A/N: Well this is slightly awkward but easily fixed. Due to localization shenanigans from Konami that long time fans of the card game should be very familiar with, I have been using the wrong English name for the Sacred Knight archetype that Sherry uses. This normally would not be an issue, but in chapter eight I had a bad guy using Noble Knights. Which is what Sherry's archetype is getting renamed to in its release outside Japan. From here on Sherry's cards will use the new name, if only because it would be weird making them be different archetypes in this story when they aren't in the actual card game. I will go back and revise chapter eight at some point, at which point I will delete this note.

Chapter 10: Confusion and Resolve

"Oh it is you, Lady Sherry." Mizoguchi stepped out from behind the corner he had taken cover behind and put down the wooden sword he had picked up to use to defend himself.

It dawned on me then that I had been thinking about the previous night so deeply that I had forgotten to give the signal that it was me before I came in. Of course Mizoguchi would roll to cover and arm himself. Sudden unexpected entrances had not been a pleasant surprise in fifteen years. Tired, I let myself slip back into French, "I'm sorry Mizoguchi. I'm so tired from yesterday that I didn't think about it."

Mizoguchi stuck to Japanese, probably as much to help me get used to it as for his own comfort, "You did not speak much of the details over the phone."

I sighed, We were attacked by a trio of Russians pretending to be French. They were using cards my father designed."

"Truly? I did not expect assassins wielding Noble Knights."

"I'm not sure if they were trying to get personal or just happened to use them. Either way, Yliaster has a sick sense of humor to be using my inheritance against me."

"Indeed. Regardless, I am glad you and Sir Kou were unharmed." Mizoguchi bowed respectfully, "Allow me to make you some tea, milady, and draw you a hot bath."

"That sounds really great right now." I sighed and sat in a nearby chair to relax.

To call the previous day chaotic would have been understating things. First was going on what was, whether it was purely business or not, probably the closest thing to a date I had ever been on. Then having it broken up by crazed thugs and a group of assassins wielding cards I never thought I would see again. After that... well the rain exposing Koyou and my insecurities for the other to see and the two of us getting caught up in and overwhelmed by the feelings of having found a kindred spirit. There was no denying that it was nice knowing that someone out there was like me, and I was relieved that our moment of weakness hadn't complicated our relationship... much. We'd talked it over and came to an understanding. It wasn't love that had overtaken our senses. Closer to loneliness but not quite that.

I took out the phone in my pocket and stared at it. Koyou had insisted on stopping by a store to replace his phone, and surprised me with one of the same model. It was a great deal more sophisticated that the disposable ones Mizoguchi and I had stuck to to avoid a money trail.

Speaking of my butler, "A new phone, milady?"

"Koyou bought it for me when he was replacing the one he lost in the fight. Apparently these newer phones have security measures to prevent hacking and unwanted GPS tracking. All this time avoiding internet and GPS phones, I never knew there were options to block the reasons to not have them."

"That was nice of Mr. Kou, but we must be especially careful now."

I nodded, "Yes. If this phone gets taken from me or I get captured while carrying it, they can track it back to Koyou."

"It looks expensive as well. Did you thank him properly?"

I blushed a little, thinking about how Koyou and I had made love the night before, but quickly pushed that aside, "I paid for the night in that hotel, the laundry service, and the food; which was about the same price."

"Ah."

I absentmindedly turned on the GPS tracking function of the phone. The only phones that could be tracked or track it were Koyou's and the ones on the same phone plan that he'd put the extra phone on, the rest of his immediate family. I put side the fact that I was on a family phone plan with him and stared at the little dot on the map that represented him. I wasn't even sure why, but I figured it had something to do with the left over confusion about what I really felt about him.

Thinking on it, something else came to mind. The day before, in that duel with the assassins he had shown a different side of himself that I had only seen glimpses of before. He had been angry, vengeful, and hadn't pulled any punches with them as he did in his duels with me. Even though he claimed he was not a psychic duelist he had sent that woman flying, breaking her arm in the process. She hadn't even be able to stand on her own. A week before that he had destroyed the trailer of a large shipping truck just by hitting it as hard as he could with the virtual solid system. If he was not a psychic duelist, it meant he had some other kind of power. A power he promised to use on my enemies, but never explained.

I had to learn more.

Mei's Perspective

"It's about time you called. I was worried sick!" Koishii complained into the house phone I'd been on my way to answer it, but the concerned card spirit had probably been lurking around it waiting, "That Koyou?"

Koishii nodded.

"Get on his case about it again for me. After leaving the party like that last night he has no business not calling for a day and a half. Any later and I would have to go to work not knowing what was going on with him."

"Your sister is pissed too." Koishii summarized. There was a pause as Koyou replied, "You dropped your phone? That explains why you weren't picking up but it wasn't off."

"I'm off to the academy."

