Me: Hah, looks like I'm updating Blue Sky now!

Sky: Wait, how can you? You need Lucy, er, Lucifer, don't you?

Me: *Grins, and holds up a stack of papers* He sent 'em to me.

Sky: Dang it… I was hoping his chase for… whatever character they're trying to find for Shimmer would be distracting enough.

Me: Never underestimate my muses' powers of multitasking.

Sky: *Grumbles*

Me: Well… alright then! I'll start the chapter! I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds, but I do own my OCs. I hope you enjoy… although as a fair warning, there might be some OOC (namely Crow and Yusei, after… the video (you'll know what that is soon)), and there are two death scenes as well. :)

Chapter 63

The screen freezes, and I stare at it. What. The. Heck. Just. Happened? "How the… why the…?" I stop, take a deep breath and calm myself, because I'm getting frustrated that I can't figure out how to word my question.

"But you're not dead," I eventually say. "Why would Divine say that you were the child that died?"

"Because I did," Z-ONE replies. "This is where it gets complicated…" Now he stares at the screen that was showing me his past. It starts up again.

XXX

The gears are practically visible, turning in Yusei's mind as he comprehends the statement. "But… but I'm… I'm not dead…"

"Yes, I can see that," Divine replies, sarcasm dripping in his voice. "See, this is where the complicated part comes in. Actually, the full version of what happened is too complicated for me to explain, so I'll give you a summary of what happened. What your father did."

"What… what my father did?" Yusei asks.

Divine's grin turns into a smirk. "What, you thought that Rudger was the only scientist here that was working on experiments of questionably ethics?"

"My father is—" Yusei flinches, and corrects, "was a good man! There's no way he would do something that might involve hurting or even killing someone!"

The auburn-haired main purses his lips, and nods. "That is the truth… but to be of questionable ethics doesn't necessarily mean hurting another human." Now, he shakes his head. "No, what your father was doing was trying to see if he could bring the dead back to life… with Momentum."

"He… what?"

"Up until the moment he tested it with you, it had all been a theory; information gathered but no physical evidence that it could work," Divine continues. "And then, when the assault caused your death, he had the perfect test subject."

"And it worked… obviously, or else I wouldn't be here," Yusei says. "But what, exactly, was he testing?"

"He was testing the machine you're currently attached to," Divine replies.

"That's not a machine, that's two poles connected by a bar," Crow says.

"Are you so sure about that?" Divine presses several buttons on his keyboard, stops, mutters something to himself, and types in whatever the password is.

The two poles morph, becoming wider, and three rings come out of each, resting at the top of the two poles. The rings radiate energy.

"This is what he used to bring you back," Divine says, "but it can also be used to take away what you were given."

"How do you know about all of this?" Yusei asks.

"Because I was here, during that first test," the man replies. "The connection between Momentum and Psychic Duelists had already been made, and they needed me in case the machine didn't work."

Yusei is silent for a moment, and then he says, "Why would you help my father?"

"Let's just say… I owed him a debt."

Crow lets out a short laugh. "You, owing someone else a debt?"

Divine glares at the orange-haired teen. "Say one more word, boy, and I'll kill you myself—and it will be long and painful."

Crow shuts up immediately.

Turning back to Yusei, Divine says, "Yes, I owed your father a debt, and it did come into play that day. The machine didn't transfer enough Momentum, so I had to assist. When I tried to," he chuckles a little, "I unwittingly bonded your heart to that of Momentum's. Now that I look back, I think that's the only reason the process actually managed to bring you back to life."

More silence as Yusei processes the new information. It certainly would explain why, standing (or crouching) here, face-to-face with the reactor makes him feel… energized, in some way. "I'm… bonded… to Momentum…" he says slowly. "So… if you do this… if you use the machine to take back that bond…"

"You will, undoubtedly, die," Divine answers. "Almost exactly like Aki and Ruka, only yours will be… quicker."

He hangs his head. There isn't anything he can do to stop Divine from doing this. Not when he's tied to the machine, and tightly—he can barely move his hands anymore. Not when Crow and Sherry are also tied up. And certainly not when his older sister remains under Divine's control…

But if she were freed…

'How to do that, though?' Yusei thinks, still hanging his head.

