And here we go with chapter twenty six. This is a chapter that's kind of just down time for some of the characters, and some first reactions to how calm Yusei really is (and maybe some of Jack). Anyway, other than one or two other things explaining some things going on, this chapter will be much less hectic than the last one.
If you guys see any discrepancies between stories like "Jaden never went to the spirit realm" but did in another story, remember that this one was written before I ever planned on writing the other two. If you see those things, feel free to leave a review pointing it out with the chapter number/title. I'll fix it if I find it.
I hope you guys are enjoying the story. Its a lot of fun to write and plan out, and I've got quite a lot planned for this story.
Chapter Twenty Six: In My Remains
"Hey Aki," Yusei called from across the room. "I think... I need to go to the East Commons."
"What?" she asked in surprise. "Why?"
"I promised some classmates I'd help them work on something today," he said, remembering that it was indeed Thursday, and he'd promised to meet Bruno and Lucy there.
"I'm sure they'll understand if you miss it," she said quietly. Yusei sighed and sat up from off the wall, where he'd been for at least half an hour.
"If its all the same," he sighed. "I think I'd rather stay busy today."
Aki sadly closed her book. She and Thorn had decided to stay nearby, more for moral support than anything. Yusei was much better, but it was obvious that all of this was still affecting him. He was still so sad, though not nearly as broken. Star let out yet another whine and laid her chin gently on Yusei's shoulder. Thorn was likewise watching him with the same concern. She understood what he meant though. She'd want a distraction too.
"Do you need me to come with you?" she asked. "I won't do anything to hinder you guys. I just thought-"
"Yeah," Yusei replied quietly. "Thanks. I don't...want to be alone."
Aki didn't point out that he wouldn't technically be alone if he was with these classmates of his. She understood what he meant. She was also a Signer, and she could understand what he was going through, at least more than they could at this point. She just nodded and grabbed her bag, shoving her school book back into it and her homework. She could work on this while he was working with these other friends of his. She quickly grabbed his bag as well and opened the door to the balconies outside. The weather was nice, and they were both dressed in their weekend clothes since school wasn't in session today.
Yusei was in the gloves, jacket, pants and shirt he had been in when he had been in the Satellite, which helped to calm him a little bit. It was familiar. Aki was wearing a pretty red jacket, long black fingerless gloves, skirt and boots with several different colored accents. It was her favorite, and before she had been enrolled here full time this year she'd worn it nearly constantly. Her father seemed to want to make up for his behavior by buying her clothing. Suddenly, Aki didn't seem to be able to hate her parents as much as she'd previously claimed anymore.
"Come on," she called softly.
Slowly, Yusei stood and went outside where Star and Thorn took their dragon forms and leaped onto the side of the balconies as usual. Yusei only seemed to really respond to Star when she purred and offered him her hand. Aki helped him crawl up into it comfortably, though he didn't stand as usual. He still didn't quite seem to be all there right now, not that she could blame him. She was glad she was going with him now. She didn't want him to fall.
Aki leaped onto Thorn's offered talon and they quickly took to the air, making their way to the east commons. It seemed that people already recognized Star, and were pointing to her. As the two dragons landed in the middle of the commons where there was some room to, people moved out of Star's way and spoke quietly to one another. Aki leaped off and softly spoke to Yusei as Star lowered her hand to her, ignoring the stares.
"Come on," she said gently. "Let's look for those friends of yours, okay?"
Yusei let her take his uninjured hand and pull him to his feet, though he still seemed rather distracted. No one said a thing as Aki began looking through the crowd. She didn't know which class Yusei had been talking about, or who she should look for to try and work on this project that they were doing. However two people came out of the crowd, a girl and her partner that Aki recognized but didn't know the name of, and Bruno, who had no memories. They both looked surprised and saddened as they looked at him.
"Yusei?" the girl called softly to him. He looked up at her.
"Hi, Lucy," he said simply.
"What are you doing here?" Bruno asked.
"We said we were going to meet up and work on the Duel Runner," he reminded him.
"Are you sure?" Lucy asked sadly.
"He pretty much insisted he come," Aki pointed out quietly, glancing worriedly and sadly at her friend who still seemed out of it.
"Oh," Lucy said, unsure of Aki's presence. "S-Sure, uh, let's go somewhere quieter."