Koishii motioned for me to wait, "Koyou said he wants to talk to us when he gets back."

"I have to go to work. When is he getting back?"

"When are you getting back, Kokou?" she paused again as he responded. Apparently the answer was good because she smiled wide, "That's great! Take all the time you need! We'll be here waiting." Another pause, "Alright, see you when you get back."

"What's the news?" I implored curiously.

"Hehe. Kokou's going to work things out with Yusei and Aki before he heads home!"

My eyes went wide, "What?"

"He's going to talk to them right now!" Koishii hopped up and down excitedly, "He's going to be okay again!"

"I... I can't believe it. I mean, he's really going to keep his word from last night? That's great news." I let out a sigh of relief, "I'm so relieved. He's been tying himself up in knots for so long..."

"Yeah I know."

"It's a good day. I'll be on the edge of my seat all day at work today. Speaking of which I better get going. I don't want to be late."

"See you tonight!"

I nodded and headed out the door, making the short trip across the sheet to the school. There was a spring in my step even when I noticed the limo of that arrogant Lester kid had just dropped him off and his butler Primo rounded the front of the car. He didn't seem to notice me at first, but when he looked up he got that same stunned look on his face, as if the entire universe was exploding in front of him. The man looked away from me and moved more quickly to the driver's side door of the car.

I was in a good mood, so I decided to say, "Hello, Mr. Primo. How are you this afternoon? Lester getting back from lunch?"

The man turned and bowed politely, which was as stiff and unnatural as the smile on his face. The smile was as averted in its aim as his eyes, "Ms. Kou, I didn't expect to run into you again. How are you?"

"I work here Mr. Primo." I replied with a teasing smile, "Despite that I'm fine."

Primo didn't pick up on my joke, in fact he winced a little at my humor.

"Oh, come on, the joke wasn't that bad."

"Forgive me, I'm a bit tired today. Lester has me jumping through far more hoops than necessary."

"He seems the type."

"Is he causing trouble?"

"Not really. He's getting along well enough, but he's far too used to buying his friends. I'm trying to help him out with that as much as I can, but he's set in his ways."

"Yes, he really is."

The conversation had gotten a bit serious, so I decided to ask a sensitive question that I'd been wondering, "Pardon me for asking something very personal, but does he have a good relationship with his parents?"

Primo's eyes went slightly wide in a surprised, pained expression, "They... his parents I mean, are dead."

"Ah, I'm sorry for prying. I mean... I suspected from what I've seen of him, but I shouldn't have brought it up so casually."

"It's... fine. It happened a lo-"

Suddenly the sound of a duel runner driving far too fast pulled our attention down the street.

"Look out!" Primo reached to pull me out of the way, his expression filled with horror but his actions too slow.

The runner was coming far too fast for me to react, but it wasn't coming directly at me. Instead the rider reached out with a cuff and latched it onto my arm, yanking me off my feet and dragging me alongside his runner. I was mostly off the ground, but my feet still still skidded along the asphalt as my assailant drove on. Yelling in as much fear as you'd expect, I pulled desperately at the handcuffs binding me to the runner.

Crazed, the rider cackled at me, "Your brother should really be more careful when he's butting into things that don't concern him!"

Fear was replaced with anger, "Leave us alone!"

"It's his fault I'm doing this! Sasha left me after what he did to us! He takes someone from me, and I just so happen to come across an unfortunate accident involving his sister!"

"Screw you!" Pulling out my duel disk and clipping it on my cuffed arm, I slotted my deck, started the duel system up, and summoned a monster with the projector angled in front of him.

"Wha-"

Turning too late, the bastard collided with the virtual solid hologram and was flung a short distance away from his runner, which I was still attached to. I was thrown over the bike as it tumbled, the handcuffs holding fast and causing my shoulder to yank out of socket and my elbow to shatter when I hit the ground. I'm not totally sure what happened after that, I'm pretty sure I saw him starting to get up, and as everything went black a slender figure entering my field of vision.

When I woke up I was in a hospital room. Confused, I looked around and spotted Primo glaring angrily out of the window, so spoke up, "Primo? What happened?"

The butler turned to me, putting on his usual fake expression again, "Ah, you're awake. That's good. When I saw you crash so violently I thought the worst. You are remarkably durable."

"I'll take that as a compliment," I gave him a brief smile, "but again, what happened? Where's that psychopath?"

The man flinched away from my smile for some reason, "He died from his injuries. Don't let it bother you. It may sound harsh, but somebody that would do something like that to an innocent school teacher had it coming."

'Odd,' I thought to myself, 'I am pretty sure I saw him moving. Oh well. Must have been my imagination.' "I'm not too upset, for that very reason."

Primo avoided looking at me, bowing again as he started to excuse himself, "Now that you are awake I will depart."

Before he could reach the door I stopped him, "Wait, Primo, I want to ask you something."