Sky had broken free already, right when he mentioned their father and sister… What if their mother was mentioned? Could it… possibly…

"If… if you're going to kill me anyways…" Yusei says to his captor, "please… Show me what happened to my mother."

"Fair enough," the psychic replies. "After all, finding out what happened to her was what pulled you into this in the first place." He keys in a string of words, and one of the screens he had tuned into Arcadia HQ fuzzes out. It returns, in full color, to the inside of a hallway.

XXX

The wallpaper is familiar to Yusei—a pale pink with flower designs along the middle. It lines the hallway that led to his sisters' rooms, back before the fire. Whoever is carrying the camera that is recording this gets closer to one of the doors, and enters it without knocking.

Sky and Ayame Fudo are the only two occupants other than the camera holder. The twelve-year-old Sky's skin is pale and clammy, and her eyes are a little bit dull. Ayame sits on a chair next to the bed, her brown hair pulled out of her eyes, as she reads a story to her daughter.

"Mommy, who's that?" Sky asks. Her gaze was clearly on the camera holder.

The woman pats her daughter's head, thinking she's only hallucinating. "Just rest, Sky. There's nothing wrong."

"Who is it?" Sky repeats.

Ayame sighs, but turns around. She lets out a gasp of surprise when she realizes Sky wasn't hallucinating, but alarm quickly turns to simple confusion. "Rex? What are you doing here? …Actually, did you even knock?"

"No, I didn't," Rex Godwin's voice echoes. "He knows."

No context is necessary. Those two words are enough to return the alarm to the woman's face. "Are… are you sure?"

"I'm sure." There is the sound of clothing shifting, and something metal being removed from a cloth bag.

"Is that… Is that one of your brother's machines?" the brown-haired, golden-eyed woman asks. She narrows her eyes at something off-screen. "My goodness, is that the portable mind control device? Why would you need it… and here, for that matter?"

There is silence for a few seconds. Then, Rex's voice answers, "I'm sorry, Ayame. I…" He stops talking, and several mechanical clicks resonate in the small room.

Sky stiffens in the bed. She throws the blanket off of her, and gets off of it. Her eyes are even more dull now, and she stares blankly at Godwin.

Ayame looks at her daughter with horror, then back to Rex. "What are you doing to my daughter?!"

"Sky, pick up your Duel Disk," Rex says, ignoring Ayame. The girl complies, and he adds, "Now Summon Celestial Dragon-Quasar."

The silver-and-purple dragon appears, sized down slightly because of the size of the room. Although the dragon's expression is different than normal. Her eyes are blank, yet at the same time, there's a level of sorrow under the emptiness.

Ayame puts a hand to her mouth. She knows what is going to happen. "Rex… please, you can't seriously think he'll live up to his offer of leaving your family alone. Not with… not with Angel possibly having abilities."

"But if I don't do this, he'll kill Miyuki and my children… make me watch… and then get rid of me," Godwin says. "I'm sorry, Ayame. I have to do this."

"No, Rex, you don't! We can change this, we can still stop him together—"

"I'll make sure he doesn't harm your family," he interrupts. The camera angle changes slightly as he shifts his weight. "Sky, have Celestial Dragon-Quasar attack that woman."

'That woman'. About as impersonal as he could make it while still making it sound like Ayame was human.

Without making any noise, Sky points at her mother. Her eyes retain the dead look as her dragon prepares the attack. A silver ball of flames shoots from the dragon's mouth, and hits Ayame square in the chest. The woman screams, and the video cuts out just as the bedroom curtain catches fire…

But the scream echoes still, even without images.

XXX

His breath catches in his throat. Sure, Yusei had known that Rex was there when his mother died. He hadn't… he certainly hadn't expected Rex to have actually commanded Sky to kill Ayame.

"You know how your mother died. Happy now?" Divine asks Yusei.

Yusei says nothing. He looks at his older sister, whose back is turned towards him, but he can see that she's quivering. "Sky…" he whispers.

"Hmph. Enough stalling. It's time for me to extract the key," Divine says.

He moves his hand over a blue button on the control panel next to him. Right before he presses it, Sky shouts, "Wait! Yusei… Yusei doesn't have the key! I do!"

