Yu-Gi-Oh! Generation Fusion!

by Autismo555

A masked man, known as the Controller, has plucked the major focal points of Duel Monsters history and gathered up the biggest villains from each timeline to destroy the history of Duel Monsters itself! Now with the help of their friends and allies, Yugi Muto, Jaden Yuki, Yusei Fudo and Yuma Tsukumo join forces to prevent the threat from destroying the game they love!

7. Meeting of the Four Heroes!

Chapter 7: Meeting of the Four Heroes!

A/N: Ladies and gentlemen, here is the chapter that you have all been waiting for!

Here is Chapter Six, where Yugi, Jaden, Yusei and Yuma all meet up with each other. This chapter also contains the first full appearance of my OC villain, some switching perspectives between each character and spoilers for the Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time movie. If you don't want the movie spoiled, you can either a) skip the flashbacks that Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei have or b) watch the movie first on the Internet or on your Blu-Ray, DVD disks, then come read the story. Sorry if this is seemed a little rushed in the beginning or if Yusei didn't get enough screen time in this chapter, but college finals came, so I was a bit too busy to progress with this chapter, but I hope you all enjoy what I have so far.

Also, the "FEATURED CARDS" section and the Duelists' names will be highlighted in bold to make the names pop up and easier to identify.

Without any further ado, here we go...

---

Unknown Location

The masked man watched the many monitors in the enormous, spacious, dome-like room teem with life as he sat down in his throne. The throne the masked man settled in was a seat constructed from an unknown metal alloy, a mixture of bronze and gold colors, very much similar to the alloy found in the hallways Rex Goodwin's now-destroyed secret basement. The back of the throne was shaped like a pyramid split horizontally where the base below the glowing, spinning, hovering capstone was located, with a yellow jewel resided inside that capstone. Circuit-like etching led towards a green jewel center shape resembling what appeared to be Yuma's Golden Key. The armrests were upside-down pyramids held up with two other jewels placed inside the centers, the right armrest having the red jewel inside and the left armrest with a blue jewel.

The throne sat on a circular platform in the center of the dome, suspended by a single platform that led to the door and four elongated rods extending from the walls from either side of the door to the platform, transferring running lights to the throne with an energy similar to that of Ener-D.

On that throne, the masked man watched the screens built inside the tiled walls of the dome show the major players of his game, all unknowing, all unaware of the bigger picture that happened as they spoke. He raised his right arm, and the modules on his metallic gauntlet glowed an eerie, light blue light which in turn activated the circuitry on the palm of his hands. The circuitry glowed the same blue light and extended towards the fingers and thumb until it ended with an ovular-like shape exactly where his fingerprints were.

Suddenly, all of the screens on the wall flickered off, but in exchange, the tiled walls lit up and showed the gigantic images of four certain Duelists he was waiting for, clustered into one group of four and made up of nine screens each. In a clockwise order, the Duelists that appeared were Yugi Muto, Jaden Yuki, Yusei Fudo, and Yuma Tsukumo with Astral by his side. Inside his red eyepiece, the masked man's eye squinted a little at the sight of the Duelists who lead him into a lifetime of misery and loneliness. They were all being led by a force that not even the masked man could understand, right into the same place he wanted them to meet for the first time... and the last time as well.

"Yes... Everything is going according to plan..." the masked man said in between weak breaths. "Soon, Legendary Duelists... you will all meet in a single place... where the timelines converged with one another for the first time..." The masked man watched as Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei ran towards the same place where they all fought side-by-side with each other for the first time. Now and then, he shifted his glance to the screaming form of Yuma Tsukumo as Astral's knowledge of the past guided him to the place he wanted them to go to. "...and when you join with each other for the first time... it will become your last... as I shall make sure you lose everything you've treasured the most... just like you and all of your feats made me lose everything I've treasured so long ago..."

---

Domino City - Downtown Domino City

Yugi ran into the city limits of Domino City, once a grand civilization teeming with the bustling crowds of the average-day Joe and rank amateur Duelists, now a dark ghost town collected with the bodies of unconscious civilians and downed vehicles. There was no doubt in Yugi's mind that this was the work of the man who appeared in his dreams, but he needed to know who exactly he was, where he was hiding and how he was able to pull off such an incredible and dangerous feat. More importantly, he needed to know why he did what he did and what he was planning to do. Once Yugi ran into the empty streets, he made his way towards the Domino City Plaza, the first place he suspected would hold all kinds of trouble waiting just for him.

Joey, Tristan and Tea closely followed Yugi's trail as he trudge through the streets of disabled vehicles and limp bodies. The very air and the dim lighting gave the three a foreboding feeling in the very center of their stomachs, but it did not have any effect on Yugi. The answers to why it was only known through Yugi's eyes, and that was why Joey, Tristan and Tea decided to follow their short friend. Yugi stopped for a moment to collect his sense of direction, looking around with a serious scowl as his three friends caught up with him, Joey and Tristan completely out of breath.

"Hey... hey, Yug? Do you think we could... sit down for a minute to... collect our breath?" Joey panted heavily as he bent over and held his hands on his knees.

"Now that... sounds like a plan..." Tristan said, falling to his behind. "We've been running for a mile now... and even I can't... run that far."

Yugi looked back to his friends. "Sorry, guys, but there's no time to lose! We have to get to the plaza quickly!"

Yugi started to run again when he was stopped by Tea. "Yugi, wait! There's something that you still haven't told us yet!" Tea said after collecting her breath. "You said that there was a couple of Duelists you had to meet at the plaza, the same Duelists who helped you defeat someone taking Pegasus's life, right? Well, now might be a good time to tell us what's really going on. We might not know the Duelists you've met at the tournament, but you did mention that you stopped Duel Monsters from being wiped out because something big went on at the tournament. Just what happened, Yugi? What happened at the tournament that made you want to go back to the plaza now?"

As he looked, Yugi saw the concerned face of Tea Gardner and the eager faces of Tristan Taylor and Joey Wheeler, yearning to drink up whatever information Yugi kept from them this whole time. Yugi then found himself in a world of darkness, with the only blue light being the light that shone down on him and the ethereal figure of the Pharaoh, his arms crossed and looking at his reincarnation by the corner of his eye. "What do you think we should do, Pharaoh? Should we finally let them in on our story?" Yugi asked. "Since this whole situation is letting this go out in the open, I think it's time that we told them the full story."

"That is true," Yami Yugi nodded, "and I think you should be the one to tell them, Yugi. You've seen all that happened then with your own eyes, so it's only fair that I'll let you fill your friends in the details of your adventure."

Yugi nodded in understanding as he was brought back to the material world. He let out a deep sigh before he turned to his friends and told them the story. "Well, you do know what I've said earlier, about someone trying to take Pegasus's life at the Domino City Dueling Tournament that took place about a month ago?" he asked, earning a nod from his friends in response. "I'm not sure how to put this easily in words that you might or might not understand, but when I was part of the Tournament, there was a man waiting to destroy Duel Monsters just so he could save his ruined future. All he needed to do was to destroy Pegasus so that way, he could accomplish his goal."

Joey, Tristan and Tea all simply blinked twice.

"Ruined future?" Joey asked.

"Time travel?" Tristan questioned.

"Is there really such a thing?" Tea wondered.

"Oh, there was, Tea, but that's not all," Yugi continued. "Once Pegasus arrived at around noon, everyone there saw these three Dragons flying overhead, myself and grandpa included, but what really concerned me was that I've never seen those Dragons before. That's when everything went bad..."

-FLASHBACK-

As the clock struck noon, three shadows descended over the crowd gathered at the center of the Domino City Plaza. Yugi and his grandfather Solomon Muto watched as three Dragon's appeared over their location. One of them resembled a metal-plated dragon with three heads. Another Dragon had three sets of wings on its body and four eyes on its face. The third Dragon was a silvery drake with twin jewels on its chest and three horns on its head. The three Dragons circled around the plaza as the crowd looked on with complete astonishment.

"Boy, my laser eye surgery sure makes those Duel Monster holograms look real. Oh!" Solomon said.

As the crowd stood in awe before the three Dragons, one of them, a silvery dragon with a chest of two purple jewels gathered up air before expelling a stream of starlight towards the buildings, tearing out a section of the structure that rained rubble, just enough to make the crowd go wild in panic. "I don't think those are holograms, grandpa!" Yugi shouted before the crowds scattered all over the plaza, separating Yugi from Solomon.

"Yugi!" Solomon shouted amidst the sea of frightened civilians.

"Grandpa!"

The three-headed Dragon shot another blast towards the buildings from their three heads, making the building spew out rubble, and reducing any chance or hope for escape from the location. "It's my worst fear! I've been upstaged!" a frightened Pegasus shouted before he heard a rumbling from behind and above him. "Oh no! The building!" Pegasus screamed as the top half of the blasted building fell down on the one-eyed creator of Duel Monsters, his yells echoing away as the building fell upon him.

The three attacking Dragons circled above the plaza once more.

The area became a ground zero, full of building rubble, destruction, and loss.

Yugi was the only one to open his eyes, and examined the horrors that was left behind by those Dragons from above. Everywhere he looked, Yugi saw his home city blasted away, burned to the ground, and left in ruins. Yugi's eyes glimmered with moisture as he turned and saw something lying on the ground, past a few caps and bandanas of their fallen owners. One such bandana was what prompted Yugi to get up on his feet and limp towards the headwear, his eyes leaking with tears as he held the bandana of his grandfather in trembling hands.

"Grandpa... no, he's... NOOOOOOOOO!"

From the top of a building, Yugi heard the laughter of a man above, looking down at the mayhem and chaos he created. "At last, my work is complete!" he said in mocking triumph. "It took some doing, but history is now forever changed! Changed so that Duel Monsters is no more!"

-END FLASHBACK-

Tea gasped, her hands covering her mouth as per her being appalled from the story. "That's... that's horrible!"

"Hold on a second!" Joey interrupted. "Are you tellin' me dat some nut went back in time to destroy Pegasus and ruin Duel Monsters forever so his ruined future would be un-ruined but at da same time, he ruined da future of Duel Monsters in da long run?"

"Exactly, Joey," said Yugi. "That was his big goal in life all along."

"C'mon, you've gotta be jokin' with me, pal. Dere ain't no such thing as time travel." Joey rubbed his ear with his pinkie before he was met with the deadpan stares of Tristan and Tea. Joey looked at them blankly before he held his arms out defensively. "Sure, I mean we've had some hard times with Shadow Games, a Virtual World and a freaky underwater sea snake who wanted ta swallow us whole, but ya gotta admit, dere's no way dat time travelin' can be a real deal."

"That's where you're wrong, Joey. There is such a thing as the ability to walk through time," Yugi responded, catching Joey by confusion. "As I saw Paradox bask in his successful efforts, this bright, red light flashed and this big crimson dragon appeared and swallowed me whole. The dragon took me back almost thirty minutes just before the start of the tournament, and that's when I met a couple of Duelists who had some bad luck with Paradox themselves."

"Paradox? Dat was da guy's name?" Joey asked.

"Yeah. Apparently, Paradox had stolen the Dragons that attacked the plaza from different timelines so he could wipe out Pegasus by his own hand," Yugi explained. "The two Duelists who helped me told me what would happen if Duel Monsters history was changed, and it wasn't good. I agreed to help them take on Paradox because of what they did to my grandpa. Their names were Jaden and Yusei, and they came from the future as well."

"And you really did team up with Duelists from the future?" Tristan asked.

"Of course. Jaden had the ability to talk to Duel Monster Spirits like me, and Yusei used this Summoning technique that definitely wasn't from our lifetime," Yugi explained. "By using these powers, plus with the help from the Pharaoh, we challenged Paradox in a Duel, combined our powers and defeated Paradox once and for all. After that, the history of Duel Monsters was saved and Pegasus is still alive to this day."

"Wow. Dat's some story," Joey said. "Too bad I wasn't there ta witness da whole thing, otherwise I'd believe your whole story."

"Joey!" Tea replied, appalled by the blonde's behavior.

"It's alright, Tea. Joey has every right to be skeptical about my story," Yugi said. "To be honest, I didn't believe that the ability to travel through time was possible, not until I faced off against Paradox, that is." The King of Games turned and faced Domino City, glowering at the darkness and the red sun hovering closely above the city.

"Although, ever since Kaiba speculated that someone was controlling time in order to bring us into this place, I can't help but think that our culprit has also taken certain locations from a different time into one single point. That city we saw in the distance wasn't any city that I've seen before and it looked technologically advanced, so I suspected that Jaden and Yusei's timelines must be trapped here, too."

"So,you think there's a good chance that whoever brought us here also brought your friends over and you think the first place they can start looking is at the Domino City Plaza?" Tristan asked, clarifying what Yugi said in his mind before shrugging. "I guess that makes sense. We are dealing with a time-manipulating villain, and now you and your future friends are gonna join up to defeat him."

"What!? Tristan, don't tell me you believe in dat story!" Joey snapped half-downheartedly.

"Sorry, Joey, but if you look at the facts about the situation we're all in, then you've gotta believe that something like people and cities from another time is possible," Tristan explained.

"But...!"

"Tristan's right, Joey!" Tea interrupted the blonde. "If what Yugi said was true, then there's no denying that the city we saw earlier is part of something bigger!"

Joey then perked up as he flashed back to what he saw with Yugi and friends while they followed the King of Games.

-FLASHBACK-

"Hey, Yugi, why'd ya stop?" Yugi looked to his side as Joey, Tristan and Tea managed to catch up with him, and turned his gaze back at the horizon as the three approached him.

"What's up, Yug? What're ya lookin' at dis time?" the blonde Duelist asked.

"That," Yugi said, pointing a finger towards the horizon where the veils of lights and the city filled most of the sea in the distance. Joey, Tristan and Tea turned to the sea and saw in the distance, the same city beyond the colored lights, gasping with surprise as a result. "Guys, I think there's something bigger going on here than we might already know. We need to get to the plaza and fast!"

"I don't it get, Yug! What do we need to go there for, anyway?" Joey asked.

"Well, remember the incident that happened at the tournament just before we dealt with Dartz?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah. What about it?" Tristan said. "You were practically there when it happened."

"True, but there was something else that went on around the time," informed the timid Yugi. "As soon as that tournament began, someone tried to make an attempt on Pegasus's life and wipe out Duel Monsters for good. Luckily, I was there to stop with the help of a couple of other Duelists and we got rid of him for good. But now..."

"Now what?" Joey questioned.

"Now I think I might need their help again. Come on!" Yugi turned and ran towards the exit of Kaiba Land and into the direction towards the Domino City Plaza, Joey, Tristan and Tea all trailing close behind.

-END FLASHBACK-

Joey looked away, defeated by the very important fact that slipped away from his mind. "Oh, yeah. Dat's right, I almost forgot about da city. Sorry, Yug."

"It's fine, Joey, but now we have to keep going. There's no time to lose," the timid side of the King of Games declared. "If our timelines really have been pulled here into this place, then there's no doubt in my mind that we need to make it to the plaza before it's too late. I'd ask you all to come with me, but I don't want to put any of you guys in serious danger."

Then, as if a challenge was issued to him, Joey turned from slight downhearted to enthusiastic as a smile crept on his face. "Are you kiddin' me!? Serious danger is my middle name!" Joey boasted, pointing a thumb to himself and smiling proudly while Yugi, Tristan and Tea were surprised by Joey's sudden action, "and don't think you're facin' dis creep all on your own, Yug! You've taken on da Paradox Brothers, da Big Five and da Great Leviathan with my help, so you're gonna need my help if ya wanna give dis guy da boot!"

Tristan was next to join in with Joey's smile, followed with Tea. "Yeah! There's no way you're going to take down this guy without us helping you out!" Tristan said, holding up a determined fist.

Tea nodded. "That's right. Remember, our bonds of friendship helped you get out of tight spots before, Yugi," she said, holding up her right hand and placing it in the center, "and no matter what happens next, our friendship will never be broken." Joey and Tristan held up their right hands as well and placed them in the center as well. Yugi looked on with surprise as he remembered what his friendship with his friends meant, and that prompted the ethereal spirit of Yami Yugi to come out next to his timid reincarnation.

"You know, Yugi, your friends are right," Yami Yugi said. "Ever since we first defeated Kaiba, your bonds with your friends have proved to be powerful, time and time again."

"I know that for a fact, Pharaoh," Yugi replied, looking surprised at first, then becoming worried, "but I feel that there's a power here that's more powerful than the bonds I share with my friends, only it's more dark and empty. You do remember what that voice we heard in our dreams said, right?"

Yami Yugi looked up and stared out into the distance unknown. "Yes, I do remember. The evil we have yet to face has threatened to break our bonds with our friends, but that is all the more reason to go up against this threat." Yami Yugi looked back to Yugi with a smile on his face as well. "If we can put all of the bonds we share with our friends into this battle, then we may be able to stop this threat from carrying out his plan."

