Welcome to the Rebellion

Chapter Five: The Phantom Thieves

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Ren's eyes flickered open cell with velvet walls. He sat upon a wooden cot with a toilet positioned across from it. To his amusement, he is wearing a classic black and white prisoner uniform complete with handcuffs and a ball and chain. Getting up, he walked over to the bars of his cell to where someone was expecting him.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," A female voice greeted. Standing next to an empty warden's desk is a young girl with long platinum hair and golden eyes. She wore a blue outfit reminiscent of a French maid. Blue dress, a matching headband with white butterfly ornaments, and yellow roses. Underneath her arm is an abnormally large book entitled 'Le Grimoire'.

The Velvet Room is a place that exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those bound by a contract may enter. The room's appearance mirrors the state of its guest's heart. In this case, the guest is him and the state is a prison. That's right, he's a prisoner of fate yet again.

"I'm surprised that I would still be able to access this place considering that I'm in another dimension," Ren said as Lavanza approached the bars of his cell. Her pink lips smiled at him.

"So long as you are bound by a contract, you will always find yourself here," Lavenza said. "As one who rules overpower, my duty is to witness the path you take. Should the four dimensions continue down its own current path, all that awaits you is destruction."

"I know," Ren said, gritting his teeth. "If the Professor gets his way, millions of people are going to die."

"It is not just the professor that you need to be wary of," Lavenza warns. "While his actions are leading the four dimensions to a disastrous fate, he is not the danger that threatens the future."

"What do you mean?" REn asked. Before Lavenza could say anything, a bell rang.

"It seems our time is at an end," Lavenza sighed. "Let us meet again soon. Until then…pleasant dreams."

Standard

Ren Amamiya woke up in the men's section of the second floor of Café Leblanc. As he sat up, the sheet slipped down revealing his bare torso. For it took him a few seconds to remember where he was.

"That's right…I'm in Standard…"

He had to admit, Standard had it lucky. The people here are free to carry out their lives with the bliss of ignorance of the dimensional war. It was like back at home. But sooner or later, it's going to come right to their doorstep. For that, they had to be ready.

Getting up, he did his daily exercise and drink coffee. He picked up this habit back in Japan. Thanks to that, he was able to keep in shape. It would come in handy for those 'action duels' he's been hearing about.

After putting on a shirt, he exited the bedroom and made his way downstairs. Walking into the kitchen, he began to prepare breakfast for himself, his friends, and a special guest. He was nearly done when he heard the sounds of movement from above. Soon, he is joined by Ryuji and Morgana.

"Morning," Ryuji waved as he sat down at the bar. "What'cha making."

"Making rice, miso soup, side dishes, and pickles," Ren replied. "I'm going to have to make a lot of it. You know how Sumire is with food."

"No kidding," Ryuji groaned as Ren served him his dish. "I bet that girl can eat the whole city with an appetite like hers."

"Better not let her hear that," Ren warns.

"Hear what?" Both boys looked up to see Sumire walking into the café. She is joined by the rest of his friends.

"Nothing," Ryuji whistled innocently.

"Wise move," Morgana said. "Where's my sushi?"

"Right here," Ren said, pushing the plate in front of Morgana. The feline thief eagerly dug in. The rest of the Thieves begun to eat as well. While eating, they exchanged banter.

"It's nice that the café is already running well," Ann said as she eats the breakfast that Ren made. "How'd you manage to pull it off so fast."

"It's thanks to a little seed money and the boss' lessons," Ren said. "On another note, how were your decks? Did you get a good feeling?"

"The bad boys in the Plundrolls are appealing to me," Ryuji said, scratching the back of his head. "But…it makes my head hurt to pull it off. Personally, I prefer to go for the gusto and attack until my opponent isn't standing."

"It's the same with my deck," Ann said. "I feel like something is missing with it."

"I'm alright with my deck," Yusuke said. "Each card in it is a tale waiting to be told. I'm even more impressed with how the Solid Vision projects them."

"I'm okay with my deck," Makoto said. "How about you Haru?"

"Just fine," Haru said while looking down. "Except my winning combo, last night is my only one. If I rely on it too much, I won't progress."

"My decks doing okay," Morgana chirped. "The only person I haven't beat is Joker."

