Jaden P.O.V

Now, typically when I wake up, I found myself hugging a pillow, which was embarrassing to say the least. But now I found myself with one arm wrapped around Alexis's nude waist, and the other trapped underneath her neck.

I couldn't help but look at her, thinking back to last nights confession. It was an emotional moment for the both of us, mainly because we just admitted the immense love we had for each other. Well, Alexis was more emotional than I was, but I wouldn't say that.

The feel of her naked form against me was something else, mainly because I thought it would never happen. At first, I thought that I would never be able to go out with her due to my status as the Vessel of Darkness. And it would be impossible for me to stay with her due to the dangers that I go through continuously. But then again, it made me want her even more. I had to admit... for once I felt like I could feel normal.

Suddenly, I felt her stir in my arms. She moaned in her semi-conscious sleep, as she slowly opened her eyes. She turned around to face me, and she smiled sleepily, her hair covering the left side of her face.

"Morning, you," she mumbled, moving around to rest on her chest and elbows.

I smiled back, running my hand down her bare back. "Morning to you too. I must say, you're in a cheerier mood."

She rested her face on the pillows, closing her eyes and smiling in content. "I'm just happy waking up next to you."

I chuckled, about to get out of bed before Alexis grabbed me by the arm.

"Don't go just yet," she complained in a whinny voice. "Stay a little longer. Please?"

I had to admit, Alexis could be more grabby than I thought. Usually, she's pretty tough and very bossy when it comes down to most things. But now, she was pretty touchy. Plus, she looked at me with pleading eyes. I never thought I'd see that look on her face.

And I couldn't resist it. I sighed dramatically, lying back down. "I'm guessing now that we're in a relationship, I can't win an argument with you anymore?"

Alexis smiled alluringly as she moved herself on top of me, her bosom pressed against my chest and her arms wrapped around my neck. "That's the way it works. Not letting you out of my sight."

After that, she leaned in and kissed me full on the lips. I remember feeling like my mind was melting right there and then. I could've stayed like that all day if I wanted.

But then again, when is my luck ever that great? Just then, the door to the room opened up and Yusei came walking in with a bag full of food.

"Hey Jaden," he began saying, "I got some food here if you... Oh."

He caught sight of me and Alexis lying naked in bed, and I swear his face went red in embarrassment. Alexis yelped and covered her chest with the blanket immediately, her eyes widening in surprise to see Yusei.

"WHOA! Okay! Whoa! Uh... um... I guess this is a... uh... bad moment?" Yusei asked, looking away from the sight of us.

"It kind've is right now, Yusei!" I exclaimed. "You could've knocked at the very least, instead of barging in like you just did!"

Yusei left the bag on the nearby table, all without looking at me and Alexis. "I'll just... go and um... yeah, I'll just go."

Next thing I knew, he bolted out of the door and I immediately cursed, jumping out of bed and rushing for my clothes. Alexis frowned at that, wrapping the blanket tighter around her body.

"What are you doing?" she asked, kneeling on the mattress.

"If Yusei saw us," I said, rushing to get my underwear on, "who do you think's gonna find out next?"

Alexis continued frowning, before the realisation of the situation dawned on her. I could see it in her eyes. "Oh crap, Atticus."

With that, she immediately dropped the blanket and rushed to get her own clothes, throwing on her sleeping top and panties as I immediately got my black jeans and shirt on too.

Just then, I heard the door bang loudly, and the sound of a very pissed off Atticus Rhodes cried out on the other end of the door.

"YUKI!" I heard him scream, as he hammered the door continuously. "OPEN THIS DOOR! YUSEI TOLD ME WHAT HE SAW! SO OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR, RIGHT NOW!"

I paled as I heard him scream like that. And I immediately began to panic slightly, due to the fact that I didn't consider how Atticus would react to something like this.

I turned to Alexis, smiling like crazy. "Well, we had a good run! It's been like... what, seven, maybe eight hours of being together as a couple? Well, it's certainly been a blast! Okay, bye then!"

I quickly kissed her, before leaping for the fire escape at the window. However, Alexis grabbed my arm and stopped me right on the spot.

"What—?" she questioned with a smile, almost like she's laughing in a way. "What are you doing?"

"Considering that I'd like to keep all my limbs in place, rather than having your older brother rip them off me and beating me to death with them, I'm gonna go with option two," I answered as quick as I could. "Meaning: I'm planning to escape before your brother does anything of the sort to me."

Alexis laughed, before grabbing my hand and leading me to the front door. "Hey, I've lived with Atticus for most of my life. I know how to calm him down."

