Chapter 5: Battle of the Dragons

Hello, back again. There's been a big timeskip now. This chapter will be covering over Yuto and Yugo's duel in Standard as well as a hint of what Yuri's true plans are. Also, to XBrain, I can understand how the love triangle may seem silly and pointless. To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure about it myself, but it will play a part later on. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter:)

Yuri had waited for a while before he got hint of his plan coming to motion. At some points, he had felt strange visions come over him again. Like the last one he had had, they were quick and left him more curious than anything else. On was of a dragon that wielded arcane power, Rune Eyes Pendulum Dragon, another was a being with feral eyes, Beast Eyes Pendulum Dragon. The word Pendulum repeated in his mind yet once again Yuri had no idea what it was. In the meanwhile, he had to content himself to his usual boring schedule of dueling possible soldiers to see if they were strong enough to participate in the war, which was hard to tell since even the strongest of them barely survived even his 2nd turn. If only the Professor had actually sent Yuri to the front lines, then the invasion would've been done in a matter of days. However, to preserve the shallow pride of everyone else, Yuri had to stay on the sidelines while the dogs got to fight. Most duelists bragged about their achievements, but no one even made a move towards Yuri. Due to his skills, most duelists knew he was stronger than possibly the entire Obelisk Force combined along with General Kaiser Ryo and Commander in Chief Edo Phoenix. Most saw him as an enigma, a terrifying monster that would even card his own allies if he wanted, and as such avoided him. Not that Yuri cared in the slightest, those fools could be jealous of him if they wished, but if they knew how he had gotten that strong, well, then it'd be a different story. He preferred being alone anyway; it gave him time to focus on refining his deck and coming up with new strategies. On one such night Yuri was awake while examining his deck when he felt a certain card shine a violet light, leading him to remove it from his deck and examine it.

"What is it, Starve Venom?" With that the card shined even brighter and Yuri felt himself blacking out.

(Standard Dimension: Maiami City)

For a single moment when talking to the person in front of him, Yuto felt a sliver of hope reach him. After learning that Academia's leader, had a son in Standard, Shun had been determined to take him as barter to get Ruri back. Though the rest of the Resistance had been a little less enthusiastic, they agreed to allow Yuto and Shun to go. After saying farewell to Kaito, Thomas, Michael, and Luna, they went through the dimensional portal created by Dr. Faker using the technology they had found in stolen Academia duel disks.

After arriving in Standard, Yuto and Shun had split up to cover more ground, and the first thing he realized after dueling an arrogant LDS student was that they had no knowledge of the war, or of the other dimensions period. At some point, he had thought he found Ruri, but he was mistaken upon realizing her wish to learn Fusion summoning. She had pink hair, and her name was Yuzu. Though he didn't know her, Yuto could already see how similar she was to Ruri and vowed to keep her safe.

Shun had done things a bit more…recklessly, to put bluntly. Believing all students of LDS to be in league with Academia, he had proceeded to card every member he could find in hopes of forcing Reiji Akaba, the president of LDS, to reveal himself. More than once Yuto found himself punching Shun's gut to keep him in line (thanks to Thomas giving him combat lessons). However, Shun later told Yuto that apparently Leo Akaba cared nothing for his son and that the 2 were enemies. Shun was hired by the man to participate in the Maiami Championship, meanwhile Yuto stayed in the shadows to watch the events unfold.

Though LDS hadn't been connected to Academia, they had discovered a spy from Academia, Sora Shiunin. During the duel he had revealed himself and how his comrades participated in the invasion. Shun had bested him, and the force of the duel left the boy unconscious. At that night Yuto had snuck into the boy's hospital room to learn what he could about where Ruri was held, but again he found nothing. Sora gave him a deal to let him duel Shun in return for information, and in response Yuto left with Sora chasing after him. Eventually, the 2 engaged in combat, and while Yuto could've snagged a win with Dark Rebellion, he hoped to end things peacefully and get more information.

At that moment however, someone else had come to them, a boy with tomato-like hair, scarlet eyes, and an identical face to his own, Yuya. Yuto remembered Yuzu had called him that a few times, now he knew why. Yuya had entered the duel and demanded answers on what was going on. In response, Sora had tried to summon his strongest Death – Toy in order to swat Yuto, only for his duel disk to teleport him back to the Fusion Dimension.

