Koros45 doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Chapter 50: Messenger From Beyond
A foggy haze lifted from Ushio's head. The man was now in a wide room, with a lowered platform in the center. An old as dirt holographic Duel Monsters projector – either an exact replica or the actual table in Duelist Kingdom - was the main catch of the design and the room itself had a pleasing ambiance to it.
Ushio was not alone as across from him a well-groomed man stood. He was clad in a crimson suit and his platinum shoulder length silver hair's sheen and quality certainly added to his odd nature.
"Ushio-boy, how I've missed you." The man said. "Though you're here far too soon. Tell me, how is the future?" The man asked.
Ushio bowed to the other man. "Mr. Pegasus. . . I – ."
He wasn't sure where to start regarding the other man's question.
"It was a whole nother' lifetime." Ushio simply said.
"Hmm, and how has Kaiba-boy changed my dear game of Duel Monsters? Is it even played the same way?" Pegasus asked.
Ushio pulled out his holoscreen to display an image of a standard Security D-Wheel in the middle of a duel.
"Hmph. Well now we use D-Wheels to have Riding Duels, but Standing Duels are still common. And there's a new monster type." Ushio said, turning off the screen and putting it away before fishing around in his pocket to pull out Goyo Guardian.
"This one's for Security use only." Ushio said, handing Pegasus the card.
"Ah, so there's that new type of monster. They finally decided to speed up the game with Synchro Monsters and Riding Duels, I see! I was wondering when that would happen, all the sponsors I proposed the idea to thought I was crazy. But I'm glad that it eventually happened in any case. I'm so happy to see that the game keeps evolving." Pegasus said, gesturing to a seat across from him.
"Please sit. And have some wine. Or sparkling grape juice if you'd like." Pegasus said, pouring himself a glass of a purple liquid. Due to the identical shades of liquid and the shapes of their bottles, Ushio couldn't tell which one the man picked.
Ushio sat and grabbed a bottle of something from the center of the duel table, pouring it into a fancy glass and taking a swig of it – the sweet and bitter taste of the grape juice splashing against the inside of his mouth before he gulped it down.
"Ah, I see your badge! An officer of the law hmmm? That's so wonderful!" Pegasus said, closing his one good eye as he smiled at Ushio, giving him light applause.
"I guess I owe that to you, Mr. Pegasus." Ushio said. "If not for you and your research, I'd still be a vegetable, and very much dead." He took a sip of the grape juice and waited for Pegasus to speak.
"How could I not help with the amount of resources and wealth at my disposal? So many people hurt by misuse of the Millennium Items, even if it was just due to Yugi-boy's other self protecting him. Taking in the lot of you was a way to atone for my own misuse of the Millennium Eye." Pegasus said, flipping his front bang from his face for a moment and pointing to an eye patch over what Ushio guessed was an empty eye socket.
"From the others, you were the only one who made it out?" Pegasus asked. Ushio nodded.
"Yeah. Out of P.K., the watch guy, and the criminal. I didn't see any of them once I came to. In fact, I only remember P.K and the Criminal now." Ushio said, scratching the back of his head.
"Well purgatory does that to people, I suppose." Pegasus said and Ushio was taken aback.
"P-purgatory!? Mr. Pegasus, how long have you been in this place?" Ushio asked.
Pegasus laughed. "Well I take it as a duty, dear Ushio. You see, there are so many imaginary friends that children have and forget about in their childhood. I find when they pass on, reuniting them is a small comfort." Pegasus said, turning over a deck of cards Ushio saw was littered with a bunch of kid's crayon drawings of fantastical creatures.
"That can't be it." Ushio said, crossing his arms.
"Well, one of my reasons was to meet you again, Ushio-boy. That gives me hope for the future. If we can but help those that have been hurt by things we don't understand. It might not erase our own pain, but it can help us to deal with it. Tell me, did you meet my wards, Yako and Tenma?" Pegasus asked.
Ushio shook his head. "I'm sorry sir. They both died before I got to meet them. I was still in a coma when they passed on. But I saw their framed pictures in the Crawford Institution when I woke up. They were next to your own picture. And one of your late wife, of course."
