A/N: And here it is, that new chapter I promised ^^ Pretty much the GX side of how the events of the story are put into motion.

Review answersssss. Or, really, answer:

Fanficfemale: I'm glad to be back, too :`D I hope you like this new chapter, because like I said it is indeed *new* 8D

And that's all for now. The chapter will be explained in the closing notes. And don't forget to review ;)

Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing that brings me any kind of happiness :D GX and 5Ds included.

Chapter 2- Potential

"We cannot allow the Light to be revived."

This was the first statement that Judai heard clearly as he approached the secluded door, the one which led to the main meeting hall where he and his friends usually met. Located five floors beneath the castle's main level, few would expect them to use such an isolated place—however, they used it for that precise reason, knowing it was best that their plans stay hidden from the world until it was time to actually carry them out. Looking over his shoulder to ensure that no one had followed him, Judai knocked on the door.

A slit towards the top of the door slid open, revealing only a familiar set of angular eyes. Had he been anyone else, the person behind that door would have begun to assault him with a barrage of questions, as was customary. However, being the King, the guard simply opened up the door for him. Judai smiled warmly and greeted her. "Hey, Taniya! How've you been?"

"Your Highness," she greeted in return, dropping down to one knee. Judai took a moment to stare down at her in confusion. She hadn't treated him so formally yesterday; in fact, she hadn't even treated him with such respect on the day they met. He wondered about it, briefly, before shrugging it off and moving past her. Taniya was a strange woman, and he took her behavior with a grain of salt, as he always would.

But as he moved past her, he saw that all the members of his elite army—the ten of them, seeing as Ryo was still upstairs—had taken cue from Taniya, rising from their seats and kneeling before him. Judai scratched the back of his head, still confused. "What are you guys even doing?" he asked, laughing slightly in order to brighten the suddenly tense mood. He walked over to oblong table at which they all sat and, seeing no extra seats, sat on top of the table instead, facing Taniya's direction and with his back turned to all of them. He took one of the agenda's stacked neatly at the table's center and began to flip through it casually, observing its contents. "Okay, so we're talking about preventing the Light's revival today? Good, good. Anyone wanna throw some ideas around?"

No one volunteered. After a few long moments of silence, Judai took a look over his shoulder and saw that they were all still kneeling down before him. Rolling his eyes, he set the agenda aside and crossed his arms. "Okay you guys, what gives?"

Asuka—third-in-command, the one who Judai heard talking earlier as he approached the door—slowly raised her head, taking a moment to push her long, golden hair away from her face. Not meeting Judai's eyes, she asked, "Permission to speak, sire?"

Judai nearly fell over. "What?" he asked incurdiously. "'Permission to speak?' Since when do you ask me for permission to speak?"

"Well, Judai—" Asuka began, but caught herself. "Um, I mean, King Judai… Supreme King, we figured, since you are ruler now, your new title would command some more…" she sighed, as if deciding how best to phrase it, "formal behavior, coming from us."

"What?" Judai asked again. He looked around at them all, still bowing, and began to laugh. Slowly at first, but it grew in mirth until he himself was doubled over, holding onto his stomach as he continued to chuckle. "Okay, okay, seriously…" the young King managed once he had gotten himself somewhat under control, "get up."

They all rose slowly. Asuka gave her King a long look. "King Judai…?"

"Okay, let's get one thing straight," the boy began. "Don't call me 'King Judai'. It's just Judai, okay? Just like always. I know I'm King now, but that's all that's changed about me. I'm still the same guy as I was yesterday. Hell, I could be crowned King of the Twelve Dimensions tomorrow and even that wouldn't change a thing. We're all on a first name basis, okay? And that's how it's gonna stay." He looked around at his soldiers, his warriors. His friends. He rolled his eyes playfully and shook his head. "Geez you guys, stop treating me like I'm some old man!"

The group began to ease up after Judai's reassurance. He smiled and took hold of one of the agenda's again. He rolled it up, and without looking, pointed it at one of his friends. "Theories on how to stop the Light's revival. Go."

He had pointed at Misawa. The young man—sophisticated, pragmatic, calculating—cleared his throat. Crossing his arms and leaning back into his chair a bit, he wondered aloud, "Before I offer my idea's, may I ask, are you seeking to stop the revival through preemptive measures? Or are we waiting for the threat to present itself to us?"

