Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Falling. He was falling again. Wait…who was falling? Himself or…

No. No, wait. Not this time, it can't be this time, no, no, no, he promised, he promised that this time he would make it okay, that this time he would fix things, that this time, this time, THIS TIME—

I…

Spinning. Spinning, spinning, spinning, he was so dizzy, when would it stop, when was he going to be able to stop.

I'm…

Go back. He had to go back. Start over. This time—

I'm…sorry…

No.

Not this time.

Please, not this time.

I'm sorry…

…Yusei…

Everything stopped. Again.

The sand in the hourglass froze.

Slowly, slowly, the grains of stars inside the glass began to float upwards.

This time.

Chapter Text

It was way too hot for the season.

Yusei let out a heavy sigh, wiping at his brow with the back of his arm, trying to avoid smearing motor oil on his face. He had long since dropped his jacket, opting for just his greasy, torn up tank top. He kind of wanted to change into shorts, too, but he knew better than to try and work on this machine without long pants…at least the thick denim could protect him from most of the damage when he inevitably dropped his wrench on his leg.

The garage was flung open in a futile attempt to get some air moving through the sweltering basement room. Yusei had dragged the Yusei-Go outside, trying to figure out what exactly was the problem with his engine. He had been trying to create a better engine program for months, but that wasn't the problem. Something in the Momentum gears had been acting up, and if he didn't get that fixed the whole thing could explode under him if he tried to accelerate—that was definitely the last thing he needed.

He sighed again, slumping back on to his hands. He really didn't want to do this right now…it was just too hot. His shirt was sticking uncomfortably to his chest, and hair felt practically drenched with sweat. All he wanted to do was dive into a cold shower for the next three hours.

With the heat radiating off the ground in mirage-like waves, he felt his mind wandering. He could hear the distant noises of people talking and laughing in the square up above, the sound of dishes clinking softly at the nearby outdoor cafe, the faint noise of the television inside the garage, where Crow had sprawled himself out on the couch to melt. Jack was probably at that cafe again. Yusei wasn't sure where Bruno had gone; he seemed to recall the other man saying something about getting some better tools at the department store just a few blocks down, but even then, the heat had been so bad that Yusei had barely been able to focus on what he was saying.

He let his head fall against his chest and closed his eyes. It was too hot, there was too much to do, and he didn't want to move from this spot unless it meant getting cooled down. He had another engine program to write, the previous one having been stolen by Yeager. There were strategies to test, decks to build, cards to seek out for better strategizing, paperwork to finish up for the WRGP, and a million robot duelists hidden somewhere in the city. And it was only yesterday that Yusei had returned from stopping time itself from breaking down around them. Paradox was dealt with, but what about the next challenge he had to face? There were a million and one things fighting for attention in his brain, but with the heat melting through his mind, he didn't want to think about any of them.

His D-Wheel sparked violently.

Yusei jumped. He swore as a light dusting of sparks scattered across his arms and burned. He scrambled up to his feet and took a few steps back from the machine. What—what the hell was it doing?

The engine was spinning. Momentum was glowing and rippling—it should only be doing that while he was moving, not while it was just standing there. It wasn't even turned on!!

Yusei swore again as another flurry of sparks exploded from the engine.

“Crow!” he shouted. “Crow, get over here, I need you to look at this!”

He received only a faint moan in response.

“Crow!”

The glow was getting stronger—brighter. He could feel waves of heat radiating off of it. It must be getting really, really hot if he could feel it against the already intolerable heat. Somewhere in the distance, he thought he heard the rumble of thunder. His frazzled mind immediately jumped to “what was the weather supposed to be today?” and then his engine exploded.

“SHIT!”

He threw his arms up in front of his face. It wasn't a real explosion, he realized then, just a sudden flare of bright, rippling light that sent waves of heat into his face. He stumbled back, blinded, and hit the ground.

“Yusei? Yusei, what happened?!”

He could hear Crow's feet scrabbling across the ground, but he still couldn't see. Yusei blinked several times, coughing—there was smoke leaking from his engine now, he realized. Shit. Why had Momentum reacted like that??

His vision was starting to clear, now. He could still hear Crow trying to make his way around the couch, swearing as he stubbed his toe on the scattered D-Wheel pieces,

And then Crow swore again, and Yusei had a feeling it had nothing to do with pieces of machinery on the floor.

“Holy fucking shit,” Crow said. “Where did—”

Yusei could see now. And he knew exactly what Crow was reacting to.

“J-Judai?”

The boy was just standing there in front of him, between Yusei and the D-Wheel. The red jacket, the upturned brown hair, it was unmistakable even with his back to Yusei.

At the sound of Yusei's voice, Judai's shoulders flinched. The boy spun around—brown eyes wide, mouth hanging open, face pale and drawn.

“Y-Yusei,” he muttered.

For a moment, his hands reached vaguely forward, mouth moving silently. A collection of emotions seemed to be battling for dominance in his eyes: terror, relief, desperation. Then his eyes rolled up and he collapsed forward, landing against Yusei's chest. Yusei flinched a little, but managed to keep his seat.

“Judai! Judai!”

What was he doing here? What happened—how had he gotten here? And—and what had happened to him? That—that face he had made, simultaneously relieved at seeing Yusei and desperate about something else, like he had been trying to say something but couldn't—

“What the hell? Is he okay? Where'd he come from? Holy shit,” said Crow, running over. “What happened? You know this kid?”

“Y-yeah,” Yusei said.

He forgot about the heat, forgot about all the other things that had been running through his head, right now, Judai was lying unconscious against him and something was very, very wrong.

“Crow, we have to get him to a hospital, or something, I don't—I don't know what's wrong.”

Crow swore again, and nodded.

“I'll go call the ambulance,” he said. “Like…move him to the couch or something and maybe get him some ice.”

“Right.”

It was hot—too hot.

Yusei struggled to pull Judai into his arms as Crow ran back for the phone. He managed to pull Judai up and hefted him towards the couch.

He stole a small glance at the boy's face, eyes closed, breathing irregularly, as though he had just run for several miles.

He still looks scared, Yusei realized with a start. Like he's having a terrible dream.

Something that could make the cheerful, confident Judai he remembered scared? What on earth could that be…?

And why… Yusei thought, as he settled Judai onto the couch and jogged towards the kitchen for an ice pack. Did he seem to want to tell me something? 

Chapter Text

“Nnngh…”

Falling. He was falling. He was falling and spinning and dizzy and oh, God, where was he going, was he aimed right, why—why was he going? He couldn't remember—

“Judai?”

The soft voice broke through the rush of confusion in his head. He recognized that voice—Yusei. It was Yusei's soft, calm voice, calling through the darkness to him. But why…why was Yusei here? He was from years in the future, why…?

Another wave of panic crashed over him. For a moment, images swirled in his mind, fought to be in front of his vision, scrabbled for a foothold in his memories, screaming, screaming, screaming—

Remember. You have to remember dammit, you have to remember why—

His opened his eyes and groaned at the light. It was too damn bright. He threw his arm over his eyes for a moment.

“Judai? Are you awake?”

Judai shifted his arm so that he could see, but still block out most of the light. He squinted, vision blurring for a moment. Yeah that was—Yusei—

“Yusei—”

He snapped straight up, words jumping to the tip of his tongue, something he had to say, desperately—

Dizziness overtook him. He felt his stomach heave and almost fell over again. He fell instead against Yusei's arm, his hand propping him up.

“Breathe, Judai. Just breathe for a moment. Are you okay?”

No, no, he didn't have time to breathe, he had to—had to what?

The panic subsided, slowly. The flurry of confusing images faded from his mind. Whatever he had been about to say died on his tongue.

“Uuugh…what hit me?” Judai moaned. “Yusei…? What are you doing here?”

“I was going to ask you that, actually…are you feeling all right? Hang on, let me get you some water…the paramedic thought you might have had heat exhaustion.”

Yusei carefully leaned Judai back down against the arm of the couch. Judai heard his boots squeak as he stood up and walked across the floor.

By now, his dizziness had completely faded, and he felt…actually perfectly fine. Judai blinked a few times, readjusting to the light. He glanced around with a frown.

He was laying down on an old, kind of beat up couch in the middle of a medium-sized room. His jacket was gone, and he was just in his tank top and jeans. A quick glance around told him that his jacket was flung across the back of the couch. He wasn't complaining, it was pretty hot in here despite the distant hum of an air conditioner.

The floor was concrete, and there was a television set up across from the couch. To the left of the couch was a small kitchenette and a dining table with a bunch of mismatched chairs. A ladder led up to a slightly higher level with a railing, like the loft in a barn. Stairs ran up the wall behind him towards a door where the orange light of sunset was filtering through, and then from that landing, a second set of stairs led up to another door…to a second floor, maybe? To the right of the couch was what appeared to be a garage, shelves of tools and wires and pieces lining the walls, a computer and desk tucked in between two particularly full shelving units. Three motorcycles sat in a neat row at the back of this section, in front of what appeared to be a sliding garage door.

A young man with blue hair sat in front of the computer, looking curiously over at Judai from his swivel chair. Judai kind of raised his hand in an awkward greeting, and the man half smiled back. He seemed like he might say something, but Yusei returned then with a glass of water.

“Can you sit up?” he asked in that calm, quiet voice of his.

“Yeah, I think so.”

He moved slowly, in case the dizziness came back, but he felt totally fine. He accepted the offered glass of water with a smile, and found that he was incredibly thirsty. He downed the whole glass in one go.

“Wow. I really needed that…thanks.”

“Not a problem,” said Yusei, smiling as he took the glass back. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, actually…don't know what came over me before.”

He frowned as he looked around the room again.

“So…where am I?”

“This is the place I'm renting with Crow and Jack,” Yusei said.

He walked back over to the kitchenette to set the glass down on the counter as he talked.

“So…wait, I'm in…your time?”

“Yeah.”

Judai stared down at his knees for a moment. But…how? And when? And why?

“Do you…know how you got here?” Yusei asked.

Judai hesitated. For a moment, the memory danced out of reach…and then it disappeared.

“No,” he said. “I feel like…I did know? But it's gone. I can't…remember.”

Yusei frowned. He moved back over to stand in front of Judai, brow furrowed slightly.

“When you appeared…you looked worried,” he said. “Nothing's wrong…is it?”

Judai bit his lip. Again, something seemed to flutter in his mind, just barely out of reach of his memory. If he could just remember…

“I don't know…I think—I think I knew something was wrong but…for some reason I can't remember.”

He thought harder, pushing against the memory. Something—something was important, there was something he had to remember, something he had to say, he could remember the desperation from before, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember why he had been so desperate. It had—it definitely had something to do with Yusei. He could remember a twinge of relief at seeing Yusei's face as though…as though…

“Ugh,” he said, dropping his head into his hands. He shook his head. “I'm sorry, Yusei…I can't remember. I don't know what's wrong with me.”

“It's fine. Don't push it. What is the last thing you remember, though?”

Judai paused for a moment. He raised his head and stared at the ceiling, thinking.

“I…I remember battling Paradox. And then I remember we were headed back to my time. After that…I don't remember anything.”

Yusei frowned.

“Judai…that was just yesterday for me…and I remember dropping you back off in your time, in Venice. Are you saying you don't remember that?”

Judai had to shake his head, blushing slightly. He felt stupid, all of a sudden—why couldn't he remember? He remembered feeling really, really desperate, like there was something really important that he had to say, had to do but now…nothing. His brain was empty; it was like it had just been wiped clean.

Something must be very, very wrong.

“Oy, is he awake finally??”

The drawling voice pulled Judai out of his reverie, and he looked up to see a young man in the top level of the room, leaning over the railing. His shock of orange hair was pulled up into a frizz with a headband, and golden marks similar to Yusei's lined his face.

“Yo,” he said, sending Judai a two fingered salute. “So you're Judai, huh? Yusei told me about ya. Nice to meet ya.”

“R-right,” Judai said, blinking. “I…nice to meet you too.”

Once again, the feeling of dread and uncertainty had faded away. He thought that maybe it was gone for good this time…whatever had brought him here, he had forgotten it. That worried him, but…there was nothing he could do about it at this moment. He would have to do some more investigations later, once he had figured out…well, everything else.

“I'm Crow, by the way,” the other boy said, as he came around the railing and slid down the ladder without using the rungs. He landed lightly, almost gracefully, the motions seeming somehow out of line with his otherwise kind of blunt voice and appearance.

He walked over to the pair of them with a grin and stuck out his hand. Judai hesitated a brief, confused moment before he took the offered hand and shook—Crow had a very firm grip, almost like he was testing how tightly Judai could squeeze back. Half smiling, Judai took him up on the silent challenge.

“Wow!” Crow said, laughing as he took his hand back and shook it. “He's got quite a grip! I like this friend of yours, Yusei.”

Yusei smiled a bit, looked vaguely exasperated.

“So that's Crow,” Yusei said, nodding. “And over there is Bruno…he's staying with us as well.”

Judai looked over at the quiet blue-haired man. He smiled and nodded at Bruno, who nodded back.

“And Jack is probably skulking around outside or something,” Crow said. “Probably still mad I ate his cup ramen…OY! JACK! GET IN HERE AND MEET JUDAI-SAN!”

There was a thump and a swear from outside, and then the door at the top of the stairs flew open.

“For the love of—you don't have to shout, dammit! I can hear you just fine, Crow!”

At the top of the stairs, a scowling blond man appeared, his white coat fluttering around his legs. His violet eyes shot daggers at the grinning Crow as he stalked down the stairs.

“And that's Jack,” Yusei said, barely hiding his smile. “Jack, meet Judai.”

“Yo,” Judai said. “Nice to meet you.”

Jack just half-scowled at Judai, glaring at him from under his blond bangs. However, there was an edge of curiosity behind that glare that Judai picked up on instantly, interest sparking in the back of his eyes.

“Yusei's told me a bit about you,” said Jack, finally.

“Good things, I hope,” Judai said, only half-joking.

“Interesting things, that's for sure!” Crow said. “You and him and the famous Yugi Mutou took down a time-traveling nutjob and saved time! That's pretty intense!”

“You duel, then?” said Jack, the interest growing in his eyes.

Judai grinned.

“Yeah. I went to Duel Academy, I should be able to duel…I mean, I graduated bottom of the class, but that's just cause I didn't do my homework. Bet I could give you a run for your money.”

Jack made a huffing, irritated sound, as though he were offended by Judai's words. But Judai thought he saw a hint of respect deepen the corner around his eyes, and Judai knew that he had, at the very least, won Jack over for the time being with his confidence.

Judai turned his attention back to Yusei.

“So…I guess I oughta ask. What year is it?”

“It's 2045,” said Yusei.

Judai let out a low whistle.

“Wow…I certainly have come a long way, haven't I? Last I checked it was 2011.”

“Geez,” said Crow. “And you don't know how you got here? Did it have something to do with that Paradox dude?”

Judai shook his head.

“Don't think so. We took care of him, right, Yusei?”

Yusei nodded quietly.

“And it seems that our memories of what happened after don't coincide,” he said, frowning. “You don't remember me dropping you back off?”

“Nope. Last I remember, I was getting back on the bike with you…don't even remember entering the time stream again…”

A silence fell over the small group. What else was there to say? Judai was from almost thirty years ago and there was no explanation for his appearance. Wow. He should just be glad that everyone was taking this so well. He guessed they had seen some pretty intense stuff themselves.

“Are you sure you're still feeling all right?” Yusei asked, frowning again. “You looked pretty bad when you arrived…the paramedics came by and said it must have been heat exhaustion but…”

Judai tilted his head back and forth a few times. No dizziness came over him. He didn't even feel nauseous.

“Yup. I feel pretty good, actually. Just…really confused. Dunno what to do now…if I don't remember how I got here, how am I gonna get back…?”

“Maybe there was a reason you came here,” Bruno said.

Everyone glanced over at him. It was the first thing Bruno had said since Judai had woken up, and Judai was surprised at how…odd his voice sounded. There was something like…a reverberation to his words at the back of Judai's ears, like the mechanical hum of a running laptop. Maybe he was just imagining it.

“What're you talkin' about?” Crow said.

“I'm saying that there's probably a reason that Judai's shown up,” said Bruno, frowning slightly. “I mean…considering all that's been happening here, and the way he acted when he appeared that you described to me…perhaps there is something important that you came here to do.”

Judai blinked.

“But wouldn't I remember something like that?”

Bruno hesitated. Then he shook his head slowly.

“I'm not sure,” he said. “But time travel is…very theoretical. I wouldn't believe in its possibility if Yusei hadn't done it. It is possible, however, that the transfer wiped your memories.”

“But wouldn't Yusei have forgotten stuff too, then?” Crow said. “And Paradox?”

Jack grunted in agreement.

“Not necessarily. Yusei was lucky. He had the Crimson Dragon shielding and guiding him. Paradox—Paradox comes from decades in the future, as far as we know. Technology might have progressed enough to negate the memory altering effects of the time stream.”

Bruno frowned.

“But this is all speculation. I won't know without the technology itself…and we don't know what Judai used to send himself here.”

Judai swore softly. Then he sighed and leaned back against the couch, feeling tired all of a sudden.

“Dammit,” he said. “I'm sorry, Yusei. I wish I could remember…”

“It's not your fault,” Yusei said.

Judai smiled, but closed his eyes so that Yusei wouldn't see his frustration. Dammit. This was his fault. If something bad was going to happen and he had sent himself here to warn them, why couldn't he remember? He was a dumbass—he should have thought things through better before he sent himself wheeling through time.

He felt a light touch on his shoulder then, and fingers squeezing gently.

“It's okay, Judai,” Yusei said. “It's okay. Whatever you came here to do…I'm sure you will remember, if it's important.”

Judai opened his eyes. Yusei was still squeezing his shoulder, smiling gently, his deep blue eyes meeting Judai's. Judai managed a real smile this time. Man. Yusei was pretty good at this comforting people stuff, wasn't he? There was just something about the sound of his voice, the cast of his eyes that made Judai feel calmer.

“Thanks,” he said. “Still…sorry about this.”

Yusei just smiled, and squeezed his shoulder one more time before drawing away.

“Well, until then…Jack, Crow, Bruno. You don't mind if Judai stays here a while, do you?”

“Oh, wait, I don't wanna intrude…”

Jack cut him off with a snort and a large shrug of his shoulders.

“I have no issue with it,” he said.

“Yeah! I wanna see how they dueled thirty years ago,” Crow said. “You're gonna have to go a round or two with me. Did they have D-Wheelers back then?”

“Um…”

“We have the space, it should be fine,” Bruno said, nodding.

“Wait, guys…”

“Judai,” Yusei said firmly.

Judai glanced up at Yusei. The blue-eyed young man smiled.

“Seriously, Judai,” he said. “Do you have anywhere else to go? It's 2045.”

Judai smiled, a bit sheepishly.

“I guess…not. …Thanks.”

Yusei's smile widened; his eyes softened.

“It's going to be fine,” he said. “We'll find a way to get you back home.”

Judai glanced around the room, meeting each pair of eyes—Jack's gruff but interested ones, Crow's excited ones, Bruno's thoughtful ones, and finally, stopping on Yusei's kind, welcoming ones.

“Geez,” Judai said. “Well, if I was gonna jump times, I guess I picked the right time to show up. Thanks for having me, guys.”

And then his stomach growled very, very loudly.

A blush crept up the sides of his face to his ears.

“Umm…oops,” he said.

Crow laughed—an abrupt, guffawing sound.

“I guess time travel makes people hungry!” he said. “Reminds me, I gotta be making dinner; it's my turn tonight, right? I'll whip somethin' up!”

“Make Jack help you,” Yusei said. “Bruno and I need to finish this simulation.”

“Hell no, Jack's coming nowhere near the stove. You can just set the table.”

Jack scowled.

“I'm not a servant!”

“You're not a king anymore either, dumbass, get over yourself and set the damn table.”

“Um, you want me to help…?” Judai said. “I'm not a bad cook…”

Crow was already walking towards the kitchen and pulling out an apron, throwing it over his neck and moving to tie the strings.

“Nah, not tonight. Thanks though, I'll take you up on that later, probably. You wanna wash up or anything, though? Bathroom's up the stairs. It was a scorcher today; you'll probably feel better.”

Judai blushed a little…he did feel pretty hot and sweaty. But he felt bad for not helping out…they were taking him in and he wasn't doing anything.

Yusei seemed to notice Judai's uncertainty. He patted Judai on the shoulder gently.

“It's fine,” he said. “You just got here. Don't worry; we'll definitely be asking for your help eventually…but please, it's probably best for you to take it easy for now. Even if you say you feel fine…”

“Okay, fine,” Judai said, still blushing. “Upstairs, right?”

. . .

Judai sighed as the water washed down the drain of the sink, feeling one hundred percent better. He had wiped off most of the sweat and splashed his face a few extra times just to feel like he was a little cleaner. He wasn't quite keen on the idea of using the shower yet, already feeling like he was imposing on everyone.

He grabbed a towel and rubbed his face into it. The material was soft, and he pressed into it for a moment, breathing through the thick cloth.

After a moment, he reached out gently with his mind.

“…Yubel?”

She reacted immediately to the gentle probe. He could feel her soul shift somewhere deep inside of him, her presence growing to spread through his veins.

—I'm here—

Judai sighed with relief. With all the commotion, he hadn't had a chance to check in on her…and he had been half worried that somehow, she would be gone.

“Thank the gods,” he muttered. “You okay?”

—I'm fine, thank you. I thought it best to hang back for a few moments while you spoke with the others—

“Probably a good idea.”

He hesitated. He let the towel drop from his face, staring at himself in the mirror. His eyes glowed back at him, one orange, one green, as they tended to do when he was speaking with Yubel and her presence became more prominent. He could feel her scales and claws crawling just below his skin, her wings shifting in his back, the memory of fangs in his mouth. All it took was a touch of his mind to let that half of him that was her become more prominent, to turn himself from the ordinary human in the mirror to a half-demon. Sometimes, he wondered if his form with Yubel's more clear presence was his real form, and this human form was just a shell that he used to hide it. It wouldn't be surprising. They had, of course, fused completely. They were less a pair of souls and more a singular entity…it was something he was still wrapping his mind around.

“Yubel,” he said. “Do you…do you remember what happened? How did we get here?”

It was a desperate hope—and it fell through, as he had expected. He could feel her uncertainty filter through him, affecting his own state of mind, making him feel more uneasy.

—I…I do not know. I have no more memories than you do. I remember returning to the D-Wheeler with Fudo Yusei. I do not remember re-entering the time stream, and I do not remember returning to our own time. There is…a blank. Just a period of darkness—

“That's what I was afraid of,” Judai muttered.

For a moment, their emotions swirled together as one in their shared mind. Uneasiness…uncertainty.

—Something is wrong. That much I know—

“Yeah. You and me both.”

—And…and I know one other thing—

Judai hesitated. He already knew what she was going to say, they shared the same thought almost at the same time. But he still asked anyway.

“What is that?”

Yubel hesitated. She didn't want to say it any more than Judai wanted to acknowledge it.

—We came back for Yusei. Because Yusei…is in so much danger—

Judai swallowed.

Yeah.

He had known that much too.

Chapter Text

Yusei woke up with a bad taste in his mouth. For a moment, his brain was fuzzy and his vision was blurry, like sleep was trying to drag him back down. He couldn't go back to sleep, though, he had a job to do today over in the Tops and he needed to get ready to go ahead.

He blinked through the blur, groaning slightly as he fumbled for his phone to check the time. The grogginess was taking much longer to clear than usual. As though he had had some odd dream that refused to release his hold on him. He rarely remembered his dreams, though, so he couldn't remember what nighttime hallucination was causing this ridiculous grogginess.

Finally, the blur faded from his eyes, and his fingers wrapped around his phone. He sat up in bed, blinking a few more times.

Oh. It was only five in the morning. Dammit. He easily could have slept for another hour or so. Now that he was awake, though, he knew he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. He sighed, letting his head drop to his chest for a moment. Still so tired. But he had troubles sleeping in the first place. Once he was up and awake…that was it.

He sat there for a few moments, just listening to the quiet of the house. Crow was snoring in his bed just a few feet away, practically falling off the bed with his head hanging off the side. Yusei had to smile at that. Crow could sleep through anything, and in any position. Yusei kind of envied him. Jack slept just about as fitfully as Yusei did; Yusei often heard him tossing and turning and swearing under his breath in the night. Right now, however, he was fast asleep, his breaths soft and calm. It wasn't often that his face looked so peaceful. It almost looked wrong, to not have that constant disgruntled look on his face.

Yusei smiled slightly at his two friends. Bruno was sleeping on the pull out couch downstairs, and it would probably be a few hours before he woke up. Of all of them, Bruno slept the best. Didn't even seem to have to try to fall asleep, and he always seemed to sleep the exact same amount of time, like clockwork. He wouldn't be up until seven thirty. And Judai was in the guest room; Zora had been kind enough to let them use the extra room, even though they weren't technically paying enough rent to cover it. She was a very kind lady, Yusei thought. They had gotten quite lucky to have a landlord as welcoming as her, especially when two of the boys in her house bore criminal markers and nearly blew up the garage every day with their engine work.

Well. He might as well go get a shower taken care of. And then probably some coffee…he was going to need it.

Yusei pushed off the bed, careful not to let it squeak too much. Crow might sleep through it, but Jack so rarely slept so peacefully, and Yusei was loathe to wake him up. He walked softly out of the room towards the bathroom.

The cold shower helped him wake up. He stood under the spray for perhaps a bit longer than was necessary. Even now, six months later, he still treasured the novelty of having access to a shower. In Satellite, you were lucky to get sprayed off during a rain shower. Martha had drawn up water from the harbor and boiled it for hours before she deemed it safe enough to use for cleaning kids, and even then, it had just been mostly a wipe down with the cleanest clothes Martha could find. The smell had often been pretty intense.

He finally turned off the water and stepped out to towel off, reaching for his pants and jacket as he did so. He was still rubbing down his hair as he walked down the stars towards the kitchenette.

He was surprised to find that the light was already on.

“…Judai?”

Judai jumped a little, making his chair bounce. He grimaced and caught the offending piece of furniture before it made more noise, eyes flicking towards where Bruno was asleep on the pull out couch.

“Don't worry. He'll sleep through an earthquake,” Yusei said, smiling reassuringly. “Are you okay?”

Judai looked like he hadn't slept a wink. There were dark bags under his glazed brown eyes, and there was a sluggish hint to his movements, as Yusei noted in the markedly slow way that he had reacted to the moving chair.

“Yeah, I'm fine,” he said. “I didn't…wake you up, did I?”

“I didn't even know you were awake. So no.”

He frowned, looking over the other boy.

Judai was not quite as tall as Yusei, and Yusei had a hard time placing his age. He couldn't be any older than…seventeen? Eighteen? Yusei himself had just turned nineteen fairly recently, and there was no way Judai could be older than that. His two-toned brown hair was a mess of bedhead currently, the normal flip in the back kind of sagging. He had a lot of cowlicks sticking up all over the place, and besides the dark circles, his dark eyes seemed somehow more dead than they should be, as though he were half asleep right there.

“Are you sure you're okay?” Yusei asked. “I hate to say it…but you don't look very good. Did you not sleep well? The bed wasn't uncomfortable, I hope.”

“No, no, that's not it, definitely not,” Judai said quickly. “Bed was great. More comfortable than where I'm used to sleeping, to be honest. Normally, I sleep in buses…or under bridges.”

He half laughed at that, but it was a hollow sound. A hasty attempt to inject humor into the situation and deflect other questions. It wasn't going to work on Yusei. He frowned.

“Judai. I don't want you to feel like you can't talk to me. I know…I know we don't know each other very well, yet, but I think of you as my friend. We fought together, and now, you're staying with us…I want you to be comfortable. Is there anything I can do? Are you all right?”

Judai hesitated. Yusei kept his gaze on Judai's, although Judai kept dropping his eyes.

“It wasn't anything you did,” Judai said, finally. “I just…I don't sleep well. That's all. I have…a lot of nightmares.”

He let his gaze slide away to the wall then. Yusei nodded. He wouldn't press. Not now.

“I'm sorry to hear that,” he said. “That must be hard.”

Judai shrugged.

“You get used to it,” he said, quietly.

Yusei frowned. He didn't like the sound of resignation in Judai's voice. Where was that cheerful, confident Judai that he had met before? Or had that been the real Judai? Which one was…the default, he supposed?

It occurred to him then that he really didn't know anything about Judai at all. They had only met once before.

“Well…can I make you some coffee?”

“I don't wanna bother you…”

“Judai. Really.”

Judai blushed a little.

“Sure. Thanks. But only if you were going to make some yourself.”

“I was,” Yusei said, walking over to the coffee machine with an exasperated smile, “but I would have made you some anyway if I wasn't.”

A silence fell over them as the coffee machine began to percolate. Nothing but the bubble of the machine, and the slight creaking of the couch when Bruno shifted, made a noise between them.

“So,” Judai said hesitantly. “How long have you lived here?”

“About six months,” Yusei said. “We're renting…you met Zora last night when we asked about the room. Remember her?”

Judai nodded. It had been a rather brief exchange, as it had been getting late. Zora had been charmed by Judai's politeness, so that had probably been why it had gone so smoothly.

“Have you and the others been together long, then?”

Yusei smiled slightly.

“For the most part…yes. Bruno moved in with us just a few days ago, at the request of some friends of ours…he has amnesia, and he's staying here helping me with the engine program until he can figure out where he came from.”

Judai nodded, glancing over at the sleeping young man.

“Jack and Crow and I…we've been together much longer,” Yusei said.

He pushed a mug under the coffee machine and let it fill up. He placed it on the counter.

“Do you put anything in it?”

“Nah. Not usually.”

Yusei nodded as his own mug filled up, and then he took both mugs and came over to the table, handing Judai his mug across the table before sitting down himself. Judai accepted the mug with a smile.

Yusei took another sip before he thought about continuing his story.

“The three of us grew up in Satellite,” he said.

“Is that a town?”

Right, Yusei thought. Judai wouldn't know. He came from an entirely different time, a different era. One where Satellite didn't exist. For a moment, Yusei almost envied him, but the feeling passed.

“It's…it was a ghetto,” he said softly. “It broke off from the City during a really big…disaster. People there weren't considered citizens, and we weren't allowed to leave.”

Judai's fingers tightened slightly on his mug. It was almost imperceptible, but Yusei noted it.

“That's ridiculous,” he said, looking up at Yusei. “How did something like that…”

He stopped, and shook his head.

“Forget I asked. Humans are stupid, that's the answer,” he said. “I'm sorry. I hope I didn't…bring up any bad memories.”

Yusei shrugged. He didn't really harbor any bad feelings about his days in Satellite. Terrible they had been, yes, but there had been plenty of spots of light. And he had grown up there so it wasn't like he had anything to compare it to, really.

“It's fine,” he said. “I don't mind. It's connected to the City, now. And we can all be citizens now…”

He scratched at his marker, a habit that he should probably try to break. It had an odd, smooth feeling, like it was made up of a tiny batch of circuits imprinted on his skin. Which, technically, it was.

“So…you guys grew up together?” Judai said. “Guess that explains why you all seem so close.”

Yusei smiled. Judai seemed to have picked up on that pretty easily. He must be good at reading people.

“Yeah. It certainly wasn't boring with those two around…”

He hesitated. There had been major rough spots with all of them…but, he didn't want to get into it right now.

“What about you?” Yusei asked, setting his mug down. “Tell me…more about your time.”

Judai cocked his head.

“Kinda broad question there…anything in particular you want me to say about it?”

Yusei laughed softly.

“Well, where do you live, in your time? Who do you stay with? Did you say recently that you sleep under bridges?”

Judai had to laugh at that.

“Yeah, well, it's drier under there when it rains,” he said, good-naturedly. “You could call me a transient, I guess. I don't stay in one place for too long.”

He sipped at his coffee.

“After I graduated, I just kinda…took off. Headed out to see what I could find. Left off in Venice, as I'm sure you remember.”

That brought a wry smile to Yusei's face.

“Yes, and I think I recall it dissolving into nonexistence during my last visit,” he said. “How did you end up in Venice, though? You're from Japan, aren't you?”

“Yeah. I might've stowed away on a ship to get to the mainland. Don't make much money wandering, you know? And then I hitchhiked my way across to Europe. Was planning on heading up towards Finland after Venice…friend of mine lives up there.”

It was something Yusei could barely imagine. Just…jumping from place to place, without thinking too hard about where he was going next. Before, he had expected to live his entire life out in Satellite. Now, he was tied up with his mechanic work and preparing for the WRGP. For a moment, his mind wandered to the possibility of seeing what was outside the City. What was out there that he could go and explore someday?

“It sounds amazing,” he said, quietly.

Judai shrugged.

“It has its moments,” he said. “Don't recommend sleeping on the ground too often, though. Puts such a crick in your back.”

He laughed a little at that, and cracked his back for effect. Yusei smiled into his mug as he gulped down the last drops of coffee, which had gotten a bit cold. Well…they had been talking for quite a while, hadn't they?

He checked the clock and was surprised to find that it was almost six thirty. He had told the manager of Tops that he would be there at seven fifteen. He should get his stuff together.

“I'm going to have to go do some work,” he said, standing up and taking the empty mugs away.

“Oh, cool. What do you do?”

“I'm a mechanic…I fix machines. Today I need to work with some air conditioning.”

Judai let out a low whistle.

“That's pretty cool. Never was really good with wires and things. How long you gonna be gone?”

“Hmmm…could be a few hours.”

He rinsed the mugs and left them in the sink. He thought briefly about grabbing something to eat, but couldn't stomach the thought of eating so early, so decided against it. He would grab lunch on the way home. He thought then that he should probably explain what the usual plan was for the day to Judai—he was from an entirely different time period, and Yusei hated to leave him alone right now, but there was nothing he could do. He had to hope that Judai would be okay with taking care of himself for a while.

“Crow has a job with a delivery service, and he'll be leaving at around eight. He probably won't be awake until fifteen minutes before, though, and will be rushing around. Bruno usually gets up at seven thirty and will probably make some breakfast, if you're hungry. Then he tends to spend most of the day working on the engine program.”

“Sounds good. What about Atlas-san?”

Yusei had to smile at Judai's awkward formality.

“Jack doesn't have a job, unfortunately. He'll probably leave at around nine anyway. I have no idea what he does with his time, to be honest. I'll definitely be back by one, though…you're welcome to anything in the fridge, and of course if you want to explore the City at all, go ahead.”

Judai nodded. It was obvious in his expression that he had been thinking about the possibility.

“Oh,” Judai said. “Do you have a phone? I checked mine; apparently it still works in this time period. Can I get your number in case I get lost?”

Yusei nodded; it was a good idea. Judai slid his phone across the table, and Yusei traded him. They plugged each other's numbers in and then gave each other's phones back.

“Cool,” Judai said. “I probably won't be out long, though…cities wear on me quickly.”

“I put Crow's and Bruno's numbers in there too…in case you can't get a hold of me for some reason.”

“Thanks.”

Judai glanced down at the phone for a few moments. He frowned slightly, but it faded as he tucked the phone away in his jacket. Yusei checked the time again—he should probably get going.

“I'll be back as soon as I can,” he said.

Judai shrugged.

“Don't rush yourself…it's fine. Thanks for worrying about me—I know that's why you're saying that, but I promise, I'm not gonna get too mixed up, even if this is a whole other time for me. I'll be fine. It's okay.”

Yusei felt a blush creep across his cheeks for a moment. He had been a little too over-worried, hadn't he?

“Well, I'll still come back as soon as I can,” he said. “And then we can try to figure out what brought you here.”

“Sounds good. Have fun with your job.”

Yusei smiled, nodded once, and then walked across to his D-Wheel. He popped his helmet on and mounted, glancing one more time at Judai to wave before he revved the engine. Judai waved back, and Yusei opened the garage, zipping out into the warm summer morning.

. . .

So now, Judai had an entire morning to himself…and he had no idea what to do with it.

Things had played out just as Yusei had informed him they would. Bruno woke up at exactly seven thirty, made a huge pan of scrambled eggs that he practically forced on Judai, and then retreated to his computer to do something with coding, muttering strings of numbers to himself and rubbing his temples. Crow had burst down the stairs at a quarter to eight, still pulling on his work jacket, grabbing a literal handful of eggs out of the cooling pan and shoving them into his mouth before running to his D-Wheel and zooming off. And Jack had stalked down the stairs ten minutes later, grunted in response to Judai's good morning, and then sniffed suspiciously at the eggs before ignoring them and going for his own D-Wheel, fastening on his helmet and leaving to do who knows what.

So Judai was sitting alone at the kitchen table, literally twiddling his thumbs.

Although he had told Yusei he was going to go out into the City, all of a sudden, the idea didn't seem so appealing to him. While he was in the house, he could pretend that he hadn't jumped times, and he could go back to his travel whenever he decided to. Going out into that futuristic city would just solidify the idea that he had been teleported well out of his league into something way out of his comfort zone.

Besides…he didn't really get along with cities, generally. There were just too many people. There was a reason he usually stuck to back roads and wilderness during his travels, avoiding highways and large settlements. After he had had his third panic attack in a populated area, he had just…not wanted to do it again. He hated the looks on people's faces when he came out of the attack—pity, concern, worry, or even distaste from a select few who probably thought he was making it up for attention. As if. If he could go the rest of his life without another panic attack it would be too soon. And besides. He hated attention.

He sighed, letting his head drop into his hands for a moment.

Before Paradox had attacked Venice, he had been texting Asuka. He wondered if he had just disappeared for her. Or if he would jump back to his own time and get the next message as though nothing had happened. He couldn't even remember what they had been talking about, to be honest. This would be a fun story to tell her later.

If there was a later.

He frowned to himself. Bringing out his phone to get the numbers had been a smart idea, but it had just reminded him of all the contacts in that phone that he wasn't sure he'd be able to contact again. He almost took it out again just to scroll through the names…but that would be a bad idea, he decided. He didn't need to work himself up more than necessary. Besides, he didn't mind staying here with Yusei and the others. He had kinda wanted a chance to get to know him better anyway, without a psychopath threatening to shatter all of existence.

Yeah. He just needed to distract himself. Do something. Maybe he would go out and see the city. Travel was something he enjoyed, after all. Walking would do him some good.

He was just standing up from the table when the door practically slammed open.

“Yusei, Yusei, Yusei, Yusei!! You'll never guess what card I just pulled!!!!”

A small blur rushed down the stairs two at a time, and then promptly tripped on the last one and went somersaulting a few feet across the floor.

“Aaaugh!”

“Lua!! What have I told you about running down the stairs?”

Judai blinked. At the top of the stairs stood a small girl, probably no older than twelve, thirteen. Her green hair was gathered up in neat pigtails, one hand pressing into the fabric of her yellow blouse over her heart, the other one gripping a hunk of the dark red fabric of her shirt. At the bottom of the stairs, picking himself up slowly, was a young boy with the same color hair, although his was pulled into a ponytail. He winced as he rubbed the back of his neck, his open jacket all rumpled from the fall.

“Oh, Lua,” said another voice, as a second figure stepped into the doorway behind the girl.

She was a tall, curvy young woman, her deep maroon bangs rolled up with a hair clip in front, the rest of the short strands loose above her shoulders. She slipped around the little girl and hurried down the stairs, kneeling by the other boy and checking him over with a careful eye, frowning.

“You need to slow down,” she said, shaking her head. “You're going to really hurt yourself one of these days. What if you had fallen at the top?”

“Sorry, Aki-nee,” the boy said, blushing. “I was just really excited to show Yusei this card…”

The boy looked up then, glancing around.

“Yusei?” he called again. “Where are…huh? Who are you? And what are you doing in here?”

He had finally noticed Judai. Judai raised a hand awkwardly.

“Um. Hey,” he said. “I'm Judai. Yuki Judai.”

A brief, uncertain silence fell between them. Thankfully, Bruno stirred out of his computer reverie for a moment long enough to notice the other three.

“Oh, good morning, everyone,” Bruno said, blinking a bit groggily from having been staring at the computer all morning. “How are you?”

“Bruno, who's this?” the boy said loudly as he scrambled to his feet. “Is he supposed to be here?”

“Lua, don't be rude!” the little girl that had to be his sister said. She had come down the stairs by now, and she put her hands on her hips with irritation, glaring at her brother.

“Hm? Oh, right,” Bruno said.

He spun around in his chair.

“Everyone, this is Yuki Judai-san. Yuki-san, this is Izayoi Aki-san, and Lua-san and Luka-san.”

“Hey there,” Judai said, still feeling a bit awkward.

“Judai…?” Aki said, cocking her head for a moment. “Oh! That name…Yusei said he fought Paradox with someone by that name…”

She frowned, looking uncertain.

“But…aren't you…?”

“From another time? Yeah…funny story…I have no idea how I got here.”

He laughed slightly, but it was an incredibly awkward sound, a futile attempt to lighten the sudden anxiety pressing down in his chest. He was not ready to meet people right now, not without a better buffer.

Luckily, Aki seemed to note his distress, and smiled gently.

“I'm pleased to meet you, Yuki-san,” she said, bowing. “I've heard of you from Yusei. You're an incredible duelist, I've heard.”

“I'm…not bad. Thanks.”

“You duel??” Lua said, eyes brightening. “Wow! We should have a duel sometime!! If you fought Paradox with Yusei, you must be really strong! What kind of deck do you use? Oh, oh, do they have D-Wheels in the past? Can you ride one?”

“Lua! You're going to overwhelm him!” Luka said. She sighed before turning towards Judai. “I’m sorry about him…he's kind of hyper today.”

But Judai just smiled, a real one this time. Lua's cheer was kind of refreshing, to be honest. It put him at ease now that there wasn't that awkward, almost accusatory silence.

“I guess I'm pretty strong,” he said, in answer to Lua's question. “And yeah, sure, we can duel sometime. I use Elemental Heroes…are those still popular anymore?”

“I've never heard of 'em,” Lua said, thinking for a moment. “But they sound awesome!! I use Morphtronics! Did they have those back then? Oh, what about D-Wheels?”

“Nope, no D-Wheels,” Judai said. “Not yet, anyway. And I've never heard of Morphtronics, but I suppose they could exist. I don't know every card.”

Lua looked like he was ready to burst with more questions, but Judai was suddenly distracted by something small and fuzzy popping into existence behind Luka's head.

“Kurriiiiii~” it purred, jumping onto Luka's shoulder and twitching its ribboned tail.

Judai was used to seeing spirits pop up now and again, but what he was not used to was people noticing them. Luka turned and smiled at the little puffball, reaching up to pet it for a moment. It half closed its eyes and hummed, not unlike the way Winged Kuriboh would when it got pet.

“You have a little friend there, I see,” Judai said, sparking with interest.

Luka blinked. She turned towards Judai, eyes widening.

“You…you can see Kuribon?” she said.

“Yup,” Judai said. “In fact, I think I have one hiding around here somewhere…oy, aibou, you around?”

He heard the telltale hum of his little winged friend from his deck box. Then, Winged Kuriboh popped into existence, fluttering up near Judai's head.

“Kuriiii!” it said.

“Kurikuri,” Kuribon replied.

Luka's Kuribon hopped off her shoulder and zipped over towards Winged Kuriboh with curiosity. They circled each other in the air for a few moments, and then Winged Kuriboh pushed Kuribon playfully, and they started to chase each other around the room with little squeaks. Luka giggled at the sight. Lua looked around with wide eyes.

“What? What? There's another spirit here?? Aw, man, Luka, why'd you have to get all the cool powers!”

Judai laughed softly.

“How long have you been able to see spirits?” he asked Luka.

“Since I was little…almost as long as I can remember,” Luka said.

Her eyes brightened, her whole body seemed to light up with excitement.

“I've…I've never met anyone else who could see them before,” she said, suddenly shy, her head ducking down.

“It's not a very common ability, that's for sure…but I've met a few. I actually travel a lot, looking for others that have powers, you know…so that they don't have to think they're alone anymore.”

Aki started a bit at that. She looked at Judai with a new interest, hazel eyes curious.

Kuribon zoomed back to Luka's arms, burying itself in her chest. She giggled, hugging it close as Winged Kuriboh zipped over and hovered by Luka's head, eyes shining with curiosity. Judai chuckled. It was good to see Winged Kuriboh so excitable.

“So you're from the past?” said Aki. “And you don't know how you got here?”

Judai grimaced.

“I wish I did. My mind's a clean slate when it comes to that part. Just a big blank…”

“So you're going to stay with Yusei then?” Lua said, looking very excited by the idea. “We so have to have a duel soon! And oooh, maybe Yusei can teach you how to D-Wheel, like he taught Aki-san!”

Aki flushed a bit for a moment, shaking her head with an awkward smile. Judai noted the expression with a bit of confusion, but didn't ask.

“I don't know about that…sounds like it might be fun, but I'm kinda used to dueling with my feet on the ground.”

“But Acceleration Duels are so coooooool!” Lua said.

Judai just had to smile. He couldn't help it. Lua's cheer was infectious.

And then he noticed something. Something…odd.

He frowned slightly. There seemed to be a kind of haze hovering around the three of them. Something like…an aura? Judai hesitated. He didn't like to switch to his aura vision because it made his eyes glow like Yubel's, and it sometimes freaked people out. But it was really starting to annoy him—what was that haze?

He gave in, switching for just a brief second, so that maybe the flicker of his eye color could be blamed on the light.

He almost flinched. There was power surrounding the three of them, power unlike anything he'd seen in—years.

“Yuki-san? Are you all right?” Aki asked.

Judai managed a smile.

“I'm fine. You can call me Judai, too, by the way…”

He hesitated.

“I hope you don't mind me asking…but the rest of you have powers, too, right? I can kind of…sense something around you.”

It was hot, was what it was. A hot, pulsing presence, the impression of the color red surrounding them. It seemed to be centered on their left arms, a presence that pulsed. In Lua's case, it seemed…muted, faint, but with Lua and Aki it was really strong, a radiating heat that he was only just beginning to notice now that he had seen the red aura around them.

“Huh? I don't have any powers,” Lua said. “Aki-nee does, though! She's a psychic duelist!”

“Psychic…duelist?”

Aki ducked her head.

“It…it means that I can make the monsters real when I duel,” she muttered. “Those…don't exist in your time?”

“Oh…they definitely do, actually. I can do that myself.”

Her eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly.

“R-really?”

“Yeah…took me a while to figure out how to do it, but yeah. I was a late bloomer on that front.”

She looked both shocked and relieved, as though she had thought Judai might react differently to the revelation. He flashed her a reassuring smile, hoping that would make her feel better. Maybe her powers had gotten her into trouble as a kid—he knew the feeling.

“But that's not exactly what I mean…there's some other kind of…presence around you guys.”

He rubbed his chin, frowning.

“Like…something big, and red. Something ancient.”

Luka perked up.

“Oh!” she said. “You can sense the Crimson Dragon?”

“The…the what?”

“The Crimson Dragon!” Lua said, jumping up. “Aki-nee and Luka are Signers, like Crow and Jack and Yusei! They have the marks of the Crimson Dragon and they can use it to fight the bad guys! Look!”

He grabbed Luka's arm and pushed her sleeve up, ignoring her spluttered protests. Judai blinked at the strange mark that seemed to be imprinted on the girl's skin. It was a dark maroon, in the vague shape of…a claw? Luka snatched her arm back and pulled her sleeve back down, blushing and glaring at her brother.

“Ask before you grab me,” she muttered.

Judai considered the warm aura again for a brief moment. But if Aki and Luka were Signers, and Lua wasn't…why did he sense the same aura around Lua? Maybe it was just powerful enough that it looked like it was surrounding him?

“So…what's a Signer?” he said, curiously.

It was, apparently, the right thing to say, because Lua completely lit up.

“You haven't heard about the Signers yet?? Oh, wow, it's a really awesome story! Can I tell it, Luka, can I tell it?”

“As long as you don't embellish things,” she muttered, still looking miffed about the sleeve pulling thing.

“Maybe we should sit down,” Aki said, pushing Lua towards the couch, sending Judai a somewhat exasperated smile. Judai smiled back, following the group to the couch.

Well. Maybe this morning wouldn't be as dragging and boring as he had thought it would be.

Chapter Text

Yusei came back to hear laughter echoing through the house. He blinked with surprise at the sight of a full group of people sitting around the kitchen table.

“Did you really punch him??” Lua said, eyes wide.

“Of course I punched him; he was an ass,” said Judai. He was grinning, eyes sparkling with the look of someone telling a great story.

“But he didn't he get mad? Didn't you get in trouble? He was a politician!”

“And he was an ass,” Judai said. “Yeah, he blustered a bit at me, but he was all bark, to be honest. After that, he stopped messing with trying to develop the mountain. Trust me, if he had kept it up he would have ended up much worse off than me punching him.”

Judai sat at the far end of the table, cross-legged on his chair. The fatigue of the morning seemed to have worn off, as he was all cheer and smiles now. Lua sat to his right, leaning against the table with wide, attentive eyes. Luka was sitting back in her chair across from her brother, looking a bit miffed but otherwise smiling. Aki sat beside Luka, a bemused smile on her face, shaking her head slightly. Bruno was on the opposite end of the table, and he was just standing up to clear plates away when he saw Yusei.

“Oh! Welcome back, Yusei,” Bruno said. “There's still some curry left; are you hungry?”

“I'm fine, thank you, Bruno,” Yusei said. “I picked something on the way back.”

Lua popped upwards at the sound of Yusei's name.

“Yusei!” he said.

He leaped from the table and zoomed across the room.

“Welcome back! How are you? What kind of job did you have to do today? Oh, oh, did you know that Judai once punched a senator in the face? Did he tell you that story? How long is Judai going to be staying?”

“Slow down, Lua,” Yusei said, laughing. “I'm fine. I was fixing the air conditioning at the Tops, so you're welcome for that. And no, I didn't hear this story. I don't know how long he'll be staying.”

He smiled over the top of Lua's head to Judai, who grinned back.

“Although I'm glad to see that you're all getting along. I'm sorry I wasn't here to introduce you.”

Judai shrugged.

“No big deal. We managed.”

He grinned at Luka, who smiled shyly back.

“I didn't know you had friends that could see spirits and stuff,” said Judai. “And I heard all about the Signer stuff from Lua and the others. Sounds like you've been having a pretty crazy year.”

“That's an understatement,” Yusei said, smiling wryly.

He dropped off his tool box in the corner and stripped off his gloves. They were covered in grease and grime, and he was sure his face was a mess too.

“I'm going to wash up a bit,” he said. “I'll be right back.”

“Take your time,” Aki said with a smile. “I think we can hold down things here for a little longer.”

He sent her a grateful smile as he climbed the stairs up to the bathroom. It was a glorious feeling to get all of the grime off his face and hands, and he felt like a new person when he came back down into the kitchen, throwing on a clean jacket. Judai was still telling stories—this one, it sounded was about him in the Duel Spirit world. Did Judai have that ability? He knew that Luka had traveled there several times but it had almost never been on purpose.

“You mean the Kuriboh have a government?” Luka said, her eyes shining with interest. “Kuribon never told me that!”

“I wouldn't really call it a government,” Judai said with a laugh. “They're more loose than most other Shadow People, and they're practically everywhere in every dimension so it's hard to have a central leader. But that's mostly because they're so peaceful; they don't really need anyone to take care of 'em, you know? They have like…a rotating trio of leaders. Changes every month. Or whenever they get bored. But they're only job is really to organize celebrations. Kuriboh really like parties. They'll celebrate just about anything.”

“That sounds like fun!” Lua said. “I want to go to a Kuriboh party.”

“What exactly does a Kuriboh party entail?” Yusei asked with a smile.

He took a seat across the table from Judai, who flashed him a grin.

“Food, mostly,” Judai said. “They really like berries—nothing like what we have here, of course, although a couple of 'em like to sneak strawberries into their dimension. They make tea out of it. It's actually kind of intoxicating, so not for you kiddos.”

He ruffled Lua's hair as he said this, and Lua laughed. Yusei felt a warmth in his chest. Judai was good with the kids. That was something that he always admired in other people; an ability to get along well with children. He was really glad that Judai was getting along with the twins so well.

“And lots of bouncing around, too,” Judai said. “They call it dancing, but I don't think that bobbing in circles can really be called dancing—otherwise, we'd have to call my swaying from side to side dancing too.”

“Dancing and intoxicating beverages? Sounds like a human party,” Aki said.

“I guess it is. But have you ever seen a drunk Kuriboh? Far more hilarious.”

Yusei tried to imagine it and failed miserably. Still, it was a very funny thought.

“So you can travel to the spirit world?” Yusei asked.

“Yeah. It's a tricky thing to learn, and definitely a bit dangerous if you're not careful.”

He glanced pointedly at Luka, who blushed.

“I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have to…”

Judai grinned, and ruffled her hair too, more gently than he did with her brother.

“It's cool. Usually, kids like you can't really help it. Especially since for the most part you've just been doing astral projection, and not full dimension hopping. Still, let me make sure you're not gonna ruin your DNA before you try again.”

“I will!”

“She told you about her powers, then?” said Yusei.

“Yeah. Kinda figured it out when I saw Kuribon hanging around.”

Yusei blinked. So Judai could see spirits too? What couldn't Judai's powers do?

“He's a psychic duelist, too, he said,” Aki said, and Yusei was pleased to see that her eyes were shining with excitement too. “He said he can help me learn to channel it better.”

“That's great!” Yusei said.

Judai grinned.

“Seems like I'm booking myself out while I'm here,” he said, not looking in the slightest perturbed by the fact.

“Only if it's not too much trouble,” Aki said, quickly.

“No worries, Aki-san. This is basically what I do with my life. Travel around, meet kids with powers like mine, try to help 'em out. It's no different than what I would normally be doing.”

He frowned a bit though.

“Although…you know, we're only thirty years into my future. I know a friend of mine, Johan, was starting up a school for kids like us. I wonder what happened to that?”

“Johan?” Aki said, eyes widening. “You knew Johan Andersen?”

Judai's expression slipped slightly.

“…knew?” he said. “Past tense?”

For a brief moment, the mood seemed to darken a bit. Aki, however, quickly waved her hands.

“Oh, I'm sorry, that must have sounded bad!” she said. “Johan Andersen is definitely still around…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you.”

Judai relaxed then, his shoulders slumping slightly.

“But you know him, then?” he said, looking a bit brighter.

“Only by hearsay,” Aki admitted. “He's a pretty big name in Eastern Europe…he did make a school for psychic duelists. He was a very outspoken opponent to the Arcadia Movement.”

“That was a psychic duelist group in the city,” Lua piped up. “The guy in charge was trying to make psychic duelists into soldiers secretly.”

“Lua!” said Luka, looking quickly over at Aki.

Yusei frowned as he, too glanced at Aki. She had flinched a bit at Lua's comment, but she steeled her expression. Judai frowned a bit—Yusei wondered just how much Judai was picking up on from Aki's reaction. To his credit, however, Judai didn't push it.

“But he's doing okay, then?” Judai said. “That's great. And he made the school! Damn.”

He grinned.

“I wonder what the others are up to,” he said. “Asuka, Shou, Manjoume, and everyone.”

“Oh! You don't mean Tenjoin Asuka, do you?” Luka said, brightening. “She's Aki-nee's teacher, right?”

“She's a Duel Academy teacher?” Judai said, eyes brightening with excitement.

“She is; she teaches fusion summoning and math,” said Aki. “She's also my homeroom teacher—you knew her?”

Judai's smile was so wide that it looked like his face might split all the way open.

“Did I! She was one of the top students. Always on my case about schoolwork!”

He laughed—it was a really nice sound, Yusei thought, a mixture of bells and joy that sent a light tingle down his arms.

“What about Marufuji Shou? Or Manjoume Jun? Have you heard of them?”

“Marufuji?” Yusei said, blinking with surprise. “Yeah, I know that name…that's a really big name dueling league in Tokyo. Run by a pair of brothers, right?”

“Oh! Oh! I remember that one, I watched the finals last week!” Lua said, bouncing in his chair. “Manjoume Jun's still the champion of that one!”

“Manjoume's working with Shou's tournament?” Judai said. “Man! That guy…but champion!”

He leaned back in his chair, smiling up at the ceiling for a moment.

“I wonder if it's bad that I'm finding out about all this,” he said, laughing softly. “Hope I don't mess anything up when I go back.”

“As long as you don't go around telling people what happens,” said Yusei.

“True.”

A companionable silence fell over the group for a moment. Bruno glanced down at his watch.

“Oh, right,” he said. “Yusei, we were supposed to go to the Public Maintenance Bureau to meet with Ushio-san and Mikage-san, weren't we?”

Yusei looked up at the clock, shocked at how late it had gotten already.

“Right,” he said, standing up, his chair screeching slightly across the floor. He felt a bit disappointed; listening to Judai talk had been more than fascinating.

“Sorry I have to go again,” he said. “We'll be back in an hour or two.”

“No worries; take your time,” said Judai, flashing Yusei a smile.

Yusei smiled back, feeling an odd warmth bloom in his chest for a moment at Judai's expression. Their eyes actually held for a moment longer than was probably necessary—and then Lua leapt in, grabbing Judai's arm.

“Judai, Judai, Judai,” he said, shaking him a little with excitement. “So you knew Manjoume Jun?? Was he always so cool?”

“Oh boy, are you in for a story,” said Judai with a wide grin.

Yusei smiled again as he went for his keys, Bruno at his heels.

“Judai seems very nice,” Bruno said as they walked for their D-Wheels.

“Yeah,” said Yusei.

He glanced over his shoulder at the laughing boy in his red jacket, grinning and ruffling Lua's hair, leaning over towards Luka to nod and smile at her, the way that he sometimes threw his head back to let out big laugh.

“Yeah,” said Yusei again. “He really is.”

. . .

The meeting went by quickly and smoothly. Since Bruno still didn't remember much more about his past, and Mikage and Ushio hadn't been able to turn up anything about him in the database, there wasn't much to talk about.

Bruno was quiet as usual as they rode down the elevator. It seemed…a deeper silence than usual, though. Yusei put a hand on his shoulder.

“You okay?” he asked quietly.

Bruno just nodded.

“We'll definitely find where you came from.”

The blue haired man half smiled, but he still looked a bit distressed. Yusei squeezed his shoulder and then let his hand fall back to his side.

That was when something exploded.

The whole elevator rocked, and the lights went out. Bruno yelped. Yusei whipped around to face the door as the elevator creaked to a stop, shut down in emergency mode. That was when the voice crackled out through the PA system.

“All persons evacuate. There is a bomb threat. I repeat, there has been a bomb threat. All persons evacuate Security immediately.”

“A b-bomb??” Bruno said, eyes wide.

Shit, Yusei thought.

He smacked at a few of the elevator buttons, trying to open the door. The doors creaked a bit, but did not open. He swore again under his breath, going for his miniature tool kit in his jacket, flipping out a screwdriver. In a few seconds, he had the panel beneath the button removed, and went at the wires with a vengeance.

About a minute later, the doors were sliding half open, and Yusei pushed Bruno through before slipping out through the crack himself.

All of the lights were out and the halls empty. Yusei swore mentally once again. How long did they have?

“Go for the stairs,” he said, pushing Bruno forward. “We'll—”

It was then that he saw a pair of shadows running down for the stairs ahead of them. One was a slender shadow with long hair fluttering behind them—the other, a tall, hulking figure with thick arms.

Yusei recognized them the second after they disappeared.

“Sherry and Mizoguchi?”

“What?” Bruno said.

Yusei was already bolting after them. Bruno yelped as he scrambled to catch up.

“Y-Yusei! What about the bomb?!”

“We have to warn Sherry and Mizoguchi too,” Yusei called back, although, in the back of his mind, he wondered what they were doing here at all.

He had a feeling whatever the reason, it wasn't just a friendly visit.

Yusei took the stairs two at a time, just behind the glimpse of Sherry's hair disappearing around a corner.

A strange buzzing sound had started at the back of his brain. Like…like static. It was getting stronger the further down they went. His throat was growing dry and his vision just the barest bit hazy. As though he were running towards…something. Something that grated at him, something that unnerved him.

Martha used to talk about the feeling of someone walking over your grave, he thought. So why do I feel like someone is doing that now?

. . .

Aki, Luka, and Lua had to leave themselves a bit less than an hour later—Aki had cram school, and Luka and Lua were supposed to meet their friends. Lua begged Judai to come along, but at that point, Judai was starting to get tired of social interaction, so he politely declined and promised him another time.

Cute kids, he thought, collapsing into the couch. Very enthusiastic.

He couldn't deny the excitement in his chest at the fact that Luka and Aki had the kinds of powers that he was always looking for. He was a little upset that even thirty years in the future, even the efforts of Johan and even himself hadn't been enough to change the climate of distrust between normal people and people with powers, but he couldn't expect too much from it.

Yusei and Bruno should be back soon.

It was the first time since he had arrived in this time period that he was totally alone, he realized. Well, not totally alone. Yubel shifted silently in his brain, sharing his thoughts. But alone in a physical sense. The house felt quiet, and a little cold, without anyone else in it.

Judai found that his eyes were starting to droop. Well, he hadn't slept at all last night, and this was more social interaction in a few hours than he usually had in a week. He shouldn't be surprised.

He didn't really want to fall asleep, though. Would he have nightmares again? He tried to fight it, albeit sluggishly and half-heartedly.

Yubel finally shifted forward in his mind. He could almost feel the touch of her leathery wings enveloping him like a blanket.

—Sleep— she ordered. —I'll do what I can to push the nightmares away—

He sighed…but he gave in. He let his eyes slide shut and drifted off into the darkness…

Falling. He was falling again. Spinning, spinning, spinning, the stars turned into lines of line that spiraled around him in a disorienting blur.

He screamed, but the sound was only swallowed by the vast darkness of space. Something was curling around him, something thick and dark and alive, both insubstantial and yet strangling him at the same time.

“The real question is,” a voice echoed in his mind—it was the sound of the universe itself, rumbling and grating and ripping him apart with words alone, how was it possible that he was even alive in this presence, “why should I help you?”

Judai gasped, eyes snapping awake.

But he wasn't in the garage anymore, he realized, suddenly feeling dizzy. He wasn't on the couch—he wasn't even sitting down. He was standing, standing in a wide, perfectly white landscape that had no end and no beginning, no floor or ceiling or walls, and yet, he was still standing on something.

“Judai?”

Judai whipped around, eyes taking in the other three figures in a glimpse—Yusei, Bruno, and a woman with long blond hair, all staring at him with wide eyes.

“What are you guys doing in my dream?” Judai said, frowning.

“What are you doing here?” Yusei said at the same time.

They stared at each other for a moment.

“…what happened?” said Judai.

Yusei shook his head slowly.

“I…I don't know.”

Bruno glanced around, looking nervous.

“We…we put that card onto the computer scanner…and then everything went white, and…”

He gasped. His eyes widened. Judai jerked around immediately, searching for whatever had caught Bruno's eyes.

Something was there in the whiteness that hadn't been there a moment ago.

Something huge, dark, floating, made of gleaming metal, a strange shape that made no sense to Judai's eyes—

There was a deep blue eye staring at him from within the steel capsule.

Suddenly, pain ripped through his body. He screamed in spite of himself, hearing identical screams behind him from the other three. He could feel something raking him, ripping through his skin and cataloging every vein, every pore, every detail—

Yubel roared from inside of him. Before he could stop himself, his wings exploded from his back, scales ripped free to cover skin, talons broke through in place of nails, he could feel his fangs lengthening in his mouth—something was trying to invade his mind, trying to read it, to tease out its secrets, and his powers were reacting in defense.

And then it ended.

Judai shot up from the couch, gasping for breath. Cold sweat matted his hair to his face as his heart screamed in his chest. He felt—cold. Very cold. It shouldn't be this cold; it was still ridiculously hot outside.

Judai scrambled to his feet and jogged up the stairs to the door, stumbling out into the open space of the square. Immediately hot air billowed into his face and he gasped. It was harder to breathe in the humidity but he had to, he had to breathe something other than cold, had to get rid of that skittering feeling of dread that slipped through his veins like poison. It was starting to get dark outside already, the sun was setting and there were few people out on the cobbled streets.

Phone. His phone was buzzing in his pocket.

He fumbled with his pockets, fingers still shaking. Yusei's name flashed across the screen.

He ignored the odd looks he was getting from passersby as he answered—he must have looked a sight, trembling, eyes wide and mouth open to pant.

“Y-Yusei?” he said.

“Judai,” Yusei said, relief coloring his voice. “Are—are you okay? Did that thing…did that happen?”

Judai swallowed.

“You were there too?” he whispered. “That white place?”

Yusei fell silent for a moment, and that was as good an affirmation as any.

“What was that?” Yusei said.

Judai shook his head slowly.

“I…I think the better question is…who was that?”

That dark blue eye, staring at him. Trying to read his very soul.

The cold settled in his stomach and rooted itself there. Even the heat of the summer evening could not chase it away.

Chapter Text

It was late when Yusei and Bruno finally got back, and Bruno was so tired that he passed out immediately. Yusei, however, didn't seem like he was able to sleep. Despite the circles darkening under his eyes, he kept finding reasons to walk around, pick something up, tidy up a pile of clutter, wipe at some permanent stain on the counter. His nervous movements were enough to keep Judai in the kitchen, perched on the edge of his chair and watching Yusei walk around. He wouldn't have been able to sleep, either, but Yusei's constant movement gave him an excuse.

“You okay?” he asked quietly.

Yusei shrugged, still rubbing at the counter with a rag. Judai wasn't sure if he should mention that he was using the greasy rag used to clean the motorcycles, and was probably doing more harm than good.

Judai sighed, sliding his elbows across the table and resting his chin on top of his arms. He just watched Yusei for a few moments, the way that his shoulders moved as he rubbed the rag in circles. He felt an odd heat rising in his cheeks and dropped his eyes to the table.

Yusei had explained what had happened at Security, with Sherry and Bruno; he had explained the WRGP, the androids called Ghosts that had been striking out at various places, the hints of something new stirring in the background of Neo Domino, and his attempts to reach this faraway summon beyond speed, the mysterious Accel Synchro shown to him by someone he didn't know. It looked like the world was in trouble again…fine time for Judai to show up.

Although…maybe it was why he had shown up.

“Yusei…you're not going to clean that off, you know.”

Yusei just shrugged. Judai hesitated. The thing was…he didn't really know Yusei, did he? They had only met once. What kind of guy was he? They hadn't talked too much since he had gotten here. Judai had ended up talking to Lua and Luka and Aki more. Sure, they had told him quite about bit about Yusei, about where he had come from, about the Dark Signers and what had happened in this city, about what he had accomplished.

“Are you…worried?”

Yusei hesitated, pausing in the middle of his movements.

“Yeah,” he said. “I just…something about that…thing. That thing that we saw. It…”

He shuddered slightly. Judai sat up, frowning. He waited, not wanting to push Yusei too much.

“You ever hear the phrase, 'it's like someone walking over your grave?'” Yusei asked.

“Yeah,” Judai said. “I've heard that one.”

“That's what it felt like. When he looked at me. Like something…yeah.”

He shuddered again. Judai blinked.

“You said…he. How did you know it was a he?”

Yusei looked up. His mouth parted slightly, eyes unfocusing. When he came back, he looked at Judai with a frown, the quiet, subdued expression just barely crinkling his forehead.

“Why…why did I say that?” he said.

He looked pale, Judai realized.

“You should sleep,” said Judai. “We're not going to get any answers tonight. You look like you're going to pass out.”

He was starting to shake a little bit from how tired he was. Judai scootched out of his chair and put a steadying hand on Yusei's shoulder.

“Come on, speed racer,” he said. “Time to sleep.”

Yusei sighed, but did not protest as Judai guided him up the stairs to his room. Jack and Crow were already passed out, and didn't stir as Yusei settled on to his bed.

“You should sleep too,” he murmured.

“Yeah, I will,” Judai said. “No worries.”

He squeezed Yusei's shoulder.

“See ya in the morning.”

“Yeah. Good night.”

Judai waited at the door to make sure that Yusei did in fact settle down on to the bed before he flitted down to his own room.

He wasn't going to sleep. He knew he wouldn't be able to. He could already feel the nightmares clawing at him, the darkness swirling around him. He shuddered.

Well…he'd have to try, he guessed…

. . .

Yusei awoke to a loud thump. He groaned, blinking through sleep, his throat feeling dry and disgusting. What…?

He rolled over, squinting at the clock. It was like 5:30. What had that sound been? Had he imagined it?

He heard Jack grunting and shifting two beds over.

“The fuck was that,” he muttered.

Yusei hadn't imagined it then, if it had woken Jack too. He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. Then he sat up, rubbing at his eyes. Jack was half sitting up, too.

“Where'd that come from…?” Yusei said.

“The guest room, I think…” Jack said.

Yusei frowned. Where Judai was staying?

“I'll go check…you go back to sleep.”

Jack didn't protest, falling back against the pillow without another word. Yusei sighed. He slid his feet to the floor, wincing at the cold that filtered even through his socks. He shoved his hands under his armpits; despite the heat of this summer, it was damn cold in the mornings.

Yawning, he shuffled down towards the guest room.

“Judai…?” he called softly. “Everything okay?”

The door was closed, and he hesitated with his hand over the knob. Maybe it had been nothing. Just him hitting the wall in his sleep or something. He didn't want to disturb him…

And then he heard the heavy panting on the other side of the door, the strange gasps for breath. He grabbed the handle and practically threw the door open, eyes raking the room—the bed was empty, the covers half thrown off the bed, where was Judai—

There. Yusei hesitated again, uncertain.

Judai had pulled himself into the corner, gripping his head in his hands, face pressed into his knees, shoulders trembling. He was gasping for breath, muttering into his knees, shaking so badly that he looked like he would fall apart.

“Judai? Judai!”

Yusei crossed the room, but Judai didn't even respond. His heart jumped in his chest. What was wrong? What happened? Was he okay?

“Judai?” Yusei said softly. “Judai. What's wrong? Are you okay?”

Judai drew in a shaky breath. Yusei could hear what he was muttering now.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, oh god, I'm so sorry, I didn't want to, I didn't want to, I—please, no, no, no, no, no—”

“Judai,” Yusei said again, more firmly. “Judai. Breathe.”

He didn't know what was going on, but he knew enough to recognize a panic attack when he saw one. He touched Judai's knee gently. Judai flinched, head snapped up. Yusei sucked in a breath. Judai's eyes were wide and terrified, which was to be expected.

What was not to be expected was the fact that the deep brown had faded into a flat gold.

Was—was he even looking at Judai? Was he possessed? What was going on?

“Judai,” Yusei said again. “I'm here. It's okay. Breathe.”

Judai's mouth was open, panting for breath. Cold sweat matted his hair to his face.

“I didn't—I didn't want to,” he muttered. “I'm sorry. Shou, I'm so sorry, everyone, please…”

“Sh, sh…” Yusei said, moving his hand to Judai's forehead, brushing the bangs aside. “You're not there. It's not real. What can you see? Count the things you can see.”

Judai swallowed, still shaking.

“They won't stop screaming,” he whispered. “Oh god, they won't stop screaming. I'm sorry. I didn't—I'm sorry, I hurt them, I hurt so many people—”

“Sh…sh…you're not there. You're not there.”

Yusei had no idea where “there” was, but he had a feeling Judai was having some kind of post traumatic hallucination.

“Tell me what you can feel. Can you hear my voice? Just pay attention to my voice.”

Judai swallowed a few more breaths. He nodded.

“Good. Just keep listening to me. Can you see my hand?”

He held his hand up by his face. Judai nodded.

“Good. My hand is real. Can you count the fingers? Breathe while you count.”

Judai sucked in a deep breath, his eyes flicking from finger to finger.

“Five,” he said, his voice sounding a little calmer. “Five fingers.”

“Great,” Yusei said, squeezing Judai's shoulder with his other hand, gently. “That was great. Do you know where you are?”

“In the guest room. At your place.”

“Right. Are you still breathing deeply?”

Judai nodded. And even as Yusei watched, those flat golden eyes deepened in color, melting back to a deep, deep brown. He closed his eyes for a moment, sucking in a deep breath.

“I'm back,” he said. “I'm back.”

Yusei squeezed his shoulder again.

“How do you feel?”

“Like I just ran a full marathon.”

Yusei smiled, but it was a shaky smile of relief. He hadn't realized until just now that he was shaking too. His heart was pounding in his chest—it was a wonder he had been able to remain so calm at all.

“Do you want me to get you some water?”

Judai's hand clamped down onto Yusei's, his eyes widening again for a moment. Then he swallowed and closed his eyes, releasing Yusei's hand.

“S-sorry,” he said. “I…can you just sit there for a second? Still calming down.”

“Of course.”

Yusei shifted so he was sitting instead of kneeling, grimacing when his knees cracked. Judai leaned his head against a wall for a moment, just breathing. Yusei didn't speak. It was best to let him calm down; there wasn't anything to say for now.

When Judai finally opened his eyes again, he looked much better.

“I…I think I'm okay, now.”

He shifted as though to stand up.

“Can you stand?” Yusei said, frowning.

“Yeah…I heal up a lot faster than normal people. I'm still tired but my legs should hold.”

Yusei stood up himself, offering Judai a hand. Judai smiled gratefully, letting Yusei guide him to his feet.

“Are you okay?” Yusei asked.

“As much as usual, I guess.”

Yusei didn't let go of Judai's arm, in case he got dizzy again.

“I could probably go for some water now,” said Judai.

“Let's take it slow.”

They made their way downstairs, slowly, one step at a time. Yusei kept a firm grip on Judai's arm, afraid that he might fall over. However, Judai's movements did seem to get stronger as they moved, and by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs he seemed able to walk by himself.

He still sunk into a chair with a sigh as Yusei moved to fill a glass of water. Judai accepted the water with a grateful smile, downing half of it at once.

“Whew,” he said. “It's…been a while since I had one this bad.”

“Do these happen a lot?”

“Every so often…they're usually just me disassociating for like half a minute or so. Sometimes I have full on panic attacks, but they're usually not as bad as that one.”

He ducked his head.

“Sorry you had to see that.”

“You don't have to apologize,” Yusei said, sitting down next to Judai and touching his arm gently. “You can't control that.”

Judai sipped at his water, looking a little embarrassed.

“I've had panic attacks before. I know what they're like. A lot of people I knew in Satellite had them. You're not wrong or bad for having them, Judai. It's not something you can control.”

Judai finished the water, still looking a little red.

“Yeah, I guess…” he said. “…thanks.”

Yusei squeezed his arm, smiling.

The sun was starting to rise, and Yusei could see the light filtering through the door.

“What were you planning on doing today?” he asked. “Do you need me to get you anything?”

“Nah, you're fine,” Judai said. “I'm…probably gonna go for a walk. I mean, I always hate the possibility of having another attack out in public but…being cooped up sometimes makes it worse too.”

He hesitated, staring at the bottom of glass in his hand for a moment. Yusei bit his lip.

“Do you…want me to come with you?”

Judai blinked. He glanced up at Yusei.

“Don't you have—engine stuff to do?” he said. “I mean—augh that sounded like I was saying I don't want you to come. I wouldn't mind that. I mean, it would be nice. But I don't wanna—I don't want to distract you or anything and pull you away from work or whatever, don't wanna bother you—”

Yusei shrugged.

“I don't mind,” he said. “Bruno won't be awake for another hour and a half.”

Judai's cheeks went a little red for a moment. Then it faded.

“Well…if you want to come. Sure. I mean…you know the place better than I do. You can keep me from getting lost.”

He laughed a little at that, but it sounded awkward. Yusei had to smile.

“I do want to come, if you're all right with that.”

Judai met Yusei's eyes. Then he grinned.

. . .

After a bit of discussion, they decided to take Yusei's D-Wheel up to the bluff. It was the quietest place in the city, Yusei had explained, and might be the most relaxing. From there Yusei could show him most of the city's layout anyway, if he wanted to take another walk later, so that he wouldn't get as lost.

“So should I be worried about this thing taking us to ancient Babylon by accident?” Judai said, as Yusei was getting on to the D-Wheel and pulling his helmet on.

Yusei laughed—he didn't do that a whole lot, but Judai was starting to like it. It was a soft, sort of restrained sound that nonetheless felt so joyful.

“Not to worry; I don't know how to make it go through time,” Yusei said. “Usually it keeps its wheels right here in this part of the twenty first century.”

Judai grinned as Yusei tossed him a helmet. He fit it over his hair and then slid onto the bike behind Yusei.

“You'll want to hang on,” Yusei said over his shoulder.

He started up the bike and Judai awkwardly slid his arms around Yusei's torso. Last time he had ridden this thing he hadn't really thought about it; they were fleeing the end of time itself, after all. But now, in the quiet of Yusei's garage, without any world-threatening danger to be occupied by, he found that he actually was a little embarrassed about holding on to Yusei like this.

But then he stopped thinking as much about it, because the D-Wheel took off from the garage and he had to grip tighter before he went flying off the back.

D-Wheels were pretty quiet, he realized, as they zoomed up out of the square and made their way into the lazy early morning traffic. He had ridden motorcycles before, and they all made these really loud noises when they started up, and while they were driving. The D-Wheel, though, was as smooth and quiet as a car. He barely even felt the bumps in the road.

Wind blasted across them, buffeting against Judai's shoulders. He was glad of the helmet, then, because it was keeping his hair from blowing all over his eyes. He didn't want to have to deal with his vision impaired, because this was too amazing not to watch.

The world zoomed past them, a blur of lights and early morning mist. The lights of cars twinkled on highways below them, they themselves riding along on a raised set of highways. There was a network of the roads winding all atop the city, but most of them were blocked off.

Duel Lane, he read on the sign above one of them. They have an entire road network for dueling?

Excitement bubbled in his stomach. The whole city spread out before them, a masterpiece of steel and glass that glittered in the early morning light as though it were made of crystal. He was suddenly very glad that he hadn't locked himself up back at the house all day like he had considered. This was perfect. Glorious. He could ride like this all day with the wind in his face and the world blurring around him in a glorious stream of colors, and the sturdy bulk of Yusei in front of him—

He scratched that last thought, feeling a blush spread across his cheeks. What the hell, brain?

Finally, Yusei turned off into a street to the left, which let them down to the lower road and then sent them back up a hill, the road turning from concrete to bricks as they zipped up to the top. Yusei brought the D-Wheel to a smooth stop.

“Here we are,” he said, pulling off his helmet.

Judai tried not to think about the fact that he was having a hard time looking away from how Yusei shook his hair out of his face when he removed the helmet. He, too, slipped off his helmet and hopped off of the bike.

It was pretty quiet up here, he thought.

A railing spread across the drop off, looking over the whole of the city. Mist hung low, clinging to the buildings, making the ethereal look of the place even more mysterious and beautiful. The sun was rising behind them, sending the rays across the city like diamonds. Tree rustled behind them as well, heavy with dew that dripped onto the cobblestones.

It was a chilly morning, but Judai could feel the heat and humidity of the day coming in. Maybe it was a good thing he had decided to go out early instead of later. It was going to be a hot one.

Yusei crossed over to the railing and leaning against it. Judai followed suit, the pair sitting at the edge and staring silently at the city.

“I come here a lot,” Yusei said. “It's…peaceful.”

Judai nodded.

“It really is.”

He paused.

“Thanks for sharing it with me.”

Yusei smiled, but did only nodded. Again, the silence fell between them, just the twitter of birds breaking the quiet. Judai didn't feel like he needed to speak. He just had to sit there, in the quiet, letting the cool morning air tickle at his skin, listening to the wind rustle the leaves and the flutter of birds wings as they took off into the sky. Just had to stand there beside the quiet, reassuring form of Yusei.

Because he was reassuring. Just…everything about him, the quiet, calm way that he spoke, how he never seemed to get too worked up, how gentle and compassionate he was, the very presence that he exuded that was one of kindness and security. Judai didn't feel embarrassed anymore to think that way. It was what Yusei was. And he liked it.

“Thanks,” Judai said again. “For…this. And for taking care of me this morning.”

Yusei smiled.

“It's never a problem,” he said. “Because we're friends, aren't we?”

“Yeah. We are, aren't we?”

They looked at each other. They smiled.

Neither of them quite noticed how their hands, dangling over the railing, had slid across so that their pinkies were touching.

Chapter Text

He is falling.

He is tumbling, head over heels, falling into the darkness, swallowed up in the space between the stars. There is something coiling around him, something thick and dark and ancient, something that could swallow him whole if he isn't careful.

“The real question is…why should I help you?”

“Please.”

“That is not a reason.”

“I'll give you anything. Whatever you ask for.”

“That is a dangerous thing to promise.”

“Please. Just let me save him.”

“If you do this, I cannot take you out of the loop. You will have to find your own way free.”

“I know.”

“And you still wish this?”

The darkness is growing. The stars are going out. He is starting to dissolve.

“Yes.”

The thing hums. Vaguely surprised.

“…very well. I will do this for you.”

“And the price?”

“You will know of it later. Goodbye, small one…I hope I never see you again.”

“W-wait!”

The stars are gone. There is only darkness, swirling and spinning and choking and ripping at him and he is screaming as he melts into the shadows, becoming one of them himself and losing everything—

“Judai-nii? Hey, Judai-nii!”

“Nnngh?”

Judai opened his eyes, groggy and uncertain of where he was for a moment.

“Wha…?” he mumbled. “Lua…?”

“Are you okay?” Lua said, nose wrinkled up with concern. “You were mumbling a lot in your sleep. And you looked like you were sweating. Luka does that when she's having a bad dream.”

Judai blinked through the sleepiness, sitting up. Where was he again? Right. The couch. After he had come back from going out with Yusei, Yusei had gotten a call from Crow about something going on with Security, and he had had to go out. Jack and Bruno had gone along; something to do with an old friend of Crow's and something about a card? Judai had offered to come along, but Yusei had insisted that he stay back and rest. So Judai had sat down on the couch and…passed out, he guessed.

Lua was still leaning over him, looking very serious, but ending up looking a bit comical in his focus. Judai gave him a smile and ruffled his hair, causing him to squeak with protest.

“I'm fine, kid. Thanks, though.”

He groaned, cracking his back.

“What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I came to see Yusei…but he's not here, is he?”

“Nah. He went out with Crow and the others a little earlier. Something about a card. Where's your sister?”

