Shooting Star dove at T.G. Halberd Cannon, catching at it with its claws, but it barely sent up sparks. It only barely spiraled out of the way of another sweep of its burning polearm, and Yusei swore. Even Shooting Star wasn't strong enough to fight Antinomy's monster. He didn't know if he had any other options— without Judai, how could he summon anything else, like Hourglass or Echo of Brilliance?
Antinomy's D-Wheel drove up alongside Yusei's again. Before Yusei could react, he slammed into Yusei's side again, and this time, Yusei spun out. He swore, hearing something pop in the old broken down bike, seeing a flare of sparks out of the corner of his eye that he wasn't sure if it was coming from the metal screeching across the concrete, or if something in the inner workings of the bike was exploding.
He righted himself with effort, but he had fallen far behind Antinomy this time, and he heard Shooting Star scream. A burning pain assaulted him in the chest and he cried out, doubling over the handlebars.
When he managed to get a hold of himself from the pain, he looked up again through eyes blurred with tears to see Shooting Star limping through air away from T.G. Halberd Cannon, a massive, glowing gash running down the whole of its front. It still spun and dodged away, but much slower this time— it would only take one strike to finish it off. He had to use its effect; multiple attacks might throw it off!
Yusei reached for his deck to start turning it over for Tuners.
His D-Wheel rocketed back again as Antinomy crashed into him from the front this time. The front end of the bike crumpled and Yusei almost went flying over the handlebars. It was sheer luck that he managed to cling on.
He ripped the D-Wheel out of the way and hit the gas, ignoring the fact that there was siding hanging off the front now waving in the wind. This was his bike, somehow, and he'd built it well, he trusted it to hold together!
"Stop trying!" Antinomy shouted at him over the wind, pulling alongside him again. "You're only making this worse for yourself!"
"I'm not giving up!" Yusei shouted back. "There are people waiting for me, people I need to protect! I won't abandon them!"
"This city has to die!"
"I won't let it! I'll take my last damn breath before I let a single person die! Before I let this goddamn Z-ONE bastard hurt a single one!"
Antinomy glared at him through his visor.
"You change your tune," he said.
"No, I won't!"
"That wasn't a prediction, Fudo Yusei, that was a fact," Antinomy said. "Surely you must have realized it by now."
Yusei's mouth turned dry. He felt his own D-Wheel humming underneath him, the old thing clearly decades older than the bike he had surely thought he left behind on the ground. He remembered seeing Z-ONE for the first time in that white world, the feeling of someone walking over his own grave. "Light Channel," Darkness had called Yusei. "Like it's made out of the Light of Destruction itself," Judai had said of the lead figure of Yliaster, the one who must be this Z-ONE.
"I won't...I won't let any of this happen," Yusei said weakly.
"You're the reason it's happening," Antinomy said. "You've always been the reason, Yusei. And you know it already."
Oh god. Yusei felt sick. No, it was making too much sense, now, but he couldn't— he couldn't wrap his mind around it, couldn't make it make sense.
"Fudo Yusei, you are Z-ONE."
No. No no no no no no.
"You, the future you, have already put these events in motion. You're the sole cause of this. You built me, and Aporia. You drove Paradox to flee to the past and attempt to kill Duel Monsters at its source. You built the Circuit, and pulled Neo-Domino across time and space to fold time over itself. You're the one who decided that the only possible course of action was to destroy Neo-Domino, or risk the entire world's fate. You made that choice."
"Shut UP!" Yusei shouted. "Shut up! Shut up! I didn't! I wouldn't do that! I'd never do that!"
"Time makes fools of us all," Antinomy said, quietly, yet somehow still audible over the wind.
Panic crashed through Yusei's chest. No, he wanted to refute Antinomy, wanted to deny what he was saying, but he could feel it. He remembered the stab of pain he'd felt in the hallway just a bit before, like the feeling of one of his fellow Signers in danger, but unable to tell who it was. It must have been— it must have been himself, a second person with the Dragon's Head in this timeline, and he'd...oh god. Oh fucking god. He knew what Antinomy was saying was true, but he couldn't— he wouldn't— accept it.
"I would never— I would never...decide...this," Yusei said, voice choking.
Overhead, Shooting Star let out a broken, whining keen.
"Wait," he said, gasping. "Wait! If I'm Z-ONE, why are you trying to kill me?"
Antinomy narrowed his eyes at Yusei.
"There's not enough room in one timeline for two Dragon's Heads," he said. "And Z-ONE is going to need all of the power of Light to bring about the ReBalancing. What Light is in you won't leave you until your body perishes."
