A massive thanks to everyone who is still reading this. My updates are getting very very chaotic as I am currently working on a multitude of jobs in life, and it's just a whole lot of pressure and I haven't settled into my new city and state, so stress is getting quite high too. Thanks so much for your continued support!
VII Treasure
When Rua came to again, the first thing he registered was the sound of someone shouting.
Blinking blearily, he tried up rub the tiredness out of his eyes, only to discover his hands were somehow tied together behind his back. The very movement he was trying to make pulled his shoulders so much that they hurt, rapidly forcing his conscious out of its slow and dreamy state and into extreme clarity.
There was a white light glaring down on top of him. He was lying on his back on a bed. At least, whatever he was lying on was definitely soft enough to be a bed. But he was definitely not comfortable. Apart from the light that was burned into his sleepy eyes and the loud shouting that was still going on, his arms and hands were also hardly responsive underneath his own weight. He tried again to turn his shoulders, and only ended up hurting himself more.
"Oww!" He let out a displeased whine. To his surprise, the shouting suddenly stopped.
"Rua!"
There was a familiar voice close to him. A humanoid form briefly appeared in his dizzy vision, and Rua found himself being lifted up. He blinked against the shadow of the person cast by the white, harsh light, and recognised his mother's face after a few seconds of delay.
"… Mum?!"
As the most successful business owners of the City, Rua's parents were so rarely home that Rua almost thought this couldn't be real. Was it really his mother? Was this a dream?
"Goodwin, you have broken your promise! This is not what we paid for!"
Rua could tell his father was the one shouting now. His mother was bending over the boy, struggling with the ropes that bound Rua's hands. Rua turned his neck and saw that his father was standing at the other end of the sparsely furnished room, facing off against none other than Rex Goodwin, who wore a grim expression on his wrinkled face.
"Mum…?" As Rua stared at his mother in disbelief, the woman managed to squeeze out a smile at her young son. Her hands, however, were cold and clammy as she worked frantically to untie Rua.
"It's okay, Rua. Don't be scared. Mommy's here now…"
"Mum… where are we?" Rua unceremoniously wriggled free as he finally felt the bonds tying his hands together fell away. His mothered heaved a sigh of relief and immediately started to fuss over Ruka, who was lying on the same bed as him. His sister was still unconscious, and Rua can't help but feel a certain kind of dread despite his parent's presence.
"We're safe, Rua." His father also spoke up, but his tone was strange. And even though he was talking to Rua, the older man still faced Goodwin.
"Aren't we safe, Goodwin?"
The question was clearly a rhetorical one, but the level of anxiety on Rua's father's face indicated the sentence wasn't as simple as it may seem.
Rua blinked as his father glared at Goodwin. He tried to think of any fights his father may have had with Goodwin, but could find none. His parents had always been good friends to the powerful politician. If anything, his parents wouldn't want to speak like this to the most influential man in Neo Domino City. Rua's family was in business. The twins have always been taught to act with the utmost delicacy around the man who ran this City.
"Calm down." There was an audible displeasure in Goodwin's voice when he finally opened his mouth. "I meant your children no harm."
Rua looked at his mother. The woman was almost sobbing as she freed Ruka from her restraints as well. Their mother rubbed the small wrists of the young girl, which was covered in angry red welts from the harsh treatment of the ropes. It certainly didn't look like they were just here for a friendly chat, but Rua kept up his hope.
And yet, what Goodwin spoke next made Rua freeze.
"I am only keeping your twins here to protect them in the current situation regarding Momentum."
"Goodwin, we don't talk about this in front of the children!" Rua's father took a threatening step towards Goodwin.
"I am not threatening your family." Goodwin put his hands behind him as he spoke in an even tone, watching Rua's father become ever more agitated in front of him.
"Really? Tying up my children isn't the most convincing gesture!" Rua's father persisted. The man was usually so smooth, so collected, but Rua saw his father's hands were clenched into fists. The director then casually cast his eyes towards the twins, and Rua's mother instantly moved closer to her children, as if shielding them from Goodwin.
