Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's - Disaster Zone
by Yusei
Summary - "There's only so much one person can take before he breaks. Zonesei oneshot, spoilers for 144".
Disclaimer – I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's or any of the characters.
A / N – Yeah, the whole Zonesei wagon got thrown out a couple of days back, but the seed for this was sown almost 3 months ago, as the Arc Cradle arc began. People all over have been fuming about the revelation from 149, so hopefully, this will ease that disappointment - or make it worse, either way. Regardless of how the canon goes, the Zonesei fics that have yet to be finished and uploaded are still in the works, and there'll be a canon-Zone oneshot acting as a parallel to this. For now; this is some Zonesei for those hoping it could have happened. Hope you enjoy. Please read and review.
-DISASTER ZONE-
Time was cruel and he had no control it. Years had passed since the Signers had overcome the Earthbound Gods, rescuing mankind from the demon gods from 5000 years ago. It had played on Yusei's mind since that the same battle would repeat itself in 5000 years time; the motivation behind Godwin's betrayal. Since then, the Signers and their friends had grown and travelled their own paths; while all in Neo-Domino, they had different journeys they ventured through.
A decade had passed between the legendary war and the present; Yusei had aged slowly, looking as though only a few years had passed since his rise to fame; Lua and Luca, on the other hand, had grown to the same stage that he, Jack, Crow and Aki had been at the time. His crimson D-Wheel squealed through the streets, heading towards the Tops; the most prestigious tower in the City, where only the richest and most privileged lived. Yusei, Lua and Luca began life there, living through their childhoods within the lavish walls of utopia.
The Signers were united by a common call - to tackle the Dark Signers rising from the depths of the City. In this world, there was no Satellite, Yliaster had yet to exist. Jack and Crow, from their altered backgrounds, appeared once their Birthmarks shone with the Crimson Dragon's blessing, dragging them into the war with Yusei and Luca, joined by Aki from her grand home. The five, along with Lua, were preparing to meet at the Duel Stadium where Yusei had been crowned Duel King several years ago to witness a new Riding Duel tournament. Word had it an aspiring man was a participant, someone by the name of Antinomy - at least, that was his alias.
The tournament itself proven itself a day well-spent; Antinomy had come out on top, standing atop every other competitor with ease - there was nobody who could compare himself to the blue-haired man. Lua had made the comment that the duellist reminded him of Yusei during their fight against the Earthbound Gods.
Dusk was upon the city, separating the Signers returning to their respective lives; Crow towards the Daimon Area, Jack towards the edge of the City, Lua and Luca to the Tops and Aki to her luxurious home situation close to the city's centre. Yusei had long moved out of the Tops, living his own life close to the Momentum Reactor that his father worked to build - the very source of his name. He lived alone, despite the tight bonds he shared with his friends, meeting them almost every day. Disaster had brought them closer together, uniting people of different areas and personalities together under one banner; they had completed the prediction of Yusei's name.
By the time he reached his home, a modest building set deep in the industrial heart of Neo-Domino, there was chatter of small objects hanging in the sky, some claiming them to be aliens about to land and reveal themselves to mankind. Yusei climbed from his D-Wheel and watched in the direction of the Daimon Area; dozens of small black figures moved in through the air, gleaming in the sun's dying light. There was an unsettling feeling brewing in Yusei's stomach, but he ignored it in favour of watching the invaders.
Long before they reached the central area's airborne division, a beam of green energy shot out. An eruption followed, the screams of people filled the air and froze Yusei's spine. Droplets of sweat slid down his face - the mechanical army was over where Crow had last been seen heading for.
"No! I have to do something!"
But what could he do? Automatically, he leapt onto the D-Wheel and revved the engine to life, spinning around recklessly and almost smashing into a nearby fence as he blindly raced onto the road. Around him, people were panicking either side of the road, running and crying out to loved ones, calling for people to get to safety. All going the opposite way to Yusei - away from the chaos. While they feared for their own lives, he was set on one thing - the life of his friend.
Numerous times, the terror-stricken voice of a fleeing civilian would call to him to turn back, to stay away from the madness, despite the fact that he had saved their world from other-worldly beings once before. The blasts grew louder and larger, the ground trembling underneath the D-Wheel, throwing his pounding heart around like a mere toy. A display of the invaders flashed onto his monitor, condensing a map of the streets into the bottom-right corner; it appeared as though there were three breeds of the machine race - an orange leader with wide arms and horizontal tracks, a blue bird-like creature with bony wings and body, finally, a white human-shaped assailant. Each bore the mark of Infinity on their chests. Were they supposed to be some kind of indicator of their power? Some mocking symbol of their strength in comparison to humans?
Yusei growled, clenching his jaws, almost grating his teeth together, the veins in his wrists throbbed as his hands gripped the arms of his D-Wheel as tightly as they possible could. His foot tapped the acceleration pedal twice, pushing the D-Wheel to its dangerous limits; if someone ran out in front of him, it could be the end of them both.
The sky was on fire, the city was on fire, the heat sweeping through the streets. He was getting close.
"Crow!"
Through an opening to a large plaza he shot and braked. On the ground ahead of him, there was supposed to be a duel ring marked in white paint with apartments set around it. Yusei's heart stopped beating in the second his eyes fell upon that scene - there was nothing but destruction. Buildings toppling and crushing fleeing civilians, flames roaring across the ripped concrete blocks, trees uprooted. His heart clambered up and into his throat, tears pushed themselves into his eyes.
