Warnigs: Things are gonna get a little...weird. And a little heartbreaking. But if you survive the Zane/Syrus reunion, this should be cake.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh GX


Year One: The Academic


When Lia came to, she was in a bubble. And not a very nice bubble. It was all clouded and splotchy, various hues of brown and gray dotting over her vision. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, and shook her head, wondering perhaps if she had hit her head, or been given a little too strong of a dosage during her hospital stay (she distinctly remembered there being a hospital room the last time she opened her eyes; but after the dizziness she was drawing a blank – there had been something…wrong, she knew that much, but beyond that basic knowledge, she had nothing to go on), but when she looked again the bubble was still there, surrounding her.

Blowing a lock of hair out of her eyes with an irritated huff, Lia sat up fully, turning her head back and forth as she tried to figure out where, precisely, she was. The exterior of the bubble, that weird, brownish film, was not opaque, but might was well have been, for all Lia's still sleep-addled eyes, could see out of it. A massive about of the blinking and forcing her senses to come alive only yield the vague impressions of a vast inkiness outside of the bubble, and Lia wondered for a split second if she had been dropped into the ocean that surrounded the island. Breathing deeply, she tried to push the thought of drifting helplessly out at sea (and being helpless to all the creatures that lived in the sea- sharks and squids and god only knew what else) away. She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling cold, and made to stand.

Her legs protested, as if they had not been used in a long time, and painful little jabs ran up and down the limbs as she climbed unsteadily but surely to her feet, one hand detaching itself form her body to use the side of the bubble (surprisingly sturdy and unmalleable. Lia didn't know if that reassured her or made her even more uneasy) as something to pull herself up with. The second she was on her feet, she swayed for about half a second, her stomach turning unpleasantly. Looking down at her feet, another wave of dizziness overtook her as she saw that she was not, as she had assumed, standing on the bottom of the cage, but was instead hanging, completely suspended and devoid of anything to suspend her, a good meter above the bottom of the bubble. Her stomach twisted.

" Mon Dieu, oh mon Dieu, oh mon Dieu…" She chanted. Her legs gave out from under her and she collapsed back down to the invisible floor. She brought her arms back up, gripping her shoulders and trying very hard to regulate her erratic breathing.

" C'est un rêve. Seulement un rêve. Ce n'est pas possible. C'est un rêve."

" You're not dreaming."

Lia shrieked. She fell completely over, her shoulder banging against the side of the bubble with a dull thunk. Her hair, unbound, fell over her face and she had to spit it out as it invaded her mouth. Still spitting the hair out of her mouth, and trying to brush the rest of it out of her face, Lia sat back up again. With a finally gagging noise, she flopped her hair over her shoulder, and glared darkly as the cause of her undignified tumble snickered to himself.

" Well, that was fun." Chazz Princeton smirked at her. " You got any other tricks."

" Allez au Diable." Lia snarled. Chazz shrugged her venomous tone off.

" I'm so hurt. And here I thought we were developing a real, deep friendship."

" Do you exist solely to bring me misery?" Lia stood back up, still shaking slightly. Across from her, in a bubble just like her own, Chazz scoffed.

" Don't flatter yourself. You barely appear on my radar half the time. The fact that I piss you off just by being me…" He eyed her smugly, " well, that's just a perk, now isn't it?"

" Don't you have anyone else to annoy?" Lia groaned, leaning fully against the wall of the bubble. Her chest was really beginning to ache, although she couldn't remember falling on it too hard.

" Look around, French Bitch – (she supposed that if he had the presence of mind and strength of will to still call her by that stupid nickname, Chazz was fine, and neither of them was in any real danger)-; it's not there's anyone else I can yell at."

Lia didn't look around. She rested her head against her forearm and moaned lightly.

" How the hell did we get here?"

" Well, doll, when a man and a woman love each other – or in your case, were drunk enough-"

" Finish that sentence and I will castrate you."

" Oh, I'm shaking." Chazz rolled his eyes. " What are you going to do from all the way over there? It's not like you can get out of that bubble."