I was doubtful that Atticus would be calm, but I followed her anyway as she opened the front door.

Now, I know how this sort of situation looks now, and believe me, coming face to face with your girlfriends big brother is terrifying. Just looking at Atticus's rage filled face was enough to send shivers up my spine, and not in a good way.

Even Alexis figured that out, as all manner of calmness left her face. Meaning that she was just pretending to be calm until she saw her brother. She laughed nervously, "Hey Atticus, what's up bro?"

Atticus looked briefly at Alexis, before turning his crazed gaze back to me. He lunged forward. "YOU! COME HERE!"

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed, rushing to one side as Atticus tried grabbing me. Right there and then, it became a game of cat and mouse, right before I had to hide behind Alexis, who stretched her arms out as if to protect me... which, technically, was what she was doing.

"What... the HELL... are you two DOING?!" Atticus exploded angrily.

Just then, when things couldn't get any worse, Chazz; Syrus; and Yusei came into the room, looks of confusion and shock on their faces as they took the whole scene in.

"What's going on?" Syrus asked me. "What's with all the ruckus?"

I turned my head around to look at him, crouching slightly. "I think—I THINK—Atticus knows that me and Alexis slept together."

Chazz looked at me in surprise and shock. "You what?! You and Alexis?!"

I looked at Chazz, giving him a look saying that he wasn't helping at all. I then turned my gaze towards Yusei, scowling even further.

"You had to tell Atticus, huh?" I muttered.

Yusei held his hands up in a defensive manner. "I'm sorry! But seeing you and Alexis together in that state freaked me out! I wasn't expecting to see that at all."

"I can't believe it!" Atticus exclaimed, walking back and forth whilst running a hand through his hair. "One of my best friends and my sister shacking up with each other! Seriously!"

"Hey, listen Atticus," Alexis said, getting her brothers attention. "What happens between me and Jaden is none of your concern or business. I love him dearly, and it's my choice if I want to be with him. Plus, didn't you tell Jaden that he shouldn't 'leave it until it was too late' to go out with me in the first place?"

Atticus blushed, looking between Alexis and I, taking into account that Alexis had grabbed one of my hands, and held it for dear life. "How did you—?"

"Because I told her," Chazz said, crossing his arms. "She had a right to know. That, and I don't hide a lie from anyone, especially my friends."

"I told you, Yusei and Jaden that in strict confidence you complete and utter son of a—!" Atticus started, before my phone rang.

I was a little surprised to see that it was Aster's phone number that appeared on the screen. Deciding that I should probably take it, I answered it.

"Aster?" I asked. "How did you get my—?"

"Called in a favour from KaibaCorp and Yugi," Asters voice replied. "Listen, if you're not too busy, could you please come over to my apartment? I know it sounds sudden, but—"

"Don't worry," I said, stopping him in his tracks. "I'll come over. Be there in ten."

I hung up the phone, and looked at Alexis. "Listen, Aster wants me to come on over to his place. Don't know what it's for, but I'm gonna find out."

"Sure thing," my girlfriend said, kissing me on the cheek. "Go and see him. He probably just wants to check up and see how you are, considering that you and Chazz saved his and Yusei's lives."

I nodded, smiling as I walked towards the door. However—

"Hey, I'm not done with you just yet!" Atticus snapped. "You get your ass back here right now! If you think that I'm gonna let you go out with Alexis like this, and let—!"

Alexis slammed her knee into Atticus's balls, making him cry out in pain as he fell to his knees as he clutched his battered groin area. Yusei and Syrus winced and groaned at the sound of the impact, while Chazz gawked in even further shock, his face indicating that it was something that shouldn't have been witnessed.

Alexis looked at me, a hard look in her eyes but she hid it well with a smile. "Jaden, please go. I need to have a word with my brother."

I paled at her tone, but was relieved that her tone of voice was not directed at me. I threw on my jacket, collected my deck and duel disk, and headed out, Alexis looming over Atticus on the ground being the last image I saw before I ran down the hallway.

============
I managed to reach the hotel where Aster was staying, which wasn't that far from the hotel I was staying at. Knocking on the door, I was immediately greeted by a blonde haired woman near Asters age, and she was wearing a black suit with a white blouse underneath.

"Jaden Yuki I presume?" she asked in a business like manner. She extended her hand. "Hi, my name is—"

"Freya Lockhart," I finished her sentence, shaking her hand back.

She looked mildly surprised. "How do you know my name?"

"Aster spoke about you one time," I answered her, avoiding that I knew about her in the future. "I have to admit, you've got a lot of guts to handle someone like him, given the fact that he can be a little much sometimes."

