(First try at Yu-gi-oh! 5D's. Please RxR!)

Chapter 1

Neo Domino City, an advanced dueling capital that sits peacefully on the coast, separated from the Satellite, which floated hopelessly in the ocean just miles away from the city. An unfinished, unstable-looking bridge reached out to the city from the Satellite in a miserable attempt to regain Paradise. This was the Daedalus Bridge, built by the legendary D-Wheeler from long ago. Next to the Daedalus Bridge was a more sturdy bridge built by the city but alas, it was unfinished. It seemed that the city always turned its back on the Satellite, like with the second bridge, lengthening the gap between the two classes.

Cassandra tried her best to understand the discrimination between the classes but it always left her frustrated and full of questions. What was so bad about the Satellites? Why couldn't the bridge be finished for them? She was sure that some of them had families here in the city and there was no way across the small gap of ocean, unless you had a helicopter or else you would be sucked in by the whirlpools. Cassandra stared out her bedroom window hopelessly at the Satellite, like the Satellites do from their shacks.

"They are scum, Cassandra," Jack always told her when she would bring up the subject. When he would turn around and leave, she knew that he was annoyed with her and the conversation was at its end.

Whenever she would ask Goodwin, he would bring up the story about her father being killed years ago by a Satellite. Cassandra would fall silent, her throat hot with oncoming tears. Cassandra soon stopped asking and felt that she was the only one that saw any wrong in this world. There was no reason to hate the Satellites just because one killed her father, and that one Satellite is still on the loose somewhere.

Suddenly, Cassandra heard footsteps coming down the hall and she rushed to her vanity desk and began to brush her long blonde hair. If it was Jack, she didn't want to be caught daydreaming, he always picked on her for it.

They knocked softly three times. It was Goodwin, Cassandra decided. He always knocked like that while Jack would bang loudly.

"Come in!" Cassandra called sweetly and he opened the door. She laid her brush down and gazed up at the director who gave her a warm smile as he walked into her room. His long gray hair that hung down his back complimented his blue outfit.

"Your presence is requested at a dinner party tonight," he told her and waited for her response.

"Who is going?" Cassandra asked him.

"Lazar and I will be there, Jack will be busy tonight," Goodwin replied as he came up to the desk beside her.

"Will there be any dueling?" Cassandra asked, hopeful. Goodwin shook his head and Cassandra bowed hers, disappointed.

"I have told you before, a princess should not duel. You could get hurt and we don't want the princess getting hurt now, do we?" he said as he lifted her chin up and smiled to cheer her up.

"No," she choked on her tears and swallowed them.

"There will be singing, however," he said and turned away, his arms behind his back, "That is, if you wish to go."

"Yes," Cassandra said slowly. Actually, she had no choice. She loved to sing.

"Would you like a new dress to perform in?" Goodwin asked her.

"No, thank you. I think I will wear my blue one," Cassandra gazed out the window from her chair.

"The usual one? Don't you think you should wear a different one? You influence the fashion industry in the city after all," Goodwin told her as he had told her before, time and time again.

"I know but, I feel more comfortable in that one. I love that dress," she told him.

"Very well then," Goodwin smiled before he turned and walked to the door, "I will send Lazar to get you when it is time."

Cassandra watched as he closed the door behind him before she went to her armoire and pulled out a lovely blue dress with white lace accented to the sleeves, neck, and bottom of the gown. It was like a dress for a doll. She quickly put it on and then dug in her drawers and pulled out a deck of cards. Goodwin didn't know that she had a secret pocket in the dress in which she hides her deck in case she finds the perfect opportunity to duel.

Jack had given her the cards a year ago. They were cards he won off of duelists that he had beaten and she had put them all into a deck. She had never been able to use them but she anticipated the day that she would. She had watched Jack duel and learned what to do, and she felt that her deck of random cards could beat almost anyone.

Cassandra sat down at her vanity and began to purposely brush her hair as she hoped she would find someone to duel tonight. And if it came down to it, she didn't care if Goodwin found out or not. She wanted to show him that a princess can duel.

Goodwin sat at his desk, Lazar standing on the other side, waiting as Goodwin was talking to the club owner that was hosting the party.

"Yes, she will be there tonight," Goodwin assured the man in the hologram.

