Author's Note:

The story continues with chapter 39! This crazy 10 year old story is still alive!

I hope you're all staying well, safe and healthy with COVID. What a crazy year it's been...geez.

This was a very difficult chapter to write and to edit with everything's it got going on. It's also very emotional and I really had to get in a sad, dark mood to write it (and some days I just didn't want to do it, and watched some happy TV instead...lol).

Anyway, it's here and chapter 40 is around the corner! We're almost at the end here. To all the readers - thanks for making it all the way to now! As always, thank you for all your reviews, messages, favourites and alerts! You make my day.

NineInchNailed.

"What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt"

~"Hurt" by Trent Reznor.

"Hello, Yusei," Aki said and smiled. She saw Black Rose Dragon and Stardust Dragon, together side by side next to him.

Yusei flinched, seeing in the longest time what was finally, unmistakably her. He gulped, feeling the lightness in the air, the rapid pulse in his throat. "Aki."

"I surrender." She pulled the duel disk off her arm and tossed it aside. Set's final, unplayed Trap card fell out, revealing itself to be Mirror Force: if activated he would have destroyed Black Rose Dragon and forced the duel to continue.

Aki's Life Points dropped to zero. "It seems you've won," she said.

Yusei was still frozen in place, feeling numb from the stress and exhilaration of everything that'd just happened. He was staring at her, mouth wide open. "Aki," was all he uttered again in stupor.

[Winner: Yusei Fudo]

Aki reached out towards him, the mark of a Signer a strong and resilient glow on her arm. "Yusei..."

"Aki!" Yusei finally recovered. He tossed his own duel disk aside and raced towards her, suddenly as capable as he could ever be. And he grabbed her up, lifting her off the ground, and choked back what might have been a sob into her scarlet hair. In his arms she felt disturbingly weightless and he could feel the bones of her ribs and spine.

"Oh…" she breathed out and put her arms around him. In his powerful, warm hug she felt him trembling all over. She also felt the slight dampness of his clothes and he smelled like blood, sweat, something unpleasant and still – underneath it all – a little bit of that recognizable, intoxicating cologne smell, the scent that was exclusively him.

He put her down and when Aki's feet touched the ground she felt it starting to sway. With her ears suddenly ringing she knew she was seconds from losing her balance. "Yusei...how I've missed you."

He was kissing her hair, then his hands were touching her face, and his kisses were landing on her ear, then her forehead, eyelids, cheeks... he was murmuring something, saying her name… But then the thick gray fog assaulted her vision and her arms slipped off his shoulders and her head dipped back and she was falling...falling...down into abyss with no bottom to reach...

...And then she returned. She was lying down now and looking up at Yusei's face. He was crouching on one knee, holding her.

"Aki!" he gave her a little shake, worried sick. Her weight loss was extremely alarming up close – she seemed almost translucent. She felt so small that he thought she might disappear, once and for all, even though he'd just gotten her back.

"Hey…sorry…I'm not feeling 100%," Aki apologized, trying to keep afloat of the impossible weakness and awful feelings she had all over. Not only with the significant, sinking pain in her stomach which felt like it'd squeezed all her internal organs together – but also with a dizzying, nauseating buzz occupying her head and vibrating underneath her skin. Her mouth felt as dry as a desert and she reckoned she was painfully thirsty; some nutritious food would also have helped quite a bit. Nonetheless, she took this time and this moment of tranquility to study Yusei's face and to acknowledge his appearance.

He was pretty significantly injured. There were wounds of varying degrees all over his face and body, some deeper than others and still bleeding. There was a large cut on his cheek, maybe a few days old, mimicking the criminal marker on his left cheek. There was a fresh deep gash over his eyebrow which only recently coagulated but had succeeded at painting half of his face in crimson. There were tired, blue circles under his eyes. His usually striking, perfectly gelled hair looked dull and flat. His clothes were dirty and partially shredded, the sleeves of his jacket especially looked like fringes and his gray t-shirt underneath was basically a cutout of what it should've been. He looked like he'd lost weight. He was shaking lightly – from cold, stress or whatever else – and all over. And yet, despite all, he was looking at her with bright, shining eyes and a wide, open smile on his face.

"God, Yusei…you look awful," Aki said and touched her hand gently to the fresh cut on his face. She didn't have to ask why. She knew. The hours (Days? Weeks?) she had spent subservient to Set's bidding were still witnessed by her dormant consciousness – she could recall details as if they were from a recent dream. And she saw phantasmagoric fragments of how each injury was inflicted on Yusei, how her psychic powers were manipulated, how they'd drained her dry.