Rua felt someone grabbing his hand. He turned around and saw that Ruka was awake, and saw his own concern mirrored in his twin's wide green eyes.
Goodwin's lips tilted upward in a small smile. "Madam, it doesn't help that your daughter is currently the best candidate to keep Momentum under control, especially after your drastic mismanagement at Rosewood and the subsequent chaos."
"What?"
Ruka's gasp was loud in the oppressive room. The twin's father was staring daggers at Goodwin, yet the white-haired man was entirely unmoved, as if what he just revealed was simply a trivial matter.
"What did you say… Uncle Goodwin?"
Rua felt he had to ask the question. Throughout all his search with Ruka and despite all the circumstantial evidence, he really didn't want to believe in this outcome – that the ones who were responsible for the establishment of Rosewood, the people who were funnelling money into Satellite for that secretive operation, were his own parents.
"Why, uncle Goodwin?"
His sister also gave a pained cry next to Rua. Where Rua's own voice contained nothing but shock, he could hear that Ruka's tone was laced with genuine anxiety. Rua looked towards his sister and felt that he understood. While he was concerned with their parent's involvement in secret activities, Ruka must have been petrified to know that their family had invested in researching on Psychic Duelists. Not to mention that Ruka would be considered a Psychic Duelist herself, and especially after Goodwin simply admitted the link between Psychic Duelists and the functioning of Momentum.
"You are asking me why, little Ruka?"
Ruka visibly shook when Goodwin turned away from their father towards the twins and walked slowly towards them like a cat happily stalking its prey.
"Why? You are asking me why, little children, when you have been probing throughout all the databases, looking into all the things you shouldn't be looking at?"
The suddenly scathing, sneering quality in Goodwin's voice made a cold sweat break out all along Rua's back. He had never seen Goodwin angry before; never. Rua thought he could probably handle rage, be able to think of something to say if Goodwin yelled at them or was openly cross with them. Instead, the director mocked them, approaching them with a tone so cold and unforgiving as if they were beneath his notice, as if they were not even on the same level of existence as him. Rua shuffled closer to his sister out of an instinctual fear. He did think that their probing might have been picked up by someone, but he did not anticipate so powerful an obstacle as the man who ran Momentum itself.
"Goodwin, you… what? Ruka, Rua, what did you do?!" Their father was visibly more distraught than before, caught between wanting to defend his children and fearful of any discoveries the twins may have made.
Rua shook his head and bit his lip when both his parents turned on him. He didn't know what he should say. How would he explain any of this to his parents? That he and his sister were helping a Satellite outlaw? That they were involved in secretly sending Yusei to Satellite? That they were trying to uncover buried history surrounding the initial prototypes of Momentum?
"Your children are digging into things that no one should remember ever again." Still completely composed, Rex Goodwin answered the twin's father's question for him. "Consider this as a… session in discipline. For your children, as well as for you, in light of the consequences of your bad judgement regarding Rosewood."
"Dad, Mum…" Rua croaked. "You were involved in this all along…? You were the ones… funding Rosewood?"
"How did you know that name?!" The twin's mother whipped around, her usually kind face now a twisted mask of uncontrolled fear. Her keen blue eyes, so bright and sure of themselves in Rua's memory, was now wide in fearful uncertainty. Rua shrank closer towards his sister, all of his usual claims about being the 'big brother' forgotten in this alien situation.
"Just how much do you kids know?! Rua? Ruka!" Their father's voice was severe as he glared at his children in his turn. Rua instinctively clung to his sister, and he was not surprised to realise that his sister's hand was icy cold.
"Dad… Mum…"
When Ruka finally opened her mouth, the first few drops of tears had already started to flow down her cheeks. As she spoke more, her lips quivered and she could hardly continue to talk. Rua bit his lips and wrapped his arms around his sister. He looked up and clenched his hands into fists.
"Dad. Mum." Rua picked up where his sister left off. If Ruka could no longer speak, then he will be her voice. "So, all the secrets and rumours about Rosewood, all the companies putting money into that hospital, all the false records… you were the ones behind all this?"
