The next morning dawned gray over Battle City's blimp. The sky stretched pale and empty above the endless ocean, clouds drifting low enough to blur the horizon. Inside the command deck, the hum of machinery was the only sound—steady, clinical, and indifferent to the chaos that had erupted just hours before.
Yugi, Joey, Connor, Rebecca, and Odion stood outside the glass-paneled control room, waiting for Seto Kaiba.
None of them had slept.
The night still clung to their faces—dark circles, dry eyes, unspoken dread. Every time Yugi blinked, he saw Jason's smile behind those impenetrable sunglasses. Every time he exhaled, he swore he could feel the pressure of The Wicked Avatar's gravity pressing against his chest again.
Rebecca leaned against the wall, arms folded tightly, staring at nothing. Joey paced the floor like a caged tiger. Connor stood beside Yugi, quiet and still, his hands clasped behind his back, his expression unsettlingly calm for someone his age.
Only Odion moved with purpose—his steps measured, his silence heavy with guilt. He kept his eyes low, speaking only once, quietly, to Yugi.
"Jason taught Marik everything he knew," he said. "And I… allowed it. I should have stopped him early."
Kaiba strode out of the control room, his coat flaring like a cape of steel-blue arrogance. Mokuba followed, clutching a clipboard and looking slightly nervous.
Kaiba didn't slow down. "If you're here to congratulate me for not sleeping," he said, "save it. I already know I'm impressive."
"Cut the sarcasm, Kaiba!" Joey barked. "We ain't here for jokes. We gotta talk about that psycho, Jason Smithson!"
Kaiba stopped mid-stride, eyes narrowing. "Smithson," he repeated, as though tasting the word. "The so-called 'mad scientist' duelist who beat Ishtar?"
Yugi nodded gravely. "It wasn't just a duel. Jason used the Millennium eye on Marik.."
Kaiba's eyebrow twitched upward, a spark of interest flickering behind his usual detachment. "You're telling me a man in a lab coat is running around with ancient Egyptian trinkets and pretending to be a god, and you want me to take him out of my tournament?"
Joey threw up his hands. "He ain't pretendin', Kaiba! You saw what happened in the last duel, didn't ya? He sealed Marik into a card!
Kaiba folded his arms, unimpressed. "I saw a holographic malfunction followed by an emotional breakdown. I've had worse technical bugs in my prototype simulators."
Yugi stepped forward, frustration edging into his voice. "Kaiba, this isn't a malfunction! Jason's using Shadow Magic! It's real!"
Kaiba's laugh was short and sharp. "Magic," he said, the word coated in disdain. "You still cling to that superstition? You of all people should know better, Yugi. Everything you call 'magic' is just undiscovered science. Holograms, quantum energy, electromagnetic resonance—pick your theory. But don't stand here and tell me it's 'magic.'"
Connor, who had been silent until now, finally spoke. His tone was calm, steady, and far too mature for someone his size. "That's not logical denial, Kaiba," he said evenly. "That's intellectual arrogance. The kind that gets civilizations destroyed."
Kaiba blinked, momentarily thrown by the tone. "You're what—five?"
"Age doesn't determine comprehension," Rebecca replied, folding her arms. "You've seen evidence, Seto. Online footage of Shadow Magic, documented cases of possession, duels that defy all known mechanics—and you still deny it? That's not skepticism. That's fanaticism of your own brand."
Joey smirked slightly. "Kid's got a point."
Kaiba's glare sharpened. "Don't lecture me about 'fanaticism.' I've seen enough charlatans to know when someone's selling snake oil. Jason Smithson is just another lunatic who's learned how to hack Duel Disk code and project special effects. You're all hypnotized by smoke and mirrors."
Odion stepped forward then, his deep voice breaking the rising tension. "If that were true, Kaiba, then how do you explain the Millennium Rod responding to him?"
Kaiba turned to him sharply. "Because it's an artifact built by intelligent craftsmen—possibly Atlantean in origin. The energy within it might be quantum-based, not supernatural. Everything has a scientific explanation. Always."
Joey nearly lunged at him, but Connor stepped between them. "Stop," he said firmly, and somehow both of them did. The boy's composure was eerie, the calm of someone who had seen worse things than most adults could imagine.
Connor turned his steady gaze on Kaiba. "You've built your empire on logic and reason, but you've also built it on denial. You've seen Yugi's duels. You've faced magic before—even if you call it 'unknown science.' Pretending it doesn't exist won't make it less dangerous. It'll just make you unprepared when it strikes."
Kaiba's jaw tightened. "I'm never unprepared."
"Then prove it," Connor said. "Get Jason out of the tournament before he kills someone else."
Mokuba looked between them nervously. "Seto… maybe he has a point. Jason's duel last night—something about it didn't look normal. The readings on the Duel Disk were way off the charts."
