Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Luna looked out through the window at the field of grass. Trees by the railroad were flying past her, so fast that it felt like they were blinking in and out of her field of vision.

She took her phone out by habit, dangling her chibi Seto Kaiba keychain from her phone case in the process. But before she unlocked her phone, she remembered that she had used up all of her data earlier that day.

16:22

She still had two hours and a bit to arrive at her stop, but it had been a long day and she was already tired. As her phone screen turned black once again, she saw the light from the window being reflected on the smooth black surface. As each tree passed by with a woosh, her phone screen seemed to be blinking.

Woosh

Woosh

She kept staring at her phone as her lack of sleep started to catch up to her.

Woosh

Woosh

It was almost tantalizing, she couldn’t take her eyes off of that blinking phone screen.

Woosh

Woosh

“Stay on the sidewalk!” the cyclist that had just passed her yelled, making her look up in a startle.

She was standing on the side of the road as people on bicycles passed by her. Where was she and how had she gotten there? Luna stepped back onto the side walk as she looked around, but nothing stood ou-

Is that KC Tower?

As she wondered, the giant screen on the side of the building turned on to show the face of none other than Seto Kaiba, her anime crush.

“Citizens of Domino.” Kenjiro Tsuda’s voice came through Seto’s mouth, though in English.

Thank the heavens this isn’t dubbed, sort of.

“The Battle City Tournament will commence two days from now.”

Those fierce eyes never failed to make her heart skip a beat.

“Registrations will begin shortly at all official KC Duel Stations.” Seto stated as a matter of fact. “Of course, not all third rate duelists will be accepted. To be registered as a participant, each of you must win a duel against our level 40 AI, but you get one try. Should you win, the new Battle City Duel Disk will be provided to you immediately, guaranteeing your spot in the tournament. Should you lose, your name will be blacklisted from participating.”

Am I dreaming?

“That is all.”

Chapter Text

That was her Seto, direct and to the point. No reason to wish anyone luck, because it’s illogical to depend on luck.

And with that, the giant monitor turned off. Suddenly, everyone around her started to move faster, the excitement in the air was practically palpable. She knew what was going on, but didn’t know why or how it was happening to her.

She looked at her own hand, not sure of what she had expected to see, but it just looked like her normal hand. But when she looked down at her clothes she realized that aside from her usual black clothes, she had a double strap leather belt on that she didn’t recognize. On the side of said belt, she had four deck boxes.

What the-

It felt a little excessive, but she opened the first one. Looking through the cards, she realized that it was her Blue Eyes deck that she used in Duel Links.

This baby got me to King of Games several times.

She opened the second deck box.

Lunalight.

It was one of her favorites as well. This was getting pretty exciting, she opened the third box.

Red Eyes Black Dragon.

This was a deck she had been building just for fun and not one she used often.

That just left one deck box. She opened it and quickly realized that this wasn’t a deck at all, but just an assortment of her favorite cards.

At least I have a few options, I guess.

With that thought, she made her way towards where people were lining up. There were too many people there, however, and someone had mentioned that there were several Duel Stations at the KC Tower.

I always wanted to see what Kaiba Corp would look like in real life.

Maybe she could even get a peek at Seto.

But as she walked up towards the Tower, she realized how much bigger it was than she had originally imagined. In fact, it was much bigger than any single structure she had ever seen. It was almost surreal.

Maybe this is a dream after all.

Once she walked in, she imagined this was what the definition of sophistication would be. At the front desk, she was directed towards where all of their Duel Stations were. She didn’t know what she had expected to see, but it was just a huge hallway with dozens of rooms.

One of the doors opened and a person came out with a duel disk in hand. Big helmet of a green hair. It was weird seeing all of these charac- well, people that she recognized and knew about since she was a child. And just like that, she had an urge to have some fun.

“Excuse me.” She said, feeling awkward about starting an interaction with a random anime character. “I sense that you are a fellow psychic, the cosmos is telling me that it’s your lucky day today.”

The boy seemed taken aback for a moment before smirking as if seeing through her joke.

“I see that-” she said putting up a hand towards him. “I see that you passed. You will be in the tournament.”

“How do you know that?” He asked looking genuinely spooked.

“From the duel disk, of course.” She said smiling, making him look down at his duel disk before looking back at her as if he had been slapped.

“Ha-ha.” He laughed sarcastically. “Very funny. I don’t have time for this.”

“Okay.” She laughed as he turned to leave. “Well good luck on the tournament, Espa Roba.”

He quickly turned back around, but that was her cue so she turned just as quickly to leave.

“Say hi to your four brothers for me.” She couldn’t see his face, but she almost laughed out loud just thinking about it.

But as she entered the room, it was her turn to be spooked.

“Please close the door.” Mokuba Kaiba said without looking up from his tablet.

She closed the door but stood there looking at him. After a moment of silence, Mokuba looked up.

“You can get started.” He said, pointing at the big machine against the wall. “Is there a problem?”

“No, no.” She said, quickly approaching the machine. “I just didn’t expect to see anyone here. I thought the registration was done at the duel stations against AIs, specifically so that there wouldn’t need to be so much manpower on hand in this process.”

“Well, you are absolutely right.” He stated, setting down his tablet on the small table. “The other rooms only have the Duel Stations in them. I’m just making sure everything is going smoothly in the first few hours of registration, and decided I would see with my own eyes what kinds of duelists show up. So, really, it’s kind of lucky of you to have come to this room.”

So bright at such a young age.

“Right, well, since you are here.” She stated with her best smile. “How does this work?”

Mokuba got up from his chair and grabbed the VR Visor from the machine.

“Here, you put your deck into the machine and put this visor on. And it should get started on its own.” Mokuba explained kindly.

Luna instinctively put her hand on her Blue Eyes deck box, but realized that Mokuba would be watching. In their world, only four Blue Eyes White Dragon cards existed, and all four of them were already accounted for. Not to mention, her synchro cards could get her in trouble as this was still Battle City.

She could use her Lunalight deck as it focused more on fusion cards, but Lunalights only came out in Arc-V. For all they knew, she could be playing with made up cards.

So, really, she didn’t have much of an option at all.

“Is everything okay?” Mokuba’s voice brought her mind back to the present.

“Yeah, but uh-” This could be her chance to make an impression on Mokuba, maybe then she could meet Seto. “I was just thinking, would it be possible for you to up the level of the AIs?”

“Up the level?” Mokuba asked, looking genuinely confused. “Why- oh, I see. You think it will be too easy? Why don’t we try as is first, huh? Level 40 is no joke, you know?”

It was a pretty big joke if they were anything like level 40 Duel Links AIs. Anyone could beat that and she wasn’t going to make an impression by being just anyone. Plus, this was Battle City, were there even any combos back then?

“I’m certain I can take it.” She said confidently.

Mokuba seemed to consider this for a second before shaking his head.

“You will get plenty of chances to prove yourself in the tournament.” He stated, handing her the visor. “You only get one chance to get in, after all.”

“One chance is all I need.” She said with a smile, but Mokuba didn’t look too sure. “Come on, you would be doing me a favor, just to level 60 then.”

“Just to 60? Were you thinking of a higher level before?” Mokuba asked, sounding shocked but seemingly amused.

“I mean, how far do these machines go?” She had to be confident but couldn’t exaggerate, otherwise she could come across as delusional.

Mokuba shook his head but didn’t seem to be able to contain his smile.

“You know, the only other person to want a higher level AI was Seto.” Mokuba stated as he picked up his tablet once again and tapped a few times on it. “But, of course, he is Seto Kaiba. Last chance, are you sure?”

Luna nodded once and couldn’t stop the words coming out through her smile.

“It’s time to duel!”

Chapter Text

As she donned the visor, which felt more like a helmet to her, it was like she was in a whole new world. Not that she wasn’t already, but it felt much different than the one she was already in. She was surrounded by clouds, but she could see that the duel mat part of the machine appeared to be floating midair.

“Should I take off the visor to shuffle my deck?” She asked, knowing Mokuba was beside her.

“No, the machine will shuffle it for you.”

She looked towards where the voice had come from, but it looked like she was alone in a plateau high above the clouds. It looked so real.

“This is amazing.”

“Pay attention, your opponent should be ahead of you.”

She quickly turned back to see beyond her floating duel mat, and there stood none other than Kaibaman.

“Wait, am I going to be dueling against Seto’s deck?” She asked, excited.

“It’s not an exact copy, and of course, the AI won’t duel as well as Seto. But it should give most people a run for their money.” Mokuba said, his confidence in his brother as strong as ever. “Don’t tell me you are scared now!”

The number 4000 appeared above each player. Suddenly two giant coins materialized in front of her, one with a blank surface and the other with the letters K and C imprinted upon it.

“I’m not really scared of anything.” She said as she tapped on the blank coin, making the other coin fade away as the remaining one was tossed into the air.

“Tell me that when you-” Mokuba started but stopped abruptly. “You know what? Let’s see how you do.”

The coin dropped and stopped in front of her.

Blank side.

Two more options appeared. First or Second.

By force of habit, she chose to go second. Her Red Eyes deck was built around speed, and due to the effect of her Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, it was more advantageous for her to go second as opposed to going first and not being able to attack. As she reached out to where her deck was, four cards materialized in front of her.

So the machine did all the drawing and shuffling, incredible.

Luna looked at her starting hand.

Red-Eyes Spirit, Red-Eyes Fusion, Kunai with Chain and Red-Eyes Retro Dragon.

Not bad at all.

“I set a monster!” The AI lost no time. “Along with a face down card and end my turn!”

She paid no mind to the face down card. They didn’t have Floodgate Trap Hole back in Battle City, she had nothing to worry about.

“Tap towards your deck to draw a card.” Mokuba’s bodiless voice came from beside her once again.

She did as told and a new card materialized in front of her. Gearfried the Iron Knight. She didn’t want to look too much like Joey Wheeler though.

She tapped on Red-Eyes Fusion, which allowed her to fusion summon a Red-Eyes fusion monster by using materials from her deck. There most likely weren’t cards like this back in Battle City, but it would be a good opportunity to check if anything would happen should she use these newer cards.

Her fusion cards from her Extra Deck appeared in front of her for her to choose. She had several Red-Eyes fusion cards, but her strategy revolved around her Red-Eyes Slash Dragon. Tapping on it made all the cards that could be used as materials appear in front of her. She quickly tapped on Red-Eyes Black Dragon and-

She faltered for a second.

She was about to tap on Elemental Hero Neos, but lore wise, Neos was a unique card, much like Blue Eyes White Dragon cards. Only one person owned a single copy of Neos and He was probably just a child still at this point in time without a deck of his own. Would there be any implications in her using it?

“You know, it might help to narrate what you are doing.” Mokuba’s voice came from beside her.

“What?” She asked momentarily confused, but quickly remembering that the anime characters always narrated their plays. She presumed real life competitive TCG players probably narrated their moves, but dueling mostly in Duel Links, she hadn’t gotten used to the habit of verbally explaining what she was doing.

“Yeah, it helps you keep track of your strategy, my broth-” Mokuba stopped himself again. “Maybe this was a bad idea. It seems you don’t even know the basics, you are faltering on your very first move.”

That was almost offensive.

“Luna.” She said her name.

“What?” Mokuba asked after a moment of silence.

“My name is Luna.” She stated confidently, standing up straighter. “And I can promise you that you have never seen moves like mine before.”

With that she tapped on Elemental Hero Neos and quickly raised her right hand to the sky in her best impression of Seto Kaiba.

“Come forth!” She yelled as the skies darkened around the plateau. “Red-Eyes Slash Dragon!”

A spiraling portal of red energy opened from the sky, through which her dragon appeared as thunders bellowed.

Her heart started beating faster as she saw how realistic all of that looked.

“I activate a trap card!” Kaibaman said in the voice of Seto, making her excitement short lived. “Trap Hole destroys one monster with 1000 or more attack when you summon it!”

Trap Hole? OG Trap Hole?

She had been so preoccupied with cards that weren’t in Battle City that she overlooked cards that were here, but weren’t in Duel Links. She had avidly played until 2019 and slowed down quite a bit after that, only to play the occasional duel against friends, and to her best knowledge, the OG anime cards were not added yet. This would mean cards like Dark Hole, Monster Reborn, and even Pot of Greed would be played in this world.

I’m going to need to get my hands on some of those.

“The effect of my Red-Eyes Retro Dragon in my hand activates!” She yelled quickly, not knowing whether the AI would wait in case she had quick play cards or not. “If a Red-Eyes monster of level 7 or lower is destroyed, I can summon my Retro Dragon in Defense Position!”

With that, she tapped on the Retro Dragon, making it appear on the field.

“1700 attack points and 1600 defense points?” Mokuba asked. “That’s not that good.”

“Ah, dear Mokuba. But that’s where you are wrong!” Luna stated, actually enjoying these anime banter during a duel. “My Retro Dragon also lets me summon back my destroyed monster in its original position!”

A red energy portal appeared on the ground and through it came out her Slash Dragon once again.

“Oh?” Mokuba sounded impressed. “I’ve never seen those Red-Eyes cards before.” Mokuba stated from somewhere beside her. “But I hope you play better than the only other duelist that I know who uses Red-Eyes, or else this Kaibaman will make short work of you.”

 “That’s not all!” She channeled the main character energy of all of the anime and manga she had consumed thus far. “I put two cards face down!”

Her Red-Eyes Spirit trap card could bring the Red-Eyes Black Dragon in her graveyard to the field, or even restore her Slash Dragon should anything happen to it again. And though there weren’t many monsters during this time that could take on the 2800 attack points of Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, should her opponent summon something stronger, her Kunai with Chain would keep her safe.

“Then, I switch my Red-Eyes Retro Dragon to attack position and attack his face down monster!” She yelled as she pointed with her hand. “And before anything else, my Red-Eyes Slash Dragon’s effect activates! Whenever a Red-Eyes monster declares an attack, I can equip a warrior type monster from my graveyard to my Slash Dragon, increasing its attack by 200 points!”

“What? That makes it 3000 attack points, the same as a Blue-Eyes White Dragon!” Mokuba exclaimed from beside her.

“I equip Elemental Hero Neos to my Slash Dragon!” She exclaimed despite it being the only warrior type monster in her graveyard.

Her Retro Dragon resumed its attack, revealing the face down monster to be a Kidmodo Dragon.

“My dragon’s effect activates!” Kaibaman yelled. “When Kidmodo Dragon is sent to the graveyard, it lets me special summon a dragon type monster from my hand!”

“You are in for a treat.” Mokuba’s voice chimed in again.

“And I summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon!” Kaibaman yelled as he thrust his hand up into the sky, much like she had done.

Such an iconic line and pose. Luna thought, feeling a chill go down her spine.

A gigantic portal of white energy formed on Kaibaman’s side of the field as the most iconic dragon in the history of card games stepped forth from said portal. Lightning struck around them as thunder roared.

“Why are you smiling?” Mokuba asked.

“Because it’s like I’ve been waiting for this my entire life!” She said louder than she had meant.

“It has the same attack points as your dragon, what will you do?” Mokuba’s voice sounded just as excited.

“I’ll pass.” She said after taking a deep breath to calm her beating heart.

“Ah! What?” He sounded disappointed. “I thought you had more plays up your sleeves, because he’s got several.”

As if on cue, Kaibaman drew a card.

“Ready for a clean slate?” Kaibaman asked, making Luna imagine Seto recording several different lines for different situations. “I play Dark Hole!”

Suddenly, everything grew quiet. Luna was about to tell Mokuba that something may have gone wrong, but space and time wrinkled and collapsed into a single point as all monsters on the field were pulled into it. It was almost disconcerting that there was absolutely no sound aside from the increased beating of her heart.

She knew that it was the effect of the Dark Hole, and yet she had never experienced anything like it. She was about to scream just to see if she could hear herself, but she blinked and it was gone.

Sun shined once again in the plateau with no vestiges that anything had happened there. That is, aside from the missing monsters. She blinked a few more times before realizing that she had bent her knees and had her arms outstretched.

“We all get a little afraid the first time.” Mokuba sounded sympathetic. “But I see you don’t have another one of those Retro Dragons in your hand to save your Slash Dragon. That’s unfortunate.”

“Don’t need it.” She said as she straightened up and flipped her hair over her shoulder to regain her composure.

“Well, you’ll need something.” Mokuba said. “He’s not done.”

Kaibaman thrust his hand up in the air holding a card in two fingers.

“Get ready for this!” It said as it brought its hand down. “I summon Kaibaman!”

And as weird as it looked, another Kaibaman walked from inside of the one she was dueling against, onto the field.

“This card lets me sacrifice it to special summon the most powerful dragon!” Kaibaman stated, as if the monster on the field wasn’t himself. “Meet your demise! Blue-Eyes White Dragon!”

The same white portal from before opened up, the lightning and thunder were just as impressive as the first time. She couldn’t get enough of seeing that majestic Blue-Eyes White Dragon. That was her favorite card, she wanted to use her own Blue-Eyes deck instead of this one. It would be a dream come true to face off against the real Seto, Blue-Eyes against Blue-Eyes.

But she couldn’t space out thinking about what could be, she had a duel to win.

“I activate my Red-Eyes Spirit!” She yelled, making the card reveal itself. “It lets me bring back a Red-Eyes monster from my graveyard, and you know what I’m choosing. Come forth, Red-Eyes Slash Dragon!”

The portal made of red energy made yet another appearance. She was quite excited to see her own dragon, after all, Red-Eyes was her second favorite dragon in the game.

“That is still weaker than his Blue-Eyes White Dragon.” Mokuba stated, sounding almost disappointed. “You bought yourself another turn at most.”

“It almost hurts that you think that I am just some third rate duelist, dear Mokuba.” Luna stated with her best smile, ready for her opponent to attack her.

“You know you are about to lose your precious dragon again, right?” Mokuba asked, still invisible to her eyes.

“Bring it.” Luna stated as she stared at the majestic dragons facing each other, wondering if duels using Duel Disks would be this intense.

“My Blue-Eyes White Dragon attacks your monster!” Kaibaman said as he pointed at her dragon dramatically. “Go, Blue-Eyes! White Lightning!”

As the legendary white dragon opened its terrifyingly large mouth, Luna’s heart started beating even faster. She had never imagined dueling could make one feel this way.

But as the terribly loud white laser beam flew towards her Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, she couldn’t help but continue smiling in excitement.

“I activate Kunai with Chain!” She yelled, feeling sort of gross as she imagined herself sounding like Joey Wheeler. “Only activating it’s equip effect, which brings the attack points of my dragon to a grand total of 3300!”

A red energy beam pierced through the white beam, pulverizing the precious Blue-Eyes White Dragon. It almost felt like a crime to destroy her favorite dragon with her second favorite dragon.

I could almost shed a tear.

The number on top of Kaibaman went down to 3700.

Comically enough, Luna realized that her Slash Dragon was holding unto a kunai with chain that seemed a bit too small for it.

Why would dragons need such weapons?

“That move reminds me of another duelist that I know, the one who also uses Red-Eyes, that I mentioned before.” Mokuba commented.

“I place a card face down and end my turn.” Kaibaman stated without losing its composure.

“This was almost too easy, dear Mokuba.” Luna stated as she tapped towards the deck, making another giant card materialize in front of her.

Red-Eyes Wyvern.

“I summon this little baby!” Luna stated as she tapped on it.

A much smaller portal of red energy appeared, through which came out her Wyvern.

“Another Red-Eyes card? How many of those do you have?” Mokuba asked. Was that a hint of jealousy in his voice?

“Just enough to win me this duel!” Luna said as she pointed towards Kaibman. “Go, Wyvern, show him what pain looks like!”

“I activate Widespread Ruin!” Kaibaman yelled, reveling his trap card.

“Oof, are you usually this careless?” Mokuba asked. “I guess it’s your Slash Dragon is gone again.”

“Don’t rule me out just yet!” Luna said as she tapped towards her Slash Dragon. “I activate my Red-Eyes Slash Dragon’s second effect! By sending one card equipped to my Dragon to the graveyard, I can negate and destroy whatever targets my cards!”

Even before she finished explaining, Kaibaman’s trap card shattered and vanished. Red-Eyes Wyvern’s attack resumed, with a ball of fire shot at Kaibaman, who took it like a champ despite his life points dropping to 1900.

“And this is game.” Luna said as she pointed a finger gun towards Kaibaman. “Go, Slash Dragon!”

Her dragon reared up its head as red energy gathered around its mouth. And as it shot, there seemed to be a kind of sonic boom, shattering the air around them as the red energy beam shot forward and through Kaibaman.

When the red light was gone, so was Kaibaman, but the number that was above him showed as 0.

Kinda feels like I murdered him.

A tacky yellow lettered “Victory” appeared in front of her. Luna looked around the plateau of her first VR duel for a moment longer before removing her visor.

“Congrats.” Mokuba stated as he handed her the Battle City Duel Disk. “I don’t think I ever saw anyone beat Lv. 80 Kaibaman by turn 4.”

“Lv. 80? I thought it was going to be 60!” Luna said, as she put on her brand new Duel Disk. Somehow it fit perfectly.

“Something told me you were different.” Mokuba stated as he scratched his head. “And looks like I was right.”

Luna had grabbed her deck from the Duel Station and put it into her Duel Disk, and that fit snuggly in as well. She also realized that there was already a card in the deck holder, it was the locator card.

“Oh, that’s the locator card. Every participant will have one. You will need to gather six locator cards to move on to the second phase of the tournament.” Mokuba explained.

Luna nodded as she remembered the rules from the anime.

“That shouldn’t be a problem for you, though.” Mokuba stated. “I wish I had a dragon deck as strong as yours.”

“I mean, I can help you build a deck.” Luna stated, realizing Mokuba was just a little kid after all. “Only if you want, of course.”

Mokuba seemed to consider the proposition for a second, before the fierceness in his eyes returned.

“My brother said that a duelist should know how to make his own deck.” He stated, almost defensively.

“Then why don’t I just leave one of my cards with you, and you can decide whether you put him in a deck or not.” Luna said as she reached for her fourth deck box and pulled out Rabidragon. “It has 2950 attack points, almost as strong as a Blue-Eyes, with a Light attribute, just like Blue-Eyes. And you know what they say, a good duelist needs his own dragon card.”

Mokuba’s eyes shined for a split second before he smirked.

“You know that Seto has access to virtually any card ever printed, yeah? I don’t need handouts.”

“Sure, but are any of those cards gifts from the soon-to-be champion of the Battle City Tournament?” She asked still keeping the card out for him to take.

“Are you saying you are going to beat Seto in a Duel?” Mokuba asked in a mocking tone, but receiving the card, ever so gently, with both hands.

“You don’t think I can? After beating a Lv. 80 Kaibaman?” She laughed as Mokuba put the Rabidragon into his own deckbox.

“I mean, it’s true that I have never seen anyone duel like you. Bringing back your fusion dragon twice from the graveyard and with such synergy between your cards.” Mokuba admitted as he opened the door for her. “But Seto is Seto, Luna.”

“That’s true.” She said as she stepped out before turning around. “One quick thing, though. Do you know of a cost friendly hotel nearby that I could stay at during the tournament? I’m kind of not from around here.”

Mokuba seemed to consider something for a second.

“Well, Kaiba Corp. has housing dorms around the city for special employees only.” He said, stepping out with her out of the room as if having decided something in his head. “But seeing as you are a very promising duelist, I could probably hook yo-”

Suddenly someone bumped into Luna, with enough force to knock her down, making all three of them stop for a second.

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry!” A kind and friendly voice stated. “I was looking at how big this building was that I didn’t realize there were people in front of me.”

Luna looked up to see the person who bumped into her and confusion took over her mind.

A brown bicycle helmet-like hair with an unkempt red blazer.

Jaden Yuki?

Chapter Text

Several questions flew through her mind, mainly questions regarding the reason behind the main character of GX being in Battle City. But no explanation she could think of made any sense.

“Pay attention to where you are going.” Mokuba told Jaden as he helped Luna stand up, seemingly oblivious as to who the red blazer wearing young man was. “You might get run over during the tournament if you have your head in the clouds like that.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Jaden laughed so innocently. “It’s just, I didn’t realize KC Tower was so big! Could have sworn it wasn’t this big the last time I was here.”

“Don’t know what to tell you.” Mokuba said before turning to Luna. “Anyway, like I was saying, there is a dormitory building not too far from here, actually.”

“Oh, are dormitories provided to participating duelists?” Jaden asked, making Mokuba comically turn to face him as if wondering what that guy was still doing there. “I’m kind of out of town and penniless.”

“I have a feeling he is an amazing duelist, Mokuba.” Luna stated, now starting to think that maybe whatever brought her to this world might have brought Jaden here as well. For the first time she wondered if there was something more important going on rather than just an opportunity for her to have fun, dueling with her favorite anime characters.

Mokuba looked Jaden up and down.

“I don’t know, he sure could use a lesson or two in grooming.” Mokuba said as he touched the side of Jaden’s Duel Disk revealing a serial number. Mokuba quickly tapped and typed something on his tablet and scrolled a few times before tapping once again. “Whoa, knocked out the Lv. 40 AI by Turn 2. Jaden Yuki, huh?”

“That’s me!” Jaden smiled. “Those Duel Station are pretty neat, but would be neater to be able to increase the level of the AIs.”

Mokuba’s face lost all expression as he looked from Jaden to Luna.

“What is this, a convention for show offs?” Mokuba said as he started to walk. “Follow me, I will show you to the dorm building.”

As they made their way through the building, Luna kept looking back at Jaden. She wanted to ask him a ton of questions, but wondered if it was okay to ask them with Mokuba being present.

“Is there something on my face?” Jaden asked a little uneasily.

“No, just curious as to what kind of deck you use.” Luna stated, wondering if she should use her psychic trick again to ask him about his elemental heroes.

“That’s not something you should ask other duelists!” Mokuba stated without turning back. “My brother said a serious duelist shouldn’t worry about what other people play, but rather how well you play your own cards.”

“Oh, I don’t mind!” Jaden answered, as friendly as ever. “I use Elemental Heroes! I don’t think it’s a very known archetype around here, though.”

So he is aware that he is not in his timeline.

“Elemental Heroes? I don’t think I have ever heard of those.” Mokuba stated, not seeming to pay too much mind to that.

“I used Elemental Hero Neos as my fusion material, remember?” Luna said, but kept her eyes on Jaden to gauge his reaction.

And as expected, Jaden quickly turned to look at her, seemingly taken aback. Their gazes met and she could tell he had a lot of questions as well.

“Oh yeah, I didn’t get to see him in action though.” Mokuba commented, still seemingly distracted. “But maybe-”

“Mokuba!” Seto’s voice came from farther ahead.

“Big brother!” Mokuba’s voice went up an octave.

Luna swallowed hard. Was she finally going to meet Kaiba? What was she going to say? What was he going to say? Was he going to say anything at all to her?

“Have you eaten?” Seto asked his little brother.

“Yeah, I got something at the company’s restaurant. But I was just checking out some of the participants.” Mokuba said excitedly. “This here is Jaden Yuki, he beat the Lv. 40 AI by turn 2.”

Seto’s eyes glanced no more than two seconds at Jaden before moving on to Luna.

“And this is Luna, she beat Lv. 80 Kaibaman by turn 4!” Mokuba sounded proud of her, to which she was thankful.

Luna could have sworn that Seto’s eyes had narrowed just a tiny bit for a fraction of a second, but he still seemed unenthused.

“I have never seen anyone duel like her!” These were high praises coming from Mokuba.

“Is that right?” Kaiba commented as his eyes seemed to analyze her for a little longer before turning back to Mokuba.

“Quite the world you got here, Mr. Kaiba!” Luna blurted out. “I mean, building- quite the building!”

Fuck! What was that?

She started to feel her face heating up and imagined herself blushing into a beet red.

“What are your plans for today?” Kaiba ignored her and directed his question to his little brother, who had the courtesy to look at her with an expression of being sorry before answering his big brother.

“I’m just taking these two to the dorm building. They are from out of town and very promising duelists, so I figured we could help for the duration of the tournament.”

“As long as they are friends of yours.” Seto stated as a matter of fact. “But do me a favor, don’t ditch your bodyguards when you go out this time.”

“I won’t.” Mokuba stated smilingly, but Seto didn’t seem convinced. “I promise!”

“Good. I have that last meeting with the city hall regarding the tournament, but I should be back home before dinner.” Seto said before starting to walk away. “Don’t stay out too long.”

“Sheesh, your brother is very overprotective.” Jaden commented.

“Yeah, but I don’t blame him after what happened with-” Mokuba started before shaking his head. “Duelist Kingdom is in the past. Come on, let’s go.”

Luna had watched the original saga of Yu-Gi-Oh! countless times, but never had she stopped to wonder if Mokuba and Seto had been traumatized by the events that transpired in Duelist Kingdom. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have your soul trapped into a card in the shadow realms.

Wait a minute. Is the shadow realm something I should be worried about here?

She made a quick mental note to run away should she ever see Bakura or Marik anywhere. But wouldn’t she need to face at least Marik if she was to make it to the finals?

When they arrived at the dormitory building, just a short ten minute walk from the Tower, she realized it was more like a big apartment complex. They were each given an apartment of their own. To be honest, it was a lot nicer than her apartment in her world. They were each given a Kaiba Corp Keycard to open their respective apartments. Not only so, but the keycards could also be used to access the restaurant in KC Tower.

“It’s a benefit that all Kaiba Corps employees at the Tower receive. Figured you guys could use that as well for the duration of the tournament.” Mokuba stated as if it wasn’t a big deal, but Luna was wholeheartedly thankful. Getting a side job while participating in a tournament just so she could eat was not something she had been looking forward to.

Jaden left to go to his apartment to rest a little. Luna had been looking forward to taking a shower and resting a bit as well, after all, it was almost evening for her in her world and she had had a long day. But Mokuba seemed to linger for a bit.

“Say, Mokuba, wanna come in and show me your deck? We could talk strategies and maybe I can give you a few pointers.” Luna offered, brightening Mokuba’s expression immediately. “Only if you want, of course.”

“Yeah!” He said excitedly. “I mean, yeah, sure. Why not?”

Luna looked through his deck and quickly realized there was no combo. It was just a bunch of non-repeat dragon monster cards, a few generic spell and trap cards. That was the OG way of making decks back in the days. She remembered her very first Starter Deck Kaiba. The way she made it better was just replacing the monsters for stronger monsters. She was going to have to improve his deck without the complex strategies from the new decks.

He also showed her his tablet with all the cards that he had access to, allowing her to also see what most of the cards that will be played during the tournament would be.

“It’s cool to have several cool looking monsters, but maybe you should try to maximize on your deck’s reliability.” Luna said as she picked out one of his cards. “Like here, you have a copy of Sky Dragon, but it’s a 1900 attack point monster that requires a tribute. Instead you could just add an extra copy of your Luster Dragon, which has the same attack points but require no tributes. Take out this Koumori Dragon for a third copy of Luster Dragon too, why have a 1500 attack dragon, when you can have a 1900?”

“Right!” Mokuba answered as he typed quickly into his tablet. “What else?”

His eagerness made Luna smile.

“If I were you, I would try to put in more cards that help me get those stronger dragons out onto the field faster. Like Ancient Rules is a good spell card for that, but the Kidmodo Dragon that Kaibaman was using is fantastic as well. Add three of each, and you will have a decent chance to be able to put your two tribute monsters out on the field faster. And don’t only think about your hand as the only place to summon your stuff from, the graveyard is a very good source of monsters if you have lost them already.” Luna remembered the first time she had ever brought her Blue-Eyes White Dragon from the graveyard with a Monster Reborn back in grade school.

“Like you did with your Slash Dragon?” Mokuba asked.

“Yeah!” Luna agreed, flipping through Mokuba’s deck a few more times. “There are several cards that can do that. Monster Reborn, Birthright, Call of the Haunted, and others. Oh, and since we are going dragons, why not add three copies of Thunder Dragon? That could be an easy way to summon the 2800 attack Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon through fusion.”

“But is it worth it including a Polymerization card just for that one fusion?” Mokuba asked, his expression so serious that Luna had an urge to hug him.

“I mean, it’s one of the easier fusions to make, since the moment you get 1 copy of Thunder Dragon, you can pull the other two. But since you do have a copy of Red-Eyes Black Dragon, you could also add a Meteor Dragon or two in there to be able to fusion summon a Meteor B. Dragon. And then add more Polymerization cards.”

“A meter what dragon?” Mokuba asked, lifting his head.

“Meteor B. Dragon.” She repeated, sure that this card existed even back here. “It’s a Red-Eyes fusion.”

Mokuba typed onto his tablet and his eyes widened.

“Whoa.” Mokuba stared into his tablet, seemingly mesmerized. “3500 attack? That’s much stronger than a Blue-Eyes.”

“Yeah, and then add some Mystical Sheep #1 in there so that you can more easily make the summons even without one of the materials in hand. Maybe some Fusion Sage to be able to pull that Polymerization more reliably.” Luna was sure a deck like this would plow through most other decks from Battle City.

“Apparently my brother donated his only Meteor B. Dragon to a charity event.” Mokuba said suddenly deflated.

Luna considered this for a second. Cards in this world were much more valuable than they were back home. That said, Mokuba really was growing on her, not to mention he had given her the KC Keycard for housing and food.

“That’s no problem.” She said, opening her fourth deck box on her waist and pulling out a copy of Meteor B. Dragon. “Since you’ve helped me out with housing and food. It’s only fair.”

Mokuba’s mouth dropped and stood up at once.

“Wher- What- I-” Mokuba seemed to be at a loss of words, constantly looking from the card back to Luna and back to the card. “Can I really have a card like this?”

“Of course!” Luna stated as she placed the card in front of him on the table. “To be completely honest with you, I have another one for myself already, so you can take that one without a second thought. And really, if you make those changes to your deck and include some reactive traps/spells, I think you could beat most people in this tournament. Except for me, of course.”

“Maybe I will participate.” Mokuba stated, his eyes shining as he continued to look at the card. “I mean, Seto is going to, so why shouldn’t I?”

Luna almost felt bad, it wasn’t that great of a card compared to several of her other cards. But it definitely could give him an edge here in Battle City.

“Yeah, it’s only dueling more that we can get better.” She encouraged him, making him look up at her.

Suddenly she noticed that his eyes were watery and she wondered if Mokuba had ever heard any encouragements before. Seto was very protective of Mokuba, but it seemed like they didn’t really sit down to interact a lot. It made sense with how busy Seto would be, running a multibillion dollar company at such a young age.

“But you better not lose to anyone before you get to the second phase, yeah?” Luna smiled as she ruffled Mokuba’s haid. “Once we are both in second phase, you can show me all your new moves by then.”

“Of course!” Mokuba agreed, seemingly filled with renewed motivation. “And you better not go losing to anyone until then as well!”

“Are you kidding me? There’s no way, you saw me duel.” Luna exaggerated a hair flip as she laughed.

“Well, I’ll leave you to rest, then.” Mokuba said as he went towards the door. “I will finish making my deck and try it out on the Duel Stations.”

“Okay.” Luna said, happy for the little guy, but also happy to finally be able to get some rest. “Wish you the best of luck then, Mokuba.”

“Luck is for chumps.” He beamed a smile. “See you around, maybe in the company restaurant, yeah?”

“For sure.”

Chapter Text

Knock Knock

Luna opened her eyes, slightly disoriented. She had taken a shower and sat down on the bed, but apparently she had fallen asleep at some point.

Knock knock

You gotta be kidding me.

She got up and looked at a mirror on her wall and adjusted her hair a bit before quickly heading to the door. She looked through the eye-hole to find Jaden standing there with that dumb smile on his face as usual.

She opened her door and tried to not look so annoyed.

“Hey, man, what’s going on?”

“Hey, I was going to go grab some dinner at the Tower and thought maybe you’d like to join me.” He said, sounding as friendly and cheery as ever.

It was only then that she realized it was getting dark already, she must have slept for quite a few hours.

“Yeah, sure, why not.” She said, stepping out and closing the door behind her.

“Wait, aren’t you going to take your duel disk with you?” Jaden asked.

“The tournament only starts in two days.” Luna said, wondering if there was any real need to take it with her.

“Oh, I see.” He said smiling even more. “You really are from a different world, huh?”

That made Luna freeze. What could she say?

“Where I’m from, duelists have their duel disks on them at all times.” Jaden stated, touching his own duel disk with his right hand. “And I think things won’t be too different here with Battle City. Since it’s the same city, just different time.”

“Do you know why or how you appeared here?”

“Do you?”

Touché

“I was in a train and suddenly was standing by the side of the road here.” She admitted. “I don’t know how it happened.”

“I see. Do you really have a Elemental Hero Neos?” He caught her by surprise with the sudden change in topic.

She had two in her Red-Eyes deck along with Elemental Hero Brave Neos, which he probably haven’t even seen yet. She wondered if it was a good idea to tell him about all that.

“Yeah, but no Neospacians.” She said, trying to think of ways to change the subject.

“So who are you? Are we related somehow?” Jaden asked, still smiling but seemingly serious.

What?

“I mean, I’m from a future timeline.” He explained his reasoning. “Maybe you are from even further ahead. Maybe you are a distant descendant of mine, would explain why you have Neos with you.”

It was an amusing theory he had come up with.

“Don’t think so, my guy.” She said, trying to stay serious but feeling a smile creeping up in the corners of her mouth. “I’m just from a different place all together. Sorry to say, but Neos just isn’t that special of a card where I’m from.”

As the words left her mouth, she suddenly wondered if Jaden would be offended. For a split second she thought she saw a glint of yellow in his pupils and got a chill down her spine. Before she could react, however, he smiled widely.

“Boy, that just makes me curious even more about what kinds of cards there are in that world!” He said with that almost childish excitement of his.

“I mean, most cards aren’t that special.” She tried to rectify herself. “It mostly goes by rarities instead of the card itself. Like, the same card can have multiple rarities.”

“I don’t even know what that means, but let’s duel!” He suddenly yelled excitedly, pointing right at her.

“That’s kind of rude, man.” She said, thinking that he would probably be able to beat everyone currently participating in the tournament with his deck. Elemental Hero Flare Neos could make short work of most every deck that were around in Battle City. If it came down to having to take Jaden down for whatever reason, she would be the only one, and if it got to that, him not knowing anything about her deck would probably be an advantage for her. “Let’s just go eat, yeah?”

“Aw, shucks. You really know how to tease a guy.” Jaden said as he turned around lightheartedly. “Let’s go then.”

On their way to the Tower, Jaden excitedly talked about all the differences between this world and his that he had noted so far. Despite it being the same city, it seemed that Jaden’s world was much more advanced technologically despite only being a few years of difference. Jaden had mentioned that all that technological advancements were thanks to Seto, and that it was exciting for him to get to see how everyone dueled before all that.

Of course, she knew all that already from watching GX. But he also mentioned how there seemed to be things that were just right out different, like the KC Tower being even bigger than the one in his own world.

“And to take part in the legendary Battle City tournament? This is a dream come true!” He continued his nonstop monologue.

“Aren’t you afraid that us being here might affect your timeline somehow?” She asked, interrupting him. “I was going to beat everyone and win this thing, but my world is in no way related to this one. What if you get erased?”

“Oh gosh, I didn’t think about that.” Jaden said as they went up the steps to the KC Tower. “But I did go to the house I grew up in during this time. A different family was living there, which was shocking. But I think that means that this world is somehow separate from mine as well.”

Great, so he is going to try to win this as well.

“You think maybe we should try to find the reason we were brought here?” She asked, thinking it couldn’t have been a coincidence that two people of different worlds were brought into this one. Maybe there were others.

“Who is to say there is a reason?” Jaden asked, seemingly carefree, as they made their way to the company’s restaurant.

She remembered that Jaden was constantly thrown around between different worlds in GX, she just hoped this was Jaden from before the last few seasons of GX.

They got their keycards out to beep themselves into the restaurant.

“But don’t you want to go back to your world?” Luna asked, thinking that eventually she would want to go back.

“Are you kidding me? I want to duke it out with the legendary duelists!” Jaden said even more excited.

“Luna!” Mokuba’s voice came from behind them.

She turned around to see him with a duel disk of his own on his arm as he showed it proudly.

“I did it! I really did it!” His happiness was contagious, as Luna found herself smiling wider than she ever remembered smiling before.

“I knew you could!” She waved back. “Don’t you dare lose until phase two!”

“I won’t!” He assured her. “Gotta go see Seto now, but I’ll see you around, yeah?”

“You can bet on that!” She answered him and watched him leave. She was an only child, but she wondered if this was what it would feel like to have a little brother. She wondered if she had ever been proud of someone else.

“Well, you sure are changing the course of history.” Jaden said from beside her, but still in a carefree manner, devoid of any judgement.

She had forgotten he had been there the whole time.

“Whatever, dude. Get in line.” She said, turning back around and heading towards the line of employees. “Apparently its steak, pasta, or fish fillet today.”

Luna went with the steak and the food was quite delicious. Despite it being Kaiba Corp, Luna had expected just okay food seeing as it was a company restaurant for employees. But once again, Kaiba Corp exceeded her expectations.

Even after they had finished eating, there were more people constantly streaming in to be in line for the food. It was impressive how many employees they had and how long they worked. Jaden had mentioned that it was probably done in shifts, so as to not overwork anyone.

They soon decided to go back to their apartments as they thought it was better to free up the table they were in despite there being more unoccupied tables than she could count.

On their way back, they had just turned around a corner as Jaden was talking about how cool it would be to see an Egyptian god card in person, when they noticed a tall hooded figure standing in their way. When she looked up, Luna noticed he was blond with a scruffy beard.

Could that be-

“Rare Hunters, huh?” Jaden said as he lifted his duel disk, still sounding just as excited as when he was talking about the Egyptian god cards. “I was wondering when they were going to start appearing.”

Suddenly two more hooded figures appeared on either side of the first one.

“Run!” Jaden yelled as he pushed Luna back.

Without a second thought, Luna started to sprint away from the hooded figures, but saw two more hooded figures on the other side of the street advancing towards Jaden. She thought about stopping to try to help Jaden, but what was she going to do? She had left her duel disk back in the apartment, and those guys were huge. She would have to go call for help, it was her best bet.

She ran towards a bigger street, but saw no one, as it was already pretty late.

“Help!” she yelled, her heart hammering against her chest.

“Get her!” she heard someone yell behind her, but she didn’t dare turn back.

“Help!” She yelled louder as she continued to run as fast as she could.

And just like that, this world didn’t seem so nice and safe anymore. Never before had she ever been chased or even imagined being chased by grown men in purple robes.

Her heart was pounding so hard that it felt like it was going to explode out of her chest, her breathing was becoming ragged, but she dared not slow down.

Is this what it feels like to be in a slasher movie?

The thought of screaming “Somebody help me!” felt cliché, and yet quite apt. But before she could let out another scream, suddenly a gust of wind and a loud noise surprised her to a stop. A very bright light passed over her.

It took her a few seconds to realize that it was a helicopter and turned back to see that the people chasing her were running away. When she turned back to see the helicopter, she realized it had descended quite close to the ground already, and she could clearly see the blue letters K and C on the white side of the helicopter.

Suddenly the side door of it opened and Seto jumped out.

“Are you okay?” He asked, seeming like a proper knight in shining armor.

For a second, she didn’t say anything. Was her heart beating even faster than before? She didn’t know for sure, but she felt like there definitely was some sort of connection between Seto and her. In fact, she thought that if she reached out with her hand, she could probably even touch this electrifying connection that she thought they had. She didn’t realize she could crush on him harder than she already-

Jaden!

“They went after Jaden! They are Rare Hunters, they force others to duel with them and cheat to win rare cards!” She yelled, between breaths, hoping Seto could hear her over the loud helicopter noise.

Seto looked ahead, past her for a second before turning his eyes back to her.

“Get on the chopper, he will take you home.” Seto said as he led her to the chopper.

“But, Jad-” Luna tried to convince him of the danger that her friend might be facing, but was cut short.

“I’ll get him.” He said as he put on his duel disk.

“There are at least five of them!” She yelled.

“It’s fine.” Seto said before turning to the pilot. “Take her back to the dorm building and then come back around to find me.”

“Be careful, they cheat! Some of them even have Exodia!” She said, as she knew Seto had never taken on so many Rare Hunters on his own canonically. “I will get my duel disk and come-”

“Hey.” Seto said as he put a hand on her shoulder. It felt warm to the touch and she had to fight the urge to put her own hand over his. “You don’t have to worry.”

He didn’t say anything else, but his confident smile seemed to say “I am Seto Kaiba.” And in that moment, she fully believed that he would handle it.

As the helicopter took off and headed towards the dorm building, she realized that in the anime, Seto was just as clueless when it came to dangers as he was a great duelist, she couldn’t sit this one out.

“Wait for me, I will just grab my duel disk and be right back!” She yelled at the pilot as it landed on top of her apartment building. The pilot seemed to be saying something, but she opened the door and ran as fast as she could. Both Jaden and Seto could be in more danger than they realized.

She chose to run down the stairs as opposed to getting on the elevator. She was jumping down 3 steps at a time and was huffing and puffing by the time she got to her door. She opened it with her keycard and quickly grabbed her duel disk.

After putting the duel disk on, she got to the stairs, but was absolutely too tired. She couldn’t remember the last time that she had run so much. As pressing as time was, she pressed the elevator button. Thankfully, it came quite quickly.

Inside of the elevator, she tried to slow down her ragged breathing, but it wasn’t working. She hoped that the pilot hadn’t left without her, and that both Jaden and Seto were safe. How could she let things get so out of control even before the tournament started?

When the elevator door finally opened, she was relieved to see the helicopter still waiting. She ran as fast as she could to the helicopter once again.

The helicopter took off as soon as she closed the door. She was about to ask if the man knew where to go, but saw a bright flash of light over some buildings at a distance.

“That’s where they are dueling, most likely!” She yelled to the pilot, who gave her a thumbs up.

She quickly loaded her Red-Eyes deck to her duel disk and tried to control her breathing once again. Would she be able to win against cheating Rare Hunters? She didn’t know. Plus, the ones that were running after her looked like they wanted to do a little more than just duel. What if this world was more realistic and one of them pulled a knife or a gun?

She shuddered at the idea just as the helicopter started to descend.

“I think I see them down there!” The pilot yelled as he pointed to the window on her right.

Luna pressed herself against the window. She couldn’t see too well at first, but as they got closer to the ground, she saw Seto helping Jaden walk towards the helicopter. It was a little comical seeing Jaden struggling, with his arms around the much taller Seto. But she immediately felt bad for thinking so, as Jaden seemed to actually be hurt quite badly.

She opened the door and hopped out once the helicopter was close enough to the ground. She ran towards them. The urge was the hug Seto, but she stopped a few meters in front of them and didn’t know what to do.

“I tried to come back as fast as I could to help, Seto. But looks like you had everything under control.” She stated, he sure was impressive.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Jaden said, wincing in pain. “I beat all of the Rare Hunters and you are giving credit to this guy?”

Luna looked at Seto by reflex.

“It’s true, by the time I got to him, it was all over.” Seto admitted as he continued to support Jaden.

Luna quickly went to the other side of Jaden to help.

“Sorry.” Luna said, truly feeling bad about leaving him behind. She also realized that she was taller than Jaden.

“It’s alright, if that’s the cost of having your arms around me, I’d take on ten more creepy dudes in hoods.” Jaden said as he laughed before wincing again.

“What happened?” She asked, wondering if a Duel Academy deck really was that much stronger than even a cheater’s deck.

“Neos made short work of all of them, and when they realized they lost, they started to run away.” Jaden explained. “I tried to run after them, and two appeared from behind and hit me in the legs with a piece of pipe or something. Right on the side of my knees too.”

“Can you identify any of them?” Seto asked as they got near the helicopter.

“I did see the faces of three of them, but didn’t recognize any of them.” Jaden answered as Luna let go of him and Seto helped him up onto the helicopter.

“Wasn’t one of them Bandit Keith?” Luna asked, more to herself than to the others. At least that’s definitely who she thought she had seen before Jaden told her to run.

But that doesn’t make sense. The timeline is all wrong. Bandit Keith was supposed to try to steal the millennium puzzle from Yugi, lost the duel, and then gotten banished to the shadow realm.

“Who?” Jaden asked, truly looking like he had no idea who that was.

“The American duel champion that went missing over a year ago?” Seto asked. “I guess third rate duelists really will do anything for attention. He was always so devious and self-centered, I didn’t think he would join a cult.”

“Yeah, he-”

Suddenly a terrible thought crossed Luna’s head, making the hair in the back of her neck stand

If Keith was still under the control of Marik at this point, maybe his previous mission was successful.

“Seto.” Luna said his name, not knowing how to formulate what she was going to say next. “Maybe you should call Yugi. See if he’s okay.”

Seto’s eyes narrowed a bit.

“Yugi Muto? Why would I call him?” He asked as the helicopter started to take off. “Do you know something I don’t?”

Luna didn’t know what to say. Seto was never one to believe in mysticism or magic. If she told him that she was from another world, he would definitely think she was crazy, and maybe even cut ties with her. Just the thought of it made her feel like there was pressure building up inside of her chest.

“We heard one of them say something about Yugi.” Jaden blurted in, making her look at him. His eyes, however, were unwavering and fixed on Seto. “We are just worried, that’s all.”

Seto looked from Jaden to Luna. He didn’t seem to trust them completely, but turned to the pilot.

“Contact the Muto residence and see if you can find out his whereabouts. And call the med team to come to the dorm building.” Seto said as he sat back into his seat and crossed his arms.

No one said anything for a moment, only the deafening sound of the helicopter ringing in their ears.

Wouldn’t like to be his pilot. Luna thought.

“Shouldn’t the pilot focus on piloting?” Jaden asked, seemingly worried.

“Don’t worry about it, Roland can handle anything.” Seto said as he looked once again from Luna to Jaden.

He’s definitely suspecting of something.

She tried to look towards Roland, who she had not recognized before. He looked to be talking to someone but couldn’t make anything of it. She wanted to tell Seto that she was from another world, she wanted him to be able to trust her. But she knew that he refused to believe in the shadow realms even after being trapped in a card along with Mokuba in Duelist Kingdom.

And now they had been sitting in silence for slightly too long and it would be weird if she just blurted out that she was from another world. He could think that she took this time in silence to come up with an excuse. Things were too awkward, in fact, she doubted things could get any weirder between the three of them now.

“Man, I’m kinda getting hungry again.” Jaden said looking around. “Anyone else?”

But Seto ignored him and Luna just shook her head in silence.

Thanks, Jaden. You absolute moron.

Once they landed, the Kaiba Corp medical team were already there on standby and started to take a look at Jaden. Luna got off of the helicopter along with Seto.

“Sir.” Roland came to his side after the helicopter rotors had been turned off.

Kaiba leaned towards him as Roland whispered something. Suddenly Seto’s expression became more serious as he turned to look at Roland.

Luna was too curious and wanted to know what was going on. And when she approached him, even before she could ask, Seto turned to face her.

“Yugi Muto is in the hospital since earlier this morning. He’s in a coma with severe third degree burns.”

Chapter Text

“Oh.” was all Luna could muster to say as numerous questions bombarded her own mind.

Things weren’t happening the way they were supposed to, was this her fault? Or was her being there also a side effect of whatever was going on here? Whichever the case, one of the finalists wasn’t going to be able to play. Who was going to wield Slifer? More importantly, what did Marik want now that Yugi was out?

“It is clear you know more than you are telling me.” Seto’s voice brought her attention to the present. “It’s obvious that you and Jaden are hiding something. But looking at him, he- Let’s just say he doesn’t look like the sharpest tool in the shed. So why don’t you tell me what is going on?”

“What makes you think I know?” Luna sounded more defensive than she had meant.

“What doesn’t make me think you know?” Seto started to sound more aggressive. “A duelist that I have never even heard about befriends my little brother out of nowhere and beats the Lv. 80 Kaibaman AI within 4 turns? And on the same day, she is chased by freak cultists and Yugi Muto is put in the hospital? And all that right before the start of my tournament, the very same I organized specifically to beat Yugi Muto in?”

The fierceness of his eyes seemed to be piercing through her soul.

Is he blaming me?

“So, what? You think I somehow took out Yugi to lessen the competition and now I befriended your brother to get closer to you to off you too?” Luna felt her face getting warmer and clenched her fists as she felt them start to tremble. “You think that’s my plan?”

“Is it?” He asked, making her fume with anger.

For a guy who was always skeptical of cosmic intervention, he sure seemed adamant that this was no coincidence.

“I don’t have any plans and have nothing to do with any of this!” She yelled. “But while we are here throwing accusations, what were you doing in a helicopter on that specific street? Mokuba had left the restaurant an hour before that, saying he was going to go meet you. So what were you doing there right before we got attacked? Huh?”

Seto seemed to be taken aback for a second, but his composure came back to him as quickly as it had been broken.

“What I do around the city in my helicopter is none of your business.” Seto said coldly, and it hurt even more than when he sounded aggressive. “You’d think one would be more grateful to someone who saved them from the alleged attack.”

Alleged? Why this little-

“Well thank you, very fucking much.” Luna yelled again as she turned around. “Asshole!”

She quickly made her way to her apartment as she trembled in anger.

How can he even think such a thing!

She knew that Seto Kaiba was not the kindest of characters. She knew he was arrogant and stubborn and less than social. But she had never expected to be on the receiving end of his mean demeanor. And it had hurt more than she thought it would. After all, she had obsessed over him ever since she had first watched Yu-Gi-Oh!. Over the years, she had collected almost every single official merchandise with him on it, and was quite proud of her collection.

Once inside of her apartment, she closed the door and leaned her back on it as she slid to the floor. She took out her serviceless phone to look at her chibi Seto keychain.

How could you, you entitled little poop head.

She felt angry at herself when she felt tears in her eyes.

He is just a fictional character, what’s wrong with me?

She closed her eyes and hoped she would wake up back in the train. This had gone long enough, it was amusing at first, but she didn’t need to feel like crap because of-

Knock knock

She opened her eyes but stayed put. She expected the knocking to continue but silence had taken over. After a while, when she was convinced that the person who knocked had gone away, she wiped the tears from her face and sniffed as she got up.

“Look, I don’t do apologies. Much less when I still don’t see what I did wrong. Who in my position wouldn’t be suspicious of you?” Seto said, his voice much softer than before. “That said, I guess I could have answered your question instead of deflecting it.”

Luna listened, not daring to move as if the slightest movement could break this moment they were having.

Seto was silent for another moment and she wondered if he had left, thinking she wasn’t there, but soon she heard him sigh before continuing to talk.

“The truth is, Mokuba had come to dinner happier than I have ever seen him. At least since what happened in Duelist Kingdom.” His voice sounded so vulnerable that she wondered if this really was Seto Kaiba that she was listening to. “He told me he was going to participate in the tournament and that he had even made his own deck and beaten the Lv. 40 AI with it. And yeah, he was always a smart and enthusiastic kid. But he had never shown any drive for a goal of his own. Or perhaps I just didn’t notice because I’m a terrible brother.”

The door moved a fraction of a centimeter with a very light thud. Luna assumed that Kaiba had sat with his back leaning on the door like she had done before.

“He always seemed content with just helping me with my goals, and so I never questioned it. I wanted to give him the freedom that I didn’t have growing up. I didn’t want him fighting for his life, I didn’t want him forced to win or die. But I guess in my hopes of wanting to give him this freedom, I have simply detached myself from whatever he was doing. And it wasn’t until he came running in today shaking his duel disk at me that I realized what a terrible mistake I had made.” His voice was heavy with guilt and regret, Luna could practically hear his heart breaking as the words left his mouth. “So I asked him to show me his deck. But when he said that you had helped him make the deck, it was a different kind of pain. I’ll admit that I was angry, feeling like you had stolen a precious moment with my brother from me. And then he showed me the Black Meteor Dragon, and I was angry at him.”

At that, she felt like opening the door and arguing with him. But at the same time, she realized that her desire to protect and defend Mokuba was probably what Seto also felt. Mokuba was Seto’s only blood relative, after all.

“As orphans, we only had one rule. We don’t ever owe anything to anyone.” He said and she thought she had heard him scoff lightly. “Which meant we never begged and we never took charity. Everything we did and got, we deserved it. Even getting adopted by Gozaburo. I challenged him and won. He didn’t adopt us out of the goodness of his heart, he adopted us because he lost to me, we earned it. Just like Kaiba Corp’s success being due to my efforts and nothing else. And so, I had come out to find you. To pay you for the rare and powerful card. I didn’t- I still don’t know you that well, and I don’t want my brother owing you anything. He said you weren’t like that, but he’s still kid, he doesn’t know what the real world is like and I need to protect him.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, Mokuba doesn’t owe me anything. He did me a favor in letting me take on the higher level AI, and letting me stay here. He is as kindhearted as he is determined. I was just repaying him by helping him see that he has what it takes to go and become a strong duelist, which is what he wanted.”

