Disclaimer: It's been so long since I've done one of these, I forgot to include a funny disclaimer at the beginning of last chapter. So it's a very good thing I don't own GX.


Author's Note: Sorry about the wait between chapters. No, I'm not abandoning you guys again. A lot happened, part of it being Halloween and all the specials I watch in anticipation for that. Then, in early November, I was gonna write this again, but I started overthinking things, and, well, I'll discuss in the post-chapter Author's Note if you really wanna know the details. In the meantime…

Review Answering Time!

Narusakufan1985: Thanks!

The-Artful-Trickster: Thanks! I appreciate it! If you're referring to the moment I think you're talking about, I'd actually been referencing the original Breaking the Hold series universe. But, hey, Canon GX works too. Yeah, it's gonna be pretty rough on me too. So much has changed in my life since I started these (both remakes and originals). Gonna be sad seeing one of the few constants go. Hey, you can lie and call me amazing all you want, I ain't gonna give away the ending to anyone. Just kidding. Seriously, thank you.

And on to the chapter!


Atticus, Jesse and I made our way back to our (Atticus and my) apartment. Atticus had given Jesse some tips on the way over, and they were gonna try to apply those tips in a practical duel.

But, waiting for us outside our door was Pharaoh, Banner's cat, and our landlady.

"Yuki! Your cat got out again!" The landlady yelled. "Saw him making eyes at my sweet Kitty Boo again. If he sullies her, it'll be on your head!"

"Sullies?" I asked. Ah, youthful ignorance.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Miss." Jesse said, before wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "The little guy used to belong to me, but when we graduated, I moved in with someone who was allergic, and my good buddy Jaden here offered to take care of 'im for me."

The landlady ate this up.

"Oh, what a gentleman!" She said. "It's perfectly fine! You boys be off now."

After she walked off, and I was sure she was gone, I breathed a massive sigh of relief.

"I hate to say it, but thanks, Jesse." I said.

"No problem, Jay." Jesse said. "But wow, Pharaoh's gotten older."

It was true. Pharaoh looked a lot older these days. Granted, him following me during my travels probably didn't help. Still, I definitely wouldn't say he was old. He could keep up with the fastest mice in this city. And, unfortunately, he wasn't too old to, uh, have a good time.

I scooped up Pharaoh, while Atticus unlocked the door.


After we entered, Jesse and Atticus went off to Atticus' room to get his deck, while I started preparing Pharaoh's dinner for the night.

Winged Kuriboh appeared over my shoulder and started making his chirping sound.

"I can't believe Jesse's got a duel against a legend either." I said.

I placed Pharaoh's food on the floor, which he quickly ate up. Since I didn't get a chance to eat at the restaurant, I grabbed myself a bag of Cheebohs to fight off my hunger.

Winged Kuriboh cried out again.

"Oh, I don't think anyone would actually eat a Kuriboh." I said, stretching out across the couch. Or, I should say, my bed for the night, since I offered Jesse my room.

"Kuri kuri!" Winged Kuriboh shouted. Oh! That's what he was upset about.

"Nah, man." I said. "I'm glad for Jesse. But I guess I do wish it was me."

I looked up at the ceiling and imagined it. I'd duel Joey, then, after I beat him, I'd take on Kaiba, then go for Yugi. It'd be awesome! Yugi would summon Dragon Master Knight, I'd pull out my secret weapon, and win the duel in a spectacular fashion.

Yeah, that'd been my dream for around a decade at that point. Which made it all the more disappointing it wasn't gonna happen.

But, hey, maybe word could reach them that I beat Maitre'D. When they heard that, maybe they'd-

"Ah!" I shouted, as I sat up. "I was gonna message Lex about the duel!"

So, I grabbed the laptop, signed in to my email, and pulled open the last response from Alexis.

"Hey, Lex." I narrated to myself. Other people do that when they write, right? …Right? "Well, I won!"

I stared at my masterfully crafted email and knew that wasn't enough. And as I was thinking over what else to put, I noticed Toy Enchanter was on Spherium! Well, after I beat him the other day, how could I not give him a rematch? Besides, it might help me think of something to say.


And half an hour later, I remained the number 1 virtual Spherium player!

