Oh, my! Look at this! ANOTHER UPDATE. And it hasn't even been 8 days :D

So I am still a part of Aria Winterguard and we just competed in the WGI Richmond Regional in Virginia and came out in 2nd place by THREE TENTHS OF A POINT.

You better get it.

Anyways, I'm from the middle of North Carolina so it was a good 3-4 hour trip so I took my handy dandy laptop with me to do my homework in the car both there and back and used it to write fanfiction instead :)

AND IT'S A FREAKING LONG CHAPTER, YO.

Chapter 9: Dark Signs Part 2

Keisa slammed to a stop and gasped at the sight in the sky. Swirling blue and purple lights created a strange pattern above their heads.

"What the hell is that?" Nervin whispered shakily behind her.

"Not good," Keisa ground out, before taking off down the street at a faster pace.

A helicopter sped by overhead and Keisa glanced up to see a familiar person hanging out the door looking down on the same strange lights she was looking up at.

Jack.

Anger coursed through her veins like ice. What was he doing in the satellite? Just what exactly what was going on over there that it attracted the attention of Jack Atlus? When he left the satellite, he gave up all rights to their business. There was no reason he needed to be hanging around anymore. What happened to his fabulous life on the other side?

Ignoring him, she pushed on. It seemed like the road was endless, like she would never get there. Each footfall, each step felt like it wasn't fast enough. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Hang in there, Yusei," she finally heard Crow's voice. He was sitting on his runner, watching Yusei duel on a track that resembled the glowing shape hovering in the sky. She stopped right next him, her lungs on fire. "Hey, you okay? What are you doing here?"

Keisa could only shake her head as she inhaled deeply, trying to regulate her pounding heart and erratic breathing. "Yusei…"

"He's dueling," Crow mumbled, turning back to the large track before them.

Keisa's eyes widened when she caught sight of his opponent speeding around the track in front of her brother. "Is that….Kalin?" She managed. A large circle opened above Yusei and a hand reached down towards him.

"Yeah," Crow confirmed. "It is."

"He's different," she noted, breathing easier, but still breathing heavy. "And with Jack hanging out up there, it's like a damn reunion from hell."

"Yusei played Scrap-Iron Scarecrow," Crow sighed in relief. "That was a close one—but I know he's gonna get closer."

"Kalin was never one to pull any punches," Keisa agreed. "I just hope Yusei can pull out something new."

"He doesn't need to." Crow shook his head. "His deck has never let him down before."

"Well, there's a first time for everything," she muttered, looking over at the stats Crow had pulled up on his runner.

"He'll be fine," he tried to reassure her.

The duel continued on. Every time Yusei seemed to have him, Kalin did something he never would have done when Keisa had known him back when the guys were all in a gang together. Guess he had learned some new tricks.

"Whatever he's building up to summoning, I have a feeling we're not going to like it," Crow stated darkly.

"Come on, Yusei," Keisa cheered quietly, knowing her brother wouldn't be able to hear her. She doubted Crow's runner had comm capabilities. He might have been able to build a runner, but she doubted it had been easy to do that, let alone anything fancy added.

She would just have to upgrade it one day.

One Hundred Eyes Dragon appeared on the field and both Crow and Keisa let out a breath.

"That thing has 3000 attack points!" Crow exclaimed.

Keisa's head whipped towards the stats on his runner in disbelief. "That's stronger than anything in his deck," she whispered, horrified. "How is he going to stop that thing?"

Crow's stomach fell to the ground as Yusei's lecture bounced through his head. You face them, you play for keeps. This isn't just another duel. There was no way he could tell Keisa what he had told him earlier. She would only worry needlessly.

Yusei was strong. He'd make it through this duel.

A chain of events dealt Yusei battle damage. Crow cringed and looked on in fear as Yusei's runner began to spin out.

Keisa gasped and grabbed onto one of Crow's shoulders for support, one hand at her face in an attempt to mask her horror. "Crow, he hasn't done maintenance on his bike in a long time. Before he went to Neo Domino. He might have done a small bit of tuning during the tournament, but I'll bet he hasn't run diagnostic since before then."

"How do you know?"

"Because I run his diagnostics, I have all his equipment."