Ruka was sobbing openly in his arms by now, and Rua hugged her tighter, letting her know that even if the entire world tumbled down around them, he would still be on her side.
"It was all for your sake!" Their father all but seethed, and Rua felt his sister jump in response.
"How would it be for our sake!? We don't need all the stuff with Rosewood. Dad, Mum, we already have plenty of money!" Feeling how Ruka was positively shaking in his arms, Rua gritted his teeth and glared back at his father.
"You don't understand… Goodwin is right. It's not about the money!" It was their mother who answered him. "It was indeed all because of you… No, to be precise, it was all because of Ruka!"
"Ru… Ruka?!"
Ruka, still crying in his arms, completely froze.
"H… how?"
It was the only thing Rua could say. It was the only thing he could make out amidst the disgusting feeling that started to gurgle up in his stomach. He felt like he wanted to throw up. It was already bad enough to know that their parents were the ones putting money into Rosewood. It was infinitely worse to learn that they were somehow doing it for Ruka's sake.
"Let me explain." As composed as ever, Rex Goodwin opened his mouth. "I suspect you children may already have found hints about this, but the truth is," here he paused, and Rua swore he did it purely just for dramatic effect, "Momentum needs Psychic Duelists to properly function."
Rua blinked, his brain not connecting the dots quite yet.
"Without Psychic Duelists, Momentum would easily overflow its physical boundaries and bring about general disaster, just like what happened in Satellite at the beginning of the project." Rex Goodwin continued evenly. "As Neo Domino began to utilise Momentum more and more, it soon became evident that the presence of Psychic Duelists is a necessity for Momentum, and Rosewood Institute was built precisely for that purpose."
Rua glanced rapidly at his parents' direction. Was Goodwin implying that his parents had given funds into Rosewood out of civic duty? That his parents might have been blackmailed? Perhaps… perhaps they didn't know what actually went on within those walls?
"Now, if you are thinking that maybe your parents funded Rosewood because they were only trying to help the City in general, you would be wrong, children." Goodwin shifted his focus away from the adults and gave a mocking smile at Rua's direction. "They did it while fully knowing that the Psychic Duelists 'used' in there would suffer horribly, and that they would not be criminals. Those are innocent people trapped there simply because of their birth… because they were born as Psychic Duelists."
Ruka made a whimper. Rua held his sister tighter.
"And the reason your parents decided to 'harvest' the other Psychic Duelists was all to protect you, Ruka." Goodwin's voice sank. "In order to prevent you from ever being used to assist Momentum, your parents built and ran Rosewood for me."
"That's… that's sick!"
The three adults in the room all turned towards Rua as the young boy, no longer able to endure Goodwin's insinuations, all but screamed.
"That's sick, Uncle… no, Rex Goodwin!" Big drops of tears were welling up in Rua's eyes as he screamed at the top of his lungs towards Goodwin. "'Harvest'? 'Use'? That's… that's what you call these people? And you forced Mum and Dad to help you! You used Ruka to force them! Then you dare to tell them that everything is their fault?"
"But it is their fault." Goodwin was completely impassive in the face of Rua's accusations. "If your parents didn't decide to harvest Izayoi Aki, then none of this would have occurred."
"We were running out of candidates in Rosewood." Rua's father turned back to Goodwin. Contrary to the man's usual suave and composed demeanour, Rua detected a hint of desperation in his father's words, something that indicated to the boy that something even larger might be going on somewhere unbeknownst to him.
"And what is your point? We had an agreement with Senator Izayoi, the same kind we had with you regarding your daughter." Goodwin's casual glance towards Ruka was cold and apathetic. "If you single-handedly decided to annul the contract we made with Izayoi Hideo, then surely you won't mind if I also decide right now to reverse the contract we had about Ruka."
"You are a monster, Goodwin…" His father gritted his teeth at the man dressed in white. Yet Rua knew this was coming. Goodwin's implications were too clear to miss.
They were going to 'harvest' Ruka, to 'use' her, as if she was just a tool, cattle to the slaughter…!