To that, Freya actually smiled a little. "Yeah, its a full time job. That and helping with the finance behind Aster's sponsorship with the Senrigan Group is a lot of work."

"Well, god help you with that," I said, looking up at the top of the building. "I'm guessing that Aster's at the very top?"

"Yes," Freya responded, already walking me into the building. "If you would please, follow me."

She led me to an elevator, and we immediately went up to floor thirty four, which was where Aster would be.

The penthouse looked exactly like the last time I saw it, and from what Chazz told me about it. The whole place had a nice feel to it, with white furniture, glass tables and a massive window view of Domino City, with a balcony on the outside. The flooring was padded, and the whole place felt like I was in a millionaires house...which technically it was.

I saw Aster on one of the couches, one of his shirt sleeves rolled as a doctor measured his blood pressure. Aster looked alright considering the massive cut on his head which was already healing. His grey suit jacket lay to one side, as well as his deck and duel disk.

As soon as I walked in, Aster turned his head to look at me. He immediately broke into a smile, which was an odd sight to me since Aster rarely smiled, and all the times he did smile it was either sarcastic or slightly rude and mean.

"Hey Jaden," he said as he waved the doctor away. "How you holding up?"

"Fine I guess, given everything that's just happened," I answered. "How are you?"

"Oh, holding up," Aster responded. Once again, he waved the doctor away. "Seriously, Doc, I'm alright. Can we please do this another time?"

The doctor nodded, already getting his equipment and leaving the apartment.

"Freya, why don't you go out and get something to eat?" Aster said to the blonde haired woman. "Just... need to have a word with Jaden."

Freya looked confused, but she did nod at that, and left for the elevator. Aster waited until the elevator went down, before his face went serious as he looked directly at me.

"How are you here?" he asked, leaning forward. "Last I heard, you were somewhere in Italy before you vanished off the face of the Earth. What happened?"

My eyes widened at that statement. I recoiled a little at that, and instantly cursing myself at the fact that I should've been more careful. This timeline was getting more and more affected by the amount of things I did different or events that had taken place way before they even happened.

"So... you know then?" I asked him.

"I know you're from the future, yeah," he answered. "And you don't even have to explain how you got here. I know already."

Now it was my time to frown. "What do you mean? How could you possibly know how I got here?"

Aster gave me a pointed look. "Yusei and his surprisingly challenging Synchro Summoning. That's how I know. That's clearly an advanced form of Duel Monsters summoning technique that no one has ever seen before. That means he's from the future. How far into the future he's from, I don't know. And the way I see it? You hitched a ride with him the very same day you went missing. It would explain what happened. And I'm going to venture a guess that the journey back home wasn't a success because you ended up in this point of your timeline, which means that you're stuck here until you can find a way home."

I looked at Aster, my mouth opened in shock at his statement. I knew that Aster was skilled in detective stuff like this, but now he had once again proven to be smarter than most people.

Aster laughed. "Close your mouth, Jay. Otherwise, you're gonna get flies in it."

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. "Alright, when did you start remembering me?"

Aster's eyes went distant, as he stood up and looked at the glass window. "When you duelled The D, and you managed to show me the truth of what he did to my father. It was like... like my whole mind just got zapped. Memories that I shouldn't even have came rushing into my head like a tidal wave. I remember the time when you and I first battled; I can remember the part where I... faced Sartorius; then the time I battled Adrian; facing down Nightshroud; and then finally, when everyone told me that you snuck out of Duel Academy to go on your own journey. It was pretty hard, even though the news came to me from Jesse of all people."

I looked down, the realisation that I left everyone in the dust making me feel slightly guilty. "Aster... I had to go. I knew that things were back to normal when I defeated Nightshroud back then, but... I wasn't even normal anymore. I had a lot going on with me, and it wasn't great. I had to sort myself out."

"Oh, right," Aster sarcastically said, turning to face me. "Because of your 'powers', and the fact that you couldn't let anyone help you out with them, dealing with them on your own as you usually do. I get that you had to deal with some personal issues Jaden, but it wouldn't have hurt to tell us exactly what was going on with you. Sure, you told a few people about what you were planning to do, but what about the rest of us, huh? What about your friends who have been with you since day one at the Academy?"

"I couldn't tell anyone else!" I exclaimed, getting infuriated that I had to go through this conversation again with one of my friends. "I wish that I told the others, but I just couldn't bring myself to drag any of them into any more trouble! The more people who knew about my abilities, the more chance that they would be in serious danger!"

