Lucy: Hey guys! Look what we're updating now!

Angel: Oh god no…

S-S: Sorry, it's what happened.

Lucy: Well, duh. This chapter is essentially a wham-tastical chapter of evsanity. Why wouldn't it happen?

S-S: …Because of Midnight Sun?

Meri: Nah, that one's next.

Sky: *In another room; shudders*

Shade: Ah, there, the finishing touches. The chapter may start now.

S-S: Oh, okay. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, but I do own my OCs. Enjoy~!

***This chapter is brought to you by Theme of Hope, from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity***

Chapter 4

I'm still mentally frozen on the image of the future Toby being murdered by Esse when the next scene of the future starts to play. It's back in the Netherworld again, where the future version of me is simply on her knees, her eyes completely blank. Crow kneels down, grabbing her tightly by the shoulders, trying to shield her the best he can from the monsters around them.

"Wait… Sky?!" Crow shouts when he sees her. "What are you—you can see?!"

She looks at him pointedly. "While I'm here in the Netherworld I can. But that is not what matters right now. I'm sorry, but one of you has to die, and the one who lives has to kill the other."

His eyes widen in alarm as he quickly looks at his sister, then back at Sky. Angel still doesn't seem to be registering anything other than the fact that Toby just died—and I have to admit, that would be my reaction had that happened to me. "The hell are you on, Sky? We're not gonna kill each other just 'cause you said so!"

"You have no choice in the matter," she replies. "Nebiros, go ahead."

The ghastly puppet master points one finger at each of the twin Signers. Instantly, his glowing purple strings have the two separated and standing, and with a snap the two are forced to bring out their Spirit Weapons. The black-and-red katana versus the green rapier.

"What the hell?!" Crow screams, struggling within the strings.

Angel blinks. "Wh-What is this…?"

"If the two of you will not fight, I'm afraid the power of the Fourth Prince of Nether will force you to do so," Sky answers. Then she turns to Nebiros. "I would prefer it if you did not favor either of them, but if you must, Angel should be the one to die. She can join her husband that way…"

"Toby…" Angel shakes her head fervently. "B-But, that would mean… my daughter…"

"No! Th-There's no way you can make us fight!" Crow screams, violently thrashing around in his bindings. Nebiros actually looks afraid as he struggles to keep Crow inside of the strings. But I know that's impossible; no one can force Crow to do anything. Ever. So it doesn't surprise me when Crow succeeds in detaching the psychic puppet strings from his body. It looks like that action even physically harms Nebiros… "I won't let you hurt my sister!"

Black-and-red energy surrounds Crow, and the feathers of his wings turn black. The energy sparks around his katana as he charges, screaming like a maniac. Nebiros, still in pain from his strings being cut, barely manages to put up a shield. It doesn't even help, the blade the Upper Tail Signer wields slicing through it like butter.

"Big Brother!" Esse screams, running at the two of them.

An explosion sends pieces of the temple's ground flying. There's a cloud of debris surrounding the three, and when it dims… There's another cloud there, only this one is of black and violet sparkles, fluttering around for a brief time before they slowly start to disappear. Crow stands tall in the center of that cloud, turning back to face Sky. Neither Nebiros nor Esse remain…

Sky's eyes are wide with horror, and she collapses to her knees, holding one arm over her stomach while she covers her mouth with the other. "N-No… Nebiros… and Esse… they're both…!" Her eyes squeeze shut, and I see a few tears fall to the ground underneath her. With a firm shake of her head, the last few droplets vanish, and she stands back up. "Crow… why don't you understand?! This has to be done or else—"

He points the tip of his blade, covered in the blood of the fallen Prince and Princess of Nether, at her. "No, Sky, you're wrong. There's always a way without killing people."

"You think I haven't already tried that?!" the golden-haired woman cries, the tears back. "I've been trying… ever since she contacted me nearly five years ago. I'm the only one who has the power to restore the Netherworld back to order, but I don't have that power right now; it was all taken from me when I used it to bring Angel and Rex back to life!"

At the mention of her name, Angel blinks. Other than that she makes no response.

"Such a selfish move of mine, and now the punishment finally arrives," Sky continues, clenching her fist above her chest. "If the Netherworld's balance is not restored and soon, every creature tied to it will cease to exist. That includes the Earthbound Immortals, even though they walk on Earth right now. And… I'd have to say, it might also include you, Crow, you and the other four hybrids."

Wait… that means… all of the Dark Signers, me, Crow, basically Yusei's entire family, and Yusei will all die anyways? That… that can't be right.

"Wh-What?!" Crow demands, his sword dipping slightly.

