A/N: I OWN NO PART YU GI OH 5DS! ALL RIGHTS GO TO THE CREATORS!
Chapter 26: The Mother and Child
Era's POV
It had been two weeks since I was taken to the Underworld and I was back to full health. But Yusei refused to let me go anywhere alone. And now that he had his locket, I knew there was no hiding from him. He had also grown all the more protective of me which annoyed me quite a bit. And then there was the issue of us being mates which I still didn't know how Yusei was okay with it so easily.
At the moment, Yusei and I were flying our rounds through the nightly air. We were silent the whole time and the silence was uncomfortable. And I knew it was because of how tense I was.
"Era, are you alright?" Yusei asked pulling me to a hover.
"Huh?" I replied looking at him.
"You've been tense all night. Is something wrong?" he asked.
"I…" I began but stopped, not sure where to go.
"You're still worried about us being mates, aren't you?" Yusei suggested and I looked at him. I couldn't believe he read me so well. "Era, I know you better than anyone. And I know you don't like us being mates so quickly. But why don't you like that?"
"It… It just doesn't feel right," I replied slowly. Yusei grabbed my hand gently while I looked down. "I mean, I do love you and want you to be with me forever but… it was so sudden and so quick. We didn't even get to really think about it. Doesn't that feel wrong to you?"
"I guess it does a bit. But it's not so much that I let myself mind it. Because I'm somewhat happy to know I'll have you with me forever," he answered. I looked at him shocked. He gave me a small, comforting smile.
Before I knew anything else, Yusei's lips were on mine and I nearly stopped flapping my wings as the rush of emotions washed over my body. It felt so right to have him beside me like this. And his kiss made me forget everything. But it wasn't long before he pulled back and just looked at me with kind, loving eyes that he only gave me.
"Come on," Yusei called, gently pulling at my hand. "We still have the rest of the night to scout." I grinned and followed him, Yusei keeping hold of my hand as he flew.
. . .
The next day, Zora stood outside the garage, watching something. We walked outside to check on her.
"Hey, Zora, why are you so upset?" Crow asked.
"Oh, be quiet!" Zora yelled.
"What's troubling you?" Yusei asked calmly.
Zora sighed. "The town committee has decided they'll be replacing the cuckoo clock that I've cherished," she explained.
They looked at it and Crow mentioned, "It isn't moving."
"Don't remind me of that!" Zora yelled.
"That's pretty awful. To lose something you care about," I stated.
"Yes, indeed," Zora agreed.
"Why is Zora being so mean to me?" I heard Crow mumble.
"My son is coming to visit, but we're in an argument," Zora stated. She then covered Crow's ears and yelled, "You know!" Everyone couldn't help but laugh at it.
Zora stalked inside, leaving us to return to working on the duel runners. After a bit of working on them, I heard someone open the door.
"Nice duel runners," a man complimented.
We looked up to see him standing in the doorway. "Aren't you Zora's son?" I asked.
"Yep," he replied. "My name is Lyndon. I set out three years ago to study clocks and just returned to repair the broken one here."
"Your actions were the worst," Crow stated.
"He's the worst," Jack corrected.
"Did you leave in order to train yourself?" Akiza asked.
"Yep," Lyndon answered.
"You should probably apologize to Zora, Lyndon," I told him gently. "Try to make things right again." Lyndon seemed hesitant.
"Would Zora fight with her son again?" I heard Akiza wonder aloud.
"Yeah," Lyndon replied.
"The stronger your bonds are with your parents, the harder it is to get words across," Akiza added. The boy grabbed her hands and shook them in agreement to her statement.
Yusei grabbed Lyndon and pulled him away. "You should probably get to work fixing the clock," he told him.
"Yeah," Crow agreed. "The old clock is going to be replaced."
Lyndon immediately dashed to fix the clock. Akiza called, though, stopping him, "You need to change into something better."
. . .
Yusei, Jack, and I followed Akiza as she led Lyndon to a tuxedo store. She got Lyndon to dress in a tuxedo while I watched from the side.
"Wouldn't you be helping Akiza with this?" Jack asked me.
I looked at him while Yusei stared at me as well. "No," I answered. "I'm not very skilled in clothing like this. I don't wear anything fancy except my angel attire which is as about as fancy as you'll get me in."
