(The chapter title is a two parter and will be connected to a much later chapter. Those who seem the anime probably know why but for those who don't, think of it as a rematch and you'll see why once reading this chapter)

(3rd Person PoV)

"Crow!"

Crow and Grian turned around to see people running towards them. It was Rally, Nerve, Blitz, Taka, Scar, Joel and Etho.

"You guys...," Crow said.

"Where's Yusei?" Rally asked and Grian pointed towards the purple flames and then pointed to the screen that was showing the duel.

"Huh? Why is Yusei in a Riding Duel?" Blitz asked.

"And who's dueling him?" Taka asked.

"Kiryu," Crow responded, flatly.

"Uhh who's that?" Joel asked but, other than Scar and Etho, the rest of them gasped.

"You mean...Kiryu Kyosuke?" Nerve asked.

"Again, who is that?" Joel asked, folding his arms.

"An old friend," Crow muttered and at the same time, Grian responded with, "A Dark Signer."

"Dark Signer?!" Everyone yelped.

"This field isn't used by the Virtual System. If hit by an attack, Yusei could very much lose his own life," Crow added on.

"...Yusei...," Rally stared at the screen with worry.

Meanwhile during the duel, Yusei was making sure that his Duel Runner still worked. It took a big hit after getting tossed into the flames and crashing against said flames.

"Come...don't fail me now," he muttered to himself.

"What's wrong Yusei? One more hit and your Duel Runner is finished!" Kiryu laughed.

"...dammit," Yusei murmured. Thankfully Grian couldn't hear this.

He looked at his empty field and then at Kiryu's.

"..."

"I draw!" He shouted. He then grinned at the card he drew.

"When there are no monsters that I control and you control a monster, I can special summon this card as a level 4 monster. Go, Level Warrior (ATK: 300. DF: 600)!" Yusei shouted.

A humanoid creature with what appears to be a red jumpsuit and helmet plus a cape appeared. At first, he seemed to have only three stars on his body but then in a blink of an eye, another star appeared on top of his head.

Lv 3 —> 4

"Then I'll summon Hyper Syncron(ATK: 1600. DF: 800)," Yusei added on.

A smaller monster appeared on his field next to Level Monster.

"Level 4 Hyper Syncron tunes Level 4 Level Warrior! The wishes come together to form a new shining star. Become the path that lights the way!"

Stars seem to surround Level Warrior and he disappeared into a bright light.

"Syncro Summon! Soar, Stardust Dragon(ATK: 2500. DF: 2000)!" Yusei finished.

A pretty and shiny dragon appeared from the light, his wings leaving behind glimmers of light. No wonder, they thought of this monster as a symbol of hope.

Kiryu just laughed however and said, "That dragon is proof that you're a Signer!"

Grian's eyes widen as he saw the dragon get summoned. It was almost exactly like his dream. Now he sees that dragon in real time, how can Yusei use his ace to defeat Kiryu?

"I use Hyper Syncron's effect. When used to syncro summon a dragon, that dragon gains 800 attack points until the end of my turn!" Yusei explained.

2500 —> 3300 ATK

"Alright! Stardust now has more attack points than Hundred Eyes Dragon!" Nerve cheered.

"Roar! Shooting Sonic!" Yusei yelled. Kiryu, however grinned at this.

"I'll use Infernity Guardian's effect from the graveyard that I sent a lot earlier. Hundred Eyes Dragon isn't destroyed!" He shouted.

A barrier appeared around his dragon which protected it from Stardust's attack.

"But you still take damage!" Yusei exclaimed.

"Tch!" Kiryu then let out a yell of pain as he lost some of his Life Points.

4000 —> 3700 LPS

"Heh...about time Yusei," he then grinned.

"He finally hit his life points!" Grian cheered.

"You think Yusei has a plan?" Scar asked.

"Of course he does! Yusei always has a plan," Rally explained.

Right and it has to do...with that specific card, Crow thought.

"Now that you took battle damage from Stardust, I'm able to activate my trap, Shard of Hope! I'll draw one card and if it's a trap, I'll destroy this trap to activate that trap from my hand," Yusei exclaimed.

I'm betting everything on this draw, he thought as he placed his fingers on top of his deck.

...

...

...

Yusei drew a card and everything went still for a moment.

The Double Lifers were holding onto their breaths as that moment of stillness went by.

...

...

...

...

...

!

"I destroy Shard of Hope to activate Miracle Locus from my hand. I target one monster in attack mode that I control and that monster gains 1000 attack points until the end of my turn. If that happens, then the monster can attack a second time. And not only that, but you'll have to draw one card so do it! Draw a card, Kiryu," Yusei explained.

"What?!" For what seemed like the first time in this duel, Kiryu looked legitimately shocked.

"He did it! He found a way to best Kiryu's handless combo!" Rally cheered.

This is it! I can see the path clearly now. This is...my path to victory! Yusei thought.

"Tch," Kiryu drew a card from his deck and placed it in his hand.

"Now Stardust Dragon gains 1000 attack points," Yusei said.

