Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's - Wilted Dream

by Yusei

Summary - "'Why is this man standing here like he can replace Divine? I care not for the Mark on my arm. I'd rather tear off the limb and be rid of everything. I would sacrifice this world for the one person who truly cared for me'. Oneshot drabble, set during 41".

Disclaimer - I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's or any of the characters.

A / N - Something that I had considered doing a while back, but never quite had the motivation. Earlier, however, the "rant" about Divine reminded me how the guy has essentially become a villain to the relationship between Yusei and Aki that many of the fans have embraced. Originally, like many, I despised Divine, especially when he brought about Carly's death. Yet since then, I have come to pity him, and if anything, this is something to defend the feelings between Aki and Divine while she still hated Yusei. The dialogue comes from the episodes and PrismWeapon's early subtitles. This piece is much shorter than the others mostly because it was something I pulled from my rear today without much more to head onto by the time it was coming towards the end of what is here. Please read and review.

- WILTED DREAM -

Aki's P.O.V

Why?

Why is he standing there, looking at me like that?

He speaks of bonds between us, that he can repair the damage that years of isolation has inflicted upon this feeble body. But I can see the truth; he only cares for this symbol emblazoned in my skin. A constant reminder of the curse laid upon me from some mythical creature that lived thousands of years ago. Something that I cannot escape.

Why is this man standing here like he can replace Divine? I care not for the Mark on my arm. I'd rather tear off the limb and be rid of everything. I would sacrifice this world for the one person who truly cared for me. Not this impostor.

This one called Fudo Yusei talks like he can repair any damage like it's as simple as replacing a worn piece of his D-Wheel. Why did he always have to interfere? Even at the Fortune Cup, he was trying to comfort me like he cared, while people chose to hurl abuse in my direction rather than that of that throwaway Satellite. Why did that blasted dragon choose two people like us to bear symbols of its body rear half? Perhaps it was scraping the bottom of the barrel to select us. A Psychic from a dysfunctional family with an uncaring beast of a father and a cowardly mother and some punk from that hellhole with nothing to clutch onto but his inane pride.

The defective beast had some system of selecting people to carry its wretched fragments.

It would soon regret choosing Fudo Yusei to bear the symbol of its tail, Black Rose would lock its jaws around that tail and drag that infernal creature to the ground, tearing the final limb of its form apart and leaving it to suffer just as I had suffered throughout my life.

These wretched powers given to me because of it.

This wretched Mark given to me because of it.

The same Mark I had hidden for years, unable to blend in amongst the ordinary people that spat and cursed my name. I would show them that Psychic Duellists were not the monsters they claimed us to be. Like that bastard of a father standing behind Yusei like a coward, drafting in some boy that ended my climb through the ranks at the Fortune Cup. Behind him, they were all watching the same eyes, those same piercing glares of hatred, that they couldn't accept me because of my powers.

Not like Divine.

Divine accepted me. And my powers. He embraced them and gave me somewhere in this world to hide from the contemptuous mien of those disgusting "normal people". Who was it that declared that they had the right to look down on Psychic Duellists? We have the power; we should look down on them.

Yet we are the ones forced into the shadows, having to hide our abilities behind masks like we're ashamed of them. But they have brought me nothing but misery and pain before Divine walked into my life and opened his hand before me. The moment when he pulled that mask from my face in the tunnel lit by sunlight only was the beginning of a new life.

A life that came crashing down the instance that immense eye opened behind me, boring into me and through my soul, when that true witch Misty infiltrated the Arcadia Movement. She and another of her allies had taken my home and dug their claws deep beneath the four walls, snatching Divine as the other shadow shoved him over the edge and sent him plummeting before my eyes. A horror I would reverse, whatever the cost, if it were possible.

But this was the real world now. That cold place that Divine's arms had protected me from while he covered my ears to the taunts of Psychic Duellists and our home. Instead of Divine standing over me, clutching me like I was the person he treasured most in the world, I had Fudo Yusei and that ostensible couple claiming to be my parents. Why had they come? Why did that man drag Yusei into this? And why did Yusei bring them here? They were all against me, nobody understood how I felt, yet they claimed that they understood. How could they understand? Were they Psychics?

No. They were those alleged "normal people". Those that didn't have to run when people chased them. Those that could play this damned game normally. They couldn't possibly understand. They would never realise the pain I felt. And they would never close the scars that had been inflicted across my tainted body. And this would mark my stand against those people who discriminated against us. I would take out Fudo Yusei and continue on to others, rebuild the fallen Arcadia Movement in Divine's memory. The man who opened his heart to me, rather than turning a cold shoulder and sneering like I meant nothing to him.

