Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

??? POV

            I found myself standing amongst the most trees I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve only heard of forests before, but never seen one let alone been in one. The calls and cries of myriads of birds sounded all around me, many of which I could not recognize.

            A few feet away, a shadowy figure stood in front of me. No matter how hard I tried, I could not make out any features. All I could see that it looked like a child with two pigtails at the top of their head. I called out to the child, but my voice would not come.

            “Somebody…” the child, at least I assumed it was the child, pleaded, “Somebody… please help me…!”

****************************************

            A man and woman stood before a young teenaged girl with long pale lavender hair lying on some sort of high tech medical bed. The hum and beeps of the various machines surrounding them gave the room an ominous and eerie atmosphere. Both females were clothed in white tops and pants covered with a high collared tabard while the man was dressed more conservatively in an outfit consisting of a black shirt and pants. The ensemble was completed with a dark green vest, white tie, and black gloves.

            “Divine-sama,” the woman said, concern for the youngest of the group filling her voice, “There’s a change in the test subject’s body!”

            “What’s the matter Seria?” the man asked.

            “It appears she’s in contact with the Spirit World,” the woman, Seria replied, “This wave pattern here,” she continued, pointing to one of the myriads of monitors, “seems to be such an indication.”

            “Good,” Divine said, utterly pleased with himself, “All this research hasn’t been in vain after all. It would seem it’s time we put this girl to work for our cause… even without psychic powers, I’m certain she’ll be a decent enough duelist.”

            “She’s coning to!” Seria piped, noticing the girl’s violet eyes flutter open.

            “Make sure you escort our ‘friend’ here to her room when she’s able to walk. However, under any circumstances is anyone to know that she’s not a psychic duelist. We can not afford to have our secrets leaked to the outside world Seria.”

            “Understood, Divine-sama,” Seria replying bowing slightly. Satisfied that he was finally getting some results, Divine strode from the lab leaving the two females.

**************************************************

??? POV

            I awoke to find a woman with short brown hair hovering over and fussing like a mother hen. I blinked confusedly, trying to remember where the heck I was and came up with absolutely nothing. My mind was complete blank. The only thing I could remember with any amount of certainty was my first name. Once the woman, who’d introduced herself as Seria had made sure I was alright and able to stand, she led me down the golden halls of this strange building to a rather plain looking door. It slid open with a swooshing sound at our approach and we stepped in.

            Two boys wearing the same clothes as ours stopped their conversation to look at us. Both looked like they were about a year or so younger than me, one with brown hair and glasses, the other with blond hair and a sour look on his face.

            “This is your room for now on,” Seria announced and I frowned. It was bad enough that I, a girl, had to share a room with two boys, what made it worse was that there were only two beds!! What was this woman thinking?! I sighed inwardly at the thought of having to sleep on the room’s only other piece of furniture, a rather uncomfortable looking couch.

            “Just ask these two if you need help with anything,” the stupid bitch continued, not noticing my displeasure, “Oh yes, here’s a deck for you.” She hands me a bunch of duel monster cards and I gave them a cursory glance. From the looks of it, it seemed to be a pretty basic deck a noobie duelist would use. I inwardly cried with joy upon finding something else I could remember, even if it was a very fuzzy memory. “You two better get ready,” Seria says turning to the boys now, “Divine-sama will be giving you your orders soon.” She then turned and left me to my new roomies.

            “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” the boy with the glasses said, smiling warmly, “I’m Okita. I’m sure we’ll get alone wonderfully. We’re kind of new here ourselves so we probably won’t be too much help I’m afraid.” Well at least this guy seems nice.

            The other boy eyed me critically before approaching me. “Another newbie huh?” he asked curtly, “My name’s Liquid, what’s yours newbie?” Liquid?! What kind of parent names their kid that?! No wonder this kid’s so cranky. I’d be too with a name like that.

            “It’s Iolanthe,” I tell them.

            “Well, anyway,” Liquid continued, “It’s good to have you with us. Just don’t go causing problems for us.” Hmph! What a jerk.

            “Oh I know,” Okita pipes up, “How about a duel while we wait, Iolanthe-san. We can get to know each other better that way.” I think about it for a few moments then nod. I had nothing better to do anyway. “Smashing,” he replied, “but no psychic powers okay. It wouldn’t go well if we trash the room. Though I doubt we’d do much damage with us being new to all this.”

            What did he mean by ‘no psychic powers’? I may not remember much, but I am definitely sure I had no psychic powers. I had a very strong gut feeling about that. I was going to ask the boy about that, but decided not to. Something just said to keep quiet for now, I don’t know what. Let’s just call it ‘women’s intuition.’

            Okita turned out to be a decent duelist with his deck being built for healing one’s life points, but I was better, beating him in only seven turns! I was surprised at how well I was able to handle this brand new deck on top of my lack of memory of any dueling experience of any kind.

            “Amazing!” Okita said, equally impressed with my skill. “I guess this means I’ll be training harder now so I can catch up to you, Iolanthe-san.”

            “Hmph…” Liquid snorted, “Noobs. Let me show you how it’s really done.” He was about to pull out his deck with the door to our room slid open. A man with a vest over his black shirt strode in. The boys immediately came to attention. “Attention psychic duelists!” the man announced. “The Arcadia Movement’s next mission has been decided upon! Our target is the Fortune Cup tournament being held by Sector Security. There are a large number of highly skilled duelists participating in this tournament. We just can’t allow Sector Security to do as they please without any supervision now can we?” He motioned behind him for someone to enter. “Come in Aki,” he said. A burgundy haired girl in a gosi-loli dress outfit appeared and stood a few inches away from the man. “This is Aki Izayoi. She’s one of the duelists in the tournament. I want you three to sneak into the rear of the event hall and lend her support. Now since none of you are strong enough for a psychic duel on your own, I want you all to work together. Consider it a bit of field training. Aki,” he said, turning to the newcomer, “Make sure you use your powers to their full potential when you face the other contestants.”

            “Yes, Divine-sama. As you wish,” she replied.

            “Good. Now you three head over to the tournament, and do not fail me!”

***************************************

            After sneaking into the event hall by way of a crate ridden warehouse, the boys and I split up in search of info. Liquid and I head for the duelists’ waiting room once we could find nothing of importance. The cries and shouts of faraway cheers reach our ears as we enter the room.

            “Sounds like the duel’s over,” the surly blond noticed. Duh. I silently retort. “Where’s that idiot Okita? He should have been back here by now.”

            Just then the door slid open and the bespectacled boy dashed in. “Sorry for being late, but I’ve just learned that Izayoi-san has lost.”

            “No way!” Liquid shouted in disbelief. “We need her for this mission to work! Now what?!”

            “Looks like we have no choice but to go back now,” Okita said apologetically, “It appears that coming here was a waste of time. But we can still keep looking around if you think we can find anything.”

            I nod my agreement. I never did like wasting time. As we leave the room and come to the corner we hear Divine’s voice. “Nicely done, Aki,” he said, “Shall we head home?”

            “But… I…” she stammered.

            “Never mind that. You need rest, now let’s head back.” The man I assumed as being our leader came down the hall, followed by Aki. “The plan’s on hold,” he said upon noticing us, “Head back to headquarters all of you.”

            Our way was suddenly blocked by a short man with periwinkle hair and red lines intersecting his eyes. He made me shudder as he reminded me of a deranged looking clown. Behind him were two suit wearing goons. “Hold it right there, Aki Izayoi,” the ‘clown’ said giggling madly, “Director Goodwin requires your presence, dear.”

            “Do you really think we’d be at his beck and call,” Divine spat.

            “Feeling feisty are we?” the shorter man queried, giggling again with barely veiled sick glee, “I guess I’ll have to take you by force then.” The two goons stepped forward, their duel disks at the ready.

            “Take care of them,” Divine says to us, “I don’t have the time for this nonsense. Aki needs to go home so she can rest.”

            We ready our disks as well and in a matter of minutes, beat the crap out of the clown’s two goons. “Fall back,” the short man orders and the suits obey, but not without a bit of grumbling. I breathe a sigh of relief once the clownish man follows his cronies into the elevator and disappears from sight.

            “What a waste,” Liquid snaps, “We failed.”

            “I quite agree,” Okita adds, “It seems we won’t be getting anymore orders today so let’s head home.” The boys head down the elevator and I was about to follow them when someone approached me from behind.

            “You’re from the Arcadia Movement, right?”

            I turn around and see a young girl about my age. She had long black hair and was wearing a stripped long-sleeved shirt with a vest over it and jeans. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of very thick glasses. “I’m Carly Nagisa, a journalist. Tell me all you know about the Arcadia Movement!” Yeesh what a pushy girl! “But you look like someone who’s not gonna just spill are you? I’ve got it! If I beat you in a duel, you’ll have to tell me everything ok?” Yep. She’s one pushy girl.

            I was about to explain to her that I knew very little about these people I was with, that I was suffering from a rather nasty bout of amnesia when there was a sudden growl – at least it sounded like a growl – from the duel arena.

            “Has the championship match started already?!” Carly yelled, just as startled, “Who cares, what was that noise just now?! Our duel’s gonna have to wait!” she said, rushing off to the farthest elevator. “I’ve got to get to the arena ASAP!”

            Something pulled at me and I followed the pushy journalist up to the arena viewing area. “Just what the heck’s going on?” she shouted, “who summoned that humongous dragon?! I’ve gotta get an interview, this is one huuuuuge scoop!”

            Up in the sky above the arena was a gigantic red dragon. A feeling of familiarity and dread came over me as I gazed at it.  Cheers from the arena below drew my attention from the dragon and I spied two boys riding D-wheels. Another wave of familiarity washed over me as one of them took off his helmet, revealing spiky blond hair. My head suddenly began to hurt greatly and I grabbed onto it.

Flashback

            “Looks like it was easy for you two,” the blond boy said to the boy with black and gold spiky hair next to me.

            “Yeah. We’re good friends after all,” the brunet replied.

End Flashback

            What was that just now?! Was that some sort of memory? Those two boys… The pain intensified and the two duelists below me were the last things that fill my mind before I lose consciousness.

*********************************************

            When I come to, I find myself lying on the couch in Okita and Liquid’s room. I was right, I say to myself, it’s damned uncomfortable!

            “Glad to see you’re awake,” Liquid says, “I was really getting worried. Especially after Seria had to carry you in yesterday. She said you collapsed back there. You sure you’ve got what it takes? You can’t be much if you go and pass out on the very first day like that.” Just what is this jerk’s problem?! First he says he’s worried about me, then insults me!

            “Don’t pay attention to him,” Okita says, smiling, “He’s just upset that our first mission was a failure. I’m relieved to see that you’re feeling better though.”

            “Thanks,” I mumble, blushing slightly. Well at least one of my roomies isn’t so bad.

            “Oh, yes,” Okita pipes up, “We start training today. So if you’re up to it, you can join us at the training hall.”

            I nod and follow the boys to the hall that was next to the skyscraper that housed our headquarters.

*************************************

            ‘Training’ consisted of reviewing the basics of dueling along with a few tests. The tests came quite easily to me. The problems weren’t that hard to solve and using several different decks seemed to be a breeze for me. No matter which type of deck I chose, I always seemed to be able to draw the cards I needed at the most opportune moments. I was about to head back up to the room I shared with the two boys when I was stopped by our leader Divine.

            “Iolanthe-kun,” he called, “Finished with your training for the day?”

            “Yes, sir,” I reply.

            “Excellent. You can help me sharpen Aki’s skills. Follow me.”

            I follow the man all the way up to his office on the top floor. I tried not to be impressed by all the obviously expensive looking furnishings and accessories. “Aki, I’d like you to duel against Iolanthe here, but don’t overdo it since you’re still not in tip-top shape,” Divine says to the goth girl waiting by the desk. “This is supposed to be a bit of light training, so take it easy.”

            “Yes, Divine-sama,” Aki replied. “I appreciate your dueling against me,” she says to me, “You must be tired of all the training.”

            “There’s no need for chit-chat,” Divine interjects, “Just consider this as help for bringing you back to your senses.”

            “Yes, sir,” she replies, “Shall we begin?” I’ve decided. I do not like this man one bit. He may be my leader, but there was no need for him to be such a bastard to this girl. If Aki wanted to make friends, then he should have let her damn it!

            Aki was the hardest opponent I had ever remembered facing. Our duel dragged on well past ten turns! I was greatly impressed by this girl. It appeared that her deck was indeed well suited to her, full of deceivingly beautiful yet potentially deadly cards. Her Tytannial card was a major struggle to defeat and I stood there panting. Within seconds, I was knocked back by the backlash of psychic energy that was still outpouring from the girl.

            The burgundy haired duelist rushed over to me and helped me up. “I’m so sorry!” she apologized profusely, “I tried to control my powers, but they just… wouldn’t stop coming out.”

            “You’re still tired, Aki,” our leader said coming over to us, “why don’t you take the rest of the day off.”

            “But..”

            “No need to worry, Aki,” Divine said, making her look him in the eyes, “Your friend is just fine, see?”

            “Yes… sir.” She turned to look at me, concern and guilt written all over her lovely face. But she was led away by the much taller man before she could say anything.

************************************

            The next few days consisted of yet more ‘training’. I was getting pretty disgusted with all the basic stuff, but hey it was something to do right? On the day of our D-wheel training however, something odd occurred. The moment I revved the motor on the dueling motorbike, I began to ride as if I’d been riding the thing all my life. I’ve regained another memory! Liquid was a bit angry at how well I had done on the riding test, but soon calmed done once he saw the surprised and confused look on my face. He still hadn’t gotten used to the fact that I still had amnesia.

            As we were heading out of the city and back to headquarters, the gold and black spiky haired duelist from the Fortune Cup came running up to us. “Iolanthe?!” he said, surprise and concern covering his handsome face. “Is that really you?!”

            A sharp pain rushed to my head and I was forced to take a step backwards.

Flashback

            “I finished tuning up the prototype I was saving for you,” the boy with spiky bi-colored hair said to me.

            “Hey Io-chan,” a redheaded boy, his hair in messy spikes and held up by a headband added, “Why don’t you test that baby out? Get goin’!”

            “How’s it going Iolanthe?” a boy about a year older than me with short silver hair asks.

End of Flashback

            “You know him?” Liquid asks me as I shake the fuzzies out of my head, “Hey, you don’t look so good,” my roomie says.

            “I’d appreciate it if you’d stay out of where you don’t belong Yusei Fudo,” Divine says seemingly to appear out of nowhere. I hadn’t known he was going to be here. “Get her back to headquarters,” he says as I once again clutch my throbbing head.

            The spiky haired boy ignores our leader and continues to press toward me, “Iolanthe!” he calls again. “What’s wrong?! What’s going on?!”

            “Don’t make me warn you again, Fudo-kun,” Divine demands, getting between the brunet and me.

            “Iolanthe!” the boy calls as Liquid clutches my arm tightly and helps me, well more like drags me, back to headquarters.

**************************************

POV shift

            Divine was once again in the lab, the pale haired girl attached to the pod and unconscious. Seria watched the monitors worriedly. “If this goes on, the subject will pass out on us sir!” she said, “The level of her consciousness is decreasing rapidly.”

            “The brainwashing is wearing off then?” he asked, frowning.

            “Yes,” the woman answered, “She must have received a major shock related to a memory.”

            “That damned Yusei…!” Divine snarled, furiously, “He just keeps getting in my way! If he keeps chasing after the subject like this, we could be in big trouble! Strengthen the brainwashing. We need her to be able to resist pests from her past like that Yusei.”

            “But, Divine-sama!” protested Seria, “Her brainwaves are unstable! If we keep pushing, she could die!”

            “Tch! Fine. We can’t afford to lose such a valuable asset. Conduct the brainwashing later when the subject’s more stable.”

            “Yes, sir.”

~TBC~

Chapter Text

            “Hey! You’re up!” Crow says as I finish putting on our gang’s uniform – a fur lined vest over a tight black tank top and leather straps around my upper arms. “’Bout time too. You’ve been asleep forever! Man those security jerks really piss me off sometimes. They hate us duel gangs so much! They even took our decks!”

            “I know Crow. You don’t have to remind me, I was there remember?” I say to him. I shake my head but smile. I rarely complained. It’s not that I had nothing to complain about – all of us living here in Satellite have plenty to complain about – it’s just that I couldn’t really. It may have been our team’s leader who found me a few months ago; a scared and confused girl with no memory of who she was or where she came from, but it was Crow who let me stay at his place. I was in his debt.

            “Heh, heh. Yeah. So how about you ‘n’ me go over there and get them back?”

            “Crow!”

            “C’mon Io-chan you know you wanna. Besides how are we gonna duel with the others if we don’t have our decks?”

            I sigh heavily. The redhead did have a point. “Fine, I’ll help get the cards, but don’t come crying to me if we get caught,” I say good-naturedly.

            Crow lets out a whoop of joy. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I’ve got something I need to give you.” He went over to one of the bookcases and pulled a box off the shelf. After rummaging through its contents, the redhead hands me a Sector Security uniform. “I only have the one so you wear it.” I wanted to protest, Crow was always much better at sneaking around than I was. He had more experience anyway. But knowing him, he wasn’t going to back down so easily. “Here you can use this to open the storage room. I’ll distract the guards so all you have to do is sneak in and get our stuff. I’m going ahead so let me know when you’re ready.”

            I sigh again as Crow rushes out. Putting the key card aside I quickly start changing into the pilfered uniform. I just hoped my hair was long enough now to hide the criminal marking on my cheek. I nervously brushed a hand along the laser etched brand that resembled an unequal sign. Once I had the figure hugging one piece suit on and had the gloves and boots adjusted properly, I headed over to the Daedalus Bridge.

            “’Kay, I’m set Crow,” I tell my redheaded teammate.

            “Great!” he said as he surveyed my appearance. I fought back the blush that was sure to be popping up any moment now – the suit really did leave nothing to the imagination. “I’ll go distract the guards. You sneak in once I’ve got them outta the way.” I nod and Crow runs off to the storage facility.

            “Hey you Security jerks!” I hear him shout as I duck out of sight. “I looks like you’re just wasting time standing around like that!”

            “You’re one of those duel gang punks from yesterday!” one of the guards yells back, “What are you scum doing here?!”

            “How are you doing?” Crow jeers, “Still got those bruises we gave you?”

            “You little punk! Get back here!! I said hold it!”

            I stifle a giggle as I watch my teammate rush by followed by two guards. I don’t waste another second and dash straight for the now unguarded storage building. I swear these guys are such pushovers! There were only a handful of guards roaming the halls and none of them paid me any attention, all because of that uniform Crow swiped! I made a mental note to thank him. I was in and out of the building in less than three minutes. Yeesh just how stupid can these morons get?! I smile to myself as I leave the area, thrilled that I was able to get a few extra cards and one of their own duel disks as well. You never know when extra stuff would come in handy, especially in the B.A.D area these days.

            “Hey took you long enough Io-chan!” Crow says as I enter our home.

            “Be happy I got your deck back at all, Crow!” I say in mock anger, handing him his cards. “At least you got some fun out of jerking their chains.”

            “Heh, heh. Those losers never knew what hit ‘em! Nice job Io-chan!” He began shuffling through his cards. “Oh man! It’s all messed up! I’ll have to rebuild my deck from scratch!” Crow whined. I gave him a sympathetic look. To a duelist, our decks are a piece of our hearts and souls. I wouldn’t be too happy if someone was messing with my deck either.

            “Iolanthe-nee!” a boy about ten or eleven called, running into the house, “Let’s have a duel!”

            “Go ahead and duel Itsuki, Io-chan,” Crow said not bothering to look up from the cards he had strewn all over the bed. “It’ll make him feel better. You know how worried he gets when you’re taking so long.”

            “I was not!” Itsuki pouted.

            “Hey! It’s not nice to lie!” my teammate reprimanded. “’Nee-chan’s taking so long! Is nee-chan okay?’” he parroted.

            “Wah, Crow’s a big meanie!” the boy wailed, obvious crocodile tears starting to fall from his brown eyes. He then ran back out of the house.

            “Hey! C’mon!” Crow called, “He’s such a little kid.”

            “That’s because he is you dummy!” I shoot back. “I swear you’re as bad as he is sometimes, Crow.”

            “Hey! I’m fifteen you know!” I couldn’t help but laugh.

            “So am I, but I don’t act like a little kid.”

            “I’m not…” Crow let out an exasperated sigh, “Fine. Just get out there and duel the kid I really need to fix my deck.”

            “Hey,” I say, placing my hand on his shoulder, “You may be a kid sometimes, but I wouldn’t be here without you and the guys.” Crow blushed as red as a Mystic Tomato and I let out a tiny giggle before heading out after Itsuki.

            I found the kid just outside our house. “Ready for that duel, squirt?” I ask.

            “Yay!!” he yells happily, “Gimme all you got!!”

            “Just don’t complain if I win, kiddo.”

            The duel was over in less than two minutes. Itsuki was still learning after all and some of the better cards were hard to come by in this part of Satellite. “Iolanthe-nee you’re way too good for me!” His words may have been ones of complaint, but the smile on his cute little face spoke volumes.

            “Hey not too shabby, Io-chan. You’ve really gotten some good skills there,” Crow says from the doorway. “Here, I found this with my deck. It’s not mine so you can have it.”

            “Thanks Crow,” I say as he hands me a pink trap card. I give it a quick glance and smile. It may have been a practically ancient card – it’d been around for decades – but it was still a good one! “It’ll come in real handy!”

            “Oh yeah!” Crow piped, blushing again, “I almost forgot! Yusei’s been lookin’ for ya. He said something about his D-Wheel so I’m guessin’ he’s somewhere around the old highway.”

            “Thanks Crow, you keep working on your deck and I’ll see what he wants.”

            “Sure thing, Io-chan.”

            I wave and say goodbye to the boys and head for the slums, stopping by our team’s hideout along the way so I could change out of the uniform. There’d be big trouble for me if any of the other gangs caught me wearing a Security uniform like this. Once I was again clothed in my black tank, skinny jeans, and fur lined brown vest, I made a bee-line to the old highway. Sure enough, Yusei was there working on his D-Wheel as always.

            “Hey Yus!” I call, catching his attention.

            “Iolanthe!” he said, looking up, a warm smile on his face. “That prototype D-Wheel I’ve been saving for you works pretty good now.”

            “That’s great!” I say, happy to finally be able to ride along the rest of the guys. Not that I didn’t mind sharing a ride with any of them. They were all great guys, always looking out for me and each other. The fact that they were all good looking was an added bonus, I mean who wouldn’t like to ride a motorbike with a good looking guy right?

            “Wanna test it out?” the spiky haired boy asks, reading my mind.

            “You bet!” I say.

            “I’ll get it ready,” he says, “Go change into this.”

            I grin as I take my riding suit and helmet and dash off to an abandoned building near by. A tiny bit later, I’m straddling the seat of my very own set of wheels.

            “It’s still got a few bugs so don’t go to nuts out there ok?” Yusei says.

            “Yes, Dad,” I say jokingly as I flip down my visor. I almost let out a squeal at the engine’s purr as I rev her up. I was in seventh heaven as I released the brakes and my D-Wheel speeds off along the ruined asphalt. Two minutes later I returned to Yusei, an enormous grin still plastered on my face.

            “It went well, I take it,” he says, returning my smile with one of his own.

            “Runs like a dream!” I say happily.

            “I’m glad to hear that. It’s still not ready for turbo dueling, but you shouldn’t have any trouble with just riding it for now.”

            “Thanks again Yusei,” I say, “You’ve been a great help!” I yank off the helmet and give him a great big kiss on the cheek. The spiky haired boy sputtered as he blushed almost as much as Crow had earlier. Damn the boys were so cute when they got like that. “I’m going to check up on Crow. Would you mind keeping her here for a bit more?” I ask.

            “Not at all, Iolanthe,” Yusei replied, “I’m always happy to help you in anyway I can.”

            I smile gratefully, blushing a bit myself.

*****************************************

            As I enter the B.A.D area, I catch a familiar head of short silver hair. “Kiryu!” I call, happy to see our team’s leader and my boyfriend of two weeks. It was almost love at first sight all those months ago when he found me wandering around the ruined city. I was drawn to his silver hair, it somehow felt familiar and safe to me then. In fact it still does. It took all this time for me to work up enough courage and tell him of my feelings. It was actually a good thing I waited so long, ‘cause it gave him time to really get to know me, even if I didn’t know who I was myself.

            “I heard about what happened yesterday,” he said frowning, “Those bastards didn’t hurt you did they?”

            “I’m fine. They didn’t lay a finger on me!” I say in protest. I was a big girl; I could take care of myself now. All my other teammates had been teaching me how to duel and surprisingly enough it came to me as if I’d been dueling all my life.

As much as I may love and adore him and the others, I didn’t need them babying me every step of the way. “I’m just as good as you guys, so why don’t you let me help you Kiryu?!”

            “Iolanthe!” he started. He sighed before speaking again. “Alright. I can’t tell you not to go dueling without sounding like a jerk. You can help, but I don’t want you getting reckless.”

            I grin like a Cheshire cat and promptly kiss him on the lips.

            “I-I-Io!” he stutters, fearful someone from one of the many rival gangs may be watching. Yeesh, guys and their need to feel macho all the time.

            “Can’t I say thanks to the guy I love?” I ask jokingly.

            Kiryu sighs, but smiles. Gods I love it when he smiles like that, it just makes me melt when it’s aimed at me. “So you ready to clean up this town, Io?” he asks.

            “What do you think?” I shoot back, still grinning. Finally a chance to continue what I do best, helping my team put all the scum in Satellite in their place. When Kiryu and I became a couple, he’d been making me stay back at the hideout more and more often. I appreciated the fact that he cared enough about me to want to keep me safe, but one could only stand arranging and rearranging their deck for so long.

            “I want to duel you to make sure you can handle our next rumble. If you beat me, I’ll let you come along and help, but if you don’t…”

            “Yeah, yeah, I know,” I grumbled, “I’ll stay with the kids.”

            “Then show me what you’ve got!”

            “Don’t cry if I kick that sexy butt of yours!” I retorted, readying my deck and duel disk.

            Ever the gentleman, Kiryu let me go first. I drew a card from my deck and surveyed my hand. Not too bad. Not great, but a good enough start. “I’m placing one card face down,” I say laying a trap card on the field and summon D.D. Survivor in attack mode.” A man in a tattered tan cloak appeared in front of me. I smile at the memory of when I first got that card. It was the very first one Kiryu had ever given me. “Your turn, Kiryu.”

            “Not bad,” he says as he draws a card. “I’m activating a spell.” Sure enough he lays down a green card “Allure of Darkness!” I watch as he draws two cards and removes a Baron of Fiend Sword from play. “I’ll activate another spell, Soul Taker!” I cringe at that, for my beloved D.D Survivor vanishes to the graveyard before my eyes.

            “Not going to go easy on your sweetie are you?” I say.

            “You asked for this Iolanthe,” he says, all business now. “I’m summoning Pitch-Black Warwolf in attack mode. Attack her life points directly!” I wince as a werewolf like creature appears then slashes at me with its sword, taking 1600 of my life points with that attack. “I’ll place a card face down and end my turn.”

            I pout as I draw a card. “Hmph. I’m activating a spell, Heavy Storm!” I shout. An enormous gust of wind whips around us and sweeps our face down traps off the field. “That activates my trap!” I crow as my Statue of the Wicked trap is sent to the graveyard. A small statue of a snake like figure appears where my D.D Survivor had been. “But that’s not all,” I say smirking. I’ll activate this spell too, Enemy Controller!”

            “What?!” Kiryu says obviously not expecting that.

            “I’m switching your wolfie to defense mode! Now my statue’s gonna put that puppy down! Attack!” The Warwolf gave out a howl as it was destroyed and sent to the graveyard.

            “Darn you’re good,” Kiryu says in admiration.

            I smile, grateful for the praise. “I’m placing a monster in defense mode and one card face down. That’s it for my turn.”

            “I’m summoning Emissary of the Afterlife in attack mode,” my boyfriend announces. “Now attack her statue token!” I grunt as 600 of my life points were shaved off. “Your turn Iolanthe.”

            I smirk again as I draw another card. It wasn’t the best card in my deck, but it’ll work just fine. I flip over my face down monster and watch as three cards from my deck are removed from play. That’ll teach you not to pick on your girlfriend!  Kiryu shouts as 800 of his life points are shaved away. God I love my Lady Assailant! “For my next trick, I’ll summon this lovely! I’m counting on you D.D. Warrior! Attack his monster!” The redheaded woman attacked the wraith taking 400 of my life points, but thanks to her special ability, both monsters were removed from play. Now Lady Assailant attack him directly!” The scantily clad girl shot a fireball at him, causing him to cry out as he took 1500 points of damage. Yes! I was in the lead! “Your turn,” I say.

            “How’d you get so good so soon?” he asks, impressed.

            “I had great teachers,” I say truthfully.

            Kiryu blushes slightly as he begins his turn. “I’m summoning Newdoria in attack mode.” I cringe again. Suddenly a sharp pain came to my head. That card seemed familiar somehow, though I didn’t remember seeing it before. I had a feeling that I was in trouble in spite of the monster’s weaker attack strength. “Newdoria attack Io’s Lady Assailant!” I hear my koi grunt as he lost 300 more points. “Did you think I’d make a suicide move for no reason,” he says smirking, “Thanks to Newdoria’s special skill, your monster’s going down with him!” Sure enough, my poor Lady Assailant of Flames vanishes from the field with a bloodcurdling scream.

            I sigh as I begin my turn. “I can’t do anything but place a monster in defense mode. That’s it for my turn.”

            “How about this?” he says smirking. “Allure of Darkness!” he shouts as he activates the spell. I watch as a Vorse Raider is removed from his hand. “I summon Headless Knight in attack mode!” Another sharp pain to my head and a sudden flash of silver hair and a headless suit of armor enters my mind. Why were these monsters so familiar? “Get rid of her face down monster!” I sigh as the armored creature slashed through my face down card and sending my D.D. Scout Plane to the graveyard. Well at least I didn’t lose any more LP. “That’s it for me.”

            I smile and say, “I’ll summon my Banisher of the Radiance in attack mode. Banisher, tell that knight to join his head!” The winged fairy type creature attacked and the fiend was removed from play. Kiryu gave me an admiring look. “Your turn,” I tell him

            “I’m activating Gold Sarcophagus and remove one card from my deck for two turns,” he announces. What are you up to, koi? “Next I’m summoning another Pitch-Black Warwolf in attack mode and place down two cards. Try to get past that, Io.”

            “You’re on,” I say, rising to my boyfriend’s challenge. “You’re going to just loooove this, Soul Exchange!”

            “What?!” he exclaims.

            “I’m gonna use your monster as a sacrifice for this bad boy. Come forth Mobius, the Frost Monarch!” A giant armored creature surrounded by ice appeared before us.

            “Oh no!” Kiryu cries.

            I continue to grin as I go on with my turn. “Moby be a dear and get rid of those nasty traps of his.” My silver haired love groaned as the cards were destroyed. You’re lucky Moby can’t attack right now, so I’m ending my turn.”

            He frowned. “There’s nothing I can do, so go ahead and get this over with Io.”

            I raised an eyebrow, but accepted his sudden morose mood. “I’m summoning another D.D. Survivor in attack mode. Okay guys take him down!” I really felt guilty attacking my boyfriend when he was totally defenseless like that. I shut my eyes not wanting to see his face as the backlash from the holo systems hit him. “I’m sorry,” I say forlornly.

            “Hey! There’s no crying in Duel Monsters!” he shouts at me, “You’re good. Real good so, stop apologizing!”

            I nod and place down a trap card before handing the duel over to him.

            “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hate you if you do beat me,” he says with his usual cool bravado. “I’m placing two cards face down then end my turn.” A single trap was on his side of the field while a monster was in lying in defense.

            It was stupid for me not to risk it while Kiryu only had 1350 life points left. I took a breath and steeled my heart for this next brutal attack. “Moby,” I say solemnly, “attack his monster!” The poor second Headless Knight didn’t know what hit it. “I win,” I announce, though I wasn’t too happy at all about this. “D.D. Survivor, attack Kiryu!” My monster obeyed, obliterating the last of my koi’s life points.

            “Whoa!” Kiryu shouts in awe. “You actually did it, Io. You went and beat me!”

            “I’m sorry,” I say again. I know too well men never really did take losing to a girl too well.

            “Stop apologizing already,” he says smiling and pulling me into a hug. “I’m proud of ya, Iolanthe! You’ve really grown these past months!”

            “R-Really?” I say, trying my best not to cry and let the guilt get to me.

            “Yeah. You’ll kick some serious butt at the rumble tomorrow. Then again what could I expect? You’re my girl after all.” I blush profusely and squeak as he pulls me into one heck of a heated kiss. “Go get some rest. I want you to be in top shape tomorrow,” he says when the need for air breaks us apart. I can only nod and blush, feeling week in the knees from my boyfriend’s passion.

            When I’m able to think clearly, Kiryu unwraps his arms from around me. “We’re almost there,” he says excitedly, “soon all of Satellite will be ours and then we can really start cleaning up this place!”

            “I know,” I say smiling, just as anxious myself. I couldn’t wait to get started on fixing this sick caste system that developed after the disaster that split the city.

            “You go let Crow know about tomorrow, and get straight to bed Io.” He gives me a quick peck on the lips before heading off to our hideout.

**********************************

            “Crow!” I call as I enter our shared home.

            “Hey, just in time, Io-chan,” my housemate says, “I just finished fixing my deck.”

            “Good, I just wanted you to know I saw Kiryu. He says our next rumble’s tomorrow.”

            “Tomorrow huh? Alright! Crow ‘the Bullet’ is gonna show ‘em a thing or two! How about you, let me guess the boss is making mind the kids again right?”

            “Nope.” I say grinning widely. “I managed to convince him to let me help this time.”

            “Convince him? Uh… do I even wanna know?” he asks blushing a bit.

            “Relax, Crow,” I reply chuckling, “I just beat him in a duel.”

            “No… way!! Seriously?!” I nod, my grin growing wider. “That’s awesome, Io-chan! I didn’t think any of us could ever beat Kiryu. Wow! Well, anyways, I’m glad you’re coming with us. We sure could use the extra help against these guys. You go ahead and get plenty of rest.”

            “You too,” I say smiling before heading to my room.

********************************

The next day…

            “You ready?” Crow asks when I come into the kitchen.

            “Yep,” I answer, grabbing a package of cup ramen. “So who are we up against this time?” I ask while I wait for the noodles to cook in the now practically ancient microwave.

            “Team Black ‘n’ Blue,” my redheaded friend replies. “We’re supposed to meet the others over at their hideout.”

            We eat our breakfast in relative silence, both of us too revved up for idle conversation. Once all our noodles were gone, Crow dashes out of the house. I shake my head quickly throwing away the discarded packages before following my overexcited friend.

