Chapter 44

The morning came and Jaden woke up inside of a little tent. He had spent the night camping outside of Tania's coliseum in the hopes of getting back inside. The others had all returned to their dorms.

Jaden crawled out of his tent and saw that the coliseum gate was still closed. Jaden sighed and Winged Kuriboh appeared next to him.

Winged Kuriboh said something.

"I know little guy, but what am I supposed to do? I can't even get inside." Jaden said. Winged Kuriboh said something reassuring.

"Yeah, I hope things work out too." Jaden said.

After nearly an hour Ryan, Alexis and Chazz arrived.

"Any sign of Bastion?" Alexis asked. Jaden shook his head.

"No, and I can't find any way in either." He said.

"I hope that Bastion's okay." Alexis commented.

It was at this moment that the gate suddenly opened. Everyone immediately went on guard unsure of what to expect. Then to everyone's surprise Bastion walked out. He looked exhausted and he had tears running down his face.

"Bastion, what happened?" Jaden asked. However Bastion didn't respond, instead he collapsed and was caught by Ryan.

"Chazz, help me carry him back to the Yellow dorm." Ryan ordered. Everyone agreed and they headed to the yellow dorm with Ryan and Chazz carrying Bastion.

Once they got Bastion back to his room, he had begun to regain some of his senses.

"Bastion what happened? What did she do to you?" A very concerned Jaden asked. Bastion began to cry.

"Jaden, everyone, Tania. She...she dumped me." He said.

"What." Everyone said clearly surprised.

"Tania. She doesn't want me anymore, I wasn't enough of a man for her!" Bastion cried.

"So she kicked you out?" Jaden asked. Bastion nodded.

"Consider yourself lucky you got away." Chazz said.

"Lucky. How am I lucky? I lost Tania, all because I wasn't good enough." Bastion said.

"Hang on, are you telling us you care about her?" A surprised Ryan asked.

"Care about her? I love her, she's like no one I've ever met before." Bastion said.

Bastion started to cry again while screaming Tania's name. The others quickly left the room.

"What did Tania do to him?" Chazz asked once they were outside.

"She broke him, that's what." Ryan told him.

"We need to stop her before she does this to anyone else." Jaden said.

"So I guess we need to decide who's going to duel her next." Ryan added.

"I would, but she said that she doesn't duel women." Alexis said.

"If I had fully recovered from my duel with Nightshroud, I'd take her on." Ryan replied.

"So, I guess that just leaves Jaden and Chazz." Alexis said.

"Don't worry guys, I'll take her on." Jaden offered.

"Don't be ridiculous, you saw how easily she took down Bastion. You wouldn't stand a chance." Chazz said.

"And I suppose that you'd do better." Jaden replied sarcastically.

Jaden and Chazz soon began to argue over who was the better duelist.

'We're getting nowhere.' Ryan thought exasperated.

While Jaden and Chazz were arguing Bastion emerged from his room and started to walk away.

"Bastion, where are you going?" Alexis asked.

"I'm going back to Tania. I need to convince her to take me back." Bastion answered as he started to run back to the coliseum.

Jaden and Chazz stopped arguing for a moment.

"Has he gone insane? Why would he go back to her?" Chazz asked.

"Come on, we need to stop him before he does something he's going to regret." Jaden said.

The group followed Bastion all the way back to the coliseum. Bastion ran inside before anyone could stop him and everyone followed him.

Inside the coliseum was Tania waiting next to her tiger Bass. Tania saw Bastion and sighed.

"You again. I thought I told you to get lost." She said. Bastion fell to his knees.

"Tania please, take me back." He begged.

"Shut up and stand up, you look pathetic." Tania said angrily. Bastion immediately stood up.

"Tania I can do better. Please just give me a chance." He said.

"Quiet little man, I'm not interested in you. I want something bigger." Tania shouted.

At this point the others had entered the coliseum and Tania smiled.

"Finally, maybe one of them can impress me more than you did." She said. Bastion started to cry.

"So boys, which one of you will it be." Tania said. Both Jaden and Chazz stepped forward at the same time.

"Jaden let me handle this." Chazz said.

"No way, I've already beaten a Shadow Rider." Jaden countered.

Jaden and Chazz started to argue again.

"Look at that. They're fighting over me, I feel so flattered." Tania said. While Jaden and Chazz continued to argue Ryan and Alexis dragged Bastion away and into the stands.

After a few minutes Tania grew bored of Jaden and Chazz arguing and decided to stop them.