3300 —> 4300 ATK

"Soar! Shooting Sonic!"

Stardust Dragon shot an attack out of his mouth which destroyed Hundred Eyed Dragon!

3700 —> 2400 LPS

"...When Hundred Eyes Dragon is destroyed, I can select one card from my deck and add it to my hand," Kiryu said in a low voice.

!

"Joel?" Etho asked as Joel took a step back.

"I...I have a bad feeling about that card," he told him.

"..." the other Double Lifers looked at each other as Joel as said.

What could that mean?

"I'll end this duel now! I activate my trap, Synchro Destructor. I can inflict damage to you equal to the attack of your monster destroyed by my Synchro monster and if it's a Synchro monster that was destroyed, it can inflict additional damage equal to the same amount!" Yusei shouted.

"Half of Hundred Eyes Dragon's attack is 1500. If you double that," Crow said.

"He will take 3000 points of damage!" Scar finished.

"Yusei wins!" Taka cheered.

"Yes! This was well orchestrated!" Nerve said happily.

"Yusei, that's incredible!" Rally called out.

"Yusei! How dare you!" Kiryu shouted before grinning and saying, "Just kidding!"

A card flipped up on Kiryu's field.

"I activate my trap, Damage Translation. It halves all the damage that I take!" He shouted.

The first attack hits.

2400 —> 1650 LPS

The second attack hits.

1650 —>900 LPS

Kiryu winced in pain but despite that, he still grins.

"That was some fine damage isn't it? Let's see if you can keep it up," he said.

"What? How did he survive all of that?" Taka exclaimed.

"He must also have a plan. Yusei better be careful," Etho explained.

"Yeah but hey! Kiryu doesn't have any monsters on his field anymore and meanwhile, Yusei had Stardust powered up by Hyper Synchron!" Blitz pointed out.

"Yeah, even if he special summons a monster, Yusei has his trap, Scrap Iron Scarecrow, and he can negate that attack that the monster would do," Nerve added on.

Meanwhile on the helicopter, Jack was staring at the duel, intensely.

At first glance, Yusei seems to have the upper hand. But there had to be something about that card that Kiryu pulled out, he thought.

Yusei glanced at his speed counters.

Next turn, I'll have 8 speed counters which means I can activate my speed spell card, Final Attack. Stardust will have enough attack points to finish this duel! He thought.

"I end my tu-," Yusei started but Kiryu interrupted him with, "During the End Phase, the other effect of Damage Translation activates. It can special summon the amount of Ghost Tokens equal to the amount of time that I took damage. I took two amounts of damage, meaning that Damage Translation special summons two Ghost Tokens!"

"Huh? What are you up to?" Yusei asked but Kiryu just laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"I can't help but laugh. Thanks to you for destroying Hundred Eyes Dragon, I am able to summon this card. This mighty Dark Signer card. Earthbound Immortal Ccapac Apu!" Kiryu laughed.

To this, Yusei began to sweat nervously. He had a terrible, terrible feeling about this.

"Hey what's that!?" Scar pointed to the flames.

"...is that people?" Joel asked.

"People?" Crow gasped.

Yusei looked around, shocked.

Why are all these people here? He thought.

"Are these...the missing people of Satellite?" Crow asked.

"What?!" Everyone cried.

"It's my turn now but due to the effect of Power Baton, I can't draw any cards but I have no need to! I have all the power I need to defeat you here," Kiryu held up his card.

"Kiryu! What have you done with these people?" Yusei demanded.

"They're going to be sacrifices for Ccapac Apu! Bestow the power of an Earthbound Immortal!" Kiryu exclaimed.

"I release my two Ghost tokens!"

The two tokens faded away into a shell like item sort of shaped like a human heart. A realistic one, not a commercial one.

The people who were in the flames now began to scream in pain and agony before getting turned into energy and shot into the shell heart.

After all the people were sucked in, the shell heart opened up and a huge monster with blue lines emerged (ATK: 3000. DF: 2500).

Grian's eyes widen and he took a trembling step back.

It was like his dream now that he could see one of the monsters clearly.

Only once in his life did he ever felt fear like this. Only once...but now make that a second time.

Thud!

"Joel!" Etho cried out before holding onto the back of his own head.

Joel fainted and Blitz kneeled down to feel his pulse.

"He must have fainted while seeing that terrifying monster," he concluded.

"Etho, you alright? Joel must have hit his head when he fainted," Scar whispered.

"Yeah...I'm feeling...a bit sleepy," Etho muttered.

It must be because they're soulbound! Scar thought.

While this was going on, Yusei was actually shaking as he saw the gigantic size of the Earthbound Immortal.

He usually kept his cool and no doubt, he needed to when he first started this duel but now...now his cool can't be kept.

Kiryu laughed again before shouting, "Feel the curse of the dead, Yusei! Ccapac Apu, attack him directly with your iron fist of Justice! Towards our enemies, the Signers!"

"Stardust!" Yusei yelled in an attempt to intercept the attack but it failed.

