Chapter 1: Epsilon

Disclaimer: I do not own the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or Reverse of Arcadia.

5D's

Please note that I have replaced Seria (the scientist) in this with a character that I feel that I could work with a little better considering the fact that I can now create her personality as opposed to sticking to what I've learned about Seria from the brief moments that we actually see her. So, please enjoy the story and thanks for sticking with me this long!

5D's

"… Um… Where is this…? Where are we going…?" I asked hesitantly as I followed the woman in front of me down the sand-coloured hallway, the walls of which were tiled, the sand-coloured stone floor clicking with every step we took as bright lights shone down from the ceiling. She wore an odd uniform that consisted of a white long sleeve shirt and was covered by a long black robe with a high collar, gold trimming and a long pink patch down the front and back. Her medium length, wavy, light brown hair lay scattered over the tops of her shoulders.

Hearing my uncertain voice, the woman turned to me with a small smile, her chocolate brown eyes twinkling behind her silver, rectangular, wire frame glasses which somewhat reflected the light of the hallway. She pushed the glasses up her pale, freckled face and paused.

"Sorry for not explaining this to you. You must be so confused…" she smiled softly. "My name is Chika. I'm a scientist here at the Arcadia Movement. I was the one who was with you when you woke up."

"But… what's the Arcadia Movement…?" I frowned, still confused.

"The Arcadia Movement is a place of safety. It is a place where people who are shunned by society can come to live in peace…" Chika explained.

"… S-shunned…? W-was I shunned…?" I stammered, some form of realisation sinking in.

Chika's expression became one of sadness. "I'm afraid that we all were… You see, like all of us, you have a very special talent… A talent that society cannot accept… You're what we like to call a Psychic Duelist…"

"A… Psychic Duelist…?" I inquired, my frown deepening.

"Yes. It's a very unique talent that very few people possess. Basically, you have the unique ability to bring Duel Monsters to life…" She paused, a though occurring to her. A worried look crossed her features. "You do know what Duel Monsters is, don't you…?" She began to stare at my left arm.

Following her gaze, my eyes fell on the contraption on my arm. It was a large silver device with two large, red, jewel-like objects set into it… Duel Disk… Those words seemed familiar… The cards that were placed in the Duel Disk were just as familiar…

Just as I raised my arm to get a better look at the contraption in question, I shock ran through my head and I dropped to my knees with a gasp of pain, my hands flinging up to grab my head. Chika was beside me in an instant, a worried expression marring her features.

"Are you alright?!" she asked quickly, her voice tinged with concern.

It took a few seconds until the pain dulled and, even after that, it still took me another few seconds to find my voice again. I slowly nodded and raised my head with a slight wince, the aftereffects of the crushing headache temporarily taking hold of me before fading away.

"… Y-yeah…" I stammered, taken aback by what had just happened.

"What just happened…?" Chika inquired breathlessly.

"… It was just a headache…" I confirmed with a small nod as I made a move to stand up. Chika supported me as I pulled myself to my feet.

"A headache? It must have been a bad one…" Chika sighed as I stepped away from her, feeling ready to support myself. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine… Just a little shaken…" I smiled sheepishly.

Chika sighed again and placed her hands on her hips. "If you say so… You still didn't answer my question, though…"

"… You're… question…?" I echoed, the headache having pushed all other thoughts from my mind.

"Yes. I asked you if you knew what Duel Monsters is," Chika frowned in something akin to exasperation.

"Uh…" Pausing, I looked down at my Duel Disk, noting the sudden clarity of my mind. My Duel Disk… My cards… I… knew Duel Monsters… I slowly nodded. "Yeah… I've played it before… I think…"

Chika smiled slightly. "Good. At least you remember that much."

"Is Duel Monsters important?" I inquired as we began to walk again.

Chika nodded. "It is. As I said earlier, we Psychic Duelists are shunned because we can bring Duel Monsters cards to life."

"You can do it, too?" I asked, staring at her back as she walked down the hallway in front of me.

"Everyone in this building can. Some people outside the building can, as well. This movement was created to protect us as well as the people who aren't a part of this movement. It's our goal to take those people in and allow them to live in safety and develop the special ability that they were so fortunate to be born with…" Chika explained. From my position, I could see a gentle smile slowly appearing on her face.

I felt my face light up with a smile. "That sounds like a brilliant goal to have… So… who started the… Arcadia Movement…?" I asked, trying to remember the name of the organisation that I had now apparently joined.

"That would be Sayer," Chika informed me. "He was the man that you met earlier."

I nodded in understanding before falling silent again, running over the little that I knew about my situation. My name was Epsilon. I was a Psychic Duelist. I was a part of the Arcadia Movement as of today. That was all fine. There was one question, however, that refused to go unanswered. Steeling myself, I spoke up hesitantly, cringing as my voice trembled.

"Um… Chika…?" I began, attempting to get Chika's attention. The freckled girl stopped and turned, her eyes filled with confusion and curiosity.

"Is something the matter?" she queried, a look of concern crossing her features as she noticed my worried expression that refused to disappear no matter how much I tried.

"Well… I was wondering…" Placing my hand on my chest in a vain attempt to steady my racing heart and let out a sigh, hoping to calm myself down, terrified by the prospect that I may have been about to hear something that I didn't want to. I let my eyes travel upwards from their position, turning my gaze from the floor to meet Chika's eyes which were partially obscured by the reflection of the lights above us in her glasses, hiding her expression from me. Taking another sigh, I continued. "… Do you… know what happened to me…?" I asked quietly.

Chika frowned. "What do you mean?" she inquired, seeking an elaboration.

