Aki held a limp Sherry in her arms upon a grassy lawn beneath a blue sky. Black roses bloomed from the gunshot wound in Sherry's chest. Blood stained her dove-white suit. Sherry's body melted into black sludge. The gunk burned a hole to the center of the earth. Aki, sobbing, crawled in. She fell past each of Sherry's beloved Dragunities. Chains bound their limbs and wings, and the bonds served as the strings to a giant Godwin, their puppeteer.

Crimson shone from below. Aki's fall slowed as she approached a giant symbol etched into the earth: Sherry's birthmark, which glowed neon scarlet. Aki's feet landed lightly upon the scarred earth. The landscape reminded her of the Satellite. A sluicing noise like a waterfall sounded from above. Water fell from on high, drenching the Dragunities. The sea-sized torrent would crush her.

She broke into a sprint towards the boundaries of the shining birthmark. Her chest impacted an invisible wall. She smashed her fists against the crimson light, kicked it, bashed her forehead onto it. She screamed and scratched at the unknowable roadblock as the water crashed down. She roiled and spun like clothes in a wash cycle, and gods, the cold like walking naked through the Arctic Circle, and she battled for any semblance of oxygen.

"Aki?"

The soft voice came from above. She clawed her way skyward and broke through the surface. Suddenly it was very dark, and she was breathing into someone else's bare skin. Cold fingers pressed against her hot forehead. "Aki, are you awake?"

Aki stirred. She wriggled her toes and flexed her fingers. The frigid water had stiffened her extremities, but the warm object flush against her body shared heat with her. She inched her head back and realized her face was buried in a shoulder.

The voice. Sherry . Her bare arms wrapped around Aki, holding her against Sherry's body. Aki's breaths quickened. She raised an arm, which lifted a blanket covering them.

"Please stop there," Sherry said. "You were close to…"

The fever dreams swirled in Aki's mind. They could've been her last thoughts. but they hadn't revolved around her family, her school, or her goals.

Only Sherry.

Aki loosed a delirious bark of laughter. She held Sherry and nuzzled into her neck. "You saved me."

"I did what I had to. That is- ah, I apologize, I know it's an invasion of privacy. I hope you do understand I was meaning only to keep you warm."

"I understand," Aki said. Sensation steadily returned to her fingers. She was very aware of her chest pressed against Sherry's. Of the kiss of her hips. Something ached in the seat of Aki's belly, and she buried it as best she could.

It didn't have to mean anything.

"You cut your hair," Aki said, noting the lack of blonde locks spilled across the concrete floor. Sherry had set out the spare clothes she and Aki brought to serve as a pallet, and they were wrapped in a sheet of warm canvas Sherry brought for a tent.

"Ah, yes, it was dark when you saw me. I bound my chest too. Better to appear as a man, I assumed."

"You're handsome."

Sherry laughed. The rumble from her chest was so pleasant that Aki never wanted to leave; it sounded like bells and a cat's purr and home.

"How did you know to do this?" Aki asked.

"My parents were murdered."

The statement hung between them. Aki lay too stunned to do anything but curl her fingers. Finally, she said, "I'm so sorry-"

"No, I am sorry. It was blunt, but it is the only way I know to say it. We believe an international organization targeted them, and I may be next. I have trained in all manner of survival techniques, studied fighting styles, and learned sixteen languages."

Aki's exhale shivered. "You're like a super spy."

"Under super witness protection," she mumbled. "I know Director Godwin has ties with this organization. That is why I will do what he says and earn his good graces. I want to be close to him, but I must seem like I hate him at first for his theft of my mother's card."

"How did he know your mother?"

"Only he knows."

"My father says he's impossible to read. I hope you're able to get something out of him."

"I'll do whatever it takes to avenge my family."

"That's why you came here so easily," Aki said. "It wasn't even a question."

"For me, yes. For you, I do not understand."

The statement took her back to their exchange while they hung over the sea and Satellites stormed the boat. Aki trembled. She breathed in the lingering stench of seawater and decaying debris. "I want, more than anything, to become a professional duelist."

"With how skillfully you duel, such a future is beyond doubt."

"It doesn't matter how well I duel." She choked out the words, and swallowing did nothing to the thickness of her throat. "I need to get out. My family hates me. My dad can't see me as anything but a- a monster , and my mom hasn't had a thought of her own since marrying him. My classmates treat me the same way." Her body quaked, and tears streamed down her cheeks. "No one will duel me. It's impossible to earn my way out with the profession I want because of the curse I've been born with, which means I'm worth nothing and I'll become nothing."

