(i dont own yugioh, nor do i own the picture in this. i did write this tho. lemme know what u think. John Raephen, Francis Deeprose, Warren Sims, Alicia Deeprose, Nicolas Raephen, Zxom Tannis and James Heron all belong to me)(yukiko is owned by )

His black hair blew lightly in the wind as he stepped out into the dark stadium. The lights were off, but he could vaguely see his opponent across field. The huge lights at the top of the stadium lit up brightly as his opponent and he crossed the field. The thousands of fans around the stadium called out both they’re names. “Tannis! Tannis! Heron! Heron!” He looked up and squinted, as the bright light burned his eye. He shoved his hand into the air as his fans roared and stomped their feet. He started to sweat. He wiped his brow, as women in the crowd shouted his name and swore they’re love of him. He raised his left arm and turned his customized duel-disk on. It was white, with dark-red flames all over it, randomly. He closed his eye and shook slightly. His only eye burst open as he drew his first card.

“Hurry and plug it in!” Francis yelled as John set a TV on the desk. John knelt down and stuck the cord in the wall. He pushed the power button quickly and the screen lit up. It showed a split-screen. A man with black hair and only one eye on the left, and a man with dark green hair with random black stripes in it, on the right. They were both in a huge stadium filled to the brim with fans.

“I cannot believe this!! I feel so sorry for anyone who missed this duel!!” Screamed the sports-caster as the monsters cards on the field vanished. “Zxomuel Tannis has won yet again!!” The man said as he ran onto the field near the man with black hair. “Mr. Tannis! Mr. Tannis! How does it feel to beat James Heron and his Elemental Heroes a third time?” The man asked as the other man with the black hair. He just grunted and turned away to look through his deck. “Now that you’ve won again what do you plan on doing next?”

Zxomuel Tannis turned around and looked at the sports-caster. “I’m ending my hiatus from Duel Academy and returning to school.” He stated calmly as he walked through the crowd and into the bowels of the stadium.

Francis stood up and blinked quickly with his mouth hanging open. “Do you know what this means?” Francis asked not directing the question to anyone. “Zxom Tannis, one of the greatest duelists of all time will be coming here!” He yelled as there was a knock on the door.

John got up and opened the door to find Yukiko. “John, there’s someone outside the dorm house asking to meet you.” She stated as she walked off towards her own room carrying a few books.

John closed the door and walked over to Francis’ duel-disk. “May I borrow this?” He asked as Francis nodded. John pulled his deck out of his back pocket and slid it into the disk. “C’mon.” He said as he walked out of the room and into the hall. Yellow students rushed past them to exit the building.

Francis and John walked out of the dorm building and into the courtyard, in which stood a tall man; with black hair, surrounded by myriad of blue, yellow and red – most of which were girls. He wore a white vest with a blue collar, whose coat tails hung down past the backs of his knees. The moment John came into view, the crowd grew silent. The man with the black hair worked his way through the crowd towards John. They walked up to each other and stared into each others eyes. The man with the black hair stuck out his hand. “I heard you beat Warren Sims before he vanished. Warren even gave me trouble in the past.” He said after John grabbed his hand and shook. “I’m Zxom Tannis.”

“John Raephen.” He said quietly. “So, what did you want with me?” He asked sliding his hand into his pocket, eyeing Zxom’s scarred face, especially the long jagged one forcing his left eye closed.

Zxom smirked confidently. “I want to duel you.” He stated as he pulled his deck out of an ivory case on his belt and started shuffling. “That is, if you’re up to it, but I want one thing to be certain. This is a friendly duel, no hard feelings when either of us wins. Fair enough?” Zxom asked as John nodded. “I’ll start.” He drew his hand from the deck. “I’ll set a monster and a card, and end my turn.”

John drew his hand as Zxom’s holograms appeared on the field. “First, I’ll activate Graceful Charity, and drop two cards from my hand. Next, I’ll summon Mirage Dragon from my hand and attack your face-down monster.” He confidently said as the yellow dragon materialized and fired pink flames at Zxom’s monster. The UFO Turtle appeared and shattered as a large molten snake appeared.

