"So me and Axel were stationed out in the Mojave Desert, ya see, our last lead on where the card shipment could've been," Hassleberry pounded his fist comically as he continued his story, leaning forward over the table of food in the process. "Water was getting low, and resupplying wasn't an option. If they didn't show, we'd've lost 'em."

Jaden nodded along, balancing his attention between his friend's story and his friend's plate. With Hassleberry focused on his tale, Jaden was just about able to subtly reach forward and swipe up a kebab, bringing it to his mouth as he continued to listen.

"Then, boom! Right around the corner of the mountain, it appears— An armed envoy and an unmarked moving truck!" Hassleberry pumped both fists as he said this, whilst Jaden worked his way through his second burger since arriving. "But let me tell you, it didn't matter how many guns they carried, when I got these two!"

Hassleberry stood up, turned, and flexed, nearly making Jaden spit out the pizza he was chewing on in laughter.

"Course, Axel's actual guns helped, a bit," he then sheepishly confessed, returning to his seat. "Not much a convoy can do when their tires are melted off by a Volcanic Shell."

"So did ya get 'em?" Jaden asked, pausing from the hot dog he'd been chowing down on.

"I can report the mission was a success!" Hassleberry said with a grin, pulling out his deck. "Pegasus thought we did such a mighty fine job catching the card pirates, he rewarded us with any card from the catch! Course, I knew exactly what I was going for—"

Hassleberry offered his deck forward, revealing the card at the very bottom: True King Lithosagym, the Disaster.

"Ain't she a beaut?" Hassleberry gushed, drawing a raised eyebrow from Jaden as he looked over the card in question. A monstrous dragon-like creature with six wings and more spikes than hair wasn't exactly what Jaden would call a 'beaut'. "Second copy too, outta only five in the whole world. I'm tracking down a third copy to make my new dino deck complete."

Jaden blinked as he put down the slice of pie he'd just picked up.

"Wait, five? They gave it the Blue-Eyes treatment?" he asked, pulling a firm nod from Hassleberry. "Crazy, those must be killer expensive."

"Yep. S'why I ain't botherin' buying 'em! Much easier to track 'em down before they're pulled from packs." Hassleberry leaned back, finally done with his story, reaching for the kebab he had earlier and discovering it was gone. After a moment of confusion, he reached over and grabbed another from the batch of food the gang had gotten. "What about you, Jay? Draft in any new troops lately?"

"You've gotta quit it with the military lingo dude," Jaden said with a laugh, as he reached for his own deck.

"Can't! It's in my DNA!" Hassleberry replied, food in his mouth.

"And here I thought it was dinosaur in there," Jaden shot back, flicking through his cards. "Anyways, I got some kick-butt new fusions I can bring out, these new buddies called the Masked Heroes, some new Neos stuff."

Jaden handed a clutch of them to Hassleberry as he continued to search through his deck box. When he neared the end, however, he stumbled on a few cards that made him pause. Then, they made him grin.

The Sacred Beasts.

"If you thought those were cool though, check these—" Jaden froze, a feeling going through him as he looked down at the three cards tucked away in his deck box. A thought was bubbling up through his brain as he gave it a moment to come to the surface.

"Jay?"

Maybe, showing these off wasn't the best idea.

"Jaden? You there, sarge?" Hassleberry reached his hand out, making Jaden shake his head as he searched through his deck box further.

The less they know, the better.

"Yeah… Sorry, I was just thinking about something," he explained, buying some time until he found another card to show off. "But hey, check this out, Elemental Hero Sunrise!"

Hassleberry's confusion turned to a grin.

"Quite a battalion you got yourself, Jaden," Hassleberry said, taking Jaden's explanation at face value and moving on. "But we'll see if your men in tights can handle the power of my dinos."

"Heh, we'll see," Jaden drifted off at that, as Hassleberry handed him back his cards.

Before either of them could trade another word, Cyrus entered the picture, speaking about something to Hassleberry that Jaden immediately began to filter out. His mind was on something else.

With his two friends distracted, Jaden slipped out of his seat, grabbed another kebab, and walked off.

"Something troubles you." It was more a statement than a question, how Yubel phrased it. Jaden snorted as he took a bite of his food, shooting her a full mouth smile afterwards.

"I'm fine," he began, keeping his voice low as he walked across the room to another congregation of his friends. "Just remembering there's stuff I can't really talk about."

"Hmph, yet they can talk about anything." Yubel disappeared again at that, leaving Jaden to sit on that thought. Before he could really think about it, however, he arrived near where Zane, Atticus, and Blair were sitting and talking. Atticus was definitely telling a story, and Jaden had to get in on that.