Pegasus gave a sad smile and nodded. "Well that's life I suppose. I met the two of them myself in this space, but they were busy telling me about Kaibacorp's changing hands once Mokuba-boy decided to fund some MIDS Momentum Project. Apparently there was some controversy over that." Pegasus said.
Ushio closed his eyes. "About twenty years ago, that research was sabotaged and split the city in two. The government covered it up as a natural disaster, but once it came to light reparations began about three years ago. It's still not perfect, but the city is closer than it was when I woke up."
"Well that's wonderful news, I don't have to have a guilty conscience about that I suppose. But about Kaibacorp, I want to ask you about the company that tried to buy it out from Mokuba before he sold it to another party. Have you ever heard of Yliaster?" Pegasus asked.
Atem tried to steady the fallen officer, but Ushio had fallen from the D-Wheel at an angle and was suffering from a concussion or worse. Moving the head could just hurt him even more and Atem had no idea what the first step was to treating an injury like that. He was skilled at games, but medicine was an entirely different category altogether.
Atem checked for bleeding and was relieved that it looked minor. There was a pulse and Atem was relieved for that. He pushed the Security D-Wheel off of Ushio and it fell down, as there was no stand keeping it upright.
"Ushio! Ushio! Atem yelled, feeling powerless to help. Again, like in the aftermath of Yusei and his duel with Marik all Atem could do was to hope that the other was alright.
/
Ushio dropped the grape juice and the container shattered, sending it all over the floor. How in the world did Pegasus know about a group as secretive as Yliaster?
"Blast. Hang on, I'll clean that up." Ushio said, moving to use his yellow scarf as a mop.
"No, no. Let it be." Pegasus said. "Dark Rabbit will come to clean it off the floor soon anyway." Pegasus said.
"Anyway. Yliaster. You know about them?" Ushio asked, raising one of his bushy eyebrows.
Pegasus blinked, looking serious for the first time. "Yes. They were part of Paradias, a company that tried to buy out Kaibacorp before. And they seem to have always been on this Earth, since the dawn of large central governments at least – that was a theory my security guard Croquette had at least. Anyway it seems that they've been up to no good."
Ushio nodded. "Actually I have information about them. They popped up in my future, you see. There's a lot to tell you about here, but I'll summarize as best I can. This is mostly second-hand information. Every five thousand years a big Crimson Dragon picks five people with magical dragons – The Signers - fight against five other people with dark gods from the Nazca Lines – The Dark Signers.
But this time around, Yliaster manipulated the outcome of the battle. Then they sent their leaders through time to try and fix the timeline – I guess where they come from the future's pretty bleak. Their 'solution' was to drop a replica of Neo Domino onto the existing city. Luckily, they were stopped by the five people mentioned before, but since then I always wondered if Yliaster would still come back to bite us all in the back."
Pegasus nodded. "And I wager that's what happened?" He asked, tilting his head slightly to the side as he poured Ushio a glass of wine this time.
Ushio took the glass and nodded back to him. "Yeah. This time they're not drawing nearly as much attention to themselves. But they made a big mistake. They put me in contact with a guy using a Millennium Item."
"Hm?" Pegasus said as he daintily took a sip. "Millennium Items are still in this world? Even after all this time"
Ushio shrugged. "I don't know how, but a duelist from your days, Bakura, exists in this world. He used his Millennium Ring to restore some of my memories and sent me to have revenge on the Pharaoh in Yugi's body."
"But wait, Bakura and Yugi should be long dead." Pegasus said, scratching his head. "To appear so far past time is certainly strange, but I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising if it's concerning that Pharaoh. If a three-thousand year nap is anything to go by. And more importantly, Bakura explained to you just who Yugi-boy's alter ego is?"
Ushio nodded. "I doubt Bakura was telling me everything, but in my mental state I went along with it. I just dueled Atem – that's the Pharaoh's name - to try and get my revenge, but it didn't' work out how I'd planned." Ushio admitted. Pegasus silently nodded.
Ushio kept speaking. "I can't really explain how he came back, but these Signers must be involved. In the current day, they're always connected to whatever problem science can't explain." Ushio said.
