"Yusei! Yusei!"
Yusei wasn't responding; Judai could see him on the screen, but with the visored helmet, it was hard to tell what his expression was. Was he okay? Why wasn't he responding? The Majestic Star tactic hadn't worked, and now only Daydream Neos stood in between Yusei and the Aesir.
I can't do anything , Judai thought, shaking. I can't do anything, I can't do anything, I can't do anything—
Yusei was out there alone. Judai couldn't be out there, dueling with him. Judai could not remember feeling so disconnected from Yusei, ever. The feelings of dueling together were gone. Yusei was alone and there was nothing Judai could do to help him.
"Yusei, please respond," Bruno said, his voice mostly calm despite the shake. "Yusei, we need to know you're all right."
There was still no response on the other end of the headset. Yusei and Harald both zoomed past the pit, and Yusei didn't even look at them.
He knew he was alone, too. He knew there was nothing they could do. Judai felt like he was going to pass out right there. He swayed, briefly, and Crow caught him by the back, holding him up.
"Hey!" he said, shaking Judai slightly. "Don't you dare make that fucking face! Don't you dare make a face like we've already lost!"
"I can't do anything," Judai mumbled, tears blurring his eyes. "Crow, there's nothing I can do. There's nothing we can do."
"That's not true!" Luka screamed. "It's not true at all! We're— we're always fighting together! We're always with him!"
Yusei ended his turn after switching Daydream Neos to defense mode. There wasn't any powre behind his dueling all of a sudden. It was as though, he too, had given up.
"Stop it!" Aki shouted, punching the dashboard. "All of you, stop— stop giving up!"
Tears rolled down her cheeks and her shoulders shook. Jack grabbed her by the shoulders hen she swayed, but he looked white and shaken, just like her. The gods' pressure continued to eat away at Judai's insides, and he couldn't breathe.
He felt a small, warm hand slide into his. The touch startled him, and he looked down.
Lua was holding his hand, looking far more composed than any of the rest of them. He stared forward, but...he didn't really seem to be looking at anything. He reached out with his other hand without looking, grabbing hold of Luka. Luka startled, and then her hand automatically slid down to grip his as she cried.
"I need everyone," Lua said. "I need all of the Signers."
"Lua, what are you..." Crow started.
Lua's skin began to glow faintly in thin, runic symbols, rivers of crimson running like circuits down his arms and up his face. Judai felt a new pressure in his stomach, but this one...this one wasn't controlling. It was more like the pressure of a warm blanket wrapped up to your ears, not at all like the crushing gravity of the Aesir.
"Lua?" Judai whispered.
Lua finally looked up at him, and his eyes were a full, glowing red in pools of white.
"Call for Yusei," he said. "You're the only one he'll hear. He needs to connect, and he's not listening."
"I..."
He looked up at the screen. Yusei's D-Wheel wobbled and he nearly spun out under the attack of the Aesir. Judai's heart stiffened up. If the other two gods attacked, Yusei would lose.
I can't lose him , he thought.
He felt Crow grip his other hand, and Aki grabbed Luka's. Jack took Aki's other hand, and after an awkward beat, Bruno awkwardly gripped Jack's. Judai could feel the heat rippling off of Lua, down his arm and up to his own heart and through to the other people holding hands.
Judai swallowed, and closed his eyes.
Yusei , he thought. Yusei.
Yusei could feel himself giving up.
He only barely managed to wrench himself back to safe position after his bike went out from the attack, zooming after Harald. But Harald was so far ahead of him, and the gods so huge and looming, and Daydream Neos was...
He felt a spark of heat, not on his arm, not on his back, but in his chest, right over his heart. Daydream Neos.
"When the monster that was Synchro Summoned by Masquerade's effect is destroyed, I can remove Masquerade in the Graveyard from play to end the battle phase and draw two cards!"
He drew. Speed Fusion and Yubel stared back at him. He almost laughed. Now? Now of all times? Stardust was in the graveyard. He couldn't summon Hourglass Dragon without a goddamn miracle.
That heat sparked in his heart again. He put the card away and put his hand over his chest, frowning. Was he having a heart attack? The end of the world was a hell of a time for that.
He felt a warmth in his hand, as though someone were gripping his hand.
"Yusei, please, answer me."
In his haze of frustration and panic, he hadn't been listening to the others in his headset. But Judai's voice finally broke through, soft, desperate.
"Judai?" he whispered, his voice cracking.