Aki took Sherry's face in her frigid hands. Her bangs were shorter, and the wetness of her close-cropped hair darkened its wheat color to gold. The rising sun streaked pink across the clouds, which reflected in her emerald eyes.

"Then you," Aki said. "You dueled me, and I hurt you, and you didn't leave. You're the b- the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"You cannot say such," she said, delicately prying Aki's hands away from her cheeks. She curled Aki's knuckles into her warm palms. "We have only just met. We are practically strangers."

"But everything I learn makes me want to know more, and every minute I spend with you is more fulfilling than even dueling."

"It cannot be so," she said with a light chuckle. "We do not know each other."

"I know how I feel. You make me happy, and I haven't felt happy like this since… since I discovered my power."

Sherry pushed up onto her elbow. "You have no one."

Though it was not a question, Aki felt the urge to respond. "It's not that I'm lonely. I'm not desperate and pushed myself onto you because of it. You're easy to talk to and be around. Before the psychic stuff, I had trouble connecting to people. Every step I took was a political maneuver in the eyes of my father from prep preschool to now. He treats me like a liability, and there's pressure from all directions to be proper and ladylike."

Aki breathed in deep, closed her eyes, and let it go. The tension in her eased. "When I'm around you, I don't feel that pressure."

Sherry rolled onto her back and stared at the brushstrokes of clouds in the dawn. "No one has spoken honestly as you have. When I ask, they dig deeper with their lies. They see me as intimidating and incomprehensible, being a foreigner. You welcomed me very warmly and inquired about my culture. It brought such nostalgia and homesickness I had forgotten. With my parents gone, I tend to bury memories of home."

Aki rested on her back beside her. "We both don't have anywhere to go back to, huh?"

"Huh."

"But I want to help you. I want you to figure out what happened to your parents and why, and I'll do whatever I can to get there."

"And I you, professional duelist Izayoi Aki."

Aki let herself smile. "If we do, what then? I don't know what it means to grow up and live the life you chose. Everyone seems so accomplished and capable. I can't imagine myself being… that. Are you afraid of the future?"

"Hm. I suppose I should be concerned about things like job markets and investments, but like everyone else my age, I would prefer to pretend these things are far off. No, I have my one goal and will do anything to achieve it. As for afterward, I am unsure. The future is like a cloud of nebula captured on a telescope: vague, unclear, and distant yet unfathomably dense. We can make our guesses at calculations but they are stabs in the dark. There is no way to truly know."

Aki studied the brightening sky. "You're right. There's no use worrying, is there?"

Sherry squeezed her hand. "I am sure we will make it there together. Jusqu'ici tout va bien."

"What does that mean?"

She gazed into the sky, lost in that space Aki knew: the tricky navigation of the collapsed bridges between languages. Sherry said, "So far, so good."

"So far, so good," Aki repeated. "Together."

"Oui," she whispered, and a flutter like caged hummingbirds started up in Aki's chest.

With the freezing cold no longer a threat, they packed up their items and pulled on the change of clothes they'd brought. Sherry bound her chest in the corner while Aki breathed into her hands and rubbed them together.

"I must ask you about one thing," Sherry said.

"Yeah?"

Sherry toed glinting steel peeking out from beneath a fallen shirt.

A pistol.

"You brought this?"

"I- just in case, yeah. I knew my dad kept a few, very hush hush, so I snagged one from his safe."

"I trust you to know how and when to use it."

"Of course!"

Sherry's stare lingered on her. After a handful of Aki's too-loud heartbeats, Sherry shrugged and wound gauze around herself. Aki lifted the weapon, which felt hot despite the winter.

Just in case.

The Satellite was a haunted place. Swift steps of unseen strangers scurried through shadows as Aki and Sherry traveled through the streets. Whispers drifted from boarded-up windows. The quiet proved such a far cry from the City's roar of engines and crowds that Aki found herself tiptoeing.

Smog from the center of the island blanketed the sky. The dark above and claustrophobic air quality choked her. She hugged herself as they exited an alley towards a broader street.

The remnants of a street, anyway. Roots broke apart pavement, and sycamore trunks stretched towards the bleak clouds. Aki's mouth fell open. She touched a chilly trunk. Leaves crunched beneath her boots.

"It's true what they say," Sherry said. "Life finds a way."

