Hours later, I was pacing around the main room. Justice was fixed, but my mind was refusing to shut down. I had tried everything that normally worked, and nothing was.

Red light filled the room as my arm felt like it was being ripped into shreds from the inside out. It took all of my concentration to keep from screaming at the top of my lungs. The mark was telling me that Luna, Aki, and Jack were alright, but that I was the one in danger.

I glanced outside, and saw a cloaked figure standing outside of the hideout. On their right arm lay the purple spider from the vision. Automatically, I grabbed my duel disk along with the foot deck before throwing on my shoes. I quietly slipped downstairs, grabbing my coat and gloves on the way.

As I emerged from the building, I saw the cloak vanish around the corner. I chased after them, and after ten minutes they stopped inside an abandoned parking lot, standing so that he faced me. Fury bubbled up inside of me, and my mouth moved before I could help myself, "What does your arm have to do with what's going to happen to Satellite!"

The creepy guy held up his glowing arm, "I am a shadow drone, and I am here to extinguish the light of your mark."

Dread filled my soul, "And how are you going to do that?"

A purple circle came out of nowhere, and completely surrounded us, "Question retracted."

My arm somehow burned even worse, and my empathy was sending me bad vibes from the purple flames. Before I even realised it, he drew a card from his duel disk, "I summon Blizzard Lizard in defense mode."

Blizzard Lizard-1800

I drew cards in shock, and couldn't believe the hand I had, "I use Tuning, which allows me to chose any tuner monster in my deck and put it in my hand, as long as I send one card to the graveyard for every level my monster has. I choose level 3 Junk Synchron."

Carefully picking which cards went away, I sent Speed Warrior, Healing Wave Generator and one of my spells to the graveyard, "I chose to move Junk Synchron to my hand, and I am going to summon him right away!"

Junk Synchron-1300

"And when I successfully summon him, I can bring back a monster that's level two or below from the graveyard in defense mode. Speed Warrior, join the field!"

Speed Warrior-600

"I tune the two of them together to Synchro summon Junk Warrior."

Junk Warrior-2300

Gesturing forward, I cried out, "Take out his Lizard!"

As my Warrior attacked, the Lizard's tail started spinning around and around in a circle. When it was destroyed, my opponent laughed, "Whenever a Blizzard Lizard is destroyed, you get 300 points of damage."

Life Points Yusei=3700

My muscles went stiff as my body froze, and when I finally could move, I was shaking, "I place two cards facedown and end my turn."

The ground seemed different, and as I examined it, I realised that there was a trench connecting my Warrior's place to where the Lizard had been. There was also a burn on the wall behind where the Lizard's former position, What the heck? I know I can't make attacks come to life. Is it something dealing with the circle?

Robotically, the 'drone' drew a card, and started his turn, "I activate Call of the Haunted, which brings back my Blizzard Lizard from the graveyard."

Blizzard Lizard-600

"Then I activate Ice Mirror, which allows me to select a Ice-type monster on my field and bring out another one from my deck."

Blizzard Lizard-600

He held up another one of the exact same card, "And I happen to have another Ice Mirror."

Blizzard Lizard-600

My mind raced, This is not going to turn out well for me. He's going to sacrifice those for something.

A cartoonish manic grin covered his face as he spoke again, "I sacrifice two of my Lizards to advance summon my Dark Tuner monster Catastrouge."

Catastrouge-0

What in the actual heck* is a Dark Tuner? And how does he have one?

"I tune the two of my monsters together!"

Chills completely filled my body as the lights from this Dark Synchro went inside of his remaining Lizard. The lights bounced around inside, slowly darkening until they were a solid black. Immediately after they turned black, the lights shot out of the Lizard, now only numbering 5.

Drone Dude started to cackle as he spoke, "When shadows envelop even darker shadows, the curtains pull back to reveal: a world without light! Come forth, Frozen Fitzgerald!"

Frozen Fitzgerald-2500

Freezing air swept past me, and I barely could keep my eyes open, "What on earth are you going on about?"

From what little I could see of him, he was smiling in a creepy way, "When you Dark Synchro summon a monster you take away a level for every one that the tuner has rather than add them together."

"You can't take 8 from 3! That would be a negative number!"

Laughter filled the garage, "In a shadow duel, you can have a negative level. And my Frozen Fitzgerald is a negative level 5."

I don't understand what is going on, and at this point, I don't care. I just need to end this duel.

Trying to wrap my head around the fact that my opponent had a negative level 5 on their field, my musing was interrupted when my enemy kept talking, "Since I used the Dark Tuner Catastrouge in a dark synchro summon, one of your monsters is destroyed, and since you only have one, that means that you must say goodbye to your Junk Warrior!"

As Junk Warrior shattered, I braced myself for the inevitable attack. I was rewarded by my opponent crying out, "Frozen Fitzgerald, attack the Signer directly!"

"I activate my trap-"

Electricity surrounded the card, forcing Descending Lost Star back to the ground, "What?"

"You can't activate traps until after my monster attacks, it's part of his special ability."

