Hello everyone. Happy 2021 and all of that even though it's super duper late but whatever. Quick note here things might get a little goreishly descriptive. Also chapter posts are going to slow down once again so yeah. Enjoy this one because it might be a hot minute before the next one.

Let's move on to what probably everyone has been really waiting for. The story and battle between Zero and Jack Atlas.

Ch.36: Battle of Kings

"I tune my Level 6 Red Wyvern with my Level 2 Red Resonator! Howl of the king! Now, strike the heavens and the Earth. Engrave the power of the one and only supreme ruler into yourself! I Synchro Summon!" Out of the energy and flames a Synchro beast spread its wings and flew into the air. "Savage soul! Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend!"

A dragon surrounded in a fiery orange and red aura flew behind the duelist and gave a loud roar and seemed to shake the entire planet.

SCARLIGHT RED DRAGON ARCHFIEND LV.8 ATK:3000 DEF:2500

"Once per turn, Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend destroys all Special Summoned monsters with Attack equal to or lower than itself! For each one, my opponent is dealt 500 points of damage! Absolute Power Flame!"

The dragon suddenly burst into flames and gave another roar before rushing straight towards Zero and his vulnerable monsters. The masked man started speaking with the intent to save his monsters, but was cut off when the person he was dueling interjected.

"Not quite!" Fierce static and a loud ringing buzzed through Zero's ears. It felt like a spike was being shoved through his skull and the masked man just couldn't concentrate enough through the pain to do anything to stop his opponent from doing what they wanted. It was as if he had suddenly become powerless. The crowd went wild and boomed its approval of their duelist cornering the revolutionary.

The dragon punched the ground, and sent out a huge wave of flames back towards Zero and his monsters. Zero screaming out in pained agony as the flames licked his frame and burned him mercilessly without any signs of stopping. Occasional embers flicking up into the air only to get swallowed up into the void they were fighting in. The audience transformed into leering and jeering shadows and apparitions that twisted and writhed in their seats with glee at Zero's pain. They howled and roared like demons in the night while the sky and the ground beneath them was consumed in darkness.

ZERO LP- 3000 - 2000

Zero was exposed. He didn't have any monsters left on his field to protect himself. No Spells or Traps placed to activate and save himself. Not even any Pendulum monsters in their Pendulum Zones. He had nothing and could only watch burning orange eyes glare down at him with a happy hiss at his inability to do anything.

At his helplessness. His weakness.

"And now, I attack directly with Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend! This duel is finished! Fiery Crimson Hell Blast!" The beast wasted no time as it unleashed its burning flamethrower right towards Zero himself and his unprotected field. At his already burned and torn form. "You are nothing! Bow before the true king!"

Flames bore down on Zero once more. His shrill cry of pain being drowned out by the fire crackling around him and the thunderous applause of the shadows surrounding the duel that had just ended. Clothes burnt to a crisp and turned into ash alongside skin, muscle, and flesh. Leaving charred black bones and a mask that melted down the wearer's face and became permanently fixed to their features. Yet, those bones could still move and quiver in untold pain and agony, blackened phalanges twitched and shook violently as they held the steering handles of Zero's D-Wheel. Dichromatic eyes, one violet and the other red near molten puddles of goo from the heat had it remained on him a second longer. Strands of raven hair falling off rapidly in segments alongside skin that peeled away and blisters that popped from around his skull.

ZERO LP- 2000 = 0 LOSS

It hurt. Everything hurt so much. A burning pain that even death couldn't numb.

The crowd cheered.

The dragon gave a victorious roar at Lelouch horrid state. Yelling up into the void with pride at what it had done, and lashed its tail out against the ground. Chunks of cement and steel from the side railing burst free from the ground and flew right into Zero's path.

Lelouch didn't have time to react as one piece of scrap metal flew straight into his face and crashed straight into his skull with a sickening squelch of melted flesh and demolished bone. The pain from all around his body vanished only to be replaced with a fierce burning pain in his forehead. In his eyes.

Everything was dark, an endless pitch black void with no end in sight. Still, the crowd cheered.

"You are nothing"

The voice of the one man, the one bastard who he sought to kill most rung out from the abyss of black. Surrounding Lelouch's falling frame as it continued to descend down into darkness and madness.

"Old news. What of it?"

It echoed out.

"I have no use for that weakling."

Everywhere.

"That is what it means to be royalty."

Lelouch couldn't stop hearing the words he had replayed in his head over and over no matter how much he wanted to. They bounced around his head and made blood run down his ears at the sheer boom his father's voice had.

"You are dead. You have always been dead to me. Dead from the moment you were born."

A voice certainly befitting an emperor who controlled more than one third of the world.

"Who gave you the fine clothes you wear? A comfortable home? The food you eat and your very life? All of those I have given to you. In short you are nothing to me because you have never existed! Yet you dare to speak such foolishness to ME!"

"Lelouch." The crowd whispered right into his ears over Emperor Charles' own voice.

"You are dead." They stated happily. Gleefully. Cheerfully as they snickered and spoke in a language unknown to Lelouch through clicks.

"Therefore, you are not entitled to any rights." They cackled and repeated. "You have no rights. You have no rights. None at all!"

"I am sending you and Nunnally to Japan." Charles announced from atop that damn throne Lelouch wanted to burn. "As prince and princess you will be used as bargaining tools."

"You are nothing."

"Nothing."

"You are dead."

"Dead."

"Nothing."

"Dead."

"You are a weakling that I have no use of."

"Both you and her."

"Her."

"Nunnally."

"Weak."

"Nothing." "

Dead."

"You have no rights."

"Old news."

"You're old news you know."

"You are merely bargaining tools."

"What of it? Who truly cares about that?"

"We don't. We welcome it."

"Dead from the moment you were born."

"They tried finding you."

"Searching for you."

"Waiting for you."

"Yet you never came, and now they're all gone."

"All dead."

"Because of you."

"You are nothing."

"You. Lelouch- Zero- Lamperouge- Vi Britannia. Are truly nothing."
"A waste of space."

"A scuff on my boot."

"An ant that must be crushed."

"A broken mirror."

"An empty void."

The voices all laughed as Lelouch screamed. Trying to make them stop but they were embedded in his brain. Snuck into his heart and clawed at his soul with their screams that really weren't screams. Just a bunch of voices all speaking over each other yet at the same time.

They laughed at his misery. One apparition in particular leaped forward to wrap their hands around Lelouch's throat. Two red eyes with the symbol of geass blazing maddeningly in their depths as everyone else spoke.

"You. Are. Nothing."

.

.

.

"You… You're the one that's trying to stop me." A new voice spoke. One that silenced all of the others and even made the one strangling Lelouch halt in its gleeful advance and look up at the thing Lelouch could not see. "Trying to foil my plans. My revival…." It muttered. The voice belonged to a male.

The rest of the apparitions scattered except for the one with geass in both eyes. The silent shadow continues in its quest on strangling the raven haired teen to death and wring his neck. A happy grin over their face as the voice continued to speak.

"I must say that you are quite the challenge." The male chuckled darkly. "Certainly the intellect and cunning to match against mine. You might actually be able to succeed." That last part was growled out, and the sound of teeth gnashing was heard. Although Lelouch could barely process it at this rate. Everything was going blurry and that voice started to become muffled as oxygen left his lungs and wasn't able to come back in. "That is, if I don't stop you… But how to do that when you've already barred me from one of my own counterparts…." They hummed. Taking their sweet time as the first apparition tightened their hold on Lelouch's neck and squeezed. "Hmm… Oh, I know…"

Suddenly, eerie mad yellow eyes with slitted pupils shined brightly from the void to look at Lelouch in his fading dichromatic ones. That bright yellow glow even out matching the red glow of geass coming from the apparition it stood beside. A feral grin with fangs sticking out at the ends was just inches from Lelouch's face.

"...You'll do." A purple aura arose from the spectre with glowing yellow eyes to wrap around Lelouch. Taking the first apparition's place in choking him and keeping him still as what felt like a thousand needles pushed into his skin from all sides at once. The pain steadily got stronger and stronger to where Lelouch just couldn't bear it and tried to cry out, but no sounds could come out because he was being strangled still. "While I may not be able to regain all of my power from those you use that pesky geass on so long as I put that excess power into you I will later be able to reclaim it once I kill you. With the added bonus of obtaining your unique power and that Ritual Summoning you were rather insistent about." A sneer formed on the speaker's face. "So do try not to die until I am revived. That would just make this all so much more complicated."

A blurry and very fuzzy image flashed in Lelouch's mind. One that was so brief he almost thought it was a byproduct of being suffocated to death. Metal armor painted black and gold. Four glowing sakuradite colored eyes. Claws and plenty of teeth. The buzz of energy and the whir of joints. Four transparent pink plexiglass wings. A mechanical tail that twisted and rotated in opposite directions section by section.

A mechanical roar sounded off in the great distance of the void. That voice connected to sadistic yellow eyes with slitted pupils smiled. "Well well. You're surprisingly easy to connect with. Though that shouldn't be too shocking seeing as you're such a morbid person in nature. Much like myself I must say." The first apparition clapped its hands happily since it could not speak causing the second one's grin to grow exponentially. "Right then. We're done here for now then."

With those words said, the second entity carelessly made those purple shadows toss Lelouch's body away from them to harshly collide and skid across the floor. The raven haired teen was too busy trying to breath through his collapsed esophagus, but still no oxygen could get through. His back was facing away from the apparitions. Both of which seemed to have fled the scene with their laughter bouncing around and around the void like a ping pong ball with endless force behind it.

Slowly, four beings began to appear through Lelouch's closing eyes and darkening blurry gaze. Four dragons. One outlined in fiery red energy, another in staticy violet blue, and third in graceful bright green, and the last one in tangled violently jagged magenta. The four all banded together before each gave out a loud roar in unison that caused a burning pain in not only Lelouch's eyes and head, but also in his chest. As if a fire had been lit from inside his very being and could not be quelled, and instead spread out from within.

Those roars suddenly turned into something else, but they were all yelling in unison still. It sounded painful. Betrayed. Tortuous. Then Lelouch realized what they were doing.

They were screaming.

A fifth element, something unseen, something unwanted, had lunged onto the field and had begun to consume the four dragons. Began to cannibalize them one by one until there was nothing left but itself and eerie silence.

Lelouch's chest was screaming in pain alongside what little he could express for a voice.

That fifth element moved to lean over Lelouch in a menacing display of intimidation. Drool and other bloody substances pooling off its maw as it growled through mechanical clicks and whirrs. There was no light. No aura for this thing. Instead it seemed to consume what little light was around in giving it a pitch black outline that was somehow darker than the void around them.

It snapped its jaws open, and lunged directly towards his face with a wicked shriek.

Lelouch's screams echoed out, but no one was there to hear him.

No one cared.

After all, he was nothing.

. . .

A shaky modulated gasp echoed out through the dark silent room and a loud muffled thud was heard soon after. Tired dichromatic eyes snapped open and searched the area around him wildly. One black gloved hand rushed up to rub his chest while the other pushed off of the ground he had fallen on to shakily stand. Apparently, Zero had fallen asleep in the sole brown leather recliner that was in his room.

Frantically, Zero stalked around his room in search of any trespassers or misplaced belongings in an old habit having remained since surviving the massacre that was Britannia invading Japan and turning it into Area Eleven. Checking his temporary lodgings and the perimeter for any hostiles waiting and listening as his mind wandered off to process what he had just witnessed before being awoken.

It was most certainly a dream, or really a nightmare. Yet, something felt disturbingly wrong with it. It wasn't like any of the other nightmares he had before since his childhood went to hell. Sure, those could be rather vivid and his screwed up mind could concoct some pretty messed up stuff other people would demand he see a therapist for, but this one was somehow different in a worse kind of sense. It actually felt real, and he couldn't wake up or manipulate the dream even if he knew it wasn't reality.

It actually felt like he had been burned and torn apart though.

That burning pain in his chest was still there, but it was a ghost of its former self and more like a mere ember now. One hand stayed rubbing the place of his injury even though it was internal to try and bring some self comfort as the steady thumping slowly went away.

That first part of his dream he could understand and relate to the incoming duel he had in around twelve hours. The consequences Zero would have to face if he lost against Atlas would be nothing short of disastrous. That, and the thought of actually having to willingly follow Roger anywhere sent a distinct shiver of dread down his spine and through his very being.

There was something deeply messed up about that man. Lelouch just knew it.

The second part though is what had Lelouch most confused. Seeing that first apparition that wanted him dead so badly wasn't anything new. He dreamed of lots of people and deceased enemies that wanted revenge actually achieving it despite it not being possible in the real world. That second shadow and those four- no, five dragons made Lelouch ponder if his brain was really just throwing itself down into the deep end of insanity.

Another part of him buried deep down questioned if that second shadow had actually been a real spirit.

He was unfamiliar with anyone who had glowing yellow eyes with slitted pupils. Knew no one who had a fanged grin like that or spoke with that tone of voice. Of course, it could just be his imagination, but it could also actually be something. After all, Lelouch possessed a supernatural power of making anyone obey his words with just a glance of eye contact and a sentence. He started a rebellion back in his home world with an actual immortal witch by his side, fought and defeated someone who could literally read his mind, and was thrown into another Dimension completely by C.C through some bullshit that still had him steaming mad when thinking about it too much.