"Well I understand your checkered history with Yugi-boy. I imagine running into the Pharaoh again must've been very hard for you." Pegasus said, grasping Ushio's hand, eye shining with concern.
"It was. I wanted revenge, but it didn't help at all. I think it just made things worse for me." Ushio admitted. "That Bakura baited me with someone I care about. And I was so focused on my revenge that I may have worsened the problem."
Pegasus lowered himself to the table, pushing the drinks to the side and grasping Ushio's hand with both of his. The man's eye shown with sorrow and wisdom.
"Ushio-boy. Trauma is never easy to deal with. Sometimes we make regretful choices we can never undo. Sometimes we slip back into bad habits. And if you confronted the trauma's source directly in any way than I'm proud of you. The therapy and research into helping you recover was worth it just to give you some semblance of a normal life, but now I can say I'm even prouder of you still."
Pegasus put down his glass and put his other hand on Ushio's shoulder.
"Now that said, I can't say I approve of the choices you made concerning revenge, but I can understand why you made those choices." Pegasus said. "And now, you have another choice to make."
Ushio blinked. "Huh?"
"You can either stay here waiting for your demons to make peace with you, or you can return to your life and try again. This is the edge of life and death. I'm here to greet you, but once again you still have a chance at life." Pegasus said. "Unfortunately we don't have time to duel at the moment, but I hope that you bring your deck again the next time I see you."
Ushio nodded and rose. "Thank you for your help. You gave me a second life, Mr. Pegasus. And now, a second chance." Ushio said with a curt bow. "I'll chat with your once I've lived a full life, but for now I need to leave. I have friends to save, and a Puzzle to reclaim from a lawbreaker."
Ushio gave him a salute and Pegasus raised his glass. "Then to your health, Officer. And good hunting, Ushio-boy~!"
/
Ushio gave a grunt and moved, rolling over so that he was on his back. He opened his eyes to see Atem was crouched next to him with relief in his eyes even if he was tense.
"You saved me?" Ushio asked, raising a large eyebrow.
"No. There was no way to stop your crash. Luckily for you, you fell off of the D-Wheel as it hit and because of that you didn't get too injured. Since you'd slowed down so much from the loss, you just have a few bruises that I noticed. I just made sure you were alright. My holoscreen got destroyed and your phone doesn't work." Atem said. "And without a helmet, you have quite the bruise on your head."
Ushio clutched his forehead and felt blinding pain. Now that the third eye was gone he felt like he was buzzed, but that was strange. The wine he'd had was in a dream, right? He didn't bother looking for an answer to that one as he blinked until he could see straight again.
"What about using your D-Wheel to contact anyone?" Ushio said.
Atem frowned. "Everyone I know here is busy in a duel or possessed by something else at the moment. I wouldn't know where to begin. My friend Seto got my message, but he's also busy. Right now we're stuck. My rental D-Wheel is out of momentum, and yours won't open unless you use the access code." Atem said.
Ushio sat up. "Well Pharaoh, I guess we'll have to work together if we want to get anything done." Ushio said. "I may have a grudge with you that may never fully be resolved, but right now helping Mikage and Yusei are more important than my own problems."
"And I owe you an apology as well. Even if you don't accept it, I am truly regretful for my actions in the past. I may be able to purge the darkness that's claimed Yusei's body. And it may also be able to undo the original Penalty Game I inflicted on you." Atem said. "I think you've atoned long enough."
Ushio didn't say anything to that. "Well I don't want to fight Yusei at the moment. That seems like suicide. Plus that's impossible now considering the duel took us all the way to Satellite." Ushio said, as he skimmed the breaking news on one of the holographic billboards in the distance.
"But right now we can at least figure out what's wrong with Security. They had to have been taken out from the inside and I think I know who's behind that." Ushio said, as he opened a panel in Atem's D-Wheel and connected it to his own.
"Once I get your D-Wheel working, I can bypass the security firewall. Since I'll be using a rental D-Wheel and not this bugged model, I can at the very least contact someone on the inside. That will be a good first step in figuring out what to do." Ushio said.
"How long will it take?" Atem said. "I was hoping it would be quick. Whoever has – manipulated Yusei – had him take my Puzzle as well." Atem said and Ushio frowned.
