Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"Maybe in your reality, or in the others you frequent. But in this one she has a very serious heart condition," Yusei replied. But again Yugi shook his head, the confusion slowly leaving his face only to be replaced by concern.
"I'll admit I'm not a doctor of any sort. But I 'can' destroy, and the easiest way to destroy anything is at its weak spot. 'If' Ruka had a weak heart? When I met her I would automatically have sensed that. As one of my Dragons if we sensed there was a potentially life threatening condition in her? We would never have allowed her to regain that Mark. She's fine." Yugi stated resolute only to watch as Yusei went so white so fast that he feared the boy would faint. 'This isn't good...'
"Son?" Yugi began as he stood up before walking up to Yusei. He got down on bent knee so to be on eye level with the guy. 'I can't touch you Yusei, but I think you need someone with you. "Son, can you hear me?"
Somehow hearing himself being addressed like that was strangely comforting. It held that essence of 'its ok, the grown ups are here and we'll take care of this for you' that he craved. Yusei couldn't get a fix on if he felt ice cold or burning hot as a silent horror warred with his own logical mind. Logic, science, medicine all said that Ruka had a heart condition, yet Yugi was saying that she didn't. Should he put his trust in this strange type of thing? This 'magic'? Should he? If he did... if he... if 'they' did. "That's impossible, why would the doctors lie about that? What type of doctor willingly poisons a little girl!"
Yugi blinked as Yusei fought to throttle down the urge to shout, child like sure but his reason was certainly a sound one. "Because doctors don't know magic. They didn't see a little girl who sent her soul to another world for a vacation. They saw a little girl having serious heart trouble and tried to diagnose it. They're doing the right thing, they're trying to help her. But they don't know about what I did five 'thousand' years ago. Or what my counterpart did that night." He watched Yusei bury his face into his hands and shook his head in sympathy. 'He's blaming himself, I really don't need this to happen again...' "Yusei. Do you have access to her meds right 'now'? Can you get me the bottles and pills she's taking?"
Yusei didn't answer, his face was covered by those thick, brown leather gloves and he seemed almost shut off from the world.
"Yusei." Yugi repeated the name growing concerned over the child. "I realize this is a terrible situation to be in. But the core of the situation is Rua's ability to deal with a trauma that he's not yet ready to face."
"Why not give their marks to someone else? If she was going to just shut off Rua's ability why not take Ruka's mark and send it on its way too?!" Yusei demanded folding his fingers down so he was staring at Yugi over his fists.
"You mean 'Why not give Divine access to Ruka'? I thought you met little Aki. You saw what he did to her, should he have Ruka too?" Yugi offered and watched Yusei flinch. "Ruka's first use of her powers had her joy ride her very soul out of her body and to the Duel Spirit world."
The comment hung in the air, a razor wire that was wrapping itself around Yusei's throat stealing his ability to speak. Divine had twisted Aki, and Yugi was right about the man undoubtedly being the type to keep tabs on the twins. Had Yusei not be around, if Divine had been allowed to run loose he might have even set up a situation to justify taking Ruka.
'This is exactly why Rex has the head in so many of those realities, so you don't have to face this.'
"So what are you going to do? Make her a new heart?" Yusei demanded his mind racing as he tried to think of a solution to this. 'I haven't got medical training either, how can I just on blind faith take that Ruka has such a simple problem? What if he's wrong and she dies because I stop letting her take her medicine?'
'Fighting me is better than giving up,' Yugi thought with faint amusement that he kept off his face. "Show me her meds. A new heart is unnecessary, I'm more than capable of coming up with something far less invasive."
Yusei sat still for a moment, weighing thoughts in his mind before pushing himself to his feet. He walked towards the bedroom where Ruka's medicine was kept, unsure if this was even the right course of action. Mentally drowning amid a sea of information he didn't know how to process. "So if you're God..."
"I'm the God of the Duel Spirit world because I made that world from the ground up." Yugi corrected easily, "it only gets that nitpicky because of the 'Gods' that were created after. When Industrial Illusions creates new cards, sometimes they're labeled as 'Gods' for flavor. But they're still far below what I am."
Yusei frowned before turning to face Yugi only to see the man's chest and remember, passively, that Yugi was actually pretty tall. "You know what I mean. What are you to me? The world?"
"To the world I'm the King of Games, a part time model and an 'incredibly' hard guy to find when motivated. But I'm also your boss, heir of mine," Yugi answered with a cheeky grin that made Yusei roll his eyes and swing himself on his heel so he was walking back towards the twins bedroom.
"I don't have time for games right now, can't you be serious?" Yusei demanded, only to realize that it was a bad choice of words as he heard a soft chuckle.
