Title: Just A Little Trade
Characters: Edo, Yuuri, Shun}}Ship: N/A
Word Count: 2,768||Chapters: 1/1
Genre: Angst, Friendship||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing, Arc-V alternate/divergent timeline, D38, angst genre; Arc-V Angst Week Day #3, Carding
Notes: Beware headcanons.
Summary: It's not supposed to be so painful when you're trading for three cards you want, no matter how much you want them. Except when you're trading one life for three.
Almost absolute silence reigned. What kept it from being absolute was the quiet tick of machines and sometimes the far off noise of footsteps going by. Very few of the locals wanted to come too near this place anyway, and those who had the right to be here were busy elsewhere at the moment.
In point of fact, there were only two people there at the moment: Edo Phoenix, former Commander in Chief of the Fusion occupation force, and Kurosaki Shun, member of the rebellion and a Lancer.
Kurosaki, so far as Edo knew, wasn't much of a talker under normal circumstances. Now wasn't a bit difference, given that he hadn't woken up being struck on the head even with the best efforts of the healing pod.
He checked it carefully, just to be certain. Everything seemed the way that it should be, and if everything continued the way that it should, Kurosaki would probably wake up in another day or two. Three at the most. He would be very confused when he did, of course. When he'd been struck, Edo had still served Academia and the Professor, and those who'd been shown a different path by Sakaki Yuuya still were his enemies.
I'll have to explain everything. He wished Saiou would be there to help him. Saiou didn't do people any better than he did, but he could still find the words that Edo didn't always have. The two of them worked reasonably well together.
Only Saiou wasn't strictly a part of Academia. He dueled, of course, but he'd never joined the school, let alone the army. He visited Edo on occasion, or had before Edo achieved this promotion, but how long had it been now? Months?
He would have to find a a way to get in touch with Saiou, he decided, and let him know everything that had happened. Saiou had never overtly disapproved of the Professor or his goals – Edo wouldn't have been his friend in those days if he had – but the more Edo considered the matter, the more Edo suspected Saiou would approve of his changes.
Edo let out a tired sigh. It would take time to get a message across to the Fusion Dimension safely, especially now. They'd kept quiet for the most part, not wanting anyone from there to find out what was going on. What Edo hadn't told anyone else was that there was a good chance a faction of Obelisk Force or some of the other members of Academia might well come over here.
XYZ was, after all, considered prime hunting territory even now, with so little left. It had been part of his job to scoop up those he could find who would be suitable prey and keep them ready should anyone from there arrive.
The thought of doing so now sickened his stomach. He'd believed so much in the Professor's cause that to look back on himself since then sent his heart racing and sweat trickling down.
He glanced at Kurosaki's sleeping face for a few moments. If he didn't wake up in the next handful of days, then Edo knew he would have to somehow get some form of help. The tube should manage everything. The tech was almost as advanced as the procedure for carding. But everything and anything could have a flaw in it.
Footsteps outside drew closer. Edo frowned; they didn't sound like ones that he knew, and there weren't any voices accompanying them.
That made it a little sketchy already. This was their territory and they had no reason to keep their voices down. Their few nervous XYZ allies might, but they also tended not to make any noise when approaching.
Not to mention he shouldn't have heard them anyway, because they weren't there to be heard. Or shouldn't have been. They'd gone out to search for either new allies or survivors, for supplies, or for anything else that could help those they'd already found.
He suspected Kaito had also sent messages to whatever blocks of the Resistance remained. The official story on both sides was that there weren't any left. Edo didn't believe that for a moment. If Kaito still fought, then everyone else there did too, in whatever ways they could. They'd not given up before. Edo didn't think anything had happened so they would.
But footsteps drew closer and there were no voices and the sense that something was far more wrong than it should be ran icy talons down Edo's neck. He reached for his duel disk, ready to defend no matter who it was.
"There's no need for that, Commander."
The most mocking voice he'd heard in all of his life spoke. It wasn't his first time hearing it. But just like every other time, he hated it. He didn't think there was a single person around who actually liked hearing Yuuri talk.
"What are you doing here?" Edo's gaze flicked up and down, left and right, until he spied the younger soldier standing not that far away.
He was far too close to Kurosaki Shun, all things considered, and Edo started to reach for his deck again.
Yuuri raised one hand. "As I said, no need for that. Though if you really want to be stubborn, then it would just make what I want that much easier." A smile slid across his features, sly and sweet and sarcastic. "You don't really think a traitor could stand up to me, do you?"
