Author's Note: I really shouldn't be posting this yet. My keyboard is still broken, my mother's is more glitchy than before, Chapter 2 isn't complete yet, and I've had trouble writing the duels. Clearly, I'm insane. Ah, well! I'm just gonna back myself into a corner.

Review Answering Time!:

LetItFlow: Yep! I'm not big on writing darker things, but I've had this planned for awhile and... what can I do?

Johnny Spectre: I actually haven't watched much Fairy Tail. As for the Supreme King appearing... uh, can't spoil, sorry. But someone will appear, I'll say that much.

Now, time for the chapter!


I know this is one of the most overused phrases out there, but I should have known the day wouldn't be a good one, when it started out with me waking up to being stepped on by Syrus, who had set an alarm to wake up early so he could set up for the day's festivities. I had grown accustom to sleeping through the alarm, even if I was getting better about waking up earlier. I didn't remember I had been sleeping on the floor, so in Syrus' mad dash to get things done, I ended up having his foot impact with my stomach. It was not a fun experience, to say the least.

But I still managed to get back to sleep.

Half an hour later, Hassleberry woke up in a stupor.

"Ugh... Gotta get to the latrine..." He groaned, stepping down on my arm.

The sudden pain piercing through my body was enough to wake me up again. Oh, well. At least Hassleberry got out of the room fast. I mean, it could have been worse.

Jesse was the one to finally wake me up for good. Because I had tossed him into MY bunk, he quickly noticed I was on the floor. He managed to avoid stepping on any part of my body when he stepped out of bed, but the sudden vibrations on the floor were still enough to disturb what little bit of sleep I was getting.

"Better avoid stepping on Jaden..." Jesse said. "Uh... My head is spinning..."

There are certain five word sentences you NEVER say, like "What could possibly go wrong?" or "I'm sure everything is okay". "Better avoid stepping on Jaden" can be added to that list. Because, thanks to those words, and his blurred vision, I got the rudest awakening I had in years.

I will not explain the sound I made, suffice it to say that it was high-pitched and Jesse ended up grabbing his head from the shriek I made.

Now, I'll admit, looking back, that was kind of funny. Okay, it was funny in a painful way, but still funny. So, that's probably why I was still going into the day thinking it would be good. I mean, Duel Monster's Spirit Day! It was everybody's favorite day of the year! What could possibly- Ah, you see where this is headed!


Once I recovered from Jesse's foot, and Jesse recovered from my shrieking, we eventually met up with the others. And by the others, Syrus and Chazz. Syrus was, as he had the past two years, wearing a big, pink bowtie. Chazz was wearing the same XYZ-Dragon Cannon costume he had worn the previous two years as well.

If you, for some reason, are going into this without knowing what happened on my second Duel Monster's Spirit Day, well, the reason for this was because, during our first year, Syrus had met up with the Dark Magician Girl, she gave him a peck on the cheek, and he was convinced that if we didn't wear the same costumes, she wouldn't recognize us. Of course, this only applied to Alexis, Chazz, Bastion, and to a lesser degree, Syrus. I HAD been wearing a costume when the day started, but everyone knocked it, so I ditched the thing.

"Because of you, I nearly ran late!" Syrus shouted at Chazz, while frantically drawing a battlefield on the ground.

"Hey, blame Hassleberry, not me." Chazz said. "He's the one who forced you to drink that stuff."

"You bought it!" Syrus shouted. "I should tell Chancellor Crowler on you!"

"If you do, you'll be turning yourself over as well." Chazz pointed out. "After all, you drank the stuff."

"It'll be worth it!" Syrus shouted.

"Yeah, but then you wouldn't be able to see Dark Magician Girl, would you, Sy?" I asked, as Jesse and I walked over.

After the initial shock of Jesse and I suddenly appearing, Syrus thought over what I said for a second, before hanging his head in defeat, "You're right."

"Ah, so this is the XYZ costume Jaden was telling me about." Jesse said, poking Chazz's costume.

"Yeah, and hands off the material!" Chazz shouted, stomping away. "I don't know what you're going as, but I can tell it won't cost as much as this baby."

"What ARE you going as, Jess?" I asked. "If you don't have a costume, I've got a good idea."

Let's see what everybody thinks of Jesse when he's the one wearing bits from several costumes! HA! ...They'd just love it, wouldn't they?

"Actually, I've got a costume ready." Jesse said. "It can fit two people if you need one, Jaden."