“Bathroom. She should be down in a minute…”

Judai nodded as Lua plopped onto the couch beside him.

“So what are you doing today?” Lua asked.

Judai hesitated, getting a bit dizzy for a moment. He could see that haze again, dancing along the edge of his vision when he looked at Lua. If he switched to Yubel's eyes, would he see that heavy crimson aura again?

“Lua, are you sure you don't have any powers?” he said.

“Huh?” Lua said. “Yeah. I'm pretty sure. Unfortunately.”

He looked…really upset for a moment, and Judai felt guilty. The kid probably felt upset, being the odd one out…he shouldn't have brought it up.

“Hey, if it's any consolation, sometimes I wish I didn't have any,” Judai said lamely.

“That's what Luka says sometimes,” Lua said, sighing. “I think she's lying to make me feel better.”

He dropped his eyes to his knees, kicking his feet back and forth. Judai bit his lip. While Lua wasn't looking, he let his eyes flicker to Yubel's for a moment.

No. He wasn't imagining it. There was a thick red aura clinging to Lua, the same way it clung to Aki and Luka. It was…muted, somehow, but it was there. Was that the hint of a seal he saw, burnt into the edges of Lua's soul? Who would seal the powers of a kid his age? And why? Judai was positive now; the Crimson Dragon was expressing itself through Lua in some way, but it was—blocked. Should he bring it up?

And was…was the Crimson Dragon the thing that he kept sensing in his dreams? There was definitely something that was pushing through in these weird vision-like nightmares. But were they visions, flashbacks, or was he contacting something in his sleep?

No, Judai decided. It wasn't the Crimson Dragon. The Dragon was a warmth, an ancient and voiceless presence, he sensed. It wouldn't have…spoken to him from the darkness. It wouldn't have felt like it was choking him, either. It was a being of light, not darkness. Whatever was invading his dreams, it wasn't the Dragon.

But the Dragon was affecting Lua in some way. And Judai was starting to think maybe he should say something. If the world was in trouble, didn't they need all the help they could get?

“Lua—”

“Geez, those boys never put more toilet paper in when it runs out! I swear…”

Judai bit off his sentence as Luka appeared at the top of the steps, wiping off the water from cleaning her hands onto her shorts.

“Hey there, Luka-chan,” Judai called, leaning back over the couch to see her. “How are you?”

Luka smiled and ducked her head as she trotted over to them.

“I-I'm doing well today, how are you, Judai-san?”

Lua snickered and said something inaudible under his breath.

“What?” Judai said.

Luka flushed and smacked Lua on the head as he ducked away, giggling.

“Luka has a—” he started, but Luka grabbed him and put a hand over his mouth, flushing a bright red.

“Shut up, Lua!” she hissed.

Judai blinked. He half smiled, amused by their antics but not completely understanding what they were for.

“S-so where is everyone else today?” Luka asked.

“Dunno. They all had something to do over at Security, I guess.”

“I bet Ushio-oji and Mikage-oba had something new about Bruno!” Lua said, wriggling out from Luka's grip. “I bet they're gonna find out where he came from soon!”

“One can only hope, right?” Judai said. “Must suck, not knowing anything about yourself…”

“Yeah…poor Bruno,” Luka said, frowning.

They went quiet for a few moments. Then Judai sighed, stretching again.

“So what are you two up to today?” Judai asked.

“Dunno,” Lua said. “We were gonna hang out here, but everyone's gone…oh! You want to go out for lunch with us?”

“Is it that time already?” Judai said, frowning.

He glanced at his watch. Wow. Already one o'clock.

“We can go to that place across the street, or ooooh, I think a new coffee shop opened up downtown! And we can have a duel maybe! I think there's a place that has those vintage Duel Boxes or we can go to the park and use the Duel Disks!”

“Lua, settle down and let him answer!!” Luka said.

Judai grinned. Man, this kid's enthusiasm was refreshing.

“Yeah, lunch sounds good. And I'd love to duel. Been a while since I've had a nice friendly duel.”

“All RIGHT!” Lua said, punching the air.

“Where do you want to go for lunch?” Luka asked.

“Well, I've never been to this decade before, so you guys can pick.”

“Luka, Luka, Luka, let's show him Acapella! That's your favorite place right? And it has the Duel Boxes!”

“Um, are you okay with burgers?” Luka asked. “That's mostly what Acapella sells…”

Judai smiled reassuringly at her; she seemed nervous for some reason.

“Burgers sound great actually. Oh, but…”

He frowned, patting at his pockets.

“I think I may be fresh out of cash…”

“Oh, that's fine, Luka and I can pay,” Lua said.

“I can't ask you to do that.”

“No, really, it's fine! Mom and dad always leave us a butt-ton for food and stuff. Right, Luka?”

“He's not wrong,” Luka said.

Judai frowned.

“What do you mean they 'leave' it with you?”

“They're not really around much,” said Luka, shrugging. “They work in other cities.”

“Then you guys are living by yourselves?”

“It's fine! We're at the very top of Tops, so it's really safe!” Lua said.

“That's good, but that's not really what I meant. Your parents leave you alone?”

The pair glanced at each other, and then nodded at Judai. They looked so nonchalant about it. Like it was normal for parents to leave their young children home alone for long periods of time, just leaving some money with them and letting them go. Judai's lips tightened a bit, the similarity hitting just a bit too close to home. Dammit. Wasn't there a such thing as a good set of parents anymore?

“Never mind,” Judai said, shaking his head. “Okay, so…you guys are leading, then. I don't know where the heck anything is.”

Both kids brightened considerably now that the topic of their parents was passed. Judai still frowned as he followed the twins up the stairs and out into the hot day outside. Missing parents, a mysterious presence in his dreams, the blocked powers of Lua…everything was swiftly getting more and more tangled. Why was he here? Why had he been brought to this time and place? Nothing made sense.

It was a warm, busy day in the city. People bustled back and forth, voices calling out through the humid air. Heat radiated up from the sidewalk. It wasn't long before Judai was taking off his jacket and tying it around his waist instead.

“Whew!” he said rubbing at his arms. “Hot one today.”

Lua poked Luka in the side with his elbow, nodded towards Judai, and snickered. Luka flushed and pushed him, nearly making him bounce off someone in the stream of people. He just laughed and ran away. He disappeared between people up ahead. Judai glanced down at Luka, confused.

“What was that about?”

Luka still looked red.

“N-nothing,” she said. “Um, the place is this way.”

They wove their way around the crowd of people. It was an easy, meandering walk, and Judai didn't really mind the heat too much now. It felt good to have the humidity clinging to his skin, as though that could chase away the cold of the dream that had threatened to swallow him up.

“So, hey,” Judai said. “I was thinking I could start helping you out with your spirit powers today. Mind telling me more about what you've already done with them? What kind of spirits have you met?”

Luka's eyes lit up.

“R-Really?” she said. “W-well, Kuribon's always been around, since as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I went into a coma, and I was in the spirit world for a while with Ancient Fairy Dragon and some others…oh! And I can summon Regulus a lot.”

Judai nodded, stepping around someone stopped in the walkway, shouting into their phone.

“So you've astral projected before,” he said. “Ancient Fairy Dragon? I don't think I've met them before.”

“She's the guardian of the forest,” Luka said. “At least that's what she told me…”

“There's a lot of forests,” Judai said, grinning. “At least fifty of 'em in Fairy's Peak alone.”

Luka blushed, ducking her head.

“I guess I don't know very much,” she mumbled.

Judai patted her on the back.

“No worries, okay? I didn't know much when I was your age either. And I certainly never astral projected before I was fifteen, so you're already ahead! I still learn new things every day; the spirit worlds are really, really big. And there's more of them than you think.”

“Wow…” Luka whispered. She got a faraway look in her eyes, and almost ran into someone. “It's…I never really thought much about it…but everything's so much bigger than I thought, isn't it?”

Judai smiled.

“I think that's what we all think at some point in our lives,” he said. “Let's catch up to your brother. I'll have a look at your deck and see what I can get out of that; maybe try to meet with your other spirit friends. We can start practicing some short trips to the spirit world soon.”

“That would be great!” Luka said, trotting to keep up.

Lua was waiting at the door, a small but very cute cafe with the word Acapella written in fancy golden script over the top.

“You two having fun?” Lua said, grinning.

“Oh, hush, you,” said Luka, pushing past him.

Lua sent Judai a cross-eyed grin and scurried after his sister. Judai frowned. Seriously, what was up with those two today? It was almost like…

Oh. Oooooh.

Judai hesitated for a moment, feeling a slight groan coming on. Then he just had to laugh, covering his mouth with his hand to still the sound. Luka had a crush on him. She was a lot subtler about it than Rei had been, so he might not have noticed if not for Lua's teasing…oh man. How was he going to deal with this?

—Just leave it. She'll get over it—

“Oh, now you decide to commentate?” Judai muttered, slipping through the glass doors into the cool, dim interior of the cafe. “What, are you jealous?”

Yubel sniffed at the back of his head.

—She is barely twelve. Of course I'm not jealous—

“You're a terrible liar,” Judai teased.

Yubel sunk back under his consciousness as he smiled to himself, making his way over to where the twins had claimed a booth. He slid into the place across from the pair, noting the way that Luka ducked her head to the menu. He grimaced—he had literally no idea how to handle this. Maybe Yubel was right, and he should just not acknowledge it. At least for now.

“This place has the best burgers!” Lua said. “You should totally get this one! It's my favorite!”

He pointed to a picture on the menu, and Judai leaned over to see, grinning.

The spark of red aura was almost overwhelming. Judai gasped, flinching back. Lua blinked.

“Something wrong?”

“No…nothing. Just some static.”

Judai glanced at the twins again. He let Yubel's eyes flicker open for a moment, just enough.

The aura was getting stronger. Was it reacting to his own aura? He could feel his shadows straining from his grip, and he reined them in.

That seal is rudimentary, Judai thought, frowning as he glanced at Lua, seeing the red pushing out from him like it wanted to explode. It could seriously hurt him if it breaks.

But again…who would seal Lua's powers and ignore Luka's?

The red aura, the girl with spirit powers, the boy with a seal on his own mysterious powers, their missing parents, the presence in his dream.

“We're here because Yusei is in danger.”

Despite the heat, Judai shuddered. Something was definitely afoot here. And he was going to figure out what.

. . .

Judai was in the middle of a rather engrossing conversation with a giant lion when Lua's phone started ringing. Luka and Judai glanced away from Regulus for a moment, the great spirit sitting primly in the corner of the old Duel Box—Judai had invited him across to this dimension to talk about Luka's abilities and what they could work with, and the vintage, still working Duel Box was perfect cover for bringing a spirit to reality. People around the restaurant just assumed it was a hologram, especially because Judai and Lua were also playing a friendly duel on the table to help draw even more suspicion away from the spirit.

“Lua,” Luka said, looking annoyed. “I thought you were going to silence your phone.”

“Sh, it's Yusei,” said Lua.

“Hmm? What's up with him?” Judai said.

He realized then that it was already starting to get incredibly late. Was the sun setting already? How long had they been sitting in the Duel Box? Well, he had made a lot of progress in figuring out where Luka was in terms of her abilities. She was far more skilled than he had first thought; she just tended to put a lot more energy into whatever she was doing than she had to. No one had taught her how to cap off her powers when she had given enough—that was why she was so faint all the time. She seemed to be constantly exuding a spiritual presence.

He shook his head, lips pressing together. It still didn't make sense. Any of it. Obviously, there was someone close to them that was skilled enough to put a very complex seal on Lua's powers. But they had ignored Luka's incredible potential, letting her leak magic everywhere. It was no wonder her parents had kept her home for so long; her magic was leaking so much that she would have near full on epileptic attacks every so often, and always seemed pretty weak, getting winded very easily.

And yet, despite the skill of the seal on Lua, there hadn't been anyone around able to teach her about her powers? For gods' sakes, the girl had passed out into a coma for three months because she was expending so much energy twenty-four/seven that her young body could hardly handle it.

Nothing made sense. He considered talking to Yusei about it—but what would Yusei know that Judai didn't? Still, it was a better course of action than anything else Judai could think of. He wasn't sure how to bring it up with the kids yet. They seemed unwilling to talk much about their parents, and he didn't want to make them uncomfortable. He had a sneaking suspicion that both strange situations for the twins had something to do with their missing parents.

“Good news!!” Lua said finally, punching the air with his phone hand. “Yusei and everyone got the program finished! Their D-Wheels are all set, and they even got someone to put the engines back together!”

“That's great!” Luka said.

She brightened, leaning forward on her chair.

“What happened with Security, then?” Judai said, frowning.

“Yusei said he'll tell us the whole story when we get there but he says that Crow finally got Blackfeather Dragon!! Luka, Luka, Luka, come on, we have to go see, I want to see his card!”

“He found his Signer dragon?” Luka said, clapping her hands with delight. “That's great!! We all have our dragons now!”

Judai vaguely remembered Luka, Lua, and Aki telling him about the Signer dragons, and how that was the monster that was supposed to help them stop the Dark Signers. So Crow hadn't had his yet? Weird. Everything seemed to be happening at once.

“Well, I think we've made enough progress today, then,” Judai said. “Thank you for your help, Regulus.”

Regulus dipped his big head, and Luka reached out to scratch him behind the ears in thanks. Although he looked a bit miffed, it was easy to see that he enjoyed the affection. He vanished in a puff of smoke as Judai stood up. He cracked his back and stretched.

“Ugh,” he said. “Been sitting too long. Good game, Lua.”

“You beat me three times in a row,” Lua said, pouting as he gathered up his cards. “And you weren't even paying attention most of the time.”

Judai smiled a bit guiltily. He had meant to go easy on him but he just hadn't been thinking and went on autopilot…

“I've been at this for a while; don't feel too badly…”

“Man,” Lua moaned, as they exited the Duel Box. “I'm never gonna get good at this. My win record is only twenty-six percent right now, at this rate I'm gonna get kicked out of Duel Academy.”

“You kids go to DA?” Judai said.

They walked out into the warmth of the ending day, slipping into the crowds of people headed home.

“Yeah! Luka's the best in our class right now. What's your win record again?”

“I think…eighty-nine percent?”

“See?? Even my sister is better than me, and I've been playing longer!”

Lua folded his arms and pouted. Judai shook his head, smiling. He reached out to ruffle the boy's hair.

“Hey,” he said. “You know, dueling against me isn't a good indication of your skills. You're really good. I can tell.”

“You took me out in three turns,” Lua said. “At least that one game.”

“Yeah, and I've been tournament tier since I was eleven. You're good, Lua. You just gotta relax a bit, believe in your cards. You'll get there.”

But he frowned a bit to himself, as they wove around the crowds of people. It was odd that Lua wasn't more skilled at the game. Luka didn't seem very invested in it, and yet she was better than the much more intense Lua. It wasn't that Lua didn't know the rules, either; he was smart and played well with what he drew. Judai knew enough about Duel Monsters to know that the cards reacted with souls. Could the seal be interfering with Lua's abilities in the game as well?

He was definitely going to have to talk to Yusei. These things might be small, but they might also be the reason why Judai was here. After all, no one noticed auras except him. That meant he could be the only person in this group with that ability. Perhaps that was why he was here—it was at least worth a shot at investigating.

Lua ran ahead of him and Luka, so excited was he to see the new and improved D-Wheels. Judai half smiled at the boy's cheer, but it was hard to stay cheerful himself. Not with all these thoughts running through his head.

He burst through the door before they did, calling for Yusei, and Luka seemed to be getting excited too as she started to run to catch up.

“Are the D-Wheels really done?” Lua was calling. “Whoaaaa!”

Judai had to grin. He came in through the door after the twins. The first thing he saw were the three D-Wheels, which didn't look that much different than usual. But then the second thing he noticed was Yusei standing in front of his red D-Wheel, turning to smile at the twins in that gentle way of his.

Yusei was wearing a new riding suit, a dark colored thing similar to his normal jacket that hugged his frame pretty tightly. It greatly accentuated the slender curve of his hips and barely indicated the definition of his muscles.

Judai realized then that his mouth was weirdly dry and there was a heat blossoming over his cheeks.

“Wow! Are those new riding suits?” Lua asked, running down the stairs to meet with Yusei, Luka on his heels.

“Yep,” Yusei said, smiling.

“Oy, oy, check mine out!” Crow said, jumping into view with a huge smile. “And take a look at this!”

He pushed a card towards the twins, a white one like those new Synchro monsters that Judai was still getting used to. Lua and Luka gasped with delight, but Judai was still distracted by Yusei, so he barely paid attention.

Yusei glanced up at him. He smiled slightly—that same gentle, quiet smile of his that seemed so subdued, and yet so expressive. Judai swallowed.

“Hey,” he managed. “Looking good.”

“Hah, thanks,” Yusei said. “I'm just glad all of this is set up finally…practice runs are tomorrow.”

Judai nodded, still frozen at the top of the stairs for a few more moments. Then Jack started snapping something irritably at the twins, probably annoyed that he was getting ignored, and Aki poked him teasingly, and whatever spell had been on Judai dissipated. He remembered, then, that he had wanted to talk to Yusei about Lua and Luka. Could he maybe get Yusei alone for a few moments?

He hopped down the stairs.

“Have a look! The D-Wheels are all set,” Bruno said.

His eyes shone with pride as he patted Jack's D-Wheel. Jack glared at him, but Bruno wasn't paying attention.

“They look about the same to me…did you do something with the engines?” Judai said.

It was probably the wrong thing to say, because Bruno's eyes lit up and he immediately jumped into a highly detailed discussion of exactly what they did to fine tune the engine program, rattling off strings of numbers and equations and something about friction reduction and overheating prevention. Judai had absolutely no idea what he was saying and tuned out about three seconds in, tilting his head to look at the D-Wheels.

“What's the 5D's stand for?” he said.

Yusei glanced over.

“Oh,” he said. “That's going to be our team name. It's for these…”

He pushed his sleeve up to show the dull red mark layered on top of his skin, in the shape of the Crimson Dragon's head.

“5D's…” Judai said, saying it out loud. “That's English characters, right?”

“It's for the five marks, and the five dragons,” Yusei said, smiling.

“Right! That's the thing that connects us!” Luka said, touching her own sleeve.

Aki, Crow, and Jack all instinctively reached for their own right arms. Lua looked down at his own arm, frowning for a minute. But then he glanced up with a smile.

“I don't have one, but if it wasn't for Luka's mark I wouldn't have met everyone!” he said. “So that's a good name I think!! You guys are going to totally win the whole thing!”

Yusei laughed softly.

“We can only hope,” he said, ruffling Lua's hair. “Thank you.”

Lua grinned with a slight blush.

Judai felt his own smile slip a bit. Five marks. Five dragons. But six red auras.

As Bruno continued to chatter on about the engine, oblivious to the fact that no one was listening, and Lua and Luka started to tease Jack about something, Judai slipped over to Yusei.

“Hey,” he said quietly. “Do you have a minute…? I think I need to talk to you about something…”

Yusei frowned slightly, but he nodded.

“Everyone's busy, they won't mind if we step out for a second,” he murmured back.

Judai nodded. After a beat waiting to see if anyone was paying attention, Yusei beckoned Judai after him, and they slipped off upstairs, leaving the noise of below behind.

* * *

The riding suit was kind of hot in the lack of air conditioning upstairs, so he paused long enough to duck into his room and change into his tank top and jeans before he rejoined Judai in the hallway.

Judai looked uncertain, but that expression had become more and more normal for Yusei. He didn't really like to see Judai like that…he wished that it was possible for his friend to relax a bit. Even during that duel against Paradox, with the world at stake, he had been able to enjoy himself a bit. It had been inspiring to Yusei, to see him able to smile even in the face of danger.

This Judai, however, was more withdrawn. Nervous. Yusei felt a strange need to reach out and just hold the boy's shoulders, try to exude more calm and cheer into him. It wasn't fair that Judai had to be so uncertain. It wasn't fair that he had to be thinking about what was wrong all the time. The circumstances were odd, that was for certain…but at this moment, all he could think of was how much he wanted to see Judai smiling again. There was something about his smile that lit up his entire face, erased the worry lines and the uncertainty in his eyes for even a brief moment. Yusei wanted to make him smile.

But that wasn't the issue right now; Judai had something important to tell him.

“So what's going on?” Yusei said.

Judai sighed, shifting on his feet.

“It's about Lua and Luka,” he said. “Mostly Lua. Yusei, has he ever shown any signs of powers? Ever done anything…that seems weird? Known something that maybe he shouldn't have and not been able to explain why?”

Yusei frowned.

“Well…I've only known him for…six months? I can't think of anything…he's always been normal, out of all of us…”

Judai nodded slowly. Yusei tilted his head.

“Why? Is there something wrong with him?”

“That's the thing…I don't know.”

Judai sighed, folding his arms.

“…Lua has a seal on him. Someone burned it into his soul to suppress his powers.”

Yusei's mouth dropped open slightly.

“You—what? How can you—what does that mean?”

His head spun for a moment, and he closed his eyes. Lua? Lua had always been normal. The part of their group they could count on to bring them back to earth. He often resented his lack of powers, to be sure, but he was…grounding. For Yusei, Lua had always been the reality check. A symbol of how powerful an ordinary person could be. And Judai was telling him that Lua did have powers?

“Oh god,” he muttered. “Have you told him yet?”

He couldn't imagine how that would affect him. The young boy had wanted to have powers like the rest of them for so long, but how would he feel if he actually had them? If he suddenly got them now? Would he be overwhelmed by it? Would it make him be more reckless? Oh god, if he tried to do more heroic things than he already did he would get himself killed.

“No, I haven't mentioned anything,” Judai said. “I just…I don't understand. Why they would seal him and not Luka. Because Luka's incredible. She has a whole reservoir of power that she's barely even scratched. And it's just constantly flowing out of her.”

“She's just constantly leaking power?”

“Yeah. Aki does it too, but not on the level that Luka does. It's the reason she's so weak and easily winded. I've taught her a few breathing exercises to help her slow it down but…I don't get it. Why seal Lua, but not Luka? Does that mean Lua has more power than Luka?”

Judai frowned. His jaw clenched.

“And if there was someone skilled enough around to seal Lua's powers, then why didn't they stick around to teach the kids how to use them? Nothing makes sense. Do you even know what happened to their parents?”

“No. They don't talk about them—although I have asked.”

Yusei shook his head. He had always hated the idea of those two living alone. It was one thing to be like him, to have parents that simply couldn't be there because, well, they were dead. It wasn't their fault, not entirely, that they hadn't been able to raise Yusei. But to have living parents that simply up and left? Leaving a pair of kids barely twelve years old to fend for themselves?

“How long have they been living alone?”

“I don't know. I asked Luka once, and she couldn't remember. She just said their parents left to work elsewhere sometime after her coma…so around three, four years ago.”

“Incredible timing,” Judai said dryly. “Sounds like someone didn't want to deal with it. But to not even leave anyone with them? Not even a babysitter?”

The boy's eyes darkened slightly, and it didn't seem to just be a trick of the light. This wasn't the first time that Yusei had seen Judai's eyes change color. It seemed to be connected to Judai's powers—he had already seen the bichromatic eyes of Yubel in their duel against Paradox, and the flat gold that had arisen during Judai's panic attack.

“…you think the parents and the sealing are connected.”

“Yeah. I think they might have had something to do with it, at least. Hard to say without knowing even who they are.”

“That's the hard part. Lua and Luka's surname isn't even listed in their enrollment forms.”

“What?”

Judai looked legitimately shocked. Yusei shrugged.

“I might have…looked into it myself,” Yusei said. “But it's weird. I couldn't find any information at all. There are records of parents being residents in the same apartment as the twins, but only the twin's names are listed. No surnames. No given names for the parents. It's like their parents don't even exist.”

Judai shook his head slowly.

“Something's up,” he said. “I wonder…is this why I'm here? None of you can see auras, can you?”

“I…did once,” Yusei said. “But only for a moment, when the full mark of the Crimson Dragon came to me. And I used that to see and grab the aura of the Majestic Dragon. That's it.”

“Then maybe this is why I'm here. Something's going on here, and it might have to do with the twins—hell, it might have to do with the Crimson Dragon itself. The Dragon can travel through time, right? Maybe it brought me here.”

But he didn't sound certain of that at all, and in fact, his brows drew together as though even he didn't believe what he was saying.

“Judai,” Yusei whispered.

“There are just so many variables,” Judai said, not reacting to Yusei's quiet voice. “The parents, the auras, the seals, the fact that Luka's never had training, Aki might be involved somehow too; and then if those three have definite expressions of power then where are yours, Jack's, and Crow's? Unless these powers aren't the expression of the Crimson Dragon and the marks, but something else entirely—”

“Judai,” Yusei said again, more firmly.

Judai stopped. He was starting to look drawn, pale, legitimately worked up. Yusei stepped forward, putting his hands on Judai's shoulders.

“We don't have to figure this all out tonight,” he said. “In fact, I don't think we can. We need to step back. Take a breath.”

Judai complied, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out.

“There,” Yusei said soothingly. “It's going to be okay. Okay? There is a reason you were brought here. But we can't get worked up over it. I do believe that the answer will show itself in time. But you might not see it if all you are doing is thinking down the same paths, over and over.”

“Then I have to think about the other paths…”

“Which you're not going to see if you get worked up,” said Yusei, squeezing Judai's shoulders. “You need to relax. We will find out what's going on. But right now, I think you need to sleep. Do you think you can?”

“I…I think so.”

Yusei nodded. He stood there for perhaps a moment longer than necessary, still holding Judai. The boy trembled very slightly, and Yusei wanted nothing more in that moment but to step forward and hold Judai against him, to chase away those shivers. But…he wasn't sure if that was alright.

He dropped his hands from Judai's shoulders.

“If you have a nightmare, or need anything, please come and get me,” Yusei said. “Promise me?”

Judai smiled uncertainly.

“Promise,” he said.

Yusei smiled. They stood there for a moment. Then Judai bobbed his head in acknowledgment, and turned towards the guest room. Yusei waited until Judai had disappeared inside before he stepped towards his own room. He hesitated, his eyes wandering back to the closed door of the guest room.

Lua's seal. Luka's powers. The twins' missing parents. Things that he had never before considered, at least, not before Judai had arrived. He had been more concerned with Ghost and the Meklords.

Something certainly was going on…but what, exactly?

And why was Judai here in the first place?

Yusei shuddered, feeling cold all of a sudden. He stepped into the room to start getting ready for bed. Tomorrow was the practice run before the WRGP finally began. He needed his sleep. He had to be ready for tomorrow…just about anything could happen, couldn't it?

Chapter Text

It was a quiet morning. Too quiet. Where were the sounds of D-Wheels zooming around on the Duel Lanes? Cars on the freeways? It could be, of course, because he was kind of on an out of the way lane. It could be because most D-Wheelers were moving towards the practice lanes towards the center of the city, where teams were getting ready for the WRGP. After all, even non-participants wanted to watch.

But it still felt weird, and it was giving Ushio Tetsu the shivers.

He scowled, leaning on his D-Wheel. There was nothing even here to patrol. The newest administration of Security and the Public Maintenance Bureau had been doing this a lot lately. Scheduling officers to patrol out of the way, obscure Duel Lanes. It wasn’t like they were hidden; they just weren’t convenient. Drug rings and crime organizations didn’t even use them. They weren’t connected enough to the web of life that they relied on. What was the point? Ushio knew for a fact that officers were growing thin out in the most important places, where crime was high and dueling more common. So why send officers—the best officers, at that, not that Ushio was trying to brag—to these places?

I feel like we’re being moved out of the way…but out of the way of what?

Ushio growled. It was far too nice a day for him to be so grumpy but he felt on edge. Something about how it was quiet. Too quiet.

Well, it didn’t matter. One more hour and he was scheduled to be working the practice runs. He’d probably get to see Yusei and the others; that was something to look forward too.

With that thought in mind, he leaned back against his D-Wheel, sighing deeply.

It was only then that he noticed someone standing on the Duel Lane.

He swore, standing straight up.

It was a youngish looking man; he couldn’t have been older than thirty, and could have easily been twenty. His long, dull green hair was pulled back into a ponytail that draped over one shoulder. Dark eyes, the color indistinct from here, glanced out from an aristocratic face. He was pale-skinned, his face gently curved with prominent cheekbones. He stood with an air of regality, his clothing evidently well-made and vaguely out of the time period, although Ushio couldn’t quite his finger on why.

But where had he come from? Ushio saw no D-Wheel, and this wasn’t someplace you could just walk to, at least, not with Ushio having seen him.

“Excuse me,” he called. “Sir. Are you lost? Can I be of assistance?”

The man glanced at him, almost as though surprised to see him.

“Ah,” he said. “So they were probably expecting me. In some fashion or another.”

He shrugged, almost to himself. Then he began to walk, passing Ushio without a word.

“Hey,” Ushio said, getting irritated. “Wait a minute, there, I don’t have the faintest clue how you got here, and I’m going find—”

He stopped as the man turned to face him, words dying in his throat.

The man’s eyes were completely, utterly black. No pupils. No irises. No whites. Just completely black.

“Hm,” he said, seemingly looking Ushio over.

Ushio found his voice, then, and managed a few sentences—even managed to make himself sound irritated.

“Is there a problem, sir?” he snapped. “I’m going to have to know what you’re doing out here.”

The man blinked once, eerie eyes staring right at Ushio—at least, he assumed they were. Hard to tell without pupils.

“What I’m doing…?” he said, slowly, as though testing the words. “Hm. Not sure yet.”

He cocked his head.

“I suppose I was curious.”

And then, he simply stepped back, and kept walking. Ushio couldn’t move. He felt a chill running down his spine unlike anything he had felt before, even back during the whole Dark Signers fiasco.

He doesn’t have a shadow, he thought vaguely as he watched the man walk literally out of sight. Just, one moment, he was walking, and the next, he simply wasn’t there.

Ushio stood there staring for who knows how long. By the time he checked his watch, he swore, and leapt onto his D-Wheel. He was going to be late for patrolling at the practice runs.

But as he zoomed off on his D-Wheel, his strange encounter haunted him.

There was something familiar about that face, he thought. Something…something I can’t quite put my finger on.

And while he thought about how he was going to write this into a report, another thought occurred to him. He was gonna have to tell Yusei about this. That kid was the only one around that might have an idea of what was going on.

. . .

Judai was having a bit of trouble relaxing, although today was supposed to be a relaxing day.

“Look, look at how fast they’re going!!” Lua said, practically bouncing up and down. “They’re so cool!”

It was a warm, clear day out on the practice runs. The heat had backed off for once, leaving them with just toasty warmth from the sun and the perfect breeze to match. The smell of rubber burnt on concrete filled the air, mixing up with a faint metallic hint of steel and the thick scents of fried food. There wasn’t a huge turnout at the practice lane, but there wasn’t a tiny one, either. There was just enough people to make Judai feel nervous, although he reminded himself over and over that crowds were not something he had to be scared of.

Geez, if I’m like this now, imagine me at the WRGP, he thought wryly. Because he was going to watch Team 5D’s, there was no doubt about that. He sucked in a steadying breath and focused on the blur of speed out on the track.

Yusei, Crow, and Jack had control of the practice lanes for now. They definitely did look good out there, although Judai had little to compare to. He could hardly see them for the blur.

“Is that even safe?” he said.

“Probably not,” Luka said. She looked a little queasy. “Remind me not to be a D-Wheeler.”

“I can’t wait until I’m old enough for my license!!” Lua said, punching the air. “I’m gonna be so cool!”

“Are you ready to crash a few billion times?” Aki said with a smile. “Because that’s how it starts.”

“It’s okay! I have a hard head!”

Aki laughed softly, and Judai cracked a smile. Lua leaned forward with excitement, grinning widely. His cheer was infectious, and even though looking at him drew Judai’s mind back to the mysteries of the twins, he couldn’t help but keep smiling.

“Ooh, look!” Lua said, pointing. “It’s Ushio-oji!”

“Where?” said Luka, jumping to her tiptoes. “Oh! We should go say hi!”

The twins leapt up and scurried down the stairs.

“Hold up, guys, wait,” Judai called. “Geez.”

He glanced at Aki as he stood up.

“So…who’s Ushio?”

“He’s a Security officer,” Aki said, following Judai down the stairs after the twins. “He and Yusei had a pretty rocky start, but they’re good friends. He helped us a bit with the Dark Signers.”

“Oh. Cool.”

Judai wasn’t a huge fan of police officers himself, but a friend of Yusei’s was trustworthy enough.

The twins were already there, chatting with Ushio. He was a big man, with thick eyebrows and a pretty nasty scar from one eye. He was grinning, though, and had a cheery sort of disposition about him, especially with the twins. He reached over the gate to ruffle Lua’s hair at something the younger boy said. Then he glanced up as Aki and Judai approached, smiling and raising a hand in greeting.

“Hey there, Aki-san,” he said. “How’re you?”

“Doing well, how about you?” said Aki, smiling.

“Ehh. Can’t complain. Getting some really boring shifts lately, though. Those I will complain about.”

He frowned for a moment, looking uncertain. Then he shrugged.

“Who’s your new friend?” he asked, glancing at Judai.

“Name’s Judai. Yuki Judai,” Judai said, nodding. “Friend of Yusei’s.”

“Another one, huh? I swear you all come out of the woodwork. Like ants. How many friends does he have, anyway?”

“A lot,” Judai said, grinning.

Ushio barked a short laugh.

“Can’t argue with that. Call me Ushio. I guess I’m Yusei’s friend. Most of the time.”

He checked his watch.

“Aw, shit. Shift’s over. I have to head out to Duel Lane 24.”

He looked miffed as he threw his leg over his D-Wheel.

“I was kinda hoping Yusei’d be done with his run before I left,” he muttered. “Oy, Aki-san, when he comes back in, will you tell ‘im I need to talk to him?”

“Sure,” Aki said, cocking her head. “Is something wrong?”

“Don’t think so…but I thought I’d check.”

He frowned again. Then he shook his head, and revved up his engine.

“See you kids around. Don’t go making more trouble, you hear?”

“We’ll be good, Ushio-oji!” Lua said.

“And stop calling me that; makin’ me feel old, kid.”

He grinned, gave the group a two-fingered salute, and then zoomed off.

Judai watched him go, curious about what he needed to talk to Yusei about. Something about his expression…he hoped it was nothing wrong.

His eyes turned back toward the Duel Lanes.

“They’re about done, right?” Judai said.

“Should be,” Aki said.

Just as she was saying that, the PA system blared out a “Team 5D’s, your practice time is ending. Please return to the starting line.”

“Speak of the devil,” Judai said, grinning.

He leaned over the railing, straining his eyes to see them coming in. Bruno was already down there at the line to run the final checks on the D-Wheels when they arrived, fumbling with his clipboard.

Judai vaguely noticed the next team getting ready for their practice run. But then something caught his eye—something tiny, but enough to throw his senses into overdrive, make him notice every detail, like he was on the battlefield again and the tiniest movement could mean the difference between life and death.

First he noticed that the next team, Team Unicorn, was moving someone out onto the track—a good five minutes too early. Next, he noticed that Crow, who was the closest to coming in, had accelerated instead of slowing down. And then, he noticed the Team Unicorn member slipping out into the track, the way the helmeted head glanced quickly back towards Crow, the careful, measured way they angled in at just the right speed—

“Crow’s gonna crash,” Judai said, leaping up. “Crow! Crow, slow down—”

Too late. The new D-Wheels were definitely much faster than the originals because Crow didn’t even have time to react before he was basically on top of the other duelist. With a massive undertaking of skill, he managed to angle the Blackbird so that it just grazed against the side of the other D-Wheel. There was still enough momentum to send the other duelist spinning out of control. He bailed before it crashed to the side, hitting the ground and skidding a few feet. Crow pulled the Blackbird to a stop, yanking off his helmet as he leapt free.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” he shouted, running to the side of the fallen duelist. He moved to help the man sit up.

The other two duelists of the team ran out then, one of them grabbing Crow and pulling him up angrily. But by that time, Jack and Yusei had arrived, squealing to a stop. Jack rushed over to break Crow free from the other duelist’s grip. From this distance, Judai couldn’t hear what was happening. But it looked like one of Team Unicorn duelists was upset, at least.

“What happened?” Aki said, eyes wide. “How did that happen?”

Judai gripped the railing, straining to listen. The voices were a bit muffled from the distance, but he could technically increase his own hearing with his powers…was that eavesdropping?

He caught bits and pieces, though. Something about let’s have a quick duel and if you win we’ll let it slide.

His mind replayed the scene in his head for a moment. Then he saw Yusei and the lead of Team Unicorn moving towards their D-Wheels, the other two of each team moving back.

“They did that on purpose,” Judai said. “They want this duel.”

“They…what?” Aki said.

“That was way too calculated. The speed of the D-Wheeler. The angle. The way he was looking at Crow coming in. He was expecting to get broadsided. The way he landed? He was ready to take a fall. They orchestrated this.”

“But why?” Lua said, eyes wide.

Luka caught on first.

“They want to see what Yusei’s capable of,” Luka said, gasping. “They’re trying to see his strategy from the beginning!”

“What? That’s low!!” Lua said, fists clenching. “And look at how upset that made Crow-nii! And they yelled at him! That’s not fair!”

Lua actually looked like he was going to storm down there and give them a piece of his mind. But Judai grabbed his shoulder.

“We don’t have proof. Just my word. We can’t stop this from happening,” said Judai.

Aki looked positively furious herself, hand shaking.

“They want to have the advantage,” she muttered. “Either way they go about it, it’s wrong.”

“But Yusei will get to see their deck too, right?” Luka said.

“If they planned this far ahead, they’ll make sure they have a separate deck for this purpose,” Judai said.

He remembered the look in Yusei’s eye when he had talked about this tournament. A faraway, excited look. A tournament that was free of any darkness for him. And these people were going to take advantage of him to get an edge? He felt like he wanted to snap then and there. Taking advantage of a friend was unforgiveable—but what could he do? Yusei and the other guy were already mounting their D-Wheels.

An idea sprung to him.

“Hold on,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

He vaulted the wall and landed lightly, bolting over to Yusei. He did siphon a bit of power to himself make him faster, so that he reached them before the timer even started. He grabbed Yusei’s shoulder. The boy jumped, glancing down.

“Judai?”

“It’s a set-up. They did that on purpose so they can see what your deck is like.”

Yusei’s eyes narrowed, lips tightened.

“I half suspected,” he muttered. “But what can we do now? It looks like our fault. They could press charges. Knock us out of the tournament.”

“They’ll have a different deck than their normal in order to see yours without giving you an equal advantage. So use this one.”

And he shoved his own deck into Yusei’s hand.

Yusei blinked, eyes widening.

“But…Judai…”

“Or combine the two, I don’t care, just use this to throw them off.”

Yusei stared at the deck for a moment.

“Hey! Are we going to do this or what?” the other duelist shouted.

Yusei met Judai’s eyes. Then he smiled.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “It will be like you’re fighting with me—like last time.”

“Stakes are a little lower this time,” said Judai, grinning. “Knock ‘em dead.”

“I will.”

Yusei surreptitiously swapped the two decks, pressing his own into Judai’s. Judai nodded, and saluted once. Then he stepped back to let Yusei get ready to take off.

The timer started.

3…2…1…

BANG!

The two shot off with an explosion of wind, ruffling Judai’s jacket. Judai watched them zoom off for a moment. Then he scurried back towards the bleachers, vaulting back in.

“What was that? What did you do?” Lua asked.

Judai grinned, holding up Yusei’s deck.

“Switcharoo,” he said. “If Yusei doesn’t get to see their deck, they don’t get to see his.”

“Whoa…that’s smart!” Lua said.

“But does Yusei know how to use your deck effectively?” asked Luka, frowning. “I mean…if they lose Team Unicorn might press charges.”

“Don’t worry,” Aki said. “Yusei is a pro.”

“Yeah; and he’s seen me use my deck before,” Judai said. “He’ll be fine. We gotta trust him.”

He turned to face the duel.

For the first time in a while, he felt excitement tingling through him at the promise of the duel. Most of the time, dueling became a chore. Something he had to do to keep balance in the world. Watching other duelists usually didn’t appeal to him. He couldn’t really participate in the enjoyment of being a spectator, so focused was he on his own missions.

But now…

He couldn’t wait to see what Yusei had to show him.

. . .

Judai jumped back from the D-Wheel with Yusei's normal deck just in time—the timer was about to go off. This was it. He shoved Judai's deck into the space and then accelerated.

The engine responded beautifully, coming alive under him in a way his D-Wheel never had before. With the wind buffeting his face and the speed dragging at his frame, he felt adrenaline pulse through his veins like blood. His previous uncertainty with this whole business melted.

Andore had accelerated well too—but his D-Wheel wasn't quite fast enough. Yusei found himself grinning as he leaned into the curve, taking the first curve just ahead of Andore.

All right, he thought. Now…

He reached for the deck, drawing the top five cards. This was Judai's deck. Judai's soul had gone into making this—he felt like he was handling something made of gold. He knew how important these cards were to Judai. He was a true duelist, respecting and cherishing his cards. Yusei would definitely use them well.

He smiled at his hand. It was a good one, judging by what he knew of Judai's Hero deck. Wouldn't this throw Team Unicorn for a loop.

Thank you, Judai, he thought, and for a moment, he felt like he could feel Judai's heart pulsing in the cards themselves. Please guide me.

“My turn!” he shouted, drawing his first card. “All right!”

He glanced over his hand briefly.

“I'll summon Elemental Hero Avian!”

He flipped the card onto his Duel Disk. Wind blasted his face as the being emerged from the air, a tall, green feathered man with huge white wings. He couldn't help himself. He twisted back to see if he could see his friend's faces. They were pretty far away, but he thought he could see the shock there. An excited grin sprung to his face in spite of himself. Man, but did this feel good. He didn't have to worry about showing too many strategies, because he would be using exactly none of the ones today in the preliminary round tomorrow.

His eyes glanced over Andore as he turned back to face forward—and he thought he saw surprise there too.

He doesn't realize yet that this isn't my deck, Yusei thought. He's just wondering because this card is unfamiliar.

Would Team Unicorn recognize that Yusei was not a Hero duelist? Or would they think he had changed decks since the Fortune Cup? Well, it didn't matter. Right now, he had to think about his own field.

“I'll set a card and end my turn,” he said, sinking the card into its slot.

“My turn! Draw!” Andore called.

There was a brief pause as he looked over his hand.

“I'll summon Playful Possum in attack mode!”

The field whirred, and a small possum appeared running next to Andore's D-Wheel.

“Playful Possum's effect,” said Andore. “When my opponent controls a monster with a higher attack, it can destroy itself!”

“What?” Yusei said, eyes widening.

The possum froze, and then rolled over, as though playing dead. Then it shattered into a bunch of tiny golden sparkles. Yusei tensed. There was a reason he had done that, and now the storm would come.

He wasn't disappointed.

“I activate the effect of Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest from my hand,” said Andore. “When a Beast-type monster on my field is destroyed, I can pay one thousand life points and special summon it from my hand!”

Yusei swerved to the left as the giant creature emerged—a huge, hulking thing that looked more goblin than baboon, carrying a huge club that looked like it could lop his head off with one swing.

Avian has only 1000 attack points. Green Baboon has 2600. If I take this hit, I'll be down to 2400 in one blow.

He smirked, though, as they rounded the circuit and zoomed past the bleachers where everyone sat. Yusei glanced over—sure enough, Judai was grinning at him. He knew, didn't he? Yusei didn't plan on taking this hit.

“Green Baboon attacks Elemental Hero Avian,” Andore said, thrusting his hand forward.

The beast roared, lumbering after Avian.

“Trap card, open!” Yusei shouted. “Hero Barrier! When I control an Elemental Hero, it negates one attack!”

A shield whirled into life, crackling with energy. The baboon struck against it and practically bounced off, bouncing comically across the ground for a few beats.

If this truly is a fake deck to throw me off the scent, Yusei thought. There is no reason for me to drag it out. None of this will be their real strategy. I need to finish this quickly.

Andore drew level with Yusei, looking a bit miffed, but impressed at the same time.

“I'll set two cards and end my turn,” he said. “You're good, Yusei; just as I thought you'd be. But is this your normal deck? I thought you ran machine types.”

Yusei shrugged good naturedly.

“Generally,” he called across. “I figured I'd rather keep my regular deck private before the match.”

Andore's lips tugged downwards slightly. Yusei half smiled.

Ruined your plan, didn't I? he thought. We'll just be on an even playing field at the beginning. As it should be.

Yusei's turn. He yanked the next card from the deck and glanced at it. Immediately, he realized that he had overlooked a flaw in this plan.

Judai's deck did not have Speed Spells.

He swore under his breath, accelerating so that Andore would not see his expression change. He hadn't considered this—dammit, he was stupid! Judai's deck revolved around Polymerization, but his deck did not contain the Speed Spell version of it—without Fusion or Synchro, Yusei was going to have a hell of a time of it. And without spell cards at all?

I really should have thought this through, he thought. Dammit.

He stuck the useless Polymerization card into his hand slot and looked over his options.

Judai used a Fusion deck. That meant he would have multiple means of Fusion, not just the normal Polymerization. Yusei could count on finding a trap card or a monster effect that would allow him to circumvent this difficulty—but meanwhile, he would have to deal with a third of a deck that was essentially useless.

Nothing is useless. I can make this work.

What was Andore's plan with this deck? If his baboon monster was to be taken as evidence of his strategy, it was a blunt power deck. Like Jack's. Judai's was much more technically involved, a quick, agile deck.

Yusei sucked a breath.

He could do this.

Judai, he thought, without even realizing what he was doing. Judai—give me some of your strength.

Wait—the cards in his hand…he did have a strategy without spell cards. It had occurred to him so easily after that quiet thought. As though Judai himself were sitting on the back of his D-Wheel, giving him pointers on how to use the deck. He could even avoid Fusion summoning, and completely giving away that this wasn't his deck. The less Andore knew about Judai's deck, the better.

Yusei grinned. He was back in action.

Thanks, Judai.

“I switch Avian to defense mode,” Yusei shouted. “And then I summon Elemental Hero Bubbleman in defense mode!”

In a rush of light, the blue armored hero leapt into view, cape snapping behind him.

“I'll set a card and end my turn!”

“Ah, playing it safe, are we?” Andore called, sounding good-natured. “My turn—draw!”

Yusei glanced back at the Team Unicorn duelist, waiting for the storm. He could feel it coming—in a power deck like this, it was only natural to expect big punches, and very quickly.

But with Judai's soul pulsing the deck…

Yusei had to smile. There was no way he was going to lose. Not with Judai helping him.

“I activate the effect of Playful Possum—when it was destroyed by its own effect, I can special summon it during my Standby Phase!”

The possum reappeared as they bolted down the race circuit. Yusei should have known there was a second trick to using that move. Green Baboon was just the teaser.

“I activate the effect of a card in my hand, Behemoth the King of All Animals! It can be Normal summoned with only one tribute!”

The possum disappeared again, and it was replaced with—

This thing was huge—rabid. A deep magenta in color, thick matted purple hair ran from its head down its back. Its teeth were as long as Yusei's arms, and saliva dribbled down its fangs.

Twenty-seven hundred attack points. That will do it.

“When Behemoth is summoned I can return a Beast-type monster from my Graveyard to my hand—so Playful Possum is coming back!”

Andore replaced the card, and then accelerated to draw level with Yusei again.

“Battle!” he shouted. “Behemoth attacks Bubbleman, and Baboon attacks Avian!”

Yusei swerved to avoid the exploding holograms, gritting his teeth. There went his wall.

It was okay. This should work. It would work. Because it was the strategy that he and Judai had made—and there was no way that was crumbling any time soon.

Andore blinked, looking rather uncertain, strangely enough. Maybe it was because Yusei was still smiling after having lost all of his monsters.

“I end my turn,” Andore said.

Yusei gripped his handlebars.

Showtime.

He pushed his engine faster, faster, faster. He outstripped Andore in a matter of seconds.

“My turn! Draw!”

All right. Coming up on the moment of truth.

“I play Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab in defense mode—turn end!”

Let's do this, Judai.

Yusei felt a weird rush through him, like excitement and euphoria all at once. Judai wasn't physically here, but he could feel his friend's heartbeat through the cards. The cards that would let him win this with barely a scratch.

They zoomed past the bleachers again as Andore drew his next card. In slow motion, Yusei heard the command for Baboon to destroy Flare Scarab, and Behemoth to attack directly.

He caught Judai's eyes.

Judai grinned.

Let's take 'im out, his eyes were saying.

Will do.

They zipped out of sight of the bleachers again and Behemoth's direct attack of 2700 hit. Yusei wobbled and skidded for a moment, the hologram feeling all too real for a split second. But he righted himself, and smacked at the activate trap button.

“Trap card open! Damage Interest!”

Yusei could see Andore's face whiten in his screen on the D-Wheel. He knew what it was and he had nothing to stop it.

“When I take battle damage from a direct attack, I inflict double that damage to my opponent!”

5400 attack points. Far more than the 3000 that Andore currently had, even more than the 4000 he would have started with.

One hit kill.

Andore's hand hovered for a moment over his trap cards, as though calculating. But just before the PA system blared out—Team Unicorn's practice time is over—and the holograms vanished without taking the last hit, Yusei saw that hand drop away slightly.

Holographic interference aside, Yusei had won. And both of them knew it.

Yusei skidded to a stop back at the starting line.

“YUSEI!”

Lua practically launched himself over the railing to tackle hug Yusei getting of his motorcycle. Yusei stumbled under the weight.

“Whoa there,” he laughed. “Hang on.”

“That was so cool and you totally beat him and that wasn't even your deck and it didn't have speed spells and oh my gosh you really are amazing aren't you was that really the first time you had ever used Judai's deck you were so cool you didn't even flinch and—”

“I didn't technically win,” Yusei said, letting Lua down and ruffling his hair. “Game ended without a result.”

Jack snorted loudly, and Yusei knew what he had to say about that. Something along the lines of “it doesn't freaking matter about that genius you had it in the bag and everyone knew it.”

“Wow, Yusei-san,” Andore said, coming to a stop next to Yusei's D-Wheel. “That was impressive.”

“From you as well,” Yusei said, walking over to shake hands with the other man. Andore smiled—but there was a calculating edge to it, an excited, battle-hungry look. He wanted to see what Yusei could do with his real deck.

Yusei found himself smiling back at that veiled challenge.

Looked like both of them were excited about the battles ahead.

“We'll forget about the accident today,” Andore said. “I would hate to see you out of the tournament before we got to have a real match.”

“Likewise.”

Andore nodded respectfully. Then he turned back towards his fellows, wheeling his D-Wheel away. Yusei then turned back to the ball of enthusiasm that was Lua, who continued babbling and waving his arms around as the rest of the group made their way over.

“That was flipping amazing, Yusei!” Crow said, eyes bright. “You really never used that deck before? Holy shit!”

Jack nodded without even a snort. That was more than enough to indicate that he was very impressed.

Judai jogged over then, hands in his pockets. He grinned sheepishly.

“Sorry about the spell card thing. Didn't know that was a difference until Aki mentioned it. You pulled through great, though. You were great out there.”

Yusei grinned.

“We were great out there,” he said.

He handed Judai's deck back to him and Judai smiled as he switched back Yusei's deck.

“Yeah,” he said. His eyes were bright, brighter than usual. “I guess we were.”

. . .

The tiny figure of Luciano, one of three Emperors of Yliaster and youngest Director of the Public Maintenance Bureau, read the report with a growing scowl.

Placido glanced lazily over at his younger associate.

“What’s the matter? Not interesting enough for your infantile brain?”

Luciano kicked him under the table. Placido swore and almost moved to strike him back. But Jose sent the pair of them a glare, and Placido restrained himself.

Luciano huffed and smacked the report down on the table.

“This thing,” he said, “is annoying me for some reason.”

Jose glanced over, but Placido just huffed, leaning back in his chair and inspecting his nails instead.

He became more alert when Jose’s brow furrowed, and he reached out with a giant hand to turn the paper towards him again. There was silence for a few beats as he considered the messy writing of Ushio Tetsu.

“When did this happen?” he said. “And where?”

“Duel Lane 43; this morning,” Luciano said. “It’s bothering me. It’s weird. I don’t like it.”

“It’s bothering you because it’s the one we were instructed to consider in the Program,” Jose rumbled, his eyes narrowing.

“You’re not saying…” Placido started.

“Yes.”

“But he’s dead in this part of the time line. We made sure of that.”

“Did we? Or did we simply open the door for him to make another arrangement?”

Jose frowned for another moment at the report. Then he slid it back to the table.

“Tell your Ghosts to be on alert,” he said, directing this at Placido. “Due to his…interference…we have no idea where the loop hole is. Find out where he’s directing his attention, and more importantly, what he’s pointedly ignoring.”

“Fine,” Placido said, but it was clear he did not intend to argue. He stood up immediately and strode from the room. When he was gone, Luciano’s eyes slid back to Jose.

“Is the loop hole really that important?” he drawled. “Once the Circuit is complete, everything will be done.”

“Unless the loop hole is exploited first. We may already be trapped in the loop, Luciano. I intend to break us free of it…and wipe this horrid City from the face of the earth.”

He stood up with a snap, the whole floor shaking slightly with his weight. Then he, too, left the room, leaving Luciano alone.

Luciano glanced back down at the paper where Ushio Tetsu described being approached by a young man with pure black eyes.

“Huh,” he said. “So you’re so sore about dying that you do something like this? How lame.”

Although…if it is him…he’ll probably be coming for this eventually.

Luciano patted his pocket where he kept that card. He liked to take cards from the people he finished off. Felt like a trophy. This one had been his favorite. Although it was a bit of a troublemaker, honestly.

Ha.

‘Honestly.’

Chapter Text

“What?? Crow did—”

Aki's mouth dropped open. Judai stiffened but he couldn't tell what was wrong; he couldn't hear what she was hearing on her cell phone. It was the evening before the WRGP, and Judai and Aki had been practicing with her psychic powers in the park, off to the side where no one would notice, and there wouldn't be as much chance of property damage. If Judai was going to be honest, that was mostly because of him. Aki had far more control over her powers than she thought she did; all the girl needed was some confidence from someone she considered an expert.

“Right…yes. Okay. Yes, we'll be there as soon as possible.”

She shut off her phone and shoved it into her pocket, deactivating her duel disk in the same motion. Judai noticed with just a little bit of pride how she released her real monsters so easily, with barely a prod of her mind. This girl was one hundred percent better at this than she believed she was. He just had to convince herself.

“What happened?” he asked, jogging over even as Aki beckoned and starting walking.

“Crow got into an accident. He fractured his shoulder.”

“What? But—but the WRGP is tomorrow!”

“I know…”

Aki bit her lip, looking scared. Judai felt compelled to reach out and squeeze her elbow. She smiled faintly at the reassurance, but he could tell she was still worried.

…dammit.

They had probably called off practice just in time, as it was starting to rain pretty hard by the time they reached Poppo Time Shop. Aki pushed through the door first, stopping on the front step to push the wet hair out of her eyes.

They were greeted with a shower of obscenities.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

A garbage can rolled across the floor.

Judai choked on a gasp.

For a moment, everything was black. He couldn't see anything, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't think—

And then it was over. He blinked, staring down into the room. Everything…looked fine? What had that been?

“Dammit, Crow, don't you dare break your foot too!” shouted Jack.

Crow stood by the couch, looking positively furious.

“How do you want me to feel, Jack?” Crow shouted back. “My shoulder's fucking broken! I can't duel in the tournament at all! A whole month—a whole fucking month!”

“Raging about it isn't going to do us any good!”

“Guys, please,” Yusei said. “We need to calm down…we have to decide what we're going to do.”

Aki jogged down the stairs two at a time, Judai following closely behind.

“Crow?” Aki said. “What happened?”

Crow glared at her and then looked quickly away.

He's crying, Judai thought.

“Crow hit someone on the duel lane and went off his bike,” said Yusei. “His shoulder's fractured. He can't strain it dueling…it's going to be a month before it heals.”

“The tournament will be over by then!”

“Don't rub it in,” Crow muttered.

Judai frowned. He shuffled over to Crow.

“Can I check it over?” he asked.

Crow shrugged, and didn't move as Judai glanced over the wrapped shoulder, poking gently in several places.

Yusei and Jack continued to talk.

“What are we going to do now?” said Yusei. “Can we duel with just the two of us?”

“You'll only have eight thousand life points, then,” Bruno said. “It'll be quite a handicap.”

“Are you saying we should give up?” Jack said, slamming his fist on the table. “I won't accept that!”

“I'm not saying that. Of course not. We've come this far…”

Judai's eyes narrowed.

“Crow, you said you hit someone? Who?”

“Dunno. Couldn't find 'em,” Crow muttered. “Fucking hit and run.”

“Are you sure? You're absolutely sure you hit someone?”

“I'm fucking sure, okay!” Crow said, lashing out a little too harshly. “I wouldn't be in this fucking mess if not for—”

“Could you see their face? Or—”

“Just—stop it, Judai!”

Crow tried to shove past him, but Judai grabbed him by his good shoulder.

“…because you're trailing shadow magic everywhere.”

The whole room went silent.

Crow turned slowly to face Judai.

“What are you saying?” he said.

“I'm saying someone rigged it,” Judai said bluntly. “Someone meant to get you hurt. And now you're practically covered in shadow magic—the nasty kind. It's getting everywhere in here.”

He glared at a particular lively shadow. No one else would be able to see it, but he crushed it under his foot anyway.

“You're saying that someone's trying to make sure Crow's not in the tournament?” said Jack. “Someone's using magic like yours to handicap us?”

“Could be,” Judai said, narrowing his eyes at the shadows pooling on the floor. They wriggled like worms—he was going to be hard at work removing these. If he left even one of them, they could turn nasty and sentient. What were they here for, anyway—

Why were they all pointing towards Yusei?

Judai growled a bit under his breath, snapping all the shadows to his own. He could hold them there for a little while, at least. Being the king of darkness had its perks.

Someone was trying to get to Yusei, he realized. Someone was using this weird, roundabout method to kill Yusei—why? Was this why Judai was here?

He turned towards Crow again, glancing at his shoulder again.

“I've taken care of the magic bit,” he said. “Your shoulder, though…that's going to be tougher.”

“What?” Crow said.

Judai frowned, considering, not really listening to Crow.

“Healing is not my specialty,” he muttered. “I could actually make it worse if I do it too quickly.”

“Are you—you can heal?” Crow said, eyes widening.

“Sort of. I'm not good.”

He frowned again.

“The best I can do without disfiguring you by accident is to speed up the healing process,” he said. “You'll be able to be in the tournament, but it will be a couple of days, or a week at least.”

Crow looked like he was going to cry.

He threw his good arm around Judai then, and Judai flinched. He realized it was just a hug after a beat of panic.

“Um…Crow, I'm glad you're happy, but I'm not really a hugger…”

“Oh, sorry, I…wow. I'm just…uh.”

He drew away quickly, wiping his hand on his pants. He looked overwhelmed.

“You guys just have to win a couple matches and then I can be in again,” Crow said.

Yusei shook his head, looking a bit overwhelmed. He stared down at the table for a moment.

“Jack…do you think we can make it with two people for a first few matches…?”

“You won't have to.”

Everyone looked up.

Aki was standing there, fists at her sides, looking determined. She stepped forward, putting a hand over her heart.

“I can take Crow's place until he's better,” she said. “It's—I'm a member of 5D's too. It's the least I can do.”

A smile broke over Yusei's face. Jack just snorted.

“Do you really think you can do it?” he said, leaning over the table. “You haven't been driving for long. And there's no autopilot on this.”

“I can,” Aki said, eyes hard and focused.

Judai had to grin.

Yeah, he thought. She was a tough one, really.

He turned his eyes down to his shadow, where he had imprisoned the shadow magic.

Still, it left one major question…one end that hadn't yet been tied.

Who sent that magic? And why?

. . .

The World Racing Grand Prix started with a fanfare of jets leaving contrails, fireworks exploding in the sky, and people shouting and crying their appreciation and excitement.

Everyone except Judai.

“Ugh! Again with the flipping fireworks.”

He had been startled awake for the fourth time this morning.

“Uuuuughh.”

He moaned again, throwing his arm over his head.

He hadn't slept a wink last night. The nightmares been worse than ever—a terrible mixture of flashbacks to Dark World, potential disasters that he worried might happen in the future, and the same repeating vision of the dark presence that he was for some reason asking for help from. But besides those, he had kept himself awake for hours on the computer, using his not-too-shabby hacking skills to get some insight on who the hell Lua and Luka's parents were. He thought it might be the best place to start on the mystery of everything, since he didn't know how to track this shadow magic down. Maybe if he found one piece to his mystery, the rest would fall into place?

“You would think,” he had muttered to Yubel, “that someone affluent enough to own an apartment like that would have been written about in some kind of newspaper.”

Yubel hadn't had anything to say about that so Judai had been left talking to himself like a crazy person. As though he needed more proof of that.

He sighed, bringing himself back to the present as he leaned down to rest his elbows on his knees. Well, maybe the backstage of the riding circuit wasn't the place for a nap anyway.

The door burst open to admit the way-too-excited-for-this-early-in-the-morning Lua.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” he said, running in circles. “I can't believe this is gonna happen!! The WRGP is starting and I'm a member of one of the teams! I can't believe this!”

“You're just pit crew, Lua,” Luka said, glowering at him. She, too, looked a little irritated by his excitement for this time of day.

“But pit crew is super important!” said Crow, clomping in with his arm still in a sling. “Oy, Judai. Sleeping well?”

“Shove it, Crow.”

Crow just snickered. He was in a fantastic mood despite not getting to ride today. He had told Judai that he already felt loads better with Judai's remedy—Judai didn't really have the heart to tell Crow that it had been made up of his own blood in a smoothie. It would do the job of repairing Crow's bone much faster, since Judai himself healed incredibly quickly. But he still didn't want to tell Crow how it was made. Might be a funny expression on his face, though.

“Yusei wanted me to ask if you wanted to walk out there with us,” he said. “We're getting ready to take on Team Unicorn.”

“Me?” Judai said, blinking. “But I'm not a part of the team…”

Crow chuckled, throwing something at him. Judai snagged it out of the air and turned it over, confused.

“This is a Team 5D's jacket,” he said.

“Yeah. You are part of the team, yeah?”

“But I don't know a damn thing about D-Wheels.”

“It's okay. Neither does Lua.”

“Heeey!” Lua said, pouting. “I know a bunch about D-Wheels!”

Crow just chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair.

“Well, Yusei was pretty adamant about it. Something about the teamwork from the duel against Andore the first time. He really wants you on the team—think of it as being our dueling adviser or something. I mean, you are hella good. And after all, you've done a pretty good job of getting us out of trouble. With Team Unicorn, and the shadow magic, and my shoulder?”

Crow frowned then.

“Hey…you don't think Team Unicorn did that magic thingy, do you?”

Judai hesitated, considering it.

“Nah,” he said. “Magic like that leaves marks. I would have noticed it right away if they had used something like that. They might do weird tricks beforehand, but they're not ones to hurt people. At least, I don't think so.”

He looked down at the jacket in his hands.

“Crow, are you really sure you…”

“Oh, shut up and put the damn thing on!” Crow said, slapping Judai's shoulder with his good arm. “You're part of the team now, whether you like it or not!

Judai blinked. Then he grinned.

“All right, then,” he said, slipping off his Osiris red jacket and pulling the other jacket on. “Come on then, Team 5D's. Let's kick some unicorn butt.”

“Yeah!” Lua said, punching the air.

They slipped out into the wide hallway, where the D-Wheels were waiting before they were brought out to the pit. Yusei was turning the handles on his, revving the engine a few times while Bruno checked over some screen plugged into the motorcycle. He glanced up as Judai and the others approached. A smile grew on his lips.

“Looks good on you,” he said.

“Hehe, thanks,” Judai said, rubbing the back of his neck. “So…Team Unicorn, right?”

“Yeah. Did you happen to get anything interesting from watching Andore duel yesterday?”

“Hmm…”

He considered. It was obvious that that hadn't been his normal dueling deck, but he had still used it with quite a bit of finesse.

“He's really good…better than he appeared yesterday,” said Judai finally. “The way he dueled—it's obvious he's not a one-trick pony. He'll have multiple strategies to a deck.”

“I still say we should just punch through,” Jack announced from a few feet away, where he was testing Wheel of Fortune. “He was using a power deck. He'll probably use a similar one, right?”

“Not likely…” Judai said. “That could have been a bait to throw you out in front of him. They know that you're the team's powerhouse, right?”

Jack puffed up a tiny bit at being called a powerhouse, but he still paused to consider this.

“We might still start with you, Jack,” Yusei said. “But we need to do a quick check of your deck's strategy. I think I might have a few ideas…Judai, would you help?”

“Not a problem.”

They left Bruno and Crow to run the last checks on the D-Wheels, stepping off to the side to have a look at Jack and Yusei's decks. Aki jogged over to join in too.

“Nah, switch those two,” Judai said. “If he assumes that you're just going to go for a full power deck—and he probably is, I really do think that was a bait to make them start with you, make them think they'll have an easy first round—then that'll throw him majorly off balance.”

“Are you sure?” Jack said, frowning at the card that Judai had indicated.

“Positive. Besides, that'll have a lot of synergy with Yusei. Oh and…Jack, what's your rationale for this pair…?”

They chatted a few more moments, making last minute changes.

“Team 5D's! You're up for introduction!”

The group of boys looked at each other. They nodded.

“Team 5D's,” Yusei said, putting his hand into the middle.

Judai grinned, and he and the other two put their hands on top of Yusei's.

“Let's knock 'em dead,” Judai said.

“I'll take care of all three of them. None of you will have to do anything,” Jack said, huffing.

“Good luck, everyone,” said Aki.

Yusei just nodded. Then they all broke apart, and the three boys headed for their D-Wheels, Judai stepping back with Crow, the twins, and Bruno.

“Our first team today is the winner of the Atlantic Cup, Team Unicorn: Breo, Andore, and Jan!!”

The announcer's voice echoed through the stadium, a bass-like sound that reverberated through Judai's stomach.

“Ugh,” he said. “Gonna have to get used to that.”

“And then, we have Team 5D's! Made up of Fortune Cup champion Fudo Yusei, former King Jack Atlas, and psychic duelist Izayoi Aki!”

Judai blinked at the bright light outside as the team exited, raising his hand to block it.

For a moment, he almost panicked—so many people, there were too many people, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit—

A hand gripped his arm. Judai startled out of the momentary panic.

“Yusei?” he said.

Yusei glanced at him. He smiled slightly.

“It's okay,” he said. “Breathe.”

Judai smiled back, feeling a little shaky still.

“Good luck,” he whispered.

“Thank you,” Yusei said back.

Wow, their faces were really close, Judai realized. And wow he was having a hard time not staring at Yusei's lips.

They hesitated a moment longer. Then Yusei squeezed his arm one more time and stepped back.

“If anything gets too much for you, please don't feel bad about taking a break,” he said. “I know how you feel about crowds.”

“Nah,” Judai said. “Can't miss this. After all, I'm technically fighting with you in this one, right?”

Yusei smiled and nodded, patting his deck.

“Thank you, again.”

Judai sent him a thumb's up.

“It's just like the duel against Paradox—except you've got more life points and you're also riding around in circles.”

Yusei laughed.

“We'll win,” he said.

“I know you will.”

They smiled at each other. Then Yusei jogged towards the starting line, where Jack was getting set up.

He would go first. The plan was simple—try and take out Andore before he took out Jack. Right now, Andore had the advantage. He knew that Jack was a power deck user, and would plan accordingly. The deck he had used yesterday was almost certainly not his real deck. But in that respect, they had their own advantage.

It wasn't just that they knew that Team Unicorn had been playing them from the beginning. It wasn't just that they were far better at working in a team than Team Unicorn suspected.

It was the fact that they knew to be prepared for anything.

Judai grinned up towards the sky. Despite everything, maybe today was going to be a good day—

His eyes seemed to move by themselves. They dropped towards the stands on the other side, staring over at the doorway where the fans had entered the bleachers. Was there someone standing there? Watching him?

A weird chill ran down his spine. He squinted.

Then he shifted his eyes into Yubel's and—

He gasped as his entire vision went black again, just like it had in the room where Crow was leaking shadow magic everywhere. He swore, dropping Yubel's vision so that he could see again.

“What was that?” he hissed.

—I don't…I don't know—

Yubel actually seemed shaken.

Judai glanced up again. That person was gone.

Again, he felt a chill run down his spine.

You know, the more he thought about it…

The more familiar that shadow had looked…

. . .

Yusei shot to his feet, heart hammering. That—that was something they hadn't accounted for.

“Overboost system?” he whispered.

Andore had turned on the overboost system on his bike, sending him exploding past Jack. The crowd was going wild already.

“Shit,” Bruno said, typing furiously. “If he gets the jump on Jack, we might have a serious disadvantage.”

“It's okay, Jack knows what he's doing,” Yusei said.

But did he? He hoped so. Of the team, Jack was sometimes the hardest to keep in alignment with the plan.

I hope he doesn't do anything stupid…

He grabbed the mic connected to Jack's helmet.

“Let him take the turn, Jack. We can still work with this. Don't be reckless.”

“Hmph,” Jack huffed. “I knew that much, Yusei. Don't micromanage me.”

Andore took the first curve. The players drew their hands and the life point counter flickered to life on the screen above the stadium.

Please stick to the plan, Jack…

“My first turn! I summon the Tuner monster Unicorn Familiar!” Andore shouted. “Then I remove one spell card from play to special summon Monoceros!”

“Synchro summon off the bat, huh?” Yusei said.

What kind of deck was he playing? This wouldn't be the power deck they saw before—or would it?

“I set two cards face down and end my turn!”

“What's his game?” Bruno muttered.

“He's trying to bait Jack!” Lua said, clenching his fists.

“Knowing Jack, it will work too,” said Yusei.

Jack zipped forward on the Wheel of Fortune—yes, sure enough, he was grinning.

This isn't going to be easy, Jack, Yusei thought. Dammit, use your head for once.

Hopefully, at the very least, he would stick to the plan…

He touched his deck at his side with one finger, to calm himself. He almost thought…that he could feel a heartbeat there. Well, he wouldn't be surprised. After all, the monster hidden there was no ordinary one…he really wondered if this was okay. Judai had reassured him that it was fine, that using it was well suited to this type of team duel anyway, and that he had already asked and gotten permission, but still.

He half smiled.

You made one fatal flaw, Team Unicorn, he thought. You thought you were only fighting three people. But you're actually fighting all of us.

“My turn!” Jack shouted. “I special summon Vice Dragon, since only you have monsters! It's attack and defense are halved by this effect!”

He was already drawing his next card from his hand as the dragon sparkled to life.

“Next, I summon Dark Resonator! I tune Vice Dragon with Dark Resonator!”

“Here it comes,” Luka muttered, pulling on her headset and sliding into a seat beside Lua.

“The king's heartbeat will make a line here! Bear witness to its shaking power!”

Yusei heard Judai draw in a soft breath. He glanced over at his friend, who was standing behind Crow's seat, eyes fixed on the duel.

“Anything wrong?” Yusei asked.

“Nah,” Judai said. “Just…Synchro summoning. It has…a really nice feel to it. A rhythm.”

He half smiled.

“Sorry. Sounds dumb.”

Yusei smiled back.

“It's not dumb,” he said. “It sounds…beautiful. I wish I could see half the things you see.”

Judai chuckled softly, but did not respond. Yusei turned himself back to face the duel. Red Dragon Archfiend was pulling itself onto the field.

“Hopefully Jack has drawn that card,” Yusei said, leaning down. “Bruno, can you check his hand?”

“Will do.”

Bruno's fingers flew, but Jack was already going onto the offense.

“I'll attack with Red Dragon Archfiend, and by its effect, all defense position monsters will be destroyed! Go, my soul! Absolute Power Force!”

Andore smirked on the screen.

“That was a trap and we fell for it,” Yusei said.

“But I confirmed, Jack drew the card,” Bruno said. “If he survives this—”

“He will,” Judai said. “He definitely will.”

“I activate Unicorn Familiar's effect! I can remove it from play when its attacked by removing another monster from play!”

Monoceros and Unicorn Familiar disappeared from the field.

“Jack, stop your attack!” Luka cried into the headset.

Jack was already shouting to Archfiend to halt the attack—but it wasn't enough.

“By Unicorn Familiar's effect, you can't stop your attack!” Andore said. “Trap open! Different Dimension Barrier!”

“Fuck!”

Jack's voice rang out over the headsets as the attack was reflected right back at him. He swerved and skidded around the falling meteors of Archfiend's attack, life points dropping to 1000.

“Shit!” Crow said. “They were really fucking ready for Jack's deck!”

“It's fine,” Yusei said, through gritted teeth. Was it, though? “Jack can still make it. We need to try and stick to the plan.”

Luka was babbling into her headset, things like “are you okay, Jack”, “Jack stay calm, it will be okay, we can handle this”, “remember we're all supporting you!”

“For god's sake, Luka, you're the one that needs to calm down!” Jack shouted back into his helmet. “I'm fine. A little something like this isn't enough to shake me.”

He huffed into his microphone.

“Yusei. Is the plan still going to work like this?”

“I hope so,” Yusei said into his own microphone. “As long as you can halve his life points, we'll be fine. And make sure you get that card down and protected.”

“Hmph. As though I couldn't handle something like that.”

He gritted his teeth and leaned forward.

“I'll set four cards and end my turn!”

Andore's turn, now.

“Unicorn's Familiar returns to the field now!”

The grotesque goblin reappeared on the field, hissing.

“That doesn't look like a real unicorn,” Luka mumbled, sounding a little bit angry.

Jack actually laughed on the other side of the microphone.

“Want me to slay it for you, Luka?”

Crow snorted.

“Cracking jokes at a time like this, Jack?”

“What? I thought this was supposed to be a duel. Duels are supposed to be enjoyable, aren't they?”

“You're really something else, you know that?” Crow said, chuckling.

Yusei glanced over at Team Unicorn. They didn't seem worried at all—this was all perfectly calculated, wasn't it? His eyes moved back to Judai. He was frowning at the screen.

“Something wrong?” Yusei asked.

Judai eyes lifted, but to the track, not to Yusei's eyes.

“…no,” he said. “Not right now, anyway.”

He frowned, though, and Yusei did not miss the way that his eyes glanced up at the stands, scanning the people there.

“And next, I'll special summon Different Dimension Unicorn Knight by bringing back Monoceros! Come out, both of you!”

The heavy set unicorn was quickly joined by an armored knight.

“Here comes the Synchro summon,” Yusei muttered.

“I tune Monoceros and Unicorn Familiar! Synchro Summon! Thunder Unicorn!”

Judai drew in another breath as the creature descended—a sleek blue unicorn with a horn the shape of a lightning bolt.

“Thunder Unicorn's effect can reduce your monster's attack by five hundred for every monster on my field!”

“That will only make it twenty-five hundred!” Jack shouted. “Not enough to defeat my Archfiend!”

Andore smirked.

“Dammit,” Yusei muttered.

“Monoceros' effect from the Graveyard! I can revive the Tuner Monster used for the Synchro Summon!”

The Unicorn's Familiar returned, screeching. Luka moaned, hugging herself.

“I don't like that thing,” she said.

“Now with both of my monsters, I can take Archfiend down to 2000 attack points!”

Andore skidded around so that he was riding backwards. He thrust his hand forward in command.

“Thunder Unicorn! Destroy the weakened Archfiend!!”

The Unicorn whinnied and shot forward. With the loss of a thousand life points, Archfiend was no match for the unicorn, and its horn slashed right across its chest, causing the dragon to explode and disappear from the field. Jack cried out, almost spinning.

That was when Judai flashed forward, hands on the dash board, eyes wide.

“Bruno, what's that?” he said, pointing.

The screen was flashing, a red spot on Jack's D-Wheel program. Bruno accessed the program.

“Shit,” he swore. “There's something wrong with the air intake.”

“That's not just anything,” Judai said, glancing up. “Fuck. I missed one.”

“One—oh! You mean the shadow magic?” Crow said, leaping up.

“Bring Jack in, right now!” Judai said. “Right now!”

“I'll set a card and end my turn!” Andore shouted.

The crowd's roar was almost too much to hear over. Yusei couldn't even hear over his own heartbeat. Dammit!

“Lua, now, call a pit stop now,” Yusei said. “Luka, explain to Jack what's happening.”

Lua rushed to the fence, throwing the pit stop sign up.

Jack zoomed right past—hadn't he seen it?

“Jack, we need you to come back—Jack!” Luka shouted into her headset. “Jack, listen, can you hear me? There's shadow magic in your D-Wheel, you need to come for a pit stop!”

“Why isn't he stopping?” Crow said, slamming his fist into the table. “Why isn't he stopping?”

“My headset isn't receiving!” Luka said, looking on the verge of tears. “What's going on? I'm only getting static.”

Judai swore, running to the fence and gripping it. Yusei couldn't move.

Jack. Jack.

Jack.

. . .

Carly Nagisa was already in a bad mood, so she didn't notice it as early as she perhaps ought to have had. She had no idea how she had managed to get sandwiched between Mikage-san and Stephanie-san, but listening to them get overly excited over Jack was always annoying. That was Carly's job! And they were always mad at her for some reason. Oooh, it was bad enough that Jack hadn't been talking to her as much lately! If only she could remember why he had started avoiding her about six months ago. Then maybe she could fix whatever she had done wrong and—

Oh, man, and Jack was getting beaten pretty badly today, too! This wasn't right! Or fair!

“Moouuu,” she moaned.

It was only then that she started to realize the weird sick feeling in her stomach.

She had just thought it was gas. Or maybe irritation. Being around Mikage and Stephanie could do that to her a lot.

But no, this was more…clinging. Like there was something slimy in her stomach that clung to the sides, making her feel gross. She shuddered—did it just get colder? And she felt a little dizzy…maybe she needed to get out of the crowd for a few seconds. It was clear by the bleacher doors. She could go there for a breather.

“Mikage, I need to get out for a second.”

“Now?? But Jack is—”

“I'm still watching! I just…move before I throw up all over you!”

Mikage sighed, but shifted enough so that Carly could sneak past her and stumble out into the aisle. She trotted up towards the top. She tripped, however, on the last step and squeaked as she tumbled face first into the ground.

Her glasses tumbled off of her face.

She froze.

Oh no. Oh no no no no, not again.

Immediately it started. She gasped, clapping her hands over her eyes as all the colors and shapes started to get stronger and brighter. Oh, no, she could see it again, she didn't want to see it, all the weird colors that clung to people's shadows and frames, the way that when she stared at a person too long she could somehow just tell things about them like some kind of weird freak—and she especially didn't want to see the shadows that crept and slid along ground, wrapping around people's ankles and just seemingly invisible to everyone—

They would be invisible to her, too, if she could just find her glasses!!

She fumbled along the ground with one hand still over her eyes.

“Glasses, glasses, glasses—”

“Here.”

She felt something being pressed into her hand—her glasses!

“Oh, goodness, thank you,” she said, fumbling to put them on one handed so she wouldn't have to take her hand off of her eyes.

But it was too much work, so she just tried to do it as quickly as possible and—

She felt like she was going to throw up.

The man in front of her was caked in those slithery shadow things.

She stared at him, mouth hanging open, voice gone.

“I…uh…you…”

The man blinked. Considering her. His eyes…oh god, his eyes. They were fully black, like the shadows that clung to his arms like snakes draped over him. He actually started to pet one, almost absently, his dull green hair shifting in its ponytail as he moved so that it fell over his back instead of his shoulder.

“Is something wrong?”

Carly couldn't talk. She was still on the ground, so he looked a whole lot taller and—oh wow, he was really, really scary, even without all of the shadows around him.

“You…I…shadows,” she mumbled.

The man blinked again.

“Ah,” he said. “You can see them, can't you?”

Carly nodded mutely.

He knelt down then, coming face to face with her. Too close—she didn't want to be that close to those eyes!

She squeaked and stumbled back, scrambling to her feet and trying to put her glasses back on. But he put a hand on her wrist, stopping her. Cocking his head.

“Why do you hide behind those? You do not need them, do you? Your eyes are fine.”

“I—I don't want to see,” she whispered. “I don't want to see those—things.”

The man blinked. As though he didn't understand.

“Hm,” he said. “Fair enough.”

He released her wrist. She almost dropped her glasses as she moved to put them back on—but before she did, she noticed something.

“You don't have a color,” she whispered.

“Hmmm?”

“Everyone has a color…you don't have one.”

Every time her glasses had slipped, she had seen people. People coated with colors, like they were wearing sheer cloaks or surrounded by a colored mist. She had been able to…know things, based on those colors, and it—it was scary.

But she realized that it was even scarier to see someone without one of those colors at all.

She couldn't read him. Couldn't know things about him, about who—or what—he was.

“Hmmm. I suppose I wouldn't. Not anymore.”

He glanced down at the palm of his hand for a moment.

“You should go,” he said. “The shadows are no place for someone like you.”

“I…okay, I…”

She stopped. The shadows were moving slowly down the stairs, like a thick, black waterfall.

“…where are they going?” she whispered.

The man just watched them. Quietly. Carly's eyes followed their slow, thick trail, glasses held half to her face. She could just…put her glasses on. Go back to pretending they weren't there.

She realized where they were headed, then.

“Why are they going down into the dueling lane?” she asked. “Why are they—why are they all pointed towards—”

Jack. They were pointed towards Jack. She didn't know how she knew, but she did, and—

She turned to face the man, her glasses forgotten for now.

“Why are you trying to hurt Jack?”

“Hm? How do you know I'm hurting him?”

“Because that's what that kind of shadow does. It hurts people.”

“Fascinating. You can differentiate the shadows?”

“Y-yes.”

“Hmmm. A rare talent. Even for a seer like you.”

“A…a what?”

The man advanced on her then, suddenly, quickly. Carly yelped and scrambled back. She found herself pressed against the wall beside the opening out of the stands before she realized it, the man's hand's braced on the wall beside her head. He was too close again!

Slowly, he reached for her wrist. He pulled it up to examine it for a moment. Carly was so scared; she couldn't even breathe. He seemed quite interested in the base of her pinkie, drawing it up so that he could examine it closely. His eyes dropped, as though following some imaginary string from her pinkie and down the stairs.

