(Disclaimer) Maria's personal style: I don't describe clothes often/in detail unless they are important to context/hold symbolic meaning. But in case my sporadic details of Maria's personal style aren't enough, I gotchu. She's a baggy sweater, oversized flannel kinda gal. Usually pairs either with leggings or loose jeans (the mom-kind you find at thrift stores). Likes boots; currently seeking out a new pair of moto boots since her current ones are falling apart at the seams…like her life lol

Breakfast is awkward. For me, I mean.

I try shoving the feeling down with spoonfuls of Cheerios and, since no one notices or calls me out for how weird I'm being, I'm starting to think it's just a feeling.

Feeling…guilty. Even if nothing happened last night—because holding hands can definitely be platonic and anything more that happened between Yusei and I only existed in my head—I woke up this morning feeling like a homewrecker. I can only imagine how I'd feel if something actually happened, if we'd kissed for real…no. That wouldn't happen. Wouldn't, couldn't, shouldn't.

I glance across the table. From the sounds of it, Yusei's giving Aki more tricks of the D-Wheeling trade. They look so comfortable: Yusei resting easy in his chair, sipping from his mug, listening attentively to her when she asks a question. Aki smiling at his every word, her eyes gleaming with confidence and daring.

Excluding Jack, Yusei and Aki are the prettiest people I know. They look good together, as natural as primary colors. Red girl plus blue boy equals purple love.

I'm shit at math, but I could at least calculate that I belonged nowhere near that—certainly not in the middle of something that could be so simple. The last thing I want is to make things complicated and that's exactly what would happen if I reared my head into all this. A rift would be drawn between all three of us, which would affect the entire group. The title of homewrecker seems accurate suddenly.

I don't want that. I don't want the friend-family (framily, as Crow so aptly coined it) to fall apart. I don't want to push Yusei away again. I don't want to fight Aki over a boy like some cheap teenage drama cliché. I want what we had last night: everyone together, joking and carefree. I want happiness for us all.

Aki and Yusei could make each other happy.

As for me, well, I just started learning how to be a friend. Maybe I should get better at that before I start getting greedy.

"What's with that goofy smile on your face?" Jack's bass voice comes out of nowhere. When my head turns in his direction, it's only his violet irises that meet me, the rest of his face covered by the morning paper.

The grin faded momentarily with the previous surprise but returns with a newfound vigor. "If you tell people your wish, then it won't come true."

Jack's stare flattens some and averts back to the dueling section. "Whatever. Just quit smiling like that, it's too early in the morning for that kind of cheeriness."

—

The twins, Aki and I pull up on the street lamp, parking the truck against the curb and hopping out all at once. I notice the glass had been cleaned up as I walk up to the post, wondering if my beaten up boot soles would offer me any protection if it hadn't. The twins make themselves at home on the bench and Aki strides up beside me.

Without looking at her, I ask, "How do you control your powers, Aki?"

"I...don't. Not entirely." I face her and a faltering moment passes before she does the same, pointing to the metal pin holding back her bangs. "This hairpin does the brunt of the work, honestly."

It was a touchy subject. Something thought to be as trifling as a hair accessory had a heavy backstory, obviously one connected to Arcadia. My thoughts wander back to the time she cracked the soap jar in the bathroom without lifting a finger; according to the reports about Aki's past, she was capable of doing much more. I'm not afraid, per say—if she wanted to hurt me, she would've hairpin or not. But sometimes we don't get a say in who we hurt.

If I don't start getting a lock on them now, my powers could head down the same route Aki had moved on from. Where was my magical trinket to keep them at bay?

"Oh. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

She gives a shake of her maroon locks and bounces back with an encouraging smile. "That's why we're here—to discuss that. When I was in Arcadia, I learned one cardinal rule about powers. Regardless of any differences in abilities, it's only when you've learned to control them that they become like a muscle you can flex, something of your own will. Until then, your powers will find another way to manifest and that's through the heart."

"Like my emotions," I say, quiet and processing.

"How were you feeling when this happened?"

My eyes practically close on their own volition. A sigh escapes my throat, the resulting pressure in my lungs attempting to keep the memories of that night in the recesses of my heart. "...Angry."

"That's what I assumed. For some reason, negative emotions—especially ones like aggression, anger," Aki trips over her words for a second, but manages to get over whatever hurdle was standing in the way, "...hatred and envy—tend to trigger dramatic displays of an ability like this one."

"What were you angry about?"

The two of us whip our heads toward the twins, who wear identical expressions of concern on their round faces. I avert my eyes away, my hands moving to run over my arms in an instinctive manner. The attempt to subdue the reality of my familial situation is an obvious bust. As if worrying about a homicidal doppelganger and a power-hungry secret society wasn't enough, the world just had to dish me up a steaming hot helping of unresolved daddy, mommy, and grandmother issues, too.

A shaky chuckle comes from my side and I find two hands pressed to my shoulders, reassuring. "Let's maybe just focus on identifying the feelings for now." The twins give in to Aki's diversion easily, despite clearly wanting to get it out of me. I should prepare myself for the topic resurfacing once we get back to the Tops. "What about in the dream that you, Bruno, and Yusei had? Do you remember how that felt?"

