Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Desolation.
It felt so, so accurate.
Junk Syncron, being a robot spirit had been as precise as it could about what it saw when it arrived here. So it had striped away a great deal and only said a 'field of roses'. It had painted the picture of this long field of endless roses with a single monument standing modestly small, but obviously there as the only non-rose thing in the area.
It wasn't.
For Aki she had imagined a field of endless rose bushes, if any rose was climbing it would be up trees or choking out bushes as it overtook them. For everyone else with their limited knowledge of true nature left them imaging everything as roses. Rose trees, rose bushes, roses as free standing flowers, just this expansive field of nonstop roses. Perhaps it was a sign of how they were reaching their limits when they looked about themselves. Realizing that they had ignored a very important thing.
This was still Neo Domino City.
The roses were in bushes and climbing up things. It was just that they were climbing 'up' ruined buildings. Momentum was standing right before them, possibly the same type of structure they had in their own reality. But there was no way of knowing because the roses had wrapped their thorn bushed limbs up around the building. They stood bfore a massive rose bush with only a few pillars to signal a building was under it. The pillars appearing the same as in their reality only broken in parts, the roof clearly caved in.
While all around could be viewed as mounds of roses, but it was just as likely they had grown over the self same buildings the group had been standing amid before. With only the lone hot breeze that sailed through, carrying the sweet scent of roses with a sickening undercurrent of death. For the three guys the roses were all there was.
While Aki felt electric run up her spine as the last note of the roses' scent drifted about her, lingering the way Divine's touch did. Dangerous and alluring in its revelry of violence. For these roses carried the hints of decay on the edge of the scent the roses carried. If Queen Angel of Roses was killing people it would make sense that the roses would carry the smell. Yet the city around them was clearly dead. From horizon to horizon there were only decimated buildings and roses without a single sound of people near by.
"If Momentum is destroyed, doesn't that mean everyone is... dead?" Rua asked slowly as he looked around. The area was a nice garden, yet this was where his Big Brother and Big Sister were resting and the fact that Momentum Project was 'right there'?
When the Dragons had finally departed and took the cut Ancient Fairy had kept them together in her protective bubble, supported by Black Rose Dragon. Passing through the portal had brought them out into an early morning landscape that no one knew what to think of.
"Like doesn't it bother anyone else how Big Brother and Big Sister were laid to rest on the road right down from Momentum?"
"That... is true..." Aki recognized, even as her own voice felt muffled by the roses. "Momentum exists here, so I wonder if Zero Reverse ever happened."
"If it never happened, we'd be with our parents," Crow pointed out quietly as he began to look around in greater curiosity. "Jack's parents were white so maybe he's in America or Europe? Maybe this is only Neo Domino and not the world?"
"Well, there's the ummm..." Ruka felt her heart hurt as she saw the bower over a single stone gray pedestal. Recalling what Junk Syncron had told her, she expected it to be where Yusei and Aki were laid to rest. An unsettling thing to think of and face as it meant there was another reality where the pair were dead, and it appeared all of Neo Domino as well. 'Would Queen know what happened? I mean how can she be 'here' with Big Sis being dead? If she's been here she probably knows, but...'
It hung on how Aki was sustaining Queen or if something or someone else was sustaining the spirit. After all, Queen wasn't a Dragon, so her relationship to her Aki would have been similar to the relationship Aki had with Witch of the Black Rose.
"This is reality." Rua sounded so sad and even old as he spoke. It was certainly odd to hear him sounding so grown up. Though even saying 'grown up' felt defeating because he sounded resigned, defeated. Perhaps he had tried to hold out some distant hope that Junk Syncron was wrong or mistaken. Yusei was an 'odd' name for a boy sure, but maybe it was someone else?
Slithering caught their ears, a sound that should have been quiet exploded in their absence of sound. There were no birds, true nature wasn't trying to encroach, and no one was feeling particularly chatty at the moment. So when the leaves and petals were pushed aside with resolute direction it took them all by surprise.
Jack had moved, with regal determination he had headed towards the monument with roses bowing in respect in the aftermath of his wake. Petals, the weakest of the blooms, gently fell to the ground while their blander, but more firmer stuff, leaves hung true to their stems. He needed proof, he needed confirmation that what Junk Syncron said was real, that this wasn't just an illusion or a trick.
The roses plucked at his riding suit with their thorns wishing for a moment of Jack's time. Only he had no time to give, before him was a monument that he needed answers from. Coiling up as snakes the roses twined with stone and cradled the plaque with a loving blood red embrace. "Be quiet! This isn't our reality, we have no reason to waste our time with 'what ifs'. Yusei and Aki died here, our parents died in our reality. We will not let what ifs destroy who we are!"
