Zone: Future's Last Hope

Chapter Four: Shadow of the Stars

"Yusei" Her voice spoke in concern as she held onto him, the night sky was so majestic, yet vs this god… She knew they needed to help each other "Remember even if we fail I'll still be with you."

Smiling back at her Yusei nodded, "You don't have to worry us failing, after all our bond is strong enough to take this so called god down!" Suddenly a bright light consumed both him and Aki. "Arise, the power of life! Cosmic Blazar Dragon!"

"Yusei." Aki spoke again as she looked over the distance with the person she loved "Can we save this world?"

He nodded again, "We've done it before, nothing is stopping us from doing it again"

Jolting awake 'Yusei' woke up, he must have fallen asleep while working on his duel runner. Seeing the commander he tried to clear his head from the dream. "What time is it?"

"Six in the morning, you slept in your duel runner surprisingly. Didn't look like you were sleeping well though."

"How long have you been up?"

"An hour, my men are still sleeping. We're moving out at eight A.M, get some food and water you'll need it."

'Yusei' nodded as he got up and stretched out a little, it was strange… Was that the past? He couldn't tell, maybe it was just a dream. He grabbed some food and a drink, sat down and relaxed just a tiny bit. Turning towards the commander he spoke, "Hey, what's your name?"

"Name? Ha! That's not important at the moment. What is important is that look on your face, you see ghost or something in that dream?" It was the first thing the commander noticed, Yusei looked extremely pal

"Huh?! Oh no, just a dream is all… A strange one at that."

"Well don't let it distract you, we're going to the museum today and I can't have ya unable to focus. You're going to be taking out that last ten percent of meklords remember."

"Yeah, I remember. By the time we all head out I'll be ready."

*7:30 A.M*

"Yusei!" A familiar voice yelled over to Yusei who was currently working on his duel runner non stop, making sure it was prepared for this road ahead. Turning he realized it was Eurea, "Nice to see you awake and well rested! Me and Arporia were just working on some of the machines we found a few days and we wanted to know if we could get your input. Agreeing Yusei told her to bring them over and he was surprised.

"Where did you find these!?"

"What do you mean?" Arporia who was rather confused after dragging whatever these were, but 'Yusei' seemingly knew exactly what these were.

"These are some newer model duel runner parts, I would have thought after the zero reverses these would be destroyed…" 'Yusei' looked at the parts, they were recently taken out of a duel runner and replaced likely, but who could have down that? Most duel runners were also destroyed…

"Well we found them when we got here, we've been checking them out and from what we can tell they're not even damaged. Strange isn't it?" Eurea commented while 'Yusei' seemed completely shocked. Before she could continue to speak the commander dragged her and Arporia off. It was time to gather weapons for the road to the museum.

"You think he'd duel me?" Arporia looked at his lover as he picked up some of the weapons putting them into a truck. "After all this is done of course."

"I wouldn't doubt it, Yusei's a great duelist and turning down a challenge once this is done and over… I don't think we should focus on that though. I'm more curious about how and most importantly why he's here. When were we able to revive the dead?"

Eurea pondered as she lifted up multiple unloaded rockets launchers into the back of the truck. Arporia made sure to count so they had them all. "44, 45, 46, 47! Alright that's it! As for the question, I have no clue. Maybe the Crimson dragon brought him back in our time of need? It has been that long after all. The dark signers may return and Yusei may be here to lead a new generation of signers."

"So what are my chances of becoming a signer, hmm?" Letting out a little laugh as she spoke rather jokingly. The two got whatever was left into the truck and went over to the commander then fell in line.

"ALRIGHT! This is an important mission that I hope, no I know you will all take seriously! We are to help Yusei Fudo to the duel monster museum to retrieve the legendary Stardust Dragon! Remember this is all for humanities survival on this planet! If you do not take this seriously, you will die! Now, we began moving out!" With that the group began their mission to the duel monster museum… But someone was out sight, looking at them as they left.

"Yusei Fudo? Well I hate to say it but that imposter won't be needed, I'll be saving this planet." With that the figure put on a mask and with a duel runner, went on his way to the museum as well, with a plan.

"We're here... " 'Yusei' scoffed as he looked at the museum, it caught Arpoira's attention, who was assigned to watch 'Yusei' to make sure nothing bad happened.

"You look angry, something wrong?"

"There's one thing… Well two things, even though we didn't come across a meklord, I'm happy about that, but why? Even if I did pick this route some meklords were on it, my radar even picked them up approaching us, but the moment they got to a certain point…" 'Yusei' shook his head, turning back to the rest of the group. "In fact my radar shows meklords fear this place for some reason, I hope we'll find out why soon." With that 'Yusei' went into the museum, with Arporia running behind him trying to catch up. That promoted Eurea to run in after Arporia, causing the commander to have everyone move into the museum and secure it

"It's quiet, as expected." 'Yusei' looked around, it wasn't really damaged, but it was run down. No one here, yet it still had everything here. From the legendary Yugi Muto, all the way down to people like the King, Jack Atlus. Now where was it, the section for Yusei… What on earth? "Why is it suddenly cold?" Looking around he realized Arporia wasn't there, it was just a moment ago he was helping him find the right location.

