(Last time on Yu-Gi-Oh GX: 'Jaden, what's happened to you? You used to play just for fun, but now you're angry at your friends. I'm not sure what did happen, but I will undo it.')
(Sheppard drew his card, sharply inhaling from the pain. "Well done, my boy. You executed a good move just now, but you're not having a good time."
"I'll have a good time ripping your soul out when I win. So tell me, Sheppard. Are you scared?")
("Jaden, what's happened to you? Why are you acting like this?")
("The people in my life just used me. The Orichalcos has shown me who my real friends are, and what the people I thought were my friends really think of me.")
(The Chancellor just became shocked, and then disappointed. "I'll place two cards facedown, thus ending my turn.")
("Shining Flare Wingman, attack Chancellor Sheppard directly!" A bright light illuminated from him right in front of Sheppard, causing his downfall.)
(Alexis grabbed her own duel disk, and faced Jaden, shouting, "Jaden, it's time for you to get your game back on!")

By now, the Orchalcos barrier had been lifted, and Jaden was shuffling his deck for his very next match. He first eyed the lifeless Sheppard who lay on the ground before him, then his attention turned to Alexis who came to him. As she picked up his body, cradling it, she tried to stay strong while fought back tears, although two slid down her cheeks. Jaden could swear he heard her sniffling over the duel she witnessed, lamenting over the end of it. He smirked and told her, "Well, that felt pretty good. To clean myself of a piece of my false past, and..." But he caught on that she wasn't crying anymore, but giggling with the back of her hand over her mouth.
"To clean yourself?" she mused, wiping her eyes. "I've never known you to clean much, if at all. You're still the Jaden that bunked with cockroaches." She took a deep breath, somehow feeling better despite the imminent threat of an evil Jaden. "And the Jaden that talks to his cards. And I'll get him back." Her duel disk was lit up, and operating now. "No matter what." Her face was stone-firm with confidence, watching her love slot his deck back into place and reactivate his deck.
Life Points were set. A harsh wind blew between. And the battle of her life, and for it, began. "GAME ON!"