A second immortal was wandering around in his home world and was quite clearly siding with Britannia, and here there was an actual war going on between four Dimensions based on Summoning Methods from a children's card game. Eight people, four boys and four girls all had similar looks disregarding personality, eye color, and hair color. Of those eight the girls had magical warping bracelets and the boys get possessed by a literal demon or demons.

.

.

.

When did my life get this fucked up? Lelouch questioned to himself with an exhausted sigh rushing past his lips. The masked man pinched his arms harshly to wake himself up even more and snap out of whatever state of mind he was in before shaking his head side to side quickly. What does it even matter what nightmare I have this time? It doesn't mean anything. If anything it's just stress. It's not like I can actually do anything about it. Dichromatic eyes flitted around his room, scrutinizing it. I can't do much else except play along at the moment really.

Just from where he was standing Lelouch counted two cameras and three bugs hidden within his room either in plain sight or in tiny crevices no one would think to look at except for him. The reasons for them being there was quite obvious. While originally it was to keep an eye on contestants for the Friendship Cup to make sure they remained trapped in their rooms and unharmed it was now being used to spy on him. Watch him. See if they could gain any juicy information to blackmail him with later like a name or an identity. A form of weakness.

Lelouch wasn't stupid. He wasn't falling for it. He had literal years of experience to fall back on in terms of dodging Britannia and the OSI when searching for their 'lovely' 11th prince and 87th princess to 'save' them from those wretched Eleven 'monkeys' during the invasion.

It was why he stayed seated in the chair rather than the comfortable looking bed with it's freshly pressed and made sheets. He wasn't taking his mask off here by a long shot unless he was held down and forced to remove it by someone else. While the room itself was filled with the most expensive kinds of furniture and things money could buy it was also small and empty if you thought about it. A single king size bed with a magnificent wooden draw on the opposite wall where a small plasma screen TV was so contestants could watch other duels going down. A single recliner chair and a huge window that covered one side of the wall. Otherwise there were two doors. One led to the outside hallways and exit to freedom which should be locked, but wasn't due to the bet Lelouch had made with the Council just hours prior. The second leading to a bathroom with basic necessities of the highest most expensive brands alongside a tub you could bathe or shower in, toiletries and a sink with a cupboard that had a mirror in front of it.

It made Lelouch feel claustrophobic. Solely because he knew he could do none of these things being presented to him privately. Other people would always be watching him and analyzing his most miniscule of actions intently.

It was driving him insane.

Finally, after spending who knows how long pacing and muttering to himself in his room Lelouch came to a slow halt beside some long light teal curtains. The co-leader of the Lancers threw the curtains to the side to gaze out of the room he resided in and out towards the City and its vast ocean. It was dark out, with the moon glowing softly high in the air and the stars spread out across the sky in a canvas of night twinkling and sparkling their bright white lights. Not a single cloud was in sight, and the Top's part of the City illuminating itself in a rainbow of colors revolving all around the color wheel depicted such a gorgeous display even Zero was not able to help himself as he took it all in.

It would have been even more beautiful if what lay underneath this City wasn't so corrupt and sad. If there weren't hundreds if not thousands of people living in the slums of the desolate shadows as Commons and 'rabble'.

Such a beautiful picture yet so disgusting. Zero sneered behind his mask as he thought that. Thought of everything that was just abhorrently wrong here in this City and this Dimension. It was just like Britannia.

He needed a change of scenery. That split second thought and decision was what led Zero to exiting his chambers and trudging through the dark empty hallways of the Friendship Cup's contestant tower like a silent ghost rather than a person. The subtle shifting of fabric and the rhythmic tapping of shoes hitting the floor and stairs was the only sign of his movement.

Zero had no set place in mind at the moment. The ghost merely wandered the building and took in the foundation with a passing critical eye like the phantom he was. He just needed to stay awake and move. To do something.

He passed Yuto at one point. The two merely exchanged silent glances and gestures before moving on. One heading back to their room after a midnight snack while the other continued wandering.

After making two laps of the entire building from the top floor down to the very ground floor Zero's legs screamed for relief, for a break that he could no longer ignore. The masked revolutionary roaming back down to the lounge of the tower and sitting on one of the many provided yet hardly used sofas. The entire room took up the entire floor and was split into two sections. One being a place for rest and relaxation while communicating with others like a living room while the other was a snack area and cafeteria of sorts. Simple things like fruits in a bowl, two coffee machines, a fridge, and many more things laying in wait to be used.

Placing his elbows on his knees and leaning forward to lay his masked chin on top of his balled up hands Zero- No, Lelouch sat there and waited. Thinking about anything and everything yet nothing at the same time in a way he just couldn't explain to others.

Thoughts about how to get back home. How he was needed there by Nunnally, his Black Knights and even C.C. How he was too far in this mission to not back out now without severe consequences. How he needed to topple down Academia first to gain their transdimensional technology and understanding on how to use it before being able to finally head back home where he truly belonged. How it was turning out to be harder than he had originally thought in certain aspects yet easier in others. The allies and friends he had here while at the same time the enemies he had made trying to hunt him down alongside eight other innocent children.

Well, mostly innocent. Yuri could be called anything but that really.

Actual death being mainly replaced by being turned into a card. Those two cards of Olga and Halil he still had safely deposited into one of the breast pockets of his suit still there since Yuzu gave them to him. They felt like two heavy lead weights stacked on top of everything else and all of the other responsibilities he had.

If he didn't get a strand of grey hair before hitting twenty Lelouch was going to be very, very surprised.

A bright orange light slowly rose and blinded Lelouch's vision after a while which caused him to blink. The masked teen straightened and took in the fact that the sun was rising through the multiple windows encompassing the entire area of the lounge. The sun shining a golden yellow with a bright orange wrapped around it while the water reflected its rays. The waves created sparkles alongside shadows that looked like fierce sapphires and the sky slowly grew lighter and lighter.

He had been sitting here thinking all night until sunrise. Lelouch just knew it was going to be a long day. Again.

The stairs leading to the floors above him creaked as other people began to awaken and begin their daily activities. The tower and those within coming to life with the rising sun. Lelouch quickly returning to his full Zero persona leaned back into his sofa, crossed his legs around his knees, and rested his hands idly in his lap as he waited.

Surprisingly even for Zero, the first person to have woken up and roamed to the lounge in wait for everyone else was Crow. The masked man expected Tsukikage or Reiji, but perhaps this was just a one time fluke since the sounds of activity were still going on a floor above them. They'll be coming down soon. Most certainly to grab a bite to eat before heading out to speak with the High Executive Council until the Friendship Cup's exhibition match finishes and the tournament truly begins. Riley will probably go along since that's where Reiji will be going. The child followed their older brother quite literally everywhere. As if they didn't trust the rest of the Lancers but solely Reiji and possibly Tsukikage.

Zero didn't expect her to start trusting anyone soon anyway. Not after surviving through a war as an orphan only to have to live with the trauma afterwards.

He wouldn't, and he still didn't trust many people either.

"Holy shit." Zero was snapped out of his musing once more at Crow's curse. Masked dichromatic eyes flashed with amusement and one eyebrow was raised at the Synchro user's panicked expression that was quickly turning into one of that being slightly ruffled. One hand was raised up to hold his chest as if he was having a heart attack. "Jeez, scared the shit out of me Zero." Steel grey eyes looked at the masked man with unease. "Just looking around minding my own business only to end up seeing you sitting there staring at me like a silent freaking demon. Which was uncool by the way."

"Ah, my apologies." Zero spoke lightly, but he didn't really care about causing a scare either way. "I was just thinking about a few things. New possible plans for certain scenarios and what's next. Don't mind me and please just go about with what you were planning to do."

Grey eyes instantly snapped towards the coffee machine with severe longing. "Well, I was planning on getting some freshly hot brewed coffee for once." The Synchro user wiped a hand through his freshly cleaned and spiky orange hair as he furrowed his eyebrows. Grey eyes went back to masked dichromatic ones. "How long have you just been sitting there?"

"Long enough." Zero answered simply. No other words leaving his lips and the area around them plunged into somewhat awkward silence. At least that's what it felt like to Crow.

"...Right…" Crow drawled out before quickly making his way towards the coffee machine. The Common kept his back to the masked co-leader of the Lancers who he still found unsettling and focused on the task of getting some heavenly coffee. Throughout the silence Crow felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise at the feeling of eyes looking into the back on his head the entire time.

Thankfully soon after Reiji, Riley, and Tsukikage came down to take Zero's attention off of him until the other Lancers began to trickle in. A breath of relief rushing past lips before they took in that holy brown substance that was a great kick start to his day minus the unnerving interaction moments prior.

. . .

Fireworks of multiple colors from around the color spectrum erupted and burst into the air of the night sky. The spectacle being seen and heard throughout the entire City itself as the enormous stadium chalk full of audience members hollered and roared their cheers and approval for the big once every year tournament. The fireworks exploded with loud booms and bursts of colored embers around the tournament's contestant tower. The stadium, the tower, and those around it glowed with an excited and energetic aura.

From the four corners of the stadium an enormous holographic form of Melissa Claire fizzled to life pixel by pixel. The woman in the red and white cowgirl outfit was with her trusty mic that also acted as a white staff of sorts. The reporter's voice too was filled with that electric energy that seemed to zap around the area as she spoke loudly over the crowd with mounting anticipation. "Welcome, everyone of the City!" She greeted loudly and warmly through the mic as her voice echoed out for miles barely above the crowd's own. "We have a huge audience here today at the Friendship Cup's stadium! Over 20,000 have gathered here in the Duel Palace that towers over all else in the City central!" The woman grinned brightly. "Everyone's anticipation for the opening of the Friendship Cup is firing up into the atmosphere! It's clear everyone is pumped for this exhibition match, and well so am I." She laughed. Some of the crowd decided to join in and chuckle at her comment.

After the crowd died down in their cheering just a tad the woman tipped her red cowgirl hat in greeting. "Tonight, with myself, Melissa Claire, let's all enjoy the eve of the largest duel festival in the City, the Friendship Cup!" Once again, Melissa showed her talent in riling up the crowd as they roared together in agreement. The reporter threw one fist into the air that got the crowd really screaming.

The Friendship Cup tournament had just about everything. From the obvious fireworks and huge crowd waiting for the action packed fast paced duel to the cheerleaders performing their acts closer to the stadium floor and the multiple vendors and stalls posted around the stadium itself. The stall owners all selling their own products from foods and knicknacks to even betting tickets.

. . .

Zero breathed in deeply through his nose, and exhaled through his mouth. The masked man's modulator turned the simple light sound into something twisted and demonic. The sound caused the young boy dressed in a servant's working uniform to flinch back badly at the sudden intimidating sound. "So long as I win, and so long as I keep winning. Everything will be fine."

He's seen the glances coming from everyone throughout the day, especially his Xyz rebel allies. Some were of concern for him and this upcoming duel while others looked on with worry for themselves and their own fates which would be decided in this exhibition match. He took it in stride and continued about his day in a dazedly tired stupor. Eventually he either passed out or fell asleep without realizing it in his room on that chair again, because when he woke back up it was an hour later than when he had come in.

Here he was now. Waiting to be led out like a sheep to the slaughter that was supposed to be a duel. Though, who was actually the sheep waiting to be sacrificed was debatable.

Dichromatic eyes narrowed in thinly veiled distaste and disgust. Black gloved hands easily skimming through the masked man's deck and taking care to look at every spell, every trap, and every monster and Extra Deck monster.

Noticing the glaring spot where one of his Fusion monsters were missing.

Zero clicked his tongue as he thought back to the circumstances that got him here. How Roger had wrapped a figurative ring of meat around his neck to feed him to the wolves, and how Reiji willingly went along with the suggestion and theoretically threw him under the bus. "This is nothing more than a dog and pony show. How unpleasant." That description couldn't even compare to how Zero really felt, but he had to be careful around here with what he said and did.

Unlike how he wished it and soon planned on getting, he wasn't the one in control here. He didn't have complete authority over what was said and done. Until he managed to get the Council without his Lancers suspecting him and until Roger was removed from the picture permanently it would most likely remain that way. Though while he did have some sway, it simply wasn't enough at the moment.

He needed more followers.

He needed to get the people of the City on his side. Their approval which wouldn't be an easy feat.

Though it nearly disgusted him that this was one of the ways he could get what he wanted, so long as he got the results he needed Zero would follow through with it. After all, this wasn't even close to some of the other plans he enacted in terms of danger and ludicrous audacity. Insanity if you asked the right people.

Zero took one more relaxing breath. The revolutionary taking a moment to look away from his Deck towards the young servant dutifully standing behind him. Straight posture and arms stiffly held behind his back without saying a single peep. He was certainly young, younger than Yuya and the others even. The boy's blue gaze was firmly on the clock ticking away on the wall rather loudly and obnoxiously throughout the thundering quiet. Though that gaze would flicker to Zero from time to time it nearly always stayed on the clock. A small bead of sweat crawling down the side of the boy's face.

"It appears I have you frightened by my demeanor." Zero stated, cutting through the thick silence like a heated blade. Suddenly being addressed directly caused the servant to nearly jump right out of his skin and onto the ceiling if gravity wasn't a thing. An amused chuckle escaped through Zero's modulator as he spoke. "My apologies. Though I can be ruthless to my enemies and this outfit is designed for intimidation I do not mean any harm to you. You have nothing to fear from me."

