Jaden POV

Well, wintertime sure did come quickly, I thought to myself as I looked through the nearby interior window, staring at the white fluffy stuff known as snow.

I mean, I've been at the Academy for the best part of five months now and boy, did the time fly by so quickly! Snow was falling from the sky in heavy blankets, and the cold was near enough freezing to the point where it would chill you to the bone. I had my red jacket wrapped around me as usual, as I watched countless students frolic around and enjoying the snowball fights they were having, and to be I was glad that I was out of range.

Plus, I was glad to finally have the chance to recharge for the winter - ever since I rose to prominence as the top student at Duel Academy, every student from every house has wanted to duel me every day. That, and I now had to attend all these sorts of meetings with Chancellor Shepherd - Academy specials, meeting with other Chancellors like the one from North Academy, stuff like that. It made me glad that I could be able to rest for the season until I'm back in top forms

Plus, it gives me a chance to recover from my last tough duel. I had no idea why that duel with Dimitri gave me such a massive heart attack. The duel with Zane never did anything to me, but my body just couldn't be able to handle the pressure from my duel with Dimitri. So I was glad that I could recover some more.

I was cooped up inside the garage that me and Yusei were in, working on his Duel Runner for most of the day. I promised him that I would help get his Duel Runner going again. I knew that if could get it working again, I could be able to go back to my own timeline. It made me sad about the thought, but I knew that I had to.

As a surprise, Chazz and Atticus had joined in on the fun since they were interested in what me and my future friend were doing. Plus, I had a sneaky suspicion that Alexis asked them to - ever since my duel with Dimitri, she's been keeping an eye on me to make sure hat I was alright. As a matter of fact, I actually caught her saying that stuff without her knowing it.

Chazz was lying on his newly acquired black duster coat, looking up at the machinery underneath the ride and screwing things as best he could. I have to admit, ever since I told him that he had a black jacket in my timeline, he immediately got one from North Academy - how he did, I'll never fully know, but I suspected that money was involved. Whatever the reason, he still loved the thing. He even changed his deck, so it now housed the three Ojama Brothers. It made me laugh a little, because as soon as he added them into his deck, they appeared right next to Chazz, and they immediately began annoying him.

Atticus was helping me sort out most of the plating and where it needed to go. After recovering from his ordeal of being controlled by Nightshroid, he started trying his hardest to make sure he wasn't controlled by the sadistic dark god again. He also started training with his Red Eyes deck, trying to make sure that Nightshroud's influence was completely banished from every card. It wasn't particularly easy, but he finally succeeded in it, with a little help from me now and again.

Yusei was there on his computer formulating the software that the ride needed. It amazed me how he was good at his computer tech. I guess he did learn a lot of things while in the Satellite. There were files here, and files there. Apparently he was good at memorising the tech stuff when he created it, so for him it was a walk on the park.

"Ah, wait a moment, that component isn't suppose to be in that part...There we go...If it's gonna work again, I need to boost the speed of the engine and motor...Clear off that scrub, place it in there..." I heard him mumble from time to time, and I still haven't got a clue what he's saying.

Just then, Chazz patted my right leg which made me look at him. I saw him with his right hand outstretched. "Pass me the wrench."

I crouched down, passing him the tool. I turned my head sideways to look at his work. "How you holding up with that?"

Chazz didn't look at me, but he did shrug whilst looking at the sheet he was working on and the mechanical stuff. "Not as hard as I would've thought. I mean, I did a little bit of mechanics a couple of years ago, but I thought it wasn't important enough for me. Boy, was I wrong?"

That made both me and him laugh at that thought. I patted him on the shoulder. "Well, keep it up Chazz. We'll have this thing up and running in no time."

Chazz nodded at that. But then he faltered, looking at me. "Yeah, about that: what happens when it's all fixed? Do you and Yusei go back to your own timelines?"

That made me think for a moment, by then I shrugged. "I don't know. What I do know is that until then, I'm gonna do whatever needs to be done. And one of those things is at least getting my first year of Duel Academy done. Besides, it'll take a while for Yusei to get this Runner up and running again. He's gotta get the software for it sorted as well. Without it, the thing won't run. So until then, we're completely stuck here."

"Yeah, but still...it will be pretty boring without you around," Atticus said, just as he managed to get one of the plating parts screwed and melded on. "You know, Jesse said something about you that actually defined you a lot. He said that, 'You were like a raging storm. You just came out of the blue, caused a little trouble and chaos, and just vanished just as instantly without a trace.' It made a lot of us laugh."

