A/N: This is what happens when I read too much fanfiction even though I know my muses will draw inspiration from literally anything. In the case of this story, that inspiration came from reading CorinnetheAnime's "True Darkness" and Noble Soul of Purity-Aamuet's "Advent of Ruin" back to back.
Well, my own headcanons abound, I suppose.
I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V…
Yuto
(Destroy. Destroy. Destroy. I will destroy everything.)
…
In the ruins of a once-bright city, a group of twelve pre-teens and one very young teenager ran through an alley, their pursuers not far behind. Dressed in old clothes stitched up countless times, the dozen seemed the perfect picture of poverty. As though wealth mattered in this world anymore. It was either win against the enemy, or lose, and losing meant being sealed in a graveyard called a card.
Their pursuers, the enemy, had no such worries. They were dressed in only the most pristine blue uniforms, masks hiding their faces. Their Duel Disks, swords. Their monsters, fusions of mechanical hounds. They proceeded through the alley at an almost leisurely pace, smirks plastered on their faces. For they knew that another group was waiting in ambush at the other end of the alley—their prey would not escape.
The children froze when the second group of Obelisk Force blocked their only other way out of the alley. Running was no longer an option… they would fight. They did outnumber the Fusion Duelists two to one. As though numbers made a difference.
In that group of children, their impromptu leader was the oldest amongst them: a barely-thirteen boy with spiky black hair, the front of it purple. His name was Yuto, and he did not want to fight anyone. But he would, if it meant keeping his friends safe.
The children fought hard, fought their absolute best, but one by one they lost.
Yuto himself could do nothing but watch, his cards only useful to protect himself. He stood there and watched his friends fall, the words "Stop it…" repeatedly falling from his lips.
"Stop it? We've only just begun…"
Until they turned their attention to the only one other than Yuto still left standing: his friend Ruri, a girl with long, purple hair—darker than Yuto's—and lucky enough to have a hair clip in the shape of a feather from before the invasion. Her pink eyes had gone dull, obvious that she was going to lose soon.
Something snapped inside of Yuto. Ruri. He couldn't lose Ruri. His heart burned as he roared, "I SAID STOP IT!" He took a step forward—
(I'll destroy them!)
—and the next thing he knew, Ruri was hugging him tightly, her head buried in his shoulder as she sobbed. The boy blinked a few times. Hadn't they just been surrounded by Obelisk Force in an alley? But now he was sitting in one of the makeshift hospital beds (really just a worn-out cot), back in the Resistance's refugee camp.
And when she stopped crying, Ruri pulled back, wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve, and looked right into Yuto's eyes, still holding his shoulders. Her eyes were still puffy, and her voice was shaky when she said, "Yuto, you have to promise. Promise you won't do that again."
"I… I promise, Ruri," he replied on a whim.
When she'd smiled and gone to get Shun to tell him Yuto was awake, he frowned slightly. What had he done?
…
Half a year passed. Heartland's remaining citizens continued to struggle to survive the endless onslaught of the Fusion Dimension. Every day they lost another of their ranks, be it to Fusion or to disease or to something else entirely. But the Resistance would not give up—they would see their world back to the way it was before the invasion or die trying.
Throughout those six months, Yuto noticed a shift in how the others in the Resistance treated him. He acted like he didn't notice, but people would give him looks, like he was something to be feared or wary of, and would never stay near him for long. Even his two closest friends, the Kurosaki siblings, gave him those same looks—though he'd only caught Shun doing it once, and Ruri's look was less fear and more worry about him. Something had happened that day, and yet he still could not remember anything between Ruri almost losing and waking up in the refugee camp.
He had yet to ask about what happened, but that would all change today.
"Shun."
The dark-green-haired teen stopped, turned, and looked at his friend. "Something wrong, Yuto?"
"Yeah, something is."
Yuto explained how he had no idea what had happened half a year ago, when he and Ruri had gone to rescue a group of other kids trapped in the remains of a house on the opposite side of Heartland. That his last clear memory was stepping in to protect Ruri. That he knew something had to have happened considering the way people treated him.
"Why are you asking me about this?" Shun's face looked as impassive as ever, though his voice had a bit of an edge to it.
"Well? Do you know anything?"
Shun turned around and started walking away. "You're better off not knowing, Yuto. But… I'm not going to lie to you." He stopped, crouching behind a piece of rubble. Peering over it, he saw a group of three Obelisk Force members wandering through the streets. "Fusion scum… Let's deal with them first, then I'll tell you."