"Shorter than a three to five thousand year nap, so sit tight." Ushio said, as he fiddled with the cables.
/
The Security desk pinged and Kazama immediately was alert. Finally, something to do that wasn't related to the mess created from Crow's absence from his position. With Mikage's disappearance, they had a lot of catch up to do and the revelation that Officer Warren had shot Crow had shook the whole Security Bureau to its core.
The message was from a rental D-Wheel, displaying a picture of Yugi Muto, fiercely scowling with blades of purple in his eyes.
Kazama pushed the 'receive' button and was taken aback as Ushio's face appeared on the screen.
"Kazama, this is Ushio!" The other Officer said, looking worse for the wear.
"Ushio, are you alright?" Kazama asked him. "You've been gone all day."
"Well some wiseguy hijacked my D-Wheel and I've been unable to contact you for the past three days! I need you to listen! There should be Security tapes on file from three days ago! Check what you see from that night! See if you find me in any of the footage!"
Kazama held up a hand to put Ushio on hold while he typed in the desired footage.
"Got it." Kazama said.
Ushio kept speaking. "There was a break-in which is why the chief disappeared. I was blackmailed into dueling this guy for Mikage's freedom, but I don't think our hijacker wants to keep up his end of the bargain! He cut off all my communication with any of you and I had to use this guy's D-Wheel just to reach you!" Ushio said, stepping back to jerk a thumb at the carbon copy of Yugi Muto that Kazama had seen duel earlier that week.
"This guy's for real. I know that's impossible to prove, but take my word for it." Ushio said. "The Duel Record on this rental machine should prove that."
"Well with all that in mind, we can issue you a new D-Wheel ASAP. And we'll have to interview this 'Atem' as well for accuracy. But right now we're in a pickle. Did you hear about Crow?" Kazama asked.
Ushio frowned. "Something came between him and the rest of Team 5D's? I didn't hear about it."
"Officer Warren shot him." Kazama said bluntly. On the other end, Ushio blinked.
"What?! The guy who showed me the ropes in Satellite shot down our rising star? But I just saw Crow! He looked fine!"
Kazama nodded. "I know. But Warren still shot him in cold blood. Warren's body camera may have been shut off, but Crow's body and D-Wheel cameras weren't. We saw the whole thing in real time before Warren trashed Black Bird."
"Do you know where Officer Warren is?" Ushio asked, face red.
"No, but there was a huge fire in that area shortly after. We investigated the area and didn't find a thing. He's either in the wind or got consumed in the flames." Kazama said.
"Damn. Well we'll have to look for him later. Look, how long will sending the D-Wheel over take? I have to restock on my Gate Blocker."
Kazama blinked at this. "R-right. Well, half an hour. And I'm sorry, but we're out of copies. Please refer to manual Seven Completed for further instruction. - By the way, do you have evidence of this meeting?" Kazama asked.
Ushio smiled. "Yeah. I went old school. Before I entered the building I set my antique phone's setting to record in my pocket and got the whole conversation between myself and Bakura down. They may have been able to stop me from calling anyone, but that didn't stop me. That should at least prove it happened, but we'll need to recover the Chief to really get the ball rolling." Ushio said.
Kazama nodded. "I'll look at those tapes ASAP. And by the way, tell Yugi I want his autograph." Kazama said, ending the call abruptly.
/
"Yes!" Ushio cheered as he started punching in commands to the D-Wheel's monitor.
"What is that about?" Atem asked.
"Unofficial signal for sabotage. I'm not the best hacker, but this gives us a way to bypass Security's mainframe and look for what we need. Right now that's classified footage and information."
"Wait, so you're using Security's authority to hack Security itself?" Atem asked.
"That's right. Took a class on it and everything. After we uncovered Team 5D's had done some harmless hacking due to Officer Crow's own admittance, we decided to educate ourselves in it. As long as it's for ethical reasons, it's something we should all know how to do."
"But isn't that all kinds of illegal?" Atem asked.
Ushio nodded. "That's right. But we rigged the system so that two Officers would have to work together to do it. That way we'd have the hacking attempt on file and could pursue the offender for damages if their intent was malicious. The case of Officer Warren worries me since he never had a lot of contacts."