Divine's hand freezes, and he pulls it back, curling his fingers as he does so. He snaps his head in Sky's direction. "What?"

"I… I remember everything. I remember what happened during the fire…" Sky says, in a weak voice. "There… there was so much smoke and… and it was so hot… Everything went dark, but… but then… I could see… a light. It was a small orb of Momentum. I remember… crawling towards it… reaching out… taking it as my own… and then the next thing I know, I'm waking up in the hospital."

"Impossible!" Divine snarls. "If you had taken it, then Yusei would be dead! How do you even know that it was the key that you took?"

"I didn't know it was the key until just now," Sky replies, her voice no longer weak but confident. "But… I remember sensing some sort of shift in Yusei's energy after the fire. It was the key. I know it was. And just because I took the key doesn't mean I severed the bond that keeps him alive."

"Then… then… I'll take it from you myself!" Divine shouts, lunging at Sky.

"No!" Yusei screams. He can't lose Sky, the only living family he has left…

Sky smiles, and sidesteps the man. "Quasar! Catch him!"

The silver dragon grabs the man with both of her hands, lifting him off the ground. "Ngh…! Put me down!" he shouts.

"No. Not until you've paid for everything you've done," Sky replies. She walks over to the machine Sherry, Crow, and Yusei are tied to and frees them from their bonds, apologizing as she does so.

As soon as he regains feeling in his arms, Yusei throws them around his older sister. "I'm so glad you're free now," he mumbles into her shoulder.

Sky pats the back of his head. "If only it could have happened sooner…" she says quietly. "But we can't change the past, and right now, we have to deal with Divine. We can grieve later."

"Right." He lets go of Sky, and faces Divine. The man glares at all of them, but says nothing.

"Not so tough now that the tables have turned, huh?" Crow asks. An idea crosses his mind, "Maybe I should do what you said… What was it again? 'I'll kill you myself—and it will be long and painful'? Something like that." He turns to the others. "Wouldn't that be a fitting punishment?"

"It would… but…" Sky shakes her head. "No. Even with everything that he's done to us, we don't have the right to kill him."

There is a moment of tension in the room as Sherry agrees with Crow's question as Crow and Sky have a short staredown, until Yusei breaks it apart by saying, "There are other ways to make someone suffer that don't involve killing them."

"Heh."

The group turns to Divine, still trapped in the silver dragon's grasp. He's laughing now, and says, "Haven't you ever heard the saying 'Don't count your chickens before they hatch'?"

"What can you do? You're trapped and outnumbered," Yusei asks.

"No. I'm evenly matched—Sky is the only one who poses a threat to me." Another short laugh, and he shouts, "Hyper Psychic Blaster!"

A bright flash of light fills the room, along with a woman's scream. When the occupants can see again, Celestial Dragon-Quasar is gone, Divine is grinning evilly, and Hyper Psychic Blaster hovers behind him, shooting off a continuous beam of green electricity from one of its arms, with the other trained on Yusei.

Sky's screams fade to nothing, and the attack is called off. The golden-haired woman falls, unmoving, to the ground.

Disbelief and worry set into Yusei's gut, creating an extremely unpleasant feeling inside of him. "Sky…?" He moves to see if she's okay, but Crow gets there first.

The orange-haired teen sticks two fingers to Sky's throat, looks at Yusei, and nods. "She's alive, but she needs a doctor."

After all, who else would know how much damage that electricity caused?

Yusei heaves a sigh of relief before spinning around to face Divine.

He was the cause of all his misery. His parents' and younger sister's deaths, the loss of his house when he was younger, and the near-loss of the only family he has left. Curling his hands into fists, Yusei declares, "Divine! I challenge you to a Duel!"

XXX

The scene freezes, and I stare at it for a moment before looking at Z-ONE. "There's no way Divine would accept that. Not when he has the upper hand."

"That was his first response, actually, until Angel regained consciousness and, once again, leveled the playing field," Z-ONE replies. "Then he accepted it, once I added an ultimatum: if I won, Divine would be punished, while if he won, he would be allowed to fulfill his goal—take the first key from my sister and finish whatever he had started."

"Seems fair," I say. "Although… what was Divine trying to do? Up until now, I've only heard explanations on the reasons for and the means to do whatever Divine is trying to do… but not what he wants to do with Momentum."

