Chapter 11

Ahh, an update!

I'm glad to know that you've liked this story so far. Honestly, your reviews do make my day ^^. There is absolutely nothing more gratifying than seeing others talking about your work. Truly.

Well, I hope what I had in mind for this story will prove to be worth the wait at the end.

Oh, before I forget, I should warn you: this chapter contains ghastly scenes and ghastly surprises. But then again, you all know what I can do.

Sit back and enjoy.

Tertio

In his last moments of terror, Yusei saw that heart-wrenching, beautiful dragon. The proud head, tilted skywards, was roaring out a broken, melancholic song. Those petals that constituted its scales glinted in the sunlight, bathing it in a surreal halo. Its crimson wings, slicing through the air with ceaseless lethal grace, filled his hazy vision like a sanguineous dawn.

Then he was falling, falling through a pandemonium of screams and the sensation of rocks crushing down all around him. His sight darkened. Somewhere behind his eyelids, he saw those sunny afternoons of his childhood again, the times when he played with her and practiced with her and patted her dragon on the head without fear. What happened to his princess, that she would come and hunt him with her own dragon? He had seen too much in the past few days, and yet he felt like he was told nothing at all. He had been doing nothing but stabbing in the dark, only to be faced with a bottomless inky blackness.

So… am I dead?

His eyelids fluttered as he tentatively opened his blue eyes. It sure was a strange heaven. The first thing he saw was the thick black canvas serving as a roof above his head, the fabric sagging slightly under its own weight. Derelict and cracked wooden furniture greeted his sight as he slowly looked around what appeared to be a small shack. The place was quiet and still. There was no birdsong, no sound of cars. It was as if the room had drowned in an ocean of silence, so deep and heavy that it would even swallow his voice if he dared to speak.

The only thing that interrupted this was the slight, almost undetectable rustling of the curtain hanging over the door. The stagnant air all around him smelt thickly of the insipid scent of slightly damp fabric, as if the room hasn't seen the light of day for years. The linen beneath his hands felt rough and thin, and his back could clearly feel the hard mattress beneath. Yusei blinked as he felt a dull throbbing pain at the back of his head. No, he was still alive.

Yusei turned his head, realising he was still too sore to make a quick move. One look confirmed that he was alone in this silent small room. No one sat beside his bed or hovered above him. There was a small bundle lying on the tiny table beside his bed, a bundle that he recognised to be his deck box. Stretching out a feeble hand, Yusei snatched it and opened it. Yes, it was his deck. That was one small relief.

Putting his hands beneath his torso, Yusei gingerly sat up. Now that he focused his hearing, he could vaguely hear an engine, as if someone was testing a vehicle further away.

Looking down onto the floor, he saw that his boots had been neatly placed next to his bed. Feeling still a little dizzy, he carefully bent down and put them on his feet. The rather chilly feeling this shack told him it was probably sometime around early morning or late dusk, though he could not be sure if it was still the same day as the day when he had entered Satellite.

Standing up, the City-born young man gave a look around the shack to make sure there was nothing he had missed. He massaged his temples with his fingers and briefly shut his eyes to adjust to the sudden headache that had accompanied his rising. When he opened his eyes again, those blue irises were once more as clear and alert as they had been when he was still back in the City. This was Satellite, and he knew close to nothing about his rescuer.

As he shuffled closer to the fabric over the door that served as a curtain, the sound of the engine became louder and louder. It seemed the machine was closer than he had thought. Brushing the heavy fabric aside, Yusei saw that someone was huddled over his own red D-Wheel, wrench in hand and a toolbox next to him.

He must have gasped or made some other sound out of surprise, because the man attending to his D-Wheel turned around to fully face Yusei. Yusei stared back into a face almost covered with Markers, topped by a head of spiking orange hair. The Satellite young man's grey eyes narrowed, and his dice earring shifted with the movement of his head as he looked Yusei over from head to toe.