Through the Pharaoh's reassuring words, Yugi cracked a little smile on his face as well. Yugi turned back to his friends and placed his hand in the center as well and remembered the happy, smiley face Tea drew on their hands with washable ink as a symbol of their friendship. Yugi looked over to Joey, then to Tristan, then to Tea before he nodded once. "Whoever's pulled us into this darkness is threatening to destroy our friendship," Yugi stated. "I bet he's also trying to destroy the game of Duel Monsters as well, but with our combined powers, there's no way we can lose. Now let's show our guy how powerful our bonds with each other really are."

Joey snickered with a proud, toothy smile. "Now dat's what I'm talkin' about! Looks like we got ourselves another showdown between good and evil, folks!" he declared. "So now that dat's over with, Yugi, how about you show us da way?"

"Alright," Yugi nodded before turning. "Follow me to the plaza, you guys. There's a couple of people I'd like you to meet."

With that, Yugi turned and ran towards downtown Domino City, leading his three friends into the area as well. While they ran, a curious thought entered through Tea's mind. "Hey, does anyone know how Kaiba's doing with his scouting mission?"

"I dunno, but I bet whatever rich boy finds he's probably gonna say, 'This whole thing must be some giant hologram and a hocus pocus trick caused by my company's hacker,'" Joey said, transitioning into a deeper tone to imitate Kaiba's voice. Tristan couldn't help but laugh at Joey's impression of his hated Duel rival.

"Good one, man! You sound exactly like him!" Tristan guffawed.

"He does not," Tea grumbled, her cheeks puffed up with annoyance before sighing. "Ugh. I really need some female friends."

---

Duel Academy Island

"What's going on here!? How was that hacker able to successfully bring my plans for building Duel Academy up to scale!?" Kaiba wondered as he widely turned his Blue-Eyes White Jet over the island where the prestigious school for teaching aspiring Duelists was built. The widened eyes and the blue pinpricks inside revealed all of the shock that Kaiba felt, but it also showed a conflict between belief and disbelief. "Whoever this hacker is, he was able to create a life-sized hologram of Duel Academy from blueprints that I've kept safe in my database! He's found the island where we were planning on building the Academy and he's managed to get every detail of the Academy, including the volcanic activity! This doesn't make any sense! How did he know what Duel Academy would look like when I was planning to commission its construction by the end of next year!?"

Suddenly, Kaiba's head began to swim, and he put his hand on his head as he fell victim to a fit of dizzy spells. It was like the world had flickered red and green like the monitor of an old television set. It was fortunate that Kaiba had his jet on autopilot at the time, otherwise his aerial vehicle would've crashed into the sea. "No, wait! That's not right! I have commission the construction already! Duel Academy has become the world's most prestige school for Duelists alike, and it's managed to win several awards for its academic scholarship! I've owned Duel Academy and the island for several years now!"

Kaiba grunted as his cranium began to ache once more, his brain throbbing painfully with his heartbeat. "Wha... What's happening to me!? All of a sudden, I remember granting the school approval to be built and claiming ownership over it and the land! Something's messing with my head! It's some sort of mind trick that the hacker implanted somehow! This can't be right! I need to get to the bottom of this now, but there's only one thing I need to do to prove that this is all a big hologram!"

Kaiba pushed the steering controls down, and his Blue-Eyes White Jet slowly descended down onto the ground of the island. Just to be sure, Kaiba activated the landing gears, and the feet on the belly of the Dragon-shaped jet began to lower out and extended more downwards. The landing mechanisms touched down on the ground, surprising Kaiba greatly as his jet settled onto the marble pathway. The jet's engines cooled off, and Kaiba opened up the glass latch and hopped on out of the pilot's seat, turning to face the supposed "hologram" that was Duel Academy. Kaiba reached down and inspected the marble on the ground, his eyes narrowed to a glare as he felt around the texture of the ivory stone.

"I'm still not convinced that this is all real," Kaiba noted. "Anyone with expert hacking skills would have known how to access the sensory program I installed into the virtual game that I decommissioned months ago, yet the only question remains is how he was able to install that program into my holographic projectors. I smell a rat, and a dirty one, too."

"Mr. Kaiba!"

Kaiba turned to the voice and saw a pudgy, middle-aged man run up to him, wearing a raspberry-colored jersey and the only hair on his head being his facial hair. Chancellor Sheppard managed to make it to Kaiba before his age began to catch up with him, as his running left him quite breathless. Standing at his ground, knowing that Sheppard would be harmless, Kaiba looked down on him and asked, "Yes? Can I help you with something?"

Once Sheppard fully regained his breath, the Chancellor looked up to Kaiba with yearning, pleading eyes. "Mr. Kaiba! Thank goodness that you arrived, even though it was quite unexpected! Our school is undergoing yet another major crisis and we're really desperate for help!" Sheppard begged to the glaring owner of the school. "We've been somehow transported into another dimension by a raving maniac and now we're stranded in the middle of nowhere! I've already sent some of my best students out there to try and find help, but I never expected that you'd arrive

Kaiba humphed before he turned away from the bewildered Chancellor and walked back to his jet. "Mr. Kaiba? Is something the matter?"

Kaiba stopped walking and looked back to Sheppard by the corner of his eye. "Look, I don't know if your whole 'Transporting-School-Into-Another-Dimension' story is true or not, but I have bigger problems to worry about. There's a pathetic lowlife still out there who's hacked into my KaibaCorp database and is planning to use my holographic systems to cause worldwide panic. I'd like to stay here and chat, but I have a hacker to stop. Now, if you'll excuse me, Mr. Sheppard..."

Kaiba stopped walking as his head began to ring, that awful high-pitched frequency traveling through his ears. Placing a hand on his head, Kaiba grunted as a surge of throbbing pain threatened to swell his head up like a balloon. "Mr. Kaiba?" Sheppard asked meekly, with no response coming from Yugi's rival himself.

"What just happened!? How did I know that man's name!?" Kaiba screamed in his head. "I couldn't have known the name of the man who would be Chancellor of Duel Academy, but now, at the same time, I know his name! Just what is going on!? Why is this hurting my head!?"

"Mr. Kaiba, are you alright!?" Sheppard asked again, this time getting some sort of response from Kaiba.

"No. No, this can't be right. This has to be a setup of some sort," Kaiba mumbled to himself.

"What's not right? What has to be a setup?" Sheppard asked, unaware that he had answered a rhetorical question.

"This island and that school. Both of them shouldn't even exist," Kaiba answered back, looking back to the puzzled Chancellor. "I don't know how you've done it, Mr. Sheppard or how I even knew your name, but all I know is that this school shouldn't even exist. I haven't even given the green light for construction, anyway." Sheppard gasped with shock as Kaiba hopped back into his jet, closed the latch and prepared to fire the turbines. As the turbines spun, Kaiba activated the hovercraft built inside the aerial vehicle to help him hover in case the runway was too short. The Blue-Eyes White Jet lifted itself up into the air, moved the landing gears up and zoomed away from the island and towards the city he planned to check out next, leaving a jetstream in its trail.

This left the Chancellor, standing on the marble walkway with a perplexed look on his face, confused and shocked about what Kaiba had told him. "This school shouldn't exist yet? What is going on?" he wondered.

While the Blue-Eyes Jet flew into the air, Kaiba directed the controls to his left, where another city could be clearly seen a good mile away from the island and past the mysterious Aurora. The flight towards the painful abnormality would take Kaiba about ten minutes to reach, but that was more than enough time to ponder his situation. "Something's wrong here. Ever since I saw the island where Duel Academy would be built on, I've been suffering these strange headaches and having those hallucinations about me approving Duel Academy's construction and ownership! And these memories are much more vivid than those visions I saw with me being some Egyptian priest! I don't how he did it, but I'll make him pay he ever decided to target my company!"

Kaiba pushed a button, and Mokuba's face appeared on the screen. "Mokuba, do you read me?"

"I read you loud and clear, Seto. Did you find anything?" Mokuba asked.

"I found something alright, but I can't be sure. I need you to run another security scan in our database, this time on submitted projects that have yet to be approved by KaibaCorp."

"You got it," Mokuba said as he ran through the security scan program on the computer. After a brief minute, Mokuba turned back to Kaiba, shaking his head. "Sorry, big bro, but there's no breaches or viruses that our security scanners can pick up."

Kaiba narrowed his eyes; no signs of tampering with his future projects had narrowed it down, but where that was, he didn't know. "Seto, what did you find?"

"Something that even I'm not sure of, Mokuba," Kaiba said. "I'm going to keep scouting the areas. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

"Good luck, big bro."

Kaiba pressed the same button, and Mokuba disappeared from the screen. He turned his attention back to the front with a growl and narrowing eyes. "This is really bugging me out! If my system's haven't been accessed by the same hacker, then how did he bring Duel Academy to life!? I have to keep looking, otherwise my company's reputation will sink even further!"

With that, the Blue-Eyes White Jet continued to fly over the ocean, reaching the Aurora while Kaiba prepared for the painful part: Going through that unstable force of light.

---

Bridge to Domino City - Mysterious Bridge

"Are we there yet?" Syrus asked, causing Alexis to groan.

"For the last time, Syrus, no," she said, half-shouting. "We don't know when we're gonna arrive to Domino City."

"But my seat's starting to get sore."

"Well, take your uniform and use it as a cushion," Hassleberry said. "Man, for someone who's as tough as his brother, you're still a little crybaby sometimes."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Chazz growled. "Don't make me come back there! Do you guys want me to come back there and Chazz you up!?"

"No," Hassleberry and Syrus said simultaneously.

The borrowed covered truck smoothly made its way over the mysterious bridge as Jaden drove it over the ocean and towards Domino City, him being the most quiet out of all of his friends. Jaden kept his serious, straight face on while Chazz tried to block out the Ojama Brothers playing "Patty Cake", Alexis, Syrus and Hassleberry bickering over the arrival to Domino City, Dr. Crowler lying unconscious from the shock he suffered by the effects of the Aurora, and Pharaoh's vibrating meows in the form of a big-mouthed yawn. While he contemplated, Jaden let out a little suspicious grunt, only to be broken from his reverie by Chazz.

"Hey, Jaden," Chazz called, earning a sideways glance from the former Slifer Red. "Not that I'm complaining, but you've been awfully quiet these last couple of minutes. Care to tell us what's on your mind?"

Syrus poked his head out of the flap as he overhead the conversation going on. "Now that you mention it, he has been awfully quiet since we passed those lights."

"What gives, sarge?" Hassleberry asked, sticking his head out as well, followed with Alexis and Pharaoh. "What's with the silent treatment?"

Jaden looked back to the road while Chazz, Syrus, Hassleberry and Alexis listened in. "It's nothing, guys, it's just that this isn't the first time that all of Duel Monsters history was threatened," he explained, earning a curious look from his friends.

"The history of Duel Monsters was threatened?" Syrus asked.

"What do you mean by that, Jaden?" Alexis asked.

"Well, this was something that happened while I was exploring the world on my own, but something happened during that time while I was stopping by in Europe," Jaden explained. "See, while I was in Venice, I heard about a thief that was stealing other people's cards right from under their noses, and one of those card happened to be your 'Cyber End Dragon', Syrus." Jaden could see himself in that moment in Venice two years earlier, when he evaded the gigantic Dragons attacking him with different forms of energy blasts, in the midst of the burning holy city in Italy, specifically.

-FLASHBACK-

The dull glow of a widespread fire was shrouded in the darkness of black smoke as glowing, orange ashes flew around the area, raining down on the stones on the iconic Italian city.

In the midst of such armageddon, a shadow jumped onto a statue of a seraphim, then leapt off just as a ball of energy blasted the angel to smithereens. Hovering in the sky above Venice was an armor-plated monster that resembles a three-headed dragon with a blue jewel on its chest and one each on the apex of its mechanical wings, each head a different design blasting an energy ball towards its target. The figure ran a couple of paces before he jumped away from the blast, jumping once more before he cleared the railing of the clock tower. The last blast was enough to create a smokescreen, which gave Jaden the opportunity to jump out the window and onto the cobblestones.

Unfazed by the attack, Jaden grinned as he turned to face his best friend's "Cyber End Dragon" that was stolen some time ago. "Huh. Those were some close calls," he said before his face grew a slightly shocked expression at another familiar Dragon. "Uh oh. I've got a feeling they're about to be closer."

What Jaden saw was a four-eyed Dragon with white-and-yellow scales and three pairs of wings. One such pair were a featherless pair of yellow wings, followed with white, angelic wings. Near the end of the spear-shaped tail was a pair of draconic wings. Near the head of the "Rainbow Dragon" were seven pairs of jewels, each pair having one on each side, having placed in the order of the colors of the rainbow, from red to violet. The "Rainbow Dragon" charged up a beam that was warned by a circular rainbow, followed with a spectral blast that tore up the ground and towards Jaden.

The former Slifer Red, however, was ready for this. Unsheathing his Duel Disk, Jaden slapped his favorite card on the Monster Card Zone sideways in Defense Mode. "How about a little help, Neos?" he asked the Warrior from Neo Space as it materialized and blocked the attack, diverting from both sides that took out a side of the halls that made up the Venice square. The blast made Jaden flinch, but he wasn't hurt too bad. The "Rainbow Dragon" flew away as Jaden was left to face a tall, slender figure in the shadows with yellow, glowing marks on the mask he wore, and his Duel Disk glowing purple.

"Jaden Yuki," the masked man identified. "The Duelist they say who could speak with the spirits."

"I see my reputation precedes me," Jaden joked as Professor Banner's spirit floated beside him.

"So he is the one behind this destruction," the spirit of Banner noted.

"I'd say so, Banner, and it's pretty impressive, too," Jaden admired. "I mean, wow, bringing all of these Duel Monsters to real life?"

"Don't be too excited," Yubel warned. "He is trying to destroy you with them, after all."

"Jaden, I finished what I came here to do," the masked man said.

"Say what?"

"Say goodbye, because I plan on finishing you off as well," the man said, flicking a card from between his fingers as smoke and lightning erupted from it.

Suddenly, the lightning reached into the sky, and a wide stream of light descended and expanded, shocking Jaden as he was face-to-face with a Dragon he had never seen before. "Uh oh. Whatever's coming, I doubt it's good!"

"Farewell, Jaden!"

-END FLASHBACK-

Syrus looked at his inherited "Cyber End Dragon" he pulled out from his Deck with a saddened face. He never knew someone would use his brother's favorite card to do something so heinous and evil, and that's what brought the Dragon's owner melancholy as Jaden continued his story. "I was standing up to a Dragon that I've never even seen before in my life, and let me tell you, that attack power was intense. Even with my power to bring out 'Neos' to help protect me, I was afraid that my goose was cooked. That was, until a Duelist from the future dropped in just in time to save my bacon."

"Now hold up, sarge!" Hassleberry interjected. "Are you telling me that there was a guy that traveled back in time and saved you from becoming target practice?"

"Well, yeah, the guy really did come from the future," Jaden said with a nod and a smile. "As it turns out, he's got a connection to the world of Duel Monster Spirits just like I do."

Syrus, Hassleberry and Alexis looked at each other worriedly while Chazz just humphed. "So time-traveling is a real thing? Yeah, right, and I'm supposed to be the king of the world."

"Uh, technically, Chazz, you said that in the second chapter," Syrus pointed out, earning the Chazz's growl.

Alexis looked over at Jaden. "Is that true? Is there really gonna be time-traveling in the future?"

"I don't know myself, it was just a one-time thing that happened to me," said Jaden. "Plus, he had this weird, red dragon that had the power of time travel, so I'm not sure if time traveling technology was invented then. Anyway, the Duelist from the future was named Yusei, and as it turned out, the thief named Paradox traveled back to his time from the far future and stole his Dragon before he moved our current era and time. Yusei and I agreed to join up together and stop Paradox from initiating his plan and we discovered that Paradox was collecting Dragons from every era to destroy Pegasus and end Duel Monsters just so he could save a ruined future."

"And you actually traveled back in time to stop that madman?" Hassleberry asked.

"Yeah, but we wouldn't have succeeded without the help of another Duelist," Jaden answered. "Turns out he was at a tournament in the Domino City Plaza when Paradox used those Dragons to attack Pegasus. Yusei and I brought him back thirty minutes before the Dragons attacked and he agreed to join up with us on account that his grandpa was one of the people Paradox hurt. Paradox got the drop on us first before we could warn Pegasus and challenged us to a Duel. It wasn't easy beating a guy with Dragons from a different timeline, but the three of us combined our powers and we were able to beat Paradox once and for all."

"Wow. That's quite the story, Jay," Syrus said.

"You bet it is, Sy," Jaden said, smiling, "but now I've got a gut feeling that I'm about to see them again real soon."

"I hope you're right about that, Jaden. I'm NOT going through those lights again," Alexis said, hugging herself and shivering.

"Same here," Syrus agreed. "I almost felt like a grape being crushed by an elephant."

"Private, you think everything's gonna crush you like a grape," Hassleberry replied, earning a "Hey!" back from Truesdale.

Then a curious thought ran across Alexis's mind. "By the way, Jaden, you told us the name of the Duelist from the future who you've joined up with, right? Who was the other Duelist that joined up with you?"

