Two weeks passed with no change in neither Akiza nor Sylvia. Within two days, the two boys Sylvia had rescued with the power of her Mark were able to wake up and after only a week, they recovered miraculously from their injuries. The doctors were confused, but Jack knew it was because of their psychic abilities. It took a toll on their minds, from the sound of it, because they complained of headaches for two days in a row, but after healing each other with their monsters and their cards and abilities, they were completely fine after a day's rest.

Frankly, Jack didn't know nor care why Sylvia felt they were important enough to save, only that she saved them and apparently cared enough to risk her life for them. So the least he could do was be civil with them and explain the legend of the Signers, which they seemed to be painfully uninformed of.

Makes sense, he supposed. Arcadia Movement sheltering them and brainwashing and all.

But Sylvia didn't wake up. Not from their words, not from Jack's or Leo's, and even not from Luna's words.

Still, the boys insisted on staying by her side. They called it guilt. It was a shit excuse, in Jack's opinion. If they were brainwashed, then that's that. They're not at fault for what they did.

But the boys didn't seem to think so, so he left them to it. Akiza, on the other hand, was completely closed off from anyone. Jack remembered something along the lines of Sylvia being her only known friend, and she was currently out of commission.

Both of them had gone through severe trauma, the doctors had said. They wouldn't wake up for a long, long time at this rate, and they recommended bringing people close to them to provide company until they woke up. Luna had mentioned something about being childhood friends, except that Sylvia had forgotten. Akiza's parents arrived at the hospital, too, desperately clinging to their daughter in hopes to wake her up, yet she never did.

Four Signers in one place: Jack, Luna, Akiza, and Sylvia. Only one was missing from their full set.

"We're still missing one from our roster," Jack told everyone before he left for the Satellite that day. "One piece is missing from the puzzle--just the piece that we need."

Leo and Luna had given him a strange look, but Luna was quicker on the uptake than her brother. Jack assured Akiza's parents that he'd do whatever it took to wake her up, he knew just the man who could.

Akiza's father, a congressman, insisted on going to find him, so Jack gave Crow a call to find where he'd stowed Yusei away for recovery, although he had a feeling he knew where regardless of his answer. Better safe than sorry, though.

As he'd thought, Yusei was at Martha's place. He gave him the address and sent him off, meanwhile hovering round Sylvia's room for gods-knew what reason.

Jack remembered her. She was a Turbo Duelist, the girl who accompanied Yusei when he broke out of Satellite. He hadn't recognised her back then, because he'd never met her. He never knew her, nor did he think Yusei knew her very well, either. She was strange in that way. Far too pink for his liking, and small and breakable in almost every sense of the word.

Yet those injuries, that Mark, and those friends of hers at least counted for something. There had to be more to her than met the eye, he knew. She was intriguing. A wimp, perhaps, but somehow intriguing nonetheless. And it's rare for Jack to find someone intriguing.

His mind briefly flashed to Carly, and he shook her out of his thoughts. She... she didn't make it. He'd found her broken glasses in the rubble, and she didn't make it. There was no point in dwelling on the dead, as much as he wished he could've changed that fate.

No point...

He needed to clear his head. The girl wouldn't suddenly wake up whilst he was gone, and she had two doting babysitters at her side, clad in Arcadia Uniforms because that's all they had on them, their only belongings besides their Duel Disks and decks. They'd taken to living in the hospital because they had no homes now. Jack was almost tempted to ask where their parents had gone, but if he wanted to keep secrets then they could keep theirs too. It wasn't his business.

When he'd taken the elevator down to the food court to get himself some water, he realised he wasn't the only one. Luna had been waiting at the entrance when he stepped out, looking round at everything strangely. Either she was lost in thought or she was lost in the building.

"What're you staring at?" Jack asked her gruffly, too tired to babysit some kids.

Luna glanced at him, seemingly unsurprised at his presence, and shrugged glumly before walking off.

Okay, weirdo.

Jack would've let her go, but she was a Signer and he was supposed to keep everyone together until Yusei could take over, so he internally groaned and followed her.

"Look, ignoring me isn't gonna solve sh--urgh, isn't gonna solve anything," Jack begrudgingly corrected himself. "Just spit it out so that it doesn't bite you in the--the sparkly behind later."

Luna nearly cracked a laugh at that, though Jack didn't see what was so funny. He was simply censoring himself for her sake.

"You know I'm old enough to hear swears, right?" she finally said after a moment of silence between the two, her gold eyes twinkling with a kind of mischief that Jack didn't like, because if she was gonna mock him he might as well turn around and leave.

