Note: Two of the cards used in this duel are my own invention. I take full responsibility for questionable effects and/or Quechua translations. Thanks once again to Gin no Ryuu for her valuable input regarding duels.

Aki Cuts Down a Tree

By: SilvorMoon

Yusei parked his D-Wheel and turned off the engine. He stood and listened a moment, scanning the streets and buildings for any signs of life, but the world was still and silent. It unnerved him. Seeing all of Neo Domino city disappear into a cloud of fog - that, he could handle. The city had never really been real to him. It was a magical world, an enchanted palace, something out of a fairy tale. Somewhere deep down, he hadn't quite believed it existed as anything more than a collection of lights on the other side of the water.

This was his home, though. This was real. And the most important part of it was gone.

He climbed down the ladder that led to the abandoned pipeline where he and his friends had carved out their living space. There were still lights down there, running off the generator he'd built. They were faint, nearly out of power, but bright enough that he could fool himself for a few minutes that there was still someone down there. Maybe there was. Maybe down here below the ground, they'd been safe from the fog...

There was no one there. Yusei checked the rooms where Taka and Nerve and Blitz slept, and where Rally's hammock hung, but everything was empty. Yusei found himself walking around staring at things, as though he expected to find his friends hiding under a stack of papers or tucked under a pillow.

I wasn't even here...

Guilt stung at him. All this time, he had been living in Goodwin's mansion, spending money on whatever he pleased and being waited on by servants, spending time with his new friends, while everyone here had been waiting for him to come back. He shook himself.

There's nothing I could have done here, he told himself. And I'm not doing anyone any good hanging around here.

All the same, he found himself reluctant to leave. This was his home. He'd missed it. It was easy to be lulled into a sense that he'd be safe as long as he stayed there.

He was jerked from his thoughts by a sudden flash of heat running up his arm, as though something were melting. He pushed up his sleeve to see his mark burning there, bright enough to light up the dim room. Then as he watched, the red lines flickered and disappeared... and then redrew themselves into a new shape. Yusei found himself looking into the eye of the red dragon. It pulsed a few times, and Yusei had the odd sensation that it was settling into his skin.

"What is going on out there?" he asked aloud.

He rushed back outside and stood staring up at the sky. The colored lightning was still winding its way across the sky, but only in sporadic flashes. There were other lights, though, glowing against the darkness of the sky as though projected onto a screen. Yusei didn't like the look of them.

That's where I'm needed, he decided, and he returned to his D-Wheel and drove.


Aki had found the tower at last. It was a wicked-looking thing, a great pointed spike that speared the sky. She had even found a little control room with a slot in it that looked as though it would accept a card. She had wavered for a few minutes, deciding whether or not she should insert the Black Rose Dragon, or whether she should wait a while longer to see if any more danger would turn up. Misty had promised that she would get there, and Aki was sure that turning the tower off would probably do no good if Misty just came and turned it on again. But where wasshe? It had been a long time already...

When she did at last hear footsteps, she almost didn't notice them. After all, she was waiting for Misty to arrive, and her ears were attuned to the sound of a woman's light footfalls. This was a man's confident tread, and so familiar to her that it took her some time to realize that it was out of place.

Then a voice said, "Hello, Aki. Imagine finding you way out here."

Her head jerked up. Standing a few feet away was her old teacher. He was dressed in clothing she'd never seen before, black and trimmed in violet, with a cloak flung over his shoulders like a royal robe. He was smiling at her pleasantly, as if he had just happened to run into her downtown somewhere and was thinking of perhaps inviting her to join him for lunch.

"Divine," she said.

"Surprised to see me?" he asked. "Aki, you know there is nowhere you can go that I won't seek you out. You see, I'm very forgiving. Even if you abandon me, I won't forget about you."

"I... I didn't mean to abandon you," she stammered. She hated herself for it. She knew she had left him for very good reasons. He had mistreated her badly. She'd had every right to walk away from him. She knew that, and yet, seeing him here in front of her, it was all she could do not to fling herself at him and beg for his forgiveness.

"Of course you didn't," said Divine soothingly. "I understand. You've been listening to outsiders again, haven't you? Aki, angel, you knowbetter than that. You know all they want to do is use you. They'll cast you aside as soon as they're done with you. Isn't that how it's always been?"

"You... you were going to do it too," she said, her voice weak and shrill in her own ears. "You were going to sell me. You experimented on me. I saw the papers."

Divine shook his head sadly. "Aki... I was going to hire you. You aren't averse to getting a job someday, are you? I was merely looking for someone who would be able to make use of your particular talents, and trying to negotiate a reasonable salary for you. There's nothing wrong with wanting to make sure my favorite student does well in the world, is there?"

Aki hesitated. She had been certain of what she had read in those folders, but... she had read them in a haze of confusion and fear, and they weren't there now for her to look at and reassure herself with. Divine sounded so confident, so sincere...