Alexis had dueled Jaden at least twice during her time at Duel Academy: outside the Obelisk female dorm, and when she was brainwashed by Sartorius. But this time, Jaden was the puppet of an evil figure, this Dartz. But she had more immediate problems to deal with. "Since I won my last duel," Jaden said, "I'll let you go first."
"Too kind," Alexis intentionally grunted as she drew her sixth card. "I'll play two cards facedown and then summon Etoile Cyber in Attack Mode." Suddenly, a blue-skinned redhead twirled in the midst of swirling sparkles. As they died out, her red-and-gold outfit and her gold choker were revealed. As were the light purple ribbons around her arms, and her light purple tutu, of sorts. (ATK: 1200). "And that'll do for me." Jaden quietly drew his card, and did some thinking.
'This seems a little familiar. Last time I met her Etoile Cyber, she had that Doble Passe card so I'd take a bigger hit than she would...' "Here it goes! I summon Elemental Hero Burstinatrix, in Attack Mode too." Jaden's only female Elemental Hero stood poised, even in the face of E.C. (ATK: 1200) "And I'll be activating Burst Impact from my hand. Now Burstinatrix can roast all of your cards from the field, and burns off 300 of your Life points per monster." Burstinatrix held her hand up, elbow pointing down, and was charging a fireball in her palm. It changed colors as it got rapidly hotter by the second until it was light blue. If Alexis didn't do something, she'd might never get through to Jaden.
"Oh no, you don't, Jaden. Go facedown! Angel Blast!" As the card's outline glowed purple, the blue fireball did too, right before it exploded in her hand.
"What did you do?" Jaden growled.
Alexis explained, "When my opponent activates a card effect that destroys any number of monsters on my field, my trap cancels the effect and destroys the card." Jaden didn't wish to risk her using any other card to throw him off. So he laid a facedown card. "It's your move," he said with disdain.
"Here I go. Now..." she said as she drew her card. "I reveal my facedown card: A Rival Appears! Now I choose a monster you have, like Burstinatrix, and summon a monster with the same level from my hand. So Cyber Tutu, join us!" And a figure skater with short pink hair appeared to the left of Etoile Cyber.
"Next, I summon Cyber Petit Angel in Attack Mode." On Etoile's right came a pink and round machine with small eyes and blue wings. "Since I summoned Cyber Petit, I can add a Ritual Monster or Spell Card from my Deck to my Hand." And that's just what she did. "Now I can play Machine Angel Ritual." She used her Etoile Cyber and Cyber Petit Angel as tributes to summon... "Cyber Angel Benten!" She appeared with her chained and folded fans in hand, her very long ebony hair in a thick ponytail. (ATK: 1800) "Now, Benten, attack Burstinatrix!" She charged in, and unfolded her fan and whacked the E. Hero twice before shattering her into pixels. (LP: 4000 - 600 = 3400) "And that's not all, Jaden. Remember? She also takes Burstinatrix's defense points from your score after destroying her in battle. Jaden growled loudly as his score dropped again. (LP: 3400 - 800 = 2600) "Now I'll play a facedown and end my turn." Jaden at this point, was worse than an unhappy camper.
'How dare she do that! Look at her, mocking me with so-called happy memories. All lies!' "It's my move!" He summoned Bubbleman in Defense Mode (DEF: 1200), and drew two cards because he was the only monster Jaden had out. "And now, I play Metamorphosis. With it, I can make my Bubbleman evolve into... Neo Bubbleman!" And Jaden had the monster from his last duel on the field, and then he equipped Bubble Blaster to him. "This gives Bubbleman 800 points of extra POP!" (ATK: 800 + 800 = 1600) "Now..." Alexis was caught up in the thought that Jaden would attack Tutu that his real move caught her off-guard. "Attack C.A. Benten! Bubble Slamming Stream!" And Bubbleman's concentrated water attack hit, but then she bounced it back. "Now my two cards' effects are up. First, my Blaster takes the hit for Bubbleman." It shattered into pixels, having the WATER Hero stop kneeling and stood up. (1600 - 800 = 800) That's when Jaden grinned some. "Then Neo Bubbleman destroys the monster it battled." Benten had red light surround her body, but then...
"Activate Pure Pupil!" Alexis said, having her card shine a yellow light on Alexis' Cyber Angel. "When you use an effect to destroy my monster and I have a monster with 1000 or less points, like Cyber Tutu, I cancel your Bubbleman's power..." Benten used the light's energy and waved her fan once, sending out a ray right at him. "...and then destroy him." In a mediocre explosion, the Neo Hero was gone. A bit dejected, he laid down two facedown cards. 'This is good. By countering him, it gives me a chance to talk to him. He just CAN'T slip into evil's grip,' she thought, passing her turn with only a draw. "Jaden, let's end this now. This whole battle is stupid. Just because you let a villain get in your head, you're going to destroy everyone and everything you cared about and cares for you?"
Jaden at her with hurt eyes. "You don't care. You lied to me to make yourself more noticeable." Sadness slowly changed to anger. "You and everyone else I used to call my friend just cared only about yourselves, leaving me behind like a sack of dirty laundry. Dartz isn't my master, but he did show that I can only count on him, and myself. And if that means burying my hateful past behind, that's fine by me!"
"Jaden..." Alexis' eyes got big, quivered with some tears welling up in them.
"Well, I guess I know how you felt when I went to find Jesse. At least I never lost sight of important stuff." The Orichalcos card continued to secretly twist Jaden's mind, using his memories to fuel his darkness inside him. He thrusted forward some, his right fist before him and squeezing so tightly to almost draw blood. "I told you guys not to follow me, but NO! You couldn't let me go because you thought I couldn't get him back on my own." He narrowed his eyes. "DIDN'T YOU?"
"No, it's not true!" she called to him.
"QUIET! It's MY turn!" He said, drawing his card with much gusto as he held it in his fingertips. Suddenly, the wind picked up again through the surrounding trees and bushes. He looked at the card and growled almost happily. "And now, my DEAR Alexis," he announced with a derisive attitude, "get ready... To lose your soul." She gasped, afraid he held the card she thought he had in his hand.
"Jaden, don't!"
"I play... THE SEAL OF ORICHALCOS!" he declared, putting the card into the Field Spell Zone. Storm clouds formed high overhead before a green ring began spinning down around them. Once it reached the ground, two green lines from behind them both went opposite way, bounced towards each other, and did the inverse to parallel the steps they did as they came back to the beginning. As a result, a unicursal Hexagram or a six-sided star formed under them. with an upward shimmer. Alexis looked around, so nervous about her predicament now as opposed to watching from the sidelines before. She then looked at Jaden, surrounded in a dark aura, so afraid of the monster that stood across from her. The aura dissipated and he raised his head, revealing a red glint in his eyes and the Orichalcos symbol upon his forehead. "THAT'S more like it!" he said with a guttural growl. And when he next spoke, it was a malevolent version of his normal speech. "I play Polymerization!"
'I don't like where this is going...' she groaned in her head.
"I fuse Sparkman and Clayman together to Fusion Summon E. Hero Thunder Giant!" The LIGHT and EARTH Heroes spun together in a fusion vortex, resulting in a gold-and-white behemoth, electricity surging in the glass dome in his chest. (ATK: 2400) Jaden grasps his fist again in a triumphant way. "And thanks to the Orichalcos, my Giant's a bit stronger now." The hulking Hero's eyes glowed red through his helmet as a similar dark aura took over him. (2400 + 500 = 2900) "Now, he can destroy any of your monsters. But Benten's my first concern." He discards a card from his hand to the Graveyard. "So I'll use his Static Blast to destroy a monster on your field whose original attack strength is less than his." Electricity gathered in a ball shape before he thrusted it at Benten, destroying the Cyber Angel altogether! Alexis watched in defiance, shielding her eyes from the blast. "With her gone, and Pure Pupil, your Tutu will take her last bow. Thunder Giant, attack! Rolling Thunder!"
"Jaden, NO!" But it was too late. The tall E. Hero fired his attack into the air, letting the attack and the actual lightning combine their energies. Finally, it all struck down on the dancer, sending her to the Graveyard and electrocuting Alexis, as she screamed, in the process. (LP: 4000 - 1400 = 2600) All that power surging through her body left her almost paralyzed; she could hardly stand! Let alone move. Jaden just started laughed as he lowered his head, as though it made him feel satisfaction in her pain.
"You should've run when you had the chance, although..." He raised it again at her, with a sword-sharp look in his eye. "Nothing you do will stop me. You'll pay for using me to get what you want! And soon, the world will see better days. No more lies, and no more selfish people." Alexis considered how she was going to win: Thunder Giant's strength in points, his special ability, the Seal in Jaden's favor, and with her monsters gone, her Life Points were still vulnerable. As was she. 'I can't lose... I won't. Not for Jaden's safety. And NOT for the world's!'

To Be Continued...