"I was scared. It felt real and even though I tried fighting back, it didn't seem to get me anywhere." A chill rolls up my spine and my lips turn down in disgust. "I felt helpless."

"It's no wonder what the outcome of that was. If you felt like it was real, then that shadow-beast that appeared was probably your last resort at survival."

Shadow-beast...huh. Pretty good name.

"So," I feel the frustration creeping up where the cold left off, "what do I do now? Bottle everything up like a healthy person?"

Aki blinks, her face a blank slate. "I was worried until I realized you were being sarcastic."

"If we can't laugh about it, what else can we do?" I shrug as a grin works its way onto my lips.

I mean, in all seriousness, this entire situation is so effed up it's entirely laughable. My life is one big YA fantasy novel—which I would admittedly be devouring if it was fake, but unfortunately, it's way too real.

The psychic tips her head to one side, smiling in a way that probably made roses grow. "Practice makes perfect, right? I think you should try to test them out regularly, just on a smaller scale. That way it can become a muscle to rely on and not something to be scared of. And if you want," the psychic turns shy, glancing down at the pothole-ridden pavement, "we can do it together."

I practically lunge at her, stuffing the petite girl into my tight embrace. I manage to squeak out through all of my joy: "I would love that, Aki."

Aki struggles out a laugh as she hugs me back. When we've let go and she's breathing normally again, she slides right back into business. "Other than that, I'd say to find a safe space for yourself. That way, your focus and peace can be fostered and your abilities will hopefully advance in a healthier, controllable way."

"Well, that one's done." I gesture to the three people around me. "Found it."

It's four beaming smiles from then on.

"Uh," Ruka starts hesitantly, grabbing everyone's attention, "I know you said that we shouldn't talk about what caused your powers to flare up, but we didn't talk much about what happened in your dream with the guys much..."

I shake my head at her. "Go ahead, Ruka. What are you thinking?"

"Do you think that gold figure Yusei and Bruno saw was your spirit?"

I tip my head to the side and match it with a shrug. "Yeah, maybe. That's probably as good a guess as any."

"Not only that, but I've been thinking about Annie—what role she might play in all this." I shift my weight in place, but nod along. This was Ruka's line of expertise; as much as I didn't want to think about my "pet", it's relieving that someone else was. "You're connected to her, probably more than you are to the white spirits. Except it's the opposite, she's trying to protect you like she did in the dream."

"No way!" Rua shouts at her. "You think that thing Yusei and Bruno saw was Annie?"

"If she is something supernatural, what's to say that the form she takes on in our realm is her only one?"

Bruno said the monster was eyeless—how many times a day did I think about the pair of gold irises we now shared? How many times did that thought stand in line with all the other fucked up things keeping me up at night?

There was no such thing as coincidence in this city.

"Ancient Fairy Dragon said that Star Children are potentially dangerous," Aki rattles off, knuckles knocking against her chin. "Maybe she's a guardian sent here to make sure your potential is used for the right reasons."

"Like the ancient Egyptians," I offer up. "They treated cats in the highest regard because they saw them as the servants of Bast, the goddess of protection. Ironic, huh?"

Universe, if you think you're funny, you're really not.

We're covering good ground here, but somehow the evidence doesn't seem sure-footed enough. The ancient Egyptians had a hand in this at the start, but if we're to go off the glyphs Dale decoded for us, this mess ran all the way to the Americas. It made more sense that way: the Signers had history with the Incas in Peru and Tatsuo had done lengthy amounts of research about the peoples on that side of the Pacific—enough to have found a possible origin story for Star Children, which sounded like it took place in the Americas more than in Egypt.

And the more I think about it, the more the visions I've been seeing of the girl look close to something I would think to be found in that region. An abrupt thought splashes onto the surface of my mind. There was no doubt that the girl connects to me and maybe a little less sure that she might be a Star Child, but could this possibly go deeper?

As deep as blood?

Mom was adopted, but she told me she and Martha guessed that her heritage traced back to Mexico or somewhere in the vicinity—Mexico, what used to be home of the Aztecs and might even be home to the girl in my visions. In Tatsuo's book, the princess' mother is the reason she becomes a Star Child; so, what if my mother was the cause of my own Star Child-ness? And if not her, could it have been someone else?

I jolt awake. "Huh!"

The vibration in my back pocket shakes the sleep out of me quicker than I can swipe the green button on my screen. "Hello?"

"What are you doing right now?" Bruno asks immediately, not quite in a panic, but definitely with a sense of urgency.

"Uh." I had apparently been asleep long enough for it to crust between my eyelids and I have to dig them out in order to look out over the office now cluttered with Tatsuo's books and articles in every nook and cranny. The couple tomes I found useful were stacked beside the desk, dogeared and post-it-noted galore by yours truly. The rest were tossed about in a frenzy by...someone who's not me. Okay, it was me; I'm a nester. "Nothing?"

"Good! Can you pick up some of the kids from Martha's—you know, Crow's favorites—and bring them to this address?" My phone vibrates again, most likely with a notification from the tech genius.

"I guess?" I catch my conversational bearings before he has enough time to hang up. "Wait, why?"

"You remember that old friend Crow told us he met up with the other day? Well, he's currently dueling him and losing—bad? Yeah, bad."

"So, he's in need of some moral support?"

