Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's - Breaking Point

by Yusei

Summary - "She looked up at them, wanting to be like them, to be strong like them. Because they were strong; even when their hearts hurt. Slight Yusei x Ruka"
He does not wish for you to cry for he stands over your shoulder. But you cannot see him. Your eyes observe those you care for, they hold the strength you believe you do not possess. But their hearts ache in the same way yours does."

Disclaimer - I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's nor any of the characters.

A / N - Forgive me for having not updating this in such a long time. Decided to make this fic just five chapters by playing with the titles for each one. The final chapter all depends on Episode 57 tomorrow and if something major happens, then a sixth chapter may be added on. The fact that Martha is about comes from the fact that the fic was started before it was revealed what happened to her during Rudger and Yusei's first duel. Please read and review.

Chapter Two - Half Incapacitated

Ruka gazed out of the empty frame, frozen by sorrow and grief, her eyes focused on the skies far beyond the shards still fixed into the corners of the frames, gleaming threateningly. Behind the young girl, Aki loyally remained. She would stay by the girl to fulfil the request Yusei had asked of her. Not a sound had risen since the young men had parted, Jack had obviously strolled somewhere else in order to escape socialising with his allies.

"Aki-san?"

The magenta-haired woman turned to the child in front of her; she didn't look back, she didn't indicate she had spoken. The woman hesitated before her mouth opened, perhaps her mind had played tricks on her, and she had said nothing.

"Ruka? Did you say something?"

"Mm-hm" the girl sounded, her head bouncing lightly at the same time.

"What is it?"

"The Fifth Signer…"

That topic. That topic in which they all longed for answers; the Signer bearing the final Birthmark of the Crimson Dragon – the elusive Head. No-one knew his identity, but he had been here. At the Fortune Cup, he had been the final trigger in summoning the almighty beast that appeared before the world, the divine being hovering over Red Demon's, Stardust and the two D-Wheels that looked like mere toys beneath its glorious form. He hadn't shown, but Godwin had insisted that 'he' would appear, ad bring that divine dragon with him once again.

Those Marks that she had once cursed, that had once torn her family and her life apart. That had brought them together and brought hope to her life.

"Do you think-" the child continued on. "-That he's as brave as Yusei and Jack and you?"

"Huh?" Aki sounded, locking her eyes onto the girl once again.

Where was this coming from? Maybe it was just Ruka trying to piece an image of the elusive mystery Signer, trying to come to terms with a future without her brother standing by her side, smiling and waving his arms in a ridiculous fashion. The boy who brought a fresh aura into this fight, the boy who leapt wildly declaring that he would be as cool as Jack despite the blonde's recent dethroning. The boy who had learned he wasn't the Fifth Signer, yet promise to stand by his sister's side and protect her. That promise… which had led to his demise.

"You're just as brave, if not more. You're so young, yet you wandered into this battle along us as though you've had as many years experience with your Birthmark as Jack or I" she answered after a few moments of silence. If she could life Ruka's spirit, then maybe – just maybe - she could reawakened her fighting spirit, she could remind the girl about revenge, to fight back in the memory of her brother. They had no idea about the fate of those deceased in the war; Yusei had voiced his feelings that people could be saved if each of the Earthbound Gods was eliminated, freeing them from their blackened prison. Maybe they could rescue Rua that way.

"Brave? I've been using Rua as a shield to defend me" the young voice cried, louder and more desperate. She hated herself, she was shouting at herself. "I even ran away from that duel, from the Dark Signer that I had chosen to fight. That man held Ancient Fairy Dragon in his deck and I was supposed to fight for her sake, instead, I ran away to hide in that her world with Torunka and Regulus".

