Yusei heard the whine of energy gathering behind him, and slammed himself against the wall. The hallway lit up with the blast that surged right down the middle, where he'd been a moment ago. His heart clamored against his ribs, but he swallowed it down, and started running again.
Bruno was really trying to kill him, he thought with a panic. It was hard to think about antyhing other than that. The man he'd spent afternoons talking code with, who'd made the same pan of scrambled eggs every morning, who'd had such a ridiculous dorky, oblivious smile any time he made a joke, was trying to kill him.
He swore. Fuck this whole goddamn situation!
There was a door at the end of the hallway. Yusei prayed to any god that still existed that it would open, that he'd have an out. This hallway was too thin, too cramped; he was too easy of a target. Bearing down, fists clenched, he charged the door and put his shoulder down. This was going to hurt if the door didn't give.
He was in luck. It gave.
The door exploded open beneath his shoulder, still sending a wash of pain through his back that told him he probably dislocated something. With a furious groan, he grabbed his shoulder with his other hand and wrenched it into place. It snapped back, but not without another wave of paralyzing pain.
Still, he didn't have time to wait. He needed to...
He stopped as he took in the room he'd just entered. In comparison to the rest of the building he'd explored, this room was massive. He could hardly see the ceiling, or the floor beneath the railing that was a few feet in front of him. A tangle of tubes filled the space, kind of like a water slide coming out of the side of a waterpark, but with a few less loops. The tubes ran in a few circles around the room, and then out the other wall. What was this supposed to be?
He heard another whining behind him, and swore. He turned back to the door and slammed it shut. Perhaps that would buy him a bit of time. Then he turned back to the overlook that ran off to both sides, looking for another door, something.
Instead, he saw one of the tubes was attached to the overlook, open, leading into what looked like...a dueling lane. Yusei jogged over to the tube, looking inside. Yes, this was definitely a dueling lane— just inside the tube, in fact, there were a pair of bikes. One was the one-wheeled bike that Bruno had driven the first day Yusei had met him and before he had known him, back when he had been the man who told him to look for a technique beyond speed. The other was unrecognizable. It looked old, the siding half peeled off and the paint job needing a touch up. Yusei ran over to it and jiggled the controls. It came to life immediately. Yusei felt his heart skip a beat as he immediately recognized the interface.
This was his bike. This was the Yusei-Go, the one that he'd built to chase after Jack, the one that Rally had named as a joke, the one he'd improved for the WRGP and driven for all of these months. But this one was old. It looked as though it had been around for decades, with the insides showing in places and dents and scratches in others. Yusei tickled the keys on the interface and tried to turn it on. Sure enough, it reacted to his passcode, and it hummed to life. Despite the beat up exterior, a quick look at the readouts told him that it was still very much in working condition.
He heard the door blast open and swore. He'd have to chance it.
Yusei swung his leg over the bike, settled himself into the worn leather seat, and kicked it into gear. The D-Wheel pealed out into the tube. He had no helmet, and there was none in the usual compartment he'd keep one, so the wind cut through him and made his hair fly around his eyes distractingly. He had to hug low to the bike as he guided it around the unfamiliar twists and turns of the tubes, chafing at the slow speed the constant curves forced him into. Over the wind, he could hear the hum of Bruno's D-Wheel, and knew that he was following. He swore.
And then the tubes opened up. Yusei gasped, shading his eyes against the light with one free hand.
He burst out into a long, wide lane. It was dimmer out here than he had first thought, but much brighter than inside. His eyes caught on a passing shadow beside him, and a twisting nerves tangled in his stomach. That was a building— but not just any building. An upside down building.
All around him, the upside down, ruined shell of Neo-Domino city sent up jagged skeletons of buildings like stalactites hanging down from a charred cave ceiling. The lanes were, incomprehensibly, built upside down. It was lucky for him, at least, because otherwise, he'd be dead, he thought as he looked through the glass siding of the dueling lane and saw his own sparkling city miles below him. It was almost as though this lane had been built with this purpose in mind. It was all too perfect: his own, beat up old bike, the upside down lane— it was almost as if he'd done exactly as he'd been expected to.
Another shining blast of energy burst over his head and he only barely swerved out of the way. Yusei swore. He didn't want to fight Bruno, but he couldn't just keep running, either. He'd have to start defending himself.