The air filled with screams, confused chatter and terrified voices raised to their peaks, interrupted by another rumble; a tower of apartments breaking loose from their place and toppling towards the ground, dissolving into boulders of concrete and smashing helpless bodies running desperately to escape. Dozens slaughtered in seconds. Yusei's breathing quickened, terror flooding him - he wasn't one to shed emotions, but there was no stopping the absolute horror that flooded a human body. He was helpless to save the people who had suffered, those who were trapped and dead, those who were on the outskirts of the rubble and injured or shaken. Even the almighty Signer who had lead his kind to victory over the Earthbound Gods and revered as a legend could do nothing in the face of a new threat - his time had passed and he was reduced to nothing more than an ordinary human. No ancient marking could save him or the others now.
"CROW!" he yelled, his azure eyes scanning the area, jumping from one end to the other with a pause. There was no sign of his friend in the fleeing crowds.
"Yusei" a familiar voice came.
Yusei flinched and then dropped himself to the monitor of his D-Wheel, finding Jack Atlus' hardened face there, still wearing his helmet. While he had yet to remove the headgear, he was stationary, the tips of his hair hanging limply.
"Jack" he managed to choke.
"What's going on? Apparently, there's new of an attack" Jack reported.
"It's some army of machines, they're attacking the Daimon Area" Yusei called back. "I don't know what they are, except maybe unstoppable, we can't reach them".
"Are you saying these are true monsters like the Earthbound Gods?" Jack asked.
"Possibly, I don't know" Yusei shouted back. Seconds were passing, lives being wasted, all while he was talking with a friend. Those were lives he could save… somehow. Tears slid out of his eyes and exposed weakness.
Jack wasn't blind to the crystal drops. "Yusei, what's going on there?" he asked, eyes widening slightly.
"I'm at the Daimon Area now" Yusei replied. "I-"
Before he could continue, another beam of shimmering green light pierced a building overlooking the duel arena. Walls broke away, boulders dropping, glass shattering and spinning like knives, all crumbling on top of at least two dozen people working to rescue trapped corpses and injured.
"LOOK OUT!" Yusei yelled, reaching out for the doomed with a single hand like it would do something.
Some of those averted their eyes skywards to find the collapsing rubble raining down towards them, some remained oblivious. Screams and tears left them one final time and with a thunderous crash, they vanished into clouds of dust and under rocks of death. Yusei was horrified; voice locked in his throat, No matter how many times Jack yelled his name over and over, he didn't respond, standing catatonic while watching the disaster unfold and settle. More screams of horrified women and children, some having lost a loved one.
All numb facts to the frozen Yusei, staring at the remains of Crow's apartment laying strewn across the plaza. The place where his friend would have been standing when the attack began. There was no doubt that he was….
"Yusei!" Jack hollered, finally snapping Yusei out of his catatonic state.
Yusei flinched, then dropped his eyes to the stern face of his friend, looking more annoyed at being ignored than concerned for what had just happened, the madness happening around him. It was the stolen life in Yusei's eyes and numbed his irritation, dragging out a somewhat surprised look.
"Yusei…" he mumbled. "What's going on?"
Yusei struggled to keep the tears locked in his eyes, his throat tight with despair over the tragedy he had witnessed, taking a moment to compose himself before he could speak. All the time unnerving Jack more.
"It's Crow…" he managed. "He… I think we're too late".
"Crow's dead?" Jack blurted in shock.
Yusei shut his eyes, rendering him blind to everything around him; blood-soaked civilians, crackling flames, dusty rubble collected over corpses. Shutting out the world, two tears slid down either side of his face, confirming Jack's worst fears. Yusei wasn't one to cry, especially in front of people - the fact that he had shed the mask was evidence that disaster had struck the very core of the Signer's team; the Crimson Dragon would slowly die, one piece at a time.
"Yusei, get yourself out of there before you get yourself killed" Jack commanded firmly, doing his best to achieve what his friend had managed to maintain.
Yusei opened his damp eyes, swimming through despair to find the face of his comrade. "Jack…"
"The last thing we need is to lose you too" Jack called. "Find somewhere safe and we'll meet up".
"I can't…" Yusei breathed, clenching his right fist on the edge of his inserted Duel Disk. "I can't abandon everyone".
"You're not abandoning anyone" Jack snapped. "You'd be doing more by running and formulating a plan rather than getting yourself slaughtered".
"But what about the others?" Yusei asked, avoiding Jack's firm eyes. "Jack, I want you to get Lua and Luca, I'll get Aki and meet you at the Tops. She's closer to this area, she's in more danger".
"Just be careful" Jack replied. ""I don't want to hear that you've been killed and have to break it to the twins".
Yusei replied with nothing more than a nod, silent before Jack's face vanished and left him alone in the middle of the devastation and fleeing people. All of whom had no power to change anything.. Just like before. So this was what it was like to be helpless and watch on.
"Yusei" a feminine voice cried through the murmuring. "Fudo Yusei!"
His head rose, capturing the sight of a woman rushing towards him, diverting from the streams of people rushing past and flooding deeper into the city. She rushed to the edge of the D-Wheel, grabbing the flat arm and fixated her pleading eyes onto his stunned face.