"You didn't run. You were helping that dragon, she makes you a Signer. You were fulfilling your promise" Aki protested softly, stepping towards the girl. "You were doing just as much in that world as you could have this. Yusei told me the entire thing – Rua was talking about how he was going to protect you, so that you wouldn't have to fight. Because he knew you were doing something just as important. He was doing it for you; not because he felt he had do, but because he wanted to. If he couldn't be a Signer, he wanted to at least help in whatever way he could.

"Aki-san…" Ruka muttered, lancing over her shoulder at the woman in the corner of her eye, enough for it to seem to the former witch that she hadn't turned her head. "When you duelled Yusei, you were talking about Divine. He died, didn't he?"

She said nothing. She had discovered the truth, what Divine had been doing behind doors closed even between himself and her. Regardless, she still harboured feelings for him; she still felt gratitude and friendship towards the man that had helped her from the streets. Lately, she had been reassessing those feelings; did she love him? The wounds were raw and unprotected; she had been able to turn around and face the demons of her past, overcome the lies she told herself. But there was still the pain that it all happened. And even though Divine hadn't helped her progress beyond the strength of her powers, it still hurt that he wasn't around to comfort her.

"Yes… he's dead. He must have been fighting another Dark Signer" she sounded, pain encased each word. She had yet to truly digest the truth and accept it to move on and resent Divine.

"Another Dark Signer? It must be the on that Jack chose. We don't know his ties to the Hummingbird, but he doesn't seem to show any interest in the Spider, that guy's after Yusei. But we don't even know their relation" Ruka whispered. "As for Kiryu-san… he's after Yusei too, he doesn't seem interested in taking on Jack".

Silence returned to pass through the room like a cold breeze. Ruka had been with Saiga, Mikage and Rua on the roof of a building at the time Rudger confessed his identity and links to Yusei. She had no idea that he was Godwin's elder brother or that he was the assistant to Yusei's father in MIDS. She would learn in time… or she could be informed now. But what good would that do?

"These Birthmarks… they're brought us together" the girl continued, looking down at her right arm raised in front of her. "But they're brought her pain…"

Aki's eyes shot back to the girl, wider than before; this was definitely not Ruka. That was her approach to the Birthmark – that they were a curse and brought nothing but despair. Ruka was right behind Yusei in preaching how good they were. Aki could feel a chill creep down her spine, it was as though they had switched places; that she would be the one to cheer Yusei and Jack on while Ruka watched on in silence, having los the voice to cheer, to call encouragement. Having lost her heart.

Aki stepped forward hesitantly, she had to figure out something that would drag the girl's heart back from the deep pit it had fallen into; she refused to let the young Signer deviate and become what she had been – resentful of the sinister and unjust world around them. If the Arcadia Movement was still about, would she have joined in her blind despair, guided by Divine's desire to manipulate her powers?

She shook her head; the Arcadia Movement was a thing of the past, Divine with it. She had moved on and she wouldn't go back, she wouldn't let him wind her around his finger from beyond the grave. Not anymore. She lifted a hand and laid it onto the girl's shoulders, feeling the hairs of the cyan pigtail brush against her hand coldly. Ruka glanced up at her, curiosity regarding what the older girl was doing evident in her features, but at the same time, there was the same cold aura that had been in those eyes during her duel in the Fortune Cup. When she wasn't in the human world.

"Ruka" the magenta-haired uttered. "I've been hurt before, everyone has. We're here for you… I'm here for you too. You can tell me whatever you need to. I don't want you to lock up everything and feel the burden on your heart grow too much like mine did".

"Aki-san" Ruka exhaled. For the first time since the demise of her brother, she began to look as though she hadn't been drained of everything in her. She looked like she was almost smiling. "Thank you".

Yusei sat patiently, watching Martha's arms circle over his head while pressing bandages over his healing scar in the process of clotting. He had always been afraid that Kiryu was going to do whatever he could to get revenge after Team Satisfaction broke down, what he had promise; but to become a Dark Signer and swear revenge in blind rage? To hate him that much to want him dead? It tore his heart apart, though he'd never admit it.

