AN: I'm back with another Arc-V story, this time revolving around what would happen if Zarc was revived earlier. Dub names are used. Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V is owned by NAS, TV Tokyo & 4K Media Inc.

The stage has been set. Yuya, Yugo and Yuri all stood facing each other. Yuya had already absorbed Yuto and the sky in the Synchro Dimension was changing. Zuzu looked up. She somehow knew she had to reach Yuya before something worse happened, except, she was too far away from the location Yuya was at.

"The time of our revival is now!" Yuri shouted. His goon squad, understandably, were completely dumbfounded.

"Uh, Yuri?" one asked as Yuri advanced towards Yugo. As if he was in some sort of trance, Yugo himself advanced towards him and in a flash, Yuri disappeared. "Where did he go?!" one of the force inquired looking around but everyone else was too dumbfounded and scared to much less do anything. It was now a race for Zuzu to reach the area and Yuya before Yugo got to him first. She ran as fast as she could, following the directions her bracelet was giving her. Only she was too late, arriving just in time to see Yugo grab Yuya and say, "ONE!" before launching himself into him. Yuya then passed out on the floor. No one knew what to do. Should they summon a doctor or call Declan who had his own troubles to deal with? Everyone watched as Yuya began to change. His body lengthened and his clothes changed into a hybrid between his, Yugo, Yuto & Yuri's outfits. His hair shot up and stayed there. Everyone darn near froze in fear when they realized the inevitable had happened. He was back. Meanwhile, the storm turned the Synchro Dimension back to the way it was before. Only the question was: What was before it?

Everyone watched as the man got up and brushed himself off. They saw someone who looked about 17-18, far from Yuya & Yugo's age of 14. His face resembled Yuya's quite a bit, only a little older and more mature. No one wanted to make the first move to either approach him, much less arrest him, in fact, Yuri's goon squad shot out of the area like a rocket. Only Riley mustered enough courage to approach him. "Uh, Yuya?" he asked. Big mistake as the man whirled around, grabbed Riley by the shirt and lifted him clean off the ground.

"Wrong answer, kid. The name is Zarc!" he said before placing him down. Riley scooched away in fear.

"What should we do?" Riley asked, clearly traumatized by Zarc's attack on him. Needless to say, no one could go get help without one staying behind to keep Zarc from escaping and after witnessing his attack on Riley, no one wanted to stay behind with him. Eventually, they decided to call Declan over to the location, which was, fortunately for them, near the site but Declan was dueling Security at the moment so they had no choice but to wait. After some time had passed, Declan finally cleared Security and made his way to the location and the first thing he noticed was Yuya's conspicuous absence.

"Where's Yuya?" he asked. Sora approached.

"If it's any concern to you, apparently, there was no Yuya Sakaki. He never existed", he stated. Declan pushed his glasses up as he processed this information. He then saw the older man sitting next to him and recognized him almost immediately.

"You. You're the one whom Leo would rambling about", he stated. Sora nearly trembled. Sometimes, in his late night jaunts around Duel Academy, he would sometimes hear the Professor rant about "The Devil" and how he "took his daughter away from him." Everyone secretly admired Declan for just being willing to approach a man who developed a reputation as "The Devil Duelist" and scared the crud out of everyone at the sheer mention of his name but was the rep earned or was there something else going on here? "Get up", he ordered. Zarc hesitated.

"Uh, I'm perfectly comfortable right here?" he managed.

"You're in no position to be mouthing off. Now get up!"

"Okay, geez, you sound just like my mother", Zarc stated that last part under his breath as he got up. He turned to Sora.

"You, get his deck", he ordered. Sora turned and looked for Zarc's deck, which he found and needless to say, it was a little different then Yuya's and looked more like a hybrid deck of different archetypes, including Yuya's Preformapals, Yuto's Phantom Knights, Yugo's Speedroids and Yuri's Predator Plants. He picked it up anyway and put it in his pocket. Declan then turned his attention back to Zarc. "As for you, you're under arrest", he announced as he placed a binding on his hands, binding them together so he couldn't use them. Zuzu and Celina watched all this in surprise. Yuya, Yuto, Yugo and Yuri were the same man? What is going on here because if Yuya and his counterparts were the same person, does that mean, their whole lives were a lie?

"What are you going to do to him?" Riley asked as he, Sora, Moon Shadow and Declan escorted Zarc through parts of the newly rejuvenated city.

