Goodwin's face was curled into a chilling smile, "I place one facedown and end my turn."
Jack drifted forward, "I summon Sinister Sprocket in attack mode."
Sinister Sprocket-400
"I use him to tune my Mad Archfiend to create my soul, Red Dragon Archfiend!"
Red Dragon Archfiend-3000
"Next, I activate Half Life, which cuts my Dragon's attack points in half, and if they are less than your monster's, I can attack you directly."
Red Dragon Archfiend-1500
Goodwin chuckled, "Inti can drop its points to 0."
Sun Dragon Inti-0
I activated a trap, "Jack, use my Scrubbard Raid. It ends the battle phase so you don't have to lose Archfiend!"
Rather than acknowledge me, Goodwin turned his attention to Jack, "It seems that I was wrong about you. I thought that you were strong enough to stand on your own. It's little wonder that you were dethroned."
Jack's voice whispered through a private channel, "Keep it. You'll need it more than I will."
Trying, and failing, to keep my face neutral, I returned the card to the facedown position. Jack's voice echoed as he yelled, "Archfiend, take out his monster!"
Inti shimmered with a light as it vanished, taking Red Dragon Archfiend with it to the graveyard.
Life Points Goodwin=5400
Life Points Jack=2500
There was very little expression in Goodwin's face as the spoke, "And now Moon Dragon Quilla is back in defense mode."
Moon Dragon Quilla-2000
Jack continued, "I place one facedown and end my turn. And before you say anything, no I'm not the same person that I was back when you invited me to the city. As much as I would have hated to admit this a year ago, I'm proud to be a part of this ragtag group called the Signers. I am proud to have friends and family that will defend me when I'm weak."
Goodwin scoffed, "You couldn't have possibly changed that much."
"Not by myself, no. But I met someone who changed my point of view. I met a woman who showed me what love is, and who I learned to love. Then you Dark Signers took her from me!"
That's who his Dark Signer was.
I exchanged looks with him as we switched positions, sending him a smile, and then drew my card, "Junk Archer, remove Quilla!"
"I activate Destruct Potion. I send a monster to the graveyard to gain their attack points as life points. So I destroy Quilla, negating your effect."
Life Points Goodwin-7900
Sun Dragon Inti-3000
Oh, come on!
"I end my turn."
Please don't get distracted Jack. Please be careful.
To say that I was surprised by Jack's next move was an understatement, "I activate Fiendish Chain, which stops your monster from being used for anything."
Chains exploded around Inti, pinning its many heads to its body. I let out a quiet sigh of relief, but kept worrying, Now that his dragon is unable to do anything, is the Earthbound Immortal going to go after me or Jack next?
Goodwin looked between the two of us for a couple seconds, before speaking, "I am going to skip my battle phase, and have Wiraqocha Rasca lower Jack Atlas' life points down to one!"
Life Points Jack=1
Despite his best attempt at now crying out, it was clear from Jack's voice that getting hit was extremely painful. He was struggling to stay upright, swaying from one side to another like a drunk person trying to walk.
He gasped out, "Fiendish Chain is destroyed when my life points are below 1000."
Inti broke free of the chains, and then Goodwin started to laugh crazily, "King of the Underworld, show Jack what it means to be a king!"
Horror spread through my body as I twisted around to look at the now much closer King of the Underworld opening its mouth. A beam came out of his mouth, reminding me of snot, and launched at us. Both of the girls' dragons swerved out of the way of the attack. As it reached me, I was shoved violently out of the way. While I was trying to regain control, I saw it hit Jack. He spun completely out of control, nearly colliding with me before he crashed to the track's floor.
A scream exploded out of me, "JACK!"
I heard him whisper on the intercom, "We're still with you."
Crow's voice came out too, "Even if we can't ride, our cards are your cards."
Goodwin chuckled, "I place one facedown and end my turn."
"Junk Archer, remove Inti from play!"
Goodwin flipped a card over, "Passion of Baimasse negates your monster's effect and then destroys it outright."
This is the worst duel ever. Not only does my opponent have more life points than average, but he can drop mine to 1 in a heartbeat, which he will at the end of his next turn.
Biting back a thousand negative comments, I looked at my hand, "I summon Shield Warrior in defense mode and place one facedown."
Shield Warrior-1600
He started to laugh again, "I skip my battle phase. Wiraqocha Rasca, drop Yusei's points to one!"
Life Points Yusei=1
It was my turn to bite back a scream as my energy was ripped out of me at a terrifying rate, while I battled my fatigue and runner to stay upright.
During my battle to remain upright, the laughter continued, "The three of you only have 3 combined points, and only one of you can still fight. Why continue in this pointless struggle?"
Reaching out, I found both of my brothers on the track before deciding what to say, "Because we have seen what absolute authority has done to the people in Satellite. It has destroyed them in every way imaginable, and that was just in our lifetimes. Every single human being deserves a chance to make a life for themselves, and not just to be a perfect little puppet. So as long as one of us can fight, we will."
Without looking, I could feel his glare drilling into me, but I focused on my turn instead, "I activate Angel Baton, which lets me draw two cards if I send one to the graveyard."
I discarded Sonic Chick, and then looked at the cards in my hand, "I summon Debris Dragon."
Debris Dragon-1000
"Now his effect activates, which allows me to summon a monster with 500 or less points. I choose to bring back Sonic Chick."
Sonic Chick-100
"You could probably guess that I tune my monsters together to bring out my most loyal friend, Stardust Dragon!"
