Yusei and Kalin stood apart from each other. Yusei pulled out his duel disk in a hurry. He still felt the sting of the two marks fighting within him. The young man figured if he was dueling someone, then he would be able to fight off the darkness inside of him. Kalin was the perfect person for that. He had not strapped on a duel disk in months, but was still a dueling force to be reckoned with.

"Let's duel!" The two men shouted out in unison.

They grabbed their cards and instantly started to formulate combos. Greiger, who was standing a few yards away from Kalin, knew that the duel would be intense. He watched Yusei struggle to stay standing. There was no way Yusei could duel with the strain he was under.

"It's my move." Yusei began his turn in pain. "I summon Speed Warrior." It was hard for Yusei to concentrate, but he knew once Kalin put of a fight, he could fight the darkness.

"If you're done, it's my move." Kalin placed two cards face down. For a second, he almost forgot how it felt to duel.

The first few rounds went quick. Each duelist was trying to set up the field in their favor. The two old friends knew each other for years, so it took some time before one of them got their ace cards in hand.

It was Yusei's turn when he set up his prized combo. He was slowly taking control of himself again. "I use Junk Synchron to synchro summon Stardust Dragon. Let's rev it up!"

Kalin watched as the shinning dragon appeared on the field. Kalin noticed how Yusei improved during the duel. He was his old self again. But just because Yusei was getting a hold of himself, does not mean Kalin was letting up.

"I reveal my trap card. With it's power, I am able to summon a weaker monster to my field. I summon Dark Tuner Nightmare Hand. But, he isn't sticking around. I use him to dark synchro summon One-Hundred Eyes Dragon."

Another powerful dragon appeared on the field in an instant. Yusei's mind went back to the first time he ever saw that mighty beast. Things were about to get serious. Yusei was ready for their two dragons to battle, but he was still under stress. The marks on his arm started to glow even more. He did not know which one to listen to.

"No. I'm not Roman. I'm not going to let you control me." Yusei started to yell at the space around him. His arms started to go numb. "The darkness is not going to ruin me. I won't let it."

Kalin was concerned when Yusei stopped dueling and kept talking to himself. Hopefully, he was getting a hold on himself. "Are you going to duel or just stand there?"

Yes! Use your hatred and anger to grow in power.

Yusei's eyes bolted open. He heard the voice clearly. It was the same voice that was trying to speak to him a few days ago.

No matter what you do, the darkness will always be present.

"No! I beat you once before!"

Fool! You only delayed your own downfall. This is your fate!

His shut his eyes as his arms started to burn even more.

Just as you have a connection to the other pathetic Signers, fate as given you a connection to the darkness that can never be broken!

"Yusei!"

He opened his eyes and saw Kalin calling to him.

"Don't give into the darkness like I did. You're better than that."

Yusei was still struggling.

"Fine then. One-Hundred Eyes Dragon attack Stardust Dragon."

The two dragons squared up. Bright lights and a stream of energy from One-Hundred Eyes shot across the sky to hit Stardust. Kalin's dragon towered over Yusei and destroyed the white dragon. Yusei felt a shockwave run down his spine. It was now or never.

"Not me!"

A red glow started to appear around Yusei. The mark of the Crimson dragon glowed much brighter than before.

"I reveal my trap card."

Suddenly, a bright white light shinned from the card. Kalin's attack was predicted after all. This was Yusei's moment.

"It's a new card of mine, that gives me the power to attack your life points directly when you destroyed my monster."

The ground started to tremble, strange colors moved across the sky and the air became crisp. Just as Kalin had attacked Yusei with his dragon, Yusei attack Kalin with just as much power. Another stream of energy targeted Kalin and it was going to hurt.

Greiger stood in complete aw as Yusei's trap card zeroed out the rest of Kalin's life points. Dust kicked up and cloaked the two duelists. He had no idea what just happened. Did Kalin really just lose? Was Yusei okay? What truly happened at the end of that duel?

When the dust started to settle. Immediately, Greiger saw Yusei laying on the hard ground and ran to him. He got down on his knees and held Yusei's head up.

"Yusei, are you alright? Say something."

But there was no answer. Greiger looked over to where Kalin was standing, but was worried when looked back and saw Kalin shacking on own hands and knees. Suddenly, Yusei regained consciousness.

"Greiger?" The blue-eyed man said weakly. "What happened? Did I win?"

"You won the duel. Let me see your left arm."

Yusei slowly lifted up his arm. Greiger rolled back his gloves and sleeves to a joyful, yet terrible sight. The mark of the spider was gone, but Yusei's arm was covered in deep burns. At least he was free from the darkness.

"Where's Kalin?" Yusei sat up on his own.

The two men looked over at Kalin, who was still shaking. Yusei watched his old friend for a moment, until he realized what he had done.

"No. I didn't mean for that to happen." Yusei stood up and ran over to Kalin. "This wasn't supposed to happen, Kalin. I didn't..."

