A/N 0: Sorry about the last chapter, it's been reworked extensively because as RinoKuro correctly pointed out, Yusei doesn't have his Stardust Dragon yet, and I wanted a duel between Exodia and a Signer Dragon, I wanted a Signer monster to bring out the Crimson Dragon, so a duel between Crow and Yuki was added to the last chapter and Yuki won with Exodia.

A/N 1: Now that I have written this chapter, I can finally put the full story summary up, yay! (FF wouldn't accept the double exclamation marks I tried to use to denote my excitement) It's in chapter 1. It does contain a bit of a spoiler for this chapter, so feel free to read that first or not, your choice.

A/N 2: This chapter mentions Arc-V in one of Yuki's rants. Basically, Arc-V contains four dimensions, the Main Dimension with the protagonist, the Fusion Dimension (similar to the GX-verse), the Synchro Dimension (similar to the 5Ds-verse) and the XYZ dimension (similar to Zexal-verse). (Yes, I do think that the YGO franchise is running out of ideas.) That's as much Arc-V as will be touched on in this story.

A/N 3: Crimson Dragon's speech is in italics

"Exodia, obliterate!" I commanded with full force.

And suddenly, everything grew dark. Or rather, I realized as as light began to slowly reach me again, time stopped.

Well, time can't actually stop. If it did, my thoughts, which relies on the transmission of charges, would no longer persist, thus I wouldn't be able to recognize that time had stopped. Light wouldn't be able to travel, so I'd be blind, but of course, I wouldn't realize that because I would be incapable of thought.

But time did slow all around me. I saw Crow, frozen in mid-sentence. The constant whirring of the machines just outside had completely stopped, since sound had not yet reached me in this twisted pocket of time. The holographic battle was progressing at an imperceptible rate, I can see individual rays of light changing to form the each aspect of the battling monsters and special effects. The duel and everything else around me appeared distorted, as light speed up as it approached me.

The only thing that remained unaffected by this change in time is a ruby-colored dragon, composed entirely of light, that had suddenly materialized before me.

Not shining light like the sun, or holographic like the 3-D rendered duel monsters, but rather like looking at a beam of light from a flashlight from the side. I can see its existence, I recognize it as light rather than a physical form, but it in no way radiates in my direction. It's like the light particles doesn't travel past the confines of its body, which obviously doesn't make sense because in that case, I'd only see a vacuum where it stood, but…

Oh screw it, I don't get it. I never liked the particle wave theory of light, you're either one thing or the other, make up your mind! And this whole space-time continuum thing is way beyond my understanding.

I studied the beast carefully but remained silent, not wanting to risk upsetting a magical creature with unknown powers.

"I had not anticipated meeting you, my young visitor, this early," I was certain that the Crimson Dragon didn't speak, but I heard its message nonetheless, it wasn't exactly a voice, so much as thoughts implanted directly into my brain, "One of my Dragons called to me in its defeat, allowing me this fortunate encounter. Not many beings in this world can disrupt my designs, you might be the right choice after all."

"Choice?" I immediately caught on to the key word in that confusing series of sentences, forgetting entirely about the card game, "whose choice? Choice for what?" I'm usually more patient, but the monster in front of me is hinting at the source of my very existence in the world.

"Mine I'm afraid," The beast 'said', it doubtless observed the anger and resentment radiating off of me and continued, "your body was damaged beyond mortal repair in your world, so I brought you here, in hopes that your powers would change the Fate of this universe."

…There were so many things wrong with that sentence I didn't know where to start.

"What do you want to change?" I asked finally, the 5D's series ended pretty well as far as I remember.

The beast paused, if it had features, I suspect I would have read hesitation off its face.

"Though I would have emerged victorious from the next Battle without your presence, I always witness, despite my best efforts, troubling futures for this dimension."

Thoughts raced through my head. 'Always', 'witness', and 'futures' aren't usually words you string together in the same sentence. Given the Crimson Dragon's presumed power to travel through time, it may be reasonable to assume it actually did see these futures, plural.

"Every time the fate of the universe hangs in the balance, the King of the Netherworld, who battles for the Darkness, fights me through mortals controlling duel monsters."

The ultimate forces of light and dark decides the fate of the world with a trading card game, got it.

"Though I have thus far emerged victorious, all duel are axiomatically unpredictable. After such a duel that may decide the fate of this Dimension, the victor claims this dimension, while an alternate sub-dimension comes into existence where the same duel is lost, dooming that world to an eternal darkness."

"Huh?" Academically, I sort of understood the information. Realistically, it flew so high over my head we're not even in the same galaxy anymore. "So every time there's an ultimate (Yuki thought the phrase 'season finale' might be a little insulting) duel, two dimensions come out of it, one where you won, and another where you lost?"

