Author's Note: The title of this first chapter is also a sing from the Styx album, Pieces of Eight. The song more or less served as inspiration for coming up with this first chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, and the character of Raven (who shall appear later) is the creation of sammycrusinix.

Chapter 1: "Great White Hope"

Jack found himself walking through an open field under a blood red sky. Just how he had gotten there or when, he could not recall. In a matter of seconds he came upon what looked like a circus with a large black and red tent at the center. Jack did not care much for the circus and he normally would've avoided going to the one he had found. Yet he found that he was being compelled to go there by some odd force.

In moments he was up in front of the big top. Jack stopped in front of a large sign right by the empty ticket booth. The sign read, "Come one! Come all! See the amazing Jack Atlas!"

"Well, aren't you going to go in?" a voice suddenly asked. "It's a free show."

Jack turned around to see a young man who looked exactly like him, save for a few major details. His eyes were black with red irises and he wore a red version of Jack's normal long white jacket.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" Jack demanded to know.

"Would you believe me if I said I was your conscience?" Jack's dark twin chuckled. Jack was not at all amused. "Not in the mood for jokes, I see. Ah well. It doesn't matter who I am, at the moment. All that matters is that I'm here to show you the truth. And the truth is right inside that tent."

"What sort of truth could be in a circus tent?" Jack asked. "Do you really expect me to go in there?"

"What have you got to lose? After all, this is a dream." Dark Jack pointed out. "For now, you might as well play along."

Jack thought about it for a moment, and decided that if he was really dreaming it was only a matter of time before he woke up. He went along with he doppelganger's suggestion and went inside the tent. Dark Jack followed close behind. In moments, the pair found two available seats inside the dimly lit tent. It was a packed house. Jack found that he couldn't distinguish any faces in the large audience, and it wasn't simply because of the darkness of the big top.

Down under the spotlight in the center ring, a short clown with pinkish hair was finishing up a juggling act. Jack recognized the clown as Jaeger, Rex Goodwin's annoying little minion. As soon as the clown's act ended, the faceless audience applauded and Jaeger took a bow. Afterwards, Rex came into the ring wearing a top hat and a tuxedo with a red jacket and grey pants.

"And now the moment you've all been waiting for, ladies and gentlemen!" Rex announced. "Neo Domino Circus is proud to present our main attraction! The magnificent Jack Atlas!"

Riding out under the spotlight on a white unicycle was a monkey dressed exactly like Jack. It even had a blonde wig styled exactly like Jack's hair. Many of the audience members were laughing at the little primate. Most of the women in the audience were commenting on how cute the monkey Jack Atlas looked. Jack on the other hand was furious.

"What the hell kind of joke is this?" Jack shouted as he stood up from his chair.

"It's no joke." Dark Jack replied with a smug grin and crossed arms. "This is what you've become, a sideshow for the public's amusement."

Before Jack could argue, he suddenly found that he was under the light in the center ring. He tried to ask what was going on, but all that came out of his mouth were the grunting and squeaking noises of a monkey. Jack looked at his hands and saw hairy paws. As the audience laughed at him Jack let out a primal inhuman screech.

Jack shot up in bed, cold sweat on his brow. He looked at his hands and saw that they were human. After letting out a relieved sigh, Jack got up and pulled the drapes to his large bedroom window. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the harsh light of the morning sun. But the sun shining over the courtyard of the Goodwin mansion was a welcome sight after having such a vivid and unsettling dream.

After a few minutes, Jack finally brushed it off as nothing more than a bad dream that meant nothing and went about getting dressed. As soon as he finished putting on his usual outfit, Jack went down to the large dining hall. At his normal seat at the end of the table he found his usual cup of Blue-Eyes Mountain Coffee waiting for him. The rich dark aroma beckoned to Jack to sit down. Almost as soon as Jack had taken his first sip of the hot liquid, a woman with short blue hair wearing a blue jacket walked into the room. This woman was Jack's personal assistant, Mikage.

