Storytime: Starshards (1/?)
It seems that I'm more motivated to write, when I'm not home and have only limited internet access. XD
Not that it didn't take long enough for this to write; I've started in the end of March and now June has started… sometimes I think I just should stop trying myself with multichaps and just stay with oneshots (because my multichaps always end up epically long and unfinished DX)
Anyway, enjoy.
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's
Characters: Crow, Jack, Kiryu, Yusei
Genre: Adventure/Angst/Friendship
Rating: M (to be safe)
Warnings: Spoilers for whole series; resulting from this being a monster of an AU I’d like to say that I expect this to result in a certain level of OOCness, simply because different choices result in different character developments and reactions. But I’ll try not to let them go too much out of order.
Summary: Multichap, AU - For Signer and Dark Signer alike death isn’t as permanent as it should be and there are always consequences to be considered…
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s.
--- Starshards ---
--- Chapter 01: Clustered stars scatter ---
Often enough, Crow wondered how different things could have been if Yusei had survived. Would they be ruling the Satellite? Would their leader still have snapped and lapsed into violence, almost killing a person and getting arrested in the process? Would they have lost Kiryu no matter what, first to his own darkness then to death?
Crow didn’t know, would never know how different things could have been. ‘What if’ didn’t matter anymore. It had stopped mattering before Kiryu had lost it. It had stopped mattering before they had arrived at Martha’s that one night, with no idea how to break those terrible news to her and no will to do so - but then again they never had another pace to turn to. Not that it had mattered; one look at them had been enough for her to guess.
He would never forget the grieve struck look that had flashed over her face before she had won back her composure and quickly hushed them into the House, offering them comfort instead of grieving herself. (But Crow had heard her cry afterwards that night, when she had thought herself to be the only one awake, and hearing her sob while being unable to comfort her, because he too was still to numb from the pain, had hurt him all the more.)
The ‘What if’ had precisely stopped mattering the moment Yusei had fallen and died.
‘Because…’ Crow thought angrily, clenching his hands to fists, ‘there is just no fucking way to turn back time.’ And Crow would do that, without a second thought, if he had the option. Not just to bring back somebody he considered his friend, as close as a brother, but also to reverse everything that had happened in the aftermath.
Because, so Crow believed, they wouldn’t have fallen apart like they had otherwise. But Yusei had died and the grief had broken all of them. Kiryu had stopped smiling, stopped caring, had become angrier and angrier, at them and himself, at everything in Satellite. Had sought out and challenged anyone with a duel disc, cruelly mocking those weaker than him. Yusei’s death, his own failure to keep a comrade safe, had shook and twisted him, Crow reckoned now.
Back then it had just sickened him, had caused him to break away from Kiryu and Team Satisfaction, Jack following him shortly afterwards. If they distanced themselves a little, Kiryu would calm again, would overcome the pain and grief at least a little, they had thought. They had thought and hoped only to be shocked to hear, that Kiryu had challenged Security on his own, being hunted merciless like a rat by them.
He could still feel the touch of Kiryus hand, just before he had declared their last stand against security. When he thought back then he could taste the pure despair and defiance he had felt when he and Jack had tried to reason with Kiryu.
And that bitter knot in his chest that had formed as they had watched Kiryu being led away, even though they had tried to stop it by turning in themselves for him (because damned them, if they disappointed Yusei, who would have done anything for a comrade, like that), still throbbed in agony because they had failed and lost yet another brother.
And today that knot hurt even more. Because right now Crow was losing the last of his brothers. He hadn’t known what to think, what to say when Jack had told him that he would be leaving for the city just the day before (aside of “What the fuck?” Or “You can’t!”, but he had bit those words back because he wasn’t about to let Jack know that he needed him).
Instead he had asked why, in what he had meant to be a cool, distanced way (although he cringed as he admitted to himself that it had probably sounded just haunted and heartbroken). Jack hadn’t even looked at him as he had declared that he couldn’t stand staying in Satellite anymore, that the chance to leave was only given once and that he wasn’t about to let it escape.
And a part of Crow understood because who of them hadn’t looked longingly at the lights of the city wishing nothing more than walking beneath them.
He did notice the way Jacks left hand clenched absently over the birthmark on his right forearm, the one which’s unknown meaning had bothered Jack ever since he had known him. And perhaps it was really calling Jack but that didn’t stop Crow from thinking that Jack was running. Not that he called him on it - in a way he was about to run himself giving into the despair of just not knowing what to do with his life.
And so he stood near the docks, in the shadows of one of the unused warehouses, silently watching Jack depart from Satellite.
He told himself that he just felt tired, when he felt the knot in his chest throb again as he saw how Jack approached the security-copter, the ticket into a new life, without looking back once.
He told himself that there it was probably just about to rain, that there where no tears running down his cheeks as he watched the copter leave towards the glittering lights of the city.
And he fiercely denied the loneliness that was hurting him as much as Yuseis death and Kiryus arrest had; loneliness that he last had felt many years ago before encountering Duel Monsters, before forming the bonds that he had thought would last forever. Only that they hadn’t. Instead they had carved a wound in his heart, wide and raw and still bleeding and burning like hell itself. And somehow Crow wasn’t sure if he would ever recover.
-------
Kiryu Koysuke had known exactly what he had gotten himself into when he had chosen to become a Dark Signer. Sure the first few months had been unnerving, the knowledge that under normal circumstances there was no way that he would be moving and breathing had made him uneasy and snappish at first.
The knowledge, that right now the only thing that kept him from becoming one with the darkness of the world beyond was the very thing, that now was branding him with both the giant-shaped mark on his right forearm and the card in his new and improved deck, that had already once dragged him back from death…
But he had gotten used to it, had embraced this choice of his as the only way to fulfil the strong need for revenge that reined his heart (and also the only way for his one true wish, the one that he would never speak out aloud - the one that he tried to keep hidden from his new comrades, that he had admitted only once to the Envoy of Darkness).
Revenge against those, whose arrogance had tormented most of his life and that of everyone else in Satellite, the authority that controlled the island with an iron fist. First they had abandoned Satellite in its dark hour of creation, never sending any supplies or sanitary help in the years after Zero Reverse.
Instead they had spent their time building the pipeline, that now send the cities garbage and creating horror stories about the poor towns citizens, alienating them from their society.
Satellites citizens roughly could be sorted into three classes: Those who had been unlucky and had been in that part of the city when Zero Reverse had occurred, those who had been even unluckier and been born on the island in the last fifteen years and those who had been just stupid, pissed of Authority and been send to the Satellite as a punishment. At least later ones had a chance to return to the city if they behaved well enough.