And it wasn't just Kiryu anymore – he had almost lost Martha whilst duelling against Rudger. Rally, on the other hand, hadn't been so lucky. He had been set in Rudger's place somehow when victory was in sight; he sacrificed himself for what he called 'Satellite's hope. What would he tell the others if they were released from the Earthbound Gods when the fight ended? Would they hate him for costing another innocent his life? Yusei brushed his hand against his eye; they had been awake all night in hunting for the remaining Dark Signers following Ruka's victory over Demak, topping the Monkey Earthbound God that had snatched her brother away.

They knew the identities of three cloaked figures, but what of the fourth? The one that Jack had chosen to fight, did he know who it was? All they could determine was that the Hummingbird was a girl; she had the figure and dressed with her stomach and slender legs exposed; a way only a woman would dress. Martha's arm hit the side of his head, knocking him from his thoughts, he looked up at her.

"Sorry" she chuckled lightly, resuming the cycle.

"Martha… are you keeping a strong front up for Takuya and the others?" he inquired, turning his head away before her eye could catch his.

"What do you mean?" the woman asked, tilting slightly to her left. She just wanted to hear his words, just to see if he had slipped into the same pessimistic boy she had seen not long ago, paralysed by fear, guilt and doubt.

"You were almost killed out there. Rally's dead and Crow's disappeared. We've got Dark Signers threatening to swallow every person in both Satellite and Neo-Domino in their power" the raven-haired man listed, his eyes fixed aimlessly upon the floorboards beneath his feet, tracing the edges of wooden wall. "They're after Jack, Aki, Ruka and me; you've seen what losing Rua has done to Ruka. I'm worried about her. And I'm worried about all of you too. You shouldn't be involved in all this, you shouldn't get too close".

"Yusei" Martha spoke following seconds of silence. She pulled on the bandage in her hand, having wrapped enough layers over the wound for Yusei to avoid feeling it burning in anguish until he was to land himself in trouble with another Dark Signer. She could guarantee that wasn't far off. "Someone has to be strong in these times. You and Jack need to be there for Ruka-chan; prove to her that even if you lose someone close, you can still live".

"Rally was a good friend, but he wasn't a brother to me, not by blood at least" Yusei sighed. "Rua and Ruka were twins, she feels like she's lost half of her power. Half of herself even".

"But you said that Spider Dark Signer claimed to be an assistant of your father's right? Then you've lost a part of yourself there too" Martha protested. "You mother and father are in you; if you've lost your father through this man, then haven't you suffered the same and lost a part of yourself to him? Because he was your father, does that mean you lost half of yourself? Your mother was killed in that blast, does that mean you've lost yourself completely?"

Yusei didn't answer; but rather focused on what the woman was saying to him; he was an only child, he had no-one else, Martha was the closest thing to a mother he had ever known. Ruka had been alone with Rua for many days in the Tops where the three of them had been brought into the world; just as he was ably to live without blood relatives, she could still sit in the rooms like Rua had gone off with Tenpei in search of a new urban legend to replace the hunt for the Black Rose Witch. She had often spoken about how wild and loud the boy had been; qualities she would miss, qualities she would admit she likes; those that made them opposites.

"Besides, hasn't she gained something?"

"Hm?"

"Her dragon. She couldn't summon it before, and now she has the card and another on top of that" the middle-aged woman elucidated, reminding the drifting adolescent of her point. "Doesn't she hold Rua-kun's card as well.

Yusei nodded, it was something she had done in order to keep him close by, guiltily removing the card from his trembling fingers. Power Tool Dragon had been the card that led Rua to believe he was the mission Fifth Signer, only disproven when Godwin appeared before them and denied such acclaim; he knew who the Fifth was. Was he holding them back? Why wasn't he revealing the identity of the final member of the exclusive group?