He took a few paces forwards. "Don't worry. I don't blame you. But you understand, don't you, that your actions are going to have consequences..."

"What kind of consequences?" she asked.

"That depends," said Divine calmly, "on how cooperative you decide to be. We can settle this without fighting."

Aki began to ask how she could do that, and then caught herself. Settle this? Settle what? Very carefully, she asked, "Just what are we supposed to be fighting about?"

Divine smiled at her. It suddenly struck her that it was not a nice smile, that it had never been a nice smile.

"The world, Aki," he said. "We're fighting about the world... and what we are going to do with it."

"I'm not going to do anything with it," she said automatically. "I just want to go home, to my parents. And my friends."

He shook his head: Poor, misguided Aki.

"We've been over this before," he said. "You don't have any friends. Your family doesn't want you."

"Yes, they do," said Aki. "I saw my father."

"Oh, really?" asked Divine. Again, he gave her that gentle, pitying smile. "And what did you see? Does your father usually have black eyes and a glowing mark on his arm? Can he usually summon rings of fire?"

"No, but..."

"It was a stock," he said. "A fake. Merely a phantom conjured up to delay and confuse you - something to keep you busy until Misty had the time to come finish you off herself."

"But..." she said, and trailed off. She had been so sure it had been her father, but Divine sounded so calm and sensible, so sure of himself, that it was hard to make herself doubt him.

"As for your friends," he continued, "if they care so much about you, why aren't they here? This is a dangerous area. They shouldn't have let you wander off alone like this."

"They trust me," she said. "They... they know I can do this on my own."

"When have you ever been able to do anything on your own?" asked Divine softly. "What have you ever accomplished that wasn't because of my help, or because you had a rich father to support you... or so-called friends to tell you what to do?"

"I..." Aki began, and stopped. She bit her lip, trying to maintain her courage.

"That's right," said Divine. "You never have. What makes you so sure that this time is going to be different? Because they told you that you were a Signer, and that you're some sort of legendary hero? Haven't you always told me that your mark was a curse and brought you nothing but bad luck?"

She said nothing. Divine smiled at her.

"That's better," he said. "Now, let's settle down and see if we can work this matter out peacefully."

"What matter?" she asked.

"This whole messy business with the Signers and the Dark Signers," he answered calmly. "It shouldn't have to be settled with fighting. Turning friends against friends... it's just too cruel. You surely don't want to fight me, do you?"

"No," she said.

"And I don't want to fight you," Divine replied. "How could I? No, what I want is for the two of us to work together. We can end the fighting here, and put an end to everyone's suffering. Wouldn't you like that?"

"Are... are you sure that's possible?" she asked doubtfully.

"Of course I'm sure," he said. "Just put down your Duel Disk and come join me. Help me. We can fix this whole thing together."

His voice was low, soothing, almost making her drowsy. Without even thinking about it, Aki began to unfasten her Duel Disk. She let it drop from her arm and clatter to the ground, and then began walking slowly towards him. He gave her an encouraging smile.

"That's right. Good girl. Just let me take care of everything..."

Aki had made it halfway to him when she was stopped short by a stabbing pain in her arm. She jerked awake, swatting at the mark on her arm as though it were a fly. She blinked a few times. Awake? Had she been sleepwalking? She looked at Divine and saw a look of consternation flash across his face before quickly vanishing. She thought of his hypnotic voice...

He's manipulating me, she realized. Just like always.

"No," she said.

"Aki, don't be stubborn..."

"I will be," she said. "And I won't let you take care of everything. It's time for me to start taking care of myself."

Divine scowled. "I didn't want it to come to this, but if you are going to be willful, than I'm afraid you leave me no choice. I'm going to have to find some other way to persuade you."

He made a swift movement, and Aki had just enough time to register the blaze of light that appeared in his hand and recognize what he was about to do. She dove out of the way, and a fireball whizzed over her shoulder, closely enough that it singed her hair as it passed and left a smouldering patch on her shoulder. She fell to the ground and rolled. The fireball hit the ground, leaving a patch of melted-looking asphalt and a haze of noxious smoke. Aki made a grab for her Duel Disk and hurriedly strapped it to her arm before she'd even gotten to her feet. Divine smiled at her, tolerantly, as though she were a misbehaving toddler whose antics mildly amused him.

"Are you going to duel me, then?" he asked.

"You just tried to kill me," said Aki, her voice full of disbelief.

"Of course not," he said. "I tried to hurt you. I wouldn't have killed you with that. Don't worry - I've tested you extensively. I know exactly where your limits are."

His expression never changed; his voice stayed as pleasant as if he were talking about the weather.

He's insane, Aki thought numbly. He didn't regret hurting her at all - in fact, he seemed rather pleased with his cleverness. For a moment, something like despair washed over her. All this time, she had been telling herself that the world was all right as long as Divine loved her...