The boy opened his mouth to say something a few times, but nothing came out but sutters before he finally found his voice. "Oh- It's nothing- It's fine- I apologise if my silence is making you somewhat uncomfortable I just- Don't know what to say?" That last part came out more like a question, and the boy cringed at how weak it sounded. "So, umm, yeah."

The room grew quiet again, this time with the boy shuffling in place whilst obviously begging that time moved faster. Zero raised an eyebrow at the boy's antics, but otherwise said nothing else and returned to looking through his Deck and silently making strategies with them. It wasn't as fun as playing chess with himself nor did it feel as relaxing and soothing, but it was an acceptable substitute.

Finally, Zero reached the end of his Deck. With pursed lips, the masked man dug into the pockets of his uniform to pick out a few certain duel monster cards. He was uncertain about if he should add them into his Deck or not. The masked man never used them even until now except for simple practice matches with himself. Even now he debated on using them for this match. On one hand, he wasn't completely certain he had mastered the gimmicks and rules of these cards. He wanted to keep holding them until he had no choice but to whip them out as an unexpected weapon. On the other hand, they would make the perfect surprise turn around for this duel, and Jack Atlas wasn't someone to fuck around with.

Zero knew that managing to stay at the top of a dueling throne for three consecutive years with an iron fist meant something big. It was obvious that Atlas' duel skills were near the top alongside his, Reiji, and Yuri's own.

But was Atlas really worth showing this unexpected part of his hand? From the high stakes of the match Zero himself placed on the bet yesterday the answer would have to be a solid yes. Even the strange dream, no, the strange nightmare he had before helped lean his inner fight towards the positive. He had nothing else to defend or deflect that last strike with, and these cards would make a drastic difference.

Yet… Dammit he wanted to save these cards for when he had to duel Yuri again, because it was clear that it was only a matter of when rather than if in that department.

"It's- It's almost time. I'll lead you to the grounds." The boy stammered out quickly through the slowly darkening quiet. The servant easily picked up on Zero's rising agitation and plummeting aura if the way he nearly ran over towards the door was any indication. The hallway leading out of the duelist's waiting room towards the Friendship Cup's many garages where the D-Wheels were stored. "R-Right this way, sir. If you'd please f-follow me."

A quick huff of breath escaped him as Zero stood from the luxurious and overly done couch to follow the young boy out. "Fine. Lead the way so this can be over and done with." The masked man put the cards he was debating about using into his Deck before storing it into his duel disk. As the two walked, though for Zero it was more like stalked, down the hallways towards the increasing cheers of the crowd Zero's duel disk automatically shuffled his Deck.

Hopefully, what he had learned from Aura would be useful now.

. . .

The duel tower that watched over the Friendship Cup stadium had a simple build. Though it's outside was sophisticatedly designed to match the City's aesthetic on the inside it was more like an extravagant hotel. Of course the insides were decorated and made to just scream money being thrown around into its creation. The amount of rooms on the floors were few and sparse since the Friendship Cup only had at the most twenty contestants every year. At the bottom floor was an enormous lounge area and cafeteria mixed into one though it was usually never used since the contestants were supposed to be locked in their rooms.

Usually.

That didn't apply to the Lancers though, because the Lancers were anything but usual and normal.

All together, the Lancers were crowded together in various spots in said lounge room to look over the huge plasma screen TV that nearly went from the floor to the ceiling. It was that big. The members of the Xyz resistance alongside Serena and Dennis took up the main costly couch that had the best view of the TV though it was pushed back far enough so none of the male or female counterparts could cause each other trouble. Sitting, or really sprawled on the floor closest to the TV was Yugo. He laid on his stomach, and the way the Synchro counterpart's legs kicked back and forth frantically to lose some energy like a schoolgirl was an obvious tell to how excited he was for the exhibition match.

For the Friendship Cup to finally begin.

That and the fact that he simply just couldn't stop talking and gesturing to the others about Jack Atlas and the Friendship Cup was another tell. It appeared that the banana banged duelist was a rather big Atlas fan.

Sylvio walked forward to lay down besides Yugo to get a good view of the duel that was obviously going to be big. While the Xyz rebels were tensely quiet the burnette was getting caught up in Yugo's own excitement. Crow came forward to sit cross legged beside Sylvio while Shinji took one of the sofas on the side of the couch with a big heavenly sigh at the soft cushions and blessed fabric.

"Damn, this place is the best. If only those damn Tops would share it with us Commons." Shinji ground out, but the incoming spectacle of the duel stopped anymore angered comments from the Synchro citizens.

"Yes, it certainly is much nicer here than in the Detention Facility or out with the other Commons from what I remember." Tokumastu agreed easily, yet everyone's attention was mainly on the TV. At the moment nothing was happening except for preparations as Melissa Claire commented and spoke. The older duelist took a second sofa besides Shinji while the three sofas tastefully placed out on the opposite side were taken up Yuya, Yuzu, and Gongenzaka.

"I don't really know about this." Yuzu stated softly. Periwinkle eyes stayed on the TV as Yuya's own scarlet turned to her in concern. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"I'm sure Zero will be fine Yuzu." Yuya said optimistically. The Pendulum user placed a hand over Yuzu's own in a comforting gesture which Yuzu took happily. The two sticking together like glue now that they were back together. "I mean, he's Zero. If anyone can win it's him."

"No way!" Yugo disagreed. Aquamarine eyes turned to Yuya as the Synchro counterpart turned to lay on his back and threw both of his arms into the air. "Jack is literally the coolest! The best! If anyone is going to win this it'll be Jack Atlas! He's been the City's king for three consecutive years and I doubt he plans on losing it to some unknown masked anomaly." Suddenly, the teen just shook with pure excitement as he hollered out. "Man, I'm dying to duel Jack soon too! I can hardly wait!"

"Oh please, you don't know Zero at all." Yuto nearly snorted in contempt and crossed his arms tightly. His usual scowl set towards the TV though he was addressing Yugo. "Atlas is losing." It was clear that even with his confident statement the owner of Dark Rebellion wasn't happy with this predicament.

"No he's not!" Yugo growled and practically sneered back towards his Xyz counterpart. The Synchro user sat up to eye Yuto with a glower as he spoke. "I've seen Jack duel countless people and beat them easily! There's no way Zero stands a chance. He's just going to be another sacrifice for the king."

"A sacrifice?" Serena questioned with furrowed eyebrows. "Just what do you mean by that?"

While looking at Serena Yugo saw Rin's face flash over hers, but he barely held himself back from lunging at the girl he knew wasn't Rin to explain. "Do you know why there's an exhibition match before the Friendship Cup officially begins in the first place?" Yugo speaks before anyone can answer. "It's to show everyone the king's strength. The king doesn't participate in the main event. The winner is the only one who can duel him. That means the Friendship Cup is a tournament to earn the right to challenge the king. The eve of the festival is meant to show the height of that summit!" The Synchro user gestured widely with his arms as if to show the huge hill duelists had to climb to battle Jack. "Every year, Jack's opponents get a total beating, driving the rest of the participants to reach that height." Yugo shrugged. "Well, it's something like a practice. That's why opponents for the exhibition match are called sacrifices."

"Ay yi yi." Dennis hissed from between his teeth sympathetically as he winced at the thought of getting beaten that badly.

Yugo continued. "I haven't even seen Zero duel even once ever since I've encountered him. For all I know your leader sucks." Now Yuto turned his scowl from the TV to Yugo fully.

Apparently despite both apologizing and forgiving each other for the incident in the park they interacted together like water and oil.

Shun rolled his molten yellow eyes and wordlessly elbowed Yuto's side causing his best friend to wince and hiss out an injured breath. "Cut it out. We'll find out whose superior in a few moments." Yuto looked like an angry wet cat, but wordlessly returned to scowling at the screen with his arms still crossed. Ruri covering her mouth to help stifle her giggles at Yuto's expression.

"Why don't we place bets on it?" Sylvio stated suddenly. The burnette curling one of his few blonde bangs around a finger with his cheek smushed in one hand as he spoke. "I bet a 100 on Zero."

"I don't really have money to bet, but I bet that Atlas is going to win! Though that was rather clear already." Yugo puffed his chest up and stated boldly, before flopping backwards onto the floor and just spreading his limbs out with a satisfied sigh. "Man! This carpet is the best! This place is the best! Everything here is the best! I wish I could live here forever."

"250 on Zero." Shun turned to look at Serena as she said that with a clearly surprised expression.

"I didn't think you gambled." The Radiraptor user stated dully though his face spoke more than the tone in his voice.

The Fusion user had a sheepish expression on her face though a smile was twitching on her lips. The girl reached up to scratch the back of her head. "Heh, actually I kind of have a problem with it back at Academia." Her expression grew sour. "It's not like the Professor never really said no to anything I wanted or needed so long as I never actually tried to leave. Practically paid me to sit there and look pretty." Everyone's faces scrunched up at the mention of Academia and it's crazy Professor.

"Hmph." Shun resumed watching the TV. "My bets on Zero."

Shinji, Tokumatsu, Damon, Dennis, and shockingly Ruri all placed their bets on Jack Atlas winning. Meanwhile, Yuzu, Gongenzaka, Yuya, and Yuto betted on Zero winning.

When asked to explain her reasons Ruri spoke. "I don't think Zero is feeling well, or really, I don't think he's at his best at the moment. Did you see how he acted this morning? It just seemed so out of character for him." While those from the Xyz Dimension and some from the Standard Dimension mainly being Yuzu and Yuya nodded the rest all exchanged confused looks.

Sylvio blinked. "I didn't notice anything." He stated blandly.

Seeing their looks, Yuto spoke stiffly. "You'd have to really get to know him to understand."

Thankfully, Yuto's words overlapped and hid Shun's sarcastic one. "Of course you didn't." Ruri playfully slapped her big brother's leg for his behavior which the latter took with amusement.

"I'm with Ruri on this one." Yuto stated even though he was betting on Zero. "Though I don't expect him to lose over it. He's too relentless and stubborn for that not to mention when he has an objective he gets real focused on it until he gets the results he wants." Yet, stormy grey eyes turned a tad uneasy as he looked towards Shun. "But, I caught him wandering around the building real late at night. Clearly aware and awake."

"Ugh, jolly." Shun ground out as he placed two fingers on the bridge of his nose and groaned. "Did he at least go back into his room?"

"I saw him up before anyone else when I came down this morning to get some coffee." Crow put in seeing as he was usually awake before anyone else and moving. What could he say? He was an early bird. That and he had children to take care of back at home. "I just thought he always got up that early. Is this normal?"

"Sometimes." Ruri reluctantly admitted. The Xyz user placed her hands on her lap as she spoke with furrowed eyebrows. "Though he hardly did it back in Standard when we all had to room together, and I don't even know if he did it back in the Xyz Dimension. He stayed separate from us the entire time."

"At least until Shun had to drag him back to the resistance base to get medical attention for second and third degree electrical burns." Yuto grumbled, clearly uneasy at even remembering that moment.

"You're shitting me." Yugo stated. Everyone staring at the Xyz rebels with rapt attention. "The dude tried walking off injuries like that?" At the trio's silent nod Yugo whistled in respect. "Damn, dude must have a very high pain tolerance since burns hurt like a bitch." Yuzu's fan suddenly came out of nowhere and hit Yugo in the side of the head. Nearly making the banana banged duelist fall on top of Sylvio. Yuzu had thrown her dangerous weapon at the Synchro counterpart for his language, and in a frightening display the fan bounced right back into her hand like a boomerang. "Right, language. Sorry. Sorry." Yugo mumbled dazedly whilst rubbing his head in pain.

The display made everyone uneasy to face the fan and in turn Yuzu's wrath.

Molten yellow eyes looked around the building with tense shoulders. "This place is practically made to be against him. It's hitting all of the points that spike up his paranoia. Enemies around every corner." Shun directed his piercing look to two Council guards watching over the main exit dutifully. "Cameras everywhere." Next were the multitude of cameras installed into the ceiling alongside the lights. "I bet there are even listening devices and other things around here that we can't see without looking for them. If that would make anyone unhappy it would be Zero."

"I felt like I was being watched in my room too." Serena added in darkly even as a shiver ran up her spine at the frightening thought. She really didn't have any privacy did she? Were people watching her as she changed and showered? Fucking pervets and freaks if they were. She would kill them herself if she found out.

She didn't trade one gilded cage for another when defecting from Academia.

"Same here." Crow agreed with a growl. "I wouldn't be shocked if there were cameras hidden in our rooms too. Stuff that we don't even know about hiding in these walls despite how pretty it looks." The Synchro citizen clenched a fist to help expel some of his anger at the notion.

"Zero has a right to be worried." Tokumatsu rubbed his chin as he spoke. "His identity is vital to keeping himself and anyone he's familiar with like his family safe. People he cares for are in danger just knowing him like us, but we signed up for it and can defend ourselves." Ruri took hold of one of Yuto's hands at the thought of Zero's family with worry. Yuto giving a tight squeeze in a form of comfort in return.

"There are a lot of people that would literally kill to get that information, or the man himself. Even I can tell that and I've never even met him until yesterday night." Shinji stated as he leaned into the sofa. "Comes with the risks of being a revolutionary."