"Just throw whatever you have at me."

"Well, Judai, you know how I am. I don't believe in attacking first, as that usually leads to unwanted after-effects. I think we need more proof before we go about attacking whatever groups claim allegiance to the Light. If left entirely up to me, I'd wait it out."

"My my, Misawa. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you wanted to protect the Light!" another voice spoke up. Judai turned and saw that it was Edo. Pale in appearance and attire, he was one of the few born into the Light whom Judai trusted. He, after all, hated the ruinous entity just as much as any being of Darkness. "'Waiting it out', as you call it, will do us no good. The Light is weak now and we should attack it while it still is weak. Of course, I am one for strategy, and I don't advocate blind attacks. We must actively seek out the source of the Light, and once we find it, we must destroy it at all costs."

"Good, good, I like where this discussion is going," Judai encouraged. "Ed, you say we should find the Light's source. But how do you suppose we do that?"

"Well… isn't it obvious?" another cut in. Judai easily recognized the voice as Fubuki's, the crimson-eyed young man who held the spirit of a dragon. Charming in all aspects, he was the ultimate predator. He sighed and twirled his hair between his fingers, his eyes focused on that as he explained further. "I mean, they don't call it the 'World of Light' for nothing, now do they?"

"No, no, you're forgetting the events of the first war," Asuka reminded her older brother. "The Light no longer presides over the world below as a single, traceable entity. Since it's first destruction, it has infiltrated every aspect of that world. To destroy the Light in the way Edo suggests simply isn't possible at the present time. Going back to what Misawa said, I agree, I think we should wait it out."

"So you want the Light to get stronger?" Edo asked in an accusatory tone.

"Frankly, yes." Asuka countered, narrowing her eyes at him. "At least strong enough to materialize in some way. When that happens, then we can attack."

"Why not just destroy everything in that wretched world?" A voice wondered aloud. Judai turned and saw that it was Amon, one of his newest members, another Light-born creature who had pledged his allegiance to Darkness. "Seriously, why don't we? Asuka just said that the Light exists in everything down there. Why not simply destroy it all?"

A worried look came across Judai's face. "Amon… we need to destroy the Light, sure, but I'd never go that far. That's like genocide. If we did that, we'd be no better than the guy who runs the World of Light!"

"Of course!" Agreed another. Judai recognized the voice as Johan's, also a relatively new member. Usually light-hearted and optimistic, his voice had taken on a rather serious tone at that moment. "We can't go around killing everyone down there, that would be wrong. But I also don't think that we should let the Light materialize first before making an attack. Are you all forgetting how powerful the Light is, even now in it's supposed 'weakest' form? The ancients had a hard enough time fighting it off, and they were way more prepared than we are!"

"So what do you suggest we do?" asked Fubuki.

Johan paused, scratching the back of his head, as though he knew what he wanted to say but wasn't sure if it would be best to say it. In the end, however, he did speak, for better or worse. "Okay, so, the Light can't revive itself on it's own, right? If that were possible, it would have done so a long time ago. So the only possible explanation is that it's suddenly found some... assistance."

The room grew quiet, tenseness filling the air. They all knew where this conversation was going, just as well as they knew how it would annoy their King. Judai pinched the bridge of his nose. "If someone says 'signer', I'm gonna lose it."

"Judai," Asuka began in a patient tone. "You must at least acknowledge it as a possibility."

Judai raised his hands into the air. "It's a myth!" he cried. "Those guys are just a myth! A stupid one, at that!"

"Myth or not, it's the only lead we have as to how the Light might come to be revived," another reasoned. Judai glanced over and saw that it was O'Brien, another recent addition, one especially known for living his life on the edge. He risked his life while in training, simply so that he might one day risk it again for the sake of Darkness; his dedication knew no bounds. "Just hear me out. Say, hypothetically, that the signers do exist, and have already been born into the World of Light. Let's also say that they are our age. And let's thrown in that they've had years of training, both in physical combat and in religious rituals. For all we know, they could be working on bringing back the Light as we speak. The longer we wait, the stronger they get, and the higher the chance that the Light might once materialize again in it's original, strongest form."

