Is It Life Or Death?

Screams. Cries. Callings. Pleading.

Screams of pain. Screams of terror. Screams of pure shock.

Cries of pain. Cries to stop. Cries to bring back the [i]true[/i] Yusei.

Calls of names. Calls to awake the light within him.

Pleadings for this all to stop. Pleadings for mercy. Pleadings for this all to end. Pleadings to wake up from this nightmare. All of these filled the entire room. It filled Yusei's thoughts.

" Die! Suffer! " screamed Taro as a shrill sadistic laugh erupted from his throat upon his mighty beast's attack to the apparent leader of the Dark Signers. " Suffer as my father did! Suffer as I did! Feel our pain! Feel the pain of everyone you have ever hurt! Kiryu ... Rally ... everyone you killed in the Zero Reverse! " his voice was filled with such a deep passion and fury, his fists were clutched with the nails digging into his palms to the point where the skin broke and droplets of crimson dripped down his fingernails. His eyes were wide, the pupils small as his fury reflected in those cold, dead orbs. Those eyes sought blood. Those eyes sought death and reparation. He wanted Rudger to die, no ... to suffer. He wanted this man to pay for everything he had ever done ... to Yusei's family, to every person who perished in the Zero Reverse! To Kiryu ... to Yusei's closest friends.

The mighty beast he so summoned to do the job was a direct contrast to the majestic, benevolent Stardust Dragon Yusei relied on in his duels. This beast was an image of ferocity. Its body was purely skeletal -- creating the image of it being part of the undead -- with bits of skin and muscle remaining in certain areas. It may had looked exactly like the Stardust Dragon if it did have that skin and muscle, however. The sockets where the eyes would have been located were meant to be hallow, however, they glowed a dark and ominous crimson color reminiscent to the hue of blood. The wings - despite being skeletal as well - kept it afloat while occasionally before each attack, it let out a screech similar to that of a banshee's. This beast could tore through Earthbound Gods as if they were nothing as long as it were in the right hands.

The flames from the very pits of the Underworld itself singed the Spider Signer. His skin was horrible burnt and when it attempted to heal, Taro would order yet another attack to tear through Rudger's spider - type monsters and get right to him. Taro smirked in pure pleasure at the sight of the burly man laying on the ground and groaning from the sheer pain of it all. Walking to him, Taro lifted up a shard of metal he tore off from his -- rather, Yusei's -- duel disk and straddled the one responsible for his earlier suffering. Placing this shard right above the area his father previously stabbed, Taro's lips once again twisted into a demonic grin. " Still want to think I'm Hakase, my love? " he muttered in an obviously mocking tone to the weaker one in this predicament.

With a faint smirk, Rudger replied with : " You have your father's horrid temper and impulsiveness, "

" You're not in a position to be try being smart now, " Taro scoffed in response as he raised his hand in order to finally unleash the closing blow. " I'm finished with you, " as his hand came down, someone had latched onto his wrist with surprising force and caused it to come an abrupt halt. " The hell --?! " snapping his head back, Taro saw who was responsible for this. " Jack?! "

" Yusei! " Jack cried back, " What the hell are you doing!? "

" Yusei is gone! He died the moment this bastard took advantage of him! "

" This isn't going to reverse all of it! This isn't going to change what he did! This isn't you, Yusei! " was Jack's response, with his tone remaining harsh in hopes that he may get through to the one who was his friend.

" He has to suffer! Everything he has done ... everything ... he must ... You aren't the one who can decide this, Jack! "

" Yusei ... I know you! You would never do something like this. I see that! you're too damn good to actually do this! "

Taro's eyes focused into a harsh glare to the blond before wrenching his arm free of the tight grasp. " Do you fucking know ... do you fucking now half of what this guy did?! What he was going to do before your ass showed up?! Don't fuck with me! " his glare of pure hatred and animosity turned back to the Goodwin below him and before Jack had another chance to object or to stop him, the duel disk shard soon found itself lodged right into the man's jugular vein. Blood began to spurt out, on the ground, on the man himself, and right onto Taro who began to laugh in pure ecstasy of the sight. His hand moved again and again ... that piece of metal driving into the other's darkened skin until Jack pulled him right off of him.

Rudger's body convulsed; his throat made gurgling sounds as he attempted to breath with the injuries to his neck which continuously spurted blood. " Attack! Burn him! Turn him to ashes! "

" No! " Jack cried out, but the undead beast did not listen to the blond in the single bit and soon attacked. The black flames washed over the bloodied body with a loud cry leaving Rudger from agony. When the flames came to a stop, the body was hardly recognizable. The skin was singed so very much that one could see the battered muscle and such, his facial features were burnt to the point where it would be nearly impossible to tell that was even the Spider Signer. However, the fact that he was a Dark Signer aided in those injuries starting to close up and heal on their own. As Rudger gasped and groaned, Jack put his hand over Taro's mouth to silence any further orders to attack.

" Yusei ... come back. This isn't the Yusei I know ...! He would never be stupid enough to do this, to stoop to this level! Yusei -- " Jack let out a sudden gasp for air the moment Taro slammed his elbow in his stomach with as much force as he could muster.

