A/N: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF YU GI OH 5DS OR THE VANISHING OF ETHAN CARTER! ALL RIGHTS GO TO KONAMI AND THE ASTRONAUTS!

Chapter 13: Stories

The group slowly walked in and saw a drawing on the wall, but Yusei wasn't there this time either. The drawing held a map of the places they been in, along with pictures of things all too familiar pointing to all too familiar spots.

"What… is going on?" Crow asked.

"Those are each places where the stories that became reality were," Luna commented.

"These are all stories Yusei wrote," Paul stated before focusing.

Paul disappeared, but the Signers and twin entered another world, still staying in the room. They saw Yusei sitting on the beds, writing in a notebook. The boy looked over each drawing and the onlookers were shocked to see one new one. It was a detective by looks pointing to the place they were in.

Suddenly, Travis entered, exclaiming, "Christ, Yusei!" The boy turned to him. "You're in here again? You missed dinner. Mom and Dad are pissed. They've been looking all over the place!"

"Get out of here, Travis! Leave me alone," Yusei ordered.

Travis chuckled in amusement and mischievousness. He then called out, "Hey, Ma, he's in here!"

The onlookers followed as Yusei walked out of the room and into the main one, where Dale suggested to Missy, "Honey, be careful with that lamp."

"Dale, what the hell's wrong with your kid? Paintin' on walls, writin' his stories. I mean, what the fuck," Chad asked Dale. Travis was out there standing with Ed and Missy.

Missy caught sight of Yusei exiting the room. "Yusei, for God's sake. You missed dinner."

"I'm sorry. I've been working on a story all day. How long have I been out here?" the young version of Yusei asked.

Travis then stated, shocking the onlookers to no end, "'The Adventures of Paul Prospero, Supernatural Detective'. Where do you get this stuff?"

Dale then asked his father, "Pop, would you get Travis out of here, please?"

"He draws pictures on the walls! What the hell is that?" Chad asked.

"Chad, shut up!" Dale ordered.

"You adopted yourself a faggot for a son, Dale," he responded.

Ed then told his elder grandson, "Travis, let's go, come on."

Travis then called to Yusei, "Faggot! Yusei, you're a fucking faggot!"

"Travis, stop it!" Missy ordered angrily, swinging around the lamp. However, the flames from the lamp caught onto some of furniture, causing a fire.

"Shit. Shit!" Travis called as they all backed out, Yusei being trapped on the other side of the room in the room that is unable to leave in any direction.

Missy ordered, "Everyone, go, get out!"

"Yusei, get out! The smoke's toxic!" Dale called, but Yusei was trapped by the flames.

He shut the door to the room in fright. The smoke was flowing into the room through the cracks and the onlookers were forced back into the room with Yusei by some unseeable force. Yusei backed away to the beds, coughing and choking on the smoke that was racing in and infesting the room without a single moment of waste.

After a few seconds, the young version of Yusei fell to his hands and crawled onto the beds before he blacked out as did the surroundings of the onlookers.

They heard young Yusei's voice say in the pitch black darkness, "I wrote about you. But I don't know if I created you."

"You made me real," Paul's voice responded.

"I can't go yet. I have to finish my story about you and the others. I wrote stories about everyone," Yusei's voice stated.

"I know you did. But my story's done. And it's a fine story," Paul's voice responded gently. "And you have to go let the others live the rest of their lives without you now."

"I can let go?" Yusei asked in shock.

"You can let go," Paul assured.

"What happens then?" Yusei asked, seeming concerned.

"Another story, kid. What else?" Paul answered.

"Let me… just talk to my friends first," Yusei stated. "Besides, I can tell my powers aren't going to let me hang on much longer."

Suddenly, before the Signers and twin in the darkness appeared the eleven year old version of Yusei, and he was glowing a bit.

"Yusei?" Luna called. "Is that really you?"

"Yes," he answered in his young boy, but then he shifted to the self they had known and said in his older voice, "and no."

