I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Yu-Gi-Oh 5D'S or any of their characters.
Air hit me hard as wingbeats cracked through the air. A dragon as black as pitch flew just in front of the sun, its shadow sailing across the ground. I closed my eyes for a moment, allowing them to rest from the agitation until I heard a soft thump. I opened my eyes and saw the dark outline of a dragon, just a little over two meters high. There were spikes all over it, and I could scarcely make out its eyes. The light seemed to just be absorbed by the dragon instead of there being any reflection at all.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I am the night."
"No, seriously, who are you?"
"I'm the one who can tell you who you are, and I am the one who can restore two years to you."
"How? You're supposed to be my guardian, though I increasingly doubt the need for one." I folded my arms.
"Your memories of the spirit world before the incident are lost forever. There is no way to retrieve them and no mental scars to peer into. The two years, however, I can restore to you. There is a scar in your mind that will always be there, and if you desire I can open it for you. It won't however, be like your time with the Enforcers, where you relived it in your mind. Instead, all of the pain and the agony will be returned to you in an instant, in addition to whatever longing you may have felt."
"Are you saying that I might be better off not knowing how the scars all over my body got there?" I asked incredulously.
"The pain is great. There was longing for your 'Anna,' but there is nothing else that could ever resemble happiness. Your captor sought to force his way into the Spirit World through you, but could not as you knew not how. Your ignorance cost you severely. Eventually, you were a wasted resource and your captor sought to regain some of his losses, brainwashing you and inducting you into his organization."
"Huh… Well, while that certainly goes towards explaining a lot, but I still need those memories. Right now I'm a nineteen year old with about two month's worth of actual memories, and I need everything I can get." I sighed.
"You don't want me to do this. We only have so much time before you must be sent back. I could tell you who you are, show you my memories of your exploits. I'd rather not waste the time that we have with naught but pain." it said.
"There is no point in remembering who I was. I need only know who I am now, and who I am now has been shaped by pain." I replied.
"You always have been, Captain." the dragon stepped closer to me and held a claw out to my head. It tapped my forehead and I felt something open, like a tear in the fabric of my mind.
All at once I knew what it felt like to cry so long as to no longer be capable of tears, to be hungry enough that even a styrofoam plate started to look like a meal. I knew the scalding agony of a hot knife cutting my back, cauterizing my flesh so as to prevent the spilling of blood. The stench of my own burning skin felt like it would never leave my nostrils. But more than anything else, I knew longing, longing for escape or death, whichever came first, and longing for Anna, praying that she and the Militia would be able to find me. But I eventually forgot about Anna. I'd eventually forgotten about my friends. I gave in to the despair of knowing that I would not be rescued, and I welcomed death as an alternative.
Hacking and sputtering, I coughed my way back to consciousness. I was laying in the same meadow, and the dragon was looming over me, casting an aura of fear. That isn't to say that I felt afraid, but that the dragon was afraid for me.
"I can't believe that I lost hope." I finally moaned.
"It was a hard two years. Even the strongest of wills break eventually, and you didn't know who you were. We weren't able to help you while your own preconceived notions of the world were getting in the way." the dragon relaxed and looked away.
"And I'm guessing that we're about out of time for you to tell me who I was." I coughed.
"I could, but words are meaningless. You would need to accept everything about who you are for anything I have to say to be of any use."
"Simple, I'm Dark Blade. The equip spell was a pretty obvious hint, in hindsight. I should have taken it at its face value. Meeting you, Pitch-Black Dragon, only confirmed my suspicions." I smiled.
The dragon looked at me curiously. "You are so much more than that, Captain. The children's game never did you justice."
"Bah, you're just mad that you only have 900 attack points." I laughed. I could sense the dragon smiling.
"It is time for you to return, Captain. Your General awaits your return eagerly." The dragon blew a puff of smoke at me, completely clouding my vision.
"Hey! What is that for?" I yelled flailing my arms about trying to clear the smoke. Then my arms were grabbed and forced to remain still. I blinked for a few times as the rest of my vision cleared, and I could see that Anna was holding my arms in place. Her look was frantic, and it was the middle of the afternoon and we were outside, surrounded by purple fire. In my lap, I saw my old helmet, and the duel disk and wakizashi were as I had left them.
"Are you insane?" Anna yelled at me. "Your shoulders are still shattered, any healing that they've done has been ruined now!"
"I disagree. I think that they've been healed fully." I said.
"How? You've been asleep and dreaming of the spirit world the whole time. Luna came back without you worried sick, and now she's dueling some guy in a yellow monkey suit to save Leo!"
"Magic. I was held back in the Spirit World so that Ancient Fairy Dragon could continue to try to heal my wounds. I should be fine." I tried to explain.