"The alternative would be to round up the rest of the Psychic Duelists we are tracking, so Momentum can keep running for as long as possible." Coolly, calmly, Goodwin gave Rua's family the ultimatum. "Thanks to Izayoi Aki's meddling and the destruction of Rosewood, we have lost large numbers of Psychic Duelists previously kept at Satellite. Momentum is in an extremely unstable state right now. The City is at significant risk of running out of electricity, not to mention all the military weaponry and structures relying on Momentum."
Here Goodwin paused and looked pointedly at Ruka, who was still quivering in Rua's arms.
"If you sacrifice Ruka, we will be able to save Momentum even at this late stage. She will be able to help us pull through until we find where Rudger had hidden all the other candidates –"
"No!" Rua's mother gave out a panicked scream. "No! You are not taking my daughter away from me!"
"That, I suspect, would have been exactly what Izayoi Hideo and his wife would say… if you ever asked for their permission to harvest Izayoi Aki." Goodwin was merciless. "But I guess it can't be helped. After all, without your money, gathering and keeping Psychic Duelists will be much more difficult."
"Mum… Dad… You've been hurting these people… all this time…?" Rua didn't know who to look at. He instinctively wanted to stand on his parents' side in this confrontation, but another part of him knew very well that every adult in this room was guilty.
He was reduced to holding on to Ruka, the only other person here whom he could trust, as his understanding of his hometown crumbled to pieces around him.
Goodwin turned around and knocked twice on the door behind him. It was speedily opened by a uniformed Security officer.
"Send word to harvest every Psychic Duelist we still have with us." Goodwin gave out an order.
"That's horrible…" Ruka said in a shaking voice.
"That is horrible. Indeed." Unaffected by the family broken before his eyes, Goodwin turned back to them. "But this is the price Neo Domino had paid for harnessing the power of Momentum. After all, to control such a divine power, one has to sacrifice something of equal measure."
"You think you can just stand there and say all these things, while you make everyone else give up people they care about?!" Rua managed to get out a few strangled words as he sought to comfort Ruka, who was trying her best to choke back more sobs.
"…Yes. Yes I can." Goodwin fixed his gaze on the children. His voice, which had remained light and nonchalant throughout the entire encounter, suddenly became hard with a steely edge of anger. "I, too, have given up people I care about. I will not let the result of all my hard work and sacrifice crumble like this – especially not to Izayoi Aki and her ruckus of a crew!"
-\-\-\-\-\-
When the lights in the cave went out, the first sound Yusei heard was loud cursing from Crow.
The entire cavity within the mountain was plunged into icy darkness. A dark purplish light, one that hardly allowed human eyes to see, turned on seconds after. Yusei knew that to be Momentum's emergency lights. As the dim purple light gradually filled up the space, he felt the thorns around him retract and disappear. For better or worse, the power supply for everyone's Duel Disk had stopped, making all monster fade away for good.
"God damn it!" Kiryu's voice sounded somewhere, followed by the loud clatter of someone fumbling with machinery. There were other sounds as well, and Yusei could hear footsteps approaching him. Sitting back, he let go of Aki, only to immediately fall back on his haunches as all the adrenaline that was holding him up faded away.
"Yusei!"
Jack yelled somewhere really close, but Yusei could hardly see him. Not daring to call out and expose his position, the City-born young man stretched his arm upwards and waved frantically, hoping Jack would be able to see him that way. Thankfully, his movements did catch Jack's attention. The taller young man, looking like a lighter shadow than the rest of them, quickly grabbed Yusei then started to drag him away. Yusei clutched at Jack in silent protest.
"What?" Jack grumbled back.
"Aki…" Yusei whispered under his breath.
"Forget about her." Jack muttered in obvious displeasure. "We need to get out of here. Kiryu and this Rudger guy are capable of anything."
There was the sound of Crow struggling with somebody. From the tone the curses both parties were giving out, Yusei guessed it was with Kiryu.
"See? We need to get out." With that, Jack kept dragging Yusei along in the darkness.
"Do you know where the exit is, then?" Yusei inquired.