"Fudo Yusei." The Satellite man sighed. "You're finally awake."

"You… who are you?" Yusei stammered. He was deep in the bowels of Satellite, held by a man who had evidently had more than his share of crimes, and the said man was currently adjusting his prized D-Wheel for god knows what. He took a small step back.

Those grey eyes tilted up a little in a look that Yusei could almost call melancholic. "Ah… I see. I am Crow."

Crow…? The name sounded horribly familiar, but Yusei could not recall it no matter how hard he sought for it in his still-muddled brain.

Crow gave a bitter smile. His gloved hand went to his side. "You know, King, it really hurt when you knocked me off my D-Wheel the other night."

"You…" That was right. He was the man whom Yusei had chased, the one who had ambushed Ruka. "Why did you save me?"

"So suspicious, you City folks are." Crow scratched the back of his head. "But I'll forgive you. Although I have no doubt that you've heard a lot about me, it's nothing compared to how much I've heard about you."

"Me?" Yusei felt another wave of nausea invading his head. It was probably not a good idea to get up as soon as he woke. He reached out a hand to hold on to the door frame.

"Correct. You. From Izayoi." Crow replied.

He saw the City-born man's blue irises widen. Yusei's gloved hand clutched harder at the doorway as he stared at Crow with even more distrust and enmity. Grey and blue orbs locked sight for a brief moment, neither willing to back down. It was Crow who first coughed and broke the silence.

"There's no need to look at me like that, Fudo Yusei." Crow shook his head. "You want to know why I saved you? Fine. But I have one question to ask you before that."

"Go ahead." Yusei replied in a low voice.

"Are you here to save Izayoi?"

Yusei bit his lower lip. It wasn't anything like the questions he had been prepared for.

"What if I am, Crow?"

Crow chuckled. "Well answered, Yusei. You see, that's precisely what I saved you for."

"What…?" Yusei tried to figure out what he had heard. Just what had been going on in Satellite, in Rosewood?

"You heard me right." Crow's mouth pressed into a rigid straight line, the corners of his lips dipped in determined resolve. "I am helping you, so you can help me save Izayoi."

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It had already been a week since she agreed to look after the man called Divine. It was better than she had imagined. The man had not made her work difficult. It appeared that he… simply refused to notice her. However, he did register her presence and ate his own food in silence. It was a peaceful job for Izayoi Aki.

She had wondered about him as she sat beside his bed and looked at his face. So, he had been a Psychic Duelist, just like her. She wondered about what he had seen, what he had done, and what his thoughts were when he first came here. There were many things that she wanted to ask him, yet he gave her no answer. He was not mute, nor was he deaf. He had simply shut himself inside his own world.

"Divine-san." She greeted him as she leaned forward to take the empty breakfast tray off the small table beside his bed. Though he never responded, she always treated him as if he could. "Was the food to your liking today?"

No reply, and she did not expect one.

"Well, I see that you've eaten it all, Divine-san. So, I'll take that as a good sign." She smiled as she swept up his spoon as well. "I suppose I'll see you again at lunch, then." She gave him a little nod. "Like I said, I'll be taking care of you for a long while."

She had said those same words to him for a few times already, and therefore she had expected him to ignore them like he always did.

And yet, as she was about to open the door and leave, she spied movement from the corner of her eyes.

He tilted his head toward her and looked directly at her face.

"Divine… -san?"

Framed by his long mahogany hair, his green eyes stared at her. His look wasn't piercing, nor was it threatening, but it observed her with emotion and comprehension. If she had to describe how he looked, she would compare it to the look of an intelligent beast. A literate creature imprisoned behind a wall of silence, unable to put its wisdom into human speech. Nonetheless, its brilliance was for the world to see in the spark of recognition that shone in its eyes. That was how the man known as Divine looked at her, as if he suddenly wanted to speak, but was held back by some power greater than his mind.

