Roman Goodwin was born with two marks on both his arms. He had, on the left, the mark of the head of the Crimson Dragon. And on the right, was the mark of the spider, representing the Earthbound Immortal Uru. Throughout his life, the two entities fought inside of him, until one overpowered the man and consumed him. He got rid of the mark of the Dragon and fully excepted the mark of the spider.
But after Roman was defeated as a Dark Signer, the Earthbound Immortal that was controlling him was locked away for another five-thousand years. The mark of the dragon was passed on to a new owner, Yusei Fudo, who became the undeclared leader of the Signers. What Yusei did not know, was that the two marks that chose Roman were connected.
The universe is drawn to a balance state. For every action, there is a reaction. For every loss, there is a win. For every light, there is a shadow. As long as there are Signers walking amongst Earth, there will be a darker force present. It was only a matter of time before it would show itself in one of the worst ways possible.
Yusei was sitting in the garage him, Jack, Crow and Bruno shared. Bruno was helping him rebalance the shifting on the new engine they were building. The three old friends had not known Bruno for too long, but they grew to like him as a replacement for their fourth friend. He was good with a wrench and could work a computer like it was a child's toy. That was exactly what Yusei needed.
"Alright, Yusei. Try this." Bruno said over to his new friend.
Yusei restarted the engine and smiled when he heard it purr. It was almost ready.
"That's it. We're good." Yusei stood up and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "I think we should wrap it up for today."
"Fine by me."
"Hey, guys!"
The two computer geniuses looked up and saw their orange-headed friend. He was holding a large grocery bag.
"Guess who got dinner? Chicken and pasta with cheese. I figured we need to eat something other than Jack's ramen." Crow walked down stairs and began to empty the contents of the bag.
"Speaking of Jack, we did he head off to? I saw him this morning." Bruno added.
"He said something about riding his runner around the outskirts of town." Yusei answered. "Better than having him waste money on coffee. Right, Crow?"
"I hope that's all he's doing."
The three boys did not wait for Jack and started eating right away. There was a nice breeze outside. Yusei opened the garage door, so they could get some fresh air while they ate. As the evening turned into night, one-by-one, they started turning in for the night. Jack showed up and did not say a word to any of them. Typical Jack Atlas, Crow said to Yusei.
The blue-eyed, raven haired man was the last one to head up to bed. As Yusei walked upstairs, he felt a stinging pain in the front of his head. Once he made it to his room, the pain got so intense, he could not even keep his eyes open. He fell on his bed and wrapped himself with the sheets. There was no way he could sleep with this killer headache, but it hurt too much to get up and find some medicine.
The next morning, Yusei woke up, feeling just fine. It must have just been all the stress he had been under lately to finish the engine before the WRGP. Nevertheless, the young man went through his day as normal.
But later that night, the same thing happened as last night. Yusei was getting ready for bed, when the pain in his head came back. His time, he took headache relievers, but they did not do much.
For the next few days things became routine, a little to routine. Jack went missing throughout the day and when he came back, he did not say a thing. Crow always fixed dinner, while Yusei and Bruno worked on the engine. The headaches always came back at night. Yusei was started to loss sleep and noticed he could not focus that well. One more night of this pain and Yusei would have to go see a doctor.
Luckily, the next night, the pain did not come back. Yusei was able to fall asleep as soon as he laid his head on the pillow. However, he did not stay asleep. His eyes bolted wide open. Yusei swore he heard someone in his room. Then, he thought someone was downstairs, so he walked down to the garage. Surprisingly, the space was empty. Maybe the voices were coming from outside.
He could not make out what they were saying. But no matter where he went, the voices seemed to be right on top of him. Unlike the headaches, the voices did not go away during the daytime. He could hear them taunt while we was trying to work. Yusei did not want to worry his friends, so he kept it all to himself. Maybe if he just stopped thinking about them, then they will go away.
"Hey, Yus?" Crow asked his friend, who was laying on his duel runner like it was his death-mat. "Yusei?"
Crow walked over and shrugged Yusei's shoulders. The taller man sat up right away.
"Are you okay, Yusei? You don't look too good?" He asked concerningly.
Yusei rubbed his eyes. "I'm fine." Lies. "I just haven't been sleeping that well, is all." The voices nagged at him while he was trying to speak.
"Well, you should go upstairs and lay down. You're working way too hard."
If only it was that simple. Yusei took Crow's advice anyway and went up to his room. He immediately fell on the bed and smashed his ears against his pillow. No good. He reached to his bedside dresser and pulled out headphones and a music player. He cranked up the volume and turned on rock music. Even so, the lyrics of the song were being muffled by the voices still in his head.