"Good game." Toy Enchanter's message said. "But I'll win someday."

"Whenever you're ready." I wrote back.

Ah, that was nice. And the guy was such a good sport about it too, despite several losses to me at this point.

"Okay! Back to the email!" I said.

I stared at the five words on the screen for a good five minutes, without any idea what else to put down. Then it hit me.

"Well, I won THE DUEL." I corrected.

Again, I stared at my message. Uh huh. I can say for a fact that this was an awful email.

Dang it, Atticus! He just had to get in my head the other day with that "You should call her" thing! I don't see him calling all the girls he's gone out with, and he left many broken hearts back at Duel Academy!

I'm just putting it off at this point, aren't I?

Yeah, okay.

I got up off my lazy behind and knocked on the door to Atticus' room.

"Hey, Atticus, Jess?" I said. "You guys got a minute?"

As I went to knock again, Jesse opened the door, and I fell face first into the room.

"What's up, bro?" Jesse asked.

"You." I said, staring up at Jesse with a jokingly bitter look.

Jesse helped me back to my feet and I turned to Atticus.

"You don't happen to have Alexis' number on you, do you?" I asked.

"Oh?" Atticus asked. "Are we finally gonna call her?"

"I was thinking about that." I said. "But if you're gonna be that way, I might just text her."

"Then you don't get her number." Atticus said, smugly.

I sighed in defeat. Atticus just chuckled and jotted it down on a spare slip of paper.

"Thanks!" I said, before turning to Jesse. "Good luck, dude."

"Thanks." Jesse said. "I'm gonna need it."

I let them get back to their training, and sat back down on the couch.

Sighing heavily to myself, I registered Alexis' number in my phone and gulped heavily.

"Here goes something!" I said.

And just as I was going to hit the call button…

RING RING!

I looked around the room, making sure nobody was pranking me.

"Hello?" I asked slowly, answering the phone.

"Hey, Slacker, you near a TV?" Hello to you too, Chazz.

"Yeah." I said. "Why? You and your brothers announcing something?"

"Just flip it to any channel!" Chazz yelled.

And with that, Chazz hung up.

Sorry, Lex, but Chazz made it seem urgent. You understand, right?

I put the TV on and started flipping through channels. Yeah, despite Chazz saying "any channel" it took me a couple seconds to find what he meant. On the bright side, just about every channel that covered dueling action had it.

Aster and Dimitri were dueling each other on Domino Pier.

What?!

A couple questions come to mind. Why were these two dueling? Why was it being broadcast? Why the pier? Okay, that was probably just for a nice backdrop, but the other two stand!

Well, I'd get the answers soon, but first, the duel!


Judging by the stats on the screen, 4000 Life Points apiece and five cards in their hands, the duel had just started. Good, I hadn't missed much.

"I've been looking forward to showing you how a real hero acts." Dimitri said.

"Let's just get this over with." Aster said bitterly.

"Oh, please, take the first move." Dimitri said, then added, in a sarcastic tone, "Destiny says so, right?"

Aster drew a card.

"I summon Destiny Hero Diamond Dude in Attack Mode!" Aster said.

Diamond Dude appeared in front of Aster and held up a diamond in his hands.

"Now I activate his effect!" Aster said. "I get to look at the top card of my deck, and if it's a Normal Spell, I can send it to the graveyard and activate it next turn!"

The diamond in Diamond Dude's hands reflected the image of a card, which was revealed to be Destiny Draw.

"Hot dang!" Jesse said, plopping down next to me. "Usually that Destiny Draw'd require Aster to send a Destiny Hero to the grave, but now he can use it with no cost!"

I looked over at Jesse, who, like usual, came out of nowhere. Atticus had taken a seat in one of the living room chairs.

"Chazz call you guys too?" I asked.

"Yup!" Jesse said.

"He told us it was something big and you had already put it on." Atticus said.

Back to the duel! Aster had set a facedown, and now it was Dimitri's turn.

"Destiny Hero, huh?" Dimitri asked. "Destiny is just something people use to justify the terrible events that happen to them. But since you love the letter D so much, let me teach you a new word. Dark. As in, Dark Fusion!"