Then she got angry. Power flared around her in a red nimbus, making her hair and dress flutter in an unseen wind.

"You want to hurt me?" she said. "You lied to me. You used me. You experimented on me like I was an animal. You broke my heart. You think you know where my limit is? Well, you... just... crossed it."

Divine stepped back, his smile faltering. "Now, Aki, just calm down..."

"No," she said. She snapped her cards into the Duel Disk. "Now we duel."

Divine faltered a moment, but then relaxed, all smiles again. There even seemed to be a glint of triumph in his eyes, and Aki wondered fleetingly if she had made the wrong choice.

"Very well," he said. "As the challenged party, I'll take the first turn. I summon Krebons in attack mode! Then I set one card and end my turn."

Aki pressed her lips together as she rapidly sorted through her options. She knew Divine's style well, but it was by nature unpredictable, with his life points fluctuating widely throughout the game. She would have to be on her guard, ready for anything. Had she ever been able to beat him in a serious duel? A few days ago she would have said yes, but that was before she had known just how much he had lied to her. She would just have to assume she couldn't be sure of anything, now, including his playing style. Better to take an offensive and get as much of an advantage as she could as soon as possible.

"I summon Evil Thorn," she declared. "By tributing this monster, I can deal three hundred points of damage to you, and summon two more Evil Thorns in its place."

A flower bloomed on her field as she spoke - bloomed, and promptly exploded, spraying shrapnel everywhere. Divine flinched as he was sprayed with bits of metal. Aki tried not to let the sight bother her. It reminded her too much of how he'd looked when the jewelry box had struck him.

"Now I play the spell card Closed Plant Gate," she continued. "For the next turn, you can't attack."

"Well played," said Divine, as though this were just another lesson. "I'm glad to see you aren't going to disappoint me."

"This isn't a game!" said Aki. "Take me seriously!"

"I am taking you seriously," said Divine. "And this is a very serious game. In a few more turns, you'll see just how serious it is. Now... since there is no point in attacking, I will simply set a monster in defense mode and turn things back over to you." He made one of his little bows, as though he were holding open a door for her. "Your move."

He's mocking me,Aki thought, feeling herself growing angry. Anger helped clear her mind a little. If she could stay angry at him, she could fight him.

"Fine," she said. "I sacrifice my Evil Thorns to summon Gigaplant."

If Divine felt any unease at seeing such a large and powerful monster appearing before him, his face didn't show it. If anything, he looked rather smug. Aki tried to ignore it.

"Gigaplant, attack his monster!" she ordered. The giant plant obediently lashed out with a vine tentacle and crushed the face-down card. Aki got a brief glimpse of Divine's monster before it vanished into sparks. Divine barely flinched. Aki frowned; this was all wrong. He was playing so passively. He should have at least used some sort of special effect - every monster in his deck had a special effect of some sort. Had death made him careless? No, he had to have something up his sleeve...

"I end my turn," she said.

"That's all?" asked Divine. "Aki, dearest, are you losing your nerve so soon? The fight has barely started. Very well. I summon Psychic Snail. However, since attacking your Gigaplant would be quite foolish, I will set one card and end my turn."

Aki frowned. He had left his monster in attack mode, which was an obvious invitation to attack, and those face-down cards were an equally obvious indication that he was setting her up for a trap. Then again, he was playing so strangely today, and his jibe about losing her nerve had stung. What kind of duelist would she be if she let herself be cowed into refusing to attack when she had a chance? But that didn't mean she couldn't buy herself a little insurance...

"I activate Gigaplant's special effect!" she said. "Because it is a Gemini monster, I can summon it a second time. From now on, once per turn, I can special summon a second Plant-type monster, and I choose Lord Poison!"

Divine shook his head pityingly.

"Trap card," he said. "Raigeki Break. By discarding a card from my hand, I can destroy one of your monsters. Your Gigaplant is destroyed."

Aki tried not to let her dismay show as her monster dissolved into flecks of light.

"I still have one monster remaining," she said. "Lord Poison, attack Krebons."

"I activate Krebons' effect," said Divine. "By paying eight hundred life points, your attack is negated."

Aki frowned a little. The damage he would have taken by letting Lord Poison's attack go through was far less than the points he had spent to keep his monster on the field. He must have been planning something - summoning something, most likely. Well, two could play that game.

"I set two cards and end my turn," she said.

Divine calmly drew his next card.

"You seem so confident," he said. "I wonder why. Haven't you figured anything out yet?"

"There's nothing to figure out," said Aki. "You and I are dueling, and I'm going to win."

"Really? And here I thought you'd done your homework," said Divine. "Didn't you know about the experiments?"

Aki regarded him warily. "What about them?"