"Ok 'I am the king of games', what part of that sentence don't you grasp? Sides, you've had to be a responsible adult far longer than you should. What's wrong with letting me take charge for a bit?" Yugi asked, a question that Yusei couldn't find an answer or counter thus forced him to stay quiet.
He went to the dresser where the pills rested in a small island of white caps and bright orange bottles with strips of white labels. Gesturing towards it, Yusei stood to the side waiting for Yugi to do... whatever it was he could and would do... Only for Yugi to keep standing there with a raised eyebrow. He then walked to the bottles and began running his hand through the bottles. A silent reminder that, despite how real he looked, Yugi wasn't physically present in the room.
"Son I need to see the bottles and pills. I can make a set of visually identical items for her to use. So she's not being dosed with stuff that is actually harming her?"
"You can do that?" Yusei asked only to cause Yugi to literally drop his head into his hands and audibly sigh. 'I am not used to this. I am used to being the one no one can keep up with. Why is he making me feel like Jack?'
"Yusei, you can't do everything by yourself. Its why the dragon is split into parts, now you're in a situation involving a pair of small children's health. I understand your concern, but..." Yugi pursed his lips and sighed softly. "I... the call is yours, I can help to a point... accept it or not, the choice is yours."
'I hate you. I hate how you can do such things without effort, and I'm with my world falling to pieces..' Yusei thought to himself, fairly vibrating with pent up frustration at his limited view and expectation of blind faith. All the while wondering if this was what it was like to have a mentor? For as much as he was angry, that constant use of parental terms made him feel the same as when he was with Martha. Even when he was angry or annoyed, it was more out of rebellion than actual hate.
It also made him begrudgingly do as he was told...
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"So basically, Yugi was 'here'?" Crow asked slowly.
The living room was comprised of the remaining grown ups among the Dragons. Yusei sat alone in the recliner part of the long L shaped couch. Jack and Carly were side by side as ever, with Carly's file resting on the small table before them. Crow sat between Jack and Yusei, a type of fence or maybe just a ref for any potential explosions.
The twins mandatory absence made it easy to relax and talk, more over because what Yusei told them had been heavy. But as he had explained it, his eyes constantly drifted back to rest on the elevator. In case the children showed up. In case they found out.
"Poor Rua!" Carly sat there distracted, already seemingly wrestling with something internally. The explanation about Rua's past had rattled the reporter even as the news that Yugi had been here should have elated her. After all, it was made clear that he had pulled the stunt at KaibaCorp to get her out of trouble with Kaiba. She needed to thank him for that! Instead her hands were on her lap, with her gaze firmly fixed on the file she brought.
The news was enough to even silence Jack. The image of those big puppy eyes leaking down in blood and jelly the way over done paint would spill. It was enough to send his stomach into flipflops as it tried to go up his torso and out his throat. Suddenly his contempt for Rua's abysmal skill as a duelist felt dirty, shameful. 'The boy gave his all for his sister! And now he's been hobbled for the sake of his own mind?'
"So what did Yugi do about the pills exactly?" Crow finally asked quietly, better to get this off the table before the twins got home. They could talk about why Carly felt the need to stop by next, since it wasn't twins focused.
Yusei reached into his pants pocket and produced the series of bottles. They were passed first to Crow, allowing the redhead to study the bottles. Plain orange, with white caps, there was a white strip with gray letters listing the doctors' name and medical jargon. Through the orange shell Crow could see a number of pills that rattled about in small oval shapes. But having not directly dealt with the meds themselves before he shrugged it off and handed it to Jack next.
"He made them, I watched him literally will them into being," Yusei began as he handed the next bottle to Crow. "Most are just sugar pills. Placebo's meant to appease those who had seen how many pills she normally takes. There 'are' two that perform a function though, one is a fancy charcoal pill. It will pull in the toxins she's already ingested and allow them to be passed harmlessly through her body." Yusei held that particular bottle up and gave it a small rattle before sending it down.
For Jacks' part the bottles were nothing to write home about, the line 'will them into being' almost wasn't interesting. Had anyone else told him this story, he would have passed if off as finding some of Ruka's own bottles. Though the pills 'in' the bottle would have left him stumped. Yet, if he made these copies out of thin air perhaps 'that' was the interesting part. No flare, or dramatics, so simple it would easily slip by another's notice. He doubted the doctors would notice this change on a surface glance.
"The second pill will basically shut down her attempts to pass part of her Mark to her brother. The pills are apparently bound to the seal on Rua, once he's overcome his issues, her pills will disappear." Yusei finished while Carly fussed over the absolute details of the bottles.