But instead of blowing steam in her face, Jack twitched his nose and breathed a small sigh of relief. "Thank fuck. I don't like..." How to phrase it? Eh, fuck it. Jack gave up and gave a half-hearted shrug. "Y'know."

Luna shrugged too, nodding. "Yeah. But if Leo hears you swearing, he'll remember he can do it and then I won't hear the end of it."

Wonderful. So he did still have to play babysitter around at least one of them.

"Anyway, I'm just worried about Sylvia, you know. And... not just in how she is now. I mean... I mean she's changed. Since before, when I knew her," Luna finally answered him, wrapping her arms around herself.

Since before? "You mentioned being her friend earlier, yeah?"

"Mm-hm. I was three at the time, so maybe I'm misremembering, but..." Her eyes gained a soft, almost glossy look, as if she were truly looking into the past. "But she was loud and excited, and... And she made lots of dumb jokes. I told her she'd love my brother, they'd get along great with how loud they were. Now I saw her for the first time in... In nine years, and she's all quiet and afraid. Back then, I thought she wasn't afraid of anything."

Jack remembered a time he thought he was fearless, too. A time Yusei thought he was fearless, when they were kids. Jack would boast about being the king one day, would perform dangerous stunts, and essentially bullied Yusei into joining him.

Maybe he was a bit of a bad influence on him. Jack's seen the shit Yusei can do on his Runner. Would he have still done that without his influence? Hell if Jack knew.

Still, there was a time when Jack had slipped and Yusei was too small to save him. In the end, Jack hit his head hard and gained a concussion from his antics. Martha gave him a right slap on the arm for that one after the doctor treated him properly. That's not to say that stopped him from doing it again, though, but still, it was a harsh reminder that he could only do so much, and that remembering your limits didn't make you weak, it made you smart.

Holding anyone up on that kind of pedestal is painful. Jack has felt that pain multiple times now. His most recent stunt just lost him the title and his friends, when he'd made the choice of one over the other. Because when you're held that high, as soon as you're out of sight there's no one there to catch you at the bottom.

"I'm sure she was scared back then, too," Jack eventually decided to say to Luna, who was awaiting his answer for a solid minute now. "I'm certain she didn't want to scare you. Weak as she is, she's just that kind of person. Almost like Yusei, in a way. Trying to be a rock for far too many people at once."

Luna perked up at that, glancing at him. He'd pulled her back into the present. "Like Yusei?"

Maybe he should've thought a bit more about what he wanted to say before saying it. He'd never been good at this kind of shit like Yusei has. "Sort of. Yusei's actually strong, though. She's... well, she's not."

Luna looked about to argue, except something stopped her. Maybe she saw that Jack didn't mean it in a bad way, or maybe she figured it just wasn't worth fighting. Either way, she continued to listen.

"She can duel just fine, y'know? She's perfectly capable. And she has a Mark, which has to stand for something if she's a Signer like us. But she..." Jack sighed, carding his hands through his hair as he attempted to think of a way to say this without sounding like the complete asshole he knew he was. "Well, she's... she's too scared all the time. She lets her weakness show to her opponents, and it makes it easy for others to use that against her. Still, there's also a part of her that doesn't give up. That part, I think, can partially be attributed to her time with Yusei."

If Jack had turned to see Luna, he'd have noticed a smile quirking on her lips. "You think?"

"Maybe. Or maybe it's her old self leaking in, like you remember. Or maybe it's something else entirely. The point I'm trying to make here is that this had to have been her for a while, even without knowing you real well. No one's perfect. Even I..." And this part hurt to admit, even though he knew that he couldn't be perfect, no matter how hard he tried, no matter how hard he worked or how strong he became, "am not perfect. I'm powerful, perhaps. Strong, maybe. But that's all I am. Nothing more."

Luna pondered his words, turning them over in his head. For a moment, Jack wondered if she'd even get what he was getting at, or if maybe she was too young to understand. With a resigned sigh, he put his hand on her head and gently ruffled her hair. "Well. What's passed is past. Maybe all I am is strong and maybe all she is is... everything I'm not." Kind, his mind supplied, but he'd be damned if he said the word aloud. He... didn't know why. "Either way, we're here now, and we're bound to some shit destiny some gods decided they couldn't be assed to do on their own. So I guess we just take what we've got and run with it."

He let that be his final words to her before walking off to buy a couple bottles of water for himself. He drank like a fucking tank, after all, and it was always important to stay hydrated and healthy if you're to go on the road for a long time.

