Moved to a new city with a new job, and everything else in life has reached a standstill... ;(
VI Reality
"You know who he is?!" Yusei turned to Jack, feeling a chill going straight down his spine as the name reached his ears. Goodwin… he was hoping that perhaps there really was no connections with that friendly, caring, considerate Rex Goodwin he grew up knowing, but Jack seemed to have confirmed Yusei's worst fear.
"Yes. I damn well know who he is!" Jack straightened up and pointed his arm – with the gleaming red brand shining brightly in his arm - straight at the hooded figure. "He is Rudger Goodwin, Rex Goodwin's brother. Everyone thought he died in the big explosion at the end of the Prototype project, the explosion that killed half the population of Satellite, including mine and Crow's parents!"
"Don't tell me that you are blaming your misfortunes on me?" Slowly, the man named Rudger Goodwin turned his attention to Jack, a tint of amusement creeping into his voice. "I am as much a victim of Momentum as you were, young Jack Atlas. If you want to blame someone, you need to look no further than the sire of the King himself. The culprit was Professor Fudo, the one who insisted on keeping up the project but was not prepared to shoulder the inevitable hard choices that came with it. He and Rex were the ones who failed – they were the ones who made Satellite into what it is now. Is that so hard to see?"
Yusei bit back the anger that threatened to tear out of him. Thankfully, Crow was also incredulous, and he spoke up before Yusei could.
"Rex Goodwin has a brother?!" Crow gasped in shock. "I have never heard of that!"
"Of course not." Rudger chuckled. "They have all chosen to forget about the past. Why would Rex tell anyone about his failures? Why would Professor Fudo be reminded of his loss? No, they sat in their tall castles and prayed their troubles would go away with time. They hoped that the curse would go away on its own, that they won't have to face it again. But I am still here." Here he paused. "I am still here, at the heart of the truth, at the centre of all the problems they decided to ignore."
"And are Psychic Duelists a part of the problem, too?!" Yusei channelled his anger into a different direction as he yelled out towards Rudger. He thought back to what Aki had just said. She claimed what Rudger told her about Psychic Duelists didn't fit Yusei's situation – what was she told? What was the discrepancy? What could Yusei learn from it?
Aki didn't chime in, but he knew she was still be around. Looking up at her figure, he spoke again.
"Psychic Duelists are directly related to Momentum." He wasn't asking a question, but making a statement, and no one contradicted it. "But tell me, Rudger Goodwin, which one came first? Did they – " Here Yusei choked, and had to swallow before continuing, " – did us, the Psychic Duelists, contribute to Momentum's creation? Or was it the other way around?"
He heard a loud gasp from Aki. No, Fudo Yusei definitely did not expect to see the day when he would count himself amongst Psychic Duelists, but he felt that he might be able to feel something of her troubles now. He put his hand over his glowing arm, but it did little to hide the glaring red light emitting from his skin.
"Perceptive. You indeed inherited your parents' brains. Let me tell you, boy, you who are named after your father's supposed discovery – " Rudger's voice hissed as he took a few steps forward, standing on the ground to face Yusei at long last.
"– you were named after a lie. Yusei Particles never existed."
Even though he was half expecting it, Yusei still staggered as if he was dealt a physical blow.
The Yusei Particle was shrouded in so much secrecy that it might as well be a lie. Growing up, Yusei had idolised his father and felt endless pride for being named after his father's ground-breaking discovery. He was mildly disappointed when he found out his father had never published about the Yusei Particle in scientific journals, and that all the details around the Yusei Particle was buried under layers of patents to protect the interests of Domino. He had certainly doubted the existence of this mysterious particle in the dark and hidden corner of his mind. However, he could not bring himself to doubt his father, could not doubt the foundation of the entire City that Yusei was born to represent.
He could not doubt the achievement that earned his father eternal glory, not when he still lived with his father, not when he still saw his parents smiling faces.