Too tired and too numb with the shock of waking up in a floating bubble, Lia found that she really didn't have the energy to get angry at Chazz's taunts. With her body still shaking off the lingering vestiges of exhaustion, and her mind not functioning as well or as quickly as it might have, she just couldn't muster up the presence of mind to really care about any barb Chazz had thrown, or was going to throw.

That didn't mean she was just going to sit down and take it, though.

" Yeah, well, I don't see you pulling any Houdini acts, now do I?" She congratulated herself mentally for her comeback, feeling proud despite how detached she felt from the whole conversation (when had she started thinking of the little verbal tussles she and Chazz got into on almost a daily basis as conversations? She guessed that since it really was the only way she and the older boy spoke – because God knew that they were never going to sit down seriously and just talk with each other- the barbs and jibes should count as a conversation), and waited. It was Chazz's move, after all.

" Yeah, well…it's not like it'll do us much good even if we do get out." Chazz grumbled, and Lia lifted her head just a little. Chazz looked tired, she supposed. It was odd, because the Chazz she'd built up in her mind was always aloof and angry (if not with her, then with something; and he usually took that anger out o her), and this quiet, almost defeated look in his eyes (what little she could see of them- his bangs were very good for hiding them away) shook her more than she dared to admit. (She didn't like it when things changed so abruptly around her. She liked having time to adjust, but the problem with people was that they were prone to having more than one layer to them, and that irked her, because every time she thought she knew a person – Syrus was a coward; Chumley was stupid; Jaden was a goof; Bastian didn't fall in love; Alexis' life was perfect; Zane had no heart; Chazz never lay down for anyone – they went and changed so drastically on her – Syrus was the bravest person she'd ever met; Chumley wasn't going to give up anymore; Jaden had the makings of a leader hidden under a hero's recklessness; Bastian was crazy about Tanya, and she stood no chance; Alexis wanted her brother back more than anything else in the world; Zane had spent the last few months crying in his room and hating himself; Chazz had been subtly gentle with her as of late- that Lia was left wondering if she'd ever known then at all.)

" What are you talking about?" She said in a bored voice, trying to coax Chazz into snapping at her. He didn't.

" We're not exactly at the spa here, Shanner." Lia blinked. She wasn't even aware that he knew her last name.

" So where are we?"

He shrugged.

" Hell if I know." He looked at her then, a mixture of carefully structured disinterest and well hidden surprise, and Lia was struck by how, with his face not set in a scowl and his eyes not glaring into hers, Chazz could actually pass as handsome, if he tried. Then she remembered who she was talking about and sniffed, looking away from him.

" When did you come to, anyway?"

" A little while ago, why?"

" No." He shook his head, looking torn. He looked up at her, then away, then back up and opened his mouth. Then he shut it quickly. He looked away again, and raked his fingers through his spiky black hair. " No I mean…not here…when did you come to…out there?"

Lia blinked, feeling extremely lost.

" I mean…" Chazz grit his teeth. "I mean…in the hospital. When did you come to in the hospital?"

" Right before…" Lia scrunched up her face. Right before what? There was something nagging on the edge of her mind, something about a hand being offered and a dark glow of green, and slight pain in her chest (which was there now, growing stronger with each passing second. She wondered what it meant. She had felt it before, she was sure of that, but she couldn't for the life of her remember where) " Right before…"

" Before what?" The impatient edge was back in Chazz's voice, and Lia relished in the return tot eh playing field she knew how to navigate.

" Right before I was here." She rolled her eyes, finally bringing her head all the way up to look at him. " What's the big deal, Chazz? So I was out of it for a few hours. I had a pretty stressful night, in case you don't remember-Hey!" Her eyes narrowed. " You knocked me out! You sonovabitch! I'll kick you ass for that-"

" Listen to me!" Chazz snapped, but Lia growled at him.

" You fucking knocked me out! Of all the-I can't believe that you-I swear to God Chazz, when we get out of this, you are so beyond dead it isn't even funny!"