Avian and Wildheart appeared on Dimitri's field, before being swirled together by darkness. You guys have seen Wild Wingman before, right? Okay, now give him evil looking armor on his shoulders, wings and codpiece. Now change the wings to look more bat-like, take away his mitts and shorten his hair. That's what Evil Hero Wild Cyclone looked like.

"Now I attack Diamond Dude with Wild Cyclone!" Dimitri yelled. "And when Cyclone attacks, you can't activate spells or traps on your field!"

Wild Cyclone shot feathers at Diamond Dude, who threw diamonds at the feathers. Since Cyclone had the same 1900 Attack Points as Wingman, Diamond Dude stood no chance. The extra 500 points were taken from Aster's Life Points, dropping him to 3500. Even after the attack, a single feather remained, stabbed through Aster's facedown.

"When Wild Cyclone deals damage to your Life Points, all your facedowns are destroyed!" Dimitri explained.

"My D - Counter!" Aster said.

The facedown D - Counter shattered.

"My turn is over." Dimitri said.

Aster drew a card from his deck, then drew two more.

"Hey!" Dimitri said. "One card per Draw Phase! Or don't you know the rules?"

"Oh, don't worry." Aster said. "I do. I just didn't forget the effect of the Destiny Draw that Diamond Dude sent to the grave."

Aster smirked as Dimitri sneered.

"Now I play D - Mind!" Aster said. "When I don't have any Destiny Heroes on my field, I can summon one from my deck, as long as it's Level 3 or lower. If this is going to be broadcast, we should have some tunes playing. And who better to do that than Destiny Hero Disk Commander!"

Disk Commander leapt onto the scene, spinning the disks on his arms.

"Your DJ's only got 300 Attack Points though." Dimitri said. "There's no way he can stop Cyclone!"

"Who said he was gonna stop Cyclone?" Aster asked. "He's just playing the theme for his bud, Destiny Hero Dasher!"

Disk Commander left the field as Dasher came speeding in, skidding to a stop.

"Alright!" Atticus said. "Dasher's got 2100 Attack! Dimitri's monster doesn't stand a chance!"

"Dasher, let's outrun this Cyclone!" Aster said.

Dasher sped over to Wild Cyclone so fast, the Evil Hero was destroyed by the whiplash. Dimitri's Life Points dropped to 3800. Dasher then returned to Aster's field, before dropping to his knees, gasping for breath.

"Of course, Dasher goes so fast that, after he attacks, he needs to take a break by going into Defense Mode." Aster said. "So, I'll place a card facedown and end my turn."

A card appeared between Aster and Dasher as Dimitri drew a card.

"Since I don't have any monsters on my field, I can Special Summon my Evil Hero Infernal Prodigy!" Dimitri said.

The name might make you think of my Hero Kid card, but Infernal Prodigy looked more like a teenage Archfiend leaving Pandemonium to try making it in a major city. But, like Disk Commander, it only has 300 Attack Points.

"Sure, he may be young now, but I'm sure after last turn, you know what's about to happen." Dimitri said. "I sacrifice Prodigy to summon Evil Hero Sinister Necrom!"

Infernal Prodigy shattered, before reforming into Sinister Necrom. Necrom looked like… Okay, he mostly looked the same as Necroshade, only with a darker blue armor and a mouthpiece that almost made it look like the armor had taken him over.

"1600 Attack versus 1000 Defense?" Jesse asked. "Things don't look good for Aster."

"Don't count him out yet." I said.

"When Prodigy is used as a tribute, I get to draw a card." Dimitri said, before turning to Necrom. "Now, Necrom, attack Dasher! Ex Mortis!"

A bunch of ghostly hands reached up and pulled Dasher into the ground with them. As Dasher disappeared, a light began shining in the sky.

"I activate D - Signal!" Aster said. "This lets me summon a Destiny Hero from my deck or hand when a monster on my field is destroyed!"

Flipping through the air, before landing in front of Aster, Destiny Hero Captain Tenacious quickly held up his arm guards, ready to block any attack.

"Whew! That entrance was awesome!" Jesse said.

"Yeah, looked like he was ready to do a guitar solo or something." Atticus said.

"Told ya guys Aster had this covered." I said.

Dimitri had set a facedown while we talked and now it was Aster's turn again.

