A/N: I am really, really sorry about the incredibly long gap between last chapter and this one. For some reason, quite a few of my teachers chose mid-May to early June as the time to dump the most work on us. Add to that two weeks of exams and the fact that I contracted 'senioritis' a couple of years early, and you've got a perfect recipe for writing very, very slowly.

wheeliebreaker2: I prefer calling it 'a happy accident', haha. I actually did put a bunch of random references to random things throughout the story. Maybe I'll post a list on my profile sometime.

I (still) don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

And so we go.

Chapter 9: Convergence

Part 1: Apprehension

-Neo Domino City, 8:50 A.M.-

"We have a problem," Star said suddenly as he bypassed the exit that would lead them to the Bootleg bar.

"Well, don't you think that missing the exit might have something to do with it?" asked Akiza gently, swaying with the motion of the motorcycle.

"You may not know this, but Rose and I basically top the Syndicate's Most Wanted list, along with the rest of the Signers. And since you are almost identical to Rose, they'll mistake you for her."

"So…"

"So if people in the city see us on a humongous bike, they'll probably take notice and report us. The only reason we haven't been reported already is because we're wearing helmets and people usually don't make calls on a freeway."

"But then why didn't anyone report me when I was wandering around the Satellite?"

He was thoughtful for a moment. "For the better part of 20 years, the Satellite and Neo Domino have been separated. There was a huge earthquake or something. Anyway, the Syndicate repressed the Satellite even more than the city, but recently they were convinced to link the two parts of the city."

"Just like in my world…"

"But old habits die hard, I guess, which is why nobody called Security."

"Anyway, do you know what we should do?"

"Yeah, I just need to find the place first."

A few minutes later, he pulled into a rest stop, took off his helmet, and jumped down, motioning for Akiza to do the same. As she prepared to jump, though, she slipped and started to fall.

Instinctively, Star caught her—the air whooshed out of him, she was a little heavier than he had expected—and fell back. They ended up face-to-face, a furiously blushing Star looking up at a furiously blushing Akiza as their noses almost touched.

It was incredibly hard for him to remember that he wasn't staring at Rose, and therefore trying to make a move would be rather inappropriate. Not to mention that they were at a rest stop.

They stayed in that position for a little longer than was necessary, slightly dazed, until Akiza seemed to come to her senses, stood up, and picked up her helmet, offering him her hand.

"So what's the plan?" she asked, still blushing slightly.

"We Signers have been trying to liberate Neo Domino City for a while now, and we've come to realize that things don't always go as planned and sometimes you need an escape route. So we hid a bunch of cars at different rest stops scattered around the city, like this one here, just in case we're on our own and can't get help. By the way, we did teach the twins to drive."

"And where do you hide these cars of yours?"

"The best place. In plain sight." He pointed. A rusty, dented sedan was parked in the far corner of the lot, placed in a position that made it hard to see from the street.

"Hmm…that does discourage people from investigating it, but what about thieves, or Security? They could just run a check on the car, or just decide that it's an eyesore and decide to tow it. And that's assuming that it actually works."

"Well, chop shops don't want cars that obviously malfunction—even though our cars are actually faster than most—and the Syndicate doesn't really care. Shall we?"

Star reached for the communicator hanging at his hip as they started walking to the car. Akiza, noticing this, asked, "W-What are you doing?"

Why the stutter? He responded, "I want to call Rose, see if they found my message."

"I don't think that that's a good idea. We might distract them at a critical moment or something. Let's just wait and meet up with them."

"But—"

"Do you trust them?"

"…Yes."

"So trust them to come after us."

"But there's still nothing wrong with calling—"

"Please, let's just get going," she said, almost pleading. They had reached the car.

"Okay." He opened the door for her, slid into the driver's seat, and rummaged around under the floor mat, pulling out a screwdriver. He jammed it in the keyhole and turned. The car started.

"Um…"

"No, we didn't steal the cars. Carrying around that many sets of keys is impractical, so using our secret method is a lot easier," he said, winking at her. (A/N: No, I will not divulge this 'secret method'. If you want to learn how to steal a car, find that out by yourself. ;)

They left the rest stop.

The manager of the rest stop would later contact Security about a pair of car thieves, but as he did not know the license plate number of the stolen car and "black-haired boy" and "redheaded girl" are hardly comprehensive descriptions, the resulting investigation went nowhere.

