WARNING! CURSING IS IN THIS CHAPTER. DARK THEMES IN THIS STORY.

I know I really should stop making new stories, but I couldn't resist with this one. This story is set in a time line not unlike the world where Paradox came from. Because of that, this is a post apocalyptic world where Yugioh cards still exist. I'll be going all the way up to Zexal/Zeal, though not Arc V. Mostly because Arc V focuses on different dimensions while this will be set up more like Bonds Beyond Time the movie. That means, it's all one time line.

Also I created a deck that doesn't exist in Yugioh. It's actually based off of the Anime of Saint Seiya, so if you know it, you'll probably recognize some characters and card names from it. This is mostly because I was bored and felt like making a deck like this, and also because I wanted my main character to have an odd ball deck. They'll be treated like regular Yugioh cards though.

Anyway I hope you enjoy and feel free to leave a review below.

Chapter One: The Saint of Synchro

"What the hell are you?" the terrified gang member screamed.

Those were words that Halia Voss were far too familiar with. They were the most hurtful words she'd ever heard, and they were what made her hide her face behind a mask. It wasn't a real mask made of porcelain, or even cloth. Rather it was the kind of mask that a person who'd been broken beyond repair wore. It was a blank face with dead eyes that only stared. She couldn't let herself be weak anymore. She couldn't let herself get close to people. Because were the hateful and hurtful words that always greeted her.

Halia was a tall and slender young woman with pale skin, and she was honestly rather well endowed. Her hair was long, nearly hanging down to the floor, and it was a deep royal purple color. Her eyes were blue, and they seemed to shine brightly in the light, whether it was moonlight or sunlight. She wore all black, and they were men's clothing. But she couldn't afford much else. Besides the fact that everyone was far too scared of her to give her a job or a home. But in a world like hers, it didn't really matter.

Halia was once a normal kid living as normal a life as she could on these streets. Though she didn't have any parents, she had been raised with two young boys who were like her older brothers. However when she had turned seven she had gained a strange ability. She could command both the darkness and the light. She had no idea where she had gotten the ability, or even how. But at such a young age she'd never been able to control it. She had lost herself to the darkness and had nearly killed one of her brothers. That was the first time she'd heard those words, and from the man who'd raised all three of them. That had been nine years ago, and she was sixteen now.

She knew that they both had to hate her. She was just some freak. So she had run, and she'd never stopped running since then. And in this world is was dangerous. She'd quickly learned to use these strange powers of hers, but it didn't stop the fear. People loved her whenever she used the light, so much so that she didn't even know what true love was. But the instant she showed off the darkness they ran in terror. To keep herself from being hurt by it, Halia just numbed herself to the world. It was far better this way.

Or so she liked to think. She couldn't deny how much she liked to help people. Many times, they were so terrified that they gave her something to eat and a place to stay for the night, but they avoided her. She quickly took the hint. There was no place for a person like her in this world. So when morning came she was always gone. But again, this world was no safe place. Even if she didn't bother to help someone, she always seemed to find herself in trouble. Like now for instance.

She'd been passing on her way through another trash heap of a town and had apparently caught the eye of one of the gangs in town. She was a very beautiful girl, so it didn't really surprise her too much. But she wasn't just going to roll over and let them have their way with her. They had challenged her to a duel and said that if she lost she'd have to go with them. Halia of course, never lost though, and when they had lost they had tried to take her by force.

Even that wasn't enough to make her decide to use her powers. She just wasn't that kind of girl. No what had made her use them was the fact that they'd tried to steal her deck. Her parents had left her with Benjamin, the man who had raised her and the two other boys who were like her brothers, when she was about three. She didn't remember them, but they had left her something. It was her deck, and it was the only link she had to her own past, and trying to figure out why she was cursed with these powers of hers.

So of course she wouldn't just let them take it. She had activated her powers over darkness, blinding several of the men around her. The last she had left alone, seeing how he hadn't touched her deck, and she simply was going around grabbing all of her cards. This man was the one who had screamed, trembling as he watched her count each card to make sure she had all of her own.

She felt relieved when she saw that they were all there, sliding them back into her deck box and picking up her duel disk. In a world like this, the only thing you could trust were the people you'd known your whole life, and your cards. People were in the business of stealing cards and making illegal copies. There weren't tournaments like there used to be. But there were some decks that were unlike any others, and completely legal. Halia had one of those, the deck known simply as the Saint Deck. It was a Synchro deck with a single Fusion card in the mix, and there were other such "hybrid" decks floating around.