"Whatever," Yusei answered, feeling like laughing from relief. He wanted to kiss her again but he thought better of it this time; he did, after all, throw up like...ten times recently. "It's all just scratches, Aki. Meaningless. Painless." He grazed his hand over her pallid forehead, brushed back wet locks of hair, caressed her cheek. "None of it hurts. Not anymore."

Behind them, next to the deactivated reactor controls, a shaken Sho Higuchi breathed out after anxiously holding his breath for what felt like minutes. He looked around cautiously, uncertain if the manual override he performed actually worked. After all, he only accidentally overheard his father's personnel discuss its existence: a safeguard put in place in case of emergencies and with only a partial percentage of success. He gingerly unravelled the hem of his shirt and looked at his hands, seeing inflamed, glistening red from where he'd grabbed the overheated lever and gave himself a terrible burn.

"It's all over then? It worked?" Sho pondered loudly, hoping to get the attention of the other two people he could see: Yusei Fudo and that skinny, unwell red-haired girl that commandeered everything around here up until moments ago.

"You were gone so long. Too long, Aki," Yusei whispered emotionally. He was overwhelmed. He felt lightheaded, like he wasn't getting enough oxygen in his lungs. "I have so much to tell you."

"So much to tell me? Like what?"

"Everything," he promised. "Like...crazy to imagine but I flew to Egypt two days ago. Met with Yugi Mutou. Met Seto Kaiba, saw Mokuba again. Gave Yugi all the Egyptian cards back. So that's all over now, you know? All loose ends tied up."

Surprise was openly reflected on Aki's face. That seemed as far away and as mythical as a dream. And seeing the Kaiba brothers and meeting the first King of Games?

"And that's just the tip of an iceberg," Yusei sighed. "I don't even know where to start...but I'll tell you everything. Now that it's all over."

Aki nodded happily and was about to ask him something else when she finally noticed, with dismay, her own appearance:

Multiple IV bags with tubes pumping saline, blood and whatever drugs Set elected to keep her docile.

The catheters in her veins, in arms much skinnier than she'd remembered about herself, and angry purple bruises splattered on greenish skin.

Black, baggy riding suit which she was definitely not wearing when she'd last been herself, at the hospital.

The burning wounds on the palms of her hands with loose bandages over them.

She almost screamed from fright and revulsion. "What's all this stuff?!"

"Aki-" Yusei tried calming her but she was already sitting up and, before he could say or do anything else, she quickly ripped out all the needles. Probably not as careful as she should have and causing unnecessary tearing...but Aki didn't care. The sheen of sweat on her skin felt like a layer of slime and dirt, and clothes were foreign and sticky. She wanted to take off everything and to jump into a hot shower and scrub herself raw with soap. She felt disgusted, violated and sick. Very, very sick, in fact.

She put her arms around Yusei's neck and sunk into him. Because if she could hold him like this, it was going to be okay. Holding him felt like home.

The Signer marks still shone brightly on both of them and within this decrepit, unnerving place their crimson glow brought them comfort.

"You're hurt, Yusei," Aki mumbled. "And I'm feeling awful, too. Let's…let's get out of here and get to the hospital ASAP, please." She fought against closing her eyes within this wonderful and warm comfort of him. The residual dizziness was lulling her, pulling her down, calling for her to lie back down and rest.

"Yes, let's hurry out of here," Yusei agreed and let out a little strained laugh. "I think I may have sustained a concussion on the second turn of the duel. Should get that looked at before it gets any worse." He was, in fact, feeling a resonating headache and pressure building up in the back of his skull from where he significantly banged his head against concrete. At least the forceful waves of nausea stopped assaulting him for a bit – he really didn't want to freak her out by abruptly having to vomit.

"Yusei…" Aki whispered worriedly.

"Dad?" Sho Higuchi called out, walking a few paces and glancing back and forth. He was finally feeling his shakes subside a bit and his apathetic lack of caring and suicidal acceptance from earlier today were mostly gone. Despite everything that happened and how his father had treated him, he wanted to find him. Talk to him. Maybe try to reconcile.

"Can you stand? Walk?" Yusei asked Aki.

"I…I can try…" she held on to his hands as he got up and started finding her legs which felt numb and wobbly, like they were partially dismembered from her.

"If not, I'll carry you," Yusei promised passionately. "Let's just get out of here. Find others."

He helped her up. When she stood, abrupt lightness hit her head and gray spots aggressively returned and swarmed her field of vision. She attempted to smile at him and when he smiled tenderly in return, he looked as blurry as if he were standing behind a screen door.

"Guys, seriously, have you seen my dad?" Sho's voice reached Yusei's ears and that was when he'd finally heard their inadvertent savior.