“Ah,” he said. “I see now.”

He let her wrist drop before considering her for a moment longer.

“You used to hold the darkness, too, didn't you?” he said.

“W-what?”

“Ah. You don't remember. Understandable. Few do, once they've had it pulled out of them so forcibly.”

He stepped back, letting her breathe again.

“I am sorry.”

“F-for what?” she mumbled, still dazed from having been so close to that terrifying man.

“For what I'm about to do.”

An explosion echoed across the stands. A few people screamed, and some jumped up with horror on their faces. Carly blinked—she couldn't see past all the colors!

She fumbled for her glasses, slipping them on. Her hands slid over her mouth and she felt the blood ran from her face.

“Jack,” she whispered. “JACK!”

He was spinning out—something on his D-Wheel was smoking and burning and she thought she could smell the smoke from here—

“JACK!”

She bolted down the stairs even as Jack's D-Wheel crashed and let out another explosion against the side of the stands.

As she ran, she thought she could hear that man speaking again.

“I am truly sorry…the pain of a severed red tie of fate is indeed nothing I would wish upon you willingly…”

. . .

Judai leapt the fence.

“Stick to your plan!” he shouted over his shoulder at Yusei. “I'm going to track the bastard that did this!”

Suddenly, winning this match felt much more important than it had before.

Jack was face down in the ground, obviously injured—but alive. Thanks in part to Judai sending out a cushion of shadow to block that almost certainly fatal strike to his neck.

Someone was trying to kill Jack Atlas, and Judai had a feeling he had caught a glimpse of the bastard who had done it.

Why? He thought, as he vaulted the wall between the track and the stands, ignoring how much attention he would draw with that level of athleticism. Most people were distracted with Jack's desperate attempt to push his D-Wheel back to the start, so only a handful noticed him hit the ground and roll on the other side.

He bolted for the stairs, passing a shouting girl with black hair and an orange vest as he skipped up two at a time.

Why? Why? Why would someone trying to hurt Team 5D's like this? Were they trying to hurt Yusei again? But why this roundabout way?

“Oy! Oy! Don't you dare move!”

He had seen the shadowy figure turning back into the dark hallway, trying to fade from sight. With an angry cry, Judai launched himself forward, grabbing his shoulder, whipping the man around to see—

He felt as though he had just been punched in the gut—and then he actually was punched in the gut.

His opponent threw him against the wall with ease. Judai gasped—it wasn't often that someone matched him in physical strength, and he was momentarily caught off guard.

Yubel wasn't though.

She surged up within him, pushing his muscles to lift himself back to his feet. He launched himself forward. His fist connected with his opponent's jaw, sending the man stumbling back. Judai drew back for a second strike but his opponent was already ready for him. They stepped in and around the next strike with an inhuman speed, elbow surging for Judai's head.

Judai called the shadows up around the man's feet, tripping him up.

He gasped as he realized his opponent had had the same plan, and he, too dropped to his knees.

But he was a little faster on the draw with the shadows, and managed to send them in wave at his opponent, sending him tumbling back to the ground.

Judai didn't hesitate, launching himself up and on top of him.

“Fujiwara!” he shouted. “Fujiwara Yusuke—what the hell are you doing?”

He choked on his own words.

Fujiwara—because it definitely was Fujiwara Yusuke, the young man that he had fought against during the war of Darkness—had eyes that were full black.

Fujiwara tried to surged upwards at Judai's surprise, but Judai wasn't usually one to drop his guard that much. He grabbed Fujiwara's wrists and slammed them into the ground, pinning him down.

“Stop it, Fujiwara! What are you doing?”

Fujiwara struggled for a moment. But then he simply went still, as though resigned. He blinked at Judai.

There was nothing about him that Judai fully recognized. The face was similar—older, of course, he looked to be in his thirties or forties now. His hair was much sleeker than it had once been, pulled back into a short ponytail. And of course, the eyes. The strange, fully black eyes that sent a shudder down Judai's spine. His face was so impassive—even the Fujiwara that had been taken in by Darkness had not been so blank-faced and unreadable.

“Hello, Yuki Judai,” Fujiwara said. “You really haven't aged a day.”

“Hey yourself,” Judai said, tightening his grip. “What are you doing?”

“Killing Jack Atlas.”

He said it so bluntly that Judai almost flinched.

“Why?”

“Because it has to be done.”

“Don't give me that, Fujiwara. Talk to me. Why are you doing this? Who's putting you up to this? And—what's happened to you?”

Fujiwara blinked. He cocked his head slightly.

“Forgive me,” he said. Almost as though he were still thinking about it. “I am only half myself right now.”

“What happened to you? Are you taken in by Darkness again? Has Darkness come back?”

“Mmm. Could be. Can't quite remember.”

“Don't screw with me, Fujiwara!”

“I'm not. Have I ever been the type to be dishonest?”

Judai's chest clenched. There was something about the way he said it…

“…where's Honest?”

Although Fujiwara's eyes were black, unreadable, Judai thought he saw something spark there.

Anger.

He cried out as Fujiwara's shadows surged upwards. Judai tumbled back to the ground, thrown against the wall.

Fujiwara stood in front of him, the shadows swirling around him like a living cloak. They skittered and melded together, forming a long, thick, very sharp point that came up to Judai's neck.

Judai froze as the point slowly forced him to lift his chin up.

“I could end it,” Fujiwara said. “End what you started. Right here.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“I understand what your feelings must have been—but did you really have to get them involved?”

“Fujiwara, please, whatever is going on, we can work through this—we were allies, once, weren't we?”

“We were,” Fujiwara said, considering him. “But that's the past tense, isn't it?”

Judai dove to the side. The point moved harmlessly into the wall as he rolled, coming to his feet.

“I don't have time for you, right now,” Fujiwara said. “I see you have preserved Jack Atlas. I had hoped you would miss that shadow this time.”

“What are you talking about? Fujiwara!”

But Fujiwara was already literally melting into the shadows.

“Goodbye, Judai. This time, I hope you know, I will close that loop.”

He paused for a moment.

“Oh. And are you positive you got rid of all my shadows?”

And then he was gone.

Judai was standing alone in an empty hallway.

Behind him, he heard the echo of the crowd, roaring with approval. Judai's hands rolled up into fists.

Phase two of the plan, of course…Aki must have brought out Stardust Dragon by now.

He stared into the shadows for one more long moment.

And that was when it sank in.

“Shit!” he said, whipping around and bolting back down the stairs. “Jack!”

. . .

Carly was the first one to reach Jack's hospital room, heart hammering.

He was already in a hospital bed, breathing hard, two doctors hooking him up to various instruments and exchanging data with each other.

Mikage was right on her heels and Stephanie not far behind.

“Jack!”

She dropped to the ground beside the bed, ignoring the doctors telling her to get out of the way. Her heart was racing, and she felt sick and dizzy again. Something was wrong, something was very, very wrong. Something that man had did—what had he done with the shadows? Had he really just blown up the air intake in the hopes that it would kill Jack on impact?

And why? Why did he want to kill Jack??

She sobbed, grabbing his hand. It felt cold and—vaguely slimy.

The shadows.

She choked on her air. He wasn't breathing right. It was like he was breathing through a choked air valve, like something was wrapped around his throat.

“Carly, get out of the way! You're distracting the doctors!” Mikage said.

Carly didn't want to but—Jack!

She fumbled for her glasses, knocking them off to the ground in her haste instead of just taking them off.

She choked.

There were shadows everywhere. They clung to Jack, obscuring his normal warm red glow. Several wrapped around his neck, and a few were even sliding down his throat.

Nothing the doctors did could stop this from killing him.

“Get off him!” she screamed, hysteric and terrified. “Leave him alone!”

She grabbed at the shadows, but they only slipped through her fingers and continued their work, sliding into Jack's throat, trying to kill him slowly. Carly screamed again, batting at the slimy things.

“Carly!”

“What are you doing?”

Mikage grabbed at her arm, trying to yank her back as the doctors started to yell again.

“It's killing him, I have to stop it!” she said, yanking free. “You can't see them??”

She grabbed at them again, trying to pull them off of Jack's perfect, pure, warm red aura—

Wait—the aura! If it was strong enough, maybe it could push the shadows back, like a light gets rid of darkness?

Her brain didn't make any sense to her right now but staring at that red aura had made her mind start to work in those weird ways again, knowing things that she shouldn't without any explanation. She dropped to her knees again, gripping his hand.

“We're losing him!” a doctor shouted. “His heartbeat is going down—we need a defibrillator!”

“His breathing is irregular, something might be choking him—we going to need a mask here right now, he needs oxygen!”

“Carly, get away!” Stephanie said, pulling at her shoulders. “They're trying to help him!”

Carly was already focusing too hard to notice. She felt her hands almost literally melt into Jack's aura, locked into place.

“Come on, come on, fight it, Jack,” she whispered. “You're so strong. You're so strong. You can make this.”

She felt her heart beat changing. She was synchronizing with Jack's, she realized.

Match my heartbeat, Jack, match my heartbeat. Fight the shadows.

Jack stirred. He coughed once, sending up a spray of slimy shadows. His aura flared desperately.

Don't think about the shadows. Think about the aura. Strengthen the aura.

She pushed harder, forcing her own color into Jack's somehow—hers was a deep purple, and it mixed together with Jack's—somehow making his color a deeper red rather than changing the color entirely.

“Carly!” Mikage shouted.

Carly let out a gasp.

Jack's aura exploded.

Carly screamed, wanting to throw her hands over her eyes but was unable to release Jack's hand. She was attached, she was too closely attached to Jack's aura, she couldn't break free and—

Her connection snapped.

She gasped as she fell backwards onto the ground. Her head spun and her throat was dry…but the weird, sickly feeling was gone.

“He's—I don't believe it, he's stable again. Hold that defibrillator, he's back. He's back. He's—completely stable, actually.”

She could hear his breaths coming softly and gently. Regular and alive and beautiful. She sighed, closing her eyes against the colors of Mikage and Stephanie were leaning over her, looking worried.

She opened her eyes again when she heard footsteps clattering down the hall, heard someone's shoes squeak to a stop at the door. There was a young man at the door, eyes wide and mouth panting, his thick brown hair plastered to his face and his face blanched.

“Hold on, I have to get rid of the—”

He stopped. He blinked.

“…shadows?”

The boy pushed through the door, looking dumbfounded.

Carly gasped from her place on the floor.

His aura—it was…gold. The purest, deepest, most powerful color she had ever seen in her life. This boy was…

She struggled to her knees, ignoring Mikage who was trying to help her up, eyes fixed on the boy.

“Who are you?” she whispered.

He met her eyes, blinking. And he frowned, looking confused.

“And you are…”

His eyes dropped to the ground and narrowed. Carly glanced over and—oh, god, no, not another shadow!

She jumped to her feet, pointing with her mouth going dry.

“We have to stop it from—”

The boy stepped on it. He ground his foot into the floor a few times, and then, when he lifted it up, the shadow was gone.

He glanced up at her.

“You could see it?” he said.

“Y-yeah,” she said.

“What happened to the ones attacking Jack?”

“I, uh…I made his aura get bright enough…to kill them…”

The boy nodded slowly. He looked…impressed.

“Well then,” he said, smiling with a tired relief. “I'm Yuki Judai. What can I call you?”

Carly swallowed.

“Carly,” she said. “Nagisa Carly.”

Judai grinned, although he still looked like he was mostly just giddy with relief.

“Well, Nagisa-san,” he said. “I believe you might have just saved Jack Atlas' life.”

This was all a little too much at once, wasn't it?

Chapter Text

He could not focus. Dammit, he had to focus. This was no time to—

But his brain kept replaying that explosion, Jack’s cry as he was flung from his D-Wheel and smashed into the ground. Kept replaying Judai swearing and leaping up into the stands after whoever had attacked them—whoever had tried to kill Jack—and then rushing back towards the hospital wing, so flustered and worried that he hadn’t responded to Yusei calling across to him to ask him what had happened.

Something was so horribly, horribly wrong.

Yusei ripped out into the stadium, his D-Wheel humming across the track. He drew even with Andore in a matter of seconds—his use of the Overboost system at the beginning was finally dragging the Team Unicorn duelist back. Yusei’s D-Wheel, however, had never felt more alive.

Three opponents. He had to take down three opponents on his own. This was not in their plan—they had not been prepared for this.

I have to draw that card, he thought desperately. If I don’t…

Again, Jack’s explosion flashed through his mind.

Who was trying to kill Jack? The same person that had attacked Crow? Why were Yusei’s friends being targeted, and would they be struck at again while he was dueling here? He didn’t want to be out on the field right now; he wanted to be in the hospital wing checking on Jack and making sure that everything was okay. He wanted to be on the sidelines with Judai to figure out what was going on and make sure he was there to protect everyone—oh god, what if this enemy was targeting the Signers? Crow was injured, Judai was in the hospital with Jack—Lua and Luka were as good as alone and unprotected in the pit.

He needed to be there with his friends while they sorted out this mess. Not out here in this tournament!

“Yusei! It’s your turn; don’t space out!”

Yusei startled back to himself at the sound of Luka on his headset.

“Right,” he said. “Right.”

Jack and Aki had fought hard already—he couldn’t let them down. And if someone was targeting Team 5D’s…it might be even more important to win this match.

“My turn! Draw!”

He glanced down at his hand. His heart sank for a moment. He had drawn one of the cards he needed, but not the integral one…

Come on…I need you for this.

There was, of course, no answer. He sighed as he slipped his new card in with the rest of his hand.

“I’ll summon Max Warrior in attack mode!”

His warrior appeared in a burst of sparks. For a moment, Yusei’s right arm twinged with pain where his Signer mark was. What was up with that?

He ignored it, turning his attention to his field. Aki had left Stardust Dragon for him, brought back with the equipped Wicked Rebirth. And then the card that Jack had left…

Yusei shook his head. He could do this. His friends were with him; their cards and their souls were bound to his.

“Stardust Dragon! Attack Thunder Unicorn!”

Stardust’s maw opened wide and starlight exploded from its throat. Thunder Unicorn didn’t stand a chance against the onslaught, and it vanished from the field.

“Max Warrior, attack directly!”

He had to get rid of Andore—he couldn’t afford a drawn out battle with any one of the team.

“I activate Thunder Unicorn’s effect! When it’s destroyed by battle, I can special summon it during the Battle Phase in attack position!”

Dammit!

Thunder Unicorn reappeared, snapping around to place itself protectively between Max Warrior and Andore.

“Max Warrior’s effect—it gains 400 attack during damage step!” Yusei shouted.

That put it at the same attack as the unicorn. Max Warrior’s attack continued, letting out a battle cry echoed by Thunder Unicorn’s whinny as the two destroyed each other.

Another flinch of pain shot through Yusei’s right arm. Dammit, what was going on? Was his Signer mark reacting to something? He grit his teeth and tried to ignore it.

“I set two cards and end my turn!”

He had Stardust Dragon, Wicked Rebirth, and three cards face down. If he could just draw what he needed…

Andore set two cards and ended his turn. One of them was The End of Storm; Yusei knew that much. He had to get rid of it.

“My turn—draw!”

Come on, come on…

No good.

Damn!

It was because he couldn’t focus. He was slowing down, too, even Andore’s slowed down D-Wheel was beginning to outpace him. Yusei thought he could catch Andore glancing at him. He looked puzzled. And why shouldn’t he? Yusei wasn’t exactly playing at his top form…dammit, if he could just focus!

His arm twitched with pain again and he almost dropped the card he had drawn. Was this because of Jack? Was he sensing Jack? Oh god, he couldn’t keep his mind on the duel for the life of him.

“Yusei!”

Yusei snapped to alertness.

“Judai?” he said. “Is that you?”

They were whipping around towards the pit. If he stretched up and squinted, he thought he could make out that familiar brown hair leaning over the screens, the headset in his hand.

“Yeah, it’s me! Listen, Jack’s okay. Stop worrying, please, he’s okay and I’m taking care of everyone.”

They zipped past the pit. Lua was jumping and waving and probably cheering but his words were lost on the wind in Yusei’s ears. For a split second, Judai and Yusei’s eyes met, but then he was zipping past again.

Relief flooded his system. His arms went slack for a moment and then gripped tighter.

“Thank you,” he said. “Thank you.”

“Just win, Yusei. You absolutely have to win.”

Yusei found his confidence surging back. A smile jumped to his lips. Jack was all right, Judai was back and watching him, and everything was going to work out. He could feel it.

“Not a problem,” he said.

. . .

Judai gave Luka her headset back and she slipped it back over her ears—he felt bad; he had given her quite a fright when he had charged over and practically ripped the headphones from her ears to shout at Yusei.

“Is Jack really okay?” she asked.

There were tears in her eyes as she looked up. Her hands were trembling on the desk. Judai put his hands on top of hers, smiling reassuringly.

“He’s fine,” he said. “He’s absolutely fine. I promise you.”

Luka swallowed, looking like she might pass out. Lua scurried over then, biting his lip and hovering anxiously.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Judai said, as much to Luka and Lua as to himself.

“But—but Crow was attacked, and Jack almost died, and—Judai, are more people going to get hurt? Who’s trying to hurt them?” said Luka, her voice cracking.

“Sh, sh, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Judai said, drawing her against him.

She trembled, pressing her head into his shoulder. Lua looked like he was on the verge of tears himself. But he was biting his lip really hard, as though to stop himself from crying. Judai reached out to grip Lua's arm too.

“I don’t want them to die; I don’t want them to get hurt; I don’t want to do this again; this was supposed to be a fun tournament; I don’t want to fight anymore!” said Luka.

Judai just held her for a moment, making soft, reassuring sounds. He ended up pulling Lua towards him too so that he had both twins gathered into his arms. Lua had been trying too hard to look tough; he needed a hug just as much as Luka did.

“I'm going to protect them,” Judai said. “I promise. I'll protect them, and I'll protect you too. We just have to believe in Yusei, now. Okay?”

“But he has three people to face!” Luka said, pushing up to look up at Judai with wild eyes. “Three! He has to beat all three of them!”

Judai smiled then and put his hand on her head.

“And he's gonna kick all three of their asses,” he said. “Don't worry. Yusei can handle them. Besides…he's not fighting alone out there, okay?”

Lua also looked up, a worried look in his eyes.

“But what about those shadow magic things? What if they come back like when they got Jack?”

“I'm not going to let that happen.”

“But…”

“Don't worry,” Judai said, more firmly. “We're not doing this by ourselves, okay? And I've got a second pair of eyes to help out this time…”

He glanced up to see if she had finally caught up with him, and was greeted with the sound of sneakers scuffling towards them. The twins looked up with curiosity, peering over Judai's shoulders. Carly appeared then with Crow in tow, since the orange-haired duelist had been right behind Judai in order to check in on Jack. He winced slightly as he came to a stop, his arm jiggling a bit too much as he had been running.

“J-Judai-kun, you're too fast for me,” Carly puffed out, coming to a stop and putting her hands on her knees to catch her breath.

“Oh! Carly?” Luka said.

“You guys all know each other already?” said Judai, shocked.

“Small world, huh,” Crow muttered.

Carly peered out into the track, biting her lip.

“Is it really okay to leave Jack?”

“Don't worry. I've put up more than enough wards this time…but I can't put them up all around the stadium, and that's where you come in.”

“Me?”

“Carly?” Crow said, eyebrows raising to his hairline.

“Yes, you,” Judai said. “You're going to have to take those glasses off, or you won't see anything—you've got quite the perception filter attached to those, how'd you do that?”

“I…what?”

Judai frowned.

“Psychological, then? Well, whatever—either way, you have to take them off if you're going to help. Crow, where's Aki and Bruno?”

“Running checks of the other D-Wheels, why?” Crow said.

“I just like to have everyone where I can see them,” said Judai. “Okay, Crow, stay with the twins, Carly-san, you're with me.”

“R-right!”

Carly scurried after Judai as he jogged to the railing, peering up at the television screen that showed Yusei and Andore. Geez, how much had happened since Judai had looked away? It looked like Andore was headed in, and Yusei was down to 2000 life points? He quickly checked the turn counter screen affixed to the railing—ah, that was it…Andore had activated a card that took them both down two thousand life points. Okay, two to go…

He shifted his eyes to Yubel's for a moment, peering up at the screen. It didn't do any good; he still couldn't see auras or anything through a recording. But when he dropped his eyes to the track, he could see all the auras and shadows. None of the dangerous shadows, though, that was good. He let his eyes shift to normal again.

“Okay, Carly-san,” he said. “Are you going to be okay?”

Carly swallowed, looking incredibly nervous.

“I…I think so,” she said. “It's just—there are so many things to look at when I take my glasses off…it makes me sick…”

“I feel you,” Judai said. “You'll get better at it the more you do it. But for now I need your help in protecting Team 5D's.”

That brought a look of determination to Carly's face, her eyes hardening.

“Okay,” she said. “What do you need me to do?”

“Take off your glasses and look at that screen. Tell me what you see when you look at the screen, okay?”

Carly nodded, slipped her glasses down her nose.

“Um…I see Yusei,” she said. “He has a kind of silver glow to him…huh. His aura is a lot duller on the screen than it is in real life.”

A smile broke across Judai's face—relief flooded through him.

“I knew it,” he said. “Your sight's even better than mine—you can see auras even on a screen?”

“Um, yeah…they come through on photographs, too, and it's really annoying…”

“Perfect,” Judai said, feeling excited and in control for the first time in hours. “Okay, I need you to keep an eye on that screen. Let me know the second something happens—if you see a shadow or—”

Carly squeaked and almost dropped her glasses.

“What? What's wrong?”

“S-shadows,” she said. “The slimy ones—they're all over the track—Yusei's fast enough to outpace them right now but if they start coming together they might catch him the way they caught Jack—”

Judai's moment of cheer died, leaving him with a cold pit in his stomach.

“Keep watching! I'll be right back!”

Carly nodded, keeping her slowly widening eyes on the screen. Judai bolted back towards the pit. He noticed vaguely that he was drawing confused looked from Andore and Jan in the other pit, and vaguely wondered what they must be thinking about the weird commotion over here by now. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that their second wheeler, Breo, was already on the track, matching pace with Yusei.

He has to draw that card or he's not going to be safe, thought Judai.

Aki jerked up at the sight of Judai racing back in.

“What's going on? What is it now?” she said. She stood straight, stiff, her expression focused—like a soldier. Right—psychic duelist. That might actually come in handy—

“Luka! Tell Yusei that he's got a bunch of shadows on his tail and he needs to get that card ASAP!”

Luka grabbed at her headset and started to relay the message and Judai whipped around to grip Aki by the shoulders.

“Listen, if things get worse than they already are, I'm going to need your help.”

“Whatever you need,” Aki said, expression hard.

“You can't see the shadows, but Carly can. I need you to go over there with her—tell her that if she sees the shadows get any closer, then she should direct you to hit them with everything you've got. You've got your Duel Disk with you?”

She lifted her arm, showing him that she had already strapped it on.

“Use inconspicuous magic so that nobody notices what you're doing—I recommend Heavy Storms; people will just think it's wind.”

Aki nodded curtly, already moving. Judai breathed out. His heart was hammering so loudly that he could hear it rattling in his brain. What next? Was there anything he could do next?

There wasn't, he thought with a growing hole in his chest. He could only, watch, wait, and trust.

Yusei…

. . .

Yusei gasped—his arm! Why was his mark of the dragon reacting so badly to this?

He grit his teeth as Breo's effect forced him to discard even more cards. He was already down to five cards, and he still had to face Jan after this!! This deck destruction combo was ridiculous—could he really beat this?

On the plus side, the card he needed hadn't been discarded yet, so that meant it was still buried somewhere with the last five cards. Had it really been so far down in his deck?? And on top of that, he was starting to feel an odd tightening in his chest along with the burning pain of his mark. Something was horribly wrong, and he could feel it looming over him.

He felt like he was running of time.

“Yusei!”

Yusei glanced up. Luka's voice echoed in his ear.

“You have a bunch of them—there are—Judai says—”

“Luka, breathe,” Yusei said. “What's wrong?”

“Shadows! There are lots of shadows and they're all following you, and Judai says you have to go faster!”

Yusei swore. He buckled down on his speed, pulling himself alongside and past Breo.

“Getting serious now, are we?” Breo said. “You don't have many cards left, you know.”

Yusei grit his teeth. He wanted to speed up, but if he did, would the shadows go for Breo instead? He couldn't risk that. He let up on his speed so that he was parallel with Breo.

“What's wrong, Yusei-kun? Feeling a little harried?” called Breo.

He said it good-naturedly and without malice, as though he were truly enjoying the duel. What Yusei wouldn't give to be able to enjoy this. Yusei swallowed, placing his hand on top of his deck. Five cards left. He had five turns left—that was if Breo didn't have something in his hand or on his field to make him discard more cards.

Please.

“My turn! Draw!”

He pulled the card free, almost afraid to look.

“Trap card, open!” Breo shouted. “Tricolor Illusion!”

The card flipped up and Yusei swore. He hadn't even drawn what he needed—it was just Scrap Iron Scarecrow—and now what would this do??

“Once per turn, you have to reveal one card from the top of your deck! If it's a monster, you can put it in your hand if you put one card from your hand on top of your deck,” said Breo. “If it's a Spell, it just goes to your hand. And if it's a Trap…it goes to the Graveyard along with one other card from your hand.”

He grinned as he drew closer to Yusei's D-Wheel.

“Of course, you can destroy it by just sending one card from the top of your deck to the Graveyard,” he said. “So if you'd rather skip all that, go for it!”

Yusei grit his teeth. This was a trick. There was something else—probably that other face down. If he let Tricolor Illusion destroy itself, then…he didn't know what, but it would probably be bad. But if he drew, he could lose more cards. He would deny himself an extra turn, at the very least.

What would happen if he lost right here? What would happen if the lose sequence played out on his bike and he was forced to come to a stop, with a bunch of those shadows following him like Judai had said? It wasn't an option.

His hands tightened on his handlebars. At the back of his mind, he could almost imagine Jack shouting at him.

“Losing wouldn't be an option even if there wasn't a mob of supernatural fucks out for your blood!”

Yusei's lips twitched with a smile.

Well said, Jack.

He wasn't fighting alone. He had to keep reminding himself of that. He had the card left on the field by Jack, Stardust left by Aki, and sleeping in his deck, the key to this duel. The card given to him by Judai.

Judai, he thought. Please…give me some of your strength. I need it now.

“I'll reveal a card,” Yusei said.

Breo's mouth dropped open.

“You'll—what?”

It must have been the right choice, because Breo looked thrown off guard. Yusei put his hand on his deck.

Please. Please come. I need help. Please.

He had to get it, this was his last chance, if he didn't—

—Well since you asked so nicely—

Yusei gasped as a tremor ran up his arm and into his heart. It wasn't a pain so much as it was…odd. For a second, his ears popped, and he felt his heart jump, and then he was drawing the card and—

“Finally,” he breathed. “Thank you.”

He placed Scrap Iron Scarecrow back onto his deck as per the trap's rules, adding his drawn card to his hand.

“This is it,” he said. “I tribute Dash Warrior and Card Breaker on my field to summon this from my hand!”

His two monsters vanished, and he slammed the new card down on his Duel Disk.

“Come out, YUBEL!”

He felt her before he saw her. It was a wrenching feeling in the pit of his stomach, a tingle at the back of his neck, a sudden choking feeling in his throat that vanished as soon as it came. A coldness wrapped around his shoulders and he could feel her.

And then she was there, zooming alongside Stardust Dragon, her black wings barely needing to flap. She turned around then, her dragon/woman body tilting in midair so that she was flying backwards, examining Yusei with a critical eye. He could actually feel her eyes on him, and a dryness started in his throat.

There was far too much power in that frame for her to be a hologram. Yusei was no psychic duelist, but Judai had warned him that Yubel's power was too much to be contained in just a hologram—she would be real, whether or not he had the power to summon real monsters or not. But he hadn't been prepared for this, for the way her eyes cut through him and her overwhelming presence. Was this what Aki felt all the time? When she summoned real monsters, could she see the life in them? Did it unnerve her in the way that it did Yusei?

Yubel hummed slightly.

—Well, I guess you're not completely hopeless—

Yusei gasped—her voice tickled.

—Don't worry about the shadows. They won't come close while I'm here—

“They won't?”

—Not unless they want to be dinner—

She flashed him a wide, fanged grin. Then she turned around to fly forward beside Stardust again.

—Now get to it, Yusei. I don't have time to be playing around all day—

“Oh, right…” he said.

He selected his spell card from his hand.

“I activate the Speed Spell, Soul Resonance! For every Resonator I remove from my Graveyard, I can destroy one trap or magic card on the field.”

“But you haven't used any Resonators!” Breo said.

“I haven't—but Jack did,” Yusei said, grinning. “And in this kind of a duel, I have the same Graveyard as my teammates, remember?”

Breo's face was priceless. Yusei grinned as he pulled forward, wind buffeting his face and the road humming below him. He could breathe, finally.

“I remove two Resonators in the Graveyard from play to destroy your two backrow cards!”

Breo swore as his trap cards exploded.

“Next I activate a trap card—Eternal Battlefield!”

He had set this at the beginning of the battle—now it was finally coming into play. He could actually feel Yubel's excitement roiling somewhere in his chest.

“All monsters are switched to attack position, and all monsters have to battle!” Yusei said. “Any monsters that do not attack are destroyed at the End Phase, and their controller will take 500 points of damage!”

Breo had no monsters on the field.

“First, I'll attack directly with Yubel!”

Yubel grinned as she shot forward.

Go easy on him will you?? he thought, not sure if she could hear.

—If I must—

Yubel only tapped Breo lightly on the head, looking disappointed as she zipped back to Stardust Dragon. Since her attack points were zero, it didn't do any damage, but he had to stop Eternal Battlefield from activating on her…

“And then Stardust attacks directly!”

This would take care of Breo—only Jan was left!

“I activate my last set card, Damage Lance!”

Breo smacked the activate button and his trap took effect. A huge lance appeared, shooting at Stardust. Stardust screamed as the lance buried into its shoulder before vanishing—but its starlight blast, although thrown wide, still grazed Breo and took his life points to zero.

Yusei flinched as his own life points went down by one thousand points—dammit. Now he had only four cards left in his deck and one thousand life points left to face Jan.

“Good match, Yusei!” Breo shouted as Yusei zipped past him.

His tone was light, and Yusei could read between the lines

You fought pretty well, so don't feel bad when you lose to Jan next turn.

Yusei's hands tightened. Four cards and one thousand life points. His opponent had an unknown strategy, forty cards, and four thousand life points. Was he going to be able to make this?

—Don't wimp out on me, Yusei. I didn't agree to be in your deck to watch you cower—

Yusei half smiled.

“I'm not giving up yet,” he said.

She actually seemed to purr for a moment.

—That's what I like to hear. Now come…I want to fight something—

Yusei chuckled, feeling a little more relaxed.

Of course, that feeling dissipated as his D-Wheel jerked harshly to the side.

“What the—”

It bumped to the other side and he had to wrench it back into place. Yubel hissed angrily over him.

Shit.

. . .

“He did it! He beat Breo!”

Crow punched the air with his good hand and let out a whoop. Lua and Luka hugged each other, both of them laughing and almost crying. Even Judai had to smile—four cards and one thousand life points and he pulled through. Damn, Yusei…damn!

“Having fun out there?” he asked Yubel.

—Mmm, I'd have more fun if there was something for me to sink my teeth into—

Judai snorted.

“Just keep him safe out there.”

—Of course—

And then he heard her hiss angrily in his head, her anger roiling up inside of him.

Yusei's D-Wheel rocked dangerously.

“Judai! Judai they caught up!” Carly shouted from the railing.

“Shit! Aki!”

“I'm trying, I'm trying!” Aki shouted back. “They're—really—slippery—fuck!”

Aki's magic cut through the stadium, just a brief gust of wind that still cut through some of the shadow and left them writhing on the ground.

Then Jan exploded back onto the track. He zoomed over the shadows, ignoring them—or rather, not seeing them. They seemed to be ignoring him, however, moving instead along the ground and curling around each other at the start line.

“They're going to try and trip him! Aki, cut them up! Luka, tell him that the start line is coated, he'll need to try and find a way over if we can't clear them out! Bruno, how's his D-Wheel?”

“It's fine, nothing's in the system,” Bruno said, fingers flying on his keyboard. “It's running smoother than a baby's bottom.”

“Great, great, I'm checking in with Carly, Lua, come with me, I might have to be sending you back and forth cause you're fast.”

Lua shot to his feet. His face had brightened at being involved, but that was a poor mask for the terror shining in his eyes. Judai jogged over to where Carly and Aki were standing. Aki had several spell card loaded into her Duel Disk.

“Where are they?” Aki asked.

“R-right there, lined up with the finish line! Hurry, I think Yusei's coming back around the track!”

Aki actually growled as she activated her next Heavy Storm. The brief gust of wind cracked across the pavement, scattering the shadows and slicing neatly through most of them. Carly whipped around at the sound of Judai.

“J-Judai-kun, there are so many of them, they're almost blocking out the screen…”

“It's okay, breathe…Yubel should be able to handle most of them.”

He wasn't sure how true this was, though, and he bit his lip as he glanced up at the screen.

Yusei was swerving back and forth, speeding up and slowing down at random intervals. It was obviously throwing Jan off.

“We have to get him to win this,” Judai said. “We have to. If he loses—”

“I can't reach the shadows attacking him while he's on the other side of the track,” Aki said. “Unless I send out my monsters, there's no way—but I could start a panic if I do that, and get them to stop the duel.”

“We can't stop it. Fujiwara is trying to stop Team 5D's from being in this tournament and he's willing to kill to do it. We have to win this no matter what, or we're playing right into his plan!”

Whatever that plan is, he thought. Seriously, what was that guy up to?

“Fujiwara?” Lua said, frowning.

“It's the guy who's controlling the shadows, I'll explain later,” Judai said, waving his hand dismissively. “Right now we have to keep everyone alive!”

“It's Yusei's end phase now—you know what happens then, right?” Aki said. “I read Yubel's effect and—”

“It's okay, Yusei knows what to do,” said Judai, desperate.

“I had a look at that card of yours,” Jan was speaking loud enough for his voice to be heard over the screens. “You have to tribute a monster in order to keep Yubel on the field, don't you? Guess Stardust won't be staying with us, hm?”

Yusei's jaw clenched, still focusing on Yubel's mental commands of where to avoid the shadows.

“He can't lose Yubel!” Aki shouted. “She's the only one that can see what's going on!”

“It's okay, he knows what to do,” said Judai. “Yusei, come on, come on, come on…”

“Yubel's effect activates! If I don't tribute a monster, she's destroyed at the end phase!”

Yubel stiffened up in anticipation, teeth bared.

“And then Stardust's effect activates! When a monster activates an effect that would destroy a card, I can tribute this card to negate the effect and destroy the card that activated it!”

“What the hell?” Jan said.

Judai had to half smile—it did look dumb, didn't it? Yubel's effect destroyed itself. Stardust's effect would negate a destruction effect but destroy the card that activated it, so Yubel would be destroyed anyway. To Jan, that must have seemed like the most pointless move in the world.

“Trap card, open! Star Sanctuary!”

Immediately, the space around Yusei seemed to glow. Stars popped into existence around him, floating around like motes of dust.

“When a monster would be destroyed by Stardust's effect, I can equip it with this card,” said Yusei. “Both Stardust and the equipped monster are removed from play instead!”

The stars swirled around the two monsters as Stardust wrapped its wings around Yubel's relatively small figure. Stardust threw back its head and let out a cry—Judai felt his heart jump. It was…melodious, he thought. The most heart-wrenching, soul-touching melody that he had ever heard.

And then both monsters disappeared in a flurry of starlight.

The scorecard switched to Jan's turn. On the screen, Judai could see Jan's mouth hanging open, uncertain.

“Take your goddamn turn,” Judai muttered. “Lua! Quick, go grab the extra headset and bring it here so Carly can direct Yusei!”

“R-Right!”

Dammit, he should have done that earlier! There were precious seconds between the End Phase of Yusei's turn and the Standby Phase of Jan's, especially with Jan staring like that in shock. Precious seconds that Yusei didn't know where to turn without being able to see the shadows—

The D-Wheel spun out. Yusei let out a cry that echoed on the monitors as his D-Wheel spun out of control.

“Oh! It seems Yusei must have hit a bump on the track! He's struggling to get control of his D-Wheel back!” the announcer shouted into his microphone. The crowd was screaming and wild, the sounds buffeting at Judai's head. His brain pounded, his heart hammered, his throat was dry and he felt like he was about to pass out—

“My turn, draw!” Jan shouted.

Standby Phase.

“Star Sanctuary activates again! As long as this card is face up on the field, during my opponent's standby phase I can special summon the monsters removed from play by its effect!”

The stars reappeared in front of Yusei. They rearranged themselves into the shape of a gate, which glowed once, before opening up on an image of a wide galaxy. Stardust and Yubel zipped back through, appearing on the field once more.

“He did it,” Judai breathed. “He made the loop.”

As long as Star Sanctuary was on the field, every time Yubel's effect activated at the end of the turn, Stardust would react, the Sanctuary would take them in, and they would return to the field at Standby Phase, where Eternal Battlefield would force battle with whatever Jan summoned. And as long as Yubel remained on the field, Yusei could avoid the shadows.

You can do this, Yusei, you can do this…you just have to keep the loop going…

“I hope you know, Judai, that this time I will close that loop.”

Judai's heart froze.

Loops. Fujiwara had talked about loops. What kind of loop?

Oh god, Judai thought. A time travel loop. I'm stuck in a loop. That's what happened.

But then why couldn't he remember? Had he done this before? Did that mean that he had traveled back in time already? How far did this loop go and how much had he done before? Where were his memories of being here once before?

His breaths were coming shorter and shorter—he was going to have another panic attack—

He only barely registered that Jan was summoning a monster. Only barely realized that the monster in question, Lightning Tricorn, was three hundred attack points stronger than Stardust Dragon.

“I will close that loop.”

Stardust Dragon was destroyed.

. . .

Yubel screeched in Yusei's head—was he really the only one that could hear that? He could hear the echo of Stardust's last dying melody twisting around Yubel's angry cry as his dragon disappeared from sight.

No.

He was going to lose.

They had set up that loop with such dexterity—all of his friends had contributed, it had been the culmination of their efforts, and in one second—

He swerved his bike again at Yubel's snapped out order. He couldn't see the shadows, but he could feel them when they hit his bike. Yubel was practically foaming at the mouth, frustrated and angry. He could feel her bloodlust, her desire to fight something, destroy it. He tried to push those feelings down—they weren't his, and he was distracted enough fighting Jan and the shadows. He didn't need Yubel's emotions throwing him further off balance.

Three cards would be left after this draw. He needed a miracle. Only a miracle would help him restore this. He had to believe—believe in the potential of his deck.

“My turn, draw!”

Gritting his teeth, he turned the card towards him. He sucked in a breath. It came.

“I activate Speed Spell, Harmony Crystal! By removing two monsters in my Graveyard from play, I can special summon a Synchro monster and inflict damage equal to half its attack points!”

There was no question as to what he would bring back.

“Stardust Dragon, return to field!”

Stardust screeched as it returned to the field, its voice a strange, haunting melody on the edge of Yusei's mind.

Welcome back, Stardust, Yusei thought with relief.

Yubel's emotions settled, and Yusei felt somehow…odd. Something was stirring in his chest. Something strange. He felt like his vision was getting…clearer?

The melody tightened around his heart.

. . .

“Judai! Judai, look he brought back Stardust!”

Judai's head cleared, aware that someone was shaking his shoulders. When had he dropped to his knees.

“Judai, look!”

He blinked through his blurred vision, looking up to see Lua in his face, pointing wildly back towards the stadium. Judai sucked in a breath.

Stardust was back. Yusei had brought it back somehow.

He swallowed past his initial burst of excitement, pulling himself back to his feet. Lua tried to support him awkwardly, his little hands not quite strong enough to hold Judai up completely.

“But Eternal Battlefield is still in play—Stardust will have to attack Lightning Tricorn, and it will be destroyed,” he said, biting down on the inside of his cheek. “And then at the end phase, Yubel won't be protected by Star Sanctuary without Stardust, and Yusei will be wide open.”

It wasn't enough. It wasn't going to be enough. Yubel could attack Lightning Tricorn and do some heavy damage, but then Stardust would have to attack due to Eternal Battlefield. Stardust would be destroyed, Yubel wouldn't have the protection of Stardust, and then—

What was his heart doing?

His hand jumped to his chest, clutching at it. What—what was it doing? It was jumping around funny, beating at a strange, irregular pace. His mouth opened, panting for breath. He felt dizzy and sick. Panic attack? No, no, his attacks didn't feel like this, this was strange and different and—

Was that a song he heard in the back of his head?

Yusei's D-Wheel zoomed past the pit, Jan on his tail. For a brief moment the song peaked in Judai's mind and then it was fading again, as though it was coming from Yusei and when Yusei moved away it grew fainter again.

His heart was beating with that song.

There was something at the end of that song, he had to find it. It was the same kind of song he heard when a Synchro monster was summoned; there was something there and he had to reach the end—

It was no good, Yusei was too far away. He couldn't reach Yusei. Somehow he knew, somewhere in the depth of his soul, that the song was from Yusei, or at least heightened by it, and with Yusei zooming around the track it was impossible for them to—synchronize.

Yusei, there's something there, can you feel it? Can you feel it like I do?

Their loop strategy was falling apart.

Was there something outside the loop that could save them?

. . .

Yusei's heart was jumping funny. Stardust's song was somehow louder than it had been before—had he always heard it so clearly? He had always thought that the song he heard when Stardust was summoned was just his imagination. But no, there was no mistaking it now. He could hear the song, thrumming in his heart—but quiet, now, too quiet. When had it gotten louder? It had been by the pit…

Judai.

Something was missing, he realized. The beat was missing something. A harmony. Where was that harmony?

He felt Yubel suddenly grow uneasy.

“What's wrong?” he said.

—I…I do not…know—

She was breathing heavily. Uncertainly.

—There is something wrong with me. I am…what is this feeling—

The beat dropped off with a shuddering note and Yusei gasped. Too far. He was too far away from Judai. He needed to be closer—how did he know that?

He shook his head, trying to focus on what he could do.

“Yubel attacks Lightning Tricorn—by her effect, she won't be destroyed, and you'll take the battle damage!”

Yubel hummed with delight at finally being able to battle, and she surged forward. But that humming sound just reminded Yusei of the song he hadn't been able to catch, and it frustrated him further even as Jan's life points dropped down to twelve hundred.

There was something at the end of that song but he couldn't reach it! He needed to reach it, something outside of this loop that wasn't working, something—

His eyes fell on a card in his hand.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Why hadn't he noticed it there before?

His fingers hovered over it for a second, uncertain. What would happen if he used that card? It wasn't the source of the music…they had lost that. But if he used this, could he turn this around? What sort of being would he unlock?

He raised his eyes and found that Yubel was staring at him. Stardust, too, had turned its head around as though to stare at Yusei, with far more life and intelligence than a hologram should have. Yusei shuddered.

Yubel nodded.

The crowd was screaming with approval at the duel as Yusei's fingers closed around the card.

“I activate Speed Spell—Speed Fusion!”

Jan swore.

“Fusion??” he said.

Please…whatever it is, let it be enough—

He felt his stomach drop out from under him. For a moment, his vision went completely black. He cried out, trying to grip at his D-Wheel; if he couldn't see he would crash!

But there was nothing to grip. Nothing to hold on to. He couldn't feel…anything. Not even his own breath or heartbeat.

“Well, well, well. This is a new development.”

Yusei couldn't breathe.

“Hmm. Fascinating. You may actually pull it off this time.”

Was he imagining this? This voice, and this nothingness? Had he blacked out?

“I'm curious to see how this will play out. Take this, dragon's head. I'm not used to giving things for free…don't make me regret this.”

Yusei snapped back to himself, gasping for breath—his clock on his screen hadn't changed. Had any time passed at all?

But he could feel it then, something thrumming in his chest.

“I fuse Stardust Dragon and Yubel!” he shouted.

. . .

Judai gasped. For a second, it felt like his body had been about to rip in two and then—

The whole crowd went silent for a few awestruck moments. Judai couldn't blame them.

Because that was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

The dragon that flew above Yusei was huge. Its wingspan was big enough to shade both sides of the track as it soared with Yusei. Great black wings shimmered with the hints of starlight, a smaller extra pair of wings flapping lazily farther down its long, sinuous body. Its scales glittered in black and gray, tail tipped with a delicate point. Its giant head was long, thin, reminiscent of Stardust's head but decorated with black and gray markings like Yubel's face.

And even though Judai couldn't see it from this distance, he knew…its giant black eyes had white hourglasses for pupils.

“Hourglass…Dragon…” he breathed.

He didn't have to ask how he knew its name. Because he already was it. Half of his mind was soaring up there, staring down at Yusei with his giant eyes. Yubel was in there somewhere as well, but they had been refined into a single consciousness that glittered with the ancient wisdom of stars.

“Yusei…” he breathed, and his voice echoed with a faint rumble in the dragon's chest. “Yusei.”

The shadows did not dare come near, not in the presence of this being. This creature that knew the beginning and end of all the stars. Its very presence was death to them, unnatural, corrupted beings that disrupted the balance.

But that was neither here nor there. There was a battle to be won, was there not?

He tipped his head down towards Yusei, because at this point Judai could barely differentiate himself from the dragon in the sky and the human sitting on the ground with his eyes unfocused, not responding to Lua's shakes.

Yusei…let us end this.

. . .

Yusei breathed out, feeling himself half in the dragon, half on his bike. It was a strange, unbalancing feeling, and he tried to focus on his cards.

“Hourglass Dragon…cannot attack…the turn that its summoned,” he managed to gasp out. “I end my turn.”

“By the effect of Eternal Battlefield, it will be destroyed, then!” Jan said incredulously.

“Hourglass Dragon's effect!” Yusei shouted, thrusting his hand into the air.

The dragon's head lifted up—no, was that his head? He couldn't differentiate himself from the boy on the bike and the dragon in the air. Ugh! His head throbbed.

“When it would be destroyed, I can remove it from play,” he said. “And deal damage equal to its attack points!”

Hourglass Dragon had three thousand attack points.

Jan had twelve hundred life points.

“It's over,” Yusei/Judai/Hourglass Dragon rumbled. Could anyone else hear that, the rumbling three-voice sound that had just ripped from Yusei's throat? No one seemed to be reacting to it—

Hourglass Dragon/Yusei/Judai lifted its head up to the sky and cried out—half of a song that they hadn't been able to reach.

And then, it simply…faded. Blown away like it was made of sand. That sand drifted down towards Jan, settling lightly on his bike. He stared with wide eyes and a mouth hanging open as his life points dropped to zero and his bike started its losing procedure.

Yusei whipped past him as he snapped back to himself, gasping.

What—what had just happened? Had he really been…part of that dragon? Judai had been there too, he had been able to sense him and…

“YUSEI!!”

“Yusei!”

“You did it, Yusei!”

The crowd was screaming, stomping, shouting. Yusei blinked as he pulled his bike around back to the pit, staring up at the crowd.

He wasn't quite sure…what had just happened. But…

“Yusei!”

Luka and Lua were the first to jump on him, hugging him tightly and almost crying. He let out a soft 'oof', almost falling off his bike.

“Okay, okay,” he said, smiling. “Thanks…we all did it. Thank you all.”

“Thank god, Yusei,” Aki kept saying over and over, tears rolling down her cheeks as she laughed. “Thank god.”

“That was the frigging coolest thing I've ever seen!” Crow shouted, waving his good arm around. “When did you get that dragon?? When did you and Judai plan that? That was AMAZING!”

“W-wow, Yusei, that was—wow,” said Carly—when had she gotten over here? And where were her glasses? She looked weirdly dizzy, and uncertain, staring from Yusei to Judai to Yusei again.

“Great driving, Yusei!” Bruno said, punching the air. “First win for Team 5D's!”

“We did it together,” Yusei said, smiling.

He felt so, so tired. Like he was going to fall off his bike and sleep right there. Why was he so…tired?

“Shut up, shut up, I am going to go and see him and you can't fucking stop me! Let go of my arm Mikage!”

Yusei glanced up to see a very red-faced Jack storming towards him, Mikage and that one girl from the coffee shop trailing behind him.

“J-Jack! You should be in bed!” Carly cried, running over to him.

He hesitated at her arm on his shoulder, but ultimately turned his eyes to Yusei.

“I saw you on the television,” he huffed.

“You did?”

“I woke up for the last part at least…”

He smirked.

“You really do know how to pull a miracle out of your ass, don't you?”

Yusei had to smile, feeling his fatigue just dragging him down.

“One of my many talents,” he said.

Jack hmphed softly. Then he gave in to Carly's light tugs and allowed himself to be lead back to the pit where she made him sit down.

Yusei found Judai's eyes, then, a quiet figure in the crowd of happy, cheering people. Judai smiled, looking as tired as Yusei felt. He slipped over to Yusei as he got off of his bike, Luka and Lua still hanging on his arms and laughing.

“Yusei,” Judai whispered. “Did you…”

“Inside the dragon…? Yeah.”

“And that song…”

“I know, I heard it…too…”

They looked at each other.

“What do you think we were supposed to find at the end of the song?” Yusei murmured.

“I'm…not sure…” Judai said, frowning. “But I…”

He hesitated, glancing across the happy people, and smiled slightly. Then he turned back to Yusei.

“Yusei,” he said. “I need you to teach me how to ride a D-Wheeler.”

Chapter Text

“You gave them that card.”

“I did.”

“That wasn't supposed to happen. You've changed the whole timeline.”

“Isn't that what you wanted?”

“This was not a part of our deal!!”

“You are correct. It was not.”

“It wasn't a part of his deal either.”

“True.”

“What is your game? What are you up to?? We're the only contracts you've made in years—why did you do that? Whose contract was it?”

“No one's.”

“I…what?”

“As I have said. I acted outside of any contract.”

“You—you don't do that. You've never done something like that.”

“Hmmmm…not strictly speaking true. But yes, it has been a long time.”

“You just made a new deal, didn't you? With someone else. Was it Yusei? It had to have been. He was the one you contacted just before the card was created.”

“And how would you know that?”

“Terms of my contract.”

“Ah. Of course.”

“So it was him. You did make a contract with him.”

“I did not.”

“Then that card—”

“Although I am unaccustomed to giving things for free, it seemed far too interesting a proposition to pass.”

“You—you just gave it to him? To them?”

“I was curious.”

“You were curious?!”

“Don't act so surprised.”

“You don't get curious. You don't—you don't have those feelings.”

“Mm. Call it a side-effect of having become so close to you, vessel. You may be corrupting me a tad.”

“This is not a joke.”

“And I wasn't joking.”

“You—”

“Enough. You don't have the right to question my decisions. What has been done has been done and you will accept it, vessel.”

“…understood.”

“….?”

“Yes. He's gone. Finally. I thought he would never leave. He's quite obnoxious when he gets riled up like that, isn't he?”

“……”

“Oh, please. Like you wouldn't have done the same.”

“…”

“I did it because I thought it would be interesting. Humans are curious creatures to watch scurry about.”

“………”

“Of course that was the only reason. You know I rarely do anything unless I think it will be amusing.”

“…”

“I…I am well aware.”

“……… …… …”

“Oh, just be quiet already, will you? I don't need to hear you preaching at me.”

“…….”

“That's—that's ridiculous, of course not. I'm not attached to anyone. I don't get attached. I don't…”

“….. … ……”

“I am not developing a heart. Only ridiculous forces like you make that mistake and then try to cover it up by hiding it in a human soul.”

“……………………”

“I know. But you know…”

“…..?”

“They might just be able to do it…and isn't that worth the chance…?”

. . .

“Are you sure about this? It feels a little tight.”

“It’s supposed to feel tight; aerodynamics and such. Trust me. You’ll get used to it.”

“Ugh, I dunno if I want to get used to it…”

“Just come out of the changing room, Judai. I’m sure it’s fine.”

“Fine, fine, fine…”

Judai continued to grumble to himself as he pushed through the door. Yusei half smiled at Judai’s grumbling, but then he was looking at Judai and found a slight heat rising over his cheeks.

The new riding suit was red and black, as Judai was pretty insistent that if he had to get a riding suit, it had to be red. They had found one very similar to his Osiris Red jacket, with some of the same designs on the top half. He was fiddling with the gloves and the buttons that would clip it to the rest of his suit to avoid losing them while driving, and he kept messing around with the belt. It was almost odd to see Judai without the iconic flare of his normal jacket, but at the same time, Yusei couldn’t deny the fact that the suit looked very, very good on him…

“Well? Will it work?” Judai asked.

Yusei managed to find his voice again.

“Yes,” he said. “I think that’s going to do nicely.”

Judai looked miffed as he tugged on the collar. Yusei reached over to help him pull it into place correctly.

“Why can’t I ride in my normal clothes?” Judai grumbled. “This feels weird.”

“You’re just not used to it yet,” said Yusei, smiling in spite of himself. “And do you really want to be distracted by your coat fluttering all over the place while you’re trying to duel at almost two hundred miles per hour? I don’t think so.”

Judai sighed, obviously understanding the logic but not liking it.

“All right, fine. So let’s get started then, yeah?”

“Right.”

Yusei paid for the riding suit and then the pair of them stepped back out into the city.

“For now you can practice on my bike,” Yusei said, handing Judai his spare helmet. “Once we get off the main roads, that is. Please be careful. I still need this bike.”

“I’ve driven motorcycles before,” Judai said.

“How fast?”

“Well…I was being chased by shadows that looked like me, so…pretty fast?”

Yusei blinked at him. Judai just shrugged helplessly, a sort of “I don’t even know myself anymore” expression.

“You attract a lot of strangeness, don’t you?” Yusei said.

“Not any more than you do,” said Judai, laughing.

“True, true.”

Judai slipped onto the bike behind Yusei, and Yusei carefully eased the D-Wheel out of its parking place and towards the open Duel Lanes. Soon, the traffic started to fade away, and it was just the two of them out on the track, the wind whistling past their ears. Now that he couldn’t hear or see the traffic on all sides of them and didn’t have to be thinking about weaving or turning or watching for cars, Yusei was suddenly incredibly aware of Judai’s arms around his waist. He hadn’t really thought about it the first couple of times that they had gone out on the bike together but now, with the image of Judai in the riding suit continually popping up at the back of his mind for some reason, he felt…awkward. Something about the loose, barely touching him way that Judai was holding onto him told him that Judai was feeling awkward too.

Yusei finally pulled them off on an empty Duel Lane. Most of the regular duelists were saving themselves for the tournament, or out on the official practice lanes, and those who weren’t in the tournament were probably too busy watching the other matches. So they were alone out here for now.

Yusei sighed as he dismounted. It was a clear, faintly breezy day, barely a cloud in the sky. The heat of a few weeks before had backed off, and it was cool and comfortable under the sun.

“Okay,” Yusei said, turning to Judai, who had slid forward in the bike’s seat so that he was gripping the handlebars. “So…exactly how much motorcycle riding have you done?”

“Well, just a few times,” Judai said. “Where are the brakes and gas on this thing? Is it like a regular motorcycle?”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t know,” Yusei said. He had quite honestly never seen a motorcycle that wasn’t built for riding duels. “Here.”

He reached across the other boy and situated Judai’s hands.

“Let’s just see if you can drive it first; then we’ll start talking about actually dueling. Normally, duels are run on autopilot, but during this tournament…”

“They’re not. Right.”

“Just focus on driving it. Don’t worry about cards for now.”

“Just drive. Got it.”

Judai looked a tad bit nervous as he situated his grip and shifted his feet.

“You gonna be okay?” Yusei asked, smiling in spite of himself.”

“Oh sure. I’ve jumped out of exploding buildings before, faced down demons and whatever. Driving a motorcycle shouldn’t be hard. Definitely not more afraid of falling on my face and making a fool of myself than I am of facing the incarnation of darkness.”

Yusei laughed softly.

“We all start somewhere. You’ll be okay.”

Judai nodded slightly. Then he carefully revved up the engine and pushed himself off, moving the motorcycle forward.

“Just come back around when you feel like you’re comfortable with turning,” Yusei called.

Judai briefly took his hand off the wheel to send a backwards thumbs up. Then his hand very quickly shot back down to grip the handlebars.

For a first timer, Judai was pretty good. It didn’t take him long to get into the rhythm of the bike and soon he was driving around with relative ease, back and forth down the track. Granted, he wasn’t going nearly as fast as Yusei could, or even as fast as a normal riding duel would be, but that could come later. Confidence was first.

About forty-five minutes into it, Judai felt confident enough to try practicing dueling.

“You have your new deck loaded, right?” Yusei asked.

“Yup. Double checked.”

They had spent several hours last night upgrading Judai’s deck so that it would work in a riding duel. He had needed about a billion more speed spells to make up for his normal spells that wouldn’t be usable in a riding duel.

“What if they blow away?” Judai asked, looking nervous. “I mean; I’m going really fast. How do you hang on to them?”

“I—never really thought about it, actually,” said Yusei, frowning. “Just don’t think too hard about it. It’ll be fine.”

“Whenever someone says that it turns out to not be fine.”

Yusei tried not to laugh, since it was obvious that Judai was actually a bit nervous.

“Here,” he said. “I’ll ride along with you the first time. It’ll be okay.”

“Okay…”

Yusei slid onto the bike behind Judai. It was weird, being the one on the back of the bike for once.

“Ready?”

“I guess so…”

Judai eased the bike into gear and then they were moving down the track. Judai drove much slower than Yusei was used to, and he actually felt a little miffed at the pace. But suppressed that feeling. Judai was just getting used to this.

“Okay, so this holds the cards?” Judai asked.

“Yeah. You put your current hand into there so that you don’t have to hold it. Frees up one hand to stay on the handle at all times.”

“Awesome, awesome, okay.”

Judai pushed the motorcycle a little faster.

“Okay…”

He carefully lifted one hand free of the handles, the bike wobbling a bit as he figured out how to balance himself with one hand. He reached across and drew the top five cards of his deck, fingers shaking a bit as though nervous about losing them. Yusei reached around him and put his hand on top of Judai’s.

“It’s fine,” he said. “It’s okay. You won’t lose them.”

Judai swallowed, but nodded. He cautiously tucked the cards into the holder in front of him. It was a good first hand; Judai seemed to have a knack for top decking.

“Let’s just try one turn,” Yusei said. “Then we can call it off for the day.”

“Sounds good,” Judai said. “Okay, my turn. Draw!”

He again carefully reached over to his wrist shuffler to pull the next card.

“Okay, I’ll summon Elemental Hero Avian in defense mode,” he said, moving the card towards the Disk. “Oops!”

He fumbled with the card and it was almost pulled out of his fingers by the wind. Yusei’s hand snapped out, though, and closed around Judai’s hand.

“You’re too stiff,” he said. “Relax—dueling is supposed to be fun, remember?”

Judai muttered something as he slipped the card onto the Disk and his monster appeared, but it was lost in the wind.

“What was that?”

“I said it’s hard to relax when you’re pressed against me like this, dammit.”

Yusei blinked. Then he found himself flushing deeply.

“I…sorry, do you want to try this by yourself?”

“N-no, that’s not what I meant—shit, sorry, I’m just—I don’t even know. Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize…”

The motorcycle moved on in silence for a few moments.

“Not much I can honestly do first turn, is there?” Judai said finally. “All of my strategies are based on Polymerization. And I can’t use that without speed counters.”

“That’s true,” Yusei said, leaning over Judai’s shoulder to look at his hand. He had thought it was a good hand, and it was, if Judai had had both feet on the ground.

“Is that why Synchro summoning became so popular?” asked Judai.

“Probably. It’s an easier summoning method for high level monsters, and it doesn’t require a spell.”

“Hm…I wonder…”

“What?”

“I dunno. Maybe I should try adding some Synchros to this deck. I mean…to supplement the Fusion monsters, cause I still like those. But it would be smart to adapt a bit, right?”

“That would probably be a good idea,” Yusei said, nodding. “You know…hang on.”

He leaned back for a moment to dig into his pocket, and withdrew his own deck. He had to let go of Judai for a few seconds to select what he was looking for, and then he leaned over Judai’s shoulders again.

“Here,” he said, handing the cards over. “Stick these two on top of your deck, and Stardust into your Extra Deck.”

Judai took the cards, but Yusei thought he might be frowning at them.

“You sure?”

“Just for now. I want you to see what a Synchro summon feels like, so you can get a feel for how it would work with your deck.”

Judai nodded, and slid the cards into place. He rested his fingers on the deck for a moment before he drew out the two top cards.

“Technically, playing all these cards would be against the rules,” Judai said with a grin in his voice, as he added Quillbolt Hedgehog and Junk Synchron to the field.

“This isn’t a real duel,” Yusei laughed softly. “We can figure out strategies for you later. I just want to…”

He stopped, and he felt Judai stiffen slightly in his arms. What was that…melody? He could hear something, dancing on the edge of his hearing, not quite loud enough for him to even recognize the tune or harmony.

“Where is that coming from?” he whispered.

“You hear it too?” said Judai.

“Yeah.”

They got quiet for a moment. Listening. Just the sound of the bike zooming across concrete and that song.

“I think it’s coming from somewhere over us,” Judai said. He started to slow down, glanced up into the sky.

“Wait, Judai, I think that’s making it quieter,” Yusei said, straining. “Try going faster.”

“But the sound of the bike will…”

“Just try, please.”

Judai nodded. His hands gripped the handlebars and he pushed the bike to higher speeds.

It worked. Yusei could hear the song even clearer now, hear it straining and swelling and thrumming in his head and heart.

Judai gasped in front of him, hands tightening on the handlebars.

“Are you okay?” Yusei asked.

“I—Yubel—something is happening to Yubel.”

A low hiss escaped Judai’s lips and Yusei somehow knew that was Yubel’s voice and not Judai’s.

“Yubel?” Judai said. “Yubel, are you okay?”

“What’s wrong? What’s happening?” Yusei asked.

This was the song they had heard before, during the battle against Team Unicorn—but why now? And what was happening to Judai?

“Judai, pull over. Judai—Judai?”

Judai wasn’t responding. The bike was starting to faster, Yusei could hear the song getting louder and louder and the world was blurring around them and he could feel something clawing at his chest—it wasn’t painful but it was shocking and he could hardly breathe and—

“Judai! Pull over!”

They were going too fast, way too fast, he could feel his ears popping as though the pressure was changing around them and there were flashes of green light following them and Judai wasn’t responding—

And then white. Just…white.

Yusei couldn’t see anything except white. He tried to move his hands, but found that he didn’t have hands. He didn’t have anything, he didn’t…exist. He was just sight, just someone staring into whiteness and nothing.

Small black dots started to appear, glowing like inverted stars against a white sky. He could hear a deep humming, rumbling sort of voice in the distance, but he couldn’t hear the words. In response, a lighter, melodic voice was speaking, a voice that made him think of the color red and the warmth of fire spreading through his chest.

Something is waiting here. I need to—I need to find it—

But he was nothing but whiteness and he couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, could barely think—what was this place? What was the thing that he was looking for?

Something beyond speed…?

Yusei snapped back to himself.

“JUDAI!” he shouted. “PULL OVER!”

Judai gasped, seeming to come back to himself. He swore as he hit the brakes, bringing them to a skidding stop, almost spinning out. The bike wobbled over and Yusei’s leg shot out to hold them upright. The holograms of the three monsters flickered out of existence.

For a moment, they just sat there, gasping for breath.

“What happened?” Yusei said.

“I—I don’t know.”

“Are you okay?”

“I think so.”

“What about Yubel?”

Judai hesitated.

“She’s okay. Shaken, but okay. Something was…changing. That song was doing something to her. To both of us.”

“I think it was doing something to me too.”

After a few more beats, Judai released the handlebars of Yusei’s bike. Yusei pulled himself off and landed gently on the ground, turning around to help Judai up. Judai was still gasping for breath, and he fumbled with his helmet. Yusei helped him lift it off.

They just stood there in silence for a few seconds, staring at the bike.

“What do you think that was?” Judai asked.

“I…I don’t know.”

He hesitated.

“Did you see that white place too?”

Judai glanced at him.

“What white place?”

Yusei frowned.

“For a moment I…I was in a place of just…whiteness. It was almost like that place that Sherry and Bruno and I ended up in back at Security a few weeks ago but…different. Older. Much older.”

Judai’s brow furrowed, and his eyes dropped to the ground for a moment.

“No,” he said finally. “I didn’t…see a place like that.”

He glanced up at Yusei again, brown eyes meeting blue.

“But I did see…darkness. Nothing but black and shadows and darkness…the same place I’ve seen over and over in my dreams since I got here.”

Cold settled over Yusei.

“Then we saw the exact opposite thing.”

“Yeah.”

“The song did that?”

“I think it was reacting to me attempting a Synchro summon…”

“We felt it on the battlefield, before, too.”

“Right…”

“Judai,” Yusei said. “Is this song dangerous?”

Judai bit his lip. They both fell silent—part of them, it seemed, had both wanted to believe that the song was something they were supposed to figure out. Something…important. A power like the Hourglass Dragon that they were trying to achieve.

“I don’t know,” Judai said finally. “I don’t…know.”

Yusei was still trying to learn the Accel Synchro of that mysterious man from weeks ago, before Judai had even shown up. Was that what they were on the verge of? Why was he only sensing this near Judai?

“It definitely has to do with Synchro summoning,” Judai said. “I don’t know…what would have happened if I tried to Synchro summon. If I had been able to, at least.”

Yusei glanced at his bike.

“Do you think…we should try again? See what happens?”

Judai also turned to stare at the bike for a moment. Then he shook his head.

“Not today,” he said. “I don’t think…I can handle it.”

Yusei nodded. He had been hoping Judai would say that. He had only just realized that there was a tremble running through his arms, just enough to cause his whole body to shake. Whatever he had seen, whatever had happened to them…it scared him.

Judai let out a deep sigh, and almost unconsciously, pressed back against Yusei. Yusei automatically slid his arms around Judai’s shoulders. Judai was trembling too, he realized, and he tightened his grip slightly.

They stood there, pressed against each other, just thinking. For a long, long time.

. . .

It was late by the time that Judai and Yusei returned to the house, the sun setting behind the city skyline. Judai was dead tired. He could hardly pull himself off the back of the motorcycle after Yusei parked in the garage.

So he wasn’t really fully prepared for seeing everyone bunched together in the small living area.

“Guys?” Yusei said, frowning. “How long has everyone been here?”

Because it really was everyone. Jack, Crow, and Bruno were here, of course, but also the twins, Aki, and even Carly. Carly in particular shot straight up as soon as she had heard the garage open, her glasses askew on her face, a strained, nervous look on her face as she peered towards Judai. That's right, he hadn't really had a chance to talk to her about what she could do yet, had he? That was something he was going to have to talk about tonight—among a million other things.

Judai sighed and closed his eyes for a few seconds. He didn't want to do the talking and explanation thing tonight—he was too tired. But everyone deserved to know what was going on.

“How was practicing?” Aki asked as the pair of them approached.

“Well, I didn't fall off so…good?”

Aki smiled, looking impressed.

Judai flopped onto the couch with a large sigh, wondering if he looked as tired as he felt. Crow sat on the other end, with Lua and Luka curled up on either side of him. He was stroking Luka's hair gently with his good hand, Lua being very careful not to lean on his injured shoulder. Bruno was in his usual swivel chair, pushing himself absently from side to side. Aki stood behind the couch with her hands on the back, chewing on her bottom lip. Jack had taken up residence in an armchair, looking very pointedly towards Bruno, but that might have been because Carly was in the opposite direction sending very obvious, furtive glances in his direction. Judai didn't have the time or energy to interpret that.

“So,” said Yusei, coming back from replacing the helmets on the shelf. “What's going on, guys?”

“We were waiting for you to come back, hoping you could tell us,” Crow said.

“Yeah,” said Lua. “We wanna know what happened last night.”

“Who was trying to kill everyone?” Luka whispered, her voice cracking.

“Just—what is even going on, really?” asked Carly.

Judai sighed.

“Better start from the beginning,” he said. “Carly, you're new to this so far, right…?”

“Well, this part, at least,” she said, frowning. “But I know everyone already…”

“Right,” said Judai. “Well, first off, I'm Yuki Judai. I'm from thirty years ago.”

“Time travel?” she said, sounding less surprised and more intrigued, which surprised Judai.

“Yup. Basically. Although, I have no idea how or why.”

Carly's eyes sparked with interest, but she just nodded and left it at that.

“Last night,” said Judai. “I met someone I knew in high school. He's older but…it's definitely him.”

“And he's the one trying to kill us?” Crow said.

“I'm afraid so.”

“Why?” Yusei asked. “Why would he do this?”

Judai shook his head.

“I wish I knew. Fujiwara had issues, but not this bad. I thought he had gotten past this…”

“Gotten past killing people?” Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, I mean—Darkness.”

He shook his head again.

“Right. Beginning. I should start at the beginning. Anyway, back when I was in high school, Fujiwara was older than me. Technically, he should have graduated one or two years before I did but he…he became really, really interested in this force called 'Darkness.'”

“Creative name,” Bruno mumbled.

“Yeah, right?” said Judai, almost laughing. “But he let himself…basically be absorbed by it. Long story short, he came back as Darkness' herald, basically. Pretty much the entire world was absorbed temporarily into Darkness for a few hours, before I managed to beat him and Darkness and drive it out of him.”

“He was possessed?” asked Aki.

“More or less,” said Judai. “And I think—I think he might have gone to Darkness' power again. I can't see any other explanation.”

“But why is he trying to kill us?” Luka whispered. “Why is he after Team 5D's?”

She looked so, so pale. Lua reached over Crow to grab Luka's hand in reassurance.

Judai closed his eyes.

“I…I don't know.”

His lips tightened.

“But I think that's why I'm here. I think that's why I showed up. Because something is going on…”

He frowned, then, though. Thinking about what Fujiwara had said: “I could stop this. Right now. Stop what you started.”

Had Fujiwara started trying to kill Team 5D's because Judai was here? But then—what was he trying to stop from happening? Judai had a feeling he really was stuck in a time travel loop, but he didn't know why he couldn't remember doing it. What would have taken his memories? It didn't make any sense.

But if Fujiwara was doing this because of Judai's presence…did that mean this was Judai's fault?

Shit.

He noticed then that Yusei's hand was on his shoulder. He glanced up at the other boy, those azure eyes meeting his with that usual calm firmness. As though he had heard Judai's thoughts and wasn't about to let Judai blame himself for this. Judai smiled tentatively at Yusei, and Yusei smiled back, his whole face softening in that way it did when he smiled.

“Anyway,” Judai said, turning back towards everyone. “One way or another, Fujiwara's trying to kill or hurt Team 5D's. I wouldn't be surprised if he was behind your shoulder, Crow.”

“If that's true, I'll bash his fucking head in,” Crow growled. He clenched his good fist for emphasis.

“Um, Yuki-san, this Fujiwara person, what does he look like?” Carly asked, perched so far on the edge of her seat that she looked like she might fall off.

“He's…tall. Green hair, in a ponytail. His eyes are…black. Just…full black.”

Carly paled.

“I saw him,” she whispered. “Just before Jack's bike exploded. I met him at the top of the stairs.”

Judai sat straight up.

“You talked to him?”

“A—a little. My glasses fell off and he…he wanted to know why I was wearing them.”

She hugged herself, looking down at the ground.

“They stop you from seeing auras, right?” Judai said. “It's psychological.”

“I—I guess so. I just—I don't like seeing all of that all the time…it hurts my head.”

Judai nodded, understanding. It was hard enough for him when he was looking for it. He couldn't imagine having to see all of it—auras, shadows, souls, everything—all the time and all at once. He didn't blame her for not wanting to see it.

“And he…he apologized to me,” she said quietly. “Just before…Jack…he said he was sorry. Something about…”

She looked down at her hand then, as though uncertain. For a moment, she glanced over at Jack.

Jack, for his part, was staring straight at her as though he didn't realize he was doing it, open and unabashed until her eyes met his. Then his eyes quickly dropped away and he looked back the other direction again. Carly seemed to wilt a bit, but she bounced up a second later with a huge, fake smile.

Judai had no idea what had just gone on there, but he didn't have the energy to ask.

“So he tries to kill Jack, but he apologizes to Carly for it?” said Crow, raising an eyebrow. “Sounds like a weirdo to me.”

“It has something to do with Darkness,” Judai said. “And something to do with why I came here. One way or another…we're probably going to find out. And we're probably not going to like it.”

The room fell silent for a few moments.

Then, with a sigh, Crow rose carefully from the couch, shifting so that Luka wouldn't fall over.

“We should get some sleep,” he said. “No use thinking in circles. We know that somebody's out to kill us; that should be enough for now, yeah? I mean, we can just do what we did last time to make it work. Right?”

“I guess,” said Judai. “Nagisa-san, do you mind coming to the pit from now on? I'll probably need your help seeing the shadows.”

“S-sure! I don't mind at all,” she said.

Judai nodded.

“Then that should probably be it, right…?”

He glanced up at Yusei, who hadn't spoken much tonight. Yusei nodded quietly.

“Lua, Luka, how about you two stay here tonight,” Yusei said. “It's too dark for you to go home by yourselves. And I don't like thinking about you two home alone right now…”

“Okay,” Luka said.

“Sounds good,” said Lua.

“Carly, do you need any help getting home?” Bruno asked.

“No, I'm fine, thank you! I have my car; I'll drive…oh! Izayoi-san, do you need a ride…?”

“If you want to offer one, that would be great, thank you,” said Aki.

Soft conversations continued as the quiet shuffle of people getting themselves up and settled and ready to go continued. Judai just sat on the couch for a few moments, head resting on the back, staring at the ceiling.

Crow was already in the kitchen with Jack, and Judai could half hear Crow whispering angrily at Jack and Jack making irritable retorts back. He thought he heard Carly's name in there somewhere, but he wasn't really listening.

Yusei was walking Aki and Carly outside, and Lua had wandered over to where Bruno was tinkering with something, almost as though it were a nervous habit.

He didn't realize Luka sidling over closer to him until she cleared her throat quietly. He glanced up.

“Oh, sorry,” he said. “What's up?”

“I need to talk to you,” she said under her breath, sounding…nervous?

Judai sat up.

“What's wrong?”

Luka was shaking a bit.

“W-well…first off…um…did Yusei tell you about my condition?”

“He said you were kinda sick, but not much more than that…”

“I have…epilepsy. Or a kind of it. It makes me zone out every now and then…I used to have bad seizures, too.”

“What's wrong? Are you having bad ones again?” he asked, worried.

“No,” said Luka. Her eyes flickered over to Lua, and then back up to Judai. “Lua's been having them.”

“What?”

“My…my doctor was always surprised that Lua never had them because he thought it was genetic, and we're identical twins, so…he thought that Lua should be having them too, but he wasn't. I thought that it must be because of my powers. Because they could never really…figure out exactly what it was.”

“That makes sense,” said Judai, nodding slowly. He glanced over at Lua, worried. “Lua's doing it now, then?”

Luka nodded.

“Ever since you arrived here, I think,” she whispered. “I asked Yusei what time you showed up and—it matches the same time that Lua did it the first time. I just found him in front of his video game staring at nothing and he wouldn't respond to me for almost five minutes…”

Her eyes were welling up with tears, and her hands were shaking. Judai hesitated, then he awkwardly put his arms around her, drawing her close.

“Sh, sh, it's okay. It's okay.”

“I'm so scared. What if Lua has a bad one like I did and he goes into a coma? Why is he getting it just now? Does it have something to do with what's going on? Judai-san, I'm so scared.”

“It's going to be okay,” Judai said, stroking her hair. “It's going to be okay.”

Luka shook against him, her hands curling into his shirt.

“And…and Judai…I…I need to know one thing,” she whispered.

“What?”

“This man…the one that you said is trying to kill us. What's his given name?”

Judai hesitated, hearing the tremor in Luka's voice.

“Yusuke,” he said. “Fujiwara Yusuke.”

Luka went rigid in his arms.

“N-no,” she whispered. “T-that can't be true. You're sure? You're totally sure that's his name?”

“Yeah, I am…Luka?”

Luka was pushing away from him, tears rolling down her wide, terrified eyes.

“It can't be. That can't be.”

“Luka, what—why? What's wrong—”

“Because—because—”

She choked on her sob for a moment, pressing a hand over her mouth.

“Because—Judai,” she whispered. “Fujiwara Yusuke is my dad.”

Chapter Text

Judai needed out.

The sun wasn't even peeking over the horizon yet when he slipped out the front door into the lazy morning city. Mist swirled about his feet like groggy snakes trying to slither out of his path. There was still activity, of course, it was a city after all. There were still cars, and the street lights were still on even though the morning light was starting to creep tentatively above the horizon, there were still people shuffling about, already on cell phones or with music playing in their pockets—but it felt muted somehow. Distant. Maybe that was just Judai's mind playing tricks on him. He wouldn't be surprised.

He felt somehow guilty about leaving without telling anyone but he just needed some time. Time to think about the crazy shit that was happening all around him. Besides, he couldn't sleep and he didn't want to wake anyone, not when everyone needed their rest after that…revelation of Luka's.

It had been so hard after that. Luka was practically hysterical as Judai tried to hold her, Lua was shouting over and over that there was no way that his dad was the one trying to kill everybody, there was no way, tears bubbling over from his eyes as Crow gripped his shoulder in one hand and tried to whisper soothing things to him, Aki and Carly hovering at the edge of the commotion as though uncertain they should leave now, Jack pacing back and forth and looking like he wanted to snap, but then his eyes would fall on the hysterical twins and he would close his mouth and go back to pacing, Bruno spinning back and forth in his chair nervously with his eyes staring at nothing.

And the way that Yusei just stood there. Mouth slightly open, pain in the back of his eyes, almost frozen in the wake of everything.

“You're positive?” was the only thing he could whisper. Judai hadn't been sure if he was talking to him, asking if Judai was sure that it was Fujiwara Yusuke, or Luka, if she was sure that that was the name of her father.

After that, things were a blur. Eventually, Crow had gently pried Luka from Judai and led the kids upstairs to get some sleep. They were probably still piled into Crow's bed—Judai had thought it might aggravate his shoulder, but Crow was pretty insistent that the kids stayed with him. “They need someone right now,” he had said.

Judai half growled under his breath.

Yeah, because their deadbeat dad isn't much help right now, he thought bitterly.

He didn't know where he was going but he needed to move. So he picked a direction and started walking. To hell with it if he got lost. Maybe he wanted to get lost, so then he could focus on getting unlost instead of focusing on this goddamn pile of shit that he was mired in.

He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and kept his head down so that he wouldn't have to make eye contact with anyone on the street. The scents of coffee shops and bakeries beckoned him and his stomach growled, but he didn't have any money on him and honestly, he was just too angry to eat right now. His hands curled into fists in his pockets.

Part of him couldn't wrap his mind around it. Fujiwara Yusuke. A father. Who the hell was the mom? That was one mystery Judai couldn't figure out. Now that he knew what to look for, the twins definitely shared his resemblance, so they were definitely his biological kids. So where was mom? Or other dad, if that was how this was? He just didn't know. He had no idea what to think anymore. Fujiwara? With kids? And why was he trying to kill the Signers? Did that mean he was going to target his own kids?

No…no, that wasn't it.

“I understand how you must have felt, but did you really have to get them involved?”

Judai paused in the middle of sidewalk. His eyes lifted for a moment to the slowly lightening sky.

“Oh god,” he whispered. “This is a time loop—something must have—”

Something must happen to the twins. Something Judai did—something Team 5D's did—must lead to the kids getting hurt somehow. That was what Fujiwara was doing. He was trying to stop something from happening. He was trying to protect his kids.

“Why won't you just talk to me, you bastard?” he whispered. “If I just knew what was going to happen, like you obviously do…we could try and stop it together.”

He didn’t want the kids to get hurt. People getting hurt was the last thing Judai wanted. Judai didn’t even know what was going on or how or why he had gotten here—Fujiwara obviously did, so why couldn’t he just share the knowledge? They might have a better chance, then, of averting…whatever was going to go wrong.

Judai sighed. Then he blinked at the familiar humming sound of a D-Wheel approaching from behind. He glanced over his shoulder to see a red D-Wheel and its rider humming down the street along with the lazy early morning traffic. He squinted, wondering if it was someone he knew or had seen during the WRGP yesterday—and then the figure grew closer, and the helmeted head seemed to turn towards him, and he realized it was Aki. He raised a hand to wave as she went past, but she was already slowing down at the sight of him, pulling off to the side of the road near him.

She turned off the D-Wheel and leaned back onto one foot, pulling off her helmet to let her hair fall around her face again.

“Good morning, Judai!” she said, smiling. “I wasn't expecting to see you out and about.”

“I wasn't expecting you, either,” said Judai. “Going for a practice run?”

She nodded as she tucked her helmet under her arm.

“I felt so hesitant last night,” she admitted. “I know I have to duel at least once more before Crow's healed enough to take back over. I don't want to drag the team down before he can get back on the road.”

“I don't think that's a problem where you're involved,” Judai said with a smile. “You're an amazing duelist, and a quick study with the D-Wheel to boot. Didn't you say you had just gotten your license like a month ago? You had some fancy driving out there last night.”

She ducked her head, blushing a bit.

“No, really, I was terrible,” she said. “I should have been able to go longer—I couldn't even take out one duelist, and Yusei had to handle everything. I have to do better.”

Judai considered trying to insist that no, she was a great duelist and whatever happened last night came from a combination of chaos and distraction, but he decided to let it go for now. If Aki was as hard on herself as he thought she was (he knew the feeling), then continuing to insist wasn't going to do her any good.

“What about you?” she asked. “What brings you out?”

He shrugged.

“Clearing my head…there's so much happening.”

She nodded, eyes softening in sympathy.

“I feel you on that,” she said, glancing out towards nothing for a moment. “It's…a lot, everything that's happening at once…how are the twins holding up after last night?”

“Dunno…took them a while to get to sleep. Crow took care of them…I left before anyone woke up, so I'm not sure how they're feeling.”

She nodded, her eyes taking on a distant cast to them.