"And I tell Lexi, tag duels are the next big thing! But does she believe me? Nooo," Atticus was really hamming it up, looking across the room where his sister was sitting and giving her a cheeky smile. "But when I tell her I can get her a match against Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood, suddenly she changes her tune!"

"Probably cause she thought you wanted her to put on a dress and sing a tune, again," Jaden broke in, heckling Atticus and drawing a round of chuckles from Zane and Blair.

Atticus sweated through the laughter as his expression turned from amusement to embarrassment to exasperation in an instant.

"Comedian as always, Jay," he shot back, resting his elbow on the table in front of him.

"Glad you think so buddy!" —Jaden pulled a chair from another table and sat in it backwards— "I've been working on material for months."

That pulled a giggle from Blair then, who proceeded to pick up the ball of the conversation and run with it.

"How about you, Jaden? Play any tag duels recently?" she asked, leaning forward in her seat.

"Tag duels, huh?" Jaden scratched his cheek for a moment in thought, before a wide grin crossed his face. What better a tag duel to talk about than the greatest one of all time? Literally! "Check it, how many of you have heard of a guy named Paradox?"

"Like the Paradox brothers?" Zane spoke up then, raising a brow and drawing a laugh from Jaden.

"Nope, but you know, lotta people make that mistake," Jaden explained, his mind going back to a similar exchange he had with Crowler. "Nah, see, it all started out when I was in Venice. I was minding my own business, when outta nowhere—"

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Jaden stopped, Banner's ethereal voice cutting in and derailing his train of thought. He hated it when Banner did that— he couldn't respond without looking crazy.

"Jaden?" Atticus spoke up, confused with Jaden's sudden pause.

"Just think through if telling them this story is a good idea. It may attract more questions than you have answers to." And with that, Banner's presence dismissed itself, leaving Jaden alone with himself, again.

He opened his mouth to continue, but it just led to another pause. Banner had left, but his words sat heavy in Jaden's mind. He wanted to continue, but he couldn't.

"You okay, Jay?" Blair spoke up again, concern in her eyes as she asked.

Realizing he was worrying his friends with his odd silence, Jaden laughed it off awkwardly, breaking the quiet.

"Hah, sorry, I just, uh, did a bit of an inventory check with the whole memory thing," he began, tying together a loose excuse. "Just remembered, what I'm thinking about was, uh, a dream. Crazy one too, I was dueling with Yugi and a guy from the future!"

The concern disappeared from his friends' faces, nearly drawing a sigh of relief from Jaden. He played it off well. Then, Atticus laughed.

"Still daydreaming, Jay? Some things really don't ever change, aha!"

With that, another round of laughter sounded off from the three, giving Jaden the opportunity to give a nod and shuffle away from the group. He wanted to put on another grin as he went, but his mood was soured now. Huffing, he went over to an unoccupied station of food before speaking up

"Do you always have to ruin my fun?" he grumbled under his breath, grabbing a slice of pizza and leaning back against the table. After a moment, Professor Banner appeared.

"I just asked you to consider what you were doing," he answered, crossing his arms. "You made the choice."

"Exactly. You make me act so adult," Jaden noted, raising his head and shoving a solid ten inches of pizza down his gullet.

"The fact you are an adult astonishes me," Banner muttered, staring in a mix of amazement and horror as Jaden managed to inhale the whole thing.

After taking a moment to finish swallowing, Jaden burped.

"I guess you are right, though," he continued, resting his hands on the table and staring up at the ceiling. "I mean, where would I even start? The time-traveling motorcycle? Or the kind of card that doesn't even exist?"

"Probably with what you were doing in Venice to begin with," Banner suggested then with a snort.

"Ah come on, you know even I don't remember why." Jaden laughed as he reached for another slice of pizza, munching on that one a lot slower. "But yeah, I doubt I can ever really talk about that one. Gonna carry that to the grave."

Banner stayed silent, his small smile disappearing as Jaden continued.

"Same with the Sacred Beasts, if I never end up fitting them into my deck." Looking off to the congregation of his friends, Jaden's smile weakened. "I can't talk to them about any of it."

Jaden was left with a feeling in his chest after he said that, one he couldn't quite parse. Not exactly sadness, but something familiar nonetheless. Shaking his head, Jaden turned back to Banner, only to discover him missing.

"Ah come on, you gotta leave me behind too?" Grumbling, Jaden went for another slice of pizza.

"Who's leaving you behind?"

Jaden jumped as he turned straight into Alexis, not realizing she had walked right up to him when his back was turned.

"Whoa, you're oddly jumpy today," she said with a snort, as Jaden regained his composure.

