Oh gosh! Do I owe you all a GIGANTIC apology! I didn't intend for this story to go on so long without an update! I'm so so so so so sorry! And for any of you still sticking with me I honestly and from the deepest parts of my heart and soul appreciate and love you! Wow a lot has happened during this time but first I would like to mention that the lovely Count Morningstar has written a Yugioh 5Ds fic including my girl Raven called "5Ds alternative book 1: Stardust and Roses" and is currently working on "Book 2: The False king." So please go check them out if you haven't already!
Now I would also like to thank JuneGilbertVivianRaeven for their wonderful messages and helping me out big time with this next chapter, and the equally amazing Johanna Ershova for their encouraging messages. As for my beautiful reviewers; FiringShootingStar, Molly Grace 16, Count Morningstar, Osseo Fan 48127, Magdalene Thorne, JuneGilbertVivianRaeven, Johanna Ershova, Samrit and my two mysterious Guest reviewers,I thank you all very much and hope I still have your continued support till the end! Now on with the story!
Disclaimer: Please if I owned Yugioh 5Ds this story would have been updated a LONG time ago. :P
"Okay Crow everything looks clear on your end, Jack do your thing." Bruno said as he stared into the computer screen, video footage from around the hospital shone on the monitor. A small microphone hung down from his ear, transmitting what he said to small ear pieces in both Jack and Crow's ears.
The latter was currently standing outside the employee entrance dressed in a pair of blue scrubs, his red hair hanging down around his face from underneath a matching hat. In front of him was a cart packed high with patient gowns. The furious tapping of key's next to him let Bruno know that Yusei was working on getting into the hospital security system to open the door, which seconds later it did as he pushed the cart forward.
The bluenette turned the screen to the front entrance to check on Jack, he needed no disguise as he was only to distract the reporters, bait them with some inside information on the upcoming Team 5Ds that would participate in the WRGP, thus causing them to switch gears and swarm onto the blonde, effectively distracting the sector security guards as well.
And so far, everything seemed to be going according to plan as he switched screens again, watching as Crow moved from one hallway to the next, and heading straight for the quarantine area. Only there would things begin to get tricky as the security around it was much tighter.
"Keep going down that hall then take a left when you come to the fork, there should be an employee lounge off to the right, let me check to make sure it's empty before you go though." Bruno didn't wait for a response before taping a few keys and the screen switched over to a room with a large round table in the middle and a fridge off to the side, thankfully it was empty and he gave the red head the all clear.
Crow pushed the cart through the door before promptly turning and locking the door behind him. Now this was the part where his 'talents' came in handy,
"Okay Crow, I'll keep watch for anything weird." The red head smirked as he pulled off his hat,
"No sweat! Leave the rest to us; we'll be in and out before you can say duel monsters." Bruno smiled as his screen split off into four different areas's, keeping his eyes on the people walking around, 'I hope this plan works.' He thought silently.
Raven pushed the gowns off of her as she climbed out of the cart, Crow helped by lifting her up and out placing her on the ground next to him. She watched as he moved a chair over to a vent near the ceiling on the far side of the room, holding out his hand she pulled a small bag from the cart and from it a pocket screw driver that Yusei had packed for her and placed it in his hand and clipped the bag around her waist.
After a few turns the metal pieces fell to the ground and the cover came off, he placed it quietly on the ground beside him and looked down at her,
"Ladies first." She cringed at the thought of such a small space, but the thought of finally solving this mystery and cheering on Crow and all her friends at their tournament was enough to squash her fears as she climbed on the chair next to him and with a slight boost from her companion, into the small metal space.
In this case it was a good thing they were both so small, where if Jack or Bruno would have accompanied her they would not have been able to fit. However it was the perfect size for both her and Crow as they made their way through the vents, which if she was being honest were in need of a good cleaning from all the dust and cob webs she kept running into, thankfully a pair of goggles kept any of from getting into her eyes and helped her see through the darkness around them.
"Bruno says after this next right we should be right over the quarantine area." The red head whispered and as she turned the corner she wasn't surprised to find a piece of Plexiglas covering the vent above the room. Crawling over it she dug in her bag she handed Crow a mask to cover his face from any infection that might still be in the air before attaching her own.
He held up his finger telling her wait, once he was give the signal he gave her a thumbs up and she began un-screwing the bolts around the vent, barely catching it before it fell from her reach and alerted the guards standing outside. Looking at the red haired male, he nodded and even though he couldn't see it through her mask she smiled at him and jumped through the hole and to the floor, though it was less than graceful and she landed more on her butt then her feet she still made it.