“Yeah, I see that now. When you yelled that Jaden was in danger, and then telling me over and over how dangerous those cultists were instead of just leaving on the helicopter. And when you came back with your duel disk, I realized you were a better person than I had first assumed.” Seto admitted. “And I guess, thinking more clearly now, I wasn’t angry because of what you did for Mokuba, but because as his older brother I should have noticed first, I should have helped him first without him having to ask about it or bring it up first.”

She couldn’t handle Seto feeling so vulnerable, she wanted to give him a hug and let him know that its going to be okay. She opened the door expecting him to be sitting down with his back to the door. But contrary to what she expected, he was up and facing her, leaning on the door with a raised arm. The sudden opening made him fall forward. And though he caught himself, their faces ended up extremely close to one another.

From this distance she could see that his eyes were more of an azure tone, almost shining from how bright the blue seemed. All thoughts left her mind in that moment as she seemed to be entranced by his gaze. Had the world come to a stop, or was it just her?

Suddenly she noticed that her heart was beating faster and that she had holding her breath. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed as they were locked into each other’s gazes, but as she blinked and exhaled, Seto had straightened up once again.

He cleared his throat and put his hands in the pockets of his white jacket. She had no idea it had pockets until then. She quickly straightened up as well and flipped her hair behind her shoulder as she involuntarily bit her lower lip.

“So, uh-” Seto awkwardly resumed speaking. “I would still like to pay you for that card.”

“Out of the question.” Luna dismissed his proposal and her own intrusive thoughts with a motion of her hand. “Helping him was more important to me than money in that moment. You paying for it would invalidate that. And I swear, he doesn’t owe me anything.”

Seto seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding in silence.

“I believe you.” Seto said solemnly. “Thank you.”

Knowing she couldn’t contain her smile, she tried to keep it to a minimal smile of acknowledgement. But her heart felt like it was about to explode out of her chest from excitement.

“Yeah, no worries.” She said as she spun in place.

Why did I do that?

But her random and impulsive spin had rewarded her with a smile on Seto, who was too obviously trying to conceal it by looking down.

“Well, I should probably go.” He said as he took his hands off of his pockets.

“Okay.” She said, feeling slightly disappointed. “I guess I’ll see around.”

“Yeah.” Seto nodded once again but lingered. “If you do hear or find out more about those cultists, I hope you will let me know.”

She had a sudden urge to tell him that she was from another world, to warn him that things weren’t happening as they were supposed to. But she suddenly had a flashback of the moments that Seto ridiculed anyone who mentioned fate and destiny in the anime. And she didn’t want to ruin the moment they just had.

It was a moment we just had, right?

“Yeah, I’ll let you know.” She said, nodding as she put her hands on her hips.

Seto nodded one last time to her and left. By impulse, her arm shot out for a second as if trying to reach out and grab at his presence to keep him from leaving, but she quickly put her arm down and closed the door.

That had been enough excitement for her for one day. With that one last though, Luna took a deep breath and went to bed, in a world that was so familiar yet so strange to her.

Chapter Text

Luna looked at herself one last time. She had sold some of her cards the day before to buy some clothes. She hadn’t done it on purpose, but somehow she ended up with a white trench coat over a black turtleneck long-sleeved shirt and black jeans. She had thought it looked good before, but now that she was about to go out, she wondered if it was ridiculous.

I look like I’m dressed up as Kaiba for Halloween.

But also, this was an anime world. Who cared how you dressed as long as you dueled well, right? She had to just be confident. But she had to be confident outside.

Seto’s grand announcement about the start of the Battle City Tournament had been made already, received with an earth shaking, excited roar from duelists all around Domino city.

That was two hours ago. Other duelists were out there.

Whatever. I will just go like this.

She put on her duel disk and looked at herself in the mirror again involuntarily.

“I look good.” She said to herself as she headed for the door.

When she opened her door, she was startled to see Jaden with a fist up.

“Oh, right on time! Was just about to knock!” He said with his usual happy mood. “Let’s go, we are burning daylight and there’s duels to be had!”

For a second she wondered if he had been waiting to ambush her and duel her right off the bat.

“We should pass by the Tower first, though.” Jaden kept talking, however. “Pretty hungry, and we can’t start our first day of the tournament with empty stomachs, right?”

“Right. Let’s go, then.” She said as she stepped out into the corridor and closed her door.

“Nice digs, by the way.” Jaden said as he already started to walk, leaving her behind. “Very Kaiba-y”

“Oh, you think so?” Luna feigned surprise.

But as they walked out into the street, there seemed to be a crowd around the building.

“What’s going on? Do you think someone famous is here?” Jaden asked as he turned to look at her with that innocent curiosity.

“Mayb-”

“Are you dressed up as Kaiba?” a mocking voice yelled from the crowd.

Luna looked around and recognized the green helmet hair.

Oh no.

“Been itching all over to get a chance to duel you these past two days!” Espa Roba yelled as he pointed a finger at her.

“Itching? Have you tried showering?” Jaden asked, comically serious.

“I want payback for humiliating me in the Kaiba Corp Tower!” Espa said, completely ignoring Jaden.

“Humiliating? To whom? There was no one there!” Luna tried to defend herself.

“You laughed at my connection with the cosmos!” To Espa’s credit, he genuinely seemed offended by it. “For that you will pay! I challenge you to a duel, and as per Battle City rules, you-”

“Yeah, yeah! She gets the idea, dude.” Jaden interrupted him and turned to look at Luna. “Hey, pretty jealous that you already get to have your first duel. But I don’t think I can go another minute without eating anything. So, I will catch up to you later?”

“I mean, I’m kinda offended that you don’t want to watch my duel, man.” Luna joked, realizing she was also pretty hungry. “But sure. Don’t go losing until we see each other again, yeah?”

“You got it!” Jaden said as he turned and moved into the crowd.

“Are you ready?” Espa asked as he pulled his deck from his belt and put it in his duel disk.

“Sure, but tell your little brothers to come down, before we start the duel.” Luna said loud enough for everyone around them to hear.

Espa’s expressions went from confusion to panic to anger, all in just a span of two seconds.

“What are you talking about, are you crazy?” He asked.

“For a mind reader, you seem pretty slow.” Luna said as she turned around and started looking at the top of the buildings that could potentially have a line of sight to her cards if they dueled.

Bingo.

She spotted three little green spots on top of one of the buildings and a lens glare, probably from a binoculars they may be using.

She quickly pointed towards them.

“My cosmic powers are telling me that your four brothers are up on that building. And that they are talking to you through an earpiece you have.” She accused loudly once again. “Tell them to come down, and I’ll duel you.”

The crowd started getting noisier as they talked amongst themselves. Espa looked around, flustered.

“Stop making excuses to not duel me!” Espa yelled, seemingly trying to regain control of the situation.

“Then move back that thick mop of a hair and show us you don’t have any communication device in your ear.” Luna said calmly as she crossed her arms.

Espa’s eyes started to dart around, she almost felt bad for him.

“Come on, man. Duel me fair and square.” She said, offering him a consoling smile.

“Is he really cheating?” someone asked audibly loud from the crowd.

Espa’s face contorted from his anger, he looked to be fuming. Luna hadn’t realized that Espa could be so intense and wondered if this was a good idea.

He slowly moved the hair back from one ear to show that there was no earpiece. Then he slowly moved the other, while cupping his hand, obviously taking something out that was there, to show both ears clean and devoid of any devices.

“Happy?” He asked through his teeth. “Let’s duel!”

“Let’s.” She agreed as she put her Red-Eyes deck into her duel disk. “Keep that Jinzo card ready to be handed to me, kid.”

The number 4000 appeared on the life counter of the duel disk that shuffled each duelist’s deck automatically as both duel disks beeped to signal synchronization. She drew four cards.

Neos Fusion, Red-Eyes Insight, Red-Eyes Spirit, and Red-Eyes Retro Dragon.

It was an okay hand as starting hands went.

“I’ll start!” Espa Roba yelled as he adjusted the cards in his hand. She had forgotten that whoever called out first went first. “I summon Cyber Raider!”

The humanoid in blue and yellow tights appeared on the field, surprising Luna. Back in Battle City, in the anime, the duel disks had shot out little hologram emitters in the anime. It seemed things were different here. She wondered if Kaiba Corp had set up towers that emitted the holograms around the city or if it was some advanced tech that used satellites.

“And I put a card face down!” Espa continued confidently. “I predict that you will lose soon! It’s your turn!”

Cyber Raider was a relatively weak monster with only 1400 attack points. The set card was a little worrisome, but Luna couldn’t remember Espa ever using any trap cards.

She drew a card.

Black Metal Dragon.

“I set a card down!” She said as she set Red-Eyes Spirit.

“Is that all you go-”

“Don’t interrupt me, Espa.” Luna shot right back. “I activate Red-Eyes Insight! It lets me draw a Red-Eyes spell or trap card from my deck as long as I send a Red-Eyes card from my hand or deck to the graveyard!”

She sent a Red-Eyes Wyvern, as a backup plan, to the graveyard and picked Red-Eyes Fusion from her deck.

“And I use Red-Eyes Fusion!” Luna continued, nothing would stop her play, at least not with the way Espa played. “And I send Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Gearfried the Iron Knight from the deck to the graveyard to summon Red-Eyes Slash Dragon!”

The skies darkened as that portal made of red erratic energy appeared once again. It was weird seeing it out in the real world.”

“What-” Espa seemed terrified. “What in the world is that?”

It was somehow even more exhilarating to see her trusty dragon appear out of a portal in the middle of city. It looked too real, so real in fact that everyone in the crowd, including Luna, took a step back when her dragon spread its wings and roared.

Calm down, that’s your own dragon.

The size difference between her dragon and Espa’s raider was immense. She looked at Espa and saw that he was still looking at her dragon. Whether it was awe or fear, it didn’t matter, it would be over soon.

“She got something like that out on her first turn?” someone in the crowd asked. “What’s her name, again? She’s incredible!”

“You thought that was incredible? Then you are in for a treat! I equip Black Metal Dragon to my Slash dragon to increase its attack points by 600, to a whopping 3400!” Luna yelled before she pointed towards Espa’s Cyber Raider. “Don’t let anything stand in your way, Slash Dragon!”

As her dragon sucked the air into its lungs with the sound similar to that of large waterfall, Luna pointed up to the sky.

“But that’s not all! When my Red-Eyes attacks, I can attach a Warrior type monster from my graveyard to my dragon to further increase its attack points by 200!” She explained with a confidence she hadn’t felt often back in her world, at least not surrounded by people like this.

The crowd went wild as she knew they would.

“That’s 3600!”

“I have never seen such a strong monster in a duel before!”

“Who is she?”

“can you believe this is going on in the first day of the tournament?”

“Isn’t that stronger than Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes?”

Luna couldn’t help but smile. She was never one to like the spotlight, but when it came to dueling with life-like monsters, putting on a show seemed natural. It was like she really was in the anime.

“Resume your attack, pulverize the Cyber Raider!” She yelled, making her dragon shoot a ball of fire made up of the same red energy of the portal that had brought the dragon into the field.

The Cyber Raider’s body didn’t even stop the fire ball for a second as it completely pulverized the monster and exploded onto Espa. Espa yelled in pain, which was amusing to Luna, as these were still just holograms, no matter how life-like they seemed.

Espa winced as he looked around the field as if hoping his monster would still be there. He quickly looked at his duel disk and shuddered.

“No, I only have 1800 life points left! But it’s my turn now!” He yelled as he drew a card and smiled. “And I think this is all over for you, young lady!”

Espa put down the card he had just drawn, summoning forth yet another Cyber Raider.

“When my Cyber Raider is summoned, I can target something equipped to a monster on the field and equip that to Cyber Raider!” Espa said triumphantly. “And I choose your Black Metal Dragon! Bringing my monster’s attack points to 2000!”

“The desperation with which third rate duelists grasp at straws, it’s pathetic!” Luna yelled, channeling her inner Kaiba, but wondering if she was taking it too far.

“Pathetic? Who said I was done?” Espa yelled, pointing towards his facedown card. “I activate Brain Control! I predict that you will lose this turn! For the hefty price of 800 life points, I can take control of one of your monsters! So your dragon is mine!”

But as Espa started his maniacal laugh, Luna interrupted him.

“Are you not tired of proving me right again and again?” She yelled with her best wicked smile. “You think such a third rate play can beat me? The second effect of my dragon activates when you target any of my cards! I can send one of my equipped cards to the graveyard to negate your Brain Control!”

Luna stood up straighter to look down at her opponent but noticed that Espa was frantically looking through his cards, then back at her dragon.

It was over.

“I predict you have reached your limit, dear Espa.” Luna said as she crossed her arms. “Is that all?”

But Espa didn’t seem to have heard her. He kept looking through the cards in his hand and back to the field.

“Espa!” Luna yelled louder, making him snap out of it and look at her. “Is that all?”

Espa reluctantly nodded. She almost felt bad for him, had he not tried to cheat, she would have taken him more lightly. She drew a card, but it didn’t matter what card it was. This duel was over.

“I activate Red-Eyes Spirit, which lets me bring a Red-Eyes card from the graveyard to the field! And I choose Red-Eyes Black Dragon!”

The skies darkened once again as yet another portal brought forth her dragon from the graveyard. She didn’t know if she would ever get used to seeing that.

“She keeps summoning level seven monsters in a single turn!”

“Can anyone beat her?”

Luna braced herself for the roar just before it made everyone in the crowd take another step back.

“Down boy.” She said to her newly summoned dragon before turning her attention back to Espa. “Are you ready?”

“Please, don’t do this!” Espa yelled.

Despite everyone else’s surprise, Luna knew this was coming.

“You don’t understand! My brothers depend on me! I am dueling for them!” Espa started to cry, and she almost felt bad for calling him pathetic before.

“Look. Put your earpiece back on. Your brothers will probably tell you not to worry about it. You are a good duelist, you just had the bad luck to choose the one opponent who you had no chance against.” Luna stated, not wanting to make a dramatic scene. “Your brothers are everything to you, right? Then you can understand that you are everything to them as well. It doesn’t matter to them whether you win or lose. You chose to duel me fairly, without using their help. That probably makes you so much cooler than you already were to them.”

Espa’s hand seemed to tremble a little. He didn’t look too sure.

“Now, will you take the loss like a real man? Or will you continue begging while your brothers watch?” Luna asked with a consoling smile.

Espa wiped his tears quickly and smiled as well. There was a good boy.

“I surrender!” He said as he put his hand on his deck.

Wait, what?

The crowd started to boo in disappointment. Much like them, Luna was looking forward to dishing out the last attack that would win her the duel. But a win was a win.

The holograms faded into nothingness as Espa walked towards her and handed her his locator card and Jinzo.

“Here, as per rules of the Battle City tournament. You won these fair and square.” Espa said sounding more confident but still looking sad.

Luna took both but only put away the locator card.

“How about you keep Jinzo, huh?” She said as she handed it back to him.

“What?” Espa looked genuinely confused as he received his best card back.

“My deck runs on a pretty tight strategy, I have no place for a Machine type card in it.” She explained, thinking he would put it to better use than she was ever going to.

“Thanks!” He said, smiling as another tear rolled down his face.

“Just stop with the cheating stuff, okay?” Luna said as she pulled her deck out of her duel disk to put in her deck box.

“Yeah, okay. Sorry for that.” Espa said, seemingly embarrassed, as he put his earpiece back on. “Hello? Yeah, come on down, guys. Let’s go home.”

She saw Espa leave, and realized she was still famished.

“Hey, that was some duel there! I had no idea there was another Red-Eyes user in town!” Someone said from behind her, and Luna could recognize that out of place Brooklyn accent anywhere.

Joey Wheeler.

Luna thought of all the mean things she could say in a true Kaiba-esque style. But she turned around with a smile as she couldn’t help but feel like she was meeting one of her old friends once again.

But the Joey she had in her mind and the Joey standing in front of her were somehow different. This one seemed taller, maybe even buffer? His hair didn’t seem so ridiculous anymore either. And despite all that, what he said next was what caught Luna off guard the most.

“Say, care for duel?”

Chapter Text

Shit!

She couldn’t take out another finalist out of the equation, right? Yugi was already out, they needed everyone they could to beat Marik. She had to think fast.

“Tough luck, my guy.” Luna said, trying to make it sound as casual as she could. “But I gotta go eat, my man. Haven’t had anything to eat today, can’t duel even if I wanted, you know?”

“Oh, I see how it is.” Joey said smirking. “You heard that I was the runner up champion of Duelist Kingdom and you got scared!”

There’s the buffoon I remember.

“Think what you will.” Luna said, feeling genuinely glad she had run into Joey. “But should you really be so confident without your Red-Eyes?”

“Without my Red-Eyes?” Joey asked looking suddenly alarmed as he quickly took out his deck out of his deckbox and flipped through his cards as fast as he could until he stopped at one with a huge sigh of relief. “Damn, you scared me there! Here he is!”

He showed her his Red-Eyes Black Dragon card very proudly.

That means he either didn’t run into the rare hunters before or that he somehow won it back.

“Ah, sorry. It’s a trick I use to see people’s rare cards. Thank you for showing it to me.” Luna said, feeling a little awkward despite several other questions forming in her mind once more. “How is Serenity?”

Suddenly, Joey’s expression grew more serious and dark.

“Who are you?” He asked as he slowly put away his deck without taking his eyes off of her.

“I’m a friend of Serenity.” Luna said without a second thought, wondering why he suddenly got super serious.

“Don’t you fucken’ lie to me!” He suddenly yelled. “Serenity has died a year ago while I was in Duelist Kingdom!”

Luna’s heart dropped. This meant things were different even before she had gotten to this world. What was even happening?

“I’m so sorry to hear.” Luna said, genuinely heartbroken. “I had no idea. I have been overseas for several years.”

Joey glared at her for a few more seconds before his expression softened once again.

“Sorry, I guess I’m on edge. A friend of mine got attacked a few days back.” Joey said as he crossed his arms. “And I have reason to believe the attackers will be in this tournament.”

“I’m sorry to hear about Yugi. I also heard it from Kaiba.” Luna said, thinking about that night once again. “Do you have any idea of who might have done it?”

“Friend of Kaiba, huh? You should find better company.” Joey said as he scratched the back of his head. “Unfortunately I have absolutely no idea. I just need to win my duels and improve my deck, so that when I do find them, I can make them pay. And speaking of improving my deck, you sure you don’t want to give me a chance to add that Red-Eyes Slash Dragon of yours to my deck? I promise he will be well taken care of.”

“Sorry, Joey.” Luna offered him a consoling smile, remembering that he was much more open to the idea of fates and destinies. “But I’m an opponent that you simply can’t beat. And it’s not your time yet to lose a duel. It’s your destiny to get to the finals. So was Yugi’s, and with him out of the equation, we can’t risk any more deviations, not against Marik. So, go win your duels, and we’ll meet in the finals, yeah?”

“Are you Ishizu?” Joey suddenly asked.

What the-

“Tea mentioned that she and Yugi talked to someone named Ishizu and she told them about their destinies. Are you telling me you didn’t foresee Yugi being attacked?”

“No, I’m not Ishizu. Not even close.” She said, not knowing if telling him these stuff was going to make any difference at all. “But I’m a friend. I promise you that.”

“Well, alright then, friend.” Joey said as he extended a hand towards her. “Joey, Joey Wheeler. But I guess you knew that already.”

“Luna.” She said as she shook his hand, which was softer than she had expected. “Just Luna.”

“Right, just Luna.” Joey said as he seemed to be mulling things over in his head. “So you are telling me that whoever attacked Yugi will be at the finals of this tournament? And it’s not Kaiba?”

“It’s not Kaiba, for sure.” Luna said, realizing she had no idea if Marik even was the one doing all these things. “There is at least one bad guy who will be at the finals. But he has an army of rare hunters, freaks in purple robes that go around stealing people’s rare cards. And this might sound crazy, but he controls people’s minds.”

“Like Arkana.” Joey said solemnly and out of character.

“Arkana? How do you know Arkana?” Luna was caught off guard. “Yugi was supposed to duel him.”

“Really? I guess your visions are a little outdated then.” Joey said as he pulled a dark red Dark Magician card to show her. “I just beat Arkana before I got here. He was my first duel in this tournament.”

“Did he come after you?” She asked confused. What reason would Marik have to send his goons after Joey?

“Yeah, he tried to pull a trick on me, but didn’t work.” Joey explained quite casually. “He said something about master, and then he started talking in a different voice, about taking what is rightfully his and then passed out.”

“Why would he come after you?” She had so many questions.

“I’m guessing it’s because of this.” Joey said as he hovered a hand over his abdomen and the millennium puzzle materialized, chained to Joey’s neck.

By reflex, Luna took a step back and looked at Joey’s face again to make sure it was Joey that she had been talking to all this time.

“What are you doing with that?” she asked perplexed.

“Before the ambulance took Yugi away, he gave me his puzzle and his deck. Told me to win the tournament.” Joey explained as he put his hand down, making the puzzle disappear again. “I don’t quite understand how it works. But now, when I duel, it’s like he is here with me.”

What did that mean? What was going on? This changed everything! Or did it?

“Are you okay?” Joey asked getting closer to her. “Are you having another vision?”

“What? No.” She said taking another step back from Joey. “Nothing is going the way it’s supposed to, and I don’t understand why.”

“Well, maybe it’s a good thing that things are not going according to your visions.” Joey suggested.

“I don’t think so, Joey.”

“How can you be sure? What’s better in your visions?”

“Well, for one, Yugi was supposed to win this tournament and claim all three god cards, and-” Luna stopped herself, thinking it wouldn’t do any good to tell him so much of how the anime went. She felt sorry for this Joey. It was like he was carrying the burden of the entire world.

“And?” Joey asked before realization dawned on his expression. “Serenity was alive in your visions, that’s why you were so surprised before, wasn’t it?”

“I’m sorry.” She said as she took a step toward him this time and put a consoling hand on his shoulder.

“Well, then. I don’t think your visions will be of much help to us. They are off by more than a year.” Joey said as he clenched his fist. “Whatever the case, I will get to the finals. If that Marik guy has anything to do with the attack on Yugi and the death of my sister, I- Dueling him is not the only thing I will do.”

With that, Joey walked away, leaving Luna to wonder if she had just made things worse. She couldn’t worry about that at the moment though, she had to make sure she was at the finals as well.

She quickly made her way to the Tower, hoping the restaurant was still serving food. Thankfully, they were. She couldn’t find Jaden, but she grabbed things that she could eat on the go and as she was on her way out, she saw big screens showing the top participants in the tournament.

Seto, won two duels already and it’s just the first day.

Luna wondered who the two idiots who thought they had a chance against Seto Kaiba were.

Mokuba, Mai, Joey, even Jaden. They all won their first duels. Even-

Bakura Ryou. And Marik Ishtar.

There were also several names she didn’t recognize. There were many more participants than she had anticipated, the number of people winning their first duel was increasing rapidly.

Things were getting as exciting as they were worrisome. Just like Joey had insinuated, she no longer had any idea what was going on in this tournament. But she figured Bakura and Marik probably had something to do with it, especially if Bakura was actively playing.

She still thought she had the best chance to defeat Marik and Bakura. Their decks wouldn’t be able to stand against her newer decks full of combos and synergy. But she also had never dueled in the shadow realms and remembered that Joey passed out before he could finish his duel against Marik in the anime. She wasn’t sure she would fare better or worse, but in terms of spirit and will power, they had Jaden. He was a main character as well, after all. He would be a good substitute for Yugi. On the other hand, Joey was also in possession of the millennium puzzle, and looked like the Pharaoh and Joey had somehow become one.

That should be enough to beat the bad guys. Right?

Suddenly she had a morbid curiosity as to what would happen to her if evil prevails in this world. But she quickly shook her head and walked out of the tower. She asked around to get to grandpa Muto’s game shop. It took her some time, but she had finally found it.

It was quite small, but well kept. Grampa Muto was just as charmingly silly as he was in the anime. He even offered her some tea and senbei crackers when she told him that she was a friend of Yugi. She bought some cards that she didn’t have access to during her time in Duel Links. Namely Monster Reborn, Mirror Force, Dark Hole, Raigeki, and a few others.

As Luna sipped on her tea, he told her that Yugi’s condition had stabilized but that he was still in a coma.

“It’s unfortunate really, he was looking forward to participating in this tournament.” The old man said as he stroked his beard. “At least Joey is out there carrying the flame of the ancient pharaoh.”

He knows?

Her expression must have been too obvious, as grampa Muto started to laugh heartily.

“No need to be alarmed, Yugi and I have no secrets.”

This made her want to ask several questions, but wondered if it was okay to do so. After all, she and Yugi hadn’t actually met yet. In fact, she was always a little jealous of how closely knit Yugi and his friends were and wondered if it was okay to intrude in it.

“You seem to have a lot of thoughts in your head, dear child.” Mr. Muto said in that wise and kind sort of way. “If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them.”

She shook all other thoughts from her mind and decided to ask just the one question that she couldn’t figure out despite her knowledge of the anime.

“How is Joey able to use the millennium puzzle?” She asked. “I thought only Yugi could be a vessel to the pharaoh.”

Mr. Muto nodded with a pensive expression.

“That is a great question to which I don’t have any definitive answer.” He stroked his beard once again before continuing. “But having been an avid archeologist for most of my life, I have come across several ancient texts on the walls of temples and old ceremonial stone tablets. And in many ancient cultures, the belief of the rebirth of spirits, is not uncommon. Evidently, it is safe to assume that our dear Yugi is the reborn pharaoh. That in a past life, he was the pharaoh, and hence is the perfect vessel for the fragment of his spirit locked away in the puzzle.”

“Fragment?” Luna asked, more curious than ever before.

“Why, yes. The pharaoh has no recollection of who he is and of his life. He recalls how to play games and retains his competitive drive, so I believe it is just a piece of him. Perhaps, his love for games that he locked away into the puzzle.” Mr. Muto explained, once again with a pensive expression, with his eyes still closed. “As for young Joey, I assume he and Yugi shared a very close friendship in a past life. A sort of kindred spirits, if you will-”

No, Kaiba and Yugi are linked through their past life, but there’s no mention of Joey.

“-If not in the lifetime of the pharaoh, then perhaps even long before that.”

Wait.

She had been so focused on Battle City that she hadn’t thought of the later seasons.

The legendary knights of Atlantis.

Thinking about the implications of that made her head hurt.

“So you are saying that Joey can harness the powers of the puzzle and-” She paused for a second to think of how to word it. “-and be one with the pharaoh because they must have shared a bond in a past life?”

“Sure, or at least that’s all I could come up with on the spot.” Mr. Muto laughed as she scratched his head looking somewhat embarrassed.

Luna was going to ask what his archeology days were like when suddenly something made a loud crashing noise outside of the shop.

“Stay here.” She told Mr. Muto as she quickly ran out to see what had caused the noise.

It was brighter outside than it was inside of the shop, it took her eyes a second to adjust, but the street was empty and there seemed to be no commotion.

“Are you following me now, little Ms. Kaiba?”

Luna quickly looked towards the voice on the ground by the shop’s wall and found Joey with a bruised eye and a bloody nose. He was holding his side like he was in pain.

“What happened to you?” She asked, kneeling beside him, surprised at how beat up he seemed despite having seen him just hours before.

“You know, for someone dressed as Kaiba, you sure are much nicer than he is.” Joey said before trying to get up but stopping with a wince.

“Mr. Muto! It’s Joey, he needs help!” She yelled, as she put a hand on his shoulder, not knowing what to do. “What happened?”

“Beat two of those rare hunters at once. Some freaks wearing masks.”

Lumis and Umbra? Joey beat them on his own?

“But then more of them got the jump on me. Call me crazy, but I could’ve sworn one of them was Bandit Keith. I guess once they realized they couldn’t beat me in a duel, they decided to use force. I barely escaped.” Joey said, wincing again as he sat up. “Damn, pretty bad shape for a first day, huh?”

Mr. Muto came out, worry written across his face.

“My boy, not you too.”

Luna was about to suggest helping Joey to stand up to take him inside of the shop, but suddenly felt a chill go down her spine and she knew for a fact that they were being watched.

She turned around and scanned her surroundings but could not spot anyone.

“Luna, help me take Joey inside.” Mr. Muto said as he held Joey’s arm to support him up.

The looming sensation that someone was watching them kept growing, however, and Luna couldn’t help but feel like they were in danger.

“Mr. Muto, I think you better take Joey inside and call the cops.” Luna said as she grabbed her Red-Eyes deck and put it in her duel disk. “I will stall whoever it is that is here.”

To Mr. Muto’s credit, he did not question her. He quickly, but effortfully, lifted Joey onto his back and went inside.

“Very astute!” a raspy, but echoing voice filled the air, making the hairs in the back of her neck rise.

She looked up and saw the silhouette of a skinny man standing on top of a building across the street. It was a bit hard to make out his features as the sun was in her eyes. She quickly shielded her eyes with her hands to try to see better.

“For a moment I thought you might be Kaiba, but it seems you are just a girl.” The man continued to speak.

Just a girl?

“It seems we don’t have any pre-tournament information on you.” The man said as he squatted down over the edge of the building. “A curious little thing, you are. But it seems you have used a Red-Eyes variant card we have never seen before this morning.”

Once he leaned over the edge, she could see that he was bald. A malignant presence she had never felt before seemed to be invading her senses.

“Intriguing for sure, but we are after bigger fish at the moment. If you run now, we will leave you be. For the time being, of course.”

As her eyes adjusted further to the bright sunlight, she could make out the piercing on his face-

“What say you, child?”

-the dark mascara and the lipstick. She felt like there was pit at the base of her chest as she could practically feel the presence of an Egyptian god in the shadow of the duelist facing her.

Strings.

Chapter Text

Luna tried to think of what she could do. Had this been back in her world, she would not have been afraid of the Egyptian god cards. But in here, things played by the rules in the anime. Spells and traps had no effect on the god cards. Once played, they were virtually invincible.

If she ran, they surely would get to Joey, take the millennium puzzle and possibly his life. It would be like dooming this world with this single action. She couldn’t have that though, she wasn’t a part of this world but ever since she appeared in the side of the street near KC Tower, she felt like this was where she belonged.

What am I thinking? I am Luna!

If she had to duel, she just had one strategy. She had to keep the god card from ever being played. She had to keep Strings from having three monsters at once on the field.

“You haven’t run yet, does that mean you want to duel?” Strings asked as he stood up in such a way that he seemed like a puppet being raised by invisible strings.

“Isn’t it obvious, freak?” She asked as she quickly grabbed a few cards from her extra deck box and inserted the cards into her deck. “It’s time to duel!”

“And why should I duel you?” Strings asked before laughing mockingly.

“Because I know where Obelisk the Tormentor is.” She said immediately, hoping that Marik hadn’t already obtained all three cards in this world.

His laugh immediately stopped.

“I guess you are more than meets the eye, little girl.” Strings said shuffling his stance in a sickening puppeteered motion. “What do you get out of this duel, though?”

“If I win,” Luna said taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. “you give me Slifer the Sky Dragon.”

Strings completely stood still for a moment. Long enough for Luna to wonder if time had stood still, but he quickly shuffled his stance again.

“I changed my mind.” His voice grew more serious. “It seems you are a big player after all, and too dangerous to leave for later. It is time to duel, little girl.”

Both duel disks beeped to signal synchronization and the number 4000 appeared on her duel disk as it shuffled her deck automatically. She drew four cards.

Neos Fusion, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Power of the Guardians, and her newly added card Delinquent Duo.

She quickly drew an extra card as she remembered that one had to call dibs on who starts.

“I’ll start things off!” She looked at her drawn card. Polymerization. “And I activate Neos Fusion! It lets me summon a Neos fusion monster using materials from my deck!”

She quickly chose Elemental HERO Neos and Red-Eyes Wyvern.

“And I summon Elemental HERO Brave Neos!” And as she said it, a fissure appeared in space in front of her and out of it came her monster. “His attack increases by 100 attack points per HERO monster in my graveyard, making his attack 2600! That should be enough for whatever you can throw at me, so I pass.”

“An impressive first move.” Strings said, his head dropping a few centimeters as if not attached to his neck but by some invisible string in the air. “But you aren’t ready for what I have in store!”

Strings drew a card and laughed. It was a terrifying sight as he was completely expressionless despite the maniacal laugh.

“It seems destiny is on my side today!” He said as he placed his newly drawn card in the back of his hand and picked a different one to the front. “I summon Revival Jam in defense position!”

A gooey silver substance came out of her opponent’s card and onto the field.

So far so good.

It was still under what Luna had expected of Strings. But she was worried about that one card he had just drawn.

“But hold your horses, I also activate not one, but two Jam Breeding Machine!” Strings yelled as two circular, jet engine looking machines appeared on either side of him. “Each of these lets me summon a slime token every turn!”

And as the words left his mouth, two little ghost looking monsters made up of the same silver goo as the Revival Jam came out of their respective machines.

Crap, that’s three already!

Strings started to laugh once again, too confidently, making Luna think that the card he had drawn was most likely Slifer. But he still had three cards in his hand. If he would-

“And lastly, I put card facedown!” Strings declared triumphantly.

No way. Could it be this easy?

Luna figured the facedown card was Jam Defender. But more importantly, Strings only had two cards left.

“My turn!” She yelled fiercely, trying not to give away her excitement as she drew a card. As luck would have it, it was yet another one of the cards she had added last minute.

Alright! Lava Golem!

“And I start by using my Delinquent Duo!” Luna let a smile slip. “By paying 1000 life points, you discard a card at random!”

The number on her life counter went down to 3000.

“No! My Infinite Cards!” Strings yelled.

How very anime villain of him to call out his cards.

“That’s not all, Strings!” She yelled as she pointed her finger at him. “If you still have cards left, you discard one of your choosing. And since you only have one-”

Luna exaggerated a shrug with her best, innocent smile.

Strings looked at his single card and Luna thought his hand had trembled for a second. His face remained devoid of any expression, but a wail of anger escaped his mouth.

“You will pay for this!” Strings said as he put his lone card in the graveyard. “You-”

“I’m not done, weirdo!” Luna interrupted him, wondering if Marik was losing his shit wherever he was. “You might recognize this bad boy, Marik! I summon Lava Golem to your side of the field by tributing one of your slime tokens and your Revival Jam!”

A huge ball of lava formed on the field, engulfing one of the tokens and the Revival Jam as it grew arms and a head.

“And since it was tributed, your Revival Jam can’t make its comeback! But lastly, I activate Power of the Guardians! And equip it to my Brave Neos! Whenever the monster, to which this is equipped, is involved in an attack, it gains 500 attack points. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Neos, attack his last slime token!”

It didn’t escape Luna’s perception that her opponent’s hand twitched. She had rendered his trap useless, gotten rid of both the Egyptian god and Revival Jam in one turn. It was only natural that Marik must be getting desperate. Brave Neos reared back his fist as he did so, a light shined and brought his attack points from the previous 2600 to 3100. And as Brave Neos landed his powerful punch, the slime token all but evaporated. Leaving Strings with 1400 health.

“That activates the effect of my Brave Neos! When it destroys a monster, I can draw another Neos Fusion from my deck!”

This was a bit of an overkill, the Neos Fusion that was already in her graveyard could keep her Neos safe just in case something happened. Slifer was dealt with and even if Strings were to be able to bring it back from the graveyard, he had no more cards in his hand. Luna just had to keep it safe and finish the duel. Every turn, the Lava Golem would take 500 damage off of Strings. She would just have to wait it out.

“I don’t know where you got so many rare cards, little girl. But you are really getting on my nerves. And seeing as you are just staring at your cards now, I take it that it’s my turn!” Strings yelled as he drew a card.

“The Lava Golem’s effect activates! You lose 500 life points!” Luna said, knowing that explaining Marik’s signature card would annoy him, but he simply scoffed as his life points went down to 900.

“It matters not, you probably can’t tell because of this vessel’s lack of emotions, but I am smiling from ear to ear! I activate Pot of Greed!”

Luna held the urge to spew a sarcastic “But what does it do?”, after all, the situation felt a lot more tense now that she was actually a part of these duels, even if she was winning.

As Strings drew two more cards and stared at them for a second, another smileless laughter escaped his purple lips.

“Looks like luck is on my side!” He yelled as he flipped to show a second Pot of Greed.

No, no! What are the chances?

Strings drew two more cards so slowly that she could imagine Marik with a stupid smirk on his face.

“I activate Supply Squad! This card lets me draw a card every time a monster I control gets destroyed! Can you feel your impending doom yet?” Strings asked, turning his head more than 90 degrees to one side.

Luna wondered if Marik knew that Strings was moving like that as he talked.

“I can’t feel any-” Luna had started but was interrupted by Strings.

“Well, let me help you then!” He yelled as he showed her a Monster Reborn. “I revive my Slifer, your doom!”

Thunders bellowed as the skies darkened. She could actually feel the wind around her shift and the temperature drop. A bright white fissure cracked open in the sky with a sound that made her think the world was splitting into two. Her dragon summons had be awesome and majestic, but this was in a whole new level. This made her feel like every nerve in her body were screaming at her to run, and yet she seemed to have been rendered unable to move at all, unable to even look away from that fissure in the sky through which an enormous serpentine red body slid forth.

She couldn’t see the entirety of Slifer, as the dark clouds covered most of it. But a lightning here and there made her realize that Slifer was probably the size of an entire city. Such terrifying view with the added blinding flashes of lightning, followed by the deafening thunders, made her feel like every inch of her body was bring pricked by needles.

Or is that the electrified air? Isn’t all this a hologram?

It wasn’t until she forced herself to close her eyes shut that she realized that Strings had been laughing maniacally the entire time. She took a deep breath to try to calm herself down.

Breathe. Think. Don’t panic. Think.

Suddenly, she remembered that Marik only had two cards left in his hand. She looked up to confirm this. That meant Slifer only had 2000 attack points.

Hell, what am I worried for?

“Is that all?” Luna yelled, mustering what was left of her courage in that one question.

“Of course not, you fool! I summon another Revival Jam in defense position!”

No.

That would make Slifer’s attack just 1000, but now he could use his facedown trap card to protect his Slifer from her attacks. She was practically back to square one, she couldn’t keep him from putting out his combo. She couldn’t just count on Lava Golem, it would only take four more turns, but from the way Marik was cocky, she assumed he was going to get rid of it soon.

“And I activate both of my Jam Breeding Machines to have two more tokens out!” Strings continued to laugh, it was starting to piss her off. It was like he thought he had won already.

Those are baits, he obviously wants me to attack them so he can activate his trap.

But she may have no other choice if her strategy was to work. Either way, she wondered if Marik was going to get rid of the Golem somehow, or risk keeping it on the field. He still had one card, but if he used it, Slifer would have 0 attack points.

He wouldn’t do-

“And I attack your Brave Neos with my Lava Golem!” Strings yelled, making the huge heap of lava come forth and strike at Neos, whose body shined before the impact.

“Foolish move!” Luna yelled back, wondering if Marik really didn’t see that coming. “The attack points of my Neos is increased by 500 points due to the effects of Power of the Guardians! It is now 3600!”

The Lava Golem shrunk for a second before exploding and part of the fire striking at the shoulder of Strings, who started to scream in pain as his 900 life points went down to 300.

“Chill with the drama, dude.” Luna said, cringing at how creepy her opponent’s screams were. “You are already freaky without all the screaming.

“Ther- there’s something wrong.” Strings said clutching at his shoulder in pain in a voice that wasn’t as distorted as before. But just as quickly as he had screamed, he straightened up very suddenly and the distortion on his voice was back. “That was part of my plan!”

I’m going to be seeing him in my nightmares for some time, aren’t I?

“Through the effects of my Supply Squad, I draw a card because my Lava Golem was destroyed!” Strings said as he drew a card, increasing the attack power of Slifer to 2000. “Now it’s your turn! Revel in your doom and see if you can delay it with all you’ve got!”

Luna wondered if he was bluffing. Sure, he had gotten rid of Lava Golem and increased the attack power of Slifer, but to cut his life points to 300 seemed like a poor trade back. She would just have to deal with whatever Strings was going to throw at her next.

“I draw a card!”

Kunai with Chain.

It wasn’t a game changer, but it would serve as a buffer at the right time, even if one of its effects won’t affect Slifer, by anime rules. But she needed all the attack points she could get if she were going to survive this.

“I set a card down.” She said as she put her freshly drawn card down. “And I use a second Neos Fusion!”

Luna picked another Elemental HERO Neos and a Gearfried the Iron Knight.

“And I summon forth, Elemental HERO Neos Knight, in defense position!” She was about to explain his effect, but Strings interrupted her.

“My Slifer’s effect kicks in, it does 2000 damage to any monster you summon to your field! And since your Neos Knight only have 1000 defense, it is destroyed!” He yelled as he raised a hand and clenched his fist.

The entire world rumbled as Slifer’s giant head came down through the dark clouds. Its smaller, upper mouth opened as a blinding beam of light came out of it and struck Neos Knight, pulverizing it on contact. The sound and impact made Luna tense up, and she realized that she had been flexing all of her muscles.

“Just as I planned!” Luna quickly said after straightening up. “That’s two more Neos cards in my graveyard, which means my Brave Neos will have his attack increased by 200 to a whopping 3800!”

Not only so, but with two Neos Fusion cards in her graveyard, she could save Brave Neos twice, aside from two tokens on Power of the Guardians, which could also be used to keep her monster from being destroyed.

Another way to increase the attack of her monster would be to attack the other tokens to activate her Power of the Guardians, but that would activate his trap. And once the Revival Jam is destroyed, Strings would get yet another card and the Revival Jam would come back. It would basically be an exchange of 500 attack points for her to 1000 attack points for Marik.

On the one hand, it seemed like a bad move, but on the other, if his trap is revealed, she could deal with it in the future better. Not to mention it would rule out it being any nasty unexpected surprise for later.

I just have to risk it.

“I attack your token!” She said pointing at the small blob of slime floating in the air. “Activating my Power of the Guardians, upping Neos’s attack to 4300!”

“Impressive, but I activate my Jam Defender!” Strings yelled, proving that Luna was right. “It lets my Revival Jam be the target of your attack!”

Brave Neos smashed into Revival Jam, exploding it into a thousand smaller particles, which quickly joined together to be reborn.

“And since my Revival Jam was destroyed, even if only for a short while, it activated my Supply Squad!” Strings said as he drew another card. “That’s 3000 attack points for Slifer!”

As if on cue, Slifer opened its mouth and roared so loud that the entire world seemed to tremble.

Seriously, someone at Kaiba Corp has to tone that thing down!

Luna was never one to be scared of anything, but every time that thing roared, every nerve in her body seem to be shocked into overdrive for a second as she trembled without meaning to.

“Well, looks like you are about done!” Strings yelled as he twisted his body and drew another card. “And what are the chances, I activate another Pot of Greed! Making my Slifer have 5000 attack points! Feast your eyes upon your doom!”

Thunders roared once again, and Luna could have sworn she saw a lightning striking the side of Slifer’s body, making it glow for a split second. Thankfully, it didn’t roar this time.

Luna quickly calculated in her head, even if Slifer were to attack right at this moment, using all of her cards, she could still beat it, and it would be just enough to beat him. His hubris was going to be his undoing.

“Are you shaking?” He asked with his head tilted at an angle.

She didn’t want to seem too eager for him to attack and so she decided to stay quiet and just glare at him.

“Not in the mood for your usual quips?” Marik laughed through the expressionless face of Strings. “Well, rejoice for it will be over soon.”

This is it.

“It is your turn.” Strings said before bursting out in laughter.

No.

“Do you really think I’m going to risk it when the difference in attack is still small? There’s no reason for me to attack, you can’t destroy anything of mine! The more I stall, the stronger my Slifer will become!”

Maybe he is not as dumb as I originally thought.

“Then I draw.” Luna said, but the card that she drew was Red-Eyes Black Dragon.

That’s not going to help me right now.

“And I pass.” She said before swallowing hard.

Strings put a hand on his forehead and let out a weird nasal sound. Luna assumed Marik was trying to contain his laughter.

“I guess there’s no need to delay the inevitable huh? You have completely gone quiet and all your fire is gone, little girl!” Strings said, pointing at her before drawing a card. “Slifer now has 6000 attack! And I know for a fact that no trap card can increase the attack for over 1000 points, so this is the end for you, little girl!”

With that, Strings raised his hand albeit a little shakily.

“Slifer!” Strings commanded, making the dragon open its main mouth. “Thunder force!”

Suddenly all the lightning that were striking around them were pulled into the gargantuan dragon’s mouth with a sound that made Luna wonder how the skies hadn’t been torn apart already. Once all of the lightning was gone, there was a second of silence that was even more deafening than the chaotic noise that came before it.

Luna took this moment to quickly tap on her graveyard and pick Neos Fusion.

Then without a warning, a monumental white bolt of lightning shot forth from Slifer’s mouth, exploding the asphalt around them. Luna closed her eye shut and raised her arms to protect her face by instinct. She suddenly felt extremely tired, how long had this duel lasted? Hadn’t been that many turns, had it?

When she opened her eyes, her vision was blurry and her ears ringing. The world felt like it was spinning around her for a moment before she blinked a few times and let her vision adjust to the relative darkness of the rest of the world after the blinding lightning that had struck her monster.

Interestingly enough, she could smell the burnt stink of the asphalt. She coughed and realized that a tree that was beside were was reduced to a burning stump.

What the-

“Wait, how is it that your monster is still alive?” Strings yelled, bringing her attention back to the duel.

Luna looked down at her life counter to see that her life points had been reduced to 1800 points. She was not going to survive another attack from Slifer. What a truly terrifying monster.

“I activated the effects of my Neos Fusion from the graveyard, protecting it from being destroyed. It’s attack had risen to 4800 thanks to the effects of my Power of the Guardians.” Luna explained as she dusted off a sort of black dirt from her arms and coat. “So I only took 1200 damage.”

“A meaningless move! That bought you just one more turn!” Strings yelled.

And what a turn it has to be. Come on!

She tried to imagine her entire soul and mind into her drawing hand. This was all by anime rules, right?

Heart of the cards!

She drew her next card. Change of Heart.

No frickin way!

She started to laugh out loud, not being able to contain herself.

“What- what’s so funny?” Strings asked as he straightened up a little. “Have you gone insane because it is obvious that you will lose?”

“The only one who will lose today is you, Marik!” Luna yelled and she turned her card to show him. “I activate a card that I literally just bought from Mr. Muto minutes ago! Change of Heart on your Revival Jam!”

A half-light half-dark angel came out of Luna’s card and possessed the Revival Jam, making it come to her side of the field.

“Wait! Wait!” Strings yelled, as the realization seemed to have dawned on Marik.

“And I relieve you from the burden of carrying Slifer in your deck, Marik!” Luna yelled, also pointing at Strings with her finger. “You are not worthy! Neos, attack the slime token!”

Her Brave Neos glowed once again as its attack went up from the Power of the Guardians one last time, its attack going up to 5300. She could have also used the Kunai with Chain but she didn’t want to overdo it. Her monster reared back it powerful fist and lunged at the slime token, exploding through it and hitting Strings square in the chest.

“You-” was all Strings managed to say before being struck.

All the holograms except Neos and Slifer disappeared. Slifer lingered for a bit longer before fading away, but Neos stayed and turned to face Luna.

What in the world?

But once Slifer was gone, the skies cleared and Luna noticed that a helicopter had landed on top of the building in which Strings was playing from. Suddenly, Mokuba’s head appeared over the edge, followed by Seto’s.

“You did it Luna! Wowee! You really defeated an Egyptian god card!” Mokuba yelled as he ran towards Strings.

She assumed he was going to get the locator card and Slifer for her. She quickly turned to see what Neos was doing, but could not find him anywhere.

Guess the hologram faded away after all.

“Uh, Seto?” Mokuba’s voice could be heard as Luna effortfully approached the building, wondering if she could go up to the roof through some kind of stairs. “I think he’s dead.”

What?

Luna looked up towards the roof, not sure that she had heard right.

“Mokuba? Seto? What’s going on?” She called as she winced when she felt a stinging pain.

She looked down at her arms and realized that parts of her sleeves had been burned and scratched. She could see raw blisters and burns on her skin through some of the holes.

What- how?

“Stay there, Luna.” Seto said. “Mokuba, go back to the chopper and call the medical- and I guess the legal team.”

Chapter Text

Luna woke up in her hospital bed. She had been bandaged all over after her duel. She took some time to try to process everything that had happened since she had appeared in this world. She had felt like she had belonged here before, but wasn’t so sure anymore. Someone was dead because of h-

“You got that long face of overthinking again, Luna.” Joey’s voice came from beside her.

Luna turned her head to see Wheeler laying down on the bed beside hers. He looked to be in a much better shape than a few days back.

“I’ve been meaning to say-” Luna said as she grabbed Slifer the Sky Dragon from her deckbox and handed it to Joey. “-you should probably keep this.”

Luna could have sworn that she saw his hand twitch once. But Joey simply looked at the card without taking it.

“You think I like handouts?” He asked with a sarcastic smile.

“No, it’s just that-” She paused for a second, but this was Joey, he knew. “-this is supposed to be the Pharaoh’s dragon. There are three Egyptian god cards in play right now. Seto has Obelisk, Marik has Ra. Yugi was supposed to have Slifer.”

Joey looked down at the card once again before looking up at Luna again with a more serious expression.

“And since Yugi is not here, and you are carrying the Millennium Puzzle, I figured you would be the best one to use Slifer.” Luna finished with her hand still outstretched, insisting that Joey take the card. “Come on, man. Just take the card, my arm is getting tired.”

“I have this strange sensation that you should keep it.” He finally answered as he gently pushed her hand back towards her. “The spirit of the pharaoh seems to agree.”

“I see you are still spewing on about pharaohs and spirits, Wheeler.” Seto’s voice came from beside Luna, making her quickly turn to face him.

Did he come to see me?

“Aw, did you come see me, Kaiba boy?” Joey mocked.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Seto scoffed. “I am here to see Luna.”

Her heart skipped a beat.

“What?” Joey asked, looking from Kaiba to Luna. “Are you serious? Don’t tangle yourself with rich boy, Luna. I’m much better looking, and all around a better person! Ain’t that right, Kaiba?”

“If by better looking and better person you mean inbred and shit for brains, then absolutely, Wheeler.” Seto said without even batting an eye, before turning his attention back to Luna and handing her what looked to be a get well card. “How are you feeling?”

She received the card and opened it.

Battle City needs you!

Get better soon!

-Mokuba

P.S. Can I take a look at Slifer next time we see each other?

“I’m okay, feeling better already.” Luna answered, happy to receive a card from Mokuba and almost giddy that Seto cared.

“Did you hit your head?” Seto asked as he put his soft and warm hand, ever so gently, against her forehead.

“No?” She answered, uncertain of why he would think that.

“Then why are you offering one of the most powerful cards in the world to someone like him?” His tone became colder instantly.

The butterflies were gone. She moved Seto’s hand away and glared at him.

“Don’t you see there is more going on here than meets the eye, Seto?” She asked.

“I do. That’s what I came to talk about.” Seto said taking another glance at Joey before continuing. “I’ve been rewatching the footage of your duel.”

“You are recording our duels? I always knew you were a creeper, Kaiba!” Joey said, only to be ignored.

“It would seem that summoning Slifer has-” Seto paused for a second as if considering his next words carefully. “-has altered something.”

“Altered something? That’s not vague at all, big brain man!” Joey chimed in again. “How do you even run a global company like that?”

“Neither you nor Strings seemed to be taking real damage until he summoned Slifer.” Seto specified, then reluctantly added. “Yugi used to talk about these- these shadow games in which duelists lost their souls or lives in the game. I’m not one to believe in superstition-”

“You were literally trapped in a card with Mokuba because of Pegasus, dude!” And still, Joey was ignored a third time.

“-but it’s the only thing I can think of that remotely makes sense. This Strings, must have somehow activated a shadow game in your duel.” Seto stated as his expression softened slightly. “The moment he did so, he made his choice. It was either him or you. I’m just glad you are okay.”

Luna wondered if that would happen every time someone summoned an Egyptian god card. That hadn’t been the case in the anime.

“Have you used Obelisk in a duel yet?” Luna asked Seto, who shook his head.

“Only against an AI.” Seto answered as his hand seemed to mindlessly hover over his deck on his belt. “Though, it did destroy the Duel Station.”

“So you knew?” Joey said as he got up and grabbed Kaiba by the collar of his coat. “You knew this was dangerous and you still let the tournament go on?”

“Of course, fool!” Seto said, grabbing Joey’s wrist and forcing him to let go. “The entire point of this tournament was so that I could get all three Egyptian god cards! Plus, Marik is still out there with a card that can actually kill people. If we call it quits now, we may never catch him.”

Joey stared at Kaiba for a second before scoffing and turning to Luna.

“See? That’s the kind of guy Kaiba is. Always having an agenda. He had his eyes on the god cards since the beginning.” Joey said as he went back to his bed and grabbed his jacket. “Now with what he said, what do you really think he is here for?”

Luna knew that the Battle City tournament was specifically to gain all three god cards. That was no secret to her. But she wondered.

“Did you come here to check in on me?” Luna asked as she also stood up, albeit slowly. “Or for Slifer?”

Seto looked taken aback. He hesitated for a moment before replying.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Luna.” He said as he approached her. “I would never take Slifer from you without a duel.”

To his credit, he seemed to regret it just as the words left his mouth.

“And there it is.” Joey said as he got between Seto and Luna. “Either way, like you said, Marik is still out there with a god card that can kill real people. We’ll play along in your tournament just to stop him. But that’s it. Let’s go, Luna.”

She still wanted to stay by Seto. But Joey was right. Seto had always been driven by ambition and hunger for power in this era. He still hadn’t faced everything that DSoD Kaiba had gone through. She couldn’t trust that this Seto would remain by their side when it counted if it meant letting go of his ambition.

After all, this was no longer just about having fun in dueling, this was definitely bigger than any of them. And so, she offered Seto a brief sad smile before turning around to leave with Joey.

Part of her wanted Seto to stop her, but as she walked away she heard his phone ring. She thought back to the moment they had shared with the door between them, but quickly pushed those thoughts aside. She had to focus on what to do next.

As they were walking out, she realized that Joey was leading her by her hand and took her hand away from his grasp.

“Since when are we such close friends?” She asked when he turned around to see why she had let go of his hand. “Weren’t you the one that refused my help the first time we met?”

“Well, sure.” Joey admitted sheepishly. “But you practically saved my life after that. I will never forget that.”

Suddenly, Joey turned away from her and threw his hand toward her as if to keep her back.

“Mr. Muto, I think you better take Joey inside and call the cops, I will stall whoever it is that is here.” He imitated her, but in an annoying falsetto, before turning back to face her with a smile. “You were quite badass. Never met anyone quite like you.”

She was about to ask if he wanted to get punched in the face that much, but he grabbed her hand and started to lead her towards the exit of the hospital once again.

“Now come on, let’s get out of here.”

Luna started to wonder if she should help Joey make a better deck that doesn’t rely so much on luck, after all, others would come after his Millennium Puzzle now.

But as they walked out of the hospital, Luna felt that same feeling she had before dueling Strings. She looked around and quickly noticed a big man wearing the purple robe of the rare hunters, simply standing in the middle of the street.

“Joey.” She warned him, but he had already put on his duel disk.

“You guys really have no manners, huh? Coming after us in a hospital, talk about a scummy move, man.” Joey observed out loud as he placed his deck into his duel disk.

“Joey Wheeler and little Luna.” The man said as he put his hood down revealing his bald, half tattooed face.

Odion.

“A pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.” Odion stated in his raspy voice. “I, am Marik.

Oh, of course.

“So you finally decided to show up.” Seto said from behind Luna and Joey.

“Jeez, man. We have put some bells on ya or something!” Joey nearly jumped before quickly turning around to see Kaiba.

“Ah, even the young master Seto Kaiba is here.” Odion stated, sounding like he had just met an old friend, while still somehow looking super serious. “But excuse me, I am here for Jo-”

“You will duel me here and now for your remaining god card!” Seto demanded as he lifted his duel disk.

“That’s not Marik!” Luna yelled, wanting to stop things before they got out of hand. “That’s his henchman, Odion.”

Odion, however, simply laughed.

“First of all, if I wasn’t Marik, would I have this card?” Odion said as he showed The Winged Dragon of Ra. “And second, tell me Kaiba, why in the world would I duel you?”

“That’s a fake card, Seto. Don’t fall for it.” Luna warned him. “I know what Marik looks like, and that’s not him.”

But she could see that Seto’s gaze was locked on the golden card in Odion’s hand.

“You would duel me because-” Seto started

“Seto!” Luna tried to stop him, but Seto seemed to already have made up his mind.

