Chapter 23 I'm still standing

"HE'S WHAT!" Screamed Leo loud enough to be heard across the base. Phantom of chaos backed away. Leo turned around and marched through the hall of his lair. He ran into goblin of greed but before he could say anything Leo shoved him out of the way and soon made his way to a room. In the room were rows of cards, this place was once an industrial illusions facility that was abandoned. Leo remembered coming across it one time and after becoming a dark signer he decided that this would be his lair. Leo immediately began getting to work crafting a new deck so he can take on Yusei.

*Kenji's mansion*

To say Kenji and Himari were shocked would be a massive understatement. Their daughter was a herald for a godlike deity and along with a few others, saved the world. Their jaws hung open during the entire story. After a while Kenji decided to break the silence, "Luna ... I ... I don't know what to say.". Jack rolled his eyes "You don't need to say anything.". Crow gave Jack a dirty look as he said that. Himari on the other hand smiled at her daughter, " Luna, I am so proud of you. Your father is as well, and your brother would be to."

Luna felt those words cut her deeply.

Kenji then spoke up, "Albeit, it's ... odd, to see my daughter is one of crimson dragon's heralds. I honestly thought they were myths."

"Myth's?" Asked Jack. "You knew about the crimson dragon?"/

Himari nodded, "Yes, our friend Ellie is an archeologist, and we sometimes visit her dig sites and we found some art detailing this crimson dragon of yours."

Kenji then spoke up "And if guess, that man over there is a dark signer!".

Crow shook his head, "He isn't, Sayer is just a puppet for the real dark signer.". Kenji paused for a minute before taking a deep breath, "I will join you.". Luna's eyes widened at her father's words, while it was good that her dad was fighting with them, what if he lost. What would become of him? Of course what happened next was inevitable as Himari stepped forward and also announced that she was joining them. Now Luna became more panicked. If they lost, she'd more than likely lose the only family she had left.

However Luna also feared what would happen if they figured out that the dark signer was Leo. What would happen then? As Luna thought about this Team 5ds and the two former champions began to discuss their next move.

"The lair*

Leo drew his sixth starting hand from the deck he built, a terrible hand. Again. In his rage Leo slammed his fists onto the table. Dark king of the abyss and Brron opened the door and saw Leo muttering to himself in an aggressive manner as he began to remove cards from the deck and replaced them with others. The two decided to not bother him and slowly closed the door. Leo finished assembling this new version of the deck and drew six starting hands, the cards he drew in each of them were either useless or bad to start off with. Leo gritted his teeth and dug his claws into the table. This was the tenth version of the deck he made to take on Yusei, and everything needed to be perfect or else he would be defeated. Leo knew the threat Yusei posed better than anyone as he witnessed it firsthand.

"Why did you have to return Yusei" muttered Leo. Leo then grabbed his deck and threw it across the room before smashing the table and screaming "WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST DIE!". Leo had a plan and he felt like he got shot in the face, he planned to take out each signer one by one leaving Luna and his parents last so they could feel like he felt, alone and isolated. But now Yusei returned and messed up everything.

Leo fell to his knees and slammed his fists onto the ground. "And now that he's back, he'll give them hope!" said Leo before muttering, "He'll give Luna hope.". The mere thought of that made Leo feel sick to himself. "Hope she doesn't even deserve after what she did to us, what she did to me!" said Leo through gritted teeth. "She just stayed in the spirit world, that selfish brat stayed their having the time of her life not thinking about what it would do to us. All that time those two wasted trying to cure you was for nothing! You were never sick, you were never hurt! And because of that Grandma died alone and I was left with nothing and no one!". Tears began to fall from Leo's face "I hate you Luna!" Leo began to start sobbing and laughing " You were always their favorite person, the golden child!". "Oh Leo, you should be more like Luna" said Leo mimicking his father's voice. "Sorry Leo, I can't come today, I'm helping Luna" said Leo mimicking his mother's voice. Leo then picked up some cards to create another deck. "One way or another, you will atone, whether you like it or not!" said Leo as he began to look over the various cards and effects.

Just then the door to the room opened.

"WHAT!" shouted Leo turning to see Reficule standing at the door. "I need you to come with me.". "Not now Reficule, whatever it is you need me for, it can wait.".

Reficule crossed her arms "The ritual will fail if this isn't taken care of.". Leo sighed and got up. "Good, now Leo, there is something we need to keep the ritual stable, here is the location. Reficule handed Leo a photo which he took a look at. "Martha's Oprhanage?" asked Leo, "What do you want from there?". Reficule turned and began to walk out of the room "You'll see. You should bring some backup with you.". Leo nodded and then walked to a different area of his building and entered a secret room, he then spoke "I need you two to come with me".