Yusei's head snapped to look in his direction and he felt assaulted with sickening guilt. He saw Sho walking about near the reactor...and nearing the large red puddle where his father's remains used to be. "Dad?" the guy called out again, looking around. "Where are you?"

Oh no, Yusei thought, chilled to the bone.

"Yusei…" he heard Aki's breathless voice and when he returned his attention to her, she'd suddenly collapsed on him. He caught her before she could start sliding to the ground and put his forearm under her neck. He saw her gray face and unfocused eyes. "Aki, Aki!"

"I…I'm not…feeling…" she attempted but then her eyelids fell, legs gave out, and she sagged in his arms and he was holding her weight entirely.

"Aki!" he lightly shook her to get her to regain consciousness. Trying not to freak out, he noticed the heaving of her chest and reassured himself that she'd only just fainted, probably from weakness, drugs, exhaustion and whatever other awfulness she felt. So this was okay. It was going to be fine. Their friends were just around the corner, they all must have finished their battles by now, and all he needed was to call for an ambulance and wait.

And to explain to Sho Higuchi what happened. To thank him. This was the least he could do.

Fighting against his own impending weakness due to injuries and with unconscious Aki in his arms, Yusei turned again to find the duelist who'd saved them all.

"Sho!" he called out. He noticed that the guy had stopped by that auspicious, macabre puddle and was now...studying it. "Thank you…you've saved us. You've saved…everyone! But…" Yusei gulped. "Your father…"

Sho's facial expression was unperturbed as he considered the unusual splash of crimson on the ground. And then, as threads of awful comprehension started sinking into him, his eyes grew wider and all colour in his face disappeared. Aghast, he glanced up at Yusei. And-

With a loud, wet howl a bloody, grotesque figure of about 6 feet tall suddenly grew out of that puddle and swallowed Sho whole, before the miserable duelist could even make a peep.

A scream of shock died in Yusei's throat.

There were moist, crunching noises. The bloody shadow convulsed rhythmically and moaned as it chewed through the flesh and bone of what was once the last surviving member of the senator's family. It consumed frantically, as if it were starved. And once the horrid figure finished its meal, it grew a few more feet in size, paused, and then started slithering wetly towards the deactivated Freedom Forward reactor.

"Ah…! N...no!" Yusei was gasping, eyes as large as saucers. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he couldn't even remember that Aki was dangling in his arms. He could only stare at the horror ahead.

The moving mass smashed the industrial glass of the reactor, inside where the red souls of sacrificed duelists were stewing. And then it began slurping them up. And, the more it fed, the larger it was becoming…growing bigger…and bigger…very, very quickly starting to take shape…

It finished consuming the intangible contents as if it were just an ordinary snack. It now barely fit within the space of the basement and its twenty-foot tall ceilings. And then, when the reactor was empty, the head of a jackal – dripping in blood – formed at the top of the humongous terrible mass and turned to acknowledge the two Signers.

"I…told you… You were...too late," the jackal gurgled wetly.

"I…we won!" Yusei shouted. "We defeated you! You don't have a body anymore! The reactor was shut off before it could explode!"

"The realms are...crossing over…I felt it," the bloody mass answered in a booming, inhuman voice, gargling bloody bubbles as it spoke. It articulated in short succinct sentences, finding it challenging to produce a voice without appropriate vocal cords. "Barriers nonexistent. Able to hang on temporarily. Without human form. But little time. Have to keep feeding."

"But…but…!"

"Reactor depleted. But this city has another. Can still rebirth. Have to go."

"Momentum?" Yusei gasped, deducing the horrific alternative their enemy had in mind. "No! Don't!"

The mass turned away and began clawing through the side of the building and the ceiling above them. Enormous pieces of rubble, plaster, concrete and metal started dropping everywhere to the ground.

Yusei shook unconscious Aki, a lot less gently this time. "Aki! Aki! Wake up! We have to get out of here!"

She let out a groan and her eyes flickered open momentarily. Her unfocused gaze slipped across his face. "Y..." was all she could manage.

Summoning whatever strength he had left, Yusei bent to pick up her legs and hoisted her limp body entirely in his arms. He started hurrying away from the destruction that was being caused by the undying God of Chaos and towards the tunnel that lead him here.

The enormous, bloody jackal continued clawing his way out of the basement. He tore pieces of the ceiling and through the support beams until he'd reached the ground floor. Then he grew some more in size and decimated further, reaching the second floor...then expanding and starting destroying through the third...

Yusei scurried away as fast as he could in midst of this destruction. And while Aki was so light in weight he was also growing sicker and weaker with his worsening injuries. His arms were beginning to shake from strain.

He successfully avoided some of the heavier falling debris but tripped a few times over some pieces, nearly dropping Aki. By then his arm muscles were screaming from pain and he had to stop.

