Notes
I sure hope you all remember anime events :)
Sorry for any mistakes.
Yu-Gi-Oh belongs to Kazuki Takahashi, Shueisha and Konami.
PS 3 – The Plan
It took a whole week until the brothers could meet again. In that time, Yuto and Yugo read all the information obtained by Yuri, getting a better understanding of Akaba Leo's plans. When the time came to reunite the two brothers managed to evade their friends for a whole day. Yuri went to pick them up and they all went to Academia in the Fusion Dimension. They made a little base of operations in an abandoned cave outside the grounds of the school and during the year before the war was scheduled to begin, they started working in their plan.
Yuri managed to obtain even more information regarding the technical aspects of both projects so they decided to leave the comprehension of the machine for the ARC Area Project to Yugo who (despite his appearance, according to Yuri) was pretty smart when it came to physics and mechanics. His interest in those areas came from all the times he used to listen to their father talk about his experiments when he was still working as a scientist and his life passion for D-Wheels.
Yuri also showed them the mechanics of the Fusion Dimension's duel disks to jump between dimensions and how to turn people into cards. They weren't confortable with the latter but the best way to make their plan work was to follow the original mechanics of the ARC Area Project as close as possible and only modify it a little for their purposes. They decided to not interfere a lot with the actual invasion and progression of the war because, according to an initial calculation, their own plan to open a portal to another universe requires almost the same amount of energy as the ARC Area project. They decided early-on to only interfere if Yuya's life was in danger as they need him to be in perfect condition.
They needed to be able to walk the grounds of the school without rising suspicion therefore Yuri turned two of the members of his personal Obelisk Force unit into cards. Whenever Yuto and Yugo needed to walk in Academia, they disguised themselves as Yuri's guards. Part of that also included to learn how to duel with the special deck used by the Obelisk Force. Another good thing about that part of the plan was that they obtained Academia's duel disks without having to steal from the school's inventory and they can jump dimensions without the help of Yuri.
For some strange reason they couldn't understand, they discovered Yuri was actually a high rank official with the special mission of capturing the reincarnations of Ray. Also, being that high in rank meant he had access to many places and can bypass security easily. The brothers can only guess the reason for this is because the original Yuri was really good at dueling and trusted blindly in the Professor, so he was given a lot of power (Good for us, bad for them, Yuri said).
Even though the brothers wanted to be together all the time, each of them had a part to play to make things work. Rin, Ruri and Shun could never understand what they were trying to accomplish thus Yugo and Yuto kept it a secret from them and continued to act "normal". They also wanted to see Yuya in the Standard Dimension but Yuri talked them out of it. His first and only visit was actually a greater risk than thought because the Professor has specific orders that the Standard Dimension is off limits. It probably was related to how his family lives in that dimension (Family? You mean— asked Yuto. Yeah, Reiji exists in this universe but I don't think he gets along with his father, how ironic, right?). To better convince them Yuri also told them about his visit to Yuya.
"It was the same as that moment," said Yuri with a sad face, "he saw me and didn't know who I was. There was no recognition in his face."
The moment Yuri was referring to was that time Yuya woke up after the World Illusion back in their universe. His memories were mixed-up and at first he didn't know who they were. Even thinking he had multiple personalities. Later, they decided to erase his memories of them as to not make Yuya sad about their deaths. The difference this time is that Yuya will never remember them because he is not their little brother.
"The strangest thing that happened was when I heard Yuzu coming to meet us, a bright light surrounded me and the next thing I know I'm in another part of Maiami City," said Yuri.
"What? Really?" asked Yugo.
Yuto was looking at him with a questioning face.
"Yes, watching them from a far I could see Yuzu had a strange bracelet which I never remember her wearing when we meet her in the past," said Yuri.
"Now that you mention it, Rin also has a nice bracelet," said Yugo.
"Ruri has one too," said Yuto, "think this is connected to the separation of Ray?"
"It is possible," said Yuri, "the most interesting thing is that it seems only Yuzu's bracelet has that ability. The other day when Yugo was accompanying me in disguise and we passed by Serena, her bracelet started to shine, but none of us disappeared."
"Ugh, so it wasn't a trick of the light," said Yugo.
"You said Yuya was the main part of Zarc, right?" asked Yuto to Yuri.
"Correct" he said, "that's what the Professor believes."
"Maybe this is connected to Ray's will, when the world divided each of our counterparts received a piece of Ray to keep the parts of Zarc in line, and because Yuya is the main part, his "Ray" has a stronger power to keep us apart."
"Well, if that's the case, we'll need to find a way to stop that from happening," said Yuri, "because we need to get close to Yuya for the last part of the plan to work."
Yuri also told them that apparently Yuya was the only one who has a family. He entered Yuya's room when he was sleeping (Creepy much, Yuri, said Yugo; You would have done the same thing, Yuya always had a cute face while sleeping, Yuri answered back) and he found some pictures of his family. His father was still Yusho but at the moment it seems he has been missing for two years. They weren't that surprised to hear that because back in their own universe, he sometimes went missing for some days or weeks for work, but it must have been difficult for this Yuya. Their little brother had been the one who looked up the most to their father and here, Yuya didn't have brothers to lessen the pain of separation. His mother was an unknown woman and for some strange reason they had a lot of pets, a lot. Also, his ace monster was a simple effect monster, Odd-Eyes Dragon, at least Yuya still used a performapal deck with some additional magicians.
