A/N: Sorry for the wait! Hope you enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. That goes to the respective owner. I only own my OC(s). Also, there's language, mention of drugs (not shown and no characters use it; just a brief mention just in case), and a bit of violence.

Chapter Four- Planning and Trust:

(Yusei's POV)

Several months have passed since the vampire prince, Ren Mori, joined the werewolf clan. More specifically, the pack that leads the whole clan. While everyone was happy that I came back alive, they weren't exactly too thrilled at letting a vampire into the compound that we call home. I shared their doubts. It was hard to tell if this Ren was truly trustworthy, or if he was only tricking us and waiting to catch us off guard to strike. Until something came up, he was allowed free roam of the compound. Funny thing was that he hardly left his room except for the strategy meetings and training (though, with the suspicion still around, he usually trained alone as well).

Since he got here, I've avoided him as much as possible. About the only times I see him is during strategy meetings. There, he gives the location of outposts along with the tactics of the vampire soldiers there and what anti-werewolf weapons they could carry. Each attack my father sends to each post has been successful thus far with very few casualties on our side. With every attack, more werewolves start to back off on their suspicions. Quite a few refuse to, however, due to their own personal grudges against the vampire clan which I doubt Ren will be able to fix.

At this point, some have even turned to me as far as to decide whether to trust him or not. And no matter how many times they ask, my answer stays the same: I don't know. On one hand, he has proven that he is trustworthy and able to help give us an advantage in this war. On the other, there's a nagging feeling that maybe it's all a ploy. That either he's doing this to leave us wide open for a devastating counter from the inside, or maybe even his own personal reasons other than what he gave me. He's still the only heir to the throne, after all. The rest having been taken out by the war itself, or his father to keep away competition. If his father gets taken out, then there's no one else but him to claim the throne unless there was a cousin hidden from his father's eyes no one knows about (highly doubt it).

"You're still doubting him?" Akiza asked. She was one of the few werewolves highly skilled in magic and worked as a healer for the main compound. And she was also the friend I went to when I needed to talk with anything I didn't want the others to be concerned over. "Why? He's proven to be rather trustworthy."

"I know, but how do we know it isn't a ploy? He could be luring us into a trap for all we know," I sighed. "I want to trust him, but-"

"It's hard to trust a vampire."

"Yeah. Yet, I have to make some sort of decision soon. The werewolves who are undecided on whether to trust him or not are looking to me for a final judgment."

"Hmm..." She snapped her fingers. "That's it!"

"What is?"

"Just spend time with him. Perhaps that will help set your mind at ease."

"I don't know-"

"Look, the more you avoid him, the more bad signals it will give to the rest of the pack who are on middle ground about him. It'll give you time to get on good terms with him, especially once the war's over and he becomes the new vampire king. Plus, if there is a chance he's baiting us, you could get an advantage by knowing his fighting techniques."

That's true. Since he trained by himself, not many knew how he fought, and I only got a glimpse of that when he saved me from the arena. I nodded in agreement. "All right, I'll do it. Probably would put some of the others at ease to know he's not left to his own devices all the time anyway."

(Scene Shift- Dreamscape- Ren's POV)

"Daiki! Daiki, please, open your eyes! Don't do this to me!" I screamed. I clutched the cold body to mine, hoping that maybe it would bring him back, but I already knew nothing would work. He was gone. My lover was dead.

A rustle behind alerted me to another presence. I looked, my face shifting from distraught to angry in a second. I snarled, my fangs lengthening. "You!" I set Daiki's body down, pulling out my blade as I faced the vampire king—my father.

"It seems my punishments taught you nothing, foolish son of mine," he taunted.

"To hell with your punishments! I'll send you to the grave even if it kills me!"

"Oh? And how do you plan to do that when you get the final penalty for treason?"

Before I could answer, I felt a blade sink into my back. I let out a yell, turning to strike down the culprit and froze. "D-Daiki..?"

"You killed me," he growled, his bloodied face twisted in hatred. "If I hadn't have met you, I'd still be alive!"

"No, you can't- argh!" I couldn't finish my sentence as he twisted the blade further into my body. My sword fell from my grasp as I stumbled onto my knees.

The vampire king picked up my fallen weapon. "This is what you get for throwing away your pride as a vampire," he said, lifting the sword above my head and bringing it down swiftly.

(Waking world)

"Ahhh!" I screamed, bolting upright in my bed. Sweat covered my body as I gulped air by the lungful. After a few minutes, I managed to calm myself down, convinced myself it was all just a dream. But is it? After all, it was my fault that Daiki is dead. If he hadn't have met me...if we never had pursued a relationship...he'd be alive, with his sister and parents. Not dead in the ground, my mind argued.

A fang accidentally pierced my bottom lip, causing it to bleed. Shit. I wiped my mouth, smearing some of the blood across my cheek. I threw the covers off, getting off the bed and heading for the window. Inferno hasn't returned yet. Hopefully my informant is merely camped far away and not...well, the only other explanation. Allen had sent his bat some days prior, telling me he had managed to get as many followers out of vampire territory as possible. Hopefully, the vampire king hasn't realized his kingdom has shrunk by several members.

The taste of iron alerted me to the still slightly bleeding wound. Fuck, it's not healing quick enough. I should have expected this, but this soon? I thought I would have a bit more time, but it looks like that's not the case. I better hope I don't get struck too badly in combat, then. Or during training. Gods know what kind of recklessness could come about if the werewolves realize their chance of defeating the vampires has a time limit now.

I shook my head to clear it out of the morbid thoughts and melancholy. All right, back to training, then. I won't be able to think of anything bad if I'm too busy working my body to the grind, right? I got dressed in some comfortable clothes and headed on out.