Anger flashes across Z-ONE's face. "Power."

"What?"

"He. Wanted. Power." The anger blossoms into fury. "All he wanted from it all was power! Power to control everyone else, like some clichéd villain from a book or movie!"

"That… sounds like something he would do," I say with complete honesty. Sure, I don't know how well Divine and Sayer compare, and I don't really know Sayer aside from the fact that he tried to kill me at least twice, but from everything I've seen so far, the two are pretty good parallels—other than Divine being a tad more sadistic.

Just a tad.

"Who won?" I ask, almost certain that Z-ONE won't show me the Duel.

"I did," he replies. "We had a deal… and he broke it."

XXX

Divine has no monsters on his field. No cards face-down. One card in his hand, but it's only Krebons. The auburn-haired, olive-green-eyed man is panting slightly, looking at Yusei with a mixture of fury and disbelief.

Yusei, while bleeding from several cuts on his torso sustained during the Duel, has one monster on the field. Stardust Dragon flaps his wings, sending glittering particles to the floor. The crab-haired teen points at Divine, declaring, "This is for what you did to my family and my friends! Stardust Dragon, attack him directly and end this Duel!"

The stream of silverish energy bursts from the dragon's mouth with so much force it would kill Divine in an instant, had Yusei been Psychic. Instead, the Solid Vision just knocks the psychopath to his rear.

Divine's Life Points: 0. Winner: Yusei Fudo

"Gah, this isn't… this isn't over! Damn you! All of you!" Divine shouts, standing up off the floor, back pressed against the wall.

"Yeah, Yusei! That's how you show him!" Crow exclaims, slamming a hand onto his friends back. He grins at Yusei.

"I knew you could do it…" Sky says weakly, leaning on Angel for support. Her skin is pale, and her eyes don't seem very focused on anything, but that's fine with Yusei because she's at least still alive.

"You have done NOTHING!" Divine roars, shoving Sherry (who had been going after him with handcuffs again) aside, and grabbing Sky off of her position on Angel. Sometime while running, a knife ended up in his hand, and he digs said knife against the golden-haired woman's throat.

Sky, powerless to do anything, leans back, eyes wide, tears welling up in her eyes because the knife is pressed so hard against her throat it's drawing blood. She makes a small noise, and Divine presses the dagger down even harder.

"She was lying! That story about taking the key from you was a lie!" Divine exclaims wildly.

Yusei blinks and looks away. He'd figured as much, since Sky had been fidgeting while she told them about that. It was a nervous habit she'd picked up somehow, and became a sign of her trying to lie. Divine just didn't know it at the time.

"Let her go!" Yusei says forcefully. "Let… let her go and I'll let you use the machine on me. I won't struggle."

"You can't mean that, Yus'!" Crow shouts, staring at his friend in horror.

Yusei looks at Crow. "I can't let him kill my sister. And if this is what it takes…"

Sky makes another noise, and the word 'sorry' is barely audible. Strain appears on her face, and for a moment, Yusei is confused because what can she do in her position that requires so much effort? As soon as he realizes it, he lunges for the knife.

It's too late. Sky elbows Divine as hard as she can in the gut. Taken aback by the hit, Divine stumbles backwards, releasing Sky. However, his grip on the dagger had stayed firm the entire time. And he had been pressing it so hard against the elder Fudo sibling's neck. As he stumbles backwards, a clean, deep gash appears along Sky's neck, from the middle of her throat all the way to nearly her spine.

She falls to the floor, one hand on her throat, and the other reaching out, all while choking on her own blood.

There is no way she'll survive that. Not with the cut as deep as it is. And it just happens to be the longer way to die because of a slit throat… Choking on her own blood…

"SKY!" Yusei screeches, falling to his knees and grabbing the outstretched arm. He pulls Sky closer to him, eyes falling to the mortal wound. "I…"

Sky weakly pulls the arm he has away from him and presses two fingers to his lips, shaking her head. Then she smiles sadly.

He has no idea what to do. Is there a way to stop this? There has to be; some people survive getting their throat cut… She can't… She won't die.