With that, the 2 boys stopped there duel and Yuto explained to Yuya all he knew, and though he didn't show it, Yuto was excited to realize he had a possible ally now. Like himself, Yuya wanted to protect his friends and refused to use dueling to hurt people. Yuya believed in bringing happiness with his dueling, something Yuto followed as well. For a moment, Yuto believed that they could work together to bring cheer back to Heartland. That is, until the Pawn of Fusion arrived.

Ready to settle the score, Yuto accepted the duel, wanting to know where Ruri's kidnapper had taken her. The 2 fought and Yuto once again found himself on his back foot with his enemy's dragon breathing down his neck, his own dragon the only way out. "With my Level 4 Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves, and Level 4 Phantom Knights of Silent Boots, I build the overlay network!" His two monsters disappeared in the network below to signal his dragon.

"Formed from the pitch-black darkness, to fight those foolish enough to oppose it with its treacherous fangs! Now descend! Xyz Summon! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" His dragon roared from the overlay network and came to the field, ready to finish things with Clear Wing. At that moment however, the 3 boys felt there heartbeats multiply by 3. Yuya clenched his chest, barely able to bear the pain. Meanwhile, Yuto closed his eyes as he felt something in the back of his mind crack, he felt something shatter inside him, and when he opened, they were glowing blue and were void of any pupil. Yugo raised his head, under the same influence, only his eyes were aqua.

"Alright, let's finish this, with my Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, I'll destroy you, and then everything. Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's monster effect activates! By using an overlay unit, I can halve the ATK of a Level 5 or higher monster you control, and Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon gains ATK equal to what your monster lost! Treason Discharge!" With that, Dark Rebellion unfurled its wings and shot streaks of lightning towards the white dragon. However, Yugo had other plans.

"Clear Wing Synchro Dragon's effect activates now! When a Level 5 or higher monster is targeted by a monster effect, Clear Wing can negate that effect and destroy said monster! Dichroic Mirror!" Clear Wing's wings illuminated as the absorbed the electricity, and then shot pure light right back at Dark Rebellion.

"Trap Card, activate!" Yuto called as he revealed his face down, "Phantom Wing! Now if a monster I control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, it isn't, and my monster gains 500 attack points!" Dark Rebellion was protected by the white light by an aura of darkness, which then filled the dragon with power, giving it the strength to best Clear Wing.

"Destroy you, and then everything!" Yuto said in a vicious whisper, causing Yuya to say his name in worry.

"Burn everything and crush all life! Destroy everyone for what they did to me!" Yugo said in the same whisper.

"I WILL ERADICATE EVERYTHING!" They both roared loudly.

"No, stop this; don't use dueling to hurt each other." Yuya said as he began to panic.

"ATTACK! GO DARK REBELLION, DESTROY…"

"STOP IT YUTO!" Yuya ran in front of the man in hopes of calming him down. "What are you doing!? Didn't you tell me you didn't want to hurt anyone else? Was what you said about Heartland being filled with smiles a lie? Is this what you want? Answer me Yuto?!"

Yuto paused and he stared at the boy, trying to remember who he was. He remembered his parents, teaching him how to duel when he was a child. Later, he would meet up with the Arclights, Kaito, and Luna; he remembered calling himself the emissary of the dead while he dueled his rival Thomas. He remembered, after his parents died, how they had kept him from falling into despair when he felt like little more than a phantom. He remembered meeting Shun, who would become his best friend. Finally, he remembered Ruri, the girl who had mended a part of his heart that had been broken by his parents' death. He remembered that…

"I don't want to hurt anyone." Yuto said, gasping for breath while he took a knee. "Turn end."

"My turn, draw!" Yugo made his turn, still under the influence of the shadow. "I summon Speedroid – Shave Boomerang" a razor sharp boomerang-like robot appeared alongside the white dragon (ATTR:Wind/LV:4/ATK:2000/DEF:0). "I activate Boomerang's effect, by switching it to defense position I can target a monster and reduce its power by 300! I choose Clear Wing! I now activate Clear Wing's effect to negate that effect and destroy my Boomerang! Dichroic Mirror!" Once again the dragon's wing lit up as it shot rays of light at its comrade, destroying it.

"So, does that mean that you're…" Yuya began, hopeful that Yugo had also returned to his senses, only to be proven wrong in a second."

"Now, since Clear Wing destroyed the monster whose effect she negated, Clear Wing now gains attack points equal to the destroyed monsters attack points." Yugo roared while Clear Wing roared, its body charged with white power.