Edo's lips pressed together. He'd not for a moment suspected that seeing Yuuri here was in any way good. "What are you doing here?" Edo repeated, wanting answers.
If he could stretch it out a little, keep Yuuri here until some of the others arrived, then maybe…
He may or may not stand a chance in a duel but Edo suspected the principles of entertainment dueling could stretch far enough to deal with Yuuri, whose idea of entertainment involved pain, shrieks, and terror for everyone who wasn't him.
"Oh, didn't I tell you? Everyone already knows about your little mass defection." Yuuri smiled that dangerous smile of his. "The Professor really doesn't care though."
That sent another warning chill through Edo. He refused to twitch an inch in reaction. Yuuri had to want more than that.
"That doesn't tell me what I asked."
Yuuri nodded solemnly. His main focus hadn't left Kurosaki for a second. "I suppose it doesn't." He took a step closer. "Let me tell you this much. No one cares. I could card all of you or I could let you go. The Professor has so much else that he'd rather do than worry himself about all of you."
"So why are you here, then? Surely you've got better things you could do." Edo didn't trust that smile, didn't trust the way Yuuri kept too much of his attention on Kurosaki, a possessive tilt to his lips.
"Because you have something that I want, and I'm going to take it." Yuuri chuckled softly, reaching out to rest his hand on the healing pod. "And you're not going to complain about it."
Edo took two quick steps, a low growl sliding between his teeth. "You're wrong about that!" He'd made a promise and he wasn't going to let it be broken.
"I don't think I am." Something flickered and Edo's attention followed a sudden line of something falling.
It was a card, he realized, the thought trailing along a heartbeat later. The card fell face-up and his heart froze in the moment it took him to realize just whose face that was.
When the Professor first began to build his army at Academia, he'd started at various orphanages, choosing the children there and bringing them together. They'd had few ties to anyone, and most of those who they did ended up at the Academia as well.
But when Edo joined, he'd not only left his closest friend behind, but his father as well. He'd never known his mother; his father told him that she'd passed away shortly after his birth. It hadn't been Edo's fault, Mr. Phoenix assured him over and over, but simply an accident, and he'd come to accept that.
And now he saw his father's face staring up at him from the card.
It shouldn't be. This shouldn't be. He'd talked to his father only a few days before. Everything had been fine then.
Only now there was that gentle face, that had seemed ever so faintly disappointed in him over the last few months as he'd risen higher in the army and made his debut as Commander-in-Chief.
"Father..." He murmured for a heartbeat before his eyes jerked back to Yuuri. "What did you do? You said..."
Yuuri waved one hand casually. "I said that it didn't matter to the Professor. And it doesn't. So he doesn't care if I do this. I've already finished my duties for him anyway." That demonic smile flickered back into being. "So now I get to have some fun for myself."
Edo's stomach sloshed and tightened in terror. He worked as hard as he could to keep himself focused. He could guess what Yuuri meant. He just didn't want to.
Another card fluttered down. Edo's heart twisted even farther to see a spill of night-black hair and a pair of calm, wise eyes looking back up at him. His breath froze in his throat.
Part of him cursed Sakaki Yuuya for showing him how much different everything could be, should have been. If he hadn't listened, if he hadn't chosen this different path, then he wouldn't be here now, seeing the faces of those he loved the most staring back at him like this.
They wouldn't be vulnerable to someone like Yuuri.
"You're not going to argue with what I want, are you?" Yuuri questioned. "What does it mean to you, anyway?" That mocking smile wasn't going anywhere. Edo hadn't ever realized how much he could genuinely hate such a smile. It mocked everything he'd believed in his life, Academia or otherwise. "I'll take him and you can continue to put this broken toy of a world back together, until the Professor finishes his plan, and you're all disposed of, one way or another. Do you understand?"
Edo's nails dug so hard into his palms he could feel trickles of blood working their way through. "I'm not going to let you have him." He bit the words off cold and hard. He couldn't do this. Trading lives was something that those of Academia did. Something they thought was easy and fun. He refused to be a part of that anymore.
More of that horrid anticipation worked its way through him. If Yuuri had his father and Mizuchi already sealed like this, then what else did he have?
Who else did he have?
Edo didn't have to ask the question out loud, not when Yuuri would be more than happy to answer it regardless. He raised one hand and a third card gleamed there.