            A little while later we arrive at the rival gang’s hideout. Kiryu glares at us slightly. He never did like waiting much. “You’re late,” he says more to Crow than to me. It’s good to be the leader’s girl sometimes. “Jack and Yusei are looking for our opponents. They’re hiding in this building somewhere. We’re gonna crush every one of them! Watch out for their leader, I’ve heard he’s pretty tough, but I can take him. You two don’t get beat until this area’s ours! We’ll be one step away from conquering all of Satellite once we do. Jack and Yusei are checking the basement. I’m going to check upstairs. Iolanthe and Crow, you two check around here. I want you two to duel with all you’ve got!”

            My boyfriend then ran towards and up the stairs. “Let’s do this,” I say, “I’ll go this way you go over there,” I say pointing to the right side of the hall.

            “Got it!” Crow replies, “Be careful Io-chan!”

            “You too,” I call back as I head down the left side.

            Sure enough I found one of he punks hiding among a pile of wooden crates. Our resulting duel was over in a flash. I double checked the remaining piles of kipple and found no other opponents hiding in the rubbish. I dash back over to the other side with the intent of helping my housemate. However Crow didn’t seem to need it. He was an awesome duelist in his own right after all.

            “Io-chan, you go help the boss check up stairs,” the redhead says, “I stay down here in case we’ve missed any of those punks.”

            I nod and give him a ‘thumbs up’ before heading to the next floor. As I reach the top stair I hear a crash. I dash over to the source to see my boyfriend sprawled out on the floor, one of the rival gang members looming over him. What the?! There’s no way one of these scumbags could have beaten Kiryu! No way in the abyss!

            “Iolanthe!” my silver haired koi shouts, noticing me.

            “Oh, she your girl?” the punk sneers. “How about you dump this loser and hang with a real man, sweet cheeks? I bet you ‘n’ I can have a load of fun.”

            I growl in disgust. Why is it that these morons always think that we girls are like them, too stupid to think for ourselves. “Why don’t you go back to the trash can you crawled out of, slime ball!” I yell, readying my deck.

            “You’ve got good taste there buddy,” the punk says to my boyfriend, “I like ‘em feisty. Say honey, how ‘bout you ‘n’ me duel since you’re itching for it. You win, you get to keep your man, but if I win, I get you. That fair enough for ya babe?”

            I narrow my eyes and glare my best death glare at him. “Bring it, babe,” I sneer back.

            “Heh, heh. Get ready to be my girl, sweet cheeks.” He puts his deck into the duel disk.

            As expected, I wipe the floor with that creep and his pathetically weak deck. “Grr!!” he snarls, “Take your stupid boyfriend and get out of here! Our boss’ll take care of you anyway!” He runs off before either of us can really let him have it.

            “Sorry, Io,” apologizes Kiryu as I help him up.

            “It’s ok,” I say relieved he wasn’t hurt too badly, just his pride by the looks of it.

            “That little punk snuck up on me and got the drop on me before I even knew what was going on. You finish checking the building, I’m gonna give that punk what I owe him!”

            “Kiryu…!” I call, but my koi is gone before I even finished saying his name. I sigh, and pray that he doesn’t cause too much trouble for himself. His judgment always seemed to suffer when his temper flared like that. I then headed up to the third and final floor.

            As I began inspecting the kipple littering the floor, I hear someone call to me from the other side of the hall.

            “Are you from the other team?” they ask. I turn to see a little kid emerge from one of the abandoned rooms. “So everyone else lost then? Well, that means you made all the way to the leader, me.” I blink incredulously at the boy. This little kid who looks like he hadn’t even passed fourth grade yet is their boss?! I was about to brush him off and tell him to skedaddle out of there when he takes out a duel disk.

            “You can’t be serious!” I say, desperately trying to stifle the giggling, “There’s no way I’m going to duel a grade-schooler!”

            “I’m not going to let the team down. So you’re going to have to duel me nee-chan,” he says determinedly.

            I sigh heavily seeing no other way out of this. “Fine kid,” I say, “Just don’t start crying for your mommy when things get too rough.  This is big time dueling you’re messing with.” God I hated sounding like a bully, but this twerp had to learn that life wasn’t all fun and duels. Too bad it was going to be the hard way.

            “I’m gonna go easy on you nee-chan since you look like a nice person. Let’s use a special rule. Instead of one, we each draw two cards each draw phase, ok?” I nod and insert my deck.

            The boy was a sneaky little runt. He didn’t show his true talents until I had almost completely wiped out his life points, but still, I beat him. If only he hadn’t waited so long to get serious he just may have won the duel instead of me.

            “That was fun nee-chan,” the kid says, a big smile on his face. “You’re way better than me. I was only being the leader ‘cause I beat everyone else… but I really don’t wanna be the leader anymore you can be leader nee-chan. I just hope they’re not too mad at me for letting them down. I’m gonna go home now nee-chan. Let’s have fun again next time! Bye!”

            I can’t help but smile at the kid’s cute behavior as I watch him walk past me and down the stairs. Jack and Crow come up to me as the kid leaves. “Hey Io-chan!” the redhead shouts, “How’d it go?”

            “No problems here, Crow,” I say cheerfully. “I just kicked their leader’s butt.”

            “All right! That’s our girl! Y’know, I have to admit I was a bit nervous, what with all that talk about leader being such a bad ass.” I wondered if I should tell them these goons were being led by a kid barely out of diapers, when Crow suddenly figured it out for himself. “I don’t believe it! Don’t tell me that kid we just passed was their leader!”

            “Ok, I won’t,” I said laughing.

            Our spiky blond haired teammate just frowned. “You shouldn’t judge a duelist by their age,” he said sternly, “only their skill matters.” It would be just like Jack to say something like that. Though I do wish he’d lighten up sometimes. Yeah he’s had it just as hard here as the rest of us, but everyone deserves to have a bit of fun now and then. “You really should try to remember that, Crow. Especially in the B.A.D. area.”

            “Yeah, yeah. I know Jack,” my housemate replies, “Dueling’s what made us what we are. Let’s go get Yusei and Kiryu so we can head back to the hideout.” Jack nods and starts heading back down to the lower floors.

~TBC~

Chapter Text

            Back at the hideout, we gather around the table in one of the rooms that my boyfriend turned into a makeshift war room. A map of Satellite lay on the rotting wood surface. All but one of the blocked out areas had exes on them.

            “Well done everyone!” Kiryu says, excitedly, “We conquered that area too!”

            “Yeah! I still can’t believe their leader was a kid, though,” piped Crow.

            “A leader’s a leader!” my boyfriend shoots, “He may have been a pipsqueak, but he was still tough. What really matters here is that you beat him.” He smiles proudly at me when he says that and I try to keep my blushing down to a bare minimum.

            “I heard someone say that they captured you, Kiryu,” Jack says, worry coloring his voice, “You okay?”

            “That little bastard just came out of nowhere and jumped me from behind,” my silver haired koi snarls, still suffering from the sting of his hurt pride. “That was a low down dirty trick! Though I can’t say I blame them too much. I’d be forced to use such dirty tactics if was that weak at dueling.”

            “Let me guess,” Yusei says, joining in on the debriefing, “You went all out on him.”

            “Of course,” Kiryu replies, smirking and making the bi-color haired boy frown, “I beat him to a pulp in a duel. Fair and square!”

            “Far and square, huh?” Crow asks mischievously. Just what is he up to now?

            “Crow,” I start in warning. He always did have a habit of letting his mouth run off like that.

            “What did you say?!”

            “Hey take it easy!” the redhead pleads, holding up his hands in surrender, “I’m just saying that I kinda feel sorry for the guy. I know what it’s like to get beaten to a pulp in a duel by you. It’s something I’d never wanna feel again, I’ll tell you that.”

            “It’s his fault for jumping me like that!” Kiryu retorts.

            “Can we focus on what’s really important here?” Jack exclaims, diffusing a rather potentially nasty situation between two of my best friends. “Like the fact that we’ve almost conquered all of Satellite? This is no time for someone to get cocky here. We’re not done yet.”

            “Ok, we’ve got it Jack,” the spiky redhead says, “So who do we go after next?”

            “Don’t be so hasty, Crow,” Yusei warns, “We still have to make sure we know everything we can about our opponents.”

            “Yu’s right,” my boyfriend agreed, “I’ll go scope out the next area tomorrow.”

            “Good,” our spiky blond teammate says, “I say that’s it for the day. Let’s get some rest. I know some of us are probably exhausted.” He gives me a concerned look. Of all the guys here, he was the one who always worried about me the most. I have to admit it was rather sweet and I could see that he had feelings for me as well. However, I was Kiryu’s girl through and through. I would always see Jack as an older brother and nothing else.

            “I’m fine, Jack!” I say in protest.

            “Still you should take it easy for our next battle,” he says.

            “I’ll let you guys know once I’ve decided on our next target. I hope you’ll be as stoked as I am,” Kiryu says gleefully.

********************************************

The next day…

            I’m heading back to Crow’s after doing a bit of shopping for some better cards and D-Wheel parts when I catch sight of a couple guys racing past me on their motorbikes. On one of the bikes I see a familiar mop of brown hair. Those jerks had Itsuki!

            “Hey Io-chan!” Crow calls obviously on his way back to the house from an errand of his own. “You feeling ok? What’s going on?”

            I was about to tell my redheaded housemate what I saw when Itsuki’s friend, Annie came running out of the house, tears streaming from the girl’s eyes. “Crow!” she wails and latching onto him. “They took Itsuki!”

            “Hey slow down, Annie! Who took what?!”

            “I don’t know who they were,” the girl cried, “But they took Itsuki and got away on a D-Wheel!”

            “Damn it! Do you know which way they went?”

            “They headed towards the slums. I saw two D-Wheels just now,” I say, “One of them had Itsuki with them.”

            “Alright, good job Io-chan! Let’s go get Itsuki back! Annie, get in the house and stay there!”

            “You’d better bring him back!” the child says running into our house.

            We quickly suit up and grab our D-Wheels. Within minutes we were speeding down the roads and catching up to those slime balls. Sure enough they were headed to the slums and we followed them all the way there to an abandoned arcade.

            “Hey you Team Dirty Works punks!” Crow yells, jumping off his beloved Blackbird, “Hand Itsuki over! Now!”

            “Damn it!” one of the mohawked goons spat, “How’d they catch up to us so quick?! I’m calling you Team Satisfaction morons out! It’s time to duel!”

            The other rider I had seen gets off his D-Wheel and joins him, deck and duel disk at the ready. “You’re going down, scum!” I shout.

            “Heh! Don’t be so cocky girlie,” the second punk sneers. “Don’t mess with us!”

            “Bring it on!” retorted Crow.

            Naturally we wiped the floor with them, but my opponent really annoyed the heck out of me. If I ever see another turtle card again, I think I’d go nuts! Seriously the guy’s deck was nothing but turtles! Sure they were cute sometimes and had good defense, but come on! Just how many turtles can one guy have?

            “Not bad, girlie!” Turtle guy says, impressed I was able to get past his wall of turtles.

            “You’re not gonna see the last of us!” Crow’s opponent yells, and runs off into the arcade. Typical clichéd thug.

            “You morons better not forget who kick your sorry asses!” Crow shoots back.

            “W-Wait up!” Turtle guy cries, running after his teammate.

            “Crow! Iolanthe-nee!” Itsuki shouts, running over to us, “You came to get me! Thanks!”

            “You okay?” Crow asks, immediately fussing over the boy. I smile as I watch him. Crow was so good with kids, much better than I ever could be. If he’d ever hooked up and settled down with someone, there be no doubt that he’d make a wonderful father.

            “Hey! I’m fine Crow!” the boy yells, squirming away from my teammate, or trying to at least. “I wasn’t scared at all! I knew you two would come and get me!”

            “Thank goodness you’re alright,” Crow says once he was satisfied Itsuki wasn’t hurt. “Let’s get back home.”

            Itsuki insisted on riding with me and put up quite the fuss until Crow relented and let the kid have his way. A few minutes later, we were all back at Crow’s. “Itsuki you’re back!” Annie cries with joy as we enter the house. “I knew you’d get him back!”

            Itsuki rushes over to one of the bookcases and grabs something hidden between the books and boxes filling it. “This is for saving me!” he says handing me a pink trap card.

            “That’s really sweet of you Itsuki,” I say smiling. It was a pretty old card so he must have saved a lot to get it.

            “Wanna go play outside, Itsuki?” asks Annie.

            “Sure! Tag you’re it!” he says poking the girl before dashing outside.

            “Hey! No fair!” Annie shouts then dashes after him. I laugh at their antics, envying their carefree outlook on life.

            “Hey! Don’t you let yourself get caught like that again!” Crow yells out the window.

            “Don’t worry!” the younger boy shouts back, “Besides you and Iolanthe-nee will come save me again if I do!”

            Crow sighs in exasperation. “By the way Io-chan, thanks for the help. If you hadn’t seen those guys we’d never have found Itsuki. The squirt likes to talk big, but I can tell he was freaking out. I just want you to know I’m glad you’re around to help out.”

            “Crow…” I say, blushing. What the heck’s wrong with me?! I can’t be getting feelings for my best friend! Besides, I’m with Kiryu! Maybe it was because I’ve been living with the redhead for so long. Yeah, that had to be it. There’s no way I’d ever betray Kiryu like that; not when I owe him so much.

            “Hey!” Annie says, dashing into the house and snapping me out of my thoughts. “I forgot to tell you! Kiryu-nii was here earlier. I told him you had to go out so he told me to tell you guys to meet him at the hideout when you got back.”

            “Jeez,” my redheaded friend moans, “Why is it we can never relax? Might as well go see what the boss wants right?”

            I follow Crow over to the hideout and to the war room. Kiryu shoots Crow a glare. “You two are late. Where were you guys?”

            “Hey! Cut us some slack, Kiryu!” the redhead shouts, “Team Dirty Works went and kidnapped Itsuki! Io-chan and I had to go after ‘em and get the kid back!”

            “What?!” my boyfriend gasps in shock, “No wonder Annie looked upset! Is he ok?”

            “Yeah. We were able to find and catch ‘em thanks to Io-chan. She’s the one who saw them getting away on their D-Wheels. The kid was a bit shaken up, but he’s outside playing with Annie and the other kids now.”

            “That’s good. I know how important those kids are to you, Crow.”

            My housemate took it upon himself to become the sole parent and caretaker of all the neighborhood kids who had lost their parents since the cataclysm that created this hellish place. I was impressed at how well he was doing raising them and how he hardly ever complained about not having any time to himself. Crow just adored those kids and they him.

            “Arrgh!” Kiryu growls, drawing me out of my reverie, “I can’t believe Team Dirty Works would pull a stunt like this! I’m not gonna let them get away with this!”

            “No complaints here!” Crow agreed, “This time they went too far! No one messes with my kids!”

            “This is perfect timing,” our leader adds, “I was considering going against them next. Now this cinches it. Team Satisfaction! We’re moving out to crush those punks for good! I want all of you to give it your all on this one. I want those creeps to pay!”

            “We’d better get ready, ASAP,” Crow says and dashes off to get his deck and disk.

            “Io,” Kiryu says, pulling me aside, “You know how I feel about you going up against punks like these, so please be careful, there’s no telling what kinds of sneaky tricks they’re capable of.”

            “You’re not going to tell me to watch the kids?” I ask, stunned.

            “Nope,” he says smiling, “You’ve proved you can handle yourself now. Besides, I can’t be dueling at my best if I know you’re back here worrying about me.”

            “Kiryu…”

            “Go get ready and meet me back here. I’m going to get Jack and Yusei.” He then left the room.

            I sigh and check my deck, making sure it was in order and battle ready. Once I was sure I was prepared enough, I leave the hideout and wait for my boyfriend to return.

*********************************************

            “Is this the place?” Kiryu asks me as we stop by the abandoned arcade in the slums.

            “Yeah,” I say. “Those goons ran in there after Crow and I beat the snot out of them.”

            “Ok, listen up Team Satisfaction,” our leader announces, “This looks like it could be Team Dirty Works’ hideout. Those cowards are hiding somewhere in there! I don’t want any of you to hold back on those scum, is that clear?”

            “C’mon boss,” Crow protests, “Let’s just hurry it up and bust their butts already!”

            “If you find any of them hiding, drag them out kicking and screaming if you have to! I want them to learn what it means to mess with Team Satisfaction! I’m heading in first. Io you wait here with Crow until Jack and Yusei get here, it’s up to you two to fill them in on what’s going down.”

            “Hey! Wait up I’m going with you!” Crow shouts, hell bent on getting revenge for what they did to Itsuki, and runs in the arcade after Kiryu.

            “Crow!”  I say, in a vain attempt to stop him. He really needed to listen to orders more often.

            “Iolanthe!” I hear Jack call as Crow disappears into the arcade. “Where’s Kiryu and Crow?”

            “There inside,” I say, “You just missed them.”

            “They’re probably still upset about earlier,” Yusei replies.

            “Well, we better get in there before those two hog all the glory,” our blond teammate says.”

            “They really should learn to calm down,” Yusei complains, “otherwise it’ll be easy for them to fall into an enemy trap if they’re hotheaded. Just like when that guy got the drop on Kiryu last time.”

            “Yusei’s right,” agreed Jack. “We should check things out and make sure they’re not in too much trouble.”

            We cautiously make our way inside the building. All kinds of dusty and broken down arcade games are neatly lined up in the first room. It was as if they were silently waiting for someone to come and play with them, as if nothing had happened.

            “I’m getting the feeling we’re being watched,” Yusei says as his indigo eyes dart about the place, “They’re probably hiding so be careful, Iolanthe.”

            I nod and start stalking around the room. Sure enough I spot one of those scum hiding in an dirty old photo booth in one of the back corners. Surprise, surprise, it’s one of the two jerks who kidnapped Itsuki! Well at least it wasn’t Turtle Guy, for which I’ll be eternally grateful.

            I had to hand it to this one. He had a pretty decent deck, that Spell Absorption card of his was a handful to get rid of. Still I managed to beat him in a relatively short amount of time. All thanks to my friends’ teachings and these mysterious dueling instincts of mine. They hardly ever failed me.

            “Tch! There’s more than one way to get rid of punks like you, babe,” the mohawked man jeers, “and not all of ‘em have to do with dueling!”

            “What are you talking about?!” I demand.

            “Heh, heh, it won’t be long before one of you morons fall into our little trap.”

             Oh no! That didn’t sound too good. I rush into the next room in search of the others, not caring for my own safety. As I enter the bowling alley part of the arcade, I spot something about to fall from the ceiling and Yusei was standing directly underneath!

            “Yuseiiiii!!!!” I scream and run over to him, pushing him out of harm’s way and tackling him to the ground just as an enormous pile of rocks and cement comes toppling down.

            “What was that?!” he asks, shaking a bit from the near brush with death, “Iolanthe… if you hadn’t spotted that when you did…”

            “Don’t!” I say, not wanting to hear what he’d been thinking.

            The spiky haired boy nods in understanding. “Thank you,” he says. He blushes when he realizes I’m still on top of him. I blush myself then quickly get up.

            “We’ve gotta watch out Yusei,” I start, “They’ve got this whole place booby trapped!”

            “What?! I should have known they’d be expecting us. We’ve got to warn the others! You keep watch here while I go warn them!” Yusei then dashed from the bowling alley.

            “Hey! One of our traps went off!” I hear. Turning around, I see it’s Turtle Guy coming to check out the damage. I groan. “What?! You punks are still alive?! That trap was fool proof! Not to mention it took FOREVER to set up! Well guess I’ll just have to get rid of you with a duel!”

            “Whatever floats your boat!” I snap back. This guy must be a real glutton for punishment. Well it didn’t matter since I beat him once again. I was getting really sick of turtles.

            “Grr!! Beat it girlie!” he snarls, “I can’t believe our plan backfired like this!” Seeing that Turtle guy wasn’t going to cause any more trouble for my teammates, I leave. Just as I was about to go about my search for the others, another of the mohawked punks approached me.

            “You’re with Team Sissyfaction ain’tcha. Well I heard what ya did to some of my boys. That weren’t nice missy. Didn’t your mama teach you it’s rude to burst into someone’s hideout without askin’? Looks like I’m gonna have to teach you some manners!”

            “You’re one to talk,” I yell, “it’s obvious your mommy never told you not to pick on little kids!”

            “That’s it bitch! You’re going down!”

            “You wish!”

            Finally someone worth dueling! Those dragons of his had me breaking out in a sweat, not because I was scared of them – I just happen to adore dragons of all kinds, but because he knew how to make them work for him so well. It was a grueling duel, but I found myself enjoying it. It was the first real duel I’ve had in quite the while.

            “Damn it!” the enemy leader says as his life points finally reached zero. “And I worked so hard on this deck!” He lets out a frustrated yell then runs off.

            “Looks like you’ve taken down another leader, Iolanthe,” Yusei says coming up to me, smiling in admiration. He must have been watching our duel. “So that must mean this area’s ours too.”

            “Where are…” I begin to ask, still worried for my boyfriend and Crow’s safety.

            “They’re fine,” the black and gold haired boy reassures me, “Kiryu and Crow managed to diffuse most of the traps.” I let out a sigh of relief. “I still owe you for back there though. I can’t thank you enough.”

            “I just did what any of you guys would have done. You’re my family.”

            “Family huh? I guess we are like a family, we all watch out for each other. We’d better head back to the others.”

***************************************

            “Alright!” Kiryu crows as we gather around the map table back at the hideout, “Another victory for Team Satisfaction! But don’t think we’ve got it easy now. There’s still one area left.”

            “Yeah, but not for long!” pipes Crow.

            “It’s been a long battle,” Jack adds, “Do you think we can pull this off… take over all of Satellite?”

            “Oh come on, Jack!” Crow says, “You know we’ve got this in the bag!”

            “Of course we do,” my boyfriend and team leader starts, “but I want everyone to start tweaking their decks until they’re perfect! We can’t afford to take any risky chances here! Not when we’ve come so far! That’s it for today so go rest up. I’ll let you all know when I’ve decided on the day we attack!”

Chapter Text

A few days later…

            I was heading over to the D-Wheel shop in the slums when I ran into my beloved Kiryu. “Hi Io,” he says smiling before giving me a kiss. “Yusei told me you beat Dirty Works’ leader the other day. I had wanted to deal with him personally, but you beat me to it.” He let out a wry chuckle.

            “Kyosuke,” I say using his first name. I never use it unless I wanted him to know I was dead serious. “You know I’d NEVER do something like that to you on purpose. You’re the leader here and that’s how it’s gonna stay!”

            “I know,” he says smiling, “but if this keeps up not only am I going to get rusty, but all the other gangs are going to think you’re the one in charge here.” He let out a chuckle.

            “You want me to stop helping then,” I say, heartbroken he’d even consider telling me such a thing.

            “Of course not!” he replies, “I’d rather jump off the Daedalus Bridge with my D-Wheel before I gave such an order! I just ask that you save some for me next time.”

            “Ki…” He placed his fingers on my lips.

            “I mean what I said. Every word. How about another duel. This time I won’t take no for an answer. Don’t worry, it’s just a friendly duel. Think of it as training for our next battle.”

            “Ok.”

            “Great! Give me all you’ve got, Io!”

            Just like before, he let me have the first turn. I can barely hide my excitement as I look at my hand. “First I’ll activate a spell,” I announce, “Soul Absorption!”

            “Nice one!” Kiryu calls back. I smile, always grateful whatever praise my teachers would give me.

            “Next I’m gonna summon Banisher of the Radiance in attack mode and place two cards face down. Your turn.”

            “Sorry you won’t get to use that spell, Io,” he says as he places a green spell card on the field. “I’m gonna pay 500 life points and activate my Twister spell!”

            Suddenly an enormous cyclone appeared on the field. I inwardly groaned. I hated to resort to such a drastic measure so early into the duel, but I had no choice. “Nice try, koi,” I say defiantly, “but I can’t let you do that! Solemn Judgment!” I shout as I flip over one of my face down traps. I groan in pain as half my life points are drained away and his spell was negated.

            “Io!” Kiryu cries, shocked I would do such a thing to myself, however thanks to my quick thinking, the Soul Absorption kicked in since both our cards were removed from play due to my monster’s ability and I gain 1000 life points. “Good one, but not good enough,” he says, activating another spell. “Soul Exchange!” he calls.

            Despite the fact that I just gained another 500 points, I moan as I watch my monster vanished only to see a zombie type monster appear on his side of the field. My head started to hurt again as the feeling of familiarity washed over me as I stared at the monster. “Sorry Io,” my silver haired boyfriend says to me before ending his turn.

            I place a monster in defense and another trap on the field before signaling for him to continue.

            “I summon Pitch-Black Warwolf in attack mode!” he says. The black furred werewolf appears next to his zombie monster. “Earl of Demise, attack Io’s face down card!”

            “That all you’ve got?” I say, trying to sound as confident as him, “I’m activating my trap! Macro Cosmos!”

            Kiryu gives an appreciative whistle. “Awesome combo you’ve got there Io! I just hope you know what you’re doing.” I smile as my D.D. Scout Plane was removed from play, adding to my life points. I give a slight grunt as my boyfriend’s werewolf attacks, but that’ll be fixed soon enough.

            I can barely contain myself as my monster returns to the field just as Kiryu ends his turn. “I summon Granmarg, the Rock Monarch in attack mode!” I crow triumphantly. The giant stone monster’s ability kicked in and I chose one of the face-down traps my koi had been hiding.

            Once I had Macro Cosmos activated, this duel was already decided. Kiryu and I fought neck and neck for several turns neither of us wanting to back down nor were we able to truly get the other’s LP down to zero. However, my silver haired love had run out of options and was now completely defenseless.

            “Go ahead, Io,” he says smiling, his voice and face devoid of any indication that he was upset with me. “You’ve proven to be the better duelist once again.”

            I didn’t want to do it. No matter how much I wanted to place my hand on my deck and give up, Kiryu would hate even more if I showed him any mercy. I steel myself again and give the order for my favorite monster to attack. “D.D. Survivor,” I croak, “Finish him off!” The fact that I’ve chosen that particular monster wasn’t lost on either of us. He knew how much I treasured that card.

            “You’re just as good as ever, Io,” he says smiling.

            “Y-You’re not too mad at me?” I stammer, still feeling guilty for beating him yet again.

            “Io!” he scolds, “How many times do I have to tell you? I could never hate you for beating me in a duel. I only wanted to see for myself if the last time wasn’t a fluke. You’ve really improved. I’m impressed.”

            “Kyo…”

            He places his hand on my cheek. “I know what you’re thinking,” he says, “I know you have no intention of ever taking my place as leader, so for the last time, Io, stop worrying about it. I’ll definitely beat you next time; all I need to do is to train a bit harder.” He flashes me that smile that always makes me melt and gives me another quick kiss. “I still have to check out the last area, so I’ll see you later, ok?”

            “Be careful,” I say, still blushing from all the praise.

            “Always am,” he calls back as he walks away.

******************************************

            I returned home after I was finished with my shopping for the day. “Great timing Io-chan!” Crow says as I enter our living room, “How about you and I duel so I can check my deck out. I just finished tweaking it.”

            “Sure. Just let me put this stuff away,” I say. I run to my room and drop off the D-Wheel chip I’d finally been able to afford.

            “Alright, let’s duel!” my redheaded housemate says when I return with my deck and duel disk.

            Crow was every bit as good as Kiryu and I were. It was quite some time before I was able to get the upper hand and defeat him. “Man I totally blew it,” he said as the last of his life points vanished. “Looks like I need to do some more tweaking.”

            “Hey you’re both here,” my boyfriend says from the doorway.

            “What’s up Kiryu?” I ask, though I already had some idea.

            “I just wanted to tell Crow and you that our last rumble’s tomorrow,” he replies.

            “Alright! I can’t wait!” my red haired friend shouts, getting pumped.

            “The gang in charge is Team Non-Securities. I been hearing that they have a lot of members so we’re gonna need all of us for this.”

            “A big gang huh? Well, I guess I’ll go work on my deck now,” Crow says taking his deck out of the duel disk.

            “Right. You should always be prepared for the worst,” Kiryu adds.

            “No worries, here. I’ll have an invincible deck by tomorrow!”

            “I’m going to tell Jack and Yusei now. Io, make sure you’re good and ready for tomorrow. Get plenty of rest, ok?”

            “I will,” I reply.

            “Good. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Our silver haired leader then left us to prepare.

            “Well looks like we’ve got a lot of prepping to do,” Crow says.

            “Iolanthe-nee!” Itsuki calls as he comes running in with Annie. “Let’s duel!”

            “Aww, I wanna duel her!” the girl whines.

            “I called it first!”

            “I wanna go first!”

            “No fighting you two!” scolded Crow, “Io-chan can’t duel now. She’s got to get ready for tomorrow.”

            “But she promised!” whined Itsuki, pouting. That much was true I did promise the kids a duel or two. The kids started arguing again on which one of them I had promised first.

            Crow and I sigh. “I hate to ask, but did you really promise them?”

            “Well…” I start.

            “Jeez… kids. Look how about I duel you instead,” he says to the two imps.

            “No way!” they say together, “Dueling you is never any fun!”

            “Now they agree on something,” my housemate mutters, “How about this then, you two team up and then Io-chan and I duel you as a team? You happy now?”

            “Hmph, fine,” Itsuki says pouting.

            “Well, at least it’s better than dueling Crow by himself,” Annie adds.

            “Hey! Show some respect! Who’s raising you kids anyway?!”

            “You are Crow,” the children say in unison.

            Crow sighed. Can’t say I blame him much. Those two can be quite the handful when they got like this. It wasn’t too long before we won the duel since both kids were still learning. “I knew you ‘n’ I would make a great team, Io-chan!” my housemate crows.

            “T-Thanks,” I say blushing. Arrgh! I’ve got to get a grip on myself! I already have a boyfriend!

            “You kids happy now? We can’t just play with you guys all day. We’ve got a lot to do to get ready for tomorrow. So why don’t you go on and play outside, ok?”

            “You guys gonna fight another gang tomorrow?” Itsuki asks. Smart kid that Itsuki, nothing got past him.

            “Yep. And it’s gonna be a big one too. If we win this, we’ll have conquered all of Satellite.”

            “That’s awesome, Crow! Good luck Iolanthe-nee!”

            “You too, Crow!” added Annie.

            “For once, I’d like for those two to be less of a handful,” Crow mutters, sighing once the kids have left. “So you gonna get ready for tomorrow?”

            “Yeah, I need to make sure my deck’s in good shape,” I reply. “See you tomorrow Crow. Remember to get some sleep this time.” Crow always did have the habit of pulling all-nighters tweaking his deck, before big battles and this time probably won’t be any different.

            “Yeah, yeah I hear ya, mom,” he says. I chuckle as I wave goodnight and head for my room.

************************************************

The next day…

            Crow and I meet the others at an abandoned factory in the slums. “This is it, guys,” Kiryu says as he opens the factory gates. “I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna enjoy this! Everyone, set?”

            “What’s with all the waitin’?!” Crow pipes up, “I’m itching to get goin’ so hurry up!”

            “Just because this is our last battle doesn’t mean you should be hasty, Crow,” Yusei says, ever the voice of reason in our little group.

            “I say we hit them head-on,” Jack says.

            “Alright! Team Satisfaction, move out!” my boyfriend and leader says, giving us the order to start.

            “’Bout time!” Crow shouts and runs toward the building.

            We go in after him and I suddenly find myself surrounded by four rival gang members. “Well, well, lookie what we’ve got here,” one of them says leering at me. “Ya lost babe? Don’t worry we’ll take real good care of ya.”

            “Yeah,” another starts, “we’ll show you a great time, heh heh.”

            “You can have your fun after we finish the rest off,” the third thug snaps. I’m guessing he’s the one in charge of this group, “We’re still in the middle of a turf battle here in case you morons have forgotten!”

            “It won’t take long,” the last of them says, “It’ll be a piece of cake if we take ‘em down one by one.”

            “Iolanthe!” Jack says charging to my rescue.

            “Get loss buddy, this ain’t your business!”

            “Baka! He’s with her! He’s one of those punks!” the leader snarls, “You two take care of him, the rest of you can handle the chickie.”

            “Iolanthe, let me handle them all you go on ahead.”

            “No way Jack!” I protest, “There’s no way I’m gonna leave you like this!”

            “Iolanthe!”

            I refused to budge. Jack was one of the best duelists I knew, but the odds were stacked way against him. He may have been able to take on two, but not four. Besides having all these jerks gang up on my ‘big brother’ like this grated against my sense of honor.

            “Hmph. Fine do what you want,” the spiky blond quips. Though I knew he was really glad for the help deep down.

            “Don’t think we’re gonna go easy on ya ‘cause you’re a chick,” one of my targets shoots.

            I don’t bother to waste my breath on him. Instead, I activate my duel disk and start the duel. Boy these guys were tough! Their decks meshed together well and it seemed as though they’ve done two on one duels like this before. The filthy scum! It took everything I had just to survive. But just when I thought I was a goner, I managed to pull off a miracle and synchro summon Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth. I smiled, glancing over at Jack. Once again he was covering my back for it was him who gave me that card. I was right to have brought more than one deck with me this time.

            Once I had Gaia out on the field, it was all over. Two more turns and I came out the victor. I turn to check on Jack’s duel and see my blond teammate standing not too far from a staircase at the end of the yard. Good, he won. I let out a sigh of relief.

            “I-I… forgot…” one of my opponents stammers, “I’ve got an errand to do so, um.. yeah!” he runs away like a dog with a tail between its legs, quickly followed by his partner.

            “You alright?” Jack asks as I walk over to him, “They didn’t try anything did they?”

            “I’m perfectly fine, Jack,” I say giving him a quick peck on the cheek and a hug.

            “W-What was that for?!” he stutters, blushing profusely.

            “You really helped me back there. Who knew you were such a nice Gaia,” I say, grinning at my painfully bad pun.

            He blinked a few seconds before he realized what I meant. “So that card was a help after all. I’m glad,” he says, regaining his ice cold façade. “You go on ahead, I’ll stay back and make sure this area’s all cleared out.”

            I nod and dash up the stairs. As I lift the rusty metal door, I see Crow dueling one of these punks amongst the many crates. “Keep going Io-chan!” he calls, I’ve got this guy!” I gave a quick nod and smile before continuing up to the next level.

            Two more rival gang members approached me as I made my way along the catwalks.

            “Finally found you punks!” one of them says.

            “Hey there’s only one of ‘em!” his partner notes, “And it’s a girl! This is gonna be real quick!”

            Arrgh!!! Why did almost every male I came across think just because I was a girl that I was a pushover?! I shot my best death glare and got straight to business. There was no way I was gonna let them underestimate me one little bit!!!

            Another grueling battle later, and I was once again victorious. It worried me to no end however that my opponents were getting increasingly difficult and there was still no sign of Kiryu or Yusei. I could only pray and hope they were alright. I hurried past the now bickering goons and rushed up the stairs leading to the roof.

