Chapter Text
City Plaza, Domino City
October 15, 2000
11:58 AM
“It’s over Paradox. You’ve lost.” Yami’s confident voice rang out across the plaza, the weight of the words almost enough to further crush the enemy. Paradox struggled into a kneeling position, glaring at them all.
“You fools,” he hissed at them, “you have no idea what you’ve done!” Hands shaking, from rage or exhaustion or both, they couldn’t tell, he reached into his duel disk and withdrew four cards, waving them at his opponents. “Jaden Yuki. You wanted these back, correct?” He threw them to the Osiris, who caught them expertly, fanning them out and breathing a sigh of relief when he saw the familiar depictions of the Blue-Eyes, Red-Eyes, Rainbow, and Cyber End Dragons looking back at him. They were finally safe again.
“Farewell, children. I hope you can sleep at night, knowing that you’ve doomed the world.” Still sneering at them, Paradox grabbed his own wrist and—
BOOM!
The explosion threw the three victors backward before gravity cut their flight short and slammed them back into the ground. Instinctively they closed their eyes and tried to shield their faces from flying debris, but it was difficult to move with the wind knocked out of them. When they were finally able to look up again, all that remained of Paradox and his duel runner were bits and pieces.
Inside their shared mind, Yami felt Yugi recoil in horror. Jaden and Yusei sprang to their feet and raced to the carnage, but Yami held back out of respect for his partner. The scene didn’t bother him all that much— though the fact that it didn’t bother him did— but there was no reason to force Yugi to endure it. Especially since both their companions were now both poking around the wreckage and looking perfectly fine. Yami might have been imagining it, but he was almost sure that Jaden’s eyes were glowing two different colors now, neither of them the warm brown that they’d been during the duel.
“Looks like he had an explosive device attached to both himself and his runner,” Yusei said grimly, holding up the remains of what looked like a wristwatch. “He was wearing the trigger for both of them the whole time.”
“Man, that is messed up,” Jaden said, his eyes suddenly back to normal.
“He thought he was saving the world from a doomed future. He probably figured there was no point going on living if he failed.” Yami thought Yusei was being very blasé about the whole a-man-just-blew-himself-up-in-front-of-us thing. He seemed as passive as ever, and not for the first time, the ancient spirit wondered (and felt the wonder echoed by Yugi) what kind of background Yusei came from, that he was so unaffected and apparently apathetic about everything.
He wasn’t really, they knew— they’d seen the mask slip ever so briefly when Paradox dragged Stardust to the field, and they knew he was a good person based on his dueling— but still… Yami looked back at Paradox’s remains. He wished so many people weren’t hell-bent on destroying themselves. If there was one thing Yugi had taught him, it was that there was always hope even in the direst of circumstances, and that you should never give up, no matter what.
From the look on his face, Jaden seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “Either of you have any ideas on what to do with the body?” he asked.
Yami felt Yugi breathe a sigh of relief that someone else had brought this up.
“I suppose we’ll have to bury him somewhere,” Yusei said, furrowing his brow. “Though I’d really prefer not to leave any evidence behind. It could inadvertently alter the future.”
“I guess it’s up to me then.” Jaden let out a long sigh, as if he’d really been hoping it wouldn’t come to this. “Stand back everyone.” Yami did as asked, suddenly feeling an inexplicable new wariness around the cheerful Elemental HEROs user. He reached out hesitantly with his Heka and withdrew sharply when he got a taste of the power coming off Jaden.
What was that? Yugi asked in alarm.
I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s very old and very powerful. He had underestimated Jaden Yuki. A foolish mistake, considering who he and Yugi were. He should have known better. Luckily, it didn’t look like it was going to cost them anything— this time.
Out of curiosity, Yugi came forward a bit more, appearing in spirit form next to his partner, and watched (being very careful to focus on Jaden rather than Paradox) in fascination as the red-jacketed duelist began to work.
Before their very eyes, Jaden’s eyes glowed gold— this time very clearly not just in their imaginations— and the air around him seemed to distort, like the heat rising off a blacktop. Then, suddenly, the remains of Paradox and his duel runner began to melt. At least, it looked like melting, except instead of turning into liquid, the matter simply… disappeared, as if it had been drawn in by the earth, or maybe the air. It was kind of hard to tell.
Next to him, Yami heard Yusei suck in his breath as the wrist device he was still holding collapsed in on itself and vanished, not even leaving a residue behind.
Just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The distortion ended, Jaden’s eyes returned to normal, and the look of concentration he’d been wearing faded back into his usual (albeit now subdued) grin. There was no sign Paradox had ever been there.
“There. Problem solved.”
“What— what was that?” Yusei asked, sounding genuinely impressed. Jaden grinned cheekily at them (Yami noticed it seemed a bit forced) and answered, “Afraid I can’t tell you that. I don’t want to ‘inadvently alter the future’, either.” Did he just say— “If I tell you guys something you’re not supposed to know yet, it could cause the timeline to implode or something. Better not to take any chances.”
Jaden had a point, Yami conceded. He’d also prefer it if the timeline remained intact, especially since he and Yugi would probably be the ones who’d get stuck with fixing it. Yusei also gave a nod in acceptance of Jaden’s answer.
Just then, there came the faint sound of a helicopter approaching, causing all three duelists to look up.
That’s probably Pegasus, Yugi said worriedly. We’d better get out of here. There’s no chance he won’t call attention to us if we’re spotted. Yami nodded in agreement. Subtlety was not one of Pegasus’s strong points.