He tried to reposition Aki, moving her up so he could fling her over his shoulder...and then what must have been a larger piece of wreckage suddenly hit him in the back of his neck, close to where the source of his concussion was. Yusei went down as suddenly all the lights turned off.

…

...Living for the future? Is this the future that you're fighting for?

…

...What is the price you're prepared to pay?

…

...How many more have to suffer and perish? For the future you want?

…

…Yusei crawled up to Aki where he'd dropped her. She was lying on her side, eyes closed, and shivering a little. On instinct, he shrugged off his tattered jacket and covered Aki with it, hoping it might keep her warm. He felt a fresh cascade of warmth down his neck and back, and recognized that he'd started bleeding from his head again. He also had doubled vision in his right eye which he wasn't able to blink away.

The rubble was still falling down everywhere even though they've moved away from the main source of danger. Yusei covered Aki's body with his, to protect her from getting hit and glanced ahead. He was able to put some distance between them and the monster: they were now a little into the tunnel where, two kilometres or so in hallway length, was the spot where he left Rua and Ruka. He hoped the siblings were okay...that Ruka was able to save her brother. Because if she didn't, if either her or Rua were gone, then...then...

There was somebody waving at him from the darkness of the hallway. Yusei narrowed his impaired eyes, trying to focus. Bruno...? Was it Bruno? He saw blue hair, white, blue and yellow jacket, a striped shirt. A golden glow.

Yusei couldn't identify this person or distinguish anything else and glanced behind instead.

The side of the building where the reactor was and where Set had been clawing through – it was now all gone. It was like somebody had taken a gigantic bite out of the building. All four floors were wrecked and the massive, grisly, bloody-looking mass was now slithering away from this place. Away…towards the city skyscrapers on the distance…ready to wreck unspeakable havoc.

"No! NO!" Yusei cried out.

"Oh..." Crow spoke when Jack told them about Carly. "Oh fuck. No."

"I'm really sorry, Jack," Kiryu said.

Me too, Jack thought, his teeth clenched. His bleeding fist shook where he'd squeezed the damaged bifocal glasses. I will never stop feeling sorry. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. Carly...Carly! God damn it.

Crow shut off his bike and gingerly pulled off his helmet. "She...I don't think she felt any pain anymore," he attempted, not knowing if this was the right or the worst thing to say right now. Who the hell knew what to say when things like this happened? "Not for awhile now. So she didn't suffer."

"Yeah, well," Jack said, not really meaning anything. Of course she fucking suffered. And this was never going to get better. This was an abyss of darkness more viscous and helpless than he's ever been in – worse than when he felt at his very worst in Satellite, when he didn't know if his future was all the heaps of garbage in front of him, if he was just going to suffocate within all this industrial waste and dust, and if all he was ever going to be was an orphaned nobody with nothing to his name. Yes, this actually hurt worse. Because Carly never did anything to deserve this. Because even though he'd returned and all their friends counted on him, he had let her down: the one person who never, ever pressured him for anything, the one person who backed him up no matter what, the one person he actually enjoyed being with day after day.

The whole time he was here, he's been busy entertaining himself while she lay dying in the hospital. Their last actual conversation was a stupid fight over something he couldn't even remember. And then, despite the apparitions he'd seen during this duel, he wasn't even by Carly's side when she passed away.

Fuck. FUCK.

Kiryu was saying something in an even, sympathetic tone but Jack had zoned out. Anger and regret festered deep within and seemed to permeate through to his soul. He had a difficult time remembering that there was still something they all had to do, that there was a purpose for him here.

The pain in his hand was severe now. He was really driving the broken glass in there. And Jack let this pain orient him back and force him to focus on what he really came back for and what the ghost of Carly had encouraged him to do. Temporarily at least, anyway.

Jack closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath through his nose, squeezed Carly's glasses tighter for one final agonizing moment, and then loosened his fist. He'd evened himself out. "Alright," he turned to face his teammates now, slipping the blood-covered glasses back into his pocket. "Are we going or what?"

"Yeah," Kiryu agreed, already having put his helmet away into his D-Wheel's storage compartment, and moved his bike to the side. "Let's go find the others. Help them."

"I don't need any help," Sherry said as she suddenly appeared next to them in the arena. "I'm done, too." She motioned to the balcony above them where they could see all four security guards that tried to stop her – defeated and a little unconscious.

"Wow, impressive," Crow whistled.

"Thanks," Sherry smirked, absently combing her fingers through her lustrous blonde hair.

"Elevators?" Kiryu suggested, to get them all going.

Jack silently lead the way. And approaching the elevators that could take them down to the basement, Crow was looking around restlessly. "You guys see Bruno anywhere?" he asked.