The next day, Yusei planned to do something about sounds that plagued him. If only he could get out of bed. The afternoon was drawing near and Yusei was still covered by his sheets. He laid there, listening to the voices to try and understand them. The more he let the voices take over his mind, the more it calmed, and at the same time, excited him. It almost turned into a lullaby.
He opened his eyes to find more than just afternoon sunlight was shining in his room. His mark of the Dragon was glowing bright red. A sensation ran up his arm. It was like a warning that was being hushed. The light on his arm was dulling, until it faded away.
Then, the most shocking thing happened. Yusei felt another sensation on his arm, but this time, it was on his other arm. Yusei watched as his left arm started to sting. He gripped it tightly and grinned his teeth. It started to appear.
"Crow, have you seen Yusei at all today?" Bruno asked, not taking his eyes off the computer screen.
Crow looked over at the blue-haired man. "I never saw him get out of bed. He has been acting strange lately." He ran upstairs to Yusei's room and knocked on the door.
No answer. The young man slowly opened the door. He peered inside. Yusei was sitting on the edge of his bed, with his face buried in his hand. He was shaking and moaning unrecognizable words.
"Yusei?" Crow walked inside. "How you feeling?"
"Go away." Yusei spoke in a lower toned voice.
"What's wrong?"
"I said-get out!"
Crow stepped back. Yusei never raised his voice to anyone, especially to a friend. "Not until you tell me what is going on."
"I don't know what's going on. I don't understand it. It keeps...keeps speaking to me."
Crow ran over to Yusei. He pulled the man's hands away from his face. Yusei was pale in the face and had blood shot eyes. Tears fell on his checks.
"You look terrible. Come on. Let's get you to a doctor." Crow tried to get his friend to stand up.
"It won't help. It won't."
"Why not?"
"The spider."
Crow looked back down at Yusei's arms. That is when he noticed what Yusei was mumbling about.
Bruno was still downstairs alone, working on the energy transfer of the engine. He almost got it just right. He looked at the stairs leading up to the bedrooms. Crow had been up there for awhile. Hopefully, Yusei was okay.
"Bruno!" Crow shouted from upstairs. "Get Jack! There is something wrong with Yusei."
Bruno quickly reached for his phone and called Jack. Luckily, he managed to reach him on the first try.
"Jack? You have to get come back. There is something wrong with Yusei. I don't know. Crow is with him. It sounds serious."
Only a few moments later, Jack drove into the garage and hopped off his runner. Jack and Bruno ran upstairs together. They went straight to Yusei's room. Crow was sitting next to Yusei, trying to calm him down.
"Crow, what's wrong?" Jack asked, very concerningly.
"His arm."
Yusei held out his left arm. Jack's jaw almost dropped to the floor. Bruno looked very confused.
"How is this possible?" Yusei quickly asked himself. "The mark of the spider is on my arm. I thought these things were locked away when we beat them."
Jack knew what he had to do. "Don't go anywhere? I'm going to get someone."
Jack ran out of the room and down to his runner. Crow and Bruno stayed with Yusei. He kept holding his head in utter confusion and disbelief.
A few minutes latter, Jack walked upstairs with an old friend following him. The man stood in front of the troubled Signer.
"Yusei?"
Blue eyes looked up to see a familiar face. He had not seen Kalin in months.
"Can I see your arm?"
Yusei held out his arm and Kalin eyed up the new mark. He had seen that design dozens of times. He knew it could greatly effect the person who had it. He had an idea of what was going on.
"Roman was in the same situation. He told me once that those two marks must be connected. My feeling is that the darkness maybe locked away, but it is still here. This must the darkness way of showing itself and maybe getting revenge. To tell you the truth, I would rather have my mark back than have you be forced to go through this." Kalin said every word from the heart.
Yusei stood up. He started to get back to himself when Kalin said he would take his dark mark back to save him. Yusei would never let him do that.
"What should I do?"
"Don't let it overtake you. You might want to go to Peru." Kalin did not have to say another word. Yusei knew that he had to head to the source of this problem to fix this.
Since Kalin went to Peru once before, he told the rest of the guys that he would take and pay for Yusei to go to Peru. They would leave in three days.
Akiza and Luna felt the strain Yusei was under from their own dragon marks and went to the garage the next day. Crow and Jack explained to them what happened to Yusei. Luna got scared and Akiza became really worried. No one knew if Yusei was going to be okay in the long run or if going to Peru would even help him. But, what else was there to be done?
Akiza walked upstairs to Yusei's room. She had never been in there before, but she wanted to talk to him.
"Yusei?"