"Good morning, Mr. Atlas." Mikage greeted in her usual cheerful manor as she sat down in her usual chair on Jack's right. "You have a fairly light schedule for today. At 10:30, you have a commercial shoot for the new…"

Jack only half listened to Mikage as she went through his schedule for the day, something that she had done every morning ever since Jack became champion. Jack had learned quickly that even being a king had its downsides. With the title of champion had also come boring endorsement meetings, tedious commercial shoots, and the occasional autograph signing. Jack had grown a little tired of signing his own name over and over again.

"…Oh, and you have a match this afternoon." Mikage informed him.

At this, Jack gave his assistant his full attention. "So what loser am I up against today?"

"Well according this, his name's Chet McClure." Mikage read from her notes. "He's the five time winner of the Sun City Grand Prix."

"Another hic town champion." Jack scoffed. "When is Goodwin ever going to send me some real competition?"

"He's supposed to be quite good." Mikage assured him. "They call him the Shining Knight."

"Well I supposed he could be good for a laugh at least." Jack decided as he finished his coffee. "He certainly won't be shining once I'm through with him."

"Yes, well you can defeat Mr. McClure later." Mikage told him as she stood up. "Right now we have a commercial shoot to get to."

Young reporter, Carly Nagisa got into her small car and turned the ignition. The engine struggled for a moment and failed to start. She tried a second time and still nothing. Sighing heavily, Carly got out of the car and went around to the back. She was already running very late due to her alarm clock failing to go off at the proper time. The last thing needed that morning was to deal with her temperamental vehicle. Had she more money, Carly would trade in her old car for something newer and much more reliable, or at the very least get her car some decent repairs. But as what little income she made had to be put towards food and rent, Carly was forced to make due with the car she had.

Carly gave the back of her car one hard kick. The kick was just enough to rouse the engine from its slumber. Carly hurried to the front of the vehicle, tripping momentarily along the way. Once back in the driver's seat, she quickly buckled up and took off down the road. After Carly had gotten only a few blocks away from her apartment building, the cell phone mounted on the dashboard suddenly projected the holographic image of an older and somewhat overweight man with grey hair and a mustache.

"Carly!" the projection shouted, causing Carly to swerve and almost hit a mailbox on the side of the road. "Do you have any idea what time it is? Where the hell are you?"

"Sorry chief." A frightened Carly told the projection of her boss.

"Never mind that." The chief said a little more calmly. "I got an assignment for you. I want you to get an interview with Jack Atlas."

"You want me to get an interview with Jack?" Carly asked for confirmation, her face lighting up.

"Yeah. Normally I'd give the job to someone else, but right now I've got everyone in Satellite trying to dig up dirt on what happened to the Infinity Triad." The chief explained. "So right now, you're all I've got."

"You can count on me, chief!" Carly enthusiastically replied.

"Just get the thing on my desk as soon as you can." The chief's hologram ordered before vanishing.

Carly knew very well about the story her editor and chief had sent his other reporters out on. Only two weeks ago, the shadowy group that ran the island of Satellite, known as the Infinity Triad, had suddenly and inexplicably vanished off the face of the earth. The event seemed to coincide somewhat with a peculiar solar eclipse that astronomers had still been unable to explain. All that and the fact that the Infinity Triad was such a mysterious group to begin with made the story greatly alluring to Carly. But at the moment, Carly was far more excited about her current assignment.

The simple fact was that Carly was a raging Jack Atlas fan. She even harbored a secret crush on the duel king of Neo Domino. And now she was going to actually be able to talk to him. At that moment, Carly felt like she was in heaven.

"Looks like this is going to be a great day after all, huh Carly?" a gentle high voice spoke, startling Carly and causing her to almost run into a parked car on the side of the road.

