Remember that scene in episode 143/144 where Jaden's unconscious following Axel tying with the Supreme King? This is set there during that time.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Atop The Hill

Atop this small hill, the temperature is slightly lower than it is at the bottom. There is sunlight and little breeze but it is still fairly cool; not cool enough to qualify as cold but lacking the heat to make the temperature count as warm.

The small figure that sits on the dry ground, leaning his back against the lone tree's rough bark, closes his eyes as he pulls his drab, brown clothing a little tighter around himself. Inside his head, he goes over their current predicament a thousand times, trying and failing to come up with anything that vaguely resembles a plan; he has nothing, just like the rest of them.

Even though the complete darkness is gone and it is light, the atmosphere is no different; hopelessness is still strongly in the air. It still seems as though they are all here to suffer and, sometimes, when that hopeless feeling becomes stronger, it occurs to Syrus Truesdale that there is every possibility they are all going to die here as well.

After all, so many of their friends already have. 'Sent to the stars' is a fancy term for 'killed', in his book, and he doesn't want to end up like their friends. He doesn't want the others to fall to that fate either, especially his best friend, who lies in front of him – Jaden has yet to awaken from his rescue. Now that Jaden is no longer the Supreme King, Syrus is much more comfortable in this world – just because he has become stronger, as well as the fact that he at last has his best friend back – and yet he knows that their troubles are far from over.

Jaden hasn't woken up yet; they still haven't found Jesse; most of their friends are gone; they have no way home...

The list goes on. They are far from safe.

All that remain now are Syrus, Jaden, Zane and Aster.

Idly, somewhere in the back of his mind, Syrus is amused to see his brother and Aster Phoenix working so well together. He has never thought that they'd get on at all, not after their first duel in the pro-leagues...

Was it really only a year ago? Just about that much time, anyway; it seems like decades have passed. His brother has changed a lot since that first duel.

So has Jaden.

Presently, there is a vague whimper from his unconscious friend, and Syrus instinctively looks down at him, reaching one hand out towards the motionless body. Every time his friend so much as moves a millimetre, Syrus is already waiting and ready to assist him; Ojama Yellow has once commented that he has an almost motherly side to him, which prompted grumbles from the duellist until the spirit took back what he said.

When Jaden calms slightly, not awakening, Syrus withdraws his hand, letting it clasp his other tightly in his lap. Drawing his eyes away from Jaden, he lets them wander over to the other side of the hilltop, where his brother and Aster are standing.

They seem to be having a reasonably pleasant conversation, although every so often they tease one another. Syrus' eyebrows rise as he realises they have become ... friends? Maybe not exactly friends, but something akin to that. At least they're not arguing; Aster even seems to be smiling.

Syrus looks away from them. At least someone can smile.

He can't. Not now, not ever; not until Jaden wakes up. Only when his friend wakes up will they know just how badly damaged his time as the Supreme King has left him; the deepest scars, Syrus knows, will be inside.

He knows Jaden all too well. They came here in the first place to find Jesse, partially because they did want their friend back and partially because Jaden blamed himself for everything, and they couldn't let him run off alone. There is little doubt in Syrus' mind that Jaden will, when he awakens, blame himself all over again. He has always been that way: he takes responsibility for things that are not his fault because his mind can automatically twist things to make it seem like the events are his fault, even though he never asked for danger to be able to find him as naturally as it seems to.

There is, in Syrus' mind, guilt also. Guilt because he was overcome by doubt – he understands little of what has occurred inside his own heart and mind in consideration of this sole emotion, and has no current wish to gain any real understanding; because he said things to his best friend which he wishes he hadn't said. He had blamed Jaden so opened but he didn't really mean it, he didn't blame Jaden...

At least, not consciously, and if his subconscious disagrees then he won't listen to it. Jaden needs help, not blame; he needs support not accusations. This time, Syrus has already decided, he will stand by Jaden no matter what and will not allow his emotions to be manipulated into doing otherwise.

In silent acknowledgement of this, he reaches over to lay a hand on Jaden's shoulder, shuddering slightly as he feels how cold his friend is; surely he must be warm enough with that blanket covering him? How can he be cold?

Perhaps an after-effect of his trials as the King or maybe even an early sign of fever. Or maybe his shudders are not of cold but of fear as he has nightmares. The possibility of the latter makes Syrus wince and he tries not to let his mind wander back to that time that seems so long ago even though it was only yesterday; he doesn't want to remember.

/

Although his brother has already reassured him that Jaden will need time to recover, once another hour has passed – by Syrus' count, so he may be out by ten or fifteen minutes – the young duellist is still wary of whether or not they should attempt to wake Jaden themselves; he doesn't seem to want to awaken of his own accord, and they need him. On Syrus' part at least, he also wants to just see to it that his friend is going to be alright.

Syrus has not moved in the past hour from his position, although his arms around now folded and resting on his knees, forming a slightly uncomfortable cradle in which he can lay his head. The other two have moved: Zane is standing, leaning against the tree with folded arms, and Aster is crouched beside Jaden, one hand experimentally on his forehead.

Syrus watches with hopefulness ever growing inside him as Aster draws his hand away, but when the other boy shakes his head, that hope disappears, leaving behind a gaping hole that can only be filled by worry. Aster moves to sit beside Syrus, leaning against the tree, looking away from them, and Syrus wonders for a fleeting moment – before realising that this is Aster who has a reputation to uphold – if the other duellist might be crying.