He turned, "Oh?"

"It may be prying again, but why do you have such strange expressions when you look at me? You said I remind you of someone you knew... may I ask who?"

Primo's expression became distant and pained, "I suppose there is no harm in telling you. I... I was in a war years ago. My squad was small because our forces were spread too thin, making guerrilla strikes against the enemy... tanks. So small that it was only me and one woman."

"And I remind you of her?"

Primo nodded, "You look exactly like her. You even act the same. Forgive my uncomfortable attitude around you. It's just... over the long time we worked together, being the only other person I saw for such a long time... and much more than just the loneliness of the war, I fell in love with her." he paused, assailed by his memories for a moment, "I was going to tell her one day, but I didn't get the chance before that blast killed her."

I bit my lip, "What is with me today and prying into things I shouldn't. I'm sorry. I don't know how that feels, but I have lost someone close to me before. My father... died protecting me."

"My condolences." Primo seemed a little surprised, the look joined by something else that I couldn't identify, "I know how that feels myself. Growing up in a war-torn land means you lose a lot of things."

"Oh... there I go again. I was trying to let you know I could sympathize, but I stepped on another landmine."

Primo looked me in the eyes and smiled at my regretful expression, "You are as good-natured as you are durable, Ms. Kou."

"I try." I looked at the cast on my arm thoughtfully, then decided to get to know the man better, "Once I get released, how about I treat you to lunch sometime to repay you for helping me?"

"That's not necessary." Primo became very slightly frantic.

"I insist. I promise I won't make you remember anything bad again if I can help it."

Looking away, Primo opened his mouth to answer, but his phone rang. Looking at it he looked to me, "I have to take this, it's Lester."

The man took his leave without answering my invitation. I didn't hear what they were talking about. I didn't hear Primo call Lester 'Lucciano', or 'Lucciano' call Primo 'Placido' and complain about him killing one of their assassins. I didn't hear Placido cut through Lucciano's attitude and guess correctly that the boy's plan to get at Luna had failed. I didn't hear any of that conversation that revealed that they were agents of Yliaster, but I would find out soon enough when Koishii ran in, worried over my condition.

"Mei! I came as soon as I could. What happened, was it Yliaster with you too?"

"Me too?" I went wide-eyed at her wording, "Who did they attack?"

"Leo and Luna."

I gasped.

"You were right about Lester all along. He was some lunatic named Lucciano is disguise. He had a Machine Emperor, a different one than the one that Koyou and Yusei faced."

"There's more than one? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but..." I thought back to Primo's attitude and actions, and how he had apparently saved my life. Why would he do that if he were the enemy? Did I remind him that much of his lost love?

"What happened to you? The doctors said you were hit by a duel runner. Was it them?"

My attacker's ranting about getting revenge on my brother came back to foreground of my mind, and I remembered how Koyou was finally starting to get better and put aside his self-hate and anger. So I decided to lie, "No, it was just some idiot passing through a school zone far too fast. I'm just glad it hit me and not a student. At least I have a bit of the supernatural protecting me."

"God, you are so unlucky."

"Yeah, but I'm lucky too. If you saw what happened you'd wonder how I only have a busted arm. Anyway, where's everyone?"

"Koyou is dealing with the fallout from Lucciano's attack with the Signers and working things out with them. When he heard you were hurt they all decided to head this way. They should be here soon. Mom... had a bit of a scare but she's fine."

"A scare?"

"She's totally fine. Just the stress and her wonky hormones from the pregnancy. She got a bit light-headed. The doctors are checking her out, but it's only procedure."

"Honest?"

Koishii nodded, "Honest. I even made sure she wasn't lying to me by asking the doctor."

I let out a sigh of relief, "So much going on."

"Yeah I know. It only gets worse from here though. I remember back in the day when Kai and Mom were dealing with these kinds of things with Jay-kun. It always gets worse from this point."

"We have to be ready. I need to get even stronger."

"You don't need to, Kokou and the rest will protect us."

I looked at her sternly, "Are you really fine with sitting back and watching everyone you care about putting their lives on the line while you do nothing?"

She didn't have to think long, "Not really."

"Then we need to get stronger. Strong enough to protect them. To make sure we don't lose anyone else."

Koishii nodded.

Next Chapter: Clarity

A/N: This chapter was a bit short due to cutting the last chapter out of it for reasons discussed last chapter. I also changed around my plans for it a bit. Instead of this chapter, Koyou will deal with clearing the air next chapter. In fact, for the first time this season I will be jumping perspectives between chapters as it will start in Koyou's point of view. Also, although I said this season would be based on how I think Over the Nexus should have been, this fic is also heavy in past canon do the actual events I would have had in Over the Nexus are a bit muddled by it. At some point I will post what I would have done to fix the plot of Over the Nexus, free of the ongoing canon of this series.