Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Symbols of Death: 7-8: Battle By Dawn's Light
Characters: Ryou, Asuka, Saiou
Word Count: chapter: 4,185||story: 29,869
Genre: Drama, Friendship||Rated: PG-13
Notes: This takes place during the Genex tournament, between episodes 90 and 91. For reference, Manjoume has left the Society of Light and Ryou has dueled Fubuki.
Feedback: All forms eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Summary: In his search to change his destiny, Saiou sets his sights on Hell Kaiser. Does the duelist of power stand a chance to defeat the Society's two finest warriors or will he kneel before the Light?


Duel Academia, like any school, spread news and gossip around a speed that put light to shame. At the break of day the next morning, virtually everyone, students, teachers, and visitors alike, stood outside Obelisk White, waiting for a duel unlike any other to begin.

"This isn't a Genex duel." Saiou declared as he took his place just a few paces beyond the door. "This is for the Society."

Ryou shrugged, an anticipatory smirk on his lips. "As you wish."

"Which means that when I defeat you, you'll join the Society of Light." Saiou added, sending ripples of delight through those Society members who stood and watched, and ripples of unease through everyone else.

Shou shivered, standing to one side where he could see his brother's face as they dueled. "Be careful," he murmured, knowing that Ryou wouldn't hear him. Not that Ryou would've listened if he had. But he said them nevertheless.

"We'll see about that." Ryou's smirk widened as he shuffled his deck. He'd spent most of the night dreaming and planning about this duel. Now it was time to see it unfold. "I'll take the first turn."

"As you wish. But I should warn you." Saiou's eyes glittered in the morning sun, a hint of otherworldliness lining them. "I will win this duel. Your own power will be your downfall and none other."

"Then let's get to it!" Ryou wasn't going to waste his time worrying about Saiou's predictions. "I draw!" Excellent. His deck wanted to play and he was more than willing to play with it. "I play Angel's Charity, drawing three cards from my deck and discarding two." He tossed Cyber Dragon and Hell Dragon into the graveyard; they'd be of more use there than on the field for the moment.

Saiou didn't even twitch an eyebrow; he just continued to watch as Ryou made his play. He knew how this duel would end, regardless of all the struggling Hell Kaiser suffered.

"Now, I summon Cyber Dark Keel and equip it with Hell Dragon from my graveyard!" A sleek dragon of dark metal roared up in front of him, with the pitchfork-tailed black dragon held between its talons. Too bad he couldn't attack on his first turn. Dealing Saiou twenty-eight hundred points of damage would've been delicious. All in good time. "I set one card and end my turn."

"Draw!" Saiou pulled his new card. He didn't have to think about his move; he knew what it would be already. "I summon Arcana Force IV-The Emperor!" A creature rose up behind Saiou, dark wings and red spheres scattered all over them. Above the monster shimmered his card, turning with exquisite precision. "Declare when you wish it to stop to determine what his effect will be, Hell Kaiser."

Ryou snorted; random choice had never interested him. Still, at the moment it was what he had to do. He watched as the card continue to turn, attempting to determine when the best moment would be. His duelist instincts stirred. Not yet...not yet...not yet...

"Now!" The card halted in the upright position and Saiou smiled again.

"From this moment on, all Arcana Force monsters will gain an extra five hundred attack points. Thank you, Hell Kaiser." Saiou wasn't done with his turn yet, however. He pulled another card out and flipped it around. "I activate Suit of Swords X. Choose which position it stops in to see its effect."

"I get the idea." Ryou watched once again as the card, this one patterned with (appropriately) ten swords thrust into the ground in front of a crescent moon, spun overhead. Again he listened to that duelist part of him. "Now!"

Again, upright, and again, Saiou smiled. "When Suit of Swords X lands in the upright position, then my opponent's monsters are all destroyed." Swords shot from the card, piercing through Hell Dragon and Cyber Dark Keel without hesitation. Ryou didn't move; he knew what was going to happen next. "Now, Arcana Force IV-The Emperor! Direct attack!"

Each of the red spheres that covered the Emperor glowed before shooting out brilliant scarlet beams, each one hitting him dead on. He hissed under his breath a little, but remained unmoved and unimpressed, as his life points dropped by nineteen hundred. Saiou would have to do far better than that to impress him.

