"Masumi?!" Yuzu said as she went over to her. Masumi had spoken a few words and seemed to be coming around.

"It worked…." Reiji said with a smile slightly rising on his face.

"Ugh…." Masumi groaned as she moved from laying down to now a sitting down position on the bed. She looked up at all the crowd looking at her with bemusement.

"Masumi… are you okay?" Yuzu asked.

"Yuzu Hiiragi?" Masumi said while holding her head. "Why are you here…. hang on…. where the hell am I?!"

"You… you don't remember?" Yuzu replied.

"Remember what?" Masumi looked at Reiji and panicked. "I GOT KIDNAPPED!"

"Whoa!" Yuzu said, trying to calm her.

"It was Mrs Akaba! She and I went to look for new Lancers and next thing I know…. I'm in some weird throne room?!"

"Masumi… it's a long story." Yuzu said. Masumi looked at Reiji still though.

"Why did Leo Corp kidnap me!" she demanded.

"It's fine Masu-"

"No Yuzu, I must take reasonability for this." Reiji interrupted.

"Reiji now isn't the time for you to tak…. hang on…. what did you say?!" Yuzu said in pure shock.

"Masumi, please follow me into the next room so I can explain." Reiji said calmly.

"No way! I won't trust you, or anyone else!" Masumi looked for the door and made her way to it. Yuzar noticed this and blocked the exit.

"We can't let you leave." Yuzar said.

"YUYA?! I'm a hostage! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Masumi charged towards Yuzar but not before Kaiba could grab her shoulder.

"Okay little girl, this is for your own good." Kisara handed over a needle and Masumi begun to shake in fear.

"GET OFF!" Kaiba put the needle into her neck and Masumi, slowly was knocked out.

"KAIBA!" Yuzar yelled. "We could've calmed her down but you go and drug her?!"

"We're in a warzone; I don't have time to watch her panic." Kaiba replied. "Send her back to your place and let's kick this scum out of my world."

"We can't just leave her?!" Kisara said.

"She ruined Kaiba Corp's image." Kaiba replied.

"She was being controlled!"

"Regardless, I can't stand to see her face."

"Hey!" Yuzu said. "She's a person who was brainwashed to do all that, none of that was her fault! I won't allow her to be forgotten!"

"Whatever, it seems I need to make my own plan." Kaiba walked out the room.

"Seto…" Kisara said as she followed him.

"Idiot!" Yuzu said in annoyance.

"I shall go and talk to him." Reiji said.

"Reiji!" Yuzu said. "Why give Masumi false hope? You would never take reasonability for anything!"

"I was wrong." Reiji said as he pushed up his glasses. "Your…. punch to the gut knocked me in more ways than one."

"You've been treating us pawns all the way from our first meeting! Don't blame me if I don't believe you!."

"Not at all. It's my job to change your mind. I will talk to Masumi alone. Gongenzaka, could you carry her into the other room." Gongenzaka looked at Yuzu and he as well shared her distrust.

"Masumi must stay here." he replied.

"Fine." Reiji replied. "I respect your wishes, I do wish to make things right." Reiji left the room.

"What on earth is happening with him?" Yuzu said. "First Masumi is back and…."

"Now Reiji is acting weird." Gongenzaka said. "I the man Gongenzaka shall find something to restrain Masumi for when she wakes."

"Yeah, we need for her to be calm when we describe everything to her."

Reiji, Kaiba and Kisara

Kaiba was readying his deck to go on a one-man warpath. Kisara looked concerned at him but Kaiba didn't give her a single look or word. Reiji was in the corner.

"This is foolish." Reiji said.

"You can talk." Kaiba replied. "You treated your own team like dirt."

"And I saw sense. Surely you can see that you need us. You told me about leading."

"Yes I did, with a good team. All those who work for me met my highest standards. Your "team" is a disgrace."

"It might be not be smooth but I can see that they care for each other. If we now include Yuzar and Ray, this team is better in all regards."

"You lost one of your own team! How is that better?!"

"SETO! I WON'T STAND FOR THAT!" Kisara yelled.

"Really Kisara? I've said worse! Plus its true." he said as he placed a deck into his duel disk. "He did just lose a team member; I can't have them putting you at risk!"

"If it wasn't for them, we would've had no idea about Academia!" she replied.

"Fat lot of good that did! Domino is now covered in carded people! We can do this by ourselves!" Seto said. "Let's go Kisara!"

"Go where?!"

"I'm going to get you to safety and then I'll beat them all myself!" Kaiba replied.

"That won't work." Reiji added. "You can't take them on all at once!"

"You see Seto! You need to stay here and work with others to protect the world!" Kisara pleaded.