Anna took a moment to check my legs, and while the bruises were gone she did not seem terribly surprised.
"Do you have any further explanation, Willie?" she asked me.
"Well, apparently I'm a duel monster spirit, a captain, and there is a general waiting for me somewhere in the mortal world."
Suddenly the fire died down and centered on a bald, tanned man in a yellow and black suit marked with the insignias of the Dark Signers. He didn't scream, even as he was being consumed. Leo seemed beaten and was obviously not well, but he was being supported by his sister. Slowly they walked over to Anna and I, and they were both smiling.
"We did it, Wilhelm! I got back Ancient Fairy Dragon and closed the terminal!" Luna exclaimed.
"Well done, kid. Well done." Trudge said. I turned around to see him there, smiling. Jack's assistant, Mina, was right next to him, and they were both in a Jeep.
"We'll get these two back to Martha's, they need help ASAP," Mina said. She and Trudge got out of the Jeep and helped the mint twins into the back seat. Despite Anna's protests, I got up and walked over to the Jeep as they were getting buckled in.
"See you two soon. I need to see if anyone else needs any help." I said.
"See you soon, Wilhelm. Please, be careful. The Spirit World doesn't want to lose you. They said again, for some reason. Do you know why?" Luna said.
I blanched. "I am a Duel Monster in a mortal body, Luna. Apparently, I used to be Dark Blade, but that doesn't matter anymore."
Trudge looked me up and down, concerned. "I was wondering how it was that you just stood up, but given the events of the last two days I guess I shouldn't be surprised."
I knocked on the back of the Jeep. "Get out of here. We've got this." Trudge turned on the engine and started driving away. Once they were gone Anna came up to me, my helmet in her hands. She was looking down at it, and then I realized that she was wearing the duel disk that I'd made her.
"Do you remember those two years, now?" she asked.
"I do," I said. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her close before I started crying into her shoulder. "I missed you, I missed you so much, and I gave up on you. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry…"
She lifted my chin up and said, "That's alright, Willie, I was in no position to come help you. You did what you had to do to survive."
"But… I didn't survive… I got hurt, I was broken, and he took everything away from me…"
"That's ok, Willie, you are who you are again. You can do whatever you want, he doesn't have control over you anymore. He can't hurt you anymore." She backed away and took a moment to breathe, and I was confused, terrified, even, as to why she would pull away from me. Slifer, I needed her!
She extended the helmet to me and said, "Willie, I need you to put the helmet on. I need you to put it on and look at me."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because… I studied all of your notes… I modified the helmet to be able to see, to truly see… Please, just… trust me." she couldn't look me in the eyes.
Trying to control my tears, I took the helmet from her hands and put it on. I then looked up to look at her, but I couldn't see her, I only saw Athena, her favorite monster.
"When did you summon Athena?" I asked. I was shocked when Athena looked up at me and opened her mouth to speak.
"No, Willie… I am Athena," she said.
I was upset, angry, sad, terrified, all of the emotions, basically. I didn't know how to react, so I didn't.
"I'm the General who was waiting for you. We… I… When you were thought to have been lost in an accident the Spirit World was scrambling to figure out what to do. The Dark Scorpions were already gone, accompanying you as your protectors and as agents to report back to the Supreme King. I figured out what happened and replicated it, Ancient Fairy Dragon wanted me to make sure that you would be guided in the right direction when the time was right."
"So… This was all just the Spirit World trying to look after me? Spirits trying to control me?"
"No, I wanted to follow you, you were my friend and comrade -" she started to speak.
"No! I don't want to hear that! By Obelisk, I loved you! Did you ever love me or was it just you trying to get me to do what you wanted? Am I just a tool to the Spirit World, a convenient bridge?" I yelled.
She was crying, "No, Willie, that isn't true, don't accuse me like that!"
"Don't try to tell me that load of Kuriboh. You knew who you were the entire time, didn't you? You knew who I was the entire time! You didn't tell me anything!"
"Please, Willie, just listen to -"
"Listen? I would have listened earlier, but now I don't know. And don't call me Willie, you get to do that anymore! I was never Willie to you, was I? I was always Dark Blade, Captain of something or other! You used me, just like Sayer did!"
"That isn't why, you, you idiot! I had to! I had to make sure that they didn't get to you first! They knew about your mission, and I couldn't let them compromise you, I had to do it!" she was screaming.
"Who knew about me? Who? This Supreme King character who apparently gave me a mission? These mysterious people who apparently knew about that mission. Slifer, who and what was going on?" I yelled, filled with fury.
"I loved you!" she screamed at me. I was stunned. She continued, "I loved you even then, you were just too dense to see it! From the moment you began your tutelage under Black Luster Soldier, I saw you and I loved you." she fell to her knees and I didn't know what to do.