“I can't even imagine how hard that must be for them,” she murmured. “To find out that your father is…”

She trailed off. Judai understood—there were no good words to describe it.

“I mean…I've had my own troubles with my father, but I can't imagine knowing that he would go that far, and hurt the people close to me,” she said, shaking her head. “I just…I hope they're going to be all right.”

“I'm hoping I can confront Fujiwara soon,” Judai said. “Maybe when he's not trying to kill everyone. I need to know why he's doing this. Maybe if he knew how it was affecting his kids…maybe we could work together to fix whatever it is he's trying to fix by attacking Team 5D's.”

He stopped, shaking his head slightly, his bangs swishing in front of his eyes. He was rambling. Aki, however, seemed to understand, meeting his eyes with sympathy.

“We can only hope,” she said. “I would hate to make Lua and Luka's father our enemy…”

She sighed.

“So are you just taking a walk, then?” she said.

“Yeah, I guess…I'm not really sure.”

“I heard that Yusei was teaching you acceleration dueling…would you like to come and practice with me? It might help and…honestly, I could use the company…”

She ducked her head, running a hand through her hair for a moment. For a moment, Judai was going to refuse. He wanted to think about things…but then it was like at the back of his head, he could practically hear Shou scolding him: “Stop being so distant! Your friends want to help, you know!” He almost smiled at the image—it came through so clearly.

All right, Shou, you win.

“Sure, if you don't mind me tagging along,” he said. “I don't have a D-Wheel with me, though…”

“That's fine, I figured we could switch off every lap or so? I'm just headed out to an empty lane to do a few laps, practice drifting and all…” she said. “And I don't mind at all, or wouldn't have asked. Honestly, I was starting to feel kind of…lonely, anyway.”

She laughed as though to dismiss the feeling as silly, but Judai could see the flicker of pain that flashed behind her eyes. He definitely made the right decision in saying yes, then…Aki needed someone right now, and he would have been a cruel person to deny her that—especially with everything going on.

“Sounds good,” he said. “Good plan, I mean. So where are you headed?”

“I was thinking Duel Lane 67, it's usually empty since it's kind of far out, and it's one of the lower lanes…people like the higher lanes for some reason. I think that dueling at high speeds without added height is bad enough,” she said with a laugh. “So if you want to just slide on, we can go out there together.”

“Oh, sure…”

Judai hesitated a moment, feeling awkward, but she scootched forward to make room, and he slipped onto the D-Wheel behind her. Her D-Wheel, unlike Yusei's, had extra handles on the back, so he was able to grip those instead of having to awkwardly put his arms around Aki. Aki revved up the engine and slid her helmet back on.

“There's an extra helmet on the back if you want it,” she said.

He nodded even though she couldn't see him, and fumbled behind him for a moment to find the compartment with the helmet strapped inside. Once it was on, Aki pulled off the curb and into traffic again, zooming down the street towards the much quieter and emptier duel lanes.

The world zipped by in a blur. Aki didn't drive quite as fast as Yusei, but it seemed she was already comfortable enough to drive faster than Judai could on his own. Judai watched as cars fell away and they passed Duel Lanes that were already in use by practicing duelists. Aki drove them towards the edge of the city, where the lanes were clearer and there was barely the sound of traffic in the distance.

She pulled off once she had entered the lane, stopping to let Judai off.

“Do you mind if I take the first lap?” she asked.

“Go for it. I'd like to see how you do it first.”

She blushed and mumbled something about her not being anything really to see, but Judai just smiled and stepped back to let her take off.

She zipped away with a graceful ease. Judai was honestly impressed at how good she was with so little time. She moved with a dance-like grace, somewhat different than the powerful explosions of acceleration that Jack, Crow, and Yusei seemed to be good at. The way that she tilted the D-Wheel just so to take advantage of a curve's momentum, or to drift along the edge. She made a couple of tighter, jerkier turns as though dodging something, and he even saw her flip the bike around to drive backwards for a moment.

By the time she returned to where he was standing and pulled off her helmet again, Judai was incredibly impressed.

“How did you do that backwards thing?” he said. “I didn't know that D-Wheels physically moved like that!”

Aki smiled as she dismounted.

“Yusei taught me,” she said. “D-Wheels are made so that the wheels will turn the direction they need to at a moment's notice, without changing gears—it's better for maneuverability.”

“It was amazing—I probably won't be doing that any time soon!”

“It was hard to learn, honestly. You'll definitely get there, I'm sure you will.”

He shrugged, but smiled anyway.

“Out of curiosity, why the jerkier turns every now and then?”

“Practicing in case we have to dodge shadows again,” she said. “I don't want to be caught off guard…I need to be able to move anywhere at a moment's notice.”

Judai nodded. She was so much more amazing than she thought she was, wasn't she? He wondered what had made such a talented girl think so poorly of herself.

“Want to have a lap?” she asked.

“Might as well, since I'm here…I'll try not to crash your D-Wheel.”

“Don't worry, I have emergency autopilot turned on,” she laughed. “If you go out of control it will automatically switch from manual to autopilot mode.”

Judai tried to hide how relieved that made him feel, and Aki laughed softly.

“Don't worry. You'll be fine,” she said. “If I can do it, practically anyone can.”

“Hey, stop selling yourself so short,” he said as he carefully mounted the D-Wheel and eased it into life. “All right…be right back.”

Aki stepped back and sent him a reassuring thumb's up. He sent one back and eased the D-Wheel into motion.

He went far slower than Aki had, although he did manage to get himself to a good eighty-five miles an hour. Nowhere near the intense speeds of an actual duel, but it was something of a milestone for him. He still could barely imagine dueling like this, but once he had fallen into the rhythm of the D-Wheel, he found that he was enjoying himself. The wind racing past him, the world blurring, the feeling of the tires humming on pavement…it was, for lack of a better word, relaxing somehow.

He didn't try anything too crazy, although he did attempt a few jerkier turns and dodges, because Aki was right, if he was going to learn to D-Wheel, he was going to have to be able to dodge and weave at a moment's notice. He realized at this point that Yusei was totally right—a riding suit made dueling at high speeds one hundred percent better. Even with his jacket zipped up he could feel the wind dragging on it irritably.

He pulled himself back around to where Aki waited and came to a stop.

“That was really good! Isn't this just your second time riding?” she said, eyes sparkling.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said. “I'm not going fast enough yet to actually duel, though…”

“It's fine, take your time,” Aki reassured him. “I can't believe you're this far already!”

He shrugged and blushed as he dismounted, pulling off his helmet.

“Whew…I think I might need a break, though. It's kind of draining after a while. Want to take another lap?”

Aki hesitated, then shook her head.

“I think I could use a little more of a breather too,” she said softly.

Judai blinked at her for a moment, frowning at the sadness in her voice all of a sudden.

“Aki-san…are you okay?”

Aki blinked, as though out of a daze.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm all right,” she said.

She wasn't all right. Judai could tell in the way her eyes ducked from his and how she started to rub at her neck self-consciously, the way that her other hand started to play with the zipper of her riding suit. But did he really have the right to pry? He looked down at the ground for a moment. The silence grew for a long time.

“Am I going to be enough?” Aki whispered suddenly.

Judai glanced up.

She wasn't looking at him. Her eyes were somewhere else, the wind playing with the strands of hair around her face.

“Enough for…what?”

“For this. This fight. Am I going to be enough?”

She waved at the D-Wheel, her riding suit, the world around them. She still wouldn't look right at Judai, but she could see the hint of tears in her eyes, just waiting to spill out.

“Aki…you're already enough. You've been doing so great.”

“I…I don't feel like I have. I feel like I always fall short. I'm not…strong enough. I'm a burden on everyone, aren't I?”

She sighed, hugging herself.

“Aki…”

“I know, I know, no one thinks of me as a burden,” she said. “But I—I can't help but feel it. For so long, I've been told that I—that I'm not enough. That I'll never be enough, that I can only do what's told of me and nothing else and I'm—Judai-san…I'm scared. I'm scared of this.”

Judai hesitated. He could feel the hurt in her voice, as though it were a pain in his own heart.

“Aki, whoever told you that was wrong,” he said. “No one sees you as a burden, and you're more than enough, okay? And trust me, I know…I know how it feels to feel that way. I really do. It's hard to fight the thoughts like that…but you can do it, I know you can.”

Aki looked down at the ground.

“Judai-san…can I…ask you something?” she said.

“Huh? Oh, sure.”

She swallowed.

“When you had your powers…when you started to use them…what happened? Did…did you scare people…?”

Judai hesitated. He felt his own pain flutter in his chest.

“…yeah,” he said. “Yeah…I mean…my parents weren't around a lot regardless, but after people started getting hurt every time I played a game with them…they started to fight a lot. And I always felt like it was my fault…”

Aki nodded.

“My parents were scared of me,” she said. “I—I accidentally hurt my father in a duel, and he was scared, he thought I must be a monster wearing his daughter's face at first.”

“Aki…”

“I wasn't enough for them, I wasn't…enough of a normal person for them,” she said, and it was clear that she was starting to ramble. “And then—and then I met Divine, and for a little while, I was enough for him, for once in my life—but then I stopped being enough. He started telling me that I wasn't trying hard enough, that I wasn't good enough, that I wasn't worth enough to be loved by anyone except him and I—”

She put a hand over her mouth for a moment, trying to still a sob. Judai moved forward to put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently.

“I'm scared,” she said. “Yusei and everyone—they treat me like I'm enough, and I know they think of me that way but…but I'm so scared. Every time I mess up, every time I don't do good enough I'm afraid they'll leave me. I have—I have to be enough.”

“You are enough,” Judai said. “Just you existing is enough, Aki. All of your friends think that. I promise you, that's all you have to do—all you have to do is be, and that's enough. You're doing amazing things already. Do you really think that Yusei, or any of them, are going to walk away if you mess up?”

She shook her head.

“That doesn't stop me from being afraid,” she said. “That somehow, I'll lose him, and everyone. Yusei was the first person in my life that told me I was enough and meant it. I'm scared that I—that I'll disappoint him.”

“You won't,” Judai assured her. “Yusei is not going to disappear…and neither am I, okay? I'm here for you, too.”

Aki's shoulders were shaking; tears were rolling down her cheeks. Judai thought maybe he should hug her or something, but couldn't really move, so he just stood there with his hand on her shoulder while she cried.

It took her a few moments to calm down.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “I guess…that's been building up for a while. I'm sorry to unload on you.”

“Hey, it's fine,” Judai said. “You're gonna be all right, okay?”

“I guess I've just…I've been scared to talk to them about how I'm feeling,” she mumbled. “And…and I think this has been affecting my powers…I haven't been able to summon sometimes when I'm practicing…”

A burst of shock stabbed through Judai.

“…what?”

“I've been trying to practice my psychic powers, because we need them for this fight, but I—I couldn't bring out Black Rose this morning. She just…wouldn't come. The hologram turned on but she wasn't there…the same thing happened on the way here. I tried to summon Twilight Rose Knight while I was driving, but it was just a hologram.”

“Aki, that's not because of your emotions—your emotions don't stop you from summoning. I should know.”

She blinked at him, uncertainty fluttering across her hazel eyes.

“Then…why…?”

Judai felt a coldness spreading in his stomach.

“I don't know,” he said. “I'm sorry, Aki, I know you're not feeling well, but could you try and summon for me? Right now?”

“Sure,” Aki said, looking nervous.

She didn't have a regular duel disk on her, though, so she slid back onto her D-Wheel.

“Just one lap should do it, right?”

“Right—I just need to see why you might be being blocked.”

She nodded, and revved the engine to life. The D-Wheel burst away, and Judai's eyes slid from dark brown to orange and green, watching her crimson aura flutter around her like a pair of wings. It looked normal enough. There shouldn't be a problem with her powers from what he was seeing, and he didn’t see any shadows lingering around her, either. Or anywhere at all, actually.

She was kind of far, now, but Judai could still see her. She looped around the far end and started heading back—he could see her drawing her cards and starting to move to a summon and—

Something fluttered at the corner of his eye. Before either of them could react, Aki's D-Wheel suddenly spun out of control.

“AKI!”

He heard her cry out as the back wheel hit a bump and the whole thing slammed up into the air, sending her up and over the handlebars—her hand flashed down to slam a card onto the Duel Disk, the hologram was whirring to life, Rose Tentacles reached out its long vines to catch her before she hit the ground—

She phased right through the monster.

It was just a hologram.

“AKI!”

Aki hit the ground head first and rolled as her D-Wheel spiraled off to the side and crashed against a wall. Judai bolted for her—Yubel's power flooded him, pushing his legs to move faster than a normal human's, trying to reach her—

“Aki, Aki, Aki!”

She was breathing, oh thank gods, she was breathing, but her eyes were fluttering and she didn't appear to be conscious—she must have a concussion, oh god, how did he even go about calling for an ambulance in this time frame?

“Aki, wake up, god, please, you have to wake up—”

What had happened? Her powers had failed, for no discernible reason, her D-Wheel had tripped up on nothing, and Judai had a sinking feeling in his chest that he knew who had done this and why.

Why? Fujiwara why?? Why Aki? She's—she didn't—

“Aki, please, oh god, wake up—”

He fumbled for his phone, managing to hit the speed dial for Yusei, praying that he was awake, one hand on Aki's shoulder trying to gently nudge her back to consciousness, her fingers were twitching and she was struggling for breath, had she broken a rib maybe? If she had a punctured lung—

Yusei picked up on the second ring.

“Judai? Where are you—”

“Duel Lane 67, Aki just had an accident, she needs a doctor right now—”

Yusei swore on the other line and immediately hung up; Judai could only hope that meant he was calling an ambulance instead.

Judai dropped his phone and put both hands on Aki's shoulders, trying to will her to keep breathing, to stay with him—

“Am I going to be enough?”

Aki.

Oh god.

. . .

“Her condition is stable,” Crow said, as though on autopilot, his voice monotone. “She's not awake yet, and she has a bad concussion and two cracked ribs, but otherwise, she's going to be okay.”

“Not in time for the match tonight, though…” said Jack. The white-coated duelist had his arms folded, and was clutching his arms so tightly that it seemed he might punch holes right through the fabric. “How the hell did this happen?”

Yusei could barely look up. He sat in one of the uncomfortable hospital lobby chairs, arms on his knees, staring at the ground. Judai sat beside him, just as quiet and stricken.

“Fujiwara?” he muttered to Judai.

“It had to have been…” said Judai.

“Why Aki? She's…she's just our pinch hitter. She shouldn't be—shouldn't be a major target.”

“I don't…I don't know…”

Yusei's hands curled inwards.

“Dammit,” he swore.

Aki's powers had failed. No one knew why. Without her tag-teaming with Carly to clear out shadows at the match tonight, they might be in for a world of hurt. And besides that…

Yusei felt his stomach clench as he thought about it. That scared, broken girl that he had met that first time at the tournament, who had lashed out at him wildly because that was all she knew how to do. The way she had glanced back at him after Divine had lead her away afterward, the vaguest plea for help that even she didn't seem to realize she was crying out for yet. How strong and confident she had been that night when she decided she would step in for Crow. What a difference six months could make…

How could someone try and steal her away from life when she had only just barely begun to live it?

“Where are her parents?” he asked.

“In the room with her…that's why they kicked me out. Or, well, they said I could stay but I figured…”

Crow sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with his good hand.

“Why Aki?” he muttered. “Why her?”

No one could answer. Judai shifted beside Yusei.

“Are the twins still at your place?” he asked.

“Yeah. I think they wanted to come but at the same time…I don't know if Luka can physically handle this right now. The last thing we need is for her to have another attack…they'll be all right with Bruno.”

Yusei sighed, running a hand down his face. Besides, if this Fujiwara really was their father, it was likely he wouldn't go after them. It was just…safer for them to be back at home.

“This is my fault,” Judai whispered, so quietly that Yusei could barely hear him.

Yusei finally looked up.

“No, it's not,” he said, perhaps a bit more harshly than he should have.

“I shouldn't have made her try to summon.”

“How were you supposed to know that her D-Wheel would spin out?”

“I could've—I could've done something to stop her fall—”

“Stop it,” Yusei said, standing up with a jerk. He stalked around to face Judai and put his hands on his shoulders, gripping tightly until Judai looked up at him. The boy's eyes were watery with uncried tears, his face taut and his hands trembling. “Stop it.”

“Yusei—”

“You did anything you could. You called me and got the ambulance there in time. Can you imagine what might have happened if you weren't with her at all? This feels planned, Judai. Can you look me in the eye and tell me it wasn't, knowing what we know now? Someone targeted Aki for a reason, and if you hadn't been there while she was practicing, she could still be laying out there on the ground alone and unconscious. Please, Judai. Stop.”

Judai drew in a shaky breath. He closed his eyes for a moment. Then he nodded. Yusei sighed, releasing Judai's shoulders.

“Aki's a fighter,” Crow said, looking determined. “This isn't gonna take her down for good. Not by a long shot.”

“None of us doubt that,” said Jack. “I'm more interested in knowing why her powers didn't work in the first place. Rose Tentacles should have been able to catch her.”

Yusei glanced at Judai. He was the only one here that knew how magic worked.

“What could have stopped her from summoning? Lack of focus?” Yusei asked.

“At her level? No way,” said Judai. “Monsters like Rose Tentacles, that she's made a deep connection to, should appear with barely a thought. It should be as natural as moving a muscle—and you don't just forget how to move your fingers in a day. She technically shouldn't even need to use a Duel Disk at this point, but old habits die hard.”

Judai sighed, dropping his head.

“It all happened so fast, I didn't see if there was a change in her aura…” he said. “But there's no way that it was because of her. Something else must have affected her or…”

Yusei blinked.

“Or…?”

Judai hesitated, glancing up at Yusei.

“Or for some reason, Rose Tentacles just…decided not to come.”

“They can do that?” Crow said, frowning.

“The Shadow People have wills of their own, of course that can happen,” Judai said. “But it shouldn't have happened. Aki and Rose Tentacles were close. That monster would probably kill itself if it thought that would save Aki from something. The only explanation I can think of is that somehow, Aki's call didn't reach.”

“What would have stopped it from reaching?” Jack asked, eyes flashing.

Judai shook his head.

“Fluke of dimensional interference, shadow magic, the list goes on,” Judai said. “Like I said, it happened so fast…otherwise I probably would have seen what happened…”

He ground his teeth. Yusei touched his shoulder reassuringly, then turned his attention to Crow and Jack.

“We'll find out what happened,” he said. “And Aki will get better.”

They all nodded. Yusei, then, frowned.

“But we have a dilemma—our match against Team Catastrophe is in three hours. And we're down a rider again.”

“I can go,” Crow said, eyes hardening.

“Your shoulder is nowhere near well enough,” snapped Jack. “Right, Judai?”

“He is right…if you try you might complicate things and my spell isn't going to be able to fix you as fast. You'd be ready to duel by tomorrow, but tonight…”

“Well you guys aren't going out there by yourselves!” Crow said. “Just the two of you against Team Catastrophe? I know today's been a crazy day, but did you see what happened to Team Unicorn against them?”

Yusei's lips tightened—he was still not happy about that. Team Unicorn might have been a bit manipulative, but they had been good, honorable opponents. To hear that they had lost like that…

“Wait, what happened?” Judai said, lifting his head.

“Andore crashed,” Crow said. “And so did Breo. It was Jan against the last two of them by himself, and he ended up getting injured by flying debris and had to forfeit because it was too bad to keep riding.”

“What, you mean they're out of the tournament?”

“Unless they have magic healers like you, they're not going to be riding any time soon…”

Judai froze.

“And you…you think Team Catastrophe made that happen?”

“It looked pretty shady,” Crow said, glowering. “Which is why you guys are not dueling them with just two wheelers. No way.”

“And no way are you dueling in your state!” said Jack.

“Who died and made you team mom?” snapped Crow.

“Guys,” Yusei said. “Not here, not now.”

Jack and Crow looked like they were about to bite each other's heads off, and they were attracting dirty looks from the other hospital patrons. Yusei felt so tired right then. This was too much. This tournament was supposed to be enjoyable. They had decided to join the WRGP as a way to move past the darkness of their pasts, a way to find their way towards a new future that before, in their lives in Satellite, they had never thought they would see.

But it was just another battleground again, and there was nowhere to turn to rest his head.

“Can it, Yusei!” said Crow. “Two against three is not happening, and that's final!”

“You're right, it's not,” said Judai suddenly, standing up with a jerk.

Everyone stopped and stared at him.

Yusei thought he knew what Judai was going to say already.

“Judai, no. You don't have a license, and there is no place that is running tests right now.”

“Yeah, besides, you're not exactly the best rider at this point?”

“I haven't exactly been trying that hard,” Judai said, although how much of that was bravado was uncertain. “And the license part doesn't matter. Because Yuki Judai won't be on the field. Izayoi Aki will be.”

“What?” said Yusei blinked.

Judai smirked.

“Whoever did this thinks they took Aki out,” he said. “What would they think…”

He slid a card out of his pocket and twirled it around once, revealing it to be the trap card Dark Illusion. A blink later, not Judai, but Aki—albeit an Aki with dark brown eyes instead of hazel—was staring at him.

“…if Aki showed back up on the dueling field anyway?”

He flipped the card again and Judai was back. All three boys stared at him. It was Crow that finally broke the silence.

“You're kind of scary, do you know that?” said Crow. “What else can you do that you haven't been telling us?”

Judai laughed, a little bit darkly.

“I dunno. I tend to forget what I can do, myself.”

He met Yusei's eyes.

“Well?” he said. “Game on, or not?”

Yusei stared at him. Then he breathed out, shaking his head.

“You win,” he said, running a hand over his face. “Dammit, Judai, yes. You win.”

He glanced at Jack and Crow, and could already tell that, probably against their better judgment, they were in agreement.

“You know that if whoever attacked Aki thinks that you're her, they'll probably try and fix the mistake of not making you unconscious during the match?” said Jack.

Judai actually smiled.

“That's what I'm counting on.”

. . .

She could hear the sound of a woman sobbing softly, the soft whispers of a man trying to soothe her. The tall woman bit her lip, hesitating outside the door. Gods, it couldn't be that bad, could it? Setsuko had told her it had been an ordinary D-Wheeler crash, and she knew better than anyone that every duelist crashed once in a while.

She tapped on the door and the sobs calmed. It was Hideo that answered, looking haggard and worn.

“Tenjoin-sensei,” he said, sounding as tired as he looked. “I didn't know you were coming.”

“Setsuko called me,” Tenjoin Asuka said, shifting her bag on her arm. “I came as quickly as I could…Aki-chan is a dear student of mine, and I couldn't believe that she had been…”

She bit her lip again.

“Is it all right for me to see her?” she asked.

“Of course, of course…thank you so much for coming all the way here…”

Asuka nodded a silent thank you to Hideo as he held the door open for her. The hospital room was small, stark, and bare, like all of them were. She hated these places. She had frequented them all too often in her high school years; people were always getting hurt in one way or another.

Izayoi Setsuko sat at the edge of the bed, still crying silently. She turned and stood to greet Asuka, the two women hugging each other tightly.

“How is she?” Asuka whispered.

“The doctors say she's going to be okay, but…but she won't wake up…”

Setsuko's eyes flooded with tears again, and Asuka took the woman into her arms, stroking her hair softly as the woman sobbed into Asuka's shoulder.

“I just—we just got her back, Asuka, we just got her back; we were such fools when she was a child, and she chose to forgive us and come home, and now—oh, god, what if we lose her…?”

“Sh, sh, sh, it's going to be all right,” Asuka said. “It's going to be all right…”

The door opened, then, and a nervous looking doctor poked his head in.

“I'm so sorry to interrupt,” he said. “But we need Izayoi-san's parents to fill out some paperwork…”

Setsuko stiffened even as Hideo sighed and stood up again, having just sat down.

“It's okay,” Asuka said. “I'll stay with her until you get back.”

Setsuko swallowed. Then Hideo gently took her hand, met her eyes, and the pair nodded to Asuka before stepping out into the hallway.

It was just Asuka and Aki, now.

The girl looked so peaceful laying there. Her usual hair pin had been removed, so her long bangs were combed to each side of her face instead. Her chest rose and fell with a careful steadiness, heart rate monitor beeping softly.

Asuka sank into the chair beside Aki, feeling her heart pang.

“Oh, you,” she whispered. “Why did this have to happen to you?”

Asuka hadn't known Aki very well before having her in homeroom this year, but she already knew that the girl was immensely kind and strong. She was the top of her class in almost every subject, and Asuka often saw her tutoring other students in the library. She had seen Aki in the dueling arenas often, not dueling, but watching the younger kids and stepping in when they got a little too cruel to each other. The quiet, angry girl that had been whispered about all over school before was now the one that everyone looked up to.

Asuka sighed, reaching out to brush a strand from Aki's face.

“You poor thing,” she murmured. “I'm so sorry…”

Aki's breath hitched. Asuka blinked, her eyes flicking to the heart rate monitor. Normal. Steady. Her eyes fell back down to Aki—were her eyes fluttering?

Asuka was just starting to think about calling a doctor when Aki's mouth started to move. At first, there was nothing, no words or sounds, and then, the barest whisper…

“Judai,” she murmured. “Judai…”

Asuka's breath caught in her throat and died. She half stood, staring at Aki with slowly widening eyes. Aki's fingers were starting to twitch now, her eyelashes fluttering as though she was in a dream.

“J-Judai,” she mumbled. “T-the dragon…is only…half…”

“Aki? Aki, are you awake? It's okay, you're all right, just breathe…”

Aki sucked in a thick, strangled breath—and then she relaxed again. Her breaths returned to normal, and it seemed that she was just…asleep.

Asuka stared down at the girl. Her heart hammered in her chest. Was it—had she really just…?

Asuka swallowed. No, she hadn't imagined it. Aki really had said…

The teacher was already reaching for her cell phone, dialing a number that was implanted on her speed dial and drawing the phone up to her ear.

“Manjoume? No, I don't care how busy you are. Get your ass to Neo-Domino right now, and bring Shou with you.”

She bit her tongue for a moment, barely believing that she was going to say this next sentence.

“Judai's back.”

Chapter Text

“Now who's the hasty one, hm?”

“…………………………”

“You know, at least when I reached out, I didn't put one of them into a coma. And you're supposed to be the one that cares about humans.”

“………… ……….”

“Yes, well your version of 'helping' apparently involves throwing humans around like rag dolls. You do know that they're not very sturdy, don't you? I should know. I've broken more than one, and I'm usually not even trying.”

“…. ………”

“Overestimated your force? You made your presence so thick that even her very soul shadow couldn't hear her when she called. I think you chose the wrong human, anyway. She's strong, yes, but she's not very perceptive. Why didn't you use one of my contractors?”

“…..”

“Well, excuse me . I'm sorry that my contractors gain too much darkness from me for you to reach them. You know, the Light Channel is still an option, isn't he? Why bother with the Talon when you can reason with the Head?”

“………………..”

“Ah, I see, so it's all my fault again. I would remind you that am merely playing by the rules, you know. The rules that we made. Together , if you remember correctly.”

“……………………………………”

“…you believe they can do it, then?”

“……………”

“This wouldn't have been a problem if you had just dealt with the corruption five thousand years ago. We had options then. Options that you discarded.”

“….”

“You're too sentimental. Besides. You didn't seem too concerned about loss of life when you were trying to contact the Talon. She could have died, you know. She was very close to it—if you hadn't been around, pestering her when she couldn't even hear you, she would have been able to summon and that crash wouldn't have hurt her.”

“…………….”

“I…I don't care about them. I don't care about humans. I don't care if she got hurt. I was just surprised that you were willing to let it happen.”

“……………….”

“I do not intend to make myself a heart any time soon. I saw what it did to you. I'm not keen on the idea.”

“………..”

“…no. You're right. We are changing. The problem is…you're getting weaker, old friend. Your voice is becoming too soft. People that should hear you cannot any longer.”

“… …………………… …”

“I do know why. And so do you. Now do you see why I'm so willing to bet on such a small hope…?”

. . .

Two hours and thirty-six minutes until the next duel. Two hours and thirty-six minutes. Two hours and thirty-six minutes—

Oh, her watch was five minutes faster than the clock here—oh, gosh, which one was right? Two hours and thirty-six minutes—two hours and thirty-one minutes? Ooooooh goodness…

Carly moaned and plopped onto the couch in the middle of her frantic pacing. Pacing never did anyone good. She just had to relax. Right. Relaxing was good. Just close her eyes and breathe for a moment…

She squeaked and her eyes flew open again. No, never mind, closing her eyes was a bad idea. A very bad idea. She popped back to her feet and started to pace again across the concrete floor, sneakers shuffling and squeaking. She chewed on her lip. Everyone was going to be here soon, right? Right? She felt like she had been waiting for ages and sitting here alone in this empty house wasn't doing her nerves any good.

The door at the top of the stairs swung open. Carly stopped her pacing so quickly that she almost fell over.

“All I'm saying is that if they're somehow behind it, it's going to make things a million times more complicated!”

“Hmph. We just have to win, don't we? That's simple enough.”

“Ugh, you're hopeless…oh! Carly! When did you get here?”

Crow and Jack had appeared in the doorway, Crow blinking down at Carly.

“I—uh—Judai-san asked me to come as soon as I could and so I was waiting for him…um, Zora-san let me in! I didn't break in or anything…is Judai-san here?”

“Yeah, he's bringing up the rear with Yusei and Bruno…” Crow said, taking the stairs two at a time. “Bruno thinks they found some data that proves that our next opponents are the guys that attacked me and Aki, and made Team Unicorn crash.”

“Eh? You mean Team Catastrophe?”

“Yeah, those're the ones.”

Carly cocked her head, brow furrowing.

“But then…that just makes everything more complicated! If they're behind it, then why? Are they working for someone that we already know is trying to attack us? Or are they just a new enemy?! Ugh, my head hurts…”

She clutched at her head for a moment as a headache panged through it.

Crow sent Jack, who had just come down the stairs behind him, a self-satisfied grin.

“See? Carly-chan gets it,” he said. “It's not just a 'we just have to win' sorta situation.”

Carly swallowed, still staring down towards the floor and not looking at Jack. She was too afraid to look up and see him staring at her—or worse…pointedly not looking at her. Like always.

“Oy, Jack? Where are you going?”

Carly's eyes snapped up just in time to see Jack's coat snapping as he walked towards the stairs up to the top floor with the bedrooms. Not looking at her. Like she had been afraid of.

“Oy, Jack,” Crow said. “For the love of…that asshole.”

He ground his teeth irritably. Then he glanced at Carly.

“You do not have to forgive him for anything, ya know,” he said. “You should yell at him once in a while. He never listens when I do it.”

Carly blinked, uncertain of what to say. Crow didn't seem to be paying attention, though, shaking his head.

“Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not gonna keep trying…”

He grumbled to himself as he stalked off, leaving Carly alone once again.

Carly watched him go with a growing pit in her stomach. Slowly, slowly, she turned around and slipped back onto the couch again. She let out a deep sigh, feeling her eyes flutter closed again.

Jack…why do you keep avoiding me?

The door opened again, and she turned to look over shoulder.

It was Judai, Bruno, and Yusei. Bruno appeared to be on a mission as he hurtled down the stairs with a flash drive and made for the computer without even glancing at Carly, immediately starting up the system and letting his fingers fly across the keyboard. Yusei and Judai seemed to finish whatever conversation they were having and then Yusei trotted down the stairs to walk over to Bruno, nodding at Carly with that small, quiet smile of his.

Judai noted Carly almost immediately and jogged over.

“Hey, sorry for making you wait, we came straight from the hospital,” he said. “Hey…you okay? You're not looking very well…”

She flushed. Oh, no, did she look as bad as she felt?

“I—I'm okay,” she said. “Just didn't sleep very well. After what happened to Aki-san, you know…”

Judai nodded, lips twitching with sympathy.

“I know that feeling,” he said. “Anyway…the duel tonight.”

Carly nodded mechanically.

“Aki-san is hurt, and you're dueling for her,” she said. “That's what you said on the phone.”

“Right,” Judai said. “Which means the team is going to be relying on you today.”

She swallowed through a dry throat.

“I figured,” she mumbled.

Oh, man, she was so out of her league! She couldn't even get her news stories in on time, much less help the Signers take down something that had hurt Aki-san…

“Hey,” Judai said, quiet, soothing, putting a hand on her shoulder for a moment. “You okay?”

She licked her lips.

“I…no. I'm scared.”

Judai grimaced.

“It probably won't make you feel any better, but so am I.”

“No, that makes me feel a little worse, actually,” she blurted, and then she flushed.

But Judai laughed softly.

“This isn't going to be easy,” he said. “But we need you—we need your eyes for this.”

She nodded. She knew that. She knew—she had to be there. For this one thing, she could do something useful.

“What am I supposed to do?” she whispered.

“Watch,” he said. “I'm going to be on the field so my eyes will have to be elsewhere. You need to keep an eye on everything—you're a journalist, right? Observation is your thing. Look for shadows, auras that don't match up right, whatever looks wrong. You'll be on headset to guide us if something looks wrong.”

She nodded.

“We think that there's something going on with a card of theirs, so that's what I mainly want you to look for.”

“R-right.”

Judai met her eyes, and for a moment, even with her glasses on, she could see the glimmer of gold behind his eyes, that shining, royal aura that seemed to ripple off of him like a king's robes.

“You can do this,” he said quietly. “I really believe you can. You have…you have a strength in you. I can see it. You just haven't put enough faith in yourself.”

She dropped her eyes to the floor, unable to meet his gaze any longer. She didn't feel like she had a strength in her—didn't feel like that at all. She felt more like she had been filled up with something nasty, like she had drunk spoiled milk, and then vomited it up everywhere, and she was still feeling the sickness and the aftertaste. It would not go away—like the nightmares, the taste wouldn't leave her. She felt…somehow empty, but she didn't know why.

Judai was nodding to her and starting to walk back towards Yusei.

“J-Judai-san,” she called, impulsively.

He hesitated, glancing back over his shoulder. The words left her for a moment, and she was staring at him with her mouth hanging open like a dumb fish.

“Yeah?” he finally prompted.

She swallowed.

“I think something's wrong with me,” she whispered. “Or like—like something wrong happened to me. But I can't remember. I—I can't remember.”

Judai frowned, turning to face her fully again.

“What do you mean?” he said.

“I think something—happened. Six months ago. When the Signers were fighting the Dark Signers—something happened to me. I'm missing almost…almost three weeks of memories. Maybe more. Something happened then, and I don't…I don't know…”

She fumbled for her words again.

“Jack won't look at me anymore. Did I—did I do something wrong? And I keep having these nightmares, and I can't remember them when I wake up. He won't look at me, I thought we were becoming friends, but then I forget what happened and he won't even glance at me…”

She choked on her words and had to stop, pressing a hand over her mouth to still the sob that was about to rip free. Judai reached out to grip her arm.

“It's okay,” he said soothingly. “It's okay.”

“I'm scared,” she said. “What did I do? Is that why I can see these things now? Why is he…why is he mad at me…? I just want him to look at me again.”

Judai gripped her arm a little tighter.

“I don't know what happened…but it's going to be okay. I'll see what I can do for you, okay? I'll see what I can do.”

She swallowed around the lump in her throat. Geez, she was being so stupid.

“T-thank you,” she said. “I'm sorry.”

“Don't be,” said Judai, letting his hand fall back to his side. “Sounds like you've been to hell and back…I did that once myself. Makes you feel used up pretty badly.”

She nodded.

Judai's eyes wandered over to Yusei, and he seemed thoughtful.

“I'll see what I can do for you, okay? Whatever I can to make you feel a little better. But please, whatever happened…however bad it was…”

And he smiled a bit ruefully at this, as though at some morbid inside joke.

“Whatever happened, I'm sure that if Jack is really your friend, he'll be able to forgive you. It'll turn out okay.”

Carly swallowed through a dry throat, her eyes wandering up the stairs to where Jack had disappeared.

“I hope so,” she whispered.

. . .

Yusei left Bruno to his mumbling and analysis of the D-Wheel readouts and went upstairs with the intent of taking a shower. He stopped, however, when he heard the angry whispers towards the end of the hall, between him and the bathroom.

“Leave it, Crow.”

“I will not fucking leave it.”

“It's none of your business.”

“Do you not see the way she keeps glancing at you?? You are breaking that poor girl's heart and you won't even tell her why.”

“It's none of your business.”

“You're making it my business by being a fucking asshole.”

Yusei bit his lip, eyes narrowing. That was Crow and Jack, but what were they talking about…?

He moved a bit closer, feeling guilty for eavesdropping, but was unable to stay his curiosity.

“Look at her, Jack—she's scared. And she trusts you for some goddamn reason and wants to feel safe again. You make her feel that way when you're not being an ass and ignoring her.”

“Crow, just shut up. I'm done with this.”

“I'm not! You saw what happened to Aki. Carly is involved now whether you like it or not, and something could happen to one or both of you and she's never going to—”

There was a thump and Crow swore. Yusei took a half step forward—he thought he could see Jack shoving Crow against a wall with far more force than was necessary and he thought he might have to break it up if they started to fight—

But Jack released Crow with a jerk, drawing backwards.

“You don't get it,” he growled. “You just—you don't get it.”

“No, I don't,” Crow said back. “And neither does she. Is that what you want for her?”

Jack shot Crow a harsh glare. But then his face seemed to crumple in on itself, and he stepped away, shaking his head.

“Just shut up about this,” he mumbled. “Just shut up.”

And he turned, and stepped into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. Crow stared at the door for a moment. Then he swore again, shaking his head and turning back towards the loft. He passed Yusei along the way and didn't seem surprised that he was listening.

“He's hopeless,” Crow said as he passed. “And I'd let him crash and burn if it wasn't hurting Carly.”

Yusei frowned, uncertain of how to respond to that, but Crow was already gone. Yusei stood alone in the dim hallway, uncertain of what to do now. There were only a few hours until the next duel…what should he do to calm down?

Because he was nervous. He could feel it like a buzz in his head, a tremble in his hands. He didn't want to think about how his hands were going to shake when he finally started the duel itself. Would he lose his cards to the wind? There were still so many things they didn't know and it was starting to eat at him.

All he could see was Aki laying in that hospital bed, cracked ribs and concussion and looking as though she were just asleep instead of injured. All he could see were visions of more accidents, of Crow laying at an unnatural angle on the ground, Jack coughing up blood, Judai crushed beneath his D-Wheel—

He felt bile rising in his throat and pressed a hand to his mouth to still it.

A soft footstep caught his attention. He looked up to see Judai standing at the top of the stairs, looking concerned.

“You okay?” he said.

Yusei opened his mouth, intending to say yes, but what came out instead was a breathy,

“No. I'm not.”

Judai smiled wryly.

“Me neither,” he said.

“I keep thinking about the rest of you getting hurt,” Yusei whispered.

“Me too.”

“I can't do this.”

Judai reached for his arm, squeezing his elbow.

“Yeah, you can.”

Yusei swallowed, closing his eyes for a moment. He could feel the tremble in Judai's hand even as he was holding his arm.

“You're just as scared, aren't you?” he said.

“Yeah,” Judai said quietly. “I'm terrified. Aki got hurt, these people might be behind it, that means their might be more enemies than just Fujiwara, others could get hurt, and I keep thinking that this is going to be me on a motorcycle again with you nearby and what's going to happen if…”

Yusei already knew what Judai was thinking about.

The song. He was thinking about the melody.

“I don't know if it's friendly or not,” Judai whispered. “We could have crashed the last time it tried to reach it.”

“I know.”

“And usually I can sense things…I can usually tell if an energy is malicious or not but with that…I couldn't tell. Either way. I'm…I'm scared of it.”

Yusei nodded. Judai closed his eyes, and Yusei could see the tremble in the other boy's shoulders.

“I left Yubel with Aki,” Judai whispered. “Because I think she has something to do with the melody…we can figure it out later but today…we just have to win.”

Yusei nodded. It made sense. Yubel could protect Aki from anything that came after her. He didn't really like the idea of facing the shadows without the duel spirit's help, but, with Judai on the field, it was likely that they would be all right anyway.

“But did I do the right thing? Is anything I do right? What if I mess up? If this really is…if this really is a time travel loop, like Fujiwara said, then I've already messed up before. I could hurt you guys, or make something happen that will make you guys get hurt and—”

Yusei stepped forward and pulled Judai into his arms. For a moment, Judai stiffened. Then his arms slowly, tentatively slid around Yusei's waist. After one more awkward beat, he relaxed in Yusei's arms, burying his face against Yusei's shoulder. Yusei dropped his head into Judai's hair and breathed in, trying to imprint the realness of the moment to remember where he was. Both of them were trembling—both of their grips tightened on the other.

They just stood there, holding each other in the dark hallway, trying for one moment to not think about the what-ifs and the what-will-bes, for a long, long time.

. . .

Asuka settled into a seat towards the very middle of the stands, barely noticed by the chattering crowds. The voices rose and fell together, a dull roar around the arena—she actually found the background noise quite soothing. And she needed all of the soothing she could get.

Her hazel eyes scanned the crowd for any sign of the people she was waiting for. Not here yet. Typical. Manjoume was likely to be late to his own funeral—although she was surprised that Shou was taking his time. He liked to be five minutes early to everything.

Well, he was probably letting Manjoume hold him up. Asuka wasn't unduly worried, they had fifteen minutes before the duel would start. She was curious to see what Team 5D's would do. She had done a bit of reading, and learned that one of their members, a Crow Hogan, had injured his shoulder and was unable to ride without risk of furthering his injury. Aki was their only registered backup wheeler, and she was in the hospital. Would they duel with only two wheelers?

She hummed to herself, pressing her lips together.

There was a brief commotion in front of her as a group of kids pushed their way into the aisle, chattering excitedly. She recognized a few of the faces from Duel Academy—that was little Hayano Tenpei, wasn't it? And of course Patricia, she was in Asuka's after school study group. A sweet girl.

The little blonde turned in her seat for a moment to speak to a dark haired boy beside her, and noticed Asuka.

“Ah! Tenjoin-sensei!” she said, eyes brightening. “You came to watch the WRGP too?

“Of course she came, everybody who's anybody comes to this!” a rather chubby boy beside her said.

Asuka smiled at the kids. She couldn't help herself, they were so adorably exuberant.

“Yes, I'm here,” she said. “Are you having fun today?”

“Yes, sensei!” they chorused together, save for the young boy with dark hair, who just folded his arms and scowled deeply. There was something very familiar about that scowl…

“Oy, you,” said a familiar voice as a hand dropped down on the dark haired boy's head. “Are you being trouble?”

The boy spluttered as Asuka smiled and stood to greet the lanky man.

“Manjoume-kun, good to see you,” she said. “Do you know him?”

Manjoume nodded as he ruffled the boy's hair against his protests.

“Good to see ya too. Been a bit, hasn't it? And yeah. This is Sly—Manjoume Sly. He's my niece's kid. What are you doing here, scamp?”

“Watching the damn WRGP, what the hell does it look like?” Sly said, looking incredibly put upon.

“Oy, watch your mouth, or I'll tell on you,” Manjoume said, grinning.

“Oh, give him a break, Jun,” Shou said, popping out from behind him. Even this long after their high school days, he was still barely over five feet, and it was easy to miss him behind Manjoume's broadened frame.

“I'm his great uncle, it's my job to be obnoxious and eccentric,” Manjoume said, ruffling Sly's hair one more time.

Sly muttered to himself under his breath as Manjoume left off and slid into the seat beside Asuka. Shou rolled his eyes and plopped down beside Manjoume, on the aisle.

“Johan couldn't make it?” Manjoume asked.

“He's on his way, but the flights were delayed…this is pretty short notice after all,” Asuka said. “Take a look at this, I want to know what you think.”

She handed a packet to Manjoume, who flipped it open with one hand and slung his other arm over the back of the chair. Shou leaned in to check it too, frowning.

“Isn't this the time pocket data you've been collecting? I feel like I've seen this chart before,” Manjoume said.

“Close, but not quite,” said Asuka. “Take a look at this reading here. It's off from the previous energy spikes that we've associated with history alterations.”

Manjoume narrowed his eyes, but it was Shou who spoke up first.

“There's a repetition here,” he said. “Wow! It's like a connecting loop to the previous information…”

He fumbled with his glasses, pushing them up on his nose.

“Exactly,” Asuka said. “I picked it up a few weeks ago. It's similar to the other time holes that we've recorded, but different.”

“And that means…?”

“I think this must be the one that Judai is using.”

Manjoume nodded slowly.

“Makes sense…doubt he'd get any access to Yliaster technology, and knowing him, he can probably bend time himself, right?”

Asuka laughed softly.

“We'll probably never know what he can do—I doubt he even knows most of the time.”

Shou's eyes softened a bit and he leaned back in his chair.

“Has it really been thirty years?” he muttered under his breath.

They all fell silent for a moment. Right. Sometimes, in the commotion of it all, it was easy to forget that it had been that long since any of them had seen their old friend.

“You're sure that he's back,” Manjoume said, glancing at Asuka.

“Almost positive,” Asuka said. “There's no other way Aki-san would have known that name. There are little to no records of Judai anymore. Even most of his school files are hard to find, and Aki isn't the type to go snooping into random files from thirty years ago with no reason—no, I think she's met him personally.”

Manjoume huffed, and nodded. It was good enough for him.

“We just have to find him, and see how much he knows,” he said, leaning his head back. “Man. Thirty years. A lot has happened.”

“Mm-hm…” said Shou, glancing out over the crowd. “I can't remember the last time we had a break.”

“Speaking of which, have you heard anything from Fujiwara in a while?” Manjoume asked Asuka.

She shook her head.

“It's been almost five months, I'm starting to get worried,” she said, glancing down at the race track. The teams were getting ready to go. “I keep calling him, but his phone's been disconnected. The last person that saw him was nii-san and he has no idea what could have happened.”

Manjoume almost growled under his breath.

“We know what must have happened,” he said.

“Don't go there,” Shou said.

“There's no point in hiding it. We all know the risks we take in doing this. We're not just running the risk of dying—Yliaster could make it so we were never born at any time.”

“We've already determined that's impossible,” Asuka pointed out. “None of the time holes—well aside from this one, which we assume is Judai’s, and not Yliaster’s—have gone further back than eighteen years ago. In fact, all of the furthest time holes gather at near the same date, so it's probable that none of them can go back farther than that due to—”

“Please save the science for when my brain doesn't hurt,” Manjoume groaned.

“Doesn't it always hurt?” muttered Shou.

Manjoume elbowed him in the stomach and Shou swatted at him.

There was a roar of engines that broke off any other conversation they might have. The familiar face of the announcer with the long pompadour appeared on the big screen.

“Are you all ready for another heart-pounding duel?” the announcer shouted into his microphone.

The crowd screamed in reply.

“Then let's introduce the day's first duelists! Coming on now, Team Catastrophe! Already notorious for their victory against Team Unicorn, which ended with two crashes!”

There was a chorus of boos mixed in with the cheers as the rough looking men with gleaming markers appeared, and Asuka winced.

“That was brutal,” Manjoume muttered. “Those guys don't give two shits about anyone, do they?”

“And coming on after them, one of the fan favorites this year, Team 5D's!”

The familiar face of Fortune Cup winner Yusei appeared on the screen, and Asuka glanced up for a moment. Aki's face was also still up there—they had probably chosen not to remove it, since she was still a member even though she wasn't dueling.

“The first wheelers are getting into position! Coming on first, we have Hermann of Team Catastrophe, and Izayoi Aki of Team 5D's!”

“What?” Asuka found herself saying.

Manjoume half rose from his seat to get a better view, and Shou's glasses slipped down his face with his jerk of surprise.

“I thought you said she was unconscious,” Manjoume said.

“She—she is,” Asuka said, standing up herself to stare down at the track. “But I—”

There was no mistaking it—that was Aki on that motorcycle, revving up the D-Wheeler's engines and checking the screen. But—but that was impossible! Asuka had just come from the hospital after checking on the girl again on the way here—

Aki seemed to glance upwards toward the cheering crowds as she slipped on her helmet. She fumbled with the fastenings for a moment, and then placed her hands on the handlebars, almost gingerly. Asuka frowned. She seemed nervous. Well, she had reason to be, after that crash, but there was something about the way that she was twiddling nervously against the handles…

The roar of the crowd rippled into a wave of noise as the timer started to count down. Aki glanced up again at the increased sound.

And then, as if almost unconsciously, she lifted two fingers to her head and then tipped them towards the crowd as though in a brief salute.

Asuka choked on her breath. Shou gasped, and Manjoume literally fell back into his seat.

“'Gotcha',” Shou mumbled to himself.

“That's—” started Manjoume.

“Judai,” Asuka whispered, feeling tears prick into her eyes. “Oh, Judai.”

The timer blared.

And the D-Wheels exploded from the gate.

Chapter Text

The D-Wheels exploded past the starting line.

Immediately, Judai's stomach felt like it dropped out and fell behind on the track. His throat was tight and he couldn't breathe for the wind screaming past him and—oh shit, this was fast, but he couldn't slow down, couldn't slow down or he wouldn't just fall behind, he would make things look suspicious because Aki was a good D-Wheeler and he had to fake her level of talent—

He swore as he briefly lost control of the D-Wheel, feeling the front wheel spin out when he tried to angle himself out of the way of the other wheeler. Luckily, Hermann of Team Catastrophe was far too interested in getting the first turn to be paying attention to Judai. He outstripped Judai easily and rounded the first turn. Judai swore again. He accelerated—already he was a good ten lengths behind!

The roar of the crowd was only a dull murmur to the wind and blood pounding in his ears. Just—just focus on the cards, Judai, focus on the cards. Not on the hum of the wheels on the concrete or the fact that you could tumble face forward over the handlebars at any given second—right, no, stop thinking that right now. Geez, whatever happened to the good old days of dueling while standing firmly on the ground??

Judai shook his head for a moment, trying to clear it. Then he carefully removed one hand from the handlebars—his heart fluttering as he did so—and drew his first five cards. He slid them into place at his side and made a quick once over of his options. He bit his lip, trying to process the strategies while he also focused on driving which was not fun.

This was Aki's deck, for one thing, something that he was one hundred percent not prepared to use. He had had only a few moments to look over the deck before he was forced onto the track.

“Judai, are you doing all right? Judai!”

Judai snapped out of it, realizing that Yusei had probably been trying to talk to him for several moments.

“Sorry, yeah, I'm fine,” he spoke into the headset. “Just—just getting my bearings.”

“You can do this, Judai, you only have to take the first duelist and then you can switch out, okay? There's no rule against switching out.”

“Right, right, I'm fine, I promise,” said Judai. Dammit, now he had gone and worried Yusei—he could hear the faint tremor of uncertainty in the other boy's voice and knew that he was still worried about this plan in the first place. Geez, he had to get it together or he was going to keep making Yusei worry…

“My turn!” the Catastrophe duelist shouted. “I summon Hook the Hidden Knight in attack mode!”

Judai's stomach dropped again. Already??

The air glowed as the monster stepped out into life. A cape fluttered around it as it was drawn alongside the motorcycle, clad in dark armor, darkness swirling behind its face plate. It looked like an ordinary hologram to Judai—but with Yubel temporarily separated from him, her card left behind to care for Aki, Judai didn't have access to his sight at all. Could they have possibly been mistaken? It seemed too much to hope for.

“J-Judai-kun, that's it! That's the monster!” Carly's trembling voice squeaked into his ear. “It's—oh, god, it's so dark. I've never seen anything that dark.”

Judai swore. Perfect. Just his luck. He resituated his hands on the wheels and tried to pull himself forward a little more.

“Any other shadows?” he asked.

“None that I can see…they're all concentrated right there with the monster.”

Well, at least he knew where to look for the shadows, then.

“I'll set one card and end my turn!” the duelist, Hermann shouted. His set card appeared and then faded from sight, and the turn counter turned to Judai.

“My turn!” Judai shouted. “Draw!”

His speed counter went up to one at the corner of his screen as he glanced at the card he had drawn. Okay. Good. He dropped the card into place and then reached for his other one, trying not to think too hard about not tipping the bike over.

“I'll summon Phoenixian Seed in attack mode!” he shouted—and then he just about clapped a hand over his mouth because that was his voice coming out of his mouth, not Aki's. Had anyone noticed?? Hermann seemed to glanced at him for a moment, frowning, but otherwise, it looked like no one was paying enough attention to the tone of his voice—damn, he was bad at emulating sounds, though. He had to try harder.

The giant seed with an eye in its center appeared before him, and Judai felt the monster's sluggish uncertainty at being called.

They're so used to being called by Aki that I'm disorienting them, he thought. Hey, it's okay. I'm here to help out—just please work with me for today, please?

The seed seemed to eye him for a moment.

Help me avenge Aki, will you?

That got its attention. He could feel the crackle of the monster's anger as it considered what had happened to its mistress. It blinked at him once, and he got the sense that it was agreeing. For a beat he thought he could hear it whispering at him: “use my power and kill him.” He breathed out a sigh of relief, and then returned to his cards.

He licked his lips briefly and then attempted to wrap his shadow magic around his voice to make it sound at least a little bit more like Aki's.

“I activate Phoenixian Seed's effect! I can tribute it to summon Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis from my hand!”

The first order of business is to get rid of that shadow card, he thought.

He felt the Seed hum with delight in his brain as it split and grew into the form of Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis, blossoms bobbing in the harsh wind. Twenty-two hundred attack points ought to do it.

“Amaryllis attacks Hook the Hidden Knight!”

The flower screeched as fire blossomed from the center of its flowers, blasting for the knight. Its attack was no match for the flower—maybe he could deal with this thing right away!

“Hook the Hidden Knight's effect activates!” said Hermann. “When it's targeted for an attack in attack mode, I can switch it and the attacking monster to defense mode—then deal eight hundred points of damage to you!”

Judai swore as Amaryllis' fire burned out and the flowers turned the dormant blue of defense mode. Hook the Hidden Knight retreated back to a kneeling position, arms crossed in front of it. Judai grit his teeth for the effect damage when—

“Judai-kun—JUDAI-KUN GO RIGHT GO RIGHT!”

Judai did not hesitate—Carly's voice was frantic. He wrenched his D-Wheel to the right. The motion caused the whole bike to dip and nearly spin and he just about cried out.

“Ooh, and it looks like Izayoi Aki has hit a snag in the track!” the announcer shouted over the roaring din of the crowd. “She seems about to spin out!”

With an angry cry, Judai wrenched himself back onto balanced wheels, continuing forward at breakneck speeds. It took him a moment to clear his head enough to hear Yusei, Lua, Luka, and Carly all talking into his ear at once.

“Oh my god, are you okay? Breathe Judai, talk to us!”

“Judai, Judai, Judai, the hook almost got your wheel, it almost got you, oh, god, Judai be careful, be careful, be careful!”

Yusei's voice cut above them.

“Are you okay? Do you need to come out?”

“Already?” Judai said. “Not a fricking chance. What happened?”

“It was in the shadow of your wheel—the monster's hook. It tried to hook itself into your wheel and lock it up.”

Judai's eyes snapped up to the opposing monster. His gaze lingered on the nasty, curved hook on one hand that gleamed, deadly in the light.

“I can't switch out,” he said into his headset. “Not when I haven't even done a bit of damage to him.”

“Judai…”

“I'll be fine. In fact, now that I know what they're doing, and how they're doing it…”

Judai felt his jaw clench, his hands tighten on the handlebars, his entire body crackle with energy and rage.

This is what they did to Aki.

For a moment, she flashed across his mind, the way her head hit the concrete, the way she had rolled and come to a too-still stop.

They hurt her like this, and they want to do it again, to everyone on the team.

Hermann had the misfortune of glancing back over his shoulder to see his opponent's reaction to having failed in the battle. That smug smile slipped when his eyes met Judai's, apparently seeing something there that he didn't want to see, just the edge of uncertainty darkening his eyes.

Judai sped his motorcycle up to come level with the other duelist.

“That card,” he snapped. “Where did you get it?”

“Huh?”

“Hook the Hidden Knight. Who gave you that card?”

“Why's it any of your business, missy? Ain't you supposed to be in the hospital anyway?”

“Where. Did. You. Get. That. Card.”

This time, Judai's words came out with a harsh, inhuman hiss—even though he and Yubel were technically far apart, they could not be truly separated, and the part of him that was a demon rose to the surface for a moment, his teeth lengthening briefly into fangs and his scales longing to burst through his skin.

Hermann seemed to pale a moment, but he shook it off.

“Beat me and I'll tell you,” he taunted, and then he pulled forward.

Judai's glare burned into the man's back.

Fine then, he thought. We'll do it your way. You'll regret it.

He could feel his golden aura starting to leak through his eyes—it was strong enough now with his anger that he had to struggle to keep the disguise of Aki pulled around him.

You want a war? You've got one now.

. . .

Aki was screaming.

Two nurses attempted to hold her down without hurting her, while another prepared a syringe of anesthetic. Her eyes were wide open but they saw nothing, she wasn't even fully conscious as her arms flailed up and down and her head attempted to jerk off of the pillow.

“She is going to hurt herself, aren't you ready with that yet?”

“We've already given her one dose; I don't want to overdose her!”

“It's not working; we need something stronger or she's going to hurt herself!”

“Good God, what's going on?”

Yubel, unseen, gripped at Aki's hands—but it was like Aki wasn't even half aware of her existence. Yubel couldn't find a single spark of her previous psychic abilities—what was going on? Where was Aki's power? What had—Aki, please—

Yubel drew her wings around Aki as though that would protect her somehow, even as the nurses flitted around and shouted at each other and argued about whether to give her another dose. Her jaw clenched, fangs bared.

“Aki,” she hissed. “Aki, can you hear me? You have to calm down. You have to calm down.”

Aki did not respond, her hand flailing up again and out of the grip of the nurse, slapping the woman in the face. To her credit, the nurse barely even flinched, slipping her hands around Aki's head and trying to help her hold it still with a gentle grip.

Aki's scream cut off for a moment as she ran out of air, and she laid there for a moment, gasping.

“The dragon,” she whispered. “The dragon isn't finished yet.”

Yubel felt for a moment as though an icicle had stabbed her heart. The nurses didn't seem to notice the whisper—perhaps because it didn't even sound like Aki's own voice. It was a harsh, grating sound that seemed to rip out of her throat like she was spitting up rocks.

“Aki,” Yubel whispered again, desperation tightening her chest. “Aki. You have to stop. You have to wake up. It's just a dream.”

And then, for a brief moment, Aki's eyes met Yubel's full on, as though she could see them.

Yubel gasped.

There was a song playing in her head.

. . .

This was bad.

Judai had control of his D-Wheel again, but for how long? How long until that damn monster went for him again?

Yusei could hardly think for the heartbeat pounding in his head. Judai. Judai. Judai.

“I'll set three cards and end my turn!” Judai shouted.

It was back to Hermann—back to that shadow creature that had thrown Crow from his D-Wheel, the one that had sent Aki into a coma, the one that seemed bent on ripping Judai apart.

“He's not ready for this, he's not ready for this,” Yusei kept muttering. “He can't focus on the duel and the riding at the same time—oh, god, why did I agree to this?”

Crow gripped Yusei's elbow tightly in his good hand, a silent plea for him to stop, but his eyes did not leave the duel. Carly was still babbling into the headset and telling Judai where the shadows were probably going to come from next. Yusei had already taken the headset from Luka because she seemed like she was about to have a panic attack and he didn't need her to hyperventilate.

Just one duelist. Then I'm pulling him out of there. Just one duelist.

And then Luka screamed.

Yusei's eyes were unwillingly ripped from the duel.

“Lua! Lua, what's wrong? What's going on?”

Lua's small body sprawled across the pavement, his chair overturned. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open in a silent scream as he suddenly started to convulse.

Jack was the first one at his side, pulling the boy into his arms and propping him up.

“Lua! Lua, talk to me, what happened?” he shouted.

Carly was just about in tears, babbling into her headset, Judai's voice was calling into his ear asking what was going on, Crow had bolted for the med staff shouting that they had someone having a seizure and Luka was on her knees half screaming Lua's name over and over as tears rolled out of her eyes.

Lua's eyes didn't blink, wide open as his arms continued to spasm. His mouth was moving but no sound was coming out.

“Yusei! Yusei, what's going on?”

“I-It's Lua, he's having some kind of seizure—”

Judai swore.

“The shadows—it's the shadows, isn't it? I didn't think Fujiwara would—I need to!”

Carly choked on her own air.

“It's not the shadows,” she breathed. “It's—oh, god, he's so bright—”

The girl fumbled for her glasses as though they were shades, trying to block her eyes with the other hand.

“His aura is—it's so red, it's so bright, it's getting so strong, what—I don't even know what's happening to him—”

“Yusei? Carly! Calm down!”

Yusei shook his head.

“We'll take care of it, Judai, please just—finish that one guy off! We'll take care of Lua!”

He was certain Judai was going to protest, but Hermann was taking his turn and a second knight—Dark the Hidden Knight, was appearing on the field, gleaming with black armor, and its effect was letting it attack Judai directly and he swore as his attention was drawn to defending himself.

Yusei only half registered Judai's defensive trap that reduced the damage to zero and let him draw another card, barely paid attention to the fact that Amaryllis was destroyed by Hook the Hidden Knight—Lua. He had to take care of Lua.

Yusei dropped his headset as he took a knee beside Jack. Jack's face was drawn, white, he looked like he himself was going to pass out in a minute.

“He's not responding, goddammit, Yusei, he's going to hurt himself—”

“Just calm down, help me get him into a safer position—Luka, please, sit down, it's going to be all right.”

Luka didn't pay attention, still hovering, wringing her hands together, tears rolling down her face as she whispered “Lua, Lua, Lua.”

Jack and Yusei helped angle Lua back down onto his back. Jack held Lua's head gently to prevent himself from hitting it against the pavement.

“Crow's coming with the medics, it's going to be okay, Luka, it's going to be okay,” Yusei said.

“What's going on? Is that boy all right?”

Yusei's eyes jerked up at the new voice. How did someone else get down into the pit—

The woman looked older, somewhere in her late forties, but she walked with a quick, assured step as she ran across and immediately dropped to her knees beside them.

“Who—” Yusei started.

“He's paralleling,” she said. “And he's doing it very dangerously; he's connecting too heavily. I'm going to need some space—I have to help him detach from whoever he's synched his soul to.”

“What are you—”

“Tenjoin Asuka, and I'm trying to help him, I'll explain later, keep your own eyes on the duel,” the woman said.

She yanked her blond hair from her face and quickly tied it back with a hair tie. Then she pushed Yusei very firmly out of her way and placed her hands on Lua's forehead, biting her lip as her forehead furrowed.

“God, he's in deep,” she muttered. “Who taught him to synch like this without teaching him how to detach?”

Her hands retreated into the breast pocket of her dress suit, digging around for a moment before dragging out a pair of small black buttons that she placed on either side of Lua's head.

“Hold him steady, this is probably going to jolt him a little and I don't want him to hit his head,” Asuka ordered Jack. It was a credit to her authoritative presence and the dire situation that Jack didn't even retort, he just nodded and did as she said.

It was then that Yusei remembered where he had heard the name Tenjoin Asuka.

She knows Judai, he thought, mouth opening in shock. She knows Judai, and she's here—what—what is going on?

And then another cry rose up from the dueling lane and Yusei was shooting to his feet again, heart hammering because—

Judai.

. . .

Judai swore as Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis disappeared in a screeching explosion.

Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT—

He swerved at Carly's cry of warning—Hook's attack had caused another strike at his wheels and he felt the metal scratch against his bike for a brief moment before he jerked out of reach. His heart threatened to punch right out of his chest and he could hardly hear anything for the screaming in his head.

“When Phoenixian Cluster is destroyed by my opponent's monster, it deals eight hundred damage!” he shouted over the ringing in his own head.

Two can play at the burn game, he thought darkly.

Hermann half growled at his life points going down, but there was nothing he could do to stop it, so he ended his turn.

Judai glanced briefly at his hand—he had activated Defense Draw last turn and the new card, Witch of the Black Rose, looked like it could help him pull through this.

“My turn!”

He drew his next card—Echo, Spirit of the Forest—and slipped it into place, eyes flashing over the cards and then back to the road. Time to trust everything to his draw once again. He drew in a sharp breath.

“I normal summon tuner monster Witch of the Black Rose!”

The small witch in purple bounced onto the field, alien eyes gleaming at the pair of knights on the other side.

“When Witch of the Black Rose is summoned, I draw one card from my deck—if it's not a monster, I send it to the Graveyard and destroy this card!”

I need two monsters to destroy Hook the Hidden Knight, he thought. Come on, come on…

He sent his silent plea to Aki's deck as his fingers fell onto the card. Arms tensing, he yanked the card from the top of the deck and—

Yes!

“I drew Rose Fairy!” he said. “When this card is added to my hand by an effect, I can special summon it!”

The little fairy giggled as she zoomed into view, hovering lightly at Judai's side.

“Witch of Black Rose attacks Hook the Hidden Knight!”

The tiny witch zipped forward, eyes narrow and staff clutched tightly.

“Hook's effect activates! It puts both monsters into defense mode and deals eight hundred damage!”

Carly screamed in his ear but Judai was already ready for this. He swerved to the right at her command. His life points dropped to 2400 but that was okay—Hook had zero defense. It was more than enough for Rose Fairy's six hundred attack!

“Rose Fairy attacks Hook the Hidden Knight!”

Time to get rid of you, he thought.

Rose Fairy's laugh turned dark as she shot forward, thorns sprouting from her hands.

“I activate Dark the Hidden Knight's effect!” Hermann said.

What??

“When a defense position monster I control is targeted for an attack; I can tribute it to switch that monster to attack mode!”

No!

Dark vanished, Hook rose back to his feet, it was too late to call off Rose Fairy now—

“And Hook's effect resolves!”

Damn!

Judai had half hoped he would let Rose Fairy destroy itself for the extra damage but it seemed like the guy was determined to cause him to crash instead of fighting fairly!

Hook and Rose Fairy both retreated, and Judai yanked himself to the side again from the hook—

Wrong direction.

Carly was screaming in his ear as Judai's back wheel locked. He felt his hands threatening to lift from the handlebars, sparks flying from the road as he skidded without wheels—the back wheel swung around to front and he was going backwards, the whole thing was going to tip and he was going to crash into the side as he leaned dangerously to the edge of the lanes—

“JUDAI!”

Yusei's voice cut through Judai's head.

I can't make him worry, was the first automatic thought.

With a raged cry, Judai ripped himself back around to face front. That hook clung to his wheel, determined to cause him to flip and crash but like hell.

He grabbed for the shadow of his D-Wheel and turned it into a weapon. The hook jolted as the shadows flared up and strangled at it. For a moment, Judai thought it wasn't going to work and then—

His wheel was free and he shot forward, the sparks dying.

He couldn't think for the pounding in his ears. That had been—too close.

And that damn monster was still on the field! He had to do something to get rid of it or he was going to lose to the burn—or crash and die. He was only at 1600 life points, he could only take two more hits of this—and next turn, Hermann would have four speed counters, enough to use Speed World's effect to deal extra damage, reducing Judai's chances further.

But he was out of attacks, there was nothing more he could do this turn. He was swiftly running out of options and—

“Judai, pull out. Judai, please, please listen to me, please come in, Jack can go out—Judai, are you listening?”

Judai realized then that Yusei was talking to him. He swallowed through a dry throat.

“Y-Yusei,” he muttered. “M'okay. Promise.”

“You're not, you need to come in and tap out right now!”

“Can't let you guys down.”

“You've done enough, please, Judai, please, just—I can't watch you get hurt. Please don't—don't make me watch you—”

There was a melody in Yusei's voice. Or was that—was Judai imagining that? But Yusei had stopped talking, too, and Judai could only hear the crackle of static.

“I—Judai do you—”

“I hear it,” Judai mumbled. “I definitely hear it.”

It was—it was quiet. Almost too far away but he could feel it. His eyes dropped to his field.

I have a tuner, he thought, staring at Witch of Black Rose. Level four Witch, level three fairy, that's—that seven levels.

Black Rose Dragon is level seven.

He had never Synchroed before. Could—could he do it? He remembered Black Rose's effect, he could use it to destroy Hook and start over—

He swallowed, trying to wet his lips again.

“I can't come in yet, Yusei. I have to do this.”

“Judai—”

Judai shook his head and focused on the duel.

“I tune Rose Fairy with Witch of the Black Rose!” he shouted.

“Judai!”

Witch of the Black Rose was already rising up, a song humming from deep within her as she glowed and faded to a series of green gates. Rose Fairy zipped through, transforming into stars.

Tuning. He could feel it, feel the thrum of two separate souls synching together, two different melodies growing and swelling and becoming one with each other, and it was beautiful but terrifying and—

The music felt like it was ripping through him, his mouth was opening without his permission and the words were tumbling from his lips.

“Chilling flames engulf the world—pitch dark flower, bloom! Synchro Summon—Black Rose Dragon!”

It was a door. The song was a door and the words were the key. It was leading him somewhere, a pathway of melodies and rhythms that pointed towards—

The world went dark.

For a moment, Judai couldn't breathe. There was a darkness pressing in around him, sapping his breath and squeezing his lungs.

“Well—this is unexpected. You two seem to keep surprising me—at this point, I shouldn't be surprised at all.”

Judai tried to gasp for breath but there was no air, there was nothing here for him to breathe. That voice—he knew that voice, it was the one from his fragmented dreams, that dark ancient presence that had tightened around him.

“But your melody isn't quite perfect, hmmm? I'm not even certain how you managed to get this far with an incomplete melody—you and the Talon do not synchronize quite well. You'd be better off sticking with the Head.”

Judai was starting to black out, he could feel the lack of air starting to eat at his consciousness—

“But I suppose that's enough talk from me. Don't you have something to finish?”

The world came back and Judai gasped for desperately needed breath. The crowd's roar sounded so much louder all of a sudden and for a moment, his D-Wheel faltered.

“Judai!”

Judai snapped back to himself at Yusei's voice, and pulled the D-Wheel back into line. Still dizzy, he glanced at his field—there was the Black Rose Dragon.

He could see its petals rustle, taste the scent of its bloodlust as it turned one harsh eye towards its opponent. More than any of the other monsters, Judai could feel Aki in this creature, feel her strength and her potential for rage and her desire to protect steaming off of the great dragon like a cloud. It wanted to destroy the thing that had harmed its mistress.

Then let's destroy it, Judai thought.

“When Black Rose is Synchro Summoned, I can destroy all cards on the field! Black Rose Gale!”

Black Rose lifted its head and screeched. The petals came in a storm, swirling like a horrible tornado through the field.

Die, Judai thought at Hook the Hidden Knight.

“I activate the trap card Destruction Jammer!” said Hermann. “I negate a card that would destroy monsters and destroy that card!”

Oh, god, no, Judai thought, a chill running through him.

The petal storm vanished and Black Rose screamed—and shattered.

“Black Rose!”

He felt something rip through his heart and he almost threw up then. Dammit, dammit, dammit, he had miscalculated and—

He had to defend himself, that was all he had left.

“I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back Black Rose in defense mode!” he shouted. “Then I banish Phoenixian Seed in my Graveyard to special summon Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis in defense mode!”

Something of the hole that had been ripped in him from Black Rose's destruction filled in as the dragon returned. He breathed out—at the very least, he could increase his defenses.

“I end my turn!”

But he was close—too close—to losing. And that he realized as Hermann drew his next card and smirked. Ice clutched Judai's heart.

“I normal summon another Dark the Hidden Knight!”

Damn!

That horrid second knight appeared on the field, sharpening its blades.

“Then I switch Hook the Hidden Knight to attack mode!”

Judai's chest clenched as the monster returned to an offensive position—that hook seemed so much shinier than ever, and it drew his eye like a one might stare at a car crash. He was this close to dying and he could feel it.

“Next, I'll activate the effect of Speed World 2!”

Judai swore. Reveal one Speed Spell and deal eight hundred damage—he would only have eight hundred life points left! One swing at Hook would end him!

The beam of light struck through him and he just about screamed.

His head slumped over his dash for a moment, panting for breath.

“I—I activate the effect of a monster from my hand!” he said. “When I take damage from an effect, I can special summon Echo, Spirit of the Forest!”

The new tree monster appeared with a soft sigh, hovering in front of Judai as though to protect him.

“Futile struggling,” Hermann sneered. “I'll end my turn!”

Bastard…he wants me to swing at Hook and lose that way.

Judai swallowed—his throat was so dry.

“Judai, please—please, talk to me.”

Judai coughed once.

“I'm okay, Yusei, I promise,” he said. “I—I'm gonna beat him. I'm gonna do it.”

Yusei hesitated.

“Okay. Okay, I won't ask you to come back in. But—but Judai. You have to be careful.”

Judai reached for his next card.

“Don't worry,” he said, drawing, and looking at his card. “This is the last turn.”

In his fingers was Elemental Hero Neos.

And suddenly, like a light bulb going off in his head, he knew exactly what he was able to do.

. . .

Yusei watched Judai zip past the pit again, barely able to breathe. The melody continued to play, haphazard and so faint that he could be imagining it, at the back of his head. It was different than last time—it was like there was more than one track, and they weren't playing at the same speed.

Judai…Judai…

Lua had calmed down. He still wasn't responding to them but he was breathing easier and he seemed to be able to keep eye contact, he seemed aware of where he was. Bruno was holding Luka as she continued to cry, and Asuka continued to mutter and dial numbers on a small control pad.

“I tribute Echo and Amaryllis to summon Elemental Hero Neos!”

Yusei's breath caught. Judai's monster—not Aki's. Of course he had put his ace into the deck—at the very least for luck. But for him to use that monster here, in this place…what was he planning?

Judai's ace appeared in a rush of light.

“Contact Fusion! Black Rose and Neos, come together!”

Yusei breathed out a slow, awed breath. Even Asuka and Jack looked up from Lua for a moment to watch what was about to happen.

“Rose wings and flaming heart, step through the veil in a storm of petals! Come forth, Elemental Hero Rose Neos!”

A storm of rose petals washed over the scene, blinding Judai from view for a brief moment. When it cleared, Neos had changed.

The bright, petal coated wings of Black Rose dragon sprouted from its back. Long rose petal antennae spiral back from its head, and more petals draped its suddenly much slimmer frame like a beautiful armor. Yusei could barely breathe in the presence of this being.

Aki, he thought briefly, almost seeing her face superimposed on the being for a moment. Your will is coming through to us.

Judai threw his hand forward, and for a moment, his disguise as Aki slipped, and Yusei could see through to the boy underneath.

“Rose Neos activates its effect! Once per turn, I can banish any number of Plant type monsters from my Graveyard and destroy cards equal to the number of cards destroyed!”

Rose Neos lifted its head, and strange, haunting cry lilted from somewhere deep within it. Before it, two ghostly images of Rose Fairy and Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis appeared. They faded into giant roses, and the thorns stabbed downwards from the blossom, striking Hook the Hidden Knight and Dark the Hidden Knight both through the heart.

They let out a twin, bloodcurdling screech before vanishing.

“And for each card destroyed, Rose Neos gains five hundred attack points!”

“That puts it to…” Bruno started.

“Thirty-five hundred,” said Yusei. “Not enough to take him out—”

“This card is considered a Plant type, so I can equip it with Thorn of Malice, driving its attack points up another six hundred!”

Forty-one hundred attack points. More than Hermann's four thousand life points.

His field is empty, Yusei thought.

“One turn kill,” Crow breathed.

Judai's hand thrust forward.

“Go, Rose Neos! Wrath of Gale!”

Rose Neos let out its eerie cry—and then the thorns sprouted from its back and exploded forward, stabbing right through the bike and just about sending its rider flying. Hermann let out a half scream as his life points dropped to zero.

“He won,” Yusei said. “Oh, thank god, he won.”

“I knew he could do it,” Asuka said, nodding to herself.

That was when Yusei saw Judai's D-Wheel wobble. Yusei yanked the headset to his mouth.

“Judai! Judai, are you okay?”

“I…yeah, feeling kinda dizzy though…”

“I'm pulling you out—don't even think about arguing!”

“If you say so, boss,” Judai said, obviously trying to joke but his voice wavering with fatigue.

Yusei whipped around to Jack.

“Jack, you're up, let's go!”

Jack nodded, racing for his D-Wheel and leaving the now peacefully sleeping Lua to Asuka's care. Yusei paused only briefly to make sure the situation was under control here, making sure Bruno was taking care of Luka and Lua was all right—and then he couldn't hold himself back, he had to bolt for the pit line.

Judai came in slowly, carefully, wobbling on his D-Wheel. His disguise as Aki had completely faded by now, and only the helmet was preventing everyone from knowing who he really was.

“S-sorry to leave you with an empty field,” he mumbled at Jack as he fumbled for the shoulder patch. “Rose Neos got shuffled back into the extra deck at the end phase.”

“Hmph! As if I needed any help from you!” Jack said, snatching the offered patch. But then he paused, and a brief smile twitched the sides of his mouth. He sent Judai a nod. “But good work getting rid of one useless duelist.”

And then he was roaring out into the arena to meet the next wheeler. Yusei slid his arm under Judai's shoulder, helping him off the bike. Judai practically fell against him. His face was pale and his knees bowed inward. Yusei propped him against the bike for a moment and helped him remove the helmet, and then pulled his arm over his shoulders again.

“Lua,” he mumbled. “Is Lua all right?”

“He's okay. Don't worry. You need to rest.”

“Gotta see what happened to him…I can rest later…damn that—that monster made me…really tired.”

“Someone's already taking care of him, please, Judai, you just have to sit down…”

Yusei supported Judai towards one of the chairs and Judai's brow crinkled.

“Someone…?”

His eyes flitted across to see Lua—and immediately he froze.

Hazel eyes met brown, Judai's mouth dropped open.

Asuka put one hand to her mouth. Her eyes shone briefly with tears, but she blinked them away.

“Judai,” she said. “Oh god, Judai.”

“Asuka…?” he said. “What are you…?”

He swayed dangerously and Yusei caught him by the waist.

“Sit down,” he said firmly, guiding him into a chair.

Judai took a second to close his eyes. He just breathed for a few seconds, while Asuka clearly tried not to talk, her hands knotting and unknotting into her skirt as she chewed on her lip.

“Okay,” Judai said finally. “Lua—is Lua okay?”

“He's fine—his soul was reacting to someone else's soul distress, so I had to try and disconnect him,” Asuka said.

Judai's eyes opened and he stared at her.

“You can—you can do that?”

“Well, I had to learn how,” she said, eyes dropping down. “Since you were…gone. I developed these soul resonators; they jolt the frequency of a soul so that a matched frequency detaches.”

She held out the small black buttons that she had been using earlier. Judai just stared at them and then his eyes raised to meet hers. Yusei glanced in between them for a moment, trying to read something in the gaze they exchanged. Who exactly…was this Asuka? He knew that she was someone Judai had known. A friend from his days at the Academy…and now, thirty years older than he was.

“We have a lot of catching up to do,” Judai said finally.

“Don't we ever,” she agreed.

“Should we start with what you're doing over here?”

“I'm Aki's teacher—I visited her and she said your name in her sleep, so I figured that following Team 5D's would be the best place to check for you.”

“Fair enough. But what exactly are you doing here? I mean—I disappeared for you, I guess. What happened after that?”

She shook her head.

“Far too much—this is going to take a while.”

She frowned, eyes dropping to the ground for a moment.

“But the most important part is probably the fact that we're here to fight Yliaster,” she said. “It's what we've been doing for almost eighteen years.”

“Yliaster?” said Judai.

Yusei's heart skipped a beat.

“You're fighting against them too?” he said.

Asuka glanced at him, eyes blinking with surprise.

“You know about Yliaster?”

“Who the hell is Yliaster?” said Judai. “Is anyone going to explain that? Wait—is Fujiwara working with these guys? Are they the ones trying to kill Team 5D's?”

“What? Why would Fujiwara be—Fujiwara was working with us against Yliaster! Why would he attack the team that has his kids on it?”

“You knew that Lua and Luka were his kids?” said Yusei.

“Well, I didn't know they were home alone, their mother was supposed to be with them—Fujiwara disappeared about four months back—”

“Fujiwara has just about killed half the team already, so if he was working with you guys, why is he flipping out again—” said Judai.

Smoke and fire exploded from the dueling lane. All heads snapped towards the rising column of smoke and sparks—

“Jack—” Yusei started.

But then the white blur of Wheel of Fortune exploded from the smoke, flying into the air. Jack's bike hit the ground and spun, but Jack wrenched his bike expertly into gear and skidded to a perfect stop. The other Catastrophe duelist was sprawled across Jack—what had they missed?

“Oooh, and Team Catastrophe's second wheeler has crashed—but a perfect save by Jack Atlas prevented the duelist from harm! Still, since the second wheeler can't get back to pass the baton, the win goes to Team 5D's!”

Jack hmped to himself as the duelist he had just saved scrambled to his feet and bolted for his comrades.

“A true duelist doesn't rely on such cheap tactics,” came his voice through the headset.

Yusei let out a breath that came like a laugh.

“We won,” he said.

“We won,” Judai said again, his eyes bright with an almost hysterical relief. “We won, we won, we won.”

Yusei could not stop himself—he practically threw his arms around Judai, laughing out loud. It was over. The second duel was over and no one had gotten hurt, everyone was okay—

Judai flung his arms around Yusei's waist and hugged him right back, both of them just sitting there laughing. Carly removed her headset and slumped against the control panel. Luka pressed her face into Bruno's chest and sobbed with relief, as the still dumbstruck Bruno patted her head automatically.

Lua stirred on the ground, blinking.

“When did I lay down?” he groaned. “Luka…? Were you crying? Did we win?”

“We did, we won,” said Crow, grabbing him by the shoulder as the boy sat up. Crow's smile was so wide that it was a wonder his face didn't split open. “We won, by god, we won!”

Yusei realized then that he had been holding Judai for a really long time—probably longer than was necessary. He drew back, his hands lingered on Judai's shoulders.

“Are you okay?” he said.

“I feel fantastic,” said Judai, his own hands still gripping Yusei's arms. “We did it.”

He blinked, dizziness passing over his face again.

“But don't let me do a riding duel again. I think—I think it does something to me. Something weird.”

“You are hereby banned from acceleration duels, then,” Yusei said with an unbidden laugh.

Judai swallowed, closing his eyes against the next wave of dizziness.