"Good then, the whole city will be excited," the man said happily.

Goodwin smiled and rested his chin on his gloved hands, "I'm sure they will be. Good day, Mr. Clark."

"You too, Director," Mr. Clark replied before the hologram disappeared and Goodwin gazed up at the clown.

"Cassandra will be the perfect distraction," Lazar said before doing his trademark laugh.

"Yes, she will be. Make sure Zigzix watches over the stadium and keeps in contact with me," Goodwin told him. Lazar bowed and disappeared through the door. Goodwin pressed a button on an intercom and Mina's voice came through.

"Yes, Mr. Goodwin?"

"Please go and see if Cassandra needs any help preparing for the dinner party," he said as he leaned back in his chair.

"Yes sir."

Deep in the run down, broken streets of the Satellite, a little girl came running as fast as she could down the street, her blonde curls bobbing as she neared her destination. Her face was smeared with dirt and large blue eyes gazed up at a boy with mopped brown hair and blue eyes like hers.

"Big brother, have you heard? Ellie said Cassandra will be singing at Club Domino tonight!" she exclaimed happily as she tugged on his black jacket. He looked down at her with a frown.

"So?" he grunted as his mother appeared in the doorway, wiping her hands on her dirty apron, making them even dirtier.

The little girl gazed up at her plump mother who was thinning thanks to the poverty in the Satellite. Her black hair was turning gray and wrinkles were forming near her blue eyes.

"Ken, take your sister to see Cassandra, please?" his mother begged him.

"It's dangerous but…" he gazed at the ground with his hands shoved in his pockets.

"You've gone there hundreds of times before against my wishes and yet you come back every time, unharmed. You must be stealthy enough. Just this once I'll allow you to go there," his mother said sweetly, "You know how your sister loves Cassandra."

"She's just a stupid singer," he muttered and he felt his mother's cold gaze on him, "Alright! I'll take her there." Ken grabbed his sister's hand and began leading her down the street.

"Just be back before bedtime!" his mother called after him. He waved without looking back as his little sister skipped along happily.

Mina brushed Cassandra's hair in front of the mirror and began braiding a strand above here ear to pull back into a ponytail. Mina concentrated on braiding while Cassandra tried to think up of a conversation. She couldn't stand this silence.

"Is Jack always so mean?" she asked suddenly.

"Most of the time," Mina sighed and gave Cassandra the thin braid to hold while she did the other side.

"You mean he can actually be nice!?" she smiled in the mirror at Mina, who returned the smile.

"Yes, as impossible as it may seem. But it's rare," she told her. Cassandra fell quiet and tried to think of something else to say. Mina put the braids together in a blue rubber band. "There," she said as she stood back, finished.

"Thank you, Mina," Cassandra smiled and dismissed her.

Cassandra applied a pink lipstick to her lips and put on eye-shadow that matched her dress. She opened a jewelry box on her desk and pulled out a chain necklace with a tear-shaped blue stone. Cassandra had been in possession of this necklace for what seemed like ever and she believed it was her mother's. She had very few memories of her mother. She assumed this was because she was very young when she had last seen her, due to what Goodwin claimed. Cassandra clasped the chain around her neck and gazed at herself in the mirror as someone knocked on the door loudly twice.

It wasn't Jack and it wasn't Goodwin. Mina knocked softly so it couldn't have been her.

"Who is it?" Cassandra called as she got up from her chair.

"It's Lazar, my dear princess," he said through the door, "Goodwin sent me to fetch you."

Cassandra opened the door to meet the short man that she had often mistaken for a child long ago. He grinned as he looked her up and down.

"Don't you ever wear something else for performances?" he asked her.

"I feel more comfortable performing in this dress," she replied. Lazar shrugged and led her through the mansion and outside where they met up with Goodwin by the limousine. The door was open as if it had been waiting for them.

He gazed up at them as they came through the door, his gray eyes settling on Cassandra as they came up to him.

"You look extravagant as always," he smiled as he helped her into the limo.

"Thank you," she blushed. Compliments always made her warm over.

Goodwin sat beside Cassandra as Lazar sat across from them, slightly smiling. What was about to unfold tonight would be so exciting!

To be continued...