"Not with weaklings." Seto said. "Now come on! I will get you to a safe spot."

"I'm safe here!" Kisara said. "I… I want to stay here." Kaiba looked angered.

"Kisara… you're willing to trust your life with these losers?!"

"I DO TRUST THEM!" she shouted back. "You're not thinking clearly! This has always been your problem, ever since we first met at school all those years ago!"

"Fine but I can't work with weaklings. I shall clear this City of these Fusion scum and make it safe for Mokuba when he returns." Kaiba replied.

"Mokuba…?! Is he ok?" Kisara added.

"That's none of your business now." Kaiba said as he walked out the door, much to Kisara's disappointment.

Yuzu

In the other room, Masumi had reawakened with Yuzu and Gongenzaka in the room. Ray and Yuzar had departed to a third room to allow Masumi to speak to people who she knew. Masumi was tensed up while she was strapped down to the bed.

"Masumi please, we're not here to hurt you." Yuzu begged.

"I trusted Himika Akaba and I went somewhere… now you're all in on it!" she replied.

"This is no use." Gongenzaka said. "She has no memory of her time fighting for Academia."

"Academia?" Masumi replied. "Fighting for Academia?! I'm a Lancer who was due to fight against them! Well, before I got kidnapped by you lot and had my memory wiped!"

"It's… not that simple Masumi." Yuzu said with sadness. Masumi could hear the pure tone Yuzu was speaking with, she knew she wasn't lying.

"What… what do you mean?" Masumi replied. Yuzu looked at her duel disk on her wrist and begun to click a few buttons.

"If Reiji has done anything right, it's that he thought ahead." Yuzu had a video ready to play of Academia's invasion. She knew the minute she showed it to Masumi, things would turn to hell. She was wondering if it was the right decision to show her.

"Yuzu, you need to show her." Gongenzaka encouraged.

"Show me what?!" Masumi said.

"This." Yuzu held up the footage to Masumi.

Kaiba

Kaiba was on the bottom floor of Kaiba Cor. He had a feeling that Academia would soon approach.

"Don't worry Mokuba, I'll clear this place of these Fusion weeds before you come back." he said to himself.

"Mr Kaiba please wait." Reiji walked down the stairs to the first floor.

"What now?"

"You and I are both very similar. We both run companies and we both have seen each other's flaws in each other." Reiji said.

"Flaws? Bit rich coming from you."

"It's not a bad flaw but one thing I have noticed. You treat the ones you loved with distance."

"Distance? Who are you to tell me that?!"

"I've seen the way you treat Kisara. All she wants is for you to give her a bit of care, not the cold shoulder."

"I do give her care! She's always by my side!"

"That's not what I saw Mr Kaiba. She was in tears once you left. I lost all my loved ones to this Academia. My mother and father were both in on it from the start, I have no one else. I don't want you to lose those who you hold dear as well." Reiji walked off as Kaiba paused in thought.

"Wait…" Kaiba said reluctantly. Reiji stopped.

"Yes Mr Kaiba?"

"Me and my brother Mokuba were able to free ourselves from our vile adoptive father when I bought Kaiba Corp, but that wasn't the end of our hell. We were both still very young and still going to school. Owning a company and still going to school was tough on both of us, but one shining light got us through."

"Kisara?" Reiji replied.

"Yes. While I was an orphan, Duel Monsters gave me hope. Our original parents died in a house fire and that left me and Mokuba stuck in an orphanage. The only thing which we had left from our old lives where the clothes on our back and two cards. Two Blue-Eyes White Dragons."

"I thought you had three?"

"There are only three. They are the rarest cards, and I was lucky that I owned them. My parents gave them to me as a Christmas gift, I couldn't have been happier. Those two cards and the game of Duel Monsters inspired me to make the holographic system which led to me buying out my adoptive father and owning Kaiba Corp. However…"

"You wanted the gain the third one."

"Ha, you are smart." Kaiba said. "After everything that had gone on, I had forgotten what made me happy. I thought buying the third card would make me happier so I set out to buy it. The search led me to my own school, to someone in my own class. Kisara."

"Seems like destiny."

"You should know by now that I don't believe in that stuff…. well, I should maybe rethink that now I know we live in a separate dimension… anyway, I had never paid any attention to her. When I went up to offer her the money, she said something to me before I could even get my wallet out. She spoke in the most caring way to me. She asked me how I was. No one except Mokuba had asked something like that to me since our parents died."

"And you bought the card?"