"He's kinda lost his mojo. I think what's gone on between them is skewing his focus. Yusei and Jack think bringing the kids here will get him back on track."

"Oh, Bruno." I lift out of the rolling chair, smirking like a movie mastermind. "If it's moral support you're looking for, you've knocked on the right door."

"...But I called you."

"Bruno! It's a metaphor!"

The car door slams shut as Mizoguchi climbs into the driver's seat. Sherry's fingers thrumming against the lip of the window slow to a stop. In a motion far too relaxed for the context of the task at hand—what with them parked in the Headquarters lot swarming with officers—she turns to him, the sharp, bobbed ends of her wig swishing slightly.

"No one recognized you?" she questions in French.

Mizoguchi meets her eye but all that he sees is his reflection in her sunglasses. The butler reaches into his breast pocket and pulls out the card Dale left them to pick up in his stead, Crimson Mefist.

The blonde heiress laughs, one harsh cackle. It was no wonder Yliaster had the Security department under its thumb; if they could be fooled by a laminated badge with a false identity, sunglasses and a fresh shave, they could be fooled by anything. They remind Sherry of mindless sheep headed off to slaughter rather than keepers of justice.

Once the card is tucked back into Mizoguchi's pocket, he flips the key in the ignition. Sherry glances out the rearview mirror, catching two officers as they strolled into the building. A smirk eases its way into her cheeks as she lays back in her seat, eyes closing and hands resting on her stomach.

"Little green idiots."

Crow seemed to be holding up okay, much better than I expected him to be considering his old friend had recently been arrested for the murder of another old friend. He didn't want to talk much about it, from what I heard from the other guys, but what else was there to say really? If there ever came a time to, we all tried to make it clear we were listening. It seemed, instead, he focused on everything WRGP related. No one else had trouble following suit, eager to move on to bigger, brighter things. Even myself, temporarily stumped by my lack of findings in Tatsuo's office, was buzzing off the residual excitement of the tournament.

The only good to come out of the debacle with Bolger was that his company offered to sponsor the team in exchange for the...inconvenience. That meant we got lots of goodies free of charge, including new duel suits for the guys and, most importantly, engine upgrades for all of the D-Wheels. I'm sure you can imagine Yusei and Bruno practically pissing themselves like kids hearing they're going to Disneyworld; it was pretty adorable.

The twins charge through Poppo Time's garage door with surprising might. I trail behind them in fearful awe of the action. I should really be checking what these kids are fed at school. There's gotta be something in the water. I halt at the top of the stairs right between the twins, mouth parting at the sight down below. Although Jack is dressed pretty similarly to his usual riding outfit, the other two turbo duelists are completely decked out in new fits. There are some details of their old clothes sprinkled into the new designs—Yusei's amber guards and asymmetrical shirt design, Crow's brown and teal color scheme.

The twins bombard Yusei with questions about the D-Wheels and I stride up to Crow, who poses like New Domino's Next Top Model and winks playfully. "Like what you see, eh~?"

I pin him with a crumpled look—flattened, unamused eyes and tucked lips—and give one of his earlobes a quick, hard tug like I'd seen Martha do. "Cockiness isn't a good color on you."

"Teens these days are so violent." He pouts, and grumbles, "Who said I was talking about me..."

I give him a questioning look, confused. Crow's whole demeanor changes, from the straight, leisurely posture to the smug grin plastered onto his face like it was painted on. Then his stare glides from me to Yusei beside him and back to me, a suggestive gleam in his dusty eyes. It comes to my mind all too quickly what that look means; similar to a figurative light bulb over my head, the D-Wheels sing to life, all missing a synchronized chorus by half a second of each other.

The twins, Yusei, and Aki (who had been chatting up Yusei before he fell into the nuggets' grabby mitts) turn to my bug-eyed form staring down Crow as he itches the back of his scalp and pitifully holds in a bout of laughter.

"What's going on?" Rua asks slowly.

"Nothing!" I can't look at either Aki or Yusei, all my energy going to pushing my powers back into whatever orifice they surfaced from and lying effectively. "I'm just excited about practice."

Well, one of the two is effective at least—not everyone buys my excuse, but we move on nonetheless. Somehow the team name becomes the hot topic of the group once we're all rounded up.

"Yeah, Jack chose the name without us," Crow jabs his thumb in said blond's direction, "but I think it was the only smart thing he's done in his life. Well, aside from dating Carly."

Jack's eyebrow twitches in annoyance and he rests his arm atop Crow's head, a power move I'd seen him do a few times recently. I wonder when it clicked to him to make use of his stupidly tall stature. "It was ten times better than The Fountain Courtyard Friendly Alliance."

"Sarcasm." Crow shrugs out from underneath Jack's stronghold and retorts, "Read about it, if you can."

I slide in between the two before any action can really heat up. I swear, it's like they both can feel the room calming and it sets off some sort of fight-or-flight response—except it's always fighting. I know they don't mean it in a way to hurt each other and that it's just their special way of communicating, but they seriously need to find a new itch to scratch.

"What does 5Ds mean?" precious little Rua asks, saving my dumbass from the friendly fire Jack and Crow were undoubtedly about the throw back and forth.