"Alright boys that's enough, I think that I'll decide who goes first." She said. Jaden and Chazz stopped arguing.

Tania walked up to Jaden and Chazz and studied them closely.

"I choose...you." She said as she grabbed a hold of Jaden and pulled him away.

"What? Why him?" Chazz asked, sounding rather offended.

"He has cute eyes." Tania answered.

Tania dragged Jaden into position and activated her duel disk.

"So which one of my decks will you face? The deck of knowledge or the deck of courage?" Tania asked.

"I'll take the one of courage." Jaden answered. Tania smiled and placed her deck into her duel disk.

"I'll go first." Tania said. "I summon Amazoness Swordswoman in attack mode and I'll also place a card face down. That will end my turn." She said.

Amazoness Swordswoman ATK 1500 DEF 1600 LV4 EARTH Warrior.

Jaden started his turn.

"I activate the field spell Skyscraper. Next I'll summon Elemental Hero Captain Gold in attack mode and attack your monster." He said.

"Stupid!" Ryan shouted as Captain Gold destroyed Amazoness Swordswoman.

Elemental Hero Captain Gold ATK 2100 DEF 800 LV4 LIGHT Warrior.

Jaden LP 4000 - 600 = 3400

"What, what's going on?" Jaden asked in confusion as his life points went down instead of Tania's.

"What's wrong? Didn't you know that thanks to my monster's effect you take any battle damage that I would usually take." Tania explained.

"Look at her. Her dueling is so skillful, so flawless, isn't it just beautiful." Bastion said.

"Bastion if you don't shut up I am going to hit you." Chazz told him.

Tania's turn started.

"I summon Amazoness Fighter in attack mode and I'll also activate the continuous spell Amazoness Fighting Spirit. If one of my Amazoness monster's attacks one of your monsters with a higher attack while this card is on the field my monster will gain an extra 1000 attack points for that battle." She explained.

Amazoness Fighter ATK 1500 DEF 1300 LV4 EARTH Warrior.

"Amazoness Fighter attack his monster." Tania ordered. Amazoness Fighter attacked Captain Gold and thanks to Amazoness Fighting Spirit she gained a 1000 attack point boost.

Amazoness Fighter ATK 1500 + 1000 = 2500

Jaden LP 3400 - 400 = 3000

"Come on, do something to impress me." Tania said as she ended her turn.

Amazoness Fighter ATK 2500 - 1000 = 1500

Jaden drew his card.

"I summon Elemental Hero Lady Heat in attack mode and I'll use her to attack your monster." Lady Heat attacked.

"Since your monster has higher attack than my monster Skyscraper will increase my monster's attack by 1000 for this battle." Jaden explained.

Elemental Hero Lady Heat ATK 1300 DEF 1000 LV4 FIRE Pyro.

Elemental Hero Lady Heat ATK 1300 + 1000 = 2300

Amazoness Fighter was destroyed but Tania didn't take any damage.

"What gives, why aren't your life points going down?" Jaden asked.

"It's because of Amazoness Fighter's effect. She prevents me from taking any damage from attacks involving her." Tania explained.

Elemental Hero Lady Heat ATK 2300 - 1000 = 1300

Jaden smiled as he ended his turn.

"Since I'm ending my turn Lady Heat's effect activates. Now she'll deal you 200 points of damage to you for each Elemental Hero monster I control." He said.

Tania LP 4000 - 200 = 3800

"Jaden's out of his league. He doesn't stand a chance against Tania, no one does." Bastion said. Chazz, Ryan and Alexis look at him with annoyed expressions on their faces.

"My turn." Tania said as she drew her card.

"I summon Amazoness Spy in attack mode and since I just summoned a Amazoness monster I can now special summon Amazoness Baby Tiger from my hand as well." She said.

Amazoness Spy ATK 800 DEF 1200 LV3 EARTH Warrior.

Amazoness Baby Tiger ATK 500 DEF 500 LV2 EARTH Beast.

Thanks to Amazoness Baby Tiger's effect it gained 100 more attack points for each Amazoness card in Tania's graveyard.

Amazoness Baby Tiger ATK 500 + 200 = 700

"Now Amazoness Spy attack his monster." Tania said. Amazoness Spy attacked and gained a 1000 attack point boost which allowed her to destroy Lady Heat.

"Next my Baby Tiger will attack you directly." Tania said. Amazoness Baby Tiger attacked.