-9:00 A.M.-

The bar was a small, clean establishment with an impressive array of drinks behind the counter. Star wasn't too interested in them, though; even if he hadn't had a bad experience a year ago involving a very drunk Raven, a very angry Rose, and some very persistent Securities, he was still underage. Akiza drew some odd looks because of the duel disk on her arm, but the light was dim, so nobody seemed to recognize them.

They took a table in the back and settled in to wait.

-9:10 A.M.-

Star finished his fifth glass of milk and signaled for more. Akiza shook her head, still nursing her first glass of cola.

"You'd better hope that there's a bathroom in this bar. A clean one."

"What can I say? This milk is good. And there is a bathroom, by the way." She shook her head again, returning to her drink. Her eyes flicked over to the door, then back to Star, which she had been doing for the entire time they had been there. Finally, Star asked, "Why do you keep doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Looking at the door."

"I…can't wait for them to get here. Don't you feel the same?"

Of course I do. "Hey, they'll come when they come, and staring at the door won't make them come any faster." He leaned back and closed his eyes for a few minutes.

"I…can't…"

Star opened one eye at the sound of those mumbled words. Akiza was looking at him, a weird expression on her face. "What was that?"

"N-nothing," she stammered, looking away quickly.

After that incident with that cyborg guy, she's been acting really shifty… But being around Rose for a couple years had taught him the value of just letting her work out her moods. "If you say so."

What he didn't realize was that no matter how similar they appeared, Rose and Akiza were not as similar as he might think.

His eye closed again.

And promptly reopened when he heard sirens. "Ugh…not again."

"Maybe it's not for us," ventured Akiza, but even she didn't sound convinced.

"Well, it'd look pretty suspicious if we just ran out of here, so act natural and keep a hand on your whatever-you-call-it."

She had no time to correct him. Three Security officers entered the bar, showed their ID's to the bartender, and started walking between the tables.

Out of the corner of her mouth, Akiza asked, "Isn't there another way out?"

"Of course there's another way out. It's behind the bar. Which is right behind those three officers."

"Great."

The three officers simultaneously turned in the direction of the pair. How did they—

Akiza's hand fluttered, and suddenly she was clutching one of her cards with a look of dread on her face. What's her problem?

"Not yet," said Star quietly. "They might not be looking at us."

Two of the officers advanced toward the corner where they were sitting, shoving drunk patrons out of the way, while the third stayed back.

"I think that they were looking at us." Akiza's soft voice was humorous, but Star could clearly sense that she was worried—she exhibited many of the same behaviors as Rose.

We can't exactly start blasting through people to get out…ideas, ideas…

No ideas presented themselves.

The officer in the lead pulled out a gun, and that was when Star knew that they were completely out of luck. He couldn't exactly pull out his own pistol—he didn't want to hit anyone with a stray bullet—and he was sure that the officers had no qualms about shooting innocent bystanders.

"I think we've lost this one, Star." Akiza seemed to have had the same thought.

The officer gestured toward the pair with his gun. "You and you, stand up, hands in the air." They complied silently. "That them?" he asked the officer standing next to him.

The second officer, who had pulled his cap low over his eyes, simply said "Yes." Star heard a sharp intake of breath from Akiza at the sound of the voice. But how would she know anyone from this world? Well, she had been running around for a while before I met her, and this guy might have a counterpart in her world...this whole dimension-jumping thing is so confusing sometimes.

"Then you two are under arrest. Step forward, hands out." said the leading officer. Handcuffs clicked on their wrists, and an officer fitted a clear plastic band around each of their necks. Inhibitors.

The second officer told the first to search the pair.

"Why? We're not supposed to do that until we get to the station—"

"And if we don't search them, they'll be a lot more likely to pull off an escape attempt before we get to the station, and where would we be then?"

The first officer received a death glare from Star as his pistol was pulled out of his jacket holster. "I don't suppose that you have a license for this gun? Thought not."

The next item to go was his communicator, which to his surprise was on.

How could I have been so stupid? They tracked my signal. But when did I leave it on?

Beside him, officer number two took great pleasure in searching Akiza before pushing her toward the door, gesturing for Star and his officer to follow. The black-haired boy had to pause his fantasy of choking officer 2 in order to avoid the other customers.

