"This is a difficult time for all of us." I began slowly.
This is the first time I have addressed such a large group of what is essentially para-military personnel. Soldiers. My soldiers. Many of whom followed us from the Satellite and more who flocked from all over the world. Eager to join us in protecting this, thing that we created.
"This has been a difficult time for us for a long time now. We were born into an era of inequality, a world where we had been destined to slave away for the benefit of the rich and powerful. Any attempt to escape it, any attempt to change the status quo, had been called blasphemy."
"But times are changing. Netherdale is changing them. We are changing them."
"This City is the solidification of that Hope we all share, now that they can no longer prevent the City from being built, the Old World would like nothing more than to destroy it."
I stood at the podium, reciting the speech I had written as soon as I heard about Yliaster, after all, I knew this day would come, I just didn't know it would come so quickly.
Turns out, I got lucky that our emergency response units were equipped with duel disks in a timely manner- Yliaster has been even less patient than I anticipated. Soon after Yusei defeated the initial 36 Ghost Riders (yes, all on his own), Primo had released 3000 Ghost Riders into the city. These Ghost Riders have been programmed to duel everyone with a duel disk, and more pragmatically, attack anyone who doesn't.
My original plans to defeat the Ghost Riders revolved around hacking their system wirelessly, or failing that, redesigning our roads so they are no longer speeding-friendly. Let's be clear here, riding at 300 miles an hour on a motorcycle requires pristine road conditions, one we can certainly remove from the equation.
Given how quickly Yliaster acted, I no longer have time for that, all I managed to put together were the Synchro-free decks. It feels odd, knowing I could have prevented this if I had acted sooner, for example, if I had allocated more funding to prepare for Yliaster than, say, promoting Netherdale to attract immigrants, or education, or indeed our sewage problem. Then again, I might not have had enough people to fight Yliaster in that case.
It feels odd knowing everything I do have consequences, one of which being, these soldiers sent to war armed with only children's trading cards.
"You are all aware of the recent Yliaster incidents." I began slowly, scanning the crowd of upturned faces, attentive, resolute, unquestioning. This is mine, I suddenly realized, they are mine. Galen stood at the front of the line, looking at me with a fervour that could only be described as disconcerting. His expression is mirrored three thousand times over, my words only fuelled their almost religious zeal.
The rest of my team, even including the Goodwins who are making their first public appearance as Zephyr officials, sat behind me as though supporting my every word.
"Of course they're all aware of the Yliaster incident, Galen drilled it into them," Blister muttered.
"She told our entire security force about Yliaster?" Felice whispered in Vincent's ear incredulously, "All of them? Why?"
"We had expected them from the very beginning, threats from these Has-Beens." I continued, placing emphasis on each word, "Netherdale was always going to be a thorn in the side to the world we left behind. The poverty, the oppression, the injustices we left behind, they were never going to let us go without a fight.
"Well, now they're here. They didn't give us much time to prepare, but we are ready. Thanks to all of you, we are ready."
I paused, waiting for my words resonate. Three thousand Netherdale Security officers, I could hear a pin drop. But all I could think about was 'they are not ready, I'm not ready'.
"It can be difficult to understand the breadth and scope of challenge we face here today,"
"Lord knows I don't," Cyril whispered in Felice's ears, Vincent nudged him to be quiet.
"Because today, we find ourselves standing in the spotlight, the only spotlight. Today, we stand in the very midst of what they insisted would never come to be. This city, a manifestation of our efforts, this beacon of Hope. The gaze of the world trained on us. Of all the Satellites in the world, there is only one Netherdale. For all the satellites in the world, we are their only Hope. The materialization of an idea, an ideal. We brought Hope to life. This is the Hope of my Satellite, the Hope of every satellite around the world, the Hope of the slums, the poor and the misfits for a chance to fight for a life, rather than an existence."
Blizzard looked down at his feet to hide a look of contempt. Of course Yuki would turn into another power-hungry ruler of the mob, not even a good one at that. What else did he expect? Everybody else before her had, from Kalin Kessler to Rex Goodwin. It's just part of being a satellite.