“Careful John! That’s his ace monster!” Francis called out from the front of the crowd.

“Correct. This is my Solar Flare Dragon. It has a wicked effect as you’ll find out soon, John.” Zxom stated as John ended his turn. “My turn!” He said as he drew his card. “Now, I’ll summon another Solar Flare Dragon and activate the Dark Room of Nightmare.” A second snake appeared as a large bricked room appeared around Zxom’s half of the field. “You see the beautiful thing about my dragons is that if there is another Pyro-type monster on the field they can’t be attacked, and since they’re both Pyro’s they’re perfectly safe. They also have a second effect, at the end of my turn they inflict 500 points of damage to my opponent, and that’s where my dark room comes in. It adds an extra 300 points to all effect damage I deal.”

John shifted as the flare dragons moved around on the field, making noises. The crowd was deathly silent. Someone sneezed as Yukiko moved her way to the front of the group, next to Francis.

“How’s John doing?” She asked. Francis opened his mouth to answer as he was cut off by Zxom.

“Don’t think I’m done yet, though,” He explained. “I’ll activate my Premature Burial and bring my turtle back.” He said as his Life Points dropped by 800 and a green turtle appeared with a flying saucer on its back. “Now my turtle will attack your dragon and send itself to the grave, I take a small 200 points, but I get to bring out a third dragon!” Zxom exclaimed as another dragon materialized next to the others. “I have one more thing to do before I end my turn, and that is, activate the spell Soul of Fire. You get to draw a card, but I have to remove my Flame Ogre from my deck. You’ll be taking 1500 damage as well.” Zxom said as he ended his turn removing 1800 more points from John’s Life Points leaving him at 2700, due to the effects of the Solar Flare Dragons.

John stood there in shock as more then half of his points were wiped out in one turn. John drew and hid a smirk. “I’ll activate the spell Fires of Doomsday.” He stated as two black fire balls with singular green eyes appeared on either side of his Mirage Dragon. “I’ll tribute them for my ace, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon!” He yelled as the black, red-eyed dragon appeared and roared magnificently. “Next, I’ll activate Lightning Vortex, by discarding one card I can des-“ He began to say as Zxom cut him off.

“I activate my trap Spell Shield Type-8. I discard one spell to negate one of your spells.”

John scowled. “Fine, but I activate Monster Reborn, to bring my Lord of D. back from the graveyard. Thanks to his effect, my Red-Eyes can attack. Red-Eyes destroy his Solar Flare Dragon! Inferno Fire Blast!” John yelled loudly as the red and black fire engulfed the dragon. “I end my turn.”

Zxom drew his card. “Not bad, but this duel is over. First and foremost I have to get rid of that pesky Lord of D. so my Flare Dragon will destroy it. Go dragon! Volcanic Flamethrower!” He exclaimed as it blew white hot flames at the lord, shattering it. “Now I’ll play my game killing card, Level Limit – Area B.” He said as the Spell appeared and forced all four monsters on the field into defense. “All monsters level four or higher can only be in defense position. I’ll end my turn and deal 1300 points to you. This is you last turn.”

John drew and sighed. “I pass…” He said lowly. Zxom drew his card and ended his turn ending the game.

Zxom walked over to John as the monsters vanished. “That was a great duel, John, but I didn’t come here to just duel, I think we should talk in private.” He stated as he turned to the crowd. “For those who want to duel me or anything else, I’ll be at the Blue Dorm around Five.” He looked back at John, “Let’s go.”

They walked into the nearby forest. “When I was young, I was part of a rich family. I lived a cozy life in my sea side mansion, playing duel monsters with my brothers, sisters, cousins and the servant’s children. My parents were very kind. Almost too kind. On the night of my ninth birthday, after everyone had gone to sleep, some people broke into our mansion and stole things from us, but before they left, they soaked the all of the first floor walls in the house with gasoline and lit the place on fire. I awoke as one of the servants burst into my room. She was screaming and engulfed in flames. She collapsed at the foot of my bed as she died, I watched as she writhed in pain. I was too young and didn’t know what to do.” Zxom explained as he sat down on a rock. John leaned against a tree.