Black Rose Dragon hovered above me, the creature that had represented my face in the Arcadia Movement, and those that were my brothers and sisters at the Fortune Cup. Another opportunity for people to hurl their abuse. To pick some scumbag from Satellite over someone from the same soil. Such frivolity. Traitors. All of them…

To Yusei, all Black Rose was was a mythical creature. A monster. Something for him to knock down to achieve victory. That was all he cared about. He spoke about bonds and loving yourself, but underneath it all, I had been an obstacle in the Fortune Cup. His true objective had been to reach Jack Atlus, the now former-King standing behind him with the two young twins that had been in the tournament. Even now, I was just something standing in his way. All he wanted was to unite the Signers. He didn't care about me, only Divine cared.

I moved my eyes to the poisoned arm connected to my body, feeling the screeching Mark beneath my arm begging to glow. To taunt me. To remind me that it was there, existing on my skin.

"What is a Signer?" I asked. "Fudo Yusei… you can't save me either… The only one who can save me is Divine". The two men that gazed with cold hatred towards me didn't shift their expressions. They continued to hate me; to glare at me as I insisted that they mattered not, that only Divine was important in this world. My feelings were falling on deaf ears. So I glared back. "He was the only one that gave me a place I could belong. It's not you or Papa! It was Divine!"

To speak his name to such unworthy people, my heart stung with an overdue twinge. Again I could see it. Him. Divine. Falling. Like a man that had flown so close to the sun in the hopes of achieving listeners, to be known and prove that he was not some weirdo that stalked the streets late at night and attacked "innocent" people. But a true man. A real human.

He simply plummeted.

A scream was locked in my throat back then, too shaken when I recognised it as he who had fallen. The same scream as he descended that I had heard previously during the duel against Misty. Chills danced up and down my spine. The coldest chill gripped me and reality delivered the harshest slap across my face.

He fell past.

"DIVINE!!"

Blackness consumed him. And hatred consumed this world.

In the moments I had been conscious after the brief coma that facing Misty and her Earthbound God - Ccarayhua, did she call it? - no-one had mentioned Divine. Just Yusei's gentle voice and that… man's insistence that I stop what he called "senseless violence". And then Yusei turned and sided with him. I had pleaded for help as I knelt defeated at the Fortune Cup; I thought I could feel positively about Yusei. But he remained where he was, reluctant to offer a hand for me to take. That was when Divine laid his trench coat over my shoulders like he had found me during a late night storm. He took me back; a defeated weakling, opening his gloved hand for me again.

Now there would be no hand to take.

"There's no place I belong anymore… I'll have you all look at me the same way!"

I would return to being a lonely vulnerable girl. Without the mask that Yusei had dug his claws deep beneath the surface of and pulled apart. Eyes would bore into me in the same way as that wretched Earthbound God that played a part in destroying Arcadia and snatching Divine from this world.

"Izayoi, don't you get it?" Yusei called. "You do have a place you belong".

What? Beside you and your little Signer posse?

"No, I don't" I hissed. Someone had to drill the message through that thick skull and into his brain. "Since Divine is gone, I hate everything in this world. That's why… I will crush this world!"

With those words, I snatched the metal power shackle bound by my extended fringe that had grown immensely since meeting Divine. The steel object slid from the grasp of my locks, allowing it to fall over my face as I gazed fiercely at the ceiling, releasing the true extent of my powers. Gales blustered throughout the large chamber, forcing the remaining furniture to the walls, overturning the bed that I had been resting on not long ago. Cries from the children failed to dominate the howling of the agonised winds, the pair struggling against the sheer intensity of the force.

The girl had refused the Movement for her original life. She rejected her truth as a Psychic Duellist before she even considered embracing it. She had yet to be shunned by those she believed cared about her, such naivety. She would learn in time what a cold world this horrid planet was. Her brother's arms would leave her just as Divine's left me. So that I wouldn't fall with him.

I glared at Yusei, the man who opened his arms in the hope of recruiting me as one of his Signer soldiers. He turned from me and gazed at that man who possessed my father's face, a shard from the ground flew up, slashing his right cheek open. Now it matched the other cut on the opposite of his face.

Blood seeped from the incision, just like tears had trickled from my eyes. Watching the blood of a Signer flow on the opposite side of his skin gave me a brief sensation of pleasure. Yusei had no power, I did. It was I who held him prisoner to my power at the Fortune Cup, binding his left arm to the side of his torso while sinking thorns of the whips belonging to Rose Tentacles into his other limbs - including that arm bearing the miserable Mark. I had dangled him over the ground where he belonged, watching his squirm in the grasp of my monster.

My power.

Relishing his pain. Like they had mine.