"During my Standby Phase, when Captain Tenacious is in Defense Mode, I can bring back one Destiny Hero that was destroyed by battle last turn!" Aster said.

Even Dimitri's demons couldn't deny the return of Dasher, who stood next to Captain Tenacious and nodded.

"Now I'll summon Destiny Hero Dunker to my field!" Aster said.

Dunker appeared next to Dasher.

"Next I'll use Dunker's effect!" Aster said. "I discard one card and you take 500 Points of damage!"

A card appeared in Dunker's hand, which he threw at Dimitri. Dimitri's Life Points lowered to 3300.

"Fine, so you dunked on me." Dimitri said, sneering. Ugh… "Let me guess, you're going to destroy Necrom with Dasher?"

"Oh, no. I think it's time to show you what a real Anti-Hero looks like!" Aster said. "I summon…"

Aster's three monsters turned to blood, which reformed into the one, the only…

"Destiny Hero Plasma!" Aster shouted. "Now I can select one of your monsters and equip it to Plasma!"

As Plasma spread his arms dramatically, ready to absorb Necrom, Dimitri's facedown turned up.

"I activate Skill Shock!" Dimitri said. "When one of your monsters activates their effects, I tribute one of my monsters and negate that effect!"

Plasma flew over to Necrom, and just as Plasma grabbed him, a shock ran through Plasma. Necrom shattered, as Plasma was paralyzed by the shock.

"Now your monster can't attack, or be tributed for the rest of the turn." Dimitri said. "Guess you'll have to end your turn."

"I'm not done yet!" Aster said. "If I remove the Destiny Hero Malicious Dunker sent to my grave, I can summon another copy to the field!"

Aster's own demonic hero appeared on the field.

"Now, Malicious, attack Dimitri directly!" Aster said.

Malicious jumped over to Dimitri and swung a claw at him. Malicious' 800 Attack Points dropped Dimitri to 2500 Life Points.

"I'll end my turn by setting a facedown." Aster said.

Dimitri drew a card and smirked.

"When Necrom is in my graveyard, I can summon an Evil Hero from my deck, as long as it isn't Necrom." Dimitri said. "So, I'll see your Malicious, and raise you Malicious Edge!"

A dark blue "hero" with sharp claws, sharp wings, a spikey helmet and spikes across his body appeared on Dimitri's field. There's an obvious joke I could make about Evil Hero Malicious Edge, but it's too obvious even by my standards. Like Bladedge, he had 2600 Attack Points.

"Malicious Edge! Attack Plasma!" Dimitri commanded. "Needle Burst!"

"I activate D - Shield!" Aster said. "This card equips to a Destiny Hero, shifting it to Defense Mode and stopping it from being destroyed in battle!"

"You fool!" Dimitri yelled. "Malicious Edge deals Piercing damage! You'll still take the damage!"

"Plasma nullifies all your monster's effects!" Aster said, smirking triumphantly.

Dimitri was taken aback by this.

"Then I end my turn by playing a facedown." Dimitri said.

Aster drew a card and smiled. Just barely, I could make out him whispering, "Thanks, Dad."

"All he has to do is absorb Malicious Edge, and Aster wins!" Atticus cheered.

"I'm not sure." Jesse said. "Dimitri still has that facedown."

I, however, could tell exactly what Aster was planning. He'd tried it out against me as soon as I returned from my travels.

"I activate Fusion Sage!" Aster said. "This lets me add Polymerization to my hand. But why keep it in my hand, when I can play it!"

"You mean your Phoenix Enforcer?" Dimitri asked. "You don't have enough cards to summon it!"

"You should've looked up my deck better, Dimitri." Aster said. "I've got another Fusion Monster! By combining the Destiny Hero Plasma on my field with the Destiny Hero Dogma in my hand, I can summon my greatest monster! The culmination of my father's legacy!"

It was like Dogma had lost his armor, except the blade on his wrist, and Plasma had given Dogma bits of his own armor, including his wings and dragon arm. To complete the look, this new monster had a dragon head on his chest, and dragon tail whipping around behind him.

"Destiny End Dragoon!" Aster shouted.

Dimitri stared in shock at Dragoon.