The rest of Satellite wasn’t so lucky. Most of the adult had lost their wills to live on by now, sinking into a horrible state of apathy; only those who had found themselves a reason to go on, like Martha and Doc. Schmitt, were left as something one could call a role model.
The youths, Kiryus generation, guideless and without any idea what to do with their lives, had grown despaired not to be left behind in the same state as the adults, had been hungry to prove themselves, which had resulted in the duel gang wars.
The children, most of them left to the streets and only very few actually lucky enough to be taken in by people like Martha and Crow, were left without anybody to guide them and hold them, dieing before reaching their teens and those who did would be left in the same state as the adults by the time they did.
Kiryu had been three when Zero Reverse had occurred and still could vaguely remember how it had been before, had fleeting recollections of his parents’ laugher and his older brothers excited rambles. He was one of the lucky ones of his generation, although sometimes he wasn’t sure whether that was really luck or curse.
Because his memories made him all the more angry at anyone who degraded him just because of the fact that he was of Satellite (which were mostly bastards that had come from the city; Kiryu had made sure that they learned as quickly as possible that they really should watch whom they chose to try and mess with in Satellite).
Before meeting the rest of his team, Kiryu had been a loner, knowing exactly what he wanted, but was left without the means to reach his goal. Until he had met the other three that was. He remembered the day so clearly and the memory made that small shard of his former self twitch in longing, desperately wishing back the days when they had been together.
He had met them per accident; he had been simply wandering through the Satellite, looking for a challenge and they had accidentally stumbled into the Zone of one of the more hostile gangs. They had been on an errant for Martha, had had know idea of the war that raged through the city; Martha’s house was too isolated for that. Not that the opponent gang had cared about that. When the challenge had been issued, four against three, Kiryu had stepped in, proposing himself as the outnumbered boys temporary ally.
And afterwards when he had seen that glance in their eyes, just as hungry and unsatisfied as his own, he had known that he was more than willing to make this temporary partnership more permanent. In the end it had become more than just a partnership, far more than that. Knowing what he did now, Kiryu sometimes wondered, just how much of their meeting had really been accident. Wondered how much had been fate.
It had changed him, their friendship had become something so fundamental in his life that he couldn’t help but blame himself for not preventing Yusei’s fall. Couldn’t help feeling utterly betrayed when Crow and Jack refused to take his side when he had challenged those who in the largest sense were responsible for everything.
Still, somehow he couldn’t fault Jack and Crow for backing out, for trying to keep him from challenging Security as well. They had just lost Yusei, whom Jack had known his entire life and whom Crow had been the closest to. Losing one of their own had been devastating for the team. It had left Crow in despair, Jack in bitterness and himself in maddening rage (and guilt because he SHOULD HAVE watched out better, not trusting blindly that everything would go well; not that he hadn’t trusted into his team - no, it was their opponents, who already had proven from the start that they didn’t keep themselves bound to standard etiquette, that he should have watched closer.)
Yet he thought, that Yusei would have stayed. Yusei would have stood on his side and would have shared this ambition of destroying Authority (and somewhere deep down in his soul that small, last fragment of who he used to be, of Team Satisfaction Leader, laughed at that thought - yes, Yusei would have stayed, for his sake, and left the moment that he saw no other way to keep him from doing something utterly stupid… like challenging security).
But whether Yusei could have stopped him from being arrested or not didn’t matter anymore. Wondering about it didn’t change the reality, in which getting arrested had resulted in him becoming much more than he had been before. Becoming Dark Signer was as much blessing as it was a curse. And now here he was, walking down to the lower levels of the Dark Signers hide out, partly to escape his new allies, partly to fulfil a duty he had taken up now.
It had been while wandering aimlessly, like he had done it so often in his first few weeks as a Dark Signer, that he had found the one person he was now about to visit. He was in one of the deepest levels within the former Momentum Research Centre, the one that consisted of small cells, one after the other. Determined Kiryu kept going, knowing exactly where the prisoner, he was about to visit, was contained and did not pay attention to the groans and whimpers coming from the places all around him. He was not interested in what Rudger did with the puppets that he captured and kept around.
Silently he reached the cell he had aimed for, soundlessly opening the unlocked door, there was no need to lock it, nor was there actually one to be silent. The imprisoned was not in any state to escape anyway; he was held by something far more chaining than a simple door lock.
Kiryu’s eyes flickered to the unconscious form of Yusei, taking in the still form of his former teammate for the first time in a while. Yusei, just like the last time he had visited (not to mentions all the times that had come before that), was lying on the bed, unresponsive, unaware of anything that happened around him.
When he first had stumbled over his former friends body he had been shocked to find him there, and had afterwards gone beyond mad, had angrily demanded an explanation from Rudger, the one the darkness whispered he should follow (which again forced him to suppress that last left shard of Team Satisfaction Leader, because Kiryu Kyosuke hated nothing more than being depended). Rudger had just laughed, had asked him why he would care; Yusei was now the enemy, a hated Signer, after all and a former teammate, who had let Kiryu down by dieing. Shouldn’t Kiryu be hating him instead of being concerned?
“That wouldn’t be any of your business. ” Kiryu had replied icily, amber eyes narrowing dangerously (and in afterthought Kiryu admitted that perhaps in his anger, he had given away far more about his own feelings than he ever intended to let Rudger, or any of the other Dark Signers for that matter, know. Then again he had never been known for being smart when worked up).
Rudger had kept chuckling, but after another heated glare of Kiryu he had started explaining it all. Had told Kiryu the truth behind the Zero Reverse-incident and his own involvement as well as that of Yuseis father.
He started speaking of the Momentums very nature, the negative rotation that kept the doors to the underworld opened up and was the source of all their power. And of Yusei, who when he had been about to die, through his nature as Signer, had unconsciously called to the Momentum, resulting in a short moment of positive rotation. This, so Rudger, was the true reason why Yusei was still alive.
Kiryu had frowned, he had been unaware that the Signers could deploy the power of momentum as well, this one down here in Satellite served as Doors to the Underworld after all.
“Them and us,” Rudger had explained when he had seen that unasked question on his face “are like two sides of the same card. It only makes sense that we tape into the same energy source.”
“Of course, it is sure ironic, that Fudou-hakases very own son has been chosen as Signer and stands now in our way. That he holds the power to effect the momentum and the entrance to the Underworld the way he did.” Rudger had continued, stepping close to his former comrade, his now enemy, causing all three birthmarks to start glowing, “He makes a fine prey.”