He didn't plan to go on the road, but it gave him something to do that wasn't staring at a door that wouldn't open.

When Jack returned to where he'd left Luna, she was gone, so with a shrug he went back to the elevator and went to toss a chilled water bottle each at the boys sitting at Sylvia's bed.

He ignored the blonde one's annoyed swearing at his back as he took a sip outside the half-opened doorway.

o ~ o ~ o ~ o

"I'm a New Domino City Congressman. My name is Gabriel Izinski. I am Akiza Izinski's father."

"Akiza's... father?" Yusei narrowed his eyes, half-suspicious and half-intrigued. "What business do you have with me?"

"I... I want you to save my daughter!"

Wait. Him? Why him?

"Right now, Akiza's unconscious and in a coma, and... and she won't wake up." Even bowing the way he did, Gabriel looked pained as he admitted that. Of course he was. Anyone would be, finding out their child was injured.

It was obvious why she was injured, too. Yusei had seen the lights floating over the city, the shape they'd trailed in. There were not just one, but two Dark Signers in the City, with the Arcadia Movement building as the centerpiece for the whole thing. He'd felt his mark and knew that a Signer had to have battled against a Dark Signer at one point or another.

Sylvia was in that building too. Where was she now?

Yusei didn't think about that.

"We're her parents," Gabriel breathed shakily, fidgeting with his large, bony fingers on the table. "We're her parents, but... we're not good enough. We... We can't save our little girl! We're not good enough!" He dipped his head low, ashamed as Martha set a cup of tea in front of him.

"Now now, settle down," she told him calmly, gaining his attention. he glanced at her, confused, and her attitude suddenly changed as her face twisted with stern anger. "If you don't tell us exactly what went on or how this happened, we won't be able to understand or help your little girl, so get to it!"

"R-right..." He took a breath and held his cup of tea, though he didn't lift it to drink. "Well, Mia--that is, my wife--believes our daughter turned out this way because we... No, not 'we.' She says that it's my fault."

His fault? Yusei chose to ignore the implications of that kind of relationship and calmly waited for him to go on.

"I did everything I could! I really did, but..."

He explained in detail--somewhat uncomfortable detail, frankly--about his past relationship with Akiza. Yusei got the strong impression that Gabriel completely misunderstood him, thinking he could do anything to rescue her. He'd liked to have done so, of course. For a fellow Signer--for a friend of a friend--for just a friend, he'd do anything. But Yusei wasn't close to Akiza at all. Sylvia was. When Gabriel was told he could save her, they probably meant that he could wake Sylvia, who could save her. He honestly felt under-prepared for this.

But he was told of Gabriel's time working, and how difficult it was for him to make time for little Akiza. How he often missed her birthdays, brought her gifts, and how she'd refuse to eat her cakes until he came home, then fell asleep and missed seeing him when he arrived too late. How she was his pretty little rose, beautiful and precious and a treasure that needed to be nourished to grow well. Yusei was told how Gabriel regretted not being able to provide her that nourishment, that growth, when she'd woken up one morning after her birthday and found he'd bought her the structure deck she'd always wanted and begged him to make time to duel her.

He was told how he'd broken the promise he'd made to duel her and celebrate her birthday with her, and how when he finally did manage to make time to duel her, everything went wrong.

He'd picked up a call from work that day--it was urgent business, and he needed to leave mid-duel, but Akiza wouldn't have it. She grew angry, activated her Trap card, and the flames from the artwork of the card suddenly became real. Gabriel had been pushed up against the wall, burning at the hands of his daughter, who stood helpless and confused at what she'd just done. He was thankful for his wife's quick thinking, Gabriel told Yusei, because she used the fire extinguisher quickly enough that the rest of the house didn't burn down, but the damage had been done in Gabriel's mind.

He recovered with minor burns and injuries, but when he'd looked his daughter in her fearful eyes, he grew panicked, his mind clouded--he asked her what she was, and a red light--a red mark branded itself on her arm then.

The Signer's mark, the mark of the foot, Yusei realized immediately.

She approached him, holding her arm, eyes wide, afraid. And he, in his panicked daze, scrambled back--back from his daughter, his kin and blood and his child, his beloved child--and yelled at her, called her a monster.

She must've hung onto those words ever since, Gabriel recounted heavily, regretfully. He'd said them once, with little meaning behind them, because he hadn't understood what was going on and was afraid, but to a little girl whose dad was afraid of her, when he called her a monster it only felt like the right thing. It must've been true, because the adult said it.

Because Papa knew best, and Papa had called her a monster.