"You know its funny, he said he won't tell the future, but he certainly doesn't mind showing it," Crow chuckled as he rested against the couch. Earning a confused look from the guys on either side of him. "Come on! You don't see it? He gave us 'pills' with a time frame for when it will disappear. Meaning that 'Rua will get better' this isn't permanent. He even gave us Carly by sending 'her' those figurines. He could have sent those things to anyone else, yet he sends them to the 'one' person in the whole world who would date Jack?"
"The hell you mean 'the one person'?! I'll have you know there are a LOT of women who want to date me!" Jack roared earning a look of complete contempt from Crow.
It was a comment that resonated with Yusei, but even as it did his eyes fell onto Carly who seemed to retreat into herself. As excited as the figurines had made her, he had figured knowing that Yugi had shown up would make her happy. There was this expectation on getting annoyed that had been ready to manifest; when she inevitably began begging for Yusei to bring Yugi back.
Only she hadn't done it, instead she had stayed almost completely in Jack's shadow. Instead of grilling Yusei for information about Yugi she had just passively listened. He sat there and observed her study the bottles, a bit 'too' deeply the more he thought about it. Until he saw a small glimmer of a tear start to trek down her face. Concerned, Jack's name was on his lips before a bright greeting distracted him. As Rua announced to the whole condo that he and his sister were home.
Given how cheerful that voice was, it was clear the twins heard nothing of the conversation, leaving Yusei scrambling to get the pills back. Carly didn't even react in surprise as she readily dropped the bottles into his hands. Allowing Yusei to slip the pills into his pants pockets as Rua jogged off to put his school bag in place. Ready to do his homework when he got wrangled into it. Ruka ever sedately following to do the same, giving everyone an optimistic wave.
"Hey Carly! If you're here does that mean there's news from China? Did they find Aki?" Rua asked as he bounded over throwing himself over the back of the couch. He hung there with his arms and upper body next to her, his legs dangling off the back.
The question had a funny effect on the couple, Crow watched the heated expression on Jack's face freeze, with his eyes revealing a momentary panic. Given that Jack had been staring directly at Crow it left Crow as the only one to actually see it. Suddenly running into Jack and Carly on their way up from the ground seemed less coincidental.
"I... uh..." Carly fumbled back and Jack backed off from Crow to turn his attention onto his girlfriend. As big a sign possible that something had happened. And it wasn't good.
Crow shot a concerned look at Yusei only to remember at the last moment that Aki was Yusei's woman. So he turned his gaze to Carly and was started to see her wiping away something that seemed to glisten. 'Tears? She's crying?'
"Yeah... My contact sent me... Um..."
It didn't take much to get the twins to come over to the couch. Rua had settled down instantly hearing Carly's stammering, so he placed himself on one side of Yusei. His sister sat on the other arm rest, a pair of short bookends for Yusei. As Carly began explaining the situation, the room became painfully silent. Punctuated only by the twins as they began to sniffle. Yusei was a robot, eyes blinking to show he was still active, as was the norm while the twins made up for it. Ruka started crying quietly into her hands while Rua was trying not to cry and by 'not trying' was silently pouring tears down his face.
Yusei had nothing to say at that, everyone sat there waiting for him to say something. Waited for him to process what he heard. But if there 'was' a response, he didn't reveal it.
'Would this count as something in the past that Yugi would tell me about? It is past tense right?' Yusei began when he begrudgingly remembered what Yugi had said about 'free will'. "I'll call her parents."
Crow opened his mouth to argue only to find no words that came from him. It was the right thing to do after all, her parents needed to know after all. "Jack is right this sounds more like a murder and there's no reason to think that there won't be an investigation. So I guess we leave this up to them..."
Yusei sat there and watched as the group talked among themselves, remembering his conversation with Yugi. The bottles had rested in Yusei's pockets and the pair had moved outside so Yugi could see the city.
"Yusei, if you ever feel that there's something you want to talk about, feel free to call out to me. I won't tell the future, but I can hear you out and give advice. Since Rudger isn't in your timeline anymore." Yugi had offered, simulating resting his arms on the edge of the building while he studied the new horizon.
Unsure of how to respond, Yusei stood there and just watched the world go by, "Thank you... for coming at all.." A strange mention sure, a reminder that Rudger Godwin was meant to be the Head of the Dragon. "Is it normal for him to have the head?"
"Yeah, its weirder for him to 'not' have the head actually. Crow normally ends up serving the Earthbound, not him." Yugi explained earning a startled exclamation out of Yusei. "Yeah, if Crow doesn't fall, well, he certainly deserves a partner of his own, it should help him in the long run. And Stardust needs all the help he can get with Moon Rose."