That even made me laugh, and raised my eyebrows. "He really said that, huh? Jesse sure was one for saying a lot of true words."

Atticus nodded. Then, he said something that made me freeze on the spot. "Speaking of leaving, I keep wondering how Alexis will respond to that."

I didn't say anything at first. Just kept working. "I don't know. I mean, back in my timeline, all she said was that she was glad that me and her met. And that we should stay as rivals. I mean, I can sense people's emotions so I knew she was lying at that part, but I didn't say anything. Ever since then, I just kept thinking about her."

Atticus grimaced, then turned to face me. "To be fair, after we graduated from Duel Academy, at first all she did was look at this photo of you, her and the rest of the gang. It was one of those few rare moments after the Dark World Dimension that you actually smiled. After that, she barely did anything. It was hard for her to secure a place in teaching, because she was so unfocused about everything else. I knew right there and then in those moments that she was in love with you."

I looked at the floor, my cheeks flushed. "I didn't know that part."

"Well, you do now," Atticus said, before going to pick up another set of plating. "My advice? Just ask her out, man. You both need each other, and quite frankly, I can't see either of you without the other. And Jaden, if you do decide to ask her out and date her, just promise me one thing. Don't leave it too late."

I nodded slowly.

"Alright, enough of that soppy love stuff," Chazz said, pausing his work to look at me. "I hear that you and Yusei are going over to Yugi's place over the holidays? Well, if you're going over to the King of Games house, you can count me, Syrus and Alexis in."

I looked at him, and nodded, excited that he would come too. "Alright, sounds like a plan. I'll give Yugi the heads up about it."

Just then, I heard the garage doors open up and Syrus popped in, wearing a thick coat over his Slifer Red uniform. He was panting and I could tell that he rushed over here in a hurry, because of the flushed look on his face. In his hand, I saw that he was holding a long piece of paper.

Behind him came Alexis, along with Jasmine and Mindy, all of whom were holding several trays of hot drinks and several batches of mince pies. All three of them were wearing their fleeces and had scarfs tightly wrapped around their necks as well. I've gotten along great with Jasmine and Mindy, even if they were a pair of gossip fanatics. I even told them about me coming from the future, with a little help from Alexis. They were skeptical at first but they soon began to trust me. They even swore not to tell anyone else about how Yusei and I came here.

"Hey guys, how's things here?" Alexis asked as she took her scarf off.

"Doing good," all of us said.

"Hope you guys don't mind, but we brought in some snacks," Mindy announced. "Mince pies and hot chocolate are on the house!"

Chazz looked up, and got to his feet, brushing his knees and jacket off. "You know what guys? Let's take a break. My back is aching a little."

"Yeah, you raise a fair point," Yusei said, leaning back from the computer and around to face us, stretching his arms upwards. "We've been working all morning to get the base job of the Runner going. We could use the break."

"Plus, if those are Aunt Jess's homemade mince pies, I'm all in for them,"'Atticus said, rubbing his hands eagerly. "She makes the best mince pies ever."

I nodded along with him, washing and cleaning my hands from all the black soot on my hands before joining the others. We sat down and just enjoyed the hangout, drinking hot chocolate and enjoying the mince pies. I had to admit, those pies were pretty nice.

I looked at the poster that Syrus had, frowning at it. "What's that you got, Sy?"

Syrus looked at me, before laying the poster out on the table. "It's this tournament that's coming up in a week or so back in Domino City. KaibaCorp brought together a few celebrity duellists along to participate in it, and Yugi is one of the duellists." Then he had a worried look on his face. "But I got worried about one of the duellists, mainly because I wasn't expecting him to be there."

"How come?" I asked.

Syrus pointed to the poster. "Don't freak out when you see this, but look who's in it."

I looked where he was pointing, and I almost choked from my hot chocolate as I looked at a very familiar face. It was a face that I knew all too well, ever since me and him first met and duelled on the shores of Duel Academy and me suffering one of my first ever defeats at the Academy. And how could I ever forget his silver suit and pants, with that silver hair of his?

"Aster Phoenix," I breathed out. "Man, how can I not forget him?"

Alexis looked at the picture of Aster, a look of distant recognition on her face. "I didn't think he would show up this soon. I thought he'd appear next year or so. What's he doing entering this tournament? I never heard of him competing in any tournament before he came to Duel Academy."

"I don't know," I shrugged. "But if he's going into this tournament, then things are getting worse than I thought possible. The flow of time is getting seriously out of whack."

"Okay, I can't remember him," Chazz said, obviously trying hard to remember Aster but failing. "I thought that I would at this stage. Who is this guy?"