Jaden looked back to Alexis. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. That other Duelists who teamed with me and Yusei was..."

It was at this moment that Syrus saw something dead ahead. "Hey look, guys! We're coming up to Domino City right now!" he pointed towards the docks of their destined city. "Or, to be precise, the very same pier where Yugi Dueled Joey who was under the control of Marik!"

"Everyone knows the story of Yugi vs. Joey, Syrus," Chazz remarked.

"Not everyone, Chazz," Jaden said as the ground underneath the truck's wheels transitioned from the solid mass of darkness and data, to the marble stone of the Domino City pier. Once the truck made it onto the docks, near the wooden square with steel support bars where the Duel between Yugi and the possessed Joey happened, Jaden turned the truck off and everyone departed from the vehicle, including the unconscious Crowler, slumped over Hassleberry's back. Everyone looked around with utter amazement as they stood at the historical city where the King of Games was born and where the Battle City Tournament made him a worldwide phenomenon.

"Wow. We've actually made it to Domino City," Jaden admired. "Despite how many times I've visited here, walking on the very same city where the King of Games reigned supreme is still too cool!"

"Stick to the plan, you scrub," Chazz reminded, snapping his rival out of his state. "Where is it that we need to go next?"

"Huh? Oh right... umm..." Jaden looked around the docks, then pointed towards an alleyway between two storage units, leading towards Domino City. "We go in that direction. That'll lead us to the plaza quicker. Come on!"

Jaden ran into the alleyway and made his tracks towards the plaza, followed by his old friends and rivals from Duel Academy. Hassleberry was the only one in the group lagging behind, due to Crowler's weight being added onto the muscular Duelist's back as he struggled to carry him in his state. "Hold up a second, troops! I can't keep up with you guys!" Hassleberry begged.

"You should've left him back at the truck! I told you he was dead weight!" Chazz argued.

"Knock it off, you two! There's no time to lose!" Alexis yelled back. "Either you two pull your weight or you go home!"

Chazz and Hassleberry groaned. "Fine," they both grunted.

Ultimately, the Dino Duelist and The Chazz decided they had to carry Crowler's unconscious body together, Hassleberry already holding him by the arms and Chazz carrying him by the legs. Thanks to the efforts of the two, Chazz and Hassleberry managed to pick up the pace and quickly join the party as they made their way into Domino City. Everyone was still skeptical about his story of how he traveled back in time to stop a time-traveling maniac with the help of a Duelist from the future, but a part of them hoped that he wasn't wrong about his hunch.

After all, in a dark dimension where there were cities and timelines merged together, with no sky and a big, red orb acting as a substitute for the sun, who else was there to help join them in their mission to return to their own dimension and time? That answer would come to them sooner than later as Jaden and his friends entered the city.

---

Highway to Domino City - Domino City Area Limits

A humming, crimson blur zoomed past a little lizard, settling on a rock near the highway before the blur startled it to the point where it jumped off and scuttled along somewhere in the tall, green grass.

Yusei drove his Duel Runner down the highway at a speed that exceeded past the speed limit of 60 M.P.H. which would normally alert the hidden police officers nearby had they not been knocked out by the light. The Turbo Duelist swerved his Duel Runner around the non-functioning vehicles, though for most of the drive, there was barely any obstacles in his way which was proven both good and bad. The good part was how Yusei could easily glide through the roads with his Duel Runner, but the bad part was how people being unconscious on a worldwide scale would also bring disaster if they happened to be in the middle of something important or dangerous.

Thankfully, the power outage at every part of the city ensured that no one could get hurt, so Yusei deduced that the villain he would face would somehow be honorable as to not let others hurt themselves, not until his time to act came at hand.

While he approached the Domino City limits, Yusei flashed back to the day when he, Jaden and Yugi faced off against Paradox, who stole very important Dragons from each of the timeline and used them to destroy Pegasus. He could even recount the moment when the three said their goodbyes to each other. "Jaden, Yugi, I wish we could've met under better circumstances than this,"Yusei thought as he approached the city limits. "We promised one day that we would meet each other again and Duel when the fate of Duel Monsters wasn't at risk..."

-FLASHBACK-

The burning, yellow evening sun set over the entirety of Domino City as the tournament continued without any further incident. A Duel was currently going underway at the time, one of the Duelists controlling a face-down card and "Marshmallon", a gelatinous monster with a cartoon-like smiling face with dimples, and the opposing Duelist controlling two face-down cards and a green, anthropomorphic bird wearing teal-colored armor with red orbs and three glowing pikes on the back called "Gladiator Beast Gyzarus".

A Duelist with black hair and red-dyed bangs stood with his Duel Disk revealed, his face flustered and bashful while he was taking a picture with a couple of girls cosplaying as Duel Monsters posed next to him, the girl on his right dressed as a shy "Magician's Valkyria", the girl on his left dressed up as "Cyber Harpie Lady".

Finally, at the back of the crowd and the most attracted attraction of the tournament was Maximillion Pegasus, he and bodyguards smiling as they gave away a free card to the young children, aspiring to become great Duels. "It certainly must be a dream come true for you all to be so close to me," Pegasus said with a foppish voice as he handed a card to a kid nearby.

Standing on top of the building where they all met, Yami Yugi, Jaden Yuki and Yusei Fudo watched over the tournament as they were accompanied by the yellow-orange glow of the setting sun, smiling with the triumphant feeling of their mission to stop Paradox being a success. "Do, looks like our work is done here," Jaden said, breaking the silence.

"Looks that way," replied Yugi.

Jaden nodded, carrying his book bag. "Ah, well, I guess this is goodbye, then. Great meeting you both. Hey, think we'll all meet again sometime?"

"Yeah," Yusei answered, "but let's hope that when we do, the whole world of Duel Monsters isn't on the line again."

"You said it, Yusei. Maybe we could Duel each other," Yugi said. "Whatever happens, the bond we formed here today is one that's going to stand the test of time."

"All of time," Jaden said as he reached his hand out.

"Absolutely," Yusei said as he held his hand onto Jaden's followed with Yugi.

Then, in the light of the sunset, Yugi, Jaden and Yusei formed a bond that, as the King of Games stated, would be one to stand through the essence of time itself.

-END FLASHBACK-

"...but now we have to put that promise on hold for now, because there's someone out there who's trying to make us lose everything we treasure the most; our friends, our homes, our entire timelines, even," Yusei thought as he narrowed his eyes to the very thought, "but we're not going to let that happen again, not this time. This time, we'll be fighting this threat together again as one, we'll have to combine our powers to stop this menace once and for all."

Yusei narrowed his eyes as his two-wheeled vehicle guided him into the city limits, leaving behind a trail of dust in his wake as he directed his Duel Runner to the very same plaza where he, Yugi and Jaden gathered there to fight as one.

---

Underside - New Domino City

The underside of New Domino City was the home of only two things: The Facility, where all the scumbags and criminals end up in this high-security prison with their souvenir being a yellow mark on their faces, and the location where what was left of the black market was set up. Jack Atlas once checked out the black market to make up for the mistake of putting an undercover Sector Security officer in the hospital, and with that officer's Synchro Monster, he helped cripple the black market. Nowadays, the only thing that the scum of New Domino's underbelly could sell Duel Disks stolen from production. By Jack's count, that would also lead him to anyone with information on any possible missing holographic systems, just in case the city and the Satellite were actually transported into another dimension.

This was the reason why Jack searched the dark bowels of the area in New Domino City where the black market was normally located. The black market was like a marketplace of the old days, though today's version was made for illegal exchange of valuable goods. With his lights shining from his Phoenix Whirlwind, Jack carefully maneuvered his Duel Runner around the unconscious bodies of the citizens, looking around the area for anyone who looked like they could still be moving or breathing. "Doesn't look like there's anything of use to me down here. All the other people down here have been affected by the light as well. I'd better find someone of value down here before I have to come up empty-handed with my search."

Then, from his right side, Jack heard the grunt of a man finally waking up from his unconscious state. Looking over to one of the stands, there was a tan, bald man with a goatee, a scar on the right side of his forehead and criminal marks on both side of his cheeks, stemming up from the chin. He wore a black vest, dark baggy pants, dark earrings and wristbands for an attire, a similar attire that Jack knew very well who they belonged to.

"Ah, man. I gotta lay off that hot sauce during taco night," the man complained as he held his throbbing head.

"Having a headache, are we?"

The bald man quit tending to his head as he looked up and gasped at the person riding the familiar, one-wheeled Duel Runner, the same man who had him arrested for illegally smuggling Duel Runners into the black market. "Oh no! Jack Atlas!?"

Jack took his helmet off and glared at the man. "We meet again, Syd. You were actually the last person I was expecting to see first."

Syd Barlow whimpered in fear of the intimidating blonde standing before him. "Oh,man! I gotta get outta here!" he said before turning around to escape.

"Not so fast!" Quickly, Jack dismounted his Duel Runner and went after Syd, the latter having taken no more than five steps before he was grabbed by the back of his vest and tossed against the wall of his own stall.

"Wha-What do you want from me!?" Syd cried.

"I want some answers from you and I want them now." Jack squatted down, grabbed Syd by the vest and pulled him close to his face. "So spill it, Syd. Have you had anyone stop by your shop to collect any holographic generators recently!? Speak up!"

Syd chuckled nervously. "N-No way! I-I-I hasn't met anyone lookin' for those generators that I know of! After I broke outta the Facility, I was demoted to just sellin' spare parts on the street! I-I-I haven't heard anyone say nothin' about someone buyin' those generators! Honest!"

Jack grumbled at Syd's story, but if there was one thing that Syd Barlow wasn't, it was a liar. After all, upon his arrest, Syd was forced to give up the names of the customers that he worked for, contributing in the crumbling of the black market. "Fine," Jack huffed as he threw Syd back against the wall and walked out of his stall, "but don't ever let me catch you back on the streets unless you know what's good for you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have important work to do..."

Jack mounted his Duel Runner, slipped on his helmet, lowered his visor and drove out of the streets, leaving Syd scared stiff as the other people around began to wake up. Jack rode his one-wheeled Phoenix Whirlwind out from the underbelly of New Domino City and emerged to the surface in time, just in time as the bottom feeders began to crawl back to consciousness. Syd's story may have left him with more questions than answers, but at least the question of illegal usage of KaibaCorp holographic systems had been clarified.

"Looks like we have been transported into another dimension. Since holographic generators aren't responsible for this change of scenery, then there's something else at work." Jack looked up to the darkness swirling in the sky. "Yusei, wherever you are, be careful. From the way things are looking, we're on the verge of something bigger happening than I thought."

---

B.A.D. Area - Satellite

Crow stood at the lip of the crater that marked the location where the Zero Reverse incident occurred. Spanning down into bottom of the deep, dark pit of ruined earth was the first Ener-D Reactor, the same mechanism that the Goodwin brothers and Yusei's parents had researched for its ability to produce clean energy for Domino City, now a desolate pile of scrap metal that acted as a doorway to the Netherworld. Even with the Satellite being rebuilt as a shining city miles off the coast from the Domino City shires, the B.A.D. still looked like a grim reminder of the past, but it was also the incentive for some individuals to keep pressing forward into the future. Crow looked down that incentive as its gaping maw welcomed anyone into its hollow emptiness inside.

"Wow. You're still as creepy as ever," Crow muttered as he stared into the crater, one arm leaning on his knee. "Gotta wonder thought, if you're big enough to hold a Reactor that had enough raw power to split the earth, then I wonder what else you're hiding in there. Guess I'll have to find that out myself."

With that, Crow turned and walked down a flight of stairs that led into the darkness. There wasn't much left of the old Ener-D Reactor, except for a pile of junk and the offices of every researcher who perished in Zero Reverse, including the office of the late Doctor Fudo and his wife. When Crow came across the gap where it formerly held the bridge where Yusei and Roman Dueled, Crow leaned over the railing for a better look, but still couldn't find anything in the creepy blackness. "Well, doesn't look like there's something down here. I wonder if there's anything left in Yusei's dad's research."

With that, Crow moved into a part of the old laboratory where he first encountered Goodwin standing near the control panels with his cybernetic left arm and down the hall where the two walked together. "Now let's see. If I remember this place from before, then the research lab should be right about..." the Blackwing Duelist thought to himself as he moved past the elevator where Goodwin left him and towards a familiar room. "Aha! There you are!"

Crow ran to the same room he stumbled upon the last time, the office of Dr. Fudo was still standing where his photograph with his wife and Yusei as a baby stood on the desk, untouched for a couple of years, now. Picking up the picture, Crow carefully looked over the picture of Dr. Fudo and his wife smiling in the picture while Mrs. Fudo held the laughing baby in her arms. Crow's eyes narrowed slightly. "You sure looked happy back when you were a baby, Yusei. I wonder what it'll take for you to let these things go. I know it's tough to not put the past behind you, but even you should know that one day, we'll all have to say goodbye, too."

Crow's eyes fell upon the cabinets under the desk, and the sight rang a twinge of curiosity somewhere inside the former Enforcer. "Well, that's convenient," Crow said to himself as he placed the picture back on the desk and searched the drawers. "There'd better be some research left in one piece after being left behind for several years. Now, let's see..."

The orange-haired Duelist closed the drawer he searched through and opened another one, revealing a small stack of papers held by a clip. "Crow, looks like you've hit the jackpot!" he said with a grin.

Holding the stack of papers in his hand, Crow looked over the notes of Dr. Fudo, humming as he skimmed over the writings (or typings, to be specific) over each page until something caught Crow's gaze. He examined the illustrations depicted in the notes that Dr. Fudo left behind, as if he wanted someone to see in due time. "Huh, now that's interesting. Looks like researching Ener-D isn't the only thing that Yusei's dad specialized in," Crow said as he carefully read over the notes. "Oh man. Yusei's gonna have a bird once I tell him what I've found."

Doing a double take around the empty area, Crow took the stack of papers and ran back to the entrance. In a short time frame, Crow made it out of the dreary ruins of the B.A.D. area with Dr. Fudo's notes closely held to him as he ran up to his Duel Runner. The Blackwing Duelist activated a function on his Blackbird Duel Runner, and a secret compartment popped open on the side, big enough to hold anything the size of the stack of papers Crow slipped in. When that was done, Crow revved up his Duel Runner and quickly exited the area with his wheels burning on overdrive as he rode out from the Satellite district.

As he made it to the highway stretching over the sea, Crow felt there was something off coming from his starboard. That suspicious feeling he obtained could only be answered by someone out of place, and with the corner of his eye, Crow knew exactly why. Down the highway, Crow saw a vehicle going down the same direction he went, thought it only went in a more different route. The vehicle's design was similar to that of a Duel Runner, having a maroon-colored paint job with only one gyroscopic sphere acting as the wheel. He saw two people sitting on the bike: a driver and the passenger holding onto him for safety. The driver wore a black shirt, blue jacket and turquoise diamonds on the cuffs with a dark-and-maroon-colored helmet with goggles over his eyes. The other passenger, most likely a girl, wore a pink sailor uniform with a long skirt, and a white helmet on her head with a yellow visor over her eyes.

As the two motorists passed by a split-second that seemed like an entire minute, Crow looked at the driver at the corner of his eye with questionable intuition. He couldn't help but feel that the driver of the vehicle was looking back at him in the same way as he rode off towards the rendezvous point at the old clock shop.

---

Tops - New Domino City

The roads in the Tops District of New Domino City stretched across the middle-class of New Domino City like they were the blood veins of the metropolitan city. Only members of high society or people with special access passes were allowed access to the higher grounds, and Leo and Luna, being children of high society themselves, were given easy access to the skyscrapers where they also called it their home. Today, in the midst of this crisis, and the guard at the door being knocked out from the flash of light, Leo, Luna and Akiza all went up into the Tops without any need to show their passes to the guard, searching the highways for any sign of suspicion, but they only came up empty-handed.

With no trace of evidence of any foul play within the high society area, Akiza parked her Duel Runner alongside the barriers of the road, holding her helmet in her arm as she looked out into the dark horizon that ended with the Aurora waving peculiarly in the middle of the sea. Leo and Luna stopped their Duel Boards alongside Akiza's Duel Runner and looked out at the foreboding scene ahead.

"I don't like the looks of this, guys," Akiza said worriedly. "If Yusei can't find out what's going on in time, then something's bound to happen sooner or later."

"So what do we do now?" Leo asked, placing his hands at the back of his head. "We haven't found anything useful up here. This whole investigation is starting to feel like a wild goose chase to me."

Luna remained silent while she became lost in her own worrying thoughts, about the foreboding feeling coursing through her unsettled nerves. The young Signer could sense that danger was nearby and closer than anyone thought, but she couldn't confirm it; not yet anyway. "I think we need to go find Yusei! We have to find him now!" she declared, attracting her brother and friend's attention. "I think I might know what that bad thing my Spirit friends warned me about is waiting for!"

"You do?" Akiza asked.

Luna looked down with a worried face and held her hands. "Well, I can't be sure about it, but the man Yusei saw in his dream... he wants Yusei to find him! He needed to lure Yusei away from us so that he could us the first opportunity he gets to carry out his threat and make everyone along with New Domino City disappear! I don't know if that's right or not, but I can't shake off the feeling that Yusei's walking into an impending danger!"