A minute later, Star was in the back of a Security car. They hadn't confiscated his summon stones, Akiza's duel disk, or her cards, probably because of the inhibitors. Akiza's officer had pulled her aside to have a private conversation with her. He tried to sneak a glimpse at the pair, but the windows were tinted so darkly that even he couldn't see outside. After a few seconds, she sat inside the car, clenching her fists even as she futilely tried to pull her handcuffs apart.

"You okay?" he asked quietly. She didn't respond.

Officer two told the driver to take a circuitous route but declined to ride with them, which was fortunate for him because Star's handcuffs were starting to look a lot like a garrote…

Part 2:

-Neo Domino City, 8:55 A.M.-

Being on the back of Rose's motorcycle gave Yusei time to think. It also kept his mind off of the many minor injuries he had acquired during his fight with Sayer.
Don't lie to yourself. That was a slaughter.

Up until this point, he had been pretty much invincible. Sure, there had been some hairy moments, such as his time as a mine worker and his first duel with Kalin as a Dark Signer—Now why did those both involve Kalin?—but he had always come out on top. He had defeated a psychic who dealt with trickery and lies at his own game; he had prevented the destruction of the city twice; he had even defeated a prophecy that predicted his own demise! All of those achievements had come about as a result of his cheating death; as a result, he had developed a pretty cavalier attitude about death and dying—he had been worried about dying the first few times that he had gotten into a situation, but after a while, it just became another part of normal life. Get up, brush your teeth, fix Duel Runners, duel to the death in order to save the world.

His friends had also seemed to exhibit the same tendency to survive: Sherry had been launched into a wormhole and came out good as new, Nico and West's father had hung from a switch in the mines until he got rescued (A/N: Yusei's world is the 4Kids one.), the Crimson Dragon had caught Leo when he fell off a highway. Apparently the protection effect extended to enemies as well, what with Sayer's sudden resurrection.

For this reason, even though he was harboring some feelings for a certain red-haired duelist, he never worked up enough nerve to tell her anything. Just take your time, his inner voice said. It's not like either of you are going to die anytime soon.

That comfortable notion went out the window at about the same time that he saw Sayer's unconscious body through the skylight. For the first time, he had really, truly thought that he was going to die, and more importantly, there was nothing he could do about it. He had always had a plan, always had help, always had a trap that he had set in the beginning of the duel. He had always had a fighting chance. Not that time. That time, there was no ally to rely on or plan to think about; there was only the thought that he would splatter nicely across the warehouse floor.

Facing certain death also tends to set your priorities straight.

Right now, priority number 1 was telling a certain redhead of his feelings, just in case Sayer actually tried to kill him next time.

-9:18 A.M.-

They were on the final leg of their journey to the bar, which was uneventful except for one moment in which Rose took a rather long detour to avoid a suspicious-looking Security car with tinted windows—What's with all the tinted windows today?

Stomach aflutter at the prospect of finally revealing his feelings for Akiza, Yusei stepped into the bar, which was exactly as he remembered. Even the bartender looked the same. For a second he was tempted to ask for a glass of milk…Hey, is Blister in this world?

Rose scanned the bar. "I don't see them anywhere…"

Before Yusei could try to figure out what they should do, the bartender waved them over and greeted them with a cheery "Didn't you two just get arrested?"

The bartender, even though he was clearly confused, told them about Star and Akiza getting arrested. His account ended with two statements: the windows of the car they were taken away in were the darkest that he had ever seen, and they had probably just set a record for the fastest escape from the police.

Yusei muttered, "You have got to be kidding…"

Rose said incredulously, "We passed them."

Suddenly, he stood straight and turned to face Rose. "We might still be able to catch up if we hurry."

"Do you know which way they went?" Rose asked the bartender.

"Well, he told you, didn't he?" Rose shot him the kind of glare that could melt steel. "The M-Facility, ok? The fastest way is to get on a helicopter from the eastern docks, so that's probably where they're headed."

Rose was out the door the moment he finished his explanation, with Yusei close behind.

So close, yet so far.

-9:31 A.M.-

Rose had covered half of the distance from the bar to the docks in record time, trying to catch up to the Security car that held their friends. The buildings, cars, and people around them resolved into one big gray blur as they passed.

