just a minute! Come back here!”, calls Hiccup after her.

“This way. Come.”, is the only answer of the woman.

“You can't just say something like that and run off! You're my mother?! I mean, what the -- do you grasp how INSANE it sounds?!”, he shouts after her. “I have questions!”

“We all have questions. Didn’t you tell me your mother was eaten by a dragon?!”, reminds him, Leandra, holding hands with Christa, so she can keep up with them.

They follow Hiccup’s supposed mom over the difficult terrain. Together and helping each other clamber over a tall rock.

“That’s what everyone told me back home, I mean-“

He is lost for words as he sees where they are now.

A giant ice chamber teeming with ferns, waterfalls, hot springs, and thousands of new dragons.

Even Leandra and Christa stop walking with their chins on the floor.

Neither of the three has seen something that beautiful.

Their dragons join them, curiously looking around.

Hiccup spots his….mother clinging to a basalt overhang, watching him and the girls.

“This is where you've been for 15 years?”

“You believe her!”, whisper-shouts Leandra shocked, and even Christa gives him a look alla are you crazy?

“She looks how my father always described her.”, he gives them one reason. “Also she knows my name. Leandra, you didn’t use my name the whole time we were here with her, so how else should she know it?”

The two girls look at each other and then shrug.

Well, they can’t say anything against it and so long as Hiccup’s mom didn’t hurt them they would accept this.

Crazy as it was.

Hiccup’s mom nods from her perch answering the question of her son.

“You've been rescuing them.”, declares the boy.

She nods again, this time with a smile.

“Unbelievable.”

“I wanna add an uff to it.”, pipes Leandra up.

Christa nods in agreement.

This whole thing got crazier by the minute!

Hiccup’s supposed dead mom wasn’t dead but a dragon rider, like them, and a dragon rescuer.

Wow!

“You're not upset?”, ask him his mother unsure.

“What? No. I don't know. It's a bit much to get my head around, to be frank. It's not every day you find out your mother is some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante dragon lady.”, blabs Hiccup what comes to his mind.

He is still reeling too, okay?

She chuckles, and using her dragon's wing, lowers herself to the ground like a skilled acrobat.

“At least I'm not boring... right?”

“I suppose there is that... one... specific... thing...”

Excited dragons rush up to greet the three dragon riders and their dragons. The humans pet a few, marvelling at the vast dragon utopia before them.

“Maybe it’s time we introduce ourselves.”, says Leandra and grins crookedly at Hiccup’s mom. “It’s not every day you meet the dead mom of your best friend. I’m Leandra Alvarez, it’s nice to meet you…erm…Mrs. Haddock?”

Mrs. Haddock gives her a reassuring smile.

“Please a friend of my son can call me Valka.”

“Valka, okay, noted.”

“And who is the little one?”

Valka crouches down to see into Christa’s eyes, she is approaching her as one would do with a baby dragon.

“That’s Christa…mom.”, tests Hiccup for the first time calling her this. “She is a former thrall, her old master cut out her tongue so she can’t talk.”

 “You poor dear!”, Valka gasps. “No one will hurt you here, I promise.”

Christa gives her a shy smile.

That’s when Frihet snuggles up to Christa like he wants to say just try it and I will acid you back to the stone age.

“Incredible, you three made friends with dragons.”, can’t Valka help herself to say.

She never imagined her son would become a dragon rider. When she thought about him, she hoped he was more like his father. No one should be like her on Berk.

But these three weren’t on Berk.

Valka wonders what the story is behind this.

Asking now wouldn’t be wise, besides she was so curious about the two Night Furries before her.

“Can I... ?”, she asks her son and Leandra for permission, who nods at her.

She pets the two black dragons, who nuzzled her softly.

“Oh, they are beautiful. They may be the last of their kind.”

“Then it’s good that they are mates.”, explains Leandra. “Green eye is Toothless Hiccup male dragon and gold eye is Starchaser my female dragon. And our Changewing friend is Frihet, male too.”

“Night Furrie hatchling I would love to see this.”, gushes Valka, inspecting the talons as Toothless and Starchaser roll onto their backs, nuzzling her.

“And look, he's your age! No wonder you get along so well.”

Hiccup smiles, astounded by Toothless' affection for Valka.

“Our girl here is actually older, seventeen. How old are you Leandra?”

“Sixteen, Valka.”

Leandra gives her dragon a smug look.

“So you are older than me, heh Star.”

Starchaser gives a little huff.

“Toothless your mate is older than you? Do you have a thing for older girls or what?”, jokes Hiccup with his dragon, who huffs also at him.

Meanwhile, Valka checks Toothless teeth. They recede into the gums at her touch.

“And retractable teeth? Ah! How did you manage to—“

“--I found him in the woods. He was shot down and wounded. Starchaser found us a few days later.”

Valka winces and offers a sympathetic nod as she stands to caress a few of her own rescued dragons.

“This Snafflefang lost his leg to one of Drago Bludvist's iron traps.”, she tells the kids, who look at each other in confusion. Who is this Dragog Blood Fist? “This Raincutter had her wing sliced by razor netting. And this poor Hobblegrunt was blinded by a tree snare... then left to die alone and scared. And what of this? Did Drago or his trappers do this, too?”

“Erm…mom…”

“Erm…Valka…”

“Yes, dears?”

“Who is Dragog Blood Fist?”

The older woman blinks at them before she turns white as a sheet.

“You kids don’t know? Drago Bludvist is a madman who captures dragons! He is a vile human being who does anything to get his hands on dragons. I still don’t know why he does it. He doesn’t kill them…he just keeps them in cages.”

“Asshole!”, declares Leandra.

Christa frowns and Hiccup nods in agreement.

“Heh. Well, the crazy thing is...”, starts Hiccup to explain to his mom Toothless condition. “I'm actually the one who shot him down.”

His mother glares, confused.

“Because he wanted to be a Viking.”, adds Leandra. “Turned out he isn’t on and doesn’t want to be one.”

“What did your father think of your Night Fury friend?”

“I will never know… Me and Leandra actually run away from Berk and saved Christa from being hunted down like a pig.”

Valka blinked at the sheepish grins the kids gave her.

“All right, I think we need to sit down and talk. Come with me.”

(*)

The humans and the dragon riders are all around sitting in the cave Valka has turned into a little flat.

Hiccup and Leandra are finishing their tale, Christa drinking a cup of tea Valka had made for her and the older woman listening attentively.

“…And that’s about it. We were on our way to Spain before you snatched us up Mom.”, finishes Hiccup.

Valka can’t help but shake her head and smile bittersweet at him.

“To think you are just like me. You couldn’t kill a dragon. I hoped for you that you were more like your father, no one should get through what I expired on Berk, but hoping was fruitless.”, she signs.

“Valka do you mind telling us your story?”, asks Leandra. “I think it’s only fair.”

Of course, she would and the two teenagers and child listened to Valka’s story of the faithful night that changed her life.

“…It broke my heart to stay away, but I believed you'd be safer if I did.”, she ends and you can clearly see the remorse in her eyes.