The two Xyz Duelists obtained a narrow victory over those three from Fusion, but it was a victory nonetheless, and Shun had promised to spill the beans afterwards. Though in hindsight, Yuto had to agree with Shun's earlier statement of being better off not knowing.
After nearly killing the Obelisk Force that had him and Ruri cornered with Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, he'd continued on, ranting about destroying everything. And he did—buildings, plants, and other people alike. The only person spared from his rampage was Ruri herself, at least until four adults from the Resistance pinned him down until he passed out. All this Kurosaki Shun had heard from his younger sister, the only eyewitness for the entirety of the event.
Yuto took out his ace card and stared at it incredulously. He'd… He'd really used this card to do all of that? He'd really lashed out against his own comrades?
Then he gasped; Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon was glowing, a pale blue color flashing several times before remaining lit up. And that was all Yuto would remember after his throat tightened and heart pounded painfully; like someone had just reached into his chest and squeezed it with all their strength.
(Fusion's here. I'll tear him to shreds!)
The sudden feeling of his face hitting concrete snapped him out of his delirium, and Yuto pushed himself back up. He'd tripped over a Duel Disk, and his heart twinged as he recognized it as belonging to one of their own. But that feeling went away almost immediately when he realized he was in a completely different part of Heartland, and could not remember getting there.
Another lapse of memory. Had he lost it again? …No, he couldn't have, nothing had happened to be angry about, and wasn't that the reason he'd lost it a year ago? That's what he wanted to believe.
That was, until he noticed Shun trembling over next to a pile of rubble; hunched down over something, not quite touching whatever was on the ground. And Yuto could see what the object was—the feather-shaped hair clip he'd given to Ruri back before the world went to hell. His face paled, mouth stuck half-open in horror. She'd never just abandon that hair clip…
And then an even more horrifying thought ran through his head. Yuto turned and grabbed the Duel Disk he'd tripped over, turning it over to see the back of it. Property of Kurosaki Ruri, with a drawing of a bird next to the words. Then… Ruri really had… He sank back down to his knees. "No… She's… she can't be…"
"We'll find her," Shun declared, holding the hair clip tightly in his right hand. That trembling before was not horror; it was barely-contained anger. "We'll find her, and we'll make them pay!"
Yuto nodded in agreement, even though he had a feeling things wouldn't turn out the way they wanted it to.
…
"The Dueling I believe in… is entertainment to make people happy and put smiles on their faces!" Yuya, the boy from the Standard Dimension that shared his face, declared with passion.
Yuto wanted so much to believe in that statement. Duel Monsters was supposed to be a form of entertainment, not warfare. And yet the harsh face of reality was the opposite. The times of him Dueling for fun were over. Now he had to be strong—in order to get Ruri back, in order to protect what little remained of his world, in order to survive. Entertainment had no place in the matter at all.
This boy… has never seen war before. He couldn't have—for to say that fighting back in a war that Yuto hadn't even started was unforgivable? It was—
A flash of green light filled area, and when it dimmed… there was a white-wearing boy on a white motorcycle in its place. The boy took off his helmet, revealing blue hair with yellow bangs. But still, the same face as Yuto again. Yugo. The Pawn of Fusion. Fusion. He would win—for Ruri, and for Heartland.
Clear Wing Synchro Dragon. The white dragon with bright green wings that he'd seen in their Duel last time and had filled him with so much rage. He'd barely contained it then, and now he had the field set to bring out his own dragon. And yet that's what had him so angry last time. Even now his chest burned as he tried keeping a hold of his power. He would not lose control again.
He had no choice. If he wanted to win, he needed Dark Rebellion.
He just… had to… stay… in control… He had to… he promised…
(Burn everything to ashes!)
"Dueling filled your homeland with smiles! In Heartland!"
The black-and-purple-haired teen dropped to one knee. Though nothing appeared to have been damaged, he knew that he'd given into that power again. Was about to use it on the Pawn of Fusion out of rage. If Yuya hadn't been here… he would have…
"I… end my turn."
He'd failed. He'd failed, he'd failed, he'd failed. That promise he'd made to Ruri was broken, and he'd lost to the Synchro Duelist. His strength was fading now, and there was something that told him it was different than just losing consciousness. He felt… well, he supposed it felt like he was dying. But… there was still so much to do…
"Yuto! Stay with me! Are you okay?!"