They turned and made their way to one of the parks on the outskirts of a lake, but no one tried to approach to talk to Yusei. They might whisper sadly as they passed, but they let him be. The group sat down in the grass, and to make Lucy more comfortable, Aki faced the other way as she sat down. To her slight surprise, she felt Yusei sit down with his back against hers. She said nothing and just reached over, grabbing her work and book again and letting him do this as he got out his own supplies to start their session.
Lucy, Sauske, and Bruno were surprised at this, and even more so when Star curled up against both Aki and Yusei's side (Yusei's injured one). She wasn't worried about Aki in the slightest, or Thorn when he sat against the other sides of the two. They were surprised to see the Black Rose Witch so gentle with anyone. They hadn't really thought it possible, but they supposed that Yusei wasn't exactly a normal kind of person. Reminded of what happened earlier, they quickly sat down facing him.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Bruno asked. "We can reschedule."
"I'd rather be busy," Yusei said quietly.
"A-All right," Lucy said quietly. "If you're sure."
"I am."
An awkward silence seemed to fall over the four of them. Even Sauske, who was sitting behind Lucy seemed unsure what to make of Yusei's behavior. These classmates of his didn't really know him that well at all, but Aki knew it wasn't really possible that they would. They'd barely met this week. That's right...a week. No, not even technically that. How on Earth had so much possibly happened in one single week? And she wasn't even getting hit by the worst of it. Poor Yusei had already had to face more in his life time than she had in this one week.
Aki tried to concentrate on her homework. It wasn't much, just a bit of light reading and a paper for her literature class, and a small paper over it. Even so, she didn't think she'd be concentrating on it much. It really did seem like the whole world was falling apart now, and it wasn't like when she'd felt like she'd lost everything because of her psychic powers. Things were much worse now than when she had exaggerated the turn her life had taken. At least Aki still had her parents, and she still had the chance to make amends to them. Yusei was never going to get that chance.
"So uh," Bruno finally said, pulling out a notebook and flipping open the pages. "I guess we should get started."
Yusei finally seemed to respond a little, and Aki found it much easier to concentrate on her reading now that she could no longer follow the jargon that the three were suddenly throwing around. She couldn't help but be a little impressed that Yusei could even follow all of that, but then again, she wasn't entirely sure what they were even building. She supposed it had to be one of the advanced classes on campus, and she wasn't that surprised he was in one. He was smart.
Yusei's head hit the back of hers as he leaned back and heaved a tired sounding sigh, instantly getting Aki's attention again. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his uninjured arm, seeming to just close his eyes and think for a minute. No one seemed to say anything. Obviously, they'd run into some kind of problem that she hadn't been paying attention to. Bruno and Lucy both looked sorry to have caused the boy any more sort of distress, not that she could really blame them. Things were going bad enough as it was.
"It needs to be more aerodynamic," Yusei sighed. "It won't stand up in the turns if it isn't."
"Just look at Thorn and Star," Aki reminded him, hoping to ease his load a little. "They're built to slice right through the air."
"Hm," Yusei said thoughtfully, still seeming to not be completely involved in the situation. "I guess. Would you guys mind…?"
Both dragons let out purrs as they moved, stretching out their enormous bodies and lowering their heads so the three students could get better looks at them. Yusei didn't have any fears or problems running his hand down both dragon's heads as he continued to work, saying a few things every now and then. Bruno, Lucy and Sauske were all glad that he seemed to be distracted at least, and Aki returned to silently reading her book. As more time passed however, it soon became obvious that there wasn't much more they were going to be able to do.
Aki was a little surprised when her phone buzzed in her pocket, alerting her to the fact that Joey Wheeler had texted her. As she pulled out her phone and checked the message, she frowned a little. So he was getting a new student? She might have felt a little jealous of the fact, except that the name on the phone instantly caught her attention. Crow Hogan? Wasn't that supposed to be Yusei's other "brother"? Apparently Yugi was calling all of the students over to his house for some sort of meeting. She showed Yusei her phone, which made him frown a little in thought.
"Why now?" he asked, confusing Lucy and Bruno but making them glad to see him more responsive again.
"I don't know," Aki sighed. "But we'd better go. I don't want to keep Kaiba waiting."
"Kaiba?" Lucy asked in surprise. "As in Seto Kaiba?"