If she only had known what her son had to endure without her, that he was like her…she would have snatched him and Leandra up and Christa too.

Hiccup considers his mother’s tale, then raises his eyes to hers, seeing the sting of remorse.

“How did you survive?”

Here she smiles and pets her owl-like dragon.

“Oh, Cloudjumper never meant to harm me. He must've thought I belonged here...come I will show you.”

So they follow her out again to the edge of the raised natural terrace, overlooking the steamy oasis with its flowing hot spring waterfalls.

Half-submerged in the warm lake below, a massive white dragon with pronounced, mammoth-like tusks rests benevolently on the banks, his stately countenance like that of a lion surrounded by his pride.

“Dios mio, it’s huge!”, can’t Leandra help herself.

Hiccup is speechless, while Christa’s chin is on the floor.

“In the home of the great Bewilderbeast.”, continues Valka her sentence from before. “The alpha species. One of very few that still exist. Every nest has its queen, but this is the king of all dragons.”

Dragons land and bow reverentially to the Bewilderbeast. Valka gestures to the spiked ice ceiling that acts as a sweating greenhouse.

“With his icy breath, this graceful giant built our nest. A safe haven for dragons everywhere. He protects us. We all live under his care. And his command.”

“Incredible.”, declares Hiccup, while Leandra and Christa nod in agreement.

They pass an eggshell-littered nursery.

Hatchlings dart out of it, greeting them excitedly and inciting chaos. Toothless, Starchaser, and Frihet are overwhelmed by their manic picking and scratching.

Cloudjumper baulks and sends them scattering.

“All but the babies, of course...”, chuckles Valka, as the hatchlings clamber on top of the Bewilderbeast and play on his massive tusks, despite his authority. “... who listens to no one.”

The Bewilderbeast lets out a frosty snort, sending off the youngsters to spread more mischief.

Now awakened, the Bewilderbeast raises his gargantuan head to take a closer look at the three young dragon riders, coming eyes to massive eye.

Valka bows in his presence, as do Toothless, Starchaser, and Frihet.

“I've lived among them for 15 years, Hiccup, Leandra, and Christa learning their ways, discovering their secrets...”

The gentle giant dragon acknowledges Hiccup and the girls with another icy snort, slicking back Hiccup's hair in a frosty veneer. Icicles are formed on the dresses of the girls.

The older woman laughs.

“He likes you three.”

“Wow.”

“Dios mio.”

Christa smiles just happy.

“You kids must be hungry.”, says Valka to them.

“Uh, yeah. I could eat.”, agrees Hiccup.

“Me too!”, tells also Leandra.

Shyly raising her hand, Christa means she could eat too.

“Good. It's feeding time.”

(*)

Christa is actually Ymir Fritz or as I like to call her more Ymir the founder from Shingeki No Kyojin or Attack on Titan.

My headcanon is that King Fritz, this bitch ass motherfucker cocksucker, gave Christa the name Ymir after Ymir the Norse Giant God since Eldians are based on the Vikings.

Christa is her real name I believe because when Frieda read the story of the devil and Ymir to Historia she called the girl Christa.

It makes sense that the direct descendants of Ymir and King Shit knew the real name of Ymir the founder.

So she will be called by her name Christa and not the slave name Ymir.

I choose the Changewing for Christa as a dragon because I think a dragon who spits acid is really cool and special for our Christa.

I was tempted to call him Eren, but Frihet-Freedom is better. XD  

Tatakae! XD

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Till next time my loves .3.

The flap of Butterfly wings...

Once upon a time, Hiccup had a best friend and Toothless a mate.

But through his decision to pick Berk and Astrid over them, they lost the girls.

In one world Hiccup and Leandra lived their lives away from each other…yet destiny is a funny thing.

Their first story "To Belong" was just one of endless possibilities and this here is another one.

Will Hiccup and Leandra finally be together?

Or will destiny repeat itself?

I know I said in the previous chapter that this would be a new version of  My War but then my brain went: What if it's a mix of Together, We Map the World and My War? SO Hiccup-Runeaway Fanfic and them after their traveling the world need to return to Berk to avoid the end of the world!

Yeah!

Also, the first half of the chapter comes from Chapter 5 from To Belong.

So enjoy!

Chapter 1: Runaway's

“Astrid, Toothless, and Starchaser. Toothless and Starchaser, Astrid.”

“They are so not charmed to meet you!”, adds Leandra dry and pets her growling dragon.

Astrid backs away, eyeing Hiccup, Leandra, Toothless, and Starchaser together with pure disgust. She turns and runs for the village.

“We're dead.”, deadpans Hiccup.

Satisfied with Astrid's departure, Toothless and Starchaser turn away. Leandra flicks her long black hair and turns to their baskets.

“Where do you think you're going?”, asked Hiccup the Night Furries and then turned to Leandra who picked up her basket. “And what are you doing?”

“If I remember right, we wanted to leave stupid Berk. Just getting my stuff.”

“Lee, you can’t be serious. Astrid is going to tell everybody about Toothless and Starchaser!”

“And? It’s not like we stay here. Let her blab about it all she wants. No one is seeing us again.”

From Hiccup comes only silence.

Frowning Leandra turns to her best friend and sees the fight in him.

“Hic, Hiccup, please no! Let us just go! What has Berk ever done to us besides making us feel miserable? We will be much happier in Spain with my Abuela or we can even see the whole world! Think about it, we will be free finally!”

The boy looks at the ground and makes a fist. He needs to make a decision now.

In another world, Hiccup chooses Astrid and Berk over his lifelong friend, who loved him unconditionally, setting things in motion which would separate them forever.

But this is not this world!

Hiccup saw a beautiful blue butterfly fluttering past him.

The boy had a feeling that destiny, his and Leandra's destiny was about to change with his decision.

Why is he even thinking about running after Astrid and making her see the truth about dragons?

She was a Viking, a perfect Viking girl who always ignored and even looked down on him.

Now she even hated him for being better at Dragon Training!

And he really thought he could change her?

If the years of bullying and the indifference of the adults taught Hiccup one thing, that all thought HE should change because they were right.

Only Leandra didn't want him to change.

She accepted him for who he was!

He could never choose her over stupid Berk.

"You are right.", he told her and grabbed his own basket. "Let's get out of this dump!"

His best friend gave him such a brilliant smile, that Hiccup felt himself blush.

He never saw her this happy.

"I know you wouldn't leave me hanging."

The black-haired beauty gave him a short hug and a kiss on the cheek before she mounted Strachaser.

Blushing red, Hiccup touched his cheek. His skin burned formally.

When they were little Leandra had given him cheek kisses, but this...this was different.

It made his stomach all tingly.

That's when Toothless with a huge gummy smile came to him, nudging him.

Was his best bud mocking him?!

"Hiccup!", called Leandra from Starchaser back. "Come on get going, before Astrid brings all Berk back here!"

Oh right!

Still blushing, he mounted Toothless and they flowed into the sky.

Towards freedom.

(*)

When Astrid reaches the village she makes haste to find their chief.

She can’t believe, no actually, scratch that she can totally believe that Hiccup made friends with a dragon. She feels like throwing up.