A moment—whether it's five seconds or five minutes, Yusei can't tell, because it just felt like time had stopped—later, she does. She makes one last, struggled breath, eyes locked with Yusei's… and a smile—a freaking smile appears on her face, hand gripping Yusei's as though to portray the fact that she didn't really want to leave him, but accepted her imminent death.

He just stares. No one makes a sound, other than a half-muffled, half-screamed cry of anguish that somehow escapes the back of Yusei's throat. "No… no… you stupid… selfish…!" His spine contracts, and his entire upper body jerks downward. "COME BACK! PLEASE! I NEED YOU, SKY!"

He thought he'd used up any and all tears he could produce when he had watched over half of his friends die, but he was wrong, because a steady flow of them now streams from his eyes as his body racked with sobs.

Time becomes a nonexistent property to Yusei as he sits there, holding his dead sister tight, crying his eyes out. He has no grasp on reality until someone grabs him by the shoulders and peels him up off the ground. With his vision blurry, and thinking it's Divine who just picked him up, Yusei whips around furiously, striking whoever had picked him up.

Someone grunts in pain, and Yusei blinks away the blurriness until he realizes that Crow is now rubbing his arm. "Wha…? Sorry, Crow…" Voice raw, Yusei says nothing else.

"It's fine, but we need to get the hell out of here," Crow says. "Now."

Yusei finally registers the frantic beeping from the reactor's control panel. A quick glance confirms his suspicions—the energy readings have spiked to dangerous levels, and they look to still be rising. If it keeps up, the entire thing could blow up, and being right next to it if it does would mean instant death.

A piece of him says to stay; if the reactor does blow, he would be able to join his family. But the conscious, stronger side of him says to go; live on for them. "Right." Looks like it'll be one-word sentences for now. Anything else makes his throat hurt.

Unfortunately, someone grabs Yusei from behind, and because he isn't balanced well at all, he has no leverage to fight back until whoever has him is pressing hard on a pressure point and by that point… It's too late to do anything.

The pressure point shoots spikes of pain everywhere; so much that Yusei can hardly concentrate.

He hears Crow shout something in a rage, and Angel add something to it, but not exactly what either twin says. Probably trying to get Divine to let go of him, but the man doesn't listen… Possibly replying with the clichéd, "if I go down, someone else will with me" line. Yusei isn't sure.

The only thing he's sure of, other than the pain spikes from the blasted pressure point, is that the warning beeps from the control panel has transformed into a siren; a warning wail that shouldn't be ignored.

'If I'm bonded to Momentum, then maybe the explosion won't kill me,' Yusei thinks. 'But, it will certainly kill Angel, Crow, and Sherry if they're close when it it goes off…' He summons whatever strength he has in him, and bellows, "Go! I'll be fine!"

In his spotty vision, he can make out his friends (and acquaintance), their outlines standing still for a moment, before one of the ones with orange hair (he can't tell the difference at this point), grabs the other two, and they start running away.

The world spins, and Yusei again has no idea how much time passes.

When he is aware of his surroundings once more, he quickly wishes he'd stayed half-unconscious.

The siren stops, glass shatters, and everything around Yusei is suddenly hot, an unbearable cocoon of pure energy.

And then everything goes cold, and he's falling, plunging, flying, diving, collapsing, maybe dying, falling…

A Duel Monsters card flutters in front of his face. Z-ONE… Z-ONE… Z-ONE…

Falling…

To be continued…

Me: And that's it.

Sky: *Stares blankly at the wall*

Me: …Sky?

Sky: *Says nothing*

Me: …Crap. I think I just traumatized my main OC.

Aurelia: *Appears* Meany! You killed Meema!

Me: No, Lucifer did, and it's a version of her from a different dimension.

Aurelia: *Sticks tongue out* Meany!

Me: Okay… Uhm… Sorry…?

Aurelia: Don't do it again.

Me: But I still have… Dusk… *Sigh* Just leave it alone, or I'll through you in the Closet of Doom.

Aurelia: *Crosses arms* Alwight…

Me: Good. ANYWAYS, thanks for reading this story! I really appreciate the fact that so many people have read this (the story has over 20,000 views, if anyone cares to know), and that so many people have reviewed, favorited, and followed it. Please, keep supporting me and leave a review! I don't care if you say you hate this story, if I can tell what the problem is, I'll try to fix it. Bye for now!