Ushio thought for a moment and kept speaking.
"My old captain spoke with him on the issue, but Warren stopped patrolling Satellite once laws were passed that gave Satellite citizens more rights. I didn't know he had anything against Crow, but I'd be lying if I told you Security never had bias against Satellite citizens in the past, especially those with markers. Damn. I only wish I knew why it all happened. And this hack should give us the answer we need – we just need to solve this Duel Puzzle first." Ushio explained.
Atem blinked. "Duel Puzzle?"
"Yeah, of course! We designed really hard puzzles so that way some bratty teenage hacker couldn't just do whatever they wanted once they got through the initial security lock. And this was before we were aware Team 5D's hacked our system, so now the puzzle's even harder!" Ushio said.
He typed away at the monitor on Atem's bike and gestured to his own D-Wheel.
"I'm dealing with the Firewall. You go do what you do best and see if you can beat the computer at its own game. We have a five minute window, and you have three tries. Good luck, old King of Games."
Atem nodded. "Let's do this!' he said, bringing up the puzzle in question.
PLAYER: 4000, COMPUTER: 2000
The prompt WIN ON THIS TURN was displayed at the top of the puzzle, with a three minute timer counting down. Wasting no time, Atem looked down to see what he could do.
His field contained four monsters – Neo the Magic Swordsman (4/1700/1000), Suijin (7/2500/2400), Kazejin (7/2400/2200), and Sanga of the Thunder (7/2600/2200).
And as for his opponent, they controlled a monster with a similar appearance to Exodia, a bulky and golden monster with Egyptian themed headdress and armor, Exxod, Exiled Master of the Guard (8/0/4000). It was ridiculously huge.
Even with the three elementals that made up Gate Guardian on Atem's field, they were nowhere near strong enough to breach the other monster's four-thousand defense points.
Atem looked to his hand for an answer to the riddle. He had two normal monsters in his hand, Skull Red Bird (4/1550/1200), and Blackland Fire Dragon (4/1500/800). Next was the spell card De-Fusion, the spell card White Elephant's Gift, the spell card Shrink, and the equip spell Megamorph.
Atem wondered what was more important – keeping his field as it was or summoning one of the other monsters. He reasoned that the next few cards would give him an answer.
The spell card White Elephant's gift tributed his Neo the Magical Swordsman for two cards, giving him a copy of Polymerization and a spell called Allure of Darkness.
Atem raised an eyebrow at Polymerization, looking to his Extra Deck to see there was a Fusion Monster in there to be potentially Summoned. Atem played Allure of Darkness, drawing into Gate Guardian and Faith Bird, then he banished his Blackland Fire Dragon as a cost for his most recent spell card.
Next, he played Polymerization, merging the two birds in his hand into one as the plump and proud fusion monster, Crimson Sunbird appeared (6/2300/1800).
Then all three elementals faded away as Atem sent them away – Gate Guardian taking their place (11/3750/3400).
Then came the tricky part. Megamorph was key here, and Atem wasn't sure what the right choice was until he saw his life-points.
Atem oped to use Crimson Sunbird and attack the opponent's Exxod, Master of the Guard, using Shrink on his own monster. The fusion shrank in size as the Spell cut it's attack power in half (2300 → 1150)
The attack was reflected as Exxod grunted, shoving bird away. The fusion crashed the the ground and Atem grunted as he took the counter damage (PLAYER: 4000 → 1150).
to take enough counter damage for Megamorph to kick in, giving his equipped Gate Guardian enough attack points to destroy Exxod in battle (11/3750 → 7500/3400).
The Elemental marched forward, pointing both hands at Exxod and firing a destructive vortex of wind and water that surged with lighting. The spiraling torrent rammed into Exxod, tearing the guardian down upon impact.
Then with the De-Fusion spell, the fallen Crimson Sunbird split into its two components of Faith Bird (4/1500/1100) and Skull-Red Bird (4/1550/1200), both striking at the computer's Life-Points and reducing them to zero.
"Not bad! Only took you one try!" Ushio said. "That puzzle took me three to figure out, and I had to do it without the timer!" The officer admitted.