            As I reach the roof I hear Yusei yell. Fearing the worst, I rush right over. “Yusei!” I scream as I spy the gold and black haired boy fall over the side of the roof. Kiryu dashes over and just in the nick of time manages to grab onto my friend’s hand.

            “Hang on Yusei!” he says, “I’ll get you up here in no time!”

            “Kiryu!”

            My boyfriend grunts as he desperately tries to pull our fellow teammate back onto the roof.

            “Let go, Kiryu!” Yusei shouts, “It’s not working! You’ll fall too if you keep this up!”

            “Are you crazy!” my silver haired koi yells back, “There’s no way I’m going to leave you behind!” He continues to pull and grunt. Damn it! Why can’t my feet move?! I was sure with my help, we wouldn’t have any trouble rescuing Yusei. “I’m… DEFINITELY… not letting go!!”

            “Kiryu…”

            “We’re… friends!”

            “Aww isn’t that just precious!” I hear. I whirl around and see an enemy thug approaching my friends. “It kinda gets ya right here. Looks like that trap worked after all. So I wonder, just how long you think that friendship’s gonna last. A little pain and you’ll let go in no time.”

            “You stay away from them!” I scream stepping between him and my boyfriend.

            “Trying to play hero, girlie? Scram before someone really gets hurt!”

            “Iolanthe! Don’t worry about us!”

            “I’m not leaving either of you, Kiryu! You all mean too much to me!”

            “Iolanthe, please!” I hear Yusei say.

            “Heh, either way you look at it,” the thug says, “you’re all gonna go down!”

            “You’re dead scum!” I bellow and start drawing cards.

            “Have it your way, babe.”

            “Just be careful, Io!” Kiryu calls from behind me, “Get him real good for me since I’ve kinda got my hands full right now!”

            This was the hardest duel in my life and it was all because of one card! Just as our duel had started, my opponent activated a spell called Burden of the Mighty which weakened my monsters severely as long as it remained on the field. Fifteen turns later, I stood panting as I watched my D.D. Survivor wipe out the last of his life points.

            “I-I didn’t think you’d be that good!” the thug grunts in pain.

            “You having fun, Io?” Kiryu asks wrapping his arms around me.

            “You did it, Iolanthe!”

            “Kiryu!” I cry in relief and joy. “Yusei!”

            “When did you?! Waaahh!!!” The slimy bastard runs away and runs down the stairs before either of the boys could really let him have it.

            “Tch! Pathetic,” growled my boyfriend.

            “I’m sorry for putting you in a situation like that, Kiryu, Iolanthe.”

            “What the heck are you talking about Yus?!” Kiryu chides, “We’re family! Family always helps each other out!”

            “He’s right Yusei,” I add, “I’d be really heart broken if anything happened to you. So no more dramatics okay?”

            “Iolanthe…”

            “In spite of that little… set back, the battle was a success! We’ve got this area under control! We did it team. We’ve conquered all of Satellite!” Kiryu crows.

            “At last. We’ve united the whole town.”

            “All thanks to you Io. That slime ball was their leader. That’s my girl for ya!” I blush profusely at the praise, not to mention from the kiss our silver haired leader was giving me at the moment.

            “Don’t forget we all helped. This was a team effort.” I could almost hear Yusei roll his eyes, “Am I right, Iolanthe?”

            “Hey! I didn’t forget!” Kiryu retorts, blushing slightly as he realized what we were doing a few seconds ago. “You guys are the best friends I could ever have. We never could have done it if we all didn’t help each other.”

            “Hear, hear!” I say.

            “Ok, let’s go get Jack and Crow so we can celebrate!” I laugh as my boyfriend lets out an exuberant whoop. Little did I know that was the last time we’d ever be happy like this, let alone be together.

*************************************************

A few days later…

            Crow came to me and told me that my beloved Kiryu seemed to be acting a bit out of it. In fact everyone except for Crow seemed to be a bit down. We’ve been fighting to take over the entire town for so long, none of us seemed to know what to do now that we’ve achieved our dream.

             I headed over to our hideout a bit later and got the shock of my life.

            “What’s the matter?” I hear Kiryu jeer, “That all you’ve got? You’re no duelist if you can’t even beat me!”

            I gasp as I watch my boyfriend continued to berate a little boy, making him cry. Never in all this time have I ever seen him like that! He’d always stand up for those who were bullied not the other way around.

            “Crying’s not gonna help you win! Either make a move or get out of here! Either way, your pathetic cards won’t do you any good!”

            “Kyosuke!” I shout, “Just what is going on?!”

            “Stay out of this!” he snaps back shoving me out of the way and almost knocking me off my feet!

            “You better start explaining. Right now!” I try again.

            “I said beat it!” he punches my cheek and I cry out more from shock than pain.

            “K-Kyosuke…” I murmur, fighting against the tears in my eyes. Seeing that he wasn’t going to listen to me alone, I rush into the hideout.

            “Guys!” I shout, upon spying the rest of my team.

            “What’s the matter, Io-chan? What’s got you in such a rush?” Crow asks.

            Jack’s violet eyes narrow noticing my obviously bruised cheek.

            “I-It’s Kiryu,” I say, “He’s dueling this little kid outside, but he’s not acting right. He’s acting more like a bully than a duelist. H-He…” I dread telling them the rest, especially since I know how protective Jack can get.

            “Don’t say another word!” the blond yells, getting the idea.

            “He hit you?!” Crow gasps in disbelief, “Kiryu?! No way!”

            “Just look at her!” Jack yells, “The proof is right there on her face!”

            “I’m goin’ over there to knock some sense into the idiot!” our redheaded teammate says, running out of the hideout.

            “Wait Crow, calm down!” Yusei shouts as he runs after him. Jack and I hurry head out ourselves.

            “You tell all your loser friends to stop hanging around our hideout!” Kiryu snarls.

            “Just what do you think you’re doing, Kiryu!” bellows Crow and promptly punches him squarely in the jaw, knocking him back and away from the kid. “Get out while you still can kid,” he says to the still crying boy. The poor little guy lets out a wail then quickly runs away.

            “What was that for, Crow?!”

            “You damn well know what that was for! How dare you hit Io-chan! What was all that about anyway? What were you thinking, picking on that kid? What’d you think you’d get out of it?!”

            “I was just doing what’s best for this town!” he spits back, “We’ve got to get rid of all the weaklings! Besides, anyone who’s not with us is our enemy! How else can we keep control of Satellite?”

            “That doesn’t give you the right to bully the kids and hit your girlfriend!”

            “It’s her fault she wouldn’t listen and stay out of my business! Besides, wasn’t it Jack who said that a duelist’s age didn’t matter?!”

            Jack gasped, shocked to hear his own words spoken in such a way. Crow was visibly shaking with rage, his fists opening and closing as he fought the urge to lay into my boyfriend. I knew he didn’t want fight him for my sake.

            “You once told me that dueling was about having fun, no matter who you were!” Crow yelled, “Who do you think you are?!”

            “What did you say, Crow?!”

            “That’s it! I’ve had it with Team Satisfaction!”

            “Crow, let it go!” Yusei says stepping between the two.

            “Tch!” the spiky redhead glares then spins on his heel and walks away.

            “Where do you think you’re going Crow!” demands Kiryu, “We’re supposed to be a team! How dare you turn your back on your friends!”

            Jack glares at my boyfriend for a few more seconds, then walked away as well. Apparently, he must have decided to be the bigger man here and forget about getting back at him for punching me.

            “You too, Jack?! Come on guys! Jack! Crow! You’re still on our team, right Yusei? We’re still friends, right?” Yusei just stares solemnly at him, keeping silent, “Say something!”

            I bite my trembling lip in a pathetic attempt to stop from sobbing. Where had my kind, loving, passionate Kiryu gone?! I could no longer bear to look at this stranger with my love’s face. I stifle another sob as I turn and walk away.

            “Iolanthe…” I hear Yusei say, making me pause.

            “I’m sorry, Yus,” I say then leave.

            “Io!” Kiryu calls after me, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean it! Come back! Please!” It was the toughest thing I ever did, walking away from him like that. I could swear a piece of me died that day.

**************************************************

The next day…

            “Iolanthe-nee!” Itsuki calls as I step outside the house I shared with Crow.

            “Hey there, kiddo,” I say in greeting.

            “You ‘n’ Crow have a lover’s spat or something? ‘Cause he’s been down in the dumps all day.”

            “Itsuki!” I sputter, “You know we’re not together! He’s just my best friend ok?”

            “Uh-huh, whatever. Anyway, he’s over by the bridge if you’re looking for him.”

            “Thanks, squirt.”

            I headed over to the bridge. I needed to talk to Crow about what happened at the hideout yesterday. Desperately. It was killing me inside that our tight knit team was suddenly falling apart. Sure enough my housemate was hanging around the Daedalus Bridge.

            “Crow…” I start.

            “Io-chan… I don’t think I ever told you the story about this bridge. Well a long time ago some guy came riding into Satellite on this really weird D-Wheel. Every day, he’d come to this very spot and do nothin’ but stare at Neo Domino City. Without fail. One day, he stopped coming. He found a purpose… he knew he had to somehow connect Satellite to the city somehow. So he decided to build a bridge… the Daedalus Bridge. They all said it was impossible, that the guy was nutzo for even thinking it. But he refused to give up… those who ridiculed him started to believe him… that he actually might pull it off.

            “This bridge became the symbol of hope for all of us forced to scrounge and scavenge out a life here in Satellite. But there were those who weren’t too happy about that. Sector Security. He was forced to stop building the bridge and became their number one public enemy. Once again everybody gave up and said that the Daedalus Bridge was doomed from the start. Sector Security eventually caught up to the guy, forcing him to choose between giving himself up and spending the rest of his life in the facility or turn himself into a legend. He chose the second option and drove his D-Wheel off the unfinished bridge. No one knows what happened to him or even if he’s still alive… but he made me have so much respect for what he did and for him…”

            “Crow, I…”

            “That’s basically why I began dueling to begin with. But after what happened yesterday…”

            What could I say to something like that? I never knew that about Crow. I never realized how much that half finished bridge meant so much to him. No wonder he liked to hang around here so much.

            “Crow!” Annie yells as she comes running up to us. “Thank goodness I found you!”

            “Easy there Annie, what’s wrong?” he asks.

            “I-It’s terrible!” the girl says starting to sob, “Kiryu-nii’s fighting a whole bunch of Security jerks!”

            “What?!” Crow and I say in unison. Kiryu just what have you done?!

            “Where is he?!” Crow asks.

            “At Team Black ‘n’ Blue’s old hideout,” she replies between sobs.

            “Just what is that idiot thinking?! Io-chan, you go get Yusei! I’m gonna look for Jack! We’ve got to get together and stop him! Meet up back at the hideout when you find Yus.”

            I fight back the tears threatening to fall from my eyes and dash off to find our spiky haired voice of reason.

            I find Yusei at the hideout and immediately run up to him. “Yusei!” I shout.

            “Iolanthe! What’s the matter?” he asked worriedly, noticing my fearful expression.

            “It’s Kiryu,” I start, sniffling and trying my hardest not to start sobbing, “He’s got himself into some kind of trouble and he’s now fighting Sector Security!”

            “What?! Are you serious?! He’s dueling Sector Security?! He told me he was going out for a walk, what is he thinking?!”

            “Io-chan!” Crow yells rushing in. “Great! You found Yusei! So she tell you yet?”

            “Yeah. Kiryu didn’t tell me what he was up to when he walked out a little while ago,” the bi-color haired boy replied. “I just can’t believe he’d even think of doing something like this…”

            “There’s no time for talk,” interrupted Jack, “Kiryu needs our help! So let’s hurry!”

            I give the blond a brief grateful smile. It seemed he still thought of my silver haired koi as a friend.

            “Right!” Crow piped up, “Annie said she saw him at the old hideout of Team Black ‘n’ Blue.”

            “Let’s get over there before it’s too late!” Yusei said determinedly. We all nod and then rush to our D-Wheels.

*****************************************

            Within minutes, we reach the abandoned apartment complex and storm inside. “Ok, I’m checking the basement,” Crow says, taking charge of the situation. “The rest of you check the other parts!” The redhead then dashes off toward the basement.

            “Right,” Yusei says, “If they haven’t caught him yet, Kiryu might be on the top floor by now.”

            “Just keep in mind not to let any Securities catch sight of you,” Jack adds, “or they’ll just kick us out of here.”

            I follow my teammates and friends up the stairs. So far so good no sign of my boyfriend. “I’ll stay here and keep an eye out,” our blond friend says. Yusei and I nod and barely manage to sneak past a patrolling officer. It was the same for the top floor as well.

            Suddenly, Yusei stops at a door at the far end of the hall. “I hear Kiryu’s voice coming from here,” he whispers to me. We carefully open the door and see Kiryu standing over an unconscious officer, blood smeared all over him by the pouring rain as it rushed through the broken windows. There was a rapidly growing pool of the red liquid where the officer lay.

            “Kiryu!” Yusei cries in utter disbelief.

            “Hey Yus, Io,” my boyfriend says. I stare at him in shock. How can he be so nonchalant at a time like this?! Did he know who serious this was?! Better yet did he even care?! And just what the hell did my love do?! I silently began to pray that he hadn’t done what I was beginning to think he did.

            “Just what do you think you’re doing?!” demands Yusei.

            “I finally realized something…” Kiryu says solemnly, “we can’t really say that we’ve conquered all of Satellite unless we’ve beaten Sector Security too! So how about it? Join me and take these guys on!”

            “Kiryu! You’re not thinking right! You can’t possibly think the five of us can take them all on!”

            Suddenly the air was filled with the shrieks of sirens. Yusei rushed to the window and peeked out. “Oh no! A huge bunch of Securities are heading this way!” he says, “Everyone, back to the hideout! Quick!”

            “Tch!”

            “Iolanthe, you take Kiryu and get back to the hideout ASAP! I’ll be right behind you as soon as I get Crow and Jack.”

~TBC~

Chapter Text

            We barely made it back to the hideout, Sector Security dogging us throughout the ruined streets almost the entire way there. It was a good thing Kiryu knew so many shortcuts and detours so I was able to follow him as we sped off on our D-Wheels.

            We were all tired, but none of us cared. The one thing on all our minds was our leader’s increasingly disturbing behavior though none of us could work up the guts to confront him about again.

            “Damn those Security slime balls!” Kiryu grumbles, “They just had all show up at once! They’re so damned pathetic that all they can do us gang up and bully people!”

            “Glad to see you’ve made it back, Kiryu, Iolanthe,” Yusei says joining us, Jack and Crow following.

            “But we can’t relax just yet,” our spiky blond teammate warns, “The town’s crawling with Securities right now”

            “Yeah it’s best if we just lay low until things cool off,” Crow adds.

            “What are you guys talking about?!” our leader protests, “I know it’s impossible to take them all on, but if we take them out bit by bit we can win. We’re Team Satisfaction! We’re the best there is!”

            “Stop being so cocky!” my redheaded housemate scolds, “Sure we’re an awesome team, but going against Sector Security would be suicide!”

            “We won’t know unless we try! It’s not like they have an endless supply of members!”

            “Will you listen to yourself?!” Crow yells, slamming his hands on the map table, “We just can’t rush out and kick their butts like we did with all the other gangs! You’ve gotta calm down here and start thinking this through! Do you want them to invade Satellite completely?! ‘Cause that’s what’ll happen if you don’t!”

            “Hmph!”

            I glance at Yusei, silently pleading with him to say something. Kiryu had always listened to him before. The spiky brunet gave me a sympathetic look of his own, but kept silent. Things were pretty bad if our voice of reason couldn’t think of anything to say.

            “We should stay here for now,” Jack says, “The way the streets are now, it’ll be easy for them to spot us.”

            I gasp as the tense atmosphere was made worse with the screech of many sirens. How the hell did they find us?!

“NO… WAY!” Crow shouts and rushes to check outside. Mere seconds later, he’s back with a panicked look on his face. “There’s a ton of those jerks out there!”

            “We know you punks are in there,” an arrogant voice bellows, obviously amplified by their communications devices, “We’ve got the place surrounded, come out with your hands up!”

            “Looks like we have no choice…” Jack mutters.

            “You’re absolutely right,” Kiryu says. Jack and Yusei stare at him, warily. Had my boyfriend finally come to his senses? “We’ve got no choice but to beat the crap of them now! I know with all five of us we can do it!”

            “Kiryu!” Yusei protests, “There’s just too many of them! Even for us! Just stop this insanity!”

            “What?!”

            “This is one battle we can’t win, even if we did all fight. Innocent bystanders could get hurt if this got out of hand, which it will. I do have an idea though…”

            “Well, let’s hear it,” Jack says, still not sure we all could escape from this safely.

            “I... can’t tell you, you’ll just have to trust me.”

            “Yus, you sure about this?” Crow asks. It looked like he was getting the same sinking feeling I was.

            “Oh come on guys!” Kiryu insists, “We’ll just bust our way outta here and take ‘em by force! We can do this!”

            “I’m gonna have to go with Yusei on this,” refused my housemate and best friend, “The consequences will be really bad if we try to resist ‘em. I mean think of the kids living around here.”

            “Even if we did manage to beat them and escape, we’ll only have a bigger mess on our hands next time,” Jack adds.

            “Tch… fine. What’s your bright idea Yusei?”

            “Jack, Crow and Kiryu… you guys sneak out the back without letting them see you. Then… head on over to the old bowling alley. Iolanthe and I will meet you there.”

            “Sounds good to me,” approved Crow, “Just don’t get yourselves caught either you two.”

            “Don’t do anything stupid. No crazy heroics,” Jack added.

            Kiryu looks over to me, waiting for my opinion. I sigh. “I’m sorry, Kyosuke,” I say, “but I think we all better go with Yusei on this one.”

            “Fine,” he snaps, making me feel like a heel for not backing him up, “You’d better be at that bowling alley.” He runs out from our war room, followed by Crow and Jack.

            “We’d better get going as well, Iolanthe.”

            I follow my spiky haired friend down the stairs in silence. As we reach the entrance level, Yusei stops and turns toward me, a solemn look in his handsome face. “I’m going to turn myself in,” he says with all seriousness.

            “What?!” I gasp! “Yusei what are you…”

            “You’re all irreplaceable friends… I’m gonna do what I can to keep this bond of ours alive. It’s the most important thing to me.”

            “Yusei…” I start, feeling tears beginning to well up at the corners of my eyes.

            “If I turn myself in as the leader of Team Satisfaction, they may arrest me, but they’ll leave everyone else alone. It’s the best way you can avoid any more trouble. Once they leave, go to the bowling alley and tell the guys what happened.”

            I glare at him, then promptly let him know what I thought of his ‘idea’.

            “Iolanthe!” he cries, holding a hand to his now red cheek.

            “You dummy!” I shout, “Do you really think I’d let you suffer through this by yourself?! We’re a team! Family! Family don’t desert each other, no mater what! If they take you, then I’m coming with you! Maybe together we can find a way out of this mess.”

            “Iolanthe…”

            “No buts, Yusei. You’re gonna be stuck with me and that’s that!”

            “Nothing’s going to make me change your mind is it?” I shake my head, “Very well. I do appreciate you wanting to cover my back, Iolanthe. You’re a good friend.”

            I smile sadly as we march out the front door. Yusei puts up his hands and continues forward, I stay back eyeing the uniformed men warily. “I’m the leader of Team Satisfaction,” he says calmly, “It’s me you want. I’m the one who attacked Sector Security. The others have nothing to do with this.”

            The guards just stand there, not saying a word. The sinking feeling I had earlier was back again, this time even stronger than before. Just what is going on?

            “Aren’t you going to arrest me?” Yusei asked, getting worried himself.

            “You were right,” one of the officers jeer, “We were under orders to arrest the leader of Team Satisfaction, which is why we don’t need you punks anymore. So get lost and go home.”

            “What are you talking about?!”

            “Have a look over there,” he says, smirking smugly as he jerks his head off to one side. I couldn’t hold back the gasp as we spy Kiryu flanked by to officers, their hands firmly on both his arms. “We sent the other two that were with him home. They put up quite the fight, but well it’s pretty obvious what the result of that was. If I were you, I’d give up on this scum. Rebelling against Sector Security is a very serious crime. You won’t be seeing him again for a very long time.”

            “Yusei!!!” my boyfriend and leader bellows, in utter shock, “You went and sold me out! Didn’t you?! You betrayed me!”

            “Kiryu, I did no such thing! I swear I didn’t know this was going to happen!”

            “Yusei’s right, Kyosuke!” I add, “You know none of us would think of betraying you!”

            “We were friends, Yusei!” The officers start dragging Kiryu off when he began struggling against them. “Yusei!!! Yusei!!!!” he repeats over and over. The tears come down my cheeks in uncontrollable streams. I had lost not only my boyfriend, but my savior as well. It was Kiryu who introduced me to Crow after finding me wondering the streets and alleys in an amnesiac state. If it wasn’t for him, I’d probably be still homeless or worse. There was no doubt I’d never see him again. We all knew, once you got sent to the facility that was it. No one ever came back from there.

            “Kiryu!” Yusei calls back, but they had already shoved him into a car and drove away. “I…”

            I rush over to Yusei and clasp unto his shirt, burying my head on his shoulder. I could no longer keep myself from falling apart and crying my shattered heart out.

**********************************

            It wasn’t until a whole month and a half later that I was able to keep myself from crying almost every waking moment. I looked as horrible as I felt for my sleep was plagued with the memory of that horrible, horrible night and I would either wake up screaming or crying.

            Crow did his best to help me through all this and to tell the truth I was glad he was there. He never asked about the nightmares, just held me until I could stop sobbing.

            As for Jack and Yusei, I hardly saw the other two members of our now disbanded team. Imagine the shock and anger I felt when I learned that the boy I’d seen as a big brother had stolen Yusei’s most prized card – the Stardust Dragon along with his D-Wheel and snuck into Neo Domino with them! How could he do that to Yusei?! To me?! It was because of Jack’s betrayal that it was taking me so long to move on.

            I tried my best not to let the last remaining members of Team Satisfaction know how much of a wreck I really was on the inside. I’m sure Crow wanted to tell Yusei about the nightmares, but he never did. He always seemed to know how I was feeling and knew just what to say or do when I was in a difficult mood. If my heart didn’t still, and always will, belong to Kiryu, I would have definitely fallen for the redhead this time. Having Crow there to pick up the pieces was a great comfort to me.

**********************************

            “Hey Io-chan,” Crow says to me as I enter the kitchen for a glass of water. “Those jerks still won’t let you see him?”

            I nod, desperately biting back my sniffling. Each and every day I would take my D-Wheel over to the facility and beg and plead with them to let me see my boyfriend. And each and every time, I would be denied and forced to turn back.

            “You don’t look so good. Why don’t you get some rest and I’ll take care of dinner this time, ok?” I give my housemate a grateful smile and head to my room.

            “Kyosuke…” I whisper as I lay down on my ratty and lumpy bed. Yet again, I cry myself to sleep for the umpteenth time since that night.

*********************************

            What surprised me was that this time I wasn’t reliving that night. No, this was entirely different. I was surrounded with nothing but utter and complete darkness. I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face.

            “Iolanthe… Iolanthe…” a voice calls.

            “K-Kiryu?!” I shout, “Is that you, Kiryu?!”

            “Can you hear me?” it says, coming across much more clearer now. It wasn’t my beloved boyfriend. This voice was both masculine and feminine at once. It seemed to come from all around me and nowhere. Whatever or whoever it was, I got the sense that it was powerful and just as ancient.

            “Who are you?” I ask in return.

            “Finally,” the voice replies, “I got through to you.”

            Suddenly, the darkness fades and I find myself in the most beautiful forest I’ve ever seen. It seemed to go on and on forever, there were so many trees!

            “This is the Spirit World, where all the duel monsters live,” my mysterious dream host, begins, “I know you’re probably thinking this is all a dream, but it isn’t. This used to be such a peaceful place where we all dwelled in harmony. But now something evil is getting closer and closer to the Spirit World. It’s trying to control and corrupt this world for its own evil purposes. What’s even worse is that it’s trying to do the same for your world. If the Spirit World is conquered by this evil, then so will your world. In the land of humans is this world’s only hope… a young girl whose pure heart is connected to our world. It is her heart that can drive out this foul presence. She is still young however and lacks the bravery she needs to vanquish this evil. You are like this young girl, Iolanthe. Though, yours is not as strong, your heart is connected to the Spirit World as well. I beseech you to find and help this girl… protect our world together and destroy this evil…”

            “Wait!” I shout as I feel myself being dragged away from the voice. “Who are you?! What girl?!”

*****************************************

            I wake up in a cold sweat. Just what was that dream all about? How could find this girl if I didn’t even know who she was or even what she looked like – let alone protect a world I was sure didn’t even exist. I really must have been stressed out big time to have a dream like that.

            “Mornin’ Iolanthe-nee!” Itsuki calls as I trudge over to the kitchen. “Whoa, you don’t look too good. You’re all sweaty!”

            “Just a weird dream, squirt,” I say. There was no need to tell him. Dreams were just that, only dreams, right? “So where’s Crow? I don’t see him around.”

            “He’s been out since earlier,” the kid replies, “He’s still not back yet?”

            “Why don’t you go play with Annie for a bit, Itsuki. I’m gonna look for Crow.”

            “’K!” he says heading out of the house, “You still gonna duel me again right?”

            I smile sadly. It’d been a long while since I’d been in the mood to duel. “We’ll see kiddo. I really need to talk to Crow right now.”

            “Don’t forget you owe me a duel, Iolanthe-nee!” he says as he leaves to find Annie.

            I leave the house a few minutes later once I’ve finished my cup ramen.

            “Finally woke up, I see,” Crow says returning from whatever he’d been up to. Probably more stealing again knowing him. “For a while there, I thought you’d turn into Sleeping Beauty. You were so zonked out even the kids couldn’t wake you. You feeling ok? You haven’t got a cold or something have ya?”

            “I’m fine Crow. I guess my body needed the sleep. You know I haven’t been sleeping well since…”

            “I know. You’re the one who got hit the worst by what happened. But still…”

            “Crow, please. I know you’re only trying to look out for me since Kiryu can’t, but I… I can move past this. I just need a bit more time.”

            “I just hate seeing you being so mopey all the time Io-chan.”

            I smile and give him a peck on the cheek. “Thanks Crow,” I say, “for being my best friend.”

            “I-I-Io-chan!” he stammers, blushing profusely.

            “By the way, Crow. I’m glad you’re back. I really need to talk to you. You’re the only one I can tell.”

            “Sure, what’s up?”

            “I had a dream last night, not the usual one about Kiryu. I mean a different one. It was really weird.”

            “A weird dream, huh? About what?”

            I told him about being in the Spirit World, about the mysterious voice begging to go find a girl and help her vanquish some kind of evil.

            “Whoa that is weird! But I’m confused what did that voice mean it was a dream and not a dream? Still, I can’t help but wonder if it was some kind of message or something. But the Spirit World’s not real right?”

            “Yeah. But I’m glad I told you, Crow. I really needed to get that off my chest.”

            “Hey, you know me. I’m always glad to listen to anything you need to tell me, Io-chan,” he says blushing slightly, “Anyway. Sector Security’s been on the move a lot around here recently. It could be because of what happened back then or it could be ‘cause of something else. So just watch yourself, Io-chan. There’s also a bunch of rumors about weirdoes running around too. So just be careful ok?”

            “Yeah. I will. Thanks for the warning, Crow. How about I go look for something for us to eat. It’s my turn to make dinner right?”

            “You don’t have to Io-chan, I don’t mind…”

            “No. It’s ok. You go on home and I’ll be back in a bit. Keep an eye on Itsuki for me. I think he was worried about you again.”

            “Jeez, that kid… ok. I’ll babysit you go on, but hurry back ok?”

            I nod and start heading for one of the few shops that still sold food.

            “Pardon me,” a man says approaching me. I eye him suspiciously. The shirt, pants and vest he wore were too fancy, too clean for someone who lived in Satellite. Great, just what I needed some self righteous, buttinsky of a social worker. “I’m Divine of the Arcadia Movement.”

            Ooookaaay. So maybe he wasn’t a social worker. I still didn’t like the looks of this guy. Could this be one of the weirdoes Crow was talking about?

            “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble,” ‘Divine’ continues, ignoring my obvious suspicion of him, “I’d like to talk to you for a few minutes. It won’t take much of your time. Now I’m sure you must have heard the rumors going around about us….but rest assured, I’m not going to harm a lovely lady like yourself. If I were someone truly suspicious would I have given you my name?”

            “It could be fake,” I say, backing away slightly, “How do I know that’s your real name, huh? Where’s the proof you’re not some sicko who preys on girls!”

            “I see…” he says, disappointment coloring his voice, “You leave me with no other choice. I really wish you had considered coming with me.” He pulls out a Duel Monsters card and holds it up. I see the words ‘Brain Control’ printed in white against the green background. What the?!

            Suddenly my mind felt like it was being stuffed with cotton. I grab my head as it starts to throb painfully. I could barely focus on anything around me. “Don’t even try to resist,” Divine says, grinning evilly, “You should feel honored. You’re soon going to be a nice loyal little member of the Arcadia Movement.” He then lets out a sinister chuckle.

            I inwardly scream as my body starts to follow Divine down the streets, my mind helplessly locked away and unable to stop myself.

*************************************

            “Divine-sama!” I hear a woman say as I wake up. I am once again in the strange lab where I met Seria. Wait! Where were the others? That’s right! I was kidnapped by some weirdo named Divine. “The subject’s awake!” I hear Seria say again.

            “Increase the brainwashing regimen. We need this subject under our control completely. Otherwise, were she to be in contact with her friends…” He glances over to one of the various monitors. “It’s wearing off?! Speed up the process! Things will get messy if the subject manages to break free! Increase the output! We must make sure the brainwashing is never again reversed!”

            “But sir!” Seria protests, “The subject’s vitals are too weak! She could die, it’s just too dangerous.”

            “I am well aware of the danger, Seria. Keep going as far as you can without killing her,” I hear as I once again black out.

Chapter Text

            “Would somebody… somebody please….”

            Who’s calling me? Where am I?

            “I’m a prisoner in the Spirit World. Please help me…”

            Who…

            “Somebody… please listen to me!”

            I feel myself floating and then a sudden pulling sensation. When I am fully aware of my senses once more, I find myself standing in the forest I had dreamt of the day before I got kidnapped by these Arcadia weirdoes. Only this time, there was no mysterious voice begging me for help. Seeing as they weren’t going to come to me, I decided to go to them.

            After making my way through the labyrinthine forest, I came upon a small town. It wasn’t anything like Satellite or Neo Domino. It looked like just a plain ordinary town with cobblestone streets a fountain here and there and neatly pruned and well cared for plants in planters and gardens.

            As I pass through the gate, a little boy in a Dark Magician costume called out to me from behind some crates that were partially blocking an alleyway. “Psst!! Over here! Hide quick!”

            “Look kid,” I start, “I don’t have time to play games…”

            He glares at me, and grabs my arm. “They’ll catch you if you don’t hide this instant!” he hisses.

            “They?” He gestures with his staff up some stairs and I see two monkey like creatures wearing armor. They might have been kinda cute if it weren’t for their tiny beady red eyes. Somehow I got the feeling they weren’t too friendly either.

            “You check there,” one of them says, “Me check here.”

            The boy drags me into the alley as one of the monkeys started coming down the stairs toward us. He breathes a sigh of relief once the armored primate passed by and was out of sight. “That was a close one!” he says, “They almost caught us! By the way, I’m Torunka. I know you’re a human I can tell. Since you’re here, then it must mean you’re of the few chosen ones who can come here. Those goons were working for Zeman the Ape King. He’s the one who took over this land. That big monkey jerk’s been catching us spirits using a curse with a minus staff. I was barely lucky to escape the curse myself. I only got grazed by it so that’s why I’m so short and ugly. I’m really a handsome and powerful spellcaster.”

            I can’t help but snort at that. “What’s so funny?! Don’t you believe me? Look brat, just look at this town! Where do you think all the people are, huh? There’s your proof!”

            “It’s not that,” I say stifling my giggling miserably.

            “Then what? Oh! I can’t believe you don’t believe I could be a handsome and powerful spellcaster is that it?! You kids today! You have absolutely no respect for your elders! Fine! I’ll prove it to you. Watch this!” He starts waving his staff and chants. A few seconds later, he hands me a deck of Duel Monsters cards, “I bet you could use that right now, huh?”

            I glance through the cards and I recognize them all! “This is…!”

            “Yep, it’s yours,” Torunka says, “So do you believe me now? I should warn you though, that may be your own deck, but the cards can only be used here in the Spirit World. Sorry about that… it’s just that I really don’t have the confidence I used to, no thanks to this puny body. So how about a duel? I’d like to see just how good you are and I think I my magic may be getting a bit rusty.”

            Well, it didn’t look like I had anything better to do. Nor was I going to be going to wake up from this freaky dream anytime soon either. “Why not,” I say.

            “Great! Just so you’ll know, I used to be pretty hot stuff back in the day. There’s no need for you to go easy on me ‘cause I look like this.”

            This kid was actually pretty good! He sure seemed to know how to handle all those spellcasters in his deck. But luck was still on my side as far as dueling went and just barely managed to beat him at the last possible second.

            “Hey not bad,” Torunka says, “Not bad at all. Now I can go along with you without any worries. And of course my magic is just exquisitely perfect too!”

            “Whoa wait a second here, Torunka!” I demand, “What do you mean go along with me?!”

            “Why to Zeman’s palace of course! Didn’t I mention that part?”

            “Uh… no.”

            “Oh. So I didn’t ask for a favor back there?”

            “I think I would have remembered that you little…”

            “Must have slipped my mind,” interrupted the annoying little punk, “I’m telling you it’s no fun getting old.”

            Oh please, him old? Yeah riiiiiiight and I’m the tooth fairy!

            “Well, I guess I’d better ask. Please help me rescue Luna!”

            “Who’s Luna? And why should I go rescue her anyway? I’m warning you half-pint, I’m really not in the mood for ‘playing pretend’.”

            “Boy, are you dense! Just what are they teaching you brats these days? Fine I start from the beginning. As of right now, you’re the second human to come to this world. The other one would be Luna. She’s real important you see, ‘cause she holds the key to freeing the Ancient Fairy Dragon who got sealed away by Zeman. She got caught when she was protecting me from those simian goons. I must go and rescue her to pay the debt I owe her! That and help save my world too! I can’t do it by myself the way I am now so…”

            “I get it. You need someone bigger than you to help.”

            “Hey! I’m still plenty powerful! I could have beaten you if I wasn’t going so easy on you!”

            “Whatever, chibi. I’ll play along, only because Crow would chew me out if I left a kid wander around all by himself.”

