Before going to the chapter, I wanted to say that there will be no Duel this chapter. This chapter will be used to set up the coming Duels which I will split to 2 a chapter or just 1 per chapter. I sounded really misleading last chapter and I am sorry for that. But this would take way too long if I tried to put a Duel in this chapter and I have to manage my time between life, this fic, my other fic, and also planning out said fics.

Without any further delay, here is the short setup chapter...


Darkness picked up the now Carded officer. An emotionless look was on his face as he gazed at the Card. Unlike most of the other soldiers, he didn't show any sort of emotion when Carding someone. And he certainly didn't see war as a game.

"Damn it! I wish I could have been the one to Card him," Darkness heard Rin mutter under her breath. He could tell without even looking that the girl was pouting.

The masked Duelist glanced down at his Duel Disk, seeing a message from Barrett. He scanned the contents of the message and narrowed his eyes.

In the subway…

Darkness looked up from his Duel Disk and began to walk to a new destination, telling Rin to follow him.

"So? Where are we going this time?"

"To the subway." Darkness replied bluntly.

"Why?"

"Hiragi Yuzu has been found there along with a member of the Lancers. We can capture her and pick off a member of our greatest enemy."

"And what of the other two?" Rin pressed further, hoping to let loose and Duel one of her counterparts.

"Yuri is tracking down Hiragi Yuzu, while Shiunin Sora is after Serena." Darkness said no more. When he had sent Dennis to back to Academia, he could tell in Shiunin Sora's eyes that he was no longer an Academia soldier at heart. Deep down, he knew the Furnimal user was questioning Academia's methods and end goal.

"Also," Darkness added, "Knowing the Lancers, they are probably sending people to the subway to retrieve Hiragi Yuzu. I would assume that Yuri and Barrett are already there."

Rin's eyes brightened slightly when she came to a realization. A sadistic grin appeared on her face.

"Yugo is probably out for Yuri's neck. Maybe I could have some fun with him."

When Roget defected from Academia and fled to the Synchro Dimension to build his own empire, he never expected himself to be in the situation he was currently in.

Academia was attacking, and some of the high-ranking soldiers knew about him. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if some were actually assigned to execute him.

Then there was the escaping Yuto and Ruri. He could not activate the restraints because for some reason, the power to both Yuto's helmet and the restraints of all d-wheels were cut off. He had reason to believe that it was due to some part from the shockwaves he felt during Yuto and Ruri's Duel. However that was just speculation.

However, he did have a plan. And thank goodness he had modified Sergey to do his bidding only.

He really only needed one of the three girls to use as a bargaining chip. And he already knew where one of them was. Thanks to sightings of the Obelisk Force constantly marching into the subway, he knew that one of the girls was there, fighting for their freedom.

He had them where he wanted. In chess terms, it was a 'check', not a 'checkmate'.

However, with Sergey…

Roget would change that soon enough.


Meanwhile-With Yuto, Yugo, and Ruri

Yuto peered down at his Duel Disk, seeing an message from Shark. He widened his eyes out of surprise, as he was 100% sure that the email feature on his Duel Disk was jammed thanks to Roget's tampering. But here it was, an email from a comrade.

He read the message he received, and let out a small gasp of shock. From what Ryoga had written, the Shark user and his comrades managed to escape the underground. Also, Serena was missing and Yuzu along with Reira were in the subway.

There's no doubt about it. If they are still in the subway, then Academia must be sending soldiers to apprehend Yuzu…Yuto deduced before closing his eyes, and making a silent promise to Yuya that he would at all costs get Yuzu back.

Ever since his Duel with Ruri, he found that his mental connection with Yuya was...severed. He no longer felt the Entermate Duelist's presence hanging around in the back of his head. It was as if he was never there.

He decided to keep the current situation on Yuya on hold for now, focusing on the task at hand.

"Guys." The Xyz Duelist called out to his companions, "We're heading to the subway. Yuzu and Reira are hiding out there. But it's only a manner of time before they run into trouble." Yuto turned his head to Ruri, "I already know that no matter what I say, you're gonna want to come with us, am I right?"

At Ruri's insistent nod, he sighed, before his lips curled into a smile.

"Alright then."

Yugo immediately felt his right hand quiver for a quick moment. This was just like the situation with Rin all over again. Yuzu was currently fighting for her safety and Yugo was nowhere to be found when she needed help the most.

No! I won't let that happen again! I won't let any of those bastards pay a finger on her! In Yugo's eyes burnt a new fire. A fire to not only protect Yuzu, but to amend for his past mistakes, particularly the accident he had with Yuya.