Regardless, he ignored the blood and proceeded on; drawing his card like this was still a game. Duel Monsters was not a game - it was a war. He was determined to protect those people, even at the cost of himself. I only cared for destruction to get even with the world. To avenge Divine lost to the darkness of this planet.

I would seize Yusei in the grasp of Rose Tentacles again and tighten its grip until he fell apart. Until his bones cracked and blood gushed from his mouth. Until he would feel the same pain that I had endured for years. Protected only by a man now deceased.

He could scream his pleas at me all he wanted; I would not fall to his lies. To the mask he wore to shield his true intentions from exposure.

Again, he performed a Synchro Summon, a predictable move from the man bearing the Tail Mark. But rather than bringing out one of his feeble warriors, that dragon of white and blue arose with a shriek, sparkles descending from its large wings. While it was a beautiful sight to people, it was a servant to that… beast. That creature from thousands of years ago that should remain in history rather than resting until a new era to choose more victims.

Yusei seemed to order his creature to move across to defend those he claimed to be his friends. Was he really that blind? Did he honestly think people who had met recently could really be his friends already? Pathetic…

I would show him just how fragile bonds could be, how people were quick to turn around and call outcasts like us "monsters" and frown upon our very existence. The Marker imprinted on his left cheek was a magnet for trouble, yet he acted as though he was willing to shrug off the stones that people cast in his direction, walking through the pathway cleared for people to launch their fierce assaults on him like he didn't care. Why did he act so stubborn? Was he as naïve as the girl? Or plain stupid?

He could never be a replacement for Divine.

He was incapable of protecting me from the harsh comments of the bitter world just like he was incapable of protecting his friends from reality.

"Trying to protect your friends? How foolish. You can't protect anyone" I responded, smirking with a dark pleasure at his futile struggle. He would not escape; he of all people should understand how cruel this world is after spending his life in Satellite. Yet he stood with a different perspective… like he refused to see the terrible nature of this world.

Like he was determined to cast a light on all the darkness where I could see the truth in this world. And would strengthen shadows that escaped that brightness.

The battle would resume, I would prove that he could not brighten the whole world without casting a single shadow. And drew.

"Go, Black Rose Dragon. Attack Stardust Dragon! Hate Rose Whip!"

The floral dragon hovering over my head emitted a low, fierce roar before launching its thorny whips forward with Stardust as its target. That gleaming dragon with such an innocent and pure air. Something that had yet to feel the true pain that his world could deal. Each of the barbed lashes struck the dragon which hissed and shrieked in agony, its skin slit by each of the thorns that penetrated and ripped along its surface before rising again. From the inside of the grazes, a glowing red substance blocked any view of the creature's true internals in the place of blood spurting from its wounds.

One of the whips passed the dragon, slamming into Yusei's chest and forcing his head back before it could vertically slap his face. A weak cry of anguish slipped from his throat. Brief. Calm.

But those cries wouldn't be the deeper I could sink my nails into his body.

And rip that wretched arm from your body, Fudo Yusei. Our arms could lay as useless lumps of skin and muscle, bleeding uselessly when I would liberate myself of this onerous destiny handed to me by a creature I despised. And without your Mark, you could no longer plead for me to join you as an ally. We can never be allies. Or friends. We will forever be enemies.

"Because of Thorn of Hate, Stardust Dragon can't be destroyed. It will continue to feel pain!" I exclaimed.

The dragon continued to wail while its offensive power weakened, whips passing by in its moment of vulnerability and towards those standing behind Yusei. Those others that refused to accept me. Yusei gazed at the sight with wide eyes as he clutched his other arm, recovering from the blow landed upon him.

And Stardust's wings moved to protect those people.

Again, Yusei only cared about other people; he shrugged off what others thought of him. It disgusted me. He had to feel an ounce of hatred of this resentful world. I would expose it. And reveal the true Fudo Yusei.

His dragon was exhausted after one attack; the signs of Yusei himself weakening were beginning to surface. A smirk crept across my face. The single trickle of blood had come to a halt, leaving the clear trail behind. One that would dry and leave its mark until wiped from his head. Unlike my tears which sank back into my face.

He was still standing there, azure eyes blazing in my direction with determination to recruit me into his pointless legend. To become some friend in his little posse.

Never. I will never trust him. I will never like him.

I will never accept you.

And yet, he continued to glare with that same passion to unite the Signers as one unit.

Okay then, Fudo Yusei. Let's see just how well you think you can protect people. Let's see just how effective you are in uniting people when you lay on the ground in your own blood, staring at the sky with dead blank eyes. I will eliminate your soul and prove to you just what this world is like. Just how pointless your struggle is. I will show you the horrors and the pain I have endured and throw your heart across the room as mine has been several times in the past.

Let's see how you can protect others when you can't even protect yourself.