"I have a general idea." Jack didn't sound all that positive, but he probably just wanted to keep moving. Yusei had figured out by now that it wasn't Jack's style to be a sitting duck.
"Hey! You bastards! Where do you think you're going?"
Yusei flinched when Kiryu yelled behind them. Had Crow gotten away as well? Was that why Kiryu was mad?
Yusei had no idea what the general situation was. His eyes had somewhat adjusted, and he could hear a peculiar whirring coming from inside Old Momentum. Based on what Yusei knew from his father's lab, he was sure it was the sound of some sort of emergency generator used to kickstart Momentum in an event of failure. And if Yusei were Rudger, he would try to get Momentum up and running as soon as possible. After all, it seemed like the Black Duel Disks were all powered by Old Momentum. Without these Duel Disks, people like Kiryu would just be like any other ordinary man. With Yusei's party having a solid advantage in the number of Psychic Duelists, Yusei didn't think Rudger would fancy a fight without Momentum's power.
"Hurry." Yusei whispered to Jack in as low a voice as possible. "Rudger has got to be booting Momentum back up right now."
Jack grumbled assent and they moved faster. There was a definite change in the quality of air on Yusei's face as they moved. Without a doubt, they were moving in a direction that had a steady current of wind, fresher than the air in the rest of this cave. Maybe this was Jack meant. It was certainly an effective way to navigate in this darkness.
But the darkness did not last long enough for them to reach the entrance. With a loud bang, and followed by the humming of some generators, the lights illuminating the pods around the perimeter of the cave was restored. Yet the rest of the emergency lights completely disappeared. The only things Yusei could see were the people sleeping in the pods, who looked almost translucent in the white light. The stark contrast between the pale glow of the pods and the darkness of the cave made the people within appear alien, looking like light bulbs that illuminated the cave.
"You!" The light was bright enough for Kiryu to see them now. The Marked man screamed somewhere behind them. Without thinking, Jack and Yusei both broke into a run. Yusei vaguely saw his Duel Disk boot up again, the multi-colour lights flushing repeatedly. Yusei bumped Jack's arm and Jack grunted, indicating that he understood what Yusei was hinting at.
With the power supply for the Duel Disks back online, the Psychic Duelists would be able to summon their creatures again.
"You are not going anywhere!"
As Kiryu gave out a crazed yell behind them, Yusei saw something glitter into being in front of him. He instinctively pushed Jack aside and the two of them landed on the floor, narrowing missing the swing of a Duel Monster's spear that swept through the air where they were standing moments ago.
"Thought you could run away from us, now that you have somehow scared Aki yet again!? Huh?!" The heavy thud of a boot landed right next to Yusei's face. The impact was so close and sudden that the City-born young man instinctively cringed and steeled himself for a kick to the face. But instead, he found himself being turned over, as Kiryu grinded his boot into Yusei's wounded, bleeding shoulder. A shocked, hoarse cry escaped, as the unexpected pain assailed Yusei's brain. Wriggling, he tried to get away from Kiryu, but barely managed to move an inch.
"Get your filthy hands off him!" Jack was on his feet instantly and pushed Kiryu to the side. "What is it this time, Kiryu?! You want more blood on your hands? I knew you've always hated the City but heck, do you have to go this far now?!"
"Off, Jack!" Kiryu's words were full of venom in return. "You ran away from our gang like a coward before, and now you're going to stop me again!?"
Jack's tactics worked, nevertheless. Distracted, Kiryu turned away from Yusei and took his foot off. Yusei scrambled to get up and managed to nudge himself away, barely managing to suppress the whine of pain as he moved. Following Kiryu's kick, Yusei knew his left arm won't be in working condition for a while. Even the weight of the Duel Disk on his arm felt so much heavier than it ever did, dragging his whole left side down. At the end, he managed to scuttle away from the middle of the cave, and partially hid himself around the machines that lined the perimeters.
Now that the cave was somewhat illuminated again, Yusei could see that Aki had also moved away from the spot they fought over. She was lying on the ground very far from him, protected by a dark shape that Yusei struggled to recognise. It was probably one of Kiryu or Rudger Goodwin's monsters.
