A/N: Welcome to the finals...! It starts with Thomas again.

Disclaimer: I don't own Zexal, and the whole waiting room and dueling part was in the anime. I just... filled in the scenes a little, with thoughts and extra actions that I imagine happened off-screen.

I read a great fanfic called "gag gift guitar" (10/10 would recommend) that inspired the first part of the aftermath (it'll make sense when you get there), so credit for the mail part doesn't belong to me.

Enjoy!

Preparing to leave, he had placed his deck right on the edge of the planter in the common room. The common room his opponent would have to walk through to get to the arena. He was kind of glad to be leaving. The brightness of both the butter-colored walls and announcers' voices coming from the TV was starting to give him a headache. Plus, he needed to get away from what he just did to set up what would happen. Did that make sense? I'm going insane. He was done mentally preparing, anyway. For both the duel… and for what Vetrix had told him would happen.

He had placed his deck inside the box, carefully making sure he hadn't dropped anycard. He took a deep breath. In, then out.

This is it.

This is my moment.

I have to win.

Glancing at the clock, he figured it was about time he get out of his chair and move closer to the arena, like he heard Quattro getting ready to do from the other side of the planters. That, or go pee. The announcers' cheerful voices and the bright yellow walls were starting to wear on him. He thought whoever in charge of such a big part of Heartland culture could have hired an at least halfway-decent interior designer for the finalists' waiting room.

He made the mistake of walking too slow and heard his cards fall onto the ground right before the automatic door closed smoothly behind him-

Everything was too late now.

Quattro dully noted that his opponent was ten minutes early, just as Vetrix said. That's why he had left a few seconds before ten to their duel, just like Vetrix had told him. Vetrix had been right, as always.

Pressing his ear to the wall next to the door, Quattro heard a faint shuffle, and knew Vetrix had been right about Shark wanting to get an edge over Quattro. After all, he was too observant not to hear them. And he was too desperate not to leave them.

If Vetrix was always right, then why did his stomach churn at the thought of Shark looking at cards he (intentionally? Was that even the right word?) dropped?

In the courtyard, Shark picked up the sound of cards sprawling. And the other door closing. Quattro must've dropped them in his haste to pee or something.

And then, a treacherous thought: you could look at them. Just turn your head to the right…

Shark knew he shouldn't.

But Shark knew he could.

But he wouldn't. It was wrong.

But then-

Rio. The image of her, helpless in her bed.

The fans. The sound of them, fanatically cheering for him from the TV.

Quattro. The sight of that smile, fooling the crowd. The one Rio undoubtedly saw before she almost died.

And he looked.

He knew only a couple cards would be shown, with the way the ledge was low enough, his cards heavy enough, his deck stack angled enough. Most of his cards would land facedown. Vetrix hadn't seemed too concerned about it. Vetrix said Shark only needed to see one or two cards to be caught cheating. So maybe Quattro should just relax.; maybe he was overreacting. It would be Shark's fault, after all. Besides, Shark was on Vetrix's hit list, so he must have done something to help Faker.

But deep down, he felt like he was sinking. This was all so, so wrong.

He told himself it was to get Byron Arclight back. To see Chris not always stressed, and Michael not always worried.

He didn't know if it worked.

Only a couple cards were shown. And Shark was disappointed for the smallest fraction of a second, before he felt the guilt rise up in him. He sat there blankly for a second. Too long.

And subconsciously, he stood up. He didn't want to, but he was already moving closer to see the cards between that gap in the bushes-

He turned away after what felt like hours, swallowing thickly. His memory wouldn't let him forget those four cards. In a daze, he thought to himself, ha. Four cards. Quattro cards. Might just be enough to ruin me.

They burned into the back of his eyelids.

This was so wrong. No matter how little of an edge it gave him. He shouldn't have looked.

Quattro should've been more careful with his cards. And he was a jerk who deserved a loss after what he did to Rio. But Shark didn't know, didn't want to know, how much these thoughts actually comforted him.

With a small fanfare and strangely light trash talk, the duel had begun. The finals. The Nationals. Right here, and he was in it and feeling good. Not great, but smiley and excited enough that good was okay for now. For this duel.

They had taken their places, eyed each other. And with that, they'd drawn their opening hands, and the duel began. The duel. Of the year. And Shark was in it. He pushed down all negative emotions. And felt okay. Not awesome, but okay enough to be happy and focused about this duel.

The smallest hope was beginning to rise up in him. Shark dueled to duel. There weren't any hints of guilt on Shark's face. Maybe Vetrix was wrong.

Or, maybe it was still too early in the duel.

Shark scowled to himself. He thought by hinting at warehouses and fires during the first round, Quattro would slip up and acknowledge what he did to Rio. But he hadn't. Quattro was simply dueling, plain as that. But then again, it was still early in the duel.

Shark was tough. Cheating or no, he was a good duelist close to or on his own level. Plus, the only sign he had of Shark cheating so far was a flicker on his poker face-after he tributed a monster and activated its effect. So maybe all the cards Shark saw had been pushed deep down into his memory. Or shuffled to the bottom of his deck.