Perhaps that was what Rudger meant. Yusei chose to forget his simmering concerns and hoped it would simply stop bothering him with the passage of time. Now, this spark of doubt he had pushed away came back and soundly slapped him on the face.
"Momentum. Quantum physics. Eternal machine. Ha!" Rudger gave a barking, scornful laugh. "All lies! All lies used to tie up the impossible loose ends that we found! Yes, the theory worked! But the cost? The expenditure?" Here he turned sideways to look up at Momentum, and Yusei finally saw the man's profile.
He might have looked like Rex Goodwin if Yusei bothered to compare their features and bone structure, but the expression and the thousands of wrinkles showed Rudger Goodwin was a very different man. His mouth still wore an almost maniacal grin when he turned back to look directly at Yusei, lowering his head to let the shadows claim half of his face again.
"The Momentum machine is inexplicably involved with Psychic Duelists, Fudo." Rudger's voice dipped, low and whimsical. Yusei shivered, suddenly convinced that Rudger was not addressing the Fudo here in this room, but the Fudo he knew in his youth, the one who was now crowned in glory in the top of Neo Domino City.
"Domino City has always been ripe grounds for the manifestation of incomprehensible powers within its duelists. Being one of the first cities in the world that embraced Duel Monsters, this place is full of myths that so many people have already forgotten. But Momentum proved them wrong. Momentum can only be controlled by the power of Psychic Duelists. But at the same time, the more we utilised Momentum, the more Psychic Duelists were born out of this land."
"Wh – What?" Jack gasped.
"You heard it right. Momentum works in its own mysterious ways. It is not something mankind could control. We needed the minds of Psychic Duelists to do whatever they do in order to harness the power of Momentum into electricity – or chemical energy, kinetic energy, anything we need. The price was that the more we used Momentum, the more children were born with the powers of a Psychic Duelist. And that was not all. The team was getting affected too."
Rudger then huffed and took a few steps towards Yusei. The ground around Momentum was paved, and every little 'thump' of Rudger's footstep was going straight in Yusei's soul.
"The team members were becoming Psychic Duelists, one by one. That was why so many of us decided to quit. The ones who were already too far gone then ended up killing themselves."
Yusei's hand flew to his mouth to suppress a guttural sound of dread.
"The City blames us Psychic Duelists for causing havoc and hurting people, but it was the greed of the City that caused Psychic Duelists to be born." Rudger growled. "The team tried so hard to stop ourselves from becoming Psychic Duelists. We thought it was a disease. We even cut off parts of our bodies with the Mark. In fact, I believe that was what Rex ended up doing in order to never let it slip."
"I knew he had a metal arm, but…" Yusei's eyes widened at the realisation. He had always known that Rex Goodwin was missing an arm, but it was explained away as a traffic accident… not an attempt to prevent himself from becoming a full-fledged Psychic Duelist.
Jack was talking in a loud voice not far from Yusei, rolling up his sleeve to show the glowing Mark.
"What do you mean, Mark? Do you mean this thing, Rudger Goodwin?"
Rudger turned to look at Jack. Above them, one of the figures was walking rapidly down the metallic stairs. From the shape of the figure, Yusei thought it must be Kiryu.
"Indeed, Jack Atlas. The Psychic Duelists with Marks on their bodies are far stronger than the others. Mutou Yugi, the legendary duelist from the first days of the game, was said to even possess a Third Eye on his forehead as a Mark of his immense power. Why, I remember visiting you at Martha's all those years ago, when you were still a little kid. Do you remember that, Jack?"
Jack made a choking sound. That memory had always stayed with him. Someone had come up to him in Martha's orphanage and told him that the freaky, weird birthmark on his arm, the shape that all the boys laughed at, was meant to be the mark of a King. Even though he never found out who that man was, memories of that visit had always given him strength. It served as evidence that Jack Atlas was special, and that he was worth something. It had been such a precious memory to him, but now –
"And I always thought Professor Fudo got out of this mess so easy." Rudger hissed. "He didn't suffer. He never suffered. He was never affected by the effects of Momentum, never really understood what everyone else was going through. He was so driven and so obsessed with the project that he lost touch to everything else that was happening. But now I see! Now I see the inescapable arm of karma!"