"Jaden can't wear a costume!" Syrus howled.

Jesse grabbed his head. Apparently the headache still hadn't left.

"Why not?" Jesse asked.

"Oh, I didn't wear a costume while I dueled the Dark Magician Girl." I explained. "So, Syrus is convinced she'll recognize me better without the costume."

"Too bad." Jesse said. "If you and I couldn't team up in a costume, I'd love to see what you would have worn."

"You wouldn't." Syrus and Chazz said flatly. Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys.

After that, Jesse went off to get his costume.

While we waited for him to return, Syrus, Chazz and I shot the breeze.

"So, Alexis got her Harpie Lady costume back, right?" Chazz asked.

"Yeah." I said. "She rented it from the store last week."

"Yes!" Syrus cheered. "Once she arrives, the gang will all be here!"

"Hey, that's no fair, Sy!" A voice whined from the Slifer Dorms behind us.

Behind us stood two people. One a young girl, the other a short boy. The girl was in a leotard with a tutu around her waist and a plastic visor over her eyes. Her hair had either been dyed pink and cut, or she was wearing a wig. The boy, on the other hand, had messy purple hair which was obviously a wig. An ascot around his neck, his body was covered in a spandex uniform, with some heavy looking boots on his legs.

If you couldn't guess from those descriptions, we had a Cyber Tutu costume and a Hero Kid costume.

"I was here last year!" "Cyber Tutu" complained.

"You know he only counts people who were here two years ago, Blair." Chazz said, crossing his arms.

"Uh, Mademoiselle Tutu, must I really wear this?" "Hero Kid" asked.

"Ah, I figured that was Marcel under that wig." I said.

"You let them trash my room!" Blair shot back. "You pay the price!"

"I thought the price was to allow you to stay in my room last night." Marcel said.

"You have a point..." Blair muttered. "Fine then! But you still have to wear it!"

"Because Cyber Tutu and Hero Kid make a cute couple?" I asked, a sly smile on my face.

"N-NO!" Blair shouted, flustered. Ah, young love... "Because he's gonna be the hero who saves the day at Duel Academy!"

"Right, I need someone to pass the torch to." I said, nodding.

"Not like that!" Blair said. "When the real hero goes rogue, the sidekick always has to step in and bring him to his sense!"

"I'm Jaden's sidekick!" Syrus shouted.

"Yeah, but you can't duel Jaden." Blair said. "It's against the rules. Now, Marcel, do me a favor and keep Jaden here."

Marcel could only sigh as Blair forced a Duel Disk on his arm. Hey, look. Someone finally realized how hard it was to duel with things on your arms.

Now, you're probably wondering what Blair meant when she said Marcel had to keep me here, and that it was against the rules for Syrus to duel me, huh? Well, it all goes back to the fact Crowler was named Chancellor, starting my Senior year.

During the first two years I was here, in order for Third Year students to graduate, they had to obtain 100 "points" from dueling other students. You'd get a number of points based on the year of your opponents. Beat a Freshman, you get 1 point, a Junior 2, and a Senior 3. You could also only duel the same person once, and whoever got the most "points" would be given the honor of participating in the Graduation Duel. This was what has become known as "the Sheppard system".

But when Crowler took over, he changed this. "The Crowler System" required a more strict condition to graduate. 100 Straight Wins! Yeah! It didn't matter who you dueled, but if you had a streak going, you couldn't duel that person again until the streak was broken. When Crowler pitched this, he said it was because he couldn't stand to allow students to go out into the world without being assured they were the best of the best, and didn't just con a bunch of Juniors and Freshmen into giving in for them to graduate. But, honestly, we all knew the real reason. Crowler had grown close to several of us in the Graduating Class. He couldn't stand us leaving, so he tried to make the condition harder.

Oh, and if you're wondering, Syrus, Chazz, Alexis and Atticus had all gotten their 100 Streak done, and passed the test. I'd gotten a good 96 Streak going. It helped that Crowler didn't factor in Sy and the others dueling me after their streaks were over. But don't think they just threw the match. They made me earn my wins.

That said, Hassleberry and Blair were deadset on keeping us at the Academy. Since they'd failed to stop the others, they were going out of their way to keep me here at all cost. They actually asked several of the other students to duel on their behalf. And Marcel was the latest in this long line.

It was all good though. I'd been planning to finish my 100 Wins during Duel Monster's Spirit Day.