"There's no erasing the past," Gabriel rambled, his eyes misty and his teacup still full and cooled off by now. He kept lifting his hand to rub at his nose or fiddle with his beard or carefully, subtly rub at his eyes. Clearly the man cared, despite what he'd said. Yusei could see that.

But what was he supposed to do? He wasn't strong enough to take on Kalin.

Kalin, whom he'd thought dead after suicide in prison, whom he'd thought he'd never see again after the Enforcers broke off.

Kalin, his ex-best friend, who had saved him and the others on more than one occasion.

Kalin, a Dark Signer hell-bent on revenge against Yusei using Ccapac Apu.

Yusei could still feel the creature's oppressive aura closing in on him, reaching for him to crush him into little bits and pieces, and--

What was a man like him--weak and unable to even save his friends properly--supposed to do to rescue a girl who'd clearly been traumatized by powers she couldn't control?

(Belatedly, he realized that description applied to both Akiza and Sylvia.)

Gabriel kept going. "I didn't know how to relate to Akiza anymore after that. Her power was terrifying, and I was powerless against her. I was afraid of her. I..." He swallowed thickly, clearly repulsed by what he was about to admit to next. "When she used her powers, I... I hit her. I had no other choice. Instead of staying with parents who couldn't understand her, it would've been better for Akiza if... N-no, that's not right, either. I forced Akiza to attend Duel Academy as a means to push her away."

It was always little nuances like these as he continued to explain about him and Akiza, Yusei found. He said things that felt like they'd been age-old lies, ones Yusei felt he could easily see through, and then he uncovered them himself in a clumsy realization of his mistakes and corrected his speech.

"Akiza was still all alone because of her power, even in the academy. One day--a day I hadn't realized the extent of the damage I'd done--she ran away from the boarding school and made her way back home. I don't know how she managed it, but she did. I saw her through the window when Mia and I were having a toast to celebrate our anniversary," he kept going. "She was shaking, crying as she saw us through a window. We hadn't noticed her until it was too late. I can never forget the look on her face." At some point within the explanation, Gabriel had let go of the tea cup and curled his hands into fists on the table for all to see. "Akiza returned because she wanted to see us, her family, and we..."

She'd destroyed the windows using a spell card, Gabriel summarized. After that, he never saw Akiza again.

From there, Yusei tried to connect the dots. Akiza was a part of the Arcadia Movement, so it must've been around that time--when she ran away from both school and home--that Sayer found her using her powers as the Black Rose Witch.

In a similar way, Sayer found a way to trick Sylvia into thinking almost the exact same thing. In other words, he caught them at their weakest--Sylvia when she'd just woken from having no memory and begun learning about the world around her and Akiza when she was rejected by her family--and that led to Gabriel Izinski's presence here today.

Mr. Izinski thought Yusei could save Akiza. Yusei wasn't as certain as he was.

"My daughter's heart is tightly shut, protected against monsters like me," Gabriel finally concluded. "My voice can't reach her."

Yusei couldn't speak for several seconds after that. "And... And what makes you think that I'm capable of doing what you, her father, can't?"

"Jack told me you can," Mr. Izinski insisted. "He said that you were the last missing piece of the puzzle! That you could ultimately save my daughter!"

Jack, you asshole, Yusei thought quietly in the back of his mind. Be more specific next time.

"The way I am now, there's no way I can--"

"Please, Mr. Fudo!" Mr. Izinski practically begged, leaning over the table to rest his hands over Yusei's. "Nothing else has worked. No one else's voice can reach her. There is no one else out there that could. Please!"

He wanted to. He really wanted to save her. He also wanted to tell them there was someone else he knew who could.

But if Akiza's in this state, what about Sylvia? a treacherous voice told him in his head. If Akiza's out for the count, Sylvia might be too. Even if you don't save Akiza, you still have to save Sylvia. That is something only you can do.

And he hated to admit it, but the voice was right.

But damn if he'd admit it right now, when he felt incapable and insufficient.

"Even if I go, what could I possibly do?"

"Please, Yusei!"

Martha watched him squirm uncomfortably under the congressman's gaze (a congressman, he reminds himself, who clearly has a lot of money and influence and he's asking him of all people to help) and sighed, resting her hands on her hips. "Yusei. Snap out of this stupid daze you've spiraled into. This is clearly important, so why don't you just do it already?" As if to poke at his heart, Martha leaned in with keen eyes and a carved frown, adding in, "I know you're afraid of Kalin, but she isn't him."