Bruno attempts an answer, counting the Ds off on his hand: "Um. Devil, Dead Heat, Destroy, Dark, and...Daisuki Bruno?"

Jack glares him down, light beams nearly sparking out from the fiery look, and Bruno shrinks behind me. "I was only kidding," he mumbles.

"There, there," I console him with pats on the head.

"5Ds means this," Jack goes back to stealing the show. He raises his sleeve and thrusts out his Wing Mark for the group to see.

"The five marks of the Crimson Dragon," Ruka says thoughtfully, placing her hand on her arm.

"That's right." Yusei nods, an intensity in his gaze despite the subtle movement. "The marks of the Crimson Dragon forged our bond, both as friends and as a team."

"But wait," Rua cuts in, "I have a mark, remember? Isn't that six?"

"You probably just stole Ruka's mark for the time being," Jack replies flippantly. "You and Ruka count as one person, anyway."

The twins yell their disagreements at him and come running to me to sulk. But Bruno seems to have been revived with a new vigor. "Hey, hey! My name isn't included! It should be Bruno and the 5Ds!"

This time Jack wallops him on the head and, like a dog with its tail between its legs, the tech genius returns to our pity party once again. "It's okay," Bruno tries to console himself, staring off into a distant nothing and teary-eyed, "I love being left out."

"Not left out," I go for another round of pep talk, "more like...leftovers?"

He stares at me, too kind to admit the truth. I do it for him. "That didn't help, did it?"

"Not really." He starts drawing patterns in the cement flooring with his finger and the twins copy the act. Every day the image I have of Bruno in my head becomes more and more like a blue-haired child. Sweet and innocent and most likely on a pair of stilts. "I guess we should just go sit in the corner and be sad since we're not important."

"I'll bring the ice cream if you've got the power ballads," I comment, smiling.

The four of us waddle—because we've apparently also committed to this squatting position—to the closest corner of the room and stare at the other four as the aura around us emits in dark purple waves and mushrooms start to peek through the cracks in the floor.

Aki laughs sheepishly while Yusei arches a brow and sends us an amused look. Jack rolls his eyes in exasperation as Crow tries to negotiate, "Can you guys quit being dramatic and creepy so we can do that one thing where everyone puts their hands in a circle and cheers?"

Bruno shakes his head wildly. "Not until we get proper representation!"

The twins yell together, "And Jack apologizes for being mean all the time!"

The mic is passed to me and I just shrug. "I'm just here to support the nuggets," I shoot a glance at Bruno, the twins' honorary member, "all three of them. So, what they said."

—

"Have you been making any strides with the Aztec research?" Aki asks me, the two of us falling in line behind the three chicken nuggets running toward the stands.

I sigh and try to rake a hand through my thick mane, only to remember my hair's in a bun. Summer was starting to mosey on in and get settled around us in thick, muggy waves. The thought of the heat just makes me grumpier.

Aki chuckles, "I'm going to take that as a no."

"As it turns out, Tatsuo was fluent in Spanish? Like, who would've guessed—well, I probably could've since most of his research was done in Latin America. But! I didn't think most of his books would be in Spanish!"

"So, what are you going to do? Google Translate everything?" Her brows scrunch in place, then release the pressure once she gives into a smile. "I bet those books are bigger than Jack's ego."

"Pfft! Bigger, but trust me it's close." We finally come out the open-ended hallway to see the twins and Bruno on the lowest level, chatting up Ushio. Both Aki and I silently question his green-suited getup, but shrug the curiosity off when our gazes meet. "I'm beginning to think you're the only smart one between the two of us because my solution to this problem was to learn Spanish really well and really fast—you know there's an app for it?"

"Is it that I'm smarter or is it just that your brain isn't working as well as it should be from all the sleep deprivation?"

My eyes shift to the side, then back to her. I raise my hands up and say, "¿Por qué no los dos?"

Honestly, it feels pretty good to have a connection with something other than Annie, my Other or Yliaster for once. It somehow reminded me of Mom; granted, her fluency in Spanish went as far as song lyrics and her general knowledge stopped at Latin American dances and foods, but the connection is still there. It feels good to be learning again (yes, I'll admit to kind of missing being in a classroom) and having that sense of normalcy back that I'd lost so long ago.

I guess learning Spanish and digging into my roots was less about understanding where I can go from here and more about reliving the past.

Whatever. I don't want to think about all that right now. Right now is for Team 5Ds.

...But, of course, even while proclaiming that, I can't help the urge to simmer my burning curiosities. I lean against the ledge right next to Ushio after the guys have driven past and waved us down.

"Hey," I tap him on the shoulder, "is that hieroglyph guy still in town? There's some stuff I'd like to talk to him about."

Ushio blinks, as if momentarily forgetting who I'm talking about. "No, sorry. He was supposed to stay 'til we found that Crimson Mefist card, but apparently got caught up with some other work stuff."

"Oh. Wait, wasn't that the card Crow's one friend had?"

Ushio affirms, "Mm. Dale was the person who informed us about Crimson Mefist to begin with. He's the reason we reopened Pearson's case—the company Dale works for, Genesis, oversees withholding things like that. It was a deal of sorts: they'd help us with the hieroglyphs and we'd help them find the card."

"Genesis?" Aki pipes up, eyes pointed toward the sky in thought. "Why does that sound familiar?"