"I set a card. Turn end." Saiou folded his arms over his chest and stared at his opponent. "I spoke to your brother about this and I believe you should hear it as well. If you continue to walk your current path, then before six months have passed, you will die, Hell Kaiser."

"If that's supposed to make me give up this duel, you're wrong." Ryou drew his next card and shot a cold glare to Saiou. Mind games were all a part of dueling, but this bordered on ridiculous. "If you can tell the future, then you should know that what will always matter to me is victory, nothing more."

Saiou sighed and lowered his head, holding back a chuckle by the thinnest of margins. "I do know. Yet when someone's fate is as deadly as yours, I cannot help but want to help them. Choose another path. Walk away from the darkness and into the light and you'll live, Hell Kaiser." At least for a little while longer.

"I summon Cyber Dark Edge." Ryou had better things to do with his time than listen to Saiou's moaning and wailings about events that hadn't even happened yet. He would at least make the so-called psychic complain about what was happening. "And equip Hell Dragon to it from the graveyard!" At least Hell Dragon had returned to the graveyard where he could use it again. Using it with Edge would be even better than with Keel, given Edge's effect.

He pointed toward Saiou, not bothering to keep the savage grin from his lips. "I activate Cyber Dark Edge's monster effect: by reducing its attack in half, I can attack you directly! Counter Bomb!"

Cyber Dark Edge could easily destroy the Emperor, but that wouldn't cause anywhere near the damage to Saiou that a direct attack would. When it came to fourteen hundred points of damage against nine hundred, Ryou would choose the fourteen hundred every time.

Saiou only took a step back, covering his eyes with his hand, and waited, the edges of his lips turned up into a smile. Ryou looked forward to finishing the duel and wiping that look off his face.

"I set two cards and end my turn." Both of those would come in handy in the near future. No psychic powers were necessary for Ryou to know that. This next turn would prove interesting. Did Saiou even have any cards that could get past his Cyber Dark Edge? Or would he use spells or traps to destroy it?

Or would something more interesting present itself? Hell Kaiser couldn't wait to find out.

Saiou drew for his turn and glanced over his cards, more for the effect than for anything else. He pitied Hell Kaiser, fighting so hard for a cause and a duel that was already lost. It will be worth it when it's over.

"I play the spell card Pentacle of Ace." Just above and ahead of him, the card's holographic double appeared, turning over and over. "Choose where it lands, Hell Kaiser."

"They're your cards. Why aren't you choosing?" Ryou grumbled even as the card spun. That would make more sense to him.

"Because I already know how they're going to land," Saiou replied with that same soft smile. "It wouldn't be fair otherwise."

"I don't care about fair." Ryou didn't even bother to watch the card to determine his choice this time. From what he could see of the effect, it wouldn't make a difference worth caring about for him. "Stop." Heads.

Saiou's life points counted up another five hundred as he drew a card. "Thank you, Hell Kaiser. As for your objections to choosing where the cards fall, think of it as controlling your destiny. Though so very few can change destiny." He paused, lowering his cards so he could look directly at Hell Kaiser. "Are you one of them?"

"Destiny is what you make of it." Ryou declared, his thoughts flickering back to his duel against Edo and the other's own assertion that his victory had been foretold in their duel. Perhaps it was. If it was, it only foretold my destiny as Hell Kaiser!

The other laughed, tilting his head back as he did so. "We shall see, Hell Kaiser, we shall see." He drew a card from his hand. "I play Choice of Fate. You choose a card from my hand and if it's a monster card, then I can Special Summon it."

"So I don't have to choose from a spinning card this time. Good." Ryou eyed the cards in Saiou's hand. This could be as dangerous as choosing when Juudai played A Hero Emerges, and for the same reason. Almost anything could lurk there.

"What you choose is not determined by me or by you, but by fate. Fate has already declared that I will win this duel. Nothing you can do or not do will change that, Hell Kaiser. It would be wiser of you to accept it."

"Don't hold your breath waiting for that." Hell Kaiser gestured to one of the cards. "I choose the card on the end."

The smile that slashed across Saiou's face was twin to the kind of smile Ryou himself smiled when summoning his most powerful monsters. "I Special Summon Arcana Force XVIII-The Moon!" What emerged on the field was difficult to describe, a sort of armored alien thing with long metallic arms and a multitude of metallic tentacles in place of legs. Inside of it was a blue-headed alien, fingers pressed against the glass window that kept it within.