The Goodwins exchanged a concerned look, her mentality was something they knew all too well. That appetite for grandeur can grow too quickly into vanity, greed, or much much worse
"We all conquered incredible challenges. For you to stand here, before me, you have already won a thousand battles. Now we are faced with one more. Every single one of you is here because you said yes. You said yes to join the fight against the unknown, the unfamiliar, and the inevitable; just like you have thousands of times before."
"You said yes to protecting Netherdale, because our Hope lies within every square inch of this land."
"Her land." Blister thought, but didn't dare to said out loud. He stole a quick glance around, Yuki was beginning to get the attention of the other Zephyrs.
"Netherdale didn't exist a year ago, the very idea for this land of opportunity had been blasphemous. We built this city, this society from the ground up, brought hope to millions of satellites across the globe, created something worth defending. There was a time not too long ago when such prospects seemed impossible. "
"We triumphed over the impossible once, now I'm asking you to do it again. "
"We have the chance, no, the privilege to defend this City and the hope it brings, nothing will take it from us ever again, especially not the those who had smothered our dreams for too long.
"They're looking at us to see how we respond to these attacks. We have astounded the world before, this time, we'll do it by force. We will not run from our past, we will not surrender the future. We will not be defeated by 'what has been' or 'what always was'. We have already made our dream a reality, we are not giving it up.
XXX
"Let this be a message. Let this be a message to the world we left behind. Let them know that we come in peace, but at all times, we are ready for war.".
"One day, that'll be me standing up there," Felice turned to Vincent, her eyes shining with candid ambition.
"You're in accounting," Vincent teased a little unkindly, he did not enjoy the idea of Felice standing up there at all. It was at least reassuring to know that Yuki would probably be pretty uncomfortable with Felice gaining a prominent military role, given the influence on the Magicians in the NDC business sector.
"Finance," Felice corrected with a slight pout.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, the game is on. May Netherdale ride with you."
Galen put his helmet on (standard issue because it's now mandatory), saluted the podium and sped off. His, no, my soldiers followed suit.
I clasped my left wrist with my right forefinger behind my back, watching the procession and feeling my pulse bounding against my fingertips. I don't think I have been so, well, excited in a long time.
"So Yliaster is part of Tokyo?" Vincent asked suspiciously, "And they're behind all of this?" He gestured vaguely at our surroundings.
Zephyrs had surrounded me as soon as the rest of the crowds dispersed. I confess, I may not have communicated with them regarding the entire contents of my speech beforehand.
"No and..." I thought hard for a second, "Sort of? They're behind the ghost riders if that's what you mean."
Now, the entire Yliaster plot remains a vague blur to me because frankly, the plot was so thin it wouldn't withstand an attack from a Kuribon. Vaguely, Z-One came from a dystopian future where Machinoid monsters came from somewhere (I have no idea where, maybe evilness of the human soul?) and destroyed humanity.
Z-One had survived the apocalypse with Aporia, Antimony (Bruno) and Paradox. Now, Paradox had gone off on his own to do a subpar movie feature*. Antimony had died and Z-One made an android version of his friend named Bruno, hopefully with prior consent. Aporia died (I think?) and was divided into 3 androids, Primo, Jakob and Lester, each representing a phase in his life.
As far as Yliaster goes, it's supposed to be an ancient organization secretly guiding the fate of the world in the Goodwin arc. I think the show initially designed them to be like the Illuminati, they just failed miserably. But also apparently created by Z-One and friends. Their job in the Z-One arc is to help Z-One and prevent future.
It's all very confusing mostly due to poor writing and plot inconsistencies.
So the whole point of Yliaster/Z-One is to destroy synchro summons, Momentum (?) and Domino City to prevent the rise of the Machine Emperors. To be clear, the reason behind the need to destroy synchro summoning/Domino never explained in the series. We were just supposed to accept that a synchro summoning will turn humanity evil, which would then generate a intelligent evil machine race, somehow.
It's truly unfortunate that the aforementioned intelligent race of machines didn't send a terminator back to destroy Z-One which would have prevented this entire arc.
Anyhow, Yliaster went back in time to become directors of Domino City by threatening to kill Yeager the clown (this did happen), designed a separate tournament, the World Riding Grand Prix to absorb energy from the duelists (instead of taking advantage of any of the other thousands of tournaments around the world), then duelled main characters repeatedly and unnecessarily, even though none of the main character would realistically be able to stop a giant city from falling on top of another city and therefore would be entirely incapable of stand in their way at all. Now, all of the above was meant to help destroy Domino City, they didn't even scratch the surface on how they will destroy synchro summons.