"Last I saw him was when the four idiot guards blocked our way," Sherry answered. "He ducked away and then I saw two other guards chasing after him."

"Try calling or texting him?" Kiryu advised.

"Uh, duh, already did – like 10 times," Crow answered while typing up yet another message to their friend. "Bruno? Where the hell are you, man? BRUNO?" he yelled out into some indeterminate direction.

"He's fine, I'm sure," Jack grumbled, repeatedly mashing the button to summon the elevator.

It was then that the ground had suddenly started to quake underneath them. The four friends fought to keep their balance while looking around with panic as shop displays and glass surrounding the stadium started breaking. And it didn't feel like an earthquake – more like something was coming up from underneath and, with each passing second, the sounds and the carnage was coming closer.

"What is this!?" Sherry cried out.

"It's coming from downstairs for sure," Kiryu guessed. "Maybe...maybe we shouldn't go down there?" They all saw the remaining security guards running out of the building for their dear life. A mass exodus by anyone with some sense. So perhaps going downstairs wasn't a good idea...

"Not a chance," Crow retorted, hiding how scared he actually felt. "We're not leaving without the others."

"Let's take the stairs," Jack said (ordered, really), already running in that direction – they were on the opposite side of the building and this could be potentially safer than taking the elevator into that shaking abyss.

Despite hesitations, everyone followed along.

Jack continued leading the way – skipping two to three steps at a time with his long legs – and the others tried their best to keep up. The whole time the building continued shaking although a bit less in this direction. It sounded and felt like there was demolition of sorts happening on the basement level. They all hoped that their friends were okay.

When they finally reached the underground level the earthquake had subsided. Walking ahead and nearing the elevator area they saw...Rua and Ruka!

"Everyone!" Rua cried out happily, noticing them first.

"Rua, Ruka!" Crow called out as the gang ran over to the twins. "You're all okay!" Both siblings looked somewhat...disheveled and their duel disks were deactivated, but they were alive and Rua was back to himself – Dark Signer imitation no more.

"Miraculously," Ruka said, an uncertain smile on her face. "Set's sacrificial circle was going to take us both but, at what seemed like last minute, it disappeared entirely."

"Hopefully that means that bastard is dead, then?" Crow ventured a hopeful guess.

"That'd be nice," Jack commented dryly.

"Yusei won then," Kiryu concluded and Sherry added: "No surprises there."

"What was with the earthquake though, you all felt it?" Ruka asked, finally standing up with her brother's help. "There were really terrible sounds too. Like...something being destroyed. And it was coming from..." she trailed off, looking towards the long, dark hallway ahead of them.

"-Where Yusei went to get Aki-neesan," Rua finished for her, nervous.

"Um...okay," Crow answered after an uneasy pause settled over all of them. "Well, let's go find them!"

And the friends set off on their way.

The monstrous mass which was Set continued slithering away from Free Duelists Association and towards the tall buildings of Neo Domino and Satellite, towards Momentum Tower at the center.

And, watching that horrible monster depart, Yusei gritted his teeth and collected himself mentally.

Okay. Okay, alright. What now? He has to be stopped. I have to stop him.

Yusei descended into his analytical, strategic brain, and began thinking of next steps.

He raked through his scattered thoughts, trying to summon a signature, genius idea that would save the day. Just like he always did in times of crisis.

Okay. He could try...

First, he could try going after their grotesque enemy. Try to corner him or...something. Get his D-Wheel. Yes, okay, that's a good first step – going after Set, staying in close proximity.

Yusei nodded to himself, satisfied with the first step in what was a tangible, logical plan.

He started scrambling to his feet, succeeded at standing up unsteadily, and fell back down almost immediately. He was almost unbearably woozy (and exhausted), and he wasn't sure if he was even keeping his head straight.

Okay. Fine. What now?

Yusei thought to his cards. In times of helplessness, when the world seemed bleak and there was no way out – his duel cards were there to aid him. Sometimes they were capable of impossible feats.

He fumbled for them and found his deck in the pouch on his belt.

...Duel cards? What are you going to do with cards if you're not even in a duel?

Yusei winced, realizing that he didn't have his duel disk with him.

He looked around himself and unconscious Aki, confused as to where it was.

And then he remembered that he'd tossed it aside mindlessly when he finished the duel. It was all the way back there, next to the broken reactor. His duel disk...the one he'd made with his own hands from Satellite parts, the one he had for all the battles... And when the duel finished and he saw Aki, he had thrown it away like it meant nothing.

Okay, Yusei wiped the perspiration from his forehead. His pulse was racing and he felt it thumping in his temples, his throat, aggravating his headache and the pressure he felt in his skull. Okay...what's next? What can I do next?