How could he do such a terrible thing?!

She didn’t care for Alvarez, she was a foreigner, no Viking, and she could never understand what honour it was to fight dragons who invaded them.

But Hiccup should! He was even their heir! The next chief!

Hah, he was a fraud and a traitor to all humanity!

He never was a Viking!

She finds Stoick talking with Gobber in the Great Hall. He seems so happy, surely because Hiccup was given the honour to slay the Monstrous Nightmare.

It didn’t sit well with Astrid that she had to take this away from the chief. He deserved a better and worthy son.

And what did he get?

A species traitor, who chooses them all over a dragon.

Like she goes into battle she makes herself ready to tell anything.

(*)

The night sky is beautiful today.

Were the stars always so bright?

Was the moon always so pretty?

Or was the world beautiful now, because they were finally free?

Leandra takes a deep breath and lets it out.

All her worries, all her sadness, all her struggles.

They will stay on Berk.

On this miserable rock, she had to endure for ten years.

She would have turned crazy if she didn’t make friends with Hiccup.

The black-haired girl turns her head to her best friend who flies beside her on Toothless.

He also seems…serene, and calm…like a huge burden was taken from him.

And it actually was, he didn’t need to kill the Monstrous Nightmare, he didn’t need to be the heir of his father, and he could finally be himself without worrying about disappointing someone.

Now he was only Hiccup.

A boy who loved to invent, learn new things and spend time with his best friends.

A Night Furry and a Spanish girl, who never treated him like he was useless.

Leandra was right, should Astrid tell his father about Toothless and Starchaser, they would never return to Berk.

They would make the whole world their home.

But first, they wanted to make a stop.

“So how long will it take us to go to Spain?”, ask Hiccup Leandra.

“If I study the map of my father right and how fast our dragons are flying and need breaks, maybe a week, two tops.”, answered Leandra.

“I can’t wait to see how you grew up.”, tells Hiccup her exited.

“Oh guys, you are going to love it. The colours, the lifestyle, the food! The village of my Abuela is on the seaside so Toothless and Starchaser can eat plenty of yummy Mediterranean fish!”

The Night Furries practically salivated at that, which made the Riders laugh.

“Do you think we are far away enough from Berk?”, wonders Leandra.

“Let’s fly for a bit more.”, tells her Hiccup. “Just to be sure. Toothless, Starchaser, you guys can still go on, right?”

From the dragon come agreeing huffs.

And so they fly under the starlight sky, full of new possibilities.

(*)

Meanwhile, on Berk, it was pure chaos.

Stoick didn't want to believe that his son was a traitor, that even Leandra was one, but one thing was clear.

Both children had vanished without a trace.

"I keep telling you, the flow away on their dragons.", spat Astrid, who was beside her parents.

Her mother told her to be still, which made Astrid pout.

Why didn't anybody believe her?

Instead, they had a search party going on for the traitors.

She hates that she is so young and no one will listen to her!

When she will slay the Monstrous Nightmare, they will have to believe her!

(*)

“Uurgh, I’m so tired.”, groans Leandra from her makeshift sleep place.

She has her head buried in her pillow and Starchaser wing wrapped around her like a blanket.

Her Night Furry cooed at her, giving her a gentle nuzzle.

Hiccup, who is like Leandra, cuddled up to Toothless yawns.

“Today was crazy. Let’s sleep in before we continue our travel to Spain.”, he proposes.

“Good idea.”, mumbles Leandra and cuddles up to her dragon.

Not even a second later she is in dreamland.

The boy chuckles at the soft snores his best friend makes and cuddles himself to Toothless too.

His dragon crooks at him.

“You will see bud, this will be an awesome journey.”, he whispers to his dragon, petting his snout. “Maybe we can find more Night Furries. So you and Starchaser aren’t alone anymore.”

At this, Toothless cooed.

Finding more of his and his mate’s species would be wonderful. They may have each other, but they still miss the flock they grew up in.

It doesn’t take long for the boys to fall asleep.

The last one to fall asleep is Starchaser.

She looks in the direction where they came from, this Berk.

The place that hurt her girl and also her boy.

Starchaser hopes with all her heart that these people will get what they deserve.

(*)

“What kind of giant-ass tree is that?”, ask Leandra fascinated.

They are flying over a great big forest, bigger than the one in Raven Point, but this tree takes the cake.

It nearly reaches this high up where they fly.

“Don’t know Lee.”, answer Hiccup also fascinated with the plant life. “I never saw something like that or read about it.”

“Oh, I wanna look at it, you think we can take a break?”

“Well, I don’t see why not, it’s nearly lunchtime. What do you say, Toothless and Starchaser?”

From the dragons come agreeing sounds.

So they take their lunch break under the enormous tree.

Leandra can’t help herself and enters it through the hole in the trunk, Starchaser follows her girl without thinking twice.

“Don’t hurt yourself.”, calls Hiccup, sitting by their fire with Toothless to her.

“It’s a tree, what can it do to me?”

The inside of the tree is really…creepy.

Even Starchaser is hissing at the small pool of water which is inside the tree trunk. Leandra guesses the water isn’t pure enough to drink.

Why else would Starchaser hiss at it?

A bit disappointed the girls rejoin the boys.

“And?”, asks Hiccup.

“There is a little pool of water in it, but Star hissed at it like it was an eel, so we better not touch it.”

Hiccup agrees and the humans start to pack their things.

They ate and explored a bit that was enough.

If they wanted to reach Span in a week, or two they needed to be on the road so to speak.

Hiccup puts his last thing away when he hears it.

The sounds of someone who is breathing heavily.

His company seems to hear it too because they stare in the same direction he is looking.

Not a second later some stumbles out from the bushes. Leandra gasped shocked and even Hiccup couldn’t help himself.

A girl.

A bloody dirty girl with an arrow sticking out of her shoulder, not older than ten perhaps falls on the ground before them.

She has blond hair with a band on her head and a simple dress.

Her eyes are blue.

There is so much pain in it, so much suffering and sorrow, that Hiccup wants to cry.

The girl looks at them and their dragons with a resigned look. Like she is expecting them to kill her.

This doesn’t sit well with either of them.

“You poor sweetheart!”, coos Leandra at her and slowly kneels down beside her to not spook her. “Who did this do you?”

“Can you help her, Lee?”, asked Hiccup, looking around for the danger the girl ran away from.

Their Night Furries are alert, staring into the forest too.

“Maybe. But whoever did this to her, has to be near, we should take her with us.”

It’s like the gods or Leandra’s god wants to prove her words right since they hear the barks of dogs, the galloping of horses, and the shouts of men.

“She has to be here!”

“She can’t hide from us!”

“You will pay in the name of Fritz!”

“Let’s go!”, commands Hiccup practically.

He and Leandra help the younger girl up and get her on Starchaser. The little girl let it just happen, without a fight, without a word.

Leandra grips her around the frail waist, making her sit before her.

Hiccup jumps on Toothless and the five fly up in the sky right on time, before one of these men breaks into the bushes.

They wouldn’t be safe here.