Kaiba shot his brother a warning look, but Mokuba didn't back down.
"Look, big brother, I know you don't believe in magic. But what if you're wrong? What if Jason really did do something… impossible?"
Kaiba exhaled slowly, folding his arms again, eyes narrowed at the floor as if the very idea annoyed him. "You all want me to throw out one of the most brilliant minds to enter Battle City because you think he's using 'magic.'"
"He sealed a man's soul in a card, Kaiba!" Joey shouted. "That's not brilliant, that's psycho!"
Rebecca's voice cracked as she joined in. "He's collecting Millennium Items! He said he has four already, and two Divine Beasts! You think this is just some elaborate hoax?"
Kaiba's reply was ice-cold. "Until I see empirical evidence, it's conjecture. I don't remove duelists from my tournament based on bedtime stories."
Connor tilted his head. "Even when the bedtime story's standing right in front of you wearing a lab coat?"
That hit Kaiba harder than he showed. His eyes narrowed.
Odion stepped closer. "He has my master's Millennium Rod. He has the Winged Dragon of Ra. He has knowledge of Shadow Magic that no ordinary man could wield. If you do not act, Kaiba, you will be responsible for what comes next."
Kaiba's tone sharpened. "Don't lecture me on responsibility. I built this tournament to find the best duelist, not to play exorcist for your cursed relics."
"Then you'll get both," Yugi said, his voice steady. "Because the best duelist left standing will have to stop him."
Kaiba turned his head toward Yugi, and for a brief instant, something flickered behind the billionaire's composure — a shadow of concern quickly buried under pride.
He looked away, toward the wide observation window overlooking the endless sky. "Jason Smithson earned his place in the finals. He won fair and square. If you want him out," Kaiba said, turning back with a thin smirk, "beat him yourself."
Silence fell.
The doors closed behind him with a quiet ding.
Joey slammed his fist into the wall. "That guy's a bigger moron than I thought!"
Yugi stood silently, staring at the floor, his thoughts heavy and unreadable. The hum of the blimp filled the silence between heartbeats. When he finally lifted his gaze, his eyes no longer belonged to the boy they all knew — they carried the Pharaoh's ancient calm, the resolve of a ruler who had faced darkness before.
"Then we stop Jason ourselves," Yugi said, his voice low but steady. "We can't wait for Kaiba to believe us.
Connor met his gaze, the quiet maturity in his expression belying his age. He nodded once, firm and unflinching. "Then we work together," he said. "All of us. We face him at once and put this monster down for good. Too much is at stake to let him keep playing god."
Joey let out a slow breath, the tension in his shoulders finally giving way to grim determination. "Then it's settled," he muttered. "We finish Kaiba's little tournament after we deal with Jason. No trophies, no glory — just ending this before anyone else gets hurt."
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The command deck of the blimp was quiet — eerily quiet. The Duel Monitors that usually displayed bracket stats and holographic replays were all off, leaving the room lit only by the soft glow of the ocean beneath.
Seto Kaiba stood alone by the observation window, his reflection shimmering faintly in the glass. The horizon stretched out before him in endless blue, but his mind was far from calm.
He'd replayed Jason's duel in his head a dozen times, every detail, every flicker of energy, every anomaly in the Duel Disk's readings. Logic told him it was a malfunction. But something in his gut — something he refused to name — whispered otherwise.
He had just started reviewing data from the satellite uplink when he heard it.
Kaiba's eyes narrowed. "Mokuba," he said sharply, without turning. "If that's you playing with the intercom again—"
The hum deepened. The temperature dropped several degrees. The light in the room flickered once… and a wave of static rolled through the space.
Kaiba spun around.
The air behind him split open like glass under pressure, a web of blue-white lightning tearing through the air. From it stepped a man — tall, broad-shouldered, his face mostly hidden beneath a metallic white mask that gleamed in the dim light. His hair was silver-gray streaked with brown, wind-swept and wild. His coat, long and tattered at the edges, shimmered faintly with digital light.
Kaiba's hand went immediately to his Duel Disk. "You've got five seconds to explain how you got past my security."
The masked man lifted a hand, calm and measured. His voice came low and distorted through the mask's vocoder. "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you, Seto Kaiba."
Kaiba's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Try me."
The stranger tilted his head slightly, and for a brief moment, Kaiba caught a flicker of something familiar in the man's stance — the straight-backed confidence, the way his eyes (or what little could be seen of them) sharpened like blades when challenged.
"I came because you will be the only one who listens," the stranger said. "And because you would never accept this warning from anyone else."
Kaiba gave a low, humorless laugh. "A warning? You break into my control room in the middle of my tournament, and now you're giving me lectures? You're lucky I don't—"
"Jason Smithson," the man interrupted.
Kaiba stopped cold.
The name hung in the air like a curse.
"What about him?" Kaiba demanded.