Aki kicked aside a chunk of torn-up asphalt. Rivers could cut mountains in half over time, and a tree grew in the Satellite. "That it does."

"Even here we are not seeing anyone? Hm. Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend are seeming an impossible mission."

A wooden board slammed onto the ground. Sherry and Aki jumped, and Sherry palmed a switchblade as fast as striking a match. A young boy with long curly auburn hair stood on the other side of the trees and beamed at them as though they'd offered him free candy. His daffodil-colored beanie had seen better days, and his blue jacket was a few sizes too big for him. The yellow criminal mark beneath his eye shocked Aki. He was so young, so young, and they marked him forever; they truly saw Satellites as little more than racoons rooting through their garbage.

"Hi there," Aki said.

"Hi!" he yelled, and the energy in it surprised her. She expected to be treated with wariness. "Are the two-"

"You!"

A pair of men sprinted towards the boy. He yelped and ran away. Aki and Sherry exchanged glances. Aki's well-placed ankle tripped the first pursuer. He stumbled, slammed his head into a tree trunk, and collapsed. Sherry tackled the second. She caught him in a sleeper hold and lowered him, unconscious, to the ground.

"Well that was, um, effective," Aki murmured. She checked the fallen man to make sure he was still breathing which, thankfully, he was. The boy hid around the corner, one eye visible. Aki said, "Hey, are you okay?"

"You're not with them, right?"

Sherry scoffed. "Does it look like it?"

The boy twiddled his thumbs as he approached. "I've seen some pretty slimy ways gangs trick people, and they were no different. You two don't look like you're from here at all. What do you want with Stardust Dragon?"

Aki swallowed her surprise at failing to blend in. "You know the card? Oh, my name is Aki, by the way."

"I'm Rally! You?" He grinned at Sherry. "You were the one who mentioned Stardusty in the first place, aren't ya?"

"Stardusty," Sherry murmured. "Yes. I am in search of its owner. I fear for their safety."

"Huh? Why? Don't tell me something else bad is going to happen!"

Curiosity pushed Aki to ask what else had gone wrong, but in a place like the Satellite, it must've been a loaded question. "Is there any way you could introduce us?"

"M'kay, sure! Yeah, I should get you two off the streets. Everyone knows you're uh, uh. Sorry, I don't know any other way to say it, but you're kind of a target if you walk out in the open. Either that or a member of a gang who owns the place."

Aki blanched.

"Follow me!" Rally pronounced. Aki and Sherry trailed him through a maze of alleyways, through drywall skeletons of buildings, and into a subway tunnel. The stairwell plunged into darkness. Aki gripped the railing and stepped slowly; ahead, Rally bound to the bottom.

"Take your time," Sherry whispered from further down. Her hand found Aki's, and they descended together. The surviving subway lights flickered over a wide platform. A computer hummed beside a work-in-progress D-Wheel. The frame was plain and colorless, but Aki admired the gumption to put it together from Satellite scraps. On the other side of the platform rested a couch in orange upholstery that had seen better days. The torn and moth-eaten fabric clung to cotton bursting out of it.

A brown vest with a cream fur collar was thrown over the arm. Its dark red stains raised an alarm in Aki. She squeezed Sherry's shoulder but received no reaction.

Then she spotted the man sitting on the edge, his legs dangling over the railway. His black hair spiked up from the sides of his head, and the undersides were highlighted gold. Rally said, "Yusei!"

The man didn't look at them. Rally stopped in his tracks. "Hey, c'mon. This is important. We have visitors for ya!"

Rally threw out his hands, presenting Aki and Sherry as though they'd arrived to perform for his amusement. Yusei planted a gloved hand behind him and twisted his torso. His deep blue eyes resembled the grim sky at dusk and appeared equally welcoming. Aki resisted the urge to flee. He turned back and said, "Now's not a good time."

"It never is!" Rally yelled. "They have something important to tell you! Right?"

The pleading in his eyes suggested Yusei was not always like this. Sherry cleared her throat. "Yusei. Are you the owner of Stardust Dragon?"

"I am."

"I'm afraid it has caused you to become a target."

"Plenty of people know about it because of Team Satisfaction. Let them try."

Aki's brows threaded. What a… strange name for a team. Sherry said, "You misunderstand. The person who wants your card is Rex Godwin, Director of Public Maintenance in New Domino City."

Yusei sat up straighter. Rally said, "Huh? Someone from the City knows about Yusei?"

"I do not believe so. He mentioned your card and did not seem to know your name."