They needed to find an isolated island or something.

Leandra and Hiccup just hoped the younger girl would survive this long.

(*)

Hiccup was sitting with Toothless and Starchaser by their new campfire. He was staring at the flames and thinking about what happened in the last few days.

After they took the little girl with them, they found fast a little uninhabited island and made camp there.

They chose a cavern for it, so they would be protected from the elements.

Leandra didn’t waste time and used all her healing knowledge to help the unknown girl.

This was five days ago.

She still hadn't woke up.

His best friend said that their guest had lost a lot of blood, and she needed time to regenerate it.

But he had seen the fear in Leandra’s brown eyes. The fear that the little girl wouldn’t make it. That all her efforts to save her life were for nought.

Hiccup self didn’t know how to handle all this. Healing was Leandra’s field and he didn’t want to make her more hopeless by voicing his opinions.

As he had seen today the little girl, she seemed even more white than before.

This couldn’t mean anything good.

Frustrated he throws a little stick into the flames.

Toothless, whom he was leaning on, made a question sound.

“Just thinking, bud.”, he assured his Night Furry. “Don’t worry.”

Even Starchaser, cuddling up on Toothless’s side, gave him a wary look.

He grinned crookedly at the dragons.

That’s when Leandra stepped out of the cave after her hourly check-up on her patient.

Hiccup just looked at her. He didn’t need his best friends to use words.

“Her heartbeat is normal and she breaths better. She got even a bit of colour back. I’m sure, she will make it.”, said Leandra and leaned herself on Starchaser.

“That’s good, Lee. Any idea what we should do after she wakes up?”

“Asking her if she has family we can return her to, but seeing she has been hunted down…”

The boy understood.

“You are afraid that she doesn’t have anyone who would take her back because she was treated like a criminal.”

“Yes.”, signend Leandra. “Even if I can’t comprehend what crime a ten-year-old child could do, that allows such a manhunt for her.”

Yeah, but he could imagine a few things.

The Vikings on Berk weren’t like this, but he knows from his fat- from Stoick that other Viking tribes are ruthless with humans. Even more so if they did a crime in their eyes. It didn’t matter how old the person was.

Our quartet stays silent, each of them with their own thoughts occupied when they hear someone coming out of the cave.

It’s the girl, Leandra’s fur blanket wrapped around her, looking at them with confusion and a bit of fear.

“Ah, you woke up!”, calls Leandra, standing slowly to not spook her. “How are you feeling?”

Silence is her only answer.

Leandra titles her head, while Hiccup and the dragon try their hardest not to stare at the girl.

“What’s your name?”, tries Leandra with another approach.

Again only silence from the girl.

Not knowing what do to now, Leandra turns with a pleading look to Hiccup. He gets it.

“Do you understand us?”, he asked the girl.

Finally a reaction!

A tiny nod.

“But you can’t talk right?”, guesses Hiccup and gets a bad feeling when she nods again. It’s probably not sensitive to ask, but he needs to know. “Are you a thrall? Did your master cut off your tongue?”

“Hiccup!”, hisses Leandra.

How can he ask her if she is a slave? And if someone hurt her that bad? Leandra knows that other Viking Tribes have them and call them thralls, Berk never had them, they cared more for their dragon killing.

The little girl experienced enough trauma for her whole life!

Her hiss turns into a gasp and even their Night Furries crook shocked when the little girl nods.

Hiccup is the only one who stays calm, the lessons about Viking Culture Stoick gave him, help him to handle the situation better.

“Can you write?”, he wants to know. “Maybe your name?”

As an answer, the ten-year-old kneels down on the ground. With her pointer finger, she writes the runes of her name.

“Christa, that’s a pretty name. I’m Hiccup, this is Leandra and the golden-eyed dragon is Starchaser, and the green-eyed Toothless. No one is going to hurt you, Christa.”, he promises her.

Christa looks with vacant eyes at him. No child should have such a look on them.

She writes on the ground: The Eldians were hunting me, the chief Fritz orders it so. Why did you intervene? This was my punishment for freeing the pigs.

“Did I read it right, you freed pigs and they hunt you down like one?”, repeats Leandra shocked. “This is not a punishment this is cruelty!”

Starchaser and Toothless grumble in agreement.

“Eldian and Chief Fritz? Stoick told me that Fritz likes to hurt his thralls and slaughter whole villages.”, explains Hiccup to them.

“What an asshole and that’s still too nice of a word for this trash of a human being!”

Hiccup agrees wholeheartedly and turns back to the confused Christa.

Confused is better than the death look she had going on.

“Christa, Fritz has no power over us. No one has.”, tells Hiccup her. “We and our dragons are free and decide our own way in life.”

The blonde-haired girl stares at them for an eternity it seems, before she writes: You…are truly free? No masters?

“Yes, you will be safe with us, Christa.”, assures Leandra. “No one will come for you, you are free.”

Christa turns formally into stone. A single tear rolls down her cheek and Hiccup and Leandra can’t even look that fast as the girl runs back into the cave.

“Well…that could have gone better.”, signs Hiccup.

Leandra and the dragons nod.

(*)

Can you guess who Leandra and Hiccup just saved and which Anime I just made not exist? :D

We will meet more characters from different fandoms and also a bunch of OCs, hope you are okay with it.

Till next time.

The Queen's Gambit: The Story

The most powerful piece in chess is the queen.

When this piece joins the game of Duel Monsters anything will change.

With two dragon sisters, a magician and her descendant, the queen will take her rightful place.

As it should have been.

Okay, Real Talk!

What is wrong with my YU-GI-OH! story the Queen's Gambit: The Story?

Be brutal.

I can take it.

I want to know why I get clicks but no comments, besides from my dear friend Light guardian35 (I LOVE YOU, MY CUPCAKE!).

WHAT IS WRONG WITH IT???????

Chapter 15: Enter the Castle

Kihana was worried.

Not only for Yugi but also for her dear Sehrazat.

After the duel with Seto Kaiba, both small duelists were absent-minded.

Yugi kept staring at the door to Pegasus Castle and Sehrazat gripped her Milliunmin Fragment tight in her hands.

It was clear not only Yugi was in shock after his duel with Seto Kaiba, but also Sehrazat.

The white-haired beauty suspected Sehrazat wanted Afya to answer why her other ancestor, Yami, would risk the life of another to win in a card game.

Whatever Afya had told her, it had deeply shocked Sehrazat.

For the first time in her life, Kihana didn't know what to do. Sehrazat didn't react to her, or Maja or Sadiye.

Same with Yugi, he didn't react as Jonouchi wanted to give him his Star Chips to enter the castle, nor as his best friend tried to punch him.

Then Mai Kujako arrived.

Since she felt in debt to them, she wanted to give Yugi the extra Star Chips she collected.

Again, Yugi didn't react, which angered Mai. She challenged Yugi to a duel for the Star Chips, but surprisingly, Anzu stepped forward to duel in Yugi's place.

Finally, Sehrazat reacted.

"Wait, guys.", she said loud and clear, stopping anyone. "This is not something a duel can fix...this is something Yugi and I have to talk out with Yami and Afya."

