Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds

Play It Again, Old Friend, One More Time

By Lucky_Ladybug

Notes: The characters are not mine and the story is! This takes place pre-Crash Town arc. As I've already established a multi-verse, this takes place in one of the other dimensions. I got the idea due to a doll project I've been working on that didn't end quite as I'd hoped. It gave me a fascinating idea, though! This is basically a dimension where Radley was a fifth Enforcer. The story will explain. I'm also using the prompt #4 - Once More from the abandoned 5Ds_100 writing community on Livejournal.

Kalin arrived in the small mining town shortly after his revival following the Dark Signer catastrophe. The dark coat he had picked up fit perfectly with his current mood, and his short hair brushed against his face in a breeze. He had decided to grow it out, but that would take time. He had plenty, at least until he found a suitable punishment for himself.

He hoped that this town held what he sought. Crash Town, the locals called it, the city of the lost. Well, that was certainly what he was, so he should fit right in. And the dangerous nightly duels to gather labor for the dyne mines sounded just up his alley. He knew how to duel, and when sooner or later he lost, he would be sent to his certain death in the mines.

If he ended up with the right faction, of course. One of the gangs in town was twisted and cruel, torturing the labor and forcing them to work even when ill. The other gang fought back against them, trying to protect the people from a totalitarian takeover. Obviously Kalin had to join the nicer faction so that he would end up at the mercy of the treacherous gang when he lost.

He had asked around for where to find them and the townspeople had all directed him to the town diner, the only family-friendly place in town to eat. He found it now and went inside, not sure what to expect.

It definitely wasn't the sight of a rowdy group of young guys dancing and making themselves merry. Several were playing with the jukebox and singing, while two more were kicking up their legs on the counter. Over at a table off to the side, a dark-haired man was pouring himself a drink of something and watching with a mixture of amusement and disbelief.

"Get down from there!" he scolded the two on the counter. "You know what would happen if a health inspector came in here right now?!"

"We'll clean it, Radley," a blond promised.

"Radley," Kalin whispered.

He walked over closer to the table. He had come here looking for Radley, wanting to join his gang, but he hadn't quite recognized the other at first. The years had taken their toll on him; he looked worn-out and far older than he really was. The slight Spanish accent was still the same, if a bit hardened and gruff. Kalin had always known him to wear his hair very long, halfway down his chest. It was cut to his shoulders now. He still had an affinity for jewelry; Kalin recognized the pendant around his neck and the piercing in his left ear. But the more rebellious nose ring was gone and the hole closed up. Apparently he had decided he no longer wanted that.

He looked over, locking eyes with Kalin. Suddenly his pale skin went several shades whiter. "Kalin?!" He leaped out of the chair fast enough to knock it over. "I . . . I heard so long ago that you were dead. . . ."

"I was," Kalin said. "And I'm barely alive now. I'm only a shell of the person you knew."

The sound of the chair falling had startled all of Radley's friends into silence. The two on the counter jumped down.

"Hey, Radley, who is this?" a young man with wild brown hair demanded.

Radley shook himself out of his shock. "This is Kalin," he said. "Kalin Kessler, my dear friend from the Enforcers. . . ." He sounded lost in the past now. But then he was back again and clapping Kalin on the shoulder. "The best for Kalin, okay?"

"Yes!" the blond chirped. He jumped over the counter. "Cactus cider, our specialty!"

Radley laughed and picked up the chair. "You ever tried cactus cider, Kalin?"

"No." Kalin sat down across from him.

"It's like nothing you've ever experienced," Radley told him. As the blond brough a bottle and two glasses over, Radley opened it and filled them. "Cheers."

Kalin took his and clinked it with Radley's before drinking. ". . . Interesting."

"Yeah, it is, isn't it," Radley chuckled. "It takes a little getting used to. But it's good!"

"You've got a lot of friends," Kalin remarked.

"I patterned our group after the old team," Radley said. "I'll have to introduce you."

Kalin could feel a slight tension in the air, but he didn't comment on it. Radley would get around to that when he wanted to, probably when they were alone. Now wasn't the time.

The next hours were filled with merriment and cactus cider and root beer. Radley did indeed introduce all of the Bunch; Scotch, the blond, seemed particularly devoted to him, as did Billy, the one with wild brown hair. Each one of them had a dark story and sad past and credited Radley with taking them out of the darkness and into the light. Radley was touched, and clearly proud of all of them and of his role in helping them. They exasperated him with some of their antics, but he wanted them to be happy and he put up with it.

When everything settled down for the night, he took Kalin upstairs and into his office. The friendly mood faded; he was all seriousness.

"You don't seem to be loco anymore," Radley commented. "But you're not like you were before, either."

Kalin shook his head. "I've come back to myself and realized how much I hurt everyone I love. It's a heavy weight on me; I can never make up for any of it."

"A sincere apology and just being around again would go a long way," Radley said. He sat on the edge of his desk and let one leg swing against it.

"It won't change what I did." Kalin wouldn't meet his gaze. Radley didn't know all of it. Kalin wasn't going to tell him.

"Nothing can change that," Radley frowned. "But hey, life goes on."

Kalin just inclined his head slightly. For you, maybe. Not for me.

Sensing the heavy tension in the air, Radley changed the subject. "So, how are the others?" he asked. "I never hear from them."