A thick silence befell them and they looked on, praying silently as the duel raged on. Yusei managed to dodge Kalin's huge, direct attacks, but just barely. It's only a matter of time, Keisa began to think, but shook her head to clear the thoughts. No, Yusei could do it.

But another hit sent Yusei's runner shaking and swerving down the path.

"Crow, Keisa!" Rally shouted behind them. "Hey! Where's Yusei?" The group surrounded the two.

"There," Crow pointed to the track.

"Whoa, he's dueling," Rally breathed.

"Not just dueling, he's turbo dueling," Nervin gasped.

"But who's the other guy?" Tank asked.

"It's Kalin," Keisa growled, still looking for negative signs from Yusei's runner as he sped up. It hitched a bit when he twisted the throttle, but so far so good.

"As in take-over-satellite-Kalin?" Blitz demanded, shocked. "I thought he was locked up!"

"Is he behind the big glowing thing in the sky?" Rally asked, holding onto Keisa's arm as he leaned forward to read the stats on Crow's runner.

"Yup," Crow told him, leaning back to give him a better view. "Remember the dark signers Yusei was talking about? Apparently Kalin is one of them." Keisa nodded slowly. Although this hadn't been brought up before, she had just assumed.

"He'll be okay," Rally declared.

Crow averted his eyes. Something was up, Keisa knew. There was something else. He knew something. "What?" she demanded. He kept quiet, so she did something she hadn't done since she was eight or nine. She reached over and pinched him, hard.

"OW, Keisa!" She just glared at him.

"I'm not dumb," she snapped.

He looked away again. "I didn't want to tell you because Yusei didn't want you to know—"

"Yusei doesn't want me to know a lot of things I know."

"—but he's trapped in this duel until someone loses. The battle damage is real." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Yusei's runner began to shake violently.

"Why is his runner so wobbly?" Rally gasped.

"It needs maintenance," Keisa whispered, distracted. "One of the wheels looks like it's grinding on the rim." Her brows pulled together as she focused. "Come on, Yuse."

As if he had heard her prayers, a chain of commands and Yusei had summoned Stardust Dragon. But even Stardust was not enough. Kalin still had lost of abilities as long as he had no cards in his hand.

Then things turned around. Yusei had Kalin down on the edge for about ten seconds. But with one flip of a card and Yusei was pushed back yet again. Things were not looking good for her brother, and Keisa was worried.

The situation only got worse when Kalin played his "most powerful card." Standing in the foggy lights that made up the turbo duel track were dozens and dozens of shrouded figures in cloaks.

"Do you see that?" Keisa whispered, astonished.

"There are people in the purple mist," Rally cried.

"Maybe they're the same people who were taken in by that weird group and hid underground," Crow muttered under his breath as he looked on just as shocked. Keisa glanced over her shoulder at him in confusion. The signers had been taking people? When Crow gasped, she followed his line of sight to see the people turn into bright lights and gather in the sky.

"He's sacrificing them?" Keisa yelled as a giant, shadowy figure appeared where the people had gone to in the sky.

"That is really big," Crow stated.

The large hand descended on Yusei slowly. Keisa watched as he tried to get Stardust to attack and then attempt to activate Scrap-Iron Scarecrow—both of which failed. The monster proceeded towards Yusei.

"There's no way he can stop this attack," Keisa gasped, not knowing what to do. There was nothing she could do. Just as the hand of the creature was about to reach him, something on Yusei's runner gave out in a puff of smoke and a spray of blue sparks. The bike jerked violently and dropped in speed.

Keisa watched, fingers to her horrified face, as Yusei flipped over the front of the bike, which was now skidding down the road behind him, throwing off parts in every direction. Both the bike and Yusei finally rolled to a stop, but Yusei didn't get up. Kalin pulled up in front of him and for one tiny second, Keisa thought he might revert back to the Kalin she knew and help him. But all he did was call back his monster and drive off.

The colors in the sky faded, reverting the place back into an empty satellite slum.

"Yusei!" Keisa screamed, running down the hill at a speed she never knew she could run at. She slid up to him and dropped to her knees. "Yusei, oh, God." The pain on his face told her that he was not alright. Broken bones? Spine injury? She could hear the others run up behind her.