"Please, you can do something to stop this, can't you/?" she asked with a tense voice. "You stopped those evil beasts before, you can deal with these things, right?"
Yusei stiffened, he had not the heart to confess the truth; that he was as incapable of doing anything as her, especially with his shaken mind. Shadows of the floating slayers grew across the concrete, shrouding the terrified targets in darkness. Yusei craned his neck back, ignoring the pale-faced woman and glared numbly at the three breeds of machine hovering overhead, casting a remorseless, painted gaze down at the grounded civilisation.
They moved on following a moment of distorted peace, soaring after the people running for sanctuary. Moving towards where more victims were lying in wait. Then it struck him - the self-appointed mission he had yet to complete.
"Aki".
The woman retreated when he tapped the acceleration pedal, spinning the back wheel faster and littered the ground with golden sparks. The D-Wheel shot towards the rubble, launching his damaged heart towards it; to the grave of his dear friend. The machine twisted and shot off in the opposite direction, joining the streams of absconding mortals.
Hundreds fell behind, each piling onto the guilt mounting inside of him; each could wind up a victim of the invaders' slaughter, joining the ranks of dozens of others already robbed of their existence. The thought of losing another friend haunted Yusei, it preyed on his mind like a parasite of doubt and death, an extending arm reaching over him in the direction of her home, to snatch her before he could reach the destination and warn her of the impending danger. The racing of his heart influenced his every nerve in his body, all screaming for the D-Wheel to go faster, break beyond its limits and smash through anything that stood in the way - anything so that he could reach Aki and transport her to safety.
Around the blurred road, explosions and flames roared, tremors rocked the district and the shrieks of people filled his ears, pouring into his mind to haunt him until he should meet the same grim fate. Neo-Domino had always been a place of success and luxury; no more, but nestled deep in the shadow cast by death.
The entire ride blended into one large blur; people lost on the way, buildings toppling and smashing into the road, threatening to crush him and slay another Signer, destroy another segment of the damned Crimson Dragon. Slowly tear it apart just like the city, slashing its population rapidly, small dents growing. All damage eating away, taking its toll. Yusei lost track of time, ignoring how many minutes passed, so long as he stayed ahead of the steel aliens, just so he could succeed in one last thing before the survivors were inevitably slain.
He wouldn't fail her. He wouldn't fail Crow. He wouldn't fail anyone again. Even the people who fell behind to die would be avenged; he would find some way of overcoming the annihilation of mankind and prevent any more pointless deaths.
The D-Wheel skidded to the end of the lengthy cement drive leading to the gates of the Izayoi manor, launching itself forward to the site; trees smouldering and clouds looming grimly. Yusei's heart thumped carelessly, throwing itself against his chest to escape and dehydrate. Plumes of smoke waved from the hidden structure ahead, piling onto Yusei's worst fears.
No…. No! Not Aki.
Beyond the black iron gates was nothing. Yusei tore back, almost ripping his arms as he pulled as hard as possible to twist the brakes into action. Miniature plumes hissed from the burning tyres. Everything outside the building was forgotten as Yusei threw his helmet down onto the dirt beside the cement, dashing up to the barred gates. Disbelief grabbed his throat and heart, crushing both. The Izayoi manor had disappeared, replaced by rubble and snapped furniture. There was nothing to suggest either Aki or her parents would have lived through the ordeal. There was no easy way to access the premises; the only remaining option seemed to be through the gate.
Yusei wrapped his hands around one of the bent bars, pulling with all his might in the hope of dislodging it and opening up a gap wide enough to slip inside.
One minute passed. Two minutes passed. The muscles in his arm moaned. The iron creaked and groaned, clanging when one single bar came away and he stumbled forward. The bar toppled onto the ground, scratching at the forgotten dirt. Yusei pushed himself through, leaping forward into the devastated site and darted towards the steaming ruins.
"Aki!" he yelled. "AKI!"
There was no sign of life, everything remained still and cold. Yusei dropped down in front of the ruins; there wasn't a threat to his own life, there wasn't another to topple and crush him like those doomed innocent people desperate to unearth any trapped survivors. The memory tore at him, stinging his heart with its very lurid existence. He could hear them - weak pleas for help, voices of men, women and children begging to be rescued from their tombs, they were reaching in their tight prisons for him to acknowledge them, tears and blood streaming down their faces.
He paused, closed his eyes and shook his head. He was beating himself up; was there really anything he could do more than the next person? He could see Crow there, smirking with doomed hope. Waiting in vain for someone to find him. Yusei's head shook more violently; these were his friends, people he was supposed to be able to help, people he treasured and vowed to protect. He scratched at the rubble faster, peeling away rocks and concrete, opening a miniature cave filled with features from the front of the Izayoi home, including the twin doors with glinting glass fragments thrown from their place. Everything displaced. Nothing to ease the burning pain.
Yusei pressed the palms of his hands against a large boulder, tugging it away from the gaping hole underneath, possibly the coffin for a body could he fail in removing the piece. The weight resisted, digging itself further into the mound. Yusei's arms cracked and throbbed from their ongoing effort to succeed overcoming strenuous task. Yusei groaned, pulling harder than ever, only for his hands to release the boulder, fatigue too much for his arms to bear any longer and sent him crashing backwards onto the ground, laying amongst the removed chunks of wall, staring at the blazing orange sky, his chest rising and falling with quick succession. Sweat clung to his forehead, slipping either side.