“Ah” Kiryu had agreed, now somewhat calm, but still reeling over the fact that the friend he had thought dead, was alive, was given life from a the same power as himself, yet ending up totally different.
“That is why he is mine.” he had declared, his voice cold and leaving no room for argument. If Yusei was to die by the hand of Dark Signer than at least he would make sure that the last face he saw would be a familiar one, so he had thought back then.
Rudger had kept that amused expression of his (and deep down in his heart between cold anger and darkness and loyalty to the Dark Signers and their cause, that tiny part, that Kiryu kept telling himself was dead, felt infiltrated by Rudger, for what dare he to decide his brothers fate like this), but then had agreed, although had set one condition. “You’ll have to keep up the seal, Kiryu.”
“Seal?” he had echoed frowning; the purpose of such escaping him at first, then cursing himself. There was no way that the state he had found Yusei in was natural. Rudger had nodded, and smirked. “Even though he’s weak, we can’t take any risks here.”
“If you want him as your prey, then it will be your duty to keep him under.” Kiryu hadn’t had any choice but to agree. Which led him to the present.
His face was unreadable when his fingertips touched Yuseis forehead, while his mind ghosted along the physical contact, checking if the mental restrains were still in place and order. Since taking over this duty from Rudger he had put a lot of thought into the situation.
Yusei hadn’t been supposed to die that day. Destiny, the fate that tied them all together - Signers, Dark Signers and the people connected to all of them - refused to let him go. Just like it kept the Dark Signers.
The light had been to stubborn to release its grip on him; had even dared to use the darkest power to keep its carrier alive. Rudger had felt that - his connection with the Momentum being the strongest of all Dark Signer - and had held no qualms to use that in order to weaken the light.
By keeping the Signers, whose powers grew through unity, apart, they would become easy prey. By keeping Yusei down, unable to coherent what was going on around him, he was an easy target especially since Crow had unknowingly taken away his only means of defence by taking his deck.
When he had taken Yusei, Rudger had realised that he was deliberately tipping the balance. The legend foresaw five Signer as well as five Dark Signer. By keeping Yusei imprisoned he hoped to insure that the Signers would start with a far weaker hand when the time to battle came.
Kiryu had thought long about this and more in the last few months and found that he could care less about legends and fate. But he knew this was one fight he would not be able to avoid, he didn’t even want to. The ways they had forced to keep living were like two sides of the same coin. And something in him burned to find out which one would dominate the other.
Sighing, finding no fault in the seal, he pulled back, perhaps brushing the younger bangs per accident. The first few times he had come here, something in him had raged, at the state of his friend, at the unavoidable confrontation that would come. But by now that small shard of Team Satisfaction Leader had calmed, had resigned himself to this fate. Now the only thing that Kiryu saw in Yusei was prey; a challenge to himself that he would eventually crush with the power he had gained in death.
Glancing back a last time., Kiryu walked out again, leaving the room as if he had never been there. Rudger planned to keep Yusei like this, to keep him sealed and weak, unable to fight back once the time of battle came and unaware that his time was steadily running out. It was only a matter of time until the rest of the Signers gathered together and then the Crimson Dragon would give the signal to start the eternal struggle once again.
But unlike Rudger, Kiryu held no illusions. Seal or not, when the time came Yusei would be ready to face him. Because, if Kiryu Kyosuke was sure about one thing then it was that it would take far more than a mind seal to stop his former comrade. Yusei - just like him, just like Jack and Crow - was driven by the inability to bow, to resign to fate. It was only a matter of time until he would start to struggle against the chains of darkness. And once he broke the seal, reentering reality, he would have to prove his worth as a Signer. And Kiryu would be waiting to see it. Would wait for him to grow to the peek of his potential and then bury him and his unnatural life with the darkest power.
Because that was the only form of kindness, that Kiryu Kyosuke was still capable of.
-------
And in the beyond, somewhere between dream and wake, between imagination and reality, where a second could last for Millennia, was Yusei trapped in a nightmare of darkness and pain, unsure whenever he was dead or alive. He was feeling weightless and falling, falling endlessly, never hitting the bottom and being swamped by despair and never ending darkness. Not the darkness that was soothing, comforting like the night, this darkness was clawing, seeking to gain entrance to his heart and mind, wanting destroy him from within.
Yet he kept clinging to the memories of friendship and warmth and hope, of Jack and Crow and Kiryu, of Martha and the children, all younger than he, that he left behind with the House. He kept holding firmly onto those bonds because they were the only light to keep the darkness at bay.
And after the endless fall, that had seemed like lasting forever; the light came far to quick swallowing him, sending him into unconsciousness, finally giving his tortured mind peace.
When Yusei awoke again, his body felt like on fire. Pain swept over him as he groaned and as it faded he rolled to his side and only then he noticed how hard the ground beneath him felt, that there was ground beneath him to begin with. Slowly he touched the ground, his fingers keeping entangling themselves with something that seemed to grow from it. Grass, he realised.
Yuseis eyes snapped open at this, his throat dry and his heartbeat so loud that he could hear it thundering in his ears, as he sat up and gauged his surroundings. This wasn’t Satellite. There weren’t any meadows like this one in Satellite. The grass of Satellite (if you were lucky enough to find a patch) wasn’t coloured in this healthy, rich green; it was brown or yellow-greenish at best. There weren’t any trees like this; not this tall that Yusei almost thought that they would touch the sky.
Confused he thought himself on his feet, stumbling into the shadow of said trees and sliding down the trunk, because his head hurt and the world spun. Burying his hands into his hair, he closed his eyes as he tried to retrace his steps (because even the ground was softer than any natural surface in Satellite; proofing that wherever he was, it was far off from home).
He remembered duelling (right, they had entered the last Zone, determined not to fail now so close to the goal).
Remembered the unfair conditions the bastards that controlled Zone M had set up (and it still made his temper flare; trying to beat them with strength in numbers instead of wits just showed how little honour they had).
Remembered going after their leader on that roof, letting himself get baited by the older man (a beginners mistake, especially bitter for somebody who had grown up in Satellite).
Remembered falling, and Kiryu’s desperate attempt to safe him.
Remembered the dragon and its gleaming yellow eyes that had pierced through his soul and its screeching roar, loud and angry, and burning pain, shooting through his right arm, as if wanting to brand him forever…
Yuseis eyes snapped open as he gasped, his forehead covered in cold sweat, sucking in air, holding his right arm in his left; it did feel as if on fire. And starred as he saw a crimson glow coming from it. Slowly he removed his left hand, wordlessly starring down on the unfamiliar mark that covered his forearm, the form of a fierce looking grimace starring up to him.