"Look up there," Sky says, turning her head to the sky. It's at that point when I see that there's a faint outline in the sky, some sort of rainbow colors separating two different shades of darkness. The line extends across the entire sky of the Netherworld, and seems to be shrinking. "You see it, don't you? The world veil which keeps each world intact has been weakened so drastically that the Void it is supposed to hold at bay is coming ever closer. Thanks to the Earthbound Immortals' insistence on living in the Human World and the deaths of both Nebiros and Esse, the Netherworld will be completely consumed in just a short while."

"The Void…?"

"The nothingness which fills the space between worlds… anything that it absorbs is lost forever, wouldn't you think?" Sky explains. "That's why I have to be able to fix it, no matter what. The lives of a few for the lives of many… You understand, don't you Crow?"

"Ngh…" he looks away, clenching his fists. He does understand; after all, that's happened before, when Father and I died to save everyone else. It should just… never be an option in the first place. Why can't everyone be saved?

"I truly wish there was some other way. But there just isn't…"

Silence. Crow looks at his katana, then at his sister. He immediately shakes his head fervently. "N-No, I can't even think of doing that! You've… gotta be lying! I still won't—" He suddenly cuts off, looking at Yusei in surprise. Right, there must be some telepathic communication going on right now. As soon as it's done, Crow's face twists in rage, "I was right, you are lying to us! You were just talking about how this was the way to get the Queen out of the Netherworld in order to get her revenge on the Crimson Dragon."

Sky looks down. "That… that was the lie. I didn't want—I thought that if I—I…" She's back on her knees again, crying. "I wanted all of you to hate me, then maybe it wouldn't be so hard to do this. So… So I came up with a lie that would make me seem selfish. I suppose it was good enough if Yusei fell for it…"

"But… if you lied then, how do we know you're telling the truth?!" Crow demands. "I can't trust you anymore, Sky!"

The woman points at a section of the wall that had fallen, the Marks of the Giant, Phoenix, and Panther barely recognizable on it. A faint purple aura glows around it, and the thing flies into the air. Once it hits the ever-shrinking world veil, it appears to shatter into shards of light, absorbed by the nothingness on the veil's other side. "You see now? All the Void does is take and take and take, always wishing to expand. If you cannot take my words at face value, at least believe that."

XXX

I'm not sure how much time passes, but it clearly did because now the world veil's boundaries are only a hundred feet above the ground. Crow's sitting, his head in his hands. Angel is still mostly unresponsive, though she has started crying. Natsumi is completely unresponsive, still standing next to the altar. Yusei… is unconscious?

And Sky is tapping her foot, almost impatiently. She looks up at the sky again, her eyes narrowing. "That's enough, you've had time to think. The time for decision is now, unless you want to kill every innocent being connected to the Netherworld."

"J-Just… gimme another minute," Crow pinches the bridge of his nose. "This isn't—I can't even think of trying to kill my sis…"

"Then… don't think about it, just do it," Angel suddenly whispers, drying her tears and looking at her twin. "I really don't care about any of this right now. I just… I just…!"

"Oh, don't you dare start this shit again, Angel!" Crow shouts back. "I already let you die once, and I sure as hell am not being the cause of it the second time!"

I watch my own eyes glaze over, and I wish I knew what was going through my head because the next thing I know, Angel's grip tightens around her Spirit Weapon. She stares at the blade for a moment, then looks at Sky. "You said… we needed to fight, right? And that will give you the power to fix this place?"

Sky purses her lips, eyes narrow, and nods.

"Then… Then if you won't kill me, I'll just force you to!" Catapulting herself off the ground, Angel runs at Crow. She attempts to stab him through the heart, but he dodges fast enough.

The rest of the fight quickly devolves into Crow trying to dodge or block the wild swings and stabs of my future self. Each time the Spirit Weapons clash, the world veil shrinks even more. And it just keeps going, Crow yelling at her to stop and Angel simply begging him to kill her already.

"N-Ngh! I said I don't want to do this!" Crow shouts, slamming the hilt of his blade into Angel's wrist. She drops the blade on reflex, and he quickly scoops it up and holds it away from her. "I won't kill you, Angel."

Fifty feet. The one-grand spires of the Netherworld's castle and some of its upper levels have fallen victim to the Void already, and I can hear faint screams from the horizon, those inhabitants of the Netherworld whom are watching their home collapse on itself…

"Enough!" Sky shouts with enough force she could have stopped a bird in mid-flight. "This is going nowhere, and Angel clearly wants to die. Give me your Spirit Weapon, Crow; I'll do it myself."

My brother narrows his eyes at her. "Wait… you mean that it only has to be the other's Spirit Weapon that kills one of us? Not one of us killing the other?"