"I'm not going to torture him if that's what you're wondering. I simply intend to get information about what's really going on here", Declan stated.

"But what if he won't talk?"

"He'll talk. I'll make sure of it", Declan stated as they took a skyway back home, that is, if there was a home to go back to. They weren't sure that since the Synchro Dimension had transformed due to Zarc's rebirth, the other dimensions were gone as well, much less if they actually existed anymore. It turned out that exactly was the case as the skyway took them into the town square and back from a different part of town, meaning everything was reset before Zarc had destroyed it. Declan looked around the town square, trying to find his office. "Odd, my office was somewhere here", he stated, looking around. Zarc smirked.

"Everything you remembered is gone", he stated. Declan whirled around at him but didn't say anything. Finally, he found the office, the Leo Corporation, if it was the exact same office. The slogan said the following: Leo Corporation, We pride ourselves in making the greatest Cards and Dueling equipment for all your Dueling Needs! Declan rolled his eyes. "Yep, apparently, even in this dimension, he was enough of an egotist to name a corporation after himself", he muttered under his breath. He punched in his entrance code on the keypad and sure enough, the door opened. Again, he failed to notice that Zarc was trying to restrain his laughter at Declan's apparent obliviousness to the true nature of this place. Motioning to everyone else to stay outside, he pulled Zarc inside the office and slammed the door.

"Sit down", he stated. Zarc sat. "Now, for starters, what's going on here? Where are we?" Zarc just smirked.

"Well, if you must know, this is actually the true nature of the dimensions. The dimensions were originally just one big dimension. You're probably wondering, how does he know this? Well, I'll tell you, I lived here, just your average pro duelist alongside Ray Akaba." He stopped for a second. Declan's eyes wided. Akaba? NOW he was intrigued.

"Go on."

"For a while, dueling was again, just average, nothing too special. Until one tournament where I did the unthinkable."

"What?"

"I hurt my opponent. Only problem is in the pro dueling world, move out of your dueling spot, they assume you forfeit the match. However, these two hecklers actually CHEERED the man's injury so I changed my dueling style. I can hear Duel Spirits and I used them to inflict real damage to my opponents and the spectators? They LOVED it. I won the championship but I still wanted to fight more to prove I could become all-powerful. You'd think after all that, I'd lose everything: My agent, my deck, my sponsorship & I'd either be in jail or at least in intense therapy, but nope, those fools invited me to take part in an exhibition match against Ray Akaba."

"Quick question before we continue. Who the heck is this Ray Akaba?"

"The professor's daughter." Declan's mouth hit the desk. He and Riley were NOT his biological children. Riley, of course, was adopted into the family, he knew that but how did HE come about? While he was puzzling over that question, Zarc continued his story.

"I knew who Ray Akaba was. I had seen her posters and her fans were saying that she was really pretty and that she was a role model for all the younger children and they got into dueling because of her, typical fan gunk. Anyhoo, how I knew her? We went to the same high school together but we never even met each other face to face before then. I thought to myself when she came out to the arena, man, she's even prettier in person!" Declan cut in.

"If this is going where I think it's going, I'm not buying this story at all."

"Don't worry, I'm getting to the meaty portion. After that match, we started dating, abiet secretly. One fella actually said I was lucky, why, because her father was very overprotective and micromanaged her dating life."

"Who was her father?"

"Leo Akaba. Anyway, fast forward to a couple days later. Again, I took part in another tournament wherein this time, I sicced my dragons on everyone and everything. This climaxed to where I fused myself with them to attain highest power."

"And they didn't do anything to stop you?"

"It's not like they didn't try. They sent the military on me and everything. I curb-stomped them to the ground. Eventually it just boiled down to the military and the duelists, they couldn't stop me either. No one could. Leo thought he had the situation all under control. He created four cards that were done for the sole purpose of stomping my rampage, only for Ray to swipe the cards herself, saying she didn't want to lose her father."

"Let me guess, she told you this?"

"Shut up and listen. At first, she tried to get me to stop, saying she loved me and that I wasn't the person she fell in love with. She thought I would concede right then and there, right? Wrong. I had no intention of conceding. Seeing as how she couldn't get through to me, she used the cards to split both her, me, the dragons and the dimension up into four." As Zarc finished the story, Declan took a minute to process everything what he just heard and needless to say, it was a mind-screwer for him. However, he wasn't sure if Zarc was either telling the truth, lying to him outright or telling the truth with some exaggerations. The only way he'd figure it out is if he go back to Ray Akaba herself. Zarc had said that Ray was also split into four and fortunately for him, the two, Zuzu and Celina were with him but where were the other two and he wasn't going to ask. Locking Zarc in protective custody with Moon Shadow to guard him, Declan and Sora set off to find Ray Akaba and if not her, the remaining pieces.