Actually, Yusei thought with a jolt, she's going fast enough to Accel Synchro Summon if she wanted…

There had been no conversation; Yusei did not want to mess up Rose's concentration when they were driving that fast. More time to think. He wasn't too worried about rescuing them. Securities were lightweights. No, he spent the minutes agonizing about what he was going to say.

First off, he had no desire to embarrass himself in front of Star and Rose, so they would need some privacy.

Now, what to say, what to say…

There was the direct approach: just go up to her and say, "I love you." I'd probably chicken out halfway through the "I".

Or he could just kiss her. And that would be a toss-up between her returning it and her knocking me into next week for being a pervert.

Or he could…

"Found them," said Rose, shaking him out of his reverie. Their quarry was a few car lengths in front of them, speeding down a deserted road. From that angle, he could just barely see the unnaturally dark tint on the back windows.

"Yeah, that's them. Any way we could convince them to pull over?"

S

Star had tried to figure out where they were headed, but the fact that they couldn't see out the windows hindered his attempts. He had also tried to find out why Akiza was so agitated, and he attained the same level of success: zero.

On the other side of the darkened, soundproof, bulletproof divider, the two officers seemed to be arguing about something.

*pop*

The sound was so short that he wasn't sure if he had imagined it. However, when the car started weaving a bit, he figured out what the sound was. One of the front tires had blown. That would have been a perfect opportunity to escape, except that they had those blasted inhibitors on. He could see it now: He'd summon a small monster, have it slice off his and Akiza's cuffs, and they would quickly subdue the officers, replace the tire, and drive off. They definitely had to find a way to counter those inhibitor collars.

The officers pulled over and seemed to come to a decision. They pulled out their pistols before exiting, for some reason.

*thudthud*

That sound was completely alien to him.

The car's front rose a few inches, but the way it lifted felt odd. It felt unsteady, like a person was lifting it.

The car leveled out again, both doors opened, and two figures slid into the front seats. The one in the driver's seat pressed the button to open the divider while the passenger fiddled with the dashboard. He heard a female, robotic voice say, "Tracker disabled".

Star had never been happier to see Rose in his life.

The extreme happiness that he felt at seeing one of his best friends was immediately offset by the extremely creepy feeling he got when the person in the driver's seat turned around.

He looked into his own eyes—and he wasn't in front of a mirror.

His eyes raked down his counterpart's face, noting the differences, then flicked his gaze down to his arm, which sported a similar machine to the one that Akiza had. Nice.

Beside him, Akiza gasped as she noticed the long scar on Yusei's face. "Yusei, what—"

"Happened to my face? Sayer's warrior sliced me. It didn't hurt, though. And you can tell us"—he pointed at Star, then back to himself—"apart really easily now!" he said cheerfully.

Star held up his handcuffs. "You guys did bring the keys, right?"

"Of course...not," Rose said, but she was betrayed by the grin that spread across her face.

-Seaside, 9:40 A.M.-

Introductions had been quick, as they didn't really want to stick around and wait for someone to pass by. Rose did take the time to slice off their collars and open their handcuffs before hopping back onto the Bloody Kiss and leading Yusei to an alley near the beach, between two seemingly abandoned buildings. Once they had reached a certain spot, Star got out and started running his hands over the wall on the right side.

"What's he doing?" asked Akiza.

Star seemed to find what he was looking for, and he tapped it with a finger. A hidden panel in the wall slid open, and Rose and Yusei parked their respective vehicles.

Looking around, Yusei felt that he had stepped into paradise. The left wall of the garage was stocked from bottom to top with various tools. Spare parts lined several rows of shelves to the right. Best of all, an awesome-looking jet-black motorcycle was sitting off to the side.

"Like it?" asked Star, coming up behind him. "This is my favorite safehouse. It's listed as belonging to some guy, but in reality he lives on the other side of town has no idea that this place exists. Security doesn't care enough to ask him, either." He walked over to the motorcycle. "And this is my pet project. I call it the Black Star. Zero to sixty in 2.2 seconds. Not exactly street legal, haha. It's a little unstable, though."

Yusei happily started examining the motorcycle, thinking about how amazing it would be as a Duel Runner.

Rose took off her helmet, rolled her eyes, and beckoned to Akiza. "Let's leave them to it. Would you like a tour of this safehouse, Akiza?"

