I'm falling head first into a dark abyss. I feel like I'm moving in slow motion. It leaves a sense of uneasiness in my stomach. Suddenly, I feel the ground underneath my feet. Suddenly, everything shifts and I'm the right way up again. Even though I'm standing completely still, my head still feels like it's spinning. I spot a figure off in the distance. Despite not being able to get a good look at the figure, I know that it's Yusei. His name escapes my lips without even a second thought. He turns towards me and I freeze. He's drenched in his own blood. I start hyperventilating but the air tastes like iron. His blood and aura seem metallic. Everything turns a startling shade of violet. I throw my arms out in an attempt to reach Yusei. Only for a black mass to pierce his torso once more. I close my eyes to miss the unpleasant sight, feeling the warm blood splash onto my face. I slowly open my eyes to find a pool of blood where Yusei was standing. I start hyperventilating again. I shut my eyes again in an attempt to wake up. I open them again to find Yusei's helmet in my hands. Blood drips down from the helmet onto the pitch black floor below. I slowly turn the helmet in my hands in fear of what I see inside the helmet. I take a deep breath as I glance inside. The inside is coated in blood. The smell of blood is so strong that it makes me drop the helmet. It smashes the floor beneath me causing me to fall once again into the black abyss.

I jolt awake so fast that I almost fall off the couch in sitting up. I'm barely able to suppress my screams. I clasp my hands over my mouth so tight that it's hard to breathe. With my whole body shaking, I glance around the room. My eyes meet Yusei's. He's frozen, halfway off the chair at the computer. This only causes me to start shaking more. Everything seems to move in fast motion. As Yusei gets me to sit properly on the couch, with my feet firmly planted on the floor. He holds my shaking hands together in his own. My mind is torn between the remnants of my dream and what's in front of me. I can barely make out Yusei's soothing words. Eventually, I can focus on what's around me, but I still shake.

"You had a nightmare, right?" I think that Yusei has realised that I'm bit more grounded in reality, though he still keeps his tone just as soft. I try to even out my breathing enough to reply, but it's harder than I imagined, so I just nod. "Do you want to talk about it?" I hesitate for a few seconds before nodding again. I put my hand on my chest and focus on my breathing. I take deep breaths, in and out, until I'm ready to talk.

"I-" I trip over my words. Where do I even begin to explain this? "I keep having these dreams where I'm falling." I take my hands from Yusei and hold my head. Some attempt at talking about my dreams without reliving them. "When I open my eyes, everything's black. I always see you standing a bit away from me. I reach out," I stare at my hands in front me, taking note of all the blood vessels just beneath my skin, "then." I cover my eyes in an attempt to rid the image from my mind. "You- you- I-" I start shaking again. I feel Yusei's hands cover my own. He pulls my hands away from my face, so gently that it barely feels like he's moving them at all. Once again, he holds both of my hands in his own.

"I'm okay. That nightmare was only just a dream, it's not real." The sensation of bile rises in my throat. I try holding my breath, trying to suppress it, which only makes me feel worse. I nod desperately in an attempt to drill into my head that Yusei isn't dead, I didn't kill him and I won't. So little oxygen is reaching my brain that black spots begin to cloud my vision. Yusei's words no longer register in my mind. I try focusing on my breathing. Flashes of my dream keep coming back into my head. Maybe that's what actually happened? My mind is too muddled to tell the difference. No, that can't be right, Yusei has a torso that seems to function.

"You're okay." I manage to take a full deep breath. "You're okay." Another. "I'm okay." Yusei nods. I take another deep breath. Breathing becomes easier. The tight feeling in my chest peters out and I can breathe again.

"How often do you have that dream?" He softly brushes his thumb over my hands.

"Practically every night since then." I wonder if he knows that my dreams are about that time. His brow furrows, he does.

"Yuuka, you know that I don't bla-"

"You don't, but I do." I sigh. "Everything that happened was my fault, and my fault alone."

"What happened to you in the Satellite?" I look away from him. I suppose that I should tell him.

"I went to the Satellite to look for you, but I found Kiryu instead." I pause, closing my eyes. "He fed me lies about how you had changed, how you betrayed everyone and forgot about me. I know now that it's all wrong, but I believed it then. I felt awful. I thought that it was all your fault, and that maybe I'd feel better if I made you feel the same pain that I did. I just wanted to die," I shrug my shoulders and turn to face Yusei, "and I did. I fell into the Old Momentum, and then I woke up." I stare at his face. His face is unreadable, but I think I spot some shred of pity in his eyes. I don't continue. It will keep bringing up memories I'd rather forget.