Eventually, it came to light that Leo had already captured Lulu and Rin already. Now, the question was if they still existed now that Zarc came back and the Original Dimension reformed itself. Considering that Zuzu and Celina still existed, it means that, if they're lucky, Leo may not have started his plan already. Except, Zuzu started feeling a little woozy, which didn't go unnoticed by Sora.

"Zuzu! Are you alright?" Sora asked

"I think so. I don't know what's happening", she said. Sora turned to Declan, hoping he'd have an answer. Surprisingly, the man who had an answer for everything didn't, although he thought it might have something to do with Zarc's rebirth. Since Yuya Sakaki never existed, that met Zuzu Boyle never existed as well. Suddenly, Zuzu snapped back to consciousness, except for one thing.

"Have to stop Zarc's rebirth", she stated. Declan rolled his eyes.

"If that's who I think it is, she's a little late to the party", he said. Sora looked at him.

"Translation?"

"That ratbag mentioned some girl named Ray Akaba. I think she's trying to communicate through Zuzu", Declan stated.

"Ray Akaba?"

"Yep. But the question is, how do we get her back?" Sora had an answer.

"Maybe if we get them all in the same location, similar to what happened with Yuya, they will merge. It's just a thought", he suggested.

"You, kid, are a genius." Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Getting Celina with Zuzu, the two snuck into Duel Academy after closing and retrieved Lulu and Rin, bringing them to where the others were at. Sure enough, since Zarc said the bracelet cards came from Ray and the girls each had one, Sora's theory proved correct as the girls merged together into one silhouette, who looked to be about Zarc's age.

"I'm assuming that's the girl you were talking about?" Sora asked. Declan, however, was stunned, not because of the girl's beauty for obvious reasons, but because he now realized exactly why Yuya was bent on rescuing Zuzu regardless of the actual consequences: it was a carry-over of his feelings for Ray, assuming Yuya was his main avatar, as Zuzu was Ray's.

"So, he WAS telling the truth!" he said.

"What?"

"See, here's the thing. When he said they were dating, I thought he made up that part at first, but in hindsight, did you not consider the fact that when Zuzu was spirited to Synchro, he went nuts and dueled me because I wouldn't tell him if she was okay?" Sora, however, didn't know what he was talking about.

"No, I was already gone."

"Let me fill you in. I was monitoring the duels in their respective zones for the Lancers. In the Artic Zone, I saw Zuzu and Yugo get spirited away into Synchro. Yuya, who was dueling elsewhere, didn't know where she was or if she was okay or not. I, on the other hand, knew full well she was fine but to test his resolve, I kept it hidden from him", he explained. Sora listened with rapt attention. Suddenly, the girl moved to pick herself up off the ground.

"I have to stop Zarc from destroying the world", she was saying. Sora cut in.

"Lady, you're a little late to the party. The man's already back."

"He's back? Oh, no! I failed!"

"Actually", Declan cut in, "You didn't exactly fail, unless you intended to keep the dimensions separate forever. See, when he revived, it was as if someone pushed a reset button as everything somehow returned to normal", he elaborated. Then he asked the kicker question to the girl, "Why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Split him apart?"

"I did it to save everyone and because I loved him."

"So, he was telling the truth because when I questioned him, some parts felt contrived."

"He was. Now, where is he?"

"Protective custody. Don't worry, you will see him soon enough."

"Take me to him now!"

"Why?" Sure enough, Ray didn't have an answer. Zarc technically was where he should have been back when the original dimension existed as no one had the guts to put him there. He even said so himself, they technically should have busted him the instant he harmed that one opponent. But seeing as how she wasn't going to just give up, Declan conceded and brung her to the holding spot where Zarc was caged up. She tapped on the cage to get his attention and then he turned around and saw her standing there. Rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't visualizing her, he tried to advance forward but the bars of his cage rendered it impossible to do so. So, instead, he opted for a hand rub by the girl who split him to save the world, and quite possibly, himself in the process.

AN: That's it! That's it! I have a Christmas story in the works as well, although it's not tied to this one. R&R!