"No… in fact I had forgotten about it. Kisara was kind, smart, and beautiful. She and I got along instantly. Next thing I know is that me, Kisara and Mokuba are together…. I loved her. When we came to speak about the Blue-Eyes cards, we burst out laughing. After we both graduated, I asked her to become my personal assistant and girlfriend. She accepted with delight and gave me her Blue-Eyes as a way to mark our relationship. Since then, I guess I've spent more time on Kaiba Corp then I have on the two most important people in my life."

"I forgive you Seto." Kisara appeared from the stairs and ran down to hug him. The two embraced.

"I'm sorry for not treating you right. That'll change once we rid this world of the Fusion scum." Kaiba said. "I also must say that to Mokuba as well."

"Now will you work with the Lancers?" Kisara asked. Kaiba and Reiji looked at each other.

"I guess we both have let our egos run a bit wide." Kaiba said as he extended his hand to Reiji.

"And some of us got punched in the stomach…." Reiji took Kaiba's hand and shook it firmly. The two were now on the same page. Kisara smiled.

Yuzu, Masumi, Gongenzaka

"All of that happened…." Masumi said in shock. "While I was in a coma." Masumi had been unstrapped as she was more calm.

"Yes and no." Yuzu said.

"What… do you mean?" Masumi replied.

"You were brainwashed by Academia, I'm sorry Masumi there is no easy way to put it." Yuzu bluntly said.

"Brainwashed?! You talk nonsense! I would remember otherwise!"

"I'll show you." Yuzu took her duel disk back from Masumi and she hit another few buttons. "Our duel disks record all our duels…" Yuzu showed it to Masumi and there on the screen was Masumi's duel with Yuzu.

"No… it can't be real…." Masumi said. "I went into the Xyz Dimension… did I…. did I turn people into cards?"

"Um…" Yuzu stuttered.

"We're not sure about what you did in Xyz." Gongenzaka added. "But we know that you carded Yaiba Todo back in Standard. And you gave Kaiba duel disks which led to the cardings here in Ritual"

"I carded Yaiba…. That was…. me? And… I was behind this world's carding?"

"Well it was you Masumi that did it, but you weren't in control." Yuzu replied. "Please don't feel guilty." Masumi had a tear roll down her check with a clenched fist.

"Academia… will pay for this!" she said. "I will take them down!" Everyone including Yuzar and Ray returned to the room.

"Then you're in the right place." Reiji said. "We could do with a Lancer like you."

"I shall get them all!" Masumi replied. "We shall save them all!"

"Good." Yuzu said. "We will get them all back."

"How do we turn the people back into people rather than cards?" Yuzar asked.

"That I don't know…" Reiji said. "It's not something I could work out."

"Well I shall take a look." Kaiba replied.

"You can but I doubt there's much more you can do. My best people looked at it."

"Very well, I trust you." Kaiba replied. Yuzu and Gongenzaka looked surprised.

"Yuzu." Reiji said. "And Gongenzaka, I must say I'm sorry for mistreating you both."

"Sorry?" Yuzu said. She and Gongenzaka looked at each other.

"We shall see if you stick to your word." Gongenzaka said. Yuzu agreed.

"Very well." Reiji replied. "Now, what shall we do next? Yuzu is the leader."

"We should get revenge." Yuzu said. "They will pay for turning Mieru into a card. Where is this girl who turned her into a card."

"Yuzu, you can't think about getting revenge?!" Ray said.

"Why not? They carded a friend! Now where is she Gongenzaka?!" Kisara looked at Seto.

"Seto… say something…" she said to him softly.

"Well I agree with her." said Kaiba as he punched his fists together. "We should attack now!"

"Kaiba!" Yuzar shouted. Yuzu looked at the room.

"Damnit…." she said. "I know we can't just attack…. but they just took Mieru out with no regrets…."

"And we will get her back." Reiji said. "I promise." Yuzu looked at Reiji.

"Reiji… whether or not you're capable of changing is yet to be seen but… you at least led us. You should be the leader again. I'm not cut out for it."

"Actually admitting you have faults, shows true leadership." Reiji replied as he pushed up his glasses. "We might not all agree on everything but we are on the same page right now. That's all that matters. The fight begins now."

"Well… looks like you and I are a team after all Kaiba…. eh?" Yuzar said smugly to Kaiba.

"Don't push it. I don't hate you… but you're still an annoying pest." Kaiba replied firmly.

"Kaiba! At least try and say something nice to him." Kisara pleaded.

"Ugh…." Kaiba looked at Yuzar, who was enjoying his rival looking uncomfortable. "I do respect how far you've come. Maybe…. we could duel after this mess is over."

"FINALLY!" Yuzar said. "I will beat you and-" Ray wacked her hand down onto Yuzar's head.

"Remember…. he said watch it." Ray said with an embarrassed but good nature sigh.

