Chapter Text
Yuya sat on the edge of the cliff overlooking Miami. It was night time. The glittering city spread out like a blanket beneath him, almost a perfect mirror for the vast expanse of glimmering stars above. The moon shined down on the sea in all its cold beauty, illuminating the slight ripples and tides beneath it. Even from where he was sitting, gazing out at it all, the great hourglass of the LDS tower stuck out like a single beacon of lights. Lit up like a Christmas tree it seemingly glared down at the rows of houses and small businesses that adorned the well-lit streets.
The light breeze played with his hair, whipping it across his face as he reached up to tuck a strand behind his ear. It was beautiful, he reflected, peaceful. Almost oblivious to everything it had endured. Yuya sighed, looking out across the stagnant water at the Miami stadium. To where his rollercoaster of an adventure had started with a simple challenge. A simple duel that began a chain of events no one should have had to have gone through.
Yuya found himself gripping the pendant around his neck. Smiling gently as the familiar shape and cold of the pendulum moulded itself against his palm. From where he was sitting, Yuya could see the docks, could see the park. A twinge of guilt and sadness rose up in his chest as he recalled the memory of the night he had met Yuto. The boy from the Xyz Dimension who shared his face. The boy whose home had been destroyed in a man’s wild ambition to reunite the four dimensions as one. Yuya grimaced slightly as the memory returned, his grip tightening around the pendulum. No, it hadn’t just been Yuto. That night he had met Yugo as well.
The mysterious boy with the motorcycle from the Synchro dimension. Who shared his face, who was lost, who was confused and in search of vengeance against the person who had taken that that was most precious to him away. A boy that had unknowingly launched himself into a war, much like Yuya himself had done.
Yuya sighed, releasing the pendulum. Yugo had accidentally killed Yuto that night. All because of a name error, because of the thing that lurked in their hearts. Yuya bit his lip. Yugo hadn’t been searching for Yuto. He had been searching for another.
Another boy like the three of them, who shared their face and the thing within their souls. Yuri. A soldier, a mercenary for the man known as the Professor. An agent of the Fusion Dimension and its Academia with the soul goal and desire to capture and retrieve, to card and brutally kill.
Academia. A prison under the guise of a school. A vanguard and a spearhead for an interdimensional war revelling in the self-obsessed ambitions of a madman. Yuya’s hand curled into a fist at his side, the grass intermingling with his fingertips. Leo Akaba had created a war. A single man’s desire to resurrect his daughter costing the lives of countless others. A man whom not only failed in his goal but caused Yuya himself to become his own worst nightmare.
Zarc.
The demon within his soul and the soul of the other four boys that shared his face. Yuya’s own previous incarnation and the cause of the unified world’s destruction. If Yuya had never been able to fight him. Never been able to supress the evil that dwelled within him and the others, never heard the begging cries of his friends. Of Yuzu…
He didn’t want to know what might have happened to that peaceful city below him.
He leant back, draping an arm over his eyes despite the darkness of the night. His journey had been long. Had its fair share of ups and downs. But he had also had the chance to fight with and against people he will never forget, nor give up on. The list was countless. The people he’d met across the dimensions, the friendships he’d formed both at home and elsewhere. The bonds he’d created, the people whose hearts he’d touched with his duelling, everyone he’d met and those he hadn’t, there was so much more to the world than the city at his feet or the demons in his heart.
“Yuya?” A voice spoke, and he smiled, sitting back up as his counterparts materialised from nothing. Another stab of guilt. They had been forced to remain this way. As four souls inhabiting one body. But at the same time, they had all grown to accept it.
They sat down next to him. Even if they weren’t solid, weren’t physically here anymore. It was comforting to have them close nonetheless. Yuya smiled, draping an arm around Yuto’s transparent shoulders. Even if he couldn’t feel the Xyz duellist, Yuto looked up in surprise before his mouth quirked into a smile.
Silently, Yuto reached over and pulled Yugo into the hug, the Synchro duellist’s eyes widened in shock before his face cracked into a grin. Yuya laughed, reaching for Yuri. The final violet-haired boy huffed in annoyance, but curtly accepted, even smiling slightly as he leant into Yuya’s solid form.
The four of them had been through a lot. Too much in fact. Each had had a different journey, experienced harsh realities far too big for their age. But as they gazed out across the sleeping city of the Pendulum Dimension, out at the stars above and the sea below. They were content with the fact that it was over.
That, even through everything, they could sit together and watch the lights of the city, as they slowly and with small effort, pushed away the dark.