Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds

I Know You Carry Me

By Lucky_Ladybug

General Notes: The characters from the series aren't mine. Any other characters and the stories are mine! I haven't ever done this before, but I decided to post various short stories and scenes without a home under this compilation here. Usually I regulate that sort of content to Livejournal, but for this fandom I don't feel like doing that, because I want feedback and that's not likely to happen on Livejournal. Maybe someday some of the homeless scenes will be used in bigger stories, but maybe not, so I feel like sharing them now. I'm using prompts from the abandoned 5Ds_100 writing community on Livejournal. Some of the prompts I've used resulted in stories long enough and detailed enough that I posted them separately, so this is for everything else. Right now the plan is that all pieces will focus on Kalin and Radley, pre-Crash Town arc, during Crash Town arc, and post-Crash Town arc, as they become deeply close friends. It's possible some pieces will focus on other characters, such as Yusei and Antinomy. Title is a line from the song My Funny Friend & Me by Sting, because it's just so adorably perfect.

#37 - Barely There

You Called My Name

Segment Notes: The characters aren't mine and the story is! The basic concept of someone being hit by a magic weapon that brings out their worst side is from an RP with Kohaku no Hime. But the weapon used in that was hers, so I crafted something different for this. (Yes, I did ask her permission.) I kind of needed to keep it a sharp thing, but I changed exactly what it is and how to cure it. This takes place post-series, when Kalin and Radley are very close. I used the prompt #37 - Barely There from the abandoned 5Ds_100 writing community on Livejournal.

There they all were, facing off on the roof. There were certainly more of them than there were of the enemy, and under normal circumstances they could have rushed them. But these were hardly normal circumstances.

"You see this here old knife?" Malcolm sneered as he held the ancient weapon up to the moonlight. "It's some kind of dark magic weapon. They say anyone hit by it becomes the worst version of themselves. Anybody who tries to come at us gets this in their gut. It'll kill them one way or the other!"

"The worst version of themselves?" Radley said dryly. "Well, we don't have much to worry about from you. You're always the worst version of yourself."

"You're going to regret ever trying to stop us, Radley," Malcolm snarled. "This time we've got the upper hand and you know it!"

"Or do we?" Lawton suddenly spoke up. "Malcolm, get him! Behind you!"

Malcolm whirled just in time to see Kalin attempting to sneak up on him. But Kalin was still quicker. As Malcolm slashed the air with the knife, Kalin grabbed his arm and slammed him to the roof. "You are not going to use this on anyone," he snapped, pressing on Malcolm's wrist with his foot until the knife dropped from his shaking hand. He bent to grab it.

"You're right, Kalin," Lawton sneered. "He's not." Another knife appeared from inside his vest. He threw it at Kalin's back before he could react.

"NO!" Radley screamed. He dove at his friend, pulling him down as the knife flew at them.

Kalin froze when he felt Radley violently flinch. "Radley?!" He sat up, catching Radley's body as he fell into Kalin's arms. The knife was now in his back. Horrified, Kalin turned him to face him. Fear filled Radley's green eyes as the darkness crept into them. As with the Dark Signers, the sclera was turning black.

"Kalin," Radley whispered. He clutched Kalin's shoulder for one brief, terror-filled moment. Then the darkness consumed him and he got to his feet, sneering at Lawton and Malcolm.

Malcolm took a step back. "What the . . . ?!"

"Oooh, wasn't that the naughty little trick," Radley taunted, smirking at his archenemies. "You had a decoy blade, Malcolm, while Lawton had the real one all along. Guess he didn't trust you with it," he giggled.

"Radley!" Scotch exclaimed in alarm. "How's he even standing?!"

"He's not himself," Billy gasped. "They were right."

Malcolm stepped back again. "Now Radley, we can talk about this like gentlemen!"

"We can?" Radley sauntered forward, taking his Duel Gun out and snapping it to his arm. "You don't even know how to be a gentleman. And if I keep coming at you, you'll walk backwards right off this roof and go splat all over the road. Wouldn't that be a sight? They'd be scraping you off the street for the next several hours. You'd finally be out of our lives for good."

"Radley!" Malcolm finally backed up into Lawton. "Lawton, do something!"

But Lawton was frozen, just staring at Radley. His speech pattern was off; he didn't talk quite like this. And he was preparing for a duel, one that Lawton wasn't sure he wanted to accept. The longer the knife was in him, the more warped his personality would become.

Kalin straightened, his eyes flashing. "Why did you do this?!" he demanded. "How could you have been so stupid as to unleash the power of that knife?! Why would you want to?!"

". . . We wanted to hit you," Lawton admitted. "We heard about the Dark Signer business and we figured the knife would change you into that again. Then you'd turn against your friends."

Kalin just stared at him, the color draining from his face. "What?!"

"Well, that totally backfired," Crow spoke up. "Radley took the knife for Kalin and it looks like his worst side is still loyal to us and hates you guys with a passion." He folded his arms. "I can't deny I kind of like this."

"B-But . . . you're the good guys!" Malcolm protested. "You wouldn't let Radley kill us! You couldn't!"

