Title: The New Beginning

Chapter Pairings: Slight Aki/Jack friendship… Eh…

Chapter Rating: K+ or T. Which one suits you taste now?

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Vampires, Shadows… etc.

Claimer: Vamp and Shadow!

Warning: Hm… I have to admit… I think I might have made my own characters OOC… Oh well…

Vamp: Hello everyone! I'm substituting for SilverFalkin right now. She has to do some… Things. We are sorry for the super late update. Anyways… Like she says: "On with the chapter!"

Chapter 7, Duel Academy and New Friends

Vamp/Jack's POV

We landed at Satellite. It was quiet. I looked around. Nothing but abandon buildings, crushed houses, and giant grey smoke in the sky. I noted that the Satellite was a deserted place. I sensed that someone was watching us and I knew Shadow did too. With the corner of my eye, I saw a young boy around eight years was standing behind a tree, watching us in shock since we weren't human. That boy had a spiky crab-like black hair with highlights. Black shirt, blue jacket, navy blue jeans, brown shoes… Some places of the clothes were ripped. I didn't sense anybody with him so I turned my back to him and walked towards a boulder. Shadow turned and followed me when I sat down on the sand of the beach, leaning against the big rock.

"I'm so tired now… " I said as I changed into my human form. "I'm gonna take a nap." And finish up that flash back… I thought. "You should rest too, Shadow…" I looked up at him.

He nodded and sank down to his realm. I could hear a gasp from the boy. I closed my eyes and dreamed the flashback.

Flashback

When I entered through the double doors, everything was so… so… Different then the place I was born. I saw people who were actually happy and smiling and laughing. Adults who were so kind and gentle. I smiled and thought this was going to be a great day. Leo pulled me closer to him and whispered into my ear.

"It's your luck." He said. "You get to meet the black rose witch when you first get to school." Leo then pointed at a magenta haired girl.

I looked over at her. She didn't look that bad. She actually looks… Pretty cute. "Have you talked to her?"

"No way! Never!" Leo shouted in my ear.

I quickly covered them. "You don't have to yell in my ears… I could go deaf…" Then I smiled and put my hands on my backpack handles. "And maybe you want me to go blind too…"

"No… I would never do that to my younger brother." Leo said and pouted.

Smiling, I grabbed his arm and pulled him with me. "Come on. We should go say hi." Leo flinched at what I said.

"NO! NO WAY!" He yanked his arm from my hold. I could sense that the girl named Aki watched us. "I am NOT going to say hi to that witch."

Hurt. I could feel that she was hurt by those words. I knew she was going to leave so I had to say something quick. "If you're not gonna do it. Then I will…" I heard whispers from some people around us.

"Wow… He's brave to approach the witch…"

"He's probably the new guy that Leo was blabbering about."

"Man, he doesn't know what he got himself into…"

I didn't care about what they said because I turned around and walked straight to Aki. She stared at me wide eyed.

"Hi there! My name's Jack. It's a pleasure to meet you!" I stuck out my hand.

She stared from my face to my hand then back to my face. After a couple of times of that, she turned her head away from me. "Aki… Or what they call me, Black Rose Witch."

I can see her shock when I started laughing. "You don't look anything like a witch to me." I smiled. "You look like an ordinary girl. A normal girl."

I felt a tug on my shirt. I turned my head and saw Leo with an annoyed look on his face. "Let's go." He ordered with a harsh voice.

"Okay then…" I was getting pulled away from Aki. "See you later!" I said as I waved. Aki just stared at me, still shocked.

A moment later, when we were near the classroom, Leo let go of my arm and turned to face me. "What were you thinking? Talking to that witch? And saying all those stuff?" Good thing nobody was there yet. "She is nothing like us! I don't think she's human!"

That hit me. I looked slightly down, allowing some of my hair to cover my eyes. "I'm not human either… She's more human than I am." I looked up and met with Leo's eyes. "So you accept me but not her? You think I'm more human than she is? Do you think that she doesn't feel any pain?"

Leo just stared at me. "I accept you because you didn't hurt anyone. She hurt so many people in her duels and she's just eight."