Oh, and Z-One tossed Bruno the android in there to help Yusei because... Z-One was a fan of Yusei's, I think.
There're frankly enough plot holes in there that I sometimes question my own memory. Or judgment given I actually finished watching the entire thing.
Though it does make you wonder, where was the Crimson Dragon during all of this. Assuming the Dragon is powerful, immortal, etc, what was it doing when humanity went extinct the last time?
"Yuki!" Felice rapped her knuckles on the table loudly, "Yliaster, what are they? Where do they come from? How long have they been around? What have they done?"
All very valid questions. The fact that I have no clear answer to any of them really speaks more of the 5D series than it does about me.
"Uh," I wasn't even trying to hide anything anymore, what is Yliaster exactly? It's clearly led by 3 robots built based on the prototype of a dead human friend of Z-One's, a mouthful but nonetheless straightforward, but that's not exactly their question.
"We don't care how you know," Chaos spoke carefully, "But we need to know what's going on. This can't be like the whole Goodwin fiasco again, we need to know." The Goodwin brothers had the good graces to pretend they didn't hear that.
"Right, so, um, Yliaster." I scratched my head, what's the most credible way to explain this... I wonder if Yliaster is watching us right now, but even if they are, what can they realistically do? "So Yliaster is a organization from the future sent back in time to destroy the Satellite, or the entire Domino City, and synchro summoning." I summarized succinctly, "That's about all I know."
"Sent by whom?" Chaos pressed.
"Some guy from the future named Z-One, but that won't help you because you don't know who he is either." I shrugged.
"Why?" Galen asked skeptically.
"I have no idea," I replied, and that isn't even a lie. "But I'm pretty sure they're good people."
"Good people?" Felice repeated, bewildered, "Based on their desire to destroy Domino?"
I scratched my head and replied uncertainly, "I think they think it will save the world?"
"Just your regular crazy then?" Chaos chuckled.
"Crazy and rich," I nodded thoughtfully. I presumed rich because they can travel through freaking time. I could use rich right now.
"So what are we going to do about crazy and rich this time?" Vincent asked not without a hint of sarcasm.
"Well, they made their move and I countered. Now I'm waiting for their next step."
Yuki had her secrets, but by and large, she does the right thing, if it feels a little off sometimes.
"Yuki-sama," Blizzard spoke up a little uncharacteristically, he rarely spoke at all during our meetings except to agree mindlessly to whatever we said, but hey, at least he's pretty, right? "Were the Yliaster sent by Tokyo to destroy Netherdale?"
"What? Of course not!" I laughed, "What gave you that idea?"
"Sorry, I must have misunderstood," Blizzard apologized.
"You gave him the idea," Vincent answered for him, "You gave us all the idea that Tokyo sent Yliaster during your speech."
"Oh, they have their own thing, comes from the future, wants to destroy synchros and all that." I dismissed, the room had fell into a deadly silence by this point. Looking at Blizzard's confused expression, I added, "It's just easier to bundle all of them together, create one enemy, you known, 'all of them'." I chuckled.
"I fear that I cannot follow your brilliance," Greiger spoke cautiously, the underlying disapproval was hard to miss though.
"Oh it's the same mind trick you use in all public speeches." I shrugged, "'You' are special, either by past actions or birthright or what have you. 'They' are oppressing you, taking what is rightfully yours. 'I' will lead you to reclaim glory. You know, the usual."
"Is that not true?" Blizzard asked again, rephrasing his original questions 'don't you believe this too?'.
"Oh it doesn't matter," I replied, "It doesn't really matter what I believe as long as they believe me."
"Yuki, sama," Roman spoke after a wordless exchange between the group that somehow excluded me despite happening right in front of my eyes. "Where do you think your security forces come from?"
"Satellite," I responded as a matter of course, "and other Satellites around the world, and some from larger cities around the world..." Why would they ask this, it's not like I don't know.
"Around most ten percent of our forces from from Neo Domino Satellite," Roman explained, "The rest joined us from other Satellites, slums around the globe."