“I looked up as I heard my parents scream and saw my ceiling was on fire. I remember the fire perfectly; it looked like waves in the ocean. I stood up to go and help my parents, But as I got out of my bed a beam from my ceiling gave and fell. It just missed me, but the broken end cut my face deep, giving me this.” Zxom said as he touched the scar on his eye. “I passed out from the pain. I awoke three days later in a hospital. You see my entire family lived in that house, and I was the only one who survived. The doctors told me that with the amount of blood I lost from my eye, it was a miracle that I survived. I’m not sure if it was a dream but I remember being carried out by a man in pearlescent armor and a red cape.” He reached into his deck box and pulled out a card handing it to John. “This is the man I remember seeing.”

The card’s name read ‘Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch.’ John gave it back as Zxom slid it back into the box. “I nearly fainted when I saw that card, but I digress. While I recovered in the hospital, a man from child services came and told me I had been adopted by a nice family, who didn’t have any children of their own. I was released into they’re custody from the hospital a week later. I lived with them for two years. They were the Chilling’s. Joshua and Evey Chilling,” Zxom said as his lip curled in hatred. “They were anything but nice, a week after I moved in, they treated me as they’re slave. They beat me when I did something wrong and hid me in an upstairs closet whenever they had company over. One day, Joshua came home from his job, and he must’ve had a bad day. I was in the kitchen doing dishes, he walks in and wraps his hands around my throat, picking me up and throws me across the room. Next, he grabs a small knife, and gives me the smaller scars on my face and arms. I’m soon seeing red as blood is running down my forehead and into my eye. Then suddenly, I see Thestalos again standing behind Joshua, who stands up and turns around to see who I’m looking at. I took it as my chance to run. I was homeless for two and a half months.”

“I was forced to steal to eat. I was walking down a street in a slum in Domino, when an old woman saw me and took pity on me. She clothed me and fed me. Aside from my parents she was the kindest person I’d ever met. She wasn’t rich, but she did have money. After Yugi won the tournament at Kaiba Land, she and I went to the card shop his grandfather ran and she bought me the Thestalos card and my three Flare Dragons. Yugi and his friends were all there and I hung out with them all while she and Grandpa Motou talked. It was quite possibly the best day of my life. She died in her sleep two weeks later. I became homeless again, until on day a tall man found me and adopted me. To this day he is still my father and is also the reason why I came here to meet you. That man’s name was Nicolas Raephen. John I’m your brother.” Zxom stated as he stood up.

“You’ve seen my father?” John asked quietly, more to himself. “When I last saw him, I was very young; he gave me this stone and a special duel disk.” John told him. “I don’t know what else to say.”

“Do you have a card called Orichalcos?” Zxom asked abruptly. John reached into his pocket and pulled it out. “That’s what I thought. I don’t know how to explain it, but that card has magical properties to it. I’ve seen its power first hand. I’m out to stop it. That and I have to speak with Alicia Deeprose. She knows something about what happened to my family.”

John looked at his watch. “It’s almost five, Zxom. I have a lot to mull over. I’m gonna go get some sleep.”

Zxom looked down at his own watch. “Damn that’s right.” He sighed. “Looks like I have to go and appeal to my public.” He held his hand out to John. “It was great meeting you at last, John. I’ll see you in class tomorrow.” He stated as John hesitantly shook his hand. Zxom turned and walked off towards the Blue Dorm. “Oh, one thing. Not many people know about my past, and I’d like to keep it that way.’ Zxom said as John nodded. Zxom turned back and walked off.

John stood there for a second, thinking. He looked over at Zxom as he passed a tree and within a split second saw the man in the pearlescent armor. He blinked quickly and looked again, but they were both gone. He shook his head and walked to the Yellow Dorm.