“-I have Obelisk the Tormentor!” Seto pulled his god card.

Odion seemed to have been caught off guard for a split second, but he quickly regained composure.

“Well, aren’t you something.” Odion said as he raised his duel disk. “Looks like fate smiles upon me, as all the three duelists I need to face are here!”

“Wait a minute!” Joey interrupted. “If that is Marik, then I was first!”

“That is not Marik!” Luna insisted and looked around to see if she could spot the real Marik around. “If Seto is too stubborn to see, then at least you have to help me find the real Marik, Joey.”

“Silence, girl!” Odion yelled.

“Excuse me?” Luna demanded. “If you-”

Suddenly Odion placed his god card onto the duel disk.

“I am the real Marik and this will prove it!” He yelled. “Come forth!”

The skies darkened.

Oh no, not this gain.

“Seto!” Luna turned to him, but Seto placed his Obelisk onto his own duel disk.

“Let’s go, Obelisk!” Seto yelled as two giant portals appeared and a storm started to form above them. “I won’t let you put people here in danger!”

“What the heck is going on?” Joey yelled as he looked up as giant yellow and blue claws appeared from their respective portals as gargantuan beings were clawing their way out.

“Joey, you have to get to safety! This storm is real!” Luna yelled, already starting to push him back.

“What about you?” He asked, genuinely looking worried.

Luna looked at the two Egyptian gods coming forth before glancing towards Seto.

“I have a responsibility now that I have Slifer. I can’t let Seto face this alone.” She said as she pulled her deck and put it in her duel disk as well. “Go find Mokuba and tell him to find Jaden Yuki. If something goes wrong, Jaden might be able to help.”

Joey seemed to have about a thousand questions but simply nodded.

As the storm worsened and lightning bolts fell around them, Joey glanced up at the sky then back at Luna and hugged her tight.

“Be careful.” He said, leaving just as quickly as he had hugged her.

“You too.” She said as he left.

When she turned back to see the gods coming through their portals she caught Seto staring at her for a second before quickly turning his gaze back to Odion.

“I won’t ask you to leave, Luna.” Kaiba said, without looking at her again. “But I hope you are prepared.”

“Funny, I was just going to tell you the same thing.” Luna quipped as she smiled.

“Fools.” Odion yelled as he placed yet another card onto his duel disk. “I had my suspicions when Slifer was played before, and now I see endless possibilities! But you two are completely oblivious!”

Suddenly a humanoid monster with a giant snake on its back appeared.

Embodiment of Apophis. But he didn’t even set that as a trap card before.

“Seto! We have to summon our other monsters!” Luna yelled as she drew a card, but saw that it was a spell card.

The snake monster lunged towards her and brought down its sword. Luna put her bandaged hand up to protect herself, but the sword clashed with another blade. A big purple monster holding a golden sword had defended her.

Swordstalker. That’s Seto’s monster.

Swordstalker quickly pushed the Embodiment of Apophis’s sword away and stabbed it in the chest, making it disintegrate.

“Focus on me, Marik!” Seto yelled as Ra’s golden, eaglelike head came through the portal and let out a deafening roar. “I won’t let you hurt other people!”

“For someone claiming to care for the safety of others, you sure seemed to have no problem summoning your own god card as quickly as you could.” Odion barked. “Do you not realize the sheer destructive power of the god cards?”

Luna had her hand on Slifer’s card when she realized that Odion was right. She remembered that one blast from Slifer had shattered the asphalt around her and obliterated the tree beside her, not to mention it ended with the death of Strings. And yet, two god cards were already coming out onto the world, she couldn’t possibly summon hers as well and not expect people to get hurt.

“And what makes you think you can stop me?” Odion continued to yell. “Ra, show them that destruction goes hand in hand with power!”

Ra hadn’t even fully emerged yet, but its colossal head reared back and shot a beam of golden light onto the city of Domino.

“Stop him, Obelisk!” Seto yelled, making Obelisk’s gigantic arm lunge forward and grab Ra’s mouth shut.

But the released beam had already made impact, making a giant ball of fire explode in the middle of the city. Odion laughed manically as Luna stared in horror, wondering how many people had died from that blast.

“Snap out of it Luna, either help me stop him, or get to safety!” Seto yelled, bringing Luna’s attention back to the fight.

She quickly put Slifer away, they had to minimize the damage. She quickly grabbed Red-Eyes Slash Dragon from her extra deck. Kaiba summoning Swordstalker proved that at least tribute requirements were not necessary to summon the monsters now. This was chaos, but it was a kind of chaos that she could use to her advantage.

Luna placed the fusion monster card on her duel disk and saw her dragon come to life.

Truly, no requirements.

She looked at Seto to make sure he was looking, for that should have been enough to show him that he could summon his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon without any issues. But she caught him lost in thought.

What is he doing at a time like this?

She saw a second Embodiment of Apophis sliding towards him. Quickly looking at her hand, she played Kunai with Chain, equipping it to her dragon and putting the Embodiment of Apophis in defense position.

This seemed to bring Kaiba’s attention back to the present, he simply pointed to Odion’s monster and his Swordstalker made quick work of it.

But out of nowhere, a giant scorpion with teeth all over its body grabbed Swordstalker and ripped him in half.

Mystical Beast Serket.

“Watch, it Seto! That monster gains half of the attack points of the monster it destroys!” Luna yelled, remembering it from the anime. Conveniently enough, the attack points appeared at the base of each monster. Its previous 2500 points had gone up to 3500, thanks to Swordstalker.

And while Luna had been thinking of that, a third Embodiment of Apophis appeared.

This is too chaotic, there are absolutely no rules and Odion is relentless, he won’t stop. She thought as she saw Serket turning to come after her dragon.

Without a second thought, she quickly got up onto her dragon. Watching Seto summon his Vorse Raider and making it attack by just pointing, she wondered if their monsters were somehow connected to their mind and thoughts.

Fly! She focused her thought into that one word, and sure enough, Red-Eyes Slash Dragon took flight, away from the reach of Serket. She didn’t know what she had expected, but riding a dragon was very uncomfortable. She could feel every bump of the hard scales, and it was also much hotter to the touch than she had imagined.

I have to stop Odion while Obelisk keeps Ra at bay. She thought, but quickly realized that Odion was probably not going to simply stop by being threatened. And with the god cards out, beating him in a duel would mean his death. She could try to shoot a fire ball near him and then yell at him to surrender, but-

“Neutron Blast!” Seto’s voice pierced through the chaos, and before Luna could process what was happening, a bluish beam of light ripped through the lower half of Odion’s body.

The sound from the blast made her ears ring, she felt slightly disoriented and couldn’t believe what had just happened.

Immediately, Odion’s monsters faded into thin air. Ra faltered for a second and Obelisk ripped its neck out with newfound ease, making it also fade away. Luna looked back towards where the beam had come from and found Seto riding the center head of his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon much like she was riding her own dragon. She looked back at what remained of Odion, just lying there on the ground, lifeless.

It had grown too quiet, the chaos had died down just as quickly as it had started, and yet Luna didn’t seem to be able to calm her thoughts. She suddenly had the urge to puke and wondered if Seto was feeling the same way.

Perhaps sensing her nausea, her dragon started to fly down towards the ground. She thought about going towards Odion’s remains, and her dragon started moving accordingly. It was like they were connected mentally, or even that her monster was a part of herself.

Before she reached the ground, however, Seto flew past her and landed by the body.

“You don’t have to see this, Luna.” Seto said, as he put a hand out towards her.

She didn’t know if he was trying to protect her or trying to keep her from getting the Winged Dragon of Ra. But the doubt didn’t feel too good, especially when Seto seemed to have no remorse in his face about having taken a life.

When she landed, she saw Seto kneeling by the body. She got down from her dragon, just then realizing that neither of their dragons had disappeared. She quickly turned around and saw that Obelisk was no longer there, but the skies were still cloudy and dark. When she turned back to see Seto, he was standing up once more with something black in his hand.

“The Winged Dragon of Ra card burned and shriveled up.” Seto said as he turned to show her.

“I told you it wasn’t real.” She said, sounding more exhausted than anything. “That isn’t- wasn’t Marik Ishtar. That’s Odion, a servant of the Ishtars.”

Seto crumpled the remains of the fake card in his fist, looking disappointed. Luna thought she had her answer.

“Can we talk about how unfazed you look from just having murdered someone in cold blood?” She asked, wondering if Seto could see anything beyond attaining the god cards.

Seto, in turn, looked offended.

“Is that what you think is happening here?” He asked, looking almost- hurt?

“Isn’t it?” She asked, wondering if Seto really was so blinded by the desire of power that he could see no wrong in what he had done. “I was trying to figure out a way to-”

“Citizens of Domino!” A sudden loud voice filled the city as giant hologram screens started to appear all around.

It was a twerpy voice filled with entitlement. A boy with teal hair that resembled Seto’s haircut appeared on screen, confirming Luna’s suspicions about the owner of the voice.

“Your bests have failed you.” Noah Kaiba announced before letting out a shrill laughter.

Chapter Text

“How did he hack into Kaiba Corp broadcast channels?” Seto asked, seemingly to himself, beside Luna.

“You trusted in Seto Kaiba to have a fun and safe tournament, but here were are.” The screens changed to show the destruction in the city caused by Ra. “Whatever he did, you are no longer safe!”

“Roland, what’s going on? Get that little runt offline immediately.” Seto said on the phone. “Hello? Roland!”

“Some of you may have noticed that you are now taking real damage. It hurts doesn’t it? Not only that, but the monsters you have summoned are now real! A terrifying prospect for sure!” The screens came back to Noah’s smirking face. “Some of you may even be inclined to never duel again, traumatized by what Seto has caused!”

“We have to get to Kaiba Corp Tower, Luna.” Seto said as he got up on his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon once again.

“Wait, Seto. That’s Noah Kaiba. Gozaburo’s real son.” Luna tried to explain, not knowing how things were going to unfold, but remembering that Seto lost his duel against Noah in the anime. If Seto lost now, during Battle City, he would lose Obelisk, and who knew what kind of consequences that would have?

“You seem to know and keep a lot of secrets, Luna.” Seto said after a moment of thought.

“Wait! Just- can you wait a second? We need to think this through!” Luna said as Seto turned his dragon around towards the Tower.

“We can’t have that though!” Noah continued with that naughty smirk. “So to incentivize you to keep dueling, to keep fighting for your lives! I have summoned some real monsters of my own out into your world! And they will be hunting down everyone indiscriminately, because here at Kaiba Corp, we believe in equal opportunities for everyone!”

“He is an AI, Seto!” Luna yelled, hoping that would catch Seto’s interest enough to keep him from flying out there alone. “That’s probably how he hacked into your systems. The real son of Gozaburo got really sick and Gozaburo put his consciousness into a computer to give him a happy life. Of course, that little shit is an evil sadistic prick though. He won’t play fair, if you go duel him on your own, you will lose.”

“People are dying out there!” He said seemingly frustrated.

“And they will keep dying if we don’t think things through to be able to actually win against these people!” Luna yelled back, just as frustrated. Where was this desperate regard for human life when he literally ripped Odion in half?

“These people?” Kaiba seemed slightly concerned.

“I’m going to guess that Noah is in cahoots with the Rare Hunters. The timing of this, can’t be a coincidence!” Luna explained her line of thought, as she looked towards the city and seeing some dragons take flight at a distance.

“What do they want?” His anger seemed to be more related to his lack of knowledge than anything.

“I don’t know!” Luna said, angry at herself for not knowing the answers either. “None of this makes sense, these events were not supposed to be connected.”

She took a deep breath.

“Look, I’ll go the Tower and see what’s up. They won’t be expecting me. Noah doesn’t know me.” Luna tried to explain more calmly. “But you should go find Mokuba. The Noah that I know, was out for revenge. You took his place as the heir of the Kaibas, and Mokuba is also Kaiba.”

“Shoot a blast to the sky with your dragon if you need me.” Seto said before nodding once and taking off on his dragon.

Before he took off, Luna could see in his expression that he had about a thousand questions but he still left anyway. She assumed it was because his brother’s safety had come into question. She didn’t know if he believed everything she had told him, but she knew Seto would not take any chances when it came to the safety of his little brother.

She looked back at the top half of Odion. Things were spiraling out of control too quickly and she had no idea what was going on or how she was supposed to deal with any of it. She wanted to just go back to her apartment and lay down and take a nap. But she couldn’t do that, could she?

She took a deep breath. She wasn’t a hero, she wasn’t fated for greatness like the others here. She was just a nerd that liked playing card games and watching animes. Maybe she really didn’t belong here. But she was here and she had cards that were much stronger than what most people had in this time. Who else was going to fight?

With that thought, she got up on her Red-Eyes Slash Dragon. She was about to take off towards the tower when a single thought sprouted in her mind.

She looked at Odion’s body once again and through the chaos she hadn’t realized before, but she was sure now that the pressing malignant presence was still there.

She wondered.

“Marik?” she called out rather loudly. “Are you out here?”

Luna waited for a moment, she was sure Marik would have showed up to check on his trusty servant, Odion, since Seto’s attack had been so sudden and unexpected. After all, Odion was still a beloved servant even if Marik was possessed by Yami Marik, right? Or was she wrong?

“Quite impressive for one so young to be able to sense my presence.” Marik’s real voice came from an alley as he stepped out of the shadows. “But even more astounding that you can withstand my Millenium Rod’s mind control. Tell me, who are you?”

Shit.

She had completely forgotten about his mind control powers. Things could have gone very differently if it had worked. But she couldn’t seem taken by surprise.

“My name is Luna, but you knew that already from when I dueled against Strings.”

“Do not mock me.” Marik sounded much calmer than she had expected. “You are obviously not just a common duelist. And yet, I have never heard of you until a few days back. Why is that?”

“I guess I just really like my privacy, my guy.” Luna deflected. “But more importantly, what do you expect to gain by siding with Noah Kaiba?”

“Who?” Marik asked, his expression unreadable.

“The giant face that appeared in the sky and told everyone they are screwed?” Luna asked sarcastically, wondering if Marik was toying with her. “Are you honestly going to tell me this was just a coincidence that he appeared right after your Ra destroyed downtown Domino?”

“You think this was planned? You think I knew Seto Kaiba was going to summon his Obelisk or that he was going to murder Odion?” Marik asked, more scornfully than angry. “How does a green haired boy taking the spotlight help me in any way?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know how you, villains, think!” Luna retorted back before coming to a sudden realization. “But then this means you are just as clueless as we are!”

“Don’t compare me to the likes of you.” Marik scoffed. “I tricked one of you into summoning your god card to make my fake Ra into a real one. Even, if I had expected it to be Slifer, I am in a whole different level than you!”

“But why are monsters coming to life? You don’t know, do you?” She wondered if Marik really could be just a random victim like the rest them.

“It’s because these god cards have unimaginable power! What do you think I want these cards for?” He seemed frustrated, making her wonder if he thought she didn’t understand.

“No, they have amazing power, but they aren’t supposed to bring any card to life.” She corrected him. “This has never happened before, it’s something else.”

“You’ve had Slifer for- what? A few days? And you think you are an expert in the god cards?” Marik scoffed yet again. “I have been after them my entire life!”

Luna laughed. He was just as clueless and everyone else.

“Aren’t you curious as to see who this Noah Kaiba is and how he was able to appropriate this power, if as you say, only the god cards have it?” Luna asked him, taking out her Slifer card. “There are only three god cards, and we know where all three are. So why did that kid on TV just talk like he knew more about what was going on than any of us, including you? Hm? He pulled a fast one on you, Marik. You were made a pawn in a game you weren’t even aware that you were playing.”

That seemed to make Marik stop for a moment to think things through. She could have sworn she caught his eye twitch once.

“How do I know that you aren’t the one pulling the strings?” Marik asked. “I saw how you manipulated little Seto to have him away from the Tower.”

“First of all, there’s nothing little about Seto.” She quickly added, not knowing why it mattered to her.

“Yeah, I’m sure he has a massive ego.” Marik quipped, only to be ignored.

“Second, I didn’t manipulate anyone. But if you’d like, we can go to the Tower together to figure out what’s going on. Once we deal with, whatever it is, that is putting all this into danger,” She said, circling a finger in the air. “including your own plans, then we can decide what to do about the god cards. If you still feel like you want all three, then I will duel you fair and square for Slifer. But only then. What do you say?”

Marik seemed to be weighing his options.

Growl a little. Luna thought, hoping this would discourage any other thoughts that Marik might be having.

To her surprise, her Red-Eyes Slash Dragon did let out a low, but distinctly menacing growl before whipping its tail hard on the ground. Marik, however, seemed more amused than scared.

“Do you even trust me enough to watch your back against this Noah?” He asked as he opened the hand holding the Millenium Rod, making it blink out of existence with a golden sparkle. “If you trust me, then I will entertain this plan of yours. As long as I get that duel you promised after all this is over. After all, I can’t have a little twerp lay waste to the world before I even conquer it.”

Luna nodded once, that was going to be a bridge she would have to cross when she came to it.

“Just answer me something before we go.” She quickly added, as the question had been eating away at her for a few days. “What made you go after Yugi so early on, even before Kaiba announced the tournament?”

“Yugi? Yugi Muto?” Marik asked seemingly confused. “We didn’t go after him.”

“Oh come on! You really expect me to believe that?” Luna retorted, thinking there was absolutely no way that Marik didn’t see the resemblance in Yugi and the Pharaoh’s representation in the ancient tablets, which were guarded by none other than the Ishtars.

“We didn’t. I had sent Bandit Keith after him, but when we found the kid, he was in the hospital already. When we were finally able to track down the Millennium Puzzle, it was already in the hands of one Joey Wheeler.” Marik exaplained. “After that, we no longer had a reason to go after the Muto kid.”

“Do you have any idea who attacked him?” Luna asked, wondering if it somehow could have been Noah. And if so, how long had Noah been planning this?

“I hadn’t even considered that it was an attack until you just asked.” Marik commented as he looked towards the KC Tower. “Looks like this game has a lot more players than I had originally anticipated.”

“Right, well, do you have a flying monster that is not Ra?” She asked, thinking that flying to the Tower on Ra wouldn’t be much of a surprise attack.

“Well, I have my Legendary Fiend but I don’t think I can ride it like that.” Marik admitted as he pointed to her and her dragon.

Luna took out and summoned her Red-Eyes Retro Dragon.

“You can ride that. But if you try anything funny, it will eat you.” She said, taking a look at her Retro dragon and wondering if it minded.

“Giving me your weakest dragon, I see.” Marik said as he got up on the dragon, comically awkward about it. “A little hurtful, but understandable.”

She focused on her intent to fly towards the tower and her dragon took flight almost immediately. She looked to her side and saw that her Retro Dragon had taken flight as well. And as she saw Marik beside her, looking towards the Tower in a moody way, with perhaps some determination, she wondered if this was a good idea. If Marik decided to team up with Noah in the end, then she had just doubled her troubles.

She couldn’t imagine that Marik’s ego would let him team up with someone like Noah, who was just as full of himself as Marik. But not much was happening the way she had expected since she had gotten to this world. She would have to be ready, she would need to be-

“Luna!” Marik called out as he pointed to her side. “I can’t control this dragon!”

Luna quickly turned just in time to see a Curse of Dragon shoot a ball of fire towards her. Her dragon quickly dodged it with ease by dropping several feet in altitude, making her feel suddenly sick. Her dragon reared its head and let out a beam of red energy, tearing the right wing off of the opposing dragon, which let out a roar as it disintegrated into thin air.

Luna quickly looked around to make sure there were no other enemies nearby. She then looked at Marik, who had called out her name in order to protect her. That had been unexpected.

“I would have done something more than just call out, but it seems this dragon of yours doesn’t turn.” Marik said as he, uncharacteristically, shrugged.

“Thanks.” Luna said begrudgingly, still uncertain that she could trust him. After all, this was Yami Marik, even if he didn’t look possessed yet.

“Don’t mention it.” Marik said as he crossed his arms. “But keep your eyes open as well. If something attacks me, there’s nothing I can do about it while riding your dragon. You have to defend me.”

“Will do.” Luna answered.

“Let’s land somewhere and walk to the Tower.” Marik said as he pointed towards the top of the building. “I don’t think it would be prudent to try to face all of those.”

Luna looked towards the gigantic building and realized that what she had imagined were just more dark clouds around the Tower were hundreds of monsters flying around it. Marik seemed to be much more aware of the dangers around them than she was. But it also made her wonder if he had anything to do with them.

She flew closer to the ground and landed them a few blocks away from the Tower. Looking at her dragons and then to her duel disk, she wondered if taking the cards out of the duel disk would unsummon them. Reluctantly, she pulled Red-Eyes Retro Dragon out of the field and put it back into her deck. The dragon stared at her for a second before fading away into thin air.

“Get rid of your other dragon as well and let’s go.” Marik said impatiently as he looked around the corner of a street. “The coast seems clear so far, but I can hear weird scraping and clashing noises.”

But before unsummoning her Slash Dragon, Luna summoned her Elemental HERO Brave Neos.

“What are you doing, he is still much bigger than any human being!” Marik complained. “They will see him coming from a mile away!”

She ignored him as Marik himself was part of the reason she summoned Neos before taking her dragon out, she couldn’t trust him just yet.

Satisfied with with Brave Neos, she took her Red-Eyes Slash Dragon card out of the field and placed it back into her extra deck. She touched the side of her dragon before it faded away.

“Are you going to get emotional for your dragon?” Marik asked.

From his tone of voice, she couldn’t tell for the life of her whether he was being sarcastic or not.

“Let’s go.” She said as she walked out into the streets, towards the Tower. Despite the storm brewing high up above, the air on the ground level seemed to be hotter and stuffier than the last time she had been there.

“Wait, what’s the plan? Are you just going to barge in through the main entrance?” Marik asked as he started to follow her.

“I think so, unless you have a better plan.” She said as she continued to walk with Brave Neos close behind her, without even a glance back at Marik.

“I mean, that’s not even a plan, is it?” Marik stated, catching up to her and walking side by side. “I could maybe use a back entrance so that Noah, or whoever, will have his attention divided.”

Not a chance. Luna thought. She wanted to be able to keep an eye on him at all times.

“Or-” Suddenly Marik put his hand out, making his Millenium Rod materialize in front of him.

Luna backed away by instinct, and suddenly Brave Neos grabbed Marik’s arm.

“Hey! Easy!” Marik yelled.

“What are you trying to do?” Luna demanded as Brave Neos raised Marik off the ground by his arm.

“You are going to break my arm! Damn!” Marik yelled angrily, looking to be in pain. “I was going to have some rare hunters attack the Tower as a diversion, I swear!”

Oh.

Her hesitation seemed to have made Brave Neos let go of Marik, who fell to the ground while holding on to his own forearm.

“You really think I couldn’t have my rare hunters simply try to kill you if I wanted to before? Damn!” He yelled, massaging his arm before standing back up. “You’ve got trust issues. Maybe you should go see a therapist about this.”

“Be quiet.” Luna said, realizing that she had forgotten about the rare hunters. That had made her have many more questions. What was Marik having the rare hunters do up to that point? Maybe it was too big of an oversight to bring him along, but what could she do now?

Suddenly a blue dragon flew past them and spat a giant fire ball towards the Tower, blowing a hole right through the front entrance.

Marik opened his arms, as if some prayer of his had been answered.

“Or we just adapt and go with what is given to us!” He said, suddenly more cheery as he turned and started sprinting towards the tower. “Come on, we can’t miss this opportunity!”

Luna ran after him. She had recognized the dragon as a Luster Dragon and wondered if it was a common card in this world.

“Was that one of your rare hunters?” She yelled to be heard, as the dragon that had flown in to the Tower seemed to have been met with resistance inside.

“No!” Marik yelled back without turning around. “They are elsewhere, looking for something, for me.”

“What are they looking for?” She risked asking.

“Are you kidding me? You almost broke my arm off because you don’t trust me, you think I’m going to trust you?” Marik yelled back. “Focus on this opportunity in front of us!”

With that, Marik summoned Juragedo and Drillago. Luna was alarmed for a second before realizing that there were monsters streaming out of the Tower. It would seem Noah really was in the Tower and was summoning monsters from there.

Brave Neos went ahead with Marik’s two monsters to open a pathway for them into the Tower. Her Neos dispatched of two monsters with ease, making the others back off. Luna wondered for a second whether they should try destroying all of the monsters, to keep them from going out to hunt other people.

“Come on!” Marik spoke, interrupting her thoughts. “We can’t stop here, look how many monsters are coming out from the upper floors, it’s an unending stream. If we don’t destroy whatever is the source of it, it will not make any difference how many we destroy out here.”

“Right, let’s go.” She agreed.

Once inside, they saw that there were several duelists fighting the monsters inside. From their clothes, several seemed to be Kaiba Corp employees, while others just seemed to be duelists who had been participating in the tournament. She even spotted Jinzo, from afar, holding back some monsters and was glad she had given it back to Espa Roba back then. The Luster Dragon that had blasted its way in was fighting its way up the main escalators.

As Luna and Marik made their way towards the escalators as well, they saw several flying monsters descending towards the Luster Dragon.

Oh no! Luna thought of summoning more monsters to help whoever had summoned that Luster Dragon, but before she could do so, Harpie Lady Sisters materialized and protected the dragon.

Mai?

“We have to help that duelist!” Luna yelled as she got on the back of her Brave Neos, who leaped with incredible power towards the Luster Dragon.

Her Brave Neos made quick work of the monsters around them.

“You’ve got spunk, kid.” Mai Valentine called out atop of the Luster Dragon.

“You too.” Luna said, getting down from the back of Neos. “Have you perchance seen Joey?”

“Wheeler? I saw him go up with the little Kaiba.” Mai said while looking up, as if she hoped to catch a glimpse of them. “I followed them into the building but lost them.”

“Mokuba is here?” Luna exclaimed, a chill going down her spine.

“I wouldn’t be so worried about that twerp.” Mai said as she picked a few more cards out of her deck. “He had a very powerful dragon with him when I saw him. Looks like Seto isn’t the only capable Kaiba sibling.”

“We have to get to them.” Luna said, still worried. She wondered if flying up from the outside was a better idea after all.

“Damn, your monster has got one hell of a jump.” Marik said, finally having reached them. “But you better get ready to fight, here comes another wave of monsters.”

“Do you think it will be better if we fly up to the top?” Luna quickly asked, eyeing the stream of monsters coming towards them.

“From the outside? How would we know what floor they are being summoned from?” Marik answered with a question as something exploded at a distance.

“Wouldn’t fighting our way down still be easier than fighting our way up?” Luna continued the line of questioning. “Mai, want to come with us?”

Mai looked from Luna to Marik.

“Look, I don’t know you guys. I see that you guys are trying to put a stop to the monsters, that’s commendable. But also, that’s what everyone who stayed and showed up here are doing.” Mai said, looking as determined as always. “If I left now, the people fighting in here will probably get overrun. So I will stay, but I do wish you guys luck.”

“Will you be okay?” Luna asked, remembering how much she had wanted to befriend Mai Valentine in real life.

“I think I’ll be fine, kiddo.” Mai said as she summoned Harpie’s Pet Dragon. “But I will make my way up, maybe we can meet again in the middle.”

The big red dragon was a sight to behold.

What an iconic dragon.

“Well then, I’ll see you around, Mai Valentine.” Luna said with a nod as she summoned her Red-Eyes Slash Dragon and Red-Eyes Retro Dragon.

The sudden emergence of the dragons, made the opposing monsters halt their advances.

“Inferno Fire Blast!” Luna yelled as she got up on her Slash Dragon and motioned for Marik to get up on Retro Dragon.

Her dragons shot two balls of fire into the crowd of monsters.

“That should help a little.” Luna said and turned to see that Marik had summoned a Humanoid Worm Drake and climbed onto its back. “You had that all this time?”

“What can I say, I liked to keep some cards up my sleeves.” Marik shrugged. “And being on top of someone else’s dragon that I can’t control while there are innumerous monsters coming at us, doesn’t sound like a good idea.”

This fusion slime drake monster that Marik had summoned had originally been used by Strings in the anime.

I should have known Marik had it.

But nothing could be done about that at the moment. She had her Brave Neos get up on her Retro Dragon and go in front of them.

“You ready?” She asked Marik, who nodded in reply.

She pressed her heels against her Slash Dragon, making it take off through the hole in the main entrance. Once they were outside, they started to fly directly upward.

Shoot a beam!

Her Slash Dragon reared its head back, when it shot the frightening beam she had seen before towards the sky, her entire dragon trembled and the heat emanating from its body intensified. She hoped that Seto would see it and come. Mokuba was at the Tower, and she didn’t want Seto to be searching elsewhere in vain.

“Calling Kaiba boy, eh?” Marik yelled to be heard through the wind as he flew beside her. “From the way you were chatting up the tall blonde, I thought maybe you were into her. Also, weren’t you trying to keep Kaiba from dueling this Noah kid?”

“I will just have to find Noah first.” She answered back as she pressed her heels against her dragon, making it fly faster towards the top of the building.

“You ever get the feeling you are being played?” Marik asked as he flew on ahead. She wondered if he was trying to be ominous or just relating to fact that her plans were going through changes on the go. Either way, it didn’t feel that great.

Soon, they saw other dragons flying about, and for a split second, Luna hoped they were other duelists fighting the monsters. But as they got closer, the dragons turned to face them and she could clearly see they had no riders. Thankfully, most were weaker dragons like Koumori Dragon, Blackland Fire Dragon, and Curse of Dragon.

The Curse of Dragon reared its head back as a ball of fire started to form in its mouth. Luna thought of blasting it with her own dragon when a quick black streak ripped through the Curse of Dragon.

“You guys alright?” a kid asked from atop a Serpent Night Dragon.

No, not a kid. It’s Rex Raptor.

“Get your pathetic dragon and get out of here, kid!” Marik yelled. “Don’t you see its dangerous here?”

“Pathetic? Your monster is weaker than mine!” Rex Raptor yelled back, adjusting his red beanie.

Marik looked at Luna as if he had just been slapped by Rex.

“I’m going to summon Ra.” Marik said as he reached into his deck box.

“No!” Luna yelled, not sure whether he was kidding. “Summoning the god cards is what got us into this in the first place!”

Thankfully, Marik pulled his empty hand back out and pointed towards Rex.

“How dare you compare me to the likes of you, commoner?” Marik yelled. “I am from a long line of pharaohs!”

“Focus, Marik!” Luna yelled, despite also being curious as to what Rex was doing here. The Rex she knew wasn’t one to put himself in danger for the good of others. “What are you doing here, Rex?”

“Some guy talked me and Weevil into helping him get to the top. But I got left behind fighting these dragons!” Rex said explained. “He promised me some cards I had never seen before if I help him out, but I can’t get past these dragons, they are endless!”

Of course, but cards he had never seen? Could it be Jaden?

“Well, stick close to us then.” Luna said, thinking they needed all the help they could get. “Inferno Fire Blast!”

Her two dragons blasted through several of the opposing dragons. She flew through them as she looked back to make sure that Marik and Rex were following her.

“Eyes forward, little Luna!” Marik yelled as he made his Humanoid Worm Drake shoot a bolt of plasma past Luna into another dragon. “We’ll be behind you!”

I’ll punch him in the face if he calls me little again.

They flew and fought for several minutes. It was incredible how tall the KC Tower actually was and Luna wondered if there was an end to it. But soon, they found a large amount of dragons concentrated on one side of the building.

“What do you think is going on over there?” Luna yelled as she pointed at the spot towards which the dragons seemed to gather.

“Maybe that’s one of your friends. Maybe they died and the dragons are feasting on their body.” Marik replied with a smile that seemed to say that the expression on her face was exactly what he expected from his comment.

“I think that’s Weevil!” Rex said as his dragon darted forward past Luna to slash away at the closest dragon near them.

Luna followed suit and shot a ball of fire at the dragons, making them disperse. Marik’s drake slithered around slashing at the ones that came too close to them, and through the chaos of wings and scales, Luna could see something big crawling up the side of the building.

“I was right, that’s Weevil’s Insect Queen!” Rex yelled, his dragon lunging forward to get rid of another enemy.

“Don’t try to kill everything, just clear a path for him so that he can move up!” Luna yelled through the chaos. “We need to keep on the move as well!”

To his credit, Rex did as Luna suggested. He used the speed of his Serpent Night Dragon in a zigzag to both clear a path and to make room. Her Slash Dragon blasted through some more while Marik’s Worm Drake kept the stragglers off of her. She didn’t know how to feel about it, but they actually made a decent team.

Who knew Rex was actually good in a real fight, and that Marik would be dependable?

Weevil’s Insect Queen started to move upward and Rex followed him up. Things were going well, they just had to keep on moving.

“Luna, there’s too many!” Marik suddenly yelled.

She had been focusing on Weevil and Rex that she had not realized that they were being surrounded. Realizing that more dragons were gathering around them, she thought of telling Rex not to stray too far. But when she looked up, Rex’s dragon seemed to be glowing red.

What-

It was only when the dragon’s serpentine body started to disintegrate, revealing a giant spider behind it, that Luna realized what was going on.

Chills went down her spine as she saw the Insect Queen still hanging on to the wall as its front claws held Rex’s limp body in the air.

“Rex!” she heard herself yell as the giant spider ripped the boy apart.

Chapter Text

Despite the ringing in her ear, Luna noticed the high pitched laughter.

“Luna! We have to go!” Marik yelled from beside her.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t heard him, but just then, a glare from Weevil’s glasses had gotten her attention and made her look at the boy, laughing maniacally at the murder of his supposed best friend.

“Luna, snap-”

“Inferno Fire Blast!” Luna spat the words out with hatred.

Her dragons complied and shot the infernal fire balls towards the Insect Queen at incredible speed. Explosions ensued as soon as they made contact, obscuring Weevil from her sight.

Surely, that’s not enough to kill an annoying insect.

“Forget him, we’ve got to fly up!” Marik yelled. “The monsters keep coming!”

Luna made her dragon slash through two monsters but stayed a second longer to see the smoke from the explosion dissipate. Noticing that the Insect Queen was no longer there, Luna pressed her heels against her dragon but it immediately moved backwards with the impulse of its mighty wings, just in time to see a giant green monster fly down past her. It was a moth.

Great Moth.

“Stand still!” Weevil yelled before letting out another shrill laughter.

“What the hell are you doing, Weevil?” Luna asked despite knowing that whatever Weevil did, was probably because he was gaining something out of it. “Wasn’t Rex your friend?”

“I have no friends!” Weevil yelled back as he slowly flew back up to face Luna. “That fool followed me around like a puppy and I let him. But things are different now! Don’t you know it is survival of the fittest?”

And before Luna could ask any more questions, Weevil’s Great Moth lunged towards her once again. Marik, on his Humanoid Worm Drake, suddenly appeared beside Weevil and slashed at the green haired boy, but the Great Moth raised its wings to protect him from the attack.

“You think you can hurt me with such a pathetically weak monster?” Weevil screeched in anger.

But that momentary distraction was what Luna needed. She pressed her heels against her dragon as she willed it to blast that ugly green moth to kingdom come. Responding to her will, her Slash Dragon reared its head back before shooting three quick balls of fire towards Weevil’s moth.

As she watched however, she saw his hand flick up before the explosions went off. She wasn’t sure what had happened, but by instinct, she made her dragon back off just in time to see a huge yellowish green claw rip through the smoke of the explosions, just inches from her face. The sheer power of the attack had made her face sting despite there not actually being any real contact.

“Still got your head?” Weevil laughed as the smoke dissipated. “You are a slippery one, aren’t ya?”

Touching her face with her fingers, she made sure there was no real damage. She figured that Weevil had summoned three smaller monsters to take the hit before the fire balls got to him.

Weevil really wasn’t hesitating to take lives. For a split second, she wondered if he could have been mind controlled, but Marik hadn’t really done anything to make her doubt him. And though Weevil was not right out murderous in the anime, he always was pretty dodgy.

“Now, Mr. Ishtar, hand over your god card, and I may let you guys live.” Weevil screeched before letting out another high pitched laughter.

The look Marik gave Luna when their eyes met, was that of a confusion that reflected her own quite well.

How does he know about the Marik and the god cards? Could he be the one behind-

No way! Weevil?

“Who sent you?” Luna asked, feeling a little silly for having worded it like Weevil was some kind of hitman. “Who are you working for?”

“What makes you think I work for anyone?” Weevil yelled, seemingly upset. “With the monsters coming to life, I finally have the power! I am no longer just the brains, but I can now make the world kneel!”

“Don’t make me laugh, peasant!” Marik barked back. “You think you can rule the world by just bullying others?”

Luna couldn’t help but wonder if that wasn’t exactly what Marik had been trying to do. But hypocrite or not, he was good at distracting Weevil. She quickly made her Retro Dragon with Brave Neos attack from one side while she attacked with her Slash Dragon from the opposite direction.

She was just about to make contact when something white enveloped the Great Moth creating a thick crust through which her attacks simply landed softly.

“Luna, get out of there!” She heard Marik yell just as the white cocoon exploded as quickly as it had formed. Her Slash dragon was able to move her away from any immediate danger, but she could see that the moth which Weevil now rode was different and much bigger.

Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth.

That was Weevil’s ultimate monster with a monumental 3500 attack. But that’s when she realized it was fitted with an armor and a cannon on its back.

Insect Armor with Laser Cannon. It was an equip card for Insect-Types which gave them 700 attack points.

4200 attack?

She was about to yell at Marik to watch out, when the monstrous moth suddenly advanced at her at unbelievable speed. Her dragon flew back but right before contact, the moth changed its direction at lightning speed and slashed at Marik’s Humanoid Worm Drake instead with such strength that it practically exploded the monster as its claws shredded through it.

Luna’s heart dropped as she imagined Marik being cut to ribbons, but she noticed something purple falling and realized Marik must have jumped at the last minute. She could tell he had his arms spread apart and some sort of light was coming out of his hands, she tried to get to him while distracting Weevil with her Brave Neos and Retro Dragon, but the huge moth ripped through both of her monsters with ease, sending a jolt of pain through her body. She winced and looked up just in time to see the gigantic moth coming straight at her.

She managed to just barely dodge its attack, but was worried for Marik. But to her surprise, she glanced towards him and found that he had stopped falling and was now simply standing in midair.

What?

Weevil seemed to also have noticed and was looking towards Marik, from whose feet a sort of metallic shadow started growing to an immense size.

Marik started to laugh maniacally, reminding Luna that he was still, in fact, a scary villain. The metallic shadow suddenly shaped into a gigantic being, making Luna feel a chill down her spine.

She had momentarily imagined it was Obelisk the Tormentor, but realized it was Marik’s Egyptian God Slime. The lights in each of Marik’s hand must have been Metal Reflect Slime and Revival Jam. He had fused them to summon his strongest monster, second only to his Ra.

“Crafty.” Weevil scoffed, seemingly more serious. “Is that your god card? I must admit, I am kind of disappointed.”

She wondered why Marik hadn’t summoned that from the start, but quickly realized that its attack and defense are determined by Metal Reflect Slime’s defense, which in turn was determined by the attack of an opponent’s monster. Three fourths of 4200, was 3150. An impressive monster for sure, but it wouldn’t be able to hold its own against Weevil’s moth.

4200 seemed overwhelmingly high now that the monsters were real. Not to mention its incredible speed.

As if confirming her thought, Weevil’s moth suddenly appeared in front of her. Despair gripped her mind as she knew she had no chance to dodge any attack from this distance. But the moth only seemed to twitch for a bit.

It was only when Weevil yelled out in frustration that she realized Marik’s god slime was holding the moth back from behind.

“Now, Luna!” Marik yelled.

And it wasn’t like Luna didn’t know what he meant. But she had seen her dragon’s Inferno Fire Blast simply go through all the other monsters she had attacked before. And though Marik was a villain, it was undeniable that his company had grown on her. She didn’t want to harm him in the process.

“Your hesitation will be the death of you!” Weevil shrieked just before his moth spun around, ripping through the arms of the god slime.

Luna was about to slash at the moth when it suddenly flew up.

“You are too slow to act, are you still thinking this is a game?” Weevil asked. “Will you only realize what is truly at stake here when I kill-”

Suddenly the moth moved sideways, but not quick enough to completely dodge a giant ball of dark energy.

Luna’s attention had first gone towards where the attack had come from, but Weevil let out a high pitched scream that was painful to hear, drawing her attention back to him.

It took her a second but she realized that the boy’s leg was missing.

“Hey there, just Luna.” The Brooklyn accent let her know exactly from whom the attack had come from. “Got yourself a pest problem?”

Despite the terrible time to joke, she was happy to see him again. But when she looked upon her friend, riding his Black Skull Dragon, she saw his eyes going from her to beyond her. And as recognition dawned on his face, his expression completely changed to a much fiercer one as the symbol of an eye appeared in rainbow colors on his forehead.

“I should have dealt with you when you threw my Exodia cards into the sea, Weevil!” Joey exclaimed in a much deeper voice, without his usual Brooklyn accent, sending chills down Luna’s spine.

Atem?

“Black Skull Dragon!” Joey’s face contorted to that of hatred, that of loathing. “Molten Fireballs!”

But he-

Luna remembered then, that the only thing that kept the Pharaoh from committing murder on multiple occasions, was Yugi Muto. Now that Joey was the vessel and Yugi was gone, so was that purity and innocence.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Luna knew that letting the Pharaoh commit murder would probably lead to some unforeseen consequences. And yet, she couldn’t help but remember Weevil’s unbearable laughter as his Insect Queen ripped Rex Raptor’s body in two.

The thought kept her immobile as she watched Joey’s Black Skull Dragon shot balls of dark energy. Whether time had slowed or whether her mind was working overtime to find a reason to intervene, her eyes were somehow able to follow the balls of dark energy as they neared their target. But a split second thought invaded her mind.

Can Atem’s spirit be corrupted?

Whatever the answer to that question might have been, it was too late, there was no way for her to intercept Joey’s attack now.

And yet, she still raised a hand by instinct as she felt she shouldn’t simply stand by and watch. And as if reacting to her thoughts, the balls of dark energy exploded before they reached Weevil.

She wondered if somehow she had willed the attack to stop.

“I gotta say, I’m slightly disappointed.” A cheery voice came through the smoke of the explosions. “Were you really going to let the Pharaoh murder someone, Luna?”

As the smoke dissipated, she saw none other than her cheery neighbor Jaden, piggy backing on his Flare Neos. Despite the situation they were in, Luna was genuinely happy to see Jaden once again.

“The Pharaoh, huh?” Marik’s sudden raspy comment, atop his fully recovered Egyptian God Slime, alarmed Luna as his voice was starting to deform. “You have something that belongs to me, old man.”

“Hey, stop that! We had a deal!” Luna yelled, thinking it wouldn’t be a good idea to yell out Marik’s name. After all, Joey was probably still under the impression that Marik had something to do with all of this. “We get to the top and stop whatever is doing all this first!”

Even from this distance, she could see large protruding veins on Marik’s face, but the leader of the rare hunters smiled and closed his eyes. The swollen veins subsided and his face was back to normal in just a few seconds.

“I know.” Marik answered, his voice back to normal, as he opened his eyes and looked at Luna. “Was just happy to finally meet him in person, I guess.

“Who’s he?” Jaden asked looking slightly creeped out.

She was considering explaining that Marik was a victim like the rest of them when a high pitched scream broke the silence.

“Do not ignore me!” Weevil voice came from behind them as the giant moth suddenly burst forth towards them.

In an instant, Flare Neos lunged and punched through the giant moth’s body, making it glow red and disintegrate. Before Weevil could fall, Flare Neos grabbed him by the back of the collar.

“Unhand me!” the one legged Weevil screeched as he wailed his short limbs in a true anime fashion.

“What do we-” Jaden started to ask but Marik’s god slime enveloped its massive metallic fist around Weevil and clenched it effortlessly.

It all happened so quick, there was no noise nor scream. And yet, from the silence that followed, it was evident that everyone knew what had just happened.

Luna stared at Marik, speechless.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that! You were just about to kill him before these guys showed up!” Marik retorted.

He was right about that, but Weevil was already rendered powerless by Neos.

“That wasn’t your call to make, pal.” Jaden said, suddenly sounding more serious than she had ever heard him, as Flare Neos backed away from the god slime. “Luna, who is this guy?”

“Would you have preferred that the Pharaoh took the life of that scum?” Marik asked, looking at Luna, but seemingly asking the question to both her and Jaden. “Knowing who he is?”

“It would seem everyone here knows who I am.” Joey stated, still with that deeper voice, facing Marik. “But I have only just met Jaden earlier today and Luna from Joey. Who are you and how do you know who I am?”

“I am,” Marik said, bowing exaggeratedly as he laughed, towering over everyone on his god slime. “but a humble servant.”

“You are not helping!” Luna yelled at him.

“Do you trust him, Luna?” Jaden asked, slowly positioning himself between Luna and Marik.

“I do.” Luna stated, glancing towards Marik, hoping he wouldn’t make her regret this.

“See? Nothing to worry about, helmet boy.” Marik stated before sticking his tongue out and winking.

“Well, something feels off about you.” Jaden stated before glancing towards Luna. “But if Luna is okay with you, then I guess I’m good too.”

“Then I guess it’s okay for you to come out, Mokuba.” Joey stated, his voice also seemingly coming back to normal along with his Brooklyn accent.

Suddenly, one of the clouds nearby started to move.

“Hey, Luna!” Mokuba’s head popped up from the cloud, which Luna realized was the Rabidragon that had been curled up. “I told these guys that I was strong enough to fight, but Joey said you would kill him if anything happened to me.”

“Thank the heavens that you are okay, Mokuba!” Luna steered her dragon to be near Mokuba. “Seto and I were worried. He is coming soon, though.”

“Enough chit chat, what’s the plan?” Joey asked, making a fist with one hand. “We can’t wait for Snooty McSnoot out here all day.”

“Luna and I were making our way to the top.” Marik explained, suddenly dropping his scornful tone. “There are duelists making their way up from the bottom. We were going to make our way down from the top until we found the source of the monsters.”

“We were also making our way to the top!” Mokuba commented. “But we just assumed the source of the monsters would be at the top because of all the dragons and flying monsters coming down from there.”

“Speaking of monsters, isn’t it a little quiet here?” Jaden asked suddenly looking around.

Luna looked down and then up. It was clear of monsters. Things were almost, serene? She noticed that the skies were darkening towards the top of the building, which she still couldn’t see clearly.

“Looks like something is happening up there.” Marik stated as if thinking the same thing as her.

“Then let’s go.” Joey stated as he pointed up.

“Race you up there, Mokuba!” Jaden yelled as Flare Neos spread its beetle wings and flew up.

“You’re on!” Mokuba yelled back as his dragon beat its mighty wings and flew after Jaden.

Luna was about to call out after them to not steer too far off alone.

“They’ll be okay. I now know why you told me to look for Jaden. He is one of the strongest duelists I have ever seen. Though probably not better than me.” Joey said beside her, offering her a soft smile. “Mokuba has also proven himself quite the little duelist.”

“We should probably still stay near them.” Luna insisted.

“I agree.” Marik stated from beside them before showing her that wicked smile of his. “I can’t have you and Joey dying or getting lost before you keep your promise, Ms. Luna.”

Joey looked from Marik to Luna then back to Marik.

“You are Marik.” Joey observed out loud. “The real one.”

Chapter Text

Luna braced herself, ready to stop Joey from attacking Marik. But the blonde boy simply looked Marik up and down once before turning to Luna once again.

“Care to explain what’s going on?” Joey asked as all three of them ascended at a slow but steady pace. “Last time we talked about this guy, you seemed certain that he was behind everything, including my sister’s death.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I didn’t kill an-” Marik paused for a second as if thinking things over. “Was this before or after my Ra attacked Domino?”

“My sister Serenity died last year while I was at the Duel Kingdom Tournament!” Joey raised his voice, making Luna’s anxiety go slightly over the edge.

“Joey-” She was about to explain how Marik was also played by Noah.

“Was your sister in Egypt?” Marik asked, seeming genuinely curious.

“What?” Joey looked more confused than ever. “No, why does that mat-”

“Then it wasn’t me!” Marik opened his arms as if he had been absolved of some divine sentence. “At least, I don’t think it was me. I think it’s fairly certain that it wasn’t me, directly.”

Joey looked incredulous as he looked back again to Luna.

“Just, exactly, how many people has this guy killed?” Joey asked, seeming more overwhelmed than angry. “He has to pay for all that.”

“He will.” Luna assured him.

“I will?” Marik asked.

“Again, dude!” Luna yelled, not being able to believe how oblivious Marik seemed to social cues. “Not helping!”

Marik looked like he wanted to ask something before he pursed his lips and shrugged.

“What matters right now is that Marik agreed to help us until we can put a stop to Noah Kaiba.”

“Who?” Joey asked, maintaining his confused look.

Poor guy is more lost than a blind guy in a fire fight.

“The big twerp in the sky.” Marik explained before turning to Luna. “See, I’m not the only one that didn’t know him, stop throwing that name around like its common knowledge.”

“There’s yet another Kaiba?” Joey looked more like his old self making statements like this. “Who can handle that many Kaib-”

A huge explosion interrupted them from a few floors above them, making them shudder just from the sheer noise of it all. Shards of glass rained down on the three as the smoke and blast separated them from Jaden and Mokuba.

“Mokuba!” Luna yelled and flew up faster, but another explosion happened right beside her, making her dragon back away.

Before she could look up again, two more explosions happened, one near Marik and another near Joey.

“Stay away from the building, something is targeting us!” Marik yelled.

“Molten Fireballs!” Joey yelled, making his dragon shoot into the building despite Luna not having been able to see anything moving inside.

“We should get to Mokuba and Jaden!” Luna interjected before her two companions could go full attack mode on the Tower.

“You don’t think we’ll just be easier to hit if we clump up together?” Marik asked, still not easily conveying whether he was being sarcastic or not.

“Maybe we should separate, go different directions and regroup with Jaden and Mokuba.” Joey suggested. “Once we are all together again, we can try to coordinate an attack.”

“Okay, go!” Marik said without losing a second as he started to fly counter clock wise and up, leaving Joey and Luna behind.

“Damn, him!” Luna yelled in frustration. “Go, Joey! Fly that way!”

Joey, also looking frustrated, simply nodded and started flying clock wise and up.

Luna hoped that the other two would serve as a diversion and tried to fly straight up again, but yet another explosion blocked her way almost instantly.

“Inferno Fire Blast!” she yelled in frustration, having her dragon shoot three blasts into the building, hoping that Seto was a rich as she always imagined him to be.

The inside of the building lit up and exploded from her attack, the building itself was large enough that she didn’t think an attack like that would do much to the structural integrity of the tower, but she figured she should still keep the damages to a minimum.

She tried to see through the debris and smoke for any kind of movement, but quickly remembered that she was alone there. She had to make her way back to the others and not be such an easy target. She started to fly in a zig zag motion upward, but before she got too far, an explosion happened a few floors below her.

Did they miss?

Her momentary curiosity made her look down just in time to see a Luster Dragon come out from the smokes and shoot green beam of energy right back into the building. Before she even had time to wonder what that was about, she noticed a familiar quick black streak coming out of the building and attacking the Luster Dragon.

Is that-

Luster Dragon seemed to dodge one of the attacks, but ultimately got struck and started to disintegrate. And with that, Luna’s suspicion was confirmed as Serpent Night Dragon stopped and hovered by its quickly disintegrating opponent.

Rex is still- Could he? But I saw him get ripped apart.

But once the Serpent Night Dragon turned its head towards her, Luna realized that the person riding it was not a person at all, but Jinzo.

Her initial thought was that perhaps Espa Roba and Rex Raptor were somehow working together to clear the monsters from inside the Tower.

That must be it. But where are they?

Suddenly a giant ball of fire came from inside of the building towards the two monsters, but Jinzo easily slapped the attack away from him. Immediately, the Serpent Night Dragon blurred up again as it flew forward, then back up. When the dragon and Jinzo materialized once again, Luna realized that Jinzo was holding something- no, it was holding a Harpie Lady by the neck.

“I’ll kill you!” Someone yelled from inside of the building as a red dragon burst forth towards Jinzo.

Instantly, Luna realized that the person attacking Jinzo was Mai and flew in to try and help her. Both the Serpent Night Dragon and Jinzo had much higher attacks than her Harpie’s Pet Dragon, she wouldn’t stand a chance.

Jinzo seemingly flicked his wrist, bending Harpie Lady’s neck with a snap and making her disintegrate. Mai visibly flinched.

Luna’s dragon shot a beam toward the monster duo, who seemingly blurred out as it dodged the attack. The entire time, a frightening thought plagued Luna’s mind.

Jinzo suddenly laughed, sending chills down Luna’s spine.

“Two against one, is it?” Jinzo asked with a chuckle as it rubbed its chin.

It talks.

Her suspicions had been correct, this Jinzo was an entirely different monster, it was intelligent.

“Does it not make you wonder how many are fighting against your friends?” Jinzo asked before turning that hideous face to Luna. And though she couldn’t see its eyes through the red lensed goggles, she felt like it was intruding into her innermost thoughts.

Sure, she was worried. But Jaden was with Mokuba, and if everything had gone right, Joey and Marik had probably joined them by then as well. Currently, the manic and battered state Mai was in was more alarming.

“What happened in there, Mai?” she risked asking. “Did you come up alone?”

“Focus, child!” Jinzo yelled as dark energy formed in each of its hand. “You will need all of your concentration when facing me!”

As it threw the balls of dark energy, its dragon quickly turned around to attack Mai. Luna dodged the attack, but even as the attack flew past her, she involuntarily closed her eyes and clenched her entire body as it felt like her brain was getting electrocuted.

She knew Jinzo’s attacks were psychic, but she hadn’t expected such an effect. She quickly forced one of her eyes open, just in time to see a Cyber Harpie Lady get struck by the Serpent Night Dragon. Mai had been quick enough to send out a monster to protect herself, but from the expression on her face, each monster of hers that was getting destroyed was taking a big toll on her. Luna had to get to her before Jinzo’s next attack.

But even as she flew toward Mai, Serpent Night Dragon was circling around them so quickly that she could only catch glimpses of its after images.

“I am in a whole different level than anything you have faced so far!” Jinzo said, his voice seemingly coming from several different places at once. “Your monster may be stronger, but I am much-”

“Shut the fuck up!” Luna yelled as her dragon started to emit an intense heat off of its body. She was sick and tired of seeing the characters that she had grown up watching, dying like it meant nothing. She was sick and tired of all this endless monsters and getting attacked over and over like she was a punching bag. But above all, she was sick and tired of listening to these arrogant villains monologuing and babbling on and on.

“Struck a nerve, have I?” Jinzo seemed to have regained his composure from having been interrupted. “You’ll be glad to know that-”

Luna’s slash dragon shot forth the biggest energy beam she had ever seen it shoot, the immense heat coming off of it seemed to match the intensity of her anger.

“I said, shut up!” She put all of her anger behind those last two words, making her dragon’s red energy beam increase in size almost three fold.

Jinzo blinked out of existence a split second before the monumentally large red energy beam utterly dissolved the Serpent Night Dragon. Her slash dragon was not able to maintain the intense red energy beam for long, she felt drained after her attack. Jinzo appeared at a distance as it put a glowing hand up, out of which a new Serpent Night Dragon came forth and took Jinzo away.

She wanted to yell at it to come back and face her head on. But exhaustion slowly crept its fingers around her mind, and with it, her anger quickly faded. She glanced back towards Mai, who didn’t look like she was having a grand time either.

“Are you okay?” Luna asked as her dragon slowly approached Mai’s dragon.

“Just dandy.” Mai replied as she massaged her neck. “That dragon is even more impressive than when I first saw it on the ground floor.”

“I don’t think I can pull off an attack like that again.” Luna admitted before pointing up. “We should go find my friends before more monsters come back. That Jinzo talked like other monsters are attacking them as we speak. Did anyone else make it up here with you?”

Mai pursed her lips and shook her head.

“Most duelists are probably still holding down the fort on the ground floor.” Mai explained. “I came up with two others when it felt like the monsters were slowing down. But three monsters appeared riding dragons of their own. They were much quicker and faster than any monsters we faced until now. They killed the other two duelists, and two of the monsters went on ahead. That Jinzo stayed back to finish me off. What happened to the crazy hair guy that was with you before?”

“Hopefully he is helping Joey and Mokuba.” Luna said, taking a second to look around to make sure there were no monsters sneaking up on them. “I won’t blame you if you want to head back down. I have a feeling things are going to get a lot crazier when we reach the top.”

Personally, she wanted Mai to go with her. But thinking objectively, Mai was already looking pretty roughed up. Not to mention, her monsters at this point in time probably didn’t stand a chance against the stronger monsters that they were most likely going to face up there. She could become a liability and honestly, she didn’t think she could fight for much longer herself, let alone protect someone else during a fight. She just felt so tired.

