Chapter 9 (10, technically)! I still wonder about how long this is gonna be- after all, I haven't even begun to dig in the fresh meat of the plot yet.

Thanks all reviewers! Sorry for the lateness, school is a pain~

IMPORTANT NOTICE, please read:

So, in the first chapter I mentioned Twilight, and a lot of people assumed that this story was going to go much like Twilight. It is not.

The only similarity I was saying was that these two have the same format. Like the book Twilight, this story will have the prologue taking place in the center of the story, not as an actual prologue. I only used Twilight as an example because many people have read it.

Yusei is not meant to be Edward, nor is Akiza supposed to be like Bella. This is not Twilight with the 5D's charries. I don't even like Twilight that much. This is my own fanfiction, with my own plot with some 5D's elements such as the Signers, Dark Signers, and the same charries.

Thank you for reading; I just wanted to clarify that.

Disclaimer: YGO 5Ds is not mine; I am just a teen writing fanfiction. Say it with me, fan-fic-tion.

~(-)~

Chapter 9: The Other World

~(-)~

"Who can we ask about… whatever Jose was saying?" Sherry asked. "It's clear that he won't talk to us anymore. The headmaster would probably tell him if we went to him, and I don't know about the other two Terrors."

We were lounging in Yusei and Jack's room, after study hall. Carly had disappeared soon after we said hello from getting back from Goodwin's office, and a twinge of guilt entered me. It had been a week since we started going to the headmaster's office, but I still hadn't gotten used to keeping things from her. It just wasn't right, doing that. Sometime, when I was ready, I was going to tell her.

But right now, I had things at hand that had to be taken care of.

"Have any of your teachers," Sherry said, taking me out of reverie, "told you anything about their past?"

Sherry had taken up post as questioning us about our lessons with the Terrors. Right now she was sitting on the black leather chair next to Yusei's computer, while the rest of us sat on the ground or on beds. Jack and Yusei were leaning against the wall on Jack's bed, while Crow and I were leaning against it on the floor.

"Nope," said Crow with bite. "Luciano didn't say anything about the past. He just started us right away with fighting."

Jack nodded in agreement.

But…

"Akiza," Yusei said, voice lined with repressed excitement. "Remember when we were with Placido in our first training session?"

I remembered quite well.

"Placido mentioned something about his past."

Suddenly the other three were all ears to Yusei and me.

"Yeah," I said, after biting my lip. "Placido said that before he went here, this world, he lived in a different universe that was a lot like ours. That had us in it."

"Impossible," Jack muttered, mostly to himself. "There cannot be two Jack Atlases!"

"He said that they weren't good in that world, and that they were children of God or something and that somehow he was destroyed. Placido doesn't remember anything before that. He said that after he was restored, because apparently he's a-" I gulped, hoping that they would believe this- "robot, that they went here."

It took a moment for it to sink in. Crow looked especially bewildered.

"Then we'll have to ask Luciano," Sherry said to the quiet four of us. "There's no other option."

"But do you think that he'll help us?" I questioned. "He has no reason to.

"There's no other option," Crow said, repeating Sherry's words.

I sighed.

"It'll have to do," Yusei consoled.

~(-)~

Ten days later, the headmaster and his two escorts still weren't back. Every day in the first few minutes of study hall we waited, every second passing by like a turtle crawling, awaiting the headmaster or Jose's message that they were finally back. It would have to be during study hall, during any other time they would be interrupting our classes or our own free time.

Right now, we were walking to study hall after dinner. When we arrived at the main hall, I checked my watch.

"What do you suppose Jose meant by contacting us?" I asked. It'd been bothering me.

"Y'know… I never really thought of that," Crow replied unsurely. "Maybe one of our teachers will go over to us?"

"That's plausible," Sherry mused. "But I'm still not sure."

I noticed someone coming over to us. It was the clown-like guy, Lazar. From what I could recall, he was Rex's secretary and second-in-command at the school. Why was he here? He had no business in these parts.

My eyes narrowed. Was he one of the members of Yliaster?

As he got over to us, he noticed everybody staring at him. It had to be expected; his simple presence usually required explaining, he wasn't supposed to be here… it was also hard to not notice him; he was dressed rather oddly… and had weird makeup on… and strangely styled hair.

"Shoo!" he cried to all the people staring at him. "I have no business with you!"

Yeah, that was a surefire way to make people go away. It obviously did not make people even more curious.

"The headmaster is back," he told us in a slightly commanding voice. "He wants you to go to his office right away."

"Let's go then," Jack said, immediately hopping off the chair he was sitting on. I saw his eyes stare at Carly for a moment, and a soft look was passed in between them. Watching them made my heart soften a little, they were meant for each other.

"I presume you know your way to the headmaster's office?" Lazar questioned us quickly.

We all nodded.

"Then I am of no use here."

With that, he seemed to disappear into thin air.

~(-)~

Jose greeted us with an icy stare once we walked in. Standing beside him were Rex and Placido, but no Luciano.

"Where's the midget?" Crow asked.