"Presumably, then…" Yusei stood up and balled his fists. "You're his lackey here to take it from me."

"Wha?" Rally said. "Yusei, I swear I didn't know-"

"Oh, come on!" Aki crossed her arms. "You don't really believe that. Sherry would've rooted through your things and taken it without you turning around."

"Sherry?" Rally repeated, appraising Sherry's not-so-feminine looks.

"Right. You've been sent to steal from me, but instead, you tell me the truth." Yusei eyed them both. "What's going on?"

Sherry stuffed her hands into her pockets. Her expression was unreadable, and her unwavering green eyes locked onto Yusei. "It is true Godwin tasked me with taking your card. I was more interested in taking the opportunity to find who else he has chosen to aggravate. He stole from me, too, and agreed to give back a card belonging to my mother if I steal from you."

"He's pitting us against each other for a reason," Yusei said. It wasn't a question.

"Good thing he did not send anyone else with me."

"That's not who your New Domino gal pal is for?"

Aki stammered, "N-no! Godwin's terrifying. I would never!"

"My-" Sherry's jaw worked. "My roommate, Izayoi Aki."

"Makes sense. I wouldn't want to come here alone, either. So, Sherry and Aki, what are we planning to do about this?"

"There is something you should know." Sherry held up two fingers. "Stardust is not the only card he wanted. Red Dragon Archfiend as well."

Yusei's stare hardened. Rally said, "Oh my gosh! Jack's a part of this, too?"

"Rally!" he snapped.

"Oh! Uh, sorry…"

"You know the owner?" Sherry asked.

Yusei averted his gaze. "It's complicated. I know of him."

"Don't say it like that! You guys were so close!" Rally said. "This is the perfect chance to-"

"Rally," Yusei said, his tone a warning. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "We can tell him, but you should know: he's not going to react well. He never does."

Aki touched her fingertips together. "What does reacting poorly mean for this Jack guy?"

"He won't attack you or anything, if that's why you're concerned. More likely he'll be in denial and yell about something."

"Sounds like him," Rally confirmed. "I can hear it now. Who cares! Nobody can take me down! Rarara!"

Aki chuckled, and he beamed. Sherry said, "That is concerning. I hoped the three of us could work together on a plan to dismantle whatever Godwin has in store for us."

"I'm interested, and I can help you talk with him," Yusei said. "I just can't… promise anything."

"Shall we go now?" Sherry asked.

"Straight to the point, huh?" Yusei's stare drifted upward. The lights flickered. Something scurried deeper in the tunnels, and the scrapes echoed. He sighed. "Might as well. Rally, you stay here and hold down the fort."

"Aw, okay! Good luck with the grump, you guys!"

"Thanks for all your help," Aki said, and she slipped him a granola bar. He beamed and tore into it instantly.

Yusei led the pair to the surface. Aki found the ascent in the dark much easier. She and Sherry trailed after Yusei, and Aki whispered, "Did you see the vest?"

"It was our team uniform," Yusei said. Embarrassment dusted pink onto Aki's cheeks.

"Was?" Sherry asked.

"Was."

Yusei guided them through crumbling buildings and abandoned office spaces. They walked through a massive room of forgotten cubicles. Judging by the sun's arc, they traveled to the opposite side of the island from the dump Aki and Sherry arrived at. They crossed into what was once an entertainment district. Dead neon signs clung to the shells of clubs and arcades. Aki climbed over an advertisement depicting a well-endowed woman hugging a martini.

"Think you would have enjoyed going somewhere like that?" Aki asked.

Sherry laughed. "If I could belong in a gentleman's club. Do you believe I would?"

"No question." Aki snaked her arm through Sherry's and pressed herself against Sherry's side. She peered up through her lashes and relished the red flooding Sherry's face. "How would you like to take me home, handsome?"

"I… Ah-"

"We're here," Yusei said, and Aki broke away.

The structure towering over them resembled a Catholic church in architecture. The lack of stained-glass windows and holy imagery gave Aki pause. "What is this place?"

"You'll see. Be prepared, by the way. He's probably waiting inside."

Aki felt like a mouse sneaking into a lion's cave. Her hackles rose as they passed the threshold. A red carpet underfoot stained by decades of grime ran between rows of seating. Errant wind tossed the curtains ridden with holes, scattering light across the extravagant theatre. In front of the empty crowd, a throne rested upon a stage.

There sat a broad-shouldered man with spiked blond hair. His lavender eyes followed their approach lazily. He rose to his feet, and his height worsened her nerves.