"Yeah, with people like Yuri he has a right to worry." Yuya mumbled quietly. Everyone barring those from the Synchro Dimension all cringed in their seats at the thought of the male Fusion counterpart for the boys.

"Don't mention him." Shun warned angrily. "Just hearing the bastard's name makes me want to punch someone." Yellow eyes flickered to Dennis beside Serena who didn't notice a thing.

"Zero is a very private person." Yuto stated soundly in the end, and no one doubted this fact for a second.

"It's to the point where he won't even care for himself." Shun shifted in his spot. The topic of conversation clearly had him uneasy as the clock almost reached the time the exhibition match. "He won't sleep, won't eat, won't say anything incriminating. Hell he'll act like a masked doll instead of a human with how he acts, and he'll keep it up until he's certain no one is watching and listening. Stalk around a room two, three, maybe even four times until he himself is certain. I don't know if he does that stuff on purpose or if he even realizes it himself." The Raidraptor bit his inner cheek as he spoke honestly. "It's one of the only things that has me freaked out and worried over the guy."

"Same here." Yuto agreed stiffly.

"But he can't just go around breaking cameras and stuff here." Dennis interjected from his spot on the couch. An honest look of concern passing his features as he dramatically waved a hand as he spoke. "That'll get him in trouble with the Council."

"And he's already in enough trouble as it is with the Head of Security." Damon finally spoke up uneasily. The mention of Security had everyone scowling. "Dude clearly wants his head on a platter or some mantle to hang over a fireplace."

"Exactly, and Zero knows that." Ruri said as she leaned into Yuto. The Phantom Knights user wrapped an affectionate arm around her with a light pink dusting his cheeks, but a small smile had grown on his face at the same time. Thankfully, the topic of conversation and Yuto sitting between Ruri and Shun had the Raidraptor user missing the interaction.

"So what?" Yugo stated loudly and rather carelessly. "Since he can't get rid of the problem he'll just keep going around not eating and sleeping until he self-destructs or something?" Seeing as no one decided to speak up to shoot down his preposterous words Yugo sat up to look at his rebel counterpart. The Xyz user had pursed his lips and remained silent. A pain in his stormy grey eyes that had Yugo nearly choking on his spit in shock at this sudden realization. "Wait, seriously?! That's freaking unhealthy as hell!"

"That's exactly what he'll do." Shun clenched a fist and looked down at it as it shook in quiet rage. "Frankly I'm not even sure he ate anything during the Battle Royal back in Standard despite my threats of shoving down his throat. I'm still suspicious about that." Instead of hitting the couch like he wanted to Shun instead placed his chin in both of his hands and huffed out a vexed breath. "Getting him to eat, get help, or even medication or any medical attention is like pulling teeth out of a lion. This place to him is like a spiked cage, and it's going to drive him insane if he has to stay cooped up in it for a week until this tournament is over. I think that's the main reason why he made that bet last night. Even if he didn't realize it or tried to explain it for our benefit."

"He'll kill himself." Yuto stated solemnly. "Unintentionally or not."

"What the hell happened to make him like that?" Sylvio whispered hoarsely yet incredulously.

The lounge was filled with thick silence that nearly choked the room's occupants if it wasn't for Melissa Clarie declaring that the exhibition match was about to begin. The stadium darkened as a single spot light was left on while Melissa did introductions on the two duelists about to battle.

"That's the question isn't it?" Shun asked simply, and everyone uneasily turned to watching the TV in silence once more.

. . .

"And now it's finally time for today's main event!" Melissa Claire declared as her voice boomed over the stadium to gain the audience's attention. "The City's pride, the duel king. A special opening match by Jack Atlas!"

The crowd screamed and cheered the king's name. It was all anyone could hear in the stadium. Even the Lancers could hear the crowd from within the contestant's tower alongside Yugo. Fangirls screamed as loud as they could and waved their homemade posters that had the man's face on them. "JACK! JACK! JACK! JACK!"

Within one of the dueling garages in the stadium, Zero calmly stepped forward to sit atop of his D-Wheel once more. The masked revolutionary wordlessly took off his duel disk and inserted it into his D-Wheel to make the machine fire up with a loud whirl of its engine.

Melissa nodded in approval at the crowd's reaction. "As expected of the symbol of the Friendship Cup, Jack Atlas! The hearts of both Tops and Commons come together as one, calling out his name! But, please wait one moment." The crowd stopped cheering Jack's name to replace it with sounds of puzzlement. "Firstly, let's introduce the lucky duelist specially selected to duel our king on the eve of this year's festival!"

The servant that had led Zero to his D-Wheel nervously fidgeted by the door. "Uh- Good luck, I guess." The boy squeaked, before quickly fleeing the scene and closing the door behind him before Zero even had a chance to respond.

Masked dichromatic eyes flicked to the door for a second, before they returned to the rising garage doors. "I don't need it." He stated flatly and revved his duel engine. The red glow underneath his D-Wheel making it look like hellfire was rising beneath him. When a green light flashed in front of the opened doors towards the stadium Zero floored it.

"Unlike our other participants this man is certainly one of mystery, but I'm sure most here have at least heard of his alias." At the little hint being dropped a few people from both the Tops and Commons managed to connect the dots and exclaimed their disbelief.

"No way."

"You've gotta be shitting me!"

"That rapscallion?!"

"Let's give a welcoming cheer to our very surprising exhibition match contestant, Zero!" At the mention of the masked man's name, Zero himself came blasting out of the tunnel and out into the open air of the stadium.

The crowd was stiffly silent for only a nanosecond before everyone started either cheering or booing. The booing coming from the Tops who were looking at the terrorist in disgust and fear. While the cheers came from the Commons at how the masked man had embarrassed Security in the Tops' own turf. It was even rumored that he had something to do with the Detention Facility's demise.

Zero ignored all of these exclamations and focused on the goal ahead of him. The revolutionary smoothly turning the corner and following the track until he stopped at the starting line in his specific lane. The man turned his masked head back towards the D-Wheel entrance tunnel waiting for Jack Atlas to finally appear. In anticipation for his opponent and to finally see what he was like. Let's see how you really fair against me, Atlas.

"Now, the moment everyone has been waiting for! The king's entrance!" Melissa cried out as the crowd once more cheered to their usual loud boisterous attitude. "The City bowed down before that power, that majesty. While his origins lie with the Commons, he stormed along the road to success like a rising dragon! The living legend who rose to the summit of duelists! Now, let me introduce him. Our one and only duel king, Jack Atlas!"

Smoke rose from the front of the tunnel entrance, and out of it a strange D-Wheel blasted out and into the air. White smoke trailing behind none other than Jack Atlas and being left in the dust. Three spotlights shone down on the City's king as the crowd went into overdrive cheering. The huge stadium screen and the holographic displays all showing Jack Atlas' face which was safely covered within his helmet. The D-Wheel itself was mainly white and grey with deep blue seat cushions. Instead of two classic wheels Jack's D-Wheel only had one huge one that went above his head. Extra boosters could be seen at the back of the D-Wheel as they burst to life in a bright display of yellow fire.

Frankly, Zero thought Atlas' D-Wheel was reminiscent of a huge life sized driving donut.

As Atlas took a few moments to lap around the stadium he pointed up into the spotlights and spoke. The man's deep baritone voice and presence caused the rest of the crowd to silence themselves to hear his words. "There is only one king, and that is me!"

At that declaration, all of the fangirls within the stadium cried out as one. "ATLAS!" Zero cringed back at their shrieking only a tad. If there was one thing the masked man feared it was fangirls.

The rest of the crowd got back into cheering once more. "JACK! JACK! JACK! JACK!"

Finally, Atlas came to a screeching halt right beside the masked man. The spotlight was still mainly on the City's king as Jack once more addressed the crowd. Only giving his opponent a quick inspecting glance as he did so. "Here's a question for everyone! Tonight, how many turns will it take to defeat this guy here?"

Zero merely cocked his head to the side in curiosity at the man's statement almost like a demented puppy. "Hmm?"

"It's obvious isn't it?!" One of the Commons spoke up bravely over the rest. "Just one turn will end that masked clown!" While just about everyone was cheering at that answer some were a bit skeptical.

Jack raised a fist into the air. "The king's duel can only be entertainment." Zero raised a curious eyebrow as Atlas raised one finger. The masked man leaning down on his D-Wheel and crossing his arms in a faux relaxed manner. "Turn one! The first turn is mine for the taking! When that curtain is raised. Turn two!" A second finger rose. "My opponent will put forth his best highlights." A third and final finger. "Turn three! Lastly, I surpass him and show him the difference between his power and my overwhelming strength!"

. . .

"Let's see just what these 'Lancers' have in store for us." The Council member with the yellow robes muttered between his fingers. Hands holding his chin and covering his mouth. "See what strength these Lancers have in the form of one of their leaders."

At the moment, all five members of the Council were watching the holographic display of the duel between Jack Atlas and Zero about to start in the middle of the room. On the other end of the room stood Reiji Akaba alongside a nervously quiet Riley and loyal Tsukikage. All three members of the Lancers silent while Reiji kept his narrowed gaze firmly on the holographic display.

"Will it surpass the king's?" The woman muttered to herself. The Council members getting themselves excited for this sure to be thrilling opening to the Friendship Cup. "How curious. This is surely worth the anticipation, correct chairman?"

The eldest leader of the Council hummed in agreement and chuckled. "Yes indeed I must agree. Let us watch this duel very carefully."

. . .

Finally, all of the spotlights in the stadium flashed on at once and illuminated the field. With Atlas' declaration clearly being finished Zero once more straightened up on his D-Wheel. The action being calm and smooth, near lazy to some people's eyes. The masked man spent a moment just looking towards Jack, scrutinizing him, analyzing him, before finally speaking. "You know, saying that I'll lose in three turns… That sounds rather pretentious, doesn't it?"

The audience in the stadium collectively let out a gasp at Zero's words before a very good chunk of them started booing. The masked man simply ignored them and looked Jack in the eyes.

The City's king merely returned Zero's stare with a scoff and look of his own. "You believing that you can actually survive past three turns seems rather arrogant as well. We can throw taunts back and forth once the duel begins. That's where the truth of your weakness and my strength will really shine." With that Jack face forward, his own purple eyes narrowing in steeled fiery determination which had Zero humming in approval.

"I couldn't agree more, Atlas." Zero agreed, and easily slid forward into position on his D-Wheel in preparation.

"First up, let's activate the Action Field Spell!" Melissa spoke up, but soon ended up blinking in confusion at her own comment. "What's that?" Some of the crowd muttered in confusion as well. "Well, I'm not really sure what it is, but from now on, a portion of the rules will be changed. With that said let's turn this Action Field on! Crossover Accel!" The commentator for this tournament snapped her fingers, and a bunch of Action cards burst out and onto the field.

"Duel Mode, on. Auto-pilot, stand-by." Both Jack and Zero's duel disks spoke simultaneously. Giving the masked man a hint of unseen relief at not worrying over having to duel and drive at the same time.

Both contestants revved up their engines in preparation as a holographic countdown appeared in front of them.

3…

The crowd went wild with cheers and jeers.

2…

The Lancers in the contestant's tower all leaned forward towards the TV screen they were watching all of this through. Meanwhile, the Council alongside Reiji, Riley, and Tsukikage were keeping a sharp eye on the fast approaching duel and its countdown.

Yet, up within the Security Bureau in the Head of Security's office which was on the highest floor Roger watched it all silently with a victoriously snide grin on his face. Dull green eyes looking on with sick amusement as he played with a purple bordered monster card. Behind the Head of Security was an enormous stranger dressed in a tight fitting dark green D-Wheel suit with yellow lines. The figure skulked in the shadows, but a red glow emitted out from one of the man's eyes.

1…

Both Zero and Jack Atlas narrowed their eyes in unison as they tensed for the incoming fight.

0!

"Riding duel! Acceleration!" The light flashed green, and both D-Wheels took off with the loud screeching of wheels. The scent of burnt rubber filling the air alongside sparks as the duelists took off like bullets.

"DUEL!"

JACK ATLAS LP- 4000

ZERO LP- 4000

"I'm taking the first move!" Jack stated firmly as he pulled ahead of Zero.

Enough though the masked man had some experience when it came to riding D-Wheels it was clear to him that he couldn't match up to Atlas' experience at this moment in time. He would need more practice for that, and so Zero mostly resigned himself to probably being stuck in the back for most if not all of this duel.

"Ah! A development according to Atlas' prediction!" Melissa commented eagerly. "Since Jack took the first corner he gets to make the first move!"

"My turn!" The City's king took one of the cards from his hand and held it out dramatically. Zero watching on in serious silence. "I summon Red Sprinter from my hand!" A mix between a demonic horse, ram, and monkey appeared out onto the field. Flames licking around the monster's neck, arms, legs, and back. As it's name suggested, the monster sprinted beside Jack as he rode on his D-Wheel.

RED SPRINTER LV.4 ATK:1700 DEF:1200

"When this monster is on the field, I can Special Summon one Level 3 or lower tuner monster from my hand." Jack continued onwards regardless of Zero's silence. "I Special Summon Red Resonator!" A ball of red flames that wore a helmet that flared at the bottom and a huge tunic cloth in front of its chest that had an R on it appeared onto the field with demonic giggles. It held a tuning fork and another tool in each hand and had two weird metal blue extensions with red orbs at the joints that seemed reminiscent of wings.