"Yeah, sorry. Didn't spot ya there, hah," he answered with a quick laugh, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. Breaking from that, Jaden relaxed, leaning against the table again. "So, what brings you to my corner of the world?"

Alexis snickered as she reached for a piece of food at Jaden's side.

"I don't know. Just wondering why Jaden Yuki has his own corner of the world to begin with," she replied, taking a small bite.

"Ah well, my empire of food conquest has to start somewhere." Jaden ended that with a sarcastic smirk as he scooped up more food and went to town on it. "Lemme tell you, it's King of Snacks today, King of Games tomorrow."

Alexis rolled her eyes at that, though her smile didn't falter. She perched herself beside Jaden, leaning against the table he was leaning against and looking out at the room along with him. They stood like that for a good moment before Alexis broke the silence.

"I really hope this tournament they're announcing doesn't conflict with anything I have planned," she said, pulling out her phone and glancing at it. "I'd hate to miss a Beta title match."

"A what?" Jaden looked at her as he said that, cocking a brow at the phrase.

"Oh, it's what they call an Obelisk title match up north where Atticus has me competing," she explained, missing the fact Jaden didn't know what 'Obelisk title match' meant either. "But who knows, maybe they'll pause all Pro-League matches like they did with Duelist Empire."

Jaden listened as Alexis went on and on, talking about things in the Pro-League and the matches she was training for. And while he kept up his attentive appearance, nodding his head as she spoke, Jaden couldn't help but feel frustrated. Frustrated, because he didn't understand any of it.

He didn't understand what a Beta or an Obelisk Title Match were, what Duelist Empire was, nor what Alexis meant by the 'Action Duel Project'. It was all jargon to him, words that went in one ear and out the other, that he could only just smile and nod to. And the worst part of it was, was a fact that hung over Jaden's mind—

If Jaden were actually a Pro Duelist like they believed, he'd know what she was talking about.

Alexis paused, pulling Jaden's attention away from his train of thought as she looked over him. Before he could say anything, she spoke again.

"How about you, Jaden?" she asked. "Have any good duels lately?"

Resisting the urge to give a sigh of relief, Jaden smiled. Finally something he could understand, dueling! Pure and simple. And he already had an answer in mind— What better a duel to talk about than his duel against the number two duelist in the entire world, Seto Kaiba!

"You bet. A little while ago I got a call from Crowler and—" Jaden paused then as a thought came to mind. A dumb, annoying, ruin-all-his-fun thought. An adult thought.

If Jaden talked about his duel with Kaiba, it'd attract questions about why Kaiba challenged him in the first place, and inevitably he was gonna have to spill the beans about having the Sacred Beasts. Which meant…

Jaden couldn't talk about it.

The Sacred Beasts. His duel with Kaiba. The encounter with Yugi and Yusei. Jaden couldn't talk about any of it. He couldn't talk about anything.

It hit Jaden, at that moment, that he couldn't talk about his life and he couldn't understand hers.

"...Forget about it," he said, making Alexis blink in confusion. "Nothing impressive. Just, same old boring Jaden Yuki."

Jaden turned away from Alexis then, looking out across the rest of the party, the rest of his friends. They were talking, laughing, and being together, knowing each other. Knowing what the others were doing, what they were feeling, all the while Jaden was stuck hiding everything.

Did he even fit into this anymore? He'd been away for so long and now had so much to hide. All the while his friends have moved on to a life he should have but doesn't. He hated that, lying about who he was.

Maybe it would be better if he just left—

"Jaden?"

Alexis's voice derailed his train of thought, pulling him back from the idea he was considering. He blinked for a moment, realizing she hadn't left his side. No, she was standing right by him as she had before.

And now she was holding his hand.

"Do you wanna have a duel?" she asked, the offer confusing Jaden for a moment.

"Right now? We might miss the announcement if we step out," he pointed out, surprising even himself with his lack of enthusiasm for a duel.

Alexis shook her head.

"No duel disks. Just cards on a table," she explained, pulling him towards where one of the tables was clear. After a moment, she smirked. "Come on, afraid I'll win?"

While Jaden was unsure why Alexis was challenging him to a duel all of a sudden, he couldn't help but get suckered into the obvious bait.

"Oh, alright." He acquiesced with a snort.

The two of them got seated quickly, pulling out their decks and drawing their opening hands in quick succession. From there, Alexis took the lead, beginning the duel with her turn. Jaden followed along as best he could, but he realized quickly that her deck had changed pretty drastically since the last time he'd seen her. He couldn't keep up.