"I figured something like this would happen." Kalin spoke very quietly. He lost so much energy during the duel. "Don't worry about me."

When Yusei used the power of the Crimson Dragon to expel the darkness out of his body, the dark entity was forced into Kalin and took control of him, again. Only this time, the circumstances were so much different. The darkness would try to devour Kalin, just as it did with Roman and what it tried to do to Yusei. Kalin could barely breath and his mind fading.

"You just make sure the Signers beat the city's new threat."

"Kalin? No."

He collapsed. Yusei tried to shake him, but there was no point. Kalin was gone, and by the hands of his old friends. Yusei started to curse at himself. He should have been able to beat the darkness without getting anyone else involved. It was all his fault. There was no blaming a misunderstanding this time. He lost a friend that impacted his life so much.

Greiger came up to Yusei. He saw the tears rolling down Yusei's face and realized Kalin was not coming back with them. The large man looked toward the closest hill, which was where the mark of the giant stood tall. A dark cloud hung over it.

"It's time to go, Yusei."

Two day later, Yusei returned home to the city. Jack met him at the airport. No one had heard from Yusei for sometime. They were all still hopeful. Jack noticed Yusei right away and ran towards him.

"Yusei, are you alright?" Jack tried to ask calmly.

All Yusei did was hold up his left arm, wrapped in cloth. Greiger had taken him to the hospital to check out his burns. He closed his eyes and nodded his head.

"Thank goodness. Where's Kalin?"

Yusei had been holding back his emotions for the past few days. Now, Jack would see his usually calm and collective friend break down. Yusei almost fell. Jack had to walk his friend over to his runner. But instead of going back to the garage, Jack took Yusei to the bridge to let it all out.

"It's all my fault! He knew something terrible was going to happen, but he dueled me anyway! He didn't deserve it!" Yusei yelled out to the water under the bridge.

Jack was trying to hold himself together, until he could be alone. "What were his last words? I always figured, knowing him, he'd fall in triumph like he did before."

"You just make sure the Signers beat the city's new threat." Yusei shuttered slowly. "He knew something."

Jack's eyes widened. "Of course he did. He knows the darkness. What if he knew a way to come back? He could..."

"NO! He's not coming back this time, Jack!" Yusei screamed at him. "I don't understand anything anymore. I don't understand the Dark Signer, the Ghost, Yliaster, the Crimson Dragon, any of it! It's all screwing with our lives. I wish we could go back to when we were kids."

"Me too."

Yusei turned around and walked away from Jack.

"Where you going, Yusei?"

"To apologize to Akiza and maybe figure out if we are more than just friends. You guys were always nagging me about that."

Yusei walked to Akiza's house. The sun was setting and a breeze started cooling the air. He stood in front of the large mansion where his first female friend lived. Yusei wiped off the last of his tears and knocked on the large front door. It only took a moment for Akiza's mother to open the door.

"Yusei, it's nice to see you, again."

"It's nice to see you too, Mrs. Izinski. Is Akiza home?"

"Let me get her for you."

Akiza walked up to the door a few seconds later. A wave of happiness fell across her face when she saw Yusei standing there.

"Yusei, you're back. How are you feeling? Are you going to be alright?" The young girl spoke quickly.

"I'll be fine. I'll tell you everything that happened later with the rest of the group. I just wanted to apologize for hitting you the other day. I wasn't myself." Yusei looked down at the ground. He could not look into her ember eyes feeling this low.

"I'm not mad, Yusei. I understand. I'm just so glad that you're going to be okay. I was getting really worried."

"You were?"

Akiza smiled. "Of course. You mean so much to me. I don't know what I would do if you never came back."

Yusei did not know what came over him. He stepped toward Akiza and pulled her into a hug. It surprised her a bit, but in the end, she wrapped her arms around her savior. She always wanted this. She always wanted him.

"Akiza, do you have feelings for me?" Yusei asked out of no where.

Akiza did not move. "I think I always have."

Yusei brought his hands to Akiza's checks. He stared into her eyes and slowly moved in. They closed the space between their lips. It wasn't Akiza's first kiss, but it was Yusei's. It was perfect.

Later that night, Yusei gathered all his friends together and told them what happened in Peru. They were all so happy when Yusei revealed that he had beat the darkness, but they almost dropped in shock when they learned what happened to Kalin, especially Crow and Jack. But still, they were all so relieved that the mark of the spider was finally gone. After Yusei was done explaining what happened, he went straight for his room.

Yusei locked the door behind him and collapsed on his bed. He was so drained of energy. He pondered never leaving his room ever again, but Kalin would not want him to waste his life sitting alone. There was a world outside, and a city that needed him to fight a new threat. Yusei would have to improve his runner and his deck to beat his new enemy. That would mean, he would need an old enemies help.

Yusei reached into his pocket and pulled out a few cards that formerly were in Kalin's deck. Yusei swore that he would use these cards to achieve his ex-leader's last order. And that wouldn't be a very long wait.

Outside of the garage, a duelist stood tall besides his powerful runner.