“I guess I would be a bigger help down there.” Mai said, seemingly breaking character in Luna’s eyes. “I couldn’t even touch that Jinzo. I would definitely have ended up like the other two duelists if you hadn’t appeared.”

Luna swallowed hard as her eyes drifted away from Mai. She didn’t know whether to disagree to be polite or to agree to keep her safe.

“What’s your name?” Mai suddenly asked, making Luna look her in the eyes. “You never told me yours, but you knew mine, so it felt a little awkward to ask back then. But I figure one must, at the very least, know the name of the person that saved their life.”

Luna did her best to smile and hoped it wasn’t too obvious that she had thought that Mai could have been a liability.

“Luna.” She answered before taking a deep breath. “Just Luna.”

“Well, Luna.” “Mai said with an equally effortful smile. “You better get going to your friends. I can make my own way down. And uh, sorry for not being of much help.”

“Don’t worry.” Luna said, remembering that though she was not from here she was one with better cards, she was one of the few that could fight and actually make a difference.

Like Ben Parker said to Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility.

“I’ll put an end to this.” She said with new found determination. “I will save everyone.”

Mai smiled back with a genuine smile this time.

“I’m counting on it.”

Chapter Text

Luna flew up after seeing Mai go back into the building. She hoped the others were okay. But despite going up at full speed, she couldn’t see them yet. The sides of the building, however, were all very damaged. Practically every window was shattered, there were blast holes in several places.

Clearly there was a huge fight here, but where were they?

“Mokuba!” Luna yelled loudly, looking around as she kept flying straight up. “Marik! Jaden!”

There was no answer.

She looked below her just in case they had gone into the building without her realizing, but everything seemed quiet.

“Joey!” She called out, but still nothing.

As she continued to fly up, she thought she had seen a glimpse of a person in the reflection of the glass windows, but it was gone after she blinked once.

I must be losing it.

Whether it was exhaustion or worry, it felt like she was getting paranoid. All sort of thoughts flew through her mind. Had she really taken that long fighting Jinzo? And if so, where did Jinzo go so fast?

A sudden droplet of water falling on her face brought her attention back to the present.

Is it raining?

But when she looked up, she saw water trickling out of several of the broken windows. She made her way to those windows and looked inside. It took her a moment to understand what she was looking at, but it seemed like a wall of water had formed inside, enveloping what looked like big chunks of boulders.

Her dragon landed inside of the building, she had no idea what these floors had been used for before, but whatever it was, it had been taken over almost completely by this wall of water and rocks. And though she didn’t know what was causing it, she figured it probably had something to do with the disappearance of her friends.

Despite every fiber in her body telling her to not touch it, Luna got down from her dragon and reached out, hovering her hand inches away from the wall of water. Heat was emanating from the water, and it took her moment but she realized that there was movement in the water. It wasn’t a constant movement, it happened in pulses, tremors if you will. It reminded her of that one scene in Jurassic Park when the T-Rex caused-

Suddenly she realized that the tremors in the water was probably being caused by movement inside. From the irregularity between each pulse of movement, she figured it was something that was still ongoing. Like a fight.

“Stay away from the wall, guys!” She yelled despite knowing that they probably couldn’t hear her just as she couldn’t hear them.

She quickly got back up on her dragon and willed it to shoot a beam of energy through one of the corners of the walls. But as the beam blew through the wall of water and stone, fire came through the hole she had made.

What’s going on in there?

But before she could do much else, the water wall enveloped the hole once again. Luna quickly drew out Elemental Hero Brave Neos out of her extra deck and summoned him.

Charge through and break through that entire barrier!

And as her Neos charged, she willed her dragon to follow closely behind it. She closed her eyes, but felt the warm water, the scorching heat, and a very strong wind.

Water, stone, fire, and wind. Were they fighting the Avata-

Suddenly she remembered Jinzo riding Serpent Night Dragon.

Dark attribute. Water, Earth, Fire, and Wind.

No.

She opened her eyes to find her friends on their monsters fighting against five dragon riders. And as she suspected. Deepsea Warrior riding an Aqua Dragon, Judge Man riding a Meteor Dragon, Robotic Knight riding a Tyrant Dragon, and Nightmare Penguin riding a Luster Dragon #2.

And of course, Jinzo riding a Serpent Night Dragon.

These were the Big Five of Kaiba Corp.

Of course, I should have known. Noah took control of Kaiba Corp., so obviously the Big Five would be with him. Why didn’t I think of that?

“Luna!” Mokuba yelled. “Am I glad to see you! That means its six of us against five now!”

“Six?” Luna asked as she looked around and spotted a white haired boy riding on Black Skull Dragon behind Joey.

“When we started fighting these guys, Bakura came up from the inside to help us!” Mokuba explained.

No.

Chills went down her spine, but as she watched, Bakura seemed like a scared little boy, clinging onto Joey’s back. Whatever the case, she would have to worry about him later.

“Is everyone okay?” She asked as her dragon shot three quick bursts of red energy towards Tyrant Dragon, which backed off in order to dodge her attack.

“Took you long enough!” Marik said, his Egyptian God Slime seemingly having shrunk to be able to move around inside of the building. “I was beginning to wonder if I had to go find you.”

“Pay attention!” Joey yelled, making his Black Skull Dragon shoot a beam of purple energy in an arch. “These guys are much tougher than they seem!”

“Mokuba, that’s the Big Five.” Luna’s dragon shot another barrage of attacks, to make all of them back off for a moment.

“Big Five? But Seto fired them.” Mokuba remembered. “And they were just fat, old executives. They wouldn’t be able to fight like this.”

“That’s not the worrisome part!” Luna explained. “We can’t let them stay together. Everyone, do your best to separate them!”

She noticed that Jaden was already keeping the Nightmare Penguin busy. Perhaps he knew what was coming next.

“Don’t worry so much, these peasants got nothing on us.” Marik said as his slime singled out Jinzo to attack.

“Don’t get too cocky, pal!” Joey yelled at Marik as his Black Skull Dragon tackled the Deepsea Warrior’s Aqua Dragon out of the way and Bakura’s Dark Necrofear slashed at it.

“Mokuba, can you take care of Judge Man and Meteor Dragon?” Luna asked as she quickly started flipping through her cards.

“Against Meteor Dragon, huh?” Mokuba unsummoned his Rabidragon and summoned his much stronger Meteor Black Dragon. “Let’s go, Meteor against Meteor!”

That left the Fire attribute to Luna. It was the strongest one, but Luna wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Let’s go Slash Dragon, Brave Neos!” Luna yelled as she focused her will into her fist and punched forward, making Neos attack at the same time in perfect synchrony.

The Tyrant Dragon didn’t even flinch when it took the hit, but Luna was prepared. Neos punched again and moved out of the way immediately, making way for Luna’s Slash Dragon to come in and chomp on the Tyrant Dragon’s neck and throw it to the ground.

End it! Luna thought as she activated her Kunai with Chain.

Her dragon sank its fangs deeper into the opposing dragon’s neck before stabbing it with the new found Kunai. The Tyrant Dragon let out a roar and tried to get away but Luna’s Slash Dragon breathed red flames while its jaw was still closed around the other dragon.

Luna could see tongues of red fire escaping through the wound that the Kunai had made on the Tyrant Dragon as it started to disintegrate. The Robotic Knight quickly jumped away from its own dying dragon, but Luna had Neos positioned right beside it.

Neos threw a quick punch towards the Robotic Knight, but his attack was blocked by some sort red force field. Neos did a quick one-two punch at it, but the force field held.

“You know?” The Robotic Knight said as he let out a slow laughter. “You aren’t half bad.”

“Do not flirt with her, worthless pleb!” Marik yelled as his Egyptian God Slime smashed a gigantic fist into the Robotic Knight’s force field, pushing it away into a wall. “I have grown fond of her unique, albeit strange demeanor.”

“Where’s Jinzo?” Luna asked, quickly realizing it was nowhere to be found. “Did you lose him?”

Marik looked taken aback, opening the palm of his hands as if he were lost.

“Lose him?” he repeated, as if the mere thought was preposterous. “I won. He ran away!”

“Ugh! Marik!” She exclaimed in frustration.

“What?” Marik seemed genuinely lost.

“Yugioh!” Joey yelled from somewhere behind them as his voice changed back to that of the Pharaoh. “Go, Dark Paladin!”

“You know? We sort of went through a lot in the short time we’ve known each other. I kind of missed you while you were gone.” Marik continued to talk as his Slime kept the Robotic Knight in a tight hold, force field and all. “And I’ve been meaning to tell you-”

“Really, dude? Unbelievable, you are going to do this right now?” Luna asked as she turned and sent her Neos to help Mokuba.

“Do what? Is there are time and place for things like this?” Marik protested as he moved to be in her line of sight again. “I just mean, I thought I wasn’t susceptible to feeling like this. I thought such emotions were an ailment that lesser men suffered from.”

“Let me stop you right there, Marik.” Luna said as she looked him in the eyes. “Even if we weren’t fighting for our lives out here, which we are, the answer would still be no.”

“The answer to what?” Marik asked as his Slime’s free arm shot forward and grabbed Nightmare Penguin in the same kind of hold as he was holding Robotic Knight.

“You were confessing right now, weren’t you about to ask me out on a date?” Luna asked, only half listening to Marik, as she looked around and realized all of the Big Five had some sort of force field around them made up of their attributes.

“A date? Ha!” Marik laughed, looking amused despite the situation they were in. “Dating is for peasants, Luna. But if you come with me, after all this is over, I will make you queen of all the world. That is promise.”

Dark Paladin and Dark Necrofear had cornered the Deepsea Warrior and Jaden’s Flare Neos was now pummeling on Judge Man after having its opponent stolen by Marik.

“Queen of the world, huh?” Luna said as she started to relax a bit as it looked like the fight was mostly over. “What if I don’t want to be queen? What if I want to be the emperor?”

“Emperor?” Marik chuckled but somewhat uneasily. “What would I be then?”

Luna still had to think of a way to deal with the force fields, but it looked like they had things under control for the time being. With that in mind, she smiled and approached Marik. She got close enough to him to see that his eyes were lilac.

“You’re not really my type, but-” Luna said as she looked down for a second before looking up at him as she moved a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I’d be okay with you being my side piece.”

Marik looked dumbfounded for a moment.

“How dare you?” Despite his question, he started to lightheartedly laugh.

Luna shrugged with her best innocent smile and quickly turned around, but just barely kept herself from laughing out loud. It’s true that she also grew fond of him, but she couldn’t imagine being in a relationship with someone like him. Plus, her heart only belonged to one person. Friendship was all she could offer Marik.

“What are you guys talking about over there?” Mokuba asked on top of his Meteor B. Dragon. “We need to figure out what to do with these guys. Blasting them with all of my attacks has done nothing!”

“Luna.” The Pharaoh called her to the side in a somewhat hushed voice. “Do you think it wise to be so close to someone like Marik?”

The question made Luna glance at Marik for a few seconds. It was true that he still looked quite intimidating and maybe even a little unhinged. But she felt like he meant it when he said he had grown fond of her, just as she had grown fond of him. He had plenty of chances to betray them, and for the most part he had listened and agreed with most things that she and the others had decided.

“I mean, sure, he is a little unpredictable.” Luna admitted. “But I don’t think he will betray me.”

“What about the rest of us?” Joey asked in his Brooklyn accent, startling Luna.

“Dude, you gotta stop switching back and forth like that. It’s kinda creepy.” Luna said as she glanced at Bakura who, by the looks of it, was still holding tightly onto the back of Joey’s shirt. “Also, how well do you know Bakura?”

“What? We went to school together and he is a good duelist.” Joey said looking back. “Ain’t that right, pal?”

She felt it would be too awkward to call him out in this situation.

“What do we do about these guys?” Jaden asked about the Big Five, having left Flare Neos holding on to Judge Man in a headlock.

“You really think you can stop us?” Nightmare Penguin quipped as it scratched at its own fluffy belly while the Marik’s Slime held onto it. “We are just testing you and seeing what you are made of.”

“Why are you doing this?” Mokuba asked, looking around at the damage to the Tower. “What do you gai-”

“Don’t waste your breath, kid.” Marik interrupted him, sounding more serious. “Believe me, not many people understand why I go the lengths that I go in order to obtain the Egyptian god cards. It makes perfect sense to me, but I’m under no delusion that it makes sense to everyone else.”

“For power?” Luna asked, wondering if Marik still wanted the Egyptian god cards after all this, or if he really had changed like he seemed.

Marik smiled at her question before turning towards the penguin.

“Is it?” Marik asked, scratching his own chin, like he was having a pleasant afternoon chat with friends.

“It’s more complicated than that.” Judge Man replied, seemingly not worried to be in a headlock.

“It always is.” Marik agreed with an uncharacteristically kind smile. “The sad truth, however, is that you guys don’t even know exactly why you are doing what you are told to do.”

“Told to do?” Robotic Knight sounded almost offended.

“Yeah.” Marik said started to closely analyze his own nails. “Noah is the big shot, right? You guys, the Big Five, or whatever, are ultimately expendable.”

And with that, the Egyptian God Slime started to smash the Nightmare Penguin and the Robotic Knight onto the ground over and over with immense strength.

“If he keeps that up, the floor will probably give in.” Jaden observed as he moved towards his Flare Neos.

“Is that even going to work though?” Joey asked as he hesitated before looking at the Deepsea Warrior. “Well, here’s goes nothing.”

Joey’s Black Skull Dragon and Dark Paladin started going all out on the Deepsea Warrior, whose force field still glowed blue and seemed to be taking no damage.

“What uh-” Mokuba said as he looked to Luna. “What do we do?”

Suddenly the room darkened a little, just slightly enough to make one wonder if a cloud had gotten in front of the sun, but Luna felt a looming danger.

“Marik, shield us!” Luna yelled immediately as she remembered that Jinzo had previously escaped them.

She hadn’t meant to depend on Marik, but to his credit, he didn’t lose a second as his Slime immediately spread across the floor and formed giant metallic spheres around each one of them.

As the sphere closed around her, Luna could hear the sound of breaking metal and glass all around her. Once closed, the sound was muffled but she could still somewhat hear it going on for a while. She hoped these attacks weren’t draining Marik’s life energy too much as she remembered how draining it had felt when the Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth had decimated her Neos and Retro Dragon.

Surrounded by darkness with nothing to focus on but the sound of her own breathing and that of her dragon’s, her mind started going on overdrive. The sudden thought that Joey was probably stuck in the same sphere as Bakura made her panic.

“Marik.” She called out, wondering if he could hear her.

“Yeah?” His voice came from very near her, somewhere to her side, making her jump.

“Shit! How long have you been there?” She asked as she reached out her hand, but feeling nothing but emptiness. She realized then, that she no longer felt that oppressive evil presence from Marik, like she had the first time they had met.

“A few seconds at most.” He explained, seemingly calm about the whole ordeal. “I figured, if this is how we die, you were the one I wanted to be beside. The others are kinda stinky and rowdy.”

And though that made her smile, there were more pressing matters.

“Is Joey and Bakura together right now?” She asked.

“Together?” Marik asked as if he had never even stopped to think about it. “I got the impression that they had sort of just met here today. But I guess it is weird that Bakura would ride behind Joey instead of with anyone else. Maybe they are dating.”

“What?”

“Or at the very least, Bakura must have had his eyes on Joey for a while. I mean, Joey is kind of famous ever since the whole runner-up champ ordeal.” Marik went on. “And I have to say, that Brooklyn accent isn’t as off putting as-”

“Bakura is after the Millenium Puzzle!” Luna cut in before Marik could go on further.

“What?” It was Marik’s turn to be confused.

“He is a bad guy, a villain. Like you!” Luna immediately regretted her last two words.

The quiet remained long enough for Luna to wonder if Marik had left.

“Like me, huh?” His voice sounded almost hurt.

“That’s not what I meant.” She said starting to feel bad. “I meant-”

“Don’t worry about it.” Marik interrupted her. “You didn’t say anything wrong. I am a villain. And I am after the Puzzle and the god cards. Can’t have some white haired, Brooklyn-accent loving kid stealing my thunder, yeah?”

“Marik-”

“The attacks seems to have stopped, I’ll check on the Big Five, you check on Joey and Bakura.” Marik said in the dark. “I guess you shouldn’t trust me to check on the Millenium Puzzle and the Pharaoh on my own.”

Before she had time to interject, the metallic spheres undid themselves. She squinted her eyes from the brightness, but quickly turned and realized Marik was no longer beside her. She looked around and spotted Joey with his hand up to shield his eyes from the brightness as well. Bakura was behind him, squinting just as much as she was.

Nothing had happened.

“Where’s the Big Five?” Marik asked, making her and the others look around.

“How do we know it wasn’t you that moved them away while having us locked up, pal?” Joey asked, pointing an accusatory finger towards Marik.

Marik, however, simply stared at him with a blank face before turning to Luna.

“That’s the guy you wanted to protect.” Marik said as he shook his head.

“Hey, cut it out, Joey.” Luna said. “I was the one that asked him to shield us.”

“From what?” Jaden asked. “What attacked us?”

“Me, of course.” Jinzo’s voice came from outside of the building. “These fools really can’t do anything without me, that’s why I was the right hand of the great Gozaburo Kaiba!”

And with that Jinzo raised his hands, and three Serpent Night Dragons rose up.

“But it does ease my workload to have them around.”

Suddenly the other four appeared beside him with 3 of each of their dragons.

“Come on, now.” Joey sounded frustrated. “Fifteen dragons is a little unfair.”

“You know how to count, Joey.” Marik said with a smile. “Did I just say that out loud?”

They were cornered, she had to find a way out. She couldn’t die like this, she couldn’t let her friends die like this. Luna quickly unsummoned her Neos, grabbed some cards from her extra deck and normal deck and summoned Meteor B. Dragon, Black Skull Dragon, Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.

“What the-” Judge Man started to say, but was interrupted.

“You idiots, attack!” Jinzo yelled.

“Go, Red-Eyes!” Luna yelled, knowing she was going to be completely drained after this attack, but still focusing all of her might and will into it. “Inferno Apocalypse!”

The enemy dragons reared up to shoot their attacks, but the deafeningly loud and roaring sound of Luna’s five Red-Eyes dragons sucking in air was so sudden and deafening, that it startle everyone. There was a split second in which everything went dead silent, it was such a quiet moment that Luna thought that the blink of an eye could shatter reality.

Then, the skies ripped apart and burned red.

Chapter Text

Luna!

She was flipping through the pages of the earlier manga she had bought. Kaiba was so merciless and right out murderous back then. Not only Kaiba though, Yugi as well.

Luna!

Things were so wild before Yu-Gi-Oh! decided to focus on the card game. Still, she enjoyed it quite a bit. She wondered if she could get her hands on all of the manga for her collection one day. But as she lay on her yellow flower patterned bed, she remembered that she already did own all of the OG manga of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Didn’t she?

Luna! Come on, don’t die on me!

Sitting up, she touched her bed sheets. The softness of it had always brought her comfort as a child. But it had been a few years already since she had moved out of her parents’ place.

Luna!

“Mom?” She wondered as she got up, off of her bed and walked towards her childhood bedroom door.

She is breathing, you idiot. She isn’t dead.

As she approached the door, her desire to simply stay in that room and go back to bed increased. She could just take a nap, after all. When was the last time that she had done that?

Why isn’t she waking up then?

But for whatever reason, she forced herself to put her hand around the doorknob.

How should I know? Do I look like a doctor?

The cold metal knob felt unpleasant in her hand. Despite that, she felt like she had to go through that door. But why? Why couldn’t she just go back to bed? Her soft, warm, comfortable, and ultimately safe bed.

If you don’t wake up, our deal is done, Luna. I will murder everyone here, I swear to Ra. Hey! Calm down, I was just seeing if she would wake up! What’s wrong with you?

She couldn’t remember why, or even what difference that would make. But she knew people depended on that. But what people?

What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you!

Right through that door, that’s where she belonged.

Will all of you shut up!

With that thought, she turned the knob and opened the door.

“I’m just saying, it’s just a matter of ti-” Joey sure sounded flared up.

“Shush, I think she’s waking up!” Jaden’s voice was somehow softer.

“Luna?” Marik sounded- worried?

She opened her eyes with some effort. It was too bright. But she could see Jaden’s and Marik’s faces hovering over hers. The fact that they were still in the building came back to her as she saw the destroyed ceiling past their faces.

“Give her some space, guys!” Mokuba chimed in as his face also appeared in her field of vision and held up four fingers. “Are you okay? How many fingers do you see?”

Luna blinked a few times and tried to sit up but a killer headache stopped her mid motion and made her close her eyes shut.

“Oh no! What’s wrong?” Mokuba asked.

“I can help.” Someone with a thin, weak voice said.

She felt a cold hand on her forehead, and when Luna opened her eyes once again, Bakura was smiling at her.

“Get off of me.” Luna moved his hand away and effortfully sat up.

“Wow, how did you do that, Bakura?” Mokuba asked.

“He didn’t do anything!” Luna protested as she tried to get up and faltered.

“Geez, Luna. We were all pretty worried about ya, including Bakura.” Joey said as he came to her side and helped her stand up. “You don’t have to be so mean to him.”

“She can be mean to whoever she wants, she just saved all of us.” Marik said, his arms crossed.

“I was sure one of you was going to use your Egyptian god card. But to think Luna had such power even without using Slifer.” Jaden observed, also beside Luna, putting her arm around him.

“I made a promise to Luna that I would not use Ra unless absolutely necessary.” Marik stated as his hand dropped down to hover over his deckbox.

“We were up against fifteen dragons and five immortal douchebags, you didn’t think that was absolutely necessary?” Joey asked as he walked up to Marik.

“What would a peasant like you know?” Marik said, standing up straighter as he and Joey had a standoff.

After a moment of silence, Joey simply smiled before turning and walking away.

“We should get out of here.” He said as he walked towards his Black Skull Dragon.

“A- agreed.” Bakura stammered as he followed after Joey like a small puppy.

“Let me help you up to your dragon.” Jaden said to Luna. “But uh- which one are you going to ride?”

“Oh, uh, Slash Dragon.” She said as she pointed to her trusty favorite amongst her Red-Eyes dragons. “That one.”

“You know, you remind me of someone I once knew.” Jaden said as they approached her dragons. “I’ve seen a lot of people use Red-Eyes decks, but none quite like you or him.”

“You mean Atticus Rhodes, the Nightshroud?” Luna asked, remembering that some of her earlier Red-Eyes deck designs took his deck as inspiration.

“No, Atticus is just okay, but he’s got nothing on you guys. But I’m surprised you know Atticus!” Jaden admitted. “I was talking about Nox Bane. Do you know him?”

Nox Bane. Nox Bane?

Luna scoured all of her memory for a character named Nox Bane, but came up blank.

“I don’t think I know a Nox Bane. Is he from Duel Academy?” She asked, wondering if she could have forgotten someone.

“Oh, no. He is a-” Jaden suddenly looked back and around them, then lowered his voice. “He is a traveler like us.”

Luna looked at Jaden, wondering what he meant by that, but he didn’t seem to have noticed.

“Yeah, and aside from the Red-Eyes, that fierce, burning determination behind your eyes. I’ve only ever seen such look in good ol’ Nox.” Jaden continued to speak as they reached the Slash Dragon. “Though, he’s got this merciless side of him, but I think that’s from all the terrible things he faced in the countless worlds he has been in before I met him. I wonder how that guy is doing.”

“You are telling me that you’ve seen people from other worlds even before you came here?” Luna asked “Are you sure he was from another world?”

“Yeah and yeah!” Jaden replied cheerily. “He was using Red-Eyes cards that weren’t even out in our timeline, like the Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, that was his main monster. He was the first duelist to whom I lost ten times in a row!”

Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon? That’s a card from TCG, is he from my world?

“That and he told me himself that he was from another world, and by the looks of it, he had been in several. He would sometimes wake up screaming and be a little confused as to which world he was in.” Jaden said as his smile diminished. “Speaking of which, he knew all the dangers from my world before they were even an issue. And you seem to know a lot about this time line. Is there something we should be worried about aside from Noah?”

Right.

“Keep an eye on Bakura for me, will ya?” Luna said, being helped up onto her dragon. “Bandit King Bakura is the most fearsome villain that the Pharaoh ever faced, and the one that got the closest to destroying the world as we know it.”

“Bakura?” Jaden asked as he looked back towards where the meek boy was being helped up onto Black Skull Dragon by Joey. “That skinny and scared looking guy?”

“He may not seem like it, but he is the wielder of the Millennium Ring.” Luna started to explain as she felt a gentle breeze.

“I mean, maybe he could still be a good guy, kinda like Marik.” Jaden seemed to wonder out loud. “Marik is still a little scary, but he did look genuinely worried for you when you were- oh by the way, I think you called me ‘mom’ while you were out.”

“What?” Luna felt her face starting to heat up.

“Yeah.” He laughed lightheartedly. “I’m not sure how I feel about that, but let’s just stick to ‘Jaden’ or ‘dude’ yeah? Oh, and don’t worry too much, I will try to keep an eye on Bakura.”

“Thanks, Jay.” She said as she thought about how much lonelier her time here would have been without anyone else knowing what it was like being from another world.

Jaden’s smile widened just a little.

“What’s taking you guys so long?” Marik yelled, sounding a little frustrated.

To think that Marik was actually worried about her. Was he serious about the whole liking her spiel? She still had no idea when he was serious and when he was joking.

Suddenly the little breeze she was feeling felt stronger.

“Take flight!” Marik yelled, suddenly much more serious now.

She willed her Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon to swoop Jaden off the floor, seconds before said floor crumbled and flames burst out from below.

Not this again.

She willed her other dragons to protect Mokuba as a Tyrant Dragon burst through the floor and tried to bite Luna’s Slash Dragon in vain as it took flight and flew out of the building along with her other dragons and friends. But even just this maneuver was making her sweat and breathe more heavily.

“I may need to summon Ra for us to get out of this, Luna.” Marik said from beside her. “Hey, are you sure you are okay?”

“I’m fine.” She blurted out, feeling tired just to be talking. “Don’t summon Ra. I- we can still do this.”

“Be that as it may, you don’t seem to be in any shape to be fighting again.” Marik stated as he took a card out of his deck.

“Do it!” Jinzo screeched, emerging from inside of the Tower. “Do it, it’s the only way you can beat us! Let’s go!”

Upon his call, Jinzo’s four companions also emerged from the dark interior of the Tower, hands raised in unison.

“Stop them!” Luna yelled, but feeling too weak to make her dragons attack.

Metallic tendrils flew from Marik’s god slime towards the Big Five as they started to glow. Jaden’s Flare Neos charged at them at the same speed that their dragons started being pulled into them. Flare Neos cross chopped at one of the dragons, but there were too many of them. Joey’s Black Skull Dragon and Mokuba’s Meteor B. Dragon both shot an impressive beam of energy at them, causing a giant blinding explosion.

Luna shielded her eyes with her forearm just in time to hear a second explosion, the impulse from it almost pushing her off of her dragon. It took what little strength she had left to hold on to her dragon.

Did we fail? She wondered.

She wanted to ask if everyone was okay, to ask if anyone had eyes on the enemy. But she no longer had any energy to yell. She almost felt like she didn’t have the energy to even open her eyes anymore.

She felt like she could just stay the way she was and slip away into a deep sleep. Maybe she would wake up in her childhood bed.

“Mokuba, stay near Luna!” she heard Jaden yell from a distance. “Anyone see if-”

A sudden earth shattering roar that sounded like a multitude of beasts roaring all at once interrupted Jaden and made Luna open her eyes.

No.

“What the hell is that?” Marik yelled from somewhere to her side.

The demonic sounding roar slowly changed into a demonic laughter as the smoke from the blast dissipated, revealing a monumentally large dragon with five heads.

“This.” The voice of all five of them said in perfect, eerie synchrony. “This feels better than we had ever imagined.”

Five-Headed Dragon.

It was arguably the ultimate monster in the OG saga with an unsurmountable 5000 attack and defense, stronger even than Obelisk the Tormentor.

“Summon your gods!” It said, its voice still seemingly reverberating through Luna’s entire being. “Or perish!”

“Luna, I think we have to this time!” Marik yelled as he pulled out his card once again.

“No! We-” She took a deep breath as she felt light headed. “That thing can only be taken out by Light attribute monsters! If we all summon our Light monsters, we can still do this without summoning the god cards.”

Mokuba was the first to listen and summon back his Rabidragon, but quickly followed by Jaden who unsummoned his Flare Neos before summoning Elemental Hero Thunder Giant and jumped onto his back then continued to summon Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman, Elemental Hero Electrum, Elemental Hero Glow Neos, and good old Elemental Hero Neos.

Then Joey followed suit, unsummoning his Dark Paladin and summoning his Arcana Knight Joker and the other three knights.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any Light monsters.” Bakura said.

Typical.

“Damn, that knight of yours is quite beefy, huh?” Marik quipped. “Of course, nothing compared to my Ra. But Luna, I don’t have any other Light monsters aside from Ra.”

“Then just sit pretty, my guy.” Luna said as she unsummoned all of her dragons, save for the Slash Dragon that she had been riding on and summoned her Brave Neos, and two Neos Knights. She thought of summoning one more standard Neos when she felt something dripping from her face.

She looked down and saw a red droplet falling from her nose to her shirt. By instinct, she touched her nose with the back of her hand.

Blood.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had a nosebleed. Her right eye twitched slightly as she looked up at the dragon.

In a normal duel, they wouldn’t have stood a chance with such monsters. But this wasn’t a normal duel. If they all attacked at once, it could work. It had to.

“Everyone attack at the same time so we can break through its defense.” She said a little hoarse, hoping everyone heard her.

“You really think you still have a chance without your gods?” The massive dragon taunted. “Come, then.”

What a motherfucker.

“Don’t push yourself, Luna.” Joey said in the Pharaoh’s voice once again. “You already did more than enough, we can take it from here.”

She figured it would be him, since Arcana Knight was summoned.

“Better safe than sorry, yeah?” She said as she sat up straighter.

“If you faint again, I will summon Ra and get us out of here.” Marik said.

“Don’t you see that they are doing everything they can to get us to summon the god-”

“I don’t care.” Marik said as a matter of fact. “I am Marik Ishtar! Never have I ever limited my actions because of others!”

“I only ask that you hold up until we make our attack.” She said before turning to look at Jaden, Joey, and finally Mokuba. “Don’t get hit. Stay on the mo-”

Suddenly the giant dragon shot an elemental beam in five different directions. All of their monsters spread apart to dodge and stay on the move.

You will need to fly on your own, Slash. Luna thought to her dragon, remembering that it would dodge on its own when needed. I’m too tired to think of that.

With that, she willed all three of her Neos to move faster and get some hits in whenever possible.

As if Jaden and Joey could read each other’s minds or perhaps they were just good at adapting to the other’s attacks, their monsters seemed to be timing their attacks to hit together for greater impact. Despite that, none of the attacks seemed to be doing much damage to the ginormous dragon.

It didn’t seem like they were wearing it down any, but in contrast, with every quick dodge or attack that Luna had her monsters do, the more she felt light headed.

The nosebleed won’t stop. She realized.

Did they really need a single monster with an attack higher than 5000 to make a difference?

Should I summon Slifer after all? Can I even handle summoning another monster at this point?

The Five-Headed Dragon, which was stationary up to that point, suddenly beat its mighty wings, pushing most of their monsters away from it.

The impact from that push onto her monsters seemed to drain even more energy from Luna as she started to feel her consciousness slipping away just a little.

“These monsters are mere nuisance for us and we tire of this child’s play.” Its five voices seemed to shake the skies. “If taking out the loud girl that is calling the shots is a perquisite to Mr. Ishtar summoning his Egyptian god, we will comply.”

And despite its sheer size, in just another beat of its wings, it was suddenly in front of Luna’s Slash Dragon.

In the back of her mind, Luna knew she had to get out of there. And yet, as the center head of the giant dragon reared its head back to attack her, all she could think of was whether this was her end.

“Get out of there, Luna!” Mokuba’s voice echoed on the giant wall of the Tower.

She had a good run, right? Maybe now she could go back to her soft, yellow bed.

“Arcana Knight! Attack it before it shoots!” Pharaoh’s voice seemed so distant.

Maybe now she could finally close her eyes and rest. Looks like she didn’t have what it took to be a real hero that this world needed after all.

“Our attacks aren’t doing anything!”

She just hoped her friends would somehow be able to get away.

With these thoughts, she closed her eyes and swallowed hard, tasting blood in the process.

She heard the sound of a low rumbling noise and imagined the dragon about to make its move.

This is it. Wish I could have seen him just one last time.

“Neutron blast!”

Chapter Text

Luna quickly opened her eyes just in time to see three huge white energy beams ripping through the center head of the Five-Headed Dragon.

Her heart skipped a beat as her eyes looked around, hoping- no, knowing that Seto had finally made it to them.

“There can only be one ultimate dragon, and it’s clearly the one I’m riding!” Seto yelled, his dragon gliding between clouds that had been parted from the sheer force of his attack.

There he is. Luna thought as she couldn’t help but smile.

“Seto!” Mokuba yelled, jubilant. “That’s my big brother, guys!”

“How- How did he damage us?” The, now, four headed dragon asked out loud.

Luna looked at Seto’s Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon wondering the same thing, she noticed something shining at the base of each neck. It was a green orb with a blue symbol of a dragon head.

Dragon Treasure. Three of it.

That meant a boost of 900 to Ultimate Dragon’s 4500 attack points.

I see, so raw attack power is still important.

“Are you okay, Mokuba? Luna?” Seto asked, seemingly ignoring the presence of everyone else.

“I’m glad to see you again, Kaiba.” The Pharaoh said with a smile of someone who had met an old friend.

But Seto simply stared at him for a second before responding.

“Did you finally hit puberty, Wheeler? What is going on with your voice?” Seto asked, already turning to look at Luna without waiting for a response from Joey. “Did these fourth rate duelists make you work overtime, Luna? Don’t worry, I’m here now.”

“What took you so long?” Luna asked, actually being able to relax her tense posture a little. “If you had come even a few minutes earlier, you could have seen me totally kicking ass. I didn’t need to be saved.”

The four headed dragon roared incredibly loud despite its missing head, seemingly not happy at all that no one seemed to be feeling threatened by it any longer.

“I believe you.” Seto said with a genuine smile, not seeming the least bit worried about the giant roaring dragon. “You’ll just have to save me next time.”

With that, Seto simply pointed upwards for a moment. A moment in which a ray of sunlight seemed to have broken through the dark clouds to shine on him.

Calm down, heart.

The four dragon heads simply stared at him for a second as if also in awe before growling in anger and shooting 4 beams of water, fire, wind and dark at Seto, who brought his hand down to point at the dragon. The three heads of his Ultimate Dragon shot three blinding beams of white energy at their enemy. All the beams from both sides converged into a single point where energies from each beam started to build up into one large sphere.

The four headed dragon leaned forward and seemingly breathed more intensely, making the large energy sphere start moving slowly towards Seto.

“What a sad excuse of a dragon.” Seto said, seemingly to no one in particular, though loud enough to be heard. “Go, Blue-Eyes, show these cretins why we are the best!”

The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon puffed up its chest before doubling down and making its energy beams much thicker and louder. The energy sphere was quickly pushed back towards the four headed dragon, which seemed to panic. At the last moment, it tried to fly away but was too slow.

As the energy sphere made contact, it seemed as if it were absorbing the dragon into itself as the dragon tried to beat its wings to fly away but didn’t seem to be able to do so. The sound that the dragons let out as its body was slowly consumed by the energy sphere made Luna’s clench her fists.

She looked towards Seto and found him simply staring at the dragon, his expression unreadable. She wondered what went through his mind at a time like that and was tempted to end the dragon’s suffering herself.

Before she could do anything about it, however, a bright pillar of green light came down from the skies and seemingly protected what was left of the dragon.

“What-” Seto leaned forward on his dragon, making it attack the big pillar of light.

The attack from his dragon seemed to have no effect, however.

A shrill laughter echoed through the air as a hologram screen appeared beside them once again with Noah’s face in it.

“Hello, little brother.” Noah said after recovering from his laughter. “So nice of you to finally join us! But I can’t let you kill these guys just yet.”

With that, Jinzo, Robot Knight, Nightmare Penguin, Deepsea Warrior, and Judge Man were seemingly extracted from the body of the dragon and pulled up through the pillar of light.

“I still need these guys if my plan is to work!” Noah continued as he pointed a finger towards the screen. “But don’t worry! My plan takes you into account as well, no way I would leave my dear brothers and their friends out! Oh, no! You are all very much a big part of it! So don’t dawdle too long! Come see me immediately!”

“Who do you-” Seto started to yell but the hologram of the screen simply blinked out of existence.

“Are you okay?” Marik asked Luna as he approached on his Egyptian God Slime.

“Hey! Who are you and why does your monster look like Obelisk?” Seto quickly moved his dragon to be between Marik and Luna.

“Move out of the way, little Seto.” Marik said as his right hand opened in a way that looked like he was about to grab something out of thin air. “Or I’ll make you.”

“Don’t talk to me like we know each other.” Seto said, unfazed.

“Hey! I’m okay, calm down.” Luna exclaimed, drifting closer to Seto. “It’s okay, that’s- that’s Marik, the real one, but he’s helping us! We couldn’t have gotten this far without him.”

Seto seemed to consider this for a few seconds, without breaking eye contact with Marik.

“It is true, Seto.” The Pharaoh said as he came to glide near them. “He has been an invaluable member of our little group here, and so was Luna.”

“Is that why you guys just sat back and let her get to this state, Wheeler?” Seto demanded.

“Everyone fought really hard, Seto!” Mokuba insisted, but that brought Seto’s attention to him.

“You aren’t supposed to be fighting or being anywhere near danger! You are a kid, Mokuba!” Seto’s voice rose as he turned to Luna next. “You were the one who told me Noah was after Mokuba, how could you bring him up with you to these fights?”

That’s true.

She had made Seto look elsewhere, so when she found Mokuba, it was her responsibility to take him somewhere safe.

“What else could she do, you idiot?” Marik asked, pointing a finger at Seto. “With real monsters roaming around, you think there’s anywhere that is safe? We kept each other safe, your brother included. He didn’t just show up at the very end and spew crap on us! He fought hard side by side with us here, unlike the entitled little prick standing in front of me!”

“Marik!” Luna yelled at him to stop, but Marik still threw death glares at Seto as he flew closer to her.

“Guys, we should all just chill out a little.” Jaden said as he lifted his open palms towards his friends. “We are all a little stressed and, honestly, probably all pretty hungry too. Everyone’s emotions are heightened at the moment.”

“You know what?” Marik stood beside Luna and reached out, grabbing her hand with one hand and making his Millenium Rod materialize with the other hand. “This may feel weird.”

He placed the artifact into her hand. It was unexpectedly warm to the touch.

“What are you-” Kaiba said, but Luna couldn’t hear the rest as it seemed as if an entire new world came out of the ancient Egyptian artifact.

She blinked and found herself to be in some sort of throne room, the lighting was dim but she could tell that in front of the throne upon which she was seated, stood hundreds, maybe thousands of rare hunters.

“Better?” Marik asked, suddenly making her blink and realize she was back on her Slash Dragon, flying by the KC Tower with her friends.

“What?” She asked, blinking a few times, not knowing what was going on.

“Are you feeling better?” Marik asked, still looking fairly worried.

“Wow, Luna, your nosebleed seems to have stopped.” Mokuba said, making her touch her nose gently with the side of her finger.

No blood, what the hell?

“What did you do to her?” Seto demanded.

“I’m taking her pain away.” Marik said as he lifted his head a little, seemingly looking down on Seto. “Anyone can have money, boy. But this is real power.”

“What was that?” She asked, realizing she was no longer light headed nor tired.

Marik, however, simply laughed.

“Don’t worry about it. But we should probably get a move on, yeah?” Marik said as he looked around.

“I suggest we plan our next move carefully.” The Pharaoh said as he crossed his arms. “Noah is probably waiting for us now, maybe even with a trap ready.”

“It doesn’t matter, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon will make quick work whatever he throws at us.” Seto said before turning to Mokuba. “Stay near me, Mokuba.”

“That’s not much of a plan, Mr. Kaiba.” Jaden said as he let out his light hearted laughter. “But I guess there’s not much we can do about that. There’s only one way we can go.”

“Still.” Luna said, sitting up straighter on her dragon. “We can’t change where we go, but we can change how we go. There are seven of us now, there are four walls. You should pair up and go up each wall, I will go on my own.”

“Nonsense!” Marik interrupted. “Let the arrogant boy go up alone since he is so sure that he is better than everyone else.”

“Not to call Kaiba arrogant, but I do agree that we should balance out our power levels a bit in the pairing.” Pharaoh said, nodding slowly. “And Seto definitely has the strongest monster out of all of us, as evidenced just now.”

“Well tough luck, Wheeler.” Seto interjected. “You think just because your voice is deeper, that I will listen to you? My brother stays with me!”

“I think we are all plenty strong.” Jaden observed out loud, still smiling. “Even if we go divided, the moment we get to the top, we will be appearing all at once, right? So if anything happens, we should all still be able to go for each other’s rescue.”

“Fine, if he’s too afraid to go alone, I will.” Marik said with a smirk, not taking his eyes off of Seto.

“No.” Luna said, starting to think more clearly now that she wasn’t so exhausted. “I will go alone, I can summon quite a few dragons on my own. I will be distraction enough on my side. Mokuba and Seto can go together, two immensely powerful dragons will make Noah think twice before going on the offensive.”

Mokuba, who had been looking a little down since Seto had yelled at him, smiled and nodded when hearing Luna’s plan.

“I will need Bakura to go with Marik.” Luna continued, making both Marik and Pharaoh look at her in surprise. “He is the only one that doesn’t have a monster that can fly. Marik’s slime is the only monster here that can keep Bakura completely safe without sacrificing its attack power. That leaves Jaden and the Pharaoh, you guys worked really well together when attacking the Five-Headed Dragon, so I think this will be the best- uh, formation.”

“Since when are we calling him pharaoh? Is that a new make believe title he gave himself?” Seto asked, more serious than scornful.

“Seto, please.” Luna said, not unkindly, but getting tired of his constant jabs at Joey. To his credit, though, Seto didn’t have a retort, nor did he look offended.

“Does that sound good to everyone?” She asked, looking at each one of them for a second.

“Not too happy to be the baby sitter, but can’t go against your reasoning.” Marik said, but before he could move away, Luna grabbed his arm.

“Keep an eye on Bakura and watch out.” She said in a low enough voice that only Marik could hear. “He is the wielder of the Millennium Ring.”

Marik lifted one of his eyebrows but ultimately nodded, maintaining a serious expression.

“And that’s the spirit of the Thief King Bakura in there.” She added as it seemed like he didn’t fully grasp what that meant, but Marik simply stared at her for a moment longer.

“There you go with those names again, am I supposed to know who that is?” He asked as he scratched the side of his head.

“He almost destroyed the entire world back then, right in Egypt!” Luna was dumbfounded. “Literally can’t be any more famous. Did you not pay attention in History class of your own nation?”

Marik opened his mouth once then closed it.

“Oh, I know Moses and- and Tutankhamun! Ramses?” He offered.

“Unbelievable.” Luna shook her head, to which Marik shrugged. “Well, just keep an eye on him.”

“Okay, just one more thing. By keep an eye on him do you mean-” Marik made a slicing motion with his thumb across his throat. “When no one is looking?”

“What? No!” She said looking around but seeing that Seto was having a stern conversation with Mokuba and the other three were talking about a card that Jaden was showing them. He sure made friends very easily. “As much as Bakura creeps me out, he hasn’t done anything bad yet. He could be different than what I knew. You know, like you. I thought you were just a complete evil villain, but now- I don’t know, I trust you now.”

The corners of Marik’s lips twitched a bit. He rubbed his nose with the back of his index finger.

“Well, right. Okay.” Marik said before letting a smile escape him.

“Don’t let it get to your head, dude.” Luna said with a smile of her own. “We still got Noah to take care of.”

“By take care of you mean-”

“Yup.” She didn’t let him finish that sentence.

“Okay, Gotcha.” Marik said as if in deep thought. “So, offing kids, as long as they are evil, is still okay. Understood.”

“Offing A.I.s! He is not a kid! He’s older than Seto!” Luna quickly corrected him but realized he was joking. “Damn, get outta here!”

Marik smiled for a moment but soon looked worried as he looked up before looking back to Luna.

“Be careful when you get to the top, yeah?” He said as he made his slime slowly back away. “Send your other dragons in first.”

Luna also looked up before answering. She could see much darker clouds starting to gather quickly, soon there could be no light for them to see.

“Worry about yourself, yeah?” Luna said before turning around and looking towards Seto, catching him staring at her before he turned away. “Is everyone ready?”

They each looked at each other, all determined to put an end to whatever was going on.

“Then let’s go, spread out!” She said after taking a deep breath. “Be away from the building enough to be able to keep an eye on the people to your right and to your left!”

“Be careful, Luna.” Seto said before leaving with Mokuba.

“You too.” She whispered, more to herself, as she watched everyone go around the building.

As they all started to ascend at a decently fast pace, they could see the top approaching. Luna was still very impressed with how tall the KC Tower was, it was hard to believe that such a structure existed.

The skies kept darkening, but they didn’t encounter any other monsters on their way up. But the seeming lack of danger and obstacles made her feel even more uneasy. She glanced to her left to see Jaden and Joey flying up. Jaden gave her a thumbs up but then rubbed his belly. She guessed he was saying that he was hungry.

She glanced to her right to see Seto and Mokuba, looking very stern and determined. She wondered if Seto was looking towards her too, but it was tough to be sure at this distance. Mokuba, however, started to wave at her, making her wave back.

She tried to think of what Noah could have in store for them. In the anime, his strongest monster was Shinato, King of a Higher Plane. But its attack was 3300, a lot of their current monsters could deal with that. But if Noah was a traveler like her and Jaden, then most likely he was already aware of this and would probably use something different. And why did he still need the Big Five? Surely he wasn’t thinking in simply using the Five-Headed Dragon once again, Seto would make quick work of it. So what would make Noah so arrogant like that?

But the top was coming up real soon, whatever the case, they would need to be ready. She would have to do something different as Noah probably watched all of her Red-Eyes and Neos monsters.

As they approached the top, she looked once more towards the Kaiba brothers, then to Joey and Jaden. They all nodded. She quickly willed her Neos monsters to go first.

As her monsters went over the ledge, she steeled herself and took a deep breath before looking over the ledge herself. She was ready.

What. What’s going on?

She stared blankly, letting go of her breath as she realized that she had been holding it. But as she stared at the top of the building, she only felt lost and confused. Of all the things she had expected, this was not it.

“Is there a chance we are on the wrong building?” Marik yelled from across Luna. “Is there another KC Tower somewhere?”

“There is another one, but it’s in the middle of the ocean.” Seto said. “It’s definitely supposed to be here.”

“Then why is there nothing and no one up here?” Bakura asked, his face peeking out of a metallic sphere on one of the shoulders of the Egyptian God Slime. “Could they be invisible?”

The Pharaoh’s Black Skull Dragon let out a fiery breath, singing the concrete surface of the top of the building.

“That does not seem to be the case.” The Pharaoh said as they all observed that nothing was hit by the flames aside from the concrete itself.

“Are you going to pay for that, Wheeler?” Seto asked, but looking around for any enemies in the air as if not expecting an answer back from Joey.

“Could they maybe have gone back insi-” Mokuba was suggesting when Noah’s voice interrupted him.

“Welcome! Welcome!” The high pitched voice seemed to come out of nowhere and everywhere. “My dear little brothers, their good friends Joey Wheeler, Bakura Ryou, and even the infamous Marik Ishtar! But perhaps even more curious, are the two duelists from another world entirely!”

A sudden hologram screen appeared above them once again, showing Noah’s smirking face.

“Welcome one, welcome all, to the tower of your new god.” The kid said as he spread his arms open. “Noah Kaiba, is the name.”

Noah started to laugh but suddenly stopped.

“But to you all in particular, I will be your demise!”

Chapter Text

Those same pillars of green lights appeared in several places at once, breaking through the heavy dark clouds that now completely covered the skies as far as the eye could see.

“Are we having a dance off party?” Seto asked in his usual straight face but with palpable sass.

“Ready yourselves for the dawn of a new age!” Noah continued to screech his piercing voice, seemingly ignoring Seto. “The age of the gods!”

“Shut your mouth, kid!” Marik yelled as he flung his cape to the side dramatically. “You haven’t even seen the true power of the gods yet!”

“Well let me show you, Mr. Ishtar!” Noah said as he snapped his fingers. “Let the hosts of angels bring tidings of my new world!”

Even before he had finished speaking, several big angel-like figures started to come down from the skies through the pillars of light. And despite the dark skies, eerie green lights, and the promise of the end of the world, it was still a sight to behold to see such angelic beings descending from the heavens.

Wait, are those all-

­Luna looked at the angels more closely. Chills ran up her spine as she realized that each one of them was a Shinato, King of a Higher Plane.

So many.

Even as she thought it, more and more angels started to appear.

“They all have 3300 attack each, use monsters with stronger attack points!” Luna yelled as she unsummoned her three Neos monsters. There was no reason to keep weaker monsters that could be destroyed to drain her energy.

“Pharaoh! Keep Bakura safe for a bit!” Luna heard Marik yell.

She looked up and remembered that his god slime was currently at 3150 attack. Before she could think of much more, she saw the god slime simply pick Bakura up off of his shoulder and throw him to Pharaoh like one would a potato.

“What!” Pharaoh yelled, as he summoned Valkyrion the Magna Warrior just in time to catch the flung Bakura in mid air.

Okay, Pharaoh has Valkyrion with 3500 attack and Arcana Knight Joker with 3800 attack. He should be okay.

But as she watched, Marik unsummoned his god slime. She figured she would protect him while he did whatever he was trying to do, but her sudden movement seemed to have somehow activated all the angels, making them all start moving towards her friends.

“Marik!” she yelled as she willed her dragon to fly faster.

Marik, seeing an angel approach him, darted forward, slid on the ground and threw two cards into the air.

I’m not going to make it in time!

She thought as she saw one of the angels quickly close in on Marik and stab at him with one of its wings.

No!

But just as quickly, she realized a metallic ball had formed around Marik, which then quickly grew into a giant Obelisk form and punched the angel so hard that it disintegrated right away.

“Phew! That was a close one!” Marik yelled, emerging from the back of his new god slime. “Will have to thank Kaiba boy for that!”

Luna quickly noticed the hologram numbering at the god slime’s feet.

4050 attack point?

She looked at Seto’s Ultimate Dragon and remembered that its current attack was a whopping 5400 at the moment.

Three fourths of 5400. Marik must has resummoned his slime, targeting Seto’s dragon, he’s smarter than he looks.

That meant Marik was fine too. Seto, of course, was one she would never have to worry about. And Mokuba at Seto’s side, was riding his Black Meteor Dragon once again, with its 3500 attack.

Only Jaden and Bakura then.

She thought, but as she turned to look for Jaden, one of the angels charged at her. It was almost too fast for her to be able to react. She only saw the tip of the wing when another monster blocked it.

“That was a close one, Luna.” Jaden said smilingly at her.

She realized that he was piggybacking on Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman. But how was it strong enough to block a Shinato?

“I unsummoned the other weaker monsters, and put a bunch of my weaker elemental heroes in the graveyard to strengthen this one.” Jaden explained as if reading the question on her face. “This guy gets 300 attack for every Elemental Hero in the graveyard, and I put ten.”

That makes it 5500 attack, it is now our strongest monster.

“What kind of monster is that?” Seto asked from somewhere to their side.

“Didn’t you hear? They are apparently from another world!” Marik yelled as his god slime shredded through two different Shinatos.

“Does that mean you have such monsters too, Luna?” Mokuba asked, dodging an attack.

“Mokuba, pay attention!” Seto said as he blew through several Shinatos at once.

And though he didn’t ridicule the notion of being from another world, he did look at Luna for a second as if not believing. Or was it in expectation? Whatever the case, this was an opportunity for her to ease him into being open about beings from another world.

Momentarily, she had wanted to summon her own Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, but immediately wondered if she would be crossing a line. It could be seen as rude, seeing as it was his monster, right? With such thought, she quickly grabbed some cards from her second deck box. If they wanted to see monsters from another world, then she would show them.

First she changed dragons to a Black Meteor Dragon so as to not have her dragon killed while she flew. She then put ten Lunalight Effect Monster cards into her graveyard and pointed to the skies like Seto had done.

“Behold, my monsters!” She yelled as she brought her hand down and summoned three Lunalight Sabre Dancers. Their original 3000 attacks, were increased by 200 for each Beast-Warrior in her graveyard, making each of her Sabre Dancers have 5000 attack points. “Lunalight Sabre Dancers!”

“What are those? Luna lights?” Mokuba asked, with a childish wonder in his eyes. “Are they monsters that were made specifically for you, Luna?”

It wasn’t, of course. But her name being Luna had been a main deciding factor for making her own Lunalight deck back in the days.

“Of course!” She said as she opened her palm towards some of the angels. “Go forth, my lights! Make me proud!”

The sabre dancers complied as they moved through the air as graceful as they were quick. Moving their swords with such beautiful movements, while slashing through the enemy angels. Luna was just as amazed watching her newly summoned monsters as her peers, after all, it was her first time seeing real life versions of these monsters.

“Wow, you really are from different world entirely, huh?” Jaden said with a smile. “I’ve never seen such monsters before. When this is all over, you have to let me duel you!”

“Such amazing monsters, Luna. I am glad you are on our side.” The Pharaoh exclaimed as Valkyrion and Arcana Knight slashed through some angels of their own.

“As expected of my Luna!” Marik said, pulling Bakura back into a protective metal sphere. “You must be a big player in your world if you have such strong cards made specifically for you! I knew from the beginning that you were not a commo-”

“Everyone just shut up and focus on the fight!” Luna yelled as she saw more light pillars forming and even more angels starting to pour out of the skies. “We might have to find the source! Maybe if we find Noah-”

“Then what?” Noah’s voice rang through the air. “What do you think you can do even if you find me? I am a god! You are nothing! We have taken into account and recorded data of all of your god cards! And yes, we were hoping you would summon all of them at once for us to be sure, but nevertheless, we have their individual data from when each of you summoned them for your tiny little egos, and let me assure you. You cannot defeat me.”

“What makes you think we can’t? Look around!” Seto yelled as his dragon shot three energy beams in different directions, taking down several of the angels.

Noah looked around in exaggerated panic before smiling.

“Ditto, little brother! Look around you!” Noah yelled as he gestured around, as if he weren’t in a screen “What difference have your attacks made?”

“You can’t keep this up.” Seto stated, though he did look around more grimly.

“Wrong again! I’m a god, I have infinite power!” Noah grabbed his own head as he kept laughing before suddenly growing more serious. “The real question is whether you can keep this up, and for how long.”

Luna tried to do a quick count of the angels. There were at least twenty, maybe a little more. It didn’t seem like their numbers had diminished any.

“So what, you planning on just tiring us out?” Jaden asked.

“I wasn’t talking to you, off-worlder. But you do bring up a good point. You know, sometimes I forget that you mortals don’t have as much time as us gods.” Noah laughed. “But never call me an unthoughtful god.”

With that, he snapped his fingers. Five additional pillars came down side by side at the very center of the building top, out of which the Big Five appeared, seemingly in a trance. Unlike the angels, they were unmoving inside of their pillars.

“You all have proved resourceful this far.” Noah gestured with his hand around him. “Let us see how far you can go.”

Suddenly, all of the Big Five started to scream, seemingly in pain. A stream of red energy trickled out of each one into a single point.

“What, you thought we would care about a bit of torture?” Marik yelled as his slime, its arm now a giant blade, sliced through one of the angels. “Do you know who I am?”

“Of course we do. We are god!” Noah said as he massaged his forehead with his left hand.

Why does he keep saying we?

“What don’t you people understand about that simple statement? I am god, I know everything! Why do you think we didn’t choose you, Mr. Ishtar? You simply weren’t good enough.”

“What is that supposed to mean, pleb!” Marik demanded.

What did he mean by that?

Suddenly, the red energy coming out of the Big Five grew in form and shattered into a Five-Headed Dragon.

“This again?” Seto asked what everyone was thinking. “For someone claiming to be a Kaiba, you seem to be a little slow!”

“Oh no! I forgot you guys already beat these! Man, if only I had remembered that!” Noah exaggerated with the biggest smile.

Luna quickly looked around. What weren’t they seeing?

“Neutron Blast!” Seto yelled as that fearsome attack burst forth from the jaws of his ultimate dragon.