After a few minutes, Alexis finished her turn, ending on one of her Cyber Angel monsters and a few set cards.

"My go," Jaden said, drawing a card and peering over his options. He definitely had a few, but none were particularly calling out to him. And quite simply he wasn't so jazzed to throw out something whilst he was on unfamiliar grounds. He had no idea what Alexis's deck could do. With nothing else, Jaden threw down a few face downs and set a monster. "And now it's your go."

Alexis pursed her lips.

"Bad hand, huh?" she said, offering an explanation to Jaden's pitiful first turn. He quickly nodded in agreement, leaving her with a moment of pause. "Well, alright then, my turn."

Alexis played out her second turn a lot like her first. Active, making moves, establishing board presence. All the while Jaden tried to follow along, but got lost all the same. He couldn't keep up with her.

"Battle Phase," she said, swinging into Jaden with two of her Cyber Angels. The first destroyed Jaden's Set monster— Elemental Hero Blazeman —whilst the latter went for Jaden's Life Points. That made her pause again. Blazeman could've definitely given him a play there, but he just set it.

A studious look crossed Alexis's face.

"Back to you," Alexis said again, passing it to Jaden who drew for turn.

And when he saw the card he drew, he froze.

"Come on, not now," he muttered, staring at the card in question and tucking it into his hand before anyone could see. He even glanced over his shoulder to check if anyone caught a glimpse. The last thing he wanted was someone to catch him with this—

A Sacred Beast.

Jaden had drawn Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder.

Looking over the field, Jaden found himself in a bit of a bind. He didn't actually have much of a play he could make right here, not a totally safe one at least. The best he could do was set another monster, or…

It struck Jaden at that moment, he could actually summon Hamon.

A rush filled Jaden's chest at that prospect, the excited spirit of the duelist he was demanding he play the powerful card and show off. How often do you get to summon what was basically a God Card? For him, only once before.

But as quickly as the excitement came, Jaden kicked it back out. He couldn't summon a Sacred Beast against Alexis. Who knows how she would react? And more importantly, what would she think? Him, showing up after all this time, lying about what he's been doing, using a card like that. He just couldn't.

With that, Jaden set another monster, and passed it back.

Alexis gave him a look then, one that made him laugh awkwardly as he tried to pass it off. But she didn't let it go. That look stayed with her as she looked down to her hand, a thought working its way through her mind. As she went to make a move, she began to speak.

"I don't know what's bothering you, Jaden," she began. "But whatever it is, we can talk about it."

That made Jaden's fake smile fall away, turning to a frown in the next second. He wanted to say they couldn't talk about it, but he knew better than to respond.

"Being apprehensive, hiding things, " she continued, making plays as she spoke. Yet, Jaden couldn't keep his mind on what she was doing, only what she was saying. "This, isn't like you."

"I've changed," Jaden pushed, making Alexis stop and look up at him. Her piercing gaze made him pause for a moment. "We've… All changed."

"No, you haven't," she answered, a look of realization crossing her face. "And even if you have, that's okay."

Jaden remained silent at that, at Alexis's assured declaration. After a moment, she sighed, looking down at her field before sliding her hand across the table. She didn't say anything, but her intent was obvious.

With a hint of apprehension, Jaden reached forward and held onto Alexis's hand.

"I don't know what's been going on in that head of yours. Frankly, I've never known," Alexis began, speaking in a hushed tone. "But whatever it is, you can talk about it. Whatever you're hiding, do you honestly think anyone in this room wouldn't accept you for it?"

Remaining silent, Jaden struggled between shaking his head and nodding it.

"We've been through everything together, Jaden," Alexis continued, a small smile reaching her lips. "We wouldn't leave you behind over something in your deck."

That made Jaden frown quite deeply, pulling his hand back.

"You guys already left me behind. You didn't even invite me to this thing," he said with a huff. "I had to run into Cyrus and basically make him take me here."

A look crossed Alexis's face, somewhere between confusion and insult and ending in humor. With that, she snorted, drawing Jaden out from his grumpy posturing and inviting him to raise a brow at her behaviour.

"What?" he asked, as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. A realization dawned on him then, before she even began speaking.

"Didn't invite you? Jaden, we've been messaging you non-stop for forever. You just never reply," she asserted, turning her phone over and revealing a host of emails she had sent him. "But it sounds like you didn't get them."

"I, uh, don't own a phone anymore," Jaden said with an awkward laugh, scratching the side of his head. Not a lot of spots to get a charge when you're hitchhiking. He sold his phone ages ago. How that fact didn't occur to him before now, he didn't know.