The innocent boy from Standard knelt next to him, some sort of light glowing from his Duel Disk even though it was off. There was light all around them, though it was night and there were no nearby streetlamps. Even Dark Rebellion was glowing…
(…to Pendulum. Give… Pendulum…)
Yuto's vision started to blur as he held up the card, trying to give it to Yuya. Maybe… just maybe…
"Duels with… smiles… with your power… Give it to the world… and everyone's futures… Smiles…"
…
Cold. Dark. Empty.
That was the sort of place Yuto found himself in the next time he opened his eyes. He saw nothing but a purple fog churning overhead, felt nothing but the chill that seeped into his very bones, heard nothing but the sound of his own ragged breaths and rapid heartbeat. Where… was he? The last thing he remembered… he'd failed to keep his promise, but he'd thrown Yuya out of the way of the Pawn of Fusion's attack. He was almost certain that he had died then, entrusting Dark Rebellion to the boy that shared his face. So then why was his heart still beating and why was he still breathing and why was it so cold and where was he?
He wandered through the darkness, completely and utterly alone. The chill grew worse over time—time? He wasn't even sure how much time had passed, but his legs weren't growing tired and his stomach had yet to beg for food. A complete and utter limbo—the only thing reminding himself that he was alive being his own heartbeat.
The darkness had no limits. Yuto was certain he'd been walking straight ahead for as long as he'd been awake, and had yet to find any sort of walls or an exit or anything. The cold dug into his body no matter how much he tried to shelter himself with his clothes, and it just kept getting worse.
Suddenly, somthing tugged at his heart. Warmth. He felt warmth.
"Fall into the pitch-black darkness." It was a voice he'd never heard before.
Yuya. The boy with Yuto's face appeared before him. Instinctively, Yuto reached out a hand to the other boy—and Yuya mirrored his action.
The warmth turned into a broiling heat, stabbing and clawling at his heart. Yuya disappeared from Yuto's sight, and the dark-haired boy doubled over from the pain he was left with. The same feeling… from when he lost control.
Yuto saw a battlefield surrounded by bamboo trees, a rain starting to fall over the Action Field. He saw his opponent, a rough-looking teenaged boy with long, dark purple hair—the same color as Ruri's. He saw a flash of lightning and heard its crash of thunder. He saw his dragon on the field, surrounded by violet electricity, charging at his opponent—
(I will end this… with my power… I will destroy everything!)
The blazing pain in his chest stopped. Immediately the freezing cold was back, the darkness was back, the feeling of being alone crept back into his soul.
He still knew nothing of where he was and knew nothing of what just happened. He hated the nothing.
But wandering through the frigid darkness was all he could do. There were—brief—periods of, relief, from the shadowy world he found himself in. As though briefly but vividly remembering the start of the invasion—fire, cards, a relentless army of mechanical golems and dogs, cruel smiles, the hunting games—or seeing some new battlefield that he was to fight endlessly on could count as any sort of "relief". And each time of "relief" brought back the pain of losing control and the lust for destruction.
("I… will not forgive you!")
Yuto wasn't sure which scared him more, the darkness or the pain.
He continued wandering because if he stopped the cold would overwhelm him. Day in and day out, he moved. No matter how much time passed, he never grew tired—stiff, he did grow stiff—and it was the only thing he could do in a place like this, just keep moving.
Until one day—what even is a day?—he found himself bound in chains, unable to move. They had appeared out of nowhere, and no matter how much he struggled he could not free himself.
Another battlefield. An abandoned subway station. He had barely enough time to recognize the dragons—Dark Rebellion and Odd-Eyes, chained up just like he was, crying to the sky; Clear Wing and some abomination in a battle of their own, having stopped their fight to cry to the sky as well—before the pain was back, his eyes on fire.
(We have waited… for this time. WE WILL BECOME ONE!)
Yuto blinked. He was back in the darkness… but everything had changed.
…
(The Pendulum swings again, never ceasing, ever drawing closer to destruction…)
A/N: I intend to have one chapter for each of the other boys, but how fast I write the next chapter depends on how much feedback this gets. Please leave a review!
EDIT: Added a scene to the end now that more canon lore exists and to end Yuto's part at the same time that Yugo's and Yuri's do. Also modified Yuto's age and modified how much time passed after he first went Berserk to when Ruri was kidnapped, since I'd originally thought the invasion had been going on for three years rather than just one, as confirmed by a recent episode.