            “Splendid! Zeman’s palace can be reached from the north part of town. Let’s go!” he then promptly starts to drag me all through the town and out the northern exit.

*************************************

            We follow the winding rocky mountain path all the way up and sure enough there stood an enormous castle near the mountain’s summit. A lone monkey stood guard at the huge gates. “Who you?” he asks, confused by our sudden appearance, “This here Zeman’s palace.” He then produces a banana yellow duel disk. Ok, if that’s how he’s gonna play. I bring out my own duel disk that I hadn’t realized I had with me. Did Torunka do that? Oh well no matter, I had monkey butt to kick.

            Jack was right, I really had to learn not to judge by appearances. This guy’s deck was full of attack boosting beasts and deck searchers. I swear if I saw another Giant Rat or Nimble Nomonga I’d go ape myself. It took me practically forever to get past his wall of animals but we were now able to enter the castle.

            “Wow!” Torunka says, genuinely impressed, “You beat one of Zeman’s henchmen! Now that’s something! Ok, now Luna should be somewhere in there, so let’s get started and look for her! It shouldn’t take too long though. You’ve got a distinguished spellcaster with you. Oh and before I forget again… here.”

            I blink as he hands me his staff. As soon as I touched the smooth wood, a faint shock went through me as if it were alive with an electric current. “You sure?” I asked. I didn’t know the first thing about magic – at least from what I could remember, I still hadn’t recovered my memory from before Kiryu found me and Divine’s messing with my mind wasn’t helping either. I just would know what to do with it.

            “Take it. That staff’s filled with what little magic I could spare. It should be able to use a power similar to those minus staves of Zeman’s. Though… with the way my magic is now… Oh! I completely forgot! What do they call you anyway?!”

            I smack my face with the palm of my hand. Is this kid for real? This dream just gets weirder and weirder. Might as well start calling myself Alice and develop an addiction to tea and cake. Maybe paint a few roses red while I was at it.

            “Iolanthe,” I say.

            “Iolanthe… interesting name. Greek for violet isn’t it? Well, then…” He cleared his throat. “Let us commence our search, brave warrior, Iolanthe!”

            Oh boy! Just what did that bastard do to my head?! I sigh and follow the half-pint wizard into the castle.

            “Old man loud,” the simian guard grumbles as I pass by, “Brain hurt. Friends inside give you pain.”

            Inside, the light of the vast amount of torches make everything have a yellowish tinge to it, even the many columns standing on each side of what appears to be the main hall. At the far end we two more monkeys. Could that be where this Luna is being held? I start making my way over, sneaking behind and between the stone pillars, but the mini mage pulls me back and shakes his head. “That leads to the throne room I think. Let’s try elsewhere.”

            Fine with me. If those guys were anything like the guard outside, then I’d be in for a world of hurt if I was forced to duel both of them at once. We come across some stairs leading to a second level off to the right and went on with our search. Suddenly, Torunka’s staff started to glow as we pass by a door at the end of the southern hall. I stop to look at the door. It seemed plain enough, however, when I tried to open it, it was locked. Bingo! This had to be the place.

            “Use the staff,” Torunka whispers.

            “Like this?” I ask, holding it up before the door. The staff’s glow increases then there was a soft click. I try the door and it swung right open. Well, guess the thing was useful after all – if only for unlocking doors. We cautiously step in and sure enough, there was a little girl with mint green hair done in two pigtails sitting on the wooden bench that was obviously supposed to be a bed. Wait a sec! I faintly remember seeing someone with pigtails like hers somewhere before. Oh yeah! It was during one of the two times I was here before!

            “Luna?” I ask.

            “You’re a human!” she says jumping off the ‘bed’. “You’re here to rescue me right?”

            “Uh… yeah. I guess I am,” I say.

            “I knew it!” she cries happily, “You heard me! Thanks a lot um…”

            “Iolanthe.”

            “Thanks so much, Iolanthe! By the way, did you come with a spellcaster called Torunka? I got caught helping him escape and I’m worried about him.”

            “I did,” I reply. “He’s right…” I look to my side and see that the brat was no longer with me. Damn he must have wandered off while we were talking.

            “Get your paws off me you damned dirty ape!” I hear from down the hall. “Do you even know who I am?! I’m one of the most powerful…”

            “Oh dear. Looks like he’s in trouble again.”

            “Iolanthe-chan don’t worry about me!” Torunka yells, “Get Luna out of here! On second thought, get over her and help me!!!”

            I sigh and smack my face again. “He’s really a pain isn’t he?” Luna says, giggling. It was obvious she’d spent quite a bit of time with the brat before getting caught.

            “Door open. Why?” I hear a monkey chirp.

            “I can’t believe I got caught,” the mini mage groused as he was led into the cell by a monkey soldier. “Why didn’t you come help me, Iolanthe-chan… you’re so cold-hearted…” He begins to sniffle. Heh. Some old man whining and pouting like a little kid!

            “Who you?!” the soldier queries, upon spying me.

            “Oh there you are Iolanthe-chan!” Torunka says, “And Luna too!”

            “Intruders. You no escape,” the monkey says, readying his duel disk. Yeesh, here we go again.

            Yep, I was right. Not only do these goons all look alike, they all have the same decks, though this one seemed to have a few subtle differences. Good thing I was expecting this, this time. It was still a tough battle, but it didn’t take as long for me to beat the moron.

            “You strong,” he says, “Me get friends. You stay.” The stupid monkey then runs out the cell, leaving the door open! Just how did they manage to take over that town at all?!

            “Does he really think we’re going to stay here?” the chibi wiz kid asks. “Yeah, right! Let’s get out of here!” For once I agree with the brat. “Stick together people!”

            We all dash out the door and down the halls. However, it was a huuuuuuuuugee mistake letting Torunka take the lead. The little pain in the rear kept leading us right into more and more monkey soldiers. Just whose side did he think he was on?!! Arrgh! He even led us to a room that looked like one of those crazy Escher drawings. It took FOREVER to find our way out of there!

*********************************************

            When we were finally free of the castle, I was totally exhausted from all that running. So we stopped at one of the town’s fountains to rest and talk. “Whew,” Torunka says as I take a moment to splash some of the crystal clear water onto my face.

            “No thanks to you, Torunka!” Luna quips, huffing and panting. “We never should have let you lead the way!”

            “Whatever you mean Luna? My plan went off without a hitch,” defended the chibi magician. “Getting caught allowed us to find you, Luna.”

            “Who got caught now?!” I yell. I’ve just about had it with this kid! “It was YOUR staff that found Luna’s cell in the first place! You only got caught because you had to develop a major case of ADHD and wander off!!”

            “She’s right you know. We both heard you screaming for her to help you back there!”

            “That was so that, Iolanthe-chan could find me. See all according to plan.”

            “Whatever…” Luna retorts, sighing heavily, “What it all really comes down to is that if Iolanthe weren’t there, we’d never have gotten out to begin with,” the girl mutters under her breath.

            “Eh? I didn’t quite catch that, Luna,” Torunka replies.

            “Geez…” she says sighing again, “At least we can talk freely now. I really owe you a lot Iolanthe. Thanks again.”

            “What about me?! I helped too you know!”

            “Alright, alright! Thanks Torunka. Anyway, I was called to the Spirit World by the Ancient Fairy Dragon,” Luna begins, telling her tale, “who was sealed away by that nasty Zeman. I was on my way to meet Regulus, a friend of the Ancient Fairy Dragon’s when I got captured. He should still be in the forest east of here.”

            “Yes,” added Torunka, “But I’ve heard rumors that he’s been acting strange lately.”

            “Still, I have to meet with him. It’s important! So I’m asking you if you would come with us, Iolanthe? Please?”

            Well that voice in my first dream did say to help this girl. Might as well, who knows, maybe this Regulus would know how I could wake up from all this weirdness. “I don’t see why I shouldn’t,” I say.

            “Really? Thanks!” the mint haired girl then gives me a big hug. “Ok, let’s get moving!” She sure is a perky kid. But I can’t help but like her. She reminded me of Crow’s kids.

            “Yes. With Iolanthe-chan along there should be no problem whatsoever.”

********************************************

            A short while later, past another labyrinth like forest, we come upon a clearing. Suddenly I hear what appears to be a lion’s roar. Sure enough an enormous lion with one horn on his forehead came charging toward us.

            “Waahh!!!” Torunka cries, ducking behind me. “R-Regulus?”

            This was Regulus?! This animal who looked like he was ready to eat us whole was the person Luna had to meet?!

            “You’re Regulus?” Luna asks bravely coming up to the growling great cat, “Please listen to me!” she pleaded, “I made a promise to the Ancient Fairy Dragon that I’d help protect the Spirit World. That’s why I’m here!”

            “She’s come to free the Ancient one,” Torunka added.

            “Enough of your pathetic lies!” he roars, “What kind of fool do you take me for?! I already know you wish to use the Ancient Fairy Dragon’s powers for evil!” He then let out another roar and charged Torunka. The poor kid screamed like a little girl then dashed further off into the clearing, the great cat giving chase.

            “Torunka!” Luna shouted, fearing for the spirit’s life.

            “Please noble, Regulus!” he begged from behind a boulder, “We humbly beg you for your time!”

            “You would dare mock me?!” snarled Regulus.

            “It’s like he’s hearing the exact opposite of what we say!” Luna says, “Hey! What’s that?! There’s a minus staff stuck to his leg! That’s it! I bet it’s that staff that’s doing that to him!”

            “Good work Luna!” Torunka says then clears his throat before addressing the lion once more. “Regulus is smelly, a klutz, and a crybaby! Even my housecat can take him on!”

            I hope he knew what he was doing, otherwise we’d be short of one arrogant bratty little kid.

            Regulus let out another furious roar. “Did you think you could butter me up with that pathetic flattery!” He then chased Torunka around the clearing again.

            “Iolanthe-chan! Do something! Quick!” the poor kid pleads. Why is it always me who gets into wacky situations like this?

            “I’ve got it!” Luna says pulling me aside. You duel Regulus, that’ll distract him enough so I can get that staff off of him. Quick give me Torunka’s staff!”

            “You sure this’ll work?” I whisper back.

            “Not really, but it’s the only thing I can come up with.”

            “Well better than nothing I guess.” I gulp nervously as I walk up to the snarling beast. “N-Nice kitty, kitty. Uh, I mean, bad lion! Baaaaaad lion!” I can’t believe I’m doing this. Talking animals that play card games, what next?! On second thought, I’d better not ask that.

            Joy of joys. Another beast themed deck with a few fairies mixed in – especially the one fairy I never could stand, Honest. That guy was a real be-yotch! I’ve been on the receiving end of his special ability too many times before. I was panting heavily and sweating by the time I won the duel. The good thing was that I gave Luna more time than she needed to use Torunka’s staff to get the minus one off of the lion’s leg.

            “Yay! I did it!” she shouted with glee.

            “Well done you two!” Torunka said from his hiding spot.

            “What… is happening?” the lion asks confusedly.

            “I thought I was gonna have a heart attack over here,” the half-pint of a wizard mutters in relief.

            “You!” he says walking over to Luna. I ready my duel disk in case he tried anything. “You’re the young Signer girl!”

            “Glad to see you’re back to normal, Regulus!” she says, just as relieved.

            “You…” the great cat says to me, “I sense you have a special bond with the Ancient Fairy Dragon as well. I must thank you from the bottom of my heart for guiding this girl to me, young lady. I must also beg for your forgiveness. That despicable ape had the gall to place a curse on me and I became confused by it. I am ashamed… to think I believed you to be enemies.”

            “I thought we were gonna be cat food for sure. You gave us such a fright, Regulus!” Torunka piped up. “Can’t say I blame you though. You did hear the opposite of what we said after all.”

            “Is that so? Then just what was it you said to me before Torunka?” Regulus asks, glaring at the kid.

            “Ehehe!” the mini mage said, laughing nervously, “What does it matter? We still have to save the Ancient Fairy Dragon right?”

            “You are quite right, Torunka…”

            Before the lion could go on, Luna let out a gasp. “Oh no! I’m sensing danger’s heading towards us in the real world!”

            “What?!” shouts Torunka.

            During all the commotion with Regulus, I had forgotten I was dreaming! If what Luna said was true, then that would mean my sleeping body could be in serious trouble and I’d never be able to wake up!

            “You must get rid of this danger in your world first,” the lion says firmly. “I also believe it is not yet the right time to rescue the Ancient one. If you should ever need the Ancient Fairy Dragon’s power, then you must find a way to return to the Spirit World. Until then, Torunka and I will do all in our power to protect it.”

            “Exactly!” agreed Torunka, “Regulus and… w-w-what?! You must still be suffering from side effects of that curse, Regulus! I don’t think I’d be much help looking like this!”

            “Don’t worry Torunka,” Luna says smiling, “We’ll be back before you know it! Well I guess I’ll head back to those Arcadia creeps now.”

            “Wait Luna!” I call, “That bastard Divine kidnapped you too?!”

            “Oh?! You’re in the Arcadia building too?! That’s great! That means you can rescue me there too!”

            “Take this!” Torunka says handing me his staff. I look at him, puzzled.

            “It’s ok. I made it so you can take it with you to your world. Who knows, it just might come in handy there too – like rescue Luna! Kick their asses, Iolanthe-chan!”

            Before I can say anything, the forest fades away along with my body.

Chapter Text

            I open my eyes to find that I am lying on a bed in some kind of cell. The fact that I was still wearing the Arcadia Movement’s uniform cinched it. I was back in the real word and apparently still their prisoner. But at least now, I was free of Divine’s brainwashing completely now.

            I glance at my reflection in the mirror over the desk that was off to the side of my bed and let out a quiet gasp. I’m a bit taller than I remember being, and my hair is slightly longer as well. I also look older too. Just how long had I been under that bastard’s control?!!

My mind was still messed up though; my memory of my time with the boys still hazy, but it was getting clearer by the minute. Though I have no idea how long it’s been since that bastard kidnapped me. It feels like only days, but was it really? Judging by my reflection, it seems highly unlikely. As I shake the grogginess from my body, I hear banging from the cell next to mine.

            Looking through the window that divided the two rooms, I see the pushy journalist I ran into at the… Fortune Cup was it? My memories were still jumbled, no thanks to these scumbags. “Come you stupid door! Open up!” she shouts while banging her fists on it. “I can’t believe I got locked up in a place like this! This is the pits! I gotta get outta here before I miss my deadline! The editor-in-chief’s gonna blow his top if I do! Jack! Help!!! Oh Jack…”

            Jack?! She can’t possibly mean my Jack, can she?  Not the Jack who went and betrayed us. Nah… Jack’s a common name right? Yeah, that’s it. She must be calling for someone else.

            As I make my way to my own door, I trip over something. Leaning against a couch is… Torunka’s staff! Whaddya know?! The brat was right! Well might as give it a try. I hold the staff up and it emits a faint glow just at had back in the Spirit World. Since this wasn’t an old fashioned type door, there was no click. Praying to whatever gods I could think of, I approached the metal slab carefully.

            Yes!!! The door slid open with a swoosh and within seconds, I was free! Now to go find Luna and get the hell out of here! The girl in the next cell bangs on the door again as I start to pass by. She must have heard my door opening. “Hey! How’d you get out?!” she calls, “How’d you get that door open?! Could you get me out?! Pretty Please?”

            Well, what harm could it do right? It’s not like this is an actual prison anyway. I once again use Torunka’s staff and the door slid opening freeing the journalist. “Thanks! I really owe you one. Wait do I know you? I’ve got this feeling I’ve seen you from somewhere… that’s it! You were at the Fortune Cup weren’t you? But why would they put their on members into a cell? Oh boy! I smell a scoop! Time for me to go fact hunting… is what I’d like to say. But if I stayed here any longer, I’d just get caught again. Anyway, thanks a heap! Later!”

             The pushy girl runs off down the hall, a slip of paper falls from her back pocket as she does. I pick it up with the intention of giving it back to her however I couldn’t help but take a tiny peek. And I wish I hadn’t, for written on it was the following sentence:

            ‘Jack Atlas, the former king and Sector Security Director Goodwin are both originally from Satellite!’

            A sharp pain filled my heart at reading that traitor’s name. That girl did know our Jack!! So that’s what he’d been up to all this time. Using Yusei’s card and D-Wheel to not only become Duel King but also shagging up with some flighty, pushy girl journalist. Oooh wait til I got a hold of him! I was really going to let my ‘big brother’ have it and real good too!

            No use worrying about that jerk right now. I had another rescue to finish! I managed to sneak past the other Arcadia members and make my way to the west wing of the building. As I start down the hall, someone calls out to me from one of the cells.

            “Is that you, Iolanthe?”

            “Luna?” I whisper back, stopping at the door the voice came from.

            “Yes, it’s me! I’m glad you’re here! Thanks so much for coming to get me!”

            “Get back! I’m going to get you outta there!” I say raising the staff yet again. Just like with the other times, the door was unlocked and slid open to reveal the mint haired girl I met in the Spirit World.

            “I can’t thank you enough for getting me out of here, Iolanthe!” she says giving me a hug, “Oops sorry about that. I forgot this was the first time meeting each other in the real world. Though, I kinda feel like I’ve got my own personal bodyguard,” she says letting out a giggle.

            “It’s ok,” I say. “I’d do the same thing for anyone these creeps kidnapped.”

            “I hate to bother you again, but you see my twin brother Leo is here too…”

            “Let me guess, you want me to go rescue him too, right?” I say dryly. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, it’s just that the longer we hung around the harder it would be to escape in the long run.

            “Would you? Please?”

            Again, I couldn’t say no. It had been ingrained in me by Crow ever since he let me live with him that no kid in trouble anywhere should be denied help. “Yeah, but we’ve got to do it super quick and then get right out.”

            “Yay! Thank you so much Iolanthe!” The kid gives me another hug, and I smile remembering how Crow’s kids would always give me hugs whenever I ran into them.

            “So which way?” I ask “Do you know where he is?”

            “Um… I think he should be down the hall, we were brought in here together.”

            I nod and we start making or way further down the west wing. “Yusei!” Luna says, spotting a familiar head of black and gold.

            “Luna?!” my former teammate says approaching us, “Are you ok?” He then spots me, his indigo eyes widening, “Iolanthe?!”

            “Yusei…” I start, but my friend interrupts.

            “There’s too many guards around here, let’s go back to that room so we can talk.” I nod and follow Yusei and Luna back into her cell.

            “I’m glad you’re alright, Iolanthe,” Yusei starts, “Crow and I were so worried when you vanished like that. But what I want to know is why did you join the Arcadia Movement?” He eyes my uniform suspiciously and I can’t say I blame him one bit. If it had been him wearing this thing, I’d be thinking the same thing – that I’ve betrayed my friends, my family. Just like Jack.

            I sigh. “Long story short, Yus, this guy Divine kidnaps me then brainwashes me into joining his oh so happy little cult.”

            “You were brainwashed?!” he says totally shocked.

            “Really?” Luna asks, “But then, how come… oh I get it now! They were after you ‘cause you’re connected to the Spirit World like me! You don’t think they would have done that to me too do you?”

            “Probably,” I say worriedly.

            Luna goes pale and shudders. “It’s a good thing you’re here to save me right Iolanthe?”

            “Yep,” I say, giving her a reassuring smile. There was noooo way in hell I was going to let that bastard brainwash anymore innocent kids!

            “So, how do you know Iolanthe, Yusei?”

            “We’re old friends from Satellite. We were in the same gang a few years back. How is it you know her, Luna?”

            “Well…” she starts and goes on to tell how we both met in the Spirit World and how I helped her while there.

            “I never knew you had that kind of power, Iolanthe.”

             “Hold on a sec here, Yusei,” I interrupt, “Did you say ‘years’?! Just how long have I been gone?! The last thing I can remember clear enough is Divine using a Brain Control spell card on me, then waking up here after leaving the Spirit World.”

             “I know we’ve got a lot to talk about,” he replies, concern and worry filling his face and voice, “but I think we’d better get out of here first.” Same old Yusei, ever the voice of reason.

            “Yeah! We’ve got to rescue Leo right away!”

            “And I’ve got to find Aki so I can help her.” So that’s why he was snooping around here. I couldn’t help but feel a tad jealous, but there was no way he could have possibly known I was here. It wasn’t like I just up and said ‘Hey guy’s I’m joining the Arcadia Movement so don’t bother coming after me,’ the last time I saw them.

            “It’ll be more effective if we split up,” Yusei says, “I’ll keep looking for Aki. You go find Leo and get them out of here Iolanthe.”

            “Got it,” I say.

            “One more thing,” my spiky haired friend says, “here. You’ll probably be needing this.” I look at the deck he hands me and tears start welling in my eyes.

            “M-my deck!” I stammer, sniffling. “Y-You’ve kept it?! All this time?!”

            “That day you vanished,” explains Yusei, “Itsuki found it lying in the streets somewhere.”

            “Yusei…” I say, overwhelmed with emotion, tears falling freely down my cheeks. “T-Thank you.” I wrap my arms around him and hold on tight. It had been so long since I’ve last seen him. It felt like a lifetime ago. Please don’t let this be another dream kept going through my head.

            I feel him hug me back. “When all this calms down,” he says, “We’ll both go and tell Itsuki and Crow you’re ok.” I can only nod, still reeling from the fact that Yusei had kept my deck for me. “Oh yeah, here. A friend of mine, Blister, made this. It’ll help get you and the kids out.” He hands me a key card.

            “But what about you? Won’t you need it?”

            “I have another, you take that one.”

            “Thanks.”

            “I’m off to save Aki, you two be careful.”

            “Right!” Luna calls as my former teammate leaves. “Let’s go get my brother!”

*************************************************

            “So Iolanthe…” Luna whispers as we sneak by the guards and make our way down the halls of the west wing. “Yusei’s your boyfriend, huh?”

            “L-Luna!” I hiss back, “How can you be thinking of stuff like that at a time like this? Yusei’s not my boyfriend!” I wipe hurriedly at my eyes to keep the tears from falling as I start thinking of Kiryu.

            “But back there…”

            “He’s like a brother to me ok? That’s it. There’s nothing else between us. I do have a boyfriend though.” But I doubt I’ll ever be seeing him again. If those scum refused to let me see him before all this mess started, I doubt Sector Security ever would.

            “Oh? Where is he? Back at Satellite?”

            I bite my lip, to hold back the sob. “He’s at the facility,” I say bitterly, “they won’t even let me see him.”

            “Oh no! That’s terrible! What’d he do to wind up there?”

            “Not now Luna,” I hiss, “I’ll tell you when we get you and your brother out of here.”

            “Sure, Iolanthe. I’m really sorry about your boyfriend. I really am.”

            “Thanks.”

            We finally reach the end of the hall and there was only one door left to check. “This has got to be it,” Luna says desperately. We’ve checked all the other rooms and still no sign of the boy.

            “What do we have here?”

            Oh no! I knew that voice! “Divine!” I snarl, spying the Arcadia leader coming down the hall.

            “I came over here to catch a rat, and what do I find, but our latest test subjects trying to escape instead. I’m afraid I can’t let you do that. You see, you two are my ticket to the Spirit World!” He snapped his fingers and the two boys I had met when I first woke up here walked over to us. They were different from the last time I remember seeing them. They looked more like zombies than boys. “I leave them to you two,” he says.

            “As you wish, Divine-sama,” says the blond, his voice void of any emotion.

            “Objective confirmed,” says his brunet roommate, “We shall do our best to restrain them.”

            “I should warn you, these two were just treated to some very intense brainwashing,” Divine says, “It seems that my guinea pigs turned out rather well don’t you think? Take a good look ladies, because you’ll be receiving the same treatment!” The bastard then lets out a maniacal laugh before stalking back from where he came.

            “There’s no way you’re gonna brainwash us!” Luna shouts after Divine.

            “Those who oppose Divine-sama must be destroyed,” Liquid says, taking out his deck.

            “This isn’t good. Hey Iolanthe… do you think they’ll snap out of it if we win?”

            “It’s worth a try,” I say taking out my own deck.

*************************************************

            We stood there, panting, the two boys knocked out from the backlash of the holosystems. I was glad to have Luna with me. She was a pretty decent duelist in her own right and a well balanced deck.

            I watch cautiously as the boys come too and struggle to get up. “I-Iolanthe?!” Liquid says, shaking his head. “What’s going on? Why were we dueling way out here?”

            “That jerk Divine brainwashed you!” Luna says. Well there went breaking it gently.

            “Brainwashed? Now that you mention it, we were hooked up to some really weird machine back in the lab.”

            “So that was what it was for,” Okita says, stumbling to his feet, “To think that this is really some kind of evil cult. In light of those facts, I don't wish to remain here any longer.”

            “Yeah me too,” agreed his blond roommate.

            “Phew, it’s a good thing it wore off,” Luna says, sighing in great relief.

            “I don’t know about, you but I’m getting the heck out of here ASAP!” says Liquid, “Wait a sec, wasn’t Divine after you two or something?”

            “Yes,” I reply.

            “We can’t just go with you guys though,” Luna pipes up, “my brother’s still being held prisoner somewhere around here.”

            “We’ll help. I’ll probably go faster if we all look and the sooner we can get outta here,” my former blond roommate suggests.

            “I agree wholeheartedly,” Okita adds, “I have a plan. Liquid and I will report to Divine and say that we’ve captured you. That will make him drop his guard. Then we’ll head down to the first floor and meet you there. Sound good, Iolanthe?”

            “Yeah. Good thinking Okita-kun,” I reply.

            “Thanks guys,” the mint haired girl says.

            “Oh yeah, you’ll need a key card for the elevator.”

            “Already got it,” I say showing Liquid the card I got from Yusei.

            “Splendid!” starts Okita, “We two will head over to Divine’s office immediately. It was really a pleasure to have met you, Iolanthe. I do hope we meet again some time soon.”

            “You too, Okita-kun.”

            “You guys be careful!” Luna calls as they head toward the elevator. “Right! Let’s go get my brother!”

            I nod and unlock the only remaining door in the west wing that we hadn’t checked yet. Sure enough, there was a boy with mint green hair done into a top knot. “Leo!” his twin cries running up to him and giving him a huge hug.

            “Luna?!” he shouts in surprise, “How the heck did you get in here?! Who’s she?” he asks, noticing me, “Hey isn’t that the same uniform these creeps wear around here?!”

            “She’s a friend,” his sister explains, “Iolanthe here saved me while I was in the Spirit World.” Luna then goes on to tell how we met in the Spirit World and what was going on there.

            “Wow! You can go to the Spirit World too, nee-chan? That’s awesome! Thanks for saving my sister Iolanthe-nee. So… how about a duel? I bet you’re plenty strong too!”

            He wants to duel?! At a time like this?!

            “Why am I not surprised you’d say something like that,” Luna chides. She then promptly bops him on the head. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re kinda still IN DANGER here!! We need to get out RIGHT NOW!!!”

            “Geez Luna! Calm down will ya? You don’t have to be so touchy! Don’t forget Iolanthe-nee, you ‘n’ me are gonna duel when we get outta here!”

            “The world could be blowing up all around us and dueling would still be ALL he thought about,” Luna mutters, “Let’s go Iolanthe!”

            I smile, being reminded of Itsuki and Annie as I follow the twins to the elevator.

*********************************************

            “Come on, Luna!” I say grabbing the girl’s hand as we exit the elevator.

            “We’ll be fine on our own, Iolanthe,” she says pulling away. “You have to go help Yusei, I don’t know what’s going on, but I can feel danger heading toward him and Aki.”

            “Luna…”

            “It’s ok, we’ll be with those two guys from earlier you get going!”

            “I’m going with!” her rambunctious brother pipes up.

            “Leo! This is serious stuff I’m sensing here. I don’t think either of us would be any help to Iolanthe. We’re getting out of here and that’s that!”

            “Ok, ok. I get it! Don’t you forget you owe me a duel Iolanthe-nee!”

            “You be careful, I don’t want you to get hurt either,” the mint haired girl says giving me a quick hug.

            “You too, Luna. Leo,” I say swiping the key card to call the elevator back down.

**************************************

            About a minute or so later, as I step out of the elevator, who should I run into but none other than that sleazeball Divine.

            “You?!” he shouts in surprise and exasperation, “I thought I had you under wraps! I don’t even care to know how you keep escaping, but I can assure you, this is the last time!” He then shoves his deck into his duel disk.

            This was going to be one tough duel. I could tell it was going to take all I had to defeat this bastard. “Bring it!” I say activating my own disk and going into a battle ready stance. I didn’t want to give him any advantages so I immediately started the duel, making the first move.

            Glancing at my hand, I can tell my deck was as angry as I was. In it were the cards I needed to finish him off quickly! “Let’s start off with some magic. I call upon the power of chaos itself and open a Dimensional Fissure in the fabric of space and time!” I say slamming down the spell I knew that would be crucial to my victory. “That means now whenever a monster is sent to the graveyard, it’s sent to another dimension instead, never to return! Next I place two cards face down and a monster in defense mode. That’s it for my turn.” Please let this work I silently pray.

            “What’s wrong? Surely you can’t be scared already,” Divine jeers as he draws a card. “Let me show you how it’s really done, my dear. Since you like magic so much, how would like to see some of my own? I activate the spell Solidarity! This allows my monsters of the same type to increase their attack by 800 as long as I have one of that type in the graveyard.”

            I laugh. “Hello! Didn’t you hear what I just said?! My spell won’t let your monsters go to the graveyard!”

            “We shall see, my dear,” he sneers. “I summon Krebons in attack mode and activate a little field spell called Brain Research Lab. Not only does it allow me to summon an extra psychic monster each turn, I can also use as many counters placed on this card as payment for activation of their powers. Next I’ll activate another spell, Emergency Teleport. This is going to allow me to special summon one level 3 or lower psychic monster from my hand or deck, and I choose mind protector! Since my monsters’ psychic frequencies are in tune with each other, they synchronize together to form… Magical Android! I believe it’s all over. Magical Android, attack her face down monster!” I hardly flinch when my poor Samsara Kaiser is destroyed. I had a back up plan. “Now I place two cards face down and end my turn. Oh before I forget, at the end of each of my turns, my Android’s special ability kicks in and I gain 600 life points for each psychic monster on my side of the field.”

            “You like brainwashing people? Well see how it feels! Brain Control!”

            “W-What?!”

            “Not so fun now that the shoe’s on the other foot, eh Divine?! I may have lost 800 life points, but I gain control of your Android! Next I activate Mystical Space Typhoon!” An ominous looking black whirlpool with lightning crackling in and around it appears on the field. “Say goodbye to your lab!”

            “Grrr!!”

            “And now, I offer up your Android as a sacrifice for an old friend of mine. Come forth, Mobius, the Frost Monarch!” A giant clad in silvery white armor and surrounded by snow and ice takes the place of Divine’s monster. “Moby, do your thing!” I command. The giant hurls two icicle like spears at two of the cards in the spell/trap zone, his Solidarity spell being one of the targeted cards. “Now Moby attack him directly!”

            “Gaaaaaaaaaah!!” he cries as the monster’s attack chops off 2400 of his life points.

            Who’s the big man now? “Well that’s all I can do for now, so go ahead and hit me with your best shot.”

            “I hope you don’t hold any real ill will against me,” he says drawing a card, “I’m only doing this for the sake of research to help better the world. I place one card face down and end my turn.”

            I growl in disgust at this man. How dare he try to pass this freaky cult crap as ‘research’! “You’re going down! It’s all over Divine!” I yell, “Moby! Victory is ours! Attack!!!!” The Arcadia leader screams in pain and frustration as the last 1600 of his life points are annihilated.

            “Unbelievable!” he says, staggering, “To think you had this much power! Once again you leave me no other choice my dear.” He pulls out a spell card. Oh no, not Brain Control again! “Take this, Hinotama!!”

             A giant fireball appears over his head and comes hurtling toward me. I raise my arms to my face half wanting to protect myself and half not wanting to see the nasty end I was sure to meet. There was a blinding glow and before what I knew was going on, the fireball had been sent back to its master.

             “H-How d-did you…?!” he stammers before losing consciousness.

             I glance at my miraculously uninjured arms and see that I was still holding Torunka’s staff. That was it! That bratty mage’s staff must have saved me! I really had to make a note to thank him, if I ever did see the kid again.

             I stepped over Divine’s body, not even bothering to give him another glance. He was ancient history now anyway. I sped past the elevator and down the east wing. As I made my way along the floor’s railing I hear voices from below. Glancing over the edge, I see Aki standing before a long haired woman in the oddest get up I’d seen yet.

             She was wearing a black short sleeved top that was tucked into a long white skirt that reached all the way down to her ankles. A white sash was tightly wrapped around her waist and a swatch of black cloth with a green design hung from it. A black cape with a matching green pattern in the front hung from her shoulders. However, it was her eyes that were what was really freaking me out. They were the most piercing gray blue I’ve ever seen. They seemed to draw you in and the fact that they were completely surrounded by black instead of white, only seemed to increase that feeling. It was as if I were looking at the abyss itself!! I shuddered at that thought, grateful that it wasn’t me who was facing her at the moment.

             “W-Who are you,” Aki demanded, obviously shaken by this woman for some reason. “You’re… Misty Lola?!!”

             “I am honored that someone like you would know me,” replied the creepy woman, “Even so, I know all about you, Aki Izayoi, the Black Rose Witch,” she said icily, venom dripping with each word.

             Aki said nothing, just stared at her, a look of shame and guilt on her face. Even though I remember meeting her through Divine, I really didn’t know Aki at all. Why did this woman call her the Black Rose Witch and what did she do to cause the woman to hate her so? Aki seemed like a nice girl the last time we spoke.

             “There is no escape,” the woman – Misty I think Aki called her – said, again her words dripping with poison, “I will have my revenge.”

             “What do you mean? What revenge?” Aki asked, stunned.

             “Of course, I wouldn’t expect you to remember one insignificant person. But no matter, nothing will ever bring him back to me. I’ll just have to be satisfied with sending you to meet him so you can apologize for what you’ve done.”

             “Just what are you talking about Misty?!”

             “You shall atone for your sins,” Misty said, an eerie serene look on her face, “with your life.” She brings out an evil looking black duel disk and inserts her deck.

             This doesn’t feel right; I have to get to Aki and fast!

             I race back down the hall and hurriedly use the key card once more, stepping over the still unconscious Divine as the doors slide open.

Chapter Text

            “You really wish to kill me, don’t you?” Aki asks as I rush up to her, “But why?”

            “It’s because of all the times you’ve made innocent people suffer in your duels. You were so wrapped up in your bloodlust, you didn’t even care that you had killed my little brother!”

            So that was this woman’s story. I cringed. I had first hand experience with Aki’s strange ability to bring the cards to life and cause true damage to an opposing duelist, but she had done her best to hold back when I dueled her last. She even apologized for causing me to get knocked across the room. So I can hardly believe she’d be the sort of person to actually kill anyone!

            “I don’t even know who your little brother is!” Aki says in defense.