Ruka's pigtailed head pops out behind her brother's body a little way down the ledge. "They're a government-funded, non-profit organization that researches cards and histories behind them. They have affiliations worldwide and often regulate the protection and recovery of any cards or artifacts involved in dueling's history."

I fix her with a quizzical look, that same fearful wonder leaking back into my expression. "Did you just look that up?" I knew the girl was a dueling prodigy, but I didn't expect her to be a walking, talking encyclopedia. Maybe I should skip Google altogether and just ask her about the Aztecs.

"Nope!" she chirps, proud as can be.

"That's where our parents work," her brother fills in the gap. "We never told you?"

I never really knew when was a good time to bring up their parents, if one even existed. For all I can remember, they don't bring them up too often themselves unless it's some passing thought like "Oh, those are Dad's favorite!" or "Mom always looks good in this color!" It was plain to see they missed them and were trying to be good sports about the ordeal, but I know the spot in their hearts devoted to their parents was rubbed raw, just like my own when it concerned my father. I could only hope they would become better for all the heartache.

"Oh. Maybe, I dunno."

The subject drops, the WRGP falling into the vacancy it left behind. My mind is all over the place for the time being, until the screeching halt of tires against pavement reaches my ears. My gaze focuses on the projected video of Crow almost rear-ending another duelist. Though it doesn't seem any impact was made in the split-second Crow is on his tail, the close encounter is enough to cause the rider to swerve and teeter until his D-Wheel is thrown out from under him.

All of us in the stands cringe and gasp. Ushio takes off to assess the damage, emergency lights blinking frantically. Our held breaths and stiff shoulders aren't eased, even when both duelists stand up on two legs, relatively fine.

"Damn, I wish we could hear what they're saying!" Rua shouts at the soundless video, fists swinging.

"Hopefully apologizing," Aki sighs, watching as Jack yells at one of their rivals. "As much as I don't want to admit it, Crow's the one at fault."

"I hope this doesn't affect their spot in the first round." Bruno folds his arm and his mouth twists to one side.

I ask him, "You think they'd be penalized for it? It was obviously an accident, plus everyone seems to be okay."

"True, but tournaments can be cutthroat. Some teams will do anything to win. And they're who we go up against first, so they could easily get us kicked out if they go to the committee and complain."

I point at the three men clad in matching white and blue riding suits, who seem to be hashing it out with our team (though thankfully, more politely than we'd previously witnessed). "That's Team Unicorn?"

Bruno nods and I try to hold in my laughter—it just didn't seem respectful to the atmosphere to go into a giggle fit about how dumb the leader looked with his mauve hair fashioned into a horn like the very creature their team was named after. Instead, I say: "Shit."

"They're supposed to be the fan-favorites and frontrunners of winning the WRGP," informs Ruka. "The sponsors love them."

"That doesn't matter!" Rua challenges. "We're gonna clobber them no matter what!"

"Agreed." I grin at him. "We don't have any other choice."

Jack and Crow return to us as the sun starts to set and the final clusters of onlookers thins to none. They update us on what's going on: because they felt bad about the damage they'd caused, Yusei agreed (after Crow and Jack's insistence) to duel Andore, aka Mr. Unicorn himself.

"Why would you let him agree to that?" Aki scolds, her hands balling into fists at her hips. "It's obviously a trap to get Yusei to reveal his strategies."

"That's what I said!" Jack shoves the blame to Crow's corner.

"Hey, you told him to duel Andore, too!" Crow huffs and averts his gaze from the disapproving stares of everyone. "It seemed like a fun idea when they brought it up. And we felt bad! What else could we have done?"

I glance toward the two other Unicorn members positioned higher in the stands, the blond one sending a wide smile and light wave before I turn away with a sigh. "I understand that you guys were trying to do the right thing, but this really puts you in a tough spot for the first round." I feel bad for rubbing it in and seeing their hangdog expressions, cushion the blow with: "There's nothing to be done about it now, though. All we can do is give Yusei our support."

At least everyone can agree on that. Rua pipes up, hopping aboard the positivity train. "If there's any good that's come from this, it's that now we know Team Unicorn underestimates Jack and Crow's ability."

I pat Rua's head in gratitude and he reciprocates the affection by leaning into me. "He's got a point."

Crow and Jack share a sour look. It's the taller of the duo who remarks, "Hmph. We'll make sure they regret it."

The duel starts with Yusei nabbing the lead and summoning Max Warrior to the field. But Yusei ends his turn without doing anything else; my best guess as to why is that he's putting out feelers for Andore's play style. Team Unicorn's captain starts his own turn by playing some sort of possum monster, whose stay on the field is brief. Andore sacrifices the monster and 1000 LPs to Special Summon Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest in its place. But the move seems to be a worthy sacrifice once it's knocked Yusei down to 3200 LPs. Though Yusei's still in the lead by 200 points, Andore's first move has our team cringing in wait for his next.

Some of the tension is eased once Yusei manages to Synchro Summon Junk Archer and goes in for a direct attack. And, of course, our eagerness jumps the gun—Andore blocks the attack by activating Battle Instinct, a trap that allows him to Special Summon a monster Level 4 or under if he gets attacked directly. Though Andore blocks Junk Archer's arrow with Nimble Momonga, the damage still drops him down to 1700 LPs.