Stuck to the ground, Yusei lifted his right arm, feeling the blood quickly draining away and retreating into his torso. Underneath the combination of brown and dim blue, there was the blood red symbol emblazoned on his skin; the Head of the Crimson Dragon that brought them together. It shone whenever someone else was duelling a Dark Signer, why was there nothing from it now? Why was it not trying to reassure those alive that their comrades were still breathing? Why wasn't it giving them a goddamned sign? The arm fell and Yusei turned his head away, furious at the mystical creature for only offering comfort when it suited the beast. His eyes fell to the ground, surveying the remainders of Aki's home, small chunks strewn across the once dew doused lawn and soft earth between the nature and artificial. Amidst the tipped view he had, there was something not quite right; something dark and out of place. Yusei furrowed his brow, narrowing his focus onto the dark thing. Slowly, it became clear… and worse.
Yusei threw himself over, eyes fixated on the piece. He knew that. The two shades, the shape. That was something he knew well. His face paled further, he could see it… The world around it faded into nothingness.
"No…" What he could see… was Izayoi Aki's severed arm.
In a desperate attempt to lift himself from the ground, he scratched at the earth with the tips of his boots, a running lift and threw himself forward to the arm, his hands tightly clenched either side of him, opening only when he dropped down onto his knees in front of the limb and stared at it with tear-flooded eyes. In front of him, Aki's right arm was laying on the ground; that which bore the symbol of the Crimson Dragon - evidence she was no longer in the same realm.
"Aki…" he choked.
His fists fell either side of the arm, burying themselves into the dead soil and a yell of hopelessness erupted from him. Tears streamed down his closed face, unable to look at the bloodied branch. He pulled back, looking towards the sky through the black and continued to scream. Endlessly. Despair endlessly streaming through him.
No-one was safe. Bonds protected no-one.
Against the flaming sky, the explosions curving over the surviving towers deeper into the city looked golden. A tremor followed, bringing Yusei back to earth and to the arm. Crow, Aki, they were both gone. How long before he joined them? How long before Jack, Lua and Luca…
His eyes snapped to their widest immediately, there were still others that were waiting. With a silent apology to Aki, he turned away and spun to his feet, charging back to the gates and the D-Wheel before. He blindly snatched the helmet from the lawn and threw himself into the D-Wheel, slamming the sole of his boot against the accelerator pedal underneath and spun around, racing after the conquering army, sweat dripping down the edges of his face. He refused for anyone else to die, he refused for everyone to suffer more. Sinking deeper into despair.
The city was falling apart around him; flames and uprooted roads and bodies dumped everywhere. Blood painted the grey city underneath the sun's menacing glare; as it sank into darkness, humans were sinking with it. The inevitable would have been the complete annihilation of their kind. So why was it that the Crimson Dragon had given them a means of fighting an ancient battle its servants had followed into but nothing once the fight became that involving mankind, something outside its personal affairs?
One conclusion came to mind: the Crimson Dragon really didn't give a fuck, so long as it was dominant over the Earthbound Gods.
Yusei shook his head, this wasn't like him. He wouldn't look for the worst in someone - even a dragon whose life spanned thousands of years. There was always hope, there had to be. After all; Jack, Lua and Luca were still alive. Once they regrouped, they could figure out a means of taking on the machine army.
He simulated a rough calculation of his speed against the more leisurely pace of the machines; he could make it to the Tops before them should they keep their pace. He could warn Jack and the twins once they arrived and find somewhere together. No doubt Jack would have left his Wheel of Fortune downstairs in the car park, there wasn't any means of contacting him until they met face-to-face. Beams of green and blue energy glowed overhead, slicing through the sky and into buildings, ripping apart foundations and slaying hundreds more. Their distant screams poured into him.
Cars rocked across the road recklessly, tyres screeching as they swerved to avoid knocking him down and snapping his body, people hurried out of surviving homes with bags and carts, ushering their families to follow. People were running in all directions, unsure which way they were to travel, fear had paralysed the city and held it down while it slowly endured an excruciating death. Nobody called out to him now; they were all concerned with themselves, He had those waiting for him, he wouldn't leave them behind. He passed under the veil of metal and energy, glaring up at the menacing force from his place on the ground; he would find a way to stop them, to overcome them and avenge the lives pointlessly lost in the wake of their destructive age. He tapped the acceleration pedal and they began to fall behind; he still had a chance.
The city's central district where the Tops were located was in a state of denial and confusion; nobody could comprehend what was happening. The richest and political figures were leaving the Tops, speeding away in their luxurious motor vehicles. Yusei had to manoeuvre around people and cars just to get to the wide plaza beside the tower. He lifted the arm of the D-Wheel up, gazing at the tallest building in the city; knowing that Jack, Lua and Luca were waiting at the top.
"Fudo Yusei?" a woman's voice shrieked.
He recognised that voice; looking around to find the woman from the Daimon Area who had departed while he was lost in despair. She was standing amidst a crowd gathered in the shadow of the Tops, waiting for relatives and friends to emerge and run away with them. Run to safety. The shadow of the Tops stretched far beyond the plaza, back into crumbling streets and those presently untouched, doomed to be in a matter of time. Yusei climbed out of the D-Wheel and watched over his shoulder at the force of white, blue and orange. One of the wide orange creatures hovered in front, lifting an arm where a gaping hole was revealed; a cannon. Particles of light were sucked inside like those failing to escape a black hole and its unparalleled power. Yusei's heart paused, the droplets of sweat clinging to his brow sliding down either side of his face; they were launching an attack from the great distance. Regardless of his calculation and his arrival before their charge, they were going to rip apart the Tops.