"Then he's not dead, he's still with her. She gained his spirit and two other cards" Martha resumed, tucking the roll of bandages into a small medical kit that Dr Schmidt had compiled. "And Aki-chan has rebuilt a bond with her parents after that man who was looking after her died. Perhaps in the wake of Rally's passing, you may gain something you could never grasp. And the same goes for Jack; he may not have lost anything, but he may still find something still".

Yusei nodded again, smiling lightly at the woman over his shoulder. What she speaking were words of truth.

She handed him his black shirt and jacket having finished her self-appointed task of changing the bandages over his wound, he would push himself constantly and she couldn't risk him pulling it open again He had been out of bed long before she wanted him to talk, no matter what she or anyone else would say, he didn't listen.

Stubborn boy.

"I'll start work on something for you all to eat. You've been up all night, you could do with a rest" she offered with a motherly smile. "I'm glad you called everyone back here, Yusei".

"The Dark Signer's aren't going to wait for us to go to them forever, but we're safe here for now" Yusei murmured. "But after a while, they'll come here. Just like Rudger did, they know where we are and they'll probably want revenge for Ruka beating one of them. You and the children will be at risk, I can't have that".

"Yusei, I'm telling you now; you've all got to rest a while. I won't have you rushing out after the Dark Signers to fall asleep partway through the duel" Martha argued, waving a finger in front of him. "Until a time when we're in any kind of danger, we're staying here and doing whatever we can to help".

"I don't have a hope in arguing with you, do I?" Yusei asked with a slight smile.

"Not really, you know that" Martha chortled heartily.

Yusei nodded, standing as his arms slipped through the holes in his black shirt. Martha opened the door at the moment his head passed through and stretching it over his bare torso. The raven-haired adolescent didn't add his jacket to the clothes he wore, but threw it over his shoulder and followed the woman out of the room, standing opposite her in the hallway as he shut the door behind him.

"I'll check on Aki and Ruka. I know they're both bearing scars and I don't want to push Aki to look past her pain to help Ruka if it only upsets her as well" he suggested.

"You do that, I'll make something that will boost your strength ahead of the remaining duels" Martha stated, smiling brightly at the young man taken under her wing after his transfer from the distant city.

Yusei turned and walked to her right. Martha remained still as she watched; his boots tapped the floorboards softly. She shook her head at his constant quiet, almost withdrawn, aura. She had always had a buried feeling that he could be special after she learned of his origin; born in the Tops, parents killed in Zero Reverse, abandoned in the ruins of the accident until she found him. But he wasn't the only special one – there was Jack. The man who had been the Duel King in Neo-Domino for two years, secretly smuggled in beneath the radar of Security.

They were the two special boys had raised from their earliest years; seeing them leave with Crow and Kiryu brought tears to her eyes. She loved all the children she had cared for dearly, each had been scarred by the incident and forced to adjust to a cruel world that no longer cared about them. She wished another could rise like a phoenix from the ashes of their broken past, just as Yusei and Jack had, but they had accepted their lives without mysterious secrets. But she would never compare them to the duo, how could someone compare a normal human to a Signer? She turned her back on the way Yusei had strolled and began to move herself. Was the comparison between them something that Rua and Ruka focused on? Did the boy feel inferior to his sister because he wanted to have the power to protect those he cared about?

Jack stretched as he laid out on the tattered roof, staring at the sky; there was nothing more for him to do. The shack was a far cry from Godwin's luxurious mansion on its own island, but this felt more like home. This was what he did when he wanted to get away from people and have time to clear his head; it always had been. He would continue to distance himself from those he didn't need to stand behind at the moment, give them their own space as well. Everyone needed time to come to terms with what they had lost. He reached into his coat, pulling out those fractured spectacles again. Those shimmering glasses now cracked that the girl wore. Carly…

He gave a sigh and laid them out of sight again, tucking them into his coat for his eyes only. Nobody needed to know his private business; she intruded, but she made him feel like a person as she did so. So why did she have to die? Why was death not enough, but for fate to throw her into the blackened attire of a Dark Signer? Her emotions had been toyed enough with, hadn't they? Was she swearing revenge on him for something when she became the enemy?