"Mhm," Aki said distractedly as she stood and helped pull Yusei back to his feet. "Yugi's called an important meeting, and we've got to go. Didn't you hear? I have a private tutor, Joey Wheeler, and Yusei's is Yugi Moto."
"Then there's Jack who's teacher is Kaiba," Yusei added after their stunned gasps. "And Luna and Leo both have Jaden as their private tutor."
"But Joey's taken on another student," Aki said with a shrug. "Looks like Crow Hogan." There was a sad pause at this.
"Hogan?" Bruno finally seemed to ask. "Wasn't he…?"
"Yeah," Yusei said quietly. A sad smile touched his face though. "But Jack, Crow and I were basically raised as brothers there in the Satellite. Its been a while since I last talked to him."
"See you guys later," Aki mumbled, jumping onto Thorn's offered talon as Yusei pulled himself up into Star's offered hand.
Yusei said nothing as they flew back to their dorms, both heading in to drop off what they'd brought with them to the park area and grabbing anything they might need to take with them, which wasn't a lot. Soon they'd both met back up at the balconies, their partners leaping off into the air as they locked the doors. Soon another roar punctured the air, and Blaze, carrying a relatively calm Jack joined them. He said nothing but smiled sadly to Yusei as Blaze pulled up as close to Star as he dared. Star let out a purr.
"You're lucky I have a license that will let me take you both," Aki growled quietly. It was the closest to being kind of Jack she'd ever been, which didn't go unnoticed.
"Thanks," Jack replied quietly.
"Whatever."
The rest of the flight was made in relative silence, nothing but the sound of the wind rushing by and the flapping of the dragon's wings. Again, Yusei felt the mark on his arm give a pulse, not a painful one this time, just a comforting one. He let out a soft sigh. Right. He couldn't dwell on what had happened. It was painful, yes, but there was nothing he could change about the past. He had to keep pushing forward, and make sure that nothing like the Zero Reverse ever happened again. Too many people had been hurt by that.
He could see Jack visibly relax as well when his own arm started glowing. Soon the glowing was gone, but as Yusei looked over at his older brother, he could see that he was now in a better mood, if not still rather quiet about all of it. The dragons soon reached Yugi's house, landing carefully on the roof, where Yami in Yugi's body was now waiting for them. He smiled at them all as they stepped off of their dragons and the large reptiles returned to their human forms. His face looked a little sad, but he seemed to be proud of all of them for how they were holding up.
He gave both boys a somewhat sad smile, motioning for them to come inside. There were few people inside, probably to give the poor kids from the Satellite some space. Anzu was running around as usual, trying to be a good hostess, and Merlin was silently helping her. Jaden was pacing around looking far more agitated than Yusei had ever seen him. His eyes were now an unsettling gold color, which seemed to have unnerved his young students, who had yet to see them enter.
Neos was also watching his Partner, rather concerned, though Yubel gave Yusei a sad smile when she saw that he and Jack had entered. Monarch and Quake were practically clinging to their partners, and Monarch and Luna both looked like they had been crying. Leo looked upset as well, and Quake didn't look very happy either. Joey and Slash were standing in the room, trying to stay out of the way while giving a certain brunet and his dragon partner glares that were ignored. It was the last four people who caught Yusei's attention as he came into the room though.
Two were people he'd seen before, obviously rather famous people. One was Seto Kaiba, a tall man who held himself with an important and confident bearing. His hair was brown and cut short, and his eyes were blue as well as icy. He was watching Jack and Yusei, looking very interested in him. However unlike every picture he'd ever seen of the man, or even the statue of him in front of Dragon's Hollow, he looked sad.
Beside him was a tall young woman with long white hair that hung down nearly to the floor, even though it was braided into a thick mass behind her head. Her bangs were swept into the right side of her face, and her eyes were a bright blue color. She wore a white dress and white heels, and she walked confidently in them. Jaden of course, knew these two anywhere as well. This was the last pair of the Big Three, Seto Kaiba and the Blue Eyes White Dragon Eirwen. She smiled sadly at Jack and Blaze, who didn't seem to respond much.
The last human was Crow, who was like one of Yusei's older brothers (though he was the "middle" one and therefore younger than Jack). He was shorter than average, with orange hair which was spiked up and held up by blue headband that had two metal rings hanging off of it. He was paler than most people, and he was definitely under average height for his age. His eyes were a steely gray, full of mischievousness but still kindness. He also wore earrings with bolts hanging off of them.
