The Seventh Shadow Rider

Jaden was walking down the halls from the infirmary. He wasn't happy with Ryan's suggestion that they wait for the last Shadow Rider to reveal himself.

"Jaden slow down." Syrus called out. Jaden slowed down allowing Syrus and Chumley to catch up to him.

"Jaden what are you going to do?" A worried Syrus asked.

"I'm going to find this Shadow Rider and take him down." Jaden said.

"But Jaden don't you realize how dangerous that is." Syrus said.

"That's why I need to find him, so he can't hurt any more of my friends." Jaden said.

"But if this guy took down Chazz then he must be really good." Chumley told him.

"That doesn't matter, I can still win." Jaden argued.

Jaden began to walk away but Syrus and Chumley continued to follow him.

"In that case we're coming with you, we can't let you take this guy on alone." Chumley said.

"No, I can't put you guys in danger." Jaden countered.

"But Jaden-" Syrus said before being interrupted.

"No, you two need to stay at the red dorm until I beat this guy. It's the only way you'll be safe." Jaden told them.

With that Jaden walked away leaving Syrus and Chumley behind.

'I sure hope that you know what you're doing.' Syrus thought.

Now alone Jaden began to search the entire island for hours for any sign of the seventh Shadow Rider. No matter hard he looked though, he was unable to find a single clue.

'Man, whoever this guy is he sure is good at hiding.' Jaden thought as he sat besides a tree.

'Think Jaden, if you were a Shadow Rider where would you hide. Probably in the shadows.' Jaden laughed at his own thoughts.

Jaden noticed that it was starting to get dark. He knew that all of the students would soon be returning to their dorms.

'Chazz was attacked while he was walking back to his dorm, so maybe that's when this Shadow Rider will come out.' He thought.

'I guess I should go and see the others, maybe they've seen something.' Jaden thought as he stood up and started to walk in the direction of the blue dorms.

For a moment Jaden wondered who he should ask first Ryan or Alexis. However it only took him a few seconds to decide.

'I'll ask Alexis. She and I get along better than Ryan and I do.' He thought as he made his way to the girls dorm.

Jaden approached the Obelisk Blue girls dorm. By now most of the girls were returning to their dorm for the night. Jaden waited for Alexis to show up hoping that she might have seen something.

Finally Alexis appeared. She was walking back to her dorm with Mindy and Jasmine. Jaden was about to go and talk to her when he noticed something move out of the corner of his eye.

Turning his head Jaden noticed that there was someone hiding behind the trees watching Alexis. Jaden had a very bad feeling about this so he quickly made his way around the trees so he could surprise the mysterious person from behind.

The mysterious person looked like he was about to come out of hiding but before he could Jaden made his presence known.

"I'm guessing that you didn't come here to talk to Alexis as well." Jaden said.

The mysterious man turned around in surprise. He was wearing a long grey cloak with black robes underneath. His face was hidden by a black mask and his hair was hidden by his hood.

"You. You're the last Shadow Rider, aren't you?" Jaden asked. The man recovered from his shock very quickly.

"Yes, but I'm sorry Mr. Yuki I'm afraid you are not my current target." He said.

"What do you mean I'm not your target? You need all our keys don't you." Jaden questioned.

"Yes, but I'll defeat you once I've defeated the other key keepers." The Shadow Rider said as he turned away from Jaden.

However Jaden grabbed a hold of the Shadow Rider's arm before he could leave.

"Hey, don't think for a second that I'm going to let you go. I'm not going to let you hurt any more of my friends." He said.

The Shadow Rider sighed.

"You certainly seem to be determined to protect them. Perhaps you are ready after all." He said.

"Ready? Ready for what?" Jaden asked.

"You shall soon see." The Shadow Rider said.

The Shadow Rider reached into his robes and pulled out a duel disk that looked very similar to the academy's duel disk but with a darker coloration.

"Hold on, before we start I want to know who you are and what did you do to Chazz." Jaden said as he activated his own duel disk.

"Me. You may refer to me as Amnael and as for Mr. Princeton I put his soul in here." The Shadow Rider said as he showed Jaden a strange book that looked to be very old.

"This is my shadow charm, the emerald tablet. It is the current prison of Chazz Princeton's soul and if you lose this duel it shall become your prison as well." Amnael explained.

"Only if I lose." Jaden stated.

"Yes Mr. Yuki, only if you lose." Amnael said.

"Now before we begin I think that we should have a little more privacy." Amnael said. Suddenly the emerald tablet began to glow and then both Jaden and Amnael found themselves floating in a strange void that resembled outer space.

"What, what have you done? Where are we?" Jaden asked as he looked around.

"Relax this is merely so we won't be disturbed. We will return once the duel is over." Amnael explained.

"Fine then, get your game on." Jaden said.

The duel started.

"I shall go first." Amnael said.

"I activate the continuous spell card Dimensional Fissure. While this card is on the field all of our monsters that would usually go to the graveyard are banished instead." Amnael added.

"What, my monsters won't go to the graveyard." Jaden said in shock.

"That is correct." Amnael answered. Jaden already knew that this meant that some of his cards were now completely useless.

"Next I'll summon D.D Survivor in attack mode and now I'll end my turn." Amnael said. "Your move Mr. Yuki."

D.D Survivor ATK 1800 DEF 200 LV4 DARK Warrior.

Jaden started his turn.

"I'll activate the field spell Skyscraper and now I'll summon Elemental Hero Ocean in attack mode." He said.

Elemental Hero Ocean ATK 1500 DEF 1200 LV4 WATER Warrior.

"Now Ocean attack his monster." Jaden said.