Yet, he mused, the design was oddly familiar, like that of Jack’s mark, the one that had accompanied him ever since Yusei had known him. He drew in a deep breath, trying to get his wildly beating heart under control, and felt somewhat relieved when the crimson glow started to fade, leaving the mark behind, its dark lines in sharp contrast to his tanned skin.
He was still on a loss about what had happened. He clearly remembered falling down a building; did that mean he had died? And if he had then was this afterlife? And if he had died then just why did he keep feeling pain (because, as far as Yusei was concerned, pain, while uncomfortable, was the greatest proof of life, so how could he feel pain if he was dead)?
Still slightly shaky, he fought himself back to his feet, if he wanted to get answers then he would have to find somebody to ask in first place. Standing again, he leaned against the trunk, focusing at the task at hand in order to fight of the confusion he felt (not to mention the panic; there was to much going on around him, that he just didn’t understand). Taking one last deep breath, he pushed himself of the tree, stepping forward and felt accomplished when he felt far less shaky then before.
But before he could take much more than a step away from the meadow, the bushes behind him started rustling. Turning around towards the noise, then cursing himself because the quick movement caused yet again dizziness to wash over him, he focused onto the moving bushes, stabilizing himself against the next available tree.
And gasped when he saw just what jumped out of the bushes. It was a lion, half as tall as himself, with white fur, amber mane and eyes and a horn centred on its forehead. The grey, heavy looking armour the lion wore made it look all the more dangerous.
Moving into a slightly more defensive stance (though Yusei knew, if the lion chose to attack him, he wouldn’t stand a chance, even if he had been at his best which he wasn’t), Yusei was stunned when the lion bowed to him. “Welcome, Signer-dono.”
It was talking, and Yusei wasn’t quite sure if he was more startled by that or by the unfamiliar sound of being addressed with an honorific, especially one as old and respecting as -dono.
Then the rest of the address caught up with him and he repeated slightly questioning: “Signer?”
The lion nodded, its amber eyes meeting his. “Ah, one of the Chosen Five. My Mistress send me to guide you. I shall bring you to her.”
Yusei blinked at that, just as confused as he had been the moment before. Talking lions, Chosen Five; somehow the situation could be stemming from a rather cheap fantasy novel. Or from a very weird dream.
Then again he had just witnessed his own arm glowing (and there was still the dragon; he had only seen it for a moment, yet since waking up it had never been far from his thoughts). And hadn’t he been the one, who had just got up to find somebody to talk with? There was no real reason to distrust this Mistress (other than the fact that ‘summons’ in Satellite usually had to do with repaying an overdue debt, which in most cases did not well for the debtor, but somehow Yusei doubted that this applied here, he couldn’t really think of any debt he might have made) and in the end maybe she would even be able to tell him just what was going on. So Yusei nodded, keeping his face carefully blank of emotion: “Show me the way.”
They travelled quietly, Yusei stopping every now and then to fight off the slight dizzy spells that kept hitting him. He didn’t mind the silence; he was still too busy with trying to warp his mind around the appearance of this place he had washed up at and of talking animals that seemed to populate it (and of the suspicion of his own death).
Yet he couldn’t help but noticed that the farther they travelled, the darker the woods seemed to become. Yusei shivered when he suddenly found himself surrounded by leafless trees - they almost seemed to reek of death and despair.
“The result of their influence is showing.” the lion growled, addressing no one in particular, and for a moment Yusei wanted to ask just who “They” were, but something in the lions voice told him that his question would be left unanswered.
Finally it seemed that they reached their destination, the lion leading Yusei out off the dead woods onto a meadow. He looked around; it was far larger and more open than the one he had rested at, but he shivered again when he saw just how dead the trees and the ground, which had no grass, looked. In fact, he couldn’t find even the smallest bit of green. Something didn’t feel right about this place.
His eyes narrowed at the stone monument that stood in the middle of the meadow. The Dragon it displayed looked as if carved out of it, as if it desired nothing more than to escape the stone.
Keeping those thoughts to himself, Yusei turned to his unusual companion: “Why are we here?”
The lion ignored his question and bowed his head towards the monument instead: “I’ve brought him Ancient Fairy-sama.”
“I thank you, Regulus.” a bodiless voice echoed over the meadow, sending Yusei into confusion as he looked for it’s owner. Strong winds blew through the forest and the lands and the soft light and bell-like sound that came from the monument caused him to shield his eyes with his left.
When Yusei looked back to where the light had come from, his mouth went dry and he flinched as that mark on his right arm throbbed and started to glow in crimson light once again. Yet he couldn’t help but feel awestruck as the spirit of a large blue dragon with wallowing green hair and butterfly-like wings settled before him.
“Welcome, Young One.” she said, her melodic voice reverberating while the wind played with her translucent hair.
“I am Ancient Fairy Dragon.”
TBC…
-------
Now, the various things Icey/nymph wants to ramble about:
Kiryu: You know, for me, Kiryu is the hardest character to write. He is a real pain as far as I’m concerned especially from his own POV. I think I have him somewhat down when writing him from Yusei’s POV (then again, I actually think that Yusei is an easy character to write), but when I get to his own POV I’m blocked. The problem isn’t just that I already have troubles writing his canon-self but also that he is rather AU in Starshards because his motives have changed. Not to mention that the show never really stated what is actually up with him. I’m quite a bit unsure concerning him, and would love have your opinion on him.
Rudger: Um yeah, I have no real excuse for him other then that this was mostly planned before the show told us that he’s the fifth Signer and that his greatest motivation to fight is to have Signer and Dark Signer battle each other. I’m not sure yet how I’ll find my way out of that one, but then again I’ve still only roughly planned the City-arc and actually have no real clue what to do with the Dark Signers. We’ll see, perhaps show gives me a good idea or two now that the end of the DS-arc is about to start.
The Spirit-World-twist: You know this story mostly exists, so that I can live out the various twists that I always wanted to see and have now stuffed into this fic. This particular twist has been on my mind since about 35 (together with the Yusei-getting-kidnapped-by-Dark-Signers-thing XD). I’ve been envisioning the meeting between Yusei and AFD since then. Anyway I’m also curious what my readers think about it.
Preview: Yusei and Ancient Fairy Dragon talk about the fate of Signers and Yusei finally gets some answers; but that just could result in even more questions. Afterwards, while trying to fight his way free from the Dark Signer’s spell he is confronted by an entity that calls itself the “Envoy of Darkness”…
So this ends as all chapters end with a plea for reviews, concrit, and so on.