"Divine-san, are you alright?" She turned around and walked back to his bed, placing the tray back down onto the table. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

She moved her hand toward his face to check if he was having a fever, but he flinched. Hastily, she put her hand back down. What was it that he wanted? This was the most reaction she had ever gotten out of him in the past seven days, and she didn't know how to deal with it.

"Uh… if there's nothing, then I should be going." Not knowing what else she could do for him, she moved to pick up the tray again.

He kept his gaze on her and followed her movement. She froze and looked up at him. Those green eyes were narrowed with displeasure.

Then something clicked in her. How often did the nurses come in to see him, anyways? Once a day? Once every three days? They were definitely not as frequent as Aki. And since she had never even heard of this man leaving his room, she realised that the amount of time he spent with other human beings was so short it would drive anyone insane.

"Divine-san, you… don't want me to leave, do you? You want me to stay and talk to you for a bit longer. Is that correct?"

His eyelids were lowered slightly in reluctant agreement.

She let a small smile grace her lips. The nurses would not mind if she took longer than usual in his room. Leaving the trays alone, she sat down on the small chair next to his bed and looked into his face.

He shifted his gaze and lowered his head, staring at the bed sheets instead. The gentle rustle of the rose bushes continued outside, audible even at this height. She sighed a little, suddenly realising that she didn't really know what to say to him. Then she decided since he was as good as mute, she could say anything to him, and it would be fine.

"Then, Divine-san, I'll start by telling you a little about myself. How does that sound?"

He didn't nod, but she went ahead, nonetheless.

"Well, like I said, I'm Izayoi Aki, the only child of Senator Izayoi Hideo." She almost laughed at how empty those titles now sounded. "I was sent here because I had… killed a child. Inadvertently, but I still did that. Moreover, he was the younger brother of a world-famous model, Misty. So, I had to be punished, at least in name. That's why I'm here."

She looked down. "I may not look much, Divine-san, and you may think it could not be possible for me to kill a child. But the truth is, I'm a Psychic Duelist… and I had simply lost control of myself."

She did not notice how he had shifted in his bed and looked up at her.

"That's what I can't get over." She continued. "How Psychic Duelists like us had to be punished for something that we have no control over. My parents were terrified of my powers when I was still a kid, so they got someone to forge this hair clip for me, this thing that can restrain my power a little. But it wasn't enough on that day. Those boys… I got too angry and let out everything I had on him. No matter how I try to blame it on the psychic power, it is still my fault at the end. It's just… I don't know why. Why I am cursed with this power? Why I am born with this… this thing?"

She was getting far too emotional. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down. She shouldn't let it lose on someone as wounded as Divine.

"Sorry, Divine-san." She took a few more deep breaths to regain her composure, having no idea that merely talking about it could still rile her up so much. "I shouldn't have troubled you –"

He reached out and caught her wrist.

Aki gasped and instinctively tried to throw him off. But he held on with unexpected strength.

"A… psy… chic… duel… list…?"

Those raspy, hoarse words grated on her ears as she stared at the man before her in incomprehension. "Divine-san, you… you're talking…!"

"A… psy… chic…? Then… I… have… a… way… out…"

Her eyes shot open wide. Her hand moved to grasp his hand instinctively. "W-what did you say?"

She was hyperventilating. She could feel her own chest rising and falling faster than she had ever experienced. This couldn't be happening.

"A… way… out…" His lips moved slightly upwards, forming a wraith of a smile on his lean and wean face. With the morning sunshine pouring into the room, his pale flesh might well have been transparent, and his figure only a fragment of her imagination.

"I… will… show… you… our… only… es… cape…" His hand shook as he kept his hold on her hand, not letting it go as if his entire world depended on it. "To… day…"

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"I finally got through to you, Chairman. You are a difficult man to find."

Goodwin did not conceal the icy displeasure in his voice as the phone was finally answered. This man had evaded him for too long.