Yusei turned pale at this before shouting, "I activate my trap, Scrap Iron Scarecrow!"

"No use! Ccapac Apu can't be affected by trap or Monster cards! You're helpless!" Kiryu shouted.

The attack approached Yusei and everyone that was watching yelled out his name, concern for his safety.

Yusei might die!

...

...

Something happened...

Clunk!

Yusei's Duel Runner suddenly stopped working which caused Yusei to fall out of it and the two of them hit the ground, hard.

Yusei went rolling and as he stopped, he lay there. Twitching in pain.

(Meanwhile)

A pair of twins were awake and staring at one of the twin's arm that had a glowing mark on it.

The glowing stopped.

"Ruka! Is Yusei ok? Did something happen?" Rua, the twin brother asked.

"I...I don't know," Ruka, the twin sister and who had the glowing mark, admitted

Somewhere in the city, a young woman was also staring at her own glowing mark which ceased as well.

"Yusei...what happened to you?" Aki Izayoi asked to no one in particular.

(Back to Satellite)

Kiryu drove by Yusei's twitching body and laughed silently at this.

"You're lucky that your Duel Runner broke down before I could kill you. Heh, suffer! Shiver in terror and be consumed by the inferno of terror! Experience the same hardships that I once endured!" He explained as he held up his Earthbound Immortal card.

The flames disappeared as well as the monster did.

The people that were in the flames however, did not return.

"We'll hold off your death for when we meet again. Until then, live in disgrace and be stricken with terror," Kiryu said before driving off to somewhere.

"Yusei!"

His friends and the Double Lifers, Scar holding onto a stirring Joel, ran towards him.

"Yusei, are you alright?" Nerve asked while carefully trying to shake him awake. Then he quickly removed his hand and stared in horror at Yusei's stomach.

There was a piece of metal there which caused him to bleed and Yusei didn't look like he had the strength to get it out.

(Don't do that kids. Go to a doctor if a piece of metal is stuck in a place like your stomach but maneuver carefully)

Rally's face turned pale and he let out a yelp of terror.

"Everyone!" Crow arrived on his Duel Runner and raced to Yusei's side.

"Put him on my Duel Runner so I can take him to Martha. He'll be saved there!" He exclaimed.

"Who's Martha?" Scar asked.

"Someone who can help Yusei. Damn! I need something to stop the bleeding before we get to her,"
Crow hissed under his breath.

"What you need is pressure. Someone needs to put pressure on the wound until Crow can get Yusei to Martha," Taka explained.

"Grian, can you come and help?" Crow asked and Grian just shrugged.

"Sure I guess."

Crow drove away with Yusei and Grian in the back.

"Come on! Let's go!" Taka said.

They were about to leave before Rally stopped them.

"Wait! We can't just leave this behind," he motioned to Yusei's fallen Duel Runner.

"But what can we do about it? This place is dangerous, we'll get robbed!" Taka cried.

"We won't! We just can't leave behind our treasure, our hope! We owe it to Yusei," Rally explained.

"Yeah...he's right. We spent a long time trying to find parts for this and whenever we found a good part, we would always bring it to Yusei. The happiest day of our life is when the Duel Runner was complete and running," Blitz added on.

The Double Lifer looked at each other.

This world...must really suck for them. They want to have hope and they don't want to abandon that hope! I'll help them! Scar thought, optimistic.

After that, the four friends and Double Lifers pushed Yusei's Duel Runner onto the streets carefully. Plus the Double Lifers' own Duel Runners.

However, it wasn't all smooth sailing from here.

An entire group of people with markers came up to them and demanded that they hand over the Duel Runner.

The four friends refused before getting another trade off of them handing over their cards.

They tossed their cards in the air so the group of people could rush to grab them.

The four friends raced off and the Double Lifers were left behind.

"They fu-freaking left us behind!" Joel exclaimed.

"Get on before we get haggled for our cards," Etho said, getting onto one of the Duel Runners. Scar got on the other.

They raced off.

After a little while, they met up with the four friends again but they were in their boxers for some reason.

"Uhhh what?" Scar asked.

"Got haggled for our clothes and nearly had Yusei's Duel Runner stolen if it wasn't for Seiga pretending to be Sector Security to drive away the thieves," Nerve explained.

"Seiga? You're here too?" Joel asked.

"Yeah. It took a while to find you all. Thankfully, I came here at the right time," he explained.

"Well we got to head to Martha's now. Hopefully she contacted a doctor to help Yusei," Taka said.

They left and arrived at a big yet broken down house. Crow's Duel Runner was parked outside.

They walked in and were greeted by children?

"She's in there," one of the older kids pointed to a closed door near a staircase.

"..."

There was a silence between them as they waited for the news to see if Yusei would survive.

A/N: oh god a lot of words! Surprisingly faster update kind of. At least you wouldn't have to wait for a couple of months or so for the next chapter.

The next chapter will be posted in 2023 oh god! 2022 is almost over 0-0

I hoping that 2023 is a lot better than 2022 regarding events. Sh*t went down I tell you.

Cya in the next one -Flare