Halia turned and began walking away with the same expressionless face that she always wore. There wasn't much of a point for staying around here, and she didn't exactly feel like sticking around to hear the men continue to scream in fear. She hated the sound. She made her way away from the abandoned factory and towards the street, where the squeal of tires greeted her.

She looked up as a Duel Runner pulled up in front of her. The Duel Runner itself was an impressive machine. It was a large purple colored bike with yellow and silver pin striping. Like the Duel Runner of the famous Jack Atlas, it also only had one wheel that encircled the entire bike. However unlike that one, this one had a back seat. It was practical for dueling as well as for traveling. Then the young man on the bike pulled off his helmet.

He was a tall young man, thin and about her age. His skin was a lot darker than hers, hinting at the hotter climate that he had grown up in, rather than the cooler one she had known as a child. He was still wearing a full safety suit, unlike the black rags that she was wearing. His hair was longer than it probably should have been, and pulled into a braid. She also noticed that it was a very pretty silver color. He had bright blue eyes that seemed full of concern as he looked at her.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "Those guys are bad news!"

A local then. Halia just looked at him with her unchanging eyes, but it didn't really seem to deter him. He looked up as he heard the sound of the screaming men behind her. Halia decided it was time for her to leave, before he was completely terrified of her as well. She moved to walk around the bike and continue in the direction she had been going before, but he quickly reached out and grabbed her by the crook of her elbow, keeping her from walking away.

"Wait a minute," he said. "You can't go out there. Besides, it looks like you really need a place to stay. Don't you have a home to go to?"

"No," she replied. "People tend to fear me, so I leave them alone. It's better this way."

"Better?" he gasped like he couldn't believe the words he'd just heard coming from her mouth. "How can you say it's better? You're skin and bones. Let me take you back to where me and my friends are. You can at least stay a while and get some food."

"I doubt you'd let me stay long," she replied. "Not after seeing the monster that I am."

The young man paused, looking at her with confused eyes. However any question he was about to ask was cut off as the gang member she had left alone came crashing out of the factory, holding a lead pipe in his hand. His eyes were wild as he raised it in front of him, glaring at Halia with the same rage she'd seen for most of her life.

"What the hell did you do to them?" he growled. "You witch! I'll kill you for that!"

The boy, whom Halia didn't even know the name of, began to bristle as the man began running forward. However Halia just stepped forward out of his grasp. She stood there, sizing him up as he came forward. She certainly didn't want to kill anyone. She'd never wanted that. But she needed to make sure that he stayed away from her this time. The boy behind her gasped and reached for her arm again.

"What are you-?"

"Stay back," she warned him sternly.

Her tone made him fall silent as quickly as he had begun speaking. She ignored him, raising her hands in front of her and facing her palms towards the man. They'd both hate her now, she was sure of it. But it was far better he knew what he was getting himself into before he brought her with him and blamed her for it. This way she could just leave like she had been planning to the whole time. Her eyes narrowed as she eyed the man in front of her.

A golden light danced between her finger tips, gaining yet another gasp from the boy behind her. Then it shot like a lance forward onto the ground in front of the man running towards them. The light expanded, blinding the man with the lead pipe as well as sending him flying backwards since it was in a sense, now physical. He hit the ground hard and began to snarl as he started to get up. Halia let out an irritated huff. That wasn't enough for him, was it?

Before Halia could raise her hand for another warning shot though, she felt herself being lifted suddenly off the ground and thrown over the back seat of the Duel Runner. She didn't even have time to protest as the boy on it threw a second helmet on her head and took off speeding down the highway again. Halia was beyond surprised. Even though she had just used her light powers, she'd still attacked someone. Most people would have been scared senseless and run away as quickly as they could. But apparently this boy didn't think that really mattered.

"There's no way I'm letting you wander around by yourself now," he called over the roar of the wind.

"What are you doing?" Halia asked.

"Taking you somewhere safe," he said. "I can see why you say you don't have anywhere to go. People must be scared of your powers."

"And you aren't?" Halia demanded, feeling almost angry.

"No," the boy called back. "Because I've seen someone with similar powers before. Tie your hair back with this. It's really long. I don't want it getting in the way."

Halia was too startled by the revelation that there were others with strange powers like hers to complain as he reached into his pocket and handed her a hair tie. She quickly pulled her hair into a sloppy braid so it wouldn't get in his way while he was driving, then wrapped her arms back around his waist. It was far better to be safe and alive than fall off and die. Besides, she was curious as to who this other person was, and the powers that they probably had, to want to fall off.