But even before his attack made it Luna noticed the little number below the Five-Headed Dragon.

29000? Is that for real?

Seto’s attack landed, but, as she expected, did nothing.

“Seto!” Luna yelled, but not fast enough as the giant claws of the giant dragon were already going towards him.

Luna’s dancers flew towards Seto as if reacting to her emotions, but were stopped by a metallic barrier. Her heart fell as she watched the gigantic claws ripping through- a hat?

Suddenly another giant top hat appeared beside Luna and burst open, revealing Seto and his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. He looked lost for a second but soon looked at Joey.

“Did you take all of Yugi’s cards, Wheeler?” Seto asked as he sat up straighter on his dragon. “Though I guess Magical Hats is not that rare of a card.”

“Hey!” Marik called from the other side of Luna. “Do not try to defend others against that thing with your own monsters, Luna. Do you see the attack-”

“I do see it, Marik!” Luna interrupted him.

“Well then you realize that it’s a 24000 damage to your life points even after cutting through your monster, yeah?” Marik said, not unkindly. “That’s an instant death for the user, Luna.”

He was right, but what was she going to do? Let Seto die? She was just glad that the Pharaoh was good at last minute saves like in the anime.

“Look at you. Still resourceful.” Noah noted, not seeming surprised at all. “But you won’t survive for long if you can’t get rid of my little pet. Your chances are slim at best, but not impossible. So let me help you with that.”

The Big Five started screaming again as a new stream of energy started to drain from them.

“Get rid of them!” Marik yelled as his slime lunged towards the closest light pillar.

All of their monsters attacked the five pillars of light that encased the Big Five, but none of their attacks seemed to have any effects.

“Shoot the energy stream!” Seto yelled, making his dragon shoot a powerful blast, but being blocked by the giant Five-Headed Dragon. “We need to get rid of that thing as well!”

Luna’s three dancers quickly spun in a tornado of blades, the green lights from the pillars reflecting off of their swords as they closed in on the red stream of energy. But before they could get there, several of the angels came down to block and intercept.

Even as she watched, the stream started to grow just as her frustration did. They couldn’t let yet another abomination of 29000 attack points appear. How would they even defeat the first one? Desperation took a hold of her heart, making her dancers attack more frantically. Despite her more aggressive attacks, more and more angels were coming down to sacrifice themselves in order to keep the Big Five and the energy stream safe.

We have to-

It was too late. The screams from the Big Five intensified as the red energy stream started to glow and expand in form once again.

No.

“Are you guys even trying?” Noah laughed as the red energy grew to the size of the giant dragon once again, the Big Five now spasming with their eyes gone completely white. “How will you defeat my dragons with such- performance?”

Luna’s heart seemed to hammer inside of her chest as the second dragon fully formed and stepped out. Despite the panic, she looked down at its feet.

5000?

The number quickly changed to 29800, however.

Where did that extra 800 come from?

She looked back towards the first dragon.

29800 as well. The only thing that had changed was the appearance of the second dragon. 800 per monster, perhaps?

“How exciting!” Noah sounded giddy. “Come on now, Seto. Weren’t you about to stop me? Show me what you got! ”

United We Stand. That was the only card she could think of that gave 800 attack points per monsters on the field to one monster. She looked around though and saw the speed with which the angels came down from the other pillars of lights to replace the ones that were destroyed. It was almost immediate, which is why the attack points of those dragons were not going down.

“He is using a spell card that increases the attack of his dragons by 800 for each monster that is out in the field!” Luna explained to her peers. “There’s a roof of how many angels he has out at any given time, but the ones we destroy are immediately replaced by another.”

“Very astute!” Noah clapped seeming genuinely happy. “But seeing the problem, is not the same as solving the problem. Do you have what it takes, Ms. Luna?”

The beams shot by the two giant dragons were strong enough to shake the building below them.

“My Obelisk could take out all of their monsters at once, but if they are instantly replaced, my Obelisk would still be at an attack disadvantage.” Seto stated, coming to the right side of Luna. “Maybe if Noah was here for us to attack him directly, but given the situation, I don’t think it will make a difference.”

Her mind scoured through all of her cards as her other friends did their best to dodge the attacks of the dragons and the angels.

“My Ra gains attack points of the monsters and life points that I sacrifice.” Marik also chimed in, coming to stand by her other side. “But I don’t think I can get it to over 29800 with the cards that I have. If only we had a bit more time.”

She went through all the combos she had ever used, in every Yu-Gi-Oh! game she had ever played, but with the cards she had at the moment, she kept only coming back to the Egyptian god cards.

“Whatever you guys are doing, you need to do it now!” Jaden yelled as his hero punched through an angel that was coming towards Luna.

She could think of two ways, but only one of them she could pull off on her own.

“Do not summon your god cards!” She yelled, determined to not bring any more destruction to this world than needed. “Just buy me a few minutes, but stay alive, you two.”

Seto looked from Luna to Marik and nodded and flew towards Mokuba, shooting down more angels as he went.

“Marik, please tell me you still got Infinite Cards.” She said, praying he did.

Marik smiled as he pulled the card from inside of his robe.

“That might just work, Luna.” He said as he threw the card towards her.

Luna panicked for a second, but to her surprise, she was able to catch the card. She gave one last look at Marik and nodded. She grabbed what was left of her Lunalight deck from her second deck box and placed them on top of what was left of her Red-Eyes deck on her duel disk, hoping her duel disk would somehow register the amount of cards she would have in her hands. Then, she activated Infinite Cards by placing it in the Spell/Trap Zone face up, and grabbed most of the cards from her deck zone, making sure to leave around ten cards, not sure what would happen if someone made her draw cards without there being any cards in there.

With about a deck and a half in her hand, she took a deep breath and swallowed hard.

The god cards were what got them in this crazy mess to begin with. But they were the only thing left that could get them out.

“I’m counting on you, Slifer.” Luna whispered before looking forward and yelling. “Prepare yourself, Noah!”

“I already told you, we have all of your data and ran countless simulations, there is no way you can beat me with any of your god cards!” Noah yelled just as she put Slifer down onto her duel disk.

A bright flash of lightning circled around them, gone as quick as it had appeared, as a low rumbling shook the heavens. Unlike previous times, no fissures or portals opened, or perhaps it was obscured by all that heavy dark clouds that covered the entire sky. But when the second lightning flashed, she could already see the silhouette of a fraction of the giant serpentine body as it slid around in the darkness.

As she tried hard to find the little number of attack and defense points, she realized that her heart was beating a little too hard for her comfort. She also noticed that Noah had grown quiet, perhaps this was the first time he had actually seen Slifer being summoned.

Roar for me, baby.

A big glowing orange eye opened in the darkness before the soul shaking roar dispersed the clouds immediately around the gargantuan dragon’s red face with two mandibles. Despite having heard Slifer before, it didn’t stop Luna from flinching. Still, she was excited to see it on her side now. And that’s when she caught sight of it.

62000. This is it, we got this!

“This is where things end for you, Noah!” Luna yelled after taking a deep breath and focusing all of that desperation she had felt minutes ago into Slifer’s next attack. “Thunder Force!”

Almost instantly, a blinding bolt of lightning shot force from the larger mouth of Slifer, towards one of the Five-Headed Dragons, seemingly ripping through empty air and reality. A giant explosion occurred upon contact, making Luna and her friend shield their eyes and faces.

But even before the dust and smoke dissipated, Noah’s sudden laughter let them all know that something was wrong.

“Is that really all you could come up with, Miss Luna?”

Chapter Text

But how?

Luna wondered as the clouds of smoke faded and the Five-Headed Dragon that she had attacked, stood without a scratch.

Noah’s laugh seemed to echo through her mind.

“You should see your faces right now!” He giggled as he held up a card.

Cards of Destruction.

But that means-

She looked down at her hand. She had 62 cards that she had to discard, but that meant she had to draw 62 more cards and she didn’t have that much in the deck zone anymore. And in a normal game, that meant she had just lost the duel.

What happens to me now?

The tips of her fingers felt numb and she questioned whether she was starting to feel tired.

Is this what death feels like?

She wondered as she looked at her free hand before looking towards Seto. He was trying to make his way to her, destroying the angels in his way. It felt strange, however, she didn’t feel like she was dying.

“How you made an obedient dog out of the great Marik Ishtar is beyond me, but I applaud you for the feat.” Noah suddenly said, making her turn back to look for Marik, wondering what Noah had meant.

She found him in a trance, his eyes white, his glowing Millennium Rod held in her direction.

“Marik!” She called out, wondering what was going on.

As if hearing her, he blinked his eyes a few times, his lilac irises coming back. He looked exhausted and grabbed at his own chest as a trickle of blood came down from his left nostril.

“Hooey!” Marik yelled as he shook his head. “I won’t be able to do that many more times, Luna. Try not to get your life points drained again, will you?”

Suddenly, Luna remembered the throne room at which she sat for a brief moment when she had touched the Millennium Rod.

“What did you do, Marik?” She asked suddenly having terrible thoughts.

“What needed to be done.” He said, wiping his nose with the back of hand.

“What are we doing, guys?” Mokuba asked, sounding slightly panicked as he burned through two other angels.

“Yes, guys, what are we doing?” Noah mocked, mimicking Mokuba’s voice. “Is that all you had?”

It wasn’t. She still had one move left. The one move she was trying to avoid, but it looked like there was no other choice.

“Marik, Seto!” She called out to them. “There’s only one thing left to do.”

She took a deep breath, as it was against what she had been telling them this entire time.

“Summon your god cards, now!”

“After all that trouble, you are still going to summon all three?” Noah laughed after doing a facepalm. “If Slifer with 62000 attack points couldn’t do the job, what do you hope to achieve with a 4000 Obelisk and a maybe 8000 Ra, at best!”

Seto looked at her for a moment before summoning his Obelisk. Marik didn’t waste any time in using his Monster Reborn, making a giant flame burst forth from his duel disk, becoming a phoenix of a colossal proportions.

Immortal Phoenix. Marik must have snuck his Ra into his graveyard, this makes it even better.

“Obelisk has a secret ability!” She said hoping that Pyramid of Light had it right. “If Obelisk sacrifices Ra and Slifer, it will gain infinite attack points. If Ra uses its special ability to wipe the field of Noah’s monsters before that, then maybe we can break through where these pillars of lights are coming from!”

“I’m still can’t wrap my head around you knowing all of the secrets of my Winged Dragon of Ra, but let’s go! Incinerate everything!” Marik yelled, making his Immortal Phoenix Ra open its wings and spread flames everywhere. “Now, Seto!”

“Sacrifice the other gods, Obelisk!” Seto yelled as he did a throwing motion to the side with his hand.

Before she actually spotted Obelisk, she could tell that something in the atmosphere had changed. A flash of lightning revealed, for a second, a monumentally large blue hand reaching towards Slifer; while a second, dimly illuminated, hand could be seen reaching towards the flaming Immortal Phoenix Ra.

“Mokuba, Pharaoh, Jaden! Get back and stay safe!” Luna yelled as she also started to move back as she saw her Slifer wrapping around the ginormous left arm of Obelisk.

The Immortal Phoenix Ra’s flames had consumed all of the angels right before it began seeping and merging with Obelisk’s right arm.

Come on, power of non-canon movies, don’t fail me now!

A deep howl that seemed to transcend time and space made all of the dark clouds disappear, revealing a red Obelisk.

It worked!

“Go, Obelisk!” Seto yelled as he made grabbing motions with both of his hands.

The red Obelisk grabbed both of the Five-Headed Dragons by the torso and crushed them before throwing them up into the sky towards where the beams of light were coming from. Without the clouds, Luna could see that the skies were still somehow dark and realized that she was staring into space. She looked down and could even slightly see the curvature of the earth.

Just how far from the ground are we?

A blinding light grabbed her attention once again as Obelisk gathered energy in both of his hands and shot them upward, forming a biggest energy beam she had seen yet in a true Kamehameha fashion. The noise was so loud that it simply made other sounds disappear and after a few seconds, she felt like she wasn’t hearing it anymore and wondered if she had gone deaf. She looked around and saw Jaden mouthing something- no, he was yelling but she wasn’t able to hear it.

Ah-tah-lights? Satellites?

Jaden pointed upwards then smashed his fist against his palm. Luna looked up again.

The light pillars were coming from satellites? Are we destroying KC satellites?

The attack had gone on much longer than she had expected, the vibrations from the sheer intensity of it seemed to have put every cell of her body to tremble. Luna and her friends started to land on top of the building as it was difficult to see and feel anything with that massive attack going on. When the attack stopped, the world somehow seemed darker, but Luna figured it was her eyes trying to adjust to the lack of the blinding source of light from seconds before. Her ears were ringing and her body felt like she had just gotten out of a trampoline after jumping on it for a long time.

“Hello? Hello?” She tested her voice and ears. She could somewhat hear herself but it felt like she was underwater or hearing herself through a thick wall.

She turned and saw Seto, still looking up with his hand shielding his eyes. She tried to look up as well but couldn’t see much. Maybe he knew where every Kaiba Corp satellites were located and was looking to see if he could catch a glimpse of them, she couldn’t tell for sure. But one thing was certain, there were no more light pillars, no more angels, and no more hologram screens with evil little twerps in them. Had they really done it?

A tap on her shoulder made her turn and see Jaden.

“I think we did it!” He also sounded muffled. “But why are we still here?”

She didn’t understand his question, but noticed Joey walking up to stand by Seto, also looking up in the same direction.

“What is that thing?” She thought Joey had asked.

She tried to look towards where they were looking but couldn’t see anything. It was a slightly alarming situation, but she could tell Jaden was saying something again.

“-Bane said he could get out of a world after it is either saved or destroyed.” He seemed quite worried. “But we are still here. Do you feel anything different?”

What was he even talking about? She did register it as somewhat important, but she was much more worried about Seto and Joey just standing there, staring in the same direction, into space. Were they actually seeing something, or did the power of the god cards somehow affect their mind? Either way, having all sounds being muffled, made her feel like she was going insane herself. She felt vulnerable and lost.

That’s when she thought she had heard a scream. Her heart dropped as she quickly realized she didn’t know where Mokuba was.

“Mokuba!” She yelled, looking for him, but quickly finding him, behind her, pointing with his finger.

In a daze of confusion, her eyes followed towards where Mokuba was pointing and found Marik’s god slime glowing red.

It took her but a second to realize that the god slime was disintegrating, just like all the other monsters that had been destroyed.

What- How?

Her split second of relief from seeing Mokuba okay became a full blown panic.

And as the god slime completely shattered and faded, Luna noticed Marik just standing there. With a large hole in his chest. She couldn't imagine him being able to survive such a wound, she imagined that his heart and a big part of his lungs were gone.

“Mari-” and before she could even finish calling his name, the great leader of the rare hunters fell on his knees, his eyes already glazed over and a trickle of blood coming out of his mouth. “Marik!”

Behind Marik stood Bakura, looking absolutely terrified.

“It wasn’t me, I swear!” Bakura yelled, backing away from Marik. “I swear!”

The yelling, however muffled, grabbed the attention of Jaden, who held Luna to keep her from running towards Marik.

We saved the world, why did this happen?

And as she reached out to Marik, a golden symbol of an eye appeared on Marik’s forehead, its glow quickly overtaking all of Luna’s vision. When she blinked, the world was dark and gloomy but this time she recognized the place. She was back in the throne room.

“Did you know that this place actually exists?” Marik said, sitting on the arm rest of the throne Luna was seated upon. “Yeah, surreal right? Of course, I never got to see it out in the physical world. Probably buried deep inside some old tomb, somewhere.”

“Marik-”

“I don’t have a lot of time, my love.” He said, uncharacteristically sheepish before smiling. “I’ve been wondering if it was okay to call you that, but given the situation, I figured you could let it go this one time.”

“What-” Luna didn’t know how or even what she wanted to ask. “What did this to you?”

Marik shrugged before responding.

“I don’t know.” He admitted as he looked down, seemingly interested on his thumb nail. “Shortly after we landed, I felt an impact on my back, and an excruciating pain. When I looked down, there was a hole in my chest. Simple as that.”

“Can’t you heal yourself like you healed me twice before?” She asked, hoping he hadn’t spent all of his magic on her and at the same time, wondering if his magic couldn’t heal physical damage.

“I didn’t have the time.” He said, putting his hands down and looking back at her. “I realized I was about to die, and that meant the next wielder of the Millennium Rod would have to deal with my dark side if I didn’t.”

Yami Marik?

Instinctively, she looked around. The thousands of cloaked rare hunters still crowded the throne room, but she couldn’t tell if any of them was Yami Marik.

“You don’t have to worry about him, I dealt with him” He said after taking a deep breath.

“On your own?” she asked, remembering that he had needed Odion’s and the Pharaoh’s help in the anime.

Marik gave her a weak, heart shattering, smile before shaking his head.

“I had you.” He said, turning a little on the arm rest to face her better. “My dark side was born out of my hatred towards the world. But my time with you has been eye opening to me. You are someone even greater than I, and yet you were doing everything you could to save this world. And it turned out, that it wasn’t even your world. Not only that, but you put your trust in me despite knowing what kind of person I was. So I figured, it was the least I could do to get rid of my dark side so that you could sit here without having to worry about that, even if it cost me my life.”

“Sit here?” She asked, wondering what that meant.

“I couldn’t make you my queen like I had hoped.” He said, without breaking eye contact this time. “But I can set you in your path to becoming an emperor, like you had wanted.”

It had been a joke, but how could she tell him that when he had possibly given his life for whatever he had done?

He then gestured to the thousands of rare hunters with his hand, all of them kneeling as if on cue.

“These are the mind connection you will have through the rod. They are all around the world, doing my bidding. But now, they are yours to command.”

“I don’t want to mind control others, Marik.” She said, not unkindly.

“And you won’t have to.” He said, softer than he had ever sounded. “Believe it or not, I never forced anyone to join me. I mean, sure, I threatened to on a few occasions, but every single one of them here, are ones that joined me out of their own volition. And I talked to them before, they agreed to follow you when I’m gone. I promise you.”

She still didn’t feel comfortable with it, she wanted her friend Marik, not his mindless goons.

“A few of them are current-” He started to say, but he started to glow slightly and gradually started to become transparent. “Huh, looks like our time is up. I don’t know what will happen to me now, but I hope you won’t forget me.”

“No, Marik.” Luna tried to grab him as if that would keep him from leaving, but her hand went right through him as he kept fading away more and more.

His smile widened.

“At least at the very end, you did end up reaching for me.” He said, standing up- no, starting to float. “Whatever is happening out there, you got this. Show those plebeians what you are made of.”

With that he faded completely. As she blinked her tear filled eyes, she realized she was back on top of KC Tower, Marik was still on his knees, but she could tell that he was no longer with them. But as her gaze went from the corpse of her friend to the person standing behind him, rage filled her heart like never before.

“Bakura!” She yelled, pushing Jaden out of the way and taking a step towards the scared white haired boy. She wanted to make him pay, she wanted to make him suffer. “I fucking knew-”

Suddenly the building quaked. The center of the building started to crumble as a cyan colored bolt of lightning shot up through it, into the skies.

What now?

But despite the huge, erratic, cyan light shooting out of the building, what grabbed her attention was Seto, holding his head between his hands with his mouth open in an expression of pain. She assumed he was screaming, but she couldn’t hear him through all the noise and her still ringing ears.

Movement caught her attention from the corner of her eyes, and she quickly looked to find a little green haired boy looking down at his hands.

Noah? With a physical body?

Hatred mixed in with her rage, but she had to stop whatever was happening to Seto. She quickly grabbed Mokuba by the arm and pushed him towards Jaden. She hand’t meant to be so brusque and forceful, she had just meant to keep him safe. She would apologize to him afterwards. Running towards Seto, she willed one of her dancers, with all of her wrath, to kill Noah.

The building kept shaking, making it difficult for her to run straight to Seto, and as she stumbled, she saw that Seto’s Red Obelisk was glowing red as well and seemingly being absorbed by something. For a split second she had thought she had seen a dark serpentine body, greater than even Slifer but she blinked and it was gone.

Panic and confusion mixed in with all of the emotions she had been feeling already. They had beaten the unbeatable, what had they missed?

Pharaoh’s Valkyrion and Arcana Joker flew towards Obelisk as Luna slowed down and squinted. The tremors alone was making it hard for her to move, but the erratic cyan light was making her feel like the ground was constantly coming up to trip her up. When she looked at the ground in front of her to make sure of her footing, she realized that there was a big long shadow that didn’t seem affected by the glowing light. Her eye followed it to Joey, then quickly look back to see that the shadow was coming from Bakura.

“Joey!” She called out, as desperation gripped her heart, but he was looking up towards Obelisk even as a darker, more determined Bakura appeared behind him and stabbed the blond boy in the neck with a knife, then ripped the blade out again and stabbed him once again.

She couldn’t remember whether she had screamed or not, someone had, but the symbol of a golden eye appeared on Joey’s forehead just as it had on Marik’s, then as it faded, it appeared on Seto’s forehead. But perhaps more alarming than that, was another man in white robes standing behind, the now kneeled, Seto Kaiba. Much like the bolt of light streaming out of the building, the man’s hair was that of a cyan color and his eyes mismatched of a cyan and yellow.

His appearance was sudden, but Luna now knew what that great serpentine body she had thought she had seen was, just as she knew the identity of this man who posed a much greater threat than Noah ever had.

Dartz.

Chapter Text

Noah was there, so why wouldn’t other villains? And yet the fact that the evil King of Atlantis was standing there in front of her, jarred her to the core. Were all of these villains working together? Is that what Noah had meant by we every time he spoke? What was their end game?

“Luna!” She heard Jaden yell. “Grab Seto and get out of there! The building is going to collapse!”

She quickly willed her dancers to attack Yami Bakura and Dartz as she made a run for Seto. She noted that Yami Bakura sank back into the shadow that he had come out of, but Dartz started to float.

What the hell?

A high pitched scream made her look back, but Jaden was helping Mokuba up onto his Meteor B. Dragon, her eyes darted around and found Noah holding on to a bloody stump where his left hand should have been. The ground shook much harder all of the sudden, making her turn back around.

Obelisk was almost completely absorbed, its owner was now on the ground, foaming at the corner of his mouth. When she finally got to him, she realized that he was having a convulsion. She quickly made her dancer come back to her to defend them as she tried to lift Seto onto her dragon before quickly realizing that it wasn’t going to work.

Luna then quickly got up on her dragon and willed her dancers to lift Seto onto her dragon, but before they could do so, the floor gave out under them. Panicking, she made her Slash Dragon grab Seto, but in doing so, she noticed a bloody Joey falling with the crumbling concrete around them.

Grab Joey- grab Marik as well!

She thought to her dancers, hoping they would be able to do so as she flew up. But before she could look for Jaden and Mokuba, she noticed that the world was changing colors. In confusion she looked down and saw mountains flickering in and out where Domino City had been. Forests and deserts, swamps and even a volcano. All of these different terrains seemed to be fading in and out of existence.

What is-

And before she could finish that thought, the bolt of cyan light that was coming out of the building suddenly burst, exploding with such force that it threw her dragon to the side. As she held on for dear life, she noticed that her dragon was also holding Seto tightly. But despite her trying her best to gain control back again to fly away, they kept on falling.

Come on! Don’t let us die like this!

Suddenly her dancers appeared and started pushing the dragon away from the KC Tower, which was now completely falling apart. She quickly noticed that none of her dancers were holding Marik or Joey.

No! What are you doing! Go find them!

But her dancers noticeably looked conflicted.

“They are already gone, master.” One of them said. “Our duty is to keep you safe.”

“You- you can talk?” Luna wondered out loud.

A soul shaking roar shook the world, making Luna turn to see the Great Leviathan where Obelisk had been. But where the KC Tower had been, was now a giant frozen fortress of some kind.  And before her head could wrap around all of that, the Great Leviathan roared once again but in a magnitude all of its own, sending a shockwave so powerful that knocked Luna unconscious when it passed through them.

…

Woosh

Woosh

She first noticed the wind in her face, then the sound of her dragon’s wings and finally, arms around her. She quickly forced her eyes open and noticed that one of her Lunalights was sitting behind her on the dragon and that her arms were around Luna to keep her from falling. She also noticed that Seto was sprawled on his stomach on her lap. He wasn’t convulsing anymore but she still quickly put her finger tips under his nose to see if he was still breathing.

It was faint, but he was still breathing. She then remembered that her Lunalights had spoken and wasn’t sure how to feel about it. She turned back to see her dancer, but couldn’t turn all the way around to see her face. She suddenly noticed how cold it was and saw that everything below them was white with snow.

“Where are we going?” She risked asking.

“We had to lose the demons that were after us, my sisters are getting rid of a few stragglers that pursued us, and we are now making our way to that cave down there.” The dancer answered as she pointed down towards nothing that stood out to Luna in the endless white.

It was too cold for her liking despite the warmth coming off of her dragon. It made her think of the last thing that she had touched that was incredibly warm, the Millennium Rod. She suddenly remembered Marik healing her and wondered if she could heal Seto.

Do it.

She swallowed hard, however, as she realized that she didn’t know how that worked. She tentatively put her hand out and grabbed at the air. Suddenly the ancient artifact formed into existence into her hand. She wondered if this was also thought based like her control of her monsters and started to focus on a mental image of the throne room and closed her eyes. She felt the artifact warming up in her hand and it took her a moment but she realized that she wasn’t hearing the flapping of her dragon’s wings anymore.

When she opened her eyes, she was actually there, where she had pictured. She turned to see the arm rest, but it was empty. Looking around, she saw the thousands of rare hunters still kneeled towards her.

“You.” She pointed to the nearest one. “Marik healed me twice using the Rod. Tell me how that- how that magic works.”

“The spell is a rather simple one, my liege.” The hunter said, not raising his hooded head. “What Lord Marik used was the transfer of pain and vitality.”

“Transfer?”

“Yes, my liege.” The hunter continued. “He transferred your pain to us and our vitality, to you.”

Luna was at a loss for words.

“I didn’t ask him to do that!” She said, suddenly wondering what these rare hunters thought of her.

“You didn’t have to. We trusted him completely with our lives.” The hunter explained. “He made sure to spread the pain evenly amongst all of us so as to not take too much of a toll on us, just as he took only a fraction of the vitality of everyone here, including his own.”

Suddenly she felt sorry for them, for him. But perhaps above all, she felt anger and disappointment at herself for being inadequate. If only she had fought better, if only she had thought things through. What made her think she could save this world? She couldn’t save her friends, she couldn’t even save herself.

What does it matter if a few villains suffer for you? They swore loyalty to Marik, they should have died for him, and they failed!

Guilt grew in her mind at how dark her thoughts had gotten, but thinking of how Marik had died and how she should have dealt with Bakura much sooner just made her fume with anger. She felt so angry at everything that had happened thus far.

Someone has to pay for everything that happened. Why not them? What did they do to help? They simply sat there and watched their supposed leader die.

She felt like she was losing control of her own feelings and thoughts.

Look at them, they are nobodies. They are the scum who hurt and stole from others.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, hoping it would shake these thoughts from her head. When she opened them, she was on her Slash Dragon once again. Her breathing was ragged and her heart pounding, what had that been all about?

“Are you well, master?” the dancer behind her asked, startling Luna for a second.

I will never get used to being called master and my liege.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to think clearly about the situation.

Great Leviathan. Great Leviathan.

In the anime, Dartz had tricked Yugi to absorb the power of the god cards to revive the Great Leviathan. She thought it safe to assume that they had been tricked into summoning all three god cards as well. They had just walked into their trap and Noah was nothing but the means to do so.

Also in the anime, the Great Leviathan affected both the spirit world and the physical world. Maybe the power of the god cards in this world, which made things become real, was being used now to bring an entire other world to the reality here. Was that why her dancers could talk now?

“Is there anything you can do for Seto?” She asked, wondering if maybe her monsters had some different powers now.

“I’m sorry to say that there is nothing I can do aside from ending his sufferi-”

“No.” She stopped her monster as they finally landed by the large entrance of a cave. “Could you always talk?”

“In my world, yes.” The dancer said as she got off of the dragon and helped Luna come down. “But in here, my sisters and I were simply an avatar of sorts, only gaining full control of this body after the appearance of the Great Leviathan.

So that really is what is happening.

“Is all of this terrain also brought here from-” She wondered how to word it. “From where you were?”

“I believe it’s a small part of the spirit world, master.” The dancer said, lifting Seto off of the dragon as if he weighed nothing. “I’m not fully certain of it, but I do feel a certain energy coming off of our surroundings that I hadn’t felt simply as your avatar.”

The dancer laid Seto by the dragon.

“I will check the inside of the cave to make sure it’s safe.” She said as she bowed and went in, leaving Luna and Seto outside with the dragon.

Luna rubbed her arms as she shivered for a moment. It was almost unbelievable how quickly things had changed since they had all made it to the top of the tower. She hoped Jaden and Mokuba were okay. But Marik and Joey-

She felt a hot tear coming down her face as she realized they might never get a proper burial, their bodies simply lost somewhere in the walls of that gargantuan ice fortress that had taken the place of the crumbling Kaiba Corp Tower. She quickly wiped the tear with her hands, feeling her heart speed up as she started to feel that seething anger once again.

I will avenge them. I will kill Bakura, I will kill Dartz and Noah and anyone else who stands in my way!

“Master.” Her dancer’s sudden reappearance had startled her. “It is empty and quite spacious inside.”

The entrance was just large enough for her slash dragon to squeeze through, but the inside was immense. The crystalline walls however, did nothing to make it warmer than outside. They placed Seto by the Slash Dragon as it emitted heat, but to Luna’s worry, Kaiba still felt cold to the touch. She kept checking his pulse and his breathing to make sure he was still alive, but felt like he was only holding on by a thread.

Her other two dancers made it back and stood guard by the exit. She wondered what it was that kept them loyal to her, whether any monster she summons would be unquestionably loyal to her. If they were real and sentient, they probably had their own drives and motives. What they were, was beyond her.

“It won’t be long now, master.” The dancer that rode the dragon with her stated.

It took a second for Luna to realize that the Lunalight was referring to Seto, and saw that he had started to shiver. Instinctively, she made the Millennium Rod appear again but hesitated.

Do it! What else can you do? Can you really let Seto die like this? After Marik? After Joey? You can stop this here and now!

She slowly pointed the rod towards Seto, wondering if this was really okay.

What will you tell Mokuba if you let Seto die here?

Clenching her teeth, Luna focused on taking the pain away from Seto. Immediately, her rod started to shine, but so did the sudden appearance of a symbol of the golden eye on Seto’s forehead.

“This is not the way, Luna.”

A familiar deep voice made her look up and realize that she was in yet another throne room, but unlike her own, this one was much better lit and devoid of creepy men in purple cloaks. Upon the, much bigger and nicer, throne sat Atem in his full pharaoh getup.

“Pharaoh?” She asked, wondering where she was now.

“I understand how you must fe-”

“Do you?” She stopped him. “I let everyone down!”

Her eyes threatened to cry once more as an uncontrollable anger spilled out of her heart.

“There’s no one left!” She said, suddenly and utterly lonely. “I can’t fail him too. I- I can’t.”

The Pharaoh looked very exhausted and defeated.

“Believe me, I know.” He said before taking a deep breath. “Yugi is in a coma and now Joey- I have failed them as well. But saving Seto’s life at the cost of others should not- is not and alternative we can consider.”

“You would have me stay idle as Seto dies? You would love it to rid yourself of your rival, wouldn’t you?”

The Pharaoh suddenly looked alarmed.

“Luna-” He stammered as he took a step back. “It is still Luna in there, right?”

Momentarily confused, she wondered what he meant. But it was only when she looked past the Pharaoh, onto her own reflection on the golden surface of the throne that she saw the cause of Atem’s alarmed reaction.

A chill ran down her spine as she saw big protruding veins upon her own face and even her eyes didn’t seem her own. What had happened to her? She wondered if she could have been possessed by Yami Marik, but Marik had dealt with him hadn’t he?

Do not falter now in the presence of your enemy, do not let the Pharaoh stand in your way!

Were this her thoughts?

“I’m sensing a great darkness within you, something I had not felt out in the physical realm, Luna.” The Pharaoh said. “What happened to you?”

She didn’t know.

Take him out now! You can overpower him with the power of the Millennium Rod! None shall stand in your way! All must kneel or perish!

She felt it was getting harder to control her own thoughts.

“Help me.” She was able to say with some effort. “Please.”

The Pharaoh’s Millennium Puzzle suddenly started to shine very brightly as the symbol of the golden eye appeared on his forehead once again. He quickly stretched his open palm towards Luna.

“This may hurt.” He warned.

But before she could react, she felt like her entire body was being ripped apart, making her scream in pain. The pain however, was momentary, gone as quickly as it had started.

Opening her eyes, she saw someone standing in front of her, between her and the Pharaoh. It took her only a heartbeat to realize that the person in front of her was wearing the same white coat as she was, and wore her hair in the exact same way.

“Who are you, dark spirit?” The Pharaoh asked the person in front of Luna.

A laugh, eerily sounding like Luna’s own laugh echoed through the throne room. The person turned to face Luna. The person in front of her was the reflection she had seen, looking exactly like Luna but with thick veins on her face and eyes that seemed almost inhuman.

“This one called us, dark beings, as Yami.” Luna’s evil twin observed out loud. “I guess you could call me-”

Yami Luna.

Chapter Text

“Begone!” the Pharaoh yelled as he seemingly shot another invisible force out of his open palm.

But Yami Luna took the attack and laughed even louder.

“You have no idea how much untapped power and-” Yami Luna paused as she showed her teeth and spoke through them. “anger Luna has. Not to mention, your new vessel seems to be not doing so well, Pharaoh. Is he rejecting you?”

The Pharaoh stayed quiet and seemed to brace himself as Yami Luna, still laughing, stepped towards him.

“Stop!” Luna yelled, but Yami Luna seemingly ignored her and took yet another step towards the Pharaoh.

Luna still had no idea how her Millennium Rod worked, but she aimed it towards Yami Luna and willed with all of her might for Yami Luna to stop. To her surprise, she did stop and turned her head slowly to look at Luna.

“How long do you think you can hold me?” Yami Luna asked with a smirk.

“If you let him be, I-” Luna wondered what she could say. “I will let you stay. In my throne room, of course.”

“What makes you think that’s your throne room and not mine?” Yami Luna scoffed.

“You said the Pharaoh is weaker because his vessel is rejecting him. What if I keep rejecting you?” Luna posed the question, hoping Yami Luna would see things her way. “I will accept you as long as you don’t harm anyone and stay in the throne room.”

“Like a good little dog?” Yami Luna asked, seeming more amused than angry. “How about I just take you out and take over your body? Doesn’t that sound better?”

And as Yami Luna reached for her, Luna instinctively aimed her rod higher towards Yami Luna’s head and focused on stopping her and rejecting her.

Yami Luna faltered for just a second, but it was long enough for the Pharaoh to lunge at the evil Luna and put his hand on her head. His hand glowed as Yami Luna screamed and shattered into a thousand pieces. Luna’s heart was beating too fast and her breathing was ragged. It was disconcerting to see herself screaming and shattering, but also infinitely relieving.

“Is she gone?” She asked with her Millennium Rod still up, while looking around.

“For the time being.” The Pharaoh said, regaining his composure. “But I had done the same to Bakura back in Duel Kingdom, and his darker self stabbed Joey just today.”

He was right, in the anime, whenever Atem used the power of the Millennium Puzzle on the villains, they were never really gone for good. She would have to be ready for when Yami Luna appeared again.

“How do you feel?” the Pharaoh asked as Luna lowered her rod and tried to regain her composure as well.

She didn’t feel any better, but she did think that she felt a little less angry.

“So Seto is your new vessel, huh?” she asked awkwardly as she took a deep breath to calm down.

“Yes, I honestly don’t know how this works. I don’t know why it worked with Joey and now why I’m with Seto.” The Pharaoh admitted.

Probably because you three were the legendary knights of Atlantis and share a bond like no other.

“Can you get in touch with Seto?” she asked, wondering how much time they had left.

“I have been trying, but I think a part of him may have been absorbed along with Obelisk.” The Pharaoh said, back to looking worried. “I can’t sense him- completely there. But I promise you that using the Millennium Rod is not the way to do it. With a part of him missing, who knows what this dark magic could do to him.”

Luna nodded weakly, all the while wondering if this was it for Seto.

“This may be a long shot, but if we destroy that thing that absorbed Obelisk, then maybe Seto could come back to normal.”

Luna looked at the Pharaoh for a moment, taking in the implication of such a task.

“And by we you mean-” She pointed at herself with a thumb to which the Pharaoh grimly nodded.

“You are the only one between us with a working physical body.” He noted out loud. “I know it may seem daunting, but remember, you have the power of friendship. All of our friends will be right there with you.”

That frustrated her.

“What-” she took a deep breath. “What does that even mean? This isn’t how it works here anymore, Pharaoh. This is real life! Our friends died! For real!”

The Great Leviathan wasn’t even a real card in her world, she had no idea how to destroy it, not to mention that it required all the three god cards in the anime for Atem to defeat it.

She suddenly felt a presence in the back of her mind and turned around to see nothing and no one behind her.

“What’s wrong?” the Pharaoh asked, also looking in the direction she had looked at.

“I don’t know, there is someone- somewhere.”

My liege.

Luna jumped and looked around once more, making the Pharaoh look alarmed.

Lord Marik had us excavate ancient monster tablets after he had tapped into the mind of the other offworlder, I believe that is how he had planned to conquer the world. Perhaps that will serve to further your own cause.

She wondered if he was talking about Jaden.

“What ancient tablets?” She asked out loud, making the Pharaoh look around once again.

“Who are you talking to?”

Ancient lost tablets of great power, of monsters we had never heard of before.

“Tell me more about it.” She said before turning to Atem. “I have to go, maybe we can defeat the Great Leviathan after all.”

But as she returned to the physical world, she saw her dancers, seemingly ready for battle, pointing their blades towards the exit.

And as she watched, a man in hooded pale robes walked in. The hair in the back of her neck stood as she momentarily thought Dartz had found them, but the man put his hood back, revealing long white hair and short beard.

Luna instantly recognized him even before he opened his eyes to reveal such clear blue eyes.

Master with Eyes of Blue.

“Hello, there.” He said with a smile.

Luna had to stop herself from instinctively responding with General Kenobi. But as she tried to focus more, she realized this was a monster spirit and wondered whether someone had summoned him here or if he was brought to this world by the Great Leviathan.

Her dancers still had their blades pointed at the older man, but he didn’t seem too fazed by them.

“Hi.” Luna managed after looking up and down at him for a moment. “What brings you here?”

The older man smiled kindly at the question and gestured with his hand towards Seto.

“The cry of a Blue-Eyes has attracted me here.” He said, as if that meant anything to Luna. “But never in my wildest dreams have I expected to see not one, but two blue eyed souls in one place.”

“My eyes are bluish green.” She said, keeping silent about her hair having never been white.

“In this world, yes.” The man admitted before pointing once again at Seto. “May I?”

Her dancers kept their blades steady but their eyes turned to their master. Luna nodded and moved out of the way reluctantly.

“Run him through with your blades if he tries anything funny.” She said out loud for the man to hear.

But the older man didn’t seem to mind. He crouched by Seto and hovered his hands over him.

“Tell me, how does a blue eyed soul use a Red-Eyes dragon without any repercussions?” He asked without looking at her. “How do such foul beasts even listen or comprehend you?”

“I don’t know what a blue eyed soul is. But my Slash Dragon has been nothing but helpful and loyal.” She said, while still taking a look at her dragon to see if it seemed any different now that monsters were sentient.

“That’s impressive.” He said before putting his hands down and finally looking at Luna.

His gaze lingered a second too long, making her feel a little uneasy.

“A very long time ago, back in my world. I was a caretaker of a mausoleum. We called it the Masoleum of White.” The man told, seemingly not in any hurry.

Luna wondered what was happening and where this story was leading.

“There were five us, tasked with protecting the mausoleum until the day that the white dragons would return to us. You see, it is the cycle of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon to die and to return.” The man said, stroking his beard. “In that sense, we were and are eternal.”

“I’m sorry, is this going anywhere?” Luna said wondering if she should kick him out before leaving the cave herself, to meet her rare hunters.

The man continued to smile kindly and nodded.

“One day, two of the white dragons did not return on their fated hour.” He continued as his eyes grew distant. “And two of our brightest decided to go find them, promising to return before long. They crossed the threshold of the worlds and I never saw them again.”

Luna wondered if this man could really help or if he had grown senile with age.

“But as the worlds converged today, after all these centuries. I felt their presence once again.” The man said, standing up with the help of his dragon shaped cane. “And as I stand here, I feel as if I am amongst my old friends.”

“I’m sorry, but we’ve never met.” Luna said, wondering if she should tell him that she herself was not from this world either.

“The Protector with Eyes of Blue.” He said as he gestured towards Seto, before motioning with his hand towards Luna. “And the Maiden with Eyes of Blue.”

What?

“Maybe you have reincarnated several times and maybe even lost your way. But I am sure of it.” The man said, smiling knowingly. “For the Beacon of White shines within both of you.”

“Maybe you haven’t noticed, but Seto is dying. He is fading from this world. And I need to find a way to save him.” She said harsher than she had intended. “If you can’t help, then please don’t waste our time.”

“I can’t.” He said before Luna could turn away. “But you can.”

Part of her still wondered if he was just a senile old man, but if there was even just a chance that this could save Seto, she would do anything.

“Despite being here, I am still just a spirit. But you and him, you have been born and reborn. You have bodies and tangible life essence.” He said as he pointed his cane, which weakly glowed white, towards Seto. “His, is white but very weak. It like half of it is missing. But yours-”

The man pointed his cane towards Luna and the cane shone so brightly that Luna had to shield her eyes with her hands. She thought she had seen the light flicker for a split second, but it was hard to tell with how bright it was.

“Yours is also white, as I had predicted, but also overflowing. You can share part of this with him and it will temporarily make him better. Or, you can perform the White Dragon Ritual and tether him to you, just as you were tethered to the Sage. Though, of course, that was before he turned away from the path of the blue eyes.”

She didn’t understand half of what had been said.

“What does that mean?” She asked as she looked worriedly towards Seto.

“It means that, in some ways, you would become one.”

“Like- physically?”

“No, in spirit.” The man said as he set his cane down and started to rub his hands together. “That way he would stay alive, as long as you stay alive. Just as you are now alive because the Sage lives, even if he is no longer one of us.”

He suddenly stopped rubbing his hands and clapped, causing a blue spark. When Luna looked, he was holding two silver bracelets with two blue gemstones each, which he extended to her.

“You will most likely need to send your Red-Eyes dragon away. Then, summon your Blue-Eyes, which I assume should be no issue for a blue eyed soul such as yourself, and spend the night with the Protector, each wearing a bracelet. That will work as a sort of syphon, opening the essence and power of both you and your dragon to the Protector.” The man said all of this as if he had been telling her his recipe to making a pie.

“What do you mean by spend the night?” She asked, suddenly feeling her face warm up.

That seemed to take the old man by surprise.

“Well, I mean, survive the night by him, with him.” He said seemingly confused as to how she couldn’t understand that.

“Wait, survive? Survive what?” She asked suddenly alarmed.

But the old man seemed to be at a loss of words.

“Well- the night, of course.” He said looking at Seto then back at her. “It’s going to be a real cold night.”

Luna still didn’t fully understand what it was she had to do, but was somewhat relieved, as she was almost certain that meant it wasn’t anything sexual.

“Okay, but you are sure Seto will stay alive until night time?” She asked as she put her bracelet on and grabbed her Blue-Eyes Alternative Dragon from her first deck box.

“Oh, it’s already night time.” The man said as he turned around. “I will be outside. Oh, and uh, it goes without saying, but since you were asking a lot of questions that I thought were obvious- You have to keep him alive through the night.”

“Oh.” She said not sure what that meant either.

As she put her card on her duel disk, the entire cave shook. The roar of the dragon was heard before it even shattered through some kind of dimensional barrier and appeared in front of her. Blue-Eyes Alternative Dragon was her favorite Blue-Eyes, and it was magnificent to see it out in the physical world.

Hello, old friend.

“Wow, I’ve-” The man stammered for a moment. “I’ve actually never seen this white dragon before. No wonder your essence was overflowing, you have such a powerful dragon in your possession!”

You should see my other one.

Suddenly, her new dragon roared towards her Slash Dragon, which roared back.

Luna quickly took out her Slash Dragon’s card from her duel disk, but nothing seemed to happen as the white dragon snapped its mighty jaws at the black dragon.

“What are you doing? Send your Red-Eyes out of the cave!” The man said, seemingly scared.

Luna willed her Slash Dragon to leave as she did her best to keep the Alternative Dragon from attacking her Slash Dragon.

Her three dancers stood and watched Luna.

“Shall we stay, master?” One of them asked.

“No, keep watch outside.” She said as she suddenly noticed that her dancers weren’t wearing much at all. “Keep my dragon company, yeah? He is very warm, so he should keep you guys warm at night.”

“We are Lunalight, master. We do not require warmth.” The dancer said with a nod. “But thank you for caring.”

When they had all left, she looked back towards Seto and her Alternative Dragon. She took a deep breath, she didn’t even know why she was so nervous. She was doing this to save him, nothing else.

She placed the bracelet on Seto’s wrist, noting that he was very cold to the touch, and saw the blue stones on both bracelets light up. She strangely felt like something had unlocked inside of her, but couldn’t quite point to exactly what that was. She then laid down by Seto and realized how hard and cold the floor was.

“Hey.” She called out to her Alternative Dragon, who came closer to her.

But when she touched the dragon, she realized that unlike her Red-Eyes dragons, her Blue-Eyes was not giving off any heat, and was cold to the touch.

“I’m kinda disappointed, kid.” She said as her dragon made an uncharacteristically whimpy noise. “It’s okay, I guess.”

She took her coat out and placed it on the floor, then awkwardly dragged and rolled Seto onto it. She then took his coat off and put it over them as a sort of blanket. It wasn’t much better, but she felt like it was probably better than just lying stiffly on the ice floor.

Suddenly she remembered reading somewhere that skin contact was better for thermoregulation and look towards Seto. He was very still, seeming almost serene. She wondered if she would even be able to take his clothes off or even if that was okay. She shook her head and decided they would just sleep like this as she wasn’t even sure if the skin contact thing was real or not.

Not twenty minutes had passed when she found herself effortfully undressing Seto. After all, he had been icy cold and she felt like she had to try anything and everything to increase his chance of survival.

I’m doing this to save his life. I’m doing this so he can live.

She kept repeating in her head as she also got undressed and reluctantly embraced him under their clothes that she had piled on top of them.

Chapter Text

The night was freezing cold, it didn’t help that Seto felt like he had already frozen by the time she had embraced him. But it did stop him from shivering and trembling, giving her a sliver of hope. She couldn’t sleep, however, as she felt awkward about their naked bodies being pressed together. The mixture of hope and worry, embarrassment and awkwardness was something she didn’t want to ever get used to.

Becoming one.

She had always imagined that she would be in such a situation with someone she was in love with. The problem was, that she had never fallen in love with people out in her world. As a kid she had a childish crush on Seto Kaiba, but back then he wasn’t a real person. And yeah, she still collected all things Kaiba and she thought she still crushed on him, but now that he was a real person, she didn’t know how to feel anymore.

It wasn’t like they had interacted all that much while she had been here. She thought they had a moment back in the apartments. But her interaction with him since had all been a little off the mark than she had expected or even hoped. She didn’t know what he thought or felt, but it seemed like he was still just a power seeking genius whose ambition knew no bounds, be it moral or social. Sure, she still liked him, perhaps more than she had ever liked anyone she had ever met. But she just wasn’t sure that was the kind of man she could fall in love with. Still, it broke her heart to see him this way.

She sighed as her finger traced his chin.

You sure are handsome though, poopy heartbreaker.

She thought as she let out another, longer sigh. She hoped with all that she was that he would be alive and well the next morning, and closed her eyes. In the corner of her drowsy mind, she felt the bracelet on her wrist start softly vibrating, but she was too tired and her mind soon spiraled into the darkness of sleep.

…

Luna opened her eyes and found herself in some sort of ruins. It was only when she looked at the grass around her that she realized that everything seemed to have been hand painted. Was this a dream?

She walked deeper into the ruins and found five statues, out of which one seemed to be half destroyed. The first statue was of an old man with a cane, the plaque below him read The Master and as Luna read the plaque, the statue’s eyes glowed blue, though faintly. The second statue was of a woman wearing a sort of ornamental headband, on her right hand she held fan in the shape of a dragon. The plaque below her read The Priestess, but her eyes did not glow.

The third statue was the broken one, his arms were long gone, and so was half of his chest and head. His plaque read The Sage. And as Luna read it, the one eye that the statue still had glowed red.

The fourth statue was of a young woman, her long hair reached her knees, but her smile seemed to reach her heart. Her plaque read The Maiden, and as she read it, the statue’s eyes glowed one red and one blue. The final statue was of a young man holding a large sword, he looked somehow fierce and placid at the same time. His plaque read The Protector, and as she read it, his eyes glowed weakly blue, the light flickering as if about to be snuffed out.

For whatever reason, Luna felt alarmed and reached out to the statue of the protector and realized that on her wrist was a silver bracelet, upon which two blue gemstones glowed. As she touched the statue of the protector, both her bracelet and his eyes started to glow much stronger, the blue light from them, making everything blue in her eyes.

When Luna blinked she realized she was coming down some stairs with several men in suits. She recognized the place, it was the ground floor of KC Tower. As she looked at the people walking around the Tower, she noticed herself walking behind Mokuba and Jaden. But how could she be walking by Mokuba below the stairs and walking down the stairs at the same time?

And as she looked more intently at the Luna that was walking by Mokuba, she couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was. Her eyes were filled with wonder and excitement, and she was also holding a duel disk.

So people I don’t know were able to defeat my AI, did I make it too easy?

It was a new feeling though, not many people were able to grab her attention without them even meeting.

“Mokuba!” She felt her mouth move but the voice that came out was that of Seto’s. She could see that the other Luna visibly changed her posture and blinked a few times before looking towards her. “Have you eaten?”

“Yeah, I got something at the company’s restaurant. But I was just checking out some of the participants.” Mokuba sounded excited, it wasn’t often that she had heard her little brother sound so excited. “This here is Jaden Yuki, he beat the Lv. 40 AI by turn 2.”

She looked at this Jaden just briefly, he didn’t interest her, but the girl did.

“And this is Luna, she beat Lv. 80 Kaibaman by turn 4!” Mokuba said proudly.

Lv. 80? Where did she come from, how come I never heard of her before?

“I have never seen anyone duel like her!” Mokuba continued, making Luna hope this new girl wasn’t somehow using her little brother.

“Is that right?” she heard Seto’s voice coming out her mouth once again.

This Luna girl didn’t look to be a bad person, and something about her attracted her. Attraction, it was an uncomfortable feeling that she wasn’t used to.

“Quite the world you got here, Mr. Kaiba!” The girl blurted out. “I mean, building- quite the building!”

Had she heard that from anyone else, she would have considered them less than human and walked away, but something about the way she said it and the way she held herself. Luna couldn’t help but think it was cute and wanted to laugh. But she couldn’t do that, she was surrounded by her employees and he couldn’t seem less than professional in front of them.

“What are your plans for today?” She quickly asked her little brother so as to distract her own mind.

Suddenly everything got blurry as if something had gotten into her eyes, she blinked a few times and found herself at a long table. She recognized the place despite a part of her telling her that she had never been there. And yet, she knew for a fact that she was in the Kaiba Mansion, sitting at their dining table.

Her little brother ran in holding a duel disk.

“I did it, Seto! I did it!” Mokuba sounded so excited. “Luna helped me make a deck and I beat the Lv. 40 AI, I’m going to be participating in your tournament as well!”

She was equal parts excited for her little brother as she was sad for him. How come she hadn’t noticed that he was into Duel Monsters as much as she was? How could she not have noticed that this was a passion they both shared? Had she really been so focused in work that she had lost sight what truly mattered to her? No it couldn’t be. It must be that girl from earlier that day.

That Luna.

She had robbed her of her opportunity of making a deck with her little brother. Who did she think she was?

“Look, this is my ace.” Mokuba continued to talk excitedly, showing her a Meteor B. Dragon.

“Where did you get this?” She asked, sure that she had given hers away to a charity auction a long time ago.

“Oh.” Mokuba’s excitement suddenly died down. “Don’t be mad, Seto.”

Her little brother bit his lips as he visibly struggled with what to tell her.

“Luna gave it to me.” He finally said. “She said it was to thank me for all the help and that I didn’t have to pay her back or anything.”

“Mokuba!” She yelled louder than she had intended. “What’s the one rule that we have?”

Mokuba looked scared, it broke her heart to see him that way, she didn’t want him to be scared of her.

“Don’t take anything from others.” Mokuba said, not meeting her eyes.

“That’s right. We earn everything with our own hands, Mokuba. Don’t let anyone look down on you.” She said as she got up from the table.

“Luna doesn’t look down on me! She really cares!” Mokuba said, uncharacteristically rebellious.

“You don’t even know her!” She said, suddenly furious. “Stay here, I will go pay her. No Kaiba owes anyone anything.”

“I can promise you that she won’t take your money.” Mokuba mumbled just loud enough to be heard.

“Enough, Mokuba!” Luna said, already turning around and dialing 2 on her phone. “Ready the chopper, Roland.”

Whoever this Luna was, she was going to show her that no one is able to use the Kaiba brothers so easily.

In the helicopter, she was thinking of all the things she would tell this Luna. Maybe even challenge her to a duel to put her in her place.

“Sir, the person you were looking for. I think I see her down on the street below us.” Roland’s voice crackled through Luna’s headset.

She looked out the window but they were a bit too far up to tell for sure whether that was her. But she trusted Roland, he had never failed her in all of these years he had worked for her.

“Land it.” She said, and as they neared the ground, she suddenly realized that the girl was being chased by some freaks in purple robes. “What the hell is going on here?”

As the chopper neared them, the hooded men ran away, but the girl kept coming towards the helicopter.

Luna opened the door, feeling worried about the girl despite everything she had planned to tell her before.

“Are you okay?” she asked, seeing how the girl was visibly shaken.

The girl didn’t say anything for a moment, but it was as if the air around them was electrified. She wasn’t one to believe in fate or any of that nonsense, but she wondered if there was something about this girl that made her feel so- connected somehow.

“They went- after Jaden! They- Rare Hunters- force- and cheat to win rare cards!” the girl spoke at the speed of light, between breaths.

It was a little difficult to hear her over the sound of the helicopter, but Luna thought she got the jist of it.

“Get on the chopper, he will take you home!” Luna said and led the girl to the chopper.

“But Jad-” the girl started to say.

“I’ll get him.” Luna said, putting on her duel disk. It seemed, she was going to duel someone one way or the other.

“There are at least five of them!” The girl seemed very worried, but whether she was worried about her friend or about Luna, it was hard to tell.

“It’s fine.” Luna assured the girl, who did she think Luna was? She was none other than Seto Kaiba. She had only ever lost to Yugi Muto, and she was going to correct that in this coming tournament. With that, she turned to talk to Roland. “Take her back to the dorm building and come back around to find me.”

“Be careful! they cheat! Some of them even have Exodia!” The girl said.

Despite her mention of cheating and of Exodia, the first card she had ever lost to, Luna focused on the first part. It was weird having someone tell her to be careful, it was different and not something she had ever gotten used to, and yet it felt nice.

“I will get my duel disk and come-” the girl was saying, but Luna put a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey.” She told her, withholding the strange urge to hug the girl. “You don’t have to worry.”

Luna gave her a confident, but soft smile, something she didn’t show others so easily. And as the helicopter took off with this strange girl that made her want to smile and hug, Luna wondered what was wrong with her. Why was she feeling like this? It made her feel silly.

Luna shook the thoughts out of her head as she headed down the street. These so called rare hunters picked the wrong city to mess around in.

It took her a while, but by the time she had found the other kid, no rare hunters were in sight. Jaden, however, seemed quite battered up. As she helped him up and helped him to move out onto the street, she heard her helicopter coming back.

When the helicopter landed and the door opened, the girl ran out with her duel disk in hand. She was brave, Luna would give her that. And perhaps even kind, as anyone else probably would have stayed in the safety of their apartments. As the girl approached them, Luna had the sudden urge to run towards her an embrace her, but that was crazy. Was she going crazy?

This scene also got blurry. In the back of her mind Luna recognized that these events had already happened and that these were some kind of memories. And just like that, Luna went through all of Seto’s memories in his point of view, with his thoughts as her own.