"With Destiny End Dragoon's effect, I can destroy one of your monsters, and you receive damage equal to its Attack Points!" Aster said.

I'm not sure, but I'd bet Dimitri had a trap to destroy an attacking monster, because Dragoon shot a blast of fire at Malicious Edge, and Dimitri didn't do anything about it.

Malicious Edge shattered, and his claws flew back, striking Dimitri, dropping his Life Points to 0. The holograms faded, as Aster sighed.

Back at my apartment, the three of us cheered.

"Well, there's the duel you wanted." Aster said. "I hope it was worth everything you had to do to get it."

"Stupid Destiny Heroes…" Dimitri muttered.

"That reminds me." Aster said. "You said that destiny is just an excuse people use for when terrible things happen. If I can give you a bit of advice, based on something someone once taught me."

Dimitri looked up at Aster.

"Destiny isn't what's been predetermined to happen." Aster said. "It's what we choose to make of our lives."

"Easy for you to say." Dimitri said. Hm? "Most of us aren't born into the lap of luxury, getting one-of-a-kind cards Daddy makes for you."

Low blow, dude!

"Of course, you know a lot about making cards, don't you?" Dimitri asked.

"What are you talking about?" Aster asked.

"My manager was asking around and found these!" Dimitri yelled.

Dimitri threw a bunch of cards at Aster. The pictures were of common monsters, like Mystical Shine Ball and Atomic Firefly, but from what could be made out, the names and effect boxes were covered with pieces of paper that had something scribbled on them. Aster looked at the cards in shock.

"Don't you dare try to deny that that's your handwriting!" Dimitri yelled. "We've had it double checked! You've been making fake cards, intending to pass them off as real, haven't you?"

"That's not it at all!" Aster shot back. "I wanted to-"

"Save your excuses." Dimitri said. "This is why Di-mi wanted to duel you. I hoped you would admit it yourself."

Before Aster could protest anymore, the feed cut out.


Jesse, Atticus and I stared at the screen, stunned.

"I can't believe that guy!" Jesse yelled. "Aster beats him, so he starts some drama?"

"Well, you know how the audience loves a feud." Atticus said, albeit in a disapproving way.

As for me, there was only one thing I was thinking of at that moment.


The end of my Junior year at Duel Academy. My duel against Zane, after he had kidnapped Alexis. He had gone off on a rant about how awful the Professional League was, the pressure it put on a person to be the best. And one particular part stood out to me now.

"Then there were times when I had to vilify someone who worked hard and did so good, but someone claimed that they cheated or that they attacked their opponent."


That was exactly what had just happened to Aster.

I'd forgotten all those worries about joining the Pro League during the year I traveled, but now? It was all flooding back.


Author's Note: As usual, credit to my friend WarMixedSoul for double checking the duel for me.

Alright, I should probably explain why this took so long.

I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I'm nervous as heck for this fanfic.

Being the last means not only have I wanted to make it great, but it also means there's no coming back after it. I mean, look at Missing You and Fiore. Yeah, they have issues, but they're not where it ends. I can make up for any missteps in those during the following fics. This? Any issues would be final. It'll be the last time I write for these particular versions of these characters. I've wanted to do them justice, I've wanted to do the readers justice and I wanted to do myself justice.

Not helping is that massive gap between the start and end of Fiore. I mean, I did a little writing in 2017, and some writing in 2019 and this year, but not as much as I'd have liked. And let's not get started on 2018.

I keep thinking about how great I did with Competing For Love, and trying to figure out what exactly made that work so well. I mean, looking at it, it's split into pretty even arcs, the characters all get good development, there's good messages, and the humor is at its best. And I wrote it so quickly too! I guess I've kinda lost that thrill for writing again.

It doesn't help at all that I'm working with pretty much a blank canvas here. That fanfic had the original Competition and the canon third season to draw from. This is nearly uncharted territory. I keep worrying I'm gonna mess it up like I did my '09-'14 work.

But I'm definitely gonna do my best to avoid that. Hopefully the next chapter will be out soon, but it'll probably still be a little time. I wanna revisit something else I worked on in early 2016, which definitely got me back in the writing mood. But, hey, working on this chapter has felt fun, so that's a good sign.