"It would certainly eliminate some problems, though, wouldn't it?" Jack countered.

Yusei frowned. They were just trying to psyche the brothers out, or maybe they didn't really believe Radley would harm anyone, but the look in his eyes was merciless. After having seen so much of Kalin consumed by the darkness of the Dark Signers, Yusei could sadly believe that Radley was capable of deadly acts right now. Somehow he had to be stopped.

Radley was taking out his deck now. As he shuffled, a dark aura passed from him into the cards. "You know, I think I have enough power to bring out my strongest monster just on its own, without playing through a whole duel first," he said. He held up a card. "Rainbow Dark Dragon! Wakey-wakey."

Everyone stared in alarm as the tremendous beast emerged from the card and hovered above Radley. Kalin's heart twisted in sickened horror. "That card isn't supposed to be Dark!" he cried.

"Ooh well, I guess when my real self awakened, so did his," Radley said. "Blast them both!"

Rainbow Dark Dragon proceeded to open his huge jaws and blast at Malcolm and Lawton. They dived to avoid it, but their clothes were still singed and torn from the force of the blast. Radley stood by, laughing like a maniac.

"That's . . . that's just not right," Scotch whispered. "Radley isn't like that!"

Marty looked badly shaken. "Well, he is now!"

"It's that knife!" Virgil retorted. "It's not really Radley!"

"Another one or two blasts should do it," Radley said. "Too bad you weasels can't hold still, but that'd be asking too much, wouldn't it?"

Malcolm fell to his knees on the roof, sobbing in terror now. "Radley, I'm begging you to stop!" he cried.

"You created me, you know," Radley said. "You wanted to hit Kalin with your weapon. Well, turnabout is fair play. You deserved to see what kind of a monster you were inventing."

"We've seen, we've seen!" Malcolm exclaimed. "I never thought I'd want the old Radley back, but . . . ! He was annoying as all get-out, but at least I knew he'd never try to kill me!"

"That was the problem with him," Radley said. "He was weak. He couldn't get the job done."

Kalin watched, tense as Radley prepared to attack again. "Radley . . ."

"They'll be gone soon, Kalin. I promise!" Radley exclaimed. "Then we can live in peace again."

"Peace?!" Kalin shot back. "With you acting like this?! This isn't your real self, Radley! Deep down, you know that!"

"It is!" Radley retorted. "And now that I've been set free, I'm never going back to what I was! I'm going to clean up everything. After I take care of these losers, I'll start in on those people in town who sided with them. We never know when they're going to be a problem. I'll just get rid of them in advance."

Horror stabbed into Kalin's heart. That was exactly how his own fall into darkness had begun, long before he had even accepted the Dark Signers' power. "Radley, no!" he cried.

The Bunch had been frozen in shock through the scene, but now some of them ran over too. "Radley, you can't do this!" Scotch sobbed. "You're gentle and good! You'd never go after someone who wasn't actively being a problem!"

Radley patted his cheek. "Hey, it's going to be alright," he soothed. "I'm just making everything safe for us."

Scotch grabbed his wrist and fell to his knees in tears. "It's not alright!" he wailed. "We will have lost you! I'd rather have danger from those people as a possibility forever if it means still having you!"

"Scotch is right!" Billy said. "Look, it's just the knife making you act this way. The real you is still in there. Why can't we just . . ." He grabbed for the handle to try to pull it out, but an electrical shock ran all the way through the weapon and he fell backwards with a cry.

Radley spun around. "Billy, are you alright?!"

Billy groaned and sat up, rubbing his hand. "Yeah, I guess. . . ."

Now Malcolm was even more horrified. "It can't be pulled out?!"

"There has to be a way to get it out," Yusei countered. "Maybe he has to make the choice himself."

"Like he's ever going to do that," Lawton exclaimed. He looked afraid by now himself. "He wants this dark power!"

Kalin snarled. "He doesn't want it! There has to be a way to get through to him! Yusei never gave up on me, and I won't give up on Radley!" But a chill ran through him at his words. What if Radley would die as Kalin had died? His eyes had gone black like the Dark Signers'.

No, he had to believe that wouldn't happen. But . . . even if it would . . . Radley couldn't be left like this. This wasn't him at all. Or the sadism and planning to go after people who only might be a threat wasn't like him, at least. He was still protective and loyal and loved them. Kalin stared at Radley for a long moment as the realization fully hit. His "worst" was still worlds away from Kalin's worst. Even this evil force couldn't completely warp and destroy Radley's heart.

"Well, let's stop worrying about the future anyway," Radley spoke now. He drew an arm around Scotch's shoulders. "Let's finish taking care of this current problem."

Malcolm was utterly terrified by now. "Oh please, Radley! Don't do it! We can work out some kind of a deal! You've gotta say Yes! You can't just finish us off like . . . like . . ."

"Like you were going to do to Kalin?" Radley replied. "Yes, I can, and you're going to pay for what you were going to do to him." The look in his eyes was absolute steel. "Rainbow Dark Dragon . . ."