Crow's face was covered in yellow prison marks, each on marking that he had gone to prison. The newest mark was a dot on the top of his forehead, on the right side. Beside that just slightly lower was an "M" shaped mark. The marks on his cheeks were mirrored. There were two lines zig zagging down his face, and two triangles that his eyes appeared to overlap. Each mark had a different code in it and the sentence he'd been given. They hurt, but he wasn't complaining. He wore each one proudly like a badge.
Next to him though, was a person Yusei had never seen before. Her chest was covered in a covering made completely of what appeared to be black feathers. She also wore a skirt made of the same feathers, though there were dark brown leggings beneath it. She didn't wear shoes, and she had black feathers forming a tiara on her head. She had long black hair that hung nearly to the floor behind her, contrasting her bright red eyes. On her right arm was a tattoo of red wings. He could tell from his book that she was a dragon, but not one he had ever seen.
Then again, weren't all the Signers supposed to have dragons that went with them? No doubt, he was seeing the final Signer Dragon, especially if Crow truly was the last Signer. Yusei of course had no reason to distrust the Crimson Dragon's word. It was such a gentle and truthful creature after all. Once again Yusei couldn't help but wonder why the creature was that way. Either way though, it wasn't telling him and he didn't really mind because he knew it was a kind god.
The girl (another female dragon, great) noticed them first and turned her fierce eyes towards them. Star seemed to bristle nearly instantly in response, not exactly ready to fight, but not wanting to just stand there and watch her bristle at her already injured Partner. The two female dragons seemed to be sizing each other up, before the stranger finally seemed to relax and nodded to them. At this motion, Crow, who still looked rather worked up (for obvious reasons), but his face nearly instantly seemed to brighten upon seeing his two brothers.
"Been a while," he said with grin. That quickly fell as he stepped forward and looked at Jack's hand. Yusei looked down as well and frowned upon seeing the wound. "What did you do?"
"Punched a wall," Jack mumbled.
"Bro," Crow groaned. "That can't be healthy. Knock it off."
"Says the reject who went to prison so often," Jack growled, though in a playful way. Crow just grinned again.
"Yeah," he said. "Well apparently I'll be going to a therapist for that. We don't have anyone to deal with things like kleptomaniacs in the Satellite."
"Well its about time," Jack said with another growl.
Everyone looked really relieved to see that the three boys seemed much happier now in each other's company (even Yusei, who didn't usually show much facial expression). Crow's partner carefully came over now, greeting Star with a wary growl but not seeming to feel offended when she got one in response. She could after all, see that Yusei was injured and they were Partners. Besides, she'd already heard quite a bit about her partner's two "brothers" as it was.
"Oh right," he said. "This is my Partner, Feather. She's a Black-Winged Dragon."
"This is Star," Yusei said, also introducing his own Partner. "She's a Stardust Dragon."
The rest of the introductions were made as well, though Crow's smile seemed a little forced. Feather purred to her partner, trying to calm him, again, but there was little else that could be done. Everyone else seemed kind of surprised that they were also so calm. There was still mourning etched into all of their faces, but they didn't really seem to be nearly as heart broken as they should, as if they'd gone through several months of healing in a few hours. Even Jaden's eyes seemed to soften as he saw the three standing together. Somehow the reunion was sadder than Yusei had thought it would have been, but everyone knew why.
The quiet conversation was quickly cut off as Yusei felt something small hit his leg and latch onto it. He looked down in surprise, to see that Luna was now crying into his leg, Monarch close behind and making soft cooing noises at him. Leo had done the same, except latching onto Jack's leg. Both boys were understandably a little surprised by this, but Jack ruffled Leo's hair gently as Quake made a sad whine at him. Yusei laid his hand as comfortingly as he could on Luna's head.
It was almost a little funny, to think that he would be the one trying to comfort her when by all rights he probably should have been curled up in the corner today. It was such a big shock to actually see what had happened, but a relief too. Now everyone knew that his dad wasn't a murderer, that he was the hero he had actually been. Now everyone knew that there was something bigger going on. Yusei let out a soft sigh though.
"Well," Yami said as he walked into the room. "It seems like everyone is here now. Come on. Let's go outside."