Rudger Goodwin… Speaking of the man, Yusei looked around the whole place, but the older man was nowhere to be found. Where had Rudger Goodwin, who was evidently the mastermind behind the entire enterprise, gone?
"Jack, shut up before I shut you up forever!" Kiryu's words brought Yusei's attention back to the present. Peeking out, Yusei saw that Kiryu was physically struggling with Jack, and the blond man was wrenching the black Duel Disk off Kiryu's arm.
"Braves words as always, huh?!" As his reply, Jack only pulled harder on the black Duel Disk his former friend carried, having already unlocked the arm brace. "But it's not like you didn't act on those words. You damn well did – and got yourself arrested and ruined everyone else in the process!"
"And if you only listen to me – if only you guys all came with me and had a revolution together – we would have WON!" With a mighty shove, Kiryu pushed Jack away, but the other man also managed to rip away the Duel Disk for good with the force of that push, tearing it out of Kiryu's reach.
"Kiryu! Don't you know when to stop?! We wouldn't have won – are you stupid?!" Jack dodged as Kiryu, who realised his mistake, lunged after him. The blond man deftly moved the black Duel Disk away from Kiryu's outreached hand, using his height to his advantage.
"Jack, you bastard!" Kiryu tried again to get his Duel Disk back but failed again. "Give it back! You just didn't love Satellite as much as I do! I'm willing to give everything for this district's liberation, including my life!"
"You love Satellite? Don't make me laugh!" Jack growled with displeasure and added to the effect with a punch towards Kiryu's face, which his former companion dodged. "You love power! Just look at you right now, running after this thing like an addicted slave!"
"You are just too scared to take power! Or do you think people would obey you simply because they call you the King? Oh, wait, the King of Satellite. My bad. Not even the real King!"
With that, Kiryu lunged at Jack again. And, as if he was truly stunned by what Kiryu said, Jack stumbled – and Kiryu's hand securely grasped the black Duel Disk in Jack's hand.
"No! God damn it! Don't listen to him Jack!" From somewhere in the far corner of the cave, Yusei saw Crow lunge out from the semi-darkness. Crow's right hand was over his left elbow, and from the way he ran, Yusei would guess that Crow also had an injury somewhere on his legs. Crow's black Duel Disk was still strapped to his arm, and Yusei saw that the Duel Disk was giving out a faint, flickering light – something that he knew indicated a shortage in power.
"And Jack, you are a bloody coward too!" As if he was ignorant of Crow's approaching fury, Kiryu kept talking. "If you all followed me – if everyone in Satellite stood up for ourselves against the City – then we would never have suffered this! We won't have the City treating us like trash. They won't be building things like Rosewood on our soil, and we won't just be an experimental dump for Tops to try all their toys on! Satellite was the original city of Domino, for Heaven's sake! Don't they respect history? Don't they know here is where the legendary duelists lived, not that chunk of steel on the hills behind us?"
"Aaaaaah!"
Crow launched himself at Kiryu with a yell right at that moment, bringing Kiryu down to the ground. The action seemed to jolt Jack back into action, as he moved to grapple with Kiryu again. This time, with Crow's help, Jack got the black Duel Disk off Kiryu for good. Crow and Jack then more or less pressed Kiryu into the ground, with Jack restraining Kiryu's arms and Crow putting his weight on Kiryu's legs, pinning their former companion with their combined effort.
All this occurred out in the open, in broad view of the entire cavern. Kiryu struggled valiantly but was no match against two men. However, Yusei could see that Jack and Crow started to look around cautiously. Without Kiryu's words or the howl of some Duel Monster, the vast space had become eerily quiet. The humming of the machinery only made the uncanny situation even more tense.
Where was Rudger? Where was Aki? Had they both decided to simply abandon Kiryu?
A small, persistent beeping took over the silence in the cave. Yusei instantly tensed when he heard that sound. It was familiar to him – he had heard it before in his father's laboratory. It was the sound that Momentum made when it was about to terminate all of its operations.