Not that it didn't take long enough for this to write; I've started in the end of March and now June has started… sometimes I think I just should stop trying myself with multichaps and just stay with oneshots (because my multichaps always end up epically long and unfinished DX)
Anyway, enjoy.
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's
Characters: Crow, Jack, Kiryu, Yusei
Genre: Adventure/Angst/Friendship
Rating: M (to be safe)
Warnings: Spoilers for whole series; resulting from this being a monster of an AU I’d like to say that I expect this to result in a certain level of OOCness, simply because different choices result in different character developments and reactions. But I’ll try not to let them go too much out of order.
Summary: Multichap, AU - For Signer and Dark Signer alike death isn’t as permanent as it should be and there are always consequences to be considered…
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s.
--- Starshards ---
--- Chapter 01: Clustered stars scatter ---
Often enough, Crow wondered how different things could have been if Yusei had survived. Would they be ruling the Satellite? Would their leader still have snapped and lapsed into violence, almost killing a person and getting arrested in the process? Would they have lost Kiryu no matter what, first to his own darkness then to death?
Crow didn’t know, would never know how different things could have been. ‘What if’ didn’t matter anymore. It had stopped mattering before Kiryu had lost it. It had stopped mattering before they had arrived at Martha’s that one night, with no idea how to break those terrible news to her and no will to do so - but then again they never had another pace to turn to. Not that it had mattered; one look at them had been enough for her to guess.
He would never forget the grieve struck look that had flashed over her face before she had won back her composure and quickly hushed them into the House, offering them comfort instead of grieving herself. (But Crow had heard her cry afterwards that night, when she had thought herself to be the only one awake, and hearing her sob while being unable to comfort her, because he too was still to numb from the pain, had hurt him all the more.)
The ‘What if’ had precisely stopped mattering the moment Yusei had fallen and died.
‘Because…’ Crow thought angrily, clenching his hands to fists, ‘there is just no fucking way to turn back time.’ And Crow would do that, without a second thought, if he had the option. Not just to bring back somebody he considered his friend, as close as a brother, but also to reverse everything that had happened in the aftermath.
Because, so Crow believed, they wouldn’t have fallen apart like they had otherwise. But Yusei had died and the grief had broken all of them. Kiryu had stopped smiling, stopped caring, had become angrier and angrier, at them and himself, at everything in Satellite. Had sought out and challenged anyone with a duel disc, cruelly mocking those weaker than him. Yusei’s death, his own failure to keep a comrade safe, had shook and twisted him, Crow reckoned now.
Back then it had just sickened him, had caused him to break away from Kiryu and Team Satisfaction, Jack following him shortly afterwards. If they distanced themselves a little, Kiryu would calm again, would overcome the pain and grief at least a little, they had thought. They had thought and hoped only to be shocked to hear, that Kiryu had challenged Security on his own, being hunted merciless like a rat by them.
He could still feel the touch of Kiryus hand, just before he had declared their last stand against security. When he thought back then he could taste the pure despair and defiance he had felt when he and Jack had tried to reason with Kiryu.
And that bitter knot in his chest that had formed as they had watched Kiryu being led away, even though they had tried to stop it by turning in themselves for him (because damned them, if they disappointed Yusei, who would have done anything for a comrade, like that), still throbbed in agony because they had failed and lost yet another brother.
And today that knot hurt even more. Because right now Crow was losing the last of his brothers. He hadn’t known what to think, what to say when Jack had told him that he would be leaving for the city just the day before (aside of “What the fuck?” Or “You can’t!”, but he had bit those words back because he wasn’t about to let Jack know that he needed him).
Instead he had asked why, in what he had meant to be a cool, distanced way (although he cringed as he admitted to himself that it had probably sounded just haunted and heartbroken). Jack hadn’t even looked at him as he had declared that he couldn’t stand staying in Satellite anymore, that the chance to leave was only given once and that he wasn’t about to let it escape.
And a part of Crow understood because who of them hadn’t looked longingly at the lights of the city wishing nothing more than walking beneath them.
He did notice the way Jacks left hand clenched absently over the birthmark on his right forearm, the one which’s unknown meaning had bothered Jack ever since he had known him. And perhaps it was really calling Jack but that didn’t stop Crow from thinking that Jack was running. Not that he called him on it - in a way he was about to run himself giving into the despair of just not knowing what to do with his life.
And so he stood near the docks, in the shadows of one of the unused warehouses, silently watching Jack depart from Satellite.
He told himself that he just felt tired, when he felt the knot in his chest throb again as he saw how Jack approached the security-copter, the ticket into a new life, without looking back once.
He told himself that there it was probably just about to rain, that there where no tears running down his cheeks as he watched the copter leave towards the glittering lights of the city.
And he fiercely denied the loneliness that was hurting him as much as Yuseis death and Kiryus arrest had; loneliness that he last had felt many years ago before encountering Duel Monsters, before forming the bonds that he had thought would last forever. Only that they hadn’t. Instead they had carved a wound in his heart, wide and raw and still bleeding and burning like hell itself. And somehow Crow wasn’t sure if he would ever recover.
-------
Kiryu Koysuke had known exactly what he had gotten himself into when he had chosen to become a Dark Signer. Sure the first few months had been unnerving, the knowledge that under normal circumstances there was no way that he would be moving and breathing had made him uneasy and snappish at first.
The knowledge, that right now the only thing that kept him from becoming one with the darkness of the world beyond was the very thing, that now was branding him with both the giant-shaped mark on his right forearm and the card in his new and improved deck, that had already once dragged him back from death…
But he had gotten used to it, had embraced this choice of his as the only way to fulfil the strong need for revenge that reined his heart (and also the only way for his one true wish, the one that he would never speak out aloud - the one that he tried to keep hidden from his new comrades, that he had admitted only once to the Envoy of Darkness).
Revenge against those, whose arrogance had tormented most of his life and that of everyone else in Satellite, the authority that controlled the island with an iron fist. First they had abandoned Satellite in its dark hour of creation, never sending any supplies or sanitary help in the years after Zero Reverse.
Instead they had spent their time building the pipeline, that now send the cities garbage and creating horror stories about the poor towns citizens, alienating them from their society.
Satellites citizens roughly could be sorted into three classes: Those who had been unlucky and had been in that part of the city when Zero Reverse had occurred, those who had been even unluckier and been born on the island in the last fifteen years and those who had been just stupid, pissed of Authority and been send to the Satellite as a punishment. At least later ones had a chance to return to the city if they behaved well enough.