“Okay then,” he said. “I guess we have the time to talk about what's going on, then, right, Asuka?”

“Finally,” she said, nodding with relief. “We can—”

“Asuka!”

All heads snapped upward at the shout, frantic and cracking with nerves.

“Manjoume?” Judai said with disbelief.

Yusei's eyes followed Judai's gaze to the tall, dark haired man that had run up to the railing overlooking the pit from the stands. His dark eyes were wide and he pointed up out of the stadium.

“Asuka, it's bad, there's hundreds of them, they're all over the city—”

“Jun, calm down, what's all over the city??”

“Those robot things—the ones we ran into a few weeks ago, the duel robots, except they're everywhere and they're attacking everyone!”

Yusei swore.

“It's the Ghosts,” he said.

“You told me about those!” said Judai. “We have to stop them!”

“They're probably collecting Duel Energy, but for what?” Asuka said, eyes wide. “No, never mind we can figure that out later—”

She swallowed and then met Judai's eyes.

“I have to go fight, we can talk later.”

“I'm coming too,” said Judai, struggling to stand up.

“No way,” said Yusei, pushing him back down.

“I can't sit here and watch you guys fight alone!”

“You're banned from acceleration duels, remember?” said Yusei.

Judai met Yusei's eyes with a blank fury.

“Then put me on the back of your motorcycle, I am not sitting this out—I'll heal quickly, I'll be fine in a few minutes, just don't you dare even think about leaving me behind!”

Yusei almost growled under his breath—but he knew better than to argue. They needed Judai's power.

“Okay, everyone, let's go,” he said. “Crow, I know I can't convince you to stay, so watch out for your damn shoulder, got it?”

Crow was already getting on his bike and only gave Yusei a passing salute.

Yusei bolted for his own bike and Jack, who had arrived in the middle of the conversation, was already blasting towards the open roads. Judai slipped onto the bike behind Yusei and his arms tightened around Yusei's waist.

Yusei swallowed, feeling a little dizzy himself.

Was there going to be no end to this?

. . .

Izayoi Aki, who was supposed to be under three doses of sedative, shot straight up in bed. The motion caused Yubel to jump and hiss, wings flaring.

But Aki didn't look at her, didn't look at anything. She just started to climb out of bed, her legs shaking and dropping her to the floor.

“Aki, stop,” Yubel said. “Aki!”

Aki's arms shook, but that didn't stop her from pushing herself to her feet, pulling herself steady against the bed.

“The dragon,” she hissed. “I have—have to tell them about the dragon. The Heart wasn't able to tell them—I couldn't reach the Heart—I have to tell them about the dragon.”

Her eyes were wide, so wide that they seemed more whites than iris. Yubel flared her wings again and attempted to grab hold of Aki, but her hand phased through. Damn! She was too far away from Judai to do anything—all she could do was stand here. At least her card was tucked into Aki's pocket so she could follow the girl but beyond that—

Aki stumbled for the door. Her hand fumbled with the knob for a moment as though she had forgotten how to turn it. Finally, though, the door gave way to her and she pulled it open with the obvious intent of stumbling through—

Except there was someone standing there already.

Pure black eyes considered the girl for a moment, unblinking as she stared back at him.

“I can't let you do that,” said Fujiwara Yusuke.

Chapter Text

They skidded to a stop outside the stadium. Judai was going to ask why, but Yusei was already vaulting off the bike and running towards the tall form of Ushio and the woman beside him.

“Ushio! Mikage!” Yusei called.

Judai scrambled off and jogged after him. Jack and Crow stopped too, but they waited on their bikes. Bruno, Carly, Lua, and Luka jogged out behind them.

The woman, Mikage, looked up first. She looked pale, her hands shaking.

“Oh, thank god,” she muttered. “Do you boys know what's going on?”

“We were hoping you could help explain the situation,” Yusei said.

“The whole city's been turned into Battle Royale mode!” Ushio swore. “Someone's hacked everything!”

He had his head half in his car, swearing again as he reached for the police scanner. He hit a few keys while he continued to mutter. Judai just stood there, shifting from foot to foot from his nervous energy. He felt dizzy and sick—he had been away from Yubel for too long and that duel had really taken it out of him. He needed to get back to the hospital, check on Aki, get Yubel's card back, so that he wouldn't feel like he was going to throw up. His eyes flickered all around, taking in the parking lot, the multitude of Security officers waiting on their bikes for some kind of orders while Ushio continued to growl into his walkie-talkie at the control team for more information.

He realized after too many beats that Mikage was staring curiously at him.

“Hang on,” she said slowly, brow furrowing. “Aren't you—I could have sworn Aki was here, but you're the only one in a red riding suit…”

“Long story,” Judai mumbled. “Tell you about it later.”

Yusei swore. Judai jumped at the sound, rushing forward.

“What? What?”

“It's Ghost,” Yusei said. He swore again. “That robot thing I told you about—there are hundreds of them!”

“More fucking Ghosts?” Jack said.

“How many are we talking?” asked Crow.

“A shit ton,” Ushio said.

Crow rolled his eyes but he didn't ask again. Judai stood on his tiptoes to look over Ushio's shoulder and see the screen. His heart dropped into his stomach. There were so many plumes of smoke, everywhere. It was a disaster. How many people had crashed and were hurt already?

“What are they doing?” Judai asked.

“They're joining WRGP duels, targeting any duelists they can find,” said Ushio, his dark brows heavy and angry over his eyes. “There's at least twenty—no, twenty-five crashes already.”

“I thought they were after us,” Jack said.

“Their plan has obviously changed,” said Yusei. “Dammit.”

Judai squared his shoulders.

“Yusei, we have to get out there.”

Yusei nodded.

“I know. We have to do what we can.”

There was a screech of tires behind them. The paranoid part of Judai panicked, thinking that it was some of those Ghosts coming after them. But as he whipped around, heart hammering, he was greeted with a far happier sight.

Asuka flipped her visor up, leaning back onto one foot as her white D-Wheel came to a stop. Behind her, Manjoume and Shou parked their own distinctive bikes—Manjoume's was, of course, a pure black, although it had some nasty looked blades attached to it in some reminiscent fashion of Armed Dragon. Shou's, on the other hand, looked a tad more like his Roid monsters, with a somewhat anthropomorphic face.

“So are we kicking some robot ass or what?” Manjoume asked.

“You guys do riding duels now?” Judai said, in disbelief.

Asuka actually laughed.

“We have to change with the times, or the kids will pass us up,” she teased. “So. What's the plan?”

For a moment, Judai felt thrown off balance. She was asking him? After he had been gone all this time? All three of them, in fact, were looking at him expectantly. He looked from each pair of familiar eyes, one after the other, and found his heart sinking at how much older than him they were now. He felt—wrong. All of this was so wrong, he shouldn't be here like this. If he hadn't traveled through time for whatever reason, would he be over on that side, with that trio, checking to see what the commotion was about?

The second group of new D-Wheels distracted him from his thoughts, and he glanced over to see another white D-Wheeler and a black D-Wheeler skidding to a stop.

“Sherry! Mizoguchi!” Yusei said, as the woman on the white D-wheel removed her helmet, blond hair cascading over her shoulders.

“It's Yliaster,” she snapped without so much as a greeting. “You know it is, Yusei.”

“Do you guys…know each other?” Judai asked, looking between them.

“Long story,” said Yusei. “Time later.”

“R-Right.”

Yusei turned his attention to the people around him, as though he were doing a headcount. He probably was, Judai had been doing the same thing. How many did they have to work with? How many people could they mobilize? This was a war all of a sudden, and he didn't know what to do. He—he couldn't breathe. He didn't want to be in another war, oh, god, no, he couldn't handle another full out war—

It was Yusei that drew him out of the panic attack, with a firm hand on his elbow, grounding him in the now. For a moment, he just held Judai's eyes with his own, and then a faint smile turned his lips up.

“We can do this,” he murmured.

Judai swallowed and nodded. He certainly hoped so.

Yusei released his arm and turned his attention to the large group staring back at him.

“We have to get out there,” he said. “There are people in danger, and we have to do something.”

“Do you plan on taking on all of them?” the older man asked—Mizoguchi, right? “There are hundreds. In this Battle Royal mode, the greatest numbers have the advantage.”

“And I know that,” said Yusei. “But I'm not planning on taking out every single one.”

“A controller,” Judai said suddenly. “Someone's got to be controlling them—they're robots, right?”

Yusei nodded—clearly that had been his train of thought.

“We split up, and we track it down,” Yusei said. “Teams of at least three. Everyone has to be able to work together.”

He turned to Judai.

“You and I take my bike—I'm not letting you drive by yourself right now.”

Judai wasn't going to complain, so he nodded.

“Crow, Jack, you two will head south,” said Yusei.

“I'll go with them,” said Manjoume, pulling his motorcycle into gear.

“Only if you can keep up,” Jack sniffed at him.

Manjoume responded to that with a smirk and a roar of his bike, spinning his wheels as he took off. Jack swore and turned his own bike on. Crow sent Yusei a salute before wheeling off himself.

“Be careful of your shoulder!” Yusei shouted after him. He shook his head. “Sherry, Mizoguchi, will you come with us?”

Sherry nodded affirmatively and jammed her helmet back on her head.

“I'm coming with you,” said Asuka, looking pointedly at Judai. “You're not disappearing on me again, not until we figure out what's going on. Got it?”

Judai let out a nervous laugh, but he couldn't deny the relief he felt at having Asuka's strength coming alongside him again.

“What about us?” Lua piped up.

“R-right, what about us?” asked Carly.

“You guys stay here,” Yusei said. “None of you have bikes—I don't want your duel boards out there, either, you two.”

He glared pointedly at Lua and Luka.

“That's not fair!” Luka said, fists curling up. “We're Signers too!”

“And you're also children—I'm not sending you out into that battle zone. You guys stay with Bruno.”

“I'll stay here too!” Shou said. “Keep the perimeter of the stadium secure.”

Judai nodded at him, and his friend and former roommate sent him a thumb's up that caused a wave of nostalgia to wash over him. Judai sent him a tentative thumb's up back.

“Okay,” he said. “Ushio, Mikage, you have things here?”

Ushio nodded.

“We'll patch your bikes into the police feed, too,” Ushio said. “So that you can keep getting information as it becomes available.”

Yusei nodded gratefully, and then he went for his bike. Judai jogged after him, slipping on behind and tightening his grip around Yusei's chest.

“Got a Duel Disk on you?” Yusei asked.

“Of course,” Judai said, shaking his wrist. He had grabbed it before he had left the stadium; its weight always made him feel better.

“Good, then we can both duel if we have to,” said Yusei. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

Yusei threw the bike into gear, and then they were roaring off, Sherry, Asuka, and Mizoguchi close behind. Judai's jaw clenched.

Back to war he went.

. . .

Yubel hissed, her wings flaring. Fujiwara's black eyes lifted to look straight at her—of course he could see her.

“So you're here,” he said. “I didn't think Judai would leave her alone.”

He didn't make a move to walk through over the threshold, his eyes glancing at the door frame and then returning to where Aki just stood there, staring at him.

He sighed, a deep, rumbling sound.

“I don't want to do this,” he said. “I really, really don't want to hurt you, Izayoi-san.”

—Then stay away from her— Yubel hissed. —You can't come into this room, Judai has put up wards—

“I know that much,” said Fujiwara. “But, Izayoi-san, if you persist in trying to leave, I'll have to stop you.”

Aki didn't seem able to speak. She stood perfectly still except for the faint tremble in her hands. Her mouth hung half open, eyes wide.

Fujiwara groaned, closing his eyes.

“If only you guys would just stop, for once in your life, stop trying to save the word. Sometimes you just need to stop, before you make things worse.”

—What are you talking about— Yubel said.

“I'm talking about you, her, Judai, me, all of us damn stupid humans, trying to change something about the future. When will we realize that the future isn't something to play with? When will we get it?”

He swore, his fist slamming hard on the wall beside the door.

“I'm just trying to fix a mistake before it gets worse,” he said. “That's all I'm trying to do. But you guys won't even stop to look at the consequences of your actions.”

Yubel spat at him.

—And why don't you just talk to Judai about this so-called 'mistake'? I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help you out if you weren't acting like a homicidal bastard—

Fujiwara actually growled.

“I tried that,” he said. “I tried that more than once. But Judai didn't exactly take kindly to the fact that Yusei has to die.”

Yubel sucked in a harsh breath.

—And why… — she said. —…is that—

Fujiwara snorted.

“As though you're going to understand? I've tried this route already. It doesn't work. I just have to stop things from happening before that gets worse.”

He looked down at Aki.

“And that's why I can't let you leave, Izayoi-san. I can't let you go out there and help them. You're better off unconscious in your hospital bed until all of this is over.”

Aki wasn't even looking at him anymore. Her eyes seemed to have rolled up towards the ceiling—had she even been listening to anything that was being said? Fujiwara frowned.

“Izayoi-san?”

Aki's mouth opened.

“Ae denei otu dufina ethu n'sudaragu dihean.”

Fujiwara actually jerked back. He swore, his whole face contorting. Even Yubel felt herself reacting instinctively, curling in on herself and feeling a hot tremor rush through her body. She hissed. What—why did those words make her feel…small? It wasn't just the voice, with its ethereal, echoing quality, like it was coming down through a ray of light rather than through human lips. It was the words themselves, something about them felt—felt wrong, like they shouldn't be spoken out loud. She shuddered again.

“What the hell,” he said. “How—how do you know how to speak that language? That's impossible.”

Aki shook, now, her whole body trembling so badly it was a wonder she was still upright.

“Ae denei otu dufina ethu n'sudaragu dihean,” she repeated, more desperately. “Ae denei otu llatei mohit tutha ae mak gydyan.”

Fujiwara actually took a step back, clutching at his chest.

“You can't speak that,” he said. “You can't speak the words of creation. They'll kill you. Humans aren't made to speak that!”

But Aki didn't quite look so human all of a sudden. It was something about the way that her eyes were going a full white, the way that the red lines of her Signer mark were starting to spread from her arm and all down her body in swirling, glowing designs like lava pulsing beneath her skin.

“Aki?” Yubel said. “Aki, please, what are you doing? What's wrong?”

Aki gasped, shaking.

“Ae denei otu llatei,” she repeated. “Ae denei otu llatei.”

And then Fujiwara seemed to change. His face slackened and he straightened up. He stared at Aki for a moment. When he opened his mouth, shadows seemed to pour out of it with every word.

“You're getting a little too desperate, old friend.”

Aki shuddered, stepping back.

“Humans aren't made to hold us for long. You've been trying to possess her for too long. You could kill her at this rate.”

“Ae ehavi otu oda negisometohik,” Aki said.

Fujiwara—or rather, the thing that was currently using Fujiwara's body—frowned.

“You can't even speak normally anymore, can you?”

Aki's mouth opened, but no sound came out.

“I told you, old friend. Your voice is becoming too quiet.”

Again, Aki's mouth moved, but there was no sound.

“You have to stop this.”

A tear rolled down Aki's face.

“Don't you trust me anymore?”

Aki just looked at him, with those full white eyes of hers, meeting the full black of Fujiwara's. The thing inside Fujiwara sighed.

“My contractor will try to stop her, once I let go of him. He might even kill her. You will definitely kill her if you insist on trying to use her to make yourself heard. Not that anyone will be able to understand you.”

His eyes rose up to look somewhere down the hallway, but Yubel had a feeling he was looking at something else entirely.

“I have a feeling something will be different this time. Will you at least wait long enough to see what that something is?”

Aki—or rather, the thing in control of Aki—hesitated.

And then she opened her mouth, and her own voice tumbled out, quiet, hoarse, barely audible.

“Someone has to wake up my Heart. Do you think you're going to do that?”

The being in Fujiwara sighed.

“Of course I don't think I'm going to do that.”

The white-eyed Aki stared at Fujiwara for a moment.

And then she let out a long, deep sigh. The sigh seemed far longer than was completely possible, and there was almost a wisp of faint fog that seemed to escape from her lips with the sound. When it had finished, Aki slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Fujiwara looked down at her for a moment. Then up at Yubel.

“You should try to find Judai. I have a feeling he will need you.”

And he closed the door. Leaving Yubel to hover there, uncertain of what had just happened.

. . .

Yusei whipped his D-Wheel around the corner, feeling Judai gasp behind him and his arms tighten around his waist. That friend of Judai's, Asuka, came to flank him on the left and Sherry took up the right, with Mizoguchi falling into formation behind. He could see the blinking signals on his screen that showed him where the Ghosts were—Ushio had patched his bike through to the Security frequency so now he could see all of what they were seeing.

“What do you think?” Yusei spoke into his headset, talking to Judai over the wind behind him. “Is it Fujiwara?”

“Doubt it—robots don't seem his style,” said Judai's voice in his ear. “And Asuka seems to think that Fujiwara and Yliaster shouldn't have anything to do with each other…”

Yusei hummed softly. He didn't know Asuka the way Judai did, but if Judai was so willing to accept her ideas on the subject, he would too. Judai's friend was his friend. As if she had heard—and she probably had, she had probably been able to tune into their headset frequency by now—Asuka pulled up closer.

“Fujiwara would never side with Yliaster,” she said, her voice echoing into Yusei's headset. “I don't know why he might be attacking you but…he and Yliaster have been at each other's throats from the very beginning—he's the one that brought us in on this fight in the first place.”

“One way or another, he's been attacking us,” said Yusei. “Over half my team has been targeted already and it's a wonder all of us are still in one piece.”

Asuka looked pale as she bit her lip.

“I—I don't know, but I can't believe—after all this time we've spent fighting together, why would he go rogue like this…it must be some kind of trick. Yliaster must be trying to turn us against each other.”

Yusei felt the tightening of Judai's hands and thought that Judai must be thinking that he disagreed. Yusei had to agree with Judai. He didn't know this Fujiwara himself, but all of his actions thus far had seemed very calculated, and not at all targeted towards his former teammates—so it didn't seem likely that the aim was sow distrust between their team.

Sherry roared up closer to them, fiddling with her headset for a moment before joining the conversation.

“If you're fighting Yliaster,” she said, eyes flashing at Asuka, “how come I have never found you before?”

“Sherry LeBlanc, correct?” Asuka said.

Sherry blinked, clearly thrown off guard.

“We knew you were around—you're not exactly quiet when you hit the Yliaster-affiliated facilities that we've been monitoring,” Asuka said, smiling wryly. “But you move quickly. Very quickly. By the time we've figured out what place you've hit, you're already gone. The same reason Yliaster hasn't been able to find you is the reason we haven't been able to make contact.”

“And what exactly are you trying to do, Asuka?” Judai asked.

Her lips tightened.

“We're trying to stop the end of the world,” she said.

Yusei shivered. He felt Judai's arms tighten around him slightly, automatically.

And on that horrible note, the conversation had to end because they were coming up on a pack of Ghosts surrounding a lone D-Wheeler.

“My turn! Draw!” one Ghost shouted. “Direct Attack to the player!”

The woman D-Wheeler flinched, trying to get out of the way of the attack. Yusei, however, was much quicker. He yanked cards off the top of his deck and drew exactly the one he needed.

“I discard Swift Scarecrow from my hand to negate the attack and end the battle phase!”

The attack swung wide, missing the woman completely. Her head jerked back towards them as Yusei and the others forced them in between the Ghosts and fanned out around her in a protective formation.

“How's your D-Wheel?” Asuka called.

“It's malfunctioning,” the woman called back, pointing to the smoke coming out the back. “I don't know how much longer I can do this!”

“Drop out, we'll handle it,” said Sherry.

The woman nodded and let herself fall back. Thankfully, the Ghosts seemed more interested in Yusei and his group, so no one followed her, letting her come safely to a stop.

“Let's take these fucks out,” said Judai.

“My thoughts exactly,” said Yusei, glancing at his cards. “Everyone, let's go! I summon Junk Synchron and use its effect to special summon Swift Scarecrow! Then I special summon Mirror Ladybug!”

Here we go, he thought.

“Both of my monsters tune with Junk Synchron! Come forth, Stardust—”

The song exploded in his head.

He heard Judai cry out and wondered if he was hearing it too—it was so loud, it felt like it was going to explode out of his head, or at least render him deaf! It was so loud that his vision went black and he couldn't see where he was going, could barely register his hands on the bars of his D-Wheel. Was he going to crash? He couldn't crash, not now, he couldn't crash—

“Cyber Angel Dakini, direct attack!”

He snapped out of it, gasping for breath, eyes bulging. He became aware, suddenly, that Asuka was gripping his D-Wheel with one free hand, holding them steady and not letting them swerve. Her monster, a tall four-armed woman, stood protectively in front of them, beside Stardust Dragon. The dragon flew silently beside them, and yet…Yusei felt like it was looking at him, considering him. Wondering why he had blacked out for a moment.

“Are you two all right?” Asuka shouted over the wind. “You weren't responding!”

Yusei's head spun.

“J-Judai,” he mumbled.

“I'm here—I think,” Judai mumbled back into the headset. “W-what happened?”

“The two of you just—both went blank, you almost crashed!” said Asuka. “Are you okay?!”

Yusei managed to blink out of the haze of…whatever had just happened. He tightened his grip on the handlebars.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I think…I think I'm okay. Judai?”

“I'll live,” Judai groaned. “We're going to have to figure out what the fuck that is eventually.”

Yusei nodded.

But for now, there was a duel to be won, and a city to protect. He would just have to avoid Synchro Summoning for a while. That shouldn't be hard—he had Stardust on the field, and that was all he needed right now.

Judai fumbled for his own Duel Disk at his side, carefully extracting his arms from Yusei's waist.

“All right,” he said, and Yusei could hear the sudden smile in his voice. “Time to kick some robot ass.”

. . .

Carly hovered anxiously at the police scanner, driving Mikage to tap her heels in that way she only did when she was irritated with Ushio, which meant she was very, very irritated right now.

“Could you please just move so I can see?” Mikage said. “This isn't your job, you know.”

“I have to be able to see,” Carly mumbled. “I have to make sure everything's okay—that's my job. My job is to look at things.”

Mikage let out a large breath that sounded like a growl.

“I'm worried about Jack too, you know!”

Carly shook her head.

“I-I know, but that's not why I have to—”

There! There was one of those Ghosts that they had been talking about! She had to see!

She let her glasses slip off of her nose and stared at the screen—and immediately screamed, jerking back and clapping her hands over her eyes. Mikage jumped. She automatically put her hands on Carly's shoulders, trying to stop her from falling.

“Oh my god, Carly, are you okay? What happened? What did you—oh god, is everyone okay?”

Carly shook in Mikage's arms, keeping her hands over her eyes for a moment.

“Bright,” she mumbled. “They're too bright. They're too—too white. It's blinding. It's not right, they're not supposed to be—what are they?”

“Carly, you're not making any sense—Lua-kun, Luka-chan, could you please—”

Carly got her wind back. She fumbled for her glasses and put them back on before she got dizzy looking at Mikage's pastel green and blue aura swirling over her eyes. Mikage looked far more concerned than she had a moment ago, biting her lip and refused to let go of Carly's shoulders even when the girl managed to stand straight.

“Are you okay?” she said. “What happened? You've been acting so oddly lately! Ever since Jack got hurt during that duel…”

Lua and Luka finally ran over, Bruno on their heels. That other man, Shou, looked up from where he had been talking to Ushio.

“Is something wrong?” he called, jogging over.

“Carly, are you okay?” Luka asked.

“What did you see??” said Lua.

It took Carly a moment to get her voice back. She could still see the afterimage of that bright white silhouette, as though burned onto the backs of her eyeballs.

“The Ghosts,” she said. “They have these auras…they shouldn't have auras, they're robots, robots don't give off a signature…”

“What are you talking about, Carly?” Mikage asked.

Luka gripped Carly's hand, and Lua patted her awkwardly on the back as though to reassure her.

“Is it a shadow?” Bruno asked, eyes narrowing. “Do we need to tell the others?”

“No, it's…it's the opposite,” Carly mumbled. “They're white, Bruno…they're light, not shadows, but it's…it's wrong.”

Shou went pale. His eyes widened.

“Are you telling me you can see auras—like Judai?”

Carly nodded mutely. Her eyes wandered back to the screen inside of the police car, at the robots speeding along. They were too bright. She could tell, by looking at them, that just like some of the shadows she could see, they were wrong. They shouldn't exist. This was the kind of light that could hurt people, and badly.

Jack.

Shou was running for his bike, probably to get his helmet so he could call the others and tell them what Carly had seen. Carly thought for a moment that maybe she should run back into the pit and grab her own headset so she could provide back up for them again. That was what she was supposed to do, right?

She glanced at the screen again. She could see Jack, now, pulling his Wheel of Fortune up alongside one of the Ghosts, with Crow and that other man Manjoume beside him. She dared to drop her glasses below her eyes again, just to see.

The light was blinding, so bright that she almost cried out again, but she stood her ground, glaring into that brilliant white for some sign, some idea of what they were and where they had come from or what she could expect from them. This was all she could do—she had to do everything she could.

On screen, she could see Jack's aura flare, a brilliant red against the white, like blood as his Red Dragon Archfiend appeared. She breathed out—that dragon was more beautiful than ever now that she could see the red pulse of its soul gleaming inside of it, the same deep crimson of Jack's soul. He wasn't joking when he called it his own soul.

But then she saw something else. White. White like ice, creeping out from the wheels of the Ghosts. Like the shadows but—but more methodical, slower, creeping carefully inside of Jack's D-Wheel, and in fact all three of their D-Wheels, and settling, waiting—for what?

She had no idea but she felt ice clutch at her heart as she watched it spreading. She pushed her head into the police car so that she could fiddle with the screen buttons, changing the view until she could see both Jack's team and Yusei's team on a split screen. Was the same thing happening to Yusei and the others?

No, it wasn't—why? The light was trying to creep forward, she could see it, but something was blocking it from entering Yusei's D-Wheel, his team's D-Wheels.

Judai, she thought with a jerk. His gold aura—it's more like darkness, and it's holding the light back. They can't be touched. He's like a shield to them.

But what about Jack's team?

Mikage gripped Carly's arm gently.

“Carly,” she said, sounding remarkably quiet and gentle. “You're just going to work yourself up, you need to step back—the others can handle this. We just have to believe in them.”

She did not want to see Jack on a hospital bed like that again. That light was as bad of news as the shadows had been.

She pulled herself out of the car with a jerk, causing Mikage to jerk back with surprise. Carly didn't acknowledge her—there wasn't time. She just bolted back towards the pit.

“Carly!” Mikage shouted.

“What the—where is she going?” shouted Ushio.

She heard the twins shouting too, Bruno, Shou, but there was no time. She had to go and she had to go now. Jack needed her. He might avoid her, he might hate her, he might not want to see her, but right now she had to help. She had to get there, she had to be a shield the way Judai was.

She made it to the pit. Aki's bike was still there, left after Judai had jumped onto Yusei's bike. She still remembered how to ride—who had taught her? No, no, that wasn't important right now. What was important was Jack. She swung her leg over it, fumbling in her pocket for her cards and jamming them into the slot. There was no time to get up and grab the helmet where it sat on the control board so she pealed out of the stadium without it, roaring past the twins, Bruno, Mikage, everyone.

“You used to hold the darkness too, didn't you?” Fujiwara had asked her.

She had, hadn't she? She couldn't remember it. Not well. But she knew one thing: she still had it.

She still had the darkness, the shadows. She could still see them clinging to her hands when she took off her glasses, still see them seething within her when she stared at herself in the mirror. What color had her soul been once? She didn't know. Maybe it had always been black.

But whatever the reason, she could use that now.

Jack needed her.

. . .

“Where the fuck is she going??”

Ushio reached into his car to grab his police walkie-talkie and started barking at someone on the other end. Luka felt like she was going to faint. Everyone was out there fighting, and Carly had just run off on Aki's bike after apparently having seen something in the auras of the others, and now she was out on the track doing who knows what—would she be okay? Luka knew Carly had fought against Jack when she was a Dark Signer, but without the power of the dark god, wouldn't she just be another ordinary duelist? Luka had seen Carly's cards before—the Fortune Fairies were cute, but they weren't exactly competitively sound, and even Carly had admitted that she just had them because she liked them, she hadn't built them for the purpose of dueling with them. She just liked the fortunes.

Bruno was already heading for his D-Wheel, but Shou grabbed his arm.

“You're not going to catch up to her like that,” Shou said.

“We can't just let her go out there alone!” Bruno said. “At the very least, we have to try to stop her.”

“I know that! But I told Judai I'd make sure you guys don't get hurt!”

Don't get hurt. That was what they said, all the time. They always, always said that—stay here, don't go anywhere, I don't want you to get hurt, this is for your own good, we'll be back soon, just wait for us—

You did it too, she thought at her father. You did it to us too. You and mom did it to us and now you're fighting against us and I'm so tired of being left behind!!

Her eyes snapped around to Lua, who was jumping from foot to foot, clearly uncertain of what he was supposed to be doing.

“Do you have your Duel Board with you?” she asked.

“Huh? Oh, of course! Wait, are you—”

“Let's go help,” she said. “We're a part of Team 5D's too, aren't we?”

Lua stared at her, wide eyed for a moment. And then a huge smile spread over his face.

“Hell yeah, let's go!” he said. “Come on!”

He grabbed his sister's hand and the pair of them bolted back for where they had left their Duel Boards. Luka shoved her feet into the straps and jammed her helmet onto her head. Lua was already plugging in his Duel Disk and revving his board up. It was the sound that jolted Shou and Bruno out of their argument. Shou swore but the twins were already speeding off down the track in the direction that Carly had gone.

“Are you sure we should go this way? What about Yusei and the others?” Lua called.

“I'm sure that Yusei and Judai will be fine if they're together!” Luka said over the wind. “But Carly obviously thought something was wrong with Jack and Crow! So we need to check on them first!”

Lua nodded and turned his head to face the road, eyes hardening with anticipating. Luka turned her own attention to the road ahead.

I'm not getting left behind anymore…neither of us are. We're going to fight too.

There was a roaring hum behind them and she glanced over her shoulder to see Shou speeding along behind them, Bruno putting along on his slow bike somewhat behind. Shou pulled up in between the twins.

“What are you doing?” he said. “You guys have to stay where it's safe! I told Judai I'd watch over you!”

“I'm a Signer too!” Luka shouted, punching her arm with the mark in the air so that Shou could see it. “And Lua might as well be! I have to be out there to help my team!”

“Yeah! We're tired of being left behind—we can fight too!” Lua said.

Shou glanced between them, his gray eyes taking in each of them for a moment. And then he half smiled, quiet, exasperated.

“I suppose I can't argue with that,” he said, gripping his handlebars better. Fine then. Let's go!”

He pulled his bike into position on point, in between and ahead of them.

“We stick together, understand? That includes us trying to keep pace with Bruno.”

The twins nodded. They couldn't argue with that. Especially since Bruno didn't duel, and his bike was kind of slow. Luka pulled herself into a more reasonable pace until Bruno was in between them.

“You guys are so fast,” he muttered.

“Why don't you upgrade your bike to be faster??” Lua asked.

“Kids, Ghosts coming in from the lane to our left, they'll be flanking us in a minute!”

Luka went for her cards as the Battle Royal image flashed on her Disk's screen. Here goes.

“I activate the card effect of the tuner monster Cockadoodledoo in my hand! When there are no monsters on the field, I can special summon it as a level 3 monster!”

In a flash of light, the fluffy chicken bounced onto the field, letting out a coo as it ruffled its feathers.

“Then I summon Sunlight Unicorn! During my main phase, I can reveal one card on top of my deck, and if it's an equip spell, I can add it to my hand!”

She flipped the top card up and Dragon Shield looked back at her.

“All right! Now that that's in my hand, I'm tuning—Cockadoodledoo tunes Sunlight Unicorn for level seven!”

The little rooster cooed again before fading into light and transforming into three green gates, which Sunlight Unicorn charged through to become a quartet of stars.

“The holy light of protection, shine now and become eternal life! Synchro Summon—a regal birth, Ancient Fairy Dragon!”

With a haunting cry, the dragon appeared, star light glimmering from its delicate butterfly's wings as the sinuous green being morphed into being.

“All right, Luka!!” Lua said, punching the air. “And in one turn!”

“I equip Ancient Fairy Dragon with my Dragon Shield! Now it can't be destroyed by battle or card effects!”

She tossed her bangs from her face and sent a large grin towards Lua.

“Your turn!” she shouted.

“All right! I'm gonna get mine out in one go too! Draw!”

Lua stared down at his cards. Luka bit her lip as she saw the barest twitch of his eye—Lua had gotten better at his poker face but she could tell he had drawn a bad hand. She felt ice grip her heart—this wasn't just a friendly duel. This was a dangerous game and if Lua got hurt…

This would be her fault—she had convinced him to go. Oh, please, Lua…

“I play Morphtronic Lantron in defense mode and two cards face down—turn end!”

She could see more than just disappointment in his eyes—he was downright frightened.

“I'm going!” Shou shouted. “Draw!”

Shou glanced only briefly at his cards.

“I activate Polymerization from my hand!”

Luka breathed out. A fusion duelist? Just like Judai!

“I fuse Truckroid, Expressroid, Drillroid, and Stealthroid from my hand to Fusion Summon Super Vehichroid—Stealth Union from my Extra Deck!”

There was a roar and a flash of light, and one of the biggest monsters Luka had ever seen lurched out onto the field. It had a plane for a back and drills for knees and it looked like it could crush her with a single finger. The being settled itself in front of Shou and the twins like a protective shield as the Ghosts finally fell into place ahead of them. Four of them—more than there were of them, but they couldn't be too tough, right?

“My turn, draw,” the first Ghost said. “I summon Ally of Justice Core Destroyer.”

A strange, almost insect like robot appeared, shiny and golden as it tilted its pointed head at them.

“Core Destroyer attacks Ancient Fairy Dragon.”

“What?” Luka said.

“But it's got less attack points!” Lua shouted. “Are you stupid?”

“When Core Destroyer battles a Light Type monster, the monster is destroyed at the start of the battle step.”

“Oh no, Luka!” Lua shouted.

“I activate the Trap Card Twinkle Wall! I negate the attack, but I take half of the attacking monster's attack as effect damage!”

She couldn't stop herself from screaming. The pain was real! It ripped through her like fire and she wobbled on her Duel Board. Shou whipped his bike alongside her and grabbed her arm, letting her grip onto the bar of his bike for balance.

“Are you okay?”

“F-fine,” she said. “Ancient Fairy Dragon is okay, too.”

Shou nodded, looking pale. And then he seemed to realize something and his head jerked towards Lua. It hit Luke then, too, as she realized that Lua was alone on the other side of the track with only one defense position monster to defend himself—a monster with only two hundred defense points.

“Lua!” Luka screamed.

“My turn,” the next Ghost said. “I summon Ally of Justice Cyclone Creator. By its effect, I can return spell and trap cards on the field to the hand equal to the number of Tuners on the field.”

Lua's Lantron was a Tuner—so was the Cyclone Creator. Both of Lua's face down cards were blown back with a roar of wind and Lua threw his hands up to defend himself.

“Cyclone Creator destroys Lantron.”

Lua wobbled and almost crashed at the attack, his monster exploding. There were still two more Ghosts that could attack.

“I summon Ally of Justice Unknown Crusher,” Ghost said. “Then I activate the magic card, Limiter Removal—my machine type monsters double their attack.”

Shou swore—3200 attack points!!

“Unknown Crusher attacks directly.”

“LUA!” Luka screamed.

Lua tried to swerve out of the way but the blow struck right through his stomach, phasing like a hologram, but his eyes bulging as though he had actually been struck. Shou released Luka and dove towards Lua, who was swaying so badly that it looked as though he might crash.

Oh, god, the next Ghost was taking its turn and it was summoning another Unknown Crusher—that would take Lua out and they didn't have anything to protect him with!

“LUA!” she screamed again.

Shou was in grabbing distance of Lua, the next blow was hurtling for him, this was it and it was Luka's fault—

And then, for a moment, Luka couldn't breathe. She couldn't see. Everything was just…white.

Until the red blossomed over her vision and she forgot everything.

. . .

Jack was having trouble breathing, but he wasn't entirely sure why.

“Red Dragon Archfiend, direct attack!”

Did anyone else hear the way that his throat tightened and how the air came out constricted? Or was he imagining things? Crow and that Manjoume seemed fine. Jack growled, blinking past the black spots on his vision as he picked up his speed, leaving behind the Ghost that he had just sent into a metallic heap on the ground. There were still so many. Where the hell would the controller of these things be hiding?

“Armed Dragon Level 7, demolish their metal asses!” Manjoume shouted, sending his huge bladed dragon into the fray.

“Black Winged Dragon, rip them to pieces!” shouted Crow.

They were making good time, at least. These Ghosts weren't putting up too much of a fight. They couldn't beat Archfiend's attack and if they didn't attack, their monsters were out for the count from Archfiend's effect.

Still…

Jack groaned slightly, shifting in his seat. He had taken a little bit of a beating from effect damage and the pain felt more real than anything. If they didn't find the controller soon, he might actually have to pull out from the pain—he would never say it out loud, though.

He wondered briefly how Crow's shoulder was doing. He really shouldn't be out here right now.

“Holding up?” Manjoume said over the headset.

“Worry about yourself,” Jack snapped back.

He heard Manjoume chuckle, the sound static in his ears.

“You're pretty much exactly how I imagined you—heard about your exploits as king. Always wanted to come down and duel you sometime but that Mr. Godwin was pretty difficult to work out a schedule with. Almost like he didn't want me to duel you.”

“Saving you the embarrassment, probably.”

This time Manjoume laughed, even as he sent his great dragon out to take down another Ghost.

“Man, you're good. After all this shit is over with, you're facing me, all right? We'll see who was really being saved from embarrassment.”

Jack had to smirk.

“It's a deal, then,” he said. “So don't you go and die on me today. I'll want to wipe that grin off your face myself.”

“Right back at you, Mr. King.”

“Are you guys done with your dick measuring?” Crow groaned into the headset. “We have a serious situation here.”

“Not too serious,” said Manjoume. “I could probably handle these assholes with a wimpy Ojama Delta Hurricane.”

Jack chanced a glance at Crow. His face looked drawn and a bit pale.

He's in pain, Jack thought. His shoulder's not good enough yet. We have to try to clear this out as quickly as possible and find the controller. Get this damn mess dealt with.

Jack grit his jaw as he returned his attention to the fight.

And then he froze.

Fuck.

“I activate the magic card Dark Hole,” the Ghost said in its monotone, robotic voice.

Jack swore out loud as the vortex overtook them, ripping through their monsters and wiping them from the field.

Archfiend!

His dragon let out a loud roar before it succumbed to the storm and vanished.

Their fields were completely clear and there were at least ten Ghosts that could still attack. Fuck, fuck, fuck, what did he have, what could he use? He was having trouble breathing again, like there was a weight on his chest and a flutter in his heart. Was he about to have a heart attack? Impossible, that couldn't—ugh, but his throat was so tight and breathing was so hard…

“Normal summon Ally of Justice Core Destroyer and direct attack,” Ghost said, flipping around to face Jack down.

He could survive the attack—he would hang on with a little less than a thousand life points, but he could hardly imagine taking the pain of a direct attack right now, not when his chest was so tight that he felt like he was in a vice and he couldn't breathe—

“Effect of Fortune Lady Light resolves! When it is removed from the field by a card effect, I can special summon a Fortune Lady from my deck!”

For a brief moment, the entire world slowed down and seemed to go black and white. Jack recognized the voice and he recognized the monster names but it was impossible and it couldn't be real and this must be a dream but—

Fortune Lady Dark appeared in front of him with a snarl and swing of her staff. The monsters struck each other and Dark won, shattering the monster with her glinting staff. Jack really couldn't breathe now, only that was more from the harsh memories of the last time he had seen his monster, the last time that he had fought against it, zooming in a field of purple fire and watching Carly snarl at him like that—

And then she appeared, her black hair whipping in the wind, not wearing a helmet like the idiot she was, piloting her D-Wheel in between Jack and the Ghosts. She thrust her hand out to her side.

“Dark's effect! When I destroy a monster by battle I can special summon a Fortune Lady from my Graveyard! Come out, Fortune Lady Water!”

The blue clad fairy appeared, wielding her glowing staff.

“Since I have a Fortune Lady on the field I can draw two cards by her effect! And it's still the battle phase so go, Fortune Lady Water, attack directly!”

A vortex of water exploded from the tip of the fairy's staff, slicing into the Ghost in front of them and taking its life points to zero.

Jack found his hands shaking, even as Crow let out a soft whoop. No, god, no. She couldn't still have those cards, could she? Was she—god, she couldn't have been possessed, would she have? No, no, no, not again, this was why he had tried to avoid her, so that she wouldn't remember, wouldn't be struck by those horrible memories of what had happened to her and what she had done, she was too kind, too happy, too—too perfect to have her thoughts marred by the guilt she would no doubt feel if she remembered what she had become.

She let up on her bike's speed—Aki's bike, he could see now—and came parallel with Jack. He was almost afraid to look at her, afraid that if he looked up he would see those black sclera staring back at him.

He looked.

Her eyes were normal, although…her glasses were gone, and it made her face look somehow odd. Her wide eyes met his, and he realized suddenly that she was panting for breath. That reminded him of his own tight chest except…except he didn't feel that anymore. He could breathe again, just fine.

“Carly!” he shouted, a mixture of anger and terror coursing through him as he drew up alongside her. “What are you doing here?”

“I had to come—I couldn't leave you guys here,” she said.

“Carly—”

“They're like shadows, only—only they're light, and they were suffocating all three of you. There needs to be some kind of darkness to keep them from getting too close—I had to come.”

Jack felt a tremor of fear go through him.

“Carly,” he whispered. A prayer. A plea. “You don't—you don't have any darkness in you.”

Carly just looked at him for a moment, and he wondered how she could see him, or where she was going, without her glasses.

“I do,” she said. “But that doesn't mean…it's bad.”

Her hands gripped the handlebars.

“I'm sorry,” she mumbled. “I'm sorry, I know you don't want to see me, I know that you'd rather I keep my distance and you probably hate me because I have this darkness in me and maybe that's why you stopped wanting to be around me, but I don't want you to die and I have to be here to help, so please just let me—”

He had a feeling that if they had been on solid ground he would not have been able to stop himself from grabbing her and pulling her lips to his right then and there. He longed for it—so badly, just to feel her in his arms again and to take her against him and just feel her heartbeat and reassure himself that she was still there. He had wanted to do that for well on six months now. Ever since he had decided that it would be safer if he kept his distance from her. So that she wouldn't remember. God, it had been so hard, so, so, so hard, and—

“Carly,” he said, cutting her off. “I don't hate you—god, I could never hate you.”

Carly blinked, staring at him. He groaned. Then he reached over his head, grabbed the extra helmet from behind him, and unclipped it before holding it out to Carly.

“If you're going to be out here, put on a goddamn helmet,” he said. “And strap in for the long run. This is not going to be an easy fight.”

She stared at him for a moment.

“Take the goddamn helmet, I'm not going to hold it out all day!”

She actually blinked back tears—dammit, he hadn't wanted to make her cry, not again—but then she took the helmet with her free hand and managed to strap it over her head.

“You ready?” he said, tuning into the headset.

When her voice came through, clearly and not muffled by the wind, right in his ear as though she were right next to him, he actually shivered with a deep, deep contentment.

“Ready,” she said.

“Then let's fight,” he said. “Together.”

. . .

“Fuck!”

Judai couldn't keep the expletive in—but it was probably more than acceptable because that was the sixth wave of Ghosts coming in from behind them.

“Where are they all coming from?” he swore. “And why so many of them right here?”

He heard Yusei fiddle with the police scanner and heard the other boy swear.

“We've got even more incoming—the only ones that aren't on our tail are the handful chasing Jack's team!”

“Does that mean we're getting close, maybe?” Judai said.

Yusei didn't answer and Judai knew why. It was because neither of them actually thought they were getting closer to the controller.

“We're being specifically targeted,” Yusei swore, blocking another attack with a trap card. “Judai, we cannot keep this up for much longer.”

Judai was about to reply with an “I know” when a loud crash resounded behind them.

“Mizoguchi!” Sherry screamed, her bike wavering.

“Stay on course!” Asuka shouted. “He's fine! He took that blow for you, now keep fighting dammit!”

Asuka swore as she attacked another Ghost and took it out with one blow. She had already lost two Cyber Angels and she was down to Blader. Sherry righted herself with some difficulty, her eyes wide and face drawn. That quickly turned to rage as she turned on a Ghost with a fury.

“They're going to take us out, we can't hold off this many,” Yusei swore.

Stardust was gone already, and with Synchro Summoning being so dangerous—Yusei was down to a handful of defense monsters and without Synchro Summoning, none of them had really any defense to speak of. Steel Scarecrow was protecting him for now, but for how much longer before they got backrow destruction of some kind? On Judai's end, all he had right now was Flame Wingman, who was mostly doing its job since none of their Ally of Justice cards had much attack, but how much longer could that hold?

“Yusei! Judai! Watch out!”

Judai's head jerked around. Fuck! One of the Ghosts was Synchro Summoning and that monster was headed for them!

“Trap card, open! Shift!” Asuka shouted. “I change the target to my Cyber Blader!”

“Asuka, no!” Judai shouted.

“Take care of this, Judai, I know you can do it—”

Her sentence was cut off as the blow went through and her D-Wheel swerved, blowing steam out into her face. She screamed once, but then managed to right herself and skid to a safe stop. Yusei, Judai, and Sherry sped past her, leaving her behind.

“Sherry,” Yusei said warningly, as another attack started to target her.

“They're trying to get us alone!” Judai shouted. “What are they after?”

Sherry cried out—oh, no, her life points were down too!

“Sherry!” Yusei shouted, but it was too late, she was spinning out and there were too many Ghosts for them to even move to the side a little, much less turn around and check on her.

Judai actually growled, wishing that Yubel was here so he could let the rage show through him in the form of his demon half.

He settled for the next best thing.

His eyes turned a brilliant gold.

Shadows exploded from him in a rush, stabbing through the wheels of several Ghosts. He sent as many as he could flying. He struck again and again and again, throwing his shadow magic in every direction, trying to lock the wheels in an imitation of that shadow card from before to take out as many as he could.

Immediately, sweat began to cling to his brow and stick his bangs to his forehead. His chest rose and fell rapidly, too rapidly, his heart was starting to race. His vision faded in and out—Yubel. He was too far from her, and using his power was draining him too much. She was too much a part of him and she was too far away.

“Judai, stop!” Yusei said. “Even I can tell you're hurting yourself!”

“C-Can't stop. We have to win,” Judai mumbled, striking out with another wave of shadows to trip up a pair of Ghosts.

There were so many. There must be over a hundred.

“Yusei, you have to Synchro,” he said, feeling dizzy. He pressed his face into Yusei's back—the light was starting to give him a headache. He felt out with his shadows instead and struck a Ghost right behind them, sending it catapulting into three others. “You have to Synchro.”

“I can't—we could crash.”

“We—we have to find the melody. It's the only way we can win.”

“Judai—”

Judai struck out again, but this time he was wild and weak and his stomach lurched at the expense of energy.

“Judai!”

Judai barely had the strength in his arms to grip onto Yusei. He tried to tighten his grip but there was no strength in his hands. Yusei's free hand snapped down to grab his wrist.

“Yusei, you have to be able to draw cards, don't—don't worry about me.”

“Then hang onto me better,” Yusei growled. “Don't even think about letting go.”

“Wasn't thinking about it, honest.”

He tried to squeeze tighter, but his muscles refused to respond. He had nothing left to give—he couldn't even lift his cards to duel at this point.

It was just Yusei now.

Yusei let out an angry cry as he attacked another Ghost, but another one just appeared to take its place. Judai weakly struck out with his shadows. It was barely enough to tip one over.

They were completely surrounded and they were going to die if they didn't do something right now.

“Yusei,” Judai said. “Do a Synchro summon.”

“But—”

“We don't have time!”

Yusei hesitated. Judai felt him lift his hands from Judai's and reach for his deck, fingers resting on the top card for a beat.

And then, suddenly, the sea of Ghosts parted behind them.

Judai felt a chill rush through him. The kind of feeling that made him think someone was walking over his grave—or like…something here had already happened before.

Yusei swore, and Judai turned his head to glance behind them.

He had never seen this man before, with his right eye covered with some kind of mechanical apparatus, dressed all in white on a large white D-Wheel that seemed somehow more bulbous than normal, somehow—wrong. He hadn't seen this man before and yet…

He looked so familiar…

“Who the fuck,” he mumbled.

The man pulled up right behind them, and Yusei could see the murder in his eyes, the way that his jaw clenched and his hands were white on his handlebars.

“You,” he said. “Are becoming very, very annoying.”

“Who are you?” Yusei shouted.

The man's angry face changed to a dark, cruel smirk.

“I'm the one that's going to destroy you, Fudo Yusei,” he said. “With the power of my Meklord Emperor!”

Judai distinctly felt Yusei tense in his grip, felt the tremble rush through him.

Yusei was scared.

Judai felt something in him tighten.

Not on my watch.

Judai pushed himself up on the seat and flipped himself around so that he was sitting backwards.

“Judai, what are you—”

“I'm sending this new piece of shit to hell where he belongs,” Judai said.

One good hit. That was all he needed. It might make him black out, but—one good hit. Just one good hit.

He summoned up every inch of shadow left in him, every bit of power, mustering the last dregs of his strength, eyes fixing on their new opponent. For a moment, he saw hesitation in the other man's eyes—and then anger.

“You,” he hissed. “It's you.”

Judai didn't have time to figure out what that meant. All of his power was pulsing in his chest, straining against him, begging to be released all at once. He just had to aim—right there, in the center of the new guy's chest, he looked like an official kinda guy, maybe this was even the controller and he could finish this hell already. He would hit with everything he had, right in the center, and the shockwave should take out most of them—

Except he didn't have the chance to make his move.

Because the new opponent charged forward and drew an actual sword from his belt, pointing it straight for Judai's chest.

If that gets me it will pierce through to Yusei too, he thought wildly.

He dropped his building magic—this guy was aiming for him right now, not Yusei so if he could just—

Yusei cried out, but Judai moved too quickly for Yusei to even react. Judai shoved himself up on the seat and launched himself from the bike. The motion threw his attacker off guard, his sword missing Judai by inches, but Judai hit the bike head on and all the wind rushed out of him. For a brief moment, he managed to cling to the front of the man's bike, hearing Yusei's shouts as though from under water, the wind screaming past his ears.

The man grinned maliciously at him.

“Have a nice fall,” he hissed, and he hit the brakes briefly on his bike.

Judai flew forward—his momentum hadn't stopped even though the bike had and for a moment, he just hung there, midair. He tried to summon his wings, Yubel's wings, tried to transform into his half self so that he could protect himself but Yubel was disconnected from him.

He crashed through the barrier on the upcoming curve. Glass shattered around him, his ears rang, the wind screamed.

He was falling.

From far away, he saw Yusei try to turn back, try to explode towards the place where Judai had crashed through and left a hole in the wall of the Duel Lane, but there were too many Ghosts and he couldn't get back. He could only watch Judai fall, helpless.

The last thing Judai saw before the shock overtook him was the far away glint of Yusei's terrified eyes.

. . .

No one noticed Bruno leaving the group behind.

Even Bruno didn't realize that he was leaving the twins and Shou behind. He just…started moving. There was something else calling him, something echoing soundlessly between his ears and he couldn't think straight. He could only turn his bike when he was supposed to and go towards the spot that rang in his heart like a fish hook dragging him along.

Somehow, he wasn't surprised to see Izayoi Aki standing at the edge of the Duel Lane outside of the hospital, her hospital robe fluttering in the breeze. Somehow, he wasn't surprised when she stared at him with wide, pure white eyes.

Her mouth moved but no words came out. He had to read her lips.

I tried to reach you. In the ocean. Why didn't you listen.

“I don't know,” he said. “I don't know if I heard you.”

No one hears me anymore. I'm dying.

“Who are you?”

She didn't answer. She just held out a card towards Bruno. He took it, slowly, blinking.

“Yubel? Why are you giving me Yubel?”

Aki stared at him blankly.

Give it back to the one that needs it.

“I don't…”

She moved forward then, and briefly brushed her lips against his cheek. Immediately, she collapsed and it was all he could do to catch her.

But there was something else pulsing in his head at the moment of her touch. A thought, as though implanted there. A singular thought that he had to do or he felt like he might die.

Go save Yusei.

Help them find the melody.

Please.

Less than a minute later, Dark Glass was on his Delta Eagle D-Wheel and he was exploding down the road to find Yusei, Yubel tucked in his deck.

It would be some time later when Aki finally awoke, uncertain of how she had managed to get outside.

Chapter Text

The child was crying.

“H-hey…hey! Hey, hold on, are you okay?”

They wouldn't stop. For a moment, he had thought it was blood running down the child's face. But no, they were tears—glowing, crimson red tears, matching the rippling of red veins beneath the child's skin in ancient, mystical patterns.

“Hold on, just…just sit down for a moment, are you all right? What happened? Where did you come from? Does anything hurt?”

Their grip was strong—too strong for a child their age. He let out a gasp at the pain from those tiny hands grabbing his arms and squeezing, almost breaking his bones between small fingers. But the voice, that was the voice of a child. Despite the strangeness of their appearance, despite the inhuman strength in their tiny body, they were a child, voice choked and shaking as they tried to speak.

“You have to help him.”

Their voice cracked and their knees gave out under them. He swore and dropped down with the child, supporting their shoulders.

“Is someone hurt? Who do you need me to help? Breathe, please, you need to try and calm down.”

“Please…please…you have to save him.”

“I don't—I don't understand. Who do you need me to save?”

“He fell. He fell and I couldn't stop him. I wasn't strong enough.”

“Calm down, it's okay. It's going to be okay.”

Their hands shook for a moment. And then, with a speed that shouldn't be humanly possible, those hands clapped to the sides of his head. He gasped, almost jerked away out of the grip, his senses on alert, was the child attacking him—

And then he saw.

“You have to come forward with me,” the child whispered. “You have to come with me. He needs you.”

He gripped the child's hands, feeling his own hands shaking.

“Okay.”

. . .

Falling. He was falling again.

No. No, wait. Not this time, it can't be this time, no, no, no, he promised, he promised that this time he would make it okay, that this time he would fix things, that this time, this time, THIS TIME—

Judai snapped out of it, gasping for breath. The wind snapped past him, snagging at his jacket and clothes, but it wasn't enough to stop his tumbling free fall.

Wings. I need my WINGS.

But Yubel was not within him, not the way she should be, and he was helpless. Thrown to the wind and the space. He was going to die.

I'm falling again. Oh god, I'm falling again.

And then…

Again?

His mouth was dry, his vision blurred almost to black and he couldn't breathe. How long had he been falling? When was he going to hit ground? He had failed, Yusei was alone up there and—

Blackness was eating away at him. Not like he was blacking out, but like—but like he was getting consumed. Like it was surrounding him, swallowing him up, dragging him away—

He gasped and jolted himself instinctively and the darkness ripped away.

No no no it's not time yet it's not time for me to go back yet I still have time I can still fix this

Where were his thoughts going? He didn't understand them, he didn't even understand the thoughts that were running through his own head, it was like there was a separate version of him in his head that was babbling, panicking, and he couldn't focus enough to figure out what it was saying.

The ground was rushing up on him, he was going to fall onto one of the lower Duel Lanes, he was going to hit the concrete and he was going to die.

“Judai-san!”

Judai did not see him coming—he gasped as something smacked into him from the side, snatching him from the sky, driving the wind from his lungs. He couldn't see, he could only feel that there was something clinging to him and there was something solid under his chest—

They landed with a bounce and a screech and then they were spinning out. Judai cried out, still unable to see through the haze of panic.

And then the world righted itself and they were exploding down the Duel Lane.

“Judai, wake up, you have to hold on!”

Judai tried desperately to blink through the panic, tried to get his jelly limbs to respond to him.

“At least take this!”

Something—something being pushed into his hand. His fingers closed around it instinctively, something small and paper that almost cut into his skin—

—Judai—

And then Yubel was back. Judai head snapped back to focus as she filled in the ragged hole that she had left behind, righting his soul and balancing his senses. He gasped as his ears popped and his center of gravity located itself again.

A D-Wheel. I'm on a D-Wheel.

“Judai-san!”

Judai snapped to alertness. He had been flung across the front of the D-Wheel, a huge, long black vehicle balanced precariously on one giant wheel on the back. The rider was trying to pin Judai to the seat with one hand, jaw clenched as he attempted to maneuver with one hand. Judai didn't recognize him—he had dark blue hair in a sweep over his head, and a thick red visor that hid his eyes from sight.

Judai coughed once, and then with Yubel's power pulsing within him, he pushed himself up and flipped to a sitting position in front of the man, ducking so that he could still fit his arms around and grip the handlebars.

“Are you all right?” the man said.

“I—I think so!” Judai shouted over the wind. “W-who are you?”

“That's not important right now! We have to get to Yusei!”

Yusei.

Judai's mouth went dry as his eyes flew up to the lanes above. How would they get up there in time? Yusei was alone versus all those Ghosts, and that new guy besides! Yubel growled somewhere inside his chest.

“How do we get back up there?” he shouted.

“I'm getting back onto the transfer lane, but it's going to take time!”

“We don't HAVE time!”

Judai couldn't feel for the tremble rushing through him; he was barely hanging on as he strained to look up towards where Yusei had disappeared.

“Can't we contact him? With this?”

He rapped on the screen in front of them, but the rider at his back shook his head.

“My network's busted—we can't connect to his D-Wheel.”

Fucking hell.

Judai could barely think. He was trembling and his mouth was dry and his vision was blurring in and out; he was still coming out of the shock of almost dying and his panic over Yusei was not helping. His mystery rescuer swerved once and swore. Judai realized why as he glanced over his soldier.

“More Ghosts??” he said.

“Placido must have noticed us!” the man said.

He swerved again, speeding onto a transfer lane to head up towards Yusei's lane. Judai wrenched his head around to look back towards the approaching Ghosts. The way he was situated, there was no way that the D-Wheeler was going to be able to duel with Judai in the way. Judai had to try and get out of the way.

“Hang on a second!”

“What are you—”

Now that Yubel was back in his consciousness, all of Judai's dexterity was back in full force. He hopped into a crouch on top of the seat and reached back with both hands to the back of the D-Wheel. With a grunt, he flipped himself up onto the back of the D-Wheel, fingers digging into the metal for dear life.

“Scootch forward!” he shouted.

The D-Wheeler complied, and just when Judai thought he couldn't hang on any longer, he managed to wrench himself forward again and drop into the seat behind the D-Wheeler.

“There!” he said. “Don't mind me! Just duel the way you have to!”

“Hang on,” the man ordered. “This is going to be much faster than you're used to!”

“I think I can handle—”

And then he let out a very unattractive squeak as the D-Wheel rocketed forward. He didn't worry about the awkward, he just flung his arms around the man in front of him and hung on for dear life. They were going fast, too fast, shouldn't they be getting hurt by this speed? The world was nothing more than a smudge, a screeching wind that blasted past them. Judai tucked his head in to prevent the wind from cutting into his eyes, but even that wasn't enough to stop feeling the speed from grabbing at every exposed inch of him, threatening to rip him free. He clenched his jaw and managed to get his duel disk up. He had to fight too!

In a matter of seconds, he had gotten Neos back on his field, the Hero zooming protectively at his side. He was ready, he could support this guy that had saved him now! He just had to get a Neo-Spacian to contact fuse and—

Somewhere in the echo of the wind and speed, he heard the words his rescuer call out the words Synchro Summon.

The world was speeding and blurring and stretching and suddenly Judai's ears were popping and—

Music.

Judai felt something in him freeze up.

Oh god. He was hearing the melody again.

. . .

“Judai—JUDAI!”

Yusei's voice cracked, hoarse, but he didn't stop screaming. He wrenched his bike to the side, trying to get to the glass, but a Ghost pulled up right at his side and crashed against him, blocking him. Another Ghost hit him on the other flank, boxing him in, refusing to let him turn. His Turbo Synchron seemed to lean towards Yusei almost protectively, as though it were going to strike out at the Ghosts on its own. Unicycular zoomed right up next to Yusei as the Ghosts boxed them in tighter. Yusei tried to wrench his head over his shoulder, tried to look back and see where Judai had gone.

“JUDAI!”

Oh, god, he had fallen, he had fallen, he was falling and Yusei couldn't do anything, he couldn't even turn around and try to get to him, he didn't know where to go, what to do, Judai was—Judai was—

He could not stop the cry from ripping from his throat. Anger. Terror. A horrible rage bubbling in his chest tempered only by the flutter of tears in his throat. His hands gripped at his bike so tightly that he thought he might snap the handlebars. Judai. Judai. JUDAI.

“Too bad, Fudo Yusei!”

Yusei's eyes snapped towards the voice as the other D-Wheeler pulled ahead of him. The Ghosts kept Yusei pinned in place, only able to move forward alongside the man that had just thrown Judai off of the Duel Lane.

“Who are you?” Yusei said.

The man shrugged, that same horrible smirk on his face.

“Will it matter when you're dead?” he said.

Yusei's hands tightened even further on his handlebars. He couldn't breathe. He could barely see. All he could hear was the thrum of his blood in his ears. All he could think of was Judai being thrown through the glass. Falling.

His eyes locked onto his opponent's. For a moment, the other man's expression faltered, the barest flinch fluttering over his face.

I'm going to end you.

Yusei powered into the turn. Wind ripped at his face, stealing his tears with it. He was going too fast—his brain told him that, but his body wouldn't respond. He could barely even see through the blur in his eyes, the angry tears streaking down his cheeks. He drew his next card with a wrenching cry—just what he needed.

“I activate Speed Spell—Stardust Wishes!” he said. “By discarding one card from my hand and banishing the correct monsters from the graveyard, I can Synchro Summon Stardust Dragon from my graveyard!”

His chosen monsters appeared in ghostly afterimages, Junk Synchron alongside Junk Warrior—eight levels.

“Clustering wishes will become a new shining star!” he shouted. For the first time he could remember, the chant felt hollow—echoing with his own rage. “Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Summon! Take flight, Stardust Dragon!”

His ghostly monsters flashed into stars and green gates, and then Stardust roared back to life from the graveyard. Its silver scales shone with a deadly sheen, as though it were covered in knifes. Yusei could feel it rippling with the same anger as him, the electricity and starlight roaring inside its chest, ready to release on their enemy.

“Stardust, attack!” he shouted, his bike skidding sideways as he turned to face down his opponent.

Stardust screeched with all the rage and pain that pounded in Yusei's chest. The great dragon swooped forward—wings slammed into the Ghosts and sent them flying all directions. Part of Yusei thought vaguely Stardust shouldn't be able to do that—Stardust is a hologram—I am not a psychic duelist. The other part of him could only think Judai. Judai. JUDAI.

Stardust's maw opened and starlight exploded from within its throat. The attack struck Yusei's robotic opponent head on, and the man swore as his Wisel Core shattered. He swayed and wobbled, dangerously close to the edge of the lane. Fusing with his D-Wheel had only made things more dangerous for him, Yusei thought. If his bike crashed, he wouldn't be able to bail—he was the bike.

“You're a fool, Fudo Yusei!” the man shouted. “As soon as your turn ends, my Meklord Emperor will rise, and seal away your foolish Synchro monster!”

Something in Yusei snapped. The man was close to the glass wall—very close. Some primal instinct arose within him.

Push him off.

Push him off.

Yusei dropped back on his speed so that he was riding right alongside his opponent. He couldn't think. He was so angry that his entire mind was nothing but white, the world was whiting out around him in his rage.

He slammed his D-Wheel into the side of his opponent.

The man gasped, eyes widening.

“What the hell are you—”

Yusei felt his lips pull back in a snarl and he slammed into the side of the bike again. Sparks flew as the side of the D-Wheel skidded against the railing. The man actually blanched. He hit his own brakes and dropped behind Yusei, swerving around to the middle of the lane so as not to get thrown off. He actually seemed to snarl at Yusei, his eyes narrow and his lips pulled back from his teeth.

Yusei felt an uncharacteristic stab of disappointment at having lost his chance so easily. He resorted to simply growling under his breath and pulling himself ahead of his enemy.

“Can't even keep to honorable combat, Fudo Yusei?” the man shouted, his lip curling. “You're exactly as I thought you were—an inheritor of destruction.”

Somewhere underneath the whiteness of rage, Yusei felt his heart seize up. No…no…that wasn't…he didn't want…

“You're just like your father after all, aren't you?”

The guilt evaporated like a dry leaf catching fire. He felt only the hot, pulsing rage in every vein and artery in his body, whiting out every thought, every emotion.

How dare he. How DARE HE.

“My father did everything in his power to stop Momentum!” Yusei shouted, spinning around to drive backwards. “And what about you? You fucking—what about Judai?”

Judai. Judai. Judai. Judai.

He had come all this way, all this way through time to help them, he couldn't even remember why, and he was trying anyway. Trying so hard to protect, to care for everyone, sending himself into anxiety attacks every night trying to figure out all of the threads he was missing. Trying to save everyone, even at the cost of his own mind, his own sanity, his own everything.

Judai was just trying to protect everyone.

And this man had killed him anyway.

Yusei could not think for the buzz in his head. For the whitening rage that blanked out everything in a narrow tunnel, everything except for his opponent.

Yusei could not remember wanting to hurt someone as much as he wanted to hurt this man.

His hand hovered over his cards, fingers trembling, every part of him trembling with the fury. He was going to destroy him.

“I'm going to end you,” he hissed.

For Judai, you fucking bastard.

And then he heard the song.

In an instant, the world around him seemed to clear. He gasped, his eyes snapping back into focus. He felt like something had just been drained out of him. His shoulders slumped, his fingers loosened on the handlebars. It was like all the air had been let out of him. He felt dizzy. Disoriented.

The song curled around him, faint, insistent. In just a breath, it had—it had taken all his anger, all his rage away.

“What's the matter, Fudo Yusei?” the man taunted. “I thought you were going to destroy me!”

Yusei gasped for the air that had left him. He—his brain wouldn't—wouldn't function. The song was growing louder.

And then one thought occurred to him.

The song comes when I'm around Judai.

Judai is alive.

He whipped his bike back around forward. His foot punched into the gas.

He had to be faster.

He had to get to Judai.

The song grew louder, louder, louder, louder, LOUDER— he was getting closer, he could feel it, the song was drawing him in. The wind ripped at him, threatened to tear him to pieces. No, no, he couldn't fall apart yet. He had to reach. He had to reach—

And for a moment, he felt him. He felt Judai's mind against his, felt their minds lock together, like the day they had formed Hourglass Dragon.

Yusei gasped.

Oh.

He saw.

. . .

Carly had sort of gotten used to the sight of auras, and even shadows, if one could get used to this strange, squiggly vision constantly hazed over with sheets of color and darkness. The one thing she hadn't ever really gotten the hang of, though, were the threads.

They were little tiny things, faint threads that were only visible when they caught the light just right. Like thin strands of spider's silk. She sometimes got senses from them, the way she did when she saw auras. But auras were easier. She could understand people by looking at them, get impressions of their intentions, their true feelings, the essence of their personalities. The threads…they were far more difficult. She would get brief images, sensory impressions, like a taste at the back of her throat or a scent that disappeared before she could identify it.

They led to something, she knew that much. But figuring out where they led was another matter entirely. How could she know which threads she should try to follow? Which were the right ones?

Was she seeing threads of fate itself?

She gasped for breath as the last Ghost crashed in a pillar of fire and smoke. The smoke billowed over the track and she ducked her head to cut through. Bursting through the smoke and into the clear, free air, with no duelists ahead or behind, she gulped down air like it was water.

Made it, she thought, head buzzing. Made it…through…

They had done it—they had taken out all of the Ghosts, and no one had gotten hurt. Jack and everyone were okay. She felt her chest fill up with helium. A laugh trickled out of her throat.

Jack's D-Wheel leaned closer to hers, and she caught his eyes through his visor.

He was smiling.

Carly's own smile burst across her face, and she felt another laugh rolling in her stomach.

“We did it,” she giggled, feeling so relieved that she was light-headed. “Wow, we—we did it.”

He grinned at her.

“Of course we did,” he said, looking as relieved as she felt. “You were all with the King, after all.”

“Well, thank you very much, Your Majesty,” Carly said.

He actually laughed. It felt like a release, like something unknotting from the air, clearing away like fog. She felt her shoulders slump with the relief.

“God, don't encourage him, Carly,” Crow said into their headsets. “Can we pull over now? My shoulder is going to fucking die. I probably am too.”

Jack laughed again, and Carly thought it must be the most beautiful sound she had ever heard. She tried to lean her D-Wheel a little closer, so that she could almost reach out to him, grab his hand. She wanted to—so badly. She should probably wait until they stopped driving, but she wanted to be closer—

The threads all sprouted in front of her vision like a knotted spider's web.

She screamed. Her hands jerked on the handlebars as though to avoid the knot, but no matter where she looked she saw them, tangling over each other, so thick that she could barely see past them, they were vibrating, humming, she couldn't hear, couldn't see, what was going on—

She thought she heard Jack shouting, thought she saw him swerve towards her, his hand swiping for her suddenly out of control bike, but she couldn't respond, she couldn't see or hear or think because the threads there were so many threads in this moment and they were all tangled up and trapped and—

Oh.

They weren't spider's threads at all.

They were the lines of a musical staff.

And they were humming a melody.

That was the last thing Carly thought before the entire world exploded in a rage of fire and everything went black.

. . .

The world was made of light. Judai blinked. Where…was he?

He wasn't on that D-Wheel anymore. He was…alone. Standing alone in the middle of a white landscape, a world of…blankness. He shivered. This felt…wrong. Like he didn't belong here. He felt like a million eyes were on him, staring at him, wondering why he was there.

“J…Judai…?”

Judai's head snapped up. He whipped around.

Yusei stared at him. His blue eyes wide, shiny with tears and shock, his hands trembling at his sides.

“Oh my god,” he whispered. “Judai.”

And then Yusei almost ran right at him. Judai only had a second to step forward before Yusei was throwing his arms around him, pulling Judai against him and almost crushing him in his arms. Judai gasped with a sudden burst of relief, his arms tightened around Yusei's weight, just making sure that his solid bulk was actually there. One of Yusei's hands slid up into his hair like he was some child and Yusei was a mother who had finally found her lost child in a crowd, making sure he was all in one piece. Judai's arms tightened around Yusei's waist, his face pressed into his shoulder and he just breathed, feeling the grain of Yusei's jacket against his eyelids.

“Can—can you hear it?” Yusei whispered.

Judai knew what he was talking about. The melody. It thrummed in this place, a feeling that vibrated in his bones. He couldn't actually hear it—it was more like…like a feeling, like something that echoed in his mind rather than his ears.

“Yeah,” he said. “Do you think it brought us here?”

“It…it must have.”

Yusei did not make a move to release Judai.

“What…what do you think it wants?” he asked, and Judai tensed at the sound of the break in Yusei's voice. “Where is it calling us?”

Judai opened his mouth to answer, to say he had no idea.

And then the melody seemed to hum louder in his bones.

And just as suddenly, Yusei was gone. And Judai was falling again, dropping through the light, the world fracturing around him. Black leaked through the cracks of the world. Judai screamed, but the sound was swallowed up by the shadows that quickly swallowed up the world around him. He thought he heard Yusei crying out, somewhere in the distance. Judai shouted, struggled. His hands flailed for something to grab—Yusei. He had to get to Yusei. He had to reach— The shadows were clawing at him, drawing him down, away from the world of light.

“Find the balance.”

“You have to find it.”

The song. The song was tightening around him, choking the life out of him. He couldn't breathe. That damn song, where was it—

…leading…

…him…?

Judai swiped once more for the world of light. His hand scraped against the white, scooped it against his hand like snow.

And then he was swallowed fully into the black.

Only the warm white remained in his hand, a tiny, tiny light in the darkness.

The song relaxed. Judai blinked once. He looked down at the tiny ball of light in his hand. It should…it should look wrong, in this darkness. Shouldn't it? But…something about it…a spot of light among the never ending black…

It felt right.

It felt like something he should have done ages ago.

The song nuzzled against him.

Oh.

So that's what he was supposed to do.

. . .

One moment, Yusei was holding Judai—alive, real, safe—

The next moment, he was alone again in that white world. Well, alone, except for…

“A-Aki?” he said. His voice felt so hoarse, and he found himself coughing into his hand.

Aki stood stock still in front of him. It…it was Aki, right? Something was wrong about her. She wore a long white dress that fluttered in a non-existent breeze over her bare feet. Her hair was loose, long and red like blood around her shoulders—no, wait…it was turning…white. Pure white, like the world around her, the color bleeding out of her hair like smoke. She was barely visible against the background.

Her eyes fluttered open.

They were a pure, pale white.

This isn't Aki, Yusei thought with a burst of understanding.

“Where am I?” he demanded. “What is this place? What have you done with Judai?”

The being considered him for a moment that seemed to drag into eternity. Then their mouth opened.

And the melody poured out from within.

The song struck Yusei right at the heart. He gasped, eyes widening, his hand clutching at his chest. He felt tears spring to his eyes. It was…it was beautiful. More beautiful that he had realized, during the first times he had heard it. From so far away, he hadn't been able to hear the care and beauty that was put into every note.

The song fell off, struggled. He saw the being in Aki's shape falter, mouth twitch. The notes came stilted. He felt like those pure white eyes were staring at him. Desperate. The shape of Aki faltered and stuttered, like a hologram going through static. She seemed to shrink. As though it couldn't hold its own shape.

It's not finished. The song isn't finished.

They want me to finish it.

“How?” he breathed. “How do I…”

They stepped forward. Their hand grabbed his, turned it palm up, pressed their own hand against his palm. And he felt a warmth in his hand, a light that shone even brighter than the rest of this white world. Their hand dropped away and they stepped back. The song had faded and Yusei was left with the light in his hand.

A gift, he realized. This being had…given him something.

He felt those pleading eyes on his.

“But what do you want me to do?” he said. “What can I…”

They raised their hand towards him.

And then he snapped to reality again.

The world felt so oppressively colorful after all of that. He gasped and swerved, almost losing control of his bike. Dizziness washed over him briefly, and then he was gasping, jolting to complete reality.

“Meklord Emperor, destroy his Stardust Dragon!”

Yusei swore—how long had he been knocked out for that vision? His opponent had summoned the Meklord Emperor already!

The great monster loomed over him, the glow inside its chest glaring at him as it pulsed. He saw the metal glint menacingly, a horrible creature that wanted to destroy him, destroy everything he cared about.

There was still a warmth in his hand, and his eyes dropped down to it. He drew in a breath.

“I activate Urgent Tuning!” he shouted. “I can Synchro Summon during your turn!”

His opponent actually laughed.

“And what will that accomplish, Fudo Yusei? It will buy you only a moment of time!”

Yusei ignored him, his eyes flashing to the only other two monsters on his field.

“I tune Unicycular with Turbo Synchron!”

Turbo Synchron revved up its engines and shot into the sky, forming into the green gates that Unicycular shot through.

“Gathering wishes will call out a new speed's horizon! Become the path its light shines upon—Synchro Summon!”

He could feel it, feel the melody humming in his bones, calling to him. He was close. So close to bringing out the creature that he had taken from that world of light.

“The Power of Hope! Synchro Tuner, Formula Synchron!”

The creature burst to life. It screeched out with a cry, zooming out like a miniature race car. Yusei gasped as the song reached a height in his head. He was almost there, almost to the next verse. He could open it up—he could open up the new verse with this.

“Just another piece of trash for me to take,” his opponent laughed. “I'll crush it with the power of your own Stardust Dragon!”

The Meklord's chest yawned open. Tentacles of light slithered free from its neutron core, snaking for Stardust Dragon.

“I won't let you,” Yusei said.

This was it.

Yusei powered into the wind, letting it scream and rush over him. The song swelled like an ocean around him, waiting, just waiting for him. He closed his eyes, sucked in a breath.

Clear.

He had to be clear.

He had to be able to hear it. Hear the melody. Find it. If his mind was noisy, he would black out again, overwhelmed.

He had to be empty. Let the music fill him.

. . .

Judai snapped back to himself on the back of the man's bike. He could feel it. Feel the song swelling and growing around him. His brain rushed and swirled.

No. No, he had to focus. He had to empty himself out. Let the music fill him up. Let it…

He gasped once, eyes widening.

Because suddenly, he felt like he was seeing two sights at once.

On one hand, he was still on the back of that D-Wheeler's motorcycle, watching the Ghosts get blown away by the man's dueling. But on the other hand…

His gaze lifted and he saw Stardust overhead. He could hear it. The melody tightening around them, drawing them together.

Yusei.

Judai?

Their brains locked, then. The melody grew and harmonized between them. Judai could feel the wind ripping at him, whistling and screaming—singing.

Let's do this.

As one, Judai and Yusei raised their hands up.

Judai felt Yusei breaking the sound barrier. He felt the pop in his ears. He could hear the chant as though he were the one speaking it himself.

“Dreams crystallize to open a new door of evolution! Become the path that lights the way! Accel Synchro—Arise, Shooting Star Dragon!”

And then Judai was raising up his own new card, the light that he scraped into the darkness, and he could sense Yusei doing it alongside him. Somewhere in Judai's chest he felt Yubel stir—anticipation, nervousness, knowing that this was the moment. The song was reaching her, too.

“I summon the Tuner monster—Yubel, the Daydream Forgotten!”

She hissed in his chest, with both battle excitement and wide-eyed nerves. Judai felt his chest twist and for a moment, he gasped.

And then Yubel was ripped from his chest and onto the field. The light was rushing through her veins, he could feel it, feel it changing her, transforming her. She gasped at his side as her wings tightened around her body to hide the transformation.

When her wings fell away, she was…smaller. She seemed tiny all of a sudden at his side. He thought he could smell flowers in the distance. She settled beside Neos, her now slender wings fluttering behind her.

Her eyes hadn't lost the spark of determination and will to fight, though, and Judai could feel her excitement at this newness rushing through him.

Judai and Yusei spoke as one from their distance.

“The forgotten dream will open a new door to the future! On new wings, soar towards the open sky—Synchro Summon!”

Yubel shot in front of Neos, her wings crossing over each other as she glowed into a series of green rings. Neos passed through the gates and turned to starts, creating the line of light that would lead the new creature onward.

“Be born, Elemental Hero Daydream Neos!”

They emerged from the light like a flower unfolding. Golden wings unfurled from a slender, gray and white mottled body as golden ribbons twirled around them, the blue of their garments fluttering in the white breeze. Their eyes opened, and they were the palest blue of the purest sky, with stars dancing somewhere behind them. Judai gasped as he felt his mind connect—with Yubel in her new form, with Yusei, with Yusei's new dragon, with the song that twisted around them.

Is this it?

Is this what we were supposed to reach?

Did we do it?

Judai wasn't sure; he couldn't tell right now with his mind turning.

But he knew the one thing he needed to do.

He shifted up on the back of the D-Wheel, balancing briefly. The D-Wheeler in front of him glanced back. He smiled, as though he knew what had just happened and he knew what Judai was planning next.

“Thanks for the ride,” Judai shouted.

“Go to him!” the man shouted back.

Judai grinned. Then he looked up towards Daydream Neos, soaring above him. He crouched down—and then exploded upwards. Daydream Neos caught him in their arms with ease. Then they soared upwards, the wind rocketing around them as they shot back up into the sky towards the higher Duel Lanes.

Judai found Yusei in seconds—it wasn't hard to locate the silver white dragon soaring above the dueling lane. Daydream Neos swooped down until they were level with Yusei. Yusei's opponent swore and swerved to get out of the way of the monster suddenly appearing.

Daydream Neos brought Judai level with Yusei. Yusei turned in his seat to meet Judai's eyes. Judai couldn't remember feeling so light as he did when he met Yusei's shining blue eyes. His grin exploded over his face.

He reached out with one arm towards Yusei. Yusei met his fist with his own, bumping them against each other. They held the contact for a moment longer than was probably necessary, and Judai resisted the urge to grab his hand. Not a good idea at this speed, but damn, was it tempting. Judai pulled back and let Daydream Neos turn him around so that that he was facing the robot opponent and the Meklord Emperor.

“Should we take him out?” Judai said.

“I think so,” said Yusei.

They grinned at each other. Behind them, their opponent screamed with rage.

“I'll just kill you both at once!” he shouted. “Wisel, take Daydream Neos!”

An evil grin twisted the man's face as Judai tensed—he knew why the man was switching targets. If Judai lost Daydream Neos, he'd crash into the ground—and probably not survive this time.

“Not going to happen,” he shouted. “When Daydream Neos is on the field, my monsters can't be targeted for card effects! Lost in Daydream!”

The tentacles that had shot for Daydream Neos grasped at nothing—Neos became insubstantial where they tried to strike, and they passed right through. The man screamed with rage.

“Yusei, take him out!” Judai shouted.

Yusei nodded.

“Shooting Star's effect! I can attack for each Tuner that I flip over from the top of my deck!”

Yusei's fingers dropped onto his deck.

“One!”

Junk Synchron—a tuner.

“Two!”

Another tuner appeared.

“Three! Four! Five!”

Judai could barely hold in a wild laugh of relief. All five were tuners.

Yusei flipped around to drive backwards, facing down his opponent.

“This is it,” he said. “Shooting Star Dragon! Stardust Mirage!”

The great dragon lifted its head and let out a cry—part of the melody, Judai realized. And then it split into five multicolored afterimages of itself, shimmering and glowing against the sky. The Meklord Emperor lifted its shield arm in an attempt to defend itself—but it didn't stand a chance. The mirages ripped through the Meklord one at a time, ripping the machine to pieces.

That should take him out! Judai thought triumphantly. And then—

“Reverse card open!” the man shouted, his voice taking on a wild tinge. “Damage Reflector!! Any damage I've taken this turn is given to you instead as effect damage!”

A huge mirror exploded out of the ground, absorbing the last mirage as it exploded through the Meklord's chest. Yusei swore.

But Judai couldn't stop himself from grinning.

“I activate Daydream Neos' effect! It reflects that effect damage right back to you!!”