With that, the older man took a large step forward, walking into the light from above and throwing off his hood. Yusei finally saw his face now, a face as different from that of Rex Goodwin's as humanly possible. While Rex was fair was thin, Rudger was dark and swarthy. Where Rex was restrained and thoughtful, Rudger moved as if he had lost all inhibition and had no concern for the consequences of his actions.
"Fudo Yusei! The Golden Child of Neo Domino! The Shooting Star who reigns over all Duelists in the world! The son of the man who created an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity! All these titles, and you are nothing but a Psychic Duelist! Who would have thought this is how it was going to be, that this is the price your father would pay for his lies!"
Ecstatic, Rudger lifted his arms in the air and yelled, his voice echoing endlessly in the cave. Yusei was rooted to the ground with the sound of Rudger's elated laughter, the joy in that sound so completely incongruous to the fear that permeated throughout the chamber. Kiryu had reached ground level but stayed out of the light. Yusei found the uncontrollable shaking of his legs increase in intensity as Rudger stopped his laughter and started to approach him.
"What – what do you want, Rudger? If you want a duel to defeat me, then go ahead. I won't back down!" There was more courage in Yusei's words than what he was feeling. Rudger had a normal Duel Disk strapped to his arm, but then Yusei immediately remembered that everyone in this place, apart from Kiryu and Crow, were in fact Psychic Duelists.
Beings such as Rudger have no need to rely on the Black Duel Disk's power.
"A duel? You are ridiculous, Fudo Yusei. You are indeed of your father's blood." Rudger barked out a laugh again, stopping a few metres in front of Yusei. "You think formalities like duels still apply here? You think your skills in the game actually matter anymore?"
"What…?" Yusei frowned.
"Psychic Duelists don't need these rules. We don't play your 'game'… or haven't you realised that yet? A Psychic Duelist needs none of the trappings within the game of Duel Monsters." Rudger growled as thick, heavy sounds could be heard behind him, as the monster moved nearer step by step. "A Psychic Duelist's power is only limited by the strength of their emotions and the capacities of their mind. The more you aggravate us, they more you antagonise and spite us, the more fear and injustice you impose upon us, the more powerful we will become! No one ever understood that. You all thought we were out of control, that the only way to contain us was to put us under lock and key. Idiots in Domino never realised all they needed was to treat us as normal humans, and this would never have happened!"
With that, a flaming golden light shone out behind Rudger, casting the cave into blinding brightness. Yusei instinctively shielded his eyes. When he opened them again, Aki was there, in front of Rudger, a flash of greedy and wrathful red that was rushing towards him at full speed.
Yusei didn't miss the fringe of fire that accompanied her. He knew there was no way she was looking to bring him down with just a tackle. He impulsively ran away from her and heard a loud thud where he stood. When he tentatively looked back, the spot was now nothing but a flaming patch of unpaved ground, consumed by a raging fireball.
"Yusei!" Crow managed to react then. He and Jack had ran away from Aki's power, but now Crow drew out his black Duel Disk, ready to use the power that Rudger bestowed upon him to fight back. But Yusei only heard a strangled scream coming from Crow's direction as something dark dashed past him, and Jack loudly groaned as well. Standing near Momentum, Kiryu's hand was outstretched, and a purple light was glowing from his black Duel Disk.
"You don't get to join the fun, friends." Kiryu sneered. "This is the highlight of the show. This is when Aki finally faces the person who had been tormenting her all her life, and gets rid of him for good!"
Yusei gritted his teeth and ran again as he saw Aki lift up her hand. It was only when he stumbled into a pod and the sharp angles of the Duel Disk cut into his abdomen that he realised he now had other powers at his disposal. The red symbol was still shining brightly inside his skin. He put his hand shakily on the deck, mentally prepared himself to draw a card -
And yet when he saw embers flying towards his way, fear instinctively took over and he ran again.