"No!" Kalin ran forward, grabbing Radley's arm. "This isn't you! I want Malcolm and Lawton stopped too, but not at this cost. It's too great a price."

"Their miserable lives?" Radley snorted.

"No," Kalin said. "Yours. No amount of villains stopped is worth losing my friend." He stepped closer to Radley. "Where is he, Radley? Where's my friend?"

Radley growled, stepping back again. "Your friend is right here. All I'm trying to do is protect you and all the others. The only way to do that is by eliminating these guys as a threat!"

"But you're acting sadistic about it," Kalin said. "That's not you! I won't have you throw your life away. In the past, when it looked like you had to kill Lawton to save us, you didn't act like this about it! And Lawton was a direct threat right at that moment. In this situation, they don't have any means of fighting back. They already threw the knife. You would never strike down unarmed enemies, even slime like these two!"

"You thought it was fun to torture people when you were a Dark Signer," Radley said, to Kalin's sickened horror. "Now I want to have a little fun!" He looked to his corrupted dragon again. "Rainbow Dark Dragon, blast them both. Stronger this time!"

Kalin didn't budge. "I want my friend back," he said. "And so does everyone else."

Scotch got to his feet. "That's right!"

The rest of the Bunch all echoed their agreement.

"And we do too," Yusei said. "Kalin's right that you're not yourself, Radley."

"We want the guy we came to love as our friend," Akiza said.

Kalin nodded. "This happened because you selflessly took a blow that was meant for me," he said. "I still see that person in there. You still love us; you're willing to stain your hands with blood to protect us from any threat, real or only possible. But we don't want that! We want you. Come back to us, Radley."

Finally Radley's eyes flickered. "Kalin?" he whispered. "What am I doing? I . . ." He trembled. "I don't want this. . . ."

Relief and hope started to tug on Kalin's heart. "I know you don't," he said. "Fight it, Radley! Fight it!"

Radley was definitely trying. He brought a hand to his forehead, trembling. The hold over him was strong; it felt like shackles binding him down as this corrupted version of himself ran amock. Rainbow Dark Dragon was preparing its next blast.

"No," Radley choked out. "Don't . . . don't do it. Don't . . . kill them. . . ."

The dragon stopped. Radley gasped as his chest suddenly throbbed. He gripped it.

"Radley?!" Kalin reached for him. What was happening? Was he going to die? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yusei concerned the same way.

"Radley, no!" Scotch exclaimed. "Please be okay. You have to be okay!"

Radley clenched his teeth. "I . . . I'm going to live," he snarled at the darkness. "You are not going to take me! I'm going to live. . . ."

At last his eyes began to return to their normal state. The dark aura physically rose from his body and also from his deck. Rainbow Dark Dragon became his normal Rainbow Dragon self again. The knife fell out of Radley's back and he crashed to his knees, suddenly weak.

Kalin dropped down next to him. "Radley? Are you alright?"

Radley looked up with a shaky smile. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I'm alright."

Immediately Jack, Crow, Yusei, and Antinomy swarmed Lawton and Malcolm. Akiza was right ready to summon a Plant monster and make it real, if needed. The Bunch ran to Radley.

Kalin pulled Radley close in a hug. "You saved me from the darkness," he said, his voice cracking. "Even though you knew you'd be taken by it yourself. . . ."

Radley hugged Kalin close, shutting his eyes as he pressed himself against Kalin's shoulder. "I couldn't bear to think of you like that again," he said. "And I couldn't bear to think of how you would stand it if it happened."

"I couldn't stand seeing you like that either," Kalin said. "Although your 'worst' was so much different than mine. You were still noble. You just wanted to protect us."

"It was more extreme than I am, though," Radley said. "I'm not like that. . . ."

"I know," Kalin said. "We all know."

The Bunch all dove in, hugging Radley too. "You're okay!" Scotch joyfully exclaimed.

Radley laughed, trying to hug them all. "I'm really sorry I worried all of you guys," he said.

"It's not like you were trying to!" Scotch countered. "Aww, we all love you so much!"

Radley relaxed in their embraces. He felt so very loved indeed, more than he ever had with his biological family. If this had happened in their presence, he knew none of them would have stuck by him. They would have all branded him a monster, more than they had already.

"Hey, the wound closed," Billy said in surprised relief.

"It still hurts like heck, though," Radley said with a weak smile.

"You'll need to rest," Kalin said. "We'll take care of you." He got up, taking Radley's hands to gently bring him to his feet. Radley wobbled, falling against him.

Malcolm looked over warily as he and Lawton were marched over with their arms restrained behind their backs. "He is back to normal, isn't he?" he worried.

Radley looked to him. "Yes, Malcolm, I'm not out for blood now," he said. "I wish I could think this experience would have taught you and Lawton a lesson, but I doubt it. Your brains are too itty-bitty to process it for very long."

Malcolm snarled, but then his shoulders slumped in resignation. "He's back."

Kalin lifted Radley into his arms to carry him downstairs. "Yeah," he said fondly. "And he'd better never go away again."

Radley smiled, resting against him. "I don't plan on it."