Yusei's grip on his handlebars loosened.
He was Z-ONE.
He was the reason this was happening. He was the one who'd caused all of this. The experiments with Light and Darkness. The deaths of Sherry's parents. The warping of time and space, the impending doom of his beloved city. He was the reason for all of it. What had he been fighting for all this time? What had he been even trying to do? Had it all been a waste of time? Just to lead him to a place where he would decide to come back in time and destroy everything?
His hands slipped almost off of the handlebars. Perhaps...perhaps if this was what he had decided after so many years...perhaps his future self knew what he was doing. Or maybe, just maybe, if he died here...he couldn't become Z-ONE. Time would have to revert back to a place where perhaps, Yusei simply didn't exist. Perhaps that would be the best course of action. Perhaps he should just let Antinomy kill him. His eyes slowly slid shut, wind buffeting his face even still.
Shooting Star let out a loud scream. It wasn't one of pain, or fury, or the anticipation for battle. It shook Yusei down to his bones, through his heart, made every bit of him shudder from the head to his toes. He couldn't put a name to the emotion the sound entailed: something between rage, anguish— and a fiery, burning determination.
Don't you dare give up, Shooting Star seemed to be saying. Don't you ever dare stop fighting. We have never stopped fighting.
Yusei opened his eyes. The wind roared past his face, blowing his bangs around his eyes. He couldn't see anything, for a moment, but the blur of the wind in his eyes, the blur of light and shadow and the world speeding all around him. Couldn't hear anything but the peaceful cry of the wind that carried him forward while bufferting him back all at once.
Wisps seemed to form in the air, more in his imagination than in the wind itself. He saw...faces. Faces of the people he knew. He saw Johan, Manjoume, Shou, Asuka. He saw Sherry, and Mizoguchi. The teams he'd faced in the WRGP. He saw Aporia's three faces, Antinomy's two. Then Carly, Jack, Crow, Aki, Luka, Lua. Then...Judai.
His hands slid back around the handlebars. He inhaled once. Exhaled slowly.
"Even so," he said, so quietly, that no one but him and the wind would hear. "Even so, I can't give up."
He tightened his grip now, bearing down on the D-Wheel— his D-Wheel, the bike he'd put together with his own hands, with his friends surrounding him, the D-Wheel that had seen a thousand winds and battled a thousand battles alongside him, carried him alongside the people he loved.
"Even if that's what I'm destined to become, I'll fight it," Yusei said. "Because they're waiting for me— because everyone is there for me! And I have to get back to them! I have to fight for them and with them! I won't, for even a second, stop believing in them!"
He felt a heat crackling under his skin. The wind was growing wilder, faster, he couldn't see the road anymore because it was blurring so quickly.
"I don't care if that's who I became!" he shouted into the wind. "I will control my own destiny! And I will never stop fighting for all of them!"
Everything burned. It didn't hurt, though, it was like stepping into a sweltering summer heat, the kind of heat that melted everything away and burned away every bit of freezing cold still left in your body from the long, hard winter. A cry ripped from his throat, only matched by Shooting Star's shrieking battle cry. The wind was beginning to spiral, to glow with a brilliant, dazzling light.
Judai, he thought. Everyone. Please. Lend me your strength.
There was light wrapped around his arms when he raised one hand up towards the wind, reaching for a hand that wasn't there. But he imagined it was, grabbing hold of Judai's hand as he smiled cross eyed at him. He was going to go back. He wasn't going to lose himself. He was going to live.
His back burned with the beautiful warmth of the Signers' marks becoming one. Shooting Star buzzed with excitement as the wind tightened once more, forcing Yusei through a tight, gravity intensified space.
And then he was through.
He could see color. Everything around him glowed faintly like it was a prism, sending facets of rainbow all around him. His own skin was like crystal, scattering light in all directions around him. He felt hot and cold all at once, but then it settled to a perfect coolness that curled under his skin.
Overhead, the dazzling length of Echo of Brilliance shone, long feathered wings spread overhead, white feathers edged with hints of crimson red like cut rubies.
"Yusei!" Antinomy shouted. "Don't stop now!"
Yusei felt like he was on fire in the best way possible. Antinomy spun around, driving backwards. His T.G. Halberd Cannon shot from beneath the dueling lane, polearm swinging. Echo of Brilliance sang, spreading its wings to meet the attack.