"Damn it!"
Rudger and Kiryu were content to just watch as Aki chased Yusei around the perimeter of the cave. Yusei could hear Jack swearing loudly as he wrestled valiantly with the monster Kiryu summoned, but he couldn't manage to draw a card from his deck or put it on his own Duel Disk.
Yusei's hand shook when he finally drew a card with his own hand.
This is not a Duel. This is not the game you're currently the world champion of.
Yusei had to remind himself of that again and again as he looked down at his hand, his mind automatically formulating strategies out of habit. Strategies would not make a difference here at all. Psychic Duelists defeated each other purely based on power. He briefly wondered if Aki was even using anything other than just Monster Cards, if her deck had cast away all semblance of planning and tactics and embraced strength alone.
"What's wrong, King? Too afraid to beat up Aki?" Kiryu voice rang out, provoking him. "Didn't take you for such a soft sort!
"Shut up… shut the hell up!"
A tap of the Duel Disk unlocked his Synchro Deck and Yusei reached in, blindly, slamming down the first card he drew onto the Duel Disk. He knew Kiryu managed to touch upon the truth. He didn't want to fight Aki. He never wanted to fight Aki. But this…
As another fireball was hurled towards him, he knew that even if he didn't fight back, Aki would not care.
She had enough of being ignored and dismissed by the people Yusei represented.
He felt that, unless he fought back as an equal, she would never stop.
He was temporarily blinded by a fierce white light as whatever monster he drew was breathed into life by his new-found power. He had expected to feel something, anything, anything to indicate that he just caused a holograph to become flesh and blood. Yet he felt nothing. It was not so different to the millions of other times he had placed a card onto his Duel Disk, a movement as natural to him as drawing breath. His monster roared despite its master's hesitation, and he saw Aki flinch and reel back, her flaming amaryllis stopped in the middle of its movement according to its mistress's will.
"You have always been lucky, Yusei." She growled out, jealousy and displeasure evident in her tone. Yusei's gaze shifted upward towards his own monster and understood exactly what she meant.
Out of all the monsters he kept in his Synchro deck, he just had to draw the most powerful, the most beloved, the one closest to his soul – his Stardust Dragon.
He felt a new sense of pride and connection soaring up through his chest, lifting him up with the sheer amount of joy the sight brought him. As the dragon tilted its head and looked down upon him, Yusei's hand tingled with the desire to reach out and touch his dragon. He suddenly believed he understood why Psychic Duelists identified so fiercely and proudly with this part of themselves.
This dragon was a part of his heart, and he would fight till his last breath to keep it by his side.
"What's wrong, Aki? Too scared of his ace card?"
Kiryu's giggling laugh broke the temporary pause between Yusei and Aki. Both combatants turned to look at the Satellite man. Kiryu only shrugged, as if the fight hardly mattered for him. Aki gave a decidedly annoyed snort, and then lifted up her hand.
Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis disappeared and was replaced by the familiar, terrifying form of Black Rose Dragon, an animate being made from nothing but blood-soaked flower and thorns. As soon as it was summoned, a pitch-black ball of energy gathered in the mouth of the Black Rose Dragon, the beast's neck hyper-extended as it prepared for the attack. Belatedly, Yusei realised he didn't know how to command his monster. He stared at Stardust Dragon, mentally willing his monster to protect itself and him. Then, to his surprise, as if understanding the unspoken instructions, the dragon expanded its wings and a familiar, comforting white light surrounded both itself and Yusei.
The King closed his eyes out of reflex when the black energy was unleashed and washed over them, but he didn't feel a single thing. When he opened his eyes again, Stardust Dragon was still standing, but the slight slump in the dragon's posture indicated even his best creature can't withstand this forever.
"Yusei... I've lived under your shadow for ten years. Ten years...!"