" Yusei is gone! Stop chasing him like a pathetic love sick puppy! He only has eyes for Kiryu. Do you think he would have magically fallen in love with you if you saved him?! Do you?! Give me a fucking break! "

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
---------- Y u s e i ' s POV

I was like a little child lost in a dark alley. I felt trapped, alone, helpless. I wanted someone to save me ... to keep me from being this ... this monster that called himself "Taro". I wanted someone to save me from this hell ... to reverse the pass before Rudger got his hands on me. If I could go back, I know I would have put up more of a fight ... even if it resulted in my death, I would have fought. But ... I wanted Rudger to pay so damn much for hurting everyone I cared for ...! For taking advantage of Kiryu's deep animosity towards me, for taking advantage of his pain. " W - what am I supposed to do ...? " I found myself whimpering to myself. I wanted revenge. I wanted compensation for all the pain everyone had went through at the hands of Rudger, but ... at the same time, I found myself disgusted with my "dark side's" actions. This wasn't me and I knew it. Despite this, I wasn't strong enough to break through ...

" Yusei, " my father's voice rang in my mind once again. It felt great to hear that voice ... it felt so comforting at this point in time.

" Father ...? " I called back though I already was well aware that the voice did belong to him.

" Yusei ... I know I gave up easily, but you're stronger than this. You can break through; there's someone waiting for you to come back to your senses, "

" It's ... it's too damn hard ...! " I found myself exclaiming in my reply. " After everything he's done ...! To Jack, Kiryu ... Rally, everyone he's manipulated with his lies! Look at what he did to you father! How could you excuse this ... even you want him to die ... I know it, "

" ... Any parent would want to kill the man who rapes and attempts to kill their own son, Yusei, " Father stated with a weak sigh. " Rudger hasn't always been like this ... his heart is corrupted with darkness. Yusei, I know you could save him, you have the gift to pull anyone out of the darkness, "

" Save him?! How ... why!? I can't forgive him ...! "

" I know it would be difficult to do so, my son. However, could you really look me in the eye honestly and tell me that this is who you are? A cold and bitter man? " he frowned at me. He knew the kind of person I had grown up to be ... and this wasn't the person standing before him. " Yusei. You always fight until the very end no matter what to protect your friends and bonds ... why is now any different? If not for yourself, fight for the ones you love, "

... I knew he was right. I had to try to forgive Rudger ... this wasn't the way to handle everything. " Father ... Thank you, "

" Thank me by handling this all the way it should be, "

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
---------- Third Person POV

" Yusei! " Jack's voice called once again as the spiky - haired teenager held the burly Dark Signer towards the edge of the bridge by his neck with a look of absolute pleasure upon his lips. Jack had been warned to stay put, or Taro certainly would waste no time in dropping Rudger down to the depths of the underworld. Not that the blond actually gave a shit about Rudger's well - being, it was merely because he did not want Yusei to go through something he knew he would regret for the rest of his existence.

" Jack ... I think I've been very lenient already. I wanted so much for my dragon to tear him limb from limb, shouldn't you be happy that I'm simply dropping him down in that pretty little pool of light? " Taro replied with a dark chuckle leaving his lips.

Suddenly, Taro's hold on Rudger's neck loosened to the point where the wounded man toppled over -- only to narrowly save himself by grabbing onto the edge of the bridge. Taro brought his hands to either side of his head as a pained scream left his throat " N - no! You can't get free! This is my body now! " the darker spirit cried out in a mixture of horror and pain.

" Yusei! Break away from this bastard! Jack Atlas won't allow you to submit to him! " Jack encouraged, a smirk of satisfaction coming to his lips at the sight.

" N - nooo! You son of a bitch! " with another pained groan, Taro's eyes set down to the man barely clinging on to the bridge and gave a weakened smirk. " I'll be damned if I let you live ... " with that, his foot slammed down on the man's hand to try to get him to let go of the edge. Rudger grunted in pain -- though the pain did not amount to all of those burns which were still desperately trying to heal -- and found his grip loosing. Taro's action came to an end, for he was interrupted by another scream of pain thanks to Yusei. However, this scream caused him to fall over backwards and the blond ex - King readily caught him in his arms. Rudger now, had not been so lucky. He fell. Right into the light of the Underworld.

Jack paid no mind to this and merely focused on shaking Yusei awake. " Yusei ...! Yusei! " cried out the blond in worry. The skeletal dragon which stayed in the air let out a roar, flying about the entire room -- once again, Jack paid no mind to this detail. " Yusei ... can you hear me?! Wake the hell up! You bastard ...! "

The desperate pleas fell on deaf ears.

2/22/10: Enkii won't make up any excuses ... she hasn't updated out of her own laziness to write a freakin' chapter. = w=;;; It's been so long that I forgot where the HELL i wanted to go with this story originally buuut ... enkii will make it work! 8D

The title comes from a song I was listening to while writing this. c: THREE DAYS GRACE IS MAH MUSE. 83