"Ah, Director. My apologies. I've been busy, as you may have gathered."

Goodwin frowned. "Yes, very busy, especially since Rosewood Hospital," he paused for emphasis, so the other man understood the gravity of the situation, "your hospital – had been destroyed by Izayoi-kun."

The other end of the line chuckled. "Director, you know me. I'm a businessman. Profit comes first and foremost. Since Rosewood is no longer standing, our contract is virtually void. There's nothing I can do for you anymore, Director."

"I'm not making a phone call to make you pay for damages, Chairman." Goodwin's tone of voice betrayed his rising irritation. "I'm here to ask you a question."

There was a pause. "Go ahead, Director."

"Why did you use Izayoi Aki?"

The man on the other side of the line was silent for a long time. "Why? Why do you think, Director?"

"We had an agreement, Chairman." Goodwin's voice was stern. "We agreed to never use her. Goddamnit, she is Hideo's daughter, and no one ever intended –"

"Director, your emotion is getting the better of your logic." The other voice in the phone was soothing, calm, and completely unperturbed. "What we agreed was that we'll never use her as long as we had other options. That was not the case. Without Divine, we had no choice but to harvest Izayoi." The man paused. "Isn't it all for the good of the City, Director?"

Goodwin chocked back a retort. The man in the phone laughed in a low voice.

"That's right, Director. Without Aki, we would never have gotten to where we are today. She is only one human. Think of the benefit her sacrifice could bring to the millions of other humans living in our City. Isn't that your vision as well, Goodwin? Isn't that all of our visions?"

"Be glad you aren't in the City right now," Goodwin gritted his teeth. "Otherwise, I would be sorely tempted to wring your neck with my own hands."

"Don't say that, Rex. I'm sure you can deal with what is happening right now." The voice sniggered. "Good day, Director. I still have a meeting to get to. I'll be in touch later."

With that, the call was disconnected, leaving Goodwin to stare at the phone in barely suppressed anger.

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"Man on the roof! Man on the roof!"

The alarm was tearing through the building like a storm. The sounds of tens of galloping boots shook the corridor as Security officers all bolted upwards toward their destination. Residents pocked out their heads, more curious than anything else, and watched this debacle unfold. Guards and nurses all ran upstairs in a cacophony of urgency, ignoring their other charges as if nothing else mattered. The peaceful, numbing tranquillity of Rosewood had been brutally disrupted this afternoon as it suddenly turned into a chaotic beehive of endless activity.

Like all other residents, Aki was confused about what was going on. She was in her room in the East Wing, about to go to Divine to deliver him an early dinner. She poked her head out of the door, only to be greeted by Kiryu, who had literally rushed up the stairs and sprinted to her room.

"Aki! Are you alright? I just got back and I need to see –"

"What's going on, Kiryu?" She dragged him inside her room to avoid a horde of Securities running past and dashing upstairs. The officers were all issuing commands, directing the staff to different parts of the building. The tension in their voices made her feel like a natural disaster was about hit the building and swallow them all. It had gotten so loud that she had to raise her voice to talk to Kiryu.

"There's someone on the roof." He grabbed her hands. "Thank god you're still here. I thought –"

"What's with a man on the roof?" She didn't understand what he meant. "Why are there so many Securities? Are we supposed to evacuate somewhere?"

"No, no." He rapidly shook his head, silver hair flying. "Stay here, Aki. Don't go anywhere, no matter what others tell you to. I don't want you to be involved in this."

"Involved in what?" She was even more confused. "What's going on?"

"It's a big mess out there." He ignored her question. "They've brought in more officers and even a negotiator with his speakers." She could hear the siren being started down in the courtyard. "Just stay in this room and pay no attention to the outside."

"But I'm supposed to send food to Divine right now." She protested. "I agreed with the matron yesterday! Despite all this, normal activities are still allowed to be carried out, right? Especially for someone like Divine."