Yusei did not shift as he looked at Aki. Her head was lowered, her voice was gritting out sounds full of pain and anger. She didn't look at him, only venting out all she wanted to say as if she pretended no one else was here. He remained silent, letting her say what he feared he already understood. The Mark on his arm shot another shiver of pain up his body, as if it was burning deeper into him, and he had to suppress a twitch that threatened to tear through his entire being.
"Do you have any idea how much attention was given to me, just because of your interest in Izayoi Aki?" Aki was growling. "Even if everyone knew I was a no-good Psychic Duelist, even if we may never end up married to each other, I still had to be watched to make sure no scandals might tarnish your image. I was watched all the time because of my association with you. I was assisted all the time because my actions may cause people to speculate about you! I am a Psychic Duelist, not a goddamn living bomb waiting to explode!"
"I would tell that I didn't know any of that, but I guess it didn't matter now." Yusei's voice was miraculously steady as he replied.
"Yes. Yes, I knew you were ignorant of it all." Aki lifted her head and gave a dry chuckle. "They tried to keep you well-protected. The golden boy of the city. The indomitable champion. The living embodiment of the Momentum Project. You were an idol who personified the global supremacy of Neo Domino City in this post-Momentum era! Do you know how high of a pedestal you were put on for your entire life, Fudo Yusei? Against your interests, I can't even fight back, can't even voice a single concern! I even had to learn duelling, because god forbid if Fudo Yusei's romantic interest is clueless with Duel Monsters, the universal game! If it wasn't for you – " she took a deep breath, "– if it wasn't for you, I would never have had to use my power as a Psychic Duelist."
"And us fighting will somehow make up for it?"
"You have no idea how panicked the City must be right now." She chuckled with apparent glee. "With you gone, Satellite getting out of control, the energy supply from Old Momentum slipping away – the very foundation of the City is breaking down as we speak. They may try to hide it in Tops, but they can't hide it forever." She then looked right at him. "And you, Fudo Yusei? What are you going to do, now that you know the truth and have a Psychic Duelist's Mark yourself? Are you going to hide behind your dragon forever? The dragon that your father made and named for you? Is that how this is going to go?"
"I can finally see the whole picture now." Yusei answered in a calm voice. "I can finally begin to scrape the surface of what you must have felt. You always fought alone, but I had millions supporting me. You weren't given the power to say no to anyone, much less to me. In Tops, where everyone was both a competitor and a friend, you were powerless – even if you were Izayoi Hideo's daughter."
"Don't mention that man's name to me." Aki snapped back. "He didn't know what to do with me when I was discovered to be a Psychic Duelist. You were already interested then, so there was nothing he could have done. Sometimes I wish he would have just given me away, like how he and Mother contemplated doing. I didn't want to be locked in Tops. I would have had more power in my life if I lived anywhere else."
"Then this time, fight me with all of your power, Aki." Yusei kept his back straight as he walked to stand beside his dragon, no longer shielded behind the beast. Aki was standing quite a few metres in front of Black Rose Dragon, he noticed. Secretly, he applauded her confidence and courage. "I am right here now. I am not going anywhere."
"Damn right you aren't!"
She lifted her arm to give her dragon a command, but Yusei broke into a sprint.
"Fly, Stardust Dragon!"
He jumped off the ground and clutched to one of the clawed tips of his dragon's wings as Stardust Dragon briefly took off from the ground. He could hear the gasps of the other people around him. The claw was slippery and offered no grip, and he knew he would be falling soon, but that was just what he calculated. He let go as his dragon physically slammed its silvery body into Black Rose Dragon, making the red dragon chock on the fireball that was gathering in its throat. Meanwhile, Yusei himself slammed into Black Rose Dragon's owner.
Aki gave out a yell of surprise as Yusei literally jumped onto her, his arms crossed before his face to protect himself. In that way, he also deliberately put his Duel Disk right in the way of her face, forcing her to either step back or act as his cushion. She chose the former, and Yusei landed hand on his feet with a groan, before jumping up and lunging towards Izayoi Aki.