He glanced at Set's sloshing figure on the distance, blinking rapidly to clear the doubled, blurry vision. He saw that Set was almost out of the abandoned, industrial area they were in and was getting nearer the residential.

The Crimson Dragon!

Yusei stared at the still glowing Signer birthmarks on his and Aki's forearms. But of course! He only had to call it for help. And then it would come and...stop all of this...somehow. Right? And he could, just like...call it? Is doing it in his thoughts enough or did he have to call it aloud?

And then...

A nudge of doubt festered like a splinter into his injured brain.

What could the legendary dragon do? This whole thing with Set wasn't part of its conflict, was it? And without all the Signers being present together nothing was going to come. There was no use in trying if he was all alone.

Yusei gulped, feeling tightness in his throat. Bead of sweat (or maybe blood) rolled down his temple.

...Alone.

"Crow! Jack!" he called out towards the darkness of the tunnel. Maybe they could hear him somehow? Maybe they were on the way? "Rua, Ruka! Everyone! Where are you?"

...You're all alone.

His voice returned to him in an echo and he glanced at Aki lying unconscious next to him. He gathered her into his arms and gave her a light shake. "Aki! AKI!" Help. Help me.

...Your friends cannot help you.

Anxious, Yusei looked in Set's direction again, and noticed that the monstrous figure made it to the residential area. And...broke through one of the skyscrapers, as effortlessly as if he were walking through a blockade of plastic, toy blocks.

Yusei froze, wide-eyed.

He watched from the distance how, as if in painful slow motion, that building fell apart. How rubble, supports and concrete fell, while Set continued on his way. Then, what seemed like a second later, all of it crashed into a cloud of dust and smoke.

How many lives were just lost in there? How many people were home with their families, doing something as innocuous as having dinner or watching TV? How many were only children?

...Look at what you've let happen.

Yusei clapped his hand over his mouth and turned away, retching. As a headache banged ferociously against his skull and his vision was reduced to only a dark tunnel, all he could see and imagine were the poor people in that building. Their screams. Their awful, shocking deaths. He gagged again. No. NO! I have to fix this, I have to fix this, I must find a way to fix it... How can I? What can I do? Did I make a mistake? Where did I make a mistake?

The Eye of Horus necklace fell out from his shirt, the pendant heavy and burning against his skin.

"Yusei." Bruno was suddenly by his side.

With a gasp of elation and relief, Yusei snapped his head to look at him. "Bruno!" he cried out happily.

The fellow mechanic had a reassuring smile on his face and heartfelt compassion in his odd, somewhat blank gray eyes.

"You-" You're here! I'm not alone, we're not alone, I can do this, we can do this, we can...

"Yusei. It's okay," Bruno said.

Words were stuck in Yusei's throat. Something was wrong. Because as he looked at Bruno - really looked at him – he could see...through him.

His good and close friend, an irreplaceable member of Team 5D's, their kind-hearted and goofy companion... He who sometimes times turned into Antimony - a mysterious remainder of a timeline never realized – he...he was flickering in and out of existence. Like an image coming from an old, broken projector. And, in those moments, he looked like someone else entirely.

Yusei stared at the apparition with frightened eyes, panic jumping through the roof. What the hell was this!? Was he losing his mind?

"Just breathe," transparent Bruno-not-Bruno mouthed to him. He reached as if to touch his shoulder and his hand was ghostly and flickering. "The others are coming, they-"

Yusei recoiled, nearly dropping Aki. "Get away!" he shouted, petrified and confused.

Bruno looked at him sadly. And then he was gone, like he hadn't been there at all.

What the hell is going on, what is happening? Why... Yusei was panting, feverish and ill. His breaths were coming in quick, shallow gasps and he couldn't get enough oxygen into his lungs. His thoughts were scattered in a frantic frenzy.

With shaking hands he put Aki down and glanced again in the direction of the broken building, towards the horrific monster slithering away far on the distance... And saw that Set had broken through more buildings. There were more ruins...more alarms and explosions sounding off... And he still had ways to go until Momentum Tower.

...Is this what you've wanted?

"I never wanted this!" Yusei shouted into the open air, half-hysterically. How could this have been what he'd wanted? Not this! Not all the poor innocent people lost and killed in the battles building up to this and now in the collateral of Set's path. Of course he'd never wanted this! He...he only wanted...

He glanced at Aki lying on the ground, still unconscious and shivering despite his attempt to cover her with his shredded jacket. He heard her quiet, laboured breathing, acknowledged the angry bruises all over her arms and the blue to her fingernails, studied the grimace of pain in her brow and on her colorless lips. How green and pallid her once-flawless skin looked. How her wet, straw-like hair framed her gaunt face. How despite all of this, she was the most beautiful girl in the world. How, despite everything else, despite what should have mattered more to him, he only...he only wanted...