His Duel Disk was active, but it wasn't showing any duel data. He had a feeling this wasn't going to play out with the rules. And beneath his skin, the roaring fizz of stardust told him that Stardust Dragon was raring to go into battle. He drew a hand of cards and slid them into the hand slot. He didn't have the resources for a proper summon chain, but this wasn't a regulated duel with rules. This was a battle for survival.
"I summon my monsters from my hand! Debris Dragon, Sonic Chick, Shield Warrior!"
As he had suspected, the disk didn't present him with an error for summoning multiple monsters in a turn. In fact, the disk itself didn't register that he had summoned anything at all. But the holograms, if that's what they were, appeared alongside him anyway. Debris Dragon zipped along over his head, shielding him with its tiny wings. Shield Warrior crouched on the back of his bike with shield held up, as though to protect him. And Sonic Chick led the way, squawking.
Yusei could feel their presence as though they took up actual, physical space, letting off heat and weight. And, he thought, they were. They were real monsters. The bike's holographic projector wasn't running. He didn't think he was a psychic duelist, but...perhaps there was something more happening to him.
"Thank you," he whispered to his monsters. "Will you give me a hand?"
He didn't hear them make a sound, but he felt it— a deep, burning desire to help.
Yusei smiled, and raised up one hand.
"Clustering wishes will become a new shining star! Become the path their light shines upon! Synchro Summon!"
The words came easily, like the lyrics of a song, and for the first time, he wondered where the summoning words came from. He didn't remember making them up. He just remembered saying them.
In a satisfying fizzle of dazzling light, Stardust appeared from the gates the monsters formed, flashing out its wings with a cry.
"Stardust! Shooting Sonic!"
With an excited cry, Stardust turned on the pesky little magician behind him, opening its maw to let out a fury of shining light. The magician immediately melted away, and Yusei looked over his shoulder. Bruno's bike wobbled, but he kept his course. Yusei could see the wind beginning to break over the tip of his D-Wheel, the way it had the first night they'd met and Yusei had watched him Accel Synchro. Yusei swore, and picked up the pace.
Bruno caught up with him, though, coming alongside him. Yusei could barely see him beneath his visor.
"Bruno!" he shouted over the wind. "Bruno, please!"
"My name is Antinomy!"
Bruno—no, Antinomy—slammed the side of his D-Wheel against Yusei's and Yusei's body rattled as his D-Wheel tilted dangerously over. Antinomy pressed his advantage, slamming into Yusei again and pressing him closer to the glass siding of the dueling lane. Antinomy pulled back to slam Yusei again. If this kept up, Yusei would be punched right through the lane and he'd fall to the ground.
As Antinomy started to roar towards him again, Yusei slammed his brakes. Antinomy overshot as Yusei disappeared, hitting the glass wall himself and cracking it as he bounced off and wobbled back onto the lane. By the time Antinomy had recovered, Yusei had thrown his D-Wheel into gear and burst forward, faster this time.
"I don't understand why you're doing this!" he shouted when Antinomy caught up again. "Bruno!"
"You have to die!" Antinomy said. "For Z-ONE's plan to be a success, I have to kill you!"
"Who the hell is Z-ONE?" Yusei swore.
Antinomy pressed another card onto his disk, and the wind began to break around his bike. Yusei swore and swerved out of the way. Antinomy's bike pealed past him, faster, faster, faster— he was starting to glow a bright green, the Synchro gates appearing around him. He was using Accel Synchro. No, gods, more than that, the air was starting to get thick and choked with pressure, the wind around him turning green as though tinted with a dust blowing off of Antinomy's gates. Stardust roared with a nervous anticipation, feeling the same ominous pressure as Yusei. This wasn't just Accel Synchro, this was something else, a power even beyond that.
The air tore as Antinomy blipped out of sight. Yusei swerved to the side again, just in time before Antinomy reappeared behind him, zooming past him with a monster that Yusei had never seen before. It was a hulking metallic mass, gold and bronze, a robotic monster wielding a long polearm.
"T.G. Halberd Cannon, destroy Stardust!" Antinomy cried out.
"Stardust, watch out!"
Stardust dove beneath the dueling lane to escape the polearm, which was beginning to glow with a heat so intense that Yusei could feel it even down here. Stardust dipped and spun, undulating out of the way of the more bulky monster's swipes, but Yusei could feel it in his bones— Stardust wasn't strong enough to beat it. One hit would be all it would take.