The 'death' of the Pendulum Duelist was weighing down on Yugo's conscious for a while now. This was the least he could do for the guy: Protect his precious people.

This, along with getting Rin back, was a vow he made to fulfill no matter what.

Yugo was so determined that he didn't even notice the sudden increase in speed from his d-wheel and the minutes that had passed. Thankfully, he focused back in on reality just in time to notice something while they were getting close to the subway.

Currently, they were driving in a park. It wasn't the Central Park, but it was still a popular place from what Yugo knew. However, currently, thanks to Academia and originally the Friendship Cup, the place was like a ghost town.

However, that wasn't what caught Yugo's eye. It was the small hoard of Obelisk Force soldiers making their way to the subway. From Yugo's point of view, there seemed to be only three soldiers, fortunately.

He noticed Yuto with Ruri speeding up along with him. Yuto and Yugo drove their d-wheels right in front of the Obelisk Force's path, halting the journey to the subway.

Yugo, Yuto, and Ruri, who was on the former's d-wheel, all faced the Obelisk Force and activated their Duel Disks. No one ushered one word except the declaration of the word 'Duel'.


Later

The three members of the Obelisk Force laid defeated in front of them. The three victors of the Duel noted that the Obelisk Force picked up a bit of a fight. Hell, they even use different strategies from each other, something that caught the three off guard. In fact, if it wasn't for Ruri, Yuto was sure that he would have lost all of his life.

Yuto looked at the surrounding area, a hint of jealousy forming in his mind. It was a selfish thought. Very selfish. What he was thinking of. He noticed that despite Academia launching an attack on this dimension in a similar manner as the Xyz Dimension, the damage so far was nowhere near as bad as the damage done to Xyz.

A part of the Phantom Knights user felt glad that Yugo's homeland hadn't suffered the same fate as his own. Yet...at the same time, another part of Yuto was envious of the fact that his dimension was got the worse outcome. In fact...in a tiny corner of his heart, he wished that the outcomes of the attacks on both dimensions were reversed...

"You guys!" A female voice broke Yuto out of his selfish rambling. The voice definitely didn't belong to Yuzu. It sounded more stronger and commanding than Yuzu's more light and kind tone.

The group turned to see Serena standing behind them.

"Serena!" Yuto and Ruri exclaimed in unison before Yuto threw her question out of exasperation, "What are you doing here alone?!"

"I came here to rescue Yuzu and Reira, of course." The indigo-haired female jabbed her finger in the direction behind her, where the group saw Yuzu and Reira walking up to them.

"Yuto! Yugo!" Yuzu smiled, fastening her pace as she ran to the two, completely forgetting about her bracelet.

Yuto remembered...but at the wrong moment.

"Yuzu, wait!"

One pink bright light later, and Yuto was sure that either him or Yugo was fucked, and that one of them was going to be separated from the others. Hell, maybe both of them would have been transported. Yuto found himself closing his eyes both from the brightness of the light and the fact that he didn't want to know whether he got transported or not.

However, he opened his eyes when he heard Yuzu's surprised gasp.

When view of the area came back into his view, he immediately noticed one thing…

Nothing had changed. Yugo was still with them, and Yuto himself was most definitely still with Ruri, Yuzu, and Reira.

"The bracelet…" Yuzu started in a low voice before speaking up, "I completely forgot. Normally it transports someone who looks like Yuya but…" She trailed off, truly at a loss of words.

Yuto narrowed his eyes. Could this have something to do with Yuya's sudden disappearance from his mind? After all, Yuto and all of his lookalikes were connected with Yuzu's bracelet in such a manner that they would get warped away if another lookalike was nearby.

While Yuto thought about this, Ruri turned to her Standard counterpart.

"The same face as me…" Ruri deciphered what Yuzu was silently mouthing.

"Then, you must be Ruri, right?" Yuzu asked her lookalike, to Ruri's nod, Yuzu smiled. So Yuto really did get Ruri back. She was happy for the boy, but confused at the same time.

"How did you escape?" Yuzu threw another question with a raised eyebrow.

Ruri let out a sigh, "It's a long story. You don't want to know."

"Oh yeah, Yuzu!" Yuto suddenly blurted out, slightly startling the girl, as the holder of Dark Rebellion was usually much more quiet and reserved than this. Yuto reached into his jacket pocket (the jacket of his Riding Duel outfit) and pulled out a certain blue pendant.

"Yuya's pendulum!" Yuzu whispered. To her surprise, Yuto held it out to her, "What are you doing?"