The soon-to-be-Queen of the Netherworld folds her arms. "Ideally, it should be either you killing her or her killing you. But that would be correct, only the Spirit Weapon is needed for it holds the majority of your respective dragon's power."

The Upper Tail Signer looks at his katana, then at Sky… and then at his sister's blade. Black-Winged Dragon's weapon vanishes in a swirl of black-and-red feathers, and suddenly he's turning Angel's blade on himself, much to the surprise of the others in the dilapidated temple. "I said… I wasn't gonna let my sister die again."

And he plunges the rapier into his chest.

XXX

A voiceless scream shakes me to my very core. If I could actually scream, I would. How else am I supposed react to my brother literally killing himself in front of me?

…

My sentiments are shared with the other version of me, screaming at him as he bleeds out in moments, shattering into tiny pieces of red light not unlike Nebiros and Esse had earlier. She keeps screaming, hunched over her knees and crying, until the screams just turn into sobs.

"Well… I suppose that works," Sky says, her hands shaking ever so slightly. That ornamental dagger, adorned with a black and twisting version of the Crimson Dragon, appears in one of them as she walks back to her two siblings at the altar.

Natsumi gasps, her eyes turning crimson as the complete Seal of the Dragon appears on her back and the Mark of the Envoy overrides her own. Her body turns rigid for a moment, and then she relaxes, a slight crimson aura surrounding her. "You are truly going to go through with this, Sky Fudo?" The voice that comes out of Natsumi's body is a mixture of her own and the one I remember belonging to Crimson.

"Unfortunately, this is the only way and you know it," the golden-haired woman replies, steeling herself over her brother. Both of her hands wrap around the dagger, and she closes her eyes, one last tremble shaking her arms. It looks like she whispers something to herself. Then, slightly louder… "Forgive me, Yusei."

Yusei, still unconscious for some reason, has no such reaction.

She stabs the knife into her younger brother's heart, and instantly a purple sphere of energy surrounds her and the altar. The sphere expands outward, momentarily blocking all view of the Netherworld as it strikes against the Void. Unlike everything else I've seen touch it, the sphere of energy does not waver or disappear, it turns into a much stronger version of the rainbow-colored veil. Now it was the Void that could not be seen.

Sky… and now Yusei is gone too…

Her hair and eye color remain the same, though the whites of her eyes have turned black. The black dress she had been wearing has turned into a much more leathery material, with black feathers lining the inside of it. Two sets of bat-like wings stretch out of her back, and if I squint close enough I can see that there are lines on those wings that glow black… somehow.

"Why, hello Crimson, how nice it is to finally speak to you again," Sythini, the Queen of the Netherworld says. "It's been how long, exactly? …Oh, but that doesn't matter right now. I need to work on fixing up my home, so if you would please…?"

"You led three of my Signers to their deaths," Crimson replies, crossing her arms and glaring at Immortal Queen. "This is hardly 'nice'."

Sythini waves her hand dismissively, "Yes, well, you and your Signers caused me grief for so long with your insistence on stamping out my world. This can be considered me returning the favor."

Crimson opens her mouth to argue, then looks away, frustrated. "Very well then… I should get going soon, with the Lower Tail Signer, I suppose."

"Oh, just one more thing," Sythini says. "You know Crimson, even after all this time, you've twisted the truth so far it took a human who shouldn't even have a soul to realize what it really was."

Red eyes narrow as the dragon asks, "Why bring this up now?"

"Well, I wanted to know if looking like the savior of the world really was so necessary."

Silence.

Sythini smirks. "Then you've brought this upon yourself."

The Queen spreads her arms wide, and a web of dark energy entangles the vulnerable human form of the Crimson Dragon. Before she can so much as protest, it entirely surrounds her, slowly shrinking until the only way Natsumi can possible fit is in the fetal position… and then she throws that spherical prison into the Void.

"Milon, prepare the vanguard. Tonight the lineage of the Crimson Dragon ends," Sythini tells someone waiting in the shadows.

To be continued…

Angel: *Gawks* I… I can't even…

Lucy: Told you it was gonna be a wham-tastical chapter of evsanity.

Meri: Heck, this is borderline musesanity.

S-S: Yes, yes, well, now that you guys have gotten this out of your system, how about taking a break for a little while…? Maybe work on Shimmer or something?

Lucy: …Nah, we've got other things to work on. Like Code-V, Midnight Sun, Memories of Destruction…

Shade: You mustn't forget Lost Future.

Meri: Or… that story.

S-S: Shhh, no mentioning it yet. I want it to be a surprise once it goes up.

Meri: What, all I called it was "that story"!

Joseph: *Snores*

Angel: *Rubs head* I don't even know anymore. Can you guys review? Maybe it'll get me out of this hellhole faster…