"Well, now that that's out of the way, let's see who this Warren person contacted." Atem said.
He felt a feeling of both anger and relief as the hack worked, displaying the footage. Shiro's face appeared on the other side of the screen.
"Wow. I thought for sure he'd act through a proxy." Atem said. "That's just overconfident."
Ushio sighed. "You're one to talk about overconfidence. Though you have a point. Maybe he was thinking Warren would delete the footage – or that I wouldn't back up the system to recover this. To be fair, there's a lot of Security footage we don't look at."
The conversation was brief on the static heavy screen.
"I'm sending my agent in for about half an hour. Are the problem Officers dealt with?" Shiro's voice asked.
"Yes. Ushio and Kazama are away. Security shuts down right now. Crow's busy on patrol. The Chief's the only one still here at this hour. I made sure to dismiss everyone else personally. You have thirty minutes for your inside man to carry out his goal." The mustached officer said.
"Excellent. Your payment is already given. Now all that remains is for my guests to all arrive in one place. Enjoy your early retirement, Officer Warren." Shiro said as the signal cut.
Ushio nodded. "That makes sense. Warren was the officer in charge of my training. He taught me that Satellite citizens were trash. He was quite impressed with my physical skills and a natural talent for leadership and persistence going after Satellite natives. It's actually what got me starting working with Security. Looking back at my past, I see why." Ushio admitted.
"Best not to dwell on the past for too long, it can drive you crazy." Atem said and Ushio scoffed.
Atem spoke again. "Well, we have what we need to implicate him publicly. What now?" he asked.
Ushio laughed. "Well that's easy. Once that new D-Wheel arrives for me, I'll upload our finding onto its hard-drive to Kazama. From there we should be able to connect this Shiro person to everything that Team 5D's already relayed to us. The only catch is Crow – we don't know where he is."
"And what about me?" Atem said.
Ushio frowned. "Well - you'll to make a statement as you're also in this mess of red tape. Since Yusei's not himself and Crow's missing, I think it would be alright if you assist if possible. Just come with me to the Security station first. We're just going to match your records to see if you're the same man we have on file, then hear what you have to say. I need you to do this before we cut you lose to save the world."
Atem felt uncomfortable just waiting, but saw no alternative at the moment.
"All right Ushio. I'll go with you. But I have to stress that this affliction that's taken Yusei must be dealt with as soon as possible. If it can corrupt someone as noble as him, then I fear for us all."
Ushio scoffed. "Come on, can't you have a little faith in the guy? I mean you didn't see him fight against Rudger, the leader of the Dark Signers close and personal, but Yusei faced his demons and came out in one piece. With some help from Momentum. Come to think of it he beat two Dark Signers back to back, including facing their Earthbound Immortals. And don't get me started on his record in the WRGPX."
Atem knew that was how Yusei met him in the afterlife of course, but said nothing. Letting Ushio say his piece would smooth things along.
"I do believe in him. But I also want to help." Atem said. "Anything I can do to fix the state of things."
Ushio scratched the back of his head. "By the way, when I crashed my D-Wheel, I found myself - somewhere else. I ended up seeing Pegasus J. Crawford."
"Pegasus?!" Atem snapped, taken off guard.
"Yeah. Some kind of vision. Pegasus said it was Purgatory, but it could've just been some kind of hallucination considering my past with those Millennium Items. He told me to give you his regards, if possible."
Atem blinked. "Pegasus did?! That's-" He tapered off.
It was tough to believe at first, but Atem found that having the Egyptian God of the Sun and God of the Underworld sealed inside of cards was just as hard to swallow. And Pegasus designed those cards himself.
"I see. I didn't know you knew him." Atem stated.
"Oh, well - you see he was responsible for my rehabilitation after your Penalty Game." Ushio explained. "He used mediation, therapy, and medicine to give me slight amnesia. And he isolated me from any news of the Duel Monsters World to avoid seeing you in fear it would trigger those memories.
After some time he felt bad because it wasn't enough to get rid of the nightmares. So he put me in suspended animation. One day I woke up in this city and with no official records of who I was other than my name and registration with Pegasus' foundation. You could say I owe him my life." Ushio said, looking away for a moment to reminisce.