He stared at her. "Do you know who's on the roof?"

She shook her head.

"It's Divine."

She gasped.

"So that's what he meant!" She jolted up. It was as if she came to a sudden understanding.

Dazed, Kiryu stayed where he was and looked at her in incomprehension. "I see now! Kiryu," she grasped his hand, "I haven't gotten around to telling you this. Divine actually spoke today. He told me that he knows a way to get out of here, the only way to escape! I see now! I need to go up there with him!"

With that, she took two long steps and tried to dash out of the room.

"No you don't!" He locked his two arms around her waist, and physically threw her back into the room.

"Aki, listen to me! Divine is insane! Why are you even believing in him!"

She struggled in his hold, trying to get free, thrashing and turning. Seeing no other choices, he slammed her back down into her bed, grabbing her wrists to keep her still.

"Aki! There is no way out of Rosewood! If you go out right now, the Securities will never let you out of a cell! Do you think that others haven't tried to escape before you? Don't. Listen. To. Divine!"

"Let me go, Kiryu!" She tried her best to push him back. "He is… we are Psychic Duelists! There's a way out if we work together. I knew it… let me go up!"

"No." His voice sounded pained, but still resolute, as if he was struggling to break a piece of bad news to her. "No, Aki, you can't. Half the Security officers are up there. You'd be detained instantly if you go up. Stay here." His hands clenched tighter around her wrists. "Stay here and live. Don't follow Divine."

"But – " She was in the middle of protesting when the red and blue light of the Security trucks pierced the dimming late afternoon sky and shone straight into her room, bathing the white wallpaper into strange shades of alarming vividness. She jolted, and he took a sharp breath too. Rosewood's Security retinue don't have vehicles. This could only mean that the Satellite Security force had been brought into this silent and isolated prison, something that had never happened before.

Then came the loudspeakers.

"You on the roof, step back from the edge! Step back!"

"That sounds terribly close." She muttered as she sat up. He had already moved his head toward the window and peeked outside. "It's as if they're directly below us."

"They are." He said in a low voice, giving her a glance. Though her face still look flushed, the presence of Satellite Security had definitely made her less eager to rush up to the roof. "They are right below your room, Aki. But then again… Divine's room is in the same wing as yours." He looked up at the ceiling as if he could see through it. "I think he could be right above us at this moment."

She took a shuddering breath and joined him next to the window. Since the sky outside was still bright with the sunshine of the late summer afternoon, she hadn't drawn the curtain close and they could clearly see the Security officers gathering in the courtyard directly below them. Seven or eight cars had already pulled up, and about two dozen officers were looking up wearily at the rooftop. They seemed to pay no attention the people peeking out from behind their windows. They were completely focused on the man above them all.

"Divine!" The Security negotiator standing in front of all the others held a loudspeaker in his hands, and his voice boomed out to envelope the entire compound. "Stop this foolishness! Get down from the roof! Don't do anything stupid! We can talk through anything you want Just step back! Divine!"

Aki and Kiryu held their breath as the Security negotiator kept trying to talk some sense into Divine. For all they knew, the guards could be sneaking up on the man on the roof while the Security kept Divine's attention towards the ground. The entire debacle should end without anyone being hurt, and the matron would probably sigh and consign to the fact that Divine had lost more of his sanity.

What neither of them had expected was for Divine to actually reply in an audible voice.

"No…" That hoarse, rasping, and yet strong voice made Kiryu jump in surprise, and he instinctively looked upward as if he could somehow behold the owner of that voice with his own eyes. Aki bit her lip. She had no idea what Divine had planned, but she was resolved to see it to the end no matter what Kiryu may tell her to do.

"No… not… going… back." Those words were said slowly and drawn out, like a man recovering his speech from a long and deep slumber. "Not… nego…tiating… either." Divine had probably taken a step toward the edge, judging from the shock on the Security's faces on the ground. "I… am… esca… ping."