RED RESONATOR LV.2 ATK:600 DEF:200

"I tune my Level 4 Red Sprinter with my Level 2 Red Resonator!" The two jumped up into the air and turned into bright blue stars and green rings. "Crimson soul, become one here. Tremble before the king's roar! I Synchro Summon! Appear, Red Wyvern!" The reptilian Synchro monster flew up into the sky with a loud roar. As with the wyvern species, it didn't have any front legs, only wings and back legs. The monster had a mane of fire alongside the tops of its wings being lit aflame. Otherwise, it's body was mainly dark burnt brown or deep maroon scales and plates. All the way from its armored head to the tip of its plated tail.

RED WYVERN LV.6 ATK:2400 DEF:2000

"The king performs a Synchro Summon right out of the gate!" Melissa cried out over the crowd. "This certainly is a spectacular start! Yet, will this duel turn out exactly as the king outlined?"

"I set one card down and end my turn." Jack finished. The Synchro citizen having not broken his steely facade once throughout that entire display of strength. Atlas turned his head back to face Zero and his every silent faceless gaze. The masked man gained a few inches of ground as the king spoke. "Now, it's your turn. I'm letting you show off your best. Don't let me down." He stated.

"How kind of you." Zero smiled lightly beneath his mask though no one could see it. Eyelids lowering as he leaned forward closer to his D-Wheel. "I'll be sure to not waste it as many others most certainly have." Finally, that serious dark demeanor reappeared once more as the masked man hollered. "My turn! I draw!"

The crowd was silent, sitting in wait to see what this new contestant would do. How well he would react to their king's battling spirit. Waiting to cast down their judgement on the mysterious stranger before them.

Zero's scowl twitched upwards for a moment before it settled back down. One black gloved hand showing one card from his hand towards the rest of his expecting audience. "I'll start by setting Scale 3 Knightmare Pilot Suzaku Kururugi in the right Pendulum Zone."

SCALE 3 KNIGHTMARE PILOT SUZAKU KURURUGI

The lone humanoid monster rose up into its single pillar of blue light. It's astral number appeared underneath it in a display that had the crowd oohing and ahhing. Unlike last time this monster was summoned however, this time the monster also had a blue and yellow cape with a violet interior wrapped around its shoulders. Short somewhat curly brown hair combed down with darkened olive green eyes glaring out from behind the monster's bangs to glare down at no one else except Zero. The monster's best knightmare piloting suit was on underneath the obviously Britannian cape that only those a part of the Knights of the Round could wear. The monster did a classic Britannian salute to those of higher rank that only served to rankle Zero even more at this sudden unwanted discovery. Who was the only one who could truly understand the gesture.

Only those who had once encountered the masked man before could see clear shock at his own monster.

"What…" Zero mumbled out at the unexpected surprise presented before him. He clearly remembered his monster not looking like that before, so why was it now? Perhaps his cards were representing how those from his actual Dimension were faring?

"I'm willing to take that sacrifice if it means I save countless lives from you."

Dichromatic eyes widened behind his mask as his thoughts came to rapid conclusions. What Suzaku would do after 'killing' Zero and finding out Lelouch was missing. What he would do to take care of Nunnally since she no longer had her bigger brother around to care for her. One of those scenarios igniting a searing rage that just couldn't be put out. No, it couldn't be. He wouldn't!

The masked man was snapped out of his hazy red daze by Jack Atlas himself. "Well? What are you waiting for? An invitation?! Get a more on, because if this is really your best then I must say I am deeply disappointed. What happened to that talk at the beginning? Or was that all really just bark without any bite."

Despite the image of the Suzaku he last saw mixing with the one he was seeing now Zero frimly shook his head to clear his thoughts and return solely to the duel. "Right." I'm in the middle of a duel. I can't get distracted like that again. I can't lose focus. The masked revolutionary raised one black gloved hand up towards his Pendulum monster. "I activate Knightmare Pilot Suzaku Kururgi's Pendulum Effect! By discarding this card into my Extra Deck I can draw three more cards." With that, the Britannian knight burst into yellow particles and Zero drew three more cards. "Next, I'll reset my Pendulum Scale with Scale 1 White Dove and Scale 8 Warring Viceroy."

The masked man raised both of his arms into the air as said monsters rose up. White Dove was actually a rendition of Princess Euphemia, his half sister. The teenager blossoming into a beautiful young woman. Her classic light pink feathered dress was on and clinging to her waist. Underneath the pink feathers was a soft, thin white fabric that fell down to her ankles. Her classic pink choker with a flower on it in the middle was on her neck. Light pink hair in its usual two buns on the side of her head with the rest of it flowing down her back like a waterfall past the small of her back and towards her thighs. Lilac eyes showing such kindness and compassion within their sparkling depths alongside that graceful smile. Three yellow canaries sang their melodious song and fluttered around her without a worry in the world. A good chunk of the stadium awed at the monster's sheer beauty and had plenty of the woman within the audience envious.

The sight almost made Zero lose focus of the duel once again, but he resoundly held on and refused to even glance at her way. Euphie.

On the opposite end of the spectrum stood the stoic and proud form of Princess Cornelia. Another half sister to Zero, or really to his real identity Lelouch. The woman dressed in her classic royal military piloting uniform that hugged every corner of her body and left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Short dark magenta hair matched with her steely cold lavender eyes. A classic scowl on her otherwise majestic face alongside her usual purple lipstick. White gloves, short white cape behind her shoulders with a dark interior, and heeled boots. She hadn't changed one bit alongside Euphemia.

SCALE 1 WHITE DOVE

SCALE 8 WARRING VICEROY

Zero pushed forwards and did his own chant towards Pendulum Summoning. "With this I can summon monsters between Levels 2 and 7. Swing Pendulum! Grant me the blessings of a powerful Summoning Method! Appear to the battlefield, my monsters!" A portal opened up between the two Pendulum monsters and four mechanical monsters graced the field with their deadly grace. "Black Knight Glasgows, Black Knight Burai, and the tuner monster Raikou!"

BLACK KNIGHT GLASGOW LV.4 ATK:1200 DEF:900

BLACK KNIGHT GLASGOW LV.4 ATK:1200 DEF:900

BLACK KNIGHT BURAI LV.3 ATK: 900 DEF: 800

TUNER RAIKOU LV.3. ATK:600 DEF:400

The crowd cried out in shock at this development. Melissa Claire herself nearly jumped up and down at this fantastic development in her excitement. "Look at this here folks! Zero has managed to summon not one, not two, not even three, but four monsters all at once! With the use of Pendulum Summoning no less! It's just like the duel that I scooped out at Central Park where two monsters were summoned at once. But this is double that amount!" The commentator of the Friendship Cup exhibition match spun around in place to expel some energy. "This Pendulum Summon is too impressive!"

"Let's speed this along with a couple more summons, shall we?" Zero asked rhetorically before gesturing towards one of his Glasgows. "I activate one of my Black Knight Glasgow's effects! I can Special Summon another Glasgow onto the field from either my Deck or hand, and I choose to take one from my Deck. Join the field alongside your allies!" With that, a fifth and final machine rose up to fill up Zero's field.

BLACK KNIGHT GLASGOW LV.4 ATK:1200 DEF:900

"Now I activate the Pendulum Effect from my Scale 1 White Dove. Once per turn, I can draw cards equal to the amount of monsters on my field. Since my field is full that means I can draw five cards!" The crowd screamed out in exclamation at how quickly the revolutionary refilled his hands with cards. It was frightening, inhuman.

"Next, I choose to activate the effect from my Raikou." A black gloved hand gestured out towards his tuner monster. "I can lower the Level of one of my monsters between one and three." Zero pointed towards the recently summoned Glasgow. "I choose to lower one of my Glasgow's Levels to two."

BLACK KNIGHT GLASGOW LV.4 = LV.2

"Now then, I tune my Level 3 tuner Raikou with my Level 2 Black Knight Glasgow and another Level 4 Black Knight Glasgow." The three mentioned monsters all jumped up into the air to turn into bright blue stars and green rings. A bright yellow light burst out of the Synchro Summon to race up into the night sky like a cannon of plasma energy had been fired. "From the oppression you have been forced to settle with leeching life away from your people and country. Rise up! Join my side and lend me your aid for not only the sake of your country and people, but for those you truly cherish and wish to protect!" The masked man clenched one black gloved hand into a fist and threw it out to the right. "I Synchro Summon! Come forth! Knightmare Frame Shenhu!"

The knightmare frame was mainly blue in design with some red highlights. A big green orb was embedded in the machine's chest, and four points stuck out from its back around its cockpit and glowed pink at the tips to signify a floatation device. A yellow and orange mask covered the area where its face was, and the knightmare snapped two long deadly yellow metallic whips attached at its wrists down onto the ground that left gouges in the rapidly moving pavement.

KNIGHTMARE FRAME SHENHU LV.9 ATK:3400 DEF:3000

"Holy cow! Look at that!" Claire hollered out alongside everyone else's shock. No one, not even the Lancers has seen a monster like that before. "Not only has Zero performed a very high leveled Synchro Summon on his first turn from a Pendulum Summon, but he did it using some strange brand of monsters I've never seen before. Just what else does this masked man have underneath his cape?!"

Jack narrowed his eyes towards the high leveled Synchro monster in silent scrutiny.

"I'm not done yet." Zero stated resoundly. "I activate my Black Knight Burai's effect to summon another Burai from my hand onto the field." Like in a mechanical apocalypse, another similar knightmare frame rose up to fight for its masked master.

BLACK KNIGHT BURAI LV.3 ATK: 900 DEF: 800

"Now, I'll activate the Spell Geass: Memory Replacement. This allows me to lower or raise any of my monsters Level by one or two, and I choose to lower my remaining Black Knight Glasgow's Level down by one. Making it Level 3."

BLACK KNIGHT GLASGOW LV.4 = LV.3

"With my Level 3 monsters I choose to build the Overlay Network!" All three monsters raised up their weapons towards the night air before they became beams of light and swirled down into the golden vortex that had appeared in the ground before the masked revolutionary. "Whether you want to or not is not a choice. You will come forth and aid your newfound master in his battle for conquest!" Zero threw an arm out to the ground this time as another new machine made its debut on the battlefield. "I Xyz Summon! Come to me now! Rank 3 Knightmare Frame Gareth!"

The new Xyz frame flew up into the air with its own flotation device and jerked to the side for a moment almost as if it was possessed before coming to a halt beside the Shenu. This new knightmare was mainly black steel with light grey joints and golden accents around the backs of its legs, shoulders, and head where two appendages stuck out into the air. The machine had arms, but no hands visible alongside red eyes and orange lines around its wrist and feet. Floating around its body were three blood red orbitals.

KNIGHTMARE FRAME GARETH RNK.3 ORB.3 ATK:2000 DEF:1000

"You wanted my best." Zero stated roughly. His frame hunched forward and his half cape rising to make it look as though he were a demon racing after Jack's soul. The urge to raze and tear into the king's flesh and life being mistaken by his dark eerie aura for the audience. "Demanded that I show you just exactly what I can do. Well then, I'll gladly show you!" The masked man turned his head to glare up at his other Pendulum Zone monster. "I activate the Pendulum Effect of Warring Viceroy! At the cost of 1000 Life Points I can break my Pendulum and use the monsters in each Pendulum Zone to perform a Fusion Summon!"

The humanoid monster resembling Cornelia unsheathed a long barrelled gun from its scabbard. The bottom end of the long barrel was sharpened and made the weapon look like a half sword half gun. Though it's design was certainly weird, it was effective in battle and in its purpose.

That purpose being to bring harm to those on the other end of its barrel, which turned out to be Zero himself. The Cornelia lookalike gave a sinister near maniacally gleeful grin as the weapon gave a loud bang. A bullet of pure light erupted from the gun and nailed itself directly into Zero's back right between his shoulder blades.

Zero arched up at the fierce burning sensation that exploded across his back due to his monster's own effects, but didn't make a single peep of pain. Everyone he could catch a blurry glimpse of in the crowd looked shocked at Zero causing himself pain and losing his own Life Points. Even Atlas looked a tad unsettled by the action as if he knew something was inherently wrong going on, but he just couldn't see or understand what it was. Couldn't understand just how badly the real Cornelia of his world wanted to cause him such pain with her own bare hands.

ZERO LP- 4000 = 3000

Zero grit his teeth and pushed through the pain just like he always has. Dichromatic eyes glaring into his current enemy that needed to be toppled down and defeated no matter what. Meanwhile, the Pendulum monster that looked like Cornelia gave a loud proud cackle at Zero's obvious pain. A look of prideful satisfaction on her face before she vanished into yellow particles alongside White Dove who had tears running down her cheeks as she stared at Zero before vanishing as well. The two monsters now turned into yellow particles combining together to create another monster from another Summoning Method. The light forming behind Zero casting him into dark shadows.

"You with your untroubled and carefree nature. Join the battlefield here and now and cut down my enemies with your refined talents befitting a member of Britannia's Knight of the Round!" Zero extended one gloved hand to the left, and made the motion of crushing a wine glass in his left hand. "I Fusion Summon!" Out of the light, what looked like a jet came speeding out and high into the festive night air. It's colors mainly being blue, yellow, white, and with a tiny hint of red. "Come forth! Level 7! Knightmare Frame Tristan!"