I looked at Chazz. "Aster Phoenix. He's a pro duellist who uses another HERO deck."

"Another HERO user?" Jasmine asked in surprise. She scoffed. "Well, you'll have some competition then. It's rare for two people to have different HERO themed decks."

"But this isn't any deck you might already know, Jasmine," Yusei said, looking up from the poster. "Aster uses a Destiny HERO deck, and these HERO's are a lot tougher than you think."

"Destiny HERO's?" Chazz asked. "Jeez, those don't sound good at all. At least compared to Jaden's Elemental and Evil HERO decks."

I looked at Yusei. "How do you know about Aster? Is he still a pro in the future?"

"Yeah, at least in most of the major tournaments," he replied. "Next to Jack, Kaiba and several other duellists, Aster Phoenix is well known for his style of duelling. It's very rare for a duellist to come along and still use Fusion Summoning, but that's what makes Aster exciting to watch. Even in his old age, he's a pretty tough duellist."

"Except Aster only has one Destiny Fusion monster, and that's Destiny End Dragoon," I said. "The only other Fusion monsters he's got were his own Elemental HERO's that he used to try and beat me with. Other than that, he's not well known for them."

I looked back at the poster that showed Aster's face. "Besides, it's not Aster I'm worried about. It's his employer that disturbs me constantly."

Alexis looked me in the eye. "You mean...Sartorius?"

I nodded, remembering the brainwashed and psychopathic duellist. "That guy was pretty scary, especially with him being controlled by the Light of Destruction. And if it knows that I'm back here in this timeline, then that makes him and Aster much more dangerous."

I then leaned forward. "However, I know for a fact that I can be able to change Asters way of duelling. All he care's about at this stage is finding the guy who stole his dads most powerful card, and the same guy who was responsible for his old mans disappearance."

I stood up from my chair. "That settles it. I've got a reason to participate."

Alexis stood up at once. "Absolutely not. Jaden, you almost had a heart attack in your duel with Dimitri. Who knows what a duel with Aster would do to you?"

I gave her a confident look. "Alexis, this is one of my friends. I would risk my life to make him change his mind if I had to. And I know he would do the same for me. Plus, I owe him for bringing me back from Haou's rampage."

Syrus looked surprised at that. "You're entering?! For real?! Have you ever even been in a tournament before?"

I nodded, bringing out my phone. "Not a big scale tournament, but close enough. I'm gonna have to call Yugi and see if he can get me in."

Yusei stood up. "You can count me in on the action too."

I smiled at that. "You're on. Don't know how the crowd will react to your Synchro Summoning, but I'll enter you in as well."
=========
Alexis POV

"You know, you're lucky that you've managed to participate in time," Yugi said, opening the door to his and his grandpa's house. "Any later, then you would've been kicked out."

We walked inside the store, and I was struck by the amount of packs and booster packs that were lined up on the shelves and in the glass cases of the store. Even Syrus and Atticus was stunned by the amount of packs there were, like they had just crossed from the mortal world to Duellists Heaven. Yusei didn't even pay much attention to hem, since he was shaking Yugi's hand instead. Just then, the proud owner of the store came out from the back room: the legendary Solomon Muto, Yugi's grandfather.

"Ah, nice to meet you all," he greeted with that low voice of his, thick with age yet still maintaining that old fiery excitement of a young man. "Yugi has told me all about you young lot." He turns to Jaden and Yusei, who bowed their heads. "And you must be Jaden and Yusei. I've heard a plenty of stories about you. I must admit, you've come pretty darn far in your own duelling career. Even how Jaden managed to tie with Yugi!"

Jaden chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, it was pretty close, even for me."

"Oh, stop being modest Jaden," I told him whilst slapping his arm playfully. "You did incredibly well in that duel. No one has ever gotten that close to beating Yugi apart from Seto Kaiba. You're the first in ages to come that far."

"I have to admit it. She does have a point," Yugi said, leaning back on the front desk with his elbows resting on it. "Kaiba is one for dramatics when trying to beat me. Though I will admit to almost losing to you." Then he smirked. "But don't think that you can beat me that easily."

"You kidding me right?" Yusei asked in shock. "Haven't you heard?! He actually managed to beat your deck when it got stolen by one of the students!"

That made Yugi's eyes widen in a stunned way. "Wait, what?"

That made everyone laugh, with Jaden hugging his stomach like it was hurting. It also made me do the same because the look on Yugi's face was hilarious to even glance at. Even Solomon joined in the laughter...even though he asked what was so funny when everyone started to stop laughing.