Just like earlier in the year, I'd beat Marcel with no problem. To avoid the public embarrassment, I'll refrain from giving the details here.


"And that's game!" I said, doing my winning pose, after beating Marcel.

"Just as I thought..." Marcel sighed.

"Marcel!" Blair cried out. "I was counting on you!"

"Sorry, Mademoiselle." Marcel said, sadly.

A crowd had gathered during the duel. Okay, I'd hit 97, I only needed three more opponents!

"So, who's next?" I asked.

"Will I be allowed?" A voice asked.

I quickly recognized the voice. Spinning around, I noticed Jesse had returned, now wearing a false horse head over his own head. His face was sticking out from the middle of the horse's neck. A pretty standard costume, all truth be told. Except for, y'know... the horn made of REAL SAPPHIRES ON THE TOP OF THE HEAD!

"Sapphire Pegasus!" I shouted, pointing at the horn.

"Yeah!" Jesse nodded. "I would have worn the body too, but I had no one to be my other half."

I quickly realized what he meant by that.

"You wanted me to be the horse's a-" I started.

"Oh, please, Jesse!" Blair cried out, jumping in front of Jesse. "You beat Jaden at the School Duel! If there's anyone who can keep Jaden here, it would be you!"

"It would be my honor." Jesse said, bowing.

Jesse took Blair's hand, in a very gentlemanly manner, kissed the fake rose on it. Okay, I don't know why, but that annoyed me to no end! Marcel too, apparently.

"Hey!" Marcel shouted, stepping between Jesse and Blair. "You should only kiss a woman's hand if she allows it first."

"Heh, sorry, buddy." Jesse said, placing an arm behind his neck and chuckling sheepishly. "I was just getting into character."

"Hate to break it to ya, Mr. Ed, but you can't duel me for my 100 Duel Trial." I said. "Crowler's not allowing anyone who doesn't strictly go to Duel Academy to be counted in the streak."

"So, I have to wait until you duel three more people?" Jim asked, walking up.

"Jim!" I shouted, before realizing something. "Hey, where's your costume?"

"Couldn't find a costume that would work with Shirley." Jim said, pointing to the crocodile in his backpack. "What about you?"

"Syrus won't allow me to dress as Gearfried the Dark Magical Guardian." I said, faking a pout.

Jim nodded, before examining the others.

"Very nice!" Jim said approvingly. "But where's Alexis? I can't help but wonder what she would dress as."

I shot Jim a quick warning glance, before I realized something. He had a point. Alexis hadn't shown up yet.

"Now that you mention it..." Syrus said.

"Blair, you were at her party last night." Jesse said. "You know something?"

Blair just shook her head, "I left early. She forced me out when Atticus showed up and talked about showing off his Musician King costume."

The rest of us, with the exception of Marcel, turned pale at this. What was Atticus thinking?! And seriously, Blair! You go nuts over weddings, but you didn't get why he was taking his shirt off?! Even I got that!

"Perhaps I can be of service." Someone said.

The voice belonged to a figure completely covered in red robes. Even their head was covered. All that could be seen under the turban was a pair of eyes. And no, this couldn't be Alexis. The voice was distinctly male.

"Who are you?" I asked.

With a hearty chuckle, the man said, "Come now, Jaden. You just had me read your fortune last night."

"Sartorius?!" I shouted.

Removing the turban, Sartorius' hair popped ou- Wait, how did he keep all that hair under his turban?!

"I thought Crystal Seer would be the best option for me." Sartorius said.

OH! Of course! Even the guy who was possessed by the force of nature that I was destined to defeat... Even THAT GUY ended up favoring Jesse. Great... Oh, but I kid. Jesse and I were cool now.

"Jokes aside, I have my doubts about finding your girlfriend." Sartorius said. Man, what was with this guy and sounding cryptic? Just say her name, dude!

"Where's Aster?" I asked, looking around. "He was a Duel Academy student. Maybe Crowler will count him as another win for me."

"Won't you need to beat him first?" Marcel asked.

"It's a sure thing." I said, jokingly.

"He's still getting into costume." Sartorius said. "The Defender armor is quite heavy."

So, Aster was gonna be Defender, The Magical Knight, huh? Aster's got some good tastes.


In order to pass the time, I picked a challenger from the crowd and dueled him. Another easy win, and this wasn't even against one of my friends, so it isn't all that note-worthy.

