A/N: So...this was coming up. I've rewritten this story for the umpteenth time and this time hope that I can keep this going to the very end without wanting to change it again. Also, might try some different things with this as far as perspectives go. Just because I might want to practice when I eventually try writing to publish a book or series. So might be just telling ahead of time with a chapter being either fully first person or third person. Hopefully. Might also pull what Maximum Ride did and have the main focus being Ren/Yusei and then swapping to third when it's not either. Or maybe like Warriors. We shall see, so apologies in advance if it keeps flip-flopping around. At any rate, starting in third person with this chapter, fyi. And some stuff in italics are also third person as...well, better to let you guys read, huh?

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon nor Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. Both go to their respective owners. I only claim my OCs. Also, warning for a bit of violence and language

Chapter One- The Siblings From A World of Monsters P1:

A pair of figures raced between the trees, avoiding from running into any of the surroundings as much as possible. The taller of the two- a teen boy with spiky dark brown hair- grunted as the shorter- an older teen girl with ash-brown hair and blue eyes- carried him the best she can without dropping him. His long-sleeved gray shirt was stained with red and tattered on the sleeves, same with his jeans. A pair of angry red slashes crossed parallel on the right side of his face with the larger being over his eye. His eyes were barely open as the two journeyed through the forest.

The girl slowed down just a bit to look around. She looked behind them to look for pursuers but didn't see any so far. She let out a heavy sigh, resting her eyes. Nothing so far, she thought. The boy let out a grunt, She immediately became alert again, scanning the area. Gotta find some shelter. We're too exposed out here. She spotted a cave close by them. Bingo. She made a beeline for it.

Once inside, she found a rock to set the boy up against to check the damage. He let out another grunt as he moved his injured body to a sitting position against it. The girl winced at seeing the damage done to him. Dammit, I should have jumped in sooner. Her eyes landed to the middle of his torso, seeing a bloom of red coming from under it despite no tear. What? How did- Her thoughts were cut off when the boy finally spoke.

"Guess this is karma for how shitty I've been," he panted.

"Don't say that. You had no clue what that bastard was planning," she retorted, pulling off the bag she had from her back and digging around in it.

"I still fell for it. I listened to what he said, thinking he was right. That I was better off without you and Mom and Dad and Chelsea. Too late to apologize now, I guess."

"Just shut up and save your strength. I'm not losing you too." Just as she pulled out a roll of gauze, voices started to echo outside the cave.

"I found a trail!" came the call.

The girl cursed, shoving the roll back in her bag and reaching for her belt where four spheres were clipped. She pulled one that was red and white. "Time to let go of the restraint, then."

"AJ, hold-" the boy started before light shone behind them. This caused the girl, AJ, to halt in her throw. The two turned to see swirling lights sparkling behind them. "What in the..?"

AJ also turned to look. Is that...a portal? I don't sense anything coming out of it yet. Maybe that could be our ticket away from here and get Ren help, but should I even risk that? What if it sends us somewhere worse than what we got away from? She looked back at the entrance, seeing shadows starting to come up. Time's up, now or never. She clipped the ball back onto her belt, threw the bag strap over her shoulder, and heaved the boy, Ren, up to lean against her.

"Sis, wha-"

"We're going for a leap of faith."

"Hu..?!"

"Just stay with me!" She braced him better and made a run for the light, taking a leap for the center of it.

Before the light faded from their eyes, AJ managed to stop herself and Ren from falling forward. Instead of a cave surrounding them, it appeared they were in an office room that had gone through a major catastrophe. The windows were broken, cabinets were knocked down, and debris from the walls and ceiling were under their feet. How...what...where in the world are we? Is this even our world? What could have done this much damage? she wondered with a glance around.

"A...Al.." Ren stuttered before he slumped forward.

AJ quickly caught him right as he was slipping from her grip. "No no no! Ren, don't do this! I can't lose you too!" she yelled as she lowered both of them to the ground with her holding Ren in a sitting position. His head hung limply on her shoulder. Arceus, please! I can't lose both of my brothers! Just then the door creaked open behind her, causing her to whirl around to face the person coming in.