"You fell into the Old Momentum? Was it an accident or did you...?" Yusei doesn't finish the question, and I think he doesn't want to.

"I mean," I try to reason it out, "I didn't know how close I was to the edge. But, I'm sure there was a part of me that knew." A heavy silence hangs in the air. I'm sure that the implications of what we're saying are weighing on his mind. Though, it's not foreign to me. Merely the thought of it brings back that suffocating pain in my neck. The silence lasts a couple more beats than I intend it to. "Right, I'm gonna go make myself a coffee. Do you want one?" Yusei breaks out of his thoughts long enough to give some sort of a positive response. I sigh before getting up.

While the kettle boils, I take the opportunity to clear my head. I glance at the clock on the oven, eight in the morning. That explains why I haven't seen Jack or Crow yet this morning. Then, I realise that Crow's D-Wheel was missing from the garage. Geez, already gone to work. He'll work himself to an early grave at this rate. I'm surprised that Jack hasn't made more of an effort to help out. Speaking of Jack, I haven't brought up the Carly thing at all. There's been no good opportunity or segue, which is surprising. I try brainstorming ways of doing it. I suppose I should bring it up in a casual way that doesn't look like I suspect it's because of some post-Dark Signer guilt. That should work, or it'll horrendously backfire of course.

I head back into the garage with our coffees to find Yusei completely engrossed in his work. His fingers move at a blisteringly fast pace, that I'm slightly worried for the keyboard. I leave the cup beside him on the desk. Of course, he doesn't notice at first. It takes a few minutes before he picks up the cup, all without taking his eyes from the screen. I find Yusei's fascination with mechanics so interesting, how he can just get lost in his own mind working on them. It takes him a few more minutes to realise that he's actually drinking coffee. He turns around and thanks me, which actually manages to get a giggle out of me. Then, that look appears on his face. That look which tells me that he wants to say something, but he hasn't quite got the words together yet.

"Yeah?" I eventually pipe up after a few beats of silence.

"What?" I've completely snapped him out of his thoughts.

"You were going to say something?" An amused smirk sits on my face.

"Yeah." He nods, but there's a serious look on his face. Oh no, he's insisting on bringing back our previous conversation topic. Every millisecond this silence goes on for, the more heart starts to pound. "Why do you blame yourself? Everything that happened was out of your control."

"Why wouldn't I?" I sigh, a part of me thinks that he'll never understand. "I believed Kiryu's lies. I died with hate in my heart, that's how I became a Dark Signer. I did want revenge on you. I didn't want to kill you, not really. Just make you feel my pain and move on with my life. But when I was a Dark Signer, a part of me did. A small part, but it did exist. And that scares me, it scares me more than anything else. I had the capacity to kill you, and I could have."

"But you didn't." Yusei has that soothing tone he uses when he tries to calm me down, but it doesn't work.

"That doesn't matter." I steel up. "I could have. You need to realise that I made a legit attempt to murder you, can't you just do that?"

"No." His brows furrow. "You weren't yourself, you can't be blamed for what happened."

"Oh what?" I can feel the venom creeping into my voice. "You want me to blame some ancient deity that resurrected me and then possessed me? The real world doesn't work like that. I let myself get to that point, I am to blame." I notice that I'm being more liberal with my hand gestures than normal. I cross my arms in an attempt to stop me blowing my top.

"I'm not saying that." His aura is starting to burn underneath the surface. "I'm just saying that you should be easier on yourself. I see how you look when you think no one else is looking." I uncross my arms and fold my hands in my lap. I imagine my face shows something akin to fear, as Yusei moves over to me. "You're placing all of this blame on yourself, and you're suffering for it." I only that my hands are shaking when Yusei takes them again. "Everyone here cares about you, we hate seeing you like this. Please." Our eyes lock. I have to bit my lip to stop the tears. I down what's left of my coffee despite the temperature.