The look on his brother's face tells him that Zane suspects the same, although when he takes in the relaxed posture of the other, Zane turns away with a mask of indifference one again, and Syrus focuses again on worrying about Jaden.

Next to him, Ojama Yellow is flitting about and proclaiming - in his high-pitched, increasingly annoying voice – that Jaden will wake up soon, that he has to. Although he would never strike a friend, Syrus seriously considers, if only for a moment, punching the spirit. He now understands why Chazz always found the Ojama trio to be such an annoyance – Syrus is barely coping with one.

Although that's not entirely true; he is, in some ways, grateful for the spirit's company. It's nice to have someone – at this point, anyone – to talk to, since Jaden is still unconscious and the other two are not up for idle chatter. In fact, they barely speak to Syrus at all; their conversations are held between the two of them. Syrus doesn't think they isolate him intentionally, but rather that they don't want to upset him – a moron could tell that he was worried and, whenever Jaden moaned in his sleep, he had to choke back a couple of tears. Although he no longer cries as easily as he used to, the tears are not yet foreign.

There is a vague whimper from Jaden, or a sound akin to a whimper at least, and Syrus gulps, restraining himself from reaching out to shake his friend out of this nightmare that he is confident Jaden is trapped in. It is only when he looks to the right – a direction in which he cannot see Jaden's motionless form – that he notices his brother looking down at him with a vaguely concerned expression. Syrus smiles as confidently as he can, meeting his brother's eyes with ease, in a way he has not since they were children.

It's strange, he thinks, to think that the two of them were once innocent little children, playing at home with duel monster cards, with Syrus always wishing that he could be as good as his older brother. There was some, but remarkable little considering the difference in ability, jealousy on his part, but for the most part he was not envious of his brother; he admired Zane and his abilities. He wished that he could one day be a duellist of that level of skill; in their own way, they have always been connected as two siblings ought to be. And after that duel with Camula, there is no doubt in Syrus' mind that Zane loves him, no matter what might have happened last year following his pro-league match against Aster Phoenix.

The same Aster Phoenix who sits beside Syrus now, working with them instead of against them, a friend and not an enemy, equally as concerned for Jaden as they are themselves.

Syrus smiles softly as he realises that, when faced with difficult circumstances, all petty arguments are thrown aside in favour of survival. After all, Zane and Aster work so well together now that one would never have known them for rivals. Syrus knows, however, that they will most likely not be the best of friends once they return to the real world and the situation is merely normality.

Syrus wonders if it will change them, this whole experience. After all, it has changed him. And it has doubtlessly changed Jaden, too.

Syrus has become, mostly because he had to, tougher. He has, as they say, 'manned up', and can take care of himself; although the circumstances which forced him to gain this newfound maturity were less than desirable, Syrus knows that these changes are probably for the best. If they get out of here, then he will have become a better duellist, and that's what he came to the Academy for in the first place.

As for Jaden ... well, the changes that Jaden has gone through are far from his understanding, and he isn't sure that, when the times comes – if it does – for him to really understand what happened, he will actually want to know. If Jaden now has inner scars, Syrus will forever feel guilty for what he said, and will forever have lost a part of Jaden: the carefree part that makes up so much of who he is.

Syrus fervently hopes that Jaden will not change because of this whole Supreme King ordeal. Yes, there will be consequences and problems when Jaden wakes up; he will not simply accept that he sent Jim and Axel away without guilt, because Jaden is not that sort of a person. But Syrus hopes that he can help his friend and guide him through the problems, that he can bring back the boy he knows so well and cares about so much.

It is not without hopelessness that he reaches out once more to touch his friend's shoulder – or perhaps to try to wake him up, even Syrus does not know what he was about to attempt – but he pulls his hand away before it can come into contact with his friend's body. There is not any real point in trying to wake him up prematurely. When the time comes, they will know just how deep Jaden's scars run, and then it will be up to Syrus – since this is his mission – to help him stitch them up.

Jaden will be wounded by this whole experience, more so than Syrus or Aster or Zane, it's true. But it is also true that Jaden has, this time, what he was lacking beforehand. Last time, he had lost hope and fell into the darkness because of this lack of hope and friendship and meaning, because of an inner anger and desperation; because of a combination of things that Syrus doesn't fully understand nor does he wish to.

But this time, Jaden won't have to fall into the darkness to seek escape. This time, he will have what he did not have before: the support of his friends. Zane will help in the ways that he can, Syrus believes this. And he knows that Aster will do all he can to take care of his friend, because it's no secret – although the pro-duellist himself might argue the point – that Aster cares for Jaden and their friendship.

Most of all, however, Jaden will have Syrus' support; his friendship and his loyalty and his trust, and all those things that he needed before. Well, that Syrus imagines he needed before; after all, his understanding might well be wrong.

But as it is, he believes that Jaden, no matter how broken he might be upon awakening, can be mended by the bonds of friendship that bind them together. Syrus will make sure of it; he can help Jaden. He must be able to help Jaden.

His friend has done so much for him over their years together. Syrus doesn't even want to imagine what could have been the outcome on numerous occasions for himself and for the whole world – their own dimension, of course – had Jaden not been there to play the hero and save the day.

Jaden has done enough for him, he thinks, to merit a second chance. This, Syrus will give him, if only because he does not want a shadow of his friend, but his true friend, back the way he is supposed to be.

He will offer Jaden all the support he needs and more. Just this once, he is going to save Jaden. There is nothing he is unwilling to face at this point, be it huge monster or pop quiz or his brother's wrath. Syrus will do everything and anything to help Jaden.

Because this time, he can be the hero.

Please R&R