The dark one, the very dark-scenario one, to be countered by its opposite much later.

To do this one, I composed a list of each Signer's "lowest point". It was pretty fun...in a less-than-happy sort of way.

Now that I'm over halfway there in typing, I feel inspired to write everything that comes after 'S' again...


-Of Few Words-


-Nadir-

I never thought I'd come back to something like this.

Rain spilled from the heavens in torrents, trying in vain to flood and wash away the evil of the world. In the darkest and most hidden depths of the Satellite, it found its way through cracks in the buildings and utterly soaked Yusei and Jack's hair. Akiza and Luna had psychically-created barriers that shielded them from dampness; both were gloomy enough without it. Even Goodwin was tense at the doorway, listening for signs of the enemy.

"There's no one around," Akiza murmured brokenly. No one, because we've failed. "I can tell. Stop your useless watch."

"It is not useless," Goodwin shot back, "when Dark Signers have taken New Domino, set the Satellite afire, and continued to enslave more people--such as your precious Arcadia Movement leader, Divine."

Not to mention taken my seat of power...

"The rain has put out the fire, in case you hadn't noticed," Jack put in coolly. He did not really care that he had just contradicted his benefactor--Carly was gone, Mina was gone, and everything was wrong.

"Enough!"

Yusei held up his hand, stopping any conflict before it could come to blows; his friends were either dead or missing, Martha was presumed dead, and innocent children had been sacrificed to the sick whim of the enemy; the five of them were weak from struggles few could imagine, and fighting would help nothing.

"As Goodwin pointed out, there are Dark Signers out there who are out for our blood. We can't summon the Crimson Dragon to our aid now. People are getting hurt. We need to rise from our ashes, and make everything right again. We must defeat our adversaries--or all is lost!"

"Easy for you to say."

Everyone jerked in place, looked around--it was the first time Luna had spoken in a quarter of an hour, and the bitterness of her tone startled them; she never, never quarreled or disagreed with Yusei in any way. Her silences now made her look as though she was frozen in time; before, Yusei had had to carry her out of her high-rise apartment to safety, so frozen was she.

Luna's voice shook even now, so many miles away from that horror. "You think that you've all got it bad? My brother... my twin brother... is gone. Gone..."

One could not tell whether there was rain on Luna's cheeks or tears, now.


Nadir, based on my dictionary rummagings long ago, means the "lowest point".