"YUSEI!" Suddenly someone screamed, as if a cry for help! Where was it coming from though? He couldn't tell at all, it sounded like it was coming from all around him. "YUSEI!" Again, where was it coming from, then he noticed it! That was the section about Yusei, running into it the voice he got closer and closer to the voice.

"It's pitch black now… Where am I?" He was in the section, but it seemed different, as if when walking through the space around him began to distort. There! There was the card he was looking for! Running over to stardust he broke the lock on the glass and opened up the case. When he grabbed Stardust though it only got darker, then a bright light appeared from Stardust Dragon…

"YUSEI!" Running around took a lot out of the turbo duelist, it was almost time for the tournament and he wasn't going to go without seeing Yusei off though! After a bit more of running he finally got found Yusei, seemingly confused and maybe lost? "Hey Yusei, something wrong?"

Turning 'Yusei' was shocked, it was Rua! How though? He should have been dead long ago, he then noticed something again! Behind him was Rua's sister Ruka! How was any of this possible? "Is this… Stardust's doing?"

Ruka stepped up as Rua stepped back a tiny bit, "something wrong Yusei? You seem pale" something caught her eye, or more like something missing caught her eye "What happened to your duel runner?! Did someone steal it?!"

"Shoot! Yusei if someone stole your duel runner we'll call security right now and-" Rua who jumped in right after Ruka was cut off by 'Yusei' shaking his head.

"No it's fine you two, I just had sent into the shop for repairs is all, sometimes you need to get a different opinion if you know what I mean." Well that was a lie, 'Yusei' left his duel runner in front of the museum and had the commander bring it in as to not damage it, now he was here though, this place looked like the city but everything was fine.

"Yusei, if somethings wrong don't be afraid to tell us, trust me no one here wants Aki getting mad at us." Ruka was being logical and caring, knowing that Yusei and Aki were becoming close and the fact that Yusei may have just lost his duel runner could mean terrible things.

"I…" Wait that's it, maybe he could warn these two about the meklords! Yes that may work, he may be able to prevent his future here and now! "I had a turbo duel with some strange guy, said something about having a synchro killer. I didn't believe him until his monster took Stardust."

"What! What do you mean by a synchro killer?!" Rua in shock looked to Ruka for some help.

"Is Stardust alright? More importantly are you alright? Your helmet looks a bit damaged…" Helmet? Maybe it was something he bought, she sure doesn't remember a helmet. Then she knew something was wrong when 'Yusei' showed her and Rua Stardust, it looked similar but… "Something's wrong, what happened to Stardust Spark Dragon?"

"Spark?" 'Yusei' looked quite confused. Something wasn't adding up here, maybe this was a parallel world? He wouldn't leave it out of the question, Stardust was a signer dragon and could have some strange powers. "Oh, when he took Stardust I barely managed to get it back. I don't know how but he changed it." This couldn't have been the past, that was for sure. It was little things that tipped him off on it, clothing, Stardust Spark, yeah likely a parallel world.

Ruka looked concerned, Stardust was Yusei's ace and if it was now different who knows what could happen. At the moment though Rua had a tournament to go to. "We'll figure this out later. Rua has to go the the tournament today, he's dead set on taking your title." Checking the time Rua realized his sister was right and waved goodbye to 'Yusei' and Ruka.

Ruka then looked at 'Yusei's' helmet again, maybe it was changing up the style, but her duel dragon was telling her something different. Was this not Yusei? No, it had to be him! "Can I see Stardust one more time?!" She had to test it with Ancient Pixie Dragon. 'Yusei' nodded and showed Stardust to her again. As she looked at it her duel dragon started to glow, and so did Stardust. Suddenly there was a bright flash that engulfed 'Yusei' and blinded her.

Waking up 'Yusei' looked around, he was back at the museum, what even happened to him? Wait there were two cards in his hand besides Stardust? "Necroid Synchro?" Confused 'Yusei' read the card, if today couldn't get any stranger now he has three of this Necroid Synchro card. "I don't get this at all." Suddenly that cry for help echoed again as he looked around. It seemed so close, yet so far. Why?

"Sorry about that Eurea…" Arporia who was on the ground held his arm in pain, "I didn't even see that guy coming and now look at me."

"It's not your fault, he snuck up on you and there was no way you could have done anything about it." Lifting Arporia up Eurea got out some bandages and started to patch up her lover. Sitting him down on a chair nearby she then started to question him "He had a mask on right?"

"Yeah, from what I saw at least. He was also heading towards Yusei. You think the commander will make it there before that guy?"

"I hope, for now though you rest. The other soldiers will make sure you're alright! I need to get to the commander!" With that she called some other soldiers to tend to Arporia's wounds while she ran through the museum, then something caught her eye.