"I thought that's what you say," he murmured, and flipped the card around.
Saiou Takuma, brilliant waterfall of evening-blue hair and eyes of a violet so rich that Edo thought amethysts would envy him stared from this last card, the last person that Edo truly cared about in all the worlds.
And Yuuri did not let go of it.
He said nothing else. What he did was take hold of Saiou's card by the top and bend it. Not tear, only bend, but it was warning enough. Edo reached out, paler than he'd ever been before.
Edo couldn't let that happen. It didn't matter if anyone would ever forgive him for letting Yuuri have what he wanted. He'd never forgive himself if he let Saiou be destroyed like that.
He swallowed, reaching, a few empty steps in between them, but Yuuri easily kept his distance.
"What was that you said?" Yuuri taunted, fingers still in position to tear. "I think you said something about giving me what I want?"
Edo pressed his teeth against his lower lip. He wanted the others to come back. If they did, then Yuuri might be distracted enough for him to take Saiou's card back. If he had the card, then all the power would be on his side.
But there weren't any other sounds. Just the two of them, and Yuuri's burgeoning smile of triumph.
"Why do you want him?" Edo asked, grasping for any extra time he could. Yuuri sniffed.
"Everyone needs toys of some kind," he said. "This is the toy that I want."
"He's hurt," Edo pointed out. "That's why he's in there. He's getting better, but he's in no shape for you to play with."
Yuuri laughed, a sound that called back too many echoes to Edo's mind, of hearing Sakaki Yuuya laugh. They did more than look alike, Edo realized. They sounded alike too, voices that could have been that of brothers.
"I did notice where he is. But I take very good care of my toys. I hate it when they break too soon." Yuuri's fingers tightened on the card just a tiny bit more and Edo thought he saw a tear appearing.
There wasn't any more time to delay, to bargain, or do anything. He steeled himself, ready to hate himself from this moment on.
"How do you intend to get him out of here? He'll wake up if I open the tube."
"Not for a while yet. I can keep him under control until we're home. He's certainly in no condition to fight me." Yuuri pointed out. He gestured with a jerk of his head. "Open it. Now."
Edo reminded himself that he did this because he wasn't going to let someone he cared about be torn apart in Yuuri's hands. That was something he hadn't mentioned to Yuuya and the others: any card torn apart, shredded in any fashion, meant that the person in that card died.
He'd seen it happen before. He couldn't let it happen again.
Kurosaki can be rescued, he told himself as he began the sequence to open the tube. If he tears Saiou's card, he's gone forever. And Yuuri would still find a way to take what he wanted.
As much as he justified it to himself, it still hurt to do this. Perhaps it hurt even more to justify it.
Yuuri kept hold of Saiou's card even as the tube opened, mist pouring out, and he stepped closer to Kurosaki, possessiveness in every line of himself. Somehow he kept it even when he had Kurosaki lifted over one shoulder.
Then he casually tossed it toward Edo. "They screamed your name, you know. When I carded them. It was the last thing on their lips."
Edo dived for the cards, scooping all three into his hands, heart racing. He wanted to hear no more. He wanted Yuuri gone, once and for all.
He wanted a chance to warn people about what had happened. As important as stopping the Professor's plans were, Edo could not bring himself to just let someone be Yuuri's prisoner as well. If he had to, he would take care of it himself.
Yuuri turned toward him, eyes bright with anticipation, one hand resting on Kurosaki's back. "You'd better be a very good boy. I'd really rather not have to take those cards back from you." He moved the fingers of one hand in a motion that was somewhat a wave and yet reeked of far more mockery than anything that Edo could remember seeing.
Another card appeared between his fingers; Edo had just time enough to read it: Violet Flash. Energy every bit as bright as the sun flashed, and when Edo could see again, he was the only one in the room. The pod remained, open and empty, and in his hands there rested those three cards.
Edo wanted to get back to Fusion, to collect a team and mount a rescue mission. Yuuri's last words echoed in his mind as soon as he thought of that. The cards might be safe in his hands now, but if there was one person in all four dimensions who could change that, who could extract revenge at a moment's notice, no matter the defenses put up against him, Yuuri was that person.
What he wanted to do and what he could do and what he should do tangled up in his head and his heart, his fingers pressed against the cards, and the sun rose, and he had explanations to make that he'd never thought he would.
The End
Notes: Some day I may write a sequel. That day is not today.