"Yusei, what… what's going on? We've known you since you were eleven. And now you supposedly died at that age?" Jack questioned.

"When I died, I felt like I couldn't end my story. So I forced myself to continue my life as another story, using my powers to do so. Once I did, I found myself in Satellite where you met me. As I got older, I continued to write my story about everything that happened with you guys," Yusei explained.

"So, you wrote about our fights with the Dark Signers and Yliaster?" Akiza asked.

"No, those came with time. The Crimson Dragon made that a part of my story and added me to the equation with you guys," Yusei explained. "He also made it a part of yours. All the experiences we had with each other, I didn't write those really. I simply added myself to the equation in your lives. I never had real friends before I died as a eleven year old. So I wanted the chance to have that before I wouldn't be able to hold onto my stories any longer."

"And… you're not able to hold on anymore, are you?" Leo asked sadly.

"No," Yusei answered, seeming just as sad as he looked down a bit. "But… once I let go, I will just disappear from being seen. Everyone would remember me, but all you'd be able to find my body wise is my eleven year old self in here. If you even managed to find it, that is. If I just let go then and there when I initially disappeared on you guys a year ago, you wouldn't ever know the truth or ever have the chance to accept this fact that I'm dead. So, I used the last bit of my powers I had left to put you in the story I had made so long ago. The story I made of Paul Prospero. This way, you could have one last adventure and I could have a chance to say goodbye in the end."

"No, you're not going to die yet!" Crow refused to believe.

"Remember what I always say, guys," Yusei reminded as his glow brightened a bit, "the bonds we made together will never leave us." He gave them a small smile. "The adventures we had together are something I'll never forget or change." He turned slightly transparent as dust like sparks began to floated. Leo and Luna ran to grab onto Yusei, but merely phased through him as he slowly faded and began to disappear. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before now. But, at least I was able to say goodbye this way. I'm sure we'll meet again, one day."

"Yusei, please!" Akiza called.

"Don't worry, guys. I know in the end, you'll be alright and learn to cherish the memories we had together, as I will," he reassured. "Be strong for everyone and never lose hope in the future. Because it's still there for you and our bonds." He then disappeared and the others flashed away, blacking out in the process.

. . .

The Signers and Leo woke up and found themselves in the garage. They looked around before turning for their marks. They weren't there, meaning the all too reality that what they experienced beforehand was true and Yusei was really dead.

"Yusei… He's gone now, isn't he?" Luna asked sadly. "All that we just experienced and learned… that was real, right?"

"Us learning about the sleeper and that adventure, that was just us in Yusei's story to say one last goodbye," Crow replied. He began to grow sad along with everyone else. "But the truth about Yusei's death at the age of eleven and everything he told us after that and his official death? That's… that's true. Yusei's gone and he did it in a way to ensure we could say goodbye."

"We need to keep the one last wish he asked of us," Jack stated and they looked at him. "We need to be strong and never lose hope in the future. Because that'll be the end of our stories with him, keeping our strength up through our bonds with him that we still have."

The others gave a small nod, though everyone still seemed beyond sad. They may have just learned the truth of their friend and lost him, but he was right. They still had their bond to him. And they had their own stories they needed to finish as well.

Hey, guys! That was Stories. I hope you liked reading it as much as I liked writing it. Let me know how I did through reviews and PMs. I'd love to hear your feedback.

Just make sure its constructive criticism and not something vulgar or similar. No one likes to read reviews like that and I will warn you: If I get a review like that and I can, I am not afraid to alert those who wrote it and/or take it off the site so no one can be offended by those words. I don't want to do it, so please don't test me.

I love you guys and for those who favorited, followed, reviewed, and everything in general, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It means the world to me to know people like the stories I write. Sometimes I'm not sure whether what I'm writing is good enough to be put on here or good at all. So those who have read my other stories and liked them or stayed by me with this story, I really love you all [in a friendly, respective kind of way ;)]

Anyway, I'll see you in the next story I write!

-bricann