"Well, you know, I did have to take a few precautions," said Divine. "Your power is very strong - stronger than I could ever dream of being. I had to find some way to keep your abilities from getting away from you. You understand that it was really best for all of us if I found some way of controlling you in an emergency."

"Controlling...?" Aki repeated.

"Of course," Divine replied. "To keep you from hurting anyone. It's really for your own good. I installed a few safeguards - ways of reigning you in if you should ever get out of hand..."

Aki stared at him. "You wouldn't."

"I could," he said. "I would rather not, but I could. I would much prefer that you give in voluntarily. I will give you... hm, two turns. That should be enough. Think carefully, my dear. I would hate to see something happen that we'd both regret."

"You wouldn't regret it," Aki blurted out.

Divine just smiled. "Two more turns. I summon Psychic Jumper. Then I can tune him to Krebons and Psychic Snail to summon Thought Ruler Archfiend."

Aki grimaced as the fiendish monster appeared on the field in a crackle of electricity. It was one of his best monsters; the fact that he'd summoned it now meant he felt he was closing in for the kill.

"Thought Ruler, my pupil is in need of a lesson," he said. "Attack Lord Poison."

The Archfiend flourished its wings and shot a blast of energy. Aki could feel the heat of its fire washing over her, but she gritted her teeth and bore it. She refused to show any weakness now.

"I activate Lord Poison's effect," she said. "I can re-summon Gigaplant."

A vine sprouted from the ground, shooting upwards and expanding at a rapid rate. Divine watched with an expression of mild interest.

"My, my," he murmured. "So impressive. I suppose I had better end my turn now, hadn't I?"

Aki frowned. Divine was a better duelist than to let a turn go by with nothing more than a single attack. Shouldn't he have at least set some cards? She shouldn't worry about it - why be upset if he was giving her an advantage? - but she couldn't believe he would make a careless mistake like that.

"I summon Grow-Up Bulb," she said, "and I tune it to my Gigaplant to summon Black Rose Dragon!"

"Not so fast," said Divine. "Trap Card - Mind Over Matter! By sacrificing a Psychic-type monster, I can negate the summoning of your monster and destroy it."

There was a flash as his Thought Ruler Archfiend abruptly exploded, with enough force to take the Black Rose Dragon along with it.

"You destroyed your own monster just for that?" she asked.

"You'd be surprised," said Divine. "Have you anything else you'd like to try?"

Aki scowled and slotted two facedown cards into her Disk. "Turn end."

"Watch and learn, my dear," said Divine. "I play the Field Spell, Reincarnation Road. Next, I'll trigger the trap card Premature Burial. At a cost to my life points, I can resummon Thought Ruler Archfiend."

The demon reappeared on the field. Divine smiled placidly.

"Now, here we are again," he said. "Except this time, you have no way to summon your dragon. Thought Ruler, attack her directly."

"Trap card, open! Ground Capture!" Aki exclaimed. "Your monster's attack is halved!"

The Archfiend gave a shriek as its attack points were cut in half, but that didn't stop it from pouncing on her and slashing her with its sharp talons. She flinched away from it, feeling its wings buffeting her as it leapt away again.

"Not the most effective dodge," said Divine. "I'd hoped to see more of you, Aki. I think we had better wrap this up quickly, don't you? Take your turn."

"Just this once, I'll agree with you," said Aki. "I play the trap card Wicked Rebirth! By paying eight hundred of my life points, I can bring Black Rose Dragon back from the grave!"

Divine looked unruffled. "Well played, but the dragon's attack points are still less than my Archfiend's."

"Then I'll use that," she said. "From my hand I activate the spell card Mark of the Rose! By removing a plant-type monster in my graveyard from play, I can equip this card to your monster and gain control of it for this turn... and that's all I need." She bowed her head. "I don't want to do this, but it has to be done. Thought Ruler Archfiend, attack."

An image of a blooming rose appeared on the Archfiend's forehead, glowing redly. It turned on Divine with a snarl, and Aki looked away.

"It's over," she said. "I win."

She finally mustered her courage enough to turn to look at him, to convince herself that he was truly dead. He was lying facedown on the ground, perfectly still. He didn't even seem to be breathing. His eyes were open, staring at nothing. Aki wanted to look away, but there was something that seemed off to her, something more than the fact that she was looking at a dead body. She felt like it was something important...

His cards were still on the field. She stared at them, feeling a creeping sense of dread run down her spine.

What does that field spell do?

Even as she watched, the card began to glow gently with a pale light. They played over Divine's body, shimmering on his hair and clothes. His fingers twitched. Very slowly, he raised his head and began pushing himself to his feet. He dusted his clothes off, as if he had done nothing more serious than trip. Aki remained motionless, frozen by the sight of a dead man getting up and walking. Then he raised his eyes to look at her.

"You really shouldn't have done that," he said.

