Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Epiphany
Author: Fenikkusu Ai
Theme(s): #17, Hell (Heaven)
Pairing: Ryo Marufuji x Edo Phoenix
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Nothing of YGO GX belongs to me.
Summary: Takes place post Season 2. I may have went OOC near the end. (gets hand slapped by a ruler)

Tight fingers of pain clutched around Ryo's now blackened heart; stealing him away from what he knew as life with Sho and Judai and dragged him into oblivion.

It was a slow gradual process. First, lights of an unknown source dazzled his eyes before fading out into blackness as the air around him grew heavier and heavier. He was falling somewhere fast to a denser and more horrible world. And, after a jaunt through this Dark World where duels were mere blood sports, that was truly saying something.

Faces flitted into view; oddly familiar faces. A charcoal-eyed boy with dark rings around his eyes and ghostly pale skin screamed with rage at an unknown source. A girl with a long flowing blonde mane with the saddest eyes he had ever seen looked straight ahead. The girl was especially familiar and he almost called out to her…but he couldn't center on from where he had met her from. There were others too. A tanned caramel-skinned boy with dreadlocks was also raging in the huge gusts of wind with eyes glazed over with hatred as an older teen off to the side seemed to be the textbook definition of anguish. He was gazing at nothing; long layered brown hair trembling around his shoulders. If he felt any pain; he did not choose to express it. All tragic. All damned.

And he was about to become one of them.

The gusts of air that were both scorching hot and freezing cold at the exact same time were pushing him into the unhappy realm that was so unmercifully dark in some places but blindingly bright in others.

Wasn't it fitting at long last? Hell Kaiser had finally stumbled into hell. One could write a joke about that one.

Hell Kaiser was beginning to feel it; the heat of a raging inferno followed by bone-splintering cold. The darkness of this place was seeping into his lings; clogging his airways and making his brain scream with panic. He was now with the others—their shared despair ripping into the cool collected cocoon he had decided to wrap around himself so as not to feel anyone's pain that included his own…something that was now being gleefully shattered by the sheer density of this place. Soon, he too would be stripped of all semblance of himself.

No way to duel yourself out of this one, Ryo…

Suddenly, another face wandered into view and Ryo choked back a cry. Edo was here too. But, should he be surprised? He had lost his duel with Amon, and here was the penalty. Wait…Edo. He actually remembered him.

Calmly, the silver-haired Pro Leaguer nodded to him in greeting, and Ryo was mildly put off that he was not screaming or broken like the others. In spite of his situation, he had to smirk about that.

Just as stubborn as ever, huh Phoenix? Won't give in an inch.

But, now was not the time for feeble wordplay. Ryo could feel himself bursting at the seams, and soon…soon…he realized he couldn't even form proper words. Even thinking itself was beginning to tire him.

Edo's eyes were downcast and were somehow darker and bluer than they were before—almost as if they contained the entire weight of the world's sorrows. This time, something else gripped at Ryo's heart…a fierce protective anger he didn't even know existed. Edo didn't belong here. No. Someone like Edo belonged in heaven. After all the crap he had suffered through in life, he deserved that at least. Let someone like Hell Kaiser himself rot in hell…but not Edo. Edo was special. A hero. And the world had better not ever forget that.

Though Edo's presence was a bit of heaven in itself. His soft elegance blurred out the harshness of this hell dimension for one moment, and for that one moment; Ryo was filled with a sense familiarity, comfort, and dare he say love, for the teen he regularly was not so kind towards. What a complete and utter waste all that fooling around and catty name calling was now, especially in a place like this where Ryo wasn't sure he would ever feel any sort of human emotion again.

Edo's eyes were a mirror of his own—a mixture of regret and a particular longing that would go unfulfilled—before both men lost their steely composure and screamed in bitter agony as they both succumbed to the wasteland around them.