"I'm gonna go get another coffee." I stand so fast that I almost stumble. Once I'm back at the kitchenette, I let out the breath that I was holding. That was too emotionally intense for me, whoa. He means well, that's what I keep repeating to myself. They all mean well. Admittedly, I want to get over it all, but I don't think I can. I guess something about trying to kill the guy you're in love with never really leaves you. I take another deep breath as I fill the kettle. As I turn it on, I freeze. His aura. I can sense Yusei's aura, it's just a twinkle but it's there. I can sense Jack stirring awake upstairs, probably the sound of the kettle. I focus on their auras. Jack's emotional state of meh as he wakes up. The brief flickers in which Yusei doesn't have full concentration. So many emotions in that twinkle of an aura. It feels so weak to me that I can't quite comprehend it all. Once I've poured another cup of coffee, I grip the edge of the counter and take deep breaths in an effort to prepare myself for going back into the garage. Why am I doing this? I shouldn't have to mentally prepare myself to be around Yusei. I like Yusei, I like being around him. Heck, just being around him makes me feel an awful lot better.

"Earlier, Crow said he'd go with you to get everything from your apartment later on." This is the first thing Yusei says when I sit down.

"Oh did he?" I glance at him as I sip my coffee.

"Yeah, his D-Wheel has the most room for you and since your apartment is too far away for you to walk, we decided to go with that." Is Yusei forgetting that I used to walk that distance twice a day for work? I mean Crow's D-Wheel doesn't have that much more space. Wait, if I went on Yusei's D-Wheel, we'd be way too close for comfort. Oh man, would that be awkward.

"Cool." Yusei's gaze lingers on me for a few seconds before he turns back to the computer. I curse the fact that I can't fully read Yusei's aura. What is he thinking? What is he feeling? Just knowing would take the weight off my chest.

We slip back into that silence, though it's not as comfortable as it once was. It isn't long until Jack gets up. Jack makes himself scarce. He comes into the garage for a few minutes, talking to Yusei about the new engine design or something, honestly I spaced out for most of it. Then he went back upstairs to do whatever he does, I have no idea to be honest. Nothing of particular interest happens until lunch time. There's some attempts at conversation from both ends between Yusei and I, but nothing sticks.


"You really didn't have to take a longer lunch just for me." I say as I ruffle my hair. Helmet hair just makes me sad, the tangles are a nightmare.

"When did you want to do this then?" Crow asks while fixing the collar of his Blackbird Delivery jacket. "I'm on the late shift today, and they want you out by tomorrow morning."

"That's true." I sigh, trying to turn the stupid key in the goddamn door. I swear this lock has never properly worked. I finally manage to get the door open.

"You weren't kidding when you said your apartment was tiny." I'm so glad I had cleaned my apartment the day before I dueled Raiden. It's relatively clean, except for the pile of clothes on my bed. I assume it's from Shinji and Emiko searching my wardrobe to find clothes for me when I was in hospital. I look around my apartment deciding what to do first. "What are you doing with the furniture, by the way?"

"It was here when I moved in, so I've leaving it here." I get some black bags from a press in the kitchenette. "Anything from the kitchen that has to be binned goes in here. Put everything else in another bag." I start dismantling the pile of clothes on my bed. Emiko was right, most of the clothes are old, worn and not really suited for everyday wear. Lots of party dresses which show a lot of skin and faded gym clothes. I take some of the normal dresses, few in number, and jackets and fold them into a gym bag. I throw the best of the gym clothes in too, before throwing the rest into a black bag. Most of my shoes end up in a black bag too. Heels that would make me taller than Yusei instantly get thrown into the bag, which, unfortunately, is most of them.

"Yuuka," I turn my head to look at Crow, "why is there no food in here at all?" He looks into the fridge.

"Shinji probably threw it all out when he was getting clothes for me." I shrug my shoulders, there wasn't a lot of food to start with in the first place. I manage to scoop all of my toiletries and makeup in two arm-fulls and put them in the gym bag on top of the clothes and shoes. I hurry as fast as I can so that Crow can get back to work as soon as possible.

I manage to fit everything I own into a gym bag and one black bag. It's almost depressing, that my entire life fits into two bags. Having taken my necklace out from under the now bare pillow, I fiddle with it in my hand.