"Yusei," Jack said, his voice deep and booming. "And more new friends you've made."

The words "new friends" carried bitterness equivalent to arsenic. Yusei stepped onto the stage. "Not quite. We're here to talk to you about something important. You know it has to be for me to come here."

Jack jerked his chin towards Aki and Sherry. "Why the outsiders, eh? They're so clearly not from here, if you couldn't tell."

"I could," Yusei said, his annoyance hastening the words. "They're here for good reason. A City bigwig is after us."

"As if. We're trash." Jack stepped up to Yusei and glared down at him. "Or didn't you hear Kiryu?"

Yusei grit his teeth and formed fists at his sides. " Stop . It's not about that anymore."

"You'll wallow in the tunnels for months without a peep, but two outsiders are what it takes for you to visit me?"

"You don't get it. Someone in the City knows about Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend. This man blackmailed her into trying to steal our cards. He's after us, and if we work together, we have a chance at finding out why."

Jack's laugh bounced around the acoustics of the high ceiling and empty alcoves. "Because working together has gone so well for us."

Aki inched closer to Sherry, who did the same. Sure, Yusei didn't sound excited to visit his friend, but she didn't expect him to be so… vitriolic. Sherry, brave as she was, stepped forward. "I was the one sent to take your card. I can confirm everything Yusei says."

"Can you now?" Jack walked to the edge of his stage. "What convinced you of your capability to steal a treasure of mine ?"

"Nothing. I am no thief. This is why I admitted the truth to you both."

Jack pointed at her wrist. "You have a duel disk. Go ahead and try to win my Synchro fair and square. Ante up your own and we'll have a go."

"Jack, don't," Yusei warned. "This is about working together ."

"What do you think?" Aki whispered.

"Clearly, I have to earn his respect." Sherry held up her arm. Momentum flowed as glimmering iridescence through the circuitry of her disk. "If you win, you earn my Dragunity Knight - Barcha."

"Your mother's?" Aki said.

Sherry dipped her chin. Jack laughed and hoisted up his own disk. "Finally, someone who gets it. I challenged you, so I'll allow you to go first."

The word "allow" incited Aki to grind her molars. Sherry took it in stride, ever skilled at schooling her expression. A horrible foreboding twisted up Aki's insides. Sherry shouldn't have to risk her most meaningful card because of a stubborn asshole. She shouldn't be punished for trying to do the right thing .

"Very well," Sherry said. "I activate One for One, discarding to special summon a level one monster from my deck. Dragunity Brandistock takes flight!"

A tiny gray dragon in blue armor flew onto her field. Beside it manifested a humanoid with the head of a green eagle and wings like an angel's. "I summon Dragunity Tribus, and its effect sends a Dragon-type from my deck to the grave when it is summoned! Now the effect of Dragunity Mystletainn in my hand sends Tribus to the graveyard to special summon itself and equip a Dragon from the graveyard: Dragunity Aklys!"

Mystletainn's golden scales shone where sunlight spilled through the holes in the curtains. Little red Aklys curled around its spear. Sherry said, "I set two cards face-down and end my turn."

Sherry stood empty-handed, but Aki knew better than to underestimate her. Jack, meanwhile, seemed like the type to underestimate anyone not named Jack. "I discard to special summon Power Giant! As it so happens, I discarded a level two monster, meaning Power Giant's level is lowered from six to four by its effect. Now, I'll normal summon Dark Resonator. These two monsters align to Synchro Summon Exploder Dragonwing!"

A hulking purple monster muscled its way onto the field and spread wings red like the last light of day. Its 2400 attack beat out Mystletainn's 2200 as well as Brandistock's puny 400 defense.

"Battle Phase!" Jack announced. "When Exploder Dragonwing battles, a monster with lesser attack is instantly destroyed, and you take all of that monster's attack power as damage. I believe you understand exactly where I'm aiming."

Sherry's mouth curled downward, and she spread her stance. Aki's heart dropped. 2200 damage would knock her down below half of her life points in Jack's first turn.

It couldn't be. It couldn't, not when Sherry's most prized possession was on the line, and especially not to an arrogant stranger.

Aki refused to allow it to happen.

She swiped a card off her Extra Deck. Queen of Thorns spawned behind Jack. Vines snatched his wrists, and a tendril coated in sharp thorns hovered near his neck. Aki snarled, "Do not ."

Jack's eyes widened. He hissed, "Psychic."