"What are you doing? What just happened?" Aki demanded.

"My field spell card is in effect. When the Reincarnation Road is in effect, my life doesn't run out when I die. I can summon one monster, as long as I can meet its summoning requirements, and it becomes my avatar. And it happens that I have one monster in my deck, now, that is exactly suited to this occasion."

Something was happening on the field. Something small was wiggling there. A worm? No, it was a sprout, growing rapidly, putting out leaves one after another. Its stem was black, and the leaves had an unhealthy purple sheen to them. Aki recoiled.

"What is that?" she demanded.

"Now, now. That's no way to speak in the presence of a god," said Divine mildly. "This, you see, is a very special monster. When my life points reach zero, I can special summon Earthbound God Pachamuyu Sach'a. All the life points I lost are transferred to him - all four thousand of them."

There was a roar. The plant shot up, shredding the earth as roots unfurled in all directions and branches fountained to the sky. Aki was thrown off her feet, and had to scramble wildly to avoid being crushed by the writhing roots. She cowered on the ground with her arms over her head while bits of pavement and dirt rained down all around her. When the tumult stilled, she raised her head to see that a massive tree had sprouted in front of her. Its trunk was as wide as any office building, and its branches seemed to blot out the sky, leaving only a shifting network of purplish leaves. Perched on one of the arching aerial roots was Divine himself, watching her with a smile. It wasn't his usual charming smile, but a feral grin that showed too many teeth, and his eyes had a strange violet glow to them.

"What did you do?" Aki demanded.

"It would be better to ask what you did," Divine answered. "This is your fault, you know. You caused this."

"I... I didn't..."

"You did," he insisted. "You were the one who killed me, Aki. You disobeyed my orders, and because of that, I died. It was your power and your disobedience that brought me to this. I have every right to take my revenge on you now."

"I didn't mean to hurt you," she protested.

Divine shook his head. "Do you think that matters? I'm still dead. My soul still belongs to Pachamuyu Sach'a. And I will still suffer tortures you can't imagine because of what you did. Do you think saying you didn't mean to do it is going to matter?"

"But... but I..."

"There is only one way to make this right," he continued. "Give up. Surrender yourself to the Earthbound Gods and take my place. You can still save me, if you want to. It's your choice, Aki. Are you going to leave me here to suffer, or will you set me free?"

"I..."

Aki hesitated, struggling with her loyalties. Everything within her said that her first duty was to Divine; that he had given everything to her and that she should repay him, even with her life, if necessary. And yet...

What do you want to do? Yusei's voice seemed to whisper to her.

"I... I won't do it!" she said.

Divine looked at her blankly. "You won't?"

"No," said Aki. She began levering herself to her feet. "I didn't ask you to sell yourself to the Earthbound Gods. You chose that on your own. I didn't want to be trained to kill people, but you trained me to become a soldier. You shouldn't be surprised now that I'm doing what you taught me to do."

"Then you leave me no choice," said Divine. "It gives me no pleasure to see you die, but since I am commanded... Pachamuyu Sach'a, destroy the Black Rose Dragon."

The tree stirred, unearthing one of its massive roots and raising it ponderously into the air. It lashed out at the Black Rose Dragon, who met it with a roar of defiance. It exploded in a burst of green fire, which engulfed Pachamuyu Sach'a's root. The air was split by a screech that bordered on the supersonic. Aki winced; she had never imagined that a tree could scream. The root retreated and burrowed back under ground, looking scorched. Aki felt a little scorched, too, but she remained standing. Her two facedown cards had flipped face up.

"Your attack has activated my trap card," she said. "By the effects of Half-Counter, during During damage calculation, my dragon gained attack points equal to half your monster's attack points, which brought its total to forty-four hundred points."

"I take no damage," said Divine. "The god absorbs the damage for me. Its attack is reduced to thirty-six hundred. You still have nothing in your deck that powerful, and your dragon is gone."

"I'm not done yet," she said. "I still have my second card."

A little green sprout began probing and curling its way up from the ground behind her. Divine raised an eyebrow, his expression amused.

"Are you really going to try...?"

She nodded. "I called out a tree of my own."

The sprout wiggled its way into becoming a sapling. It spread out sticky green leaves, more and more of them, growing taller as it went. Soon it was tall enough to tower over the field, nearly as large as the demon tree. Its leaves glowed as though shafts of sunlight were beaming through it.

"This is The World Tree. Every time a plant-type monster is destroyed," she said, "my tree will gain a flower token."

"All of which will be utterly useless," said Divine. "My monster is immune to the effects of spells and traps. Unfortunately, I can't attack with any other monsters when Pachamuyu Sach'a is on the field, so I end my turn."

Aki nodded grimly and drew her next card.

He's right. I don't know if I can get out of this. What difference does it make if I'm more powerful than him now? My abilities aren't going to get me out of this...