(Yusei's POV)

I stepped out from the tunnels for some fresh air. It had been a little over a week since the Enforcers disbanded, and lately things have been just snowballing downhill since then. Crow comes by every now and then to catch up, and Jack...well, we haven't spoken much at all since that night. What else was there to say? I should have done something, seen it coming so maybe Kalin wouldn't have been-

The building near to me exploded to light, catching me off guard and forcing me to shield my eyes from the blast. What the-?! Was that an explosion? I didn't hear an explosion like from a bomb. Electricity? I noticed movement at the window like someone was in the room where it happened. Someone's in there. I rushed in, careful to make sure there weren't any broken steps on the way up to the second floor.

As I got up to the room, I could hear a commotion behind the door. Including a voice yelling, "No no no! Ren, don't do this! I can't lose you too!" That immediately got me to swing the door open.

As soon I had, the source of the voice turned to me. In the room was a girl roughly my age holding up a guy who looked like he had been to hell and back from the amount of damage on him. What in the world? Were they caught up in a gang fight? But I didn't see anyone else in this area enter or leave this place. So was that blast really an explosion? But why isn't she injured as much as he is?

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the girl who had quickly wiped her eyes and spoke up. "Please, we need help. My brother's hurt real bad," she said in a shaky voice.

Don't focus on the how or why yet, Yusei. Just get them both help. "Right, yeah. Here, I'll carry him," I replied, walking around her. I got his arm around and then hoisted him up. He was pale and breathing heavily. He did let out a grunt in pain from being picked up. "Follow me. I know who can help patch him up."

"What is this? Where am I?

"Was this because of what I did? What I let happened? I didn't know that he would appear like that or what they were planning when he did!

"I should have...maybe if I had...I...

"I'm so tired. I just want to forget everything that happened. Start back over, to how simple things were.

"Before I lost everything..."

As soon as I got them to Martha's, Dr. Schmidt was called and went to work on patching the guy up. When he was showing signs of running a fever, Martha pushed the girl and I out to make sure not to worsen his condition. The girl went from pacing about to sitting and tapping her foot while taking a look outside the nearest window. I wanted to ask her about that light and what happened in that room, but I held the questions back as she already had enough on her plate with waiting for news.

Come on, Yus. You can at least help her calm down a bit. Just save the other questions for a later date. It's not that urgent, I thought as I sighed a bit. "So...it occurred to me that we hadn't had a chance to properly introduce ourselves," I started. The moment I began talking, the girl's head jerked toward me.

"Oh...yeah, I suppose not," she replied, turning her head back down in the middle of the response.

"I'm Yusei. And you are..?"

"Aly. Everyone tends to call me AJ, though."

"AJ, nice to meet you. And your brother?"

"...Ren. His name is Ren." Well, that seemed to have worked a little, but she's still a bit dodgy. Don't blame her. Whoever did that to her brother must have her mind in tatters. "I just don't get it..."

"Huh?"

"One minute, we're in the middle of Lostlorn Forest getting chased by a bunch of deranged lunatics, then we end up who knows where from that light. Nothing like that should have been possible."

Forest? They were in a forest and ended up in a building? "What do you-" I stopped when the door to the infirmary opened which led to AJ jumping up.

"How is he?"

"As long as things don't go wrong tonight, he should make a full recovery," Dr Schmidt replied.

"Oh thank goodness..." AJ sighed.

"The main injuries to watch are the marks on his face and that gouge on his chest and stomach. He also had a lot of bruising on his sides, but there's no way to tell if he has any internal damage. We'll just have to keep an eye for that." AJ visibly tensed at hearing more of her brother's injuries. Her hand brushed over the strange spheres on her belt, but she let it drop a second after.

"Okay. Is it all right if I stay by his side?"

Martha answered, "Of course. Just let me know if you would later prefer a room, though."