" Would shut up for about five seconds and let me talk?" He was starting to sound a bit desperate, but Lia was still too angry to hear it (well, she could hear it, but she was still too mad to really acknowledge it; that was how it often was when she was around Chazz, she'd noticed. Unlike Bastian, who made her tongue twist up in knots and her face go so red that she couldn't talk, one look at Chazz usually made her see red).

" No, I will not shut up, for five seconds or five hours! I am not going to listen to the bastard who made me unconscious! I could have hurt myself! I don't suppose you caught me? No, of course not, you let me hit the ground! I could've broken my neck! Oooh, when Jaden and Alexis get their hands on you-"

" They already have!"

" And you're still standing? I'm shocked-Wait!" Her face lit up. " Jaden's back? Is Syrus with him?! What happened?! God, I miss everything!"

" Syrus is fine." Chazz mumbled.

" Thank God!" Lia breathed, clasping her hands as if in prayer. " I was terrified…we could've lost them both…jeez, you conk out for a few hours, and everything changes, what the hell-"

" You've been out of it for almost two and a half weeks now!"

Chazz's voice, tinged with panic and fully coloured with his irritation at being ignored cut through her soft babble. Lia went very still, the information hitting her but not quite sinking in. She turned, very slowly (something told her that sudden movements at this point would be very bad) to look at Chazz, who was again not looking at her, but staring at his feet.

" What?" Her voice sounded so small, and under any other circumstances she would have hated herself for letting it come out like that.

" You've been…you've been unconscious for two weeks and three days." Chazz seemed so resigned. " We were…starting to wonder if you were really gonna wake up. You just kept lying there on that bed…no matter how much we yelled, you wouldn't wake up…Jaden was freaking out…Bastian thought it was all his fault…Alexis has been beside herself…" Chazz's shoulders heaved in a sigh. " You were just…you were gone, and none of us could explain it. Bastian said you…he said that you had this…mini freak-out right before you passed out…he said you…that you…you-"

But Lia wasn't listening anymore. She could just barely hear Chazz at all. The pain in her chest was a throbbing ache now, pulsating hard, in perfect time to her rapid heartbeat. Panting, her face screwed up and red, she sank back down to her knees, her one hand reaching up to clutch at the thin material of her top and the other curling and uncurling against the side of the bubble. Distantly, she heard Chazz continue to rant, something about how insensitive she was for making everyone worry, and how nobody needed this after that scare with Syrus, and that Chancellor Sheppard had verbally torn them all a new one when they'd gone to his office, but she still had that to look forward to once they all got out of here. But after that Lia stopped trying so hard to listen, because something wet and warm was trickling between her fingers.

Her hand shaking, she pulled it back to look at the small, but very real stain of blood that was on it. Horrified, she looked down at her chest, where, just below her collarbone, a tiny, steady flow of blood was issuing forth.

Lia' choked, terrified sob caught Chazz's attention.

" Hey, w-what's wrong?" He walked closer to the edge of his bubble. Lia remained kneeling, pressing the fingers of her other hand into the blood, looking at them as if she couldn't believe they were attached to her when they came back stained with red.

"What is it?" Chazz tried again, banging against the bubble with his fists.

" I…I…" Lia began shivering, her whole body wracked with tremours as the source of the pain in her chest became very clear. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, but another ripple went through her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, willing it away.

"Fuck, what it is?" Chazz was pounding against his bubble now, looking on at the shaking girl. Lia glanced at him through her bangs, her eyes clouded and her face sweaty. The hand that was hanging, without purpose, by her chest spasmed as Lia leaned over, retching onto the floor with no results, and Chazz's eyes were suddenly drawn to the discoloured fingers of the still twitching hand.

" Holy-" He exclaimed. " You're bleeding! Fuck, you're bleeding!"

" Il blesse." Lia said weakly, bunching her hand in the material at her stomach. The action yanked the top (a pale pink, flimsy singlet, Chazz noticed for the first time) down farther, and Chazz was treated to the sight of a decently sized blot of blood, smeared by the material's movement, concentrated just under the indent of the girl's collarbone. When a trembling hand reached up to try and mop the blood, Chazz could make out a faint, but distinct marking underneath.