A thought tickled her mind, and her gaze strayed towards the field spell card that was sitting innocently on the corner of Divine's playing area. She had never seen anything like it before. She wondered where exactly he'd gotten it.

Can he use that effect twice? she wondered. If that card could be used to summon yet another monster in the unlikely event that she dealt with his Earthbound God, she doubted she would be able to survive another such encounter. As long as she wasn't fully certain what it could do, it was safer to be rid of it. Even if it didn't help her with the problem at hand, she felt ready at this point to do anything that would hinder Divine even a little bit.

"On my standby phase, Thought Ruler Archfiend returns to my side of the field because of the Mark of Rose," she said. "I'll sacrifice it to summon Rose Tentacles in defense mode."

The fiend vanished, to be replaced by a rose surrounded by a tangle of spiked vines. It wouldn't be nearly enough to protect her from the tree's attack, but for the moment, all she could do was stall. She set a trap card face-down and ended her turn.

"Are you determined to keep fighting, then?" Divine asked her. "Does it give you so much pleasure to keep hurting me?"

"Just play," she told him.

"Very well. If that's how it must be... Pachamuyu Sach'a, remove her monster."

The great tree's roots lashed out again. Aki flinched. Destroying a defense monster shouldn't have harmed her, but the sense of lurking menace was unnerving. The tree god was patient. It knew that with time, it could wear her defenses down bit by bit, as a tree's roots could crack a great stone. It was going to crack her and grind her to dust, one monster at a time.

"A activate my tree's effect," she said. "You've destroyed one of my plant type monsters, so I can add a flower counter."

A pale flower opened on the green tree, just above Aki's head. Its scent drifted down to her, soothing her. She didn't know how it could be that what should have been a hologram could have a scent, but she was grateful for the courage it gave her.

"I place a monster in defense mode," she said.

Divine shook his head sadly. "Don't think I don't know what you're trying. You want to use your World Tree's effect to destroy my god. It won't work. The Earthbound Gods are immune to the effects of spells and traps."

"I'm doing it anyway," she said.

"So rebellious," Divine murmured. "I have to wonder who you learned it from. Certainly not from me."

He gave another command, and the Botanical Lion Aki had set dissolved into sparks. The flailing root nearly struck Aki's face as it whipped past, and she flinched.

Whatever I summon, the god will destroy it. All Divine has to do now is to draw a card that will let him do direct damage to me and he'll win. I don't know what I can do to stop him...

Divine seemed to be having the same sorts of thoughts.

"You can't defeat a god," he said. "Even if by some miracle you could boost one of your monsters' attacks high enough to inflict damage, Pachamuyu Sach'a won't be destroyed. You can't use spells or traps against it. All you can do is keep summoning defense monsters until you run out. Join us voluntarily - it will be less painful for all of us."

Aki hesitated. It did seem hopeless. Maybe she had failed already. There was no monster in her deck strong enough to do that kind of damage, even if there hadn't been an eldritch tree in her path. Maybe it really was time to surrender...

Divine seemed to know what she was thinking. He gave her a reassuring smile and held out a hand to her, inviting her to come join her. She looked up reflexively to follow the motion, and she met his eyes.

It was the smile that did it. Something inside her responded to that smile - not with warmth, but with sudden anger. He was doing it again! Couldn't he stop trying to charm her, even when their lives were on the line? Didn't he ever stop trying to meddle with her life?

I can do what I want. My power is mine. No one should tell me what to do with my own gifts, or my deck, or my life. Not him, not anyone!

She felt a sudden surge of power, and she glanced down to see that the dragon's birthmark on her arm was shining. It felt warm and comforting, and its light cut through the gloom cast by Pachamuyu Sach'a's leaves. For a brief instant, she felt herself connected to Yusei, to Jack, to Rua and Ruka, to someone whose name she didn't know, but who she knew instinctively was her ally in this fight. They were all bound together by these marks. She was not alone - she would never be alone again, as long as those marks existed. She looked back at Divine, and felt the last of her ties with him fall away. She didn't need him to guide her anymore.

"Not happening," she said. "My turn! I activate World Tree's effect. By removing two flower counters, I can destroy one spell or trap card on the field, and I choose to destroy your field spell!"

The spell card exploded into green sparks. Divine suddenly looked a bit green too. He looked desperately at the space of empty air where his card had been, and then up at the Earthbound God. It was shaking as though a high wind was blowing through it. One of its strange purple leaves detached itself and blew away into the night. More followed, and still more, whirling away like a flock of startled crows, until there was nothing left but bare branches. The empty branches made the tree look withered and sickly next to Aki's vibrant World Tree. Aki looked at it and realized she had no fear of it anymore, just as she no longer feared its human pawn.

She was going to destroy it.