"But you get me, right?" Alexis pressed, pulling Jaden from his train of thought. "Whatever it is you have in your deck, whatever you have in your head, you can talk about it."

Offering her hand forward again, Alexis gave Jaden a soft smile, one he couldn't help but return. After a moment, he accepted her offer and held her hand once again.

"Yeah. I guess so," he said, finally agreeing.

"Good, then it's time to show me," Alexis threw out, as she looked down at the cards in her hand.

"Wait, what—"

"I end my turn," she said, talking over Jaden and passing the game back to him. She had passed up winning the duel right there and then, instead giving Jaden another chance. Before he could protest, the ball was back in Jaden's corner.

With one hand holding onto Alexis, Jaden looked over the cards he could work with.

"Hmm." The cloud of worries from before no longer hung over Jaden's head, finally letting him play for real. Strategies and plans came to mind as he weighed his options. No more setting and passing, he could finally duel.

And right then, there was only one play he wanted to make.

"I tribute my three set spell cards," he began, sliding the cards off his field and eliciting a wide-eyed look of surprise from Alexis. His voice went quiet then, so only she could hear him. "And summon, Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder."

4000 ATK

A moment of silence stood between the two, as Jaden felt Alexis's grip tighten. Then it loosened as she put on a smirk.

"Impressive, Jay. You're still pulling out new tricks," she said. "But let's see if that's going to win you this game."

Jaden's heart soared at that. She didn't freak out! Not only that, she invited the challenge. Summoning a Sacred Beast didn't mean he had changed, Jaden thought. It was just another trick in his arsenal. And now, it was time to show off what it could really do.

"Alright, let's go then! I'll attack your Cyber Angel Dakini," Jaden declared, making quick work of Alexis's monster. "Not only that, thanks to my monster's special ability, you take an extra thousand points of damage!"

Alexis winced as her life points took a big hit. But, she wasn't out of this yet. Not by a long shot. She drew for her turn.

"My move then," she said, transitioning into a smile as she saw what she drew. "I activate Machine Angel Absolute Ritual. Now I can Ritual Summon a Cyber Angel by Tributing monsters normally or banishing the materials from my Graveyard. So I'll do that and summon my Cyber Angel Vrash!"

3000 ATK

"Now, my Vrash attacks!" Alexis declared, pulling a card from her hand.

"But your monster isn't strong enough?" Jaden questioned, looking over the field as Alexis made her move

"Not yet it isn't. Not until I activate Magnificent Machine Angel." Alexis placed the card on the field. "This lets me tribute my Cyber Angel Idaten to give my Vrash an extra 1200 attack points!"

3000 ATK → 4200 ATK

"Oh jeeze," Jaden muttered, realizing now it was Hamon who was outmatched.

"And that's not all," Alexis said, picking up one of her cards. "When Idaten is tributed, all my Ritual Monsters gain an additional thousand attack points."

4200 ATK → 5200 ATK

"Wait, so that means—" Jaden replayed the duel in mind until he figured out how many Life Points he had left.

"Vrash destroys Hamon, and takes the rest of your Life Points with it," Alexis said, smiling as she leaned back. "So, that's game."

Jaden slumped in his seat, realizing he'd actually lost after summoning Hamon. A million thoughts were buzzing in his mind, between the duel and Alexis and his own worries trying to worm their way back in. He had a lot to think about.

But not right now.

Grinning, Jaden sat straight again, shaking Alexis's hand with a confident grip behind it.

"Good game, that was sick!" he began, characteristic excitement shining through. A moment later, however, a more subdued feeling came out. His grin became an appreciative smile. "Thanks for that, I needed some help snapping out of my funk."

The two of them separated then, amicably pulling away from one another and moving to pick up their cards.

"I'm just glad to have you back," Alexis said with a nod, sorting through her cards and bringing them into a tight stack. "I've already had enough moody Jaden for one lifetime."

"Hey, me too, hah." Cracking a wider smile, Jaden messily pulled his deck into a pile, pausing only to pick up Hamon and give it a look. "I'm gonna have to explain this eventually, huh?"

"Oh, definitely. I want aaaall the details," Alexis answered, reaching forward and plucking Hamon from Jaden. "Though, I'm not one to talk. I've got my secrets too."

"Hm?" Jaden perked up at that, as Alexis finished looking over Hamon and handed it back. Pausing to look if anyone was nearby, Alexis reached for her deck and started searching for something.

"It's only fair— you showed me yours, so I'll show you mine," she explained, pulling out a card and handing it to Jaden, face down.

Pausing, Jaden gave Alexis a look before turning the card over. And when he saw what it was, he jolted.

That card— It was one of Yugi's cards.

End of Chapter 9