Yusei's breath hitched and his heart raced much faster than it should've. The hand, the crash, the laugh--that insane, crazed laugh that belonged to his friend but it wasn't his friend anymore, it wasn't--

"You're afraid to battle against your old friend. How can you consider him a friend if you can't face him?"

"Kalin hates me, Martha. There's nothing I can do about that--"

And ow, that was painful. Martha grabbed his ear--not too hard, but enough that it hurt and that it opened it up enough so that her voice was louder and clearer, because she'd always done that when they were kids under the guise of "maybe if I grab your ears and open them, you'll hear me better," when they didn't listen.

"You're clueless!" she chided. "Your heart is closed right now, just like hers! You can't open that damned door by yourself! You need your friends to pry it open! They'll knock, and when you hear that knock, that door may open, but not if you cover your goddamn ears, Yusei Fudo. Otherwise you're stopping yourself from getting the help you need!"

And her tone softened after a while, and Yusei felt the realization hit him like a ton of bricks--he really was being stupid, and he couldn't expect to do this alone. He'd told this exact same thing to Sylvia, every time she told him she felt weak, that she couldn't do the things he could, and he said to her that "that's what friends are for," that she shouldn't take everything on herself.

"But you already know that, don't you, Yusei?" Martha added softly.

Yusei gave a soft nod, the barest of movements, but the hopeful father across the table didn't miss it for a wink and stood from his chair, relieved beyond belief. "Thank you very much, Yusei! Let's go right away!"

"And maybe when you come back, you could introduce her," Martha teased. "Would be nice to have a daughter-in-law."

At that, Yusei flushed and attempted to protest. "Wait--where did you get that idea--"

"Go on now, go on! I wanna meet her soon!"

"Mr. Izinski is right here--"

"I... Well, I don't mind, so long as my daughter is saved--"

"See! You have his blessing!"

"Akiza's the one who needs to agree--"

"Oh, so you're not denying it?"

"I-- Martha!!"

Blister guffawed from his spot leaning against the window. "Yusei's already got a girlfriend! His Runner!" he joked.

Yusei almost sighed a breath of relief at that. If he'd said Sylvia instead, he would've been tempted to punch the man. Sylvia, for all the respect Yusei held for her as a duelist and friend, looked like a pre-teen and was more of a sister, anyway. Just... no.

Despite his internal--no, his external embarrassment, he couldn't lie to himself and say he wasn't at least a little bit happy.

The relief at seeing his friends was something he hadn't realized he missed until now, and his heart ached the longer he stayed in Satellite, far away from them. He had friends here, sure, but now that he was certain they were safe, he wasn't certain his other friends were, too.

And now, entrusted Akiza's life by Mr. Izinski, Yusei boarded the helicopter and booked it to the hospital she was staying in.

Spoiler alert: Sylvia was in there, and she was injured and in the same exact state as Akiza was. He'd passed her room as Jack leaned against the door, drinking cool water from a plastic bottle. When he noticed Yusei, Jack tossed the other one to him, and he caught it easily.

"So you're finally back," Jack said in a strange tone of voice, Yusei found. He was somehow completely neutral, but still judgmental.

Very Jack-like.

"Yeah," Yusei said, untwisting the cap and downing it. Somehow, it felt refreshing even though he hadn't even been dehydrated. Or maybe he was and he didn't realize it.

Actually, now that he thought about it, he hadn't managed to drink any of Martha's tea when Mr. Izinski came along, even during the story. He was listening intently the whole way through. So... probably the latter.

He peeked into the door, half-open as it revealed a dark room with two presences--no, three, one was hidden by the door--inside. Turning to Jack, as if to ask if this was the right one, Jack nodded and turned to the confused Mr. Izinski.

"Who is that?" he asked.

"That's his friend from Satellite," Jack said simply. "Met her before Akiza. I don't know much about her, only that she's younger than him, a Turbo Duelist, and apparently has amnesia. Oh, and she's apparently childhood friends with Luna." At that, he nodded his head at Luna, peering through a glass window at Akiza's far bigger, more equipment-filled room.

Luna, overhearing just the tail end of their conversation, glanced at Jack in confusion, who shook his head and shrugged. She took that to mean it was nothing important and returned her attention to Akiza, although her eyes lingered on the congressman just a little longer before she did.

"I see..." Mr. Izinski sighed. "Now I feel inadequate, having asked him to rescue my daughter before his friend..."

Jack shot him a confused look, but didn't ask more than that. Not his business, he reminded himself. Besides, Yusei was here now, so all five Signers were in the building.