Akiza gasped as a shocking realization came to her. "Of course! Why haven't we thought of that earlier!?"

Leo jerked his head back and forth from his sister to the Psychic Duelist until he groaned with frustration. "Thought of what!? What's going on here!?"

"Yusei's not going out of New Domino City to search for the man who threatened us, he's walking into a trap!" Leo gasped as Akiza turned on her screen monitor. "We have to contact Yusei, Jack and Crow right away! We have to let them know what's happening!"

Akiza activated her video messaging function on her screen and tapped into the frequency of Yusei's Duel Runner. The signal went out to Yusei's vehicle, but a giant red "X" appeared on the screen, making Akiza, Leo and Luna gasp for they knew that the "X" signified that the sent signal was lost somewhere in the middle. "Hey, what's going on!? Is this dimension blocking our signal to Yusei's Duel Runner!?" Leo yelled.

"No, Leo, that's impossible! We were talking to him a few moments ago when he was in another dimension, and there wasn't any interference from either end," Akiza said, her rosy eyes narrowing down. "Someone must've blocked our signal after we all checked in with Yusei! We can't warn Yusei about the danger he's walking into!"

"Well, try contacting somebody else, then!" Leo urged. "Try contacting Jack or Crow, even!"

Akiza activated her video messaging function once again, this time for both Jack and Crow's Duel Runners individually. After a few moments of waiting for the signal to get through, all the screen could ever pull up was another red "X". "It's no good! Someone's blocked the signals on their Duel Runners!" Akiza stated as she tried to contact a Sector Security Duel Runner, only to come up with the same result. "In fact, all connection to everybody's Duel Runners are either blocked or scrambled! There's no way we can reach out for help!"

"So what do we do now, Akiza?" Luna asked worriedly. "With our Duel Runners' connections being severed, there's no way we can let Yusei, Jack or Crow know what's going on."

"Well, there's only one thing we can do," Akiza said as she slipped on her helmet. "We need to meet up with Jack and Crow back at the clock shop. It's the only way we can be able to reach them."

"Right," nodded Leo and Luna. The twins slipped their helmets on as Akiza revved her Duel Runner and proceeded down the road ahead of Leo and Luna just before they accelerated their Duel Boards. The twins flanked Akiza from both sides while the three Signers rode down the ramp that led them up to the Tops and into the streets of New Domino City. There was no doubt in their minds that Jack and Crow were possibly heading down to the clock shop, and if they were lucky enough, they would meet them on the way to their point.

---

Streets to the Pier - Heartland City

"UUWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

If there was anyone still conscious at the moment, the citizens of Heartland City would've heard the engines of a motorcycle blare as it zoomed down the streets, with the screams of Yuma Tsukumo trailing behind the speed of the sound as he held onto his "Rai Rider" for dear life. In the Thunder-Type monster's materialized sidecar, Tori screamed from the adrenaline that rushed through her entire body while she held onto the rim of her seat for safety, adding in the seatbelt across her lap. Astral flew alongside Yuma, Tori and "Rai Rider" as the monster drove his human companions to the piers of Heartland, his face all calm cool and collected as usual.

Astral looked over to Yuma while he screamed the whole ride through. His face was big-mouthed and pudgy from fear, big drops of tears sprinkled from his crimson eyes and his high-pitched voice was becoming ever so hoarse from the bellowing. "Yuma, didn't you tell me earlier you were used to riding a motorcycle?" the interdimensional spirit asked.

"YEAH!? WHAT ABOUT IT!?" Yuma shrieked.

"As I recall, you've said you rode a motorcycle many times before, so you were used to riding it in extreme speeds."

"YEAH, BUT YOU NEVER SAID THIS WOULD BE EXTREEEMMME!"

"No, Yuma, I told you that motorcycles powered by the lightning literally go at the speed of light," Astral sighed. "If it were up to me, I told you to call forth 'Cardcar D' and save you the embarrassment of your current adrenaline rush."

"THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME BEFOREHAND!?" Yuma argued.

"Because you never asked me in the first place."

"GAAAAAHHHHH!" Yuma groaned. "You see, that's the one thing I've never missed about you, Astral!"

Astral ignored the last comment and continued to glide alongside "Rai Rider" and his human passengers, swerving around downed cars and dodging every unconscious citizen they came across, all while they turned right onto a familiar stretch of road. In no time at all, Astral guided "Rai Rider" down the streets into a more secluded part of Heartland City where there were barely any people lying about. Past the secluded part, there were storage containers in a mixture of colors, mostly blue, green and orange. When Astral, "Rai Rider", Yuma and Tori made it past the storage containers, the Thunder-Type biker swung his motorcycle and skid it to a halt near the waters around the Heartland City Pier, a dock with many cranes line up in a row, the structures colored orange and green with orange-and-white-striped features painted on it.

Yuma, Tori, Astral, and "Rai Rider" watched the as the wondrous lights in the middle of the sea waved itself like curtains floating in an ethereal wind. The way the lights changed color in the veil was truly a sight to behold for those who saw it. "Wow, it's so pretty," Tori muttered as she stared at the lights, not blinking for a second.

"Yes, it may seem that way," Astral said while conducting his signature pose, consisting of his crossed arms and his stoic glance. "But remember, those lights are what's keeping the other energies Kite detected separated from our own energy. Although, upon closer inspection, I can sense that there is also a dimensional rift within those lights. But I am unsure if crossing these bridges will provide for a safe answer."

"Huh. And why is that, Astral?" Yuma asked.

"I could not tell from a distance, but I feel a highly unstable energy coming from within those lights." Astral looked to his palm, feeling a strange, frightening tingle course through his invisible nerves."Yes, even from here, I can sense how dangerous and unpredictable it will be if we were to travel through that rift. Chances are if we do travel into the rift, the probability of us surviving the ordeal would be 34.91 percent."

"What!? Are you saying that if we go through those lights, then we'd be...!?" Yuma asked.

"I'm afraid so," confirmed Astral. "There is no way we may cross through the rift without succumbing to its devastating effects."

"Then... does that mean we can't see what's on the other side?" Tori asked, earning a shake of a head from Astral.

"That is correct. The rift is too dangerous to cross."

"But what are we supposed to do now!?" Yuma argued. "If we can't cross that rift, then we'll never know how to get back home!"

"Yuma's right, Astral!" Tori agreed. "How will we ever get out of this dimension if we can't go through those lights!?"

"I wish it was simple," Astral explained, "but the risks to crossing that rift are too great to take."

Yuma stood up from his seat and turned to Astral, both hands curled into fists. "Well, then, we'll have to take those risks! There's no reason to just stand around spinning our wheels for something to happen, and you know that too, Astral!"

Astral looked over at Yuma with slight surprise as his companion continued. "Look, I know you know more about the Void than you're letting up, Astral! The reason you're afraid to go through those lights isn't because of the effects, it's because you think that we might disappear into the Void if we pass through!" Yuma shot his pointing finger towards the bridge running through the lights. "Come on, Astral! Do you honestly that a bridge that suddenly appeared at the docks would send us packing into oblivion unless it was taking us somewhere, possibly to the guy responsible for all of this! If he's planning to do something to those Twelve Dimensions you told me about, then there's a good chance he might do something with the Astral World in the process!"

Astral gasped a little; he never thought about his home world being caught in the midst of this crisis. "Astral, I know you might scared because of those lights, but if we just stand around here, twiddling our thumbs, then we'll never figure out how to get out of this crazy realm! If you have some sort of plan to get through these lights, then please tell us! Everything is at stake here, Astral! Our home, our friends, your own world, even! In order to stop whoever's behind all this, we have to through lights!"

The humanoid spirit could sense a hint of desperation in Yuma's voice. The two exchanged a momentary glance with each other before Astral broke the silence with a sigh. "There is one way we can go through those lights," Astral said, bringing a smile and a gasp to Tori and Yuma, "but it could mean the end of me as we know it."

The smiles faded. "What? What do you mean by that, Astral?" Yuma asked.

"I will show you. All of you, stay close and follow me!"

Astral floated upwards in the air and glided towards the Aurora over the bridge that led to those unstable lights.

"Astral! What are you doing!?" Yuma shouted before "Rai Rider" twisted the handlebars on his bike. The electric-fueled engines roared to life, and the motorcycling Duel Monster took off and rode over the bridge, following the envoy of Astral World while Yuma and Tori screamed from the high adrenaline rush. As "Rai Rider" caught up to Astral, the humanoid took a deep breath as he entered the lights, closely followed by the materialized Thunder-Type Duel Monster and his two passengers.

"ASTRAL!" Yuma screamed, his voiced drowned out by the hum of the lights.

Yuma's eyes were clenched shut, expecting to feel the so-called "devastating effects" of the lights that Astral warned him about. Yuma opened his eye; something wasn't quite right about this ordeal, and he was the first to feel it. With a questioning gasp, Yuma looked down at his hands, not seeing nor feeling anything wrong with him. "Hey, what's going on?" he asked. "I don't feel any different than before we went through the lights."

Yuma looked around and saw he was still riding the same Thunder-Type monster that he owned, still feeling solid and real like before as it drove into the lights. "Hey, 'Rai Rider' is still here," Yuma said to himself as he looked to the cringing familiar occupant in the sidecar attached to the bike, "and Tori's here, too! Wait, if we're all here together and still driving over the bridge, then that means..."

To confirm his suspicions, Yuma glanced up and gasped as he saw Astral flying ahead of them, his arm held out in front of him that empowered a concave shield, a barrier with energy in a design of a circuit-like barrier. Astral grunted through gritted teeth, his arm trembling as he luminescent body glowed and faded in a pattern, affecting him the same way whenever they went up against a "Number" card or a "Chaos Xyz" monster and was losing. So that was what Astral mean when he said that the idea he had would be the end of him.

"Astral! What do you think you're doing!?" Yuma yelled, snapping Tori out of her cringing.

"I am showing you a way through these lights, Yuma!" Astral answered through his pain. "I have channeled most of my energy used it all to put up a barrier just before the three of you had entered into the rift!" Astral flashed back to the moment when he went through the lights before his follower entered the Aurora as well. Astral raised his hand outwards, creating the ethereal image of Yuma's Golden Key as his hand began to glow. Out from the palm of his hand, the circuit-like barrier appeared, and the lights were deflected off of the azure shield.

"If I hadn't put up the shield when I did, then we would all have succumbed to the rift, and we would've been lost to the Void," Astral explained.

"But you can't be serious, Astral!" Yuma snapped. "If you use up all of your energy, then you'll be the one to disappear from existence!"

"That is the risk I am willing to take in order for you two to stop our foe!"

"Well, that's not worth it! If you're going to use up all of your energy to protect us, then I'm helping too!" Yuma declared before he clenched his fist and showed it to Astral. "We're friends, Astral, and no friend of mine is going to do their own thing without me being there for them!"

"Yuma..." said Astral.

With his spirit now fired up to help his nearly transparent friend, Yuma let go of "Rai Rider's" jacket and lifted himself up on the leather seats, standing with both feet on the leather seat. This a very dangerous stunt for even Yuma to pull off, but if the situation was good enough for him to lend Astral a hand, then he had to take his risks. "Yuma, what are you doing!?" Tori demanded to know. "If you fall down, you'll get seriously hurt!"

"So what!? That's never stopped me before!" Yuma yelled as he inched closer to the driver and leaned forward to make contact with Astral's hand. "Almost... there...!"

As he reached up, Yuma's hand made physical contact with Astral's outstretched hand. Yuma clamped his fingers around Astral hand's, and the denizen from Astral World returned that clamping, the combined forces of the two joined spirits (more specifically, the two halves of the Original Number) created a light that emitted from where they finally made contact. The light grew brighter which in turn made the shield grow bigger and brighter, repelling the Aurora away as Tori looked on with awe. With the light repelled by the shield, "Rai Rider" revved his engines and zoomed out of the Aurora, passing through the final veil and into the other side.

The accelerating Duel Monster squeezed his brakes and skid his bike to a halt, which also made Yuma catapult away from "Rai Rider's" seat before he landed on his face, his body flopping down on the mysterious road like an energetic rag doll which was abruptly stripped from its power. The scattering white cubes acted like a thick, static-like outline where Yuma was sprawled out onto the solidified darkness that made up the road. "Yuma! Are you okay!?" Tori asked.

Yuma turned his face up from the ground, his visage flattened, marked with a shade of red, sporting a big, goofy smile and having swirling spirals for eyes. "Just fine and dandy~" the boy slurred before he let his face fall back on the road.

Tori lifted her chin upwards and placed her hands on her hips as a big, orange popped vein with a somewhat thick outline appeared on the left side of her forehead. "Well, I did tell you that you would get hurt if you fell down from the motorcycle," she chided the injured boy.

The shield was reduced to its circuit shapes before it completely disappeared for good. Astral took a moment to regain himself as he looked down to his hand, still feeling the same painful sensation that rocked him and his friends around inside of the Aurora. Now that he was out of the rift, Astral didn't feel that pain anymore, but it still rose up many questions inside of his invisible brain. "Hey guys, what's that place over there?" Astral heard Tori ask, prompting him and Yuma to look up and see a city in the distance. Astral's eyes widened and he gasped while his human friend simply observed the buildings from his position.

"It looks like a city to me," Yuma said. "Although, it kinda looks a bit retro, don't you think?"

"Yeah, it kinda does," Tori agreed.

"It is supposed to be old-fashioned," Astral said, earning a puzzled look from Yuma and Tori. "Don't you know what city that is?"

"No," Yuma answered.

"I kinda do," Tori squeaked out, "but, it looks familiar. I can't place the name of it."

"Then allow me to clarify it for the both of you. That city is the very same city where the game of Duel Monsters rose into the world a very long time ago," Astral explained. "I have seen that city through the history written within the Numeron Code. That is the home of the King of Games himself, where KaibaCorp first distributed their holographic projection systems for the Duel Monsters card games, and where a great battle for the future of Duel Monsters took place."

Yuma and Tori gasped as they knew what Astral was talking about. "Hold on!" Yuma shouted before he looked back to the city. "Are you saying...!?"

"Yes," Astral interjected. "That is the original Domino City."

"Domino City!?" Yuma shrieked. "As in the greatest city in the world that held several major Duel Monsters Tournaments and the home to three of the strongest Duelists to ever come out from the game!?"

"That is the one"

"But that's impossible!" Tori argued. "Domino City has been wiped away from the face of Earth for over fifty years! How is that even possible!?"

"There is only one explanation for that," Astral said as he stared into the empty streets of the city. "We have crossed into another time plane."

---

Heartland City - Heartland City

"M-M-Master Kite!? D-D-Don't you think we should've went along with Yu-Yu-Yuma on this one?" Orbital 7 asked his master as Kite navigated through the buildings of Heartland City via the android's Glider Mode.

"Yuma and Astral are powerful together, Orbital. They can take care of themselves," Kite replied. "We're here to collect data and research this strange phenomenon, and those lights and those bridges based at the shorelines could provide us with some of the answers we need."

"R-R-Roger!"

Kite and Orbital 7 steered and glided towards the shoreline, flying around every street corner and dodging any buildings in his way. Where the blonde and the artificial intelligence headed was to a round, lone building near the Heartland Pier, where one of the strange bridges was based at. The lone building contained a secret lab that Kite and Orbital 7 used to do their research on interdimensional activities and research, like finding the connection between Yuma's Key and the "Number" cards, and to research on any information about the now-reformed Barians. When Kite and Orbital 7 arrived on the catwalk leading to the door, Orbital 7 entered the security code, and the door automatically opened for its two visitors.

The inside of the lab was a gigantic, spherical room, made up of mostly circuitry-like shapes with running lights with metallic rings surrounding the lone catwalk that led to a circular platform containing various computers and keyboards. In the center of the platform was a giant crystal, a sort-of energy rod to help detect the energies from other dimensional worlds. Kite and Orbital entered their laboratory, the robot wheeling himself towards the main computer with his glowering master following behind. Orbital extended his claw-like fingers into robotic tentacles and began to type the keys like made, each button glowing as Orbital pressed them, and many holographic screens began to pop up around the crystal.

"Orbital, bring up the current map of Heartland and the city limits," ordered Kite. "Use the security footage at the docks so we could get a good look at the sea."

"Y-Y-You got it, boss!" Orbital 7 acknowledged as a few more screens popped up around him and Kite, revealing the same overhead map he projected earlier with everything in Heartland intact up to the mountains and the sea, where it was cut off by a red line, barricading from a surrounding gray area. The images from the security camera showed one of the bridges at the pier (the one that Yuma, Tori and Astral took to go through the other side), and in the distance was the supposed Aurora Borealis. Orbital 7 also managed to pull up an energy reading chart, showing a massive, unstable spike of different energies on the screen.

"According to the chronological energy r-r-readings, it seems that we were p-p-pulled away ou-ou-out of time by an energy source beyond our cu-cu-current time-ime!" Orbital 7 reported.