Quattro was definitely one to beat. Sadistic and possibly unstable, Quattro was still a finalist. Quattro had only played one card Shark had saw beforehand, but it hadn't even mattered. The only sign, still, of who Quattro really was inside was a small flicker of something across his face when virtual flames came out as a special effect.

Mirror Force.

One of his favorite cards. He set it down to end his turn. That card always brought him luck.

He wondered if Shark was going to get caught at all. They were both down on LP; it looked like a bitter battle to the end. They might have to actually finish the duel if he didn't get caught. Which was fine by Quattro. Screw Vetrix, he deserved to enjoy this duel. To the end.

Mirror Force.

It had to be Mirror Force, the card Quattro just set down.

Shark felt his eyes go wide and his body tense up.

He shouldn't have known that.

But he did. And he had a counter prepared in his hand already. Because he had to win. Rio depended on this.

As he was about to shake off the guilt and set his card, an alarm blared across the field. And Shark felt his stomach sink. He knew exactly why their duel was stopped.

Quattro winced. Whoever was in charge of the alarms was heartless. Playing the video of Shark looking, from two different security cameras. For all the crowd to see. For all the crowd to place all their blame on one person, not two. For all the crowd to name one the victim, and the other the cheat. How easily the crowd was misled.

Just like Vetrix had said.

He felt empty.

Betrayed.

By the person in charge of security, who, in his or her haste, had simply posted the entire video of Shark cheating for all to see.

By the crowd, who had turned from fans to haters in mere seconds.

By himself. Because he was dumb enough to look, dumb enough to get caught, dumb enough to feel like he needed to cheat on the first place.

And he walked off the field alone. The head of the duel tournament had something to say to him.

He was whisked away by a mob of people. Reporters, more contract people, lightning-speed fans. Cameramen. Screams of "QUATTRO! WE LOVE YOU!" and "SOMEONE TRIED TO CHEAT MY DARLING QUATTROO!"

The fangirls were terrifying. And he wasn't anyone's darling Quattro.

He turned his attention to the mikes shoved in his face.

"Did you know?"

He blanked. Yes, I knew. I set him up and ruined his life for good.

"No, I'm… so, so shocked that he would do this."

"How do you feel?"

One he could answer honestly. Or at least, one Thomas could answer honestly. "I'm still in shock, I think. I would never want to win by default."

"What're your thoughts as the new duel champion?"

Completely undeserving. But that's okay, none of you care. "I think whenever this really sinks in for me, I'll be pretty happy to be the champion. I'll try my best to live up to it and bring more smiles. Even though I didn't win the way I thought I would."

"All right, that's enough! Give him some room!"

Quattro breathed a sigh of relief as the contract people and their bodyguards finally fought their way across the mob to him. He made it, after all. He was the star now. The crowd belonged to him.

The executive head of the tournament beckoned Shark to sit across him.

He launched into what sounded like a scripted speech, about guilt and responsibility and public backlash how he should be ashamed of himself.

Shark glared at the wall, resisting the urge to snap that I know, okay? I know I messed up and everyone hates me. I don't need you to tell me that.

And then his favorite part.

"We have to punish you, somehow." A pause, accompanied by a long, heavy sigh.

"I'll talk with my team about a necessary punishment. We'll probably mail our terms to you and schedule another talk, but…"

He gave another long sigh before continuing. "Be prepared to not duel in my circuits again."

Before he could stop himself, "What?"

"I'm sorry. You've been a very promising duelist the whole tournament, and there will always be other tournaments besides this national duel circuit. This won't be the end for you if you don't want it to be. But see, with things like this, our team doesn't know how long you've been cheating and getting away with it. If our security team hadn't been lucky enough to check the cameras at the time they did… Anyway, we have to take drastic action."

Shark forced his hands and teeth to unclench. He straightened and left the room with a simple "Okay." before hot tears threatened to spill.

He'd almost made it. But he tripped up. He'd let the crowd get to him, and he lost them all.

The Aftermath

So much fan mail and sympathy cookies and whatnot. He had to get a special room and pull some favors with the mail company to hold all of it. He was getting so sick of it.

He left for China soon, to start a tour-style dueling career. If he won it all, which of course of would, he'd be the East Asian Dueling champion. And he'd be back for the next big tournament he'd heard was rumored to be in Heartland. His future looked bright. But inside, resentment built. How dumb some people were.

So much hate mail. All shapes and sizes. The "why did you do it" and the "I think I'm still on your side?" letters got rarer with more news coverage on the issue, before they disappeared completely.

Shark got so numb to it all, and he couldn't tell if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Rio was more unconscious than not, with different operations going on. He lost interest in school. And he'd been banned from the nationals. Forever. His future was hazy. He was hurt inside, and let gangs and bullies take an interest in him, as one of them.

He'd call it fanservice. And that's what it'd be. Serving fans the truth about who he was, and making the sadistic part of him happy along the way. It would almost be okay. He'd be untouchable, with his cards and so many dedicated fans protecting him.

It was almost okay bullying people because he rebuilt his reputation that way. He'd always have his cards. And every time he'd savagely win, it would be without cheating. He'd think of how wrong the majority of people were about him. And that he deserved a deck or two along the way for all the trouble he went through.

A/N: thx for reading :)

let me know your thoughts!