"It's alright if you want to change your decks," Ren said. "We have plenty of cards to choose from the card database. I can help out if you want."

"Thanks, Renren!" Ryuji had tears in his eyes. "You're the smartest person I know!"

Suddenly, Morgana stood up straight. His ears twitched and he turns toward the staircase. "She's coming! Act natural!"

The Thieves fell silent as their special guest came down the stairs. She wasn't wearing her red Academia jacket or her duel disk. Perhaps she thought that she wouldn't need it. Serena's green eyes stared at them warily but with curiosity mixed within.

"Good morning Serena," Haru kindly greeted. "Did you sleep well?"

"Noir?" Serena asked. "Is that you?"

"I look different without the mask, don't I?" Haru asked in amusement. "Why don't you take a seat? We're having breakfast."

"Okay," Serena said as she takes her seat at the bar. She looked at the tray that Ren had passed to her. "What's this yellow stuff?"

"It's Tamagoyaki," Ren answered. When she became confused, he clarified. "It's a rolled omelet. It's a favorite in my café."

"Ah, okay," Serena said as she picks up her chopsticks. The indigo blue-haired duelist looks confused. "Um…what are these?"

"Chopsticks," Ren answered. "Let me guess…you don't know how to use them?"

Serena flushed red and nods stiffly in embarrassment. They had a sneaking suspicion that Academia doesn't use any chopsticks.

"It's alright Serena," Haru said as she holds up hers. "You see, you take them like this…"

After several minutes of hilarity (by which a chopstick hits Ryuji in the forehead, replaces Yusuke's pencil, and such) Serena got the hang of it. She began to chow down on her breakfast eagerly.

"This is really good," Serena praised. "Thank you…Uhm…I never got your name."

"I'm Ren Amamiya," He gestured to the feline on the bar. "You've already met Morgana."

"Morgana? Not Mona?"

"It's what we call him in the field," Ren said. "Yeah, I know. It's weird to give a cat a codename."

"Hey! I am not a cat!" Morgana protested. But everybody was already introducing themselves. They were a bit reluctant in giving her their real names, but it was only at Ren's urging that they did.

"I'm Ryuji Sakamato. Nice to meetcha!"

"Ann Takamaki."

"Yusuke Kitagawa. A pleasure to make your acquaintance," The blue-haired painter suddenly had Serena's wrist. "I must say. The design of your bracelet is without flaw. How did you come by such a treasure?"

"I don't know," Serena said as she yanks her wrist away from him. She looked at him like he was some sort of creep.

"You have to forgive him. Yusuke grew up in isolation, so he tends to be socially awkward," Makoto says before she introduces herself. "My name is Makoto Nijima. Nice to meet you."

"Futaba Sakura. Good to meet you!"

"Haru Okumura."

"Lastly, I'm Sumire Yoshizawa," the red-haired girl finished. "Pleasure to meet you, Serena."

"Nice to meet all of you," Serena said as they resumed eating breakfast. "So, what are you guys? Are you from the Xyz resistance?"

"What makes you think that?" Ann asked.

"Because I highly doubt that you broke into Academia, blow up their surveillance system just to rescue me," Serena said, narrowing her eyes. "Plus, you guys seem to be powerful duelists, if Morgana is anything to go by."

The Phantom Thieves looked at each other for a moment.

"Your right Serena," Ren said. "We're a group that's investigating the truth."

"The truth?" Serena asked. "The truth about what?"

"The truth about the Dimensional War and the Arc Area Project," Ren answered. Serena looks surprised at this declaration.

"What are you talking about?" Serena asked. "The ARC Area project is when we make all the worlds become one and a utopia that will bring peace."

"And let me guess. By carding every duelist on sight?" Ren asked, clenching his hands into fists from behind the counter. "Believe me, I started to believe that as well. But I started to have doubts when a friend of mine sent me a video. A video that made me doubt everything that the Professor said."

"What video?" Serena asked. She was a bit peeved that he was accusing the Professor of being a liar, but she was curious by what he is saying.

"This one," Futaba said as she fiddles with her D-Watch. "Let me show you."