The only one that wasn't laughing was Chazz, since he was gazing intently at the cards in the front glass desk. Solomon saw this and returned to the desk, waiting to see what Chazz would do.

"Right, I'm in a spending mood," Chazz said, bringing out his wallet. "I'll have several packs of the Dragon Tamer's, and a box of the Ojama Storm packs." Then he leaned over the side and he noticed something by the way his eyes widened. "Oh, and Jaden? You might want to get these: he's got a box done for HERO monsters."

Jaden widened his eyes at that. He rushed over and looked at what Chazz mentioned. He nodded immediately. "Yep, I'm all up for that." He turned around to look at us. "Guys, all in?"

"YEAH!" all of us yelled in agreement.

Yugi and his grandfather welcomed us into the back room after we paid for all the packs we wanted. We spent the next hour or so opening the packs and gaining new cards that got us super excited. I swear, compared to Dorothy's card shop back at Duel Academy, this shop had some of the rarest cards I have ever seen. Heck, I managed to get some pretty rare cards and even some more Cyber Angel cards to use.

"Alright, I've pulled out Return From The Different Dimension!" Syrus cheered, pulling the famous trap card out. "Now this is a card that I could use!"

"Oh yeah? Not as good as Armed Dragon LV10!" Chazz cried out in excitement, holding up what I knew from Jaden would be his signature card later on. "I've actually gotten it! This wasn't in the Armed Dragon deck that I bought some time ago, so this would make my deck complete! Oh yeah, now that's what I'm talking about!"

I looked at Jaden, who was looking at the cards he was holding. I noticed by his side that was a card laying to one side, so he must've pulled something good.

"What did you get Jay?" Atticus asked, holding up two cards whilst looking at them.

In answer, Jaden picked up the card at his side and flipped it over.

"Whoa!" Chazz exclaimed, his eyes almost popping out of his eye sockets. "You've got a new fusion monster card?!"

"That's not just some fusion monster," Yugi said, peeking over Jaden's shoulder to look. "That's an ultra rare Elemental HERO fusion monster he's pulled."

Jaden nodded. He looked at the card intensely. "You know, this is just ironic. Every time when I open packs, I always get a rare card some way and some how. I just think that's the cards way of saying that it wants to be used."

He smiled at the card, and brought out his Extra Deck. "Welcome to team, Elemental HERO Escuridao. I'm sure I can fit you in."

I just smiled at that. I knew straight away that his deck was talking back at him since it flowed slightly. Plus, I could see Yubel appearing beside him in her astral form, smiling and ruffling his hair like a big sister would do to her little brother.

Just then, Solomon came in and grabbed he TV remote. "I just got a call from a friend of mine. You all might want to watch this."

We all looked at the TV, just as the screen showed a live feed of Seto Kaiba looking at the screen with an emotionless face, though I could see the slight upturned position of his mouth as he spoke.

"And there's the man himself," Chazz said. "Seto Kaiba, worlds number one billionaire and top CEO of Duel Monsters distributors. I'll tell ya', there's gonna be stories about him in the future."

"Yeah, there is," Yusei said, looking at Kaiba with an unimpressed look. "But to be fair, even in his old age, he's still the arrogant smug prat he always tends to be."

"Yeah, I can vouch for that," Yugi said, shaking his head in amusement at Kaiba as he talked.

"Greetings, citizens of Domino City," Kaiba said to the screen, his arms folded. "I'm here to announce that the World Championship Duel Qualifier Tournament will go ahead as scheduled. Anyone and all duellists can enter, as long as they're not afraid of facing off against experienced duellist. Also, each duellist will be presented with a special duel disk at this tournament, monitoring their every move and strategies. If you don't believe me, believe in this!"

He held up his left arm, showing off the duel disk on his arm. But to my confusion, their was no disk section and just an arm brace of some kind.

"My new new, bleeding edge, beyond state of the art duel disk!" Kaiba announced. "Qualify now, or you don't deserve to call yourself a duellist!"

The TV was turned off, leaving all of us looking at a blank screen.

"I didn't know we had to wear different duel disks for this tournament," Chazz mused. "But still, I wouldn't turn down an opportunity like this. I'm in all the way."

"You can count on me to get my game on in this!" Jaden said, punching the air with his right fist.

"You said it," I said. "I'm sure I can ask my parents to enter me in. Everyone seems to be entering this tournament all of a sudden."

Yugi held up his hand. "All you've got to do is sign in. The rest is already dealt with."

"Alright then, that settles it then," Solomon said, clapping his hands together with finality tone to them. "You kids enter the tournament tomorrow. May the best duellist win."