A/N: Yay, finally started work on an Arc-V multichip! A crazy idea I've had since seeing Yuuto, and it's been slowly building up as new Yuuya lookalikes emerge. Ruri's existence disproves this theory, but it's still fun to think about so I'm using it instead to write this.

Written for the Diversity Writing challenge at the Yugioh Arc V Challenge Forum (link's in profile), Section K prompt 17 – write a fic entirely in third person present tense. For those of you who've read my work before, you might have realised I write almost exclusively in past tense, so this is a personal challenge (and a little experimenting while I'm at it). Following chapters will be more substantial (and longer). This is a prologue so it's a little short and vague. This first chapter is also for the Advent Calender Challenge on the ZEXAL Challenge Forum (link's also in profile), Day 18 - post the first chapter for a multichap. I'm running behind in that Advent, seeing as it's January. :)

The title is after a painting by the same name by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, playing on the "omen of death" seeing one's doppelgänger is supposed to be.

Enjoy!

How They Met Themselves
Prologue

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The pendulum swings. To and fro. They watch. Watch it approach the target. Watch it miss. Always miss.

And watch, with every new swing, as it reaches a little less close…

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There is a boy. He looks like any other boy, but he isn't. But only ones who've been to other worlds will know that. Only those who've seen many different people and have found none of them have carbon copies scattered about across different planes except this one.

Yuuto. Yugo. Yuri. Yuuya.

And maybe there's a fifth. An original. Or from another Dimension whose existence is not yet known.

But, of course, very few people realise that there are even four.

And some people have already died without realising it.

Some died before the war even started. Before the chaos emerged. Some died before the story even began. But most died within.

Yuuto. Yugo. Yuri. Yuuya. Even they don't realise… Realise what they are. Or what they're not.

None of them are yet aware of each other. They simply live, amongst others, amongst the brewing chaos, in their own dimensions. For some of them, the war has started. For some, it will soon start. Or so they think.

The truth is that the war has started before their birth. And they are a part of it. Have always been a part of it.

Poor pawns who believe themselves to be children…

But most, if not all, of the inhabitants of a universe slowly filling with chaos are pawns.

And perhaps it is poor pawn instead. Pawn because they are carbon copies of a one, despite how they appear. Different hair colours. Different styles. Different clothes and decks – but all of those are material things. All of those are easily looked past. And they share a destiny. An ultimate fate.

Yuuto. Yugo. Yuri. Yuuya.

Four names. One…and perhaps he can't even be said to be a boy.

But he is called one nonetheless, where this story starts.

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The pendulum swings again. Away. Towards. They watch. They wait.

They hope. They despair.

They know the story has already begun. They just wait…

And then it happens. A ripple. From somewhere. Some place.

And the pendulum hits its target with a resounding clang.