Her D-Watch projected a video. On it showed a hospital room with a mother holding a child. The mother looked scared yet can't seem to be able to move. A nurse nearby was about to help her when the door was kicked down. In stormed in what Serena recognized as duel soldiers of Academia.

"Wait! Please, don't—"

He didn't get a chance to finish before a dark purple light was emitted from the soldier's duel disk. It covered the nurse and when it faded, a card fell to the floor. Serena knew that the man had been carded. But he didn't appear to be a duelist. So why are they carding them?

"Please! Not my child! Anyone but her!"

The soldiers looked at each other for a moment. Then, without hesitation, they proceeded to card both the mother and the newborn baby. What made the Thieves stomach turnover was the fact that they were laughing.

"Did you see that? She was so begging!"

"You know our orders. Card everyone on sight."

"Guess that includes babies. Let's find more prey to hunt!"

Futaba took the opportunity to pause the video before they could laugh. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the table. The Thieves were doing all they could to suppress their rage. They watched Serena see her reaction. To say horrified was an understatement. She just watched duel soldiers heartlessly turn people into cards. They weren't even duelists.

"Where did you get this?" Serena whispered.

"A contact of mine found it," Ren said. "The guy was a duel soldier that fought in the Xyz Invasion. When he saw them carding civilians and their families, he wanted to know the truth as much as we would. But when he confronted the Professor about it. That was the last time I heard from him."

Ren took a deep breath. "Look, Serena. If you were given a choice, which would you pick? A lie or the truth. That wasn't the only video that my contact sent me if you want to know. After seeing them, I can't turn a blind eye to this like so many others. I need to know if ARC Area Project is right. What say you?"

This was difficult for the indigo-haired girl. Serena wanted to dismiss this as fiction, that this was just a ploy to get her to turn against Academia. But she couldn't get the scene out of her head. The soldier's face of twisted pleasure and the horror of the nurse and mother being carded mercilessly. The Professor said that they would be carding duelists. Why would he lie?

"I…I…"

"You don't have to decide now," Sumire said quickly. "Take all the time that you need. Stay here as long as you like. How about that?"

"That would help…" Serena said. They could tell that she was still conflicted.

"Would you like to duel Morgana later today?" Ann asked. Serena perked up at that. Slowly, she turned towards Morgana, who seems to be giving her a challenging grin. The indigo duelist returned it.

"Oh, you're on, Morgana!" Serena said. "I'm going to beat you this time! Anytime! Anyplace!"

"How about the underground in the afternoon?" Makoto suggested. "You can't take the opportunity to make some changes to your deck and freshen up."

"Great!" Serena said. She pointed a finger at Morgana. "Just you wait!"

Serena bolted up the steps. The Phantom Thieves gave smirked at her retreating form. Even Morgana chuckled at the thought of dueling Serena again.

"She said that last time, and I still beat her," Morgana said.

"I can tell," Ren chuckled. Sumire took the opportunity to go behind the counter. She gasped when she saw the state of Ren's hands.

"You're bleeding!" Sumire cried out. Immediately, she grabbed the nearest first aid kit and began treating him.

"I'm sorry. I was thinking back…"

"You really shouldn't hurt yourself, Ren," Ann scolded. "It's not going to change anything. I'm sorry, but it's true."

"It's alright. I know that for a fact," Ren said before turning to Futaba. "Did that really happen?"

"It was," Futaba nodded sadly. "Yusuke and Ann found it when they were searching Xyz. Trust me…that isn't the worst thing I have in my inventory right now."

"I can already imagine…"

"Are you sure it's wise to lie to Serena?" Yusuke said. "Why don't we just tell her the truth?"

"We can't drop the bomb just yet," Ren said. "I dislike it as much as the next guy, but she needs to discover the truth with her own eyes. All I can do is give her a push and hope that she turns from this path before it's too late."

"And what if she doesn't?" Haru asked. Ren didn't answer for a moment. When Sumire finished wrapping the bandages around his hands, he sighed.

"Let's hope that it doesn't come to that. In the meantime, we have our debriefing. After you're all done eating, let's go to the basement."

In the basement of Standards Café Leblanc, the Phantom Thieves gathered. A table had been set up in the center and they took their seats. Sitting at a corner is a circular pad that served as a relay node and warping point for their dimensional move network.