Of course, Mai mumbled who these Yami and Afya were, however, no one gave her an answer.

Sehrazat stepped to Yugi, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Yugi, do you hear me?"

Incredible...!

Yugi reacted to Sehrazat's sweet voice.

He looked at her, his purple eyes still full of fright and terror.

"I know you are scared.", began Sehrazat and took his hand squeezing it. "But I will be with you...we have to face them."

The boy gulped and then... slowly nodded.

Sehrazat gave him a sweet smile and asked him to close his eyes, which he did.

(*)

When Yugi opened his eyes again he was with Sehrazat in a long corridor. On the left side were two rooms, which sent an aura of innocence and calm over him.

On the right side were two closed doors, with an Eye of Horus in the middle.

They were mysterious and dark.

He squeezed her hand in comfort.

"Where are we?", he whispered silently, afraid that something might jump out of the shadows of this place.

"Remember when I told you how Puzzle and Fragment are connected?"

The boy nodded.

"Well, this is the mental scape we share and with Afya and Yami. The innocent rooms are our Soul Chambers, while the dark ones are the ones of them."

"So...we are really doing this?", he mubled, unsure.

Gently Sehrazat turned his head towards her.

Her topaz eyes shimmered otherworldy.

She was so beautiful and were she gently caressed his cheek, the skin burned.

"We can't run away from them.", she told him. "Afya and Yami are parts of us. Let's at least give them a chance to explain themselves. Remember all the good things Yami did for you, as Afya did for me. I...I don't want to be afraid of them."

Yugi signed and put his hand over hers.

"You are so courageous Sehrazat, I admire you for this."

She gave him a sweet and shy smile.

"Will...will you stay with me?", he asked.

"Forever.", she promised.

Both felt these words meant much more...they could feel how their relationship changed.

It was their promise, the core of their partnership.

Staying on each other side...forever.

Infinite.

Strangely it felt like they did something familiar...a long time ago...and when they were other people...

(*)

The battlefield was chaos.

Damn Dartz and his cursed monsters!

He already lost sight of Critias and Hermos.

Where was his beloved Sophist?

Then a golden shine caught his eye and Timaeus raced and fought his way to her.

Sophist's golden sword slashed and hacked, her once beautiful golden armour was full of enemy blood.

"Timaeus!", she screamed as she saw him.

He screamed her name back: "Sophist!"

They stood side by side now, back to back, facing the incoming enemies.

"Will you stay with me?", she asked.

"Forever.", he promised.

(*)

Princess Yanara walked into the Palace Garden.

She had a feeling where her little brat of a cousin was hiding.

No, she shouldn't call him this right now, not even in her head.

Aunt Amunet's death, his mother's death, had hit them all hard.

She found the big vase he liked to play hide and seek with Mana and looked inside.

There he was, her cousin and fiancee.

Rolled into a ball and cried his little eyes out.

Yanara's heart bleeds seeing him like this.

Even if she didn't want to marry him, he still was her family.

In a way, she DID love him.

Gently she placed her hand on his spikey locks.

Tearful he looked up, the proud smirk and the confidence in his purple eyes were gone.

Both said nothing as she just caressed his hair.

When her father had died, he had done the same for her.

It was better than the empty words of sympathy the adults spouted.

"Will...Will you stay with me?", he asked with a choked voice.

"Forever.", she promised.

(*)

Sehrazat and Yugi blinked in confusion at each other.

What were these memories they have seen and felt?

"Man, this place just got weirder.", found Sehrazat, which made Yugi laugh.

She smiled, happy to have made him laugh.

Yugi gave this amazing girl a loving look.

He felt how his feelings for her got deeper.

As she held out her hand to lead them to their Yami he took it without hesitation.

Wherever she would go, he would follow her, because she gave him the courage to face anything.

(*)

Even if Yami's Spirit Chamber was a Labrinthy with traps behind the countless doors, a few rooms were normal.

He also had a bedroom.

Afya and he just lay together in his big lavish bed holding hands...for more, they didn't feel like it.

The guilt of causing Yugi and Sehrazat pain weighed heavy on them.

But...it seemed to be the only option at the time.

Sacrifice Kaiba to get into the castle to save Yugi Granpa and Sehrazat's Mother's soul.

They may be ancient spirits, however, they had to learn a lot, it showed.

That's when Yami felt how someone or more someones entered his Spirit Chamber.

He sweetly called out to Afya.

She understood him, without saying more.

Hand in hand they got out to the room.

It was time to face their Hikari's.

(*)

Yugi would lie if he said he wasn't in aww at Yami's Spirit Chamber.

A maze, full of stairs and doors that lead to who knows.

It perfectly reflected the mysterious nature of Yami.

"They are coming.", whispered Sehrazat to him.

Indeed a door on the left was opening.

The two young to-be lovers held each hands tighter, as the royal couple came towards them.

As the four stood before each other, for a moment no one said a thing.

Then...

"We 're so sorry.", cried Afya, putting a hand on her heart. "We never wanted to make you scared of us."

Yami took over: "I didn't think...no I only thought about getting you into the castle, Yugi, for your grandfather's sake. I know this is not an excuse, but even if we don't remember a lot of our past some things still linger. Like the thought that sacrificing one life to save another is worth it."

"Or you sacrifice a whole flank of your army to save the rest.", added Afya.

Her husband nodded in agreement.

"What we wanted to say.", they said together and then bowed before them. "We are sorry. We still have to learn a lot about this new world."

Sehrazat and Yugi looked at each other.

They felt that their spirits were truthful.

"Thank you for not lying to us.", said Yugi. "Please don't bow before us. We wanna talk eye to eye."

Immediately the royal couple stood straight.

"I think, Yugi and I get your points. In war, this is probably the only way to save some people.", admitted Sehrazat.

"But this is not war.", reminded Yugi. "I can't and I won't pay with another life for my grandpa's one and Sehrazat wouldn't for her mother. Maybe if it had been a different situation, we would, but it was a card game."

Sehrazat nodded.

"All in all the situation was out of control. Kaiba was desperate and used this against us. The only way was to stop the duel."

"Yes, we see it now too.", spoke Afya, for herself and her husband.

All four smiled at each other.

They could feel, how their bonds repaired themselves.

"So...we are good, Yugi?", asked Yami.

The younger boy nodded and held his fist out.

"We are good, Yami."

Both grinned and made a bro's fist and then high-fived each other.

Meanwhile, Afya and Sehrazat hugged each other tight, relieved they had each other back.

"Now your turn pops!"

The pharaoh couldn't look so fast as he had an armful of Sehrazat.

She hugged him.

A sweet forgotten feeling came up to him. He swore he heard the beautiful laugh of a little girl and felt her soft arms before he hugged Sehrazat back.

The girl was his descendant, his flesh and blood and the closets Afya and he had in a child in this modern world.

Of course, he loved her.

Yugi smiled happily at this scene before him, Yami and Sehrazat looked really like father and daughter, as he felt how Afya hugged him and kissed his forehead.

Surprised he blinked up to her, a tiny blush on his cheeks.