She was shocked. That was evident from her slowed reflexes and her hesitation in using her power. Their dragons physically tussled not far from them, but Yusei bet she never expected to have to fight with her fists as well. He took a powerful swing at her face, not holding anything back, and she tottered backwards again, trying to regain her balance.
If she was so determined to fight him with all her strength, then he will repay in kind.
"B-Black Garden!"
The ground beneath him transformed to a bed of thorns with her Field Spell, and a wall of living ivy intertwined itself between Yusei and Aki, forcibly separating them. Yusei reached into his Extra Deck and pulled out a card, slamming it onto his Duel Disk without even looking at it. He didn't need to check. The Mark in his arm burnt like a thousand hot irons were pressing into his bones and it made him feel his cards. He knew what it would be.
Was this what it truly meant to be a Psychic Duelist?
"Junk Warrior! Cut this down!"
Those may be magically created thorns, but they were plants, nonetheless. The sharp blades and the fuming fireballs his machine hurtled out made quick work of the greenery, and Yusei sprinted through the broken obstacle.
"You are not running away now, are you, Izayoi?"
"Don't call me by that name!" She was placing something else on her Duel Disk. "I am not Izayoi. I am more than Izayoi! Queen of Thorns!"
Red, carnivorous thorns stabbed towards his monster and entangled themselves all around Junk Warrior's limbs. Yusei's monster struggled and stiffened, breaking more vines in response and dragged Aki's monster closer, threatening to slam its fist into the creature made of leaves. Yusei started on a run again, looking to tackle Aki once more.
"Black Garden! More vines!"
He was suddenly stopped, his torso lurching forward uselessly. Vines tangled around his legs and stopped him mid-stride. They were not damaging him, but he couldn't move, and that was bad.
Yusei looked up just in time to put his arms in front of his face as a massive vine slammed down at him, smacking him backwards into the bed of sharp thorns. Surprised and shocked by the pain, Yusei let out a sharp scream as those hungry, thirsty needles punctured his layers of clothing and sank into his back.
"Hahaha! That was impressive! It's not every day that you have to use almost all of your traps and distractions to bring down someone, isn't it, Aki? He's giving you quite the fight!"
Aki ignored Kiryu and dashed straight towards Yusei. Yusei redoubled his efforts to break free, mentally shouting at his monster to protect him. It worked – briefly. He saw Junk Warrior in front of him as the monster struggled free from its previous enemy. It flew to protect its master, standing between Yusei and Aki. But then his monster's head disappeared inside gigantic jaws that arose from behind her, and Junk Warrior was bodily dragged away from him, leaving Yusei utterly defenceless.
Not one, but two Gigaplants surrounded Junk Warrior, tying it up securely with countless vines. All of Yusei's efforts to reach for his deck and draw out a card failed, and Aki quietly walked up to him and looked down at his pained face.
"Yusei, you asked for it. This is my power as a Psychic Duelist. This is me fighting you with everything I've got. But you? Are you really so weak? Is this the power of the City you are meant to represent?"
"Ngh…"
Vines climbed over him, binding his hands securely to the ground in their bloody grasp. Smaller vines teasingly entwined themselves around his throat, reminding him of the extent of their control over him. Yusei opened his mouth and felt the playful tip of thin thorns sink into his skin of his neck with the movement. She looked down on him, her face emotionlessly and cold.
"I have always been weak, Aki." He managed to croak out. Somewhere far away, he knew his dragon still struggled against hers, but he wasn't going to take his eyes off her. Not when she finally bared her bleeding, screaming heart to him.
"Really." She paused and gave a dismissive laugh. "Are you finally seeing why people were afraid of Psychic Duelists? Now that you are a part of us, are you seeing what everyone else sees about us, that we are nothing but monsters?"