Judai sighed heavily. After a few moments of silence, he waved his hand in a circular motion, indicating that they continue. Another picked up where O'Brien left off, and had Judai looked up, he would have seen that it was Jim, the final of his newest soldiers, known well for his reliability and loyalty, as well for his mysteriousness. "Listen, I know you think the signer myth is garbage, but we believe that it holds some truth to it. With the scenario that O'Brien just set up for us, you've got to admit that it is a worrisome thought. They could be preforming their barbaric rituals right now, trying to revive the Light, while we're just sitting around here talking about it!"

"He's right!" a voice cried out, slamming his fist on the table before him. Judai didn't need to turn around to see that it was Kenzan, easily the most outwardly aggressive in the group. "We can't just stand around talking about this, Judai! We've at least got to treat it like the threat that it is! Nip it in the bud, stop this war before it has the chance to start! Judai…" Kenzan took hold of the King by his upper arm, and Judai turned to look at him. "If the Light is revived, I mean really revived, it could destroy Neospace. It could destroy Darkness. It could destroy everything."

"You think I don't know that? You think I don't think about that every day?" Judai asked rhetorically. "I mean… how do we even prove it, if the signers are real?"

"Easy." The last voice spoke up. It was Manjoume. "We go out and look for them."

Asuka narrowed her eyes and leaned in closer to Manjoume, who was sitting directly across from her. "What do you mean, we 'go out and look for them'?"

Manjoume scoffed, rolling his eyes. "What else could I mean? I'm talking about we take a dive in the Ocean of Different Dimensions, go to the World of Light, and look for them."

"Are you out of your damn mind?" Misawa asked incurdiously. It was a rare moment when he was caught off guard. "Do you dare suggest that we enter into the World of Light, into enemy territory, where it's said that the territory is hundreds the size our own? Where the citizens are all rumored to be religious fanatics, fully prepared to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their demonic entity? Where the Light infiltrates all things? Where the signers of all people could very-well be?"

"I'm not saying we all go down there at once!" Manjoume argued. "That would be stupid! Dammit, Misawa, would you think? I'm saying that two or three of us go down there and scope the place out. Blend in with the crowds, talk to the people, try and find out if the signers do exist. Seriously! That's the only way we can know for sure! And unless any of you idiots have a better idea, I suggest you either speak now or forever shut the hell up."

The room remained silent for a few long moments, everything still save for Manjoume, who was leaning back in his chair, balancing on its hind legs. It made a soft creaking sound. After some deliberation, Judai finally decided, "You know what, Manjoume?" He stopped his creaking and looked over at Judai, waiting. The King remained silent for a few moments more, before a smile broke out across his face. "I think you're right. You're absolutely right! You know, you guys," he hopped off the table, and turned to face all of them. "Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one!"

"So you're serious?" Edo asked, a somewhat bewildered expression on his face. "You're gonna send two of us down there?"

"No, I only need one, since I'm going myself."

The room went shock-silent for a moment, as all the others allowed the idea of Judai's shocking plan to settle in their heads. But no sooner than that did the whole room erupt in an uproar, nearly everyone present objecting to the outrageous idea.

"Judai, no, you can't do this!" Johan cried out angrily, slamming his fist down on the table.

But the boy merely smiled in response, and calmly reminded his soldier, "Actually, I'm pretty sure I can do whatever I want. I'm the King, remember?"

"That is true, and far be it from us to question your final authority," Asuka conceded. "But please, think of Neospace! You were crowned King no less than an hour ago, and already you're talking of setting out on a major excursion that would leave Neospace leaderless! We need a leader. This Kingdom would fall apart without your guidance."

Judai shook his head. "Nah, I don't think so. Remember Ryo? He can take over while I'm gone. He already handles all the boring political stuff anyway, so it shouldn't be too much of a shock to him to take on a bit more."

"Fine, so the stability of Neospace wouldn't be in jeopardy. But if you do go down to that world, who's to say those wretched followers of the Light wouldn't sense the Darkness within you?" O'Brien pointed out, crossing his arms as if not expecting an adequate response. "You know they wouldn't hesitate to attack. You'd be putting yourself directly in harm's way."

