This is an older fic that I finished but hadn't posted. I'd scrap it, but I went through too much effort to meticulously plot out every detail of the featured duel that happens in it, and I really didn't want to make it go to waste.

Japanese terminology used because I watched the Japanese subs first and actually don't know half the English names for a lot of these.

There will be an outline of the duel and any new cards I made up at the end of the fic.

"Just how much further does this path extend?" Yusei mused, looking in front of him at Dark Glass.

The two of them had been on their path the longest, he knew; the throbbing that he had felt from the Crimson Dragon birthmark on his arm had been proof of that. But he wasn't surprised. The map of the Arc Cradle that Dark Glass had (somehow) pulled up had shown three paths to the Planetary Gears and then three paths from there to the Support Gear.

Given how it had been set up, they'd been lucky that some of them had landed on each path. Otherwise, there would have been no way to stop all of the gears in time, especially given that there seemed to be guardians. Aki and Crow had landed on what had been the shortest path. He'd known they were fighting as soon as he'd felt the throbbing from their birthmarks. Whoever they had been fighting, however, had been defeated, if the feeling he'd felt had been correct.

The biggest shocker that had nearly made him lose control of his D-Wheel was when the throbbing started up again – someone was trying to call the power of the Crimson Dragon. It couldn't have been Aki or Crow – they had already finished. And the throbbing sensation hadn't felt like Jack or Ruka.

Rua had evolved into a Signer.

He was happy for Rua; the other deserved it, with how much he had grown in the past couple of years and how his sole desire in life was to protect Ruka. Perhaps the Crimson Dragon had responded to that desire by giving Rua the power to back it up..

A slight chill went through him as he remembered that the Crimson Dragon's power usually didn't activate without a Signer calling forth – yet when Rua had been blown off the bridge during his and Ruka's battle with Lucciano, it had responded immediately to protect him. Had Rua always been destined to become a Signer?

Yusei was cut out of his thoughts when Dark Glass responded to his query. "We're almost there," Dark Glass said, without turning around.

Frowning with determination, Yusei accelerated until he had caught up to Dark Glass, his eyes flickering over briefly to study the other duelist. "Why are you helping us out?"

He had a lot of questions for Dark Glass. He knew absolutely nothing about him – his name, his history, his age, nothing. The other duelist had appeared out of nowhere, all while knowing about the three Emperors of Yliaster – about Aporia – with the full intentions of teaching him about pushing away his fears, controlling his speed, and Accel Synchro.

Not only that, but somehow, despite the fact that all of the Momentum in the city had stopped working other than the Old Momentum in reverse, Dark Glass's D-Wheel was still working fine. He knew that Team Ragnarok's was still working due to their Rune Eyes, and his, Jack's, Crow's, and Aki's were working fine due to them being Signers (Ruka's Duel Board would work, too, but it wasn't as fast as a D-Wheel). And right when they'd needed help as Rainbow Bridge Bifrost disappeared, Dark Glass appeared to give them a slipstream. They all knew that Aki had just barely made it with the help of his slipstream; without it, she would have never made it at all.

There had been nothing malicious about the actions in the least. Sure, he had been a strict and firm taskmaster, but there had been nothing but pride in his voice when Yusei had finally achieved Accel Synchro, and when he had been attacked by Placido's Ghosts, he'd appeared out of nowhere to help him, fight the Ghosts, and distract Placido until Yusei discovered Accel Synchro and was capable of defeating him.

In short, Yusei considered him his teacher, someone that he could look up to and learn from. The older duelist – he came off as older, even if he didn't know his age – knew a lot, but had taken Yusei under his wing. There had been very few people like that he could idolize – offhand, he could only name his parents, his foster-mother Martha , and Rex Godwin, who had inspired the residents of the Satellite despite his later actions – and Dark Glass was a welcome addition to his short list of idols.

But that didn't mean he wasn't curious about why Dark Glass wanted to assist them. The man had claimed he had lost some critical memories after they'd boarded the Arc Cradle. The statement rang a bell in Yusei's mind, but given how much time he had to think on it, he pushed it aside. He could worry about it later.

