Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds

The Ghost of Bennett Ranch

By Lucky_Ladybug

Notes: The characters from the show are not mine. Any other characters and the story are mine. This takes place post-series, and Kalin and Radley are very close friends. It definitely pays homage to many Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, but with me writing, it will naturally get darker than the classic versions of those books ever did, lol. Seluga is one of Malcolm's men from both the anime and the Over the Nexus game. He's just a random thug in the anime, but the game actually made him interesting, so I use that characterization more.

Chapter One

Kalin stirred, sitting up in the small twin bed. It had been another night filled with nightmares of the past, much to his displeasure. Sometime in the middle he had got up and left his room, stumbling to Radley's room next-door. Coming in here had helped quiet his mind at last. The rest of the night had passed fairly peacefully, to his relief. It looked like a new, cloudy day was dawning outside the window.

He looked over at Radley, resting peacefully and hugging the pillow to him as he slept facing Kalin. Radley never minded the intrusions into his room; he had been the one who had encouraged Kalin to come if he needed to. Radley didn't go into Kalin's room as often, but he did when the memories were too much for him. Radley still tried too hard to be strong and never break. When he did, everyone close to him knew it was bad.

Suddenly Kalin froze as the memory of his dream returned. It had been another nightmare of the past, something that had really happened.

Radley had been laying delirious for some time now in the small Crash Town hospital after being tortured in the mines. Kalin had been with him the entire time that night, but Radley had never seemed sure Kalin was truly there. As he stirred again, Kalin leaned over the bed in concern. "Radley? Can you hear me?"

"Kalin . . ." Radley looked up at him with those glassy green eyes, so full of light and life before the past 24 hours, but now dull and dead. "I know you hate me, but . . . don't worry. I'll be out of your life soon. . . ."

Kalin felt like a knife had slammed into his heart. "Radley, no," he protested. "I don't hate you! I never did. I don't even dislike you. I was so wrapped up in myself and I was a fool. I couldn't see or appreciate your goodness. And yet . . . somewhere deep down, I came to care about you. I didn't let myself acknowledge it, but I did! And I only realize now, when it might be too late. . . ."

Radley gave him a sad smile. "Delusions are nice, sometimes. I wish this was real. I need to tell you, Jordan's alive. . . ." He tried to get off the bed. "I need to show you. . . ."

"No!" Kalin exclaimed. He grasped Radley's shoulders, gently lowering him back into the bed. "It's okay. You already let the police know and they got him out. He's going to be alright because of you!"

Radley seemed to accept that. "I'm glad . . . he has a chance to live," he said softly.

"You have a chance too!" Kalin exclaimed.

"What's there for me if I do, Kalin?" Radley asked. "Everyone's gone. If I'm all alone . . . what's there even to live for?"

Kalin's heart shattered into countless fragments. "You're not all alone, Radley," he said. "I am so sorry I left you. I won't ever leave you again." He took Radley's clammy hand in his.

Radley just stared at him, still clearly unable to believe this was real. "I wished you'd say that," he said quietly. "Part of me kept hoping you'd come back for me, that you'd say you were sorry and you didn't mean to leave me behind. But you never came. I finally realized . . . you never would. The Bunch all abandoned me. Of course you did too. I could never expect anything else."

Kalin grasped Radley's hand, holding it to his forehead as he silently cried. There was always some new revelation of something he had done drastically wrong. He had already felt horrible for abandoning Radley, but hearing Radley's thoughts on it made it so much worse. In his delusional state, he was no doubt revealing the full truth of how badly he was hurting. Kalin would never not be haunted by this.

A shudder went up Kalin's back. He hadn't thought of that in a while, but apparently it still haunted him, even if only subconsciously. He had felt so helpless that night, watching Radley suffer and knowing it was at least partially his fault. It was a miracle Radley had pulled out of that, that he was laying here healthy and breathing peacefully . . . that he had forgiven Kalin wholeheartedly.

Radley stirred, rolling partially onto his back as he looked up at Kalin. "Good morning," he smiled. "Did you sleep better in here?"

"Yes," Kalin said. "Only now I remember what I dreamed." He looked away. Radley might not even remember the incident, since he had been so ill at the time. Kalin didn't like to remind him.

Radley sat up. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"I . . ." Kalin hesitated.

"It's okay if you don't," Radley said.

". . . Sometimes I still wonder how you ever forgave me," Kalin said. "I hurt you so badly. You died in the mines because of me!"

"I died because Malcolm's Crew was sick," Radley insisted. "You were in no shape to really focus on what was going on. When I finally understood that, it helped a lot." He peered at Kalin. "You were dreaming about that this time?"

"About when you were so sick and delirious," Kalin finally admitted.