Placido's emotionless voice answered him. "He got hurt when we were coming back from the Land of Nazca."

So that's where they went. And if that was where the Dark Signers truly were, then they did need protection.

"He wants to see you," Placido added. "So please enter the door beside me."

With cold grace the robot pulled out his sword and drew a horizontal line in the air beside him, and then stepped away. While Yusei and I speedily went over to go in, the others hesitated.

"Are we supposed to go in that?" Jack said, with a hefty dose of reluctance in his voice.

Sherry frowned, and her voice was almost revolted. "What the heck is that? It doesn't even look safe."

"It's perfectly safe," Yusei said. But his eyes lingered over to Placido's face as if asking Right? The tall robot simply smiled, and no answer rose to his thin lips.

"Whatever," Crow exclaimed, hopping into the line for the portal. "If Yusei says it's safe, then I'm in."

Jack glared menacingly at Crow, but after a short inspection at Yusei's confident face he marched to us until he was behind Crow. As soon as Sherry moved toward us too, Yusei entered, and the rest of us followed.

My breath stopped as I found out where we were. The infirmary. I never came here much because I didn't get hurt often, not even in my fighting classes.

I often took care not to come here. There was something strange about this place that I couldn't identify, some reason in my subconscious that told me not to come here. The reasons weren't clear; I didn't remember anything ever happening here. Perhaps it was the whiteness on the walls that seemed to make everything else dim with its cleanliness. I didn't know why, I just didn't like this place.

I shook my head and continued walking toward where a middle-aged nurse awaited us. She didn't seem particularly surprised to see us walking out of a random portal, so she must know about the Terrors. I had a feeling that many members of the staff at Atlas Academy knew for some reason or another about the Terrors or were affiliated with Yliaster. Perhaps not the younger teachers, like Bruno. Mina and Trudge seemed not to know either; they had been very clueless about the first vampire war, which Jose didn't want us to know about. And if Jose didn't want us to know, then it was probably information that Yliaster wanted to keep to itself.

From what I'd learned so far, Yliaster did not seem entirely good. And I still wasn't sure what my job was, as a Signer. Goodwin hadn't been extremely detailed in his explanation.

Soon our group arrived at a nearly abandoned area of the infirmary, where not many people were around. Most of the student patients were in the area we started out in. It seemed that here was where the secretive injured people were placed.

The atmosphere here was painfully stiff and not welcoming at all. I felt like I was protruding into matters that weren't mine.

Then, at the farthest end of this side of the infirmary, the nurse opened a white door to one of those rooms used only for one occupant. When we were all in, she closed the door behind us and left.

Directly in front of us was a red-haired boy lying in a hospital bed.

We all stopped for a second to stare at him. Here he lay, not regal at all, clothed in hospital garments, and with none of his former outfit on him, his cloak, roller skates, nothing. The eye guard he wore before was gone and instead his two green eyes were visible instead of just one, clouded with pain, and not in any way as clear and sharp as before. His long red hair that fanned out to his left and onto his shoulder seemed to have faded in color, and Luciano's very face seemed sickly pale.

As soon as he saw us he lifted himself up and smirked, and with that expression he seemed to regain some of his arrogance.

"I see you five have made it."

Jack immediately opened his mouth to ask a question, but Luciano interrupted him before one sound could come out.

"Don't bother asking questions, I'm answering everything before I die."

"Die?" we all echoed.

His face twisted into a grimace, expressing his annoyance.

"Don't repeat what I said. Yeah, die. Jose will revive me. But if he does, then he'll have to give me even more robotic parts. And I'll lose my memory."

"Just like Placido," I whispered, giving away the fact that my mentor had told us about his past. But it didn't matter right now.

"Just like him." Luciano's voice was still rather neutral, and it seemed that he knew Placido would tell us about his past.

"So you have robotic parts," Yusei murmured. "How much of you is robotic?"

"I would say about thirty percent." His eyes narrowed. "With this kind of injury, I might get boosted up to sixty or seventy."

All of our mouths opened to ask more questions, but Luciano cut us off with a wave of his hand.

"You all take me for granted," he said, voice heavy with vicious bite. "Why should I tell you anything? Why don't I just die and take my memories with me?"

The air grew even colder than before. Luciano smiled, taking in our silence as respect. He enjoyed our pain. There was something in his eyes that told me that he liked to see us respect him and for him to take advantage of us. I knew that this child was not wholly good. Not at all. The part that he was showing right now was terribly evil and calculative.

After the few moments of silence he was satisfied.

"It's because you are Signers. You have been destined to save the world you live in." Those green eyes of his darkened. "Whether it is this world, or the one that I used to exist in."

There was a pause, a few seconds where he waited to see whether or not we would question about his old world. But we were patient, and Luciano smiled at this and with a not completely happy smile he continued his talking.

"In the world I once lived in, there existed the Three Terrors and you Signers. We were the Signer's enemies. When we fought you, you had already defeated the Dark Signers. In the battle, we lost by a sliver. People were hurt. Placido died again."

Again?

"He had died once before, when going against Yusei. That time, his memories remained intact."