" What the hell is going on?!" Chazz snarled, but Lia was too consumed by the sharp ripples of pain that were going through her to hear him. While it was nothing compare to the agony that she'd suffered on the night the plan had been enacted and Syrus had apparently been returned to them (she could still feel those surges going through her, and it made the situation all the worse), her body was still weak, and her mind was still trying to absorbed all the information that had been thrown at it so rapidly, and the pain, while not terrible, was intensified by her mind as her body tried to adapt to it. Panting, she bit her lip as bile rose in her throat.

" Lia!" Chazz screamed at her, and she heard him, because he had never said her name before, and the shock of it made her turn her head. He was watching her, horrified, and she forced herself to turn. Focusing on him (because if she focused on him, on his strained, pale face and the way his eyes weren't glaring at her but filled with surprised concern – had he surprised himself as well by proving that he cared about her, even if it was only a little bit?- then she had less brain power to focus on the throbbing ache that was going through her – because at that moment, she didn't have the capacity to focus on more than one thing at once, and she would choose Chazz over the pain any day- and it made it easier to bear) she turned fully, letting herself slump against the side of the bubble, breathing hard, but trying to count her racing heartbeats as a distraction.

" Chazz…" She sat up, winced, and pulled at her top again as another ripple went through. The top was yanked down even more, but Lia was too out of it, wishing absentmindedly for painkiller, to even notice the thin strip of cleavage she was showing.

" What?! What the fuck is going on?!" She managed a weak smile, because the sound of his voice hadn't changed. He had never been very delicate with his language.

" Chazz, Jaden…" She tried again, but cut it off with a grimace. She leaned her shoulder heavily on the side of the bubble, and rode it out, counting the beats of her heart and trying to slow them down.

' … six, sept, huit, neuf…dix…onze…douze' It was slowing down, and her body was starting to adjust to the random bursts of pain that ripped through her now and again. She took a steadying breath, and looked up at Chazz, who was staring at her anxiously.

" Jaden's dueling." She spat out quickly, in case another surge came. It did, and she clenched her fists, breathing deeply all through it, forcing herself to bear it. " He's dueling right now."

" What does that-" Chazz sounded angry- " have to do with anything?! You're fucking bleeding, and you tell me that the Slacker is dueling?! How do you even know?!"

" Because this," she indicated to the smear of blood on her chest, " only ever hurts when Jaden duels intensely."

**_**

" It was a lie."

" A lie?"

" You were lying when you told me that."

" How can you be so sure? Are you really so arrogant as to believe-"

" I get lucky now and again like every other duelist out there. But that doesn't mean…"

" What?"

" You can say whatever you want. You can tell me that you rigged every one of my matches. You can tell me that I'm nothing but a loser. You can tell me anything you like, but I won't believe you. I know I didn't get this far because you made me think I was great."

" How pathetic. Are you really that deluded? Do you really think that lying to yourself like this will help you in any way? I made you great, boy. I made it so you would win against opponents far more skilled than you. Did you really think you could beat Chazz on your own? That a Slifer Slacker like you could ever-"

But Jaden, it seemed, had heard enough.

" Were you down there in the crypt?!"

The shout, coupled with the look of pain that passed through Jaden's eyes stopped the rant the white-haired Banner (whose red eyes suddenly didn't look so intimidating. In fact, for the brief second after his shout – which was still ringing in the black space around them, echoing over the star spangled sky and bouncing off the cloudy orbs, through which Jaden could only make out vague shapes and shadows, and hanging in the thick air, where Jaden to wonder if they were his saving grace or a damning testimony – had escaped his lips – unsanctioned and unintended – there had been a look of sympathy and sadness that closing them had not quite been able to hide) had been going on, for he froze as if in pain, and then turned away, not looking at Jaden.

