**So, I'm updating even though there's an utter lack of reviews. I've discovered that sometimes it takes a few updates to get reviews coming to a story**

Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's, Sky would have been a legitimate character, Jack would be with Carly, and Yusei would be with Akiza. Clearly, I don't own it. But I do own my OCs.

Warnings: So… the minor character death warning comes into play during this chapter. It's the next chapter that's going to be even more fun, though… I've already written the outline of it. Also, XXX means page break in the real world, ~XXX~ means a brake between the real world and one of the scenes.

Chapter 1

If Zero Reverse hadn't happened… If Zero Reverse hadn't happened… Those words keep repeating themselves in my head. Sure, I've imagined what my life could have been like, and I somehow work all of my friends into it, but I know that my version could only happen in a perfect world, and real life is anything but perfect. So, what Roman just told me, it definitely piques my interest.

I calm myself down, since my first reaction was to scream, "WHAT?", and as a result, I'm still in shock mode. Once I calm down, I ask again, much quieter, "What do you mean?"

Roman shrugs. "You heard me."

"Yeah I did," I say, trying to reword my question. "Actually, I really want to know why. Why would you show me it?"

"Unfortunately, that's not a question I'm allowed to answer."

What…? What in the world is that supposed to mean? I start to come up with an argument, but then Roman stands up and opens the door to the diner. A faint ringing sound echoes through the diner.

"Are you coming or are you going to sit there with that absurd look on your face?" he asks.

I stand up, scowling at Roman, and walk over to him. Peering out the door, all I see is a vast… nothingness. Well, I think, I guess I'll have to give it a shot. I close my eyes and step out of the door.

XXX

When I open my eyes again, I find that I am in a long hallway that I don't recognize at all. "What does this have anything to do with Zero Reverse?" I ask. "Or rather, the lack thereof?"

Roman doesn't even need to answer me, because the second I finish talking, an emergency alarm I know far too well goes off, and I watch my father, carrying an infant Yusei and a nine-year-old me following him, run right past us.

I realize what this means—Zero Reverse is still happening—and I turn to Roman. "You said Zero Reverse wouldn't happen here!" I hiss in anger. "Then why is this exactly as I remember it?"

"Do you remember," Roman says, seemingly avoiding my question, "during our Duel, when I told you that your mother had tried and failed to stop me from sending the Reactor in reverse?"

"Yeah," I answer slowly.

"In this world, your mother succeeds in stopping me, although…" he pauses for a second, "it comes at a cost. Nevertheless, what you want to see is this way."

We float (yeah, that definitely surprises me) in the direction that my father had come from, until we enter the room that houses the Reactor and the emergency control panel. I see my mother in it, and Roman—younger, the remains of his left sleeve soaked in blood—already in a heated argument.

~XXX~

"Think of the people!" my mother shouts. "You'll destroy thousands of innocent lives, and for what? To fulfill some sick desire of yours!?"

"Like this is my choice!" Roman shouts back. "Those people's fates were set five thousand years ago—they're merely instruments to it! Nothing you say or do can change that!"

Ayame Fudo takes a step back and shakes her head. Several tears fall to the ground with the movement. "What happened to you, Roman?" she asks. "You weren't like this at all before that trip you took."

The Roman in the scene turns back to face the control panel and, for a second, his face looks normal—like someone who had seen something they wished they hadn't. "Everything, Ayame," he replies, "everything happened to me." The possessed look is back, and he lifts his arm, the one still intact.

As he brings it down towards the red button that's covered in glass, my mother shouts, "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THAT BUTTON, ROMAN!"

~XXX~

The scene turns white, and now Roman and I are in the room that I remember as the one where I said goodbye to Dad. I take a deep breath, "What…?"

"By that point, I was almost fully under the control of the darkness," Roman answers. "What you saw in there wasn't even the worst part of the argument."

I slow my breathing—watching that scene got me really worked up—but just as I go to comment, the scene continues.

~XXX~

Dr. Fudo, carrying Yusei, runs into the room, the younger Sky close in pursuit. For a second, I think that the scene will play out exactly as I remember it, but then the entire room shakes violently, and my father drops to the ground, protectively trying to cover the younger Yusei and the younger Sky,

Several moments pass, with debris falling from the ceiling, but none of it landing on the three in the room. Then, the shaking and the emergency alarm stop at the exact same time. The younger Sky pokes her head out from under my (or would it be our?) father. "Is… is it over?"

"I don't," Ryuu says, pauses and takes a breath, "I don't know." He carefully stands up and holds out the younger Yusei to the younger Sky. "Sky, I want you to stay here with your brother while I go look for you mother."

Young Sky takes her (our?) sibling from our (maybe it's just her) father. "Okay," she says. "Be safe, Daddy."