Stardust Dragon-2500
Looking at my screen, I smiled, "I activate Blackwing Bombardment, which gives a Synchro monster the same points as the monster released to activate the trap."
Stardust Dragon-5000
"Now take out Inti!"
A glittering stream of energy ripped into the multi-headed dragon, exploding it in seconds, much to my relief.
Life Points Goodwin=5900
"Stardust's special effect activates when one or more card would be destroyed by another card's effect. Since your monster's effect would have destroyed Stardust, I remove him from play until the end of my turn to negate your monster's effect. I'm not done there. I activate Jack's facedown, Conquest of the Supreme Ruler. You can't bring a monster onto the field in any way after a Synchro destroys one of your monsters. Meaning, that your other dragon cannot come to the field."
Goodwin glared down at me, and I could hear Jack whisper through the duel channel, "Good job, Yusei."
"And now that my turn is over, Stardust comes back."
I watched him come back in all his glory before looking at Goodwin, "Why are you so against bonds? You once sacrificed your life, and defied this destiny that you claim to believe in so much, when you made the bridge."
He scoffed, "I was a foolish child back then who didn't understand anything."
I quit paying attention because I had gotten to the tip of the 'head' of the Condor, meaning that I had to drive through a ton of twists at a ridiculous speed.
Just as I got out of the millions of turns, I heard Goodwin yell, "Wiraqocha Rasca, take out the Signer!"
"Yusei. Your card!"
Both of my brother's voices came into my ears at the same time, reminding me of what I needed to do, "I send Scrubbard Raid to the graveyard in order to end the battle phase!"
Goodwin scoffed, "Then I use Meteor Flare, which gives you 2000 points of damage when I discard two cards."
My pulse was beating out a samba as I flipped up another card, "I activate Joint Future, which negates your card's effect when I discard a card in my hand."
His face darkened, "Then I send it to the graveyard, and I can draw it next turn instead of from the deck."
"Any card destroyed by Joint Future is put back in the deck, and the deck is shuffled."
I let a smile onto my face for a second as I heard him nearly pout, "I end my turn."
"Don't you see, Goodwin? You haven't given me a single reason for doing any of this that wasn't related to your brother! You built the bridge and left Satellite to do a favor for him. You became a Dark Signer to be like him. You even took both marks to show that you were just as strong as him. Why do you deny that bonds mean just as much to you as they do to us?"
What he didn't seem to notice was the Crimson Dragon's mark moving from his chest. My arm screamed in agony as my mark returned to me for a brief moment. The pain ripped even deeper as it glowed blindingly bright, then both the pain and light settled down to reveal the head of the dragon.
Through the mark I could feel Aki, Luna, Jack, and...Crow?
As I became aware of Crow through my mark, it fled up my arm to my back, and I felt the others join it as the top card of my deck glowed a bright yellow.
I drew it, and sure enough, it was the cutest monster of all time, "Majestic Dragon, come to the field in attack mode!"
Majestic Dragon-0
"Stardust Xiaolong can be special summoned to the field if Stardust Dragon is on the field."
Stardust Xiaolong-100
"Now, tune together to create Majestic Star Dragon!"
Majestic Star Dragon-3800
I felt myself being lifted off the ground again, and now could see that the King was practically there.
Yet another card flipped up, "I use Synchro Baton, which gives a Synchro on the field 600 points for every Synchro in the graveyard. Together, we have 4, so…"
Majestic Star Dragon-6200
"Majestic Star Dragon can negate all effects, so he attacks your Immortal! Go!"
Together, we crashed through the Immortal, speeding up so much I could barely keep track of where we were.
Life Points Goodwin=0 Defeat!
Majestic Star Dragon didn't slow down, in fact, it turned around and dove straight into the King's mouth as it sent a blast of energy at us.
When the light from the blast faded, I found myself in an indigo void. Looking around, I saw Goodwin, the normal him, standing in front of me, "I'm sorry."
Roman appeared next to him, "We completely ruined our lives, didn't we?"
Rex smiled painfully back to his brother, "Yes we did."
He turned to me, "Thank you for saving both of us. Because the two of us and Demak chose to become Dark Signers and killed ourselves, we have to go. But the others will show back up in a couple days."
I glanced to my side, and saw two ladies lying unconscious next to Geiger and Kiryu, "What about the people in the Reactor?"
Neither of them reacted to my question, instead, they turned around and walked away from me.
"Wait a minute!"
A bright light enveloped them, and when it cleared, a strong gust of wind nearly knocked me off Majestic Star Dragon.
He pulled to a stop above the former duel area, I watched in horror as the track disappeared, dropping my brothers, "Save them!"
We dove below them, and caught both of them. As we flew, I saw the sky fill with bright yellow lights floating down.
Carefully, I climbed off my runner and went to the guys, "How are you feeling?"
Jack groaned as he rolled over, "Like I was just in another crash."
Next to him, Crow nodded, "I feel like I was tackled by a giant."
I chuckled, "I know how you feel."
Crow lifted his head, "Wait, how many shadow duels have you been in today?"
Taking off my helmet, I tried to fix my hair, "Three, plus the one with Roman last night."
Jack muttered, "And the two a week ago."
Flopping down next to them, I grunted, "Wake me up when we land."
"No promises that we'll be awake."
A/N: Thanks to Let's-Go-To-Vermont and PipeDream for reviewing on the original version of this chapter!