"Wrong…" Leo stared at me. "You're wrong, Leo. I-I… I was a murderer once."

"What?" He took a step back. "Why?"

I looked down, trying to hide my tears. "M-My powers got out of control when I just reached the human world… Since I couldn't last a day without blood in hell… How can I last a day here? I murdered many people so I can live… But… But…" I grabbed hold of Leo's shirt. "Human blood was… Was…" I was shaking terribly now. I felt a hand on my back.

"You don't have to tell me anymore of it if you don't want to Jack… I'm sorry…"

I let go of his shirt and wiped my tears that didn't run down my cheeks. I looked at him and smiled. "I forgive you." We heard a bell ring. I didn't know what the bell was ringing for but I flinched thinking there was a fire. Leo said it was all right and it represented that class was about to start.

We entered the classroom and so did many other students. I looked over at the teacher. She was tall and looked pretty young. She looked over at me and smiled. She walked over.

"This must be your younger brother, Leo." Leo nodded. "Why, hello. My name is Mrs. Jizen." She stuck out her hand.

I hesitated a bit but then I took it and shook. "Jack." I said in a slight whisper.

"That's a nice name. As you may know already, you'll be sitting next to Leo. And you'll be right there." She pointed a seat next to another seat that was next to the window. "The window seat is Aki's seat." My face brightens. I'm going to be sitting next to Aki for class. "Jack… You seam different then most students here."

I looked at her. "I do?" I was afraid she knew who I was.

"Yeah." But she smiled and asked me a question. "Do you know how to duel?"

"Duel? What's that?"

"No wonder." She smiled and handed me a book. The cover said Easy Learning Steps to Become a Great Duelist. "Do you have a deck?"

"Yeah…" I said, not taking my eyes off the book.

"How about a duel disk?"

"Mhm… I do…"

She nodded and walked towards her desk. "That's why you're different." She turned and smiled at us. "You have the duel materials but no experience… That's why you're here. To learn."

I looked up and nodded. I heard the door open and I turned my head. Aki entered the room and walked to her seat. Mrs. Jizen told us to sit down and she started class. I looked over at Aki and she was just staring out the window. I faced Mrs. Jizen and paid my attention to her.

Third Person (Normal POV)

As the bell rang again, Jack still panicked that there was a fire but Leo quickly calmed him down. The two left when Jack tried to catch up to Aki who was quickly walking away from them. Mrs. Jizen waited till everyone had exited her classroom and sat down at her desk and dialed a number.

"Hello?"

"Sir. I have found the vampire. He's at this school but at lunch right now…"

"That's good. Thank you, Mrs. Jizen. We will capture him as soon as possible…"

They hung up the phone and Mrs. Jizen leaned back on her seat. I'm sorry… I'm sorry…

Jack ran up to Aki after he stuffed his stuff into his locker and grabbed him lunch. She was still at her locker. Jack did get a quick glimpse inside it. Black. Pitch black. He smiled. His favorite color.

"Hey Aki!"

She just glared at him and slammed shut her locker. "Stay away from me." She said harshly. "And my name's Black Rose Witch…" Aki walked away without looking back.

The blond stared but then ran up to her and followed her to the cafeteria. Leo tried to catch up but he was being pushed back by the students walking back and forth and back and forth. When he finally caught up, Jack and Aki were just pasted the doors of the cafeteria. Aki looked annoyed and Jack looked… Happy? Leo grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him back while Aki just walked away.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Jack stared at him. "Doing stuff that others won't… Why?" Jack turned all happy. "Wanna join me?"

"No…" Leo pulled Jack to this table with all his friends. "I don't want you to talk to that witch anymore."

"Her name is Aki… She's not much of a witch…"

The older of the two was getting pretty angry now. "Fine. If you won't listen to me… Then wait till the duels…"

Now Jack was confused. "Duels… Never dueled."

"Yeah but didn't you learn about it today?"

"Uh… I'm not sure…"

"So are you saying you didn't pay any attention to Mrs. Jizen?"