'Okay Raven, this next part is all on you. Let's get in and get out.' However nothing prepared her for what she saw as she turned around, lying there on the bed was the very first victim of this horrible illness, one who matched the needed criteria for her to fully understand her fathers work, was a young girl no older than twelve. She had light brown hair cut short around her shoulders did nothing to hide the deathly pale shade of her skin or how sunken her cheeks were from days of the aggressive disease attacking her body.
A clear breathing mask covered her face as the various monitors around the stark white bed beeped off different things; it was heart breaking to see how much this poor girl had suffered. 'Don't worry though, I will figure this out and soon you'll be back playing with your friends.'
As Raven moved toward the bed she pulled out various items from her pouch; A camera she used to take pictures of the information written on the girls chart along with the some readings from the monitors. After that was finished she pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and very carefully moved the blanket covering one of the girl's arms back.
What she saw however was not what she expected to see, as horrible black blotches nearly covered the entire appendage. 'There seems to be some sort of weird energy coming off them. What could this be?' sadly she had no answer as of this moment and had no choice but to continue her exam and collect more data.
Just as she reached for the syringe a small hand clamped tightly around her wrist, her yelp muffled by the mask around her mouth, turning her head the once still young girl on the bed was now wide awake and what was even more frightening was her eyes were completely black except for the pupils which shone a glowing shade of blue.
Raven noticed in her peripheral vision as the world began to fuzz as a crawling sensation came upon the arm the young girl was holding; the black blotches moved and twisted like a snake, slithering down her arm and onto Raven's.
Yet instead of taking hold and staining her skin like they had they merely disappeared as her arm glowed an ethereal red color, the space between her shoulders began to burn furiously and for just a second, Raven could swear she heard a dragon's roar. But like lightning though everything faded away as visions passed over her pale blue eyes.
A glowing tower that stood in the middle of what seemed to be New Domino city, a large explosion from inside, the shock splitting the land in two, one side going not far off but far enough that returning to the remaining one would be impossible.
The scene switched as she watched the man from her dream, dressed exactly as she had seen him before, except there was a large cut on his cheek and the area around him, some sort of lab facility was shaking like the foundation itself was collapsing in on itself. In the man's arms however was something she hadn't seen before, it was a small baby in a blue and white onesie.
The gentle look from her dream was gone, replaced now with one of anguish and determination as he gently placed the crying child into an escape pod and strapping him in before the glass closed over him muffling the cries but making them no less heart breaking for Raven as it quickly took off.
Not a minute later as the man from her dream stood there, he wasn't, and a white light enveloped everything. And just as suddenly as the visions came, they left and Raven was back in the hospital room.
Everything was the same as it had been before, yet as she felt the hand clasped around her wrist fall slack back on the bed, she realized it wasn't. The blotches on the young brunette's body were completely gone and already her skin was regaining some of its healthy glow.
A knock from above her brought her attention back to the situation, she stood up, 'Time to go Raven.' Yet no sooner had the thought been formed did the door behind her open up, revealing the doctor she has seen on T.V. a few nights ago.
His brown eyes widened as he realized he wasn't the only conscious person in the room any longer,
"Who are you?! What are you doing in here?!" She gasped, his deep voice muffled behind the white mask he wore over his face, however Raven could see the exhaustion permeating off him as dark circles barely hidden under his glasses and the ever so subtle sag of his shoulders.
Raven noticed Crow staring; eyes wide from behind the doctor's shoulder, Raven merely shook her head. Very slowly she placed her hands on his arm, the man's eyes widened but as if trapped in a trance he didn't move nor look away as her eyes met his.
What happened next Raven couldn't explain; the air around them shifted and suddenly she could see it. The girl lying on the bed next to them was admiring the new cards she had gotten, the scene shifted to her laying in her current state the doctor standing above her running a frustrated hand through his hair.
Raven shifted closer to the man as the vision passed, she could feel something passing between them as they stood together; something strong, something this man had lost.
"Hope." It was the voice of the Crimson Dragon flowing through her, the doctor stepped back but even without the physical contact Raven could still feel it. His hope was there, he still believed there was a way, just as she did.
The air shifted again and returned to normal, the man stared at her his once tired lifeless eyes now bright and shinning with unshed tears. She smiled at him as she spoke;
"Please believe in me, there's a way for me…" she turned her gaze upward to Crow's, "For us to fix this just don't give up your hope. As long as hope lives on there's nothing you can't do." The doctor didn't reply, but she knew the message had been passed and stepped around him and with a little push from her powers she climbed back into the vent.