"Yusei takes the lead!" Rua shouts, matching the rest of our proud smiles.

Andore pulls something out of his ass, then: Nimble Momonga's effect regains 1000 of his LPs. The show doesn't just stop there, unfortunately, and Mr. Unicorn not only Special Summons two monsters in defense position to his field but brings back his green, barbarian monkey.

Rua backtracks from his earlier statement, "Or not..."

"He's at a complete disadvantage at the end of the turn," Ruka comments.

Boy, can you imagine our faces when it gets even worse—Andore tributes two of the lower-level monsters on his field to summon Behemoth, the King of All Animals, a menacing, pink monstrosity of a beast. With a total of three monsters prepared to attack, Andore very well may end this duel.

"Okay, this is very bad," Crow comments, visibly sweating.

"Is it, though?" I ask. "Maybe it's for the best that he loses, so he doesn't give away—ugh!"

A sudden pulse of energy racks through my head, causing me to wince. My hands fly to my forehead. No...nonononono! Not now, please not now! But the pulses come as steady as a beating drum. It'd been a while since this last happened, I've almost forgotten all the gritty details that come with it: the buzzing static that fills my ears, the warped, fuzzy whispers snaking through that sound, the unmistakable throb of my mark shining through my skin.

But this time...something about this time has brought a lot of differences with it.

The darkness behind my eyelids becomes something more than. I'm drifting away, from my friends, from myself, from reality. I'm sinking.

Ruka feels it before she sees anything—the volatile shift in the air around them. The duel prodigy scans over her friends in a well-concealed panic; usually this kind of feeling meant their marks were on the verge of glowing, yet no one seems especially troubled. She tries to quiet the worries in her brain, but all that comes is the motion of the little hairs on the back of her neck standing at attention. What's more is that Kuribon appears in a flourish of pink and glitter. The duel spirit exchanges a silent, concerned moment with Ruka before floating down the line to Maria.

Ruka's heartbeat jumps to record highs and she tries to warn everyone. "Some—"

And Maria whimpers before she can even finish a word. Ruka's older friend clutches her head in agony, the position of her fingers hiding some of the light leaking from her forehead. At this point, the twelve-year-old doesn't need to bother with warnings. Everyone else has caught on.

"Is she..." Bruno hesitates to finish his sentence, dread marring his features.

Aki, the closest to Maria other than the technician, pushes everyone away and behind her. "Just give her space," she says, her voice firm and focused. "It could be nothing, but we can't be too sure."

Ruka knows she is the only one who sees the spirit round Maria's head frantically, but she knows she can't be the only one witnessing the dribbles of gold energy crawling up from her fingertips, the sizzling pops of electricity licking Maria's exposed skin. The Lichtenberg figure rises up from the depths of her shoulder and thrums in time with Maria's birthmark, indecisively winking in and out of a burning, vibrant blue that Ruka couldn't recall seeing before. The mark's thin, wiry crooks stretch over her arm as if to meet the opposing end of energy head-on.

"The hell?" Jack murmurs, gesturing to Maria's scarred shoulder. "That thing's back."

"Which can only mean something bad," Crow comments.

At that moment, Ruka notices the emergence of three more spirits huddled around Maria. The trio develops one by one, each by an orb of gold light. Ruka's eyebrows shoot up as she recognizes two of them—one is the teeny grass spirit Maria had introduced to the gang, HT, if she remembered correctly. The other is the colorful, wild raptor she and her brother spotted on top of their dining room table. The last spirit looks to be a dragon, though diminutive in comparison to the dragons Ruka had become acquainted with.

"Spirits," she states under her breath, though with how quiet everyone else is, Ruka may as well have screamed it.

"Spirits?" Rua asks. "Which ones?"

"The one she showed us, the raptor the two of us saw, and a baby dragon? Kuribon, too." Ruka watches the dragon and plant fight over what to do—when HT goes to touch Maria's arm, the baby dragon blows it away. Once HT recovers from the rolling faceplant, it screams some unintelligible words at the flying beast. However, those words might only be gibberish to human ears, seeing as the mini dragon returns them with just as much passion, pointing to her pained friend to stress a point. Meanwhile, the raptor just twitches its head side to side at both parties in its place by Maria's feet, something Ruka would have found endearing if not for the gravity of the situation. "I think they came to protect her."

"Not to b-be a damper but," Bruno's eyes jump from person to person, not sure where to stick, "wouldn't that mean there's something here she needs protection f-from?"

I'm drowning. Sputtering, gasping, flailing...and yet, it does me no good. Here in the pitch-black dream-world where nothing is up or down, left or right. I don't even understand how the concept of water exists here. But I can feel the cool slickness of it all surrounding me, the choppy waves crashing and rocking into me again and again. Then, after screaming—for help, for the darkness to end, for control—I get caught in a rip current and reel around the open space as I try to hold what little breath I have.

I can't tell you how I manage to break through the surface again, but I can tell you that it doesn't seem to matter. I can tell you that the tiny swell of clarity and hope I gain in those sparse seconds are tossed somewhere closer to a shore I cannot reach.