            “Of course not all those you dueled meant absolutely nothing to you…” Misty spits, “He was just one of your many nameless victims!”

            “I have no idea what you’re talking about… I never knew your brother.”

            “Even if you have no memory of him at all… he was a precious person to me, one who will never be replaced! You are truly an evil witch! All you do is cause nothing but pain!”

            Why doesn’t she do something?! Why take this if what she says is true? “Aki!” I say, “Say something! Are you going to just stand there and take this?” The burgundy haired girl just remained silent, sadness and guilt written all over her face.

            Suddenly there was an enormous crash from further up the building. It sounded as if something huge had collided with the building.

            “What was that?!” Aki asks, just as startled as I was.

            A loud scream filled the air and we watch in horror as Divine comes crashing down from above. His body flailing as he falls. I quickly turn away not wanting to see the bastard’s inevitably messy end. Good riddance I inwardly sneer.

            “Hmph…” Misty says drawing Aki’s and my attention, “It seems that the end has arrived. Much quicker than I expected.” The end? The end of what? I definitely don’t like the sound of that. “I regret that we’ll have to postpone our duel for now.”

            The woman turns and leaves without another word on glance towards us.

            “Divine….” Aki says turning to look where the Arcadia leader had fallen but quickly turns away.

            “Aki…” I try to say. But what was there I could say to her? She really did seem to believe that she was indebted to that sleaze.

            “Iolanthe! Aki!” I turn to see Yusei running towards us. Thank goodness he was alright! “Aki?!” My spiky haired friend and former teammate rushes over to the now visibly distraught girl and puts his hand on her shoulders, “Snap out of it!”

            “Divine…” she murmurs, not noticing or caring that we were there with her.

            I jump and shriek as the building starts crumbling from above. “We’ve got to make a run for it,” Yusei shouts grabbing hold of Aki’s arm, “It’s too dangerous for us to stay any longer!”

            We then make a mad dash for the exit.

*****************************************

            “Iolanthe!” Yusei yells as we finally make our exit of the Arcadia skyscraper. Before I know what’s happening, the black and gold haired boy slams into me and knocks me down. I gasp as humungous piece of the building crashes into the cement where I had been standing. “That was close…”

            I blush and smile as I remember how I had once saved Yusei in similar way. “T-Thank you…” He blushes as well, returning the smile.

            “Wait!” he says, getting off me quickly, “Where are Luna and Leo?!”

            “They’re safe, Yus,” I reply as he helps me up, “They made it out with some Arcadia members I managed to de-brainwash.”

            “That’s a relief. We’d better get Aki to a doctor. I think there’s one near Blister’s, it should safe there too. Let’s go!”

            “Right!” I say and follow Yusei and Aki away from the rapidly collapsing building.

**************************************

            A few hours later we were safely lying low in Blister’s apartment. It was so good to finally get out of that hideous Arcadia uniform too! “According to the doctor,” Yusei says coming in after I finished changing into some clothes the mysterious man had provided for me. I smirk slightly when he thinks I don’t catch him checking me out. And why shouldn’t he? I was aware of my good looks; after all I made sure to take care of myself as best I could. This Blister had some pretty decent taste. The black lightweight sleeveless turtleneck shirt went perfectly with the skinny jeans and black peep-toe pumps, the dark colors bringing out my pale lavender hair and violet eyes.

“Aki should be fine. And Blister’s going to be taking care of her for now,” he says clearing his throat and blushing, finally noticing my smirk.

            “That’s good. I don’t think she should be by herself anyway. Whatever it was between her and that scumbag, seeing him die like that has got her pretty shook up.”

            “What about you?” he asks, ever the brotherly figure I remember him to be, “You looked as if you had it rough back there.”

            “You have noooo idea, Yus.” I then tell him everything that had happened to me, how that bastard kidnapped me, my being brainwashed, treated like a lab rat and no thanks to that, my memory was even more messed up than it had been when Kiryu found me. He started to say something upon hearing that, but I held up my hand, saying that my memory had been coming back bit by bit. That seemed to relieve him a bit.

            I also remind him about my little trip to the Spirit World where I met and saved Luna. And about that Misty woman and how she seemed to enjoy rattling poor Aki like she did.

            “No wonder’s Aki in such a state…” my spiky haired friend says when I finally come to the end of my tale. “I didn’t know you were at the Fortune Cup, if I had, I probably could have rescued you then and….”

            “Yusei…” I say interrupting him, “Even if you did try to save me, it would have been no use. I was still under Divine’s control.”

            We remain quiet sitting on the lumpy old couch in Blister’s work room for several moments. “If you were at the Fortune Cup,” Yusei starts again, “you must have seen the Crimson Dragon appear.”

            “You mean that huge glowing red dragon up in the sky?”

            “Yes,” he replies solemnly. “It showed us Signers visions about the earth’s past, Neo Domino and Satellite.”

            “Signers?” I ask. Where have I heard that before?

            “Oh that’s right you don’t know. Jack, Aki and I, as well as Luna and Director Goodwin all have birthmarks on our arms,” he explains, rolling up the sleeve of his jacket. My eyes widen at the strange tail like tattoo etched into the tan skin. “Each mark makes up part of the Crimson Dragon. According to Director Goodwin, we Signers are supposed to protect the world from the Underworld.”

            “Oh so that’s what a Signer is.”

            “Anyway, one of the visions about Satellite was that it was engulfed in a great fire shaped like a spider then crumbled into nothing. I don’t know if that’s Satellite’s future… but whatever it was, made me feel absolutely terrible.”

            I wanted to tell him that it probably was nothing, just a dream, but how could I when I myself couldn’t really explain to myself how I wound up in the Spirit World. It all sounded all too weird, like something out of a fantasy novel or video game.

            “The other day,” Yusei went on, “I dueled against someone who had a spider mark on their arm. When I won, the mark vanished and he had no memory whatsoever of what he’d been doing. It looked like to me that he may have been controlled by someone.”

            “Divine?”

            “No I don’t think so. But that geoglyph… and that spider mark…”

            “Yusei…” I say, just as unnerved by this latest turn of events. That Misty woman… and now all this business with marks… what can it all mean?

            Blister interrupts our conversation before I can ask Yusei anything else. Our host had come to ask if we’d do some favors for him. And of course, my spiky haired friend never really say no to those in need. And Yusei did have a point, we were staying at his apartment, free of charge so why not help out a little?

            After running a few errands for the man, I head straight to the couch that was to be my bed, there were only two in the other room, and went to sleep. It had been one extremely exhausting day.

*******************************************

            Later that night, I wake up with an uneasy feeling. Something wasn’t right. It was too quiet. I get off the couch and creep over to the door. My hand shook as I grasped the handle and shoved it open, cringing at the slight creak of the rusty hinges. I can hear voices coming from down the hall and cautiously make my way toward the source.

            My eyes go wide as I spy Yusei standing before two people, a man and woman. They looked as if they were sleepwalking, their eyes devoid of any life. Both had a duel disk on their arm and were currently dueling against my former teammate.

            “Yusei!” I say, not liking that the feeling I’d been getting was coming from these two. “What’s going on?!”

            “They have the mark of the Spider!” he replies, “I sense someone’s in Aki’s room, they have the same energy as these guys!”

            “But Aki’s…”

            “I know! I need you to go over there and make sure she’s ok. Don’t worry about me, I’ll handle things here!”

             I give a quick nod. Aki needed my help more than Yusei ever would. I rush over to the only other room on the floor and slam the door open. “Aki!” I shout upon seeing the burgundy haired girl struggling to stay on her feet.

            She had been dueling against some street punk. This guy was just like the other two! A glowing purple spider tattoo was on his arm and his eyes were dead, as if the lights were on, but no one was home.

            “Leave her alone!” I say coming between the two and readying my duel disk. The man says nothing. Instead he gathers up his deck and restarts the disk. Well if that’s the way he wanted it… I was more than happy to oblige. “Stay back Aki,” I say to her, “I’ll take care of this punk!”

            The guy wasn’t bad with that hand increasing deck of his. His only weakness was that he was more of a defensive duelist – relying on his spells and traps to protect his monsters -- and I had always been a bit on the aggressive side, choosing to end my duels as quick as possible by attacking every chance I got.

            It’s good to see that the past three years I’ve been spending in a brainwashed haze had rusted my dueling skills. In fact, they’ve improved. I may actually be able to give Yusei even more of a challenge now. That was going to have to wait though; we had more important things to worry about. Like the punk who was coming to.

            “Where…. am I?” he groaned, staggering to his feet. “W-What did you do?! I knew I shouldn’t have dropped my guard like that…” I tried to explain to the guy, but he quickly headed out the door before I could get the first word out.

            “Th…thanks,” Aki says, still winded from fighting that punk.

            “No problem,” I say giving her a reassuring smile, “You ok? You don’t look too hot. Why don’t you go back to bed and rest? Yusei and I will…”

            I stare in shock as Aki lets out a scream and her pin/roller glows and shatters. Her face is almost completely obscured by her long bangs, a maniacal grin spread wide across her face.

            “A-Aki?” I attempt, not liking the feeling I was getting off of her. It was as if something from deep inside her had forced its way out and was now in control of the girl’s body.

            “I must… destroy EVERYTHING!!!” she screams.

            “Aki! Get a hold of yourself!” I plead desperately.

            “I’m all alone… I have no one in this world. I need no one. I’ll tear this world apart and you with it!!!” She then readies her duel disk.

            “Aki… please listen to me,” I begged. However, the psychic duelist refused to listen there was no way out of this. I take a deep breath then ready my own disk.

            “Come on snap out of it Aki!” I say as I draw a card. Seeing as I would get no other response from her, I make my first move. “I activate my spell card Dimensional Fissure,” I say with a rather subdued tone. This wasn’t the time for any cutesy remarks or witty banter. This Aki before me wasn’t the same one I dueled back at the Arcadia building. It was a whole other ballgame now. “Then I’ll summon my Dimensional Alchemist in attack mode and place to cards face down. My turn ends here.”

            “I summon a monster,” the obviously now psychotic Aki announces. “Come forth Twilight Rose Knight!” Sure enough a diminutive creature in violet armor and cape appeared on the field. “Thanks to my knight’s special ability, I can summon one Level 4 plant monster from my hand. I summon Lord Poison in Attack mode! Next I’ll fuse my Lord Poison and Knight together to synchro summon my strongest monster, Black Rose Dragon! Black Rose Dragon, attack her Alchemist! This duel is mine!!!” She cackles maniacally as the dragon began to launch its attack.

            If I hadn’t been smart enough to set one of my spells on the field, I’d be in some serious doo-doo right now. “Sorry Aki,” I say, “I have to do this. I activate the Shrink spell I laid down, that’ll not only shrink your dragon, but it’ll also half his attack points!”

            “N-No! You!!”

            Sure enough the menacingly beautiful dragon shrinks to about half its original size in mid attack, causing it to be reflected by my Alchemist’s own attack, destroying the monster. Aki let out a small grunt as she took 100 points of damage. “Grr!! I’m placing a card face down and end my turn!” she growls.

            “I activate Soul Absorption,” I say laying down the spell card, “Now I’ll activate my Alchemist’s special ability and remove the top card of my deck from play to raise his attack to 1800. Dimensional Alchemist, attack Aki directly!”

            “Not so fast!” she cries, gleefully, “I activate Scapegoat. Now I’ll have four monsters to protect me. There is nothing you can do to stop me!” I let out a curse, but I can’t let it get to me. I could still win this. I could only hope that Aki would snap out of it when I did.

            “Dimensional Alchemist,” I command again, there was no way I was backing down. “Attack the sheep on the far end!” The swirling ball of dark magical energy created by my monster slammed into the poor defenseless sheep, shattering it to bits. “That’s it for my turn,” I say solemnly.

            “Why don’t you just accept defeat,” my opponent sneers, “I summon another Twilight Rose Knight in attack mode.” Oh no, I inwardly groaned as the monster’s effect kicked in as soon as it appeared on the field. This was bad. Real bad. “Now I summon Dark Verger in defense and end my turn.”

            I draw another card and frown. I had drawn another spell. One that I couldn’t afford to use right now. I had Granmarg the Stone Monarch in the removed from play pile, but if I used my trap to bring him back now, he’d just be sent right back at the end of my turn. Not to mention I’d lose half my life points as well. “I activate my Alchemist’s ability and remove another card from play!” I announce, praying that the card I’d remove wasn’t another of my heavy hitters. I wince as I watch my Caius the Shadow Monarch joined Granmarg.

            “What’s the matter,” Aki jeers, “Not having any good luck today?”

            “Afraid so,” I admit, “But I’m not backing down, not until you come to your senses Aki! Dimensional Alchemist! Attack Aki’s Knight!”

Aki: 3100

Iolanthe: 5500

            So far so good, I was holding my own against this new side of Aki. However, my confidence was about to take a good hit once she began her turn. “I summon Lord Poison in Attack mode! Writhe in pain!” She lets out another insane laugh. I knew what was coming next. “Lord Poison, destroy Dimensional Alchemist!!” I groan as my loyal friend is sucked into the Dimensional Fissure, his mystic energy adding to my life points in spite of the damage I just took. “I’m in generous mood, so I’ll end my turn here,” Aki says imperiously.

            I frown once more as I draw a trap instead of a monster. It was time to use that trap. I hated to do it, but what choice did I have? Aki’s wall of monsters had to come down! “I activate Return from the Different Dimension!” I cry out as I feel my life points shrink down to 3000. “That allows me to special summon as many monsters that were removed from play as I possibly can.” I smile sadly as my Monarchs and Alchemist returned to the field – if only for this one turn. “Next I’ll activate Dimensional Alchemist’s effect once more. Cauis! Attack Lord Poison!”

            “Ergh!”

            “Sorry, Aki, but Lord Poison’s power is not going to help you now,” I say as I watch the plant monster vanish to the removed from play pile. “Granmarg, get rid of Aki’s Dark Verger! Dimensional Alchemist, attack the blue sheep! I place a card face down and end my turn.” Unfortunately, that means I must say goodbye to my friends here since they only had enough strength to stay for one turn.

            “I just might be starting to enjoy this,” Aki sneers, smirking evilly. “I summon my last Twilight Rose Knight in attack mode! Go my knight! Make her suffer and directly attack her life points! AHAHAHAHA!!”

            “Ugh!!!”

Aki: 2200

Iolanthe: 4000

            “I think I’ll let you live for a little bit longer, since you amuse me so much,” she jeers as she ends her turn.

            “Sure you want to do that Aki?” I ask, smiling as I finally draw a monster. One that’ll save my keister for sure.

            “What are you talking about?” she spat, laughing, “You’re the one who’s been having all the bad luck here.”

            I choose not rise to her bait. Instead I calmly say, “I place a monster in defense mode. Your turn Aki.”

            “Hmph. So you’ve decided to run and hide now? Well it’s too late for that! Attack her face down monster!” I put on a stoic face as my D.D. Scout Plane is destroyed. “I end my turn,” she says, causing my monster to return once more to the field.

            She’s playing with me, like a cat would a mouse. I didn’t care. I would win this! I had to! Tears of joy and sadness well up in my eyes as I draw my beloved D.D. Survivor. Kiryu… even now after all these years, you still come to my rescue. “I switch my Scout Plane to defense mode and summon D.D. Survivor in attack mode! Go my dear Survivor and take down her Rose Knight!”

            “Ergh!” she shouts again as the poor thing is destroyed.

Aki: 1400

Iolanthe: 5500

            “Aki, please stop this!” I beg once more, as I end my turn, “You don’t have to do this! Let’s talk to Yusei, we can figure it all out together.”

            “Shut up!!!” she screams in fury, “What could you possibly know what it’s like?! To be hated and feared! To be called a witch because of these disgusting powers!!” What could I say to that? I had never… I shout in pain as a vision of tan skinned people dressed in ancient style clothing yell and throw stones at me as I pass through what looked like a marketplace or something. What the heck was that?! Was it this Crimson Dragon Yusei told me about showing me one of its visions? Or was it something else? Again, the questions would have to wait I had more pressing matters to finish up.

            “I do know,” I finally say, “People hated and feared me too. They were scared of me being a foreigner with such pale skin and hair.”

            Aki stares at me, silent for several moments. “Y-You lie!” she yells, “There is no one who can understand my pain! This next card embodies all the suffering I have been forced to endure, only it truly understands me. I summon Witch of the Black Rose in attack mode!”

            If this were any other kind of duel, I’d be squealing with girlish delight. I always had a weakness for all things small and cute, and Aki’s Witch was no exception. The monster looked like a chibi version of her master except she had purple hair and eyes and a lace headband to match her darling gosi-loli outfit.

            “You’re in luck, since I still have two scapegoats on the field, I can not activate my Witch’s special ability. However, I can do this. Witch of the Black Rose… attack her D.D. Scout Plane!”

            “It’ll be back you know,” I say matter-of-factly.

            “Hmph. So what? You can’t keep those spells up forever. My turn is over for now.” Sure enough, my Scout Plane appears once more onto the field.

            “Suit yourself,” I retort. “I sacrifice my Scout Plane and summon Zaborg, the Thunder Monarch in attack mode! Since Zaborg was summoned using a sacrifice, his special ability kicks in and I get to choose which of your monsters I get to destroy.”

            “Tch!”

            “Zaborg destroy the yellow sheep!” Lightning shoots from my monster’s hands and hits the poor sheep token dead on, causing it to vanish. “That’s not all I’m going to do. Zaborg, attack her Witch!”

            “Aaaaahhh!!!!”

            Sorry Aki, I say silently. “D.D. Survivor get rid of her last sheep!”

Aki: 700

Iolanthe: 6000

            I felt like such a bully right now, with my life points steadily increasing with each and every turn. “I end my turn,” I say solemnly, causing my D.D. Scout Plane to return yet again to the field.

            “Tch! I summon Botanical Lion in attack mode! My lion gains 300 attack points for each plant I control. Since I only have him out on the field right now, his attack raises to 1900. Botanical Lion, destroy her Scout Plane!”

            “Ugh!” I grunt as I lose 1100 life points.

            “I end my turn,” Aki announces.

            It still looks like she wants to play with me some more. But that’ll be her last mistake. I had to end this and quickly. With three monsters on my side of the field and all in attack mode, I was all set to make the killing blow. Please let this help Aki, I silently prayed.

            “Zaborg, destroy Aki’s Lion!” I call, wincing as the noble looking creature let out a roar of outrage as it was destroyed. Aki said nothing as I readied my next attack, “D.D. Scout Plane attack her directly!”

            “AAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGGGHHHH!!!!” Aki screams as the last of her life points are wiped out.

            “Aki!” Yusei shouts, rushing in. I was relieved to see he was ok. He dashes over to the still screaming girl and clasps her tightly against him. “Calm down, Aki! Iolanthe, what happened?!”

            “I-I have nothing left…” Aki starts, tears streaming from her magenta eyes. “This mark on my arm… it’s nothing but a curse! Nothing good ever came from having this! Why?! Why must I be a Signer… abandoned by everyone… everyone but Divine.”

            “Aki! He was using you!” I say, “Couldn’t you see that?!”

            “H-He told me… I had nothing to worry about… he said… I had place where I could live… with him… but it’s all gone now. This… this horrible, wretched world! I just want to wipe it all out!!!”

            “Aki!”

            “Aki!” Yusei says forcing her to face him and look him in the eyes, “Look at me, Aki. You’re not alone anymore! You have a place with us! Iolanthe and I will take you in!” I nod in agreement. No one should be forced to face a misunderstanding world alone. No one. “We’ll all be glad to have you… all our other friends. You’ll have a new home… a new family.”

            “I-Impossible!”

            “Nothing’s impossible, Aki,” he said, placing a hand gently on her cheek, “If you think for yourself… make your own decisions, the possibilities will come find you. It’s because of these marks that we were drawn to each other. It’s because of them that we became friends. How can that be a curse?”

            “Friends…?”

            “Yes, Aki. You’re my friend.”

            “And mine,” I add, nodding.

            “Y-You two would consider one such as me as your friend?”

            “Of course,” Yusei replies, smiling warmly, “We’re all your friends Aki. None of us can possibly understand your pain, but we all will welcome you and do what we can to make you feel better. Whatever happens next is up to you, Aki. You’ll have to think about it and make your own decision.”

            “Then I… I want to help you. All of you.”

            “You sure that’s what you want?” Yusei asks.

            “Yes. You… you’ve helped me. Now I wish to return the favor by helping you however I can. And I… I must see Misty once more. I have to settle things with her.”

            “Thank you, Aki.” I raise an eyebrow at the slight blush on Yusei’s face. Oh ho what’s this? Is our adorable little Yusei finally finding love? If the rest of the boys were here, they’d probably start teasing the hell out of our spiky haired teammate.

 “It’s pretty late,” he says, totally unaware that I noticed him blushing just now. “And I don’t think anymore of those guys are going to show up anytime soon. We all should get back to bed and rest. Especially you, Aki, you’re still weak from what happened earlier.”

            “A-Alright, Yusei,” she says blushing slightly and allows Yusei to help her to the bed.

            Hmm… looks like Yus’s got himself a girl. I say inwardly smirking. When all this is over, I’m telling Crow and Kiryu. And then we’d have some real fun. After all, Kiryu and I owe him some payback for the teasing he did when we got together.

*****************************************

The next day…

            “Hey Yus, Aki,” I say as I spot the two by the elevator.

            “Iolanthe, good morning,” my spiky haired friend says in greeting, “I’m glad to see you’re starting to feel better. Aki seems to be better as well.”

            “I must apologize for yesterday,” Aki says, “but I also must thank you. If it weren’t for you, I may not have been able to understand what Yusei was trying to tell me before. Without your help, I probably have gone down the path of destruction… I’m in your debt, Iolanthe.”

            “It’s nothing Aki,” I reply smiling gently, “We all have times when we think we’re all alone, but as long as we have friends who truly care, we can overcome the pain with their help.”

            “Iolanthe… If you’re a friend of Yusei’s then what were you doing at the Arcadia Movement?”

            “She was kidnapped and brainwashed,” Yusei says, tactfully not mentioning Divine’s name, “She only got her memories back yesterday.”

            “Brainwashed?!” the burgundy haired girl parrots, “I-I had no idea they were doing such things over there…”

            “Aki…”

            Before I can say anything else, the elevator doors slide open and a woman with short blue hair in a fancy tailored suit steps out. “Oh, I see you’re here too, Miss Izayoi,” she says approaching us, “That’s great.” I eye her warily. You can take the girl out of Satellite, but you can’t take Satellite out of the girl. Those of us forced to spend our lives scavenging the ruined streets of the blighted island had no real love for those living in the bright and shiny world of Neo Domino. “Mr. Fudo, Miss Izayoi, Director Goodwin wishes to see you now.”

            “Goodwin?” Yusei asks, not bothering to hide the irritation in his voice. Good to see someone’s as leery as I am. “What does he want with us?”

            The Security underling eyes me suspiciously and I glare right back at her. Heh, I’m not going anywhere bitch so whatcha gonna do about that, hmm?

            “It’s ok, she’s a friend,” Aki says, surprising both Yusei and me at her eagerness to stand up for me. “She knows about our marks.”

            “I see. Well, Director Goodwin has something extremely important to discuss with you about the Crimson Dragon and the Signers. I’ll be going on ahead, so just stop by as soon as you’re ready.” She then turns and takes the elevator back down. Hmph. Good riddance I’d say. The stench of her expensive perfume was giving me a headache.

            “Do you really think we can trust him, Yusei?” Aki asks.

            “He’s done so much I can’t forgive…” my former teammate says, frowning, “but I just can’t ignore that vision I had at the Fortune Cup. And there’s what happened yesterday as well. Satellite’s in danger. Unfortunately, Goodwin seems to be the only one who knows anything about what’s been going on.”

            “So you’re going to walk into his trap, just so you can get some information?”

            “Yusei!” I shout, “Are you crazy?! This is the head of Sector Security we’re talking about here!”

            “I know, but what’s important right now is that we get to the bottom of this, Iolanthe.”

            “Fine, but I’m coming! And no, I will not stay put while you go rushing off into a trap!”

            Yusei sighs. “I never really could say no to you.”

            I smirk as I follow them into the elevator.

**********************************************

            As we step from the elevator, we were greeted by a very familiar face. Standing before us, dressed in fancy clothes was no other than that no good traitorous ‘big brother’ of mine! How dare he show his face around me!

            “Just what do you think you’re doing, Yusei,” Jack demands, “taking Goodwin’s bait like this?!”

            “I need to learn the truth behind that vision I saw…” Yusei explains, “and if Satellite really is in danger, then I’m gonna do what I can to protect it.”

            “Let me guess, you’re saying that because it’s your fate as a Signer.” Jack’s violet eyes finally fall on me as I stalk up to him. “I-Iolanthe?! What are you doing here?!”

            “I’d like to say the same thing, ‘big brother’.” I say, furious at what he’d done. I then do what I’ve been dying to ever since I found out about his betrayal. I punched him square in the jaw!

            “W-W-What was that for, you crazy girl?!” he sputters, blood coming out of the corners of his mouth. Ooh looked I did some damage. Good.

            “You damn well know what for, Jack!” I yell, “I heard what you did to Yusei back then! You knew how much that card meant to him and yet you went and stole it!”

            “Iolanthe, I can explain!” the spiky blond starts.

            “Iolanthe… let it go, please,” Yusei intercedes.

            “Hmph. Fine. We have more important things to do… more than you Mr. Former Duel King.” That earned me a glare from both boys and a stifled growl from Jack. I hit a nerve. Good. Too bad that’s all I was gonna hit. For now.

            “For what it’s worth,” Jack says, smiling a tiny bit, “I’m glad to see you’re still alive.”

            “Yeah. Me too,” I mumble. As angry I was at him at the moment, I was glad to see Jack again. If only things had been different.

            “That day you vanished…” Jack starts.

            “It was Divine and the Arcadia Movement,” Yusei replies, “He kidnapped Iolanthe and had her brainwashed all this time until just recently.”

            “To think I’d see you again in a place like this… ‘little sister.’”

            “Sorry to interrupt,” the Security woman from before says, coming over to us, “but could you continue this conversation on the way to the meeting with Director Goodwin? We don’t have much time.”

            “Let’s get going, Iolanthe,” Yusei says placing a hand on my shoulder, “We all can catch up after we’re done.

Chapter Text

            I remained silent as we rode in the limo through Neo Domino. Let Yusei and Jack play catch up, I was in no mood to speak to that traitor. Jack attempted to speak to me several times, but I just refused to budge, making Yusei stare at me in concern and disappointment. Aki noticed as well, but chose to remain silent as well, though I had a feeling she’d probably corner me and demand an explanation at the first opportunity she could get.

            That was fine with me. I’d tell her everything once we were free of this mess. I scowled as the car drove up to an enormous mansion located on the outskirts of the city. My anger and uneasiness grew as we were led through the doors and halls to a large office like room. Standing by the large picture windows was a man with long wavy silver hair. I held back the growl of disgust as he turned to face us. We all knew this man; he was the cause of all of our suffering in Satellite. He was the one who had ordered that all and any ‘undesirables’ be shipped off to and confined to that hellhole of an island! And to think that bastard was once one of us!

            My eyes widen when I see the twins, Luna and Leo standing before the desk. The mint haired girl gives me a small smile, and I nod giving her and her brother one of my own. Silently vowing to make sure that scumbag didn’t put them in any further danger. They were only kids after all!

            “Welcome Signers,” Goodwin says, eyeing me curiously but otherwise ignoring me. I shoot him a death glare but wisely hold my tongue. Pissing off the ruler of Neo Domino certainly would do me no good, especially at a time like this. “It is unfortunate that it has taken so long to gather you all here, but I am glad that I could be here with all of you today.”

            “Hmph. Something smells fishy, here,” Jack says glaring at the man. Well at least he hadn’t completely lost his senses.

            “What do you want with us, Goodwin,” Yusei demands, getting right to the point.

            “Well, well,” the silver haired ruler drawls, “It seems that I’ve lost the popularity contest with you lot, does it?”

            “Enough with the remarks!” I spit angrily. This man was really getting on my nerves. “Tells us why we’re here already!”

            Goodwin’s eyes narrow at me dangerously, but makes no move toward me. “Very well, as you wish. Behold.” He approaches the desk and hits a hidden button. A holoscreen pops up and an image of an eerie looking temple appears. “This is the temple that is underneath this mansion,” the Director goes on to explain.

            “Hey!” Luna pipes up, “Doesn’t that look like the marks we all have?”

            All around the temple is the pictograph of the Crimson Dragon we all saw at the Fortune Cup.

            “The Crimson Dragon…” Aki murmurs, and I place a comforting hand on her marked arm. The psychic duelist glances at me and smiles a tiny bit, grateful for the support.

            Jack says nothing, just glares at the screen. It was always hard to tell what he was thinking.

            “You are correct,” Goodwin continues, “That is the mark of the Signers that has been passed down through the ages as a legend. I am sure you all saw that vision during the Fortune Cup…”

            “Yes. We did,” Yusei replies.

            “That was a bit of the Crimson Dragon’s guidance. All of you coming to Neo Domino was the path it had laid out for us…”

            “You can’t be saying that we were all led here?!” Yusei says in disbelief, “There’s no way! You tricked us into coming here!”

            “Yusei’s right!” adds Jack, “The Crimson Dragon had nothing to do with this! We decide our own fates!”

            “That in itself, is the workings of the destiny the Crimson Dragon’s power,” the slimy bastard insists, “I am merely following the Crimson Dragon’s guidance. Nothing more.”

            “You really expect us to believe this crap?!” Jack spits.

            “Whether or not you believe is up to you.  But as long as you bear the marks of the Signers and the power of the Crimson Dragon they bestow, you can not escape your fate.”

            “If this really is ‘destiny’ as you say,” starts Aki, “Is it also destiny that I have this power at all? This horrible power that has hurt so many; that has caused me to be hated and feared by everyone!”

            “Aki…” I say.

            “Ah, but without that power, you all would have never met and your fates would remain unknown. Such is the case for young Luna as well.”

            “Me too?” the mint haired girl parrots. I give her a pleading look, silently asking her not to be swayed by that man’s obvious lies. It seemed that her brother was thinking the same as well for he too was concerned for his twin.

            “You were all selected to be the reincarnations of the original legendary Signers,” Goodwin says, “This is a destiny that was promised thousands of years ago. You can not possibly go against it.”

            “Wait a sec!” Leo says, “Aren’t there supposed to be five Signers?”

            “I see only four,” Jack adds.

            “Could it be that Iolanthe-nee…” Luna suggests. “She’s connected to the Spirit World like me!”

            “As intriguing as that sounds,” the slimy bastard replies, eyeing me like I was a lab rat in a maze, “she is not a Signer. Though the fifth Signer is fully aware of their power.”

            “Then who is it?” Yusei wonders.

            “I assure you, they will appear before you when the time is right.”

            “And what is that supposed to mean?!” Jack asks.

            “A few thousand years ago,” the scumbag starts, ignoring Jack’s demand, “the world was almost destroyed by evil incarnate, the King of the Underworld. However, the Crimson Dragon came down from the heavens and sealed that evil force into the ground. The seals are the Nazca Lines themselves. Now those seals that have been a forbidden part of history have once again been weakened. This is the work of the Dark Signers. Whereas your duels as Signers are based on the power of life… their duels are based on the powers of the underworld.”

            “The power of the underworld?” Yusei repeats.

            “Yes. Within each of them is a limitless amount of power. That power has already gone beyond my expectations. What has been going on in Satellite recently has also spread here to the city.”

            “What?!” Yusei says, his eyes widening in shock.

            “I’m afraid that is only the beginning…”

            “What do you mean, sir?” Luna asks.

            “It appears that everything is still in the initial planning stages. Their ultimate goal is to revive the King of the Underworld.”

            “So what happens if they do that?” Leo asks.

            “Everything will be destroyed.”

            “So what you’re saying,” Jack starts, “Is that we Signers were gathered here to stop that from happening, right?”

            “Correct. The key to reviving the King of the Underworld is in the Old Ener-D System in the B.A.D area of Satellite. Around that area are four devices used to control the power of the system.”

            “I-I never knew anything like that existed there!” Yusei remarks in surprise.

            “Your mission is to seal those four control units.”

            “And how do we do that?” Aki asks.

            “Your dragon cards that destiny has given you are no ordinary cards. The power to seal the control units lie within those cards.”

            “So my Ancient Fairy Dragon is one of those cards?” muses Luna.

            “Yes, but unfortunately, it is in the hands of the enemy at the moment. And because of that, the Spirit World is in danger as well as ours. You must seal the control units if you’re to save the world. I can assure you that the Dark Signers will stop at nothing to keep you from doing so. Unless you defeat them, this threat will continue to grow. Go defeat the Dark Signers and seal the control units. That is what is the destiny of you Signers as guided by the Crimson Dragon.”

            “I find it hard to believe all this…” Yusei says, and I nod in agreement, “But something strange has been happening in Satellite. This is all so sudden… I don’t know what to make out of all this.”

            “Yusei…” I murmur. It was a rare sight to see our voice of reason so flustered.

            “But I will fight to protect Satellite, my home and home of all my friends.”

            “I’ll fight too!” Luna says, “As long as that’ll save the Spirit World too!”

            “I don’t care about all this destiny crap,” Jack says, scowling, “but there’s too many things I do care for in Satellite for me to lose.”

            “Yeah right,” I scoff under my breath, earning an icy glare from my ‘big brother’.

            “I see…” Goodwin says, “Whatever your reasons may be… nothing matters as long as you preserve the peace of this world.”

*******************************************

            A few minutes later, as we were leaving the mansion, we were greeted by the woman who was sent to get us and a high ranking Security officer named Ushio. “I heard the whole thing from Mikage, here,” he says, “You’re gonna try to save Satellite, right? Then I’m coming with!”

            “As am I,” the woman, Mikage adds, “I want to help. I have the helicopter set to go.”

            “Okay,” Yusei replies, “We’ll go to the B.A.D. area first. We’ll get all we need there.”

****************************************

            As we flew across the water to the island that was once part of Neo Domino, I had become lost in thought. According to Yusei, I had been missing for three years. I began to wonder if my old home had changed much or if anyone there would even remember me. But what worried me the most was that I had absolutely no memory of what happened during those three years. No thanks to Divine’s repeated brainwashing, I don’t think I ever will.

            We landed not to far from our old hideout and the crumbling apartment complex had changed very little. Sure some more of the concrete had fallen from some of the upper floors and the piles of kipple had multiplied, but it was the same old home we all knew and loved.

            “Brings back memories doesn’t it?” Yusei asked, noticing the nostalgic look on my face. How I longed for those days when all five of us were still together, a family.

            “Yeah,” I say sniffling a bit, “I… miss him, Yus.”

            “We all do, Iolanthe,” he said gently, laying a sympathetic hand on my shoulder, knowing exactly who I had meant. Kiryu had left a ginormous hole in my heart. “We’ve got a lot to do, but how about we go see Crow first. He deserves to know you’re ok. In fact they all do.”