Time passed and the plan was going without complications. The boys managed to keep their double lives from everyone and each weekend they reunited to work in modifications to the ARC V Machine. This proved to be a challenge because they needed to be very careful to not be caught. Yugo was the one with more free time because he didn't go to school in the Synchro Dimension. His only issue was having to get away from Rin because before the change, the original Yugo and she were always together. With Yuto, sometimes it seemed Shun would become suspicious but with time he learned to act "normal" as before the change.
With Yuto and Yugo having their own Academia duel disks, they could communicate from different dimensions too. This was one of the first modifications Yugo did to those duel disks, and it has proved useful as Yuri also updated them in new developments. For example, how there was a mole in the Synchro Dimension inside Security and how they sent a spy to the XYZ Dimension to inspect the city and find Ruri. Preparations for the war were going well in Academia so it wouldn't be long before the invasion finally started.
One year after the three boys arrived in this universe, the invasion to the XYZ Dimension's Heartland City started.
Yuto knew the invasion was going to happen. Yuri told him everything he needed to know; who was the Supreme Commander, the location of the supply routes, the decks they use (he even had the deck, for God's sake), the strategies they are using to win the duels and that the people are going to be turned into cards, but words can't compare to the real thing. The destruction, the fear, the battles, the fire, everything was more horrible than anything he ever imagined. Not even the end of his own universe was as awful as the reality he's been living the past few months.
This last year in Heartland City, he came to like the city. It could never be like Maiami City where he grew up, but the city was nice. The people were even nicer, and they didn't deserve the war. He was a horrible person. He knows the people turned into cards are going to return back to normal after the completion of their plan (or at least, that's what the theory says according to the Professor), but having to act as a member of the Obelisk Force and leak information of the Clover Branch of the Resistance didn't sit well with him at all.
"If we want to do this quickly, we need more life energy," Yuri would say in the worst days to make him feel better, "it needs to be done, and the people will return back to normal."
"Will they really?" asked a serious Yuto.
Yuri couldn't answer after that.
When his brothers talked about anything related to the war, Yugo stayed out of the way. Unlike them, he wasn't directly involved with that part of the plan.
When Yuri came and took Ruri, Yuto felt like the worst kind of person ever and couldn't meet Shun's eyes for almost a week. Yuto knew what it felt like to lose your family, after all, everything he and his brothers were doing was to save their little brother.
Their perfect plan came to the first mishap when the Resistance captured a member of Academia.
"What?!" shouted Yuri through the duel disk for the second time like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He and Yugo were in the cave in the Fusion Dimension.
"Like I already told you, Shun took the duel disk and went to the Standard Dimension," explained Yuto for the second time, "the student of Academia talked like a bird. Shun plans to use Akaba Reiji as a bargaining chip to either stop the war or get Ruri back."
"Do you really think that's so bad?" asked Yugo, "We know Yuri was going to go there sooner or later to get Yuzu." Yuri had already captured Rin too. Yugo didn't want to complain, but it felt lonely without her, so he moved to the Fusion Dimension to continue working in the changes to the program used for the ARC Area Project; they needed everything to be perfect now that the war was in progress.
"The Resistance is sending me to aid him," said Yuto, "they think it's a good idea."
"What?!" now shouted Yugo putting his head next to Yuri's in the transmission.
"It's been three months since the war started, the Resistance is fighting more than Academia expected," explained Yuto.
"This is perfect!" shouted Yuri with a sarcastic tone, "If you must go, then go. At least we know you'll be away from the battle, but you must be very careful, they are already two spies in the Standard Dimension."
"What?!" now it was Yuto's turn, "When were you going to tell us that? Academia plans to involve the Standard Dimension in the war as well?" The only consolation out of this stupid war was that the Standard Dimension was being left alone by Academia, meaning Yuya was very much safe.
"A new turn of events which I was recently informed," explained Yuri, "as you just said with the XYZ Dimension fighting back harder than they thought, Academia needs more life energy and is considering attacking the Standard Dimension. The spy in the Synchro Dimension says he still doesn't have full control of the City to perform a big scale attack and the security of Neo Domino City is tight, you need to be careful to attack there. Standard Dimension doesn't have the same forms of security therefore an attack there would be technically easier, even taking into account people there use all forms of summoning methods."
"The spies are there to do reconnaissance of the city?" asked Yuto.
"One spy has to investigate the city and learn more about the dueling techniques and the other one is there to find Yuzu, she's the only piece that's missing," said Yuri, "I know them both. Dennis's mission is to find Yuzu and you may remember the second one."
"Who?" asked both brothers.
"Shiunin Sora," said Yuri.
"Like the same Sora we meet in our world?" asked Yuto.
"Yes, but this is the Sora of this universe," said Yuri, "I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him yet because he's an under classmate. You need to be careful; he'll know to be suspicious of anyone who uses XYZ summoning."
"Ok, I get it."
"Also, and I know this will be difficult, but try not to meet Yuya," said Yuri once again, "we need him to be out of the blue as long as possible, the last thing we need is for him to get involved in the war."
"Yeah, I know" said Yuto with a sad face.
Author notes
Let me tell you all, Yuto will not have it easy. Being the older brother is hard work :')
The Reiji comment is because unlike the anime, in the manga he gets along with his dad. He's also an only child as an additional piece of trivia.
I don't remember if there was a particular reason for why Yuri had such an important role in the story, I could thought the Professor would prefer to keep him locked up to prevent Zarc but we needed conflict, I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We are almost at the beggining of the anime.
Also RIP Ruri and Rin but fear not, this will not be the last time we see of them.