I nodded, "I know." Well, I didn't. I didn't know the percentages, but what does it matter.
Roman Goodwin bowed his head and bit his tongue, a signal that all but forced others to do the same. Rex Goodwin was the only one not to follow suit.
Yuki is oblivious about a lot of stuff, like when she genuinely expected the Goodwin brothers to 'set up a legal system and write all the laws ', as though it was a reasonable request. NDC still runs on Japanese legal system of course, Rex did end up writing a guidance on legal practices in NDC, about 800 pages total, and Yuki believed that was 'all the laws'. That's understandable, really. Most people, even in the Zephyrs, don't understand the scope of their practice or influence. Unfortunately that's not excusable when you're the one making decisions.
Neither duelling nor motorcycles is a skill you pick up overnight. The Zephyrs security forces is filled with elites from Satellites around the world, the few at the top of a poverty stricken world who had resources to build motorcycles, collect cards, to travel to a new city, a new country to learn its practices, to join this New Hope or bring it back home. It's filled with the Yuseis, Chaoses and Kalins of the world who came for Yuki Tono. Not Netheredale, that's just a byproduct. The source of this miracle was never any secret.
Yet Yuki...
I glanced at group, confused why they're all quiet again. "Come on guys, we have a war to win".
The Yliasters sat on their snow white thrones, enclosed in a sliver of time distinct from the human world, temporarily safe in their own palaces.
"She knows!" Lester's face went pale. "Who is she and how did she f*cking know?"
In a different reality, observational satellites have long been able to visualize the insides of each building through heat mapping. Yliaster's technology now allows them to map the entire globe by the centimetre and pickup most sound.
"Language, Lester." Jakob reprimanded.
"F*ck your language," Primo chimed in, agreeing with Lester for the first time in their collective memory, "She knows us! How did she know about any of us?"
"We have to get rid of her!" Lester decided, pulling up their individual tablets to run the sequence.
"Not yet," Jakob spoke quickly, "None of us has any recollections of this mortal. She has never shown up in our previous iterations, that alone is extremely unusual. We must report this to Z-One. This is our last chance, we cannot risk any uncertainties."
"F*ck your uncertainties," Lester replied. Jakob was their leader for no reason other than age, though both of them listen most of the time, they have long evolved into their own entities. He hit the run button, then hit it again.
The world remained exactly the same. Their video surveillance still showed Izinski practising turbo duelling on her dragon, Team Sun still employed to maintain the WRGP tournament grounds, Goodwins still mulling over Netherdale's first legal document, Kessler still pulling his hair out at just how much work he had.
Yuki Tono, still chatting with Blizzard on screen, chuckled, as though she knew exactly what they did.
"Why? Why CAN'T we get rid of her? She's not CHOSEN!" Lester screeched, Jakob would have reprimanded him normally, though now he is equally concerned. "Is it that Lizard again?"
"No." Primo deadpanned, looking equally anxious as his younger counterpart, "I tried deleting the people around her as well and failed. That Lizard doesn't have the power to shield this many people from us."
"Then what?" Lester demanded, "Why can't we erase her from history?"
"She has no place in history," Jakob noted cautiously, "She has no past or future in this dimension. Those close to her, they are linked to her, and by doing so, she anchors them out of our reach as well."
"I'll kill her." Lester jumped up.
"No, I'll go," Primo offered, "You go take care of the others."
Lester didn't argue this one. Being the older counterpart, Primo was the better duellist, if by a limited margin.
"I'll speak to Smith," Lester said instead, "It's about time he did something useful."
Jacob watched, and didn't protest further.
*which grossed a mere $2 million in ticket revenue
Author's Note: I've been re-reading my stuff and I really like that I was able to write down my thoughts, I'm glad I didn't forget about Vincent, Galen, Kalen, Blizzard or indeed Yuki, like I have undoubtedly done to so many others my mind created. I do plan on finishing this, and I think I have a basic plan that will cover most of 5D's loopholes and hopefully provide some sort of conclusion to this world. I just have to physically write all that stuff down, which is more difficult than it sounds.
I also tried using ChatGPT to write duels, for some reason, it refuses to write good duels. I'm not sure if I'm wording the command wrong or if they just need better generative AI functions.