With that one order barked out in frustration and imperiousness the spell over them was broken. Jacks' awareness of the situation was comforting as they were reminded that he spoke the truth. 'Every' possibility likely had a reality born from it, so why focus on it? Sure the pair were dead in this reality, but theirs was alive. They could still fight!
"I think Queen is on her way..." Yusei observed as he glanced at the sky and saw a pair of wings beating towards them. 'Where are the birds? Where is life beyond the roses?' he pondered as the sun danced off the wings and armor of the spirit.
"Should we be standing out in the open like this?" Aki asked in concern as she looked about. There was no where to hide, it was true, but if Queen was partnered to Aki, how would she react to seeing a different Aki?
What conversations existed before faded quietly into silence as the spirit got closer. With each beat of the wings, the reality of the garden seemed to sink into the group. The sickening sweet scent of death, the cloying overwhelming roses. The air itself was heated, warmer in a way that Japan wasn't really known for. As they watched Queen Angel of Roses appeared to see them as she began to beat her wings faster.
"Aki! You're better!"
It was a gut punch statement as the spirit cried out. Such joy and excitement as the spirit became more visible. It raised so many questions but no one was speaking as the armored winged woman swooped down, her wings tucking back in the way falcons did when they dove down on prey.
Jack mouthed the word 'better' in confusion as he looked back down at the plaque. It read that both Yusei and Aki were dead, but now Queen was saying Aki 'got better'... Was the plaque a lie? Did Aki kill Yusei? 'No, that makes no sense unless... Did Divine trick her?!'
Divine was a name that Jack didn't often give thought to, he just wasn't that important to the Duelist. Divine could put Aki under mind control so did he control Aki to kill Yusei? Jack had figured that their bond was strong enough to defy it...
For Aki heart ache was all she felt as she saw something glistening in Queen's eyes and realized the spirit was crying. Arms flung open as the spirit cried out in unrestrained joy.
Just for a dark Victorian dress to come between Aki and Queen because Witch of the Black Rose was NOT a push over!
"I don't know who you think you are! But this is 'my' Aki! Go get your own partner!" Witch demanded right before impact sending her right into Aki as Queen slammed into Witch with the kind of determination Jack showed for Cup Noodles.
The twins huddled against each other, the impact so incredibly comical yet the desire to laugh was no where in them. Queen appeared to not even 'see' Witch and dove right in! The impact sent Aki right towards Yusei's arms with Witch sandwiched between the two. Witch was holding on to Queen with defiance, glaring at the spirit while Aki reflexively grabbed both. With Yusei as the odd man in the arrangement as he had grabbed Aki in a desperate attempt to get her out of Queen's dive. But with Witches' sudden appearance all it really accomplish was getting them in this overly wide swing. His neck struck her shoulder silencing him further than normal for a moment.
It was so comical, so over the top that the roses seemed to be laughing with the way they fluttered and waved in Queen's rushed passing to reach Aki. The leaves and petals rubbed against each other creating a soft murmuring sound in place of actual people. Leaving the group feeling more alone than ever. No city sounds, or animals anywhere, just roses and a lone spirit who had said such a confusing thing.
As Aki struggled to get the irate Witch to let go of Queen Crow slipped in to help part the two. Queen was clearly distraught, maybe confused, and if she 'was' confused Crow felt a duty to try and help the spirit.
"Hey, uh, isn't Aki... ya'know... in or under that?" He gently asked giving a nod towards the small monument, headstone whatever one should call it.
"Its me, Queen Angel of Roses! Don't you recognize me? I'm your partner!" Queen struggled against Crow, her eyes easily compared to marbles with how they shone with tears.
It was a gaze that pinned Aki in place, Queen had the most desperate expression she had ever seen. Such desperation that Aki felt disappointed in her self for not being the woman the spirit was clearly desperate to see. Queen's lips began to curl back as a wail began to claw at her, while these heaving sobs began to fill the air.
"Aki... My Akkkiiiiii!" Queen began sobbing and the I in Aki's name got distorted into a long low warbling note of anguish. Her wings didn't fold back in, and instead slumped onto the ground like a second pair of arms. The weight of her anguish requiring more appendages.
No one knew what to say or do, Witch even stayed silent though she stayed possessively close to Aki. The others faced her with various expressions of worry and concern, as the morning sun continued to beat down on them all.
"She's not dead."