Amazoness Spy ATK 800 + 1000 = 1800

Jaden LP 3000 - 500 = 2500

Jaden LP 2500 - 700 = 1800

Amazoness Spy ATK 1800 - 1000 = 800

Tania ended her turn.

"Looks like Jaden's in trouble, I knew I should have dueled her." Chazz said.

"This duel isn't over yet, but Jaden had better do something good." Alexis added.

Jaden started his turn.

"I play a monster in defense mode and two cards face down." He said, then he ended his turn.

"Running scared now. That's disappointing, but I can't really blame you." Tania said.

Tania drew her card.

"I summon Amazoness Tiger in attack mode. This monster gains 400 attack points for each Amazoness monster I control including itself. Not only that, as long as my Tiger is face up on the field you can't attack any of my other Amazoness monsters." Tania explained.

Amazoness Tiger ATK 1100 DEF 1500 LV4 EARTH Beast.

Amazoness Tiger ATK 1100 + 1200 = 2300

"Now Amazoness Tiger attack his face down monster." Tania said. Amazoness Tiger attacked and destroyed Jaden's monster which was revealed to be Elemental Hero Woodsman.

Elemental Hero Woodsman ATK 1000 DEF 2000 LV4 EARTH Warrior.

"I activate my trap card Hero Signal. This will allow me to special summon a level 4 or lower Elemental Hero monster from my deck." Jaden said.

"But that's not all, I also activate my quick play spell Emergency Provisions. This card lets me send any number of spell or trap cards from my field to the graveyard in order to gain 1000 life points for each one and I choose Hero Signal and Skyscraper." He continued.

Jaden LP 1800 + 2000 = 3800

After the effect of Emergency Provisions resolved the effect of Hero Signal activated allowing Jaden to summon Elemental Hero Liquid Soldier from his deck in defense mode.

Elemental Hero Liquid Soldier ATK 1300 DEF 1100 LV4 WATER Warrior.

"That's not going to stop me. Baby Tiger attack." Tania said. Amazoness Baby Tiger attacked Liquid Soldier and gained a 1000 attack point boost allowing it to destroy Jaden's monster.

Amazoness Baby Tiger ATK 700 + 1000 = 1700

"Now my Spy attack him directly." Tania ordered. Amazoness Spy attacked Jaden directly, then Tania ended her turn.

Jaden LP 3800 - 800 = 3000

"It's no use, Tania's just too strong. She's the greatest, ow." Bastion said as someone suddenly hit him on the back of the head.

"Who did that?" Bastion asked as he turned around. However neither Ryan, Chazz or Alexis answered. They all just watched the duel and pretended that nothing had happened.

Jaden started his turn.

"I activate Miracle Fusion. With this I'll banish Liquid Soldier and Captain Gold from my graveyard in order to fusion summon Elemental Hero The Shining and this card will gain 300 more attack points for each of my banished Elemental Hero monsters." He said.

Elemental Hero the Shining ATK 2600 DEF 2100 LV8 LIGHT Warrior.

Elemental Hero the Shining ATK 2600 + 600 = 3200

"And since I just used Liquid Soldier as a fusion material monster his effect activates allowing me to draw two cards and then discard one." Jaden said as he drew two cards and then discarded Elemental Hero Necroshade.

"Now the Shining attack that Tiger." Jaden said. The Shining attacked and destroyed Amazoness Tiger.

Tania LP 3800 - 900 = 2900

Amazoness Baby Tiger ATK 700 + 100 = 800

Tania smiled as Jaden ended his turn.

"Finally a monster that might be worth my time." She said as her turn started.

"I activate Polymerization in order to fuse Amazoness Spy with Amazoness Baby Tiger, and just so you know while Amazoness Baby Tiger is on the field or in the graveyard it's name is treated as Amazoness Tiger. And now with these two monsters I create Amazoness Pet Liger." Tania said.

Amazoness Pet Liger ATK 2500 DEF 2400 LV7 EARTH Beast.

"But that's not all. Next I'll summon Amazoness Scouts in attack mode and since I just summoned an Amazoness monster I can also special summon Amazoness Baby Tiger back from the graveyard." Tania said.

Amazoness Scouts ATK 500 DEF 1100 LV2 EARTH Warrior.

Amazoness Baby Tiger ATK 500 DEF 500 LV2 EARTH Beast.

Amazoness Baby Tiger ATK 500 + 500 = 1000

"Now my Liger attack his monster." Tania ordered.