A beam ejected from the cannon and zipped through the air, slashing one of the lower levels of the Tops. For a second, there was no reaction and Yusei's heart jumped to resume its pattern, only for an explosion to spit out of the windows and rock the world. People shrieked and cowered, chattering with high voices of terror and yelling for those around run out of the way. The tower snapped and wobbled; it wasn't built to withstand an attack like the machines with lasers. Chunks of the middle section fell away, the peak beginning to tip towards the crowds. The proudest place in Neo-Domino was disintegrating. Glass and concrete dropped towards the people who screamed and crashed into one another, blinded by terror and gazing up at death raining down on them. The upper third of the tower snapped loose and dropped towards them, soaring over the perimeters of the fenced grounds. The world was spinning; Jack, Lua and Luca were in there, waiting for him inside the topmost apartment. He had lured them into Death's trap.
"JACK! LUA! LUCA! NOOOO!"
An almighty crash with the soundtrack of explosions followed when it hit the ground and everything went black.
When Yusei came to, he stared at the ground beneath him, moving up onto his hands and knees slowly. Underneath him, the smooth roads were littered with small pebbles and stones. Everything was a blur. For a moment, he was safe in ignorance. Then it all came back: Crow's apartment, Aki's arm, the twins' apartment, countless lives lost before his eyes. His blood turned to ice and neck snapped around. His D-Wheel had been toppled by the tremor, beyond it, his worst nightmare. Blood splashed across the road and cracked walls, corpses everywhere, otherwise buried. Small flames lit the darkness. The sun had set while he waited to die; the sky overhead a mixture of murky blue and dim green.
Yusei moved his eyes to the apartment he knew would have belonged to the twins' family, the place where their bodies would rest with Jack's. It was too much to bare, but he picked himself up, his body throbbing with anguish, biological mourning for those lost. He stumbled towards the shattered building, limping when his ankle pulsed angrily. By the time he reached the nearest wall of the apartment, he had to fall against it and use it as a support to get to the end; the home resting at the edge of the plaza with its roof having collided with the plaza-edge building.
When he arrived at the building, Yusei noticed that the face he stood before was the front, a large gap between himself and the glass doors that made a clear barrier between inside and outside, the garden and pool collapsed into a mound of ruin; a disorganised staircase to his destination. He reached forward, seizing a lodged boulder and hoisted himself up, clambering across the mound on his hands, knees and feet. Anything that could get him there, just to see the three and pray they were alive.
The French doors between the home and their lush rooftop garden were largely buried, glass shards laying across the wall, Yusei searched deeper, crawling down the small heap and into the living room. The furniture and art pieces that decorated the apartment with style had been launched against the wall below and ruined, deepening his anxiety. Underneath the toppled sofa, there was something pale. Dread snatched his core, recalling his grim discovery at Aki's home. He paced forward cautiously, treading forward like any step could cause further pain to whomever he had found. Dust descended from the opposite wall acting as a roof; cracks tore across the face, the building had been lucky to survive in tact.
Yusei moved deeper, his fingers brushing the edge of the overturned sofa, dreading the potentially-gruesome discovery underneath. He glanced at the bright signal once more, recognising it as Jack's trench coat tail. A lump built in his throat and the delicate touch turned into a savage attack, grabbing as much of the arm as he could and throwing it over, revealing what lied underneath. The sofa thudded against the ground, turned upright once more and Yusei fell to his knees. Underneath it, Jack held Lua and Luca to him, their developed bodies pressed against his torso, cold arms wrapped around them. Bruises and scratches covered them, but they remained still, their faces calm. What went through their minds in those last moments or seconds?
Yusei fell forward, the palms of his hands slapping the ground and his eyes fixed on the miniature fissure running underneath him. Tears flooded his eyes, dropping onto the wall, some fleeing into the crack to bury themselves. He could have spent minutes, hours, days in there and he wouldn't have known. Yusei pulled his hands back, clutching the sides of his head, even without looking to them, the scene haunted him. Jack, his closest friend, Lua and Luca, the twins whom had looked up to him like an older brother. They… they were dead.
They were all dead.
So why was it he was still alive? He had been to each disaster and yet he still breathed, his heart still moved. Was it that the machine invaders were working their way forward; Tail, Rear Claw, Wings, Front Claw. Was he supposed to die last? Then why not with Luca and Jack? His mouth hung open, trying to force out a sob of despair, just to prove to the corpses that his grieving had no bounds. But his throat was locked shut, he could only manage disturbed sounds, small and short - nothing reflecting his grievance.
Time did pass, moving at the same pace like nothing had happened. Yusei's arms dropped once more, hanging loosely by his sides, staring below with red eyes and a face damp with fresh tears. He looked to the trio of corpses again, his heart cold with another attack from the blade of fate's callous course. He turned his head, looking out to the dark sky, grey colours swimming over the dark blue. There would be no hiding stars competing with the glamorous lights of Neo-Domino tonight. He turned himself around, rising unsteadily to his feet and stumbled back towards the outside, climbing the mountain slowly. Once he laid atop the peak, he glanced over his shoulder, tears slipping over the corners of his eyes when he registered this would be the last time he would ever see any of his friends.