The words that she spoke denied that; calling him her 'love', but if she cared for him, why did an Earthbound God infect her soul? Everyone was facing something causing them pain' everyone seemed to be suffering at the hands of the Dark Signers. Aki had lost Divine, Ruka had lost Rua, Yusei had lost Rally and his father. And together, they had lost Kiryu and, it seemed, Crow. Alone, he lost Carly.

The reporter with such a fresh attitude, the girl who took him in to hide from the swarm of reporters and cameras tearing the city apart to find him after his duel with Yusei and the dethroning that followed. Then the truth leaking out that he was from Satellite. That blonde bitch Carly had spoken with at the amusement part had been the one to expose the secret. All Carly tried to do was protect him and help him in whatever way she could.

He hadn't even known that that very reason had been the cause of Carly's infiltration of the Arcadia Movement – that colleague of hers had been the unintentional trigger to the chain of events that led to the girl's tragic demise. But he had been with her since that time; he had parted from her since that time. If he had been with her, she wouldn't be dead. She wouldn't be the Dark Signer infected with the Hummingbird, she wouldn't be condemned to fight the man she loved. To face the reality that one of them would be dead in the next day or so. That reality hurt.

But he was the former King, he was a man; he couldn't to cry and mope over the new cards fate had dealt him, equally as poor as each previous set. He had been an orphan in Satellite, climbing the ladder to Neo-Domino by forsaking everything he had held and treasured. Now he had come full-circle – the city was aware of his secret, he sat atop the orphanage in which he grew up, he was facing another difficult choice.

He was a man – he wasn't allowed to cry.

The sound of another climbing the ladder laid against the edge of the building filled his ears, the wooden creaks of the old ladder. Mikage appeared up the steps when they had appeared at Godwin's grand manor. She had obviously come to check on him again. His eyes locked onto the tops of the wooden arms rested against the edges of the plates covering the building, only to see Aki appear in Mikage's place.

"Jack…" she murmured, sounding her shock at finding someone else on the roof.

"Izayoi" he sounded, the expression of surprise wasn't mutual.

"I was wondering where you had gotten to, guess I've got my answer" she stated, climbing over the edge and onto the roof.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, violet eyes locking onto her.

"I thought about coming up here to think for a while, just to clear my head after everything that's happened. It seems we shared the idea" she answered, glancing over her shoulder at the edge of the slates. "I'll leave if you'd rather be alone".

"No" Jack replied quickly, as though to cut her off from speaking further. "You may as well stay; I can't force you off if you want to be here".

"Thank you" the magenta-haired girl replied with a smiled. The smile he was beginning to find occurring frequently on her once tearful face.

Aki laid herself down close to him, staring up at the sky; clouds drifting over the vast sea of blue, sunlight pouring through the small gaps like rays shining down on something scared. The tranquil scene was shrouded by the pollution lingering over the ruined isle, blocking any true beauty. Satellite had been spoken of as a place where criminals thrived, a scary place where crime happened everywhere. No-one could be safe in a place like that. A place like Hell on Earth.

Hell couldn't have bred men like Yusei and Jack though. Satellite wasn't the threat that tales and rumours spoke of. It was simply another way for the city to distance itself from something less proud.

Lies. It was all lies.

Ruka shifted her eyes when she heard the sound of footsteps, noting Yusei making his way through the hallway towards her. Aki had left moments beforehand, she had to put on a smile to guide the young woman onwards, insisting she was fine. She didn't want Aki to think she was failing in comforting her, especially having been in a place where she had lost someone close – the someone that she felt closest to in the world, no less – in recent days herself. Aki had been subjected to far too much to be told she was failing at making someone else feel better after all the years she had lacked the comfort she needed.