"Stop!" Sherry said. "We're having an honest and fair duel. There is no need for this."

Aki shouted, "I'll tell you what there's no need for: you putting up a card when you're trying to save this fucker from Godwin!"

"I don't need saving," Jack said, "not in this moment nor ever."

The vine around his neck tightened and drew a thin line of blood. Aki smiled and inclined her head. "Is that so?"

Sherry grabbed her wrist. "Aki, please. I know you are frustrated but I can handle this myself."

"You shouldn't have to!" she said, her voice breaking and squeaking like a child, and she hated herself for it.

"Hold on!" Yusei said. "You hear that?"

Silence and the wind, then the screech of incoming sirens. Jack clicked his tongue. "Public Maintenance pigs sniff out the fun as always. Or did they follow you?"

"I swear they didn't, and none of us are marked."

Jack scanned each of their faces. "You're lucky this time. We'll have to split up and finish this later."

"The hideout," Yusei said.

"You sure you want to go back there? Too many ghosts, in my opinion."

"We don't have time for this. I'll make sure these two make it to the hideout and we'll talk about our plan from there."

Aki begrudgingly returned her card to her deck, and her monster vanished in a shower of sparkles. She didn't have to ask why they had to leave. The corruption of Satellite Public Maintenance was a fact her father bragged about.

Jack swaggered off to whatever rat hole he planned to hide in. Yusei pressed against the wall to listen for their incoming location. He whispered, "This way."

They crept away from the telltale flashing blue lights. They stuck to shadows and crouched through fallen buildings that provided plenty of cover. Boot stomps and shouts stormed into the theatre. Though they'd made it two blocks away without being spotted, the officers' movements were as loud as an army.

The presence of other Satellites eluded them. Aki saw the signs: emptied cans of food, abandoned shoes worn enough for the soles to tear off, wooden chairs broken to pieces for kindling. She assumed they knew better than to stick around when officers were on their way.

They passed an old bowling alley and stopped in front of an apartment building collapsed sideways. Aki frowned, imagining what nightmares its inhabitants lived through during Zero Reverse. Yusei climbed through the horizontal fire escape as expertly as a child navigating their favorite jungle gym. Sherry followed suit, but Aki moved slowly, careful with her steps. The rusty steel threatened to cut her open if she held onto the wrong spot.

"Aki?"

Sherry crouched ahead of her and outstretched her hand. Aki met it and intertwined her fingers, and all was well, and she found her way out without a scratch.

"Thank you," she murmured, and suddenly the chill of the wind was nothing to the heat in her face. "I'm sorry. About earlier."

"It is okay." Sherry squeezed her hand. Aki saw in her peripheral Sherry trying to meet her eyes, but Aki couldn't manage it. "I can make my own decisions and face the consequences. You do not need to stand up on my behalf."

"I don't need to, but I want to. I don't want anything bad to happen to you." Aki's grip tightened. "I won't let it."

Sherry closed her eyes. "It will not. Jusqu'ici tout va bien."

Aki swallowed.

So far, so…

She shook her head.

"Over here!" Yusei called. He waved them towards a two-story building sans roof perched upon a promontory. Waves stained gray by ash from the working factories crashed onto the crags below.

Furniture eaten away by termites and time littered the first floor. They followed Yusei up the concrete stairs. They stood around an empty table bearing black streaks like soot or, oh, marker . The crumbled seaside wall offered a view of the horizon, colorless from the ashen waves to the overcast sky.

"Sherry?" Yusei said. "That's your name, right?"

"Correct."

"I don't think challenging Jack is the best idea. At best, you'll win and make him not a target anymore, but that will probably end up in him wanting to duel you over and over until he wins. If he wins the first time, he'll gloat and keep your card until he dies."

Aki's nostrils flared. "How do you know this guy?"

"He's my friend. I know he's a lot, but he's like a brother to me. He has a lot of pride, yes, but he's taken it to do the right things in the past."

"What did he mean about this place?" Sherry asked. "The 'ghosts?'"

Yusei dipped his chin, and his bangs shadowed his eyes. "Long story. Point is, when Jack makes it here, let's do what we can to refuse him and talk instead."

"And what about when he refuses to talk?" Aki said. "Because I'm sure you know it's inevitable."

"I'll handle it. Trust me." His stare lingered on her. She found it uncomfortably piercing, like he could read her hateful thoughts. "I'm sorry to say this so bluntly, but please don't use your powers again. It's a sore subject and could get you in big trouble."