"And thanks to Skyscraper my monster gains a 1000 attack boost for this battle." He added. D.D Survivor was destroyed.

Elemental Hero Ocean ATK 1500 + 1000 = 2500

Amnael LP 4000 - 700 = 3300

Elemental Hero Ocean ATK 2500 - 1000 = 1500

"Next I'll place one card face down and end my turn." Jaden said. Amnael didn't look worried though.

"Impressive move, but I'm afraid that you've activated my monster's effect. When D.D Survivor is banished while it is face up on the field I can summon it back during the end phase." Amnael explained as D.D Survivor returned to the field in attack mode.

D.D Survivor ATK 1800 DEF 200 LV4 DARK Warrior.

Amnael's turn started.

"First I summon D.D Warrior in attack mode. Next I'll attack your monster with my D.D Survivor." Amnael said. Elemental Hero Ocean was destroyed.

D.D Warrior ATK 1200 DEF 1000 LV4 EARTH Warrior.

Jaden LP 4000 - 300 = 3700

"Now D.D Warrior attack him directly." Amnael ordered. D.D Warrior attacked Jaden directly.

"Next I'll play a card face down and end my turn." He said.

Jaden LP 3700 - 1200 = 2500

Jaden started his turn.

"Alright time to get serious. I activate Polymerization to fuse Burstinatrix and Lady Heat. With these two monsters I can create Elemental Hero Nova Master." He said.

Elemental Hero Nova Master ATK 2600 DEF 2100 LV8 FIRE Warrior.

"Now Nova Master attack his D.D Survivor." Jaden said. Nova Master attacked and destroyed D.D Survivor.

"But that's not all, whenever Nova Master destroys a monster I get to draw a card." Jaden explained as he drew a card from his deck.

Amnael LP 3300 - 800 = 2500

"Now I'll place one card face down and end my turn." Jaden said. Since he ended his turn D.D Survivor returned to the field in attack mode.

D.D Survivor ATK 1800 DEF 200 LV4 DARK Warrior.

"A valiant attempt Mr. Yuki, but it won't be enough." Amnael said as he started his turn.

"I summon D.D Warrior Lady in attack mode and now I'll attack your Nova Master with D.D Warrior." Amnael said.

'Thanks to my D.D Warrior's effect Jaden's monster will be banished and then I'll be able to attack him directly.' He thought.

D.D Warrior Lady ATK 1500 DEF 1600 LV4 LIGHT Warrior.

"Not so fast. I activate my trap card Mirror Force. This will destroy all three of your monsters." Jaden said as his trap card destroyed Amnael's monsters.

"I'll place one card face down and end my turn." Amnael said. D.D Survivor returned to the field in defense mode thanks to it's effect.

D.D Survivor ATK 1800 DEF 200 LV4 DARK Warrior.

Jaden took a deep breath as he started his turn. He knew that he had a chance to win this duel. Jaden drew his card and smiled at what he drew.

"I summon Elemental Hero Sparkman in attack mode." He said.

"I'm sorry to say that you have just made a critical mistake Mr. Yuki." Amnael said.

Elemental Hero Sparkman ATK 1600 DEF 1400 LV4 LIGHT Warrior.

"I activate my trap card Torrential Tribute. Since you just summoned a monster this card will destroy every monster on the field." Amnael explained as every monster on the field was destroyed while Jaden looked on in horror.

"And I'm afraid that it gets worse. Next I'll activate my other face down card. It's called D.D Dynamite. This will inflict 300 points of damage to you for each of your banished cards." Amnael said.

Jaden quickly began to count how many of his monsters had been banished and he was completely stunned then he added up how much damage he was about to take.

Jaden LP 2500 - 1500 = 1000

Jaden knew that there was nothing else that he could do now so he had no choice but to end my turn. This caused D.D Survior to return to the field in attack mode.

D.D Survior ATK 1800 DEF 200 LV4 DARK Warrior.

Amnael started his turn.

"First I'll make sure you can't stop my next attack by using this. Cosmic Cyclone. This spell will require me to pay 1000 life points but in exchange it will banish your last face down card." He said.

Amnael LP 2500 - 1000 = 1500

Jaden's face down which was revealed to be Change of Hero - Reflector Ray was banished.

"Now D.D Survior attack him directly and end this duel." Amnael ordered. D.D Survior attacked Jaden directly.

Jaden LP 1000 - 1800 = 0

The space like void disappeared and Jaden and Amnael returned to where they were before the duel had started.

Jaden fell to his knees in defeat and disbelief.

'No. How could I have lost.' He thought. Amnael pulled his book from his robes in order to take Jaden's soul. However despite the fact that he had won the duel he didn't seem to be happy.

"I'm very sorry that you lost Jaden. I really thought that you were the one." Amnael said sadly.

"What are you talking about?" Jaden asked.

"I had hoped that you would be the one to defeat me, but perhaps you simply haven't had enough experience yet." Amnael said.

"I don't understand. What do you mean I haven't had enough experience?" Jaden asked, confused.

"Jaden I'm sorry, I did everything that I could to prepare you for this, but it seems that it wasn't enough." Amnael said.

"Prepare me? What are you talking about? I've never met you before." Jaden said, now even more confused.

"Not so, we have met many times." Amnael said as he reached up and removed his mask revealing his face.

Jaden's eyes widened in a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

"No that's impossible, you're-" He said. However before Jaden could even finish his sentence his soul was pulled from his body and sucked into Amnael's book.

Jaden's now soulless body fell limply to the ground. Amnael looked at his body sadly.

'Perhaps there truly is no way to stop what's coming. Oh well perhaps this means I can save myself after all.' He thought.

Amnael put his mask back on and walked away knowing someone would find Jaden's body in the morning.