"Who is Z-ONE?!" Yusei shouted again. "I can't believe you would kill someone for any reason! Why are you killing for him!"
Antinomy's eye flashed into sight for just a moment as the glare passed over his visor, and then his eyes were shaded again.
"Z-ONE is our savior," Antinomy said. "He's our god. The most important person in the world to us."
Stardust crashed into one of the buildings in its attempt to escape, screeching with pain. Yusei's eyes couldn't tear away from the crumbling building as Stardust limped away. The pieces of the ruined city crumbled into the air, falling away towards the ground. What happened to this city? How had it become like this? Fear pulsed through both his and Stardust's chest. This world was a dead one, and he didn't know how it had died.
Fujiwara wanted to kill me, too, he thought. But he seemed to think that it would stop this from happening. Do these people think I need to die, too, to save this world from this? Is my life what causes this future?
"Yusei, you care about this world," Antinomy shouted. "I know how much you do. If you do, you'll let yourself die. You'll sacrifice yourself for the greater good. You must understand that this has to be done."
"I don't understand!" Yusei snapped. His hands trembled. If he had to sacrifice himself, he knew in his bones he'd do it in a heartbeat. But he didn't understand why that, of all things, would save the world. He wasn't going to throw himself into the fire just because someone told him to.
Stardust roared again, and this time, the sound shook Yusei to his bones. It was an angry, determined roar, as though in his head Stardust had just screamed at him. We do not go down without a fight.
He hit the gas, pushing himself faster faster faster. The air began to break over the tip of his D-Wheel, a cone of air shooting around him. He couldn't hear anything, and he couldn't tell if it was the roar of the wind, or the silence that caused it.
The world squeezed in on him as though he were being pressed through a tiny hole, as though gravity increased on all sides of him.
And then he was through, and Stardust's scales had melted into a shining, platinum white, its wings had spread and stiffened, and Shooting Star Dragon let out a melodic cry, daring Antinomy's monster to come after it.
Yusei's ears popped and then he heard the roar of the road beneath him again, as he drew up on Antinomy once more.
"I'm not going down easily," Yusei said. "Whether I have to die or not, I'm not letting you destroy an entire city!"
"Acceptable damages happen for the greater good," Antinomy said harshly.
"I won't accept that! I'll save everyone; I won't let anyone be a sacrifice!"
Antinomy only glared.
"You're a goddamn fool, Fudo Yusei," he said. "You're a goddamn fool."
"You're lying!" Judai spat, head spinning. "You told me he died! You told me Yusei died in your future! You can't be Yusei!"
Yusei sighed, his eyes softening. Then he reached for Judai again, and Judai scuttled back. Yusei was faster than him, though, taking Judai by the wrists and tugging him closer. His grip was so light but firm, just like the real Yusei's hands, and for a moment, Judai was so shocked that he let himself be pulled forward.
But then the grip started to burn with an ungodly heat from the Light that made up his body, and Judai almost screamed. He tried to yank away, but the fake Yusei's hands were firm, and he pulled Judai into his arms, gently pushing the back of his head to push his face into his shoulder. The Light burned into Judai's eyes, and then his eyes were seeing another place again.
He was hovering over the ruins of Neo-Domino again, staring down at the crater beneath. Then he zoomed in, close to the ground, and his stomach twisted. Had he been in control of his body, he was sure he would have thrown up. He tried to avert his gaze from the twisted, crumpled form of what had been Yusei left in the center of the crater where he had fallen.
"Yusei! YUSEI!"
He choked, hearing his own voice break through the haze of smoke and debris from the explosion. A racking cough echoed as a figure stumbled through, waving his hand back and forth in front of his face.
"Oh my god, no, Yusei, Yusei, Yusei—"
Another version of Judai himself appearing, staggering through the debris. His face looked ashen, streaked with dust and smoke. His jacket was gone, his tank top torn, his jeans ragged. His eyes widened with absolute horror when he saw Yusei.
"Yusei! Yusei! Oh my god, no, you didn't— you can't be—"
Judai watched helplessly, watching himself stagger forward, disbelieving, as horrified as he himself was now. The past— future? — Judai stumbled forward, and collapsed to his knees at Yusei's side. A ragged cry tore out of his throat.
"No! I— I cushioned it! I should have— I should have cushioned it! The shadows should have— Yusei! Yusei, wake up!"