"Were you down there with me?" Jaden continued, pressing forward. All the bubbling thoughts, all the shivering terrors that had haunted him since his return from that barren, dank tomb came rushing back up, making his body shake. " Did you make it happen? Were you there beside me when I told those monsters to give me Syrus back? Were you there when they laughed at me, at Syrus, at everything we'd done and all the risks we'd taken because we didn't want to lose something we loved?" His voice cracked. " Were you there when the shadows came at me? Did you make that happen? Did you plan my every step down there? No!" Jaden threw his arm out, his cards rattling in their slots. Across from him, Banner lowered his head, looking ashamed for the first time since the duel had started.

As if a valve had been turned on, or a dam unplugged (probably due to Syrus and Chumley's absence. Jaden had never been so grateful that Banner's card had pulled the two duelists into the universe of stars that surrounded them, but left his two fellow Slifers far behind them. It was so much easier to let everything go, to let everything out, when no one who depended on him was there to see him fall), every half felt tremour of fear, every twisted idea of rage, every horror and every tear Jaden had held back and clamped down on since he'd come stumbling back to Chumley on the stairs, dragging a numb and shivering Syrus behind him by the arm, came rushing out like the tide.

" You weren't there! You didn't see it! I was there, I was in front of them! They spoke to me and they laughed when I told them to give me my friend back! They laughed, and then the shadows were on me, and they were choking me and ripping at me and I thought I was going to die!" The word made his opponent flinch, but Jaden continued on, tears streaming down his face. " They ripped my clothes and they made me bleed and I thought for sure that I was going to die in that crypt!" He was shaking so badly that he could hardly hold his cards right. At his side, Winged Kuriboh cooed worriedly, hovering over his shoulder. " I was sure I was going to die, and I was scared, alright?!" Jaden sank to his knees, his face red. " I was scared, because I was going to die, and I was going to let everyone down, and Syrus was going to be lost! I was scared, and I was so sick of being scared and then-" He hiccupped, and took a deep breath. " And then…" The words seemed to be stuck in his throat. He opened and closed his mouth several times, shaking so bad that it was hard to breath.

" What happened, Jaden?" Banner whispered, and for an instant, he sounded so much like the kindly teacher who'd greeted him on his first day with a smile and an extra helping of food that it broke past the block Jaden seemed to have and made the boy fly to his feet again, eyes ablaze and face wet with tears.

" I don't know!" He roared, but his shoulder shook. " I don't know, but there was light, and it was everywhere, and the shadows were screaming, and the Beasts were screaming, and suddenly I was all alone in the darkness, and I had Syrus in my arms and the shadows were all gone." Jaden took a shaky breath. " And I left, and Syrus was with me. I got him back. I won."

He leveled Banner with a glare, and although it was tearful, Jaden had stopped crying.

" So don't you tell me that I'm nothing but a loser, because I know better. There's something here." He touched his chest. " There's something asleep in here, and it means that I have something I have to do! I don't know what that is, or who I have to face, but I know that I am destined for something, and none of your lies are going to change that!" He whipped the top card off the deck and slammed it down onto the duel disk. " And if I have to beat you to prove that then so be it! I play Miracle Fusion!"

And as the great, glowing body that was all his heroes combined, wrecking their terrible justice on Banner, blasted the man and his monsters into near oblivion, Jaden wondered why there was a pain in his chest (that had nothing to do with the outburst he'd just given- he felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his chest -, though the tear tracks still lingered on his face. His Winged Kuriboh floated closer, rubbing itself softly against his cheek. He reached up and stroked its back) as he watched Banner collide with the wall.

As the dust settled, Jaden heard Chumley and Syrus exclaim, most likely worried by his sudden disappearance into the bright light that had overtaken the field as Chaos Distill had vanished. But Jaden paid them no heed as he saw the soft smile that lit up Professor Banner's face.

" Well done, my boy." His voice sounded like it always had before. " Oh my, yes, well done."

" Professor?" He couldn't understand why his voice was so small, or why his hands were shaking, still.