After getting the car back on course, Carly looked to her left and saw a small fairy-like being that resembled a girl with short blonde hair wearing a gold dress. At the sides of her head, her hair was styled into a pair of feathered wings. Carly knew this being well as Fortune Fairy Hikari. Out of the six Fortune Fairies, Hikari was the youngest, and the most friendly.

"Hikari, how many times have I told you not to startle me like that when I'm driving?" Carly reminded her.

"Oh, sorry." Hikari replied, looking a little bit ashamed. "But this great, isn't it? I mean you get to meet and interview your most favorite person in the world."

"Yeah. I am totally excited about it." Carly admitted with a beaming smile.

"You'll probably just screw it up though." Another familiar voice mocked. "You always do."

Carly didn't have to look to know whom the voice belonged to. It was another Fortune Fairy, one with long dark-purple hair styled with wings and a lavender dress. This was the second oldest of the Fortune Fairies, Fortune Fairy Ann.

"Why do you always have to be so mean Ann?" an upset Hikari asked.

"Hey, I'm just telling it like it is." Ann replied indifferently. "Carly always screws things up because she's a major screw up herself."

"You take that back!" Hikari demanded on the verge of tears.

"Now, now. Calm down, both of you." Another familiar voice cut in.

Carly instantly recognized it as the voice of the eldest Fortune Fairy sister, who had short brown hair also styled with wings, an orange dress, and big glasses that were almost like Carly's. It was Fortune Fairy Chee.

"The two of you shouldn't fight, especially not while Carly's driving." Swee told her two younger sisters.

"I totally agree. The two of you are being quite uncivilized." Another familiar voice interrupted.

Carly which Fortune Fairy the voice belonged to, but glanced anyway for confirmation. Sure enough, it was the third oldest of the sisters, who had long dark-blue hair and the light blue dress, Fortune Fairy Swee. Swee was sipping from a cup of tea, as she often did. Carly never understood where it was Swee got the tea. After all, her card never showed her with a cup of tea. But then there was much about the Fortune Fairies that Carly didn't understand. Like how she could even see or hear them in the first place.

Carly first met the Fortune Fairies when she got their cards in a deck she had received on her eleventh birthday. She realized very quickly that she was the only one who could see or hear them, and kept the fact that she could a secret from everyone else. Even at that age, Carly was smart enough to realize that if she told her parents or teachers that she spoke to invisible fairies that only seemed to exist as playing cards, they would send her to a therapist who would most likely throw her in an institution and put her on heavy medication.

"Besides, we all know that Ann is right." Swee continued. "Carly is bound to screw up this interview somehow. The fact is it's in Carly's nature. Misfortune follows her like a shadow. We all know it."

"That's enough Swee." Chee told her. "We all need to be supportive of Carly right now. This is a very important break for her."

"Yeah Swee, quit being such a stick in the mud and lighten up for once." Another familiar voice cut in. Carly recognized the voice immediately as the redheaded second youngest Fortune Fairy sister, Fortune Fairy En. "You know more people would like you more if you weren't so stuck up."

"And more people would like you more if you were more mature." Swee retorted, causing En to stick her tongue out at her.

"Will you all keep it down?" another familiar voice complained. Carly knew the voice as that of the last and third youngest Fortune Fairy sister, the green-haired Fortune Fairy Hu. "Some of us are trying to sleep in."

At that moment, the six sisters began to bicker amongst themselves. Carly sighed heavily at this. It seemed like it was going to be one of those mornings after all.

The Neo Domino stadium was once again packed with fans eager to see a good Turbo Duel. Jack sat in his white circular D-Wheel waiting for the signal to make his entrance.

"Welcome everyone to another exciting Turbo Duel here at Neo Domino Stadium!" the MC announced. "And now, please give a big hand to our city's king of dueling, Jack Atlas!"

Jack drove his D-Wheel out the entrance to the pits and zoomed up to the starting line. He stopped and pointed into the air. "There's only one king, and that's me! Jack Atlas!"