Jack scoffed. "Would've expected a girl to want to get into an actual dress more often," he stated.
"Jack, don't go there," I retorted sternly. I noticed Yusei struggling to not glare at Jack so I told my mate in Angelic, "Calm down, Yusei. Jack's just frustrated about having to try to get Lyndon, someone who practically abandoned Zora, to make up with him."
"I know," he responded calmly but gave a slight grin.
"What're you talking about?" Jack asked.
"Nothing," I answered. Jack glared in annoyance before turning back to Lyndon.
Lyndon began to have a bit of trouble with his tie so Jack walked over. He grabbed the end of it and pulled on it tightly before Akiza stopped him.
"I'll do it," she stated and successfully, and easily, tied it in place.
"How did you learn to tie those things?" Yusei asked.
"My father needs to tie his tie every morning. So I got used to it," Akiza answered.
"You did that a lot when you were young too, right Akiza?" I responded.
Akiza grinned and agreed with, "Right."
"Well, now that that's done, why don't we get you to your mother?" I suggested kindly.
"Yeah," Lyndon agreed and we left. He asked us to stay outside while he confronted his mother.
We waited outside the door, just out of view, as his mother saw him, clearly shocked by his presence.
"Mom, I came back to fix the clock tower for you," Lyndon told Zora.
"Is this how Lyndon was supposed to apologize to his mother?" Jack wondered.
"Easy, Jack," I told him.
But just as Lyndon finished explaining why he left and why he came back, Zora picked up a chair and threw it at him. The son tripped but, thankfully, wasn't hit by the chair.
"It was you who broke the clock!" Zora yelled.
Crow came up and asked, "What happened?"
Lyndon explained everything and Yusei asked me in a whisper, "Did you know?"
"Maybe," I replied looking down a bit.
"And you didn't warn us?" he responded, frowning.
"I didn't think it mattered at this point. It was so long ago," I retorted sternly.
We were brought back to the situation at hand when Zora asked Lyndon, "Do you even have the courage to fix the clock?" Her son looked down doubtful. Lyndon turned to leave again but Crow stepped in front of him.
"You can't run away, Lyndon. How about a duel? If I win, you have to apologize to your mother and fix the clock. But if you win, you can do whatever you please," Crow challenged.
"Fine," Lyndon agreed.
They each grabbed their decks and duel disks. I paid close attention to Crow's mind as I knew he was going to pull something.
Lyndon went first and drew his card. "I summon Monster Clock (Attack 0/ Defense 0) in attack mode. That's all for now," he declared.
Crow drew. "I summon Blackwing- Fane the Steel Chain (Attack 500/ Defense 800) in attack mode. And since I control a Blackwing, I can special summon Blackwing- Gale the Whirlwind (Attack 1300/ Defense 400) from my hand in attack mode. Now Gale the Whirlwind, attack his Monster Clock!" he ordered.
"I activate the effect of Monster Clock! When this card is selected as an attack target, I can equip it with the attacking monster and increase its attack equal to the attack monster (Monster Clock: Attack 1300)!" Lyndon defended.
"Well, Fane the Steel Chain can attack you directly with its own effect," Crow stated and his monster successfully dealt damage dropping Lyndon's life points to 3500. "I end my turn there."
Lyndon drew his card and declared, "I summon Clock Knight No. 12 (Attack 1200/ Defense 1200) in attack mode. Now since I control a Clock Knight, I can activate the spell Clockwork to special summon Clock Knight No. 3 (Attack 300/ Defense 300) in attack mode, since its level is lower than Clock Knight No. 12. And then I activate the effect of Clock Knight No. 12 to flip a coin. If it lands on a Heads, Clock Knight No. 12 gains 1200 attack points for one turn. But if it lands on a Tails, Clock Knight No. 12 is destroyed." The coin flipped to a Tails but he defended his monster, "I activate the second effect of Clock Knight No. 3 to toss the coin again!" The coin landed on Heads this time increasing Clock Knight No. 12's attack to 2400. "And now I activate the first effect of Clock Knight No. 3 to flip another coin. If it lands on Heads, Clock Knight No. 3 gains 1200 attack points for one turn, but if it lands on tails, Clock Knight No. 3 will be destroyed." It landed on Heads jumping the monster's attack to 1500. "Clock Knight No. 12, attack his Blackwing- Fane the Steel Chain!" The attack destroyed Crow's only monster and dropped Crow's attack to 2100. "Now Clock Knight No. 3, attack Crow directly!"