"Jack… Lua… Luca…" he whispered, his cracking under the weight of a sudden surge of emotion. "I'm sorry…"
He turned away, unable to watch their unmoving bodies any longer. Instead, he pressed on, clambering down the larger side of the broken garden and back to his D-Wheel; exhausted, emotionally drained, ready to die. Using the machine as a crutch, he gazed with heavy eyes to the path of the floating bastards; still soaring over the city, perhaps at the edge where land sank beneath the water. He pressed his hand against his forehead, at a loss what to do - there was no-one around. He climbed into the machine and rolled away silently, revving only once there was a fair distance between himself and the resting place of his friends, seeking for his own grave.
The timer at the top of the monitor flashed with news that midnight was approaching, passed long before Yusei reached the edge of the city, passing dozens more fissures, bodies, collapsed buildings, fires, craters. Everything. He stood beside the D-Wheel, staring at his waving reflection in the waves that gently lapped the concrete land, turning only when home came to mind - had that been destroyed too? He was beyond caring about material possessions, he would have given everything just to have his friends back. Dying wouldn't achieve that, fighting wouldn't achieve it, but it would show them that he still treasured them. That they were worth fighting for.
For weeks, armies fired bullets, bombs and whatever else they could at the metal slayers, but nothing worked. All the time, Yusei investigated his options, half-heartedly staring at screens of words without reading. Time didn't heal the wounds, he was still hanging by a thread, his heart in tatters and beyond repair. He used nothing more than an abandoned garage as home, recovering whatever he needed to survive before chaos struck again; in the form of selfish people who didn't care about life anymore. They would loot shops, they would destroy fragile doorways keeping them from money in banks, lawlessness took over. Attacks continued regularly, destroying much more of the city and reducing it to nothing more than ruins resembling an ancient civilisation; everything that humans had worked to achieve were reduced to nothing. The Momentum reactor his father had a part in creating self-destructed, meaning alternative sources of power were put in place to keep the dying world moving. Billions died across the world, where the plague spread. Guilt ate at Yusei with each new day that brought reports that another hundred or thousand people had been killed in another assault. Names were never given, there was never any way to make their deceased official; too many and too quickly. They ruled this planet now, there was nothing to stop them.
Yusei had worked endlessly to put together what he believed could work against the bastards; a large black gun that sat on the right arm of his D-Wheel. The hypothesis was that just as energy was gathered for the orange machine to strike down the Tops, this gun would do the same and fire its own laser back at them; rip their painted skin apart and let them understand tragedy. There was only one way to trial the weapon - should he fail, then he could always end up joining his friends. He climbed into the D-Wheel and slid the helmet on, keeping his head low as the garage door rattled vertically, weakening the shadows vaguely; the sun had yet to rise, last seen on that wretched day.
From his hiding place, he emerged, D-Wheel running on the power of his emotions alone, tearing through the streets in search of an isolated target. According to news reports, they had been dubbed Machine Emperors by cowardly people who had given up.
He used a highway as a means of scanning a large portion of the city with ease; the population of Neo-Domino had plummeted faster than anywhere else on the planet; there could only be a handful of people left, a miniscule fraction of its pre-apocalypse state. Yusei watched across the city with heavy eyes, trapped somewhere between surrender and living for the sake of living for his friends; a constant state of apathy.
The highway fell apart and crumbled to a premature end, the D-Wheel rolled tamely as far as it could go and Yusei cast his eyes downward. There was one of the Machine Emperors down there, an orange figure identical to the one that obliterated the Tops. That very memory, watching the green beam penetrate the building and end the lives of his friends fuelled something inside - emotion; anger, revenge. The bastard itself was towering over a figure; a lone human, whom Yusei recognised as Antinomy after a moment. Energy flowed into the weapon behind him, building just as the Machine Emperor mimicked. Yusei frowned - he had to win this, he had to be able to save at least one person. His blast travelled first, piercing the hallow chest of the beast, the infinity symbol, and tore out the opposite side. An explosion followed, shutting down its system and preventing the attack that would finish the haunted human. The machine descended, sinking beneath the lower highway it had been hovering beside and crashing against the cracked floor of the city. Yusei tipped his head back, looking to the gun in the corner of his eye, relieved that something had worked; too late for much of mankind, but succeeded nonetheless. Antinomy was stunned that he had appeared and the D-Wheel leapt off the end of the road; he had found another living human with dignity, a rarity in a world already over.
The D-Wheel bounced against the ground and skidded to a halt, tilted so Yusei could get a look at Antinomy, recalling him faintly from that day before fate shed its kinder nature. He climbed out the D-Wheel and marched towards the stunned duellist. When he stopped, they stood only a foot or so away from one another. The visor of his helmet was thick with dust on the outside, hindering Antinomy's view of his eyes; to show he was real, he lifted a hand. He could see it in Antinomy's eyes; he wasn't the Yusei that the young man knew, this world of ruin had changed him, and would change him more. Antinomy's tearful eyes shed their watery layer and with two, he grabbed the sole hand and began to sob. Yusei hesitated for a moment before he stepped forward, laying a hand onto Antinomy's shoulder, drawing the younger man's eyes to his face.