After making sure that the door is shut and locked from within, Ren took his seat. He couldn't risk Serena waltzing in on their meeting. While she may be a victim of whatever plan the Professor had, they're not sure they could trust her.

"Alright, let's begin our debriefing," Ren declared. "First things first, I would like to apologize."

"What are you talking about?" Ryuji asked. The others are confused as well.

"I thought that this would be simple. We steal the Professors heart and the whole war is over with. But it would appear that the game has changed somewhat and it's going to take longer than I thought. For that, I'm sorry."

"Hey, don't sweat it, Renren!" Ryuji said. "You honestly think we were just going to let you take on that asshole by yourself?"

"Success can only be obtained by walking the path of thorns," Yusuke said. "It won't be easy, but it will be worth it when the Professor is taken down."

"Besides, if you hadn't had the foresight to get the dimensional move network online, then we wouldn't have been able to intercept the girls," Makoto said. "Just what does the Professor want with them?"

"All that we know is that Arc-V is involved," Ren said with a frown. "Meaning that either the Professor has a sadistic sense of humor or something else is going on. Anyway, let's proceed with the debriefing. Futaba, can you start us off?"

"You got it," Futaba nods from behind her laptop. "As you remember, our initial plan was to infiltrate Academia so we can set up a foothold to steal the heart of the Professor. Should we encounter some…unexpected complications, then we can simply retreat to another dimension once our dimensional move network, which I have dubbed as it fast travel network to avoid confusion. However, during infiltration, Haru and Morgana overheard the Professor sending someone to the Xyz dimension to kidnap someone."

"It happened to be Ruri Kurosaki," Ann said. The moment she said that the blonde started gushing. "Oh my gosh! She's so cute! You should've seen her when I took her over to do a photoshoot with me!"

"You'll have to forgive her," Yusuke said with a sigh. "Ever since we took her to…you-know-where, Ruri wanted to help pay the boss back for letting her stay. Ann has been lyrical about her."

"Ann," Ren said pointedly. "We're doing a debriefing?"

"Right! Sorry!" Ann recomposed herself. "Anyway, after our communication, Yusuke and I went to the resistance camp to look for Ruri. After our D-Watches identified the Xyz spy, Dennis Macfield, we found out he was with the guy the Professor sent."

"We caused a commotion to let the resistance know that their base is no longer safe," Yusuke said. "In the chaos, we bought time for them to get the civilians out by dueling them. As it appears, we have successfully defeated them."

"But then Ruri came back to help us," Ann said. "Academia had already sent soldiers, so we had to fast travel out of there."

"So, we're already calling it that, huh," Ren smirked. "I'll admit, it's much better than dimension move. Anyway, good job on getting out uncarded. How is Ruri?"

"She's doing well. While she understands that she's being targeted, she misses her family and friends," Ann said. Her face is set with a determined frown. "We promised her that she'll be able to see them again. And trust me…I'm going to keep that promise and the Professor isn't going to get his sleazy hands on her."

Everyone understood Ann's conviction. Back then, she was the victim of a perverted teacher who tried to force her into a relationship. When she kept avoiding him, he took out his anger on her best friend. The worst was that rumors spread that she was his girlfriend when it wasn't true.

"We hear you, Ann," Ren said. "Rest assured, we'll do everything in our power to keep her safe. Makoto and Ryuji, the floor is yours."

"We've finished setting up the safe house," Makoto said clearly. "After receiving word that the Professor sent the same guy to kidnap someone, we began to look for them. We investigate the tops until we had to leave due to an altercation."

"Altercation? What do you mean?" Ren asked. He saw Makoto flash a glare at Ryuji while he gulped.

"We'll talk about it later. A-anyway, we escaped from security back to the commons," Ryuji said, clearly wanting to change the subject. Makoto gave him an unimpressed look but didn't say anything. "It was there we ran into Yugo. A good kid we made friends with. He was looking for his girlfriend, Rin. Said that somebody was stalking her for days. Give you three guesses who."

"The guy Yusuke faced," Ann said as a matter of fact.