From the little moment they shared with the door between them, to when he found her dueling Strings, he was constantly thinking of her and slowly coming around to accepting his feelings for her as real. He had constantly kept tabs on her throughout her duels in Battle City to see how she was and in doing so, he found admiration and even respect for her as a duelist.

When he had visited her at the hospital, he really had been there to make sure she was okay, not thinking about the god card until he saw her trying to hand Slifer over to Joey. And when she was thinking about how to stop Odion, through Seto’s eyes, she saw that Odion was about to play more cards while glaring at Luna. Through Seto’s mind she knew the desperation he felt as the dozens of hypothetical situations played through his mind as they all came to the conclusion that Odion would not stop unless he won or unless he was stopped for good. Through Seto’s thoughts, she felt his determination as he would not have her make that decision and that he would take it upon himself. He was thinking of her even as he willed his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon to blast through Odion, because his heart had shattered when he saw that she blamed herself for the death of Strings.

Even when he landed by Odion before Luna could get to him, he wanted to keep her from seeing Odion’s body. And when she asked him about how unfazed he looked from having murdered someone in cold blood, she felt the pain of Seto’s heart being broken by her.

And yet, despite that, it took everything in him to fly away from her after Noah’s first announcement.

She also saw that in her absence, he had intervened in a battle between Alister with his Air Force Ziggurat and Mako with his heavily outclassed Legendary Fisherman. But before Alister could lose to Seto, Valon joined in using all of his armor cards on himself. It was a tough fight, but they got harder still when finally Rafael came at him with all of his Guardian cards. Seto eventually defeated all three at once, despite their Seal of Orichalcos having been activated, a feat that not even Atem had been able to do in the anime. But of course, Seto had no idea who Rafael, Valon, and Alister were for him to be able to warn Luna about Dartz. Still, it was no wonder he had been gone for such a long time. And as Luna looked down at Seto’s hands, three cards appeared.

The Eye of Timaeus, The Claw of Hermos, and The Fang of Critias.

He stared at them for a short while before putting them away, thinking he didn’t have the time to be reading cards he had never seen before.

It was only then that he saw Luna’s impressive Red-Eyes energy burst across the sky. Luna assumed that had been the time she had saved Mai from Jinzo. But Seto had been quite far from the Tower. He flew towards the Tower at full speed, hoping that Luna had found Mokuba and that they were okay. He started to fly diagonally in order to get to Luna faster, but it was impossible to tell how far she had gone up. He kept hoping that the energy burst had been simply a signal to him and not her being in a fight, he couldn’t imagine what she must be fighting in order to release such a powerful beam.

But as the skies darkened and he got closer towards the top, his heart dropped as he saw Luna’s Inferno Apocalypse, the attack she had put all of her Red-Eyes’ powers behind as a last resort. The sky seemed to have been ripped apart as the red took over the entire visible spectrum for a moment. He was disoriented from the sheer power and brightness of the attack but his heart was beating faster for a different reason.

Luna felt that Seto was torn in that moment. On the one hand he had hoped Luna was the one who had made that attack as he couldn’t imagine anyone having survived that. On the other, he hoped she wasn’t fighting anything that she had felt the necessity to use such an attack.

He willed with all of his might for his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon to fly upwards as fast as it could as the worry ate away at him. He had to get to her and Mokuba, before anything happened to them.

“Neutron Blast!” Luna had yelled through Seto as his heart seemed to be about to burst when he saw her attacks doing nothing to the Five-Headed Dragon.

She felt how desperately he had attacked as he couldn’t forgive them for hurting Luna. She felt his relief as he saw that she and Mokuba were still alive, but also his anger when he realized that she had been doing most of the fight against the Five-Headed Dragon.

Every time he had stolen a glance at Luna and every moment he stayed silent despite wanting to talk to her, she felt it and experienced it through him. Even the hint as jealousy as he saw how close she and Marik had gotten. How could she do that? When she had gotten mad at him for stopping Odion while Marik there had literally killed countless people just from summoning his Winged Dragon of Ra?

And even as they fought Noah, Luna could feel Seto’s attention split between making sure Mokuba was safe, checking to see that Luna was okay, and defeating his enemies. Though he was worried about her, not for a second did he doubt her choices and strategy. Even when he found out that she was from another world, had it been Yugi or Joey, he would have scoffed and laughed. But something about Luna, he knew she was different from the start, and though the idea of other worlds existing was ridiculous, it did explain the mystery that was Luna. What it didn’t explain was this connection he felt. She could tell that he hoped with all of his heart that he wasn’t just going crazy.

When she summoned her Slifer, Seto knew it was a last resort. And when that didn’t work, he knew that summoning his Obelisk was next, even if she had been against summoning the gods up until then. He trusted her. And they had done it, they really had saved the world, hadn’t they?

But then what was this huge serpentine monster, bigger even than Slifer, at the edge of space, staring into his soul? Luna now knew that Seto had been trying everything to move, but couldn’t. It was as if the Great Leviathan had hypnotized him, frozen him in place.

Even as Joey approached him and asked what that was, seemingly being able to see the great serpent as well, Seto couldn’t move at all. Even when he heard the scream behind him, even when he heard Luna yell Mokuba’s name.

He had been so intent on moving, on turning around, that by the time he noticed something more was going on, he was already exhausted. Only then did he realize that his energy had been draining slowly.

He had heard more yelling, but he could no longer distinguish what was happening as his panic grew. Suddenly a jolt of pain made his entire body flinch. By the time he was able to take a deep breath, he realized that he had been holding his head between his hands. But before he had any time to regain his composure, another jolt of pain made him clench his eyes. And through clenched eyes, he thought he had momentarily seen a woman with white hair and the deepest blue eyes.

When he was able to open his eyes again, he was already on the floor, and from there he could see his Obelisk glowing red as it started to fade in an out of existence. He realized that as Obelisk faded out, the giant snake-like monster was fading in and vice versa. But as Obelisk faded out, it felt as if he was about to die as well.

“Joey!” he heard someone call out and suddenly he was standing in a brightly lit place where everything seemed to be made of gold.

It took him a second, but he realized that he was at the base of some steps that led to a big throne, in front of which stood none other than Yugi. But this Yugi was taller, darker, and in a ridiculous looking costume.

“Seto?” Yugi asked seeming just as confused as Seto felt.

But before Seto could respond, he felt an excruciating pain on his back as the golden room faded into darkness along with his own mind.

Chapter Text

Luna forced her eyes open and felt disoriented. She quickly remembered that she was in a frozen cave with-

She felt her face suddenly warm up as she remembered.

“Luna?” She heard- no, more like felt his voice through the vibrations in her ear.

Suddenly she realized that she had her head leaned against Seto’s bare chest and sat up immediately.

“You are okay.” Seto said with such relief that it made her forget about everything else.

She didn’t even know how to process what she was feeling, but when a tear rolled out of her eyes she simply gave in to her impulse and hugged Seto.

“You-” she said as she started to cry harder. “you are alive! I was so scared!”

Seto hugged her back tightly.

“I’m okay now.” He said as Luna felt his soft breath on her ear. “We are okay now.”

She suddenly remembered.

“I don’t know where Mokuba is. Sorry.” She said as she pulled back from him a little to see his face. “I only had time to-”

“I know.” He stopped her, gently squeezing her shoulder. “I- I saw through your eyes and mind. Everything.”

“You too?” Luna felt weirdly excited. She wasn’t sure she would have brought that up if Seto hadn’t. “I did- wait. Everything? How far back?”

Seto stared at her for a second or two before smiling.

“That’s a lot of keychains and post cards of me, Luna.” He said, visibly trying to hold in a laugh. “And what was that uh- birthday dinner set? I had no idea you liked me so much.”

Luna wanted to dig a hole.

“It’s- It’s a different world, okay?” She said, wondering if that was a weak excuse. “Everyone there collects things, it’s not only me!”

“I don’t mind if it’s only you.” He said as his smile weakened.

For a second, she wondered if he was going to kiss her. She imagined she wouldn’t be against the idea, but Seto simply kept staring into her eyes. A few seconds passed before she started to feel uncomfortable.

“What’s going on? Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked. He did like her, didn’t he? She saw what he saw and felt what he felt, she was certain of it!

Suddenly she saw his face turn slightly red.

“It’s just that-” Seto said before swallowing hard. “I don’t know where else to look.”

And it was then that she saw his eyes dart down for a split second before coming back up to meet her eyes. Luna also looked down to see her bare breasts and suddenly grabbed one of their clothing to cover herself up.

“You just-” She said more embarrassed than angry. “You peeked!”

“Hey! I saw through your eyes when you undressed me, I saw that you peeked too!” Seto said, pointing at her with one hand as he fumbled around with his other hand to cover himself up as well.

“I was trying to save your life!” She said as she caught him staring once again. “Turn around!”

Seto promptly did so, but then turned back to hand her long sleeve shirt to her.

“Stop looking!” She yelled as she grabbed her shirt. “Pervert.”

“Pervert? It was your decision to undress me and yourself!” He yelled back, but she could tell he was still smiling. “I mean, I don’t blame you. There aren’t many women out there that wouldn’t peek given this opportunity.”

“Ugh, men!” she said as she put her underwear on. “I swear to god, you see one pair of boobs and you all just go silly.”

“Only when the person is pretty as well.” Seto said as his smile faltered for a moment.

Luna didn’t know how to respond to that. She already knew that he thought she looked pretty from his memories, but it felt different being told in person.

“Whatever, dude.” She managed as she put her shirt on. “Stop trying to make a move and put your pants on.”

“I- I’m not trying to make a move!” Seto stammered uncharacteristically, making Luna want to laugh. “If I made a move, you’d know! Trust me!”

“Whatever you say, Casanova.” She said as she grabbed a pair of pants but realized it was Seto’s. “Your pan- hey! That’s my pants!”

Seto looked down at the pants he was putting his leg through before handing it back to her as he received his.

“Plus, I already know you think I’m handsome.” Seto said as he mockingly traced a finger around his chin.

She did think that, but having him say it out loud made her suddenly hyper aware of how close they were physically. Her eyes wandered to his abs. Dark Side of Dimensions definitely had it right.

“Take a picture, it will last longer.” Seto said, making her look up at his face to find him smirking.

“I-”

“I see you are both awake.” The sudden emergence of the old man made both of them look towards the entrance where he was standing. “And our young protector is still alive. Splendid.”

“Do you mind, old man?” Seto asked as he adjusted his shirt before putting his head through it.

“Oh, maybe the ritual didn’t fully work.” The old man said before looking at Luna. “Does he not know who-”

“I do know who you are, I just don’t care.” Seto said, brushing one of his sleeves. “And I still don’t believe in this past life mumbo jumbo.”

The man seemed to be taken aback as he looked from Seto to Luna, as if seeking assistance from her.

“You realize this ritual only worked to save your life because you and Luna are both blue eyed souls, right?” The man said as he rubbed his hands together. “The fact that you are up and awake, means that- well that, that we all are-”

“Seto, come on. He came to help us.” Luna said, knowing that Seto already saw and heard the man explaining everything through her memories as well.

“Wait, wait.” The old man said. “So you do believe that Luna is from another world, but not that we are all connected through your past lives?”

“Well, I just did see where she is from through my own eyes.” Seto said as he pointed at his eyes.

You mean my eyes.

“But whether our past lives are connected or not, I’m not the kind of man that lets his past affect his present. So don’t expect any handouts just because you knew some guy that I reminds you o-”

“You said this ritual would make us one.” Luna interrupted, suddenly remembering what the old man had said. “Is that why we saw through each other’s memories? Are our minds linked now?”

“Well, not linked through minds, but through your souls.” The old man seemed glad to be changing subjects. “You are now one, but also separate. Two parts of a whole.”

“Wait, are we married now?” Seto’s signature sarcasm was quite palpable.

“Absolutely.” The old man said nodding.

“Excuse me?” Luna suddenly asked.

“I mean, it’s the closest human thing. The bonding of two souls for the rest of eternity.”

Eternity?

“Wait, wait!” Luna said coming between the old man and Seto. “You didn’t tell me any of this yesterday!”

“Wow, Luna, don’t sound too excited.” Seto said as he crossed his arms. “Are you saying you would have let me die if you knew it meant we were getting married?”

“I- Of course not!” Luna said, slightly frustrated. “I just like to know the details of what I’m getting into.”

“What are we getting into?” Seto asked as he turned to the old man.

“Well- I-” The old man looked from Luna to Seto, he seemed somehow afraid.

“Luna Kaiba.” Seto suddenly said as he turned back to Luna. “Doesn’t sound bad, does it?”

“Is this even legally binding?” Luna asked the old man.

“Legally binding?” The man repeated her question as if not sure he had heard it right. “Well, I don’t know about legality, but your souls are linked. That’s a fact, nothing will change that now. You should know, you are still linked to the Sage.”

There he goes about that sage again.

“Wait, just how many guys have you married?” Seto asked, crossing his arms at her once again.

“None!” She sounded more defensive than she had intended. “Apparently it’s something from a past life. Like you said, it doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters.” The old man said. “Souls transcend your physical body. You may have been reborn a few times, but your soul is still linked to that of the Sage. For eternity is just that, forever. Not just in this life.”

“What does that mean, then?” Luna asked, suddenly wondering if there was someone out there who had seen her mind and her memories. “Who- where is this Sage?”

The man fell silent for a moment.

“I wish I knew.” He finally said. “I haven’t sensed him in many centuries.”

“I think that’s my quota of crazy for one day.” Seto said, finally fully dressed, as he approached Luna. “Shall we, wife?”

She felt her heart skip a beat, and yet she couldn’t help but want to tease him about it.

“Of course, second husband.” She said, not being able to contain her smile.

“Wow.” Seto looked and sounded very disappointed.

Suddenly Seto doubled over making a painful expression as he put a hand to his forehead. It took Luna a second to realize he wasn’t joking.

“Seto!” Luna came closer to him before looking at the old man. “I thought we had saved him!”

The old man seemed confused as well.

“I- It should have worked!” He protested.

But soon, Seto blinked a few times as he breathed hard. He looked around as if momentarily disoriented.

“Seto, are you okay?” Luna put his arm around her to help him stand up.

Seto swallowed hard before answering.

“Yeah,I- It’s just Yugi.” He explained as he seemed to relax upon Luna’s touch. “Or, Atem as you call him.”

“Were you in the throne room?” She asked, wondering how that talk went. “What did he say? I bet he was happy to see you back on your feet.”

“What? No, I told him to take his perfectly coiffed hair and get out of my head.” Seto straightened up as he massaged his own head. “Force shutting down whatever these are, is painful.”

What?

“Are you rejecting him?” She asked, as she had been certain that he would be okay with Atem now that she had seen everything in her memories.

“It’s not like he asked me out, Luna.” Seto said before taking a deep breath. “No one hijacks my body.”

“Don’t you think working together will be our best bet against the bad guys?” She asked suddenly worried, as Seto was Atem’s last vessel.

But that seemed to surprise Seto.

“Whose side are you on, Luna?” Seto asked, non-aggressively.

“On the side that wants to save this world?” Luna suggested, wondering if it was asking too much of him to cooperate with Atem.

“We can do that on our own.” Seto said quite defensively before softening up a little. “I just- I can’t duel to my fullest with someone else’s voice in my head.”

“I’m not asking you to give full control. But having the spirit of the greatest king of games on your side bar can be useful, yeah?” Luna carefully worded it, hoping Seto wouldn’t take offense.

Seto stared at her for a few seconds.

Would have been useful to be able to see through his mind now.

“You are beautiful, you know that?” He randomly stated.

Luna snapped her finger in front of his face.

“Focus!” Luna said, equally frustrated as she was embarrassed.

Seto suddenly turned around towards the door without even putting up a fight.

“You are right, we don’t have the time to stand around.” He said as he looked back without turning his body around. “You coming?”

Was he always this frustrating?

But before either of them could make their way out, one of her dancers walked in.

“Master.” The dancer said to Luna, as she eyed Seto for a second. “There are two men outside looking for you and your companion.”

“Two?” Luna suddenly wondered how Jaden and Mokuba had found them. “Let them in!”

Seto seemed to have the same idea as he expectantly walked towards the door.

But the people who walked in was a man in purple robes and another in a red suit.

“My lieg-”

“Pegasus? What are you doing here?” Seto interrupted Luna’s rare hunter.

“My my, Kaiba boy, you shouldn’t interrupt people like that.” Pegasus said as he flicked his hair over his shoulder. “But I must say, you do keep some interesting company.”

“Don’t avoid my question, what are you doing here and how did you know where we were?” Seto said, suddenly seeming more menacing.

Luna was also curious, but Pegasus simply let out a light hearted laughter.

“My, aren’t we on edge today? Well, I’ll admit, I do keep tabs on several people. After all, I still have influence here and there.” He explained before walking towards Luna and extending a hand. “Pleasure to finally meet you! I have been watching you for quite some time.”

Luna didn’t know what to say, she went to shake his hand, but Pegasus gently took her hand and lightly kissed the back of it with a bow.

“It has come to my attention that you are from another world? That is simply delightful!” he said, doing tiny claps with the tips of his finger. “May I see a card from your world?”

And though he sounded slimy and creepy, just like in the anime, Luna found herself handing him one of her cards. She couldn’t deny that the man exuded strong charisma.

“Stop wasting our time, what are you here for?” Seto demanded, but Pegasus was analyzing the card he had been handed with a smile and wonder of a little boy on Christmas.

“It seems Industrial Illusions is not the producer of Duel Monsters in that world. It says here Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game at the bottom here and Konami at the top. Very curious.” Pegasus said as he handed Luna her card back, seemingly ignoring Seto. “Is perhaps Yugi Muto somehow involved in the making of the game?”

“Uh- no. You are all manga and anime characters in my world. The name of the franchise is Yu-Gi-Oh! And the main character is Yugi. Konami is the producer of the card game.” Luna said, feeling thankful that she didn’t have to explain so awkwardly to Seto, since he saw everything through her memories.

“I see.” Pegasus stated with a smile that seemed to say that he had more questions, but he suddenly turned around to Seto. “Thanks for being patient, my boy. Like I said, I have been keeping tabs on a few people, you being one of them. Imagine my surprise when monsters became real and in the heart of it all is my favorite billionaire genius. Who just happens to acquire three cards that I have been looking for, for over a decade, to no avail.”

Seto grew quiet, but Luna knew Pegasus had been talking about the three legendary knights of Atlantis, seeing as she had also seen Seto obtaining said cards.

“You didn’t seem to know the importance of the cards, but given our situation-” Pegasus gestured at his surroundings. “-I figured it would be handy to unlock their full potential for you.”

Legend of Heart.

Pegasus took out a card from inside pocket of his suit and handed it to Seto.

Luna had expected Seto to scoff and say that he wouldn’t need it, but surprisingly, he took it.

“Legend of Heart.” He said, surprising both Luna and apparently Pegasus as well. “I saw this in Luna’s memories.”

It would seem he had seen much more of her memories than she had of his, she had only been shown memories in which she was involved somehow.

“Maybe this is how we will defeat the Great Leviathan.” Seto said as he turned to Luna, seeming somehow hopeful.

“Then these shall assist you as well, my liege.” The rare hunter finally spoke up again, stepping forward and handing three cards to Luna.

Luna received the cards and instantly recognized them.

Uria, Lord of Searing Flames.

Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder.

And Raviel, Lord of Phantasms.

“These should rival the power of even the Egyptian god cards.” The rare hunter said, bowing towards Luna.

“What a peculiar individual.” Pegasus said, observing her rare hunter before turning towards Luna herself. “And what an interesting turn of events, may I see the cards?”

Luna hesitated for a second, but Pegasus did give them Legend of Heart just now. She handed him the cards as Seto watched, seemingly on edge as well.

“These seem very genuine.” Pegasus said, turning with a lifted card towards the entrance as if wanting to look at it against the light. “Tell me, how did you make these?”

The rare hunter stayed quiet as if not having heard.

“You can answer him.” Luna said, still feeling uncomfortable giving orders to others.

“We have all sorts of people amongst our ranks, including card designers in Industrial Illusions and Kaiba Corp. It is how we had made the fake Winged Dragon of Ra.”  The man answered, making Pegasus seem delighted to hear about it while Seto seemed unamused. “As for the monster tablets, we found them underneath some ruins, just as Lord Marik had seen in the mind of the offworlder.”

Jaden.

Luna wondered if she could also see through other people’s minds by using the Millennium Rod.

“And how did you find us?” Luna asked, more out of curiosity.

“It is our duty, first and foremost to do as you ask. To do so, knowing where you are is of utmost importance.” The rare hunter stated as a matter of fact.

Seto suddenly shook his head then looked towards Luna.

“We should go. Mokuba is still out there.” Seto said, blinking a few time forcefully. “The Pharaoh keeps talking about defeating the Great Leviathan, but we must find Mokuba first.”

Luna wondered if Kaiba now believed in everything he had been denying. She turned to Pegasus as Seto started to head out of the cave.

“Will you help us?” She asked, thinking that they probably needed all the help they could get.

“Oh, I’m way too old to be fighting monsters for real, darling!” Pegasus said covering his mouth with a hand before laughing.

She turned to look at the Master with Eyes of Blue who had been quiet until then.

“What about you?”

“Me? I mean, if he is too old-” the old man said, pointing at Pegasus. “I’m over seven thousand years old.”

“But can’t you summon Blue-Eyes? We could use all the help-” Luna was saying when she got interrupted.

“I can no longer.” The old man admitted seeming regretful that he couldn’t help. “I was tethered to the Priestess when the Sage murdered her. And with her gone, so is the majority of my powers.”

“Wait a minute.” Seto turned back around at the entrance. “Are you saying Luna is tethered to a murderous psychopath right now?”

“Well, who knows what the Sage is doing now. He may have given up his murderous ways. Maybe he spends his time fishing. Who knows?” The old man said with a shrug.

“I have no idea what is being said here, but what a delightfully curious conversation!” Pegasus said, looking from the old man to Luna and finally to Seto.

“We don’t have time for this right now, those who can’t help us should probably go far away to safety.” Luna said as she walked towards the entrance.

It wasn’t like she wasn’t curious, she did wonder what kind of person the Sage was and whether he had been reborn like her and Seto. But her mind was already working overtime just thinking about current situation. Past lives would have to be a topic for another time.

When she walked out, she wondered how they were going to go about finding Jaden and Mokuba. They could shoot some energy beams to the sky but that would give their location to Dartz and Bakura as well. And though they did have two aces up their sleeves now, she wondered if it was prudent to fight against them so soon.

“If you will, my liege.” The purple robed man had followed her out. “Mokuba Kaiba is another one we have been keeping tabs on in case we needed to persuade Seto Kaiba to join us eventually.”

“You do have full control over these guys now, right?” Seto asked from behind her, not sounding too happy.

She wasn’t too sure, she hadn’t tried to force her will on any rare hunter, nor did she want to.

“Do you know where he is right now?” She asked the rare hunter, who shook his head.

“No, my liege. But you can contact the one who does through your throne room.” Her rare hunter said.

Luna nodded, she had expected as much.

“Will you fight with us?” She asked, wondering if there were any good duelists amongst the rare hunters.

Suddenly the man kneeled.

“By your command.”

“I was asking, not commanding.” She said, but he stayed kneeled and quiet. “Then at least show me your face, so I may know who fights with us.”

The man promptly complied, putting back his hood, revealing dirty blond hair and a scruffy unkempt beard.

“Bandit Keith.” Luna said his name out loud.

“Can we really trust a guy like this?” Seto asked as he moved closer to Luna.

Luna had momentarily wondered the same. But Marik had told her that they were all following him out of their own volition. She wondered if that was a good thing or bad for her. Did she have their loyalty?

“Well he did just hand you three god-like cards, did he not?” Pegasus asked from behind them.

That was true as well. She looked at Seto to see if Pharaoh had said anything. They had trusted Bakura, and though she distrusted him, she let him be. And look where that had gotten them. But at the same time, they were sorely lacking in numbers. They needed all the backup they could get.

“Did you find out Mokuba’s location?” Seto asked expectantly.

“Not yet, go talk to Pharaoh.” She told him as she made her Millennium Rod materialize in front of her.

“About what?” Seto seemed confused.

“I don’t know, about fighting. Make sure you are both on the same page.” She blurted out, knowing Seto would most likely want to simply ignore the existence of the Pharaoh.

Luna then closed her eyes and imagined her throne room. It was only a split second but she felt the difference in the air already before she opened her eyes.

The sea of robed people simply waiting for her orders was just as ominous and creepy as the first time she had seen them.

“Who here knows where Mokuba Kaiba is?” She asked out loud, steeling her resolve.

“We do, my liege.” Two of them stepped forth, their voices familiar to Luna.

“Let me see your faces.” Luna had asked, not being able to quite place them aside from them both sounding female.

The rare hunters did as they were told, revealing one with a brown bob cut and another familiar long haired blonde.

“Tea? Mai? You guys were working with Marik this entire time?”

Chapter Text

Tea had explained that after Yugi was attacked, she had been approached by the rare hunters. Marik had promised her to find the culprits in exchange for information. As long as she kept tabs on the Kaibas, Marik would find and punish the one who had put Yugi in a coma.

“Of course, he wasn’t able to do so.” Tea said, seemingly sad about the whole ordeal. “But I hear you helped Joey and Mai. I will gladly serve you.”

“I was tasked with keeping tabs on Joey, it’s why I was at the Tower to begin with.” Mai chimed in, making Luna wonder if she had time to rest up a little after their last encounter. “I wasn’t on board with hurting him, but Marik had promised he would take the ancient spirit off of him. I just wanted Joey to be back to normal. But yes, I will also serve you. I do owe you for saving my life yesterday.”

Luna was glad to have their help, but she couldn’t shake one thing off of her mind.

“Bandit.” She called out, making him step forth from the sea of rare hunters.

“My liege.” He said, seeming just as loyal as before.

She slowly pointed her Millennium Rod at Bandit Keith, without fully knowing how it was supposed to work.

“Tell me the truth.” She said and saw that her rod started to glow. “Did you attack Yugi Muto?”

“No, I have not.” He answered without hesitation.

Luna focused harder onto her rod, intensifying its glow.

“Has Marik ordered someone to attack Yugi Muto?” She asked, hoping it was not true. Marik had been her friend, had he not?

“Not to my knowledge, my liege.” Bandit said as his irises started to glow a golden hue.

Luna put down her rod feeling relief but also a bit of guilt for having doubted.

“I had to be sure.” She said to no one in particular before turning to Tea and Mai. “Where is Mokuba right now?”

“He is on the other side of where the Tower used to be. Your other companion in the red jacket is currently with him, al-”

“How far is that from here?” She asked, remembering just how big the Tower had been.

“You can tag one of us with your rod, and it will glow when you point it in our direction, my liege.” Mai said. “That’s how lord Marik always found his way.”

Luna nodded as she lifted her rod once more. She still didn’t know how this worked and honestly felt a little silly.

Tag. She thought feeling a bit childish.

“Stay hidden until we get there.” Luna said, realizing that Tea most likely wouldn’t be much of an assistance in battle, and that Mai was probably too beat up and tired to fight.

Both of them bowed before Luna willed herself back into reality.

As Luna blinked a few times, she noticed Seto had been shaking his head a bit.

“Are you okay?” She asked as she raised her rod and started slowly turning in place.

“I tried to reason with him, but he wants me to use Dark Magician.” Seto said as he looked up at Luna, his expression going from annoyance to curiosity. “I will not stoop so- what are you doing?”

Her rod suddenly started to glow.

“There!” Luna pointed, excited that it actually worked. “That’s where they are!”

Seto looked down and made his own Millennium Puzzle appear as he hovered a hand in front of his chest. Luna wondered what he was doing as he grabbed the puzzle and moved it around.

“Does mine have cool little features like yours?” He asked seemingly frustrated. “Or just the one unwanted roommate?”

Luna smiled despite hoping they would soon start to get along.

“Come on. Let’s go get Mokuba.” She said as she willed her Blue-Eyes Alternative Dragon to come out of the cave.

Seto stared at her dragon for a moment in silence before summoning out his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

Luna wondered what that had been about, but they had no time to lose. She got up on her dragon as she willed her dancers to come forth. She summoned Meteor B. Dragon and Black Skull Dragon.

“You guys get on the Red Eyes and go on up ahead in that direction to make sure the coast is clear.” She said before turning to Bandit Keith. “Do you need a flying monster?”

Bandit simply summoned a Seiyaryu in response and got up on it.

Luna had forgotten about the non-machine cards that Bandit used as a Rare Hunter.

“Okay, good.” She acknowledged before turning back to see Seto still seemingly lost in thought. “Hey, I need you.”

That seemed to have brought Seto’s attention back to the present as his eyes seemed to focus on Luna. But he simply nodded and approached her dragon on his own, in silence.

“Is it the Pharaoh?” Luna asked, wondering how his mood could change so fast. “What happened, talk to me.”

“It’s nothing, let’s stop wasting time. My brother needs me.” He said, curtly.

Luna wondered for a moment if she had done something wrong, but time was of the essence.

“Let’s go then.” She said as she made her Alternative Dragon take off.

Her dancers on their respective Red-Eyes dragons took flight and went ahead as Luna had directed them. Bandit took flight but stayed beside Luna.

She looked down to see Pegasus and the Master looking up at them.

“Don’t worry about us, dear.” Pegasus said with a smile.

Luna nodded. She was grateful for the help they had provided. Now it was up to her and her friends. She looked at Seto flying on his Ultimate Dragon and nodded at him as well before she willed her Alternative Dragon to fly fast. To everyone’s surprise, her dragon folded its wings and seemingly launched itself like a bullet, she felt some sort of pressure break before she willed her dragon to stop.

What the flying fuck was that?

She realized she was already beside her dancers who had stopped and were looking at her in confusion as well.

“Are you well, master?” The dancer on her Slash Dragon asked. “What was that noise?”

“What noise?” Luna asked, still perplexed.

When she looked back, there seemed to be nothing amiss.

“There was a loud noise as you flew incredibly fast.” Her dancer explained.

Did I break the sound barrier?

Seto and Bandit made their way to her.

“Can your Blue-Eyes do that?” Luna asked out of curiosity.

“It takes a while to get to that speed, but it can’t launch itself like that.” Seto admitted, not seeming excited at all.

“I will have to control this thing better.” Luna said as she tried to calm her heart.

It was exciting and scary but also good. It felt right. She pat her dragon’s neck, wondering if anything could feel as great as that. Surely, Seto could relate, after all, Blue-Eyes were his monsters.

But when she looked at him, he still seemed sullen.

“You guys go on ahead.” She said to her dancers and Bandit.

Whatever was going on, she had to deal with that now while things were still seemingly calm.

“Hey, what’s going on?” She asked wondering what could break the great Seto Kaiba like this so suddenly.

“I’m not the Seto Kaiba that you like so much.” He said after a moment of silent contemplation.

“What?” She voiced her thought. “What does that even mean?”

“Forget it, let’s go find Mokuba.” He said in a defeated manner as he started to fly forward.

“We will, but I need to know what’s going on!” She said, keeping up with him. “Seto! Come on, talk to me.”

He looked at her but didn’t stop moving forward.

“Seto, you really want to go fight the destroyer of worlds all sulky like that? You realize what a big distraction that’s going to be for me?” She asked starting to get frustrated herself. “We can work this out, whatever it is. Please.”

“It’s just-” Seto paused to take a deep breath. “I get why I am attracted to you, but I just don’t see why you are attracted to me. Or even if you are attracted to me at all.”

What the- are we in middle school?

“I went through some magical ritual to save your life!” She said, not believing in what he was saying. “You think I would do that for anyone? You saw and felt all the things I did! You know I like you, you were sure of it just moments ago. What changed?”

“I saw your dragon.” Seto admitted as if that meant anything to Luna. “That’s not my dragon.”

What? Luna thought but kept quiet, waiting for Seto to explain.

“That’s from a Seto from the future, or one from an entirely different world. A Seto that went through much more than I have, and apparently achieved much more than I have. A Seto that you got a crush on as a child and liked so much that you decided to collect all things that had to do with him. A Seto that is not me, or at least not yet.”

She had never thought about it that way.

“Hey!” She yelled, grabbing his attention immediately. “The other Setos don’t matter. You’re the only real one. And I’m technically your wife, dude.”

That seemed to make him smile.

“Not by choice, though.” He said, albeit more lightheartedly.

“Do you see me running away from this? From us?” She asked despite seeing that Seto was already more like his normal self. “This is my choice. And don’t you dare question that ever again, husband.”

“Of course, I’m sorry, wife.” Seto said, smiling more confidently.

“Now let’s go.” She said, glad that that was over with. “We are making poor Mokuba worry.”

As they made their way through the snowy fields and out onto grassy lands, Luna could still see vestiges of Domino City, broken and fused with the new terrain. She could see monsters and people roaming around, both seeming lost and confused. For the most part, they didn’t seem to be attacking each other. But once in a while she could see humans running, dragons spewing fire, and demons scurrying about.

The longer we take, the more people will be in danger.

The rod started to glow brighter as they went, Luna assumed that meant that they were getting closer. Soon, they were near the base of the ice fortress. It was even more massive than the Tower had been and they would have to fly around it.

“Look at what they did to my Tower.” Seto said, sparing only but a glance. “So crude and unrefined. Let’s get Mokuba and finish this quickly.”

But as they made their around, the rod suddenly stopped glowing. Luna looked around, wondering if that meant they had reached Mai, but she found no one. She started pointing the rod in different directions and caught the glow once again before it dimmed once more.

“They are on the move, and fast!” Luna observed out loud as she kept trying to find the direction they were supposed to go next.

Spread out, they are moving quickly! She projected her thought into her dancers.

She knew that Mai being on the move didn’t necessarily mean that Mokuba and Jaden were as well. Still, she hoped everyone was okay.

“They might be nearby.” She told Seto as she turned frantically around.

“Try pointing up.” Seto said urgently.

Luna did as he suggested and saw the rod glow brightly. She tried to see if she could see anyone or anything up there, but she couldn’t.

“Ah shit, here we go again.” She said as she imagined flying up yet another massive structure.

“Come on, they couldn’t have gotten too far!” Seto said as he took off with the mighty beat of his dragon’s wings.

But as they started to fly up, something tugged at Luna’s mind. She looked back and found nothing.

You guys go around and up the fortress to see if you can find them! She thought to her dancers and to Bandit.

But she kept feeling like something was off. She looked around, once again seeing no movement, and wondered if it was just her anxiety.

“The pharaoh is saying he is feeling an evil presence.” Seto yelled from above her. “Can your rod detect anything?”

She didn’t think so, but she had looked everywhere around her, except-

She suddenly looked parallel to the ground, directly towards the crystalline wall of the giant icy fortress. She thought she had seen the glimpse of a reflection of a man, she couldn’t make out any specific detail about the man aside from his wicked smile. But as she blinked, the she only saw her own reflection staring back at her.

Had this been the first time she imagined having seen this, she probably would have thought nothing of it, but she had imagined she had seen that very same reflection while going up the Tower.

“White Lightning!” Luna yelled as her dragon immediately backed off and shot an impressive burst of white energy into the side of the fortress.

Despite the destructive power being great, whether out of sheer mass, the fortress didn’t budge from the piercing attack of the fortress.

“Something is in the walls!” Luna yelled, hoping she wasn’t just paranoid.

“Neutron Blast!” She heard Seto yell as his dragon complied with a similar attack to her own dragon but in three bursts.

Luna wondered if Seto even saw anything, but it felt nice having someone trust her completely.

She was about to make another attack when a cobra head bigger than her dragon came out of the fortress towards her. Before it could reach her, however, one of her dancers slammed into it on her Black Skull Dragon.

What is that? Luna wondered as she stared at the snake when a sudden gleam caught her attention and made her look at the fortress wall once again.

In the crystalline wall was the reflection of Yami Bakura, smiling at her in amusement.

Recognition of the monster dawned on her just as the evil Bakura called out the name of his dark servant.

“Diabound, crush them all!”

Chapter Text

Luna managed to barely dodge the snake head, backing away to shoot yet another burst of energy at the monster.

“Neutron Blast!” Seto’s voice boomed as another massive three beamed attack hit the head of the snake.

“The snake is only the tail of the monster!” Luna yelled just before a massive dark arm broke through the crystalline walls and grabbed Seto’s Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

“Inferno Fire Blast!” A big ball of purple fire blasted the arm that had a hold of Seto’s dragon, making it let go. “Seto!”

Relief washed over Luna as she saw Mokuba alive and well, with Jaden right behind him and-

The hair in the back of her neck stood as she saw a Five-Headed Dragon chasing Jaden and Mokuba.

“White Lightning!” She yelled, fully realizing that her dragon was not yet strong enough to take that Five-Headed Dragon down, but still expecting her attack to distract it long enough for Mokuba and Jaden to back away from it.

“No, Luna!” Mokuba yelled. “He’s with us!”

Luna hesitated for a moment, not knowing what Mokuba meant. Her attack hit the mark, but as expected, the Five-Headed Dragon seemed unfazed.

“Let’s pay attention to the monster inside of the ice!” Jaden exclaimed on the back of his Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman, flying past her, seemingly unworried about the dragon with five heads that caused them so much trouble the day before.

She couldn’t argue though, Diabound was a fearsome monster that had brought the bests to their knees in the anime. And by the looks of its darkened scales and fins, it had already evolved to its third form at the very least.

Jaden’s Shining Flare Wingman landed a flaming kick on the arm, making it retract back into the fortress. But Luna was suddenly worried about not seeing Tea and Mai anywhere.

Both Seto and Mokuba started to shoot attacks into the fortress, but Luna tried to conjure up a mental image of Mai and Tea in her head.

Mai? Tea? Where are you guys? We found Mokuba and Jaden! She thought, hoping they would hear her. Is this working? Bandit, do you hear me?

Yes, my liege. The scruffy response came into her mind.

Okay, go look for Tea and Mai, they aren’t answering me.

With that, she also willed her dragon and her dancers’ dragons to shoot their attacks into the fortress. It was a mess of bright energy beams, ice debris and particles spraying everywhere. It was only after a few minutes that Luna realized that Diabound hadn’t come out ever since its arm had retracted into the fortress, not to mention that it was awfully quiet.

Her friends seemed to have realized the same as they had all stopped attacking. Before Luna could stop him, Jaden went into one of the holes they had made in the fortress and looked inside.

“That ugly monster is no longer here, guys.” Jaden yelled back.

Luna saw Mokuba quickly approaching Seto.

“You are okay!” the younger Kaiba exclaimed as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hands. “Last I saw you, you were screaming on the ground while Joey-”

He stopped talking and swallowed hard.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” Seto asked, worry written all over his face.

“I’m okay, Jaden got rid of all the monsters that chased us.” Mokuba said as Luna approached them.

“Hey, Mokes.” Luna said, still feeling sorry about having harshly pushed him towards Jaden while they had been at the top of the building.

“Hey.” Mokuba said, offering a bright smile that made Luna feel even more sorry. “Thanks for keeping my brother safe.”

“We kept each other safe. I’m glad you and Jaden are okay. Anything happen while we were separated?” Luna asked, wondering if they had seen Tea and Mai.

“Uh- About that.” Mokuba suddenly looked worried as he glanced at Seto and then to Luna. “I have to tell you guys something.”

“What are you doing here, Noah!” Seto suddenly yelled as the three heads of his dragon started charging up light energy in their mouths.

Luna followed his eyes to see that on the back of the Five-Headed Dragon, indeed the green haired boy sat with an uncharacteristically disheveled hair and clothes.

“Wait, Seto! He’s with us!” Mokuba said as he got between Seto’s dragon and Noah’s dragon.

Luna suddenly realized what Mokuba had meant when she had attacked the dragon herself.

“He cannot be trusted, Mokuba.” Luna said as anger flared inside of her. “He’s the reason Marik and Joey are gone!”

“Would you really attack a helpless kid?” Noah asked, raising an arm that ended in a bloody wrapped stump instead of a hand. Despite this, he still sounded very conceited. It made Luna clench her fists.

How dare he act like that after having murdered my friends?

“You are not a kid, Noah.” Seto said, still charging the attack of his dragon despite Mokuba being in the way. “You are just a malfunctioning AI that must be deleted.”

“The power of the god cards apparently was able to give him a physical body like it did with our monsters.” Jaden offered the explanation as he approached the group as well. “For what is worth, he is a hurt and confused boy. He was used by the other bad guys, just like you said Marik was.”

“He’s the reason, Marik is dead!” Luna yelled as she felt her heart beating faster as anger seeped deeper through her veins.

“I didn’t kill anyone on top of that building!” Noah defended himself, sounding almost- scared? “I just wanted to have my body back again and I had achieved that! Why would I go out of my way to kill some guy that didn’t even matter to me? And look! Dartz tried to have me killed too!”

Luna couldn’t help but remember that in her anger, she had ordered her dancers to cut him down and wondered if his missing hand had been due to that order.

“What do you think, Luna?” Seto asked, looking towards her with the same expression he had when he had approached Mokuba. “I will go with whatever you decide.”

Luna noticed that Jaden had and eyebrow raised as he looked from Seto to Luna.

“Do you trust him, Mokes?” She asked while forcibly taking longer breaths to slow down her heart while trying to hold her anger at bay.

“I do!” Mokuba said so earnestly that Luna had wanted to reach out and give him a hug. “He’s a Kaiba after all. We might be blunt and cross some lines from time to time. But in the end, we do what is right!”

Luna impulsively looked towards Seto and nodded as she knew it to be true. Seto, in turn, stopped the charging of his dragon’s attack and smiled back at Luna.

“Did you guys bang?” Jaden suddenly asked, ruining the mood.

“I promise that I won’t break Mokuba’s trust.” Noah promised, seemingly ignoring Jaden, perhaps he was a Kaiba after all. “All I wanted was to have brothers. And Mokuba showed me that we are just that. He saved me despite his own life being in danger as my Tower was crumbling.”

“You mean my Tower.” Seto said.

“And he trusted me when he had no reason to.” Noah continued as if Seto hadn’t even said anything, this kid was good. “I will help in any way I can.”

“Good.” Luna nodded, before she turned to Jaden with a lowered voice. “I’m going to need you to keep an eye on Noah. I was right about Bakura, Jay. We can’t make the same mistake twice.”

Jaden however simply smiled and scratched his head.

“For what it’s worth, I trust the little guy. I don’t sense that evil presence that I usually feel from bad guys. I think he was just a kid throwing a tantrum to get attention from his siblings. I really think that all he needed was a good brother to show him the way.” Jaden said before his smile disappeared as he got closer to her. “But uh- you didn’t answer my question. Did you and-”

“No!” Luna interrupted him and backed away a bit from Jaden feeling a bit frustrated.

“No? Then what was that totally weird vibe you guys were giving off just now?” Jaden asked as his smile came back.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but we got married.” Seto said, more serious than Luna felt necessary.

“You what?” Mokuba looked in confusion at Seto.

“Wow-za!” Jaden laughed as his attention came back to Luna. “You work fast, girl!”

“I- work?” Luna felt her face heating up once more. “None of this was planned!”

“Wait, so you guys are really married now?” Mokuba asked.

“Didn’t plan for it, okay.” Jaden said, before imitating Luna’s voice as he twiddled his own hair. “Quite the world you got here, Mr. Kaiba.”

“Jay, I swear to God, I’m going to punch you in the face.” Luna threatened.

“Isn’t this great, Noah?” Mokuba said turning towards the green haired boy. “Not only do you have two brothers now, now you have a sister as well!”

Luna wasn’t sure how she felt about that. But Mokuba turned to her with a smile that felt personal.

“You know, back when you helped me make my deck, I had thought to myself that I would have liked a sister like you.” Mokuba said, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand once again. “And now you really are.”

Oh fuck it.

Luna imagined herself back in her throne room while focusing on Mokuba. She blinked and they were both in the throne room. She ran to him and hugged him tightly. She had always wanted a younger sibling as well and she would die for this kid.

But as she pulled back to look at Mokuba, she realized how terrified he looked as he looked around in the throne room. She immediately regretted pulling him into her throne room and wondered if she had triggered a trauma of when he had been locked inside of a card.

“This is-” Mokuba said before the corners of his mouth lifted into a smile. “-so cool! What is this place?”

Luna let out a sigh of relief as she gave him a quick but tight hug once again.

“This is my throne room. People linked to me through the Millennium Rod appear here and I can talk to them through here.” She explained before shaking her head lightly. “But I just had to give you a hug, Mokes. For what it’s worth, I’m glad we are family now as well. Though I’m having a tough time wrapping my head around that still.”

“So, how did that happen?” Mokuba asked before apparently noticing the sea of Rare Hunters for the first time and taking a step back away from them.

Luna assumed he was talking about their marriage.

“Well, the only way I could save Seto was through a magical ritual. A kind of mind meld but with souls instead of mind.” She explained suddenly realizing how crazy that sounded. “There were some bracelets and dragons.”

“That uh- That doesn’t sound like a marriage to me.” Mokuba laughed.

“Right?” Luna laughed as well. “But the old wizard dude told us that it’s like marriage, but even more binding. It’s supposedly for the rest of eternity. Seto’s soul and mine are linked forever now. But I think we were both connected even before that. I mean, I know. I kinda saw through his mind and felt everything he felt.”

“Okay, well I’m not looking forward to marriage at all if it’s like that!” Mokuba smiled. “But we should get back, the others might worry.”

“Time doesn’t pass in here. At least I think it doesn’t.” Luna explained before making her rod materialize. “But yeah, we should get going none the less.”

She willed them back, but no one else seemed to have noticed.

“Should we go up from the inside this time?” Jaden asked as he looked back towards the hole he had looked into. “There’s a big set of stairs but it’s big enough in there for us to fly up with plenty of space for us to maneuver.”

“Our movement would be limited no matter how spacious it is in there.” Seto said as he looked up, seemingly wanting to see the top of the fortress. But Luna knew they couldn’t. “Should anything happen, we would practically not be able to move horizontally, not for long anyway.”

“But if we go from the outside, that monster could attack us from the inside at any moment without us knowing.” Noah chimed in.

“But we’d still have the space to dodge it better out here or even just to run away.” Mokuba added. “Even if we see the attack coming, we might not be able to do much in there.”

“But going from outside, they would see us coming, no?” Jaden asked.

“This is getting us nowhere, whether we go from inside or outside, Bakura will know we are coming. He literally moves around through the shadows.” Luna said frustrated. “But we must still find Tea and Mai. So maybe we should separate into two groups.”

“Absolutely not.” Seto said as a matter of fact. “We just got our group together.”

“They were keeping tabs on Mokuba for us and went missing. That doesn’t worry you?” Luna insisted.

Bandit, have you found them? Luna asked in her mind.

“Wait, keeping tabs on me?” Mokuba asked before turning towards Jaden, who simply shrugged back.

“Since Seto and I have Millennium items, we should separate. Seto and Mokuba go from the outside along with my dancers.” Luna still didn’t trust Noah enough to leave him close to Mokuba, and Seto would probably be too distracted by that to actually be able to fight. “Jaden, Noah and I will go through the inside. The party that gets attacked should contact the other with the Millennium item so that we can prepare without time passing.”

“Wait, wait, I only understood about half of that.” Jaden interjected.

“Same.” Noah chimed in. “What is a millennium item?”

Luna was about to say that Bandit would be going with her as well when she realized that she hadn’t heard from Bandit yet.

Bandit?

There was no answer, however.

“He’s picking us off.” Luna observed out loud as panic started to sprout at the bottom of her chest.

Luna looked around to make sure her dancers were all accounted for and quickly willed herself into her throne room once again with a blink.

“Bandit! Tea? Mai!” Luna called out, but none of her rare hunters moved to respond. “Anyone here know where they are?”

The rare hunters looked at each other briefly as if to make sure that the three she had mentioned really weren’t present.

“What does it mean when a rare hunter is not present here?” Luna asked imagining the worst.

“It means they are no longer available, my liege.” One of the rare hunters spoke up. “Lord Marik could contact some of us even through our subconscious. So I’m afraid it means they are dead.”

“No.” Luna let out impulsively. “We would have- heard or seen something.”

But she couldn’t break down now. She had to adapt.

Luna quickly blinked herself back to reality and looked at her peers.

“New plan. All of you go from the outside.” Luna said as she steeled her resolve. “I will go alone from the inside. I can-”

“What are you even saying?” Jaden interrupted her. “Do we get a say in this?”

“I can fly faster than the speed of sound.” Luna continued, thinking that they didn’t have much time. “While you guys go up, I will quickly look around in the fortress to see if I can find my rare hunters.”

“Your rare hunters?” Jaden asked again, seeming more and more confused.

“Trust me! Go!” Luna yelled at them. She had to catch Bakura off guard, she would have to force him to choose between fighting four of them or stopping her while she was going at Mach 1. She imagined the sound of the sonic boom would grab his attention as well. “Go as fast as you guys possibly can. And Seto, tell the Pharaoh to reach into my mind if Diabound comes for you!”

With that she flew quickly into the fortress. Her main goal was, of course, to find her rare hunters. At least traces of them. She pointed her rod upwards and willed her dragon to fly as fast as it could inside. The pull of the sudden speed made her hold on for dear life, but she still willed her rod to sense her three rare hunters.

Despite her not hearing anything, she noticed that a big part of the inner walls shattered suddenly, making her assume that she had just broken the sound barrier once again. The idea had been to go in, check, and get out. She felt pretty safe about assuming that nothing would be able to catch up to her. But as her dragon flew past the speed of sound, she wondered what she would do if she found no trace of her rare hunters.

The spiraling crystalline stairs around her through which she passed at incredible speed made her feel like she was somehow descending through some kind of magical portal more than going up a fortress. She wondered if she was going too fast as her rod didn’t seem to be picking up anything.

Where are you guys? She projected her thought to no avail. And despite the countless stairs she passed by, there seemed to have no end to it. For a second, she wondered if somehow she was stuck in a loop and looked down to see if she could still see the ground. To her surprise, she could see nothing but a dark shadow.

It’s following me, it turned its back on the others to chase me!

Equal amounts of fear and excitement surged through her as she wondered what her next step would be. She figured she could just break through the wall of the fortress should she need to get away, and it was evident that Diabound couldn’t catch up to her in regards to speed. Still, she definitely didn’t want to get caught in there.

Glancing once more to her rod and finding it still inactive, Luna was about to put it away when suddenly a line a thought crossed her mind. Bakura had been going in and out of shadows and reflections. Like pocket dimensions.

Could it?

She wondered as she looked back down and aimed her rod at the looming shadow. Though but a weak flicker, her rod had certainly reacted. And despite her not understanding completely, she could paint a rough picture of what was happening.

Maybe I can still get them back. Luna told herself. I can’t let them die too.

Luna steeled her resolve, she was prepared. She was going to make her dragon turn around 180 degrees as fast as it could and launch the most powerful beam of energy they could muster. That would probably reveal the monster and Bakura inside of the shadow. Wouldn’t it? She hoped it would.

This is it. She thought and with a deep breath, she willed her dragon to turn around.

Her Alternative Dragon suddenly stuck its legs out and seemingly did a front flip in place and opened its mouth as she stared straight into the darkness.

Wait! Luna yelled in her mind as a shadowy and monstrous face looked back at her.

Despite the hollow eye sockets and the darkened scaly skin, the face looking back at her was most certainly that of her friend that she had watched die.

“Marik?”

Chapter Text

“Marik?” She asked as guilt and regret squeezed her heart.

Marik’s monstrous face suddenly contorted into a wicked grin and got bigger- no, got closer. It was only then that Luna noticed how far and large this face had been.

Shoot! She willed the command to her dragon, but the monstrous face opened its mouth and swallowed them, engulfing her world into darkness.

Shoot! Shoot!

Her dragon shot a beam, lighting everything up in bluish white. Luna didn’t know what she had expected to see, but before she could make sense of anything, she flinched as she felt a strong impact right below her chest followed by an excruciating pain.

Yami Bakura had been standing in front of her, but his right arm seemingly had become a purple snake, its head covered in blood.

“Hesitation is always what gets people killed.” Yami Bakura said, raising his snake arm closer to his face before licking at the blood. “That and bad guys like me, of course. Diabound absorbs the likeness and powers of those it kills, hence the face.”

Suddenly Bakura’s face changed to that of Marik, but just as monstrous as before.

“Of course, because that’s Diabound’s power, the skin becomes purple and scaly like that.” Bakura’s face became his own once again as he got closer to Luna. “Which, was enough to make you hesitate. But surely, the great and heart-of-ice Kaiba won’t hesitate if your face is all purple like that. Which is why I need your real body.”

He was now crouching on her dragon’s neck, his face close to hers. She tried to will her dragon to spin, to knock Bakura off somehow, but her dragon seemed to be frozen in place. Her breathing grew ragged, the pain persisting as she realized that her clothes suddenly felt drenched. Looking down, she saw that she had a hole at the base of her chest, much like Marik had at the time of his death. She started to panic as she realized she was bleeding too much.

“Once you are dead, I will possess your body.” Bakura continued to talk at his own pace as if they had been chatting over tea. “Seto will be none the wiser.”

Luna opened her mouth to speak but all that came out was a pained gurgle.

“Your friend Marik isn’t here to save you this time, so what will you do?” he said as he scratched his chin, as if truly curious. “Well, whatever the case, if you could speed this up so I can go murder your friends wearing your meat suit, that would be great.”

The pain started to feel like it was somehow lessening, but she realized that the edges of her vision had started to blur and even Bakura’s voice started to sound a little muffled. She didn’t want to die.

Not like this, not here.

Had she been too overconfident? What made her think she could make a difference?

Not like this! Not here!

Luna’s shaky hand reached out with her Millennium Rod, making it glow.

I’ve got to-

Bakura slapped the artifact out of Luna’s hands like one would a child touching something they shouldn’t.

“Naughty girl. Can you please just go with my plan this one time?” Bakura seemed to be mocking her as he continued to smile. “Just do as you are told, and nothing will happen- well, I guess it already did happen to you. But you get the idea.”

As her hopes waned, Luna realized it was getting more and more difficult to breathe. Her eye lids felt too heavy to keep open and a weirdly familiar cold sensation started to spread from her extremities.

“Any time now.” Bakura said, his tone suddenly becoming uncharacteristically soft, as if he really cared that she didn’t feel alone in her last moments.

I guess it could be worse.

As her mind slipped into oblivion, her body felt as if it was falling. Luna tried her best to keep her eyes open but it looked like she was no longer on the back of her dragon. It felt as if she had been laying on some kind of puddle.

From the corner of her eyes, she could tell a silhouette emerging from the shadows. A part of her knew she should have been alarmed, but she was too exhausted to care.

“Still stirring trouble I see.” A husky but somehow still soothing voice said. “What would you have done if I had been unavailable?”

The man sighed and stayed quiet for a moment.

“I guess they got you pretty good this time, huh? Well, let’s not prolong your suffering then.” With that, Luna could tell that the silhouette had shifted, perhaps he had raised a hand towards her, but she couldn’t be sure.

Suddenly there was a red glow from the general direction of the silhouette’s head.

“Eye of my mind, light of my soul.” He said, slowly, calmly.

The words had sounded mysterious and yet so familiar. Suddenly Luna felt her own lips moving as she heard herself say.

“Anchor of my life, together we are whole.” She was sure she had never said this before, and yet it felt like she had said those very words a thousand times over.

The red glow seemed to intensify as she felt herself warming up. But as her energy seemed to return to her, so did the pain.

She still couldn’t move but the pain was getting too much to bear.

As Luna screamed, she opened her eyes and saw Bakura looking confused and perhaps even a little scared.

She quickly grabbed at the air, making her Millennium Rod materialize once again and focused all of her new found will into it as she pointed at Bakura.

“Fuck-” She yelled as loud as she could, all of her frustrations and pent up anger focused into her last word. “-off!”

Bakura’s body contorted for a second as if breaking in several places before being blown away, shattering through the veil of shadow that had been surrounding them.

Get us out of here! She thought to her dragon as her heart hammered away inside of her chest. Find my friends!

She quickly looked down and saw that despite her clothes still being bloody, her skin and flesh had been back to normal where the hole had been. Touching the unmarred skin, Luna wondered what in the world was going on.

Who and what was that? She wondered before she noticed a dark shadowy stain on the side of the crystal walls.

As she looked at it, a broken Bakura emerged with a creepy grin.

“You caught me by surprise. But I won’t let you do that again.” Bakura said, coming forward towards her. Though he seemed to be simply sliding towards her, the more he approached, the more of Diabound appeared as well, making it clear that Bakura had been standing on his monster’s horn.

Despite herself, Luna couldn’t help taking a glance downwards to see if she could spot her friends.

“Worried about your friends? Or you might even be wondering that at least your friends are safe since I’m here with you. Is that it?” Bakura asked, his face becoming more manic the closer he got to Luna. “Well, you don’t seem like a bigger picture type of gal, huh? If I’m here, then who is with your friends?”