"The alternate dimension is but a fragment of our own, I call them the Shadow Dimensions. In the past, these dimensions soon dissipated and I paid them no mind. Until I foresaw that several of these dimensions would collide with our dimension in the near future. If this is not prevented, the collision would result in a merger of the dimensions, leading to alterations of the fundamental laws of the universe, in the process converting all matter back into energy. Sadly, it is Fate itself that binds our dimension onto this course."

Okay, destruction of all matter is definitely not good. But why do I feel like this sounds familiar? Something stirred at the back of my mind.

"What do you want me for?" I asked suspiciously. What could a time-traveling magical creature want with a mortal like me?

"We are of this universe, thus bound by its course. You, however, are free. Thus it is within your power and yours alone of prevent the formation of these dimensions. To alter the upcoming fights between good and evil, ensure an overwhelming victory for the Light so these Shadow Dimensions never come into existence. You do not have much time-"

Half way through the dragon's speech, everything clicked.

"You're talking about Yusei's duels with Goodwin, and Z-One," I said with certainty. Good versus evil, happening soon, changes the fate of the world, it's a reasonable conjecture.

The Crimson Dragon nodded.

"And Paradox," I continued, feeling more confident at my reasoning though incredulous at my own conclusions, "If Goodwin wins, as he does in this Shadow Dimension of yours, he freezes the population as is, and that leads to the Synchro Dimension, that's why there's no Yusei, because he's the only variable in that world so Goodwin wiped him out."

I didn't need for the Dragon to respond, the brighter spots of light that presumably represented its eyes grew larger and its entire form shrunk back in shock.

"If Z-One wins, he destroys Synchro summoning, until aliens invade and XYZ summoning becomes prevalent, creating the XYZ dimension without Synchros. If Paradox wins, Jaden is defeated and is unable to prevent evil forces from taking over Duel Academy."

"In all alternate dimensions I have witnessed," The dragon corrected, "the Spirit inhabiting Yugi Motou is able to prevent Paradox from destroying duel monsters by sacrificing himself. This prevents Yugi's destined meeting with Jaden, and the latter never enters the duel academy." It was an implicit confirmation of my earlier assertions.

"Which leads to the Fusion Dimension where the Duel Academy turns evil!" I concluded victoriously until I heard what I said, "Wait, so you want me to prevent Arc-V? Isn't that a little harsh? I mean I know the YuGiOh franchise's been going downhill, but don't you think you're being a little extreme?"

"This world has long spun of the controls of our Creators," the dragon actually sounded regretful for some reason, I'd be happy to not be controlled by balding business executives trying to profit off of minors (and adults playing a children's card game), "despite my best efforts, I cannot recreate the series of serendipities as our makers designed, if these Shadow dimensions were to come into existence, they will collide with ours, then our combined destruction is unavoidable."

So unless I somehow prevent these Shadow Dimensions from forming, they would eventually collide with this Dimension and destroy literally everything. No pressure.

"When does this happen?" I asked curiously. I mean if it were to happen in like a couple of thousands of years, well, I really don't care.

"Time passes differently in the moving of dimensional planes, it is futile to measure its occurrence using passage of time within this Dimension . Its exacting timing has varied from years to centuries after the recent battles." I shuddered at its choice of tense and what it implied.

"I still don't understand what you want me for," I said cautiously. Collision of dimensions, destruction of the world, these things are magnitudes beyond my comprehension let alone control.

"You are from a higher plane," the red light trained on me, "same as those of our Creators. You are the variable, you possess the power of altering the Destiny and even some fundamental laws of this universe." the dragon elaborated.

I sort of get it, I think. Because I'm from a reality where the YuGiOh universe is created, I'm not as limited by the Fate of this universe. It's like when you travel to another country, you wouldn't get included in the census, the Fate (whatever that is) of this universe doesn't affect me as it does the others, so I have a much better chance of changing it.

"You still didn't answer my question," I said skeptically.

"You must ensure an absolute victory for the Light at each step," the Crimson Dragon replied, "One not depended on chance." I stared, it can't possibly mean… "The results of a duel is, by its very nature, unpredictable, and thus cannot be used to defeat the powers of Darkness if we want to prevent the formation of these Shadow Dimensions and the complete destruction of future."

I felt a surge of laughter bubbling up despite the weight of its words. Here's a magical monster, whose initial creation originated from a virtual-reality video game, in a filler plotline, in a cartoon revolving around using a children's card game to save the world, telling me that the same card games is no longer reliable for saving the world.

"How? How do I weaken a mythical beast of untold energy?" Who does it think I am, Yami Yugi?

"The Netherworld Ruler is weakened by each defeat of the Immortals in its control, though I fear that would no longer sufficiently diminish its powers. Battling the monster with Exodia, though, should significantly drain its powers, as it did me."