Most of the audience cheered loudly at Jack. Though he noticed that a small chunk of the audience seemed to be booing at him. But as far as Jack was concerned, those people were probably just a bunch of out of town idiots who couldn't tell a good duelist from a hole in the ground.

"Facing Jack today is the man they've started to call the Shining Knight." The MC announced. "Please give a warm Neo Domino welcome to Chet McClure!"

Pulling up next to Jack at the starting line on a shining gold-plated D-Wheel was a young man with blonde hair wearing a gold riding suit with a white scarf. His gold helmet was tucked under his arm and he gave a big wave to the audience.

"I hope you've enjoyed your reign as king, Atlas. Because after today that throne will belong to yours truly." Chet declared as he put his helmet back on.

"In your dreams." Jack scoffed.

"Duelists on your marks! Get set! Duel!" the MC declared.

Jack and Chet took off at full speed down the track. Jack quickly overtook the rider of the golden D-Wheel and rounded the first corner.

"Track Field, activate!" Jack announced. "Resonator Village!"

In seconds the inside of the stadium transformed into a village with small grey and black huts. Extending out of the roofs of these huts were copper pipes like the ones used with pipe organs. In the center of the village was a giant golden tuning fork.

"I summon Flare Resonator in Defense Mode!" Jack announced.

Materializing by Jack's D-Wheel was a small demon-like creature with a grey horned helmet the covered its whole head, only showing a pair of round red eyes and a fanged mouth. It had on grayish-purple robes and wore a red banner that showed an orange flame on its chest. Flames burned on the demon's back. In its right hand it held a large golden tuning fork, while in its left it had a metal stick with a large red ball at the top.

"That ends my turn." Jack announced.

"That's a pretty pathetic opening move for someone who claims to be king!" Chet declared as he drew his first card. "I summon Marauding Captain in Attack Mode!"

Appearing by Chet was an unshaven warrior with light-brown hair. He had on grey armor and a tattered red cape.

"With Marauding Captain's effect, I also summon the Tuner, Tune Warrior from my hand!" Chet announced.

Appearing next to Marauding Captain was another warrior in futuristic red in black armor with speakers in it. He had on black glasses over his eyes and his arms ended in large silver headphone jacks.

"I now tune the level three Tune Warrior into the level three Marauding Captain for a level six Synchro Summon!" Chet announced.

Tune Warrior flashed orange and changed into three rings of green light. The rings encircled the captain and changed him into three white balls of light.

"Spirits of earth gather together! Create the path of the gallant champion!" Chet chanted. "Synchro Summon! Charge forth, Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth!"

The lights flashed into a large column of light. Charging out of it on a purple horse was a cybernetic knight in blue and yellow armor. His silver mechanical arms ended in a pair of red lances.

"Gaia, destroy Flare Resonator!" Chet commanded. "Spiral Joust!"

The knight charged and struck Flare Resonator with a spiraling wave of green energy from his right lance. The small demon was cut to ribbons from the attack and shattered into bits of light.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Chet announced. "Try and counter that, Atlas!"

Jack grinned as he drew his next card. He had now gotten a feel for the kind of duelist Chet was. How anyone could be a champion of anything with such a dime store deck, Jack would never know. But he didn't care either way. Jack decided that he would toy with Chet a bit before crushing him completely.

"I summon Mad Archfiend in Attack Mode!" Jack announced.

Materializing onto the track was a demon with wild red hair. The only thing that could be told about his face was that he had yellow eyes. He had animal skulls on over his shoulders, and in the large mouth on his torso he had a white human skull.

"I now activate the effect of Resonator Village! Since I have a Fiend-type monster on the field, I can summon Flare Resonator from the Graveyard!" Jack announced. The flaming demon reappeared on the battlefield. "I now tune the level three Flare Resonator into the level four Mad Archfiend for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

Flare Resonator clanged his tuning fork against his metal stick, causing the fork to vibrate. With the fork's vibration, Flare resonator became three rings of green light and encircled the mad demon. Mad Archfiend in turn became four balls of white light.