"You travel light, don't you?" Crow looks down at the bags with a raised eyebrow. He spots the necklace in my hand. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yep." I move the necklace in my hand, so that the ring hangs down in plain view. I found a plain ring back in the Satellite. I assume it may have been a low end men's wedding band. A younger me decided it would be nice on a necklace since my fingers were too small. I remember being so excited that the ring seemed to match Jack's, though he had his ring on a necklace for as long as I knew him. That's why I stopped wearing it. Once Jack's security guards turned me away, I couldn't bear to look at the necklace and I just kept it underneath my pillow. I suppose that I have no reason to not wear it anymore. I know Jack bore no ill will. I was just too blinded by my own pain to see that. I tie the necklace around my neck. I look down at it, I almost missed that light weight around my neck.

"Are you ready to go?" Crow picks up both bags and moves towards the door.

"Yeah, just give me a minute." I take a step towards the door and look around the room. All of the presses and drawers are open just a smidge. Just enough so I can see that they're empty. The bed is bare of sheets, the pillow sitting on the folded up sheets. The emptiness of the apartment makes me feel a little hollow. This apartment was a huge stepping stone for me. I managed to get out on my own. I didn't have to rely on any one person all of the time. I had my own space. Now I don't have that. I can feel the tears starting to burn my eyes, but I suppress them. Maybe leaving this apartment is my way of leaving Raiden completely behind. Though, deep down, I know that's not true. Raiden had a hold of my heart in a way that no one else did. I notice that Crow has already left, bringing the bags down to the Blackbird. I sigh, closing the door behind me. It takes me a couple of seconds to leave the key underneath the mat. Putting down that key means never coming back here. Leaving behind that chapter of my life. Then, I realise. I already have. I've gotten Raiden out of my life completely, I was ready to leave Black Flag. Putting down the mat, I walk down to Crow beside the Blackbird.

"You doing okay?" Crow looks at me, his head slightly tilted. I, then, realise that my eyes are probably a bit red, so I rub them with my hands.

"Yeah, it's just a weird feeling moving out." I'm about to pick up my helmet when someone calls my name.

"Yuuka! Hey!" Anako does a little jog to reach Crow and I. "How you doing? You feeling better?" She puts her hand on her hip.

"Oh hey Anako. Yeah, yeah, getting better." I move to introduce Anako and Crow, but Anako keeps talking.

"Oh that's good. I was so worried about you." She puts her hand over her heart and pouts. "Did Shinji give you my number by the way? He said he would, but I don't think he has." She scoffs. I notice then that I'm practically the same height as Anako. Our builds aren't too dissimilar either, though I'm a bit stockier than she is.

"No, he hasn't actually." I tap my finger against my chin. I can see Crow texting from the corner of my eye. I spot Aki's name at the top of the screen.

"I knew he didn't." Anako rolls her eyes in a very exaggerated way. I hand her my phone and she puts her number. "Kaoru said you were going to moving out today so I've been waiting around here for a while." I raise my eyebrow. I will admit, that's a bit creepy. "Oh Kaoru's coming along so great in his training, he's a natural." She thinks that I was confused about Kaoru. "And he's so sweet too. We've been talking a lot, he's really nice." Wait, hold on. I mumble out some response. "Are you doing anything Christmas next week? Reika invited me over to hers."

"No idea actually. Ugh, you just reminded me that I have to sort out presents." I hold my hand in front of my mouth. What am I even going to do for that? I have like a lot of friends and no money. Last year, I had some money and three friends.

"Do you know what Kaoru is doing?" Yep, Anako definitely likes my brother.

"Nah, he's probably gonna have dinner with Kasumi." Even the mere thought of that woman makes my stomach churn.

"If you find out, tell me." Anako glances over to Crow. She looks like she only just acknowledged his existence. "Oh gods, I'm so sorry. I'll let you two go." She bows slightly before she scurries off, leaving as quickly as she came. She turns back for a split second. "Call me if you need anything." She winks before running off. What does she know?

"Is she always like that?" Crow mumbles once Anako's out of earshot.

"A chatterbox, yeah." I pick up my helmet again. "Right, let's get back." Crow stashes everything that's not the gym bag into the space at the back of his D-Wheel. I pull the strap of the gym bag over my head so that it goes across my chest, with the bag flat on my back. Driving back makes me realise how much I miss riding D-Wheels. As soon as I got my licence, I got my powers so I never got a D-Wheel for myself. The wind in your face, the exhilaration. I love it. Something about it just inspires a wanderlust in me. A want to leave this godforsaken City behind me and move on to greener pastures.