The attack blasted into me, taking away my breath and sending me flying backwards into the purple fire barrier. Pain shot through my body as I temporarily felt crushed between the attack and the fire. Finally the pressure was gone, and I fell to the ground, gasping for breath.

Life Points Yusei=1200

Laughter filled my ears, "This barrier makes it so nobody can enter or leave until the duel is over. And even then, only the victor will leave. Such is the price of a shadow duel."

Between the cold, the pain, and my utter confusion with my current situation, I swayed as I stood back up, "I activate my trap, Descending Lost Star, which allows one Synchro monster to come back to the field from the graveyard. Come on Junk Warrior!"

Junk Warrior returned to the field, filling the space between me and my opponent. His concern for my health flooded into me, and a weak smile spread over my face, "Don't worry old friend, we'll win. I promise."

As my enemy laughed at my hope, I continued, "I am going to send him back though, to bring out Turret Warrior."

Turret Warrior-1200

"Turret Warrior gains the attack points of the monster sacrificed to bring him out."

Turret Warrior-3500

My world was blinking in and out of focus, but I pushed on, "Take out that Frozen Fitzgerald!"

Life Points Drone=3000

Unlike me, he didn't fly back, and he was smiling like a hyena, causing my concern to skyrocket. And apparently it was for good reason, "My Frozen Fitzgerald's special ability activates. Once a turn he can return from the graveyard in defense mode, and destroy the monster that sent him there in the first place."

Frozen Fitzgerald-2500

"No, Turret Warrior!"

Crap, crap, crap, crap. I watched helplessly as he turned to ice and shattered, How can one monster be so powerful? Not only does he have as many points as Stardust, but it also has two extremely overwhelming special abilities!

Quickly scanning my hand, I made a rough plan, "I activate the spell One for One, which lets me send one level one monster to the graveyard in order to summon another in defense mode. Come on out Sonic Chick!"

Sonic Chick-300

He kept laughing, "I know all about your chicken. It can't be destroyed by a monster with over 1900 attack points. I change my monster to attack mode and equip it with Drain Strike. This spell give you half the damage you would receive if he had piercing damage, and I get the other half added to my life points. Attack that Sonic Chick!"

Frozen Fitzgerald-2500

I was thrown back into the barrier and felt the ice ripping my clothing as my energy left my body.

Life Points Yusei=100

Life Points Drone=4100

More cackles continued to flow out of the drone, "You Signers have no hope against the army of shadows! We will destroy you and everything you hold dear!"

Getting to my feet took almost a minute, but I did it. I was barely standing, shivering like a leaf in a storm from the cold that had long since soaked into my body. Weakly, I drew the top card: Nitro Synchron. I sighed in relief, "That is as likely to happen as you winning the lottery. I summon Nitro Synchron in attack mode, and when I summon a tuner monster, I can bring back Quillbolt Hedgehog from my graveyard in defense mode."

Nitro Synchron-300

Quillbolt Hedgehog-800

"Then I activate Graceful Revival, which lets me bring back one monster from my graveyard, and I am bringing back Speed Warrior."

Speed Warrior-900

Hope started to bubble up inside of me as my plan unfurled, "I tune them together to create Nitro Warrior!"

Nitro Warrior-2800

"Next, I equip him with the spell Junk Barrage."

Nitro Warrior-3800

Flinging my arm out like a wet noodle, I pointed at the opposing monster, "Take out Frozen Fitzgerald!"

Life Points Drone=2800

Nothing could hide my relief when my attack was successful. I smiled, "Junk Barrage now comes into effect, you take half of your monster's points as damage!"

Life Points Drone=1550

He smiled, "It doesn't matter, my monster comes back in defense mode, and on my next turn yours will be destroyed just like the Satellite will be once you are dead."

Frozen Fitzgerald-2500

I shook my head, "Wrong. When my Nitro Warrior destroys a monster, he can switch a monster in defense mode to attack mode, and then battle that monster. So my Nitro Warrior attacks Frozen Fitzgerald again!"

Life Points Drone=1250

"Junk Barrage's effect happens again, and this duel is over!"

Life Points Drone=0 Defeat!

The flame dissolved as my weary body rushed forward to the Drone. I grabbed him by his stupid cloak, and yelled directly into his face, "What is going to happen to Satellite?"

His eyes rolled up, into his skull as his cards scattered out of his duel disk. The cards changed in front of me, turning into an underpowered ice deck.

All of them, except Frozen Fitzgerald. His card turned completely black and turned to dust.

I forced myself back to my feet, dropping the guy as I did so. Unsteadily, I made my way down the stairs, slipping down the street just as I heard sirens approaching. Walking through the shadows, I headed back to Blister's place.


A/N: Thanks to Lets-Go-To-Vermont for reviewing on the original version of this chapter.

*I personally do not write when a character swears because I am not comfortable doing so. But it's safe to say that:

A) Yusei grew up in a place surrounded by criminals

B) Her only friends were guys

So my personal headcanon for Yusei in general is that when Yusei is not around kids or people she doesn't want to offend, she swears like a sailor.