"Now I play my trap card, Overdoom Line! Any monsters I special summon from the graveyard this turn will gain one thousand attack points. Next, I play Monster Reborn to summon Black Rose Dragon!"

White light flared, bright enough that even Pachamuyu Sach'a's black trunk looked pale in its light. The dragon emerged, flaring its petals and bellowing a battle cry. Aki smiled faintly.

Thank you, Papa.

"Now, I'll equip Thorn of Malice," she continued, "to raise my dragon's attack to four thousand points!"

The Black Rose Dragon breathed out a stream of flames. They engulfed the tree, making its branches wither and its bark steam. The earth shook as the World Tree burned and collapsed. She closed her eyes and waited for it to be over.

When the sound quieted, Aki looked up again. There was no tree, no cards, only Divine lying sprawled in the dust. She walked over to him and looked at him. She had expected to feel something - grief, guilt, regret. Instead, she felt tired. He had taken everything she had to give him, and offered nothing in return, and now she was empty of all feelings for him. She watched him as his body crumbled into black dust.

"Don't tell me what to do," she said, and turned to walk away.

Not far away, the control tower loomed. She approached it automatically and placed her card in the slot. The machine gave a rumble, and she had just enough presence of mind to snatch up her dragon and make a run for it. A dozen yards away, he paused and looked back to see the tower simply fold itself up and sink into the earth.

Well, that's done, she thought. Now what? She had won, of course. Presumably she had done what she'd been sent there to do: defeated a Dark Signer and hopefully prevented the end of the world from coming to pass. It felt like such an empty victory, though...

Her attention was caught by the distant sound of an engine, its soft sound strangely piercing in the otherwise silent city. Aki turned towards the sound, and a moment or two later, she saw the bright red shape of Yusei's D-Wheel moving against the dull gray landscape. Within seconds, he had pulled up next to her.

"Are you all right?" he asked, as he removed his helmet. "I saw the lights in the sky."

"Divine and I dueled," she admitted.

"I take it you won."

Aki bowed her head. "He won't bother anyone again."

Yusei stood and went to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You did well," he said. "I'm proud of you. You see, I told you that you could do it."

She mustered a weak smile. "I know. I remembered." She raised her eyes to meet his. "Thank you. I couldn't have done it alone."

"You did do it alone," he pointed out. "Unless there's someone else here..."

"That's not what I mean," she said. "I felt it, for an instant - we were all connected through these marks. You and me and Rua and Ruka and Jack... and someone else, too. I saw him."

"The fifth Signer?" Yusei asked. He looked immensely relieved. "That's good news. I hope he gets here soon."

As if on cue, there was a rumble in the distance. Both Yusei and Aki looked towards it expectantly, but it was only a pair of jeeps, driven by Mikage and Ushio. The twins were napping in the back seat of one of the vehicles, apparently dead to the world.

"What are you two doing way out here?" was Ushio's greeting.

"Dueling Dark Signers, apparently," said Yusei. "Aki was, at least. I haven't found any yet. Have you?"

"These two did," said Mikage, gesturing at the sleeping twins. "You wouldn't believe it, but they each took one out by themselves."

"No wonder they look exhausted," said Aki. "That must have been hard on them."

"They're some tough little kids, that's for sure," Ushio agreed. "To tell the truth, I didn't think they had in them."

"So that's three Dark Signers down," Yusei mused. "I wonder how many are left? Was there one for each Signer? Or will they keep coming at us for as long as the gods can find vessels? I wish Goodwin had told us more..."

"We'll just have to deal with things as they come up," said Mikage briskly. "Look at it this way: we're making good progress. We've shut down two towers already. There are two more to go - possibly less than that. We don't know what the others are doing."

"Then we had better go find them," said Yusei. "And our missing Signer, whoever he is."

"There's more of you guys?" asked Ushio. "Huh. Well, guess we'd better hit the road, then."

Aki nodded and moved to sit next to Mikage. Yusei returned to his D-Wheel and slipped his helmet back on. Aki gave a little sigh of relief as she settled into her seat, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. She wished she was relaxed enough to sleep like Rua and Ruka, but her mind was still too full of thoughts to let her rest. Instead, she merely listened to the sounds of the engines running and relaxed in the knowledge that she was surrounded by friends. It was a novel experience. She realized suddenly that she wanted to win this fight - not because it was the right thing to do, not even because the world would end she didn't, but because she wanted the time to get to know these people.

It will be nice to have friends, she thought. She smiled a little. Even if they pick the strangest ways to get acquainted.


Rex's dreams were dark. Always, he had dreamed in vivid color and detail, but now he dreamed of wandering through shadows, being menaced by things he couldn't see. He struggled to wake up, but he couldn't seem to remember what being awake was like or how to do it anymore. The dreams had a physical weight that dragged him down, further from the waking world and deeper into the realms of sleep. After a while, it became hard to remember why he'd even wanted to wake up...