"Oh. Yeah, that was bad," Radley quietly said. "We both went through a lot that night." He reached and gripped Kalin's shoulder. "But we went into the morning stronger and better for it. What happened that night sealed our bond forever."

Kalin finally looked back to him and into the earnest love in his eyes. "You're right," he said.

"So . . ." Radley hesitated. "As horrible as that night was, I wouldn't trade it for anything."

Kalin smiled. "When you put it that way, I wouldn't either," he said. "Although I'm sure we would have bonded regardless. It had to have been meant to happen."

"I believe that too," Radley said. "Judging from the alternate versions of ourselves we met, there are probably many ways it could happen."

"And it sounds like some things are the same across dimensions," Kalin said, "including that you're hurt and I feel horrible about it." He frowned. "That shouldn't always have to happen." He looked away. "I wonder if that's the only way to really get me to wake up about what I caused."

Radley sighed. "Well, let's not worry about that." He squeezed Kalin's shoulder and started to get up.

Kalin followed suit. "It just bothers me that it would take something that extreme to wake me up. I should have thought about you at least as soon as I got my mind clear, and I didn't."

"Not at all?" Radley said quietly.

". . . Well, yes, I did," Kalin amended. "But I thought you'd be alright until we could overthrow Lawton that evening. I thought it was best for Yusei and I to lay low and let him think we were dead until then. I was afraid if we revealed ourselves sooner, something might go wrong and throw everything off. But if I'd really known that Malcolm had ordered his men to kill you, I can't believe I would have left it at that."

Radley gave him a sad smile. "Then that's what I'll cling to. I can't think you would have left it at that either, not if you'd really understood."

They were both surprised by the sudden ringing of the phone. Kalin, who was closer, answered it. "Hello?"

"Oh, Sheriff Kessler . . ." The woman on the other end of the line was tearful, almost to the point of hysterics. "I didn't want to believe it, but something terrible is happening here!"

"What?!" Kalin exclaimed. "Hey, calm down! Who is this?!"

The woman drew a shaking breath. "Amanda Bennett, at the Bennett ranch. For the last several weeks, strange accidents have been happening here. I kept brushing it off as the normal problems of ranch life. Now, however, I just can't do that anymore. Rick, one of my ranch hands, was badly hurt in another accident and there was a ghostly apparition!"

Kalin quirked an eyebrow. ". . . Did it say anything?"

"It said 'Get out, or worse will happen,'" Amanda sobbed. "Rick could have been killed! I don't know what to do. . . . I hoped maybe you and Mr. Radley could help. . . ."

"Of course, we'll come out," Radley said, coming closer to the phone. "How badly is Rick hurt?"

"I don't know," Amanda said. "He's been taken to the hospital. That's where I'm going now. I just don't know what to do! I don't . . ."

"It's going to be alright," Radley soothed. "We'll go out and look around. Let us know about Rick."

"I will," Amanda stammered. "Thank you both!" She hung up.

Kalin frowned, setting the phone back in its cradle. He never had been good at comforting, but Radley seemed to have a natural talent for calming people down. It was good that one of them did. He always hoped that he was getting better, but under pressure he usually seemed to crack.

And what could be wrong at the ranch? Had a real ghost appeared, or was it a fake? Who would want Amanda and her staff to leave?

Radley had other things on his mind. "Rick . . . that must be the Rick formerly of Malcolm's Crew," he said. "He's nice. . . . He probably would have joined the Bunch if I'd found him first."

Kalin nodded, snapping back to the present. "He told me he wanted out once he learned how cruel Malcolm really is, but of course he wasn't allowed to leave."

"I hope he'll be alright," Radley said in concern. "When we find out more, we should visit him."

"We will," Kalin assured him.

"The Bunch was leery of him for a while, but I think they finally started warming up to him too," Radley said. "It's funny how people get prejudiced about things and then find out they're nothing like what was thought. My whole family thought the Satellite was some kind of dump just filled with unsavory characters and they got me scared about it. But then I found out there were good people there too."

Kalin looked at him in surprise. "You don't mean recently," he said. "You sound like this was some time back."

"It was," Radley said. "We were flying out to see relatives still living in Spain and we ran into some engine trouble. The only place we could put down in time was the Satellite. My family was scared stiff of being robbed and knifed or something while we were waiting for repairs. I was scared too, but then I saw this younger kid hanging around and I thought I'd go see what he was up to. I figured he was too young to be a hood." He leaned back against the wall with his hands behind his back. "He was a cute kid, just five or so. I guess most kids my age wouldn't wanna play with someone so much younger, but I was just starved for friends and I didn't care about ages. We had a lot of fun until it was time to go. Of course my mom hit the ceiling that I was playing with one of the 'local waifs,' but my dad thought she was overreacting. I wanted so bad to stay in touch with the kid, but my mom wouldn't let us exchange addresses and she shuttled me back on the plane."

