She Comes in My Solemn Hour

Author's Note: Yippee! My 20th fic! Granted more than half of said fics are oneshots but they are the easiest to write. I was watching episode 181 (aka: the duel between Yami and Dartz) and when Yami drew the Dark Magician Girl, I thought his expression was so adorable and of course, my imagination ran away from me... again... just like it always does. This is my first time truly writing in first person.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh and I never will regrettably.

I stare at the deck absently.

I have summoned the three Legendary Knights in their true forms and Dartz no longer has the Seal of Orichalcos to give him the edge. However, this duel has just been upped a notch.

Every time I think Dartz can't make it any harder to win than it already is, he pulls something else on me. This time, it's his Divine Serpent, a creature with infinite attack points.

I have to do something and I believe that I can pull it off but I need to summon a monster in order for my plan to work.

I hesitate. I know that any monster that I summon won't be strong enough to actually hold off Dartz's snake but I must summon something.

The backs of the cards seem to be glaring at me. Asking me why I wait to draw the card on top and questioning if I really do have faith in them.

Of course I have faith in my cards. They have never let me down ever but Dartz and his Seal of Orichalcos have tested my faith to the breaking point. Nonetheless, I will not waver in this battle.

"Staring at your deck won't help. You have to actually play something," says Dartz in a mocking voice.

That man... I fight to suppress a wave of anger. It's just what he wants and I can't let him get to me.

"Is that so? Fine!" I accidentally shout the last word to leave my mouth as I draw my next card.

I look at the card to see what my deck gave me and I instantly recognize the picture of the blond-haired female spellcaster.

"Dark Magician Girl," I say automatically inside my head.

My eyes can't leave her face and I wonder why my heart is pounding so hard it hurts. Her emerald green irises... they capture my attention and there is something tantalizingly familiar about her.

Why do I think this now? I've seen her card many times before but this is the first time that I've reacted this way. What is this feeling?

I feel faint pinpricks in the back of my mind and have this vague sensation that I might have met her before... in another life.

An image flashes before my eyes so quickly that I almost miss it entirely. I don't even know what I just saw but there is one thing that stood out clearly. Aquamarine-colored eyes framed by a mass of brown.

I feel so strange and I can't help but let my eyes soften up slightly as I continue to stare at the picture. My heart is aching in a similar way to how I feel now about losing Yugi but it's... different.

I don't understand this new emotion or why, now of all times, it sparks something inside of me but... it touches me and warms my soul.

I remember when I last spoke to the Dark Magician Girl. I never imagined that she was actually a living being until she brought Yugi and I to her world and asked for our help.

The monster card that acts the most flirtatious as a hologram of all the monsters in the deck had been completely serious and sounded so desperate for one so carefree.

She said I was their only hope. She trusts me. Even after that horrible thing I had done to her with the Seal of Orichalcos, she still believes in me. I will not let her down. I refuse to disappoint her again.

"I made you a promise and I won't go back on my word," I say to her card and wish that she can hear my thoughts.

I stare hard at Dartz across from me with my new resolve in mind and put one of the cards in my hand in a spell and trap card zone and say, "I place one card face down. Now it's your move."

Dartz... he draws, he discards ten cards from his deck so that his monster can attack, his Divine Serpent launches his attack at Timaeus, and the knight is gone.

"Timaeus, no!" I shout as my lifepoints drop to zero.

Dartz is talking again but I do not pay attention to what he says. I must be quick if I am to remain in this duel.

I did not want it to come to this but Timaeus's sacrifice allows me to activate the trap that I have on the field. I do so and place the Dark Magician Girl on the field in defense mode just as I see the Seal of Orichalcos begin to close in around me to try and steal my soul.

The Seal shatters again and I breathe a sigh of relief. I'm not out of this yet. I still have the chance to save my friends along with the rest of the world.

"What's this!? You should be gone!" I hear Dartz exclaim and as the holographic smoke clears, I can see him again, "Tell me! How did you survive!?" he demands.

I might as well humor him and I say, "It's simple. You told me to play a card so I did. It's a powerful trap known as Relay Soul," I explain, "When my lifepoints hit zero, it allowed me to stay in the game by summoning my Dark Magician Girl and putting my fate in her hands."

I have never had the chance to make it up to her properly before now. She continues to fight by my side after what I did and this is the only way that I can thank her; to show her that I really do care.

"So you and I are in the same situation now. Each of us has one monster. You have your Serpent," I say with distaste and look at the back of the Dark Magician Girl's head, "and I have Dark Magician Girl."

She looks back at me and our gazes connect. There is a liveliness in her eyes that I don't believe I have ever noticed before.

How long have I dueled with her, not knowing that she was real? And did that shadow game with Marik hurt her as much as it hurt Yugi and I? An unsettling thought in itself.

"When one is destroyed," I continue solemnly, "the card holder will lose."

She nods with a small smile on her face. We are both in this together. If she is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, then my own existence is as good as gone too. We will not fail each other. We have too much to lose.

I return my attention to Dartz and say, "Alright, let the final phase begin!"

And you all know how the duel went from there. If you don't well long story short, Atem beat the Divine Serpent, Dartz got swallowed up by the Leviathan, and Timaeus, Critias, and Hermos brought back their respective duelists, Yugi, Seto, and Joey. I don't know where this idea came from but as I said, my imagination ran away from me and I had a hard time catching it again.