The Securities blinked, not sure of how to respond. Kiryu cursed beneath his breath. "Damnit! Don't tell me that he's actually got a Duel Disk and some cards with him. Is he going to blast his way out?"

That question was evidently on the mind of the Securities too. A few of them gathered together and spoke in hushed voices. But that was not quick enough to stop Divine.

"Aki… chan? Are… you… watching, A… ki… chan? I'm… getting… out… the… only… way… for… us… to… escape… Watch… me…!"

Kiryu turned and stared at her, eyes wide with shock and fear. Meanwhile, Aki felt like her breath had caught in her throat, and she couldn't even make a sound. She didn't understand what was going on either. How could he possibly esca –?

In the end, it all happened too quickly for her.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Before she finished thinking, a bloodcurdling scream had come out of the Security negotiator's throat as he backed away rapidly in pure terror.

Instinctively, Kiryu and Aki looked outside. As if he had suddenly been hit by realisation, Kiryu also let out a horrified yell and swung his hand around to cover up Aki's eyes.

"No! Don't look, Aki! Don't look!"

Too late. Kiryu's hand had missed its mark in his confusion, covering Aki's mouth instead. Her eyes and ears had captured everything as Divine leapt from the roof and fell to the pavement six storeys below.

It must have only taken him a few seconds to fall to the ground, but it seemed like forever to her eyes. She knew when his feet left the roof from the gasping faces of the Securities, caught his shadow over her room as his falling figure momentarily blocked out the sun, and watched his back in a trance till she heard the distinctive sound of something smashing to the ground.

Then, after the impact, she saw what Kiryu had tried to protect her from. Blood. Splattering blood. Blood seeping out from the snapped body, gradually expanding its circle of scarlet terror. Red blood, too bright for her to stare at, mixing with gore and brains. Blood was foaming out of joints and limbs out of place. Blood was bathing the organs that were displaced. Blood was covering that twisted neck – such a hellish scene was Divine's escape.

That was the way out. He had said as much. The only way out.

She felt dizzy. She felt nauseous and she felt her stomach constrict. She felt her brain was being overloaded with something, something shocking and overwhelming, so much so that it had forced her to forget to breathe.

Was that Divine's answer? What did that mean? What did he mean by that? This is not escape! This is death! This is the end! That's not what an escape is meant to be! An escape is meant to have a future to go with it! You're supposed to live on after you've escaped! This doesn't make sense it doesn't make sense it's not making sense her brain is refusing to make any sense…

"Aki!" Kiryu was screaming. What was he saying? Oh yeah, her name. Why was he screaming? Why was he looking so fuzzy? Why was the world turning blac –

The storm of thoughts in Izayoi Aki's head was abruptly cut off as her body finally gave up. She fainted, slumping into Kiryu's arms, who was still screaming her name.

Kiryu's hands slipped and her dead weight crashed to the floor, falling like Divine had fallen, except not from such a great height.

That was the beginning of her fall. From that day, her life at Rosewood had been over.

Too shocked for now?

Well, I apologise if it really did shock you. Maybe I should consider upping my stories to M rating one day, after all…

Any feedback on this would be welcome.

Also, this chapter was completed when I got the news that 5D's is finishing. It's probably old news for many of you, but hey, I don't keep up with the Internet now. It felt sad. As fanfic authors, we're undeniably dependent on the series. Without the series, there would be no fanfiction, no matter how much passion we put in. Yet, when a series finishes and is gradually forgotten, what does that make of our work, our sweat and tears, all the emotions that we put in? It felt sad to look back on the days of ygo proper and GX, to remember those times, and to realise that fanfic authors can just be like leaves blown in the wind, chasing one series after another in an endless dance. Time moves on. People move on. And our words will also lay forgotten together with the series… as if they didn't even matter in the first place.

Melancholia. That's one predicament I need to get myself out of.