Meanwhile, in Sylvia's room, Yusei's presence was easily noticed by the boys--Sylvia's friends, Yusei remembered--who stepped aside to make room for him by her bed. It felt strange that they were suddenly so obedient to him, rather than prickly as they'd been earlier, but Yusei figured a lot must've happened with the Dark Signers while he was gone and didn't push his luck.

Instead, he sat in one of the chairs and pulled it closer to her, resting a hand on hers--bandaged, he realized, with a few bits of red bleeding through the white here and there, and with an IV taped onto her skin pumping drugs into her blood. She also had an insane amount of scars. Looking closely, they were barely visible, but Yusei recognized when she went to sleep for several days on end to heal. He remembered how she'd collapsed in the middle of the tournament after saying something about Luna.

"Sylvia?" he mumbled, his throat tight and voice soft. "Can you hear me?"

She didn't stir.

"She hasn't reacted to any of our voices," Okita explained dutifully, although his voice was soft, too. As if the delicate silence in the room was something even he couldn't interrupt. A mournful thing, untouchable by anyone but the person who caused it.

"We... We were hoping you could say something," Liquid added hesitantly. "S-somethin'... that might cheer her up. I dunno. We've... We've told her lots of things. How happy we were that she was alive, and... that we couldn't wait for her to wake up again."

I can manage that, Yusei thought. I can say something to make her feel happy, or maybe to help her remember something. She seems to treasure her memories a lot.

"So... I dueled a Dark Signer."

Way to go. You've just made things ten times worse.

"I-I mean--well, uh--it--it was a Turbo Duel," Yusei hurried to correct himself, growing a little flustered over saying the wrong thing. "And, uh... And my Runner, it... It sort of broke down. But--but I fixed it, and... And while I was repairing it, I found the chain you gave me. I just... kinda remembered when you fixed it up for me, in secret. When... When I scared you, and I thought you had tampered with it and you were holding that little Ener-D core and standing blankly, because you didn't know how to install it right. And when we finally cleared it up and did it, I... uh, remember? How I taught you to adjust the different chip boards, where to install them--how to connect certain pipes to different parts of the engine, and what the engine modifiers actually did for them, and all that. You... you never were really good at it, but... I mean, you still tried as hard as you could to understand it, and... I appreciate that. I think that was... that was really cool of you."

The steady beeps of her heart monitor changed just slightly in pace. Whether it was a reaction to his awkward speech or just something in her sleep, Yusei couldn't be sure.

"And... remember that time you rode my Runner for the first time? You were doing it to win back the Runner that was stolen from you. Your Runner. Your first Turbo Duel--the first you remembered, at least--and you paused on maybe the first or second turn because your opponent didn't have Speed Spells, so you just gave them to him. I still hadn't realized the kind of person you are back then, even after maybe a month of living with you down in the subway.

"And that same night, you turned your back on our one chance of escape to go back for Officer Trudge. I didn't like the guy myself--and still don't--but you said something that day that resonated with me. I've always kinda associated that quote with you now."

The boys listened intently, their eyes trained on Yusei and Sylvia like hawks, eagerly listening in on their moment. Yusei didn't mind. They were close to her too; they were allowed to listen.

"You said that... 'maybe you can't always win a duel with kindness, but you can still try,' and... I didn't know what you really meant with that--sometimes, I still don't--but I'm gonna try and do that with you now. Is that okay?"

The twitch of a finger.

The quiet gasps of her friends were far louder in his ears than they should've been, but he swallowed thickly again and kept talking.

"I care about you. I don't know what happened to put you here, but I'm here for you anyway. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to rescue you like I'd promised. My fight... It... hurt me too. It hurt me in a way that I thought I could never bounce back, and--and Sylvia, I've... I've never felt that weak before. I've never felt that helpless before, but thinking back--it's because I was facing him alone. And I wanted to remind you--and myself--that whatever you're going through, it's never, ever the right thing to face it alone, even if it hurts to admit or think about. I want you to be safe. You wanted to find your memories, remember? And I want to be there when you do. And whatever you're like--good or bad or otherwise--I want to face that with you. But I can't do that when you're asleep.

"The only one who can save yourself is you. No matter how badly I want to rescue you, how badly I want to take all of this pain away, it's just not possible unless you start taking those steps. Unless you start and continue to take those steps.

"But I'll be here the whole way through. I'll walk beside you. Remember that, okay?"

The boys watched with bated breath. Weak, twitchy, and shaky, her hand moved. It was stiff--hadn't moved in a long time, Yusei realized--and she winced as she moved, but her arm raised and head turned, all slow and weak.