"Hm… I'm a vampire and we forget a lot… Just as much as we like to change our minds…"

"… Wow… Then I'll teach you again… Don't forget it this time."

"I'll try not to."

Leo taught him about spell cards, traps, monster, levels, synchros, effects, and all those things. Jack listen to half of each but paid the other half to Aki. She was sitting on her own at an empty table. She just sat there and stared into nothing.

"And when you activate a trap that has this symbol on it, it means…" Leo looked up and saw Jack staring at Aki. "Hey, Jack… Are you even listening to me?" No answer. "Jack!" Silence… Leo grabbed Jack by his shoulders and shook. "LISTEN!"

Jack blinked and had a blank expression. "What?" He stared at Leo's raged face. "What?"

"You didn't listen to me, did you?"

"I did… Well… At least half of it…"

Leo sighed. "Jack… You need to learn! Or… You'll fail at dueling and you'll get me embarrassed…"

"Okay… Okay… I'll try my best… So, while you excuse me…" Jack stood up. "I'm gonna see what's Aki up too."

"You can see her from here. Isn't that enough?"

"Nope." With that said, Jack left the table.

One of Leo's friends took Jack's seat. "What's up with your brother? He's always around that Witch."

Leo didn't pay any attention to what his friend asked. He kept his eyes on Jack who greeted Aki for the millionth time that day and sat in front of her. He saw her annoyed look and didn't say anything. Jack was blabbering about something that actually made the witch smile a little but frowned right after that.

Jack stared at Aki when she smiled but when she frowned, he frowned also cause her smile made him feel good but when it disappear, he felt as if he failed on a very important mission. "So…" He didn't know what to say anymore… "Why…?" He didn't know if he should ask or not. He chose to ask. "Why do they call you Black Rose Witch?" Even though he heard the answer many times, he wanted her opinion.

Her eyes widen. "Why… Why do you want to know?" She faced a different direction. "It's none of your business…" She looked at him and saw him smiling. She knew he wanted an answer. "Well… Because… Because I had these powers that hurt people and they were afraid of me… Black rose came from my type of deck and witch came from my powers…"

"I also heard you had family problems… Can you tell them to me? I promise I won't tell anyone."

Aki just had a sudden feeling like she can trust everything he said. "Since my dad is usually never around at home since he's the senator, we never had much time together… Then one day, my dad stayed home and we had a duel. We were half through it until he had a phone call." Her eyes looked sad. "When he hung up… He had to leave… He said that we would continue it later but… I played this spell card and… And... I hurt him… I didn't know how but then the carpet burst into flames around us… Then somehow… This glowing red sign appeared on my arm… It looked like a claw or something… When I asked my parents to help because it burned… He told me to stay away from him… And… Called me a m-m-monster…"

Jack's eyes widen. Monster? He looked at his shadow.

Just like what they called you when you became part of their family… Shadow said.

"They called you that, huh… I was called that too…"

The magenta haired girl looked at him. "How come?"

"I… I did something terrible… I… I was different… I used to kill… but… I was… I was a stupid pathetic person… I was selfish… And… And I take it all back…" Jack learned 'stupid' and 'pathetic' when Leo called him one when they were going to school.

"Oh…" She didn't know what to say after that. "I'm sorry… And I promise to not tell anyone that." She smiled again.

He looked at her smile and also smiled. "Thanks."

Aki leaned back in her seat. "I think that mark on my arm… I think it's a cursed mark. It cursed me… Making me the black rose witch I am…"

"No." She looked at Jack. "No. You are not a witch. I don't care if you hurt people in duels. You are just an ordinary girl who is lost in her own world. Her own nightmare." Jack leaned back also and stared at the ceiling. "I am just like you… I am still lost in my own nightmare."

Her eyes widen. Unbelievable. He said these inspiring words that made her feel grateful. "Thank you." He looked at her. "Thank you for helping me. You make me feel better." She looked into his eyes. "Thank you for being a great friend to me."

Friends… Jack smiled. "What are friends for?"

After lunch, Leo watched Jack and Aki talking to each other happily. They walked back to class and Mrs. Jizen entered as soon as every student entered the classroom. She had a stack of paper in her hands. She spoke to the students about the dueling arena and repeated the rules.