"I activate the effect of Blackwing- Ghibli the Searing Wind (Attack 0/ Defense 1600) to special summon it from my hand in defense mode," Crow defended. Lyndon chose not to attack again and finished his turn. And due to it being the end phase, both Clock Knights' attacks returned to a normal 1200 and 300 points.
Crow drew his card to begin to his turn. "I set one card face down."
'Mirror Force? We'll see if Crow actually decides to use it, with what he's thinking at the moment,' I thought.
"Then I normal summon Blackwing- Blizzard the Far North (Attack 1300/ Defense 0) in attack mode and activate its effect. This allows me to revive my Blackwing- Fane the Steel Chain (Attack 500/ Defense 800) in defense mode," Crow declared. "Now I tune Fane the Steel Chain and Ghibli the Searing Wind with Blizzard the Far North to synchro summon. Rise up, Blackwing Armor Master (Attack 2500/ Defense 1500)! Blackwing Armor Master, attack Clock Knight No. 3!" The attack succeeded and Lyndon's life points fell to 1300. "I end my turn."
"I think I'll forfeit," Lyndon stated in defeat.
"You better not forfeit," Crow retorted. "You need to see every duel to the end. Do you really want to give up in front of Zora?"
Lyndon looked at him shocked. He then grew a determined face and answered, "No, I don't." He drew his card.
I then whispered in Yusei in Angelic, "Yusei, are you listening to what Crow's thinking?"
"Yeah," he answered. "It's a bit weird for him. But I know he's trying to help Lyndon."
"Honestly, with our group of friends, I don't think anything can be defined as normal," I responded making Yusei flash me a smile for less than a second.
"I summon Time Wizard (Attack 500/ Defense 400) in attack mode and activate its effect. Now I get to toss a coin and if I call it right, I can destroy your monster," Lyndon played and called his guess. It turned out as correct and Crow's only monster was destroyed. "Monster Clock and Clock Knight No. 12, attack him directly!" The attacks went through and I listened to Crow's thoughts as he decided not to use Mirror Force, which would have given him the advantage and won him the duel. But since he didn't use it, the attacks hit and Crow's life points fell to zero.
"Nice duel, Lyndon," Crow stated.
Lyndon turned to walk away but I stopped him by saying, "Lyndon, Crow was the real one who won this duel." He looked at me. "Crow could've used his set Mirror Force to destroy your monsters and the cards in his hand would've given him the edge to win. But he didn't. Instead, he lost so he could show you something."
"And what was that?" Lyndon asked.
"That even when you mess up, you can still win," Yusei chimed in. Lyndon looked shocked.
"Crow showed you that because you messed up in the past and you were running away from it. You were thinking that you were losing to it," I told him. "But losing to the past is something you should never do." She looked at Zora for a moment who was in a state of shock. "Locking yourself to the past of which separated you from someone is something that is the same to separating yourself. You messed up when you broke the clock, but now it's the future and that time has passed into history. Now you can fix it and amend things with your mother. Who I know deep down, she wants to end this long lasting fight."
Lyndon looked down in thought along with Zora. Slowly, they looked at each other and nodded.
"I think Era is right," Zora stated. "This fight has gone on long enough. It is true that I don't like this separation that occurred so long ago. After all those years of happiness."
"I'll fix the clock like I told you I would," Lyndon stated. He looked at me. "You're right, Era. Running away from the past is something I've done too long. And it's something I need to change in myself, to have myself look more towards the future."
I nodded with a small smile. "Good to hear," I told him and he grinned.
We all went inside for a while to hang out while Lyndon fixed the clock.
Once we were inside, Yusei pulled me aside and gave me a grin. He then said, "You truly know how to help people through their problems."
"After over a hundred years of living, you tend to learn these things, Yusei," I responded. "Something you'll come to know yourself." I looked down a bit.
"What's bothering you now?" Yusei asked.
"I'll talk to you about it when not as many people are around," I answered. Just then Lyndon came in and said it was done. Yusei sighed in defeat but nodded in acceptance.
"When we find the time, we'll head to the Infinity Tower so you can tell me. Alright?" he suggested.
"Alright," I agreed and we turned back to the current events at hand.