The man took a slow step forward, the lights flickering as his shadow stretched long across the floor. "He's not just a duelist. He's an anomaly — a fracture in time itself. In my world, Jason won."
Kaiba's hand tightened around his Duel Disk. "What are you talking about?"
The man's voice grew heavier, more deliberate. "He collected all seven Millennium Items, harnessed the energy of the Divine Beasts, and merged science with Shadow Power until reality itself collapsed. The world you know — your company, your city, your brother — everything burned in the wake of his experiment."
Kaiba's expression darkened. "You expect me to believe this?"
"No," the man said simply. "I expect you to verify what I am telling you with your own eyes."
He pulled something from his coat — a small, disk-like device glowing faintly with blue light. He tossed it toward Kaiba. Kaiba caught it on reflex. The device projected a hologram instantly — a world fractured into ash and storm. The KaibaCorp Tower was half-destroyed, its logo blackened. Duel Disks lay scattered across the ruins like relics of a dead civilization.
And above it all, a single sphere — black, featureless, massive — hung in the crimson sky.
Kaiba's voice dropped to a whisper. "The Wicked Avatar…"
The man nodded once. "Jason merged with it — mind, body, and soul. He transcended mortality. And in doing so, he unmade the world."
Kaiba's mind raced. He looked down at the holographic ruin, then back at the masked man. "If what you're saying is true, why come to me? Why not Yugi or the Pharaoh? They're the ones who deal with this kind of mystical nonsense."
The stranger's voice deepened. "Because they can't be told. Not yet. If Jason learns that someone from the future has interfered, he'll change his strategy — rewrite the outcome. You, Kaiba, are the one variable he never accounted for."
Kaiba crossed his arms, hiding the flicker of unease in his eyes. "And what exactly do you expect me to do about it?"
"Prepare the others without them knowing," the man said. "Slip these into their decks."
He reached into his coat again and produced two slim cases — one marked with Yugi's emblem, the other with Odion's. Inside each case were one card each, shimmering faintly with energy.
Kaiba frowned. "Tampering with a duelist's deck goes against every rule I've ever written."
"In your rules, yes," the stranger said calmly. "But these are not ordinary cards. They're safeguards — keys that will activate only when Jason's power reaches critical mass. If they remain unused, history repeats."
Kaiba stared at the cases. "You're asking me to cheat."
"I'm asking you to win."
The air pulsed faintly again, the dimensional rift behind the stranger sparking with energy. He turned slightly, his voice lowering. "I don't have much time left. My arrival here is already destabilizing this timeline."
Kaiba's eyes narrowed. "Then tell me this — why me? Why not send someone else?"
The man paused. "Because you were the first to try to stop Jason. You tried to end him before he could rise."
Kaiba's expression hardened. "What are you saying?"
The masked man looked up, and even through the distortion of his voice, Kaiba could hear something raw underneath. "You went back to when he was just a baby. You tried to eliminate him before he could reshape reality. But someone intervened — someone took his place in that timeline after he was killed. You failed… and the future fell."
Kaiba felt his breath catch for the briefest second, though his face betrayed nothing. "I don't fail," he said quietly.
The man's tone softened. "No. You don't. That's why I'm here."
He stepped closer, his hand briefly resting on the edge of Kaiba's desk. "Do this, and you'll give your world a chance. Refuse… and everything ends exactly as it did before."
Kaiba looked down at the cases, the light from them reflecting in his ice-blue eyes. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, slowly, he picked them up. "Fine," he said at last. "But I'm not doing this because I believe your story. I'm doing it because I don't lose — not to Jason, not to anyone."
A faint chuckle came from beneath the mask. "That's exactly what I said once."
The lights flickered again. The dimensional rift behind the stranger began to flare brighter, unstable. The man straightened, his coat whipping in the rising energy.
Kaiba scowled. "Who are you?"
The man hesitated, then reached up slowly. His fingers brushed the edge of the metallic mask and began to lift it away.
The light from the portal flared, washing the room in blinding blue.
Kaiba's eyes widened. His composure shattered.
The mask fell away — revealing a face lined with age, scarred from time, but unmistakable. The same sharp jawline. The same ice-blue eyes. The same cold precision in every movement.
Seto Kaiba stared into the eyes of the man before him — an older version of himself.
The older Kaiba gave a faint, humorless smile. "Now you understand why I knew you'd listen," he said.
The portal roared open behind him.
"Do not fail this time."
And with that, he stepped backward into the light — and vanished.
The hum died instantly.
Kaiba stood motionless for a long moment, the glowing cases still in his hands. His reflection in the window looked back at him — doubled now, one in the present, one burned into his memory.
He exhaled slowly, jaw tightening.
"So I failed once," he murmured. "Not again."
He turned toward the monitors, entering a new sequence of commands. The blimp's systems came online again, and the Battle City logo flickered across the screens.
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