"Jack! Crow! Momentum is – "
Yusei didn't get to finish that sentence before the cave was plunged into complete darkness once again. This time, not even the emergency generators were active. The entire space was bathed in a thick, impenetrable darkness, one that rendered Yusei's eyesight utterly useless.
"…shutting… down…"
Even though it was no longer serving as a warning, Yusei's brain still finished the sentence for him.
Most people in Domino City have never known Momentum to shut down. After all, it was hailed as the Eternal Machine, one that did not need to stop for maintenance, one that did not suffer damage from the consumption of fuel. However, Yusei knew that Momentum had stopped before. The duration was only few minutes at most, and the City was supplied by energy reservoirs during those brief shortages. Those were controlled shutdowns. This, however, was certainly not.
The other occupants in the cave were evidently as disturbed by the turn events as Yusei. In the absence of all light, Yusei heard scuffles, but could not figure out who was fighting whom.
"What the heck is going on?" That was Kiryu's tense, panicking voice. "Rudger? Rudger-san?!"
"Now it's down to a fist fight, Kiryu!" That was Jack, followed by the sound of more scuffling and a pained yelp from Kiryu… as well as one from Crow.
"Ouch, watch it Jack! That was my foot!" Crow sounded genuinely upset.
"Now is not the time, Crow!" As usual, Jack's brusque personality had a different set of priorities. "Help me beat Kiryu into a pulp while Duel Disks are down!"
"Now now, boys, I suggest we all calm down!"
There was a flash of blinding white light as Rudger's voice boomed out over the entire cave. Yusei lifted his one good arm to cover his eyes, grimacing as his arm did little to shield his face from the blinding illumination.
And even through his closed eyelids, beyond the fearsome curtain of whiteness, he saw a giant shadow stepping out of that light.
"What the…!"
The size of that thing was beyond comprehension. It must have been at least five or six time the height of a grown man. Yusei thought he had seen his share of wondrous creatures during his days in the professional duelling world, monsters of impossible dimensions and musculature, but none of the holograms he had witnessed had ever towered to that height.
"Is it even a Duel Monster...?"
It was insect-like in nature – Yusei could only tell that much before the light behind it died out and everything was plunged back into darkness, leaving only an after image burnt into his brain. He caught a glimpse of elongated legs, of bulging heads and wobbling feelers, all of which repulsed him instinctively on a guttural level.
Then, slowly, like an electric circuit coming on at half-speed, spots of bright pink showed up in the air. Firstly, these flashes of pink appeared in isolation. Then they joined together, formed stripes of pink light that moved with some coordination, until the entire frame of the monster – for what could it be if not a monster?! – could be discerned by proxy via the movement of the incongruous pink patterns, garish and alien tattoos imprinted on a body darker than midnight.
It must be a giant spider. Yusei didn't know any other ways of describing the form. It stood behind Rudger, with veins of pink light running along its every limb, and its head illuminated with a rough approximation of what could be called eyes. It was simply colossal in size, and Yusei had to tilt his head backwards to fully look up at the tip of the creature, which gazed down at the puny humans with no semblance of intellect or emotion.
"And if you boys don't want to calm down", Rudger's voice boomed out again, "I'm afraid I will have to do it for you."
The monster lifted a leg. Yusei couldn't see the leg – he can't see the actual outline of the thing at all. But the thick pink ridge of light that indicated one of its legs lifted, and when it landed on the ground, the heavy vibration shook Yusei to the core.
"A… a physical Duel Monster again!?" Crow's voice, in a tone strangely mixed with hope, rang out near the centre of the cave. Yusei paused, then realised why Crow sounded elated rather than scared – if Rudger could summon Duel Monsters into the real world, doesn't it mean the Duel Disks are still online despite the apparent power failure?
Yusei sprang to action. He pulled his cards out, slamming them onto the Duel Disk. And yet, just as he had feared, nothing happened whatsoever. Momentum was still a dark and dead pillar, and none of the Duel Disks were working.
"How silly. Now you are hoping for the power of Psychic Duelists to help you?" Rudger yelled. "How pathetic! Don't you remember the times when you feared this power?"