Sudden, professional, and unheard from any of them for a while the group desperately sought the source of the voice. His was a new voice, a distraction from the overpowering grief on display before them. Spoken as one who didn't want to say what they were saying.
"She was six years old, Yusei seven when their version of the Zero Reverse happened," Yugi explained his back to them all and as he faced Momentum. "Dr. Fudo managed to stop Zero Reverse from happening in this reality. So they held off to see if Yusei would cause Reverse on his own. Only this Yusei was just a happy child the system wasn't going to go into reverse the way it did in your reality. So a fire was started instead. Yusei went in to rescue his father, who was inside working, and left Aki out here." While the roses hid any sign of fire damage but...
"The person who started the fire put the camera on Yusei and projected the boy as he burned to death looking for his father in front of her here." "Yugi continued while the twins recoiled at the idea in horror. Crow looked sick while Jack shook his head at the sickness of some people. "If you push that stone back it reveals the underground cavern that Queen of Roses created. If you want to see Aki that is."
Yugi's hair was as red as the roses around him, a single red petal resting over a deep blue leather coat. But he was here, after being gone and only the girl Yugi appearing for a time, having him back felt surreal, he was this rock they could hold on to. He 'was' God' after all. Yet he was God, he knew all and knew what happened here... What happened to everyone else.
So giving them the option to 'go see Aki' was no real option at all.
"Queen, I'm... I'm sorry I'm not your Aki..." The Rose duelist hugged the spirit once she got Witch out from between them. But her eyes pleaded with Yusei for help, Queen was trembling from head to toe and given the armor and wings she was quite weighted. Perhaps wanting to keep Aki in the real world, here with her and not disappear again.
"No, you have to be my Aki... look at you so grown! Being a big girl now..."
"Queen Angel of Roses, come, sit by me for a bit," Yugi called out patting the ground next to him.
Queen didn't move, she was too racked by sobs, rooted to holding onto Aki. Her pleading with Aki to be her Aki made three street harden gang members turn away to hide their own tears. While the twins pushed their way to Yusei, needing him near as it was now officially no mistake Yusei was dead. They needed his physical presence as their own anxiety and fear began to grow causing Ancient Fairy to shrink herself so she could wrap around the pair as well.
Crow was the first to move to Queen, wiping tears from his face he tugged off his riding glove and rested his hand on her shoulder. "Hey," he tried using the same voice he used on his kids when they were upset. "Let's go sit with God for a bit, look at Him all alone, I bet He'd like our company." When she didn't move or object, he pulled her to her feet. Wrapping an arm around her back and under her wings he felt the strength in the metal of her armor yet the way she shivered just broke his heart. The armor was strong, her heart was so broken it was weak now.
It was this hobbled state that they approached Yugi's side, another thing all together.
He looked like them, punk hair colors, a blue leather duster with that collar and those wrist bands and boots. God was meant to be in pristine robes, glowing with divine light, there was only supposed to be beauty and grace where ever He was. But no, God was here, looking like any other young punk guy, sitting down on the ground, with the lower end of society around him. No condemnations or disgust, just a guy on the ground offering a seat and an ear to a grieving soul.
"My Aki... she was a good girl," Queen whimpered once she was seated, her face buried in her hands.
"Yes, Aki was a sweet heart, just the way Yusei swayed her to be," Yugi agreed...
Yusei lowered his head for a moment before he turned towards the grave marker. Aki was here since she was a child? His skin burned and the Mark on his arm began to itch at this terrible foreboding thought crossed his mind. No one could still be alive from the time of being a child naturally. Coma patients required machines to be kept alive.
But Queen was a flower based spirit not a machine based one, there was no logical scientific way for Aki to still be alive. Not one that Yusei would be able to easily understand and fathom and before the EarthBound Gods were a thing... He would not believe it possible at all. Now factoring in that possibility of magic and mysticism he had a whole new perspective on what he was going to find. He went to the stone and pushed on it, Jack standing beside him as it was not big enough for both of them to push.
"Bah, scrawny, here..." Jack grumbled and shoved Yusei out of the way and began pushing on his own. Nothing was going to be good coming out of this. No one was here, there weren't even other spirits just Queen! So how could Aki be alive? It had to be unnatural, bizarre and Jack didn't want to see it. Knowing Yusei was dead and Aki was, was, was whatever. He didn't want to see this, but Yusei would.
The stone groaned as he pushed, the smoothed out stone began grinding against the exterior sides, slow and weighted. But no sound of grinding metal came from Jack's grunting and pushing, just grinding stone against stone. Just this low sad groan of someone in pain.