What was note-worthy was that, during this duel, I felt like I was being watched. Looking around, I realized someone dressed as Strike Ninja hadn't taken his eyes off my duel once. Jim noticed this as well, but quickly clued me into the identity of our mysterious Ninja.

"Axel." Jim whispered, motioning to the Ninja.

"As a Ninja?" I whispered back.

"He figured if he hid his whole body, he'd be able to challenge the person who attacked Viper without them realizing he's looking for them." Jim explained.

"Ah..." I nodded.

"Hey!" Blair said, jumping in front of me and looking to the crowd. "If anyone can beat Jaden, I'll gladly give up my Jewel Disk!"

The whole crowd began going nuts.

"Don't forget, Blair..." I said. "I beat Professor Stein, a former Pro Duelist, just to get that thing for you."

Okay, I actually dueled him just to shut him up, but it made the horde back down. I wasn't about to see Blair lose that. I worked hard to win that! A friend was gonna keep it!

"You know, Jaden, you never did anything like that for me."

My face lit up. That was Alexis' voice! Finally!

I spun around.

"Le- Huh?!" I shouted.

The others turned to see what I saw.

Alexis was sitting on the railing of the Slifer Dorm, which was dangerous, but not the thing that shocked me. No. What surprised me was that, instead of the Harpie Lady costume Alexis had worn for the past two years, her costume was very different this time. It was practically a normal outfit.

A black, sleeveless shirt, with the bottom and right side cut off, on top of a white tube top. Okay, I never knew Alexis to wear things like this. And on top of that, she was wearing a pair of black pants. What was odd was that the left leg had been cut, so it was the same length as the legs of hot pants! Many of the younger boys in the crowd nearly passed out.

"Alexis?!" Chazz shouted, eyes practically popping out his head.

"H-Hey, Alexis!" Syrus shouted. "You're supposed to be wearing the Harpie Lady costume you did the past two years."

"Oh, my brother took that costume from me and insisted I wear this." Alexis lied. Yes, I could tell she was lying. What I wanted to know was why.

"But the Dark Magician Girl..." Syrus started.

"She'll be here no matter what, Syrus." Alexis said, jumping down and patting him on the shoulder. "If she truly cares about you, she'll return to you someday. And if she doesn't, you can always go find her."

"Y-Yeah." Syrus nodded, still in shock.

I was getting ready to ask Alexis what she was doing, when, after disappearing off to the bathroom in the morning, Hassleberry finally returned.

Hassleberry was dressed in old, tattered robes, of a different kind than Sartorius' more mystical sort. His looked more like a warrior's. On his head was a white- Oh, let's be honest. Nothing I describe will top Alexis' costume, whatever it was. Hassleberry was Armed Samurai - Ben Kei. Next to him was some guy dressed as Gilford The Legend.

"Sorry I'm late, guys." Hassleberry chuckled. "I had t- Private Lexi?!"

Hassleberry stared in bewilderment at Alexis, just like the rest of my circle of friends. Alexis only waved in response.

"Hassleberry, where have you been?" Syrus eventually asked.

"Well, after I unloaded my cannon into the great porcelain kingdom..." Didn't need to know that, Hassleberry. "I had to hunt down this guy."

Hassleberry pointed to "Gilford".

"He was the Second-In-Command of my old platoon." Hassleberry went on to explain. "Even if I can't beat Sarge, he might be able to."

Well, it made some sense. I did know most of Hassleberry's strategies. This guy was completely unknown to me.

"Alright, Game On!" I said, activating my Duel Disk.

"One second, Jaden." Alexis said, walking over.

I turned around, ready to ask her what she wanted, when she grabbed me and pulled me into a deep kiss. I was left dumb-struck.

"Sam hill..." Hassleberry muttered.

"And I thought Dark Magician Girl's kiss was something..." Syrus also muttered.

"Lucky little-" Chazz started, before devolving into grumbles.

"Wish I could do that."Jesse said.

Now, you probably expect me to be thinking something like 'Back off, Jesse!' or something, right? Well, no. There was only one thing I was thinking.

'What's gotten into you, Alexis?' I asked in my head.

Alexis broke the kiss after a few seconds, and said, "That was worth the wait."

"A-Al-A-Alexis..." I stammered, trying to get air back to my brain. "What was that for?"

"A good luck kiss." Alexis said, with a seductive smirk.

"I thought you didn't believe in luck?" I asked.

"Can't hurt." Alexis said.