"Sore subject?" she questioned.

"Hey!" bellowed a voice from towards the fallen building. "Where are you?"

"Up here, Jack!"

"Don't keep me waiting."

Yusei rolled his eyes and jogged down the stairs. Aki frowned and looked to Sherry, who shrugged and followed him. Jack awaited them on the edge of the cliff. Yusei said, "Jack-"

"I'm here to continue our duel."

"It will not be happening," Sherry said.

"Then you forfeit, which means I won your card."

Sherry's upper lip hopped with her snarl. She backed up, and Jack stepped toward her. Aki intercepted and slapped him across the face. He reeled back and touched his cheek. Aki shook out her stinging hand.

"Call off your guard dog, will you?" he said.

"Do not call her that," Sherry said. "You are trying to be a thief like you have accused me of. I would say she is well within her right."

Nobody's taking anyone's cards," Yusei said. "The duel is a no contest because we had to run, and good thing, because we should be working on a plan. As soon as Sherry goes back to the City empty-handed, I bet this Godwin will send someone else after us—someone not as willing to talk it out. This is our chance to get ahead of this."

"Ahead of what? A fabricated situation you believe because they're from the City? I'm waiting for the part where you propose we give our cards to her for free because she is definitely trustworthy . The person you just met. You're a bleeding heart, Yusei. Sherry can take Red Dragon Archfiend my way or scamper back to the City with nothing. Those are your two options."

"How about a third option?" Aki's duel disk activated. "We dangle you over the ocean until you give it to us."

"Aki," Sherry warned, but it was too late. Her bangs defied gravity. Tiny rocks and debris floated around them.

Jack laughed. "The psychic curse rears its head again. You know, I used to follow a man like you. He learned the terrible fate of Satellite psychics. If you'd been born here, the second your powers showed themselves, Public Maintenance would lock you up for life. Kiryu was one of the lucky ones, powers not so strong, easily controlled. He flew under the radar, but watching his brethren lost one by one to the cells destroyed him from the inside out. He lost it and decided the answer was to wage war. He tried to kill every last officer."

He gazed at the decrepit building perched on the edge of the island abandoned by the world. "He had a success rate. Let's leave it at that. From the looks of you, I wonder if you're all doomed to the same fate. Your insanity will catch up to you, and your story will end."

"It's not insanity. I am not insane !"

Pebbles blasted outward from her position. Sherry held up her arms to shield her face, Yusei an elbow, and Jack stood stock still as they bounced off his chest. "Strong argument."

"I'm not. I'm not." Her inhales were fast and short. Black encroached upon the edges of her vision. "Because I have- I can keep it under control. Sherry will help me. Sherry is my…" Aki growled, "You're giving us the card. I won't allow this to end any other way. You won't ruin her life!"

"We can continue the duel," Sherry relented.

"No!" Aki shouted. The wind picked up, throwing her crimson locks in all directions. "Don't let his pride win out!"

Memories of her father assaulted her, of his haughty tones and sense of superiority. She could strangle Jack and toss him over the edge in seconds.

Don't use your powers .

Those words stuck out in her mind, an oasis in a desert, a shelter in a hailstorm. She closed her eyes and breathed a shivering breath through her nostrils.

She reached into her jacket and pulled out her father's pistol. When she aimed it at Jack, his eyes widened and his hands went into the air. He backed away slowly.

"Aki, please, there is no need for this," Sherry said, her voice tempered and careful as though she spoke to a rabid animal.

Perhaps she did.

"The card," Aki demanded.

Jack's expression evened. He removed a card from his Extra Deck and approached her with small steps. He held out the Synchro. Aki moved to take it.

Jack grabbed her arm. She shrieked and fired a bullet into the sky. They wrestled for the gun while Red Dragon Archfiend fluttered to the ground. She couldn't tell her flesh apart from his as they fought skin to skin for the precious touch of metal. He jerked. Click.

Bang.

Crimson blossomed from Aki's sternum. Jack backed off, his jaw slack. The pistol fell on top of his card. Aki stumbled back. Her shaking hands fumbled for the wound. Sherry screamed her name but her ears were ringing from the shot, from the blood loss, from the end. Her feet kept carrying her backwards in a feeble attempt to reverse time. A few seconds, just a few, a handful, a pittance.

Her heels teetered. Her body fell towards the sea.

Sherry raced forward. In the moment she pushed aside Jack, red flared from all three of their arms: birthmarks on Jack and Yusei shaped in the same style as Sherry's claw.

