Dark Dreams.

"This is Impossible. I'm one of the best duelists who has a spot in the nationals. So how can I be being defeated so easily?" (Life Points: ???, 7400, 3 monsters on field, two facedowns. ???, 2200 life, Machine king, attack mode, attack 2200, one facedown, clockwork night on field) The man was standing there, looking at his opponent, who was just a dark outline, although the figure appeared to be tiny.

"So this is the best that this world has in dueling talent? Boooring. You're a disgrace to machine type users everywhere. I sacrifice two of my monsters to bring out my ultimate card! Rise up, Big Saturn!"(2800, 2200).

"Not a bad monster, little girl."
*She has no idea that my facedown card is limiter removal. When I activate it, my monsters attack points will increase to 4400. Then I'll use recycling plant to summon my ace monster next turn. I'll show her what true power is all about.*


"I activate my Big Saturn's ability. By discarding 1 card and decreasing my own life by 1000, my Big Saturn's attack points go up by 1000!" (3800)

"Nice monster. But It won't be enough to defeat me!"

"I think it will, lamey. Big Saturn, attack him please!"

"I activate my facedown, Limiter Removal. My monsters attack points are doubled this turn. Say goodbye to your monster!"

"You're a really big idiot, aren't you? I have a limiter removal too. Now my Big Saturns attack points go up to 6600. Now it's time for you to get smashed and go bye-bye." The attack connected, sending him flying across the room and into the wall, his life points dropping to zero. The dark figure moved towards him.

"Listen up, I'm taking your place in this tournament that's coming up. And if you refuse to this, well, my monster likes to smash things, and explode. Your call though."

"I..... Fine....." It looked like a lot of the man's bones were broken; it was amazing that he was still conscious.

"Thank you, idiot." *The figure giggled.* "This is going to be fun. If those duelists are around your skill level, then I should win in no time. I have to get back to my world eventually though. Kaosu will get worried if I'm gone for too long."

"No....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Elaine shot up, clinging the covers against her body. Her heart was racing, she was breathing heavily, and she was sweaty all over. She quickly looked around her, only to find darkness and her being alone. Where her sister was, she wasn't sure.

That dream...was different from the dreams she'd been having....but it felt so real to her. She could hear every thought, feel every attack. She actually moved her arms a little to verify that she was not ultimately crushed like the man was. No broken bones here. A sigh of relief escaped her.

She stood up from the bed and walked to the window. A soft moonlight was shining through her window, casting a bit of an eerie look against the room. Everything was calm. Except for her head. She raised a hand to massage her forehead as it began to throb with a pain that could only result of psychic means.

She decided to see if her sister was anywhere in the apartment. She put on a thin silk robe and walked out to the dark livingroom. "Emily? Are you out here?"

Emily had heard her sister cry out from her sleep, noting that she was probably awake now. She'd cringed as she'd heard the scream, remembering the same scream for the past few nights. This vision just would not let up, now would it? Emily had started to pack away the paperwork she was finishing up, a pen in her hand scrawling her signature out over a line as papers seemed to float away on their own and into a filing cabinet.

As Emily finished her signature, she'd sent off the last paper into the filing cabinet and heard the voice of her twin calling out to her from the living room. She'd gotten up from her chair and stretched herself out, having finished her work for the night. Looking down, she'd noted her lack of any real clothes, though not honestly minding being in just panties and a tank top in front of her own sister. She'd stepped out of the room, turned off the light and headed to the living room for her twin.

"I'm over here, sis. Was it the same vision again...?"

Even though she'd asked this, she knew what the answer would be already... Her hands slid against the wall until it met with the light switch, Emily flipping it up to illuminate their home. A concerned look spread upon her person, watching her sister carefully in case there was something else.

Feeling that her sister was about to turn on the lights through their twin link, Elaine quickly closed her eyes. The lights came on, and she opened them, only to see her sister staring at her with a concerned look. "No...this was completely different...."

She sat down on the couch and quietly relayed the dream to her sister, explaining everything in detail, sending mental images through their bond to help when she couldn't quite explain something. She even sent mental portrayals of the pain she'd felt through the man who had lost the duel.

"It was so weird....it truly felt like i was there....like i was the guy!" Elaine sighed tiredly. "Not like my more recent nightmares...those i can't really feel anything." Her hand shot back up to her temples and she massaged gently....trying to rid herself of the major headache that was still throbbing from the psychic experience.

As Emily received everything and listened to the story, she didn't quite know what to say, taking in each mental image and every feeling into her being, stunned. She shook her head, trying to gather her thoughts while she moved towards her sister. Taking a seat next to her twin and hugging her tightly, she let out a small sigh, shivering a bit.

"You felt like you were actually there, huh...? That's definitely odd... I get the feeling that something big is brewing..."

Emily pushed a hand out towards their decks on the counter across the room, each card rising from the tabletop and moving towards them. As the cards flew through the air, they landed on the coffee table in front of them, one by one in their respective piles, until both of their decks formed completely in front of them. She'd sighed a bit as she'd reached out towards her "Psychotic Opera" and pulled it close to her chest.