The queen laughed softly.

"You aren't our flesh and blood like Sehrazat, but we love you too Yugi. You are also our child."

"You are too kind Afya.", he told her, but hugged her back.

Finally, all was good between them all.

(*)

The others stared at how Yugi and Sehrazat held hands with closed eyes for a few moments before they opened them with relieved smiles.

This made hope return in each heart.

They must have cleared things with Afya and Yami.

Good.

Amazing.

With a big thank you to Mai Yugi took the Star Cips from her and they made their way into the castle.

The Hair Guy was waiting for them before the entrance door.

"You guys? You collected Star Chips?"

"Yeah!", said Mai.

"But only five more participants are allowed to enter the finals."

So Mai, Kihana, Sehrazat, Yugi and Joey stepped forward showing him their full Dueling Gloves.

"And we're the five.", proclaimed Mai.

"We met the requirements.", added Jonouchi. "So there's nothing you can say."

Smiling Joey walked past Hair-Guy, the other duelist following him.

"Excuse us.", smiled Mai and was so kind to open the entrance door with her Star Chips.

"We finally reached the castle.", said Yugi happy.

"It felt really like two years to stand here now.", mussed Sehrazat.

Our Duelist waited for the others to join them, but Hair-Guy was sadly not that stupid.

He saw they had no Star Chips, one was even a little girl!

Only thanks to Mai's charms and her heavy bag which hit Hair Guy in the face, the whole group could enter.

They followed the long corridor, coming to a stop at one of the balconies of a marmour hall.

There were other duelists already on the balcony.

Beside Bandit Keith, there was Dinosaur Ryuzaki and a good-looking boy with black hair and a tan, wearing a leather jacket and simple jeans with sneakers.

No...Sehrazat started to shake and hide behind Kihana.

"Sehrazat?", whispered Kihana. "What's wrong."

"L-Look.", was the only thing she managed to whisper back.

As Kihana saw the other boy, she understood why Sehrazat had reacted like this.

They both know this asshole!

A growl came from Kihana and she wanted to bite and claw him.

He would never again get close to her Sehrazat!

The others, beside Sadiye, who also recognized the boy and stood now at the site of her sister to protect Sehrazat, squabbled with Bandit Keith.

Joey tried to punch him for entrapping them in the cave, yet the older man was stronger.

"An entertaining sideshow is about to start.", told Bandit Keith.

"You guys should take a look.", added even Dinosaur, who already looked down from the balcony, like Asshole.

Making sure Asshole didn't see Sehrazat, all looked.

There was Seto Kaiba on a metal gangplank!

Bandit Keith said how a duel between him and Pegasus was about to start.

And sure enough, there was Pegasus.

Kaiba wanted to use his Duel Disk to battle Pegasusu, however, the creator of Duel Monsters played dumb, as if he didn't have a clue how it could work.

Then he told Kaiba if they really should use the Duel Disk someone else would play for him.

And this someone else was...Mokuba?!

Finally, all made sense.

Pegasus had snatched Mokuba right from Seto's nose and was now keeping him hostage.

That's why Kaiba pulled the stunt in his duel with Yugi and Yami to kill himself.

Kihana understood this as a big sister herself really well.

She would do for Sadiye and Sehrazat anything.

So Seto and Pegasus played in a normal duel arena.

The whole duel was a joke, till Pegasus pulled out Toon World.

Even Sehrazat, who still hides behind Kihana and Sadiye from Asshole, was shocked.

Toon World was the rarest and most powerful card in Duel Monsters.

Of course, Pegasus would keep the only one for himself.

His toons destroyed Kaiba's monster and then it got just humiliating, as Pegasus managed to get a Blue Eyes from Seto and turned it into a Toon.

Seto, Kihana and Sadiye made all the same disgusted faces.

Kihana felt even offended on behalf of Blue Eyes White Dragon.

This was so wrong!

In the end, Seto lost and Pegasus took his soul, as he did with Yugi's grandpa, Sehrazat mother and Mokuba.

(*)

Scared Sehrazat trembled from nerves in one of the bathrooms of Pegasus Castle.

She couldn't believe Asshole was really here!

Her past was catching up to her.

But why now and here?

Till now, thanks to Kihana and Sadiye, he hadn't seen her, but dinner would be served soon and all Duelists, as the non-duelists, had to participate in it.

Maybe she should just stay here and ask Kihana to smuggle some food to her.

That's when the door opened...and He stepped inside!

"When I saw the two Schariq's I wonder why I didn't see you, doll.", he grinned like the slimeball he was at her. "Must say you still are tiny but your amazing tits are bigger."

"L-Leave me alone, Javier!"

Javier Alphonso, stepped closer to Sehrazat, grinning wider.

He loved that he still had power over her.

"Come on, doll.", he took a strain of her hair and inhaled its smell. "We were so good together. I miss your titfucks."

With all her anger Sehrazat showed him away, she felt how Afya wanted to take over, to protect her, but she had to do this alone or he would forever haunt her.

"We were NEVER really together!", she shouted. "You used me as a fucktoy and had 4 other girls too!"

"Oh come on doll, you were my favourite you know that."

A loud slap could be heard and Javier had Sehrazat's handprint on his cheek.

He blinked surprised...the doll he knew would have never done this.

"You got feisty...I like that!"

"Fuck yourself!"

With this Sehrazat ran out of the bathroom, tears streaming down her cheeks.

For now, she had managed to fight against him...the dark blue-haired girl hoped she would still have it for the rest of the tournament.

REAL TALK

Okay, Real Talk!

What is wrong with my YU-GI-OH! story the Queen's Gambit: The Story?

Be brutal.

I can take it.

I want to know why I get clicks but no comments, besides from my dear friend Light guardian35 (I LOVE YOU, MY CUPCAKE!).

WHAT IS WRONG WITH IT???????

The Queen's Gambit: The Story

The most powerful piece in chess is the queen.

When this piece joins the game of Duel Monsters anything will change.

With two dragon sisters, a magician and her descendant, the queen will take her rightful place.

As it should have been.

I hate writing duels but I hope you will like it anyway.

Sacred Warrior of Isis is a card of my own creation so don't steal.

Take a look at my DeviantArt to see her in all her glory.

Also, I want to give a huge shout-out to my dear friend Light guardin35.

She has a wonderful series going on with KaibaXOC.

Give them a try.

Here are the links:

Book 1:https://www.quotev.com/story/12353010/Yu-Gi-Oh-book1-Lost-Purpose-Kaiba-X-OC/1

Book 2: https://www.quotev.com/story/14760910/Yu-Gi-Oh-Book-2-The-return-of-Kaiba-Noah-KaibaxOC/1

Now on with the story!

(*)

Chapter 14: For What We Fight

The first turn in the Tag-Team-Duel between our Royal Couple and the Labrinthy Brother had Green Twin.

"I play this card!", dramatically he summons it. "Labrinth Wall!"

That's a monster card with zero attack points but with 3000 defence points. It will be hard to take down these walls!, thought Afya, already trying to find a strategy to destroy the forming Labrinthy on the Duel Battle Field.