"Oh, that's bullshit and you know it," Aster replied, crossing his arms. "When will you learn that it's not your job to do something like that on your own? Can't you at least respect the fact that we—your friends—can do the job as well? Sure, there will be risks and dangers, but we'll take them on together as a team as we always did. I thought you learned that lesson a long time ago, so clearly it hadn't even sunk in."

"I did learn that lesson, but things have been changing for months now, ever since I arrived here in this timeline!" I cried out. "Nightshroud has been haunting me in my nightmares; he knows that I'm from the future; he wants to get his revenge on me; he and Sartorius have teamed up to take us down; we're on the brink of war, and we're completely unprepared to do anything about it!"

Aster blinked. "Nightshroud's back? And Sartorius has sided with him?"

I nodded grimly. "Things are looking bad, Aster. And yes, you're right. I can't do this on my own, not anymore. But I can't stress this enough—if they do something and decide to strike at us, I can't guarantee that all of us will get through this. You saw for yourself what Sartorius was willing to do to us at the KaibaDome when he attacked us."

Aster nodded, his face haunted by the fact that one of his oldest friends had done something so horrible and vile. He then faced me again. "Which is why you're gonna have to teach me and a lot of other people exactly what you and Yusei can do."

I reeled back from that comment in surprise. "Okay, what?"

Aster smirked. "You heard me: teach me, our friends, and the students at Duel Academy how to duel like you and Yusei. You're veteran duellists, even a pro like myself can tell that. The way I see it, if you taught the others what you can do then we'd be better prepared when Nightshroud and Sartorius come screaming and kicking, because I highly doubt that they'll knock on the front door politely."

"Wh-why-why-why me?" I stammered, still shocked that he would say something like that. "Why specifically me?"

"Because you have the most experience with Nightshroud," Aster said. "You know what he's like, and I know for a fact that you know his duelling style. I know Sartorius better than you do, and I know deep down that the real Sartorius is still in there. If we can be able to take him down, we can bring him back. Then we can deal with Nightshroud and stop him while we have the chance."

I looked at him, noticing that there was something else behind his explanation. I crossed my arms too. "Why else do you want me to teach, Aster? Knowing you, you have a hidden meaning behind what you said."

Aster looked at me in surprise. "Damn, you've changed a lot if you can be able to pick up on that. Yes, the other reason why I want you to teach us because I want you to personally teach me how to Fusion Summon the way you do."

"Okay, now I can't decide if you're just plain insane or making fun of me," I said, taking another step back.

"I'm being serious," Aster said, picking up his deck and duel disk. "Teach me how to do what you do. Teach others to do what you do. I've seen you in action—you brought out several new HERO monsters that didn't even exist until you brought them out. You brought out several new Evil HERO monsters, and you brought out a brand new form of Neos in your duel with The D. I want you to teach me how to do something like that, because I know I have the strength to do so."

I thought about it, but then again could I? Could I be able to teach someone to Fusion Summon like I can? The way I learned how to Fusion Summon was difficult to say the least. It took me years to plan out my deck strategies considering that my HERO deck had evolved so much. It took me forever just to learn my own deck when it was just so basic.

And then there was the cards that I created using my own powers. I didn't even know how I created them, but I think it only happened because my powers were in a state of control—meaning, it was mainly my powers that did something like this.

But then again, Aster raised an interesting point. Maybe I could teach others to do the same as me. I mean, it may be hard to learn at first, but it can be done.

"Perhaps you should teach, Jaden," Yubel said as her spirit form appeared beside me. "If Nightshroud does attack—and there's every chance that he will—we need all the duellists we can get. And we need them to know our ways and fast, otherwise we won't stand a chance."

"It would be an interesting tactic," Haou mused out, also appearing in astral form. "Though I have my reservations about Aster Phoenix learning our ways of duelling, he is a worthy candidate."

I sighed in my mind. If both Haou and Yubel were agreeing on something like this together, then that means I had to teach.

I looked at Aster. "Alright, you got yourself a deal. I'll teach you how to Fusion Summon in my own way. However, you are to follow my every step without hesitation; you are not to question my methods; and if I tell you do something, then do you do so. Those are my only rules."

I reached into my deck, and took out Destiny HERO Plasma's card, which flowed in the presence of its rightful owner. "And if you're gonna learn how to Fusion Summon like I can, then you're gonna need this with you."

Aster nodded, taking Plasma out of my hand and placing it into his deck. "Alright then, I guess we should better get started. There's an arena at the top of the hotel. Should we—?"

"No, not here," I said, already forming an idea in my head.

Aster frowned. "Then where?"

I looked at him, before smiling. "Duel Academy."