"I remember you from before, Antinomy" he murmured.
"Yu- Yusei…" the blue-haired man whispered.
"Come on, I have somewhere safe for us to be" Yusei instructed.
Antinomy rode with him, seated behind him tightly in the small curve of the machine and kept silent the entire time. When they reached the closest place to 'home' that existed, Antinomy dismounted first, standing uncomfortably in a place he had never been before. He watched as Yusei followed suit and ejected himself from the D-Wheel, crossing to the garage door and reaching up to pull it closed.
"I don't understand" he sighed. "What are you doing in a place like this? If you have this gun that can destroy those things, why haven't you been using it?"
Yusei refused to answer immediately, sealing the only way in and out before he turned to face Antinomy, watched all the time by the puzzled face of naivety. Then he returned to the machine and stood over the opposite side of it to Antinomy.
"This is a prototype; what happened back there was a test" he mumbled. "Had it not worked, you'd be dead, and I'd be continuing as normal. Truth be told, that will still be the case - there is nothing that can obliterate an entire race of machines like that with one gun; there is no means of replicating this easily enough and getting it to the people who need it before they win".
"I don't understand" Antinomy confessed.
"Humans cannot recover from this; they are on the brink of extinction" Yusei sighed. He laid his right hand onto the front of his D-Wheel, watching over it. "Nobody can stop this now. Nobody".
His eyes narrowed with fury at the arm, glaring through the fabric and skin, to the ancient symbol imprinted on his skin in the colour of blood. Still, there had been no assistance from the Crimson Dragon, that beast that had led them into a war that no person should have belonged to. Five Earthbound Gods had been crushed and the planet saved; so why only years later would it fall victim to something so heinous and the divine creature do nothing to help its servants.
"Antinomy" he added. "You had a D-Wheel, correct?"
"I did".
"Why not recover it from wherever you left it? I'll stay here for you, we'll watch over one another".
Antinomy agreed and moved past him, towards the wide threshold and opened it up, the rattling shook every fibre in Yusei's body, he struggled to deal with it; every time it moved he heard it all over again. The explosions, the screams, the sobbing of orphaned children about to die themselves, the fires. It haunted him every waking moment in the back of his mind. And in nightmares that took over him at night. Once he was alone again, he pulled back the sleeve over the Birthmark, glaring at it lividly; it served no purpose than to curse him with power only when it suited the Crimson Dragon. There was no power for those bearing the marks; they had to fend for themselves. It was then he made that decision.
Over the next nights, while Antinomy slept, Yusei began a secret project, building a steel limb like a prosthetic replacement for a wounded soldier. He could never confess to Antinomy what it was he was doing and why; he would never be able to understand, what it was like to be branded with a curse. For everyone that touched him to become a target by powers beyond his control; perhaps Antinomy was already doomed when Yusei held out that arm to assure him.
Several nights after the project began, it was complete. He held it in his natural hands, somewhat guilty about the fact that he would have to lose part of himself just to rid himself of the Crimson Dragon and its wretched power. So that it could move its pathetic dependence on humans to someone else. The living Yusei wouldn't have wished for misfortune to befall someone else like this; the Yusei who lived through the apocalypse just wanted himself freed from those binds. He climbed into the D-Wheel, packing the arm and medical supplies into a ragged sack, and pressed forward, through the gaping threshold and accelerated carefully away.
The D-Wheel itself kept quiet, carrying him back to the place where the living Yusei perished alongside the corpses of his friends. It rolled to a stop beside the remaining mountain of rubble, gazing into the black gap; the place where the bodies waited beyond. He moved from the vehicle and into the shadows, seating himself halfway down the inside slope. On a flat piece large enough to prop the sac on, he pulled out the medical supplies and replacement arm, then produced a large blade recovered from a destroyed building weeks before. The blue jacket slid from his torso and the right arm laid out, ready for its own death, he winced, closed his eyes and braced himself.
That night, the Head vanished and the Crimson Dragon died.
The natural arm was left with the bodies; three Birthmarks buried together.
Antinomy awoke come dawn to find the D-Wheel missing and feared the worst; that Yusei had left to search for food and been slaughtered by a Machine Emperor. The theory was overruled moments later when the D-Wheel slid into the room, Yusei in the centre with two arms. He pressed his left hand against his right shoulder, something that Antinomy pondered silently, leaving the matter so as not to drag down Yusei further had he failed to save someone. The two were growing to know one another, in this world with no life, they grew close - even without bonds and the underlying meaning of his name, Yusei found someone to use.
"Yusei, is everything alright?" Antinomy asked, an indirect address to the shoulder.
"I'm fine" Yusei moaned. "Just tired, I'm going to get some rest".
He locked himself in one of the two rooms fixed onto the garage; pieces of a house that lived. Locking the door, he dropped himself onto the bed and lifted his right arm, staring at it; underneath was made of the same substance that comprised of the Machine Emperors entire form. Either way, he was disgusted with whatever arm he wore. His shoulder still throbbed and bled, the internals of his body and the internals of the arm still working to adjust to one another. There were no guarantees it would be a success in time, there were no guarantees left in the world. The true arm fell over his eyes; in the black, the faces of Crow, Aki, Jack, Luca and Lua smiled at him; memories of fun times colouring the blind. Those distant times when smiles came without a price - when they could be real.