Atem blinked. "That makes sense. Pegasus always did try and atone for his misdeeds in the past by helping to save the world. I'm glad that he was able to give you a second chance."
Ushio nodded. "Same here. And speaking of helping out, your word will do that once we sort this out. I'm going to need somebody to speak to Team 5D's since Crow is away. Where's your Puzzle?" Ushio asked, looking at the metal and leather brace around Atem's neck, currently missing its chain.
"Yusei took it a few hours ago. When we didn't know he wasn't himself. That was the first reason I suspected him." Atem said, frustrated at how deep this went.
"Considering what has just happened, I think Shiro and Bakura thought far ahead enough that I might undo your Penalty Game if I had it with me. And I can assure you that Marik is working with them as well."
"Wait, that guy in the Battle City Finals footage – Marik Ishtar - is behind Yusei taking your Puzzle?" Ushio asked. Atem nodded.
"I have a strong suspicion. Since Bakura has been beaten, that's the next logical choice."
"Dammit. Why did this have to involve those blasted items?" Ushio said. Atem was glad the Millennium Rod wasn't with them considering what Shiro and Bakura had accomplished with the Ring alone.
"What's that guy's interest in your Puzzle? Artifact collecting?" Ushio asked.
"In Marik's case, it will would give him the ability to create Shadow Games. As for Shiro, I don't know, but he took something else from my people as well. A great stone we used to house the Puzzle and six other items like it."
"A gigantic rock? Why's that so important?" Ushio asked.
"Because it's the lock that keeps the darkness that created those items away from this world." Atem said and then stopped.
"Hold on. When Shiro and Bakura invaded my resting place they chose not to take any items with them, other than Bakura's Ring. Bakura would need all seven of them to accomplish what he did in the past – revive his true self, the dark god, Zorc. I don't know what his goal might be with my Puzzle and the Stone, but he can't revive Zorc if he's missing any of the items!"
"So he's not reviving some dark God, huh? Well that sounds less bad than it could potentially be." Ushio said.
"I know, but Shiro also took Jack's Scar-Red Nova Dragon. I never saw that card myself, but if it was a stronger version of Red Demon's Dragon – I can only image what Shiro has planned with it." Atem said.
Ushio looked startled at the mention of the name as Atem continued speaking. "He's collecting power and according to him it's to 'end all Gods'. He wants to remake the world as Yliaster dictates, but I never imagined he'd succeed. But now that Yusei isn't himself and Crow's been shot it's looking more like he will." Atem said.
"Wait, what? He took Jack's newest ace, and now you're telling me that Crow's injured?" Ushio asked.
Atem nodded. "Why do you ask? I thought you knew."
Ushio frowned and pulled a pretty looking crocheted doll out of his pocket. It bore a strong resemblance to the blue haired head of security that had seen him, Seto and Isis when they'd all arrived.
"I was too busy making sure Mikage was safe and tracking you down to stay in contact with Security. Bakura said if I did contact anyone these last three days, he'd keep her stuck in here." Ushio said, brushing the doll's head with a big gentle finger.
Ushio put a hand to his forehead. "Then we need to contact Team 5D's! If we can find Crow than we can get to the bottom of this way faster!"
Atem nodded and was about to close the interface to the Security video to contact them when Ushio stopped him.
"No, hold on. We need to wait for that D-Wheel to get here first! Unfortunately I can't disconnect this – it is incriminating evidence against Shiro! Once we get the new model, I'll let you contact Team 5D's and we'll get to the bottom of this." Ushio said.
Atem shook his head, feeling frustrated. They wouldn't be in this situation if Ushio hadn't come out of nowhere and imposed a duel on him like that. But then again, Ushio wouldn't have done that if Atem never gave him so severe a penalty game so long ago.
"Alright." Atem said, feeling awkward. "Well, Ushio, do you like the future any better than old Domino?"
Ushio blinked. "Well I guess so, yeah. D-Wheels make getting around easier and the economy's better. Plus I get perks as a Security officer." Ushio said.
"And this boss of yours. I met her briefly when I arrived here with Team 5D's." Atem said, pointing at the doll.