He was laying on his bed. He seemed different to her. Akiza did not dare look at his left arm.
"How are you feeling?" She asked, standing besides him.
He turned his eyes to her. "I'm fine just tired and confused."
"Jack told us you were traveling to Peru."
"Yea." This was not the Yusei Akiza had feelings for.
"I just hope that everything..."
"Why are you still talking?" Yusei cut in abruptly.
"Excuse me?"
Yusei stood up and faced the girl standing in his room. He had a mean glare in his eyes. Akiza was about to say something, but when she opened her mouth, Yusei gripped her arm tightly. It started to hurt. Akiza tried to shake the man off, but he just seemed to get more mad. Yusei grinned his teeth and forcefully shoved Akiza into the wall.
The Black Rose felt her back hit against the wooden board. It sent a shock up her body, not only because of the pain, but because Yusei was the one who did it to her. She rebalanced herself and quickly got out of his room. When she got downstairs, Akiza told Crow about what happened. He was in total disbelief.
"Akiza, Yusei would never do that to you. He cares too much about you." Crow tried to explain.
"I'm telling you the truth. I think that spider mark is messing with his head." Akiza said, still a bit shaken.
Then, the two heard footsteps coming down the stairs. They looked over and saw Yusei standing there.
"How are you feeling, Yus?" Crow asked, but got no reply. "Did you start packing yet?"
Yusei rolled his eyes and walked outside. Crow was a bit disturbed. This was not the Yusei everyone knew. They needed to find out what was happening to him and fast.
The following day came around fast. Yusei and Kalin were flying out that afternoon. It was going to be a very long flight. Yusei stayed outside and hardly talked to anyone. When any of his friends tried to talk to him, he would just glare at them. Crow tried to convince Kalin that him or Jack should go with them, but that was out of the picture.
The two old friends were walking through the airport to their flight, when Yusei started mumbling things to Kalin.
"You have no idea what you are doing? I don't want to go. Just leave me alone."
Some of the things Yusei said made Kalin question himself, but he knew the truth. He had seen, and been through, a similar experience. The unwanted mark on his arm was the cause. Yusei would have wanted everything to be done if it could help him get rid of it. The whole thing was messing with his head.
They took their seats on the plane. Kalin could not afford first class, so the two sat at the back of the plane. He gave Yusei the window seat. They settled in the chairs they would occupy for a number of hours. Yusei still did not look happy.
"Kalin?"
Golden-eyes looked over.
"Why are you doing this? Nothing is going to help me."
Kalin knew Yusei was not the one speaking to him. Yusei would have demanded to catch a faster plane. It was the dark entity, that Kalin knew months before, was the one talking.
"Get comfortable. I know more about this than you think, like who I'm really talking to."
After a couple of hours, the flight was finally over. Kalin and Yusei took a bus into Peru, where they would meet Greiger. Kalin contacted him and the man was more than happy to help. Both of the two boys were a bit groggy. Grieger drove up besides them as they slowly got off the bus.
"Hop in."
Kalin sat besides Greiger and Yusei threw himself in the back seat. Greiger tried to strike up a conversation with Yusei, but Kalin shook his head. Kalin and Yusei got some sleep on the ride. Yusei was not told were they were going, but he had an idea.
"I don't want to go there. It's not going to work." The trouble Signer mumbled to the two men in front.
"Keep driving." Kalin told Greiger. "We're almost there."
The car stopped. Yusei looked around the deserted area. There was no life or movement for miles. They traveled halfway around the world for this. Kalin led Yusei to a desired spot. Yusei looked down at the ground and noticed a discoloration in the ground.
"You might not realize, but you are standing next to the Nazca Line that contains Uru." Kalin told him.
Yusei took a step forward and felt a serge of energy flow through him. He felt that darkness try to take a hold of him, but at the same time, the Crimson dragon was trying to pull him back. It was like two people were trying to rip his body apart. The two marks glowed on his arms.
"Get out! Make it stop!"
Kalin and Grieger watched their friend struggle. Of course they wanted to help, but Yusei had to face this by himself, just as they had months ago. His arms started to burn and his body throbbed in pain. Yusei had no idea that this is what the Dark Signers went through. No wonder why they were so irritable.
"No more. No!"
Yusei looked down at his arms and saw burn marks appear all over them. If only he had his deck. He knew how to beat the darkness in a duel.
"Kalin. Do you have a duel disk?" Yusei forced himself to ask.
"Why?" Kalin asked in reply.
"I can beat the darkness in a duel, so why don't we have a duel?"
AN: Stay toned for the final chapter, where Yusei and Kalin face off to save Yusei from himself!