At the mention of its name the jet sped down to the Earth and nearly crashed itself, but managed to pull up in just the nick of time to come speeding behind the masked man. Then suddenly, like out of a Transformer's movie the jet began to change and transform into something different. Mechanical parts humming loudly and tinkering as they clicked and snapped into place. The form of the jet quickly changed into that of another knightmare frame in mid air. This machine was also equipped with a flotation device to help it stay in the air. It's front chest piece was protected by what was once the head of the jet and was painted blue and yellow. It's arms were painted white with blue armor on its forearms while its legs were blue and yellow. Two long yellow appendages jutted out from either side of the knightmare's head, and it's face was a blank white mask except for two piercing glowing red eyes. In the machine's hands was a single double-edged scythe with its handle being yellow and the two wickedly sharp blades being red.

KNIGHTMARE FRAME TRISTAN LV.7 ATK:2500 DEF:2000

All together, the three knightmares moved forward to surround their masked master. The Shenhu being on the right, the Tristan on the left, and the Gareth behind Zero's D-Wheel and in between the other two.

At this rate, the crowd was practically losing their minds and ripping their own vocal cords out at how crazily loud they were cheering.

"This- This is unprecedented! I can't believe what I'm seeing!" Melissa Claire made a show of rubbing her eyes really hard and blinking them rapidly before leaning in closer to look at the battle occurring below. "Zero has not only performed a Pendulum and Synchro Summon, but he also knows how to do two more Summoning Methods called Xyz and Fusion! I just- Is there anything this masked stranger can't do? What will our king do about this drastic situation?!" The crowd grew worried for their king, and began to cry out their undying support to Jack to help spur him on and fight back. "It's quite clear that Jack Atlas is in a bit of a pickle. How will he pull through?"

"If you can pull through this that is." Zero remarked darkly. A near arrogant aura replacing that dark one before the masked man barely reined it in. He didn't need a repeat of Cornelia and Saitama, yet he just couldn't help it sometimes. "If you can make it through this gauntlet I've set up for you, then I'll certainly be impressed. Your skills and place as king of this City would be solidified in my eyes." One blacked gloved hand reached up to cover part of Zero's mask where his mouth would be as if he was trying to hide a grin or chuckle no one could see or hear anyway. "You'd make a very fine Lancer."

"We'll see about that." Jack challenged. "Once during my opponent's turn, when there are two or more monsters with Attack higher than Red Wyvern's itself, the monster with the highest Attack is destroyed." Atlas turned his D-Wheel to the side, creating a shower of sparks as he went. One arm outstretched to gesture towards Zero's monster. "I destroy Knightmare Frame Shenhu!"

"Oh? You think so, hm?" Zero drawled out as Red Wyvern unleashed a fierce burning red flame towards his strongest monster. "I'm afraid I can't allow that, and I'll just have to put a stop to it right here and now." Idly, Zero flicked one finger back towards his Xyz monster. "I activate Knightmare Frame Gareth's effect. By discarding one orbital my Gareth can negate your monster's effects for the remainder of this turn." That finger pointing to Zero's Gareth now turned to Atlas' Synchro monster. "Go. Restrain."

KNIGHTMARE FRAME GARETH ORB.3 = 2

The Xyz machine raised one of its handless arms, which snapped open to reveal the end of a cannon charging up with unstable volatile red energy. That energy was unleashed with a loud boom and fought with Red Wyvern's flames. A loud sizzling sound filled the air and everyone's ears with crackles and pops that ringed along with it to the side. Eventually, Gareth's dark red energy pushed back Red Wyvern's flames enough to make it backfire and hit Jack's Synchro monster right in the face. The Synchro monster reeled back with a loud cry of pain, and quickly backed off to return to its master's side. With the threat negated, the cannon stopped firing its beam and retreated into the knightmare's arm with a resounding snap and click.

A dark chuckle echoed out past Zero's modulator and rose quickly in volume. It soon devolved in a loud cackle of laughter that was almost similar to the one Warring Viceroy gave to Zero before being destroyed. "I'll lose in three turns you say?" Zero chuckled. The crowd grew fearful for Jack and his chances of winning. "Maybe I should end it right here and now then. I certainly have a lot riding on this duel." Knowing that the D-Wheels were on auto pilot, Zero brazenly took both of his hands off of the steering handles and placed them flatly behind him to lean back. "Though, that would be rather boring. A dull ending that no one wants in this damn dog and pony show I've been dragged into and could care less about. The Council certainly wouldn't be happy that I end it so quickly, but pulling back would just be a kick to your pride which I don't mean to offend." Not that I truly give a damn to what those five fossils think.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Jack barked back with no falter in his voice. The king of the City only slowed down just a tad so that he could be heard. "Bring it on and just try to defeat me with this pathetic so called 'gauntlet' you have presented before me. Come forth and give the king of this City your challenge!"

A dangerous grin split across Zero's masked face as he hissed back in dark pleasure. "As you wish, Atlas." He liked Atlas. Certainly a much better person he could stand than Akaba. "Perhaps you should take this tidbit of advice and speed up to get looking for Action Cards."

"This is a pinch! A huge pinch!" Melissa cried out worryingly. The commentator's knuckles turning white at how hard she was holding onto her mic. "It can't be. Will Jack lose?" The possibility of it even happening was ridiculous in and of itself to her, but yet it seemed to be happening right before her and everyone else's eyes. "King!"

"Battle!" Zero yelled. Marching onwards unperturbed despite the crowd's cries. He had a goal that needed to be reached, and he was going to reach it no matter how everyone else felt. "I attack Atlas' Red Wyvern with my Knightmare Frame Shenhu! Heavenly Charged Particle Cannon!"

With fast agility befitting a humanoid monster more than a machine the Shenhu leaped forward. Red Wyvern took to the air to try and get away by flying up high into the night sky, but that had unknowingly made it an easier target to destroy.

The knightmare adjusted itself so that it's front was directed towards Red Wyvern, and it's chest cavity holding the green metal expanded. Bright yellow energy sparked wildly from around the machine, before an enormous blast erupted for the machine and straight into and through Red Wyvern. Pure raw energy in the colors of yellow and orange instantly turned everything it touched to ash, and even cut straight through an exploding firework that was past Red Wyvern. The reptilian Synchro monster gave a shrill shriek of agonizing pain before it promptly exploded into bright red flames and black smoke. Jack's D-Wheel spinning out wildly as he took damage and his Life Points dropped.

JACK ATLAS LP- 4000 = 3400

Finally, Zero sped past Atlas and continued forwards in the lead. The two knightmares still beside Zero turned around to face their enemy while the Shenhu's chest cavity snapped back into place and rejoined the others.

"ATLAS!" The crowd screamed out for their king. Jack himself had quickly righted his D-Wheel, and sped forward to try and gain the ground he had lost. The fangirls especially were losing their sanity at their object of affection's predicament.

"Let's move on then." Zero threw an arm out back towards Atlas as he hollered. "I attack you directly with my Knightmare Frame Tristan. MVS Scythe Slash!"

Quickly, with reflexes befitting a seventh nearing eighth generation knightmare the frame instantly snapped forward. Expertly twirling its double-edged scythe around like a baton before swinging it around to slash the air just in front of Jack and his D-Wheel. Harsh gusts of wind continued to push the king of the City back much to the crowd's distress, and Atlas once more lost precious Life Points.

JACK ATLAS LP- 3400 = 900

Despite the ground he had just lost, Jack Atlas stubbornly pushed forward on his D-Wheel until he was finally side to side with Zero. The Shenhu was heading to block Atlas off from the masked man, but backed down with a wave of Zero's black gloved hand.

The two just silently stared at each other despite the crowd's deafening noise level. Each person reassessing the other.

"It seems I may have taken you for granted." Atlas scoffed. "Although, any true fighter would instantly think to underestimate a man who fights wearing a mask. Thinking that you were too weak and cowardly to show your face in your shame."

"A lot of people tend to underestimate me because of that." One hand deftly glided across the left side of Zero's face as he spoke bluntly. "It usually ends with them dead."

Violet eyes belonging to Atlas darkened. "I now see you for who you are with this duel though. This fight."

A masked eyebrow rose in curiosity. "And what would that be? Certainly not a jester I hope."

Jack let out a single bark of laughter, but that was it. That statement wasn't even that amusing in the first place. "No. I see you as nothing less than a king. Just like me. It's about time someone with some skill other than myself showed up."

Zero grinned darkly. His words nearly sounded like a low toned growl due to his modulator. "There are two kings in chess, you know." He stated factually. "I am the black king while you are the white king." Dichromatic eyes narrowed and that grin dropped. "Though, from the way you are hardly fighting back perhaps I should consider myself as something greater than just a king."

Atlas' violet eyes also narrowed. "We'll see. Know that no matter how this duel turns out you have managed to entertain not only me and this crowd, but you have also gained my respect. Now then, let's finish this duel already. It's going too slow for my taste." The Synchro citizen sped forward and left Zero to ride in the back once more after finishing those words.

"That's what I've been waiting for all day." Zero griped. With a simple attack gesture, Knightmare Frame Gareth was moving forward to battle. "I attack you directly with Knightmare Frame Gareth, and therefore end this duel! Checkmate!" A single finger pointed to Atlas' quickly shrinking frame as he sped up faster on his D-Wheel. Pulling the throttle to max. "Target and Destroy."

In quick jerky movements and pulls that looked more like a doll on strings than a machine the Gareth prepared to fire its cannon once more. The crowd screamed as the hellish energy beam was fired. "ATLAS!"

Jack himself quickly leaned down to grab a hold of something on the road before the attack hit and sent up a ton of smoke. The stadium was sent into shocked silence. No one daring to make a peep and be the ones to break it.

It was just unbelievable. Inconceivable to them.

Jack Atlas had lost?

Yet, just as all hope had been lost, Jack Atlas rode out of the smoke unharmed. Zero just a few measly feet behind him as both left the cloud of smoke to slowly disperse behind them. As the crowd screamed and cheered with relief and others sighed with tears of joy in their eyes Zero's masked dichromatic eyes widened in surprise.

The reason for Atlas' survival was soon made clear. "I activated the Action Spell Underworld Avoid, and Special Summoned an Underworld Avoid Token." A monster that looked like a demented metal donut that was mainly blue appeared behind Jack's D-Wheel in Defense Mode. The blue metallic metal was spiked and jagged with a purple metal ring on the bottom and an orange skull and purple demonic horns on the top. "Once per turn, Underworld Avoid Token can negate an attack. With this, Knightmare Frame Gareth's attack has been negated!"

UNDERWORLD AVOID TOKEN LV.1 ATK:0 DEF:0

The crowd yelled at Atlas' turn around.

"Awesome!"

"Great job Atlas!"

"As always you manage to pull through!"

"He's already mastered Action Cards, and he didn't even need a demonstration to understand how to use it!" Melissa Claire cried out happily. The reporter wiping a bead of sweat off of her forehead with a sigh of relief. "That just goes to show how skilled our king is at dueling."

"I did give the suggestion to use Action Cards, so I suppose the reason for your continued survival in this duel is my fault." Zero hummed before idly shrugging. "But that won't save you unless that face down you're still keeping has some use." Zero's blank mask turned to his Synchro monster once more. "I activate Shenhu's effect. When he has successfully destroyed one of my opponents monsters in battle he can destroy another one. If that monster is in Defense Mode then piercing damage is dealt. Electric Slash Harken Whiplash!"

The dagger-like whip slash harkens on the Shenhu's wrists extended and sparked to life with electricity. The long yellow whips began to turn and gain speed before whipping round and around the knightmare's wrists until they were nothing but yellow blurs. Finally, the Shenhu turned its burning gaze to the weak Underworld Token before charging in with the intent to destroy.

"Not quite!" Jack yelled, and in a display that caught Zero off guard the City's king quickly turned his D-Wheel around until he was driving backwards. "I activate the Trap Card Reject Reborn!" A bright searing light that even Zero winced at erupted from the facedown card causing the Shenhu to halt its advance and back away. "I negate the opponent's attack and end the Battle Phase." Suddenly though, the token on Jack's field met an unexpected fiery demise. "All of the monsters on my field are destroyed, and I can Special Summon monsters from my Graveyard equal to the number of negated attacks this turn." Jack explained.

Zero narrowed his eyes. "Well damn." He stated.

"My attacks were negated twice!" Atlas continued, and two familiar looking monsters returned to the king's side. "Revive! Red Wyvern! Red Resonator!"

RED WYVERN LV.6 ATK:2400 DEF:2000

RED RESONATOR LV.2 ATK:600 DEF:200

Dichromatic eyes glared at the much smaller and weaker tuner monster. That wasn't good. "When Red Resonator is Special Summoned, I regain Life Points equal to the Attack of one Synchro monster on the field. Therefore, I gain Life Points equal to Red Wyvern's 2400 attack!"

JACK ATLAS LP- 900 = 3300

Zero's hissed curses were forever lost on the wind. Perhaps he shouldn't have made talk with Atlas, because now his arrogance and mockery were costing him the battle once again. Just as he had tried to stop and rein it in earlier on in the duel. Just like with Saitama. Just like with telling Atlas about trying to use Action Cards.