"Look I know you're confused," he said. "but we'll talk more when we get to my place alright. You'll be safe there."

For a long while, Halia just let him drive in silence. There wasn't else much to do, considering jumping off at this speed would be suicide and she didn't really feel like dying was something she planned on doing. The streets and broken buildings passed by quickly as they went along, and Halia just watched it all flash by.

This town was as broken as the rest. It too had been destroyed during what was known as the Seven Days of Fire, an entire week where it seemed that the whole world had burned. Duel Monsters continued to be played by people, and some towns had managed to pick up the pieces and start again. But the world wasn't going to be the same. Sure, some towns had rebuilt and were now centers of technology once again, but the world was broken and there was no changing that. The people seemed more so. And the entire world still seemed to be in shock.

People in her generation didn't even know what the Seven Days of Fire really were, only that they had happened. Most of the people who had survived through it were old now, and they refused to talk about it. Like the whole thing had to be hushed up. Those were the people who were the most scared of her, though she wasn't entirely sure why.

The Duel Runner squealed to a stop outside of what appeared to be someone's "house". It was little more than a broken building that had fallen and collapsed onto the one beside it. The rubble had been cleared out and sealed together somehow so it wouldn't collapse where it was needed to form a sort of makeshift house. Still, it would be much drier and warmer there than it usually was outside, which Halia knew all too well. A large blanket was hung over the "door" which was really just a huge hole between the two structures that were unlivable themselves. Sure, it wasn't as high tech as the cities that had rebuilt themselves a lot, but it was better than sleeping in a field.

She released the boy and he quickly hoped up, taking off his helmet and glancing over at Halia. When she didn't immediately move he just took the handlebars and walked it over to a concealed bunch of rocks where he left it there in the alcove. Then he offered her his hand and gave her a gentle smile. Halia stared at him a moment. He seemed like the kind of guy who had done this a lot. Halia pulled the helmet off.

"It's alright," he said. "You can trust me. Come inside. It looks like its going to rain soon."

"I don't even know you," she said flatly. "Why would you care so much for me?"

"Oh right," he said, taking the helmet and setting it down by the other in the front seat. "Sorry about that. My name is Gareth, Gareth Monroe. And I guess I care about you because it doesn't look like anyone else will. You can at least come inside and get something to eat, right?"

Halia stared at him a minute, wondering why he was doing all this. He didn't seem like the kind of guy to lie. She at last reached out and took his hand, letting him help her slip off the bike without making it tip over. The back seat was set higher than the front, so it wasn't as easy to reach the ground. Gareth just continued to smile.

"Can I know your name?" he asked. She watched him for a long span of silence.

"It's Halia," she replied. "Halia Voss."

"Alright then Halia," he said, still in the gentle and coaxing voice. "Let's go inside."

Gareth didn't try to rush her, but didn't release her hand either. His grip was firm but gentle, and he just seemed like the kind of guy that you could be relaxed around. Halia again got the feeling that he had done something like this before, which definitely made sense if there was another person like her running around. Finally she shrugged and let him tug her after him into the "house", where she paused in the doorway and looked out again.

Rain started to fall, and Gareth ran outside to quickly cover up the Duel Runner. Halia sighed and opened up her deck box on the side of her belt, pulling out a single card. It was one that had resonated with her for a long time, a Synchro monster that had the ability to change its type between Dark and Light once per turn. For obvious reasons, it had to be her favorite. Its name was Gold Saint: Gemini, one of twelve Gold Saint Synchro Monsters in her deck. She quickly slid it back into the box though as she heard Gareth coming back.

Few people had seen that favorite card of hers, an ace. It certainly wasn't the strongest, but its effect was devastating. And she wanted to make sure that it remained hidden for a while. They didn't call her "The Saint of Synchro" for no reason, and she'd prefer if Gareth didn't know who he'd just taken in for now. She didn't exactly have the best reputation ever.

And that's the end of chapter one. Again, this deck is based off of Saint Seiya, so if you know that Anime you'll probably get quite a few references that I make.

For now a lot of things remain shrouded in mystery, such as the Seven Days of Fire, the strange contradicting powers that seem to be floating around, and other such things. However I have a lot of this planned out already, and things will make sense later on. Also this is a post apocalyptic world, so things are different than you may remember, but it is set in the "Bonds Beyond Time" sort of world, as in time travel is going to be a thing, as well as other card types up to Zexal/Zeal.

Anyway, feel free to leave a review below.