Okay, something was wrong with Alexis. This much was clear. But my opponent was growing impatient, so I decided I had the rest of the day to ask Alexis what was wrong. It's not like I wouldn't find out soon.

The duel was harder than my 97th and 98th, but I still got my 99th victory.

"And that's game!" I shouted, doing my winning pose. "99% there! I love that number!"

As Syrus and I cheered for my victory, and Blair and Hassleberry cursed the fact I was one duel away from leaving Duel Academy, Crowler walked up.

"Ah, another fine Duel Monster's Spirit D- Miss Rhodes?!" Crowler shouted.

"Hello, Chancellor Crowler." Alexis said, with a smile.

"Y-Your costume..." Crowler stammered.

"I hope there's nothing wrong with it." Alexis said.

"N-No..." Crowler trailed off. "Just surprising."

"He has a point, Alexis." I said. "This isn't like you."

"Well, people change, Jaden." Alexis said.

Yeah, but not this drastically over night. Something was wrong. Anyone could see it. I couldn't help but worry. Was this just a prank? Had Atticus traumatized her so badly at the party last night? Did he have dirt on her? Did someone else have dirt on her? So many thoughts raced through my mind.

Now, up until this point, everything was pretty much normal, Alexis' odd wardrobe and personality shift aside. I mean, we were all hanging out, dueling, having fun... Just like any other day. The only thing really different was that we were having a little dueling festival. But this wasn't exactly out there for the past two years either.

No, it was right after Crowler showed up that things took a turn for the worse.

"So, are Mr. Sheppard and Miss Dorothy coming?" I asked Crowler. "Oh, and Bonaparte?"

"Bonaparte is serving at a cafe." Crowler explained. "But Sheppard and Dorothy should be along soon. Last I saw, Sheppard was having issues getting into the Dark Magician costume."

As Chazz, Syrus and I realized this meant Dorothy would likely be dressed as Dark Magician Girl again, we were pulled back to reality by a pained grunt.

In the crowd, Strike Ninja, a.k.a Axel, tensed up, staring at Alexis' room. The rest of us directed our attention there.

Atticus was crawling across the walkway, trying to reach the railing. He was covered in wounds, with his uniform ripped and what looked like chain marks on his arms and legs.

"Give me..." Atticus started, as he tried to pull himself up on the railing.

At this point, the railing gave out and Atticus fell forward to the ground below. Chazz and Sartorius ran over and helped the guy to his feet.

"Atticus, are you alright?!" Chazz shouted.

"Chancellor Crowler, go get Miss Fontaine!" Syrus shouted.

"Right!" Crowler nodded, about to run off.

"Give me..." Atticus started again, breathing heavily.

"We're getting you help." Sartorius said, reassuringly.

"...my sister back..." Atticus finally finished.

All of us quickly turned to Alexis. She was staring at Atticus like she didn't know what he was talking about, but I could tell it was an act.

"What are you talking about, Atticus?" Alexis asked.

"Give her back!" Atticus shouted. "Get out of her!"

"Atticus, you're scaring me." Alexis said.

Jim glared at Alexis, reaching for the bandages around his eye, before stopping.

"Alexis seems fine to me." Jesse said. "Maybe she's wearing a different style of clothes, but she seems fine."

"SHE ISN'T!" Atticus shouted. "Something took her over!"

"Alexis" curled her lip.

"Heh, guess I should have known." "Alexis" said. "I shouldn't have honored her request to keep her brother alive. Oh, but when she was practically giving herself up for him, I couldn't help but jump at the chance."

"Who are you?!" I asked, glaring at "Alexis".

"Alexis" just gave a dark smile and said, "It's been so long, my old friend."


Author's Note: And thus, the plan I've been working on for over a year and a half begins to come together!

And you get to see the direction this fic is headed. Not only is it more serious than the others (this will probably be the last really "funny" chapter for a bit), but it also takes a lot of the jokes from the first three and makes them more serious. Consider how, in Missing You, Chazz kicks the railing of the Slifer Dorm and takes off a chunk of wood. In Competing for Love, Blair forces Jaden on to the steps and he mentions them cracking. And now, I've taken those jokes and made them dark by having Atticus get injured just leaning on the railing. Yeah, sign of things to come.

I've sat here for ten minutes trying to think of some subject to touch upon, like I would in Competing for Love, but I got nothing. So end joke time!

I didn't realize this at the time, but the Prologue alone is twice the length of the original Fury. Bite me, 2008 Me! You and your loving your writing no matter how bad it was!