"I mean…" I paused, figuring out what I was going to say. After a few seconds, I spoke the first thing that came to mind. "… Do you know how I lost my memory…?"

Chika's head drooped, the lenses of her glasses becoming clear as she turned away from the light source above us. Her eyes took on a sad, apologetic appearance and she began to shift uncomfortably under my wavering gaze. She glanced up at me, her mouth opening as if she wanted to tell me something, but she couldn't squeeze the words out. Eventually, she let out a sigh and looked me in the eye, her expression becoming one of sympathy.

"I-I'm truly sorry, but… I-I don't know… I-I don't even think that Sayer knows…" she stammered uncomfortably. Without another word, she turned abruptly and began to walk away at a brisk pace, leaving me to catch up.

'Is… she hiding something from me…?' I pondered as my eyes fixed onto her back, watching her tense form as she strode in front of me. I couldn't put my finger on the reason why, but I got the feeling that she wasn't telling me the truth, or at least not the whole truth. The stammering… The way that she tensed up like that… 'No…' I finally thought.

Deciding that it was my mind playing tricks on me due to the shock of my situation, I shook my head quickly, attempting to drive the thought from my mind. Running a hand through my hair with a tired exhalation, I focused on the scientist in front of me and hurried after her down the hallway, my mind darkened by doubt that I refused to accept.

The seconds soon stretched into minutes as I followed Chika, passing by many metal sliding doors, each of which had a light shining above it. Having seen so many of these on our journey down the corridors, I had begun to stop wondering about them, or even noticing them, for that matter. It was when we stopped outside one of these doors, however, that they came to my attention once more.

Chika stepped forwards and the door automatically slid open with a quiet whoosh, allowing us to step inside. I followed Chika apprehensively, my mind racing with the thoughts of what was about to happen. The scientist in front of me, however, appeared to be unperturbed by the situation, not that I had expected her to be bothered.

Chika stepped aside, allowing me to see the rest of the room. It was sparsely furnished, containing only two wooden beds that were covered with light brown bed sheets, one on either side of the room, a set of metal drawers which sat beside the bed to my left and a wooden bench which sat at the foot of the bed to my right. The windows were covered by Venetian blinds, the floor was covered in a rough green carpet and the walls were painted a dirty purple colour.

The next things that my eyes fell on were the two young men who were around my age who each sat on one of the beds. On the bed to my left sat a man with dark brown hair whose fringe curled upwards. His skin was noticeably tanned and a friendly smile adorned his face. A pair of small, round glasses sat upon his nose which he pushed up his nose to take a better look at Chika and me as we walked in.

The other man had light brown hair, pale skin, a long nose and a slight scowl plastered on his face. Both were wearing the same uniform that Chika was wearing – white long sleeve shirts that were covered by long black robes with high collars, gold trimmings and a long, wide pink stripe down the front and back. I noted that Chika's robes had a green stripe as opposed to pink, however, and briefly wondered if it was a symbol of rank in the Arcadia Movement.

My attention was dragged away from this seemingly insignificant piece of information as Chika began to speak to me. She gestured towards the room and looked me in the eye. I turned to face her, noting her kind smile as she started to speak. The two men turned to listen to her.

"This is where you'll be staying from now on," Chika informed me with a smile. "If you need any help, these two will be able to help you. You should all be receiving further instructions from Sayer very soon. Good luck with your mission."

With that and a courteous nod directed at the two other men in the room, Chika gave me a final smile and left the room, the steel automatic door sliding shut with a whoosh behind her, leaving me alone in the room with the two men. It wasn't long before they both stood up and approached me, a smile still plastered on the tanned man's face and it wasn't until the other man approached me that I noticed a very small, almost invisible smile that he was directing towards me. At the sight of his smile, something stirred inside of me – a sense of familiarity, I suppose – but I was quick to supress it, deciding to focus on the matter at hand which I deemed to be far more important.

The tanned man spoke up first. "I suppose that you're new," he smiled, pushing his glasses up his nose. He held out his hand which I promptly took. "My name is Okita," he told me.

"I'm Liquid. It's a pleasure to meet you," the other man informed me, offering me his hand which I took after shaking Okita's as I hurriedly tried to recall my own unusual name.

"I'm Epsilon," I told them, the name swimming up to the front of my mind.

"Epsilon?" Okita frowned slightly, the smile never leaving his face. "That's an odd name…"

"Don't tease the girl…" Liquid muttered irritably.

"No! It's alright!" I exclaimed, waving my hands in front of my face defensively. "It's pretty unusual!"

"See?" Okita smirked.

"Stop that, Okita…" Liquid mumbled.

Okita let out a chuckle. "Nevertheless, I believe that we'll get along smashingly… We only just got here, though, so we may not be much help, unfortunately…"

"So, we're just going to have to wait here…?" I inquired, watching as Liquid nodded in response to my question.

"It's tedious, is it not…?" Okita chuckled. "While we wait, how about a Duel?"

"Not a chance…" Liquid stated, shaking his head and crossing his arms. "Our powers will just damage the room…"

"We can control our powers, can't we?" Okita responded, his smile never disappearing.

"… Alright…" Liquid sighed. "I don't see why not…" I watched as his small smile quickly returned and his eyes met mine. "One condition, though… I get the next Duel…"

At the prospect of a Duel, the only thing that I could remember, I felt myself shivering in excitement as I turned to face Okita, ready to begin at any moment. I walked to the other side of the room and, turning towards Okita who had done the same things as I had, I raised my Duel Disk and drew five cards. Allowing the excitement to wash over me, Okita and I began.

"DUEL!"