"You expect me to defeat each Dark Signer with an Exodia deck?" Frankly, that's just asking for too much, "There must be some other way..."

That, my young visitor, is up to you to discover.

"So do I get any help at all, like can you make me a Signer or something?" Even old RPGs give you a rusty sword when you start off.

"I'm afraid I can offer you little assistance during this journey. I have been greatly weakened in bringing you here, and the battle with Exodia had drained me further, I am incapable of offering you any help during your duels."

"Is that how Crow won?" I sounded a little more accusingly than I intended, but 21 straight losses in a row would piss anyone off.

"His Blackwing Dragon did borrow much energy from me to ensure the many victories of his master against you. I had not expected one of my dragons battling Exodia, I'm afraid I would not be able to offer such help again."

"Wait, again as in to any Signer again?" it suddenly came to me, "And the Dark Signers, they still get magical help from the King of the Netherworld?"

The Dragon nodded, having the good graces to look embarrassed, at least I think it's embarrassment, it's hard reading a dragon make out of light.

"Any more bad news I should know about?" I asked sarcastically.

"I'm sorry to burden you with such arduous tasks," The Dragon said, "but please, for the sake of this dimension, for the people you met in it, save its future from certain doom."

"I'll… see what I can do" I agreed as the giant beast faded and time resumed around me.

I have no idea what the hell I'm going to do, or how the hell I was supposed to destroy a magical evil beast powerful enough to destroy the world, and a technological genius from the distant future, without forcing them to accept defeat through a children's card game.

Technically, I tried to think positive, I did achieve my goal of freeing myself from the Crimson Dragon's influence on my duels, only it happened in the worst way possible. It would be really funny, in a bad way, if this ended up being the beginning of the end of the world, I thought absentmindedly.

In Domino City, a green (blue?) haired girl looked at her arm in surprise, something felt wrong, something felt missing, but she can't tell what it was. She was quickly distracted by her brother's complaints.

Also in Domino City, deep in the headquarters of the infamous Arcadia, a young woman touched her arm thoughtfully. Her arm remained flawless, but it felt like a piece was just ripped out.

Roman Goodwin started as he felt the spider mark on his arm burn like it never did before and a rush of negative energy washed over him, bringing him to his knees in a fit of pain and despair.

Deep in the abyss of darkness, a formless monster roared as it felt its strengths grow and the barriers to the human realm weaken.

A/N 0: Ahahahahah, this is what I've been trying to get to. Saving the world etc without resorting to card games. There'll still be plenty of duels though.

And did anybody else notice the original design for the Crimson Dragon was from Kaiba's virtual reality video game? The design on Goodwin's shirt is basically the same as the design on the ground when Joey used his Time Wizard to summon the monster.

Btw, no, I'm not going to use an Exodia deck for the rest of the story, if for no reason other than the fact that I like variety.

A/N 1: Feel free to ignore the following A/Ns if you don't like the technicalities of this chapter and/or you understood everything in it.

I'm subscribing to (a wildly twisted version of) the parallel universe theory, which generally states that when something can go one way or another, a dimension is split into two, and both possibilities are explored. In this case, Yusei's loss in each scenario leads to a different Shadow Dimension. The Crimson Dragon sees that in the future, these Shadow Dimensions would collide with the main dimension, allowing them to merge back into one, in the process destroying all matter and 'resetting' the universe. It's just a hiccup for the universe, but really, really bad for anything that exists.

The split and re-fusion is the Fate of this universe, so the Crimson Dragon is powerless to stop it. So it summoned Yuki from a higher plane. Originating from the world where YGO is formed, Yuki is in the same plane of existence as the Creators of YGO (aka reality), thus possesses the ability to reject and rewrite the destiny of the entire YGO world. So by securing a definitive victory for the Light, she can prevent the formation of the Shadow Dimensions. Duels involve too many uncertainties, so these victories cannot be achieved through dueling.

I feel like everything's pretty clear cut, it used to be a lot more convoluted.

A/N 2: This is just a good-humored jab at Arc-V. This is an YGO fanfic anyways, so I borrowed (coughstolecough) the idea of sub-dimensions from Arc-V, and their doom is a 'sub-dimensions gone wrong' situation. I don't actually think that'll be the canon explanation for the different dimensions in the Arc-V series. I do think 'alternate reality where main character failed' may end up being the explanation Konami uses for the three alternate dimensions.

If Jaden fails, Duel Academy turns evil, hence the Fusion Dimension. If Yusei fails, Goodwin wins and creates his own idealized world, hence the Synchro Dimension. If Yuma fails, aliens take over earth, removes all traces of Synchro (since it's generated by the strength of humans) hence the XYZ dimension.

And of course, Yugi doesn't fail because he's the King of Games.