A/N: Takes place during episode 96 of Season Three.

Celerity

Chapter 1: Heartbeats in Hyperdrive

A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Clustering hopes will become a new shining star! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Summon! Take flight, Stardust Dragon!"

Harry sighed as he leaned against the railing of the observatory tower, casually watching the appearance of Yuusei's signature monster. The sight never failed to take his breath away, though the utter awe that had accompanied his first time watching a duel had faded with time.

Crow's sharp laughter broke through as he negated what could have been Stardust's finishing blow, and on the floating television-esque screen plastered onto the tower's enormous window, Harry could see Yusei grit his teeth as Crow's turn began.

Floating television screens. Motorcycles that were movable holographic projectors. Duel Monsters itself...

Harry blew a lock of flyaway hair out of his face. This dimension was so weird.

"Ah, seems like everything is working alright. Don't you agree, Harry-kun?"

Harry looked over his shoulder, nodding in greeting as Bruno stepped beside him. The odd sound of the honorific still threw him off balance a little bit, as it did not have a direct English equivalent and therefore was unaffected by the translation spell he had cast on himself, but he shook his slight confusion away easily.

"Bolger's help was invaluable," Harry said softly as he turned back to the ongoing duel, just in time to see Yuusei release his dragon. "The engines you and Yusei developed could only be fully realized with his company's assistance."

"Isn't it odd though, that Bolger told his company to help us?" Bruno asked. "Even though Crow was the one who revealed what he had done to Pearson?"

Harry frowned, just as perplexed as Bruno. "I don't know exactly why Bolger would do that, just like I don't know why he would even turn himself in. He could have easily silenced us, he had the resources to do it, and that would be the end of it. Maybe he was guilty. Maybe he didn't want to deal with his company going down." Harry paused, his eyes tracing the sleek form of Crow's Blackbird. "I think only Crow knows the answer to that question."

Who would ask the redhead though? Not even Jack or Yuusei had known about Pearson and the whole debacle surrounding his death, and that meant that the topic was pretty much off-limit for everyone else.

"I suppose you're right, Harry-kun." Bruno's face lit up as the two duelists blew through a tight corner effortlessly. "I'm just glad I could help, even if it was only in this small way."

Harry frowned as he felt a small spike of guilt. He had joined Yuusei's ragtag group of friends four whole months before Bruno had, and he still hadn't found his place. He wasn't an astounding mechanic like Bruno, a Psychic duelist like Aki, or even connected to one of the Signers like Rua was. He barely even understood the mechanics of Duel Monsters, let alone how a society built with a collectible card game as its cornerstone could function!

He was just... there. A spectator, an observer of Yuusei's little gang of superpowered duelists, but never a part of it.

Harry smiled bitterly as Yuusei struck the finishing blow and the duel came to a close. If only he could leave this dimension for the next, as he had done so many times before...

Harry watched as Yuusei and Crow shook hands, Rua and Ruka's excited cheering a faded noise in the background. Already, the twins, along with Aki and Jack, were jogging over to the two duelists to congratulate them. Yuusei's small smile made one of its rare appearances, and it was a testament to his good mood that he raised an arm to match Rua's hyperactive waving, the bright red Signer birthmark revealed for a second as his sleeve shifted.

Harry's gaze hardened. The Crimson Dragon, the mysterious deity that had brought them all together and even now tied them to each other. For the three members of the ex-Team Satisfaction, it had brought them back to each other. For Aki, Rua, and Ruka, it had delivered them to the people that would be able to call their true friends.

For Harry, it was the reason he was not able to jump from this dimension to another. Every time he tried to use his magic to teleport himself to another dimension, the image of the fearsome Crimson Dragon would meet him and force him back, leaving him with no other world to go to.

It was an infuriating reality; he was trapped here, where he was useless, because some overgrown lizard thought that his presence was necessary. Whatever he had done to piss off the deity, Harry sorely regretted.

"Harry-kun?" Bruno asked, wrenching him from his musings. The wizard glanced at the blue-haired man silently, ignoring his concerned gaze. "I think Yuusei-kun wants to talk to us."

Harry looked back at the reigning King, meeting his violet eyes evenly. Harry snorted quietly, pushing off the edge of the observatory's railing and looking away from his friend's curious stare.

"Tell Yuusei that there's something that I need to do," Harry instructed as he made his way towards the tower's exit, storming past some people he didn't know. He got a few glares for his rudeness, but he brushed them off easily.

"Harry-kun?" Bruno asked quietly, not surprised when he didn't receive an answer from the most mysterious of Yusei's friends.

Harry closed his eyes as he stepped out onto one of Neo Domino City's winding crystalline roads, gathering his magic around him. True, the magic of this dimension was very different than the one from his own (as it was centered around Duel Monsters, just like everything else in this odd dimension), but that did not mean that he couldn't access his own natural reservoir of magic.

Magic started to pulse around him, steadily moving farther and farther away from his body, searching for the ominous presence that had hung over the city ever since that meteor had fallen not so long ago. For the most part, Harry had treated the presence warily, disturbed by how old it felt, but the jealously he felt at how everyone but him fit so perfectly into Yuusei's family drove him into irrationality.

Something had been watching Yuusei, something that was ancient and dangerous in a way unlike anything he had ever faced before. Every so often, his magic would whisper to him a single word, which had sent shivers down his spine at how blasphemously sacrosanct it sounded. Even so, if hunting this Yliaster down would be the goal that gave him purpose in this world, gave him the purpose he felt he needed before he could face Yusei once more, then so be it.

Harry's eyes glowed faintly as his magic latched on to three incredibly strong sources of magic, a determined frown making its way over his face.

He would defeat these threats on his own, protect the others on his own, and maybe then he wouldn't feel so... worthless in Yuusei's eyes.

I did not realize, until I wrote this, just how hard it is to fit Harry into any of the three Yu-gi-oh/Yuugi-ou fandoms, even if Gx was by far the hardest of the three to attempt and the one that failed the hardest. Still, I hope Harry's presence here isn't too jarring, though admittedly anyone who isn't a duelist/dueling fan would be very abnormal in a city such as Neo Domino City that is so dominated by the presence of Duel Monsters.

Stupid angsty Harry is stupid and angsty. This is Yu-gi-oh, Harry! You can't do anything without (winning a card game) the power of friendship! Not being very genre savvy there, Harry.

As always, I do not plan on expanding on this universe. These are little glimpses into possible crossovers, not actual story beginnings. Sorry to anyone who wanted more, if there are any who actually like this. It is kind of shoddy, even though I am happy I actually managed to finish it.

Look out for the next oneshot, a very dark oneshot for the (at the moment) inexistent Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest/HP fandom. I was in a darkfic mood when I wrote it, so be warned. After that though, there is fluff and lots of it (as well as an OTP of mine)!

Finally, I have found that the urge to call Duel Monsters a children's card game nearly impossible to resist. God damn you, Little Kuriboh. God damn you. /Bows/

Ariaeris~

Ps: Give me an R, give me an E, give me a V, give me an I, give me an EW! What does that spell? Please review; I regularly hand out e-muffins to those who do.
Pps: You wanna know how late this oneshot is? When I wrote this, episode 96 was the newest episode. Yes, I do suck royally. :(
Ppps: Yes, I totally ripped off/played with the lyrics to the dub for the title. Don't blame me, they're catchy!