Judai gasped, choking softly on swallowed tears.
"I'm here," Judai said. "I'm here, Yusei."
"I don't know what to do," Yusei said, his voice cracking. "There's nothing I can do."
"You can, you can, Yusei, if anyone can, it's you. You're not alone."
He felt it. He hated to admit it, but he felt it. He looked up at the gods, glaring down at him where he zoomed down the track. Harald was so far ahead he could barely see him. The sky cracked and rumbled, and he could see the horizon, looking black and melted. The edges of the ocean were starting to fuzz. He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, or an effect of the holograms, or if the world were actually ending...but he felt as though it were the last one.
"I feel alone," he whispered. "Judai, I can't feel you."
Judai swallowed.
"I feel like I can't reach you," Judai said. "But...but please. Don't give up. Don't give up so that I can reach you when this is over."
Harald fell back so that he was near enough to look at Yusei over his shoulder.
"Will you take your turn, or will you finally surrender?" he said. "Let the world go, Fudo Yusei. You don't have to carry it."
It actually sounded gentle, which shocked Yusei. Let it go? Just...let it go? His shoulders briefly tensed, and then slumped. It was so hard. Too hard. Maybe it would be better to let go. It was too much to carry.
They came up on the pit again. Yusei's eyes flickered towards the Team 5D's side.
He saw Judai first, looking at him pale and worried. He saw the others next. They were standing, holding hands, and he felt that warmth in his hand as though someone else were gripping him. Then he was past and they were gone.
He still felt alone. His friends were far away, behind him.
But...
If this duel ended here, he would never come back around and see them again. He'd never reach them again. He'd end the world alone.
He drew a card.
"I activate my Speed Spell, Speed Return!" he said. "This card allows me to use a Speed Spell in my Graveyard, and I choose Angel Baton!"
Two more cards. These were his last chance. He hesitated before drawing them.
His heart warmed with a furious heat, and he gasped, eyes widening. The warmth surrounded him like an embrace, like wings folding around him.
He drew his last two cards, and looked down at them.
One of them was glowing red.
Immediately, the circuit in his mind formed. He saw it, each connection, spreading and glowing and hitting each card in succession, sending the Aesir tumbling down before something new, something that glowed and burned in Yusei's head.
The heat burned away every shred of loneliness, and he felt Judai's hand in his, and the heat of the others burning the tattoo on his back.
"I summon Junk Cobbler!" he said, putting aside the glowing card for now.
The tiny monster, looking like a pile of sprockets and bolts in the vague shape of a stumpy human with googly eyes, popped out beside Yusei and rolled alongside him.
"Junk Cobbler can be substituted for any one fusion material!" Yusei said. "For this turn, I'll treat it as Stadust Dragon!"
Junk Cobbler started pulling at its own sprockets and bolts, throwing them up in a comical cloud of dust. When the cloud faded, it looked like the same pile of junk, only this time in the vague shape of Stardust Dragon.
"From my hand I activate Speed Fusion! I fuse the Junk Cobbler on my field, with the Yubel in my hand!"
Immediately, Yusei's mind melded along with the fusion, and in a blink, he was up in the sky.
He felt Judai right beside him as Hourglass Dragon took form, letting out a low roar.
Once again , Yusei/Hourglass/Judai thought. My, my, I'm being kept quiet busy.
Yusei felt a low hum of warmth as his soul tucked up against Judai's. Judai grabbed for him, tangling the two of them up inside the great dragon's soul, trying to reach for any part of Yusei he could. In his human body, Yusei's eyes filled up with tears.
Yusei/Hourglass/Judai all looked down at Yusei on his bike below, lazily flapping their wings. Curiosity sparked in their mind at the glowing card in Yusei's hand.
Ah , Hourglass said. It has been a very, very long time.
Longing wrapped around the great dragon, and Yusei felt it so powerfully that he gasped, tears leaking down his cheeks. Judai moaned softly.
Don't let me interrupt you , Hourglass said. Please bring them home.
Yusei reached for his card.
"That creature can't protect you!" Harald shouted. "It's time has long past, Fudo Yusei! You were wrong to bring it back into the world!"
Hourglass/Yusei/Judai all snorted. What a petulant little child this Harald was. But, they supposed they couldn't expect anything different from somene chosen by the Aesir. Such upstarts, these young gods were, thinking that they knew everything there was to know about balance. Leave them alone for a few millennia and they thought they knew everything.