Panic surged through her mind as she wondered if Dartz was attacking her friends right at that moment.

“If they haven’t been consumed yet, they will be shortly.” Bakura started to laugh, but otherwise seeming calm about the situation despite his limbs still seeming broken. “But don’t worry about them, I’m your dance partner now.”

Seto hadn’t contacted her, she assumed that meant that they hadn’t been attacked yet. She had to warn them before that happened.

“Come on!” Bakura’s tone changed suddenly to that of an explosive anger as his limbs start to pop back in to their original position with gruesome noises. “Fight me!”

But Luna would stop the time, she imagined her throne room and focused on her mental image of Seto. And before Bakura could attack her, she closed her eyes.

Something was wrong.

When she opened them again, Luna was utterly lost.

Instead of her throne room, Luna stood in the middle of a cemetery. Hundreds- no, thousands of tombstones littered what seemed to be a hill in no recognizable order. A trace of fear made its way to her heart as she looked around in bewilderment.

Two giant eyes suddenly opened in the black night sky and stared at her. Luna materialized her rod and pointed towards the eyes but a tendril made of darkness wrapped around her arm and pulled her down.

“You may have some interesting powers out in the physical realm.” Bakura’s voice boomed through the night. “But in the shadow realms, I am king!”

Luna’s heartbeat started to pick up the pace once more as she tried focus all of her will into the rod as she tried to make it repel the darkness.

“If I can’t kill you to possess your body, then I will just lock away your mind and devour your soul.” The voice got louder as dark tendrils started to sprout from the cemetery grounds and surrounded her.

Yelling at the top of her lungs, Luna released her focused will, making a sphere of light explode from the rod, repelling all the darkness that it passed through and illuminating their surroundings. She heard a thud behind her and turned around with her rod aimed and ready. Her rod started to glow on its own.

“Mai?” Luna called out as she recognized first Mai, then Tea and Bandit. “Are you guys okay?”

But the dark tendrils started to reappear as quickly as they had been repelled.

“Guys, wake up!” Luna yelled at her rare hunters as she turned to see the tendrils sprouting, mounds growing, and shadows emerging. “I command you to wake up, now!”

Her rod glowed strong as she felt some of her energy drain as the symbol of the golden eye appeared on her hunters’ foreheads. Immediately they opened their eyes and stood up.

She was about to tell them to find a way out, but she immediately realized she didn’t know what that looked like either.

Luna aimed at the darkness and got ready to release another impulse of light when more tendrils grabbed her by the wrists, stronger than before, and pulled her to the ground.

“You think you can stop me with such petty tricks?” Bakura’s voice felt much more formed as a mound of darkness took shape into his likeness in front of her. “You may harness the power of darkness through your Millennium Item, but I am darkness personified.”

One of the dark tendrils shot towards Luna’s face but stopped inches away from her and started to quiver.

“How are you-” Bakura started but was interrupted by a voice that seemed to be coming from inside of Luna.

“You are darkness? What a terribly cliché thing for a villain to say.”

Luna looked around, wondering what was happening she felt a presence walking out from within her, reminding her of when the Lv. 80 AI of Kaibaman had summoned himself onto the field.

In front of her, stood the newly emerged Luna, who looked back towards her.

“Miss me yet, hun?” The distorted but evidently her own voice came out of her likeness in front of her.

She hadn’t expected to see Yami Luna again so soon, her fear count nearly doubled.

Yami Bakura made a throwing motion with his hand and made a handful of dark tendrils shoot out towards Yami Luna, who simply raised a finger like a professor requiring silence from her class. The tendrils immediately stopped mid motion.

“How are you doing that?” Bakura yelled, frustration oozing out of his voice as he used both of his hands and started to tremble ever so slightly.

The tendrils, though quivering a little, stayed in place.

“What? Is this really all you got, kid?” Yami Luna laughed.

“Do not mock me, dark spirit!” Bakura yelled as he started to gain a dim but distinctly purple glow around him. “I am born of hatred and anger, I am the king of darkness!”

“You are but a child whose anger and hatred gave you some powers.” Yami Luna said as she casually approached Yami Bakura. “But it’s evident that you let it get to your head, like a real amateur.”

“You fool, the anger and hatred of an entire village fuels me!” Bakura said as even his eyes started to glow purple.

But Yami Luna made a grabbing motion and seemingly held Bakura in place.

“No, you are fueled only by the hatred and fear of a little boy who survived by shit luck.” Yami Luna said, seemingly calm, but quickly using her second hand as well. “I, on the other hand, am fueled by the wrath and fury of an immortal soul, losing her loved ones over and over for thousands of generations.”

Bakura’s eyes darted to where Luna was kneeled, held down by tendrils.

“Her loathing is bottomless, her wrath unending. The well from which I draw my power is infinite!” Yami Luna said before she snapped a finger, making all of the tendrils holding Luna disappear. “Time to go, little Luna. Use your rod to make a portal, quick!”

Luna quickly got up and though she had no idea how to do what Yami Luna had told her to do, she figured it was all mental like everything related to the Millennium Artifacts. With that in mind, she focused on the mental image of a portal back to her friends. Almost immediately, a golden portal took form where she had aimed with her rod.

Quickly, go back and help the others. They will get attacked by Dartz, if they haven’t already! Luna thought to her hunters, who bowed and quickly left through the portal.

Luna, however, turned back to look at Yami Luna, wondering if she could actually take down this seemingly super powered Bakura, whose skin started to darken and his body started to grow.

“You only forgot one thing, fool.” Bakura said, as horns sprouted on his head. “I am a servant of Zorc.”

“Zorc Splorc, little guy.” Yami Luna laughed, though Luna could see that her expression had become more stern. “What’s so great about that big dragon cocked, ugly kingkong fucker?”

“I’m not sure you’ve made his acquaintance, but he did create the shadow realms.” Bakura’s voice got distorted beyond recognition as he became half demon and half man. “This is his world, and I am his unyielding hand.”

“Why didn’t you leave yet?” Yami Luna asked as she took a quick glance at Luna. “Go!”

“You can’t fight him alone.” Luna said despite every cell in her body telling her to leave immediately.

“You think we are friends?” Yami Luna scoffed. “Just because I don’t want him to take over our body, doesn’t mean I won’t kill you and take the body for myself.”

She was right. Luna had momentarily been worried for someone who had tried to steal her body. But still, the fact that Yami Luna had protected Luna told her that maybe, just maybe, there was some good in Yami Luna. Plus, she couldn’t let her die. It felt like she was letting a part of herself die.

“Didn’t you hear me? Go, you dumb bitch!” Yami Luna yelled.

“Hey! What happened to immortal soul with bottomless loathing and unending wrath?” Luna asked as she stepped forward, beside Yami Luna, with her rod aimed at Bakura.

“She lost her memory for a second time apparently.” Yami Luna said as she turned and grabbed Luna by the arm and forcefully flung her towards the gate. “Get back to your friends.”

Luna somehow managed to regain her balance.

“No!” She said as she approached her darker self once again. “You think I’m going to let you face that thing alone?”

Whether they faced him now or later, one way or another they were going to have to take Bakura down.

“How are you so stubborn?” Yami Luna asked, turning towards her for a split second as a dark tendril punctured through Yami Luna’s chest.

For a moment, it felt like time had stopped. In trying to help her, Luna had achieved just the opposite.

“Why did you turn around?” was all that Luna managed to say.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Yami Luna asked, seemingly in a lot of pain. “You are blaming me?”

Suddenly Luna heard the wet sloshing movement of several other tendrils around her.

“Begone!” Luna focused all of her will onto her Rod and smashed the ground with it, making that same sphere of light expand from the point she had struck, making all shadows and darkness around them disappear.

Luna looked towards Yami Luna, who was kneeled on the ground, holding on to the wound on her chest.

“Are you-”

“Save it! Get out of here now!” Yami Luna yelled as she got up with a lot of effort.

“Just one little poke, and down the mouthy one goes.” Bakura’s voice reverberated through the air as he formed once again near them. “Thank you for the excess darkness. It was very- tasty.”

Demon Bakura seemed to have grown wings now and had giant claws for hands, he was practically unrecognizable now.

“Stop sucking my mojo, you weirdo.” Yami Luna said as she put her hands down and cracked her own neck. “Give it back.”

“You still don’t seem to realize the kind of situation you are in.” Bakura said as his grin weakened. “Let me show-”

Suddenly Bakura was gone, no, he was on Yami Luna, lifting her up by the neck with ease.

“-you.” Bakura finished saying, his grin coming back as he squeezed Yami Luna’s throat. “What did you say about me just being a kid again?”

Luna pointed the rod at Bakura and impulsively imagined a blade of light on top of her rod. Immediately a blade formed, practically making her Rod into the handle and guard of a short sword. Bakura didn’t seem to notice as he had his back to Luna. This was her chance.

Luna lunged and stabbed at the back of the demon and pushed the blade in with both hands, as strong as she could. Bakura let out an otherworldly wail as he dropped Yami Luna, but quickly turned around with his arm out, catching Luna on her torso and throwing her a short distance.

She had let go of her rod but saw it dematerialize as she let go. As she landed on her side with a thud, she effortfully got up and made her rod appear again.

“You really are stubborn, aren’t you?” Bakura said as he bent his knees, seemingly ready to pounce on her like a tiger would a prey.

But before he could jump, three giant sword made of light came down around them. A pulse originating from the center, pushed Bakura out of the triangle that the swords had formed.

“It seems I have come just in time.” A deep and familiar voice came from behind Luna.

Luna turned immediately to find the Pharaoh standing behind her.

“Your connection with Seto let me know something was wrong, it felt like you had died for a moment there, so I’m glad to find you okay.” Atem said, always so kindly. “But you must leave now, Luna. Take your other half and go to your friends.”

“What about you?” Luna asked, wondering why everyone was trying to take on a demon on their own. “Come back with us.”

“When Seto finally accepted me and became my vessel, I saw some of the things he saw in your mind.” Atem said with a somewhat sad smile. “If that is thief king Bakura, then he is probably the reason behind Yugi being in a coma. I must do this.”

“Then-” Luna started but was interrupted.

“No, Luna.” The Pharaoh said, as sad as he seemed determined. “There’s some good in your dark side. Convince her to fight with you.”

The Pharaoh snapped his finger and Yami Luna seemingly became a swarm of twinkling lights, which flew towards Luna and was absorbed by her.

“Yugi and I were practically invincible when we were together.” The Pharaoh said with a smile that broke Luna’s heart. “With our friends, we could do anything. Now without them, without him, I have no place here.”

Luna swallowed hard as she didn’t know what to say.

“Become one with your darker half, and keep your friends safe. That’s how you will save world.” Atem said as he turned around towards Bakura, who had been clawing at the light barrier to no avail. “Oh, and tell Seto that I’m sorry.”

Was he passing on the torch?

Her heart broke and she couldn’t hold in her tears. She hadn’t interacted with Atem nearly as much as she had hoped. But she couldn’t deny him this. Not when she would have done the same thing for Seto or Mokuba.

So Luna watched her childhood hero start glowing in a golden aura and undo the barrier of his Swords of Revealing Light. He had been the one who had started it all, whose series had given her the confidence to go through her teenage years and to make new friends. The one who gave her a lifelong hobby and passion. The one who meant a lot more to her than he would ever know.

“Farewell. And thank you.”

______________________________________________________________________________

In memory of Kazuki Takahashi (Oct. 4, 1961 – Jul. 6, 2022)

Rest in peace, sensei.

Chapter Text

When Luna blinked, she was back on her Alternative Dragon, just outside of the fortress. Luna’ heart rate and breathing were all over the place as she looked around, but Bakura was nowhere to be found. She had half hoped that she would have found a catatonic Bakura, who she could kill with ease.

Kill? She caught her own line of thinking. And yet, she did have to kill him, didn’t she?

She hoped that the Pharaoh would survive, she didn’t think she could handle the death of yet another friend.

Speaking of friends.

Luna tentatively tried to feel inside of her mind for the presence of Yami Luna. She had a lot of questions for her, seeing as Yami Luna seemed to know more about her past lives than she did. Did that really matter though?

Before she could finish that line of thought or even feel Yami Luna’s presence, an explosion occurred somewhat far beneath her. She looked down but couldn’t make out much from that distance.

Are you guys down there? Luna mentally asked her three rare hunters. What’s going on?

It’s a giant snake! She heard Tea’s voice in her mind. It’s too strong!

Luna wondered how Diabound could still be out here when Bakura was in the shadow realm. Had he already gotten rid of the Pharaoh?

She willed her dragon to fly down as fast as she could. Maybe Atem was right, maybe they should all work together to destroy Diabound once and for all. It would be better than having to take on the Great Leviathan and Diabound at once.

But as she reached her friends, the snake looked somehow different. It was much bigger and though it had gained a new purple aura, the snake itself was not the same color as before. It was only when it turned to attack Jaden that she realized that it wasn’t Diabound at all.

It was Divine Serpent Geh.

“Get away from it! That thing can have infinite attack points!” Luna yelled, suddenly afraid that her friends could get hit by it at any time.

A bright light caught her attention as three dragons came forth from Seto’s hands.

The dragons of legends!

Luna suddenly remembered that she had the sacred beasts with her as well. She was about to summon them too when the big snake suddenly made its way back into the fortress.

“Come back, you coward!” Mokuba yelled, though looking somewhat shaken.

Luna did a quick count and saw that all of her friends and her dancers were accounted for. That was a small relief.

“You are back.” Seto seemed relieved as he approached Luna, but suddenly looked very worried. “Are you hurt? Is that your blood?

“What?” Luna asked as she looked down, seeing her shirt drenched in blood with a large hole at the base of her chest despite the skin under the shirt being squeaky clean. “Oh, uh, I’m okay, don’t worry about it.”

Seto looked at her for a second longer as if not convinced.

“Well, I felt like there was something wrong, and Atem said he also felt it and that he would check on you.”  He explained, still eyeing her bloody shirt. “The Pharaoh didn’t even let me know you were coming back, though.”

“Let’s go up the fortress.” She said urgently. Maybe they could still get to Atem somehow. “That snake was Geh, its Dartz’s monster. But Bakura is high up in the fortress as well.”

“Wait, did you say that snake was gay?” Jaden asked, appearing beside them, seemingly uncomfortable with Luna’s statement. “I know I’m from the future, but were these kinds of comments okay in this time period?”

“We don’t have time for this, Jay.” Luna said as she grabbed her three sacred beasts cards and handed it to him. “You have a lot of Polymerization cards in your deck, yeah? I assume you remember these cards? I think you are the one amongst us that will best be able to use them to their full potential.”

Jaden received the cards as his expression grew more serious.

“Where did you even get these?” Jaden asked as he eyed Luna somewhat apprehensively.

“Marik saw the cards when he entered your mind at some point. Had his hunters excavate-”

“Do you realize how dangerous and catastrophic that could have been?” Jaden asked, his tone rising.

Luna didn’t appreciate feeling like she was being scolded.

“I had nothing to do with that, but we have the cards now. That’s the present, Jay. Might as well use them.” She said as a matter of fact. “We have to go now, Atem is fighting Bakura alone.”

Her dancers and hunters quickly went towards the big hole in the fortress through which Geh had gone in and made sure it was secure.

“Are we going separate ways again?” Seto asked with a card in hand.

“No.” Luna readily replied, trying to give him a reassuring smile. “We stick together from now on.”

“Good.” Seto said with a smile of his own, though he still seemed worried. “We can do this.”

Somehow those last words seemed to be more directed at himself than anything.

“Mai, Tea. You guys are relieved of your duty.” Luna said as the words felt unfamiliar in her mouth. “You both must be exhausted.”

But both of them looked back at her with determination.

“Didn’t you say the Pharaoh is fighting alone?” Tea asked, atop of, what Luna assumed to be Mai’s Luster Dragon. “Even if I won’t be of much help, I can’t just leave knowing he is in danger.”

“I will leave when Bakura is dead.” Mai stated before pursing her lips while riding on her Harpie’s Pet Dragon. “He will pay for what he did to Joey.”

Everyone had a reason to be here, except maybe her dancers.

“Well then, let’s go.” Luna said, flying in first to lead the way.

On their way up, Seto approached her, still seemingly worried.

“I couldn’t help but notice a pattern. Do you always hand out sacred cards to others?” Seto said with an uncharacteristically sheepish smile.

“I keep wondering if things would have turned out the same way if Joey had taken Slifer when I was trying to give it to him.” Luna said, despite knowing that Seto had only been trying to lighten the mood.

“We’ll always wonder the what ifs and the maybes.” Seto commented but then seemed to struggle with what to say next. “You know, there was a moment when Atem thought you had died.”

Luna glanced at him for a moment, but how could she explain what she didn’t understand completely herself?

“I think I did.” She said as she recalled laying on the puddle of dark waters that stretched for eternity.

“So that is your blood.” Seto seemed to have thought out loud. “What happened?”

“Bakura punched a hole through torso. And I fell off my dragon. Or maybe I didn’t.” It was getting difficult to remember what had actually happened in the physical world and what was on the shadow realms. “And then I was in some dark waters, and some guy appeared and I woke up. I- it’s a little hazy for me too. I don’t know what parts of that actually happened or was conjured up by the shadow realm.”

“Some guy saved you?” Seto seemed as interested as he looked worried. “Could that maybe have something to do with that Sage or whoever it was that the old man said you were tethered to?”

She had imagined the same. It was the only thing she could think of that would have kept her from dying. But that’s just something the old man had said, she wasn’t even sure that it was real. Or that he was right. For all she knew, this was her first life and she wasn’t tethered to anyone.

But before she could continue that line of thought, Mokuba approached with Jaden and Noah.

“What are you guys talking about?” Mokuba asked, seeming quite tired. “Sorry for interrupting, I was near Bandit Keith and that guy gives me the creeps.”

Luna looked back towards Bandit. And yeah, he wasn’t the bandana wearing, sunglasses toting, loud mouth Bandit. But he didn’t seem like the completely brain washed Bandit either. He looked a bit rough, but there was also some clarity to his eyes. Plus, it wasn’t like he had done anything for her to assume the worst of him.

“Don’t worry too much about him, Mokes.” Luna said, wondering how she could cheer him up in this kind of situation. “Did you already think of what you want to do first when this is all over?”

That seemed to have taken Mokuba by surprise, he looked at her with an eyebrow raised before smiling.

“I’ll take you and Noah to my favorite ice cream place!” he exclaimed, excited. “Sometimes I ditch my body guards and go there in disguise to listen to other kids talk.”

“So that’s where you go, huh?” Seto said, evidently exaggerating his stern expression.

But despite this lighthearted conversation they were having, Luna’s eyes kept darting around every corner of the fortress as they ascended. There were no moving shadows, there were no monsters, and there were no pharaohs.

“Hey, Luna. Could I speak to you for a minute?” Jaden asked as he just slightly slowed down.

Luna also slowed down to keep pace with him as the others went on ahead.

“What’s up, Jay?” She asked, getting slightly worried about his apprehension. “If you ask about gay snakes, I swear to God, man.”

“No, no. I think we should probably talk about- hypotheticals.” He stated, looking at her as if he was afraid that she would get mad. 

“What kind of hypotheticals?” Luna asked when he didn’t elaborate.

“Well, of course we are going to do our very best in saving this world. No question about that.” He stated, his eyes ever so observant of Luna’s possible reactions. “But like I mentioned before, I had a friend who was also a traveler, Nox Bane. And he told me there are only two sure ways to leave a world. One is to save it, and the other-”

“Is to destroy it.” Luna said, as she had a flashback of him telling her that. “I remember. So what are you trying to say, Jay?”

Maybe she had looked angrier than she had meant, as Jaden suddenly seemed to regret that he had said anything.

“I mean, of course we will do everything we can! I’m not saying I don’t have confidence in our merry band of warriors.” Jaden sighed before continuing. “It’s a hypothetical. Like one in a million, maybe.”

“Then why are we talking about it?” She snapped at him.

“Because a chance is a chance! Shouldn’t we be ready for anything, just in case?” Jaden sounded frustrated as well. “Otherwise if it happens, we will simply sit there not knowing what to do. Of course I don’t want the bad guys to win and of course I will give 110% of me to make sure they don’t beat us. But we also don’t know how their weird magic powers work yeah? We still don’t know how they got here in the first place. If they do have some kind of higher power and end up killing everyone here except for us-”

Luna hadn’t interrupted him, but Jaden paused for a second as if processing what he was saying.

“If we are the only ones left alive. Then instead of trying to defeat these villains on our own, it may be wiser for us to- to destroy this world ourselves.” Jaden finished saying before swallowing hard. “Of course, it’s all hypothetical.”

“You do realize this world has more people than the ones present here, right?” Luna asked, baffled that he was thinking like that.

“Yeah, but the ones who can fight are out here fighting.” Jaden argued. “If we, somehow, end up not winning, all of us together. Then what chance will just the two of us have? Would you rather die fighting an impossible fight? Or get away so we can go home. Maybe even other worlds, worlds we could actually save.”

“We’ll talk about it if it ever comes to that.” Luna said as a matter of fact. “But it won’t.”

“I know! It most likely won’t, and I really hope it won’t.” Jaden said, showing her his open palms. “But we still know almost nothing about the capabilities of these bad guys, yeah?”

“Sorry to eavesdrop, but I agree with Jaden.” Noah said beside Luna, startling her as she hadn’t noticed him approaching. “We don’t know about their powers, but assuming that they aren’t travelers, destroying this world might be the only way to defeat them for good. Who knows, maybe you would be keeping them from going after other worlds by trapping them here and destroying this place.”

“At least one of them is most likely a traveler.” Luna said, thinking out loud. “Someone had to have come from a future timeline to know how each villain falls and where to find them. So destroying this world might just make them be able to leave this place. We have to defeat them and stop them from going on a conquest for new worlds.”

“Well, that does change things.” Noah observed, without looking at either Luna or Jaden. “But then assuming their plan isn’t to simply kill everyone in this world, destroying this place could be a way to stop whatever they are planning. If one of them is a traveler, as you say, then most likely their plans are not specific to this timeline, right? Who do you think is the traveler?”

Luna didn’t have to think hard.

“I think it’s Dartz.” She replied, also looking forward as the top ceiling of fortress became visible at a distance. “How else would he know who had the Egyptian God cards before it was made public or even that it would bring monsters to life? He enticed you with the idea of making a real body from the powers of the gods, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Noah confirmed her suspicions.

“He knew all of this beforehand and has been one step ahead of us this entire time. Not to mention that he is using the Great Leviathan to somehow bring the spirit world into this one.” Luna observed. “Also, just now, he saw the three legendary dragons and made Geh retreat, even before Seto used the Legend of Heart card. I think he most definitely is a traveler.”

“Then do we go after him first?” Seto asked, making Luna realize that everyone in the group were now close together as they approached the top.

“Well, Bakura has Atem. So we need to find him first. Fighting two fronts will probably not be a good idea either.” Luna stated, remembering the Pharaoh’s words. “We focus on Bakura first, take him down and then move together on Dartz.”

That was their plan, or at least it was until the ceiling of the fortress suddenly blew up as the face of the Divine Serpent Geh looked down at them and opened its mouth.

“Get out, now!” Seto yelled as he made his Ultimate dragon blow three big holes on the wall nearest to them.

Luna blew her own exit out of the fortress and noticed Noah doing the same. She quickly turned to see if everyone was okay.

But before she could see through all the debris, something big and green appeared in front of her. She hadn’t even had time to wonder what that was as a big blue demon came between her and the large green object and punched it away.

Upon a second look, the big blue demon had been Raviel, Lord of Phantasms, and the big green object that it had kept at a distance was Orichalcos Shunoros.

“Dartz is finally making his move.” Luna said to herself, barely louder than a whisper, before three big white lightning bolts fell from the skies as roars ensued. “What-”

It was a good distance from her, but she could tell the three dragons of legends had begun to shine brightly.

Seto must have used his Legend of Heart card!

A bright yellow beam of energy shot forward from Orichalcos Shunoros, barely giving Raviel and Luna any time to dodge the attack.

“Jaden! Summon the other sacred beasts!” Luna yelled. “Don’t hold anything back, go all out!”

It was evident that Dartz was trying to keep them divided, but turning their back on Shunoros could be a very costly mistake. They needed to use their full strength and end this quickly.

You guys help Seto destroy that thing quickly! Luna sent out the thought to her rare hunters and dancers before she summoned three Blue-Eyes White Dragons.

Shunoros suddenly turned and started blasting a barrage of yellow energy attacks towards Luna. It was all she could do to dodge the attacks, while hoping the others were faring better than Jaden and her.

“Thanks for taking his attention from me!” Jaden yelled. “I use Polymerization!”

A fracture in space appeared as Raviel was pulled into it along with two motes of light, one red and one yellow, that came out of Jaden’s cards.

“Come forth! Armityle!” Jaden yelled as his eyes seemed to glow, one yellow and one green. “The Chaos Phantasm!”

A deafening roar was followed by sheer darkness. Luna suddenly felt cold as she looked around wondering what had happened. She thought of calling out to Jaden, but the darkness shattered into a million pieces, revealing Armityle suddenly there amongst them.

The monumental demon with two faces on its head and a dragon head for its left arm looked much more terrifying in person. She quickly glanced at Jaden, whose expression bordered manic. She imagined he was feeling excited, as this was a monster Dartz would have no knowledge about. And with ten thousand attack points, it definitely was on the stronger side.

But unlike Jaden, Luna knew that Shunoros could practically have infinite attack points. They hadn’t seen any Orichalcos Kyutora out for Shunoros to be summoned, but she remembered that Shunoros’s attack points depended on how much battle damage Kyutora had taken before it was destroyed. There simply was no way to tell. But the one thing that she did remember attacking over and over without having any effect, were the light pillars that had trapped the Big Five. The pillars had even glowed green, making Luna think it probably had something to do with the Orichalcos. If that were case, then what destroyed them was Seto’s infinite attack Obelisk.

Luna, however, was the other aspect that Dartz could never prepare for in his plans.

“Don’t get hit by him!” Luna yelled to Jaden as she quickly grabbed a card from her Blue-Eyes deck. “When I summon my monster, be ready to attack at the same time!”

With that, Luna raised her card to the skies and yelled.

“I use Chaos Form!”

Immediately, reality seemed to distort around the card in five specific points as dark purple smoke and red electric bolts came out of her card.

Shunoros suddenly turned to face her, but Jaden’s Armityle struck it in the back with a dark beam.

One of Luna’s Blue-Eyes White Dragons started to glow and got absorbed into her Chaos Form card.

“Come forth!” Luna yelled as she knew nothing held her back now that Seto had accepted that she was from another world and that she indeed used a Blue-Eyes deck. “Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon!”

Luna’s Chaos Form card seemingly became a small black hole which started to fold into itself, bending reality as her new mechanized looking Blue-Eyes emerged from it.

“Attack the right arm, Jay!” Luna yelled before pointing at Shunoros. “Go, Chaos Lightning on the left arm!”

The wings of her new dragon brightly glowed a light blue sheen as it shot an erratic bolt of white energy. Suddenly, Shunoros and its two arms, Dexia and Aristeros, went on the defensive as Luna knew they would. She had summoned her Chaos Dragon, sacrificing her Blue-Eyes specifically for that effect of changing the attack and defense position of her opponent’s monsters when her Chaos Dragon attacked, and ultimately making both attack and defense points of said monsters to zero.

Of course, Dexia and Aristeros couldn’t be destroyed while Shunoros was out, but none of that got past Luna. She didn’t lose a single beat as she put a hand on the Alternative Dragon.

“It’s your turn buddy, use your effect to destroy Shunoros!” Luna yelled, making the blue veins on Alternative Dragon to shine brightly as it shot a beam of light at an incredible speed.

The reason Luna had decided to ride on Alternative Dragon from the start was due to his effect of letting her destroy a monster every turn. Of course, she didn’t know how turns translated in real time battle, nor was she sure that the effect would take effect. But if Chaos Dragon’s effect did in fact make Shunoros and its arms to change into defense position, then surely this would work as well.

As Shunoros’s main body was struck by the beam of light, it glowed red and exploded into tiny particles.

It worked!

As Armityle’s dark blast pulverized Dexia, so did Chaos Dragon’s lightning bolt pierce Aristeros.

We did it!

Luna was turning to celebrate with Jaden when a dark object caught her attention. Where Shunoros had been, was what seemed to be an orb of black substance.

Desperation took a hold of Luna’s heart as she immediately realized what was going to happen next, but Jaden, without any way of knowing what that was, approached it.

“Step away, Jaden!” Luna yelled as she willed her Alternative dragon to use its effect on the floating black orb which grew in size as they watched.

Her dragon however, let out a grunt. It would seem the equivalent of a turn had not passed yet. Jaden, seeing Luna’s reaction, back away and pointed the black orb, making Armityle point its dragon head-arm towards the orb and blast it with hellfire.

This can’t be happening! Luna thought, as the orb kept growing despite Jaden’s attacks.

And before they had a chance to do anything else, a loud crack was heard as the orb shattered and a second Divine Serpent Geh emerged from it.

Chapter Text

We can try the same strategy! Luna thought as she tried to calm her heart down.

Infinite attack points were scary, but Geh was not immune to card effects. Her Chaos Dragon could make it go into defense mode, and make that infinite point into big round zero.

“Let’s try the same strategy, Jay!” Luna yelled. If Chaos Dragon’s effect worked, then it alone would suffice. But just in case, she wanted Jaden to also make a second attack.

“Not very creative, huh?” a ragged voice whispered in Luna’s ear, making her turn around immediately but not finding anyone.

An explosive noise made Luna turn back again to see Armityle putting some distance between it and Geh.

“What’s wrong, why did you stop?” Jaden asked from a distance.

Luna was sure she had heard a voice, but she couldn’t get distracted. One wrong move and Geh could kill any one of them. She was about to will her dragon to attack when a green pillar of light came down from the skies.

“You fool! You think I can’t see you whispering in her ear?” Dartz’s voice boomed through the air as the light faded and revealed Dartz simply floating in the air. “Come out at once and explain yourself.”

A creepy laughter ensued as a shadow appeared behind Luna, making her quickly back away from it.

“Maybe it’s the traces of Marik Ishtar that Diabound has absorbed. Or maybe it’s the darkness that I have tasted from her.” The voice she had heard whisper, came from the shadow before what seemed like a disfigured and mangled man stepped out. “Whichever the case, it would seem I have grown a certain fondness for this one.”

The things that he said, proved that he was Bakura, but the state he was in and his ragged voice was completely unfamiliar to Luna.

“We had a deal.” Dartz said, his face devoid of any expression despite the vehemence in his voice.

“We did.” The disfigured Bakura said before he coughed up some blood. “But it seems the situation has changed. Particularly for me.”

“What the hell happened to you?” Dartz asked, seemingly not worried that Bakura had just broken whatever agreement they had going.

The disfigured Bakura laughed once more before coughing again.

“I finally dealt with the Pharaoh.” Bakura said, making the hair in the back of Luna’s neck rise. “Vengeance is finally mine.”

“Foolish wretch.” Dartz scoffed. “Blinded by vengeance, look at what it cost you. You are throwing away the entire plan for the universe!”

“Do you mind cutting down on the monologue? The sun isn’t too kind on the current state of my skin.” Bakura laughed through half missing lips.

“And you are confident about betraying me?” Dartz asked, suddenly looking more relaxed. “The only thing keeping us in equal footing was the fact that you were bound to Zorc. A fearsome presence for sure, one I no longer sense with you.”

What the fuck is going on? Luna wondered as she thought of leaving the two to fight it out and going with Jaden to help Seto and the others.

“You sound sure about that.” Bakura said, head hanging at an awkward angle. “But if knew how much power lies within this girl-”

Suddenly, Bakura stretched a hand towards Luna as the Millennium Ring appeared on front of his torn torso, glowing as all five of its needles pointed towards Luna. A shadow spread from the ring towards Luna as Dartz quickly pointed at her with two fingers and recited something in a language mysterious to her.

Luna didn’t know what was going on, but she used the power of her own Millennium Rod to call Jaden into the throne room.

“What the-” Jaden seemed perplexed as he looked around.

“Go to Seto and the others. Help them defeat that first Geh, no matter what.” Luna said as her heart pounded inside of her chest.

“Wait, what about you?” Jaden asked as he approached her with his hand out.

“If you don’t get rid of Geh, some of our friends could get killed. If you stay here, then most likely you will get killed.” Luna tried to explain as quick as she could as she didn’t know how the time freeze worked when other Millennium Items were being used. “Bakura is trying to consume me, but Dartz is trying to stop him. I think I will be okay as long as I keep my distance and let the two fight it out. But I need you to be alive, so that in case-”

Luna paused for a moment, suddenly not confident about this whole ordeal.

“In case what?” Jaden matched her sense of urgency.

“In case I do get consumed. Then most likely they will use my appearance to wreak havoc.” Luna said thinking of all the ways things could go wrong. “In which case, Seto will most likely hesitate when seeing me. That could get him killed. If the next time we see each other, you feel a darkness in me, you need to- you need to kill me as quickly as you can.”

Jaden opened his mouth but said nothing.

“It won’t be me. It will be Bakura.” Luna said. “Promise me.”

Jaden seemed devastated but hesitantly nodded.

“Take out the first Geh with the others, and then together take down the second Geh, yeah?” Luna said, wondering when taking charge had become like second nature to her. “Together, you can do anything. Divided we all fall.”

“Try to stay alive, yeah?” Jaden said, suddenly seeming a lot older.

“You too, Jay.”

Luna took one last look at her friend, she was tempted to pull Seto into the throne room. But she couldn’t think like this was already the end. She still had to fight. She still had a world to save. And so, Luna nodded and blinked.

As she opened her eyes, a pillar of green light surrounded her and her dragon as the shadows collided onto the pillar from the outside, seemingly unable to get to her.

“Quickly, swear allegiance to me and the seal of Orichalcos, girl.” Dartz’s voice surged through the light. “With the power of the Orichalcos, his shadows will not be able to consume you.”

“Is this a good cop, bad cop routine that you guys got going here?” Luna asked, forcing herself to smile and scoff despite how fast her heart was beating.

“Foolish child, do you not see death knocking at your doors?” Dartz’s voice continued to press her. “We find ourselves at the same side of the scales, at least temporarily. I will help you, and you don’t provide him any power by not being consumed.”

“If neither of you are lying, then it would seem it is in your best interest to protect me regardless of whether I join your little cult or not.” Luna said, maintaining her best confident smirk. “Why don’t you fight him head on? Or are you afraid that the Great Leviathan can’t take on Zorc?”

“The girl has a point, odd eyes.” Bakura’s ragged voice seemed to tear through the light barrier. “Weren’t you confident just seconds ago? Why don’t you fight me? Or is the Great Leviathan all bark and no bite?”

“You would dare insult the Great Leviathan?” Dartz finally seemed to be losing his patience.

“I would.” Bakura sounded content even through his ragged voice.

“That’s great, now you guys can figure this out on your own and let me go, right?” Luna asked, focusing some of her will into her right hand, ready to make her dragon sonic boom out of there should the pillar of light disappear.

“Well, you do see that letting one of us take your powers will greatly expedite things, right?” The shadows suddenly took shape of the torn and tattered being, pressed against the pillar of light. “And given our history, I think it should be me, don’t you agree?”

“Eat shit and die.” Luna said as she showed him the middle finger.

“Oh come on, you still owe me for having destroyed my plans before!” Bakura looked ready to throw a tantrum like a child despite the horrendous state of his body and face. “You know, technically it’s your fault that I look like this.”

“It’s an improvement.” Luna said as she wondered if her Millennium Rod was strong enough to break through the Orichalcos light. “Did you really defeat the Pharaoh?”

“Well, I admit that defeat is probably a strong word given my current state.” Bakura said with a grim smile. “Was I luckier than him and survive? Yes.”

Luna was about to ask him where the Pharaoh was when an earth shattering roar made everything tremble.

“The mad man really did bring his Great Leviathan!” Bakura turned to look away from Luna.

This is my chance!

Luna pictured a hole in the pillar of light and focused as much of her will as she could muster at the moment onto her Rod.

Now!

Suddenly the pillar of light shattered completely and exploded outwardly, away from her.

Luna was startled for a second, but decided to roll with it.

Go, Sonic Boom! She mentally commanded her Alternative Dragon.

Luna felt the pull of her dragon’s sudden launch as the skies came at her at incredible speed. She didn’t feel like vomiting this time. Was she getting used to this speed?

No.

Something was wrong.

Luna quickly focused her will onto her rod and instinctively pointed it to her own dragon. Through sheer power of will, she wished the power of her rod to power her dragon’s next sonic boom. The blue veins on her Alternative Dragon suddenly glowed golden along with its eyes.

Millennium Sonic Boom!

As she was lurched back from the sudden speeding up of her dragon, she saw golden cracks forming all around her, in the air as if reality itself was barely holding together. She didn’t exactly know what was going on, but she felt like she had to go faster. Using all of her will she wished to speed her dragon up and suddenly started to feel that sense of draining once again.

Is this my limit?

Clenching her teeth as she adjusted the grip on her Millennium Rod, she commanded her dragon.

No fucking way! Let’s go, Mach 3, baby!

Her dragon’s golden glow intensified as it roared and flew even faster. It was all Luna could do to hold on to her dragon as she saw the golden cracks that had formed around the sky enlarging before finally shattering.

It looked like reality had shattered around her, but Luna soon realized that the broken shards were quickly becoming darker and withering away.

“Impressive.” The ragged and leathery voice of Bakura called her attention as she slowed down and looked towards the broken figure floating in the air. “How did you figure it out so quickly?”

Luna quickly looked around her, everything looked the same except for Dartz who looked to be in a catatonic state as he floated in the air beside Bakura.

“What gave it away? You have to tell me.” Bakura asked as if they had been close friends.

“How long-” Luna started to ask but stopped as Bakura put a shriveled and burned left hand on Dartz’s forehead.

“How long did I have both of you?” Bakura asked, sounding almost excited. “It was shortly after you broke through Dartz’s pillar of light. That shattering of light was a perfect cover to steal you away and to attack Dartz while he was distracted at what you had done with this pillar of light. Pretty smart, right?”

That had literally been just minutes ago.

“Now you.” Bakura said as his hand started to glow with that same purple light she had seen back in the shadow realm and Dartz started to convulse. “How did you get out so quickly?”

As Dartz convulsed, the Great Leviathan blinked into existence before it disappeared once again.

“What are you doing to him?” Luna asked, starting to think that this was no theatrics to make her lower her guard.

“Oh, him?” Bakura asked as he looked at Dartz once and playfully slapped his face with his free hand. “He fell for my trap. I made it seem like you were the only thing that could help me get strong enough to defeat him. When really it was the other way around, you see? I was after Dartz all along. Zorc and I were nearly killed by the Pharaoh. That Exodia really is something else, beeteedubz.”

Bakura stopped for a second as he licked the half of his upper lip that he had left.

“The Pharaoh really was going to wipe us out of existence without a second thought. A true killing machine.” Bakura smiled as Dartz started to slowly get thinner and greyer. “So I sent the weak Bakura out there to distract him. That weakling didn’t want to do anything bad, he was always so afraid. But using my shadows, it was easy to deceive the Pharaoh.”

Bakura closed his eyes as he seemed to be feeling some kind of high. Whether it was from recalling the moment he had been speaking about or from seemingly draining Dartz’s life force, it was hard to tell.

“It uh- It broke our poor little Pharaoh when he realized he had killed the good Bakura. The one he grew up with.” Bakura cackled in a sick display of joy. “That’s when I overpowered him and Diabound absorbed both him and Exodia. It was such tremendous power that I had never felt anything even remotely similar. So of course, I took that chance to betray and absorb Zorc himself.”

What?

“Yeah, that’s why this little guy-” Bakura said as he grabbed Dartz by the chin and started lightly shaking his face. “-couldn’t sense Zorc. Because I had already dealt with him. And then of course, I made him think that I was going after you- which I am, don’t worry about that, baby- and so he did not see me coming after him first.”

Bakura started to laugh and Luna realized that as Dartz seemingly got older and somewhat shriveled up, Bakura’s burnt and mangled body seemed to be healing.

“His delusion that he was better than me, was his downfall.” Bakura stopped to lick at his newly recovered lip. “And now, with Dartz about to disappear, the Great Leviathan should-”

As if on cue, the Great Leviathan blinked into existence once again and opened its mighty jaws, only to have gigantic chains appear from several shadow rifts to wrap around it, binding its mouth shut.

Luna and her dragon backed away from the sight of such a monumental monster being bound.

“The power of Exodia, the Fobidden One sure is amazing, huh?” Bakura continued to speak as a shadow extended from his feet towards the Great Leviathan. “And now with the power of the Great Leviathan, I will finally be able to move between worlds at my leisure, instead of relying on these set of rules that you and I had to abide by, yes?

“You’re the traveler?” Luna asked, the hair in the back of her neck rising.

“Why, yes. Didn’t I just say that I forced the Pharaoh to kill the Bakura from this world? Or was that not clear?” Bakura laughed as he cracked his neck and threw aside the now fully shriveled up and mummified Dartz. “And you were so suspicious of that weakling too.”

Diabound appeared from the extended shadow of Bakura, but it looked different. It was much bigger than before and Luna could see traces of Exodia within it. It slowly closed a raised fist making several other gargantuan chains appear to bind the Great Leviathan further.

Luna wondered if she should, or even could, intervene.

“What do you plan to do with such power?” Luna asked, wondering if there was any chance that Bakura simply wanted to go back to his own world.

Bakura, however, simply smiled as if finding the question amusing.

“Well, my time of monologuing to keep you from interrupting my absorption of Dartz and the Great Leviathan has, unfortunately, come to an end.” He stated as he clapped his hands once and looked at her with apparent gratitude. “Now, you couldn’t stop me even if you wanted to. So there’s no reason for me to explain things to you any further.”

Diabound suddenly thrust its arm into the Great Leviathan’s forehead and both started to glow that same eerie purple.

She had been played, they had all been played by Bakura this entire time.

“Don’t worry too much though, I had practically fooled everyone, not just you.” Bakura said as he lifted an arm towards Luna.

Luna instinctively made her dragon back away as she willed her Alternative Dragon to use its effect on Diabound.

Destroy it!

The veins along her dragon was blue once again as it shot the insanely fast beam of energy at Diabound. But as the beam made contact, a golden crack appeared on Diabound and faded away as quickly as it had appeared.

Luna took a mental note of it as she didn’t have the time to think about it.

“Oh Luna, classic Luna. Can’t you see that Diabound and I are gods now? Your feeble attacks cannot harm us.” Bakura kept that same calm yet snarky smirk on. “But I’ll tell you what. If you kill Kaiba, then I will let you come with me.”

Diabound suddenly stuck its other arm into the forehead of the Great Leviathan and started to rip it open.

“You want me to work for you? After you just told me that you betrayed Zorc and backstabbed Dartz right in front of me?” Luna scoffed despite how powerless she felt. “You literally killed your own counterpart in this world! If you don’t trust even yourself, how can I believe that you would ever trust me?”

“No, no! But you are different! You are a traveler like me! These other guys were useless to me in the grand scheme of things. I needed to betray Dartz for the Leviathan’s power, I needed the weak Bakura to get to Zorc and ultimately Exodia, don’t you see? But you, you are a traveler like me.” He said as he waved his arms around as if he could see his schemes laid out in front of him. “I am now complete in power and don’t need anything from you aside from being someone I can trust. Someone who can come with me to all the other worlds! Someone who knows how all of this works and who has experience with interworld travels! You are perfect for that.”

“Tell me if you get a sense of déjà vu.” Luna said as she slowed showed him her middle finger once again.

Bakura looked disappointed as he took a deep breath and shook his head.

“Well, I knew you were stubborn from the start, so no surprise there.” Bakura said, as he snapped his finger.

Diabound suddenly entered the large opening that it had ripped into the Great Leviathan’s forehead, making it glow intensely white.

“I will just ask you again after I have killed all of your other friends.” Bakura beamed her a smile.

I have to kill him right now. Luna thought to herself as she willed her Chaos Dragon to sneak up behind Bakura.

She wondered if monster effects could be used on humans and if Bakura could even still be called a human.

Attack!

But as Luna’s Chaos Dragon reared its head back to shoot, dark tendrils shot out from Bakura’s back, grabbing at the Chaos Dragon’s throat and limbs.

“Oh, sneaky sneaky, Luna!” Bakura said, exaggerating a fake surprise as he wiggled his index finger at her. “You know what I have to do now, I have to teach you not to sneak up on-”

“Neutron Blast!” Seto’s voice rang through the air as the three entwined beams blasted Bakura and his dark tendrils away.

Luna turned to see Seto and all of her other friends coming to help her.

Everyone is okay. She felt immense relief. They beat both Gehs.

“Well, looks like Seto has been a naughty boy.” Luna heard Bakura whisper in her ear before he giggled a little. “When will you learn that the smallest of hesitation when you see your friends, is always the opening I need to get a hold of you?”

She tried to move away, but it was as if she had been frozen in place.

“So instead of punishing you through your dragon, why not kill two birds with one stone?” Bakura continued as Luna started to tremble as she used all of her strength to try to move, to no avail.

Get away! Seto! Get away! Luna tried to yell but couldn’t. Dancers! Get Seto out of here!

“If I kill the little Kaiba, I’m sure it will cause the most pain in all parties involved.” Bakura said, sounding like he was savoring every ounce of Luna’s desperation as her heart dropped.

No! Get Mokuba out of here! Get everyone out of here! She commanded her dancers and hunters who started to scramble about.

“Are you watching?” Bakura asked so close to her ear that she could feel his breath. “Diabound-”

No! No, please no!

“-obliterate.”

Chapter Text

Luna felt like she had been watching a movie. Seeing events unfold from a distance, not being able to influence the outcome in any way or form. Detached, even. 

She watched as the monstrous, snake skinned, dark Exodia-like Leviathan shot an erratic beam of purple energy towards her friends. She couldn’t even scream, she couldn’t even cry.

She watched even as Jaden, piggybacking on his Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman as per usual, came between the attack and her friends.

Sweet Jay, always the hero.

His monster crossed its forearms in front of itself and raised its knees to block the attack. 

Luna hoped his monster could withstand such a monstrous attack.

“Neutron Blast!” Seto’s voice echoed once again as his attack intercepted Diabound’s evil energy before it could get to Jaden. “Maximum power!”

Seto’s Ultimate Dragon started to glow blue also as its attack intensified. For a moment, it looked like it was about to overpower Diabound’s attack, but the latter suddenly broke into several dozen smaller attacks as they spread apart and moved erratically in zigzags. 

Luna continued to struggle against the invisible grasp that Bakura had on her, but the harder she tried, the stronger his grip on her seemed to be.

Jaden’s Shining Flare Wingman moved quickly as it tried to hit several of the smaller attacks, which were evidently making their way to the rest of their friends. Seto also blasted some of the attacks, but there were too many.

“Five way barrage!” Noah yelled as his Five-Headed Dragon made a sort of barrier of all five elements to protect himself and Mokuba, while Luna’s dancers and hunters made attacks of their own towards the zigzagging dark attacks.

Bless you, Noah! Luna thought, hoping their attacks would keep Mokuba safe.

“Pay close attention now, my dear.” Bakura continued to whisper in Luna’s ear. “That one beam right there, do you see it? Let me highlight it just for you.”

As Luna watched, she saw one of the quick moving beams change colors to a radioactive light green. This attack suddenly grew in size and speed as it made its way around Noah’s barrier and headed straight to Mokuba.

No! Luna yelled inside of her own mind as she mentally covered herself with the power from her Millennium Rod, making a golden aura appear around her skin.

But it was too late, the attack was moving too quickly. Luna couldn’t look away as the attack flew uninterrupted as it neared a terrified Mokuba. 

“Armityle! Absorb all of the dark energy!” Jaden yelled, his voice echoing his despair.

Jaden’s Chaos Phantom opened all of its mouths and started sucking in some of the dark energy, but Luna couldn’t imagine it doing much of a difference at that pace.

The dark chaotic attack suddenly changed courses within inches of Mokuba’s face and tore right through Seto’s chest, who had been speeding his way towards Mokuba.

It had felt like the world had come to a stop.

Nothing, not even the clouds dared drift as Luna watched in horror at the large bloody cavity that the attack had left on Seto’s chest. Luna felt something crack inside of her as a hot tear rolled down from her eyes.

“Got you again!” Bakura’s laughter rang through her ear. “You thought I was going after Mokuba, didn’t you? To be completely honest, I thought I was as well. But honestly! I could never stand that Seto. Always thinking he was better than everyone else. Well, look at him now!”

For a second, it seemed like Seto was about to look down to see the severity of his wound, but he simply fell forward, off of his Ultimate Dragon, plunging through the sky as his white coat fluttered about so vigorously unlike its wearer.

Rage against her powerlessness, fear for Seto’s life, but above all, hatred towards Bakura. These were the feelings that started to drown Luna’s other thoughts and her entire being.

As she let out an utterly furious and pained howl, which she couldn’t believe was coming from her even as she yelled, Luna felt her body moving on its own without any restraints. Whether it was fueled by the sheer loathing and rancor or by something else entirely, Luna saw the golden aura around her turn black as the abyss.

“Shall we move on to your other-” Bakura was saying beside her when her right hand plunged right through Bakura’s chest.

Her heart started to beat faster, Bakura screamed more out of surprise than pain just as Luna grabbed what she believed to be his pumping heart. Luna felt the corners of her mouth flexing back into a manic smile as she started to squeeze. But just before her fingers could puncture through the heart in her grasp, Bakura suddenly liquefied into a shadow, as he was pulled back towards the mutated Leviathan.

“No!” Luna yelled in a voice that was unfamiliar to herself. “No!”

“Luna!” Jaden yelled, and though she could tell he was calling out to her, her anger was too much at the moment to care.

“I shall reap the life out of your pathetic being with my own hands even if I have to raze this world to do it!” Luna heard herself scream. “I will end-”

“Luna!” Mokuba yelled, appearing just at the corner of her vision. “Luna, what did he do to you!”

Whether it was the fear on his face or the fear in his voice, Luna seemed to somehow be able to break away from the trance she was in, gasping for air as if she had been under water this entire time.

“What did I do to her?” Bakura’s voice demanded before he burst out laughing. “That crazy bitch almost ripped my heart right out of my chest with her bare hands! This is who she is without all of her masks, without all of her restraints! This is who I need beside me!”

Luna looked around to see what had happened to Seto.

“If you are looking for Seto, I told your hunters and dancers to take him somewhere safe.” Jaden said, approaching her while looking worried. “Did he put a spell on you?”

That was Yami Luna. Luna told herself despite knowing it felt distinctly different than the presence that Yami Luna gave off. Yeah, that has to be it. That couldn’t have been me.

“Come on, Luna!” Bakura’s voice seemingly came from inside of the devilish Leviathan now. “Surely you see that there’s nothing worthwhile left in this world! And I promise you, you won’t catch me by surprise again like that. So why don’t you join me, huh? Two travelers, seeing the entirety of the universe and all the worlds in them! Oh, it's going to be an adventure!”

Luna looked at her right hand, the black aura was gone, but Luna couldn’t shake the feeling that it had just gone back inside of her skin to lay dormant for the time being.

“All you have to do is destroy this world with me.” Bakura sounded almost cheerful, like a child asking his best friend to come out and play. “Come on! What else can you do?”

“I-” Luna said, pausing and noting that her voice sounded her own again. “I will stop you. I will destroy you and your Leviathan.”

“Destroy my Leviathan and I?” A shadowy form of Bakura appeared on the forehead of the Leviathan, much like Dartz had done in the anime. “My sweetest Luna, you couldn’t even if you tried. But even if you could, you realize that Leviathan is the only thing holding this world together at the moment, right? Destroying it would make every being here to be taken back to the place of their origin. I would be back to my own world and you would be back to yours, just as your dancers would be back to the spirit world. Not only that but any spirits without a corporeal form here, like your Yami Luna, she would definitely be taken back to the place of her origin, wherever that may be. What would that accomplish? We would all just be back to square one!”

“I would have my revenge!” Luna yelled, suddenly feeling her rage coming back before she forcefully suppressed it.

“Wait, Luna, we should talk about this.” Jaden said before getting interrupted by Bakura.

“Revenge, that is a sentiment I can relate to, my dear and sweet Luna.” Bakura stated. “And I would definitely tell you to hold on to that hatred and fulfill your thirst for vengeance! Sadly, that’s me we are talking about, so I have to let you know as your best friend that this is simply not an attainable dream.”

“Jay, get your Armityle ready to attack!” Luna said as she grabbed a few cards from her deck. “I am going to end this one way or another!”

“Luna, I don’t think that’s a good-”

Suddenly Luna felt that whatever had cracked inside of her before was now completely shattered. She felt a sudden emptiness as she turned around to find herself standing over shallow dark waters. A door with no walls came out of the waters in front of her. And though she heard nothing, she felt called to open the door.

Taking a step forward, Luna found that her foot didn’t go through the waters, but rather stepped on it as if it were hard ground despite her stepping having caused gentle ripples. Taking another step forward, Luna opened the door and found that a bright white light illuminated a body lying face up in the water.

Squinting her eyes, Luna noticed that the person in the water was none other than Seto, her Seto. She quickly kneeled by him as her hand hovered over the wrecked bloody tunnel on his chest. 

“Oh, Seto.” She said before she suddenly noticed that her hands were shadowy, just as the rest of her body.

I’ve seen this before. She thought. Could it be?

She kept her hand outstretched as she felt her eyes burning up. Though not knowing how this worked, she had to try. She only hoped that she remembered the exact wording.

“Eye of my mind,” Luna said the words, which sounded so strange yet so familiar. “light of my soul.” 

Seto’s body arched upward as his eyes started to glow blue.

“Anchor of my life,” Seto’s lips moved, his voice as clear and confident as before. “together we are whole.” 

As Luna watched, a blue light seemed to spread from her hand towards Seto, whose flesh and torn skin started to mend themselves. And as clarity came back to Seto’s eyes, they turned to look towards Luna.

“Come back to me.” She said before blinking and gasping for air as she found herself atop of her Alternative Dragon once more.

“-for this!” Mokuba yelled, but Luna only caught the last bit of what he had been yelling.

She quickly looked around to try to understand what was happening and found that Mokuba and Noah were looking at Jaden who seemed conflicted about something.

“What’s going on?” Luna asked, making all three of them turn to look at her.

“Luna, we need to talk.” Jaden said as he approached her, turning his back towards the Leviathan.

What is happening?

“Don’t go close to him, Luna!” Mokuba yelled.

Noah’s Five-Headed Dragon suddenly got between Luna and Jaden, and roared towards Jaden.

Luna was too lost. What had happened while her mind had been away?

“You insolent child! Must you always interfere!” Jaden yelled as his eyes glowed yellow. “Try that again and you will not live to see another day!”

“Jay?” Luna asked, wondering how long she had been gone. 

“Oh, what? When you threaten to raze the world, it's okay but when good old Jaden loses his cool for a second, it all of the sudden becomes a problem?” Jaden asked, the green glint of his left eye returning a little. 

“I’m just wondering what happened, bud.” Luna said as she showed him her open palms. “Come on, talk to me.”

Jaden closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Thank you. That’s all I wanted.” Jaden said, opening his eyes with a weak smile.

Despite his eyes being back to their usual brown, Luna felt uneasy about him approaching her. Still, she raised a hand towards Mokuba and Noah when they looked at her, seemingly ready to protest.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Luna asked Jaden, but keeping her eye on the Leviathan, wondering why it hadn’t moved.

“Well, when you clocked out for a moment there, Bakura tried to attack and I used everything I had in me to stop his attack.” Jaden started to explain, but as Luna stared at the Leviathan, she heard Bakura’s laughter.

He tried to kill everyone. He nearly killed- no, he really did kill Seto, just as he had killed me!

The laughter kept getting louder in her ear as Jaden’s words were drowned out. Suddenly the Leviathan opened its mouth.

Luna couldn’t let him take any more of her friends, not again.

“Go, Alternative Destruction!” Luna yelled, unable to contain her emotions as Bakura’s laughter seemed to be affecting her sanity.

But as her dragon charged up the attack, Luna suddenly felt a shift in the air and out of pure instinct, threw her body to the side to make her dragon do a quick barrel roll as they fell a few feet in altitude. And as she made this midair maneuver, she saw a sword where she had been a split second before. The sword, was held by an armored-

Jay?

No, Luna recognized the spiky dark armor and the glowing yellow eyes, this was Jaden’s darker side, the Supreme King.

“Well, it would seem you have failed, little Jaden.” Bakura’s voice cackled through the air. “But I still need a partner in crime, so the offer still stands. If you off Luna, you are it. If Luna offs you, then Luna is it.”