"Yep. I ran into him when we were looking for Rin. Thanks to that new tracking program Futaba developed, it was easy. Let me tell you, she was as scared as hell. I had to duel him and was about to win when Yugo showed up. At that moment, Rin's bracelet did something freaky and the next moment, my ass was in Fusion."

"You were lucky that we were able to get to you before the Juvenile officers," Ren said. "From the specs of their duel disks, they would've sealed you into a card."

"Yeah…lucky me," Ryuji said. "Anyway, I heard that Makoto won her first-speed duel against security. How did that happen?"

"I ran into the office that was chasing us while I was heading back to the safehouse," Makoto explained. "I couldn't lead him back to the safehouse, so I had to duel him. After the duel, Security attempted to corner me, but thanks to Futaba, I was able to escape."

"But it was wicked seeing you speed duel!" Futaba said giddily. "Not to mention my baby performed splendidly! How did it go?"

"It was like riding Johanna," Makoto said with a smile. "There's also the fact that it made my heart beat like it's in hyperdrive. I felt alive."

"Ironic as it sounds, it was thanks to the mission in Synchro that we were able to discern a pattern in the Professors targets," Makoto continued. "He's after girls bearing the same face and has a bracelet on them."

"I've never seen anything like them," Yusuke said as pictures of the bracelets in question came up. "The design is almost uncanny."

"They're like our watches, but unlike us, they can't travel the dimensions at will," Ren said. "Where did they get them?"

"Ruri said that her brother gave it to her when she was little," Ann said. "Other than that, she can't remember."

"Rin said the same thing," Ryuji said. "They just found her with it when they took her to the orphanage."

"That does seem strange," Ren said. Deciding to discuss it at a later date, he turned to Morgana and Haru. They nodded and they began to detail their mission in Fusion.

"While you guys were galivanting on your missions, we've been infiltrating Academia," Morgana said. "They couldn't tell their Obelisk Force members apart. It was when we downloaded the server that we came across Revival Zero. The details are unknown, but it involves the girls and ARC-V. You know the rest, Ren. We got Serena the heck out of there."

"You can say that she's taken a liking to him," Haru said with a small giggle. "When he was around, it was easy to persuade her to leave with us. Unfortunately, we ran into Yuri, the guy who tried to kidnap Rin and Ruri."

"Whoa!" Ryuji nearly fell off his seat when Yuri's picture came up. "That guy looks like Yugo!"

"Excuse me?" Ren asked. The Thieves were looking at Ryuji intently.

"I'm serious! If it weren't for the fact that you told me he's from Fusion, I would've mistaken him for Yugo. He freaking looks like him!"

"He's not the only one," Ann said. "Ruri had a picture of this guy name Yuto and he looks just like him too."

"So, we've got boys with the same face as well," Haru asked. "What is going on here?"

"There's more," Morgana warned. "Turns out, Yuri is the top dog of Academia. I can tell that there's a screw loose and everybody is afraid of him and for good reason. Anyone he's dueled with is brutally defeated. Nobody has ever beaten him."

"Until us you mean," Ryuji said, gesturing himself, Yusuke, and Haru with a grin. "Looks like Academia's best duelist got his butt kicked by the Phantom Thieves!"

"Get your head out of the clouds, Ryuji," Ren snapped. "You should never let victory cloud your judgment. The only blessing Academia gets when they card someone is that they don't have to face them again. The moment we think we're unbeatable is when we let hubris led us to the path to ruin. Trust me…that's one of the reasons WE fell that night."

Ren's eyes flashed with pain, recalling that night. The night that happened four years ago. He didn't want his friends to repeat the same mistakes back then. Never again.

"You don't have to say it like that," Ryuji said, looking downcast. "But…I'm sorry man. It won't happen again."

"It's alright Ryuji. Just remember not to get overconfident. If Yuri is as good as they say he is, he's going to adapt his strategy the next time you face him. And according to his psych eval, he's unstable. Which means it's likely he'll be gunning for the guys who beat him."

"Well, that's just great…" Ryuji muttered.

"Just in case, alter your decks and strategies to keep him on his toes. Anyway, let us continue the debriefing."

"After we escaped, we triggered Futaba's virus to take out their surveillance and cripple their dimensional move network," Morgana finished before giving a Cheshire grin. "Plus…we left the Professor a little message. As you know, a good Phantom Thief leaves something behind."