Kalin was just staring at him now. "How old were you when this happened?" he demanded.

"About ten, I guess," Radley said.

". . . What did you and the kid even find to play together?"

"He had some figures and we played with those for a while," Radley said. "Then we dueled. Kids get started on Duel Monsters pretty young sometimes, even in the Satellite. He almost beat me," he chuckled. "When we left, I gave him one of my cards. I don't know why he took a shine to it; I always thought it was a creepy card. But it was Level 4 and had 1900 attack points and no strings attached to play it, so maybe he just liked its strength."

Kalin's hand shook a bit. He reached over, taking his deck from the nightstand where he had sleepily left it the night before. He shuffled through the cards until he came to a well-worn one and held it up. "This card?"

Radley leaned forward to look. "Vorse Raider. Yeah, that was it. . . ." He stared at Kalin in utter disbelief.

"That was me," Kalin whispered, also in disbelief.

". . . That's unreal." Radley came closer, staring at first the card, then at Kalin. "It's not just a weird coincidence that you have the same card? You remember that day?"

"I remember," Kalin insisted. "I had to get out of the house and away from my father, so I wandered over to the old airfield. It was rare to ever see anything land there anymore and I was fascinated. There were a bunch of adults getting bent out of shape about being there and a kid several years older than me. He wanted to play, so we played with my Dyna Dude figures for a while. Then we dueled. I almost beat him. He was nice and I wanted him to stay. I didn't know anyone nice back then; I hadn't met Yusei and the others yet. I cried when he had to go and he gave me this card. I don't know why I liked it before either, but after he gave it to me, I had a new reason to prize it. It's always been one of my favorite cards, and I've kept it in my deck even after changing my strategies to use the Infernity Monsters." He shook his head. "It's funny how even one meeting can linger with you for the rest of your life. I always wondered what happened to him. I don't think we ever even introduced ourselves, but we had fun together and I wanted to see him again so badly." He stared at Radley. "And then I did."

Radley still looked bowled over. "It was you all along. . . . Just . . . how does something like that happen?!"

"Destiny wanted us to meet," Kalin insisted. "That's why it kept bringing us together."

Radley started to smile. "I think I'm starting to believe in destiny."

"I most certainly do," Kalin said, and hugged Radley close. What were the odds of them having a chance meeting as kids when they didn't even live in the same state? There was no way Kalin could believe it was a coincidence, not when they had become so close.

Radley hugged back. "I wonder what would have changed if we had been allowed to communicate . . . or if we had sneaked each other's addresses behind my mother's back."

"Maybe there's a dimension where that happened," Kalin said. "We probably would have kept up correspondence through the years and when the time came, I would have deliberately gone to Crash Town to see you." His voice broke. "And I'm sure I wouldn't have abandoned you to the mines."

"That's all over," Radley whispered. Kalin would no doubt never forgive himself for it regardless, but Radley wished he could. He hated to see his friend in such pain.

"I know." Kalin sighed and pulled back. "We'd better grab a quick breakfast and get out to the ranch."

"You're right," Radley agreed.

xxxx

The Bunch was ready for their morning ride before long, and they didn't mind riding out to the ranch, which was outside the town limits but still part of their jurisdiction. But Biff, of course, definitely minded the supernatural twist.

"What if the ghost is real?!" he exclaimed. "If it's causing all those accidents, anyone who goes there will probably get hurt!"

"As the local law enforcement, we have to investigate anyway," Radley sighed. "And no matter what's causing the accidents, it could try to hurt us."

"Let's hope someone at the ranch can tell us more about what's really going on," Kalin said. "Ms. Bennett was too upset about Rick to say enough."

"I hope he'll be okay," Scotch said in concern. "He was nice to us when we . . ." But he trailed off. When we joined Lawton was what he had been about to say, but he didn't like to bring up that dark time.

But Radley just sighed and gave a tired smile. "It's okay to talk about it," he said. "It happened. There's no point in sweeping it under the rug."

Scotch looked away. "Yeah, I guess. . . . But it hurt you so bad, Radley. . . ."

Radley just squeezed Scotch's shoulder. "It's over now. We're all okay. Even Billy's getting better." He smiled at his oldest friend, who nodded. Billy had struggled with self-hatred for over a year because of how he had abandoned Radley in the mines and tried to send Marty to the mines to save himself. But at last he had come to realize that he was trustworthy now and would never harm them again, which had finally mended his shattered heart.