Their watchers were surprised to see the Labyrinth, while Yami also thought what they could do.

Such a battlefield he had never seen!

Green Twin started to talk: "Since my turn is done, I'll explain the rules. Each player begins with 2000 Life Points as usual. But if either teammate loses all their life Points, that team loses."

"Each team alternate turns, as do the players.", took Orange Twin over. "Next, I'll explain how to solve this Labyrinth Field. All monsters played on the field will be similar to chess pieces. If the monster is in attack position, it can move the same number of spaces as its Level during that turn. But if it loses in battle, it can't escape the labyrinth. If you win and exit the labyrinth, you can open one of the two doors."

"It's your choice which door to go for.", told Green Twin.

"Choose the door that you think is correct.", said Orange Twin.

Afya and Yami stared them down in anger.

The twins were playing with them.

Yami, called Afya in their minds. Can you hear me?

Yes, dear. I know what you are thinking and I agree, they will try anything to trick us.

Right, we have to out-trick them.

Fast they discussed what they were going to do before Afya turned regal to the twins: "It seems unfair that you don't give us even a hint, don't you agree?"

Both twins grinned evil and promised that one twin would from now on say the truth, while the other would lie. But who lied and who not they had to find out.

"Better than nothing.", said Afya.

The twins were a bit stupefied about how she didn't try to ask more, no, her orange eyes glimmered dangerously as if they stepped into her trap, but it was absurd.

Right?

Yami had the next turn and played Beaver Warrior in attack position.

Beaver Warrior: (ATK1200/DEF1500)

He lets it advance four spaces into the labyrinth.

The Orange Twin let out an evil laugh and played Shadow Ghoul and Polymerization to fuse it with Labyrinth Wal.

They saw how a shadow raced on the walls of the maze towards Beaver Warrior. Coming out was Shadow Ghoul who destroyed Beaver Warrior.

Yami Life Points drop to 1600.

"Hey, this isn't fair, you can't do that!", shouted Jonochui, waving angry his fist around.

Did these stupid twins trick Yami and Afya?

Orange Twin calmly said it was perfectly legal since Shadow Ghoul had become Wall Shadow and moved onto the Wall, which had no spaces.

"Calm down, Joey.", said Afya to him. "These twins think themselves so high and mighty with their Labrinthy but I will take it down!"

This made the Twins laugh.

"How are you going to do that?", they asked amused.

Afya grinned dangerously, a smile promised danger and pain in their future and they started to sweat.

Why was she so sure of herself?

"I play the Magic-Card De-Fusion and use it on your Wall Shadow!"

"No!", shouted Orange Twin, as Wall Shadow became Shadow Ghoul again.

Shadow Ghoul stood where Beaver Warrior had stood.

Shadow Ghoul: (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1300)

"Then I play Dark Magician Girl in attack position. And make her move up before your Shadow Ghoul."

Dark Magician Girl made an elegant flick-flack to her position and stood ready before Shadow Ghoul.

Dark Magician Girl: (ATK2000/DEF1700)

Shadow Ghoul: (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1300)

"Now my Dark Magician Girl destroy Shadow Ghoul. Dark Burning Attack!"

The female Spellcaster twirled her staff before she sent her enemy to the Graveyard.

Orange Twins' Life Points dropped to 1600.

Angry he gritted his teeth, while Afya and Yami's friend celebrated.

"Wonderful move, my dear.", praised her Yami.

Afya flicked her long dark blue her and winked.

"Child-Play, my darling."

Green Twin swore revenge for his brother and placed a card face down.

He also played Labyrinth Tank in attack position and moved it up seven spaces.

Labyrinth Tank (ATK: 2400/DEF: 2400)

It's Yami's turn and he summons Celtic Guardian and has him move four spaces.

Celtic Guardian (ATK: 1400/DEF: 1200)

Since Wall Shadow was destroyed Orange Twin hadn't any Monster, but he used Monster Reborn to get Shadow Ghoul back.

Shadow Ghoul: (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1300)

Orange Twins doesn't move him, let's him guardine for now the Labrinthy Exit.

Now it was Afya's turn again and she prayed she would get the card that she needed to destroy the Labrinthy.

I believe in you, she heard Yami's voice in her head, Believe in the Heart of the cards, my love.

She nodded and dramatically drew her card, looking at it and she laughed.

"Why are you laughing?", asked Orange Twin.

"What is so funny!", shouted Green Twin.

The queen just smiled wickedly.

"Your little Labrinthy was fun for a while, but I told you will defeat it! I play...Sacred Warrior of Isis!"

A beautiful red-haired woman in an Egyptian top and skirt with two slits and golden jewellery with a silver sceptre appeared on the field.

Sacred Warrior of Isis: (ATK 2900/DEF 3100)

The Twins got a bit nervous, the girl had such a rare and powerful card, but how did she want to destroy the labyrinth?

The next card was the answer.

"I also play Shield and Sword, switching the attack and defence points of all the Monsters for one turn including your stupid Labrithy Wall!"

Labyrinth Wall (ATK: 3000/DEF: 0)

Sacred Warrior of Isis: (ATK 3100/DEF 2900)

Shadow Ghoul: (ATK: 1300/DEF: 1600)

Celtic Guardian (ATK: 1200/DEF: 1400)

Labyrinth Tank (ATK: 2400/DEF: 2400)

Dark Magician Girl: (ATK 1700/DEF200)

"Say bye-bye to your Labyrinth Wall, Sacred Warrior of Isis attack with Judgement of the Goddess!"

Sacred Warrior of Isis swung her sceptre powerfully and with a loud boom the Labyrinth was no more.

Green Twin Life Points were now 1900.

Both twins' mouths clapped open, they...they couldn't believe it, no one had ever taken down their Labrinthy Wall!

What should they do now?!

In the end, they lost spectacularly since all their strategies were relaying on the Labrinthy Wall so it was easy for Afya and Yami to take down their pathetic monsters.

Now only which door was the right remained, but Yami tricked them and they walked out of the underground with all Duelists having 10 Star-Chips.

It was time to go to Pegasus Castle!

(*)

"We did it!", celebrate Joey as they were finally outside. "We're back to the surface!"

"Where on the island are we?", wonder Honda.

That's when Bakuras Ring pointed upwards at the same time as Anzu.

"Look."

"We are directly at the steps of the castle, awesome!", grinned Maja.

"Finally, felt like nearly two years to reach this point!", mumbled Sadiye annoyed.

Kihana patted her head in comfort.

"We finally made it here, Yugi, Sehra and Hana!", said Joey, while the other duelists nodded in agreement.

It had been a long and hard way, but they could now enter the finals.

One of them would surely face Pegasus and get not only the prize money but the souls of Yugi Grandpa and Sehrazat's mother back!

Jumping from nerves Sehrazat shouted: "Come on guys, let's don't waste time! Up the stairs."

All groaned.

They had to go up all these stairs again?

Were was an elevator when you needed it.

However, they couldn't do anything so they started to climb them up.

Sadiye was the only one who had it good. Her sister took pity on her and carried her piggyback style.