The man's eyes widened and his mouth opened with a silent scream of absolute fury. Judai could not help but grin savagely at him.

“This is for throwing me off a duel lane,” he said. “Daydream Neos, Dreamer's Mirror!”

Daydream Neos threw their head back with a melodic cry—another part of the song. Their wings snapped around them and crystallized like a mirror. The explosion of damage hit the mirror wings and exploded right back.

The man let out one last scream before his entire D-Wheel exploded in a blaze of fire and smoke. Triumph rose up in Judai's chest, and his eyes started to turn towards Yusei with the absolute glorious feeling of victory, wanting to meet Yusei's eyes and share the moment—

But his eyes were drawn one more time to the pillar of flame and smoke. Or more importantly, the leaking white aura that was streaming from inside of it.

A coldness settled underneath his heart, tempering his wild feelings of victory.

He…he knew that color. He knew that aura. It was pure white, pure, stiff, brittle light that seemed to cling to the remains of the Meklord and the robot opponent—

He swore as suddenly, a faraway memory of his childhood seared across his brain. A faraway planet, where he had met Aqua Dolphin, and a strange robot that had crashed there, who had forced him to awaken his first powers of Gentle Darkness.

Oh my god, he thought. The Meklords, they're—

They're powered by the Light of Destruction.

. . .

Waking came slowly. Luka gasped as the light filtered through her eyelashes. Her hand flopped over her eyes. What…where…?

And then the past few hours all came rushing back to her. The Ghosts! Her friends! Lua!

“Lua!” she cried out, shooting up. “Lua—”

She stopped. Her breath hesitated in her throat.

She was…on her own couch. In her own home. She looked around, head turning slowly. There was her Duel Board, and her brother's too, leaning up against the wall the way they always kept them. Had she… been dreaming?

Her gaze continued and then she stopped, eyes widening. That man, Shou, he was sprawled across her floor. What was he doing here? How had he…?

She scrambled off the couch and over to him, dropping beside him and putting her hand on his back. Breathing. He was just unconscious.

“H-hey—hey! Are you all right…?”

And then her eyes rose up almost of their own accord, and there he was.

Lua stood in front of the window with his back to her. A silhouette against the blue sky. His hands hung limply at his sides. He was completely unmoving, a statue. That…that didn't seem like a Lua thing.

“Lua?” she said, tentatively, her hand curling up in front of her chest. “Lua…Lua, are—are you okay?”

She remembered him getting attacked. Remembered being unable to protect him, that he was going to lose to the Ghosts. Being helpless to save her most precious person. And then the white, and the red, and…how had they gotten back home?

Lua wasn't responding. Her heart jumped. Was he having a seizure? Like the ones she got, the ones where he just faded out? Was that why he wasn't responding to her? She stood up, walked around Shou, came a little closer to Lua.

“Lua,” she called again. “Lua, please, what…what's wrong? Are you okay?”

He seemed to stir, his hands twitching. His head half turned towards her, hesitated.

And then he turned to face her, and she stopped walking forward, frozen to the floor.

Lua's eyes were red. A pure, glowing crimson, rippling like… like the body of the Crimson Dragon. He looked blankly at her, his mouth half open, like he wasn't really there. Like he was seeing something or someone that wasn't her. She couldn't speak. Couldn't even breathe. God, what—what was happening?

And then a tear rolled down Lua's cheek. His mouth opened, and his voice came out in the tiniest, barely audible whisper.

“This is all my fault.”

. . .

A/N: I LIIIIIIIIIVEEEEEEEE and I bring PLOT TWISTS!

I am so sorry this took so long, for some reason this chapter just wasn't working :'D I’m back now, and I want to stay on schedule. If I don't have another chapter up by next Sunday, COME BOTHER ME ON TUMBLR. PLEASE. Also, shameless plug, but I posted pics of some of cards I made up for this chapter on my Tumblr (homura-bakura) so maybe have a look? :3 I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!

Chapter Text

Somewhere between tumbling gently onto the lane from Daydream Neos' arms, getting practically tackle hugged by Yusei and held for a good ten minutes, and then getting dragged onto the back of Yusei's bike as they turned back towards finding the others, Judai passed out. He tried not to. He knew there were a million and one things yet to do. They had to check up on the others, make sure everyone was okay, touch base with Asuka and figure out what the hell was going on, start looking into the Yliaster guys, figure out what happened to Yubel during the song—

But he couldn't. He couldn't think about it. He just let his head sag against Yusei's back and he blacked out from exhaustion.

He wasn't sure how long it had been when he finally startled awake. He blinked a few times, squinting at the artificial lighting swinging overhead. He was back at Yusei's place. On…on the couch, if his feeling of the ratty material under his fingers was to be believed. He simply laid there for a moment, trying to think past the whine in his ears and the buzz in his head.

Voices drifted to him, quiet, reverberating against the kitchen walls.

“No, I…Jack. Listen, we'll…no, I understand…just…”

Yusei's voice. Quiet and soft and soothing in its deep richness. Judai let his eyes flutter half closed again, feeling a breath unknot in his chest that he hadn't known was there. Safe. Yusei was safe.

He heard the phone click as Yusei put it back on the hook.

“He's staying at the hospital for now…she looks stable, but he refuses to come back.”

Judai hear Crow swear softly.

“Fuck…it's like we don't get a break, huh? Even though we won.”

“We won a single fight,” and Judai had to take a breath because it was really sinking in that that was Asuka's voice, a more mature-sounding version of her, but it was her nonetheless. His friends from Duel Academia were really here; he hadn't dreamed it. “The war is far from over…”

“I'd really appreciate it if you guys would start explaining that shit,” Crow said, his words coming out tight. Judai thought he heard nails digging into wood. “What exactly is going on here? Do you know what these Yliaster bastards want?”

A pause. Judai could almost see her now, chewing on her lip in that way she did when she was uncomfortable, tapping her fingers in that rapid pattern.

“I'm quite interested myself,” said the harsh tones of that woman—Sherry? “My parents were killed by ZONE, and I intend to know why.”

“We don't want to have to repeat ourselves,” Manjoume snapped. “Wait until Judai wakes up.”

Judai heard Sherry's boots click as though she were moving into a combative position, and he heard the flutter and snap of Manjoume's coat as the other man moved. Finally, Judai's brain remembered that he had limbs, and his eyes opened. He groaned as he sat up, trying to move quickly so that he could stop whatever fight Manjoume was about to get himself into.

“I'm up, I'm up,” he groaned. “Ugh. Geez.”

His head spun and he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, pressing the heel of his hand to his forehead. He heard boots clicking quickly over the tile floor and then a hand came against his back, another on his shoulder.

“Take it slow,” Yusei said. “You've been out for about two hours.”

“That's it?” Judai said, trying to make a joke. “By the pounding in my head I thought it had to be at least two days.”

The joke in his tone seemed to fall flat, sinking in the heavy ocean of unease that filled the room. He let his eyes open and glanced around the room to note each face. Sherry and Manjoume were indeed facing off across the kitchen table, Manjoume standing straight up with his arms folded and his eyes dark beneath his bangs, Sherry with her fists curled up at her sides and shoulders shaking.

Asuka sat at the far end of the table, chewing on her lip and tapping her fingers just as Judai had imagined. Crow stood near her with his hands braced against the table. Bruno had tucked himself into the corner behind Asuka, clutching a mug between his hands, his eyes flickering around uncertainly between all the faces in the room.

Yusei was still standing at his side, his hand not moving from Judai's back.

“I'm…I'm okay,” Judai said.

“Take it slow anyway,” Yusei said. “Do you need water?”

“I'm fine…”

He winced as another wave of dizziness washed over him. Immediately, Yusei sat down next to him, taking him by the shoulders and easing him to lean against the back of the couch.

“Don't move so much,” he said. “You don't have to get up.”

“I need to know what's going on,” Judai said. He squinted, trying to get his vision to stop from doubling. It finally settled and he sighed with relief. “Where's Shou and the twins? And Jack…and Carly's gone too?”

The room seemed to tighten immediately. Judai's heart jumped. He didn't like that feeling.

“Shou is at the twins' place,” Manjoume finally said, still not taking his eyes off of Sherry. “Something happened to them and they're not sure what. Shou doesn't think he should move them yet; they seem shaken.”

Judai heart leaped and his mouth went dry.

“What happened to them? What do you mean they're shaken? Did something hurt them? What—”

“We don't know anything, but they're safe, and that's all Shou said,” said Asuka. “Jack and Carly are…”

Again, that terrible tightness. Judai's stomach turned.

“Carly crashed,” Yusei said, his voice coming out quiet, barely audible. “She went after Jack and the others, said something about…whiteness that she had to protect them from. But after the Ghosts were taken care of…”

Crow's fingers scratched deep ruts into the table's wood.

“I don't know what happened,” he said. His eyes were focused on the table but his gaze seemed fixated elsewhere. His hands trembled against the wood, his face drawn—haunted. “All of a sudden she just—started screaming. And then she lost control—”

Judai felt acid creeping through his veins, stealing his breath away.

Oh, god…Carly…

“She's—she's all right, isn't she? She can't—”

“She's alive,” said Yusei. His arm slid easily around Judai's shoulders and he squeezed them gently. His other hand dropped on top of Judai's. “She's alive, and she's stable. But Jack refuses to come back until…until she wakes up.”

The silence that followed felt like it would be better suited for a wake. Judai felt his limbs getting tight and his hands shaking. Yusei pressed against him almost unconsciously, and Judai automatically pressed back. There was something comforting about his solid bulk holding him there, steadying him.

He swallowed.

“Right,” he said lamely. “So what's the good news?”

Once again, his attempt at diffusing the tension was swallowed up by the tense silence. For a few more moments, the silence dragged. And then Sherry scowled, folding her arms with a snap and flipping her hair.

“All right,” she said. “He's awake. Explain things. Now.”

“Well isn't someone feeling bitchy today,” Manjoume muttered.

Sherry looked like she was about to throw herself across the table and slam her fist into Manjoume's face, and by Manjoume's stance, he was one hundred percent ready to throw down with her. Asuka cleared her throat, however, and all eyes turned towards her.

“Right,” she said. “Yliaster.”

She sighed, dragging a hand through her long hair for a moment. Judai wasn't at the best angle from his spot on the couch, but even from here, he could see the tiredness that seemed to drag at her face. She looked, in that light, much older than she should be—and especially to Judai, who was still imagining the young nineteen-year-old that he had just seen at her American college a few months back. A few months back for him, anyway…almost three decades for her. He felt his chest clench up and his jaw tighten. Dammit…if only he could remember how…or why…

“It started…twenty years ago, now, I think…” Asuka said. “Fujiwara called, asking for Fubuki…but my brother was out…”

. . .

Twenty years previously

The phone screamed from the counter, squealing that horrible American metal music that Fubuki was so incredibly into nowadays. Asuka swore. She dropped the basket of laundry and stalked to the kitchen, finding the offending noisemaker. That stupid brother of hers, forgetting his phone at her house again.

She snatched the phone and flipped it open, glaring at the caller ID with the full intention of being a total asshole to whoever was calling and letting Fubuki deal with it later…

She paused then. That was a name she recognized—and one she hadn't heard much from in a few years. Fujiwara Yusuke, the screen blinked. Asuka sat there for at least two rings buzzing against her hand before she finally decided that she should probably answer. She hit the green button and tapped the phone against her ear.

“Hello?”

“Fubuki!” the voice came on the other end, breathless. “Thank god, you finally answered—listen to me, I've found—”

“Whoa, whoa,” Asuka said, waving her hand even though Fujiwara couldn't see her. “I'm sorry, Fujiwara-san, it's not Fubuki. It's Asuka. He left his phone at my house again.”

“What? Asuka-san?”

Fujiwara's voice went silent for a moment. And then he made a soft huffing sound, and Asuka thought she heard his hair swishing as he shook his head.

“Okay, fine, you'll do,” he said. “You were involved, anyway—”

“Wait, hold up, what do you mean 'I'll do?' What's going on?”

“Asuka-san, I need you to listen, and I need you to listen carefully,” Fujiwara said. He sounded…panicked. His voice heavy and breathless, cracking.

“Are…are you running?” Asuka said, listening to the panting and the sound of feet against stone. “Fujiwara-san, is something wrong?”

“I—yes, there is something wrong. But I don't—”

He swore and Asuka heard a heavy crackle. She winced and held the phone a few inches from her ear.

“There's something—something big,” Fujiwara was saying when she brought the phone back to her ear. “I had no idea—they were so far-reaching—”

“Fujiwara-san, you need to breathe,” said Asuka. “Start from the beginning. What's wrong?”

Fujiwara gasped for breath on the other end, and Asuka's heart jumped with nerves. She felt a tingling at the base of her neck, a ghost-like feeling like something was watching her, studying her. She shivered, feeling suddenly cold.

“The program at Duel Academia that I was in—the honor students that were studying Darkness, and Shadow Games,” Fujiwara said. “I thought—I thought it was just Kagemaru, just the owner trying to find a way to immortality, but it wasn't, someone else was paying him to do experiments and I—”

His voice choked for a moment and he had to pause, leaving Asuka to just listen to the pants and the sound of someone's feet striking the ground.

“Listen, Asuka, they're trying to do something, something bad—they're calling themselves Yliaster, and they're old, very old, big, something that I don't think I can handle on my own. I need—”

He swore on the other end.

“I'm going to call you back. Get Fubuki, tell him I've found the source, he knows some of what I've been doing already. I'm on the next flight to Japan.”

“Fuji—Fujiwara!”

Too late. He had already hung up. Asuka stood there for a moment, overly aware of her own weight pressing her feet into the tile. She pulled the phone from her ear, stared at the little, innocent piece of technology resting in her palm.

What had that been about…?

Part of her felt like she didn't want to know.

. . .

“Someone else was in charge of the experiments at Duel Academia?”

Judai's hands were shaking. Badly. Yusei tried to press his hands tighter against the top of Judai's to smooth calm into them. He looked so pale, so…fragile. Yusei felt like Judai wasn't well enough yet to be trying to sort through all of this information. He had nearly fallen to his death for god's sake—and Yusei still wasn't certain how Judai had gotten himself to safety. He hadn't had a chance to ask him. Had someone caught him, somehow? Had he Synchroed as he fell and Daydream Neos had caught him? Questions he didn't have answers to. All he knew was how much he wanted Judai to lie back down and go back to sleep. How much he wanted to wrap his arms tightly around Judai's shaking shoulders and try to calm him down. He wasn't ready to fight another battle yet. He needed to rest.

Asuka nodded in response to Judai's question.

“When Fujiwara got to Japan, he met with Fubuki and I,” she said quietly, her voice strained, as though this were hard to talk about. “He told us…about Yliaster.”

She sucked in a breath, steadying herself, but then Manjoume hopped in.

“They've been fucking everywhere,” he said. “They weren't just paying Kagemaru to research Darkness, either. Ed said that Saiou had dropped the name Yliaster once. When we called him, he said that he didn't know much, but that he had been met by someone from the group when he and Mizuchi were kids. They were the ones that passed Bloo-D to Saiou briefly; caused him to get possessed. Looked like Ed's foster father was involved with them somehow too.”

He scowled as he leaned back against the table.

“After a little digging, I even found out my brothers were involved,” he said, his voice in a growl. “Not knowingly, but most of their business contacts turned out to be affiliated with Yliaster. They're in the government, the business world, they're like fucking cockroaches.”

“And they were researching Darkness?” said Judai, leaning forward. “Why? Do we know?”

Asuka shook her head.

“I never…really got that much information,” she said. “I feel like Fujiwara may have known something more.”

She took another steadying breath.

“It feels like it all happened so quickly,” she mumbled. “But it's been almost twenty years we've been at this.”

She sighed. Her fingers touched to her temple for a moment.

“Fujiwara left almost as soon as he came to touch base with us. He rushed off to the next place, and—”

“Wait,” Judai said, raising his hand up. He winced as he did so and Yusei wondered if he had a headache. “How did Fujiwara find out about any of this? What was he doing?”

“Researching Darkness,” Manjoume said. He scowled, matching Judai's sudden flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. “Yeah. Sounds bad, right? After all of that, he was still getting himself mixed up with that shit.”

“Fubuki told me,” Asuka said, shooting a glare at Manjoume, “that Fujiwara was worried about the long-term effects of what had happened when Darkness arrived the first time. He was trying to find out if anything had been permanently damaged by Darkness' arrival, and everyone being absorbed for a time.”

“And that's when he found Yliaster,” Sherry murmured.

Asuka nodded. She looked so tired in that moment, the dull artificial lighting heightening the dark circles under her eyes.

“Like I was saying, Fujiwara ran off almost as soon as he came back,” she said. “The next we heard from him was about six, seven months later. He practically screamed at us to get out of the city immediately.”

Yusei sucked in a sudden breath, feeling the room grow cold. Now his hands were the ones that were starting to tremble. She didn't…she couldn't…

“He wouldn't say why,” Asuka murmured, her voice sounding choked. “Told us to just—run. Get out of the city as quickly as we could. That there was no time to warn anyone else, to evacuate anyone else—”

She stopped midsentence. Her hand pressed against her mouth and her eyes squeezed shut. Almost immediately, Manjoume stepped over to her. His hand dropped onto her shoulder and squeezed gently.

“Asuka,” he murmured. “Hey. Hey. Stay with us. You're right here. You're right here.”

Asuka's shoulders shook. Yusei felt Judai tense under his hands, felt the tremble grow deeper. Yusei himself was finding it hard to keep his mouth from drying out.

“Zero Reverse.”

Crow was the first one to say it. The words rang over the room, like a curse, piercing into every heart and bone. Yusei almost choked on his own air. He had to close his eyes for a moment, steady himself.

“We only just barely made it out of the city when it happened,” Asuka finally said. “I—if I had just tried to make a few more people leave…”

“How did he know?” Sherry snapped. “How did he know that something like that was about to happen??”

Asuka still looked like she was on the verge of panic attack, and Manjoume glowered at Sherry.

“Fujiwara seemed to know a lot of goddamn things, and he wasn't very good at sharing,” he said. “Comes from being an only child, I guess.”

Sherry stepped forward, fists at her sides, and Manjoume straightened up to meet her eyes with a dull fury. Asuka put a hand on his arm. Her hands were still shaking, but she met his eyes anyway. They shared an unreadable expression for a moment. And then Manjoume backed down, returning to leaning against the wall with his arms folded tightly over his chest.

“That was around when I got involved,” Manjoume said, pointedly ignoring Sherry. “I saw the news and came to check on Asuka and Fubuki. Fujiwara had already made it there by the time I was able to get over there.”

“And…and he had brought someone with him,” Asuka said. “A nervous sort of man…someone who said that he used to be a part of Yliaster.”

. . .

Eighteen years previously

The man sat perched at the edge of his chair, wringing his hands. Asuka found herself just staring at those hands, long-fingered, thin, bony, like a daddy long legs. The man had a bulging sort of nose that looked like it may have been broken more than once, the skin drawn tight over his face like parchment. Her eyes followed the movement of his fingers like a kind of metronome, lulling her brain into beautiful blankness.

She felt a light touch on her shoulder, but she did not look up at her brother. She didn't want to see the bandage on his cheek that marked where the debris had caught across him. She didn't want the reminder of how much worse other people had gotten it. She didn't want to think, period.

She could hear Manjoume's voice shouting on the other side of the door, Fujiwara's voice a terse volume beneath his.

“Do you think this is what they need right now? More fucking supernatural shit messing up their lives?”

“They're involved now; I can't just not tell them anything.”

“Get them uninvolved. Get us all uninvolved. I don't want shit to do with this—this war you say you're fighting. I'm one hundred percent done—and those two—they just fucking lost everything and you're trying to conscript them into—whatever the fuck you're doing!”

“You don't think they have the right to know why they've lost everything?”

Manjoume fell silent. After a beat, Asuka's brain was able to flutter back into non-thinking. She didn't want to think about anything, or anyone, didn't want to remember that huge flash of light that had blinded her, or the screams or the crashing or the explosions or the fire—

She gasped. Fubuki's hand tightened on her shoulder, and her hand clamped down on top of his. She clung to the sensation, tried to focus in on just the feeling of his hand on her shoulder.

The door opened. She didn't look up, but Fujiwara came into her line of vision anyway. He cut a striking figure, far different from the slightly nervous young man she had come to know in their last year of high school. Back then, Fujiwara had been trying anxiously to make up for what he had done, to try and prove that he was not the villain he had made himself.

Now, he was a vengeful sort of spirit, with his face twisted into barely concealed anger, his fingers clenching and unclenching around invisible throats at his sides. Now, Fujiwara was trying to fix his mistakes, and he was not backing down from one inch of it.

He pressed his hands to the table, fixing his eyes on the man across from him. Those eyes were enough to make a tiger decide to find other prey, and the nervous little man got the full brunt of it. He made a strangled sort of noise in his throat and dropped his eyes to his own hands, which were wringing against each other even faster now.

She heard Manjoume come in behind Fujiwara, his coat snapping as he turned to shut the door. The house settled softly around them, making little whispers.

“Now,” Fujiwara said, eyes fixed on the man. “You said that you had information for me.”

The man swallowed. His bony Adam's apple bobbed up and down with the motion and his fingers increased in speed.

“I didn't know,” he said faintly. “I didn't know—how far they were willing to go.”

“Speak up, and stay on topic,” Fujiwara said. “I don't care about how broken your morals are right now. I care about facts. You're going to tell me what Yliaster is, and what it wants.”

The man shook his head very quickly, mumbling to himself for a few seconds. Fujiwara straightened up as though to come around the table, and the man yelped.

“I thought we were doing something good,” he said. “Something important. I thought we were protecting the world—but this—this isn't—protecting—”

He sobbed and pressed his face into his bony hands.

Asuka felt something then. For the first time in days. It sparked in her chest, a tiny glimmer at the end of a sparkler. She almost didn't recognize it. She had felt so empty and dead for the past few days, ever since the explosion had wiped out almost the entirety of the city she loved and lived in, since the lockdown was initiated to prevent the spread of radiation and locked her away, unable to even call inside to see if her friends were okay, if her students and their families were safe. The thing let out a little flicker of sparks. Caught fire. What was it?

Anger.

She rose with a snap, Fubuki's hand sliding off of her. He reached for her again but she was already stalking around the table. Her hand reached out, she was watching herself move as though from a distance, her fingers curled into the man's collar and yanked him towards her. He gasped and his eyes bugged farther than they already were.

For a moment, she just held him there, staring at him, shaking. Her mouth too dry to speak.

When she finally managed to get a word out, only one came.

“Why?” she whispered. She swallowed, searched for more words. “Why did they destroy it?”

The man moaned once. His fingers twitched as though he wanted to try and remove her hand from his collar, but he didn't dare try.

“Momentum,” he mumbled. “We thought it was—light. It must be, shouldn't it? So crash dark into it, and—we were just trying to—but I—didn't think they would—two darks crashing together made it all go—”

And then his eyes widened. His throat seemed to close up, and both hands scrabbled for his neck. Fubuki jumped forward, put his hands under Asuka's arms and eased her away from him.

“Hey, hey,” he said, trying to sound soothing. “Calm down, don't hurt him…”

“I—I didn't touch him,” Asuka said, fumbling backwards. She gripped at Fubuki's arms for support.

The man was choking. On—on what?

Fujiwara swore. He shot forward, grabbed the man's shoulders, tried to tilt him back to see what was happening.

“Dammit, don't—stay with me, dammit, you haven't finished telling us—”

The man grabbed Fujiwara's hands, his eyes bugging, air choking on its way into his throat. His face was pale, desperate, begging for help.

“We—were—” he gasped. “Just trying—to preserve—the—balance…”

And then his eyes rolled back into his head, leaving his eyes a pale, dull white.

He slumped in Fujiwara's grip. Fujiwara lost hold of him, and the body—dead—Asuka realized with a jolt of terror—slumped off the chair and to the floor.

They all stood there for a moment. Staring at the man who had simply…died in front of them.

Fujiwara was the only one to speak.

“The balance,” he mumbled. “That's what the last one said too.”

Only silence remained.

. . .

Silence hung over the group for a few moments. Judai groaned softly. He just wanted to sleep.

“So this…Yliaster…is trying to…balance things,” he mumbled. “And they caused Zero Reverse for that purpose.”

“I don't know if that was their intent,” Asuka said. “But it was certainly the result.”

Judai slumped in his chair. His mind went back to his most recent revelation. The Meklords were powered by the Light of Destruction. They were something from outer space, something that had come to spread the Light and oppress the Gentle Darkness. But what did that have to do with Momentum? With Yliaster? Why were Yliaster using the Meklords, vessels of Light, but they were also behind the darkness that had influenced the Dark Signers, and Zero Reverse?

Nothing made sense.

“So these guys think they're trying to help?” Judai said weakly. “They think they're…protecting the world?”

“Seems like it,” Manjoume muttered. “Bunch of fucking nutcases.”

A silence hung over the group for a while. Judai's head was spinning. What was this about preserving the balance? What was Yliaster trying to accomplish? What was Fujiwara trying to accomplish? Why was he attacking Yusei and Judai and the others if he was supposed to be fighting Yliaster, the same antagonist that Team 5D's was facing off against? Did Fujiwara know something that Judai didn't?

If only the guy would talk to me, he thought. If only he would just tell me what's going on instead of being so fucking cryptic.

He leaned his head back against the couch, groaning softly. Yusei's hand tightened against his, and Judai found his own hand twisting into Yusei's fingers. He let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding, and almost instinctively slid over to lean against Yusei's shoulder. His closeness was a comfort in the spinning of his head and thoughts.

“Well,” Judai said finally, trying to crack a feeble smile. “So what is the good news?”

For a moment, no one answered. Once again, the terrible attempt at being cheerful had failed.

And then the door from outside flung open. Everyone jumped as one, several swears echoed as people scrambled to face the door—

Izayoi Aki stood with shoulders squared, a silhouette against the darkening day. She stared at each one of them, one at a time. And then she smiled.

“What's the good news?” she repeated. “Well. I guess I'm here again.”

. . .

Jack thought maybe he had been here long enough that his heart was starting to beat along with the monitor.

He knew that his knuckles had left a mark on his cheek, he had been sitting with his head resting against his fist for at least forty-five minutes now. This chair was starting to become molded to his figure at this point. And it was uncomfortable as fuck.

She just…laid there. Quiet and still. If not for the heart monitor, he might think she was…no. No, his thoughts couldn't go there. They absolutely could not go there. He licked his lips—dry. He hadn't gotten water in a few hours. There was a water fountain down the hallway, he had seen it while he ran alongside the gurney.

He knew even as he thought about it that nothing was going to move him from this spot.

He reached out towards Carly's prone form, tucked some of her hair behind her ear. Her breath misted against the breathing mask, eyes closed. Her arm was already in a cast, her leg braced up. The doctors had said it was only a tiny fracture in her knee, nothing to be worried about. Her arm was snapped, but it was easily reset.

It was the head injury they were worried about.

For a moment, Jack felt like he was sitting at the coffee shop again. And she was there, chattering about something or another, waving files or photos in his face in an attempt to drag him into the conversation.

His hands curled up into his lap. He could see himself. Grunting noncommittally at every word she said. Refusing every opportunity to ask her a question to keep her story going, to even make a sound of approval or interest. Downing cup after cup of coffee to have an excuse for why he wasn't talking. Or more likely…an excuse for why he hadn't left yet, even though he wasn't talking to her.

His head drooped, his arms leaned down against his knees.

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

He hadn't wanted her to remember. It was stupid of him. He had been…so afraid that she would remember, remember the times that she had been a Dark Signer, remember the people that she had hurt while under the influence of the god, remember dying…

He didn't want her to wake up in the middle of the night with an unreleased cry dying in her throat, a cold sweat matting her hair to her forehead. The way he did. He didn't want her fleeing from nightmare monsters every night in her dreams the way he did, didn't want her to remember that haunting vision of the hell like world that the dark god had tempted both her and him with.

He didn't want her to live with the guilt that he did.

He had thought…staying away from her…maybe he wouldn't spark any unconscious memories. Maybe…she would be safe. As long as he stayed away.

And yet he hadn't been able to leave the table when she had arrived. Hoping that grunts and no conversation might eventually scare her away. It never did. She never gave up. She had…she had a bright spirit like that. And perhaps, part of her remembered…remembered what they had said to each other during those last moments, when he had pressed her to him even as she turned to dust and disappeared. Perhaps part of her had wanted that back as much as he had.

“I wanted you to be safe,” he whispered. “I wanted you to stay away from me. From the bullshit that this gets me into.”

His nails dug into his right arm as he said that, as though he could claw off the mark there that signified what he was. What he had to do with his life—act as a Signer. Who knew what might show up after this Yliaster thing was dealt with? What new problems would he be asked to fight against as a Signer?

That wasn't a life he wanted for her.

He noticed, then, the tear that was forming at the edge of her eye. He startled, sat straight up. Was—was she awake? Or was she having a nightmare of some kind? He reached out with one finger, carefully scooped the silver tear away.

“I want you safe,” he whispered again.

Something brushed against his leg. He startled, jumping up out of the chair. What the fuck? Was there a cat in here?

But when he looked down, he saw nothing.

“Hey,” said a cheerful sort of voice behind him. “Word of advice, friend.”

Jack whipped around, his muscles tensing in spite of himself, shoulders raising up like hackles as he pushed himself between Carly and whoever was—

He was an older man, older than Jack, definitely, but he could have been anywhere between thirty and late forties. Foreign, with a smooth, round face and glittering green eyes under neatly clipped blue hair, faint wrinkles around his eyes from smiling.

“Who—” Jack started.

“If you want to keep someone safe,” the man said, talking over him. “You ought to keep them close.”

His hand reached up to his shoulder, stroking at something that Jack couldn't see. As though there were some kind of cat, or squirrel sitting there.

“In other words, you shouldn't avoid the people you want to protect. You should remember that they want to protect you too.”

“Who are you?” Jack snapped.

The man's smile was bright, cheerful, as though he were much younger than his face indicated.

“I'm Johan Andersen,” he said. “I was just passing through, and Ruby told me that you two might need a bit of help.”

. . .

“Disaster…absolute disaster…”

Jose looked like he was about to start ripping apart walls with his hands as he paced back and forth. Luciano kind of wished he would. It would be more amusing than just staring at the walls, anyway.

Placido hung in the air, held up by the pale, pulsing green light that emanated from the wide table at the middle of the room. He was in pieces—lots of them. Luciano wondered if they had even found all of them.

He had to admit, Placido's face looked pretty stupid with his mouth wide open like that, his eyes all buggy. Luciano giggled as he kicked his feet back and forth. What a total dope. He had gone all out against Yusei from the get-go, and look where it had gotten him. Hilarious.

Jose didn't seem to notice just how funny it was, though, as he kept pacing and grumbling.

“The little—I can't believe he would—going to put us behind schedule…”

And then the room went white. Luciano felt a shiver flee down his spine and his smile died.

God was coming.

Jose froze in the middle of his pacing as everything shifted, reset, became a pure, blinding white around them that obscured everything. Even Placido disappeared, leaving only Luciano and Jose to meet with…him.

Like always, Luciano wasn't prepared for God's appearance. One moment, they were alone in the white. The next moment, he was there. More than just a spinning hunk of metal, there was a…heaviness in the air. Something that made it hard to breathe. Hard to move, even, like his limbs were locking up into place, oppressed into stillness. He tried to slow his breathing the way that Jose had tried to teach him. Control himself. He didn't want to look weak in front of him.

God spun there for a moment, hanging in the white. When he spoke, his voice echoed, metallic and glimmering, like it was made of molten steel pouring down into the air and turning everything shiny.

“Placido has fallen.”

Jose bowed very low, almost doubling completely over.

“We'll fix him, my lord. We apologize for—”

God hummed softly. Almost a melodic sound, one that chilled Luciano all the way to his metal bones. A melody, but broken. Unfinished, out of tune.

“Do not apologize. This is meant to be.”

Jose hesitated.

“My…lord?”

God spun slowly, gently in the white.

“The Circuit nears completion…keep collecting…keep collecting the light, to alight its paths. The light of hope…it will guide us.”

Jose nodded. Luciano dropped his eyes to his feet and found that that made God's presence much easier to bear, so he started studying his roller skates.

“We will continue on our path, my lord,” Jose said. “May I…request a thought?”

“Mmm. Yes.”

“Team 5D's has grown ever more dangerous. They have new allies at their sides. Most particularly a boy that shouldn't be here…Yuki Judai.”

Luciano wasn't sure, but he thought he felt…hesitation? There was an element of consideration in the air, as though God wasn't sure how to respond.

“…he is irrelevant.”

Jose bowed his head.

“I understand.”

“But…”

Luciano glanced up, curious all of a sudden. There was a new tone in God's voice. Something…vaguely eager. It was so out of place with his normally quiet, monotone speech.

“I can sense it…the Loophole has awoken…find it.”

Jose nodded quickly.

“I will do so. We thank you for your constant assistance.”

The world was starting to fade back to normal, the white disappearing.

“See ya, God,” Luciano muttered, determined to not be made completely polite—even by God.

God hummed once again, that same broken off tune.

“Not yet…” he seemed to mumble from a distance. “Not yet…the ReBalancing will come upon us…and then…”

But he did not finish his sentence. And then God's realm was gone, and they were back in the repair chamber.

Neither of them spoke for a long, long moment. And then Jose stirred. He turned towards Placido's hovering, half body.

“I must finish his repairs,” he said. “Luciano. Go out. Find the Loophole.”

“Oh, sure,” Luciano said. “Why don't I just go comb the city for it. Could be anything. Or anyone. But yeah. I'll definitely find it; it'll be a cinch.”

Jose scowled at him, mouth opened to scold, but Luciano was already zooming away on his skates. He hummed that broken off tune to himself, testing it out.

It was really just a dumb kind of song, wasn't it?

Chapter Text

He had the terrible, niggling sense that he was overlooking something.

Judai laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. It was too dark to make it out except as a looming shadow, staring down back at him. He shivered slightly. Sometimes, the dark still made him nervous. Over and over again, the threads of his predicament twisted around themselves. Yliaster wanted to “balance the world”—which had lead them to destroying Domino City in a flash of light and death. Fujiwara wanted to protect his kids—which lead to him trying to kill Team 5D's, and in particular…Yusei.

Judai's hands curled up into fists over his head, shaking against the pillows.

—Fujiwara told me that “Yusei has to die”— Yubel had told him, after they had finally reunited. —But he wouldn't say why—

Judai groaned and rolled over onto his side.

The bed felt so cold all of a sudden. He wished he was still on the couch. He had sat there for a few hours after Asuka and the others had told their story, with Yusei sitting next to him. Yusei had been insistent on staying until Judai was positive that he wasn't going to be dizzy anymore. Judai had protested that he was fine, but Yusei insisted that Judai stay exactly where he was. He had picked up a paperback and just sat there reading, with one arm slung over Judai's shoulder to prevent him from getting up. Miffed, Judai had found himself simply sitting there, until his eyes began to droop from the warmth of Yusei's closeness and the exhaustion of the day. He wasn't sure how long he had slept there, but at some point Yusei had had to move and Judai had ended up slipping away to his room to think. But now, he just felt cold and lonely. Maybe he should have stayed on the couch…

He sighed and tried to close his eyes. He had a feeling that if he slept, he would dream again, and he didn't want to dream. He didn't want to fall into the darkness again or hear that reverberating voice asking him why it should help him. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to shut out the thoughts, spinning and spinning, he was overlooking something, he was forgetting something, he was going to fail everyone. The child was crying again, crimson tears like blood as their veins glowed in strange, arcane symbols, sobbing as they begged Judai to save him, but save who was the question—

“…Judai?”

Judai snapped up, his heart in his throat and his tongue dry. Had—had he been sleeping? The heaviness of his eyes made him think so, but he felt like it had only been a few seconds since he had closed his eyes. He blinked through the sleep for a moment, trying to figure out who had spoken.

When his vision cleared, he was surprised to see Aki standing in his door, looking concerned, one hand pressed to her heart and the other on the door frame. She looked almost ethereal, inhuman, with the backlight shining around her.

“I…” Judai said, and choked on his words. “Sorry…what's up?”

“I was just wondering if you were all right…” Aki said. “You were crying…in your sleep.”

Judai blinked a few times, and then realized she was right—his cheeks were wet. He rubbed at them furiously, trying to clean himself off before he sat up. He tried to smile.

“Just a bad dream,” he said. “Nothing serious. Sorry if I worried you.”

Before Aki could speak, pry anymore into something that Judai didn't even know the answers to himself, he quickly added,

“What about you, by the way? I didn't really get a chance to talk to you…how are you feeling?”

Aki shrugged.

“I don't feel any different,” she said. “It's like the crash…never happened.”

She hesitated.

“Although…” she whispered. “I feel…a buzz. Under my skin. Like…like something was there, vibrating in my chest…and then it was gone…leaving me with the aftershock.”

Her tongue flicked over her lips, and Judai wondered if her throat was feeling as dry as his. Judai slid to the side of the bed, patting the spot beside him.

“…need to talk about it?”

Aki hesitated. Her hand tightened on her breast.

“I…don't want to bother you.”

Judai shrugged.

“I don't want to sleep anyway.”

There was another breath. Then Aki sighed, and stepped into the room. She sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed, her hands dropping into her lap. For a moment, they just sat there. Judai stared at the wall across from him, his elbows on his knees, while Aki stared at her lap with her bangs falling over her eyes.

“While I was in the hospital,” she said, finally, “I had…dreams. Constantly. I don't really remember any of them anymore. Everything was so…white.”

She breathed out, an echo in the dark.

“I'm afraid to go back to sleep and see that again. It was…it burned. It felt like every inch of me was being scrubbed clean. And sometimes, I felt like—I was moving without trying. Like someone else was under my skin and walking for me.”

Judai's hands tightened around his knees.

“Yeah…” he murmured. “I know that feeling.”

Aki's lips tightened. Judai could see her hands shaking on her lap.

“Judai-kun…I don't know how much the others have told you about the Arcadia Movement…”

Judai shook his head.

“Not much. Just that it was a group of psychic duelists that you used to stay with.”

A shudder ran down Aki's entire body.

“…I was used,” she whispered. “It's taken me…a very long time to realize that. To really understand it.”

Her hands slipped up around her arms and tightened, a self-hug that seemed more to hold herself up than anything. Judai wondered if he should try to comfort her right now, touch her shoulder or something. Maybe she didn't want contact. He left his hands on his knees.

“He was using me,” Aki said, her voice almost hollow now. “It's taken me this long to really see it, but now I do—every second of every day, he was using me. Telling me in as many words that I was worthless, and the only person that would care for me was him. He…he gave me a home, preyed on my loneliness, and then jerked me around like a puppet on strings.”

Judai felt a cold hand tighten around his heart. His hands started to tremble as he remembered a woman with buzz cut hair and a sad, introspective face, who smiled as the man she loved crushed her to death. Aki choked for a moment, and she pressed one hand to her mouth. Her shoulders were shaking—Judai could see the sparkle of tears at the corners of her eyelashes, squeezed tightly together. He wanted to put his hand on her shoulder right then, to say something, but…he didn't know what.

“And god, I still love him sometimes. I see him in my dreams—I saw him in those white dreams, I saw him clearly for what he did to me, and I still loved him.”

Her hand dropped back into her lap, and her head fell back. Judai felt his heart jump in his chest, and this time, he did tentatively drop his fingers onto her shoulder. When she didn't flinch away, he slid his fingers to squeeze lightly.

“During those dreams, I felt it the worst…being dragged around. Used,” Aki said. “Something was using me while I was asleep, Judai. Something was in my head. I don't know why; I don't know if they had a good reason but…”

She swallowed thickly, and she finally turned her eyes towards Judai. Her walnut eyes were thick and glazed with tears, but her jaw was set firm.

“I won't be used anymore, Judai,” she said, and her voice was even now. “Whatever happens next, I will not be used.”

Judai tightened his grip on Aki's shoulder. He smiled.

“Good,” he said. “That's a good conclusion.”

Aki's lips flickered a smile for a moment. She hesitated a second longer. Then she sighed, letting her head drop forward.

“I'm so tired,” she mumbled. “God.”

She laughed lightly, and the sound was enough for Judai's stomach to unknot. A smile grew over his lips, too.

“Okay,” Aki said, turning her face towards him, bangs slipping over her face. “Your turn.”

“Huh?” Judai said.

“Come on, I spilled my guts, now it's your turn,” she said, punching him lightly on the knee. “What's keeping you awake this time?”

It's too cold, Judai thought automatically. But, no, that wasn't the root problem. He sighed, leaning back on his hands and letting his head fall to look up towards the ceiling.

“I have nightmares pretty much all the time,” he said. “I did some fucked up shit when I was younger…”

Aki let out a breath.

“Same,” she muttered.

Judai grinned hollowly.

“I don't want to play the 'who had it worse' game, but I'm pretty sure whatever you did didn't hold a candle to what I did,” he said. “No offense.”

“I'll let you leave it at that,” Aki said, flicking her bangs from her eyes.

Judai sighed again, letting his eyes slide back up to the ceiling.

“I…I feel like I'm going to fail again,” he said. “I've failed the people I care about so many times. In terrible, terrible ways. People I loved died because I wasn't paying enough attention to them. Because I was too wrapped up in my own goddamn thoughts.”

He swallowed, eyes closing for just a moment. But when they did, he could see the faces of his friends screaming at him from that faraway stone podium, exploding into lights and vanished into the tome of darkness on the other side of his field. He quickly opened his eyes.

“I'm afraid that I'm going to miss things again,” he whispered. “That I'm overlooking something. Missing a piece. I keep thinking…I can't stop thinking. But am I still not paying enough attention? Am I forgetting something important? One slip-up, and people end up dead.”

Aki didn't respond. For a moment, they just sat there in the darkness, sitting in silence. Aki finally stirred, shifting on the bed.

“Judai-kun, what I'm going to say next is going to sound a little harsh, but bear with me,” she said. “Stop giving yourself so much credit.”

Judai blinked. His head flopped back down to look at Aki, shocked for a moment out of his thoughts.

“…huh?”

“I mean it,” Aki said. “You're not the only brain around here, you know…that's why we're working together. So that we can all look at all of the pieces.”

She cocked her head.

“In other words, you don't have to do everything yourself. Let the rest of us help. That's why you have friends…so that we can all help each other.”

Judai found his lips parting and his mouth falling open slowly as Aki kept talking. He…he hadn't thought about it like that. Why hadn't he thought about it like that?

Aki's lip quirked up on one side into half a smile. She sighed, and stood up with a ripple of her skirt. She stood there for a moment, the light from the hallway spilling across her back and outlining her in light. Her eyes glittered faintly in the dark as she looked down at him.

“You're not alone,” she said. “Don't forget that. We're in this together.”

The words felt like a soft tap of a fist against his gut—not enough to take his breath away, but enough to make him completely alert to what was happening. Then she turned, and stepped quietly across the floor towards the door. Her feet slid to a pause at the threshold, hand holding her against the door.

“Ah,” she breathed for a moment. “Now I know what you remind me of…Yusei's like this too. Always trying to do everything himself. Trying not to bother anyone else…trying to take the world on his shoulders.”

Judai blinked. He felt a tiny flush grow over his cheeks. Her head tilted back towards Judai, the strands fluttering across her face, outlined in shining highlights of blood red. She seemed, for a moment, like she was about to speak. Then her lips closed again, and she shook her head. She looked…sad, all of a sudden.

“Aki?” Judai said.

She bit her lip. Then her head turned quickly back towards the hall, staring down at the floor.

“You two…need to take care of each other,” she said after a beat. “Promise me…that, at least? That you two will take care of each other.”

She hesitated just a half second longer, just long enough for Judai's mouth to open, but not long enough for a word to escape his throat. Then she was gone, and Judai was staring at an afterimage of her shadow against the light, burned against his retinas for a breath. He just sat there for a moment, trying to process what had just happened.

At the back of his head, Yubel snorted.

—You're terrible— she said.

“Huh?” Judai said. “What are you talking about? What did I do?”

But Yubel didn't respond, settling herself back into the silence of his subconscious. Judai blinked once, huffing slightly. Promise her to take care of Yusei, huh…well, that's not really a hard promise. I was already planning on doing that…

His hands tightened in his lap. It was still…really cold.

He found himself wishing, once again, that he was back on the couch beside Yusei, listening to his heart beat steadily, soothingly, feeling his warm arm over his shoulder. His head dropped slowly, his hands coming up to support his forehead. He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes.

It's so cold…

His thoughts were swirling again. Twisting and turning over each other once more. Thinking and thinking. What was he forgetting? What was he missing?

“You don't have to do everything yourself. Let us help.”

It was so late, though…if he did what he really wanted to do right now, and went to wake up Yusei to try and talk to him about all these thoughts, Yusei would probably tell him that he just needed to rest. But Judai couldn't, he couldn't rest. He had to stay awake, to think, or he was going to fall back into dreams again—either the one about the darkness, or the even stranger one about the child with the crimson tears…

“Take care of each other.”

“Please, you have to save him.”

Judai's breath caught in his throat and he choked.

Oh god.

He was running, then, scrambling over his own feet, tripping and falling and skidding his knees across the ground as he barreled for Yusei's room. He heard Aki say something as he stumbled past the extra guest room she had been borrowing for the night, but he was moving too quickly, his heart was pounding in his ears because he had to get to Yusei, he had to tell him—

Yusei was already stirring at the sound of Judai's pounding feet as Judai skidded across the floor in his socks.

“Yusei!” Judai gasped. “Yusei!”

“J-Judai…?” Yusei mumbled, squinting through the dark. “What…what time is it…?”

Crow was stirring too, rubbing his eyes and moaning under his breath, mumbling some incoherent thing about pasta. Judai didn't think, he just tumbled across the room and gripped Yusei's shoulders, effectively jerked Yusei to full alertness. Yusei's hand immediately grabbed Judai's against his shoulder, gripping him and steadying him, a warm pulse of reassurance.

“Judai, what's wrong? What happened?”

“I remember, I remembered something, I know how I got to the future the first time—I think I've been going in a loop, but somehow I had to start that loop by getting here the first time and I remember who sent me forward in the first place—”

“Judai, slow down, breathe, you're okay…”

“The twins! Where are they? They're still at home, right? Is Shou still with them?”

“They're fine, and yes, that's where they are, and yes, he's still there as far as I know, but why…”

And then Yusei's breath caught in his throat. His eyes widened and he seemed to understand what Judai was saying.

“You mean…the way you came here, to the future…”

“Yeah,” Judai said, feeling his whole body run cold. “Yeah.”

He swallowed once. Yusei's face whitened.

“It was him,” Judai mumbled. “It—it was Lua. Lua brought me here.”

. . .

Luka pressed her face to the window, hoping the cold glass would make her feel…something. But all she really registered was that the glass was cold against her cheek, and she couldn't see very many stars tonight. She had always resented this view. She didn't deserve it. What had she done to deserve living in the topmost penthouse of Tops, and then have the gall to not enjoy a moment of it? There were a thousand and more people who would kill for a chance to live the life she did, and all she could do was feel hollow. The house was too big, too cold, too empty, and the sky was no comfort. She felt no joy from seeing the city lights from this high up. It was all so far away. Untouchable. Unreachable. Here, there was only loneliness…and then guilt for that loneliness. What right did she have to feel these things? She ought to feel lucky.

She swallowed thickly, feeling a strange lump in her throat that wouldn't go away.

Shou was sleeping on the couch. Luka had offered him their parents' unused room, but Shou had politely declined. Luka knew it was because he wanted to be closer to the twins' room, in case…something happened again.

Luka shuddered as she remembered that moment, hands pressing against the glass for support.

Waking up on the couch somehow, her couch, and not the cold pavement she had expected after that explosion of red light. Lua, standing at the window, his back to her.

Lua turning around, and his eyes glowing red and hollow at her, like there was something else staring out of her brother's body, like her brother wasn't even there. She had scrambled off the couch, run to him, gripped his shoulders, said his name over and over. “What's wrong, what's happened to you, what do you mean it's your fault? What's your fault?” That had been all Lua was able to say, over and over “this is all my fault. This is all my fault. This is all my fault.”

And then, all of a sudden, as Shou groaned and started to sit up, Lua's skin had become fire. Luka had screamed, released him, stumbled back with her hands red and burnt as the red lines starting coursing down Lua's entire body, swirling under his skin like strange, glowing veins. Shou had sworn, sat up to catch Luka as she fell, briefly checked her hands before glancing up at Lua, who was just standing there, glowing and shaking with his mouth hanging open and tears streaming down his face, heat waves rippling off of him and a haze of crimson fire billowing over him briefly.

And then it was over. The lights faded, Lua's eyes deadened back to their ordinary color, and he had slumped, unconscious to the floor.

Lua was asleep, now…he hadn't woken up since everything had happened.

Luka pressed her forehead to the glass and closed her eyes.

Why aren't you here right now? she thought towards the faraway concept of her mother and father. Why were you always gone when we needed you? Why can't you just…talk to us? Tell us what's going on?

She didn't even know where her mother was at this point. Her father was trying to kill her friends, and but Judai's description it sounded like he was possessed. What about mom? Where had she gone? And if her father was trying to kill everyone, and had been out and about fighting Yliaster all this time like Shou had explained, then what about the letters they had gotten? Were any of them real?

How long had her parents been lying to them?

Her fingers curled against the glass.

I hate you, she thought at her father, tears bubbling in her eyes and a lump rising in her throat. She felt shaky, unstable. She was probably about to have an attack. She could feel it like a buzz at the back of her eyes. She should sit down; in case the seizure was bad enough for her to fall. She didn't, though. She stood there leaning against the glass, eyes closed as spots flared behind her eyelids, and almost wished that she'd have a bad enough seizure to go into a coma again. Then maybe she wouldn't have to deal with any of this until it was over.

She felt something brush against her. Her fingers dropped automatically against the solid bulk of Sunlight Unicorn. The unicorn nosed her head gently, tenderly. She could feel Kuribon snuggling against her feet. Her throat tightened.

“Thank you,” she mumbled. “Thank you…”

Sunlight Unicorn shoved its head underneath Luka's arm as she opened her eyes to see them. The unicorn blinked at her with big black eyes. They whiffled softly through their nose, into Luka's face. Sit down, was the clear message. Before you have an attack and hit your head.

“Fine,” she mumbled.

Sunlight Unicorn let her lean on them as she slowly slid down to the floor, shaking. She could feel her consciousness lifting away from herself. It didn't feel like a bad one…she should probably be back to herself in a few minutes, and with Sunlight Unicorn to lean on, she should be fine.

She wasn't sure how long she was gone before her eyes snapped back into focus, and she looked around, dizzy. What happened? Where was she? Oh…all right, she hadn't moved…she was fine.

And then she saw her brother in the reflection of the window, standing in the door of their room. Luka choked on her breath—Lua looked so…small all of a sudden. His face was drawn, white, hands shaking as he gripped the door frame.

“Lu…ka…” he whispered. “I think…something's wrong with me…”

Luka scrambled to her feet, pushing off of Sunlight Unicorn's back for support. She stumbled across the room towards Lua, almost falling when she reached him.

“You're okay,” she said. “You're okay, okay?”

She held his shoulders and guided him carefully to the ground. She could feel every tremble of every muscle—he looked so scared.

“Y-You're okay, you're just…you're doing the thing I do, when you fade out for a few minutes. You're okay.”

“N-no, that's not it,” Lua mumbled. “I…Luka…”

He swallowed, and tears bubbled in his eyes.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I'm…I'm supposed to protect you, Luka…I'm not…good enough…”

“No, Lua!” Luka said, shaking her head as fast as she could. “No, no, you've always—you've always protected me, you've always taken care of me but—it's okay, it's my turn, okay? It's my turn—because we have to protect each other!”

She felt tears bubbling in her throat and with a sob she threw her arms around Lua's shoulders, holding him tightly, the way he always did for her when he saw she was about to have an attack. “A big hug will make you feel safe!” he always said. “I'll be right here until you come back! Okay?”

“I'll be right here until you come back,” Luka mumbled, squeezing him tighter. “Okay?”

Lua buried his face into Luka's shoulder. She felt his tears staining into her shirt sleeve, and pressed him to her even tighter.

“I'm scared,” he mumbled. “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay,” she said.

“Luka…when—when you have your attack…do you feel like…something's missing?”

Luka hesitated. She…wasn't sure how to respond.

“What do you mean?”

Lua swallowed and his arms tightened around Luka's waist.

“It—I feel different,” he said. “Like…like I'm missing pieces of myself. Like I'm…not…whole…”

He was trembling so badly that it was a wonder he hadn't literally fallen to pieces,

“It's okay,” Luka said, feeling her throat tighten. What did that mean? She didn't understand. What Lua was saying, it didn't mean anything to her. “Sometimes—sometimes you feel weird things when you're having an attack. It—it's called disassociation. It's normal. It's okay to feel weird.”

Lua shook his head against Luka's shoulder.

“N-no, this is different,” he said. “I mean—where is the rest of me, Luka? Why do I feel like…like I've been…broken off of something…?”

And then Luka felt the heat again, pulsing gently under Lua's skin. She almost flinched—her hands still smarted from the burn against Lua's skin the first time. She could feel the heat growing around her, tightening, making it harder to breathe. She almost let go of Lua, almost scrambled away.

But then she held him tighter.

No.

She wasn't letting go. Even if it burned her, even if it killed her, she wasn't letting go of him. Not when he was like this.

The heat was growing, intensifying, Luka could see a red haze staining across her vision again. The heat was oppressive, sucking the air out of her, squeezing her lungs, burning against her skin, but she would not let go, she wouldn't let go even if it burnt her to a crisp—

She heard Shou swear behind her. Heard him say her name, scramble to his feet and clatter towards them. Luka would not let go, not even if he grabbed her, she refused—

She felt it, then…a coolness. Spreading from her right arm, the mark against her skin, that was starting to glow as if resonating. Something slick spread from the talon mark, like a layer of thin, oily water, spreading over her skin, insulating her from the heat. She could breathe again, she realized. She could see.

Automatically, as though drawn by an unseen force, her eyes dropped down towards Lua's right arm.

There was something glowing there.

Something…

Like a Signer mark.

. . .

Johan Andersen had been bustling around the room for the better part of six hours now. Jack had fallen asleep on and off, still refusing to move from the chair, despite the efforts of four separate nurses and two doctors telling him that visiting hours were over. Jack had been ready to fight them off and lock the door behind them, but Johan had slid quickly between them and flashed a large, winning smile. Two seconds later, they were left alone, and after doing that a few more times, they stopped being bothered.

Jack snorted to himself. There was something…odd about this man. Something like…like the feeling you might get if you walked into a quiet forest glade one with a spring and a waterfall and birds chirping, and you suddenly felt an overwhelming aura of peace. Jack didn't quite trust it—people that made him feel at ease right away were people that you needed to be wary of.

But Johan, as of yet, hadn't done anything to make Jack feel justified in not trusting him. Except, well, being strange as hell. Every time Jack startled back awake, Johan was talking to the air, or waving his hands over Carly and frowning, mumbling something about a positively horrendous mess of threads, it would take hours to untangle. Sometimes, Jack would feel something brush against his leg again, or his arm, and Johan would scold the air, telling someone—Amethyst, or Topaz, or “especially you Amber”—to be careful where they were walking, Mr. Atlas couldn't see them.

Jack realized subconsciously that this man was like Luka—able to see spirits. But consciously he wasn't really thinking about it. He was thinking about how the man had said he would be able to help Carly, but so far, he hadn't been doing much.

“Ah!” Johan said, startling Jack out of a doze once again. “Finally! Now that was a job and a half. Thanks, Cobalt, I wouldn't have spotted that one without you.”

He once again stroked something invisible for a beat, his other hand pinching the air as though holding up a string.

“What?” Jack demanded, sitting forward in his chair. “What did you find? What the hell have you been doing this whole time?”

It was a question he had asked several times during the course of the evening, and not once had Johan seemed to be fully paying attention enough to answer, giving some wave of his hand or incoherent mumbled answer that made no sense. Jack was trying hard not to look at Carly's unconscious face, with the breathing mask strapped over it. He didn't want to remember how much was at stake.

Johan grinned, a little sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.

“Sorry, I get in the zone sometimes with this,” he said. “I was sorting through her fate threads, to try and figure out what was wrong. She's not just in an ordinary coma, you see, and I had to try and locate the problem.”

He shook his head.

“Never seen anyone with a tangle as bad as hers. Well, I'm sure Judai probably has one worse, but I couldn't see fate threads yet the last time I saw him, so I can't judge…poor girl's been through quite a lot, eh?”

Jack bit the inside of his cheek.

“…yes,” he said, glancing at her, the way her hair was brushed neatly across the pillow, shimmering like oil in the dark. “She's been through…a lot.”

Johan nodded, his eyes softening.

“Well…anyway,” he said. “It looks like…well, something happened, something that frightened her so badly, that her soul withdrew in order to protect itself.”

“Her soul…what?” Jack said.

“It's like when a turtle gets scared, and pulls its head in,” Johan said, gesturing vaguely at the air. “Her soul saw something…she has some form of Sight, correct? I thought so. So her inner eye caught a glimpse of something and withdrew, in self-defense.”

“So…what do we do, then?” Jack said. His eyes dropped to her again and for a moment, he tried to think of what he would do if she never woke up.

Johan's tongue flicked over his lips.

“Ah right,” he said. “That's where you come in.”

Jack blinked, his eyes jumping back up to Johan.

“What do you mean?”

“Someone's got to go into her mindscape and coax her back out,” Johan said. “Try to calm her down and convince her that it's okay to wake up.”

He pulled on that invisible thing he was holding, biting his lip for a moment as he considered her.

“But me? Why me?” Jack said. “I—she won't want to see me. I'm not good at…comforting people.”

Johan shrugged.

“You can say that if you want, but I don't know her. I can't just waltz into her mind if she doesn't know who I am. Besides…” and here, he plucked at something else that Jack couldn't see. “This red string of fate would disagree with the part where you say she doesn't want to see you.”

Jack started, feeling his heart quicken. He glanced down at her, and then at his own pinkie. Red string of fate? What kind of superstitious bullshit was that…?

His hand immediately twitched towards the sign on his arm, and he licked his dry lips again. Okay. Superstitious occult shit…probably. But so was the rest of his goddamn life.

He swallowed. Again, his treacherous mind asked the question “what will you do if she doesn't wake up?” He took a deep, steadying breath.

“Fine,” he said. “What do I do?”

Johan flashed that large, winning smile of his.

“Come over here,” he said, beckoning. “I'm going to temporarily help you see the threads, so that you can follow it into her mindscape.”

Jack rose from his seat. He grunted as his knees cracked and his back groaned in protest. Hell, but he had been sitting for a long time. He wobbled on still shaky legs around the bed to stand next to Johan. Johan placed his free hand onto Jack's shoulder, then held up the one that was still pinching the invisible string.

“Now listen,” he warned. “Mindscapes are treacherous. There are loose thoughts everywhere, and if you're not careful, you'll forget yourself and get lost inside. Once you're in, keep hold of the thread I give you, and don't lose it. It will lead you straight to where her soul is hiding.”

Jack nodded, feeling his throat go dry. He couldn't even come up with any retorts, any scathing remarks. It was really hitting him that this was it—this was the only way to save Carly. Johan took Jack's hand and turned it palm up. He pressed the invisible thread into Jack's hand. Jack gasped—there was a tingle. A brief spark of static that made his spine shudder.

“You should be able to call your ka spirit while you're in there, too,” Johan said. “Your Duel Monster partner, that is.  It will protect you…anything could happen in the mindscape, okay? Make sure you keep your wits about you.”

“Fine, right, I've got it,” Jack snapped. “Can we get going?”

Johan nodded. He took a deep breath, and then pressed one finger to Jack's forehead.

“This will hurt a bit,” he said. “So hang on—”

And then there was a sudden, wrenching static shock piercing through Jack brain and he choked.

The floor went out from under him and he was just falling.

And then everything went black.

. . .

Luciano hesitated at the top of the building. He had been jumping from roof to roof for the past few hours, mostly just because he could, and it sort of counted as him looking for the Loophole. Like, where did God even expect him to start? It wasn't like Luciano even knew what he was looking for. It could be a person, a building, a machine, hell, it could be an old boot for all he knew. It wasn't like it was just gonna pop up in a flash and bang and say, “oh, look at me, I'm a Loophole”—

And then there was a spark.

Luciano's breath caught in his throat. What…what was that humming sound? It sounded a little like that song that God had been humming, but actually in tune, although it skipped notes and the tempo kept changing every few seconds. He could feel a heat pulsing at his back. Where was it coming from?

His eyes turned towards the city skyline, and alighted on the tallest building in the city. The Tops building…he thought. Wasn't that where…

A smile exploded over his face.

Oh, sweet God, it couldn't be that obvious and easy, was it? Was that why that green-haired dope was so desperate to stop them?

Luciano kicked his rollerblades into gear, and skidded down the side of the building.

Perhaps this was going to be easier than he thought.

. . .

Fujiwara felt it. It was a wrenching feeling, jerking through him like a hook lodged in his spine and yanked by some unknown force. His throat went dry and his hands started to shake.

Oh no. Oh, god no.

Why hadn't he killed Jack Atlas while he had had the chance??

. . .

A/N: well…it's late but I didn't make you guys wait as long as I usually do so…yay me? ;w; Lots of stuff happening…we're gonna have a bit of a commotion again. No rest for the weary protags, eh? Don't worry, they'll get their downtime after a bit more Suffering^TM XD

Hope you enjoyed, next chapter should be up by next Saturday if I can learn to keep a schedule! :'D

Chapter Text

“I didn't know you were still here.”

“Of course I am. I'm you.”

“No…you're not though…you were…”

“What? I was the hummingbird?”

“Yeah…”

“That doesn't change the fact that I'm you, too.”

“I…I don't understand.”

It was like looking into a mirror. Except her mirror self had feathers for hair, smooth and black down her back. Her mirror self had thin, delicate wings of black feathers tucked against her back. Her mirror self had bright blue eyes that shone within a pool of black. They were a difficult gaze to keep, and she kept dropping her eyes to the ground.

“But you were the dark god…you forced me to fight against Jack.”

“It was your choice, at first, you know. I only helped a little.”

“But—when I stopped wanting to fight—you took over—”

“That wasn't me. That was the darkness that was part of all of us.”

Carly shook her head.

“I don't understand.”

The other Carly shrugged.

“I am the hummingbird. You are Carly. You are the hummingbird. I am Carly. They both mean the same thing. We are the same, now. You kept me when you can back.”

Carly swallowed.

“What about the others? Kiryu…and Misty…?”

“No. Just you. You're the only one who decided to keep the darker part of yourself.”

“Why?”

“How should I know? If you don't, I don't either. I'm you, remember?”

Carly moaned and held her head in her hands.

“We don't make any sense.”

“You're the one making this difficult.”

“W-why am I even here? Why did I come to this—wherever this is? Why did I come? And why are you still here?”

“I came here because I saw something that scared me—that scared us. We heard something, and it showed us something, and we didn't like it.”

“But what was it?”

“I don't remember. It's all too blurry right now. Too jumbled.”

Carly squinted at her mirror image, but found that it was gone, and she was talking herself. But some reason, in this world, that seemed perfectly normal.

“I had to get away from what I saw,” she mumbled.

“But I also have to tell them what I saw.”

“And figure out why I brought the hummingbird with me…why I made it part of me…”

“Yes, that's something I have to figure out too.”

“It has something…something to do with Darkness, right? I needed to bring it back. So that I could tell someone something about it.”

“That sounds right. And the hummingbird agreed. It didn't want to die. It agreed to become a part of me when I came back.”

“I have to remember…I have to remember why I brought the darkness back with me. I have to remember what I saw when I heard…that song…”

She stopped talking. Her voice stopped echoing around the space. It was only then that she felt clear headed to look around, to realize that…she couldn't see anything. Not like it was dark, but like…like nothing was there at all.

Where am I?

How do I get back?

Someone…please…help me…

. . .

Things didn't make sense here. It was like floating through clouds of black over a wide, blank desert, no separation between the ground and the sky. Everything was a solid gray, splattered with wisps of thick black smoke.

Is this…really Carly's mindscape?

Jack wasn't sure what he had expected but it wasn't this. It felt…cold. Distant…emotionless. Words that he did not associate with Carly in the slightest.

An echo twisted around him like a breeze. He couldn't quite catch the words, but there was a tiny laugh at the end of them, and it felt somehow eerie in the landscape. He shuddered. Then he shook his head, growling to himself.

Don't get distracted. Find Carly, get out.

But how? Where was he supposed to look first?

A warmth bloomed at his hand, like something small and hot tightening around the base of his pinkie. He glanced down and the color actually blinded him for a second. The red thread almost glowed against the otherwise colorless landscape. It glowed as though it were made of candlelight, a soft red diffusing across the black and gray on either side. Jack tugged on it experimentally and it swished lazily in the air. He turned around to see where it was leading…there.

It didn't look any different than the rest of this incomprehensible landscape, but he could see the red thread glowing against it, leading off into the distance and disappearing in a cloud of black. He sucked in a breath, squared his shoulders, tightened his fists at his sides, and stalked after the thread.

It never seemed to get any extra slack. It never felt tight, but it should start to collect as he walked towards it, right? Instead, it seemed to only shrink along with his movements, growing shorter as he grew closer to its end. Not that he could see the end…he felt like he should be able to see for miles in this place, but despite the wide, faraway horizon, he could never really comprehend more than a few feet at a time.

More echoes flickered past him. Sometimes he could pick out a word or two, a laugh, a soft sob. They were getting a little clearer as he moved on, and he realized suddenly that it was Carly's voice.

“want to…article…smile!”

He heard the tiniest click like a camera going off but then that memory was past him and it disappeared. He felt his heart leap and almost turned back around. What had that memory been? He almost recognized it; recognized the tone of her voice as she asked someone to smile for the camera. Had it been him, maybe? She always tried to take pictures of him—he had always found ways to get out of them. He felt his heart clench at the thought—how many times had he brushed her off? He wanted to whip around and chase the thought, grab it, force himself back into the memory and make his past self smile for the goddamn picture.

Something stopped him from turning around, though. A tightening of the red string around his finger.

Don't stop, it seemed to whisper. Don't stop. Don't lose the thread.

He let the thought go on without him, disappearing behind. He kept walking.

The world seemed to be getting a little bit warmer. Or was he imagining it? Images flashed at the corners of his eyes now. Thoughts echoed louder, and rattled around in his own head as though they were her own—his, his own, why had he suddenly changed pronouns—

“You could lose yourself in there. Be careful.”

Johan's words echoed alongside the other thoughts. He heard his own voice a few times echo back at him—was it from Carly's memories, or were his own thoughts leaking out into the landscape around him? It was definitely getting warmer. The clouds were starting to clear and the ground had changed from gray and featureless to the soft roll of grass. The images were still flittering in the corners of his eyes. He felt bile rising up in his throat, feeling suddenly sick and dizzy from the lights and sounds and images that clattered around him. He couldn't even make sense of them even though they were loud and clear, he couldn't understand what was being said or seen, every now and then he caught the glint of light off of a pair of glasses and he could have sworn that Carly was standing in front of him, or running away and disappearing like mist, but it was only another memory whipping past him.

Carly. Just…think of Carly.

He had to make it to her. No matter what, he had to make it to the real Carly, not just a memory. He had to bring her back. No matter what it took, he had to bring her back.

How fast was he moving? How long had he been walking? He didn't even know. He felt like the world was streaking past him. Every now and then he felt as though his legs were suddenly shorter, or like his whole body was suddenly younger and he was scampering after the thread as a ten-year-old again before he snapped back to normal.

And then like a whip cracking through the air, everything snapped into focus.

Jack gasped for air. His lungs filled up greedily—had he not been breathing? He felt as though he had just been underwater and finally surfaced. He came to a stop, coughing in between thick, desperate breaths. His eyes watered up from the force of his coughs and even though the world was finally clear and open to him, he couldn't see for a moment.

Finally, he blinked his eyes clear. Squinting, he found himself standing in a suddenly very dark, very black place. It was like the ground had been burnt to a crisp, and the sky was heavy with clouds over head. Debris from buildings littered the ground, and he could see the spires of half demolished skyscrapers painting the horizon.

His heart clenched cold. He knew this place.

This was where Carly had died.

The red thread still floated in the air, weaving gently back and forth in a nonexistent breeze. He rolled his hand into a fist to press it tightly between his fingers, suddenly and irrationally afraid that it would dissolve or disappear. He should keep walking. Carly must be close; he was getting into places he recognized.

And then he heard the tiniest cough. Like someone trying to catch his attention. His head jerked up. He scanned the sky, eyes flashing across the horizon, the ground, looking for the source of the sound. Had it only been another memory? No, this one had sounded real, not like a disappearing breeze or echo.

His eyes fixed on the shadow that sat perched on top of a ruined building foundation. He could feel his throat drying up even as his eyes ran up her legs crossed over themselves, dangling over the edge, her hands resting lightly on the ledge on either side of her, the black fabric that lay across her knees, her hair like oil shimmering down and blending into her cape.

Dark eyes staring at him, a bright blue in pools of black.

Oh, god…no…please…

Dark Signer Carly looked down at him from her height, cold and impassive. She sniffed softly.

“You shouldn't be here,” she said.

And then from behind her, the dark forms of the Fortune Ladies rose up, silhouetted against the sky, their staffs raised. Jack could feel the red string of fate burning around his pinkie.

. . .

“You're absolutely positive??”

Judai knew that Yusei already understood how positive Judai was, but also knew that Yusei was just trying to understand it himself.

“Yes,” he shouted back over the wind. “It was Lua—I remember it now, I remember it so clearly—he was the one that came to me and brought me to the future the first time.”

Although I'm not entirely sure about the next few times… he thought to himself. But he hadn't yet brought up the idea of time loops to anyone and he wasn't sure how—he'd just have to make sure this was the last loop. Or something.

The world sped by them in a blur of black and neon lights. If Judai hadn't been panicking, he might enjoy the feeling of the wind ripping past them as they sped through a nighttime city, but as it was now, he didn't even have the time to really enjoy having Yusei so close to him again. He could have easily been on his own motorcycle, but when they ran down to the garage at Judai's urging that they get to the twins as soon as possible, Yusei had told him flatly that there was no way in hells he was letting Judai on his own motorcycle yet. So here Judai was, the side of his face plastered to Yusei's back as he clung so tightly that he was wondering why Yusei hadn't told him to loosen up yet.

He couldn't help it—he was scared. And Yusei's solid bulk in his arms, a stable presence that was warm despite the cutting evening wind, was enough to make him at least remember to breathe. He gripped Yusei a little tighter, and for a moment, he thought he felt Yusei's hand brush against his on his chest. Was that a sign for him to loosen up? He wasn't choking Yusei, was he? But then he tried to loosen his arms, and Yusei's hand snapped on top of his again, tightening around the top of his fist.

Don't let go, the hand seemed to be saying, but Yusei wasn't able to speak.

Judai didn't. He gripped Yusei again, pressed his forehead to his back, and tried not to panic any further.

He could hear the screech of cars on the highway, the almost melodic hum of Yusei's motorcycle and Aki's and Crow's behind them—Aki hadn't been asleep yet when Judai had barreled down the hall, and Crow was awake within seconds, and they hadn't been about to be left behind. Judai was glad for that; he felt anxious enough with Jack not being within sight what with Fujiwara out and about trying to kill people. He wasn't entirely sure where Asuka and Manjoume had gone, but suspected they had someplace else to sleep and had left sometime during the time that Judai had passed out.

One way or another he didn't have time to contact them, so it was just going to have to be him and part of the Signers for now.

Another hum reached his ears, the strange melodic tune of a D-Wheel running somewhere up ahead. When had they started to sound like songs to him? And why did it feel like each bike had its own, unique tune, dancing just out of reach of his ears. He lifted his head and squinted through the flashing of lights speeding past them for the source of the sound. He scanned the Duel Lanes, the regular driver lanes, the ground below…

His eyes lifted up towards a higher lane and that's when he saw it—the blur of deep maroon and the flash of almost cartoon like eyes that glowed like headlights. Judai didn't know how unique D-Wheels were usually, but at this point in time he had seen only a single D-Wheel with a cartoon face like that. Shou!

“Yusei!” Judai shouted, shaking him slightly to get his attention. “Yusei, exit—exit here!”

“What? Why?”

“Shou! I just saw him—up there! He was with the twins!”

Yusei swore. He smacked his turn signal just a second before he dove across two lanes and into the exit, cutting off three cars. A cacophony of horn blares followed after them, and then another wave came that told Judai that Aki and Crow had made the dive too. Yusei leaned into the curve as they spun up and around to the higher lane. Judai had to lean tightly into Yusei's back and squeeze his legs into the bike to make sure he wouldn't fall.

Then they were diving out into the lane, cutting off another truck which immediately sat on its horn at them. Judai peered around Yusei's shoulder and saw the flash of Shou's back lights—he hadn't been wrong, that was Shou's D-Wheel, and there was a sidecar on it now, one that had two small heads in helmets. And one of the helmets was sporting two small pigtails bouncing in the wind—Luka.

Yusei stomped on his gas and exploded forward at a speed that probably shouldn't have been physically possible. Horns followed their path as Yusei wove in and out—reckless, Judai would have said, if there wasn't such an awe-inducing grace to every movement Yusei made. It was like he was the motorcycle itself, or even just speed itself, barely flicking his hands into each turn and molding to the wind like he was a minnow darting easily around rocks in a stream. It was like the cars and other bikes weren't even on the same plane of existence as him.

In the space of a breath, Yusei had pulled them alongside Shou. The man's head jerked up and flashed towards them, his eyes glittering in streetlights behind his glasses, wide with shock. Judai leaned over past Yusei's shoulder.

“Shou!” he shouted. “What's wrong; what's happened?”

Shou fumbled a moment with his helmet, and then his voice broke through on Judai's helmet headset.

“It's Lua!” he panted. “I don't know what's wrong—he's burning up so badly, he's actually hot to the touch, only Luka can get close to him—going to hospital—”

Judai tried to peer over top of Shou to see into the sidecar on the other side. Yusei had already anticipated this somehow and immediately dropped back in speed to slip around Shou from behind, coming up along the other side in a beat.

Judai couldn't explain what he was seeing. Lua was glowing, but it was almost like…like it was his blood that had suddenly become neon, the glow coming from just below his skin and dancing in irregular, fiery patterns. Even from here, Judai could feel the waves of heat radiating off of him, could see his head lolled back and his mouth hanging half open, his eyes wide. Crimson tears rolled down his cheeks.

Crimson tears.

Exactly like in the dreams he had had.

Judai felt his blood run cold despite the heat. Lua was nestled back against Luka, who looked just as strange to Judai. Her skin was coated with what looked like a thin layer of something oily and silver. Almost as though she were coated in a thin sheet of water that somehow remained in place around her. Her Signer mark pulsed rapidly, as though it were matching a too-quick heartbeat. She looked up at Judai with tears in her eyes, her bottom lip trembling.

“I-I don't know what to do,” her voice echoed over the headset. “He's not responding anymore. He's—he's having an attack, a big one, like the one I had when I went into a coma and I don't know what to do—”

Judai tried to resist the urge to swear—he didn't know any more than Luka did.

“Keep driving,” he shouted at Shou. “I don't know what the hospital can do, but I'm better off looking over him somewhere without fucking cars everywhere.”

Shou only nodded and buckled his hands down harder on his handles.

Now that they were going at Shou's speed, it was like the wind was almost dead. Compared to the nearly skin-ripping speeds that Judai had become used to on Yusei's bike, he felt chafed and stuck. They had to go faster! He needed to look at Lua right now! Where was Asuka? Manjoume? He wanted them around, he needed to be able to talk to them, see what they could know about this. Why had Fujiwara sealed Lua's powers away? Judai was almost positive that he was reacting so badly because he was blocked—his power needed to learn how to flow, needed to learn how to circulate correctly. Without that learning, with just the seal forcing it down, it was like trying to block off blood circulation—it was going to build up and then explode, and it could possibly kill him.

If Lua was going to live, Judai needed to find out a way to remove the seal. But if he did that, Lua's power could easily overwhelm him, or worse, kill anyone weaker that was near him. The hospital seemed like a terrible place for something like that to happen, but they needed to stop somewhere, and maybe Judai could find a way to contain Lua's power, or help him figure out how to release it slowly, something, anything, god, why were they so slow!

“Duel starting. Duel starting. All normal vehicles must exit the lane.”

Yusei swore loudly.

“Fuck, why now?” he shouted. “This was the fastest—”

And then his voice died in his throat because the lane had just opened far too late for them to exit, and they were twisting into the Duel Lane, presumably right in front of the gung-ho idiots that wanted to play a fucking card game at three in the morning. Goddammit!

They had no choice but to keep going. Yusei swore again and Judai could hear Luka sobbing in his headset. Judai glanced back over his shoulder—well, at least Aki and Crow had followed them. Where were the idiots that he was going to probably punch, though? Who had sent the duel request?

Something small shot into the duel lane. For a moment, Judai was pretty sure he was seeing things, but then—was that…someone on rollerblades? In a Duel Lane?

His eyes hadn't deceived him, and the small figure caught up with them much faster than Judai would have thought possible. The boy shot up onto the wall itself, speeding along it to get around Shou. Against the glowing light of the Duel Lane, Judai could see that the boy was barely older than Lua and Luka, his long hair flapping behind him in a braid, metallic accessories glinting along his arm, a strange glowing Duel Disk floating in front of him. As Judai watched, the boy shot up into the air off the side of the wall and twisted. His rollerblades snapped together as he came down, and he landed back onto the lane in front of Shou and Yusei's bikes with a flourish, suddenly on a Duel Board like Lua and Luka's machines.

He spun around to face the other D-Wheelers, teeth flashing in the light. His bright green eyes glittered with a dark sort of excitement.

“Found them!” he said triumphantly, punching the air like a child who had just found the last Easter egg. “Maaannn, but you guys made yourselves tough to find. The only question is which one of you…”

He was looking straight at Luka as he said this, and the girl stared back with horror in her eyes and her mouth hanging open. She wrapped her arms tightly around Lua, who was still nestled with his head on her chest. He was still glowing a deep red, still radiating heat.

The boy's mouth spread into a wide smile.

“Well, that wasn't too hard at all~” he laughed. “Hey, you guys, how about you make this easy? I just need the little dope. Lua, isn't it? I need him.”

Yusei reacted first, ripping his motorcycle in front of Shou and his sidecar. Judai could feel the tremble in Yusei's shoulders, although whether it was fear about how they might be too delayed to help Lua, or anger at the intrusion, he couldn't tell.

“Over my fucking dead body,” he growled.

The boy laughed.

“I was actually kinda hoping one of you dopes would say that! Come on then, fight me, I dare you!”

He laughed as he dropped back so that he was speeding only a few feet ahead of Yusei.

“I'm not as easy as Placido,” he shouted at them over the wind. “But I'm not as stupid, either—my name is Luciano. You deserve to know the name of the person who kicks your ass!”

He laughed, a wild, erratic sound that send shivers down Judai's spine. It was almost the easy carefree sound of a child, but there was yet too much…inhumanness about it. Something about this child was wrong.

“I'll take the first turn!” Luciano said. “I summon Sky Core in attack mode!”

There it was—the Meklord. Judai felt his stomach drop out as he saw the core appear. He didn't want to look at it, didn't want to see what he knew he was going to.

It almost blinded him. The thing shone with the Light of Destruction, so bright that it burned into Judai's eyes and he had to press his head against Yusei's back to make it stop.

“I set two cards face down! Turn end!”

“My turn!” Yusei shouted. “Draw!”

Yusei put his hand on top of his deck, but he didn't draw right away. To distract him from the way the Light of Destruction was making his stomach do flip flops, Judai peeked over Yusei's shoulder to see his hand. It was a good one—he could summon Stardust Dragon this very turn.

“Torrential Tribute,” Yusei muttered. “He'll have Torrential Tribute.”

Judai clenched his jaw.

“You're sure?”

“That's what the twins told me he used last time. When his monster is destroyed by a card effect, it summons all of the Meklord.”

“You need Shooting Star,” Judai said. “And fast.”

Yusei shook his head.

“I can't Synchro. Not like this. Not with—”

And then Judai remembered where he was, and what happened to them when Yusei tried to Synchro around Judai. They couldn't afford to black out now. Judai tightened his grip around Yusei's waist.

“Then—Hourglass. Hourglass Dragon.”

Yusei started softly. Judai could tell he wanted to look back over his shoulder, glance at Judai to confirm, but he didn't.

“I—I don't have Yubel in my deck right now, Judai, I can't…”

“Yes, you do,” Judai said. “Yubel does whatever the fuck she wants—in fact, I think she's already in your deck. Positive, in fact.”

“When did you—”

“I didn't. Yubel does whatever the fuck she wants—didn't I just say that?”

—It's true— Yubel said at the back of Judai's mind, sounding immensely pleased with herself.

Yusei half looked over his shoulder, and Judai could see him smiling weakly.

“Isn't that cheating?”

“Aren't alien robots from outer space that steal Synchro monsters cheating?”

Yusei actually laughed.

“All right—but getting Stardust out isn't going to be easy.”

“Go for it, you can do it. I'm right here.”

Yusei leaned briefly back against Judai.

“I know,” he whispered.

He finally drew his card. He didn't even act surprised to see Yubel there, he only shook his head in near exasperation. He added Yubel to his hand and selected one from his hand.

“I summon Tuningware in attack mode!” he shouted.

“My trap card activates! Torrential Tribute!” Luciano shouted. “All monsters on the field are destroyed!”

Here it comes, Judai thought.

The water smashed into Yusei's tiny monster and destroyed it, taking out the Sky Core in a rush of sparkles as well. The Light of Destruction, only flashed brighter and Judai felt like something inside him was withering. It was a virus, he almost hissed to himself. It was a plague, it wanted to kill him, and he wanted nothing to do with the blinding, horrible light that was determined to blot out the Gentle Darkness.

In the wake of the tsunami, the core burst open and the metal started to reform. The monster formed itself in the air, glowing against the night sky. Unlike the last Meklord Judai had seen, this one was almost a dragon, with the same glowing core in its chest. Yusei made a soft, irritated sound.