Yusei jerked his hands up. The light that exploded from Echo of Brilliance's feathers shone from his own fingers, too. T.G. Halberd Cannon, however, did not stop. It barreled right into the light as it crashed forward in a torrent, like a burst of waves crashing down a tunnel.
For a moment, then, the world was only white. For a moment, the world was silent.
And then, Yusei's D-Wheel began to slow to a stop. The light faded, from the air, and from his own skin, sliding back beneath him. He could breathe normally again, but he still felt alight, like there were fireflies crawling under his skin. Echo of Brilliance still flew above him. Its long body undulated like a snake's in the air, as graceful as though it were made of the wind itself.
It was only then that Yusei saw the wreckage. His heart froze.
Yusei hit the brakes, skidding the bike to a shrieking stop. He leapt from it before it had even fully stopped, running at a full tilt towards the smoking wreckage. He stumbled twice, almost going face first to the concrete due to his legs not having adjusted to the ground yet.
"Bruno!" he shouted. "Bruno!"
Oh god. He had...had he...?
He stumbled to the wreckage of Antinomy's bike, and slowed. His heart hammered, his skin grew clammy with sweat, and he grabbed for the bike, heaving it back.
Antinomy was beneath it, laying face up and staring at the sky. He shuddered slightly when Yusei lifted the bike off of him— still alive.
"Bruno! I mean— Antinomy..."
Yusei dropped to his knees beside him. His stomach twisted: Antinomy was broken. Half of his torso had been shorn clean off, attached only by a few stray wires. Tubes and wires frayed out of his insides instead of guts, his arm was twisted and mangled and metal shards poked free of his riding suit. His visor was cracked open, so that only one eye was still covered.
Those familiar gray eyes flicked towards him, and, to Yusei's surprise, he cracked a smile.
"It's all right," he said hoarsely. "You can call me...Bruno...if you want."
He coughed, and smoke came out between his lips. Yusei swore. He didn't know what to do, and his hands hovered over Bruno uselessly.
"That's...that's what the human I was based off of was called," Bruno mumbled. "D-Don't cry, Yusei. Bruno died a long time ago. M-my time, at least. He's...p-probably still alive in this timeline so far. Y-you can go meet him and befriend him for real this time."
"Fuck, Bruno, I already did befriend you," Yusei said, his eyes blurring with tears. "I...I already did. It was real. It was real after all, wasn't it?"
"Mm...mostly, I guess," Bruno said. He coughed up more smoke.
"How much of this fight were you faking?" Yusei said, voice choked.
"M-most of it," Bruno said. "I...I had to...push you."
"I don't understand," Yusei said.
Bruno coughed again, and Yusei pulled the visor away from his eyes, smoothed away his hair.
"You...you needed a push," Bruno said. "To accept the Light. You...you feel it, don't you? Your power?"
Yusei looked down at his own hands. Even through his gloves, he could see the faint glow that his skin gave off. He felt pleasantly cool, too, like his blood was running with coolant.
"You didn't need to do this," he said.
Bruno shook his head. He reached for Yusei with his good arm, gripping his arm lightly.
"Listen," he said. "I wanted...I wanted to follow you to the ends of the Earth. I believed in you. Bruno did, too, but Antinomy...I was made to believe in you. L-Light stole me away, though. To help this you instead. I think...I think it knew that I'd come to the conclusion that I did."
"What's that?" Yusei said, putting his hand on top of Bruno's.
Bruno smiled, his teeth smudged with oil.
"I care about the Yusei from my time," he said. "But something went wrong. You lost yourself. And...and the you right in front of me...I like this one. I think you...I think you're more right than he is."
Bruno coughed again, shaking what remained of his robotic body.
"I just killed you," Yusei said. "I don't think— that's not any better than the other me."
Bruno laughed, spitting up a bit of oil.
"Yusei, I was dying anyway," he said. "My code wasn't...made to last much longer than this. My program was breaking up."
He squeezed Yusei's arm.
"Listen," he gasped. "You're going...going to need Judai. Y-You're out of balance right now, trying to get your legs under you with your power. You can't control the strength. But the two of you, together— you'll be okay."
Yusei blinked back tears.
"I can't leave you."
"You can, and you will," Bruno said. He gave Yusei another faint smile. "Promise me just one thing."
"What is it?"
"Please...save him. Save your other self. He...he's lost his way. Maybe you can guide your own self back to a peaceful end, at the very least."
Yusei squeezed Bruno's hand on top of his arm.
"I promise," he said, tears rolling down his cheeks. "Bruno, I promise."