And indeed, Judai did remain silent for a few moments, scratching the back of his head, deep in thought. "Well… I can hide my Darkness so it can't be sensed. But I guess you still have a point, since some of you can't really do that… okay." Judai shrugged. "So I guess that rules out everyone but the Light-bearers."

By 'Light-bearers', it was clear to everyone in the room that he was referring to Amon, Edo, and Manjoume, the only three of the total eleven to have been born within the ruinous Light. Whether by miracle or by chance, they had seen the enlightenment of Darkness, and had dedicated their lives to the prevention of the Light's resurrection. But there was no changing who they truly were. Should one of them accompany their King into the World of Light, they would be able to navigate the world with ease, not having to hide anything as was necessary for Judai. But as he and everyone else looked at the three most eligible candidates, it was clear that none of them were exactly excited about the prospect of being forced into such a risky excursion. Amon was the first to speak.

"Judai, as honored as I am at being considered for something so important, I'll admit that I frankly don't find myself powerful enough. I've just begun my training this year. If only for your sake, I'd say that you take one of your more experienced members."

Judai frowned. "I think you're pretty powerful, Amon. If I didn't, you wouldn't be here right now."

"I realize that. But with all due respect, I know my power better than you do, and I know that I have a long way to go before I'm on par with the likes of Edo and Manjoume," he said, gesturing over at both said warriors. "You should take one of them instead of me."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Edo asked incurdiously. Manjoume, on the other hand, seemed too angry and disgusted to do much of anything other than stare at Amon hatefully, shooting daggers at him with his eyes. They both knew that Amon didn't believe in what he'd just said to Judai; he merely said it all in order to evade being forced into going to the World of Light. Amon would never be so humble unless it was absolutely necessary.

But Judai took Edo's disbelief in an entirely different way than which he meant. "That's so sweet of you, Ed, believing in Amon's powers like that! But if the guy doesn't think that he's ready, then I guess he isn't. It's true he's only been training with us for about a year now, while you've been with us for three, almost four! So I guess it's just down to you and Manjoume."

Edo stood staring at Judai for a few moments, before slowly stating, "Well, Judai… if you're going to be using years of experience to make your decision, then Manjoume is the obvious choice. He's been with you for eight years."

Manjoume's head snapped over to look at Edo, the look he bore more shocked than anything else. He'd been expecting Amon to be as underhanded as he just was, but never would have guessed that Edo would use the same tactic. He considered Edo to be higher than that, up until that very moment.

"Huh. I guess you've got a point there, Ed." Judai turned to look at Manjoume. "So what do you say? I know you're not exactly thrilled about this whole trip, but I'd really love it if you came along! Of course, I'll have Yubel as my company, but I only wanna have to use her power in an emergency. And I mean…" the King smiled in that charming way of his, "if you don't come along, I'll miss you much too much."

Manjoume's shoulders slumped. He hated it when Judai made him feel guilty that way. Because Judai was asking and not telling him, the King was implying that he had a choice in the matter. But did he really? It certainly didn't feel as though he did. "Judai, you know I'll do anything for you and for Neospace and for Darkness. Anything to protect this place. But… you also know how I feel about the World of Light. It's a terrible place that I never want to revisit. It holds too many bad memories for me."

"It doesn't have to be all bad," Asuka began, leaning over the table slightly as she placed her hand over Manjoume's. He looked down at their touching hands, then back up at her, his face etched with poorly-concealed happiness. "Your two older brothers, they're still down there, aren't they…?"

He nodded slightly. "They should be, yeah."

"So if you go with Judai on this trip, you can look for them."

"Wait, wait, hold on," Amon interceded, putting his hand up as a means to stop their conversation. "This is supposed to be a search for the signers, not for two people who, as all evidence points to, should be dea—."

"Oh shut the hell up," Fubuki interrupted before Amon could say the dreaded word that would have driven Manjoume into a depression, one that most like would have prevented him from revisiting his old home world. "While they're looking for the signers, they could also keep an eye out for his brothers. I don't see anything wrong with it. Hell, this can even be a good thing for us! Manjoume, didn't you once say that you and your bro's had this one move that could wipe out a city?"