"That part has already been established," Kite said plainly, "but the only thing we have to focus on now is that mysterious Aurora. What do we know about those lights?"

Orbital 7 tapped on a few keys, scanned the picture into holographic mode, then used that holographic projection and turned it into a bird's eye view. The line connecting the sea with the lights was made a perfect fit with the red border shown on the overhead map of Heartland. "Th-Th-The lights are acting as a d-d-double function for pull-ll-lling all of Heartland out of t-t-time and into the Void! One fun-fun-function the lights s-s-serve is to prevent the V-V-Void from fading our home into-o-o-oblivion!"

Kite narrowed his eyes. "A double function, huh? Orbital, what's the second function for those lights?"

"Ch-Ch-Checking it out now, Boss!" Orbital 7 said as he ran another scan on the lights. Once the scanning was complete, Orbital read through a screen that popped up in front of him. "Acc-c-cording to these results, the lights are-are-are also functioning as a di-di-dimensional rift!"

"And do you have any idea where that rift leads into?"

"Th-Th-That remains to be seen, Boss! There's no t-t-telling where the rift lea-ea-eads to!"

"Then why don't you send one of your drones into that rift?"

"WAH!?" Orbital shrieked and turned to his master, his antenna standing on end. "B-B-But Master Kite! We haven't put our dro-one in f-f-field testing yet!"

"Then I'd say the timing couldn't be better." Kite turned his cold gaze to Orbital 7 which intimidated him tenfold. "Release the drone now."

"Y-Y-You got it, Boss," the robot sighed, typing in a few codes on the keyboard. "Now r-releasing Orbital 3. Deploy!"

Orbital pressed a key, and the center part of the roof released some steam with a sharp hiss!, revealing a circular opening split into eight sections that retracted into the building. Rising up from the circular opening was a launching pad bug enough to fit a small jet, one of them being the aforementioned drone. It greatly resembled Kite's "Photon Delta Wing", running on fossil fuel energy instead of photon energy with a camera lens attached to the wings and a big red speech balloon on the bottom. Orbital 3's thrusters ignited and the drone took off into the air, flying towards the city before making a complete turn towards the lights.

Through the screens of the monitors, Orbital 7 controlled his fellow mechanism through the skies by a joystick. It was as easy as playing an arcade game, only in this level, Orbital had to fly it inside a veil of lights in full spectrum colors. "Orbital 3 is n-n-now approaching the d-d-dimensional rift," the robot commentated as he guided the drone into the lights. When it did, the picture starting to get fuzzy, staticky, and completely messed up. The development was enough to make both Kite and Orbital 7 gasp.

"M-M-Master Kite! We're losing the si-si-signal from our drone!" Orbital 7 stuttered.

"I can see that!" Kite replied. "Try and get a reading on the signal, quick!"

"R-R-Roger!" Orbital 7 responded as he used his tentacle-like robot digits on the keyboard to try to get a clearer picture on the monitor. It was very difficult trying to restore the visual on the monitors, seeing as how dimensional rifts would do that to anyone or anything that passes through it. As Orbital tried, the picture got only a bit of its picture back, seeing as how the signal was not as messy as it was before. When the picture had enough visualizations to see clearly, Kite and Orbital 7 looked at the monitor and gasped as another aerial craft on the picture was headed straight for the drone.

"Orbital!"

"On-n-n it!"

Quickly, Orbital 7 jerked the joystick to the left, and the drone veered in that direction just before the unknown aircraft collided with the drone. The robot was cringing the whole time while Kite looked on with a state of shock. "Huh?" Orbital 7 looked up to the monitor and saw the picture was still up and untampered (despite it still being fuzzy from the unstable energies). "Hey, M-M-Master Ki-ite! Our drone appears to have avoi-oi-oided the coll-l-lision!" the robot cheered before he turned to his fazed master. "M-M-Master Kite?"

"What just happened!?" Kite thought to himself. "Did something from a different dimension cross over into our dimension as well!? If so, then what was it!?"

"Master K-Kite!" Orbital called, grabbing the blonde's attention. "Our d-d-drone has avoided the co-collision with the unkn-kn-known aircraft!"

"And did the aircraft pass through the direction opposite where we went?"

"I don't know, B-B-Boss, but..." A series of quickened footsteps alerted Orbital 7 that someone was running towards the exit. He quickly turned his head a full 180 degrees, extended his neck upwards and was shocked to see his boss make for the outside world. "M-M-Master Kite, where are you going!?"

"I need to check on something!" Kite shouted as the automatic door opened for him. "Orbital, you stay in here and continue to control the drone!"

"Y-Y-You got it!" the robot saluted as the door closed behind Kite.

When he made it outside, Kite ran onto the catwalk and looked around in the sky to search for the aircraft that almost crashed with Orbital 3. With a flick of his head, Kite turned his head and gasped when he saw what looked like a "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" flying over the buildings of Heartland City. Upon looking closer, the Photon Duelist saw jet turbines and mechanical plane wings attached to the supposed Dragon and he narrowed eyes.

"There's only one person in history who could fly the 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet'," Kite thought as he observed the "head" of the jet and recognized the shape inside the cockpit glass. The figure inside confirmed all of Kite's suspicions. "If that's so, then that would mean the person responsible for recreating my father's Sphere Field experiment must have taken other periods of time as well. I wonder what other surprises await us in this crazy realm."

---

East Heartland Pier - Heartland City

Shark's one-wheeled motorcycle took its owner and his twin sister along the eastern coastline as they approached one of the mysterious bridges docked at the edge of the pier. The WATER Duelist skillfully steered around the downed cars in the road while Rio looked around the area concernedly. Rio looked down to her hand and felt herself become still as she felt the strange tingling in her hand. It was like there was an energy that coursed through her veins, a very familiar kind of aura kept the Ice Queen thinking on her toes.

"Hey, Rio! Earth to Rio! Are you home!?" Shark shouted back to his sister, snapping her out of her thoughts. "If you're done snoozing back there, then you'd better hang on! We're just about to hit that bridge!"

Rio looked to her left and saw the bridge her brother referred to as they quickly approached it. The oversized hind wheel of Shark's motorcycle created tiny sparks in the road as they drifted to the left, Shark looking back to her worried sister clutching his abdomen. "By the way, you've got something you wanna tell me?" he asked. "You've been a bit quiet since we've left the station."

Rio looked out to the sea and away from Shark and kept silent for a quick moment. "It's nothing, Reginald," the girl said. "I just keep getting this bad feeling that something's going to happen soon."

"Gee, what gave that away? Maybe the fact that we're trapped in an alternate realm of nonexistence?"

Rio scoffed at Shark's comment. "Well, if you'd take this thing more seriously, Reginald, you'd know exactly why I'm afraid."

"It's because of the energy you felt from before, am I right?" Shark asked, surprising his sister.

"Uh, yeah. How did you know?"

Shark looked back to the road. "Because I've felt it too," the WATER Duelist explained. "It feels like the energy that brought us into the Void must've contained trace amounts of this energy. If this energy is what I think it is, then we might be in big trouble, Rio." With that said, Shark steered to the left and towards the edge of the harbor as the motorcycle wheels touched the mysterious bridge. It only took Shark and Rio's ride over three minutes until they reached the Aurora in the middle of the Heartland seas.

Once the sibling duo made inside the Aurora, Shark and Rio were instantly overwhelmed with the most unbearable pain they've ever felt. Their nerves felt like they were being shattered by a ten-thousand volt lightning strike, their chests were being crushed from the inside like a vacuum of sorts, sucking the wind right out of their lungs. Above all else, the loud bass reverberating from the lights made it impossible for Shark to concentrate with his driving skills while he and Rio grunted or screamed from the pain. This was one mistake that both of the WATER Duelists made, and if quite possible, it would be their last mistake as well.

Then, when the pain of the Kastle siblings went at its peak, a single heartbeat silenced everything. Shark and Rio were the first to feel another strange sensation in their hearts, one that was surely connected to the familiar energy they sensed in Heartland City. Another heartbeat caused the Kastle to wince, Shark being the first one to open his eyes. Except, when Shark did open his eyes, his eyes weren't the normal white-with-dark-blue coloring, but twin beacons on his face shining a pink glow. In response to his eyes glowing pink, Shark bellowed as a large pillar of energy surrounded the Kastle siblings, deflecting the lights away and expelling all of the pain.

Rio was trembling with the overwhelming amount of pain when it suddenly went numb. She opened her eye and gasped when she saw her brother's powers reawaken for the first time in nearly a year. "Reginald! Is that...!?"

Shark reeled his head back and screamed as he forced the pink energy out of his system, expanding the pillar outwards into a wide circle. The energy expelled from the WATER Duelist had grown vigorous and intense, causing even Rio to reel back and shield her face with her arm as the glow grew even brighter. The pain that Shark felt was nothing like the Aurora's deadly radiation, but it was still agonizing to the point where the one-wheeled motorcycle began to swerve and sway. Rio hugged her brother's abdomen tighter and screamed while the widened energy field broke through the last of the Aurora's veils.

When the motorcycle finally made it through the last veil, Shark gave off one final scream as he applied the brakes to his vehicle and skidded his bike to a screeching stop. The energy column quickly dissipated and the glow from Shark's eyes reverted back to his dark blue eyes, leaving him still on his bike and gasping for air. "Reginald, are you okay?" Rio asked, nudging her brother a little by the shoulders. "C'mon, Reginald, say something!"

Shark snapped himself out and nudged his sister's hands off of him. "I'm fine, Rio," he grumbled as he looked down at his hand. "Just as I thought. Looks like the energies in this realm contain trace amounts of Barian energy, and it looks like we're on the receiving end of the stick."

"Huh!?" Rio yelped, covering her mouth with her hands. "How is that possible!? I thought our powers were gone when Astral used the Numeron Code to revive us!?"

"I'm not sure, exactly, but I have a feeling that this realm has something to do with it," Shark said, twisting the handlebars which revved the engines on his bike.

Releasing the brakes, Shark accelerated his ride down the mysterious bridge, leaving a brief trail of scattering white cubes before they dissipated into nothingness. The ride over the unknown sea took the Kastle twins a couple of minutes but during that time, Shark and Rio came across an island, inhabited with tall and prospering buildings. In the distance, they saw a metropolitan city, one with the size and structure that dwarfed two Heartland Cities combined. The two siblings entered into the island and looked around, surprised by the overall appearance.

"Whoa, this place is big," said Rio. "Where are we?"

"Hopefully a place that can give us the answers we need," Shark answered. "Wherever that bridge led us, we're definitely not in Heartland anymore."

"So we just traveled into another dimension?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Rio, take a good look at those buildings," Shark ordered as his sister looked around the area. "Those buildings must be built with plaster or stone. No one's built a city out of that material for a long time. If we have gone through to another dimension, then it's possible that this place was also taken out of a different era of time."

"That's crazy, Reginald!" Rio argued. "There's no way that some period in time was taken, unless..."

"...unless they were part of the Twelve Dimensions that our enemy brought into the Void as well," Shark finished. "Looks like we've underestimated our enemy, Rio. The guy we're looking for has the technology to not only transport places into another dimension, but also the exact time plane as well."

"So what do we do now, Reginald?"

"Now we keep going. There'd better be someone here who might have some connection to with what's going on."

Shark steered his bike right to an exit that led him and his sister down a long stretch of road that led to a big bridge spanning over the seas. The bridge was big enough to fit six lanes of traffic, two sets of three lanes each going the opposite direction. There were some lanes that spanned around and under the bridge which caught Shark's curiosity. After a short ride over the seemingly endless sea, Shark turned to a ramp to his right that led into a lower section and into an unfamiliar part of the huge city.

When he got onto the ramp, something came into the corner of Shark's left eye, prompting him to look into that direction. It was only a split second, but he could clearly see another individual riding on another motorcycle, colored black with some yellow decorations on the front, the back, and the sides. The person riding such motorcycle was what really caught Shark's narrowing glance. The rider's face was mostly obscured by his black helmet and emerald visor, but there was yellow markings on both sides of his face. He wore an orange shirt with a brown leather vest with fingerless gloves extending to his elbows.

In one glance, Shark's suspicions began to arouse as the motorist rode off into another part of the city. Shark marked following the mysterious motorist as his first priority as he rode down into the lower part of the city, following the overpass. The next time the WATER Duelist would see that motorist again, he would either get answers from him, have him join him in some sort of dimensional alliance, or end with them throwing their Dueling skills at each other.

---

Domino City Plaza - Domino City

The plaza wasn't crowded with much of the Domino City populace today.

That was good, considering the fact that Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei needed some time to discuss the happenings and the connections between them. Yugi was obviously the first of the three to make it into the plaza, closely followed by Joey, Tristan, and Tea. The plaza was a popular, circular place, surrounded by tall buildings with ten streets running in and out of the area. In the spots between eight of the ten streets leading out of the plaza were small gardens planted with a set of three trees, the other two spots reserved for the local street vendor, who thankfully, wasn't around the area at the time. In the very center of the plaza was a circular fountain, topped off at the apex with a clock stuck on a tall pole.

Yugi ran to the very center of the plaza and looked around the area, seeing not one trace of Jaden nor hearing the smooth hum of Yusei's Duel Runner anywhere near his location. He hoped he could find his two friends from different timelines because otherwise, the threat he had to face would be beyond anything he's ever faced before.

It was only then that Yugi was joined in the plaza by Joey, Tristan, and Tea, all helping out Yugi by looking around the plaza for something but finding nothing but mostly empty streets, buildings with lights flickering back on and the swirling darkness for the sky. "Okay, Yug, we're here at da plaza like ya said, but now dere's no one here," Joey stated the facts. "Are ya sure those friends of yours are gonna be here, Yug?"

"I'm sure... at least that's what I'm hoping for," Yugi responded, scanning his gaze around the plaza.

"How do you know that, Yugi?" Tea asked.

"Because this was the place where Jaden, Yusei, and I Dueled Paradox," Yugi answered as he turned to the center of the plaza. "I have a feeling that this is also the place where Jaden and Yusei are planning to meet again. It seemed like yesterday when I first Dueled beside them." As Yugi looked around, he saw the spectral figures of him, Yusei, and Jaden facing off against a dark silhouette of a machine hovering above the ground with two parts at the rear spanning outwards to the sides. On that machine was the faint figure of a tall, slender man with long, blonde hair with even longer ponytails drooping from the back of his head.

"Listen, Yug, I don't mean ta still sound a bit skeptical here," Joey said, rubbing the back of his head, "but given dis whole crazy scenario, what if your friends don't make it here? Think about it, Yug. We're all trapped in dis freaky place, and it's pretty unlikely that the city we saw in da middle of da sea could be da home of your friend. Maybe it's just some random city dat got transported here."

Tea grumbled and cast Joey a disapproving sideways stare. "Yeah, and what makes you think that cities appearing out of nowhere is random?"

Joey shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe it's got somethin' ta do with Duelin' I guess."

"Well, you're not wrong," Yugi said, surprising his two squabbling friends. "This whole situation has something Duel Monsters, and I bet the city we saw had something to do with it."

"Yugi!"

The King of Games and his friends nearly jumped at the voice coming from the southern end of the plaza where Yugi clearly recognized the voice. Running up the street into the wide space was a Duelist that only Yugi recognized from his brown-and-orange hair, red jacket and white shirt, making him gasp happily. Following the Duelist were a bunch of people, some wearing the same kind of blazer in a different color, a few wearing different clothing than the others. It was clear that none of the four knew who those people were, other than possible friends and allies with the Duelist leading them.

In the back of the group, there was a muscular, blazer-wearing man and a pale, black-haired guy carrying the unconscious body of a slender blonde man by the arms and legs.

"Hey, Yugi! Long time no see!" the red jacket-wearing Duelist yelled out to Yugi and waved at him as he approached the plaza.

"Now who is that?" Tristan asked nonchalantly.

"It's Jaden!" Yugi responded, surprising Tristan, Tea, and Joey as the King of Games went into the plaza to greet his friend from the near future. The two Duelists met up in the center, stopping only a couple of feet from each other. The two Duelists gripped each other's hands that quickly formed into a formal, friendly handshake. "It's been a while, Jaden," Yugi said to the Slifer Red. "You look like you've been traveling a lot after the last time I saw you."

Jaden broke off from the handshake to use that hand and rubbed the underside of his nose, chuckling while he did so. "Well, if you've spent the last five years going to different places from all over the world like I did, then you'd have messy hair too."

Jaden's quip was enough to make him and the King of Games break out with laughter. All three of Yugi's friends and the small cornucopia of Jaden's friends and allies were all a bit astonished with how their friend knew the other, seeing as how it was their first time seeing them in person. "So dat's dat Jaden guy, huh?" Joey asked rhetorically as Yugi met the brown-haired ally. "I'm guessing that's the same Jaden dat Yugi told us about."

"I guess so," Tristan agreed. "I've never even seen him before in my life."

"Yeah, me neither," Tea nodded, witnessing as Yugi and Jaden shared a laugh with each other. "Could that guy really be from the future?"