"Returning it. You're one of Yuya's closest people. I have no right to be in possession of something sentimental to Yuya. Take it, Yuzu." Yuto said with firm eyes, giving Yuzu absolutely no room to refuse. She took the pendant from the boy's hands and placed into the same jacket pocket where she had put her Duel Disk and Deck…

Unbeknownst to Yuzu, her Deck and Yuya's pendant began to glow a light blue hue.

ears perked up as she heard feet of two more people hit the ground at the exact same time. The Kurosaki turned her head at the new arrivals, one was on the group's left, while the other was on the group's right. The one on the right immediately spoke…

"Shiunin Sora!"

Yuto snapped out of his thoughts when heard the mention of the name and the voice that spoke.

"Shiunin Sora?" Yuto repeated as he looked behind him, seeing Sora standing there, glancing away from Yuto as soon as their eyes met. Yuto looked in front of him to see O'Brien running to them. "O'Brien! Hold up a second!"

"Don't you see, Yuto! Shiunin Sora is right there!" O'Brien bellowed, jabbing a finger at said boy.

"No, please stop!" Ruri immediately intervened, running in front of O'Brien. "He introduced himself to me as a comrade of Yuto's! He's on our side!"

Yuto took a step forward, "O'Brien, Ruri's right. Honestly, I don't trust Shiunin Sora fully. But, if he wanted to capture Yuzu, Serena, or Ruri, he would have done a long time ago."

O'Brien pondered these words before standing down, soon adding, "This doesn't change the fact that you deceived those who thought of you as a friend."

"O'Brien...Sora, what are you two doing here?" Yuzu asked, relieved that the two were well but concerned as well.

"I came here to protect you!" Both replied in unison, much to their surprise and immediate disgust.

"I'm sure you came to protect her! Come up with more lies just so you can backstab us again and capture her!" O'Brien accused Sora, not taking his changed allegiance.

"Look, I know that with what I have done in the past I can't be forgiven or trusted! But please, I'm begging you! Just give me a chance!" What Sora did next surprised everyone there. The boy actually dropped to his knees and bowed to O'Brien.

"Tell me! Why have such a sudden change of heart?!" O'Brien interrogated with his Duel Disk at the ready, his eye twitching at Sora's pleas.

"There is no denying that I was an Academia soldier. I fought only for them. Yuya and Yuzu are my friends...I never had such a thing in Academia...No matter how many times I try to deny it, I can't erase those memories! Yuya taught me that there are more things to life than just fighting! I...I want him to show me the right way!" Sora confessed his friendship to Yuya and Yuzu.

Sora raised his head, a pained expression on his face, "Thinking back, I thought that I was happy back at Academia. I was respected by my colleagues, and I was treated in high regard. But...after visiting Standard...I realized how horrible I was really feeling in Academia. There was a hole in my heart...one forged by solitude. I don't want to have that feeling ever again, and I don't want to lose my first friends either!"

O'Brien lowered his arm before sighing, "Stand up. Making such a face doesn't suit a person like you."

Sora stood up, now that he was back on his feet, he immediately turned to Yuto and took a bow.

"I just wanted to say...I'm sorry. While I still believe in Academia's goal of creating a perfect utopia, I don't agree with their methods anymore."

"You're betraying the Professor now?" Everyone froze, with Yugo immediately getting an angered expression on his face, "Your venture into the Standard Dimension has made you soft...Shiunin Sora-kun."

The group shot their bodies in the direction of the voice, with Yugo practically running to before skidding to a halt when identifying the owner of the voice.

"You…" Yugo growled with hatred burning in his eyes.

"Long time no see, Fusion-kun." Yuri taunted as members of the Obelisk Force walked behind him, coming to a halt with grins targeted at Yuto and the others.

"Bastard! Tell me the truth this time! Where is Rin?!" Yugo demanded, wrinkling his eyebrows.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk." Yuri clicked his tongue, waving a finger in the air. As if he was trying to tempt Yugo into anger, "Now, now, Fusion-kun. I already told you that Rin sided with us."

"LIAR! RIN WOULD NEVER DO THAT!" Yugo threw his hand to the side.

Yuri chuckled as he stole a glance at Yuto, gaining an interested expression on his face, "Oh? So you must be Ruri's boyfriend then? I hope you had a good time being back together with your lover. Now, if you would so kindly hand over Hiragi Yuzu, Serena, and Kurosaki Ruri, I'll let all of you live to see another day."

Yuri directed his gaze to Sora adding, "Except for Shiunin Sora and O'Brien, of course."

"Like hell I'm going to go back with you!" Serena exclaimed, taking a step forward and raising a fist towards Yuri.