Desperate hands grabbed for Yusei's shoulders, but Yusei's body was broken, hanging limp in Judai's arms as he pulled him against his chest. Tears ran streaks down the dust coating his cheeks, his teeth bared in a desperate grimace that he tried to keep the scream contained behind. He pushed Yusei's hair away from his face with shaking fingers, pressed the pads of his finger against the mark on his face.
"No, please, wake up, you have to wake up," Judai gasped. "Please! Please!"
He put his hand against Yusei's chest and pushed, as though he could bring him back to life by pressing his heart back into motion. Shadows writhed around Judai, desperate, clawing things that tugged at the hem of his shirt and slithered about Yusei's mangled legs.
"Wake up," Judai gasped. "Wake up, wake up, wake up—"
He pressed his hand against Yusei's chest again and again— but this time, something was happening. The shadows were twisting up his arms, crawling down to his hands, slithering beneath his palm. With every pump, Judai was pumping shadow into Yusei's chest— it seemed to slide off of Yusei like oil off of water, but something was happening. His body was starting to shudder. There was a horrible snap sound and then one of his legs was back together.
"Oh my god," the Judai watching whispered. "What's happening?"
The other Judai continued to pump. Yusei's body continued to shudder and spasm under his hands, over and over and over again, until—
He inhaled. His eyes flew open.
"Yusei!" Judai screamed. "Oh my god, Yusei—"
There was a scream. Judai's eyes shot up.
The sky was swarming with Meklords.
Judai swore, clutching Yusei to his chest, eyes wide and wild with panic.
"Judai!"
He jerked his head over his shoulder, and in the distance, a ragged Jack was waving both arms.
"This way!" he shouted. "Bring him!"
Judai shuddered, but he scooped Yusei's shuddering, barely living body up into his arms, and ran at a stumble towards Jack.
The scene faded out into light again, and Judai was once more in the grip of the future Yusei.
"You saved my life," he said. "You brought me back."
"How did I?" Judai said, feeling horrified. He wasn't sure if it was at the fact that he had just seen Yusei's dead body as clearly as though it were right in front of him, or because he'd watched himself bring someone back to life. "That's...I can't..."
"I don't know. The powers of Light and Darkness are mysterious. Perhaps it was fate that brought us together, because it knew that you would be able to save me. Light and Darkness could become whole again, with the two of us."
Judai tried to struggle free of Yusei's grip, but Yusei held firm. The light faded out again into another scene.
It happened in a blur of smoke and images that Judai couldn't quite comprehend. He saw familiar, or almost familiar dragons soaring through the sky. A white version of Aki's Black Rose Dragon cut vines through a line of Meklords, shielding a fleeing group of survivors. Jack carried a limp Lua over his shoulder, clinging to Luka's hand while Red Nova shielded them from the lasers up above. Judai stumbled along, still carrying Yusei, Crow pushing his back to help him go faster.
Then things faded. The smoke cleared. The ragged group stumbled along into unfamiliar territory, and in the memory, it seemed to pass much quicker than it actually did. The ruins of the city and roads began to fade instead into warm red stone and canyons, and then, they were somewhere that Judai had never seen before, a Western looking down with a worn out sign that said Satisfaction Town in English lettering.
A man Judai had never seen ran to meet the group, looking as pale as his silver hair. He hurried them inside, eyes up at the sky. There was a plume of smoke raising up from somewhere.
"It's not safe here either," he heard the man say, once the memory had changed to the group huddled in a small, worn out little house. "I don't know where they came from, but they attacked the mines, and collapsed half the tunnels. We only just managed to push them back."
The silver haired man looked desperately at the others.
"What's happening?" he said. "And what's wrong with Yusei?"
Judai's stomach twisted. He saw himself, again, curled in a ball with his face pressed against his knees. Beside him, Yusei sat in a chair: but there was something wrong. His chest rose and fell, mouth open slightly, but besides that, he didn't move. His hands laid in his lap, unmoving, and he stared at nothing. When Aki walked over to brush hair from his cheeks, he didn't even blink.
"I don't know," the memory Judai mumbled. "I don't know what I did."
For a while, no one spoke. The Signers looked so small and broken in that tiny room. And, Judai thought with a nervous terror, he didn't see any sign of Lua in this memory.