The huge group slowly turned and made its way outside into the backyard with the huge pool in it. Yami's calm and commanding gaze as always demanded obedience without having to ask for it, but it was a kind and understanding one as well. He quickly motioned all of the young Signers to the back wall, sending Merlin and Neos to guard the door in case any press decided to try and show up. With a quick glance around to make sure that everything seemed all right for now, he finally turned to address the crowd.
"All right," he said with a sigh. "We've got some things to talk about. First of all, let's clear something up. All of you that have Signer Marks, show them to us now."
Yusei blinked in surprise at this, and he wasn't the only one. It was so straightforward, and even though he should have expected it from Yami, it wasn't something he was expecting to be asked about. A ripple seemed to run through his arm suddenly, as if the dragon were trying to talk to him, and he could feel the power rippling through his mind as the dragon urged them all silently to do so, to trust Yugi and Yami. The teen was almost surprised at this, except he had already known the dragon's power would grow when all the signers were present. He pulled his uninjured arm out and slowly peeled the glove and sleeve away, revealing the dragon's head.
The others soon followed suit, and their dragons each shivered, sensing the sheer power coming off the marks. Each of them took their true forms, causing Yusei to glance down the line of dragons, especially towards feather, whose legs clicked against the pavement audibly. Jack revealed the wings of the dragon, and Aki the back claw. Leo's arm sported a tiny red heart, and Luna's had the front claw. Lastly Crow revealed the dragon's tail.
Nearly immediately, they all began to glow, as did the mark of the full dragon on Yusei's back. All of the young signers jumped and stared down at their arms. Were they supposed to do this when all the signers were together? If so, how they heck were they supposed to stay hidden from their enemies? Star let out a quiet growl before shifting forward and hiding Yusei's small form with her body and cupping her claws around him protectively. No doubt she was thinking along the same lines, and she didn't want him to get hurt or targeted because he was he supposed leader of the group.
Even as the adults gathered here began to mutter about the marks and what they meant according to what Marik had found, the Crimson Dragon stirred. Its long body seemed to uncoil from Yusei's mind and stretch across the space separating all of the signers. Even Yusei jumped as he was suddenly able to feel the minds of all the signers and their dragons within his own. The flood of information and emotion might have overwhelmed him, and he winced in surprise, but the Crimson Dragon's coils protected them all from becoming too confused by it. Jaden's golden eyes flicked towards them, missing nothing, and narrowed.
"Do not fear," the ancient being called softly, purring to them in a familiar way. "This is a normal power of Signers, and one of the most easily achieved. While in close enough proximity, Signers can connect their minds, though to first achieve it, they must be extremely close together at the same time. I can teach you to control these powers, but we must take this all one step at a time."
Wh-What? Yusei clearly heard Luna squeak.
Its okay, Yusei quickly said, his steady voice seeming to calm everyone and pause the mass of emotions. This is the dragon god of the Signers. Think of us as his priests. This is the Crimson Dragon. He's been...kind of sitting in my head for a while now.
Wh-What? Jack asked, probably sounding the most surprised he was ever going to. He has? Why?
"Because Yusei is my anchor," the god chuckled, a sound that made the twelve relax despite themselves. "As I said, do not be afraid. I will not harm you. In fact, with all of you now gathered, my power has grown, as has my will to protect this world of yours. There are many questions you no doubt wish to ask, all which I will answer in time. There will soon be a need for me to train you all carefully in the ancient ways of the Signers, powers you will need to protect each other and the world. But for now, our conversation must cease. The king has noticed us."
The dragon's tone left no room for argument, and all the signers couldn't help but look up. Everyone was still conversing, not seeming to have noticed the strange but short interaction as the children all slowly relaxed again. They were all suddenly aware of a pair of burning gold orbs lingering on all of them, slowly traveling down the line and watching. As much as Yusei was unsure of the power they had, and the change in the brown haired man's behavior, he wasn't scared. He knew he could trust Jaden, and he'd heard of his powers before.
Yusei's logical thinking seemed to all calm the rest of the Signers, and they also began to relax under the man's gaze, though they gave him a questioning look. Jaden's eyebrows shot up in surprise at this. He knew he tended to scare people when he got like this, not that he could really blame them. The power of the Supreme King wasn't exactly something that people liked. He scared them because of that power, because of the nature of his personality, because they couldn't understand. But perhaps having a god supposedly telling them what to do, they were used to such things. None of them looked alarmed by his presence anymore. The twins even looked practically relaxed.