"Yes. We're powerful enough by ourselves, but the power we hold separately was always meant to be put back together. We've only gotten the chance to do that once, and when we did, it created a force so powerful, so destructive…" Manjoume scoffed, the usual touch of smugness returning to his face. "If we go down there and find them, bring them back here and train them properly, I assure you that they'd be a valuable addition to the team. No one would ever think to oppose Neospace or Darkness ever again."

Judai nodded. "Sounds promising! So… if I assure you that we'll keep an eye out for them, will that be enough to make you wanna come along?"

Manjoume smirked. "For sure."

"You know I can't guarantee that we'll find them though, right?" Judai reminded him, frowning. "I mean, the World of Light is huge."

"You think I don't know that?" Manjoume rolled his eyes. "I grew up there, for fuck's sake. But…" he offered a small smile. "Just to know that we'll be trying is enough for me."

"Great!" Judai clapped his hands together. "It's settled, then. Tomorrow morning, me, Manjoume, and Yubel are gonna go down to the World of Light to disprove this stupid myth. It shouldn't take us more than a few days. Manjoume," Judai pointed at him. "I know you hate getting up before noon as much as I do, but we can't afford for any of the citizens to see us flying to the Ocean of Different Dimensions. We gotta go at least an hour before the day starts for them. Sound good?"

Manjoume nodded curtly. "Yeah, sure. See you tomorrow."

Judai turned to leave, Taniya holding the door open for him. Once he was gone, they all remained silent for a few long moments, until they could all be sure that he was out of ear-shot. When they were certain that he was, Asuka sighed and placed her head in her hands. "He's insane."

The other's all silently agreed, the only opinion of the entire group that would meet no disagreement or voice of dissent.

After leaving the meeting, Judai walked through the hallways of his home, using the long way to avoid anyone who might question why he wasn't at his own party. He needed to go to bed early, not something he particularly liked to do, but had to do, in order to be prepared for the next day's trip.

Just a few hallway's short of his bedroom, he was stopped short of his destination. He was knocked down from behind by someone small and strong. They fell together with a large thud, landing on the concrete floor unceremoniously. It was to both their benefits that no one had been around to see the ungraceful display. Judai didn't need to think twice: he already knew who it was.

"Shou!" he exclaimed, his attempt at sounding stern and angry failing, as he couldn't keep the laughter out of his voice.

"Judai!" Shou exclaimed in his pre-pubescent voice, hugging Judai while still on the floor. "Where have you been? I went down to the party hall to try and sneak a visit with you, but Ryo said you left. I didn't believe him at first, but then he let me have a look around and I didn't see you. Where'd you go?"

"Eh, you know parties aren't really my thing. I was downstairs with everyone else, discussing military and Light-related stuff, the usual."

Shou nodded. "I see." Looking down at his hands awkwardly, he asked in a tentative voice, "Anything you wanna share?"

Judai knew, Shou was always interested in knowing what he and the others spoke about during their private meetings. Though Shou possessed no supernatural gifts, he was expertly skilled in the building of machinery and weaponry: he was considered a protégé, the visionary of their generation. Judai had once considered letting him into his elite army, but when he expressed the idea to Ryo, the older man displayed such adamant opposition to the mere thought of Shou becoming part of the team that he simply let the idea go.

Sometime after that, Judai, becoming more and more impressed with the growing complexity and efficiency of Shou's work, began to consider appointing him to build military weaponry for the civilian army. However, Ryo was once again against it. Judai couldn't think of a reason why, and Ryo didn't offer an explanation. It made Judai wonder if perhaps Ryo had something against his younger brother, because why else would he be so against Shou taking up an honorable place in history?

"Um…" Judai began in a low voice, scratched the back of his head. "We were just talking about the ways we can stop the Light's revival. I can't really go into detail, but!" Judai grinned widely. "I'm going on a trip tomorrow!"

"A trip? Where to?"

Judai took a look around, and, making sure that no one was there who could possibly hear what he was about to say, he whispered to Shou, "I'm going to the World of Light."

"World of Light?" Shou whispered back, his eyes growing in surprise and amazement. "But what for?"

Judai shrugged. "Everyone thinks that the signers are down there, for some reason. I'm going with Yubel and Manjoume tomorrow to prove them wrong."