Her fingers clenched gently around Yusei's, too weak to go any tighter--or perhaps too unused to movement after all this time--and when she successfully turned her head the opposite direction she'd been facing, so that she could meet Yusei, she began to peel her eyelids open. Her bangs dropped to the other side of her head, unkempt and unbrushed, and those bright cerulean eyes of hers that he was hoping to see began to peek through. Dulled, he realized, with the kinds of things that she must've gone through, trapped in the Movement building, but there, vaguely aware and moving and alive.

Her lips, chapped and dry, curled upwards ever so slightly and her eyes welled up with tears.

"Th... Thank... you..." It was raspy and dry and quiet, but it was her voice, and she'd finally woken up and moved, and Liquid and Okita rushed to her side when they heard her, relief flooding over them like a storm.

"Sylvia!" they whispered--loudly, but whispered--in awe, kneeling to meet her gaze.

As Yusei glanced through the door at the congressman, he gave him an apologetic look. This took a little longer than he'd meant it to, and he wanted to make good on his promise to be there for her.

The congressman seemed to understand though, and his gaze softened--not quite a smile, but a soft, curt nod--and he turned away, presumably toward Akiza's room.

"Big Bro... stay a li'l longer..." Sylvia murmured sleepily, pulling his attention back to her. Did she think he was going to leave when he looked back? Maybe he'd come across that way.

Wait, Big Bro? Was... she talking to Yusei or someone else?

He glanced at the Arcadia boys, but they stared back at him expectantly, and suddenly Yusei felt a strange tingling blush crawling up his neck, just like back at Martha's place.

He would never hear the end of this from Crow or Jack. Still, he couldn't just deny her when she looked at him like that, with an oxygen mask over her face, the color returning to her skin--he'd only just noticed that she has freckles scattered across her cheeks and nose--and with scars like those littering her body, he figured he could set aside his pride for her.

No one deserved to go through that, and the least he could do was acquiesce to her request.

"Of course," he told her kindly, in that low voice he remembered she liked when she was about to go to sleep--said something about it being soothing. "I'll stay here with you for a bit."

Her smile widened under that mask, her tired eyes crinkling with a kind of real, tired joy. "Yay..."

It didn't take long for her to fall back asleep, and the Arcadia boys had called a doctor to check up on her and explained what happened--leaving out the personal details, of course, thank god--and her estimated sleep time was shortened considerably from never to approximately 8 hours, to Yusei's incredible relief. Visitors were shooed from her room to give her space to rest, and Yusei took that as his cue to move on and fulfill his next promise.

Akiza.

When Mr. Izinski saw that Yusei was ready, he led him to Akiza's room hastily. Her room, Yusei found, was far bigger and less crowded than Sylvia's was. Whereas Sylvia had a small, machine-thick room with nearly no light save for that of the machines and the doorway--the windows' blinds were drawn closed, and the lighting was lowered for her sleeping state--Akiza's was largely vast and empty, save for the space in the center, where she laid on a stretcher hooked up to several machines and monitors. It must've been almost the same amount as Sylvia, maybe even more, but it looked like so much less in comparison given the sheer amount of empty space left in it.

Still, he walked up to that crowded little center, where she slept on a bed-stretcher and tried to maintain a steady breathing pattern.

Sylvia was more suited for this, but in her state, she couldn't, so the responsibility fell to Yusei.

He tried first with calling her name. "Akiza...?" Then he realized the glimmering streaks of light trailing from her eyes down to the corner of her ears were actually tears--recent, from the looks of it--and he slipped his glove off to wipe them.

But, of course, fate had other plans. His mark began to glow all of a sudden, along with Akiza's, and within moments, her eyes fluttered open with an ease Sylvia didn't have. Okita, Liquid, Jack, Leo, and Luna--as well as Mr. and Mrs. Izinski, of course--had followed him inside, so their excited gasps of relief resounded a little loudly in the echoing room while she pushed herself up. Unlike Sylvia, her movements had strength, and she had no trouble glancing up at Yusei.

The doctors quickly tore off all the nodes and IVs from her body--not painfully, of course, but swiftly enough that they could get the equipment to the people who actually needed them--and soon they were left alone in that room as she looked around, finally meeting Yusei's gaze.

"Yusei..." she murmured, the name foreign on her lips. "You're... Sylvia's friend, right? You... came to save me...?"

"I'm glad you're awake," Yusei assured her. "I was worried when I felt my mark burn. Are you okay?"