            “I’d like that,” I said giving him an appreciative smile.

            We walk the all too familiar streets to the old house I once shared with Crow. I continue to smile sadly to see that my old stomping grounds hadn’t changed a single bit. People were still dirt poor and scavenging whatever they could find and kipple continued to fight its age old war against the humans who created it to begin with.

            I start to tremble as we approach Crow’s place and Yusei touches my arm lightly. “It’ll be ok. Crow never blamed you for disappearing on us.” I nod and took a deep breath crossing the threshold.

            We find Crow working away at an ancient computer that was in what was once my old room. “Crow…?” I start to say, my voice shaking.

            “Hey! Didn’t I tell you kids not to stay out so late?” he says turning around. My eyes go wide at the new additions to his face. The last time I’d seen him, he only had the ‘M’ shaped marker on his forehead, now there was a dot to the left of the ‘M’ and a zigzagging line was below each eye. Oh Crow… what have you been doing?

            “Well if it isn’t Yusei,” he says warmly, as he usually did whenever he saw any of us, “Long time no see, bud. I-Io-chan?!” he stammers, finally noticing me, “Is that really you?!”

            “H-Hello, Crow,” I stammer, feeling immensely guilty for being gone for so long. Those added markers had to have been my fault, I’m sure of it. If I’d hadn’t gotten kidnapped by that sleaze Divine, Crow never would have done anything reckless enough to get himself caught again.

            “Where the hell have you been?!” he yells, dashing over to me and capturing me in a bear hug, “Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been about ya?! First Kiryu… then you go off and vanish… I was really beside myself ya know.”

            “I-I’m so s-sorry Crow!” I say sobbing, the guilt and shame just too much to hold the tears back anymore.

            “She was brainwashed by those Arcadia Movement, people,” Yusei says solemnly. I was grateful he’d come along, I don’t think I’d be able to tell my former best friend what had happened to me without my tears and sobs slurring my words.

            “N-No way! Was that where you were all these years, Io-chan?!” I bite my lower lip and nod, wrapping my arms around him to keep myself from falling apart any further. “Grrr!! Let me at ‘em! I’m gonna take care of ‘em once and for all!! No one messes with my family!”

            “Crow!” Yusei says, shaking his head, “There’s no need to rush off like this, the Arcadia Movement headquarters collapsed yesterday. There’s nothing left. Everyone in the movement is scattered now. They’re nowhere near as strong as they used to be.”

            “What?! So that’s what was all the fuss about yesterday. Guess you’re right, Yus. What’s the point of going over there if there’s nothing left? Anyway, I’m really glad you’re ok Io-chan.”

            “M-Me too,” I sniffle, refusing to let go of the spiky redhead and laying my head on his shoulder like I used to during that time when nightmares of Kiryu had woken me up.

            “The kids were really worried too,” Crow says tightening his hold slightly, letting me know that everything’s gonna be ok. That he wasn’t angry with me, and that he still cared for me as much as I had him all those years ago. “Why don’t ya go say hi to ‘em in a little bit?” I sniffle, but manage to nod against his shoulder. Those imps deserved to know I was still alive, that I still cared.

            “So what’s up?” Crow asks, when I’ve calmed down enough to let him lead me over to my old bed and sit down. I grasp his hand as he sits next to me, still in need of comfort and confirmation that this wasn’t a dream. He blushes a bit, but smiles at me reassuringly. It seems that the redhead still knew how to read me, especially since he hadn’t seen me in almost over three years. And for that I would be eternally grateful.

            “Well,” the black and gold haired boy says sitting in Crow’s chair and leaning forward, “Satellite’s in really nasty shape right now. The collapse of the Arcadia Movement’s headquarters was just the start.”

            “What do you mean, Yus? What’s goin’ on?”

            Yusei then went on to explain everything about the Signers and Dark Signers, most of which I still don’t get. Like… my part in all this. Just what was I to this so called Crimson Dragon? And why did it have to play with our lives like this?! If I could, I’d love to give it an old fashioned smackdown, Team Satisfaction style!

            “Y-You’re serious aren’t you?” Crow said after having listened patiently through the whole tale. Wow! He has changed. My once best friend never really could sit through long conversations without interrupting or saying anything. However the various emotions on his face throughout the whole thing spoke enough for him. He hadn’t needed to say a word.

            “I don’t expect you to believe any of this, Crow,” Yusei says, “But I’ve seen a lot of it firsthand.”

            “Man… I knew something weird was goin’ down around here, but I didn’t know it was that bad.”

            “There’s been damage here too?” Yusei asked, worry filling his face and voice.

            “Yeah. A lot of people have been vanishing lately, but I just thought they were trying to leave the island… but after hearin’ all that, makes me think that they must have gotten caught up in something. Something bad. So what are you guys gonna do about it?”

            “We’ve gotta do something,” Yusei begins, “but I’m still not sure about all this talk of fate and destiny…”

            “Me neither, Yus,” I parrot, “What that creep Goodwin said sounded like a lot of bull to me.”

            “I just wanna do what I can to help,” Yusei replied.

            “I really wanna help ya bud,” Crow says grimly, “but I’ve got the kids to look after. And I definitely can’t leave ‘em now that I know what’s really been goin’ on around here.”

            “It’s the right thing to do, Crow.” I nod agreeing with Yusei.

            “Yeah, I know. ‘Sides I’m not one of you ‘Signers’ anyway. Io-chan, you pick up the slack for me ok?”

            “Sure, Crow. You just watch yourself here,” I say.

            “Oh yeah! Your D-Wheel is still where you left it. I somehow knew you’d be back so I kept it up and running for ya!”

            “Crow…” I say, tears welling up in my eyes again. I never imagined he or anyone else would go so far as to maintain my D-Wheel for so long!

            “Wanna go test it out?” my former housemate asks, giving me a crooked smile.

            “I’ll go scout the area,” Yusei says, “Then I’ll head back to the hideout. Come get me once you’ve checked out your D-Wheel.” Leave it to Yusei to give me some time alone with Crow and the kids.

            “Thanks Yus,” I say. He gives me a small smile and heads out the house.

*****************************************

            Once I had control over my tears and the guilt of leaving my home and friends, albeit unwillingly, for three years had be assuaged, I follow Crow down the streets to an alley not too far from the old arcade where we’d fought against Team Dirty Works, almost filled to the brim with kipple.

            “I hid the D-Wheel behind this stuff,” he says as he starts moving the rubbish around, “I did such a good job that it’s kinda hard to get it out,” he says laughing sheepishly.

            “Crow!” I say laughing, then start helping him move the stuff. How I’ve missed this camaraderie!

            “Hey! I’ve got an idea!” my best friend announces, once we get my beloved Valkyrie freed from the kipple she’d been sleeping behind. “How about a turbo duel? Ya know to break ‘er in? I did a bit of tuning on ‘er so you can be up to speed with the rest of us when you came back.”

            “Oh Crow…” I say wiping hurriedly at my eyes. “T-That’s wonderful! Thanks!” I give him a ginormous bear hug, making him turn red as a Mystic Tomato before dashing off to change into a new riding suit we’ve gotten along the way.

*************************************************

            I revel in the feel of the wind rushing by us as we start our duel down the old highway. It had been so long since I’ve last heard the purr of a D-Wheel engine or felt the wind whipping through my hair that wasn’t covered by the safety of the helmet.

            I had been content let my red haired friend take the lead, but he kept insisting I make the first move. I nervously placed my turbo deck – Crow had insisted I build it all those years ago and he had been apparently holding onto it as well – into the system and drew a card….

            Ten minutes later, I was smiling as we came to a halt at the agreed finish line. I had managed to pull it off and beat Crow in my first turbo duel.

            “Glad to see ya haven’t lost any of your skills,” he says grinning.

            “Me too,” I reply, “They had me duel when I was stuck at the Arcadia building.”

            “Well guess they were good for something. Anyway, now I’m even more glad I took care of that baby for you.”

            “I can’t thank you enough for that, Crow.” My best friend blushes as I hug him again and give him a peck on the cheek.

            “Y-You would have done the same for me right?” he stammers.

            “You bet,” I say, grinning as well.

            “You and Yus aren’t gonna leave right away are ya?” he asks, getting worried now. I can’t say I blame him. It had been almost over three years since we’ve last seen each other and been able to enjoy ourselves like this. “Why don’t ya hang around for a bit? Though not much has changed around her.”

            “Well, I guess I can,” I say, “I really should go and see the kids. Explain things to them.”

            “Great! It’s glad to have ya back, Io-chan.”

            “Good to be back,” I reply as we make our way back to Crow’s place.

******************************

            After a nice bit of catching up with my best friend and the kids – those little imps kept on insisting I duel them until they beat me, which they never did – I headed back to our old hideout and found Yusei waiting outside for me.

            “Long time no see, Yusei… Io.” Where had I heard that voice before? Turning to look toward the edge of the cliff, I see…

            “Kiryu!” Yusei gasps as the figure lowers the hood he’d been wearing.

            I take a better look at the man that was once my boyfriend and I am shocked at the changes. He was wearing black pants with light blue trimming that hung loosely on his hips, a blood red shirt very much like the ones he loved to wear was peeking out from a short sleeved black jacket that had the same trimming as the pants. Both tops had been cropped, showing off his well toned abs. A black cape just like the one that Misty woman was wearing except the design was the same light blue as the pants and jacket. A pair of black fingerless gloves completed the ensemble.

            I must admit, he looked drop dead sexy in that get up, I could almost feel my mouth watering at the sight. I glance at him pityingly as I take in the angry red lightning bolt like marker running down the right side of his face. It really must have hurt. I don’t remember getting my own marker, but I remember Crow telling me how having those hideous criminal markers tattooed onto one’s skin hurt like a mad bitch.

            “Kiryu!” I shout, overjoyed to see him. I started to run to him, wanting nothing more than to grab hold and never let go, but something deep inside stopped me almost before I even started.

            It was his eyes. He had the same cold soulless eyes as that Misty woman! The only remaining thing of my beloved Kiryu’s eyes were the golden irises. Where they should have been white, they were the same abyssal black as the mysterious woman’s. This man couldn’t be the boy I once loved. Could he…?

            “I heard… that you died in the Facility,” Yusei says.

            My Kiryu… died?! In that horrible place?! Just how long was Yusei planning on keeping that from me?! The thought that he had to spend his last moments in a jail cell broke my heart even more and I sank to my knees, tears flowing freely down my cheeks.

            Kiryu looks at me intently for several moments as I continue to kneel there, trying my hardest to keep back the sobs. Through my tears, I could have sworn I saw the barest hint of sadness and guilt in those hellish depths.

            The silver haired man gave a crazed laugh, and I shuddered upon hearing it. Just what did they do to you in there Kiryu?! “Well, guess what,” he says, his voice sending chills down my spine, “I’m back…. you and me have some unfinished business to take care of.”

            Unfinished business… oh no did he still believe that Yusei betrayed us? If any one, it was Jack who was the traitor not Yusei. “K-Kyosuke, Yusei never…” I start, my words trailing off at the glare my former boyfriend was giving me.

            “Stay out of this, Io, I have no wish to involve you,” he snaps, “This is between the traitor and me. It’s ironic don’t you think… that you’re the Signer I have to defeat, Yusei?”

            “H-How do you know about the Signers?!” my spiky haired friend stammers, “You shouldn’t know about that unless…”

            “I didn’t come here to catch up on the old times, Yusei,” Kiryu sneers, “I’m here as a Dark Signer. Did you really think I would forget what you did that night three years ago?”

            “I never betrayed you, Kiryu!” Yusei pleads, “You had it all wrong! I was…”

            “Spare me your pathetic excuses! They wouldn’t matter anyway. It’s been destined that you and I fight! I’ll be waiting at the control unit of the old Ener-D System, come face me there. I’d hurry if I were you, once the sun sets, it’ll be too late. I’d hate to miss our chance to settle this score.”

            “Why sunset?” Yusei asks.

            “Oh? Don’t you know?” the man I once loved with all my heart jeers, “You Signers sure aren’t that bright, are you? At sunset, the gate to the Underworld will open and the king will be revived. Then it’s game over!” He gave out another crazed cackle.

            “Kyosuke!” I call as he turns.

            “It was good to see you again Io,” he says, placing a gloved hand on my own marked cheek, “even if you did choose to stay with that traitor.”

            “I-I… I tried to see you,” I say, trembling the ice cold of his fingers on my skin, “E-Every day. They…”

            “Goodbye, Iolanthe. You were the best thing ever to happen to me. You’re the only thing in this miserable world I’d miss.” He then turns away again and walks off the cliff, disappearing in a swirl of darkness.

            “KYOSUKE!!!!” I scream running after him only to have Yusei wrap his arms around me, preventing me from following him to my death. “Let me go, Yusei! Kyosuke!! Kyosuke!!” I refused to stop struggling and continued to scream my love’s name over and over.

            “Get a hold of yourself, Iolanthe!” Yusei shouts, whirling me around. He placed both hands on my cheeks, forcing me to look at him. “That wasn’t the Kiryu we all knew,” he says, his indigo eyes softening at my apparent misery. “That Kiryu is gone. You have to focus on what’s most important right now. And that is helping us seal those control units.”

            “But… it was… it was him!” I say defiantly, “Just before he left… I could tell it was, my…”

            Yusei said nothing, instead he just looked at me for several moments, an unreadable expression on his face. “I’m going to the Old Ener-D System to stop, Kiryu,” he announces solemnly, “if you don’t want to, I’ll understand. You go find Crow and get him and the kids somewhere safe. There’s no telling what will happen once I face him.”

            “No,” I say firmly, the old stubbornness coming once again to the forefront. “I’m… I’m coming with you. I have to see him again. I have to know for sure if my Kiryu is still in there somewhere.”

            “Iolanthe…”

            “I’m doing this whether you want me to or not. Please Yusei…”

            “We never could stop you once you had your mind made up,” the black and gold haired boy says smiling ruefully, “Fine. Just be careful. I’d never forgive myself if anything were to happen to you.”

            I nod. “Thank you, Yusei.”

            “We’d better hurry.”

            I follow my former teammate down the all too familiar streets and as we come to a corner, we come across the traitor. “I’m guessing you saw a Dark Signer as well,” Jack says noticing our haggard appearances.

            “Yeah…” Yusei replies, obviously wishing to spare that idiot the fact that it was our former leader.

            “I ran into Misty as well,” Aki says coming over to us, “She told me to come to come to the Old Ener-D System control unit. That she wasn’t going to be there as a Dark Signer but as an older sister looking for revenge. We don’t have much time. I’m heading over there right away.”

            “Aki…” I say, remembering what I overheard at the Arcadia building.

            “What did she mean by ‘we don’t have much time’?” Jack asks. Guess his Dark Signer didn’t think he’d be smart enough to understand. Hmph. Good for them.

            “We have to seal the control units before sunset… today,” Yusei replies, “Once the sun goes down, the King of the Underworld will be revived.”

            “Well, let’s get going then. We’re wasting time flapping our gums like this.”

            “Jack…” Yusei starts as the spiky blond starts to walk off.

            “It was Kiryu…” I say. I didn’t care if that’d hurt him or not. I was still angry with him for abandoning us like he did. I had come to believe that if he didn’t, I’d never been taken by that scum Divine. “who showed up at the old hideout.”

            “T-That can’t be!” he sputtered in complete shock, “Kiryu’s… still alive?! How?!” Then it hit him. “The Dark Signer you saw, it was him wasn’t it?”

            “Yes,” Yusei replied grimly, “And he still believes I betrayed us back then.”

            “But it wasn’t like that. You were… I guess there’s no talking him out of this then,” Jack said realizing the full scope of the situation, “You’ve gotta fight him anyway now that he’s a Dark Signer, don’t you?”

            “Yeah, but I’m going to stop him from trying to destroy Satellite.”

            “What about you Iolanthe?” Jack asks, his violet eyes narrowing at the tear streaks that were left on my face.

            “I’m going,” I say resolutely.

            “Just be careful,” my blond former teammate says, knowing I really didn’t want to speak to him.

            “You saw a Dark Signer too,” Yusei says changing the subject back to the more immediate problem, “Who was it?”

            “No idea. I’ve never seen them before. I real punk too. I’m gonna make sure they never mess with me again.”

            Hmm… so not only was my former ‘big brother’ a traitor but a liar as well. Did he really think he could fool me with that lousy acting? Who was it Jack? That little bubblehead of a journalist perhaps, out for revenge against you for dumping her? Treating her like so much trash once you got tired of her like you did us back then?

            “Jack…?” Yusei asks. Well, well, well, looks like he caught on too. Who did you think you were trying to fool you dobe?!

            “We don’t have time for this!” Jack says, hurriedly, “I’m heading over there!”

            “We’d better go too,” Yusei says once the spiky haired blond was out of sight. “We have to protect Satellite… and to settle things with Kiryu.

            “Iolanthe-nee!” Luna calls as I am about to follow Yusei toward our assigned control unit, followed by her twin brother Leo. “There you are!”

            “We’ve never been here before so I thought we were gonna get lost,” Leo says.

            “We saw a Dark Signer earlier. He said that the Ancient Fairy Dragon was sealed away. I have to go to the Spirit World and try to free her… please come with me?” Luna pleads.

            “Hey!” pipes up the mint haired boy, “I’m coming too! I can be useful even if I’m not a Signer, you know?!”

            “Leo, you know you can’t come with. Your soul has to be connected to the Ancient Fairy Dragon for you to go to the Spirit World.”

            “B-But what am I supposed to do?!”

            “Just wait here until our battle’s over… please Leo,” begs Luna. The poor kid looks like he’s about to cry, his lower lip trembling greatly. Before either of us can say anything more, Leo spins on his heel and dashes down the streets. I just hope Crow finds him before he gets into any trouble with the punks around here.

            “Please Iolanthe-nee,” the mint haired girl once again begs, “come with me to the Spirit World.”

            “It looks like that’s all I can do for you guys,” I say, “I’m not a Signer so I can’t help Yusei with his Dark Signer. At least I can do this for you sweetie.”

            “Thank you, Iolanthe-nee! I’ll feel a lot better if you’re there with me.”

Chapter Text

            “Close your eyes,” Luna says, taking my hand. I close them and slowly begin to feel as if I was falling or was it sinking? Mere seconds later, I open them to find that we were standing in the ally where I had first met the bratty mage, Torunka. Well, speak of the devil, I think as I spy the chibi sorcerer not too far away from us.

            “Torunka!” I call, getting his attention.

            “Luna! Iolanthe!” he greets, happily, “I’ve been waiting for two.”

            “Hello Torunka!” Luna says, smiling warmly. “Hey, where’s Regulus?”

            “Well…” the kid stammers, “That is… you see… he’s been captured.”

            “No way?!” Luna cries in surprise, “What happened?!”

            “Well…” Torunka starts, “They were about to catch me, and Regulus… he sacrificed himself so I could get away.

            “Let me guess you were…” Luna chides.

            “I am truly sorry Luna… I am so ashamed.”

            “No use crying over spilled milk,” I say, shaking my head. I didn’t know what exactly had happened, but I’d bet all my Monarchs that it involved the brat’s lousy sense of direction.

            “So Regulus is in Zeman’s palace now, right?” the mint haired girl asks.

            “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

            “We’ll have to split up,” Luna says, “There isn’t much time. I’ll go with Torunka and rescue Regulus. You go look for Zeman, Iolanthe-nee.”

            “Don’t just look for that insidious simian!” the mini mage interjects, “Kick his butt! Use kung fu if you have to, but just beat him! Uh… you do know kung fu, right, Iolanthe-chan?” He lets out a ‘haaaiiii-ya!’ and attempts to kick the air. “Ah! My back!” he shouts, bending over, leaning heavily on his staff – apparently, he’s gotten a new one.

            “Will you be serious?!” Luna scolds, “We’ve got to work together on this! Iolanthe-nee, please don’t do anything too risky until we get Regulus back. I know I can count on YOU Iolanthe-nee.”

            “W-What’s that supposed to mean, Luna?!” Torunka huffs.

            “Nothing really, Torunka,” the girl says, grabbing hold of the boy’s arm, “Let’s get going!” With that, the two children run off into the abandoned town, leaving me behind.

            I had no idea as to even where to look for this Zeman guy, so I decided to follow the kids. Anyway, knowing Torunka, they’d be needing my help real soon.

********************************

            After making sure Luna would be ok, I headed to the enormous double doors at the far end of the palace’s great hall and come upon a large circular room with several ledges hovering above a bottomless pit – well at least it looked bottomless. There was no way in hell I was going to test to see if it was. Connecting three of the ledges to the largest center ledge were narrow bridges. As I continue to survey the room, I saw that the ‘bridges’ looked a heck of a lot like clock hands. Hmm… odd. Then it hit me! The ledges were placed in such a way that they corresponded to every other hour of a clock! Thinking nothing of it, I cross over to the 12:00 ledge and attempt to push open the doors located there. No dice. It was shut tight. However, it was rather convenient of those monkeys to leave instructions as to how to open the doors.

**********************************

            It was quite a while later when I finally walk through the doors of the ‘clock’ room as I called it – that was one tricky puzzle, even no thanks to the rather vague instructions. Oh well. I find myself in a large room with a glowing circular pit in the center surrounded by tall stone columns. Sitting high up on a dais was a – my eyes bug out – an evil imitation of an old, old, cartoon the boys and I used to watch sometimes. The Spirit World was one hell of a wacko place. First mini mages and talking horned lions, now an evil version of Grape Ape, what next… teeny weeny talking dogs in medieval clothing?!

            “How did you get in here?!” King Grape Ape demands. “My minions have better not be sleeping on the job again!” He gets off his throne and climbs down the stairs toward me. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll be just as useful to Demak, just like all the other spirits.”

            Demak? Who the heck was that?! Wait! It had to be a dark Signer! If Leo said there were five Signers, why not five Dark Signers? Makes sense, right? So these goons were behind all the fuss around here. Time to kick some monkey butt then.

            “Not gonna happen monkey boy!” I yell defiantly from my side of the pit.

            “Hmph. You should be honored. I’m going to crush you with my own two hands!” he shouts back. He lifts an evil looking staff and it begins to glow.

            I shut my eyes as the light quickly became unbearable. When I can finally open them again, I blink confusedly. Nothing… happened?

            “M-My minus staff!” the purple gorilla gasps in shock! “Y-You have that mage’s staff! It’s repelling my minus power!” Sure enough, Torunka’s staff is in my hand once more. And like with Divine, it was shielding me against any attack. I really must thank that rugrat of a mage.

            “No!” King Grape Ape screams, “The powers are going out of control! Ack!! Now I must resort to other methods to get rid of you!” He produces a banana yellow duel disk and readies himself. Seeing as I had no choice either – the powerful magics trapping us within them – I readied my own disk. “This shouldn’t take long,” he says, sneering, “thanks to the magics going out of control, our life points will decrease each turn.” Not good. Not good at all. I had to make this twice as quick as possible. Time was running out!

***************************************

            I breathe a sigh of relief as Zeman’s life points drop down to zero. Thank goodness I managed to beat him before I lost anymore of my own.

            “Hmph. Impressive,” he grunts, “but it’ll take more than that to defeat me!”

            Just as the massive simian was about to attack, I hear a familiar roar and Regulus comes bounding in. “Iolanthe!” he roars. “Lend me that staff!”

            I nod and toss Torunka’s staff toward the great cat. Regulus caught it in his mouth, his jaws clamped tight against the wood. The horned lion let out an enormous muffled roar and pounced on King Grape Ape, knocking both to the stone floor. There was another blinding flash and I shut my eyes, praying it was over soon.

            “Regulus, Iolanthe-nee!” I hear Luna shout.

            “W-What’s going on?!” That was Torunka.

            There is a scream from the gorilla and roar from Regulus. It sounds like the two are fighting for their lives, which they were.

            “Get him, Regulus!” Luna yells.

            “You old fool!” Zeman bellows, “You’re nothing compared to our king Demak! Aggghhh!!!”

            When the light finally clears, the simian monarch is gone, vanished. Good. I was getting tired of looking at that ugly mug of his.

            “So this should have freed the Ancient Fairy Dragon, right Regulus?” Luna asks.

            “I believe so…”

            There was yet another blinding flash. Yeesh what is it with this place? Was all magic here designed to make everyone go blind?!! Well anyway, when we can all see, before us was a majestic sky blue dragon with kind and noble golden eyes and a rather feminine appearance.

            “Due to all your efforts,” it says. I knew that voice! I... I think I remember hearing it in one of my dreams of this world. “I have finally been able to return.

            “Ancient Fairy Dragon!” my mint haired friend cries, overjoyed.

            “All you all right, my lady?” Regulus asks, greatly concerned for the dragon’s well being.

            “Yes. I am quite alright, Regulus. I can not thank you all enough for your help.”

            “There is no need, my lady,” the horned lion replies, humbly, “I was merely performing my duty.”

            “I am in your debt, Luna,” the dragon says in a motherly tone, “It is because of your strength that the Spirit World is once again at peace. Please allow me to bestow my gratitude on behalf of all our people.”

            “You’re welcome, Ancient Fairy Dragon,” Luna replies, “I’m sorry it took so long though. And besides, I couldn’t have done anything by myself.”

            “Hmm… perhaps.” the dragon says turning to me and the mini mage. “Iolanthe. Torunka. If it hadn’t been for your added help, Zeman would have ruled this world forever.”

            “Oh it was nothing,” the bratty mage replies cockily, “We were happy to help.”

            “Yes. I had to do something for the other Signers,” I say.

            “Thank you so much for helping me, everyone,” says Luna, “It means a lot to me that you did.”

            “I must regret that this peace is only a temporary one,” the Ancient Fairy Dragon says, putting a damper on our victorious mood. “The human world is very near a terrible crisis. It must be stopped at any cost.”

            “We know,” Luna replies, “We have to seal the control units or else the King of the Underworld will be reborn!”

            “Oh my…” Torunka says, “that doesn’t sound too good.”

            “Indeed it does not,” the motherly dragon spirit starts, “You do not have much time before that happens. As we speak your brother Leo is battling a Dark Signer named Demak.”

            Did I hear right? Leo was… oh no!! The kid wasn’t a Signer! What in the name of the Abyss was that idiot thinking?! Going up against one of those guys?! If just being near one of them made me shiver, imagine what dueling against one would be like!

            “What?!” the mint haired girl gasped.

            “He is fighting bravely… however I fear that he may be outmatched.” Well, duh! This is a Dark Signer we’re talking about here. “There is no time! You must hurry to him immediately! Be warned. All of the Dark Signers have special cards.”

            “What kind of special cards?” Luna asks.

            “They are called Earthbound Immortals and are very similar to the dragons each of you Signers use,” explained the noble dragon. “And like your dragons, they each have their own unique and powerful abilities. You must be extremely cautious when approaching a Dark Signer.”

            “Right!” Luna replies. “But… it’s really far to the Old Ener-D System control units from the B.A.D area. Even if we were to leave now, it may be too late!”

            “Come on, Luna!” Torunka exclaims, “Don’t you go wimping out on us now!”

            “I’m not!” the girl cries indignantly, “It’s just that I don’t think we’ll be able to reach Leo in time.”

            “Hey! Do you even know who you’re talking to here?” the boy huffs, “Since I’ve got all my magic back, it’ll be a snap to send you right on over there in the real world!”

            “Really? Then prove it half-pint!” I say.

            “Hmph! I may be the cutest little spellcaster you’ve ever seen, but I’m no slouch when it comes to sheer magical strength!”

            “Thank you so much, Torunka!” Luna says, giving him a quick hug.

            “Good luck to you, Torunka,” the Ancient Fairy Dragon prays.

            “Alright you two, get ready!” the bratty mage pipes up.

            “Luna, Iolanthe, you must never give up,” the dragon says nuzzling our heads in farewell, “Believe and trust in your friends.”

            “Though, limited they may be,” Regulus adds, “I will do as best as I can to assist.”

            “I’ll be rooting for you kids,” Torunka says, “Just don’t forget to come back and hang out sometime when both our worlds are at peace again, ok?”

            “Will do, chibi,” I say giving the mage a hug of my own. In spite of all his cockiness and boasting, the kid had grown on me.

            “You can count on it!” Luna adds. “We’ll be back real soon!”

            “May the spirits protect you both…” I hear the Ancient Fairy Dragon say as the Spirit World fades from around us.

*********************************************

            “Wow!” Luna exclaims. “We actually made it pretty close to the Ener-D System! I’d thought that Torunka would have teleported us way off course or something…”

            “Yeah, me too,” I say, chuckling. Who would have thought; that the mini magician had that kind of power. I’ll be a monkey’s uncle… well a monkey’s aunt actually.

            Anyway, I take in our surroundings and see we’re in a ruined landscape, one even worse than the B.A.D area or slums. We were standing very close to an odd tower like structure – the only thing to be intact amongst the piles of rubble and boulders. A wall of purple fire blocks our way from going any further from the tower.

            “When we go back to the Spirit World,” Luna continues, “Let’s go and thank him.”

            Ai-ya! I had forgotten to thank him for giving me his staff!!! Oh well, like the girl said, I can thank him next time I see him. If  there’s a next time.

            “We’d better get going, Luna.”

            “Right! Leo and that Demak guy should be somewhere near here.”

            We cautiously round the corner of the tower and sure enough there was the mint haired boy standing a few feet away from a giant of a man, in what I’ve come to call the Dark Signer uniform. Except the trimming was a golden yellow. A gigantic stylized monkey monster hovered behind him.

            “Leo!” Luna shouts, running up to her twin. I quickly grab hold of her before she got too close, remembering the Ancient Fairy Dragon’s warning.

            “Let me go Iolanthe-nee!” she protests, struggling. I shake my head, tightening my hold on the squirming girl.

            “Ugh…!” the boy grunted, as the monkey swiped at the boy with one huge paw. Leo was knocked back and onto his back.

            “Hang in there, Leo!” Luna yells.

            “So you’ve finally decided to show up, Signer girl,” the big guy says, annoyed, “You’ve kept me waiting long enough.”

            “What did you do to my brother, Demak?!”

            “Nothing,” he jeers, “We were just filling up the time with a little duel. I was just about to end this when you showed up.”

            “Not going to happen! You’ll have to duel me before I let you hurt Leo!”

            “Luna!” I shout as she bursts from my arms and runs over to her twin.

            “I’ve gotta do this Iolanthe-nee. Only a Signer’s strong enough to beat a Dark Signer.”

            “What a brave sister you are, little miss,” Demak says reshuffling his deck, “As you wish.”

            “You’ll pay for hurting my brother!”

            “He challenged me,” excused the Dark Signer, “and I accepted. He knew what he was getting into.”

            “L-Luna…” groaned Leo, struggling to get back to his feet.

            “I bet you feel real good right now!” I yell, stepping behind the twins and Demak, “Get your jollies by picking on little kids don’t you, big man?!”

            “Iolanthe-nee?!” Luna cries in amazement.

            I can’t believe I was going to do this. I must have been totally insane for even considering challenging a Dark Signer.

            “So do you wish to duel as well, young lady?” Demak asks jokingly. “Suit yourself. Come at me if you wish, I’ll take on both of you.”

*************************************

            I sink to my knees, huffing and panting as our duel ends. Cold sweat was dripping down my face and back. Somehow we had done it. We beat the hardest opponent I’ve, up to this point, had ever faced in my life. It was through sheer dumb luck actually that Demak hadn’t been able to summon that giant monkey of his. I fear that if he had… well it’s best that I don’t think about that. Not. At. All.

            “I-Impossible!” screams Demak, falling to the ground. I watch in horror as his body starts to turn to stone and crumble, “How could you, a non Signer defeat me?! Forgive me Rudger… I was useless… Glory to the Dark Signers!” he shouts just before the rest of him breaks apart and turns into nothing but a pile of dust.

            “W-We won!” Luna says, panting as well.

            “Way to go sis, you beat him!”

            “Leo!” the mint haired girl rushes over to her brother and gives him a hug, squeezing tightly.

            “It’s not fair!” grumbles the boy, “I was supposed to be protecting you, but you protected me instead.”

            “Nuh-uh. I was only able to do it because I knew you would have been cheering me on!”

            “Really?”

            “Yep. Really. There was no way I could have done it by myself. I had you and Iolanthe-nee to help.”

            “Well I’m glad we did. Thanks Iolanthe. Now let’s get goin’ and seal that control unit!”

            “Sure thing, kiddo,” I say smiling.

            “Yeah,” Luna adds, “once we do the Spirit World should be ok as well.”

            Luna takes out her Ancient Fairy Dragon card and holds it up to the entrance of the tower like structure. A brilliant flash of light surrounds us and the tower. A few moments later, the flash vanished. Nothing appeared to have changed, but the uneasy feeling I’ve had all this time was gone. The very air seemed to be calm and peaceful; there wasn’t a single trace of the intense malice that had been surrounding the area.

            “Hey!” the Security guy who’d insisted on coming with us shouts rushing up to us. “What was that flash of light just now?!” he demands.

            “Mr. Ushio!” Luna says in greeting.

            “What was going on?! First those weird purple flames and now… that flash of light.”

            “Hey don’t worry big guy!” Leo explains, “it was just Luna sealing the control unit. It’s all ok now.”

            “Really?! That’s great! Hey Leo what happened to you?! You look like you’ve been put through the wringer!” Ushio demands upon noticing the boy’s haggard and bruised state.

            “Oh yeah! I was fighting a Dark Signer, but Luna and Iolanthe were the ones to beat him though.”

            “That’s because you wore him out for us,” Luna says, proud of her twin’s bravery.

            “You sure you ok, kid?” Ushio asks again, in a fatherly way.

            “Yep. I’m a-ok!” Leo boasts, but suddenly staggers a bit, “Well… maybe I am a little tired from that duel.”

            “You dummy!” Luna scolds, bopping her twin on the head, “Why didn’t you say so?! Let’s get back right away so you can rest!”

            “Good idea, Luna,” pipes up Ushio, “I’ll take you guys back.”

            “What about you, Iolanthe-nee?”

            Good question. What was I going to do? I wasn’t a Signer. I didn’t have any mystical mark on my arm to give me powers or any all powerful card to put an end to all this. But I just couldn’t sit behind and do nothing. I didn’t do it then when I had gotten strong enough to duel on my own while I was with Kiryu and the boys, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to do it now. Besides, there was still the matter of Kiryu… I had to see my boyfriend one more time. I had to try and talk him out of this. I can only pray that whatever good was left in him would listen to me.

            “I’m going to try and find Yusei,” I say, “I knew his Dark Signer personally, I…” I blink away the tears threatening to fall at any moment now.

            “I understand,” Luna says, giving me a sympathetic smile. “You do what you have to do.”

            “You just watch yourself,” Ushio says, “Whatever happens from now on I want you and the others to do your best, but just be careful. Ok?”