"So I suppose we've found all of them," Kaiba said, shooting Joey a glare that almost asked him to try something right now. Joey bit his lip but didn't verbally respond. "Yugi, do you know where Taylor is? Other than Marik, he was the one that was best with this kind of ancient thing, right?"
"Languages," Yami reminded him. "Tristain is better at reading and speaking ancient languages. I haven't really seem that much need to ask for his help, though I'm not entirely sure if that will change. Marik and Bakura are taking a day off. Unless we really need them, I'm not calling either of them."
Yusei knew in passing who Kaiba had just mentioned. Tristan Taylor, a man who had been one of Yugi's friends for a very long time. Like many of them, he had taken an interest in ancient cultures had begun studying how to read and even speak some dead languages of the world. It was interesting in a way, thinking that Kaiba was interested in that kind of thing. But Marik had pretty much given them the information they needed, as well as the translation. Joey finally didn't seem to be able to hold his tongue and glared at the man.
"What do you need Tristan for anyway?" he asked with a growl. Kaiba's eyes lazily flicked towards him.
"Nothing at the moment," he replied. "I just have a feeling, that's all."
"Enough," Yami said before a fight could actually start. Silence fell at the weight of his voice. "We're not here to talk about that. Jaden has some information to tell all of us."
The silence was unbroken as everyone turned to look at Jaden, whose eyes finally managed to leave the Signers to glance behind him at the group. Many people shifted nervously under his eyes, but the signers no longer seemed to mind, the glowing of their marks fading until they were gone. Yusei carefully replaced his arm and turned to watch the others with an expectant gaze. No one moved, too preoccupied with what Jaden was actually going to tell them to actually be that afraid. Besides, everyone knew and trusted Jaden.
"I visited Haou," Jaden began as an explanation. "who's basically the other half of the Supreme King. Being in the Shadow Realm, they'd noticed things about the Earthbound Immortals that we didn't know."
"I thought the Shadow Realm had seven levels?" Jack asked with a raised brow. Jaden smirked, a darker look passing his face.
"The old caste system was thrown out," he said simply. "Anyway, Haou managed to learn about the names of the Earthbound Immortals and their Dark Signers. There's the spider, Uru, who was the creature who made an appearance at the Zero Reverse…" Jaden's voice turned bitter before he shook his head and continued. "There's the giant, Ccapac Apu, the Humming Bird, Aslla Piscu, the Monkey Cusilla, the Lizard, Ccarayhua, the Orca, Chacu Challhua, and the Condor Wiraquocha Rasca. As I'm sure you've guessed, the numbers of Signers and their dragons are oddly close to matching this number, but the Earthbound Immortals and Crimson Dragon are said to be brothers." He paused as the world seemed to rumble at the name of the creature gently. "That's not the part that scares me though. Its the Dark Signers."
Here Jaden seemed to pause and his eyes grew even darker, if that was possible. This time even Yusei shifted a little, sensing the fear that radiated from those ancient eyes. He could tell it made the others nervous as well. What could make a powerful creature like that so scared? What could make something like that become so broken and sad at the same time? He silently waited, all the Signers sensing the sorrow the Crimson Dragon felt. It knew what was coming next. It knew what was going to be said. And it wasn't happy.
"The Dark Signers don't have a choice," the man finally growled out. "They're killed to make a contract with the beast, and they're often tricked into making this contract, or forced to. Once they're forced to make a contract they're basically stuck like that, and the only thing that can help them is a Signer."
"So that means..." Yami said, looking as horrified as everyone else.
"That's right," Jaden growled. "they don't have a choice. And they're probably aware somewhere deep down what they've done. I wouldn't be surprised if they can't bring themselves to even fight against the Earthbound Immortals because of it."
The silence spoke more than any words could in that instant.
To say that Jesse was surprised when he got a call from Jim Cook of all people would be an understatement. Especially when he asked to meet him somewhere where the two couldn't be overheard during their conversation. Luckily he had a place in mind, but he wasn't entirely sure why the man had contacted him after so long. He was glad to see his friend and his pet crocodile after so many years, but he hadn't sounded this serious since the Supreme King had made an appearance just to fight off the king that had asserted himself onto the throne of the Shadow Realm. And that had only been on the phone for Pete's sake! He wasn't sure he was going to like what this conversation was about if that was the case.