"Your Mark..." Akiza glanced down at her own arm, hesitant, almost, in accepting that there was something there, although her bare skin couldn't lie without her gloves to hide the dark red lines. "Oh... Yes, I... I'm alright. How's--"

But as she turned to scan the room near the entrance, her eyes fell on her parents, and her calmness was gone in an instant. Her softness from before suddenly sharpened at the edges and Yusei felt a chill crawl up his spine from how quickly the mood changed.

"Why are you here?" Akiza bit scathingly. "I don't need you here anymore, I've grown strong! I have Sayer now--" And she stopped herself. Judging by what happened at the Arcadia Movement and her behavior, Yusei was starting to realize the gravity of the situation here.

"No... No, Sayer is gone--And Sylvia... Sylvia abandoned me!"

Where did she get that from?!

Akiza curled in on herself. "Sayer... Sayer said I didn't need to think. He said that he'd think for me! He... Sayer, he--"

"Akiza, try and relax--"

Akiza climbed out of bed, shaking and looking up to Yusei for support. Somehow, Yusei couldn't back away. "Sayer gave me the acceptance Papa took away from me! He gave me a home!"

Before Yusei could try to calm her down, Akiza turned and pushed him away from her.

"You came to laugh at me because I lost my home, didn't you! Well, I'll show you!"

She grabbed her Duel Disk from a nearby table, still loaded with her deck, and strapped it harshly onto her wrist, running away just the right distance for a duel.

"I'll show you the power of a monster like me!"

"Akiza, don't! Listen, your father is hurting too--"

"Sylvia said that the Signers... that my friends would guide me!" Akiza snapped, quietly at first, but her voice grew in range as she kept talking. "She said you'd accept me! She said she'd help me, that she'd be here with me! But she's not! She abandoned me, just like she abandoned me back then and just like she pretended even before then! You're just like her! Just like her, you pretend and abandon and betray!"

You abandoned me!

No--No, Yusei wasn't like that. He didn't abandon Kalin, he only tried to help. He... He didn't abandon anyone.

Sylvia didn't abandon anyone.

"Just like her... Just like everyone else, you're also my enemy, Yusei Fudo! An enemy who took away my home!"

Yusei braced his stance for a duel. Against Akiza, it would hurt, but he'd seen Sylvia brave it like a goddamn champion. If he couldn't do the same thing...

If he couldn't do the same thing, he had no right to call himself her brother.

Akiza activated a card and the sheer force of it blew away the furniture in the room, smashing against the walls, breaking into splinters of wood, cotton, metal, and stone. He heard Leo and Luna cry out as they were blown back, but thankfully Jack was there to keep them from getting hurt. The Arcadia boys seemed to have split up to use their own, considerably more limited psychic powers, to protect Jack and the kids and Akiza's parents. Although their Duel Disks were activated and they'd drawn a hand of cards, Yusei noticed their Duel Disks didn't register as being in a duel.

Special Duel Disks? He'd ask later.

How did it always come down to this?

Yusei activated his Duel Disk in turn, facing Akiza as an opponent rather than a friend.

He'd reach her somehow. Sylvia did it, so he could too. The whole point of being companions was to take the pressure off of one another.

"It looks like the only way to get you to calm down is by dueling you," Yusei finally relented, drawing his hand.

"That's right, duel me. We aren't friends! We're meant to battle with our lives at stake!" Akiza declared.

"I'll prove you wrong!" Yusei countered. "It's in this duel that I'll prove to you we really are friends! So give me all you've got!"

"DUEL!"

===

(Aaaaaaand I don't want to write a duel that's already been seen in canon. If I can avoid writing duels, I will. I'm lazy like that.

But anyway, I hope this was a good enough transition between Akiza and Yusei, Akiza and Sylvia, and Sylvia and Yusei. I think in her delirium from the drugs, she sort of forgot who she was talking to, only that she trusted them with her life, and then Yusei was like "Oh. Guess I'm a brother now. Time to protect her with my life."

Meanwhile Akiza is assuming and jumping to conclusions and clinging to the first person she sees because that seems to be a running pattern here for some reason. Yusei didn't seem to mind, I guess? He's like Tea, always making friendship speeches, except he never left his edgy phase.

Edgy Tea.

But like, with an accent on the e, because my keyboard doesn't have that. It just looks like I'm saying edgy tea. That's funny.

I've been waiting for the moment Sylvia said those words for ages tho. It's a weird kind of happy relief I feel when she's finally said it for all to hear, even though I'm still a bit embarrassed about it. Is it weird to wanna have a brother like Yusei? Or have your brother be Yusei? He's sorta... fictional.

Anyway I'm out. Byeee)