"Okay." Reiji said. "What about your brother, Mokuba?"

"He's coming back from Egypt; I didn't wish to contact him in case Academia learned of him." Kaiba replied.

"In case they were listening, good move." Reiji said. "I can try and get a secure phone line to him."

"I hope so." Kaiba said. "I can't lose him either."

"Now what?" Yuzu said.

"We need to get all the people out of Ritual and into Standard. Back in our dimension we have a dome which I built. It's a safe place." Reiji said.

"We can't just abandon our home?!" Kaiba replied.

"We won't. But at least this way people will be save. Not many can duel here anyway; we need to get them out."

"I have a few duel disks left over… if we find where the people are hiding we can get help." Kaiba said.

"That'll work." Yuzar said.

"But where would they be hiding?" Ray added.

"Me and Seto will begin to build the teleport to evacuate Ritual. I need you to go out and find the non carded duelists." Reiji said.

"Sounds like a plan." Yuzu said. Masumi looked at her wrist.

"But I don't have a duel disk… or my deck." she said.

"No worries." Reiji said. "Kaiba can give you a Ritual duel disk, and I have your deck." Reiji gave her deck back.

"Thanks… but why do you have it?" Masumi replied.

"I was able to work out a way to cure the brainwashing." Reiji said. "It's made of Real Solid Vision; all we need to do is send a minor shock to the user to delete it. Now, you must go before Academia arrive!" Reiji said.

"Who'll protect Kaiba Corp though?" Yuzar said.

"Who else?" Kaiba and Reiji said at once.

Fusion Base

Marinna and Gloria were in an office. Marinna looked furious at her Field Commander.

"HOW COULD YOU GO AGAINST ME?!" Marinna yelled.

"The Lancer was right near me!" Gloria hit back. "I turned her into a card anyway!"

"That's not the point! You know I care about my squad! You could've been hurt! You should've let me send the right Field Commander to battle her!"

"You sent Ando and he lost! I beat her, that's all that matters!" Gloria replied.

"You know going against Academia is not allowed!" Marinna said.

"I'm not going against it! Your orders were idiotic! The Professor would've agreed with my actions!"

"It matters not! I'm in charge here and I will not let my squad fall! Ando lost yes but that was a one off! We could've taken your hostage and learned about the Ritual Lancers or use her as a hostage to lure the lancers. You blew it Gloria! "

"Well now what?!" Gloria hit back.

"Well I need to report this instantly…. to the… Professor." Marinna stuttered.

"Fine." Gloria replied. "I stand by my decision!"

"No. I can't." Marinna said.

"What? But you'll get into trouble as well?!"

"If I send you back you could be brainwashed, carded, or punished in the coliseum… I don't want any of that to happen to you Gloria… why do you have to make things so hard for me?!"

"You'll be going against your direct orders! I demand you punish me!" Gloria yelled.

"He won't ever have to know Gloria!" said Marinna. "We can cover it up! Can't you see that I care for you? For everyone? The Professor saved our world yes, but he can't be right all the time."

"Marinna…. if anyone heard you say that…."

"It's fine, there's no CCTV in here. Look Gloria, we can let this slide and nothing else needs to be said. Please just follow my command next time. We need to work as a team." Gloria looked annoyed but then confused.

"I…. fine." Gloria said as she walked out of the office. Marinna slammed her fists down in annoyance.

"DAMNIT!" she yelled.

Outside in the hallway, Serena and Yuri were hiding in another room. They had heard everything.

Academia – Teleportation Room

Himika stood with delight in front of a blank-faced Reira. All of her work training the young Fusion orphan had worked. There were men working at computers ready to open the dimension crossing. Reira was holding a bear.

"Now then child, what is your mission? Himika asked.

"To fetch Reiji Akaba to Academia." Reira replied with a monotone voice.

"You are to report to Commander Marinna. From there she will tell you his position. You know how we work here at Academia."

"Yes. Failure will result in me being turned into a card."

"Good girl. Now do your mother and father proud." she said with a smirk. Reira turned around. "Wait, give me that bear."

"My… my bear…." Reira stuttered.

"Don't defile me!" Himika said. "NOW!" Reira looked frightened as she handed it over. "How dare you disobey me!"

"I'm… I'm sorry!"

"Just bring Reiji home. Open the gate!" Himika ordered. The workers typed away and a blue portal opened. Reira looked back and Himika looked at her with a stern face. Reira was scared once more and quickly entered the portal.

"Reira has teleported Mrs Akaba." said one worker.

"Good." Himika took the bear over to a trash can. She opened it and flung it in before walking out.

A/N

Thanks to Rom as ever.

Samueljoo- No Masumi is freed from the parasite now.