"Thanks." AJ grabbed the bag she had left at the chair and went into the infirmary. She said she and Ren were being chased by others, but there was no one else in that building. And where is this "Lostlorn Forest?" And it doesn't seem like she really knew where they ended up. What is going on? Could...no, there's no way. Right?

"I've got to go and help them!"

"No! Your condition is still not stable for jumping between worlds. If you go, there isn't a guarantee you'll survive."

"Are you really expecting me to sit back and be okay with that?! Those are-"

"I'm aware who they are to you, but the answer is still no. I just barely made it in time to pull you out of near death. It's going to take time before your body is strong enough to handle being out there. You'll be reunited with them soon, don't worry. But you can't react recklessly with this second chance."

"...all right. I don't like having to see them struggle, but I trust your judgment. I owe you that much."

(No one's POV)

AJ sat in a chair next to the bed Ren was laying in. She stared down at the red and white ball in her hand, thumbing the button in the middle of it. I shouldn't...there's something odd about this place that I can't put my finger on. But...if anyone knows Ren best, it's him, she thought as she pressed the button and opened the ball.

In a flash of light, a red bipedal lizard with a cream underbelly and flame on the tip of its tail appeared right next to her. The lizard rubbed its eyes. "Chaar...Char?" it spoke, looking around before its eyes fell on the boy in the bed. "Char?!"

"Shh, Riki," AJ shushed, placing a hand on the lizard's snout. "Ren's resting right now, and so are the people here."

"Char...Char Charme Char?"

"I...don't know. Somehow, we ended up way further than Unova is all I can tell. But the energy here feels...off. And from what I saw, there was no Pokémon around here. Wherever we are, it's far enough away from the ones that hurt Ren."

At the mention of that, a low growl rumbled. "Chaarrr..."

"Listen, I'm not sure if Ren's going to...still want to talk with me once he recovers, so think you can keep him safe if he decides to go back to being separate? This goes for Mazin and Storm too, but you've been with him the longest and knows him better than I do."

The lizard, Riki, nodded. "Char."

"Thank you." They both looked over to Ren who was breathing a bit more steadily. Riki walked a bit closer, climbing a bit onto the bed at Ren's legs and laying down with his tail hanging over the edge. AJ took Ren's hand in her grip after setting Riki's ball to the side. Please, I can't lose another brother. I don't think I could handle it...

She didn't know when she fell asleep during the night, but the light from the windows alerted her to the next day. She rubbed her eyes as she looked around. I...guess it was too much to hope it was all a bad dream. AJ looked down at Riki who was still asleep at the foot of the bed. If it is what I fear, though, I'll have to either return Riki to his ball or get him under the bed to hide from everyone here. At least until I get a bit more information of what is going on here.

A grunt snapped her out of her thoughts and woke up Riki. AJ looked to see the expression on Ren's face switch from calm to scrunched a bit in pain as he hissed out. "Agghhh...shit..."

"Ren? Ren, can you hear me?" she asked.

"Char Char?" Riki said, sliding from the bed to being on the other side of the bed.

"Hu...wha...?" Ren croaked out, his uncovered eye opening the slightest bit.

"It's okay. I found help and got you patched up. There's no danger here."

"W-What do you mean?" His eye opened up finally. There was confusion mixed with the pain in his blue-green eye.

"I'm not quite sure how we did it or where we are, but there's no way those guys will-"

"Who are you?" The question caused the blood to drain from AJ's face as she realized what the confusion was for. Not from the lack of recalling the danger entirely, but from the fact that he didn't recognize her.

"Oh Arceus, no..."

"Char..?"

A/N: Well...I mean, guess should have seen it coming if anyone's been around to remember the first few drafts of this story (also the pics I made a while back during the first draft). So yeah, several changes have been made to this piece and I hope to see it through to the end. I've got the first two 'arcs' outlined and the third is...getting there. Honestly, hoping the hype from the DLC for Scarlet and Violet can keep me going to type up at least the first one and then I can worry about going through the next one after. Anyway, see you all for the next part!