Bruno's smile didn't move, as though his face were stuck that way now. His eyes were starting to roll and spasm a bit, his fingers twitching. Bits of his body let off whizzes of steam.
"I believe in you," he said. "I always have. Goodbye, Yusei. Thank you for everything. Both of you."
His eyes slowly stopped rolling, and the irises flattened, pupils shrinking until they had disappeared, leaving behind only blank gray irises.
Yusei stayed for a breath, hand over Bruno's. Gently, he pried the android's fingers from his arm, and laid his hand at his side. He closed Bruno's eyes, and averted his own from the mangled mechanical mess that was the bottom half of his body.
"Thank you," he whispered. "Goodbye."
He stood on shaky legs. His eyes lifted up to the dragon that now lighted on the edge of the glass wall of the lane. It stared down at him with large, shining yellow eyes, the color of the sky at dawn.
"Let's go," Yusei said. "We need to get to Judai."
The dragon dipped its large head towards him in a bow. Then, as smoothly and silently as the wind, it leaped towards him. He opened his arms, and in a gentle whirlwind, the dragon spiraled into a mote of mist that sucked into Yusei's chest, and spread out from his heart. He put his hands over the place where the dragon had entered him, feeling a coolness spreading from its light-filled form. It felt very right, he thought. He felt strong.
He turned back towards the far away complex at the other end of the dueling lane.
There, he thought. Judai would be waiting for him there.
And so would himself.
The darkness was soothing. It was soft and warm, gentle, like she were being cradled, rocked to sleep.
But she couldn't rest, because she knew something was wrong. Something was missing, it was like there was a hole chipped out of her chest, as though she herself were fractured along the edges, broken off the stone she'd once been a part of. If only her brain would function, she could figure out...could figure out...what she was missing...
Yubel's eyes opened, but the darkness didn't change. She felt her body cradled in the shadows, like a soft ocean that lapped around her limbs and wings. She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but the darkness swallowed up any sounds.
Judai, she thought. Judai, where are you?
She tried to move, but found she didn't have the strength. It was though she'd forgotten how to work her body, like her limbs were too long and bulky somehow.
My goodness. I didn't realize you had ended up here.
The voice echoed all around her, from everywhere, and she shivered. Darkness.
Indeed. That is who I am. I'm surprised you made your way here on your own.
Yubel tried to get air in her lungs to speak— but realized, then, that there was no air in Darkness's world. She needed to rearrange her thinking.
After a few moments, she managed to get words from her lips.
"How did I get here?" she said.
By accident, even? Let me see.
There was a silence, then, and Yubel could only lay there, waiting. She was at the mercy of this massive, dark being, and it should have scared her. Instead, she felt like she was at home, despite the weakness in her body.
I see. Judai's been taken by Light.
Yubel flinched. Oh god. Judai! She had to get back to him, she had to protect him from that horrible, burning pain before it killed him, or worse, warped him beyond recognition, as it had her.
Peace, child. Judai is safe, for now. He has you to thank for that.
"I don't understand," she croaked.
Judai's body could not handle the Light of Destruction; he would have died almost instantly upon being exposed to the other's Madness. But you, instinctively, took Judai's powers with you, and fled here.
Judai's powers? She tried to sense them out, and was surprised to find a heavy haze of darkness under her skin. She couldn't quite manipulate it, as the power wasn't hers, but Darkness was right: she had Judai's Darkness with her.
He's powerless, but he won't die.
"I have to get back to him," Yubel said, struggling up. "I have to somehow help him escape."
I agree. Light's Madness is growing stronger by the moment. I will not have enough power to begin this loop again for the two of you, this time. This is your last chance.
Yubel felt the darkness curl around her arms, lifting her gently to her feet. She could move again, now, and she stretched her wings to try and get blood circulating again. It had been a long time since she'd had a separate, physical body of her own, and it felt odd. She had ghost sensations of what Judai's body felt like, and for a moment she stumbled, thinking her body was smaller than it actually was and being thrown off balance.
"How do I return?" she said. "How do I get to Judai without the Light killing him?"
He must find Yusei, the Yusei of his own time. Yusei is the only one who can hold the true Light within him, and grant each other protection from each other's Madness.
"But...how do I find my way out of here?"
The Darkness shifted for a moment. And then, among the shadows, there was another shape there, and Yubel tensed. Was the the form of Darkness?
The man turned around, and met her eyes with his own clear violet.
"I can show you the way out," Fujiwara said. "But please— take me with you. I need to talk to Judai."