"That means we'll have to start dueling again, huh...? My deck has been calling out to me for awhile, but I never listened because I didn't want to believe it, sis..."

She'd turned her head towards Elaine and back towards Elaine's deck, wondering when it was that the two of them had dueled. Ever since moving into the apartment, getting their jobs... they'd been able to work on the decks, but they weren't able to use them. They never really had the opportunity. Closing her eyes and keeping her cards close, she'd let out a breath.

"If we have to duel people like that, Elly, will you be ready...? Will we be ready...?"

Elaine's eyes followed the cards, and rested on them as they stacked once more to form her deck. It had been well over two years since she'd even seen a duel...though she had remade her deck in the recent months. She leaned forward and took her deck into her hands. She had never been a strong duelist. Always, she'd always failed when on her own, but when she was combined with someone...namely Emily...she was much stronger. She always viewed herself as backup, sort of the behind the scenes.

Now her sister's words scared her.

"Emily..." Elaine was now holding her deck in the same manner as her sister, her eyes closed. She could feel their bond pulsating between them....even crawling to her arm where her birthmark rested. She focused on that bond, focused on the strength it gave her, the closeness she felt with her sister at this point. No secrets held back...any information in her mind, any thought she was thinking, everything was being shared with her twin. The fear she had was there....but it wasn't controlling. "Emily....You know I can't do anything without you, my twin...my sister, my other half. I am nothing without our bond. As long as we have each other...I know we can do anything." A small clip appeared in her mind, a scene of her nightmare she'd been having these past few nights. In the image, a shroud of darkness descended on two girls, and the image was clear enough to know that the two girls were Elaine and Emily. She was showing Emily what she was seeing them having to face ultimately. "I'm scared, Emily. I can't see what happens to us afterwards.....I can just see that this is our fate....to face this darkness consuming us in my nightmares."

The entire time, Elaine's eyes were closed, but she could see her sister plain as day....in a light that no other living being could ever see her. She was seeing her sister in her true essence, from deep inside. It was a comforting sight.

The man in Elaine's dream was outside the twin's room at this very moment. A few days ago he had suffered that humiliating defeat at the hands of that girl. He had ended up in the hospital because of that little incident, and was cut out from the tournament at this point. But he had found salvation in POD, who had promised to put his career back on track. They gave him new cards and sharpened his skills, and in exchange, he had to do a few things for them. This mission was the newest one. POD considered these girls a potential threat for some reason. Why that was the reason was none of his concern; he was just following orders. He knocked on the apartment door.

Emily was about to reply to Elaine's concerns when she'd heard a knock echo into their apartment. Feeling on edge as it was, she'd instinctively pulled a knife towards her from the kitchen, handle-first, and grabbed onto it as it landed in her hand. Emily was used to reactions like this when her mind called for quick movement. She'd looked towards Elaine, wondering what she'd think of this situation, but decided that, for right now, she needed to handle the door. Hiding the knife behind her back, she'd slowly taken steps towards the door, not knowing what to expect.

"Who's there?"

Emily called out with authority in her voice, trying to intimidate whoever was outside to make them go away. She didn't have the power of premonition like her sister, but she always knew when there was something fishy. Reaching out with her mind towards Elaine, she'd continued towards the door of their apartment, creeping towards it along the wall.

"Elly, I think you should get the Duel Disks ready... Whoever is at the door... it's strange especially because it's this late at night..."

After that brief message, she'd cut off her mind from Elaine for a bit so that she could think of what she could possibly do to the guy if he was a threat. Slit his throat? Cut off a finger? Stab him in the eye? After realizing what her thoughts were, she was glad that she'd severed the link temporarily, allowing their minds to connect once more once she'd gathered her thoughts. She once again called out to the door.

"What do you need?"

Elaine nodded as her sister's thought reached her and she bustled into the bedroom and pulled two duel disks from a drawer in nightstand. They had not worn these disks in such a long time...their weight felt odd in her hands. She walked back into the living room just in time to hear a voice call from behind the door.

He was calling for help...but that was not what got to Elaine. What really got to her was the fact that he spoke of a strange girl and a duel. Her dream immediately flashed through her mind and she stood there for a long moment, staring blankly at the door. Images of the man in her dream flashed in and out, showing him from different scenes until she finally saw him against the wall, slumped on the floor in defeat.

"Open the door, Emily...I think he might be the man from my dream." Her voice was soft, but cautious. Why was he here? Here of all places? Something was off...but she could not deny help to the man who'd just suffered defeat at the hands of a brutal duelist. She'd felt the pain involved....if this duel happened tonight...there was a chance he really was hurt.