"No. I just realised I was always borrowing the City's power." He swallowed carefully. The thorns were digging deeper into his flesh now. "I was always living my life by doing everything the City wanted me to do. I am weak only because I never fought for myself. That's what got me into this situation right now. I should have stopped being King long ago, and started to be Fudo Yusei – no, not even Fudo Yusei. Just be me. Without a city, a father, or even a name. That's what you tried to do, isn't it? To re-invent yourself, without any of the shackles we were born with."
"You… what are you saying?!"
As if what he said touched some painful wound deep within her, she suddenly roared in anger and knelt down, straddling him and putting her hands over his neck, tightening the hold of the vines with her own hand. He gasped and his brain was sharply aware of the proximity of real, irrevocable death.
"What are you talking about, Yusei!? You are the representative of the City! You represent everything that ever chained me down! You are something I could never surpass while I lived in Neo Domino! Fudo Yusei, you are Neo Domino City! You cannot disavow that!"
"What you want to avenge yourself upon isn't me, Aki." He replied in a small voice. "There's something else out there that made both of us victims. You know that, don't you?"
"I – "
Her attention wavered as if something tremendous just invaded her thoughts. He could feel it in how her vines suddenly went slack, how his monsters could suddenly struggle more freely.
Stardust Dragon took this chance and sank its teeth into Black Rose Dragon's throat.
Aki reeled back with a sharp cry as a loud clang shook the entire cavern, the inhuman screeches of dragons echoing on top of Aki's agonised scream. The vines shivered in confusion and fear as Aki's eyes momentarily glazed over with the trauma that Black Rose Dragon must have received, her control on her creations briefly slipping.
Yusei closed his eyes and grimaced, knowing the pain that he would be putting himself through as he sat up, tore himself out of the bed of thorns, and launched himself forward into Aki.
It hurt so much, the vines clinging to him like the vengeful arms of the dead as he ripped himself free. He could feel the resistance of the plants as his movement stretched them beyond their endurance and tore them apart, shreds of broken bark and shrubbery falling to the ground as he sat up, his throat barely managing to suppress a painful cry. He grasped Aki tightly and used the strained momentum of his body to push her down into her own vines, not stopping even when he felt her sinking deeper into the sharp thorns. He kicked his legs free too and caged her within her own web and did not let go. Parts of his arm tingled with the sensation of something warm and wet dripping down it. It was undoubtedly his blood.
Aki stirred in his arms. Yusei thought she was going to push him away and was prepared for it. But the moment she freed her arm, she stretched it behind her, digging deep into the bed of thorns they were sitting on. When her hand came into view again, it held a thorny branch in her bleeding fingers. Aki gave a horrible, desperate yell, and stabbed this mimicry of a blade straight into Yusei's left shoulder.
"AHH!"
Yusei couldn't hold back his voice anymore. The new wound tore through the background of pain that his brain was just managing to suppress.
He struggled to hold her steady, vaguely aware that she was shouting something – he seemed to hear her yelling 'why'. His right hand flew to hers in an attempt to prevent her from pushing the thorny blade in even further. As they struggled, Yusei managed to elbow Aki hard in the face. She gave a small yelp and Yusei pushed her away, wanting to get her hand off his shoulder, and shoved her deeper into the bed of thorns.
Yusei kept pushing her into the thorns. He was in too much pain to think clearly, his hands having moved to wrap around her throat, fully intending to cause as much damage as possible. He expected her to scream – almost wanted her to – but she made no sound. Her arms moved towards him. Out of reflex, thinking she will stab him again, he shifted a hand to grab hers in return, but barely missed her hand.
Her hand touched his face but there was no weapon, no thorns. He grabbed her arm regardless, both of their limbs glowing with a flaming red mark so ominously similar to the other's in design. He could see droplets of his own blood flowing down his arm, soaking his blue jacket into a shade of blue so dark it was almost black, coppery patches that shimmered wetly in the combined red light of their arms.