"And…" he continued, when Dark Glass didn't respond, "Back when you scanned this place, how did you know so much about its layout?"

"I do not know," Dark Glass said finally, his voice quiet. "I do not know, but I know this place." He turned his head to glance at the walls. "And… I feel that the answer to that question lies ahead."

"At the Planetary Gear?" Yusei mused, turning to face forward again as he tried to put the pieces together. "Crow, Jack, and the others all fought against Duelists protecting the Planetary Gears. That must mean-"

"-There will be an opponent we must face when we get there," finished Dark Glass. "Defeating that opponent will open our path to the Support Gear. And…"

"I'll understand what you said?" Yusei asked.

"Yes." Dark Glass nodded, then lifted his head slightly when he saw a light at the end of the tunnel. "We're here!"

Yusei took a deep breath, focusing on arriving at his destination. He had no idea who they were going to face there. Hadn't Aporia told them that he had met three others in the future? Was it possibly one of those three that they were going to face? It made sense; three friends, three Planetary Gears. But one of those companions had been Z-ONE, the leader, the man they had met in the other dimension that had given him the impression he was staring straight into his soul and knew everything. And from Yusei's own experiences, the leader was always faced last, after everything else had been done.

No, it was likely that the leader, Z-ONE, would be fought at the Support Gear, and that the people at the three Planetary Gears were Aporia's two friends and Sherry, who had joined Z-ONE. The question was, which one of them was it going to be?

He would soon find out, he thought, as he and Dark Glass approached the Gear and stopped their D-Wheels before dismounting to look at the Gear itself.

The rainbow energy of Momentum was spinning the Planetary Gear in a reverse direction, and Yusei took a deep breath. "Where's our opponent? Where's the enemy we have to defeat before we can do anything?"

No sooner had he said that, the roar of a D-Wheel reached their ears. Both Dark Glass and Yusei turned in the direction that it was coming from and took several steps back as a familiar, large white D-Wheel rode onto the scene, skidding to a halt not too far from the two of them. But it was the figure on the D-Wheel that made Yusei's eyes widen.

"Paradox?!"

A small smile crossed Paradox's lips as he climbed off of the D-Wheel. "You sound like you were not expecting me, Yusei Fudo."

"But…" Yusei thought back to when he had first met the man – the man who had claimed that he was from an apocalyptic future, who had had strange abilities such as his D-Wheel morphing and being able to merge with his monster, and who had wanted to destroy Duel Monsters to prevent the future from being ruined.

It sounded a lot like Aporia.

Suddenly, he was no longer surprised that Paradox was guarding one of the Gears. That meant that one of Aporia's friends had been Paradox, and the other two guardians had likely been Sherry and another one of Aporia's friends.

"Weren't you destroyed in the past, when I went back in time to retrieve Stardust Dragon?!" Yusei asked him.

Paradox nodded. "I was – but I have been revived, to be given one more chance to carry out my grand experiment."

"By Z-ONE," he realized. If Paradox had been revived, then had Aporia as well? There was no way to find out except by defeating Paradox and finding his friends again.

Yusei Fudo… I couldn't stop the promotion of Duel Monsters by Maximillian Pegasus, due to the interference of you, Judai Yuki, and Yugi Mutou. But this time, things will turn out differently.

That was a sore spot for Paradox – his defeat at their hands. He had been so close… stealing Stardust Dragon from Yusei to use in his "Sin" Deck had been a cinch. Stealing two more dragons for his deck several years in the past had been easy, too, and even Judai with his Elemental Hero Neos hadn't been too much of a match until Yusei had interfered. Even preventing Duel Monsters from becoming huge by killing Pegasus at a promotional event further in the past had worked, too – again, until Yusei had interfered, and he, Judai, and Yugi had teamed up to defeat him in a duel.

But this time, Judai and Yugi were not around to help Yusei.