"Now Clear Wind, destroy Dark Rebellion! Helldive Whirlwind Slasher!" With that the dragon flew up into the sky before diving down in a corkscrew maneuver like a spinning comet towards Dark Rebellion. The dragon flew up and bared its fangs at the white dragon, but it didn't have the strength to resist it and was overwhelmed.

As the white dragon flew at them, Yuto got up and pushed Yuya out of the way, taking the brunt of the blow, "AAARGH!" With that his body landed several yards away, beaten and near broken.

"Yuto!" Yuya screamed and he ran towards his fallen doppelganger. As he neared him Dark Rebellion began to glow and its light filled the area. Within the glow Yuya cradled Yuto's body as the boy struggled to speak.

"Hand me…to Standard."

Understanding, Yuto handed Yuya his dragon before telling him. "With your power…smiles…give them to the world…give everyone in the future…smiles." With that he vanished in a flash of light.

As Yugo finally regained his senses he looked around as to know what had happened before a flash of pink light jettisoned him away from the area…

(Fusion Dimension: Academia)

Yuri woke up from his vision; the last thing he'd seen was a bright pink light, which somehow broke the dream. As he stared at Starve Venom, he smiled. He didn't know what happened between Yuto and that other boy who resembled him, but he knew things had gone well. All of his doppelgangers were in Standard, and Yuri had a feeling he knew where his next mission would lead him. Just as he was in the middle of his thoughts, he heard someone bang at the door.

"Yuri! The Professor sent me to get you!" The familiar gruff voice of Barrett said from the other side of the door.

"On my way, Barrett." With that Yuri got ready and left to see the Professor, who was staring at the image of a girl.

The Professor turned around to face Yuri. "Ah, Yuri, I'm glad to see you. I have a new mission for you. We've scanned the memories of Sora Shiunin, he was a spy we sent to Standard for reconnaissance. His memories have revealed the 4th piece we've been looking for." The Professor pointed to the girl on the screen. "This is Yuzu Hiragi, I need you to find her and bring her to me. You can do that, right Yuri?"

Yuri smiled, "Of course Professor, it will be done."

"Good, since Sora is no longer there I'm sending Dennis Macfield ahead to scope her out so she can be more easily taken. When I give you the all clear, that's when you leave."

"Understood, Professor." With that Yuri was dismissed and returned to his dorm.

Elsewhere, while Sora was being taken care of by some of the doctors in Academia, agirl was eavesdropping on him from outside the room.

"Let me go back, there are Xyz remnants there!" Sora shouted.

The girl smiled, if there were Xyz remnants there, then this was the perfect chance for her to finally prove herself to the Professor. Barrett may have been hired as her guard, but he couldn't detain her, this was her big chance. Smiling, she quietly walked away.

As Yuri sat on his desk he removed his deck and smiled. "Looks like things are turning out the way we planned, huh Venom."

"The Professor is trying to micromanage your capture of the girl in order to keep you from finding the others, but it won't matter. Since my brethren are all in Standard, my arrival there will cause them all to come to us. That is when you can take what's yours." Starve Venom replied in his mind.

Yuri smiled, "Then it won't be too long until I can finally stop living with death breathing down my neck. It's about time I break myself free from Leo Akaba and the Black Shadow."

As Yuri slept, his mind returned to his subconscious where he opened his eyes, his body was wrapped up in roots and vines of ivy that covered the entire area of his mind. They were bulging, as though something was trying to spring out from them. Yuri heard a familiar voice coming from inside the roots.

"ONE… BECOME ONE…I WILL BECOME ONE AGAIN…" The roots whispered.

"No, you won't take control over me. I won't let anyone else decide my destiny but me. No one has the right to deny me of my existence, not you, not the Professor, or anyone else. I will rule over the dimensions as the dominant predator, and I will not stop until everyone in all dimensions knows my name!" Yuri thought right back as he forced the ivy to grow stronger, holding back the shadows within them. "I am the dominant predator, and all fear me, as it should be."

With that, we've gotten things ready for Yuri's arrival in Standard on the next chapter. I hope you guys don't mind how most of it was basically a summary of Yuto's time in Standard along with the main part of his duel with Yugo. Anyways, next chapter you'll see a different side of Yuri, the side that despises failure, so get ready for that. As for the roots I'm describing at the end, well they'll be playing a big part in the story later on. Wait patiently for the next chapter, I promise I'll get it done as soon as I can, but it may not come out until a few days.