" Oh my boy, you've made me so proud." He leaned back against the wall, and Jaden was struck by how weak and fragile he looked in his large cloak and heavy armour. Chumley and Syrus raced to his side, but Jaden stared at Banner, trying to figure out why he looked so tired.

" You won Jay!" Syrus shouted in delight.

" Yeah, I knew you could do it!" Chumley thumped him on the back, but Jaden walked with the push, striding forward until he was in front of the man lying on the ground. Slowly, carefully, he leaned down until he could look Banner in the eye. The man continued to smile at him.

" Hey, Jaden, get away!" Syrus squeaked. " He's dangerous!"

" Professor?" Jaden said again. Banner's smile didn't change.

" I ask you to forgive me, please, for lying to you and making you face such a hard test." He sighed. " But it was the only way…I wanted you to be prepared. There is so much evil in this world…so much darkness, and so many people who will try to use it to harm others…you will need to be ready for it."

" Will I?" Jaden said softly. Banner nodded, then broke into a coughing fit. There was a splashing sound, and Jaden's stomach squirmed unpleasantly as he saw Banner's palm become stained with red.

" You are destined for great things, my boy." Banner whispered, his voice raw. " You have so much potential. You will become strong…but I fear that because of that, it will all fall to you."

He reached a trembling hand up, and to Jaden's horror, the more the hand shook the greater the cracks in it grew.

" I'm sorry…that this must become your burden, my boy." The man whispered, and the cracks along his face grew even more, spidering out along the contours of his face. Jaden fell completely to his knees, grabbing the extended hand and pressing it together, trying to hold off the cracks that plagued what little of his teacher that he could see. Little flakes of dust came crumbling off his skin and Jaden held the hand tighter.

" Professor…no, it's okay now." He said, but his voice had to push past the lump in his throat, and so came out small and frightened. Behind him, Chumley and Syrus stood very still.

" Jaden…" Banner struggled to continue. There were cracks on his throat. " I…want…I want you to know…how proud I am of you."

" You can tell me that after we get you to the infirmary." Jaden said, trying to smile. Banner gave him a knowing look.

" No Jaden, that time has come and gone, I'm afraid." He looked at the hand in Jaden's grasp. Jaden followed his gaze, and gasped in horror as he saw that the fingers had already disintegrated into dust.

" No." He whispered.

" I'm afraid so, my boy." Banner lay back down. " I am…not long for this world and I…am …sorry for placing all of this…on your shoulders. Forgive me."

" You are not dying on me!" Jaden reached down to yank the shoulders of his dorm supervisor up, but they crumbled to dust in his fingers. He stared down, disbelievingly. The hands stayed where Banner's shoulders should have been, shaking.

" No, no this isn't happening." He whispered. " This…this can't be happening."

" I have complete faith in you…" Banner's voice was getting weaker. " Take my book."

" No." Jaden shook his head. " It's yours."

" Consider it…my last gift to you." Banner stared up at the ceiling. " Jaden…these tasks…you will have to face things…tests…you never dreamed of…do not…you must never…lose yourself."

" Okay." Jaden was crying now, the tears spilling over. " I promise, Professor."

" Good boy." Banner smiled. " Look after Pharaoh…will you?"

" Of course."

And then there was the sound of a million cracks running over clay, and Professor Banner vanished in a great swirl of dust, his clothes falling shapelessly to the ground. Somewhere behind him, Jaden heard the mummy in the coffin disintegrate too, but he didn't care. Syrus and Chumley let out frightened gasped, but Jaden paid them no mind as he watched Lyman Banner finally succumb to the death he'd eluded for so long.

Jaden fell face first into the pile of discarded clothes, crying.

Syrus and Chumley made no move to stop him.


Hey everybody. How do you like the chapter? We finally get to see what happened down in the crypt from Jaden's point of view. Yes, he was conscious while those shadows attacked him. Yeek!

Anywho, there's some French, but I don't know if it's that complicated...

" C'est un rêve. Seulement un rêve. Ce n'est pas possible. C'est un rêve." - This is a dream. Just a dream. It's not possible. It's a dream.

See you for the next chapter!

MoS