Before he could try to voice a question, a scream broke through the window, and all of them flinched as one. An explosion rang out, and the silver haired man swore, grabbing what looked like a pistol and bolting out the door, with Crow, Jack, and Aki on his heels. Luka didn't move, hugging herself and staring at the floor. Judai didn't move either, looking almost as dead as Yusei.
"Move," Judai whispered to his memory self, heart trembling. "Move, damn you, don't just sit there and let them die."
But the memory altered once again. Judai's stomach immediately twisted.
Sparks flew up from the tool Crow was using to solder what looked like two halves of a Meklord's arm together. The wires ran from the machine up to...to Yusei, seated in a chair. There was a metal piece attached to his head and covering half his forehead and one eye, clearly more remains from a Meklord welded to his face. Judai stood over him wringing his hands while Crow worked. Crow sighed and turned off the tool, pushing his helmet back.
"I don't know if this is going to work," he said. "This is...we're messing with some shit here."
He looked so tired, with deep circles under his eyes.
"We might not get him back," he said. "And even if we do...what then?"
"He was supposed to be the Light," Judai mumbled. "If we can get him back, then maybe we can fix this..."
The memory Judai clutched at his chest then, and stumbled. Crow swore. He leaped to his feet and caught Judai by the elbows to support him, but Judai batted him back, standing away. It was just in time, too, before Judai's shadow began to warp and writhe like a living thing, snatching at Crow's feet. Judai convulsed and heaved, and then he was throwing up.
It wasn't normal vomit, though...it was a slippery, slimy glob of viscous oil, which began to fade as soon as it hit the floor. Judai convulsed again, and then doubled over, clutching his stomach.
"Fuck," he said.
"Is it getting worse?" Crow said.
"There's too much Light wild and loose in the world, and I think— I think I used too much of Darkness bringing him back," Judai gasped. "I can't separate myself from Darkness anymore. And with Light the way it is...Darkness is feeling it too."
Judai shuddered in place. Crow swore.
"If only Aki..." he started, but then Judai looked pale and on the verge of tears, and Crow shook his head, looking strained.
"Crow," Judai whispered. "Please. I feel like we're running out of time."
The present Judai tried to force himself out of these visions, but Yusei held him tightly within them. He didn't didn't want to see this. He didn't want to see this!
Yusei sat in a chair, his face half covered in metal, wires running from his arms to a machine beside him. His one visible eye stared at nothing. He was like an empty shell, with nothing inside it. Judai was trying to feed him what looked like soup, pushing the spoon between his lips with a shaky hand, looking even paler this time. Crow was fiddling with the makeshift laboratory, swearing.
And then the door exploded.
Both young men flinched and swore, but neither of them were fast enough. The Meklord crashed through the wall, head spinning as though it were going haywire. One of its laser arms pointed out randomly and started to fire.
Judai threw himself over Yusei to try to shield him, and Crow launched himself forward, Duel Disk activated. Another explosion, and the room filled with smoke and dust. Judai could hear himself coughing, heard Crow letting out a cry and the Meklord screeching—
And then, the smoke faded.
The Meklord sagged. It's arms lay limp at its sides, and its head stayed in one place. The glass eye spun once and seemed to zoom in.
The present Judai stared with awe and fear at what had stopped it.
Yusei was standing up from his chair, his eye clear for the first time. He had one hand held up, in a stopping motion— and the Meklord seemed to be obeying. The memory Judai stared at Yusei, open mouthed.
"Get out," Yusei commanded.
The Meklord hummed, almost nervous. But then it backed out of the broken down wall, and left.
Yusei wobbled on his feet, then. Judai swore and jumped to catch him, and Yusei sagged into his arms.
"Yusei, Yusei, Yusei," Judai whispered, over and over, tears in his eyes.
"Judai," Yusei mumbled back, touching Judai's cheek with a weak hand. "What happened...? Where is..."
He tried to focus his one visible eye. Judai gripped him tightly, crying for a moment against his chest.
But then he seemed to remember something, jolting straight up.
"Judai? Where are...where is everyone? I thought I heard...Crow...?"
Judai's eyes flashed to the broken entry. His face grew slightly green, and as Yusei tried to turn his head, Judai pulled him against him to stop him from looking.
"I'm sorry," Judai gasped. "I'm so sorry! I couldn't protect them, I couldn't protect anyone!"
Yusei lay limp in Judai's arms, lips parted. He didn't seem like all of him had returned yet.
If there was anything left of him to return at all.
