A/N: I OWN NO PART YU GI OH 5DS! ALL RIGHTS GO TO THE CREATORS!

Chapter 41: The Angel's Memoirs

Era's POV

I was working with Yusei on helping him edit and adjust Akiza's duel runner for the tournament. Akiza, Jack, Crow, Bruno, and the twins were by us, just hanging around. The twins were talking on their own and they seemed to have both confusion and interest on their faces.

"Hey, Era," Luna called and I looked at her, "I was wondering, when you first met Yugi Muto, were you like what you are now?"

Everyone looked at me as I grinned at her. "Actually, I was quite different than what I am now. It took quite some time of hanging around Yugi and his friends before I even began to acknowledge their friendships with me," I explained. "Even during Duel Kingdom, I was quite a lone angel."

"You, Era?" Crow responded and I nodded. "What was it like back then, anyway?"

"Why don't I show you?" I suggested before activating a spell that blinded them all and was going to take them into my memories.

Third Person POV

Yusei and the others opened their eyes to find themselves in a classroom. They looked around and saw Era watching some people. She was in a school uniform. One was a boy with brown hair, one was a brown haired girl also in a school uniform like Era's, and the other two, the group recognized. Joey Wheeler and Yugi Muto.

"Joey looked so cute when he's thinking," the brown haired boy joked.

"Back off, Tristan!" Joey retorted.

"What're you playing?" Tristan asked.

"We're playing duel monsters," Joey answered.

"Drooling monsters?" Tristan responded.

"Duel monsters, nimrod!" Joey retorted and pushed the brown haired man away.

"These two have been at it for hours," the girl stated. "Joey's starting to get the hang of it, but Yugi's like an expert."

"I got it!" Joey exclaimed. "I play Kagemusha of the Blue Flame (Attack 800/ Defense 400)."

"Each number has an attack number and defense number, and the first person to eliminate their opponent's life points wins the duel," the girl continued to explained.

"Try that," Joey taunted to Yugi, pleased with his move.

"It's a good move, but not good enough," Yugi responded as he placed Blackland Fire Dragon, which had 1500 attack and 800 defense, on the field.

"Aw, man! That move totally wipes me out!" Joey complained.

"Yusei, where are we?" Luna asked.

"I think we're in Era's memories," he answered shocking them.

"Wow, Joey, you really stink at this game," Tristan commented bringing them back to the scene at hand.

"You played alright, Joey," Yugi reassured. "I just have better cards. It's because my grandfather owns a game shop where I get all my good cards."

"Your own game shop?! Let's go there right now!" Joey exclaimed excited.

"Hold up a second," called Era. Everyone looked at her confused as she walked over. "Let me see your deck, Joey." The man gave her a confused look but handed over the deck, nonetheless. Era looked over it while the others watched silently. But it wasn't long before she sighed and said, "Just like I thought. Barely any spell or trap cards in there. It's ninety-percent monsters."

"How did you recognize that?" Yugi asked.

"I'm surprised you didn't notice," Era replied. "You were his opponent, after all. All he really played was monster cards. I didn't see or hear any spell or traps played."

"You were watching?" Joey asked.

"You dueled with your heart which is truly helpful in any duel. But you also need to duel with mental strength and wisdom," Era told him. She turned to leave. "Now if you'll excuse me, there is some business I must take care of. But I will be keeping an eye on you and willing to help you guys whenever you need it. If you do, just call my name."

"What business are you talking about?" the girl asked.

"My business is dangerous and life risking, Téa. It does not concern ones so innocent as you," Era responded, still not looking at them.

"Huh? Why are you doing it, then, if it is so dangerous?" another boy with white hair asked.

"Because it's been my job longer than you've lived up to," Era answered.

"You're confusing me," Joey stated.

"Yugi's grandfather has a special, rare card that might interest you. It wouldn't touch it because it means so much to him, but it can give Joey an idea on how powerful a card can really get," Era stated before walking out.

"She definitely acted different," Yusei commented.

Suddenly, a flash of light blinded them for a moment. But it wasn't too much longer before they found themselves in a dark space. They looked around before they saw Maximillion Pegasus facing off against Yugi Muto with Era standing next to Yugi.

"How could you possibly have entered the Shadow Realm?" Pegasus asked Era.

"Shadow Realm?" Crow repeated.

"You can't keep me out of here and away from helping Yugi, Pegasus," Era responded. "Just as how you can't read my mind, you have no control of me. And I'll make sure you don't read Yugi's mind for the rest of this Shadow Game."

"Shadow Game?" Yusei repeated shocked.

Another flash of light blinded them again before they found themselves on the top of a blimp where a depraved looking man was facing against Era. The man drew a card and gave an evil, twisted laugh.

"Your time is up, Era," the man commented. Era tensed. "Do you know what I hold in my hand?" He flipped it to show it as the Monster Reborn spell card. "My Monster Reborn."

"Why is that card so bad?" Jack asked.

"So I activate Monster Reborn!" the man called. "Come forth, my almighty beast. The great Winged Dragon of Ra!" The watching group gasped as the creature of legend appeared on the field. Fire covered its body giving it the impression of a Phoenix. "Emerge in your unstoppable Phoenix mode!"