Standing at the edge of the plaza on the other side, Syrus, Chazz, Alexis, and Hassleberry all stood by with disbelief as the former Slifer Red bonded with the King of Games himself like they were best friends with a shared laugh. Pharaoh managed to catch up with Alexis at the front of the group and watched his human companions meet with each other before he sat down on his haunches and started to lick his raised forearm.

"No way. Is that really Yugi Muto?" Syrus asked.

"Sam Hill, you're right!" Hassleberry confirmed, "and it looks like the Sarge is friends with him."

"Looks like we know who the third Duelist in Jaden's story is," Alexis commented, just as surprised as the group.

"Yeah, no kidding," Chazz humphed. "Jaden got to meet with the King of Games and all I did was run my family business for five straight years with no rematch."

The laughter between Jaden and Yugi continued for a moment until they both simmered down to a grin. They gripped their hands again and pulled each other in and locked their elbows up, signifying the bond the two Duelists forged despite their origins in a different time. "It's good to see you again, Jaden," Yugi said. "If I knew we would meet again like this, then I would've been more than happy to Duel you a second time."

"Yeah, I was actually thinking the same thing earlier," Jaden said, his grin melting away into a frown as he and Yugi looked around the plaza. "Although, given the circumstance we're both in, it doesn't look like we'll be having that Duel anytime soon."

"Yeah. I know," Yugi nodded.

"So, do you know who's doing this, Yugi?" Jaden asked. "Or more specifically, why someone is doing this and how?"

"I don't know, but all I do know is that someone must be after me," Yugi explained, catching the brown-haired Duelist's interest. "All I remember is that Kaiba and I were Dueling, and then suddenly, this big flash of light appeared when our monsters attacked each other. The light knocked everyone out, and before I woke up, I had this strange dream..."

"Was it about some creepy shadow guy telling us that we'll lose our friends and homes?" Jaden asked, making the King of Games gasp.

"Wait a minute. You had that dream, too?"

"Not just that. The same thing you've just told me happened to me, too," Jaden said. "I was about to win my Duel against my friend when that same light flashed, too. I was knocked out, too, and that's when I had that strange dream."

"Then, it sounds like someone's after you as well," Yugi deducted. "I guess that also explains why you're in our timeline, too."

"You got that right. Whoever we saw in our dreams must've gone through all the trouble to bring our timelines here into one dimension."

"Right," Yugi said. "He's probably gonna carry out his threat and wipe out everyone and everything we love."

Jaden brought his hand up and clenched it into a tight fist. "Well, we're not gonna let him go through with that plan," he declared. "If our guy wants to get to our friends, then he'll have to deal with me first."

"And me, too," Yugi added in. "This guy threatened my friends, and my home. I'm more than willing to help you in any way I can, Jaden."

Jaden's eagerness rose high in levels as he pumped his fist down. "Alright, now that's what I wanted to hear! Yugi Muto and Jaden Yuki, working together once again!" the Slifer Red said, flicking his thumb under his nose. "Now let's take this guy down!"

"Right," Yugi nodded with a grin. "So how are we gonna do it?"

A pregnant pause hung between the two Duelists before Jaden began to snicker, rubbing the back of his head with sporting a sheepish smile. "I don't know. You tell me," Jaden simply said, causing everyone in the plaza to fall over on their sides while he continued to laugh. Then, somewhere in the distance, within the limits of Domino City, there was a noise that echoed through the streets, the first one to be attracted to the sound being none other than Jaden.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Jaden asked, prompting Yugi to look around curiously and listen.

"Yeah, I do," Yugi said, as he, his friends, and Jaden's friends listened to the sound.

"What is that sound?" Tea asked.

"Sounds like some sort of hum ta me," Joey said.

"Where is that sound coming from?" Syrus asked.

"It can't be coming from behind us," Chazz said.

"No," Alexis concurred. "It sounds like its coming from all around us."

"Well, whatever it is, it's coming closer," Hassleberry stated.

And it was true. The echoing hum was drawing closer to the plaza, and everyone was baffled about where it came from, or who was guiding it. It was at this moment that Yugi and Jaden perked up as they recognized the noise from a long time ago, depending on the timeline of the two protagonists. "Hold on, I know that sound," Yugi said with a wondrous expression. "It sounds like an engine running."

"Not just any engine," Jaden added. "That sounds like..."

Before Jaden could finish, the noise they heard suddenly entered the plaza in the form of a two-wheeled motorcycle, made out of refurbished metal parts and scraps, colored red with white streaks on it. The seat was shaped into a crescent with black, thick leather pads, and there was a Duel Disk attached on the front. The jet stream that followed blew everyone's hair away as the vehicle and the rider jumped into the air. Time seemed to slow down as Yugi and Jaden recognized the rider underneath that big, red helmet, the suit with amber jewels attached to the shoulders, elbows, and knees, and the yellow mark on his left cheek.

The vehicle touched onto the ground, skidded and screeched to a halt. The dust clouds dissipated away into nothing as Yugi, Jaden, and their friends looked and saw the rider of the motorcycle lift one of the armrests up and remove his helmet. Yugi and Jaden both gasped happily as they saw the familiar face of Yusei Fudo, the Turbo Duelist himself sporting a grin shown to his two old friends from different parts of the past.

"I thought I might find you guys here," he said.

"Yusei!" Yugi yelped as the Turbo Duelist approached them.

"It's been a long time, Yugi, Jaden," Yusei said, holding up his hand to his eyes.

"Same here, pal!" Jaden said, giving Yusei his high-five, followed with Yugi.

"I knew you'd be coming along ever since I saw that city from a distance," Yugi said. "Is that the city where you came from?"

"Yeah. That's New Domino City," Yusei confirmed. "Think of it as an upgraded version of this city in the next fifty years from Jaden's time."

"Wow. So that means, that you and your city were transported into this dimension, too," Yugi guessed.

"It seems that way," Yusei said. "Now tell me what happened to you guys before you were transported here."

"I think the same thing that happened to us happened to you, Yusei," Jaden said. "You wouldn't happen to have been Dueling with someone before a light flashed unexpectedly, right?"

Yusei's eyes widened and he gasped a little. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

Jaden and Yugi looked at each other. "I think it's time that we compared notes."

---

Clock Shop - New Domino City

With the old clock shop filled with a couple of unconscious residents, an old woman and her son to be precise, it was a good time for almost all of Team 5D's to meet in the basement of the building, where their sessions with their Duel Runners and social calls were held each day to discuss their plans for the upcoming matches of the WRGP. It was on this hour that Jack and Crow had gathered at the rendezvous point without Akiza, Leo, and Luna anywhere in sight. Crow slapped down the stack of notes he found in the old laboratory with the pages and revealed them to Jack, the blonde humming as he worked his eyes over each page of the notes.

"This is what you wanted to show me, Crow?" Jack asked.

"Yeah. From what I've gathered, it's got something to do with the place we were transported in," said Crow.

"Oh, come on, Crow. What's all this got to do with anything?"

"Plenty," Crow answered. "For one thing, I found these notes inside a drawer in Yusei's dad's office."

Jack looked up back to his foster brother, his interest peaked. "You've been inside the old Ener-D Reactor laboratory?"

"Yeah, and take a look at what I found," Crow said as he flipped to a certain page in the stack. On that page, there was a drawing of a two-layered ring, one layer, being the outer circle, having four big circles, the midpoints of the arcs touching the outlines of the layers and connected by lines that formed a perfect square and into the inner layer, which had eight smaller circles surrounding the center with the inside colored black.

"Apparently, before Yusei's dad went on to working at the R.R.D., he was working on a theory made by this guy named Dr. Eisenstein. He proved that there were twelve dimensions that made up the universe, and four of the circles in the outer layer represent the different parallel worlds similar to ours. The rest of these circles within these bigger circles are a diagram of what the space-time circle actually looks like."

"So Yusei's dad proves that the universe is a two-layered ring and I'm supposed to believe there is a connection with what's going on," Jack summarized. "That still doesn't prove anything."

"Oh yeah!? Then try looking at this for a second!" Crow retaliated by slamming his index finger on the black circle. "That black circle here proves there's a connection! When I was looking over these notes, Yusei's dad wrote that there was another dimension here where nothing exists, including time and space! This place is called the Void, and anyone who entered here would be completely erased from existence, including the memories and the descendants of those who disappeared! If I didn't know better, I'd say we were transported smack dab in the middle of this dimension!"

"The Void?" Jack questioned. "This can't be right, Crow. We don't feel like we've disappeared entirely."

"Well, you've gotta admit, Jack, this dimension is too big of a coincidence to even wave off."

Jack humphed before he leaned back up and crossed his arms, his eyes closed. "Okay, so let's say for argument that I did believe you and we were transported into the Void. What's keeping us from disappearing from existence?"

"I don't know," Crow answered, "but I bet whoever Yusei saw in his dream is keeping us alive for some reason. But what is it?"

As the two foster brothers pondered, the doors to their humble abode swung open, and in came Akiza, Leo, and Luna, all of which sported a worried face. "Jack! Crow!" Akiza shouted as she and the twins approached the two. "Thank goodness I found you two here!"

"What's going on, Akiza? Did you find something?" Crow asked.

"I should hope so, because my search turned up with less than squat," Jack said.

"No, we've found something out! Something bad!" Akiza informed. "Yusei's walking into a trap!"

"What!?" Jack responded as Crow gasped. "How do you even know he's walking into a trap!?"

"Yusei's gone off on his own to search the area beyond those lights, but that's exactly what the man in Yusei's dreams wanted!" Leo blurted out. "He needed to separate one of us so he could pick him off or us first!"

Jack and Crow's eyes expanded, and their pupils shrank; this was beginning to make sense! "Are you kidding!?" Crow yelled. "Why haven't you guys told him earlier!?"

"Because someone's jammed the signal to Yusei's Duel Runner!" Akiza said. "And with his signal being jammed, there's no way we can contact Yusei like this!"

"And you never told us this why!?" Jack spoke up.

"Because the same guy's jammed your signals, too!" Leo answered. "The only way we could tell you about this was in person, and that was it!"

"This is bad, guys!" Jack stated matter-of-factly. "With Yusei out of the picture, we can't possibly know what'll become of him."

"Or us..." Luna added, shyly and silently.

"What do we do now?" Crow asked. "We've got to find a way to communicate with Yusei and let him know what's going on!"

Akiza thought of the problem carefully before she remembered her match with the Dark Signer Misty inside the theme park. She recalled a moment in the Duel when Misty's attention was averted to a nearby ruined building with Yusei going up against Sayer when an idea popped into her head. "I think I know how we can get through to Yusei!" she spoke out, attracting the other Signers' attention. "We've gotta connect our Duel Disk intercom systems to Yusei's Duel Disk, and fast!"

---

Downtown Domino - Domino City.

With Yuma's "Rai Rider" now out of commission by choice, eager Yuma Tsukumo ran down the streets with a quarter of the speed of a cheetah. Astral quickly closed in on the boy as Tori followed behind at a distance, struggling to keep up with the same pace her childhood friend was going down the street of Domino City. Tori's breaths were shortening and her muscles began to burn and ache, but the latter never mattered to Yuma. Once he became excited and eager, then there was no changing his mind.

"Yuma, wait for me!" Tori shouted, panting in between breaths as she felt her muscles burn with every attempted sprint. "I can't keep up with you if you can't slow down!"

Astral floated at the level of Yuma's head and hovered next to his face. "Yuma, would it not be possible for you to take a moment's rest until your friend catches up with you?"

"What!? And have me miss out on finding Yugi Muto!?" Yuma replied, exasperated but grinning all the way. "No way, Astral, we're inside Domino City, the place where Duel Monsters became a worldwide hit, and the home to the King of Games as well! It's like ever Duelists' dream to walk in the same city that revolutionized a simple card game into something bigger!"

"Yes, and it was a wise decision for us to go inside the city, Yuma," Astral said. "Theoretically, if we were to find the King of Games in this city, then he may become a valuable ally in our upcoming battles."

"Great idea, Astral! This is gonna the first time that Yugi Muto will team up with a Duelist from the future!"

"That is not particularly true, Yuma," Astral said, prompting Yuma to look over at the spirit. "This is not the first time that Yugi has encountered another Duelist from another time."

The statement alone was more than enough to make Yuma slow down and stop in his tracks, giving Tori some time to catch up to him and catch her breath as he faced the humanoid spirit. "Not the first time? What do you mean by that, Astral?" Yuma asked.

Astral looked down the city streets as he began to tell the story. "Through the history written in the Numeron Code, I have observed different instances when time travel had occurred in this very city, all of which involved Yugi Muto. There was one such incident involving time travel when a madman named Paradox attempted to destroy the entire history of Duel Monsters by wiping out the creator, Maximillion Pegasus. Three Duelists each from a different point in time teamed up together to stop this threat from being carried out, and one of those three Duelists was none other than Yugi Muto."

"Really!? Aw, cool!" Yuma shouted, his hands clenched into shaking, excited fists. "That just makes my trip all the more cooler now! Just wait until I meet Yugi, then it'll be the first time that he'll be teaming up with someone from a distant future like me! No one back home's gonna believe this!"

"Focus, Yuma!" Tori argued, pumping her fists frustratingly. "We're supposed to be looking for help, not going Gagaga over Yugi like some fanboy!"

"Awwwww!" Yuma groaned, drooping his head down. "Fine, we'll go find Yugi and ask him for help."

At that moment, Yuma took out his Duel Disk and showed only the back to Tori and Astral as a Cheshire Cat grin spread across his mouth and big, crimson eyes glimmered on his face. "But while we're at it, you think I can get Yugi to sign my Duel Disk!? Everyone back home won't believe what happened without Yugi's autograph!"

All Astral and Tori could do was stand by while a sweat drop fell on Tori's green hair. "Wow. You've really got a one track mind, Yuma."

Sure enough, the excited Duelist from Heartland City was on the move again, with Astral flying by his side, and Tori struggling to keep up with Yuma's speed. As an interdimensional humanoid spirit, Astral's extra senses sent a signal inside of his translucent body, prompting him to scout ahead out of curiosity. He felt a collection of strange energies gathered around in one place just northeast from their position, but not very far. With that in mind, Astral narrowed his stoic eyes slightly and descended towards Yuma and Tori.

"Hey, Astral, did you find anything?" Yuma asked, the first to notice Astral's brief scouting.

"Yes. I can sense the energies of those from another time plane, not including ourselves of course," Astral explained. "They are all gathering at the plaza at the center of town."

"Cool! That's where we can find some help!"

"Or our enemies," Astral replied. "We do not know if the owners of those energies I felt are either good or evil."

"Well we won't know if we don't find out! C'mon!" With one wave of his arm, Yuma continued down the streets while Astral glided at the boy's right side, guiding him down the streets into the right direction. That left Tori, whose cardio was getting the workout of its life as she ran with her raised elbows turned to and fro with the rhythm of her body's movements.

"Yuma! Wait up!"

In the plaza, Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei stood in the center of the plaza, exchanging stories of what happened when the mysterious beam of light flashed and what they all saw in their dreams. Jaden and Yusei even told Yugi about the harmful effects the supposed Aurora afflicted to whoever tried and pass through those lights. Finally, the three Duelists all agreed that the dimension they were in and their meeting was not the work of their old enemy: the time traveler Paradox, whose existence was now obsolete following his defeat in their 3-vs.-1 Duel. Yusei even noted that Paradox's ambitions were stemmed off from the organization known as Yliaster, the four-person cabal from the desolate future that was now and forever changed thanks to Yusei's efforts.

"So what you're saying is that this Yliaster group you and your friends faced had dissipated, and the future that Paradox described is safe?"

"For now, at least," Yusei answered Yugi, heaving a stressed sigh. "Just when everything was going back to normal, this had to happen."

"Hey, if it's any consolation, I was happy to be back at Duel Academy with my friends until we got transported here too," Jaden said with a nonchalant shrug. "I mean, c'mon, none of us knew this was going to happen."

"That's right," Yugi nodded. "Whoever's behind all this waited for right the moment when we each Dueled our rivals and when our best monsters clashed."

"And when that happened, wham!" Jaden emphasized with slamming his fist into his palm. "He flipped the switch, and we got transported here too, along with the places where we loved Dueling."

"Or a place where we called our home," Yusei added. "All of New Domino City, and the Satellite where I grew up in got transported here as well."

"Yes. It seems our homes are being targeted as well," Yugi said, holding his chin down. "But then there's that name the man we saw in our dreams called us. Legendary Duelists."

"What do you suppose that means?" Yusei asked.

"Beats me," Jaden answered, "Maybe he's calling us that by our Dueling records?"

"You think?" Yugi asked.

"That could be," Yusei said, pondering the facts. "Each of us must've contributed into saving each of our timeline at some point in the past."

"That's right," Yugi concurred. "We've saved the world many times before, so that makes it all the more reason why we're being targeted."

"Yeah, but there's a couple of things left that haven't been solved," Jaden pointed out. "For one thing, we don't exactly know who's behind all this or where he's hiding."