~XXX~

The scene freezes, and I stick my hand out, trying to balance myself on something, the urge to collapse simply overwhelming. "But… I didn't have to… the pod…' I can't seem to even put together a full sentence. I look over to the place where, in my world, was the place I last saw my father alive. The thing that I still think looks like an escape pod lies untouched.

"Since Zero Reverse didn't happen, it wasn't necessary for you to get in it," Roman says, in a slightly annoyed tone, "I don't see why this surprises you."

"It's…" I stop and look away. "That pod is really driven into my memories," I offer as an explanation to my shock. It's pretty much the truth, and watching it go unused in this world fills me up with a lot of unease.

"Very well," Roman says, and then waves his hand, dismissing that aspect of our conversation entirely. "There is one more scene I am allowed to show you, but… it's very gruesome. If you don't want to see it…" He trails off, waiting to see if I say yes or no.

A gruesome scene that I might not want to see? And again with what he's 'allowed' to do while he's here, I think. Who in the world is giving him permission for this stuff? As for the gruesome scene, I have a feeling what it's about, but I'm not one hundred percent sure, so I guess… I take a deep breath and say, "I'd like to see the scene.

I should have said no. My feeling was spot-on to what was going to happen. And watching it… Nothing could have prepared me for what I watch as the scene continues, and I hover after my father as he leaves the small room.

~XXX~

"Ayame! Ayame! Can you hear me?!" he calls into every room he passes. Every room, however, is completely empty. Dr. Fudo shakes his head again and continues to the end of the hallway. If his wife isn't in with the Reactor—although he suspects that is where she is, no one else could have stopped the Reactor like that—then he would have to go back, take his children, and see if Ayame is merely out at the evacuation point.

The door to the reactor is horribly stuck, he realizes, as he tries and fails to push it open. Determined to get in, Ryuu Fudo takes a few steps back before running at the door. The collision forces it open, and he stumbles into the room. "Ayame! Are you in here?" he calls before he freezes in place.

The room has been utterly destroyed, like the event that would have been Zero Reverse had been completely contained in it, and the only lighting in the room is from sparks—not Ener-D—surrounding the Reactor. The sparks cast eerie shadows over the rubble. Done with surveying the damage, Ryuu starts to go further into the room, where he quickly spots the shadowy figures of two people lying on the ground. Fearing the worst, he quickly maneuvers around the debris to get to them. And, like he feared, it was indeed the worst.

Roman lies face-down, unmoving. Ayame, however, is sprawled out on her side, struggling to push herself off of the floor.

"Ayame!" Dr. Fudo shouts, bending down to help roll his wife over to face the ceiling, and then placing one arm under her. "Oh, Ayame…" he mutters.

She opens her eyes, the normally bright and lively gold now dim and unseeing. "Ryuu…" she whispers, pausing to cough up blood. "Where… kids?"

"They're safe," he replies, trying to keep his voice steady and the tears he knows are forming at bay. He knows exactly what Ayame has done, and she wouldn't be walking away from this.

Ayame reaches up and wipes away one tear that had started to fall from his face. "Good," she says. "Tell them I love them, okay?"

With that, her hand falls to her side and she lies still—but only for a moment. A light flashes that's so bright Ryuu has to shield his eyes, and when it dims, both Ayame and Roman are gone.

~XXX~

The scene turns white, and now I feel much more shaken than I was after the last scene. Seriously, if it's possible to throw up in this place, I definitely feel like doing so. "My… My mother dies anyways in that world?"

Roman's eyes flash with sadness. "Unfortunately, yes. But, while doing so, she saved so many other lives, including your father's," he points out. Before he says anything else, I hear him sharply take in a breath (like that makes much sense, he's dead). "I wish everything could have played out differently in our world. I'm sorry, Sky."

A bell rings, and I realize I'm back in the diner, without Roman, and the back of my throat burns like I swallowed hot coals. I sit back down at the table I was at, place my head in my hands, and let the tears that just wanted out fall freely.

To be continued…

Me: *Laughing like a maniac*

Sky: WHAT THE HECK IS YOUR PROBLEM!?

Me: *Stops laughing* What? Oh, don't worry, I though the last scene was sad too. I cried writing it. I'm only laughing because I let my mom read this (out loud), and she couldn't pronounce 'Ayame', and after I corrected her, she got all frustrated and said 'Fudo' all evil-like. It was just too funny.

Sky: Wait, your mom read this?

Me: Yeah. She likes reading what I write. Even if I have to clarify what's going on in it for about ten minutes.

Sky: *Shakes head* And she let you write it anyways…

Me: Yep! My mom is awesome!

Leo: Can I meet her?

Me: No.

Leo: Why?

Me: Because I said so. Anywho, I'm requesting reviews as always! They really encourage me to write… And, if I don't get any reviews for this chapter, none of you will get to see exactly which main characters die. Reviews give my muses the ideas for stories, and even more reviews give them the in-between bits. There's still a bit I need to work out in the next chapter…