(Yusei's POV)

As I headed down the halls toward his room, the door opened and he stepped out, not yet looking in the direction I was coming. I recognized the outfit as the one he usually went training in. He's going to practice. Perfect, I thought, swiftly catching up to him. "Hey."

He yelped, nearly jumping out of his skin. "Oh good gods, could you at least let me know you're there?! You snuck up on me like a phantom walker*!" he said, clutching his chest.

"Sorry. You heading to the training room?"

"Yeah, I need to get rid of some nervous energy. I've, ah, been having some problems getting relaxed."

Being around werewolves must have his nerves fried, especially the ones with stronger prejudices, I concluded. "Well, mind if you have a sparring partner?" He looked at me. "What?"

"You're offering to train with me?"

I arched an eyebrow. "Yes. Anything wrong with that?"

"You've avoided me like the plague outside of the strategy meetings. And even in there, you hardly spare me a glance. What's changed?"

I shrugged. "Well, in thinking about it, it would be helpful for us to be on good terms with each other, given our statuses." I wasn't about to let him know that I wanted a chance to see his full fighting style or indicate it in any way. He'd immediately accuse me of not trusting him.

He stared at me for a few more seconds before shrugging. "Eh, whatever. Might help to have some pointers in case it looks like I might get in the way of a werewolf in combat. Rather not ruin the already shaky truce as it is."

"Right." I forgot how...aloof he seemed to be. It was like he didn't care one way or the other. Would that change after the war, granted if we won it? The part of me that wanted to trust him was telling me that this was wrong—spying on his fighting style—but the more rational part of me won, giving the fact that it would help to have some backup plans if he happened to be planning anything else.

However, one thing caught my eye before he had turned around to head to the training area. "Why do you have blood smeared on your face?"

"Oh, that. Well, downsides to having retractable fangs, really. If ya don't pay attention, they can cut your lip. Cut a bit too deep this time, though. It sure took its time to heal."

"I see." I'd never heard vampires accidentally biting their lip, but then again I didn't know many vampires. Time to see how well his fighting is.

(Scene Shift- Training Grounds)

"Oww," Ren groaned from his spot on the ground.

I severely overestimated him, I thought as I waited for him to get up. It did not take long to find out he had no hand-to-hand combat experience. Every time he tried landing a hit, I quickly threw him off his feet, or maneuvered out of the way where he lost balance and landed on the ground without me touching him. Has he even tried fighting without a weapon? If this had been a real fight to the death, he'd have been massacred.

He grunted, getting onto his feet. "One...One more round." He held two fingers in a hold-up style. "Wait, let the room stop spinning first."

"I think we're done," I replied.

"No, I can go another round."

"Ren, if this had been an actual fight with a werewolf—or any other supernatural being that fights hand-to-hand—you would have become a blood stain on the ground before you had a chance to realize it." While I would have thought a poor performance like Ren's was an act, it hit me that I had never seen a vampire ever fight without weapons or magic before. No wonder they make sure to not lose their weapons. They'd be taken out before they had a chance to even cast a spell.

"What, afraid I might manage to land a hit?"

"Considering you've got the coordination of a human that's drunk and on every other addicting substance, I doubt you could get a solid hit on me."

"I'm not that bad." I gave him a look. He turned away sheepishly. "Fine, I'm bad at it. I might have skipped a few lessons."

"More like half a lifetime's worth."

He scowled at me, crossing his arms. "Well, fuck you, too."

"If you want, we can work on it. When you're not in the battle meetings, that is."

He blinked, surprised. "Wait what? Really?"

"Well, if you're going to be fighting alongside us in this war, it would be beneficial to be able to fight like us as well. At least it'll give you an edge compared to other vampires."

"First sparring, now offering to train me. You sure you're right in the head?"

"I'm perfectly aware of how I've been acting lately. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"I'm not! You're just...surprising me is all."

"Well, let's hopefully surprise the vampire king's army by creating new tactics to use against them."

(Few Hours Later, Ren's POV)

It wasn't until a few hours after the little sparring match that I made it back to my room, sore and bruised. As soon as I entered my room, however, I found Inferno waiting on the windowsill. I groaned at that. Just great, you wait 'til now to send a message? You are so going to get it next time, I thought, taking the message from the container on his back.

My eyes scanned over the letter. The further I read, the more it was becoming hard to not lean out the window and scream to the skies above. I took a deep breath and sighed heavily. Oh, just lovely, isn't it? Well, guess it's about time to have a meeting with the rest of the undercover spies. If this turns out as bad as it's sounding...no, not going to think of it. I crumbled up the letter, putting it away. I better alert the Alpha, then. "Come here, Inferno." He gave a little squeak, hopping onto my shoulder.

*- A phantom walker is a person that, when asleep or in a meditative state, can walk around in a ghost-like state to be in places where they can't normally go without being hurt or killed. Usually they're humans with strong magic, but others can learn to be phantom walkers as well.

A/N: Okay, I don't put an author's note on the end like this, but I figured I should tell some things that will be coming up. I can't remember if I mentioned it, but aside from Ren and his family, my other OCs Eric and Jazz won't be making an appearance in this fic. There might be a mention of an OC from Aurora's storyline, though I probably won't outright name her. 'Course, that depends on where the outline goes, and she won't make an actual appearance...because she might not be among the cast outside a mention (hint). I guess with that, that'll give me more practice with other pairings I might have stumbled across. Also, I had a weird idea for an alternate version of this where instead of Aly (AJ) dying it's Ren and with how Aly goes about to get the throne would be a lot more...vicious compared to Ren's tactics. If I write this out, it probably will just be similar to how this story started out, just won't be going to fully fleshing out like this. Anyway, the tricky thing of this is deciding which of the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's characters should be vampires or werewolves or something.