"Dammit.", groaned Maja, as they were half the stairs up. "I gonna find the guy who invented stairs and make him fall down these stairs, so he will break all his bones and his wife will leave him to be with the guy who invented elevators!"

"Because elevators are much sexier than stairs, we know Maja!", chorused all together.

She had been mumbling this for a while now.

The Magician in training pouts.

So mean.

When they finally reached the last flight of stairs they saw...Seto Kaiba waiting for them before the castle?

"Kaiba?", said Yugi in suprised.

The Schariq sisters looked around, yet they saw no Mokuba.

"Kaiba-San.", called Kihana out to him. "Where is Mokuba-Chan?"

"Yeah where is Mokuba?!", demanded Sadiye to know.

Seto didn't say a thing, he just couldn't.

What had happened was alone his fault!

Because he had not been careful Pegasus did something to Mokuba, making him soulless and keeping him a prisoner.

He couldn't admit it before...Kihana and Sadiye...if he remembers their names right.

Mokuba had talked about them so full of gratefulness, how Kihana had cared for him and Sadiye had become his friend...he felt it would make the sisters angry.

"You won't go any further.", told Seto the whole group.

"What's wrong, Kaiba? What's going on?", asked Yugi.

"Why aren't you answering where Mokuba is?", added Kihana.

She had a bad feeling in her stomach.

Instead, to give them a straight answer he spouted this: "I realized what my destiny is on this island. Yugi, my existence is not favourable for you. When we face each other, the winds of battle swirl forever."

"Kaiba, stop fighting!", begged Anzu.

"I'll face you, Kaiba!", shouted Jonouchi. "I'll crush you!"

The brunette CEO just huffed, like Jonouchi could do this!

Joey was ready to smash his face in but was stopped by Bakura and Honda. Bakura even reminded him how he was no match for Kaiba and Joey defeated looked down.

Sadly his friend was right.

Anzu told Bakura that he had gone too far, while Maja whispered it was still the truth.

So Anzu stared Maja down and she grinned sheepishly at her crush.

That's when Kaibe noted how Jonouchi had 10 Star Chips and mockingly upgraded him from loser to nobody, which in turn made Joey angry again, only Honda and Bakura stopping him.

"It must be a miracle.", mussed Seto stern. "Since that time, I've been searching for an answer. On why I lost my duel against Yugi. How did Yugi achieve a miracle? I think I found the answer. It was something Yugi had and I didn't."

From his shirt, Seto pulled his Duel Monster Card locket with the photo of little Mokuba out. He stared at the picture of his beloved brother and wondered if a person became stronger if they had something worth protecting.

There was only one way to find out...

"Yugi!", Kaiba yelled. "Defeat me if you want to enter the castle! This is the duel of destiny"

All saw the fire in Kaiba's eyes, whatever happened, this time he was serious.

Nearly everyone told Yugi he shouldn't accept this duel. It was nonsense, he had already 10 Star Chips.

However, Kaiba called down how Yugi would understand why they had to duel.

Their Duelist Blood brought them back together.

Dramatically the wind wiped around them and Yugi and Yami switched places.

"Fine, Kaiba! I accept this duel!", said Yami. "And I will defeat you."

Since they were actually doing this, they all followed Kaiba to a place in the castle.

Kaiba stood at one side of a little flat tower and Yami on the other, while the others all somehow managed to squeeze in the little gangway, which led to the little towers.

The wager in this duel was 5 Star Chips.

If Kaiba won he would have 10, if Yami he would have 15 also 5 extra ones.

Gran Gran asked Sehrazat her Yami. Why does pops want to duel Kaiba so much?

Duelist Blood...once it was called Warrior Blood. It's something inside you which doesn't let you back down on a fight. Never.  

Of course, you have it too.

Of course, child of mine if Kaiba-San would have asked to duel me, I would have accepted. It's something about honouring you and your opponent.

Sehrazat didn't quite get it, but maybe you had to be a warrior queen like Afya to understand this.

The duel between Kaiba and Yami was brutal from the beginning till the end.

For the longest time, it seemed Kaiba had the upper hand, crushing Yami's whole deck with the Trap Card Crush Card Virus making every monster in his deck that has 1500 or more ATK useless.

Not only that Kaiba even managed to fusion his three Blue-Eyes White Dragons into the mighty Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

It seemed clear who would be the winner but with Kuriboh and Multiply combined Yami had the ultimate defence, saving so his Life Points, till he drew the cards to make a special combo.

Yami uses Polymerization to fuse Mammoth Graveyard to Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

Since Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon is a living monster, it cannot properly fuse with the undead Mammoth Graveyard, so it loses ATK equal to the ATK of Mammoth Graveyard during each of Yugi's End Phases.

When the dragon is so down on Life Points Yami summons Celtic Guardine to finish this duel.

That's when all hell breaks loose.

Kaiba steps to the zines of the tower and proclaims he will jump to his death if Yami attacks.

All shout in agast not believing how Kaiba will actually do this because of a card game and only shout louder as Yami declares his attack.

With tears in her eyes, Anzu races to Yami begging him to not do it.

This reaches Yugi, who takes control of his body and commands the Celtic Guardian to stop.

Crying the young boy falls to his knees as Kaiba finishes off with one of the revived heads of the dragon the Celtic Guarding making Yugi lose the duel.

Now all his friends run up to Yugi who shouts how scared he is of this games and Yami.

Only Sehrazat stays clued where she is and grips her Millenium Item.

In the next moment, she is in the corridor where she and Afya Soul Chambers are separated.

The young girl knocks hard on the door of her ancestor.

"Afya!", she shouts. "Why did Yami try to do this?! Is winning so important to you both that you would sacrifice a human life?!"

But the door stays closed.

Sehrazat sniffs and finally realizes there are two more doors in their Soul Chambers.

One is like hers, innocent and pure and the other is like Afya dark and mysterious.

Wait...did it mean the Puzzle and Fragment were now connected?

Well, better for Sehrazat!

She stomped to the other door, Yamis, and knocked hard.

"Hey you two!", she screams. "Give me an answer! I know you are inside!"

Again no one answers her, but Sehrazat hears how Afya and Yami are whispering with each other.

The girl cries out harder and hits the door.

"Cowards! COWARDS!"

(*)

Afya's heart bleeds hearing Sehrazat crying behind Yami's door and seeing how Yugi is still crying on his knees too.

She turns to her husband.

"The children are suffering...Was it really the right choice to declare the attack?"

Yami was sitting before her on one of the many stairs in his labyrinth-like Soul Room.

"Afya...I couldn't lose! I needed to get Yugi inside the castle so he could save his grandfather. It was the only way, you know in war there needs to be sacrifices.", he said in a voice full of guilt.

"And yet I hear the guilt in your voice, my love.", pointed Afya out. "This is not war...this was a game getting out of control."

Yami looked up at her.

"What would you have done?"

"I don't know...Sehrazat needs to save her mother. A life for a life is normal in war but like this? Maybe we are cowards for not finding a better way."

Silence fell over them, only Sehrazat and Yugi's cries could be heard.