She tried to wipe away her tears before she said, "I watched you and the Paladin of the White Dragon spar, going at each other in the sky while riding your dragons. I helped you to learn, I taught you about strategy and tactics while the Soldier taught you how to fight. And by Obelisk I loved you!"
Suddenly the violet flames were around us again, and I saw Crow racing in a duel runner beside a man in a massive beast of a duel runner and a ridiculous amount of muscles.
I remained possessed by silence while Anna continued. "The Supreme King fought against the Light of Destruction many years ago, but he knew he would not live in the time when its followers would attempt a coup in its name. He sent you to the mortal world to learn how to fight on their terms, a game of Duel Monsters, so that when the time came that neither he nor the Light of Destruction were present all worlds could be protected from the Light's army. But they found out. They hired an assassin to kill you before you could get to the Mortal World. The Supreme King intervened, using the Gentle Darkness to save your soul from disappearing completely, but you were stuck in this world with no memories as a newborn infant. Zaloog was able to get you to a different group, a group that he knew would keep you safe, the Signers, but I was worried that it wouldn't be enough. I had to see you again, I had to keep you safe. You are too important to every world we know."
"And you certainly did a fine job of protecting me, Athena. Getting captured by Sayer wasn't on the agenda." I said.
"He was with the Light, and I couldn't get to you in time, you'd run off with the Signers. I couldn't stop him, I'm sorry." she was trying to keep herself from crying.
"Whatever my mission was, Athena, It doesn't matter now. My friends need my help, and somehow I'll find a way to help them." I said, pulling Metalsilver Armor out of my deck box.
"Anna," she whispered. "My name is Anna."
"No, you don't get that. I'm still mad at you." I said.
"My name is Anna and your name is Wilhelm Jernigan and we are people!" she screamed at me. "Your sword is sworn to me! Your heart belongs to me! And I am Anna, not Athena! I can't be the General anymore, I just want to be yours!"
"Why? Why on Earth or in the Spirit World would you want to be mine? I'm just a Captain, and you could do so much better than that! Why seek me out and make me fall in love with you?" I asked.
"I only wanted to be your friend, but you wanted me. I had been in love with you for over a thousand years, and I couldn't keep up my cover when you finally wanted me. I'm sorry." she was meeker now, and her gaze was boring a hole in the ground.
"Then get up and help me save my friends. They can't do this on their own." I said, activating Metalsilver Armor. Oddly enough, my duel disk had been incorporated into the armor, and so had the visor from the helmet.
"Yes, Captain," she said, getting up. I saw a flash of light and guessed that she was wearing her battle armor now as well. Just to check, I took off my helmet and saw the amalgamation of Anna and Athena, her duel disk added to Athena's armor and the blue of her dress in place of the standard white in Athena's garb.
I couldn't stop myself from taking a step forward and muttering, "You're beautiful."
Anna blushed beneath her helmet, which was nowhere near as good at covering her face as mine was. More greek in design than my medieval barbute.
"Do you really think so, still?" she asked.
I sighed. "I'm sorry for being angry at you, Anna. I really shouldn't be, and we can't afford dissent in the ranks right now, we're busy saving the world."
"Good." she kissed me. "You're mine, and I'm not about to let you get away again."
"Let's go," I said, putting the helmet back on. The visor seemed to update itself, adjusting to the combination of Anna and Athena. Then I saw Zaloog and the rest of the Scorpions appear.
"What are you guys doing here?" I asked. Anna seemed surprised by their presence as well.
"Sorry, Captain, but our work is over. You know who you are, now, and you don't need us anymore. We've been relieved of duty." Zaloog smiled.
"What the Ra does that mean?" I asked.
"We aren't in your deck anymore, Captain. We can't help you. Your platoon is here now, and they plan on protecting their C.O." Zaloog said.
"You guys have been with me my whole life, you can't leave now!"
"Yes, Captain, we can, and we have. Our role is over. Pretty soon you'll be dealing with the Light, and we can't fight them like your platoon can."
"What exactly am I the Captain of?" I asked, figuring that all other questions would be useless.
All of those assembled before me smiled as Anna said, "The Dragons of the Evil World."
I smiled. "Alright then, let's go." I started walking west.
"Captain, You'll want to go east. Your friends and opponents are that way." Maenae said.
"And don't be afraid of the fire, it doesn't affect either of you," Cliff added. Without even a chance to say goodbye the Dark Scorpions they faded away. With a nod, Anna and I began our trek east.
Just so we're all clear, my intention is to not demean or take away from the story of the main characters. Everything that Wilhelm does is in the background with no major changes to the story of the series. It is the role of the Signers to defeat the Dark Signers. Wilhelm will not take away from their assigned opponents, but fear not, he will duel the enemy, and his dragons will fight alongside those of the Signers.