The rest of Satellite wasn’t so lucky. Most of the adult had lost their wills to live on by now, sinking into a horrible state of apathy; only those who had found themselves a reason to go on, like Martha and Doc. Schmitt, were left as something one could call a role model.
The youths, Kiryus generation, guideless and without any idea what to do with their lives, had grown despaired not to be left behind in the same state as the adults, had been hungry to prove themselves, which had resulted in the duel gang wars.
The children, most of them left to the streets and only very few actually lucky enough to be taken in by people like Martha and Crow, were left without anybody to guide them and hold them, dieing before reaching their teens and those who did would be left in the same state as the adults by the time they did.
Kiryu had been three when Zero Reverse had occurred and still could vaguely remember how it had been before, had fleeting recollections of his parents’ laugher and his older brothers excited rambles. He was one of the lucky ones of his generation, although sometimes he wasn’t sure whether that was really luck or curse.
Because his memories made him all the more angry at anyone who degraded him just because of the fact that he was of Satellite (which were mostly bastards that had come from the city; Kiryu had made sure that they learned as quickly as possible that they really should watch whom they chose to try and mess with in Satellite).
Before meeting the rest of his team, Kiryu had been a loner, knowing exactly what he wanted, but was left without the means to reach his goal. Until he had met the other three that was. He remembered the day so clearly and the memory made that small shard of his former self twitch in longing, desperately wishing back the days when they had been together.
He had met them per accident; he had been simply wandering through the Satellite, looking for a challenge and they had accidentally stumbled into the Zone of one of the more hostile gangs. They had been on an errant for Martha, had had know idea of the war that raged through the city; Martha’s house was too isolated for that. Not that the opponent gang had cared about that. When the challenge had been issued, four against three, Kiryu had stepped in, proposing himself as the outnumbered boys temporary ally.
And afterwards when he had seen that glance in their eyes, just as hungry and unsatisfied as his own, he had known that he was more than willing to make this temporary partnership more permanent. In the end it had become more than just a partnership, far more than that. Knowing what he did now, Kiryu sometimes wondered, just how much of their meeting had really been accident. Wondered how much had been fate.
It had changed him, their friendship had become something so fundamental in his life that he couldn’t help but blame himself for not preventing Yusei’s fall. Couldn’t help feeling utterly betrayed when Crow and Jack refused to take his side when he had challenged those who in the largest sense were responsible for everything.
Still, somehow he couldn’t fault Jack and Crow for backing out, for trying to keep him from challenging Security as well. They had just lost Yusei, whom Jack had known his entire life and whom Crow had been the closest to. Losing one of their own had been devastating for the team. It had left Crow in despair, Jack in bitterness and himself in maddening rage (and guilt because he SHOULD HAVE watched out better, not trusting blindly that everything would go well; not that he hadn’t trusted into his team - no, it was their opponents, who already had proven from the start that they didn’t keep themselves bound to standard etiquette, that he should have watched closer.)
Yet he thought, that Yusei would have stayed. Yusei would have stood on his side and would have shared this ambition of destroying Authority (and somewhere deep down in his soul that small, last fragment of who he used to be, of Team Satisfaction Leader, laughed at that thought - yes, Yusei would have stayed, for his sake, and left the moment that he saw no other way to keep him from doing something utterly stupid… like challenging security).
But whether Yusei could have stopped him from being arrested or not didn’t matter anymore. Wondering about it didn’t change the reality, in which getting arrested had resulted in him becoming much more than he had been before. Becoming Dark Signer was as much blessing as it was a curse. And now here he was, walking down to the lower levels of the Dark Signers hide out, partly to escape his new allies, partly to fulfil a duty he had taken up now.
It had been while wandering aimlessly, like he had done it so often in his first few weeks as a Dark Signer, that he had found the one person he was now about to visit. He was in one of the deepest levels within the former Momentum Research Centre, the one that consisted of small cells, one after the other. Determined Kiryu kept going, knowing exactly where the prisoner, he was about to visit, was contained and did not pay attention to the groans and whimpers coming from the places all around him. He was not interested in what Rudger did with the puppets that he captured and kept around.
Silently he reached the cell he had aimed for, soundlessly opening the unlocked door, there was no need to lock it, nor was there actually one to be silent. The imprisoned was not in any state to escape anyway; he was held by something far more chaining than a simple door lock.
Kiryu’s eyes flickered to the unconscious form of Yusei, taking in the still form of his former teammate for the first time in a while. Yusei, just like the last time he had visited (not to mentions all the times that had come before that), was lying on the bed, unresponsive, unaware of anything that happened around him.
When he first had stumbled over his former friends body he had been shocked to find him there, and had afterwards gone beyond mad, had angrily demanded an explanation from Rudger, the one the darkness whispered he should follow (which again forced him to suppress that last left shard of Team Satisfaction Leader, because Kiryu Kyosuke hated nothing more than being depended). Rudger had just laughed, had asked him why he would care; Yusei was now the enemy, a hated Signer, after all and a former teammate, who had let Kiryu down by dieing. Shouldn’t Kiryu be hating him instead of being concerned?
“That wouldn’t be any of your business. ” Kiryu had replied icily, amber eyes narrowing dangerously (and in afterthought Kiryu admitted that perhaps in his anger, he had given away far more about his own feelings than he ever intended to let Rudger, or any of the other Dark Signers for that matter, know. Then again he had never been known for being smart when worked up).
Rudger had kept chuckling, but after another heated glare of Kiryu he had started explaining it all. Had told Kiryu the truth behind the Zero Reverse-incident and his own involvement as well as that of Yuseis father.
He started speaking of the Momentums very nature, the negative rotation that kept the doors to the underworld opened up and was the source of all their power. And of Yusei, who when he had been about to die, through his nature as Signer, had unconsciously called to the Momentum, resulting in a short moment of positive rotation. This, so Rudger, was the true reason why Yusei was still alive.
Kiryu had frowned, he had been unaware that the Signers could deploy the power of momentum as well, this one down here in Satellite served as Doors to the Underworld after all.
“Them and us,” Rudger had explained when he had seen that unasked question on his face “are like two sides of the same card. It only makes sense that we tape into the same energy source.”
“Of course, it is sure ironic, that Fudou-hakases very own son has been chosen as Signer and stands now in our way. That he holds the power to effect the momentum and the entrance to the Underworld the way he did.” Rudger had continued, stepping close to his former comrade, his now enemy, causing all three birthmarks to start glowing, “He makes a fine prey.”