What interested Ryou more was the attack strength: twenty-eight hundred, equal to Cyber Dark Edge at the moment. "By the effect of the Emperor, the Moon's attack points rise by five hundred!" Saiou declared, shooting one long, slender arm toward Hell Kaiser. "Attack Cyber Dark Edge!"

There was no way that Ryou would let that happen. "I activate Call of the Living Dead. Cyber Dragon, be reborn!" Or born, technically, as he'd never summoned it in this duel, but why be picky about language?

The Moon, head tilted back and a faint glow forming around its face, began to relax as Cyber Dragon roared before Hell Kaiser. The monster wasn't as strong as Cyber Dark Edge, but that wasn't why Ryou really wanted it out there. "Which are you going to attack, Saiou? Cyber Dark Edge or Cyber Dragon?" It would be one or the other, if he attacked at all.

"Cyber Dragon is your new target!" Saiou declared to his monster. Ryou waited less than the space of one breath to activate his next facedown card.

"Trap card, open! Attack Reflector Unit! I tribute my Cyber Dragon to summon Cyber Barrier Dragon in attack mode!" Welding the light and dark sides of the Cyber deck together had given him more power than he'd ever had before. Power that would now lead him to winning this duel. "Cyber Barrier's monster effect is to negate the first attack from my opponent's monster."

At his words, Cyber Barrier Dragon lifted its head, the frill around it extending as the effect went into action. Saiou nodded, the light around the Moon's face fading away. "My battle phase hasn't yet ended, however. Arcana Force IV: The Emperor! Attack Cyber Barrier Dragon!"

Just what I thought he'd do. Cyber Barrier Dragon had only eight hundred attack points and the Emperor finished it off with a single strike, dropping Ryou's life points yet again, this time down to a thousand.

"Turn end." The Society of Light erupted into cheers; Saiou by now had inflicted more damage and had more and stronger monsters on the field than Hell Kaiser did. He also held the lead in life points, twenty-six hundred to Ryou's thousand. There was no way that their master would lose.

"He's not doing so well, is he?" Shou hadn't taken his eyes off the field for a moment. There was a way for his brother to win. It couldn't happen any differently. His brother would never become one of the Society. He would remain Hell Kaiser.

"Don't worry about it. It's still early in the duel," Juudai pointed out. "Anything can happen, right up until the end. You know that." He'd told Shou that enough times, after all.

"I guess." Shou bit his lip, still watching as Ryou prepared to draw his card. Before he could, though, Saiou struck again.

"Trap, activate! Tour of the Grim Reaper!" The head of the Society gestured to activate the trap card he'd set before. From it rose an armored figure with a scythe in its hands that leaned toward Ryou. "Should this card land heads-up, you'll be unable to summon any monsters on this turn. Should it land in the reverse position, then I can't summon any monsters on my next turn." He nodded at the irritated expression in Hell Kaiser's eyes. "And this is a permanent trap. During every one of your standby phases, one of us will lose the ability to summon a monster."

What Saiou did not tell Ryou was that he wouldn't care if Tour of the Grim Reaper affected him or not. The one monster card in his hand was one that he had no intentions of summoning.

Again the card spun and again Ryou made his choice, no matter how annoyed he was by it. It can land in his favor all it wants. I'll still win in the end.

"Oh, wow...Hell Kaiser can't summon anything!" The collective murmur went up as the card landed in the upright position. "Saiou-sama's going to finish him!"

We'll just see about that. Not being able to summon didn't mean he couldn't attack and Cyber Dark Edge was perfect for attacking. "By reducing Cyber Dark Edge's attack in half, I attack directly!"

Another fourteen hundred damage and two set cards later, Ryou ended his turn. Saiou still had the advantage in cards, life points, and monsters, but Hell Kaiser took none of that into account. He wanted to win. He wouldwin. There was nothing more he needed to think about.

"I activate Cup of Ace!" Saiou chose the card he'd just drawn to begin his turn with. A glowing golden cup shimmered in between the two of them as once again Ryou had to make his decision on where the spinning card would stop.