"I am the one that is guarding this Planetary Gear," Paradox said finally. "If you want to stop the Gear, you will have to defeat me in a duel. But unlike last time, things will be different. The first experiment was merely a trial."

That's right, Yusei thought. Judai and Yugi aren't here. He could just imagine their faces now, grinning down at him and telling him to do his best. Yes, he was not as close to them as he was with Jack, Crow, Aki, Rua, Ruka, and Bruno. But they had been his friends, and if they were still alive (he refused to believe they had died in the Zero Reverse), then he could imagine Judai telling him to kick Paradox's butt, while Yugi encouraged him to fight for the future.

"This time, you are fighting me alone, Yusei Fudo!" Paradox challenged.

"Oh, is he now?"

Both Yusei and Paradox turned as Dark Glass stepped up beside Yusei, facing Paradox. With Paradox having appeared, Yusei had almost forgotten that he had been there.

"You…" Yusei started, but then paused, remembering that he didn't know his name.

Dark Glass faced Paradox, one hand on his hip and that familiar, cocky smirk on his lips. "What did you think that I was here for, Paradox? To watch?"

Paradox stared at him for a few seconds, the only signs of surprise on his face the slight widening of his eyes and the thinning of his lips. "…You are… why?"

"Because I need to remind you of just what it is we are doing." At those words, Yusei looked up at the taller Duelist, just as startled, as Dark Glass turned towards him and placed a companionable hand on his shoulder. "Yusei. You will not fight this duel alone." He smirked suddenly. "Besides, I still have a few things left to show you."

"So, you are betraying your comrades?" Paradox asked Dark Glass, his vocal tone never changing.

What? Yusei looked between the two of them. Is he saying that Dark Glass was like him, Aporia, and Z-ONE? But if that is the case, then why has he been helping us?

Dark Glass smirked. "No. I am merely doing what I am supposed to do. Yusei. Time is running short."

Nodding, Yusei ran back to his D-Wheel and climbed on, starting it up, as Dark Glass did the same. Paradox let out a huff of irritation as he did the same, starting up the D-Wheel and circling around the Gear as the other two followed him.

However, no sooner had they started when the entire world faded away, revealing a twisting road made up of rainbow light circling around a sun, with stars dotting the sky.

"What?!" Yusei stared, keeping the D-Wheel steady. "Where is this?!"

"Our track," Paradox explained. "This is where we will hold our Riding Duel. As you can see, we are circling a star. Whoever loses this duel will be blown off of the path to fall into the star."

"Killing them," Dark Glass said, his voice clipped and cool as always. "But that is not going to happen to me or Yusei."

Yusei bit his lip. While he would much rather duel with the rest of Team 5Ds, his close friends, by his side, that wouldn't be happening. He knew that he could trust Jack and Crow with his life; the three of them had grown up together and had won the W.R.G.P. together. Aki and the twins were friends he had made last year, and they had grown to be strong Duelists. Bruno… Bruno and he were like a fish and water, but Bruno was not on the Arc Cradle (he hoped the other got away from Neo Domino City in time) nor had he built his own deck. Still, Bruno had proven time and time again that he was a master Duelist, and he claimed to remember working on D-Wheels and dueling. Perhaps he had been a Pro Leaguer at some point?

But Dark Glass was his teacher. They might not have dueled together as a team, but they knew each other's decks and strategies (for the most part – Dark Glass seemed to still have a few tricks up his sleeve that he hadn't revealed) and could assist each other should things go that way.

"I understand," he said, speeding up so that he was tailing just behind Dark Glass and Paradox. "Let's go! Paradox!"

Activating Speed World 2, he listened to the computer voice on his D-Wheel say "Duel Mode On" as he drew his first five cards, but Paradox wasn't done speaking just yet.

"As this will be a three-way duel," he started, drawing five cards, "Whoever has not taken their first turn may not receive a direct attack from another player."

"Fine by me!" Dark Glass said as he drew his own first five cards.

"Riding Duel, acceleration! DUEL!"