Yusei visibly stiffened. I understood. He suddenly got the information that the android who was teaching him used to be his enemy.

"Jose healed Placido, but this time his memories were gone. We left him to learn everything himself. And he learned on his own that he had died, and that we had been defeated by the Signers."

His breath wavered a little.

"I used Placido's sword to open a dimension hole. When I was making it, I just asked for us to be transferred to a new world. And we found ourselves here.

We made a name for ourselves, the Terrors. And somehow, Goodwin found us and took us to Atlas Academy. We found out that he was a member or Yliaster."

"In our former world, Yliaster was something that aimed to destroy the world the make a new one in its place. But this one is different. It has a better purpose- to defeat the Dark Signers- who are much more dangerous in this place."

He sighed.

"I and Jose have found out that the two dimensions we have lived in are different but strangely alike. Both of them have the same people- the Signers, and many others- but your destinies are different."

With the last sentence, he stared at Sherry.

"You weren't one of the Signers in that world. A little girl named Luna was."

Sherry stared at him blankly. "Who was I, then?"

Luciano looked airy for a second, feigning stupidity. He reveled in Sherry's discomfort. Then his face darkened as he smiled a predator's grin.

"At first, you were on the Signer's side. And then you went to ours."

The air grew even tenser. I bit my lip. I wasn't sure whether to believe or not. Everything he was telling us could be lies right now. Yet my gut told me he wasn't. But I wasn't willing to believe that Sherry would betray us. I'd know her for a long time, not at long as Carly, but nearly as long as Yusei. And she'd always been there for me, and was always helping me out in Duel Runner Training.

Sherry spoke to Luciano. Her voice was something I'd never heard before, rage covered by a thin veil so that she wouldn't explode. She was angry, so angry, furious and swelling and pure red.

"If you weren't about to die soon, bastard, then I would kill you now."

Her whole face had been distorted with fury. It wasn't that anger made her ugly- Sherry always had some sort of raw beauty on her, whether she was sad or happy. Just- just- rage covered all of it, making it so that are her hard edges and flaws stood out, made it so that her good slide nearly slipped away.

And Luciano looked even more gleeful than before, now that Sherry was mad. Because with Sherry, her anger and pain were always linked together. And Luciano… he seemed like a sadist. He seemed to really enjoy when Sherry was weak, like right now.

Yusei and Jack were talking quiet and fast to her, trying to get her to calm down. Jack's words didn't seem very effective- heck, he even made it a little bit worse- but Yusei's ever calm demeanor seemed to soothe her.

She had ever right to be mad. Even though Luciano was just the deliverer of bad news, he didn't have to do it in such a mean way. And perhaps her personality was different in that world. The Sherry I knew would never betray us.

A small voice in my head questioned that.

Right?

But I ignored it and looked at Sherry again. Now all four of them were busy (Crow was now calming down Jack, who was mad that his words made Sherry more mad, and Yusei was still reassuring Sherry), I was thinking. It was great to know about what the Terrors' lives in the past world had been like, but what we really wanted to know hadn't been answered yet. We came here wanting to know about the history, of why the knowledge of the vampire war had been erased.

"Guys," I said, with a medium loud voice. Nobody noticed. Ignoring the fact that I was in a hospital, I repeated, almost in a yell, "Guys!" The arguments stopped and everybody looked at me.

"Didn't we come here wanting to know about why the past of our world was changed? About the vampire war and all that? Sherry- I know that it sucks that you turned out to be a bad person in the old world, that doesn't mean you're bad now! We all trust you!"

There was little hesitant pause after that, but then we all let out a breath. Luciano was really good at getting us worked up. Finally, one of us spoke.

"So, Luciano," Sherry asked. Her voice was still restraining a bit of anger, but it seemed like she had blown out most of her steam. "Why is everything about the first vampire war so shady?"

The long haired boy didn't seem as happy anymore. Now he even looked serious.

"You really want to know?" he questioned all of us. All five of us Signers looked at each other, looked at Luciano, and nodded. His face was murky, hiding his true emotions.

"This is really secret information. Only I, Goodwin, Jose, and a few other select members of Yliaster know what we have done."

His eyes glimmered dangerously.

But the moment was interrupted when the door to Luciano's room swung open. A girl and a boy stared at us- no, Luciano- with harsh, judging eyes. They looked to be the same age. Both of them were the same height and had turquoise hair and golden eyes.

"Luciano," the girl hissed, tone venomous.

"You've finally found me," the boy in the bed shot back with a snicker, voice nearly as vicious as hers.

"Who are you?" Jack snapped.

She stared at us, and her eyes widened. "I recognize you all."

"Who are you?" Crow repeated.

The question seemed to finally sink in. The girl's golden eyes shimmered.

"My name is Luna."

~(-)~

Most things will be cleared up next chap~

Just to let you know, it's not confirmed that Sherry is going to betray the Signers in the 5D's anime, but to me it looks like it's shaping up that way. Nor is it true that Placido breaks apart again. They are just my own theories.

Please review! It'd be helpful to know if you thought Luciano was OoC or IC.