Yes, what could someone like him possibly want?

Wanting was not an inherent quality for him. He always tried to do what was good for others and he never questioned that. Wanting never even entered into equation. He just did things for others – a duty he'd accepted, a destiny meant for him and never to be questioned, passed on to him from the destructive legacy of his father. And he never minded being a martyr that some made him out to be – after all, not like he himself even wanted anything else. Like a blank slate for others to project on, right? With no needs or wants for himself?

This was why when Rex Goodwin and Arc Cradle threatened to destroy not just their city but the entire world – Yusei did what was needed to do. He never questioned it. And both times, he was ready to lay his life on the line to do what was right and to ensure that not a single other person suffered or died.

But this time...this time he...

...What is it that you've sacrificed everything else for?

Because instead of focusing on the mission of the Signers and on this new destiny, instead of giving his all to it like he'd have normally done, his thoughts and his heart were lying elsewhere.

When the first sacrificial duel happened and Aki called him to the hospital, he raced to find her there with another man. When that sacrificed duelist died from his wounds, he watched Aki cry from distress and all he wanted was to hug her for the second time in his life and to try taking her pain away.

When Sky Dragon of Osiris went missing for the first time, instead of turning the city upside down to search for it, like a smitten madman he stayed up all night re-living their first (and hundredth) kiss and fantasized about being with her again.

When Crow was in a coma at the hospital and more sacrificial duels happened with countless deaths, when he felt like drowning under the weight of powerlessness and despair, it was Aki and only Aki who was able to comfort him, and to bring his mind back under control.

When they were all left homeless and had to move back into Poppo Time, when nothing felt safe and certain, when they didn't know who their enemy was and how many more duels were about to happen, when the news were reporting death counts in the dozens... Yusei could only think about Aki sleeping in a room across from his. And when they'd closed the distance and flung themselves into the comfort of one another, when he held her like that for the first time, when she responded to the pleasure he gave her, when at the end of that sweet madness she'd whispered she loved him – that was it. That had sealed it.

Nothing else and no one else was ever going to matter as much as she did.

He could turn his back on everything else and it wouldn't matter.

Having what he wanted, for once.

Being selfish and in love, for once.

Being only a flawed, misguided man, for once.

Aki in his arms, his friends by his side, in this city with him.

Never to leave.

Never to change.

Forever.

...Then take a good look at where your choice has lead you.

"I..." Yusei gasped, shaking from helplessness. He looked around desperately, silently pleading for Crow, Jack, Rua or Ruka or anyone to appear.

More sirens, explosions carried to him from the distance. More destruction, more death... How much more? How close was Set to Momentum now? And that's where it was always going to end, wasn't it? The place where it'd all started for them?

...Because you did this. Because others' lives didn't matter as much.

No...No, I never wanted it to happen like this. It was never what I had intended. I made a mistake, I know that now, but I only wanted...I only wanted... Yusei shook his head. He thought to all the deceased people, starting with the poor man who'd died from the first sacrificial duel. He thought to Sho and his tragic family, all entangled in this destiny from the beginning, all to perish. He thought to all the others who'd died today and were about to die. Forgive me...forgive me...

The weight and horror of it all was too much to withstand.

Yusei fell forward to his hands, struggling to draw a breath in a throat that was too tight.

There was no hope. There was nothing he could do.

He was helplessly hyperventilating, sanity holding on by a thin thread. No...no, no, no! NO! NO!

...You've let them die.

"H...help. Help me," he begged, eyes wide and panicked. "HELP ME. HELP! ANYONE!"

He saw them around him then. Hundreds, no, thousands of human skulls. Bones scattered about. Red and rotting. A sea of dead as far as the eyes could see.

His hands started sinking into the slime of the viscera.

Yusei screamed.

A bloodcurdling, shocking scream jolted Aki from her exhausted, unconscious state.

Woozy and disoriented, she rolled over to her stomach and blinked rapidly against her sagging eyelids. Yusei's torn jacket slipped off her.

Her heart was hammering wildly against her rib-cage, twisting from fear.

Something was wrong, terribly wrong and she had to...to do something...something...

She saw Yusei just an arm's length away from her, on his hands and knees. She had to pause and focus her vision because she actually didn't recognize him at first.

He looked awful and distraught. There were more scratches on him now and his hair was matted with blood. He was shaking all over and his breathing was coming in quick, sharp, shallow gasps.

His huge, horrified eyes were staring at something on the floor. "Ah...ah...!" he was wheezing.

Aki froze, scared out of her wits. "Yu...Yusei!"

Yusei was drowning in an ocean of blood.