"Awesome! As expected for our king's turnaround!" Claire cheered exuberantly. "Not only did he avoid the attacks, but he also revived two monsters and regained his Life Points to boot!" The female threw an arm into the air and yelled. "That's Jack for you! Our Jack! The ruler of rulers, king of kings!"

"JACK! JACK! JACK! JACK!"

"ATLAS! ATLAS! ATLAS! ATLAS!"

Dammit, it's happening again! Zero snarled. He really needed to stop screwing himself over and lose the high and mighty hubris-like confidence. Yet the dead dog of an attitude just won't die!

"Alright then, I guess this duel will have to be prolonged just a bit longer." Zero spoke. A dark rumble wanting to be emitted from his throat but was callously held back. The revolutionary reorganized his hand for a moment before stopping over two cards in particular. After taking a moment to lightly brush the top of the first card in indecision Zero sighed. "I place one card facedown and end my turn."

"Alright then, let's finish this. My turn!" Atlas yelled and drew a card before taking action. "I tune my Level 6 Red Wyvern with my Level 2 Red Resonator!" The familiar cackle and high pitched scream of Red Resonator echoed out through the stadium as the two mentioned monsters turned into bright blue stars and green rings. "Howl of the king! Now, strike the heavens and the Earth. Engrave the power of the one and only supreme ruler into yourself!" Through the bright beam of light that followed red and orange flames grew from within and expanded outwards at a rapidly increasing pace. "I Synchro Summon!" Out of the energy and flames a stronger Synchro beast spread its wings and flew into the night air. "Savage soul! Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend!"

The demonic dragon spun around once in the air, before completely expanding its wings to steady itself to fly above and just behind Atlas and his speeding D-Wheel. The dragon had glowing orange eyes along with dark maroon red and bright orange scales. The dragon's chest was plated with lighter yet stronger red armor and the bones of its wings, claws, and spikes all the way to its long tail were a dark ashy black. The certainly fierce beast had ram-like horns sticking out of the sides of its head while the right one was broken off near the end. There was a huge bony armor like gauntlet on the dragon's right forearm. With every beat of its wings, crackling embers would fleck off of the monster and up drifting into the air to die off.

SCARLIGHT RED DRAGON ARCHFIEND LV.8 ATK:3000 DEF:2500

The creature's deadly strong and intimidating looks wasn't what had Zero's mind screeching to a halt. Seeing how the tables had suddenly turned on him didn't make his frame scarcely shake; that could be written off as riding his D-Wheel. It was the realization that he had seen this dragon before that had his masked dichromatic eyes shrinking in alarmed horror.

This dragon was the one he had seen in his dream. The vivid nightmare that he couldn't escape from.

This dragon that had caused him defeat in this exact duel. How in a horrible twist of fate it got him killed right after with a piece of scrap metal getting lodged into his skull.

His nightmare was becoming reality.

"Once per turn, Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend destroys all Special Summoned monsters with Attack equal to or lower than itself! For each one, my opponent is dealt 500 points of damage!" The gauntlet on Archfiend's right arm glowed a near black red as the entire arm quickly erupted into flames that did no harm to the monster itself. The orange scales on its body becoming lit with flames as well. "Absolute Power Flame!"

"I activate Knightmare Frame Gareth's effect!-" Zero started speaking, but was cut off when Atlas interjected.

"Not quite!" Atlas sped forward and veered his D-Wheel just right so that he could grab an Action Card and use it. "I activate the Action Card Dismissal! For the rest of your turn your Gareth's monster effects have been negated." The crowd went wild and boomed its approval of Jack blocking Zero's move.

The dragon punched the air just above the ground, and sent out a huge wave of flames back towards Zero and his monsters. While the Shenhu was quick enough to act and protect not only itself but Zero by rapidly spinning its whip-like slash harkens like shields, the Tristan and Gareth weren't so lucky. While the Gareth quickly started twitching and spazzing out before exploding like a possessed ghoul the Tristan tried to fight back, but was overcome by Archfiend's power and too destroyed.

Zero grit his teeth and bared the fierce heat and pain that came with losing Life Points with dichromatic eyes squinting through it all. Occasional embers flicking up into the air only to get blown away by the fast pace of the D-Wheels.

ZERO LP- 3000 - 2000

As the crowd roared in excitement Zero growled so lowly in his throat it practically matched the rumble of his D-Wheel's engine. I've never seen that dragon before in my life, so how is it that I managed to concoct its exact image in my dream? How is it I know what that dragon is and what it can do. Clearly, the masked man was more unsettled with his nightmare than the duel occurring before him.

"Next I play the Quick Play Spell Burning Wildfire." Atlas continued speaking and managed to regain Zero's undivided attention. "If two or more monsters on my opponent's side of the field have been destroyed then I can activate this card and destroy a third monster." The fire and chaos that erupted from Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend's attack suddenly coiled up into the air like a living creature. That burning orange fire quickly lunged back and straight towards Zero's only remaining monster Shenhu.

Seeing its inevitable demise, the Shenhu made a bold move to help its master before its destruction. The knightmare frame slowed down just enough so that it was behind Zero's D-Wheel, and then gave it a huge push forward through the use of its whip like slash harkens. The big boost of force and speed had Zero launching past a surprised Atlas like a bullet as the knightmare itself was engulfed in molten flames and destroyed.

"Dammit." Zero swore. Just like that, all of my monsters. Destroyed. Dichromatic eyes looked at the road ahead of him for an Action Card, but finding none close by he instead looked down towards his hand. Finally, those eyes landed on the set card he placed before ending his turn.

It was his only chance. Hopefully he didn't screw it up.

"And now, I attack directly with Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend! This duel is finished! Fiery Crimson Hell Blast!" Archfiend reared back and took a huge breath, fire spewing past its maw before it unleashed its burning flamethrower right towards Zero himself and his underprotected field. "Bow before the true king!"

You are nothing.

"The true king? I don't think so." Zero stated through the cacophony of noise coming from the crowd, the commentator, and Scarlight Archfiend. A savage grin spread across his masked face as the Zero pointed a black gloved hand out in front of him. "I activate my Trap card Ritual Prep!"

"Ritual?" Atlas questioned with a quirked eyebrow. He's never heard of a card like that in his life. Then again, he's never heard of Pendulum, Xyz, or Fusion Summoning until now either. The rest of the audience was bemoaning the fact that Zero hadn't lost yet.

"Any incoming damage from a direct attack is negated." Zero started to explain. A huge burst of dark gusts of wind flew out from the card and forced Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend back behind Atlas. The dragon unleashing a roar of fury at not unleashing its promised destruction. "Then, I pick a Ritual Spell card from my Deck and have to play it." Masked dichromatic eyes narrowed as a card ejected itself from his Deck and he plucked it with gloved fingers. "I choose the Ritual Spell Bygone Ritual."

With that, Zero wordlessly slammed the card down onto his duel disk with a little more force than necessary. As soon as the card was activated the Ritual Prep trap exploded into a dark mist that went to the Graveyard, but not before striking all of the spotlights in the stadium and making the area go dark with a loud bang as if a gun had been fired. The crowd cried out in startled surprise as the area went into pitch black darkness. A few people were smart and brought out their phones or flashlights while others used glow sticks and such that were bought from the vendors outside of the stadium.

"W-What's this?!" Melissa too was shocked by this sudden predicament. Her eyes looking around at the darkened stadium before her. "What's going on here?!"

Otherwise, no one could see anything. It was hard enough for people to see their hands in front of their own face, much less the duel and its occupants. The only indication that the duel was still going on was the whirring sound of D-Wheels and their engines as they sped by. Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend had enough of being in the dark, and quickly lit itself aflame to provide much needed light not only for its master, but for everyone else in the stadium.

Then a few people in the crowd screamed in terror. A good few belonging to Atlas' fan club.

There was something there. Something in the dark.

No one could get a good enough look at its features, but there were at least some details that could be taken in. One of the most prominent being the outline of pure darkness that surrounded the monster's frame. Almost like the void of black was eating the darkness around it in a cannibalistic display. The second being that this monster belonging to Zero was very, very thin. So much so that many people doubted this monster was like his other knightmare frames. The last thing anyone could note was two small red symbols of a bird in flight glowing brightly from the darkness at everyone and everything. Even those behind the monster could see those strange red symbols glow clearly.

Throughout it all, Zero said nothing. No chant before its summon, no name to yell, nothing. It was alarming to see from the usually charismatic revolutionary. Who always had a gesture to give or a word to say in any and all situations. The only way anyone could tell what this thing's name was was through the screens showing each duelist's field.

SWORD OF AKASHA LV.10 ATK:3500 DEF:2000

"Where did that monster come from!" Jack demanded. The king displayed his true bravery by not making a single stutter or show of fear in his voice or expression. Though he was certainly alarmed and confused by the monster's sudden appearance.

"By playing the Bygone Ritual I am able to perform a Ritual Summon by Banishing two Code Trap cards and a Geass Spell card in my hand from play." Zero explained in a subdued tone. The hair's on the backs of everyone's necks raised at the sight of this new monster.

That thing wasn't a duel monster. It was something else entirely.

"Ritual Summon? So there's a fifth Summoning Method as well?!" Jack was clearly tired of getting caught off guard by these new Summoning Methods being brought into the game.

"Your turn is over." Zero stated darkly. "You have no monsters left that can attack, so either place a card down or end your turn."

Atlas' violet eyes peeled themselves away from the monster hiding in the shadows to look at the back of Zero's form. Only a few flickers of orange could expose his wildly flapping half cape, but everything else remained hidden in the darkness. An uneasy air formed around the king of the City as he looked at his hand for a moment to strategize. "Very well then, I end my turn."

"Dear me!" Melissa commentated as was her job. Though even she didn't feel like saying anything. She knew something was wrong here just like everyone else. "I- I can't believe my eyes. Zero has managed to not only break our king's prediction of him losing in three turns, but he's actually managed to survive and summon some unknown monster I've never seen before." She gave a half hearted chuckle that was clearly strained. "Even though I still can't really see it now. He he…" Her fake laughter died off and the entire stadium quieted down to hear Zero begin his turn.

It was certainly unnerving. The stark silence in this near pitch black stadium instead of the bright and loud atmosphere befitting the exhibition match of the Friendship Cup.

Another moment of silence. Then Zero finally spoke. "My turn. I draw." He spoke so calmly it sounded like he had turned into a robot due to his modulator.

Again, more silence.

"Let's finish this." Zero growled through his teeth. A snap of someone's fingers- most certainly Zero's -and the lights in the stadium suddenly returned, blinding everyone. The crowd barked out as one at the light suddenly assaulting their eyes and had to turn away and blink to adjust to this change. When everyone looked back they could finally see Zero's new monster in all of its disgustingly horrifying glory.

There was no armor on it, merely its rusted dull grey exoskeleton. The upper and lower half of its body was separated. The machine's legs were abruptly chopped off at the knees with only a few strands of torn metal and hanging cut wires dangling from its place. There was a pitch black void linking the two rusted mechanical pieces together. Occasional dots of white would blur by that void in the place where its chest cavity would be, but they would be gone in the next second. The two glowing symbols everyone had seen in the dark turned out to be two strange orbs. They orbited and revolved around the nightmare's head. They were mostly a sparkling dark violet, but in the very center of those orbs were those two brightly glowing blood red symbols of a bird in flight. The knightmare's head itself was a dull grey that was rusted around the edges. It's face eerily blank except for the two blank holes that acted as eyes that were the color of death's void. Four rusted metallic arms rotated in mid air without any support. An occasional broken sparking wire stuck out from the clearly supposed to be scrapped knightmare before them.

"Dear lord!" All in all, it looked like an abomination everyone wished they could unsee. As shown by Melissa's sudden outburst. The cow girl reporter leaned back as far away as she could from the thing even though it was already so far away from her. "What IS that thing?!" The crowd had a much similar reaction.

Yet, that wasn't all.

It wasn't the only thing that had been hiding in the dark. The only beast. Though it certainly was the only duel monster on Zero's field there was another monster there as well.

Practically sitting on the front wheel of Zero's D-Wheel was a shadow. It was small and lanky, around the size of a human and just half a head taller than Zero himself. It merely sat there on the front of the D-Wheel that did not belong to it eerily silent and still. Heedlessly blocking the masked man's view forward.

Two blood red eyes with that similar symbol of a bird in flight stared Zero down. A void like maw stretched out into a maliciously crazed grin as it did so. Five big shadowed bangs hung in front of its face but didn't block those blood red eyes. A pair of blacked out headphones resting on its neck alongside thick one way shades. Dark shadows flapping in the wind mockingly.

Zero stared back. Not doing or saying anything about the eldritch obstruction in his path.

He knew who this person, this apparition was. Seen them from his nightmare as well merely hours prior. He also knew that giving them any hint of attention would only make the situation worse.

Therefore, Zero merely straightened in his seat and turned around to face his Ritual monster which had finally made its first appearance. The apparition blinked and reeled back in shock at Zero blatantly ignoring them. "I activate Sword of Akasha's effect." Atlas seemed to realize the moment Zero turned his gaze from his monster to him directly, because he was looking back with a calculating gaze. "Every four turns I can Banish the strongest monster on my opponent's side of the field." The crowd yelled out in exclamation at that sudden tidbit of information. "Since there is only one monster on your field your Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend is now Banished from this game." The shadow like apparition still sitting on the front of Zero's D-Wheel clapped its hands together and made a mockery of silently laughing. "Go." One black gloved finger pointed out towards the endangered Synchro monster. "Dimensional Banishment."