*The orphanage*

Leo and Reficule along with Leo's two new hooded monsters arrived at the orphanage. Leo turned to Refiucle "You still haven't told me why we're here. Reficule smirked evilly, "Isn't it obvious" she then kicked the door off it's hinges and walked in. The orphanage was completely awakened at the sound of the door coming crashing down. As the four entered Leo noticed a small group of orphans in a corner of the room. "You have the soul demolition card Leo?" asked Reficule, Leo was at first confused but then he ultimately realized why the darklord brought him here. "Y-you-" Reficule cut Leo off, to fully stabilize the ritual, we need souls, these children souls are perfect for a harvest.".

"Why them!" asked Leo, "Why take the souls of these kids? How about instead we go to the facility and take the inmate's souls instead?". "You said you wanted to make team 5ds suffer. What better way to make them suffer than take the souls of the children who were raised where they were raised?" responded Reficule. "Even so, these kids have nothing to do with them!" said Leo, "Akiza's parent's had nothing to do with you, and yet you did away with them all the same. Don't act like you're above acts like this".

Leo's pitch black eyes narrowed "Even so, I have my limits, we will not hurt these kids and that's final!". Reficule just stared at Leo for a while, after a bit she broke the silence, "Is that how you truly feel Leo?" Leo nodded and proceeded to attempt to Leave before Reficule pulled out her own soul demolition and began to remove the souls of the orphans. "NO!" shouted Leo as he tried to run up to stop it but it was too late, the act was complete. Reficule then turned to Leo. "That is your problem Leo, although little of it remains you still have a conscience, you still follow a moral code. If you continue that way you will ultimately lose."

"I don't care if I have a limit" shouted Leo, "I told you not to hurt these kids!" Reficule then began to Lecture Leo further on the matter of morals and Leo noticed Martha who was on her phone calling for help along the rest of the kids behind a door. He immediately looked away as he knew if he kept looking Reficule would catch on. So he simply waited for Reficule to finish not caring about anything she had to say.

"The mansion"

As The group was discussing their next move Yusei got a call, Yusei's eyes widened after hearing who it was and he immediately bolted towards Jack's nearby duel runner.

"Yusei, what are you doing?" asked Jack.

"The orphanage!" Shouted Yusei, "They're at the orphanage!". That sent immediate panic though everyone there. Yusei grabbed the keys jack conveniently left in the socket and sped towards the orphanage. "I have a spare car, we can use that to follow him!" said Kenji. The rest of the group nodded and hurried towards the garage.

Yusei sped across the bridge as fast as the duel runner could go to get back to satellite, Various thoughts kept racing through Yusei's head but one thought stood out, why would Leo do this? Was it to hurt him? Was it to test his power? Or was it something else." Yusei soon reached the orphanage and his heart sank when he saw the broken down door. He then saw Reficule emerge from the building. "What did you do!" Shouted Yusei, Reficule chuckled before pointing her finger at Yusei, suddenly the kids who had their souls taken walked out of the building, each of them holding duel disks and their eyes seemingly having lost the human 'spark' in them. "Deal with him" said Reficule as she began to walk away laughing.

Yusei got off the duel runner and took out his duel disk. Three orphans came forward from the group and activated their duel disks. From the top of the orphanage hidden from sight was Leo, he began to watch the duel to study Yusei's moves so he could finalize his counter deck. Yusei fared well against the soulless orphans defeating two of them with Junk warrior leaving one left. Leo wasn't surprised, it was Yusei after all. Leo then noticed his family's car and he cursed to himself, he wanted to reveal himself to his parents as soon as possible but he couldn't, not with Yusei there, Leo knew Yusei would crush him so Leo did the only logical move in this situation and began to head back to his lair.

The rest of team 5ds and Luna's parents exited the car in time to see Yusei take down the third soulless orphan. As the others asked Yusei what was going on Luna spotted Reficule her eyes widened, a darklord? Here! Thought Luna. Luna heard tales of the darklords during her time in the spirit world, it is said that they were the ultimate form of evil. Reficule noticed Luna and began to walk off, Luna immediately chased after her. "Luna!" shouted Kenji as he tried to go after her but he blocked by two soulless orphans preventing him from going any further.

Luna soon managed to catch up to Reficule. Reficule chuckled, "This is Luna Katsu? This is the signer who wields the legendary ancient fairy dragon, the spirit who defeated me at the fountain in the sky? You look like nothing more than a weak little schoolgirl!". "A-and you look like a knockoff mummy!" responded Luna, Reficule didn't react. "Where's Leo!" asked Luna. "I don't know, even then why do you care?" responded Reficule.

"He's my brother! And I will save him from both you and the primal being." Reficule began to laugh "You desire to save your brother?" Reficule then materialized a duel disk on her arm "Come, let's see how strong you are without the others!"