He'll think this means the duel turns in his favor now. Hell Kaiser's mind was an open book to Saiou. He had to focus to read it, which was a trifle difficult to do in the middle of a duel, but he knew how the other thought nevertheless.

"Stop!" And this time, the card landed in the reverse position.

"Congratulations, Hell Kaiser. You may draw two cards from your deck. Use them well." Saiou smiled in approval before he struck his next blow. "Next, I activate Arcantic Deathscythe. I choose one Arcana Force monster from my deck and send it to the graveyard. Whenever I destroy one of your monsters in battle this turn, I can inflict damage equal to its attack to you." The Chariot went on its way to the graveyard and Saiou readied the next phase of his plan. "Now, Arcana Force XVIII-The Moon! Attack Cyber Dark Edge!"

Silver light gathered on the face of The Moon and shot across the field, blasting at Hell Kaiser's monster. Ryou took one step back, but rallied without hesitation. "I send Hell Dragon to the graveyard to keep Cyber Dark Edge on the field!" That didn't stop him from taking five hundred points of damage, but he still had his monster, which he needed more than he needed Hell Dragon.

Not that he didn't have other plans. He always had other plans.

"Arcana Force IV: The Emperor! Attack Cyber Dark Edge!" Now that Hell Dragon was in the graveyard, his monster was more vulnerable. Saiou's creature sliced, sending Edge to the graveyard in a flash of light and a cry of pain from Edge itself. In most duels, that would've been the end. Hell Kaiser wasn't most duelists.

"I activate Power Wall! For every card I send to the graveyard from my deck, I reduce my battle damage by one hundred!" And he set everything up for what would be his last attack of the duel.

Eleven cards tossed on the ground before him and murmurs from those who hadn't yet seen him play that card echoed all around. He still had only five hundred life points, but it was enough. Enough to survive on, however. Enough to win the duel.

Saiou's turn wasn't over with yet. "I activate the effect of Arcanatic Deathscythe, dealing eight hundred points of damage to you directly!"

"I activate Fusion Guard!" Ryou shot back without a moment's hesitation. "I send one fusion monster from my Fusion deck to the graveyard to negate that effect damage!" And he knew just which one he was choosing. Everything lined up just the way he wanted it to. Destiny be damned.

"Turn end." Saiou smiled. Everything was falling out just as he had known it would. He glanced at the one card left in his hand. Soon. Soon it would be over.

Before Ryou drew, there was something else to do. "Tour of the Grim Reaper, activate!" Again this would settle on if Ryou could summon in this turn or not.

My destiny is to win this duel! Ryou snapped the command out after only a few seconds. "Stop!" This was it. This was the key that he needed.

The Society of Light collectively stopped breathing for a second. Misawa broke the silence. "S...Saiou-sama can't summon next turn?" That couldn't be right. How could the fall of the cards have turned against their master?

"I tell you again, if you fail to move from the path you walk, then you won't see another spring in this world." Saiou's tone was tender, supplicating, aching for Ryou to choose another path, to save his own life. "Does your life mean that little to you, Hell Kaiser?"

Ryou tilted his head back and eyed the other. "How exactly am I going to die?" If it were by something stupid, like crossing a street, then maybe he'd think about changing it.

"My sight doesn't show me everything." One tear glimmered in Saiou's right eye. Oddly enough, at the same time, he looked as if he were holding back a twisted smirk. "I only know that you will die and that it will be because you walk this path of dark power." He concentrated, bending his will to seeing what lay before Ryou. The curtain of the future refused to part this time, however. "The Light and all of its wisdom can save you from that, Hell Kaiser."

"What makes you think I want saving? If I'm going to die, then whoever will kill me will have to fight me for it. I won't just hand it over to anyone, not even to you!" Hell Kaiser's eyes glimmered with conviction. He had no more time for this idiocy. "I activate Overload Fusion! From my graveyard, I remove Cyberdark Edge, Cyberdark Keel, and Cyberdark Horn to summon the Armored Black Dragon-Cyber Dark Dragon!"

The three monsters named appeared before him briefly before merging into their far more powerful fused form. He tilted his head back to get a better look at it. Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Better than beautiful, deadly and about to get more so. "Now, I activate Samsara Dogma, and change all of the monsters in both of our graveyards to Dragon-type!" This was why he'd played Fusion Guard and sent the monster he'd chosen there. "I equip Cyber End Dragon to Cyber Dark Dragon!"