“Ah” Kiryu had agreed, now somewhat calm, but still reeling over the fact that the friend he had thought dead, was alive, was given life from a the same power as himself, yet ending up totally different.
“That is why he is mine.” he had declared, his voice cold and leaving no room for argument. If Yusei was to die by the hand of Dark Signer than at least he would make sure that the last face he saw would be a familiar one, so he had thought back then.
Rudger had kept that amused expression of his (and deep down in his heart between cold anger and darkness and loyalty to the Dark Signers and their cause, that tiny part, that Kiryu kept telling himself was dead, felt infiltrated by Rudger, for what dare he to decide his brothers fate like this), but then had agreed, although had set one condition. “You’ll have to keep up the seal, Kiryu.”
“Seal?” he had echoed frowning; the purpose of such escaping him at first, then cursing himself. There was no way that the state he had found Yusei in was natural. Rudger had nodded, and smirked. “Even though he’s weak, we can’t take any risks here.”
“If you want him as your prey, then it will be your duty to keep him under.” Kiryu hadn’t had any choice but to agree. Which led him to the present.
His face was unreadable when his fingertips touched Yuseis forehead, while his mind ghosted along the physical contact, checking if the mental restrains were still in place and order. Since taking over this duty from Rudger he had put a lot of thought into the situation.
Yusei hadn’t been supposed to die that day. Destiny, the fate that tied them all together - Signers, Dark Signers and the people connected to all of them - refused to let him go. Just like it kept the Dark Signers.
The light had been to stubborn to release its grip on him; had even dared to use the darkest power to keep its carrier alive. Rudger had felt that - his connection with the Momentum being the strongest of all Dark Signer - and had held no qualms to use that in order to weaken the light.
By keeping the Signers, whose powers grew through unity, apart, they would become easy prey. By keeping Yusei down, unable to coherent what was going on around him, he was an easy target especially since Crow had unknowingly taken away his only means of defence by taking his deck.
When he had taken Yusei, Rudger had realised that he was deliberately tipping the balance. The legend foresaw five Signer as well as five Dark Signer. By keeping Yusei imprisoned he hoped to insure that the Signers would start with a far weaker hand when the time to battle came.
Kiryu had thought long about this and more in the last few months and found that he could care less about legends and fate. But he knew this was one fight he would not be able to avoid, he didn’t even want to. The ways they had forced to keep living were like two sides of the same coin. And something in him burned to find out which one would dominate the other.
Sighing, finding no fault in the seal, he pulled back, perhaps brushing the younger bangs per accident. The first few times he had come here, something in him had raged, at the state of his friend, at the unavoidable confrontation that would come. But by now that small shard of Team Satisfaction Leader had calmed, had resigned himself to this fate. Now the only thing that Kiryu saw in Yusei was prey; a challenge to himself that he would eventually crush with the power he had gained in death.
Glancing back a last time., Kiryu walked out again, leaving the room as if he had never been there. Rudger planned to keep Yusei like this, to keep him sealed and weak, unable to fight back once the time of battle came and unaware that his time was steadily running out. It was only a matter of time until the rest of the Signers gathered together and then the Crimson Dragon would give the signal to start the eternal struggle once again.
But unlike Rudger, Kiryu held no illusions. Seal or not, when the time came Yusei would be ready to face him. Because, if Kiryu Kyosuke was sure about one thing then it was that it would take far more than a mind seal to stop his former comrade. Yusei - just like him, just like Jack and Crow - was driven by the inability to bow, to resign to fate. It was only a matter of time until he would start to struggle against the chains of darkness. And once he broke the seal, reentering reality, he would have to prove his worth as a Signer. And Kiryu would be waiting to see it. Would wait for him to grow to the peek of his potential and then bury him and his unnatural life with the darkest power.
Because that was the only form of kindness, that Kiryu Kyosuke was still capable of.
-------
And in the beyond, somewhere between dream and wake, between imagination and reality, where a second could last for Millennia, was Yusei trapped in a nightmare of darkness and pain, unsure whenever he was dead or alive. He was feeling weightless and falling, falling endlessly, never hitting the bottom and being swamped by despair and never ending darkness. Not the darkness that was soothing, comforting like the night, this darkness was clawing, seeking to gain entrance to his heart and mind, wanting destroy him from within.
Yet he kept clinging to the memories of friendship and warmth and hope, of Jack and Crow and Kiryu, of Martha and the children, all younger than he, that he left behind with the House. He kept holding firmly onto those bonds because they were the only light to keep the darkness at bay.
And after the endless fall, that had seemed like lasting forever; the light came far to quick swallowing him, sending him into unconsciousness, finally giving his tortured mind peace.
When Yusei awoke again, his body felt like on fire. Pain swept over him as he groaned and as it faded he rolled to his side and only then he noticed how hard the ground beneath him felt, that there was ground beneath him to begin with. Slowly he touched the ground, his fingers keeping entangling themselves with something that seemed to grow from it. Grass, he realised.
Yuseis eyes snapped open at this, his throat dry and his heartbeat so loud that he could hear it thundering in his ears, as he sat up and gauged his surroundings. This wasn’t Satellite. There weren’t any meadows like this one in Satellite. The grass of Satellite (if you were lucky enough to find a patch) wasn’t coloured in this healthy, rich green; it was brown or yellow-greenish at best. There weren’t any trees like this; not this tall that Yusei almost thought that they would touch the sky.
Confused he thought himself on his feet, stumbling into the shadow of said trees and sliding down the trunk, because his head hurt and the world spun. Burying his hands into his hair, he closed his eyes as he tried to retrace his steps (because even the ground was softer than any natural surface in Satellite; proofing that wherever he was, it was far off from home).
He remembered duelling (right, they had entered the last Zone, determined not to fail now so close to the goal).
Remembered the unfair conditions the bastards that controlled Zone M had set up (and it still made his temper flare; trying to beat them with strength in numbers instead of wits just showed how little honour they had).
Remembered going after their leader on that roof, letting himself get baited by the older man (a beginners mistake, especially bitter for somebody who had grown up in Satellite).
Remembered falling, and Kiryu’s desperate attempt to safe him.
Remembered the dragon and its gleaming yellow eyes that had pierced through his soul and its screeching roar, loud and angry, and burning pain, shooting through his right arm, as if wanting to brand him forever…
Yuseis eyes snapped open as he gasped, his forehead covered in cold sweat, sucking in air, holding his right arm in his left; it did feel as if on fire. And starred as he saw a crimson glow coming from it. Slowly he removed his left hand, wordlessly starring down on the unfamiliar mark that covered his forearm, the form of a fierce looking grimace starring up to him.