            I nod, watching him help Leo walk away from the control unit.

            “Don’t you worry, Iolanthe-nee,” Luna says as she turns to go, “The spirits will always watch over you.” I smile at that, remembering all the times Torunka had protected me with that staff of his.

            “Take care, Luna,” I say before heading off on my own way.

*****************************

            As I near the path toward the west, a man on a three-wheeled D-Wheel drives up, startling me and causing me to almost lose my balance. “Who are you?” he asks. I cringe inwardly upon spying his pitch-black eyes and black clothing. Oh no! Another Dark Signer and I was by myself! “I would have noticed if there was a Signer nearby.” That clinches it; I’m in serious doo-doo here.

            “My name is Bommer,” the black and purple clad man says, introducing himself. Oh joy. A polite harbinger of destruction. “I have been reborn as a Dark Signer with the purpose to get revenge on Goodwin for taking my home and family from me.” Uh-huh. Whatever. Take a number bub. After all this Singer/Dark Signer stuff was over, I was going to give that snake of a man a piece of my mind. Maybe even cause a bit of trouble for that sleaze while I was at it. It was time someone put Goodwin in his place anyway.

            “Can’t fault you for that,” I say as bravely as I can.

            “I must defeat the Signers,” Bommer goes on, “Since you are here, then that must mean you are friends with them, am I correct?”

            “And if I am?”

            “Then you and I duel each other. You will be the bait to lure the Signers here. If you truly think you can defeat me, then I challenge you to do so. But only after I summon my Earthbound Immortal.”

            O geez. I was really in it now. There was no way out of this, I could see that. This Bommer guy struck me as the type who wouldn’t let me go if I refused. He was set on using me as bait no matter what. It probably wouldn’t matter if it was while we dueled or as a hostage. Fine. If I was gonna be bait, then I was going to go down fighting! Kiryu would have been proud. Time to pay him and the boys back for all kindness and care they’d shown me. I always paid my debts.

            “Fine!” I say, trying to make myself look as tall as possible. “If it’s a duel you want, then that’s what you’re gonna get!”

            “As you wish, friend of the Signers,” the Native American looking man replies, “However this will be a turbo duel. I shall allow you to fetch a suitable vehicle, however, if you do not show up within the next five minutes, I shall feed the souls of the people of this B.A.D. area to my immortal one by one until you do.”

            “Oh I’ll be back, pal,” I growl, “You can count on that.” I run off to fetch my Valkyrie before he could answer.

******************************************

            I bring my beloved D-Wheel to a screeching halt as the purple flames of the ‘track’ that was Bommer’s geoglyph started to fade. I looked to my opponent and I could not help but feel pity for him. I had somehow luckily managed to take control of his immortal, Chacu Challhua. Being in control of the great orca, gave me a sense of immense power and I could hear its malicious voice whispering in my mind, wrapping around it like the tentacles of a sea anemone or a clump of seaweed. I shivered as I fought off the remnants of that vile thing’s whisperings.

            Some of what it said was true. I did have darkness in my heart, in fact what person doesn’t? We all learn to fear and hate. I did hate Goodwin and Jack. I even hated the snobbish citizens of Neo Domino, but that didn’t mean I truly wished for the destruction of the world. The Immortals would have to find another plaything.

            Bommer was an excellent rider as well as a duelist and I to some extent enjoyed this battle despite of the obvious danger I was in. As I dueled him, I could sense he had a sense of honor in spite of the corruption of the dark energy coming from. I found myself wanting to duel him again sometime, but I highly doubt that would happen. Not if what happened to Demak happened to him as well.

            “Ugh..” Bommer moans, barely managing to stop his D-Wheel, “I would have never imagined you’d be so strong. But this may have been a good thing.”

            “What do you mean, Bommer?” I ask concerned as he stumbles from his motor bike.

            “I could hear my brothers calling to me during our duel… they told me even if I did get my revenge… all I have lost would still never be returned. They are right.”

            “Bommer!” I shout and rush over to him, grabbing hold of him as he started to fall. The momentum caused me to fall with him and I would up on my rear with the taller man in my arms.

            “You are brave for one who is not a Signer and a woman. You have a true warrior spirit, Little Flower. It is as if you might have been born as a member of my tribe. If circumstances had been different, I would have enjoyed the challenge of making you my wife.” Just like with Demak, his body turned to stone and started to crumble.

            “Bommer…” I say blushing profusely at receiving my first marriage proposal ever.

            “Thank you for making me see the light once more… Little… Flower…” I feel the tears streaming down my cheeks as the Dark Signer finally disintegrated and turned to dust.

            “I’ll make sure you’ll rest in peace, Bommer,” I say, vowing to stop this madness at any cost.

            I was about to get back on my Valkyrie when the earth shook once more and the glowing figure of what appeared to be a child’s drawing of a man appeared in the sky. That could mean only one thing. One of the others was dueling a Dark Signer! Oh please don’t let it be Kiryu! I begged. Even though I had promised Bommer I’d stop the Dark Signers, I was reluctant to fight against my former love.

            In spite of the fact that it had to be done, I still clung to the hope that Kiryu could be saved, that he could be convinced to betray the other Dark Signers and once again return to our family. After all this time, I still did and forever will love Kyosuke Kiryu.

            I run back over to my D-Wheel and rev the Valkyrie’s engine. I had the most horrible feeling and I had to get over to that battle ASAP!!! Putting the metal to middle, I speed off toward what was to be the second most horrible moment of my life.

~Tsuzuku~

Chapter Text

            As I approach near the area where the geoglyph figure appeared in the sky, I almost crash my Valkyrie upon seeing a huge black and blue glowing giant in the distance. Just looking at it gave me a sense of immense dread, power and malice. Upon experiencing that power first hand, I knew that giant just had to be an Earthbound Immortal. I screamed and swerved just in the nick of time as one of the giant’s hands came crashing down to squish me like a bug. It tried again and I dodged, just barely escaping.

            I continued dodging the Immortal’s attacks until I reached a clearing at the end of the road that had been lined with purple fire. I breathe a sigh of relief when I spot Yusei standing by his D-Wheel near another tower like structure like the one I had just left.

            “Yusei!” I shout pulling up beside him.

            “Iolanthe!” he replies, turning to me.

            “Are you ok?! What happened? The Dark Signer was it…” I fire at him in rapid succession.

            “Yes. It was Kiryu,” my spiky haired friend says grimly, “He and I were engaged in a turbo duel, but my D-Wheel broke down…”

            “Don’t think you can hide behind that broken D-Wheel!” I hear my boyfriend shout from up ahead. “Come back here and finish this duel Yusei, you coward!!”

            “Kyosuke!” I yell as I ride closer to him, “Stop this!!” I plead.

            “Io?! So you’re here too after all.”

            “You really don’t want to do this!” I beg once more, “I know you, Kyosuke! You never wanted the destruction of Satellite or the city! You…” I blink the tears from my eyes, letting them fall freely.

            “None of that matters to me, Iolanthe!” the silver haired Dark Signer shoots back. “The only thing that does is making Yusei pay for what he did!”

            “Kyosuke! Please! I’m begging you! Stop this crazy stuff and come back to us… to me!”

            He let out an insane cackle and I bit my lip to keep myself from sobbing. I was too late, we all were. That disgusting Immortal had killed whatever decency Kiryu may have had left. My beloved team leader was gone for good this time.

            “Oh I’ll stop all right,” he sneered, “when I get my revenge! So how about a little duel, Io? Just you and me. I’m feeling kinda nostalgic right now. Besides I need something to pass the time while the traitor gets his D-Wheel fixed.”

            I didn’t want to do this. I just couldn’t duel Kiryu knowing full well what would happen if I won. I didn’t want to lose my love a second time. But I had no other choice now! The hours were ticking fast and we didn’t have much time. And even if we did, I could see now, that though it might have been my beloved on the outside, the thing on the inside was not. This Dark Signer had to be stopped. No matter what!

            “I’m sorry Kyosuke,” I mutter under my breath, “I can only hope you can forgive me for not being there for you at the Facility.”

            I furiously wipe away the tears and gun the accelerator, guiding my D-Wheel up the path to the top of the cliff where my now utterly possessed love waited.

            “Don’t Iolanthe!” I hear Yusei shout, “It’s too dangerous!”

            But it was too late. No one was going to stop me now. This is what I had to do. This was my cross to bear, my battle. It had to be me to stop Kiryu even if it meant my own death.

**********************************

            “You’re too nice for your own good do you know that?” Kiryu jeers as I pull up alongside of him, “You’re not a Signer and here you are, rushing to your doom just to help a ‘friend.’” He spat that last word with such vehemence I could almost feel the venom dripping from it.

            “That’s right,” I say, “I’m helping a friend. I’m helping a friend to end his suffering. Your suffering, Kyosuke.”

            He starts slightly, causing his motor bike to swerve a bit but quickly recovers. “Do you really think you’ll be able to beat me, Io? Then let’s see. How about if we make it a bit more challenging, hmm? We’ll start with no cards in our hand and leave it all to the luck of the draw.”

            “Fine with me,” I say. Please, oh please. Don’t make me do this. I silently pray.

            “Well then, let’s get this show on the road,” he replies, cackling maniacally at his own lame pun.

            I couldn’t help but smile, albeit forlornly. Kiryu always did try to cheer me up with lame puns and jokes like that. Maybe, just maybe he really wasn’t as dead as I had come to believe. Kiryu…

            I drew a card and frowned. It was a trap card, but not totally useless. It just might by me a tiny bit of time. I could only hope Kiryu wouldn’t have much better luck. “What’s the matter Io?” the silver haired man jeers, “Got a bum draw, didn’t you? Aww that’s too bad.”

            I ignored him and placed the card down on the field. “Just draw already,” I say ending my turn, my heart not really in this duel.

            “Already scared? It’s not like you Io,” he sneers. However that insane grin is wiped off as he drew a card. “Tch. You lucked out this time. I’m placing a card face down. That’s it for my turn.

            I inwardly sighed in relief. I prayed that my boyfriend’s current bout of rotten luck would last. I draw a card and am pleased to see that it was a deck searching monster. Good I’d be able to protect myself for a little while til I got one of my Monarchs out on the field. I hope. “I’m putting a monster in defense mode. Your turn, Kiryu.”

            “Well, well, it looks like I’m the better duelist this time, babe.” He holds the card up and shows it to me. ‘Infernity Archfiend’ is printed on the orange background. I knew Kiryu’s deck almost as well as I did my own. That was never in it before. He must have gotten a new deck somehow. Not good. Not. Good. At. All. There was no way I’d be able to form a decent strategy if I didn’t know what was in his deck. All I could do is pray that he never got to summon his Immortal card.

            “Because I let you see my monster, I get to special summon it,” Kiryu crows, “I’m putting my Infernity Archfiend in attack mode. But that’s not all, since I special summoned him, I get to draw another Inferinity monster from my deck and add it to my hand.”

            Time to get serious, Io! “Not so fast, Kiryu!” I shout. “I’m activating my trap. Bottomless Trap Hole! Your Archfiend isn’t coming back anytime soon!”

            “Glad to see you’ve still got it, Io. I’d hate for our duel to get boring too quickly. I’m ending my turn for now.”

            I glance at my next draw. Dandylion, good another butt protector. “I’m putting another monster in defense and end my turn,” I announce.

            Kiryu raises an eyebrow. “Where’d my feisty little violet go? It’s not like you to just sit there. Still having a bit of trouble hmm?” he teases, laughing insanely.

            “Just biding my time, Kiryu,” I say.

            “Oh really now? I think you just don’t want to hurt your precious boyfriend.” Damn! He was the only one other than Crow who could read me like a book. “Hit a nerve didn’t I?”

            “Just make your move, Kiryu!”

            “Whatever you say, babe. You’re gonna like this. I summon Phantom Skyblaster in attack mode. And thanks to his special ability, I can summon a Skyblaster token to the field.” Sure enough a clone of the winged demon appeared at its side. I had to do something and fast! If he drew his Immortal his next turn, I was doomed! “Tell ya what, since you want to ‘bide your time’, I’ll let you so I won’t attack this time around. Your turn, Io.”

            Kiryu… are you… are you trying to protect me still? I can’t let my emotions get the better of me. I mustn’t let my guard down for an instant here. “I’m putting the card I just drew face down on the field and that’s all.” Let’s hope his Immortal isn’t immune to trap holes.

            “Did I mention, my Skyblaster has a second ability?” Kiryu taunts. “No? Well now you know, and that ability is that you take 300 points of damage for each Skyblaster I have on my side of the field.” I grunt as I lose 600 life points. “But the drawback here is that if I choose to activate that ability, my Skyblasters can’t attack. But that’s not gonna be a problem for me. I sacrifice my Skyblaster token and summon something that can.” Oh no. Not the Immortal! “Come forth my Infernity Destroyer!” Phew!

            “I’m not letting you!” I say, hoping this next move wouldn’t be in vain. “Bottomless Trap Hole!” I yell activating my trap card.

            “Tch! I’m putting a card face down and that’s it.”

            Oh joy another defense card. I moan to myself. What was going on here? Was my reluctance to do any real harm to Kiryu affecting my deck? Come on, Io! Get a grip here. As much as I really didn’t want to do this, I was the one who decided that I would be the one to take my former boyfriend down. I couldn’t afford to be wishy-washy now. “There’s nothing I can do,” I say grimly. “So go ahead and make your move, Kiryu.”

            “Poor, poor, Io,” he sing-songs, “can’t even get a decent draw. What’s the matter? Your deck not too happy with you?” I growl, but say nothing. “Well that’s too bad. I’d really hate to do this to you, but I’m activating my Skyblaster’s ability!” There went another 300 of my life points. “Now, I’ll summon Double Coston in attack mode. Double Coston, attack her middle face down monster!” I smirk as the Sangan was sent to the graveyard and I pick my Morphing Jar from my deck. “Back to you babe,” he says ending his turn.

            Finally! Something I could attack with. And maybe do some extra damage as well! “I’m summoning Snipe Hunter in attack mode!” I shout, slamming down the card. “In case you haven’t noticed, this little guy’s got a bit of a kick to ‘im. I discard one card from my hand to activate his special ability. Say goodbye to your Double Coston!” Not one or six. Not one or six, I repeatedly pray as a die appeared and began rolling. Five! Yes! One monster down, one to go!

            “Snipe Hunter, blast that Skyblaster!”

            “MWAHAHAHA!!! There’s my girl!” Kiryu cackles, “But sorry babe, you’ve made your last attack. I activate my Mirror Force trap card!”

            “Ch!” Damn it! I almost had him! “Fine have it your way, koi! I end my turn!”

            I wince as he activates his Skyblaster yet again. “I activate Fiend’s Sanctuary!” I shudder, I knew that card! A metallic figure resembling myself appears on his side of the field. “Now I’ll place one card face down and end my turn. Let’s see what you’ve got next shall we?”

            “Hmph! I place a monster in defense and that’s all!” Come on Morphing Jar help me out here!

            “Running scared again are we? Fine with me. I’ve got all the time in the world.” Another 300 points are shaved away from me. “I’ll pay the 1000 life points to keep my fiend token on the field. And that’s all I do for now.”

            “Looks to me your just as ‘scared’ as I am, Kiryu,” I taunt, “I’m placing one card face down and I’m flipping the monster I just put down. Say hello to Morphing Jar, koi!” I say another silent prayer as the Jar’s effect kicks in. Yes!!! Finally time to use the big guns! “I’m trading in my Jar for something a bit more rock steady,” I say making my own lame pun, “Come on out Granmarg, the Rock Monarch!”

            “That’s my feisty violet!” the silver haired man says as my rock giant destroys one his traps. “Glad to have you back, babe!”

            Enough fooling around, Io. Time to end this! “Told you I was biding my time! Granie, smash his Skyblaster! Well that’s it for me.”

            “That’s my girl! I wouldn’t have it any other way, which is why I hate to do this. I’m paying the fee for my Fiend token and also activate a little field spell called Speed World 2!” Uh oh! That’s not gonna be pretty! “Since I have more than 10 speed counters, I think I’ll do this; I’m removing 10 of my counters and sending your Rock Monarch to the graveyard!” Yep. I knew it. Next I’ll activate my trap, Zoma the Spirit! Now let’s really get this party started! I’m offering my two monsters to summon the one responsible for giving me a second chance at getting my revenge!”

            No. Oh no! Not…

            “Come forth Earthbound Immortal Ccapac Apu!!”

            I knew it! Oh please let this work! “I activate my Torrential Tribute!” I shout, flipping the card over. I breathe a sigh of relief as the field floods, wiping away that horrid giant along with my Dandylion. “Since that caused my Dandylion to go to the graveyard, I get to special summon two fluff tokens to take its place.”

            “I’m impressed Io. I didn’t think you had it in you after all. I place two cards face down and end my turn for now.”

            The duel dragged on for what seemed like hours, each of us fighting tooth and nail to keep a monster on the field. However, I had managed to get another Monarch on the field as well as my Light and Darkness Dragon. And know Kiryu was totally defenseless and had only 1000 LP left. But could I really do it? Could I really attack him and kill my own boyfriend?!

            “Io…” I start as I hear my beloved’s voice in my head, “Iolanthe… you have to do it! Please! You’ve got to protect Satellite! You’re a member of Team Satisfaction aren’t you?! Forget about me! I’ll be fine, ok? Now go and kick that bastard’s ass!”

            “K-Kyosuke…” I whisper, tears falling down my cheeks as I feel a phantom brush against my cheek. “F-Forgive me. I love you… so very much… Mobius! Attack his life points directly!”

            Kiryu crashes his D-Wheel as the purple flames of our track begin to fade. I bring the Valkyrie to a screeching halt, leaping off the seat. I rush over to the love of my life, ignoring my own bike as it falls onto its side. “KYOSUKE!!!!!” I screamed, throwing myself onto his rapidly petrifying body.

            “Glad… to see you’ve… haven’t been slacking… off, Io,” he says, the crazed grin completely gone from his face now. Gazing up at me was the old Kiryu, my Kiryu.

            “Kyo…”

            “Kiryu!” Yusei yells, running over to us.

            “Yu… sei…”

            “I-I was wrong,” our black and gold haired teammate says, tears glistening in his indigo eyes. “Back then I thought I could save you if I let them arrest me as Team Satisfaction’s leader. What can save friends is the bonds and feelings they all share with each other.”

            “When I became… a Dark Signer… I made two wishes. One was to… get my revenge on…you. The other…to have one…last duel as… Team… Satisfaction.”

            “Kyosuke…”

            “Kiryu…”

            “I just couldn’t… hate you Yusei… or anyone for that matter. Dueling with you… all and… being with you Io… was the most fun… I ever… had. You’ll always… be… my… gi…rl.”

            “K-KYOOOOOOSUUUUUUUUKKKKKKKKEEEEEEE!!!!” I scream, not bothering to hold back the sobs any longer as my beloved Kiryu became nothing but dust. I faintly hear Yusei’s echoed scream behind me as I continued to sob, throwing myself onto the ground where our former leader had lain. “DON’T LEAVE ME AGAIN!!!! KYOSUKE!!!!”

            “I SWEAR TO YOU,” Yusei shouts into the sky, “I’LL DEFEAT THE DARK SIGNERS FOR YOU! YOU’LL A-ALWAYS BE MY FRIEND, KIIIIIRYU!!!”

            I hear Yusei walk over to the control unit and as with the other one, there was blinding flash. The control unit had been sealed. I really couldn’t care. Nothing did anymore… I’ve lost the love of my life a second time. Kiryu won’t be coming back. Ever.

            “Iolanthe…” Yusei says a while later when my sobbing has slowed down to sniffling, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. “I know it’s hard, I’m hurting just as bad as you are, but it isn’t over yet. There are still more Dark Signers out there. You have to be strong… for… him.”

            “Y-Y-Yu…” I stammer.

            “Please, Iolanthe. For Kiyru’s sake you have to go on. You have to protect Satellite in his stead.” I start at hearing my boyfriend’s words echoed by Yusei’s voice. H-Had he heard what Kiryu’s soul had said to me in that duel?! Had Kiryu come to him as well?

            I timidly nod. Yusei was right. He usually was. Our voice of reason. “I-I’ll try Yus,” I say, sniffling again.

            “You go on ahead. I still have to fix my D-Wheel. I’ll catch up as soon as I’m done.”

            “T-Thank you, Yusei,” I say giving him a hug of gratitude.

            “You would have done the same for me,” he replies, returning the hug.

            I solemnly walk over to my Valkyrie and check her for damage before getting back on and riding off. My former teammate was right; this was far from over. There were at least still two Dark Signers left by my reckoning.

*****************************************************

            I finally reach another of the control units off to the south only to see a black and orange clad Dark Signer. Somehow, this one seemed familiar. She had long black hair and wide grey blue eyes. “I’d never thought I’d run into a nice person like you in a place like this,” she says, almost regretfully.

            “Um…” I say trying to remember where I’d seen this girl before.

            “I didn’t think you’d be the type of person who’d disregard someone like me, but it doesn’t matter. After all, I’m just a nobody journalist, so who’d remember me right?”

            Journalist? Wait! Was she…? “C-Carly?” I ask, still not sure if it was that pushy, bubblehead of a journalist.

            “Oh so you do remember me. I’m glad.”

            No! It couldn’t be! I may have disliked this girl, maybe even a tad jealous of her spending time with that no good back stabbing ‘big brother’ of mine, but I never wanted her to wind up like this! That slime Divine must have killed her after I let her out of that cell! Yet another thing I could have prevented.

            “Carly…” I start, trying to find the right words to say in apology.

            “I’d hate to disappoint you,” she says icily, her voice sending shivers down my spine, “It’s Jack I want to see.”

            “If you have to get revenge on someone, then let it be me!” I say, “It’s my fault you got killed. Not Jack’s!”

            “No,” she says, “I have to see Jack! There’s something… but if you insist on getting in my way, then I’ll just have to get rid of you. Nothing will stop me from seeing Jack!”

******************************************

            Who would have thought that little bubble headed Carly was a duelist on par with me and the rest of the boys? But she was. Most probably thanks to that Immortal of hers. I begrudgingly came to respect her as a duelist. She had managed to wipe out my army of monsters almost every turn, but thanks to my beloved Monarchs I managed to finally wrest the upper hand from her.

            “Hmph. You’re pretty good,” she says, in mutual reluctant respect. “But I can’t let this be the end of me!” Suddenly an ominous cloud of blackish purple energy swirled around her.

            It looked like she was arguing with herself. She started moaning and crying out in pain. “C-Carly?! You ok?” I call, greatly concerned for her. The dark cloud vanished as it had come, however the poor girl had changed. She had a crazed look on her face, one almost identical to the one my beloved Kiryu had while we dueled.

            “Thanks for asking,” she jeers, “but I’m just fine. Fine enough to take care of you! I won’t let you keep me away from Jack!”

            “Carly!”

            Hmph! Speak of the devil. My traitorous former teammate came riding on a rather fancy and expensive looking D-Wheel and pulled along the other side of the Dark Signer.

            “Well… well… well…” Carly drawls, “The illustrious Jack Atlas finally graces us with his presence. It’s not nice to keep a lady waiting, Jackie!”

            “Iolanthe!”  he calls to me, “Let me take over from here! This is my battle to fight! Not yours!”

            “I don’t take orders from traitors!” I spit back. “Especially Neo Domino slimes like you!”

            “I-Iolanthe!” he stutters in complete shock. Hey, I was still peeved at him for doing what he did. So sue me. “Look, can’t we talk about that after Satellite’s not in danger?!”

            “My, my, whatever did you do to get her feathers so ruffled, Jackie boy? Not having a lovers’ spat are we?”

            “I-It’s nothing like that!” the blond stutters, “Will you just leave already Iolanthe? I still have to settle things with Carly.”

            “Tch! Fine! Do what the hell you want!” I huff, pulling back from the two.

            “Settle things?!” mocks Carly, “Ha! That’s rich Jackie! The only thing you’ll be settling is, your payment on your trip to Hell you pathetic Signer!”

            “Snap out of it Carly! Iolanthe! You go hurry to the others! I’ve got it covered here!”

            “You’d better run, little girl,” Carly sneers, pulling up along side of me again. “You wouldn’t want to be around when I rip his soul apart now would you?”

            “Get going Iolanthe!!!”

            “Hmph!” I yell, “Don’t think I’m gonna listen to you, Jackie. I’m only backing out ‘cause I’m more worried about Aki than you right now.” I put on the brake and watch the two speed away. “Don’t you dare lose, traitor,” I mumble, “not until we’ve settled our own matters.”

******************************************

            As I reach the final control unit, I spot Aki dueling against that Misty woman from before. Goodwin’s lackey, Mikage was watching from a safe distance further back. “I am the Black Rose Witch and this where you’ll meet your end!” I hear Aki yell. I get a good look at her and…

            Oh no! This was the crazed out of control Aki I had the wondrous misfortune to duel against. Things were no doubt going to get ugly.

            “So you’ve finally decided to reveal your true self,” scoffs the black and green clad Dark Signer.

            “If you dare to get in my way, I’ll wipe out your very existence! Do not mock me!” Aki spits back.

            “Just like how you erased my brother, is that what you’re going to do? I don’t think so witch. It is you who is going to be wiped out of existence. I’m going to send you to the afterlife, so I suggest you prepare yourself to apologize my brother when you meet him there!”

            “Aki-san!” Mikage shouts with worry, “What’s wrong?! Snap out of it!”

            “HAHAHAHA! That’s wonderful!”     

            I knew that voice! How in the name of the Abyss did that bastard escape the Arcadia building?!! Sure enough, a few feet away from me stood the head of the Arcadia Movement, Divine. Grrr!! I really wanted to tear him apart for what he did to me and Aki, not to mention what he intended to do with the twins.

            “Destroy them Aki!” the slimeball shouts with maniacal glee, “Now that your powers have been unleashed, you’re stronger than any Dark Signer! HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

            “Divine! You scum!!” I bellow, charging up to him.

            “You?!” he says.

            “Me.” I retort, giving him my best death glare. Ah, if only looks could kill.

            “Well, well, well, I never would have thought I’d find you in a place like this. There’s nothing you can do, you know. Aki is under my complete control. With her, the Arcadia Movement will regain its former glory!”

            “Bastard!” I was going to make him pay for making my friend like that.

            “It’s pathetic really,” Divine says turning back to the duel, “Misty became a Dark Signer because of my little cover up. Aki never killed her brother. Oh no. He was a rather excellent test subject, just like you. But… well he just couldn’t take the experimentation. A pathetic child really, unlike you, my dear little lab rat.”

            “You’re sick!” I say in disgust, “You’re going to pay for what you did!!”

            “Actually,” the Arcadia leader drawls, “It’ll be you who’ll pay… for all the trouble you caused! I won’t be needing you anyway, now that Aki’s under my control.”

            “Not if I have anything to do with it! I’m gonna tear you apart, you sick f*#^!!!!”

*********************************

            Once a slimy bastard, always a slimy bastard. Did he really think those pathetic psychic monsters would work against my Monarchs? Oh please. As with before, I had thoroughly kicked his ass. Yes, he may have given me a bit of trouble before, but compared going against the Dark Signers and their Immortals, Divine was a walk in the park!

            “H-How could I lose… again!” the bastard sputtered, “No matter, I still have Aki. You’re just useless garbage now anyway!”

            “Hey!” I yell as he runs off, “Come back here you scum bag!” I chased after him, he was heading toward Aki!

            “Iolanthe-san!” Mikage shouts running up to me as I near the duel’s area. “It’s Aki, she’s acting strange! Before, she was just showing off, now… this guy came up to her and she took one look at him and… now it’s like she’s his puppet or something!”

            Damn it! I was too late. What did you do to her, Divine?!

            “That’s it Aki…” that bastard says to her, “destroy that fool of a Dark Signer immediately!”

            “Yes Divine,” she says hollowly. Mikage wasn’t joking around here. It was as if the sweet girl I’ve become friends with had been turned into a robot or something.

            “That scum! “ I hiss, “He’s got her hypnotized somehow!”

            “H-Hypnotized?!” Mikage asks, incredulously, “Are you saying that he’s really controlling her?!”

            “Looks that way,” I say grimly. “He’s also the reason why that woman’s a Dark Singer.”

            “What do you mean, Iolanthe-san?”

            “This Misty thinks Aki’s the reason her brother died, but it was that bastard!!!!” I say as loud as I can, hoping the Dark Signer would hear me. “He killed the kid while experimenting on him!!!”

            “I-Is that true?!”

            “He admitted it, himself. He was practically bragging about it!”

            “You there!” Misty calls to us and I turn around, trying to keep my trembling in check. Damn those eyes of theirs freaked me out! “What did you say about my brother?!”

            “Those damned bitches!!!” Divine snarled. “Hmph. So what if it was me who killed your brother? He was nothing but a disposable pawn. Just like you.”

            “Y-You monster!” Misty screamed, “I’ll never forgive you for what you’ve done!”

            “Really Misty,” the Arcadia leader drawled, “If you’re going to blame someone, you might as well blame your brother for being so pathetically weak in the first place.”

            “I’d shut that scheming mouth of yours if I were you,” the Dark Signer sneered, “I offer you my soul,” she starts, sacrificing the two monsters she had on the field. Hmm… looks like someone’s about to get his just desserts. “Break the free from the spell held over you! Earthbound Immortal Ccarayhua!!”

            A giant black and green glowing caricature of the old Geico gecko appears and gives out a great hissing roar. This was probably the only time I’d be glad to see one of those terrible things. At last some justice for all of us who’d been hurt by that bastard’s plotting was going to be served.

            “You’re time is up, Divine of the Arcadia Movement!”

            At the Dark Signer’s command the gecko like monster picks up the man with its slimy tongue much like a real lizard would with an insect – which that scum was. Divine gave out a bloodcurdling scream as Ccarayhua swallowed him whole and making an audible gulp. Good riddance! That’d be one less bit of kipple to worry about.

            “I avenged my brother,” Misty says serenely, “I no longer have any reason to fight. I am truly sorry Aki. I was misled about my brother’s death.”

            As with Carly, a blackish purple cloud surrounded her. I knew what was about to happen. In fact I could hear Misty arguing with herself, just as Carly had. Jack… I thought, remembering that I’d left that idiot traitor to fight the completely possessed journalist.

            “Aki!” I shout, “Watch out!”

            “Wha? Misty?” Aki says dazedly, snapping out of the trance she’d been in.

            “Aki!” Mikage shouts in fear, “Iolanthe-san, you’ve got to help her.. and Misty. Aki has no idea what’s been going on.”

            “Run Aki!” I say, dashing over. I may not have liked her much, but Mikage was right. I did have to save them both. Misty didn’t deserve to die like this! Not after finally learning the truth.

            “Do you really think you could be a threat to me, little girl?” the black and green clad Dark Signer sneers, “I’ll just have to get you out of my way first!” Misty then gave a pained yell. “No! She’s trying to resist me! The power… is unstable! I must defeat you! If I do, this fool may stop resisting me!”

Chapter Text

            “Do you really think you could be a threat to me, little girl?” the black and green clad Dark Signer sneers, “I’ll just have to get you out of my way first!” Misty then gave a pained yell. “No! She’s trying to resist me! The power… is unstable! I must defeat you! If I do, this fool may stop resisting me!”

            Here we go again. This wasn’t going to be easy.

*********************************************

            And I was right. That lizard was one sneaky bitch. I might have been able to keep her from summoning that gecko thing, but she did somehow managed to get a monster with 2600 attack on the field. My Monarchs may have been strong, but not that strong.

            But just as it looked as if things were bleak, I could feel a strange power coming from my deck. I felt a strange sense of determination coming from my cards, as if the bits of cardboard wanted to fight… wanted me to continue on. I drew my beloved D.D. Survivor!

            “K-Kiryu…” I murmur. I somehow felt my boyfriend’s arms wrap around me and I start and almost jump out of my skin.

            ‘Take her down, Io,’ I hear him whisper and I can’t stop the tears from falling from my eyes. ‘I know you can do it… koi.’

            “Kiryu…” I say again, “Thank… you.” Even now, he was still with me; still watching out for me.

            “Make your move,” the possessed Misty demands impatiently, “Or have you decided to give up already?”

            I glared it the thing that had taken Misty’s body, “Satellites NEVER give up!” I shout in defiance. “I summon D.D. Survivor in attack mode!”

            “Oh you foolish, foolish, foolish girl,” Misty jeers, grinning sadistically. I wasn’t worried. D.D. hardly ever let me down when I summoned him. And I already had one of the few cards needed for his special ability in play. Plus there was still the Monarch I had in my hand. I knew now, Kiryu would always be there for me, no matter where he was. “Reptilliane Vaskii! Destroy her D.D. Survivor!!” I wince as I feel the pain from the 800 points of damage. It didn’t matter, my most prized monster would be back. “Still wish to continue your suffering?” she asks.

            “Bring it you scaly bitch!” I spit.

            “Hmph. As you wish. I end my turn for now.”

            I smirk triumphantly as my monster’s ability kicks in and he returns to my side of the field. “Time to end your suffering Misty,” I call, “I summon Zaborg, the Thunder Monarch in attack mode, using my D.D. Survivor as payment for his services.”

            “Heh! You know I’ll just destroy that monster anyway, so why bother,” the Dark Signer drawls.

            “Never underestimate Team Satisfaction!” I shout back, “We’re family, and family always looks out for each other!” Kiryu… koi… I thought, a tiny smile coming to my lips. “Zabby here, like all my other Monarchs, has a very special gift. He gets to destroy one monster I choose whenever he’s summoned using a sacrifice. And guess who’s gonna have to say bye-bye?”

            “W-What?!”

            “You know what happens to a lizard when it’s struck by lightning?” I sneer, “The same thing that happens to everything else. Zabby, fry that reptile!” Lightning leaps from the giant’s hands and sparks across the field until it hits Misty’s Reptilliane Vaskii. The naga like creature let out a hissing scream as she was electrocuted and shattered to bits.

            “Y-You!”

            “But that’s not all. Now, Zaborg! Finish her off for good!”

            “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” the possessed woman screams as the last of her life points are annihilated. The cloud of dark energy appears once more, but quickly dissipates, leaving Misty’s body to start petrifying just like all the other Dark Signers’.

            “Misty!!!!” Aki screams as the woman falls, catching her as she runs over.

            “Thank… you…” Misty says, smiling towards me. I nod, wiping frantically at my once again tearing eyes. “Aki… you mustn’t look at me so… You still… have to protect this world… as a Signer… All I ask… is that you never… forget us… my brother Tobi… and I…”

            “Misty…” Aki says, her eyes just as wet as mine, as the dust that was once the woman’s body is blown away by the wind.

            “Aki,” Mikage says solemnly, “let’s seal the control unit. It’s what she would have wanted.”

            “Yes…” she says getting up. I watch as she takes out a card and holds it up before the tower entrance. And again there was another blinding flash, causing the overpowering sense of dread and menace vanish from the air.