"Then there's us meeting," Yusei added. "If we're all together here in the same place, then our mystery man should've made his move right about now. But now that we're all here, nothing's happened yet. What do you think he's waiting for?"

"I'm not sure," Yugi said. "Maybe there's another Legendary Duelist somewhere out there that that man is waiting for."

"And if we meet this other Legendary Duelist, then that's when our man makes his big move," Yusei confirmed.

"So now what?" Jaden questioned the other two Legendary Duelists. "Do we wait for the Duelist or we split up for the time being so that our guy doesn't enact his master plan?"

Yugi looked down to the ground with an uneasy face. "I don't know, guys. This situation has put us in quite the spot. I don't know what's going to happen once we meet another Duelist from a different time."

Somewhere in the empty street leading to the Domino City Plaza, Yuma, Tori, and Astral followed down the road as it led into a large opening that marked the heart of the great city. The trio from Heartland City stopped running upon reaching the entrance and looked around, their mouths hung open with admiration. "Wow, this place is huge!" Yuma gasped.

"This place is the Domino City Plaza, and the precise location where the other temporal abnormalities are gathered," Astral informed. "It is quite fitting that those abnormalities should meet here."

"Huh? What do you mean by that, Astral?" Yuma asked the humanoid spirit.

"Do you remember when I told you the story of Yugi joining up with two other Duelists from the future? This plaza happens to be the very same location where Yugi and those Duelists battled Paradox."

"Cool~" Yuma simply responded, looking around the plaza and at all of the unfamiliar faces abroad. "Wow. For a city that's been knocked out by the light, it sure seems a bit crowded here."

"Yes, that is quite curious," Astral agreed. "Most of the population have been weakened by the light, yet there are people curently in the plaza. I wonder...?"

Astral's heterochromic eyes scanned the entire area when they fell on a certain trio of people standing in the middle of the plaza. This sight was enough to make Astral gasp. "It cannot be... is it really them?"

"Them? Them who? Astral, what's going on?" Yuma demanded to know.

"Yuma, take a look at the three people in the middle of the plaza," Astral ordered with widened eyes. "Do you see who I see?"

Yuma looked at the three people Astral mentioned and observed them for a moment, humming with his tongue partially out while he squinted his crimson eyes. "No. All I see is some guy with a spiky mullet, another guy wearing a red jacket, and a person in a jumpsuit with a tricked-out motorcycle," Yuma answered as honestly as he could.

"They are the three Duelists who I told you about in my story. The guy with the spiky mullet, as you said, is Yugi Muto himself."

"WHAT!? That's really the King of Games!?" Yuma shrieked. "No way! I can't believe I'm standing a distance away from Yugi Muto! This is like every Duelist's dream come true!"

"But who are the other two Duelists?" Tori asked. "I've never read up on them before."

"The other two Duelists are people who have saved their eras many times from certain destruction," Astral said. "The one wearing the red jacket is named Jaden Yuki, a Duelist with the rare gift to talk with the Duel Monster Spirits. The one with the jumpsuit is Yusei Fudo, a Turbo Duelist from New Domino City who is but one of six Duelists who serve an ancient force of good called the Crimson Dragon. In short, they are heroes of their own time and era as well."

Yuma's eyes became full-size, glimmering, crimson disks with a slightly drooling grin and fists pumped at his chest levels. "Awesome~! This has got to be the best day of my life!"

"Wait, you said New Domino City, right, Astral?" Tori asked. "So is that Yusei from before or after what happened to the city?"

Astral looked at Yusei from a distance and squinted his eyes slightly before he closed them. "Neither. The energy from his time plane is the same as the time plane in our own time. How odd..."

Yuma snapped out of his reverie when he heard Tori and Astral coerse about the guy in the navy blue jacket, and turned to him. "Odd? What do you mean? Did something happen to this New Domino City place?"

"Well, of course, something bad happened, Yuma!" Tori snapped. "Did you even pay attention to our World History class lecture?"

Yuma giggled nervously. "That's a rhetorical question, right?"

Tori groaned, held her forehead with her fingers and shook her head. "Unbelievable, Yuma."

"I don't understand. What's this fuss over New Domino City, anyway?"

"It is like this, Yuma," Astral began to tell another story to Yuma. "It started fifty years ago before the first construction of Heartland..."

Suddenly, the eye in the center of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle began to shine and shake along an unprecedented wind before all of the pyramid-shaped relic glowed soon after. The Eye of Wdjat glowed on Yugi's forehead which in turn, transformed timid Yugi Muto into his courageous past incarnation, staring down the street where he felt the strange sensation. "Hold on, everyone," Yami Yugi commanded Jaden and Yusei. "I'm sensing something just nearby. It feels like we are in the presence of a humble spirit."

"Really?" Jaden asked as he and Yusei turned to look in the direction Yugi was looking at. His eyes glowed green and red again. "Hey, you're right. I can feel something, too. Doesn't feel like any spirit that I've ever felt before."

"But where is it coming from?" Yusei asked.

Yugi turned and saw a couple of teenagers younger than him standing just at the foot of the entrance to the plaza. One of those kids was as short as Yugi, albeit an inch smaller, with black-and-red hair on his head. He wore a red vest with white fluff on the inside, and a blue T-shirt with a big teal "D" at the front. Next to him was a girl with big, green hair, with a bun tied in a red ribbon. She wore a white shirt with a yellow chest, and a big, pink skirt reaching down near her kneecaps. What got Yugi going was the human-like shape that the teenage boy was looking up to, a glowing figure with heterochromic eyes, teal markings and blue jewels all over his body.

"There," Yugi pointed his finger. "That must be the source."

Jaden and Yusei turned and saw the spirit look down at the two teenagers as its lips moved, causing the boy to reel back with shock a bit.

"Ah!... No way..." Yuma squeaked, his arms shaking by the story Astral told him. "Did that really happen...? ...but there's no way..."

"It has happened," Astral said. "That is the main reason why Heartland City was built in the first place."

"I... I can't believe it happened..." Yuma stammered. "I didn't know..."

"And now you do. Which is why I plan on looking into this once our mess is resolved."

"Um, guys?" Tori called to Yuma and Astral. "Look."

Yuma and Astral looked into the center of the plaza to see Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei all staring at them curiously. All Yuma could do while standing before three of the most heroic Duelists known to time was regain his posture, stand up straight, and wave his hand up. "Hello."

---

"Finally..." the masked man said to the monitors, maneuvering his metallic finger onto the blue jewel on the left armrest. "It's about time that we had our first chat... Legendary Duelists..."

The jewel glowed blue as the masked man pressed his finger on it.

---

Suddenly, something strange began to happen. A systematic glow began to shine from within Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma's Deck Boxes, shocking their owners.

"What's going on!?" Yugi demanded.

"Our Decks! They're glowing out of control!" Jaden stated.

"No, it's not our Decks!" Yusei deduced. He opened his Deck Box, and took out the glowing card from the Deck, glowing a bright, azure glow. "My 'Stardust Dragon' is glowing!"

"Hey, so is 'Neos!'" Jaden said, holding his said card.

"And my 'Dark Magician', too!" Yugi finished while grasping his favorite card. "Something is not right!"

"Agh! 'Utopia', what's wrong with you!?" Yuma yelled at the card. "Why are you giving off that glow!?"

As soon as Yuma asked his question, the cards held by the Legendary Duelists glowed brighter, almost blinding, even. everything and everywhere began to tremble, followed with a loud bass hum that reverberated inside everyone's ears and threatened to make the glass pane windows explode. Anyone retaining their consciousness in each of the timelines screamed and held their heads, forcing their hands to cover up their ears.

At that time, Kaiba was already guiding his Blue-Eyes White Jet over the coast of the colorful city that resembled something out of that of a theme park, just recently done with what very little he saw from up above in the cockpit. When the vibrations hit, he too was surprised by the sudden turbulence that rocked him and his aerial vehicle.

"Gah! What's happening now!?" Kaiba grunted in both pain and impatiently. "Somehow, my company's hacker is using the electromagnetic pulses to scramble the atoms in the air!"

Duel Academy was made a victim to such circumstances as it always had been from the start. The structure of the prestigious Dueling school was started to sway, despite the steel and the rocky foundation it sat upon. Chancellor Sheppard, among the other students that recently regained their consciousness, were knocked to their knees.

"What's happening out there!?" Sheppard yelled. "Who's causing all of that ruckus!?"

Inside the basement of the clock shop in New Domino City, five of the Signers had their fair share of the same vibrations as they held their head with their hands, grunting or bellowing out from such an agonizing pain, not as bad as the lights but just as potent. Not even the power of their Marks or the Crimson Dragon could help them, as the vibrations in the air prevented the protective powers of the Crimson Dragon from taking effect.

"What's going on, guys!?" Jack yelled.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's too loud!" Crow screamed.

"This is bad, you guys!" Akiza yelled. "Something's happening out there, and it's not good!"

All Leo and Luna could do was hold their ears while they screamed to the pain.

Somewhere in the lower parts of the same city, the Kastle twins struggled their way through the vibrations as it made Shark difficult to drive his motorcycle down the street. Rio was clutching her brother tighter than before while she and Shark both screamed from the vibrations' effects.

"Reginald, it's too dangerous to keep driving your bike like this! Pull it over, quickly!" Rio shrieked.

"I can't!" Shark yelled back. "I can't move my arms! I can't concentrate with all of this pain!"

"Reginald, look out!"

The WATER Duelist driving the motorcycle looked ahead and gasped as he was making an uncontrolled drive into a dumpster. Shark's eyes widened, his pupils shrunk, and he yelled a little before he grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut just before the impact came.

Kite's laboratory was suffering the same kind of kinetic abnormality, most notably Orbital 7 being shorted out in fits of electrical spasms while Kite clamped his ears shut from behind his covering hands. "M-M-Mas-s-s-ter K-K-Ki-i-ite! *Error* *Error* Spa-a-a-acial-l-l-l an-n-n-omaly-y-y rea-ea-eadings off-ff-ff the chart-art-arts! *Malfunction* *Malfunction* Error: Systems severely damaged! not responding! System reboot! System reboot! Continue, ignoring this error? Y/N! GUR PBAGRBYYRE VF PBZVAT! NYY JVYY OR YBFG GB GUR IBVQ!"

The surges coursing through Orbital 7's overloaded systems created smaller explosions that popped from all over the robot's body, causing it to remain motionless until it fell over, black smoke coming from its wirings and servos. "Orbital!" Kite yelled for his android servant as he held his ear shut. "Yuma, wherever you are, you'd better be careful! It seems that whoever's done this to our city is finally revealing himself!"

Where Yuma was, along with three of the Legendary Duelists, Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and their friends was at the epicenter of all the chaos inside of the Domino City Plaza, screaing, covering their ears and trying to keep on their feet as their very existence was being temporarily incapacitated by the force. Not even Astral was immune to such an unknown, but crippling force that he himself didn't recognize; the strange and unknown vibrations was affecting the very air itself, including the microscopic electrons in the air that Astral used to hover and fly with.

"What's... happening!?" Yugi shouted.

"This must be it! This must be what that man was waiting for!" Yusei guessed loudly. "Now that we're all together, we're about witness his big move firsthand!"

"We are!?" Jaden asked. Suddenly, the vibrations grew stronger, knocking every conscious being down in all of the different timelines and shattering the glass windows in a rain of clear shards.

Yuma was overcome by the force of the vibrations like gravity had somehow increased, giving it a more violent feeling of being pressed down like a stamp. He looked over to see Astral being forced down onto the ground while the spirit tried to resist the unknown force, but all of his efforts were in vain. "Astral! What's going on!"

"The spacial structures of each time plane are merging!" Astral answered. "Somehow, every time plane that we see are collapsing, and yet, they're not collapsing on each other! But where is..."

Astral forced his head upwards and spotted something in the darkness above, and his eyes widened. "Of course, how have I been so blind!?"

"Huh!?"

"It's the sun!" Astral informed. "Yuma, there is another time plane that was residing inside of the Void, and that is the red sun!"

Yuma tilted his head upwards in a trembling motion as he tried to move it against the vibrations and gasped. "Hey, you're right!" Yuma said as he saw the red orb in the skyless sky expand. "That red sun is growing bigger!"

"No. It is drawing near." Astral's eyes narrowed. "Someone is guiding the sun into this time plane!"

Yuma gawked at Astral with a confused look. As the base of the red giant descended into the forcefield protecting the Domino City timeline, the entire space in all four of the stolen timelines ceased their vibrations almost instantaneously. Everyone that fell victim to the violent vibes regained their full strength as they could stand back up on their feet, although the experience left most of them breathless and gasping for air.

"Is everyone... is everyone alright?" Yusei asked.

"I'm alright," Yugi said, placing a hand on his lungs.

"Aw, man... this is the second time I've gotten a headache from all of this," Jaden complained. "What's next? A collapsing building?"

By sheer coincidence, one of the tall buildings began to crumble away at the middle as it was weakened, thanks to the vibrations that took place. Underneath its path was Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei, all three turning to see the glass building tilt and collapse towards the center of the plaza. Yugi's friends, Jaden's friends, Yuma, Tori, and Astral all witnessed with horror as the three Legendary Duelists were being subjected to an impending doom.

"Yugi!" shouted Joey, Tristan, and Tea.

"Jaden!" yelled Syrus, Alexis, and Chazz.

"Get outta there, Sarge!" screamed Hassleberry.

"Uh oh. Spoke too soon" Jaden said to himself before he turned on his Duel Disk. His eyes glowed red and green as he slapped "Neos" and "Yubel" onto the Monster Card Zones. "Neos! Yubel! How about giving us a hand, guys!?"

With that, "Elemental HERO Neos" and "Yubel" materialized and quickly flew towards the falling building. The white, humanoid Warrior and the feminine Fiend each flew underneath and placed their hands underneath the windows and pushed upwards, trying to divert it away from the trio so that they could have a chance to escape. The weight of the building was too heavy for the two Duel Monster Spirits to budge. So, using their energy weapons on their foreheads, "Neos" charged his yellow jewel and "Yubel" charged her third eye, and shot a laser that blasted part of the building away into rubble in an explosion, leaving behind a big plume smoke.

But that wasn't enough to stop the collapse. To Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei's surprise, the energy blasts only made a dent inside the falling building, and the combined efforts of "Neos" and "Yubel" only delayed the inevitable.

"It didn't work!" Yugi yelled.

"We've gotta get out of here, now!" Jaden yelled.

"It's too late! We won't get away in time!" Yusei pointed out as the building was now mere inches away from crushing them.

All that the three Duelists could do was cover their faces with their arms as their demise were just mere seconds away.

"Go, 'Utopia!' Protect those three with Rising Sun Slash!"

Snapped out from their cringing, Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei turned to where the high-pitched teenage voice sounded behind them as the boy they saw earlier. Suddenly, they saw a Warrior they never saw before sporting white-and-gold armor with wings protruding from its shoulder blades. There was a red marking on its left shoulder that curiously resembled the number "39". The Warrior unsheathed its twin swords from its thighs, held them outwards and brought them down on the falling building, slicing it in a "V" formation that instantly reduced the section above into a monsoon of rubble.

Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei shielded their faces from the raining rubble as the rest of the falling building fell, creating a shockwave that nearly shook everyone down to the ground. When they uncovered their eyes, the three Duelists saw that the building's "V"-shaped slash had made the building narrowly miss them by a yard, thus ensuring their safety. "What... just happened?" Yugi asked. "Did someone just save us from being crushed by that building?"

"I think so, Yugi," Yusei said. "Look."

Yugi and Jaden turned to see the kid run up to him, with the girl and the humanoid spirit following along with him.

"Hey!" shouted Yuma. "Are you guys alright!?"

"We are now," Jaden said as the boy approached him. "You really saved our bacon there, uhh..."

"Oh yeah! The name's Yuma! Yuma Tsukumo!" the boy said proudly, pointing his thumb to himself. "Nice to meet ya!"

"Glad to have met you when we did," Yusei said graciously.

"Yeah, you totally used that Monster of yours to slice and dice that building!" Jaden said, giving Yuma a thumbs up. "Sweet move!"

"Yes," Yugi agreed with a nod of his head. "If you hadn't showed up, then the history of Duel Monsters would've suffered a fatality. Thank you, Yuma."

Yuma grinned a toothy smile, brought two shaking fists up to his face, and giggled. "Oh man, I just saved the King of Games and now he thanked me! This really is the greatest day of my life!"

Astral descended to Yuma's level, receiving his attention. "Focus, Yuma. We are on an important mission, after all."

"Uh, right."

Jaden turned to the direction of Yuma's gaze and looked wondrously at the humanoid spirit. "Cool spirit, bro. Does he belong to you?"

"Wha-!?" Yuma froze, him and Astral turning to face Jaden with mixed shocked expressions. "You mean you can actually see Astral?"

"You kidding? Of course I can. I can see any Duel Monster Spirit that I come across." Jaden looked over his shoulder as his Spirit Partner appeared next to him in its ethereal form. "Isn't that right, Kuriboh?"

Winged Kuriboh gave a happy chirp. Astral's eyes widened slightly.