"Oh? It's you? Hmm...What's your name again?" Yuri plastered an innocent expression over his face. The group knew better. The cabbage-haired boy was just messing around with them.

"To think that you would sink this low, Yuri…" Serena mumbled under her breath, speaking loud enough for the Fusion Duelist to hear her.

"We both know that you are the cause of my change. However, I must say, I should be grateful to you. By discarding the weak, old me, a new and much better version took surface."

Before Serena could respond, another voice entered the fray…

"Serena-sama, to think that you would side against Academia…Why would you do such a thing?" The man named Barrett stopped beside Yuri.

Serena made a small sound of surprise at the sight of Barret before quickly regaining her composure.

"Go back to a prison like Academia? I would rather die." Serena retorted with a look of resolution on her face. "I've seen the truth of Academia's ways, and it's disgusting! Training child soldiers...Making it so they don't have the chance of a real life, and then throwing them into a battlefield, forever changing them. It's one of the reasons that I cut my ties."

"Very well then, it seems like I will have to drag you back to Academia." Barrett stated with a neutral expression on his face.

"Hey now, you didn't forget about me, did you?" Yet another voice entered the fray.

Sora paled, Oh no…

The group slowly creaked their heads to see a masked man walking towards them with his Duel Disk out.

"Oh? You must be Yugo." Darkness said, Yugo widened his eyes at the mention of his name, "My companion here has just been itching to have a crack at you. Apparently, you two already know each other..."

As Yugo heard footsteps behind the masked man, Yugo's bottled up fears came crashing at the back of his head at full force. No...It couldn't be…

As the walking person revealed themselves, Yugo had the feeling to just die on the spot and erase his existence so no one could ever know how the boy was feeling right now.

"You are…"

The aqua green hair. Those beautiful orange eyes that used to be so full of life…

Except those eyes weren't filled with life anymore. At least, not the good kind…

"Rin..."


Jack Atlas stood from his throne, overlooking the city in its burning state. He saw multiple Ancient Gear Chaos Giants reek havoc on the surrounding area.

Suddenly, his ears picked up the sound of a person walking into the throne room. Even with his back turned towards the person, Jack already knew who is was.

"I've been waiting for you, Akaba Reiji."


As I said, this will be a short chapter. Sorry for that. I sounded really misleading last chapter.

Now, if you guys noticed, Sergey isn't here yet. The scene with Roget sets up the moment when Sergey will appear next chapter.

I have put the Card Catalog in for the Duel between Darkness and 227. I added a bonus effect for Clear Fusion and Slithering Serpent, so make sure to check after this chapter.

And also, since I've a really big asshole with the no previews thing lately, I'll tell you some of the Duels that will occur in this situation.

Sora, O'Brien, and Reira vs Obelisk Force (I might skip this because we already know who will win, but then again, since Sora hasn't Dueled since chapter 49 I believe I might not skip it).

Yugo vs Rin

Yuzu vs Sergey (When he appears)

Yuto vs Fujiwara

Now as for who Duels Yuri and Barrett. I was debating on having Serena face Yuri or Ruri facing Yuri cause, you know, everyone loves revenge Duels. And then maybe Serena against Barrett to show Serena truly cutting ties with Academia and showing her growth. But then again, as I said, I was also thinking Yuri vs Serena due to the interaction and potential backstory I could give the two. I'd like your guys take on what should be done.

Should Serena Duel Yuri or Barrett? Ruri will Duel whoever Serena doesn't Duel. Of course, the final decision is mine, but I'm interested in your guys' thoughts on the matter.

Ethan Kironus: Glad you like it.

Bridgey: Yuto and Yugo will team up, but they probably won't be alone.

Skadi: Yeah, I'll admit, the Duel was really boring when I read it over. But I had no intentions of changing it because although it was Darkness' first Duel, it was against DUEL CHASER 227. Honestly, I only had Darkness Duel last chapter so everyone could figure out his identity. Darkness will Duel very soon against Yuto, but due to the sheer amount of Duels I have planned, it might be like 2 or 3 chapters before I get there.

DG: Thanks for your encouraging words. Also, if it helps any, good luck on those midterms you have! :)

Neonecrodarkman: Yeah, I wanted a Darkness esque character in this fic for a while. But after reading other fics, I noticed how everyone uses Fubuki (I think someone even used the real skeleton dude Darkness). I actually completely forgot Fujiwara was Darkness as it has been a while since I watched Gx. I'm still really pissed I never noticed the connection between Atticus and Sonic/Shadow. Honestly, while I like Roger Craig Smith's take on Sonic, I prefer Jason much more.

That's all for now guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Take care, goodbye!