“I hate being right,” he muttered.

“When Sky Core is destroyed, I can summon my Meklord Skiel!” Luciano said, giggling. “Now what, Yusei? Your field is wide open!”

“You need to defend yourself,” Judai said.

“I know, I've got it.”

He grabbed another card and dropped it into the graveyard.

“I can special summon Quickdraw Synchron by discarding one monster from my hand! I special summon it in defense mode and end my turn!”

“How boring!” Luciano said. “My turn!”

He didn't even look at the next card he drew, spinning around to face Yusei head on and thrusting his hand forward.

“Go, Skiel! Destroy his stupid monster!”

The blue dragon mech screeched, and the sound ripped through Judai's head. It was the worst thing he had ever heard, the perfect opposite to the melodic tune of a Synchro summon. He moaned, and he felt Yusei shift in response.

Then the monster attacked, and Judai could hear the shatter of Quickdraw Synchron as it was destroyed.

“My turn!” Yusei shouted.

“It might as well be your last!” Luciano said. “There's nothing you can do against Skiel—and I know all about your precious Shooting Star Dragon!”

“That's why I won't be using it,” Yusei muttered. “Hang on, Judai.”

Judai gripped Yusei tighter as Yusei picked up speed.

“I summon Junk Synchron!” Yusei shouted. “When Junk Synchron is summoned, I can special summon a level two or lower monster from my graveyard—come out, Tuningware!”

The tiny monster hopped back onto the field beside Junk Synchron, and then Yusei was already reaching for his hand.

“When I successfully special summon from the graveyard, I can special summon Doppelwarrior from my hand!”

A small soldier with a permanent afterimage joined the other two mechs on the field, cocking its small rifle.

“And when there's a Tuner monster on the field, I can special summon Quillbolt Hedgehog from the Graveyard!”

The hedgehog leaped free, the little bolts on its back glittering in the starlight. Judai tightened his grip, feeling Yusei hesitate.

“To get to Hourglass, I need Stardust,” he said. “Hang on, for one second, okay, Judai?”

“We can manage,” Judai said. “Just point us straight—flip to autopilot for a second if you have to, we should only go under for a second.”

Yusei nodded, swallowed a lump in his throat. He took in a deep breath.

“I tune the level one Tuningware, the level two Quillbolt Hedgehog, and the level two Doppelwarrior with level three Junk Synchron!”

Junk Synchron flashed and became the signature green gates of a Synchro summon. The song immediately exploded into Judai's head. He gasped—did Yusei hear it too? The boy's voice faltered, so he must have, but he kept on.

“Clustering wishes will become a new shining star! Become the path its light shines upon!”

A chant. A summon chant. There were words to go with the tune. Judai knew it instinctively, now. There were words, a summon chant, lyrics to the melody that played when there was a Synchro summon and he was near Yusei. If he figured out what the words were, would he find a new power? Was the song leading them to a good place, or a bad one?

“Synchro Summon! Take flight, Stardust Dragon!”

For the barest moment, Judai's vision whited out. And in the depths of the white, for a moment, he thought he could taste them—the words that went with the song.

And then he was snapping back, gasping for breath. Stardust Dragon soared overhead. Its wings sparkled in the starlight as it raised his head and let out a low, melodic keen.

Luciano laughed, throwing his head back and letting the sound echo over the Duel Lane.

“Don't you learn?” he giggled. “Your Synchro monsters are useless!”

Yusei took a breath.

“Since Tuningware was sent to the graveyard for a Synchro summon, I draw one card!”

He slipped the card free of the top of the deck—Speed Fusion. But they didn't have enough speed counters…Judai's eyes flickered to the last card in Yusei's hand and actually smiled. This was going to work.

“I activate the Speed Spell Overboost! I gain four speed counters!”

Their counters shot up to five—enough for Speed Fusion.

Yusei reached for the Speed Fusion card on his card holder. The wind was getting bad; his fingers were trembling. Was he feeling as shaky after that brief blackout as Judai was?

Judai reached his hand around Yusei's waist and grabbed his hand. He held it for just a second, wishing that he could find Yusei's eyes. Then, while Judai steadied Yusei's hand, Yusei managed to curl his fingers around the card.

“I activate the Speed Spell – Speed Fusion!” Yusei shouted.

For a moment, Luciano's mouth dropped open, and then recognition sparked in his eyes and his face seemed to whiten.

“I fuse Stardust Dragon with Yubel in my hand!” Yusei said.

The song pressed against Judai's mind, but it was muffled, far away, as though only half of it was there. And yet, there were still words. Not quite the right ones, but…

“Starlight and shadows become one!” Judai found himself saying in unison with Yusei. “The night sky condenses into the shape of time! Rise once more, Hourglass Dragon!”

And then Judai was only half there.

The other half of him was up in the sky with the dragon.

. . .

If Yusei couldn't explain the feeling of Hourglass Dragon before, he certainly couldn't now. It was an experience that had no words. While he knew that he was still on the bike, still speeding along after his opponent, still terrified about Lua and Luka and the feeling of running out of time, the rest of him was looking down over the field.

The him on the bike looked up to the him in the sky, and the him on the bike could see that the dragon was almost invisible. Without the light reflecting on it from below, the dragon might have blended into the sky, as though it were a chunk of the night sky itself. Its wings glittered with diamonds like tiny stars in its velvet black scales. It soared lazily through the sky, wings spread huge and wide.

He was ancient, Yusei felt from within the dragon. He was one of the oldest beings in the universe. It had been so long since he had risen from sleep—and twice in as many weeks, to boot. He turned his dragon eyes lazily down at the world below, soaring without flapping his wings. Ahhh…now there was a sight he hadn't seen in sometime. That light was incredibly bright, shining from inside the mechanical creature. A little too bright, if you asked him. Completely obnoxious.

Yusei felt dizzy. Were these…his thoughts? No, they weren't, but they felt like his. And Judai was there too, he could feel him in there, thinking the same dragon-y thoughts as Yusei, feeling just as rattled by the experience as Yusei did.

Well, if that light was any indication, that would be why he had been woken up again. The Channels hadn't had need of him for so long. It was quite nice to see them again, he thought. It got so lonely with only one set of thoughts in his head. Sharing space with the Channels had always been a pleasure—even if the Channels generally got a little mixed up. Well, they were young, they could learn.

Yusei almost felt like throwing up; he couldn't distinguish himself from the dragon or Judai at all. The battle, he had to think about the battle…

Ahhh yes, the creature of Imbalanced Light, right, that would have to be dealt with first. He yawned, making sure the creature could see every single one of his large, sharpened teeth. It probably did not remember the time that he had been around. If it did, it would be cowering right now. But as it was, this appeared to be a rather young Skiel, and it only hissed back at him, spitting out sparks of Light. Well. He'd scare a bit of sense into that creature right quick.

There was a sudden howl, like a cry of complete and utter rage. Yusei snapped fully back to himself, feeling his connection to the dragon pull almost to breaking. That sound was—

“YUSEI!” Judai screamed behind him, and then Judai was suddenly leaping off of the bike, kicking it with inhuman force as he did so, and Yusei's bike swerved just before the darkness struck the ground and exploded.

Yusei's D-Wheel spun out and all he could do was tuck his head in and hang on for dear life. He crashed hard against the side of the Duel Lane and his grip slipped. With a cry, he hit the ground and rolled. His head struck the ground more than once and even with the helmet he knew he was going to have to check for a concussion.

Judai! Where had Judai—

His head spun and rattled as he immediately tried to push himself to his feet, getting to his hands and knees. Aki skidded to a stop just beside him, throwing her helmet off as she leaped to the ground and ran to him.

“Yusei, oh god, what—”

Her hands gripped his shoulders, trying to steady him, but everything was spinning and he felt like he was going to throw up. He could feel Hourglass Dragon twisting overhead, suddenly snapping with irritation and distress. The dragon was upset, but it couldn't do anything for some reason, and—how was it still here without Yusei's D-Wheel still moving?

Yusei gripped at Aki's hands, trying to steady himself.

“J-Judai,” he said. “Where is Judai?”

“He's over there, he's—oh god, he's fighting Fujiwara.”

Yusei's head snapped up and his vision cleared all at once.

Fire bloomed over the Duel Lane—something had crashed and crashed badly, or some kind of magical blast had hit something. Half of the Duel Lane had been blown off just twenty feet away from Yusei and it was on fire, sending a thick column of rippling smoke into the air. In the silhouette of the fire, Yusei could see Judai—Judai with his wings out, with his fangs long and his back arched and feral as he hissed, eyes flashing orange and green in the firelight as he jerked back from a swipe of darkness shot from the palm of Fujiwara. Fujiwara could barely be seen; his silhouette was draped with heavy clouds of shadow that snaked and smoked over his shoulders and down to his feet like oily mist. Even from here, Yusei could see his full black eyes glittering with firelight like it was full of embers, his face contorted with rage and hate.

“I will not let you remove that seal!” Fujiwara shouted.

“He'll fucking die!” Judai screamed back. “Is that what you want? You want your son to die?”

“None of this would have happened if you hadn't tried to fucking fix everything, Yuki Judai!”

Judai responded by swiping at Fujiwara's face with suddenly elongated claws. Fujiwara jolted back and then sent up a wave of shadows, which Judai countered with a wave of his own.

But what about Luciano? Where had he gone? He was nowhere in—

No, there he was—the boy was tangled up in knots of shadow, his eyes wide with almost childlike horror as he attempted to cut himself free. His Meklord had vanished, and his Duel Disk deactivated. He let out a frustrated cry as he threw himself against the shadows to no affect. Was it Fujiwara or Judai that was holding him there? Yusei didn't think Judai gave a shit so it must be Fujiwara, but why?

Why was Fujiwara attacking? Somewhere in the back of Yusei's rattled mind he could hear the others on the headset, hear Shou shouting at Luka to stay put and Luka crying and screaming into her headset for her father to hear her, to please stop fighting Judai, please, dad, please, oh god, please—

Judai was fighting. Judai was fighting alone.

Yusei felt so unstable. All of a sudden, everything was falling apart. Without Judai's tight grip around his waist he felt like he was going to fall over. He had told Judai that he wasn't letting him take his own motorcycle because he wasn't sure how recovered he was yet—that had been only half true. He had—he had just wanted to feel Judai there. He had needed him. Needed to feel that he was right there beside him while he dove into the unknown. And now, everything was falling to pieces and there was nothing Yusei could do.

Judai snarled as he fell back to another wave of Fujiwara's shadows. He crossed his arms in front of himself—there was something guarded, held back in his fighting, Yusei realized. Was he—he wasn't still shaken from the Synchro, was he? Something was wrong, Judai needed someone to help him—

“Yusei! Yusei!”

Aki shook his shoulder, and then in a fit of exasperation she gripped his helmet and ripped it off his head so that she could shout into his ear, and Yusei realized that she must have been shouting at him for a few seconds now. He suddenly noticed that there were tears rolling down his cheeks, and he couldn't get them to stop.

Aki ripped Yusei to face her, and her hot, fiery eyes crackled with even more heat than the fire.

“What are you doing?? Judai needs you!”

Yusei felt his voice choking up in his throat.

“I—what can I do,” he whispered, voice cracking. “I—I don't have powers like him, like you, I can only—all I can do is fucking play card games, Aki, there's nothing I can do—”

She grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up. He startled as he realized that she was kissing his cheek. Hard and firm, her tears suddenly splashing against his cheek. Then she released him, and stared at him with tears bubbling in her eyes.

“Shut the fuck up,” she whispered. “You have more power than all of us—you're the lead Signer for a reason, Yusei, so start acting like it.”

She lifted him up to his feet by his collar and shoved him forward.

“Go,” she whispered. “Go! Go, goddammit, go! I'll protect the twins and Shou and Crow and whatever just go get your goddamn boyfriend before he gets himself killed!”

Yusei felt something catch in his chest. He spared one more look at Aki. He hoped that that look held everything that he wanted to tell her. Thank you. You're so much stronger than before—you've grown so much—I'm so proud of you, so glad to know you, so glad that you came into my life and became my friend. I—thank you. For everything.

And then he knew that she was right.

He turned himself towards Judai and bolted across the road.

He had to get to Judai.

Even if he couldn't do anything…

He had to get to Judai. 

Chapter Text

Jack dove behind a crumbling wall—his shoulder struck the edge and his entire body rattled, leaving him breathlessly sprawled across the ground for a moment. Overhead, black light roared through the wall and sent a spray of concrete over him. He coughed through the dust and shoved himself back up by the palms of his hands, staggering back against the wall to brace himself.

“What's wrong, Jack? You don't want to play this game?”

His heart screamed against the base of his throat and he couldn't breathe past it. His vision was blurring to a tunnel along the edges. Was he going to black out? No, no, no, he couldn't, not now, he had to…

He had to what?

On the other side of this wall, Carly stood atop a crumbling building. He could see her in the back of his mind, the black cloak rippling like a stain of watery oil around her, the edges gleaming with a venomous orange. He could see her eyes…the glowing blue in a pool of black. Alien, ancient, cruel and cold—not his Carly. Not the same…Carly.

He coughed through the dust coating his throat before he chanced a peek around the wall.

There she was, just as he had imagined it, standing tall in her knee high boots and rippling cloak, the hood pushed back from her face so that her hair could trickle over her shoulders and lift slight around her in a cloud of static strands, as though a storm were on the rise.

Jack swallowed—his voice. He needed his voice.

“Carly…”

It only came out as a whisper, he couldn't make it much more. But the sound echoed anyway in this place between thought and dream, echoed and spun around him as though he had shouted it.

Carly's face curled, her brow furrowing as though she were some feral animal.

“What?” she hissed between her teeth. “You want to say my name now? After all the time that you've ignored me? Stayed away? Made me think that I wasn't GOOD ENOUGH?”

She snapped her fingers above her head and Fortune Lady Dark rose up behind her. Staff raised and crackled with black lightning. Jack flung himself out from behind the wall just before the blast hit in an explosion of dust and concrete slabs. Debris rained over him and he flung his hands over him before it could strike the back of his head, pieces striking off his back and leaving bruises behind.

“You've chased me away for months—months!”

Jack barely had time to roll before Fortune Lady Earth shot for him. Her staff stabbed into the ground where Jack had been mere seconds before. Acting more on adrenaline than anything else, he swept his leg towards hers and the Fortune Lady jumped back into the air, retreating. It was enough time for him to shove his legs underneath him and get the ground beneath his feet again, his whole body swaying as though his spine were about to snap. He felt a pit growing in his stomach, an emptiness eating away at him from the base of his torso and up through his throat, stealing his words away.

He could see her at the back of his mind again—not the woman in black robes before him, but the woman sitting across the table from him in the cafe, a cheap coffee in front of her, flapping her hands as she explained her latest article. He saw himself, saying nothing, drowning his words in another long sip of coffee to excuse why he wasn't contributing to the conversation.

“Carly,” he managed to say again, the name rolling off his tongue like molasses, thick and hard to get out. “Carly…please…”

The rage in her eyes felt like a hand squeezing around his throat.

“Please? Please? Please what? After all this time, you want me to listen, is that it? After not listening—after not caring?”

She thrust her palm in front of her, and Water and Wind appeared with their staffs crossed. A swear echoed across Jack's mind. He ducked his head and barreled forward, ducking underneath the typhoon and ducking into another ruined building for cover. He couldn't breathe, he was going to choke—

“Do you know what I've been thinking this whole time? Do you realize how I've felt? Weeks, missing from my memory, and no one will tell me why! Everyone avoids the fucking question! Even you—especially you, the one that should know, the one that should have told me what happened! DO you know—how—lost I've felt…”

Her words choked in between sentences. Jack's heart seized up—was she…crying?

He chanced a peek through a broken window.

She still stood, as tall and proud as before on top of the building. But…no, wait…

Her hands curled into fists at her sides, shaking even as she tried to press them into her legs to make them stop. Her shoulders, drawn up against her ears as her head ducked half down, trembled as though she were a blade of grass in the wind. The tilt of her bangs over her face could not hide the silver trails of tears that smeared her face, turned dusty concrete from the explosions into black lines that ran down her cheeks.

He felt his throat close up. His words dried away, fingers curled into the dust. Crying. She was crying—she was doing…doing the one thing that he had hoped he would never have to see. Crying because she remembered, remembered what had happened, and it hurt her, it hurt her as much as he had thought it would. This—this was why he had stayed away, so that she wouldn't do this, god, what else should he have done, how could he have…how could he have stopped her from remembering this—

“Why didn't you tell me?” Carly said again, her throat burbling with tears. “Goddammit Jack…why didn't you…tell me…what happened…did you—did you not want—to remember what I—said to you?”

It was like someone had just taken a pickax to the rock wall in his brain. His thoughts crumbled, his breath caught, his eyes widened, a ray of light seemed to pierce through into his brain.

…oh.

For a moment, the world around him seemed to warp—for a moment, he was not hiding in the broken down building of the mindscape. For a moment, he instead knelt on the ground, the weight of her body in his arms as his knees dug into sharp rock. Her voice was a whisper—only a memory, a thread of a breath. I love you, Jack.

“Did you not—want to remember—that…?”

Her choking voice snapped the world back to its current reality. Jack blinked once and found that there were tears blurring his vision.

I've been so fucking stupid.

And then,

Fucking hell, Crow was right—I'm never going to hear the end of this.

He pushed himself up against the back of the wall, pressing himself into it for support. He knew what he had to do now. It was the only option—the only option there had ever been, if he hadn't been too stupid to realize it.

“You should be able to summon your ka monster when you’re inside,” Johan had told him. Jack didn’t know what the fuck a ka monster was, but if Carly was summoning Fortune Ladies, he had an idea of what he could do.

Water punched a hole in the wall beside Jack's head. That was his cue to move. He shot out through the other door, hit the ground with a roll, and came up on his feet.

His arm burned with red light against the cold scenery, a heat that pulsed over his body. He didn’t even have to call its name or speak the summon chant that he was so accustomed to—his dragon appeared in a spray of red sparks and a roar.

Red Archfiend’s wings unfurled over him, a crackling heat sparking from its scales and scattering embers across the cold stone ground.

“Oh, so now you want to fight!” Carly shouted. “Now you’ll fight back!”

Jack could feel Archfiend’s heart pulsing as though it was his own. He had felt it like this the first time he had summoned the card—the first time he had finally gotten the courage to summon the mystical beast that he had stumbled across almost by accident in Satellite’s garbage. At that moment, he had known that it wasn’t an accident. This dragon was his very soul. And it was now that he knew that was completely true.

But for the first time, he and Archfiend weren’t synching hearts to crush their enemies. Red Archfiend rose its head up to the sky, towards the hovering Fortune Ladies, but it didn’t open its maw, didn’t release the fire inside it.

It only let out a low, keening hum. It was a sound that Jack could only describe as the sound of his own heart in that moment.

Jack ducked down and charged towards Carly’s building. Her eyes flashed and drew up to her full height. Gloved hands pushed in front of her and three Fortune Ladies all rose up at once. Jack ducked his head and didn't hesitate. He surged forward. Overhead, Archfiend lowered its head and soared tightly to the ground, wings shielding Jack mostly from harm as the Fortune Ladies descended.

One or two managed to swoop under Archfiend’s protective wings and attack. Jack dove out of the way of each strike—explosions rang out on all sides of him. At least twice a blast came centimeters from his face, slicing small cuts into his cheeks.

She's not trying to hit me, he realized with a start. She keeps missing—on purpose, or does she realize she's doing it?

“Fight back!” she screamed at him. “Dammit, Jack, fight back, why won't you fight back?”

Carly was still there. His Carly, the smiling, happy Carly that could never hurt anyone, was still here. He could still reach her.

He made it to the base of the half building and punched through the door with one shoulder, Archfiend landing heavily and stretching over the building to prevent the Fortune Ladies from following. He didn't stop to look. Stairs—right ahead. His heel caught on the edge of one step and he slipped backward. With a mighty effort, he lunged himself forward and wrapped his hand around the last remaining part of the railing to heave himself up. His momentum regained, he twisted up and around the stairs. The whole building shook with more explosions—he wasn't sure what she was attacking, but he kept almost losing his footing with each shake.

A cracked door loomed at the top of the steps, light slicing through the crack. With a strangled grunt, he set his shoulder and crashed through it.

Light poured over him as he stumbled back outside.

She stood at the edge, a black silhouette against a gray sky—at the sound of the door slamming open, she whirled around in a swirl of black silk, eyes wide and flinging silver tears from their edges.

Her foot caught on the edge. Her eyes bulged, arms flung out, cloak fluttered as her body slowly tilted towards the open air. For a moment, the whole world stood still as his heart dropped down into his stomach and he realized that she was going to fall.

He lunged forward. In slow motion, his hand wrapped around her flailing wrist. Red Archfiend’s head snaked upwards as it clung to the side of the building, its nose pressing up against Carly’s back and nudging her forward. And then the world snapped back to regular speed as he yanked, dragging her away from the edge. She tumbled into his arms, her head falling against his shoulder, body crumpling against him as though all of the tension had suddenly rushed out of it. His arms tightened around her almost automatically, face pressing against the top of her head and imprinting the scent of her hair into the back of his mind.

Neither of them moved for a moment. Nothing made a sound, except for their breathing.

“I'm sorry.”

His voice cracked, and this time, the whisper did not echo across the landscape. It remained only a whisper. He felt her shudder, and tightened his grip, as though she might disappear. Might turn to dust in his arms again.

“I'm so…so sorry,” he said again. “I left you.”

“Stop,” Carly whispered, her voice cracking.

“I heard from Judai—you saved my life that night, when the shadows got me. Again. You've saved me more times than I can count anymore.”

“Jack…” her voice cracked.

“I thought I didn't tell you about what happened because I was afraid,” he said, because he couldn't stop anymore, he had to talk, he had to keep talking until it was all out. “And I was—but not—not for the reason I thought. I thought I was afraid of you remembering, of it hurting you.”

“Jack, please, don't,” she cried, but she pushed her face into his chest and curled up tighter against him.

“But I wasn't—afraid of that. I was afraid…afraid of my—of my feelings, and I didn't know…what I would do…when you didn't remember what happened, I was afraid, too afraid to tell you. Without those memories, would you…feel the same way…anymore…?”

Her tears stained against his shirt.

“You keep saving me, Carly,” he whispered, dragging his fingers through her hair. “Let me save you this time. If—if it takes killing me, then do it. Please, Carly. Please.”

He could feel her hands, warm through his jacket, pressed against his chest. Her tears, cold on his shoulders even through the fabric as though all sensations were heightened in this strange place between dream and reality.

“I—I’m scared,” Carly said.

“I know.”

“I saw something, Jack. Before I went under. I saw something and it scared me. I’m too scared to wake up.”

He increased his grip on her, trying to imprint her warmth against his arms, the feeling of his embrace molded around her frame.

“I’ve been so scared,” she mumbled. “I wake up—no memories, no nothing—and suddenly I’m seeing things, things that I shouldn’t, things that I understand when I shouldn’t, but there’s—no one—to tell—”

“You can tell me,” Jack said. “I’ll listen this time—I promise. I’ll listen forever. I won’t…I won’t stop listening ever again.”

He felt his own voice crack, felt his throat close up halfway through his words, but he forced them out anyway. Words he should have said a million years ago.

Carly swallowed as she pressed her face against his neck.

“I…I just want to listen to you first,” she mumbled. “Can you…Jack…can you please…wake me up…

He knew what she wanted him to say. He knew what he was supposed to say—what he wanted to say. And all of a sudden, the need, the desire to say it out loud felt like a roiling heat at the base of his stomach, a fire that flared through him with so much passion that he couldn’t remember feeling so on fire before. He could feel Archfiend’s heart pick up, feel the hot breath from its nose rush over the pair of them as it looked at them over the side of the building. His soul felt like it was burning, and it felt like—like something was falling into place, something that he should have had a long time ago was filling in a hole that he hadn’t realized was there. Like he was waking up.

This world was a prison that Carly had created for herself, a hiding place made of cold and ice and chill.

He needed to burn it away.

“Carly,” he said. “I love you.”

The tiny sound of her breath unfurling was perhaps the most beautiful sound in the world.

And then the world turned red and warm all at once like a fire eating away at reality, and everything, everything except for the feeling of her in his arms, disappeared.

The last thing he heard was the sound of Red Archfiend, letting out one last, distant hum.

The beginnings of a completed song…

. . .

The fire crackled and snapped over Judai’s head. Already his scales had spread down his arms, insulating him against the heat, so he barely even noticed the roaring blaze from Fujiwara’s wild attack.

He’s more unstable than last time, he thought, ducking under a swipe of clawed shadows. It’s like he’s actually coming apart.

Every so often as they traded blows, Fujiwara’s face seemed to fuzz out of focus. The shadows were leaking out of his skin as though he were a balloon losing air. He wasn’t meant to be a vessel for whatever he was holding, and it was starting to break him into pieces.

But Fujiwara’s personal safety wasn’t exactly Judai’s first priority. He hit the ground and rolled under another wave of shadows, streaking to his feet and trying to come up with a deadly slash of his claws. Fujiwara hollowed out his stomach just in time, pulling back from the strike. Judai tried to fling himself forward again—no, wait, where was Fujiwara, what had happened to his vision, why was he looking at everything from above—

Judai snapped back to himself and only barely ripped his head out of the way of Fujiwara’s shadow lance, the tip slashing past his cheek and leaving a thin line of blood behind. He stumbled forward. Fujiwara moved to strike and Judai simply shoved his weight forward the last few steps, letting his body hit the ground and rolling to the side to get distance again.

As he rose to his feet, he felt his vision flicker again, change to a different view, as though he were switching the camera settings on a video game. What was—

He sucked in a breath as his chest lurched, and he remembered.

Hourglass Dragon. It’s still here. Part of my consciousness is still up with it.

How was that possible? Yusei’s D-Wheel had crashed; the Solid Vision hologram shouldn’t be able to stay solid without the Momentum running! Judai staggered to a straightened position, rubbing his mouth with the back of his hand to clean the blood from his split lip.

Fujiwara’s shoulders arched like some feral animal. He actually hissed at Judai, his full black eyes glittering with the embers from the fire at his side.

It was at that moment that Judai’s blood ran cold and he realized something very, very wrong.

He was on the wrong side of Fujiwara now.

He could see Lua and Luka over Fujiwara’s shoulder. Lua was still unconscious, cradled against Luka’s chest while Shou leaned down to check his temperature, hand pressed to his forehead. Aki stood beside them with her duel disk out, eyes reflected the flames and hair fluttered from the fiery wind.

Fujiwara seemed to realize that as well, his eyes flicking over his shoulder. Judai saw his weight shift, as though he were about to lunge backwards towards his children.

“Fujiwara, stop!” Judai said. “You put a seal back on his powers, and he’ll implode! You have to let me remove it!”

“If it’s removed, he’s in more danger,” Fujiwara hissed. “Don’t act like you know what’s best for my children, Judai!”

Rage ballooned in Judai’s chest, heating up his cheeks even against the heat from the flames.

“Don’t act like being a parent means you know everything!” he snarled. “Dammit, sit down and listen to yourself for two minutes!”

Fujiwara, apparently, had no plans of doing anything of the sort. In a rush of shadows, he flipped around and bolted towards Lua and Luka. Aki’s eyes flashed and she raised her Duel Disk in preparation for his attack, Judai lunged forward, his wings pushing him out—

A different shadow barreled into Fujiwara, knocking him off course. Judai felt his heart jump into his throat as both figures rolled across the ground, dangerously close to the flaming edge of the Duel Lane. Fujiwara shrieked with rage, his hands clawing for whatever had struck him—Judai already knew who it was and his heart might just stop—

Fujiwara slammed Yusei down into the ground, his back almost right in the flames. Yusei’s eyes bulged but not a sound escaped him. He kicked out sharply with one leg to get Fujiwara to release him, and then snapped up to his feet and out of the flames. It was enough for Judai to get himself across the space, slashing for Fujiwara while he was still down. Fujiwara was faster, though, rolling himself into the flames and away from Judai’s attack. The fire seemed to have no effect on him—the shadows were like a cloak, pulling the fire away from Fujiwara’s skin and leaving him completely untouched. He hissed as he backed away into the flames, using them as a shield to prevent Judai and Yusei from coming too close to him.

Judai took the brief moment of reprieve to bolt for Yusei and grab him under the elbow, lifting him to his feet. The entire back of his jacket was scorched but the tough material of the riding jacket had held firm—his skin was probably just a little red underneath. Yusei coughed into his hand, and Judai’s brain immediately went into a blur of panic, imagining damage from fire or smoke inhalation or something else making Yusei suddenly stagger and fall.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Yusei said, coughing again into the back of his glove.

“You could have gotten yourself killed,” Judai said, his panic becoming a snap in his voice. “What are you doing??”

“Helping you,” Yusei said.

Judai opened his mouth to argue—Yusei wasn’t magically enhanced the way Judai was, he had the Crimson Dragon but he was basically human, he wasn’t made for a fight like this—

Yusei’s eyes, however, found and held his. They were like pools of still water, boring into Judai’s and stopping his protests in his throat. Yusei gripped Judai under the arm briefly.

“I’m not leaving you,” he said.

Judai swallowed thickly, his throat suddenly dry. He couldn’t get his heart to slow down and he didn’t know why. He shook his head, a sigh escaping him in spite of himself.

“I can’t stop you, can I?” he said.

Yusei actually smirked a little at him. Judai found a smile fluttering to his own lips as well. In spite of everything—Yusei was here. He was right here, right beside him. For a moment, Judai felt his mind go quiet—for a moment he thought everything is going to be okay.

And then suddenly, Yusei’s eyes bulged. His grip released abruptly from Judai’s arm and both hands jumped to his throat. Judai felt his heart stop for a moment.

The shadows—they were curled around Yusei’s throat. Yusei gasped for air, his legs kicking out slightly as he was lifted inches into the air. Judai grabbed for his arms, tried to pull him back down wildly for a moment—he stopped when Yusei cried out and realized he was only making it worse. He whipped around—Fujiwara still stood in the flames, hands outstretched and shadows dripping from his fingers, spreading out like living oil to ensnare Yusei.

“Let him go, Fujiwara!” Judai screamed. “Let him go!”

Fujiwara actually bared his teeth at Judai in a snarl.

“This can all end right here,” he said. “If he dies, this all ends, Judai—we can make this loop end.”

Judai’s own shadows roiled up from the base of his feet and flared into the flames. They became lances, punching through Fujiwara. His face whitened, he gasped with each wild stab, but even as Judai stabbed him with the shadows over and over again, his heart growing wild and a scream curling in his throat, Fujiwara didn’t move, barely flinched, didn’t even bleed, as though Judai were stabbing a man made out of straw rather than one of flesh and blood.

Judai could hear Yusei’s choking breaths at his side, but he couldn’t loosen the grip of Fujiwara’s shadows—he couldn’t get his shadows to overpower Fujiwara’s, he couldn’t release Yusei. Panic froze all of Judai’s limbs as he whipped around to Yusei, trying to grab at the shadows around his neck as though he could bodily pull them off. Yusei’s face was already white, his struggles slowing. Judai gripped his face, tried to get him to look at him.

“Yusei! Yusei, no, stay with me, stay with me!”

Yusei gripped Judai’s hands against his face—his mouth was moving, but in Judai’s panic he couldn’t read his lips, and no sound was coming out of his throat.

A shadow curled off of Yusei’s neck and into the air, silhouetting against the flames as it became a point aimed directly for the side of Yusei’s head. A tangled scream forced out of Judai’s throat—no, no, Yusei couldn’t—not in front of him—

Yusei’s eyes squeezed shut, his grip tightened on Judai’s hands. The spiked tentacle of shadow shot for his head, ready to pierce through—

And then overhead, Judai heard Hourglass Dragon. Felt it thrumming in his chest, felt the part of him that was the dragon humming. It vibrated, filled the space, whited out Judai’s vision. He felt Yusei suddenly grow cool under his hands, something like a breath of fresh air tickling his face and blowing away the choking heat of the flames.

Something clicked.

He was in the dragon for a moment again, feeling his wings beat with ferocity, wind blowing back the creeping flames.

The Dragon’s thoughts overlaid his, mixing him up—were these the Dragon’s thoughts or his? This was a preposterous situation, really. A mess like this must mean the Origins were getting desperate, as usual. Honestly. They didn’t know the first thing about humans. These little dragonets were far too young for this sort of exertion. It was no good to force things like this. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time he had to clean up their messes. The Shadow Channel seemed competent enough for his age—the Light Channel, though, was having a spot of trouble. Well. Perhaps he could give him a little nudge.

Judai, wasn’t it? That was the name of the one sharing his thoughts right now. Well, if Judai was listening, perhaps he should know a few things—he, the dragon, that is, was the First and Final Herald. And he was going to need both of them very much alive and well if anything was going to work this time, so he rather hoped that Judai and Yusei would take care of each other. That should be all. Good luck.

And then Judai’s eyes flew open again, his throat choking as he gasped for breath.

Yusei was holding him, his arms around Judai’s shoulders—when had Judai collapsed? When had he fallen to the ground—Yusei. Was Yusei okay?

He pawed blindly up for Yusei’s face—the blinding light of the flames was too much—

Or was that…

No, that wasn’t the flames…the orange glow was softer, somehow. Instead, it was a white glow that was catching his attention. Soft, gentle, cool, like the briskness of an early winter breeze. Yusei’s hand pressed to his face, was Yusei talking to him? Was he shouting? Why couldn’t Judai hear him?

He blinked the blur out of his eyes—Yusei cradled him, his lips moving, eyes wide with fright.

I’m the one that should be worried about you, Judai wanted to say. But thank god you’re…all right.

Judai’s ears popped and the sound all rushed back to him.

“Judai! Judai!” Yusei was saying, over and over. “Judai, please!”

Judai coughed once.

“What—happened?” he finally managed. “You—are you all right?”

“I’m fine, but you passed out after we connected to Hourglass and—”

Judai squinted—was he…imagining things?

“Yusei…you’re glowing,” he said.

Yusei paused, his eyes flickering down to his own hands. Could he not see it? There was a strange, pearly white glow that clung to Yusei’s frame, like an aura, or a haze. He looked almost…angelic. A coolness radiated off of him as though he were the incarnation of a cool breeze. Judai couldn’t even feel the oppressive heat of the fire anymore.

“Yeah, that’s—new,” Yusei said. “But Judai, I need you to try to get up, I don’t know how long I can hold this—”

Judai blinked the last of his confusion out of his head, and tried to sit up.

Shadows swirled around them, dangerous and slinking. Every few seconds one would rise up like a snake and lunge at them—but it would strike against nothing, sending a white ripple across some kind of invisible dome.

“The shadows can’t get close to you,” Judai said, eyes widening. “Whatever that aura of yours is, it’s—amazing.”

“It’s definitely pretty cool, but I don’t think I can produce it for much longer,” Yusei said, his teeth grit. “And Hourglass is gone.”

Judai had somehow already known that, an aching hole in his mind where the Dragon’s thoughts should be but weren’t. His mind burst with more questions than he felt he had started with. Channels? The First and Final Herald? And Yusei’s new power, which felt an awful like—like something in between the Gentle Darkness and the Light of Destruction? But the light was…the light was destruction. That was the one thing Judai had thought he had known for sure. But Yusei’s light—the light that was swirling around him even now—it was like Judai’s shadows, gentle, calm, reassuring, without the hate and blinding rage of the Light of Destruction.

But wait, no, Yusei was right, that aura of his was starting to fade and it wouldn’t be long before Fujiwara’s shadows came for them. Judai gripped Yusei’s shoulders and let Yusei help him up.

“What now?” Yusei called over the crackle of flames.

“While we have this cover, we fall back to the others,” Judai said. “I can see what I can do for Lua while we have a breather, and then we can try to get the hell out of here!”

Yusei nodded. He tried to support Judai, but he was already bouncing back. The pair of them bolted across the Duel Lane to where Shou and Aki crouched around the twins. Shou looked up at their approach, his white face outlined in the orange of the fire.

“Where’s Crow?” Yusei said.

“He went to get your D-Wheel where it crashed,” Aki called back.

Judai skidded down beside Lua—the boy was glowing so brightly that it was hard to see his features anymore, he looked like a red silhouette rather than a person. Judai could feel the waves of heat rolling off of his body—he was shocked that Luka was able to still be holding him, but the faint shimmer of whatever magical membrane surrounding her seemed to be insulating her from the heat.

“This is bad,” Judai said. “The seal on his powers is frayed and it’s bleeding into his soul.”

“I don’t understand that but it sounds bad,” Shou said.

“Imagine someone getting shot through a bulletproof vest and some of that Kevlar getting melted into your skin because of it, only with more potential for spontaneous human combustion afterward,” Judai said. “So yeah—bad.”

He pressed his hand to Lua’s forehead and immediately flinched back, swearing. His palm looked back up at him, red, almost scorched as though he had just put his palm onto a hot stove top. The burn began to fade immediately due to Yubel’s influence, and Judai returned his gaze to Lua.

“Okay, okay, I’m gonna have to remove the seal completely,” Judai said. “It’ll be like opening a floodgate so his power is going to spike for a moment afterward—and I’m gonna need time to ease the frayed bits out of him.”

“What do you need from us?” Yusei said.

“Time,” Judai said, spreading his hands out over Lua to try and find the edges of the seal in his soul. “I hate to ask this of you guys, but I need time. I need you to distract Fujiwara—and Yusei, if you could learn to make that white light thing last a little longer, that would be great.”

“I’ll do my best,” Yusei said.

“Leave it to us,” Aki said, her eyes narrowing as she rose, stance tightening.

Yusei lingered by Judai for just a second longer. His hand gripped Judai’s shoulder for a second—the pressure of his hand felt nice, and Judai wished that he would stay right there. Then his hand was gone and he could hear the other three’s boots on the ground as they moved to intercept Fujiwara.

Judai swallowed, turning his attention to Lua. Luka looked up at him with sunken eyes, her expression almost dead.

“He’s going to be okay, right?” she mumbled.

I have no idea, Judai thought.

“Yes,” is what he said out loud. “Help me hold him steady, okay? I can’t touch him as easily as you can.”

Luka only nodded, and looked back down at Lua’s sweating face, his heaving chest.

There was the seal. Okay, now it was just a matter of easing it free, like untangling threads out of a woven cloth. Carefully…carefully…

“When I get this out of him, his powers are going to spike like crazy,” Judai warned Luka, without looking up. “They’ll stabilize after that, but the first wave might actually hurt you—I don’t know if that veil of yours will even hold.”

“It’s fine,” Luka said, tightening her grip on Lua as though he were going to ask her to leave. “I can handle it. Just—save him. Please.”

Judai nodded, and returned his full attention to the work of pulling out the seal. It was ridiculously complex—Judai had never seen such attention to detail. Where had Fujiwara learned to do this? The same questions nagged at him. Why seal Lua’s powers at all, and leave Luka alone? What was the difference between the two of them?

Lua’s eyes suddenly flared open—bright red and sightless, glowing orbs that shone out into the dark like fire. His back arched, his hands curling into the ground with his mouth open in a silent scream.

“What’s happening? What’s going on?” Luka cried out, trying to hold onto her brother’s shoulders.

“I don’t know, I don’t know!”

Judai felt his panic cresting in his chest. He didn’t think he had done anything—had he messed up pulling the seal out? Gods, gods, gods, Lua please—

Behind him, he heard Fujiwara shrieking. He wanted to turn around, wanted to make sure that everyone was okay, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of his work or Lua could die.

“Not enough,” Lua mumbled. “Not enough—need—everyone—it’s not—Judai, it’s not—balanced—”

Cold clutched at Judai’s chest. Balanced? Was Lua talking about—

The Rebalancing? That thing that Yliaster was trying to do? What needed to be balanced?

“L-Lua listen, you need to relax, you need to let me help you, and then you can tell me what’s going on,” Judai said. “You need to relax, please don’t try to talk.”

Lua shook his head wildly, so wildly that he almost fell out of Luka’s faltering grip.

“We need everyone,” he insisted again. “Six plus one—it’s the only way—”

Six—six what? Lua seemed to know something, something Judai desperately wanted to know himself, but now wasn’t the time to press him!

“Lua, I just need you to—”

He pulled another few strings of the seal loose, almost done and—

The seal shattered.

Judai almost screamed, throwing his hands in front of his face as a rush of heat and blinding red washed over him. He heard Luka scream, tried to reach blindly for her against the rush, but he couldn’t push past its force. This was Lua’s power?? Judai didn’t know if he could contain it—Lua might die at this rate! Was this why Fujiwara had sealed him??

The fiery rage drew back, condensed into a pillar that swirled around Lua and up into the sky.

Even in the midst of the roar of power, Judai could hear Lua whisper one tiny sentence.

“I need to wake up.”

. . .

Johan jolted awake, blinking rapidly—when had he fallen asleep? How long had Jack been under? He glanced over the pair of them, a strange sense of uneasiness lingering over his mind. It had been a long time that Jack had been lying there, his body slumped over the side of Carly’s bed. How long did it take for him to find someone he loved in the mindscape? Unless she hadn’t wanted to be found…

Heat suddenly burst over Johan’s face, and he swore, blinking to prevent his eyes from drying out. What was happening to Jack? He was—glowing. A red aura was rippling over his body as though he were under red water. His arm was the brightest light, and something was—something was appearing in his hand?

Carly’s heart rate monitor suddenly flared with activity. Johan leapt to his feet—what was wrong—what was going on in there??

And then both of their eyes flew open. Carly gasped for breath, her hands fluttering at her sides, still too weak to completely lift from the bed. Jack sat bolt upright, his eyes wide and face flushed. For a moment, both of their heads kind of flopped to look at each other.

Then Jack’s eyes flashed down to the thing that had appeared in his hand—a card? Jack jumped out of his seat, leaned over, and kissed Carly hard on the lips. She managed to lift her hands enough to press them against his chest for a moment, and then he was breaking away.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t go right now but I—Lua needs me,” he said.

Carly just smiled at him.

“I know,” she said hoarsely. “Go, please—I’ll wait.”

Jack leaned down and kissed her again, shorter this time. Then he lurched back from the bed, almost tripping over his chair and knocking into the floor. Johan could hear footsteps in the hall outside and assumed it was probably a nurse coming to tell them that they needed to keep it down.

“I promise I’ll be back,” Jack said, his eyes wide and expression wild.

Johan’s mouth opened—what on earth had happened in there? The door opened and a nurse started to peer in.

And then a brief rush of red fire enclosed Jack’s frame, and blipped out.

By the time Johan's eyes had cleared from the scar of light against his eyes, Jack had completely vanished.

. . .

Judai couldn't hold it—he couldn't hold Lua's power back anymore.

It was like lava, bubbling up under his fingers as he tried to hold it back from ripping through the entire Duel Lane. Gods, how much power did he have trapped inside his tiny body?? Would it have been this bad if he hadn't had the seal to cause it all to build up?

Luka was shouting, maybe screaming, but Judai couldn't hear through the pounding of his ears. That seal had been the only thing stopped Lua from pouring out every bit of power he had, and if Judai didn't help him control it now, he was going to die. But he couldn't—he couldn't handle the heat—

A hand landed hard on his shoulder, ripped him back so that he tumbled to the ground. His heart clogged his throat—Fujiwara, it was Fujiwara, he had gotten past the others and now he was—

But the coat of the man that snapped past him and dropped to his knees in front of Lua wasn't black—it was white.

“Jack?” Judai choked out. “What the hell—how did you—”

Jack pressed his hands against Lua's chest, seemingly completely unaware of the heat billowing out of Lua's frame.

“Jack, what are you doing?! You're going to—”

“Be killed” was what Judai was going to say, but his words died in his throat as he realized—Jack wasn't burning up like he should be. He didn't even flinch the way that Judai had against Lua's power. Something about him was—different. More radiant. He had changed in some fundamental, powerful way, and whatever that way was, he was…pressing Lua's power back.

“Lua, I'm here,” Jack said hoarsely. “Listen to me—you can hold this. I'm going to show you how. I know how to hold the fire. You just have to work with me.”

He put one of his hands on Luka's shoulders, and pushed her back, dragging Lua into his arms.

“Judai, take care of Luka, she couldn't stop herself from getting burned a little,” Jack said.

Judai hurried to pull himself across the ground to the shaking Luka—her hands looked badly burned, and there were red marks all down her arms, but he could heal that, no problem. He took Luka's hands in his and started to ease his shadows down his arms, wrapping her hands with them, soaking away the heat and burn. He glanced at Jack.

Jack held Lua in his arms, cradling him like he was a child. He was…he was filtering Lua's powers. It was like he was pulling the fire through himself, lessening their heat. Where did he learn to do that? And what was that card that he was holding in his free hand, the white Synchro card with the art he couldn't see?

Lua seemed to stir a bit, his eyes fluttering. He reached up blindly for Jack's hand, touching the one that held the card.

“What's…that?” he said, his voice sounding normal for the first time in hours.

Jack's tiny smile was more gentleness and kindness than Judai had ever seen on him since they had met.

“My new dragon,” he said. “I just met him. See? Red Nova. He's the one helping me calm your powers down. We learned a new ability together.”

“That's…r-really…cool…” Lua mumbled.

Judai could feel Luka's hands trembling in his.

“Jack…what exactly are you doing?” he whispered.

Jack let his gaze flicker up to Judai.

“I'm—not exactly sure,” he said, in an undertone as though that would stop Lua from hearing. “Red Nova is—talking in my head. He calls it Burning Soul. He says we're—we're aligning Lua's soul with ours, and taking out the excess power surge so that he doesn't—flat line.”

That was—far more complicated of a technique than Jack should conceivably be able to use at this moment, but he was definitely doing it. Judai head spun, but now was not the time for questions. Now was the time to just count his blessings that Jack appeared to be saving Lua's life.

He was definitely stabilizing, the heat and the glow was starting to fade, come under control. His breaths were slowing down from his original heavy gasps for air. It was working—gods—it was working.

Judai had finished healing Luka's hands minutes ago but she was shaking so badly that he was loathe to let go. With Lua currently taken care of, he had a moment now to spare for a glance at the others and how they were doing against Fujiwara.

The first thing he saw was Aki—her hair was freed from her pin, fluttering around her face as though it were fire itself. He could see her eyes sparkling from the blaze, the flames only larger since he had last seen them. Behind her, the rustling wings of Black Rose Dragon rose up, black head tilted towards the sky as she shrieked a battle cry. Crow appeared to be down, but not badly injured, clutching at his side as Aki backed up to cover him.

That left only—

Judai's eyes flickered towards the silhouette of Yusei.

He was glowing again.

Even against the rage of the flames, Yusei's white glow was radiant. He looked like he didn't even belong to this world, his sparkle matched only by the wings of Stardust as the dragon loomed protectively over him. Judai couldn't take his eyes off of him for a moment. He was…brilliant, Judai thought. Not even just because of the glow, but because of…

The way he stood, shoulders back, his back held straight and strong—even from behind, Judai could see the determination in his stance, the power in his arm that held the Duel Disk aloft. Every movement he made, every card he placed on the Duel Disk was…mesmerizing.

So mesmerizing that Judai almost didn't notice when Fujiwara came raging out of the flames straight towards him.

“Get away from my son!” he screamed, his hands snapping out towards Jack.

Jack's eyes widened, he tried to pull Lua to safety behind his back. But Yusei was faster, bolting in between Fujiwara and them. His Duel Disk struck Fujiwara in the throat and the man gasped, staggering back for a moment. His eyes snapped up to Yusei's face.

Judai felt his blood run cold at the utter hatred that painted every line of Fujiwara's face. Who—who was he? This could not be the same Fujiwara Yusuke that he had known thirty years ago.

In slow motion, Judai saw Fujiwara's shadows fan out, saw Yusei fall back a few steps, Disk raised, Stardust's wings spreading.

A brief rush of panic clenched Judai's chest.

What if Yusei's new glow wasn't enough to protect him?

He thought Luka or Jack might have shouted at him, but he couldn't hear them. He dropped Luka's hands, staggered from his knees into a run, his wings pushing him, pushing him, faster, faster, faster—

His hand found Yusei's shoulder. Yusei gasped, his eyes flashed over to Judai's face as he fell, dragged back by Judai and flung to the ground.

All of Fujiwara's shadows descended at once. Judai didn't have the second he needed to prepare.

There wasn't any pain for the first two seconds. He almost thought it didn't actually happen, if he hadn't seen the black, shadowy lances all spearing him right in the stomach. But then they all yanked out of him at once and the blood started and that was when his brain realized that he had just been stabbed multiple times in the stomach and—oh, that was—not good.

He fell, head pounding, pain fluttering through him as though it were distant, far away. It should be—fine, right? He would—still heal from this, Yubel's powers were strong, and at least it was Yusei who had—

“Judai! Judai, oh my god, Judai, open your eyes, look at me, Judai!”

He could hear—Yusei? Yusei was screaming at him. Someone was cradling him, he could feel Yusei's arms, strong around his shoulders, holding him sitting upright. One hand was pressed to his chest; he could feel the warm blood seeping through his shirt anyway.

“I'm—fine,” he mumbled. Or did he imagine himself saying that?

He was so tired. He just wanted to keep his eyes shut.

“Judai, oh god, no, you have to stay with me. Stay with me! Don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes, oh my god—”

No, he just…this was so hard, he just…needed to sleep, just let him sleep this off, he would be fine, Yubel would heal him, he'd be okay, he'd…

Lips crashed against his.

For a second, his eyes flew open, and he thought—Yusei was trying to resuscitate him. But he was still breathing, he didn't need CPR, did Yusei even know CPR?

But no, it wasn't—Yusei was—

Yusei was kissing him.

Judai's brain couldn't quite register what was happening. He could feel Yusei's tears splashing against his cheek, Yusei's mouth still pressed to his, and the part of him that was still functioning reached up weakly with his arms, tried to hold Yusei's shoulders. He leaned harder into Yusei's kiss, not entirely sure what he was doing, he was too dizzy but—but this was—this felt okay, this felt—right.

Yusei broke away from him, cradled his face in his hand, his forehead pressed against Judai's as his tears continued to fall on Judai's face.

“I can't lose you, please, you have to open your eyes. You have to—”

Someone screamed. Judai struggled—he really did, he tried to open his eyes. All at once he remembered everyone that needed him, remembered everything that the fatigue was trying to make him forget, remembered that—there was still danger, he needed to protect them—

“Oh my god,” Yusei whispered, but Judai couldn't see.

He was already blacking out.

. . .

Yusei broke away from his wild, desperate kiss—he wasn't sure what had come over him but—no, no he knew exactly what had come over him, but he just needed Judai to open his damn eyes and—

“I can't lose you, please, you have to open your eyes. You have to—”

Luka screamed.

Yusei's eyes flashed up as a shadow fell over his face. Ice ran down his spine as Fujiwara's furious, full-black eyes glared down at him.

“Again, and again, and again, this fucking idiot keeps getting in the way,” he hissed. “I don't have time anymore!”

He raised a hand, and the shadows crawled eagerly over it, coating his hand like a thick leather glove—a leather glove with horrible, inch long spikes at the ends. Fujiwara raised his hand—Yusei knew he wasn't going to be able to move, not with Judai in his arms—those claws were going to rip his throat open.

He was going to die.

He almost closed his eyes. Instead, he just tightened his grip around Judai, and braced himself for what was coming.

Crimson fire struck Fujiwara right in the chest. His eyes bulged, mouth dropped open. He stumbled back into the flames, so hard that he had to fall back and drop to one knee. The shadows on his hand scattered, leaving him weaponless again.

Both he and Yusei looked back at the same time.

“Oh my god,” Yusei mumbled.

Lua stood with his hand raised, a crimson red glowing around his palm. He was breathing hard, shoulders heaving with every breath, but for the moment, he looked completely clear minded and perfectly safe.

And…

And his right arm was glowing.

With what looked like…

A Signer Mark??

Lua gasped for breath, a tear rolling down his cheek despite the angry wrinkle of his expression.

“Leave…my friends…alone,” he whispered.

Yusei chanced a quick glance at Fujiwara.

The black had drained completely out of his eyes all of a sudden. He could see their real color now—a faint violet-gray? He looked…smaller without that demonic presence in his eyes. For the first time since Yusei had seen this man, he finally looked…human.

“Lua,” he breathed. “Lua…please.”

His voice cracked. Yusei actually felt his heart clench up. That was the sound of a father trying to speak to his child, a father who was…hurt. Broken.

Lua stepped forward, wobbling. Jack tried to stand up to support him but Lua threw his arm away.

“Get away from them,” he said. “Get away from them! I won't let you hurt them anymore!”

“Lua, please, you don't understand, I'm trying to protect you—”

“Then where were you?” Lua screamed. “Where were you? For five years, where were you?”

Fujiwara flinched as though he had been punched in the gut. He staggered to his feet. He looked as though he were going to step forward again, but Lua pushed towards him, hand still raised and glowing.

“You're not our dad,” he said, tears rolling down our cheeks. “You're a monster.”

Fujiwara entire face seemed to shatter. He only stood there for a moment, wobbling. He looked like he was going to fall over.

He looked so…

Small. So thin.

Yusei almost…felt sorry for him.

Fujiwara's mouth opened, and closed. A single tear leaked down his cheek.

Then he ducked his head, turned on his heel, and vanished into a shadow.

For a moment, no one moved. No one spoke. There was only the roar of the flames, the distant screech of sirens. Those were pretty late, Yusei thought.

Judai was heavy in his arms. For a moment, he felt a tremor of panic in his chest, eyes flicking down to Judai's face. Was he—

Judai's chest rose and fell, regular, easy. Yusei's hand still pressed to the wounds in his stomach, but despite the slippery blood, when he moved his hand away, it looked like the holes were already sealing. Bastard—scaring him like that. Yusei felt the barest hint of a laugh bubbling up in his throat. He almost couldn't believe this. They were alive. They were all alive. They had made it out—Lua was okay, Judai was healing, everything was—they had survived.

He turned over his shoulder, a relieved grin spreading over his face as he turned back towards the others, to check if they were okay.

He turned just in time to see the glowing fading from Lua, to see the boy keeling slowly over towards the ground. Luka reached out, Jack stood up to try to catch him. He must be tired, Yusei thought—after this entire night, he was going to need all the rest in the world—

A shadow bolted past, smacking Jack as he reached for Lua. Jack swore as he flinched back and staggered. Luka cried out, Yusei felt his smile vanishing, he tried to get up but Judai was still in his arms and he couldn't—

Luciano skidded up the walls on his skates, landing lightly on the very edge of the wall. An unconscious Lua hanging from his arm.

“Thanks for that, dweebs,” he said. “Once he left, I was out of his dumb shadows.”

He grinned at them, his face looking wild and feral in the crackle of the flames.

“Don't worry! We'll take care of him! Later, dweebs!”

And with a laugh, before anyone could even breathe, he was dropping off the side of the Duel Lane.

Luka screamed. Jack was reaching for his Duel Disk. Aki let out a shriek of rage, bolting for Black Rose and leaping onto her back, the dragon zooming into the air and diving off the side of the Lane in hot pursuit.

Yusei couldn't think. He couldn't feel.

Everything was not okay.

Everything hadn't turned out all right.

Lua. 

Chapter Text

Where…where am…I…?

His head hurt…there was a skitter down his skin, the ghost of a burning fire that had enveloped him and fizzled away. His throat was dry. Where…gosh, what was…

He tried to move his arms and found that he couldn't. His legs wouldn't function either. Could he move anything?

He opened his mouth and wiggled his tongue. That was working…what about his eyes?

Lua's eyes slowly peeled open, the light stabbing into his sight—where was he? He—he couldn't see. Everything was just pure white, everywhere—

His heart was thrumming now, his throat closing up. He remembered the pain and the heat and the fear and he remembered his dad attacking Yusei and almost killing him but what had happened after that where was he where was he where was he—

“Sh….sh…it's okay…you are all right…”

The voice was…distant. Echoey, somehow…tinny. But there was still something…familiar about it? Either way, the sound was comforting. Wherever he was, he wasn't alone.

“Hush…it's all right. You are safe here. I promise.”

Lua tugged on his limbs again, but although feeling was starting to come back into them, he still couldn't move them. He tried to look down at his own body, and slowly, he managed to get it to come into focus. White bands of energy encircled his wrists and his ankles, suspending him in the middle of the white landscape—as far as he could tell, he was the only one here in this vast expanse of white. Then—then where was the owner of the voice?

“Hello?” he called, his voice echoing oddly in his own ears, as though the room were much smaller than it appeared. “H-hello? Who's there?”

He heard something move, but couldn't see anything. He tried to crane to look over his shoulder, but there was nothing behind him, or below him, or above him either. Just…white. He struggled against the energy holding him again, but it was tough and wouldn't give.

“Please…relax…it's all right. You're safe. You need to relax.”

“I-I'm not gonna!” Lua shouted, angry at himself when his voice wavered. “Who are you?? What do you want with me? Where am I?”

“Hush…hush…”

A hand fell onto his hair, and he flinched, trying to struggle away. He tried to look, see who was holding him, but all of a sudden he—he couldn't. His throat tightened and his pulse raced. Who was it? Who was stroking his hair and why did it—why did it feel comforting? Like…like a mom, or a dad…

He forced his head around, forced himself to look.

Whoever it was, his eyes couldn't process it. His brain told him that it was someone he should know, but his eyes wouldn't focus. His mind couldn't wrap itself around the concept, and his mouth couldn't form the name. The harder he tried, the more the sounds ripped away from him.

“W-who are you?” he tried, even though he knew, his brain just couldn't understand.

The person did not respond, continuing to stroke his hair gently, soothingly. Lua struggled again, tried to pull free.

“Let me go,” he said, his voice cracking. “M-my friends—they'll be worried—”

“Sh…” the person said, cutting him off. “Sh. You are safer here.”

“No,” Lua said. He forced his voice to get louder and stronger. “No, I—you can't keep me here! I won't let you!”

“Sh…sh…it's all right.”

“No, it's not!”

Lua threw his head back, trying to get the person's hand off of him. The person drew back, quiet. They tilted their head at Lua.

“I'm here to protect you,” they said.

“I don't want you to!” Lua said. “I want to go back to my sister!”

The person shook their head.

“You can't…I'm sorry. I need you.”

“I don't want to help you!” Lua said, throwing himself against his restraints again. “B-besides! I'm useless! I don't have any powers; you can't use me for anything!”

The person shook their head again, looking sad. They stepped forward so that they were suddenly standing in front of Lua, reaching out to touch his shoulder tentatively, and then squeeze it gently. It was so familiar…

“I need your help,” they said again. “To…to fix things. To make sure this doesn't happen again.”

Their fingers trailed up briefly to the side of Lua's head.

Lua gasped, his head throwing back—images exploded over his brain, splashes of color and smoke and explosions and the distant echo of screams and then a vast explosion of white that blotted out everything—

Lua gasped as his head flopped forward, eyes bulging from the vivid flashback burned into his eyes. The person didn't say anything, didn't touch him as he gasped for breath.

“W-what was that?” Lua gasped. Were there…tears rolling out of his eyes? What had…what had he just seen?

The person leaned forward, brushing the tears gently from his cheeks. Lua tried to flinch away, but he found all of a sudden that there was no strength in his neck.

“That's why you went back, the first time, wasn't it?” the person said. “That's why you started this…started the first loop.”

“I…what?”

The person leaned away, took a few steps back. Lua leaned forward in spite of himself.

“D-don't go,” he said, his voice cracking. He didn't want to but—but he was alone out here, alone except for this strange, familiar person that he couldn't understand.

The person shook their head yet again.

“It's all right. You're not ready yet. I…I have to…finish. I have to finish the Circuit…then…then I need your help…to fix this…”

They stood there for a long moment, the only sound between them the echo of Lua's breaths. Then they sighed, softly.

“I'm so sorry,” they said. “I'm…so sorry.”

They leaned forward, touched Lua on the side of the head.

“Please…go back to sleep…until it's time…”

Lua fought it, he fought the seeping sense of exhaustion that spread through him from the point of contact, but it was in vain. The next thing he knew, he was falling under the blackness once again, and he remembered nothing else.

. . .

“Why didn't you call us??”

“Jun, please…not now. Not now.”

Manjoume was so red in the face that he looked like he was going to burst into flames. Asuka held his arm, rubbing against his sleeve with one thumb in a soothing gesture that didn't seem to be helping. Her eyes flickered across the table to Judai, but Judai didn't look up. Yusei couldn't blame him. Yusei didn't want to have to look up either.

Silence rang through the small kitchen for a long, long moment.

Luka had stopped crying a while ago, just sitting blankly on the couch, tucked under Crow's arm. Crow looked exhausted, but he hadn't made a move to fall asleep. His fingers stroke gently through Luka's hair, released from their pigtails around her shoulders for once. Manjoume stood on the opposite end of the table with Asuka beside him, and Shou was sitting very quietly on the other side of Manjoume, his eyes on the table, expression unreadable. Aki, for her part, didn't seem able to stay still, walking in circles around the motorcycles parked in the garage as she constantly rolled and unrolled the clip from her hair. Bruno perched on his own bike, fiddling with some bolts between his fingers.

Jack wasn't present. Yusei had heard the sound of him throwing things up in the loft a while back, but the sounds had died some time ago. He could imagine he was probably sitting on the edge of the bed, crying quietly into his hands in that angry way he had when he was a child, after he had finished punching things hoping that it would make him feel better.

Yusei's hands curled into fists in his lap. He wished he could start punching things. He wished he was allowed to start yelling, like Manjoume. Wished he could just grab the table and flip the whole thing over and then start snapping the legs off of it one at a time so that he could throw them across the room.

But that wouldn't help. It never would. It would only make the situation worse.

Lua was gone.

He hadn't been able to protect him. After everything that had happened, he hadn't…been able to do…anything…

Yusei squeezed his eyes shut and ground his fists into them, trying to knead the tears back. God, that wasn't helpful right now—they had to come up with a plan. Something. They had to do something? Right? Right?

But Judai wouldn't even look up from the table. Yusei couldn't see his eyes. Couldn't see past the veil of bangs that he had let fall over his eyes.

Say something, he thought. Please. Judai. Please say something. Anything. Talk to me.

But no one did. No one said anything. It was as though they couldn't process it—any of it. Lua was gone. They had no idea where. No idea what had happened, or where he could have gone. What they could be doing to him. Why did they want him? Was it because, as Judai had said, he was the one that had started Judai's time loop in the first place, by dragging him to the future? But what did that even mean?

The door swung open softly, slowly—if Yusei had gotten around to fixing the squeak in the hinge, he probably wouldn't have even been able to hear it opening.

“Um, excuse me? I'm sorry, no one was responding to the knock so I…is this where Jack Atlas lives…?”

In the darkness of the garage, with only the kitchen's faint light illuminating the figure, Yusei couldn't really see him. He caught the glint of pale green eyes, the edge of blue hair, a taller figure with fair skin and a curious expression, brows furrowed slightly and lips parted. Who was this—a new enemy?

Yusei tried to struggle to his feet as everyone else's eyes snapped to the new figure. Judai's head jerked up and he stood so quickly that his chair fell over, eyes wide and wild as he—

Froze. His mouth fell open.

“…Jo…han?”

For a second, no one spoke. Then the new man—Johan?—smiled, his teeth flashing white in the light from the table.

“I found the right place!” he said cheerily. “Sorry about the wait, by the way, I got a little turned around and ran into some other troubles, and—”

His expression changed as he took in the sight of the room.

“Something…happened, huh?”

. . .

Judai's head was spinning. He wasn't imagining this, right? That was Johan. That was Johan that Asuka was running around the table to meet, that was Johan that Manjoume was punching on the shoulder and demanding where he had been, that was Johan who was smiling back at Shou as Shou asked him what had taken him so long.

He felt a hand on his elbow, and only then did he realized that he was trembling. He looked down to see Yusei looking up at him, dark eyes curious.

“Are you okay?”

Judai felt a lump in his throat, and he pressed his free hand to his mouth for a second, closing his eyes to compose himself. Was he all right? He wasn't totally sure.

Then he opened his eyes and saw Johan, saw Johan looking right at him with that quirked smile on his lips, that cheerful face that had always been there with a smile for him when he had shown up on his doorstep like a lost puppy.

He felt, for a strange second, like the world had fallen into place again.

Yusei's hand slid down into Judai's, and Judai clung to it, feeling tears spring to his eyes.

“Yeah,” he mumbled. “Yeah, I'm okay. I…”

What kind of feeling could he put to this—this sudden lightening of his chest? He felt…

Hopeful.

Yubel sighed contentedly at the back of his head.

—About time he showed up—

Johan smiled as he shrugged off the other's questions and walked over to Judai.

“Wow,” he said, eyes bright. “Look at you—you're shorter than me now!”

Judai snorted, but he had noticed as well. Johan had shot up; he was almost a head and a half taller than Judai now.

“You had thirty years on me,” he said. “It's barely a contest.”

“I know, but you're so tiny!” Johan said jokingly, ruffling Judai's hair as though he were his little brother. “This is funny; you've always been just a hair taller than me.”

“Yeah, yeah, you win,” Judai said, rolling his eyes.

Johan grinned at him, and the sparkle in those eyes made Judai feel suddenly like everything was going to be okay.

“Where have you been?” Manjoume said again.

“I told you, my flight was delayed,” Johan said, rubbing the back of his neck as he smiled, embarrassed. “I came as quickly as I could—”

“No, I mean before this,” Manjoume said. “It was a goddamn miracle that Asuka was able to get a hold of you for this. What have you been doing?? We keep trying to coordinate, and you're never anywhere to be seen, much less at the school you're supposed to be taking care of.”

“Honestly, you're almost as bad as Samejima sometimes when it comes to being a headmaster,” Shou said, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Ouch,” Johan said, wincing with a soft laugh. “I'm sorry, I really am. I spend a lot of time looking for kids that might be safer at my school, I'm not always near my phone. It gets busy, you know?”

That sounded…like a very fast answer to Judai. He frowned. Was Johan…hiding something? From the others? Why would he do that?

“So, anyway,” Johan said. “Who's going to fill me in on what happened? I got sidetracked helping a Jack Atlas, then I realized that he was in the same team that you guys all told me you were going to be helping, and I thought finding my way to where he was would get me to everyone—and I was right!”

He smiled, looking around at the otherwise shocked and still somber faces. Judai suddenly realized how surprising this must be for the ones that didn't know Johan, and he quickly moved to correct this.

“Guys, this is Johan,” he said, looking back around at the others of Team 5Ds. “Johan Andersen. He's another friend of mine.”

Aki gasped.

“This—you're Johan Andersen?” she said, her voice jumping. “The founder of Crystal Academy?”

Johan's eyes lit up.

“You know about my school?” he said, turning towards her.

“Of course I do!” Aki said, her eyes wide. “I mean…I…”

She blushed suddenly, looking down at her feet, embarrassed.

“Well, I mean…we have…butted heads in the past,” she mumbled.

Johan blinked, tilting his head curiously. Aki didn't look up for a few moments, as though hoping everyone would forget she had said anything.

“I mean…the Arcadia Movement,” she finally mumbled. “I was…kind of…that poster child.”

Johan blinked again, and then comprehension dawned over his face. He mouthed something to himself that looked like “Black Rose Witch,” and his eyes returned to Aki with a new light.

“I'm—not with them anymore,” Aki said quickly. “And I—really admire what you did with—”

Johan held up a reassuring hand, smiling.

“I'm not going to bite,” he said, laughing. “Wherever you came from before, you're definitely here with Judai and everyone, so I'm sure you're a friend! I'm flattered though, that you like my school.”

Johan turned back towards everyone else.

“So, does anyone want to introduce me to everyone else? And oh, right, I need to be filled in, it looks like something pretty nasty just happened. What can I do?”

“Judai's probably the best one to do introductions,” Asuka said, smiling. She looked like a weight had been pulled off her shoulders, the same way that Judai felt.

Judai blinked, and then suddenly came back to himself.

“Right!” he said. “That's Crow Hogan, and Bruno, and Luka over there. And that's Izayoi Aki.”

Aki seemed to have gotten herself composed again, and she half smiled at Johan. Crow looked over the couch with a confused expression, and even Luka peeked over Crow's shoulder curiously. Bruno only barely looked up.

“And this is Fudo Yusei,” Judai said, nodding beside him.

Johan grinned and nodded at Yusei, who nodded tentatively back, still looking a little uncertain. Johan's eyes flickered for a moment over Judai's hand, and only then did Judai remember that he was still holding hands with Yusei. Judai couldn't be certain, but he almost thought Johan's smile got a little wider for a second.

“I'm glad to be on board,” he said. “Now…”

His smile finally faded to a serious expression, his green eyes taking on a hard, gemstone glitter.

“What can I do to help?”

. . .

It was very, very quiet all of a sudden. Yusei could hear the silence ringing in his ears, the aftershock of chattering voices pressed in on his eardrums. Had everyone really just dropped off to sleep so quickly?

Yusei paused in the hallway, trying to listen for the sounds of his friends sleeping. Jack had only come down after Johan had already been filled in, and then he had explained how Johan had helped him get Carly. Carly was fine, according to Johan, and he wouldn't have left her at the hospital if he hadn't thought so. His Duel Spirit friends Cobalt Eagle and Sapphire Pegasus were watching over her.

It seemed that he brought an entire entourage of Duel Spirits with him, because Luka had suddenly had her attention taken away by something that Yusei couldn't see, and had retreated off to a corner with them. When she had fallen asleep, Crow had taken her upstairs to use his bed, and Crow himself had passed out on the couch. Asuka, Manjoume, Shou, and Johan had discussed and decided it would be best if they camped out with the rest of the group. Manjoume, in fact, had insisted that they take turns taking watches, just in case, and had gone outside on his own to take the first one. The other three were asleep in sleeping bags downstairs.

Jack was upstairs in his own bed, although Yusei was certain he wasn't sleeping. Yusei had insisted that Aki take his. Bruno had told him that he had no intention of sleeping, not yet anyway, and Yusei could still hear him click clacking on the computer downstairs. Yusei wasn't sure, yet, where he was going to sleep. Could he sleep at all, after all of this?

He heard a soft sound, and then the door to the guest room opened, Judai appearing in his pajamas. He looked exhausted, his eyes sunken and dark.

“Oh, sorry,” he said. “I'm not trying to hog the room to myself or anything. Just changing.”

Yusei tilted his head.

“Where are you planning on going?”

“Huh? Oh, I thought I'd camp out downstairs with the others, or something, let you have the real bed,” Judai said. “Since you gave up yours, and all.”

“No, no, no,” Yusei said, shaking his head. “You stay right where you are, okay? You need that sleep.”

“So do you,” Judai pointed out.

They both fell silent, neither of them quite looking at the other.

Yusei couldn't help it. The replay of his desperate action back in the fight before…played over in his mind. Did…did Judai remember? Did he remember that Yusei had…kissed him…?

He cleared his throat softly.

“It seems like adding Johan to the group really boosted the morale when we needed it,” he said.

Judai nodded.

“Johan's always been good at that,” he said. “He's like floodlight, lighting everybody else up without even trying.”

Yusei glanced at Judai, and found that he was smiling softly, his eyes distant. Yusei felt something in his chest jump a little, but he didn't know why.

“You seem close,” he said.

“…yeah,” Judai said. “We were…pretty good friends in high school. I mean…we went through…some pretty bad times together.”

All of a sudden, his face seemed to fall, his eyes going out of focus. Yusei wanted to reach out, wanted to take Judai's shoulders and pull him against him.

He didn't though. He swallowed through a suddenly thick throat.

“It must be good to see him again,” he said.

Judai nodded, his eyes still distant.

“It…really is,” he mumbled. “Johan just…always seems to know what to do, you know…? He was…always better with this than I ever was. I feel like…like there's a good chance again, you know?”

Yusei looked down at the floor. Yeah. He understood that feeling—the feeling that someone could cast a far better light than you could. The feeling of safety that came with that person being around, taking the reins away from you, or at least, making you feel like you didn't need to hold the reins all by yourself, that person that was and always would be the better leader than he was. For just the briefest moment, the faint smile of Kiryu flashed over his mind.

He nodded.

“Yeah,” he said. “I understand that.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke again. For some reason, Yusei felt his stomach clench up. He understood Judai's feelings…so why did that understanding make him feel…sad? Why did he feel so…off? The replay of his kiss played over his mind again, and he dropped his gaze quickly down, as though that would erase it.

Maybe it was better if he never mentioned it.

“Well, I don't want to keep you awake,” he said. “I'll—”

Judai's hand snaked out before Yusei could move, snagging the fabric of his sleeve. Yusei paused. He looked first at Judai's hand, and then, cautiously, lifted his eyes to Judai's.

Judai was staring right at him, an expression that Yusei couldn't quite understand on his face.

“Wait,” Judai said, and his voice cracked. He pressed his free hand to his mouth for a moment, swallowing. Then he let it drop and lifted his eyes back to Yusei. “I wanted to…you saved my life, today, Yusei.”

Yusei shook his head.

“You saved me just as often,” he said. “In fact, I think I got in your way…”

“No,” Judai said. “No, Yusei, I…I don't think I would have…gotten through this fight without you. I really don't.”

His hand slid down Yusei's arm until it found his hand, and his fingers curled into Yusei's. Yusei felt a warmth explode from his palm and run all the way up his arm, making his heart flutter.

“I…what I'm trying to say is…”

Judai fumbled for a moment, looking down at the floor. When he raised his eyes to Yusei again, they were so clear that Yusei sucked in a breath.

“I want you to be there, from now on,” he said. “Please…I need you to be there. I need you to be at my side when we fight again. Not behind me, or in front of me, but…but right next to me.”

He swallowed, trying to smile.

“I must sound…so selfish,” he said.

He tried to draw his hand away—but Yusei gripped it tighter. Judai blinked at the sudden movement, his lips parting as Yusei pulled Judai a little closer to him. His hand was so warm, even through Yusei's gloves, and he drew it closer to him, clasping it between both of his.

“No,” he said. “No, you don't. You don't sound selfish at all.”

His heart clenched up, and he pulled Judai's hand up towards him, pressed Judai's fingers to his lips. Through his half closed eyes, he thought he saw Judai's eyes widen, and he wondered…was he going too far?

“I want the same thing,” he whispered into Judai's fingers. “And I…I would be honored if I could continue to fight next to you.”

For a breath, neither spoke, neither made a move or a sound.

And then quietly, Judai stepped closer to him. Yusei's lips parted as Judai pulled his hand down, so that both his and Yusei's hands were moved away from Yusei's face. Yusei knew what was happening just before it happened—and he leaned into it.

Judai's lips found his as his eyes closed, and for a few, beautiful moments, Judai was the only thing in the world. There was only the taste of him on his lips, only the feel of his hands curled into his and his body pressed up against his chest.

When they broke away, it was like the whole space between them was full of stars—shining, sparkling…magical.

“Yusei,” Judai said, his voice sounding low, thick—as though he were going to cry. “I never…I never want you to disappear. Please.”

Yusei responded by putting his forehead against Judai's, and closing his eyes with a sigh.

“Judai,” he whispered, and he felt Judai shiver. “I need to tell you something.”

“I do too.”

“Do you want to go first?”

Yusei felt Judai hesitate. Yusei took over by leaning forward and kissing him gently one more time. When he broke apart, he opened his eyes to see Judai's—to see the fear, the uncertainty, the desperation, mixed with the hope, the longing…

The love.

“I love you,” Yusei whispered.

Judai let out a long, low sigh, like the sound of the universe releasing its long held breath.

“Gods,” he whispered, like a prayer of thanks. “I love you so goddamn much.”

And then, almost as an afterthought,

“Is…that okay?”

Yusei smiled as he slid his arms over Judai's shoulders, pulling him into his embrace, and he felt Judai's arms wrap around him tightly.

“It's better than okay,” he whispered. “God…it's…it's…”

It was more than he had words for in that moment. Yusei curled one hand into the back of Judai's hair and dropped his face against Judai's neck, breathing him in.

“Stay with me?” Judai whispered.

“Forever,” Yusei whispered back.

In the darkness of the hallway, it felt like the universe was surrounding them, with the pinpricks of stars lighting up around them.

It felt right.

. . .

It was cold.

Johan felt the air biting at him as he stepped outside, and he frowned. The heat of summer had been record for this year, and it seemed…odd to him that it would be so cold outside, even at night.

Manjoume glanced up as Johan closed the door softly behind him. Johan could see the faint flicker of a lighter as Manjoume lit up the end of his cigarette between his fingers.

“You're early for your shift,” Manjoume said between his fingers. He let the lighter go out, and took a drag on the cigarette, blowing out the smoke into the night.

“You're still smoking?” Johan said.

“Don't you mother me, Johan. Not tonight.”

Johan shrugged helplessly. Manjoume briefly glared at him over the tip of his cigarette, then shoved it back between his teeth.

They stood in the dark silence for a few moments, the only light coming from faraway street lamps, the stars overhead, and the tip of Manjoume's burning cigarette.

“Seriously,” Manjoume said suddenly. “Where have you been? I know you're not just out looking for new kid recruits for your school.”

Johan glanced down at the ground. The cold air whispered at the back of his neck, and he rubbed at it absently.

“You're in and out of contact more than Judai ever was,” Manjoume said. “Ever since he disappeared. And don't tell me you've just been fighting off Arcadia Movement or some bullshit.”

“That was part of it,” Johan said. “Fighting with them over young psychics was a big part of what I've been doing.”

Manjoume gnawed on the end of the cigarette.

“But that just implied that it wasn't the only thing you were doing.”

Johan looked down again. Ruby was sitting at his feet, her tail flicking back and forth across the ground. Light refracted off of the globe of her tail, sending little glimmers of red across the ground. When she noticed he was looking at her, she immediately leaped onto his leg and clambered her way up him like he was a tree, finding her way to his shoulder. Johan reached up to stroke her chin absently, feeling her purr vibrate through her chin. His eyes raised up to the stars, the burning spots of light among the black.

“Do you ever think,” Johan said, “about how the world is mostly darkness?”

“Huh?”

Johan stared at the sky. The breeze ruffled his hair.

“Out beyond the atmosphere, there's just…space,” he said. “Vast, vast amounts of space…only rarely broken up by the spots of light that are stars.”

He let his eyes fall back down, but he didn't look quite at Manjoume yet.

“But without both of those…without the darkness of the space between the stars…and without the stars themselves…we couldn't have life.”

“Johan, what kind of philosophical bullshit are you trying to throw at me today?”

Johan glanced at Manjoume, and he wondered, for a moment, if Manjoume would be able to sense the secret in his eyes. If Manjoume would know what Johan was hiding…if he would demand to know more.

“We've always needed both,” Johan said. “Light and darkness. The universe knows it…why don't humans know it?”

Manjoume shifted.

“You know, Johan, you're sounding kinda suspiciously like those Yliaster nutjobs,” he said. “With their 'balance' bullshit.”

Johan grimaced.

“Am I? That wasn't what I meant.”

Manjoume shook his head. He pulled his cigarette from his teeth and let it hang at his side for a moment.

“You're really good at dodging my fucking questions,” Manjoume said. But then he laughed, a soft, barking sound that let up a haze of smoke. He ground his cigarette out against the wall behind him. “Stop acting like I'm going to rip your throat out, goddamn. You and I both know we've been through too much together for me to distrust you.”

Johan let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding.

“I know,” he said, his breath leaving a slight haze in the cold air. “I swear to you Manjoume-san…what I'm doing…I can't talk about it yet. But it won't put any of us in danger. I swear to you.”

Manjoume snorted.

“As if I could believe you'd do anything to hurt Judai,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I'm suspicious, not stupid.”

He shoved his hands into both his pockets, eyes up on the stars. Then he smirked.

“You and your poetic bullshit,” he said, shaking his head. “But somehow…you make sense; you know?”

He smirked towards Johan again, then yawned loudly.

“Well, have fun keeping watch,” he said. “Asuka'll be out after you.”

“Right,” Johan said. “Sleep well, Manjoume.”

Manjoume snorted, but he smiled as he passed. He even clapped Johan once on the shoulder before he disappeared inside the garage.

Then Johan was alone, with only Ruby on his shoulder. He looked up into the sky again, at the stars.

“We need both,” he whispered. “Light and darkness.”

His hand slid into his pocket of his own accord, and he pulled the little necklace free. Nothing more than a small sphere of white, like a tiny star taken from the sky and forged into a diamond from a silver chain. He stared at it for a while, and then back up at the stars.

Then he let it fall into his palm, and he crushed it under his fingers.

“Sorry,” he whispered as he let the dust slip through his fingers and onto the ground. “But…after what I saw…”

His mind flashed back, back to the kitchen, back to Judai.

Back to the beautiful black and white inter-webbing of fate strings that he had seen, all tied beautifully together with a twisted red string that stretched between him and the dark haired boy at his side.

“…I think they can do it,” he mumbled. “I think…they can do it.” 

Chapter Text

Judai woke slowly, his eyes only half open. He felt…remarkably relaxed. He couldn't remember the last time he had woken up so easily, so gently. Most mornings started off with him in a cold sweat or blinking blearily at the world, wondering how it could possibly be morning already.

It was the sound of Yusei's breath that got him to open his eyes, and remember exactly where he was.

Sometime during the night, either he or Yusei seemed to have rolled themselves towards the other, and Judai was currently nestled right against Yusei's side, his head resting on top of Yusei's arm and one arm draped over Yusei's chest. Yusei lay on his back, his other hand resting lightly on Judai's arm. Judai didn't think he'd be able to move. He felt perfectly warm and cozy right here, as though this were a space made just for him. From this distance, he could count every one of Yusei's eyelashes, could trace the curve of his cheek bones and note the details of the way his dark hair fell in strands across his forehead, mussed up a bit from sleeping. Judai kind of wanted to reach up and brush the hair out of Yusei's face, but he didn't want to shift too much, he felt so perfectly cozy and…and safe. Yusei made him feel so safe.

Judai couldn't remember the last time he had been so comfortable while sleeping.

He let out a heavy sigh, nestling his head a little closer to Yusei's and letting his eyes close again. He wasn't sure how early it was, but there was only a bit of light filtering through the shades, so he figured…five more minutes…couldn't hurt, right?

A tremor suddenly ran through him, and Yubel hissed awake in the back of his head as the sensation snapped through him and caused his eyes to fly open.