"I don't think they know where you are. I didn't until recently."

Radley frowned. "You didn't tell them?"

Kalin looked away. "We don't talk much anymore. Yusei, Jack, and Crow are living in the City. They're happy."

"The City?!" Radley shook his head in disbelief. "And you always said that could never happen."

"In the past, it couldn't have," Kalin said. "Things have changed."

"And a lot of that because of us, eh?" Radley said. "We cleaned up the Satellite."

"Yusei, Jack, and Crow defeated the Dark Signers and brought peace," Kalin said. "Yusei made Rex Goodwin promise to build the bridge connecting the sectors, and he actually did."

"Oh yeah, I heard about that mess," Radley frowned. "I had my own problems and responsibilities here. I couldn't get away."

"That's just as well." Kalin stared out the window. Things were so different now. He had known they would be. The team had fractured years ago due to him becoming drunk on power. Before that, he had been the closest to Yusei and Radley, even though they had all cared deeply about each other. He could tell Radley felt isolated and forgotten.

Perhaps he always had felt somewhat an outcast. He had come to the Satellite alone and afraid after his biological family had kicked him out for growing his hair out and wearing jewelry. Kalin, a friend by occasional correspondence after a chance meeting as children, had been the only person he had known to go to. And so he, a once-rich kid from California, had joined the ranks of the Enforcers.

There had always been a certain animosity between him and Jack; Jack had felt that Radley didn't belong with a group of Satellites and Radley didn't appreciate Jack's rude attitude and blunt behavior. Radley had got along well with the others, however, and they had accepted him as one of them despite his very different upbringing. And even Jack was always there when the chips were down; he would never abandon a member of the team.

". . . And where have you been, Kalin?" Radley's voice cut through the night, hurt and betrayal sharpening the blade. If you weren't really dead, why didn't you come back to me, at least? Why did you just let me suffer for so long thinking you were gone?

". . . I've been wallowing in the darkness," Kalin said in all sincerity.

". . . So have I." Radley gripped his arms. "I blamed you so long for everything falling apart. I thought I had a family again, and you wrecked it. You were the leader. When you went power-crazy, the Enforcers no longer had any meaning."

". . . It meant a lot to me that you and Yusei stayed when Jack and Crow left," Kalin said.

"I stayed until we got word you were dead," Radley told him. "My world shattered that night. Even though I blamed you, you were still everything to me! I couldn't stay when you were gone. I'd held hope of the team reuniting someday until then. Without you, it just wouldn't work."

"I am so sorry," Kalin said quietly. Here were more sins to pay for. And he would. Somehow he would.

"Apparently the others felt the same too; none of them seemed to want to stay together without you. I would have stayed if any of them had called me back. I tried to get them to leave with me, but none of them wanted to. So I rode off alone into the night and started looking for other lost souls like us." Radley stared off at the wall. "I wanted to preserve the original mission of the Enforcers. When I found all of the Bunch, we came out here to try to clean up the town. But we found more than we bargained for. Malcolm is a devil. Most of his men are too."

". . . I came here to join your group and duel for you," Kalin said.

Radley nodded. "I suspected as much. Every lost soul comes here to duel." He turned back to face Kalin. "I'll let you in, Kalin, but things are different now. I'm not that naive, scared kid who came to you to join your little team. I've grown up and learned a lot of things since then. I learned that people we idolize let us down. I learned that it's usually the worldly who get ahead in life. And I learned that no dream lasts forever. And honestly? Most dreams get shattered from within, not without.

"You're in my world now, and you'll play by my rules. What I say goes."

Kalin nodded. ". . . That's fair. But you're sounding power-hungry and controlling yourself." Did I do that to you?

"I'm not," Radley said. "I'm just surviving, Kalin. People do what they have to do to survive. And in the city of the lost, that's doubly true. I know how things work here and I know what will keep you safe. So when I want you to listen to me, it's for your own good, not just mine."

"That makes sense." But Kalin hesitated. Even in his current depressive state, there was still something he wanted to know.

"If you've got any questions, just ask them," Radley said. "The Bunch always comes to me with their problems."

". . . How far into the darkness have you fallen?" Kalin asked. And how much of it is because of me?

Radley fell silent for a long moment. ". . . Not as far as you might think, old buddy," he said at last. "The worldly get ahead in life, so I pretend. I'm not one of them. I don't want to be. But I'm tired of being hurt. It's always the nice guys who get hurt."

". . . Do you still blame me?" Kalin wondered.

Radley sighed and shook his head. "I'm too worn-out to cast blame anymore. I still wonder why it had to happen, but there are no answers. There never will be." He managed a smile. "I really am happy to see you, Kalin. I'm glad you're alive. Things can never be the same anymore, but that doesn't mean I don't care."

Kalin nodded. "That goes for me too."

Somehow, he vowed to himself, he would make everything up to Radley, and Yusei, and Jack and Crow, and all the people he had hurt by using them to power up his Earthbound Immortal. He would make sure that someday he lost to Malcolm's devil Crew and give himself up as a sacrifice to be tortured and punished just as he deserved.

But for tonight, he would reunite with an old friend as best as he could.

"If you need a place to crash tonight, my door's always open," Radley said.

"Thanks," Kalin said. "That would be nice."

A lot had changed, but not everything had.