Akiza smiled. "Sure." They walked up the stairs and out of the garage and started looking through the building. Rose placed her summon stones in her room, and Akiza took the King's room as her temporary residence. Not surprisingly, it was the largest bedroom.

Rose called Yusei up to choose his bedroom, and he chose Raven's.

After they had all settled in, they went down to the living room for a strategy session. Star lounged on the couch next to Rose while Yusei and Akiza sat awkwardly on the love seat. It was 9:55 by the time they had brought each other up to speed on their adventures so far. Akiza kept looking at the clock for some reason.

Star decided to kick things off. "So, I think that our first priority should be to rescue the rest of the Signers from the Facility. When we're all together, we can combine our abilities, figure out what Sayer and Divine are up to, grab the stones from Security headquarters, remove the Syndicate from power, and come up with a way to send you guys home! So how do we start?"

"Slow down there, Star," Yusei said. "Let's start with the 'what Sayer's up to' part. We know that he wants to create his own 'Arcadia', and we also know that he tried that already with the Arcadia Movement"—Akiza's lowered her gaze—"but that failed. So do you think that he wants to get all of the psychics in the Syndicate on his side and try again?"

"There's a problem with that theory," said Rose. "The thing is…as far as we know, I'm the only psychic left in the entire city, besides Sayer and Divine, and now Akiza."

"What?"

"From what you told us, it seems that your world has a lot of psychics. It's completely the opposite in our world. Psychics are very rare here. It also doesn't help that the Syndicate tried to exterminate every psychic in the city a few years after they came to power." Her eyes were sorrowful at the mention of this. "All of the psychics that survived, including me, either tried to live on our own or joined the freedom fighters. One by one, they all died, killed by the Syndicate. Except me. There may be more outside the city, but they probably won't help us, and we don't have the time to go looking for them either." Star straightened up and placed his arm around her. She relaxed a little at his touch and leaned in to him. There was silence for a few moments.

Yusei continued his thought process. "Okay, so then Sayer's good friends with someone in the Syndicate, and he wants to use them to create Arcadia? Come to think of it, how many people do you know are in the Syndicate?"

Star answered, "We know about all of the ranking officials, except the leader. He acts through a puppet named …D something…Demak, that's it."

"Sounds an awful lot like 'Devack', doesn't it, Akiza?" asked Yusei. Startled, Akiza glanced up from the clock and nodded. 9:59. For the benefit of the other two, Yusei said, "In our world, Devack was a Dark Signer, but after the Signers defeated the Dark Signers, he disappeared. Is Demak tall with tan skin?" Star nodded. "It might be him, then…"

Rose opened her mouth to add something, but the clock struck ten before she could speak. At that moment, two things happened in quick succession.

First, Yusei's and Akiza's Signer marks started burning. Not red, as they usually did, but clear gold, as they had when they had first met Rose and Star. At the same time, Star and Rose both felt a burning sensation on the backs of their left hands.

A few moments later, both boys doubled over, clutching their heads in pain.

"What's…going…on…" groaned Yusei in a voice that tore at Akiza's heart.

In seconds, they were both unconscious. Rose also put a hand to her head, but all Akiza felt was a small buzzing sensation. It's started.

Rose quickly checked the vitals of both Yusei and Star, breathing a sigh of relief when she confirmed that they were both fine. "Let's move them up to their rooms," she said, voice filled with obvious pain.

Together, they moved the guys up to their chosen rooms and tucked them in. Akiza lingered awhile at Yusei's bedside, just looking at him. He'd probably wake up sweaty, but she wasn't about to strip him.

She sighed once, then helped Rose into her own bed. Tucking herself in was a novel experience.

As she turned to leave, her gaze lingered on the dresser, where she knew Rose kept her summon stones…and her weapons.

A few seconds later, she was lying in bed as well. No point in wandering around when none of the others were up. She settled down for a restless nap.

-Syn Tower-

Divine received a call on the penthouse viewscreen. He tapped a button and Sayer's face popped into view.

Without greeting him, Sayer breathlessly asked, "Did you do what I asked? I want to make the reveal...private."

"Yes, I did. When next they wake up, your plan will succeed."

Not for long. But there's no need to tell him that.

A/N: So Sayer's plan is about to come to fruition. What is it, and how will it affect our heroes? All (or part) will be revealed next chapter.