Fujiwara was here.

Panic attacked Judai's brain—where was he? How close? How come Judai hadn't sensed him right away? Was he just over them now, was he going to try and kill Yusei again?? Gods, no—

He slowly, slowly calmed down as his brain honed in on Fujiwara's aura and he realized that he was outside, and he wasn't moving. He wasn't coming inside. Judai let his breaths slow down, tried to regain some measure of calm. His eyes flickered up to Yusei's face, his calm, quiet, sleeping expression.

Then, reluctantly, Judai carefully slipped out of Yusei's hold and off the bed. Yusei stirred ever so slightly, but luckily, he didn't awaken. Judai quickly changed out of his pajama pants into a pair of jeans and threw his jacket on before stepping quietly into the hallway. He closed and locked the door behind him, leaving behind a trace of defensive magic…just in case Fujiwara decided to try anything.

It was incredibly quiet. He could hear his own heartbeat as he slipped down the stairs and then over to the garage door. His friends were all asleep in their sleeping bags, Bruno having passed out at his computer. Judai couldn't remember who had decided to take the final watch for the morning, but evidently it had gotten lost in the shuffle because he counted all four of them asleep—that would explain why Fujiwara hadn't yet been noticed.

Judai let himself out into the cool morning, mist trailing around the movement of the door. The sun was only just peeking over the horizon, sending glimmers of light through the mist and obscuring large swaths. It took him a few minutes before he finally located Fujiwara.

It was a wonder that he hadn't been able to see him right away—in his long black coat, he stuck out like a red umbrella at a funeral against the white mist.

Fujiwara stood stock still, his full black eyes trained directly at Judai, face unmoving. Judai's hands curled into fists at his sides, to hide the shake. He shoved them into his pockets as he walked to meet Fujiwara.

“What do you want?” Judai said.

Fujiwara didn't answer for a moment—for a moment, it almost seemed like…was Judai really talking to Fujiwara?

And then the man's face stirred, and his lips parted.

“I'm here to extend one last chance,” he whispered. “Lua's already been taken—you know what I have at stake.”

“Are you here to help?” Judai said, narrowing his eyes. “Are you here to work with us? Asuka and the others are here. They said that you were fighting alongside them.”

He chewed on his lip for a second.

“You could…you could stop this. Join up with us. We'll get Lua back together.”

Fujiwara snorted, the breath sending the mist into a swirl about his face.

“We've tried that route before, Judai,” he said. “It didn't go well.”

Judai blinked once, confused for a beat. Then he remembered—whatever happened in the future, Fujiwara remembered. Judai's hands curled tighter into his pockets. How come he couldn't remember? What had happened to make him keep forgetting, to not even remember that he had already tried this before? What made him and Fujiwara different?

“We can try again,” Judai said. He stepped forward, pulling one hand free of his pocket and holding it out towards Fujiwara. “Fujiwara, please…you know more about what's happening than anyone. If we pool our resources—we don't have to be enemies.”

Fujiwara didn't make a move to accept Judai's hand. His lip actually curled as he glanced down at the offered hand, his own hands remaining at his sides.

“No,” Fujiwara said. “That route cannot and will not work. I've tried, Judai. I've tried everything. I even tried to protect these new friends of yours; I tried to stop them from coming to harm. I tried, and tried, and tried…and you never did a damn thing to make that easier.”

Judai tried to tamp down the curl of anger in his stomach, leaving his hand outstretched. He could make this work. He had to. If Fujiwara was no longer their enemy, they could focus in. He wouldn't have to worry about Yusei's safety, they could focus all of their energy on Yliaster, and Fujiwara could explain everything. He had to convince him. He had to convince Fujiwara to stop his twisted idea of how to save the future and his family.

“Fujiwara,” he whispered, pleading. “Please.”

But Fujiwara only shook his head.

“You don't understand,” he said, and his voice actually…broke. “And I can't even hate you for it. I can't.”

He rubbed one hand over his mouth, looking down. He shook his head again. He actually looked…upset?

“We've both tried this so many times,” he said. “But I can only see one possibility anymore. There's only one way to stop this loop, to stop everything bad from everything. There's only one way to save the future.”

His black eyes lifted to Judai then, and despite the lack of pupils or irises, Judai could feel that gaze boring right into his.

“I've come to only one conclusion,” Fujiwara said. “And that's that Yusei has to die.”

Judai's hand curled back with a snap, almost involuntarily. Immediately, he could hear the blood rushing in his ears as his heartbeat accelerated and his pulse leaped. His mouth was dry and he felt almost dizzy with the sudden rush of anger.

“I will never let that happen,” Judai hissed.

“You're blind, Judai,” Fujiwara said, but he didn't even sound…angry. He sounded sad, hollow, empty. “You're blinded because you love him. I don't…blame you for that.”

Judai was shaking so badly that he almost didn't catch the way that Fujiwara's voice caught on the last sentence. He didn't know what that meant—didn't know that he could bring himself to care about what it could mean. Fujiwara wasn't going to stop this madness. He wasn't going to stop trying to kill Yusei.

“I will never, ever let you touch him,” Judai hissed. He could barely think for how badly he was shaking. “If you come near him again, Fujiwara, I won't hesitate anymore. I'll kill you.”

Fujiwara inclined his head slightly as he stepped back, coat fluttering in the breeze.

“I figured we'd reach this point. We always do.”

Judai almost couldn't breathe, he was so angry. After all of this—after everything—Fujiwara was still going to do this? He was still going to fight them?

He was still going to try to kill Yusei?

Judai opened his mouth but Fujiwara talked over him.

“Let me just ask you one thing, Judai,” he said. “Do you think Yusei wants to hurt anyone?”

Judai blinked, so shocked by the question that he almost couldn't speak for a moment.

“Wha—of course not! Yusei would never hurt anyone!”

Fujiwara closed his eyes for just a moment. Then his full black eyes opened again, and trained on Judai.

“Then don't you think he'd want you to stop him if he knew what he was becoming?”

And before Judai could say anything, or ask what he meant, Fujiwara had turned around and vanished like a shadow in the sunlight.

Leaving Judai alone with his thoughts as the sun slowly began to burn the mist away.

. . .

Johan had made himself busy in the kitchen by the time Yusei woke up. He felt incredibly well-rested, far more than he usually did, anyway. He had woken up to find Judai flopping back down next to him, mumbling a sorry about having gotten up. Yusei had only smiled at him—he couldn't remember the last time he had slept so easily, and then Judai was crawling back under the covers again to snuggle up against him like a cat, and Yusei had just laughed softly as he wrapped an arm around him again. “Five more minutes,” Judai had mumbled as he grinned at Yusei.

There had been something off about his smile though…Yusei wondered if everything was all right.

Johan smiled brightly at Yusei as he and Judai slipped into kitchen.

“Good morning! Did you two sleep well?”

“Yes, actually,” Yusei said. “You didn't have to make breakfast…”

“I thought I'd give everyone a chance to sleep in,” Johan said. “No one wants to get up when they're cuddling, anyway.”

Yusei blinked. Then a light blush grew over his cheeks and he glanced down. Geez…he hadn't realized Johan had known they were…

“Johan, oh my god,” Judai said, his face a beet red.

“What?” Johan said, smiling as though he hadn't said anything embarrassing at all. He plopped two big plates of some kind of crumbly-looking tart. “I made some coffee, too, if you want it.”

Yusei cocked his head at the food—he hadn't ever seen anything quite like it, but it looked good. Judai's face lit up, though, as he pulled up a chair.

“You made junket crumble?? Where'd you get the ingredients?”

“I stopped by a store early,” Johan said. “I thought it might bolster everyone's spirits to get something in our stomachs first thing in the morning.”

Yusei tried a bite—oh! There was some kind of fruit filling.

“This is delicious, thank you, Andersen-san,” Yusei said.

“Call me Johan,” Johan said with a wink. “And you're welcome!”

Yusei had only gotten a few bites down before Jack stumbled down the stairs, looking bleary eyed and mussy haired. Luka clung to his arm, looking as though she hadn't slept a wink. Yusei caught a glimpse of Johan's face darkening slightly—then he was all smiles again, swooping Luka to the table with an extra helping of breakfast and dropping a warm mug of cocoa into her hands. The others were slowly waking up from their sleeping bags, from the couch, wherever they had passed out, and drifted into the kitchen, drawn in by the smell of Johan's cooking.

It was the busiest Yusei had ever seen his kitchen, and there almost wasn't enough space for everyone. Manjoume and Asuka drifted out of the kitchen to the couch with their plates while a few others crowded around the table.

“So,” Aki said after a few moments of silence. “I really hate to lower the mood at all but…we do need to start thinking about our next step.”

For a moment, no one answered her.

“I'll…I'll call Ushio,” Yusei said after a beat. “I doubt there's much Security can do, but maybe they could find a lead on whoever took Lua…”

No one seemed overly enthused by the idea, and Yusei wasn't really all that hopeful about it either. But they had to do something—anything.

“Aki and I can go out and search the city for any glimpse of that guy's aura,” Judai said. “Do you remember what that…Luciano kid's aura felt like? You think you could pick it out?”

Aki nodded, eyes narrowing with determination.

“And if Carly is up to it, we can ask her to look over any Security camera feeds from the hospital,” Judai said. “She should be able to see any of those three, or their Meklords, from a mile away.”

That seemed a little more appealing to the rest of the group—something more on the level of their opponent's abilities.

“Manjoume, Shou, and I can scout out, too,” Asuka said. “I have some scanners I developed; not as strong as your abilities but it's worth a shot.”

The more people we have on the streets, the better,” Judai said, nodding. “I'm sure they haven't gone far—all of their attacks have been concentrated on this city. They're somewhere near.”

“I'll send the Crystal Beasts that I can spare to search as well,” said Johan, drying his hands off on a towel that he then threw over his shoulder.

“M-my spirit friends can look too,” Luka said.

There were nods all around the room, and Yusei looked down at his empty plate. A hollow feeling was gnawing at the bottom of his stomach. Why…? They had plans. They were going to get started fixing things, finding Lua and rescuing him. So why did he feel so…upset?

I'm useless, he realized with a start. Everyone else has something to contribute. What can I do? Nothing at all…I can't…I can't help protect them.

He lifted his eyes to his friends, everyone talking, scheming, making plans, figuring out how to use their powers. Then he looked down at his hands. What had happened to the strange power he had found the night before? How could he get to it again? Would it even be helpful?

I can't help them, he thought. I can't…I can't be the leader that they need.

The door slammed open.

A few swears lifted up from the others as chairs knocked over while people struggled to their feet. Yusei's pulse raced as he whipped around in his chair.

But it wasn't Fujiwara, or one of the Yliaster duelists, or an enemy at all—it was Sherry.

“Oh, good, you're all already awake,” she said tersely as she stalked down the stairs. “I found something, and someone is coming with me to check it out.”

No one even really had a chance to speak before Sherry made it to the table and tossed a business card onto the table in the middle of the dishes. Yusei was the first to lean towards it and twist it so that he could read the name.

“Ener-D Express Development Agency?” he said. “What's this about?”

“I think this company is a shell company for Yliaster,” Sherry said. “I was digging through some old files of Godwin's. That reporter girl from before helped me find some of them, and I found that he had made significant financial contributions to this company.”

“Oh!” Asuka said, hand raising over her mouth. “That did sound familiar. Manjoume, isn't that the one that your brother owns stocks in? The one we were monitoring because we thought they were working with Yliaster?”

“That's the one,” said Manjoume, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, eyes narrowed.

“What brought this up now?” Yusei said.

His gaze flickered up to Sherry, and he was surprised to see how pale and drawn she looked.

“One of Mizoguchi's scanners that we use to look for unnatural energy spikes went way up last night,” she said. “But by the time we got to the Duel Lane where we had found it, it was gone. Only a police blockade, and a blown up lane that was still smoldering.”

A cold seemed to settle around the room. Yusei felt his stomach twist. She must mean…that must be where their fight was last night. He opened his mouth to tell her, but she was still talking.

“We picked it up again coming from that company's main research facility just outside the city,” she said. “I managed to copy the signal this time. I always put it through a series of translations to see if the energy could be radio waves, or some other form of information.”

She looked…sick. It was a strange expression for her.

“You're not going to like what it came out as,” she said, reaching into her breast pocket.

She pulled out what appeared to be a thin recorder, and pressed the button on the side.

For a moment, there was only static. And then, a voice curled through the room.

“Hello? H-hello? Who's there? …who are you?? What do you want with me? Where am I? …I want to go back to my sister…!”

Yusei's breath caught in his throat and he almost choked.

Oh god.

Lua.

. . .

It was in his head again. He could feel it, whirring at the very back of his head like an extra gear in an otherwise perfectly oiled machine. It buzzed, making his head spin and his mouth taste metallic, coppery.

Bruno closed his eyes tightly against the spark of light that flashed over his eyes, bringing with it a stabbing headache. The buzzing grew louder.

“Go away,” he murmured. “Go away.”

When he opened his eyes again, he wasn't sitting at his desk, in front of the computer with his coding and programming. He was there again—sitting in the vast expanse of white.

He knew it was standing behind him, and he didn't want to turn around. Something compelled him, however, and he turned around almost without trying.

There it was.

It looked a bit like a human girl: small, pudgy, and round-faced, much shorter than he was; but there was something distinctively inhuman enough about it that he didn't feel comfortable calling it a girl, or a boy, or even something in between that could possibly be human. Long white hair flapped slowly around a thin, translucent frame, as though it were standing underwater to make its hair float. Eyes without pupils stared at him, pools of white in a face that seemed made of quicksilver, almost see-through, like a ghost. It was a wonder that Bruno could see it at all in this whiteness—but all rights, it should have blended perfectly into the scenery. But the laws of physics and sight didn't seem to apply, and despite it having no contrasting features against the background, it commanded all his attention as though it were pasted against a black backdrop instead.

It opened its mouth. No words came out, but Bruno found himself simply knowing what it was saying to him.

“Get out of my head,” he hissed, feeling the pain in his forehead rise to a new level. “Get out.”

It tilted its head at him, blinking once. Its lips moved again.

“No, I already told you! I don't want to help you!”

“… … …. .. …. …, …. …?”

“Stop it! He's not—he's not him.”

“… .. …”

“Don't play games with me! He's not the same. You're making me…you're making me fight against…”

He couldn't remember. The light in his head was too strong, it blotted out everything that he was supposed to remember. Everything that he was supposed to know. Frustrated tears found their way to the corners of his eyes. He felt as though he were betraying something—betraying someone. But he couldn't remember. This thing in his head wouldn't let him remember.

“I won't be your tool,” he muttered.

“… …… … . …. …”

“Use someone else! Use anyone else! I don't want this.”

“….. … …. …. . …… …….. … ….. …”

“Don't call me that—my name isn't Bruno! It's—it's…”

It was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't…he couldn't…it was…An…Anti…

The light in his head grew brighter and whatever words had begun to form faded away. Bruno moaned, gripping his head in his hands and sinking to his knees.

It approached him then, placing its hands on his shoulders. He wanted to fling them away, but he could not—the cool hands pressed against his skin and he felt a static shock pass through him, followed by a calming coolness that bled through his shirt and dripped through his entire frame from the touch.

“… …. …… …. … … … ……… …. …… …. ….. …… …. …”

“I'm not supposed to be helping you,” Bruno mumbled. “I'm supposed to be helping him.”

It leaned down, and pressed its cold lips to Bruno's forehead.

And then he was awake, jerking up from where his face had pressed into the keyboard.

“Bruno, are you going to sleep all day?” Sherry's voice cut across the room. “You've just been volunteered; you're coming with us to check this place out!”

Bruno blinked a few times, staring at the code on his computer. His hands were shaking, and his forehead felt…cold.

I'm…I'm supposed to go with them, Bruno thought. I have to protect Yusei. That's my purpose.

But for the life of him…he couldn't remember where that purpose had come from… 

Chapter Text

Lua was starting to realize that here wasn’t actually real.

He twisted his wrists slight again, but he couldn’t move. There was nothing except blinding light and white surrounding him on all sides. There was no way something like this could be real…he must be in some kind of other dimension.

“That’s right…you’re really smart, Lua…”

Lua sucked in a breath of surprise—his captor was back again.

“Let me go,” he said again. “Please…please, I want to go home.”

His captor shook their head. Even now, Lua couldn’t tell who they were. He knew…he knew that he knew them, but something about this world he was imprisoned in made it impossible for his brain to connect the dots. He tried staring at the person’s face and memorizing the features, but even as he stared, he forgot.

And the longer he stared, the more they just ended up…looking like Luka…

“Stop that,” he said, his voice raising up to another octave. “Don’t wear her face like that.”

They shook their head, looking eerily the same as Luka.

“I only look like what you want to see. That’s how this place works. You want to see Luka, so that’s what you see.”

“Stop it anyway,” Lua said, feeling tears bubble up to his eyes. He had no idea how long he had been in here. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t see anything but white and this fake image of his sister.

The fake Luka reached up to pat him softly on the head, and he tried to flinch away. He was held so fast, though, that he could barely even move his head.

“I’m sorry,” they said, with Luka’s voice now. “I really am…I hate seeing you like this…but if I let your soul go back into your body, you’ll try to get away…you won’t be safe…I have to protect all of you…”

“I don’t want to be protected,” Lua said, wriggling against his bonds. “N-not like this…please…I want to go home…”

“I know…”

The fake Luka actually sounded very, very sad. Genuinely so.

“I couldn’t protect all of you…but this time I will. And that’s why I need your help.”

“I told you, I don’t want to help you—I don’t want to help you do whatever it is you’re doing!”

“We’re going to stop the end of the world together,” they said. “Don’t you want that…? Don’t you want to save the world?”

“Not with you.”

The fake Luka shook their head.

“All I need is you, Lua,” they said, and Lua felt his heart jump into his throat hearing those words come from Luka. “I need you to help me…please…”

They sounded so sad…so desperate…if it weren’t for the circumstances, Lua might have listened. He felt…almost guilty for the way he was behaving. But no, that was just because they were teasing him by speaking with Luka’s voice.

“What…what exactly do you need me to do?”

The fake Luka’s lips parted, and a faint smile came to their lips, as though pleased that Lua was warming up to the idea. Lua wasn’t, but…but anything to keep the person talking. He didn’t want to be alone in here anymore…and maybe he could find something out that Yusei and Judai could use.

The fake Luka waved their hand, and some of the white swirled away like clouds, making an opening in the space in front of Lua. Lua gaped as he stared through to a world below.

It was the strangest thing he had ever seen. There was a big, flat, circular table, so big that Lua thought he could have fit most of the city onto it. A diagram had been etched into the top, gold and sparking, like the lines of a circuit board in the shape of a road map. And…and it was a road map, he realized. He recognized that shape—that was the shape of the city’s new duel lane system. He had stared at the map for hours, planning routes for when he finally got his own D-Wheel and license.

“What is that?” he asked.

“That’s the Circuit,” the fake Luka said. “I built it…it’s a device that can connect two times together.”

“Like…like a time machine?”

“Close…a time machine can bring back a few people at a time…but the Circuit…the Circuit can bring two entire eras together. It can fold time on top of itself.”

Lua’s throat felt dry. The image faded, and he saw, briefly, another room—this one was small, with lots of screens and machines with glowing buttons, and a mass of wires all connected to…to him. He saw himself.

The image vanished quickly, but Lua had seen what he needed to. This place he was in, it was fake. His real body was out in the real world and his soul was being kept in some kind of suspended animation. He needed to find a way free, somehow.

“Why—why would you want to fold time?”

The fake Luka looked up at Lua, and there was sadness in their eyes.

“To stop something horrible from happening,” they said. “To protect everyone.”

Lua swallowed.

“And…and what do you want from me to do that?”

The fake Luka smiled, and touched their hand gently to Lua’s chest for a breath.

“I need the power of your heart,” they said. “I’m collecting the energy of duelists to give it power…but I need a strong fuse to set the gathered energy alight, and bring it to life. I need someone like you.”

“But I don’t have any powers. L-Luka’s the one that has powers. I’m just…I’m just me.”

The fake Luka smiled brighter, and shook their head.

“Don’t you remember the power that coursed through you the night before? When you wanted to protect everyone? The fire in you that was so hard to control?”

Lua hadn’t forgotten, but he had started to think that it had been a dream. He felt it again, now, the little tongue of red fire just under his heart, the faint burning sensation on his right arm. It hadn’t been fake. He had used it to get his—to get his father to go away.

“And your voice could call across dimensions, Lua,” the fake Luka continued. “Remember how you called out to Luka when she was in the spirit world? She could hear you even then. Your heart has power, Lua. Power to draw worlds and times together. You can set the Circuit afire, I know you can.”

Lua’s voice could reach across dimensions…to Luka. Could he make his voice reach her now, from wherever he was?

Or…

…could he maybe do one better?

He swallowed. The image of his body lying with all of those wires plugged into it flashed across his mind. Would he even be able to get back if he did something crazy like this? Could he even do it in the first place? Luka had been able to do it, and she had been able to come back to her body after three months in a coma.

Lua hoped it wouldn’t take quite that long for him to get back.

He saw the face of the fake Luka flicker, the smile fade. That’s right, his captor had been able to hear his thoughts about this place not being real when this conversation had first started, hadn’t they? Were they listening to his thoughts and his crazy plan right now?

“Lua,” they said, their voice sounding suddenly nervous. “Lua, don’t do anything rash. I might not be able to bring you back. You could be lost forever.”

Luka had the power to jump dimensions. Lua had the power to call out across them.

But now Lua had even more power than he knew what to do with, and the red glow was growing, sending a tinge of crimson afterglow across the fake Luka’s features. Their eyes widened, almost terrified, and Lua felt something in him crack a little seeing that expression on his sister’s face.

“Lua,” they said desperately. “Lua, please, you have to stay here, if you move your soul like this, you might not be able to find your way back to your body. You’re safe here, this is a controlled environment, I can bring you back into your own body right now if you want me to, Lua, please.”

“I don’t want to be anywhere near you,” Lua mumbled, his head buzzing with the pressure of his increasing fire. “I don’t want to help you fold time or whatever. I want to go home.”

He pictured it in his mind—the wide, beautiful, sparkling forest that he had seen through Luka’s eyes once when they had connected during her duel. The home of Ancient Fairy Dragon and Luka’s spirit friends.

The white was swirling around them like clouds and there were punches of light streaming through. The fake Luka cried out, reaching for Lua.

“Lua, please!” they cried out. “It’s not safe!”

Lua wasn’t listening—he had found it, the hole that lead through to the world he remembered from Luka’s eyes.

He was going for it.

The fire exploded through him, ripping away whatever bindings held him in place in this pocket of light. He heard the fake Luka scream, only it wasn’t Luka’s voice anymore—it was someone else’s, a deeper, masculine voice that Lua somehow also still knew?

But then the fire was encasing him and he felt like he was flying, rocketing for the hole in the light towards Ancient Fairy Dragon’s home. He could hide there, he could call out to Lua from there, and Ancient Fairy Dragon could take care of him—

His captor grabbed his ankle and he jolted backward. He cried out, kicking wildly, and then his captor screamed as the fire burnt across them.

But Lua had already lost his course and his fire was burning up everything, all of the clouds melting away into a dark, misting rain that coated his eyes and he was falling, screaming as he fell down, down, down, down—and landed, hard, against something coarse and sandy, the dirt getting into his mouth and eyes. He blinked enough to see something like a cold ocean crashing against far away black rocks, to feel the mist of the spray and fog over his skin, to hear the eerie cry of something that wasn’t quite a seagull echo overhead.

And then his fire died out, and he gasped as the blackness took hold in its place before he passed out.

. . .

They needed to be a small group, and they needed to be quick. That meant they needed everyone who had the skills that would get them inside.

Johan volunteered to drive them out there; going on their bikes would be too conspicuous, and it was too far to walk. Johan was one of the only people there who had an actual license to drive a van instead of a bike, anyway.

Manjoume used a few connections to find out what company would be in charge of any mandatory inspections at Ener-D Express, and then made a few calls so that they wouldn’t look out of place when they showed up. Johan’s old beat-up van was easily disguised as belonging to the repair company with some of Judai’s shadow magic, and the rest of the group got the shadow disguise treatment as well.

Yusei glanced across at Judai. Somehow they had ended up on opposite sides of the back seat, with Bruno squished in between them. Sherry was up in the passenger seat beside Johan, not that Yusei would have immediately recognized any of them with Judai’s magic shielding them.

Judai now looked like a short, purple haired young person of uncertain gender, with piercing green eyes. He said that his disguise wasn’t really shadow magic as much as it was letting a little more of Yubel out of him—it was easier to maintain since he had to keep up four other disguises at the same time. Bruno looked like a gaunt man with long black hair in a ponytail, and Sherry like a broader woman with ginger hair and a scar on her right cheek. Yusei wasn’t entirely sure what his disguise looked like, because he couldn’t see it on himself, not even in the reflection of the car window. Judai said he looked older now, like a man in his fifties rather than his late teens. He had covered up his marker with some makeup just in case, and shoved his hair under the hat of the company they were posing as, so that hopefully he wouldn’t be recognized automatically even if Judai’s disguise had to drop. It looked…weird seeing himself without the marker. He had had it for far less time than he hadn’t, but it still felt like so much a part of him now. A remembrance of another time…

He glanced back at Judai past Bruno. They hadn’t gotten much time to talk in between the commotion. He wished he was sitting next to him, even if he didn’t quite look like Judai right now…he still felt like Judai, and there was still Judai behind that piercing gaze.

Yusei wanted to ask him, why did you pick me to come along? I don’t have anything to add that’s not already here.

Bruno had just as much software and hardware knowledge as Yusei did. He could easily get them in and out of the building. Sherry was as skilled as Yusei when it came to fighting, probably more so since she had had some formal training, and she had insider knowledge on Yliaster and this company already that would help them get through smoothly. Judai was the magic source, and Johan the getaway so…what was Yusei doing here?

Judai had looked right at him and asked him “you wanna come?” and Yusei hadn’t been able to say no, not with everyone looking. Not with Judai looking at him like that. He…he wanted to be here, but he didn’t know why…he couldn’t add anything to this group…was he just dead weight…?

A voice startled him out of his thoughts and he realized that Johan and Sherry had begun speaking.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to overstep at all. We have a long drive, thought I'd fill it with some conversation.”

Sherry huffed loudly, and Yusei wondered what Johan had asked that made her look like she had just smelled something nasty. Yusei glanced across at Judai again and this time Judai caught his eye. He mouthed something that Yusei only caught a bit of, but he got the gist that Johan had asked while Sherry was after Yliaster. Oh...that was a bit of a touchy subject, wasn't it? Yusei had thought that Johan had a little more tact than that...

But then, to his surprise, Sherry answered after a beat.

“They killed my parents,” she said. “Would have killed me, too, if they could.”

For a moment, it was quiet. And then Johan sighed softly.

“I'm sorry to hear that,” he said. “That's...a heavy burden for anyone to bear.”

Sherry shrugged.

“It was years ago,” she said. “And I'm not going to give up until the bastards pay for it.”

Judai leaned forward then, putting his hand against the back of the seat.

“I don't want to make you keep reliving it, Sherry-san,” he said, “but...do you know why your parents were killed? I want to try and figure out more about what Yliaster's plans are...but you don't have to answer.”

Sherry huffed and rolled her eyes.

“I want to take them down just as badly,” she said. “I'm not a child who can't handle talking about it.”

She reached into the front pocket of her jacket and pulled out a card, turning its face towards the three in the back.

“Z-ONE?” Yusei read. “A Duel Monsters card?”

“This is what they were after,” Sherry said. “My father designed it. It's an innocent enough spell card. It doesn't do a whole lot game-wise, and I've tested it on multiple Duel Disks. It's completely and utterly unextraordinary.”

She flipped the card back towards her and tucked it into her pocket.

“But I remember my father spent years developing circuit technology,” she said. “And there's a very particular pattern hidden in the foil on the back of the card. Not enough to ruin it being read by the card system, but enough for it to be able to be read by another system.”

“So it's...a card key for something else,” Judai said. “Disguised as a Duel Monsters card.”

“That's what I believe. That's why I broke into Security, so that I could have the computer there analyze it...”

Sherry frowned.

“It didn't work.”

A card with a circuit embedded in it? It would have to be razor thin circuitry, incredibly advanced stuff, to hide it in the foil and then still have it be readable and usable? Yusei felt almost a little excited by the idea in spite of everything—how would something like that even work? If he didn't already know how attached Sherry was to that card, he would have asked if he could study it. Technology like that was something that he would have almost killed for to have a look at back in the slums of Satellite.

“So your father was a circuit engineer?” Johan asked.

Sherry hesitated. She looked...uncertain for a moment. And then she nodded slowly.

“His name was Ulysse. Ulysse LeBlanc,” she said. “Circuitworks.”

“Oh,” Johan said, his breath catching a little. “I know that company.”

“Everyone does.”

Sherry fell silent again. For a moment, there wasn't a single sound in the car but for the hum of the wheels against the pavement.

“My mother's name was Émeline,” she said quietly. “She was good at knitting. Spent most of her time doing it. I had one too many hats and scarves than I knew what to do with. She never quite got the hang of sweaters though. They always came out misshapen.”

The words just sort of tumbled out of her, all at once. It was like a handful of rocks had been pushed out of the way of a river, allowing some of the water to trickle through. Oh, Yusei realized. She must not have thought about the happy memories in a very long time...revenge eats away at those.

“My father was rather useless with anything that didn't involve gadgets. But he liked to try cooking, even though we had staff that did that. Drove the cook mad, because something would get burnt and smell up the kitchen.”

She swallowed harshly then, and pressed a hand to her mouth.

Johan's hand appeared between the seats, then, and Yusei could see him putting a hand gently on her knee.

“They sound like they were good people,” he said kindly. “I'm sure they would be proud of you.”

Sherry sniffled softly, and when she looked up at the road again, Yusei could see in the rearview mirror that her eyes had gone hard again.

“They wouldn't be,” she said, matter-of-fact. “Mother cried about revenge stories. Thought they were too harsh.”

And then she fell silent, and they were left in the uncertain quiet once more.

Yusei wanted to reach over Bruno and grab Judai's hand. But he didn't.

. . .

Aki had no idea Jack could be a mother hen, but she supposed there was a first time for everything.

“Just—walk more slowly, okay?? Lean on me if you need to.”

“I-I'm really okay, Jack,” Carly mumbled. “I can handle a few stairs...”

She didn't look completely fine, still a little shaky, but she definitely looked better than the last time Aki had seen her. Her hair was a little mussed and her glasses askew, but she was clinging to Jack's arms as he led her down the stairs and into house. Aki wondered if Yusei's landlady was going to get upset with them for cramming so many people into this house, but it was the most central location and the easiest to leave at a moment's notice, or she would have offered her own home.

“I really don't know if you should have left the hospital yet,” Jack said worriedly. He looked almost comical with how nervous he was, constantly chewing on his lip and looking white-faced. It was a strange expression for him. “Are you feeling dizzy? Should I get you some water?”

“I'm okay, thanks,” Carly said, trying to smile. “I should really just...sit. Besides, I...I really wanted to talk to all of you...about what I saw...”

Aki helped catch Carly as they reached the bottom of the stairs, helping Jack guide her to the couch. Shou was already walking back from the kitchen with a glass of water for her as Jack sat beside her. Carly smiled gratefully at Shou as she accepted the water, drinking half of it before pausing to breathe.

It was quiet and tense in the house since Yusei and the others had left on their mission. There was nothing they could do but wait and hope.

Luka was upstairs, sulking, with Crow looking after her. She had tried to shout Yusei down about being allowed to go with to look for Lua, but Yusei and the others had ultimately refused. They wanted to be able to move quickly, and Luka was just too young. Luka had screamed a lot about how she was a Signer too, and it had taken everything they all had not to give in. Crow had taken her aside, though, and tried to talk her through it while the others left.

Asuka and Manjoume looked like bookends, both of them with their arms folded as they stood leaned against the wall a few feet away from each other. Asuka caught Aki's gaze and smiled softly, and Aki had to smile back. She never thought she'd be saving the world with her high school teacher of all things.

Carly tried to start speaking, but Jack put a hand on her shoulder, whispering something to her that sounded like 'take your time,' so she hesitated, breathing for a few more moments. She downed the rest of the water and then nestled the cup between her knees, taking a few more deep breaths.

“When I crashed,” she started. “It was because...because I heard something. A melody.”

“A melody?” Asuka echoed, blinking. “What do you mean?”

Carly shrugged helplessly.

“I wish I could explain it...but...but what the melody did was it...showed me things,” she said. “I could see something...something that scared me so badly that I decided to put myself into a coma rather than look at it again.”

She sucked in a deep breath, clearly shaken. In a sudden, and somehow surprising gesture, Jack pulled off his own ridiculously long jacket and draped it over Carly's shoulders, pulling it gently around her.

“It's okay,” he said. “Take it slow.”

Carly swallowed, and nodding, giving Jack a faint, grateful smile. She tugged the jacket around her shoulders a little bit more, trying to collect herself.

Out of the corner of her eye, Aki saw Luka creep to the top of the stairs from the loft, peeking her head around the railing. Crow appeared too, standing behind her with his arms folded, clearly listening as well.

“It was an image,” she said. “A series of them, like a flickering tape. Black and white, black and white, over and over again.”

She swallowed.

“I think...I think I saw Zero Reverse,” she said. “I saw Momentum...that must have been what it was. I saw it spinning backwards.”

A chill came around the room. It...it was too soon. The days of the Dark Signers was still too fresh. A Momentum spinning backwards?

“And there was a second Momentum, too,” Carly said. “Only...only that one was coming from the sky. And it was spinning the opposite way from the one on the ground.”

Her glasses slipped as she ducked her head, and Aki could see how wide and frightened her dark eyes were. She swallowed and it sounded like she was choking for a moment.

“They were coming towards each other,” she said softly. “The one in the sky was being pulled down from the heavens by...but some kind of circuit board. And there were two people screaming. They were calling the other Momentum down, but they didn't want to—but they didn't know how to stop, and it was putting them in serious pain...”

The room was so silent that they could have heard a pin drop in between Carly's words. It was like the entire space was dropping in temperature one degree at a time, and Aki had to hug herself to ward off the chill.

“One Momentum was light, and the other one was darkness,” Carly continued. “And the screams...they were coming from two people—one light, and one darkness. They were trying to stop it, but they couldn't, they didn't know how. It was hurting them. The circuit was pulling them apart, the red flame in the middle was killing them, pulling everything they were out of them. And then, when the Momentums crashed...”

She shuddered, curling in on herself. Jack slid his hands over both of her shoulders to steady her.

“Everything just...ended,” she said. “It was over. There wasn't...anything anymore.”

Carly swallowed again, looking back up. She fumbled with her glasses to press them back on her knees, and the glass between her knees started to slip. Jack caught it and put it down on the floor softly, but the sound still seemed to resonate across the entire room.

Manjoume finally spoke.

“ReBalancing,” he said. “That must—that must be the ReBalancing. The shit we heard about from Yliaster.”

He looked around at the room, at everyone staring at him.

“What? It makes sense,” he said. “Light and darkness. That's what they're trying to do, right? They're trying to 'right the balance.'”

“By crashing two Momentums together?” Shou said. “How would they even do that?”

Crow coughed softly, and everyone looked up at the loft where he was.

“Tell me—more about this 'circuit,'” he said slowly. “And the two people that are being killed by it.”

Carly shuddered.

“I—I don't know,” she said. “I...I don't want to know. I don't want to—believe that—”

“Carly,” Jack said soothingly, rubbing her back. “It's okay. It hasn't happened yet. We can stop it from happening.”

Crow just jerked up from where he was standing, though, his eyes suddenly wide and his jaw clenched.

“One person is light and the other one is darkness, you said,” he said. “That's what you said, right?”

Jack looked like he was going to start shouting at Crow as Carly curled up further, but then, it all hit Aki at once, and she gasped, almost choking on her own air as she pressed her hands to her mouth.

“Oh my god,” she said. Her mind flashed back—to the fight where they had lost Lua. Judai, matching Fujiwara shadow for shadow. Yusei, with the strange white glow and the invisible shield that rippled white every time something struck against it when he ran to save Judai. Their strange behavior when they summoned Hourglass Dragon. “It's—it's them. It's them, isn't it?”

Crow actually vaulted the railing over Luka's head, making her squeak as he swung around to the ladder and slid down it without touching the slats. He hit the ground and made for his bike. Asuka called after him, but Aki was whipping towards hers too.

“Wait,” Carly said suddenly, her voice trembling with panic. “Where...where are Yusei and Judai?”

“We sent them out there,” Crow swore, jamming his helmet onto his head. “Yliaster's tools for the ReBalancing—we sent them what they needed and they're alone out there!”

“I'm calling Johan,” Asuka said, grabbing for her Duel Disk.

Aki grabbed her own helmet and leaped onto her bike without bothering to go for a riding suit.

When she looked back, Carly was standing, her glasses slipped down her nose and her eyes wide and panicked.

“Get them back,” she whispered. “Oh my god...please...don't let them get used for this, please, the world will end, please bring them back—”

Aki just flashed a smile.

“Don't worry,” she said. “That company might as well not exist before my thorns.”

She punched her foot into the gas and tore off after Crow.

Yusei...Judai...I'm coming.

Chapter Text

“Oh, you must be the repair guys they said were coming in. Yeah, go on through, here are your entry badges—Kobayashi at the desk will show you where you need to go.”

Judai fumbled with the badge for a moment, clipping it to the front of his shirt.

“Thanks!” Johan said cheerily to the man in the visitor box, and he pulled the van through the gates of Ener-D Express.

“All right,” Judai muttered. “We're in.”

Johan drove down the long winding road up to the parking lot, and slid the van into a spot close to the exit, pulling all the way through so that he wouldn't have to back out.

“I'll wait here,” he said, leaning around the back seat. “So we can get out of here as quickly as possible—I'm pretty sure running through the doors with Lua in tow won't leave us much start up time.”

“I think you'd be right,” Yusei said. “Thank you, Johan.”

Johan nodded.

“Be careful in there, guys,” he said. “Stay alert. It won't take long before someone realized that they didn't order for any repairs today.”

“We're not stupid,” Sherry said caustically as she unstrapped herself and hopped out, slamming the door behind her.

Judai grimaced at her tough attitude, but maybe that was what they needed right now. He slid out of the car himself, with Bruno tripping behind him. Judai took a moment to readjust to standing after being in the car for a few hours, as well as adjusting to his current body shape. He had only done this a few times, take on Yubel's old human form. It was possible because he and Yubel were fused together, but it was somewhat uncomfortable for both of them. It made his and Yubel's minds synch up more, too, so they couldn't think as independently of each other, and he could feel the way that his own personality changed in minute ways to match more of Yubel's traits. He hoped he wouldn't be too reckless; Yubel wasn't one for thinking things through.

Yusei touched his shoulder gently, bringing Judai out of his thoughts.

“You all right?” he said.

Judai looked up and nodded. It was a little weird seeing Yusei in his illusion disguise—he looked a tad shorter than he actually was, with blond hair that was a little longer in the back than in the front, and his face was thinner. He didn't have the distinctive marker, either, of course.

His eyes, though, were the same. Always the same.

Yusei's hand slid down Judai's arm to reach his hand, and squeezed.

“We're going to be all right,” he murmured.

Judai couldn't express just how calm Yusei's voice and eyes made him. He squeezed Yusei's hand back. He looked different than he normally did, but he was still unmistakably Yusei, and Yusei made Judai feel safe. He was glad Yusei had agreed to come along. The way that Yusei had looked when Judai had asked had made him think he didn't want to, that he was nervous about something, and Judai wished he had had the chance to ask him what. But Yusei had come along after all, and that was good, as far as Judai was concerned.

They could talk about what was bothering Yusei later, when Lua was safely home.

Ener-D Express looked like an ordinary research facility from the outside. Large, square, and mostly boring looking. It was a white-ish color that stood out against the more barren landscape, with the only color coming from the red lettering at the time that spelled the name of the company in English. According to Manjoume, it was an American subsidiary, their first outpost in Japan. They were a fairly new company that had gotten its start by making use of some of the Momentum technology they had managed to get the rights to use, and were pushing the boundaries of what Momentum could do with their state of the art research methods.

And, for some reason, they were holding Lua captive.

Judai fixed his hat, pulling the brim even over his eyes as they approached the doors. Inside, it looked just as ordinary as the rest of it. Just an open reception area, with a few seats and a reception desk at the back. There was a glass wall to the left, through which Judai could see a small cafeteria, presumably for the workers who wouldn't have time to drive the two hours into the city to get lunch in the middle of work. It was mostly empty at this time of day, with just a few people nibbling quickly on sandwiches while flipping through documents, and the food service people starting to bustle behind the counters to get the food ready for the lunch rush.

At the desk, a petite woman of about thirty or thirty-five looked up. She smiled, pushing back her perfectly straight bangs from her face for a moment, although they simply slid right back to where they were before.

“You must be from Bolger & Company,” she said. “I just heard to be expecting you—you're here to have a look at our circuit boards, right?”

“Yes, ma'am,” Bruno said, nodding. By majority vote, they had decided Bruno would be the lead of their fake expedition, since he was the one who would be most skilled at actually fixing things—or more likely, breaking things subtly so that he could be busy working and give them more time. Yusei would have to be free to help them get through any security systems while Bruno kept up the ruse.

“Perfect!” the woman said, standing up. “Here's a map of the facility, our circuit system that needs the work is right over here. If you need any help, just give me a ring; there's a phone line right over there that automatically connects to my desk.”

“Thank you very much,” Bruno said, walking up to accept the map and have a look at where the circuit room was. “This hopefully shouldn't take us too long.”

“We're just glad to have the bugs worked out before something explodes,” she said with a laugh. “Oh, and your entry badges will give you access to the cafeteria, if you all get hungry in the middle. Good luck!”

Bruno nodded, and then he lead the way around the reception counter and to the door in the back.

The hall was long and thin and lead in both directions, with doors on several sides. Bruno waited for the door to fall shut behind them before he said anything.

“Sense anything?” he asked.

Judai closed his eyes. He had been trying to search out Lua's aura all the way here, but he couldn't get a whiff of it. It had occurred to all of them that this could just as easily be a trap, but they didn't have a choice but to try. If there was enough Momentum interference, it could be blocking Judai from sensing Lua until they were inside.

He grimaced.

“Nothing,” he said. “At least...not Lua, specifically.”

He added this last bit with some hesitation, as he suddenly caught a hint of something else. Something...sharp, and metallic, something that left a strange coppery taste on the back of his tongue. It wasn't...normal, he thought. And yet it was somehow...familiar.

“What is it?” Yusei asked, catching the look on Judai's face.

“I'm not sure,” Judai said, peering down towards the right hall. “But it's coming from over there.”

“The circuit room is the other way,” Sherry said, pointing to the left. “We'll go there first, and Bruno and Yusei can get into the security system to give us some time.”

Judai nodded, and they made their way to the end of the hall. Bruno scanned his entry card on the side, and the door opened. Immediately, they were assaulted with a faint whiff of smoke and the buzz and flash of a million lights.

“Wow,” Bruno said, his eyes lighting up like a child in a candy store. “Now this is a system!”

Yusei looked impressed too, walking in to kneel down in front of one node, running his fingers over some of the technology.

“Can you get into the security system from here?” Sherry asked impatiently.

“I think so,” said Yusei. “Bruno, you get me a backdoor while I work on this.”

Bruno saluted, and pulling out a small USB port from his pocket. He plugged it into one of the few computer screens in between the panels, and started to type. Yusei took up a spot on the other computer. Judai hung back against the wall with Sherry. Even in her disguised form, she looked like herself, Judai thought—straight backed, arms folded, a permanent scowl on her face. She drummed her fingers on her arm.

“Should we be keeping a watch?” she asked. “Or something?”

“I think that would be pretty suspicious of us,” Judai said. “After all, we're supposed to be in here. We should probably find something we can use to pretend to be busy if someone walks in, though.”

Judai cast his senses behind him through the door, just to let them know if anyone approached. But while he could sense the life forces of a few people nearby, none of them came near the circuit room.

“We're in,” Yusei said all at once.

“That was fast,” Judai said with surprise, walking over to Yusei.

“Yeah, well, I don't know how long it will work for,” Yusei said, frowning at the screen. “We have...thirty minutes of camera feedback loop. Tops.”

“Great, then we need to move fast,” said Sherry. “Where are you sensing that energy, Judai?”

She rolled the map out onto the floor, and Judai hurried over, kneeling down beside it.

“There,” he said, pointing to the end of the left hallway.

“There's nothing there,” said Bruno.

“Nothing on the map,” said Judai. “I'm going there. Sherry, you see if you can check the rooms on this side of the building, in case we're being duped. Yusei, can you take the rooms on the left side while I make my way down there?”

“Got it,” said Yusei.

“On it,” said Sherry, already moving towards the door.

“I'll hold the fort here and cover you,” said Bruno. “Everyone has their ear pieces, right? I'll contact you if it looks like you're going to run in to anyone.”

“Thanks,” Yusei said, smiling at Bruno. “All right, team...let's go.”

Sherry was already through the door, but Judai hesitated just a moment longer. He glanced at Yusei, who met his eyes, looking questioning.

“Be careful,” was all Judai could say. “I'll see you at the end of all of this, right?”

Yusei smiled.

“Of course.”

* * *

The hall was silent considering this was a work day. Judai had already left Yusei behind and he was creeping closer to the aura he was sensing. It grew stronger as he got closer, keeping an eye out for anyone that might be coming out of another door—he didn't like how quiet it was. Was he right, was this a trap? Was Yliaster waiting for them? Maybe Lua wasn't here at all.

A door snapped open and Judai choked, spinning around.

A tall blond man appeared, blinking at Judai. He was taller than Judai, even if Judai had been in his normal, taller form, dressed in a simple dress shirt and blazer with a coffee cup clutched in one hand. His eyes flickered to the logo on Judai's hat, and then to his jacket. Recognition sparked in his eyes.

“Ah, you're from Bolger & Company,” the man said. “One of the repair group, right?”

“Yes, sir,” Judai said quickly, trying to keep his voice steady.

“What are you doing on this side of the building? Did you get lost?”

Judai latched onto the first excuse he could come up with.

“I was looking for the bathroom,” he said, faking an embarrassed laugh and rubbing the back of his neck. “Got a little turned around, I think.”

“Ah,” the man said, smiling. “That makes sense; our bathrooms are a bit of a hassle to find. Did you ask Kobayashi at the desk?”

“I did, but I must have forgotten what she told me—directions and I don't really get along,” Judai said with a joking tone.

To his relief, the man seemed to buy it, laughing along with Judai.

“I can take you there, don't worry, everyone has a problem with it at the beginning—don't know why we don't have some in the front. I keep putting it to the board that we need better bathrooms, and they keep denying the funds for it. Honestly.”

The man rolled his eyes with a smile, then nodded towards the door he had just come out of.

“Come on, they're this way,” he said.

“Thank you, sir,” Judai said, trying to sound very grateful—he didn't want to go this way, though...the aura was...

He sucked in a breath as he approached the door and a wave of the metallic, shining aura washed over him. This way. The aura was this way. This could be a stroke of luck after all.

The man let Judai in first and then let the door swing closed behind them.

This was a somewhat smaller room, some kind of office, Judai thought. There was another door on the other side, and the room itself contained only a desk, a few computer monitors, and walls covered in diagrams, fliers, and photographs. Judai quickly read the name on the desk plaque—Clark Smith. That must be this man...hold on...wasn't that the name of the building manager?

Judai swallowed as he realized just how deep in he actually was. This was the guy in charge, and he was right under his eyes. Hopefully, Judai's ruse would last.

His eyes flickered around the room as they usually did, taking in everything anything he could note, just to give him information, stabilization. This man was definitely their enemy if he was an Yliaster plant, as they all assumed he was. The photographs were the most interesting, he thought, showing some people he recognized—that was one of Manjoume's brothers standing next to Smith. Manjoume had already said his brothers had connections to Yliaster, although they didn't know what they were involved in. There were a few other figures he recognized too, figures that made his blood go a bit cold—these were high-ranking politicians and big, famous businessmen, one of them even looked like the vice president of the United States, if Judai even remembered who that was in this era.

Most distressingly, as if it couldn't get worse, Judai recognized one of the men in a photo with Smith as the same man who had attacked him and Yusei that day they had both found new Synchro summons, the man who had been able to fuse himself to his D-Wheel like some kind of weird robot...hadn't the man who had saved Judai from falling called him Placido?

If there was ever a sign that this man, and all the people in the photos, were associated with Yliaster, this was it.

“You know a lot of famous people,” Judai quipped, and Smith looked back over his shoulder briefly.

The man laughed.

“Well, you have to make connections to get anywhere in business,” he said. “Most of them are old friends of mine; we're all part of the same special club, if you will.”

He laughed as though at some private joke, and Judai's stomach twisted. Now there was a sign more than anything that Smith, and most of the people in the photos, were members of Yliaster. Maybe on Judai's pass through he'd have another look, see how deep this organization actually went. How screwed they were by taking it on.

But Smith opened up the door on the other side of the room, and let Judai through. It was another long hallway, only this one had more branching hallways. Judai sucked in a breath. There—the hall branching off in between this room and the bathrooms. That was the way that the aura was coming from.

“Bathroom is at the end of the hall,” he said. “You can see the sign from here. I'll leave my door open so you can just pass through this way to get back; it's faster that way. I'm just making another coffee run.”

“Thank you, sir,” Judai said.

Smith waved Judai on with a smile and retreated back into his office. Judai turned towards the bathroom and started to walk down towards it, checking his watch. They had another fifteen minutes of video feed if Bruno's calculations were right. More than enough time.

Judai checked to make sure Smith wasn't looking. Then he bolted down the other hallway, making a breath for the aura. It was—there! The door to his left! Judai pressed up against the wall beside it, checking the handle. Locked.

Well, he could deal with that.

He forced a bit of shadow through his palm and into the card reader that would unlock the door. After a few seconds, the shadows had finished ripping the wires inside to shreds, and the card reader overloaded. He heard the door click unlocked, grabbed the handle, and slowly pushed it open.

He eased it open just a crack, peering through. Through the crack, he couldn't see much at all—there was a big screen on the far wall, and the ceiling was higher than the hall he was in now. A mess of wires tangled up across the floor...

And he could hear someone crying.

Judai's throat closed up. He couldn't sense a human being inside, but he could hear crying. According to his senses, the room was empty. So who was crying...?

He licked his dry lips, pushing forward a little further, trying to stay quiet. He could still hear it, the sound of crying. It sounded...echoey, or metallic even. The harsh white aura was so bright that Judai had to switch to his entirely normal vision so that he could actually see.

“Lua, please,” he heard someone say, and he almost choked. “Please, come back, I can't protect you like this—Lua, please, I can't follow you where you're going, you have to come back!”

They sounded so...broken. Judai felt a strange twist in his stomach. On one hand...it sounded like he had found where Lua had been held. On the other hand...why did his captor sound so distressed?

There was nothing for it—Judai was just going to have to jump in.

He threw the door open, shadows jumping to his hands and coating him with black armored gauntlets, ready to fight. His wings ached to be released, but he held them down for now to save the energy.

As though in surprise, something large and metal twisted around, and Judai—

Judai felt sick as all at once the floor vanished, the room, vanished, everything vanished so that he was hovering in a small pocket of white. His skin crawled—he knew this light, this was—

He cried out as it burned against his skin—he had to drop his disguise entirely and revert back to a human form, wreathing himself in the shadows to protect himself from the burning Light of Destruction. But—but how?? He knew that it was somehow powering the Meklords, but for it to be in use here?? At this level of power??

The metal thing that had turned to see him melted into the light before Judai could get a good look at it. He heard a faint gasp echo around him.

“Who are you?” Judai shouted. “Where's Lua?”

He felt a hand on his shoulder. With a hiss, he jerked back and twisted around, swiping at the hand, but there was nothing there. He twisted among the light, trying to see something, anything—who was he facing and why couldn't he fight back?? How did he get out of this pocket of light??

He heard a soft, choked sound.

“I'm sorry,” a voice echoed. “I'm so, so, so sorry....I'm sorry this is only thing I could figure out to do...”

Judai felt the hand on his shoulder again, barely brushing against him.

“I wish I could feel you,” the voice said in a soft, broken moan. “I—I wish I could hold you again.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Judai said, feeling a strange panic rise up in his throat. “Who are you?”

The hand left his shoulder.

“I'm so sorry,” the voice said again. “My name is Z-ONE.”

The light faded all at once.

“I hope you can forgive me...but this is...the only way.”

Judai fell to his knees on the ground, gasping for breath—he was back. He was out of the light.

The great metal thing that had been there before was gone. Judai couldn't stop the tremble in his arms all at once, the cold that was spreading through his chest and making him choke. He hugged himself—why was he trembling so bad? Why did he feel so sick? What had he...who had he just met...?

“Z-ONE?” he said, testing out the word. It didn't...sound familiar...and yet...why was his heart aching...?

“Judai! Judai, are you there? I think we've been busted, we need to go now! Have you found Lua?”

Judai snapped out of it at the sound of Bruno's voice in his ear. He fumbled with the ear piece, fixing it as he scrambled to his feet. He couldn't talk back to Bruno, but he could get out quick. He was about to run when he suddenly realized he hadn't had a good look at this room yet. There was the screen, and the wires, and the place where the big metal thing had been—and there was a table right where the metal thing had been hiding it before, and on that table was—

“Lua!”

The boy lay prone across the table, with wires hooked up to him on electrodes and an IV drip in his arm. Oh, geez, this was going to be tough to get him out of and get going...

Judai rubbed his palms together briefly, looking at all of the wires. Lua was breathing normally, at least, without any kind of mask...his—his soul was gone, though. This machine must be made to extract a soul and keep it confined while the body was held...and the man had been crying, asking Lua to come back...so had Lua's soul escaped?

He could almost smell the little rips in the dimensional barriers now that he was looking for them, and thought that must be the likeliest conclusion. Lua's body was here, but his soul had been confined, and it seemed as though he had learned to dimension jump like his sister to escape. That made things easier for Judai, at least—he and Luka could jump worlds and go looking for him, and as far as he knew, Yliaster could not.

He just had to get Lua's body to safety first. Judai carefully started to remove all of the wires attached to the electrodes, insulating Lua's body from any shocks with a thin layer of shadow. He finished unhooking him and hoped that he wasn't doing this badly—he didn't want to cause any problems later but he didn't have time to study this machine and figure out how to undo it correctly.

Judai winced as he carefully peeled the tape away from the IV. He really didn't have the materials to do this safely...

“Judai, I don't know if you can hear me, but our exit was cut off, we had to go down the end of the opposite hallway from the circuit room and block ourselves into the warehouse. Come quickly, we're not sure how to get out of here!”

Judai swore. He dug in his pocket for the only thing he had that would work as gauze, a handkerchief, and pulled back the last of the tape. He pressed the folded up handkerchief to just above the IV and used some of the leftover tape to press it down as tight as he could, then he pinched off the IV and eased it out of Lua's arm. The handkerchief started to grow red fairly quickly—he'd have to do a better job of that later, for now, he used his shadows to press down on the wound and hopefully stay the bleeding. Now Lua was free, and he hefted the boy onto his back.

—No time to change back into our form— Yubel said. —Just go!—

Judai complied, bolting back out into the hallway with Lua on his back. Outside the room, he realized there was an alarm screaming down the hallway, lights flashing. A few people ran down the hall past him, skidding to a stop as they saw what he was carrying. He heard shouts and decided to ignore them, bolting for the office he had come through.

To his surprise, the door was still open—he thought he would have to punch through. Luckily, though, Smith wasn't there. Clean shot.

The other door was closed, though, and with Lua on his back, Judai couldn't get the door kicked down. He fumbled with the handle but it was locked—dammit!

He had to let Lua down to the ground gently, leaning him back against the wall. He'd get this door open and then—

“Here, he went this way, into Mr. Smith's office!”

Judai swore at the voices from the other room—he wasn't fast enough!

He turned and bolted for the other door, slamming it shut and sliding the lock closed. That should give him enough time to get the other door down!

He ran back to the other door—he was too fast, though, and his foot slipped on a fallen photograph from the wall. He yelped as he went down, landing hard on his back—for a moment, his head spun, and he couldn't breathe. His wind came back quickly enough, though, and he rolled back onto the balls of his feet in a crouch. He was just about to spring up and get the door down when something caught his eye—a photograph. It was one of the bunch that had been pasted lower on the wall since it was so full of photos, and Judai hadn't noticed it on his way in when he was standing upright. But now he was crouched down right at eye level with it, and he could feel the ice seeping into his chest and horror pulsing through him as he saw what was in the photo.

Oh god, he thought. This...this is a joke, right? It's—it's not real.

In the photo, like all of the others, Clark Smith was there smiling from the side as though he were introducing the other two figures to each other who were shaking hands. One of the others was someone Judai didn't recognize, but he looked like some kind of businessman, or investor, or something, in a dark suit and with balding hair.

The other one was Johan Andersen.

Chapter Text

Thirty minutes earlier

Yusei sent one last glance at Judai's back, and then went to work unlocking the door. He cracked it open briefly, peeking inside. It wasn't an office, like he had expected—it appeared to be some kind of hologram room, with a big table in the middle. It looked like one of those antique Battle Box tables from the beginning of Duel Monsters, only this one was a little more high tech than the old boxes Yusei had seen in the dumpsters.

Yusei slipped inside and closed the door behind him. No sign of Lua, but he could get through the door on the other side and start looking through the rest of the building. He checked his watch. They had about twenty-five minutes left of feedback loop.

"I think Judai's on the scent of something, he managed to talk his way out of that," Bruno's voice came through Yusei's earpiece. "Yusei, find some cover, that man Judai was just talking to is on his way into the room you're in!"

Yusei swore—he looked around the room, but the only thing he could see to hide behind was the table, and he didn't have time to unlock the other door. He dove behind it as the door swung open.

"Just tell him to be patient, you don't make reality bending technology overnight! We're working as fast as we goddamn can—yes, yes, all right, I'll send you the progress report this evening."

He was on a cellphone, Yusei thought as he peered briefly around the corner of the table. A tall American man with short blond hair and a ruffled suit—he must be the building manager, Clark Smith. Yusei had looked up his picture before they left. Of all the people to run into.

Yusei edged around the table as the man shut his cell phone, looking irritated as he crossed the room. Yusei moved so that the table was always in between them. He counted his breaths, and then, when the man's back was turned and he was busy jingling his keys in the lock of the door, Yusei bolted for the hallway.

He almost made it completely clear, but he was at least in the hallway when the man glanced back over his shoulder.

"Oh, are you looking for the bathroom too?" he said.

Yusei's breath caught—but it seemed like he had gotten into the hallway in time, the man thought he was just passing by the open door. Yusei's eyes quickly darted around and he noticed the door to the cafeteria was right across from them.

"They sent me on a coffee run," he said quickly, jerking his thumb towards the door. "I just—happened to see the table in there and I got curious. That's a Battle Box style table, isn't it?"

The man looked impressed, turning away from the door to look Yusei up and down. Yusei held his breath—he knew, logically, that he was disguised, but…

"I'm surprised, most people don't know what these are anymore," he said.

"I see 'em in junkyards a bit when I'm looking for elusive parts," Yusei said, trying to shrug casually. "That's a new one, though."

"Yes, it's something of a pet project among some of the staff," the man said with a laugh. "People come and mess with it on breaks. You're welcome to come take a look!"

Yusei hesitated—this seemed kind of dangerous but…

If he could do at least one thing, he could distract the man in charge for as long as possible.

"That's very kind of you sir," he said, stepping into the room.

"Do you have any cards on you? We can have a look at what this thing can do," the man said.

Yusei never went anywhere without them, but he withdrew his deck a little nervously. He had a distinctive deck and since the Fortune Cup, he hadn't been exactly unknown in the dueling circuits. Would he be recognized? But he had to distract this man for as long as possible.

"I hope I'm not distracting you from anything for my curiosity," he said.

Smith was already pulling his own deck out of his inside pocket, setting his coffee cup aside. He laughed and shook his head, pointing at the cup.

"I was just going for my coffee break," he said. "And I'm always ready to show off a bit."

He laughed again as he shuffled his cards, and Yusei cracked a smile. He just had to remember, he wasn't Yusei right now. He was some nameless repair man who was interested in old dueling tables. He would have to make absolute certain he didn't use his most distinctive cards—Stardust was out of the question.

"Yusei," Bruno's voice hissed in his ear. "Be careful...I think Sherry might be getting a little reckless."

Yusei couldn't make any acknowledgment that he had heard, so he just scratched under his ear once and then returned to shuffling his own cards.

"Let's make things a little more interesting!" Smith said suddenly. "Have you ever played Duel Monsters with memory rules?"

"Memory rules?" Yusei said, blinking.

The man's smile was wide as he set his deck on the table, then spread it out so that all his cards were scattered across the table.

"It's simple," he said. "You call out what you want to do—summon a monster, play a spell, activate a trap, etc...and then you pick a card and flip it over. If it matches what you wanted to do and the conditions are right, you can then activate it."

Yusei's stomach dropped. Goddammit—if he didn't know what he was turning over, he might reveal himself. This seemed more dangerous. Was this man suspicious of him, or just legitimately interested in a new way of playing the game?

"That sounds interesting," Yusei said, trying to keep his voice smooth. "All right, let's try it."

He spread his own cards out on the table, tightening his jaw as he waited for Smith to make the first move.

"I'll summon a monster," he said, flipping over a card. "Ah, what luck!"

Level six Hexa Knight, Yusei read. It's effect would let it be special summoned when the opponent had no monsters on the field—that was a lucky draw. The table hummed softly and a miniature Hexa Knight rose up out of the table, standing up and hefting its shield.

"I think I'll end my turn with that," Smith said. "Do you get the idea?"

Yusei nodded quietly, glancing over his cards. The chances of drawing a monster were very slim—it would take a miracle to know which was which without looking. That's why it was called a memory duel, he guessed—the more cards you turned over the more you would know the location of. Besides, Yusei didn't have to win, he just had to buy time.

"I'll summon a monster," he said, choosing a card at random. No luck—it was Scrap-Iron Scarecrow. He memorized the card before flipping it back down, at least he could block one attack next turn. "I'll activate a spell." No good there, either, it was Junk Synchron, and when he tried to activate a trap, he turned over a spell.

He couldn't find anything he could actually do, but at least he had found the locations of a few of his cards, and he could start making a strategy. This was—actually a kind of fun way to play, he thought. He felt a little excited in spite of himself for his next turn, his mind turning with plans for the cards he had revealed.

Smith took his turn then, humming softly.

"Let's see...I think I'm going to..." he started.

A cell phone jingle buzzed from his front pocket, and his brow furrowed with irritation.

"One moment please," he said, pulling his phone out and flipping it open to look at the caller id. He frowned and hit to answer.

"What is it? I thought I told you I was—"

He stopped halfway through the sentence, mouth hanging open and his face briefly going pale.

"Oh, my apologies, sir, I thought you were someone else—yes, yes, this is him."

He listened for a moment, and then his face changed, eyes flickering towards Yusei. Yusei tensed in spite of himself—something was wrong.

He didn't have a chance to react, though, before Smith reached under the table and hit a button. Yusei whirled at the sound of the door crashing shut behind him. He swore—he heard the lock click shut and he knew he was trapped. What—how—

"Yes, sir, I have him here," Smith said, eyes fixed on Yusei as Yusei whipped around. "Yes sir."

He closed his phone and tucked it back into his pocket.

"Mr. Fudo, is it?" he said. "My apologies for the inhospitable treatment, but my superior would like to have a few words with you."

"How did you know?" Yusei said, knowing there was no point in playing dumb after that.

"Let's just say we had an anonymous tip," Smith said. "Well...we have some time before security gets here...how about we finish our game while we wait?"

The man's smile was much crueler, now, and Yusei felt his blood go cold. How did they find out? Oh god, Bruno and Sherry and Judai—

"Y-Yusei, I think they got us, Sherry and I are falling back, I think we're going to get cornered—meet us in the warehouse at the end of the hall, we should be able to get out that way!"

That was if Yusei could get out of this room! His jaw clenched and his fists rolled up under the table. Would that button Smith had used open the door? He knew he could take the man on easily enough; he was a skinny, slender sort of person that had clearly never lifted much more than a sheaf of papers.

"Open the door," he said.

"Now, now, is it like a duelist to run away from a match?" Smith said with a laugh. "By the way...I'm going to be activating a spell. Fair Exchange."

Yusei tensed against the table—he didn't know what to do, he had to get out of here! He was going to have to fight him and then see if he could either break the door down or hack his way out.

A buzz started at the base of his skull. What was that? That tingling sensation? It was almost like—almost like a tiny, tinny voice in the back of his head, so far away that he couldn't hear it. What...was it?

"I can send three cards from my deck to my graveyard, and for the combined levels of any monsters sent to the graveyard, I can destroy as many cards in my opponent's deck."

Shit—while Yusei had been distracted by that voice, Smith was actually making a really good move—

"I wonder if fate will smile on me for this one," Smith said with a laugh, turning over his first card—level ten Decago Knight.

Yusei's entire body tensed up as Smith turned over another Decago Knight—and then another. A total of thirty levels—thirty cards from his deck! Shit, he didn't have time for this—

Summon me.

Yusei almost choked—the voice was there again, only it was loud enough for him to hear this time—a tingly, fizzy sort of voice that felt like it was made out of sparkles.

"What?" he mumbled automatically.

"I said, thirty cards go from your deck to the graveyard," Smith said. "What's wrong, Mr. Fudo—I thought you were a duelist with some pride. You know, if you win, the door might unlock."

Yusei jaw clenched, and he slowly gathered up thirty cards from the table, setting them aside. He only had ten cards left, and he had been so flustered he was sure he had scooped away Scrap Iron Scarecrow. He had nothing to block Smith's next attack.

"I'll summon a monster," Smith said, sounding smug as he easily flipped over another monster—Triangle Knight. He must be cheating, how was he getting everything he needed? "They'll both attack you directly for a total of twenty seven hundred points!"

Yusei flinched as the Solid Vision swords briefly glanced over him, and his hands dug into the table. He had to do something to get out of here. Fighting Smith hand to hand seemed like the fasted option—

SUMMON ME.

Yusei gasped, the voice feeling like a soft punch to the gut. What—who was that? The voice was all...fizzy with sparkles—no, not sparkles. With stardust.

Yusei's eyes flickered to his extra deck. Was...was Stardust...talking to him...?

His hand moved over the table almost by itself.

"I activate the effect of a trap sent to my graveyard, Limiter Break," he said. "When it's sent to the graveyard, I can special summon one Speed Warrior from my hand, deck, or graveyard."

Smith just smirked a bit as Yusei shuffled through his graveyard to find Speed Warrior, the miniature roller skater appearing on the field.

"A last ditch effort to be sure," he said. "But I admire your tenacity, using the graveyard to make up for your lack of skill in this version of the game."

Yusei wasn't listening, his hands were in autopilot.

"I summon a monster," he said, reaching for a card—he didn't know how, but he knew what it was.

Clark's smirk drooped a little when the card revealed was Junk Synchron.

"And what do you think you can do with that?" he said.

"This," Yusei said, feeling a grin start in spite of himself. "First, when Junk Synchron is summoned, I can special summon a level two or lower monster from my graveyard. I'll summon Sonic Chick!"

Sonic Chick squealed as it appeared on the field, pattering across to meet the other two holograms.

"And then, when I have a Tuner on the field, Quillbolt Hedgehog can be summoned from the grave!"

The little hedgehog bounced onto the field and joined them. Yusei could see Smith's eyes flickering between the cards, his lips moving as though counting levels.

"It adds up to eight," he said for him. "I'll tune Junk Synchron with Speed Warrior, Sonic Chick, and Quillbolt Hedgehog."

At. the back of his mind, Stardust hummed with excitement, vibrating Yusei's entire body. What was happening that he could all of a sudden hear Stardust?

That wasn't the most surprising thing that happened, though. Because when the synchro summon animation began, those glowing green hoops were much, much bigger than the dueling table should have been able to handle.

Smith actually screamed as the light condensed and a full sized Stardust Dragon materialized inside the room. Yusei was shoved back by the sudden tail in the room, pressing him back gently against the wall. Stardust was too big for the tiny room, hissing as it twisted its head around. It shoved its face into Smith's, making the man scream again and fall to the ground.

"What the hell!" he shouted. "What are you doing?!"

I would really like to know the answer to that myself, Yusei thought dizzily.

Stardust's head swung around then, staring at Yusei. It huffed once, and Yusei actually felt air ruffling his face, a cool, metallic sort of scent on the dragon's breath.

You should have summoned me much sooner, Stardust huffed.

Then it opened its maw and Yusei swore, ducking down underneath its tail.

The silver, crackling energy exploded through the door, melting it instantly and leaving behind a hole with melted metal edges.

Go. Now.

For just a second, Yusei couldn't move. What was happening? He wasn't a psychic duelist, he didn't have the power to hear or see spirits like Judai and Luka, what was—how was this happening?

GO! Stardust screeched, and Yusei scrambled to his feet. He grabbed his cards off the table, shoved them into his pocket, and bolted into the hallway. He could still hear Stardust stomping around inside the tiny room and wondered dizzily how much damage his dragon was doing—part of him wondered wildly for a moment if somehow he had lost Stardust, like he was leaving the dragon behind.

But then he felt a soft, fizzy feeling like carbonation right underneath his skin, and he knew in his gut that Stardust was back in his deck.

He could think about what the fuck had just happened later. Now they had to get out of here.

Yusei bolted down the hallway towards the warehouse on the other side where Bruno had said he and Sherry were going. He hoped to god that Judai had heard too and was on his way...

A siren screamed through the building, then, and Yusei swore. Doors burst open and people starting flooding out in all directions, filling the hallway. Yusei put his head down, pulled his hat over his eyes, and darted around the flood of people towards the warehouse. He smacked into the door with his shoulder and fumbled with the handle—locked?

But it opened, then, and he tumbled through, Bruno grabbing him by the shoulders and finding his eyes, wide and wild. He wasn't in his disguise anymore, and neither was Sherry—that meant Yusei's disguise had dropped too, and that meant Judai wasn't maintaining them anymore.

"Where's Judai?" Bruno said.

"I—I don't know, he didn't get here yet?" Yusei's heart fluttered with panic—if their disguises weren't holding and Judai wasn't here, did that mean he had gotten caught? No, no, he must just have needed to redirect his magic, there was no way Judai could fall so easily.

Sherry shoved the door closed behind them, leaning her shoulder against it as she peered through the thin window. Yusei had the space of a breath to take stock of their location.

They were in a huge warehouse, or maybe some kind of testing facility. Five large stands held what appeared to be giant pods, like futuristic magna train cars. Huge shipping containers lined the walls, with some sort of computer apparatus at the foot of each of the pod stands. The ceiling had some kind of apparatus that looked like it was meant to pick up the pods and move them along a series of tracks at the top, which ran to the end of the room where a glass panel took up half the wall, a space just big enough for the pods to go through. There must be something else that they had to go to on the other side of the glass.

"Here he comes!" Sherry said suddenly. "He's got Lua!"

Yusei's attention snapped back to the door. Sherry yanked it open and Yusei slipped around her—Judai careened down the hall with an unconscious Lua flapping on his back. Yusei reached out and caught him by the shoulders, drawing his arms around both him and Lua and pulling them inside.

Judai almost melted against Yusei, his arms sagging and almost losing Lua. Bruno caught the boy before he slipped off of Judai's back, gathering him up into his arms.

"Are you okay?" Yusei asked. "What happened to Lua?"

Judai just gasped for breath, face burrowed against Yusei's chest.

"He's—soul in spirit world," Judai mumbled. "It's fine, I—we can find him, we just have to—get his body to safety."

Yusei nodded, holding Judai tight against him. He seemed so shaky, more shaky than Yusei would have expected out of him, even considering their situation. He ran his fingers briefly through Judai's hair, trying to help him calm down.

"How did they find out?" Sherry said, locking the door and peeking through the window. "What happened?"

Yusei shook his head, still holding Judai tightly.

"I don't know; I was trying to distract Smith, when he got—he got a phone call, and that's when he knew and he tried to lock me in."

"You mean someone sold us out?" Bruno said, eyes wide. "But—who even knew we were—"

Judai stiffened in Yusei's arms, and Yusei looked down at him quickly. Judai's fingers tightened into Yusei's shirt, his face looking pale and strained, eyes wide. He looked like he was going to be sick.

"Judai?" Yusei said. "What's wrong?"

Judai shook his head—he didn't look like he could speak, he was still breathing so heavily.

"We need to get out of here before security realizes we're in here," Sherry said. "There should be another exit into the loading dock on the other side of this room. We can circle around and rendezvous with Johan in the back—"

"No!" Judai said suddenly.

Everyone looked at him, surprise ringing in Yusei's ears.

"What?" Yusei said. "What's wrong?"

Judai looked like he was about to pass out. He pushed out of Yusei's arms and put a hand to his forehead.

"We—" he started. He swallowed, his voice sounding tight. "I saw—"

He bit down hard on his lip, shaking his head and closing his eyes. Yusei took his shoulders.

"Judai, what is it?" he said. "Please, just say it."

"We're out of time!" Sherry said. "Security guards coming this way, we have to go!"

She shoved on Bruno's back, pushing him towards the other side of the room. Bruno hefted Lua into his arms and scurried off. Yusei grabbed Judai's hand and they both bolted. He wanted to stop, to make sure he knew what was wrong with Judai, what was making him act like this, but he knew they didn't have time—he wanted to stop and talk about what had happened with Stardust Dragon, too, but there wasn't any time for that either. Could he do it again? Could he bring out Stardust again to give them some extra time?

He didn't feel any of the same fizz from before, and he had a feeling it wasn't going to work again.

They reached the other side of the building. Bruno had transferred Lua over to Sherry while he fumbled for his tools, trying to unlock the door.

"It's no good, they've manually locked the whole building down," Bruno swore. "I'm going to have to fry the circuit board."

"Can you do that?" Sherry said.

"If I have enough time!"

Yusei turned towards the door, fists up—he didn't have his duel disk, but he could fight if he had to. The door on the other side of the room bulged as the security guards tried to force their way through—it seemed the manual shut down was slowing them down too.

A loud feedback sound briefly coursed through the room, making Yusei clap his hands to his ears with a groan. It squealed once more before a voice came out over the speakers.

"You are currently surrounded, Mr. Fudo and friends," Smith's voice came through the speakers. "Even if you get that door open, guards are already waiting outside. We ask that you turn yourselves over quietly."

"Not a chance, you fuck!" Sherry shouted.

Smith tutted softly into his microphone.

"Let's make a deal, can't we? My employers are interested in having a chat with Misters Fudo and Yuki. If the two of you turn yourselves in along with the boy you've so rudely kidnapped, the other two can go."

"Yeah, right, like that's an option," Yusei muttered.

He looked around the room for something, anything that he could use. What about those pods?

Yusei bolted across to the closest stand, looking over the display screen. His head spun just looking at it—this was absolutely nothing like any of the technology he had worked with, and he couldn't quite make heads or tails of it. He knelt down and pried the case off of the control panel, searching through the wires. What was this for? He fiddled with a few wires, fumbling for his screwdriver. Maybe he could make something explode, that tended to make people back off. He wasn't sure what this system was for, but anything with wires could be convinced to catch fire.

"Mr. Fudo, I wouldn't play with that," Smith's voice echoed through the room. "In fact...I'd step back before you get burned, because I'm about to turn the system on."

Yusei jerked his hands back from the wires just in time as the machine groaned to life. The air got thick for a moment, and he almost choked—static filled the space and he could feel his hair starting to stand on end. What was happening?

He stumbled up to his feet, falling back against Judai's supportive hands.

"What is that?" Judai shouted over the sudden loud hum in the room.

Yusei looked up to see what Judai was staring at—and his throat dried up.

Through the glass panel on the other side of the room, the air was turning a deep, smokey magenta. It swirled slowly at the ceiling like some kind of upside down hurricane, the ceiling seeming to open up right at the center and into a white bubble of light. Yusei's eyes leaped back down to the panel.

"Oh my god," he mumbled. "That's—that's still theoretical."

"What is going on?" Sherry shouted.

"Yusei, do you know what this is?"

Yusei's whole body tensed, and he had to wipe the sweat off of his brow.

"It's—it's some kind of particle splitter, but it's on a larger, bigger scale than I thought was possible," he said. "They're—they're literally splitting reality in here, Judai—we need to get out, now!"

The air was getting so thick and heavy, it was hard to breathe. When he tried to jog back over to Bruno and Sherry, it took enormous amounts of energy just to peel his feet off of the ground. He had read about shit like this in scientific journals but it was illogical, completely out of range of today's current technology.

"Is that a time splitter?" Bruno asked, looking up from his work to find Yusei's eyes, his own eyes wide.

"I think so," Yusei said. He felt a strange sense of comfort knowing that at least Bruno understood just how terrifying this was. The pods were probably built for insulation against this kind of shit, but if the rest of them were in here too long...they'd be sucked into the wormhole, and if they didn't just die instantly from the immense gravity, there was no telling where—or when—they would end up. "How long before you get the door open?"

"I don't know," Bruno said, sounding frightened. "We'll get caught out there anyway."

"You leave that part to me," Judai said, but he was breathing really hard, and Yusei wondered how much strain he had been through today.

"Well these bastards aren't taking me alive," Sherry said viciously.

Yusei winced. He didn't exactly want to die in here.

"If you promise to surrender, I'll turn the machine off," Smith said over the speakers. "That's all it takes. Stop this foolishness and just hand yourselves over."

Judai grabbed for Yusei's hand, and Yusei automatically gripped it back.

"I'm sorry, I should be able to do something," Judai whispered. "But—ugh, this air...I can't focus..."

He looked even paler than before, and horribly exhausted. Yusei was feeling it too, the air was getting even harder to breathe and he felt like he was getting compressed. He couldn't focus either. He squeezed Judai's hand, pulling him closer to him so that they were standing shoulder to shoulder.

"Hang in there, we're going to get out of here," he whispered.

Judai looked up at him, and Yusei was shocked to see that there were—tears in his eyes.

"Yusei," he mumbled. "I saw something—in Smith's office—it was—"

Judai didn't get to finish his sentence, because the wall exploded.

Debris tumbled down over the floor as light poured through the hole. Yusei had to squint, through his hand over his eyes against the sudden explosion of sunlight.

He had never, ever been more happy to see thorny vines crawling in through the crack than he was right then.

Aki stood silhouetted at the top of the rubble, her duel disk held high and hair whipping in the wind from Black Rose Dragon's wings.

"Let's go!" she shouted.

Yusei grabbed Judai by the shoulder and whipped him towards the hole, then grabbed Bruno and heaved him up to his feet. Sherry was already going, clambering up the rubble with Lua in her arms. Aki dropped to one knee and reached out. She grabbed Sherry's arm and then one of her vines snaked out to cradle Lua, pulling him out through the hole. Yusei started climbing up too, and another face appeared in the space.

"I've got you!" Johan said, catching Yusei by the elbow. "God, what happened in there?"

Johan heaved Yusei up and over the entry, and Yusei's head spun as he dropped down onto the solid bulk of what appeared to be a mammoth.

"Car's out," Johan said, gasping for breath. "They almost got me in the parking lot, lucky for us that Aki and the others showed up when they did."

Yusei couldn't see for the sunlight for a few minutes, but as his vision returned, he saw the chaos of the parking lot. Manjoume's Ojama King was pile driving a trio of security guards, while Asuka's trio of Cyber Angels held off a group of guards on motorcycles. The air whined with the hum from one of Shou's helicopter monsters. He hung out the side, reaching out a hand.

"I can't get any lower than this, let's go!" he shouted.

Johan steadied Yusei up on top of the mammoth, helping him make the jump for Shou's hand. Shou heaved Yusei up into the copter with some difficult, and then Bruno followed after him. Judai clambered up next, and then Johan was swinging in behind them.

"Where's Sherry and Lua?" Shou asked.

"Aki's got them," Johan said, gesturing. Yusei leaned out a little from the helicopter monster to look—Aki crouched on the back of Black Rose Dragon, lifting off into the air with Lua cradled against her, Sherry holding onto her back for dear life.

They lifted off, away from the building, leaving the wreckage and chaos behind. Yusei's heart hammered in his chest as he leaned back into the machine, trying to get his air back. They had—somehow—made it. They were all okay, they had Lua, and they were out.

Yliaster has a time machine, he thought suddenly, it hitting him all at once. They can make wormholes—that shouldn't be possible yet. We don't have the technology in this era yet—

Yusei's blood chilled.

Is Yliaster from the future...?

Judai time traveled to his era somehow. Could he have possibly gotten involved with Yliaster in another timeline, and fallen through? Was that what had happened?

Everything is connected somehow, he thought. I—I need to talk to Judai about this.

He turned towards Judai, mouth open, but then something made him stop. Judai's face was still pale and drawn, as though they hadn't just gotten out of a scrape safe and sound. He was staring across the helicopter bay. Yusei followed his gaze to...

Johan? Why was he looking at Johan like that?

Johan all at once seemed to notice Judai's stare, and he looked up from where he had been glancing down at the world below.

"Is something wrong?" he said. Concern washed over his face, and he shifted forward. "Are you okay? Did you get hurt when we busted through?"

Judai swallowed. He licked his lips briefly.

"I...need to talk to you," he said quietly.

Johan's lips parted, his brow furrowing.

"What happened in there?"

He glanced quickly at Yusei, but Yusei shrugged—he didn't know what was getting Judai so worked up either.

Judai's eyes dropped to the floor.

"When we get back," he said. "We need to talk."

Johan looked...worried, his brow furrowed and shoulders tense.

"O...kay," he said, looking uncertain. "Are you okay?"

Judai just looked at the floor. Yusei tried to slide his hand across the floor to touch his hand, but Judai's fingers skittered away, so subtly that Yusei wasn't sure he had done it on purpose or not. Something had really spooked Judai...what was wrong?

He guessed he was going to have to wait, too.

At the very least...they had gotten Lua out. They were together again. Everything was going to be okay now...right?