Yusei breathed in once, and then lifted up the final card.
"When my life points are lower than my opponent's, I can summon this card from my hand," he said. "I special summon Herald of Heartbeat!"
The air lightened on Yusei's chest. He could breathe. Light curled down through the clouds and alighted on the air beside Yusei. From the light, a small, red-robed figure emerged. Their skin glowed pure white, eyes a shining crimson. Pitch black hair swirled behind them from underneath a tiny red hat, and three pairs of wings somehow managed to fit all on their tiny body.
Herald of Heartbeat looked back at Yusei, and despite being a hologram, they nodded at him. There was one more step.
"Once per turn, when I have a dark monster on the field, I can target one light monster in the graveyard," Yusei said. "I can remove that monster from play to tune it with Herald of Heartbeat!"
Herald of Heartbeat put their hands together in a praying position, closing their eyes. Their whole body turned to light, wings growing and expanding into beautiful, prismatic colors. In their wings, Stardust Dragon glowed as a reflection, briefly, and then they both turned to the glowing green of the Synchro Summon.
Hourglass Dragon let out a cry so full of excitement and gladness that Yusei felt tears spring to his eyes again.
"From the beginning of time, at the edge of creation, come before us now, shard of the beginning," Yusei chanted, the words forming in his and Judai's souls. "Come forth, Echo of Brilliance!"
The light was so bright that it nearly eclipsed Yusei's vision, and he had to look through Hourglass's eyes to see what was happening.
Oh, he thought, gasping. It's the Crimson Dragon.
It was, and yet, it wasn't. The dragon was long, sinuous, and glowing with crimson power. But it was slimmer and made of shards of light rather than the pulsing river of red that the Crimson Dragon was made of. It looked as though it had been cut out of a pale red diamond, with horns spiraling backwards from its head.
It cried out, and Yusei felt the oddest sensation that he had just come home.
Hourglass cried out with excitement. The great black dragon sprung forward in the air, and Echo of Brilliance joined it. The two dragons spun and spiraled around each other, dancing in the air. Glimmers of light and sparklers of color passed through the air in their passing, and for the first time since the match started, Yusei remembered there was an audience, because they all immediately began to cheer at the marvelous light show.
Yusei felt a stupid grin growing over his face, and he felt Judai's giddiness rushing through him.
Harald's D-Wheel lagged as he stared upwards at the two dancing dragons, mouth hanging open.
That was right. There was a duel to finish.
"When Echo of Brilliance is summoned, all cards on the field have their effects negated, and Echo of Brilliance gains one thousand attack for each card negated!"
Light poured out of Echo of Brilliance's scales. The light made the Aesir draw back, try to lift their arms to protect themselves from the brilliant light that covered them. Harald's Gjallarhorn card turned to stone where it stood. Even Hourglass shuddered, but it didn't stop them from continuing to play with the other dragon like children in the sky. Six cards negated turned into six thousand attack points.
"When I have a dark monster on the field, once per duel, Echo of Brilliance can deal damage equal to its attack points! Reign of Brilliance!"
Echo lifted its head high, and together with Hourglass, the most beautiful song poured out of them.
The melody , Yusei thought, his heart stopping in its tracks. That was the song, that was their melody!
He didn't feel like he was going to pass out. He felt alive . The song poured over him, twisting, harmonizing, beating in time with his and Judai's hearts. It was the fullest, most complete version of the melody he had heard so far.
But it ended before it was finished, and he felt a faint, longing emptiness fill him.
Quietly, all three Aesir faded from sight. And quietly, Harald's life points hit zero.
His D-Wheel's losing procedures went off, and he skidded to a stop. Yusei zoomed straight past him. He saw, only for a moment, the look of absolute and utter shock in Harald's eyes.
But then he was gone, zooming as fast as he could. His head pounded, his heart swelled, the song was so close! If he could just get to Judai, they could finish it, they could find the end of the song, finally!
He saw the pit. He hit the brakes just in time to skid to a safe stop in the pit, leaping from his motorcycle. Overhead, Echo of Brilliance and Houglass Dragon still spun slowly around each other.
"Yusei!"
"Yusei!"
He felt someone grab him, but suddenly realized that he couldn't see.
Oh , he thought, as all at once, the power of the two ancient dragons ripped his insides apart, and he heard Judai cry out and someone scream. I don't think I can keep them both here.
Both dragons shattered and disappeared, and then the world disappeared with them.