The dark-haired adolescent towered over her as he came to a halt, his shadow laid over her tiny frame. She gazed up at him like a lost child seeking shelter in a stranger, in the middle of nowhere on a cold and rainy night, no-one else around to share her pain with. Yusei smiled comfortingly and lowered himself onto a single knee, placing his right hand on her shoulder.

"Ruka… are you feeling any better?" he asked softly.

Ruka nodded her head hollowly, she hated lying, but she didn't want to be a burden on his already tattered soul. She had seen Yusei fall apart when Rally sacrificed himself to destroy Uru, how he crumbled into nothing in Yusei's arms. She had heard him scream in a way she had never heard before, screaming the name of someone he cared about. Screaming out of pain burning in his heart, not from an attack that had hit him physically. There was a lot to this person that she didn't know of, but there was so much she had learned and so much she had seen.

"I was talking to Martha" he spoke in the same gentle voice. "She was talking about how Ruka put himself in front of you as a shield for you to inherit what you lost. Rua wouldn't have jumped in head-first without knowing there was a way to protect you. You hold Ancient Fairy Dragon and Regulus; you hold Power Tool Dragon. He must have known that in the chance he couldn't live to see the end of the duel, that you would be there to catch him; that you would be there to hold onto Power Tool until you two could meet again. I'm certain that we can get him back and give him his treasured card back".

"Yusei…" the girl choked, tears swelling in her eyes. Her damaged heart shook from the feelings she felt from her missing twin. It was as tough Rua was standing over Yusei's shoulder, nodding his head in agreement with everything the teenager said. That Power Tool was reacting in her deck to the words.

"Martha's working on something for us to eat; how about you rest until she's ready. You need something to keep you strength up, Rua wouldn't want you to mope about until you passed out from exhaustion" he suggested. "He wouldn't do it if he was waiting for you to return from the Duel Spirit World. He'd be waiting with a smile, wanting that to be the first sight you saw. If there's a way we can get him back, I promise you, we will find it".

Ruka nodded her head; the topic of exhaustion had brought to light just how drained she felt, she had been up during the night watching Yusei's duel against Rudger and then moving out with Ushio and Rua to face Demak By the time, Regulus and Ancient Fairy sat in her tiny hands as cards, the sun was rising over the Monkey Tower. She stepped forward; laying her head against Yusei's chest, the memory of waking in his arms after her duel in the Fortune Cup came to her. Yusei slipped his arms under her, lifting her tiny frame from the ground and carrying her to the warn sofa deeper in the room. He was about to lay her down when she clutched tightly onto his shirt. Latched onto him, she quivered, drawing his eyes to hers.

"Yusei… will you lay here with me?" she asked timidly. "Each and every moment that passed without Rua, she seemed to look more like the child she was. The child she had been. Despite her efforts in acting mature, she was still a child. Without the vibrant energy from her brother, the childish aura of constant excitement, she was growing backwards.

Yusei nodded his head, swinging his legs from the ground and laying them against each other over the cushions beside them. The couch was wide enough for them both to lay without concerns of falling off over the edge. Ruka pressed her head against Yusei's chest, falling asleep almost instantly. She wasn't going to leap away and deny needing his held; she was really reaching out for him, crying for him. He wrapped his arms around her, he would be there for her, he wouldn't leave her alone, he would be her Rua until the boy could appear with his gleeful smirk. He could never replace him, but he would be her shield and protect her from whatever threatened her. Just as he laid between her and the edge of the sofa, the vertical cushions behind her back.

These were the twins that saved him from Security when they first met, despite his Marker showing clearly on his left cheek. They could have handed him over, but they didn't. He would pay them back by doing whatever he could to rescue Rua, or at least ease Ruka's pain in the bleak world where rescuing a victim wasn't possible once swallowed by an Earthbound.

His azure eyes fell shut; for the first time in what felt like weeks, he finally slept.