"What about her?" Ushio asked, feeling a blush creep to his face as he recalled the Chief when she was an actual person, still just as adorable as the doll, but far fiercer when it came time to give orders. "She's the person I want to save, so you don't always have to be the hero!"
Atem smiled. "I'm just glad we're on the same side. Thank you for hearing me out. I too wish for all of the victims in this plot to be saved."
Atem paused and spoke up again.
"Sorry Ushio. Perhaps if I hadn't grown from meeting Yugi and seeing his kindness you would have beaten me today. Regardless, I may have won the duel, but you've shown me that I still have things I'm responsible for." Atem thought. "If I had to come to this world for any reason, I'm glad that I was able to settle things with you."
"Well then, we'll take it one step at a time." Ushio said, looking away as they waited for time to pass.
/
The voice hit her when she least expected it, Aki Izayoi falling to the ground as her hands shot up to her ears.
"The Path to Power lies on the Witch's Island."
No! No! She screamed mentally. Her hands pressed harder into both sides of her head as she tried to suppress the trigger words.
"The Path to Power lies on the Witch's Island." The words repeated.
How!? When?! How could Divine do this? Aki half screamed as her head began to pound.
The Black Rose Witch awoke with a vengeance, the surge of Psychic power attributed to the name manifesting as the blast of power was felt around the entire hospital as the pressure caused the power to flicker.
Aki roared as she recalled her training from the years of therapy she'd gone under in a situation like this.
"The Path to Power lies on the Witch's Island."
Over and over again. Aki let out a scream as the personality she thought had been sealed away woke up with a terrible hunger.
Then it hit her. Whoever was sending the message was using the room's direct service line. Divine must have someone on the inside in that case.
Aki wrestled with the Black Rose Witch in her head, the sheer Psychic power she'd sealed away behind her past bursting at the seams.
Aki Izayoi screamed.
The woman was engulfed in the surge of mental energy and her mind fell under the sheer torrent of untapped power.
She was still.
The Black Rose Witch rose with a smile on her face, grinning at the repeated trigger words.
"I'm awake, Divine." She said as calmly as she could be.
/
Divine smirked and crossed his arms. "That was easy. And we didn't even need a house call." He remarked as his acolytes had hacked the hospital, letting him broadcast his message for about a minute before it was shut down.
Divine grinned. So what if the Dark Signers returned? As long as he reforged his strongest weapon, none of that would soon matter. Shiro had given him everything, and now Divine would see that the fool regretted it.
Arcadia would rise again.
/
/
A lot of heavy stuff in this chapter. I'm not sure the Duel Puzzle is really that difficult but I wanted to include it regardless. I will admit I have no idea whether the 'evidence' Ushio got on Shiro is really admissible in real life but seeing a coworker in recorded footage making a deal with an outside party seems pretty clear cut to me.
And I wanted Atem and Ushio to interact in this story. But I wanted it to feel earned, not just Ushio appearing out of the blue and thanking Atem for the Penalty Game. IMO, the blame is not just on Ushio's end, but on Atem's as well considering Ushio was in a way Atem's first victim. As cool as he was in Season Zero, Atem was a psychopath back then. Even if this fic doesn't go deep into that, Atem would be at fault for traumatizing Ushio, even if he saw it as punishing a rule breaker. Obviously Ushio going as far as he did once Bakura talked to him was not the right way to approach Atem but to me it made sense.
Was Ushio's added backstory with Pegasus satisfactory? I wanted a way for him to exist in the 5D's timeline that also fit in with Paradox referring to 5D's as it's own 'era' of time (far future from DM and GX). Also I love Pegasus and wanted him to appear in some capacity in this story.
And then there's the end with Aki. Was it too sudden? Too predictable? Let me know your thoughts!
ALSO at the moment I am once again dealing with Things Happening In Real Life related to moving and future employment so that means the next chapter might not come out for a while. Please be patient as I figure stuff out.
Considering I'm fifty chapters into this excluding the prologue, I'm pretty proud of this fic and the readers that have read through it.
If you read through all of those notes, you're a champion in my book worthy of Clear Mind. Thanks for reading this chapter.