Shou nodded curtly, knowing well that Judai didn't believe in the signer myth. "How long will you be down there for?"

"A couple of days. A week, tops… get-in and get-out, you know the deal. I can't waste too much time on it… I just need to find some proof to squash the whole 'signer-theory' so everybody can get it out of their systems. We need to move on to the main issue."

"Which is?"

"Stopping the Light, what else? The signer problem is just a distraction from the core of everything. I just wanna get it out of the way."

"Okay. Well, I wish you luck!"

"Sure, thanks a lot Shou!" Judai got up, dusted himself off, and turned back to the direction of his bedroom. "I'll bring you back a souvenir or something!"

The King took but a few steps forward, before Shou stopped him. "Hey, Judai?"

He turned to look back over his shoulder. Shou was still on the floor, his legs tucked underneath him. "Yeah?"

"What if… what if they really do exist? What if you find them?"

"I won't, though."

"But what if you do?"

"Oh, I don't know…" Judai began thoughtfully. "I guess I'll make friends with the signers—maybe even fall in love with one—and start a whole new life down there. That sounds pretty good, don't you think?" Judai grinned, and Shou rolled his eyes. There was no mistaking the sarcasm in his voice. "Seriously, Shou, what do you think I'd do? I'd come back up here to start planning the invasion, duh!" He tapped the side of his forehead for extra emphasis.

"Ah, I see." Shou nodded, and Judai turned to leave again. Just as he was about to turn the corner, Shou called out again, one last thought. "Judai!"

The young King turned around for a second time. "Yeah?"

"Don't fall in love with one of them," he advised. "It would upset Yubel, and I think that's something we'd all like to avoid."

"Well, my love belongs only to her." Judai winked. "Maybe those signers will have better luck in the next life."

A/N: So here it is.

The point of this chapter, mainly, was to bring to light the previously unexplained reasoning behind Judai's sudden trip to the World of Light the day after he's crowned King. Because I didn't explain that before. But it is explained now.

Just to reiterate, the eleven members of Judai's elite army are: Ryo, Asuka, Manjoume, Misawa, Edo, Fubuki, Kenzan, Johan, Jim, O'Brien, and Amon. Taniya acts as the guard for their meetings, though I think we all know that's she's really just there for Misawa's sake ;) Though they make no interaction during this chapter. But I think it's enough for them to be in the same room together, so it's all good.

Another main focus of this chapter is to show how things get done with Judai in charge. The way he run's things is much more democratic than King Godwin would ever think to rule, with the members of his elite army act as his de-facto parliament. They're all on a first-name basis and they act quite informally with each other, disagreeing and arguing openly over what should be done; once they can all rest assured that things haven't changed now that Judai has officially become King, they fearlessly let their opinions be known to Judai, who actually cares about what they have to say. The whole reason why he even makes the decision to go down to the World of Light is because his friends insist that it's something worth checking out—if left entirely up to Judai, he never would have done that. And it serves to his benefit, as his friendsdo end up being correct about the existence of the signers.

But even so, Judai does use his authority as ruler when he needs to, most clearly shown in when he tells Johan that he can do anything he wants, seeing as he's the King. Also, in that Asuka (or anyone else) would never call Judai "insane" to his face.

I imply some things about some of the characters here. Most obviously with Amon: while discussing what to do about the Light's impending rein of doom, the first idea to come out of Amon's mouth is *genocide* of all things. He then goes on to weasel his way out of accompanying Judai down to the World of Light, even though he wouldn't have to hide anything and that it's his job to help Judai in any way that he's asked. Semi-democratic system or not, he still pretty underhanded in his methods of getting out of going with him; at least Edo was up-front about it.

And there's also my little implication with the fact that it's Asuka and Fubuki, not Judai, who convince Manjoume to go with Judai to the World of Light. Take that as you will, for now.

Annnnnnd then there's Shou. Didn't give him any powers, just genius-like skills in the building of ancient machinery. Through his interaction with Judai, there is some seriously heavy foreshadowing. For those of you who read the first version, you know exactly what I'm talking about. For those of you who haven't, you'll find out soon enough ;)

So that's all. If there's any questions, feel free to let me know. And, as always, y'all know I love reviews ^^