Emily felt the images flash through Elaine's head and the thought of the man in pain was a strong one. However, Emily was still cautious. Her hand reached up to each of the locks that they'd had on the door, releasing them one by one, except for the chain lock, until her hand touched upon the doorknob. Wrapping around it slowly, she'd started to rotate it and release the door from its position, slowly opening it to peek at whoever was outside. There was indeed a man. It was still a bit too dark in the hallway outside to get a good look at him. she'd projected the view that she saw to Elaine's mind. She decided to see what this man actually knew.

"What do you mean 'hurt'? The duels are just holographic images made by the Duel Disks. There's no way that you can get hurt from them."

Emily might have been acting too cautious, but for her sister she would act as cautious as she needed to be. Her fingers wrapped around the knife behind her more tightly, adrenaline pumping through her as she'd tried in vain to calm herself down. Her eyes flashed over the man, trying to focus on his face and his figure. If this was the same man from Elaine's vision... It would be far too coincidental...

"Elaine, are you sure I should let him in? Is his voice the same?"

Hyate was getting impatient. Why wouldn't they open the door? He had made it perfectly clear that he was hurt. Well, he WAS hurt until that mysterious organization POD had showed up and healed his injuries. And now he was taking care of these girls for them. If they really were psychic like POD said they were though, wouldn't they know what he was planning? They might be calling the cops on him right now. No matter, he had to do this; that girl had screwed everything over for him.

"Please. That monster.... I thought it was a hologram. But she said it was a Planet card. That it was special. It somehow hit me. Holigrams are supposed to pass through you. But this one flung me across the room. Please, help me. I think she's going to find me and finish me off."

This was definitely the guy. Elaine winced as his story clicked into place with her dream. "Its him sis! Quick open the door!" As she sent the thought to her sister, she was already reaching for the lock, unhooking the chain. According to what she had seen in her dream, the man was seriously injured and was in need of a medic. Coincidence or not...this was urgent.

She flung open the door, light flooding out from the apartment and illuminating the dark figure. Sure enough, he was the man from her dream. There was one problem: she could not see any visible signs of injury. The injuries he had suffered would have required some sign of pain...but he showed none.

"C-can we help you, sir? Is everything alright?"

Hyate grinned. "You've helped me by opening the door. I appreciate that you were kind enough to be worried about me. But about 5 hours ago POD helped me with my injuries. They also gave me brand new cards. They also told me that in exchange for getting me back into the National Tournament I'd have to do a little job for them. They said I had to deal with two psychic girls. They said that the girls might see what they are planning eventually; something about dreams or something like that, I don't know. I would have called them crazy, but after being flung around by that girl I believe in psychics." Hyate grinned.

"I'm going to duel both at you at once. These new cards I have will easily crush two people at the same time. They said if I failed that I would pay a price and then they would send someone else after you. But it will be me, Hyate, the Duel Monsters Champion of Germany, who will defeat you!" Hyate raised his disk.

Emily had recoiled as her sister had gone against better judgment and opened the door for the stranger. Her thoughts of confusion for the fact that the man held no wounds confirmed Emily's paranoia. It was a trap. Adrenaline pumped though her veins as she grabbed her sister and pulled her back, jumping back a bit and taking a few steps to balance herself out. Her mind went into overdrive as her Duel Disk that was sitting on the table had flown towards her as she held out a hand to catch it and attach it to her wrist. Her eyes showed her fiery rage at hos he took advantage of Elaine's good nature.

"I don't care who you are! You've messed with the wrong twins, and you're going to regret that you even dared to take both of us on 2-on-1!"

Elaine yelped slightly as her sister pulled her back. She should have known it was a trap....she should have seen this coming. But the fact of the matter was that she hadn't....and she had caused all this. She moved her arm to fit inside the duel disk's brace, clipping it tightly and activating it in time with her sister. She hated violence...but she would always back her sister completely no matter what. "I don't wish to fight....I only wanted to help!" she pleaded softly with the man, her eyes soft and worried. "Surely a champion such as yourself can find it in his heart to spare two young women your wrath....a man of your calibur....won't you please just leave us alone?"

Her sister's anger poured through into her mind, and soon her attitude began to change, though only slightly. Her voice took on a slightly threatening tone as she added: "I don't want to hurt you." She placed her deck inside its slot and it immediately shuffled itself.

"Bring it on! Duel!" (Hayate, 8000, Emily, 8000, Elaine, 8000)

"Fine...I see there is no peaceful way of settling things with you...." Elaine looked sad as she drew her cards and the duel began. Her head began to ache more than before as something was affecting her senses. Something was off about this guy...best to be cautious...as was her way anyways. "I'll start us off...and provide some good first turn support."

She drew her sixth card and looked over her cards. A perfect beginning for one such as herself. Great defensive monsters and even a trap to provide more defense from attacks. "Alright. I'm going to just set one monster, and one supporting card, and I'll call it a turn for now."

'Emily...don't worry about attacks...i have us covered. A mirror force and a Mind Protector await our opponent if he tries anything funny.' She thought to her sister, keeping her eyes on the opponent as he readied his move.