". . . You know, though," Clint spoke up, "Amanda Bennett was one of the only people who was willing to give any of Malcolm's Crew another chance, even though these were the nice ones and not the ones who were hurting people. Maybe it's not a ghost causing this at all. It could be anyone in town who doesn't like them being here and wants them out."

"Yeah, unfortunately, there's a lot of suspects," Radley sighed. "But no matter who's doing it, it's unacceptable."

". . . Some of us still aren't sure about having them here either," Virgil muttered. "Not that we'd do anything about it; we just don't like it."

"And feelings can't be turned on and off," Radley said. "It's okay if you don't like it. I'm a little worried myself about her even taking in Seluga when he got out on probation."

"Yeah, I mean, he was one of Malcolm's high-ups," Jimmy said. "You seemed to see good in him, Radley, and I guess the police and Ms. Bennett did too, but you just didn't get to a high position in Malcolm's Crew without doing some pretty awful stuff."

"I know," Radley said. "Of course . . . he did say that the reason he got to a high position was because he wanted to try to stop what was happening from the inside. Good intentions, but it didn't really work out as he'd hoped." He gave a sad smile. "But we all know about that, don't we? That was pretty much what happened when we were forced to play Malcolm's games every night. We didn't see any other way to protect the town from his takeover. But a lot of people got hurt because of that. So . . . we should all try to give Seluga the benefit of a doubt, okay? He might be the one we'll be talking to when we get there."

Virgil still looked doubtful, but he said, "For you, Radley, we'll try."

The rest of the Bunch echoed their agreement.

Radley smiled at them. "Okay then. Let's go."

Kalin smiled a bit too as they climbed on their motorcycles and started out. Radley was a good leader, level-headed and compassionate. Kalin had always been a go-getter, plowing headlong into things. Yusei had told him how much he, Jack, and Crow had all looked up to him. Sometimes it was still hard to grasp. Kalin had been too impatient to be a good listener like Radley was, and even though now he was actively trying to improve, his telephone conversation with Amanda left him realizing he still had a lot to work on.

At least, though, he was good at talking with Radley. When Radley broke and admitted he needed comfort, Kalin had learned to be there for him. Maybe he could expand that to learning to be more patient with others as well.

The Bennett Ranch wasn't far outside the town limits. It stood under the shadow of some of the red rocks, with the dyne mine very visible nearby. And as the motorcycles roared up to the wooden fence, it was indeed Seluga waiting and watching for them.

Radley got off his motorcycle first. "Hello, Seluga," he said as he removed his helmet. "How are you doing?"

"I was doing a lot better before the accidents started," Seluga said. "I always thought it was more than just regular accidents."

"How frequently have they been happening?" Kalin asked. "And exactly what has been happening?"

"It's been happening just enough that it could seem like regular ranching accidents," Seluga said. "Stuff like hay bales suddenly coming loose or pulleys breaking. The other day some of the bulls got out and almost trampled some of the guys."

Scotch winced. "Oh wow."

"Ms. Bennett mentioned a ghost sighting," Kalin said. "Did you see that?"

"And what happened to Rick?" Billy added.

"We all saw the ghost," Seluga said. "Rick was out early this morning trying to load some new equipment in the barn. The floor in the loft broke and he fell through. A lot of heavy rods fell on top of him."

"Oh gosh, that's awful," Barney spoke up.

"We all ran to help him and that's when the ghost showed up," Seluga said. "It just stood there all glowy and white-like and warned us all about getting out."

"Maybe it was a holographic projection," Radley suggested.

"It looked pretty real," Seluga said. "We couldn't find any projector hooked up."

"Someone could have rewired a Duel Disk to do it," Kalin said. "You probably wouldn't have noticed a Duel Disk lying around."

"No, probably not," Seluga admitted. "We're still cleaning up the mess in the barn, though, and we haven't found one."

"They could have already taken it away," Kalin said. "Can you think of any living person who could be behind this?"

Seluga shrugged. "It could be anyone in town who doesn't like things here at the ranch."

"Or maybe someone who wants the ranch for themselves," Radley suggested. "Do you know of anyone like that?"

"No, except maybe Malcolm," Seluga said. "But he's still in the Facility."

"He could hire someone to get it," Kalin said. "We shouldn't count him out."

"Let's look at the barn," Radley said. "Maybe we'll see something you overlooked."

"Okay." Seluga unlocked the gate and swung it open. "I hope you find something."

As the large group all trouped in and walked up the pathway towards the barn, Biff suddenly screamed. "Ghost!"

Several of them jumped a mile. But Biff was right. A white phantom had suddenly materialized in their way, coldly glowering at all of them.

"Get out!" it rumbled. "Get out!"

Then it was gone.