Now the young man was standing in front of him, face bandaged and clothes pretty much how he remembered from their own days back in Duel Academy. The enormous and lively green crocodile was on the ground and looked up when they came in. Jim was sitting in the chair of Jesse's office, staring at the wooden desk as if it would have some sort of answer for him. Bones, standing to the back of the room, purred in greeting Jesse and Glisten, which the female dragon returned with a smile on her face. Jim looked up and managed a smile for Jesse, though he could tell the man was ill at ease.
"What's wrong?" Jesse asked, concerned for his friend.
"I think," Jim began slowly. "You might want to sit down for this."
Now even more concerned for the topic of their discussion, Jesse carefully pulled out his chair and across the desk and sat down in it, his eyes never leaving Jim's face. Jim obviously knew that face as well. It was one that Jesse only reserved for when he was able to tell that people weren't giving them the whole truth but realized he was about to get it. Jim wasn't even sure where to start. Why had John wanted him to call Jesse now of all times? After everything that had just come to light? Where was he even supposed to start? He let out a sigh.
"All right," Jim finally said. "There's no sugar coating this or making it seem easier to believe, so I'll just get right to it." He took a deep breath. "I've been working with John Atlas and Robin Hogan for...some time now. They didn't die in the Zero Reverse. They managed to escape, though they won't tell me how. It seems to scare them. I've been working with them for a few years now. And with everything that's come to light, they want to get their organization more involved and try and fix things. So we need help from the outside, more than just mine."
Jesse's eyes widened in surprise. It definitely wasn't the shocked or disbelieving reaction that Jim was probably expecting, but he was incredibly happy. He knew Jim wasn't one to lie, especially about something so important after everything the whole world had just learned. He and Glisten shared a surprised look, making Bones let out a whine of confusion at their reaction and making Shirley growl as she looked up. It wasn't a frightening sound, but a thoughtful one. Jim's brow raised as he saw Jesse turn to him with a smile.
"I'm glad to hear it," he said. "You're probably wondering why I believe you so easily, right? Well its because I'm working with someone too, and its about as believable as who I'm working with. So I'll happily help you out. That's what friends are for, right? You just have to be willing to let me tell someone else really important."
"Who?" Jim asked, surprised.
"Hakase of course."
Jim's eyes were the one to widen now. Shirley raised her head and let out a sound not unlike a whine, obviously recognizing the name. Bones's eyes lit up as well. Jesse just continued to smile, letting the information sink in for a minute as Jim sat there. Finally the Australian smiled at the American, almost looking a little sheepish as he chuckled at the absurdity of the situation. Who would have thought, after all of these years, they would have all found out that they were working together without knowing it, that some of their best friends were still alive.
"Of course," he said. "I'll trust anyone you do, Hakase too, you know that Jesse. Still...it seems kind of comical that after all this time..." his smile fell into a frown though as he looked up at him. "We...we can't tell them their parents are alive, can we?" Jesse knew who he meant, and sadly shook his head.
"We both know they need to stay hidden," he replied quietly.
Jim just nodded slightly, turning instead to let his fingers trail over Shirley's head. The familiar motion calmed him a little bit, and he let out another sigh. Well, that had gone a lot better than he had thought it would have, and he was happier in knowing that Hakase had at least survived. No doubt, John would be elated to hear that his best friend was alive after all of this time as well. But even with as smooth as that had gone there was still one thing that he knew for certain.
Things were not going to be easier at all. Not by a long shot.
Well there we go. I finally updated this story. Parts of it feel a little rushed, but I purposely wrote it that way because Yusei and just about everyone else is pretty shocked and not really up to actually processing things. There you go! Things are moving together, and our story lines are starting to intersect. Do you know what that means? Shit's about to go down! SO much fun! As always, hope you enjoyed.
To the person who asked if I could explain the way the language works, that's part of the reason I'm bringing Tristan, the language expert, in later. Because I was planning on having him ask so I could explain it through Jaden, because Yusei would be fascinated by that.
Also, as I explained in "Eyes of Darkness", I made Jesse American. I have a reason for it, but you'd have to read my explanation so far in that story to find out why. Basically, this is my AU so I do what I want.