The teacher then led the children to the dueling arena. Jack was slightly nervous but was so excited at the same time. She opened the doors and the there it was. The arena. Jack stared at it for a while. He sighed then smiled. When she said arena, Jack thought of those arena's where it was the fight to the death or something like that.

Aki's POV

I saw the slight shock from Jack. He looked more… Relieved? I guess he thought differently about the arena. Mrs. Jizen explained who was against whom.

"Aki." She looked over at me. "You are dueling…" Everyone held their breath, I knew. "Jack."

My eyes widen. Everyone sighed in relief. I turned my head towards Jack but he smiled.

"Alright! I think it'll be fun." He turned to me. "You can say all you want about your dueling, Aki, but I'm not gonna let our friendship break because of this. Besides, don't you think it'll be fun to duel each other? A person who has experience like you and a person who knows nothing like me."

I blinked and smiled. "Yeah." My head hung low. I don't want to hurt you Jack… I don't want to see you in pain. Now that you're my friend… I don't want you to get hurt because of me.

Duel after duel, it inched closer and closer to my duel against Jack. He didn't look nervous at all. I shuffled around my deck and pulling out and putting in cards. My head turned and saw Jack looking at his deck also. I stuffed my deck back into my duel disk and looked up at the battle. A girl had just defeated her opponent and was jumping up with joy.

"Aki. Jack. It's time for your duel."

Everyone leaned in their seats to watch the duel. Jack walked down the steps and I followed him. We took our sides of the field and waited for the call.

"Begin."

He smiled and I smiled back. "Duel!" We both said.

I had only lost 1000 LP during our duel so far while Jack had lost 1600 LP. Commanding my monster to attack again, Jack lost another 400 LP. My eyes widen when Jack was flung back against the wall. I could see Mrs. Jizen about to come over to his aid. I felt so terrible that I was about to surrender and stop the duel until…

"D-don't… N-not yet…"

My head looked up and saw Jack trying to stand up. He looked injured but he refused to leave unless the duel was finished. Looking up at me, he smiled.

"Th-the duel's not o-over yet."

That day, I've never truly admired someone until then. Jack taught me to never give up. He taught me that anything is possible. I end my turn and he made his move. I was his eyes gleam with happiness. Right then and there, I knew he was going to win.

"Go! Mad Archfiend! Attack directly!" I heard him say.

The monster attacked me and my life points dropped to zero. The room was quiet for a couple of seconds until I heard cheering. I could see the shock on Jack's face. That was soon replaced with a smile and stuck his fist in the air.

Vamp/Jack's POV

No way! No way! No way!

I was so full of joy when the duel was over and I came out victorious. But then I remembered Aki and heard cheering. Everyone was on my side and not on Aki's. I quickly looked over at Aki. She smiled at me and I smiled back. I walked towards her and she did the same.

"Congrats." She said to me. "You have defeated the undefeatable."

I rubbed the back of my head. "I guess so, huh?" I dropped my hand when I realized what she said. "The undefeatable?"

She nodded. "No one ever beat me in a duel because of my powers. I usually win by default. Them surrendering." She trailed off for a second but then continued. "Then this battle, a true battle, came to…" She smiled brightly. "I thought it was great."

CRASH! BANG! BOOM!

Explosions. I panicked. Smoke was everywhere. I saw men coming through a hole in the wall, holding guns and other weapons. My head suddenly stung with pain. I placed a hand as I saw a vision. A flashback.

Flashback (A/N: A flashback in a flashback! Awesome!)

I was playing with my father, the King of Hell, while mother, the Queen of Hell, was cooking dinner. Father started tickling me and I burst into laughter. All was well. That's what I thought. I heard loud crashes and bangs. Shadow appeared from the door (I didn't even know he left the shadow realm) panting.

"Lord! Hurry!"

"What happened Shadow? What is going on?"

Shadow's eyes were full of fear. "Hunters."