He could see Aki's lips moving weakly, could register the thousands of small cuts and scratches the thorns made in their skin, could see the two long, dark trails of criminals Marks that will mar her beautiful face for life.
As he held her in this bed of despair, she muttered words that might have been her most private thoughts all along.
"Yusei… Yusei, where… where did we go wrong?"
He didn't know. He didn't know how they went from childhood playmates to symbols of society, how they came to tear at each other's throats, or how they were trying to give each other the fatal blow at a forgotten cave on the shores of Satellite.
But while they paused, their Dragons did not stop. Gaining the upper hand after delivering a vicious bite into Black Rose Dragon's throat, Stardust Dragon sunk its silver teeth into Black Rose Dragon's flesh again and picked the other Duel Monster up by its neck, and bodily flung the red dragon into a mess of wires close to the Momentum machine.
With a deafening boom, Black Rose Dragon's body crashed into something before it completely disappeared, giving out a defeated screech as it dematerialised. But that heavy impact, the entire weight of a gigantic Duel Monster, must have knocked something loose. The lighting emitted by the pods and all over the cave instantly blinked out and plunged the cavern into shadow, the entire place only illuminated by the low purple glow of the reverse Momentum machine.
-\-\-\-\-\-
Rua flipped the light switch on, then off again. On, then off again.
The lights in their luxurious house flickered unsteadily under his administrations, blinking with uncertainty. Rua frowned, then double-checked – no, more like quadruple-checked – the power of their housing. Finding nothing wrong with the grid, he resorted to scowling at the ceiling.
"Tops should be the last place in the world to have a power outage." He muttered under his breath, clearly unhappy with the situation.
"Maybe the storm damaged something." His twin offered, looking pensively out at the curtain of rain that was currently falling over the City. "I heard the rain and wind was very bad at Satellite, and we only got a mild version of it. This is still a lot of rain, though."'
Rua pouted but was unable to offer a better explanation of his own. He jumped to attention, however, when the intercom lit up with a loud beep.
"Hey! Maybe the power company finally replied to us! Or maybe they're giving an announcement!"
Rua scampered towards the intercom immediately. Ever since the power supply in their house on Tops became unstable about an hour ago, he and his sister had sent inquiries and looked online, but there was nothing to be found. It was odd for this day and age. They therefore assumed there was something wrong with the physical grid supplying their home and sent in more inquiries regarding that. Perhaps this really was an answer.
The man on the other side of the phone was terribly polite and gave out a string of apologies, indicating that he was indeed from the power company and that the storm certainly affected some parts of the hardware in Tops. However, specific parts of the cables that serviced the twins' house have not been affected, making the power company suspect it may be an issue inside the house. The employee was therefore asking Rua and Ruka's permission to send someone into their house.
The twins, understandably, paused.
Their house was not some place that anyone could be let in, power company or not. You do not allow strangers into your house when your family controls some of the biggest companies in the City. It simply didn't happen.
The employee seemed to understand the implications of his suggestion. He rapidly back paddled, promising that he would be accompanied by Security Officers. In fact, if the twins wished, only the Security Officers would enter the compound where the twins' luxurious house stood. Thinking that it was a reasonable request, the twins agreed to it after discussing it amongst themselves.
They heard the doorbell about ten minutes after the phone call. Peeking cautiously at the camera, they saw a few Security officers whom they recognised, being officers stationed constantly at Tops for at least a few years. Judging this to be safe – and Rua really wanted the lights to be fixed – they opened the door and allowed them in.
What Ruka and Rua did not expect was for the Security Officers to instantly bundle them up and drag them out of their house.
Rua was so shocked that he didn't even get to struggle before he felt big, strong hands on him, bodily carrying him up on the Security Officer's shoulder before something was pulled down over his eyes and he couldn't see anything anymore. He tried to scream, and there was another hand on his face, muffling his voice to a low mumble. His legs kicked, but found absolutely no leverage as he felt himself being physically thrown into a vehicle, his sister nowhere near.