Almost like magic, the monster Sword of Akasha was suddenly in front of Atlas' Synchro monster before he could do anything to try and stop this from happening.

Akasha grabbed a firm hold of Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend and pinned it's wings and arms to its sides with one pair of arms while the second pair took hold of its legs and tail. The void-like cavity on its chest grew quickly and expanded widely until it nearly enveloped the dragon. The sudden picture of the planet Jupiter slowly revolving revealed itself alongside those blinking white lights that turned out to be stars. At the sight, the Synchro dragon stopped struggling and merely went slack as it stared into the depths of Akasha's void.

The orbs around the Ritual monster's head suddenly began to glow a bright red while liquid rust dripped down its void-like sockets in a demented mockery of tears. Scarlight Archfiend continued to stare towards the seemingly peaceful planet of Jupiter, before suddenly stiffening in place and roaring and shrieking bloody murder. The monster tried to thrash away and escape with all of its strength in its clear terror, but merely remained in place by the Ritual monster's strong claws. A round void-like mouth suddenly tore itself free of the metal and the creature gave off a horrid metallic screeching sound that came from its joints in replacement of a scream that had everyone covering their ears and crying out in fearful pain.

The ritual monster then proceeded to eat Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend. Much to everyone's horror.

The Ritual monster forcefully pushing the dragon through the void-like cavity in its chest before closing it behind the struggling screaming Synchro monster. No yellow particles appeared from where Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend was to signify its destruction, but it was clear that the Synchro monster was gone.

No one had any time to say anything before the Sword of Akasha snapped its head to stare down Jack Atlas. It's four arms rotating as that chest like cavity began opening up again, but this time with the intent on targeting Atlas. The king's eyes widened at the sight and realization he was in actual mortal danger not no one else thankfully could comprehend. Not in the crowd anyway.

"That's enough." The modulated voice of Zero ground out, and the Ritual monster came to a screeching halt. That void-like mouth was gone, but the head of the knightmare did a completely 180 to stare down at its master. The joints and metal within snapping and tearing at the action its body did not follow through on. "That's too far." If anyone were insane enough people would have thought Zero was actually talking to the duel monster itself.

After a minute, the Ritual monster spun its head back around so it was facing the proper direction and floated there limply at attention. Waiting for Zero's order to attack.

With the duel monster settled, and still ignoring the shadow like apparition that was now frowning Zero looked to Jack directly. "Don't worry." The masked man said calmly. Though the situation was anything but calm like it was before at the beginning. "This is only the exhibition match, so while you will lose this duel you will not lose everything. Only your pride." Zero turned his D-Wheel to the side and threw an arm out in Jack's direction. "You'll still be the 'king' here in this City, but this is finally checkmate. I attack you directly with my Sword of Akasha." Finally, the masked revolutionary rose his voice above that of regular speech to yell. "Existence Erasure!"

The two glowing orbs revolving around the Ritual monster grew blinding bright. The symbols within remain visible somehow as two beams of bright white energy lashed out and right beside Atlas' D-Wheel on either side. It was only Jack's proficient experience and skill that prevented him from spinning out of control into a crash and becoming seriously injured. The Synchro citizen stayed steady and moving forward despite the incoming attack and the damage it did to the track on either side of him.

JACK ATLAS LP- 3400 = 0 LOSS

ZERO LP- 2000 WIN

Finally though, the automatic stop built within the D-Wheel activated and Jack Atlas, the king of the City, came to a screeching halt on the track. White smoke pouring up from the D-Wheel's engines at the strain it was put through in this duel. Zero himself came to a steady halt not long after out of breath from the fight. All of the day's events starting to catch up to the masked man once again in weary fatigue. Both kicking their kickstands on their rides so they didn't have to worry about them falling over.

With the duel over, Zero's Ritual monster burst into yellow particles and vanished much to quite literally everyone's relief. Jack got off of his D-Wheel with straight posture befitting royalty and took a deep breath. Eventually, violet eyes locked onto masked dichromatic ones. The king opened his mouth to say something, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by a rush of breath. Violet eyes widened in shock as they looked at something behind the masked man. Zero saw this, and narrowed his eyes before spinning around to face whatever it was Atlas was seeing that was behind him.

Despite the duel being over and all of the monsters gone that shadowy apparition was still there. Yet, instead of sitting at the very front of the D-Wheel as it was before it was now looming over Zero from right behind him. A snarl on the apparition's lips and those blood red eyes narrowed into a furious glare.

"...Well. Apparently you're not too happy with my victory." Zero stated as casually as possible. Almost as if he wasn't being threatened by an entity that clearly wasn't a duel monster.

If anything that comment only served to piss the shadow off more. The apparition leaning forward until Zero had to tip his head up to look the thing in the eye. Hands with tipped claws rising as if looking to throttle the masked revolutionary. The thing was screaming, hollering and yelling yet no words escaped past its lips. Not even a sound or peep of noise.

"Ah, you still can't speak I see." The masked man supplied through his one way verbal conversation. The apparition tried to strike him, but instead the thing's arms turned to mist and simply phased through Zero. "Even though you're already dead with a bullet through your neck. I expected it to have worn off once you had died."

The apparition went to say something no one would hear, but then it paused. Tilting its head to the side just a tad as if listening to someone whisper in its ear. A malevolent grin suddenly spread across the spirit's maw once more, and it leaned back with obvious mute laughter shaking its frame with arms wrapped around its supposed stomach. Finally, it calmed itself before pointing at Zero with a devious grin.

With a raised eyebrow, Zero mockingly turned to look back at Atlas. The revolutionary did a show of rolling his eyes. To which the latter found rather weird coming from a man in a mask before Zero turned back. "What do you want? If you're only here to bug me then just go ahead and leave back to wherever you came from. Obviously summoning my Ritual monster somehow brought you here, and frankly the quicker you're gone the happier I and everyone else here will be." It was quite clear that Zero's Ritual monster Sword of Akasha somehow brought this deceased spirit here from the grave. "Yet since it's gone now you must not have much time left either. You'll vanish back to the void which you belong in eventually."

The figure merely giggled, frame shaking with the motion as they shook their head side to side wryly. Those red eyes opened up once again with an insane grin twitching on their lips.

Then, the apparition pointed to its own left eye. The demonic glow and red symbol burning brightly then leaned down with what towering height it had to tap that same finger onto the left side of Zero's mask. A knowing sneer on its face.

I know what you're hiding. You're like me now.

The words didn't need to be expressed for Zero to understand what it was saying. A burning rage was sent flying through his being. The masked man couldn't stop himself from slapping the corrupt appendage away. Though his arm phased through the shadow instead of hitting its mark. The figure reeled back in shock anyway, having not expected that, but it quickly regained its composure to mockingly clap its hands in that familiar way Zero oh so despised.

"Get lost." Zero snarled so viciously that it had some people in the crowd flinching back. Instead of doing as ordered the apparition merely made a throat cutting gesture, pointed to Zero and then its own left eye again before bursting out into hysterical laughter once more.

"What the hell is that thing?" Atlas nearly barked the question out. Zero snapping his gaze towards the blonde haired duelist who flicked a single long strand of hair aside to carefully eye the evil spirit before them. The Synchro user and king of the City having uneasily yet bravely stepped forward until he was beside the masked man. Violet eyes met masked ones. "You know this thing." It wasn't stated as a question because the answer was quite clear.

Zero pursed his lips behind his mask. "Unfortunately." He hissed through his modulator. "Very unfortunately actually. Although he's been dead now for a long time. He just can't get over the fact that I beat him at his own game even though he had all of the aces."

Atlas raised a single eyebrow at that before turning to look back at the apparition only to see it lunging straight at Zero with a silent snarl. "Shit!"

Zero looked back at the shadow to see it lunge at him. A fierce burning pain flaring up suddenly through his geass rampant left eye causing him to cry out. The apparition wrapped its clawed hands around Zero's neck in a mock show of strangling him, but they simply phased through his body. Another burning pain flared around Zero's neck and chest even though he wasn't being physically touched, and the sudden gust of wind that rushed through the stadium pushed him to the ground. The apparition silently howling and screaming at him with clearly psychopathic murderous intent.

"BE GONE!" Zero hollered as loud as he could, and finally that burning pain in his eye, neck, and chest simmered down to a dull numbing throb. The revolutionary swiping through the shadow's frame before it completely vanished. Those demonic red eyes filled with knowledge it could not share with anyone else due to its lack of voice.

Another moment passed in mere silence between the two duelists of the exhibition match. While the crowd was basically frothing at the mouth with chaos that Security had to quell lest a riot suddenly break out over the Commons. The loser of the match standing and looking down at the winner who was panting harshly and rubbing his sore neck gingerly. Confusion was clear in Jack's violet gaze, but at the moment he shook his head to quell any questions or thoughts that wanted to voice themselves and merely held out a helping hand towards the revolutionary.

The gesture actually managed to quell the stadium into silence. Zero looked up at the helping hand with a surprised yet distrusting gaze before looking straight into Atlas' own eyes. Obviously demanding an explanation.

"You are the winner despite everyone else's thoughts and objections. You have won on this day." A deep frown spread across Atlas' face. "Though there is nothing fun or great about losing. I shall accept it. For today you have shown your strength and proved yourself to be a king as of today. To all of us here in the City."

Finally after a moment of consideration, Zero took the offered hand with a firm grip and lifted himself off of the ground with some help. The masked man merely huffed an annoyed breath and wiped his suit off of any dust and dirt. "Oh please, I'm not the king here. It's obvious this City adores you and still sees you as its king. You have their respect and devotion." His mask tilted up to stare into violet. Jack being taller than Zero which was very annoying, because lately he was finding a lot of people that were taller than him and he himself was a good 5'10''. "This exhibition match was not official, so you still have your title. I will just merely be the black king while you are the white king. You sit in the spotlight while I stalk in the shadows. I lead my Lancers while you lead this City. Simple as that. Besides-" Zero turned to look up at the moon which was covered by clouds at this moment in time. Everyone in the stadium was beginning to head home now that the main attraction was over with and the start of the Friendship Cup just on the horizon. "We won't be here for long. I can assure you of that."

With that said and out of the way, Zero spun around and stalked back to his D-Wheel. Clearly stating that this conversation was over. Atlas watched the man go, before turning to return his own D-Wheel to its proper place and then head home. While that duel was thrilling and even unnerving at the end it was also tiring. A nice long night of sleep was a must in the king's opinion.

Zero meanwhile, was exhausted and almost dead on his feet. Servants and High Council guards getting snapped at for even making a peep or doing even a hint of something wrong or suspicious in Zero's paranoid eyes. Security especially practically got their head's metaphorically bitten off for even being in Zero's sight. Especially when a minor dispute started between a group of Security members and the High Council's own guards with the former being tasked with taking Zero in regardless of the fact that he had won the duel. As miraculous as that was even to himself.

It was also a miracle that Zero didn't kill or geass any of said Security in his current agitated and exhausted state.

He had won. Zero had ensured his Lancers and their allies' safety and the bet would be followed through if the Council knew what was good for them. Yet, it was clear that the ending of that duel had almost sparked out of control. His own Ritual monster clear in its intent on wanting to harm, possibly even kill Atlas while just barely being held back by the masked man himself. Then there was that apparition. While the thing couldn't speak since he had used his geass on them while they were alive it still managed to throw out information Zero didn't want anyone getting. Not even his Lancer allies. Throwing out a bone of information that lead to a dangerously dark secret and the main reason as to why he still wore this mask.

His Lancers will most certainly be questioning him about that thing. That spirit once he returned. Reiji himself will be curious. Having even more reason to be distrustful of Zero now than he was before.

Yes, today Zero had won, but in the end he had also lost.

YES! First of all. I did use a fan made OC card that was suggested from one of my readers. The lovely, marvelous FearTheSoviet themselves! All credit to the monster and the cards surrounding its summon goes to him and him alone. Round of applause for them! Not only that, but it's our first Ritual monster in the series. Hurray! :D

We got the Lancers gossiping about Zero again. Lol. Though those points are cause for concern certainly. Lelouch is just an unhappy boi with all of this. Like a grumpy cat being tired and through with everyone's shit... Lelouch has problems.

Is it weird that all of the good/strong characters usually have violet eyes? I mean come on, Lelouch, Reiji, and Jack all have violet eyes and they're naturally talented or strong. (Even if I made Lelouch a strong duelist for this story let's not forget he is a literal genius in cannon.) I really debated on if Lelouch should lose this duel or not, yet he had too much riding on that bet so I kinda screwed myself over but meh it's fine. In other ways he still lost. I would have been happy with either results.

Do tokens have stats like ATK and DEF? I'm not sure, but I'm pretty positive it would be Lv.1 with 0 ATK and DEF if so.

I feel like that ending with the apparition was unexpected and rather sudden huh? (If you guys don't know who he is supposed to be then I ain't tellin ya, but he's from the Code Geass universe that is canonical dead already.) He'll be back again eventually just like the second one.

As always, leave a REVIEW, Favorite, and Follow the story. I'll be seeing you all sometime in the future. Unfortunately, that might not be for a while, but until that day take care~! -MoonlightWright