My eyes widen. Hunters? "Impossible!" I said. Hunters couldn't enter Hell. No human can enter Hell unless they face death (but that would make them dead and not human anymore). "No human can enter Hell!"

"Take Vamp, Shadow."

I quickly turned my head and saw my father. "But father…"

"Shadow, take him and leave to the Human World."

Before I can argue, a wall blasted and crumbled to pieces. There, I saw the hunters. Guns pointed at us.

BANG.

Pain. I saw pain. A hunter had shot father.

BANG.

I turned my head. Mother had got hit also.

BANG.

Shadow yanked my arm, the bullet barely missing my leg. I heard more shots as we both tried to escape the castle. Shadow yelled some words that I couldn't understand but a black and purple portal appeared and he forced me through it. My life changed forever…

End of Flashback

Guns pointed at me and they pulled Aki away from my side. I stood there and watched all of the hunters slowly creeping towards me. I began to become nervous. I felt something cold by my head. A gun.

"You're out numbered."

My heart began to pound when I heard his finger silently touch the gun switch. I began to sweat.

"Surrender vampire."

I began to feel dizzy. I could barely hear Aki yelling.

"Let go of me! Let go of me! Don't hurt him!"

"Calm down child. He needs to die. He's a vampire."

"He is not! He is not! Let go of me!"

"Aki…" I whispered. I couldn't take it anymore. I was making everyone's lives worst. "Go ahead…" I could feel Shadow tensing up in the realm. "Shoot."

Third Person (Normal POV)

BANG.

Aki stopped her thrashing. She heard the shot of the gun. There was no sound at all. Nothing was heard. She looked up and saw Jack's eyes widen. Blood was trickling down the side of his head. Tears welled up and she couldn't control it, they fell right down her cheeks. Until…

"Stop him!"

Her head turned and saw Jack running out the hole. She quickly faced back to the stuff dummy on the ground.

"Don't let that monster escape!"

Leo ran down the steps and tried to stop a hunter from going any further.

"What are you doing child? You're letting the vampire escape!"

"Stop! He wasn't going to hurt anyone!"

Aki fell to her knees as the hunter that was holding on to her let go. Was Jack really a vampire? Did she become friends with a deadly creature? She shook her head. Can't be… He couldn't be a vampire. That was impossible. Jack was human. Purely human.

Jack began to sprint. He had to escape the hunters. Nobody was following him but he couldn't let his guard down. Shadow decided to appear and run alongside Jack, giving him information and where they were going. They had to leave New Domino.

End or Flashback

Jack woke up and saw the boy right in front of him. The boy gasped and ran a little farther away from Jack. The blond stared and stood up. He walked over to the boy but he kept backing away. Jack held his hands up slightly meaning he meant no harm. The boy stopped and allowed Jack to come closer up to him.

"Who are you?" Jack heard the boy ask. "What are you?"

The half human stopped and paused. "You saw? Did you see my true form?" The boy nodded. "Then you have already known the answer. I am a vampire. A rare one. Names Jack as half human. Don't tell anyone about my true form."

"I'm Yusei and sure thing."

"You say?"

"No. Yusei. That's my name. Not you say."

Jack smiled. "Nice to meet ya."

"Why are you here at Satellite? I saw you come from the city."

The sky was dark and the moon was up. Yusei looked up. He told Jack that he had to leave.

"Where to?"

"I have to go back home to the orphanage. Martha would kill me since I'm coming home late."

Orphanage. Orphan. Jack remembered first meeting Zora. She said an orphan was a child who doesn't have a parent or guardian.

"You're an orphan?"

Yusei nodded. "Are you?" Jack also nodded. "Then you can come with me."

The crab haired boy started walking away and Jack followed. He didn't know what's going to happen but he thought he might like it here. It reminded him of the home he hate but loved at the same time. I guess it won't be that bad… Jack followed Yusei to the orphanage with his duel disk and deck with him. What was going to happen as Jack arrives at the orphanage?

A/N: I'm sorry for the super late update! I had to do things like Vamp said in the beginning. I had homework, projects, and stuff…I'm sorry for the late update and I'll try to update ASAP. Please Review! I sound so desperate…