“This way,” he called to Jaden and Yusei, pointing them down a back alley. The Spirit of the Puzzle was quite familiar with the back streets and underground establishments of Domino City from his vigilante days. Now, he and Yugi mainly used them to get around without being mobbed by fans.
Because they wanted to avoid attention (which summoning a giant, shrieking red dragon apparition would definitely draw) and since Yusei’s duel runner was still on the roof where they’d first met, the three duelists decided to spend the afternoon together while they waited for the crowds to disperse. Yami had intended to give control back to Yugi now that the duel was over, but Jaden was like an inquisitive firecracker, and Yami kept finding himself having to answer rapid questions about himself and Duelist Kingdom.
“What’s it like, living in the Millennium Puzzle? How did you come up with that strategy you used to defeat Weevil Underwood? Were you very nervous whenever you switched back with Yugi during the duel with Pegasus, not knowing what play he’d made?” and so on and so forth.
After about twenty minutes of this, Yami noticed that Yusei’s eyebrows were drawn together in concentration, and that he was staring at him very intently.
“Are you alright, Yusei?” The synchro user blinked at him, as if coming out of a trance.
“Yeah, I… I just… I thought you were Yugi Muto?” Oh. Since Jaden seemed so informed, Yami had just assumed that Yusei was also “in the know” about him and the Millennium Puzzle. Apparently, that assumption had been incorrect.
“Oh, yeah. It can be confusing for those who don’t know. See, Yugi is from this time. Yami is a spirit from Ancient Egypt who lives inside the Millennium Puzzle,” Jaden pointed to the artifact hanging around Yugi’s neck, “and he occasionally takes control of Yugi’s body, mostly in order to duel, but sometimes for other things, too.”
This time Yusei’s confused blinks were directed at Jaden. “Oh. That’s… unusual.” A pause. “How do you know all that?”
Jaden grinned. “Duel History class. It’s one of the required courses for first-year students at Duel Academy. We learn all about the Nameless Pharaoh in one of our units.”
Yami’s hopes suddenly surged upwards. If he’s from a future where they study me, maybe he knows about my missing memories. Maybe he can tell me—
No, Pharaoh, we can’t! We can’t mess around with history like that; we have no idea what kind of consequences that could have! Yugi exclaimed in their mind.
Yami sighed internally, his hopes deflating. He knew that. Of course, he knew that. But it still would have been nice.
“Oh,” Yusei said in response to Jaden’s explanation, glancing down at his hands. “Where I grew up, we didn’t have enough money for schools. Everything we learned we taught ourselves or was passed down verbally. We all heard about the great Yugi Muto, but no one knew many details. There were rumors, of course, but nothing we could fact-check.”
That sounds awful, Yugi said. He must come from a really poor place if they can’t even afford schools. Even people living in the slums, like Joey, still go to school because the government pays for it. Yami mentally nodded. He knew from researching Ancient Egypt that school was something that, for most of history, was offered only to the rich and privileged, and even then, usually only to the boys. Things had changed greatly in the modern world, but… apparently, those changes weren’t going to continue into the future. Or maybe they would regress somehow?
“Is that how you got that mark on your face?” Jaden asked. “From growing up in a bad neighborhood?” Yami stared at him in disbelief, the feeling shared by Yugi. Did no one teach this kid manners?
Yusei, however, seemed almost amused by Jaden’s forwardness. “You could say that. This mark identifies me as a criminal, actually.”
Yami stared at him, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Jaden go slack jawed. The corner of Yusei’s mouth twitched upwards a bit more, which Yami guessed was his equivalent of bursting out laughing.
“I was busted for trespassing,” he explained. “People from my neighborhood aren’t allowed to venture outside of it without permission. But I had to… visit a friend."
Jaden snapped back rather quickly, which he seemed to be prone to. “That’s rough, bro,” he said sympathetically.
Yusei shrugged. “Things have been getting better recently, going through reforms.”
What a relief, Yugi murmured.
“So, Jaden, since I’ve never had the experience, what’s it like going to school?”
Jaden’s face lit up, and Yami, Yugi, and Yusei found themselves engrossed in tales of ghosts and vampires and zombies, most of which, Yami was almost sure, had to be made up.
He makes Domino High sound like a spa retreat, Yugi agreed.
All too soon, the sun was going down, and the crowds began to disperse, and Yusei announced that there was no point in putting it off anymore. The longer he and Jaden were here, the higher the risk that they might accidentally change something. Still, they lingered just a little bit longer on the rooftop, watching Pegasus, very much alive, continue to hand out cards to his admirers.
But then, Yusei and Jaden climbed back on their ride, Yusei did a loop around the rooftop before accelerating towards the edge, and, just as they were about to go over, there was a roar and a flash of crimson light, forcing Yami to bring his hand up to shield his eyes.
When he opened them again, he and Yugi were alone. With their own flash of light, they switched places, and Yugi was back in control.
“It’s good to know the future of Duel Monsters is in good hands,” Yugi reflected, cradling the puzzle. “Do you really think we’ll see them again, and be able to test our skills against them?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Yami admitted. “But we can certainly hope, right?”
Yami’s hope was not misplaced. Several centuries later, when he no longer went by Yami, but by his birth name Atem, he would meet both Jaden and Yusei again. Their contests would be some of the most spectated and the most exciting, all the more so because there was nothing on the line but the thrill of the game.