"Excellent," Ren grinned. "If the Professor hasn't figured out who's been messing with his operations, he will now. If it took him this long to figure it out, I might have to ask him for his brain. I feel like he isn't using it…"

Everyone at the table burst out laughing. It was moments like this that Ren enjoyed the most. This brought up nostalgic memories from long ago. But he pushed them aside and focused on the task on hand.

"Lastly, my and Sumire's mission. While we were setting up in Standard, we infiltrated the LEO corporation building run by Renji Akaba, the Professor's son."

"The Professor has a son?" Yusuke asked.

"Apparently," Ren said. "I'm still processing that he came from Standard, but it all made sense. He just showed up out of nowhere with no history in Fusion."

"Shouldn't we be concerned?" Futaba asked with a scowl. "What if he goes Akechi on us?"

"We shouldn't make any rash judgments," Ren declared.

"Ren's right," Makoto said. "For all we know, he could be against his father as much as we are. But until he proves otherwise, he's neither friend nor foe."

"Anyway, Ren and I managed to break in thanks to Futaba's hacking app," Sumire said. Futaba beamed with pride. "After disabling the security systems, Ren managed to download everything from Reiji's private server. Those are the events of last night, which brings us here."

"Everyone caught up?" Ren asked, to which everyone nods. "Despite several drawbacks, our objective is the same. Taking down Academia by stealing the Professor and his accomplice's hearts. But first, we have to make sure that Academia doesn't claim any more victims."

"He's already ticked off as it is," Morgana said. "I heard him venting about how Yuri failed to bring him Ruri and Rin. Now that Serena is gone, it's likely that he will target Standard. We have to be ready."

"Fortunately, we bought some time thanks to their Dimensional Move Network being crippled," Ren said. "We can use this opportunity to complete three objectives. First, we need to find a girl with a bracelet and has a face matching that of Ruri, Rin, and Serena. Second, we need to locate Academia's spy here in Standard. Third, we need to thwart the invasion of Standard."

"Can we really stop a full-scale invasion?" Ann asked. "I mean…they have an army, and there are only nine of us."

"Numbers don't win a war," Ren said. "Besides, I'm already coming up with a plan with the data from Reiji's server. I'll need Makoto and Morgana in for this one. The rest of you can take some time off. Goodness knows you earned it."

"Well, that's a relief," Morgana said as he stretches his legs. "But first, I got to go upstairs and make sure Serena is still here. The last thing we need is to cause some confusion with her counterpart."

"Before you go, Morgana, there's one more thing," Ren said. "Because the Academia heist is on hold, I found a way of making it up. A while ago, I found a confirmed candidate on the MetaNav."

Morgana's ears perked up. "You mean…"

"A few days ago, one of my customers was harassing another," Ren explains as he accesses his D-Watch. "I had to duel him to kick him out of the café. I didn't fusion summon of course. After some investigation, I've learned that the aggressor was once a student at a duel school. You can say that if Academia had invaded, their principle would've been a match made in heaven."

Everyone flinched at the dark look that appeared on Ren's face. If it weren't for the glasses, he would've been terrifying. They could understand his anger though. Are children being subjective to brutal methods over a card game? It was like they are turning them into duel soldiers.

Ren finally stopped fiddling with his D-Watch as an image projected in front of him. On the screen is an elderly man with a long dark grey beard with two bangs framing his face. He wore a green coat over red robes trimmed with yellow and black. His face sported an x shaped scar.

"Everyone, meet Ryōzan Gōdagawa," Ren introduced. "He's the principal of Ryozanpaku School and he's going to be our first target in Standard."

[~][~]

I know it's been a while, but I've been busy. As you can tell, I've made some changes to a previous chapter so that the story can run smoothly. I can assure you, that it's the last time I'm altering it. Give it a read-over.

Anyway, the Phantom Thieves have met together, and they are planning their next heist. How will it play out?

Also, I'm planning on changing the decks because some of them utilize LINK monsters. As LINK monsters don't exist at this time, I'm going to have to improvise. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the show.

By the way, to the person who gave this fic a TV tropes page. Thank you.

Thank you for reading and stay safe.

Next time: The Church of Darkness.