"How is he summoning Duel Monsters?" Crow questioned out loud, the frustration echoing in the cave.
"This is no Duel Monster!" Rudger positively cackled. "This is the true power of Psychic Duelists! This – this is what the City all fear. This iswhat we can all become!"
"Be… come?!"
Jack barely managed to squeak out the words before he was literally scooped up by the monster that Rudger had summoned. The blond young man was still wearing his white coat, and it gave out a pink, faint reflection in the weak light emitted by the lines on the monster's body. Yusei could see Jack fighting and wriggling in the dark, unseen claws of the monster, his white coat swallowed by darkness from the shoulders down. Jack gave out grunting noises and swore loudly, but it was useless against the unnatural strength of the creature.
"And since none of you are capable of summoning your Mark, I will end all of you here!" Rudger roared as Jack gave out a pained scream in the monster's grasp. "Jack Atlas, I never thought that you of all people would become Rex's pawn! I had high hopes for you as a boy, but now perhaps I can get more use out of your corpse!"
There was a sickening crunch as the monster tightened its fist around Jack. Yusei struggled to stand up, to summon something, to do anything – but no matter how hard he smacked his Duel Disk or his arm, nothing was happening. He wasn't summoning monsters out of thin air like Rudger. So much for being a Psychic Duelist, after all – there was nothing he could do when faced by an equally paranormal threat.
And just as Yusei stood up and resolved to run to Jack and Rudger and do whatever he could, he was temporarily blinded by a bright, new, golden light.
"Not another one…!"
The intensity and type of the light was the same as the light that heralded the arrival of Rudger's otherworldly creature. Not another one – and who would this one belong to? Aki? Surely it must be her. There was no one else here who could have summoned it as a Psychic Duelist.
The golden light wrapped itself around Rudger's monster, showing the terrifying silhouette of the arachnid in all its horror. Lanky, elongated limbs flourished all around a spherical torso in a menacing manner, and it had clearly grabbed Jack in one of its claws. Would this new monster be aiding Rudger? Yusei didn't dare to think of that possibility. He picked himself up and wobbled the fastest he could towards the centre of the room, where so many things were happening at once.
But at the very least, he didn't expect Rudger's monster to drop Jack in a screech of pain.
The golden light had solidified into a flying creature, a bird with a sharp, piercingly long peak. Like the spider, this bird had long lines of coloured light running along its pitch-black body, reducing it to a scattered collection of moving bars of brilliance. The only difference was the colour of the light it emitted. Instead of pink, this bird had a yellow – or rather orange – glow, almost the shade of thick honey, or highly polished gold.
And one of those bars of golden light, one that undoubtedly indicated the beak, pierced right through the arm that was holding Jack, reducing Rudger's spider into a lump of quivering mess flailing in primordial pain.
"What is this -?" Rudger immediately realised what was going on. There was a garbled command from him to his monster, and the monster tried grabbing Jack again. This time, however, Jack was too fast for it. The blond man seemed to be suddenly driven by some force. Jack was running in the inky black cavern, straight towards one of the cylinders that held the unfortunate Psychic Duelists within.
"Carly!"
"… Carly?!" Yusei was completely taken aback with what Jack was yelling. Carly was here? She was in one of those cylinders? Wasn't she meant to have already left? And if she was here, wouldn't that mean she was also a –
"Carly!"
Jack had reached the cylinder he was aiming for. It was easy to find even amidst the darkness. The mechanism for that specific pod was also bathed in a bright orange glow, the same shade as the light that the bird gave out. And there was something else too, something audible. Whoever was inside the cylinder was twitching violently, its body smashing against the boundaries of the container with loud thuds. As it floundered in the transparent liquid that filled the vertical tank, the face of the person within was inevitably brought close against the glass encasing. Yusei saw a mess of long, black hair, a pair of feminine hands as they senselessly banged against the glass…
… and the expressionless face of Carly Nagisa, her mouth agape but unresponsive, and her eyes wide open in a soulless, empty stare.