'So it is true. Jaden Yuki does have the gift of communicating with the spirits, and not just the Monsters from the card game,' Astral noted as he looked around the other three Duelists, seeing the timid spirit of Yugi Muto standing next to Yami, the spirits of "Winged Kuriboh", "Yubel", and "Neos" residing near Jaden, and the Crimson Dragon hovering its serpentine body above Yusei. 'Time-Traversing Observation number one: Like Yuma, these Duelists display strange, yet gifted abilities that reach far beyond human comprehension. I shall need to remember that.'

"Anyway, Yuma, you look like you're not from any of our timelines at all," Yusei observed. "So does that mean that you're from another time as well?"

"Yeah, I am. I come from Heartland City," Yuma explained.

"And were you, by any chance involved in a Duel when a flash of light appeared?" Yugi asked.

"Hey, yeah. Did the same thing happen to you guys?"

"Uh-huh," Jaden nodded. "We were Dueling our friends using our strongest cards when that light appeared. We were all knocked out, and we ended up in this place."

"Did you all have a similar dream about a man in the shadows?" Astral asked, making the three Duelists gasp.

"Yes, we did," Yugi answered, turning to the boy. "Did you have that same dream?"

"Not only did I dream the same thing, but I've actually seen what that man is planning," Yuma said, surprising Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei even more. "He's planning to use the Numeron Code to destroy us all."

"The Numeron Code? What's that?" Jaden asked.

"It is the first card to be created, a card with powers that is beyond any force in the universe," Astral explained to the trio. "When the universe began, the Numeron Code was the power that created all of reality, made from a single teardrop from a Dragon and hidden deep within the Earth. I was tasked to locate this card by my higher authorities, and ultimately, I hid this in a pocket dimension located center of the universe."

Jaden's face went pale as if he saw a ghost. He lowered his head and placed a hold on his chin with his fingers, pondering.

"Jaden, are you alright?" asked Yusei.

"I'm fine, Yusei," the former Slifer Red said. "I was just thinking, I've heard of a similar story of a card that created the universe from an old adversary of mine."

"Then it appears that whoever is doing this is going after this card as well," Yugi said, "but what does he want with our timelines?"

"Is the answer not obvious to you... Yugi Muto?" a deep, raspy, disembodied voice echoed throughout the plaza, putting everyone in there on high alert. "It is to gather you and your eras into one place."

"Uh, guys? Where is that voice coming from?" Jaden asked.

"I don't know, but I don't like the sound of it," Yusei replied.

"After all... this isn't the first time that you've met... other Duelists that originated from the future... isn't it, Yugi?" the voice continued to speak. "But then again... this is the first time that Yuma and Astral has traveled... to different eras in time... whereas, they have the power... to cross into different dimensions..."

"Who's out there!? Show yourself!" Yugi demanded, growling.

"As you wish, Yugi Muto..."

The red sun hovering above the center of the joining points of the began to give off a waving motion, its picture becoming low-resolution like a static-like television screen. The red giant flickered and its picture wobbled until the glowing red orb became nothing but a giant, spherical spaceship, made up of an unknown alloy material, glowing a dim, silvery glow. The top half of the spaceship was a dome at the topmost area, with curved beams holding together one-way glass windows. Trailing down the area of the ship, there were four other spherical shapes placed around the dome just above the middle section of the ship. The said had markings etched into it, reminiscent of the future as the glowing azure lights ran through the markings. The bottom section was mostly, but suspiciously bare, made up of just the same alloy like the ship.

"No way! The sun...!" Yugi gasped.

"It was actually a spaceship hiding behind a holographic image all along!" Yusei observed.

"So that's where he's been hiding!" Jaden deduced.

"Just look at the size of that thing! It's as big as the sun, too!" Yuma screamed.

"I suspected as much," Astral said calmly.

All of a sudden, a three-layered monolith rose from underneath the ground at the entrances of the plaza like a hologram, blocking everyone and everything out. Joey, Tristan, and Tea at one of the entrances reeled back with fright as they faces the monolith, colored blue with a section of orange running vertically down in the middle. Gold markings outlined the sections of the monolith and inside that orange section was an eye, outlined in gold with a red pupil in the center.

"NYEH~! Hey, what's going on here!?" Joey yelped. "What with dat monster!?"

"We've been blocked out!" exclaimed Tea.

"Oh, what's there to be worried about? It's only a hologram," Tristan assured the group fanning his hand. "All we have to do is walk through it and... OOF!"

As Tristan walked up to the monolith, he found himself crashing into a solid wall, holding his nose. "Wow, that felt a bit real for a hologram," he said, rapping on the monolith a few times before he jumped back with complete shock. "Correction! That hologram is real! We can't get out!"

A similar monolith rose up at the entrance behind Syrus, Alexis, and Pharaoh, leaving behind Chazz, Hassleberry, and the unconscious Crowler behind it.

"Augh! We're being blocked off at every exit!" Syrus screamed.

"We can't get out!" Alexis joined in with the panic.

Syrus ran up to the monolith and pounded on it. "Chazz! Hassleberry! Can you hear me!?"

"Loud and clear private, but our way's been cut off!" Hassleberry said, pounding the back of the tablet and ramming his shoulder in it for force. "This wall's too tough to get through!"

"We need to find a way over this!" Chazz suggested.

"Ten-four," Hassleberry complied, letting Crowler off of his shoulders. "C'mon, I'll give you a boost."

Chazz ran over to Hassleberry as the Dino Duelist crouched down and lifted by his feet and held them so that it appeared that Chazz was standing on his shoulder. The two wiggled and wobbled, but after finding his balance, Chazz clutched the edge of the monolith and tried to pull himself up. "Do you see what's happening up there, major!?" Hassleberry yelled up to the pale-skinned Duelist as he pulled himself over.

"Al... most," Chazz muttered through the excessive use of his arm muscles. When he looked up, he was staring into a yellow light that caused his reflexes to jump. "Ahhh!"

Chazz's jump made him fall over and land on top of Hassleberry, who in turn fell on top of Crowler. The combined weight was enough to wake the slender blonde up from his mini-coma with a little scream, although the first thing he felt was his bones being crushed by his students. "How dare you! What's the idea of piling on top of a battered, middle-aged man like that!?" Crowler sputtered at the two.

"Yeah, what gives, soldier!?" Hassleberry yelled at Chazz. "What'd you go and fall like that for, anyway!?"

Chazz looked up, and when he did, he screamed and scuttled away of the pile and up against a wall. "Because of that!"

Hassleberry and Crowler looked up, and upon what they saw, they held each other on instinct as they saw something that made them nearly jump out of their skin. It was a crimson, mechanical orb with a light built inside and many antennae-like modules protruding from the top. They had stubby arms with violet orbs that sparked with electricity, and they had a violet orb that powered such a complex piece of machinery.

"Good heavens! What in the world is that!?" Crowler screamed like an old woman.

"I don't know, but it doesn't look friendly!" Hassleberry said as two more similar orbs joined the first one, all sparking their arms menacingly.

Crowler and Hassleberry all scuttled away and joined Chazz at the wall, all three of them screaming as the orbs slowly drew near them.

Standing around the base of the fountain in the center of the plaza, Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma and Astral watched as they were sealed in the plaza by the ten "Gate Blockers" blocking the exits and the several floating "Security Orbs" patrolling the rooftops and the sky for any escapees or trespassers.

"We're trapped! There's no way that any one of us can get out!" Yuma said with fear in his voice.

"Don't panic," Yugi told anyone. "That's probably what that man wants."

"Yeah, but how are we gonna get out of this pickle?" Jaden asked.

"I don't think there is a way out," Yusei answered. "We're as good as gone." Suddenly, a red light blinked on one of the buttons on Yusei's Duel Disk, grabbing his attention. He ran to his Duel Runner and turned off his Disk's Turbo Dueling function. The Duel Disk was automatically detached it from Yusei's Duel Runner before he checked the red light, and a familiar voice came over the built-in speaker.

"Yusei! Can you hear us!?"

"Akiza! Is that you!?" Yusei asked.

"It's not just her, Yusei!" came Crow's voice.

"We've been trying to reach out to you for quite some time now!" Jack's voice followed.

"Jack!? Crow!? Why haven't you tried using our connection with our Duel Runners!?" Yusei asked.

"Our signals were being blocked! There was no way we could talk with each other except through our Duel Disks!" Crow answered.

"Yusei, where in the world are you!?" Jack asked.

"I'm inside Domino City, with Yugi, Jaden, and this kid named Yuma," Yusei explained. "I can't talk right now, something's happening here."

"Well, get out of there!" Jack ordered. "You've been walking into a trap this whole time!"

"What?" Yusei gasped.

"You were being played into our enemy's hands the whole time, Yusei!" Akiza stated. "He had you separated from us so he could fulfill his plan!"

"That's why you've gotta get ou...ta there be..re it.. oo.. ate..." Crow's voice came through in static.

"Crow! Akiza! Jack!" Yusei fumbled with the speaker's functions to get a better signal, but there was only static.

Just as everything couldn't get any bad, they got worse as a pillar of light touched down from the spherical ship and onto the ground, causing Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma to look with surprise when they saw something be constructed within that pillar. It was the descending silhouette of a human-shaped shadow with a cloak swaying behind his back. What got the four Duelists agitated was the fact that this shadowy figure was the exact same shape as the shadow they saw in their dreams

Yami Yugi reeled back as Yugi Muto's spirit appeared next to him. "No way... it can't be!" the timid Yugi squeaked.

As the human-shaped shadow drew closer to the ground, everyone inside the plaza could make out the slightest details from a distance. One such detail was the metallic gauntlet he wore on his crossed arms with built-in modules on the front of the forearm section. There was something that resembled an ovular, pale green jewel on the left gauntlet that made up the forearm, the size of a small football.

Jaden growled slightly. "It's gotta be him, no doubt about it," he said as his eyes became red and green again.

The cloak the man wore on his back swayed along an invisible wind like a cape, the collar around his neck a centimeter taller than his hooded head.

Yusei's eyes narrowed at the man. "Looks like he wants to do more than say hello."

The boots, made of the same alloy as the man's gauntlet, contained gyros and wheels at the heel and at the sides of the slightly oversized shaft. Inside the shaft and the heels were two supporting rod with pumps that pumped up and down with each movement of the man's feet.

"Is that the man you saw, Yuma?" Astral asked, neither he nor Yuma taking their eyes off of the man.

"Yeah. That's the guy, alright," Yuma said as the most prominent feature of their newest foe was revealed to them. "I've seen those red eyes from my dream."

As the man's boots touched the ground, the beam of light disappeared. The man stood before the four Duelists, with his cloak, boots and cloak covering his shaded, masked visage. The man's body was thin, but not too lanky, mainly dressed up of a black suit with modules just around and above his waistline, which was worn with a belt made of the same alloy as his gauntlets and his boots. The biggest modules of the suit resided in the middle of his chest and each of his shoulders, pinning the cloak into. Glowing blue tubes ran up to an area around the big module, running from both sides of his back and from the shoulder modules.

Then the man's drooping head slowly lifted up to meet the looks of his intended targets, all with a mixture of anger, uncertainty, and fear. No one could see what his mask looked like because it was obscured under the shade of his hood, but they could see enough to get the idea of what it resembled. The mask had a mouthpiece that was the source of the deep, mechanical breathing, and the round eyepieces he wore glowed a sinister red. The masked man took a deep breath, ready to initiate his conversation with Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, and Yuma as he spoke with that same tone he used moments just before his appearance.

"So, at last we meet... Legendary Duelists..."

---

FEATURED CARDS:

YUGI MUTO'S CARDS

-NORMAL MONSTERS-

Dark Magician
(DARK/Level 7/Spellcaster/2500/2100)
The ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense.

JADEN YUKI'S CARDS

-NORMAL MONSTERS-

Elemental HERO Neos
(LIGHT/Level 7/Warrior/2500/2000)
A new Elemental HERO has arrived from Neo-Space! When he initiates a Contact Fusion with a Neo-Spacian his unknown powers are unleashed.

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Winged Kuriboh (spirit)
(LIGHT/Level 1/Fairy/Effect/300/200)
You take no Battle Damage from battles involving this card. If this card on the field is destroyed and sent to your Graveyard: any further Battle Damage the controller of this card takes this turn becomes 0.

Yubel
(DARK/Level 10/Fiend/Effect/0/0)
Cannot be destroyed by battle. Your opponent takes all Battle Damage from battles involving this face-up Attack Position card. During your End Phase: Tribute 1 other monster or destroy this card. If this card is destroyed, except by its own effect: Its owner can Special Summon 1 "Yubel - Terror Incarnate" from your hand, Deck, or Graveyard.

SYRUS TRUESDALE'S CARDS

-FUSION MONSTERS-

Cyber End Dragon
(LIGHT/Level 10/Machine/Fusion/Effect/4000/2800)
"Cyber Dragon" + "Cyber Dragon" + "Cyber Dragon"
A Fusion Summon of this card can only be done with the above Fusion Material Monsters. If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.

YUSEI FUDO'S CARDS

-SYNCHRO MONSTERS

Stardust Dragon
(WIND/Level 8/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/2500/2000)
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
During either player's turn, when a card or effect is activated that would destroy a card(s) on the field: You can Tribute this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. During the End Phase, if this effect was activated this turn (and was not negated): You can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard.

YUMA TSUKUMO'S CARDS

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Rai Rider
(LIGHT/Level 3/Thunder/Effect/1200/1400)
If this card battles an opponent's monster: That monster cannot attack during your opponent's next turn.

-XYZ MONSTERS-

Number 39: Utopia
(LIGHT/Rank 4/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/2500/2000)
2 Level 4 monsters
Cannot be destroyed by battle, except with "Number" monsters. You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the attack of 1 monster.

FLASHBACK

-NORMAL MONSTERS-

Elemental HERO Neos
(LIGHT/Level 7/Warrior/2500/2000)
A new Elemental HERO has arrived from Neo-Space! When he initiates a Contact Fusion with a Neo-Spacian his unknown powers are unleashed.

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Cyber Harpie Lady (cosplaying)
(WIND/Level 4/Winged Beast/Effect/1800/1300)
(This card's name is always treated as "Harpie Lady".)

Magician's Valkyria (cosplaying)
(LIGHT/Level 4/Spellcaster/Effect/1600/500)
Your opponent cannot target face-up Spellcaster-Type monsters for attacks, except this one.

Marshmallon
(LIGHT/Level 3/Fairy/Effect/300/500)
After damage calculation, if this card was attacked, and was face-down at the start of the Damage Step: The attacking player takes 1000 damage. Cannot be destroyed by battle.

Rainbow Dragon
(LIGHT/Level 10/Dragon/Effect/4000/4000)
Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by having all 7 "Crystal Beast" cards on your field or in your Graveyard. This card cannot activate its effects the turn it is Special Summoned. ● During either player's turn: You can send all "Crystal Beast" monsters you control to the Graveyard; this card gains 1000 ATK for each card sent. ● You can banish all "Crystal Beast" monsters from your Graveyard; shuffle all cards on the field into the Decks.

Yubel (spirit)
(DARK/Level 10/Fiend/Effect/0/0)
Cannot be destroyed by battle. Your opponent takes all Battle Damage from battles involving this face-up Attack Position card. During your End Phase: Tribute 1 other monster or destroy this card. If this card is destroyed, except by its own effect: Its own can Special Summon 1 "Yubel - Terror Incarnate" from your hand, Deck, or Graveyard.

-FUSION MONSTERS-

Cyber End Dragon
(LIGHT/Level 10/Machine/Fusion/Effect/4000/2800)
"Cyber Dragon" + "Cyber Dragon" + "Cyber Dragon"
A Fusion Summon of this card can only be done with the above Fusion Material Monsters. If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.

Gladiator Beast Gyzarus
(DARK/Level 6/Winged-Beast/Fusion/Effect/2400/1500)
"Gladiator Beast Bestiari" + 1 "Gladiator Beast" monster
Must first be Special Summoned (from your Extra Deck) by shuffling the above cards you control into the Deck. (You do not use "Polymerization".) When this card is Special Summoned: You can target up to 2 cards on the field; destroy those targets. At the end of the Battle Phase, if this card attacked or was attacked: You can shuffle it into the Extra Deck; Special Summon 2 "Gladiator Beast" monsters from your Deck, except "Gladiator Beast Bestiari".

-SYNCHRO MONSTERS-

Stardust Dragon
(WIND/Level 8/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/2500/2000)
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
During either player's turn, when a card or effect is activated that would destroy a card(s) on the field: You can Tribute this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. During the End Phase, if this effect was activated (and not negated): You can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard.

OTHER

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Gate Blocker x 10
(EARTH/Level 4/Rock/Effect/100/2000)
While you control this face-up card, your opponent cannot gain Speed Counters during the Standby Phase by the effect of "Speed World".

-TRAP CARDS-

Security Orb (multiple)
Normal Trap Card
When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Change the battle position of that card. If this face-down card is destroyed by your opponent's Spell/Trap effect: Target 1 monster your opponent controls; destroy that target.