Inside, everything ached; not his body still struggling to cope with his betrayal, but guilt and every other negative emotion that was beating inside of him, encasing his heart. Momentum, according to research, was powered by the emotions of people; so why did it spiral out of control so suddenly and self-destruct? Because everyone could see only the grim future ahead? Did negativity overload the reactor to corrupt the power inside? He climbed up from the bed and looked to the window, shards of glass protruding from the edges with a violent gleam; beyond the streets he could see, there was a world in ruin, everyone was suffering. Perhaps, if it were still running, it would take away rather than supply - there was nothing positive about a dead world. This dead world.
This world he had outlived.
He was not alone in that miserable honour; there were others. Others like Antinomy and Paradox, whom they would come across in a few years' time.
Through this post-world, Yusei came to understand mankind; they were selfish and weak. The woman who had cried to him to do something in the Daimon Area was a mere representation of that. They were reliant on others; someone with power, there was no-one to take the mantle in the eyes of the wider public. He was the last Legendary Duellist they had, there had been no-one to reach such a rank and inherit his burden. The people had no means of fighting back, they were hoping only for the monsters of the Signers' decks and their powers combined. They were tools of mankind, just as they were tools of the Crimson Dragon.
He couldn't be Fudo Yusei the eternal Legendary Duellist; he was still a person underneath the fame. What use were legends when there was no-one to inherit his story? They did nothing to defend themselves. They flooded Momentum with their negativity - they didn't believe. They failed themselves. They failed more than he failed the others - they instrumented their destruction, he just couldn't do anything to prevent it.
Years passed and the world eroded into nothing more than a desolate plain; Yusei, Antinomy and Paradox learned that across the globe, life drained away until there was no more life outside the three of them. It was as Yusei predicted - humanity was counting down to its extinction. There was one occasion that defied the trio's belief that they were the only souls still wandering the planet; when a fourth man appeared by the name of Aporia. By the time he had appeared, time had taken its toll on the three; they were aged men with few years left in them.
Through those three, Yusei would become a God, adopting the alias Zone; their plan was finalised - he, with the power entrusted to him by the trio - would use a card they designed to return home, to Neo-Domino, transcend time to find himself before the global reverse began. Creating an organisation named Yliaster, they would steer fate with their own hands, he would bring the Signers to together and finish what had been started. He would show exactly how dangerous tampering with Momentum was - the result coming in the form of Zero Reverse; both a warning and a prelude of the destruction that tore his world. The lair that the four inhabited would become the Arc Cradle, a last-resort should Momentum exist after Zero Reverse, using elements such as the Circuit and the Z-ONE card sent back to test the humans, to act as a key to unlocking a gateway between the Arc Cradle and the human world. With him, five androids would accompany him - Paradox and Antinomy (whose memories were erased and sent to Yusei to influence an evolved Synchro Summon), Aporia would be divided into three stages of despair; those that he himself had experienced; Lucciano, Placido and Jose.
Alone in the Arc Cradle, Yusei sighed, leaning back in the shell that concealed his apparent identity from view; no longer would he haunt Antinomy with the face of the man who he once was. A small device pierced the skin at the base of his neck to disguise his voice; should he have to face the next Yusei, he wanted to push him past his limitations and test if he was the one to save the future, or if the Yusei after would be that saviour. Should he fail, the next Yusei would live through the end of the world and take the fallen mantle; a cycle of Yuseis into Zones would follow until one was capable of rising above his predecessors. Through the mask, he stared up at the spiralling ceiling above; he had joined with his D-Wheel, painting it white and taking elements of it to create the shell that encased his aged body, his face wrinkled after decades of despair.
"There are no bonds left in this world" he murmured. "I always treasured them and now… there is nothing. Perhaps the next Yusei can enlighten me again. Remind me why humans exist".
Humans were responsible for the end of the world; he couldn't trust them. Yusei's character had changed dramatically after so long; moulded into a figure of incessant despair and mourning; apathetic on the outside, dead on the inside. Using the very Machine Emperors that destroyed his world, the android copies of his friends would taken on mankind to test their ability to fight off the very same force that destroyed the future should they arrive to take on their future. That tragedy that struck decades ago and left him a mere shadow of who Fudo Yusei had been. He was no longer Fudo Yusei, he could no longer associate himself with that man, who used Synchro Monsters to guide the world to a bright future. A future that never came beyond the demon race that appeared.
Time was cruel and he now had control it. He had lived through one world ending in annihilation; part of him aimed to protect the next world and part of him wanting to truly test it; push the people to their limits and beyond, punish the past forms of those responsible for his endless suffering.
Yusei or Zone; he had a reason to live, he had a means to fight. For Jack, Luca, Lua, Aki, Crow, Aporia, Antinomy and Paradox, all those who endured and perished in the carnage. Those who never got the chance to fight on. Yusei looked down to his arm, the false limb masked by his white attire, not unlike that he wore as a human, as Yusei. Maybe the time would come when he could feel human again, when he could be Yusei. As Zone, he was nothing like the people he knew and cared for. Humans were no more, he was someone with power. The power to enlighten the naïve and doomed to their fates, playing with forces far beyond their control. A chance to prevent himself from happening; ensure a transition from Fudo Yusei to the God of Destiny Zone would never have to occur.