"Nothing's unstoppable, Marik," Era responded.

"Then you might want to stop this attack," the man, now known as Marik, stated. "Winged Dragon of Ra, end her pathetic life!"

"I activate Ending Battle!" Era defended. Marik growled as the attack was sent back from Era and his dragon was put into defense mode. "Ending Battle makes all battle damage I would take to zero for this turn and changes the monster that attacked when this card was activated change into defense mode."

"Nice defense, Era!" called Joey's voice and that's when the other group noticed Yugi and the others watching. Along with the famous Seto Kaiba and his brother Mokuba Kaiba.

Yusei also noticed how Kaiba was watching Era. The company owning man's eyes showed intrigue, interest, and a feeling Yusei couldn't decipher.

Era nodded at Joey. "And let's not forget, Marik, now that it's the end phase of your turn, Winged Dragon of Ra goes back to the graveyard," Era told her opponent.

"You may have escaped being sent to wander the Shadow Realm for all eternity this time, but you won't make it out next time," Marik stated as his dragon disappeared.

"We'll see," Era responded.

The Signer group was blinded yet again before they found themselves in a temple area. Around them and beneath their feet were thousands of tablets with people in them. In front of them, though, was Seto Kaiba, Yugi, and Era facing off against a man with teal hair and two separate colored eyes.

"Tell me, Yugi, would you really protect Era if you had the chance?" the man asked.

"Of course," Yugi answered. "She's one of my friends." Yusei noticed Era watch Yugi, nervousness in her eyes.

"Is the feeling mutual?" the man asked. Yugi looked at Era and they stared at each other for a moment.

Era then looked back at the man before saying, "It is mutual. I may not be able to feel like humans anymore, but I can still make some sort of attachment. And though I know in the end it'll only hurt, I do consider these people my friends."

'This must be when Era first accepted having friends,' Yusei thought.

"I play the spell, Harmonia Ties!" Era called. "Now your monster can't attack for two turns, Dartz."

"I activate Magic Jammer!" the man, Dartz, retorted. "This negates and destroys your spell card."

Era looked at Yugi for a split second. "I set one face down and end my turn," she finished.

"No monsters? One face down? Are you wanting to get attacked?" Dartz asked.

"I would tell you because…?" she replied and he glared.

"If you're going to play that game… Shunoros, attack her directly!" Dartz ordered.

That's when Yusei noticed the field along with everyone else. "Yusei's what's with the field?" Akiza asked. "Aside from all the people printed tablets."

"I'm not sure," he answered.

"Era!" Yugi called bringing the attention back to the duel. The attack hit her and Era fell to her knees. The field spell which was a green, glowing circle began to close in around her.

"Yugi, Seto, my card is the difference for this. Use it well," she told them before the circle stopped closing it as it was close enough and it glowed bright before Era fell unconscious.

"What… was that?" Crow asked before they were blinded again. When they emerged from the light, Crow stated, "I'm really hating light right now."

They looked out where they were. It had a universe like sky with an ancient village like ground surrounding. The Signers and Leo were floating in the air, watching from above. In front of them was a giant monster bonded to a human with more smaller monsters with other roman like dressed people. On their arms were launcher like gauntlets while on their waists were tube like containers.

They looked on the opposing side to them to see Era, Yugi, Tristan, Téa, and a small, old man that could only be Solomon Muto. They also had launchers on their arms and tubes on their waists. They grabbed two capsule like tubes from their waists.

"Load capsules!" the friends called as they put the tubes in the launchers. "Fire!" Light erupted and shot out from the launchers' tubes and it wasn't long before monsters formed from the light.

"What the…?!" Crow exclaimed.

"What in…?!" Jack followed.

And their shock only increased as Yugi bonded together with his Black Luster Soldier. The monsters attacked each other. They immediately noticed that when one of the monsters got hurt, Era and all of the controllers got hurt.

"Yusei, any ideas?" Akiza asked.

"None," he answered.

A blinding light took their vision again. When it dimmed, they were back in the garage with Era watching them.

"Seems like I accidently made you see some other memories," she stated.

"Did you really go through all that?" Leo asked.

"Every moment. As well as other situations that you didn't see," Era answered.

"What was that last memory we saw?" Luna asked.

"Hm? Oh, that's when Yugi and all of us got stuck in the world of Capsule Monsters," she answered. "It's was like a twisted Shadow Game."

"What is a Shadow Game?" Yusei asked.

"It's actually not that different from a Shadow Duel," Era explained shocking them. "The only real difference is that depending on the person who starts it, the rules of the Shadow Game could be different."

"That's interesting," Jack stated.

"To think there would be dangers like back then…" Akiza added.

"That's in the past, though. Right now, we need to be ready for the dangers here,
Era stated.

"Like Brehnam and Team New World," Yusei mentioned. She nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry about that too much. If Yugi and those other guys can handle all those other people, we can too," Crow stated.

Yusei grinned in agreement with a nod followed by everyone else. He looked at Era though who grinned at Crow's words and thought, 'And I'm going to make sure that Era doesn't get into that kind of trouble again once Brehnam is out of the way.'