Corpses were pulling him down, further to the bottomless abyss, their disembodied limbs tangled around his legs and his chest. Yusei couldn't open his mouth to scream least he were to inhale all the entrails around him.

I can't breathe, I can't breathe! he agonized, struggling to push them off him, to swim upwards. But he were only sinking deeper and deeper, dragged down by their indescribable dead weight. Help me! HELP!

A hand plunged through the surface. It was like a beacon of light and hope in the murky red darkness.

...Is this what you choose?

Anything...anything! Yusei screamed internally.

His lungs were about to burst. Using his last strength, he reached for that hand, grabbed it, felt the iron grip of its fingers pulling him and...

"Yusei!" Aki called for him, finding her voice.

He did not hear her. He was completely distracted. He was mouthing words, saying something unidentifiable.

With a gasp of effort and pain, Aki crawled up to him.

"Anything...anything..." he was repeating nonsensically.

Aki noticed then: tears in his bulging, glassy eyes. They left streaks on his face, rolled down his chin, dropped on his trembling hands.

Yusei was crying... Yusei never cried. Ever. She'd never seen it, not even when he told them about Kiryu's or Bruno's (temporary) deaths, not when Crow was in the hospital, not when he'd said goodbye to her in that warehouse.

Oh god, Yusei. Yusei! Aki reached for him, knowing somehow that if she were just to touch him, she could fix this. She only had to reach. Further...further... "Yusei!...Don't!"

Don't what? Did she even know?

She stretched her arm out further, her fingers grazed against his wrist...

Yusei jerked away from her and was suddenly up on his feet. He swayed violently, nearly falling over. His hands were clutching his head. He twisted side to side, taking unsteady steps away. Aki saw the muscles in his bare arms contract, saw the red glowing mark of the Crimson Dragon glow brighter, brighter until it turned white and...

He stood suddenly upright. He slowly lowered his arms and tilted his chin up towards the sky.

And he was suddenly illuminated by a ray of electric, sapphire light.

Before her eyes, he'd started to change. His clothing became dark navy robes with a cloak embroided by millions of tiny, glistening lights scattered across it like diamonds. Golden, shimmering jewelry appeared around his ankles, then his hands, his arms, his collarbone. His chest and stomach were left bare, with hard, sculpted muscles akin to a Greek statue's, with skin some shades darker than Yusei's olive complexion.

All the blood and scratches evaporated, leaving behind them silvery, almost platinum, lines of scarring. The mark of the Crimson Dragon was nowhere to be found.

Finally, the cerulean light engulfed his face and, when it dissipated entirely, it left behind precious jewelry adorning his ears and hair.

He opened his eyes.

"Y...Yusei... What..." Aki attempted, numb and astonished. She pushed herself up on her arms, fighting against her debilitating condition and the drugged up fog in her head. She could only see his profile; couldn't see his eyes or distinguish his facial expression.

He stood still as stone. Only his cloak seemed to move ever so slightly, as if it were continuously caressed by a gentle breeze. And the cloth was as lush and as beautiful as the summer night sky at the end of sunset.

He raised his hand in front of him and slowly flexed his fingers, studying them. Then he spoke and his voice was an imitation of Yusei's but deeper, more tranquil, and both inexplicably beautiful and chilling in its timbre:

"How negligible it is...A single human life." He lowered his hand and gazed ahead. Every syllable he uttered echoed with one in an ancient, indecipherable language. "It is...regretful."

"Yusei!" Aki called in a shaking voice, kept lucid only by the adrenaline rush racing through her.

He ignored her. Slowly and carefully – and without making a sound – he started walking away in the direction of the depleted reactor, towards the destroyed side of the building.

Aki followed the course he was heading and she saw...many, many, many miles away...a gory, terrifying monster something like hundreds of feet high, breaking its way through the uptown of Neo Domino.

Aki quickly connected the dots together then. And...she returned her gaze to what mattered the most in the world for her. "Yusei!" she shouted, her vision blurring. No...no...no!

He continued walking further away from her.

Aki balled her hands into tight fists, squeezing Yusei's torn, bloodied jacket that were lying on the ground. "Yu-" she tried but her voice failed. She shook her head. Tears were streaming freely from her eyes. Because she knew. And she sobbed as she uttered his name, at last:

"Osiris."

Oooooo! Cliffhanger (of course).

This chapter made me feel really bad for Yusei (and Aki). But mostly Yusei. He didn't deserve being manipulated into insanity like that. But Osiris saw no other way... Well, more on that in the next chapter.

How is this going to end now? How many times is a new threat going to threaten to end this Yugioh 5D's world lol? Our heroes just can't catch a break. Stay tuned for next chapter!