"Asleep on the job?" said a voice somewhere. "That won't do at all. This isn't a good place to sleep, and you have more important things you need to be doing."

He felt someone touch his cheek. It was a gentle touch - a woman's hand, smooth and soft. His dark world was penetrated by the sweet scent of honeysuckle perfume. He stirred a little, but the effort exhausted him, and he fell still again.

"Come on, Rexie. Wakey-wakey! Sleepy-time is over! It's time to rise and shine!"

Rex bridled. Who would dare speak to him that way, as though he were a child? Anger gave him the strength to wrench his eyes open and glare at whoever was who thought they could patronize him.

The shock of what he saw was enough to make him sit up the rest of the way.

"Keiko?" he exclaimed.

She laughed. "Hello, Rex. It's good to see you again."

He stared at her, uncomprehending. Fudo Keiko, the professor's wife, the darling of the lab, the woman who'd mothered him and everyone else well before she'd ever had a child of her own.

"You... am I dead?"

"No," she said, turning serious. "Not yet. But you're close - close enough that I can speak to you now. Besides, my know-it-all husband wasn't having much success with you, so I thought I might step in."

Rex raised an eyebrow. "Husband? I thought marriage was only till death do you part."

"We're not parted," said Keiko, smiling. "That would only happen if we had gone in different directions. But I'm not here to talk to you about death. It's too soon for that. Get up. Walk. You need to keep moving so you don't fall asleep again."

Goodwin nodded. There did seem to be an inertia about the place; already he could feel his limbs going numb again, his eyelids becoming heavy. With Keiko's help, he was able to push himself to his feet and begin a slow but steady walk.

"Talk to me," he said. "Give me something to focus on. If I'm not dead, where am I?"

"This is part of the underworld," Keiko replied. "A sort of limbo - the edge between life and death. If you stay too long here, you will die."

"How long is too long?"

"My data on that is a bit imprecise," she admitted. "Most people aren't flung in here headlong while they're still alive. I'm hoping you have until the end of the night, anyway."

"After that, it won't matter," he replied.

"Exactly," Keiko replied. "But before that, it matters immensely. Yusei and his friends will be here soon. They're going to need some help."

He gave her a skeptical look. "And you expect me to help them?"

"Hatori is busy, and I can only do so much. I'm breaking a few rules just by being here now," she said. "You're not much, but you're all we've got."

"Thank you so much for that vote of confidence."

She stepped quickly in front of him, looking up into his eyes. "Please. The world needs your help."

"I tried being helpful. I wasn't good at it," said Goodwin.

"Try again," Keiko urged. "Rex, I know you. You really believed in creating a better future for people, once. That's why you went to work on the MIDS project. It's why you tried to build the bridge. It's why you chose to become the Director. Are you really going to give up after you've come all this way?"

"I have done enough," he declared. "I have rebuilt this city and turned it into a utopia. I have gathered the Signers and put them on the path to saving the world. For seventeen years, I have been putting the world's interests above my own. I am tired beyond the point where I can care anymore. I am going to have what I want for a change."

Keiko looked at him, her head cocked in that birdlike way that meant she was giving something the full benefit of her concentration.

"And what is it you really want?" she asked.

"I want..." He let his shoulders slump, the fight going out of him. "I want to wake up and find out the last seventeen years have been a bad dream. I want everything to go back to the way it was. And I want my brother back."

"Oh, Rex, you poor boy," said Keiko.

She put her arms around him in a motherly hug - no small feat, given that she was a head shorter than him, but she managed it. It dawned on him suddenly that he was olderthan her now; that she would always be a vibrant young woman and he was gray-haired and tired. He didn't try to escape her embrace.

"You're right, you have done a lot," she said. "I'm sorry. I know how it feels, to be apart from a loved one..."

Yusei. She's talking about him...

Roughly, Rex pushed her away. He didn't want to hear how much she'd missed her child. Yusei had been only a squalling baby when she'd died; she had barely had time to get attached to him. Rudger had been the cornerstone of his world for his entire life. How could a single useless child compare to that? He knew it was wrong to feel that way and didn't care. He began to walk way again, half expecting Keiko to chase after him, but she stayed where she was.

"There's still a chance," she said.

Goodwin stopped. "A chance for what?"

"To help your brother. To make things right," said Keiko. "It's not the way you wanted, and it might not work, but..."

"There is still a chance?"

"That's what I came to tell you." He paused. He had honestly not believed that any chances were left. Truth be told, he might not have really believed that there was a chance when the Yliasters had told him that there was all those years ago. It had simply been something to do because he wasn't dead yet. They weren't the kind of people he could trust. He thought he could trust Keiko, though. Even if he couldn't, well... he was already dead. What did he have left to lose?

"All right," said Goodwin. He drew a deep breath and let it out. "Let's hear it."

To Be Continued...