So there it was. There was that missing piece Godwin sent Sherry after.

Them all, connected by some fate

she would never be a part of.

New Domino City's light pollution left the sky devoid of stars. Sherry sat cross-legged on a bench in the middle of Director Godwin's hedge maze and gazed upward. She picked out satellites and airplanes but no fires of faraway suns.

How impossibly distant they felt now.

She pressed her hand on the three cards beside her: Dragunity Knight - Barcha, Stardust Dragon, and Red Dragon Archfiend. Godwin was beyond pleased and instructed her to keep them.

"Fate will do the rest," he'd said. "All we need do now is wait."

Waiting was worse than taking a peeler to her intestines. She'd felt sick since losing Aki. She couldn't keep meals down, and she'd started to see the outline of her ribs in the mirror. She buried her head in her hands. The moment played on repeat. She questioned what she could've done differently. She held no malice towards Yusei and Jack, no, not with how they looked . A man like Jack should not have been capable of such expressions of grief.

They offered up their cards and told her to go. She knew it was for the best, but still she spent days scouring the Satellite shores for Aki's body—anything, anything she could bring back from that godforsaken place so her soul might not rest there.

She blamed herself. She should have been honest with Aki. Then she might have convinced her not to accompany her, and all would be right as rain. She should have won the duel unscathed so Aki would have nothing to worry about.

She should have left Aki well enough alone.

Had their paths never crossed, had Sherry treated her like everyone else, she would still be alive.

That fact carved out a human-shaped hole in her chest, gaping and bleeding.

Her thoughts spiraled down the possibilities on repeat. Her eyes remained wide open until painful dryness forced them to shut.

Above, the stars continued to hide their fires.

Rustling in the bushes forced her to sit straight. She wiped her face though her body had run through its supply of tears; everyone she cared for was doomed to die while she lived, and she accepted this as an inevitability.

"Hello?" Sherry said.

A shadow entered the center of the maze. Sherry shot to her feet. The individual wore all black and pulled their hood low over their eyes. The lanterns around Sherry illuminated the bright magenta lining the edges of the hood and long sleeves of the cloak.

Sherry demanded, "Who are you?"

The stranger threw back their hood.

Sherry collapsed backward onto the bench. Izayoi Aki offered a tentative smile. Her face was paler than Sherry remembered, or maybe it was the moonlight or the effects of whatever hallucination she was experiencing.

"It's me," Aki said, and her warm touch on Sherry's hand grounded her. Sherry swallowed but it didn't stop her entire body from quaking, unstoppable shivering like Aki after taking the plunge in freezing waters with her.

"What- how?"

Aki searched her eyes, took her face in her hands, and kissed her cheek. Sherry gasped, and her back straightened. Aki giggled. "It's really me. I promise. I know it's a- a shock, but that's because it's a total miracle. I'm alive and freer than I've ever been."

"Free?" Sherry asked.

"Yes!" Aki twirled, and her black skirt and cloak lifted. "No worries about school, or my future, or my powers! I'm free from it all. I can make my own choices and do whatever I want! I… hope the same for you."

She gripped the fabric of her skirt. "I'm sorry it took me so long to find you. I had to figure out a lot of things, but I'm so happy you're here, and I'm here, and…" She laughed softly. "I'm talking too much."

"No. No, not at all." Sherry touched Aki's elbows. A shock ran through her like an electrical current in her veins. A violet glow shone from a mark on Aki's arm shaped vaguely like a feline. Sherry's brows lifted. It acted like her birthmark, but-

"It's new. Do you like it?"

Sherry's trembling lips spread into a smile. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Loss existed as her eternal companion, but relief such as this introduced unbelievable comfort. It sprung hopes and fears and tears anew. "Yes. It is so cute, and you, you, you."

Sherry pressed her cheek to Aki's, sharing tear stains.

"I did not know how to live without you."

Aki's mouth opened, but no words formed. Sherry's hands skimmed up Aki's forearms. Her own crimson mark glimmered in the night. Fuchsia and scarlet intermingled upon the dark grasses as Sherry pressed her open lips to Aki's. Aki made a shocked little sound from deep within her throat but held onto Sherry and pulled her closer. Her lips slowly closed over Aki's, and she savored her taste of sweat and cherry lip balm. Salt from her tears moistened them as they kissed again and again.

Sherry swore to never lose her, and in the heavens above, a lone star extinguished.