"Yusei!" Rally cried. "Are you alright?"

But Yusei didn't answer. Blitz walked over to the other side and carefully rolled Yusei onto his back. Keisa tried not to burst into tears at the sight of the huge piece of metal protruding from her brother's stomach, but a few escaped tears slid down her cheeks.

"Yusei," she cried. "Can you hear me?" She reached up to remove his helmet.

"Don't touch him!" Crow sped down the hill on his runner. "Get him on, quick," he commanded. Keisa stood up and watched helplessly as they laid her brother across the back of Crow's bike. "I'm sorry, Keisa, but I can't take you both." Keisa managed to shake her head, but couldn't speak. "I'm taking him to Martha's." Her heart warmed at the memory of the old woman who had taken care of them years ago.

"Martha's house?" Blitz asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Crow nodded, revving up his engine. He took off and called back, "I'll meet you there."

Keisa nodded and watch Crow race away at top speed. A thrumming in the sky caught her attention and she watched angrily as the helicopter she knew Jack was still in fly back towards Neo Domino.

A blind, white rage filler Keisa. She stormed over to her brother's broken runner. She pulled a small wrench from her pocket and began screwing a few things back in.

"It's beyond repair right now," Blitz's soft voice floated to her. He laid his hand on her shoulder, but she just shrugged him off.

"It's getting dark," she told him bitterly. "I need to get Yusei's runner fix just enough so we can wheel it to Martha's. The thugs should be out soon."

"You're right." Rally dropped to his knees on the other side of the runner and began to gather shards of the runner.

"We can't push that thing all the way to Martha's," Nervin argued. "It'll slow us down."

"Besides, when we get to Ripper Row, a runner like that is gang bait," Tank added.

"We can't leave it here," Rally snapped. "You don't think someone will steal it if we leave it lying out here?"

"I'm not going to let that happen," Keisa declared, spinning the front wheel before she stood up and pocketed the wrench. "There's a piece of every one of us in here."

"They've got a point," Blitz sighed.

All of them had spent weeks spread out in the satellite, looking for parts that could be useful to him. But when Yusei revved the engine for the first time, it was like their freedom from the satellite was a whole mile closer to them. Keisa could have tasted it on her lips. Especially after Jack had stolen their first runner. They had all accomplished something together.

All five of them picked the runner up and began to wheel it slowly back to the main road towards Martha's house. The weight of the engine and parts made their pace slow, but they were saving Yusei's runner. It was the least they could do.

Yusei.

Keisa forced herself not to think about her brother.

Or the metal.

Or the blood.

No. She focused on the sound of crushing pebbles and rocks, the sound of her friends making idle chatter as they pressed on down the road.

"You four lost or something?"

Keisa's eyes narrowed on some of the perfect distractions. Her fingers inched towards her deck case at her waist. The cards brushed her fingertips comfortingly. All it would take was the press of a button and a challenge and she would duel her way through these thugs.

"We still have a long way to go," Rally whispered, a tremor in his voice.

"Any ideas?" Blitz asked.

"Keep pushing," Keisa suggested as more and more people filed out of buildings and surrounded them. There was no way she could possibly duel them all.

"There's a toll for passing through Outcast Alley, you know," someone sneered.

"That shiny red bike oughta take care of it," another laughed.

"Back off, buddy," Blitz warned, threatening one with a pipe that had fallen off the runner.

"Blitz, that's not going to help us," Keisa growled.

"Told you bringing the runner was a bad idea," Tank mumbled.

"Hey, guys," Keisa stepped up. How would Yusei handle something like this? "Surely we can work something out?"

"Just fork over the duel runner and we'll let yous go," someone behind her tried.

"You're not getting on bolt off this runner," Keisa snapped.

"Okay, then what about your decks? You guys have decks, don't you?"

Keisa's hand wrapped around her cards. Could she do it? Could she sacrifice her precious cards to save her brother's runner—and possibly their lives? She began to pull it out, but a hand wrapped around her wrist and stopped her.

"We don't have decks," Blitz called out over her shoulder. "This runner belongs to the young lady's brother." He slowly removed his hand from her wrist and tugged the back of her shirt down the cover the deck case. She prayed no one saw, but still. How else were they going to get out of this?