Yet, he mused, the design was oddly familiar, like that of Jack’s mark, the one that had accompanied him ever since Yusei had known him. He drew in a deep breath, trying to get his wildly beating heart under control, and felt somewhat relieved when the crimson glow started to fade, leaving the mark behind, its dark lines in sharp contrast to his tanned skin.
He was still on a loss about what had happened. He clearly remembered falling down a building; did that mean he had died? And if he had then was this afterlife? And if he had died then just why did he keep feeling pain (because, as far as Yusei was concerned, pain, while uncomfortable, was the greatest proof of life, so how could he feel pain if he was dead)?
Still slightly shaky, he fought himself back to his feet, if he wanted to get answers then he would have to find somebody to ask in first place. Standing again, he leaned against the trunk, focusing at the task at hand in order to fight of the confusion he felt (not to mention the panic; there was to much going on around him, that he just didn’t understand). Taking one last deep breath, he pushed himself of the tree, stepping forward and felt accomplished when he felt far less shaky then before.
But before he could take much more than a step away from the meadow, the bushes behind him started rustling. Turning around towards the noise, then cursing himself because the quick movement caused yet again dizziness to wash over him, he focused onto the moving bushes, stabilizing himself against the next available tree.
And gasped when he saw just what jumped out of the bushes. It was a lion, half as tall as himself, with white fur, amber mane and eyes and a horn centred on its forehead. The grey, heavy looking armour the lion wore made it look all the more dangerous.
Moving into a slightly more defensive stance (though Yusei knew, if the lion chose to attack him, he wouldn’t stand a chance, even if he had been at his best which he wasn’t), Yusei was stunned when the lion bowed to him. “Welcome, Signer-dono.”
It was talking, and Yusei wasn’t quite sure if he was more startled by that or by the unfamiliar sound of being addressed with an honorific, especially one as old and respecting as -dono.
Then the rest of the address caught up with him and he repeated slightly questioning: “Signer?”
The lion nodded, its amber eyes meeting his. “Ah, one of the Chosen Five. My Mistress send me to guide you. I shall bring you to her.”
Yusei blinked at that, just as confused as he had been the moment before. Talking lions, Chosen Five; somehow the situation could be stemming from a rather cheap fantasy novel. Or from a very weird dream.
Then again he had just witnessed his own arm glowing (and there was still the dragon; he had only seen it for a moment, yet since waking up it had never been far from his thoughts). And hadn’t he been the one, who had just got up to find somebody to talk with? There was no real reason to distrust this Mistress (other than the fact that ‘summons’ in Satellite usually had to do with repaying an overdue debt, which in most cases did not well for the debtor, but somehow Yusei doubted that this applied here, he couldn’t really think of any debt he might have made) and in the end maybe she would even be able to tell him just what was going on. So Yusei nodded, keeping his face carefully blank of emotion: “Show me the way.”
They travelled quietly, Yusei stopping every now and then to fight off the slight dizzy spells that kept hitting him. He didn’t mind the silence; he was still too busy with trying to warp his mind around the appearance of this place he had washed up at and of talking animals that seemed to populate it (and of the suspicion of his own death).
Yet he couldn’t help but noticed that the farther they travelled, the darker the woods seemed to become. Yusei shivered when he suddenly found himself surrounded by leafless trees - they almost seemed to reek of death and despair.
“The result of their influence is showing.” the lion growled, addressing no one in particular, and for a moment Yusei wanted to ask just who “They” were, but something in the lions voice told him that his question would be left unanswered.
Finally it seemed that they reached their destination, the lion leading Yusei out off the dead woods onto a meadow. He looked around; it was far larger and more open than the one he had rested at, but he shivered again when he saw just how dead the trees and the ground, which had no grass, looked. In fact, he couldn’t find even the smallest bit of green. Something didn’t feel right about this place.
His eyes narrowed at the stone monument that stood in the middle of the meadow. The Dragon it displayed looked as if carved out of it, as if it desired nothing more than to escape the stone.
Keeping those thoughts to himself, Yusei turned to his unusual companion: “Why are we here?”
The lion ignored his question and bowed his head towards the monument instead: “I’ve brought him Ancient Fairy-sama.”
“I thank you, Regulus.” a bodiless voice echoed over the meadow, sending Yusei into confusion as he looked for it’s owner. Strong winds blew through the forest and the lands and the soft light and bell-like sound that came from the monument caused him to shield his eyes with his left.
When Yusei looked back to where the light had come from, his mouth went dry and he flinched as that mark on his right arm throbbed and started to glow in crimson light once again. Yet he couldn’t help but feel awestruck as the spirit of a large blue dragon with wallowing green hair and butterfly-like wings settled before him.
“Welcome, Young One.” she said, her melodic voice reverberating while the wind played with her translucent hair.
“I am Ancient Fairy Dragon.”
TBC…
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Now, the various things Icey/nymph wants to ramble about:
Kiryu: You know, for me, Kiryu is the hardest character to write. He is a real pain as far as I’m concerned especially from his own POV. I think I have him somewhat down when writing him from Yusei’s POV (then again, I actually think that Yusei is an easy character to write), but when I get to his own POV I’m blocked. The problem isn’t just that I already have troubles writing his canon-self but also that he is rather AU in Starshards because his motives have changed. Not to mention that the show never really stated what is actually up with him. I’m quite a bit unsure concerning him, and would love have your opinion on him.
Rudger: Um yeah, I have no real excuse for him other then that this was mostly planned before the show told us that he’s the fifth Signer and that his greatest motivation to fight is to have Signer and Dark Signer battle each other. I’m not sure yet how I’ll find my way out of that one, but then again I’ve still only roughly planned the City-arc and actually have no real clue what to do with the Dark Signers. We’ll see, perhaps show gives me a good idea or two now that the end of the DS-arc is about to start.
The Spirit-World-twist: You know this story mostly exists, so that I can live out the various twists that I always wanted to see and have now stuffed into this fic. This particular twist has been on my mind since about 35 (together with the Yusei-getting-kidnapped-by-Dark-Signers-thing XD). I’ve been envisioning the meeting between Yusei and AFD since then. Anyway I’m also curious what my readers think about it.
Preview: Yusei and Ancient Fairy Dragon talk about the fate of Signers and Yusei finally gets some answers; but that just could result in even more questions. Afterwards, while trying to fight his way free from the Dark Signer’s spell he is confronted by an entity that calls itself the “Envoy of Darkness”…
So this ends as all chapters end with a plea for reviews, concrit, and so on.