His former ace monster now was held in the clutches of his new prize, circuitry binding the two of them together and increasing Cyber Dark Dragon's attack by four thousand points. Now, one more step to make. "Cyber Dark Dragon's attack increases by one hundred for every card in my graveyard!"

Shou stirred; every time he saw Power Wall and how his brother used it to power up this new monster of his, he hated it even more. It was a good move; he couldn't deny that, but it was the way that Ryou did it, throwing his cards to the ground as if they were trash, that tore into his soul. You shouldn't treat your cards like that. Ever.

Ryou's attention focused entirely on the battle before him. This was what he'd ached for since the duel began. "Battle! Cyber Dark Dragon, attack the Moon!" It didn't matter how powerful Saiou's monster was; his outclassed it by far, having six thousand seven hundred attack points to the Moon's three thousand three hundred. Enough of a difference to not only destroy the Moon, but to finish off the Society's leader as well. This duel was his! "Full Darkness Burst!"

Cyber Dark Dragon raised its head and blasted toward Saiou with all of the strength born from Ryou's journeys through Hell. Energy roared across the stream, blasting the Moon into nothingness and sending Saiou back a few steps. Ryou stepped forward himself, watching for the drop of the other's life points, knowingit would happen.

"I discard Temperance from my hand to reduce all of my battle damage to zero." Saiou slid the last card in his hand into the graveyard and turned toward Ryou with a warm, almost mocking smile. He'd known how that turn would end since before the duel itself began in the first place.

Once again, silence reigned over the battlefield. Once again, it was one of the Society of Light who broke it. "This is why we serve Saiou-sama! No one can defeat him!" Asuka declared, her eyes large and full of light. Saiou would avenge her defeat and bring Ryou into the Light where he belonged!

"No..." Shou shook his head until he feared it might come off. "No, it's not over yet. He's got De-Fusion. Or he can attack again. Something." It wasn't possible. It wasn't right. It wasn't happening.

Ryou's lips sealed into a thin line. He glanced at his final three cards. Cyber Phoenix. Quick Summon. Cybernetic Zone. Any of them could be useful in any other situation, except this one. What he wouldn't have given for Dimensional Induced Explosion right now. This isn't over yet. He can't summon on this turn. Even if he could, there's nothing he could call out that would be able to defeat my Cyber Dark Dragon.

For a moment his fingers hovered over Cyber Phoenix's card. He still had a Normal Summon for that turn. No. I don't need it. Saiou could only draw one card and he had nothing facedown on the field and only one monster. This duel was his still, he just had to wait for it. "End turn."

"Nii-san..." Shou didn't like this. His brother never hesitated.

"He's not done yet, Shou!" Juudai spoke up, nudging his best friend's shoulder. There was never any doubt in his mind on how this was going to end. "You should know not to underestimate him!"

Shou glanced up at him for a moment, then back to his brother. As much as he wanted to have Juudai's kind of faith, he still remembered how just talking to Saiou the day before had clouded his mind to some degree. If Saiou could do that to Ryou, then what would happen? "I know, but Saiou's tricky. I don't trust him."

"So don't. Trust your brother." Juudai thought this didn't even need saying, but it was Shou. Sometimes you had to say things.

Saiou's last draw of the duel. This would settle everything, and every duelist there knew it. With the strength of Hell Kaiser's monster dwarfing everything that Saiou had and with Saiou unable to summon for this turn, Ryou's victory couldn't be stopped on his next. If that next turn came.

"Draw!" Saiou flipped the card around without looking at it. "I play Ace of Sword. Choose carefully, Hell Kaiser. Choose well. Choose life: or death."

Over and over the card spun as Ryou watched it. This is the end. No matter which way it landed, one monster would be destroyed, and that monster's controller would take damage equal to said monster's attack points. If it landed upright, then he would lose. If reversed, then Saiou lost. He had to choose with care this time.

His heart raced a little faster as he realized just how much lay in this final choosing.

"In your hands lies the last move, Hell Kaiser." Saiou murmured, his voice drifting across the field. "Choose."

"Stop!" Ryou's voice cracked through the morning air, and the Ace of Swords stopped.

Upright.

To Be Continued