“You think we will play into your sick and twisted games, Baku-” But before Luna could finish her sentence, she saw several quick movements coming towards her from the corner of her eyes. “Chaos Lightning!”

Her Chaos Dragon, which had been on standby near her, flared its wings and made everyone around her go on the defensive. Luna quickly looked around and realized these were Evil HEROs, Supreme King’s signature monsters.

“Stop it, Jay!” Luna said as she turned to face him. “We can take him together!”

“Looks like he wants to take you out, babe!” Bakura exclaimed, sounding almost giddy. “Will you be able to take him out first?”

Suddenly, five separate elemental beams short forth and took out 3 of the Evil HEROs. Noah wasn’t taking any chances, but Luna knew that the real enemy was Bakura.

“White Lightning!” She yelled as she pointed towards the Leviathan as the two remaining Blue-Eyes White Dragons that she had summoned came from behind her Chaos Dragon.

Again, her attacks did nothing. But this time, there were no golden cracks. 

This too, she noted.

“Armityle, finish the little pests!” Jaden yelled.

God, I gave him his strongest weapon!

“Stop it, Jaden! I don’t want to hurt you!” Luna yelled, her heart feeling like it was being squeezed. “What has gotten into you?”

“What has gotten into me? You didn’t listen!” the Supreme King yelled back. “I told you over and over, but you didn’t listen! Now there is no other way!”

Armityle pointed its dragon head arm towards Noah and Luna hoped to God that Five-Headed Dragon’s invulnerability to its five elements still held against cards like Armityle.

Armityle’s dragon head arm shot a crimson red fireball towards Noah, who seemed to have the same idea as Luna, as he made his dragon bring its wings around it to protect Noah and take the fire ball head on.

“Then tell me again, one last time, damn it!”  Luna yelled at Jaden. “Just one last time, and I’ll listen. We are friends, aren’t we? Please!”

The fireball exploded onto the Five-Headed Dragon, but just as Luna hoped, it seemed to have done no lasting damage to the dragon.

The Supreme King seemed to consider Luna’s proposition for a second. 

“I told you it may come to this, didn’t I? That we may be left with no other choice. All of the major players from this world are gone and that thing that Bakura has become is practically unbeatable!” The Supreme King said, the anger in his voice was palpable. “But I don’t want to hurt you, you-”

The golden glow in his eyes suddenly dimmed.

“-you are my friend.” Jaden sounded like himself for at least that moment before the glow came back. “We can still do this together. If we destroy this world before Leviathan can kill us, then we will be sent back home. With my monsters and yours, we can definitely do that!”

“Listen to yourself, Jay!” Luna yelled, her anger also starting to flare inside of her. “The Jaden Yuki I know would never even consider sacrificing others, much less an entire world to save his own hide! The Supreme King is messing with you! How did he even-”

“I am not doing this to save my own hide! This has always been who I am, my friends above all else.” The Supreme King interrupted her as one of his eyes flickered green. “Bakura said that killing the Leviathan would send everything in this world to their place of origin including spirits! I can’t do that to her. Not again! Do you realize what we’ve gone through to be together? After all that, you want me to send her back? Never!”

The green glint in his left eye was a dead giveaway. Luna knew immediately that he was talking about Yubel, the dark spirit that Jaden had merged with to save not only his world, but Yubel herself. 

“And she’s okay with this entire world being sacrificed for that?” Luna started to ask.

“Of course!” The Supreme King yelled once again, as if he had been offended that anyone would think otherwise.

“You are a traveler, Jay!” Luna hoped he could still see reason through the mentality of the Supreme King. “Yubel may be sent elsewhere, but we can search for her! I will help you find her! We can save this world and find Yubel again!”

“You don’t know that!” The Supreme King screamed as he put a hand on his head as if something inside was making him uncomfortable. “You don’t get to choose which world you go to! I don’t know much about these interworld travels, but I know that much! We don’t have the power to come and go as we please! That’s why this is the only choice!”

“Mokuba and Noah are with us! They have the entire Kaiba Corp behind them. You don’t think they can find out more about interworld travels if they put their minds to it?” Luna was practically pleading at this point, would she even be able to bring herself to fight against Jaden?

“That is also not a guarantee, Luna. This is the only way to be sure, can’t you see that?” The Supreme King asked through his teeth.

“You know I can’t go along with that.” Luna pleaded one last time at the verge of tears.

The Supreme King’s angry expression suddenly soothed. When he blinked, his eyes were Jaden’s innocent brown once again.

“I know.” He said, seeming regretful before the yellow glow came back much brighter than before. “I know.”

With that, the Supreme King suddenly pulled out a card.

“Come forth, Yubel!” But instead of Yubel appearing out of a portal or rift, she came out from inside of Jaden. “And I use Polymerization!”

“Jay-”

“You have made your intentions clear, my friend.” The Supreme King stated as he and Yubel started fusing into one. “The time for talk is over.”

As the two merged, dark wings grew on the Supreme King’s back as his armor grew darker and more flesh like. A third eye opened on Supreme King’s forehead as his helmet parted to make space for it.

“How is this happening?” Luna asked, no louder than a whisper. 

She wondered if the Egyptian god cards had somehow affected these two entities that were inside of Jaden all along.

“How? Isn’t that why you handed me the Sacred Beasts cards?” The new being in front of her asked in a voice that was simultaneously Yubel’s and Supreme King’s. “I told you it could be catastrophic, but I hadn’t expected them to have fed off of the darkness in you.”

Why did everyone talk about the darkness in her? Could it all just be due to Yami Luna?

“Am I going to have to kill both of you or what?” Bakura’s voice boomed through the air. “This is taking too long!”

“I won’t fight you, Jay.” Luna said, wondering if he would actually kill her for Yubel’s sake, or even if she would be able to take down the Leviathan while dodging Jaden’s attacks.

 “Then let me make this easy for everyone.” The Supreme King said as he pulled yet another card which immediately sent bolts of lightning out around him. “I use Super Polymerization!”

Luna’s heart dropped. Super Polymerization allowed the user to use any monster in the field as part of a fusion summon. For a split second, Luna was afraid that Jaden was going to fuse himself to her.

“And I choose Armityle and the Great Leviathan!”

That didn’t seem much better, but maybe, just maybe, this meant that Jaden would be able to control the Leviathan’s powers and put a stop to whatever it was doing to this world.

“What? You fool, what do you-” Bakura started to say as the Great Leviathan, despite its monumental size, was pulled away from him and towards Armityle.

The two giant monsters collided as the world was engulfed in light then darkness. Luna tried to keep her eyes on Bakura, who was nothing more than a shadow now, but once everything became dark, she suddenly felt paranoid that he was everywhere.

Suddenly the darkness seemed to fold within itself at a single point. It didn’t take long for Luna to realize that the darkness was being sucked in by a grotesque looking dragon with too many faces, adorned with chains and scales.

“But that’s not all!” The Supreme King yelled as more lightning bolts were emitted from yet another card that he put up in the air. “I use another Polymerization to fuse the Phantom Leviathan to myself!”

“No, Jaden!” Luna yelled, wondering if anyone would be able to keep their mind intact when merging with such entities as the Great Leviathan, Exodia, and Armityle. 

“You’ll have to kill me if you want to destroy Leviathan, now!” The Supreme King yelled, being pulled towards his new monster.

A crevice appeared on the Phantom Leviathan’s chest as its rib cage seemingly deteriorated inwardly as it pulled the Supreme King into the opening. Luna feared for Jaden as she saw veins and chains binding and latching onto the Supreme King, now fully inside of the Phantom Leviathan’s chest.

“With this new power, I will leave this place.” The Supreme King declared, his voice suddenly sounding like that of a multitude of entities. “Do as you will here, after I’ve left.”

As if on cue, the gargantuan Phantom Leviathan immediately folded into itself as if it were imploding. A bright flash of light and a strong shockwave made Luna close her eyes and turn away. After but a split second, Luna tentatively opened one eye and looked for Mokuba and Noah. Both seemed okay, though also looking away with their eyes squeezed shut. Still squinting her eyes, Luna tried to find any traces of Bakura, afraid that he would have slithered away somewhere to hide.

“Behold, our new form.” The conglomerate of voices felt both like a whisper and a loud declaration, grabbing Luna’s attention instantly.

When she looked towards where the voice had come from, she saw a humanoid looking dragon, clad in a devilish purple armor that looked like both flesh and scales. Wings and horn motifs were on the pauldrons, elbow guards, and helmet; while chains adorned its wrist guards and shin guards.

“We, are the Supreme Leviathan.”

Chapter Text

Chills ran down Luna’s spine as she felt the darkness emanating from the Supreme Leviathan. She felt like even simply looking at this new entity could somehow corrupt her mind.

“Jay?” She tried to call out to her friend despite there being no vestiges of a resemblance to her bright smiling Jaden.

The Supreme Leviathan looked at its own hands, opening and closing them as if testing them.

“You fool, do you realize how many ancient entities you have willingly merged yourself to?” Bakura’s shadow asked from a distance away. “Without possessing any ancient magic yourself, there’s no hope of you controlling-”

Suddenly, the Supreme Leviathan flicked its wrist and Bakura’s shadow was torn to shreds.

Its yellow eyes, despite the glow, felt like an abyss calling to Luna. Instinctively, she looked away as her heart rate sped up.

What is this crushing presence?

“Do you still intend on fighting us?” The multitude of voices rang out despite its mouth not opening.

“Depends, who is asking?” Luna probed whilst realizing that she would have to think outside of the box if she were to have any chance of saving this world. Jaden had done the unthinkable, she would have to as well.

“We are all of the entities within this vessel.” The Supreme Leviathan stated as it opened its arms. “We are all and all are us.”

“Are you still going to destroy this world? You have Leviathan’s power now, can’t you just go away?” Luna asked, hoping against hope that it would be that easy.

“It is not as simple as one had thought before the great merge.”

It never is.

“We can now choose where to go.” It explained. “But we must still absorb all of the energy in this world in order to traverse.”

“Then why are you asking like I have a choice?” Luna asked before she realized that her hands were lightly shaking.

“Because you do.” It said, still staring into her soul. “Your comradery to one within us compels us to offer this one last choice.”

Luna wondered if the choice was some bullshit one between a slow death and a quick one.

“Step aside, do not interfere, and we’ll take you with us to the next world.” It declared as it lifted its chin a bit. “Or try to fight us and be wiped away from existence.”

Luna swallowed hard as she looked towards Mokuba and Noah.

“What about my friends?” She asked after taking a deep breath.

“This is not a negotiation. You mean something to one who is part of us, the others do not.” It said as it slid closer to Luna, seemingly without moving any muscles in its body. “But even if you choose to fight. We can promise to make it quick. You and your friends will not feel a thing.”

It didn’t look like it had a care in the world, and yet, the threat Luna was sensing from it was so intense that Luna felt like she was choking on it.

She had to do something, she had to buy them more time.

“Choose.” It said through its entrapping eyes.

Luna took a deep breath and lightly nodded.

Can it read minds?

“Does your nodding mean-”

“Chaos lightning!” Luna yelled as soon as she knew that it couldn’t read her mind.

She had to hit it fast and she had to hit it hard before it had a chance to react, she had to go all out. Even as it moved its arms forward, changing to defense position due to the effect of her Chaos Dragon, Luna was already lifting several cards up to the sky, causing a lightning bolt to fall from the skies as it struck her cards.

Her alternative dragon and the other two Blue-Eyes White Dragons faded away, making her fall through the air a short time before a flash of light made a much fiercer looking three headed dragon to swoop in under her for her to ride it.

It was her newly summoned Blue-Eyes Alternative Ultimate Dragon. If a Blue-Eyes Alternative Dragon had been used for its summoning, it was allowed to destroy three monsters every turn.

She had summoned all of her other Blue-Eyes monsters from her deck as well, after all, if this failed, then she was as good as dead anyway.

She quickly used a Monster Reborn to bring her Blue-Eyes Alternative Dragon back to the field.

“Alternative Destruction!” She yelled as she pointed towards the Supreme Leviathan. “All three!”

Her Alternative Ultimate Dragon started to shine blue as each head shot out a bolt of energy in succession. She quickly looked towards Supreme Leviathan and found him still in defense position as the first destruction bolt hit, causing that same golden crack around it.

Please work!

The second bolt made impact in the same spot before the golden crack could fade away, causing the invisible barrier to crack even further on several directions.

This was exactly what she had predicted, if she could destroy whatever that barrier was, perhaps her attacks could actually cause some damage to Leviathan. And so, even as the third bolt made its way to Leviathan, Luna stretched her arm towards her resurrected Alternative Dragon and willed it to also shoot its Alternative Destruction Bolt at what once was her dear friend Jaden.

The third bolt struck and the cracks spread out even more than before, seeming now like a cage of lightning around Supreme Leviathan.

“Now, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon, and Blue-Eyes Chaos Max Dragon and everyone else!” Luna yelled making all of her Blue-Eyes monsters that she had summoned moments ago, surround the Supreme Leviathan. “Give it all you’ve got!”

The fourth bolt struck just as the golden crack had started to fade, making the invisible barrier shatter completely and explode into a million shards of light.

“White Maelstrom!” Luna yelled with every fiber of her being as each and all of her dragons blasted forth a blinding white beam of energy, which upon contact, exploded into a large sphere of white energy that simply kept growing the longer her dragons kept up the attack.

It was an amazing and terrifying attack which seemed to illuminate the entire world.

And yet, Luna couldn’t shake the crushing feeling of threat that she had been feeling before.

“Keep at it! Don’t st-” Luna was saying when the huge white sphere suddenly burst open with a terrible ripping noise.

In the middle of it, the Supreme Leviathan continued to float. To Luna’s credit, it did seem battered and hurt. But to her despair, it didn’t nearly seem close to being defeated.

“You have chosen-” The Supreme Leviathan spoke, its voices still calm, its mouth still unmoving, as if nothing had happened. “-death.”

It flicked its hand to the side, causing that same terrible ripping noise. An ominous feeling made Luna look behind her, just to find a monumental purple rupture in the skies. She quickly turned back and saw the Leviathan flick its other hand to its other side, making a second tear on the other side of the sky. Its arms were now outstretched and open, its palms facing upwards.

Particles of light started streaming into its open hands as it lifted its chin, but looked down towards Luna.

She had no idea what was actually happening, but she assumed that the Supreme Leviathan was now absorbing the energy from this world, from this reality, as it had promised it would. But it had also promised them quick deaths.

“Noah, Mokuba, get out of here now!” She yelled as she pulled out one last card that she had bought from Grampa Muto. “I don’t want you guys being caught in between our attacks!”

“No! Either way, if you fail, we will all die anyways!” Mokuba yelled stubbornly.

“I can’t fight and protect you guys at the same time! I won’t be able to forgive myself if something happens to you, Mokuba.” Luna yelled back. “Please! Noah, take Mokuba and run as far away as you can!”

Unlike Mokuba, Noah didn’t argue. His enormous dragon simply grabbed Mokuba’s Black M. Dragon and beat its mighty wings to move away.

“No, Noah, we have to help her!” Mokuba struggled.

“We can’t! We will only get in the way!” Noah yelled before he turned to look at Luna once more, nodding as he forced his dragon to beat its mighty wings faster.

Luna took a deep breath and looked down at the card in her hand. That time in Grampa Muto’s shop had felt like another lifetime entirely. It was right before things really started to get hectic, before Slifer appeared and threw her life into unending chaos.

She wondered if Grampa Muto was okay. She missed his tea and senbei cookies.

“Why do you still struggle?” the Supreme Leviathan’s voice brought her attention back to the present. “Do you still think you have a chance?”

“I am certain I do.” Luna declared, resolution starting to blossom at the base of her heart. “Thanks to every single one of my friends, including Jaden, for showing me what I must do!”

For the very first time, Luna saw a hint of confusion on Leviathan’s face as she thrust her card up high.

“I use Graverobber!” She screamed, resolution settling into every nerve of her body as she knew there was no turning back. “It lets me use a spell card in my opponent’s graveyard, and you know what I’m choosing. Thanks, Jay.”

To fight the Jaden that had fused with a multitude of monsters, she would have to do the same.

“Super Polymerization!”

Suddenly, time seemed to have slowed. Luna could hear her own heavy breaths but everything else sounded muffled and quiet. She looked around at each one of her Blue-Eyes monsters as they started to glow with her passing gaze.

Come forth, my darlings. Luna thought both to herself and to her dragons. Let us save this world as one.

She felt something surging from within her as everything seemed to be illuminated by a blinding white light. She closed her eyes but the brightness was too intense, making her see bright colors instead of darkness.

When she opened her eyes again, everything looked hazy, she looked up at the bright light as she saw all of Luna’s dragons converge into a single point of a brilliant mess.

“No, Luna!” She felt her mouth move as Seto’s voice came out.

She felt like she was still too far.

Come on Ultimate Dragon, we need to get to her! She thought, worried for Luna’s life. What has she gotten into now?

She tried to look around for Mokuba and Noah but couldn’t seem to find them, she looked back towards where she thought she had seen Luna burst into a thousand different colors of light rays before her dragons started merging into it. All of Luna’s dragons were gone now, and the bright light got more intense. She had to get to Luna, right now.

Movement caught her eyes, it was some kind of knight- no. That was the Great Leviathan’s face on it, she was sure of it.

What happened after I got hit?

Her memory was hazy, she- she had died. But Luna was there with her. She said something to her, hadn’t she?

It was still a bit far, but a Neutron Blast from her Ultimate Dragon could probably reach-

Suddenly the bright light imploded as it shrunk instantly into a single point before releasing several shockwaves that seemed to render reality through the air that it passed by.

What the-

And as Luna watched, a new, smaller white dragon appeared. As Luna approached, she realized this was not a dragon at all, but a knight in an armor that resembled the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that Luna was riding before, with the blue veins and the more aggressive looking face.

A blue cape suddenly spread from that knight’s shoulders, looking almost like dragon wings. And before Luna could do anything else, the knight opened its eyes, revealing a bright, almost glowing, blue eyes. When it blinked, Luna was floating in front of the Supreme Leviathan once again.

Was I seeing through Seto’s eyes again?

She looked down to find herself clad in white armor, but more peculiar than that, was the fact that there was no dragon under her. She had been simply floating in the air. Not only so, but all of her senses felt augmented somehow.

“What have you done?” The Supreme Leviathan’s numerous voices grabbed her attention.

When she looked at it, she saw several different auras around it, each of a different color.

“The only thing I could do.” She answered, and found that her mouth was moving unlike the Supreme Leviathan’s. Luna paused for a moment before choosing her next words carefully. “I fucked your mom.”

And with that, she raised her left hand and showed it her middle finger.

The Supreme Leviathan slightly tilted its head. Whether it felt annoyance or amusement, it was hard to tell. It suddenly darted forward, towards her at an incredible speed, but as its claws came up to seemingly free her head from her shoulders, it slowed down enough for her to look at it in surprise and simply move out of the way.

It turned around, however, again supernaturally fast.

“You have powered yourself up quite incredibly in such a short time.” It declared before suddenly lunging towards her once again, this time, too fast for her to even realize that it had been attacking her until it slowed down with its claws just inches from her face.

She moved away from his claw once again, wondering what kind of ploy this was, and tried to punch him in the gut as hard as she could. The Supreme Leviathan, in turn, dodged her attack with ease.

“It would seem we are both adapting to each other’s speed.” The Supreme Leviathan observed as it looked at its own hand as if in wonder. “We may not be able to keep our promise to make your death a quick one.”

It suddenly pointed its left arm towards her as it became a red dragon head.

That’s Armityle’s arm!

And as it let out an incredible beam of energy at her, Luna quickly pointed her left arm at it out of instinct, and watched her arm suddenly morph into the head of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon as it shot its own white beam of energy.

The two beams collided as it became a battle of wills. Luna had originally imagined that they were evenly matched, but realized that Supreme Leviathan’s attack was starting to overpower hers.

She couldn’t lose though, could she? Luna quickly focused more of her power onto her left arm and watched her attack start moving towards the Supreme Leviathan. It, however, tilted its head ever so slightly once again before it started to slowly move towards her, making his attack start moving towards her as well.

For a split second, she wondered if she should use all of her energy into this one attack, but she quickly came to the realization that she had no idea whether the Supreme Leviathan was exerting as much effort as her or not. She couldn’t empty her tank in one attack just to have him attack her afterwards. But what were her options?

“Neutron Blast!” Seto’s confident voice was the most welcoming sound Luna had ever heard.

As the three beamed attack flew towards the Supreme Leviathan, Luna instinctively focused some of her will onto her shoulders, making her cape morph into the wings of her Alternative Dragon and made her Millennium Rod appear on her right hand.

Millennium Sonic Boom!

Luna launched herself as the golden veins spread through her armor just as the Supreme Leviathan turned his head and raised its right arm to block Seto’s Neutron Blast. It was a short window, but Luna was already on the Leviathan, aiming her Rod at it.

She pictured Atem with his outstretched hand.

Shatter Destiny! Luna yelled in her mind as all of the colors in the world seemed to invert for a fraction of a second with a loud sounding crack.

The Supreme Leviathan grabbed at its own chest as its expression changed to that of pain and anger for the first time since it had appeared. Luna focused her will onto her rod, suddenly making the handle munch longer as a blade of white light appeared at the top of it. She was just about to impale the Supreme Leviathan with her new Millennium Spear when Seto’s Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon grabbed the Supreme Leviathan’s arms from behind.

“Come forth, Obelisk the Tormentor!” Seto yelled from his dragon. “Your master compels you!”

With the dragon holding back the Leviathan’s arms, Luna could see that there seemed to be a fracture on Leviathan’s chest, which started to glow upon Seto’s order.

The Supreme Leviathan opened its mouth for the first time as it let out a soul wrenching roar that seemed to shake reality itself. Luna aimed her spear at it and mentally pictured a giant hand holding the Leviathan in place as she focused all of her willpower onto her spear. As her spear began to tremble, Luna knew Leviathan was fighting her grasp.

“Do not make your master wait any longer!” Seto yelled as he stood up on his dragon. “Come out now, Obelisk!”

A golden beam shot out from the chest of the Supreme Leviathan as its furious roar became more akin to a painful howl. Luna was using almost all of her strength and willpower to hold it down, hoping the entire time that Seto knew what he was doing.

Luna risked a glance towards Seto and found him with his arm outstretched, as if he was also holding on to the Leviathan with the power of his mind. A spec of gold caught her attention as she realized his Millennium Puzzle was out and glowing.

Is he finally wielding its powers?

As the glow of the Puzzle intensified, so did the light coming out of Supreme Leviathan. The fracture on Leviathan’s chest, cracked past the limitations of its body, creating a gargantuan rift in space much like the ones currently in the sky.

For a moment Luna wondered if what they were doing was actually helping the Leviathan, but as the rift got larger, a giant crimson hand poked through and grabbed onto the edge of the rift.

Was Seto truly, somehow, freeing Obelisk from inside of Leviathan? Luna turned to look at Seto once more, wondering where this power was coming from. Could it really simply be from the Puzzle?

Two crimson hands began ripping open the rift that had formed from the Leviathan’s chest.

“Do you really think you can stop the inevitable end of this world?” Leviathan screamed as it reached back and grabbed onto Seto’s Ultimate Dragon. “If not by us, then by someone else. The end is nigh and whether by divine wrath or by human hubris, it will come one way or another.”

Comically moving with the two colossal hands coming out of the rift on its chest, the Supreme Leviathan simply tossed Seto’s Ultimate Dragon, along with Seto, to the side as one would a dirty towel.

“We have a feeling, that day is today.” It said as it grabbed onto the edges of the rift and seemingly tried to close it by force.

This was an entity made up of many deity level monsters in the Yu-Gi-Oh! lore. If there was one thing that could truly bring about the end of the world, this was it.

But fuck me, if I let that get to me! Luna thought to herself as she powered up for another Millennium Sonic Boom.

But before she could do so, the rift was violently ripped open as the crimson Obelisk emerged with an earthshattering roar.

It’s still red. We can still do this!

The crimson Obelisk burst out of the Supreme Leviathan’s chest like a moth discarding its cocoon. Surely that had to have caused some massive damage to-

“Commendable effort.” A seemingly broken Supreme Leviathan stated, gruesomely bent backwards at the level of its chest. “But Obelisk was subdued by the Great Leviathan on its own.”

Luna watched it reach out and grab the broken rift and casually put it back into its own chest, slowly lifting the upper part of its torso back into its original position.

“What makes one think that it won’t be subdued by the Supreme Leviathan and all of the entities within us?” It asked, as its head lifted upright again as it seemingly stared at Obelisk with its glowing abyssal eyes.

“This!” Luna yelled as she launched herself through her Millennium Sonic Boom and impaled the Supreme Leviathan from the side with her Millennium Spear.

The Supreme Leviathan’s limbs flailed comically as its impaled body flew through the skies with Luna past Mach 3. But even as Luna sped up even more, she could see the Leviathan slowly turning its head and staring into Luna’s eyes.

“Now, Seto! Hit him with everything you’ve got!” Luna yelled as desperation started to invade her mind.

“What about you?” Seto yelled his question, somewhere to her left just as the Supreme Leviathan reached out with one of its hands and grabbed the shaft of Luna’s spear.

“Do it, now! Do it! Now!” Luna yelled in panic as she did a wide turn to fly straight towards the big red mass, which Luna knew to be Obelisk without looking at it directly. “Millennium Shield!”

A shield made of golden light burst forth from the shaft of her spear between her and the Supreme Leviathan.

“Obelisk!” Seto yelled much louder than Luna had ever heard him. “Obliterate!”

She hoped this would work, that this would destroy the Leviathan and that she would be able to survive. She was equal parts anxious and excited. Their combo attack was timed just right, this was as good of a chance as they were ever going to get!

Take that, you monster! Luna thought right before Obelisk’s attack made contact. That should wipe that stupid expression off of your-

But as Luna looked towards Leviathan, the eyes that were staring back at her were not the glowing yellow eyes that seemed to draw her in to the abyss. They were the innocent brown eyes of the boy who had asked her if she wanted to go have dinner at the Tower.

“Jay?”

Chapter Text

“Jay!” Luna yelled as Obelisk’s attack hit the Supreme Leviathan, impaling it further into Luna’s spear, pressing it against her shield. “No, Jay!”

The gleam in his eyes started to fade.

“Jay!” Luna yelled once more, realizing that she couldn’t, in fact, bring herself to kill her friend.

She was about to get them both out of harm’s way when she noticed that the Supreme Leviathan was mouthing something to her.

Own room? Throne room?

Luna imagined herself and Jaden in the throne room and closed her eyes. When she opened them, there they were. Her no longer clad in that Blue-Eyes bio armor, and Jaden no longer a conglomerate of beings of light and dark. Just two friends, just Luna and Jaden.

“Jay-” Luna started to say.

“Hey, Lu.” Jay said with a smile that was sadder than any smile she had ever seen on him. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Are you trying to play a trick on me?” She asked, tears threatening to come out. “Why would you do all of this, Jay?”

Instead of answering, Jaden took a step closer and wiped a stray tear from Luna’s face with his left thumb. His hand, warm to the touch.

“I will admit I wasn’t fully in control even before the fusion. I think Armityle has had more of an effect on me than I had thought I could handle. And when you broke that magical circle and allowed Seto to take back Obelisk and the power of the gods, Diabound grew silent and Leviathan grew weaker. That allowed for me and mine to take control, at least temporarily.” Jaden said, seeming regretful, seeming exhausted. “But the truth is, despite all of the voices in my head, I meant most things I have said.”

It was now his turn to have a tear escape.

“You will still try to destroy this world?” Luna asked, doing everything in her power to not take a step back. “Still try to kill our friends?”

Jaden smiled a bit more and shook his head.

“No, silly.” He said as he wiped at his own tear. “I won’t give up on Yubel, ever. That’s a fact. But I asked you to bring me here to say farewell.”

“What?” Luna thought out loud as she instinctively powered up her Rod.

“I need you to destroy us.” Jaden said after he swallowed hard. “While we are in control. I know you were just about to fly us out of harm’s way out there, don’t do that. Let us get obliterated.”

Luna let go of the power she had built up in her rod, suddenly confused.

“My friends above all things, yeah?” Jaden smiled as he tucked a strand of Luna’s hair behind her ear. “That way Yubel and I can keep the others that are merged with us from putting up much of a fight, but she and I will be the first ones to be destroyed.”

“What are you talking about?” Luna demanded. “You want me to kill you? You think that’s something I will be able to do without breaking everything that I am? Do you realize what you are asking of me?”

“Please, Lu. This is the only way.” Jaden said, the corner of his mouth twitching a little as he seemingly struggled to keep his emotions in check. “That way, you get to save the world, your friends get to live, and Yubel and I get to stay together. Isn’t that a win win?”

“After all the deaths we had to suffer, all of the friends we have lost.” Luna said, her vision blurring from her watering eyes. “You are asking me to kill my best pal!”

“I’m asking you to help me save the world.”

“Well, shit, man.” Luna said, wiping her own tears with the back of her hand. “What am I supposed to say when you put it like that?”

“Just promise to continue kicking ass?” Jaden smiled before pulling her in for a hug. “No matter where you end up.”

Luna hugged him back as she closed her eyes.

“Bye, Lu.”

When she opened her eyes, her vision was blurred once again from the tears in her eyes, but the strain and vibration on her hands and arms told her she was back to the physical world and that the strain was from keeping her friend in place to die.

Obelisk’s infinite powered attack may have been too much for her to take on, but the strain on her mind and heart was much greater than the strain she was feeling physically. And as she blinked her tears out, she saw the expression of struggle and pain on the Supreme Leviathan’s face. Her heart broke as it let out a howl of pain.

I can’t do this. Luna thought, but the Supreme Leviathan opened its eyes to stare at her with Jaden’s eyes.

Luna slowly shook her head, she couldn’t do it, she just couldn’t. But the Leviathan mouthed something again.

You promised.

With that, Obelisk’s attack intensified, Luna could hear the Supreme Leviathan’s skin start to sizzle as it closed its eyes once again and screamed in pain. Without meaning to, Luna also let out a long and painful scream as she watched her friend burn, holding him in place while telling herself that the fate of the world depended on it.

Soon, red cracks appeared throughout Supreme Leviathan’s body. Its scream subsided as its eyes opened once again despite Obelisk’s attack only getting stronger.

Jay? Luna thought as she saw the brown eyes fade away before the bright glowing yellow came back to it.

These eyes suddenly focused on Luna as the expression on the Supreme Leviathan changed to that of extreme hate. It suddenly grabbed onto the shaft of Luna’s spear and pulled it into itself, getting closer to Luna and her shield as a result. Roaring out as the red cracks on its skin spread further, it started to pommel its fists onto Luna’s shield with incredible strength despite the state it was in. She noticed that one of the many colored auras around Leviathan had faded away.

Jay’s gone. Luna thought- no, she felt as a certainty.

“Die! Why won’t you die!” She yelled, intensifying her willpower onto her spear. But as she did so, she felt a cold hand touching her own.

Surprised, Luna looked down at the hand, following the arm attached to it.

Horrified, she found Bakura staring at her with that sickening grin of his.

“Thanks. I got it from here, babe.” Bakura said with a wink before phasing through Luna’s shield of light and seemingly entering inside of the raging Supreme Leviathan.

“No!” Luna yelled, reaching out with a hand but unable to grab onto Bakura.

It was too late. The Supreme Leviathan went into fetal position before it burst with a newfound purple aura that seemed to somehow negate all of the other auras that were present around Leviathan, as well as weaken Luna’s golden aura and Obelisk’s attack.

The Supreme Leviathan suddenly grew more prominent features of Diabound and Zorc along with Armityle and Exodia. It had also grown long white hair like that of Bakura.

“Yes, yes!” This new Leviathan stated as it looked at its own hands once again. “This is it! I am Thief King Leviathan!”

Suddenly it grabbed onto Luna’s spear and ripped it out of its side and flung Luna away.

“Looks like I win this one as well, sweetcheeks!” The new Leviathan laughed before reaching its left hand towards one of the rifts in the sky and starting to absorb more energy from it.

“How-” Luna had too many questions to be able to formulate a single one verbally. “How?”

“How was I able to retain control when the pathetic friend you just murdered couldn’t?” the new Leviathan laughed aggressively. “It’s easy, babe! He only ever controlled Yubel while he limited the powers of Armityle and the Supreme King to keep them in check. While I, of course, always had full control of Diabound, and with him, every entity he absorbed.”

Luna wondered if Seto had any other ideas.

“The only thing that kept me from taking control, was how much light was inside of Leviathan.” It scoffed as if the whole situation couldn’t be funnier. “Which, of course, was completely quelled when your insufferable boyfriend ripped Obelisk out, and you murdered good ol’ Jay. Can’t you see? I am always a step ahead. No matter what you do, you are always doing something to fulfill my plans.”

“Eat shit!” Luna yelled as she slashed at this new Leviathan with her spear.

Bakura, however, simply dodged the attacked as his smirk came back to him.

“It’s like you aren’t even listening, babe.” He said, almost as if laughing at his own joke.

Obelisk suddenly materialized behind Bakura and sucker punched him.

“Stop calling her babe, you creep.” Seto ordered. “That’s my wife you are talking to.”

But when Obelisk pulled back its fist, Leviathan was still there, smiling, unmoved, and undisturbed.

“Like I was saying.” Bakura said, seeming almost too proud of himself. “I have full control of every being inside of us. I can access any and every single one of their powers. What is an Obelisk, if not an outdated deity?”

Luna tried to think, there was no way he could have just tanked infinite attack points like that. Perhaps he had made a shield at the last moment of impact, just as her shield had protected her from Obelisk’s attack.

“Let me show you my power.” Bakura said as it pulled back its demonic fist back. “Perish.”

Luna quickly pointed her spear and willed a shield to form between Obelisk and Bakura’s lightning fast fist. The shield, however, shattered completely upon contact.

“Heh, it would seem I need more power. But no worries, Jaden helped me more than I could have ever hoped.” Bakura said as he flung his hand to the side creating several new rifts in the sky, from which an alarming amount of energy streamed out and went into Bakura. “Poor guy, even his death by your hands was beneficial to me. Could there have been anyone more foolish?”

“Shut up!” Luna yelled, her anger returning. Could Jaden’s death really have been for nothing?

Her impulsive desire was to attack Bakura head on. But he had shattered her shield with a single blow. What could she do?

Flare your anger.

Luna felt her sudden presence.

Flare up your anger, power me up. It is the only way.

“Power you up? That’s a little convenient, isn’t it?” Luna mumbled, wondering if she could trust Yami Luna.

You have no idea how endless the darkness is within you. If you power me up, if you flare up even just a fraction of your anger and hatred, I could be almost as powerful as you are now in your White Dragon armor.

That brought more questions than resolve to Luna’s mind. But what choice did she have?

“I could have sworn you were about to strike at me, my dear.” Bakura sounded amused. “Are you finally coming to your senses and seeing the futility in resisting me?”

She really had no choice.

“Keep talking, you little shit!” Luna said as she tried to harness her anger and hatred. It shouldn’t be too hard right? “But the truth is that you couldn’t get things done yourself, so you manipulated us while staying hidden like a coward that you are!”

“Oh babe, you flatter me!” Bakura said as he put a hand on his own chest. “It really was quite ingenious, wasn’t it? And to think you would take it so well. I mean, you are the reason why everything in my plan has worked so far. You do know that, right? All of those sacrifices and for what? For nothing at all.”

That was it. Luna was shaking from the surge of anger coursing through her veins.

“You are getting all of this, right?” She mumbled to Yami Luna, as she realized that the same dark aura she had seen before was starting to form around her hands once again.

You are flaring all of that into yourself, you need to direct that power to me.

“What? How do I do that?” Luna felt frustrated, thinking she probably should have talked this over with her darker self beforehand.

I don’t know, do your thing! Send that anger to me!

“I don’t know how!” Luna said as she tried to mentally picture a channel of anger from herself to Yami Luna. “Is it working?”

Nothing changed, come on! We are sitting ducks out here!

“What are you doing?” Bakura let out a halfhearted laughter as his voice mockingly went up a few octaves. “I see your mouth moving. Are you talking to yourself? Are you having a mental breakdown?”

Her anger was almost getting too much to contain, she had to do something.

Bursting forth in yet another sonic boom, Luna thrust her spear towards Bakura’s head, faster than she had ever been. She felt the impact through her hands before she realized that Bakura was holding onto her spear shaft and that he himself was unscathed.

“You act like you matter, my little Luna.” Bakura said, suddenly sounding more serious. “You have come to this world and played at being more than you really are. Like you hold some power or meaning.”

Luna let go of her spear to make it disappear when she felt Bakura’s tug on it. She had planned to make it appear again to stab him in surprise, but she immediately found Bakura in front of her, his demonic hand wrapped around her throat.

“But the reality is that you only survived this far because I wanted it so. And that really, you are just a scared little girl that doesn’t belong anywhere.” Bakura said, his face so close to hers, his breath hot on her face. “And now I need you to get that through your pretty little head.”

As he squeezed her neck, panic and despair made Luna retract her mind into her throne room, where she awoke with a gasp for air as she quickly felt around her neck with her hands.

“It’s not going so well, little one.”

Luna looked up to find herself, no, to find Yami Luna standing in front of her with her arms crossed.

“You said, if I got angry, that you could help me!” Luna pointed at her, despite knowing that throwing the blame on her darker side wasn’t going to change their current situation. “We are about to die right now, think of something! Anything!”

Yami Luna squinted her eyes ever so slightly.

“I told you my idea.” Yami Luna sounded defensive. “You’re the one who isn’t going along with it.”

“What- I got as angry as I could and that did nothing!” Luna said, her thoughts racing as fast as her heart beats. It was getting hard to breathe. She had fused herself with every Blue-Eyes dragon she owned, what else could she do? “I tried to channel them to you but it’s not working! Maybe you are the one not receiving it!”

“You think this is an internet connection issue on my end or something?” Yami Luna threw her hands up, obviously as frustrated as Luna was. “The issue here is clear as day, you don’t trust me!”

She wasn’t wrong. Luna didn’t trust Yami Luna, but how could she?

“You tried to kill me.” Luna said, not accusingly, but more as an observation.

“But I also saved you after that. I came to your aid.” Yami Luna mirrored her suddenly calmer tone as she crossed her arms again.

Purple cracks appeared in the corners of the throne room.

Luna looked around, wondering if it was too late. Had she failed?

“Why won’t you trust me?” Yami Luna asked, not unkindly, as she approached Luna. “Didn’t Atem say that we had to work together in order to save the world? That together we could do anything?”

Luna looked down at her hands.

“Wasn’t it you that said that we should try anything, even if we are to fail?” Yami Luna asked, sitting down at the arm rest of her throne, just as Marik had before he left her. “What’s holding you back now?”

Tears formed in Luna’s eyes as she tried to picture all the friends she had made in this world.

“You are a part of me.” Luna said as the purple cracks grew larger and the entire throne room began rumbling. “I don’t- I can’t trust you, because I no longer trust myself.”

Admitting this out loud felt like enlarging a fresh wound with a knife.

“I let so many people die. So many friends died because I-” Luna began to sob, the cracks looking more like giant purple spider webs that wrapped around the throne room now. “I failed every single one of them. I couldn’t beat the bad guys before they became godlike, what chance do I have now?”

“Don’t we owe it to the ones that fell before, then?” Yami Luna asked, seemingly ignoring the fact that the throne room was crumbling apart. “To try everything and anything, until the very end?”

“This is the very end!” Luna said, laughing weakly before she started to sob once again. “There’s a monster deity out there, currently strangling me. And I’m hiding here, talking to myself. This is how I-”

Yami Luna slapped Luna in the face, so hard that Luna almost fell off of her throne. Luna turned to look at Yami Luna while holding onto her stinging face.

“What? Someone had to stop your whining. If not me, then who?” Yami Luna shrugged, but with a smile on her face. “Is this really how you want to go? Hiding and crying?”

No, of course she didn’t.

“He’s already squeezing the life out of us. This-” Luna said as she gestured at all the purple cracks and the rumbling around them. “Is probably happening because my consciousness is about to go. I’m about to die. What is there to do about this?”

“You could trust yourself. You could trust in us.” Yami Luna said as she extended a hand towards Luna. “Together we can do anything, yeah, little one? Perhaps we can get out of his grasp. How hard can it be? You watched hundreds of those silly self defense reels on Instagram.”

“Why do you keep calling me, little one?” Luna asked, still massaging her face.

“Between Yugi and Atem? I’m the tall and cool one, you are the little squeaky one.” Yami Luna said smiling, even laughing a little.

“We are the same height.” Luna said with a smile of her own as she took Yami Luna’s hand and got up from her throne.

“That asshole is going to take away everything if you let him.” Yami Luna said as she looked around, the ceiling of the throne room was now more purple than it was stones. “Will we let him?”

“Fuck no.” Luna said as she mentally felt around, inside of herself, at the mysterious source of power she had felt when she had almost ripped out Bakura’s heart.

“Then trust yourself to kick ass, girl.”

Luna grabbed on to that dark source of power inside of her and suddenly woke back up with Bakura’s fingers wrapped around her neck, his devilish grin filling her entire vision.

His strength was incredible, the corners of her vision were starting to darken, she had to act immediately. She quickly made her Millennium Spear appear in front of her and slashed with it upward to cut Bakura’s arm off, or to at least make him let go.

The blade made of light, however, simply dug in to Bakura’s wrist only part of the way and remained unmoving.

“Fighting till the bitter end, I love it! I love it!” Bakura manically yelled, just as Luna’s left arm seemingly came out of itself, becoming a third arm, which summoned a second Millennium Spear and slashed downward, sinking into Bakura’s wrist from above, meeting the other blade, and cutting off the wrist.

Bakura screamed in pain, backing away for a second before he laughed. When he flicked his severed wrist, a bloody hand sprouted immediately from it.

“We are both full of neat tricks, huh, babe?” Bakura said as he tested his new hand.

Luna looked at her third arm, not sure what to make of it, when it suddenly moved out of Luna, with Yami Luna attached to it.

This Yami Luna, however, was clad in armor, much like Luna. But unlike hers, Yami Luna’s armor was that of a black dragon with a red cape. Through the traces in her armor, Luna could tell that just as she was merged with every Blue-Eyes dragon, so was Yami Luna merged with every Red-Eyes dragon. But perhaps the most surprising, was the fact that Yami Luna had a Millennium Spear of her own, though seemingly made of darkness.

“You ready, little one?” Yami Luna asked, her irises glowing red.

“That really is a neat trick, but you think it will be enough?” Bakura asked, making his Millennium Ring appear, then grabbing two of its needles as they grew large enough to become swords.

“Only one way to find out, shrimp dick.” Yami Luna said as her red cape also morphed into the wings of Red-Eyes Alternative Dragon.

Yami Luna swung at Bakura, who defended with his left forearm. Yami Luna’s blade sunk and stopped again, and despite the swords in his hand, Bakura punched Yami Luna’s face with his right fist. Yami Luna let go of her spear, making it disappear, but backed away and looked at Luna.

Luna nodded to her darker half. They were going to have to synchronize their attacks.

“Millennium Sonic Boom!” They both yelled in unison as they burst through air, each swinging their spears in a flurry of attacks. And despite being two halves of the same coin, it still felt strange that Luna could feel every movement and intention of Yami Luna.

A fake out here, a synchronized hit at its left elbow, two fake outs before another synchronized hit at one of its ankles, and a quick synchronized connection to cut off half of its tail.

It was a storm of light and blood, but as they continued, they saw that Bakura had been regenerating his lost limbs again and again with the biggest smile on his stupid face.

“Don’t let up!” Yami Luna yelled.

Luna didn’t plan to. They kept faking, parrying, and cutting off several parts off of Bakura, which seemed to only make him smile even more.

“Obliterate!” Luna heard Seto yell.

Luna and Yami Luna managed to cut off yet another forearm before they backed away. As Luna watched, Obelisk’s attack hit Bakura square on the chest. Bakura quickly used its remaining hand to push himself off of the monstrous beam attack before he lifted his maimed arm to regrow it.

His hand didn’t regenerate while in Obelisk’s attack.

Luna noted.

“Even if you were to somehow, miraculously, defeat me. What do you think that will achieve?” Bakura laughed. “Look around. Everything is destroyed and ravaged already. The few who survived will have nothing to go back to. I have already consumed more than half of their world’s energy, this planet will most likely not survive. You would only be prolonging their suffering.”

“You underestimate humans. We are resilient, we will rebuild.” Luna said as she tried to see where Seto had positioned himself without turning her head.

“We? You will be gone! Just like me and your mouthy evil bitch of a twin!” Bakura laughed, spreading its wings, seemingly absorbing more energy from the rifts in the sky through them. “You think the ones that are left in this wasteland will do anything but fend for themselves? Have you never watched a post-apocalyptic movie? It will be no man’s land, they will steal, rape, and kill anyone they see, until there is no one left!”

Luna couldn’t help but wonder if that was true. Despite herself, she looked around at the state of the world.

“Don’t let him get to you!” Yami Luna yelled but stopped to defend herself with her spear as Bakura lunged at her.

Luna blinked and took herself to her throne room. A lot of it was still broken and crumbled, but the purple cracks were gone. The thousands of her hunters were still kneeled there, like nothing had happened.

“Rise.” She quickly said, wondering how many of them were actually good people.

They all stood up, but kept their heads down.

“Do you trust me?” She asked with a sense of urgency but not sure how to get around this.

“We trust and obey, my liege.” They answered in unison, sounding more like machines than humans, as they kneeled once again.

“And you’ve got no remorse against that?” Luna asked, wondering if any of them blamed her for the current state of the world. “No resentment?”

“Your word is our command, now and always.” They all answered, again in unison.

Luna swallowed hard.

“Then rise, as I grant every single one of you the rank of- of Protector of the World.” She declared, making the title up in the moment.

Some of the rare hunters started to look at one another, confusion was evident as not many of them rose as she had commanded.

“As many of you know, I have made it my mission to save and protect this world even if it isn’t my own.” Luna explained. “And even though I know that most of you haven’t joined Marik out of a sense of morality or justice, this is your world.”

Pausing to take a deep breath, Luna looked around but couldn’t see their expressions under their hoods.

“Marik may have promised you things that he wasn’t able to keep.” Luna said, remembering how it all worked in the anime. “But look at the world right now. This is your chance to help rebuild it to a world you wanted. A world where no injustice happens.”

She noticed some of the rare hunters nodding as they looked at each other.

“Whether I fail or succeed in my fight against this new Leviathan, I will be gone. And when I’m gone, it will be up to you to protect the defenseless and to help those in need. That’s when the real fight starts. Kaiba Corp. will do its best, but technology and ideals will only go so far without people and action.” Luna stated, realizing she had never expected she would be giving any kind of speech to any group of people, much less thousands of robed card robbers. “I want you to be that. So I say again. Put down your hoods and rise, my rare hunters, as Protectors of the World.”

Suddenly, they showed their faces as they all stood up, right hand on their chest.

“And be those people and those actions that this world will need.” Luna said, looking in the eyes of the ones in the front row. She recognized many of them from the anime. “That is my command.”

“Yes, my liege!” They all yelled, their passion and fervor moving Luna more than she thought it would.

“We will await your return, my liege.” Bandit Keith approached with Mai and Tea.

“I may not be able to return at all.” Luna answered, starting to feel sad about not being able to see her hunters. Another sentiment she would have never guessed that she would have.

“We know.” Mai said as she gave Luna’s shoulder a light squeeze. “But should you ever find yourself in this world again, we will be here, making you proud. Marik chose well.”

Luna couldn’t help but smile at that.

“Guide them and lead them together.” Luna told the three of them before turning around to look at her throne one last time.

Luna caught herself, leaning with a smirk against a pillar by the throne.

“This is a movie moment, little one.” Yami Luna said as she got off the pillar and approached her. “Though, you did kinda freeze time right as I was about to get pummeled.”

“Sorry, but I had to make sure this world would be okay once we are gone.” Luna said before clearing her throat. “I guess this is a good bye to you as well. You know, in case we don’t get the time to do so later.”

“Does that mean you believe we will win?” Yami Luna seemed amused.

“I got one last plan.” Luna admitted as she tapped into Yami Luna’s mind to share her plan.

“One last bang, huh?”

“No sense in dragging this battle until we are tired.” Luna said straight to the point. “We either succeed or we don’t.”

When Luna blinked, she saw Yami Luna creating a shield of dark energy a split second before being hit by Bakura.

“Seto! Hit it with absolutely everything you’ve got! Don’t hold anything back, this is the last bang!” Luna yelled before she used the Millennium Sonic Boom, exploding into Bakura.

Bakura staggered for a second, enough for Yami Luna to slash a deep cut onto his back.

Luna and Yami Luna both started a series of lightning fast attacks once again as both of them started to cover their entire bodies in the power of light and dark respectively.

“This same trick again? It didn’t work the first time, girls!” Bakura laughed, regenerating his limbs as fast as he was losing them. “Don’t you see that this world and I are almost one already?”

“Infinite Obelisk!” Seto shouted making Luna feel relieved and anxious. She had imagined he would have been hesitant. “Absolute Obliteration!”

The world grew dark before a ray of light pierced through, a beam so powerful and intense that it felt like it was ripping Luna apart.

“Don’t falter!” She heard Yami Luna yell. “We have to do it now!”

Luna focused all of her strength, will, and being in that moment. She saw Bakura shaking, unable to regenerate his wings, horns, and his left leg.

Starting to shout from the pain of Seto’s attack, and the incredible surge of energy, Luna saw her armor starting to morph, showing every aspect of every dragon she had been merged with, just as Yami Luna was shouting as her armor was morphing to show every Red-Eyes dragons merged with her.

“I will not lose to the likes of you!” Bakura yelled, intensifying the amount of energy he was absorbing from the rifts in the sky.

But right before Luna finished powering up for her final attack, she couldn’t help but turn her face to take one last look at Seto. In all of his glory, sitting atop of his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. That was the Seto she knew, that was her Seto. Was she ever going to be able to see him again?

Suddenly, Luna found herself in a room full of light and gold. She instantly recognized it as Atem’s throne room, but upon the throne was Seto Kaiba.

“Did you pull me into the Puzzle?” Luna asked, looking around half hoping that Atem was somehow back, but quickly finding that they were alone.

“That’s what you are focusing on at a time like this?” Seto gave her a sad smile as he came down the steps to be near her.

“Diversion is my coping mechanism, I guess.” Luna tried to smile back, but found that she couldn’t. There were about a thousand things she wanted to tell him and yet, what could she say when no matter what happened, they would no longer be able to see each other?

Suddenly, Seto pulled her in for a hug.

I’m going to miss you? She couldn’t say that, it sounded like she was accepting the fact that they would no longer be together.

Luna swallowed hard struggling with her emotions and thoughts, as Seto pulled away to look at her.

Don’t forget me? Somehow that sounded like she breaking up with him to go study abroad. Was she supposed to break up with him? Were they even dating?

Seto interrupted her thoughts with kiss. His lips soft and warm on her own.

When he pulled back, a confidence had come back to his smile.

“I’ll find you.” He said in such a matter of fact way, in such a Seto way, that it made Luna completely and wholeheartedly believe that he would do so. After all, this was Seto Kaiba.

“I’ll be waiting.”

And as she blinked, she was inside of Obelisk’s attack with Bakura and Yami Luna once again.

Yami Luna nodded to her as she made two more pairs of wings sprout from her shoulders. Luna did the same, and tapped into her Millennium power to speed herself up as much as she could. They stood opposite sides of Bakura and took off clockwise. Each strike that Luna made created a phantom version of one of her Blue-Eyes dragons, just as each strike that Yami Luna made, created a phantom version of a Red-Eyes dragon.

Despite their relentless attacks, each second inside of Obelisk’s attack felt like she was being skinned alive over and over. But they only needed to last a few more seconds. They had cut Bakura up to ribbons as his distorted screams filled her ear.

Both Luna and Yami Luna had started to yell as the strain of Obelisk’s attack was becoming too much to bear, and their fury behind each swing much greater.

“I- I won’t- I won’t los- lose.” Bakura stammered.

Soon, there weren’t many pieces of Bakura left, but Luna could now see a shadowy form holding the bits and pieces of flesh and bone together.

This is it! We can’t let him escape!

With several dozens of phantom dragons around them, Luna impaled Bakura through his shadowy chest just as Yami Luna impaled him from the back. They both struck beside their respective spears with their open right hands and focused every ounce of the strength they had left into it.

Luna thought of every friend she had made along the way, every friend she had lost. Every moment she had enjoyed and everything she wouldn’t have the opportunity to experience any longer.

“Die, you fucker!” Luna screamed as all of her emotions created a new surge of energy and power to course through her.

“Red-Eyes Apocalypse!”

“Blue-Eyes Judgement!”

Both Lunas shouted with every cell in their bodies as all of their phantom dragons threw themselves into their respective master’s attack, creating a massive red beam and an equally gargantuan blue beam, which exploded into one another disintegrating Bakura’s Leviathan body. Almost immediately, the two attacks suddenly shrunk into a point of singularity.

For a split second, all was quiet as Luna caught a glimpse of Yami Luna giving her the sign of the horns as she winked with the sun setting behind her.

Then everything exploded into a blinding white.

Chapter Text

A quick two burst vibration in her right hand woke Luna’s conscience. She remained with her eyes closed for a second before taking a deep breath and opening her eyes with a squint to look at her phone.

Genshin Impact
Original Resin is now fully replenished, don’t forget to put it to use!

Luna locked her phone by habit before turning it back on to look at the time.

18:27

The sleeves of her clothes caught her attention as she realized she was back to wearing all black.

She straightened her back and looked around the train, feeling groggy before it all came back to her.

That’s right, I was going back home.

Luna slumped back into her seat as she let out a sigh. She had a sudden urge to cry despite partly being relieved to be back to her own world.

Lifting her phone up, she saw her dangling keychain of chibi Kaiba and hoped he was okay. And when she looked out the window, it was her normal world. No monsters flying around, no ultimate entities threatening to destroy reality, and no KC Tower or ice fortresses anywhere in sight.

If someone had told her that she had simply dreamt her time in Battle City, she would have believed them.

Yet it felt so real.

In fact, she wondered if she would end up in therapy because of this. After all, who would believe her? It was almost hard for even her to believe that she had just been to another world and back after fighting against devilish fusion of several deities.

Either way, she was going to have to get used to this normal world again. Where the friends she had lost were just anime characters and her poweres were just memories of another lifetime.

Speaking of powers, Luna wondered. She opened her right hand and was about to make a grabbing motion when the train announcement let her know that her stop was coming up.

Luna quickly got up and put on her backpack, slowly making her way to one of the doors of the train. She was going to miss a lot of things and probably be very unhappy about it all for a long time, perhaps even forever. But what else could she do?

As the train slowly came to a stop with a screeching noise, Luna stared blankly at the door and suddenly noticed that a white haired woman was staring back at her from inside of the glass. It took her just a second to realize that it was her own reflection, but before she could react, the doors opened.

She got off the train along with a few other people as she grabbed a strand of her hair and saw that it was indeed white. Everyone else seemed to be in a hurry unlike Luna. Letting go of her hair, Luna took a deep breath, not sure how to process or even react to the fact that the only thing she brought back from literally another world was a different color for her hair.

Fuck it, I will deal with this later.

She thought to herself as she looked at her feet and started to slowly walk through the station and onto the street. At least this meant it definitely hadn’t been a dream, right? Unless some punk dyed her hair in the two hours that she had clocked out inside of the train. But what were the chances of that happening?

Beep Beep!

The sudden beeping of a motorcycle beside her made her jump.

Motherf-

Luna looked at the helmeted man in a black jacket, leaning against his light blue crotch rocket, his right hand on the left handle.

Something about the man exuded a certain kind of presence. Luna couldn’t see through the visor of the helmet, but as the man stood straighter and approached her, she was reminded of the fact that she was quite defenseless in her world. She thought of turning and running, but she was never very athletic here either.

As the man stood just inches from her, Luna wondered if she should have asked Joey to teach her how to throw a proper punch without any of her millennium powers.

The man moved his hands, sending Luna’s anxiety through the roof, but he simply reached up and took his helmet off, revealing that perfect brown hair and deep blue eyes.

He found me. Luna’s heart skipped a beat.

“Quite the world you got here, Mrs. Kaiba.” Seto said with a cheeky smile. “Oh and before you ask, Mokuba and Noah are fine. They are proving to be quite the duo. Mokuba misses you terribly of course, but they are working hard with your rare hunters and several other survivors in order to rebuild our world starting with Domino City. We are thinking in calling it New Dom-”

Before he could even finish speaking, Luna pulled him by his jacket and kissed him.

The End