"Bullshit," someone cried.

Someone, probably the most scar-marked and rugged of them all, stepped up in front of them. "It's your decks or the bike. No one wants to get hurt, I'm sure. You understand." He gave them a shit-eating grin and crossed their arms.

"I'll give you my best card," Keisa blurted. "Scrap Dragon. Level 8 monster. Just let us pass through without any trouble." The man stood there, silent. "Please." She resisted every habit that told her to pop out her brother's duel disk and attempt to duel every one of these thugs. She couldn't waste that much time.

"Alright," he caved. "Scrap Dragon."

There were quiet protests as she removed the card from its spot at the top of her deck. She glanced down at the art, the metal dragon made of scraps. It was actually really ironic. One piece of scrap for another. Though, what she got—their safe travel through the alley and Yusei's runner—was well worth it. She could always come back and duel for the return of her card.

The guy took the card and Keisa vowed then that she would see it again. They continued past the alley, pushing the runner faster than they had been before. As soon as they were far enough away, Blitz stopped pushing and they all let out a collective breath.

"I think we got away," Rally declared.

"I can't believe you did that," Blitz ground out, kicking a piece of rubble in the road.

Keisa leaned up against the runner and shrugged. "Necessary casualty. Collateral damage. It was worth it."

"Is it going to be worth it when Yusei finds out?" he snapped. "What do you think he's gonna say?"

"It's not his card, it's mine."

"Keisa!" he started pacing erratically. "He's already lost Stardust Dragon—"

"He got it back," she tried to argue.

Blitz just groaned. "You don't get it."

Keisa pushed off from the runner and began to force it down the road on her own. "Let's just go. I need to see if he's okay."

"We can't stay here," Rally agreed. "We're not safe."

The others helped her push the runner towards Martha's. "Yusei has done a lot for all of us, for me. It's about damn time I could do something for him."

—

The group had been pushing in silence for a long time. No one dared to complain after Keisa and Blitz's argument, which left the tension still thick in the air. Suddenly, a light filled the area around them and they all stopped moving, a cold fear consuming all of them.

"It's sector Security," Rally whispered shakily. Keisa pulled him to her and ran a thumb over his mark.

"It'll be fine," she murmured.

"Wait a minute, Sector Security doesn't patrol way out here," Nervin noted, trying to see into the light.

"So then, who is it?" Tank asked just as a man passed through the light and stepped up to them with a small wave.

"Hey."

"It's Blister," Blitz sighed in relief.

"What are you guys doing way out here?" he asked.

"It's Yusei," Rally cried.

Blister's eyebrows drew together in confusion as he scanned the group. Yusei was not among them, he noticed. His eyes landed on the next best thing—his sister.

"He's been hurt pretty bad in a duel," she told him when she noticed him staring at her. "Crow took him to Martha's—we were just on our way. His bike is trashed, though."

Blister took in the extreme concern in the air and nodded. "Let me help."

—

Keisa stopped pushing the runner as soon as Martha's place was within her line of sight. She gave a short nod to Blitz and the others before running around them and sprinting into the building.

Crow was leaned against the stairs, a grim look on his face.

"Where is Yusei?" she demanded.

"Martha took him in there." He jerked his head towards the door that led to what she remembered to be the living room. Doctor is operating on him to remove the embedded pieces and to make sure there's no internal bleeding and whatever, I guess," he told her softly.

Keisa crumbled where she stood. She fell to her knees and held her head in her hands, her forehead resting on her knees. Yusei was all she had left. What was she supposed to do without him? She couldn't build runners yet. There was no way she could figure it out on her own like he did. What was she supposed to do?

She felt Crow lean down and help her back to her feet long enough for him to get her to the bench along the wall.

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked him brokenly. "How—"

"He's gonna be okay, Keisa," Crow said sternly. "All you have to do is hold onto this until he's ready for it again." She looked up at the red helmet that he was holding out to her. He was right. Yusei would pull through somehow. He always did. Even if it was by the skin of his teeth. Or luck, as his earlier duel would have it.

Maybe it was luck that the duel had been interrupted. He would have lost if his runner hadn't broken.

And it was Keisa's job to support him until he was ready to get back out there and show the dark signers what he was really made of.