"So what the duce did we go through all that for if you didn't take anything?!" Jack's voice yelled as Raven sat at their computer typing furiously into the code that her father had made, 'where is it? I thought I saw it somewhere around here…'
She had only vaguely heard the blondes ranting as she looked, but her attention was more focused on what she was looking for. That and Bruno's constant hovering and asking if he could help, Raven of course turned him down every time the question was posed. It wasn't that she didn't believe he could help it was just that she was looking for something very specific that she was sure they knew about.
"Ah ha!" She highlighted a portion of the data, mostly a mixture of 1's and zero's but as she turned around and saw Yusei's now frowning face she knew he understood.
"Joy now we get to look at random numbers, thanks Raven but I'm pretty sure the only one who needs a math quiz is bird brain here." Jack said sarcastically while he pointed his thumb behind him. Before a fight broke out and she lost what attention she had gained she turned and decrypted the data, spelling out two words; Zero-Reverse.
"When that little girl touched me before we had a-"she hesitated as the chair spun back toward them, "I'm not even sure how to explain it but I had a connection with her for a moment, I saw a large explosion and the man from my dream." Just thinking about it made her tear up again, "But…the one thing that kept repeating in my mind was these words. I've heard Crow mention it before but I can't help feeling the man from my dreams and Zero-Reverse are connected somehow, but I'm not even sure who he is…" Yusei stepped toward her, his blue eyes shinning as he spoke;
"What does he look like?" Raven thought about it for a moment absently staring at the dark haired male, now that she really thought about it the hair did look similar and the facial structure….
Raven froze as she remembered Crow's words the other day:
"It was his dad's project and everything." Her world swam as the words repeated over and over in her mind. Yusei's brows furrowed as they continued to stare at one another, the pieces slowly falling into place in her mind.
Her dad, the negative energy, Zero Reverse, Satellite Flu and now; the late Dr. Fudo appearing in her dreams. It was all connected and at the very center, The Crimson Dragon and subsequently; herself as well.
Tears filled her eyes and covered her face with shaking hands, Jack cursed as his coffee cup shattered in his hand. Running her fingers through her bangs she asked the only thing she could manage in her upset state;
"What caused the Ener-D system to overload?" her voice shook heavily from the weight of the emotions she was experiencing. Yusei answered;
"My father's co-workers Roman Goodwin and Rex Goodwin." And with that Yusei recounted the heart breaking tale of betrayal that changed all their lives, for better or for worse.
"This leads us back to the Dark Signers I told you about before; I don't understand how this has anything to do with what's going on now…" Crow asked Raven shook her head, the weight on her shoulders only seeming to get heavier as the dark haired male spoke, and she found herself unable to answer Crow's question.
She squeezed her eyes shut, 'This is too much, the guilt and sadness…' she covered her face and shook her head, 'It's going to eat me alive at this rate.' Raven felt her powers fluctuate as another wave of emotion crashed over her.
A weight on her head shook her from her thoughts; standing above her was Yusei his hand placed firmly on her shoulder as he answered Crow's question,
"I'm not entirely sure Crow, , but I don't believe Wulf was in league with either of the Goodwin's." Raven looked up, her pale blue eyes wide and shinning with unshed tears 'Is Yusei, trying to comfort me?'
He smiled down at her as she gripped his hand that was still resting upon her head, she nodded in understanding. 'No, Yusei's right. It wasn't my fault and I can't sit around and feel guilty about everything.'
Raven remembered the feeling she had with the doctor, 'That's right, I told him to believe in us. To have hope, I have to keep that feeling inside of me from now on.' She looked at the boys around her, all four still discussing possible theories.
Well, more like trying to convince Jack that his theory of demon's infecting the people just to lure him out was kind of far fetched.
She smiled, 'I have no reason to believe we won't figure this out. Not with all of them by my side.' Glancing back at her father's research and new light shone in her eyes, one she hadn't worn since the day she left Alturas; determination.
'I will stop you Wulf, because I hold not just my own hopes and dreams but everyone around me and all the people of the city. I won't run away anymore so prepare yourself because next time we meet we will stop you.'
There you have it! I hope it wasn't too terrible, I'm still shaking off the rust from my typing fingers XD. Oh! Which reminds me, Samrit about what you mentioned in your review I am so terribly embarrassed! I will make sure to go fix that right away, so thank you for bringing that to my attention. Anywho, please review with any thoughts, comments, or helpful advice!
Till next time! :3
Count Morningstar