It's not a mighty tide that drags me down this time. Something coils around my ankle, tight, and snatches me down and down and down. I release the air from my lungs, without any other choice for my fate. And it's strange what follows: in any other reality, I would be dying now, but I find that I feel lighter. Like snapping back the tab on a soda can and releasing all that pressure keeping the liquid down, that's how I feel.

The clarity comes to me again, even from what I expect to be miles down from the surface. With the bubbling swishes of the water, the static is drowned out. But the clarity? It comes to me in words.

"...we...we are...here..."

Suddenly, I meet a sandy bottom I never expected to reach. I settle into it on my hands and knees, shaking like a leaf in a storm. I can breathe again and make sure to take advantage of the fact.

"...we..." I look in the direction of the voice, forward. By a lone syllable, I can tell it's feminine despite the reverb collecting it into something fearsome. "we are..."

A pair of eyes reveal themselves, looming and strikingly white. So white, they are without irises and remind me of a child's attempt at eyes. My mouth hangs open as I fall back into the sand. And like clockwork, my birthmark flares up. The hanging eyes widen at the sight of it and lean into the glow. I'm glued to the floor. They come so close that I can see my own reflection in them, the gleam of my mark illuminating the rest of my body.

Then they shut closed, the light blinding them. No...it urges them.

When the eyes reopen, the golden color we share runs round and over sharp, deep pupils.

"you."

The pain of Maria's birthmark seems to intensify with every passing second. The tall girl angles toward them and Ruka takes half a step back with everyone else. Out of the corner of her eye, Aki's shoulders square.

"Help me," Maria manages through ground teeth. Tears well in her shut eyes. "Please..."

Rua's voice bursts out through the tense silence. "We have to do something, Aki!"

"We can't," she snaps back. "If any of us risk getting hurt, what do you think Maria would do? How do you think she would feel?"

"B-but!"

"And if she loses control," Aki's eyes close for a moment, stress gathering in the muscles of her face, "do you think she would be able to keep from hurting you? Do you think she would even know?"

"She's right, Rua," says Crow, firm-lipped. "We can't do anything."

Her brother bows his head in anguish and all she can do for him is grab hold of his hand. He squeezes it tight. "I hate this."

"Yeah," Jack agrees, "you're not the only one."

Maria lets out a gasp that calls their attention back to her, the duel spirits surrounding her included. But afterward, she seems to calm. Her hands lower back to her sides, now lacking the mixing energies that coated her skin. Even the Lichtenberg figure settles down, not gone but at least the reddish-pink it originally was. Her birthmark remains lit, steady as a beacon in the night.

"Maria?" Aki calls to their friend, a hand tentatively raised in question.

Maria just stands there, breathing evenly and eyes closed as the tears finally spill down her face. She seems peacefully asleep despite them.

But the slumber ends abruptly and the person that awakes isn't Maria. Not with those eyes—gold like the girl's they used to know, the color leaking out into the scleras as if they're never-ending. The sharpened pupils blacker than any shade known to man.

Aki recoils her hand back to her chest and everyone follows the motion, filling in the other half step to make it whole. Ruka's breath hitches in her throat as she watches the four spirits give various degrees of alarm and flicker into nothing; whatever or whoever was standing in Maria's place scared them off.

Said being surveys each and every one of them. The couple seconds Ruka spends under that stare feels like she's being pricked with bits of molten-hot lava. This time, it's Ruka who squeezes Rua's hand.

"Water." Maria's words come out stiff, emotionless. "Everyone. Annie. Red. Everyone."

Crow's the only one to make a sound, the voice of everyone's terror and confusion. "What's...?"

"Heart. Everyone. Red. Everyone."

At their sides, the feed of Yusei and Andore's duel cuts in and out until it just gives up, the projection filling with white and black fuzz. The bright overhead lights of the stadium blink on and off in irregular patterns, as if they're talking to one another. The wind, which had at one point earlier in the day been subtle, infrequent breezes, picks up. Harsh, wild gusts fly through the stadium's structure and push against everyone. The older guys shield Ruka and her brother as best they can, but to little avail.

"We have to go!" Aki turns to the group and screams over the howls.

"No!" Ruka finds herself shouting in sync with her older brother.

A crack of thunder rips through the sky and drives Ruka's head up and away from the argument between the two. The heavens are hidden entirely by grey, murky nimbuses all at once. The way they swirl into each other reminds the little girl of an optical illusion—how long had she been staring at that one spot?

Ruka's head whips from direction to direction. From Bruno's guarding arms to Jack and Crow shouting at Team Unicorn to leave. From Aki pleading with Rua to Yusei, Ushio, and Andore sprinting up the track.

"Maria!" Yusei screams as his feet pound the cement, speeding ahead of the others.

Ruka doesn't want to think about the last time she had seen him look this scared; the events of the war are so far behind them that they almost seem fake. If not for her nightmares, Ruka would have believed that to be true.

Maria doesn't show any response to the name, her trance and chants undisturbed. Yusei hops over the ledge once he makes it to them and quickly looks over each of them for injuries. Deciding that no one's in pieces, Yusei orders Bruno and Aki: "Take the twins and get out of here!"

Bruno can't do anything except hold Ruka tight while the maroon-haired girl argues, "You're coming, too!"