            “The control unit is sealed,” Aki says. She blinks confusedly and lets out a grunt as if in pain.

            “Aki?!” Mikage asks in concern.

            “I-It’s ok,” the burgundy haired girl replies, struggling to stay on her feet.

            “No! You’ve overworked yourself,” the blue haired woman says, helping Aki to lean on her, “Let’s get you somewhere so you can rest. I’m sure Atlas-san can seal the last control unit in no time. Iolanthe-san, I’ll escort Aki back, will you please make sure the last control unit is sealed?”

            “Sure.”

            “Thank you and good luck,” Mikage says helping Aki to walk as they leave the area.

            As I turn to go check up on my idiotic ‘big brother’, a blinding light shines from the direction where I had left Jack and Carly. “Well it looks like you finally did something right, ‘big brother.’”

**********************************

            I start to head back to where the others had decided to meet up when a black and red clad man appears out of no where. What the?! A sixth Dark Signer?! Just how many of these maniacs were there?! On his right arm, I could make out the faint purplish glow in the shape of my most hated enemies on the planet… a spider. Gods!!! I loathed those creepy eight legged freaks!! Just thinking about them made my skin crawl.

            “Nice to meet you Signers,” the white haired man says in greeting, “I am Rudger.”

            Like who cares. If he was here for a duel, he’d better get it over with otherwise, I’d have to take him down the old fashioned way – a good swift kick to where the sun don’t shine. I’d been hit on by enough persistent pervy idiots back in Satellite to know that that would leave any man totally defenseless while I made my escape. Sure enough it’ll work on a Dark Signer, dead or not.

            “You may have sealed all the control units,” Rudger goes on, “but you’re much too late. The power from the control units has already been gathered into the Old Ener-D System.” That definitely didn’t sound too good. “All that is needed now is for me to open the gate and the world will be ours! But if you must insist on stopping that from happening, then come defeat me – if you can – I’ll be waiting at the Old Ener-D System. I hope you do come, I’ll enjoy crushing you all and offer your souls to the King of the Underworld! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” He then vanished in a swirl of purple flames.

            I had to get to the others! No. There wasn’t enough time! I just couldn’t go traipsing around looking from my friends now! I was the only one close enough to the old reactor so, it had to be to stop that Rudger guy or else all Hell will literally break loose!

            I rush down the stairs located to the north of the control unit and make a beeline for the once defunct Ener-D System.

*****************************************

            “Rudger!” I bellow charging along the plus sign shaped catwalk that was situated above a glowing purple pit.

            The white haired man raises an eyebrow before deigning to speak to me, “I’d never thought a non-Signer would dare come here; and all alone at that. Now why is that I wonder?”

            “Why the hell do you think?!” I snarl, “I’m here to stop you! There’s no way I’m gonna let you open that gate!”

            “Are you challenging me, child? Do you truly believe you could best me in a duel?”

            “I’ll stop you no matter what the cost!” I retort.

            “I admire that courage of yours, so I think I’ll give you a reward. The gate is about to open any moment now, if you want to stop it, you’ll have to defeat me first! By the looks of things, I’d say it’d open in about twenty duel turns. Think you can beat me before then?”

            That shouldn’t be too hard right? I mean twenty turns was a long time in dueling terms. But knowing how tough a Dark Signer is, this wasn’t the time for me to get cocky. Besides, no telling what Spidey here was up to. I can just hope my Monarchs would get me through this as they always have.

            “Fine,” I say readying my disk and deck. “I. Will. Stop. You!”

            “Really now? I don’t think you’d even last five turns against me let alone twenty.” He then laughs maniacally, starting the duel.

*******************************************

            It was seven turns into the duel that I was able to wrest the upper hand from Rudger and his hideous deck of spider monsters. In his haste to finish me off, he had used a spell called ‘Mausoleum of the Emperor’ to summon the biggest, baddest, AND ugliest arachnid I’d ever seen. That had left his life points just about 1000.

If this had been three years ago, I’d be running away in sheer an utter terror, screaming for one of the boys to kill it for me. But the rest of Team Satisfaction wasn’t here. I had to take care of this monstrosity of nature on my own. I swallowed hard and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down.

            “Ever hear that ‘haste makes waste,’ bub?” I say once I can hold my cards without trembling. “I sacrifice my Banisher of the Radiance to summon Raiza, the Storm Monarch! Since I sacrificed a monster to summon him, Raiza gets to send one of your cards to the top of your deck, and I choose… your Earthbound Immortal!! Raiza! Blow that disgusting thing out of my sight!!” The white and green armored giant claps his hands together and the hurricane force wind that created did indeed send the eight legged freak flying off the field.

            “H-How?!” Rudger shouts in utter confusion.

            “Caius, the Shadow Monarch,” I command, “FINISH HIM OFF FOR GOOD!!!!!!” My purple and black armored monster blasts an enormous ball of purplish black energy – much like the stuff that had surrounded Carly and Misty – at Rudger, hitting square in the chest and knocking him backwards across the glowing pit.

            “H-How is it,” the red and black clad man huffs, “that some who isn’t a Signer like you can be so powerful…?!”

            “Iolanthe!” Yusei shouts, running over to me.

            “I’ve been waiting for you… Yusei Fudo,” Rudger says before I can properly explain to my spiky haired friend. “It’s too bad you’re too late. The gate to the Underworld will open any second now!”

            “What?!”

            My sentiments exactly Yus. I beat Rudger. He said I could prevent the gate from opening if I beat him, so just what the heck was going on?! Just how naive could I be?! I can’t believe I took the word of a Dark Signer at face value! Had my time with Kiryu and the boys taught me nothing?!

            “There is… nothing you can do… but cower in fear… as your world comes… to an end! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!” Rudger’s laugh lingers as his petrified body crumbles to dust.

            “It can’t be!” Yusei says in shock, “I didn’t make it in time?! There’s nothing I can do?!”

            “Yusei!” I scold, “Get a hold of yourself!”

            Suddenly there was a flash of red light coming from my former teammate’s right arm. “My Signer mark!” he says, eyes widening at the glowing tattoo. There was another blinding flash of light and when I could see again, I was standing at the gates of Goodwin’s mansion, but where was Yusei?! Glancing around I see that Aki and Mikage are there as well.

            “Where are we?!” Aki says, just as surprised as I.

            “Iolanthe-san!” the blue haired woman cries upon spotting me.

            “I knew you’d show up here sooner or later!” the freakish clown guy from the Fortune Cup says coming from through the gates, chuckling eerily.

            “You’re…!” Mikage gasps.

            “Hmm…” the creep says, ignoring her, “we seem to be missing a few people. And there’s a non-Signer no less. It seems that the power of the Crimson Dragon’s become a bit… unstable.”

            You’re one to talk you creepy circus reject. If anything’s unstable around here, it’s you! Was it me or did he remind the others of that killer clown from an old horror movie?

            “What do you mean?!” Aki asks.

            “I bet you’d like to know what’s going on in the world, don’t you?” Well, duh. Just spit it out already pasty face! “Well the answers you seek are just beyond this gate.” Great. Just great not only was he freaky, but a weisenheimer too. I definitely wasn’t looking forward to having to deal with that sanctimonious bastard Goodwin.

            “But I can’t just let you through,” he jeers, giggling insanely, “not unless you can prove you’re worthy enough to enter.” Yep. He was definitely a weisenheimer. I was soooooo gonna kick his pasty little kiester so hard that he’d be sitting on his head! Either that or that freaky grin’s gonna be where his smeller ought to be.

*****************************************************

            Gods! This circus reject was really starting to piss me off!! As if his constant insane giggling weren’t annoying enough, this freak wasn’t even attacking! All he did was put wimpy monsters in defense and relied on his attack blocking traps and spells. He’s a disgrace to duelists everywhere! Where was the fun if your opponent wasn’t even going to try attacking even once?! Was it his intention to make me feel like a bully here?!! Well even if wasn’t, I sure did, but he brought it upon himself! Time to end this farce of a duel!

            “Cauis, Thestalos, Raiza!” I call to my darling Monarchs, “Rip him to shreds!!!!!” Wind, fire, and dark energy cover the field as all three of my monsters shot their attacks at the now defenseless clown.

            “AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” he screams, the gates the only things keeping him up right. “N-Not bad,” he pants, “not bad at all. I think you just may have what it takes after all.” He gave yet another insane giggle, as he gets up and starts to walk away. “Well, anyway, good luck to you… you’ll be needing it.” With that, the annoying circus reject walks toward the city entrance.

            “Just what was that about…?” Aki asks as she watches the clown disappear behind the city gates.

            “Don’t look at me, Aki,” I say, “Come on, let’s get this over with. The sooner we get away from the snake, the sooner I can go looking for Yusei. He was with me just before I wound up here.”

            “Ah! What’s going on?!” Mikage shouts as the earth shakes.

            “Look at the mansion!” Aki says, pointing at the huge house behind us. Mikage and I whirl around and I gasp.

            The temple Goodwin had shown us on the holoscreen was no longer underground. It was out there in plain sight for all to see. Just what the hell was going on?!!

            “What’s happening?!” Yusei says, echoing my thoughts and running over to us with officer Ushio.

            “That’s…!”

            “I know Yus,” I say, frowning at the enormous Mayan style structure.

            “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” Aki adds, again echoing what was going through my mind.

            “Hey!” Ushio pipes up, “Where’re the kids? Aren’t they here? I was with them, but they got swallowed up by that huge flash of light and we got separated.”

            “I think they may have been teleported somewhere by the Crimson Dragon’s power,” Yusei explains. “It’s best we check out that temple though. Everyone, stay here, Aki and I will go. Besides, the twins may show up yet.”

            “Got it,” agreed the security officer, “We’ll tell them you went ahead.”

            “Aki, you should stay here,” Mikage says as the burgundy haired girl started to follow Yusei.

            “I’m going in,” she protests determinedly, “I made a promise to Misty that I’d protect this world not matter the costs!”

            “Fine, if you feel as though you must,” the blue haired woman replied, “but don’t do anything reckless, please? I-Iolanthe-san?!!!”

            I glance at her over my shoulder as I too head for the mansion. “I’m going too,” I say firmly, “Someone’s got to keep an eye on Yusei. Besides, I want answers and I want them, now!”

            “B-But…”

            “Let her go, Mika-chan,” Ushio says, shocking us all, “I’m against it too, but I know that when a girl’s got her mind made up, there’s nothing that’s gonna change it.”

            “Thanks,” I say. He’d just better not think I was going to make it a habit of being nice to that Security jerk. Once a bunch of arrogant self righteous bastards, always a bunch of arrogant self righteous bastards.

******************************************************

            I finally catch up to the others by a fountain out behind the mansion. “I still can’t believe that’s the same temple that was under the mansion,” Yusei says in awe as we stared at the enormous structure.

            “Me neither, Yus,” I say.

            “Though, I wonder why it chose now to rise up like that…”

            “Good point, Aki. Any ideas Yusei? You’re the one who’s always figuring things out before we could.”

            Yusei was about to say something when that snake of a bastard, Goodwin came walking toward us from the temple’s stairs. “I’ve been waiting, Signers. Hmm… I see that not all of you are here. No matter, I am certain they’ll show up when the time is right.”

            “What’s going on here, Goodwin?!” my black and gold haired friend demands. “The gate to the underworld was about to open…”

            “I am well aware of that, Yusei. However, you are too late. It can not be stopped.”

            “What?! That would mean…”

            “You are correct Aki Izayoi. This world is doomed. The King of the Underworld is making his way to this very temple as we speak.”

            “You bastard!” I snarl at the man’s cold demeanor. Didn’t he care about anything?! This was his world too!!

            “What do you mean by that, Goodwin?!” my former teammate demands yet again.

            “I summoned him here of course. That is this temple’s purpose after all.”

            “Y-You filthy…!!!” Aki grabbed hold of me before I could get any closer to that slimy piece of…

            “Iolanthe… don’t,” she says, “He isn’t worth it. We have more important things to worry about.”

            “You planned all this didn’t you?” Yusei asks, glaring furiously at the silver haired scumbag.

            “Yes. And I am glad to see that it all went without a hitch, except one. I used the power of the Crimson Dragon to summon you Signers here and complete the ritual… but that power has been dispersed and isn’t stable.”

            “Why are you doing this?!” demands Aki. Who cares why he was doing this, he had to be taken down!!! And ASAP!!!

            “I’m afraid I can’t tell you just yet. You will find out soon enough when the King of the Underworld arrives.”

            “That’s it!!! I’ve had enough of this slime!!! Lemme go Aki!! Yusei!!!”

            My friends tighten their hold as I began to furiously struggle to launch myself at the bastard who thought he could do whatever the f*#^ he wanted with people’s lives.

            “Perhaps, my dear…” Goodwin begins, “if you all would just calm down and look at this, you’d understand a bit more…”

            A geoglyph of a bird appeared to glow around the scumbag and shortly afterward he was surrounded by a cloud of purplish black energy. The same kind as…

            “That’s…” Aki gasps, “the same thing that happened with Misty!”

            The energy clears to reveal a shirtless Goodwin. Odd violet markings covering his body. My eyes widen upon noticing the prosthetic right arm. He… he had the same evil abyssal eyes as all the other Dark Signers! He was one of them all along!!!

            “MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” he chortles evilly, “Shall we begin?” The same geoglyph that had surrounded Goodwin appeared in the sky while tracks of purple flames surround the area below it. No. Not again! “Let’s get this ritual started shall we?” he says hopping onto a D-Wheel he’d stashed near by.

            “No!” Yusei shouts in frustration.

            “The only way for you to stop me, is to catch me. Care to race, Signers?”

            “You won’t get away with this, Goodwin! I won’t let you!” Yusei shouts as the lunatic revs his engine and starts racing down one of the glowing tracks. “We’re going after him.”

            “You damn right we are!” I concur.

            We race back to the mansion’s gate and order Mikage to have someone bring our D-Wheels. Within a few minutes, both motorbikes were brought to the geoglyph area and we mount them as soon as they’re properly checked over. Well, at least Mikage was good for one thing. She was efficient.

            “Ready?” Yusei asks, putting on his helmet. I nod, revving my engine. There was no way I was gonna let that bastard go through with this. He was gonna pay, for Kiryu, for Crow, for Yusei and even for that traitor Jack, and most importantly, for all of those poor souls trapped in Satellite lying he and everyone else in the city was livin’ fat!

            Yusei and I race around the glowing tracks in search of Goodwin. I silently pray that we’d find and catch him in time. And somehow, my prayer is answered and I spot the filth up ahead racing along one of the geoglyph’s wings. “Got you, slimeball!” I shout as I crash my Valkyrie into his D-Wheel. Sorry old friend, but I have to do this… you’ll understand right?

            Before Yusei or I can get a hold of him, Goodwin leaps off his motor bike and dashes up the temple stairs. “You may have won our little race, Signers,” the maniac jeers as he stands before a carved stone altar, “But you’ve yet to stop me.”

            “Why are you doing this Goodwin?! Why?!” Yusei yells as he starts up the stairs after him, with me following close behind.

            “Come now, Yusei,” the bastard drawls, “You’re a bright boy, you should know that I won’t give up the answer so easily.”

            I growl and whip out my duel disk.

            “I see at least one of you gets it. Beating you one by one would be quite troublesome, so I’ll take you both down at once!”

            “It’s you who’s going down, you bastard!” I roar. Slamming my deck into the disk.

            “Iolanthe…” Yusei says placing a hand on my disk arm. “There’s got to be another way… do you really think we have to do as he says?”

            “’The dogs of war won’t negotiate,’ Yus,” I say, quoting an old rock song I once heard on Crow’s old broken down radio. How fitting that I should think of that song now.

            My former teammate sighs, “I suppose you’re right Iolanthe. Let’s do this,” he says with a heavy heart.

            I nod, placing my hand on his shoulder. “Get ready to lose, filth!” I spit venomously at Goodwin, “You’re gonna pay for every decent person you’ve kept prisoner in Satellite!!!”

            “We shall see, young lady,” he returns, sneering at me.

*********************************************

            The bastard was a total joke! Hmph some duelist. All he did was just as that freaky clown did. Oh sure he did try to attack Yusei and me, but thanks to having a partner, it was fairly easy to get the two Monarchs in my hand onto the field in no time flat! After that our battle was a cakewalk compared to the other Dark Signers. Goodwin was completely defenseless with only three cards facedown and no monsters. Yus and I had five monsters and two of ‘em were my beloved Monarchs. What a pity. It looked like I wasn’t gonna see my spiky haired friend’s beloved Stardust Dragon in action anytime soon. Oh well… time to save the world, Io!

            “Caius!” I call to my favorite Monarch, “Wipe that stain out of existence!”

            “Not so fast, my dear,” Goodwin sneers, “I activate my trap, “Offering to the Immortals!” Oh no! That wasn’t good. “Since you’ve been so kind to attack me while my life points are below 3000, I get to special summon two Ceremonial Tokens in defense on the field. Plus I get to add one card with Earthbound in its name to my hand from my deck. I’m sure you know which one.”

            “Tch! Fine,” I spit angrily, as he shows me the card he picked – Earthbound Immortal Wariqocha Rasca. “So you live for another turn, but you won’t summon that thing! Raiza, Dimensional Alchemist! Destroy those tokens!”

            “I activate the spell Terraforming!” Goodwin announces, “Now I place the field spell I just chose face down on the field and end my turn. Still think you can defeat me, Yusei?”

            “I know we will, Goodwin,” he says drawing a card. “I place a card face down. Now Caius, the Shadow Monarch, wipe out the last of Goodwin’s life points!”

            “NNNNNNNNUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!” the bastard screams as the ball of shadow magic hits him directly. Yes! We beat him!!! We did it, Kiryu. We got that bastard for you!

            “I should have known you were so strong,” Goodwin says, eyeing me as if I were a nice rack of lamb. “That just means that you would be an even more delicious sacrifice to the King of the Underworld!”

            “Give it up already, you slime!” I bellow, “You’ve lost!”

            “What are you talking about, Goodwin?! Is that really the only reason you agreed to duel us?”

            “But of course!” the silver haired Dark Signer says, cackling insanely, “I needed the power of a Signer and a strong duelist to complete the ritual. Ah… perfect. The others have finally arrived.

            “Minna!” Aki calls as Jack and the twins join us.

            “Just what is going on here?!” the blond asks, shocked to see the temple.

            “This is Goodwin’s doing,” the burgundy haired girl explains.

            “He’s trying to summon the King of the Underworld,” I add.

            Ruka gasps in surprise, “So he’s really the bad guy, huh?” Rua pipes up, “Well there’s no way we’re gonna let him get away with that, right?!”

            Before any of us could say anything, there was another earthquake, this one worse than before. We all struggle to keep our balance as we wait for the tremors to stop.

            “MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!” that filthy slimeball cackles, “The King of the Underworld has finally been revived!!”

            From atop of the gigantic temple, we could see all of Neo Domino and Satellite. Over by the Old Ener-D System, stood a gigantic, hideous six armed creature!

Chapter Text

            “All of the conditions have been met,” Goodwin says utterly thrilled with himself, “Let’s begin shall we?”

            “Just what were you thinking, Goodwin?!!” Yusei shouts in disgust.

            “UUUUUUGGGGGGHHHH!!!” the Dark Signer grunts, ripping off his fake arm and shoves another that had a mark of the bird geoglyph in the sky into the empty socket.

            “What’s he doin’?!,” Jack asks.

            “I now have the powers of a Signer and Dark Signer. “MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

            “My mark!” Yusei cries as it starts glowing an angry red.

            “Hey! My mark’s gone!” Jack gasps.

            “What?! Mine too!” Aki says.

            “Just what is going on?” Ruka asks.

            “Look at Goodwin!!” I holler. Tattooed on his chest was a glowing Crimson Dragon!

            “With the powers of the Immortals and Crimson Dragon, I have become a god!!!” the bastard crows. Oh joy, not was he only a loonie, but a loonie with a god complex! The worse kind of loonie if you ask me.

            “What are you saying?!” demands Yusei.

            “I’ll tell you if that’ll only to get you to stop pestering me with questions,” he says, grinning evilly. “My brother Rudger had the mark of both a Signer and Dark Signer. But alas, his soul was almost completely taken over by the Immortals. With the last bit of his humanity, Rudger cut off the arm with the Signer mark and left it to me. He did it so that when all you Signers appeared, they would be able to defeat the Dark Signers, including my brother. But I came to realize something… Even if you did defeat them, the Dark Signers would just keep coming back every five thousand years. I decided to stop this endless cycle once and for all!!”

            “What makes you think you can do that?” Yusei asks.

            “Weren’t you paying attention, boy?! I already said that with the power of both a Dark Signer and Signer I have become a god!!” Yeah, yeah, we heard that crap before, pal! “I shall finish this battle between the Crimson Dragon and the Immortals once and for all! I’ll destroy everything with the King of the Underworld’s power then rebuild it with that of the Crimson Dragon! I shall make a new world!!”

            “Not if we have anything to do with it, right guys?!” I spit.

            “Did you really think we’d help you with that diabolical plan?!” my traitorous ‘big brother’ retorts.

            “Too many innocents will die!!” adds Aki, “I won’t let you do that!!!!!”

            “I won’t let you use the Spirit World either!!!!” Ruka yells.

            “There’s no way we’re gonna let you make everyone suffer!” her twin says, adding his two cents.

            “What you’re doing is wrong Goodwin!!!” Yusei admonishes, “A god is not what can stop this destiny! It’s something we all have to work, strive and fight for!”

            “Hmph! And how do you puny, powerless humans intend to fight against destiny?” sneered ‘God’.

            “With the bond we share as friends!” my black and gold haired friend yells back, “We’ll use that special bond to change our own destinies!”

            “Pathetic!” Goodwin spits back venomously, “I am untouchable! You’re nothing but insects in my eyes!”

            Just then another quake hit as the temple began to rise even more out of the ground, causing us to stumble and fall backwards down the stairs. “Iolanthe!!!!” Jack shouts and manages to catch me as I feel myself being hurtled down the stone steps. He then starts jumping down several steps at a time until we are safe back on firmer ground, carrying me all the while. “Are you alright?” he asks.

            “Y-Yeah,” I stammer, blushing slightly and feeling the teensiest bit guilty for doubting his loyalty still.

            Meanwhile, I see that Aki was in a similar situation with Yusei. I couldn’t help but smile at the attraction between the two. “What now?!” the burgundy haired girl asks when Yusei puts her down gingerly as if she were a fine porcelain doll.

            “The temple started to rise again,” Ruka explained.

            “YUSEI FUDO…!!!” calls Goodwin, still at the top of the pyramid like structure, “Since you feel so strong about it, then prove it to me!! That is if you can make it all the way up here! But I won’t be making it easy either, you’ll be dueling me along the way!”

            “I’ll show you what us powerless humans can do!” he shoots back, rising to the challenge.

            “Oh no! I thought I fixed this thing!” Yusei says when his D-Wheel fails to start.

            “See how useless you really are, Yusei?!” taunts the silver haired scumbag, “You disappoint me… hmph!”

            “Damn it! Why’d this have to happen now?!” my former teammate curses.

            “Jack, go get your D-Wheel!” orders Rua.

            “I can’t. It got destroyed in a battle with a Dark Signer.”

            “That’s bad!” Aki says worriedly.

            “Is there really nothing we can do to stop him?”

            “Get a hold of yourself Yusei! There’s still one D-Wheel left,” I say hopping onto my beloved Valkyrie and gunning her engine.

            “Iolanthe! Don’t! It’s just too dangerous!”

            “Now this is amusing!” jeers Goodwin, “a non-Signer wishes to challenge me yet again! As a reward for your bravery, girl, I won’t be holding back.”

*******************************************

            Goodwin hadn’t been kidding when he said he wouldn’t hold back anything. I was absolutely furious!!! The slime had been playing with me in our previous duel like a cat would a mouse. Even with a deck designed to get my beloved Monarchs onto the field as quick as possible, that bastard would wipe out my monsters or block using a spell or trap just as when it was beginning to look up for me.

            It was as if my deck was just as angry as I was for I finally drew the card that would let me win this – Brain Control! Time to pay Goodwin!!! “I activate my Brain Control and take control of your Giant Germ!!” I shout in triumph. He had no traps and only one other monster face down.

            “Struggle all you’d like my dear,” Goodwin sneers boredly, “you’ll never be able to defeat a god!”

            “You’re no god, slime ball! And I’ll prove it!!! I offer the Giant Germ I stole from you to summon a dear friend of mine. Say hello to, Raiza the Storm Monarch!!! Raiza send that face down monster to the deck!!!” I command as his special ability kicks in. A hurricane force wind blows the card completely off the field, leaving his 1800 life points wide open! “Raiza! Destroy him once and for all!!!” I bring the Valkyrie to a screeching halt as I finally reach the top of the temple.

            “I-Impossible!!! How is it that a non-Signer like you can have such power?!!” Goodwin says in utter shock, “It doesn’t matter… your power is still that of a human, nothing compared to the power I now have! There is no way you can stop the King of the Underworld!”

            Suddenly the tattoo of the Crimson Dragon on Goodwin’s chest glows an enraged red and lifts itself off of the crazed megalomaniac. “W-What is the meaning of this?!” he shouts. There is a blinding flash. When I can see again, I look around and see tiny glowing points of red light coming from the other Signers. It appears that the Crimson Dragon wasn’t too happy with this scum either.

            “Did the Crimson Dragon refuse, Goodwin?” Yusei says as he halts his finally fixed D-Wheel near the altar.

            “Don’t look at me, Yus,” I say, “but if that’s what you think…” I shriek as the Crimson Dragon tattoo appears before me and glows brilliantly before attaching itself to me. I could feel a faint, gentle warmth coming from my chest where I was sure to find the tattoo emblazoned onto my skin.

            “T-This can not be!!!” screams the silver haired slime ball, enraged at losing the power I can now feel flowing through and all around me. “I was the Crimson Dragon’s chosen one!!!”

            “You’re wrong!!” Yusei says, “It chose the close bond of friendship instead! It knows we can change the future through that bond, because it can withstand any challenge!”

            “Utter rubbish!” spits Goodwin vehemently, “I’ll prove to you that I am all mighty! I’ll crush you all right here right now!!!”

            For the love of…! How many times must I fight this filth?! Why couldn’t he just give up already?!! I’ve proven twice now that I could kick his slimy ass!! Sighing, I glare at the silver haired bastard and activated my duel disk, hopefully for the last time.

*******************************************

            “Cauis! D.D. Survivor!” I command, “Get rid of this slime ball!!!” This time we really did it, Kiryu. I say, You can finally be satisfied, koi.

            I feel my body heat up and the power the Crimson Dragon had given me flared out into the sky, causing the millennia old creature to appear above the temple. Goodwin screams in pain as his Dark Signer and Signer marks glowed red and purple. The glow intensifies until I am once again blinded. This was getting pretty old fast. My eyes could only take so much abuse.

            When I can see again I find myself floating in what I can only describe as the sky. There were stars below me, stars above me, stars everywhere! Before me stood Goodwin, however it was the Goodwin before he had become a Dark Signer.

            “Where are we?” he demands. Typical arrogant piece of…

            “Who the hell cares?!” I yell back, “Take me back or else scumbag!!!”

            “Rex!”

            I jump into a battle stance when I see Rudger come walking toward us.

            “Brother… Well, it looks like we took our time getting here. Iolanthe, was it?” he asks turning to me. “Because of all of you, I realized I’ve forgotten something… is what Yusei Fudo had been saying all along. Destiny can be changed through the bonds of friendship… I thank you for reminding me.”

            That’s it?! He finally comes to his senses only to thank me?! I didn’t want a thank you! I wanted Kiryu back! I wanted Misty and Bommer back!! Those Dark Signers didn’t deserve to die like they did! And most of all I wanted freedom for the people of Satellite!! Not some stupid words of gratitude from an arrogant, manipulating, self righteous sleaze like Goodwin!! I wanted satisfaction!!

            The silver haired man turned back to Rudger, “Let’s finish this…” he says, “together as brothers.” The two men give me a small smile before walking into the bright purple light behind them. As they do, the Crimson Dragon appears above me, locked in battle with the six armed monstrosity that was the King of the Underworld. Before I knew what was going on, I am sucked into the light and teleported back to the bottom of the temple outside Goodwin’s mansion.

            “Iolanthe!!” Yusei calls, running up to me, surprise and relief written all over his face. “Are you ok? When you disappeared like that… it’s over isn’t it?”

            “Yeah, I believe so Yus.” I could somehow feel that all was well with the two worlds. I didn’t know how exactly, maybe it was some residual power left behind the Crimson Dragon, but I was picking up a sense of calm after a storm. “I don’t think the King of the Underworld’s gonna be a problem again for a nice long while.”

            “I see. So the power of our friendship has brought peace to the world after all. We should go, everyone’s worried about you.”

~Owari~

Chapter Text

Life went on as it always does. Jack still refuses live with us here on Satellite, but he does show up every once in a while for a visit, well mainly to challenge Yusei or me to a duel or two. I may not truly forgive Jack for what he did so long ago, but I am willing to let bygones be bygones – besides, I missed my ‘big brother’ figure.

I still don’t have any memory of my past, but every now and then I’d get these odd flashes only to forget them almost as soon as they came. None of that really matters anyway. I’ve got friends here now and I wasn’t about to leave them for anything in the two worlds.

Yusei’s been mostly busy practicing and working on his D-Wheel for the upcoming World Turbo Grand Prix but still takes an odd job or two. So I don’t get to see him much these days.

Aki’s the top student in her class – according to the twins – at the new Duel Academy that opened over in Neo Domino. She sure does look adorable in that uniform of theirs. Speaking of Luna and Leo they’re in Duel Academy too and are doing quite well.

I’m still sharing a house with Crow. Boy was he ever miffed that he missed our last, great final battle against Goodwin! Crow’s a delivery boy now – for his own company no less! I help out as well, taking orders and sometimes making deliveries with the Valkyrie if the load gets too big. It’s good to be doing something without having to worry where you’re next meal’s coming from. Of course most of the money we make goes to the rent and the few kids Crow’s still looking after.

Oh yeah, Luna and I still hop on over to the Spirit World every now and then too. It really is a fun place now that there’s no danger in spite of it being so wacky most of the time. Speaking of wacky, who knew that brat of a mage Torunka really was an old man!!! Dark Sage to be exact! I felt bad for always doubting him and calling him names, but Torunka never really minded much it seems. He’s been offering to teach me how to use what little power the Crimson Dragon has left me, but I keep turning him down. I’m just fine the way I am. Besides, that power couldn’t possibly do what I really wanted it to…

As for the Dark Signers, well… Misty along with Carly and Bommer were brought back to life. Something to do with the Crimson Dragon wanting to give them second chances since they’ve repented. Misty’s returned to her supermodel career and keeps in touch with Aki – it seems the two have become good friends. I’m glad really, Aki needs more friends. I hear that Misty’s been thinking of maybe going into acting soon.

As for Carly, well she’s still a bubble-headed pushy journalist and is still chasing after Jack along with Mikage – who’s still oblivious that Ushio’s head over heels for her. Bommer went back to his people, who were also returned, but only after I totally kicked his butt in another duel – it was the only way to get him off my back – and told him that I may never truly be able to love him. I know it’s not healthy, but I’m still mourning the loss of my boyfriend after all these months.

****************************

I sigh as I sit on the crumbling wall overlooking the ocean of my team’s old hideout and stare at the sunset over Neo Domino and the bridge connecting the city with the island. Who knew that Goodwin had left strict instructions in his will that the bridge would be built no matter what. Well, at least he did one good thing.

"It’s dangerous to be sitting there like that,” someone says coming over to me, “You could fall to your death. Is that what you really want, Io?”

I nearly do just that as I yelp in shock. There was only one person who’d call me that without using any honorifics. I feel a pair of strong arms wrap around me and pull me back over the edge and into the old war room.

"What were you thinking?!”

“K-K-Kiryu?!” I shout, after forcing myself to look up at my rescuer. Tears begin to endlessly flow from my eyes upon seeing that familiar head of silver hair, those engaging gold eyes and lightning bolt shaped marker.

“I’m sorry I took so long,” he says, holding me close as I sob uncontrollably, “I-I wasn’t sure if you’d want to see me any more after…”

How the hell could he think that?! All this time, Kiryu was the only thing on my mind for any length of time. “Y-You… i-i-idiot!” I yell between sobs, slapping his unmarked cheek.

“Io?!”

“H-How c-could you… l-l-let me think… y-y-you w-were… d-d-d-dead?! I-I’ve b-been miserable… without you!”

“Io… I’m sorry. I really am! I should have known that if you weren’t angry with me then, you wouldn’t be angry with me now. Can you ever forgive me for staying away for so long?”

I blink the tears from my eyes so I can get a good look at my boyfriend. His hair was much longer, reaching past his shoulders and his eyes held a profound sadness and guilt that had never been there before all that Signer/Dark Signer fuss. He looked like someone who’d been to hell and back and had the scars to prove it.

His fashion sense seemed to have been affected as well – not that I was complaining, mind you – gone was the boyish and roguish bandana, fur trimmed vest, red shirt and jeans. He was wearing a gray shirt with black leather pants and a black leather trench coat over the shirt and pants. A harmonica hangs from a bit of string around his neck. He was definitely even more drool worthy now than he ever was.

“J-Just don’t… d-d-do that again,” I sniffle, wrapping my arms around him as tightly as I can, fearful that he’d go up in a puff of purple flame. I bury my head into his chest and breathe in the scent I missed so much – vanilla and cinnamon.

“I… I’ll never leave you again,” he says, bringing his head to my pale lavender locks as he continued to hold me. “I swear it. I’m not gonna waste the chance I’ve been given this time.”

“K-Kyo…” I begin, but my words are cut off by his lips as he tilts my chin up.

“I’ve always loved you,” he says, running his fingers along the un-equal sign marker on my cheek, “Even then when… and I always will.”

The tears continue streaking down my cheeks, this time with even greater force. I reach up and pull his head down and resume our kiss where we’d left off. We continue to clasp onto each other as the kiss became more passionate.

It wasn’t until well after sunset that either of us felt brave enough to let go. “I-I should head back. Crow’s probably way past worried sick right now,” I say glancing at the diamond studded sky.

Kiryu nods, albeit reluctantly. “Can I see you again, tomorrow?” he asks.

I scowl at my boyfriend. “I thought you said, you’d never leave me!” I say in mock anger, making him squirm a bit.

“B-But… the others… Crow and Yusei…”

I snatch his hand and wrap my fingers around it tightly. There was no way in hell I was letting him go! Not now, not EVER!!! “You’re coming with and that’s final!! I lost you too many times to just let you walk away now.”

“Iolanthe…” he says, a sullen look on his face. It was a few moments later that he smiles at me, truly smiles and leads me from the old hideout.