"Look at that," Jaden chuckled to him. "I guess you won't have to worry about rooming with Hassleberry anymore!"

"Yeah..." The idea of leaving Hassleberry had left Syrus elated, but he still hated the idea of leaving Jaden, his best friend!

"What's wrong? Didn't you want to upgrade to Ra Yellow?"

"Well, yes. But... I kinda want to do what Hassleberry did, and stick with you guys."

Jaden cocked his head to the side and smiled.

"Really? That's great!"

"Well, there's just one problem. Our room is too cramped. It wasn't meant to be a quad! So... I really don't know if I want to live in the other dorm, just for some more room."

Before Jaden could say anything, a familiar voice interjected.

"Then it's your lucky day, loser!" The two saw, to their surprise, Chazz standing there. Syrus was so excited by the news he didn't even realize he was wearing mostly white, the complete opposite to his typical color choice. "You two have one less man to worry about!"

"Really," he asked, smiling ear to ear. "So Hassleberry finally moved out?!"

"No."

"Aww..."

As much as Syrus' overdramatic disdain concerned Jaden, he was more curious about Chazz.

"So, you finally made it into Obelisk Blue again, huh?"

"No. I made it into something better." Both boys gave him a puzzled look as he pointed at Syrus. "You see, while this dweeb was dueling to get into Ra Yellow, I was dueling to get somewhere better: the Society of Light! So, I'm going to be staying at their dorm now!"

Jaden smiled.

"That's nice! Now there's an extra bed for Hassleberr-"

Syrus' nostrils began to flare. He hated the idea of Hassleberry claiming the empty bed, making his stay in their room permanent. Chazz laughed and walked away.

"Let the big dork know that my space is already cleared out. He can claim the bed whenever he likes."

He walked away quickly, leaving the other two dumbfounded at his bizarrely different attitude. In the end, though, Chazz was always a little bit of a jerk. Perhaps he was having an off day.

...

After Jaden went missing, it was a miracle that Syrus and Hassleberry didn't kill each other. They definitely came close to it earlier that day, both of them still having a couple good bruises that wouldn't go away for at least a week. Occasionally, Syrus had wished he took up the offer and transferred to the Ra dorm. Without Jaden, what purpose was there to being there?

He shook his head, glaring at Hassleberry in the dark of night. He was fast asleep, the lazy fool. So he doubted he would notice him being gone if he ran out in the middle of the night.

So that's exactly what he decided to do.

He closed the door quietly and tip-toed outside and walked down the ladder and onto the cool night grass. He noticed how dark the forest was now. How big. How scary...

But Jaden was more important than that! He gulped down his fears and began walking into the forest.

"Hey!"

The voice made him practically jump out of his skin. It was Atticus.

"Atticus?!" He suddenly quieted his voice down to not wake anyone else. "What are you doing here?!"

He shrugged.

"I've been hanging out here since those creepy Society of Light guys started going all around the Obelisk dorm. What about you?" He looked at him, then into the woods. "You're not going in there, are you?"

He nodded.

"I'm going to look for Jaden!"

He stepped in front of him.

"No way, buddy! That's too dangerous!" It was clear the concern in Syrus' eyes that he wouldn't listen to reason. So, he came up with something completely off topic. "Your duel with Hassleberry's tomorrow! Aren't you gonna want to rest for it?"

"And sleep in the same room with that dino brain! No way!"

And with that, he walked into the forest, leaving Atticus to climb onto the roof of the Slifer dorm to sleep, as he had done the night before.

...

Hassleberry was down to 200 life points. He was stuck in a never-ending chain. The only thing his Ultimate Tyranno could attack was Decoyroid, and if he attacked it, it would be special summoned on the field again only to drain another 300 life points!

The dinosaur went to charge.

"Wait! Don't charge!" The dinosaur went onwards to Decoyroid anyways. The attack would never be officially followed through with until he gave the command. It was a command he didn't want to give. "As if I had a choice," he mumbled.

He studied his hand. There wasn't anything that could help him. He could only summon his cards after his dinosaur was done attacking! But maybe the answer wasn't in his hand. Maybe, it was on the field. There was a lone card sitting there facedown. He racked his brain to remember what it was. What did he put down again? He knew it wasn't a trap. It was a spell, trying to bait fear out of Syrus by tricking him into thinking he had the ultimate trap. But what was the specific card?

He gasped when he remembered what it was. Dino Stomp! When his dinosaur declared an attack, he'd be able to play it. And once he played it, any spell or trap card Syrus had could be destroyed! And he had his sights set on his Cyber Summon Blaster! He only had 200 life points, but with his blaster gone, he still had the chance to turn it around!

Bastion shouted, steering him away from his thoughts.

"Syrus!"

Alexis chimed in.

"You don't look so good, Sy!"

"Uh," he mumbled. "I'll be fine. Just haven't been getting much sleep..."

Atticus' eyes opened wide and he momentarily lowered his flag.

"Did being out lookin' for Jaden really take that much of a toll on ya, buddy?"

Alexis' jaw dropped.

"What?!"

"A search and rescue?" Hassleberry quit planning to get a clearer story. "But he may not even be on the island!"

"Of course he's still on the island," Syrus insisted. "Where else would he go? I don't know about you guys, but if Jaden is lost, I'm gonna do something about it!"

"A true best friend..." He sighed and looked at the card face down on the field. He could play it, and potentially get the upper hand. But instead, he accepted defeat, allowing Ultimate Tyranno to attack Decoyroid once again.

He stayed back when Syrus fell to the ground. Bastion and Alexis rushed to his side while Atticus walked over to him.

"Minus five stars," he said, "for not having faith!" Hassleberry looked at him confusedly, then pointed at his duel disk. "What was the card you had face down for so long?"

"Oh, uh, just another Dino Stomp. If I'd have played it, then maybe-"

"Atticus!"

Alexis was marching over to them, angrier than she'd ever been. As she began to yell at her brother for letting Syrus go into those woods by himself, Hassleberry went through his deck to see if there was anything he could have done to stop Syrus' never-ending chain.

Meteoric Collision, he read. For the price of 1000 life points, this trap destroys every single card on the field! If only I'd have gotten this in the duel...

But then, he sighed, looking at Bastion continuing to check on Syrus' well-being while Alexis yelled at her brother nonstop. Maybe he hadn't given the little guy enough credit...

Author's note: Disclaimer: I'm sorry I suck at writing duels! And it's especially hard in the anime when they don't follow them! Like, maybe I'm just stupid, but I swear I don't know where his face down card even came from! And especially how he didn't know what it was. So I just changed what card it was entirely and made it so he knew what it was, he just didn't remember. Also, this mostly follows the general timeline, but Chazz was inducted into the Society of Light sooner so Syrus could continue to be roommates with them. The other notable change is the card Hassleberry lists off here is Meteoric Impact. That card doesn't exist. The card he talks about in this scene is Jurassic Impact, but that effect isn't Jurassic Impact, so I changed the name entirely. A stupid detail now but will be important to an upcoming chapter.