"Star of death, shining at heaven's zenith! Descend to Earth and judge the living!" Jack chanted. "Synchro Summon! The king of divine punishment, Dark Highlander!"

The lights flashed into a large column of white light. When the light faded it revealed a large demonic-looking figure with a white mask-like face. He had on black and gold armor with a long black cape. In his hands he carried a very large scythe.

"Flare Resonator gives any monster it summons 300 extra ATK points." Jack revealed. "Which means Dark Highlander's 2800 ATK becomes 3100! Dark Highlander, attack Gaia Knight! Death Polar!"

"I activate my Trap, Negate Attack!" Chet quickly announced.

Dark Highlander charged forward with the blade of his scythe high in the air. But his attack was pushed back by a vortex that suddenly appeared in front of Chet's knight.

"What a shame." Jack remarked with a mocking grin. "Ah well. I guess I'll end my turn."

Chet drew his next card. "Your Dark Highlander is nothing compared to my ultimate monster! I summon Torapart in Attack Mode!"

Appearing on the field was a pair of puppets dressed in black with pointed hats and blue gloves. At the base of each puppet was a cymbal.

"I now tune the level two Torapart into the level six Gaia Knight for a level eight Synchro Summon!" Chet announced.

The Torapart puppets chimed their cymbals together. But to Chet's utter surprise, nothing happened.

"What's going on?" a shocked Chet wondered.

"As long as Dark Highlander is on the field, neither of us and perform a Synchro Summon." Jack explained. "So much for your ultimate monster."

"I, uh… I end my turn." Chet reluctantly announced.

Jack knew it was time to move in for the kill as he drew his next card. "I'll start things off by equipping Gaia Knight with Demon's Shackle!"

A metal collar attached to the chain appeared on the knight's neck. Attached to the other end of the chain was a large black metal ball with a demonic face.

"I also equip Gaia Knight with Cursed Shield!" Jack announced.

Replacing Gaia's left lance was a demonic-looking shield with brown scales and large black spikes on the sides. In the center of the shield was a large yellow eye.

"I now activate Dark Highlander's effect!" Jack announced. "I destroy all cards equipped to Gaia and inflict 400 points of damage for each one! And when Cursed Shield is destroyed, it inflicts 800 points of damage! Making for a total of 1600 points!"

Dark Highlander struck the ground with his scythe. The two cursed armaments equipped to Gaia suddenly exploded and struck Chet with the shrapnel. His life points dropped to 2400.

"Dark Highlander, destroy Torapart!" Jack commanded. "Death Polar!"

The celestial reaper charged forward and cut the two puppets down the middle. The attack brought Chet's life points down to zero. With the duel at its end, the monsters on the field vanished and the stadium returned to normal.

"Once again, the winner and champion of the duel is Jack Atlas!" the MC announced.

Much of the audience cheered as a dejected Chet drove off. As Jack went back to the pits, he couldn't help but feel dissatisfied by the duel. Beating Chet was a good laugh he was hardly what Jack considered a worthy opponent. He began to wonder if he would ever face an opponent who could even come close to matching him.

Author's Note: To add some potential comic relief and make thing more interesting in the later chapters, I decided to show the Fortune Fairies as actual Duel Monster spirits instead of just cards. I tried to make their personalities reflect their attributes and the fortunes their cards give out. Not to mention their general appearance in the card illustrations. Some of the fairies were easier to depict than others. The age of each of the fairies is based on the level of their cards.

I ended up thinking long and hard about the duel in this first chapter. In the end I decided that bringing back that flaming skull guy (I forget the character's name) would only be rehashing the anime. So I just came up with a throw away character with a very basic deck.

Pleace review and let me know what you think.