"And when my Liger attacks it gains a 500 attack point boost for the battle and that's not counting the 1000 point boost it gains from Amazoness Fighting Spirit." Tania explained as her Liger gained a total of 1500 more attack points and destroyed The Shining.

Amazoness Pet Liger ATK 2500 + 1500 = 4000

Jaden LP 3000 - 800 = 2200

"You've just activate The Shining's effect. When this card is sent to the graveyard I can add up to two of my banished Elemental Hero monsters back to my hand." Jaden explained as he added Liquid Soldier and Captain Gold back to his hand.

"It's not like they're going to save you." Tania said.

"Now both my Baby Tiger and Scouts will attack you directly." She continued. Jaden was attacked by Amazoness Baby Tiger and Amazoness Scouts. After this Tania ended her turn.

Jaden LP 2200 - 1000 = 1200

Jaden LP 1200 - 500 = 700

Amazoness Pet Liger ATK 4000 - 1500 = 2500

Jaden started his turn.

"Hold on. Before you do anything I'm going to activate Amazoness Scout's effect. By tributing my Scouts I can make it so all of my Amazoness monsters can't be destroyed by card effects and can't be targeted by your monster effects until the end of the turn." Tania explained.

Amazoness Baby Tiger ATK 1000 + 100 = 1100

Jaden continued his turn.

"I activate Polymerization in order to fuse Liquid Soldier and Captain Gold together again, but this time I'm going to create Elemental Hero Sunrise." Jaden said.

Elemental Hero Sunrise ATK 2500 DEF 1200 LV7 LIGHT Warrior.

"And now Liquid Soldier's effect activates allowing me to draw two cards and then discard one." Jaden said as he drew two cards and then discarded Fake Hero.

"But that's not all, when Sunrise is summoned I can add a Miracle Fusion from my deck to my hand." He added.

"Now I'm going to use Necroshade's effect in order to normal summon a high level Elemental Hero without tributing. I summon Bladedge in attack mode." Jaden said.

Elemental Hero Bladedge ATK 2600 DEF 1800 LV7 EARTH Warrior.

"Finally I'll use Miracle Fusion in order to fuse Necroshade and Lady Heat in my graveyard. By combining a Elemental Hero and a DARK monster I create Elemental Hero Escuridao and this monster gains 100 attack for each Elemental Hero in my graveyard." Jaden said.

Elemental Hero Escuridao ATK 2500 DEF 2000 LV8 DARK Warrior.

Elemental Hero Escuridao ATK 2500 + 400 = 2900

"And one more thing, as long as Sunrise is on the field all of my monsters gain 200 attack points for each different attribute that I control." Jaden explained.

Elemental Hero Sunrise ATK 2500 + 600 = 3100

Elemental Hero Bladedge ATK 2600 + 600 = 3200

Elemental Hero Escuridao ATK 2900 + 600 = 3500

"Now Sunrise attack that Liger." Jaden said. Amazoness Pet Liger was destroyed by Sunrise.

"Bladedge destroy that Baby Tiger." He added. Bladedge destroyed Amazoness Baby Tiger.

Tania LP 2900 - 600 = 2300

Amazoness Baby Tiger ATK 1100 + 100 = 1200

Tania LP 2300 - 2000 = 300

"And finally Escuridao will attack you directly." Jaden said as Escuridao attacked Tania.

Tania LP 300 - 3500 = 0

Tania fell to her knees in defeat.

"Tania no!" Bastion screamed as he jumped from the stands and ran to Tania's side.

"You know it's funny. I joined the Shadow Riders so that I could find a man worthy of being my husband, but it turns out that I'm the one who wasn't worthy." Tania said.

"Don't say that. You'll always be worthy to me." Bastion said as he hugged her.

Tania smiled sadly.

"I'm sorry Bastion, but I can't stay here any more. The power of the shadow charm is already leaving me, but I'll always remember the time that we spent together." She said.

Tania removed the glove that she was wearing and then she disappeared in a flash of light. When the light cleared there was a white tiger standing where Tania once stood.

The white tiger began to walk away.

"Goodbye Bastion, I hope that we'll meet again someday." Tania's voice said coming from the tiger. The tiger slowly began to disappear and then she was gone.

Bastion stood still. It wasn't clear if he had been stunned with shock or sadness.

"Don't worry Bastion, there are plenty of fish in the sea." Jaden said, trying to cheer Bastion up.

"Maybe, but they're aren't many tigers." Bastion said still staring at where Tania once stood.