Yusei shakes his head. "I got through to you! I can get through to her!"

"The fuck?" is the only thing Andore's lips can put together when the other two catch up and leap into the stands, seeing Maria's condition.

Ushio goes to speak, but another flash of thunder sounds over him. As if on command, Maria's glow returns to her hands, concentrated into luminous, static energy. "Annie. Red. Everyone."

Ruka always wondered what slow motion would look like in real life, if it would be as dramatic and heart-pounding as it was on film. Today, she got that answer.

The Lichtenberg figure ignites into that unforgiving blue once more, this time completely, and the Signer Marks spark to life in response. Maria's diamond pupils slide to the corners of her eyes, her lip upturning to snarl with the action. Even with her friend's body now facing away, Ruka can still make out the uncharacteristic hiss: "You."

Something, high up on the edge of the Kaiba Dome, has caught her attention. Ruka would try to squint harder at it, if not for the slow thrum of that familiar pink and peach flame surrounding her deck. It's different now—stronger, she guesses. And she is not the only one.

Ahead of her, Aki stares down at her own deck, now blood-red tangled in amethyst tendrils; Yusei's too lost in finding Maria to focus on the icy-blue tint encompassing the cardcase on his belt, hints of violet ringing around it like a great planet; Rua's ponytail swishes in the wind as he gapes, unsure whether to look at the bronzed light faintly flickering around his cards or the oddly shaped birthmark on his arm; over Bruno's shoulder, she spots Crow's inky black and Jack's fiery red, too far away to tell more than that.

Ruka knows now that the time would come to speak the words Ancient Fairy Dragon told her, because whatever fight the Signer Dragon foresaw in their future begins here.

Well, this is...rather unexpected.

Master had resumed following the girl for some time now that they had recuperated from fighting the elder-thing. From the height of the top of the odd, bowl-shaped fortress and hidden by the mists of their illusion, the wisps and their ruler had a good view of whatever festivities the girl and her cohorts were doing; it looks to them that they were racing some kind of metallic beasts for entertainment. A fact all the wisps and their lord could agree on was that this land was undoubtedly a strange place.

But far stranger is this brewing of chaos over their heads, a feature that has never happened in the past attempts to track the Other's habits. These cloud patterns are abnormal, almost vortex-like. The thunder pounds against their eardrums as it grows more frequent; the sounds remind Master of something sad, the wisps sense it just from the dip in her mood.

Disregarding the feeling, Master stretches her hand out to observe. On the bluish-white, peeling skin, a familiar array of what looked to be tree branches appeared anew. The marking had disappeared a while after they faced the girl off in their forest, but it was a blotchy pink then. The mark cluttered at the center of itself on her wrist and spread over the length of her fingers and arm. Now, it was glowing in and out of a golden hue, much similar to the energy that usually surrounded the girl. The wisps noticed that that energy condenses as best it can around the girl's arms and palms.

"She's getting stronger," Master answered their silent curiosity. The wisps all hummed, too awed at everything to give much else of a response.

The thought of fleeing crosses Master's mind—there was nothing cowardly in the action if it meant you lived to fight another day, which is exactly what Master needs. But she decides against it for now, too drawn in with what is to happen. And this seems for good reason, once their ruler feels a tingling sensation she long thought to be rid of.

The branch-ridden hand rises to Master's cracked mask. A finger fit right into the splintered part, right on top of the small circle portion of the wretched mark the Sun cursed her with. It had not shined in so long, Master was surprised the image of it came to her mind as easily as it did. Her wisps murmur to her that its color has changed, an unfamiliar blue washing out its original gold. Blue, just like one of her eyes.

It seems the Sun could do everything except take back the one thing it left her.

But, just as well, it seems the Other was not the only one growing in strength. As if in response to the swelling balls of energy encasing the girl's hands, shivering flames erupt from Master's. She finds that she missed the sight of them, missed the havoc they helped her cause.

Down below, the girl is glaring at them all despite the illusion they had put up. Her eyes are completely different; sinister and bordering animalistic. This observation brings a smirk to Master's face and when the wisps ask for her rational, she makes it very clear to them: if those eyes were anything to go by, her counterpart would soon be ready to transform. This meant the happiest day in all of their existence—the day for fire and blood—was yet to come. There was no use in relying on the Other to be weaker, vulnerable; Master had no problem admitting her failure with that strategy. No, what would make Master's victory all the more delectable was a battle on equal terms.

Until then, no fun could truly be had.

"In time, sister," she spoke in her mother-tongue.

Master could wait, she is patient after all. With that, her clawed feet release the edge of the dome and the wisps' lord falls from the sky. As she stares into the coiling clouds, somehow reminiscent of the portal that shit her out into this godforsaken realm, she thinks of the great God she and her sister share. Better yet, Master thinks of all the vengeful acts she will enact on Him once she has the power to. Because her revenge was not just her wish.

It was a promise.

Hm, so lots was covered in this chapter! We have a pretty good idea of what Maria's powers are as of now, but I wonder what kind of "protection" these flames the Signers have will entail? Also, it seems Zephyrus' role in this shitshow isn't as one-sided as we've been seeing... There was a lot to unpack in this chapter and even more to come. Thank you all for your patience and understanding. It's greatly appreciated!

TTFN cuties!